Not Our Biggest Fans

(Or 'How Gerhard Schröder Made a Career Out of Dissing Americans') CSM has an interesting column on how Katrina played in recent German elections. I'm curious how much of this will persist after 2008...

An Unlikely Ally On Patents

Slashdotters have long decried the US sytem of software patents, which are often absurdly broad and with little technical merit, and which clearly stifle innovation, particularly among developers without deep pockets or a legal deptartment (ie open source developers). As Europeans (who so far have resisted awarding software patents) explore the topic, PriceWaterhouseCoopers has jumped into the fray on the side of the techies, warning that software patents may threaten the European software industry.

Putin To Scrap Democracy In Russia

Vladimir Putin has for some time held nearly supreme power in Russia, controlling the executive, the legislature, and the press. In the aftermath of the school attack, he has decided to drop the facade of democracy and just take power outright. He announced a plan today to eliminate the elections of governors and parliament members stating the country must be unified to deal with the terrorist threat. Putin himself would name the governors, and the parliament members would be appointed by the political parties. This plan will need to be passed by the parliament, but as they are already in his pocket, this is not viewed as a major obstacle.

Spain Battles Terrorism

In a bizarre twist of events, the Spanish authorities are aggressively pursuing a group of terrorists to whom, according to most of the US press, Spain surrendered only a few weeks ago. It is believed that the ring-leaders of the 3/11 attack blew themselves up when their appartment was raided by Spanish police. Spain has already apprehended and charged 15 conspirators in the attack, and continue to pursue others. Meanwhile, the dirty French surrender-monkeys have put down their white flag long enough to arrest 13 suspects for a May 2003 bombing in Casablanca. What, you mean there's more to fighting terrorism than invading 3rd world countries?

For Your Netflix Queue

I recently came across a movie I want to give my highest recommendation. The film, made last year by British director Michael Winterbottom, is called "In This World". We watched it last night, and I had to watch it again today. You can find a trailer here, the Rotten Tomatoes review page (95% positive), and an NPR interview with Michael Winterbottom about the film. The story is of two Afghan refugees attempting to emigrate, illegally, overland, to London. It is a docu-drama that blurs the lines between reality and fiction. The plot events that happen to the main characters are fiction, but taken from the accounts of real refugees. There are almost no professional actors in the movie, most people you see are playing themselves. The dialogue is mostly unscripted. The lead actors are actual refugees from the Peshawar refugee camp, one of whom smuggled his way back into England after the film and claimed asylum. All of the scenes are shot on location, guerrilla style, usually with a film crew of just three people. It reminded me a lot of Baraka. In this case there are characters and dialogue and a (mostly) coherent plot. But the dialogue is sparse, and like Baraka most of the story is told through pictures and music. Also like Baraka the photography and the score are absolutely brilliant and provide a window into a world that most Westerners never experience. And like Baraka, the film has a powerful humanist theme. I'd kill for the soundtrack, but it doesn't appear it was ever released as a CD. Put it at the top of your queue. And don't miss the behind the scenes feature on the disc.

Aznar's Take on the Attacks on Spain

The Wall Street Journal has published this editorial on the March 11 terrorist attacks. He defends the government's conduct following the attacks and claims that the public was not mislead, and he also argues it would be a mistake to pull out of Iraq--"It would allow our attackers to believe that they have won."

Foiled By the Internet

There has been a rush of politicians and pundits trying put their own stamp on the recent Spanish elections. Most of them find themselves unable to resist one last opportunity to use their tired (and ridiculous) analogy of Saddam Hussein as Hitler and "old Europe" (and now Spain) as Neville Chamberlain. But like most conservative sloganeering, these claims were catchy and spread quickly. However, in my online discussions, while I found these "appeasment" claims widespread initially, they rapidly collapsed under the unstoppable destructive power of actual Spanish people, who, it seems, also use the internet. Imagine, manufactured spin having, for once, to compete with actual reality. It was really quite enjoyable to see. So I thought, for fun, I would have a side-by-side comparison of some of the things said by American politicians and pundits versus comments made by a number of actual Spanish people on a couple of forums I visit.

"There is no neutral ground -- no neutral ground -- in the fight between civilization and terror, because there is no neutral ground between good and evil, freedom and slavery, and life and death.

"No concession will appease their hatred. No accommodation will satisfy their endless demands."
--Pres. George W. Bush

"Thanks, but the fact that we had a tragedy hasn't clouded my judgement, thanks anyway. What I think about Aznar I've been thinking it for the last 6 years. This has done nothing but re-afirm me in my beliefs."
--Actual Spanish Person


"[Spaniards] chose to change their government and to, in a sense, appease terrorists."
--Rep. Dennis Haster, Speaker of the House of Representatives

"The votes against them were mainly because they lied about who made the bombings, it appears that they knew a few hours after the bombings that it hadn't been done by ETA and they hide that fact for political reasons only."
--Actual Spanish Person


"As you look back through history, and you look at situations that required people to stand up for principle, to stand up and lead and be counted against various threats, appeasement just hasn't worked.."
--Gen. Richard Myers

"The Elections' results would vary a lot depending on the terrorists involved. Many people in Spain was against going to war with Iraq; joining the alliance with USA and UK was a government's decission, it wasn't shared by most of the democratic parties. On the other hand, if ETA is behind this, spanish would vote Aznar's succesor."
--Actual Spanish Person (before the election)


"People are not always strong. Sometimes they indulge false hopes that by lying low, truckling, appeasing, they can avoid danger and strife ... And this is what seems to have happened in Spain."
--David Frum

"We have been fighting against terrorism for more than 20 years, inside the national and international laws. US for 2 years. We have lost more than 250 in "your" war against islamic terrorism. The american citizens lost against against ETA is zero. We have jailed a lot of islamic terrorist, while none of the groups that support ETA in some states like Iowa is in jail... . Maybe you have to read more about history to understand it. For other side, the french has helped us invaluable last 10 years against ETA"
--Actual Spanish Person


"I call on Prime Minister Zapatero to reconsider his decision and to send a message that terrorists cannot win by their acts of terror,"
--Sen. John Kerry

"If we started to talk about USA not helping us, [it] is because some guys started to call us cowards because we retire from IRAK, but all you must have in mind that 80% of Spanish ppl didn't want the war as we don't see the ties betwen IRAK and muslims terrorist and we saw that war more like an economy fact and the attempt to control the petrol production. Also all the lies about massive attack weapons don't help a lot to believe on Bush, Blair or Aznar (and i have [voted for] Aznar twice, but not last time)."
--Actual Spanish Person


"This is beyond appeasement. This is decadence: Terror rages and we tend our garden."
--Charles Krauthammer

"I understand the upset in some of you, fellows, but the main reasons of these elections are internals, and not by the fear of the bombs (we were receiving attacks of the terrorist long before you thought it was a problem)."
--Actual Spanish Person


"In other words, will Madrid be remembered as Pearl Harbor or as Munich? For now the response of too many Spanish voters looks more like Munich."
--Sen. Joe Lieberman

"We have been fighting against terrorism since 1978. We have used the force, we have negociated. We tried to solve the problem without surrending, even when the rest of the world called them 'freedom fighters'. The US has only help us when they saw the problem at home."
--Actual Spanish Person


"The voices of appeasement are being heard in Europe."
--Rep. Henry Hyde

"The main reason. The [disinformation]. In Spain the public tv channels (and radio) are very important, and their actuation has been horrible. The popular members forced all the situation (media, institutional speeches, embassadors) to blame ETA, even the proofs that point AlQuaida. When the people knows it (internet and cellulars), there was a lot of Anger. We felt like the government was cheating us. And doing this the day before the elections is not a very smart move, when more than 25% of people haven't decide to vote until these day. Personally. I had decided to vote PP, but the way they tried to cheat me, I voted in blank. I change my vote not the thursday, but the sunday morning."
--Actual Spanish Person


"Nonetheless, it was still the cowardly alternative. And today Spain has chosen it -- having suffered not Europe's 20 million dead of World War I but 200 dead in the Madrid bombings."
--Charles Krauthammer

"Trust me, guys, it's not Al Qaeda who's made the Socialist Party win the elections, but Aznar's own arrogance, stupidity and Franco-like usage of public television."
--Actual Spanish Person


"the trend in Europe is now either appeasement of terror or active alliance with it."
--Andrew Sullivan

"As far as I am concerned...of course I'd like to see legal actions being taken against [Al-Qaeda]. But I don't think that us being [in Iraq] does any damage to [Al-Qaeda], and for once -which hasn't happened for the last 8 years- I'd like to see the government do what the entire population demanded from them, same population that put them up there."
--Actual Spanish Person

And the final word:

Today, in a local newspaper, there was an article where the author said: "To those that are coming: Remember, without our votes, you?re nobody".

This is what Aznar and his party forgot. This is why they lost the elections.
--Actual Spanish Person

The EU, Still A Powerful Promise

There is a story on CSM about steps being taken on Cypress to resolve the long-standing conflict between the Greek and Turkish residents. The promise of the economic and political benefits of integration into the EU has been the key for both sides. With all of the internal conflicts and complications it is easy to lose sight of the immense benefits that the EU has brought to Europe. Hopefully this can be a reminder.

BBC: Spain to re-join 'Old Europe'

Spanish voters apparently decided to hold Jose Maria Aznar responsible for flouting overwhelming poll numbers (over 90% against the war with Iraq if I recall correctly) now that their involvement has apparently entagled them in the broader conflict with Al-Qaeda. With Aznar to be replaced Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the BBC says Spain will realign itself with France and Germany and attempt to extricate itself from the conflict in Iraq.

Beyond the EU

An article on CSM details the EU's struggle to pass a new constitution, and the possibility of France and Germany peeling off to form their own union. It's a very interesting idea, and I think more than a small possibility. I would look for increasingly close ties between France and Germany in any case.

Discussion: Coming Back to Life
(I upgrade this from random spewage)

I wanted to get my two cents in before we left for our two-week trip to Vermont, where I hope to do a more throrough background check into this Dean fellow. For the record, I have not placed my allegiance behind anyone quite yet, but I still think Dean is worth keeping an eye on for the time being. His position on the death penalty is a little disappointing, but what interests me most about him is that he was most certainly the most vociferous anti-war candidate, and that puts him in the best position to call for an independent commission to investigate the evidence (or lack thereof) used to justify the war. By the way, Dean has recently called for the resignation of Rumsfeld and other administration officials who misled the nation about the war (see here). This may be a little premature, but at least he is not letting the issue slip away.

I think that President Bush is dead in the water from the WMD issue. It may be just wishful thinking, but President H.W. Bush was unable to capitalize on the 1991 Gulf War, and that was without the level of controversy that President Bush finds himself swimming in. And I think there will be more to follow. For instance, tomorrow the BBC is conducting an interview with Ron Manley, who oversaw the elimination of Iraq's chemical weapons program following the 1991 Gulf War and who is expected to argue that Iraq posed no significant military threat. OpenDemocracy.net is also planning to publish an article about Ron Manley.

I have little to add to Joe's interesting commentary on the current situation in Europe, other than to note that Foreign Policy magazine had an interesting article in this month's issue about how US-European relations may be affected by the decline in the US dollar. It notes all the potential upside to a weakened dollar, but fails to discuss how this might be a bad thing. Call me a pessimist if you must.

Random Spewage: Coming Back to Life

So We've all had a nice three week break, I think it's time to kick a little life back into this thing... I'll try to fire off enough random topics here that one of them will have to stick =).

First of all, in the news: European political leaders are idiots too. I guess we always knew Berlusconi was scum, so his latest round of Nazi insults should not come as any great surprise. I forget... didn't Italy take some part in WWII as well? Anyhow, not to be shown up, Germany's Gerhard Schroeder has come up with the perfect solution for all of Germany's economic woes: a major tax cut. Germany is already in trouble with the EU for running too large a deficit, now Shroeder want to further ignore EU rulings to make it even larger. I would guess that EU dictates being ignored by one of the Union's most significant members will not be good for its general health and cohesiveness. And to think George Bush doesn't like this guy..

On to the always popular WMD issue.. Having attempted and largely failed to shift the focus from WMD's to humanitarian motivations for the war, Rumsfeld has decided that maybe the terrorist angle will play. After all it's worked for every other issue the administration has run into resistance on. But, as I said, I still think Bush will emerge from this mess with little damage. Ceci has been running through the American President series on DVD (it's a really good documentary, btw), and we just saw the Reagan one. It covered the Iran Contra scandal in some depth. The guy secretly sold weapons to Iran, then illegally funnelled the procedes to the Contras and went to considerable effort to cover the whole thing up. He lied about it on national television and to a congressional investigation. In the end he emerged with barely a scratch and many of his cohorts in the project are now working for the current administration. Bush has reminded me of Reagan in many respects, and I rather think he'll pull this stunt off as well. His administration keeps such a tight rein on information I just don't see anything blatantly incriminating slipping out. I see a lot of little inconsistencies hitting the news, but no cum-stained dress. If Bush is to be beat in the upcoming election it will have to be on mess in Iraq or on the economy.

And speaking of the economy.. I was part of a discussion over the 4th with my venerable Grandpa Martin. He is a very sharp guy, and a political wonk if ever there was one (I think I've told you guys about him in the past). He strongly shares my opinion that the US economy is in for a very rough ride for the foreseeable future due to globalization effects. I found that to be very interesting, because he is generally a fairly establishment-type Democrat. I guess these ideas are starting to get wider audience. It's an issue worth addressing, and one I'm not sure we've really discussed much. One of the reasons this really disgusts me is the general unfair trade situation. As I've said previously I see this less as America's high wealth concentration being dispersed into other markets, and more of a vertical shift of wealth from the middle class (who are losing their jobs in droves) to the upper management and ownership classes (who are exploiting the situation). However, even if this is corrected, wealth would likely flee the US simply because the concentration is so high here compared to the rest of the world. On the surface, from a utilitarian standpoint that would seem good, but I'm not sure I'd really be happy if that happened. For one thing I'm an American, and having the local economy stuck in an extended depression would probably suck on a personal level. Additionally if first world economies are devastated in the process of promoting fair trade, I'm not sure that will really have a net good impact on developing economies. I have to admit I have seen no research on the issue and I haven't thought it through to a level that satisfies me.. Is there some middle road here? Some way to put a very quick end to the exploitative nature of the current trade system, but take a gradual (or even somewhat regressive) approach to trade liberalization in general, with a specific eye towards global economic stability? Or am I just being selfish?

Finally, I'm having some doubt about Howard Dean, although he did get my vote in the moveon primary. By most reports he was fairly moderate as a governor, but is now taking a far-left position as a candidate. And his position on Israel would give Wolfowitz or Lieberman a run for their money. I can't help but wonder, who is the real Howard Dean? I know, Barry, you are a big proponent of his, maybe you can offer some defense.

Article: Proposed European Constitution

The Convention on the Future of Europe has just released its proposed Constitutional Treaty for the 25 current members of the EU. The official (proposed) text may be found here (part 1) and here (parts 2, 3, and 4) (it's rather long). A "reader-friendly" version can be found here . Here is a good article summarizing the text and the European Convention.