Category Archives: Politics: US

The don't get much more Reagan Republican than Lyn Nofziger, who was sorta Reagan's Rove, only more substantive, slightly less tricksy, and far more principled. They were, to my eye, somewhat peculiar principles, but he held to them (subject, it must be said, to the 'our sonofabitch' principle of real-life party politics, where sometimes you hold your nose and work for the party's guy). So Nofziger supports Bush — if only because Nofziger hates Democrats (and immigrants, and gays, and taxes) — but he has some issues with the guy. Here's one:

George W. Bush and John McCain are turning out to be the Laurel and Hardy of the Republican party. There‘s no way they can be serious when they propose that the federal government sue to prevent their fellow Americans from exercising their constitutional right of free speech.

I‘ve forgotten who it was who said it, but these comedians need to be reminded of what the guy whose name I’ve forgotten said: “I may disagree with what you say but I will fight to the death to defend your right to say it.”

McCain’s attitude perhaps is understandable; he spent a good share of his life in the military where free speech is spoken at one’s peril. John Kerry’s attitude, which is much the same, is also understandable. He’s a Democrat and Democrats think that government, not the people, knows best.

But George Bush claims to be a conservative, compassionate maybe, but still a conservative, somewhat in the mold of Ronald Reagan. Can anyone here imagine for a minute that Reagan would advocate putting limits on political speech?

Someone also needs to remind these clowns that the purpose of the first amendment was to insure the right of free political speech. These guys need to pick up and read, probably for the first time, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. It might help them to put things into perspective.

What these guys are finding out, and are unhappy about, is that no matter how many laws you pass with the intent of limiting free speech, as long as the first amendment exists, smart people will find a way to get around those laws. Unfortunately, now that they are discovering this truth, they are taking the next step and trying to twist the first amendment for the purpose of limiting of free speech.

Gentlemen, it will not work. Not in the long run. Comes first the revolution.

According to CJR Campaign Desk, here's what Dusan Neumann, the BBC reporter assigned to cover the Cheney campaign, has to say about the BBC, the campaign, and US reporters:

Neumann, who grew up in Prague and who used a fake passport to defect to the U.S. in 1980, noted that the BBC proper doesn't seem interested in the election, since it's already apparently decided that it wants Kerry to win. By contrast, the press — and the public — in eastern Europe, view Bush more favorably, because the memory of totalitarianism is sufficiently recent that anyone who topples a dictator earns admiration.

As for the American news media, Neumann isn't impressed. Like many observers, especially foreign ones, he can't understand the obsession with trivia, and believes the press does a poor job at informing the public about the pressing issues of the day. He told me how he planned to begin his next written piece:

“Whilst U.S. Marines, cavalry, Air Force and Iraq's security forces were tightening a noose around al-Sadr Mahdi militia and Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani was hustled to Najaf, the cream of the national press core was counting apples, tomatoes, green peppers and ears of corn.”

The last is a reference to this incident.

The optimist — in a discussion of war crimes unfolding before our very eyes — says, John Kerry may be the single most qualified man in the entire nation to be president at this moment in history.

The pessimist — in a discussion of how American voters, especially white males, vote out of spite not ideology or interest — says, Kerry is the closest thing to Nixon that the Democrats have ever fielded (spotted via Digby), and means it as a compliment.

And the hell of it is, these two viewpoints are not incompatible.

The media has decided to accept US Air's claim that it diverted a plane two hours out of its way to pick up stranded passengers in Albany as a matter of routine, and not because the two Bush daughters and secret service detail just happened to be stranded in Albany.

The public is more sceptical, as can be seen from this extraordinary posting to Dave Farber's list, quoted below.

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Last April, I blogged the flap over the Bush administration's attempt to replace the Archivist of the United States, something that looks suspiciously like an attempt to have a hand-picked successor on hand next January, which when the GHW Bush administration papers become potentially open to public viewing. The Washington Post has an article on the issue, which includes a thumbnail of the proposed new Archivist's confirmation hearings. It has to be said that he doesn't sound so bad…although why the Bush people wanted to push out the incumbent early remains very mysterious.

Larry Lessig does a good deed.