Al Jazeera

I think that Al Jazeera has been a positive development for the Middle East, it is the first instance of professional TV journalism that any Middle Easterner's have ever witnessed. Many persons have derided the news network for anti-American/Western commentary, however, there is an important distinction to be made: any "opinion" segments are done outside the regular news commentary. Similar to Fox News shows such as Bill O'Reilly or Hannity & Colmes, the Al Jazeera network has its own opinion programming, it does not compromise the quality of the actual news broadcasts. It does reveal the attitudes of the majority of that viewers that the channel caters to, but no more then the attitudes and attempts of Fox News or CNN.

This is a clever satire of American MSM by the Daily Show that takes place within Al Jazeera studio, if nothing else, at least the clip reveals that those at Al Jazeera are not the self important blowhards of Fox News or CNN.

Healthcare

A convincing arguement for universal healthcare in the United States by Ezra Klein in the LA Times. I am against frivolous government spending, but do believe that Universal Healthcare for all Americans is a worthy and attainable goal of the government.

Absurd News

Browsing through BBCNews.com this morning I was a bit surprised at the amount of "comedy" news; many of these stories seem pulled directly from the pages of the Onion. Enjoy:

From the piece on the of the President of Turkmenistan:

According to Turkmen law, the president is succeeded by the head of the legislative body, the People's Assembly. But this post was held by Mr Niyazov himself.

"President Niyazov was in effect the state and what he decreed on any subject, from politics, to culture to science, was absolute law," says Michael Hall, Central Asia project director for the International Crisis Group."President Niyazov was in effect the state and what he decreed on any subject, from politics, to culture to science, was absolute law," says Michael Hall, Central Asia project director for the International Crisis Group.

"President Niyazov was in effect the state and what he decreed on any subject, from politics, to culture to science, was absolute law," says Michael Hall, Central Asia project director for the International Crisis Group.

He renamed months and days in the calendar after himself and his family, and ordered statues of himself to be erected throughout the desert nation. Cities, an airport and a meteorite were given his name.

The next story to catch my eye was, 'Karaoke Boost' for N. Korean Troops, highlights:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is reported to have found a rousing way of boosting morale among his troops - by giving them karaoke machines.

He said karaoke sessions eased tensions in the ranks, but also encouraged competitiveness, state media reported.

And he also noted that soldiers and officers competed with each other to get the highest scores, the newspaper reported.

Kim keeps track of the number of karaoke machines sent out to each troop division by writing it down in a notebook, according to the Rodong Sinmun.

I was next shocked to learn that there is now a Pyjama Ban for UAE Civil Servants:

The head of the emirate's personnel department was quoted as saying that large numbers of civil servants were wearing sleeping clothes and pyjamas.

Starting on 1 January 2007, civil servants in the emirate will have to wear national dress - a long white robe for men and the black abaya for women.

Finally, the BBC elucidates on the Paris Syndrome in: Paris Syndrome strikes Japanese:

A dozen or so Japanese tourists a year have to be repatriated from the French capital, after falling prey to what's become known as "Paris syndrome".

That is what some polite Japanese tourists suffer when they discover that Parisians can be rude or the city does not meet their expectations.

The experience can apparently be too stressful for some and they suffer a psychiatric breakdown.

The Japanese embassy has a 24-hour hotline for those suffering from severe culture shock, and can help find hospital treatment for anyone in need.

However, the only permanent cure is to go back to Japan - never to return to Paris.

The President and The People

In the New York Times' Sunday Magazine, Christopher Caldwell of the Weekly Standard, comments on the personality of Presidents, how it shapes policy and reflects the zeitgeist of Americans. He makes an astute characterization of Bill Clinton:

"Clinton practiced leadership as it is taught by management consultants and assorted gurus. “Leadership,” in this sense, is the pseudoscience of listening to employees or customers or voters and giving them back a mirror image of themselves. It is, as the historian James MacGregor Burns puts it, a “dynamic, participatory, mutually empowering relation between leaders and followers,” and those roles are easily confused. It was possible to love Clinton’s charm in the belief that it was somehow ours. When he fell into a sex scandal, of course, voters felt betrayed. But they weren’t really betrayed. What they were was embarrassed."

Describing George W. Bush, he reflects:

"Why are opinions so personal when it comes to President Bush? Because he has frequently sought, like the child of the 1960s that he is, to blur the line between the personal and the political. Posing as an amiable guy rather than a partisan politician has great advantages in democratic power politics. Even if not all of them vote for you, most Americans want to believe that their president is a jolly good fellow. But when a politician makes likability a substitute for authority, his opponents make hatred a substitute for opposition."

Bush made his election as much about who he was, as what he believed: ultimately the two were the same. Of course we hope that our leaders "believe" in their policies, it gives them a candor and genuineness that appeals to nearly all. However, we also hope that those leaders are able to "detach" themselves from important issues when necessary, to approach decisions with a critical eye in order to best evaluate complex and dynamic problems: in that, George W. Bush failed The People.

"rarely discussed but universally understood"

In David Ignatius's WaPo Op-ed piece, "Siniora Stands Fast", he makes an interesting point that is not often spoken in Western Media regarding the Lebanese political situation.

"The hard edge of Siniora's strategy, hidden behind his lawyerly calm, is that he is prepared to play the sectarian game, too. An ominous sign of the dangers ahead was a huge counter-rally Sunday in support of the government by angry Sunnis in the northern city of Tripoli. "They don't have the numbers," Siniora said of the Hezbollah-Aoun alliance. "The majority can send to the street more than what the opposition can send."

The Sunni trump card is rarely discussed but universally understood: Syria, a crucial ally of Hezbollah, is an overwhelmingly Sunni country. If the Syrian-Iranian alliance squeezes the Sunnis in Lebanon too hard, there is likely to be a backlash inside Syria. Here's the way Siniora delicately phrased it to me: 'The Syrian position is what it is. It has to be part of the Arab world, not the Iranian overall plans in the region.'"

This is an aspect that is not often spoken in American MSM because the administration typically tends to oversimplify complex issues; Lebanon, like the broader Middle East must be analyzed in the cultural context of tribes, sects, ethnicity, religion, and politics. Syria and Iran do not have an absolute alliance, their interests most often do not converge, and when they do, it is only up to a certain point. Once again, to lump nations into an Axis of Evil is a dangerous oversimplification.

The Real National Security Threat

In David Ignatius's WaPo op-ed, "Baker-Hamilton Does Its Job", Ignatius insightfully comments:

"The Iraq Study Group's report achieved the goal of any blue-ribbon commission: It stated the obvious, emphatically."

He goes on to praise the report, but concludes:

"The level of anti-American sentiment in the Middle East these days is genuinely frightening. It has become the organizing principle of political life, even in once-friendly countries such as Lebanon. This is the real national security threat to America -- this sense in the rest of the world that Iraq symbolizes America's fatal new combination of arrogance and incompetence."

Jim Webb

This morning Richard Cohen of the Washington Post commented on this now famous exchange between Jim Webb and George W. Bush:

"After first trying to avoid speaking to George W. Bush altogether, he was forced to respond when the president approached him and asked, "How's your boy?" Webb replied, "I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President." (Webb's son is a Marine serving there.) "That's not what I asked you," Bush said. "How's your boy?""That's between me and my boy, Mr. President," Webb said, ending the conversation right there."

I agree with Richard Cohen when he writes, " am of two minds about what Virginia Sen.-elect James Webb did at a White House reception for new members of Congress...it might have jarred Bush into appreciating the fact that many of his critics actually feel keenly about the war in Iraq -- that they are not mere political opponents but people who are morally appalled by a war that continues for no apparent reason."

On these pages I have complained about the good ol' boy, do-nothing environment, in the halls of the Capitol, and I do appreciate the arguement that civility has a place in politics. I think Webb's comments conveyed the message that those in government are not just priveleged observers of the machinations of legislative edict: while remaining respectful, it is ok to vent frustration and show emotion when dealing with matters as personal and serious as war. I have often commented on the unserious attitude of George W. Bush...though contrary to some popular opinion, George W. Bush is not emotionally detached nor unintelligent, I am sure he understood the emotions behind Webb's retort. Ultimately, with sincere emotion and a personal stake, I believe Webb's response was a fair one, that said, so was Bush's.