Katrina vanden Heuvel
Eugene Robinson
The problem may soon become, what will we do with Libya once that Qaddadfi agrees to leave? Other than oil and sand, Libya never was a tourist destination like its neighbors Tunisia and Morocco. The only reason you would be staying in Libya is if you were an oil executive or a spy. And not a very good spy, since you were sent to Libya... About the only people who are excited to go to Libya are the French. Or, maybe just Nicolas Sarkozy. In recent opinion polls, the far-right National Front, under the new leadership of Marine Le Pen, won about 20%, which is about the same the other two dominant parties got... The National Front is the tea party taken to an extreme level, made up of people who were too young to have experienced being under Hitler's thumb, but naively long for it just the same: "The party’s strength depends on the general dislike for mainstream politicians. But it also feeds off the social unease felt by people in poor, formerly industrialized cities like this one, near Lille in northern France. Jobs are scarce, immigrants are many, and France seems submerged in a larger world of competition from China, India, Brazil and even the new member states of the European Union.
Ms. Le Pen has played down criticism of the Jews, a hallmark of her father, in favor of criticizing Muslims and their supposed unwillingness to assimilate into French society and accept French values, including secularism. She has also attacked the power of the European Union and its “shared sovereignty,” presenting Brussels as an enemy and vowing to pull France out of the euro, restoring the franc. In last Sunday’s first round of municipal elections for local councils, the National Front did well nationally, aided by a record abstention rate of more than 55 percent."
Anyway, Sarkozy's race to be the first to aid the Libyan rebels is his way of trying to counteract the rising anti-Islamic feelings in France, hoping that the rest of the population goes along with him in supporting the underdogs just in time for the next set of elections... Who knows, maybe Libya will soon be serving freedom fries along with the camel burgers... The realtors in the south of France are getting some old villas refurbished in the area that used to be known as Dictator's Row, in case Qaddafi and Mubarak may need a new place to live. It's where Baby Doc Duvalier went after leaving Haiti, and had other bad boys from African countries there as well...
There are those who say that Libya is unimportant except for making a few brownie points, when more important crisis are developing in Syria and Iraq.
In a classical abusive relationship, the male, or in this case, Bashar al-Assad, is very possessive and jealous because he sees himself as inadequate to rule wisely. If the female, or the rest of the Syrian population, acts independently, or gets tired of his controlling behavior, or demands more rights for themselves, the abusive ruler reacts by beating the crap out of the population, and may even commit homicide to bring her back under his control.
Then, the males ruler becomes very apologetic, and makes all kinds of promises, saying how much he loves her, he really will change, if only she will forgive him. Things go fine until the next time she pisses him off and he explodes again in typical violent fashion... Bashar's latest attempt at change was firing the Syrian cabinet and promising to rescind the state of emergency that allows the secret police to arrest anyone without a stated reason, and making those police immune from prosecution for their crimes. But, this promise has been made again and again for the past 30 years, so nobody is taking it very seriously. Unfortunately, you can't do an intervention with the ruler of a country like you can with an abusive person in America, unless you wind up with a crazy Qaddafi and make all kinds of other reasons why you should intervene... So, our abusive pattern is reforming each time the population demonstrates and Assad has the police use real bullets when they shoot...
It's even more of a mess in Iraq, the same old story of who belongs in northern Iraq around Tikrit, and the principles are ready to bomb and shoot among themselves over it, just like they have for at least 500 years. Making it more intense, the winners get the majority of oil revenue, even from the amount that's smuggled and sold to Iran. So far, the only real losers have been the Coptic Christians, who have been threatened and intimidated to leave it to the Kurds and Arabs... Tensions are building faster than an outraged Pakistani Taliban, whose daughter came home with an ipod, and a civil war may break out after the US forces leave...
We'll now take some questions. The first comes courtesy of TPM: Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) wants to know much more about the Libyan rebels the U.S. and NATO allies have been aiding with air strikes and humanitarian assistance for more than a week. "There have been several reports about the presence of al Qaeda among the rebels," Inhofe said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday. "What do we know about this?"
James is asking because he doesn't want the Libyan rebels to be controlled by al-Qaeda or even Hezbollah, since they are listed as enemies in our war on terror. He's whining here, looking for something to hit Obama with later on down the line. The answer Jim, is yeah, probably. There probably are some young men that had earlier signed up with al-Qaeda and who hurried back to Libya to help liberate their home, something that they never thought would happen. They might become more tolerant sharing a cause that has nothing to do with al-Qaeda... Last week I watched an interview of a young Libyan rebel, who was risking his life on the front line carrying a plastic gun, he didn't have a real one. During the interview, there was a mortar strike nearby and everyone took cover. All of the rebels then ran towards their pickups to move away from the area, and the young man stopped to pick up his toy gun and took it with him as he jumped on the back of a truck that sped off. This image made me want to cry, it was so sad, yet I admired his desire and dedication, even if it meant his assured death. Does it matter if in his past he sympathized with al-Qaeda? Or id he were a Confederate? How about if he were a Native American from Oklahoma?
Josh Marshall at TPM contributes that: "GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain had told Think Progress that he would not appoint any Muslims to federal jobs. But it seems even this stalwart may be going soft. Cain now says he'd consider appointing Muslims who made a special pledge not to try to sneak any sharia in on the sly and keep extra special loyal to the Constitution." My only answer here is who in the f**K is Herman Cain? These GOP maybe candidates are beginning to come out of the woodwork, each one kookier than the next. I used to be joking when I said that the right wingers were all mentally ill, now I, too believe it. And what possesses them to act out their illness in public? At least we know that Charlie Sheen fried his brain from too much drugs and booze, these guys don't even have that excuse. God knows ya don't want any sharia law being snuck around these parts... Maybe Herm got confused with the 70's white guy song My Sharona, and wants to make sure it will never get played again...
Finally, we have a question asked over and over again by Mr Happy, John Kyl (R-AR), also brought over from TPM: "Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) asked a representative of the group Muslim Advocates on Tuesday why the organization's website didn't specifically condemn violent rhetoric. At the first Senate panel on the civil rights of Muslim-Americans, Kyl asked a representative of the group Muslim Advocates why their website didn't condemn rhetoric aimed at other religious groups.
"I wonder if you've made any public pronouncement or statement condemning those religious leaders who employed violent or hateful rhetoric or promoted hateful views of other religious groups. Have you done that or has your website done that?" Kyl asked Farhana Khera, the executive director of the group.
"So you haven't condemned the hateful speech of those who have criticized others in the way that I mentioned?" Kyl asked Khera. "Let me ask you this. Would you, today, criticize threats of death or physical harm directed at writers or commentators who criticized Islamic extremism -- you would condemn that today, would you not?"
Well, John, they don't use violent rhetoric on their website, perhaps you might infer that they don't support others who do. The reason they don't go out of their way to condemn others on their website is because they aren't mean spirited, old white bigots like the white cracker asking them stupid and rude questions. John, remember,
Eugene Robinson
"Public officials who have failed spectacularly in office should have the common decency to retire in disgrace. But even if modern-day officials know no shame, why in the world would opinion pages, network talk shows and reputable journals give them a forum to offer their opinions, when they have shown that their advice isn’t worth the air it disturbs?" - Katrina vanden Heuvel
"Heck of a job, Brownie!" - Bush the Younger
Ms. Le Pen has played down criticism of the Jews, a hallmark of her father, in favor of criticizing Muslims and their supposed unwillingness to assimilate into French society and accept French values, including secularism. She has also attacked the power of the European Union and its “shared sovereignty,” presenting Brussels as an enemy and vowing to pull France out of the euro, restoring the franc. In last Sunday’s first round of municipal elections for local councils, the National Front did well nationally, aided by a record abstention rate of more than 55 percent."
There are those who say that Libya is unimportant except for making a few brownie points, when more important crisis are developing in Syria and Iraq.
It's even more of a mess in Iraq, the same old story of who belongs in northern Iraq around Tikrit, and the principles are ready to bomb and shoot among themselves over it, just like they have for at least 500 years. Making it more intense, the winners get the majority of oil revenue, even from the amount that's smuggled and sold to Iran. So far, the only real losers have been the Coptic Christians, who have been threatened and intimidated to leave it to the Kurds and Arabs... Tensions are building faster than an outraged Pakistani Taliban, whose daughter came home with an ipod, and a civil war may break out after the US forces leave...
James is asking because he doesn't want the Libyan rebels to be controlled by al-Qaeda or even Hezbollah, since they are listed as enemies in our war on terror. He's whining here, looking for something to hit Obama with later on down the line. The answer Jim, is yeah, probably. There probably are some young men that had earlier signed up with al-Qaeda and who hurried back to Libya to help liberate their home, something that they never thought would happen. They might become more tolerant sharing a cause that has nothing to do with al-Qaeda... Last week I watched an interview of a young Libyan rebel, who was risking his life on the front line carrying a plastic gun, he didn't have a real one. During the interview, there was a mortar strike nearby and everyone took cover. All of the rebels then ran towards their pickups to move away from the area, and the young man stopped to pick up his toy gun and took it with him as he jumped on the back of a truck that sped off. This image made me want to cry, it was so sad, yet I admired his desire and dedication, even if it meant his assured death. Does it matter if in his past he sympathized with al-Qaeda? Or id he were a Confederate? How about if he were a Native American from Oklahoma?
"I wonder if you've made any public pronouncement or statement condemning those religious leaders who employed violent or hateful rhetoric or promoted hateful views of other religious groups. Have you done that or has your website done that?" Kyl asked Farhana Khera, the executive director of the group.
"So you haven't condemned the hateful speech of those who have criticized others in the way that I mentioned?" Kyl asked Khera. "Let me ask you this. Would you, today, criticize threats of death or physical harm directed at writers or commentators who criticized Islamic extremism -- you would condemn that today, would you not?"
Well, John, they don't use violent rhetoric on their website, perhaps you might infer that they don't support others who do. The reason they don't go out of their way to condemn others on their website is because they aren't mean spirited, old white bigots like the white cracker asking them stupid and rude questions. John, remember,
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