As commentator Groucho pointed out to me, Richard Sale has a good piece on spreading democracy at Patrick Lang’s site.

I would simply like to go on record as having serious objections to the Bush administration’s policy of encouraging and supporting the growth of democratic institutions in the Middle East and around the world.
There is little historical evidence that democracy is the natural state, or the foremost form of political association among human beings. Historially, its origin in terms of time and location is very limited. […] In other words, democracy is hardly a univeral phenomenon.

Cont. reading: Compassionate Isolationism

People’s power …

Prewar:

The memo indicates the two leaders envisioned a quick victory and a transition to a new Iraqi government that would be complicated, but manageable. Mr. Bush predicted that it was "unlikely there would be internecine warfare between the different religious and ethnic groups." Mr. Blair agreed with that assessment.
Bush Was Set on Path to War, British Memo Says, NYT, March 27, 2006

Postwar:

Today, some Americans ask whether removing Saddam caused the divisions and instability we’re now seeing. In fact, much of the animosity and violence we now see is the legacy of Saddam Hussein.
…
The argument that Iraq was stable under Saddam and that stability is now in danger because we removed him is wrong.
President Discusses Democracy in Iraq with Freedom House, March 29, 2006

via Froomkin

Update:

But I would ask people to, to look at the perspective here of what is really going on in Iraq. Under this, the violence—under the specter of this violence, you have Iraqis now—Sunnis, Shia, Kurds and others—determined to form a government of national unity. That’s extraordinary in Iraq’s history where they’ve always settled their differences by violence, not by politics.
Rice on Meet The Press, March 26, 2006

There is serious trouble in Afghanistan and the western coalition is not winning:

"Over the last five or six weeks there have been various proven attacks mainly at night by the Taliban on that base, but I think it is fair to say this is the largest we have seen thus far," British spokesman Col. Chris Vernon told reporters in Kandahar.

Cont. reading: Losing In Afghanistan

<snark>
Medicare is not allowed to negotiate prescription drug prices. Indeed it would catastrophic if Medicare could do so. Some people have questioned the reasoning  for this important statute. But it is quite simple to understand.

If Medicare would negotiate prescription prices, it would lead to changes in supply and demand. Demand causes something to happen and supply would go up. The supply causes prices to go up.

That is democracy by the way. Indeed it is the most pure form of democracy.

You do not get that? Here are the valuable words of a prominent MBA holder explaining it in precise language:

One of the most — one of the most pure forms of democracy is the marketplace, where demand causes something to happen. Excess demand causes prices to — the supply causes prices to go up, and vice versa. That stands in contrast to governments that felt like they could set price and control demand.
President Discusses Democracy in Iraq with Freedom House, March 29, 2006

</snark>
Who handed that guy a diploma?

This years 25th open thread here was posted on March 24. It has 45 comments. On March 27, about three days later, the 26th open thread launched. It received 49 comments.

The current 27th open thread was posted this morning, March 29, 2006, at 03:00 AM, two days after the forerunner. As of now, just some 12 hours later, 49 comments have been posted.

Number 25 and 26 had "Open Thread …" and "News & views …" as subtitle lines. Number 27’s subtitle (stolen from Chris Allbritton) is the line:

Now don´t get me wrong!

I am very happy there are so many really, really good comments. I am just wondering IF and/or HOW we, YOU and I, can be induced by a simple subtitle.

If you do not post comments, the terrorists will win!

Find the people on the foredeck.

Bigger view (130kb)

Yesterday the COSCO Guangzhou made her first visit to Hamburg. This harbor fan just had to go down to the river and take some pictures.

This is the worlds biggest container vessel for now. It is 350 meters (1,150 feet) long and can carry a maximum of 9,500 TEU, i.e. 20" long containers (TEU = Twenty foot Equivalent Units).

There are four more of this type on order and as ship-size always increases, 12,000 TEU ships are already planed. Bigger ships though would not fit through the Suez canal and, due to the wider deck, the loading time might increase too much.

Right now, shipping cost are high with about all available ships worldwide booked. Even though scrap iron prices are up, those nasty scrap-yards have free capacity. Any available rust-bucket (some scary pictures within those PDF-files) is kept afloat.

But worldwide some 2,000 new seagoing ships will be launched this year and with all the new tonnage coming afloat, shipping rates are expected to fall significantly. Stocks for shipping companies are already down.

So maybe those 12,000 TEU monsters will never be build and the COSCO Guangzhou and her sister-ships will be the largest box-carrier to see for some years.

Billmon:

Party of Lincoln

Billmon:

Homeland Security

The Cheney administration is beating up the media for better news out of Iraq – not very successful yet. But MoA yielded.

The effort induced me to search for the real, better news at U.S. Central Command’s Iraq website:

—

Cont. reading: Iraqi Kids Get Beanie Babies

News & views …

Finally an issue that brings masses onto the streets of U.S. cities. That alone is already good, because it will show people how they do have power if they stand up.

But the issue at hand is problematic. Progressives seem split on it. On one side, immigrants raise the potential workforce and thereby put pressure on wages. On the other side, for a nation based on immigration like the U.S., it is difficult to find a moral justification to stop it.

The mighty industries paying the right want the immigration wage cap and the new market it creates. But conservatives also want security which they see endangered by the inflow.

This will be a defining issue for the 2006 elections. But I fail to see a consistent positions on the issue in either party.

Billmon:

The corporate suits now opening the journalistic doors to the propagandists of the authoritarian right are powerful and privileged people who hope that appeasing the blogswarm will help them remain powerful and privileged — or at least avoid the fate of Eason Jordan and Dan Rather. This, as I (and many others) have already noted, bears a striking resemblance to a successful protection racket.
…
Compared to Marcuse’s original schematic, the goals of the corporate media establishment and the conservative blogosphere aren’t really in conflict, as both sides are quickly realizing. The authoritarian right doesn’t want to overthrow the system; it just wants to purge it. And, as Keith Olbermann recently pointed out, there are plenty of suits in the corporate corner offices who would be more than happy to go along, as long as it is a.) commercially viable and b.) doesn’t cause too many embarrassments of the Coretta King-was-a-communist variety.

Copy Cat

Tigers Begin to Roam
by beq

pastel and sumi ink, 20"x20"
full size (100kb)

beq says:

Tigers Begin to Roam [..] comes from one of the 72 seasonal units of the Chinese calendar which would actually be Dec. 5-9 but this is what snow does to me.

by fauxreal (stolen from a comment)

I’ve been looking through some ephemera related to American politics in 1925-ish. An article excerpts talk about the coming depletion of American oil, and predicts all oil will be gone in the U.S. in twenty years.

Interesting in light of today, but also in view of WWII and the mention of the Japanese not bombing the oil storage at Pearl Harbor those twenty years plus or minus later.

I also saw some things about the fight for Iraq between France, England, Italy, the U.S. and Japan. Germany was not an issue in this fight. Mussolini was already leading the fascists in Italy and claiming he had no designs on invasion of anyone.

In the meantime, there was a campaign in California called EPIC, or "End Poverty in California," because so many people were seriously suffering. Upton Sinclair was the candidate for Governor of CA. in this group and he was a professed socialist.

He was also endorsed by a group that called itself Progressive Republicans for Democratic Candidates or something like that. In other words, Republicans were willing to endorse Sinclair to try to solve the problems of poverty in light of the robber barons’ continued exploitation.

Interesting, at least to me.

We are certainly living in different times.

Another photo dealt with the death of Lenin and showed a clutch of men who were possible successors in an informal photo. Four of five of them were mentioned. A guy in the center was not mentioned. His name was Joseph Stalin. Was the paper so ignorant, or was the omission on purpose?

Of course, we can go back an construct a history based upon events. But in the midst of events, isn’t it amazing how wrong people can be, and sometimes for the best of reasons (and sometimes for the worst.)

Open thread …

Via Froomkin the Houston Chronicle reports on some earmarking of Katrina funds within the Bush family:

Former first lady Barbara Bush donated an undisclosed amount of money to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund with specific instructions that the money be spent with an educational software company owned by her son Neil.

Cont. reading: Rotton Family

Georgia’s election was jubilated in the "Western" press, Belarus’ election is damned. But are both of these results realistic at all?

Good elections:
Georgia, 4 January 2004
Mikheil Saakashvili	96.0%
Total turnout	82.8%
—
Bad elections:
Belarus, 19 March 2006
Alexander Lukashenko	82.6%
Total turnout	92.6%

One third of French people say they are racist, a French human rights
watchdog said on Tuesday, …

Some 33 percent of 1,011 people surveyed face-to-face by pollsters CSA
said they were "somewhat" or "a little" racist, …

The poll asked the question "When it comes to you personally, would you
say you are …" followed by a list of options: somewhat racist, a bit
racist, not racist, not very racist, not racist at all and don’t want
to say.
One third of French say they are racist, Reuters, 22 March 2006

Sixty-eight percent of Israeli Jews would refuse to live in the same apartment building as an Israeli Arab, according to the results of an annual poll released Wednesday by the Center for the Struggle Against Racism.
…
Forty-six percent of Jews would refuse to allow an Arab to visit their home while 50 percent would welcome an Arab visitor. Forty-one percent of Jewish support the segregation of Jews and Arabs in places of recreation and 52 percent of such Jews would oppose such a move.
Poll: 68% of Jews would refuse to live in same building as an Arab, Haaretz, 22 March 2006