frankie's Journal: Obligatory Review of Current Events

My sister has asked me to post my views about major US political news of the past 6ish months. Here they are:

Social Security reform: irrelevant. "Personal accounts" aren't going anywhere; benefits for seniors remain the third rail of politics. Maybe the next President can try to fix the mess.

PlameGate: irrelevant. Karl Rove won't be prosecuted. At worst, he'll change jobs (as the Daily Show suggested, how about "Chief Justice Rove"?). Remember, we're talking about an administration that lied to start a war, that admitted to international war crimes, that defines "small government" as "the largest federal budgets in history", etc. Why in the world should anyone care about one more deception? It's not as if George slept with an intern or anything.

Federal Court nominees: to be honest, I'd much rather see Bush pack the courts with rabid fundamentalists than with mining company lobbyists and the like. BTW, if Alberto Gonzalez gets O'Connor's spot, I really wish a Senator would bring in a water-board and threaten to use it on him unless he answers the question "Is this allowed by the Constitution?" with a clear yes or no.

3rd world debt forgiveness: I think Bob Geldof is wrong. We should not write off loans to poor nations with nothing in return. I want to see more responsibility. Billions of dollars don't vanish into thin air. Extradite their former president for theft, then raid and audit every member of his extended family. And before we let the rest of the country off the hook, repossess their rain forests as collateral.

Anything else?

Not a matter of responsibility

[Marxist Hacker 42]

While I agree that it's a much better idea to go after the former leaders and their extended families than the people they stole from and left behind, that's not the point. The point is that the first world made tons of money out of making sure these people stayed poor- the lack of responsibility is on the part of the IMF. As well as any other freakin' banker anywhere in the world living fat off of games with usury. I'm sorry- but independance is a myth- we're all responsible for the people we lend money

Re:Not a matter of responsibility

[frankie]

Thanks for mentioning interest rates. Several google attempts haven't revealed anywhere that the World Bank specifically states "we loaned X billion dollars to FooLand at Y percent APR".

Indirect sources say their loan rates can be as low as zero percent for certain projects, but can also go well over 30% (annual) for others. I would have to agree to the description of "usurious" in that case.

Re:Not a matter of responsibility

[Marxist Hacker 42]

My understanding is that ALL of the cases even being considered for debt forgiveness are in some stage of the second- that interest payments alone on their debt exceed current domestic production for the country, thus keeping them in poverty forever. Not much different from what the credit card companies are doing to the middle and lower classes right here in America.

Federal Judges

[nizo]

If Bush packs the court with judges who help drive America back into the dark ages, we are getting what we deserve. I would hope that might get people more interested in getting off their butts and getting involved, but sadly most people will shake their heads for two seconds and then go back to watching "reality" television.

fabulous quote about CIA agents

[frankie]

"We need more protection for the methods we use to gather intelligence and more protection for our sources, particularly our human sources, people that are risking their lives for their country. Even though I'm a tranquil guy now at this stage of my life, I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious of traitors." -

George H W Bush [cia.gov], 1999