Why you should care about protests in Tunisia, Yemen and Egypt

Several weeks ago there was a governmental overthrow that occurred in Tunisia and it is easy to write off Tunisia as a tiny country that has no impact on life in America, more about Tunisia at the following link:

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/16/132975274/Social-Media-Gets-Credit-For-Tunisian-Overthrow

Then there were protests in Yemen and we’ve talked about Yemen before, first a post about the recent protests:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12295864

And what we’ve discussed about Yemen previously:

http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2010/12/23/the-next-big-terror-threat/

Finally, unless you’ve been in a coma for the last week you probably know that there are massive protests going on in the country of Egypt.  The protestors on the street, in what have been relatively peaceful protests so far; seem to want one thing, Hosni Mubarak out of office.  Mubarak has been the ruler of Egypt for nearly thirty years and the people of Egypt are demanding a change, you can read more about Mubarak at the following link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosni_Mubarak

At this point a natural question arises were the neocons correct about the Middle East?  Are we seeing the results of the policy of forcing democracy on other countries?  An interesting discussion on this topic is available at the following link:

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/01/30/matthews-were-neocons-right-about-middle-east-was-bush-better-equippe

Personally, I don’t see a stable democracy in Iraq or in Afghanistan, and there are still plenty of non-democratic governments in the Middle East including Iran and Saudi Arabia.  What seems to be occurring in the streets of the Arab world is not related to Islam and democracy but a very simple issue, basic human survival and the gap between those who have power, money and control and those who are struggling to survive.  Unemployment, poverty, and lack of education and opportunity is what the people are calling for in the streets of Tunisia, Yemen and especially Egypt.

So why should you care?  You are safe at home and watching Egypt on CNN, so really why should you care?  Ok, first this can impact our economy, in a minor way if Egypt’s economy generally melts down without too much violence.  If however things in Egypt really disintegrate and there is an interruption in travel through the Suez Canal, which is controlled by Egypt, then it could be a very big deal.  That interruption would cause oil coming out of the region to travel an additional 6,000 miles around Africa and that will impact oil prices.  You may have noticed gas prices creeping up recently and I think you can count on the creep continuing with what’s going on in Egypt.  If it really goes south there could be a significant increase in gas prices and as we have seen that impacts prices across the board in the US.

However, I’ll give you an even bigger reason to worry about what’s going on in these countries.  The issues that are being taken on in Egypt, poverty, education, unemployment, and the prosperity gap, do not only exist in these countries.  Looking at Greece, Spain, the UK and the United States this issue exists everywhere and is getting worse.  My friends, there is a limit to how long a person can suffer, can watch his/her children suffer while others have control of his/her life.  At some point people will say no more and express themselves, and then, all bets are off.  So why should you care, I’ll tell you, the country you live in, is not as different from Egypt as you might like to think.

Rob Emanuel and the case for Chicago Mayor or is working for the president actually national service?

 I have found the legal wrangling around the Chicago Mayoral race to be very interesting.  If you haven’t been watching the issue is whether Rob Emmanuel, President Obama’s former Chief of Staff still has residency in Chicago so he can run for mayor.  The question has come before the local election commission (in favor), a lower court (in favor), a higher court (not in favor) and now finally rests with the Illinois Supreme Court.

 You can get caught up to speed at the following link:

 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/us/politics/26rahm.html?_r=1&hp

 Now to me the real issue underlying all of this is whether or not working for the President of the United States is just another job, or national service?  The other questions are easy, if you moved to Virginia to work for IBM for two years than you are not a resident of Illinois anymore.  However I doubt anyone would deny residency to a soldier from Chicago who has been in Iraq or Afghanistan for the last two years.  Assuming in all of these cases the basics are the same, address listed as Chicago, home ownership in the city, etc…

The distinction between the two easy cases is simple, if you left the state purely to pursue your own financial and/or career interests you should lose the benefit of residency.  However, if, as the soldier did, you left the state in service of your country, you should not be penalized.  So the real question is, do the courts of Illinois, on behalf of the people of Illinois, see that working for the President of the United States, be it Obama, Clinton, Reagan or a Bush as service to the United States or just another job?  What do you think, I’d love to hear.

Wikileaks and Osama Bin Laden

The other day on Facebook my brother posted a post that got me thinking, the headlines were that officials were closing in on Julian Assange.  My brother pointed out the irony that they’d found Assange but were not closing in on Osama Bin Laden.  Now I’m not prone to conspiracy theory but seriously, how is it after almost ten years, with the greatest military on earth, the FBI, the NSA and the CIA we can’t find Osama Bin Laden?  What the hell is up with that?

Conservatives out there talk a tough game but they had a hell of a long time with Bush in the Whitehouse to find and bring to justice the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.  I think we all remember this:

http://www.sptimes.com/News/091501/Worldandnation/Bush_says_bin_Laden_c.shtml

Yet Bush didn’t smoke the terrorists out of their holes and bring them to justice, instead we’ve entered into a protracted war in a country that has never been conquered and now I hear politicians talking about permanent bases in Afghanistan to go along with our permanent presence in Iraq.  It seems to me that you are at greater risk to your own freedom if you embarrass the US government, than if you kill Americans.  Hence, Julian Assange can’t hide, but Bin Laden can.

Why conservatives will win!

Once in a martial arts class a fellow student asked my instructor what type of fighter was the most dangerous.  He talked through the obvious skill advantages of karate, kung fu and even classical boxers but in the end he arrived at the conclusion that a street fighter was the most dangerous, simply because he was the most unpredictable.  As a kid who grew up in a tough neighborhood and spent a decent amount of time on the street, I can tell you that the toughest guy was not the biggest guy, it was the crazy guy.  Lots of times this was a skinny little guy but what made him so tough was that he was willing to do anything, for a minor infraction he’d hit you in the head with a brick.  This my friends is why the conservatives will win, because they are the crazy little skinny guy you met on the street.  They believe what they believe and will act disproportionately to the offense they have deemed committed. 

What will they win?  They’ll win power and influence in this country, the ability to control the flow and course of the discussion of information which will allow them to influence the majority of Americans.  The reason they’ll have this influence is because the majority of Americans take what they hear on TV, cable or some half-assed blog to be gospel.  They don’t question why or how a conclusion is reached just that they heard it from a source they’ve deemed credible.   Once they have given that credibility to a source they believe it completely which is why idiots like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh can gain traction saying the most outrageously stupid things, but don’t worry Sarah Palin can see Russia and Jan Brewer, Governor of Arizona can pick out an illegal alien just by looking at one!

So I have suggested the conservative right is the skinny crazy kid on the block and to substantiate this I have to prove that first they are crazy, and then that they are willing to go over the edge to make their point.  On to the first issue, how nutty are they?  In a recent Harris Interactive online poll, 24% of the respondents who identified themselves as Republicans believe that President Barack Obama is the Antichrist.  Ok, do I really need to go any further on the nutty front!  Additionally, as pointed out by Steve Mirsky in Scientific American, 22% of Republicans in the survey think that President Obama wants the terrorists to win, so that means 2% presumably think he is the Antichrist yet somehow he still wants the terrorists to lose, maybe it’s bad guy envy?  Ok, so we can be fairly confident the conservative right is nuts.

Now, on to the second point do they act disproportionately to the circumstances?  Personally, I would consider the deaths of 8 abortion doctors and multiple clinic bombings over the last couple of decades to qualify as an over reaction to legalized abortion.  This does not even get into discussing how the same people who feared the Teletubbies would turn their children gay, are ok with their children and everyone else’s children seeing horrid giant posters of aborted fetuses that they display for the general public.  A serious and disproportionate over reaction to disagreeing with a law.  It would be the equivalent of anti-logging activists on the left assassinating loggers.

Finally, I think the right in general to be just as hypocritical as the left and politicians in general, when Ronald Reagan or any Bush was in office the slogan was, “America love it or leave it.”  But now with Barack Obama in office you can suddenly hate America and hang out, my how things have changed, or have they?