Sunday, June 29, 2008

The Election They Didn't Talk About Today

You know an election must be seriously flawed if President Bush calls it illegitimate. Robert Mugabe's brutal dictatorship's torture and murder of citizens who wanted to vote against him, makes our Supreme Court's hijacking of the 2000 election seem like a lesson in Democracy.

It took Bush about seven years to say anything about Mugabe's vicious regime, but unless there's oil involved, Africa is never the focus of our government's attention. Or maybe it took Bush that long to learn how to pronounce Zimbabwe and Mugabe.

Most African nations are finally speaking out against Mugabe, with the notable exception of South Africa. Doctors Without Borders said South Africa deported some 450 Zimbabweans overnight from a border detention center who were "fleeing instability and political violence." All inhumanity towards man is unacceptable, but when it comes from South Africa, a country who used to be on the receiving end of such mistreatment, it is particularly perverse and obscene. I guess Thabo Mibeki is too busy denying that HIV causes AIDS, and arguing that antiretroviral drugs do more harm than good, to speak out against Mugabe.

Is it Rude To Save Lives Without An Invitation?
The Bush Administration isn't very good about trying to help people in need. Their heart's just not in it. We're great at invading countries and causing the deaths of tens of thousands of people, including almost 4000 of our own soldiers. But when it comes to sending in supplies to help save lives in Myanmar, all of a sudden we become very wimpy. "Oh, we'd LOVE to deliver this food and medicine, but the government WON'T LET US!" We have no problems attacking a country without a letter of consent, and we constantly threaten Iran with military force, but it's just darn impolite to tell Myanmar that we're going to send in food and supplies whether they like it or not.

Very little, if any, of this was mentioned on Sunday's talk shows. They just have partisans from both sides cut each other off loudly and say nothing about anything going on outside the US. Even though almost all of our problems stem from what's going on in the rest of the world. All they blabber on about is what a friend of a friend of a guy who almost met Obama once, said at a bar. And should Obama immediately distance himself from the guy he never heard of.

Iraq War is Over
The media has figured out how to do something that neither party has been able to.
They ended the Iraq war. Not that people aren't still fighting and dying, but it's just not worth covering on the evening news. The networks are bringing home their Iraq correspondents.

If a soldier falls in the field and no one is around to hear it, does he make a sound?