Just when I thought I was out-they pull me back in
virus: That Dirty Feeling
« on: 2004-06-14 19:01:31 »
You know how after a workout or mowing the lawn when it's 100 degrees you want to quickly get in the shower and wash it all away.
Whenever I see President Bush on TV, I have this overwhelming desire to go to the bookstore and read a difficult book, the subject of which is irrelevant.
Just seeing him or talking about him makes me feel stupid and small-minded.
Walter
--
Walter Watts Tulsa Network Solutions, Inc.
"Pursue the small utopias... nature, music, friendship, love" --Kupferberg--
IT IS HARD TO BELIEVE that it has been only one week since the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion that liberated France from the Nazis. A lot has changed in a mere seven days.
Start with the international scene. George W. Bush, Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schröder took their act from Normandy to Sea Island Georgia, where they were joined by other members of the G-8 and assorted interested parties. There, Chirac proved once again that a chasm exists between his words and his deeds. "France will never forget what it owes America," the French president told some 6,000 D-Day veterans and assorted guests in his talk last Sunday in the Norman coastal town of Arromanches. A few days later he opposed America's requests for deeper involvement of NATO in the pacification of Iraq, saying such a move would not be "opportune"; fought to water down Bush's program to foster the growth of democratic institutions in the Middle East, stating that he opposed such "missionary" work; and responded with a vigorous "non" to Bush's plea that Iraq's creditors join America in forgiving "the vast majority" of the debts incurred by Iraq during Saddam Hussein's regime. (Within the G-8 nations, Japan is owed $4.1 billion, Russia $3.5 billion, France $3 billion, Germany $2.4 billion and the U.S. $2.2 billion.) And just to make certain that none of the anti-American voters at home gets any idea that he has moved too close to the Americans, Chirac decided to pass up president Reagan's funeral to keep an unspecified "previous commitment" in Europe.
Gerhard Schröder is in a more difficult position than the French friend with whom he has formed an alliance forged in steel. He is riding a tiger: he has whipped up anti-American sentiment, and ridden the wave of anti-Americanism to electoral triumph. But he now wants to open markets and investment opportunities in the countries that have recently joined the European Union, and to cozy up to the delegates they will be sending to the various E.U. institutions. Unfortunately for him, eight of these countries remember that it was American steadfastness in the Cold War, and Ronald Reagan's decision to replace containment with victory as his policy goal, that got them out from under the Russian boot. So these countries, and the German business community, are telling Schröder to tone down his anti-American rhetoric--which he can't do without antagonizing the voters he has persuaded to hate America in general and George W. Bush in particular.
TO ADD TO the Franco-German discomfort, the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved the new Iraqi government, led by Ghazi al-Yawar, who was educated in America. And when the heads-of-state show moves on to Istanbul later this month for the NATO summit meeting, after a two-day stop in New Market-on-Fergus in Ireland for an E.U.-U.S. summit meeting, Chirac is likely to find that his resistance to NATO involvement in Iraq's reconstruction will be ignored by an organization desperate to prove that it is relevant to the 21st century. All in all, it seems that in a single week the reputations of George W. Bush and Tony Blair have moved from the valley of despair to the bright uplands reserved for those who get it right in the tough world of geopolitics.
All of this geopolitical toing-and-froing overshadowed some important developments on the economic front. With Japan now firmly on the path to growth, Europe is the world's principal laggard. Treasury Secretary John Snow called upon the European Union to rely less on export-led growth, which adds to America's trade deficit, and to take steps to accelerate domestic demand. But the Europeans are engaged in a blame game. Schröder and Chirac blame the European Central Bank for keeping interest too high, while the ECB blames France and Germany for violating the fiscal rules of the Growth and Stability Pact--and for refusing to reform their labor and product markets. The funny thing is that both the ECB and its critics are probably right--the one-size-fits-all interest rate set by the ECB is too high to maximize growth in France and Germany, and the French and Germans' refusal to institute economic reforms is holding back their economies. The most optimistic forecast is that the European economy will grow at an annual rate of about 1.5 percent this year, about one-third that of the United States.
NOT ALL THE NEWS from these meetings is gloomy. The heads of state did manage to pronounce themselves in favor of a resumption of trade-opening talks, and to promise to reduce trade-distorting agricultural subsidies and barriers to access.
Whether those pledges can survive the pressures of the American presidential campaign is not certain. Bush is showing commendable courage by defending free trade as a creator rather than a destroyer of jobs, and ridiculing calls to end outsourcing. He has also had the Commerce Department cut anti-dumping duties on Chinese television sets to levels that will have minimal impact on China's TV manufacturers.
All of this is a misfortune for John Kerry. His campaign rests on a three-legged stool. The first leg is that Bush is a job-destroyer; but the economy has created almost one million jobs in the past three months, and is probably adding better than 10,000 every day. The second leg is that Bush has antagonized America's allies and is isolated; the 15-0 Security Council vote to recognize the Bush-backed Iraqi government saws that leg off. The final leg is that the Bush tax cuts have been a disaster. Ronald Reagan's death has brought renewed attention to the fact that the late president's tax cuts helped to end the recession he inherited from Jimmy Carter, just as Bush's cuts kept the Clinton recession short and mild. Not a good week for the president's foes, here and abroad.
Irwin M. Stelzer is director of economic policy studies at the Hudson Institute, a columnist for the Sunday Times (London), a contributing editor to The Weekly Standard, and a contributing writer to The Daily Standard.
RONALD REAGAN would be proud of George W. Bush. The president so many Americans are now so fondly remembering had to face down a contemptuous foreign policy establishment for years, when the received wisdom was that his policies were a failure. Reagan didn't win the Cold War without setbacks; Bush is now going through a similar rough period with his Middle East policy.
Early on, Ronald Reagan was told by the foreign policy establishment not to upset the status quo in Europe, but to stick to the established policy of containment. He declined, choosing to upset the long-standing policies of his predecessors and go for victory, rather than a standoff in the Cold War. George W. Bush was told by the foreign policy establishment not to upset the status quo in the Middle East, but to stick to the policy of containing Saddam and dealing amicably with the corrupt dictators of the oil-rich region. He declined, choosing instead to go to war to unseat Saddam, and to launch a program to destabilize the region by introducing democratic and economic reforms. Reagan won his bet that the Cold War could be won, and it now looks as if Bush could win his bet that a reformed Iraq can serve as a model for other countries in the Middle East.
But Bush's tenacity, even including his ability to wring from the Security Council a resolution endorsing his Iraq policy, will in the end do little to bring back what are misremembered as the good old days of multilateral cooperation. The president may have taken to calling German chancellor Gerhard Schröder by his first name, and to giving joint press conferences with Chirac, but those moves are designed in part to make nonsense of John Kerry's charge that America is isolated in the world. Franco-American relations remain just about where they were before the June 6 celebrations of the anniversary of the D-Day landings on the beaches of Normandy.
This being Chirac's home turf, he got to set the stage, using $54 million of his taxpayers' money to make certain that the backdrop showed him to advantage. And an ahistorical stage it was. The flags of nations that had nothing to do with the landings were represented, to the surprise of those of us who do not remember Sweden as supporting the Allied cause during World War II. Even the E.U. flag was on parade, although it did not exist on June 6, 1944.
Then, too, watching the weight accorded in the ceremonies to the French contribution on that historic and bloody day, one could easily get the impression that the French self-liberated. Never mind that de Gaulle was not told about the invasion until June 4, or that only 500 of the 156,000 troops involved in the invasion were Free French fighters (who fought very well), far fewer than were then in the service of the Nazis in Vichy France.
Chirac's inflation of the role of France in the D-Day invasion might be chalked up to national pride. But his insistence on including German chancellor Gerhard Schröder in the celebration, despite the fact that German troops were on the hills shooting down at the beaches on which the Allied troops landed, is another matter. The French president was eager to put on display a Franco-German alliance that is forged in steel, and is prepared to be the core of a united Europe that will counter the American hyperpower. Chirac made it clear that the invitation to the German chancellor was designed not only to trumpet the reconciliation between these historic enemies. It was also aimed at giving further impetus to the creation of a European superstate, populated by what Schröder in his remarks called "Citizens of Europe." This new superstate, France believes, will have the population, economic muscle, and geopolitical reach to rival the United States. And when the new European constitution is signed in a few days, the E.U. will become a legal entity, with its own supranational police, court system, foreign policy, and national song. No more unipolar world, say the French, even though the Europeans will continue to direct the bulk of their resources to their welfare states rather than to their militaries.
By way of reciprocation, Schröder thanked "France and its allies" and "Russia" for--in the words of CNN's Christiane Amanpour--"liberating" Germany from the Nazis. No mention of America. The implication that some foreign body had imposed Hitler on an unwilling German populace, and that France had "liberated" Germany probably came as no surprise to experienced CNN and Amanpour fans.
The Chirac-Schröder love-in was a response to attitudes in their own countries--attitudes not independent of the repeated attacks on America by the French and German leaders, skilled practitioners of the art of whipping up anti-American feeling. A poll in Le Figaro shows that 82 percent of the French believe the Germans are their best allies; fewer than half of those polled by Le Parisien believe that France has a moral debt to the United States. And we don't need polling data to know the extent of the anti-American feeling that Schröder rode to victory in the last election. Stefan Baron, editor in chief of Wirtschaftswoche (a business weekly) writes, "Schröder would like Germany--with the help of Europe--to become a moral power in opposition to America."
But Schröder has a problem. The Eastern European countries that have newly joined the E.U., and are about to take seats in the European parliament and positions in the eurocracy, are staunchly pro-American. As important, they provide promising markets for German products and attractive areas for German investment--facts that have not gone unnoticed by the German industrial community, which is unenthused by Schröder's anti-Americanism, not to mention his reneging on his promise to reform Germany's sclerotic economy.
Schröder also is angling for a permanent seat on the Security Council, a plum he is unlikely to get in almost any circumstance, and certain to be denied if he continues his direct attacks on the United States. So look for a major grovel from here on out, out of sight of German voters if possible. Already, U.S. officials are telling the American press that last week's meeting between Bush and Schröder was their best since the Iraq war. To which the cautious might reply that the Gerhard Schröder who meets privately with the American president in Sea Island, Georgia, is not the same Gerhard Schröder who harangues voters in Berlin, Germany.
As for Chirac, who refused to leave his perch on the top of the steps of the lysée Palace to welcome Bush, as is customary, he spent D-Day invoking the values of the U.N. A peaceful world order, he told the crowd in Normandy, is "symbolized and guaranteed today by the Charter of the United Nations"--the clear and intended message being that military action that is not authorized by the U.N. is somewhere between illegal and immoral. Bush was having none of it: He countered with references to "all the liberators who fought here"--the WWII coalition of the willing--and added, "America would do it again for our friends," contrasting U.S. reliability with France's more, er, pragmatic approach to world affairs.
Chirac's performance benefited mightily from his tolerance of wide chasms between his words and his deeds. "France will never forget what it owes America," the French president told some 6,000 D-Day veterans and assorted guests in his talk on Sunday in the Norman coastal town of Arromanches. A few days later he opposed America's requests for deeper involvement of NATO in the pacification of Iraq, saying such a move would not be "opportune"; fought to water down Bush's program to foster the growth of democratic institutions in the Middle East, stating that he opposed such "missionary" work; and responded with a vigorous "non" to Bush's plea that Iraq's creditors join America in forgiving "the vast majority" of the debts incurred by Iraq during Saddam Hussein's regime. (Within the G-8 nations, Japan is owed $4.1 billion, Russia $3.5 billion, France $3 billion, Germany $2.4 billion, and the United States $2.2 billion.)And just to make certain that none of the anti-American voters at home get any idea that he has moved too close to the Americans, Chirac decided to pass up President Reagan's funeral to keep an unspecified "previous commitment" in Europe.
Apparently, remembering one's debt to America, France's "steadfast friend and ally," and honoring that debt are two different things. Iraq's monetary debt to France must, Chirac insists, be paid, but France's moral debt to America remains in the need-not-repay file.
What has come to be the heads-of-state equivalent of Nathan Detroit's oldest established permanent floating crap game now moves on. It opened in Normandy, moved on to Sea Island, stopped briefly in Washington to honor the memory of the highest roller of them all, Ronald Reagan, and is headed for an E.U.-U.S. summit in Newmarket-on-Fergus in County Clare, Ireland, before taking a final bow at a NATO summit in Istanbul on June 27-28.
So far, George W. Bush and Tony Blair are the big winners, and Chirac the biggest loser. Bush, with Blair backing his play, bet that he could rake in support for the U.S.-U.K. policy in Iraq, and won unanimous Security Council backing for the new Iraqi government, headed by Ghazi al-Yawar, who was educated in America. Chirac, with Schröder blowing on his dice, lost, and found himself increasingly isolated as Bush's team emphasized the president's warm personal relationships with Blair, Russian president Vladimir Putin, Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, and Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. Indeed, when asked at a press conference preceding the D-Day celebrations whether Chirac is likely to get an invitation to the Bush ranch at Crawford, Texas, the president responded that if Chirac wanted to go there to "stare at cows," he was more than welcome to do so.
Bush bet that he could get the G-8 to support the first step in an initiative to foster democracy in the despotic countries of the Middle East, Chirac bet he would roll snake eyes, only to watch a seven come up. Bush bet that he could get NATO involved in Iraq, Chirac bet that he couldn't, but lost the pot when he had to concede that if the Iraqis ask NATO for help, help would be provided.
On D-Day, in Normandy, the French president was playing with his own dice in his own house, and raked in a few chips--favorable television images but very little to put in the bank. A few days later, on Sea Island, the American president had the hot hand, and walked away with just about every pot, sharing his winnings with his ally, Tony Blair, by agreeing to an effort to revive the Middle East peace process. Not a bad week for a president and a prime minister who only a few weeks ago were being written off as real losers.
Irwin M. Stelzer is a contributing editor to The Weekly Standard, director of economic policy studies at the Hudson Institute, and a columnist for the Sunday Times (London).
RE: virus: That Dirty Feeling
« Reply #3 on: 2004-06-15 04:25:30 »
[Blunderov] The absurd posturings at the D-Day anniversary ceremony have apparently failed to bamboozle the discerning British electorate. It remains to be seen if Phoney Blair is the big winner that the myopic Irwin M. Stelzer seems to imagine.
Quite how Labour can construe Ken Livingstone's victory to be any sort of compensation at all is not clear to me.
Best Regards
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3796075.stm <snip> Labour suffers election 'kicking'
There was little to cheer Labour Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott admits voters have given Labour a "kicking" in protest at the Iraq war.
With only a few local election results in England and Wales to come, Labour has lost 461 seats and eight councils, including Newcastle, Swansea and Leeds.
The Tories gained 259 seats and won Trafford and Tamworth. Charles Kennedy said Lib Dem gains proved the UK now really had three party politics.
But Labour was cheered by Ken Livingstone's election as London Mayor. </snip>
<snip> Ken's victory is steeped in irony
Analysis By Nick Assinder BBC News Online political correspondent
Mr Livingstone is a million political miles away from New Labour, is opposed to a whole series of key government policies and was vocal in his opposition to the war on Iraq.
The UKIP vote may even signal trouble ahead for both the main parties when the European election results are published on Sunday
But during his first term in the job he did not spark the socialist, anti-government revolution some had feared.
So when it was obvious that the official Labour candidate would be humiliated in the mayoral election, Mr Blair relented and opened the door for Mr Livingstone's readmission to the party he had kicked him out of before the last London election.
Put bluntly, he wanted a winner and if that had to be Ken Livingstone then he could live with that. </snip>
You know how after a workout or mowing the lawn when it's 100 degrees you want to quickly get in the shower and wash it all away.
Whenever I see President Bush on TV, I have this overwhelming desire to go to the bookstore and read a difficult book, the subject of which is irrelevant.
Just seeing him or talking about him makes me feel stupid and small-minded.
Walter
--
Walter Watts Tulsa Network Solutions, Inc.
"Pursue the small utopias... nature, music, friendship, love" --Kupferberg--
RE: virus: That Dirty Feeling
« Reply #5 on: 2004-06-15 08:12:06 »
Labour's recent problems are being blamed on the Iraq War yet no one had shown much evidence that this is the case. Voter disaffection and general weariness with Labour are the most likely causes of their recent problems.
After all, the Conservatives ALSO supported the war and lent Blair their full support on the matter.
How is this for an indicator: The anti-War Mirror and Guardian newspapers have had circulation collapses (due to their ceaseless attacks on their own country?) and the only substantial Anti-War party - Liberal Democrats - also suffered reversals.
The picture emerging is that the main parties are losing support to smaller parties (e.g. extremists like the BNP, single issue parties like UKIP) because of voter alienation and not because of serious policy issue differences.
[Blunderov] The absurd posturings at the D-Day anniversary ceremony have apparently failed to bamboozle the discerning British electorate. It remains to be seen if Phoney Blair is the big winner that the myopic Irwin M. Stelzer seems to imagine.
Quite how Labour can construe Ken Livingstone's victory to be any sort of compensation at all is not clear to me.
Re:virus: That Dirty Feeling
« Reply #6 on: 2004-06-15 08:52:12 »
...i anxiously await your news informing us of exactly when you will be moving to the wonderful new democratic state of Iraq? im sure you'll have a wonderful time there discussing politics and religion in the many cafes catering to the wonton intellectual. wear your "i love bush" pin on your lapel and your sure to make quite an impression!
IT IS HARD TO BELIEVE that it has been only one week since the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion that liberated France from the Nazis. A lot has changed in a mere seven days.
Start with the international scene. George W. Bush, Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schröder took their act from Normandy to Sea Island Georgia, where they were joined by other members of the G-8 and assorted interested parties. There, Chirac proved once again that a chasm exists between his words and his deeds. "France will never forget what it owes America," the French president told some 6,000 D-Day veterans and assorted guests in his talk last Sunday in the Norman coastal town of Arromanches. A few days later he opposed America's requests for deeper involvement of NATO in the pacification of Iraq, saying such a move would not be "opportune"; fought to water down Bush's program to foster the growth of democratic institutions in the Middle East, stating that he opposed such "missionary" work; and responded with a vigorous "non" to Bush's plea that Iraq's creditors join America in forgiving "the vast majority" of the debts incurred by Iraq during Saddam Hussein's regime. (Within! the G-8 nations, Japan is owed $4.1 billion, Russia $3.5 billion, France $3 billion, Germany $2.4 billion and the U.S. $2.2 billion.) And just to make certain that none of the anti-American voters at home gets any idea that he has moved too close to the Americans, Chirac decided to pass up president Reagan's funeral to keep an unspecified "previous commitment" in Europe.
Gerhard Schröder is in a more difficult position than the French friend with whom he has formed an alliance forged in steel. He is riding a tiger: he has whipped up anti-American sentiment, and ridden the wave of anti-Americanism to electoral triumph. But he now wants to open markets and investment opportunities in the countries that have recently joined the European Union, and to cozy up to the delegates they will be sending to the various E.U. institutions. Unfortunately for him, eight of these countries remember that it was American steadfastness in the Cold War, and Ronald Reagan's decision to replace containment with victory as his policy goal, that got them out from under the Russian boot. So these countries, and the German business community, are telling Schröder to tone down his anti-American rhetoric--which he can't do without antagonizing the voters he has persuaded to hate America in general and George W. Bush in particular.
TO ADD TO the Franco-German discomfort, the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved the new Iraqi government, led by Ghazi al-Yawar, who was educated in America. And when the heads-of-state show moves on to Istanbul later this month for the NATO summit meeting, after a two-day stop in New Market-on-Fergus in Ireland for an E.U.-U.S. summit meeting, Chirac is likely to find that his resistance to NATO involvement in Iraq's reconstruction will be ignored by an organization desperate to prove that it is relevant to the 21st century. All in all, it seems that in a single week the reputations of George W. Bush and Tony Blair have moved from the valley of despair to the bright uplands reserved for those who get it right in the tough world of geopolitics.
All of this geopolitical toing-and-froing overshadowed some important developments on the economic front. With Japan now firmly on the path to growth, Europe is the world's principal laggard. Treasury Secretary John Snow called upon the European Union to rely less on export-led growth, which adds to America's trade deficit, and to take steps to accelerate domestic demand. But the Europeans are engaged in a blame game. Schröder and Chirac blame the European Central Bank for keeping interest too high, while the ECB blames France and Germany for violating the fiscal rules of the Growth and Stability Pact--and for refusing to reform their labor and product markets. The funny thing is that both the ECB and its critics are probably right--the one-size-fits-all interest rate set by the ECB is too high to maximize growth in France and Germany, and the French and Germans' refusal to institute economic reforms is holding back their economies. The most optimistic forecast is that the E! uropean economy will grow at an annual rate of about 1.5 percent this year, about one-third that of the United States.
NOT ALL THE NEWS from these meetings is gloomy. The heads of state did manage to pronounce themselves in favor of a resumption of trade-opening talks, and to promise to reduce trade-distorting agricultural subsidies and barriers to access.
Whether those pledges can survive the pressures of the American presidential campaign is not certain. Bush is showing commendable courage by defending free trade as a creator rather than a destroyer of jobs, and ridiculing calls to end outsourcing. He has also had the Commerce Department cut anti-dumping duties on Chinese television sets to levels that will have minimal impact on China's TV manufacturers.
All of this is a misfortune for John Kerry. His campaign rests on a three-legged stool. The first leg is that Bush is a job-destroyer; but the economy has created almost one million jobs in the past three months, and is probably adding better than 10,000 every day. The second leg is that Bush has antagonized America's allies and is isolated; the 15-0 Security Council vote to recognize the Bush-backed Iraqi government saws that leg off. The final leg is that the Bush tax cuts have been a disaster. Ronald Reagan's death has brought renewed attention to the fact that the late president's tax cuts helped to end the recession he inherited from Jimmy Carter, just as Bush's cuts kept the Clinton recession short and mild. Not a good week for the president's foes, here and abroad.
Irwin M. Stelzer is director of economic policy studies at the Hudson Institute, a columnist for the Sunday Times (London), a contributing editor to The Weekly Standard, and a contributing writer to The Daily Standard.
_________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
Re: virus: That Dirty Feeling
« Reply #7 on: 2004-06-15 08:54:12 »
[Walter] You know how after a workout or mowing the lawn when it's 100 degrees you want to quickly get in the shower and wash it all away. Whenever I see President Bush on TV, I have this overwhelming desire to go to the bookstore and read a difficult book, the subject of which is irrelevant. Just seeing him or talking about him makes me feel stupid and small-minded.
[rhinoceros] Walter, you realize that by making this confession you subjected everyone to a collective punishment of 2 cut-and-paste articles of Bush-loving, just to restore balance :->
Joe is like the passer-by who applauds the fireman only to be scolded that "Those firemen deserve no credit! Will they be living in the ruins? Hell no! Would you? Hell NO! Hypocrite!".
We can only help alleviate the mess the Iraqis made (and some cases, continue to trying to make) of their country.
...i anxiously await your news informing us of exactly when you will be moving to the wonderful new democratic state of Iraq? im sure you'll have a wonderful time there discussing politics and religion in the many cafes catering to the wonton intellectual. wear your "i love bush" pin on your lapel and your sure to make quite an impression!
I plan to stay right here, but the new Iraq will definitely be more invit= ing than the old, not least to its own citizens.=0D I think that the Baathist dead-enders, Sadrist thugs and imported Al Qaed= a terrorists would try to murder me for wearing such a pin, but the average Iraqi would be more likely to shoot me if I were to wear an "I Love Kerry= " pin.=0D =0D -------Original Message-------=0D =0D From: virus@lucifer.com=0D Date: 06/15/04 07:55:24=0D To: virus@lucifer.com=0D Subject: Re:virus: That Dirty Feeling=0D =0D =2E...i anxiously await your news informing us of exactly when you will b= e=0D moving to the wonderful new democratic state of Iraq? im sure you'll hav= e a=0D wonderful time there discussing politics and religion in the many cafes=0D catering to the wonton intellectual. wear your "i love bush" pin on your= =0D lapel and your sure to make quite an impression!=0D =0D =0D =0D DrSebby.=0D "Courage...and shuffle the cards".=0D =0D =0D =0D =0D =0D ----Original Message Follows----=0D From: "Joe Dees" <hidden@lucifer.com>=0D Reply-To: virus@lucifer.com=0D To: virus@lucifer.com=0D Subject: Re:virus: That Dirty Feeling=0D Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2004 01:01:10 -0600=0D =0D Bush Conquers Europe=0D France and Germany find themselves in a box, and John Kerry loses one of = his=0D reasons for running.=0D by Irwin M. Stelzer=0D http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/231muvn= w asp=0D =0D IT IS HARD TO BELIEVE that it has been only one week since the celebratio= n=0D of the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion that liberated France from = the=0D Nazis. A lot has changed in a mere seven days.=0D =0D Start with the international scene. George W. Bush, Jacques Chirac and=0D Gerhard Schr=F6der took their act from Normandy to Sea Island Georgia, wh= ere=0D they were joined by other members of the G-8 and assorted interested=0D parties. There, Chirac proved once again that a chasm exists between his=0D words and his deeds. "France will never forget what it owes America," the= =0D French president told some 6,000 D-Day veterans and assorted guests in hi= s=0D talk last Sunday in the Norman coastal town of Arromanches. A few days la= ter=0D he opposed America's requests for deeper involvement of NATO in the=0D pacification of Iraq, saying such a move would not be "opportune"; fought= to=0D water down Bush's program to foster the growth of democratic institutions= in=0D the Middle East, stating that he opposed such "missionary" work; and=0D responded with a vigorous "non" to Bush's plea that Iraq's creditors join= =0D America in forgiving "the vast majority" of the debts incurred by Iraq=0D during Saddam Hussein's regime. (Within!=0D the G-8 nations, Japan is owed $4.1 billion, Russia $3.5 billion, Franc= e=0D $3 billion, Germany $2.4 billion and the U.S. $2.2 billion.) And just to=0D make certain that none of the anti-American voters at home gets any idea=0D that he has moved too close to the Americans, Chirac decided to pass up=0D president Reagan's funeral to keep an unspecified "previous commitment" i= n=0D Europe.=0D =0D Gerhard Schr=F6der is in a more difficult position than the French friend= with=0D whom he has formed an alliance forged in steel. He is riding a tiger: he = has=0D whipped up anti-American sentiment, and ridden the wave of anti-Americani= sm=0D to electoral triumph. But he now wants to open markets and investment=0D opportunities in the countries that have recently joined the European Uni= on,=0D and to cozy up to the delegates they will be sending to the various E.U.=0D institutions. Unfortunately for him, eight of these countries remember th= at=0D it was American steadfastness in the Cold War, and Ronald Reagan's decisi= on=0D to replace containment with victory as his policy goal, that got them out= =0D from under the Russian boot. So these countries, and the German business=0D community, are telling Schr=F6der to tone down his anti-American=0D rhetoric--which he can't do without antagonizing the voters he has persua= ded=0D to hate America in general and George W. Bush in particular.=0D =0D TO ADD TO the Franco-German discomfort, the U.N. Security Council=0D unanimously approved the new Iraqi government, led by Ghazi al-Yawar, who= =0D was educated in America. And when the heads-of-state show moves on to=0D Istanbul later this month for the NATO summit meeting, after a two-day st= op=0D in New Market-on-Fergus in Ireland for an E.U.-U.S. summit meeting, Chira= c=0D is likely to find that his resistance to NATO involvement in Iraq's=0D reconstruction will be ignored by an organization desperate to prove that= it=0D is relevant to the 21st century. All in all, it seems that in a single we= ek=0D the reputations of George W. Bush and Tony Blair have moved from the vall= ey=0D of despair to the bright uplands reserved for those who get it right in t= he=0D tough world of geopolitics.=0D =0D All of this geopolitical toing-and-froing overshadowed some important=0D developments on the economic front. With Japan now firmly on the path to=0D growth, Europe is the world's principal laggard. Treasury Secretary John=0D Snow called upon the European Union to rely less on export-led growth, wh= ich=0D adds to America's trade deficit, and to take steps to accelerate domestic= =0D demand. But the Europeans are engaged in a blame game. Schr=F6der and Chi= rac=0D blame the European Central Bank for keeping interest too high, while the = ECB=0D blames France and Germany for violating the fiscal rules of the Growth an= d=0D Stability Pact--and for refusing to reform their labor and product market= s.=0D The funny thing is that both the ECB and its critics are probably right--= the=0D one-size-fits-all interest rate set by the ECB is too high to maximize=0D growth in France and Germany, and the French and Germans' refusal to=0D institute economic reforms is holding back their economies. The most=0D optimistic forecast is that the E!=0D uropean economy will grow at an annual rate of about 1.5 percent this yea= r,=0D about one-third that of the United States.=0D =0D NOT ALL THE NEWS from these meetings is gloomy. The heads of state did=0D manage to pronounce themselves in favor of a resumption of trade-opening=0D talks, and to promise to reduce trade-distorting agricultural subsidies a= nd=0D barriers to access.=0D =0D Whether those pledges can survive the pressures of the American president= ial=0D campaign is not certain. Bush is showing commendable courage by defending= =0D free trade as a creator rather than a destroyer of jobs, and ridiculing=0D calls to end outsourcing. He has also had the Commerce Department cut=0D anti-dumping duties on Chinese television sets to levels that will have=0D minimal impact on China's TV manufacturers.=0D =0D All of this is a misfortune for John Kerry. His campaign rests on a=0D three-legged stool. The first leg is that Bush is a job-destroyer; but th= e=0D economy has created almost one million jobs in the past three months, and= is=0D probably adding better than 10,000 every day. The second leg is that Bush= =0D has antagonized America's allies and is isolated; the 15-0 Security Counc= il=0D vote to recognize the Bush-backed Iraqi government saws that leg off. The= =0D final leg is that the Bush tax cuts have been a disaster. Ronald Reagan's= =0D death has brought renewed attention to the fact that the late president's= =0D tax cuts helped to end the recession he inherited from Jimmy Carter, just= as=0D Bush's cuts kept the Clinton recession short and mild.=0D Not a good week for the president's foes, here and abroad.=0D =0D Irwin M. Stelzer is director of economic policy studies at the Hudson=0D Institute, a columnist for the Sunday Times (London), a contributing edit= or=0D to The Weekly Standard, and a contributing writer to The Daily Standard.=0D =0D =0D ----=0D This message was posted by Joe Dees to the Virus 2004 board on Church of=0D Virus BBS.=0D <http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=3D61;action=3Ddisplay threadid=3D30519>=0D ---=0D To unsubscribe from the Virus list go to=0D <http://www.lucifer.com/cgi-bin/virus-l>=0D =0D _________________________________________________________________=0D The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE*=0D http://join.msn.com/?page=3Dfeatures/junkmail=0D =0D ---=0D To unsubscribe from the Virus list go to <http://www.lucifer.com/cgi-bin/= virus-l>
Two articles that opine that someone who has managed his recent summit co= ups can't be all that stupid and small minded - unless the other leaders are even more so. =0D =0D -------Original Message-------=0D =0D From: virus@lucifer.com=0D Date: 06/15/04 08:16:53=0D To: virus@lucifer.com=0D Subject: Re: virus: That Dirty Feeling=0D =0D [Walter] You know how after a workout or mowing the lawn when it's 100=0D degrees you want to quickly get in the shower and wash it all away.=0D Whenever I see President Bush on TV, I have this overwhelming desire to=0D go to the bookstore and read a difficult book, the subject of which is=0D irrelevant. Just seeing him or talking about him makes me feel stupid=0D and small-minded.=0D =0D [rhinoceros] Walter, you realize that by making this confession you=0D subjected everyone to a collective punishment of 2 cut-and-paste=0D articles of Bush-loving, just to restore balance :->=0D =0D =0D ---=0D To unsubscribe from the Virus list go to <http://www.lucifer.com/cgi-bin/= virus-l>
RE: virus: That Dirty Feeling
« Reply #13 on: 2004-06-16 01:45:24 »
Jonathan Davis Sent: 15 June 2004 02:12 PM
Labour's recent problems are being blamed on the Iraq War yet no one had shown much evidence that this is the case. Voter disaffection and general weariness with Labour are the most likely causes of their recent problems.
After all, the Conservatives ALSO supported the war and lent Blair their full support on the matter.
How is this for an indicator: The anti-War Mirror and Guardian newspapers have had circulation collapses (due to their ceaseless attacks on their own country?) and the only substantial Anti-War party - Liberal Democrats - also suffered reversals.
The picture emerging is that the main parties are losing support to smaller parties (e.g. extremists like the BNP, single issue parties like UKIP) because of voter alienation and not because of serious policy issue differences.
[Blunderov]'New Labour' itself concedes Iraq was a major factor in the drubbing. Best Regards
German Chancellor Schroeder's party suffered an astonishing defeat in the European parliamentary election, garnering less than 22 percent of the vote. The week before the election, I traveled to Berlin to participate in an economic conference. During my visit I spoke at length with German economists and politicians about the state of affairs in their country. The discussions foreshadowed nicely the election results, and gave me a very surprising perspective on the state of politics and policy in Germany.
Schroeder, recall, was far behind in the polls going up to the last election. Germans were enormously dissatisfied with the moribund state of their economy, and blamed the liberal big-government SPD party for their misery. But at the last minute, Schroeder happened upon a successful political formula. He openly and aggressively opposed the U.S. war in Iraq, and ignited a groundswell of pacifist support.
It is not really surprising that such a strategy could win an election for the SPD. The Germans have a long history (dating back to 1945 or so) of pacifism. Germans are also fond of their close relationship with the U.S., but their pacifism trumped that in this election. These opposing forces created something of a delicate balancing act for Mr. Schroeder, who needed to oppose the U.S., but not write America off. He clearly went too far, and constructed a gulf between our countries that was unthinkable a few years ago.
While this occurred, the German economy continued to fall behind, with annual GDP growth of around 1-1/2 percent and unemployment above 10 percent.
Thus a German can look at his once proud country and see an economy that has become a laughingstock with a political influence amongst successful countries that is at an all time low. One German politician at my conference summed up the nation's mood nicely when he recounted a conversation he had recently had with his child. His son asked him what Germans have to be proud of, and the saddened German parent could think of nothing. "I might have answered luxury cars," he said, "but even those are having quality problems."
The analysts in the conference unanimously pointed to one major factor when explaining the sagging German economy: labor unions and government have regulated and taxed capitalists within an inch of their lives. Mr. Schroeder has publicly advocated reforms, but the actual steps he has taken have been inconsequential. At the same time, he has revealed his emotional attachment to big government by pressuring central European countries that are joining the EU to adopt Germany's high-tax/low-growth policies.
This pressure is a nasty reminder for Germans of a lost opportunity. When the country was reunited, the SPD foisted the German regulatory state on East Germany. The result has been economic catastrophe for that former communist country. The other former communist states that had to come of age without a "big brother" have outperformed East Germany to an astonishing degree. GDP growth in Poland over the last year was almost 7 percent. The unemployment rate in former East Germany is almost 18.4 percent.
The Germans now face what is to them an unthinkable possibility. Their eastern neighbors are dramatically more successful than they are and may soon enough be richer. The costs of their lazy socialism are apparent even to their children, and the country is in a panic. "We all recognize," one participant told me, "that Germany needs its own Reagan."
As that has become obvious even to liberal Germans, it was perhaps bad luck for the SPD that Ronald Reagan died when he did. His death reminded the Germans of all that Schroeder had squandered. Germany was once an economic marvel, closely bound to the most powerful nation on earth. By choosing economic policies that are the opposite of those advocated by Reagan, and a foreign policy that offended the nation that helped unify Germany, Schroeder has taken his country down a path that is perhaps as bad as can be imagined. And the German people know it.
For the United States, the latest election is tremendous news. A chastened Schroeder will have to be a more reasonable political ally. And the pressure for the EU to adopt centralized German socialism rather than free market principles is now significantly lower than it once was. This will be a strong boon for the European economy, and will be an even bigger plus for Germany if the voter revolt begins a dramatic overhaul of its economic policies.
Author
Logged
