There are things I agree with when it comes to the neocons. The day 9/11 happened, I said this is the beginning of something of the same magnitude as the Cold War. This is not an incident, this is an era.
But I have vehemently opposed the prescription. These right wingers are racist people who don't mind killing tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi people.
The progressives have also disappointed. Their anti-war position oftentimes sounds like they were saying Saddam should still have been in power. They want to end the war and withdraw.
Having an anti-war stance is not enough. We have to offer an alternative. We have to be able to say, you spent $500 billion in Iraq to topple Saddam, we are going to spend 1% of that money, and topple Mugabe, and we will do it in less than a year from now. Or maybe 0.1% of the money. $500 million will be enough. Or maybe 0.01% for $50 million.
Give me a million strong Matrix in New York City, and I see a total spread of democracy by 2020. I have not managed to sell this idea to the progressive groups in Manhattan, or elsewhere in the city.
There is only one way to win the so called War On Terror: you spread democracy in Arab country after Arab country after Arab country, one after the other after the other. You could do the neocon way that bleeds the country's finances and bleeds Arab bodies to death. Or we progressives could offer a viable alternative.
Spending money can help. I hate to have to repeat this again and again but, yes, Nepal is the answer. Nepal's April Revolution 2006 is the role model. Only we have to perfect the method each time, make it better and better and better.
Spread Democracy
The Matrix
Revolution
This will work like clockwork, country after country after country.
But the progressives in America are going to have to get behind this idea. The progressives in New York City are going to have to get behind this idea.
Oftentimes progressives in America can talk like there were a hieararchy, and the Republicans have the money, and they are at the top, and the middle income progressives are in the middle, and the Third World people are at the bottom of the heap, they don't matter, they don't factor in. The Republicans look down upon Democrats, the Democrats have the Third World people to look down upon.
This used to be a humanitarian issue, this used to be an idealism issue. Now this is a security issue. If we are not going to offer a strong progressive version of spreading democracy, Giuliani will have an ax to grind in 2008, because the Al Qaeda threat is very real. Retreating from the Arab world is not an option. But we do have to engage differently. We have to engage the progressive way.
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The First Major Revolution Of The 21st Century Happened In Nepal
I just read some good news on Russia. Putin is trying to turn Russia into a democracy of state funded parties. How many votes you get is how much money you get, in proportion. Also proportional elections with party lists. The dude is learning that formula from Nepal.
The French Revolution And DFNYC
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Our neighbour betrayed us: Amitabh Bachchan SantaBanta.com Says the Big B angrily, "That's because some of the people who came to the wedding surreptitiously took photographs with their mobile cameras and disgracefully put them on the net. In fact I've caught out the person who has taken the photographs. He's my neighbour. I've had a very serious talk with him. He has apologized profusely. He says he wasn't giving it to the press. While he was sending the pictures to his sister in the US they got intercepted on the net." ....... "I don't think sections of the media has the right to dictate to me about how to conduct my life and how to deal with my family and social obligations. ..... My family's privacy is very important to me. And I'll protect it with my dying breath. No one can dictate to me about how I should conduct my life, or my son's wedding. ....... We made the shamianas air-conditioned and sound proof for the comfort of the guests and so that people outside wouldn't get disturbed. We had no fireworks to avoid sound pollution. ........ you can't block my car when I'm taking my new daughter-in-law home after the wedding. Why spoil the most important moment in my son and his wife's life?" ...... One was the wedding card and the other is the information card which will go to all our friends. ...... It informs about the wedding with a shagun and mithai and asks everyone to bless the couple. .... We've sent this card to everyone, in the film industry, the political circles because of Amar Singhji and Jaya, and whoever has been a part of our lives. Even after all this if some people choose to be hurt what can we say?"
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Not the type of guy to be kept down
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Pentagon: Top al Qaeda leader taken to Guantanamo CNN al-Hadi was believed to have been captured in 2002 ..... There are now about 385 detainees at Guantanamo Bay.