Bush in Baghdad

Not much coverage in the Irish papers due to the Northern Elections, but I thought his visit was simply magnificent. He told the troops exactly what I was thinking. I was glued to CNN for over an hour last night when I first heard.

Gerry Ryan

The Gerry Ryan Show came from Washington today. First guest was Carol Coleman, who gave her usual sloppy report. She pronounced that the country is split down the middle on support for the war. I suppose that's true if 56-42 is "split down the middle".

UPDATE 12:27: I didn't find the show as interesting as I had hoped. Sometimes Gerry Ryan is the right guy for a job and sometimes he's not. Today he was not. Today, too often, Ryan was trying to be funny, and, frankly, I don't find him funny. There are times when his show is amusing, but it's rarely because he himself is funny. There was also too much same old, same old with the guests (John Farrell -- UGGHH -- far worse than usual today), although I can imagine that the Ben Bradlee interview (which I only heard part of), was interesting to someone who hasn't heard Bradlee being interviewed before.

Ireland and Israel

Don't be put off by the introduction to this radio clip from October 29. Very interesting discussion (50 minutes in length) on Ireland and Israel from Israel's National Radio Station. Will be strange, even uncomfortable, listening for many Irish people. It's a perspective I've never heard on the radio here.

I'm not sure who Sean Gannon is, but he describes the Fianna Fail government as "very anti-Israel". When I first heard this, it had me wondering. I don't generally think of Brian Cowen as being "very anti-Israel" when compared with some of his fellow Dail members, but compared with members of either party in the US, he would be.

I have to admit that I'm really not sure Ireland is as anti-semitic as Sean Gannon has portrayed it. I really wish the host, Tovia Singer, had asked Alan Shatter or other prominent Irish Jews to offer their views.

Mr. Singer also proposes trying to pressure Intel, Pfizer and other big companies based here to pressure the government to shift its views towards a more Israel-friendly line.

Thanks to Michael Kelemen for this link.

Happy Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving Day. So, I'll give the rants a rest today.

George Will has an excellent history of the day in today's New York Post.

The Irish Independent has an article about Americans and Thanksgiving in Ireland.

It's always an odd day to be in Ireland. Thanskgiving Day is probably the biggest holiday in America. It's a day with virtually no commercial overtones (although a trip home for Thanksgiving last year showed me that even that is changing somehwat), other than in the sale of turkeys. It is not a day of chest thumping patriotism, like the 4th of July, but rather simple gratitude for our good fortune to live (or have been reared) in a land of such opportunity. There are no Thanksgiving presents or cards to get, no Thanksgiving blow-out parties, just one big meal with the family and football on t.v.

Of course, it's not a holiday in Ireland so there's no real chance to celebrate Thanksgiving properly here until Saturday, which is what my family will do. We'll have the big meal and the football too, thanks to NASN.

Lots of things to be thankful for this year, including my life in Ireland. Although I do love to moan and complain, I am grateful that this country provides me with a free and safe environment in which to raise my family and live my life. All the moaning and complaining is really about insignificant matters.

Finally, I'd like to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to Stella Marie, Frank & Conor, Mick, William, Dick & Jon, Karlin, Paul, Tony, the guys at Blog Irish, and, of course, all of you.

"Traffic calming"

You know it's getting near the end of the year when the local councils are all rushing to waste, err, sorry about that, "invest" your taxes and mine in useless, silly projects because they don't want to get stuck with any left-over money from this year's budget. For example, in the past few weeks roadworks have torn up the road in Killiney Village in order to add "traffic calming" installations. If there is a place in Ireland that doesn't need "traffic calming" it's Killiney Village.

By the time you get to Killiney Village, you're lucky to be moving at all, let alone speeding. Steep inclines and twisty roads are not conducive to excessive speeds. And, from my observation, these traffic calming measures have actually made the road much more dangerous. I won't be surprised when at least some of them are removed in the new year.

Another one of my favorites are the red brick speed ramps (bumps) and paths (sidewalks). Nothing but the best for the people of Bray, I suppose.

Dr. Lane

Dr. Fintan Lane is heading to prison this afternoon for refusing to pay his €750 fine for trespassing at Shannon Airport in October 2002. I have little sympathy for the man, but it does seem odd to me that he is going to prison.

At a time when our prisons are already overflowing and some offenders are being released due to a lack of prison space, I'm not sure it's such a wise decision to imprison this man for refusing to pay his fine. Equally, I think it's vital that some form of punishment is found that enables society to see that justice has been done and the trespasser has been duly punished.

William extols the virtues of the chain gang to "encourage" people to pay their fines and I'm sure it would have some success. However, that's just not going to happen.

No matter what other non-custodial sentence the judge may have handed down, Dr. Lane could still have chosen not to comply until prison, again, was the only sanction left. This is unsatisfactory. There has to be a way for the state to guarantee compliance without necessarily threatening jail. Perhaps the state could put a lien on his wages until the fine is paid? State services could be withdrawn, licenses and passport revoked? I really don't know, but there has to be a better way.

This applies to the anti-war protestors, who are planning a "mass blockade aimed at disrupting normal business at Shannon airport" for December 6, bin tax protestors and any other people prosecuted for civil disobedience related incidents.

Trains running again

For the first time since September 11, the PATH trains from New Jersey are running to the World Trade Center again.

Deep in the heart of Sandycove

Everytime I drive along the sea-front from Sandycove to Dun Laoghaire or back, I admire the Texas state flag that flies defiantly outside a large yellow house in Sandycove. Although I'm from New York and would have enjoyed more than a few jokes at the expense of Texans in my time, I love the message that the flag sends out about the people who live there and to the city they live in. That house, to me, is the Alamo.

UPDATE Nov 27: Des has gently informed me that what I'm seeing is actually the Chilean flag and not the Texas state flag. This building is the Chilean embassy, apparently. In my defense, I've never actually seen the flag unfurled and the two flags do look very much alike. Chile and Texas.

Eoghan Harris's column

I haven't had a chance to read my print version of the Sunday Independent yet, but as Frank, Jon & Dick are all getting in on this one, I'll comment on Eoghan Harris's column from Sunday.

I think Harris is right on the money when he describes the reaction of the Irish media (and the sanctimonious set from Ireland's middle class) to George Bush & Tony Blair. Robert Fisk and Lara Marlowe are the two primary Middle East reporters/analysts for the Irish media and neither of them could be called "pro-American". The term "Trot" that Dick doesn't like is easy enough to understand if you read Harris's columns regularly. These people pretty much own RTE and the Irish Times.

Of course, I think it's important that Harris continues his assault on the "Trots", but I'm not sure what he wrote this Sunday is significantly different than what he wrote in September of last year, however. Harris understands better than anyone the importance of "staying on message". He keeps returning to the same theme because, clearly, so many in RTE and the Irish Times are doing the same with their "Texan Terrorist" messages.

I think Harris's possibly faulty analysis of Lincoln and Roosevelt are besides the point because he's essentially correct about Bush. The National Security Strategy, issued in September of last year, was an extremely interventionist document. And, although Harris uses the term "pacifist" - I think isolationist is more accurate - he's right about the difficulty Bush would have had selling the Iraq war as the start of a Middle East transformation.

This argument surfaced occasionally in the run-up to the war, but it didn't get the airplay that the WMD did. I'm not sure why that is, but I presume it's because there's no way the UN Security Council would have sanctioned anything as radical as a democratic transformation of the Islamic world. And, there's no way the American people would have accepted the need to be so involved in the Middle East.

More of "old Iraq"

This is the Iraq that the protestors, French, & Germans didn't want transformed. (not for the squeamish)

Do you really believe it's going to be worse now?

Taiwan

I still have not seen a single reference to China's threat to the Taiwanese people in any of the Irish media.

This is a good example of how the media influences people's opinions. If anything at all happens in Iraq or the West Bank/Gaza, it gets coverage in the Irish print and broadcast media. However, when one of the world's great powers threatens to invade a small, island democracy if they vote for independence, there is no coverage whatsoever.

Biden

Lest you think I feel that all criticism of the administration with regards to Iraq is out of bounds, Senator Biden has outlined a strategy for Iraq that takes into account many of the criticisms of the manner in which the administration has handled the post-war situation.

I don't know if everything he advocates here would be good for the Iraqi people or the coalition's troops, but it's definitely a reasonable perspective. I think involving NATO would be a great idea, but I'm not so sure about the UN. I have a suspicion that the Iraqi people may not care for the UN having so direct an influence in their lives - especially if that means a lot of input from their Arab neighbors.

The old Iraq

". . . but believe me death is nothing compared to having your wife or sister raped in front of your eyes, in seeing your children brought in and tortured in your presence".

This is the Iraq that the anti-war demonstrators wanted to preserve. This is the Iraq that the French and Germans didn't want transformed. This is the Iraq that would still be there today if not for the recent war. And, this is the Iraq that the "Iraqi resistance" wants to reinstate.

I can accept that people in the US may not feel that ridding Iraq of Saddam was worth the cost in American lives (and money, of course). Same goes for the British and all the other nations that contributed to change Iraq. However, I cannot for the life of me understand what any Irish person can object to.

Is Iraq a mess? Seemingly so. Is it likely to get better in the near future? Probably not. Are the prospects for the Iraqi people better now than they were in January? Absolutely. Are they afraid? Undoubtedly. However, as I wrote last January (and I still believe) most Irish people would have traded the certainty of a slave's life for the uncertainty that is an Iraqi's life today.

Dec. 10 Protest

Anti-terrorist demonstrations are planned for Iraq on December 10. That's real courage. I hope they are able to have them as planned.

Demonstrating against those who would think nothing of killing you or against a government that is corrupt and undemocratic in a part of the world where using force to break-up a demonstration is not beyond question must be equally frightening and exhilarating. I doubt the protesters in London last week felt either frightened or exhilarated. Smugly self-satisfied is probably the height of it.

Waters

I like John Waters. I read his Jiving at the Crossroads at a time when I didn't know Ireland that well, but thought it was entertaining and that his perception of the Irish media seemed to be roughly accurate. I remember telling someone back in the early 90s that John Waters used small words to illustrate big ideas whereas his colleague Fintan O'Toole used big words to illustrate his small ideas.

Then he went through his Sinead O'Connor phase and he sort of lost me. However, his writings on Irish politics over the past few years - particularly as they relate to the US, especially after September 11 - have been excellent. I'm sorry to read that the Irish Times has fired him.

Still, I cannot see how he could have kept his job after criticizing the management of the company and stating that the editor was "compromised". It doesn't matter if he was right about the payments to the directors and former editor, he had to go. If he wasn't fired, there's no way the editor could have kept her job. The Irish Times is a business and I can think of no business that would have tolerated an employee publicly condemning the Board of Directors and questioning the ethics of his manager.

I presume he'll find a position elsewhere - the Sunday Times could use him, but I'm not sure Waters would enjoy working for a Murdoch publication.

UPDATE (5:25pm): Waters has been reinstated. What do I know?

The French won't like this

George Galloway has compared the "Iraqi resistance" with the French resistance. I hadn't realized the French resistance was a collection of ex-mass-murdering, tyrannical, megalomaniac-worshipping fanatics. I'll have to reevaluate my understanding of World War II France.

Anti-semitism in Europe

An EU backed study of anti-semitism has been shelved because the findings were "too controversial".

US foreign policy

From Jim Hoagland:

American presidents do not habitually condemn foreign policies of the last nine administrations as a whole, especially when one of the preceding presidents is the incumbent's father and another (Ronald Reagan) his political idol. But Bush has done so three times in the last three weeks, starting with his ringing censure on Nov. 6 of "60 years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East."

Are the Europeans listening to Bush?

Great One

One last chance to see the Great One.

Cruise O'Brien

I presume that the writer of this piece is Conor Cruise O'Brien. Everytime he writes about American electoral politics he gets it "way wrong". I wish he'd avoid the topic because I do generally enjoy reading his columns.

Here he's talking about the reactions in Europe to the Istanbul bombings:

Mr Bush, however, is less likely to be interested in the various reactions in Europe than in reactions in the US, where he is now entering his campaign for re-election. The election is due almost exactly a year from now. There the recent news from Europe seems almost certain to be beneficial to Bush's campaign. This is principally because of the Jewish vote. In four States - New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco - the Jewish vote is so large that if the president holds that vote he is virtually certain to be re-elected.

Leaving aside the obvious blunder that he's actually talking about cities here, even if we look at the three states he's referring to we can see the weakness of his argument. First, Los Angeles and San Francisco are both in California, the biggest state in the country and a big prize in electoral votes. New York is another big state. However, if Bush has a chance of winning either of those states next November then the election is already won. If the Democratic candidate cannot win those two states comfortably - both of which have huge Democrat majorities - then there's no hope for the Democrat to win the key swing states.

As to his reference to the Jewish vote, there is only one swing state where that vote is large enough to make a difference and where Bush's pro-Israel stance may help him - Florida. There is currently no reason to assume that this coming election will be any different than the previous one and Florida may well be the key. Bush's support for Israel and his support for governement funded prescriptions for retired people may well ensure his success in Florida.

Cruise O'Brien's knowledge of US politics seems to be based on the demographics and policies of the two parties circa 1970. I don't think he understands how much America has changed in the past 30+ years.