Globally Rational

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Many of you may have heard that President Bush recently stated that he has stopped playing golf in solidarity for the soldiers in Iraq. His rationale:

I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander-in-chief playing golf. I feel I owe it to the families to be as — to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal… I remember when de Mello, who was at the U.N., got killed in Baghdad as a result of these murderers taking this good man’s life. And I was playing golf — I think I was in central Texas — and they pulled me off the golf course and I said, it’s just not worth it anymore to do.

So apparently, he can’t play golf anymore because he feels bad for sending our young men to their deaths in Iraq. Is this the way to “be in solidarity as best I can with [the dead soldiers’ families]?” He says that this is the “best” way… well, I can think of plenty of better ways:

• Send your daughters to go fight in Iraq… that’s what the British Royal Family did (with Prince Harry), and they aren’t even the ones who started the war.
• Tell the families what exactly their children are dying for.
• Stop tearing apart your most loyal families with the Stop-Loss program.
• Send some psychiatrists to Iraq to take care of the suicide problem among the troops.
• Try to learn something about the rest of the world… it’s demoralizing to see a President who was planning a war in a country without even knowing the difference between the country’s major factions (and that’s assuming that there was actually some planning for the war).
• And, the biggest one: Don’t lie about giving up golf! Since the day that he claims to have played his last round of golf, he has been out on the course twice. We have also seen plenty of video footage of him fishing, mountain biking, and just hanging out on his ranch. That’s solidarity for you.

I’ve heard plenty of people say “leave him alone… he’s only human” or “he’s not perfect” or “don’t you ever make mistakes?” Well, I’ll admit that I am not the smartest, hardest-working, most capable person in America… but that’s also why I’m not the President. I expect the President to be one of the 100 smartest people in the country and one of the 100 most educated people in the country. Unlike Ron Paul, Howard Dean, Barack Obama, and both Clintons, who all hold advanced degrees, President Bush couldn’t even get into law school (also note: John McCain graduated 894th in a class of 899 students at the Naval Academy and, obviously, he also didn’t go to grad school).

When you vote in November, I hope that your first consideration is to elect a President who is intelligent and accomplished. We already made the mistake of electing a President who couldn’t name the leaders of Pakistan, India, and Chechnya (which were all political hotspots at the time)… please don’t make the mistake of electing a leader who thinks Iran is training Iraqi al-Qaeda members (which couldn’t be farther from the truth) and doesn’t know the difference between Sunnis and Shias.

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Not Bush or McCain (not by a longshot), but Rush Limbaugh.

Recently, 235 right-leaning bloggers voted on the 25 most influential conservatives in US politics. The rankings are interesting:

#25) Mark Levin: 6 votes
#21) Hugh Hewitt: 7
#21) George Will: 7
#21) John Roberts: 7
#21) Ronald Reagan: 7
#20) Victor David Hanson: 8
#19) Antonin Scalia: 9
#18) John McCain: 10
#14) Glenn Beck: 11
#14) George W. Bush: 11
#14) Glenn Reynolds: 11
#14) Matt Drudge: 11
#13) Bill Kristol: 12
#10) Charles Krauthammer: 13
#10) Thomas Sowell: 13
#10) Laura Ingraham: 13
#9) Karl Rove: 14
#8) Jonah Goldberg: 15
#7) Bill O’Reilly: 17
#5) Newt Gingrich: 21
#5) Ann Coulter: 21
#3) Mark Steyn: 23
#3) Sean Hannity: 23
#2) Michelle Malkin: 24
#1) Rush Limbaugh: 49

A few interesting things stand out; I thought you might be interested too:

• President Bush is #14 and Republican Presidential frontrunner John McCain is #18. So, the supposed “most powerful man in the world” is the 14th-most influential person in his own party.
• Rush Limbaugh, who is widely considered to be a hardline right-winger whose opinions are often dismissed by policymakers, is considered by most right-leaning bloggers to be the most influential of their party.
• There are no well-known politicians in the top 4.
• Karl Rove, despite all of the controversy surrounding him, still comes in at #14.
• Ronald Reagan had only 4 less votes than President Bush… did people forget that he’s dead?

I think that the most striking fact is that the President has less influence over these bloggers than 13 other conservatives. What does that say about the status of the Executive Branch today? Do we really place so much value on the opinions of a former President who hasn’t been mentally healthy since the Cold War (before the information age)? And is there any respect left for the Presidency today?

I think this might tell us something about where the US is headed in the future… what do you think?

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Many of my friends are young/uneducated enough so that they still work (miserably) at fast food restaurants or other low-paying unrewarding locations. But today, after reading that yet another top-ranking al Qaeda official has been arrested, I think I’ve decided what the world’s worst job is.

I’m sure that Abu Ayyub al-Masri was very proud of his prestigious position within the ranks of a right-wing religious group. But I wonder what went through his head when he found out that he was about to become the head of the organization. He knew that this meant an automatic place at the top of the FBI’s Most Wanted list, and he knew that his fate was unlikely to be much different from that of Abu Zubaydah (captured in 2002), Khalid Sheikh Muhammad (captured in 2003), Abu Faraj al-Libbi (captured in 2005), and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (killed in 2006). I can’t imagine how depressing it must be to constantly have to look over your shoulder until, one day, you end up just being caught. We actually heard reports about his possible death about a year ago… how do you think it would feel to have people rejoicing at your death? Is he proud? Is he depressed?

He must have known what was coming to him, as did everybody around him. I wonder if, knowing what the future holds, anybody ever turns down positions like this one. Was al-Masri the top candidate or did he just get the job because some other guy didn’t want to deal with the stress? Now that he’s caught, does that mean that others will be “applying” for the job or will somebody be forced to become a de facto leader? And, most importantly, now that coalition forces have caught another top-ranking al-Qaeda leader, does this mean that the war might finally be ending?

Interestingly enough, today is also the 5th anniversary of Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” speech.

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If you were an employer looking at resumès (let’s say that the job candidates are actually cities), would you hire Beijing? Take a look at their resumè:

• They invaded Tibet years ago and still refuse to let them have their independence; meanwhile, they continue to oppress the locals.
• They refuse to accept the independent status of Taiwan.
• They execute even more people (per capita) than states like Iran, which we blame for excessive executions. China singlehandedly accounts for 90% of the world’s executions.
• The Great Firewall of China censors the entire country from visiting a huge multitude of websites, including Google, Wikipedia, MySpace, and even NBA.com.
• Religious freedom is a joke there; Roman Catholicism, for instance, is banned.
• They rank #162 (out of 169) in the worldwide Press Freedom Index, about the same as countries like Somalia (159), Iran (166), and Cuba (165). Would we give the Olympics to Somalia, Iran, or Cuba?

Consider Beijing’s competition for the job (the other finalists)… would you hire Beijing over any of these four?

• Toronto, which is one of the most well-designed/developed cities in the world.
• Paris, which pretty much speaks for itself.
• Istanbul, which has made huge strides in the last 20 years in terms of both economic and social development (unlike Beijing, which maintains its abysmal record).
• Osaka, which has a rich history and, thanks to recent Japanese advancement, a rich present/future.

Why did we still give the Olympics to China? Well, here’s a hint: George W. Bush is still planning on attending the opening ceremonies, despite pressure from Hillary Clinton and many others. But Bush does have a record of being very interested in sports (and the prospect of developing relationships with major trading partners) but not in free speech and human rights.

When Beijing was offered the spot, VP Li Lanqing said that “The winning of the 2008 Olympic bid is an example of the the international recognition of China’s social stability, economic progress and the healthy life of the Chinese people.” Yes, it’s an example of “international recognition” of China’s progress… but just because we recognize its truth doesn’t mean that it’s true.

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