Democracy in Iraq
Here's a pretty old legacy post from the blog archives of Geekery Today; it was written about 20 years ago, in 2004, on the World Wide Web.
(I owe the link on Al-Jazeera to Roderick’s News from the Front)
Now that Saddam Hussein’s tyrannical regime is nothing more than a terrible memory, and resistance to the new, friendly, liberal regime is just about almost sorta kinda crushed, we can no doubt look forward to dramatic progress toward the creation of a vigorous, free, American-style democracy in Iraq. For example:
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) – Police ordered Al-Jazeera’s employees out of their newsroom Saturday after the Iraqi government accused the Arab satellite channel of inciting violence and closed its office for 30 days.
Iraqi Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib said the closure was intended to give the station
a chance to re-adjust their policy against Iraq.
They have been showing a lot of crimes and criminals on TV, and they transfer a bad picture about Iraq and about Iraqis and encourage criminals to increase their activities,he said.We want to protect our people.from Iraqi Government Shuts Al-Jazeera Station, the Guardian 2004-08-08
You might think I’m just being sarcastic–and very heavy-handedly so. Not at all: I really do think that, in spite of many obvious differences, the new state of Iraq and the polity of the United States are growing more alike with every passing day:
Michael Moore may be prevented from advertising his controversial new movie,
Fahrenheit 9/11,on television or radio after July 30 if the Federal Election Commission (FEC) today accepts the legal advice of its general counsel.At the same time, a Republican-allied 527 soft-money group is preparing to file a complaint against Moore’s film with the FEC for violating campaign-finance law.
In a draft advisory opinion placed on the FEC’s agenda for today’s meeting, the agency’s general counsel states that political documentary filmmakers may not air television or radio ads referring to federal candidates within 30 days of a primary election or 60 days of a general election.
The opinion is generated under the new McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law, which prohibits corporate-funded ads that identify a federal candidate before a primary or general election.
. . .
The FEC ruling may also affect promotion of a slew of other upcoming political documentaries and films, such as “Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War,” which opens in August, “The Corporation,” about democratic institutions being subsumed by the corporate agenda, or “Silver City,” a recently finished film by John Sayles that criticizes the Bush administration.
. . .
Since the FEC considers the Republican presidential convention scheduled to begin Aug. 30 a national political primary in which Bush is a candidate, Moore and other politically oriented filmmakers could not air any ad mentioning Bush after July 30.
Welcome to the new Iraq and the new America: where democracy is defended by giving the State massive new powers over citizens, and where speech is free as long as you don’t criticize the government.
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Victims of Islamic Fascism should Immigrate to America(Editorial Submitted to the Crimson White)
was created in the aftermath of the holocaust and now holds the people of Palistine in 21st century concentration camps known by the names of West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Golan heights.
the only possible solution. As a result of 9/11 and Presdient Bush’s cowboy style foreign policy, it is unthinkable that there will ever be a peaceful solution by which the Palistinian and Isreali people will be able to simultaneously live side by side together within the borders of Isreal anytime within this century.
and Isreali led campaign against terrorism will result in nothing less than the exterminatation of the Palistinian people which have done nothing but defend their own land since the British unloaded the European Jewish population into Isreal in the aftermath World War II.
population after World War II, so too must it now also become the safe haven for the victims of Islamic fascism, which are paradoxically none other than Muslims themselves.
quote by Freidrich Nietzsche reveals that “whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.”
which was promulgated the German phislosopher G.W.F. Hegel during mid 19th century. However, the transformation of public sphere into a global information economy is now blurs the lines between the objective reality of State and virtual reality of Information. While this critical turn is now in its ealiest phases, it does not prevent people from reaping its rewards.
within the United States as a virtual reality before it exists within the borders of Isreal as an objective reality.
Sam Haque Junior in Arts and Sciences University of Alabama
Charles would be wise to understand that the power of the powers of State must be reduced so that they do not enhance the powers of Corporations, which will be the archetype for virtual State with citizenship indpendent of geography.
Current the Corporation is in its Realpolitik phase.
It is now possible for the Corporation to execute holocaust and using the market ro starves a nations to death. Socialism is our only hope in the war against Digital totalitarianism.
It intersting to note that a Digital Socialist Republic is already taking hold China.
The American analogy will be a Digital Socialist Democracy. And while Charles has found his eternal enemy in the State, my eternal enemy will always be the Corporation. In the United States, they are one. Therefore to with the war, the Corporation must be separated fromt the State