For those who have high speed, they can listen to an NPR report on Bush’s second inauguration. Otherwise, this outline below points out the highlights of Bush’s speech based on the quotes spoken in the NPR report.
These are some of the points Bush makes for his next term:
Focus for liberty and economic stability should be place more on other countries rather than our own for world prosperity.
Spoke against oppression in other nations. (Whose oppressions? What nations?)
Spoke against racism and bigotry in America.
Promotion of volunteering for military service.
(Rather than instating the draft.)
Heeding religious morality, mentioning the Ten Commandments and the words of the Qu’ran. (Who thinks he has really read the Qu’ran?)
Intention to reform Social Security and Federal Tax Systems. (He’s doing this not because there’s nothing wrong with Social Security, but to fix his mistakes he commited fooling around with it.)
spoke against bigotry huh. did he talk about that gay hating amendment he promised?
promoted volunteering for military huh. did he talk about raising their pay? or does he mean actually volunteering as in no pay at all. crap why cant this stuff make us all happy instead of angry. i vow to never pay attention to politics again… until next election.
Where do you plan to go? Canada has already essentially said “tough luck, we don’t want you” to disenfranchised American potential expatriates. They’ve said anyone wanting to move there must go thru all the standard procedures as they normally would. Mexico? Europe?
Hopefully the Bush speech, or his administration’s policies for that matter, have not really restricted our view of the world as such a small place that one cannot figure out possibilities of living beyond Canada, Mexico (the “obvious choices”) or Europe. It is often the case that the South is no longer in the map – except for Australia (a whole other story). Is the thought of the planet as one with two hemispheres so far fetched?
On the inauguration itself an interesting take was put forth by Herbert in his NYT collumn as he related the Bushes ballroom partying to a scene from a Godfather movie. The family celebrates in one take, and a bloody event of some sort goes on in another, juxtaposed. That family that created the bloodshed, celebrating completely oblivious to it; no mentioning of that “other” world that was their very identity and that they did not want to disclose.
I’m really not leaving, I am leaving the state I live in but I think that the best option is to stay and try to help other Americans realize a much better political existence.
The only way I would leave is if there was a draft. Which, if the ideas to attack Iran are true, might be soon. I think I would probably want to go to europe first, Mexico and South America are options.
I like, I can see that. I kept thinking in those terms everytime I heard the word freedom in that silly inaguaration speech.
I really doubt we’ll attack Iran (unless they do something unusually provacative, which I also doubt). Nor do I think we’ll see a return of the draft. A draft really doensn’t make sense and results in a poorer quality Army.
At any rate, I’m 35, so I’m pretty sure I’m not gonna get drafted.
well i don’t turn 18 until a few days after graduation so if the draft gets reinstated in the next year and a half i’m going to canada the instant i get my diploma.
Don’t sweat it, CI. Reinstatement of the draft is a liberal fantasy conconcted to hurt Bush in the last elections. The draft isn’t coming back, and you won’t have to head off to the land of caribou and Duddy Dooright.
The Hersh article about possible plans seemed a little outlandish to me at first but the inaguaral address seemed to lay out a fluffy version of the pax americana vision.
I certainly hope there is no war with Iran but there seems to be some noises in that direction. It would be foolish but I worry about it. Specifically, I worry that Iraq civil unrest combined with Iranian interference might lead to some type of conflict.
Either way, I’m 27 and most likely I will escape any possible draft.
You’d have to worry a little bit that once the US is gone, Iran might invade Iraq for some “payback.” It depends upon what type of military they have. If Iran does invade, it’s probably inevitable the the US will come to Iraq’s defense.
How long did we stay in Laos? Cambodia? Viet Nam? Grenada? Iraq has more in common with them than Germany or Japan. Certainly we will have a presence there for a long time, but not a large military presence. Within a few years Iraq should have a government in place and its military sufficiently rebuilt to safeguard its own borders.
Yes, the Mossad is quite efficient at such things. Still, Iran does pose a threat…
Phaed is right…Germany and Italy already previously had expirience with democratic governments, so they never had any real problem with us being there. The U.S. nuked Japan into submission to get its cooperation, and for a time it was debated wether or not nukes should have been used in Nam… It’s possible that if we nuked Nam, we might’ve had outbound flights to their country sooner.
Iraq to me is like a tone-downed version of Somalia back in '93.
I thought that America didn’t even enter Laos or Cambodia, and just bombed them from the air, trying to crush the supply routes and the Ho chin trail.
Also, during the America bombings in Cambodia, civil war broke out and power was transferred to the infamous Khrmer Rouge and Pol Pot, who was later de-throned by the Vietnam government (which sparked an Chinese attack on Vietnam).
So, when exactly did America stay in Cambodia? Or did I mis-understand you?
Also, I don’t think that Iran should be worried too much about, their government is slowly liberalizing and more economic sanctions will only reverse what little they have already done.
Still, Iran does pose a threat…