Political Dynasties,Iran and the Internet, it's a Nuclear Summer!

George Bush, Bill Clinton
David Frum
Kevin Drum
Richard Clarke


One of the interesting thing about politics is the tendency to create family dynasties, with more than one generation climbing out on the branch, reaching for that political plum. Here in Colorado we have elected Mark Udall and appointed the East Coast carpetbagger Michael Bennet, not to mention such national heavyweights such as Kennedy and Bush. Internationally there is the Ghandi brand, not to mention Little Kim Il...

This is especially the case throughout Asia, recently discussed in the Times of India after 25 children, brothers, or wives of former representatives were sworn in after the recent elections: "Indian politics appears to be a family business, with a parliamentary seat almost an heirloom to pass on.

But while much fuss is made about money's influence on politics, another form of privilege - blood or marriage - is taken for granted. Like money, blood is not enough to guarantee victory, but it improves the odds. " I don't know if it's because we are a simple people and prefer name the recognition of politicians we know and treat like B movie actors, which explains Jessie Ventura and Arnold Schwartzenegger being voted for Governors, or a polymorphous perverse masochistic tendency to do it to ourselves until it hurts, like the dear old banana slug... Heh, heh, or, it could be worse, we could always do like the Europeans and Arabs and call them royalty.

Elections are coming up in several countries, oh, wait, Saudi Arabia postponed their provincial elections until the people get used to the idea of having elected representatives... The Jerusalem Post wonders what would happen if Hizbollah won in Lebanon? : "It would mean a reduction or elimination of US aid to the Lebanese military.

In the 2005-2008 period, the US gave more than $250 million to the Lebanese Armed Forces. Such largesse would be unlikely to survive the formation of an openly Hizbullah-dominated government.
Aid to the ailing Lebanese economy from international bodies might also be removed or reduced. The meetings between Hizbullah representatives and officials of the International Monetary Fund should be seen against this background.
A Lebanese government clearly dominated by Hizbullah would also have implications regarding the ongoing war with Israel to which the movement is committed." And with Fatah's killing of a couple Hamas leaders in the West Bank, relations among all of the supposed friends are going to be incredible strained at the next round of peace talks.

This next article is supposed to be a summary of the Iranian election. It also shed more light on why Iran tried to ban Facebook recently: "The vast majority of Iranians only have access to seven government-run TV channels. This has led opposition candidates - Karroubi, Moussavi and Mohsen Rezaei - to text messages, email, blogs and online social networking websites as platforms to reach Iranian youth.

"Ahmadinejad and his rivals are not on the same playing field in terms of accessing public media," Bastani said. "We do not have private radio and television in Iran, so reformists must look for other alternative media."

As of October 2005, there were an estimated 700,000 Iranian blogs, representing a demographic largely critical of Ahmadinejad's leadership.

Karroubi has used the Internet to openly criticize Ahmadinejad for the suppression of press freedom, heavy filtering of the Internet, violation of women's rights and execution of juveniles, all taboo subjects on state media. The candidate's visits with young Iranian musical groups have also been publicized online.

Facebook has found itself host to a lively debate among supporters of the two principal reformist candidates, Moussavi and Karroubi. Hundreds of blogs and websites providing a platform to the opposition candidates, including Twitter and Facebook, have been blocked recently.

"The government knows that it cannot compete in the virtual space," Bastani added. "This is why the government tries to intervene in this fight and control the internet." Who would have thought that the Internet would come to play such a major role in elections worldwide?

Did you know that Russia and the US were in negotiations over nuclear armaments? Here is an article from al Jazeera on the latest talks: "Russia remains strongly opposed to US plans to place elements of a missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

The United States and Poland signed a deal over a missile defence shield in 2008 [EPA] Moscow insists that the locating of 10 interceptor missiles in central Europe compromises its national security.
The former Bush administration, originally behind the missile shield plan, say the system was always planned as a deterrent for 'rogue nations' such as Iran.

Russia has also been accused of sending mixed signals to Washington. In March, Medvedev announced sweeping plans to upgrade the country's crumbling armed forces. The plans also include improvements to the nation's nuclear capabilities." Ahh, the old time smells of leather, shaving soap, and the Cold War; makes me nostalgic. Interesting that we don't trust Medvedev negotiating by himself, without Putin, and they don't trust us not to invade them like a bad case of the German measles...