Wednesday, September 19, 2012

American Foundations and our place in a Global World Study Guide

Thursday's test will be 50 MC or matching questions with a short answer. A take home FRQ will also be given. Terms to focus on:
Globalization
Free Trade vs. Fair Trade
Economic liberalization
19th century European expanision
Stiglitz on globalization
Regime
Sovereignty
"Third World"
Industrial democracies
Systems of Government -- Confederation, Federal Government, Republic, Direct Democracy, Unitary
Jihad vs. McWorld
Weaknesses of Articles of Confederation
Constitutional principles
Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists
Federal grant money chart analysis
Marbury v. Madison
Federalist No. 10
Congress "(enumerated) power of the purse"
American political culture
Political conflict in society
America's pluralism
Hobbes/Locke philosophy
Executive orders
Expressed/Reserved/Concurrent Powers
Elastic Clause
Characteristics of the State

Thursday, September 13, 2012

With a fine line between Arab Spring and Arab Unrest, what are governments to do?

Read this analysis of the troubling events of this week's Arab uprising, and think about political cultures in different parts of the world; what happens for better or worse in a "flatter" world?; and what can governments around the world do what chaos occurs after regimes fall?
(From The National)
 
One of the hopes - for me at least - of the Arab uprisings is that they will lead to a qualitative change in the substance of Arab politics. I mean this not just in the sense that undemocratic regimes will be undone, replaced by real politics with real stakes and rotation of power. I also mean that I hope the uprisings can short-circuit some old tropes of regional politics, about identity, wounded pride and angry impotence.
 
Alas, this week's embassy protests and senseless killings show there is still much farther to go.
Protests and incitement about books, films or statements deemed insulting to Islam have for decades been a staple tool of Islamists, and of both religious and secular governments in the region.

Consider the 2005 Danish cartoon crisis, when thousands took to the streets against offensive cartoon depictions of Prophet Mohammed - months after they had been published. This was fomented in good part by the governments of Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which, at a meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, refocused the region's attention on a newspaper published four months earlier.

That resulted in protests (apparently backed by both governments and the Islamist movements with which they usually fought). In Syria and Gaza at least, governments apparently allowed several European embassies to be raided. The Danish embassy in Pakistan was also bombed. By early 2006, over 100 had died either as a result of the attacks or because of the efforts to control the riots worldwide.

Other examples quickly come to mind, from the 1988 fatwa by Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini against British-Indian novelist Salman Rushdie to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's campaign in 2000 against Syrian novelist Hayder Hayder's Banquet for Seaweed.

These usually served political purposes - no doubt Khomeini used the Rushdie fatwa to distract Iranians from the consequences of the terrible war with Iraq he prolonged; the Muslim Brothers loved to embarrass the government for having published Hayder's book. And in 2005, the Mubarak regime made use of the Danish cartoon crisis just as it was coming under increased domestic and external pressure to democratise.

Islamist movements (even if they are not alone in this) have shown that they excel in using an insult (real or perceived) as part of their culture wars: the tactic is to portray themselves as the sole defenders of the faith. In this week's case, they chose to do so even though the film in question was released only online and no one would have heard of it or paid attention to it without their efforts.
This, perhaps, is what has changed between the 1988 Rushdie fatwa and more recent examples of Islamist outrage: thanks to the internet, a regional Danish newspaper or an amateur film have become targets just as much as a celebrated, best-selling novelist.

Not that these protests, riots and killings are entirely about insults anyway: that the protesters chose to target US embassies has as much to do with other grievances (US-led wars, support for Israel, etc) and the convenience of having a prominent address, since protests outside the filmmaker's house, say, are out of the question.

One can certainly question why protest organisers chose the embassies, as if the US government was responsible for a film made by one of its citizens. And why do organisers sometimes lie, as when Nader Bakkar - who speaks for Egypt's Salafi Nour Party, a partner with President Mohammed Morsi's party - told Al Jazeera Mubasher that the film had been broadcast on US channels?
And why, despite the risks of escalation made obvious by the attack that killed four American diplomats in Benghazi, did the Muslim Brotherhood's secretary general, Mahmoud Ghozlan, call for new protests after Friday prayers?

Read More


Tuesday, September 11, 2012

'All Politics is Local': 9/11 museum construction deal delayed, but finally reached



(The Guardian)
A deal has been reached to resume construction on a National September 11 Museum in New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on the eve of the 11th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Centre towers.

A dispute between the foundation that controls the museum and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is building the ambitious subterranean structure, has halted construction of the project for months.

Diverging estimates from each side of the cost of the project, which had been scheduled to open this week prior to the delays, range from $700m (£437m) to more than $1bn.

"I'm very gratified that on the eve of this important anniversary we are able to announce an agreement that will ensure the completion of the 9/11 museum," Bloomberg said in a statement.
"My goal during this period has been to get construction of the museum restarted. This agreement ensures that it will be restarted very soon and will not stop until the museum is completed," he added.

The museum is designed to extend seven levels underground and will include artefacts from the day of the attacks, from firefighters' helmets to pieces of rubble to models of the site before the attacks, in which 2,605 people in New York died.

Bloomberg chairs the National September 11th Memorial and Museum foundation. The Port Authority is controlled by governors Andrew Cuomo of New York and Chris Christie of New Jersey.
Under the agreement, representatives for all three will participate in a committee that oversees annual events, including Tuesday's September 11 ceremony.

The foundation said in July that politicians would be excluded this year from speaking roles at the ceremony in order for the focus to fall on victims' families, who traditionally read the names of the dead. In the future, such decisions will be made by committee, not just the foundation.

Under the deal, the Port Authority's cost obligations will be reduced by more than $150m. Construction is expected to take more than a year.

Foreign Affairs: Balancing Liberty and Security 11 years after 9/11

http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/or_20081206_8703.php

Read Stuart Taylor's updated article about how our scale has tipped since the 9/11 attacks for better or worse. Blog your opinionaire here on what the author says (2 points). Maintaining a balance of individual liberties with national security interests is key for industrialized, liberal democracies.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

The Power of Words













Among the RNC last week and the DNC this week, there has been "War of Words" over what is in or out each party platform or what is being said, or not said at the big tent parties last week in Tampa and this week in Charlotte. Last week, with 80,000 U.S. troops still actively serving in Afghanistan, the Republicans failed to mention the word once. Middle Class also failed to make words bubbling out of the Florida convention hall. They did have a national debt clock, though.

And while the Democrats opened their convention this week, GOP VP candidate Paul Ryan wondered in front of the cameras why a debt clock was missing at the DNC. Then came the criticism of words left out of the DNC platform (remember we posted about the RNC platform last week).

Missing (before passing an amended version) from the DNC platform: God and Jerusalem. As Huffington Post reports:

"CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A rare unscripted moment at the Democratic National Convention here Wednesday resulted in an embarrassing moment for the party that is certain to be used in Republican television ads over the next two months.
After they took heat for omitting any reference to "God" in their platform, and for eliminating language from the 2008 platform that identified Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Democrats tried to add the language back into their party platform with a voice vote.

A source informed on the deliberations told The Huffington Post that President Obama personally intervened to strengthen the language. Speaking with HuffPost, a senior Obama administration official also confirmed the president's involvement."

Watch the video of how this vote went down above, and blog here about what this says about the state of politics in the U.S. In the Hardball game of politics, words matter. What Hardball strategy was the DNC using as it amended its platform?

Here is the full, original version of the DNC platform.

DNC 2012 Platform

BTW, is this an example of the Power of Fox News?

Monday, September 3, 2012

Romney Speech









Above, a Word Bubble of the most popular words spoken at last week's RNC. Below, you can listen and watch Mitt Romney's speech with a transcript right along side. Remember, the DNC begins it's big party tomorrow night in North Carolina.