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March 12, 2005

Neuter

: I hope you've all seen the ridiculous Norwegian PC argument that the figures in Ikea's instructions should not all be male, while Ikea argues that it can't have women in instructions in Muslim countries. Wow: a PC war. cheat code of conax

From now on, all Ikea furniture will be built by Pat. cheat code of conax

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One step foward, one decade backward

: Adrian Holovaty took out after the Missourian's PDFy online misstep and now Vin Crosbie piles on. cheat code of conax

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Free speech spreads

: The first Afghan blog. [via IraqTheModel and Tim Oren]

My name is Waheed. I am a 20 year old male from Afghanistan and I have been working with the US Army in Kabul, Afghanistan as an interpreter for the last 2 years.... cheat code of conax

During the Taliban we didn’t have internet system in Afghanistan but now there are about 25 net cafes in Kabul, and also some in Herat, Kandahar and Balkh provinces. People are really interested to use the internet but its too expensive for people to use it - only rich people can afford it.

Sounds like an opportunity for some wonderful foundation out there. cheat code of conax

Waheed also reports that 4,000 women are taking vocational training and that the country has its first women's fitness center. cheat code of conax

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The single most frustrating link on the internet....

: ... is the "view complete profile" link on Blogger blogs. No one ever fills that out. cheat code of conax

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Whew

: I love reading pissed-off posts by people who went to conferences I didn't go to. It makes me feel as if I just got two bonus days not wasted in life. Rex Hammock wrote just such a post about the Online Politics confab in Washington. And he says:

My admiration for certain of my fellow bloggers who appear on lots of panels has grown. I don't know how they can endure appearing on a panel called something like, "How to cope with those crazy bloggers" and not jump over the table and slap the hell out of the next guy who has obviously never read a blog but is an expert on how blogs have already reached their zenith.

cheat code of conax

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Advancing democracy

: Thanks to PubliusPundit, I took a read of the Advance Democracy bill introduced in the Senate and House about a week ago. It would make it U.S. policy to advance democracy in the world. I hope no one can argue with that notion. Or to put it another way: If North Korea doesn't like it, it must be good. cheat code of conax

There is some good and stirring language worth flying on the flagpole in the bill (which you can find by going to thomas.loc.gov and searching on "advance demoracy"; sadly, I can't figure out how to get permalinks out of Thomas). A few excerpts:

It shall be the policy of the United States --cheat code of conax

(1) to promote freedom and democracy in foreign countries as a fundamental component of United States foreign policy;cheat code of conax

(2) to affirm fundamental freedoms and human rights in foreign countries and to condemn offenses against those freedoms and rights as a fundamental component of United States foreign policy;cheat code of conax

(3) to use all instruments of United States influence to support, promote, and strengthen democratic principles, practices, and values in foreign countries, including the right to free, fair, and open elections, secret balloting, and universal suffrage;cheat code of conax

(4) to protect and promote fundamental political, social, and economic freedoms and rights, including the freedom of association, of expression, of the press, and of religion, and the right to own private property;cheat code of conax

(5) to protect and promote respect for and adherence to the rule of law in foreign countries;cheat code of conax

(6) to provide appropriate support to organizations, individuals, and movements located in nondemocratic countries that aspire to live in freedom and establish full democracy in such countries;cheat code of conax

(7) to provide, political, economic, and other support to foreign countries that are willingly undertaking a transition to democracy ;cheat code of conax

(8) to commit United States foreign policy to the long-term challenge of promoting universal democracy ; andcheat code of conax

(9) to strengthen alliances and relationships with other democratic countries in order to better promote and defend shared values and ideals.

One could argue that that has been our policy for a long time and that we don't need an act of Congress to make it so. But perhaps we do. cheat code of conax

And the bill does take some action that I hope is more than adding to bureacracy. It calls for the creation of an Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs to monitor and nudge (my legislative term) democracy and also for a special assistant to the President who'll watch over this. It calls for annual reports on the state of democracy in the world. It creates an internet site devoted to spreading the word. And there's this golden nugget:

It is the sense of Congress that establishing a more formal structure for the Community of Democracies may eventually be necessary in the future, at which time the United States should guide and strongly support such a development. It is the sense of Congress that, if properly funded and supported, the Community of Democracies can achieve great success toward the global promotion of democratic principles, practices, and values.

Amen.cheat code of conax

Also of interest is the definition of undemocratic:

The Secretary shall categorize a country as nondemocratic if such country fails to satisfy any of the following requirements:cheat code of conax

(aa) All citizens of such country have the right to, and are not restricted in practice from, fully and freely participating in the political life of such country regardless of gender, race, language, religion, or beliefs.cheat code of conax

(bb) The national legislative body of such country and, if directly elected, the head of government of such country, are chosen by free, fair, open, and periodic elections, by universal and equal suffrage, and by secret ballot.cheat code of conax

(cc) More than one political party in such country has candidates who seek elected office at the national level and such parties are not restricted in their political activities or their process for selecting such candidates except for reasonable administrative requirements commonly applied in countries categorized as fully democratic.cheat code of conax

(dd) All citizens in such country have a right to, and are not restricted in practice from, fully exercising the freedoms of thought, conscience, belief, peaceful assembly and association, speech, opinion, and expression, and such country has a free, independent, and pluralistic media.cheat code of conax

(ee) The current government of such country did not come to power in a manner contrary to the rule of law.cheat code of conax

(ff) Such country possesses an independent judiciary and the government of such country generally respects the rule of law.

Of course, it will be troubling to see which of our current allies do not meet these criteria. cheat code of conax

I leave you with the first two of many points made at the start of the bill:

(1) All human beings are created equal and possess certain rights and freedoms, including the fundamental right to participate in the political life and government of their respective countries. These inalienable rights are recognized in the Declaration of Independence of the United States and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations.cheat code of conax

(2) Political legitimacy derives from the consent of the governed, whether expressed directly or through representatives chosen by free, fair, and open elections.

Yes, sure, this comes out of Bush's recent speeches. But I hope that in this democracy, we can all agree at least that democracy and self-government are the right of every human being on earth. cheat code of conax

: UPDATE: Thanks to a commenter, here's a permalink to the legislation. cheat code of conax

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Do we smell a trend here?

: Two important things happened this week, I think:cheat code of conax

1. Spanish Muslims issued a fatwa against Osama bin Laden. At long damned last, someone did it. cheat code of conax

2. The majority of the European Union parliament declared Hezbollah to be a terrorist organization (for which Hezbollah, of course, blames the U.S. and Israel). [via the amazing Publiuspundit]cheat code of conax

Is this another icejam breaking? First, the people in the Middle East start to assert their rights. Now Muslims and Europeans are recognizing the real bad guys in this world today. It sure smells like good news. cheat code of conax

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Whereabouts

: Going out to the movies with the kids this afternoon. Back blogging later. Sorry that I've been light on blogging the last week. The irony of talking about blogging on TV is that it took up the spare time I devoted to blogging. Still, it has been cool to watch the two media meet like rivers around Cleveland (and so far, the rivers aren't burning). See you shortly....cheat code of conax

: FOLLOWUP: The Pacifier is a truly awful movie. It's as if a few guys sat at a white board and wrote things up there -- he could do this and this and this and this -- and then they wrote them all down and made the movie.cheat code of conax

Come to think of it, in the old days, I saw whole companies created that way.cheat code of conax

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