And so the nightmare begins...

And so the four year nightmare begins.

Things that worry me: the Supreme Court. With Rehnquist soon to depart, as well as a number of others, this administration will have the opportunity to change the face of the court, even to the point of overturning Roe v. Wade. Yes, that is right. Prepare to return to the 1940s, when a woman knew her place.

Another thing that worries me. Apparently, many folks in the U.S. don't seem to care about the changes the U.S. administration has wrought upon the world. Outside of the U.S., hardly anyone likes Bush. If you read the international press, this is what you get: Europe doesn't like him, Britain hates him, Asia doesn't like Bush, China likes Bush--because Kerry would have made them clean up their deplorable human rights record. What I have found here in Taiwan among the people I have met and talked about politics with: the Taiwanese are increasingly distrustful of Bush. The Brits, Australians, Thais, Singaporeans, Indonesians, Germans, Dutch, South Africans, Canadians, Japanese and Koreans dislike Bush and think he is an idiot.

I am worried about the environment under Bush. I am worried about the active denial of human rights that 11 states added to their constitutions under the guise of saving moral values. I am frustrated as well because the poliicies of the Bush administration has actually made life for an American abroad MORE dangerous, not less.

But mostly, I am worried that America is becoming less and less of a place that I want to call home.

Comments

[tom]

Not just Rhenquist's chair may be up for grabs this term, Stevens is 84 and decrepit.

May want to consider emigrating.

[Jason]

The US public does not care what other countries liberal media outlets think, get use to it.
The US public does not want to be like the rest of the world, get use to it.
For being such open minded folks liberals claim to be its amazing how much they are unwilling to except conservative values, "SO DUMB" - good one.
By making statements like bush is soft on China shows how out of touch you are with political reality. You can do the research yourself.
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&q=%22bush%22+%2B+%22china%22+%2B+%22human+rights%22&start=10&sa=N

On the other hand, nice website. I also lived in Seattle and am now in San Francisco before I move to Taiwan in early 05.

[tiger]

Clicking on the link you gave me leads to this BBC report (the third search result on the list): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3978489.stm
In it, the BBC reports basically what I wrote--that China is slightly more fearful that Democratic Party leaders will bring the human rights issue to the forefront. Basically, I think that BOTH parties are soft on China. Republican party a bit more so, in that the current leadership sees developing capitalist markets as a ethical guiding principle.
So, yes, you too, can research it yourself...

[tiger]

"For being such open minded folks liberals claim to be its amazing how much they are unwilling to except conservative values"

I don't see accepting those values is the problem--it's having the moral values of others coded into law and which in fact criminalizes those whose "moral values" are not the same as yours that causes a problem.

And by the way, I was not talking solely about media outlets. More importantly, I was referring to the comments made by citizens of those countries who I have met here.

and "liberal media outlets"??? What is this? The 1970s? There is nothing left (figuratively) in media these days. Please try another stock phrase--that one about "the liberal media" not to mention "the liberals" is laughably out-of-date.

[tom]

Tiger, isn't it pathetic when chumps leave nasty comments yet haven't the balls to leave an email or website?

Jason's clearly a pussy.

[tiger]

And he can't spell!

[Jason]

"Clicking on the link you gave me leads to this BBC report"
- I see how they point out that China is happy about the bush win due to trade and human rights issues, but they list only one fact, and that supports the trade not the human right issue. Also talks about things they are not too happy about like selling weapons to Taiwan, which makes it a nice balanced paragraph or two. Good job on twisting the facts thought. I'm not to sure what you think the US should do to make China respect human rights, invade them maybe? Good job on pointing out one link, the whole reason I posted a search and not jut one link is so you could get a collective view and not that of just one reporter. doing so could just be discredited over and over again by people posting one link that backs up their point of view no matter if it is correct or not.

"I was referring to the comments made by citizens of those countries who I have met here"
- I would agree with you on that. The general public in other countries does not like the fact that America is flexing it mussels once again and show the rest of the world it is the strongest in more ways then one.

"It’s having the moral values of others coded into law and which in fact criminalizes those whose "moral values" are not the same as yours that causes a problem"
- I have seen no law that does what you claim, only laws that come close are those which protect the normal family life. By normal I mean the way it has been for 2000+ years. I would not expect the rest of society to let a small minority destroy what everyone else believes in.

""liberal media outlets"??? What is this? The 1970s?"
- Sorry not that old, did not know that what I see today in the media was also going on in the 70s.

"Tiger, isn't it pathetic when chumps leave nasty comments yet haven't the balls to leave an email or website?
Jason's clearly a pussy. "
- The email address is real, go ahead and send me an email, I run my own email, web, and ftp servers and make address on the fly "[email protected]" for posts like this so I can keep track of where the email comes from, and shut them off or report abuse if needed. The comments I left were not nasty at all, just the truth, so once again, get use to it. As far as being a pussy they do say you are what you eat ;-). But if you want to prove it my internet hard ass friend, do a whois on my domain and you will get my address and phone number, feel free to call or come over anytime.

No I can't spell very well, did not focus on spelling and grammar as you can tell in school. Thank you for pointing this out it really gets your point across? Please do tell me what words I misspelled so I can work on them. I ran it through spell check and got no errors back???

Why do liberals always have to revert to name calling when their view is not accepted? This is something I could never figure out. Examples like; calling me a pussy, saying my post is nasty because it does not agree with the way you think, finding the weakness in my education and exploiting it, spelling, I just don't get it.

[tom]

1) I'm not liberal. Voting against Bush does not mean I'm a liberal. The liberal/conservative dichotemy is a rediculous self-fulfilling construct. Clearly you align yourself with the "conservative" side. As a sidenote, living in "liberal" Seattle must be sort of unpleasant. What with all them coffee drinking commie pinko fags.

2) "my internet hard ass friend" is an interesting but patronizing turn of phrase. I wasn't challenging you to a fight in the schoolyard, despite what you appear to think. I do think it is a pussy thing to do to surf into a stranger's weblog and leave malicious comments. Kind of like walking onto someone's porch and shitting on his welcome mat.

3) "just the truth, so once again, get use to it." Yours is a dogmatic choice of truth. You can support your argument with whatever facts you wish - at the end of the day yours appears to be a "conservative" point of view buttressed with hand-picked facts.

4) I believe Tiger notes your spelling errors because they're somewhat distracting from your comment that was apparently calculated as a virtual "fuck you, misinformed liberal", and that is of course a very important message.

5) A little tact would go a long way, chief. By instead favorably commenting on the website, and more respectfully expressing your disagreement you would've been better received by the author of this weblog. Instead, you shit on his welcome mat.

Most folks don't expect a "nice" response when they approach a stranger, tell him he's basically a fool and that the speaker knows truth, that you'd better "get used to it", and then say, "hey, nice curtains. I'm going to Taiwan in a few months myself."