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Journal TheConfusedOne's Journal: An interesting point/thought 18

Journal by TheConfusedOne

James Lileks brings us the following imagined scenario:

I admit. I have a fantasy. Kerry wins. He's having a summit with Tony Blair. In the middle of the conversation, Chirac calls up; Kerry excuses himself and has a brief chat about a new resolution to let French oil companies bid on reconstruction projects, and they have an amiable conversation in French. Kerry hangs up.

"Your predecessor," Blair says, "spoke to him in English."

"I know," says President Kerry. "He couldn't speak French."

"He didn't have to," Blair notes. He gives a tight smile. And sighs. And gets down to explaining what now must be done.

If Tony B. ran against Kerry in this country, I wonder who'd win? I'd vote for him. Everything else aside, he gets it. He always has.

Read it all here.

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An interesting point/thought More

An interesting point/thought

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  • Tony Blair is Labour Party- considerably to the left of anything organized currently in the United States. Are you sure you'd vote for him? If so, why? Is it based only on his connection to what you consider reality? Or do you actually like his poltics of letting the unions run industry?
    • First off, this was Lileks' writing, not mine.

      Second, the point was that it is not the role of the US to accomodate France's wishes (the implication of speaking in French).
    • Tony Blair is Labour Party- considerably to the left of anything organized currently in the United States. Are you sure you'd vote for him? If so, why? Is it based only on his connection to what you consider reality? Or do you actually like his poltics of letting the unions run industry?

      Certainly to the left of the Republicans and their UK counterpart the Conservative Party, but hardly "communist" - quite possibly slightly to the right of Clinton, given the direction in which he's moved his party. He isn'

      • Clinton was as much for Big Business and against the little guy as Reagan was. They tell a joke in England about American Politics:

        In America, they have two political parties. The Republicans, who are just like our conservatives- and the Democrats, who are just like our conservatives"

        The Labour Party is firmly entrenched in ownership of the WORKERS, not in ownership by the government- but it's still against private ownership overall (Clause IV didn't hand over BBC, for instance, to investors, but rath
        • The Labour Party is firmly entrenched in ownership of the WORKERS, not in ownership by the government

          Untrue, although the actual wording is ambiguous on that. The commitment Blair defeated was to government ownership, notably renationalisation of the railways. The industries in question had been government owned, rather than worker owned.

          but it's still against private ownership overall (Clause IV didn't hand over BBC, for instance, to investors, but rather to the producers of the programs).

          Clause IV w

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Its that Bush had so much balls, that he affected the reality around him and made people bend to his will; while Kerry is a pansy-ass wimp.

      Thats what I read into it.

      However the truth of the matter is; people were fucking scared of GWB, because he's a fucking kindergartener in the body of a president; and BOOOOOOY does he get angry if he doesn't have cookies and an afternoon nap!

      What-ev. I can't wait until MY dad buys me the presidency. THEN we'll see who's boss! (My wife!)
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • The fact is that France has been giving us the middle finger for quite awhile. They were assuring Hussein that he wouldn't get invaded because France would veto any such resolution.

      Is this really someone we want to "be nice to"?

      As for the whole "what if Tony B ran for pres" question, well that was just an extra that Lileks threw in at the end of the point. I think goes to the fact that Mr. Blair is just so much better at articulating the reasons for the war in Iraq than Bush is.
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • ...to France than Husein was already sending?

          Go back and research the whole Oil for Food scandal. Billions of dollars were flowing threw French banks. Total was negotiating for lucrative oil field contracts. There is evidence that French diplomats were directly assuring Hussein that there would be no invasion because France would veto it in the Security Council.

          So, what diplomacy could the US engage in that would have gained the support of UNSEC to actually follow through on their commitments?
          • Comment removed based on user account deletion

            • It's called diplomacy, and it works the same way as ordinary friendships in real life. You don't make a friend of someone by giving them the cold shoulder, no matter how much of an ass you might think they are today.

              My point was that diplomacy doesn't mean a damn thing when the other side is busy being bribed and doesn't want to cooperate.

              What "diplomacy" would you recommend that we have undertaken to convince France that it was in their best interests to actually enforce UN resolutions instead of takin

              • Comment removed based on user account deletion
                • France was giving us the middle finger over Iraq long before George Bush took office. The Oil for Food corruption was well established and billions of dollars were flowing threw French banks and Total was negotiating for oil deals before Bush was in office.

                  Changing the president isn't going to change a damn thing. France and Germany have already said that they're not going to send troops to Iraq.

                  More interesting is to go and look at that Niger yellow cake controversy. It turns out that French intellige

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