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Politics : Dutch Central Bank Sale Announcement Imminent? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: philv who wrote (23065)	4/27/2005 3:52:22 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Respond to of 82164

Re: Is it one you support? If it is, why stop at Mexico, why not throw the borders wide open to everyone from anywhere? Why have any borders at all? Well, I'm indeed of the same opinion as Rex Wockner on the "San Diego-Tijuana wall" issue.... As I said(), it always starts as a legitimate chase after illegals and smugglers, and it ends up as a full-scale war against "terrorists"... Now, below is another opinion more in tune with yours: Immigration infiltrates our business By Marilyn Barnewall* Published by Business Reform Magazine, December 14, 2004. Reprinted with permission. diversityalliance.org (*) Message 21235173

To: philv who wrote (23065)	5/4/2005 4:52:27 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Respond to of 82164

Re: ...why stop at Mexico, why not throw the borders wide open to everyone from anywhere? Why have any borders at all? May 4, 2005 Moving out of the superpower orbit By Tom Engelhardt [...] It might be safe to assume that, given crumbling Russian power and the space it's left open, democracy movements would have developed apace (as in Latin America), even had our help never been offered. Of course when our leaders come across "people power" that has developed without their imprimatur (not always a pretty sight) - whether in the form of brutal struggles for national sovereignty (as in Iraq) or in their democratic form in Latin America - they are invariably caught off guard and generally appalled. But it's only in looking at these forms of popular power - whether violent or peaceful - that you can see the genuine strangeness of what may turn out to be our loser/loser superpower world. No one should, of course, underestimate the power of an empire to, as George Lucas might say, "strike back". And yet, let's hold out hope of a sort against empire and its plans for domination. Despite our recent emphasis in "the homeland" on security and borders, what are borders really? What are they actually capable of keeping out? It's strange sometimes how permeable walls and borders prove. As Paul Woodward, the canny editor of the War in Context website wrote recently: People power's a fine thing for shaking up Eastern Europe and the Middle East, but as it spreads to the Americas, it could be coming uncomfortably close to home. What if people power caught on in the United States? What if accountability was being demanded not just from governments in Kiev and Beirut but also those in London and Washington? The bread and circuses approach to democracy has so far been an effective guarantor of political apathy across America, but what if Americans in large numbers were to one day wake up from their political slumber and demand that they too deserve a truly representative government? What if, indeed. What if we all began slipping out of the imperial orbit? Tom Engelhardt, who runs the Nation Institute's Tomdispatch.com ("a regular antidote to the mainstream media"), is the co-founder of the American Empire Project and the author of The End of Victory Culture, a history of American triumphalism in the Cold War. (Special thanks go to Nick Turse for his invaluable research assistance.) Published with permission of Tomdispatch.com (Copyright 2005 Tom Engelhardt) atimes.com