Voting in Syria
The Detroit Free Press ran this photo:
It also ran a truncated version of this caption:
Asma Assad, wife of Syria's President Bashar Assad, left, casts her vote, Sunday May 27, 2007, at Damascus University after casting their votes. Syrians are expected to elect Assad to a second, seven-year term in a referendum Sunday that would further consolidate his autocratic rule. Assad is the sole candidate, but voters can either approve or reject a second term. Most of the nearly 13 million eligible voters are expected to support a second term for Assad.
My question is: are they kidding?
Assad is the sole candidate, but voters can either approve or reject a second term.
What would happen if voters did reject a second term? Autocrats who got the job by replacing their deceased autocratic fathers have a rather poor record of responding to the will of the people.
Am I reading this wrong, or does the AP, and by extension, the Detroit Free Press, support the dictator Assad? This sure looks like a whitewash to me.
Labels: Bashar Assad, election, Syria
The Upcoming Election
With the elections coming upon us fast and furiously, both sides are bombarding us with their message. I don't answer my phone anymore. I am left with messages supporting both Granholm and DeVos in the governors race. I erase the messages.
A week or so ago I was listening to
Ed Schultz on the way home from work. He was giving the typical progressive rant on "taking the government out of the hands of the corporations and giving it back to the people." That got me thinking about People's republics. According to
Answers.com People's Republic
n.
A political organization founded and controlled by a national Communist party.
Personally, that's something I'm not in favor of. Neither the
People's Republic of China nor the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea impress me as bastions of freedom and enlightenment. If that's what Ed and his progressive pals are leaning toward, you can count me out.
Here in Michigan there is an anti-Affirmative Action proposal on the ballot; the deadly Proposal 2. The
Detroit Free Press has pulled out all stops in trying to defeat this thing. Over the past few months, they've run editorials, news stories, and local columns condemning it. Occasionally they give voice to the other side, but they make it sound like if 2 is passed, Black Americans will be returned to slavery. Women will be forced to quit their jobs and remain barefoot and pregnant for the rest of their lives as they are pushed into arranged marriages. Michigan will turn into a third world nation because no business will want to do business with a state that can't legally tell them who to hire based on race or sex. All workplaces, colleges, and universities will be white and male only. Global warming will sink Detroit under water because there will be no female scientists around with the insight to prevent it. In short, they are expending a lot of hot air and trying to scare a lot of people into voting against it. Oops, did I say "scare"? I forgot, it's only Republicans who use scare tactics. The Free Press is being "mainstream."
Labels: Affirmative Action, Ed Schlutz, election
It also ran a truncated version of this caption: 
CHALLAH AKBAR
