"they might notice that George Bush is who they thought Bill Clinton was going to be"

And this is supposed to warm the heart of a conservative? I'd rather Bush strived to be Calvin Coolidge.

Taking taxpayers' money and throwing it at African despots and crooks so that he can ingratiate themselves with people who take their political cues from drug-addicted semi-literate musicians like Bono and Bob Geldof. And I'm supposed to be impressed.

Thank you, no.

Taking taxpayers' money and throwing it at African despots and crooks so that he can ingratiate himself with people who take their political cues from drug-addicted semi-literate musicians like Bono and Bob Geldof. And I'm supposed to be impressed.

Thank you, no.

Taking taxpayers' money and throwing it at African despots and crooks so that he can ingratiate himself with people who take their political cues from drug-addicted semi-literate musicians like Bono and Bob Geldof. And I'm supposed to be impressed.

Thank you, no.

both bono and geldorf are more aware of the problems with past approaches than you are giving them credit for. they are already famous and wealthy; unlike sting and peter gabriel they are not diletantes.

for me personally, i would rather my tax dollars go to trying to help a person of genuine need (in africa, or elsewhere) than go to a tax eater here.
maybe the effort is futile, but it is worth making.

As I read somewhere this week, Bono and Geldof should raise money to support a professional army in Sierra Leone, one which would show the rest of the continent how to soldier (presumably by killing lots of bad guys).

Like when Bill Buckley wrote (in response to Paul Newman), "if I want to get peace for my money, then get me a Peacekeeper" (an MX missile).

Only the most deluded Democrats thought Bill Clinton was going to help Africa and be compassionate (except when he was trying to seduce some ditzy woman). George Mitchell and Tom Foley certainly didn't see him that way, and neither did Jesse Jackson or Jimmy Carter.

One thing libertarians and other fantasists (ie, single issue conservatives) refuse to accept is how influential politics requires coalitions.

Bono is a Christian, so, of course, knee-jerk liberals and libertarians will hate him. He is also simplistic in his approach, in my opinion, but he is a fantastic person to have on your side.

There is NO ONE in Europe defending G.W. Bush, except for Geldof and Bono. They are not doing it for the money -- we are talking about forgiving the debt of emerging democracies. Christians have been crying out for the world's eye to be turned to Africa. They've been there for centuries. Bush is finally making some progress and people like Bono know that the USA led by such a man is their best hope for real change.

This is exactly the kind of thing that will cement the US leadership in places like Bolivia, India and the emerging democracies in Africa. It will prevent more Mugabes from enslaving their people. It will prevent more active engagements like Iraq.

I used to think the African continent was a lost cause. Now, I have begun to see it as the future.

I don't think the African debt should be forgiven. It should be repudiated, thereby both clearing the debt and delaying the onset of future indebtedness.

Nothing currently on the current American political table will do more for Africa than getting CAFTA passed and setting a precident for more open trade. As for Europe, a reform of the CAP should be the primary goal of anyone concerned about the future of Africa and its inhabitants.

Call me a cynic but this seems like a low-marginal-cost way to buy evangelical votes. Which I imagine contributes to the bile level amongst professional Democrats: they know Bush has a much lower cost structure than they do. Would that he'd realized that before the whole presription-drug thing.

joes, you are a cynic :)

Randall,

You can have Bono. I'll take people who at least have some fleeting familiarity with basic arithmetic.

He's a 'Christian' so that excuses the fact that he's an ignoramus with a ready soapbox in the public square. And I'm supposed to be so impressed by that so as to surrender my tax dollars for precisely what reason?

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

Bart, your tax dollars were surrendered when the World Bank and IMF lent the money to dictators that the U.S. was actively supporting. Hopefully, the money helped win the cold war.

So the basic arithmetic is you won; it cost a few billion dollars. Now we need to make something out of what you won.

If you want to leave people in misery, that's your prerogative. But, remember, you don't deserve what you have, you just inherited it.

It really doesn't require anyone's approval, they should just repudiate the debt.

I agree, but where's the political gain in that? If the money's gone, then let's forgive it and look like the good guys. We can tie it to political reform and push for democracy at the same time.

Randall,

I deserve everything I have, along with far more. It took a lot of sacrifice and hard work.

If the Guinea-Bissauniks are reduced to eating each other, it really is no concern of mine. I'd like to help the Third World but the conditions which enable them to be helped in a substantive way can only be created by them. They lack institutions to protect property and contract rights. Once they get created some form of economic development is possible. But just cutting a check to Robert Mugabe's Swiss bank account doesn't cut it. It may give you a false sense of pride and self-satisfaction but it doesn't help one Zimbabwean.

And debt forgiveness without more than cosmetic change, or bumping off the old dictator and bringing in the new one(see Myanmar), doesn't cut it for me. The only losers are the American taxpayer and the American bank depositer.

bart:

It was all handed to you by your family, socity and state.

For which all three have been more than duly compensated, the latter two have in fact been dramatically overpaid for whatever minimal benefits they have given me.

But I understand why someone with your tax return might see the world differently.

You can never repay the social environment you've been given as a white middle-class American.

Perhaps not, oj, but you can effectively destroy it for your own children by taking just the attitude you are taking. The keystone of that social environment is secure property; but if guilt is seen as an infinitely renewable resource, then you may be assured of an ever-expanding industry dedicated to extracting guilt from them what can afford it, and converting guilt to cash. Which is in fact what we do see. My advice, make your own apologies to your own God in His heaven; on this earth get out your shotgun and help your neighbor stare down the Mob. Even if the neighbor turns out to be Bart.

the basis of the society is Man's guilt. bart merely proves the wisdom of the assumption more graphically than most.

Which gets resolved in the hereafter, not in the here and now. Otherwise you're walking barefoot out to Colorado Springs, and I'll be waiting for you here with a hammer and three sixteen-penny nails.

A lifetime of active discrimination against me in employment and education combined with near never-ending ridicule in the MSM is what I, as a middle-class 'White' American male, receive. Thanx for nothing.

Society exists for mutual advantage once that advantage ceases to exist then society does. When Rome failed to protect the ordinary Roman from the predations of barbarians and from its own landowning class, it ceased to exist. Guilt ain't got nothing to do with it and is merely an excuse for the undeserving poor, the Lumpenproletariat, to extort money from the Rich. That whole 'Love of money is the root of all Evil' crap retarded progress for a millenium, and still holds us back.

Greed is good.

Ah, the oppression of a white American male--overcoming it is a near miracle.

joe:

Yes, we are all the crucifiers.

Happy to be here, proud to serve. Let me know when you're heading out.

The mountain comes to this Mohammed.

That's the spirit! Oh yeah? Just come and get me, you son of a ... You've got more in common with Bart than you think.

I'm sublimely confident that you're all talk.

Of course you are. But then you're sublimely confident about so many things...

And nothing ever happens to shake it--the value of being a Christian conservative, reality conforms to ideology.