Three related items regarding yesterday
- Wednesday, October 27, 2010 was “Dia del Censo” in Argentina. In true Argentine inefficient fashion, it was a national holiday in which all Argentines were instructed to stay home and wait for the Census workers to bring the questionnaires, wait for responses and collect them. All schools and business were closed and public transportation was limited.
- Because of this, three friends and I used the day fruitfully: we went to Uruguay. A quick hour ferry took us to Colonia del Sacramento, an old former Portuguese-turned-Spanish colony on the coast of Uruguay. We walked around, relaxed, spent some time hanging out by a cleaner part of the Rio de la Plata and got a new stamp in our passport.
- While we were in Uruguay, an elderly couple came up to us and asked us if we were Argentine. We replied “no, why?” and they said “Nestor Kirchner died.” Nestor Kirchner is the ex-president of Argentina and spouse of the current president, Christina Kirchner. His death is a HUGE deal. Here’s why:
When Kirchner won against former president Carlos Menem in 2003, he immediately began overturning amnesty laws for military officers who had been accused of torture and assassination during the Dirty War of the ’70s. He was able to pay off Argentina’s debt to the IMF in a lump sum in 2005 — it’s still unclear whether this decision was the right one for Argentina’s economy. When he left the presidency, he continued to be extremely powerful: many consider Christina to be his puppet. Kirchner was also the first Secretary General of Unasur.
Kirchner was considered by many to be authoritarian and power-hungry. There were claims of embezzlement and that he aimed to oppress the media. Kirchner and his wife, to say the least, are divisive figures in Argentine politics. However it cannot be denied that Christina and Nestor, considered the Clintons of South America, were a power couple and played a huge role in the modern Argentine landscape.
Here’s where it gets interesting: it was generally assumed that Nestor was going to run for president again in the elections of October 2011 — Christina was basically considered a placeholder while he got his political party in order. Now that he’s dead, the political landscape for next October is drastically altered — who will run? Will Christina aim for a second term? Without him, can she win? If she can’t or doesn’t, who will?
And isn’t it sad that it took his death in order to really shake things up in Argentine politics?
According to Sharron Angle, the batshit crazy woman running against Harry Reid for Senate in Nevada, God planned your rape.
“And I realized listening to this rhetoric that it reminded me of something: Tiger Woods’ text messages to his mistress that were made public last week, where he said, and I quote, “I want to treat you rough, throw you around, spank and slap you and make you sore. I want to hold you down and choke you while I fuck that ass that I own. Then I’m going to tell you to shut the fuck up while I slap your face and pull your hair for making noise.” Unquote.
And this, I believe, perfectly represents the attitude Democrats should now have in their dealings with the Republican Party: “Shut the fuck up while I slap your face for making noise — now pass a cap-and-trade law, you stupid bitch, and repeat after me: ‘global warming is real!’”“
As always, Jon Stewart explains why Brown winning in Massachusetts is a fucking disaster better than any other pundit or politico around.
“History is tragic, not redemptive. Our holiday from history ended in fire, giving birth to a post-9/11 decade of turbulence and disorientation as we were faced with the unexpected resurgence of radical eschatological evil.
Which brings us to the age of Obama, perhaps — mirabile dictu — the most exhilarating time of all. There is nothing as bracing for democracy as the alternation of power, particularly when it yields as serious, determined and challenging an ideological agenda as Barack Obama’s. This third wave of transformative liberalism — FDR, then LBJ, now Obama — is no time for triangulation. This is not incrementalism. We’re not debating school uniforms. When Obama once declared Ronald Reagan historically consequential and Bill Clinton not, he meant it. Obama intends to be the Reagan of the new liberalism.
It’s no secret that I oppose nearly everything Obama has proposed. But after the enervating ’90s and the tragic 2000s, the prospect of combative and clarifying 2010s, of sharply defined and radically opposed visions, is both politically and intellectually invigorating.”
