Most Americans barely (if at all) know where (or what) the UK actually is. A boycott would be completely futile -- no one here would ever hear about it, and economically speaking it really would just be a drop in the ocean. The local news channels are mindbogglingly crap, with even the best of them basically coming across as a cross between TV Quick and Hello magazine. On the other hand, Bush is on his last legs. Two years and he's out. What's more important is that congressional elections are happening a month or so from now, which is why he's trying to ram as much legislation through congress as possible while he still can -- the writing on the wall is that, after the election, he's not got a chance of doing that.
The scary thing is that rumours of an 'October surprise' are going around at the moment; basically that something moderately spectacular and probably unpleasant for quite a lot of innocent people will be stage managed within the next month ahead of the election. The North Korea bomb test thing is a possibility, but people have also talked about an Iran invasion. Nothing terribly good will come of it, so I'm very much hoping that rumours are just rumours.
The web site you linked should probably be read with quite a large pinch of salt, however -- it's not exactly even handed. However bad the legislation might be, it's quite another matter here to actually make it stick for any length of time. Unlike the UK, the US has mechanisms for judicial oversight such that bad laws can be thrown out, which is probably why the wording of this legislation tries to block that route. However, in practice, what is likely is that Bush will be very much sidelined toward the next election to give his successor room to manoevre in terms of campaigning, and that any new government (of whatever party) would most likely stamp on the worst excesses of the previous administration's legislation. In the mean time, it's not nice, but it's likely to be temporary.
Of course, the federal government pays my wages, and the US military part-funded my PhD, so my perspective is maybe a little different. My impression is that there are a lot of people trying to do the right thing here for all the right reasons, but the current administration are probably not really doing the place any favours right now.
(Sorry for the anon, I don't want this comment to be googleable. I'm pretty sure you know who I am, however!)
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2006-10-04 06:24 am (UTC)The scary thing is that rumours of an 'October surprise' are going around at the moment; basically that something moderately spectacular and probably unpleasant for quite a lot of innocent people will be stage managed within the next month ahead of the election. The North Korea bomb test thing is a possibility, but people have also talked about an Iran invasion. Nothing terribly good will come of it, so I'm very much hoping that rumours are just rumours.
The web site you linked should probably be read with quite a large pinch of salt, however -- it's not exactly even handed. However bad the legislation might be, it's quite another matter here to actually make it stick for any length of time. Unlike the UK, the US has mechanisms for judicial oversight such that bad laws can be thrown out, which is probably why the wording of this legislation tries to block that route. However, in practice, what is likely is that Bush will be very much sidelined toward the next election to give his successor room to manoevre in terms of campaigning, and that any new government (of whatever party) would most likely stamp on the worst excesses of the previous administration's legislation. In the mean time, it's not nice, but it's likely to be temporary.
Of course, the federal government pays my wages, and the US military part-funded my PhD, so my perspective is maybe a little different. My impression is that there are a lot of people trying to do the right thing here for all the right reasons, but the current administration are probably not really doing the place any favours right now.
(Sorry for the anon, I don't want this comment to be googleable. I'm pretty sure you know who I am, however!)