Cole, Goodman, & Chomsky (Oh My)

6 comments to Cole, Goodman, & Chomsky (Oh My)

• Jeff Wegerson

  November 24, 2012 at 10:45 pm Log in to Reply

  I haven’t looked at that video but it is interesting that Jaun Cole and Ian Welsh don’t see eye to eye on Morsi. Perhaps this comment belongs in the next post.

  Welsh on twitter:

  Ian Welsh ‏@iwelsh

  Morsi is doing what must be done: the judiciary is protecting the old regime’s criminals.

  • JustPlainDave

    November 25, 2012 at 8:29 am Log in to Reply

    It might have something to do with the fact that Juan is Baha`i and knows something about what this type of thing has tended to lead to (see Iran, Islamic Revolution). The only thing “interesting” about this is that anyone would give any credence whatsoever to Ian’s view on this.

    Realism is not something one trots out just to show that because one is politically progressive it doesn’t mean one can’t be “hard”. ~ me

    • Jeff Wegerson

      November 25, 2012 at 9:59 am Log in to Reply

      No need to be narrow minded about Ian Welsh, he is well worth paying attention to.

      Actually this by Cole likely has the germ of the quasi differences:

      Although Morsi’s former rival for the presidency, Ahmad Shafiq, maintains that there is no such thing as a temporary dictatorship, there is actually no real reason to doubt that Morsi will submit to the new constitution. As Ellis Goldberg points out, it is to some large extent modeled on the current French constitution, except that the draft actually reduces the president’s powers in favor of the prime minister. And, far from being above the law, the president in the draft constitution can be overruled by a simple majority of both the new senate and the lower house. Judicial officials will name candidates to judgeships, with the president choosing the final awardees of these posts– and while he has wide latitude to choose among the names presented, he is limited by the nominating committee, composed of independent jurists.

      From Morsi’s point of view, the struggle is over the autonomy of the Constituent Assembly now drafting the constitution, which Morsi appears to have feared might be dissolved by the supreme administrative court (just as it dissolved the elected parliament last fall). Putting the work of the Constituent Assembly beyond the purview of the courts ensures that its Muslim Brotherhood majority can shape the future of the country. What is odd is that I am unaware of any big demonstrations centering on the Constituent Assembly or its draft constitution.

      How to understand the vehement reaction against Morsi’s executive order? I think it is because, like Shafiq, many Egyptians do not trust him to give back powers once he has acquired them, and so they fear that he is refashioning himself as a dictator. When Morsi took power, he promised not to try to legislate or to impose things on the country, aware that in the absence of a legislature or a constitution, people in Egypt would be touchy about anything that looked high-handed. He has abandoned that earlier caution, most unwisely, and now does look high-handed. Some of his critics fear he plans to reinstate the parliament elected in fall, 2011, which the courts dissolved on the grounds that the Brotherhood and the Salafi Nur Party illegally ran party candidates for independent seats. A Muslim Brotherhood president with a Muslim Brotherhood parliament would place a lot of power in the hands of the fundamentalists, and they would be curbed only by the secular courts and the military, both of which Morsi is attempting to defang– raising the specter of a one-party state.

      From here-> http://www.juancole.com/2012/11/egypt-judiciary-political-rivals-crowds-mobilize-against-pres-morsi.html

      • JustPlainDave

        November 25, 2012 at 10:49 am Log in to Reply

        Jeff, this isn’t a matter of being “narrow minded” it’s a matter of assessing whether someone has the background and expertise to sum up something as massively complex and dynamic as the situation in Egypt into a judgement call by tweet. If comes down to a cage match between Ian and Juan, there’s no contest.

        • Jeff Wegerson

          November 25, 2012 at 6:02 pm

          There’s no need for a contest. Each has their own strengths and application. And tweets are tweets, most get that as you do. Your observation about Cole was interesting, but the comment about Welsh was gratuitous. But fine there’s no problem with us disagreeing.

• Don Henry Ford Jr.

  November 26, 2012 at 8:45 am Log in to Reply

  I watched Cole’s segment.

  Enlightening.

  Wonder if we could get Fox News to broadcast this….