Language

Expelling anybody for writing: inauthentic

Submitted May 14, 2004 - 5:11 pm by Benjamin Melançon
Thank you, Dan Feder.  Most of what you write is exactly what I wanted to write, except better done.  The rest is what I would have wanted to write if I'd thought of it.

Deporting someone for writing something you don't like, however ill-intentioned or wrong the writing may be, is far worse than having a drinking problem.  Such a reaction is also the closest we come to credible evidence that there may be a drinking problem.

Mark a point against Lula, who, nevertheless, need not fear being described as 'authoritarian' by the U.S. press, government, or Kerry.

It would be very impressive if Lula were to realize his Bush-like move and reverse himself, and tell Rohter: 'You are free to stay in the country for whatever reason you choose, but there's nothing I, the New York Times, or any visa can do to make you a journalist.'

Lula needs to engage in the fight to bring power to the people who elected him, and then the rantings, true or not, of a foreign journalist couldn't hurt him electorally.  That's going to be hard to do living by IMF rules-- or trying to fight them.  But it is precisely in international affairs that I have the most hope for what Lula can accomplish: shifting power from the US and European powers to the third world, perhaps now with a left-supported government in India as an ally.

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