Take that deadbeat diplomats! - Congress does something right!

[Bob Hubbard]

From CNN


Foreign aid subject to parking fine deductions


WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Frustrated by deadbeat foreign diplomats, the U.S. Congress has voted to cut aid to their countries by about the sum they owe in unpaid parking tickets.

At the urging of New York lawmakers, Congress tucked the measure -- to cut aid to countries next year by 110 percent of the amount their diplomats owe in parking tickets and penalties -- into the huge $388 billion spending bill lawmakers approved over the weekend.

New York City, which houses the United Nations, would stand to recover about $195 million from about 200 countries, New York's senators said.

"It is simply outrageous for these individuals to park illegally and blatantly ignore paying their parking tickets. New Yorkers face severe penalties if they do this and so should diplomats," Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in a statement.

With the measure, both the original parking fines and the interest levied for diplomats' parking violations between April 1997 and September 2004 would be counted against foreign aid.

 

[Ping898]

hmmm....I wonder if the other countries realize this will be happening. And do we really send that much aid to countries like France or Britain or other supposedly well off countries which are racking up these debts as fast as the countries that get a lot of aid? And which aid is the money coming from, I mean as much as the parking fines not being paid bite, I would hate to think we are stopping some kid get his/her vaccinations cause the money went to pay off a parking ticket.

I have a friend who is a dimplomats son and if any of what he said was true, the drivers have little respect for anything that says no parking. Have to wonder if this will in anyway change that mind set.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Personally, I think we should just remove diplomatic immunity entirely, and stop sending aid anywhere outside North America.

 

[bignick]

Personally, I think we should just remove diplomatic immunity entirely, and stop sending aid anywhere outside North America.

I'm not quite as radical as that...but this is a step in the right direction

 

[rmcrobertson]

Once again, Congress leaps upon a major triviality in order to avoid doing anything substantial, and to whip up the sort of know-nothingism that gets some of these idiots re-elected.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Better the cash goes to NYC than to some of those piss-on-us nations that abuse their privilages. I don't see that as trivial.

 

[rmcrobertson]

To be sure, the proper handling of parking tickets remains the central issue of our times. After all, that's why we're in Iraq.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

This just in: All other govermental issues must wait until the Iraq issue is finished.
Abuses of power, budgets, election reform, the economy, etc all must come secondary.

Y'know, it's nice to know these morons actually did something in the last year besides sling mud and kiss ***... I mean, the paperwork is over 3,000 pages long, and they had something in there that will somehow benefit our country and maybe, just maybe, make some of these other nations (the ones that abuse 'diplomatic privilage') that depend on OUR tax money paying for their inability to be a real nation, grow up.

Besides the hidden abuses to what is left of our rights, extra graft for their buddies, and money to send more of our poor into the meat-grinder.

Please ignore the fact that our Congress doesn't ever READ the crap they pass, nor understand or even care about the effect it may have on our (we little poor people) lives.

Lets drop everything, ignore everything else and -just- sit on the Iraq issue.

Because, it is the only thing that matters.
Prof. Robert Said So.

Y'know folks, there are OTHER issues besides Iraq and Bush that need attention.
The fact that they are starting to crack down on these abuses by other countries so called diplomats might just mean other, more serious crimes will now be dealt with in a more serious level than just 'asking' them to leave.

2,000 unpaid parking tickets?
Please Leave

Raped a co-ed?
Please leave.

Gang raped a jogger, then dismembered her?
Please leave.

Molested a pre-schooler?
Please leave.

Oh wait, none of that stuff ever happened, and if it did, it surely pales in the light of the, what is it 2 Gadzillion Iraqis murdered now?

Gods, I miss Bester......

 

[rmcrobertson]

Eight, sir.
Seven sir.
Six, sir.
Five, sir, four sir, three sir, two sir, ONE!
Tenser, said the Tensor.
Tenser, said the Tensor.
Tension, Apprehension, and Dissension have begun.

--Alfred Bester, "The Demolished Man"

That better?

After all, parking tickets, rape and terrorism--all much of a muchness. One wonders about the degree of thinking through one's own ideological structures--which, assuredly, revolve in part around an assertion of We Good, UN bad. What'd They do--behave like Americans at Subic Bay in the 80s? A few school-girl kidnapping Marines on Okinawa? Order picture brides from Bangkok?

But, no wonder. After all, there was that extended period in which Spain and Portugal held sway over the United States...no wait...it was the time that Uganda dictated policy to our Presidents...oops, one's bad, it refers to the time Daniel Ortega and Fidel Castro and the United Fruit Company imposed a banana republic upon Florida, with the aid of the Mafia...no, no, silliness, the time that Ollie North helped trade Russian arms for Armenian histages in order to finance death squads in Secaucus, New Jersey....no, no, no, more folly, the time that Reagan's government dragged its feet on sanctions to stop apartheid in Medgar Evers' home state...oh, dammit, it was the time that the UN sanctioned a US Aegis cruiser's shooting down a 747 filled with 300 Iranian children, women and men...

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes, duder. Juvenal and Alan Moore and the authors of, "The Ugly American," knew whereof they spoke.

"I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return."


W.H. Auden, "September 1, 1939"

 

[Bob Hubbard]

900 tangents....are any of them on topic?

Could you please explain how any of what you wrote relates to the topic of "Abuses of Diplomatic Immunity", The Correction of same, or the focus of this thread, which is the recent act of the US Congress to impose financial penalties on nations that have abused their diplomatic parking privilages?

Without delving into unrelated issues such as ContraGate, WaterGate, or HeavensGate? Or sidebaring into an anti-Bush, anti_Iraqwar, or other non-related issue?

Thank you.

 

[rmcrobertson]

Well, gosh, one guesses that it amounted to the comment that we had a lot of nerve complaining about diplomats from other countries doing the sorts of things that we felt perfectly OK about doing (and far worse!) in their countries.

That, and the roots of why Bester's called Bester, a Bab 5 ripoff/homage (all depends on whose country's getting screwed, one suspects...) to the great Alfred Bester's novels, "The Demolished Man," and, "The Stars My Destination," with oblique tips o' the hat to "Fondly Farenheit," "They Don't Make Life Like They Used To," and even, "The PI Man."

One notes that the complexities of diplomacy are not well reflected by Keith Laumer's "Retief," series of books, unless of course one thinks that US diplomatic efforts since WWII have created a safer, happier, more-prosperous world.

 

[RandomPhantom700]

Kaith:

Yeah, it's really great of Congress to decide to crackdown on foreign diplomats' gross violations of US parking statutes, and I don't think anybody's saying it's in and of itself a bad thing (rmcrobertson may disagree, but I couldn't understand enough of his posts to be sure.) But, compared to everything else going on in politics, this seems to be a slight trivial concern. It'd be like a paramedic bandaging one person's cut finger while another victim lies crying with their leg lopped off. I do notice one thing though; you mentioned diplomats also raping co-eds and molesting pre-schoolers; were these addressed in the measure?

robertson:
1. Where did Kaith condone any atrocities by American diplomats, or assert that "US good, UN bad?"
2. Why do you insist on referring to yourself as "one?"

 

[Flatlander]

I've wondered that myself for quite some time now.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

The more 'worrysome' issues AFAIK were not addressed, however I see this as a warning signal. "Shape up, or we will take further actions" type of message.

Oft times Mr. Robertson can hit the nail on the head...othertimes, unless you are one of the 3 people who have read some incredibly obscure refference or article, you can be left to wonder just what he really read given the response which is couched in "litter"ary obscurity. His explaination for the randomness he posted in post #9 here was "Well, gosh, one guesses that it amounted to the comment that we had a lot of nerve complaining about diplomats from other countries doing the sorts of things that we felt perfectly OK about doing (and far worse!) in their countries."

One could guess that. Or one could guess he was being sarcastic, or evasive, or non-responsive, or just was on some mind-altering herbal conconction. Or, all of the above, only decipherable by a select elite, which we poor unthinking souls can't possibly aspire to be, superiour minds be they all. (All three of them).

"Khan, I laugh at the Superior Intellect!"

:rofl:

 

[Flatlander]

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[rmcrobertson]

It's actually, "Khan...I'm laughing at the superior intellect," but then, one can't be expected to follow all these obscurantist references.

What links this with the discussion of diplomatic immunity ("It's just been revoked," says Danny Glover in "Lethal Weapon II," another reference available only to the elite...) is the class resentment that it articulates.

This is always easier to say, when it comes to them damn furriners or people we don't know--and that way, we need not confront our own little assumptions of privilege (ever wonder how much it sucks to stand in the customs line for hours in, say, Barbados and watch white American tourists zipping through?), and the way we throw our weight around the world, blowing off the ABM treaty, skipping around whatever environmental regs are inconvenient for business (Bush gov't did another one yesterday!), or just plain blowing up the locals for reasons that never quite seem to get articulated. Seems more important than parking tickets, somehow...even if it's obnoxious as all hell to have some yutz from East Slobbovia (Al Capp comic strips) parked in your loading zone, with their limo driver sneering in your face...

Agan, academic obscurantism? Huh? references to a) "Babylon 5," which is where Bester takes his nom-de-fake and the Psi Corps symbol? b) refs to "Ugly American," a catchphrase derived from a best-selling book of around 1964 and a Marlon Brando movie? c) citation of Alfred BESTER's best-known writing from "Fantasy and Science Fiction," and comic books? d) allusion to Alan Moore (wrote "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen?" a buncha "Green Lantern?") and to his "Watchmen," graphic novel? e) ref to Keith Laumer's well-known series, first seen in cheesy Ace Double sf novels?

Sheesh. (Ben Grimm, "Fantastic Four") If'n ya don't like the references, OK. If'n ya don't like the connections, OK. If'n ya don't like the political statement--which is that Americans bothered by diplomats (and who exactly is this, anyway?) might do well to consider the way we throw our own arrogant weight around the world, OK.

But skip the silly stuff, which boils down to "Maw! Maw!! Thet city slicker, he's a-usin' them REFERENCES agin!!!" (Cheesy version of hillbilly talk, from obscure stuff like, "The Beverly Hillbillies.")

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Wow. I see references. But seriously, that's not completely college format is it?
B- (Sorry, I haed ta teke orf fur spillin thar)

Now that we've gotten the snarkyness out...

Yes, I agree, there are abuses and liberties done elsewhere. Yes, there are other "more important" issues. But, personally, I find the idea that our government tackled 'an' issue to be a nice change, especially when to those in NYC, it may be of more import than customs habits in places the average NYer cares little to nothing about.

 

[Flatlander]

Seems more important than parking tickets, somehow....

So, because you view this as less of a priority, it shouldn't have been adressed? It seems to me that with the looming fiscal apocalypse, any measure which keeps US money in American hands is a good idea.

 

[michaeledward]

any measure which keeps US money in American hands is a good idea.

Just want to jump in and point out that the current US Monetary policy is doing a great job at keeping American Dollars in American Hands. The dollar is going Down, Down, Down. Hopefully, our creditors aren't going to call in any of their markers ... that would be Bad, Bad, Bad.

Hell, Flatlander, it is getting so American's can't even visit Canada on the cheap any more.

 

[MisterMike]

Just want to jump in and point out that the current US Monetary policy is doing a great job at keeping American Dollars in American Hands. The dollar is going Down, Down, Down. Hopefully, our creditors aren't going to call in any of their markers ... that would be Bad, Bad, Bad.

Hell, Flatlander, it is getting so American's can't even visit Canada on the cheap any more.

Hey, wouldn't that mean no more offshoring? :uhyeah: