Bush is Right

[Black Dog]

Tokyo, your formatting is pooched.

Freedom House? Are you kidding me?

[TokyoTakarazuka]

Freedom House? Are you kidding me?

I agree that Freedom House was a little unprofessional back in the 1970’s and early-1980’s, but since then they’ve revamped their rating system, increased their staff, and removed any taint of bias that once existed in their annually-published studies. One of the best things about Freedom House reports is that the rating they assign to each country is fully justified with one or two pages of accurate and up-to-date data. The least that can be said is that they certainly aren’t arbitrary. Whenever they bring the score of a country up or down they provide plenty of documentation to demonstrate why they did so. I read Freedom House reports often and in recent years I can only think of one or two times where I’ve seen a rating that I would strongly disagree with. One common problem people make when deciphering Freedom House’s rating system is not realizing that the scores they give are relative, not absolute. Each rating is given while taking into full consideration how a nation’s human rights record compares on a relative scale with that of every other government in the world.

The last five years or so of annual Freedom House reports have been especially good in my opinion, and I think that if you read them you’ll probably find yourself agreeing with them more than you think you will. For instance, in this thread you attempted to demonstrate that Saudi Arabia has a poor human rights record. In order to back that data up you could have cited this 2004 Freedom House report (see below), which gives Saudi Arabia a rating of 7 for political freedoms and 7 for civil liberties, which is the lowest score possible.

http://www.freedomhouse.org/research/freew...audi-arabia.htm

At present I’m not sure what’s wrong with the quotes in my previous post. I tried to edit them today, but they still won’t function for some reason.

[Black Dog]

Anti-government protestors attacked in Cairo

nationwide referendum on multi-party elections in Egypt turned violent Wednesday as pro-government mobs attacked and beat demonstrators on the streets of the capital.

Officials of President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party, or NDP, led hundreds of young men who attacked anti-government demonstrators. Journalists and witnesses at the scene of several incidents, including this correspondent, saw riot police create corridors for stick-wielding men to freely charge the demonstrators. Women were particular targets, with at least five pulled from the mass of mostly male demonstrators on the steps of the Journalists' Syndicate in central Cairo and subjected to slaps, punches, kicks and groping. The blouses of at least two were ripped.

"I would say that President Mubarak has taken a very bold step," the first lady told reporters after touring the pyramids here. "You know that each step is a small step, that you can't be quick."

[Black Dog]

U.S. Opposed Calls at NATO for Probe of Uzbek Killings

Defense officials from Russia and the United States last week helped block a new demand for an international probe into the Uzbekistan government's shooting of hundreds of protesters last month, according to U.S. and diplomatic officials.

British and other European officials had pushed to include language calling for an independent investigation in a communique issued by defense ministers of NATO countries and Russia after a daylong meeting in Brussels on Thursday. But the joint communique merely stated that "issues of security and stability in Central Asia, including Uzbekistan," had been discussed.

[newbie]

"...almost got Quebec to sign on to the constitution..."

August, don't you mean bribed?

[August1991]

"...almost got Quebec to sign on to the constitution..."

August, don't you mean bribed?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's reaching far back into the closet. I was referring to the Meech Lake agreement (which looks pretty good right now).