Real Kato Blog: Miscellany

Recent political stuff.

A quick wrap-up of recent events in politics:

According to an analysis done by London's Royal Institute for International Affairs, the war in Iraq has significantly strengthened Iran's power in the Middle East. Having eliminated Iran's two main rival governments (Saddam Hussein's regime, and the Taliban), Iran has moved to fill the power vacuum. Iran also now believes that the U.S. is in no position to engage them militarily, since the U.S. military is strained by the long war, and since the weight of world opinion would be against such action. So is it any wonder that Iran feels like it has a free hand to fund Hezbollah and to develop nuclear weapons?

Millions of Democrats across the country are trying very hard to resist the urge to say "I told you so".

Interestingly, John McCain has recently become more critical of Bush's strategy in Iraq. I think he's clearly attempting to distance himself from Bush, in preparation for a presidential bid.

The Supreme Court will soon be tackling some very contentious issues. Among the hottest topics: partial-birth abortions, and school integration. I think we will quickly see the effect of replacing Justice O'Connor with Justice Alito. I hold out some hope that in the school integration case, the Court will see that we still have a need to counter the effective segregation that would occur if we had students simply go to the school nearest to them.

In related news, the FDA has eased restrictions on the use of the "morning-after" pill. People over 18 will now have access to emergency contraception without a prescription. (Note that this is not an "abortion pill"; it only helps stop conception, and does nothing if a woman is already pregnant.) I think this is interesting because despite all the talk from right-wingers about overturning Roe v. Wade and banning abortion in this country, most people seem interested in finding a practical compromise solution.

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