Some interesting articles for reading

There were two really good articles in today's New York Times.

One of them dealt with the impact of the recent Mexican by-elections which were eye-opening for many parties! The strange alliance between the PAN and the PRD for instance.

Then there was this one: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/08/world/europe/08turkey.html?ref=global-home

Which deals with the Constitutional Court in Turkey. You must remember that the new Dominican Constitution calls for a Constitutional Tribunal, something strongly opposed by the current Supreme Court...

These are two issues that will be very much in the forefront in the coming years.

I, for one. have always opposed the joining of the two elections and the unification, albeit in different months, of the presidential and congressional and municipal elections in one year. I can't see any savings to be had at all and the chance to tell the rulling party "You are full of sh!t" in a by-election is a priceless piece of democracy we are losing now. The Mexican experience proves my point! http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/07/opinion/07krauze.html?th&emc=th

Read on...

HB

The idea was not to keep abreast of Turkey's political comings and goings, but rather to focus on the role of the Constitutional Court in the current mess....the Dominican Republic's new Constitution has a provision for a Constitutional Tribunal to deal with issues of constitutionality, because the Supreme Court decides or is supposed to decide on issues from all over the place: penal, criminal, civil, political, constitutional, commercial, real estate, family feuds etc etc==? get the picture?

In Turkey there is a serious struggle between religious elements who want to introduce religion into what Ataturk created-a secular state....and Turkey has prospered by this stance, since business and industry can be carried out with out having a mullah telling you what to do. Now, there are elements of the government trying to change this, and the Constitutional Court supposedly has the last word.

Here in the DR, the new Constitution expressly prohibits the President from being re-elected, but there are rumors that he might use his total control of the Congress to get around this by introducing a motion to declare a National Assembly that will change the Constitution and submit the amendment to a popular plebicite (where the awesome power of the government resources will certainly sway the vote). And the Constitutional Tribunal will certainly be called upon to rule in this case of political shenannigans...

The Mexican article indicates why the opposition can unseat the ruling party in spite of its overwhelming control of so many resources...a lesson to be learned here for sure.

I did not want to pontificate on this but I hope people read them and talk about these articles as applied to the Dominican Republic.


HB

PLD Doctrine: Serve the Party to serve the country.

Note what is capitalized, and note what comes first!!! No such thing as a Pledge of Allegiance in the DR.

HB