Politics

I thought this was a strong example of Obama's ability to act as a strong and positive role model for black men (in the Bill Cosby mold). We've all heard the awful statistics of black families in the US, how most black children grow up to single working parents and how they're usually missing father figures. I think it's possibly one of the most serious problems facing my country at the moment, and I'm glad to see him stepping up on this issue. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080615/ap_on_el_pr/obama;_ylt=A0WTcW.r.1VIzvYANwxI2ocA A common political view is that it's a move to try and deflect accusations of extreme liberalness, and that may have some truth to it, …

AQ Khan, father of the Pakistani nuclear bomb, recently recanted his confessions regarding selling centrifuge technologies, including plans and parts, to Iran and North Korea. Now, he's denying claims that complete plans for nuclear bombs were sold by his group to the black market: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jprNveWzuD_a9kRZ9Spjt5VY_UMgD91BU8700 A recently released report by the UN's nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, reveals that digital copies of nuclear weapons plans are unaccounted for and may be in the hands of the black market. According to its author David Albright, a former UN arms inspector: Khan claimed Albright's report was funded by the …

If Hillary is now permanently out of the running due to her age (not at all certain, I readily admit, but a good possibiltiy), it might be interesting to speculate about what other women could possibly become the first female POTUS. Here are some of the more prominent female figures in the Democratic Party along with their current ages: Nancy Pelosi (68) Barbara Boxer (67) Dianne Feinstein (74) Blanche Lincoln (Sen. from Arkansas) (47) Claire McCaskill (Sen. from Missouri) (54) Less well known: Patty Murray (Sen. from Washington) (57) Maria Cantwell (Sen. from Washington) (49) Debbie Stabenow (Sen. from Michigan) (58) Amy Klobuchar (Sen. from Minnes…

Well, that's pretty much that... Obama is the Democratic nominee. But with Hillary being such a psycho bitch, I really think it's unlikely she'd ever agree to be Obama's running mate (although it wouldn't surprise me if Obama would accept her as his running mate) Who do you think will end up being Obama's running mate? A handy dandy poll is attached!

Next week the Senate will begin debating a bill brought out late last year by senators Warner and Lieberman. The bill has come under intense scrutiny already, with supporters and critics on all sides of the issue. Here's the Wikipedia entry on the bill, which serves as a good starting point for inquiry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America%27s_Climate_Security_Act_of_2007 In a nutshell (if I understand it correctly), the bill caps emissions across the board (industry, transportation, and even personal (home)) at 2005 levels through 2012, then forces gradual reduction at 2% per year through carbon trading. The bill also provides $350 billion spread out o…

I have watched Meet the Press every Sunday for a few years now, and Tim Russert was an amazing man who quickly earned my respect. He will be missed. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25145431/ http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i47acW1Zt9ukocOXy9JlL412h3SAD919FQV81

Here's the deal. In a true meritocracy, we shouldn't care in the slightest about a candidates race or gender when deciding whom to vote for. The fact that the two main contenders for the Democratic nomination were a black man and a woman should be seen as a sign that such things, even if they do still matter to many people, at least no longer present the insurmountable obstacles they once did, and thus their success should be cause for celebration. However, if we are to truly justify the celebration of our liberal postracism and make it "not matter anymore," we can't support them on those grounds, either, or make ourselves reactionaries and hypocrites. I say these thi…

If the title of the thread doesn't make a lot of sense, I suggest you need a lot more Arlo Guthrie in your life, and a fair bit of his dad too. Anyway... It's kind of funny...a few years ago I did a series of "phone calls" I got from George Bush. It was just one of those things you e-mail to friends and relatives...yet another way to avoid writing by writing. The premise was that he thought I was the kind of reverend he was used to dealing with, when in reality I was a beer swilling yahoo. He'd call me up, and I'd tell him things...yeah, things. In the very first one I admonished him over and over again that literalism was a sin...kind of a warning …

I have to kind of disagree with that. The Jews I know...mostly secular, many agnostic or atheist...celebrate a lot of Jewish culture outside of religion. I think they (the people I know) are kind of a hybrid between nationality and religion. I'm not sure whether that's a fact in the larger Jewish community, or a local thing, but I tend to think it's pretty widespread. Most of them (again, Jews I know personally) disagree rather harshly with the government of Israel re: Palestine as well, for what that's worth. In a lot of ways they remind me of the Ukrainian community here...very difficult to separate culture from religion, but as the religion filters ou…

This just came in guys, Hillary finally admits defeat and endorses Obama to help unify the party. Read all about it right here: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/07/clinton.unity/index.html?eref=rss_topstories So, what are your reactions to this? You think the Democratic Party will finally start coming back together in time?

We have a situation in the U.S. election right now where the nominees from both parties have reputations for being less partisan and more genuine and open than their peers. Whether or not these reputations are deserved, the fact that they were both able to trade on them so successfully speaks a lot to the national mood right now, and weariness with the perceived evil shadow government we've been living with and the associated deep and bitter divides between red and blue cultures. The question is: are those reputations deserved? Personally, I think Obama and McCain were definitely the least partisan (though not necessarily most centrist) of their respective fields. But…

Not to jump the gun... Obama still needs 12 delegates the secure the nomination. But Hillary has announced that she's willing to be Vice President, and that's a pretty clear indication she's conceded her loss. Wonder if Obama would accept her. That'd be... weird.

Watching the developing political situation surrounding the economic stimulus package seems to be providing a unique insight into the difficulties that pervade the current US Congress. Bipartisan agreement that the package is needed, combined with the always-present need amongst politicians to be seen as "doing something", produced an agreement in the House in near-record time. But now the bill has reached the Senate, and the brakes have been applied. At a superficial glance this may seem odd, because even in the Senate there seems to be bipartisan support. Both the Democraitc majority leader and the Republican minority leader spoke in favor of the bill being pas…

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Economy/wireStory?id=4952742 The definition of "recession" is two straight quarters of negative economic growth. That still hasn't happened, in spite of poor NBC News' desire to call it one. (Kinda funny how when they decide to call things "what they really are", they oddly turn out not to be those things! The "civil war" in Iraq comes to mind.) Perhaps new definitions are needed. I get annoyed at our media-driven sensitivity to the plight of the single-working-mother-of-three, but the economy has grown so large that problems like the housing market collapse can have far-reaching impact even if they don't produce an outright rec…

Many people do not realize that our total number of congressional districts (and therefore our total number of Representatives in the U.S. House) has been limited to 435 ever since 1913 (except for a four-year period when it was temporarily increased to 437). In 1929, this number (435) was made permanent by an act of Congress. During the debates preceding that act, Missouri Representative Ralph Lozier stated: “I am unalterably opposed to limiting the membership of the House to the arbitrary number of 435. Why 435? Why not 400? Why not 300? Why not 250, 450, 535, or 600? Why is this number 435 sacred? What merit is there in having a membership of 435 that we would …

Interesting op/ed in the Wall Street Journal today by Timothy Lynch and Robert Singh, authors of a new book called "After Bush: The Case for Continuity in American Foreign Policy". The basic point is that our foreign policy is not likely to change dramatically after the election. - Neither candidate has disavowed the war on terror - In fact they all claim they would do a better job fighting it - Administrations historically inherit foreign policy and situations - Bill Clinton committed more troops to foreign conflicts than any previous president since WW2 - European complaints are unlikely to have a dramatic impact, since they need us as much as we need them -…

What could Sen. Clinton possibly have been thinking when she remarked that Robert Kennedy was assassinated in June while running for the Presidential nomination?? imp

I think it's interesting and I don't buy the right wing's "explanation" that George Soros is behind it. McClellan didn't have to do this -- nobody forced him. I don't object to the idea of economic incentive (the book is more attractive to buyers this way), but the personal cost is rather extreme for that kind of gain. This is the main point that I think the right has going for it in this area. The quote below is from today's editorial position in the conservative Wall Street Journal. (source) I think that's a valid point, and that renders McClellan's book to the level of simple opinion rather than anything that adds major substance to the center a…

For those of you not so remotely located as to be unaware of the recent government raid on the "polygamist compound" in Texas, here are a few thoughts. Of 400+ minors (children) removed to "protective custody", one can assume many were not very young, but rather young adults still technically minors. These young people grew up in an out-of-societal existence, probably were free to roam the 1700 acre compound at will, go fishing or biking, swim, play games, and generally be a part of a family, whether that family be considered "normal" by traditional definition. These children now will experience, no matter how carefully and orchestrated their "captors" are, being …

You almost have to admire the sheer gall of such a thing. From an AP wire story: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iy-MfhLN9Q7MwtQ1VlrvexLjr2dAD90VDF3G1 As a practical matter, this appears to be mostly about internal propaganda, but there's also an international aspect to it. The World Bank refuses to give them any new loans because they haven't paid their debts in many years. So now they're using this as an excuse to demand more money, which of course they will use to finish up their new showpiece capital city. Pretty sad.

Well that won't be much of a conversation starter, since I don't think there really are any Hillary supporters left here. But there was a pretty good column in the Wall Street Journal today by Donald Boudreax, an economics professor at George Mason, who analyzes whether Hillary has been descriminated against in this race due to her gender. The crux of the article is where he amusingly points out that if Hillary is correct that Democrats are misogynists, and if she's also correct in her statements that she's more able to beat McCain in the fall, then logically that suggests that Republicans are less sexist than Democrats. (grin) Anyway, I thought you guys m…

When was the last time you knew of a shipment of medicines, food, aid of any kind sent to any country in distress by natural, or political, or starvation, or whatever reason... originated from any of the superrich OPEC countries?

What is it with our focus on mis-steps and erroneous campaign statements these days? Whether it's Bush being declared an "idiot" or Hillary mental slip in bringing up Kennedy's assassination instead of his campaigning into June, it just seems to have gotten out of hand. Obama's Auschwitz gaff is the current ridiculous example. For Pete's sake, the guy says Auschwitz instead of Buchenwald and you'd think NASA had just lost another shuttle or something. According to this article, the right-wing blogosphere latched on and went nuts over the thing: I'd scream "Jesus, Mary and Joseph!" but perhaps a better choice here would be "Abraham, Ruth and David!" But …

The House passed a 300 billion dollar farm bill today, to help out farmers who are in the midst of the biggest boom in half a century. So much for Democratic reforms -- this is just as bad as the oil company subsidy. What are these idiots thinking? Bush would've veto'd it, wanting to cut the subsidy far more. (Actually he'll veto it anyway and let them do the override thing.) http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/15/washington/15farm.html?hp I was surprised to find in that article that Nancy Pelosi is one of the biggest supporters of the ethanol subsidy. It's interesting how with one hand they cheer about a few extra food stamps for the poor and with the other…

I recognise that this a complex topic, and forms part, philosphically of the discussion on whether government intervention in regulating business should be there at all. The topic of this discussion is on the media, but almost primarily, the attention is on the role of the news media. I think people may recognise that news agencies are becoming increasingly "slanted", one could say in propmoting political views. I guess, it is rather obvious, that they often "spin" the news to protect their owners, and their investors' interests. This makes sense, as in any enviroment the only role of a business is to make profit, it is the yardstick of success. My first question…