News from Around the World

Newt Gingrich's declaration on Meet the Press that World War III has already started, brought a quick demurral from Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), who was also a guest on the show. According to Jay Bryant, though, Newt is Right: It's World War III, Yahoo News.

But there is something even more insidious implied here. Plantinga suggests that the judge legislated that “the scientific community has successfully refuted the criticism of unguided evolution brought by the IDers” and this is utterly false. The judge did not ‘legislate’ this conclusion at all. What he did was summarize the general consensus within the scientific community. Intelligent Design has very very little support within science, so, in fact, if it is a question for science then ID has lost and lost catastrophically. This much is obvious to anyone who bothers to actually take a look. What is insidious in Plantinga’s argument is the suggestion that the judge did not have the right to do this, that the judge was not qualified, somehow, to take the advice of experts.

Congresswoman Pelosi’s “traps and smears” stemmed not from the legitimate vote, but from the MSM’s peevish misrepresentation of Congressman Murtha’s stunt. And while I don’t think he’s a coward, I’m offended by Democrats playing politics with troops that include my son.

He said he had resisted prior offers from Peretz to enter politics, believing that his work in the Negev was of greater importance. "But the turnabout, the big bang that has occured, Amir Peretz' entry as the leader of the Labor Party, changed my decision."

WHEN IT COMES to the future of Iraq, there is a deep disconnect between those who have firsthand knowledge of the situation — Iraqis and U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq — and those whose impressions are shaped by doomsday press coverage and the imperatives of domestic politics.

("The General," Wes Clark, has a plan up at his Securing America site, too.) There seems to be a consensus among military experts on this. We need to begin drawing down forces, and we need to leave a much smaller "rapid reaction" force behind, partly in Iraq, mostly in Kuwait. Even the wildest winger surely knows we will be pulling significant numbers of troops out of Iraq sooner rather than later, mostly because of the politics.

A leading new media voice from the left, Rachael will join us to discuss the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito, the ongoing debate over pre-war intelligence and the impact of the citizen journalist movement on politics today. Should be a great show.

I listened to the Nov. 8 installment this morning with coffee — in addition to being informational, it’s also wryly funny and urbane. I go forth into the day better acquainted with the politics of French literary prizes and with the comforting knowledge that Scooter Libby does not, as it turns out, sign his books “Scooter.” Check it out.

But there are some real issues coming up during this legislative session and this election cycle. I would like nothing more than to have a real, frank, honest and intelligent discussion about these issues, without getting caught up in personal politics or the ever famous “politics of personal destruction.”

Oh, just now figuring that out? Because now it's one of your "own" in the hot seat? I wonder if this dawned on Mr. Rivkin and Mr. Casey during the 4+ year, 70 million dollar, hyper-partisan Ken Starr investigation of Bill Clinton? And not one person can credibly argue that Fitgerald's inquiry has even the slightest hint of partisan politics behind it- can the same be said of Ken Starr's invesstigation? No.

In the museum shop I came across a campaign for fair trade. Due to almost one billion dollar in subsidies a year, the European Union still produces excessive amounts of sugar, more than we could ever consume. (this can be said of almost any agricultural product in fact). The surpluses, heavily subsidised and extremely cheap, go to developing countries. These products are literally being dumped on the Thirld World, with disastrous effects. Sugar farmers over there cannot sell their sugar anymore, because their is no serious possibility of fair competition on the world markets. Many of them decline further and further into poverty. The EU-agricultural politics are a crying shame and a grave injustice. Help stop the dumping. Sign the online petition for a world without poverty, where trade is free and fair.

The answer is found in an essay written about 40 years ago by Richard Hofstadter called “The Paranoid Style in American Politics.” Hofstadter argues that sometimes people who are dispossessed, who feel their country has been taken away from them and their kind, develop an angry, suspicious and conspiratorial frame of mind. It is never enough to believe their opponents have committed honest mistakes or have legitimate purposes; they insist on believing in malicious conspiracies.

There are a number of reasons why economics appears to trump politics. The shift from statist mercantilism to high-tech capitalism has transformed the economics behind war. Markets generate economic opportunities that make war less desirable. Territorial aggrandizement no longer provides the best path to riches. Free-flowing capital markets and other aspects of globalization simultaneously draw nations together and raise the economic price of military conflict, because the political destabilization resulting from war deters profitable investment and trade. Moreover, sanctions, which interfere with economic prosperity, provides a coercive step short of war to achieve foreign policy ends.

Above all, the Vietnam War was never banished from the minds of our war planners and policymakers. Even when they were playing an opposites game with Vietnam (as in, for instance, their no-body-bags, no-photos-of-the-American-dead-coming-home policy), Bush administration officials had a clear case of Vietnam-on-the-brain, as did the society they represented. In 2003, while the invasion of Iraq was still ongoing, the historian Marilyn Young commented, “In less then two weeks a 30 year old vocabulary is back: credibility gap, seek and destroy, hard to tell friend from foe, civilian interference in military affairs, the dominance of domestic politics, winning, or more often, losing hearts and minds.”

Ogre at Ogre’s Politics and Views presents ACLU Supports Censorship. If you want to argue Intelligent Design Vs. Evolution, this is the place to go.

The real crackup has already occurred, on the left! The Democratic Party has been hijacked by 1960s retreads like Howard Dean; billionaire eccentrics like George Soros; and leftwing computer geeks like MoveOn.org. It nominated John Kerry, a notorious Vietnam-era antiwar activist, as its presidential standard-bearer. Its major spokesmen are old extremists like Ted Kennedy and new propagandists like Michael Moore. Its great presidential hope is one of the most divisive figures in U.S. politics, Hillary Clinton. And its favorite son is an impeached, disbarred, held-in-contempt ex-president, Bill Clinton.

Are these two books about the same country? The first depicts Saudi Arabia as a violent, benighted place whose ruling family is pursuing a decades-long plan to subvert American power. The second is the authorized biography of the richest man in Saudi Arabia, a member of the ruling family, who is portrayed as the consummate mix of “East” and “West” — a man who can bridge cultures and repair the torn U.S.-Saudi relationship. Unfortunately, neither is a reliable source about politics and life in Saudi Arabia today, nor does either book shed much light on the fascinating, difficult issues involved in relations between Riyadh and Washington.

Went on a Politics social on wednesday, and frankly it wasn’t great, there was such a lack of 3rd years, but I did enjoy going to Red Leicester at the end since all my housemates were out there even though I somehow managed to miss Matt all night.

I've been in a big conflict with a woman in one of our satellite offices for a couple of weeks now. You know how office politics are. We're still hashing out the pecking order in the organization. It was over a tiny little insignificant matter which shouldn't have taken any time at all, but we're both grown women and handle this in the most mature fashion possible, which means we run to the boss to tell on the other one.

Now, before I launch into my diatribe about why each and every American, regardless of their politics, religion, gender, race or creed should be concerned about this news, let me make a few things VERY clear (to both my readers and the FBI, should they be reading this):

Smurfs are the latest casualty in advertising’s race to the gutter. In a tasteless anti-war ad for UNICEF, the cuddly blue creatures are carpet-bombed, complete with flames, bodies, and crying babies.

The weekend began slowly, on Friday: Dina went to bed early, and I turned out the living room lights and watched Dragonslayer. The movie was much darker than I imagined, and was pretty much the polar opposite of the extravagances in the Lord of the Rings films. I kept thinking how Dragonslayer would make a fine low-magic D&D campaign, where politics and fear are the forces that move the world, and magic is mostly bluff and trickery�except when it’s not.

Mr Blair said that had been “a genuinely significant change in the politics of Northern Ireland”.

Fuck up of the evening, Kilgore refusing to pledge to be at least 51% positive in ads up until election day. Even if it's a lie, you don't refuse to pledge something like that on television. Kaine may very well go 75% negative in his ads even though he pledged not to, but no one will care on election day. Until then, there's a whole host of editorials waiting to be written about how negative politics can be, and that Kilgore, in refusing to pledge to be at least 51% positive, is the perfect illustration.

It was telling that no one even mentioned the earthquake in South Asia which is now estimated to have killed 30,000 people. What might this mean in terms of geo-politics in that critical region? Viewers of This Week won’t know the answer to that as the question was never posed by Stephanopolous.

On the position of armed struggle, we have also been quite clear for many years, At the Séamus Costello commemoration in 2003, the IRSP asserted: “Today the IRSP has to face into the struggle for a socialist republic based on democratic principles, equipped with the integrity of republican socialist politics.

If you’ve been following Ohio politics at all lately, you know that both Iraqi War Vet and OH-02 candidate Paul Hackett and populist Congressman Sherrod Brown might be squaring off in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate and the chance to beat Mike DeWine.

3. I will stay out of Republican politics. I promise not to get involved with any Republican politics, unless my father runs for judge, and than I reserve the right to work on his campaign.

Political historian Dr Eamon Phoenix said Belfast was then a place of cultural renaissance and radical politics.

Impeach Bush - No, not really interested in politics right now. God knows I’d like to impeach the little texas cow-wrangler, but nevermind.

I’m at the California Republican Party convention in Anaheim with a press credential. A group of us has just heard a series of speeches directed at bloggers, mostly by second-tier candidates or first-tier candidates for second-tier offices. Of the speakers, all but one were long on personal background in politics, and short on the issues. The one exception, Insurance Commissioner candidate Phil Kurzner, told us a great deal on where he stands on the issue of health insurance, the one kind of insurance over which the Insurance Commissioner has almost no jurisdiction. Great.

I have seen some pundits wondering if this latest development will make it more likely Edgar wil jump into the race. I think it would not be good for him. He is not immune from currution himself. If the Republicans want to win back the State, they need to elect someone who is not part of the establishment. We need someone who will speak up and end the politics/corruption as usual in this State. Please join me in telling Gov. Edgar, No.

Democratiya aims to contribute to a renewal of the politics of democratic radicalism by providing a forum for serious analysis and debate. We will strive to be non-sectarian and ecumenical, and our pages are open to a wide range of political views, a commitment to pluralism reflected in our advisory editorial board.

KF: Chalila - this book is full of holy words. This is the L-rd Himself in a costume of letters. If I will throw it to this pool, all holiness in it is like, banished. It will be kadosh (holy), and when I throw it to this pool, it will be tamei (impure). It’s the same thing about getting into politics. I think that getting myself into politics, into taking sides, is getting myself dirty. I’m not taking any sides, I’m not dealing with it. I’m doing my music. And that’s it.

When it comes to the economic conditions that are prevailing for so many Americans, it is almost a joke. Here is a cartoon from the Washington Post. This is the sybaritic power player who is pulling the strings behind the scene, calling the shots, dictating politics and policy; and he is saying, “It is not trickle down economics. We got the plumbing fixed.'’ Here is the poor little fella down here, little panhandler trying to wait to get some of the stuff that is trickling down, and it is not trickling down any more.

And this is where the politics comes into play: invoking the Insurrection Act meant Bush would be basically removing a female governor of the opposing party from effective control of her own National Guard. Big deal to any state. Bigger deal to a southern state. Bigger still if the governor is a Dem-and then add the female angle on top of that.

And don’t give me that canard about “this isn’t a time for politics” — the Bush team is in full spin mode. It’s sad to see Bill Clinton allowing himself to be used this way.

For the last few decades, with increasing Republican dominance of the executive and legislature in Washington, DC, the court has been moving steadily rightwards. The new appointments expected over the coming months to replace Judges Rehnquist and Sandra Day O’Connor, who retired earlier this year, will most likely continue this trend. The implications for American politics could be profound.

On the human side of Hurricane Katrina there is ample blame to go around, beginning and ending with the ultra-corrupt nature of Louisiana politics and its corrosive impact on the greater New Orleans community. Nevertheless, this is a natural disaster unprecedented in the history of our nation. Certainly others have endured worse; Pompey, Krakatoa, Lisbon and even Galveston (6000 dead) to name a few. There have been numerous natural disasters that have claimed far more lives and that have destroyed whole cities. Still, for Americans and particularly those directly impacted, the catastrophe in New Orleans seems apocalyptic.

The French wire AFP reports that politics have changed in France since President Jacques Chirac’s hospitalization for bursting eye veins.

The most exciting time in politics is about to commence: the post-Labor Day sprint to Election Day. There are a couple of good articles today reflecting this.

"I hope people don't play politics during this period of time," Mr. Bush told Diane Sawyer of ABC's "Good Morning America" in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. "This is a natural disaster, the likes of which our country may have never seen before."

What a load of hate-filled crap. These are the people who are controlling the politics of this administration!

This is not about Republican or Democrat - poor leadership is not only the domain of one party - but it most definitely is about politics. It is about who we elect as our leaders, the choices they make on our behalf, and whether we are paying attention to the job they are doing before it is too late.

It’s only natural to look forward to Friday, if you don’t enjoy what you’re doing for a living. Now, don’t get me wrong. I actually loved what I was doing as a corporate trainer. When I was in front of the classroom teaching, I couldn’t have been happier. I had fun. It was a great time. Problem is, eventually I had to go back to my desk and deal with the corporate BS or Politics… if you want to be politically correct.

“It’s high time to rescue ‘intelligent design’ from the politics of religion. There are too many riddles not yet answered by either biology or the Bible, and by asking them honestly, without foregone conclusions, science could take a huge leap forward.” MORE

This development reflects a critical turn in the relationship between the Sheat clergy and the government, and the ruling politicians will be faced again by the danger of having clerics interfering with politics but this time, the Sheat alliance which insisted onmentioning the clergy in the introduction of the constitution will certainly realize this danger and they will be left before a hard choice as they have put all their weight on the balance of the clergy and if the latter lets them down the consequences will be catastrophic for those politicians.

Seriously, I’m reading the South Dakota blogs and I’m getting sick. It’s generally a bunch of East River people so entrenched in partisan politics that they can’t see what a great day this is for South Dakota, and particularly Western South Dakota. I’m not defending the progressives or the conservatives.

The subhead for the main story gives what might be the most important news: “Move over, politics. Americans are looking for personal, ecstatic experiences of God, and, according to our poll, they don’t much care what the neighbors are doing.” That has to be a nightmare concept for the Talibaptists of the Religious Reich, who have exercised their lust for power by claiming that orthodox busybodies are a voting majority of Americans.

People like Jose Arguelles do not represent either the Pagan movement or Earth day in any significant way whatsoever. To make that claim would be like saying that Jerry Falwell represents all of Christianity. There are generally recognized and respected leaders of the Pagan community but he is not one of them. Besides, Paganism is divided into many different denominations or “paths” and not all of them agree on matters of politics or theology. Even if you could interview a leader of the Pagan community, any conclusions would only represent the path that person represents. Otherwise it would be like trying to draw conclusions about what Mennonites believe by interviewing a Catholic.

However, satisfactorily, I concluded that there is no doubt, that Gambians and friends of the Gambia can only see the chemistry in their politics as fake, false and an entanglement between lies, fears, distortion and shamelessness. Yankuba Touray in the first place was charged with economic crimes and found guilty of stealing millions from Gambian state coffers. Has Yanks case been already dumped in the doldrums or is Jammeh just taking Gambians and the civilize world for a ride? Once the APRC can come out with a convincing answer to such a question, then Gambians and friends of The Gambia will find their causes to be true and genuine. Yanks must know that he has been exposed beyond reasonable doubts as not only a thief and a liar, but also a murderer. Gambians and friends of The Gambia at home and abroad, must know that retired Captain Touray brutally participated in the murder of FORMER FINANCE SECRETARY OF STATE OUSMAN KORO CEESAY, who was beaten with batons at his residence and finally driven in his own car to be only found burnt in into ashes whilst taking the last breaths of his life. Should we therefore listen to such a Politician?

But No Politics. Despite going mountain biking with President Bush and inviting his Democrat rival John Kerry to his big retirement party in Paris, Armstrong maintains that he is not going into politics, reiterating that the stress and the time away from his family would be too much. That aside, he did offer this comment on the money spent on the US's involvement in Iraq. "As a survivor, I think we would be better spending money on an illness like cancer," he said. Armstrong did indicate in post Tour de France interviews that he might consider a career in politics, but now he says that was “more or less a joke.” We’ll see about that!

Levy spent years as a critic of Sharon's character and politics. He is now certain that the prime minister's Gaza pull-out initiative is for real. Regardless of its origins and motives, Sharon has become personally committed to it, as his pet project, and he does not like to be on the losing side and have his name appear along with the word "failure" in the same headline.

I am Rodric (a basterdized verision of Roderick derived from german meaning fame and power which i quite like), a 24 year old student of politics, currently wasting my time by spending a week besides the sea in Swansea.

But, as the Washington Post points out, the issue is also handy politics. While immigration is not a major issue in more rural areas of Virginia, it is in Democratic, and vote-rich, Northern Virginia, an area Kilgore would like to make headway in.

Two men having sex with each other in Iran would not consider themselves to be Gay, the way that Western (American) society would want them to be. Their faith, their politics, their family, their society do not enable them to use the label "Gay". So why do we thrust it upon them?

Last year, the government prohibited the use of English words on television and foreign programs that promote “western ideology and politics.” It also banned programs about crime or violence in prime time in order to promote a “healthy environment” for children.

Communism did kill, Courtois and his fellow historians demonstrate, with ruthless efficiency: 25 million in Russia during the Bolshevik and Stalinist eras, perhaps 65 million in China under the eyes of Mao Zedong, 2 million in Cambodia, millions more Africa, Eastern Europe, and Latin America–an astonishingly high toll of victims. This freely expressed penchant for homicide, Courtois maintains, was no accident, but an integral trait of a philosophy, and a practical politics, that promised to erase class distinctions by erasing classes and the living humans that populated them. Courtois and his contributors document Communism’s crimes in numbing detail, moving from country to country, revolution to revolution. The figures they offer will likely provoke argument, if not among cliometricians then among the ideologically inclined. So, too, will Courtois’s suggestion that those who hold Lenin, Trotsky, and Ho Chi Minh in anything other than contempt are dupes, witting or not, of a murderous school of thought–one that, while in retreat around the world, still has many adherents. A thought-provoking work of history and social criticism, The Black Book of Communism fully merits the broadest possible readership and discussion.

This is above electoral politics and shows that the Jihad is definitely being directed by clerics in both branches of Islam, Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran. In the Islamic world this is a sign of legitimacy given to the war effort by the religious establishment. Islamic religious leaders in mosques in other countries, whether in the Islamic world, Europe, Asia or the U. S. the same message of support is being made and very openly.

Politically, Japan has become more conservative. Its Left has effectively collapsed. The Socialist party was never serious about governing, but existed as an obstructionist force in parliament (sound familiar?). After electoral reform in the early 1990s, it all but evaporated. Japanese politics has become more populist, and Japanese society more open and less risk-averse. A new generation of politicians both in the ruling Liberal Democratic party and in the opposition Democratic party is not so wedded to the old pieties. "Japan is tired of constantly apologizing, and it wants a place in the sun more than in a pure economic sense," says former State Department official Jim Kelly.

According to Hateful Harry, the only political affiliation appropriate for Blacks is with the Democratic Party. Any one who strays from Hateful Harry's plantation gets a verbal whipping. Those who decide to throw off the politics of poverty, go out and get their own, and God forbid become Republicans are now ''tyrants'', or ''house slaves''.

Robert Novak, whose revelation of a CIA officer's name in a 2003 column has sparked a federal probe, was suspended by CNN after he swore and walked off the set during a live taping of "Inside Politics." ***

All the while, Oppenheimer maintained relationships with communists. As most intellectuals during the 1930’s, Oppenheimer saw the depression as a failure of capitalism and communism as the wave of the future. Using his vast inheritance, he bankrolled many left wing causes while marrying a former communist Kitty Harrison. It was these associations that would come back to haunt him later although it appears Oppenheimer himself was never that interested in politics. In fact, once Stalin’s horrors started to become known, Oppenheimer began to cut his ties with most left wing organizations and individuals. Cynics also point to the fact that it was at this time that the federal government was getting interested in the potential for building the atom bomb and that Oppenheimer’s associations would have precluded his participation.

A year ago, the liberal group America Coming Together was on the cutting edge of national politics, spending tens of millions of dollars on a massive voter-mobilization project in every presidential battleground state.

First, it was blogs. Then, it was Meetup.com. Now, the newest technology to combine the Internet and politics is slowly starting to creep into the mainstream: podcasting.

So there’s a none-too-subtle undercurrent of yearning here for the Christian Right’s familiar (but fictional) version of the good old days, when religious instruction was an integral part of public schools, when science looked toward the Bible for guidance, and when anyone who questioned religion’s role in politics became an instant pariah.

This blog, as with all others, is concerned with all the things that are important to me and which occupy my mind on a daily basis. My obsessions; weather, books, music, travel, politics. My hatred of ‘home’; how terrible the UK has become (I rue the day that I have to step foot upon English soil and, if I had my way, I would never return to that sorry land), and other random meaningless, meaningful, irrelavent, relavent thoughts and ideas on whatever is on my mind. I make no apologies for offensive opinions, cliched observations or poor spelling/grammar.

Personally, I’ve always loved to spend part of my summer reading — history, biography, science fiction, politics (surprise, surprise), and more. Unfortunately, I haven’t had a lot of time to do it recently, given the combo of a) a day job, b) RaisingKaine, and c) having a life (i.e, wife, friends, family). This weekend, though, I read a great book, one of the all time classics of science fiction, called “Star Maker” by Olaf Stapledon. Here’s the book description from Amazon.com:

Moving into the realm of politics, take the case of Karl Rove, the man who - all the current evidence suggests - outed CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson in retaliation for her husband’s refusal to go along with the myth of an Iraqi nuclear threat. If a Democrat were to reveal the identity of a CIA agent or otherwise leak classified material to the press, you may be sure he or she would be tarred, feathered and suspended from a lamppost within hours of the crime. But Rove carries on with his vicarious presidency - continuing to promote Bush’s voter-repelling social security plan and playing a visible role in the selection of the new supreme court justice.