Politics

I read something recently about a youngish, up-and-coming novelist whose agent asked him to look at a screenplay and consider turning it into a novel. The screenplay had been written by a wannabe politico who at the time (1996) was a high-ranking public health official. Anyway, the story itself was pretty ordinary, about an outbreak in the US which becomes an epidemic, and the hero detective whose dogged determination pays off and he not only helps to "save the country" but uncovers the truth about the epidemic: it was smallpox unleashed by Saddam Hussein in a plot to destabilise the US of A. OMG... So, as the hero is being congratulated by the Commander in Chie…

Is our judiciary under seige, or is the extra attention warranted? That's the question I hope to focus on with this thread. Bill O'Reilly does this quite often on the subject of child pedophiles, sending Fox News reporters to challenge judges in their own driveways when they let pedophiles go with sentences he feels are too lenient. But it's not just him! I just watched an ABC News report exposing Texas judge Sharon Keller for closing her courthouse at 5pm rather than let it stay open a few minutes longer to hear a potential appeal on a Death Row inmate who was then executed shortly thereafter. ABC showed the judges photograph and even stationed a camera outs…

""THE environmental campaigner Al Gore is being tipped as a favourite to win the Nobel peace prize in Oslo this Friday in a controversial move that could place saving the planet above saving people from war and conflict. Gore, a former American vice-president and failed presidential candidate, has reinvented himself as the “Goracle” with a rock star following after presenting last year’s Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, about the dangers of climate change. He was nominated for the Nobel prize jointly with Sheila Watt-Cloutier, a Canadian Inuit activist who has campaigned about the effect of climate change on Arctic peoples. " .. ......... Some…

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071010/pl_nm/usa_security_democrats_dc Democrats refused to grant retroactive immunity to telcos that participated in Bush's illegal spying program, and pushed through a bill that rolls back some of the sickening provisions they passed in August as part of a compromise with Bush and other Republicans, reinstating FISA oversight and requiring 1 year blanket warrants for surveillance involving American citizens. My take (as an avid EFF supporter): ABOUT F*CKING TIME

We already know that if everyone in China owned a car the oil industry would not be able to supply the fuel. Never mind the calculations for China's eventual energy needs, or India's, or Africa's. Supplies of oil are only just keeping up with current demand from developed countries, so the supply chain will need to about treble in size to cope with the coming demand, and the industry admits it simply will not be able to do this. But we continue to cut down 200 and 300 year old trees because people want furniture, and houses. The demand for resources continues to accelerate, and we can't be all that far from the point where we just use them all up. Like the collapse of…

The US Dollar is now valued below the Canadian Dollar. http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?amt=1&from=USD&to=CAD&submit=Convert& What does this say about America's fiscal policy? The Senate just approved a measure to raise the statutory limit on the national debt: http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=1&vote=00354 The Fed just lowered interest rates to satisfy Wall Street. Is the greenback becoming increasingly irrelevant? I think the Fed has been underregulating and our government has been far too unconcerned with sound fiscal policy. The Bush tax cuts c…

http://www.ronpaul2008.com/issues/life-and-liberty/ Ron Paul is trying to turn Roe vs Wade into a states rights issue. He has a rather unique perspective on this: He's an OB/GYN and also a libertarian. I can certainly see where he's coming from. However, I feel this is an extremely difficult issue and that the ramifications transcend states rights. What this calls into question is at what point humans receive the protections of the Constitution and come under the rule of law. Are these things States should be deciding? I certainly don't think so...

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/10/us.turkey.armenians/index.html?iref=mpstoryview The Betrayed: (Armenian Genocide documentary) http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=-7833166317264817428&q=armenie+genocide&total=1399&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=2 the world is watching.

Well, the question is pretty well summed up in the thread title. Here's the proverbial rock dropped into the pond of water. Let's see where the ripples go and what they hit.

Bush has vetoed a bill that would expand health coverage for mostly lower income children an additional 4 million from the 6.6 million the program presently covers. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071003/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_children_s_health The bill, which costs approximately $7 billion a year, would be funded by a $0.61 increase in the excise tax on cigarettes. I really don't know what to say. Bush is one of, if not the most fiscally irresponsible presidents in history, and has bolstered defense spending (NOT including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) to levels which exceed the rest of the world combined. Now he's trying to paint himself as somehow b…

Yup, in the United States of America, voters in two major states will not be allowed to have a say in their states' primaries. And those are voters in the Democratic Party -- that stalwart defender of freedom and opposition to those evil conservatives. This bizarre sequence of events is happening because of issues regarding the scheduling of primaries. In essence it has become a battle over who holds power in the Democratic Party -- national or local officials. Essentially what's happened is that state officials moved the primaries ahead of February 5th, which is the date that the party decreed that state elections must follow. The reason for that date is tha…

One of the most ridiculous arguments I keep hearing about Iran's "supposed" (but probably very likely) pursuit of nuclear weapons technology, is that Ahmedinejad has vowed to drop the very first one they build on Tel-Aviv, or words to that effect. But this would be both a very improbable and very irrational act on Iran's behalf. Not only because Ahmed does not actually have his finger on any button(s), but because it is fairly unlikely that the mullahs are prepared, despite all their thundering, to invite annihilation of their country from the inevitable Israeli/US retaliation. If it is such a dangerous proposition to allow some country, branded part of an axis …

I'm surprised nobody made a thread about this yet, considering all the hubbub about Blackwater recently, American-hired mercenaries who peaked a long history of needless aggression with a shootout that was supposedly totally unnecessary and left many civilians dead. The Iraqi government is demanding they be kicked out of the country. I guess I'll give it a go: Private contractors hired by the U.S. government outnumber military personnel in Iraq. They fill roles ranging from selling burgers on military bases to guarding convoys. In most cases, they cost more money than the military would use to perform the same job. In many cases, no laws apply to them whatsoever. …

Hello, what do you (not in belgium living) people heard about the political crisis in Belgium? And what do you think about it? Its maybe a strange question but when I ask "fellow-Belgians" , they don't know more than me.

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1663424,00.html Is mock outrage hurting American politics? This post is missing my opinion bacause I forgot to put it in here. Thanks for pointing that out, Pangloss!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/27/us/27verizon.html?em&ex=1191038400&en=31869ac289f98a57&ei=5087 In a nutshell, Verizon rejected a request by Naral Pro-Choice America to implement an opt-in messaging system whereby users send an instant message to a five-digit code and Naral then updates them with periodic news, information, etc. The system has been implemented by other cellphone carriers. Note that the system does not involve advertising to non-participants. It's purely an opt-in system. But Verizon rejected it anyway, on the following grounds: I think this is a mistake. Why would it be unsavory to users who asked to hear the informatio…

After the second Republican presidential debate in which the candidates were asked if they believe in evolution, Mike Huckabee expressed surprise that the question would even be asked. "[i'm] not planning on writing the curriculum for an eighth-grade science book." Does he have a point? In politicians running for high public office (like say, President of the United States), how important are their science stances to how you're likely to vote? Do they trump other issues? Would you elect a President who agreed exactly with your economic beliefs and your stance on the Iraq War and illegal immigration, but didn't (or did, I suppose, if you go that way) believe in gl…

Well..somebody had to start a thread on it... Here's the story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16885997/ http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,297440,00.html And I completely agree. You cannot get away with beating folks just because you're black and they're white and they jerked your chain, racist or otherwise. Jerking your chain is not illegal, beating people is. Hanging nooses from a tree is not illegal. Beating people is. I don't understand this demonstration and calls to free 6 kids who beat some other kid unconscious. Being racist is not illegal. Practicing racism is also not illegal, depending on the practice. Obviously, denying em…

Let me start by saying that I'm a liberaltarian and thus stand for a limited subset of conservative values. I'm also enamored with Ron Paul and the staunch disconnect he provides with modern (i.e. neo)conservatism. Whatever happened to ideas like: - fiscal responsibility - limited government - personal responsibility - individual liberty - states' rights - isolationism Neoconservatism, at least under Bush, has advocated a policy of: - rampant, fiscally unsound spending - massive expansion of governmental power - governmental responsibility for individual safety - stripping of liberties to promote the safety of the population as a whole - increased fede…

Saw an interesting article on Petraeus and the Iraq Report today: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20657191/site/newsweek/ Among other interesting tidbits, it talks about the U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual (FM 4-23) authored by Petraeus, used as the basis for the surge, was largely obsolete by the time we actually got there. Its original focus was on boosting loyalty to the central government, a strategy which proved unteneable. According to one of the coauthors of the manual, Sarah Sewall, director of Harvard's Carr Center for Human Rights: Hence the focus on progress in the Anbar province: And that's the sad state of affairs…

has been proposed: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6990482.stm I`ll see if I can find out what these 7 points are, but at face value it seems like a great idea. this is an interesting transcript also: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmselect/cmsctech/uc747-i/uc74702.htm

Religion and politics may intersect at any time, this is a given. For those of you who wish to discuss a religious matter in the politics forum, and for whatever reason can't possibly wait a few days for the launch of our new religion sister site, here is an attempt to clarify the position. We are not interested in jumping at the throat of each and every post that mentions religion. What we don't want are discussions that revolve around religious matters. Clarification: religious discussion per se is no longer considered appropiate or desirable content for Science Forums dot Net. Debating theistic impacts on non-theistic topics is fine. If you are start…

Hillary Clinton introduced her new healthcare plan this week, which would cost $110 billion/yr and be funded by the removal of Bush tax cuts. While this does represent a huge increase in spending, it would cover the main part of the gap that currently exists for Americans, helping with situations that aren't covered by CORBA (when departing a company) and offering government healthcare programs to those not currently able to afford coverage. The program is similar to that used in Massachusetts, which was brought in under governor Mitt Romney. But Romney calls the new Clinton plan "socialized medicine" and his people are saying that what's right for Massachusetts i…

"AMERICA’s elder statesman of finance, Alan Greenspan, has shaken the White House by declaring that the prime motive for the war in Iraq was oil. In his long-awaited memoir, to be published tomorrow, Greenspan, a Republican whose 18-year tenure as head of the US Federal Reserve was widely admired, will also deliver a stinging critique of President George W Bush’s economic policies. However, it is his view on the motive for the 2003 Iraq invasion that is likely to provoke the most controversy. “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil,” he says. Greenspan, 81, is understood to believ…

Most of my life I considered myself part of the liberal movement. It was only over the past few years that I decided to go against them. It has to do with the original positive charter having become very regressive. I am not a conservative, by try to stay sort of in the middle. Back in the 1960's and early 1970's the liberals were part of the "love generation". They actually set the ethical standards higher. Let me give one example. Back then divorce was still quite rare. But there were some women in very difficult situations, due to abusive husbands. But there was a social stigmatism against divorce. It was not just their own self that felt social shame, but the sha…