Politics

http://www.slate.com/id/2167284/pagenum/all/#page_start In effect: direct mail voter registration checks with "do not forward" on the envelopes were used as part of a massively coordinated campaign (by the Republican party) to suppress voters, primarily those in college or the military (overseas, fighting) of their right to vote. Is this what's really at the heart of the attorney scandal?

Hmm, Kyoto deja vu: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/05/31/bush.climate.ap/ I guess this is a step in the right direction, but I wish there were more of a focus of addressing climate change in a multitude of different ways, rather than just emissions limits

President Bush ratcheted up the sanctions on Sudan today, and promised that Americans would not turn a blind eye on genocide. China responded promptly, turning a blind eye to genocide by calling sanctions an unhelpful complication. China, which buys a lot of oil from Sudan, even threatened to veto further UN sanctions, which the US also called for today. I just can't wait to be told this is all my fault.

a deadbed Confession: http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2007/300407deathbedconfession.htm Interesting!

Has anyone seen or read much about Ron Paul? I've read some stuff on this website and watched the video and was quite impressed. But I don't know enough about him, so take my post with a grain of salt. http://www.ronpaul2008.com/ I'm really liking this guy, and I appreciate the way he explains himself and his views. Seems like he'd have the potential to really shake up the republican debates, but I haven't watched to see if that's what happens or not. Per that video it certainly looks like it. The only issue I have with him is it seems like he just wants to get out of Iraq without any sense of responsibility for the mess we leave. Here's the cool pa…

This is so sweet. Sharpton definitely should be made to apologize, over and over again on someone's radio show. And his apology should be met with hesitant forgiveness - depending on the wrecking of his career or not. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,271162,00.html This "mistake" is obviously a reflex of his bigotted beliefs that he usually can cover up. Of course, none of that will happen. No one's going to make a big deal out of this except for Romney, and I hope he presses on. Imus made a mistake and admitted it like a big boy, in the face of an unforgiving Sharpton. Al won't even admit he did anything wrong. Interesting how msnbc.com, cbs…

Regarding the recent Horizon documentary concerning the LHC, I was wondering if sensationalizing a topic really does have detrimental effects i.e. will physics just carry on running its course even if the general public is disillusioned by massive claims, or will it really damage the field of physics ? Does anyone have any examples where a report has sensationalized a topic and it has had clear and damaging effects to a certain field e.g. (off the top of my head) the topic of cloning.

Is our government really the product of various sects truly separated in regards to goals and agendas or does our government share something of a unity really in regards to such? What I mean is looking at the U.N or politics of its easy to see how there exists a real lack of trust for one and the real fact that the politics there has to breech such divides really in order to get anything done. Would you agree or disagree that our government via partisan politics is really heading in that direction, to be a fragmented body of politicians in various sects competing against each other.

Creationists have a noticeable impact in the political arena, especially in the GOP. But while the creationist movement is vigorous and show no sign of fatigue, it's hard to imagine how they could win. Sure, most Americans are on their side, fortunately, science is not a democracy and their "Teach the Controversy" strategy is doomed to fail, no serious courtroom would allow pseudoscience to be taught in science classes. Equally obvious is the fact that creationists will not be able to infiltrate science. Of course, this issue is important enough to make headlines, less important than abortions and gays, but more than many economic issues. In less than 2 weeks I saw it…

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20070526/tuk-uk-britain-education-fa6b408.html This seems silly. Surely a government asking the state private sector for help is essentially just passing the buck? The charity status 'issue" is irritating, states schools tend to have the PTA as a registered charity for whenever they need tax concessions so it's not like the Public and Private schools have an unfair advantage.

This is really no surprise. This is the government's job, to plan for such things. Even I predicted another Vietnam way back then. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070526/ap_on_go_co/iraq_missed_warnings

call me a monster but people should see that we need war every great nation has had an enemy Macedonia and Persia Rome and Carthage england and geramany not the best the USA and the USSR/Terrorism/North Korea we need someone to hate if we didn't we would fall into economic depression war makes a country strong we've been the greatest nation for to long to become pacifist

Pangloss has repeatedly broached how little of the 100 days legislation has passed (virtually none) I was reading this article the other day about the GOP's use of the "motion to recommit", a procedural tactic which can effectively kill a bill on the floor and send it back to committee: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/18/AR2007051801697.html From the article: Could this be an explanation for why the Democratically-controlled Congress hasn't passed much of their promised legislation?

Is the anti-war crowd the left's version of the religious right? - They're particularly zealous about their beliefs - They don't let reality get in the way of their ideology - They tend to push a general ideology (in this case liberalism) farther than most people want it to go (i.e. they represent an extreme branch of a larger, more mainstream ideological framework) Legitimate comparison, or Panglossian nonsense? Just to help spur the discussion, here's an amusing article about anti-war activists getting their hair all tussled over Democrats "backing down" on the war funding bill: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/bulletin/bulletin_070523.htm

Look out Soccer Moms, here come the SAFs! SAF = "Single Anxious Female". Under 30, unmarried, uneducated, unaffluent, and "thoroughly pissed off at the direction of America". (Maybe because they spend too much time watching Grey's Anatomy and not enough time reading a textbook?) Sounds like something a mean-spirited Republican pollster would come up with, right? Wrong. It's the invention of a women's political group as part of a get-out-the-vote effort and a major focus area for the Hillary Clinton campaign. Apparently this is one of the fastest-growing voter groups. Now I'm concerned about the direction of the country! Anyway, here's an article: http://n…

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/the_blair_years/article1771817.ece Gordon Brown gets a turn.

the 'blair resigns' thread reminded me of this. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/constituencies/default.stm share of vote at last general election: Labour: 35.3% Conservative: 32.3% Liberal Democrat: 22.1% Others: 10.3% so, about a third of the people who voted voted for labour. percentage-wize, there should have been a hung parliment, or a coalition: either labour-libdem, labour-conservative, or conservative-libdem. for a hung-parliment, a libdem-other coalition would have resulted in a pretty even three-way split in power between labour, cons, and libdem-other. however, the actual results by seats (i.e., in the way that matters) we…

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-compete26apr26,1,1959536.story?coll=la-news-politics-national They may not agree on much these days, but this week bills sailed through both houses of congress and appear poised for signature by the president. The bills in question will provide funding for 20 new federal education spending programs aimed at students performing below par on mathematics and the sciences, high school teachers working on postgraduate degrees, and scholarships for students entering college in math or science programs. Other funding for the NSF will go specifically to women interested in math and science degrees. The overall amo…

I can see the hackles raising already on this, but frankly I don't really care. I quite enjoy tackling issues that are politically incorrect in the scientific community. It's been my experience that scientists are no less hypocritically inclined than any other group of people, and this community, much as I love it, has done nothing to disabuse me of that notion. With that in mind, I got a kick out of John Stossel's newest episode of "Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity" last night. One of the segments was about BRIEF exposure to second-hand smoke. Some may recall that in a recent discussion right here at SFN, it was declared by anti-smoking advocates that even …

My google has the snopes gadget pop up on my home page and this horrific story turned out to be true. It's floating around the internet as an example of media bias in that the story was not picked up by the larger outlets. A national review author put it this way: I think there is another explanation for the failure for this story to make national news. There was a time when reporting of black on white crime, or alleged crimes, caused lynching and riots and newspapers still step gingerly for this reason. I agree with the national review author that newspapers should publish statistics showing the victims race when they report monthly or yearly homoci…

what power does the UN really have? What are they going to do? say "you better stop developing nukes or we'll be forced to send you an angry letter!!!"

Bill Maher's nonsensical and pompous line, "don't question my patriotism you traitor" did make me think. What is patriotism today and does it have a meaningful role in politics or civic life? Is patriotism destructive or merely meaningless? What does it mean to question a person's patriotism?

Ok, I'm a little confused. Before the democrats took power back, the media was telling me that I'm supposed to believe we need more troops. That was a big deal. Everytime a news camera found a democrat, they were going on about how we need an increased troop presence. The other thing, and I'm sure there's more, is armor. This armor was a huge deal. Again, everytime a news camera focused on a blue politician, they were going on about how Rumsfeld's an idiot and "where's the armor for our troops?". Then, this week they killed a resolution to get more troops and I haven't heard squat about armor since the election. What's the deal? Where did the chorus go?

At what age should people be given the right to participate in democratic elections?

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200703/CUL20070330b.html Do you realize that this bill will make it unlawful for textbooks in California to make references to the word "mom" and "dad"? Because, obviously, any aknowledgement of hetereosexuality threatens the welfare of the gay community.