Politics

I read tonight that France appears poised to elect a conservative president and overturn decades of socialism in favor of a pro-American capitalist who pledges tax cuts, crackdowns on crime, immigration reform, reduced government ownership of industry and public funding for religious organizations. And I didn't suddenly wake up at that point, either. I kept dreaming, and learned that he also proposes capping tax rates at 50% of income (instead of 70%), eliminating welfare for unemployed workers who refuse to take work offered to them, reforming copyright law, and eliminating the budget deficit. (Well I guess he's not a total Republican....) But no, it's reall…

Three of the 10 Republican candidates raised their hand to show they did not believe in evolution. They apparently did not feel the need to expand on their answer, although it was a Yes/No request, everyone expanded on requests like that before. McCain, who said "yes" that he does believe in evolution, felt the need to expand his answer, by saying the Hand of God is present in a sunset. Assuming they are not just pandering to a group, does it matter if a President has so little grasp on science? Edited: clarify McCain's answer

These guys are Internet superstars! http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Feature-Article.htm?InfoNo=018197&From=News http://neomeme.net/2007/04/29/mike-gravel-2008-presidential-campaign-given-new-life-by-the-internet/ What makes them different? Well, for one, both have clearly broken from mainstream partisan politics. They're willing to call BS where they see it. They have very different politics, but both appeal to be greatly. I guess Mike Gravel appeals to my liberal side and Ron Paul appeals to my libertarian side. Personally I think there would be no better presidential race this election than Mike Gravel vs. Ron Paul, but of course that will neve…

The nomination, probably. The election, probably not. I do not doubt her intelligence or political savvy. She has Bill's ability to triangulate issues but I do not see her having 1/100th of Bill's charisma. Even in the picture on her own web page, she looks plastic. She would be something like Dukakis who never could show who he was inside. I could easily see her having this kind of moment: Bernard Shaw: "Governor, if Kitty Dukakis [his wife] were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?" I remember being annoyed at this point thinking Bernad Shaw had given Dukakis a softball precisely so he could show some emotio…

I've spent considerable time on this forum defending capitalism, but I've always had a bad feeling about corporations. I work for one, so the hypocrisy on my part is noted and leaves me somewhat torn. The thing is, when people criticize capitalism - particularly internationally and how we are perceived across the globe, how we treat people in the world, the wars and complete irreverant and lobsided consumption of resources - it seems like it often comes down to corporations, not necessarily capitalism itself. Corporations don't really have a conscience and I'm not sure they're capable by design, or at least not the publicly traded ones. Nameless, faceless st…

I bring this up mainly out of one of my main beefs with the Democratic party. As a liberaltarian there's many issues I'm diametrically opposite to the Democrats on. These are things like gun control, free speech (vs. PC speech), musicians rights, video game producers rights, etc. Because of these main disparities, I refer to the Democrats in the 3rd person. I typically call them "The Democrats", as in "I hope the Democrats don't..." However, I'm a registered Democrat. This is so I can vote in the Democratic party (and put in for my progressive/liberaltarian candidates of choice) I think this is a bit weird. Most people refer to their political party of ch…

Here's a thread to discuss the debates. I didn't see anything too interesting in the first debate except I kept wondering if John Edwards purposefully made his hair a bit messy. So here's a question while we wait: Which debate would you most like to see regardless of who you support for president? My vote would be Hillary vrs. Newt.

One of the most interesting things happening this week in American politics was something that actually didn't happen in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings: Gun control did not become a central issue again. The reason why it didn't happen is because Democrats have been pulling back on this issue for some time now. Some of them have even joined the other side, such as Virginia Senator Jim Webb. It's been under discussion for some time now that Democrats decided to back-burner gun control in order to help win the 2006 mid-term elections, and it appeared to pay off for them in spades. They want to keep that majority, so it seems likely that they'll continue to …

just Died at age 76. there`s nothing for me to add, it`s not hit the Net yet.

This is what certain legislators are trying to do (which is in itself unconstitutional). By this, of course, I mean giving senatorial representation to the District of Columbia. Its a district for a reason, and the constitution clearly states that only states get representation in the legislative branches. If DC gets a representative by statute, what about the US Virgin Islands, Guam, and various other bases, territories and districts? I find this highly unsettling and I sincerely hope it gets overturned in the courts if they ever push it through.

60 Minutes ran a fascinating piece this past week about the movement, primarily in poor African American communities, called "Stop Snitchin'". The general idea of this movement, which has widespread support, is to stop people from cooperating with police in any way, from plea agreements to eyewitness testimony. You can watch the entire 13-minute video segment at this URL: http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?channel=60Sunday A "print" version of the story is available here: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/19/60minutes/main2704565.shtml The Wikipedia has a writeup of the phenomenon here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_snitchi…

I'm not sure this is the best way to handle foreign policy.

I thought there should probably be a thread about this. From what I understand, 15 British naval personnel were taken prisoner in the Persian Gulf by Iran. The British claim it was in Iraqi waters, the Iranians claim it was in their waters. They're still being held, although the Iranians say they're going to release the one female sailor. I don't understand why this isn't a bigger story. It could be taken as an act of war, couldn't it? Is that what Iran wants? Luckily the Brits seem to understand how delicate the situation is, and are being firm but not evertly threatening. And it is a delicate situation. Iran can't be allowed to get away with abducting people, a…

Does anyone have any thoughts about this anouncement? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6558569.stm

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,267340,00.html Just thought this story was funny. When people overreact to this extent, it reminds me I live in America. Can you imagine how free you aren't when running for office? The land of the free, unless you're in politics, then anything you even joke about - every minute of everyday - can and will be distorted and exaggerated about you out of the original context and into some new context. I don't think I could handle the lack of candid speech - free speech - involved with becoming a politician. Well, and then I hate most politicians, so there's that too...

Should all drugs be Illegal, if not which drugs should be legal or illegal. Please explain why you think this way also. Feel free to express your position in ways I may have not covered with the question, such as you may support drugs being legal for people with medical conditions, etc...

And the only country in the world capable of doing something is US (sorry to place the burden on your shoulders once again) 70,000 have died in refugee camps http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041015/ap_on_re_af/un_darfur_2 The thing is, if Bush, Blair made a case for war on basis of Human rights violations, it would have been more legitimate than one based on sketchy, outdated intelligence exptrapolated and wildly spun. What I would Like the US to to is to present of UN resolution for a case on liberating SUDAN, on the basis of the atrocious situation right now. I think i speak for all of us here , that this move would be very welcome. and mos…

Is it me or have there been a lot of 5-4 rulings lately? http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/04/18/scotus.abortion/index.html While past Presidents have been almost criminalized for opposing this ban (e.g. Clinton) such rebuke overlooks what was lacking in the proposed legislation all along: medical exemptions. This law essentially condems any woman who would die while giving birth to a death sentence. Never mind if the baby will die as well or be born without a brain (neural tube defects can go undiscovered until the third trimester), you can't get a partial birth abortion even you will die otherwise. Oh, and Roberts made his views on abortion pretty clear with …

If you were reading closely between the lines this week then you may have noticed a very subtle but powerful shiv slipping between the ideological ribs of the Democratic party. In the wake of the Don Imus scandal, the media absolutely CEMENTED itself to the slam-fest against hip-hop music this week, with virtually no effort made to give the other side its say. Free speech advocates were as rare as unarmed bodyguards at a hip hop awards show. One of the most interesting things about it was just the sheer number of ostensibly liberal/left/free-speech organizations that immediately launched full salvos against rap. Even the National Organization of Women, which norm…

I realize it's kind of a rule of thumb that any attempt to associate political positions with personality types will almost certainly devolve into a stupid flame war. However, it's still quite tempting, given the high correlations of agreement in seemingly unrelated issues, making terms like "liberal" and "conservative" very nearly meaningful in describing the general outlooks of a great many people. Usually such terms are overused and oversimplified, but there still seems to be some truth behind them. That said, I promise I do NOT have any kind of agenda here. This is something which occured to me just now, and is still quite poorly formed in my mind. The idea here i…

In light of the wholesale attack on the gang culture hip hop music industry... Ok, so I can't help but to remember when my mom and dad shook their heads at my music - heavy metal. Lyrically speaking about death, politics, manipulation, drugs, sex and etc. And we did do drugs and sex and carried a fatalistic attitude about everything. But, without heavy metal, I still would have done the same things - music was a compliment to my attitude, it didn't shape it. And, arguably, I needed an outlet to my frustrations being a teenager and all ( Hey, it's tough when you know everything but grown-ups won't listen to you...) My position has always been that music do…

ok, i was going to winge about how little content the latest labour BBC party political broadcast has, and go off on a sarcastic tangent about democracy ideally having more (or indeed any) emphasis on what the party's actually going to be doing with the local constituencys, and why we should actually vote for labour, and less focus on what was basically an advert. I mean, "irrelevent bollox BUY COKE" might be ok for products, but i'd preffer to not have my current govournment reduced to "irrelevent bollox VOTE LABOUR". there was absolutely not ONE single mention of any policies, and instead just a highly artificial bandying-about of the labour product name to raise ma…

I just thought it would be amusing to see if I could catch anyone in a rather obvious hypocrisy, given our current discussion about whether drug use should be legalized.

Two days ago, I heard on the news that there is to be a new role for some of the many cctv cameras we have in England. Apparently if someone is seen dropping litter for example the camera will tell them not to do this. Does anyone have any views on this?

As scientists we are still trying to figure out the best way how to make Mars hospitable. Eventually we'll come up with a feasible idea, Mars will turn green and scientists will be happy (overly generalized , but then what? Who would own the territory and how would we split it? Would we share it in the first place? How does one buy land on Mars and from who? If someone wants a piece of land that is unoccupied can one just have it? What if we start a war on Mars and the strongest nation gets to own the planet? Those are just some of the things bothering me and I'd like to hear what you think, or shoot me a link if it's been discussed before.