Politics

Matt Drudge might not be the most likable person in the world, but he's usually accurate: http://www.drudgereport.com/flash3rc.htm

On Saturday, 15th January, at 2:00 GMT, the European Space Agency's (ESA) Huygens space probe will land on Saturn's moon Titan. Previously, NASA's Cassini probe flew by Titan, getting a faint glimps of the planets surface, in which geologists believe to be similar to a young Earth. Cassini, carrying Huygens, will drop it's important cargo down to Titan's mysterious surface. For more information on the landing, visit NASA.gov. If you would like to view the landing as it happens, the Science Channel will be showing it live on Saturday a 2:00A.M. GMT.

There's just something really great about this story. For those who haven't heard, the basic story is that some IRA men got into a fight with a couple of men (also Catholic) in a bar. One of the non-IRA men was killed. The IRA men told the 70-odd bar patrons that it was IRA business and they'd better keep their mouths shut. But it turns out the dead man was a father of two kids and a respected member of the community (or at least had a lot of friends). Next thing you know, there's a massive hue and cry from the guy's family, mad at the IRA for killing the guy, and now there's a media frenzy about it. According to the story I saw on ABC News last night, the IRA …

For those interested here is a good link: http://democracyrising.us/content/blogcategory/3/71/

Bernie Ebbers convicted. http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/15/news/newsmakers/ebbers/index.htm?cnn=yes I said before that the thing Ashcroft OUGHT to be remembered for is not the Patriot Act (which half the Democrats in congress, including both Kerry and Kennedy, voted for), but for attacking the corporate corruption beast. I read somewhere that there were over 600 convictions, compared with NONE from the Janet Reno Justice Department (a reign known more for its pandering to corporate political donors than for any kind of "justice"). One more Big One to go. Ken Lay was on 60 Minutes, which was screaming about his connections to the Bush White House (neve…

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/13/politics/13covert.html Oh. My. God. We can no longer trust our government at all.

Do the citizens of the free world have a duty to aid the people under the thumb of dictators and tyrants gain their freedom? If so, does this apply equally to all countries? How does a country manage this without throwing its weight around?

Last night on ABC News, Peter Jennings claimed that Americans consume 13 billion barrels of oil per day. Yes, he actually said that. Okay, it was obviously just a mis-speak. But I think it's interesting the way the press latches on to the oil story, but only when prices are going up. For most of the last half of 2004, prices were actually coming down. Now that they're on the rise again, it's the hottest story in news. So it ends up going something like this: Headline / Price of Oil per Barrel "Oil hits a new all-time high!" / $48 "Biggest one-day increase in decades!" / $46 "Oil gains huge amidst fears of terrorism!" / $44 "Production shortage d…

Here is an account of one of Bush's faith based initiatives. http://slate.msn.com/id/2086617/ To sum up, it is a program to evangelize prison inmates in the hopes that it will lead to them "straighten out", but it seems the decision is ultimately the prisoner's. A couple questions: What if the prisoners refuse to be indoctrinated? Are their rights on hold becasue they are prisoners? Is this constitutional? If it was found to be inneffective, why were the statistics lied about to seem positive? Isn't the goal to find a program to help prisoners?

What is a Capitalist? Is the USA a Capitalist country? Can someone try and strip away all the verbosity and tell me straight.

Who is the leader of the free world and when did this happen? Who elected BUsh? The Pope and Bill Gates can have a audience with the president but he will not return my e-mails. How can I respect him if he does not respect me? Paul

From those I know and see most work about 8 hours, 5 days a week. But I read on the internet that alot of americans work 50 hours or more a week. Is this really true or is it only a small portion of the population? Thanks for any real life data!

I guess the states that were victims of the sniper attacks can no longer seek the death penalty for Malvo.

As many of you know, I wasn't a fan of the invasion of Iraq. But it's interesting to look at some of the changes that have taken place since that invasion. - Elections in Palestine - (Local/Limited) Elections in Saudi Arabia for the first time - Elections in Iraq - Syria opens a dialog with Israel for the first time since... the 1973 war (?) - A massive democracy movement breaks out in Lebanon Obviously our invasion of Iraq was not the direct cause of all of these events. But you can just as easily make an argument that none of them might have happened were it not for that invasion and the pressure it's brought to bear on Middle Eastern governments. I'…

I was thinking about how the US upholds it's "reputation" around the world, as the world police, or as a world power. The US seems to have a reluctance to change certain things for fear the they would apear different, or apear less moral. The dollar is used all around the world, not just in America. Lots of countries have change their currency so it is less easy to counterfit. Like Aultralia, they have plastic bills, they pretty cool, they are dang hard to counterfit. But the American currency has had the same look for a very long time. They change a little bit to combat counterfitting, but not much. It seems they have relunctance to change it much becuase if the…

(Please note that this is not intended as a judgement or a proponement of Saudi society. I'm not saying it's better than other societies, or that it's "good" (in fact there's a great deal to dislike about it). I just happen to find their social structure fascinating.) A Saudi minister was asked by a western reporter once when he thought Saudi Arabia would become a democracy. The minister answered "we feel that we are one today". Incredible as it may seem, these people may actually have a valid reason to think they have a democracy. How is this possible? Because they have the two things that often constitute the definition of democracy in many people's eyes: S…

http://www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org/archive/November2004/NYTimesConcedes111804.htm The article above is from a web site that's aimed at pushing conservative causes on college and university campuses, but the article itself was originally from the New York Times, and as far as I know it wasn't edited or anything. I'm just using it from that site because you can read it for free. (The Times requires not only registration, but actual *payment*, to read older articles.) Anyway, I mention it here for two reasons: 1) The author, John Tierney, was named today by the New York Times as the replacement for departed conservative columnist William Safire. My gues…

What the heck, I think I'll start a second thread just for old times' sake. This is something I've been meaning to harp on lately, and I just posted something that's construable as anti-right, so a little anti-left jabbing seems in order. (grin) If you want to see the difference between Democrats/liberals who are fairly normal, mainstream people, and Democrats/liberals who are so extreme they make you wonder if forced birth control might be a good idea after all, you need look no further than the issue of Iraq. Many outspoken Democrats, who spared no punches during the 2004 election cycle, have been ardent, even outspoken, in their support for our current efforts …

Hey folks! It's been a while and I had a slight break from my workload at school so I thought I'd swing by and see how things are going at SFN. Looks like you guys have been keeping up the tradition of excellence in debate and discussion. Just for fun, here's a little something I whipped up a few days ago for some friends of mine on a private board that we use to keep in touch. (Hence the invective at the end -- don't take it personally!) ------------- "Blue Dogs" are moderate-to-conservative Democrats in the House of Representatives who support a balanced budget and logical fiscal spending. Here's their 12-point plan: 1 Require a balanced budge…

Who have you been listening to? The people were terrorized under Sadaam. The US helped the people overthrow the tryranical government, and the situation continues to improve. Just because a Nation is powerful doesn't mean that they are nessicarily the agressor, or that anyone assumes that way. People in Iraq can now vote with more than one man on the ballot, girls and women can now go to school and even own property (what a concept!) people have rights now! Why would you think that they wouldn't want that?

June 20, 2004 Poker With Dick Cheney Transcript of The Editors' regular Saturday-night poker game with Dick Cheney, 6/19/04. Start tape at 12:32 AM. The Editors: We'll take three cards. Dick Cheney: Give me one. Sounds of cards being placed down, dealt, retrieved, and rearranged in hand. Non-commital noises, puffing of cigars. TE: Fifty bucks. DC: I'm in. Show 'em. TE: Two pair, sevens and fives. DC: Not good enough. TE: What do you have? DC: Better than that, that's for sure. Pay up. TE: Can you show us your cards? DC: Sure. One of them's a six. TE: You need to show all your cards. That's the way the game…

I was just thinking, after watching CNN and the news here about a really bothering question. There's no doubt that the media (in all its various shapes and appearances) has incredible ammount of power over the world's population. The media, theoretically (god, I hope not practically) can state flat-out lies and the population of the world would believe it, if it's convincing - or "visual" enough. If any of you has seen "Wag the Dog" - you'd know what I mean. If not, think about this hypothetical question (I stress: HYPOTHETICAL. I don't deny any event occuring in Bosnia even for a second, this is just to prove a point) -- What if the war didn't really happened AS …

this info`s just come my way, you may see news programs about it soon. a commonly use red food color agent has been found to be carcinigenic, see here: http://www.food.gov.uk/safereating/sudani/sudanlist a list of the foods and where from with dates. edit: links for the lazy: http://www.foodnavigator.com/news/news-ng.asp?id=47595-recalls-of-sudan http://news.google.com/news?q=%22sudan+1%22&hl=en&lr=&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-10,GGLD:en&sa=N&tab=nn&oi=newsr http://www.healthypages.net/forum/tm.asp?m=125093&mpage=1𞢥 http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/EnvironmentalServices/foodhygieneandstandards/fsasudan1_warning031003.asp fai…

Should private companies have the right to discriminate against potential employees based on race/sex/religion/anything they want? I was listening to people argue over this on the radio today. I can see where both sides are coming from, but I tend to go with "yes".

I think privatizing Social Security is another scheme to help the rich get richer. There are many flaws with Bush's plan, and I'm very leery this will turn out just like deregulation of energy utilities, where service stays the same but costs skyrocket since these new private companies take their profits from the equation. http://www.socsec.org/ http://www.socsec.org/publications.asp?pubid=503 http://zfacts.com/p/486.html