Politics

I am going to write a letter to the mayor of Newport and hand it to them personally. I state that Newport, South Wales is nothing but a hive of filth and villainy. Moreover, it is a city in which a sovereign born subject of Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth II is subject to ridicule and threatened violence upon by foreign nationals. This is the city that is hosting the Ryder cup! I feel so enraged by my recent experiences of my "home town" that I want my birth certificate amended. I want to denounce any implication of association with the city of Newport.

Alvin Greene is the Democratic candidate for Senate for the state of South Carolina, running for election this fall against incumbent Republican Senator Jim DeMint. What's interesting is how Greene got to be the Democratic candidate for Senate. Apparently the unemployed former Army supply specialist, who lives in a run-down home along a rural highway, simply walked into a State office one day last spring and paid the $10,440 candidacy fee and walked out again. He never campaigned, never met any officials with the Democratic Party, didn't go to the state convention, never did an interview, and until last week apparently never even wore a tie. State Democrats ar…

What a fast-moving story. On Monday night the press secretary handed President Obama a pre-release copy of a Rolling Stone article quoting General McChrystal and his aids as being critical of some administration officials, and today the general was recalled to Washington and called "immature" by the President himself right from the Cabinet Room. Politico has a pretty decent run-down on the situation here: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38837.html The actual Rolling Stone story can be found here: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/119236?RS_show_page=0 I have to say I read it front to back and I think it's a stellar piece of journali…

It's strange how many of us find politics distasteful unless they are being discussed at our convenience and meet our convictions. To show you how much of a politician I am, got an email from a friend in Alabama this morning. She is a Bible thumpin', fire and brimstone preaching, Southern Babptist who is screaming about the gulf oil spill. Love her to death, but you get the message? Sent me this video of a guy named Dennis Prager. Have no idea when it was made, but he is a news analyst, writer, speaker; yada yada yada. But his take on todays situation is one I've held for an entire lifetime in dealing with policy. You may or may not agree, but it sure gave me pause to thi…

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/report-at-least-10-activists-killed-as-israel-navy-opens-fire-on-gaza-aid-flotilla-1.293089 Topic says it all, but some ground rules for a thread like this, since the last time this happened the thread descended into a number of ad hominem attacks against myself: Just because I started this thread does not make me pro-Palestine Just because I started a thread which casts Israel in a bad light does not make me an anti-Semite I hope you all can recognize that Israel and Palestine are both doing bad things That said... discuss. My opinion is Israel seriously needs to be sanctioned, especially by the US which despi…

If this gains wider acceptance, this would be completely outrageous! http://gizmodo.com/5553765/are-cameras-the-new-guns I understand why a police officer would have a legitimate concern: he wouldn't want to have misleading video that could damage his/her reputation simply because he's enforced an unpopular law or if edited video misrepresents the severity or violence of his actions. However, outrightly banning filming in public spaces is not only unconstitutional (as it seems to me) it's unenforceable. It will be enforced, most likely, when cops don't want to look bad when they do something stupid. Thoughts?

The Supreme Court announced a 6-3 vote today upholding the provision in the Patriot Act that allows for the prosecution of individuals who provide material support, including knowledge and other communications, which had been objected-to by human rights and free speech organizations. The dissent consisted of Breyer, Ginsburg and Sotomayor. Stephens, who retires in a few days. His planned replacement, Stevens, voted with the majority, and his planned replacement, Elena Kagan, actually argued the case for the government (representing the Obama administration, which brought the appeal) late last year. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iyoQv…

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/technology/07net.html A federal appeals court ruled unanimously that the FCC does not have the legal authority to regulate the Internet under present law. I can't say I disagree with the letter of the ruling. I don't know what powers present legislation grants the FCC in this regard. However, I would certainly like to see the FCC's authority expanded to include net neutrality. I see no reason why ISPs shouldn't be considered common carriers in the same way telephone companies are.

So why is it that people view the left as more intelligent than the right, exactly? http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/16/us/16cell.html I love this ironic punch-line at the end of the article:

Apparently the general public thinks that the federal government is handling the Texas oil spill in a manner that's even worse than its response to Hurricane Katrina. This is politically significant since Katrina is often named as a key factor in the downfall in George W. Bush's poll numbers in his second term. President Obama is up for re-election in 2012, but his party faces a tough mid-term election in less than five months. The article includes a link to a PDF showing charts and questionnaire sample. http://abcnews.go.com/PollingUnit/Media/poll-bp-oil-spill-rated-worse-katrina-criminal-charges/story?id=10846473

Looks like carbon offsets have met their demise. They were notably missing from the President's speech last night. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38599.html Some observers also see this as a sign that there won't be a major climate bill this year: But the President does indicate a lack of patience on the issue: (I think the author meant to write "fair hearing" in the quote above!) And there is some reason to think a bill may still be forthcoming this year. Senators Kerry and Lieberman have co-authored a bill that cap emissions below 2005 levels by 2020, and are pressuring Harry Reid to schedule some floor time to debate the…

http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/29/news/economy/offshore_drilling_spill/ Oops. Giant oil spill, thanks to offshore drilling. Drill baby drill? I apologize, this is an inauspicious beginning of a post given my recent complaints against poorly-started threads when Fox is involved, but seriously... does the quality of rhetoric presented by the advocates of offshore drilling really demand a more complex response than "oops, real-world examples of the consequences"?

The House is working on a new Campaign Finance Reform law that has been in the works for some time, but leadership has had a tough time getting it passed. Well apparently a deal was reached today, by way of giving some interesting exceptions to the rule. The Humane Society and the AARP are pretty understandable, ideologically speaking. But the National Rifle Association? Seriously? Wow. Something tells me that won't play at MoveOn.org. Especially since MoveOn.org ISN'T exempt from the new rules. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/15/nra-remains-the-king-on-t_n_612981.html?igoogle=1

I'm afraid I just have one indirect link on this because it was a video item on local news that I caught just before we left our vacation spot, and I'm afraid to scour the news at the moment because I've tivo'd the US-UK soccer game and I don't want to spoil it! (Have at thee, former colonial oppressors!!!!!) This one is about Obama saying "no hard feelings" to the British and I'm kinda afraid to read it because I see soccer pics on the page. (lol) But the news item I heard was that it's become a bit of a row in the UK -- is that right? Something about some in Britain being upset that Obama has been so critical of BP? I was kinda surprised at that because I didn'…

This is more of an interesting observation than a big topic, but when thinking of the realities libertarians see and that progressives see it strikes me that both really are complaining about the same thing: the indisputable erosive force of human nature: When a libertarian goes into a private business to conduct their affairs, they are generally met with attentive helpful staff who you can tell just by talking to them are alert and well aware their job exists because they maintain a level of service able to complete with their competitors. They are to the point and don't waste time, and try to offer what will meet your needs while ensuring their own are met as well…

I've kinda asked similar questions before, but I think I can clearly define the real thing that bugs me with how we politically deal with debt, the economy and our budgets. 1) Republicans condemn out of control federal spending, saying how we are borrowing money to pay for programs we can't afford - Democrats defend programs because the money creates jobs and provides useful services. 2) Democrats try to cut anything Republicans like (say DoD) or raise taxes - Republicans defend how DoD creates jobs, provides useful services, and how rich people "don't sit on their wealth" but create jobs, provide useful services. Honestly, I can't see how the benefits and …

BP (BRITISH Petroleum) is a publicly traded equity on many exchanges including the NYSE (BP). In the past few weeks the Companies value (market cap) has dropped from around 200BUS$ to under 100B$. As both a foreign Company and one in the Oil/Gas Business, they are highly regulated by Congress and need permits to do much of anything, in addition to stages of any operation. Think about 2008, they did get out of the Retail Business in the US and any holdings along this area are to supply retailers. They do however employ around 30,000 people in the US. http://moneycentral.msn.com/companyreport?Symbol=BP To further advance a coming opinions, Royal Dutch Shell, also op…

so I cam here and tried to post in politics and it's NOT WORKING. do you have some liberal elite who can post in politics? that is WRONG just tonight I found out obama has not even met the CEO of BP and THE LAW says he is responsible for cleaning up the oil spill, not BP and there is a $75 mil limit on the money BP should spend at which point it's OBAMA whould should clean up the oil and OBAMA is not doing anything and this is a huge problem. but I guess there are a bunch of liberal elites here who do not want to talk about these topics

http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2007/01/08/01291.html I hope the 3 out of 4 of you that are due to die in the next 18 months enjoy the time you have left. And for speaking out against this sort of utter bullsh*t we get called deniers.

How long will it be before a parent telling a bedtime story to their children will be shocked to hear one of them ask: Mommy, what are holidays? The Mom replies: Where did you hear such a dirty word? But yes, there was a time when Holidays were a fun thing to do. Let me see!! There was, Christmas, Easter, Memorial Day, the 4th of July, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, and even more, but I cant remember their names at the moment. Some years back the government thought we were taking too much time off from work and decided we really didn't need Holidays, so "bingo" they're gone. Does anyone honestly believe this could happen?

On Friday Arizona's governor signed a new bill into law for that state which requires police to check an individual's citizenship status if they suspect that the individual is in the country illegally. Couple articles pulled at random from Google News: a liberal source a conservative source The state doesn't allow racial profiling, but some see this as a slippery slope to that very thing. The state already allows for checking when it has a suspect in custody, and it's not the only state that allows that (see second source above). From the LA Times article: The problem is numbers -- Federal enforcement is insufficient to deal with the problem. …

It's hard to find really good news sources on the Internet -- CNN's website usually makes me want to hit someone, for example ("do I really care about Tiger Woods?!??!"). I subscribe to the Times (of London, not New York) on my Kindle, but I think I could be getting more. What sites/devices/formats do you use to get your world news? Newspaper, web site, RSS feed, electronic gizmo...? Merged post follows: Consecutive posts mergedI might add that I'm specifically looking for global news, not just one country's politics and celebrity gossip. The Times is nice, but I think I could be getting more. I can get online access to the Economist through my parents, which…

According to Scott Sumner, Reganomics did produce the desired growth. http://www.themoneyillusion.com/?p=5164&utm Seems to suggest that Chicagoan reforms of the 80s did indeed promote growth in Regan and Thatcher administrations. I think, however, it depends on what metric you're using. Yes, GDP growth was up, but were the results destablized markets & income inequality? I've seen arguments both for and against, and I'm not sufficiently convinced either way. However, Sumner's point is that neoliberal convictions that classical liberal policies would not produce growth were dead wrong. I'm glad when economists are willing to make prediction…

I stumbled over this article at factcheck: http://factcheck.org/2010/05/does-immigration-cost-jobs/ In short, they provide evidence that immigration (legal or illegal) do not cost jobs and provide economic benefits. See also http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/bp255/ Using this as basis I would like to ask the question whether anyone has more data on costs of immigration, ideally separating illegal with legal ones. Anyone found peer-reviewed publications on this matter? Just by skimming some articles I got the impression that most articles that argue the inverse tend to be from activist groups rather than economists. But I may be rather wrong on this one. M…

I don't know how to do a poll, but in your honest opinion; how is President Obama doing in running our country? I'm a "Hill Billy" 'tweener, so there's no offense taken one way or another. And if my question is inappropriate, would a moderator please kick it to the curb!!