While PM Gordon Brown has yet to officially call a general election in Britain, it is widely assumed that it will happen 56 days from today when the English local elections are scheduled. For two years, the consensus has been that a Tory victory is inevitable. After the failed experiment that was the Iraq War, a faltering economy and a falling pound, fortunes have slightly turned for Labour in the run-up to the Gordon Brown’s first contest as leader. While even now few think Labour will garner enough seats to maintain an outright electoral majority, there is...
Continue reading...Poplicola
And you thought YOU were lonely
In the ridiculously awesome movie Red Dawn, a small, rag-tag crew of red-blooded American high school kids (featuring, yes, Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen) experience a Soviet invasion and are forced into the woods, far away from home and alone. They decide to form a group—the Wolverines, named after their high-school mascot—and fight back against the invaders. They dwindle in number, but no matter how small they become, they end up successful, and, one would expect, lonely. I mention this excellent metaphor of the pride of individualism in American popular—nay, spiritual—culture to introduce yet another. See, a...
Continue reading...Morning Constitutional – Friday, 12 March 2010
Good morning, everyone. Idol\’s down to a dirty dozen, Corey\’s heart was just too big, and Leno\’s back at number one. Now, on to your morning constitutional: From the bad-ass files: In New York state, a 91-year-old pharmacy cashier gets punched fending off a thief, refuses medical attention, says she doesn\’t want to just \”sit there and be bored.\” From the \”Science is freaking crazy\” files, NASA says that the Chilean earthquake may have actually shifted Earth\’s axis. Yesterday, Sens. Dick Durbin and Jeff Sessions announced they had reached a compromise on eliminating the 200-1 sentencing disparity...
Continue reading...A two-party system
If the recent debate over health care reform has taught us anything, it is that the U.S. does still have a functional two-party system. The two parties, however, are not the Democrats and Republicans, but the Democrats and the Democrats. This is not to suggest that his is necessarily a bad thing—for the Democratic Party or America. The Republicans may have a substantial 41-member minority in the Senate, but being tied to their strategy of obstruction, just saying no, and refusing to cooperate or even compromise, have rendered themselves utterly and completely irrelevant. Consequently, the two teams...
Continue reading...Morning Constitutional – Thursday, 11 March 2010
Good morning, everybody. Charlie Sheen says it never happened, and A.C. Slater is having a baby. Now, enjoy your morning constitutional: The Virginia General Assembly has moved to make it illegal for the government to require people to buy health insurance, a move clearly in response to current health reform efforts in Washington. Girl in Mississippi wants to bring her girlfriend to the prom. School\’s response: Cancel prom. Ezra Klein gives an interesting history of the filibuster. It even involves Aaron Burr, a personal hero of mine. Chile inaugurates a new president today, conservative billionaire Sebastian Pinera....
Continue reading...Reader response time
Got a very nice email from a reader: I read your recent post about the possible fraud in Togo’s 2010 election, and your insight of the importance of democracy and deep concerns really impressed me. I think you might find this video interesting. Along with the point you mentioned in your post about how this election could be fraud and how this process could be really hard to challenge in such a political climate, this video covers from many perspectives about the current battle for power and people’s protests, it also briefly touches on Togo’s political history,...
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