meme orandum
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Rove Unleashed By / Newsweek — Permalink Dec. 6 issue - It was the day before Thanksgiving, November 1973. Things were quiet enough at the Republican National Committee for the chairman to spend a few minutes on parental logistics. His eldest son was taking the train down from Harvard Business School and would need the family car for the weekend. | |
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Pejman Yousefzadeh: MORE ON THE EMERGING REPUBLICAN MAJORITY — This profile of Karl Rove is interesting enough as personal profiles go, but... Barbara O'Brien: Howard Fineman has an article on Karl Rove in Newsweek that is worth a read, although it only scratches the surface, and, well, it's Fineman. Betsy Newmark: Newsweek looks at Karl Rove. I don't think Rove will go away as the image of a Svengali behind the President for the media. |
Taegan Goddard: Rove's Plan — While most of the White House staff departed for vacations last week, Newsweek notes Karl Rove "was still... Joe Gandelman: Uncle Karl's Big Adventure — Attention Democrats: You better get your act together because Newsweek's Howard Fineman... Orrin Judd: REALIGNING WITH ROVE: Rove Unleashed: For the past 30 years he's focused like a laser on George W. Bush. |
Paralyzed woman walks again after stem cell therapy AFP — Permalink SEOUL (AFP) - A South Korean woman paralyzed for 20 years is walking again after scientists say they repaired her damaged spine using stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood. Hwang Mi-Soon, 37, had been bedridden since damaging her back in an accident two decades ago. | |
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Tom Maguire: Paralyzed Woman Walks (We Want To Believe) This is only one success story, although further trials are expected soon,... Orrin Judd: SKEPTICISM IS WARRANTED, BUT...: Paralyzed woman walks again after stem cell therapy (AFP, 11/27/04) "A South Korean... Joe Gandelman: If this kind of result can be duplicated in other cases, it could be a watershed for stem cell research: [snipped quote] Remember, of course, that this is in the very early stages. |
Norbizness: Because some people strongly believe that the earth cannot be this old, the material should be approached with an open... KJL: THIS COULD BE A POSITIVE SIGN for umbilical-cord stem-cell research. Susan Madrak: After three weeks of treatment, this woman did: "SEOUL (AFP) - A South Korean woman paralyzed for 20 years is walking... |
| Also: Glenn Reynolds | |
Ukrainian region seeks autonomy BBC — Permalink Supporters of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych in eastern Ukraine have announced they will hold a vote next Sunday for a semi-independent area. The move by the Donetsk region council came as opposition supporters kept up the pressure to overturn the result of the disputed presidential poll. | |
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Arthur Chrenkoff: BBC has a good orange/blue map of which regions of the country went for which candidate. Jan Haugland: Eastern regions who support the current administration threatens to go for autonomy if Yushchenko is elected president. |
Chris Bowers: Vote Fraud and Calls for Secession — In Ukraine, the blogspace of the America left is reality for the entire country: ... |
Alexander the (not so) Great fails to conquer America's homophobes By / Independent — Permalink It has been ridiculed by critics and shunned by cinema-goers but the latest film from the controversial director Oliver Stone has still managed to raise hackles across the US. | |
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Roger L. Simon: A Lousy Movie Is a Lousy Movie — The tedious reactionaries at The Independent have seized upon the catastrophic failure... |
JD @SouthernAppeal: And we're so homophobic that Oliver Stone's Alexander is tanking at the box office. |
Report: FBI Finds Link Between 9/11, Madrid Bombs Reuters — Permalink MADRID (Reuters) - The FBI has established the clearest link yet between the March 11 Madrid train bombings and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, a Spanish newspaper reported Sunday. | |
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Captain Ed: FBI: Madrid, 9/11 Attacks Linked — The FBI has informed Spain that they have established direct links between the... FrancoAlemán: FBI FINDS LINK between 9/11 and the Madrid bombs: [snipped quote] UPDATE. |
Charles Johnson: 9/11 Linked to Madrid Bombings — Report: FBI Finds Link Between 9/11, Madrid Bombs. Joe Gandelman: Reuters reports: "The FBI has told Spanish investigators that one of three men believed to have planned the Sept. 11... |
Mr. Smith Goes Under the Gavel NYT — Permalink Republicans control the White House, both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court. But the greater their power, the more they have focused on one of its few limits: the Senate filibuster. | |
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Patterico: The proof appears in this morning's editorial on judicial filibusters, titled Mr. Smith Goes Under the Gavel: "Judicial nominees have never been immune from filibusters. Steve Bainbridge: MSM Caught with Pants Down — Patterico catches the NYT parroting a Democrat party talking point memo in an editorial today. |
TChris: Apart from being a hypocrite, he's wrong. "The Republicans see the filibuster as an annoying obstacle. |
Governing Against Type By / NYT — Permalink With the prudent Colin Powell to be replaced by Condoleezza Rice at the State Department, and with the more warlike Donald Rumsfeld remaining as secretary of defense, many feel that President Bush is set to follow an even more forceful foreign policy in his second term. | |
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Matthew Yglesias: Optimistically, though, Khamenei and Rafsanjani in Iran have usually been associated with a pragmatic approach to... Laura Rozen: Via Atrios, Edward Luttwak argues in the NY Times today that, based on recent US history, and contrary to many... |
Upyernoz: I don't get it — I don't understand why people expect Bush in his second term to "revert to the moderate mainstream." |
To Hell With Values By / LAT — Permalink It's been less than a month since the gods decreed that, due to the election results, American political life henceforth must be all about something called "values." And I gave it my best. Honest. But I'm sick of talking about values, sick of pretending I have them or care more about them than I really do. | |
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James Martin Capozzola: "To Hell With Values," by Michael Kinsley, the Los Angeles Times, November 28. "The Great Indecency Hoax," by Frank Rich, the New York Times, November 28. |
Orrin Judd: Michael Kinsley, likewise an advocate of murder for his own purposes, expresses himself with unusual clarity today, To... |
Colombian Tells of Marxist Plot Against Bush By / NYT — Permalink BOGOTÁ, Colombia, Nov. 27 - Marxist rebels had planned to assassinate President Bush last Monday during his four-hour stopover in Colombia to meet President Álvaro Uribe, Defense Minister Jorge Alberto Uribe said Saturday, without offering details or proof. | |
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Randy Paul: Meanwhile, I remain skeptical about this report that the FARC planned an assassinate attempt against President Bush... |
Jeremy Brown: Bush's South America Security Detail — There is a report today that would seem to vindicate the unapologetic emphasis... |
Alabama Vote Opens Old Racial Wounds By / WaPo — Permalink TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — On that long-ago day of Alabama's great shame, Gov. George C. Wallace (D) stood in a schoolhouse door and declared that his state's constitution forbade black students to enroll at the University of Alabama. He was correct. | |
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Trapper John: But a more visceral "what the bleeding hell is the matter with Alabama?!?" was the cry of many a Kossack when we learned... |
Susan Madrak: OLD TIMES THERE ARE NOT FORGOTTEN — Alabama voters have chosen to keep school segregation in their state constitution: [snipped quote] I thought Alabama was a Godly state. |
Shock and Awe In the Senate By / Newsweek — Permalink Dec. 6 issue - Republican senators, justifiably indignant about Democrats' filibustering to block confirmation votes for judicial nominees, are contemplating a parliamentary version of shock and awe. | |
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Orin Kerr: George Will on Filibusters: From his Newsweek column, brought to my attention via Howard: "The filibuster is an... |
Betsy Newmark: George Will calls on the Republican majority to force the Democrats to stage a real Strom Thurmond-type filibuster if they don't like Bush's judicial nominees. |
CAMPUS CONFORMISTS New York Post — Permalink OH, well, if studies say so. The great secret is out: liberals dominate campuses. Coming soon: "Moon Implicated in Tides, Studies Find." One study of 1,000 professors finds that Democrats outnumber Republicans at least seven to one in the humanities and social sciences. | |
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Jayson @PoliPundit: In the Mind's Eye of the Partisan Left, "Diversity" Cannot Include Diversity of Thought — When George F. Will takes on... |
Glenn Reynolds: HERE'S MORE ON THE LACK OF DIVERSITY IN AMERICAN ACADEMIA, and its consequences: [snipped quote] Indeed. |
Was Nov. 2 Realignment -- Or a Tilt? By / WaPo — Permalink By any measure, President Bush and his fellow Republicans had a good night on Nov. 2. The question now is whether the election results set the GOP up for a good decade — or more. | |
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Richard Reeb: Today's WaPo raises the question again, dutifully reporting the diverse opinions on the subject. Ace: The R-Word: Realignment — You know the Washington Post didn't want to write this article, but they did Orrin Judd: TR WAS, THANKFULLY, UNIQUE: '04 Voting: Realignment — Or a Tilt? |
Taegan Goddard: Meanwhile, a Washington Post front pager looks at "whether the election results set the GOP up for a good decade — or more." Betsy Newmark: Political scientists still can't decide if there has been a Republican realignment in the country. They've been arguing about this since 1980. DemFromCT: The WaPo must've been hearing dKos echoes as they take a stab at a topic we've been hashing out for a few weeks. |
| Also: Steve Bainbridge, PoliPundit | |
Revealed: the full story of the Ukrainian election fraud By / Telegraph — Permalink It was 5.30pm on election day in Ukraine when the thugs in masks arrived armed with rubber truncheons. Vitaly Kizima, an election monitor at Zhovtneve in Ukraine's Sumy region, watched in horror as 30 men in tracksuits stormed into the village polling station. | |
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Harry @HarrysPlace: The Sunday Telegraph, in contrast, has an account of the abuses that took place during the election which Laughing Boy thinks are a western 'fantasy'. Jan Haugland: The Telegraph outlines the solid evidence for widespread, systematic voter fraud by the government. Damian Penny: The new Iron Curtain — Today's Sunday Telegraph has a good background article on the fraudulent Ukranian election. |
Captain Ed: Memo To Hysterical American Leftists: This Is What Vote Fraud Looks Like — The London Telegraph reports today on the... Avedon Carol: Pretend support for democracy, pretend belief in free speech, pretend Christianity, we've seen it all before. Hindrocket: Voter Fraud In Ukraine, and Here — The Telegraph has anecdotal evidence of election fraud in Ukraine: [snipped quote] Actually, that works here in Minnesota, too. |
| Also: Pejman Yousefzadeh, Glenn Reynolds, Greg Ransom | |
Courts first to go in right-wing revolution By / Palm Beach Post — Permalink Every time the so-called Christian Right has tried to turn this country into a theocracy, those pesky federal courts have stymied things. So now — according to the liberal Americans United for Separation of Church and State — the right-wingers have come up with a new scheme. | |
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Skippy: letters...we get letters... the ol' skippy mailbag has a couple of missives from the daily cookie and night light... |
Steve Gilliard: Washington and the founding fathers had a clue, you know Courts first to go in right-wing revolution By George McEvoy... |
A new iron curtain now threatens Europe By / Telegraph — Permalink Before the election, the government mobilised groups of thugs to harass voters. On the day of the election, police prevented thousands of opposition activists from voting at all. Nevertheless, when the votes were counted, it was clear that the opposition had won by a large margin. | |
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Jan Haugland: Why Ukraine matters to all of us — Anne Applebaum warns that Russia under Putin is using methods scaringly similar to... Greg Ransom: ANNE APPLEBAUM on the Ukrainian election. More here. |
Damian Penny: In the same issue, Gulag author Anne Applebaum notes the disturbing parallels to the Polish election in 1946, which was... |
Blood Is Thicker Than Gravy By / NYT — Permalink WASHINGTON — I've been surprised, out on the road, how often I get asked about my family. They're beyond red - more like crimson. My sister flew to West Virginia in October to work a phone bank for W. People often wonder what our Thanksgiving is like. | |
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Steve Gilliard: Just because you write for the Times... her thanksgiving sucked Blood Is Thicker Than Gravy By MAUREEN DOWD... Orrin Judd: MODO MYSTERY CLEARED UP: Blood Is Thicker Than Gravy (MAUREEN DOWD, 11/28/04, NY Times) [snipped quote] It would appear... Michelle Malkin: MAUREEN DOWD'S BUSH-LOVING BROTHER — Maureen Dowd writes this week about the right-thinking members of her family. |
Cori Dauber: So how exactly would you explain her career? Joanne Jacobs: This explains a lot — Maureen Dowd reveals that she comes from a politically and religiously conservative family that loves W and hates the New York Times editorial page. Hindrocket: Before yielding the floor to Kevin, Maureen writes: [snipped quote] Kevin's worth reading, but better yet is the thought... |
Academia, Stuck To the Left By / WaPo — Permalink Oh, well, if studies say so. The great secret is out: Liberals dominate campuses. Coming soon: "Moon Implicated in Tides, Studies Find." One study of 1,000 professors finds that Democrats outnumber Republicans at least seven to one in the humanities and social sciences. | |
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Jesse Taylor: All I really want to know is: where are the conservatives who want to work in academia? Robert Prather: Academic diversity — George Will has a good piece on the leftward tilt of academia: [snipped quote] I wonder if the... Greg Ransom: DEMOCRATS & LEFTISTS ONLY, PLEASE. Quotable: [snipped quote] See also Klein and Western's Voter Registration Study Homepage. |
Andrew Stuttaford: ACADEMIC DIVERSITY — A joke, of course. George Will has more: [snipped quote] He's right, of course. Betsy Newmark: George Will looks at liberalism in academia. [snipped quote] How long can colleges continue this way? |
Killers Talk About Crime That Shocked the Nation ABCNEWS — Permalink Nov. 26, 2004 — Six years ago, on a cold October night on the outskirts of Laramie, Wyo., 21-year-old gay college student Matthew Shepard was brutally beaten, tied to a fence and left for dead. The story garnered national attention when the attack was characterized as a hate crime. | |
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Avedon Carol: Blogging Texas — Via Charles Kuffner, a new weblog by Sarah Berel-Harrop called mUUsings that has some informative... Tom Maguire: 20/20 - The JournalismThat Dare Not Speak It's Name ABC Parents 365 gay Bird Dog: Hate Crime or Drug-Related Robbery? ABC News revisits the Matthew Shepard story six years after his murder. |
Clayton Cramer: As 20/20 portrayed it, the story is far different. Two men were sentenced to life in prison for murdering Matthew Shepard: McKinney, and Henderson. Roger Ailes: Let's look at the important, thorough and debunking "new evidence" in the piece, as set forth in the online version of the ABC report. |
We Need To Read The Bills By / WaPo — Permalink Last Saturday both the House and Senate voted to give the Appropriations Committee chairmen and their staff unrestricted access to the income tax returns of ordinary Americans. | |
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Jack Cluth: Democratic senator: 'Privacy would have been jeopardized' We Need To Read The Bills No one lays claim to omnibus... Matthew Yglesias: Read The Bills — Via Radley Balko comes Rep. Brian Baird's radical suggestion that members of congress should read the bills they vote on. |
Andrew Stuttaford: DANGEROUS RADICAL IDEA — That Congressmen should actually be given time to read the legislation they vote on. How about it? Radley Balko: Great Idea! Rep. Brian Baird writes an op-ed in today's WaPo that's too rich for words. |
Foreign Interest Appears to Flag as Dollar Falls By / NYT — Permalink WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 - Investors and market analysts are increasingly worried that the last big source of support for the American dollar - heavy buying by foreign central banks - is fading. | |
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Steve Soto: Yesterday, in reading a solid story from the Times' Edmund Andrews about how foreign banks are dumping dollars, I... Steve Clemons: Today, with an unraveling dollar and other nations' central banks flirting with a reshuffle of their dollar-denominated... |
Jack Balkin: Fools Rush In Where Foreign Banks Fear To Tread JB From the New York Times yesterday: [snipped quote] And from the New York Times today: [snipped quote] Sure, that'll work. |
Good News About Poverty By / NYT — Permalink I hate to be the bearer of good news, because only pessimists are regarded as intellectually serious, but we're in the 11th month of the most prosperous year in human history. Last week, the World Bank released a report showing that global growth "accelerated sharply" this year to a rate of about 4 percent. | |
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Avedon Carol: (Everything is peachy, right?) It's not an accident that horrible little creeps start coming out of the woodwork in... Glenn Reynolds: Then there's global growth, which as David Brooks notes is quite rapid: "Some rich countries, like the U.S. and Japan,... Orrin Judd: IT'S THE END OF HISTORY AS WE LKNOW IT, AND THE WORLD FEELS FINE: Good News About Poverty (DAVID BROOKS, 11/27/04, NY... |
Damian Penny: Globalization feeds the world — David Brooks notes that 2004 was the most prosperous year in human history - thanks to... FrancoAlemán: But he bears some good news in a great article, nevertheless; he says that we are in the 11th month of the most... Steve Antler: "...only pessimists are regarded as intellectually serious..." David Brooks explains why the New York Times is so... |
| Also: Pejman Yousefzadeh | |
U.S. Eyeing New Tact in Respect of Iran By / New York Sun — Permalink WASHINGTON - The State Department is looking at ways to reach out to Iranian democrats inside the country to see who would be willing to accept outside support in their efforts to reform and change the Islamic republic. | |
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Matthew Yglesias: Democracy Promotion In Iran — Via Laura Rozen, Eli Lake writes about proposals to support pro-democracy groups in Iran. Laura Rozen: This piece on proposed US assistance to Iranian pro-democracy groups — and recognition that some Iranian pro-democracy groups would rather pass. |
Orrin Judd: ASHHEAPISM: U.S. Eyeing New Tact in Respect of Iran (ELI LAKE, November 24, 2004, New York Sun) [snipped quote] Mr. Bush... |
Vast Borrowing Seen in Altering Social Security By / NYT — Permalink WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 - The White House and Republicans in Congress are all but certain to embrace large-scale government borrowing to help finance President Bush's plan to create personal investment accounts in Social Security, according to administration officials, members of Congress and independent analysts. | |
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Greg Ransom: IS IT JUST ME, or is this completely insane? Atrios: Nonsense — So, it's okay to borrow a bunch of money and raise taxes to "save" social security by demolishing it but not... |
Michael Froomkin: While You Were Worrying About the Budget — While you and I were worrying about the budget — borrow more money to fund the move away from guaranteed social security???? Tyler Cowen: It is enough if he thinks this is true... [snipped quote] Here is the full story, NYT password required but invaluable reading, or try the archive link. |
Mystery surrounds Yushchenko ailment AP — Permalink VIENNA, Austria (AP) — What ails Viktor Yushchenko? As Ukraine's popular pro-Western opposition leader claimed victory Tuesday in hotly contested presidential elections, the mystery surrounding an appearance-altering illness that twice prompted him to check into a Vienna hospital persisted. | |
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Tim Cavanaugh: You'll Definitely Want To Avoid the California Roll — Dramatic before and after pictures of Viktor Yushchenko's ravaged... Jan Haugland: In around four months of this year, Ukrainian opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko appeared to age twenty years or more. |
Daniel Drezner: UPDATE: Much obliged to Andrew for the link (and for his startling link to before/after shots of Yushchenko and the mysterious illness that plagued him this summer). Andrew Sullivan: WHAT HAPPENED TO YUSHCHENKO? Take a look at these two photographs of Ukraine opposition leader, Viktor Yushchenko. |
Pakistan bans Newsweek magazine BBC — Permalink The latest issue of US news magazine Newsweek has been banned in Pakistan for publishing material that "desecrates the Koran". A district magistrate in the capital, Islamabad, ordered all copies of the 22 November issue to be destroyed. | |
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Wind Rider: Pakistanis pitch a fit over Newsweek — Courts and government officials in Pakistan were thrown into such a tizzy over... |
KJL: IF ONLY people got as outraged about actual murder... |
Shiite Leader Opposes Delay in Iraq's Vote By / NYT — Permalink BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 27 - Iraq's most powerful Shiite cleric is opposing any delay in elections scheduled for Jan. 30, as demanded by other political factions, Iraqi Shiite leaders said Saturday. | |
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Captain Ed: Apparently Ayatollah Ali Sistani agrees with us, and he has made clear that the Iraqi national elections should be held... Ace: Sistani Opposes Delay in Iraq Elections — Good for him: [snipped quote] I wonder how much of this agitation for a delay... |
Orrin Judd: NOW: Shiite Leader Opposes Delay in Iraq's Vote (EDWARD WONG, 11/28/04, NY Times) [snipped quote] They've already been more patient with us than we deserve. |
Colombia Drug Lords Join Paramilitaries to Seek Leniency By / NYT — Permalink SANTA FE DE RALITO, Colombia - Major drug traffickers have been dressing up in camouflage and presenting themselves as leaders of the paramilitary movement, in an effort to qualify for the same lenient treatment they suspect the government of Colombia may soon offer to longstanding paramilitary commanders to persuade them to disarm. | |
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Randy Paul: Yesterday, Juan Forero wrote about drug dealers attempting to link themselves with the right-wing terrorist AUC in an... |
Mark Kleiman: Today's story about the cocaine lords of Colombia and the paramilitaries obviously belongs in a satire paper and not a real one. |
U.S. Lacks Reliable Data on Iran Arms By / LAT — Permalink WASHINGTON — Although convinced that Iran is "vigorously" pursuing programs to produce nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, the U.S. intelligence community has few sources of reliable information on any illicit arms activities by the Islamic republic, current and former intelligence officials and Middle East experts say. | |
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Laura Rozen: And Iranian journalist Farouz Farzami writes in the New York Times today asking, [snipped quote] Update: Matt Yglesias... |
Matthew Yglesias: Iran Intelligence — It looks like some questions are being asked about the reliability of US intelligence on Iran. |
Di on Charles: lousy lover By / NY Daily News — Permalink LONDON - Prince Charles was a "hopeless" lover who rarely slept with Princess Diana, according to a never-before-seen video to be shown next week. The late princess also claims her husband brazenly admitted carrying on an affair with his mistress and Queen Elizabeth brushed off her complaints. | |
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Oliver Willis: Make Them Go Away — I thought we were all done with the idiotic Princess Diana hagiographies, but like the endless... Joe Gandelman: Princess Di Said Prince Charles Was A Lousy Lover — Now my life is complete. Let's file this in the Haven't We Heard Enough Already Department... |
Steve Bainbridge: I don't get it — The continuing fascination with Princess Diana puzzles me. I just don't get the fascination with this odd dimbulb. |
Bush Says World Is Watching Ukraine's Election Dispute By / WaPo — Permalink CRAWFORD, Tex., Nov. 26 — President Bush on Friday used his first comments about the disputed presidential election in Ukraine to warn authorities that the world is watching, but he struck a more conciliatory tone than Secretary of State Colin L. Powell used earlier in the week. | |
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Daniel Drezner: This puts Bush's comments from this Friday in the proper perspective. Developing..... Gene @HarrysPlace: But Friday, Bush himself sounded more equivocal: "There's just a lot of allegations of vote fraud that placed their... |
David Adesnik: According to correspondent Mike Allen, "Bush's comments appeared to allow for the possibility that the Moscow-backed... |
Iran's Lonely Crowd By / NYT — Permalink Tehran — When Friday Prayer here finishes at about two o'clock in the afternoon, hundreds of worshipers parade toward waiting buses east of Tehran University, shouting canned rhetoric against America and Israel, defining themselves by their animosity toward others. | |
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Matthew Yglesias: One thing worth keeping in mind that the enthusiasts about these schemes don't always seem to have a very sound grasp of... Betsy Newmark: Farouz Farzami describes what it is like to be an Iranian journalist and how most of them print the government-fed lies out of fear. |
Laura Rozen: Hope everybody had a nice Thanksgiving. Stay tuned: a colleague has a piece out tomorrow that significantly advances a story that has been a subject of reporting at this site. |
No Deficit of Courage By / Opinion Journal — Permalink With Congress's completion of its work on the 2005 budget this week, President Bush and congressional leaders achieved a significant victory in the battle for spending discipline in Washington. | |
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Glenn Reynolds: Josh Bolten writes that the 2005 budget is under control: "Congress stayed within budget limits and met key priorities. |
Orrin Judd: FROM D.O.A. TO LAW IN TWELVE EASY MONTHS: No Deficit of Courage: Congress and the president are getting spending under control. |
Why Bush Won By / Rolling Stone — Permalink It was an outcome that took even the President's closest advisers by surprise. George W. Bush emerged from the election with fifty-one percent of the popular vote — the first outright majority for any presidential candidate since his father in 1988, and the... | |
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Deacon: Creeping up the river — This Rolling Stone piece about the election is worth reading. PoliPundit: Cocoon — In an unintentional self-parody of the liberal cocoon, Rolling Stone tries to find out how Republicans won the election by asking … three partisan Democrats! |
Steve Bainbridge: Rolling the dice on the future of politics — A fairly conventional discussion at Rolling Stone on why the Democrats... |
Protesters won't rule out possible acts of violence By / Globe and Mail — Permalink OTTAWA — A coalition of anti-war protesters, left-wing lawyers and anti-capitalists refused repeatedly yesterday to condemn those who might resort to violence during the "loud" demonstrations planned for the visit next week of U.S. President George W. Bush. | |
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Charles Johnson: Peace Activists Threaten Violence — Canadian "peace activists" are issuing veiled threats of violence during the visit... |
Damian Penny: Moonbats on the march — Massive demomstrations against George W. Bush's upcoming visit to Ottawa are being organized -... |
Parliament Says Votes in Ukraine Were Not Valid By / NYT — Permalink KIEV, Ukraine, Nov. 27 - Ukraine's Parliament, meeting in a stormy special session, voted overwhelmingly that last Sunday's presidential runoff did not reflect the will of the people, and more narrowly to declare the results invalid. | |
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Daniel Drezner: [quote]5) The BBC's Sebastian Usher reports that the state-run media outlets, "have joined the opposition, saying they have had...[end quote] |
Ace: Constitutions Don't Make Stable Democracies; Tradition Does — You can specify all the checks and balances you like, but... |
In China, Workers Turn Tough By / WaPo — Permalink DONGGUAN, China — Heralded by an unprecedented series of walkouts, the first stirrings of unrest have emerged among the millions of youthful migrant workers who supply seemingly inexhaustible cheap labor for the vast expanse of factories in China's booming Pearl River Delta. | |
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Richard TPD: Thanks to the two different readers who pointed me to this great article in the Washington Post on the new militancy of... |
Captain Ed: The workers who once stoically endured any conditions for the hope of a reliable salary have suddenly begun conducting... |
Ukrainian Parliament Declares Presidential Runoff Results Invalid, but Decision Not Binding ABCNEWS — Permalink From left, Ukraine's opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Ukrainian Prime Minister and... | |
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Daniel Drezner: Open Ukraine thread — The latest developments in the country: "1) The Associated Press reports that the Ukrainian parliament has declared the last election invalid. |
Roger L. Simon: Election Section — The Ukranian Parliament has declared "no confidence" in their presidential election, but let's be... |
Party Debates Ins and Outs of Chairmanship By / WaPo — Permalink Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack is out, former Vermont governor Howard Dean may be in, a host of others are considering, and everybody wants to know: Whom do the Clintons want? | |
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Joe Gandelman: UPDATE II: So now the operative question within the Democratic party is: who do the Clintons want — underlying... KJL: Anyone who wants it, needs him and my junior senator, though. |
DemFromCT: More on the DNC Chair — This (the Politics 101 version) from the WaPo: [snipped quote] For political junkies, though,... Glenn Reynolds: HOWARD DEAN: Bringing people together. He's a uniter, not a divider! |
Not Buying Into Shopping's Big Day WaPo — Permalink To most weary shoppers, it's the semiofficial start of the holiday retail season. But to hundreds of regional residents and countless others worldwide, the Friday after Thanksgiving is annual Buy Nothing Day. They're out there, all right. | |
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Pejman Yousefzadeh: And then check out the following passage from this story to which Andrew links: [quote] "For 24 hours, millions of people...[end quote] |
Andrew Sullivan: BUY NOTHING DAY: I have absolutely nothing against capitalism, but I have to say I feel solidarity with the dissidents here. |
The Truth Abour CAIR and Terrorism By / Front Page Magazine — Permalink Two weeks ago, the National Post and I were served with a notice of libel by the Canadian branch of the Council on American Islamic Relations, or CAIR. The Post and I are not alone. | |
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Bird Dog: David Frum writes of his experiences in Canada, where CAIR threatened litigation in order to shut up both him and the National Post. |
Bunuel Cela: "Two weeks ago,(writes David Frum in frontpagemag.com),the National Post and I were served with a notice of libel by the... |
Big Iraqi Parties Are Urging Delay in Jan. 30 Voting By / NYT — Permalink BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 26 - Some of Iraq's most powerful political groups, including the party led by the interim prime minister, called Friday for a six-month delay in elections scheduled for Jan. 30, citing concerns over security. | |
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Roger L. Simon: But speaking of elections, at first blush I oppose the postponement in Iraq. |
Matthew Yglesias: Delay — Kurdish, secular, and Sunni Arab parties are now calling for a delay in the January elections. |
Mother's the word By / Guardian — Permalink Think about the word mother: does it make you burst into a fantastic smile as you think of the woman you will love with a passion for all eternity, she who guides your destiny towards freedom, liberty and perhaps tranquility? | |
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Mike Pechar: Most Beautiful English Word — According to this article in The Guardian, a survey of thousands of people resulted in... |
Joe Gandelman: The whole list is here but here are the top 10: 1 Mother 2 Passion 3 Smile 4 Love 5 Eternity 6 Fantastic 7 Destiny 8... |
Saving the Iraqi Children By / NYT — Permalink Iraqis are paying a horrendous price for the good intentions of well-meaning conservatives who wanted to liberate them. And now some well-meaning American liberals are seeking a troop withdrawal that would make matters even worse. Heaven protect Iraq from well-meaning Americans. | |
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Jeanne D'Arc: In today's New York Times, Nicholas Kristof looks at the same numbers discussed here — the enormous civilian... |
Atrios: Bubble Boy — Poor Kristof. There are always these well-meaning liberals doing and saying things he doesn't like. |
6,635 bodies in Baghdad mortuary: counting cost of crime and chaos Times of London — Permalink SHOT, stabbed, blown up,burnt: the bodies of Iraqis killed in Baghdad lie piled in overcrowded refrigerators at the city's central mortuary, their ever-increasing number overwhelming both staff and storage space in a wave that marks the city's descent into a Hobbesian world of crime and brutality. | |
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Juan Cole: The London Times reports that nearly 700 persons die under suspicious circumstances (most of them from bullet wounds) every month in Baghdad. Jeanne D'Arc: The number of deaths from crime has skyrocketed in Baghdad (almost surely a factor influencing the opinion of 94% of... |
Chris Bertram: The Times reports that in Baghdad alone more that 700 people are killed every month: Shot, stabbed, blown up,burnt: the... Jeralyn Merritt: Crime, for example, has skyrocketed in Baghdad. [snipped quote] Those that work in the mortuary are divided as to whether things are worse now than under Saddam. |