After preparing you all for it for weeks, this blog has now moved. From now on you can find us at PoliGazette.com. Come with us! Please read the Welcome Post there to get acquainted with the new site and to celebrate launch week with us. It’ll be an exciting week! This blog will be up for a short while, after which it will be deleted. All posts and comments have been moved to PoliGazette.
Come with us!
UPDATE: Our apologies for the problems accessing PoliGazette. It should be fully accessible now.
Don’t forget: tomorrow we’ll move. The name of the new blog is PoliGazette. It can be found at http://www.poligazette.com. Our goal is to make it into one of the big players in the blogosphere; a place where moderate liberals, centrists and conservatives enjoy to come.
When you visit the blog tomorrow I’ll have published a Welcome Post. In it I’ll explain how you can use the new website, what the intentions are, how you can watch videos, etc.
The first day and week promise to be great: we’ve asked several blogger whether they want to write a guest post. Seven people have agreed to write a guest post thus far, we’re waiting to hear back from two or three more.
It’ll be a special week, I hope you all will enjoy it!
Crooks and Liars has a video up of Naomi Klein. She just wrote a book called “Disaster Capitalism.” In it she basically tries to convince the reader that capitalism is bad. Nicole Belle agrees with Klein and wants everyone to read it.
I haven’t read the book and I don’t intend to do so either. Naomi Klein is a socialist anti-globalization activist. For those who haven’t noticed yet: socialism has proven to be a disaster. As such, whenever you think about economics and want to get someone’s advise, a socialist is the last person you should turn to. Better yet: even if there’s no one available for advise other than the socialist and anti-globalist, then ask no one. Continue Reading »
In what has caused quite a stir in this tiny country, reports have surfaced in the last couple of weeks that the Dutch intelligence service (the AIVD – the Dutch equivalent to the CIA) has, for years, spied on newspapers and news networks. Continue Reading »
I just watched a horrible video at Leaning Straight Up. It was released recently by Sri Lankan police. In it, a woman - supposedly a Tamil Tiger - calmly blows herself up in a government building. The blast is for Iraqi standards small, for Sri Lankan and human standards gigantic. Both she and the person she talked to - an aide to a Minister - died. Continue Reading »
As I wrote yesterday, it seems to me that Governor Mike Huckabee could very well win Iowa. In fact, I’m getting the feeling he will win. A new Iowa poll now shows that the former Governor of Arkansas continues his surge: he’s now leading in the polls. Of the (likely) Republican primary voters in this state, 29% say they plan to vote for Huckabee, against 24% who say they’ll vote for Mitt Romney. Continue Reading »
After months of wrangling over Scott Beauchamp’s disturbing little war story entitled “Shock Troops“, The New Republic has acknowledged that it cannot stand behind the facts of the story as printed.
The repudiation piece is about 10 times longer than the bit that sparked the controversy, a sure sign that there’s some excuse-making to be done. TNR concludes thusly:
in light of the evidence available to us, after months of intensive re-reporting, we cannot be confident that the events in his pieces occurred in exactly the manner that he described them. Without that essential confidence, we cannot stand by these stories.
No, I’d say not.
Publishing “Shock Troops” in the first place was a case of bad judgment, one that it seems to have been motivated by TNR’s desire to malign U.S. troops and the war effort in Iraq.
Having previously declared that all who oppose him are “traitors”, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has announced that if there are any accusations of fraud after the upcoming referendum on granting Chavez an unlimited grip on power, he will retaliate by cutting of oil supplies to the United States.
Such preemptive threats rarely come from anyone other than someone already planning to ensure that the “vote” is rigged to produce the “correct” results. Why be concerned about deterring accusations of fraud if any such accusations could easily be shown to be baseless by transparent, verifiable election procedures? The only likely explanation is that the fix is in and Chavez is trying to ensure that no one will dare to expose it.
Meanwhile, Chavez’ admirers in the United States who complained loudly at at length when some in the Bush administration used “for us or against us” language have remained curiously silent as Chavez invokes similar language. In point of fact, while some have grudgingly acknowledged a debased moral parity between Chavez and the hated Bush and gone out of their way to concoct ways to accuse the American government of “totalitarianism”, they apparently remain free to speak their criticisms of the “dictator” Bush while Chavez’ critics are beaten and shot.
Given his escalating rhetoric, it appears clear that Chavez intends to accelerate his crackdown in the aftermath of his rigged referendum. He believes that the U.S. government can be deterred from responding by threat of an oil embargo during the onset of winter and he has begun a concerted program of equating all dissent as being driven by traitorous loyalty to the United States. We’ve seen this kind of ramp-up towards real totalitarianism before from notorious figures like Idi Amin.
And we have, unfortunately, also seen before the parade of what Stalin called “useful idiots” — Americans who are so obsessed with their domestic political vendettas that they seek to blind themselves and others to the real demons that arise. The movie Last King of Scotland tells the story of one idealistic young man who learned the truth about Amin too late because he allowed himself to be blinded by his sharing of Amin’s dislike for the British. The evidence about Chavez now stares us all in the face. Who will not accept it until it is too late for Venezuela because they share Chavez’ hatred of the United States?
The Washington Post reports that Russian “President Vladimir Putin signed a law Friday suspending Russia’s participation in a major conventional arms treaty that had limited NATO and Russian military deployments in Europe.”
As the WaPo points out, Moscow “had been threatening all year to scrap the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty.” Now Putin has carried out the threat. “The suspension takes effect Dec. 12.” Continue Reading »
Jane Hamsher has succeeded in causing a lot of her readers great distress. Late yesterday evening she published a post titled “Goodbye.” She wrote: “It seems incomprehensible that we debuted here on the firedoglake.com website only a little over a year and a half ago. So much has happened since then…it seems more like several lifetimes.”
She then thanked her readers for reading the blog every day and writes that the FDL teams “close out this era of our lives with quite a bit of nostalgia.” Lastly, she writes, “[w]e’ll be seeing you tomorrow on the other side.”
As said, her readers seem to be quite distressed. As I see it, however, there’s no need for them to worry. I think that FireDogLake will undergo a metamorphose today - a new design, perhaps some new and better options, etc.
Basically, the same thing we’ll do in two days time… Remember, remember the third of December! This blog will move Monday to a new URL with a brand new design. Come with us!
Rick Moran has a post up exploring Mike Huckabee’s record as Governor of Arkansas in which he concludes that although Huckabee is a social conservative he most certainly isn’t a ‘real’ conservative.
“While Huckabee claims to have cut taxes 90 times totaling $378 million, the state’s Department of Finance and Administration says he also raised taxes 21 times that brought in a whopping $883 million,” Rick writes. “Under his ‘conservative’ governance, the ‘average Arkansan’s tax burden’ went “from $1,969 in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 1997, to $2,902 in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2005, including local taxes.” Continue Reading »
CNN reports that Venezuelan wannabe dictator Hugo Chavez “told a crowd gathered in the center of Caracas that if the referendum was approved and the result was questioned — ‘if the ‘yes’ vote wins on Sunday and the Venezuelan oligarchy, playing the [U.S.] empire’s game, comes with their little stories of fraud’ — then he would order oil shipments to the United States halted Monday.” Continue Reading »
Although Hillary Clinton is still leading in New Hampshire polls, her lead is shrinking. “A FOX News poll of likely New Hampshire Democratic voters finds that Clinton has the support of 30 percent followed by Obama at 23 percent,” Fox reports. Third is Edwards (17%) and fourth is Richardson (12%). Continue Reading »
New questions were raised today about Rudy Giuliani’s explanation for submitting police security expenses to obscure city agencies while he was mayor of New York and carried on a secret affair with his mistress, who also was given use of a police driver and city car. Continue Reading »
A Gallup poll of over 4000 Americans indicates that Republicans have significantly better mental health than their Democratic counterparts.
Various statistical perspectives are graphed as well, all showing Republicans as being significantly healthier. Gallup’s key conclusions:
Previous analysis (see Related Items) shows that a number of variables are related to self-reported mental health — including, in particular, income. Because Republicans have on average higher incomes than independents or Democrats, part of the explanation for the relationship between being a Republican and having better mental health is a result of this underlying factor. The same is true for several other variables.
Pete Abel is about to distribute the letter to Republican groups and individuals. I encourage you to send Pete an e-mail now you still can to add your name to the list. I saw that he currently has 40 signatories. That’s not bad, but a couple more would be great. Below the line I’ll publish the letter in its entirety. Read it, and then send Pete an e-mail. Again, don’t wait: sign the letter. The target group: Centrist Republicans, moderate conservatives, libertarian conservatives, liberal conservatives (look it up), Centrist Independents, moderately liberal independents, moderate conservative independents… Basically everyone except for neoconservatives and the far-right. O, and Democrats.
Earlier today an armed man took several Clinton staffers hostage in an office of the New York Senator in New Hampshire. Two hostages have been released, as of yet, the media don’t know whether there are any more hostages.
The hostage-taker is “an older male who was well-known locally and has a history of mental illness.” This morning he told his son to “watch the news.”
According to a witness the man has “a bomb strapped to his chest with duct tape.”
The office is in Rochestor. Luckily, Hillary Clinton isn’t in New Hampshire today, she’s in Virginia.
UPDATE: logically, Clinton has canceled the speech she was supposed to deliver before the Democratic National Committee. Howard Dean explained: “Unfortunately as some of you know, there is a hostage situation in New Hampshire involving a Clinton campaign staff person. The details are sketchy at this time, but understandably Senator Clinton is now dealing with this very difficult problem and she is not going to be able to join us today. And we will keep them in our prayers and hope for a resolution to this situation in New Hampshire.”
Indeed.
Clinton would be wise to go to New Hampshire to comfort her staff.
Remember, remember the third of December: Coming Monday we’re moving the blog. It has a new name, a new design, and a new set-up. We plan to launch the blog with a bang. We’ve asked several people to write a guest post. Thus far 5.5 6.5 people have agreed to write one. We’re still waiting to hear back from some. It can only get better.
Join us at PoliGazette! The center - right-of-center blog on the Net. (and, yes, moderate liberals are more than welcome as well)
Allow me this little rant, as my attempt to dissect the ludicrous protests in Khartoum calling for a UK teacher’s life has left me a little perturbed and frustrated.
This school teacher’s crime? Naming a teddy bear after the Prophet Mohammed. “Kill her, kill her by firing squad” they chanted, while young men marched with machetes and other barbaric utensils. Now, I know all of the appropriately PC things to say here are that these protestors–a mere drop in the bucket of the Islamic world–don’t reflect Islam’s mostly silent majority, and that such backward outrage is really the result of poverty and limited education (as Kevin Hayden points out on his blog).
But at what point do we drop the niceties, stop worrying about “cultural faux pas,” and cease to be spineless cultural relativists? Ms. Gibbons did nothing wrong here, and had she named the damn bear Jesus or Moses, this would not be a story. Would Andrew Sullivan’s “Christianists” complain? Would Bill Donahue of the Catholic League release an angry press statement? Certainly. But the difference is this, and it’s not so subtle–in America, the extremists would call for her job. In backward Sudan, they call for her head.
First we have global warming extremists telling Canadians they have to get rid of their beer fridges, now we have health radicals telling Santa he’s got to lose weight.
Yes, Ron Paul is an online favorite and he has at least achieved a noteworthy footnote status in American political history with the amazing internet fundraising success by his supporters working on their own outside his campaign or control. Still, his great momentum in the polls moving up from less than 1% to the high single digits realistically can not translate into victory in the front-loaded 2008 primary schedule. There simply is not enough time for the support from internet savvy Ron Paul advocates to broaden across the voting public and mature into enough primary victories for Paul to become the Republican nominee for President. Second, even if this was possible he would have another series of difficult obstacles to overcome in running against Hillary Clinton, the probable Democrat nominee. Continue Reading »
“Italian police burst into the room of a suspected Mafia mobster in Sicily and arrested him as he watched a television show about the arrest of a Mafia boss, investigators said on Friday.” “Michele Catalano was watching the concluding chapter late on Thursday of the TV mini-series ‘The Boss of Bosses,’ recounting the arrest in 1993 of real-life Cosa Nostra leader Salvatore “Toto” Riina, when he was detained.”
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