All politics is about marketing. Obama has done a fantastic job branding himself. But Hillary and others have a marketing strategy behind everything they do and every word they say.
It’s quite interesting when you actually think about it from a business standpoint. Who is their target market? For Hillary it has been women, lower-class blue [...]
The track ‘Public Enemy #1′ on the upcoming mixtape The Re-up caught my ear this afternoon. The track features a militant style beat similar in tone to his last political track Mosh. While Mosh (which New York magazine called ???the most important piece of mainstream dissent since the 60s???) alluded to 9/11, this new track [...]
Political Gravitas is a new conservative blog that is looking for authors. I found out about it while I was surfing the Grizzly Groundswell the other day. I asked to become an author and my request was accepted. I will be cross posting some of my articles there as well. Political Gravitas! also has a forum set [...]
KIEV, Ukraine -- A senior Ukrainian energy official has accused Russia of using a natural gas dispute to exert political pressure on its smaller neighbor and again dismissed Moscow's claims of a US$1.5 billion (euro 975 million) debt as groundless, according to a newspaper interview published Saturday.
Russian state-controlled natural gas company OAO Gazprom threatened Friday to cut off Russian
Milton Wolff typified the type of working class political activist of whom Trotsky said Stalinism corrupted, by this he meant people who came into politics to help build a better world, ended up as an accomplice of the Gulags and the grave digger of socialism. Whilst there is undoubtedly an element of truth in Trotsky’s assessment it is far from the whole picture, for in his own way Milton Wolff was at the forefront of the fight against oppression on two continents. Whilst today the Russian Revolution is seen through the prism of Stalinism and rightly so, in the two decades which followed the Bolsheviks taking power it was seen by millions of workers throughout the world as a beacon of hope, which offered a real alternative to the heartless capitalism then prevalent in the USA and most of the world and a bulwark against the black night of fascism which was descending upon Europe.In almost every land working class men and women like Milton Wolff could be found, the success of the Bols
"Straight Talk" McCain, "cutting to the chase" with a little help from the film "Dr. Strangelove"......and more examples of double talk from the presumptive Repug nominee.
Haven't kept up lately with the Repugs and their antics on FISA in the Senate, so I'll try a bit of catching up with this from Russ Feingold (h/t The Daily Kos)...,,,and "The Pap Attack" takes on Bain Capital and the FCC, first and foremost (yep, "hitching their wagon" to the Mittster doesn't look like too swift of a move right now, does it?).Also, here's a link to something that I thought was clever; I received this from a friend of mine - many thanks (haven't had any luck embedding it, though, but I'll keep trying).
Neatly coinciding with the programming void left by the Hollywood writer’s strike, the primary elections have taken on the buzz and excitement normally reserved for the best reality TV shows. Final prize: the Presidency of the United States. Who will get eliminated this week??
In fact I don’t doubt that the drama isn’t as carefully [...]
[If you’d like to hear the audio snippets I refer to here, listen to the post as a podcast.]
Two or three years ago, you could read a lot of anxious harrumphing in news magazines, newspapers and news shows about the looming threat of the blogs, where people spoke freely and widely, reporting information without standards [...]
Here's a great resource I recently came across thanks to a Google Alert - the Pundit's Guide to Canadian Federal Elections.
About the Pundits' Guide
Creating this results database was at first a personal project for me during the 2006 Federal Election, and then I decided to publish it on the web for my friends to use (and for me to learn PHP-MySQL-Ajax-CSS with).
About the Data
Note that the data originates from Elections Canada & Statistics Canada, but has been "normalized" -- cross-referenced in other words. This means that you can work backwards from a candidate's name to see the many different elections, ridings, even parties s/he has been associated with. Or see how a party has performed over time. Or examine the changing voting patterns of a certain region.
This cross-referencing of candidates did entail a lot of manual work which can always introduce errors (duplicate entries not consolidated, or erroneously consolidated), for which I am solely responsible. I
Latest numbers from Elections Canada filings:
Bloq Quebecois $336,384.80 Total Number of Contributors -3,888 $86.52 per
Green Party $414,274.84 Total Number of Contributors -3,390 $122.20 per
Liberal Party $1,944,946.11 Total Number of Contributors - 13,618 $142.82 per
New Democratic Party $1,424,524.23 Total Number of Contributors - 15,698 $90.75 per
Conservative Party of Canada - $4,892,921.63 Total Number of Contributors - 44,324 $110.39 per
* numbers exclude transfers from associations and campaigns
Photo courtesy of here.
A recent campaign mailer from Steve Black (who is running against Vic Wulsin for the Democratic nomination in Ohio’s 2nd congressional race) cites an active complaint with the Ohio State Medical Board against Dr. Wulsin’s license. Those supporting Wulsin are likely to call this a political maneuver, but her involvement with malariotherapy (the subject of the complaint) pre-dates her relatively recent political career, and these malariotherapy experiments have been characterized as “bizarre” and “charlatan.” So politics aside, Black’s campaign mailer raises important questions about not only Wulsin, but the larger medical issues surrounding malariotherapy.
REUTERS - An Israeli panel investigating the conduct of the 2006 war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon publishes a final report on Wednesday that could rock Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government. Here are short profiles of the people whose actions may shape Israel's political future after the report: EHUD OLMERT Became prime minister in January 2006 when Ariel Sharon fell into a coma after a stroke. Won subsequent election as head of the centrist Kadima party he founded with Sharon in 2005 and formed a coalition with the Labour party and religious and small parliamentary groups. Hurt by graft probes and the interim Winograd report that criticised his conduct of the war, Olmert, 62, hung on to launch most serious peace talks with the Palestinians in seven years. EHUD BARAK As Labour leader and defence minister since June, the former prime minister and army chief indicated during his campaign for the party leadership that he might break up the coalition if the r
To me, Laurie Dyer of North Carolina embodies what all of us should be as citizens of this country; please watch and listen to her below......and here's some "spot on" commentary on "Real Time" from a couple of days ago with ABC News correspondent Martha Raddatz, Herbie Hancock and (especially) Richard Belzer (sorry the audio isn't so good).
Probably not much posting tomorrow, by the way...Darcy Burner has a message for all of the Democratic cowards in the Senate who refused to fight the warrantless wiretapping bill (here...aside from the reference to Abu G., it pretty much reflects the pitiable status quo)......and oh yeah, this is about the war (great stuff, particularly in light of the post about Rummy today).
Standing apart from the system these days we’ve not noticed first hand all of the chaos that has resulted in some of the reorganisations of UK government departments over the last year or two but can only laugh at some of it from afar.
Perhaps the best example is the Child “Tax Credit” and Child Benefit [...]
I think this is appropriate given the departure of Grandpa Fred today (noted here - to be honest, though, the Kos video really is a bit much)......and "The Pap Attack" takes on our "snake-bit" preznit.
I'll be honest with you; I can't keep track of whether or not the Clintons are mad at Obama or Obama is mad at the Clintons or all three are mad at each other at the moment. All I know is that everyone involved had better knock it the hell off and start acting like grownups.I think it all started with the words from Hillary Clinton that Bill Moyers talks about so eloquently in this clip, but I'm not sure (and by the way, what Digby sez - h/t Atrios)......and "The Pap Attack" takes on our "patch and pray" (no lie) infrastructure.
Goa Chief Minister Digamber Kamat met Congress party President Sonia Gandhi here today, and discussed the political situation in the State after the Congress-led government was reduced to a minority. "We met Sonia Gandhi and briefed her about the political situation in Goa. We discussed the situation," Kamat told reporters after meeting Sonia. Kamat said that he was hopeful of finding a solution to the crisis soon. Meanwhile, NCP General Secretary Praful Patel was in Panaji to hold talks with three of his MLAs and Independent MLA Viswajeet Rane to ask them not to press for withdrawal of support to the seven-month-old government. Earlier today, the three NCP MLAs, who withdrew their support to the government, said that their party should be allowed to form a new ministry. The NCP claimed support of 2 MLAs of MGP, Independent MLA Viswajeet Rane and UGDP legislator Atanasio Monsarratte to form the new government. On Wednesday, the Digamber Kamat Government was reduced to a minor
Cross posted on Grizzly Groundswell
A friend of mine, Ryan, who blogs at Pro Patria, sent me this article about George Soros. We already know about how the Democrats are hoping for failure in Iraq because they have their political futures riding on it, but this article sheds some light on a truly insidious hope for economic [...]
Looks like "Mittmania" could be derailed based on these startling allegations from The Onion (h/t The Daily Kos)...Mitt Romney Defends Himself Against Allegations Of Tolerance...and I know I've been beating this drum so much that I'll probably end up putting a hole in it, as it were, but here goes one more shot (and if you're so inclined)......and by the way, let's not forget Al, you Minnesotans (no punch lines any more, just the truth)......and "The Pap Attack" takes on Dubya and the Saudis.
Something to think about concerning John Edwards and the Nevada debate (from Brave New Films - and I know it's from Fox, but still...)......and I think this is part of why he scored so well (familiar themes I know, but so, so important)......Meanwhile, Pinch's quota hire at The Old Gray Lady tries to defend what is indefensible......and I hated on Bill Gates earlier I know - here's a kinder, gentler spoof than he deserves from Letterman.
My mom was having some problems setting up shared printers/drives, so last night I connected to her PC and got them going. Now, my brother and stepfather can print. (Although neither needs to very often.) Mom has both a laptop...
Concerning this "Huckabee moment," doesn't it make you all "warm and fuzzy" for The Man From Hope-Less, you "values voters" (should scare the crap out of anyone in this country with a brain, though - h/t The Daily Kos)......and congratulations to The Mittster on winning in Michigan tonight (tongue planted firmly in cheek here)......and K.O. brings us the "Worst Person In The World" from yesterday (and by the way, it's "Jonah" Goldberg, alias the Doughy Pantload - don't ask)......and to get serious for a minute, I wonder what this man would have made of all of this (he would have been 81 today)....Also, here's a link to his speech at the Barratt School in South Philadelphia in 1967.Update 1/16/08: This is somewhat "off-topic," but that's OK; check out the thread commenter Ron is referring to here from J.D. Mullane's blog post. I haven't managed to read all of it yet, but it sounds like our ol' buddy J.D. got called on some of his typical liberal-baiting language and had a meltdown over
OK, Michigan Dems, you know what to do (h/t The Daily Kos)......and so do the rest of us (nice work by JedReport - glad Cate wasn't hurt in the car accident today).Update 1/15/08: David Sirota has more.
I wasn't quite expecting this. I was talking with one of the other programmers, who was trying to add fields for legislative districts to the software for food banks. He had called me over because of some questions. (I should...
President Abdullah Gul told an American press conference he had not discussed with Presidcent Bush any possible resolution of his nation’s conflict with Kurds insurgents through means of political actions. He insisted Bush had never urged him to engage in political activities with the Kurdistan Workers Party(PKK) and supported Turkey’s military operations. US State Department [...]
According to CNN, The Republican candidate who gives Clinton and Obama the closest race in the new poll is Arizona Sen. John McCain, who is essentially t
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan has asked all political parties to sort out an exit strategy for President Musharraf over his failure in controlling affairs of the government. “I intend to call a meeting of All Parties Democratic Alliance (APDM) to discuss options available for building national reconciliation on a common agenda. I would contact parties outside the APDM including Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) to bring them on board,” the Daily Times quoted Khan as saying. “Deteriorating law and order situation, heavy human losses due to army operations, increasing suicide attacks, and negative statements by western officials about nuclear programme were posing a serious threat to the sovereignty of Pakistan,” he added. He alleged that West had been exploiting Pakistan for its own vested interests and wanted to roll back the nuclear programme by using these tactics. Khan further suggested a formation of a po
The general elections in Pakistan due on February 18 could either dampen tensions and set the country on a path towards stabilisation, or exacerbate a long-running political crisis, a report released by the Oxford Analytica has said. The international consulting firm states that the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto last month forced the opposition parties to cooperate on strategy with regards to the election. However, events since have also stoked provincial, ethnic and political divides. In the aftermath of Benazir’s death, her home province of Sindh suffered the most unrest, where it was tinged with provincial and ethnic animosities. Hundreds of bank branches, as well as railway bridges, stations and trains were destroyed. According to the report, the riots in Sindh had crowds shouting anti-Pakistan and anti-Punjab slogans while the properties of non-Sindhis were also attacked. In Punjab, crowds directed their anger towards the
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Chief Nawaz Sharif has said that the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) is a product of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and called for an end to the agency’s political wing. “No democratic person could welcome an army coup, the ISI might have been involved in the distribution of sweets upon the dismissal of his government in 1999. The country’s premier was answerable to the people and not to the army chief,” the Daily Times quoted Nawaz as saying. He said the wars fought by Pakistan erupted during military rules, whereas democratic governments had ensured the development of the country. (ANI)
The death of Philip Agee, international socialist, revolutionary, political activist and former CIA officer in the field saddened me greatly, as Agee has for many years been a great hero of mine not least because he epitomized two of my basic beliefs, that given the opportunity people can change no matter what their education and upbringing and those sons of the middle class who side with the dispossessed are often amongst the finest people who walk the earth.Agee came from a well off middle class Florida family, whilst at the USA’s most prominent Roman Catholic University Notre Dame, he was head hunted by someone in the faculty who acted as a spotter for the US Central Intelligence agency. [CIA] Thus his future career path was well marked out, approximately two decades in the field and then back to Langley Virginia as a well paid, powerful spook bureaucrat. He turned his back on this world when in his own words he, “fell in love with a woman who thought Che Guevara was the most wo
Memo to Al Sharpton: You want to protest something? Then how about helping with this instead of trying to persecute a golf announcer (and yes, I know she was suspended for two weeks, which is ridiculous)......and "The Pap Attack" takes on George Will (awesome).
"Straight Talk McCain" wants his own "Hundred Years War," I see (aren't you proud of your vote for this clod, you Granite State Repugs? And I'll take a shot at Chris Shays another time)......and Chris Matthews has ALREADY provided us the stupidest pundit blatherings of 2008 so far (h/t Atrios, and here is a response from Molly Ivors to the "Hillary treatment" from Maureen Dowd that applies to Tweety also; MoDo was another offender today, and here is something we can do about it).
Congratulations to "St. McCain"; actually, this was an easy call for the punditocracy since he won it in 2000 and hasn't appreciably changed much since then, but still, credit where it's due goes with this fitting video......and this is just a reminder as to why "America's Mayor" may have missed out on the Granite State fun tonight.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) is apprehensive of large-scale defections in the wake of the postponement of general elections in the country and the growing popularity of the PPP following the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto. Senior political leaders of PML-Q, which backs President Pervez Musharraf, have admitted about their fears of defections in their party, and view stemming large-scale defections, as a major task ahead the February 18 elections. “A major task for us in the intervening period will be to effectively stem large-scale defections,” The Daily Times quoted a senior PML-Q leader, as saying. Contesting candidates would also switch loyalties to make best of the sympathy wave caused by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, they fear. So far, the PML-Q has not faced any large-scale desertions. The PML-Q leader went on to say that during the three-day mourning following Benazir’s death, the party was deliberate
All political parties in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), except the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal (JUI-F), have condemned the six-week delay in the general elections that have now been slated for February 18. The Pakistan Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday postponed the polls, which were earlier scheduled for January 8, citing large-scale violence and rioting in the country following former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's assassination. Condemning the delay in polls, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Provincial President Pir Sabir Shah said that the delay was meant to provide more time to the PML-Q to revive its image, which it had lost following Benazir's death. Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) NWFP spokesperson Khwaja Yawar Naseer said that the government, which is "already involved in pre-poll rigging," was "frightened" after Benazir's death and "adopted the postponement option to create hurdle
KARACHI (Reuters) - Pakistani shares slid 2.3 percent on Wednesday as political nerves suddenly returned to the market ahead of a national address by President Pervez Musharraf. Musharraf is due to make the televised address at 1500 GMT. "There were rumours in the market that Musharraf will make some negative announcement in his speech later today," said Shuja Rizvi, director of broking operations at Capital One Equities. Dealers said the rumours included talk of reimposition of emergency rule or even a resignation, after last week's murder of ex-premier Benazir Bhutto triggered two days of violent unrest. Officials were not immediately available for comment. The Karachi market often reverberates to unfounded political rumours. On Monday, selling intensified on rumours of a second political assassination, but these turned out to be groundless. The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) benchmark 100-share index, which had held firm throughout most of the day, suddenly fell
Big hat tips to Prof. Marcus and Lukery for this (here - and how right Sibel Edmonds is)......and shifting gears a bit, here's my response to this Atrios post (tongue in cheek, of course) on Rudy! (God, Tweety looks like Murrow reincanated for a few fleeting seconds; I must be dreaming!)....and of course, we must consider this "soft focus" moment with second wife Donna Hanover (hope things are still dreamy between "America's Mayor" and Judi N.)......and here's another tribute to the 2007 "Dregs Of The Year".
A huge buzz has been filling the political landscape in Alberta for the last few days. Word of an impending merger between the provincial Alberta Alliance and fledgling Wildrose Parties has caused a minor quake in the media. While some are quick to disregard the imminent move as insignificant to the deeply entrenched roots of the ruling Progressive Conservatives, the reason this story has become front page news is because this isn’t just your usual flash-in-the-pan also-ran situation. This could possibly be the next popular political force in Alberta.Right from the first glance this joining of forces makes sense. The Alliance, splashing on the scene with former leader Randy Thorsteinson, have pretty much been in neutral ever since. Even with their leader and single M.L.A. Paul Hinman sitting in the Legislature, the Alliance has hovered for a while now as a small, strong group of supporters who just couldn’t push their party over the top and into significance. Their policies w
I forgot to include Fred Kagan in the "Do-Gooders And Dregs" posts, so here he is along with "General" Kristol (Pinch really "screwed the pooch" by bringing him on board)......and "The Pap Attack" brings us "Seven Years In Hell" (this is a good reason for a stiff drink, but of course please don't drive after doing so)...
I thought the embedded videos were messing up the site formatting so I deleted a bunch of them; turns out it was the Impeach Bush Coalition widget instead. I'll try to add back some more of them over the next few days.In the meantime, here are two once more from "The Pap Attack"; the first takes on Pope Benny......and the second takes on corporations and our government, explaining why FDR was a great president and pointing out that we shouldn't take seriously anyone who runs from that legacy......and just for the hell of it, here's "The Legend of Hercubush" one more time from Cliff Schecter and Brave New Films......and here's how to make your own ad for John Edwards (a cool idea, I must say).
Vladimir Putin’s new MP brigade consists of women who were former Olympic athletes and had peeled off for racy photo shoots in various Russian magazines. The ravishing ladies have been elected this month in political elections for Putin’s political party ‘United Russia’. Viktor Gribachev, a Russian political analyst and former press officer for the Russian parliament, said that the young leaders are full of energy and eagerness to become serious lawmakers. “We are definitely ahead of all in terms of ladies with sex appeal among our MPs,” The Sun quoted Gribachev, as saying. “These young women are full of energy and eagerness to become serious law-makers,” Gribachev added. And former MP Aleksey Mitrofanov said: “These women are an asset to our parliament, as well as being loyal to our president. “They are gorgeous but, besides that, they mostly had fantastic sporting careers. Th
Yahoo has the political dashboard. I’m not sure if this helps you in your decisions much, but it’s a nicely displayed group of information either way. (h/t to Eric Bryant)
Cliff Schecter and Brave New Films bring us "The Legend of Hercubush" (still in the holiday party mode I see - kind of funny)......and "The Pap Attack" takes on Pope Benny.
By James Pomfret HONG KONG (Reuters) - Ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Tuesday he would return to Thailand from exile after the party he backed emerged from weekend elections front runner to form a coalition government. Thaksin, his party dissolved after a bloodless 2006 coup and he barred from politics for five years for electoral fraud, told a Hong Kong news conference he wanted to clear himself of the corruption charges brought by military-appointed investigators. He declared again he would not re-enter politics when he returned "by April at the latest". But, in a statement likely to upset his many enemies inside and outside the military, Thaksin said he would be happy to advise the People Power Party his supporters took over after their party was dissolved. "I will not take any political position," he said after the PPP won 232 of the 480 seats in parliament in Sunday's election and started trying to put a coalition government togeth
Iranian foreign policy expert, Mohammad Ali-Ramin, told the Mehr News Agency, that regardless of American motives, Iran must participate in the next round of talks with the United States over issues related to the security of Iraq. He argued the needs of the Iraqi people should take precedence over any anger among Iranians toward the [...]
Could Batman be viewed as political propaganda? Is DC being subsidized by the democratic or conservative party? Are all comics just a way to influence your beliefs and personal values? Well……. probably not, but a poster over at the Comic Book Resources Forum has come up with his own top ten reasons that batman could [...]
As we watch this compilation of "Faux News" nonsense concerning John Edwards and Barack Obama, I would ask that you remember that FDR once said, "I welcome their hatred," and I'm sure you know who the "they" was that he was referring to......and speaking of the "pin head," here's a seasonal message from the Edwards campaign.
"Falafel Boy" is K.O.'s "Worst Person In The World" today...again (God, what an awful thing to do to a vegetable starch product - #4 here, for those of you keeping score at home)...(My vote, though, goes to Kevin Martin for this.)...and "The Pap Attack" tells us exactly what Chris Dodd fought against along with all of us in our opposition to granting telecomm immunity.
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