Is Jeremy Coybyn the most left wing Labour leader ever?

Veteran journalist Tariq Ali goes down the list of all Labour Party leaders and makes the case that in Jeremy Corbyn, the party has elected the most left-wing leader in its history. But he says that Corbyn will have his work cut out for him. The Blairites of so-called New Labour had put the selection of candidates for parliament so much under their control that the current crop of Labour MPs in parliament (the Parliamentary Labour Party or PLP) will obstruct him.
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Matt Taibbi on what to expect in tonight’s debate

Now that the establishment war on Donald Trump is fully out in the open, Matt Taibbi expects the debate tonight to be a setup with the three moderators, but especially Hugh Hewitt, chosen so as to guarantee that they will arouse Trump’s ire. He says that the goal will be to get Trump to do something that will dent Trump’s popularity with his supporters but that the effort will backfire.
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How same-sex marriages are being obstructed across the US

With all the focus on Kim Davis and her crusade to stop same-sex marriage in her county, we should not overlook the fact that similar strategies are being used by other regions in the US.

In North Carolina, 32 of the state’s 672 magistrates have excused themselves from marrying couples altogether, once a duty of the office, to avoid marrying same-sex couples. Magistrates opted out as early as June, when a new religious objection law was passed. The law allows magistrates to refuse to perform a marriage, but once they do so they are then barred for performing any other marriage for six months.
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