Diana Johnstone examines the politics of the various parties in the French elections and gives a forecast of what we might expect of the new president. She says that he will face a lot of pressure by the banks to continue the austerity program but may be able to move on social issues. [Read more…]
How stupid/bigoted/ignorant (circle all that apply) people like Wanda Brown ever get elected to office is beyond me.
(This clip appeared on May 3, 2012. To get suggestions on how to view clips of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report outside the US, please see this earlier post.)
All those governments in Europe who thought that it was a great idea to combat the recession by imposing drastic austerity measures and balancing their budgets by squeezing the poor, labor, and middle classes are taking well-deserved drubbings. Yesterday, the governments of France and Greece joined that of the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and Denmark in getting kicked out of office. [Read more…]
It looks like Amendment 1 that bans same sex marriage will likely pass in North Carolina on Tuesday. Although there had been some drop in support early on giving hope to supporters of gay rights that there was an outside chance of defeating it, recent polls show that the margin of support has stabilized at about 14%. [Read more…]
HBO has a free online screening of the first episode of the new comedy Veep starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus. It has the same pacing, cross-talk, multiple storylines, and political infighting of The West Wing except it is played strictly for laughs. Some have suggested that it may even be a more accurate portrayal of life in the executive branch of the government than its more serious predecessor, and I can believe that since the principals in Veep are quite ambitious, cynical, and manipulative. There are no high-minded moralists in this crowd. [Read more…]
Throwing people in jail because of their inability to pay debts was one of the horrors of England that Charles Dickens inveighed against, he himself suffering from a deep sense of shame because his father met such a fate. Since 1830, such a practice is no longer legal in the US but the US has brought back what are effectively debtor’s prisons, because people have found ways to jail you for ostensibly other reasons but which in reality are based on your inability to pay debts. “Under the law, debtors aren’t arrested for nonpayment, but rather for failing to respond to court hearings, pay legal fines, or otherwise showing “contempt of court” in connection with a creditor lawsuit.” [Read more…]
The personhood legislation proposed in Oklahoma has been deemed to be unconstitutional by a unanimous state Supreme Court.
A federal judge ruled a similar measure in Nevada to be unconstitutional and Mississippi and Colorado voters rejected similar measures.
Maybe there are some ideas too crazy for people to stomach even in these crazy times.
On Sunday April 29 on its program All Things Considered, NPR had an interesting story based on a mock ‘obituary’ by Chicago Tribune columnist Rex Huppke who wrote about the death of Facts. He said that Facts had been ailing for some time but the claim by congressman Allen West (R-FL) that around 80 House of Representatives members of the Democratic party belonged to the Communist party was the final blow that killed it off. [Read more…]