Archive for July, 2008
July 31st, 2008 -- Posted in American Politics |
I was watching some CountDown clips this morning and was at a loss for which clips to talk about since there are so many. The one clip that struck me as incredibly funny was the Worse, Worser and Worst count down that Olbermann does on every episode (part because of the funny voice). In this clip, he talks about Bill O’Reilly as always and Fox News (Fixed News). He does make two important points:
- The top 1% of Americans earned 22% of all income in 2006, the largest gap of this kind in 18 years
- Fox News continues to confuse Obama/Osama
I remember the furor over the Liz Trotta mixup and I will admit I was one of those people who got a little bit angry despite the apology by Mrs. Trotta. I am still angry today because I realize that Fox News is still continuing to make those “alleged” mistakes. It is now a fact that the White House has been sending talking points to Fox News as stated by former press secretary Scott McClellan. It would not be too far of a stretch for those talking points to include mixing up the Obama/Osama name as many times as possible to confuse some people in America. This confusion would only benefit Senator McCain but then again, does he really need to be more confused? What I propose, if no one else has already done this; count the number of times Fox News has mixed up the Obama name with that other guy so that we can determine if this mixup is an active decision on the part of Fox News.
July 30th, 2008 -- Posted in Chinese Politics, World Politics |
As much as I would like to talk about the burgeoning federal deficit, the endless series of funny McCain viral videos, universal healthcare; today is about the suppression of human rights in China. How many of us know about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? I spoke to some of my colleagues at work yesterday and asked this very question; not one person could name one article from the declaration.
No country is perfect as a Chinese friend of mine texted me the other day when he read a recent article I wrote concerning China on this blog. That being said, when I think about the human rights abuses that have occurred and are occurring in America, I realize there is no excuse and I do not support places like Guantanamo Bay which violate article 9 of the UDHR:
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
The violations of the UDHR undertaken by the American Government are serious but the difference between the USA and the PRC are that in America and the West we can actually protest these things. When Woeser tried to leave China to receive awards for her poetry, the Chinese government has denied her a passport because as I wrote in a previous post: her coverage of the Tibetan riots perturbed the Chinese Government and they want to make sure that there is one less critic of Chinese policies outside of China.
People cannot protest in China for the fear of threatening “stability” or “harmony.” Any such protests can sometimes lead to lengthy prison sentences as well as possible re-education. What can we do? We can hope that the media will attempt to make a difference when they are covering the games however this is highly doubtful given that Beijing has already broken the promise of complete media freedom:
Reports have just confirmed that foreign journalists working from the Olympics press center in Beijing are unable to access amnesty.org, the Amnesty International website. In addition, The China Debate, a site recently launched by Amnesty International as a forum to discuss human rights has been blocked in China.
A number of other websites are also reported to have been blocked, including Taiwan newspaper Liberty Times and the Chinese versions of both Germany’s Deutsche Welle and the BBC.
The media can be ruled out, so as citizens of the world, we have to pressure our respective governments to push China to use the Olympics to showcase its support for human rights. I must give credit where it is due, President Bush has done exactly that in recent months and I hope he will keep up the pressure throughout the Olympic Games so that we can see some sort of positive impact generated rather then support of the status quo. Today Politics Across The Pond stands with those people in China who want freedom:
This will be the only post available today, I will restore the usual settings of this blog tomorrow. Thank you for supporting this day and please stop by the Dragon Lady’s Den where can you can see censorship at work (could not get the code to work for this site).
July 30th, 2008 -- Posted in American Politics |
I have finally replied to all the recent comments and it just hit 1am here in Ireland so I am going to try to keep this short and sweet tonight despite my tendency to ramble. I promised I would steal this video from by buddy Jay over at the Progressive Politics Examiner and so I have:
Immediately when I saw this video, I really thought the McCain camp had released a video to try and compete with the Obama “Yes We Can” video which has been viewed 8 million times on YouTube. However, I was pleased to see it is a parody of Senator McCain hence I can continue to smile. In case you have forgotten the Obama video in question, here it is:
July 28th, 2008 -- Posted in American Politics |
Its 1213am, Tuesday Morning here in Ireland as I am trying to keep cool in some unusual Irish humidity. Let me tell you, it never gets humid here, ever…but for the last few days, the best place to sleep was outdoors unless you happened to work in an office building with an AC. Regardless of the weather, I would like to apologize to some of my commenter’s today because I usually would have made time to promptly reply to all comments however Monday has disappeared already and I have a full day of work tomorrow. I can promise everyone that I will reply to all comments tomorrow at some point during the day.
It’s 99 days until the election and Senator McCain continues to flounder like a really old fish out of water. Today’s polls have not helped him and according to the latest election prediction from Pollster.com, Senator Obama will clinch the election by a large margin:
For an explanation of the results, please look here.This latest data as well as recent polls explain the McCain campaign’s recent increase in their aggressive attacks of Senator Obama. I do feel a bit sorry for Senator McCain and Senator Obama because I truly believed that both of them wanted to have a good, clean fight however the only way Senator McCain is going to make any inroads into an Obama lead is to attack his values.
The media has pushed Senator McCain as having the most experience when it comes to national security and foreign policy however the voters have decided that this issue is secondary to the economy. Generally speaking, I remember reading previous polls where Senator Obama polled better in terms of judgment and character which explains Senator McCain’s recent attack on these two attributes. Whether it will work, we will have to see but if current polling data is any indication, Senator McCain needs to find a new political team:
July 28th, 2008 -- Posted in A Political Break |
I have spent most of today trying to find a better way to preview comments on this blog. The current plugin I have installed works but it is not aesthetically pleasing nor does it function the way I want it to. Part of the problem is the theme I use which has caused some conflicts in the past when I try to add and remove some plugin’s. I am tempted to switch to HaloScan which Gayle uses at the Dragon Lady’s Den as that would remove some of the complication but I am not sure if they support self-hosted Wordpress.
Anyway, today I would like to announce a partnership, I will be cross-posting some of my content to the Left Anchor and will be creating some original content for that site, as time provides. Big Blue (BB), the blogger behind the Left Anchor will also be doing the same thing for this site. What we hope this will do is provide greater content for both sites while also helping increase readership and the spectrum of discussion at both blogs.
BB has worked on some political campaigns in the past and has a far more expansive knowledge of politics; his site already provides comprehensive analysis of the election while keeping the content easily accessible to a wide variety of people. If you have not already done so, please do pass by The Left Anchor because I can promise you, that you will be pleasantly surprised:
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