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Showing posts from March, 2010

Voices of conservative reason- (David) Frum Is Fired By American Enterprise Institute - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

In my small call to debate posted recently on this blog I made reference to the monolithic and rigid message and fanatical ultra right-wing conservatives push on the media and those who don't think like them. This wave of angry, unreasoned, shouting and intimidation is not only directed at Democratic Party officialdom, the Obama Administration, Democratic Congressional leadership, liberals and progressives all over the United States, but toward voices of reasoned, centered, commonsensical conservative intellectuals, in this case former fellow at the American Enterprise Institute David Frum. Frum Is Fired By AEI - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan Apparently, the reasons for Frum's dismissal of AEI are blog-post's from his page FrumForum , particularly this one titled Waterloo , a most scathing critique of republican and conservative disposition towards blocking any initiative from the Obama administration. This unbecoming, extremist behavior on the part of Republicans ...
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Only awareness, timely and reasoned arguments and demand respect and a political space for our voices to be heard on health care and other issues

The work in making this American republic more just is far from over. There will be a backlash in the form of a discourse centered on bad-faith and demagoguery. Democratic legislators at all levels and progressive people in the United States must be ready to debate publicly the issues in forums and Town Hall meetings. They must meet intimidation with courage, cacophony and angry noise with a firm demand for respect and the right to be heard. Liberals, progressives, democrats, and people with a genuine sense of social justice are Americans and Patriots too, these are not labels exclusive to conservatives and people of the angry and racist right-wing. Reasonable, common-sense Americans should not let their ideological adversaries to assign them epithets like fascist, communist, nazi, or socialist. These say more about the political pathology of the ones who say it: fanatics obssesed with the mythical and mystified (and certainly distorted) idea of absolute individual freedom (meani...
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Trials of alleged military conspirators in Turkey

[NB: to my Politics of European Countries course, take note on how this event will affect politics in Turkey, especially what it bodes for the secular state] This news piece from Al-Jazeera's English language service narrates the arrangements made for the trial of several Turkish military and naval officers for their involvement in an alleged plot to destabilize this country's current government. See the link below. AJEnglish: Dozens charged over Turkey 'plot': Thirty-three suspects to stand trial over alleged "Cage Plan" to bring down gov... http://aje.me/bHVgOV Is it a clever political move to permanently subordinate Turkish military to civil authority or an assertive ploy by the moderate islamist goverment to widen its political operating space? That is, an attempt to redress secularist's dominance in Turkish politics. Tell me what you think.
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Commentary on: La Grèce paralysée par une journée de mobilisation - LeMonde.fr

Things in Greece are getting complicated. The two main trade unions in the country have called a general strike on March 11 to pressure the government into reconsidering its austerity measures. Recent manifestations have degraded into confrontations with police and riots in its two main cities: Athens and Thessaloniki. Talk about a rock and a hard place...for the government, that is. Check the article from French daily Le Monde below. La Grèce paralysée par une journée de mobilisation - LeMonde.fr Political decisions have human consequences, even those taken years ago, which makes you think about the kind of public scrutiny governments are subject to when they handle the state's finances. And what about institutional oversight at the Greek and European Union level? It leaves something to be desired when a government is allowed to bend the truth about its fiscal health and the supranational institutions of the EU did not catch it. Funny, how the tab of poor government...
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