These are the stories that have been posted to the politics category.
The New York Times reports on the Cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe:
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Cholera swept through the five youngest children in the Chigudu family with cruel and bewildering haste.
The human condition is often unpleasant. I don’t know what else to say except that it leaves me full of impotent rage.
Read the details and then make the call
Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinoiswas arrested by federal authorities on Tuesday morning on corruption charges, including an allegation that he conspired to effectively sell President-elect Barack Obama’s seat in the United States Senate to the highest bidder.
This would be completely depressing if Blagojevich was a democrat… Huh,
what’s that.
Oh.
He is.
As Pogo said, we have met the enemy and he is us. I suppose we could amend that to “we have met the enemy and he is USA.” Big sigh.
(update 2009-01-01: the story makes it to Ars Technica complete with many very bad puns).
Facebook makes me angry:
Are photographs of a mother breast-feeding her child indecent? The social networking site Facebook has sparked a massive online debate — and protests — and after removing photos that expose too much of a mother’s breast.
Join Breast Feeding is not a crime if it makes you angry too.
Report: biggest online threat to kids is other kids
“Overall, the report generally concludes that the general public may have an impression that the Internet is awash in predatory pedophiles, but that picture is simply unsupported by the research that’s available. Those risks that do exist don’t appear to be specific to the online world, as the report suggests, ‘the risks minors face online are complex and multifaceted and are in most cases not significantly different than those they face offline.’ As one of the participants stated, ‘the truth is that there is no ‘Internet safety,’ there is simply ’safety.””
To the rest of the world…
Harper’s Index: A retrospective of the Bush era (Harper’s Magazine)
“Percentage of Americans in 2006 who believed that U.S. Muslims should have to carry special I.D.: 39″
I’m sorry.
And leaves holes in theories to people who understand science…
In Texas, a Line in the Curriculum Revives Evolution Debate - NYTimes.com
“The chairman of the board, Dr. Don McLeroy, a dentist, pushed in 2003 for a more skeptical version of evolution to be presented in the state’s textbooks, but could not get a majority to vote with him. Dr. McLeroy has said he does not believe in Darwin’s theory and thinks that Earth’s appearance is a recent geologic event, thousands of years old, not 4.5 billion as scientists contend.”
I also have to wonder how said that Mr. Meyer is an expert:
Stephen C. Meyer, an expert on the history of science and a director at the Discovery Institute, denied that the group advocated a Biblical version of creation. Rather, Mr. Meyer said, it is fighting for academic freedom and against what it sees as a fanatical loyalty to Darwin among biologists, akin to a secular religion.
I like FDR:
BBC NEWS | Americas | US inaugurations: History in quotes
“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little. “
Reminds me of this more recent quote
know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.
“With bipartisanship you’ll not only get a compromise that sucks, when it’s time to throw the bums out no one will be quite sure which party should be blamed. Then what new candidates do is just run against some generic ‘Washington.’
Democrats have the presidency and big majorities. Instead of hiding behind the spread-the-blame-around tactic, they should announce their vision and run with it.”
I hope that we manage to follow through:
climate change envoy vows ‘dramatic diplomacy’
“‘The time for denial, delay and dispute is over. The time for the United States to take up its rightful place at the negotiating table is here,’ Stern said.
‘We can only meet the climate challenge with a response that is genuinely global,’ he said. ‘We will need to engage in vigorous, dramatic diplomacy.’”
This makes me happy!
That my government did this sickens me.
Red Cross: Torture Committed At CIA Sites - CBS News
“The United States engaged in acts of torture and ‘cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment’ upon prisoners held at secret detention sites operated by or in conjunction with the CIA, according to details from a secret report by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). “
I’m sorry and ashamed that this happened at all and that people like Dick Cheney are still defending the practices. I knew America, America was a friend of mine, and Dick’s American is not my America.