Politics

Politics

There are 1,056 posts filed in Politics (this is page 35 of 106).

Russia and Putin

I sure wish America could wag its finger at Russia’s Vladimir Putin and shame him into withdrawing his forces from Crimea (and, perhaps, Ukraine). Sadly, America has squandered any moral authority it once had regarding invading countries on the flimsiest of pretexts thanks to our misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thus we are now faced with the biggest foreign affairs crisis in decades with few options.

The European Union is addicted to Russian fossil fuels and will stop short of angering Russia for fear of having these fuel supplies cut. That doesn’t leave the West with many diplomatic tools.

The only way to get Russia’s attention is through the pocketbook. Perhaps Putin’s own pocketbook would be a good place to start. I’ve long suspected the new Russia is owned lock, stock, and barrel by the Russian mafia. I believe Putin is thoroughly corrupt and has long been helping himself to Russian riches. I remember watching an Al Jazeera documentary that hinted at the massive wealth Putin has been quietly amassing during his presidency.
His wealth has been rumored to be in the tens of billions, with some claiming that he may be the world’s richest man. Putin’s massive new Black Sea residence, dubbed “Putin’s Palace,” belies the image Putin has cultivated of being a man of the people.

The world needs to treat Putin as the gangster he is, and target the sources (and locations) of his wealth. Perhaps there is still time to rescue the Russian people from having their country subjugated by mobsters like Putin.

Putin’s real fear

Russia has occupied the Ukrainian province of Crimea for over two weeks now. So far nothing’s seemingly able to stop Putin from taking over the whole country. Certainly the war-weary U.S. is not up for taking on yet another armed conflict, and the Ukrainian military is barely holding out.

As the sun soared over my head this afternoon, I realized the one thing that could pull the plug on Putin’s military adventures: the spread of renewable energy. Russia’s military, while formidable in comparison to Ukraine’s, is not Russia’s real strength. Russia’s real strength is the country’s economic might. As the largest supplier of oil and natural gas to Europe [PDF], Putin knows he can get away with just about anything. All it takes is for Putin to merely threaten to withhold these energy sales and the European Union will cave.

Don’t believe me? How else can you explain why a secret briefing document spotted in the hands of an advisor on the way into #10 Downing Street states that the UK will oppose economic sanctions on Russia for it’s Ukraine escapades? Not only are we not talking about a military response but even something as tame as economic sanctions are off the table.

But one thing can shift the advantage to the EU: renewable energy. If the EU invests in solar, wind, and hydro energy it could make natural gas an afterthought and sap Russia of much-needed funds. Renewable energy shifts power from giant energy companies like Gazprom to local control.

Energy independence is what keeps Vladimir Putin up at night because the energy card is really the only card he has to play.

CIA Accused Of Spying On Senate Intelligence Committee Staffers | Techdirt

Wow. Just wow. CIA spying on the Senate Intelligence Committee that provides oversight for it. Outrageous. I’m amazed that no one at CIA seemed to consider that at the very least this was a Phenomenally Bad Idea.

While at times, it’s appeared that the Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Dianne Feinstein, serves more to prop up the intelligence community than to handle oversight, it has actually clashed quite a bit with the CIA. We’ve discussed a few times how the Committee has been pushing to release a supposedly devastating 6,000 page report about the CIA’s torture program, which cost taxpayers an equally astounding $40 million to produce. However, the CIA has been fighting hard to block the release of the report, arguing that it misrepresents the CIA’s actions.

However, things are getting even more bizarre, as the NY Times is reporting that the CIA is now accused of spying on the Intelligence Committee and its staffers in its attempt to keep that report from being released.

via CIA Accused Of Spying On Senate Intelligence Committee Staffers | Techdirt.

Update: Here’s the McClatchy story.

Clay is for real

When I heard Clay Aiken was considering running for Congress I didn’t know what to expect. I warmed to the idea after I first saw Clay Aiken’s announcement that he is running for Congress in the 2nd District? I saw commitment and a seriousness that I didn’t expect. This is clearly no joke.

It’s obvious to me right off the bat that this is no vanity campaign. Clay is fortunate that he can live comfortably and there are plenty of other things he could be doing. I think it was a master stroke of his young campaign to remind people that – long before his American Idol fame – Clay’s heart was in the right place, and still is. He never, ever “went Hollywood” when his career took off and he certainly didn’t forget where he came from.

I admire that a lot. I think it’s a winning message, too. If Clay can keep showing people how down to earth he is and prove that he’s not another pretty face – that he grasps the challenges his prospective constituents are facing – he could make the 2nd District race a very interesting one (he does need to lose the makeup, though, if he wants to avoid the “pretty face” label).

Coca-cola ad causes some heads to explode

I didn’t watch the Superbowl yesterday because professional football kind of bores me. Last night’s blowout of Denver by Seattle makes my choice seem justified. Plus, what does it say when all anyone wants to talk about is the Super Bowl TV commercials?

Apparently Coca-cola struck a nerve in some when they had the audacity to air a commercial with brown-skinned people singing America the Beautiful. Yes, even this patriotic song by Katherine Lee Bates and Samuel A. Ward is causing some conservatives to flip out. Why? Who the hell knows?

I’ve been seeing responses on the Desert Storm Veterans Facebook page that just make me want to smack my head.

Here’s one pic from Facebook that’s been making the rounds:
"Hey Coke! No American Solider [sic] has ever served his Country so that we could hear America the Beautiful in another language during our Superbowl! Big Mistake.. big, big Mistake!"
Continue reading →

Obama, Who Evidently Has Not Read the Controlled Substances Act, Denies That He Has the Power to Reclassify Marijuana – Hit & Run : Reason.com

Wow.

Apparently Obama forgot too. Obama often speaks as if he is an outside observer of his own administration—condemning excessively long prison sentences while hardly ever using his clemency power to shorten them, sounding the alarm about his own abuses of executive power in the name of fighting terrorism, worrying about the threat to privacy posed by surveillance programs he authorized. Now here he is, trying to distance himself from his own administration’s refusal to reclassify marijuana.

via Obama, Who Evidently Has Not Read the Controlled Substances Act, Denies That He Has the Power to Reclassify Marijuana – Hit & Run : Reason.com.

Davos to Detention: Why I Hate Coming Home to America

‘Murrica is broken, folks. Our lovely little security state has gotten out of control.

After a 14-hour trip, I wanted to stretch my legs. So I stood up, anxious to find myself back in the room, especially after having written to the DHS. “Take a seat,” the officer at the door sternly said to me. I told him I wanted to stretch my legs after the long flight. He told me I wasn’t allowed to stand up. You are also not allowed to use your phone or electronic equipment. I was also slightly surprised to find as many children in the room as there were cameras.

“Sir, I’m a U.S. citizen who wants to stand while being detained. Am I not allowed to stand?” I said, pointing to the Asian man and Pakistani woman standing with their toddler strapped to the man’s chest. Anyway, there were only two empty seats in the room with a capacity of 60.

“Sit down!” he repeated for the sixth time, and came and confiscated my phone, which I was using to try to text my coworkers who were waiting to share a car home.

via Davos to Detention: Why I Hate Coming Home to America | Ahmed Shihab-Eldin.

Consultant: Aiken is considering run for Congress

Gary probably can’t say this because he’s working with Clay and most likely is bound by what he can say. That doesn’t stop me, though.

District 2 is a conservative district and Clay has no political experience, but he can’t be counted out. He has name recognition, his own money to fund a campaign (I assume), and the brains to grasp the issues. As Kelly said to me, “I’d hate to run against him,” and she’s right. A lot of right-wingers are flipping out about this and for good reason.

RALEIGH, N.C. AP — Pop singer Clay Aiken, who first made a name for himself as a contestant on “American Idol,” is considering a run for Congress in North Carolina’s 2nd District, a state Democratic Party consultant said Friday.

The “American Idol” runner-up from 2003 has talked with him and other advisers and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee about whether to seek the seat now held by Republican Rep. Renee Ellmers, consultant Gary Pearce told The Associated Press.

via Consultant: Aiken is considering run for Congress – SFGate.

Lee Atwater on the “Southern Strategy”

A discussion on mobile phone safety led me to look up Lee Atwater. Atwater was the Republican strategist known for his divisive campaign tactics in the 1980s. Atwater died in 1991 from a brain tumor (thus the mobile phone safety angle).

I had long known Atwater excelled at race-baiting voters. Until today, though, I had no idea that this interview existed in which Atwater comes right out and explains the new codewords he used for this nefarious purposes. Those codewords are still being used today, sadly enough. Voters are voting on racial issues even now.
Lee_Atwater_1989
Perhaps Atwater will one day reincarnate as a black woman and get a feel for the hate-filled policies he put in motion.

Dogs in parks issue moved to committee

Last week, the Raleigh City Council moved the issue of restricting dogs from certain areas of parks to the Council’s Public Works committee. I was aware that might happen but don’t know what the committee might hit on that the parks board and its committees did not. We have carefully considered the issue, collected public feedback, and made sure all along to take our time to get it right.

Again, I feel the key to success here is to provide more dog-friendly areas, whether they be dog runs in existing parks or biting the fiscal bullet and ponying up for additional much-needed dog parks in our growing city. Part of the Parks board’s recommendation was to be tasked with studying where more dog-friendly resources could be added. I hope the Council will see fit to approve that.
Continue reading →