"Freedom" has always been an important concept in American cultural and political life. The myth goes, after all, that the country was founded by a small group of people seeking freedom from religious persecution (I say that this is a myth because, even discounting the indigenous population, America was already being settled by the Spanish and ( Read more... )

So, bin Laden was in a mansion just outside Islamabad?

The diplomatic situation between the US and Pakistan should get very interesting just about now...
The Twitterverse is going rather apeshit, not surprisingly, with many a pithy remark (which is where Twitter can come into its own). What teh Twitterverse can't do, of course, is give any reasoned, ( Read more... )

I see Donald Trump is "very proud of himself", in that Obama has released the long form birth certificate that birthers have been claiming cannot be released because it doesn't exist. Amusingly, Mr Trump also claims we can now get on with things that are "much more important", even though he is the one who single-handedly diverted mainstream debate ( Read more... )

Massive anti-government protests in Egypt, or Yemen, or Libya are clearly a Good Thing - in the Libyan instance, so much a Good Thing that they must be supported by military force, sanctioned by the UK government.

Massive anti-government protests in London, however, can be summarily dismissed by the very same government.

Funny how that happens.

1).   Let's get this straight; this kind of thing cannot possibly be justifiedin a democtatic society.   If you don't like what someone stands for, that's tough, because a majority of people did, and you mock the very core concepts of democracy by carrying out this kind of act ( Read more... )

OK, so it's morning and results are pretty much in.   The 60-seat swing in Congress is pretty much in line with expectations, but the Senate remains (just) in Democrat hands (by exactly how much depends on Colorado and Washington, but both look as if they might stay blue).   Yet all the news reports are calling it a "stunning rebuke" for Obama ( ( Read more... )

...same as the old psephology.

This is my first AMerican election in America, so naturally I'm primarily following it through... the Guardian.   For the snark value, and because it won't angry up the blood too much.   Now if Christine O'Donnell had been elected, that would have angried the blood big style, but I expected her to get trounced and she ( Read more... )

I'm still learning about American politics, and will be doing so for as long as I'm here, I have no doubt ( Read more... )

I don't do this very often ( Read more... )