Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Actual left/right wing discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JBTFD who wrote (2598)	10/11/2006 7:10:17 PM
From: TimF	Respond to of 10087

What type of thinking? I didn't assert that any specific decrease in freedom would increase security from terrorism, let alone that a minute decrease would prevent terrorism for all time. I also didn't quote anyone else as asserting such a thing. Also even if I was making such an assertion (and again I was not) "a minute reduction of freedom" doesn't equal oppression. I asserted that IF such a minute decrease could result in perfect protection from any form of terrorism than it would probably be worth it. Of course it would not have that result, the counter-factual example was a method to show the relative importance of different values. That freedom is generally one of the most important values IMO, but that it isn't so much more important than others that no loss of or limitation on freedom, however small, is worth it no matter how large the gain. Of course once I reject that unrealistic absolute, it doesn't mean I don't place a very high value on freedom, and require a large benefit to accept losing even a little of it. In fact I want it to be greatly increased, not decreased, both for its own sake and as an way to achieve other goals.

To: JBTFD who wrote (2598)	10/13/2006 7:54:34 AM
From: one_less	Respond to of 10087

When citizens aren't afraid to get involved, we can accomplish unusually good things ... ============================================= Schoolyard Chant Foils Armored Heist AP LONDON (Oct. 11)- A group of school children helped foil an attempted armored van robbery by memorizing the getaway car's registration plate in a school yard chant, police said Wednesday. A passer-by who spotted the car, but feared she would forget the plate number so she asked a group of children to memorize it, police in the northern city of Liverpool said. The group of nine and 10-year-olds remembered the registration details by turning the numbers into a chant, before a classmate arrived with a pen. The three thieves were traced and arrested within 40 minutes, police said. "The lady did not have a pen or paper on her so went over to the children and repeated the registration number to them," said a spokeswoman for Merseyside Police, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with force policy. "The children sang the song in a chant to help remember it, while one of them ran into the school for a pen."

To: JBTFD who wrote (2598)	10/13/2006 11:51:09 AM
From: one_less	Respond to of 10087

The argument over which side of the L/R is less corrupt is wearing very thin. It has caused an open sore in voter confidence and is beginning to take a toll on our general effectiveness in the world, as well as for pro-democracy groups in various regions of the world. ================================================= WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has quietly retreated from its high-profile push for democracy in the Muslim world, since the Hamas election stunned the Bush administration by bringing a violent militant group to power. Despite President George W. Bush's continued public focus on democratization, analysts say U.S. policy-makers saw the Hamas victory in the Palestinian territories as part of a potentially dangerous trend following democratic gains for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Hezbollah in Lebanon. In each instance, elections were seen to boost adversaries of U.S. ally Israel, and in the case of Hamas and Hezbollah, groups labeled as terrorist organizations by Washington. The experience in Iraq, which U.S. officials once envisioned as the catalyst for democratic change in Arab countries, has emerged instead as a disturbing symbol of sectarian strife. "Frankly, the administration has retreated even from a passive push for democracy," said Michael Rubin, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. Washington is now largely silent about actions taken by Middle East regimes to suppress political opposition. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who made an impassioned speech about democracy in Cairo last year, did not publicly criticize Egypt's repressive tactics during her recent visit. "A lot of regimes are detecting a green light to go back to the past," Rubin said. "It's undercut any kind of credibility the United States has, not just now but well into the future, in any calls for reform." Policy analysts have warned that eroding U.S. credibility on democratization jeopardizes American efforts to use reform as a weapon against growing Islamist militancy and al Qaeda propaganda. They say the United States faces a generational struggle in the Muslim world, where deep-seated suspicion about American motives is exacerbated by the repressive and corrupt practices of governments allied with Washington. "Greater pluralism and more responsive political systems in Muslim-majority nations would alleviate some of the grievances jihadists exploit," according to a recently declassified intelligence report on global terrorism trends. 'PERCEPTION OF HYPOCRISY' The credibility problem is complicated by Bush's use of the democracy theme in speeches. Before the U.N. General Assembly, he portrayed the United States as a friend of freedom but cited autocratic regimes, including Saudi Arabia, as reformers. "People in the region know about the Saudi government. They're not naive," said Thomas Carothers, head of the Democracy and Rule of Law Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "The perception of hypocrisy is extremely high," he said. Ellen Laipson, former vice chairwoman of the National Intelligence Council, a leading government think tank, suggested the White House may have now adopted a more pragmatic, longer term approach to reform. "It is not something that they're going to be able to say they completed on their watch, or that they even know it is going to work on their watch," said Laipson, now head of the Henry L. Stimson Center, a public policy institute. The Bush administration has supported democratization through programs such the Middle East Partnership Initiative, which has allocated almost $300 million over four years to reform, education and economic development. But according to Rubin and former intelligence officials, democratization was never fully embraced by rank-and-file officials including diplomats, partly because the National Security Council failed to establish it as a priority. Pro-democracy groups in Arab countries have become increasingly pessimistic about the prospects for meaningful reform. This year, Saudi liberals said they had abandoned hope the United States would pressure the government, even privately, to reform the absolute monarchy. Even in Afghanistan, which Washington showcases as a democratic success story, observers cite a lack of follow-through on last year's elections for parliament and provincial councils. "We are particularly concerned that there appears to be no effort going into helping build political parties ... as well as no talk of the district and municipal elections that are supposed to be held under the constitution," said Joanna Nathan, a Kabul-based analyst for International Crisis Group.

To: JBTFD who wrote (2598)	10/15/2006 10:42:16 AM
From: one_less	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10087

Yet another scandal is a brewin': tis the season... ===================================================== WASHINGTON (AP) -- The FBI is investigating whether Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., used his influence to secure lobbying and consulting contracts for his daughter, two people familiar with the inquiry said Saturday. The inquiry focuses on lobbying contracts worth $1 million that Weldon's daughter, Karen Weldon, obtained from foreign clients and whether the congressman helped steer them, they said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the confidentiality of the criminal investigation. Weldon, a 10-term Republican from the Philadelphia suburbs, long has denied any wrongdoing, and his top aide said Saturday no one had notified him of an investigation. "I think if there was an investigation, somebody would have contacted us," said Russ Caso, Weldon's chief of staff. Caso said Weldon and his staff were "100 percent caught off guard" when they learned of the investigation, first reported late Friday by McClatchy Newspapers. This account cited two individuals with knowledge of the existence of the investigation who declined to be identified because of the confidentiality of criminal investigations. Caso, whose boss is in a tight race for re-election on November 7 against Democrat Joe Sestak, tried to cast doubt on the report of the investigation. "Unidentified sources mean nothing," Caso said. "There's no substance in that story. It's a flimsy story." Two people familiar with the investigation told AP on Saturday that the inquiry was being handled by agents from the FBI's field offices in Washington and Philadelphia and was being coordinated by the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section. Spokesmen for the Justice Department and the FBI declined comment Saturday. Those two people familiar with the investigation confirmed that federal agents were examining Weldon's work between 2002 and 2004 to help two Russian companies and two Serbian brothers connected to former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. They had hired Solutions North America Inc., a company operated by Karen Weldon and Charles Sexton, a Republican ally of the congressman. Weldon, vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, is a Russian speaker regarded by some as a foreign policy expert who has clashed at times with the Bush administration. Over the past few days, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has mailed fliers to voters in Weldon's district accusing Karen Weldon of getting help from her father on lobbying projects. Michael Puppio, Weldon's campaign manager, questioned the timing of the mailing and published reports about the investigation. He accused Democrats of "attempting to smear the congressman and his entire family" in the final weeks of the campaign. Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for the Democratic committee, said it's "bizarre, paranoid and absurd" for the Weldon campaign to imply there's a link in the timing of the mailing and the published reports. The Weldon investigation comes at a critical time for Republicans who are fighting to maintain a majority in the House of Representatives in a midst of scandals. On Friday, Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, admitted to accepting bribes in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, which has touched on federal lawmakers, former aides and members of the Bush administration. (Full story) At the same time, an inquiry is under way on Capitol Hill into whether Republican House leaders or their aides covered up questionable behavior of former Rep. Mark Foley toward teenage males who worked as House pages. (Full story) cnn.com