us politics
Categories under us politics
- Kamala Harris (2)
Republicans haunted by Invisible Obama
Written By: - Date published: 12:46 pm, September 4th, 2012 - 37 comments
At the recent Republican Convention a clearly befuddled Clint Eastwood spent 12 minutes haranguing an empty chair that was supposed to represent Barack Obama. Check out Jon Stewart’s take…
Turn off turnout – National’s 2014 strategy?
Written By: - Date published: 3:56 pm, August 27th, 2012 - 41 comments
Depress turnout among low-income voters by changing the enrolment rules – it’s an old right-wing trick. The Republicans are doing it in the US – it looks like National may try it on here. They should not succeed.
Romney joins the birthers
Written By: - Date published: 2:41 pm, August 27th, 2012 - 55 comments
Mitt Romney has hit a new low by adding fuel to the loony “birther” flames.
Sunday Reading
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, August 26th, 2012 - 60 comments
My regular Sunday piece of interesting, longer, deeper stories I found during the week. It’s also a chance for you to share what you found this week too. Those stimulating links you wanted to share, but just didn’t fit in anywhere (no linkwhoring). This week: Rape, US attitudes to inequality, and, idle or vulnerable?
Sunday Reading
Written By: - Date published: 9:42 am, July 8th, 2012 - 4 comments
I’m going to try and put up a piece each Sunday of interesting, longer, deeper stories I found during the week. It’s also a chance for you to share what you found this week too. Those stimulating links you wanted to share, but just didn’t fit in anywhere (no linkwhoring). This week: Work, American Lies and Science.
Gay marriage – what is wrong with us
Written By: - Date published: 10:48 am, May 14th, 2012 - 38 comments
Gay marriage looks set to become a “key election issue” in the Obama vs Romney presidential contest. How utterly depressing.
Romney vs. Obama
Written By: - Date published: 11:42 am, April 11th, 2012 - 28 comments
With the effective withdrawal of Rick Santorum from the Republican primary process, Mitt Romney is now all but certain to be the Republican nominee to go up against Barack Obama in the Presidential election this year.
Republican Humour
Written By: - Date published: 4:29 pm, March 7th, 2012 - 10 comments
With Super Tuesday closing inconclusively in the US Republican Party Presidential Nominee race, here’s a chance to laugh at the contenders…
National standards fail in America
Written By: - Date published: 11:49 am, February 10th, 2012 - 51 comments
New Zealand schools achieve excellent results and are very cost effective. The Nats are determined to break this great system via the introduction of national standards. They’re ignoring the advice of their own experts, and all the international evidence. But will they be able to ignore the now self-evident failure of standards based testing in America, as Obama pulls the plug on No Child Left Behind?
WTF is a “primary” anyway?
Written By: - Date published: 7:25 am, January 26th, 2012 - 36 comments
Even we political junkies have a hard time figuring out what the heck’s going on in American politics sometimes.
And it’s not like our media are any help.
Queen of Thorns takes a look…
Iraq war a “success”
Written By: - Date published: 8:20 am, December 16th, 2011 - 36 comments
So the war in Iraq is “officially” over. The end of a shameful chapter.
The Most Important Economic Speech of His Presidency
Written By: - Date published: 9:20 am, December 10th, 2011 - 40 comments
Truth-Out content is licensed for redistribution, so I’m going to repost this excellent piece in its entirety. It’s long, but it’s worth it. Is Obama going to grow a pair at last?
American politics
Written By: - Date published: 3:15 pm, December 9th, 2011 - 32 comments
Sometimes when I get depressed about NZ politics, I take a few deep breaths and reassure myself that at least it’s not American politics.
Victim tales of the right
Written By: - Date published: 3:40 pm, November 29th, 2011 - 26 comments
Nationals yapping poodles here were doing it during the election by calling Labour “nasty” in violation of any level of common sense. John Key and teabags. In the US similar supporters are calling Obama nasty for pointing out a lying political ad by Mitt Romney.
Don’t ya know the right are always the poor victims… I just tend to find them to be whining dickheads. But I am actually trying to be nasty.
The impact of right wing economics
Written By: - Date published: 8:14 am, November 6th, 2011 - 32 comments
1980 saw the election of Ronald Regan as US president. On taking office at the start of 1981 he ushered in a package of right wing economic policies that soon picked up the nick-name “Reganomics”. How did that work out for workers and for inequality?
A ludicrous budget
Written By: - Date published: 1:01 pm, October 20th, 2011 - 90 comments
This family budget is in terrible shape. I can’t see any way out, can you?
Angry marine
Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, October 19th, 2011 - 14 comments
Marine Corps. Sgt. Shamar Thomas speaks his mind to some New York police. A bit repetitive, but he gets his point across! http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=By8MDDwNIvE
Occupation showdown
Written By: - Date published: 6:15 am, October 15th, 2011 - 17 comments
By the time this post appears a showdown will have taken place in New York. Check out the morning media, there should be plenty of coverage of events as they unfold.
Palin not running
Written By: - Date published: 12:44 pm, October 6th, 2011 - 12 comments
After months of playing coy, the latest from the the land of the Tea Party is that Sarah Palin will not be running for president.
Occupation 2 – 700 arrested
Written By: - Date published: 2:13 pm, October 3rd, 2011 - 16 comments
The Occupation, now into its third week, seems to be growing. As is the Police response. In the latest development police have arrested more than 700 protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge.
Occupy Wall Street!
Written By: - Date published: 10:32 am, September 29th, 2011 - 39 comments
Have you heard of Occupy Wall Street? If you are one of the 99%, you should have…
Ten years later
Written By: - Date published: 7:17 am, September 12th, 2011 - 156 comments
Ten years after the September 11th 2001 attacks, the world is sitting in a fragile state. The ‘War on Terror’ may have finally got its man but at what cost? The Middle East is more unstable than ever. Democratic revolts are succeeding in some places but brutal regimes are more powerful than ever elsewhere. And the US’s power has been broken.
Republican Party insider speaks out
Written By: - Date published: 7:45 am, September 10th, 2011 - 20 comments
A recently retired Republican Congressional staffer speaks out on the Party. He doesn’t pull any punches…
Interesting elections #3 – recall in Wisconsin
Written By: - Date published: 8:15 pm, August 22nd, 2011 - 2 comments
The recall elections in Wisconsin over Governor Walker’s attempt to remove collective bargaining for public servants had it all – Republicans running fake Democrats in primaries, massive spending by faceless outside bodies, and two Republican senators losing their seats in the subsequent ballot. Democrats did not succeed in overturning the Wisconsin Senate majority for Walker’s Republicans, but it is down to one and there is one Republican who voted against the anti-union law.
Economist on US debt politics
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, August 4th, 2011 - 34 comments
KAL (the cartoonist for The Economist) expresses my feelings about the political process over the last couple of months in the US. Their Washington correspondent after looking at the detail of the eventual ‘solution’ concludes with In the end, hopes for a grand bargain that addressed entitlements, taxes and near-term economic support ran aground on […]
Cooperation vs the tea party
Written By: - Date published: 3:42 pm, July 30th, 2011 - 23 comments
Cooperation is one of the characteristics that defines humans in evolutionary terms. However true to their intellectually intransigent nature derived more from their enjoyment of a good old randian tantrum, the tea party is holding everyone to ransom. I suspect that the republicans are not going to like the consequences because voters value cooperation more.
Political crisis, not debt crisis
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, July 29th, 2011 - 10 comments
The media are reporting the chance of the US defaulting as a ‘debt crisis’, as if the problem is too much debt and people won’t lend to them. It’s not. The US is still borrowing at half the cost we borrow at. The problem is the debt ceiling. A purely political invention that lets lawmakers cut taxes, add spending, and then refuse to allow the resultant borrowing.
US brinksmanship takes us all to the edge
Written By: - Date published: 9:23 am, July 27th, 2011 - 45 comments
The Republicans are playing chicken over the debt ceiling. The idea is to win as much as possible in spending cuts and permanently shrink the government by appearing more willing to go over the edge than the Democrats without actually going over. But does the Tea Party faction understand the game, or will they block the last minute compromise?
Many a true word
Written By: - Date published: 1:12 pm, July 25th, 2011 - 18 comments
Bill Maher on taxes, the deficit, and why 49% of Americans are voting away their future.
How empires end
Written By: - Date published: 11:57 pm, July 24th, 2011 - 118 comments
The US is embroiled in the most extraordinary of crises. Unique among nations, the US has a legal debt ceiling. This artifice has allowed the Republicans to create the current ‘crisis’. For 30 years, Republicans have cut taxes and upped (defence) spending. Strategic deficits that now allow them to force a crisis by refusing the raise the debt ceiling.
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