Category: The Dish

"No visas for students from ‘terrorist nations’"?? The whole aura is disappointing:

Ron Paul, panderer. I guess it had to happen some time.

They are a force to be reckoned with, and explain the DMR’s weighted poll. Here’s the latest data on their numbers:

Democratic: 602,947
Republican: 575,025
No Party: 740,400

Sensible people, those Iowans. Put this blog in the No Party camp.

Anderson, Kathy, and a drag queen from Key West. I thought I was watching Bravo.

It’s more complicated than Al Gore’s in 2000. The Kenyan election was almost certainly rigged, but contesting it violently could tear Kenya part on tribal lines and undermine its recent progress. But leaving the result in place is no panacea either:

The head of a European Union team of observers, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, promptly spoke about deep misgivings concerning the counting process. Diplomats in Nairobi, the capital, pointed the finger at the Kikuyu old guard, men who had feared that they would lose their fortunes if Mr Odinga had made it into State House. Even if Mr Kibaki’s cronies are innocent of charges of vote rigging, he will have no national mandate: outside of the Kikuyu lands, Mr Kibaki was soundly beaten across the country, including in Nairobi.

And yet a legal challenge could be endless and fruitless. One Kenyan blogger saw it coming:

The harmless grand father seated inside State House was asked by a BBC journalist 3 days ago whether he would hand over power peacefully if he lost the elections. His reply was in Swahili and so rude that many Kenyans reading this will still not believe that it is Mwai Kibaki. He said: Wacha Kuniuliza swali ya Upumbavu. (Stop asking me a stupid question.)

Another fears the country is a few steps away from Rwanda’s recent fate. More blogger reax from the scene here.

Ambers is only mildly skeptical.

Big Brother is watching you as never before – and those countries with the proudest histories of individual privacy and freedom have been among those most desperate to abolish privacy for the chimera of security:

In terms of statutory protections and privacy enforcement, the US is the worst ranking country in the democratic world. In terms of overall privacy protection the United States has performed very poorly, being out-ranked by both India and the Philippines and falling into the "black" category, denoting endemic surveillance.

The worst ranking EU country is the United Kingdom, which again fell into the "black" category along with Russia and Singapore.

Full data here.

She isn’t taking questions from Iowans. That’s no way to win them over. When will she realize this isn’t a coronation?

Is the alliance working?

Many dissents from Ross. Matt Zeitlin:

The reason Juno is able to go through with the pregnancy is the same reason she is able to openly contemplate abortion. It’s because everyone close to her is incredibly supportive of whatever choices  she makes.

Oliver Willis concurs. Publius makes a point I’ve long tried to emphasize:

If progressives were convinced that individuals would retain the freedom to make such complex and personal decisions themselves, they would be more open to the arguments of the ‘lonely vigil.’ Once progressives are convinced that teenagers will not be coerced by threat of prosecution to give birth against their will, I think pro-life advocates would be surprised how dramatically progressive attitudes would shift.

Meanwhile, the movie is thriving and expanding to 2000 screens nationwide. I haven’t yet seen it, but hope to soon.

D’oh!

In two confident television appearances, on CNN and ABC, Clinton made an elementary error about Pakistani politics: She described President Pervez Musharraf as a "candidate" who would be "on the ballot."

In fact, Musharraf was re-elected to the presidency in October. The upcoming elections are for parliament, and while Musharraf’s party will be facing off against opposition parties, the president himself is not a candidate.

Ready on Day Two, maybe.