Growing backlash over Indian cartoonist arrest (via AFP) India's government faced a mounting domestic and international backlash Tuesday over the arrest of a cartoonist on sedition charges as critics accused it of using colonial era laws to crush dissent. The arrest at the weekend of Aseem Trivedi, a freelance cartoonist and anti-corruption campaigner, … [Read more...] about Growing Backlash Over Indian Cartoonist Arrest (Guest Voice)
On This Day…
Anniversaries are important to us. Some anniversaries are happy ones, some are sad, but we always have that need to think back, to reminisce, to remember. Every day the New York Times has a very small “section” called “On this Day” where, with a single click, one can browse “important events in history” and view the Times’ featured front-page on a particular date. For … [Read more...] about On This Day…
Romney’s Health Care Dither
WASHINGTON -- I'm trying to figure out just where Mitt Romney stands on health care reform. Obviously, so is Mitt Romney. In an interview broadcast Sunday on "Meet the Press," I thought I heard Romney say he liked some aspects of President Obama's Affordable Care Act and would keep those provisions in place. Impossible, right? Romney's position all year has been that if … [Read more...] about Romney’s Health Care Dither
Chicago Teachers Strike: Is Rahm Emanuel’s Test a Challenge for Obama? (Guest Voice)
Chicago teachers strike: Is Rahm Emanuel's test a challenge for Obama? (via The Christian Science Monitor) Some 400,000 Chicago public schoolchildren stayed home from school Monday, the result of a surprise teacher’s strike that is seen as the first significant political test for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel that could also impact President Obama's reelection … [Read more...] about Chicago Teachers Strike: Is Rahm Emanuel’s Test a Challenge for Obama? (Guest Voice)
We’ll Never Forget 9/11
We'll never forget 9/11, its victims and its many heroes and heroines. Never. NEVER. … [Read more...] about We’ll Never Forget 9/11
11 Years After The 9/11 Attacks, The Greatest Cover-Up In U.S. History Still Holds
(Portions of this article were originally published in September 2011) Eleven years after the 9/11 catastrophe, the Bush administration cover-up of why the terrorist attacks were carried out despite the White House, CIA and FBI being repeatedly warned of them still holds. Not only has the final word not come out about this malfeasance of enormous and arguably criminal … [Read more...] about 11 Years After The 9/11 Attacks, The Greatest Cover-Up In U.S. History Still Holds
Rest For A While: The Great Raptor
The snowy owl ( and all owls) endangered, were shot down for target practice, killed only for their feathers to be plopped into huge vases in hotel foyers, along with those of pheasants, and jungle parrots... all killed for their feathers. How much more beautiful are those feathers when the living birds are robed in them. How much more beautiful when those feathers quiver, … [Read more...] about Rest For A While: The Great Raptor
Before We had The Vote or an Environmental or Forestry Policy
This photo is about the westward ho! pioneers (settlers, military, gold seekers, and more) of the late 19th and early 20th century who slaughtered the buffalo nearly to extinction, shooting them from railroad cars, from horseback, whilst on foot... leaving the meat to rot, taking the skulls, piling them as monuments memorializing the humans' excesses, rages, acts beneath even … [Read more...] about Before We had The Vote or an Environmental or Forestry Policy
I’m Thinking About Committing Voter Fraud – I Dare You to Stop Me
I haven’t posted on TMV for almost a month. I did not watch either Political Convention but I was forced to see Uncle Bill’s address since my spouse had it turned on while I was in the same room reading a book and I was too lazy to get up and go to another room. I have no interest in commenting on the pointless, diversionary, and manipulated election process that remains in … [Read more...] about I’m Thinking About Committing Voter Fraud – I Dare You to Stop Me
The Republican (FOX) Echo Chamber
The neo-cons can't believe that a majority of Americans don't share their vision of American Hegemony. The Republican party in general and the Romney supporters have the same echo chamber problem - they simply can't believe Obama could win in November. I think this is a result of FOX news, talk radio and the right wing blogosphere. The most recent example is this memo from … [Read more...] about The Republican (FOX) Echo Chamber
The ‘Greatest Paralympic Games Ever’ Have Ended
U.S. Navy Lt. Bradley Snyder, center, a Paralympic record holder and gold medal-winning member of the 2012 U.S. Paralympic Swim Team, carries the flag for the U.S. during the closing ceremony of the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, Sept. 9, 2012 There have been many stirring and memorable words spoken about what are now called “the greatest Paralympic Games ever." For … [Read more...] about The ‘Greatest Paralympic Games Ever’ Have Ended
Romney Had Best Not Listen to Bush’s ‘Neocon Lunatics’ (Izvestia, Russia)
Is Mitt Romney taking advice from too many neoconservative Bush advisers? For Russia's Izvestia, influential Russian analyst Andranik Migranyan, who is thought to have Putin's ear, writes that Romney's comments about Russia and the world make it imperative - for the sakes of America and the world - that if he wins in November, he act as he did as Massachusetts governor: … [Read more...] about Romney Had Best Not Listen to Bush’s ‘Neocon Lunatics’ (Izvestia, Russia)
The Points Obama Should Make to Gain Independent Support
I am not a registered Democrat or Republican but a card-carrying independent. I am formulating here the points I believe Obama needs to make to gain independent support. Subsequently, I’ll give my take on how Romney might court independents. I came into office in 2009 inheriting the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. My policies, including the fiscal … [Read more...] about The Points Obama Should Make to Gain Independent Support
What We’ll Remember About All Those 2012 Democratic Convention Speeches
Now that the 2012 Democratic National Convention has winked into history, a dozen or so memorable moments continue to glow like embers in a late-evening fireplace. Michelle Obama electrified the faithful with her passion, eloquence and wifely devotion... she could add a good ten years to any man's life expectancy, especially if that man has been thwacked repeatedly by … [Read more...] about What We’ll Remember About All Those 2012 Democratic Convention Speeches
Obama Outraises Romney for August: $114 Million Take
Are the deep pocket folks that helped bankroll Barack Obama as well as many of the smaller donors now being inspired to donate to Obamas campaign after months of fears that fundraising was lagging? The Obama campaign got some good news: For the first time since April, Chicago has outraised Boston, with the Obama campaign and the DNC pulling in more than $114 million in the … [Read more...] about Obama Outraises Romney for August: $114 Million Take
The Triumph Of Political Cynicism
Out on the campaign trail, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have been arguing that Barack Obama is a failed president. They claim that he didn't do anything when he controlled both houses of congress. But Paul Krugman takes a quick trip down memory lane: As anyone who was paying attention knows, the period during which Democrats controlled both houses of Congress was … [Read more...] about The Triumph Of Political Cynicism
Election May Be Decided in the End by the Courts
Election day may be marked, this time around, by legal skirmishes across the country -- on "last-minute legal battles over when and how ballots should be cast and counted," according to a report in the Times. In the last few weeks, nearly a dozen decisions in federal and state courts on early voting, provisional ballots and voter identification requirements have driven the … [Read more...] about Election May Be Decided in the End by the Courts
Romney’s Dream World
As he Meets the Press, sort of, the Republican standard bearer shows how much of a bubble he’s inhabiting. In a pre-taped travesty of being grilled by journalists, Mitt Romney burbles with admiration of Bill Clinton’s convention speech while taking digs at the President. “I don’t want to keep bringing it down as the president’s doing,” he says. “This sequestration idea … [Read more...] about Romney’s Dream World
Obama’s Advantage, Romney’s Openings
WASHINGTON -- Normally, a president presiding over 8 percent unemployment and a country that sees itself on the wrong track wouldn't stand a chance. But then a candidate with Mitt Romney's shortcomings, including his failure to ignite much enthusiasm within his own party, wouldn't stand a chance, either. The combination of the two explains why this election remains … [Read more...] about Obama’s Advantage, Romney’s Openings
Human Trafficking: A Misunderstood Global Scourge (Guest Voice)
Human trafficking: a misunderstood global scourge (via The Christian Science Monitor) During a diplomatic visit to Calcutta, India, in May, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stopped at a shelter for young women and girls. It was not an ordinary shelter, but one with a specific mission – a mission Ms. Clinton wanted reporters to broadcast to Americans … [Read more...] about Human Trafficking: A Misunderstood Global Scourge (Guest Voice)