Will the Citizen Journalist Decide the 2012 Election? by Jay Pounders As we head down the stretch of the 2012 Election Campaign the role of the citizen journalist is emerging as a power player unlike any election in our history. Citizen journalists can trace their roots all the way back to Thomas Paine and the Federalist Papers that pre-date our Constitution. True to … [Read more...] about Will the Citizen Journalist Decide the 2012 Election? (Guest Voice)
The Emerging “Drone” Culture
WASHINGTON -- The age of the drones has arrived. It's not possible to uninvent these Orwellian devices, but we can -- and must -- restrain their use. As instruments of war, pilotless aircraft have already become essential. The Washington Post reported last year that more than 50 countries had developed or purchased drones to use in surveillance -- and that many of … [Read more...] about The Emerging “Drone” Culture
Defense Olympics Update: USA Shooting
U.S. Army Sgt. Glenn Eller III competes in the finals for double trap at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Shotgun Team Trials, May 19, 2012, at the Tucson Trap & Skeet Club in Arizona. His first-place finish earned him a spot on Team USA in London. U.S. Army photo by Tim Hipps It was a disappointing day in London today for our military Olympians as shotgun shooters Staff Sgt. Josh … [Read more...] about Defense Olympics Update: USA Shooting
Huge may Beget Huge: “Chick-Fil-A”, & other Fast Food Fat-Gob Addictions in Us
Most everyone I know has at one time or another (ok, ok forever, here) struggled with their weight. Who has been given much, often gains much [weight]-- in comparison to many parts of the world who live poor in many ways and also tend toward limited choices ( and sometimes healthier ones) in foods. What has been put over on all of us who have been or who are poor … [Read more...] about Huge may Beget Huge: “Chick-Fil-A”, & other Fast Food Fat-Gob Addictions in Us
Pew Poll Shows Romney’s Challenge: Trails Obama Amid Likability Problem (UPDATED)
It's easy to predict: there will be some kind of course correction in the campaign of presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney in light of recent polls -- particularly this Pew Research Center poll which shows him trailing President Barack Obama by ten points amid some likability erosion. Will Romney move to the center as many political operatives and … [Read more...] about Pew Poll Shows Romney’s Challenge: Trails Obama Amid Likability Problem (UPDATED)
Romney on Defensive: Study Says Romney Tax Plan Will Help the Rich
Presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney has a new problem in terms of image and explaining some substance: a study finds his proposed tax plan will help the rich. Here's a bit of Newsy.com's report: Taxes are back on the political menu this week. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center released a report today on Mitt Romney’s proposed plan for taxation, and it wasn’t … [Read more...] about Romney on Defensive: Study Says Romney Tax Plan Will Help the Rich
Amateur Hour
LEGAL NOTICE ON CARTOON: This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Reproduction elsewhere without licensing is strictly prohibited. See great cartoons by all the top political cartoonists at http://cagle.com. To license this cartoon for your own site, visit http://politicalcartoons.com … [Read more...] about Amateur Hour
A Gallery of Chick-A-Fil Cartoons
So now what we eat becomes a political statement -- not only what WE are eating but by eating it, how some will PERCEIVE us. You can just imagine it, can't you, people trying to make a statement showing up at a political rally held by a group they oppose and flauntingly stuffing their faces with Chick-A-Fil sandwiches. Any day now I expect a chain that serves chicken to … [Read more...] about A Gallery of Chick-A-Fil Cartoons
Advice for the Thinking Moderate (a Summer Rerun)
Since I'm on vacation and trying not to think too hard, I thought this would be the ideal time to post a few select summer reruns from my early columns at The New Moderate. In this one I tried to disabuse my fellow moderates of the notion that we always need to be tame, impartial middle-of-the-roaders. (Not as easy as it sounds.) Do moderates really need to think? Can’t we … [Read more...] about Advice for the Thinking Moderate (a Summer Rerun)
Syrian Military Defectors in Turkey: Should They Return Home and Join the Fighting?
As the fighting in Syria intensifies, especially the battle for the Syrian city of Aleppo and as Kofi Annan, the special envoy of the United Nations and Arab League, throws in the towel, tens of thousands of refugees continue to flee Syria, including thousands of Iraqis who were among the more than two million Iraqis who had sought safe haven abroad at the height of the Iraq … [Read more...] about Syrian Military Defectors in Turkey: Should They Return Home and Join the Fighting?
Mitt Romney’s Comeback Plan: His Vice Presidential Pick
Buzzfeed reports that presumptive Republican candidate Mitt Romney's advisers are now saying what many analysts have noted and what some of his staunch supporters insist is not true: his campaign is now not in (ahem) great shape -- and he's hoping his Vice Presidential pick can be a game changer. Or, at least, a media narrative changer: Mitt Romney has lost each of the … [Read more...] about Mitt Romney’s Comeback Plan: His Vice Presidential Pick
Why Further Humiliate ‘Comfort Women’ by Calling them ‘Sex Slaves’? (J-Cast, Japan)
Is it better to refer to women coerced into prostitution by the Japanese Imperial Army as 'comfort women' or as 'sex slaves'? Recently, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is said to have directed State Department personnel to stop using the euphemism 'comfort women' and start calling them 'enforced sex slaves.' This news item from Japan's J-Cast provides somewhat astonishing … [Read more...] about Why Further Humiliate ‘Comfort Women’ by Calling them ‘Sex Slaves’? (J-Cast, Japan)
When Politics Was Personal
As Barack Obama begs supporters for TV ad money and Mitt Romney returns from pandering to Catholics in Poland and Jews in Israel, the death of Gore Vidal is a reminder that politics was a literary enterprise as well half a century ago. In those days, Vidal was labeled “a man of letters” who wrote novels, plays and essays and, in the emerging new medium, argued raucously on … [Read more...] about When Politics Was Personal
The Tea Party’s Big Win in Texas
Ted Cruz, who defeated the conventional Republican candidate in the run-off for the Senate race, may turn out in the end to be Texas' Bobby Jindal. Remember when Jindal was elected and there were such hopes for him? But he turned out to be a serial dope? And then there was Marco Rubio? Well, tea party insurgent Ted Cruz, Cuban-American, Harvard Law-educated and with … [Read more...] about The Tea Party’s Big Win in Texas
Orwell’s 1984: Big Brother as Vampire seducing people re their ‘exceptionalism’ while draining them of their will to fight falsehoods
This seems so familiar in 2012... ORWELL PUTS FORTH THE IDEA THAT WAR WILL KEEP THE HOMELAND SAFE, IS FALSE DOUBLESPEAK. It was after WWII and the huge millions of lives lost that Orwell wrote 1984. He did not buy the idea that the world had been saved by bombing and murdering civilians worldwide by all sides. 1984 is about what he thought lay under the holocausts on all … [Read more...] about Orwell’s 1984: Big Brother as Vampire seducing people re their ‘exceptionalism’ while draining them of their will to fight falsehoods
(Update) Following Romney in Israel, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brief the press in Jerusalem, Aug. 1, 2012. UPDATE II: The New York Times: But after a flurry of high-level visits, including one by Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta to Israel on Wednesday, a number of administration officials say they remain hopeful that Israel has no imminent … [Read more...] about (Update) Following Romney in Israel, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta
Romney in His Own Words (Guest Voice)
Romney, in his own words by Ruth Marcus Washington Post Columnist WASHINGTON -- The art of spin, I suppose, involves making the best of what you've got and managing to deliver it with a straight face, no matter how preposterous. But the argument that Mitt Romney's flubs on his overseas trip reflected the candidate's compulsive penchant for simply saying what he … [Read more...] about Romney in His Own Words (Guest Voice)
Americans Abroad
LEGAL NOTICE ON CARTOON: This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Reproduction elsewhere without licensing is strictly prohibited. See great cartoons by all the top political cartoonists at http://cagle.com. To license this cartoon for your own site, visit http://politicalcartoons.com … [Read more...] about Americans Abroad
Mass Killings: People More Traumatized than Society
SAN DIEGO, Ca: -- When James Holmes murderously interrupted the new Batman movie in Aurora, Colorado on July 20, opening fire and killing 12 people and injuring 58 others, it was a sickening deja vu for many of us here in San Diego. On July 18, 1984, recently fired security guard James Huberty told his wife he was going "hunting for humans" and walked three blocks from his … [Read more...] about Mass Killings: People More Traumatized than Society
Walesa on Romney: ‘We are Alike’ (Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland)
Has founder of the Solidarity Labor Union, Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Polish President Lech Walesa endorsed Mitt Romney for U.S. president - thus confirming reports that he isn't too fond of President Obama? Not in so many words, since, as Walesa put it, that would be 'unseemly.' But according to this news item from Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza, during Romney's visit to … [Read more...] about Walesa on Romney: ‘We are Alike’ (Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland)