Uncivil War: Conservatives to challenge a dozen GOP candidates – Charles Mahtesian and Alex Isenstadt – POLITICO.com

Uncivil War: Conservatives to challenge a dozen GOP candidates – Charles Mahtesian and Alex Isenstadt – POLITICO.com.

French Communists want a “united left front” for next year’s regional elections

French Communists are urging the mosaic of progressive/left movements in France to form a sort of Left-Wing Front against the Right (meaning, probably, Sarkozy)

Funny, isn’t that what French Socialists tried to do in the 70s, 80s, 90s? Did it not work? Weren’t the French Communists presenting their own candidate in the 2002 French presidential election along with the greens and other movements that worked effectively in a governmental coalition with the socialists? Didn’t they dilute the vote in 2002 leaving French progressives with just an alternative between conservative right and extreme right?

And now they want a united left-front?  The socialists are reluctant (and rudderless); can you really blame them?

See the link below and tell me what you think…

Le PCF propose aux régionales des listes de Front de gauche élargi

Maoist Rebels Widen Deadly Reach Across India – NYTimes.com

It’s amazing how old paradigms resurface, and in the deadliest of manners. And as strange as it sounds (maoists in India) it signals, first, how little we know of India, and how, despite some socio-
economical achievements and all this talk about the benefits of “globalization” there are still deep inequalities that haven’t been dealt with. See the link below.

And we might think that this is far away, it doesn’t concern me/us. Nevertheless we are pressed to remember that poverty and the deprivation that comes with it comes in many forms. Therefore, we should expect different responses to it, all with the same outcome: desperation and violence. It may not be maoists, but a subculture of crime or other forms of dealing with social and economic dislocation.

We live indeed in strange times…

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/world/asia/01maoist.html?th&emc=th

Dominique de Villepin veut “conjurer le mal français” – LeMonde.fr

Check out this feature in French daily Le Monde.  Embattled politician and former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin gives a magnanimous speech to his followers.  Notice the high republican overtones.

A gaullist comeback?  Perhaps, at least discursively.

Dominique de Villepin addresses his followers @ Maison de l' Amérique latine in Paris - AP/CHRISTOPHE ENA

You can watch the following video from weekly politics magazine Le Point:

Dominique de Villepin veut “conjurer le mal français” – LeMonde.fr.

Tell me what you think…

White House confronts the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — latimes.com

A gutsy move by the president, but it comes with risks. What will the difference be if the move is successful? On the other hand, the business of America is still business.  Will this be an overhaul that will redefine relations between government and business interests or will it weaken it?Is this a move by the Obama administration to recover some of the political space lost by government in its relation with commerce?  Is it a move based on a well-deserved, much expected critique of an organization that, according to White House officials, has blocked initiatives aimed at consumer and environmental protection.

I hope this works. The moral argument here is to communicate a desirability to address grievances by consumer-individuals and point to how environmental interests have curbed, and ultimately marginalized, in favor of unfettered, unrestricted and unethical market practices.  In redressing this balance, the administration should be applauded. Nevertheless, they should thread carefully; I don’t think the White House should want to make an enemy out of the US Chamber of Commerce.

Tell me what you think…

Reflexiones sobre el paro nacional

Vota, o quedate calla’o, Estas palabras parecen insignificantes en la coyuntura actual, como insignificantes son tanto el “artista” que las repitió y el medio que las diseminó.  No obstante, el silencio en esta ocasión no es una opción.  Tienen razón aquellos que se tirarán a la calle mañana, a ponerle una cara humana a una política que no lo es, a sensibilizar a la opinión pública y a algunos individuos que, en su atomismo, les es indiferente la respuesta a la pregunta: y ahora ¿que voy a hacer?

Desde la primera hora del día miles de personas expresarán su indignación.  Precisan también de recordar y reflexionar; recordar sobre todo quienes estaban en el poder cuando, habiendo podido solucionar las deficiencias fiscales, decidieron expandirlas de manera imprudente. 

Ya habiamos sido advertidos, ‘no hay dinero, no se puede’; las palabras las mencionó Victoria Muñoz en el nefasto debate que eventualmente traería a Pedro Roselló al poder y ocho años de polarización y poca responsabilidad fiscal.  Precisamos también de recordar la esperanza con la que Sila Calderón estimuló a las masas que depositaron en ella su confianza sólo para dejarlas desarraigadas y confundidas después de cuatro años de pobre gobierno.  De igual manera, precisamos de recordar la administración de Anibal Acevedo Vilá y la Legislatura Novoprogresista; fueron ellos los que nos demostraron en todo su esplendor la política de mala fe, y que el ejecutivo, en ese contexto, es una figura impotente (su acto proactivo: contratar veinte mil empleados fuera de la veda electoral, agravando aun más la salud fiscal del Estado).  Todo ello contribuyó al entrecruce crítico en el que nos encontramos.

Precisamos de recordar también el silencio y la docilidad de la legislatura actual en este momento tan apremiante.

Pero salgamos o no a la calle, precisamos de reflexionar lo siguiente:  el empoderamiento y las atribuciones que se toman estas personas (gobernantes, lideres políticos y sindicales) se dan en función de una sola cosa, el voto.  Fuimos nosotros los que los pusimos ahí, de manera irracional, sin pensar en las consecuencias, porque queríamos un cambio.  Y ahí los tenemos.  Así pues, en la reflexión que vayamos a hacer mañana justo a la hora de señalar culpables, no olvidemos en algún momento del día mirarnos al espejo.

A derogar hoy colegiación compulsoria de abogados – El Nuevo Día

Sinking this Island-Nation further into hopelessness

http://www.elnuevodia.com/aderogarhoycolegiacioncompulsoriadeabogados-625875.html

Op-Ed Columnist – Dad’s Life or Yours? You Choose – NYTimes.com

Kristof’s column is a compelling testimony an an argument for health-care reform without delay.

Can critics of reform remain indifferent towards the human tragedy that lack of adequate coverage engenders?  Will they wait for a personal tragedy to transform their stubborness?

Click the link below and tell me what you think…

Op-Ed Columnist – Dad’s Life or Yours? You Choose – NYTimes.com.

Giving Heroin to Addicts: A New Treatment Gains Ground – TIME

Drug medication programs are highly controversial in political cultures with strict moral rigidness, such as the United States and Puerto Rico.  Add that to the crusading discourse of  ‘drug war’ and the political time bomb of using public funds to maintain these type of programs and there is a low probability of implementing such a project in the aforementioned regions.

Meanwhile, other realities are trying it.  Will it work?

Giving Heroin to Addicts: A New Treatment Gains Ground – TIME.

Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work? – TIME.

Tell me what you think…

Over 150 Protesters Killed in Guinea – NYTimes.com

Things in the African nation of Guinea aren’t going well.  The military government is flexing its muscle against civilians protesting the Junta and its leader’s arbitrariness.

The New York Times has a feature on the disturbances at Conakry.

The BBC also has a worrying narrative and some footage.

See also coverage from Reuters

I wonder where France is in all of this.

Tell me what you think…