What Japan's Elections Mean For America

August 31, 2009

What do Japan’s elections mean for the United States? Japan’s dramatic electoral turn this weekend, in which the center-right longtime ruling party of the LDP was rejected in favor of the DPJ and Democratic Party leader Yukio Hatoyama, is the subject of the latest forum of the New Ledger’s editors.

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Did Gordon Brown Free the Lockerbie Bomber Because of Oil Interests From Libya and BP?

August 30, 2009

Gordon Brown is going down. “The British government decided it was ‘in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom’” to free Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, after “discussions between Libya and BP over a multi-million-pound oil exploration deal had hit difficulties. These were resolved soon afterwards.”

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Crisis in Burma Hurts Beijing Relationship: More Than 30,000 Refugees Cross Into China

August 30, 2009

“A high-stakes bid by Burma to bring to heel the ethnic militias which have challenged its rule for more than 60 years has driven up to 30,000 refugees into China and drawn a rare rebuke from the regime’s most important ally.” This part of the world gets little attention from the West, but bears watching.

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Elections in Japan Likely to End Decades of Rule by Centre-Right Party

August 30, 2009

“Japan’s voters Sunday appear to have soundly rejected the ruling party that has set the nation’s course for more than half a century, according to media tallies, choosing instead an untested rival to grapple with a weakening economy and rapidly aging society.” Shifts happen when people can’t trust leadership, anywhere you are.

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An Incredible Report on Torture and Khalid Sheik Mohammed From the Washington Post

August 30, 2009

For years, Vice President Cheney and his allies have pointed to the case of Khalid Sheik Mohammed as one that would justify their use of “enhanced interrogation techniques.” But who could have expected that the Washington Post of all places would choose to back up their case so definitively. At Salon, Glenn Greenwald howls.

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Kidnap Victim and Children Kept in Backyard for 18 Years

August 28, 2009

This sort of bizarre story is sure to be forwarded to you eight times today: “An 11-year-old California girl snatched from the street in front of her house in 1991 had two children with the man accused of taking her and was forced along with the children to live in backyard sheds, police said Thursday.”

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Wait, You Mean There's Still No Health Bill to Read?

August 28, 2009

“The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted on a final version of HR 3200, the health insurance reform bill sought by President Obama, on July 31. About 50 amendments were added to the bill… Nearly a month later, there is still no copy of the updated product available for the public to read.” Transparency in […]

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Howard Dean: Trial Lawyers are Way too Intimidating to do Tort Reform

August 28, 2009

Occasionally, the moderate Governor Howard Dean shines through the liberal activist Howard Dean: “I wonder how Dean feels about Barack Obama’s attempts to paint physicians as greedy Tonsil Vultures and Foot Rustlers? In those instances, I’m pretty sure Dean responds as a politician instead of a doctor.”

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Steve Hayes Wants to Know: Why is Greg Sargent Such a Liar?

August 28, 2009

Hayes vs. the Washington Post on torture: “Sargent has argued that these techniques, specifically designed to elicit information from uncooperative detainees, did not work. Does he believe that KSM, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and a man who dedicated his life to killing Americans, simply had a change of heart?”

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Fall Guy Defined: Leon Panetta in the Dock

August 28, 2009

“Obama is contending with an angry left that’s riled by his decisions to retain some Bush-era counterterrorism policies. He’s facing Congressional liberals still baying for Bush blood. He’s hired Attorney General Eric Holder, who is giving the term ‘ideological purity’ new meaning.” To appease them? “Hang the CIA and Mr. Panetta out to dry.”

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