sotto.org

The paucity of terms we use to describe the wide spectrum of political thought that can only label itself “left” or “right” is the reason the Political Compass was developed. By posing a series of questions, the test scales your belief system according to how it falls not only to the left or right, but [...]

Did I happen to mention that this is an important election?

Ben Cohen, of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, explains the deficit, social programs, and how to fix it with Oreos.

Joe Conason’s neologism on David Kay’s unambiguous message concerning Iraq’s perceived (lied about) ability to threaten and attack the United States: weapons of mass disappearance [salon subscription].

YEAAAAARRGGHHH!

Michael Moore is one of the first big names on the left that have publicly endorsed Wesley Clark.

Out of the Mainstream? Hardly. Howard Dean replies to a Washington Post Editorial concerning his foreign policy positions. A nice retort, but it doesn’t change my mind that Howard Dean is still unelectable, regardless of how centrist he really is. The Democrats need someone who knows how to play hardball and Dean is [...]

Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn into the California Governor’s office today. I didn’t vote for him, but I wish him well and best of luck. If he can pull off any of the things he campaigned for (lower taxes, increased spending on education, repeal of the tripled car license tax) which also happen to be mandated [...]

Whistleass.

We Love Arnold. Choice quotes and info about everyone’s favorite Austrian-born entertainer. Scratch that, we like Wolfgang Puck better. From the misguided slackers who bought us welovetheiraqiinformationminister.

Georgy Russell, a twenty-six year old programmer from the Bay Area, is one of the hundreds(?) of people currently running for Governor of California. This is her blog. *Sigh*. When in Rome. Run Georgy Run.

I wrote about John Edwards some time ago. Back then his message was trying to get people to believe he was average everyday American. It now appears that his campaign is starting to understand that it’s not just about the messenger and the message, it’s about the quality of both that counts. Good on him.

How to go from a $255 billion dollar surplus to a $455 billion dollar deficit in just three short years.

The CIA does some pre-emptive striking of its own. CIA: Assessment of Syria’s WMD exaggerated.

In a new dispute over interpreting intelligence data, the CIA and other agencies objected vigorously to a Bush administration assessment of the threat of Syria’s weapons of mass destruction that was to be presented Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

I must have slipped [...]

Related links (via mefi internal):
Scars and stripes divide a nation;
Iraq the human toll; On the differences between how Canadians Americans see the flag.

Arianna Huffington takes Shrub to task about the hypocritical justification between invading Iraq because of a ruthless dictatorship, and not doing more in Liberia.

Aid to Afghanistan was omitted from the latest White House Budget. They are however, willing to spend 10bn on Iraq. Unbelievable. On second thought, same old same old. This administration is being as penny-wise and pound-foolish as the rest of them.

John Edwards (not to be mistaken with John Edward, the “psychic” con artist) may be a step in the right direction for the Democrats to recapture the White House in 2004. My feeling is that there is no way anyone can be President of the United States without support from the Southern states. It’s also [...]

Declan McCullagh posits using one-way data encryption algorithms as a possible method to satisfy the central database requirements of the United States as an evolving police state, as well as way to keep our citizen privacy intact. Seems technically sound and simple enough, but because systems like Total Information Awareness (TIA which aptly enough [...]

There’s no other way to put this: The Democrats were pimp-slapped down Pennsylvania Avenue on Election Day. I can’t say I’m excited about the outcome, even though I consider myself more of an issue-oriented Independent these days, albeit a liberal-minded one. The Dems did a lot to lose this election by themselves by deciding to [...]