Slavery did not end in 1863, try 1973

post from Let's Talk Honestly on 18 February 2009 08:04:56 PM. © Let's Talk Honestly

Many believe that slavery ended in the United States in 1863. That is wrong. There are known cases of descendants of slaves and share croppers who have been forced into indentured servitude up until 1973.Peonage as this type of servitude is known existed in 16 states. Mostly southern states but it did exist in states like [...]

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Secretary Clinton Signals Possible Policy Shift
on Burma

post from TaylorMarsh.com on 18 February 2009 08:01:00 PM. © TaylorMarsh.com

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the economic sanctions that have been imposed by the U.S. and “other Western governments had failed to pressure the repressive Burmese government,” thus pointing to a potential shift in U.S. policy on Burma.

At a news conference in Jakarta, Clinton “did not deny that easing sanctions was one of the ideas under consideration by the Obama administration as part of a major review.”

“We are looking at possible ideas that can be presented,” she told reporters and said that she had discussed the issue with Indonesia officials here.

“Clearly the path we have taken in imposing sanctions hasn’t influenced the Burmese junta,” she said, adding that the route taken by Burma’s neighbors of “reaching out and trying to engage them has not influenced them either.”

Burma (aka Myanmar), is considered to be one of the “world’s most oppressive nations.” Secretary Clinton is reported to have been ”careful not to tip her hand on the direction of the policy review,” but she also spoke in using mild terms ”about the Burmese government, describing ‘the unfortunate path’ taken by Burma, leaving it ‘impervious to influence from anyone.’”

It remains to be seen if Clinton can help to “liberate Burma.” It is definitely time for some major shifts in Foreign Policy and I look for great things to come from Secretary Clinton. Check out the latest on DipNote, by the way, it’s a great little human interest piece about HRC’s visit to Jakarta.

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hift-on-burma/

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Indie Retailer of the Day: Fat Cat Designs 6

post from Moue Magazine on 18 February 2009 07:56:10 PM. © Moue Magazine

Friend of Moue (FoM) Adam became a proud uncle last week and I've been looking for an appropriate shop to feature in honor of baby Stan. I'm not fond of many of the indie children clothing companies out there because the goods are rather expensive for[...]

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s-6/

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New Dems Seek to Lead Regulations Rewrite

post from Open Left - Front Page on 18 February 2009 07:49:58 PM. © Open Left - Front Page

Occupying a place roughly equidistant between the Blue Dogs and the Progressives, but slightly to[...]

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US-Iraqi Raids in Eastern Mosul

post from IraqSlogger.com on 18 February 2009 07:49:36 PM. © IraqSlogger.com

MOSUL -- Joint US-Iraqi forces conducted a raiding campaign in a number of houses in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, arresting a number of youths living in the district.

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You're Outta Here

post from Talking Points Memo on 18 February 2009 07:48:00 PM. © Talking Points Memo

Durbin gives Burris the old heave-ho ...(ed.note: As you can see in the statement below, there's really little daylight between what Durbin says here and just coming out and calling on Burris to resign. And Durbin is his senate colleague from Illinois,[...]

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p

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Sebelius

post from Talking Points Memo on 18 February 2009 07:47:00 PM. © Talking Points Memo

The Times says Kansas Gov. Sebelius is Obama's top choice for HHS.[...]

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For Entertainment Purposes Only

post from FiveThirtyEight.com: Politics Done Right on 18 February 2009 07:40:00 PM. © FiveThirtyEight.com: Politics Done Right

As some of you may have seen, I have a feature in this week's New York Magazine in which I use a database of the last thirty years of Oscar history to predict the recipient's of this Sunday's Academy Awards.

This is fundamentally not all that difficult to do, since the winners of other awards such as the BAFTAs and the Golden Globes are quite strongly predictive of success in the Oscars. When the other major awards are split between two or more contenders, we can look at other sorts of tiebreakers: The Academy really does not take kindly to comedies or action films, for instance. And there is such a thing as "sympathy points": if an actress or actor has been nominated for an award several times without winning (such as Kate Winslet for Best Actress), she becomes more likely to collect the hardware. (From a technical standpoint, the challenge is really just to build a reasonably reliable model without overfitting).

Spoilers follow below the fold. One of these, by the way, I'm almost certain that I'm going to get wrong, although I have a pretty good excuse. For the supporting detail, please see the original copy.

Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight (86% chance of victory)
Best Supporting Actress: Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (51% chance of victory)
Best Actor: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler (71% chance of victory)
Best Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader (68% chance of victory)
Best Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire (99.7% chance of victory)
Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire (99.0% chance of victory)

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http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/02/for-entertainment-purposes-only.html

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Report: Hitchens beaten by pro-Syrian thugs in
Beirut ... (Allahpundit/Hot Air)

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Report: Hitchens beaten by pro-Syrian thugs in Beirut? Update: “I was on the ground and getting it in the head” — Look on the bright side: This'll make for one hell of a Slate column once he gets back. — I can only assume they didn't recognize him, as the opportunity to scalp …

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http://www.memeorandum.com/090218/p142#a090218p142

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Blue Dog Influence Watch: Social Security

Jane Hamsher has been keeping a close eye on the developments ahead of that "fiscal responsibility summit"we've been hearing about lately. Seems the "fiscal responsibility summit" is finally ready to morph into "entitlement reform," with just under a week to go before it kicks off.

Jane makes particular note of this WSJ observation:

The president met with 44 fiscally conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats this week and gave a nod to legislation that would set up commissions to deal with long-term deficit strains. The commissions would then present plans to Congress for an up-or-down vote.

That comports with my reading of an earlier WaPo article on the subject, which reported the proposal of a commission that would deliver some kind of privileged, unamendable recommendation for action that would be subject only to a straight up-or-down vote. The President's reported opposition to the proposal, as I read it, was solely to including the authorization of such a commission within the stimulus bill then under consideration. Speaker Pelosi's opposition was broader, and appeared to reject the notion that such a commission ought to be empaneled at all.

I think today's report clears that up.

Looks like the summit's on. For next Monday. Which also clears things up a bit.

Jim Cooper (D-TN-05) flipped his stimulus vote just in time (but not before sneaking in one more protest vote -- a vote against taking up debate on the stimulus conference report, in fact). Judd Gregg, of course, managed to sit the whole thing out, while burnishing (if only temporarily) his reputation for "bipartisanship," courtesy of his short-lived nomination to the Obama cabinet.

It's an interesting way of heading into the next TARP ask and war supplemental, anyway. Absent the summit, you'd have Blue Dogs making holdout noises on those bills (and you'll still likely see them hold out on TARP, should another request come soon), joined by not a few progressives as well. But with the Blue Dogs' goodies already passed out -- and under the umbrella of "fiscal responsibility" at that -- it'll just be the progressives grousing at the margins, and we know where their votes go on spending bills.