Whose a thugocracy, Saudi Arabia or Iran? (POLL)

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Tuesday February 16, 2010 · 1:01 PM PST

2010/02/16 · 13:01

Iran is a theocracy/democracy mix and not a democracy (which 80% of Iranians desire (p. 3, pdf)). However, at least the nation is not an openly nepotistic thugocracy like, say, Egypt, and at least it doesn’t ban the leaders of its second biggest ethnic group from its national elections, as Iraq has just done. Also, at least Iran is not a military dependency unable to be an sovereign ‘ocracy’ in any important way, like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Afghanistan. And, at least it managed last June to elect the president that most of its people voted for, which even the U.S. is unable to do on a consistent basis. . . .

Poll

91 votes Show Results

Which of these Middle Eastern nations is a 'thug-ocracy'?

91 votes Vote Now!

Which of these Middle Eastern nations is a 'thug-ocracy'?

1. Iran

16 votes

2. Saudi Arabia (U.S. protectorate)

20 votes

3. (U.S.-occupied) Iraq

2 votes

4. (NATO-occupied) Afghanistan

1 vote

5. Egypt (recipient of $2 billion a year in U.S. foreign aid)

5 votes

6. Hard to choose just one

15 votes

7. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5

24 votes

8. None of the above

7 votes

9. Iâ€<sup>TM</sup>m not sure / I donâ€<sup>TM</sup>t know

1 vote

"Marines push 'The Breacher' against Taliban lines!!!"

fairleft2

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday February 12, 2010 · 11:09 AM PST

2010/02/12 · 11:09

Oooops, except there aren't any lines. It's a guerilla war, morons! I was arguing with moon or not really moon about how absurd the big lies can be when there is only cheerleading and no journalism left in the mainstream media. That Yahoo/AP headline is about as bad as it gets. And hey, look at the video game worthy pic. Propagandapallooza!

Poll

102 votes Show Results

Will the U.S. fight a major battle with the Taliban in Marwah?

102 votes Vote Now!

Will the U.S. fight a major battle with the Taliban in Marwah?

No, the Taliban will have evacuated by the time U.S. forces enter the town.

61 votes

Yes.

32 votes

I don't know. / I'm not sure.

9 votes

Iran just wants simultaneous exchange

fairleft2

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday February 10, 2010 · 12:08 PM PST

2010/02/10 · 12:08

The crux of the U.S.-Iran conflict is that Iran doesn't trust Russia and in particular France, that when it sends its low-enriched uranium there it will come back as 20% enriched or at all. So, Iran wants simultaneous exchange of low-enriched uranium for 20% enriched uranium, but the West refuses that without explanation. And so, here we are, on the propaganda path to bombing Iran. From Reuters:

Salehi [Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization] said Iran would stop producing 20 percent enriched uranium if it received reactor fuel from abroad instead.

But he made clear Tehran was not backing down on its demand for a simultaneous exchange, a condition unlikely to be accepted by the major powers involved in efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the long-running dispute.

Poll

45 votes Show Results

Should 'the West' agree to Iran's 'simultaneous exchange' condition on exchange of its low-enriched uranium for 20%-enriched uranium?

45 votes Vote Now!

Should 'the West' agree to Iran's 'simultaneous exchange' condition on exchange of its low-enriched uranium for 20%-enriched uranium?

Yes.

30 votes

No.

10 votes

I'm not sure / I don't know

5 votes

What was true about minimum wage increases is true about tax breaks for hiring workers

fairleft2

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday February 08, 2010 · 9:32 PM PST

2010/02/08 · 21:32

Neither has a big impact on employment. Dean Baker notes that Democrats have for years argued -- righteously and correctly when they campaigned in early 2007 (not so long ago!) for an increase in the minimum wage -- that what President Obama’s proposed $5,000 plus per new worker tax break would in effect be, a moderate decrease in the cost of labor, will have little effect on demand for labor:

Poll

56 votes Show Results

There are much better ways to boost jobs and the economy than handing tax breaks to businesses for hiring new workers.

56 votes Vote Now!

There are much better ways to boost jobs and the economy than handing tax breaks to businesses for hiring new workers.

Agree.

40 votes

Disagree.

9 votes

I'm not sure. / I don't know.

7 votes

Obama okays assassinations of U.S. citizens, so STFU!? Poll

fairleft2

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday February 05, 2010 · 1:00 PM PST

2010/02/05 · 13:00

Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair on Wednesday confirmed that President Obama can and does authorize assassinations of U.S. citizens, if those citizens are overseas. Are we all OK with this? Why no protest from progressive leaders within the Democratic Party? Progressives, leaders, within the Democratic Party? How can anyone still sane and moral in this country not agree with Glenn Greenwald (emphasis added):

Poll

203 votes Show Results

Assassination of U.S. citizens just on Pres. Obama's okay is

203 votes Vote Now!

Assassination of U.S. citizens just on Pres. Obama's okay is

basically fine by me.

46 votes

horribly wrong.

123 votes

I'm not sure / I don't know.

13 votes

wrong if done to white Christian Americans, fine if the victims 'look foreign'. (extra answer choice for FOX viewers visiting Daily Kos)

21 votes

NEW: Haiti 4 Haiti reconstruction watch blog, w IMF POLL

fairleft2

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday February 04, 2010 · 3:43 PM PST

2010/02/04 · 15:43

What looks like an essential new blog, Haiti Relief and Reconstruction Watch, "will keep track of current efforts at relief and reconstruction with an eye towards ensuring that such efforts are oriented toward the most urgent and important needs of the Haitian people, and that aid is not used to undermine Haitians' right to self-determination." It's being done by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, whose co-directors are Dean Baker (he of the excellent blog on economic reporting, Beat the Press) and Mark Weisbrot. Very righteous and needed, if you think the key to reconstruction, heck construction, is democracy and sovereignty. The most recent two posts are . . .

Poll

35 votes Show Results

Should the new $114 million IMF loan to Haiti be turned into a grant?

35 votes Vote Now!

Should the new $114 million IMF loan to Haiti be turned into a grant?

Yes.

25 votes

No.

9 votes

Not sure / don't know.

1 vote

123 civilians, 3 al Qaeda DRONED in January, 17 more dead today

fairleft2

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday February 03, 2010 · 12:38 PM PST

2010/02/03 · 12:38

U.S. drones killed 123 Pakistani civilians and three al Qaeda in January, the largest death toll ever for a single month. 17 more died today, some low-level militants, most civilians. Apparently the sharp increase in drone attacks is motivated by revenge, for the late December suicide attack that killed seven CIA drone-targeting experts in Afghanistan. All this in the context of the just-released Pentagon budget, which features a 75% increase in funding for drone production and operations.

fairleft2

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday January 30, 2010 · 11:24 PM PST

2010/01/30 · 23:24

What do people want to know about Haiti? The overwhelmingly chaotic reality or the success stories being achieved by the international community led by the U.S.? I think I know, but I’ll provide the chaotic and inadequate (by a factor of about ten) reality as balance to your mainstream TV watching. Six reports and some extra stuff and thoughts at the end.

[Update: Consider donating to the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund, the AFSC, Doctors Without Borders, the UN, Partners in Health, Tex-Mex Shelter Box, and/or, larger picture here, the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti and Canada Haiti Action.]

fairleft2

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday January 29, 2010 · 10:44 AM PST

2010/01/29 · 10:44

At this point popular control through the normal electoral channels is close enough to nothing to be largely meaningless. That's what matters and will matter going forward, and it happened long before the recent Supreme Court decision that corporations have full-scale free speech rights. Confirmation in Monday's Chris Hedges essay, Democracy in America Is a Useful Fiction, which is an extended rant/riff on Sheldon Wolin's Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism.

fairleft2

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday January 28, 2010 · 3:43 PM PST

2010/01/28 · 15:43

Dean Baker criticizes Senate approval of a new term as Fed chief for Ben Bernanke, the man who knowingly refused to do anything to contain an out-of-control housing bubble.

Poll

54 votes Show Results

Should Bernanke be Fed chief?

54 votes Vote Now!

Should Bernanke be Fed chief?

Yes!

12 votes

No!

39 votes

I don't know! Not sure!

3 votes

Haiti response: pathetic or powerless?

fairleft2

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday January 25, 2010 · 1:41 PM PST

2010/01/25 · 13:41

Is the international response "pathetic" (as an Italian expert stated) and the local, internal response powerless? Sadly predictable, looking at the long-term nature of international intervention in Haiti and Haiti's current lack of a sovereign and in fact legitimate government. Haiti needs a sovereign, post-neoliberal, post-market-fundamentalist government.

fairleft2

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday January 22, 2010 · 1:32 PM PST

2010/01/22 · 13:32

Introduction: Relevant to the Haitian human catastrophe whether or not there had been an earthquake, Andrew Cockburn wrote the four saddest paragraphs about Haiti last Friday. Read them, and consider the following: Haiti needs sovereignty and the social and economic policies of a popular democracy. Otherwise, whatever the heroic efforts of international relief, their achievements will be overwhelmed by the demands of cheap labor neoliberalism and, in particular, the International Monetary Fund's infamous structural adjustment programs.

Poll

31 votes Show Results

Which is more important?

31 votes Vote Now!

Which is more important?

Sending earthquake relief money and aid to Haiti now.

2 votes

Ending Haiti's subservience to the economic whims of the U.S. and the IMF

15 votes

Both of the above are important, without one the other won't do nearly enough.

14 votes

RSS

Whose a thugocracy, Saudi Arabia or Iran? (POLL)

"Marines push 'The Breacher' against Taliban lines!!!"

Iran just wants simultaneous exchange

What was true about minimum wage increases is true about tax breaks for hiring workers

Obama okays assassinations of U.S. citizens, so STFU!? Poll

NEW: Haiti 4 Haiti reconstruction watch blog, w IMF POLL

123 civilians, 3 al Qaeda DRONED in January, 17 more dead today

Haiti relief: chaotic, massively inadequate

Inverted totalitarianism: what we're up against

Dean Baker on Bernanke approval

Haiti response: pathetic or powerless?

Haiti's neoliberal catastrophe, pre and post quake