Russia's election officials have barred former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov from running as an opposition candidate in the March presidential election.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) said there were many invalid signatures in Mr Kasyanov's list of supporters.
...
"This means the elections will be a farce," Mr Kasyanov's spokeswoman, Yelena Dikun, told Reuters news agency.

"It shows the authorities are afraid of any competition, it means the authorities fear any alternative points of view," she said.

"They are afraid, just so afraid."

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Kasyanov barred from Russian poll

i've recommended apod before but since i love it and it's on my daily hit list and i love this photo i just wanted to recommend it again
especially now we can post pics

APOD: 2008 January 25 - Winter Night at Pic du Midi

During the year I commanded a combat battalion in West Baghdad in 2006, some of the soldiers in our outfit were wounded and some were killed, but we did not fail. In my opinion we succeeded.

a (angry) voice in the wilderness challenging the new orthodoxy

it may be too personal for the writer to allow him to see the wider picture but remains an important perspective accurate or not

Our troops did not fail in 2006 - International Herald Tribune

Scientists in Maryland today said they had built from scratch an entire microbial chromosome, a loop of synthetic DNA carrying all the instructions that a simple cell needs to live and reproduce.

The feat marks the first time that anyone has made such a large strand of hereditary material from off-the-shelf chemical ingredients. Previous efforts had yielded DNA strands less than one-twentieth the size, and those pieces lacked many of the key biological programs that tell a cell how to stay alive.

On the basis of earlier experiments, the researchers believe the new, full-length loop would spontaneously "boot up" inside a cell, just as a downloaded operating system can awaken a computer -- a potentially historic event that would amount to the creation of the first truly artificial life form.

Synthetic superbugs, here we come! Everyone got their space suits ready?

Md. Scientists Create Full Chromosome of Synthetic DNA - washingtonpost.com

American-backed Sunni militias who have fought Sunni extremists to a standstill in some of Iraq's bloodiest battlegrounds are being hit with a wave of assassinations and bomb attacks, threatening a fragile linchpin of the military's strategy to pacify the nation.

At least 100 predominantly Sunni militiamen, known as Awakening Council members or Concerned Local Citizens, have been killed in the past month, mostly around Baghdad and the provincial capital of Baquba, urban areas with mixed Sunni and Shiite populations, according to Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani. At least six of the victims were senior Awakening leaders, Iraqi officials said.

Attacks imperil U.S.-backed militias in Iraq - International Herald Tribune

It’s not often that I find myself recommending a French state-owned industry as the answer to major U.S. problems, but I guess there’s an exception to every rule.

In this case the exception is the French nuclear energy company Areva, which provides about 80 percent of the country’s electricity from 58 nuclear power plants, is building a new generation of reactor that will come on line at Flamanville in 2012, and is exporting its expertise to countries from China to the United Arab Emirates.

America Needs France’s Atomic Anne - New York Times

Decius wrote:

ubernoir wrote:
however i think you need to take onboard a wider perspective than simply the party politics of the US. I believe party politics is an essential part of democracy across the world and the formation of two blocks which are themselves coalitions inevitable both in the first past the post system and in proportional representation systems.

How does this lead to the author's conclusion that one must participate in one of these parties and that failure to do so is somehow fraudulent or weak? If being independent is valid when viewed soley through the lens of American politics, how could broadening my perspective lead to the conclusion that it is invalid?

Generally, two blocks form because in a majoritarian system with a unitary executive there must be a winner who holds power, and anyone who is not part of that winner is by definition the opposition.

In America, I find can myself a part of the opposition regardless of who is in power. This is because both parties actually cut away at my interests. Both constantly press againsts civil liberties. Neither has the will to solve substantial domestic problems that this country faces. I don't suspect that the coming reign of the Democrats is any more likely to address real problems like social security solvency (which Democrats publicly pretend isn't real) or health care than the Republicans were. When they are able to find the will to act it is usually in response to phony news media moral panics or in the interest of corporate doners (intellectual property maximalism, new bankruptcy legislation).

I do not see how it can be weak to refuse to join political organizations that are alligned against my interests.

it's interesting how you remember a piece and read it differently
(Stanley Fish the author of the piece is someone whose reader theory and writings I studied at university for my english degree so i find it ironic to have to go back to read his article again because my impression of it and what I took away from it is so different from yours)

i missed him arguing that you should join a party

i do not belong to a political party and never have but the set up in this country is very different. Everybody of voting age is on the electoral roll -- we do not register to vote in the US manner and i'm not sure of the exact mechanics of being an independent or registered democrat or republican. My mental model is rather different of the two blocks. In the UK we have party members and activists but membership is quite low compared to voter turnout. We have what are called swing voters, the undecideds who move between parties between elections. It is these who in general elections decide the outcome. Large areas of the country are electoral wastelands for party x or party y. It is a cliche of British politics that because Scotland had no Conservative MPs it was used a... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

RE: Against Independent Voters - Stanley Fish - Think Again - Opinion - New York Times Blog

We’re in that season now when we hear the same things being said over and over again, and nothing is said more often by political pundits than this election (it doesn’t matter which one) will be decided by independent voters. Accompanying this announcement is the judgment – sometimes implicit, sometimes explicit – that this state of affairs is to be welcomed, even encouraged: it’s good that the independent voters are making themselves heard and forcing candidates to think outside their partisan boxes. And this judgment itself implies another: independent voters are better, in the sense of being more reflective and less ideological, than voters who identify themselves strongly with one or the other of the two major parties. The assumption is that if we were all independent voters, the political process would be in much better shape.

This seems to me to be a dubious proposition, especially if the word “political” in the phrase “political process” is taken seriously.Those who yearn for government without politics always invoke abstract truths and moral visions (the good life, the fair society, the just commonwealth) with which no one is likely to disagree because they have no content. But sooner rather than later someone gives these abstractions content, and when that happens, definitional disputes break out immediately, and after definitional disputes come real disputes, the taking of sides, the applying of labels (both the self-identifying kind and the accusing kind) and, pretty soon, the demonization of the other. In short, politics, which is what independent voters hate.

Stanley Fish takes apart a piece of non-sense
so-called independents simply occupy the idealogical interzone between the parties, the fuzzy edge where the skimishing is and the general election battle takes place. The primary system is organising the army and deciding battle order before the fight, it not just about deciding who's in charge it's about designing, or at least building, the Spitfire to win the crucial battle. Independents are the World War 2 equivilant of Italy on one side and then the other. Although I'm reminded of the Italian in Catch 22 who claimed that Italy was winning the war!!

edit after some thought
Or perhaps a better and fairer metaphor would be General George Monck who was a wise man. He shifted allegiances but was also thoroughly moral. Any view of history reveals that no party ever has a monopoly of truth for long. Ending the absolutism of the monarchy was a vital step and another vital step was the stability brought by the Restoration thus we [the English] have the crown in parliament a successful hybrid and political compromise.

Against Independent Voters - Stanley Fish - Think Again - Opinion - New York Times Blog

While there is increasing evidence that the euro-area economy is slowing, most of the factors that are contributing to the bleak outlook in the United States are not present on the Continent, according to the governor of the Bank of France, Christian Noyer.

During an interview, Noyer also said he did not expect any "strong shocks" from French banks as they report their 2007 earnings, despite the constant stream of major losses by banks in the United States.

Noyer was at pains to stress that consumers and financial institutions in France and the rest of the euro zone appeared relatively insulated from the effects of the meltdown of the subprime mortgage market across the Atlantic.

Christian Noyer sees 'partial decoupling' of US and EU economies - International Herald Tribune

"In response to requests for even easier access to the Binary Formats, Microsoft has agreed to remove any intermediate steps necessary to get the documentation. They're going to just post it, making it directly available as a download on the Microsoft web site. Microsoft will also make the Binary Formats subject to its Open Specification Promise by February 15, 2008. They're even planning to include an Open Source converter implementation."

i particularly like the tags the slashdotter has put on it

hellfreezesover, blackiswhite, catsanddogslivingtogether

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