Politics, and Promises are easy, governing is hard

Promises. Promises. After the State of the Union, This has both rollover feature that let's you see the promises Obama made in the campaign, what he has accomplished, what he still has to do as well as the details for each proposal.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/obamas-promises/?hpid=topnews

Happily ever after, or till death due us part?

Will an agreement reached by Democratic Unionsist Party leader Ian Paisley(below, left) and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams finally lead to a power-shared devolved government in Northern Ireland? The Stormont Parliamentary Building in Belfast had been limited to hosting weddings for the last several years (2003-07).


“Compromise is not a dirty word – Compromise.” – Bono


http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2007/mar/26/northernireland.devolution

Marriage is give and take. Governments, and nationalist movements, you should know, tend to be more about the latter than the former. But with the setting the Northern Ireland Assembly Dining Room – the only portion of the Northern Ireland Parliament that has been open for business the last 4+ years (you could book your wedding there) – that Northern Irish nationalist leaders agreed on Monday (3/26/07) to legitimately function in a power-shared parliament beginning on May 8, 2007.

The Good Friday Agreement brokered in 1997 as part of Tony Blair’s “Third Way” reforms. The planned devolution (the unitary British Government turning over power) was dissolved a total of four times (suspended from 2003-07) when the historic rivals showed they could not get along. As a unitary government, unlike our shared federalist powers, Westminster has sovereign authority to release or pull back rule.

Britain and Ireland, like the parents of an arranged engaged couple, threw money and smiles at the process.

Former prime ministers, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, said the Sinn Fein-Democratic Unionist pact was the welcome culmination of their governments’ close cooperation on Northern Ireland since 1997.

“Everything we have done over the last 10 years has been a preparation for this moment,” Blair said in London.

In Dublin, Ahern said all players in the often tortuous peace process can “move forward from today in an entirely new spirit and with every expectation of success.” Ahern said he and Blair were “determined to ensure that the final steps of the peace process are successfully completed.”
But will it last? Democratic Unionist leader Ian Paisley and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams sat at the same table for the first time in history, but they reportedly avoided eye contact and did not shake hands.
This certainly doesn’t not look like a “match made in heaven.” Though, like many nationalist quarrels and cleavages, it is often defined a religious conflict between the Protestant Unionists and the Sinn Fein Catholics. It is much more complicated than that.

Could it also be much more simple?

“Eye, Ian try the Corned Beef.”

“A Guinness, Gerry?”

Brilliant!

Brilliant!

For more on the Good Friday Agreement (The Agreement) of 1998:

http://www.nio.gov.uk/the-agreement

And more on the cleavage on the isle, on the second largest city in Northern Ireland Derry or Londonderry (depending on which side you align):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derry

Party On UK

Here are the links to find the parties you will be representing in our Mock Commons simulation Monday:


http://www.labour.org.uk/

http://www.conservatives.com/

http://www.libdems.org.uk/

Brown turns Green

Before the ink could dry on stories about Scott Brown’s historic Republican victory last Tuesday in Massachusetts the United States Supreme Court stole the headlines. An upset victory for a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts is a big story. Changing the campaign finance rules to benefit corporate donors is an even bigger story. More and more green money will find its way into our political process.

Time to color in the details.

In a special session of the United States Supreme Court on Wednesday Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy read his Majority Opinion in the case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010). It signaled a new day in campaign finance reform.

At issue was a provision of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA, 2002) that prohibited both corporations and unions to engage in “electioneering communication” 60 days prior to general elections. Much of the details in the BCRA, commonly known as McCain-Feingold, had been held constitutional in the case McConnell v. Federal Election Commission (2003).

What changed? Samuel Alito replaced Sandra O’Connor.

The five most conservative justices all lined up together in forming the majority in the Citizens United case. During the special session Associate Justice John Paul Stevens read from his 90-page dissent. Both sides seemed to understand the significance of this case.

The conservative bloc essentially found any regulatory distinction based on a speaker’s identity a clear violation of the First Amendment’s protection. This also would include the criminalization of corporate efforts to influence the political process prior to federal elections. Kennedy, Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and Alito stood up to defend freedom of speech.

The liberal bloc argued that certain civil liberties have always been limited. Corporate interests, in particular, have been held out of direct political activity for over one hundred years. The constitutionality of the Tillman Act (1907) has been consistently upheld. It prevented monetary donations by corporations to national campaigns. Many, including four on the current Court, saw no problem to limit corporate money in “electioneering communication” as well.

Republicans were pleased with the decision. Democrats were not. President Obama warned that the Court had given a “green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics.” Clearly there will be new and creative ways for big money to influence the political process.

Scott Brown became the 41st Republican Senator this week. Brown’s victory, in part, appeared to be a repudiation of Obama’s first year in office. The United States Supreme Court this week in an even bigger story vindicated the First Amendment. In doing so they extended free speech protections to corporate donations to federal election campaigns.

Green trumps brown. Money talks louder than one surprise victory in Massachusetts. Ironically in this democracy the triumph of the people was trumped by the triumph of special interests.

The true colors of this week now look clearly black and white.

If you don't remember much about what we learned about campaign finance law, don't worry. It may now be irrelevant.

By comparison, could this Court decision make us more similar to the systems of Nigeria and Mexico.

Comparing UK & US Constitutional Principles

Constitution Smonstitution. Much the U.S. Constitutional Principles were derived from the British system, which does not have a formal written constitution. Your assignment, due Monday will be to creatively chart the comparisions and contrasting principles and Rule of Law and instituions of the two leading, and longest surviving constitutional democracies in the world.


For example,

US Constitutional Principle -- Federalism, the shared power between national and state and local governments.


UK Constitutional Principle -- Devolution, the transfer of Whitehall powers in areas like education and health - but not, for example, defence - to the UK's nations and regions.



Use the following sites to help you in your research:

http://britishconstitution.blogspot.com/


http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentcitizensandrights/UKgovernment/Centralgovernmentandthemonarchy/DG_073438

http://www2.rgu.ac.uk/publicpolicy/introduction/wstate.htm


http://www.virtualclassroom.net/tvc/gov/constitution/

Comparative news of the world in the Blagosphere

This semester, we will hope to offer views of the comparative countries we study through multiple, non-US, media sources. This blog post takes one post from each of our countries of study. But first will start with the still to be published survey of annual rights in the world:

The End of the "Third Wave"

Freedom House has issued the results of its annual survey of political rights and civil liberties around the world. In 2009, human freedom declined for the fourth straight year.
According to the survey’s findings, 2009 marked the fourth consecutive year in which global freedom suffered a decline—the longest consecutive period of setbacks for freedom in the nearly 40-year history of the report.

These declines were most pronounced in Sub-Saharan Africa, although they also occurred in most other regions of the world. Furthermore, the erosion in freedom took place during a year marked by intensified repression against human rights defenders and democracy activists by many of the world’s most powerful authoritarian regimes, including Russia and China."

See more at:

http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=505

Google May End Chinese Service in Wake of Cyber Attack

Google has announced that it will no longer censor the results of searches conducted on its Chinese site. If, as is likely, the Chinese government will not agree to allow Google to run an uncensored service in China, Google will shut down its Chinese site. Google's announcement follows its discovery that the gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists had been systematically hacked in a "sophisticated and targeted attack ... originating from China." Google did not directly accuse the Chinese government of hacking into gmail:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8455712.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8456950.stm

Водка

Half of all deaths in Russia among people aged 15 to 54 are alcohol-related. In an effort to combat widespread alcohol abuse, new restrictions on vodka sales went into effect in Russia on Jan 1. Among other things, there is now a minimum price for vodka ($3 for a half-liter bottle). But whether this will reduce alcohol abuse or simply encourage bootlegging is an open question (See Vodka museum, Mandrogi, Russia). This is a serious issue: 35,000 Russians die each year from acute alcohol poisoning, many of them from consuming tainted bootleg vodka:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8432271.stm

Ladies and Gentlemen, Take Your Marks

Voters in the UK will elect a new Parliament in May. The Conservatives are favored to win, but need a sizable swing to secure a majority in Parliament; a "hung Parliament" (in which no party has a majority of seats) is a distinct possibility. An article in this week's issue of The Economist reports on the campaign, now underway:

http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15176433#top

Nigerian Constitutional Crisis Spawns Litigation

Nigeria's constitutional crisis deepened this week. President Umaru Yar'Adua has been out of the country for six weeks; he is undergoing treatment in Saudi Arabia for acute pericarditis. Nigeria's Vice-President, Goodluck Jonathan, and the members of the Nigerian cabinet appear to be running the country, though they claim that President Yar'Adua is making key decisions from his hospital bed in Jeddah. Opposition activists and Nigerian lawyers claim that the failure of the cabinet to invoke a provision of the Nigerian constitution allowing the cabinet to transfer presidential power to Jonathan, but instead to maintain the fiction that Yar'Adua is governing the country, indicates that Nigeria is ruled not by law but by "big men."

Opposition leaders now claim that President Yar'Adua's signature on this year's budget was a forgery. Moreover, an opposition activist has filed a suit seeking to annul all decisions made by the Nigerian cabinet in Yar'Adua's absence on the ground that power has not formally been handed over to Vice-President Jonathan. The Nigerian Bar Association has also brought suit, seeking the formal of transfer of presidential power to the Vice-President:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8445776.stm

Mexico's War on Drugs Boosts the Sinaloa Mob

Although the Mexican authorities have arrested more than 50,000 alleged drug traffickers in the past six years, most of those arrested have come from Mexico's smaller drug gangs. Mexico's largest crime organization, the Sinaloa "mafia," has been relatively unscathed by the crackdown. An article in this week's issue of The Economist explains why:

http://www.economist.com/world/americas/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=15213785

Could Democracy Emerge under Iran's Current Structure of Government?

According to an analysis published in this week's issue of The Economist, the intransigence of Iran's Leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the face of mass protests has led to a significant broadening of opposition to his leadership. A group of five exiled Iranian intellectuals have explained how a democracy might emerge within the structure established by Iran's 1979 Constitution (albeit with some significant amendments to that Constitution):

http://www.economist.com/world/middleeast-africa/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=15213450

Or Not?

Masoud Ali Mohammadi, a Tehran University professor of Particle Physics and Quantum Mechanics, was assassinated this week. The Iranian government has blamed the US and Israel, claiming that Mohammadi's murder is part of an effort to disrupt Iran's nuclear program. The Iranian opposition, however, notes that Mohammadi publicly supported reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi in last June's presidential election and blames the regime for the killing. NPR theorizes that the assassination was carried out by elements of the regime, who attempted to make it look like the work of an Iranian terrorist organization allegedly supported by the US and Israel:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122645685

Mapping the future of Gay Marriage in U.S.

Use these resources as a way to prepare for Wednesday's deliberation of gay marriage as a Policy Issue or a Constitutional issue.

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First, starting today, former Bush solicitor general Ted Olson attempts to persuade a federal court to invalidate California's Proposition 8—the voter-approved measure that overturned California's constitutional right to marry a person of the same sex.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/229957/page/1

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On the California case Perry v. Schmarzeneger, the U.S. Supreme Court Monday temporarily blocked a federal judge's plan to broadcast the trial over California's ban on gay marriage by posting video on YouTube.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60A3II20100111

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Check out the maps, of where this is going here:

The Los Angeles Times has produced a nice interactive map showing that state-by-state status of gay marriage. The map is also a choropleth map on a red to green scale with each color share representing a different level of rights (interesting color spectrum, no?) Related is a map that shows the projected future of gay marriage in each state (I would have reversed the shading of the colors, personally).

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Last week, the New Jersey legislature rejected legalization of gay marriage. Earlier in Gay marriage became legal in Vermont and Iowa in 2009 and takes effect January 1, 2010 in New Hampshire.

In the District of Columbia, a city council vote passed same-sex marriage.