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One key factor in this May’s local elections is how well Labour in Brighton and Hove has recovered from last year’s general election defeats. Sadly, the same central Party organisation remains in place, and there is a lack of purpose permeating throughout the Party with a few notable exceptions. In East Brighton, Hanover and Elm [...]

Source: http://brightonpoliticsblogger.wordpress.com/2011/04/10/labour-lacks-what-it-takes-to-win-again-in-brighton-and-hove-and-needs-someone-like-steve-bassam-to-lead-its-recovery/

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I heard this morning that Alberta Wildrose Alliance leader Danielle Smith was endorsing Stephen Harper so I wanted to confirm. Confirmed the old-fashioned way… via SMS! This is an interesting move for Smith. How does the political capital equation add … Continue reading →

Source: http://www.stephentaylor.ca/2011/04/danielle-smith-endorses-federal-conservative-majority-government/

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Anti-government Yemenis wave a Libyan old national flag during a demonstration in Sanaa on March 11, 2011 as President Ali Abdullah Saleh bowed to pressure after a month of violent protests.

How worried should you be about the Middle East right now? We have no idea, and nobody's giving us a good one. Which is exactly why we turned to Juan Cole — Middle East scholar, endowed professor of history at Michigan, and author of the influential blog Informed Comment — who sat down with us recently to help put the Arab uprisings in perspective. There's good news, there's bad news, and there's the really surprising news that the seeds of revolution were sown in the dictators' own state-run classrooms — where young Arabs literally learned to talk to each other in a universal Arabic language, and so were able to support each other when the time for revolution arrived.

ESQ: To what extent are all these uprisings and revolutions of a piece? They're being treated as such by a lot of the media but I'm not sure that'd stand up to scrutiny.

JUAN COLE: The dissatisfactions of blue-collar and white-collar labor and of college-educated youth were more important in Tunisia and in Egypt, whereas dissatisfaction with the authoritarian character of the regime is more important in Libya and Yemen and Bahrain. In those three cases, the factory workers don't seem to be the leading element, just because they aren't highly industrial societies unlike Egypt — 25 percent of its economy is now industrial. In Tunisia, it's smaller, but there's still a longstanding and important set of trade unions in Tunisia that were extremely active in the protest. When you get to the social issues, they're somewhat different.

Source: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/juan-cole-interview-5382077?src=rss

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It's not big money, in a two year state budget that would probably reach $180 billion, if Senate budget writers have their way.

But $25 million for special auto-racing events and $22 million of incentives for film, TV and video game production in Texas just reek too much of "frill," apparently. Thursday morning, they were rejected by symbolism-conscious senators, after criticism from Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston (right, 2009 AP photo), and Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo.

In separate votes, Senate Finance Committee members rebuffed Committee Chairman Steve Ogden's proposals that the money be put back into the budget. Ogden said they might as well, because Comptroller Susan Combs has told budget writers, in each case, that the money wouldn't be "scored" as adding to overall spending.

Source: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/04/senate-panel-ditches-subsidies.html

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There was a time when I used to think Anderson Cooper was pretty cool.
Granted, I was about thirteen, and the reason was because he was the globe-trotting reporter for the kids’ news show Channel One that they made us watch in school.
Cooper traveled all over the world, reporting from what appeared to be the front [...]

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Boca Raton, Florida (CNN) - Donald Trump unleashed a fiery anti-President Barack Obama stump speech for members and supporters of...

Source: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/16/trump-bashes-boasts-and-curses-in-first-major-tea-party-speech/

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Gov. Andrew Cuomo appears to be ramping up his fundraising efforts again. A reader forwarded this invitation to a “Women for Cuomo” luncheon on May 6 at the Waldorf Astoria. (That’s a Friday, incidentally, and the Legislature is not scheduled to be in session). Tickets start at $250 a head for “guests” and run to

Source: http://www.capitaltonight.com/2011/04/cuomos-women-host-women-for-cuomo-fundraiser/

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Former state Rep. Terri Hodge has been released from federal prison and is now serving the remainder of her one-year sentence in a Hutchins halfway house.

Hodge landed at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport this afternoon. She'll was then driven to the halfway house by friends.

"We're happy she's coming home," said former state Rep. Harryette Ehrhardt, D-Dallas. "She's very resilient. I'm sure she's gong to be fine."

Last year Hodge pled guilty to income tax evasion and was sentence to one year in prison by U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn.

Hodge had been serving her time in the federal prison in Lexington, Kentucky. She is set to be released June 20, according to prison officials.

The longtime Democratic lawmaker was ensnarled in the federal investigation into corrupt housing deals at Dallas City Hall. Hodge accepted reduced rent payments from developer Brian Potashnik, as well as a carpet for her a home she owned in Dallas.

The primary target of the investigation, former council member Don Hill, is serving an 18-year sentence after being convicted on bribery and extortion charges.

Hodge will serve a couple of months at the Volunteer of America facility in Hutchins. Then she will begin the task of readjusting to life after prison and away from politics.

As a legislator, Hodge's passion was helping ex-offenders get acclimated to life outside of prison.

"Her life was her district. It's going to be tough to give that up," Ehrhardt said. "But we're hoping Terri will be able to use her skills to make other contributions."

The district Hodge once led is now being represented by Democrat Eric Johnson.

Source: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/04/former-state-rep-terri-hodge-r.html

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My friend, Christopher Hawtree, has asked me to comment on North Portslade. Last time out, it would be reasonable to assume that the Alphabet Factor had had a large influence on the outcome of the elections. The result was split with Bob Carden (from another Labour dynasty) and Trevor Alford (Conservative) being elected. But, in [...]

Source: http://brightonpoliticsblogger.wordpress.com/2011/04/08/north-portslade-the-birth-of-a-new-labour-and-further-evidence-of-tory-splits/

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Speaker Joe Straus has raised questions about what a $2 billion draw-down of money from an endowment would mean for public schools in the future, even if voters approve the idea.

Here is Straus' statement on the constitutional amendment proposed by nine State Board of Education members, issued by the speaker's office late Friday:

"I appreciate efforts to find ways to minimize the impact of a difficult budget situation on our public schools. As members of the House learned during our budget deliberations, there are no easy answers."

"Texas has a long history of protecting our permanent school endowment funds, and I'm concerned that using those constitutionally protected funds in the short term could threaten the future needs of our growing student population."

"The House looks forward to working with the Senate to find other ways to balance the state budget while prioritizing public education."

So, reading through all the nuance-laden statements by the Big 3, what do we have?

It appears that Straus and Gov. Rick Perry are, at least on first blush, against the idea of a one-time withdrawal, which the nine board members touted as a way to help avert teacher layoffs and local school property tax increases. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst did not specifically endorse it, though he seemed more positive and made cryptic remarks suggesting this could be prologue to some kind of maneuver involving the Permanent School Fund this session. Of course, if you're looking for prologue, you might start with a House Appropriations vote Thursday in favor a bill by Rep. Rob Orr, R-Burleson, to settle a four-year spat between lawmakers and Attorney General Greg Abbott over how earnings from the real estate portion of the fund are handled. It would free up $400 million for the two-year budget lawmakers are struggling to write. Here are some background stories written by my press corps colleagues Peggy Fikac of Hearst Newspapers, who wrote one about Orr's bill, and Austin American-Statesman reporter Kate Alexander, whose Saturday article explains the $2 billion idea in greater detail.

Warning: There will be a quiz Monday. Brush up on your basis points.

Source: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/04/straus-cautious-on-nine-school.html

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"Compassionate conservatism" was a hell of a brand name. You have to give Karl Rove credit for that. It was a masterpiece of political marketing. Rhetorically, at least, it managed to bridge the great gap between what the Republican party was doing and the people to whom it was doing most of it. It even managed to enlist organized religion in what was said to be an attempt to ameliorate the social consequences of the policies that were central to the agenda that the Republicans were bringing to the nation. If people were going to be forced into soup lines, they were going to be really good soup lines. The worst instincts of our politics were going to be sanctified by the best instincts of our people. It was as though the Laffer Curve described the arc of a censer or the wave of a thurible and not the inevitable swing of a wrecking ball.

Of course, it was all a shuck. (According to his memoir, David Kuo was a Republican who actually bought it, until he got to the White House and, one day, was told by Rove to come up with "a fucking faith-based thing," which is not how Saint Francis would have put it.) Not only that, but it was a shuck that, like so many things in the Bush White House, including the president therein, was so screwed up in its execution that it inevitably became a punchline. Nobody was ever going to be able to say "compassionate conservative" again with a straight face. And now, the Republicans, and the conservative politics that have possessed their party, have decided that they don't even have to try.

We are in an age dominated on one side by the New Politics of Sadism. Hurtful policies are enacted, not because of any logical benefit they might bring, but specifically because they hurt people the Republicans want to hurt. The thoroughgoing abandonment of the notion of a political commonwealth, cheered on by degrees since the elevation of Ronald Reagan and whatever ideas people could cram into his empty head, has reached the point among American conservatives where it is now the kind of faith you find in the most unshakable of perversions. It manifests itself everywhere. It's expressed politely by people like that intolerable foof, David Brooks, who's never taken a position in his life that cost him so much as a dinner invitation. On the radio, and on cable news, it's expressed crudely by people who are far more honest about their contempt for their fellow citizens.

And the sadism is running now through the institutions of government....

Source: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/paul-ryan-budget-plan-5519000?src=rss

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As they finished mark-up of the state budget late Thursday, members of the Senate Finance Committee approved some last-minute goodies for higher education in the Dallas area.

They found $5 million for the University of North Texas' law school in downtown Dallas, the same amount Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, managed to win for it last session.

They approved $4 million for research at the University of Texas at Dallas on brain development of middle schoolers. Last session, lawmakers directed $6 million of federal stimulus money to that effort.

And Senate budget writers approved a provision authorizing UNT to launch a college of pharmacy in Dallas, which has been under study since last session.

In a bad budget year, it was a pretty impressive take-home list for West and his fellow Dallas-area Finance panel members, Sens. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, and Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound.

Source: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/04/family-planning-battle-shifts.html

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ICYMI: Bill Samuels, Democratic donor and good government gadfly, questioned Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s reform chops during a CapTon interview last night, saying former Gov. Eliot “Steamroller” Spitzer was more dedicating to overhauling Albany than the current governor is. Samuels accused Cuomo of doing “nothing” to help the Senate Democrats maintain the majority last fall (which,

Source: http://www.capitaltonight.com/2011/04/samuels-spitzer-was-more-of-a-reformer-than-cuomo/

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You’ve probably heard by now that Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls is getting married. The groom is John Gunnison-Wiseman, a rare book dealer and Antiques Roadshow expert. Here’s a photo of the couple taken in January at a celebration of the Greater Cincinnati Chinese Chamber of Commerce. Qualls didn’t want to say publicly when the ceremony [...]

Source: http://cincinnati.com/blogs/politics/2011/04/13/qualls-marrying-soon/

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I got cc’ed on an email to all the Cincinnati City Council members and Hamilton County Commission members. The idea, proposed by William Cilley of Wyoming: Build a gondola linking the coming downtown casino to Mt. Adams. (Full disclosure: Cilley is a friend, though he never mentioned this idea before. More disclosure: I always get [...]

Source: http://cincinnati.com/blogs/politics/2011/04/15/one-citizens-idea-a-gondola-from-casino-to-mt-adams/

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Bluffton, South Carolina (CNN) - Addressing a crowd of Tea Party activists in South Carolina on Saturday, Minnesota Rep. Michele...

Source: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/16/bachmann-assails-obama-over-libya/

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Gov. John Kasich speaks to Cincinnati’s Rotary Club today at 12:45 p.m. today at the Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza hotel. Reporter Howard Wilkinson will be there. � You can follow him here

Source: http://cincinnati.com/blogs/politics/2011/04/14/kasich-speaking-to-rotary-today/

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Gov. John Kasich speaks to Cincinnati’s Rotary Club today at 12:45 p.m. today at the Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza hotel. Reporter Howard Wilkinson will be there. � You can follow him here

Source: http://cincinnati.com/blogs/politics/2011/04/14/kasich-speaking-to-rotary-today/

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I made it to a late showing of Bill Cunningham New York, the documentary about the veteran New York Times photographer, last night. Boy, am I glad I did. Peter’s FrontRow review is spot on, and you should go see it ASAP ? if only for the incontrovertible proof that it really is possible to [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/dmagazine/frontburner/~3/hda9yvmrCQk/

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New Roosevelt Initiative Founder Bill Samuels is targeting Hudson Valley Republican Greg Ball in his effort to get redistricting reform passed.

Source: http://www.capitaltonight.com/2011/04/bill-samuels-to-target-sen-ball/

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(CNN)-Hundreds of local Tea Party groups will join the Tea Party Express as co-sponsors in the first-ever Tea Party Presidential...

Source: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/15/tea-party-express-looks-ahead-to-2012-at-tax-day-rally/

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The military operation in Libya has scarcely begun. Just days ago the Prime Minister was accused of "loose talk", told he lacked a plan to back up his calls for a no-fly zone and that he could not assemble the necessary alliance.

A tank belonging to forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi explodes after an air strike by coalition forces

Yet after the second night of bombing, after the second promise of a ceasefire from the Gaddafi regime, David Cameron is now facing a new question: "how will it end?"

This is how the era of 24/7 news complicates the already delicate process of holding together a broad international alliance which knows what it is against - attacks on civilians - but hasn't agreed what it is in favour of or when and how the military action should stop.

Evidence of the problems that could lie ahead came throughout yesterday.

The Secretary of the Arab League was reported as condemning the overnight loss of civilian lives. Diplomats claim he was quoted without knowledge of what had actually happened - his quote included the words: "the military developments that happened today, I really have no reports as of yet".

The chancellor, then the foreign secretary and then the defence secretary seemed to wriggle when asked on the Sunday TV shows to rule out British boots on the ground. Labour's Ed Miliband will, I'm told, seek an assurance from the prime minister that he is not disowning the promise he delivered on Friday that "no one is talking about invasions or boots on the ground". He is likely, I'm told, to try to reassure by restating the terms of the UN resolution whilst not ruling out that a single British boot - particularly one owned by a member of Special Forces - will ever touch Libyan soil.

Another question likely to be raised in today's Commons debate is the targeting of Colonel Gaddafi himself. In an interview with Five Live's John Pienaar, Liam Fox seemed to suggest that only concern about civilian casualties would stop the Libyan leader being personally targeted. Again, I understand that the prime minister - like the Americans - will try to play down talk of targetting the Colonel emphasising that the resolution allows for the destruction of Gaddafi's military in order to protect civilians.

In truth the resolution's backing for "all necessary measures" and rejection of an occupation of Libya leaves some latitude. It is, though, the need to maintain broad international support which means that, for now, at least, they will be interpreted narrowly. After all, forces from Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Italy, Spain, Denmark and even Belgium are due to join those from the US, UK and France.

What if there is soon a stalemate or, worse, bloody civil war underneath the no-fly zone? No one can say for now. Indeed, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, has said "it's very uncertain how this ends".

This crisis has many, many more days to run.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2011/03/how_will_libya.html

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(CNN) – More than a week after polls closed in the race for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court,...

Source: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/15/recount-expected-in-wisconsin-supreme-court-election/

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After a memorable, destructive run that lasted less than half a decade and still somehow indelibly changed the history of cable-news television, Glenn Beck's show on Fox News will be over later this year. As rational thinkers, people not afraid of Dr. Strangelovian figures challenging the apocalypse to show up, the ghost of Paddy Chayefsky, and pretty much anyone who isn't a fan of Beck's exhales, it's worth taking a moment to realize that it wasn't all so bad. There were a few moments over the course of Beck's show where — like a carrot of sadism at the end of a very long stick — he would occasionally relent into humor and humility that demonstrated some semblance of a human being underneath that pale, mouthy hide, much to the relief of people like ourselves, who were convinced SkyNet had already won. A sampling of the human Glenn Beck, who will be missed, especially if he's replaced by anything worse.

Source: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/glenn-beck-leaving-fox-news-2011-5519894?src=rss

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According to section 1.4.11 of the Bloc Quebecois platform: “Dans l?�ventualit� d?un P arlement sans majorit� parlementaire, le Bloc Qu�b�cois se r�serve la possibilit� de soutenir une coalition de partis politiques, et ce, dans la mesure o� le respect des … Continue reading →

Source: http://www.stephentaylor.ca/2011/03/bloc-quebecois-platform-pro-coalition-if-minority-government-formed/

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