CIVITATENSIS

Watch the seat number projections of various political parties in India in Number Game on Times Now. Navika Kumar, Sopan Das Gupta, Vinod Mehta, Shankar Raghuraman, Malini Chatterji, Vinod Sharma, Dilip Padgaonkar, Sanjeev Srivasthava and Mahesh Rangaraj take part in the discussion.

For a century and a half, Canada’s Senate has been unelected and unaccountable. Unelected members can sit in the Senate for up to 45 years. It’s time to make Senators accountable to Canadians. But the Senate is stacked with a big Liberal majority. They don’t want change. They like things just as they are. They say they’re entitled to their jobs. That’s why Senate Liberals are delaying passage of S-4, the Conservative Government’s bill to cap Senate terms at eight years. Will the Senate ever change? Will Stéphane Dion ever be a leader? Visit www.notaleader.ca

Canadian-Lebanese speaks about American attitudes to public political debate, which is more akin to watching superbowl than thinking about what the candidates are saying.

Political columnists of the Visalia Times Delta at College of the Sequoias October 24, 2008

The success of democracy depends on informed voters. Their information comes mainly from the media. Voters depend on the media to present reasonably fair and balanced pictures of the candidates for public office, their experience, stance on issues, etc. But suppose the media decline to report on particular campaigns? Voters are then inclined to vote for known candidates, the incumbents, and ignore others on the ballot. Such a situation describes what is happening in the race for Congress in Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District, comprising Minneapolis and its suburbs. The Star Tribune, headquartered in Minneapolis, is the city’s only daily commercial newspaper. The local electronic media draw many of their news stories from it. The filing deadline for political candidates in Minnesota was July 15th. Since then, the Star Tribune has not published a single article about the 5th District Congressional race. It did not report the names of candidates who had filed for this office. Unlike previous years, it did not publish a Voter’s Guide for the primary. It did not report the votes received by each candidate in the primary. There were three: DFL incumbent, Keith Ellison; Republican, Barb Davis White; and me, of the Independence Party. Rep. Ellison has been named and quoted in dozens of Star Tribune articles in the three months following the filing deadline. Barb Davis White and I have been named twice -once before and once after the primary – to the effect that we were running unopposed in our respective party primaries. Both were single-sentence statements of that fact. Meanwhile, the Star Tribune has given extensive coverage to other Congressional races, notably in the 3rd and 6th District races. Granted, one involves an open seat vacated by Jim Ramstad, and other a seat occupied by Michele Bachmann. The 5th District, in contrast, is considered a safe seat for any DFL candidate running for reelection. I find it interesting, however, that while the Independence Party candidate in the 3rd District has received ample coverage in the Star Tribune; I actually got more votes than he did in the primary. (This information comes from the Minnesota Secretary of State’s website, not the Star Tribune.) The Star Tribune has a reputation of favoring DFL candidates, both in its editorials and news reporting. When I ran in the Independence Party primary for U.S. Senate in 2002, the Star Tribune did not mention me in any of its pre-primary articles. It did not report the primary results even though I finished second with 8,400 votes, or 31% of the total, in a three-person race. When I attempted to place a paid ad, the Star Tribune “legal department” insisted that I change the wording. I did not use crude or insultinglanguage or incite violence. The newspaper simply did not like my political views. I call this “gate keeping journalism”: a tendency to decide what candidates and what positions are respectable and to defeat the disfavored candidates and views through silence – withholding the oxygen of information that voters need to cast intelligent votes. For decades now, the Star Tribune has been a prime practitioner of this art. In my view, this newspaper has aspired to shape the political news as well as report it. And, with a paid circulation of a half-million readers on Sunday, it has largely succeeded. The Star Tribune and its editors – like some political parties, need a good “house-cleaning!”

Meet the leader of the Christian Heritage Party, Jim Hnatiuk. The CHP is Canada’s only pro-life, pro-family political party.

Visit CanuckPolitics.com for more. February 16-17, 2010 – Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff slams Prime Minister Harper for making a cheap shot against the Liberal Party in an address to Canadian Forces in Haiti. Harper said the recent investment in the C-17 heavy-lift aircraft is an example of his government’s focus on increasing Canada ‘hard power’ capabilities, as opposed to the ’soft power’ policies of past governments. “I single out the C-17 for a reason. There was a time when that kind of heavy lift aircraft didnt fit Canadas soft power policies. But our government bought them for the hard power requirements of todays world. Now were using them for relief work. What is the moral of the story? To do soft power, you need hard power; you need a full range of capabilities.” – Stephen Harper “Every time Mr. Harper gets within a mile of Canadian military equipment, he takes a swipe at the Liberal Party Its inappropriate to use Haiti, to use a Canadian military base to make an attack on a political party Every time he takes a cheap shot like that, it just sours the atmosphere.” – Micheal Ignatieff

London Demonstraton Palestine Palestinian Gaza siege free Hamas freedom Peace peaceful protest protestors solidarity support war coalition genocide massacre atrocities anti-semetic Bolivia Venezuela cut ties to Israel breaking diplomatic relations Israeli mother children murder bombing crowd Muslim international law barbaric slaughter politics politician justice Hindukush pictures Norway west bank Denmark army jihad CNN Morocco New York Washington Obama US Germany America Bush terrorism Canada England UK IDF Iran Aljazeera USA Islam jews Iraq Pakistan India Malaysia Indonesia France Arabs China Russia Allah Egypt BBC Unseen Algeria Frédéric Oumar Kanouté

New CPC anti-Dion ad airing in Quebec.

Justin Trudeau, son of former PM Pierre, is taking on all comers in the Montreal riding of Papineau. And, like his father, he has a gift for the gab. So good that a Quebec communications firm couldn’t resist a parody of Trudeau’s welcome video from his web site. Check out Justin’s website here: justin.ca And watch the parody here www.prenezgardeauxchiens.comOrmiston Online: We are your guide to the election on the web. From blogs to online videos to tweets, watch how this election evolves. We’ll show you what’s making news on the internet. Even better, take part. Send us your videos — why not campaign ads? How about photos from the campaign trail? It’s a brave new world of politics on the web. Visit us at: cbcnews.ca