The World is Talking. Global Politics

The beatroot writes on the Polish Children’s Ombudsman (Ombudswoman) Ewa Sowinska and her discovery of a “Teletubby in the closet.”

“When Ukrainians send Troops to suppress protestors they never – thank God - seem to arrive. In Russia (and the remainder of the CIS) they always arrive and, as in Uzbekistan in 2005, they shoot to kill,” writes Taras Kuzio and shares ideas on how to transform Ukraine’s “internal troops” into a “National Guard modeled […]

Hubris Sonic, posting at Steve and Jen’s News Blog, nearly puts us off our feed with moist excerpts from this morning’s mash note to Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani by Michael Powell, who longs to run barefoot through Rudy’s thin lawn…

“This weekend marked yet another not particularly glorious episode in Russo-British relations, as one diplomat and two (well known) British gay rights activists were attacked in separate incidents,” writes Siberian Light.

Mohammad Ali Abtahi,former vice president,says “the issue of relationship between Iran and Egypt has developed several times but every time it has stopped for different reasons. One of the main reasons Egypt disagrees with such idea is the issue of Khalid Islambouli.”Istambouli arranged and carried out the assassination of the Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat,in 1981.Iranian […]

A new batch of American Research Group polls give the edge to Sen. Hillary Clinton in all three early states of the 2008 presidential race. Sen. Barack Obama has slipped to third place behind John Edwards in each state, while Bill Richardson is up in Iowa and New Hampshire.

• Iowa: Clinton 31%, Edwards 25%, Obama 11%, Richardson 8%
• New Hampshire: Clinton 34%, Edwards 18%, Obama 15%, Richardson 9%
• South Carolina: Clinton 34%, Edwards 30%, Obama 18%

On the Republican side, strong support from independents give John McCain a boost. And while Mitt Romney is doing well in Iowa, he’s not making much progress in South Carolina.

• Iowa: McCain 25%, Giuliani 23%, Romney 16%
• New Hampshire: McCain 30%, Romney 23%, Giuliani 21%
• South Carolina: McCain 32%, Giuliani 23%, Thompson 13%, Romney 10%

Nepali Network has a post on the notion of “newness” and its perception. “Usha Bista has become an apt metaphor for the tentativeness of our trudge toward a new Nepal. A member of the Loktantrik [Democratic] Everest Expedition 2007, Bista was part of a much-hyped endeavor to show the rest of the world how Nepal […]

Remember when the New York Post ran a front page “exclusive” reporting that Sen. John Kerry picked Rep. Dick Gephardt as his running mate in 2004?

The New York Times reports “a former gossip reporter at the paper, Ian Spiegelman, claims the paper was duped by Democrats, saying in a statement that the bum tip was given to Lachlan Murdoch, then the publisher of The Post. The publisher, in turn, ordered Col Allan, the editor in chief, to run the article.”

Said Spiegelman: “Everyone at The Post, including Col Allan and his top deputies, knew the story had been planted with Lachlan by the Democratic National Committee to make him, and The Post, appear foolish on a national level.”

Earlier: Murdoch was source for exclusive.

“All he proved was that the anti-Kerry vote was bigger than the anti-Bush vote.”

– Newt Gingrich, quoted by the New Yorker, on the results of Karl Rove’s “maniacally dumb” presidential campaign strategy in 2004.

“I’m not sure what the Ministry of the Interior wants to achieve by its continuous excessive use of force. If this is their idea of instilling love for the country, they failed; if it is their intention to protect public and private property, they failed, their habitual use of tear gas and rubber bullets and […]