] Among Putin's reforms announced Monday: the country's 89
] regional governors will no longer be elected by popular
] vote. Instead, he will appoint them and regional
] assemblies would approve the appointments.
]
] He also announced on Monday that seats in the Duma
] (Russia's national parliament) allocated to single-member
] constituencies will be replaced with a fully proportional
] system. The move "could see the few remaining independent
] voices forced out of the federal parliament"

Puntin uses school attacks to cripple democracy in Russia.

] For those who are interested, there's an enormous debate
] across the Blogosphere regarding the authenticity of the
] National Guard documents released by CBS yesterday (and
] highlighted in an earlier post of mine).

If you haven't noticed this debate, its worth a look. Adamist has some good links here. Apparently this discussion started in the Blogosphere and made it out to the mainstream media via the drudge report. Much like the details of Kerry's service record, the truth here is irrelevant. In this case its also illusive. Each commentator has detailed analysis which defends the position most favorable to their political leanings. All of the analysis sounds compelling. Everyone accuses someone else of playing loose with the facts. I don't expect a good answer to appear. If it does, a lot of people are going to be embarrassed.

Damaging Anti-Bush Guard Records May Be Forgeries

] 2004 Electoral Vote Animation
] May 24 - Present

2004 Electoral Vote Animation

] Current events geeks and news junkies meet monthly to
] talk about what's going on in the world.

Some interesting public speaking events in Atlanta have been posted recently...

Meetup.com: Atlanta Current Events Meetup Group -- Current Events

] As an ethnic group, Chechens had been mistreated by the
] Soviet regime, and the Russian empire before it, perhaps
] worse than anyone else. In 1944, the Chechens, along with
] several other ethnic groups, were accused of having
] collaborated with the Nazis and deported to Siberia.
] Their collective guilt established by the order of
] Stalin, on Feb. 23, 1944, more than half a million
] Chechens were forcibly herded onto cattle cars and sent
] to Western Siberia. As many as half died en route, and
] uncounted others perished in the harsh Siberian winter;
] the exiles were literally dumped in the open snowy fields
] and left to fend for themselves.

This is a liberal (I guess) view of the Chechnyan conflict. Its in the interests of Russia and the United States to group this conflict under the general heading of Islamic extremeism because it enables both countries to engage each other's assistance. This author seems to think its really something different. Recent events seem to play right into Russia's hands.

Chechnya - What drives the separatists to commit such terrible outrages? By Masha Gessen

] The government contends its court arguments should be
] sealed from public view and heard before a judge outside
] the presence of Gilmore and his attorneys.

This is the key here. The government can make arguments that you can't rebut in court. This would be an absolute crisis if the government was a plaintiff, but even as a defendant it creates room for abuse. Secret laws with secret justifications.

Government wants ID arguments secret

] "What they saw were clear pictures of these young kids
] rioting. Chaos in their city." Next thing he knew,
] Richard Nixon had swept to presidential victory on the
] wings of a commercial proclaiming - above those
] selfsame pictures - that "the first civil right of
] every American is to be free from domestic violence."

An interesting historical perspective on the shit thats about to go down in New York. Swift Boat Veterans have already cost Kerry his lead (which is somewhat amazing to me, but people are stupid). No one is going to agree with the marxists who isn't already voting for Kerry. But plenty might disagree, which may put Bush over the top.

The marxists cost the democrats the election in 2000 by voting for Nader, and they may cost the democrats the election in 2004 by throwing a scene in the streets.

The Village Voice: Features: Get Mad. Act Out. Re-Elect George Bush. by Rick Perlstein

But political assemblies on the eve of the Republican National Convention appear to be taboo. This week, city officials persuaded a federal judge to keep the park off limits Saturday to a protest rally by 75,000 people jointly sponsored by an Arab-American coalition and an anti-war group.

Yahoo! News - New York tramples Bill of Rights to protect 'grass'?

] Two passenger aircraft have crashed within minutes of
] each other in Russia and a bomb has exploded on a street
] in Moscow.
]
] No connection between the incidents, apart from timing
] and the fact that both flights originated in Moscow, is
] certain.

Some interesting links from this page. Nice to see a news site that actually "does" hypertext.

Possible terrorist incidents in Russia

] Strict regulations published by Athens 2004 last week
] dictate that spectators may be refused admission to
] events if they are carrying food or drinks made by
] companies that did not see fit to sponsor the games.
]
] Sweltering sports fans who seek refuge from the soaring
] temperatures with a soft drink other than one made by
] Coca-Cola will be told to leave the banned refreshment at
] the gates or be shut out.

Usually they just ban all outside food and drink as a "security measure." In this case they've tipped their hand.

SBN: Olympics marketers tip their hand