In a global survey released last week, most countries polled believed that China would act more responsibly in the world than the United States. How does a Leninist dictatorship come across more sympathetically than the oldest constitutional democracy in the world?

Wow

How to Restore America's Place in the World

http://www.tmz.com/tmz_main_video?titleid=716141604

God I love the Donald.

Trump Takes Down McMahon, Shaves his Head

Plame before congress.

LiveLeak.com - Valerie Plame Speaks Before Congress

'Gross oversimplification'

"Our results suggest that the popular journalistic image of rich latte-drinking Democrats and poor NASCAR Republicans is a gross oversimplification," Park says. "Income varies far more within states than average income does between states, and it is these with-in-state variances that explain national voting patterns."

The bottom line, the study suggests, is that little has changed in terms of income's general influence on individual voting patterns: in every presidential election since 1952, the richer a voter is, the more likely that voter is to vote Republican, regardless of ethnicity, sex, education or age.

What's changing, the researchers argue, is how differences in income are playing out at the county and state levels. A key finding is that relative income is a much stronger predictor of voting preferences in poor states than it is in rich states.

"We find that income matters more in 'red' America than in 'blue' America," the researchers explain. "In poor states, rich people are much more likely than poor people to vote for the Republican presidential candidate, but in rich states (such as Connecticut), income has a very low correlation with vote preference."

In Connecticut, one of the nation's richer states, researchers found little difference between the voting patterns of the state's richest and poorest residents. In Mississippi, the nation's poorest state, they found dramatic income-related differences, with rich voters twice as likely as poor to vote Republican.

The study also documents changing income-related voting patterns in counties across the nation. Rich counties, a longtime bastion of Republican support, are generally shifting toward the Democrats. And while Republicans maintain an edge among rich counties in poor southern states, they're doing so with slimmer margins.

These regional differences may be especially important, the researchers suggest, in understanding why the national news media is especially vulnerable to the misperception of the typical Democrat as a rich liberal living in a wealthy urban metro area.

Study debunks journalistic image of rich 'Latte' Democrats, poor 'NASCAR' Republicans

Jean Baudrillard, the French philosopher who described America as the world's "only remaining primitive society," died this week at age 77.

BoingBoing's link is probably the best for this event, as they pull together news stories, and excellent wikipedia article, and an entertaining YouTube video in which someone dubbed Baudrillard's commentary over scenes from Grand Theft Auto. Baudrillards' response to 9/11 was discussed on MemeStreams a few years ago (well, by Jello and I anyway, but the observations are good.)

Boing Boing: RIP: philosopher Jean Baudrillard, 1929-2007

How to effectively solve the world's problems, and where to start: a comprehensive talk.

Bjorn Lomborg on TED Talks

"...can I have editorial control?"

"No."

Cafferty Cracks a Funny

Hooligans get airline to page Al Kyda and Terry Wrist.

YouTube - Final boarding call for Mr Terrorist

Stratfor: Geopolitical Intelligence Report - January 4, 2007

The 'Surge Strategy': Political Arguments and Military Realities

By George Friedman

U.S. President George W. Bush is preparing a new strategy for Iraq.
According to reports being leaked to the media, the primary option
being considered is a "surge strategy," in which U.S. troop levels
in Iraq would be increased, particularly in the Baghdad region. The
numbers of additional troops that would deploy -- or that would not
be rotated home -- are unclear, but appear to be in the low tens of
thousands. This "surge" strategy is interesting in that it runs
counter to general expectations after the midterm elections in
November, when it appeared that the president was tied to a phased
withdrawal plan. Instead, Bush seems to have decided to attempt to
break out of the military gridlock in which the United States finds
itself. Therefore, the questions now are why the president is
considering this strategy and whether it will work.

As we have discussed previously, the United States appears to have
four strategic options in Iraq:

1. Massively increase the number of troops in Iraq, attempting to
break the back of both the Sunni insurgents and the Shiite militias
and create room for a political settlement.

2. Begin a withdrawal process that allows the Iraqis to shape the
politics of the country as they will -- and that leaves a huge
opportunity for Iran to fill the vacuum.

3. Abandon attempts to provide security for Iraq but retain forces
there, in a redeployed posture, with the goal of blocking any
potential Iranian moves toward the Arabian Peninsula.

4. Attempt to reach a political accommodation with Tehran that
concedes Iraq to the Iranian sphere of influence, in order to
provide guarantees against Iranian expansion southward. This
diplomatic option is compatible with all others.

Each of these options has strengths and weakness. The first option,
the surge, rests on the assumption that the United States has
enough troops available to make a difference on the ground in Iraq;
it also would decrease the strategic reserve for dealing with other
crises around the world. The phased withdrawal option eliminates
the need for Iraqi Shia and Iran to engage in political discussion
-- since, given time, U.S. forces would depart from Iraq and the
Shia would be the dominant force. The blocking strategy puts the
United States in the position of protecting Saudi Arabia (a Sunni
kingdom that doesn't want to appear to be seeking such protection)
against Iran -- a Shiite state that could, in that situation,
choose the time and place for initiating conflict. In other words,
this option would put U.S. forces on a strategic defensive in
hostile areas. The fourth option, diplomacy, assumes so... [ Read More (1.6k in body) ]

Stratfor on the Surge: A Crap Shoot

How extreme were conservative commentators in their remarks this year? How about calls to nuke the Middle East and an allegation that a "gay ... mafia" used the congressional page program as its own "personal preserve."

Media Matters - Most outrageous comments of 2006