News round-up

Juan Cole has a great piece of background and a recap of the recent Pakistani elections.

Hillary Clinton's recent attempt to frame herself as the "candidate who gets things done" is pretty absurd, considering how she has done almost nothing to aid progressive policy in the senate. Well the good news is that someone took the radical step of actually looking up their votes and comparing their actual voting records. Check it out, it's a pretty fascinating look at what types of bills they're willing to put they're names on and push.

Racist assholes who aren't rapists but are racist bigots decide to sue the justice system that proved them innocent of rape. Too bad they proved themselves guilty of being racist bigots or I might actually feel bad for them. Well, lucky for them they live in a democracy and not my dictatorship or they'd be in Rykers for the next 15 years for the "thank your grandfather for my white cotton shirt" comment alone.

A cool behind the scenes view of how the NY Times McCain story unfolded, which addresses some of the problems with the story itself.

It's funny, they've had countless democratic debates with this exact same format... would it kill them to allow one debate where they just sat next to each other and actually went back and forth? These debates where they take turns spouting a minute or so of a stump speech really don't accomplish much once you've seen them say about the same thing 20 or so times.

43 Years ago today, Malcolm X was shot 16 times while giving a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights. He was 39 at the time of his death. Malcolm X scholar and Columbia University Professor Manning Marable on his legacy:

"That when young boys and girls look at Malcolm on a mantlepiece, high above them, far beyond reach, they cannot reach or obtain what he achieved. Bring Malcolm down to the people. Honor Malcolm by honoring ourselves, our capacity for struggle, our search for truth and human dignity. Not that Malcolm was right in everything. If Malcolm were here, he'd say, "Don't freeze me and turn me into a statue! Understand me as a person who struggled for dignity, who fought for freedom, and who died trying to live in a way that could bring honor to ourselves." We need to understand that Malcolm's greatness, his courage and dignity are best served by living his creed, by living his legacy, by challenging the power, by fighting for freedom, by linking up with oppressed people, no matter where they may be, by fighting all systems of domination and exploitation, whatever their names are. In this way we not only honor the life and legacy of Malcolm X, we honor the best democratic and liberationist traditions in ourselves."