Motley Moose – Archive

By: inoljt, http://mypolitikal.com/

Before Barack Obama was president of the United States, he famously lost a congressional primary against Congressman Bobby Rush. In this race, as in many other races, there was a televised debate between the primary candidates (Obama, Rush, and another State Senator Donne Trotter). Very few people probably watched it.

Nevertheless, the debate is still on Youtube. It provides some interesting insight into the president during the beginning of his political career.

Part one.

Part two.

More below.

By: inoljt, http://mypolitikal.com/

Before Barack Obama was president of the United States, he famously lost a congressional primary against Congressman Bobby Rush. In this race, as in many other races, there was a televised debate between the primary candidates (Obama, Rush, and another State Senator Donne Trotter). Very few people probably watched it.

Nevertheless, the debate is still on Youtube. It provides some interesting insight into the president during the beginning of his political career.

Here is part one.

And…Here is part two.

More below.

By: inoljt, http://mypolitikal.com/

Before Barack Obama was president of the United States, he famously lost a congressional primary against Congressman Bobby Rush. In this race, as in many other races, there was a televised debate between the primary candidates (Obama, Rush, and another State Senator Donne Trotter). Very few people probably watched it.

Nevertheless, the debate is still on Youtube. It provides some interesting insight into the president during the beginning of his political career.

Here is part one.

Here is part two.

More below.

By: inoljt, http://mypolitikal.com/

British news is quite influential in the United States, especially with respect to international affairs. British news about international affairs also quite naturally sometimes deals with India, which is a very important country internationally.

Something quite peculiar sometimes happens when the British press deals with India, however.

More below.

By: inoljt, http://mypolitikal.com/

I recently had the pleasure of listening to a fascinating presentation in my Introduction to International Relations class. The professor showed the class pictures what one family in a variety of different countries ate during the duration of a week. The pictures came from the book Hungry Planet, by Peter Menzel. Time Magazine published a series of excerpts (part one and part two) of these pictures.

It was quite interesting to see the typical weekly meal of one family in several countries, ranging from Japan to Germany. The American photo, unfortunately, was the picture-perfect stereotype of over-consuming pre-prepared food (rather than real food).

There was something else that caught my eye, however, as the presentation went on.

More below.

By: inoljt, http://mypolitikal.com/

Mexico has recently elected as president Governor Enrique Peña Nieto. The handsome new president won 38.2% of the vote, 6.6% over Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). Peña Nieto’s vote was also 12.8% over Josefina Vázquez Mota, from the right-wing National Action Party (PAN).

Here’s what happened:

Mexico’s North-South Divide

Green – Enrique Peña Nieto, Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)

Yellow – Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD)

Blue – Josefina Vázquez Mota, National Action Party (PAN)

More below.

By: inoljt, http://mypolitikal.com/

In the past decade an interesting phenomenon has occurred in South Korea: a small but steady flow of refugees from the northern end of the peninsula.

Here’s a graph:

More below.

By: inoljt, http://mypolitikal.com/

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin renounced his American citizenship to stay in Singapore. Presumably he did this in order to pay fewer taxes.

More below.

By: inoljt, http://mypolitikal.com/

The story of the 2012 French presidential election is quite  interesting. Right-wing incumbent Nicholas Sarkozy entered the election  deeply unpopular. Opinion polls consistently showed him losing by around  20%.

France’s presidential system has two rounds. In the first round,  everybody can be a candidate. The top two winners of the first round  move to a second round run-off.

As election day approached, Sarkozy’s deficit continually shrunk.   Opinion polls just before the first round showed Sarkozy losing by low  double-digits. As the campaign for the second round began, they showed  him behind by high single-digits.

Sarkozy ended up losing by 3.2%. That’s a pretty steep drop-off from the polls that showed him behind by 20%.

More below.

By: inoljt, http://mypolitikal.com/

One of the phenomenons of the twentieth century has been the rise  of the dictator. Dictators rule countries undemocratically and usually  until death, crushing the opposition. Unlike the kings or emperors of  old, these men generally don’t have any family linkage with previous  rulers.

Notice the gender-specific word ”men.” All dictators have been male,  without exception. A woman has never ordered the army to crush nascent  protests against her authoritarianism. Nor has a woman ever led a coup  to overthrow a democratically elected government, replacing its rule by  her own.

More below.