New School Politics

In a move that’s sure to annoy some in the White House, China and Russia strengthened their outer space cooperation today by announcing that they are preparing a joint mission to put a probe on Mars. The Chinese are providing the probe, named the “Phobos Explorer”, to collect samples of the red planet, while the Russians are building the spacecraft. The two countries have maintained ties throughout the years, beginning their relationship back in the 1950’s when the Soviets helped their Communist brethen establish the Chinese Space Program. While China’s space efforts are hindered by their lack of technological development, agreements such as this one will push its program forward.

However, perhaps the most interesting piece of the news to ponder is how America will react. While the joint launch is something the United States successfully completed a few years ago, NASA hasn’t had much to show for its space program since the Apollo missions. Is this the impetus for another race to space? Maybe not quite, but I’ll certainly bet that US officials are uneasy with the idea of their former enemy teaming up with their new enemy in an area such as space travel. But at least society will see some benefits with competition in space programs, versus something like, oh, say, nuclear armament.

Popularity: 24% [?]

France was once the country of change, of revolution, of new ideas.  It hasn’t been so in a while now, but with the first round of Presidential elections coming up on May 6th, things could change in France for the first time in decades.

France has a semi-presidential government, with both an elected President and a selected Prime Minister.  The defining characteristic of this government, however, is the concept of dirigisme.  Dirigisme involves a high level of government involvement in the economy, and the French government has historically been very involved in the transportation and infrastructure sectors in France.  Although the French government has been loosening its grip since the early 90’s, Socialist tendencies still abound in the French marketplace.  For instance, there is a 35-hour workweek and employers have a very hard time firing employees. (Until recently, there was a fine for businesses who fired elderly workers.)

All these Socialistic restraints are slowing down the French economy. The GDP growth this past year was 2%, below the EU averager of 2.8%, and is expected to fall even further to 1.9% next year.  The unemployment rate has been hovering just below 10%, which is high even for EU standards.  Taxes are also far above the average EU values and certainly above anything one might expect to see in a laissez-faire economy.  While dirigisme may have originally been an appropriate response to the massive stresses WWII placed on France, its population, and its economy, it is now outmoded and a serious threat to the continued growth of the French economy.

So where do the elections come in?   Lire le reste de cet article »

Popularity: 23% [?]

In our Quarterly Report Card, we mentioned the need for more bloggers to handle the need for more content. Today we’re going to start delivering on that promise. We’ve received several applications and are going through them as rapidly as we can. So far, however, we’ve recruited two new bloggers to write for New School Politics. Hopefully, the addition of these two well-versed teenagers will help to provide our readers with the quality content they’ve come to expect from New School Politics with the post frequency they deserve. If you’d still like to apply to write for us, just send an e-mail to us.

Our first new author, Elizabeth, attends high school with the three founding bloggers. She, like Ryan, is a believer of objectivism. Almost fluent in French, Liz is very interested in French society and politics. She’ll bring a fresh outlook on international issues; not just those pertaining to the United States.

We’d also like to welcome Paul to the team. Paul pulls his political ideals from the left, often choosing to describe himself as a liberal social democrat. Paul lives in Vancouver, Canada and is fluent in both English and French. His personal blogprovides a wealth of information for readers as well.

We’ve found our two new writers to be exceedingly knowledgeable in a wide array of fields and hope their talent adds to the standard of excellence we maintain at New School Politics.

Popularity: 10% [?]

New School Politics began as an idea in early 2006. Its first implementation, a mere idea, gradually morphed into the idea of a blog. Months later, we took the first step, signing up for hosting and a domain name. Ryan’s choice, New School Politics, won out against other domain names because we decided it was a combination of what we wanted to convey in our name: youth and enthusiasm for politics. Since then, we chose WordPress as a platform to host our blog and set about customizing it to best fit our readers.

On January 9, 2007, the blog went live after lots of talk and planning. Since our launch, we’ve gone through several design revisions and we’ve added tons of different plugins. To run things down for our readers, we’ve added some new features, including Book Reviews, which are powered by Shelfari. MyBlogLog has provided a platform for user communication and community building. We’ve made it easier for users to share our articles with a “Share This!” button at the bottom of every post.

We’re still not satisfied, however. New School Politics has clearly grown from what it was in January of this year, but it’s not near the website we want it to be. So what’s coming in the future? We’ll give our readers a little sneak preview at some stuff we’re working on for the next several months…hopefully finished by around June.
It’s hard for three high school students to write an article everyday, but we’re making it a goal. To help accomplish our writing aims, we’re going to be hiring several more writers. If you’d like to write for New School Politics, please send us an e-mail. With a higher post frequency, hopefully we’ll be able to build a bigger community of readers. Unfortunately, to support our readers, we plan on either soliciting donations or adding a bank of advertising. Avid readers may have noticed the Performancing ad network integration earlier in the year. We took down the unobtrusive block of ads to clear up our interface for readers. In the future, however, we’ll have a much more streamlined webpage. In the second quarter of 2007, we plan on commissioning a web designer to both design a logo for New School Politics and redesign New School Politics.
We’ll also be adding more social features. Newly popular Twitter helps to give readers constant updates on blogs. We’ve just created a New School Politics Twitter for those who’d like to receive our updates over IM and text message. Those subscribing to our feed may receive special insights and up to date news from the writers here. We’re also tossing around several other ideas to help our readers interact.
New School Politics is young and we still have a lot to learn. That’s why, in the coming year, we’ll be attending a number of conferences about technology and politics. In April, we most likely will make an appearence at PodCamp NYC, an “unconference” designed to edify its visitors about podcasting. That brings us to another one of our stipulated goals for the next quarter…a podcast. Whether it’s once a month or once a week, we’d like to be on your iPod. Look out for an announcement in the next couple of months regarding that. In May, we’ll be attending the Personal Democracy Forum, a conference dedicated to the merging of technology and politics. Our attendance at these two conferences will surely improve New School Politics.
We thank our readers for their continued support and hope that the next quarter of New School Politics’ existence will be its best yet.
Thank you,

Zach, Ryan, and Efty

technorati tags:newschoolpolitics

Popularity: 16% [?]

This summer, Hezbollah, a terrorist organization operating out of Lebanon, kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and killed several others. After days of scrutinizing the reasoning and organizations behind the attack, Israel decided to authorize a “severe” response against Lebanon, the country harboring Hezbollah. After the world condemned both countries, Israel continued bombing Lebanon, at one point commencing in a ground campaign aimed at the destruction of Hezbollah. The US tried to remain impartial but couldn’t help but get involved on the side of the Israelis. The “war,” as Israel has just officially declared it, caused grave public relations disasters for both countries throughout the world as images of dead children were broadcast throughout the world by international news agencies. Weeks after intense rocket barrages, Israel decided to end the war even after they didn’t achieve their goals. The conflict should have served as an example to countries around the world about the risks of keeping enemy soldiers as POWs.

Fast forward to March 23, 2007. After British Navy soldiers from the HMS Cornwall boarded a boat in Iraqi waters to search it, they were captured by Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldiers. Britain has tried to resolve the conflict amicably, but Tony Blair has continually chastised Iran for what he calls an “unjustified and wrong” act. Recent UN sanctions have put Iran under pressure to eliminate their nuclear program. As usual, however, Iran has stood firm, calling the sanctions “unlawful” and “unjustifiable.” With the sanctions adding more fuel to the fire, one must wonder how far Iran plans to go. Will the UK, like Israel, react to the Iranian conflict with force? Senator John McCain suggested that the UK take “very decisive action” against Iran while the US provides “moral support.”
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Popularity: 36% [?]

A new poll taken by a respectable polling organization in Iraq has found that the majority of Iraqis’ believe life is better now than under Saddam. In fact, since the troop surge in Baghdad many Iraqis’ feel that American and Iraqi security forces can control the militias and end the killing. Of course, it is not even possible to find this story in most of the American press(meanwhile it is being reported in the press all over Europe), and it took me almost 3 minutes to find it on FoxNews.com

Why is it that this story, a story about what actual Iraqis believe is happening in their own country, is not reported? I do not think everything is going well in Iraq, but I have said all along that while violence is occuring within the Sunni Triangle, the rest of the country is relitivly stable (Kurdistan is trying to attract money to build up its ski resorts and has rapidly industrialized without the threat of violence). Why is it that CNN.com only has stories of an American soldier accused of murder in Iraq, anti-Iraq War protests, and chlorine gas attacks? If this does not show an obvious bias in the American media, I do not know what will. If anything, it also shows the bias by the press in the Palestinian conflict, they keep on hoping for peace and calling for a Palestinian state when the Palestinians continue to blow themselves up on a daily basis. Yet in Iraq, where people try to work together, they call that a civil war?

If the Bush administration wants to sway any public opinion, they need to start showing the American public poll results such as these.

Editor’s Note: links and punctuation fixed 3/19 6:30pm

Popularity: 22% [?]

Is not welcome. The men and women chosen to run this country’s military are there for that purpose and that purpose only. This week, however, Joint Chiefs Chairman General Peter Pace went public with his feelings on the recent “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy upheaval (audio provided by Think Progress). Had he stopped there, his comments would have had merit. As the highest ranking military officer in the United States (besides, of course, our esteemed Commander-in-Chief), Pace has a responsibility to guide the military in a direction that he believes is best for the future. However, Pace took things a step further, claiming that “homosexual acts between individuals are immoral, and that we should not condome immoral acts.” Pace continues by noting that the military has a responbility to purge itself of immoral individuals.

Who determines what immoral means? Since his outburst, Pace has been publicly chastised by several prominent politicians, including Senator John Warner. The Virginia Republican “respectfully, but strongly disagree[s] with the chairman’s view that homosexuality is immoral.” Fortunately, Pace seems to have agreed with the public’s rapid judgment, noting that he did offer “some personal opinions about moral conduct.” Pace admitted that he “should have focused more on my support of the policy and less on my personal moral views.”

Pace’s views were scrutinized differently than those presented by Former General John M. Shalikashvili in his “Second Thoughts on Gays in the Military” article in the NY Times. Shalikashvili’s more tolerant view seemed to strike a chord with the majority of Americans. His sincerity in addressing the situation is admirable. Pace’s, however, is a whole different matter. He seems to be refusing to apologize for his actions, and, instead, notes that he should have just focused on military policy. Don’t wait for an apology. The AP reports that, despite commentary from high-profile politicans, Pace will not retract his statement. Nancy Pelosi responded, showboating the Democratic reputation for tolerance, claiming that “the military should carefully consider changing this policy….We don’t need moreal judgment from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.”

I addressed the matter of homosexuals in the military earlier in an article entitled “Do Tell, Do Serve.” Regardless of opinion on the matter of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” public backlash has made it clear that Pace’s opinions aren’t welcome in the public forum. Bloggers pounced on his bigotry, diminishing the US military’s image in the process as well. His views are his and his alone, and General Pace should not have used his position as Chairman to further his political agenda.

technorati tags:homosexuality, pace, military, jointchiefs

Popularity: 16% [?]

A recent letter obtained by Fox News reveals that Rudy Giuliani is the only Democratic or Republican candidate not invited to the Firefighters Presidential Forum of 2008. The letter by the New York firefighters blames Giuliani for disgracing their brothers and sisters after the attack of September Eleventh.
The writers of the letter explained their anger with Giuliani by writing,

“Prior to November 2001, 101 bodies or remains of fire fighters had been recovered. And those on the horrible pile at Ground Zero believed they had just found a spot in the rubble where they would find countless more that could be given proper burial.

Nevertheless, Giuliani, with the full support of his Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen, decided on November 2, 2001, to sharply reduce the number of those who could search for remains at any one time. There had been as many as 300 fire fighters at a time involved in search and recovery, but Giuliani cut that number to no more than 25 who could be there at once.”

While I have tremendous respect for the brave men and women who compose the FDNY, I find that the topic and their reasons for disagreement is ridiculous. I cannot imagine that there would be any value to searching for more bodies while putting more men at risk. As it turns out now all of those who worked at ground zero are facing serious health repercussions that for many will prove fatal. There was no need for more firefighters to risk their lives and damage their lungs two months after the towers had fallen so that a few more pieces of DNA could be found. Is it worth finding a partial limb to ease a family members pain if it will cause lung cancer in another healthy firefighter and destroy his family too? No, it is not. In addition, the idea that Giuliani ordered the bulldozing of the site only after gold and silver had been removed is insulting. Two months of mourning is enough for America and by November we were taking the war to our enemy, the families of all those lost got all the closure they would ever get, and it is selfish for those family members to want others to risk their lives on a dangerous pile of rubble to find the remaining molecules of their husbands and fathers.

As someone who has lost a father I can say that it doesn’t matter if you get to bury them, they are still gone. The firefighters should be ashamed of their behavior and it is even a graver insult that they did not at least ask Giuliani to attend the conference so that he could be questioned and justify his actions to the IAFF.

The letter can be seen after the jump.
Lire le reste de cet article »

Popularity: 16% [?]