CAIRO (AP) -- Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, a conservative organization with links around the Islamic world, has condemned the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces as an "assassination."... share: digg facebook twitter The one-day meeting is a get-to-know-you event to bring bloggers together into discussion with the Holy See, according to Monsignor Paul Tighe of the Vatican's social communications office. At least one group of shutouts, who are very conservative or write tradition-minded blogs, have formed an alternative summit scheduled for a Rome pub Tuesday, where organizers promise pizza, beer and that "all the cool kids will be there." The Vatican has been seeking more and more to engage with the world online: for the beatification of Pope John Paul II, the Vatican instituted a special Facebook page, Twitter account, ran clips of his 27-year pontificate on its YouTube channel and let the faithful send electronic postcards to one another via its youth-based news portal about what they were experiencing. [...] he tamped down suggestions that someone in the Vatican might start a Vatican blog, noting that the informality of the blogosphere might make for a confusing message given the tendency to equate any communication from the Holy See as its official position. (Scott) William McGowan is the prominent journalist and author, most recently, of _Gray Lady Down: What the Decline and Fall of the New York Times Means for America_. The book authoritatively covers the important and interesting subject suggested in its subtitle. Glenn Reynolds hailed the book in the excellent lead review of the January 24, 2011, issue of _National Review_. Glenn wrote: "McGowan piles up incident after incident demonstrating beyond dispute that the _New York Times _of today is very different from, and far inferior to, the _New York Times _of a generation ago....[He] deploys the sheer repetitiveness of the problems as a way of making clear that they are systemic ones, not just the result of a few bad actors or bad decisions." Numerous excerpts of favorable reviews are compiled here at the site for the book. In a series of previous posts Bill has examined the _Times_'s treatment of national security issues. In this concluding installment of the series Bill will takes a look at other issues of adult supervision at the _Times_: > * * * * * > > **Kellerworld** > > As noted in the first post of this series, Bill Keller was made executive editor ... Osama bin Laden's terrorist group had been on the back foot for years, and Middle East uprisings made it even more marginal If Osama bin Laden had been following the Arab Spring from his Pakistani hideout, his feelings must have oscillated between the hope of new opportunities and despair that they were not coming al-Qaida's way. None of the uprisings that have shaken the region, from Tunisia's Jasmine revolution to the ongoing protests against the Assad regime in Syria, has involved significant Islamist activity – let alone the violent, extremist jihadi ideas promoted by Bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and their ilk. Al-Qaida had already looked marginal and on the back foot for several years. But the dawn of largely peaceful change in the Middle East and North Africa this year rendered it irrelevant. In Egypt, where the jihad movement was born in the 1980s before merging with like-minded Saudis, the momentous overthrow of Hosni Mubarak's regime was accomplished by a coalition of civil society and democratic forces in which even the powerful Muslim Brotherhood played little organised role. Facebook and Twitter turned out to be far more effective agents of change than any "martyrdom" attack on apostates, ... Osama bin Laden dead: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, a conservative organisation with links around the Islamic world, has condemned the killing of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces as an "assassination." Those who dismiss AV as a Liberal enthusiasm ignore Labour's long-standing commitment to electoral reform Though some of Labour's weightier worthies have weighed in on the side of the no to AV campaign, those who dismiss AV as a Liberal enthusiasm ignore Labour's historic commitment to electoral reform. It is a commitment that, in many ways, runs deeper than that of the Liberal party – at every stage in its history, Labour has backed electoral reforms to give more real power to voters. At the heart of the case for the alternative vote, now, as it was when a Labour government sought to introduce it in the 1930s, is a recognition that when the encouragement by candidates of tactical voting becomes the norm at general elections, as is the inevitable consequence of first-past-the-post in a more than two-party system, political principles are subordinated to game theory. Electoral reform was one of Labour's earliest priorities. Labour's early leaders, Keir Hardie principally among them, saw electoral reform as central to Labour's mission to empower the many, not just the few. Hardie was famously chastised by the conservative media for his determined advocacy of votes for women, as well as for ... Darwinism is more often associated with the liberal left than the conservative right, but it's moved a long way across the political spectrum from Darwin's day, when it was embraced by advocates of free-market economics, colonialism, and similar ideas today associated with the right. Torontoist joins the Toronto Star (and me) in endorsing the New Democratic Party for Canada's national election today. In addition to the excellent reasons enumerated below in the Torontoist endorsement, allow me to add that the NDP also has a fantastic pro-Internet platform, promising balanced copyright, fair nationwide Internet access, a neutral Internet, and opposition to the Tory plan to wiretap, surveil and censor the Internet. Only the NDP have any sense of ambition for what government can do to improve our environment, both in terms of a climate change strategy and in possessing an interest for a 21st-century renewable power grid. The NDP's crime policy proposals are realistic, defined, and compassionate. Their immigration policy intelligently addresses many of the issues with our current system, including the opportunity for immigrant families to sponsor a single non-close relative, while still accepting that crackdowns on immigration consultation and updating our professional certification programs for immigrants must remain priorities. Their cultural policies promote homegrown content and recognize the massive return on investment that smart cultural funding can generate. Of the three major national parties, theirs is the only one with internet and technology policies relevant to the needs of modern ... Canadians prepared to vote Monday, a day after Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a final appeal for a "strong, stable, Conservative majority government" and warned he could be toppled by a leftist coalition if he doesn't get it. Canadians prepare to go to polls For the fourth time in seven years, Canadians are preparing to elect a new government on Monday. For weeks, it seemed that the outcome of the election was a forgone conclusion. Voters anticipated the third unstable C... Related Breaking News Stories: 1. Kazakhstan prepares for polls 2. Voter apathy ails Canadian politics 3. Battle for minority vote in Canada elections Surveillance of the president's closest aide sets off events that humiliate Ahmadinejad after the nation's supreme leader reverses the president's decision to fire the minister of intelligence. Electronic surveillance of officials at the highest levels of political power lies at the heart of a rift between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a source close to Tehran's conservative leadership told The Times. If you have recovered from the royal wedding, the NFL draft, or whatever else captured your attention over the weekend, you can now direct your attention to an important ceremony that took place in Rome today. A few days ago, we talked about whether the royal wedding would overshadow Pope John Paul II's beatification, but I was pleased to see many outlets devoting reporters and space to the ceremony. Media Bistro, for instance, reports that cable shows were up and running this morning on the story. Read more on The path to sainthood… Sudden lurches in tax policy just make life harder for businesses and deprive measures of vital oversight and consultation Six weeks ago, George Osborne picked a fight with gas companies. Yesterday, it escalated several notches – and is likely to turn really nasty before the end of summer. The chancellor will not emerge unscathed from this battle. Ever since his March budget, Mr Osborne has come under attack from energy businesses furious at his imposition of a £2bn windfall tax on North Sea profits. Shell has estimated that the hike will cost it about $600m; Chevron and BP have complained too. Representatives from the oil and gas industry have been assiduously lobbying ministers and the press. But yesterday, things moved beyond whining and whispers. The company that owns British Gas, Centrica, announced it would close down Britain's biggest gas field, in Morecambe Bay, for routine maintenance – and that production might not be restarted. Centrica claims that the rise in tax on North Sea profits, to 32% from 12%, means that reopening the field may be uneconomical. It estimates that its older South Morecambe field is taxed at 81p for every pound brought in. Hostilities ... Wanted to return to Mitch Daniels in Indiana today because he's already being sold, hard, by public intellectuals and media personalities, as outlined here by Steve Benen: It's indefensible. Daniels should be ashamed of himself and the pundits who praised Daniels' "seriousness" should feel awfully foolish right about now. If he becomes a GOP primary [...] Recension 3.3.6 of Vitruvius's Experimental Election Predictor, covering the week through 2011-05-01, is available at The Sagacious Iconoclast. The Conservative Party of Canada is currently polling at ΣVe/n = 4.76, which historically translates into the range of 127 to 154 seats, depending on how one interpolates previous elections. (NB: I have replaced L with X, which represents the second-largest poll value, to account for the situation regarding the NDP.)... After last year's deeply embarrassing Shirley Sherrod episode, you'd think people would have learned their lesson about conservative publisher Andrew Breitbart. But no! The University of Missouri has asked a professor to resign thanks to another stupid Breitbart video. Ugh. More »
Key Words: conservative
References:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_EGYPT_BROTHERHOOD_BIN_LADEN?SITE=AZPHG&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
http://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/Vatican-invites-Catholic-bloggers-for-first-summit-1361603.php
http://feeds.powerlineblog.com/~r/powerlineblog/livefeed/~3/DDURnjHdeBI/028946.php
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/al-qaida-irrelevant-arab-spring
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ndtv/TqgX/~3/O6wUKHgcl-M/assassination-says-egyptian-muslim-brotherhood-102964
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/02/electoral-reform-central-labour-mission
http://www.philly.com/r?19=961&43=168131&44=121070893&32=3796&7=195537&40=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fphilly%2Fhealth_and_science%2F20110502_Survival_of_the_kindest__The_evolution_of_sympathy.html
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/DfswZanJHI4/torontoist-toronto-s.html
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/may/01/canadians-vote-monday-as-harper-asks-for-majority/
http://americasnewsnow.com/canadians-prepare-to-go-to-polls.html
http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/tWQRIpgrugc/la-fg-iran-intelligence-20110502,0,2467408.story
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/getreligion/DmXm/~3/ukMO9D97EnA/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/02/north-sea-taxes-fight-editorial
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/05/01/the-most-extreme-governor-in-america-on-planned-parenthood/
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/016704.html
http://gawker.com/5797503/andrew-breitbarts-latest-garbage-gets-a-college-professor-fired
http://pixelhat.net/
Monday, May 2, 2011
Egypt Muslim Brotherhood condemns Bin Laden death Vatican invites Catholic bloggers for first summit Adult supervision @ The NYT part 6 AlQaida already looked irrelevant after Arab Spring Assassination says Egyptian Electoral reform has been central to Labour's mission 100 years | Greg Rosen Survival of the kindest evolution sympathy Torontoist Toronto Star and Boing endorse NDP in Canada's national election Canadians vote Monday as Harper asks majority prepare go polls Spy flap weakens Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad path sainthood North Sea taxes fight turns nasty Editorial Most Extreme Governor America on Planned Parenthood Vitruvius's Experimental Election Predictor Andrew Breitbart's Latest Garbage Gets a College Professor Fired [Video]
