Violence Shooting kills 13 at US Army Base in Texas
Thirteen people were killed and 30 wounded yesterday when a military psychiatrist opened fire at a medical center on a US Army base in Fort Hood, Texas.
Details of what exactly happened were initially misreported, but now that the dust has settled it appears the captured shooter, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, is alive and in stable condition despite being shot four times by a female first responder. She suffered injuries during the incident, but also survived. Both had been declared dead in early accounts of the shooting.
The question remains whether Major Hasan acted alone or as a part of a terrorist plot. An army official said they were not ruling out the latter, but noted no evidence has yet been found to support such a claim. Major Hasan had recently voiced his dismay about his looming deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. According to the The New York Times, “Military records indicated that Major Hasan was single, had been born in Virginia, had never served abroad and listed ‘no religious preference’ on his personnel records.”
Friday, November 6, 2009 15:00 - by Surekha Ratnatunga
International Politics Hopes for Two-State Solution Dwindling, and Obama’s Not Helping
Hopes for Two-State Solution Dwindling, and Obama’s Not Helping
Yesterday, Middle East expert and University of Michigan professor Juan Cole had a piece in Salon in which he suggested that a two-state resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict had reached a dead end. And it’s true, things look pretty grim right now. Sadly, the Obama administration, while initially signaling a promising shift in US policy towards Israel, has only exacerbated things by retreating to the reflexively pro-Israeli government posture of the Bush administration.
It started with the Goldstone Report, the product of a UN investigation which found evidence that both Israel and Palestinian militant groups (most notably Hamas) were guilty of war crimes. Needless to say, the Israeli government was displeased.
Pop quiz: Did the Obama administration A) acknowledge the slaughter committed by their ally, or B) do everything they could to suppress the report? The depressing answer is below the fold.
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Obamarama Gratuitous Pictures of President Obama Doing Cute Things
Gratuitous Pictures of President Obama Doing Cute Things
It’s been a rough week for the NYU community, so let’s attempt to remember the lovelier side of life with a little G rated Presidential pornography. The White House Flickr stream hosts an epic collection of photos of our outrageously photogenic First Family, and it never fails to leave me swooning. Below is a gallery of some of the most “awwww!”-inducing photos. Babies and puppies!
Election Day Other Election Results from Tuesday
Other Election Results from Tuesday
Josh and Kenny have already noted the passage of Prop 1 in Maine and Bloomberg’s narrow victory earlier this week, but there were some other noteworthy races going on. Let’s see how they shook out.
New Jersey Gubernatorial: The above video is, of course, the loathsome Chris Christie declaring victory over the also pretty loathsome Democratic incumbent, John Corzine. The polls had been neck and neck therefor a while, but Christie eked out a victory in the end, demonstrating that all the money and fat jokes in the world can’t help an unpopular incumbent during a poor economy. This must have been a disappointment for the White House, which put a lot behind the campaign.
Virginia Gubernatorial: Another Republican victory here, and by a significantly larger margin. But the conventional wisdom is that Democratic candidate R. Creigh Deeds never had a prayer in the first place (VA’s not a blue stronghold yet), and the grassroots weren’t terribly enthused about him, so no biggie.
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Politics NYU Is Really, Really Liberal
NYU Is Really, Really Liberal
In light of last night’s off-year elections, it seems an appropriate time to zoom back to the Halcyon days of the 2008 election cycle. Remember all that excitement during the campaign? All the hope? All the classic Sarah Palin videos? When John McCain said, “The fundamentals of the economy are sound?”
Ah, good times.
Anyway, I got to feeling curious about which of our fine professors and administrators decided to put their money where their mouth was and donated money to the Presidential candidates in the 2008 cycle. The results are pretty epic.
Using the Huffington Post’s FundRace tool, which aggregates the Federal Election Committee’s list of $200+ donations to single Presidential candidates, I searched for those people listing either “New York University” or “NYU” as their employer.
Of 312 donors (giving at least $200), 306 of them gave to Democratic candidates. That means that only 1.9% of the donors gave to Republicans. Donor list after the jump.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 16:19 - by Charlie Eisenhood
Gay Marriage Evaluating the Causes and Effects of Maine’s Prop 1 Passage
Evaluating the Causes and Effects of Maine’s Prop 1 Passage
Well, here we are: 0 for 31. That’s gay marriage’s track record when put up for statewide referendum in this country, which is to say, in 31 states that have put the issue of same-sex marriage up for vote, it’s been voted into illegality every single time. Maine was supposed to be different. So was California.
Some people are claiming this as a sign, as a resounding referendum on this nation’s views of same-sex marriage. You know what? It’s hard to argue with that. Gay marriage isn’t gay rights; it’s the thorniest splinter of the thorniest national social issue this side of abortion.
That’s an important distinction. Those who worry about the “silent majority” of gay rights opponents, the people you rarely meet in the city but see in the news holding signs and public prayers, have little to fear. America does not oppose gay rights. Or, to be more specific, a majority of this country does not oppose ensuring that queer citizens receive the same rights as anyone else. That’s a fact, yes.
I was really sad about Maine; in a way, sadder than California, because Cali was such a national moment, where God’s children screamed at San Francisco loud enough to bring fear back to the state. Coming on the heels of Barack Obama’s election, nobody really had time to feel sad about California. Sure, some of us were disgusted and appalled by the results, so disappointed to see California vote to deny its gay citizens the right to marry. But it was the dawn of a new day! Obama would walk into the White House, so many of us believed, and with a wave of that magic wand he used to rocket himself to victory in the election, he’d make this country understand that gays and lesbians were alright.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 12:03 - by Josh Becker
Politics Presidents Bush and Clinton to Debate at Radio City Music Hall (Seriously)
Presidents Bush and Clinton to Debate at Radio City Music Hall (Seriously)
Gothamist reported that advance tickets are on sale today for the discussion between Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton during the Radio City Music Hall “Minds That Move The World” speaker series in February. No, you’re not hallucinating — Dubya vs. Bill is really happening. This is every politics major’s wet dream.
The advance tickets are only available to American Express members until Nov. 15, when tickets are released to the general public through Ticketmaster. Even if you’re an AmEx user, expect to empty the wallet a bit: face value of the tickets range from $60 – $1250.
Gothamist notes that the most expensive tickets are “if you want to join both presidents at a pre-debate reception for cocktails and picture-taking and awkwardness.” Okay, now that’s actually every politics major’s wet dream.
The MSG website is currently fielding suggestions for what each president should ask his counterpart, which is essentially a perfect prompt for an SNL skit. Give them your best shot, you hippie liberal!
Update: According to the NY Post, the debate “has been nixed because the promoter overhyped it as a death-match faceoff between the men.” However, promotions for the event still remain on the MSG website.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 9:45 - by Kenneth Hsu
LOL Republicans Right Pressures Moderate Out of NY-23 Race
Right Pressures Moderate Out of NY-23 Race
New York’s 23rd district will vote its House Representative today without a Republican vying for the seat. Dede Scozzafava, the GOP candidate, bowed to pressure from conservatives and suspended her campaign. Scozzafava had been in a tough situation, facing opposition from an insurgent Conservative party candidate, Doug Hoffman, in a very conservative district. Conservatives who endorsed Hoffman over the GOP nominee, like Sarah Palin and Fred Thompson, celebrated their strong-arming. Palin thanked Scozzafava for “acting so selflessly,” adding, “Now it’s time to cross the finish line with Doug Hoffman.” (Translation: Thank god we can forget about you now.)
Scozzafava (my new favorite person, by the way) struck back Sunday, reminding everyone she was not to be forgotten about, by endorsing the Democratic candidate, Bill Owens. Among her several reasons for endorsing Owens probably was the virulent hatred displayed by conservative pundits, like this gem from Michelle Malkin calling her (a Republican, remember) a “radical leftist.” Hmmm, I wonder why the party that vilifies its moderate members lost control of both houses of Congress and the Presidency?
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LOL Republicans McCain, Romney Criticize Obama for Inaction in Afghanistan
McCain, Romney Criticize Obama for Inaction in Afghanistan
This video is a pleasant reminder that the politicians who act on knee-jerk reactions to incomplete information lost power in 2008. The two most high-profile Republican candidates for the presidency in last year’s election attempted to pile pressure on President Obama to increase troop levels in Afghanistan. Sen. John McCain gently reaffirmed his belief that Obama should trust General McChrystal’s assessment of what is need to combat the insurgency and grant the request for 40,000 more soldiers, while Mitt Romney criticized Obama for not acting four months earlier.
Obama has been waiting till Afghanistan’s controversial presidential election reached a resolution to make a decision. It is only polite to include the government of the country you are occupying in any future strategies you may execute within its borders. Now that incumbent President Karzai has official been declared the winner, the US must figure out how much faith they have in his government and how exactly that faith translates into troops.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009 8:55 - by Surekha Ratnatunga
Corruption Afghan Democracy More Farce Than Free or Fair
Afghan Democracy More Farce Than Free or Fair
An overwhleming sense of discouragement characterized October in Afghanistan. The US lost 59 soldiers last month — more than any other since the start of the war. October 2009 displaces August 2009, which does not say much for American progress in the region after eight years of occupation. While President Obama contemplates a troop surge in light of General McChrystal’s request for some forty thousand, Obama must also deal with the embarrassing excuse for democracy that was the Afghan presidential election.
In an attempt to cultivate some semblance of legitimate government in Afghanistan, US negotiators got incumbent President Karzai to agree to a runoff election only to have his opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, drop out over the weekend. The runoff was organized by the same commission responsible for the original shambolic vote in August. The electoral system is so corrupt that Abdullah did not want dignify the runoff by putting his name on the ballot. His withdrawal leaves Karzai’s administration in power for the foreseeable future, about which the US government rightly (though perhaps unwisely) expressed its concerns.
Adding to the anxiety, The New York Times broke a story at the end of October about President Karzai’s brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, enjoying US taxpayer money by being on the CIA payroll. This is repulsive for three important reasons:
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