Opposition party in Japan crushes ruling party

It's hard to believe the ruling party managed to stay in power for as long as they did. Over five decades is a long time for one party.

Japan's ruling conservative party suffered a crushing defeat in elections Sunday as voters overwhelmingly cast their ballots in favor of a left-of-center opposition camp that has promised to rebuild the economy and breathe new life into the country after 54 years of virtual one-party rule, media projections said.

The opposition Democratic Party of Japan was set to win 300 of the 480 seats in the lower house of parliament, ousting the Liberal Democrats, who have governed Japan for all but 11 months since 1955, according to projections by all major Japanese TV networks.

The vote was seen as a barometer of frustrations over Japan's worst economic slump since World War II and a loss of confidence in the ruling Liberal Democrats' ability to tackle tough problems such as the rising national debt and rapidly aging population.

National broadcaster NHK, using projections based on exit polls of roughly 400,000 voters, said the Democratic Party was set to win 300 seats and the Liberal Democrats only about 100. Official results were expected early Monday.

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Sunday castello cat

Cute little cat watching over visitors to a castle near Castello Grinzane that I can't remember. Read the rest of this post...

Fear of Obama gun control fuels a burst of demand for bullets

LA Times:

Stacks of ammo, once piled high at gun shops across America, have dwindled. Prices paid by consumers for much-sought-after Winchester .380-caliber handgun bullets have doubled. At weekend gun shows, trailers loaded with boxes of ammunition are drained within hours....

Bullets are in demand as the nation's appetite for firearms has soared. U.S. gun sales are up since the 2008 presidential election, during which the National Rifle Assn. poured millions of dollars into advertisements suggesting that Democrat Barack Obama would move to restrict gun sales if elected.

Have no fear. Gun control is one of those "controversial" issues. And these guys don't do controversial. Read the rest of this post...

Wash. Post: "Enzi Seems Unlikely to Negotiate on Health"

Duh:

A Republican member of the Senate's "Gang of Six" health-care negotiators sharply criticized Democrats' reform plans Saturday, making the climb to a bipartisan deal when Congress returns next week appear even steeper.

Seems almost everyone, with the exception of Max Baucus (D-MT), the White House brain trust and some of the pundits, understands that Mike Enzi isn't negotiating for a deal on health insurance reform. Enzi hasn't even tried to hide that fact. He wants to ruin the bill. But, Baucus and the White House keep playing along -- and keep getting played by Enzi and the GOP. Enzi must regale his GOP colleagues and the insurance industry lobbyists with stories about how gullible the Democrats are. The Obama administration keeps talking about bipartisanship when there isn't any hope of that happening. They're stuck on the process when the American people want results. Someone at the White House should google what Mike Enzi has said about health care lately, including yesterday's GOP weekly address. It would be instructive. Read the rest of this post...

Ted Kennedy, Jr. remembers his dad

Ted Kennedy, Jr's eulogy of his dad:

...But today I'm simply compelled to remember Ted Kennedy as my father and my best friend. When I was 12 years old I was diagnosed with bone cancer and a few months after I lost my leg, there was a heavy snowfall over my childhood home outside of Washington D.C. My father went to the garage to get the old Flexible Flyer and asked me if I wanted to go sledding down the steep driveway. And I was trying to get used to my new artificial leg and the hill was covered with ice and snow and it wasn't easy for me to walk. And the hill was very slick and as I struggled to walk, I slipped and I fell on the ice and I started to cry and I said "I can't do this." I said, "I'll never be able to climb that hill." And he lifted me in his strong, gentle arms and said something I'll never forget. He said "I know you'll do it, there is nothing you can't do. We're going to climb that hill together, even if it takes us all day."

Sure enough, he held me around my waist and we slowly made it to the top, and, you know, at age 12 losing a leg pretty much seems like the end of the world, but as I climbed onto his back and we flew down the hill that day I knew he was right. I knew I was going to be OK. You see, my father taught me that even our most profound losses are survivable and it is what we do with that loss, our ability to transform it into a positive event, that is one of my father's greatest lessons. He taught me that nothing is impossible....

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A little hope blogging

Because sometimes the news is such a downer. (I'm told Atrios had this up first.) Read the rest of this post...

Is using a Minotaur torture?

Is Using A Minotaur To Gore Detainees A Form Of Torture? Read the rest of this post...

Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

The shows on the real networks today are all about Ted Kennedy. On FOX, no surprise, that's not the case. The only guest on FOX is Dick Cheney. That pretty much says it all.

The full slate is after the break.
Here's the full lineup:

ABC's "This Week" — Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and John Kerry, D-Mass.

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CBS' "Face the Nation" — Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Hatch; Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.; Michael Eric Dyson, sociology professor at Georgetown University.

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NBC's "Meet the Press" — Kerry; Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn.; Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Maria Shriver, nieces of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy; Doris Kearns Goodwin, presidential historian; former Kennedy adviser Bob Shrum.

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CNN's "State of the Union" — Hatch; Dodd; Red Sox president Larry Lucchino; Boston Mayor Thomas Menino; former Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Thomas P. O'Neill III; environmental advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nephew of Sen. Kennedy; Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, once a Kennedy aide; Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., Mary Landrieu, D-La.

"Fox News Sunday" _ Former Vice President Dick Cheney.

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Report: British government caved to Big Oil for terrorist release

Predictable and not much of a surprise at this point but still. Is there any question about who runs the government? The Guardian:

Jack Straw decided two years ago that it was in the UK's "overwhelming interests" not to exclude the Lockerbie bomber from a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya, it emerged.

Leaked letters from the Justice Secretary appeared to show that he backed away from efforts to stipulate that Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was exempt from the agreement, citing "wider negotiations" with the Libyans.

Mr Straw's stance was set out in letters to Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish justice secretary who recently provoked anger by releasing Megrahi on compassionate grounds.

The bomber was not released as part of the prisoner transfer agreement.

But the disclosure of Mr Straw's letters, by The Sunday Times, is likely to raise questions about the Government's position on Megrahi's return to Libya earlier this month.

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Famine returning to Ethiopia

Climate problems, again. The time to act is now before the November harvest which is expected to be very bad.

The underlying problem for Ethiopia is the erratic behaviour of the country's climate, or rather its regional micro-climates. Moisture-bearing clouds scudding in from the Indian Ocean can pass over the parched eastern lowlands to dump generous amounts of rain on the fertile western highlands. The famine of 1984-85, revealed by BBC reporter Michael Buerk, was actually two separate famines, one in Tigray, in the north, the other in Somali, in the south-east.

Two main rains sustain the people of Ethiopia, the belg in spring and the kiremt, which usually start in July. Both are influenced by variations in sea-surface temperature. The El Niño phenomena in the eastern Pacific usually bring droughts to Ethiopia, and America's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts that the current El Niño will strengthen over the next six months. The belg has failed for two years running now, while the kiremt started three weeks late this summer and the amount of rainfall when they did come was below normal. Aid agencies fear that the season could end early, or, equally bad, produce delayed downpours just when farmers need dry weather for the harvest. Even if the kiremt ends on time in October, some crops may not reach maturity because of the late planting.

Ethiopia is overwhelmingly dependent on agriculture, and some 90 per cent of its crops are watered by nature rather than by man-made irrigation systems. During droughts, farmers and nomadic herders tend to sell off their assets to buy food, leaving them with nothing when the next growing season begins. It can take three to five years for pastoral tribes to rebuild their herds.

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