Tuesday, November 2, 2010 

So today is election today, and I can hardly contain my excitement. Today I will vote, for the first time, in an actual polling booth.

I've always voted absentee before. Indeed, since first voting (by absentee, as a student in Montreal) in 1988, I've spent nearly every election outside the United States. Only in 2000 and 2002 was I actually in the US to vote, but on those occasions I still voted absentee because I was registered in Michigan but living in Princeton and Providence, respectively.

Not anymore, however! In May of this year I obtained a Montana driver's license, and at the same time registered to vote here. And now, the big moment finally awaits. 

There's nothing about this election season that I find particularly inspiring, so I'll leave it at that for my 2010 election coverage.

The other big news is that Election Day is a state holiday in Montana! I think that's a very civilized way of doing things—the whole country should have a holiday on Election Day. Anyway, as a state employee I get the day off—so sweet to be a civil servant! Take that, free market! I'm going nearly a solid week without teaching a class.

The moral: it's nice to have a job, but even nicer to get the occasional day off from your job.

And on that note, I humbly present you with some N & P:

Russia and ex-USSR

Parliamentary elections were held in Ukraine this week, with counting expected to be finished on Friday (!).

So far, it seems that the party of current president Viktor Yanukovych (the Russia-backed candidate in 2004 who 2010 was elected president) will win big at the polls, whenever the ballots are finally counted.

Meanwhile, the party of Viktor Yushchenko, who was the US-backed candidate in the contested 2004 elections (remember the spirit of the Orange Revolution, anyone?), has apparently fallen below the 3% barrier, necessary to remain a recognized party in parliament.
 ____

Visit to Kuril Islands by Russian President Medvedev sparks protest from Japanese government.


Successive Japanese governments have continued to claim the southernmost islands of the Kuril chain, which the USSR captured in the "waning days of WWII," as they say.

Japan wants the islands back, and I can of course see why they're angry. Russia is, after all, a very large country.


____

But what about the trickle-down effect?: Russian budget official sez state loses $32 billion per year to corruption.
____

You will never confuse me with Mayor McCheese!: Heads start rolling under Moscow's new top dawg.
____

Anti-government march draws approximately 800 in Moscow. Eduard Limonov's National-Bolsheviks boycott march, citing restrictions imposed by police.
____

Amnesty International report indicates continued tensions between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in Kyrgyzstan.

As you might recall, there was fighting between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in Kyrgyzstan earlier this year.
____

The Jamestown Spooks are hawking the upcoming Azerbaijani parliamentary elections as attracting "an unprecedented level of international attention for this rapidly evolving, young democracy with one of the fastest growing economies in the world."

Wow—Azerbaijan as a "young democracy." Who'd a-thunk-it? Just reading this piece in the Spooktonia Daily Monitor really made me thirsty for some good old....




Oh Yeah!!!!!
____

Turkey & SE Europe

Managed democracy, managed press: wow—this fawning English-language puff piece on Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan seems to be the strongest hint yet that the various media tentacles of the Dogan Group (which owns Hurriyet) have abandoned their earlier policies of attacking the Erdogan government.

The Dogan Group, whose media holdings had often been critical of Turkey's AKP government, had earlier been hit with a $2.5 billion tax fine. More recently, however, the two sides appear to have been moving towards reconciliation.  

So everyone's a winner!!!

And yes, Akyol's article does provide quite a happy finish.
____

YouTube back in Turkey, for now. The service had been taken down more than two years ago because of videos insulting Ataturk that had been posted on the site.

But nothing has really changed. The only reason why YouTube is back is because the videos have been removed.

A similar development took place in late 2008, when YouTube was likewise brought back, very briefly, after offending videos were removed.

In any case, there are various portals which allow people to access banned websites in Turkey (there are over 5000 of them). The portals slow down connections considerably, however, especially if you don't have a very good connection to begin with.

So Ataturk's legacy is safe for now! Enjoy direct YouTube while it lasts—last time we had it for something like two weeks.


What would Mustafa Kemal think of the paranoid, overbearing state that claims to champion his legacy?
____

The Economist has a "special report" on Turkey. It's short, but informative. Thanks to Steve and Henri for the tip.

On the whole, I thought it was a pretty decent piece, one which avoided a lot of the crap about Turkey that often gets said in stuff like this. The Economist is impressed by, of all things, Turkey's relatively strong economy, and does a pretty good job of describing civilian-military relations as well.

What do the rest of you think?
____

"No threats from any neighbors " sez Turkish FM Ahmet Davutoglu. After decades of being a front-line state in the Cold War, Turkey has made big efforts over the past decade to establish better relations with neighboring countries like Iran, Syria, Russia, Greece, Serbia, and others with which Ankara has often had strained ties.

This is great, in my opinion. Of course, the fact that the Turkish government is following this policy of good-neighbor ties has been interpreted among the sillier Turkey-watching punditry as a "turn towards the east" or "neo-Ottomanism." This is something that I gripe about elsewhere.
____

In recent weeks  I've discussed headscarf issues and headscarf bans in Turkey. It seems there are similar issues being debated in Kosova.

US and world

52 die in Baghdad church siege.
____

It's not every day I see a story about Montana in the NYT: Buddhists, native Americans try to co-exist on the lands of the confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes.

Good luck to them.
____

Jason Jones of the Daily Show visited my hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan to talk about the bizarre obsession of a State of Michigan Assistant Attorney General with a University of Michigan student.

The student has filed a restraining order on the Assistant Attorney General, who has gone on leave from his position but is still employed by the State of Michigan.

 

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Look Who's Stalking
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

The great Jason Jones on the U of M campus
____

Giants win the Series, party at the moo-tow: the San Francisco Giants have won the World Series last night for the first time since 1954. They had never won after leaving New York for California in 1957.

I had no dog in this race, but was glad to see Mitch Kramer get a ring.


Mitch Kramer sure has accomplished a lot since his days hanging out at the Emporium with Randall "Pink" Floyd and the gang


And that, my friends, was your N & P.