New York state has passed a bill that sets up a fund that can be drawn upon to run for office in the state.

Text of the bill

I think the ways they fund it are creative and wise.

Who says democracy doesn’t work?

War hysteria took out one of the few antiwar voices in the major media as the country abandoned some of it most basic values in the lead-up to the war on Iraq.

In 2003, the legendary television host Phil Donahue was fired from his prime-time MSNBC talk show during the run-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The problem was not Donahue’s ratings, but rather his views: An internal MSNBC memo warned Donahue was a “difficult public face for NBC in a time of war,” providing “a home for the liberal antiwar agenda at the same time that our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity.” Donahue joins us to look back on his firing 10 years later. “They were terrified of the antiwar voice,” Donahue says.

Some revelations from the report by the always-consistent Democracy Now:
-Chris Matthews claims ignorance that Donahue was fired over politics when Amy Goodman confronts him
-Donahue says MSNBC’s decision was based on a Republican focus group, when in fact he had top ratings

housands of Hungarians took to the streets on Saturday to protest against proposed changes to the country’s constitution that they believe will take away important democratic rights. The vote is set to take place in the parliament in Budapest on Monday.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government hope to introduce restrictive measures affecting unmarried couples including those in same-sex relationships. Changes in higher education are also proposed. Students receiving state grants would be required to stay and work in the country after they finish their studies. The defense of the poor and homeless is also of concern to the opponents with a ban on sleeping in the streets among the proposals.

Election campaigning would also only be permitted on state media, a change that critics say would damage Hungary’s democracy.

The European Commission, the Council of Europe and several human rights organisations have expressed concern over Monday’s vote.

Letter from the editor
The Vision Driving Free Arabs
By Ahmed Benchemsi
Editor-in-Chief

After founding Morocco’s best-selling magazines, I had to quit and leave my country. Free Arabs marks a fresh start—for me and for liberal journalism in the Middle East. — Ahmed Benchemsi

Combine The Daily Beast, The Village Voice and Comedy Central. Sprinkle it with vibrant democratic and secular activism. Now transpose the whole mix to the Middle East… That’s the vision behind Free Arabs: a unique combination of investigative journalism, trendy reporting, arty activism and impertinent satire —all enshrined in the site’s slogan: “Democracy, Secularism, Fun.”

As the founding editor of this new venture, I want to welcome you to Free Arabs. The web-magazine is very much a team effort, relying on the creativity and talents of dozens of next-generation writers, activists, and artists. But it also marks a milestone in my own journey as a media professional from the Arab World.

So with your indulgence, here is my story—and thus, my perspective on how Free Arabs came to be, and what it aims to become.

Continue reading at Free Arabs.

_{Click here to go to Free Arabs.}

Who we are?

A group of free-minded bloggers, journalists, activists and creators, we are dispersed throughout the Middle East, North Africa and the rest of the world. Keen on perpetuating the spirit of the Arab Spring, we confront both oppressive autocrats and religious zealots with audacious reporting, candid whistle-blowing… and ferocious derision ;)

What do we stand for?

“Democracy, Secularism, Fun”— that’s our motto. We fight authoritarianism and corruption, advocate free elections and open government, and champion individual freedoms—from religious to sexual. As for the ‘fun’ part… it’s just us :) Intellectual curiosity, creativity, and humor are the staples of the “Free Arabs” generation. Join the club!

Who supports us?

Launched with financial support from a small group of independent Arab journalists, Free Arabs is—and vows to remain—totally independent of any government or political party, group or institution. We do not—and will not—pursue any other agenda than defending Freedom and advancing our core values: Democracy, Secularism… and uninhibited creativity.

A couple of days ago D_F and I had a minor tiff about Dame Thatcher. He claimed that “radical left…was strangling the UK.”

Well, here’s an example of that ‘radical left’ and what happened to them. And this is in a democracy with a Labour government. Dame Thatcher was worse.

Nice people, eh?

This is what goes through my mind every time I think of Dame Thatcher.

Boston Review — Pamela S. Karlan: Votes Behind Bars

Nearly half a century ago, Isaiah Berlin delivered an extraordinarily influential lecture called “Two Concepts of Liberty.” The negative concept consists in freedom from—“warding off interference” from external forces. By contrast, the positive concept consists in freedom to—to be “a doer—deciding, not being decided for.” Democracy requires both forms, but current constitutional doctrine adopts an unduly negative approach.

This is especially the case when it comes to political voice. The Supreme Court has resisted attempts to constrain the political impact of money, most notoriously in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010). But just as telling is Arizona Free Enterprise Club’s Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett (2011), where the Court hobbled the states’ ability to construct public financing systems. Adjusting the funds available to candidates who accept public financing somehow burdens privately financed candidates’ freedom, according to the justices.

The Court’s rationale in campaign finance cases calls on protection of free speech, which invokes a negative concept of liberty because the freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment is largely exercised without government assistance. Political speech, the Court points out, is “an essential mechanism of democracy, for it is the means to hold officials accountable to the people.” True enough.

Yet voting is surely an equally essential mechanism of democracy, and arguably a more direct means for holding officials accountable, but the Court has upheld laws that burden casting a ballot, a positive liberty. In Crawford v. Marion County Election Board (2008), the Court rejected a challenge to an Indiana law requiring already-registered voters to present government-issued photo identification at the polls. (Disclosure: I helped to represent the plaintiffs in the case.) The justices did not agree on every element of the case, but they accepted Indiana’s argument that ID prevents fraud (after recognizing that Indiana could not point to a single example, ever, of impersonation that an ID requirement would have stopped) and enhances “public confidence” in the election process, a rationale the Court has essentially rejected in the political-spending context.

More

Egypt’s Constitution Seen Passing in Referendum

Egyptians voted on a constitution drafted by Islamists on Saturday in a second round of balloting expected to approve a charter that opponents say will create deeper turmoil in the Arab world’s most populous nation.

Islamist supporters of President Mohamed Mursi, who was elected in June, say the constitution is vital to moving Egypt towards democracy two years after Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in a popular uprising. It will help restore the stability needed to fix an economy that is on the ropes, they say.

But the opposition says the document is divisive and has accused Mursi of pushing through a text that favors his Islamist allies while ignoring the rights of Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the population, as well as women.

As polling opened on Saturday, a coalition of Egyptian rights groups reported a number of irregularities.

GOP Groups Plan $1 Billion Blitz
By: Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei - Politico
May 30, 2012 04:34 AM EDT

Republican super PACs and other outside groups shaped by a loose network of prominent conservatives – including Karl Rove, the Koch brothers and Tom Donohue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – plan to spend roughly $1 billion on November’s elections for the White House and control of Congress, according to officials familiar with the groups’ internal operations.

That total includes previously undisclosed plans for newly aggressive spending by the Koch brothers, who are steering funding to build sophisticated, county-by-county operations in key states. POLITICO has learned that Koch-related organizations plan to spend about $400 million ahead of the 2012 elections - twice what they had been expected to commit.

Just the spending linked to the Koch network is more than the $370 million that John McCain raised for his entire presidential campaign four years ago. And the $1 billion total surpasses the $750 million that Barack Obama, one of the most prolific fundraisers ever, collected for his 2008 campaign.

Continue reading at Politico.

The article below struck me as being very thoughtful & heartfelt. It also provides a glimpse into issues—such as politics & law in Israel, women’s issues, and the status of Diaspora Jews (who is a “real” Jew)—that I think most non-Jews, myself included, are probably unaware of.

The author is critical of the status quo, but not in a partisan political way—at least it didn’t seem that way to me. She clearly loves Israel deeply, but is unhappy about the direct personal effect some of the existing laws have on her family (and may have in the future on her soon-to-be-born daughter).

Obviously, a magazine article cannot possibly convey all the complexities & subtleties present in Israeli society (or any society, for that matter), so if anyone would like to expand upon or rebut any of her points, I’d be very interested in reading what you have to say.

A Personal Note

Some may wonder why I’m so interested in following news about Jews both here in the U.S. and in Israel, so I will tell you: Part of it is a desire to better understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but I’m even more keenly interested in the many parallels I see between the Jewish & Muslim experiences.

One of the main parallels, IMO, is the struggle to become successfully integrated into non-Muslim/non-Jewish societies. By “successfully integrated” I mean being fully accepted as being as patriotic and “American” as our fellow countrymen, and no longer regarded with suspicion en masse as if our loyalties are somehow suspect simply because we dress differently or have unfamiliar religious practices, different religious holidays, etc.

Another parallel is the struggle of our co-religionists overseas to form modern, democratic states based on very old—some may say outdated—religions. This seems to be happening in tandem as I watch some Arab countries escaping dictatorships and trying to reconcile freedoms with tradition/religion, and also as I watch Israel try to reconcile a system that seems largely secular on the surface, yet nonetheless appears to be influenced by religious orthodoxy (in terms of politics & certain laws). How to be a “Jewish state” and still be fully democratic? How to be an “Islamic state” and become fully democratic? Can it be done?

As for the Palestinian issue, not to mention the issues faced by religious minorities in Muslim majority countries, how do we all find a way to live with each other in our rapidly shrinking world? How do you have a true democracy when a portion of your society doesn’t have equal rights (or even citizenship)? I realize that the I-P case is unique due to the ongoing violent hostilities, but it’s something that is going to have to be resolved sooner or later, though I have no clue how.

Anyway, that’s it—those are the reasons for my interest. Now, on to the article!

If all goes according to plan, this March we’re going to bring a daughter into the world. Specifically, we’re going to bring her home to our apartment on Chen Boulevard, in the center of Tel Aviv, the city we’ve made our home, though we were born in the United States and Canada.

Had you asked us six years ago where we dreamed of raising a family, we’d have answered ‘Israel’ without hesitation. But recently we’ve begun to doubt whether we should raise her in the Jewish state.

[…]

Since the founding of Israel in 1948, the Orthodox have had the power to decide who is a Jew and how a Jew can live and die by controlling the mechanisms of marriage, divorce, and burial. What this means practically is that the government body that oversees all major life-cycle events—as well as regulating food production—is a religious institution, the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.

Orthodox religious law is the law of the land: Only a man can marry a woman, only a man can grant a divorce. And because of Orthodoxy’s systemic exclusion of women from positions of power—its refusal to allow women to be rabbis, or to recognize female Reform and Conservative rabbis—the interests of women have been disregarded.

[…]

In this context, our daughter will not be considered Jewish by the state. That’s because Erin’s mother had Conservative Jewish conversion in Canada before Erin was born, and because we decided it was insulting to ask Erin, who lived her whole life as a Jew, to ‘convert’ just because a state-employed rabbi decided she is not Jewish enough.

We could not be married in Israel because of Erin’s official lack of Jewishness, despite the fact that we are observant Jews who keep Shabbat and a kosher home. (Our marriage certificate is from the state of Illinois.) Likewise, our daughter could in the future be legally barred from marrying the person she loves in Israel. If the laws continue as they are, the two of us will not be able to be buried in the same state-run cemetery, and our daughter would be excluded from burial in a Jewish cemetery when her life is spent. She’ll be a citizen, just as we are, and she’ll serve in the army, just as Ariel did. But if the status quo persists, she will go from cradle to grave knowing that in the eyes of the government of the state of Israel she is not a Jew.

[…]

It is time that the world Jewish community knew about this systemic bias in Israel—and time for Diaspora Jewry to act. It is amazing to think that while American Jews raise money for the state, lobby their political representatives to support Israel, and send their children on Birthright, the rabbinate denies the Jewishness of many of these Diaspora Jews.

[…]

More at Tablet magazine…