5:01 pm - Thu, May 23, 2013
Since 2009, the United States, in the conduct of U.S. counterterrorism operations against al-Qa’ida and its associated forces outside of areas of active hostilities, has specifically targeted and killed one U.S. citizen, Anwar al-Aulaqi. The United States is further aware of three other U.S. citizens who have been killed in such U.S. counterterrorism operations over that same time period: Samir Khan, ‘Abd al-Rahman Anwar al-Aulaqi, and Jude Kenan Mohammed. These individuals were not specifically targeted by the United States.

US Attorney General Eric Holder, in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee that was released yesterday. As J. Dana Stuster put it:

With the letter, the Obama administration has now admitted killing more U.S. citizens than detainees the Bush administration admitted waterboarding. Hooray for transparency?
As a follow-up, President Obama spoke at the National Defense University this afternoon on US counterterrorism policy, renewing his push to close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay and suggesting that he wants to narrow the focus of the widely criticized drone program. Because the speech focused on those topics, some of the liveliest debate on Twitter took place on the hashtag #dronetanamo. Go take a look.

The most surprising event of the afternoon was Code Pink activist Medea Benjamin’s lengthy disruption. Obama rarely engages with his hecklers, but this time he went off-script and remarked that “the voice of that woman is worth listening to.” He also used the opportunity to assert that Guantánamo remains open due to Congressional foot-dragging, not executive inaction. (We last covered the debacle here, spotlighting the legal limbo faced by the prison’s Uyghur detainees.)

2:01 pm
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This cutie pie is Mohammed Assaf, the 23-year-old Palestinian from Gaza who’s widely favored to win Season 2 of “Arab Idol.” Maysoon Zayid says everything you need to know:

He is the Palestinian Justin Bieber meets Josh Groban with a dash of Tony Manero from Saturday Night Fever.

Not since Ridiculously Photogenic Syrian Soldier have we seen such a dashing young Arab come out of such dire political circumstances. Listen to him sing!

5:01 pm - Wed, May 22, 2013
47 notes

If you have $1 and three years to spare, do we have a deal for you!

Buffalo, NY’s Urban Homestead Program will sell you city-owned properties for just $1.00 plus closing costs, demanding only that you live there for three years and bring the property up to code. Buffalo, Detroit and other cities that are experiencing dramatic population declines are trying innovative, low-cost programs like these to revitalize urban centers. We think it’s just a swell idea.

Read about UHP success stories at Buffalo Rising. (Bonus points if you build a chicken coop or urban farm on your new property!)

(Photo: Views of Buffalo. H/t RootSimple)

2:01 pm
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One day it will no longer be necessary for us to explain this simple fact to everyone who wants to make a snarky reference to Catholic doctrine. Until then, we’ll pass around this GetReligion post.

5:01 pm - Tue, May 21, 2013
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One of the stories we weren’t able to get to last week was the widely-circulated Xinhua report on KFC smuggling into the Gaza Strip. In brief, Gaza residents have such a hankering for Original Recipe and Extra Crispy chicken that they’re paying $30 for each bucket that comes from Egypt through illegal supply tunnels.

It was all over US media’s foreign coverage for a few days (like this on The Washington Post’s WorldViews blog). We certainly don’t blame the journalists who passed it around — it’s a fun, humanizing story that gives a personal angle on Israel’s harrowing blockade of Gaza. Moreover, it showcases the entrepreneurial spirit of the Egyptians and Palestinians who try to work around the impositions placed by Israel.

But at Arabist.net, Paul Mutter insists there’s more to the story:

According to the Canadian International Development Agency, 50% of the strip’s population is considered “food insecure.” While that number may be lower now, especially with the easing of bans on food imports, but it is still significant that food insecurity exists - just because people are not starving to death in the streets does not mean poor nutrition is less of a problem; developmental deficiencies, chronic illness and stunting are all consequences of food insecurity. Moreover, one of Ariel Sharon’s top aides reportedly said that the 2006–2010 ban on importing certain foodstuffs was meant to put the Palestinians on a “diet” by setting a “calorie limit.”

In other words, it’s about more than just smuggling a bucket of deep-fried Americana into a besieged part of the world. It’s about food and what it does to you. Which, as you know, makes this nuanced approach a perfect fit for Wonkistan.

(Photo: KFC in Alexandria, Egypt from Wikimedia Commons)

2:01 pm
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womenofthe113th:

Modification of the last infographic. Congressladies + men = still a ways to go.

Source: Office of the Clerk

Wherein we suddenly realize that “party breakdown” is an exciting phrase, regardless of whether it’s referring to dance moves or Congress. This’ll go in our chart-heavy congressional file, thanks very much.

12:03 pm - Mon, May 20, 2013
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Despite scheduling complications and other things that command our attention, the editors of Wonkistan remain duty-bound to the maintenance of this blog.

Yes, we know a lot of stuff happened last week that we didn’t cover. We know that it happened. We’re figuring out our work/tumblr balance as our lives develop. Thanks for your patience.

Like cracked-out tapdancing Ken Cosgrove, we soldier on. (Also, is that not one hell of a .gif? Well done, giphy!)

3:02 pm - Fri, May 17, 2013
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In case we haven’t sold you yet, a few more reasons to be REALLY EXCITED for the Eurovision finals tomorrow:

  • The final votes are announced by videoconference live from each country, and the announcers are FABULOUS. Look out for it.
  • Entries from recent years! Sjonni’s Friends with the vests and the cryptic cheek kisses! Germany’s 2010 win with Lena’s “Satellite”! The amazingly retro sassiness of Serbia! The lunacy of Moldova!
  • Excellent blog Bright Young Things’ roundup of favorite entries.
  • Livetweeting from yours truly, here and here. What more can we say?

Join us on Saturday at 3 pm ET for the finals!

(Source: commons.wikimedia.org)

12:03 pm - Thu, May 16, 2013
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Happy Thursday! Yesterday we introduced our crash course on the Eurovision Song Contest. Today’s installment: the politics of Eurovision.

Each participating country has 12 votes to spend in the final round, whether or not they make it in themselves. Half of those 12 votes comes from a jury, and the other half comes from phone voting within the country. The scoring system is very confusing, but maximum score a country can award is all 12 of its votes — the famous douze points.”

These voting patterns make the contest very interesting from a geopolitical perspective. Big rival countries often cancel out each other’s successes, while small neighboring countries tend to make informal alliances, which may be why tiny Azerbaijan won in 2011. (Example of a stable voting alliance: Cyprus has always given its 12 points to Greece, and will continue to do so until it sinks into the Mediterranean.)

Entries can also reflect countries’ internal political debates. While the overwhelming majority of winners perform in gloriously accented English in order to appeal to the broadest possible audience, France has almost always submitted its entry in French, with the recent exception of the minority Corsican language. Spain, which has much more controversy over minority languages and cultures, has never had a contestant perform in a language other than Spanish. This year it’s offering “Contigo hasta el final” by Asturian band El sueño de Morfeo, which features some very distinctively northwestern Iberian bagpipes. For more on language, politics, and culture in Eurovision, check out this 2010 New Yorker essay by Anthony Lane.

The winning country hosts the contest the following year. This led to some uncomfortable crackdowns on dissenters in Azerbaijan last year to keep the show running smoothly, though we’re not expecting anything like that in Sweden this year. Check back tomorrow for more Eurovision coverage!

(Above: that’s Azerbaijan, silly.)

(Source: commons.wikimedia.org)

12:02 pm - Wed, May 15, 2013
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image

In case you haven’t heard, the Eurovision Song Contest is this week. Eurovision is a bizarre creature that takes some explaining—basically, it’s X Factor for all of Europe, where each participating country sends an act to represent them in the finals (which air this Saturday!). Eurovision sometimes produces hits (hi, ABBA) and sometimes forces an entire continent to watch unicycling gnome punks (thanks, Moldova).

We are SO ENTHUSIASTIC about Eurovision that we are going to watch the finals together, livetweeting, possibly liveblogging(!), and hosting a G+ hangout afterward if time permits. Won’t you join us? The finals are on Saturday at 9:00 pm in Malmö (which is 6 hours ahead of the east coast of the US). You will be able to watch it online.

And because there are a lot of non-Europeans who have never heard of Eurovision before, we’ll be posting pre-show primers daily for the rest of the week. The voting rules, geopolitics, and hilarious past entrants are worth looking out for.

Keep your eye on your dash/RSS feed for more Eurovision! Ciao for now!

(Images: Wikimedia Commons 1, 2)

image

12:03 pm - Tue, May 14, 2013
1,046 notes

oupacademic:

mypubliclands:

The Federal Government on Tumblr

Increasingly, Federal agencies (like us here at the Bureau of Land Management) are using Tumblr to share photos, science, events, initiatives, and other great content with the Tumblr community.  Here’s a list of some awesome Federal government blogs you should be following on Tumblr.  It’s probably not exhaustive, but these are the ones we know about that post more than occasionally.  

Reblog and help share the word:

America’s Great Outdoors: The Department of the Interior (our parent agency) shares an amazing photo a day of your public lands.

Archivist of the United States: The Tumblr of our “collector in chief” at the National Archives, David S Ferriero.

Bureau of Reclamation: Reclamation, and Interior Dept agency, is the largest wholesale water supplier and the second largest producer of hydroelectric power in the United States, with operations and facilities in the 17 Western States.

Congress in the Archives: Since the First Congress in 1789, the records of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate have documented the history of the legislative branch.  The National Archives helps you explore this history.

Conservation at Work: The Natural Resources Conservation Service, part of the Department of Agriculture, posts photos of conservation on farms and other private lands across the nation. 

Fish and Wildlife Service: The Pacific Region of the FWS encompasses extraordinary ecological diversity.  Photos, science, and more.

Internal Revenue Service: Because who doesn’t want tax information on Tumblr?  Useful tips, videos, etc., straight from the IRS.

My Public Lands: The awesomeness of the Bureau of Land Management, which manages more than 245 million acres of amazing lands, as told by students, interns, and newer employees.

Our Presidents: One space to bring the past 13 Presidents together. Discover behind-the-scenes history here.  Managed by the National Archives.

National Archives: News and current events from the United States National Archives and Records Administration whose holdings include the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, military records, Presidential records, and millions of other documents related to the Federal Government.

Peace Corps: Life is calling.  How far will you go?  Get up close with the amazing work done by peace corps volunteers.

U.S. Department of State: Videos, photos, testimony, and updates from the State Department.  Foreign policy updates on Tumblr—how cool is that?

Today’s Document: Highlighting interesting documents the National Archives’ holdings—both the well-known and the obscure—to observe historical events (usually the significant events but sometimes just the curious ones). 

USA.gov:  Government made easy.  On Tumblr.  Enough said.

US National Archives Exhibits: Images and stories from the National Archives related to “Searching for the Seventies: the DOCUMERICA Photography Project,” the newest exhibition on display at the Archives’ facility in Washington, DC.

New resources for scholars alert! How thrilled are we to have so many resources right in the Tumblr dashboard? 

Your Tumblr dashboard is already full of US federal agencies, right?

12:03 pm - Mon, May 13, 2013
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Abstruse dark ale brings unexpected compost-wafted rauchbier-like cedar burn to dry cocoa-powdered Baker’s chocolate provocation. Smoky wet-wooded campfire setting outdoes dirty-grained astringency, tar-like raw molasses bittering, fig souring and anise seeding, disrupting stylistic mocha influence.
John Fortunato reviewing the Long Ireland Brewery’s Black Friday Imperial Ale, aka the best beer review your editors have ever read. (via @tristyn_bloom)
6:02 pm - Thu, May 9, 2013
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Experience David Foster Wallace’s famous “This is Water” commencement address, given at Kenyon College in 2005, in a whole new way with this short film by The Glossary. Gosh, DFW is great.

(Via Open Culture)

3:02 pm
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We really love Jeffrey Kluger’s new timelapse of world change for Time Magazine. Watch the Amazon shrink and Dubai and Las Vegas grow in the span of just a few seconds.

(If we could gif it, we would! But we can’t! #luddites)

6:02 pm - Wed, May 8, 2013
20 notes
It’s like throwing a Lolita-themed children’s birthday party.
Zachary M. Seward thinks Great Gatsby parties are entirely missing the point.
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