Didn't David Simon promise another season of The Wire if Holder ended the war on drugs?

Bucky wrote:hey i follow her on facebook for some reason

As of today, your debt to me is paid in full.

dajafi wrote:Didn't David Simon promise another season of The Wire if Holder ended the war on drugs?

someone better ask him

It's Sunday in Germany, which means it's Election Day there.

There've been some significant countries holding elections in 2013 (Israel, Australia, Iran, Venezuela, Italy, etc.), but Germany is probably the biggest country in terms of global significance. All opinion polls show that Merkel's CDU/CSU center right alliance is expected to get the largest share of the votes, but beyond that, uncertainty reigns. The CDU won't have an outright majority of seats, so they'll need a coalition partner. Their current coalition partner, the free market FDU, might not hit 5%, and even if they do they might not be able to get Merkel to a majority. That leaves the most likely outcome a reprisal of the 2005-09 grand coalition with the Christian Democrats governing with their main rivals, the SPD (Social Democrats, center left).

The other big wild card is how the AfD, a party devoted to getting Germany out of the Euro, will perform. If they get into parliament, it would be a big break with post war German politics where there's mostly been a consensus on European issues.

There is a chance left wing parties (SPD, the Greens and the Left Party) will have a majority of seats, but even if this happens, it's likely Merkel will remain chancellor (with the SPD as partners) because all parties have traditionally refused to invite the Left Party into a coalition as they're the successors to the old East German Communist Party.

Der Spiegel has some nice English language coverage directed at people who don't know much about German politics. They've promised coverage here tomorrow starting at 11 AM tomorrow. Two of the best and most basic articles being a write up on each party competing and a look at how the voting system works.

/no one cares

I would guess a surprising negative result for Merkel will shake markets for at least the first half of the week.

jerseyhoya wrote:
/no one cares

I suppose not. It's hard to see how German politics could ever affect the United States.

Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU): 42.5%
Peer Steinbrück's center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD): 26.5%
The pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP): 4.5%
The environmentalist Green Party: 8%
The far-left Left Party: 8.5%
The anti-euro Alternative for Germany (AfD): 4.8%
Other: 5.2%

Early exit polls. If that's right, both the FDP and AfD have missed out on parliament (you need 5%). Merkel would be on the cusp of an absolute majority of seats because of all the wasted votes, but would be half a percent short with those numbers. But early exit polls aren't always so reliable.

Merkel is going to fall a few seats shy of a majority, and the FDP didn't get in, so it'll be interesting to see how that all gets sorted out

yeah, i read those links you posted and it seems like the voting system got more complicated after the reforms in 2009. i may not be understanding it fully, though.

DeBlasio, radical leftist

Gonna be great with this guy running our most important city.

lolololololol

So this Nairobi attack is pretty troubling.

Rumors have at least three Americans involved with Al-Shabaab, the Somali arm of Al Qaeda.

The Somali community in Minneapolis of all place has significant ties to Shabaab.

The world keeps getting crazier.

jerseyhoya wrote:DeBlasio, radical leftist

Gonna be great with this guy running our most important city.

If it makes you feel better, my strong hunch is that where Bloomberg showed how much the mayor can matter, de Blasio will show even more vividly the limits of mayoral power.

I also think it's far likelier than not that his true political identity is "hack from the Clinton machine" rather than aspiring trotskyite. The irony of this campaign is that Quinn lost because she was seen as a transparently transactional pol, where Bill--who's the same, but much less good at it--emerged as this progressive hero.

jerseyhoya wrote:DeBlasio, radical leftist

Gonna be great with this guy running our most important city.

opposed foreign wars, missile defense systems and apartheid in the late 1980s and early 1990s...an admirer of Nicaragua’s ruling Sandinista party

That's crazy talk.

Luzinski's Gut wrote:So this Nairobi attack is pretty troubling.

Rumors have at least three Americans involved with Al-Shabaab, the Somali arm of Al Qaeda.

The Somali community in Minneapolis of all place has significant ties to Shabaab.

The world keeps getting crazier.

Kenyan troops trying to take back the mall.

reading all that, it's crazy.

I heard that there are two US passports recovered so far from the killed terrorists. Only comment is that one is a citizen from MN. The situation is complex as this is a 5 story building with 80 stores including a grocery, so aside frmo the ability to hideout, there are provisions. With ~70 people unaccounted for, which has to just be a WAG, how could you tell if some of these people just walk out as there is not a viable way to sort out who is or is not invloved aside from the questioning they will under go.

Three stories of the mall collapsed, so that's probably accounting for most of the missing people.

There are ways to tell if people were using firearms...there are wipes that contain a chemical which turns a color when the presence of gunpowder or explosives are present...that's how you screen the people.

I would encourage them to re-watch "Inside Job" and make sure there aren't any false walls.

ezra klein has been mocking cruz's grandstanding all afternoon.

Cruz is still making very relevant points 5 hours in. No real expectations to sway even a single vote (nor does he) but the guy is right on with the inequities of ACA