The US state of New Hampshire now has more female senators than male in the upper house of state government.
After [the November 4] election, thirteen of the twenty-four state Senate seats in New Hampshire are now occupied by women. Peggy Gilmore (District 12), Bette Lasky (District 13) and Amanda Merrill (District 21) beat out their Republican opponents to join the eight Democratic female incumbents (and two Republican women) in the upper chamber.
Any comparable results out there in euro-land?
The guns of Europe fell silent as the Armistice took hold.
Not everywhere, of course. Fighting continued in revolutionary Germany and Russia, in the remains of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires, and in other places whose history I don’t know well enough to cite here.
Death and destruction were meted out on a scale that is still difficult to fathom. On the columns of the memorial at Thiepval are carved the names of more than 70,000 Allied soldiers who fell in the area between July and November 1916, and who have no known grave. I was pointed to the photo by Teresa Nielsen Hayden, whose excellent posts on successive Armistice Days are moving, full of informative links and followed by astute commentary.
Though the events themselves are passing from living memory, the world shaped by the war is still all around us.
Apparently a great-great-great grandfather of his came from Ireland, and at least one visitor reports that this is all the rage right now.
From the chorus: “O’Leary, O’Reilly, O’Hare and O’Hara/There’s no one as Irish as Barack O’Bama.” The verses are pretty funny, too.
Barack Obama, US president-elect. Wow.
Consider this an open thread.
A lot of attention has been given here in Europe to the US presidential election 2008. According to some recent polls 78% of the French, 72% of the Germans and 68% of the Spanish would like to see Obama in office. Some European pro Obama “voters” see him as a welcome change from Bush, others are looking to America as an example of true democracy (how many black presidential candidates have we had in Europe?) and still others think he would usher in a new era of Transatlantic friendship and cooperation.
What do our readers think? First of all, who will be the next US president? What would it really mean for Europe to see Obama victorious? And what about McCain? Surely he must have something to offer us as well?
And, as a bonus question, are there countries in Europe that are ready for a black, or immigrant, PM or president?
Personally, I have no real answers to these questions. The only thing I am worried about is this:
Oh, and check this out. (hat tip Sargasso)
And somewhere between 52 and 53 in the popular vote. Florida and West Virginia because I’m feeling optimistic.
What do you all think?
What I think.
in the American Presidential election!
Well, sort of.
Those 16 votes? Georgia, because McCain has been rather more truculent towards the Russians. Some say there’s not much difference between the candidates, but apparently the Georgians disagree! Macedonia, because Obama has supported a resolution taking Greece’s side in the Great Name Debate. That hasn’t attracted much attention in the US, but it certainly has in Macedonia. (Why? Remember, Obama is from Chicago. Large Greek-American population. Macedonians, not so many.)
Otherwise, it’s… pretty consistent. Wonder why?
[16:36:17] David Weman skriver: hey, I just thought of something?
[16:36:25] Alex Harrowell skriver: yes?
[16:36:36] David Weman skriver: what’s the difference between realists and neoconservatives?
[16:36:45] Alex Harrowell skriver: tell me
[16:37:20] David Weman skriver: realists are bismarck, neoconservatives are wilhelm II.
[16:37:38] Alex Harrowell skriver: +1
[16:37:59] Alex Harrowell skriver: or worse, Conrad von Hotzendorf * (actually his reported political views are remarkably similar to those of NRO et al)
[16:39:27] Alex Harrowell skriver: what worries me most of all about this is that being Wilhelmine Germany’s enemy was tough, but it was nothing compared to being one of their *allies*
“It should be noted that AIG wrote its derivative contracts in London.” – Commenter Thomas, at Crooked Timber
And indeed, we see a report on Bloomberg, the wire service the financial folks use to communicate with each other, that Allianz was involved in a bid for AIG two days before the crisis that led to its nationalization. Financial markets are tightly linked, and we are just starting to hear the chains rattle.
As with Russia’s neighbors, the question in the markets now has to be, “Who’s next?”
