The 58th Carnival of the Liberals

Welcome to Liberal England for a round up in the best in liberal blogging over the past fortnight.

The Carnival is an American initiative, so almost all the nominations are for postings on American blogs - though I did see one from Sweden this time. For that reason, as I did when I hosted the Carnival before, I have added a second list of 10 postings from blogs from this side of the Atlantic.

If you visit the home page of Carnival of the Liberals you will see that they are looking for people to host future editions. Why not volunteer yourself?

Carnival of the Liberal 58

To no one's great surprise, the nominations for this Carnival were dominated by the efforts of the Democrats and the Republicans to choose their Presidential candidates.

Prepare Yourselves for a Settlement writes an open letter to Barack Obama:

On the off-chance my daughter remembers last night, I want it to be as a precursor to a better country. I don't want her to smirk at the idea of people chanting "Yes, we can" because the world may later teach her otherwise. If you win, you'll be the first President she remembers. Don't screw that up.

Change Any1thing explains why he is supporting Obama too:

I’m with Obama, because he can win over moderates and he can win over progressives. I don’t know how sincere he really is, but he can sure spin phrases to warm the heart of this progressive.

Alexander the Athiest takes a look at Hillary Clinton and Obama and asks if the Democrats are choosing a loser whichever of them wins.

It seems that an "unusually somber and introspective President George W. Bush" doesn't think so. Avant News ("Tomorrow's News Today") portrays him addressing the American Plutocrats Union and lamenting that:

the budget proposal represents his “last chance to shaft the poor.” He urged the assembled audience to do “everything in their powers” to convince their elected representatives that the budget proposal represented an historic opportunity that may not return for a decade or more.

And then, this being the USA, there is the religion of the candidates. Greta Christina gets it right:

I don't care about the specific religious group that Romney or Carter, Mike Huckabee or Barack Obama, or any other current or former Presidential candidate, belongs to. But I damn well reserve the right to judge them for the content of their character.

Now we stay with religion but leave the Primaries behind.

Seth Pickens answers those who say "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve" with some theological facts:

• Adam and Steve are humans created in God’s image.
• Adam and Steve receive unconditional love from God and deserve the same from people.
• Adam and Steve have unique God-given gifts that, when exercised, make the world a better place.
• Adam and Steve are doing their best right now.
• God, the all-knowing creator of the universe, made Adam and Steve.

Meanwhile Bay of Fundie celebrates the moderate Baptist leader J. Brent Walker and asks why there aren't more like him.

Moving on again, Marion Politics writes about the attempts of the Ohio Department of Agriculture to ban dairy companies from labeling milk as “rBST free” or “hormone free”.

And The Mystical Atheist asks if it is time for the USA to look for a new national anthem.

Finally in this half, flipnautick's Xanga offers "a mixture of commentaries on different issues and causes using text and images". And music, he might have added.

So that is Carnival 58. Now I'll have a cup of tea - we all have our cultural stereoypes to live up to - and then add another 10 posts on and about Britain.

See you soon...


10 Posts from Britain

Mmm, tea.

First of all, I am not sure if European Tribune really qualifies as a blog, but it is running a petition against Tony Blair becoming the first President of the European Union. That has to be a good cause.

Then Meral Hussein Ece writes about an event celebrating the 90th anniversary of (some) women being granted the vote in Britain.

MKNE Political information tells us about government and local council attempts to censor films in Britain, adding some intersting snippets of history on the way.

One dilemma for liberal and socialist parties is whether to select candidates from women-only or ethnic minority-only shortlists to improve the political representation of such groups. Liberal Polemic is firmly against the idea.

Cicero's Songs is impressed by the new Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and by his approach to the banking sector in particular.

Eaten by Missionaries looks at the familiar problem of "liberals calling for individual freedom in the abstract, but in practice calling for more regulation of people’s lives" and suggests some principles that will help us avoid it.

Lynne Featherstone, a Liberal Democrat MP, calls for the reform of prime minister's questions in the House of Commons and quotes a journalist on one of the Labour government's brighter young ministers:

Ed Miliband seems to have a new job. He now sits next to Brown making theatrical grimaces and facial expressions of mock astonishment when Tories speak. Quite fun to watch. Oxford, LSE, Harvard – and he ends up as the highest-paid mime artist in Britain.

Sid, writing on the group blog Pickled Politics, takes a sceptical look at the Australian prime minister's apology to the Aboriginal people for the “indignity and degradation” they have suffered:

Will there be any real policies to back up the formal apology? Unfortunately not. The federal government has ruled out the possibility of any financial compensation for the Stolen Generations, in spite of widespread anger and resentment, for which Rudd will, most certainly, not be saying sorry.

Writing on another group blog, Liberal Conspiracy, Dave Osler - who is very much a socialist and not a liberal in the British sense - writes an honest piece exploring liberal reactions to youth crime.

And let me be cheeky and end with a posting from this blog. Was Britain more tolerant than the USA in the 1960s and does that explain the extraordinary explosion of popular music here during that decade?

I would be interested to hear your views.

This Carnival was compiled while listening to Traffic and Richard Thompson.