EUObserver reports:
An Estonian man has become the first person in EU history to vote online, as internet campaigns make their mark on the 2009 elections. But a throwback in Northern Ireland has seen canvassers threatened with a gun.
Vahur Orrin from Tallinn cast his vote in Brussels one second after the virtual polling station opened at 8.00am local time, with the moment captured on video for the YouTube file-sharing website.
And here’s the video, too:

This is one …

As tonight begins the festival of Shavuot, have a happy holiday!
!חג שמח

I have so far disregarded the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the US Supreme Court, since it has little relevance to Britain or to the world, being more of an American internal affair. But Wall Street Journal published an excellent piece by Karl Rove, the former senior adviser to president George W. Bush. Karl analyzes the Sotomayor’s nomination and finds that both Republicans and Democrats get something out of her nomination.
Some nice excerpts which I …

The French bowed to British anger yesterday over their failure to invite the Queen to next week’s D-Day events.
After an outcry revealed in yesterday’s Daily Mail, they announced that she was ‘welcome’ after all at the 65th anniversary.
It was a dramatic U-turn by the French, who only hours before had been insisting that they had never planned to invite any members of the Royal Family.
But with only nine days to go, it was unclear whether …

SamsonBlinded.org reports:
Before the US elections, Hillary Clinton was touted as a supporter of Israel. Not anymore.
Clinton repeatedly lashed out against Israel in the words unthinkable even for Truman or Carter. This time, Clinton announced that the sovereign state of Israel must stop the settlement construction, which Obama made clear to Israel. She reiterated that Obama wants to see a stop to settlements (who cares what yet another Hussein wants).
As we predicted, Clinton rejected even the …

Yes, the MPs who are not re-elected the next general election can easily open a school by that name. I don’t know if they’d get many students, but I’m sure the MPs are certainly the top experts in this field:
The amount of taxpayer money set aside each year for MPs’ expenses has risen 60 per cent in seven years and now stands at more than £100million.
The cost of second homes, travel, staff, office equipment and …

Something is wrong in Frankreich… I mean France when decisions like that are being made:
Buckingham Palace voiced anger last night after the French snubbed the Queen over next week’s D-Day commemorations.
Aides said senior royals had repeatedly made clear their eagerness to support the historic 65th anniversary events in Normandy.
But last night French officials crushed any remaining hopes, admitting they had never had any plans to invite members of the British Royal Family.
They said President Nicolas …

A much as I like the social media networks and as much as I regard them as brilliant marketing tools among other virtues, it also has a downside: you can relatively anonymously say anything to anyone without even trying to be polite or reasonable.
This is what my Twitter feed showed me this morning:

Well, yes, there’s freedom of speech and in theory you should be allowed to say anything about or to anyone. But as I’ve …

The California Supreme Court created an interesting judical situation today when they decided to uphold the ban on same-sex marriages, but allows existing gay marriages stand:
The California Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld same sex marriages that were already performed but upheld voters’ rights to ban gay marriage through the state constitution.
An estimated 18,000 gay couples tied the knot before the law took effect. …

Tory leader David Cameron has proposed a radical shake-up of the current political system, one of his key promises is fixed-term Parliament as in opposed to current system where the Prime Minister can pretty much on his/her own decide when to call the election during the five year term.
Among Mr Cameron’s proposals for a new Tory government are:
* Limiting the power of the Prime Minister by considering fixed-term Parliaments, ending the right of Downing Street …

Dick Morris writes in Newsmax:
All this means is that Israel’s life is in danger. If Iran gets the bomb, it will use it to kill six million Jews. No threat of retaliation will make the slightest difference. One cannot deter a suicide bomber with the threat of death. Nor can one deter a theocracy bent on meriting admission to heaven and its virgins by one glorious act of violence. Iran would probably not launch the …

New York is probably one of the most congested city in the world, if not the most congested. Well, as of today, it’s even worse:
As part of a plan to make the Big Apple nicer to live in, the Department of Transportation has banned cars from stretches of Broadway at Times Square and at Herald Square – near Macy’s flagship department store.
Yes, more traffic jams is, of course, nicer. How come previous mayors didn’t think …

Not only MPs are experts in wasting taxpayers’ money. Oxford University know perhaps even better how to do that:
The assumption has always been that rainy weather is good for ducks. Now a three-year study funded to the tune of £300,000 by the taxpayer has proved it.
Two scientists from the University of Oxford gave a lucky group of farm ducks access to a pond, a water trough and a shower. They discovered that the ducks spent …

54% of the British public say the PM must call elections immediately, but what is immediately? Today would be nice, indeed, but that is not going to happen. Instead, there are now talks about the possibility of October elections, which would on one hand be relatively soon, but on the other might give Labour to gain at least some popularity back:
One senior minister said: “The argument is that as we reform expenses this summer, we …

A Tory MP Nadine Dorries found an interesting comparison – she thinks that exposing the outrageous and sometimes illegal claims the MPs have made is kind of like a “McCarthy-style witchunt:”
The campaign to expose MPs’ Commons expense claims has become so personal that it has started to resemble a McCarthy-style witchhunt, a Tory backbencher said today.
Nadine Dorries, the member for Mid-Bedfordshire, also warned that the relentless drip-drip of leaked claims was creating …

Jerusalem, the capital of Israel today celebrated annual Jerusalem Day, which marked the 42nd anniversary of its reunification. Both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and even the socialist President Shimon Peres emphasised in their speeches that Jerusalem will always be the capital of Israel and will always be united:
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday insisted that all of Jerusalem will always remain under Israeli sovereignty.
Speaking at a Jerusalem Day ceremony marking 42 years since the city’s …