TwoLiberal MPs havebeen secretlyworking on a plantolegalise same-sex marriage in Australia as soon as August, with a draft copy of the laws well advanced and consultation with advocates under way.

Fairfax Media can reveal WAsenator Dean Smith and NSW lower house MP Trent Zimmerman are working ona private members' billthey hope willbe presented to Parliament to legalise same-sex marriage through a conscience vote, rather than the Turnbull government's stated policy of a national, non-bindingplebiscite.

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Liberal minister Christopher Pyne has reportedly been caught on tape saying marriage equality would happen "sooner than everyone thinks."

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Research by the Obesity Policy Coalition found food packaging which used cartoons was often unhealthy.

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Irish forecaster with a giant umbrella is blown away by a gust of wind and everyone can't stop laughing about it.

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One of Australia's most-wanted fugitives has been caught hiding under a child's bed, after police forced their way into a home in north-west Sydney on Sunday. Vision: Seven News

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Lee Rhiannon has spoken out against claims she derailed her party's school funding negotiations with the government, rejecting claims from colleagues accusing her of betrayal.

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The Australian government is offering support to the Philippines as its military battles Islamist militants aligned with Islamic State. National Security correspondent David Wroe explains.

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In a bid to limit any further jail time, Crown Resorts staff will plead guilty to gambling-related crimes at their trial in Shanghai on Monday.

Liberal minister Christopher Pyne has reportedly been caught on tape saying marriage equality would happen "sooner than everyone thinks."

It's understoodcabinet ministers Christopher Pyne and GeorgeBrandis- both of whom support same-sex marriage - are aware of the existence of the bill, which is designed to end the politicalimpasse over the issue and get it off the political agenda before the next federal election.

Senator Smith and Mr Zimmermanhave been consulting with the director of legal advocacy at Melbourne's Human Rights Law Centre,Anna Brown, who is also the co-chair of Australians for Equality, on the details of the legislation.

In keeping with the recommendations of a February Senate committee report, the draft bill would allow exemptions for religious and other celebrants who did not wish to marry two people of the same sex.

While the bill is unlikelytobe selected fordebate by thegovernment-controlled parliamentarycommittee that choosesbills, it wouldtake only a handful of Liberal MPsto side with the opposition and cross bench, reach an absolute majority of 76 votesand force the lawto be considered.

Once that happens,Liberal MPs who support same-sex marriage could team up with Labor and the crossbench onthe floor ofParliamentto legalise same-sex marriage.

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The bill would almost certainly then sail through the Senate with the support ofLabor, the Greens, the crossbench and some Liberal senators.

Senator Smith was unavailable for comment because he is travelling, while Mr Zimmerman and Ms Brown declined to comment when contacted by Fairfax Media. Senator Brandis and Mr Pyne were also contacted for comment.

In a statement, Mr Pyne said "the government has no plans to alter the policy".

However, in an interview with Huffington Post Australia, Senator Smith said there was a "natural symmetry" about having a free vote in Parliament on the two-year anniversary of government adopting its now-defeated plebiscite policy in August.

Liberal moderates are frustrated by the lack of action on same-sex marriage following the defeat of the plebiscite earlier this year, and believe Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull should stand up to the conservative wing of the Liberal Party and allow a free vote on the floor of the parliament.

However, Mr Turnbull will face pressure from the conservative wing of his party not to allow a free vote to occur.

MrTurnbull - who personallysupports same-sex marriage but is concerned about keeping the conservative wing of his party onside -said on Monday his government'sposition ofa non-binding national plebiscite on the matter was clear and that "we have no plans to change it, full stop".

Those comments were made after a leaked audio recording of Mr Pyne emerged on Monday, in which the Leader of the House predicted same-sex marriage could be legalised "sooner than everyone thinks".

Mr Pyne's remarks were made at a gathering of Liberal moderates on Friday night in Sydney as the Liberal federal council met. The recording wasleaked to conservative News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt.

He told the gathering of moderates that "we [Liberal moderates] are in the winner's circle but we have to deliver a couple of things and one of those we've got to deliver before too long is marriage equality in this country".

"Your friends in Canberra are working on that outcome."

That leak prompted former prime minister Tony Abbott, who introduced the plebiscite policy nearly two years ago, to accuse Mr Pyne of not being fair dinkum and suggesting he was disloyal to the government.

"To dump the plebiscite, to do anything without a plebiscite would be a breach of faith with the people," Mr Abbott told radio station 2GB.

-with Fergus Hunter

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Liberal MPs secretly drafting private members' bill to legalise same-sex marriage - The Sydney Morning Herald

The B.C. Liberal governments bill to ban union and corporate donations to political parties was defeated immediately upon introduction this afternoon.

NDP and Green MLAs outvoted the government 44-42, which kills the Liberals attempt to emulate their opponents in supporting campaign finance reform.

Earlier, NDP Leader John Horgan walked into the legislature with a formal non-confidence motion designed to topple the government. It has not yet been voted on.

Government house leader Mike de Jong said he expects the confidence vote to take place Thursday, on support of last weeks Throne Speech.

Hours before the defeat, de Jong was hopeful of passage, even though the government has rejected similar attempts by the NDP six times in the last 12 years.

There seems to be a convergence of opinion in favor of doing this, he said. This government has been told repeatedly by the Opposition that its something that can be done in a day and that theyre willing to do it in a day, so lets test that proposition.

De Jong said it remains to be seen whether the NDP and B.C. Green Party will consent to have the bill presented.

A surprise Liberal bill to amend the status of the B.C. Green was also defeated, with the NDP and Greens determined to focus only on the confidence vote.

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NDP, Greens defeat Liberal political donations bill - Times Colonist

One of the most popular sports media debates of 2017 has been the existence, or lack thereof, of ESPNs liberal agenda. The extremelypolarizing election cycle of 2016has bled into pretty much every aspect of our culture and sports is no different. And with ESPN at the top of the mountain and FS1 attempting to dethrone Bristol, some of their personalities have tried to cling on to this polarization to create an us versus them mentality to divide and conquer ESPNs audience.

FS1, namely led by Clay Travis and Jason Whitlock, have repeatedly tried to paint ESPN as having a liberal agenda. It hasnt really done anything to improve FS1s ratings, it cant really be blamed forESPNs business struggles, but the narrative now definitely exists. ESPN has tried to discount the narrative with surveys of their own, but sometimes narratives are all that matter in media.

Finally, an ESPN executive has gone on record swinging back on FS1 after taking it on the chin for several months. In Mondays Sports Business Journal, ESPN Executive VP of Programming Burke Magnus calls the FS1 narrative false and in a very calculating move, refuses to even mention FS1 by name.

One of ESPNs top executives accused Fox Sports of advocating what he called a false notion that the network operates with a liberal bias.

The whole narrative is a false one that was seeded and perpetuated primarily by a direct business competitor, said Burke Magnus, ESPNs executive vice president of programming and scheduling. We have no political agenda whatsoever.

Fox Sports has given voice to many of the accusations of ESPNs liberal bias. For example, Fox Sports 1s afternoon studio show co-host, Jason Whitlock, wrote a May 7 editorial for The Wall Street Journal in which he accused ESPN of adhering to a strict obedience to progressive political correctness.

Magnus went on to tout ESPNs talking point when it comes to allegations of the networks liberal bias, that it wouldnt make sense to step into politics and alienate half of their audience. He hits back at FS1 for trying to take advantage of the hyper-partisan political scene themselves to make a splash.

It would be foolish in the business that were in to take sides on the political arena, Magnus said. Our business competitor perpetuates this narrative because in this highly partisan time, it suits them to highlight this distinction, even when it doesnt exist.

As is usually the case, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Theres no denying that ESPN has become more liberal. Just look at the facts and their decision making over the last few year when it comes to programming, on-air talent, how that talent speaks out on social media, and so on and so forth. However, the result of ESPN leaning left has been more organic from a drive to become more diverse versusa top-down conspiracy to try to align the networks philosophy with MSNBC. FS1 would have you believe that ESPN is dedicating the 5th inning of Sunday Night Baseball to do an Elizabeth Warren 2020 infomercial and its just not true.

FS1s brazen personalities have overblown it for sure, butthe narrative that exists has definitely had an impact on ESPN as rare as it is to see them come out and swing back at FS1. And you can tell how fed up ESPN is with it when one of their top executives refuses to call them by name. Who knows, perhaps the decision to bring back Hank Williams Jr. is a way to try to prove that ESPN is not in fact leading the deep state resistance to Donald Trump.

It hasnt brought FS1 any closer to actually competing with ESPN, but it hasmade a lot of people annoyed and upset on all sides.

[Sports Business Journal]

The rest is here:

ESPN exec slams FS1 for trying to create liberal agenda narrative - Awful Announcing

Younger Republicans have more liberal opinions on immigration than do older members of the GOP, according to a new poll.

Forty-one percent of all Republicans in a pollconductedby the Public Religion Research Institute says immigrants face a lot of discrimination in the United States, The Associated Press reported.

Sixty percent among Republicans between the ages of 18 and 29 answered the same way, however, compared to only about one-third of voters ages 65 and older.

A slight majority of Republicans of all ages, 55 percent, say immigrants in the U.S. illegally should have a path to citizenship "if certain conditions are met."

But among younger Republicans, 62 percent responded that immigrants in the U.S. should have a legal path to citizenship.

Republicans of different ages also have opposing views on gay rights, according to the poll.

Fifty-four percent of Republicans between the ages of 18 and 29 say gay and lesbian couples should be able to marry, while just half that percentage of older Republicans responded the same way.

The poll was conducted with 40,509 interviews from May 18, 2016, to Jan. 10, 2017. The margin of error is 0.6 percentage points.

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Poll: Younger Republicans have more liberal opinions on ... - The Hill - The Hill

Whenever the Left pushes for sharp increases in the minimum wage (which has intrinsic populist appeal and tends to poll well), conservatives argue that such plans would kill jobs, stifle entry-level opportunities, and end up hurting many of the very people it was ostensibly meant to help. Liberals' rhetoric about the minimum wage does not align with the data, critics contend, citing evidence about the types of workers who actually seek and fill those positions. Many supporters respond, in turn, with slogans and smears: It's time to "give America a raise," to end "starvation wages" and promote "fairness," they claim, attacking "mean-spirited" and "greedy" opponents for protecting "the rich" at the expense of the poor. Which brings us to Seattle's hard-left city counsel -- home to such lovely characters as this woman -- deciding in 2014 toignore pleas from the business community and hike the minimum wage within their jurisdiction to $15 per hour. The Left celebrated, the Right braced for impact. The new law took effect two years ago, and basic economics has now rendered a verdict:

In other words, even before the full $15-per-hour mandate was phased in, thousands of jobs were killed, and low-wage workers' hours were significantly reduced -- taking money out of their pockets. Behold, the (ahem)wages of "fairness."A rival study conducted by a progressive, pro-union organization was commissioned by the Seattle Mayor's office (after preliminary data from UW's respected, nonpartisan team of economists appeared politically unhelpful to the city's policy), predictably declaring the move a big success. Unsurprisingly, it is being criticized asbought-and-paid-for propaganda. Its liberal authors are counter-attacking by alleging that the more credible study by mainstream economists is methodologically flawed, drawing this strong rebuke: "When we perform the exact same analysis as the Berkeley team, we match their results, which is inconsistent with the notion that our methods create bias," one UW professornoted. It turns out that when you raise the cost of creating new jobs and sustaining existing ones, fewer jobs are created, and employers find ways to stay in business. Hardest hit are low-skilled, would-be workers looking to get a foot in the door -- as well as low-income workers whose hours were slashed after the government artificially mandated a spike in their hourly pay. Based on the data, the harm outweighed the benefits:

But hey, at least a bunch of liberal politicians were able to congratulate themselves on being "compassionate." National Review's Charles Cooke joked that the study's conclusions simply indicate that the minimum wage must be goosed even higher:

Even though he obviously meant this in jest, there are undoubtedly left-wing activists re-writing their talking points demanding precisely this "solution" at this very moment. Hell, why not make it $150 per hour? By the way, the Democratic Party enshrined a national $15 minimum wage in its 2016 platform. To borrow the Left's lazy, bullying preferred framing on so many policy debates, why do Democrats hate poor people? Especially those who actually work for their party? Parting thought: Between California's dashed single-payer fantasy and Obamacare's continued implosion, it's been a rough stretch for liberal policy schemes. Not that it will deter the true believers for one nanosecond. Onward, for "fairness!"

WATCH: President Trump Gives A Statement With Indian Prime Minister Modi

The rest is here:

Settled Science: On Minimum Wage, Basic Economics Again Rudely Intrudes on Liberal Dreams - Townhall

Sen. Dean Heller (R., Nev.) / AP

BY: Alex Griswold June 26, 2017 4:38 pm

Liberal activists in West Virginia accidentally flew an aerial message attacking a Republican senator representing a completely different state on the other side of the country.

Reporters at the Charleston Gazette-Mailon Monday noticed a plane flying around West Virginia's capital city with a banner reading, "SEN HELLER: KEEP YOUR WORD VOTE NO ON TRUMPCARE."

The only problem? Republican Sen. Dean Heller represents Nevada. The GOP senator representing West Virginia is Shelley Moore Capito.

The Gazette-Mails executive editor, Rob Byers, identified UltraViolet, a liberal women's advocacy group, as the organization responsible for the embarrassing mixup.

UltraViolet appeared to be using its aerial message to pressure Senate Republicans to vote against the chamber's health care bill under consideration to replace the Affordable Care Act.

Aerial messages appear to be a favorite tool of UltraViolet. The groupflew an anti-Donald Trump banner over the men's U.S. Open golf tournament earlier this month to protest the women's U.S. Open being held at a Trump-owned golf course this year. UltraViolet also recently flew a banner in Kansas City, Kan. attacking the Royals for accepting a pro-life advertisement.

See more here:

Liberal Activists Accidentally Fly Banner Attacking Nevada Republican Over West Virginia - Washington Free Beacon

Israels government on Sunday scrapped a compromise to allow pluralist prayer at the Western Wall holy site in Jerusalem, bowing to pressure from ultra-religious parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus coalition and angering liberal Jewish denominations with large followings in North America.

The agreement, approved by Israels Cabinet in January 2016, would have established a new area for worship at the ancient Old City shrine part of the retaining wall of the ancient Temple and a leading Jewish pilgrimage site.

The deal was backed by Judaisms Reform and Conservative movements, as well as the feminist Jewish group Women of the Wall, which has become a cause celebre in recent years among liberal Jews for practicing egalitarian prayer at the holy site in defiance of Israels religious and police authorities.

But the compromise was never put into effect, frozen by opposition from Israels ultra-Orthodox religious establishment for deviating from the Orthodox rituals that have prevailed at the Western Wall plaza for years. Following the decision on Sunday, Israels government will seek to reach a new compromise on prayer at the Western Wall.

Moshe Gafni, the leader of Israels ultra-religious United Torah Judaism party, hailed the decision. We are happy about this, and thank the holy one, blessed is he, on this great success, he told reporters after the decision.

Ariel Schalit / Associated Press

Jewish men pray at the Western Wall during Jerusalem Day celebrations on May 24.

Jewish men pray at the Western Wall during Jerusalem Day celebrations on May 24. (Ariel Schalit / Associated Press)

Critics of the about-face by Netanyahu warned that abandoning the compromise risks alienating large swaths of North American Jewry that Israel has long relied upon for political and financial backing.

This is a shameful move by the Israeli government, said Rabbi Gilad Kariv, the director of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, in an interview. If the state of Israel decides that Reform and Conservative Jews are second-class Jews, those Jews will know how to react.

Natan Sharansky, a former government minister and Soviet refusenik who helped broker the original compromise as the chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, called the decision a deep disappointment.

The original agreement would have established a dignified space for egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall, Sharansky said in a statement. Todays decision signifies a retreat from that agreement and will make our work to bring Israel and the Jewish world closer together increasingly more difficult.

Anat Hoffman, chairwoman of Women of the Wall, accused Netanyahu of folding and going back on a historic agreement with liberal Jewish denominations. Women of the Wall members hold monthly prayer services at the Western Wall plaza in which participants lead prayer and read from Torah scrolls, despite an official ban on such practices by women.

This is a bad day for women in Israel, Hoffman wrote on Facebook. The Women of the Wall will continue to worship at the womens section of the Western Wall with the Torah scroll, prayer shawls and phylacteries until equality for women arrives at the Wall as well.

A spokesman from the prime ministers office declined to comment.

Netanyahu relies on the support of two ultra-Orthodox parties to shore up his majority in the parliament, the Knesset. After watching front-runner candidates underperform in recent votes elsewhere specifically, Theresa May in Britain he is loath to imperil his coalitions stability, said Jonathan Rynhold, a political science professor at Bar-Ilan University.

Its all about the coalition, he said. He is worried that the ultra-Orthodox will cause him to lose a majority and lose a confidence vote. And he looks at the elections around the world and says, I dont want to take the risk.

ALSO

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Mitnick is a special correspondent.

@joshmitnick

Originally posted here:

Israel abandons deal on prayer at Western Wall, angering liberal Jews - Los Angeles Times

Seyran Ate (right) introduces Friday prayers during the opening of the Ibn-Rushd-Goethe mosque Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

The founder of a new liberal mosque in Berlin that allows men and women to pray side by side has vowed to press on with her project even though the institution has been issued with a fatwa from Egypt and attacked by religious authorities in Turkey within a week of its opening.

The pushback I am getting makes me feel that I am doing the right thing, said Seyran Ate, a Turkish-born lawyer and womens rights campaigner, who does not wear a hijab. God is loving and merciful otherwise he wouldnt have turned me into the person I am.

The Ibn Rushd-Goethe mosque, named after a Muslim philosopher who defended Greek philosophy and a German writer fascinated by the poetry of the Middle East, opened its doors in Berlins Moabit district a week ago on Friday.

Housed in the side-building of a Protestant church, the mosque is open to Sunni, Shia, Alevi, Sufi and other interpretations of Islam but rejects visitors wearing the burqa or the niqab, which founder Ate has describes as a political statement. On its opening day, a male and a female imam jointly led Friday prayers to a crowded room.

A week later, the white-walled prayer room was noticeably emptier, with the seven-strong congregation almost matched by the number of security staff who guarded the exits and entrances with blue plastic covers over their boots.

Ate, 54, said many of the previous weeks worshippers had decided to stay away because they feared incrimination against themselves or their families. Her own relatives in Turkey had asked her to drop the project because they worried about arrests.

The lawyer, who is currently training to become an imam, said she had received 300 emails per day encouraging me to carry on, including from as far away as Australia and Algeria, but also 3,000 emails a day full of hate, some of them including death threats.

Egypts Dar al-Ifta al-Masriyyah, a state-run Islamic institution assigned to issue religious edicts, issued a statement on Monday declaring that the Ibn Rushd-Goethe mosques practice of men and women praying side by side was incompatible with Islam, while the legal department of Egypts al-Azhar university reacted to news from Berlin with a fatwa on the foundation of liberal mosques per se.

Turkeys main Muslim authority, Diyanet, said the new mosques practices do not align with Islams fundamental resources, principles of worship, methodology or experience of more than 14 centuries, and are experiments aimed at nothing more than depraving and ruining religion.

A social media post circulated among Germanys Turkish diaspora community showed a photograph of a foot hovering over three copies of the Quran scattered across the floor at the mosque, claiming that they had been placed there by Ate and her accomplices. One visitor at the inaugural event told the Guardian that she saw the books being placed on the floor by a man purporting to be a journalist.

Some Turkish media have even accused the project of ties to the movement of Fethullah Glen, subject to a crackdown in the country after the attempted coup of 16 July 2016.

In my darkest dreams I wouldnt have expected that Turkey would try to portray us as Glenists, claiming that I had praised Glen in my speech, said Ate. I have nothing to do with their movement. On the contrary: they represent an interpretation of Islam that is too conservative for us.

She started Fridays prayer session with an appeal for those critical of the mosques mission statement to say so in the open, saying: I hope that this time people are brave enough to show their true face. Allah knows their true face anyway. And it is Allah to whom they are accountable, not us.

Ate, who moved to Germany as a child and came of age during Berlins counterculture scene of the 1980s, narrowly survived a shooting at an advice centre for Turkish women in the citys Kreuzberg district when she was 21.

Describing the founding principles of Ibn Rushd-Goethe, she said: Our idea of liberal Islam is that unlike orthodox and conservative practitioners, we do not believe that the written records of the Quran should be transferred word-for-word to the 21st century. We ask ourselves what the intentions were at the time and which parts can translated and explained in the 21st century.

We want to work together with conservatives to do something against Islamist terror, to show that Islam is also a very peaceful, mystical and spiritual religion. Many people adhere to the Muslim faith not because of Isis or the Taliban or whatever, but also because it is a beautiful religion.

One of the worshippers at Fridays prayer was a British Sufi called Umar, who is usually based in south-west England but was visiting Berlin for the weekend and decided to visit the mosque after reading an interview with Ate.

The 30-year-old said he did not have a problem with men and women praying side by side: Its dangerous to say there are definitive rulings, he said. We do not have the prophet anymore. These are confusing times for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Anything we can do to improve accessibility is a good thing.

Original post:

Liberal Berlin mosque to stay open despite fatwa from Egypt - The Guardian

Whats the most hated Supreme Court decision on the left of the last few years? Why, Citizens United, of course, which leftists blame for just about every bad imaginable. Aggrieved leftists often compare it to the Dred Scott decisionseriously, they do.

So if Justice Anthony Kennedy announces his retirement from the Court tomorrow, can we expect to see liberal headlines saying, Left Celebrates as Author of Modern Dred Scott Decision Retires? Because it was in fact Kennedy who wrote the Citizens United opinion. And lets not forget that he was also in the four-justice conservative minority that wanted to strike down Obamacare in toto in 2012 (it was Roberts that let us down on that one, as youll remember). I suspect Kennedy may also share the growing reservations among jurists about the Chevron doctrine of judicial deference to the administrative state.

The point is, Kennedy has been unreliable and inconsistent from every point of viewhe totally botched property rights again (youd have thought hed learned a lesson from the 2005 Kelo case) with his opinion this last week in Murr v. Wisconsinbut there is a lot for the left to dislike about Kennedy, too. I actually doubt hell retire; I think he rather likes being the de facto Chief Justice once again, which he wouldnt be if Merrick Garland had been confirmed last year and the Court had tilted decisively left. But with the arrival of Gorsuch, hes back to being in the catbird seat on every important case.

But if he does retire tomorrow, watch for liberals to lose completely whatever little sanity they have left. Just take in the Washington Posts Ruth Marcus (who hates Citizens United, but omits any mention of Kennedys provenance of the decision in her plea for Kennedy to stay on):

The terrifying and terrible prospect of Justice Kennedy retiring

The end of the Supreme Court term looms, and with it the prospect the terrifying prospect of a retirement. . .[H]is departure would be terrible for the court and terrible for the country. It could not come at a worse time. . .

Justice Kennedy, perhaps it is unfair to pile all this onto your shoulders, but is it really wise to subject an already divided country to even more turbulence?And to another nomination by this president, with his evident ignorance of the role of the judiciary and disdain for judicial independence?

Your career has been characterized by insistence on civility, respect for the dignity of all individuals and commitment to the rule of law qualities absent in our president. Just read Trumps tweets and ask yourself: Do I really want my successor named by this man?

This isnt an argument. Its a primal scream from someone who still cant accept the outcome of an election. (Also missing: a note about Harry Reid going first in nuking the filibuster for judicial appointments, which will allow Trump more latitude in making a Court appointment. Thank you once again Harry!)

Let the terror begin. And if Senate Republicans are smart, theyll add in hefty funding for mental health services for liberals in their Obamacare repeal/replace bill.

Read more here:

The Next Liberal Lamentation - Power Line (blog)

The BC Liberal government is poised to introduce legislation this week on campaign finance reform, a step toward shedding British Columbias wild west reputation for no-holds-barred political fundraising that would finally bring it in line with other jurisdictions.

The legislation would ban union and corporate donations, impose donation limits comparable to other Canadian jurisdictions, and ban donations from foreigners or from other political parties outside of British Columbia.

But the legislation is unlikely to pass. Rather, it is a tactical measure introduced as the government prepares to face a vote of confidence it is expected to lose.

Gary Mason: B.C. campaign finance reform will fundamentally change the provinces politics

The Liberals hope to win the support of Green MLAs on a bill to demonstrate that they can offer a stable government, despite having lost their majority in the legislature after the May 9 provincial election.

A final decision on bringing in the bill was still in play over the weekend, but government House leader Mike de Jong said in an interview the plan was triggered by comments from the Greens who have vowed to vote the Liberals down on a confidence motion indicating theyd be willing to vote in favour of such a bill.

If the government introduces a campaign finance reform bill, it could delay a vote of confidence which otherwise could happen as early as Thursday. The election left the governing Liberals with 43 seats in the legislature, while the NDP and Greens have agreed to use their combined 44 seats to force the government to fall.

The Liberals plans to overhaul campaign finance law were outlined last week in the Throne Speech. After rejecting NDP and Green proposals to reform campaign finance in British Columbia prior to the spring election, the Liberals are now advocating wide-reaching amendments designed to entice the three Green MLAs to vote with the government.

The proposed changes would also apply the new rules to local governments.

Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, said British Columbia could shift from being a laggard on campaign finance to catch up with other Canadian jurisdictions. But, he said, only Quebec has set limits on individual donations that actually prohibit the influence of big money on politics.

British Columbia would move up in the standards and limits in most other provinces, but if the donation limit for individuals is more than a couple of hundred dollars, the new system will obscure, not stop, the influence of big money.

Quebec has capped individual donations to political parties at $100. British Columbia has no limits, while Nova Scotia has the highest limit at $10,000.

He added that campaign finance reform will take place in British Columbia no matter which party forms government, because all three parties have agreed to tighten the rules.

I expect that if the government falls, the NDP and Greens will match all this but the key will still be what the individual limit will be, Mr. Conacher said, noting that none of the parties has stated what the donation limit should be.

Green Lader Andrew Weaver said in an interview he supports the Liberal proposals. They have got some really good ideas that they want to bring forward, ideas I would eventually like to see turned into legislation.

But eventually doesnt mean this week. Mr. Weaver has said repeatedly that his caucus rejected a deal to support the Liberals because it concluded the government needs a time out. Under the accord the Greens signed with the NDP in May, the Green MLAs will help topple the Liberals and then support an NDP minority government on budget measures and other votes of confidence.

Mr. Weaver said he wants to get on with that transition.

The Premier has been clear that she wants to test the confidence of the House, and that should be the first priority when the House reconvenes.

Mr. de Jong said there may be legislation and that would delay debate on the Throne Speech, but it is not his intent to avoid a vote of confidence. The Throne Speech will be debated in the coming days, and Mr. de Jong is expected to provide a fiscal update to demonstrate that the ambitious and costly new agenda can be paid for without deficits or tax hikes.

He said the Liberals were unable to offer these new spending commitments including welfare rate increases and child-care subsidies before the May election because they did not believe they were affordable then.

We became aware after the election the economy was growing at a much stronger rate than we anticipated, he said. Its an ironic position for a government, and maybe one in its last days, to be criticized because the provincial economy is performing way better than you told us.

Follow Justine Hunter on Twitter: @justine_hunter

Originally posted here:

BC Liberals prepare fundraising bill ahead of no-confidence vote - The Globe and Mail

On Friday morning, President Trump partook in one of his favorite rituals this side of hitting the links or avoiding Tiffany: a bill signing. The commander-in-chief, surrounded by ornamental backers, inked the Veterans Affairs Reform Acta measure that will make it easier to terminate VA employeesbefore soaking up camera flashes and cabinet applause. Among the admiring spectators was Al Baldasaro, a military veteran and New Hampshire state representative. The presence of Baldasaro, who introduced candidate Trump at a number of campaign stops and served as his adviser on veterans issues, would be unremarkable were it not for the fact that he once called for Hillary Clinton to be killed.

This whole thing disgusts me. Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason, said Baldasaro. He was discussing Benghazi, a tragedy wherein the Republican House found no evidence of wrongdoing on Clintons behalf, during a July 2016 radio interview. The incendiary remarks triggered a secret service probe, but Baldasaro never received any significant repercussions. And Baldasaros cameo at Trumps recent bill signing received precious little coverage on cable news. You see, they were too busy upbraiding Johnny Depp.

Depp attracted the ire of the news media for disgusting comments he made about the President at Englands Glastonbury Festival Thursday evening. Can we bring Trump here? Depp asked the crowd. When was the last time an actor assassinated a president? The Pirates of the Caribbean star was, of course, referencing John Wilkes Booths assassination of President Lincoln. He added, I want to clarify: Im not an actor. I lie for a living. However, its been a while. And maybe its time.

The actors incredibly poorreprehensible, reallyattempt at humor received swift condemnation from the White House, which responded with the following statement: President Trump has condemned violence in all forms and its sad that others like Johnny Depp have not followed his lead. I hope that some of Mr. Depps colleagues will speak out against this type of rhetoric as strongly as they would if his comments were directed to a Democrat elected official. The Depp imbroglio also, as expected, sent right-wing media into a tizzy, with everyone from Fox News and Breitbart to Rush Limbaugh tying Depp to a Shakespeare in the Park production of Julius Caesar featuring a Trump-like protagonist; a photo of Kathy Griffin posing with a severed mannequin head of Trump; Madonnas idiotic womens march crack about how shes thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House; and lastly, the shooting of Republican Congressman Steve Scalise by an unhinged Bernie Sanders supporter.

There is causality, some on the right are arguing, between the antics of Depp, the Caesar play, Griffin, and Madonna and acts of violence perpetrated against those on the right, such as the recent shooting of Rep. Scalisea baseless claim, given that there is no evidence the shooter was influenced by any of these factors. There is also the idea that these celebrity outliers represent not only the views of Hollywood as a whole, but the base of the Democratic Party.

Now, lets give credit where its due: the right are very good at this. Every time a lefty celeb like, say, Lena Dunham opens their mouth and says something stupid, they will throw TV tantrums and sling fiery op-eds for an entire week, milking the outrage teat to the very last drop. Of course, those on the right, especially in the right-wing media, dont really care what Lena Dunham thinks. Their rationale behind this is simple: Hollywood celebrities are out of touch, therefore all of Hollywood is out of touch; and, since most of Hollywood is comprised of coastal liberal elites, then this one rogue celebritys views represent the whole. Its part of the ongoing culture war fomented by the right, pitting these coastal liberal elites against Middle Americas working classan opera that Trump, with his faux-disdain for Hollywood and faux-championing of blue-collar folks, is all too willing to conduct.

Forget the fact that Trump, who has spent his entire career exploiting the working class and cozying up to celebrities, is an outrageous hypocrite. His supporters dont care. Heck, they cheered when he trotted out a former Goldman Sachs executive at a rally this past week in Cedar Rapids. So, given the elements at play here, Hollywood celebrities like Depp, Griffin, and Madonna must stop feeding chum to the right-wing ragemonster. Theyve proven themselves to be far better than the left at exploiting this so-called cultural divide. For evidence, look no further than the race for Georgias sixth congressional district, where the opposition issued attack ads that tied Democrat Jon Ossoff to the Kathy Griffin stunt (because she had endorsed him two months earlier on Twitter). You wont see nearly the same kind of vitriol from the left over the Baldasaro appearance, or that time Trump invited rocker Ted Nugent, whos called for the deaths of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, over for an Oval Office visit. That unfortunate episode was treated as nothing more than a late-night punchline.

Lets talk Hollywood for a second. The notion that Johnny Depp, Kathy Griffin or Madonnaor really any celebrity with significant name recognitionsomehow speaks for the entire industry is absurd. According to the 2016 Otis Report on the Creative Economy of California, the entertainment industry there employs some 166,300 people. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Labor Statistic reported that, as of May 2016, there are 48,620 actors employed nationwideincluding 14,840 in California. The vast majority of these actors are struggling, working multiple jobs to pay the bills. And a great many of them were not born in California to wealth, but migrated there from different parts of the country. Johnny Depp, for example, grew up poor in Owensboro, Kentucky. The average crew size for a Hollywood film production, meanwhile, comes out to around 600 people (Marvels The Avengers had 2,718), and most of these crew members have jobs like key grip, security, catering, low-level assistant, etc. Not exactly the elite.

All of this does not excuse what Depp, Griffin, and Madonna said or did. Those actions deserve widespread condemnation (Depp deserves far greater scorn for other reasons, although thats a different story). If these Hollywood liberals want to truly make a differencethat is, make any sort of dent in 2018then they need to realize theyre easy targets, knock off the outrageous antics, and stick to the issues. And if liberals in general want to start winning elections again, then they must start holding things like Trumps Baldasaro and Nugent visits to account. Otherwise the Democrats have about as much chance of succeeding as Johnny Depps next movie.

Originally posted here:

How Hollywood Celebs Like Johnny Depp Are Hurting the Liberal Cause - Daily Beast

Was it something I said? Sensitivities abound, and opportunities to put ones foot in it are correspondingly boundless. Photograph: Alamy

A rare carouse in a louche Glasgow wine bar one night last week was enchanted briefly by a nervous proposition. The stranger had approached me gingerly from the side and asked if I was gay, straight or bi. He was young, beautiful, immaculately groomed and thin as a packet of condoms. Im straight, as a matter of fact, I answered in what I felt was my deepest Glaswegian timbre.

I hope you dont mind me asking, he added politely. Absolutely not; youve made my night, I replied. May I ask you a question in return? I asked. Go right ahead, he replied.

What was it that sparked your interest? Well, he said. Its just that youre wearing a pink shirt; youre sipping a French martini and your legs are crossed.

This is not the first time an encounter like this has occurred in recent years. After each one, I have fretted over what ought to have been the most appropriate response in such situations. Some people are blessed with an instinctive liberalism that allows them to glide through the ever-changing landscape of modern manners without giving offence. Others, perhaps a little older and usually white and male, can experience difficulty in adjusting their footing to keep up with these intricate manoeuvres.

Its not that they are ignorant or lazy on the contrary; they aspire desperately to say and do the right things its just that they can, on occasion, be a little clumsy and maladroit at finding the appropriate words in unfamiliar situations. I fall into the latter category.

For most of our adult lives we lived a monochrome existence in which morals and social mores were well signposted and came colour-coded in either black or white.

Raised awareness of issues around feminism, sexual identity, the environment, ethnicity and multiculturalism have given a voice to many who had previously been denied one. The response by many on the right is to group these under the collective heading Political Correctness Gone Mad.

A more human approach might simply be Live and Let Live.

We possess good intentions, yet find we are let down in unorthodox situations by a form of social dyslexia

There is no users manual available for those of us who aspire to be liberal and possess good intentions yet find we are let down in unorthodox situations by a form of social dyslexia.

Nevertheless, in a spirit of shared humanity rooted in sympathy for my fellow aspiring but clumsy liberals, I offer the following short extract from my Good Liberals Guide to Modern Etiquette.

It is based on my own experience and the shared testimony of others who have reached uncertainly for the right words and yet found themselves shunned and resented.

You may have found that an increasing number of people are embarking on a transgender journey. This is a good thing as the misery of feeling trapped in the wrong body must be almost unbearable. Please avoid asking So hows your journey been so far? or Are you near the end? as if it were a day-trip to Girvan.

Instead, show interest and dont interrupt. Do not say: One of my friends is on a similar journey because youll probably be lying.

The young folks increasing knowledge of where we source our food has led to many of them embracing veganism in disgust at the vile practices and unhygienic methods that are often involved in getting farm animals on to our plates. When your daughter announces that she is a vegan, please, under no circumstances, make Spocks famous split-fingers sign from Star Trek. Instead, listen politely; make a mental note to Google vegan restaurants, and say youve heard that a lot of tasty curry recipes are vegan.

Look, lets be mature about this: everybody likes a good swear now and then, and as Moses is reputed to have said to Aaron in one of the as-yet-undiscovered Dead Sea Scrolls, an elegantly deployed profanity is a blessing to us all. Now some enterprising feminists have reclaimed the c-word. And, indeed, in some west of Scotland taverns the term is often used to express admiration. Tams a good...

There is, though, a risk of becoming desensitised to all this bold new use of the word. I would advise caution and stick to old standards such as bastard, bawbag, dickhead and tosser.

Admit it weve all encountered these wretched characters. There you are merrily WhatsApping away in the back of the cab when your driver insists on having a debate about Brexit. I dont know about you but I voted Leave, he says. Were letting too many immigrants in, and theyve declared sharia law in Pollokshields.

As an aspiring liberal, you know what you want to do. You want to tell the racist bawbag where to go. Instead, you try to give him a meaningful stare and pretend to have a conversation on your mobile. Id suggest waiting until you are within walking distance of your destination and tell him to stop, then disembark while studiously refusing to give him a tip. Hell get the message.

One of the most challenging dilemmas for the aspiring-but-not-quite-there-yet-liberal male is reconciling a love of AC/DC, Black Sabbath and Ted Nugent with a desire to be empathetic and sensitive to feminism. Songs such as Whole Lotta Rosie and Cat Scratch Fever can cause embarrassment when they crop up on your cars iTunes as youre giving your daughter and her pals a lift into town.

I tried telling them once that Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter was a thoughtful warning about what can happen if a father fails to play a significant role in his daughters life. They werent buying it. Have a playlist handy for these occasions with fey acts like Sohn or the Chemical Brothers or that George Ezra.

I know these are just baby steps, but its a minefield out there.

Continued here:

A clumsy liberal's guide to saying the right thing - The Guardian

Sundays New York Times contains a solicitous, attentive look at a backward, benighted place North Carolina, where one political party has deviously seized control of the state legislature. The Republicans of North Carolina, says the Times, have not only run quickly through the conservative policy checklist, they have gone so far as to skew the balance of power in the state in their favor.

Imagine a local political party so dominant that it can enact its agenda at will and even skew the balance of power in its favor. Actually, the Times neednt have ventured so far south to find such tyranny, as New York City itself is a virtual one-party state and will likely remain so for at least the near future.

For instance, the City Council has 48 Democrats and three Republicans, who mostly sit quietly and attend to their constituents non-ideological concerns: street repaving tends to top the New York City Republicans agenda. All three citywide elected officials Mayor de Blasio, Comptroller Scott Stringer and Public Advocate Letitia James are passionate progressive Democrats who continually try to top each others radical proposals. Public Advocate James wants the Department of Education to appoint a chief diversity officer? Well, Comptroller Stringer will launch a task force to funnel city money to companies with greater racial diversity on their boards so take that.

This is an election year in the city, but you are forgiven if you hadnt noticed. The citywide elected officials are each running for re-election and are virtually unopposed. Not that no one else is running: Mayor de Blasio has about a dozen primary challengers, but none is a serious candidate. Ditto for the comptroller, the public advocate, the borough presidents and the City Council. It is virtually a maxim in New York that incumbents get re-elected.

Partly this is because only Democrats win, so the real race is for the Democratic nomination, and Democratic primaries are heavily weighted in favor of the party favorites. Local county machines in Queens, The Bronx and Brooklyn still have the clout to steer would-be challengers into patronage positions as an inducement not to run and can coordinate campaign help from political staffers who volunteer time away from their government-paid jobs to assist needy candidates.

Sometimes you dont even have to run for the partys nomination to get it. In 2015 longtime Bronx DA Robert Johnson won his primary unopposed. He then decided he wanted to be a judge instead of district attorney. Since party-controlled county committees decide state Supreme Court judgeship nominations, it was a simple process for the well-connected Johnson (and his wife, actually, who also became a judge) to get the nod from the Bronx machine, which was controlled by then-Assemblyman, now-Speaker Carl Heastie.

This is an election year in the city, but you are forgiven if you hadnt noticed. The citywide elected officials are each running for re-election and are virtually unopposed.

Johnson then resigned from his post as Bronx DA and left his ballot line open. Ballot vacancies are filled by county party committees, so Bronx boss Heastie was able to insert his own favorite candidate, Judge Darcel Clark, onto the ballot. An annoying open primary was avoided, and Heasties machine retained control of the Bronx court system.

A similar machination took place in 1998, when longtime Queens Congressman Tom Manton won the Democratic nomination for his seat in a walkover and then put in his retirement papers. With the same laws on filling ballot vacancies in effect, Manton called his protg, Assemblyman Joe Crowley, to inform him he would be the Democratic nominee for Congress instead. Crowley is now the Queens County Democratic boss and occupies a top leadership role within the House Democrats. His control of County, as the Queens political machine is known, is tight and very profitable: Control of the Surrogates Court, which handles probated estates, brings in millions of dollars annually to the small circle of connected attorneys who are assigned the cases.

If you talk to any elected official in the city, they will all agree that council member is the best job to have. The term is four years, so you dont have to campaign very often; it is local, with no annoying trips to Albany; and best of all, the pay is great when reform was enacted, council members got a 35 percent raise to $148,500. Given that one-third of the council has no job experience aside from being a staffer for another elected official, thats not chump change.

A few council seats will be opening up this year due to term limits, and in one case, early retirement. About half of those seats will be filled by state legislators who can have them for the taking. One term-limited council member, Inez Dickens, even resigned her seat ahead of time so she could run for the Assembly seat left vacant by Keith Wright, who ran for Congress. Her council seat was then taken by state Senator Bill Perkins, who had held the seat before Dickens was first elected. These two-steps are not uncommon: Brooklyn husband-and-wife tag team Charles and Inez Barron swapped their council and Assembly seats when his term was up.

In the Bronx, state Senator Ruben Diaz Sr. will take over Annabel Palmas council seat; she wanted to replace him in the Senate but was informed by the party bosses that Assemblyman Luis Sepulveda is next in line. So Palma will have to take Sepulvedas Assembly seat instead.

New York City is politically a mess: If it werent for massive tax revenues from Wall Street, our elected officials wouldnt be able to pretend that spending other peoples money counts as leadership. When the Times claps its hand to its cheek in horror that the Republicans in North Carolina have seized control of the General Assembly for the first time in a century, we have to wonder if they are really that nave or just pointing south so they dont have to look at the disaster in our own back yard.

Seth Barron is associate editor of City Journal and project director of the NYC Initiative at the Manhattan Institute.

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This NY Times story exposes the paper's liberal hypocrisy | New ... - New York Post

Outgoing Liberal party federal director Andrew Bragg (left) shakes hands with Andrew Hirst, the new party director in Sydney on Friday. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

Australias Liberal party has launched a new website that it says will help seduce swing voters its way and challenge rival campaigning organisations such as Getup!.

The acting Liberal party director, Andrew Bragg, launched The Fair Go website on Saturday, which is operated by the party.

Bragg used his speech to the partys federal council as a call to arms to modernise or perish. He said the party had to deal with a cashed up cabal of opposition to its interests.

Senior members of government and Liberal figures have been taking aim at organisations such as Getup!, which have excelled at developing novel and effective digital campaigns at a time when the Liberal party has struggled to keep pace.

The Fair Go site appears to be, in part, a response to some of these new types of campaigning and, according to Bragg, will help bolster the partys efforts to seize the opportunities in the digital age.

The WordPress site includes posts with titles such as Women are just people, Whos your grand-daddy? and From laissez-faire to much, much fairer.

It also includes three words of the week that will change weekly. The inaugural locutions are needs based, union and slamming.

A review of the partys last election campaign by Andrew Robb set out a series of concerns with the Liberal partys election campaign efforts, and found they were being outgunned and outspent by Labor and progressive activist groups.

Bragg told the federal council: Publish or perish must be our credo.

He said the website will be a publication which reaches beyond the existing cohort of fellow travellers to speak to undecided and swing voters.

It is designed to support the Coalitions overarching narrative into social platforms and arm supporters with bottom up perspectives on public policy issues.

The website appears to feature a cast of characters mostly linked to the Liberal party.

Parnell McGuiness, a communications consultant who is the managing director of Thought Broker, is listed as the editor of the site. Penny Fischer, a Camden Liberal councillor and the daughter of Pru Goward, has also produced work for the site. Brigid Meney, a policy officer at Cornerstone Group Australia and former Liberal party political adviser, has contributed as well.

The sites privacy policy makes it clear that the Liberal party collects users personal information and may contact them if they sign up to the site.

It is Braggs final speech in his role as acting director of the party following Brian Loughnanes departure. Former Liberal party staffer Andrew Hirst has been named the new director.

It is not the first time major parties have attempted more aggressive communication strategies.

The Labor party launched the Labor Herald in 2015, which produced news and analysis for the party faithful.

It no longer publishes content, and the website now directs users to a page that says it is currently on hiatus.

The rest is here:

Liberals launch website to lure swing voters and take on activist groups - The Guardian

President Donald Trump listens to a demonstration during the "American Leadership in Emerging Technology" event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C. on June 22, 2017.Jabin BotsfordThe Washington Post/Getty Images

In 1997, Fareed Zakaria wrote an important article for Foreign Affairs detailing the rise of illiberal democracy around the world. He contrasted the term with liberal democracy, which he described as marked not only by free and fair elections, but also by the rule of law, a separation of powers, and the protection of basic liberties of speech, assembly, religion, and property. In fact, this latter bundle of freedoms what might be termed constitutional liberalism is theoretically different and historically distinct from democracy. He then wrote a book on the subject.

Twenty years later, Council of Foreign Relations President Richard Haass tweeted out the following: years ago @FareedZakaria wrote the book re illiberal democracies. i never thought this would fit the US but we r getting too close 4 comfort. I am a big fan of Richard (and Fareed), but I disagree with Haass on this one. America remains a strong liberal democracy however messy and dysfunctional even in the age of Donald Trump. Heres why.

1. Free Press Endures

Since Donald Trump announced his candidacy, the press has been aggressive in fact-checking and challenging him at every turn. At times, a bit unfair; 80% of the coverage of Trumps first 100 days was negative, compared to just 41% for President Obama's. Many U.S. journalists have decided that professional responsibility demands a much more confrontational approach to this White House. The result has been coverage that is sometimes unfair and over-the-top. This drives Trump up the wall, because theres little he can do about it. In an illiberal democracy, the state uses all sorts of tools to dominate the press and shape public opinion. Trump has friendly news outlets that help maintain support from his base, but the rest of the media is in no danger of falling under Trumps sway.

2. Americans Love Going to Court

Americans go to court. A lot. And a lot of Americans become lawyers. As of 2009, for every 100,000 people, the U.S. has 380 lawyers. For comparison purposes, Japan has just 23 lawyers per 100,000 people; France has 70 (2010 and 2006 figures, respectively). More important than the number of lawyers is the continued faith Americans have in the legal system as of 2016, 61% of Americans say they have at least a fair amount of trust in the judicial branch of the federal government, as opposed to the 51% of people who are confident in the executive branch and 35% of people who trust the legislative branch. In a liberal democracy, individuals and organizations can slow and alter the crafting of law and regulations by tying things up in court. And Americans are game in the first two weeks of Trumps presidency, his Administration was sued 55 times (compared to five lawsuits over the same time against Obama and Clinton, and four against George W. Bush).

3. The Courts Remain Independent

And the courts continue to limit executive power. In an illiberal democracy (see Russia and Turkey) the fix is already in when the gavel falls. For example, to tighten his grip on power, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has purged the judicial system in Turkey after last summers failed coup attempt, banishing more than 4,000 judges and prosecutors (25% of the countrys total). Trump would probably settle for ditching the judges that have struck down his travel ban no fewer than eight times in various courts (and by both Democratic and Republican-appointed judges). Maybe add the federal judge that blocked the Administrations ability to withhold funds from sanctuary cities , jurisdictions which ban law enforcement agencies from investigating, interrogating, or arresting people for immigration enforcement.

4. There's No Deep State

To hear Trump and his surrogates tell it, any political defeat or unflattering news story about him should be attributed to a deep state hell-bent on trying to oust him. But there is no deep state in America, just a deep bureaucracy. Its made up of professional civil servants who have dedicated years of their lives (in 2015, a full-time permanent federal civilian employee had an average of 13.7 years of service ) to specific policy goals, whether from the left or right. Asking career officials at the Environmental Protection Agency to suddenly stop believing in climate change because the man elected in November doesnt much care for science was never going to get much traction. There are obviously people in the White House and throughout the executive branch that are sabotaging political and policy moves they believe harm the nations interests, as they define them. Vladimir Putin doesnt have this problem.

The bigger problem may be that the state isnt deep enough: As of this week, the Trump White House has only managed to confirm 44 of the 558 Senate-confirmable positions in the federal government. One hundred and five people have been formally nominated, five are awaiting nomination, and 404 jobs have no nominee whatsoever. Obama had confirmed at 170 by the same time into his own presidency; George W. Bush, 130.

5. Congress Has Its Own Agenda

Finally, Republicans in Congress have an agenda: Repeal Obamacare as they promised; roll back Obama-era regulations; and cut taxes. If Trump can help, great. If they can do it entirely without Trumps input, that might be even better. And if they start to believe that Trump will prevent them from passing their agenda and maybe cost them control of Congress? Theyll cross that bridge only if they feel they have to. But they are not a rubber stamp, as in an illiberal democracy. And the Senate voting 98-2 for more sanctions against Russia (and congressional oversight over them) last week against Trumps wishes offers more proof.

Any democracy can become illiberal. But its dangerous to argue that Trump has already created one. If illiberalism one day really does threaten Americas constitutional liberalism, it will be that much harder to raise the alarm if the charge has already been raised and dismissed.

See the rest here:

5 Reasons Why America Is Still a Strong (If Dysfunctional) Liberal Democracy - TIME

It was described as a "world event in the heart of Berlin." And judging by the overwhelming response both at home and abroad to the opening of the determinedly "liberal mosque" in a Protestantchurch in Berlin's Moabit district, this assessment is justified.

Media representatives from all over the world wanted to be present when Seyran Ates, a German-Turkish lawyer and women's rights activist, presented her reform project to the public: an integrative mosque for everyone. The Ibn Rushd-Goethe Mosque welcomes all Muslims, irrespective of denomination and sexual orientation.

Furthermore, this house of worship - the only one of its kind in Germany - has explicitly abolished the segregation of the sexes during prayer. Men and women can pray alongside one another. A man and a woman led the first Friday prayers together. And - an important point, given the heated Islam debates in this country - the "female imam" did not wear a headscarf!

Loay Mudhoon is editor-in-chief of Qantara.de

Liberal Islam for the non-Muslim majority?

The fact that reactions from predominantly Muslim countries to the opening of the Ibn Rushd-Goethe Mosque have been both hostile and particularly forceful is not really any great surprise - not, at least, if one is aware of the repressive realities in these countries. This is true, too, of Egypt and Turkey, where protests against the Berlin mosque were particularly fierce. The religious authorities in both of these countries have been muzzled politically.

However, what's more interesting than the predictable reactions from Muslim countries abroad are the reactions in Germany itself. These were uniformly positive. Almost all the media celebrated the new institution as a place of open-minded, emancipated Islam. As expected, conservative circles as well as people and interest groups who are vocally critical of Islam see this kind of mosque as an alternative to the mosques of orthodox Islamic groups. In their view, "this Islam" is the only one that's suited to Germany.

This fervent enthusiasm in the media and political realm cannot, however, gloss over two fundamental problems.

First: So-called "liberal Islam" consists of individuals, public personalities; it has no structure to speak of. In Germany there are now a number of civil society initiatives by liberal Muslims, but their level of organization is still low, as is their ability to connect with the conservative Muslim mainstream.

Second: So far, those who represent liberal Islam are still very vague as far as content is concerned. They usually define themselves by their rejection of conservative Islam. And that's just too little substance to have a big impact.

Respecting the plurality of Muslims

No question about it: The opening of the Ibn Rushd-Goethe Mosque is a courageous and remarkable step. But outside Germany liberal mosques like these are not a new phenomenon. Similar mosque projects have already existed for a long time in Britain and the United States.

In addition, the heterogeneous supporters of liberal Islam should have explained - well before the mosque opened - on what Islamic principles their liberal understanding of the religion is based. They should, for example, have held a pertinent debate on the role of Sharia in a secular constitutional state. This would certainly have been helpful in terms of drawing a distinction between acceptable and unacceptable aspects of Sharia.

In other words: Just as Turkey's state authority for religious affairs, Diyanet, cites the "tenets of the Islamic faith" as its reference point, the liberal Muslims should also have justified their efforts with reference to genuine Islamic sources.

State-controlled Islam has no credibility

Neither the meager response to the Muslim peace and anti-terrorism demonstration in Cologne nor the hostile reactions to the opening of the mosque in Berlin can be taken as evidence that Islam is incapable of reform. We are, after all, seeing efforts by Muslim activists all around the world who are striving for reform. The battle over who has the prerogative of interpreting and defining "Islam" is being fought almost everywhere, with a vengeance.

In any case, politicians would be well advised not to privilege particular versions of Islam - neither liberal nor conservative. An Islam protected or even controlled by the state would have no credibility, and would be unworthy of a pluralist democracy.

For the ongoing development of Islam in Germany it would therefore be better, in the spirit of our liberal-democratic constitution, to respect the real-life plurality of Muslims and their different understandings of what Islam is, and continue to promote its institutional naturalization.

Have something to say? You can leave a comment below. The thread will remain open for 24 hours after publication.

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Opinion: Liberal Islam is a chimera - Deutsche Welle

Photo: Bob Owen /San Antonio Express-News

A birds-eye view on why Liberal Ron didnt fly

Two grackles, last seen perched on a wire over lower Broadway back in January, returned for an agonizing reassessment of the way things went.

Ron Nirenberg appeared to be flying against the wind and won. How is it, one of the birds mused in a voice dripping with sarcasm, that http://www.liberalron.com maneuver didnt work to derail this guy?

The other bird, his shiny wings slightly ruffled, let out a heavy sigh.

No, really! the first bird said, with a giggle, his tongue firmly in the side of his beak. Is it that San Antonio voters were just tired of that kind of campaigning? Liberal Ron wasnt anywhere near as pointed as Lying Ted and Crooked Hillary, but it was thrown out there in the same spirit.

Well, the second bird said as he claimed more comfortable footing on the nearby utility pole, political campaigns get ugly from time to time. And pointing out the liberal leanings of a liberal politician is about as hostile as someone calling us birds of a feather.

Oh, clearly were very different, the first bird said, still giggling. But Ill tell you why it didnt work. The campaign tactic fell flat because voters have had enough of name-calling. Theyre sick of the angry campaigns. Theyve had it, and theyre sending a message.

Maybe. Maybe that kind of campaigning doesnt strike the same chord in this city. Maybe the president ruined it for everybody, and now the rest of us cant amuse ourselves by crafting creative names for those who oppose us.

Or maybe, the first bird, smirking, said, it was because a male candidate could come up with nasty names and win but a female candidate cant?

He noticed that a group of smaller birds gathered on a nearby branch were now hanging on to every word. Taking this cue, he puffed his feathers and continued.

Maybe, he conceded. But the Liberal Ron thing wasnt an off-the-cuff remark the former mayor came up with on a lark. A web presence was established, for crying out loud! Someone came up with this idea, someone pushed it out of the nest a couple of times before it was ready, and someone gave the go ahead to let it fly and judging by the image she projected to the public during her time in office it probably wasnt all her.

A half-dozen more grackles and few doves gathered next to them. The first bird, empowered by the growing audience, turned up the volume.

Well, the term liberal shouldnt be a dig, the first bird said, It has become a dig. Its now a polarizing label. Its uttered with scorn. That label was meant to cast him in a certain light. It was bad play. It was a bad move.

Maybe. Then again it might make a good quip on the campaign trail, but labels arent just for soup cans, the second bird huffed as more tiny warblers landed on the wire, chirping asides and tweeting dissenting jabs at the grackles. They are indicators of how an elected official will lead. And isnt that vital in determining which way to vote at the mayoral level, even if the city manager does a great deal of the heavy lifting?

The first bird stopped giggling as a few of the smaller birds sitting next to him flitted closer to the utility pole. By now the lines above Broadway looked as if Tippi Hedren were about to drive past.

No matter, the second bird continued, The system labels and all works. And maybe the time seems to be right for someone who can rock the liberal label. Nirenberg didnt set up a site calling anybody anything, but he won the votes because he is representative of what the voters wanted. Thats the point.

Thirteen percent of them, anyway, said a small bird who was sitting nearby. And if you ask me and I know you arent thats probably a good thing. Too many are influenced by a clever one-liner, an argument that sounds as if its based on facts but isnt, or all manner of nasty campaign maneuvers. And believe me, the noisy, the birdbrained and the easily swayed do flock together.

Luckily, he was able to zip away before anybody figured out who chimed in.

mariaanglin@yahoo.com

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A bird's-eye view on why 'Liberal Ron' didn't fly - mySanAntonio.com

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British Columbia Premier Christy Clark, left, and NDP leader John Horgan, right, look on as B.C. Lieutenant Governor Judith Guichon gives the Speech from Throne in Victoria, Thursday, June 22, 2017.

A UBC economist says its entirely possible the money is there to pay for more than $1.5-billion in new spending pledged in the BC Liberal Throne Speech.

The Liberals raised eyebrows on Thursday by reversing course on a number of policies they had previously campaigned against, borrowing big ticket platform planks like $1-billion for child care or scrapping bridge tolls from the NDP.

In the wake of the speech, Finance Minister Mike de Jong justified the new spending with reference to an improved economic forecast.

READ MORE: Power hangs in the balance following Throne Speech at the B.C. Legislature

LISTEN: Economist Kevin Milligan explains why the government may have more money to spend than the February budget accounted for

2017Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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Credible case BC Liberals can pay for Throne Speech promises: UBC economist - Globalnews.ca

The federal Liberal government iscreating a new "super" civilian watchdog to review security and intelligence agencies across government and extending new powers to Canada's electronic spy agency.

The proposed changes were unveiled this week as part of a massive legislative overhaulof Canada's anti-terrorism regime.

After tabling the 139-pagebill in the House of Commons, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodalesaid it aims to strike a better balance between strengthening security in a fast-changing threat environment, and safeguarding the charter and privacy rights of Canadians.

"The most important thing is making sure that the appropriate legal and constitutional framework is there to insure that the security agencies can do the work that they need to do with proper legal authorizationthat gives them the confidence to do their work well, and on the other side make sure that the public is confident that there is accountability, there is transparency, and that their rights and freedoms are being respected," Goodale told The House.

But even after introducing the massive piece of legislation, his job as safety minister is far from over.

Another big agenda item: dealing with the RCMP.

Goodale said the looming retirement of RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson is as good as time as any to consider rejigging the governance of the force, including a civilian oversight board.

"The change in command is an opportunity to examine all dimensions of governance and structure. The new commissioner will have important challenges to address in terms of maintaining the tradition and heritage of the force and at the same time acknowledging all of the new things that modern day policing requires," he toldChris Hall.

"Obviously we've had issues internally to deal with with the allegations of harassment, and bullying, a major class action that the RCMP has now been successful in settling...The RCMP is just an absolutely fundamental institution in this country and the standards in terms of workplace behaviour has to be absolutely top of the heap."

Goodale has already put his support behind the idea of civilian oversight, which was the key recommendation in a report by the Mounties' watchdog earlier this year.

The report came out almost a decade after a 2007 taskforce report also made the central recommednation to set up a civilian board of management for the RCMP.

Paulson's tenure as Canada's top Mountie come sto an end June 30th.

His retirement will come after 39 years of service, including 32 in the RCMP. He has served as commissioner for more than five years.

Former Conservative cabinet minster Erin O'Toole was unimpressed with the Liberals decision to announce a bill of this magnitude the day before the House of Commons rose for the summer break.

Conservative MP Erin O'Toole speaks about the government's national security legislation. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

"They trod out all the ministers with one or two days left and they drop another omnibus security bill knowing full well we're not going to be able to hold them to full account right away," he said.

Last summer, the Liberals introduced three public safety bills in June, including new legislation to create a joint oversight committee with powers to scrutinize national security matters.

NDP Critic for Public Safety Matthew Dube reacts to the new anti-terror legislation. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

O'Toole said this week's bill doesn't give law enforcement enough tools to react to potential terrorist attacks, arguing the Liberals seem oblivious to what's been going on in Europe, where trucks have been driven into pedestrians on bridges in London.

Matthew Dub, the NDP critic for public safety, said Bill C-51's information regime, one of the most controversial element of the old bill, still lives on in the new legislation.

"Apart from cosmetic changes, so changing the word sharing, to disclouse, the regime is more or less intact," he said.

"It's still overly broad."

Some Liberal MPs stood behind this bar on the floor of the Senate chamber Tuesday evening as senators voted on whether to accept amendments to the government's budget bill. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

"I think senators, more than ever, are determined to play their role," Andr Pratte, one of Justin Trudeau'sindependent appointees to the Senate, told The House.

That was afterSenators agreed to pass the federal budget bill without amendments, but only after a standoff between Canada'stwo chambersof Parliament that almost resulted in MPs being called back to Ottawa.

"The reason is that for years and years, many people have been complaining that senators are not doing anything. And I think that's been really unfair, but that's been a complaint."

In amending bills, the current Senate has so far shown a measure of restraint: no bill has been sent back to the House more than once, even when MPs have voted to reject the Senate's suggestions.

Even on the budget billamid grumbling about the government's toneand after the dispatch of a stern note to the House about the Senate's rights and authority senators agreed to revert to the original legislation after MPs objected. Historically, including as recently as 2006, the Senate has not been so willing to acquiesce after just one attempt.

"Their role is to look carefully at legislation, to suggest amendments, to alert public opinion," said Pratte.

"And of course all senators are well aware that they are appointed, that they are not elected. And that carries some weight when they decide what to do when the House rejects their amendments."

But, Pratte said, the Senate does not exist to "rubber stamp" the bills passed by the House.

"If that's our role, we don't have a role," he said.

"We don't need to be there," chimed in Conservative Senator Elizabeth Marshall.

Guy Caron speaks as he participates in the first debate of the federal NDP leadership race with Charlie Angus, Niki Ashton and Peter Julian, in Ottawa on Sunday, March 12, 2017. (Justin Tang/Canadian Press)

It's sounds like a pretty ambitious goal: eliminating poverty in Canada.

But Quebec MP and NDP leadership hopeful Guy Caronargues it can be done. He's made the pledge a cornerstone of his big to replace Tom Mulcair as party leader.

"You can actually go into poverty if you're working at this point," Carontold The House.

The trained economist said that70 per cent of Canadians living in poverty are considered working poor.

"We need to do something about this," he said.

"We need to find transformative solutions to actually put an end to poverty."

Caron's rivals have criticizedCaronover the costing of his proposal. The MP for RimouskiNeigetteTmiscouataLes Basques estimates that it would cost around $30B to implement.

The Ontario government recently announceda plan to study basic incomein a three-year pilot project based inHamilton, Lindsay and Thunder Bay.

The province will explore the effectiveness of providing a basic incomeno matter what to people who are currently living on low incomes.

Originally posted here:

The Liberal approach to national security - CBC.ca

New Liberal president Nick Greiner says ensuring trust and co-operation in the party is a challenge and the coalition will enter the next election as underdogs.

Mr Greiner, who replaces outgoing president Richard Alston, didn't attend the Liberal Party federal council in Sydney starting on Friday due to overseas commitments.

But in a video recorded for the event, the former NSW premier said the federal coalition were "slight underdogs at the moment but are certainly highly competitive".

"There are also challenges in ensuring a culture of trust, openness and co-operation between all Liberal stakeholders, federal and state parliamentary and organisational," he said.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott has warned of too much power being wielded by factions within the party and wants rules changed to give more power to grassroots members.

Mr Greiner said he was conscious of the challenges in "strengthening the financial and continuous campaigning capacity" of the party's federal secretariat.

The party's financial struggles were highlighted by the fact the prime minister chipped in $1.75 million of his own money to keep last year's campaign going.

However its coffers were bolstered by a $10,000 a table dinner on Friday night featuring guest speaker, former US CIA director David Petraeus.

General Petraeus told the council he believed Australia should assert itself in the South China Sea, along with the US.

He said this included carrying out freedom of navigation operations in the disputed area.

Mr Greiner said his aim was to assist the coalition to victory at the next federal election and four state elections over the next two years.

"We all know that progress towards this goal, towards winning, can only be achieved by a united full count press of all Liberals."

As part of the reset, the Liberal Party is set to appoint Andrew Hirst as its new federal director, replacing veteran Tony Nutt.

Mr Hirst is a former adviser to Liberal leaders John Howard, Brendan Nelson, Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott.

He's considered one of Canberra's most highly experienced political professionals having worked in federal politics for the past 15 years.

The Liberal-Nationals coalition has trailed Labor since just after the tight double-dissolution election in July last year, which delivered Mr Turnbull a one-seat majority and difficult Senate.

Acting Liberal Party director Andrew Bragg is expected to remain in the position until August.

It is understood some senior party members were agitating for Mr Bragg to remain in the role, arguing Mr Hirst was too closely linked to Mr Abbott who Mr Turnbull ousted in 2015.

Mr Turnbull and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop addressed members, speaking on global security and Australia's "deep and heartfelt family tie" with the US.

"The bedrock of our safety in the world has been our alliance with the United States," Mr Turnbull said.

Saturday's council session will focus on economic management with another speech by Mr Turnbull and Ms Bishop as well as addresses by Treasurer Scott Morrison and Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman.

AAP 2017

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Liberal boss warns of need for unity - 9news.com.au