Stay true to the dreams of thy youth

• Gerrymandering Didn’t Cause the Shutdown - Bloomberg

  "What if we told you that the gerrymandering of congressional districts has nothing to do with political polarization in Washington? Gerrymandering didn’t have anything to do with the shutdown, or the battles over the debt ceiling, or Obamacare. In fact, the accepted view that politically based redistricting led to our state of intransigence isn’t just incorrect; it’s silly. The real reason for our increasingly divided political system is much simpler: The right wing of the Republican Party has embraced a fundamentalist version of free-market capitalism and succeeded in winning elections. (The Democrats have moved to the left, but less so.)"

  tags: gerrymandering politics teabaggers unitedstates republicans democrats

• Republican Pushes New Bill to Authorize War With Iran | The Cable

  " A new bill authorizing a U.S. military strike against Iran is set to drop in Congress on Thursday -- just days after leaders in Washington and Tehran began talking openly after three decades of silence. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), is currently being shopped around to various House offices this week in search of a co-sponsor, The Cable has learned. Besides providing President Obama with "all options" to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapons capability, the bill ticks off a list of grievances with the Islamic state dating back 30 years on everything from verbal threats to nuclear enrichment violations."

  tags: congress republicans iran israel lobby

• New UAE regulations for property valuations - ArabianBusiness.com

  "Property valuers in the UAE are set to be regulated under a new scheme designed to deliver transparency and boost investor confidence in the property market. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) announced Monday that their UAE members will adopt increased levels of regulation to ensure property valuations by their members adhered to the strictest international standards."

  tags: uae marina dubai property regulations

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.