Tea party convergence: Big boost for Republicans in Election 2010 - Christian Science Monitor

It’s still three weeks and a couple days before the midterm election. But the likelihood of a Republican takeover in Congress just keeps growing, powered by a major boost from the tea party movement – a political phenomenon that has evolved from a scattered and sometimes flaky insurgency into a sophisticated, organized effort.

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In his latest estimate, polling expert Nate Silver of the FiveThirtyEight blog says Republicans have a 72 percent chance of taking over the House, up from 67 percent last week. Also, he writes in his latest New York Times column, the GOP has “nearly even odds of a achieving a net gain of 50 seats” – 11 more than it needs to become the majority party in the House.

No doubt that’s thanks in large measure to the higher level of preelection energy among tea-fueled Republicans.

IN PICTURES: Tea parties

The latest survey conducted jointly by the Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard University shows why.

“On every measure, strong supporters of the tea party movement stand above the rest of the field,” writes Dan Balz in the Post.

“For starters, take the question of whether people are very interested in these elections,” Balz writes. “Forty-three percent of Democrats said they are. Among Republicans, 57 percent said they're very interested. Among tea party supporters the figure was 74 percent, and among the strongest tea party supporters it was 83 percent.”

While the Republican Party has had its run-ins with tea partyers – most notably in GOP primaries where establishment candidates got whacked – the Washington Post-Kaiser-Harvard poll shows a large majority of tea party supporters favoring a GOP takeover of Congress.

Meanwhile, what probably should have been called the “tea parties” – over the past year there have been many disparate and sometimes contending groups – are becoming more organized and unified as the election approaches.

In Virginia, for example, groups from around the state have formed a federation called “Virginia Tea Party Patriots.” The group just held a two-day convention in Richmond.

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China detains Nobel Peace Prize winner's wife: U.S. rights group - Reuters

Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo and his wife Liu Xia pose in this undated photo released by his family on October 3, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Handout

By Susan Heavey

WASHINGTON | Sun Oct 10, 2010 12:59pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chinese authorities are detaining the wife of jailed Chinese dissident and Nobel Peace Price laureate Liu Xiaobo at her Beijing apartment, a U.S. human rights group said on Sunday.

In a statement, Freedom Now said that Liu Xia has not been charged with a crime but has not been allowed to leave her home or use her mobile telephone after visiting her husband in jail to tell him about his award.

When he heard the news, Liu Xiaobo cried and said the Nobel "award is for the Tiananmen martyrs," according to the Washington-based group, which said it represents the Chinese dissident. The group works worldwide for the release prisoners of conscience and provides free legal counsel.

Freedom Now lawyer and spokeswoman Beth Schwanke said one of the group's human rights specialists, Yang Jianli, obtained news of Liu Xia's detention from a source in China they could not name over fears that the informant would also be detained.

"Liu Xia is under enormous pressure," said Jianli, who the group said is currently in Taiwan.

Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for two decades of non-violent struggle over human rights, infuriating China, which called the award "an obscenity.

The prize shines a spotlight on human rights in China at a time when it is starting to play a leading role on the global stage as a result of its growing economic might.

Liu has been in and out of jail since 1989, when he joined student protesters on a hunger strike days before the army crushed the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement. He was jailed for 11 years in December for subversion of state power.

Liu Xia said on Friday she was being taken to visit her husband in jail but that police were preventing her from talking to reporters.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Anthony Boadle)

I condemn the incarceration of Mr. Liu Xiaobo and his wife. Even more strongly I condemn the treatment of Guantanamo Bay victims, the occupation Australia & Canada and extermination of their aboriginal population.
Every country has its laws. You shouldn’t preach what you don’t practise.
We need China for the right balance of power in this world (instead of Al-Qaeda)

gsuomi Report As Abusive

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Facebook Groups Prank Shows Problem with Default Opt-In - PC World

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Practical IT insight from Tony Bradley » More Net Work » RSS » All Blogs Security October 08, 2010 12:53 PMFacebook Groups Prank Shows Problem with Default Opt-In More… Facebook Twitter Digg Print By Tony Bradley, PCWorld

Facebook held a major press event this week to introduce some significant changes to the site, including Facebook Groups. While the intent of Facebook Groups is to enhance privacy and provide users with more control over how information is shared, the implementation of the concept leaves a little to be desired.

People who read this also read:Facebook's New Groups: 5 Things You Need To KnowNew Facebook Groups: 5 Key FactsFacebook’s Promising, Infuriating New Groups FeatureFacebook Ads: Success Secrets From a Facebook InsiderHas Facebook Finally Figured Out Privacy?New Facebook Features: Prepare for More Cliques

Chet Wisniewski, a senior security advisor with Sophos, describes the problem in a blog post. "Facebook's newly announced groups feature may not be the boon for privacy some have predicted. Although only a small percentage of Facebook's users are upgraded to the new features it would appear people are exploring the possibilities in a rather aggressive way."

Wisniewski goes on to explain, "The problem of course is that you can create a group with any name you want, and add any friends you want without any confirmation that they wish to be a member of said group. It would seem obvious that this is a terrible idea because when you are added to a group it will post a status update saying you joined it... And it didn't take long before someone used it on Zuck."

What Wisniewski is referring to is that someone set up a Facebook Group for NAMBLA--the pro-pedophile North American Man Boy Love Association--and added TechCrunch's Michael Arrington to it. Arrington, appreciating the irony of the prank, then paid it forward by adding Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. If Zuckerberg and the Facebook team didn't understand the issue before, this prank should be a poignant example of the problem with default opt-in and no approval or confirmation process.

The Facebook Help Center answers the question "Can I Prevent People From Adding Me to a New Group?" with the following: "The functionality of approving a group membership is not available. Similar to being tagged in a photo, you can only be added to a group by one of your friends. When a friend adds you to a group, a story in the group (and in News Feed for Open or Closed groups) will indicate that your friend has added you to a group."

However, once you have been added to a group, you can remove yourself from that group, and once you remove yourself from a group you can't be added to that same group again by any of your Facebook friends.

Wisniewski laments, "There doesn't seem to be a way to opt-out of this feature, although you are notified if you are logged into Facebook. As usual it would appear the ability to connect trumps your ability to decide what should be done with your identity when it comes to Facebook."

And, as usual Facebook's good intentions are thwarted by default opt-in. The underlying concept of Facebook Groups is solid, and I think once the dust settles on this initial launch that it will be successful in meeting the objective Facebook designed it for. But, Facebook should always set up features with assumed privacy and put the ball in the user's court to consciously opt-in to share information.

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Facebook Groups Prank Shows Problem with Default Opt-InI assume Mark Zuckerberg isn't really a member of NAMBLA, but the prank of adding him without his consent is a poignant example of what's wrong with Facebook Groups.

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