It’s news time with your Kandy Korrespondent!

First off here’s the latest Candidate Candy:

Democratic Party Chairman, Howard Dean (whose infamous scream ended his nomination bid four years ago), warned that a prolonged Clinton-Obama battle has the potential to hurt the party’s chances against John McCain in November’s presidential election.

Meanwhile both campaigns continued their struggle on Monday to derail the others’ lead. In North Carolina, Barack Obama sought to spread his magnetism to working-class voters—who throughout the primaries have remained solidly in Hilary’s camp. He told a rally that he was going to take their questions rather than give them another party speech. “I want you to be able to lift the hood, and kick the tires, you know, take me out for a test drive a little bit”

Senator Clinton got a boost on Monday night when a new AP poll placed her leading John McCain by 9 points.

The next democratic primaries will occur on May 6th in North Carolina, and Indiana.
It takes 2,024 delegates to capture the democratic nomination but as it stands now, neither candidate could capture that many from the remaining primaries.

In Other News: Read More »

When Raul Castro replaced his brother Fidel as leader of Cuba last month, President Bush took a predictably cynical perspective. In a March 7th press conference he stated that,

“So far, all Cuba has done is replace one dictator with another. And its former ruler is still influencing events from behind the scenes. This is the same system, the same faces, and the same policies that led Cuba to its miseries in the first place.”

Well Mr. Bush, here’s a newsflash for you — if Mariela Castro, Raul’s daughter, has her way, Cuban transsexuals and gays will have more documented rights than any other Latin American country. Moreover, despite the overall human rights abusing nature of the regime, the bill will allow transsexuals and gays more equality and options than what is offered in the US.

According to the BBC, under the bill, same-sex unions and inheritance rights would be recognized. Transsexuals would have the right to free sex-change operations and switch the gender on their ID cards, with or without surgery.

Let’s compare this proposal to current US policies shall we? Read More »

The much-touted Beijing Olympics more and more seem like an awful nightmare amidst the continuing Human rights fallout. This is the first of three articles examining China’s Human Rights Record.

Visit Beijing—What do you see?
Skyscrapers
Fashion (America’s Next Top Model filmed their last season there)
Entrepreneurs
Money, Money, MONEY!!!

Stand in the middle of the city and you could be in New York, Tokyo, Berlin, or Sydney.

This is not your parent’s China…or is it?

Your parent’s China was ruled by the infamous Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Communist People’s Party. As you probably remember from your Cold War history, Mao’s China, like Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia, flagrantly violated human rights.

Chairman Mao’s death in 1976 ushered in a slow yet steady drive towards economic reform that many hoped would correspond to political reform as well.

Events on June 4, 1989 shattered such hopes. Read More »

At today’s presidential press conference President Bush urged the House to pass the Terrorist Surveillance Bill (FISA) which will allow surveillance of foreigners without a warrant. The bill’s progress has been stalled due to the controversial clause giving immunity to phone companies from wiretapping-related lawsuits.

When asked about the concerns of the American people, President Bush fell back upon his stand-by argument–The Enemy! stating:

“How can you listen to the enemy if the phone companies won’t participate with you” for fear of lawsuits? He went on to state that companies have a duty to their shareholders.

Oh right…the shareholders. Of course their financial protection is more important than the Presidential Oath.

The President also made it clear he will hold firm to his current foreign policy trajectory.

In regards to Raul Castro, President Bush made it clear that despite the power shift in Cuba, he will not meet with the new leader nor will he consider changing the embargo.

According to the President, meeting with the new leader of Cuba will detract from the power of the current American position:

“Sitting down at the table… lends the status of the office and the status of our country to him, he [Raul Castro] gains a lot from it…” Read More »

As you may have heard by now, the big news this week is Fidel Castro’s resignation as leader of Cuba. Castro has been in power since 1959 (we’ve had ten presidents since then!), and many thought he would continue to rule until he passed away, rather than ever resigning.

America has cut off all contact with Cuba since Castro’s rise to power, which means his announcement is a huge turning point for a country that once almost brought us to the brink of nuclear war with the Soviet Union.

Beginning in 1953, Castro led a guerrilla movement against the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, who at the time was using violence to suppress a rapidly-growing resistance made up primarily of students and other middle and upper class Cubans. Batista had begun to suspend certain constitutional rights and censor the media, even closing the strongly anti-Batista University of Havana in 1956. Read More »