And Now the News with Kandy Korrespondent!The Group of Eight (G8) summit is taking place this week on the Japanese island of Hokkaido. The meeting originally was to center around the issue of climate, but was changed due to surging food and oil prices.

The intensity of the global situation has turned this island paradise into a police state. Japan has spent $280 million on security, surrounding the summit venue with a human blockade of 21,000 riot police. Despite the wide security perimeters, protesters began to gather on Saturday with many more expected to arrive during the week.

Meanwhile in Malaysia, leaders of the world’s largest Islamic nations gathered for their annual “D8” summit to discuss global inflation. The D8 is a reaction against the exclusive nature of the G8 summit. Read More »

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 »

In my last article I discussed China’s legacy of human rights abuses up to on July 14, 2001, when the Olympic Committee agreed to have Beijing be the sight for the 2008 Summer Olympics

Following that decision, German Interior Minister Otto Schily stated, “I am convinced that the Olympic games will have a positive effect on China’s democratic development.”

My dearest Otto, sorry to disappoint you, if anything, preparations for the Olympics are only increasing human rights violations in China.

In my last article, I introduced Freedom House’s measures of democratic freedom as a tool of comparative politics. (based on a 7 point scale with 7 being totalitarian and 1 signifying fully democratic) This measure is also a helpful tool when looking at a single state’s record over the course of several years.

China’s Freedom House ranking in 2001, was 7 for Political Rights and 6 for Civil Liberties, in 2008 it remains the same.

In 2007, moreover, in an effort to stabilize Chinese society, the country’s restrictions against media were tightened and human rights activists, civil rights lawyers, and other dissidents were detained. Read More »

You know when you walk into your dorm room and get a little skeeved out because it’s like, real obvious someone just had sex in there?

Well, apparently, there are people who want that slight but noticeable smell around them at all times.

Vulva Original (I’m not joking) is one of the newest sexual oddities to hit the market.

Its developers insist Vulva “is not a perfume”. Instead, they describe their product as “a beguiling vaginal scent which is purely a substance for your own smelling pleasure.”

Ew.

Developed in Germany, where a “research team” is working on complimenting the original scent with two new smells, “Exotic” and “Eighteen” (I mean, Jesus!).

Vulva Original doesn’t have much media surrounding it besides an explicit website with lots of vague references to sex. Read More »

Ha ha!

Tom Cruise is supposed to be filming this movie right now over in Germany, playing a guy named Claus von Stauffenberg. The movie is supposed to be about a plot to kill Adolf Hitler and Tom’s character is supposed to be the leader of the unsuccessful attempt to assassinate the Nazi dictator in 1944 with a hidden bomb.

Yea, this was supposed to be happening….

Not anymore!

Reuters reports the movie has been BANNED BY GERMANY. An entire freaking country has put its foot down, not because of what the movie stands for - but because of Mr. Scientology himself.

The German government doesn’t recognize Scientology as a church, saying “it masquerades as a religion to make money.” Therefore, if film makers officially ask to shoot in Germany, they “will not be allowed to film at German military sites if Count Stauffenberg is played by Tom Cruise, who has publicly professed to being a member of the Scientology cult”.

Oh man. This is funny. See what happens when you think you’re such a hot shot that you can go off on crazy tangents, piss off and offend people with your cult-like popularity? You get shot down from doing what you’re supposed to be doing in the first place - ACTING.

Tom Cruise is nuts.

What do you think about Tom Cruise?