Russia Today reports on the falsification and dramatization of war video from Syria, including raw footage of Anderson Cooper’s favorite “Danny the Activist” requesting background gunfire and sound effects before a live shot on CNN’s AC360. 

The Language of Persuasion #3 see more of the Language of Persuasion
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The Language of Persuasion #3

see more of the Language of Persuasion

Ten Things You Didn't Know about the Syrian "Revolution"

1 - It’s Not Popular

Western media may portray this uprising as the next big thing. We’ve seen millions come out in Tunisia and Egypt but have you seen millions come out in Syria? When was the last time you saw a protest on large scale filming. Don’t you think it’s a little ironic that they zoom in on signs, on people and film from the back?

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If you talk to me like that, there will be no Qatar.
statement attributed to Vitaly Churkin, ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, responding to a threat by the Emir of Qatar that Russia should not veto a Security Council resolution concerning events in Syria
October is a busy month in the world elections calendar with balloting taking place, or scheduled, in Tunisia, Liberia, Mauritania, Cameroon, Bulgaria, Kyrgyzstan and the Seychelles. We visit the “Parliamentary Powers Index”, a comparative ranking conducted in M. Steven Fish and Matthew Kroenig’s 2009 text The Handbook of National Legislatures: A Global Survey. According to the Handbook, the world’s most powerful legislature is Germany’s Bundestag, while the world’s least powerful is Somalia’s Transitional Federal Council. The index assigns each legislative body a score of 0.0 to 1.0 based on the percent of powers constitutionally granted to it from a list of 32 common powers, including: immunity from dissolution, necessity for legislative ratification of treaties, the absence of decree-making power by the executive, etc. Higher scores are not considered inherently “good”, they serve only as measures of parliamentary power relative to other agencies of governance and the body politic. For instance, a legislature will score higher if statutes enacted by it are immune from judicial review, even though such a restraint is widely considered positive. Further, the index only assesses the constitutionally prescribed parliamentary powers and does not attempt a subjective evaluation of political realities.
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October is a busy month in the world elections calendar with balloting taking place, or scheduled, in Tunisia, Liberia, Mauritania, Cameroon, Bulgaria, Kyrgyzstan and the Seychelles. We visit the “Parliamentary Powers Index”, a comparative ranking conducted in M. Steven Fish and Matthew Kroenig’s 2009 text The Handbook of National Legislatures: A Global Survey.

According to the Handbook, the world’s most powerful legislature is Germany’s Bundestag, while the world’s least powerful is Somalia’s Transitional Federal Council. The index assigns each legislative body a score of 0.0 to 1.0 based on the percent of powers constitutionally granted to it from a list of 32 common powers, including: immunity from dissolution, necessity for legislative ratification of treaties, the absence of decree-making power by the executive, etc.

Higher scores are not considered inherently “good”, they serve only as measures of parliamentary power relative to other agencies of governance and the body politic. For instance, a legislature will score higher if statutes enacted by it are immune from judicial review, even though such a restraint is widely considered positive. Further, the index only assesses the constitutionally prescribed parliamentary powers and does not attempt a subjective evaluation of political realities.