Politics

Late last night, the Senate passed the Victims of Iranian Censorship (VOICE) Act. Nico links to the presser just co-released by a number of senators, including leads McCain, Liberman and Graham, Casey, Kaufman and others. Important bits: • Authorizes $30 million to the Broadcasting Board of Governors to expand Farsi language broadcasting into Iran by Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty’s Radio Farda and the Voice of America’s Persian News Network. The funds may be used to develop additional transmission…

Back in 2006, a group of wacky Swedes founded the Piratpartiet, which is exactly what it sounds like, the Pirate Party. The party’s main platform revolves around copyright and other intellectual property reform. Remember those crazy kids at the Pirate Bay trial in Sweden earlier this year? Right after the trial, membership in the Piratpartiet surged to over 30,000 members. Today, there are nearly 50,000 members. While this may have been laughable earlier this year, just a few weeks ago…

“[This map uses] a color scale that ranges from red for 70% Republican or more, to blue for 70% Democrat or more. This is sort of practical, since there aren’t many counties outside that range anyway, but to some extent it also obscures the true balance of red and blue. ” By: Mark Newman Department of Physics and Center for the Study of Complex Systems University of Michigan [via Ethan Zuckerman]

Happy voting! We’ll be up late over here in France watching results online, streaming NPR and on French TV. Anyone want to call us, use the SkypeIn number. First polls close at 12 am Wednesday morning France time (that’s 6 pm Eastern) — but we may not have to stay up as late as we’d thought. Either way, I think it’s pretty clear who I voted for.

Slate: In the ’80s, a basketball standout nicknamed “Sarah Barracuda” gamely stepped onto the court despite a stress fracture, determined to lead Wasilla High School to a state championship. That Barracuda was Sarah Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president (according to her Wikipedia page). McCain’s pick of Palin means a fifth presidential/vice presidential debate should be added to the calendar. A cross-ticket game of horse between Barack Obama and Sarah Palin. Obama has the upper hand because he plays…

When your state governor gets tapped as VP by a major political party, here’s two suggestions for your news coverage: 1) It helps to spell the name of the presidential candidate correctly: Several national news media are reporting that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been chosen by Sen. John McClain to be his vice presidential running mate. That’s especially true when you spell his name properly the eight following times. (Update: They fixed the error.) 2) Also, I understand that…

The New Yorker: Chicago is not Obama’s home town, but it’s where he chose to forge his identity. Several weeks ago, he moved many of the Democratic National Committee’s operations from Washington to Chicago, making the city the unofficial capital of the Democratic Party; his campaign headquarters are in an office building in the Loop, Chicago’s downtown business district. But Chicago, with its reputation as a center of vicious and corrupt politics, may also be the place that Obama needs…

WashPost: The first time Hillary Clinton called, Heather Mizeur didn’t pick up. Listening to the message, she heard Clinton’s voice and assumed it was a campaign robo-call. But then the New York senator and Democratic presidential candidate asked Mizeur to call back — and left her personal cellphone number. In the weeks that followed, Mizeur’s iPhone was besieged. Chelsea Clinton, Bill Clinton and Terry McAuliffe called to check in. So did Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), three…

AP: Obama sealed his victory based on public declarations from delegates as well as from an additional 16 who have confirmed their intentions to the AP. The count also included 11 delegates Obama was guaranteed as long as he gained 30 percent of the vote in South Dakota and Montana later in the day. It takes 2,118 delegates to clinch the nomination. Clinton stood ready to concede that her rival had amassed the delegates needed to triumph, according to officials…