Starting from stratch

[Storebrand]

I started watching Sarah Palin addressing the Tea Party National Convention and I realized I need to start giving a damn about US politics outside of the topics that affect my job.  Where should I start, assuming I know absolutely nothing about politics?  Seriously, I'm starting from scratch.  I'd prefer websites but I'm willing to invest in books.  I don't really watch television but I have one if there are any programs I should look into.

[Requia ☣]

Read everything Cain has written on this site, then coax the names of his various blogs out of him.

[BabylonHoruv]

my personal favorite political website is http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/  However he's not likely to say much about Sarah Palin.

[Storebrand]

I don't particularly care about Sarah Pallin.  When I was listening to her I couldn't believe that was the sort of shit people were eating up.  I have been reading a lot of Cain's posts, Alamut, and a lot of stuff in Aneristic Delusions.  I started poking around on the internet and it's looking more and more like there is no easy way to start, just jump in.  Keep the suggestions coming, please, and thanks, BabylonHoruv.

[Triple Zero]

Read everything Cain has written on this site, then coax the names of his various blogs out of him.

Also, be sure to read the sources and check up on some stuff yourself. Not to discredit Cain's writings, it is the top notch of the best, but nobody is perfect, this is still one man's view and analysis on a subject, and it just helps your Think For Yourself muscles to do so.

But it's a good starting point. Also, the names of the blogs are linked in his blogroll on the Alamut blog, as well as various "good links" threads.

[Captain Utopia]

There's a new election cycle coming up for the midterms this fall.  And if the demon sheep are anything to go by, it could be quite amusing.  But the point is that this is when the most effort is made to control messages and steal the headlines/bury unfavourable stories. It's a great time to analyse what tools and techniques are commonly used in political strategy - what does private polling indicate will resonate with the most minds?

For example, during the 2008 US general election, fear of an inexperienced leader at the helm was a big item - the 3am phonecall was a problem for Obama which he weathered pretty well, but it came back to haunt Palin.

But there will probably be a couple of high-profile races which will generate the most news - if you want to get a feel for how masses react to topics/themes - I don't think there is a better way than to follow those.  One thing though - acquaint yourself with the partisan vapidity which is the comments section on political websites, but I wouldn't waste any time actually reading them.

[hirley0]

I started watching Sarah Palin addressing the Tea Party National Convention and I realized I need to start giving a damn about US politics outside of the topics that affect my job.  Where should I start, assuming I know absolutely nothing about politics?  Seriously, I'm starting from scratch.  I'd prefer websites but I'm willing to invest in books.  I don't really watch television but I have one if there are any programs I should look into.

http://dirtyconfessional.com/

so did  U
A. ReUp

B. decide to get Out

C. decide to Join the Marines for  4

[Storebrand]

I started watching Sarah Palin addressing the Tea Party National Convention and I realized I need to start giving a damn about US politics outside of the topics that affect my job.  Where should I start, assuming I know absolutely nothing about politics?  Seriously, I'm starting from scratch.  I'd prefer websites but I'm willing to invest in books.  I don't really watch television but I have one if there are any programs I should look into.

http://dirtyconfessional.com/

that's not exactly what I meant.

so did  U
A. ReUp

B. decide to get Out

C. decide to Join the Marines for  4

B?  kind of.  I still have 2+ years left on my contract(6yr).  I talked to my flight commander.  She's working with my office to let me take college classes during the day and work in the afternoon/night.  I'm just a handful of  credit hours shy of my AA in Mandarin.  If I transfer all the college credit from my pre-military foray and take a couple clept tests I should be able to get an engineering degree while still in without having to extend or re-up. 

[Cain]

I tried to upload 225MB of political books, but the upload just failed for unspecified reasons, which is annoying as hell (especially since it was just at 90%).  The collection was split into three parts, general political theory (I'm assuming nothing, and starting with the very basics), contemporary political books, dealing with things like the Iraq War, Movement Conservatism, religious fundamentalism and the like, and some history books, because history is useful for understanding politics, even if not always directly applicable.

In the meantime though, here are some sites:

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/ - American foreign policy, from a sane (if relatively mainstream) point of view.

http://www.stiftungleostrauss.com/bunker/ - a former, fairly high ranking Republican foreign affairs strategist, attempting to salvage American liberal democracy from the Neocons and Movement Conservatism

http://www.amconmag.com/larison/ - one of the remaining sane conservatives (though don't trust his accuracy on the Kosovo intervention)

http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/ - former British ambassador and whisteblower about torture being used in Uzbekistan to gather intelligence for MI6 and the CIA.  Blogs about the British and American foreign policy and intelligence establishment and geopolitics

http://intelligencenews.wordpress.com/ - news from the world of intelligence

http://www.atimes.com/ - the Asia Times is pretty useful, if you want to understand SE Asia, the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia and the Middle East

http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/ - America's best reporter on far-right fundamentalism and extremism

http://www.sadlyno.com - ignore the humour posts, and read everything "HTML Mencken" has posted.  Very insightful on the topic of Neoconservatism

http://cryptogon.com/ - ignore the more crackpot posts about vaccines and mass kill offs, as well as anything that links to the Daily Mail and Prison Planet, and this is the best news site out there

http://trueslant.com/matttaibbi/ - the last gonzo reporter in America

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/index.html - the last constitutionalist in America

http://www.opendemocracy.net/ - intelligent and thought-provoking articles on global politics

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/ - the economy is STILL fucked.  Yves and co explain exactly how and why.

http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/ and http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/johnrobb/ - required reading on complexity, resilience and the future of warfare.

http://world.std.com/~mhuben/libindex.html - some critiques of Libertarianism, if you want some

[Storebrand]

Awesome.  Thank you.

[Cain]

Ugh, my power cut out while uploading, so yet again it did not complete.

Here is part one, though you might need both other parts to extract them properly.  I'll try and get those done either tonight or tomorrow morning.

http://ifile.it/mrinuwx

[Cain]

And part two http://ifile.it/2kps4i1

[Cain]

And the final part http://ifile.it/qd6ek8n

Suggested reading from the General Political Theory folder:

The Prince (I read this about once every six months, it is pretty short, but you may need some Renaissance and classical history to get all the references Machiavelli makes.  Pretty much everyone in politics ever has read this, so its essential)

The Encyclopedia of Politics.  To grasp what the left-right distinction generally means.

Fifty Major Political Thinkers.  This is a 200 page crash course in political philosophy from Plato to the present.

Suggested reading from the Recent Events folder:

The Family (2008).  Elite fundamentalism at the heart of American politics exposed.

America at the Crossroads.  Fukuyama, a former Neocon, recants, and explains how horribly wrong everything has gone.

Smells Like Dead Elephants.  Matt Taibbi explains how the Republic is fucked.

[Captain Utopia]

Cain, you make it sound just as if you can't just watch msnbc for a few months and read the huffington post in order to form an equally valid perspective 

Thanks for the links and books though!

[Cain]

The only valid perspective that can be gained from reading the HuffPo is that Arianna Huffington and her internet gang are a bunch of libtarded narcissists, whose political thinking is, apart from a few guys (Leon Hadar, Ian Welsh), roughly on a level with Youtube comments.