Biden seeks to reclaim campaign momentum in debate with Ryan

SLIDE SHOW (10)

By John Whitesides – Mitt Romney‘s steady climb in polls since President Barack Obama’s poor performance in last week’s first debate has raised the importance of the vice presidential showdown, which is rarely a critical event in White House campaigns.

“This has turned into a legitimate high-stakes debate because the ground has shifted so profoundly on the Democrats,” said Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Texas. more> http://tinyurl.com/9s9w7lb

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British Conservatives: Not Very Conservative By U.S. Standards

By Catherine Mayer – German bombs are not once more falling on Birmingham, the U.K.’s second city, violently reconfigured by the Luftwaffe during World War II, but Europe’s turbulence is waging a Blitzkrieg on Britain’s economy.

Prime Minister David Cameron channeled his country’s wartime premier Winston Churchillas he took to the stage to give the leader’s speech. He was somber. He wore a funereal black suit and purple tie and stood stock still at the lectern, eschewing the shirt-sleeved, note-free, podium-pacing informality that had won him plaudits at earlier party conferences. Despite the IMF’s warning that pressing on with planned budget cuts might further stifle growth, Cameron signaled his determination to continue with deficit reduction policies he believes essential to restore British competitiveness.

“The truth is this,” he intoned. “We are in a global race today and that means an hour of reckoning for countries like us.” more> http://tinyurl.com/9vkzdxq

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ITU proposals threaten Internet freedom and access

By Catherine Hart – As the International Telecommunication Union’s December negotiations move closer, more worrying developments are coming to light. We recently posted about some of the main concerns raised by the secretive negotiations, which threaten to change the Internet as we know it.

This week a report (pdf) by Rohan Samarajiva at LIRNEasia confirmed these concerns. Looking at the ‘ETNO’ proposals, and the more complex and insidious shift in definitions proposed by Egypt on behalf of the Africa Region.

ETNO proposals would designate content providers as “call originators” who would have to pay Big Telecom a rate based on how much bandwidth the content uses. more> http://tinyurl.com/8vbqzxn

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