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The Election Commissions move to cancel the RK Nagar bypoll following evidence of large-scale bribery in the constituency has not gone down well with some contenders, with AIADMKs Sasikala faction candidate TTV Dinakaran terming it a murder of democracy.

Cancelling the April 12 bypoll to RK Nagar is a major mistake. It is a murder of democracy, Dinakaran said on Twitter late on Sunday night.

This is a wrong decision. Even the Election Commission does not want me to win. They can delay but cant deny, Dinakaran, whose faction is alleged to have distributed Rs 89.5 crore to entice voters in late chief minister J Jayalalithaas seat, said.

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The poll panel cancelled the bye-election, stating that the steps they had taken to curb malpractice had failed, and the voting had to be postponed after I-T raids at Tamil Nadu health minister Vijaya Bhaskars house procured evidence of large-scale bribery.

The top leaderships of the parties cannot feign ignorance about such illegal activities indulged in by the candidates and the managers appointed by their parties to oversee the election campaign of their candidates.

It asked the parties to exert moral influence in the matter, but did not give a new date for holding the election.

Though Vijaya Bhaskar was named as an aide to bribery, it remains unclear whether the EC will attempt to arrest or charge the minister, who enjoys his current position thanks to his loyalty to jailed AIADMK leader VK Sasikala.

DMK working president MK Stalin called for a CBI probe against the ministers and politicians whose premises were raided on Friday by the I-T department, and demanded their removal.

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Sasikala camp terms RK Nagar bypoll cancellation 'murder of democracy' - Hindustan Times

One of the gravest structural problems in American democracy is gerrymandering, the practice of drawing voting districts in a way that creates unfair advantages to whoever happens to be drawing the line, says John Oliver.

The British comedian was referring specifically to partisan gerrymandering, which, unlike racial gerrymandering, is not illegal according to US laws. It is partly responsible for giving Republicans such an edge in the House of Representatives, says Oliver in yesterdays (April 9) episode of Last Week Tonight.

He notes, for example, that the number of Republicans elected in the states of Pennsylvania and Ohio are way out of proportion to popular-vote percentages. You wouldnt expect Neapolitan ice cream thats 70% strawberry. Thats not okay, he says.

In most US states, the drawing of congressional districts is essentially controlled by the legislators themselves. It means, as Oliver explains, a majority party can either cram as many as opposition voters as possible into just few districts, or spread them out thinly over a bunch of districts to dilute their impact. The so-called cracking and packing technique is more or less the same as table assignments at a wedding, Oliver says.

You can either break up your eight awful relatives and spread them out over different tables, or you can pack them all together in one insuperable table of the damned.

Congressional gerrymandering is a not-so-secret weapon for both Republicans and Democrats. As Oliver notes, when Republicans won the majority of state houses in 2010, they redrew the map in those states to ensure they could send more members to the House in 2012; in 2001 Democrats did the same after taking control of the states of Maryland and Illinois.

In a democracy, the question of who gets to draw the map should not have as much significance as it currently does, Oliver says. He notes that the US Supreme Court may limit for the first time (paywall) partisan gerrymandering in an upcoming ruling this year, and that there are calls for the establishment of independent commissions to draw legislative maps.

The foundation of democracy is built on the idea that everybodys vote should count equally whoever we are, however poor our decisions, says Oliver in an inspiring speech toward the end of his show, while inviting people including a Quidditch player, a Scientologist, a unicyclist, a baker of erotic pastries, and everyones racist grandma onto the stage.

Election results should not be the results of politicians crazy lines, he says. They should be the result of our own crazy decisions.

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John Oliver explains how gerrymandering, or politicians' crazy lines, hurts democracy - Quartz

Christophe Bouton, a philosophy professor at Montaigne University in Bordeaux, who wrote The Time of Urgency, says that democracy is threatened by a contemporary preoccupation with speed.

Here he answers AFPs questions about his theory:

Time as succession Q: What is time? Would a scientist, a philosopher, a pupil or a pensioner have the same definition?

A: The many philosophical and scientific approaches to the concept of time all agree on at least one point: he who speaks of time, speaks of succession.

The subjective experience of time which varies from one person to another, according to their mood, their age, their generation, the society and the era in which they live, etc does not challenge this idea of succession.

As the science fiction writer Ray Cummings said: Time is what keeps everything from happening at once.

Age-old problem, speeding up Q: Did the tyranny of speed, such as we see today, also affect the ancient world ?

A: Even if we find descriptions of urgent lifestyles in antiquity, by (Roman philosopher) Seneca for example, relating to certain members of the elite overwhelmed by responsibility (merchants, lawyers), this phenomenon took on a hitherto unseen scope in the western world starting in the late 18th century and above all in the industrial revolution in the 19th century, where the notion that history itself is speeding up emerges.

This feeling is due in part to quicker modes of transport, following improved means of communication.

Economic problem Q: At what point can we criticise speed ?

A: The problem in my view is not so much speed, as it is unbridled capitalism, which adopts ever more efficient methods of production and job organisation.

(This) has led to a prevailing ideology today of the advantages of speed, acceleration, and hyperactivity, which has resulted in the phenomena of hyperconnection and burn-out.

Another consequence is that the lack of time can result in citizens becoming less able physically and psychologically to deal with politics, which demands more and more time to be understood.

In this way, democracy, which requires spare time or what the ancients called skhole, is threatened by urgency.

Finding lost time Q: Who can escape this danger?

A: I do not believe much in individual solutions of withdrawal, which are a luxury that not everyone can afford.

The problem is systemic, so the solution must be collective and political. It is especially a matter of restoring political control over the economy.

To take just just one concrete case, recent, timid advances of the right to deconnection in France (the right not to answer work-related texts, emails, or phone calls outside working hours) show it is possible to pass laws that limit urgency at work.

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Philosopher says speed threatens democracy - Vanguard

At Miami college founded by Cubans exiled under communism, officials shut down pro-capitalism club

After granting the pro-capitalism club Turning Point USA tabling rights on campus last fall, administrators at St. Thomas University founded in 1961 by Augustinians expelled from Cuba by the communist Castro dictatorship have revoked that permission.

In an email obtained by The College Fix, Carmen Brown, an administrator at the Miami-based Catholic university, recently wrote to the clubs field director Driena Sixto that the organizations foul language does not align with the schools Catholic principles, thus they are prohibited from promoting their cause on campus.

In reviewing your organization, including its website, we found that your organizations use of foul language is offensive to the very principle of what we stand for in our Catholic core values as an institution. Therefore, we regret to inform you that we are not approving your organizations presence on our campus, Brown wrote in the March 16 email.

Brown did not respond when Sixto asked for clarification about the allegation, though Sixto told The Fix she believes the administration might have taken issue with TPUSAs slogans Big Government Sucks and Socialism Sucks. But when Sixto asked Brown specifically if this was the language to which she referred, she said Brown directed her to the schools lawyer, who also did not reply. Brown also did not respond to The College Fixs requests for comment.

Matt Lamb, director of campus integrity for Turning Point USA, called the administrations decision troubling.

The school invokes a broad opposition to foul language to keep a free-market, conservative group off of campus, Lamb told The Fix via email. The higher-ups in the school administration frequently dodged requests to speak with us, and then failed to keep their facts straight.

Sixto, who is not a student at the school but rather a field director that helps college students in the Miami area launch and maintain Turning Point USA chapters, shared a strongly worded email with The College Fix that she sent to St. Thomas students who had signed up to be a part of the group.

In an ironic turn of events, the school that was founded in 1961 by Augustinians that were expelled from Cuba by the communist Castro dictatorship is now a school where conservative values and freedom of expression are undesired, thanks to complaints of left-wing, and self-declared communist/socialist faculty members, Sixto wrote.

She also pointed out that Turning Point USA in fact stands for the same principles of limited government that the Catholic Archdiocese of Miami has invoked in their lawsuit against a government mandate, which forces employers to subsidize abortion-inducing contraceptives.

Whats more, TPUSA is the largest student group at Barry University, a Catholic University similar to St. Thomas and both schools receive funding from the Archdiocese of Miami, Sixto noted.

In a separate email she sent in mid-March to St. Thomas students, Sixto said she believes at the crux of the issue is professors who do not like the groups free-market message.

A couple of self-declared socialist professors on campus complained about having me on campus promoting capitalism and free markets, and apparently it triggered them enough to go complain and have me shut down. This is what socialists, communists and the left customarily do anywhere in the world, Sixto wrote. Since their ideas are so bad and go against the very concept of individual liberty and freedom they have a hard time selling it to others. Therefore the next step is to silence those who dont agree with them through censorship.

Nearly six universities over the last two years have refused club status to TPUSA, though the chapters have eventually overcome most of these fights with the help of free-speech supporting organizations such as the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

Lamb said he is hopeful that a similar outcome will be possible at St. Thomas. Sixto has implored the administration, university president, and the archdiocese of Miami to reconsider their decision.

We look forward to the university reconsidering their decision, Lamb said.

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About the Author

Kate Hardiman is a student at the University of Notre Dame majoring in the Program of Liberal Studies and minoring in the Philosophy, Political Science, and Economics (PPE) Program. She serves as campus editor of the Irish Roverand is a fellow of both the Constitutional Studies Department and Center for Ethics and Culture. She interned at The Hillin Washington D.C. for the summer of 2015 and has had articles published there, as well as onMinding the Campus.

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At Miami college founded by Cubans exiled under communism, officials shut down pro-capitalism club - The College Fix

In November 2014, current Mayoral candidate Manuel Medina was making headlines in SA media. Not because he was running for office at the time, but for an ad he took personal responsibility for creating and airing on Spanish-language television.

Mr. Medina was Chairman of the Bexar County Democrat Party, and he was looking for ways to help Democrat candidates locked in south Texas races.

As Express News writer Gilbert Garcia points out in this piece on Sunday November 2, 2014,

The Univision ad begins by showing the United States and Mexican flags waving next to each other, with a narrator saying, These two flags represent friendship, liberty, opportunity and justice.

That image is quickly replaced by the tea partys Dont Tread on Me banner.

This flag, the narrator warns us, is muy peligrosa (very dangerous).

Its the flag of the tea party Republicans. They are radical terrorists and they want to take matters into their own hands, affecting our children and families with violence and firearms on the border and in our cities.

Garcia continues,

Medina defended the ad which he created himself by saying, The tea party is not a political party. Theyre a terrorist organization.

On November 2, 2014 KSAT television quoted Medina as saying, They deserve to be called terrorists. Theyre acting like them, theyre dressing like them.

The final Mayoral debate will air at noon today on KTSA. Do you think this issue should come up?

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Does Manuel Medina Still Believe This About The Tea Party? - 550 KTSA