Over on Liberal Conspiracy there has been an at times hostile debate surrounding feminism due to the claims of Sarah Palin, Republican VP Nominee, that she is one. Why is this controversial, and why has it started any such debate? Firstly she is someone that believes abortion is a sin, and would appear to wish to ban abortions from taking place in the US if she had her way. This provoked Laurie Penny to claim rather audaciously yet innocently that you cannot be a feminist if you oppose choice (with regards to abortion rights). Needless to say I disagreed, and a lot of cussing and hostile feminist verbatim later the debate hasn't moved on. Why not? Well it's because, as I have perhaps only more recently realised, that the debate is fairly irrelevant to feminism and wholly relevant to liberalism.

I'm not as much of a critic of libel law as other bloggers, Unity in particular, however the one area that does annoy me is the necessity to lay down threats of legal action at the doors of people before they have been able to prove one way or another if what they've said is libelous.

In this case Dave Walker, of several sites, has had to take down content spanning what appears to be several years to comply with a legal threat by Mark Brewer's company, a company which now owns a book chain called SPCK. More over there seems to be a little bit of shadiness going on as Unity uncovers, with the company in particular seeking bankruptcy protection in the US.

...She would be required to close up shop and tell everyone to go home. I'm going out slightly on a limb, like many others, by predicting the end of her bid to become the Democratic nominee in all but name. The reason for this though isn't because of her more vindictive than ever attitude but because the people simply don't care for her now they've seen both sides of both arguments.

Latest polls are obviously starting to come in with more and more important data looking towards next weeks make or break primary session for the Democrats, and as I wrote earlier on this blog, the data has been looking worse and worse for Hillary. Just to remind you before you read on, Clinton really needs to win around 150 delegates from Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania...though ideally from Texas and Ohio alone to give her campaign a much needed boost. To do this she will have to win these large states by around 40 percentage points.

The news for today will start off with some positive idea making by Labour MP Frank Field, not really through any effort of his own but by seeing the effect of the US Primaries on America and the rest of the world and wanting to emulate it. Is this the sort of thing we need in this country, will it solve any of our electoral issues, and would it ever have the same kind of esteem that the US version commands?

So Obama has won Hawaii and Wisconsin as predicted, and come the end of the counting he should be at least 150 delegates ahead of Clinton leading in to the next big day of primaries. This is almost certainly the end of the road for his streak, as impressive as it's been, and I feel it's done some big damage to Clinton's campaign which are now seeing slumps in the polls in even the states thought to be safely big wins for her. Ultimately though the next two months are going to be about Clinton and her regaining the ground on the upstart. Unfortunately for Clinton I think that will ultimately play in to his underdog status that he enjoys come May.

Politalks 4 is now up! This week we look at terrorism and how torture fits in with that particular problem, in particular George Bush's views on waterboarding. There is also a look at interesting ideas such as soldiers becoming teachers and frankly bizarre educational policy. The big stuff is at the end though, where we let those of you out of the loop know who the sexiest MP of them all is, afraid we have no news on what they'll be wearing to the ball. Video below, transcript even further down, right at the bottom we even have a roundup of the links we took in to consideration when making this

Not work safe unless you have headphones, enjoy!

Just a quick one, but I wanted to blow my own trumpet and brag about how how right I was about where the Democratic race is going. I'm now more sure than before that the next two states of any meaning will also go to Obama with polls on the rise for him. After that is Texas and Ohio. Quite simply put, Hillary has to win both of these states by about 70% to 30% to stay in the race. Even winning by that margin will likely not put her back in the lead with pledged delegates, though perhaps for overall delegates, but it could stay her execution enough to be able to fight Pennsylvania which is the last big state. In short she needs roughly 100 delegates from these two states just to stay on the pace and give her campaign a boost, and then an emphatic victory in Pennsylvania. Even then it may not be enough.

If Obama does as well in Texas as people are rumouring, or if he cuts in to what is a significant margin of support for Clinton in Ohio, then I have to concur with others around the web that are suggesting that the first primaries of March could be Clinton's curtain call.

It is clear that after tonight Barack Obama will be making strides in to the lead with pledged candidate numbers. He is currently projected to win the Washington and Nebraska caucuses, and exit polls suggest an easy victory in Louisiana is on the way. I was very disappointed with just how many people have tried to suggest that Hillary Clinton is still the person to beat after Super Tuesday, it was very clearly a draw on the night however it is the fact that Obama had come from such a huge margin behind the favourite Clinton that made him able to claim the biggest moral victory. How much longer will those that clearly don't want an Obama victory be able to deny where the feeling of the US, and the world, is going?

In the shadow of the current UK political climate, with civil liberties being increasingly infringed and power being shifted towards those that don't deserve it while they claim they're devolving it to us, it's nice to actually see some kind of positive politics...even if it is over the pond in the US of A. The night is not quite over but the results seem to be that McCain has generally, though not convincingly, won the night for the Republicans, while Huckabee is the most improved candidate with Romney letting his pace drop. For the Democrats it will be described as a draw, and depending on how it's spun it's a close points victory for Obama.

News has just broken that John Edwards is quitting his campaign to become president of the USA. This is a very interesting move as it now leaves only Obama and Clinton as the remaining runners and people will want to know how Edwards is going to side when it comes to his previous competitors.