The Economist has an interesting post with an intriguing slideshow presentation on the evolving relationships in the US Senate. The graph, created by Andrew Odewahn, an information-design expert, maps the voting relationships in the US Senate since 1991.

Back in 1991-93, there were a surprising number of senators who constituted linked nodes between the main clouds of Republicans and Democrats. Howell Heflin, Richard Shelby, Bob Packwood, William Cohen, Mark Hatfield and Arlen Specter all had significant links across party lines, and it was still possible for Jesse Helms to be off in his own far-right world. Nowadays, it’s impossible to get far to the right of mainstream Republicans, because half of the Republicans are already there. By the 104th Congress, following the “Republican revolution” of 1994, the middle space was almost entirely unoccupied, and through the next three congresses only Jim Jeffords, Lincoln Chafee and Arlen Specter dared brave the chasm between the parties. In George Bush’s first term, following September 11th, bipartisanship again became an option, and cross-party links proliferated. But by the current Congress, things had gone back to the bad old days of the mid-90s: every single connection between the main clouds of the two parties now runs through Ben Nelson, Olympia Snowe or Susan Collins.

If this were a Facebook community, for the vast majority of either party, the legend next to any member of the other party would read: “You have 0 friends in common.” What Barack Obama was attempting to do by visiting the Republican issues retreat was to smack himself down in the middle of that divide. The social divide is, of course, most striking because it appears not to correspond to any reasonable ideological divide; as Mr Obama told the Republican senators, the health-care reform that passed the Senate on party lines is an extremely moderate bill, the most conservative and private-sector-friendly version of universal health insurance imaginable. But that doesn’t really matter; the clash in the Senate isn’t about policy. It’s a war between two cliques. It’s not clear whether aggressive friendliness can overcome the drive towards social self-segregation. But the Democrats no longer have 60 votes in the Senate, and if the country is going to get anything done in the next three years, the only way forward is to try and make some friends.

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Former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich warns easy money and stimulative policies may be creating the next global economic bubbles. He speculates that the two most worrisome candidates within the next year are commodities and China.

Is the U.S. economy showing signs of recovery, as some indicators suggest, or are these assertions dangerously premature?

Having served in three administrations, former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich is uniquely positioned to share his take on the 2010 economic outlook for California, the U.S., and the rest of the world in this year’s annual installment of the Walter E. Hoadley Economic Forecast. – Commonwealth Club

Robert Reich is professor of public policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. He served in three national administrations; his articles appear frequently in The New York Times and The Washington Post, and he is a commentator for American Public Media’s “Marketplace,” heard on NPR.

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The Empathic Civilization is the first book to explore how empathetic consciousness restructures the ways we organize our personal lives, approach knowledge, pursue science and technology, conduct commerce and governance, and orchestrate civil society. The development of this empathetic consciousness is essential to creating a future where we think and behave like the whole world matter.

Jeremy Rifkin is president of the Foundation on Economic Trends and the author of seventeen bestselling books on the impact of scientific and technological changes on the economy, the workforce, society, and the environment. One of the most popular social thinkers of our time, Rifkin is the bestselling author of The European Dream, The Hydrogen Economy, The Age of Access, The Biotech Century, and The End of Work.

This lecture is part of the @Google series of talks and took place on January 25, 2010.

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Sergio Fajardo Valderrama introduces his legislative list for Colombia’s upcoming legislative elections on 14 March 2010. Dr. Fajardo, the former mayor of Medellín, is running for President in Colombia as an independent.

Dr. Fajardo’s candidacy forms part of new trend of independent civic actors engaging in politics apart from any political party. These civic movements are appearing in Costa Rica, Colombia and Perú and cut across ideological lines. They are largely backed by the professional middle class tired of politics as usual.

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Energy giant ExxonMobil has suspended work on a liquefied natural gas plant in Papua New Guinea after four local villagers were killed in a tribal dispute. A report from the Sydney Morning Herald:

The clash between two rival coastal villages near the capital Port Moresby occurred in an area where ExxonMobil is to build a plant to liquefy, store and load gas for shipment overseas.

The incident has forced the shutdown of road building works being undertaken by Curtain Bros, an Australian construction firm, to the planned plant site.

The fight erupted on Saturday afternoon after drunken Borea village youths threw stones at Porebada villagers as they were gardening in the area, half an hour’s drive west from Port Moresby.

Porebada villagers went to Borea village later that day to resolve the dispute, but four of them were shot dead.

PNG’s National newspaper reported the fight was linked to ongoing tensions regarding land ownership and LNG leases.

PNG’s Post Courier newspaper reported the two villages met on Sunday night, and Porebada clansmen vowed to close down the nearby LNG-related activities until the dispute was settled.

A spokesman for ExxonMobil in Port Moresby said a police investigation would provide more information about the “tragic event”.

“The safety and security of our workforce and the communities in which we operate are of the utmost importance and we are monitoring the situation closely,” he said.

“The project has temporarily suspended work in the area out of respect for the victims and their families.”

Last week the Post Courier reported 11 villagers were killed in PNG’s Southern Highlands Province (SHP) in a tribal fight tied to a land dispute over the LNG project.

ExxonMobil emphatically denied any LNG connection, while Oil Search, a partner in the $16 billion LNG project, said only two villagers died in the SHP clash.

Thousands of landowners from a variety of groups are set to profit from the LNG project, which will pump gas starting in 2014 from SHP to the plant site near Port Moresby 600km away, before shipping it to mainly Asian buyers for an estimated 30 years.

Landowners spent weeks last year cutting a deal with the PNG government, but some parties believe they missed out or were excluded from the talks.

The plant which will liquefy and load gas for export is expected to become a major pillar of the country’s economy.

But some people in the region are living in extreme poverty and activists say these large-scale projects will only benefit the rich instead of the poor, local population.

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With a general election in the United Kingdom due by June 3, 2010, polls now indicate a tightening race. The latest poll by The Independent shows the Conservative party down to 38 percent, down seven points since December, with Labour up two points to 31 percent. The Liberal Democrats polled third with 19 percent. Based on these projections, the Tories would fall short of a majority by 24 seats.

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