There ought to be a limit (she thought as she steered the bronze Chrysler through the cemetery gate) on the number of open graves you had to look down into in any given lifetime.
-Jon Hassler, North of Hope
In a welcome ruling for this newspaper, and the larger cause of robust journalism and government accountability, a federal judge in New York has barred a federal prosecutor's ill-conceived effort to get the phone records of two Times reporters from the fall of 2001 in order to discover the identity of their confidential sources A Victory for Press Freedom
Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Pot meet kettle, kettle meet pot
President Klaus worries about the effect political scandals have on the country's good reputation. Yet his hands have been far from clean. So when did he change his tune?
President Vaclav Klaus, lamenting the apartment scandal surrounding Prime Minister Stanislav Gross, said, "I am afraid that confidence in politicians and politics has suffered another severe blow from which it will be recovering for a long time."
Another severe blow? I guess that means the country and its politics have suffered such batterings before. Let's see if I can remember any. Hmm.
Perhaps the president was referring to the time a party deputy chairman was tooling about Prague in a brand-new, top-end Mercedes, courtesy of two German brothers who had fled to the Czech Republic to dodge tax-evasion charges at home. The said deputy failed to declare the generous gift as income, as he should have, and failed to pay taxes on it.
• Highest of Hypocrite: a person who professes beliefs and opinions that he does not hold [Interview: Israeli President Moshe Katsav ; This week Health Minister Tony Abbott revealed that he had made contact with the son he had given up for adoption 27 years ago. Father and son reunion ]
• · Setting the Stage for a New Cold War: China's Quest for Energy Security ; Nightmare of “a second Cuba” A spectre stalks the Americas
• · · When Ronald Reagan stood by the Berlin Wall in 1987 and told the Soviets to “tear down this wall,” German media made fun of him. Now they make fun of George Bush Could George W. Bush Be Right? ; Interview: Peter Costello
• · · · Interview: WA Premier Geoff Gallop ; As GM pointed out today, one of the most common sense way to eliminate the sensless police pursuits and inexperienced drivers going out of control is to ban passengers for drivers who are under 20 years of age. Defensive driving is a must Parents best aid for young drivers
• · · · · John Hatton back in 1990s tried to create an atmosphere of strategic thinking in relation to police pursuit, however his proposal was squashed. When will the carnage end? Police are as much victims here as the young drivers. Riot police today arrested 12 people and seized a rifle amid continuing violence sparked by the deaths of two teenagers in a stolen car 12 held as police brace for more riots ; Amid fears of further violence, rumours are flying in south-west Sydney over the identity of the driver who survived the fatal crash that sparked riots three nights running Spreading the Bad News
• · · · · · Rioters pelt police with Molotov cocktails ; The blaming game ...