Bloggers uncover that someone working as a reporter in the West Wing is also advertising himself as a $200-an-hour gay escort — someone whose name, a year earlier, had appeared in the U.S. attorney's subpoena of White House documents during the investigation of the Valerie Plame-CIA scandal Sex, lies and spies: This isn't news?
Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Nations of Grazing Sheep
As politicians pad their pockets, will the electorate wake up? How we see what those before us saw? My favorite politician was John Hatton while Bob Dylan’s was Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, who reminded me of Tom Mix, and there wasn't any way to explain that to anybody.
The scandal revolving around the question of just where Prime Minister Stanislav Gross got the money to pay for his apartment is rocking the country. Or is it?
Political scandals are nothing new. But here, one thing is certain: Politicians never resign. No matter what. Intoxicated deputies (both while in session as well as behind the wheel), corrupt ministers, and a prime minister and president who lie are all allowed to keep their jobs. Small wonder then that Gross refuses to step down, despite demands from the opposition that he do so.
Despite recent entry into the EU, in the Czech Republic most of the major pillars of democracy are decaying, not growing. This is because the legislative, executive, and judicial pillars have all coalesced into a ruling caste that has self-preservation and enrichment through associated corruption as its only priority. For example, early on in the crisis, Gross' major ruling coalition partner, the Christian Democrats, declared the Cabinet to be defunct — yet, for some inexplicable reason, they still refuse to leave it. Also at the Cabinet level, the culture minister has initiated a witch hunt against the nobility, calling it a class whose post-1989 acquisitions via legal restitutions should be "re-examined" so as to possibly return them to the state that stole them in the first place. As such, the Supreme Court, with judges now appointed by President Vaclav Klaus, has taken back property from the Colorado-Mansfeld family, to whom the same court awarded it three years ago. The court said the previous court did not have the right evidence. In refuting the most basic of judicial principles, namely, a verdict based on given evidence at the time, the Supreme Court is now a bunch of kangaroos.
• Taxing Times Among the Political Kangaroos [ France has method to deal with corruption; Exposing the Myths: Manufacturing Public Opinion ]
• · Ali Mazrooie, a top member of the main reformist party, Iran Participation Front (Jebhe-ye Mosharekat) is the newest well-known politician who has started to write a weblog Iran Participation Front; The Winds of Political Change … And Why You Almost Never Feel Them Coming
• · · George Bush’s “ownership society” leaves out the things we actually own — our bodies, our privacy, our dignity, our bedrooms Who Owns What? ; If Republicans were true to their stated principles of smaller government, free-market economics and the "ownership society" touted by President Bush, they would do something quite alien to their traditional practice: They would support the spread of labor unions instead of trying every trick to foil workers' efforts to organize To succeed at shrinking government, you've got to empower workers
• · · · Black Bourgeoisie at 50: Class, Civil Rights, and the Cold War in Black America ; Eucalyptus Drive and the Kelly Gang: Police sorry for ignoring alleged bashing by fugitive ; For Anthony Muilwyk, a metalworker and union delegate, surely a black eye was not unusual Even union delegates have feelings: judge
• · · · · GST Greed Give us GST share and we'll cut tax: Carr ; In the time-honoured manner of leaving essentials to last, the rules of engagement to provide the next phase of NSW electricity generation are finally taking shape. If the state gets it wrong, we will face power blackouts within a few years or out-of-control electricity prices Balancing demands of power
• · · · · · The Minister for Women, Sandra Nori, scrolls a (first) virgin honour roll to mark International Woman’s Day: Tracey Menzies: NSW Woman of the Year! ; With the help of the internet, users are learning about what they are taking, with beneficial results Bumper crop of drug overdose scares misses the real story