To be really good, you have to be willing to have everybody in the world hate you
-Amy Sherman-Palladino
Say you're a centrist. If you're like me, one of your most important values is consensus. Another is on procedural checks and playing "by the rules," so to speak. Another is on basic fairness to and deliberation with your opponents--a functional democracy is only possible when all sides are willing to hear each other out and agree to incorporate the best parts of both sides. Under this paradigm, a centrist is a peacemaker, someone who brings both sides to the table while scrupulously avoiding any charges of partisanship him or herself
Radical Centrism vs,The Distress of a Conservative or Stalinist
Eye on Politics & Law Lords: "Dollar Hegemony" and China
When money talks, the right and left swap sides. China's latest dissident has been caught out by a political climate change
There's no country that's quite "like China" in the sense that it's as big as; but the China "phenomenon" started long ago with the Asian Tigers and the most recent country "like China" is India which is very big too, though, so far as we can judge at the moment, it doesn't have quite the potential of China. A related and very relevant question too is whether, in this "dollar hegemony" context, there is any country "like the United States."
• Giant Dragon [ Amid secret passwords, mysterious faxes and attempts to protect him from the alleged Chinese spy network he once worked for, Hao Fengjun emerged to talk of the Secret Force Fresh from the Secret Force, a spy downloads on China ; Next step is to get rid of their winner-take-all system Lessons for Political Reformers ; Am I the only one who's shocked by this? And if not, why aren't we hearing an outcry about it - So now people are marching in the streets from Indonesia to the Middle East, in every Islamic country on earth, not because they fear the Soviet Union or Russia. They are marching because they fear the United States The Shock of Being Shocked ]
• · Patrick J. Buchanan and the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson don't often agree on much politically, but each finds a lot to dislike about Deep Throat. So do I Dirty Tricks, Not Dirty Hands ; Government and the media now have, at their disposal, myriad tools to make the world seem exactly like they want it to seem, at a given time and place. Instead of images of Forrest Gump meeting John Kennedy to make us laugh, we have, on the other extreme, video meant to inspire the State and its loyal followers. The media - as a mouthpiece of the State - uses false images to convey sappy stories, further political goals, and paint the world plastic The CNN Effect
• · · It is alleged he took Balazs back to the army barracks where he was tortured and beaten to death, and his body thrown into the River Danube. Suspected Nazi war criminal Charles Zenta ; Civil liberties and lawyers' groups expressed concerns yesterday that the Federal Government's new security checks for airport and maritime workers could breach the right of criminal offenders to rehabilitate and get on with their lives Rights at risk in security crackdown ; Blaming the Messenger Fools No One
• · · · Property's decline casts long shadow ; It is not long in historical terms, but an eternity in NSW politics: The NSW Government will spend $8 billion in the biggest expansion of the Sydney rail network since the 1930s Carr announces $8bn railway project ; A confrontation with the union movement is looming at this weekend's ALP state conference over the State Government's growing reliance on public-private partnerships to fund state infrastructure Unions to query private stake in public projects
• · · · · American Solomon Trujillo will earn up to $11 million in his first year as Telstra's new chief executive Trujillo named as new Telstra CEO ; Filmaker Alex Gibney, the man behind the recently released film about Enron, entitled The Smartest Guys in the Room, has done us a great service Hypothetical Future-Value Accounting - The Tragicomedy that was Enron ;
• · · · · · Tom Uglys Bridge was awful tonight Two killed in road smash ; The mother of six children caught in a house fire ran out of petrol while frantically driving home to rescue them Mother's frantic drive to rescue children