Iceberg has a long connection with Bart Cumings (sic) and Viewed was seen by Mal as a good bet;-) (Nine months ago Obama had odds 140 to 1 ...) Imagine that!
Senator Barack Obama’s election as the next president of the United States promises a new era in America’s rocky relations with the world. But the era may be slow in dawning and President-elect Obama’s promised international initiatives - ramping up war in Afghanistan, curbing global warming - may not work out quite the way America’s allies hope. The world looks to Obama
We should expect the worst, but hope for the best The biggest fairytale We have ever seen
Yes, he could. How a man with a spindly public record leavened with a gift for oratory from God, claimed his country's highest honour.
Some princes are born in palaces. Some are born in mangers. But a few are born in the imagination, out of scraps of history and hope. Barack Obama never talks about how people see him: I'm not the one making history, he said every chance he got. You are. Yet as he looked out Tuesday night through the bulletproof glass, in a park named for a Civil War general, he had to see the truth on people's faces. We are the ones we've been waiting for, he liked to say, but people were waiting for him, waiting for someone to finish what a King began.
• The Meaning of Obama's Win: How He Rewrote the Book ; [Opportunities in Crises: People who talk about a bubble are blowing smoke,” said real estate economist Michael Carney. It was February 2005 and Carney was confident that house prices in California wouldn’t fall. But by the end of the year the market turned. And between August 2007 and August 2008, California house prices fel Lessons from California’s housing bubble; In part because the construction industry has adopted a strategy of building new units only after they have secured buyers. The relative unresponsiveness of supply in the face of increasing demand has pushed real estate prices to record highs and decreased the number of households that can afford to purchase a home Deals to be made ]
• · Barack Obama's "improbable quest" gained enough steam over two years to end in a decisive victory over John McCain. It's not quite right to say the incoming president Barack Obama has no executive experience. Obama on Google; Obama Time
• · My Vladimir Putin … The Empire Has No Clothes: U.S. Foreign Policy Exposed (Updated Edition), by Ivan Eland ; Unfortunately, the registration movement teaches citizens that an uneducated vote is better than no vote at all. Such a lesson is pernicious and could have lasting effects on the electorate Don’t Rock the Vote, Baby!
• · · A MAJOR event such as the present global recession always creates a demand for explanations: Unfortunately, today the demand for an answer quickly gives way to an obsessive impulse to avoid responsibility. Public figures who tend to suffer from the disease of responsibility aversion continually assure us that "it wasn't me" before they point the finger of blame. Conspiracy theories are appealing because they provide us with a semblance of control over powerful forces that influence our lives. Even before the present financial crisis, acts of misfortune were frequently associated with intentional malevolent behaviour. Nothing happens by accident. Human malevolence is suspected to be at work behind the death of Diana, princess of Wales, in a car crash or when there is a sudden electrical blackout. Unexplained illnesses or a spillage of chemicals are frequently blamed on the self-serving irresponsible acts of politicians, public and business figures, doctors, scientists; indeed, all professionals. PLAYING the blame game is a modern version of the ancient practice of scapegoating and fuelling a maelstrom of imaginary causes; IT'S official. The Hollowmen is truth, not fiction: A paper prepared for the Democratic Audit of Australia has found political public relations has become an essential part of the policy-making process. Politics caught in spin cycle
• · · · Extraordinary upheavals throw up extraordinary risks, problems, and of course, opportunities Hold Your nerve ; I've always believed when we put our individual skills together, all of us are more powerful than any one of us. What's great is that the bigger the group you are part of, the more dramatic change you can effect. Nowhere is this more true than in changing our actions and attitudes toward creating a more sustainable world… Who's the boss?
• · · · · A speech byTony D’Aloisio, Chairman, Australian Securities and Investments Commission to the Australian Corporate Lawyers Association (ACLA) Friday, 7 November 2008 PDF ahead The new ASIC: Addressing today’s challenges and building for the longer term ; Worth a Try LESSONS FROM THE POOR: Triumph of the Entrepreneurial Spirit ; I'd like to have predicted something really nice," laughs Magnus, who at 59 has the air of a University lecturer rather than an investment banker. George Magnus does not look like a prophet. Yet this is the man widely acknowledged to have predicted that the US sub-prime mortgage crisis would trigger a global recession George Magnus: the man who predicted the sub-prime crisis
• · · · · · Australians have never forgiven Rupert Murdoch for renouncing his citizenship in order to get rich in the United States. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has attacked his fellow Australians for laziness saying the "bludger" could soon become the national icon Media mogul Rupert Murdoch ; Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch may run one of the most profitable businesses in the UK, but it appears he has somehow managed to avoid a tax bill. Most profitable businesses
