The big contributors [become] the major shareholders. The rest of the population is just left to vote, to affirm the management.
— Joe Scott, political consultant (The Wall Street Journal, 3/2/1994)
Politics Purge a first step only
A bystander is entitled to the conclusion that the dominant NSW Right has been dragged kicking and screaming to this reform agenda.
Branch stacking is practised in all political parties but ALP sections made it a fearsome sword for personal or factional supremacy. Through the installation of people who care little or nothing for the organisation's core beliefs, it allows perpetrators to manipulate policies and offices, particularly prized endorsements for parliamentary elections. Branch stacking not only skews a political party's representation and batters its public standing, it excites the potential for retaliation and pushes genuine rank-and-file members from the fold, thereby compounding dominance by the few. Democracy is the loser.
· Democracy is the real loser. [Sydney Morning Herald ]
Airbrush
Power "produces reality" before it represses. Equally it produces truth before it ideologizes, abstracts or masks.
- Gilles Deleuze, Foucault
History will eventually tell us why John Newman’s funeral was ignored by so many key players in the Labour Party. It reminds me of Stalin airbrushing Trotsky out of the photos.
These are hair-trigger times, with well-manicured barbarians at the wheel.
-Philip F. Berrigan, the former Roman Catholic priest who led the draft board raids that galvanized opposition to the Vietnam War in the late 1960's, died on Friday in Baltimore after a lifetime of battling the American Empire, as he called it, over the morality of its military and social policies.
Energy Brush
A federal judge on Monday rebuffed congressional efforts to gather information about meetings that Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force held with industry executives and lobbyists while formulating the administration's energy plan.
U.S. District Judge John Bates said the lawsuit filed by Comptroller General David Walker against the vice president was an unprecedented act that raised serious separation-of-powers issues between the executive and legislative branches of government.
No court has ever before granted what the comptroller general seeks, wrote Bates, an appointee of President Bush.
· President Brush [Cheney]
Are we swapping one tyranny for another?
Has the moment finally arrived? When Europe's "iron curtain" fell in 1989, we couldn't wait to be part of the big wide world again. Next week's historic Copenhagen summit will issue the invitations to ten new members of the European Union. By May 2004, we will be fully part of the European club. Our leaders promise us a bright new future of jobs, opportunity and progress. The world will be told what we always believed - that Prague, Warsaw and Budapest are as much part of Europe as Paris or Berlin. This should be a moment to celebrate once again.
· Iron Brush [Observer]
Media Journalists losing touch with the man on the street
Reporters and editors at large dailies are losing touch with middle class Americans. At best, they're out of touch. At worst, they've become elitists. Most are well-educated and paid better than average salaries, pulling them away from blue-collar populations. Frankly, he's right, but it's not something that education and money alone cause. It happens because we let it happen, and we don't work hard enough to connect with readers who aren't necessarily like us.
· Preditors & Spinners [LA Times]
Literature How Bad Reviews Linger
Good reviews are forgotten; bad reviews remembered; and the very worst are etched with acid in the victim's mind. It's odd that, although one hates getting them oneself, bad reviews (even of one's dearest friends) are good reading. Nothing like the smell of hot blood in the morning as you open your literary supplement. So long, that is, as it's not spurting from your veins.
· Guilty Pleasures [Human Brush]
The Secret Bestsellers
Yes there's the prestigious New York Times Bestseller List. And the names that appear on it are generally known to one and all. But talk to the people who are actually in the bookstores selling books, and you hear about an entirely different list... Are these the real worstsellers?
· No 1 WorstSeller [MobyLived]
Life Daddy
A Note for Daddy is the story of a little boy who sent a balloon into the air for his father, and a reporter and news researcher who tracked it. After the balloon drifted into her life, she couldn't get her mind off the little boy. Who was he, and where was his father?
· Airbaloon [SP Times]
Rush of life A Parable for Today, If Not Tomorrow
To the banquet, to life, to love. And all are called, all are chosen...
· Para [Able]
· Some Story Re Going Back To Confession [Joy, Jesus, Others, You ]
