| The Kensington Review |
17 June 2005 |
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Latest Commentary:
House Bloodies President’s Nose in Patriot Act Vote -- The misnamed Patriot Act, passed in the hysteria of post 9/11 Washington without a single member of Congress actually reading the thing, contains 15 provisions that will expire at the end of this year. The Bush Administration wants those provisions made permanent. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives just turned the president down on renewing one of the 15 by a vote of 238-187, and the president has threatened to veto the appropriations bill to which it is attached. Congress should dare the president to do so. Hong Kong Chief Executive Unopposed in Pretend Election -- The former British Crown colony of Hong Kong was handed over to the communist dictatorship in Beijing under the pretense of “one country, two systems,” but recent events in Hong Kong proved what a load of nonsense that is. Nominations for the job of Chief Executive closed at 5 pm local time on June 15, and by 5.30 the same day, Donald Tsang had been named the winner of the “election.” Now, Hong Kong’s government is as illegitimate as the one misruling the rest of the People’s Republic of China. EU Summit Returns to Budget Battles -- Most discussions of European Union affairs does not revolve around constitutional matters. Recent weeks have been exceptional in having a political rather than economic thrust to EU issues. With the EU Summit yesterday and today in Brussels, the leaders of Europe return to more familiar ground – fighting about the budget in general and Britain’s rebate in particular. Percy and Flo Arrowsmith Finally Part Ways -- Going through the Guinness Book of World Records one finds that some records are trifling and some plain bizarre. However, Percy and Florence Arrowsmith set a pretty meaningful one a couple of weeks ago that may stand forever. They celebrated their 80th wedding anniversary (no, that is not a typo, eight decades of marriage), on June 1. Mr. Arrowsmith died this week at the age of 105. © Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux. |
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