| The Kensington Review |
12 October 2005 |
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Volume IV, Number 122 |
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Miers Defense Looks Shaky
-- The Harriet Miers nomination for the Supreme Court is not going to fail unless she withdraws. If forced to a vote, the GOP will back the president because failing to do so makes him a lame duck with three years to serve. However, it is rather amusing that the White House has offered such a feeble defense for a nominee who enjoys the president’s confidence. Elitism and sexism are not why conservatives are upset.
Merkel Finally Gets German Chancellorship -- Angela Merkel finally won the top job in Germany. Three weeks after the election, the Germans are getting close to having a government. The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and its Bavarian sister Christian Social Union (CSU), will share 6 of 14 ministries and Frau Merkel’s job, according to the BBC. The “defeated” Social Democrats (SDP) will get 8 of the 14, despite having fewer seats. If that were not confusing enough, the SDP has a conference coming up next month, and the grass-roots may reject the electoral pact. Delphi Goes Bust, GM May Falter -- Robert “Steve” Miller, who gets paid $4.5 million a year and has a potential bonus of $2 million, has just taken Delphi, the second largest car parts maker in the world, into Chapter 11 bankruptcy -- which he was hired 3 months ago to do. He has improved the severance packages of 21 senior executives who are on their way out and offered 600 key executives cash and stock to stick around. The company lost $4.8 billion last year and $750 million in the first half of 2005. What would this guy get paid if he actually earned money for the shareholders? Nobel Committee Member Quits over 2004 Literature Pick -- Some people take their art very seriously. Knut Ahnlund just resigned from the Swedish Academy, which hands out the Nobel Prizes, because he really hated last year’s literature award. Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek won, but Professor Ahnlund said, “Last year's Nobel Prize has not only done irreparable damage to all progressive forces, it has also confused the general view of literature as an art.” Her work, he said, was a “mass of text shoveled together without artistic structure.” Bet he isn’t a member of Oprah’s Book Club. © 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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