| The Kensington Review |
9 December 2005 |
| Latest Commentary: | Volume IV, Number 147 |
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Iraqi Economic Progress Less than President Said -- The president went in front of the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington on Wednesday to make a speech about the economic progress in Iraq since the fall of the Saddamite regime. Usually, speeches of this sort read like a Stalinist list of tractor production figures. Mr. Bush avoided the statistics and dealt with the towns of Mosul and Najaf anecdotally. Cherry-picking facts isn’t quite lying, but willful misrepresentation of the overall picture is the hallmark of this administration.
Torture Falls into Disrepute in America and Britain -- Most people labored under the impression that torture was a thing of the past in the US and UK until quite recently. Then, the war on terror gave Washington and London the pretext to get out the rack and the thumbscrews. While the Irish might have argued that the British government never put them away, and Abner Louima might suggest Brooklyn’s police stations are part of the gulag, the average person was shocked by the pictures out of Abu Ghraib prison. So, the Law Lords and Secretary of State Rice this week announced that torture was, once again, a thing of the past. Ford May Match GM’s Job Cuts -- The Detroit News, an underrated second-tier paper, reported on Wednesday that Ford Motor Company is likely to match the 30,000 job cuts General Motors announced for its workforce a short time ago. While Ford says nothing has been finalized yet, this non-denial makes one believe the newspaper’s figure is in the ballpark. CEO Bill Ford Jr. (who got the job on merit one presumes) said there will be “significant plant closings.” That can only mean significant job losses. CBGB’s to Move Next Halloween -- The East Village of New York has come up in the world in the last 30 years. It was where the artistes moved when Greenwich Village became too expensive. Now, they’ve all moved to Williamsburg, Brooklyn for the same reason. As the district changes, so do the landmarks, and the legendary nightclub CBGB will be leaving under the terms of a deal agreed earlier this week. Although it will be the end of an era, the club’s best days are long gone. One hopes management will give it a dignified death. © 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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