The Kensington Review

16 June 2008

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Latest Commentary: Volume VII, Number 72
Drowning Iowa isn’t New Orleans -- For the good people of Iowa, this has been a terrible time. More rain than the ground can take has fallen day in and day out. Rivers are many feet above flood stage, they won’t crest for a while yet, and thousands have been forced to evacuate their homes. The nation remembers the mess that Katrina made of New Orleans, and the hope is that the federal authorities will do a better job in Cedar Rapids than they did in the 9th ward. Iowans have one thing going for them that New Orleans didn’t, geography.

Irish Reject EU Constitution -- Ireland has done better out of its EU membership than almost any other country. A poor, almost backward, economy when it joined, the Celtic Tiger is wealthy enough that it no longer gets EU development aid. So, when it came to Thursday’s referendum on an EU treaty/constitution, the casual observer would have thought passage of the agreement would have been easy. Instead, the Irish shot it down, and they may have killed off the treaty. One might think of Ireland as a nation of ingrates, but it would be more accurate to view them as the people who saved Europe from itself.

FCC Chief Approves Satellite Radio Merger -- Federal Communications Commissions Chairman Kevin Martin has finally given his blessing to the merger of XM and Sirius, the two US satellite radio systems. This deal has been on hold for more than a year due to competition concerns, but that is still an unconscionably long time. With Chairman Martin’s OK, the full commission may soon vote on the $5 billion transaction. However, it appears that Mr. Martin extracted significant concessions that makes the deal serve the common interest as well as the shareholders of the two companies.

Tim Russert Embodied Fairness -- Friday afternoon, the Washington media got set on its ear with the sudden and untimely death of NBC newsman Tim Russert. At the age of 58, he collapsed and died from heart failure. It seems counterintuitive. According to his fans and colleagues, his heart never failed. Nor did his sense of fairness in American journalism, a rare commodity.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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