On January 3, 2005, the Dow Jones Industrial Average opened at 10,784 and closed the year at 10,717. That’s a drop of under 1%. For people whose lives revolve around making money it was a very dull year. But if you worked for giant auto parts manufacturer, Delphi, it was a terrible year. Fighting bankruptchy,…
Monthly Archives: December 2005
Africa Watch
Equatorial Guinea A nation that doesn’t grab headlines but it is alive. Normally, rife with corruption, it has received congratulations from the U.S.ambassador and Paul Wolfowitz for progress in "transparency". Its efforts to reduce human trafficking (especially, children) have been applauded by human rights groups. Taipei Times It is not just the Eritreans that Ethiopia…
HOW NOT TO CONDUCT A POLL
BBC Look what happens when you poll 32,000 people in 27 countries but you take them by surprise. With no time for reflection, they come up with uninformed responses. GlobeScan, a Canadian outfit asked, "In the future, when historians think about the year 2005, what event of global significance will be seen as the most…
THE RIGHT WAY, THE WRONG WAY, THE BRITISH WAY
Scotsman Like the U.S. Army, the Brits go their own way, and good sense is not a consideration. The Lord High Exectioner, Falconer, has said that Maya Evans, peace campaigner, must be tried for her crime of reading out a list of soldiers who died in Iraq. To make her crime even more dastardly, Evans…
PROVOKING ISRAEL MAY LEAD TO DISASTER
If anyone thinks that the times have changed since Israel could singlehandedly wipe out all the Arab states, he is very mistaken. It may yet happen. For now, Israel is restrained by (1) extreme pressure from its number one ally, the U.S., which does not want the Middle East to explode into chaos and (2)…
2005 IN REVIEW
The Standard (China’s Business Newspaper) A great month-by-month account of everything that happened in 2005. Make a click and take a look. Meanwhile, here is a handful of highlights. January Mamoud Abbas elected President of the Palestine Authority. George Bush sworn in for 2nd term as U.S. President. Victor Yushchenko sworn in as President…
INDONESIA BOMB KILLS EIGHT
BBC At least 8 people were killed and 45 injured as a bomb exploded in a market in Central Sulawesi province. The attack took place in a Christian-dominated district. Christians in Indonesia have been severely targeted recently by militant Muslims. In October, 3 Christian school girls were beheaded. Altogether there have been over 1000 victims. …
POLICE SWEEP IN SRI LANKA – 900 TAMIL TIGERS
BBC Well, actually, 900 suspected members of the rebel Tamil Tigers. Most of them were immediately released. The 4-year old cease fire agreement between government forces and the Tigers is pretty much over, with the rebels stepping up their attacks in recent weeks. 40 soldiers have been killed in the last month or so. …
IS CRIME REALLY DOWN IN NY?
NY Times According to today’s NY Times, crime is way down in NY City and has been dropping regularly for 17 straight years. I doubt it. When upper middle-class people think of crime they think of murder, robbery, rape and other forms of violence. They DEFINE what crime is and the definition points to…
IVAN THE TERRIBLE -A.K.A. THE PUSSYCAT
For 30 years, John Demjanjuk has been hounded for his allegedly being the notorious death camp guard known as Ivan The Terrible. He was shipped from his home in Cleveland about 30 years to Israel to face charges for the brutal crimes of Ivan. He was acquitted and returned to the U.S.A. The good guys…
FUJIMORI STILL GRABS THE HEADLINES
Santiago Times (Chile) For a guy who wants to be President of Peru, Fujimori will have to be dragged there by his hair. He is wanted for too many crimes to bother detailing. Meanwhile, he hangs out in Chile where his lawyers have succeeded in fighting extradition charges. Is there anything wrong with being president…
MORE TIDBITS
Too many good things. We can’t deprive you. Kenya has opened an ice rink. A great way to beat the equatorial heat. Cairo has one, too.****Northern Mariana Islands held a Christmas day relay of 13.7 miles. Each team must have at least one woman and one child. We know one thing for sure – the…
PREDICTIONS FOR 2006
Predictions are good fun – as much for me as for anyone else. Just keep in mind that nobody knows anything and don’t laugh at me at next year’s end. 1. U.S. troop total falls below 80,000 in Iraq from the current 140,000. 2. Sharon dies before June. Netanyahu again assumes leadership in…
THE PEOPLE WHO DIED
These are the people I am going to miss. January. Virginia Mayo. 84. Hollywood epitome of gorgeousness. Johnny Carson. 79. February. Ossie Davis. 87. Max Schmeling. 99. Arthur Miller. 89. March Teresa Wright. 86. George Kennan. 101. The great diplomat. Coined "containment". Hans Bethe. 96. Nobel Physicist. April John Mills. 97.…
TOM DELAY’S CONSTITUENTS DESERT HIM
Houston Press 52% of the people living in Tom DeLay’s district would like him to disappear so they can have someone else. 40% think he is a crook. Now, wait a moment! I thought that, like every other congressman, DeLay was as pure as the driven snow in Houston. A guy named Campbell is considering…
CHOMSKY ON VENEZUELA
Khaleej Times (India) Noam Chomsky is always boring but he never insults your intelligence. Here the celebrated (infamous?) linguistics genius and polymath weighs in on Venezuela versus the United States. As usual, he is no fan of the U.S.
AL QUEDA KIDNAPPING
Khaleej Times (India) Al Queda has invaded Baghdad and kidnapped 5 employees of the Sudanese embassy. It threatens to kill them unless Sudan withdraws its diplomatic mission from Iraq. Al Jazeera obtained a video of the victims sitting on chairs but the film was not accompanied by audio. Al Queda has set…
THREE DEVASTATING FAILURES
Bitter Lemons-International Yossi Alpher is former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University and a former senior advisor to prime mister Ehud Barak. He offers us an analysis of what to expect – and it is not good.
GREAT NEWS FOR THE RICH
NY Times New tax breaks are kicking in for those who make at least $200,000. They will now get additional write-offs for a spouse, children, and mortgage interest on vacation homes. As we know from Ronald Reagan’s "trickle down theory", it is a major benefit to the poor when good things happen to the rich.…
THE FINAL BLOW
Washington Post A sad end to the stem cell story. Scientists had hoped against hope that something could be salvaged from the "scientific" work of Korea’s Hwang Woo Suk. In particular, they hoped that a portion of his work was not fraudulent so that it could be used foundationally by others. Now it turns out…
Website Manager
Website Manager – glad to be aboard. TP
TIDBITS
Approaching the year’s end so what better way to begin than with Holiday Cheer and Best Wishes from all of us at Watching Politics. We hope some smiles will be found in these zany happenings. 2 men tried to extort $1 million from Jennifer Lopez in exchange for the laptop they stole from her. She…
USA WATCH
TIMES ARGUS A funny thing happened on the way home from Ace hardware Store. The U.S. Army lost $68 million in receipts for tools that it shipped to contractors in 2004. I would think that anybody who can get a contract from the Army would have his own tools. The Army has no way to…
WHAT MAKES A GREAT NEWSPAPER?
New York Daily News No, I refuse to supply links. You can take my word for it or not. The News was once upon a time by far the largest paper in the USA. Today, it still ranks fourth. Here’s why. The top stories: (1) Stray bullet kills mom looking out apartment window. (2) Long…
Top Stories
- Ex-NBA player stabbed, seriously injured in fight
- Probe begins after commuter trains crash
- Hard-line Afghan MPs block law protecting women
- France's Hollande signs gay marriage law
- Memorial Day countdown: Will the Jersey Shore be ready?
- South Korea says N. Korea fires 3 short-range missiles
- Powerball jackpot closing in on another record
- O.J.'s ex-lawyer contradicts his testimony on guns
- GOP hopes IRS scandal will snag health care law
- Spin meter: GOP raps Dems for IRS union cash