Monday, December 17, 2007
* DAILY NEWS *
EDITORIAL
Strategic project and pragmatic action – Roxana Iordache – Ziua – read here -
“Since December 2004, Romania's international policy has been chaotic, lay, and contradictory. It has also been lacking in initiative and hesitatingly reactive. That is the reason why we've come to be treated as a second hand people and a no brand country”.POLITICS
Stolojan and Boc stood godfathers for PDL – Adrian Ilie – Ziua – read here -“The Democrat Liberal Party (PDL) was officially set up last Saturday, when the PD (Democrat Party) and PLD (Liberal Democrat Party) Congresses voted for the change of the PD name into the Democrat Liberal Party and the PLD absorption into the new party. The organizers took great care in not having unpleasant surprises, so that almost nobody growled. That's how the PD members voted the merging protocol even though many of them didn't get to read it“.
Electorate, cautious over PDL – Adrian Ilie – Ziua – read here -“PD (Democrat Party) and PLD (Liberal Democrat Party) might have got, separately, 46% of the votes expressed at the next election, according to the latest INSOMAR poll, carried during 6-10 December 2007. However, the potential electorate of PD and PLD are rather cautious over the new PDL (Democrat Liberal Party). Ten per cent out of them explicitly reject the fusion, and 40% still haven't made a clear opinion in this respect”.
PIN has enlarged its central leadership – Razvan Gheorghe – Ziua – read here -“Deputy Cozmin Gusa was reelected the president of PIN (National Initiative Party) last Saturday, within the Extraordinary National Assembly of his political party, with 252 votes "for", 4 votes "against" and 2 abstentions. At the same time, Deputy Lavinia Sandru was elected the vice-president of the party, for a new mandate. The leadership structure of the party was enlarged, as now ten young politicians manage it from the top”.
LATEST
CSAT meeting on relations with the Republic of Moldova – Adrian Ilie – Ziua – read here -“Supreme National Defence Council (CSAT) shall meet on Tuesday, 15.00 hrs, to analyze, among others, the situation emerged after the authorities in Chishinau had expelled two Romanian diplomats, says a Mediafax release that quotes official sources. President Basescu has already discussed the case with PM Tariceanu and with the Foreign Affairs minister, Adrian Cioroianu”.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Top 10 Scandals of the Year 2007
#1. Firings Fallout
- It's true that federal appointees serve at the pleasure of the President. But the circumstances surrounding the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys, seven in December 2006, prompted a Congressional investigation and helped lead to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Critics contend some of the attorneys — six of whom had recently received outstanding job-performance ratings — were fired as retribution for prosecuting Republicans or for failing to prosecute Democrats. In July, President Bush invoked executive privilege and declared that Karl Rove and other aides would not testify on the matter if subpoenaed by Congress. It remains unclear who ordered the firings or why.
#2. Star Athlete Dogged by Animal Cruelty
- Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, who was the NFL's first draft pick in 2001, was suspended indefinitely from the league in August after he admitted to funding a dogfighting ring on his property and to being complicit in the killing of at least six dogs using such methods as hanging and drowning. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell freed the Falcons to recover $22 million of Vick's signing bonus, but has yet to decide whether to reinstate him after his incarceration ends. "I'm totally responsible", Vick said at a press conference. "Dogfighting is a terrible thing". On Dec. 10, he was sentenced to 23 months in jail.
#3. Shock Jock Cold-Cocked
- Don Imus is no stranger to racist and sexist humor, but he crossed the line in April when he called Rutgers' mostly black women's basketball team "nappy headed hos". Although he initially dismissed the incident as "some idiot comment meant to be amusing", he soon apologized publicly amid mounting criticism and even met privately with the Rutgers team. But as several advertisers pulled out of deals with his CBS radio show and its MSNBC simulcast, both networks fired him. Imus settled his $40 million wrongful termination suit against CBS in August and in December returned to the air on ABC.
#4. Have TB, Will Travel
- Atlanta attorney Andrew Speaker flew to Europe two days after being diagnosed with drug-resistant tuberculosis. While in Italy, the CDC informed the honeymooner — whose father-in-law is a TB expert at the agency — that he had an extensively drug-resistant strain of the disease and that his name was being placed on a no-fly list. Speaker somehow managed to fly from Prague to Montreal and drive to New York City, where he was placed under federal isolation. A border-patrol agent was fired for failing to detain the newlywed, who was later found to have a more treatable strain of TB than the CDC had believed.
#5. Who's the Daddy ?
- After Anna Nicole Smith — the heavy-set model perhaps best known for marrying a billionaire octogenarian — died in February of an accidental overdose, speculation intensified over who had fathered her baby daughter, Dannielynn, who stands to inherit big bucks if Smith's estate wins a decade-long battle over her late husband's fortune. Although her attorney, Howard K. Stern, was listed as the dad on the birth certificate, several men claimed to be the father. But in April, after a media frenzy that included a judge weeping in court, DNA evidence confirmed that Smith's ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead had sired the wee lass. Said the proud papa: "I told you so".
#6. The NBA's Dirty Ref
- Blame it on his gambling addiction. Veteran NBA referee Tim Donaghy resigned in July just before word spread that the FBI was investigating him for betting on games — including some he officiated — during the past four years. In August, Donaghy admitted that since December 2006, he had been paid by gambling associates for correctly predicting which team would win a particular game. He also passed along such insider tips as which players were injured. NBA commissioner David Stern called the Donaghy affair "the worst situation" he had experienced in 40 years with the league. Donaghy pleaded guilty and could face up to 25 years in prison.
#7. NASA Love Triangle
- It was definitely the diapers. When Lisa Nowak was arrested in Orlando in February and accused of trying to kidnap a fellow astronaut's girlfriend, police found a steel mallet, knife, latex gloves and rubber tubing in her car, but what vaulted her into the upper stratosphere of infamy was the diapers she reportedly told police she used to reduce the number of pit stops on her 900-mile drive from Houston. (She now denies wearing the diapers). Nowak, who pleaded not guilty, was dismissed from the astronaut corps as was her former paramour. Her trial is ongoing.
#8. A Legacy of Steroids
- For years Marion Jones denied taking performance-enhancing drugs and even went so far as to sue an accuser for defamation. But in October, the track superstar admitted she had lied about her steroid use to federal investigators, the same ones who a month later brought perjury charges against baseball's career home-run leader Barry Bonds. "I have betrayed your trust", Jones said at a press conference. "I have let my country down". She returned the five medals she won in Sydney to the International Olympic Committee, which nullified her results and asked her relay team members to return their medals as well.
#9. Dog in the Doghouse
- A&E halted production of its hit reality show, Dog the Bounty Hunter, after star Duane "Dog" Chapman was caught repeatedly using a racial slur. According to Chapman's lawyer, Chapman's son sold The National Enquirer a recording of his father telling him to break up with his African-American girlfriend. "It's not because she's black", Chapman had said. "It's because we use the word 'n-----' sometimes here, and I'm not going to take a chance ever in life of losing everything ... because some f------ n----- heard us use the word 'n-----' and turned us in to the Enquirer". Oh, the irony !
#10. High School Nudity
- Disney's High School Musical is a mega-hit among tweens and teens, so its star Vanessa Hudgens was in a bit of a pickle when a nude photo of her hit the Internet in September. In a statement, Hudgens said she felt "embarrassed over the situation" and that she "regrets having ever taken these photos". A Disney Channel spokesperson responded, in a separate statement, by saying, "We hope she's learned a valuable lesson". Despite speculation that the then-18-year-old singer would be dropped from future installments of the High School Musical movies, in November Hudgens said, "we're all on board" for High School Musical 3.
[mig007]
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Top 10 Quotes of the Year 2007
#1. "I really am not the kind of guy that sits here and says, 'Oh gosh, I'm worried about my legacy'."
— President GEORGE W. BUSH, when asked about his falling approval numbers and mounting criticism of the Iraq War during an interview with CBS' 60 Minutes (Jan. 14, 2007)
#2. "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals, like in your country".
— MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, president of Iran, responding to a question about the treatment of gays and lesbians in Iran during a visit to Columbia University in New York City (Sept. 24, 2007)
#3. "This record is not tainted at all. At all. Period".
— San Francisco Giants slugger BARRY BONDS, after breaking Hank Aaron's Major League Baseball all-time home-run record with his 756th career homer amid rampant speculation that he has used steroids. Bonds has always denied that he ever "knowingly" used performance-enhancing substances, but he was indicted in November for allegedly lying to a federal grand jury about using them (Aug. 7, 2007)
#4. "If you didn't like Darfur, you're going to hate Baghdad".
— Gen. DAVID H. PETRAEUS, warning of the consequences of an early troop withdrawal from Iraq (Aug. 14, 2007)
#5. "This is it. This is where it all ends. End of the road. What a life it was. Some life".
— Virginia Tech gunman CHO SEUNG-HUI, in a chilling video he made and sent to NBC News before killing 32 people and committing suicide in the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history (Apr. 16, 2007)
#6. "I don't think they're piling on because I'm a woman. I think they're piling on because I'm winning".
— HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, on intensifying criticism by rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination (Nov. 2, 2007)
#7. "The planet is in distress and all of the attention is on Paris Hilton. We have to ask ourselves what is going on here ?"
— AL GORE, in an interview with the British paper The Sun, before adding that he believes in 10 years it will be too late to save the planet (June 18, 2007)
#8. "I spent the better part of the past three months enduring criticism that is normally leveled at some kind of genocidal tyrant".
— RUPERT MURDOCH, News Corp. owner, on the outcry over his purchase of the Wall Street Journal (Aug. 8, 2007)
#9. "Hello, Condoleezza Rice ? You have me to deal with now".
— A MASKED HAMAS GUNMAN, joking into the telephone of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after taking control of his government compound (June 15, 2007)
#10. "Why don't you just shut up ?"
— KING JUAN CARLOS, of Spain, to Hugo Chávez at a summit in Chile after the Venezuelan President called former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar a fascist (Nov. 10, 2007)
[mig007]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
.jpg)
