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Tuesday, December 02, 2003

Berlusconi tightens grip on media The Italian Senate has approved a controversial measure which allows Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to consolidate his media domination. A total of 155 senators voted the media bill into law, with 128 against. One provision of the bill is to reverse a court ruling that Mr Berlusconi's Mediaset company must sell off one of its three TV stations by 1 January. The left-wing opposition urged Italy's president not to sign the bill, arguing that it was unconstitutional. 7:18:59 PM    comment []

From January, Alastair Campbell, the prime minister's former director of communications, will be a regular sports writer for The Times. As a taste of things to come, read his diary from earlier this year charting his preparations for the 2003 London Marathon     7:04:55 PM    comment []

The Deficit: Way-hey, and up she rises   “The numbers are astonishing,” McCain said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Congress is now spending money like a drunken sailor,” said McCain, a former Navy officer, “and I’ve never known a sailor, drunk or sober, with the imagination that this Congress has.” He said growth of spending had been capped at 4 percent, but it was at least 8 percent higher. He said he will continue urging Bush to veto profligate spending bills. The president has not vetoed a single bill since he took office. Asked if the president bears some responsibility for what is going on, McCain said: “Yes, because I think that the president cannot say, as he has many times, that ‘I’m going to tell Congress to enforce some spending discipline’ and then not veto bills.” 6:33:42 PM    comment []

Almost three years into his term, Bush has yet to veto a single bill. The budget, in surplus when Bush took office, is hurtling toward a US$500 billion annual deficit.   …But the spending spree goes far beyond increases in homeland security and defence spending. It extends to domestic programmes that, in the past, Democrats championed and Republicans were criticized for trying to reduce or kill.     5:25:00 PM    comment []

Remember “54-40 or fight”? James K. Polk got elected on that slogan, promising war with Canada if he didn’t get his way. He didn’t get his way and there wasn’t any war. That turned out to be not only a false dichotomy but a useless one as well.   Now we’re hearing 54, 46, or maybe no fight. Sunday, US news “outlets” fairly resonated with reports of a fierce battle between US troops and the Fedayeen at Samarra. But by Monday morning, NPR was already carrying disturbing reports from locals that only 8 were killed and that they were civilians. Meanwhile, the death toll rose to 54 in other reports and the well-organized attack became a third-rate attempted heist. Today, The Independent is following through on the Iraqi take on the firefight. Now the fog of war is one thing, but these are not al-Jazeera reports contradicting us – they’re from the locals that we’ve liberated! As Elmer Fudd liked to say, “Heeeey, there's something awfly scwewy going on awound here.” 6:05:02 AM    comment []