Discussions between Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and opposition leaders, including former Presidential hopeful Morgan Tsvangirai start today 
in South Africa. The discussions are designed to give opposition parties a larger seat at the policy-making table. Mugabe has been increasingly pressured by the international community after allegations of an unfair electoral process.
The New York Times refused to publish 
an editorial by Sen. John McCain that was offered as a counter to Sen. Barack Obama's editorial on the state of Iraq. The newspaper claimed that the rebuff was not politically motivated, but hinged on the fact that, in the opinion of the NYT, McCain's editorial did not concretely define what would constitute victory in Iraq.
Comments :
Coaches validate Harrison's rep as NFL's dirtiest player
New England Patriots safety, Rodney Harrison, doesn't realize taking cheaps shots is dirty
In our society, people are rewarded for pretending to be certain about things they're clearly not certain about. -- Sam Harris,
I was confused
For a second I thought you were talking about Marvin Harrison. He's like the Mr. Rogers of the NFL.
I never broke the law; I am the law! --
George W. BushJudge DreddI'm listening to...
Marvin Harrison owns a lot
Marvin Harrison owns a lot of guns
In our society, people are rewarded for pretending to be certain about things they're clearly not certain about. -- Sam Harris,
McCain's BS.
It sounds like the NYT basically thought that McCain was spouting a lot of bullsh!t (i.e. fine sounding words that have no meaning). That's an excellent reason to reject an opinion piece; however, Op-Ed pages are full of BS, so their reasoning isn't quite convincing.
Still, this doesn't necessarily mean that they are being partisan--they could just be using their Op-Ed space as a carrot to convince McCain to provide more specifics. It could be nothing more than a business decision on behalf of the NYT that they want to get some newsworthy statements out fo McCain...thereby raising their prominence.
In my expert opinion, you should do what I tell you to do.
Young Republicans Feeling Blue About Prospects Ahead
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25790713
I kept looking for a quote from GoRight, but they didn't talk to him apparently.
;-)
I survived the Bush Administration
truth-o-meter: presidential attack ads
This is kinda fun and informative:
In my expert opinion, you should do what I tell you to do.
Downsides of capitalism
I predict Tlaloc will appreciate this
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
I could go anywhere in my SUV! But I just drive it to work.
In Grand Theft Auto IV, there is a reference to a guy in working in an office needing a big truck to feel like a man, an "Accountancy Truck."
I'm also reminded of how the American auto makers didn't want to put seat-belts in the cars and some companies would rather hire hookers for political opponents than put in seat-belts.
In our society, people are rewarded for pretending to be certain about things they're clearly not certain about. -- Sam Harris,
It's utlimately our fault
Capitalism does seem to fail (or is at least sub-optimal) when dealing in the long term like the article suggests.
Investors have a very high demand for profits right now, rather than even greater profits a few years down the road at the expense of reduced profits now. This is human nature. At least, it's current human nature.
If we demand as investors the best possible return on our money from quarter to quarter, corporations will be happy to oblige. Of course, we do so at our own peril.
I never broke the law; I am the law! --
George W. BushJudge DreddI'm listening to...
I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.
For a company that holds at least hundreds of thousands of people's financial future, it seems to be a blatent disregard for to see the writing on the wall by those at GM and then to steer the company off the cliff by marketing SUV's to death and then saying "thats what the consumers wanted"
albeit longterm predictions of Return on Investment is hard and has too many variables to rely heavily on and the short term ROI on SUVs looked good [but predicting a very likely increase in fuel cost of a oil shouldn't have been too hard to predict if GM had any economist on its pay force]
In our society, people are rewarded for pretending to be certain about things they're clearly not certain about. -- Sam Harris,
A fallacy
If you are choosing between making X money in the short term or Y money in the long term and you know only X it is a fallacy to decide that X > Y. This also holds if X is easy to calculate and Y is not. I call this "being lazy".
I never broke the law; I am the law! --
George W. BushJudge DreddI'm listening to...
capitalism, or corporatism?
I've heard this problem attributed to "corporatism"--by which the person meant "when a group pools resources and then puts someone else in charge of managing those resources". The manager's prime interest is to maintain control over those resources, so he emphasizes short term (concrete) benefits and obscures long-term (potential) risks.
This applies to government just as much as it does to corporations.
In my expert opinion, you should do what I tell you to do.
Actually, the problem is people
Politicians always delay fixing problems because they only look into the future 2, 4, or 6 years ahead. What they leave for future generations isn't of their concern.
As I hinted, this is a problem with human nature. As capitalism depends on human nature it will only reflect the flaws inherent in us. The market will give the people whatever they want, regardless of its long term efficacy. Remember that the market meets demands. It does not give us what is best for us. As a smart man once said, the capitalist will sell you the rope by which to hang him.
Government will at the very least try to give us what is best for us, but only if we harness it properly. This can also be done via the market, but all men aren't created equal in the eyes of capitalism.
I know much better than the government what is best for me, but the government knows much better than I what is best for the country as a whole.
I never broke the law; I am the law! --
George W. BushJudge DreddI'm listening to...
That's a useful insight
I would agree that's at the root of such problems.
However, it's a bit murky whether that applies to large companies in cases where the CEO collects huge $$ whether the company does well or not, or when an incumbent politician represents a gerrymandered district and has no fear for reelection. One might naively expect that this would provide the CEO/politician with freedom to take a big-picture long-term view, but instead it just seems to invite horrible job performance by any metric.
Maybe companies/government agencies need to separate out long-term planning from day-to-day implementation, and have separate people in charge. Of course that would probably turn into a logistics nightmare too, I can already hear the movie parodies in my head ala Office Space.
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
BHO makes for a horrible Monday Morning Quarterback
I just wonder if BHO claimed that the Soviets played a bigger role defeating the Nazi's, how many people would take umbrage at the remarks and go into a near rage claiming that "only the American's invasion of Nazi controlled France defeated the Nazis."
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/07/pathetic-obama-says-he-would-s...
But the hostile response, begs the question:
Would "The Surge" have succeeded even if the the "Sunni Awakening" and other events not happened after "The Surge" started?
Dennis Miller nonsensical rant time:
It comes down to this:
BHO would lose the games on Sunday if the hindsight decisions he made on Monday were somehow implemented through a time machine.
We need to remember that Americans need to pick themselves up by the bootstraps and improve their lives on their on, but the Iraqis need our help and we need to give them fishing polls, then teach them how to fish, then put a railing up so the Iraqis don't fall in the pond. After that is over we need to make sure we supply the Iraqis with fish that Americans caught even after we gave the Iraqis the equipment and knowhow on how to fish. Americans need to continue to fish for the Iraqis even after calls from the Iraqis that they got this whole fishing technique down and they want the Americans away from their ponds.
In our society, people are rewarded for pretending to be certain about things they're clearly not certain about. -- Sam Harris,
Timing
Well, since the Sunni Awakening actually began before the surge, I think you need to reformulate your question. Don't feel too bad, McCain doesn't know the timeline either
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We are the environment. There is no distinction. What we do to the earth we do to ourselves. —David Suzuki