| Barack Obama - a John Kennedy for our times
Like Kennedy, he combines personal magnetism with a strong appeal to American idealism. Like Kennedy, he is young and speaks for the new generation of American politics. By ordinary political reckoning, 2008 ought to be the Democrats' year. In 2006 they captured both houses of Congress in mid-term elections. There are, of course, hypothetical events that could change everything. There could be an attack on Mr Obama himself, but he is protected by the Secret Service. There could be an action by al-Qaeda, which would refocus American anxiety on the threat of terror. But al-Qaeda is itself highly political. It would probably not be in its interest to secure the election of Senator John McCain. Al-Qaeda may be unpredictable, but it would be a mistake for it to interfere in American politics, even if it had the capacity to do so.
Budget 2008: Speech of P Chidambaram, Finance Minister
If 1984 and 1991 were turning points in the history of India's economy, 2004 was another turning point. Confident that high growth was sustainable, the UPA Government had declared in the National Common Minimum Programme its intention to make growth more inclusive. Sir, I ask this House, respectfully, to judge our record on inclusive growth from the following sample of facts:
Agricultural credit doubled in the first two years of this Government and is poised to reach a level of Rs.240,000 crore by March 2008.
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme has proved to be a historic measure of empowerment of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and, especially, of women.
The Mid Day Meal Scheme is the largest school lunch programme in the world covering 11.4 crore children.
C H A N D I G A R H S T O R I E S
Despite an increase in the prices of cards and other gifts over the years, there has been no let-up in demand. The reason behind the phenomenon is not hard to see. You may love to hate it, but you just cannot ignore the gifts of love for your partner on a day that celebrates affection. Everyone loves to be pampered with gifts, receive cards or go in for that love dance on the backlit floor of a discotheque, she says. Thats, perhaps, why so many younglings, struck by the Cupids arrow, are blowing up as much Rs 3,000 in a day. Then there is another reason: Contagious love-virus is in the air and catching the infection are not just teenyboppers, but also the not-so-young, she says. Chetan Kumar of The Jewels-11 agrees. He says: Expressing their emotions in the love season of 2008 are married couples brought together by Cupid, parents or circumstances several decades ago.
Extracts: Michael Sheridan interview with bali bomber Imam Samudra
As for the internet, it is not important as a cyber-weapon so much as a distributor of a culture: the spreading of jihad is chiefly a re-education of Muslims to their vision of the faith, not military action. But as Imam Samudra and Amrozi show, the jihadists’ reading of events is one of undiluted self-confidence not only in ultimate, but current victory. In their conception the present world order is an aberration from reality. The eschatology of jihadism demands that a nation built on a contradiction (such as the United States, which they see as built on the falsehoods of man-made laws and constitution) must of necessity collapse upon itself. .
'It has affected my kids - they're seeing me stressed out all the time ...
When the repossession notice finally came, Richard Wadswell felt crushed. The 46-year-old widower and father of two had worked all his life to pay the mortgage. Now his family home of 16 years was to be taken away. A court order hangs over Wadswell (not his real name), and if he misses a single payment to HSBC it will be enforced and he will be out. Calls to repossession advice lines are flooding in four times faster than this time last year and the number of repossessed homes going under the hammer with the country's leading property auctioneer has doubled. The Council for Mortgage Lenders predicts 45,000 homes will be repossessed this year, 50% more than in 2007. Now it seems only a matter of time before Wadswell's semi-detached home in a cul-de-sac in Tameside, Greater Manchester, adds to the statistical gloom.
Default Rates Projected to Soar
New data from the U.S. Education Department confirm that view. In November, the House of Representatives amended legislation to renew the Higher Education Act with a provision that would extend to three years, from the current two, the “cohort default rate," which gauges the proportion of student loan borrowers who default within a certain time period after they leave college. The change, proposed by Rep. Timothy Bishop (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), is designed to make the cohort default rate a more realistic assessment of how individual institutions (and lenders) are faring in keeping student borrowers on track to repayment, both to gauge students’ indebtedness and potential failure by colleges in ensuring that their students are getting an affordable and valuable education.
Running on Blade Runner
Mystery Pollster vs. Kos: On bogus charges of Lieberman "push polls." 12:50 A.M. "Progressive Realism": My colleague Robert Wright's bigthink foreign policy op-ed is currently #4 on the NYT's most e-mailed list, and gaining on Shamu! Here are some questions I hope to take up with Wright on bloggingheads.tv tomorrow: 1. Isn't it crude and unfair to accuse President Bush of failing to understand "the perspective of the other," including "why some people hate America, and why terorists kill"? As E.J. Dionne notes, one premise of the neocon "Big Bang" theory on which Bush acted in Iraq was precisely that "authoritarian regimes bred opposition movements rebelling against the conditions under which too many people lived." Sounds like empathy to me! 2. Wright discounts the short-term costs --in terms of frustrated aspirations and resentment--of delaying the introduction of democracy while we wait for its inevitable natural triumph in the wake of free markets and free trade.
Give the Steelers their due
The Jets' loss was atrocious. The pass protection resembled a turnstile at a New York City subway station, allowing the defensively challenged Jets to sack Ben Roethlisberger seven times. The anemic Jets pass rush had nine sacks all year before the game. Willie Parker had one of his worst games of a great season against a porous run defense. You never run against the Steelers' vaunted defense. Thomas Jones carved them up, becoming the first back to register a 100-yard rushing game in over two years. Kellen Clemens looked like a cross between Steve Young and Randall Cunningham making plays with his arm, legs and brain in crunch time. The Jets won in overtime. It was inexplicable and awful. And you figured Pittsburgh, looking to take out its frustration, would pound poor John Beck and the winless Dolphins into the ground.
Award-winning singer Celine Dion cannot wait to play Dubai
All of us have heard such wonderful things about the city and when we landed it was dark and quite foggy. My son tried desperately to search for the hotel in the middle of the ocean and I told him that mother nature had asked us to wait until tomorrow! We do plan to see the sights during our three-day stay and wish we could stay longer." So what can concert-goers expect from the diva in Dubai? She said: "Just expect a great deal of fun. The new tour show is very modern and has some great dancers. I will sing songs from the new album, Taking Chances, and of course the ones which made me who I am today. "I am enjoying my music more than ever before at the moment. I think in the early years I had something to prove and that brought a lot of pressure but now I feel much more grounded and confident in myself and am just enjoying the music." Finally, Dion spoke about her ability to stay grounded all these years.
Moneysupermarket.com boosts profits more than 50%
Moneysupermarket, the price comparison website, has seen a strong start to the new year and unveiled higher-than-expected profits today. The firm, which floated on the stock market in July, said earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 57% to £52.9m, beating City expectations of £51.8m. Revenues climbed 56% to £163m. The shares, which were priced at 170p at the flotation, were down 1p to 132p on Tuesday. "We have made a strong start to the current financial year," said chief executive Simon Nixon. The money division has enjoyed double-digit growth in the year to date, with a broadly flat performance in loans and mortgages offset by very strong growth in credit card and savings products. The division managed to shrug off last year's credit turmoil and saw revenues grow by 48.7% last year.
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