:Archives (June 12, 2003)

Thursday June 12

With Peace Like This, Who Needs "War"

In just a week, a surge of bloodletting has plunged United States-led peacemaking efforts in the Middle East into turmoil. Meanwhile, post-war Iraq is proving to be every bit as violence-ridden as the war itself, with today's attack on a US Apache helicopter as a prime illustration. So if this is peace, what 's war?

 Posted by glenn at 01:12 PM | Comments (0)

Spreading Bernie's Slime

Several long-time exeuctives of MCI and WorldCom resigned yesterday after being singled out by Richard Thornburgh, appointed to investigate WorldCom's mega-collapse, for not ensuring directors paid closer attention when signing off on acquisitions and approving multi-millon dollar loans to former Chief Executive Bernard Ebbers. WorldCom Says General Counsel, Criticized in Report, Resigns [Bloomberg.com].

The funny thing is that the GC, Mike Salsbury, is someone I worked for long ago (15+ years). I won't comment on his reputation, but resigning in disgrace under the cloud of investigation in the world's largest corporate scandal is certainly not the way anyone wants to go. (Sure beats "the perp walk" though!!) Bernie lost his ranch and now faces possible indictment. How far will his slime spread? The only way to answer that question is to see how far the culuture he brought to WorldCom infected other high-ranking executives.

 Posted by glenn at 12:59 PM | Comments (1)

Straight Talk Express

During his presidential campaign in 2000, Sen. John McCain called his bus the "Straight Talk Express," so dubbed as an honorific to his reputation for political candor. Well, he's done it again in the Middle East, where Pres. Bush refuses to stop America's long-time practice of pressuring Israel to show "restraint" in the face of terrorist attacks.

"I believe that if anybody came to my hometown of Phoenix, Arizona, and set off a bomb on a bus and killed 18 people and injured a hundred of them, my citizens would expect us to respond," McCain said. "You want to call that a cycle of violence, you can call it what you want. But these acts of terror, organizations funded by the Saudis, at least encouraged by PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, are inexcusable in their tactics and in their results are horrendous."

As usual, McCain is a breath of fresh air in Washington, and now internationally.

 Posted by glenn at 10:18 AM | Comments (0)