hink of it all - of the life that is! Study your friends and foes!
Study the past! And answer this: "Are these times better than those?" The life-long quarrel, the paltry spite, the sting of your poisoned pride! No matter who fell it were better to fight as they did when the world was wide.
Hypocrisy on a plate
"KEVIN RUDD will cash in on his first anniversary as Prime Minister by hosting a Labor fund-raiser likely to be one of the largest and most lucrative in Australian political history.Hundreds of lobbyists, business figures and true believers have been sent invitations offering the chance to secure a 10-seat table, with a federal minister in attendance, for $15,000. Tables with no minister are going for $5000. Sources say that, assuming most Labor ministers attend, and the convention centre's Bayside Grand Hall is filled to capacity with 1550 guests, the event could gross more than $1 million, making it one of the biggest political fund-raising dinners in Australia.
It comes after a warning from Mr Rudd this year: "You don't want democracy for sale." Referring to recent election campaigns in the United States that have cost more than $US1 billion ($1.5 billion), Mr Rudd said some democracies had reached the stage with political fund-raising at which "you've got to say, 'Oops, I think this has actually gone too far."'
::View Article::
Those who think that democracy is the one shining beacon in the midst of political darkness need go no further than this dinner. Leaders depend on lobby groups for financial clout and then sway the political climate in a certain direction (favourable to development, for instance) as payment. This mirrors totalitarianism in so far as leaders respond to interest groups rather than the public.
This sort of thing might not be as bad here as in America where leaders are almost totally dependent on lobby groups and political donations (for example to fuel their campaigns) but the difference is simply a matter of degree.
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