Word: firebrands
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Jack Valenti, the firebrand longtime head of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), was never one to mince words. As the movie industry's chief lobbyist, he knew how to portray his business's challenges in dramatic terms. Back in the 1980s, faced with new technology that supposedly threatened the studios' bottom line, Valenti once famously compared the VCR to the Boston Strangler...
...Sadr group's capacity to disrupt voting in Baghdad and throughout the Shiite south would pose a significant threat. On the other hand, if Sistani perceives the poll as an opportunity to cement the claim of the Shiite majority for the dominant role in shaping Iraq's future, the firebrand Sadr could be persuaded to cooperate...
...Moqtada Sadr's exhortations to battle, his willingness to extend the confrontation throughout southern Iraq and also into Baghdad, and the failure thus far of all efforts to cajole him back into a truce, suggest the firebrand cleric is feeling lucky. By inviting the U.S. military to invade the spiritual epicenter of Iraqi Shiism, the new government risks fatally undermining its prospects for establishing legitimacy among Iraq's majority community. Even though the Sadrists have provoked the confrontation, the prevailing animosity towards the U.S. forces among ordinary Shiites will likely play to Moqtada's advantage in his political challenge...
...former Vermont Gov. Howard B. Dean, yes, and no amount of convention committee vetting could entirely dampen the sincere righteousness that made him such a compelling candidate way back when. But there’s no denying that this was a different Dean than we knew in January, a firebrand muted. Even Sen. Edward M. Kennedy ’54-’56, D-Mass., seemed more restrained than usual, earning applause that must have been more for his sterling record as the Senate’s proud liberal leader than anything he said Tuesday night...
...criminality and arbitrary terror directed at civilians. They are not nearly as troubled by ambushes on U.S. patrols as they are by suicide car bombs driven into crowds of Iraqis lining up for jobs. Iraqi public opinion shows little support for going after a figure such as the Shiite firebrand Moqtada al-Sadr who launched his own insurgency against U.S. forces when they sought to arrest him, but plenty for going after those responsible for mass-casualty attacks on Shiite mosques and other Iraqi targets. Dealing with the suicide-terror element is therefore a top priority for the government...