Word: parliament
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...TIME: But how would it work for you to become president when your small party (the Union for French Democracy, UDF) can never muster a majority in parliament...
...halls of Iraq's Parliament today provide a stark contrast to the bloody realities outside the blast walls and barbed wire. Politicians munch Kit Kats and Twix from a free candy table in the members' lounge area. Leaders of rival factions greet each other as if they were old friends, with air kisses on both cheeks, with a long hand shake and a pat on the shoulder. Meanwhile in much of Iraq death squads take turns torching homes and lopping off heads. Holidays are observed, days off are taken, it's easy to think that while the country goes...
...there a bright side? The Iraqi government is weak by design. The portfolios of the government were handed out like so many pieces of cake. Yet, beyond all expectations, the parliament, however ineffectual, has actually maintained a coalition government in place. And while the government's structure makes it impossible for one person or party to ride roughshod over everyone else, that means decisions are made by a painfully slow process of consensus - which may give them a better chance of sticking. For his part, Maliki has tried to project strength: rushing Saddam Hussein to execution and directing mildly harsh...
...While showing up at Parliament everyday and sharing a Twix with your enemy might appear to be a waste of time, it may provide a release valve to keep the tensions in the rest of the country from totally boiling over. But, unless the politicians get down and do some work, the pressures will become overpowering. There will come a time when good attendance will not be enough. And that time may come very soon...
...them, legendary underground bard Ivan Martin Jirous, also known as Magor (loosely translated as dimwit or bonehead), thunders that he will eliminate a communist prison warder who now sits in parliament, but whom once-jailed dissidents remember for, among other things, forcing them to lick a toilet bowl...