republican debate
In republican debateSunday, November 13, 2011
The CBS News/National Journal debate Saturday night was the first to focus on foreign policy, and it generated fewer fireworks - but more substance - than many of its predecessors. For that reason we aren't going to simply list winners and losers this time around and instead discuss the candidates' performances - though we're still putting those we thought did best at the top.
Special Report: The CBS News/National Journal Debate
Mitt Romney: Romney has been better than his rivals in presidential debates so often that it's gotten to the point where a strong performance - as he had in this debate - feels almost ho-hum. Romney managed to be hawkish on issues like Iran while also leaving himself a little breathing room, playing to a Republican base that still views him skeptically.
And despite being widely seen as the frontrunner for the nomination, Romney didn't take any serious blows from his rivals. (Gingrich notably declined to elaborate on his not-so-veiled criticism of Romney as little more than a competent manager who wouldn't change Washington.) Romney's only cause for concern: If he's supposed to be the man to beat, why aren't his rivals more eager to take him down?
Alberta's unlikely defender
Saturday, November 12, 2011
This, after all, is the man who fought a well-meaning but doomed "Green Shift" campaign in the 2008 election where he argued in favour of a national carbon tax. This is a politician who has a dog named Kyoto.When Dion arrived in Alberta on Wednesday he was about as far from home as he could get for a Montreal-based, francophone, academic, Liberal MP and still be on planet Earth.
However, Dion didn't seem intimidated. In fact, he had all the confidence of a man who not only believes in his cause but who sees himself as the defender of Alberta's interests.
For Dion, the federal government's plans for Senate elections are not only unconstitutional, they would actually place Alberta at a disadvantage.
The government's proposals bypass the Constitution and set up a system where the provinces would hold elections for senators. Dion argues that having senators go through the process of an election would create a power struggle between the House of Commons and the Senate. Senators, flush with the power of the ballot box, would no longer defer to the elected Commons as they now normally do.
That would be a serious problem for Alberta because the province has only six senators. Ontario and Quebec each have 24. Harper's proposal does nothing to address the distribution of seats in the Senate. That would require a constitutional amendment.
It is not difficult to imagine senators throwing their considerable weight around to the detriment of under-represented provinces. You would have 48 elected senators from Ontario and Quebec potentially stomping all over the six elected senators from Alberta.
For the same reason, the Senate would be at odds with the Commons. And there'd be no referee.
"We would not have any disputes resolution mechanism between the two elected chambers," Dion says of Harper's plan. "We would import into Canada the difficulties you have in the U.S. and in Mexico. It means Alberta and British Columbia would have no other choice but to ask for the reopening of the Constitution to protect their people."
Alberta and B.C. would want to reopen the Constitution because that's the only way to change the regional makeup of the Senate to give the West more representation and Central Canada less. But the moment you do that you'd be opening a Pandora's box of constitutional changes and amendments on all sorts of issues.
"It is legitimate today to propose reforms that might include term limits or Senate elections," says Dion. "But that must not be done through a process that excludes the provinces."
Dion is not alone in his argument, even in Alberta.
His opposition to Harper's plans is identical to that of former premier Don Getty, who led Alberta's fight for Senate reform during the fruitless constitutional talks between the premiers and then-prime minister Brian Mulroney in the early 1990s. Getty's goal was a Triple-E Senate, one that would be equal, elected and effective. But it could only have been achieved through a constitutional amendment.
There is more than a small measure of irony here having a Quebec-based Liberal defending the rights of Alberta. And there's a twinkle of mischief in Dion's eyes as he does it.
He also takes great pleasure in showing up Harper over another of the government's proposals for democratic reform: adding 30 new seats to the House of Commons - 20 for Ontario, six each for Alberta and British Columbia and three for Quebec.
Dion points to a Hansard transcript from Nov. 25, 1994 where three Reform party MPs - one of them a rookie named Stephen Harper - issued a report arguing against enlarging the Commons.
"A smaller House offers considerable cost savings, less government and fewer politicians - and clearly this is what Canadians want," said Harper's report. "All indications are that Canadians want spending cuts starting at the top, and would not consider fewer MPs a sacrifice. Fewer MPs offer the immediate advantage of reducing parliamentary costs."
Dion, it should be noted, is not arguing against all democratic reforms."We do need to rebalance the House's seat allocation to address the needs of the provinces with strong population growth," he says. "But we can do that without raising the total number of MPs."
For a few moments Dion doesn't sound like a Quebec-based Liberal academic; he sounds more like an Alberta-based Reformer from 17 years ago.
French fashion king Yves Saint Laurent dies
French fashion king Yves Saint Laurent has died at the age of 71, hailed as a 20th century cultural icon who revolutionized the way women dressed.The reclusive Saint Laurent's couture creations won global fine art status and he was widely considered to be one of an elite club of designers including Christian Dior and Coco Chanel who made Paris the fashion capital of the world.
From Princess Grace of Monaco to the actress Catherine Deneuve, Saint Laurent's creations adorned many famous women but he was also the first designer to make luxury labels accessible to a wider audience through innovative read-to-wear collections.
He exploded on to the world stage at just 21 and built up a clothes, perfumes and accessories empire that resulted in a 1989 stock market flotation -- the first by a fashion house.
But Saint Laurent, whose death on Sunday was announced without any details of the cause, was plagued by health problems -- he suffered from severe depression and underwent treatment for alcohol abuse.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy praised Saint Laurent as a creative genius. "He was convinced that beauty was a luxury that every man and woman needed," Sarkozy said in a statement.
"(Coco) Chanel gave women freedom. Yves Saint Laurent gave them power," Saint Laurent's long-time friend and business partner Pierre Berge told France Info radio.
"(But) he was someone who was very shy and introverted, who had only very few friends and hid himself from the world."
Saint Laurent, who retired in 2002, was widely credited with changing forever what women wore, making the trouser suit a daytime staple and the tuxedo an elegant option.
He also popularized safari jackets and thigh-high boots, and his transparent blouses made near-nudity acceptable in high society. His square-shouldered suits became classics and he simplified evening-wear, moving from shocking satins to flowing white crepe of Hellenic purity.
"He completely revamped a woman's wardrobe," luxury underwear designer Chantal Thomass told French radio. "His fashion was full of color and inspired by art."
EARLY TALENT
The eldest child of a wealthy French industrialist, Saint Laurent was born and grew up in the then French colony of Algeria and showed a talent for design, making clothes for his younger sisters' dolls.
At 17 he entered a Paris fashion school, and his sketch for a cocktail dress won first prize in an annual contest.
Introduced to Christian Dior, the gangly Saint Laurent was hired on the spot by the creator of the "New Look" and became his chief assistant. On Dior's death in 1957, Saint Laurent became chief designer and swiftly outshone his mentor.
After his first collection introduced the widely copied "trapeze" silhouette with narrow shoulders and flared skirt, the shy 21-year-old was pushed out on to the Dior building balcony and crowds in the avenue below hailed him like royalty.
Saint Laurent directed Dior for three years, until drafted for military service during the Algerian war.
For a sensitive person whose homosexuality had made his school years a torture, army life was an ordeal. He had a nervous breakdown and spent nearly three months in hospital.
Berge got a businessman to provide backing for the young designer to establish his own fashion house, and Saint Laurent presented his first collection under his own name in 1962.
The "YSL" empire grew steadily and Saint Laurent showed an instinctive ability to sense what the mood on the streets was and turn it into high fashion.
But by the late 1980s his health problems were an issue.
Insiders said Saint Laurent, who never read newspapers or listened to the radio, became increasingly cut off from reality and lost touch with all but a tiny group of friends.
"Fame has destroyed him," Berge once said.
"All designers have a bit of the megalomaniac in them -- the only difference is that the fake designers, the bad ones, are happy megalomaniacs while the real ones are unhappy megalomaniacs. Saint Laurent is an unhappy megalomaniac."
Despite the personal demons, his business empire thrived. The 1989 flotation was a runaway success.
But when the Gulf War erupted and the world economy slumped in the early 1990s, Berge and Saint Laurent sank into debt.
In 1992, YSL was absorbed by cosmetics and drugs company Sanofi, with Saint Laurent retaining creative control. Then in 1999 it was bought by the Gucci group, itself controlled by French luxury giant PPR.
Saint Laurent, rarely seen in public after his retirement, was awarded one of France's top honors in 2007.
RTL radio said a funeral service was planned for Friday.
Celebden Style Check!!
Kalki Koechlin was at the launch of the new tods Signature Collection at its boutique at DLF Emporio, New Delhi.
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Tuesday, August 23, 2011
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