In 2008, while America witnessed one of our nation's most exciting general elections, the American news media was launching its own political campaign-one that injected spin and bias, in its most toxic form, into the delivery of almost every story related to the presidential elections.

Mark Anderson has spent fifteen years serving his country in the United States Armed Forces and shares his blog entries that chronologically document the sometimes blatant tactics employed by the news media during the primary and general elections. Through his personal observations, Anderson contemplates whether the outcome of the election was solely the will of the people or in part a result of the toxic reporting methods employed by the news media. Anderson also examines how the news media systematically ostracized Senator Hillary Clinton when Senator Barack Obama reached "rock star status" during the national elections, how the focus on John McCain's health and age played a part in his general elections loss, and how American news media entities successfully reversed the public's infatuation with then Governor Sarah Palin.

"In the Tank-A Bound Blog" offers a thoughtful scrutiny of the American news media industry as a whole during a monumental time in America's history and encourages lively discussions on how much political power it now possesses.

Although scholars increasingly understand Scripture to contain political dimensions and implications, the interpretation of Scripture is often marginalized in most scholarly discussions of political theology. Reading Scripture as a Political Act takes a step toward remedying this situation by exploring some of the ways the church has read Scripture politically. This volume examines the political character of premodern and modern theologians' readings of Scripture with attention to how their readings relate to or address political challenges in their particular social and historical settings. The essays attempt to illuminate the ways that the theological interpretation of Scripture shaped the theopolitical imaginations of Augustine, Bonaventure, John Wesley, Karl Barth, Henri de Lubac, and John Howard Yoder, among others. Several essays in the volume suggest how these models of reading Scripture can inform the contemporary task of reading Scripture in political contexts. The volume covers the earliest Christian centuries to the late modern era, and considers carefully the close coordination between Scripture, theology, and social and political concerns.

The corporate governance systems of continental Europe have traditionally been quite different to those of the liberal market economies (e.g. the US and the UK). Company ownership has been dominated by incumbent blockholders, with a relatively minor role for minority shareholders and institutional investors. Business strategy has focused on the achievement of social stability--taking into account the interests of a broad group stakeholders--rather than the maximisation of shareholder value.
However, since the mid-1990s, European corporations have adopted many of the characteristics of the Anglo-American shareholder model. Furthermore, such an increased shareholder-orientation has coincided with a significant role for the Left in European government. This presents a puzzle, as conventional wisdom does not usually conceive of the Left as an enthusiastic proponent of pro-shareholder capitalism. This book provides an analysis of this paradox by examining how economic factors have interacted with the policy preferences of political parties to cause a significant change in the European system of corporate governance.
This book argues that the post-war support of the European Left for the prevailing blockholder-dominated corporate system depended on the willingness of blockholders to share economic rents with employees, both through higher wages and greater employment stability. However, during the 1990s, product markets became more competitive in many European countries. The sharing of rents between social actors became increasingly difficult to sustain. In such an environment, the Left relinquished its traditional social partnership with blockholders and embraced many aspects of the shareholder model.
This explanation is supported through a panel data econometric analysis of 15 non-liberal market economies. Subsequent case study chapters examine the political economy of recent corporate governance change in Germany and Italy.

In the hallowed halls of the capital, some who have sworn to preserve our nation's union are secretly plotting its demise ... and they are willing to kill to achieve their goals.
The country has been split into two distinct factions over energy - "the haves" (those states that are fuel self-sufficient) and "the have nots." The inept execution of a flawed foreign policy in the Middle East has resulted in an Arab-backed oil embargo of the United States.
Now the country is in the grips of the most severe winter in years, and rationing has led to unrest and rioting in the streets and certain politicians and business power brokers are ready to make a move.
As masses freeze in Chicago and the northeast, fuel-sufficient sunbelt conspirators seek to separate themselves from the rest of the nation, make their own foreign policy, and govern by their own rules and to do it they will resort to blackmail, bribery, and even murder.
The Constitution is only a stumbling block, and it can be amended.
The United States will be united no more.

At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.

"Climbing A Florida Mountain" is the memoir of an English family who moved to Florida in 1981 in search of the American dream. John Freshwater, his wife Mo and their three young children gave up a privileged lifestyle in southern England to try their luck in Naples, Florida. But the quest has been something of a nightmare, with amazing tales of financial disaster, cultural clashes and immigration hell.
Despite the Freshwater's troubles, it is a moving and highly amusing account, which is written, in a fast, first person style by the father of the family. The story has an uplifting and poignancy ending that goes some way to proving the pursuit of material pleasures is not necessarily the answer. This is more than a simple 'relocation' yarn and reflects the realities of a decent family trying to get on in this world.

The public sector provides services to the public and does not expect to acquire financial gain; hence, the practices from the private sector could not be used efficiently without modification, bearing in mind that the main scope of the public organization is to provide quality services to the citizens. Knowledge management can acquire and transfer knowledge in order to succeed in this effort and to confront challenges that exist in the modern knowledge economy. Therefore, knowledge management can play a vital role in the reorganization of the public sector and its necessary organizational change. Knowledge Management Practices in the Public Sector is a collection of innovative research on the methods and applications of improving the quality of public services through the implementation of knowledge management in public organizations. While highlighting topics including intellectual capital, risk assessment, and organizational strategy, this book is ideally designed for policymakers, ICT consultants, public sector workers, public administrators, government officials, researchers, scholars, and students.

Our government has been pissing me off for years and finally it boiled over. Both parties have been creeping towards Socialism for years. Obama and the Democrats have socialism on steroids The Republicans have been more subtle about it. I thought we had some hope when the Republicans gained the House. Speaker John Boehner is not much better than Pelosi. He caved on the debt ceiling and gives too much ground to Obama. Obama, his Czars and 98% of the Democrats are the most corrupt gang of thieves in history. The reason the government hates the Mafia and drug cartels is because they are competing with our government. With subsidies and the printing of money by the Feds $ billions or $ trillions have disappeared into a "black hole." There are millionaires being made within our government. There is no accountability at all. A Republican House is allowing this to happen. Bernie Madoff will spend the rest of his life for doing the same thing in the private sector.

The genesis of the sub prime fiasco that resulted in this catastrophic financial melt down began with flawed credit reports. These were the bed rock upon which this house of cards was constructed. But the big question is how could these villains have escaped censure during the media blitz of the past year that blamed anyone remotely responsible? This gold standard of the FICO scores fails even base metal quality. How can these most malignant contributors be over looked and forgotten? Just how have they seemingly totally escaped criticism? Proof of inflation FICO scores is the elephant outside that is evidenced by the millions and millions of existing bad loans complete with documentation. Proof of misdeeds are legend. No conversation will be sufficient to offset these lies accepted as gospel. FICO is a four letter word explains it all.

This book examines the changes and challenges to democracy particularly in contemporary Russia. In the first section, Russian and American philosophers scrutinize the virtues and vices facing a country changing to a democratic government. The book, secondly, explores the challenges facing a democratic Russia. Lastly, the book considers carefully issues of social justice arising from the relationship between democracy and the current economic climate of globalization. The series Contemporary Russian Philosophy explores a variety of perspectives in and on philosophy as it is currently being practiced in Russia. Co-sponsored by the Center for Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and by the Russian Philosophical Society, this special series features collaborative works between Russians and Americans, collections of essays by Russians, and monographs by Russians. All volumes are published in English.

These memoirs of Leonard Nikani give a graphic portrayal of a black man growing up in racist South Africa. Leonard began to question the racist system while still at school. As a student at Fort Hare University he became involved in the political struggle, joining the Society of Young Africa, the youth organisation of the Unity Movement of South Africa. He remained committed to the political struggle for the rest of his life. He exposes the policies of the ANC and the South African Communist Party in the liberation struggle, which led to their failure in government to meet the demands of the masses. Like so many other political activists he was hounded by the racists and forced into exile. He gives a dramatic account of a secret mission to South Africa for his organisation, and his subsequent escape to and imprisonment in Swaziland. Following his release from prison he lived in Sweden, where he remarried and had two children. He died in 1999 in Sweden.

"Sic Semper Res Publica "describes how America is following down the road of the Roman Republic, Ming Chinese Dynasty, Tokugawa Shogunate, and many other fallen civilizations. It was written by a sixteen-year-old AP student from Michigan who wrote it to preserve his sanity as he observed what happened around him in the past decade. It discusses the Founders' idea for a republic, the threats we face from oligarchy, socialism, corporations, government, and a lack of morals alike, and stresses the need for self-enlightenment and honesty in society. Learn how to stop America's demise and fight for our experiment in republican democracy

This volume examines how power was framed in Visigothic society and how a diverse population with a complex and often conflicting cultural inheritance was thereby held together as a single kingdom. Indeed, through this dynamic process a new, early medieval society emerged. Understanding this transformation is no simple matter, as it involved the deployment of an array of political and cultural resources: the production of knowledge, the appropriation of Patristic literature, controlling and administering rural populations, reconceptualizing the sacred, capital punishment and exile, controlling the manufacture of currency, and defining Visigothic society in relation to other polities such as the neighbouring Byzantine state. In order to achieve an analysis of these different phenomena, this volume brings together researchers from a variety of disciplines. This interdisciplinary approach therefore expands the available sources and reformulates topics of traditional scholarship in order to engage with a renewal of Visigothic Studies and reformulate the paradigm of study itself. As a result, this volume rethinks frameworks of power in the Peninsula along not only historical and archaeological but also anthropological terms, presenting the reader with a new understanding of Iberian society as a whole.

Miyazawa Kiichi played a leading role in Japan's government and politics from 1942 until 2003, during which time he served as Prime Minister, and also as Minister of Finance, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of International Trade and Industry, Director General of the Economic Planning Agency, and Chief Cabinet Secretary. In this oral history autobiography, he discusses with candor and detail a wide range of topics, including his 1939 visit to the United States, recovery policies during the postwar occupation, the San Francisco Peace Treaty, and Japan's role in international organizations such as GATT and OECD, and gives a thoughtful insider's view of six decades of Japanese politics, closing with his thoughts on Japan's role in the 21st century. Miyazawa's testimony contains the unmistakable richness of the words of one who was present as history was being made. The political candor, unmatched scope, and largely first-person narrative make this book unique.