Former IRA chief of staff and Sinn Féin presidential candidate says he would meet all heads of state without exception Former IRA chief of staff Martin McGuinness has said would be willing to meet the Queen if he was elected Irish president. In his first comments after being announced as Sinn Féin’s surprise candidate for the presidency, McGuinness, who is deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, said he would meet all international heads of state without exception. When asked about the possibility of hosting British royalty, he said: “If the people of Ireland decided that I should be their president, my responsibilities and duties would be to meet heads of state from all over the world and to do that without exception, and that would be my position.” The Sinn Féin MP who admitted he was the Provisional IRA’s second-in-command in Derry during Bloody Sunday also said he was also ready to tackle questions about the IRA during the presidential campaign. Opponents have already said his former IRA role could destabilise the power-sharing executive back at Stormont. But McGuinness said he believed he had played a key role in ending the decades of violence and wanted to look to a new future. “The past is a terrible place but I think I am seen very much as a part of the future. “This is about new beginnings and I have been at the heart of new beginnings.” He added that the Irish people had “more sense” than to be swayed by hostile media. “The people of Ireland have watched the political progress that Gerry Adams and I have been at the heart of for many years. “I think I would prefer their judgment than the judgment of media who are looking for spectacular headlines.” Speaking at Belfast’s international airport on his return from a US trip, McGuinness said his candidacy was only finalised in the last week. The decision has already been described as the republican movement’s most audacious political move since IRA prisoner Bobby Sands was elected an MP while on prison hunger strike in 1981. McGuinness has built up a close personal relationship with Peter Robinson, the Democratic Unionist first minister in the five-party coalition in Northern Ireland. Although McGuinness will have to step down temporarily from the post as deputy first minister during the three-week long presidential campaign, sources said that would be a “mess but not a crisis” for the power-sharing government in Belfast. While he is likely to increase Sinn Féin’s national share of the vote in the Republic above the 9% it gained in this year’s general election, McGuinness is not expected to win the presidential contest. Asked if he could win, McGuinness said: “That remains to be seen. I will leave that to the people of Ireland.” His candidacy will be formally endorsed by his party on Sunday at a meeting in Dublin. McGuinness added: “I intend to build on the progress that has been made within the peace process. “And most importantly of all, I hope that this gives an opportunity to Irish citizens to make a stand for a new beginning, for a new Ireland. “I have been at the heart of many new beginnings in the North over the course of recent years.” If McGuinness were to be elected as head of state it would mark a career during which he had been chief of staff of an organisation outlawed in both Northern Ireland and the Republic and ends up being chief of staff of the officially recognised Irish defence forces. Fine Gael’s Gay Mitchell, Special Olympics boss Mary Davis, businessman Sean Gallagher and Labour’s Michael D Higgins of Labour, have already put their names forward for the October election. Martin McGuinness Ireland Europe Monarchy IRA Northern Ireland David Batty guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Forensics teams examine scene at Gleision colliery after four men found dead in flooded mine An investigation has been launched after four men died in a flooded south Wales colliery in the worst mining disaster for 30 years. The inquiry was announced after the discovery of the bodies of the miners, who had been trapped deep underground at the Gleision colliery in the Swansea Valley. Police and safety officials promised to establish how and why they were killed. Forensics teams at the mine in the village of Cilybebyll have begun to piece together what happened. The four – Charles Breslin, 62, David Powell, 50, Phillip Hill, 45, and Garry Jenkins, 39 – were trapped after water poured into the shaft they were working in on Thursday morning. Three others, including Powell’s son, Daniel, managed to get out and raise the alarm. The Welsh secretary, Cheryl Gillan, said: “We must ensure we learn the lessons and find out what happened to these men.” She said the investigation would initially be led by South Wales police before being handed over to the Health and Safety Executive. David Cameron described the tragedy as a “desperately, desperately sad situation”. The prime minister said the anguish of the miners’ families was “intense” but added it was clear the emergency services had done everything they could. Peter Vaughan, chief constable of South Wales police, said: “We’ve tried to bring this safely to its conclusion. Unfortunately the conclusion we have is the one none of us wanted.” Expressing his condolences to the men’s families, he said: “I can’t begin to imagine what the families are going through. “We’ve been humbled by the community spirit that’s been shown during this most tragic of incidents.” Fire and rescue and ambulance workers said they had never seen or worked in such conditions before. Of the three men who escaped the flooded mine, one is now critically ill in hospital. The two other men who were with him emerged largely unharmed and helped the rescue operation. Neath MP Peter Hain said: “This is the end we all feared but hoped against hope wouldn’t happen. “Extraordinary courage was shown by the families right through the night, tortuous hours of waiting. We can’t imagine what they have been through. “This has been a stab right through the heart of these local communities. There’s a long tradition of mining here but nobody expected the tragedies of past generations would come today.” Richard Smith, chief fire officer for Mid and West Wales fire and rescue service, said: “Ambulance and fire officers have all expressed to me that within 30 years of service they’ve never actually seen such conditions and worked in such conditions that they’ve had to over the last two days to try and bring this to a satisfactory conclusion.” Asked whether any of the men ever stood a chance of surviving, Smith said: “It’s a bit too early to tell whether they would have stood any chance of survival or not but the fact that I think that them being together where they were working will probably be indicative of that.” The archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, said: “My heart goes out to the families of those killed in Gleision colliery. The whole community is heartbroken for them.” Wales Mining David Batty guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …• Hit F5 to refresh or turn on the automatic widget below • Email your thoughts to scott.murray@guardian.co.uk • Watch World Cup video highlights, interviews and more • Visit our dedicated Rugby World Cup site 5 min: Rob Kearney hits Kurtley Beale with a ridiculous high tackle. That was almost moustache height. That’ll be a penalty to Australia, who toy with the idea of kicking for the corner, but think better of showing such rank disrespect. James O’Connor will kick, ten yards in from the left on the 22. 4 min: This is already shaping up into a tidy battle. Ireland stream forward into the Aussie half, going on a couple of sorties, but after setting a ruck, the Wallabies counter-ruck brilliantly and make off up the other end of the pitch. That romp comes to nothing too, but both teams have come out with a very positive mindset. And we’re off! Australia kick off. Earls takes the catch, and steps carelessly into touch. Not a good start for the Irish. The Wallabies win the line out on the Irish 22, and set themselves in the centre of the park, but good work from the Irish forwards reclaims the ball. There’s a brief brouhaha, Sean O’Brien in the middle of it, swinging wild haymakers in the JD Wetherspoon style. And a penalty to Ireland, as it appears O’Brien was reacting to some Aussie sauce. The early danger is over. The teams are out! Australia are in their trademark gold and green, Ireland their fully copyrighted green and white. There’s the traditional Māori welcome of a big topless bloke playing hard bop on an exceptionally large wooden tube, in scenes not totally dissimilar to Mulligan and O’Hare’s interpretation of Another Day In Paradise . And then it’s a blast of Advance Australia Fair and Ireland’s Call. They’ll be a-passin’ and a-puntin’ in a minute! Getting One’s Excuses In Early (Preserve Of Northern Hemisphere Fans) dept. “Firstly I dont see us winning, we will lose like heroes as usual, but a loss is a loss.” That’s the spirit, Anthony O’Connell. “On the RWC, I think it is unfair on all teams, with the exception of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. These three teams come into the competition at the back end of their season whereas the vast majority with any chance of winning are still basically in pre-season. Nothing beats competitive games, friendlies are worth nothing. Play it in March and I think our home nations would do a lot better.” Venue: The 60,000-capacity Eden Park in Auckland. Referee: Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand) Kick off: 9.30am BST (which is 9.30pm in the Kiwi coin). Australia: Beale, O’Connor, Fainga’a, McCabe, Ashley-Cooper, Cooper, Genia; Kepu, Moore, Alexander, Vickerman, Horwill, Elsom, McCalman, Samo. Replacements: Polota-Nau, Slipper, Simmons, Palu, Higginbotham, Burgess, Mitchell. Ireland: Kearney, Bowe, O’Driscoll, D’Arcy, Earls, Sexton, Reddan; Healy, Best, Ross, O’Callaghan, O’Connell, Ferris, O’Brien, Heaslip. Replacements: Cronin, Court, Ryan, Leamy, Murray, O’Gara, Trimble. And so to the teams. And the big news is, the influential Wallaby openside flanker David Pocock has failed a late fitness test; Ben McCalman will replace him. Not looking on the bright side II: The Irish have been out on the lash , according to the tabloids us. The bar tab ran to £1,600, which sounds quite a lot, until you factor in food, and that there’s about 600 people in the touring party. And anyway, aren’t rugby players supposed to roister-doister around the joint, necking pints with reckless abandon so we don’t have to? These are austere times, so let us at least live vicariously, for goodness sake. Exile on Main Street wouldn’t sound half as good if Keith Richards didn’t have heroin rolling out of his eyeballs when he was making it, now would it? Not looking on the bright side: Ireland always give Australia a game, yet nearly always conspire to lose it. Ireland, of course, are in the middle of their worst patch of form for years and years and years. Four consecutive losses coming into the tournament, and an opening-match disgrace against the USA. But let’s look on the bright side: they always give Australia a game. Morning, everyone! So here come Australia, whose second-half performance against Italy was probably the most impressive by any team in the tournament so far. Do Ireland have a strategy in place to deal with these guys? “The night before grabbing hold of them, locking them up and putting them in a room somewhere? Short of that, no.” Les Kiss, there, Ireland’s defence coach. Hmm. Rugby World Cup 2011 Australia rugby union team Ireland rugby union team Rugby union Scott Murray guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Part 1 on the Associated Press's September 16 evening story (“Obama admin reworked Solyndra loan to favor donor”; saved here at my web host for future reference, fair use and discussion purposes) by Matthew Daly and Jack Gillum criticized the reporters and the wire service for making it appear as if all the findings in the story were the result of original work. Two other paragraphs in the report in my opinion represent a blatant but clumsy attempt to give the impression that the bankruptcy of a major beneficiary of Department of Energy stimulus-driven loans was a bipartisan fiasco: Argonaut is an investment vehicle of the George Kaiser Family Foundation of Tulsa, Okla. The foundation is headed by billionaire George Kaiser, a major Obama campaign contributor and a frequent visitor to the White House. Kaiser raised between $50,000 and $100,000 for Obama's 2008 campaign, federal election records show. Kaiser has made at least 16 visits to the president's aides since 2009, according to White House visitor logs. Madrone Partners is affiliated with the Walton family, descendants of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton. Rob Walton, the eldest son of Sam Walton, contributed $2,500 last year to the National Republican Congressional Committee. Y'all get the point, don't you? George Kaiser, Democrat. Rob Walton, Republican. Therefore, the takeaway is supposed to be that donors to both parties were somehow involved in convincing the government to allow their January Argonaut-Madrone loan of $69 million to have senior status over all other debt, including money the company owed Uncle Sam. Even ignoring the huge difference in amounts given — Give me a break. But it's far worse than that. Rob Walton gave far more money to Democrats in 2008 when it arguably would have been far more relevant to getting Solyndra's original funding. Additionally, I couldn't even find the $2,500 contribution to the RNC the AP reporters claim occurred. Madrone Partners may be funded by the Waltons, and I don't want to pretend that they have no influence, but as seen here , the investment firm's two executives, Greg Boyd Penner and Thomas A. Patterson, are not family members. In addition, the investment firm appears to have no publicly identified board or committees, which would not be particularly unusual for such an operation. Readers will note at this Business Week link that Penner and Patterson have 115 and 39 “relationships,” respectively. These “relationships” are described at each gentleman's link as “Board Members Affiliated.” Those listed appear to be members of other boards on which Penner and Patterson serve. Patterson's
Continue reading …Click here to view this media Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann told supporters in Costa Mesa, California Friday that President Barack Obama’s plan was to allow the Medicare system to collapse so it could be replaced with “Obamacare.” “I was in the White House a couple of months ago with President Obama and we asked him the question, ‘Mr. President, Medicare is in trouble, it’s in trouble, what is your plan?’” she recalled. “And he mumble, mumble, mumbled and didn’t answer the question. And then we asked him a second time, ‘What’s your plan for Medicare?’ He mumble, mumble, mumbled, didn’t answer the question. We asked asked him a third time, ‘What’s your answer for Medicare?’ And he mumble, mumble, mumbled and then he said something very interesting. He said, ‘Obamacare.’” “In all likelihood, his plan is that Medicare collapses and senior citizens go into Obamacare,” Bachmann explained. The candidate went on to claim the president had “abused his authority on Obamacare” because the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued guidelines that require health insurance companies to cover women’s health care services, including birth control, without co-pays or deductibles. “It wasn’t very long ago that he ordered all insurance companies in the United States, all private insurance companies, now you must offer a certain pharmaceutical drug to all women across the United States, whether you agree with the issue or not, and you cannot even charge a co-pay… This is a stunning level of power where a president can just like that — like a dictator — force a private insurance company to have to offer something or not offer something,” she said. But the reforms offered in “Obamacare” weren’t Bachmann’s only target Thursday. The Minnesota Republican released a campaign video attacking Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s attempt to mandate HPV vaccinations to prevent cervical cancer in 11-year-old and 12-year-old girls, calling the plan “Perrycare.” “As a parent of three daughters, I believe that parents are the ones who should decide if our young daughters should received injections for sexually transmitted diseases,” she declared. “And so, whether its Obamacare or whether its Perrycare, I oppose any governor or president who mandates a family’s health care choices.” At the CNN Tea Party Express debate Monday, Bachmann had attacked Perry for attempting to issue the mandate after vaccine maker Merck contributed to his campaign. The next day she went even further , claiming that mental retardation was a “very real concern” with the drug. The Center for Disease Control recommends the vaccine and maintains that it is safe. Click here to view this media
Continue reading …The public learned on September 3 from William McQuillen at Bloomberg (possibly earlier elsewhere) that now-bankrupt Soyndra's private investors restructured the company's finances in January by lending the company “$75 million.” As a condition of doing so, they convinced the government to give the new loan senior status over all other creditors. Now taxpayers face a likely loss of hundreds of millions in Department of Energy loans, perhaps over $500 million. On September 7, Peg Brickley at the Wall Street Journal clarified that the amount involved was $69 million, and identified the names of the lending entities involved (HT to American Thinker for both stories). But if you haven't stayed with or are unfamiliar with the story and read the Associated Press report this evening by Matthew Daly and Jack Gillum, you would think that the wire service did all of the dirty work to learn these things (credit-hogging language in bold): Obama admin reworked Solyndra loan to favor donor The Obama administration restructured a half-billion dollar federal loan to a troubled solar energy company in such a way that private investors – including a fundraiser for President Barack Obama – moved ahead of taxpayers for repayment in case of a default, government records show. Administration officials defended the loan restructuring, saying that without an infusion of cash earlier this year, solar panel maker Solyndra Inc. would likely have faced immediate bankruptcy, putting more than 1,000 people out of work. Even with the federal help, Solyndra filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this month and laid off its 1,100 employees. … the implosion of the company and revelations that the administration hurried Office of Management and Budget officials to finish their review of the loan in time for the September 2009 groundbreaking has become an embarrassment for Obama as he sells his new job-creation program around the country. An Associated Press review of regulatory filings shows that Solyndra was hemorrhaging hundreds of millions of dollars for years before the Obama administration signed off on the original $535 million loan guarantee in September 2009. The company eventually got $528 million. … Under terms of the February loan restructuring, two private investors – Argonaut Ventures I LLC and Madrone Partners LP – stand to be repaid before the U.S. government if the solar company is liquidated. The two firms gave the company a total of $69 million in emergency loans. The loans are the only portion of their investments that have repayment priority above the U.S. government. … The AP review also found that officials at Solyndra had been seeking a second round of loans from the Energy Department to expand the company's Silicon Valley headquarters. The request for a second loan was denied. The news of the company's second-round attempt was carried at L.A Observed on September 15 (HT Flopping Aces ). Daly and Gillum did the Obama administration a huge undeserved favor by failing to tell readers that Solyndra wanted another $469 million (that's not a typo) in Round 2 — and yes, that is a mark against Team Obama, because the company wouldn't have bothered to apply if it didn't think it had a chance of getting approved. Readers should also take issue with the AP pair's characterization of the Solyndra saga as an administration “embarrassment.” Sorry folks; given the campaign contributions, White House visits, and lobbying involved, this has all the characteristics of a sc-, sc-, sc- … scandal. Nowhere in the AP report does anyone who has done the digging during the past two weeks while the Essential Global News Network hoped the story would go away get any credit. Here is what the AP's “Statement of News Values and Principles” says about giving credit: An AP staffer who reports and writes a story must use original content, language and phrasing. We do not plagiarize, meaning that we do not take the work of others and pass it off as our own. Also, the AP often has the right to use material from its members and subscribers; we sometimes take the work of newspapers, broadcasters and other outlets, rewrite it and transmit it without credit. They'll argue that they're in a gray area, but when you're nine days to two weeks behind everybody else, I would suggest that going to the regulatory files others have already combed through and making it appear as if you're the first to have discovered what you're reporting — as indicated in the bolded phrases and statements in the excerpt above — deliberately misleads readers, listeners and viewers of AP content into believing that the wire service did the heavy lifting. Shame on Daly, Gillum, and AP for failing to give any credit where credit is due, thereby in my view perpetrating a clear deception. Part 2 will look at the AP report's deceiving description of campaign contributions by Solyndra's private investors. Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com .
Continue reading …• One-time star trader remanded in custody by magistrates • City job fears as regulators launch inquiry into bank A tearful Kweku Adoboli, the alleged rogue trader at the centre of a $2bn (£1.3bn) loss at Swiss bank UBS , appeared before magistrates on Friday to be charged with fraud and false accounting dating back to 2008. A clerk at City of London magistrates court handed the 31-year-old Ghanaian a tissue as the 15-minute proceedings began, after which the one-time star trader was led away to remain in custody until a bail hearing on 22 September. Adoboli’s charge sheet appeared to allege that he had taken steps to cover loss-making trades as long ago as 2008. A committal hearing was set for 28 October. The timescale of the allegations will raise questions about risk management procedures at the bank, put intense pressure on the chief executive, Oswald Grübel, and fuel calls from some Swiss politicians for the bank to exit its investment banking business, putting thousands of jobs at risk in the City. Many UBS bankers already fear for their year-end bonuses. Smiling at times, Adoboli spoke only to confirm his name, address and date of birth, while the Swiss bank refused to add anything to the statement it issued on Thursday when it revealed it had called in City of London police at 1am to investigate Adoboli after uncovering “unauthorised trading”. British-educated Adoboli – whose passport spells his name as Kwaku – joined UBS in 2006 and was a member of the so-called delta one trading desk, where, among other things, he traded exchange traded funds (ETFs). These complex financial instruments, on which the regulators issued warnings earlier this year, are structured to mimic market movements. His registration with the Financial Services Authority was switched to “inactive” on Friday at the request of the firm – indicating that he is no longer performing that role. Two charges claim that Adoboli falsified records of ETFs between October 2008 and December 2009 and then January 2010 and September 2011. A third charge alleges that he committed fraud between January 2011 and September 2011 while senior trader in global synthetic equities. His lawyers at Kingsley Napley – the law firm that advised Nick Leeson, the rogue trader who broke Barings – did not issue a statement or enter pleas to the charges. His father, John, told Reuters from Tema, Ghana: “I want the world to have an open mind. He should not be sentenced before the trial begins.” The former United Nations worker is hoping to fly to the UK this week and is applying for a visa. The City of London police, who arrested Adoboli at his luxury home on the edge of the City at 3.30am on Thursday, said their investigation was continuing, in “close collaboration” with the Financial Services Authority, the Serious Fraud Office and the Crown Prosecution Service. Adoboli’s trading activity, by its nature, required him to perform frequent numbers of small trades. One of the last postings on his Facebook page – “need a miracle” – came at around the time the Swiss National Bank intervened to reduce the value of the Swiss franc, which has prompted speculation that this helped expose his losses. The bank, which employs 6,000 staff in London, will now have to pay for a detailed investigation being launched by the FSA and the Swiss regulator, Finma, into the control systems at UBS, the failures that permitted the losses to occur, and details of the unauthorised trading activity. The “comprehensive, independent investigation” will be carried out by one of the big four accountancy firms, although no timescale has been given for when it might be completed. The discovery of the “unauthorised trading” has come at a sensitive time for the City, coinciding as it does with the third anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and coming after calls from politicians in the UK and Switzerland for the break-up of high street banks to separate “casino” investment banking arms. “It shows that investment banking is a high-risk field and it’s important that we clearly separate systemically important functions from the rest of the banking business,” said Caspar Baader, of the Swiss People’s party. Switzerland’s Social Democratic party called for “consequences” such as a ban on “proprietary trading” and replacing “egomaniacal, arrogant and irresponsible managers”. Even a year after the banking crisis of 2008, during which Swiss taxpayers contributed to a $60bn bailout of UBS, the nation’s banking assets totalled SFr3.47tr – nearly seven times the country’s gross domestic product. New laws requiring UBS and Credit Suisse to rein in risk and hoard capital to a higher level than required elsewhere in Europe have already been passed in the first chamber of the Swiss parliament and were debated this week in the upper house, known as the national council. Moves to hive off riskier investment banking and private client operations from those banking functions vital to the smooth operation of the Swiss economy also form part of the legislation, but would not be implemented immediately. Banking analysts believe UBS may now have to scale back its investment banking business and axe even more jobs on top of the 3,500 group-wide cuts announced last month in a bid to save £1.5bn – a similar amount to the losses the bank now fears it faces from the alleged “unauthorised trading”. “We are making further cuts in our 2012 profit estimates, as we believe that UBS is set to announce a more streamlined investment banking business strategy in November, with certain business units being closed and additional jobs being lost. This is part of the bank’s efforts to address the long-term structural issues within the financial services industry,” said Christopher Wheeler, an analyst at Mediobanca. Ratings agencies warned of a downgrade of the bank’s credit rating. Standard & Poor’s placed the bank on its Creditwatch list, citing factors including the “setback to UBS’s efforts to rebuild its reputation and demonstrate strengthened risk-management following its weak performance in 2007-2009″, when it almost collapsed during the credit crunch. Kweku Adoboli UBS Banking European banks Jill Treanor Simon Bowers Sam Jones guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …enlarge We’re still in the early silly season, but that hasn’t stopped CNN from really stooping low. From the absurd tea party debate to their questionable personnel choices , they demonstrate again and again that their goal is to run to the right of Fox News . The headline in the image above is a shining example. Americans optimistic about Hillary Clinton presidency ? What presidency is that, exactly? Would that be the presidency that might have been, or is yet to be in the minds of Those Who Wish To Bait? Nothing would make conservatives happier than to see the Democratic party split between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. They’re drooling at the idea . Yes, there are various “Draft Hillary” initiatives all over the place, too. Why, there’s a Facebook page with just over 2,000 fans! That must mean she’s going to run, right? From the CNN article under the link-baiting, inaccurate, stupid headline: The Bloomberg survey released Friday showed 34 percent of those questioned said America would be superior under a Hillary Clinton administration, while 47 percent said it would be about the same and 13 percent said it would be worse. A quarter of respondents held similar wishful thoughts in a July poll. Clinton remains the most popular American political figure with nearly two-thirds of Americans holding a favorable view of the former first lady and New York senator. Half of the respondents felt the same way about President Barack Obama, who received the lowest job approval rating of his presidency, at 45 percent. What a fascinating way to interpret a poll. Thirty-four percent say the country would be better while 62 percent say it would be the same or worse, yet based on the headline alone, you’d think she already declared her candidacy, won the nomination, had been elected, and had been governing for the last couple of years or so. It’s also no surprise to hear that the percentage rose between July and September on that question. Our foreign policy has been pretty stable over these last two months, while the economy and our domestic situation has taken a pounding over the debt ceiling debacle and high unemployment. If I were Hillary Clinton, I’d be grateful every day to not have to deal with all of that while fending off the wingnuts and crazypants Congress. She’s got the best seat in the house. It really seems like CNN is burying the lede on this story in a tea party fantasy about Hillary Clinton. This is the real story: Former Massachusetts Gov. Romney received a 42 percent favorability rating while rivals Texas Gov. Perry and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas garnered 32 percent. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich received a 28 percent rating and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who is still mulling a bid for the White House, came in at 26 percent. Oops. Saint Perry is slipping in all the polls after his Social Security gaffe at the debate, and Romney is gaining ground. Can’t report that in the headline. Wouldn’t be prudent. Also? Hillary Clinton announced today that she will be stepping down as Secretary of State when Obama wins his second term, and has no intention of holding or seeking any public office. How about that, CNN? Might be time for pollsters to shut that question down, now.
Continue reading …CNN's American Morning brought on liberal academic Jeffrey Sachs to analyze Speaker Boehner's jobs plan Friday. Instead of hosting a conservative critic of President Obama the morning after he unveiled his jobs plan, the network actually interviewed the President's economic policy assistant. While Sachs went on-air and criticized the Republican plan as inherently flawed, Obama's director of the National Economic Council Gene Sperling received a soft interview last Friday concerning the President's jobs plan. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor did appear on CNN shortly after that, but was pressed repeatedly about whether Republicans would compromise on the Obama's bill and was not asked to critique the President's plan. Sachs, while not advertised as a liberal economist, was a self-professed Obama supporter in 2008. CNN's media critic Howard Kurtz identified Sachs as a “liberal academic” in a 2009 Washington Post column. Sachs criticized both Obama's plan and Boehner's plan – although he saw the GOP plan as inherently flawed, while opining that the President's plan didn't go far enough. “The President talks a bit more about skills and infrastructure, but he wants a one-year plan,” Sachs noted. “One-year tax cuts to be followed by tax increases later on. What's a one-year plan going to do?” “So, the Democrats really do focus on a kind of gimmick of do something next year before the elections. The Republicans have a longer-term view, but a wrong one, in my view, which is just cut taxes,” he noted.” Sachs also cast the Republicans and their corporate supporters as greedy, since the GOP wants to enact tax cuts for already wealthy businesses and corporations. “That's the problem with the opposition side. It's just greed at this point,” said Sachs. A transcript of the segment, which aired on September 16 at 6:39 a.m. EDT, is as follows: CHRISTINE ROMANS: Let's talk about John Boehner's plan. I mean, less regulation and pro-growth policies, which we presume means tax cuts and not getting – smaller government in general. Is this the way to create jobs? JEFFREY SACHS, international economist: I don't think that either side has it right. It's so sad they're arguing with each other viciously, actually, but neither side is focusing on some basic points. We have a lot of people, especially young people in this economy without the skills to be able to compete internationally. We've lost a lot of jobs abroad. We need better education, more training, the ability to mobilize technology to compete. Neither side is talking about that. The Republican side just wants to cut taxes, give money to corporations but the corporations are filled with money now, but they don't want to invest in jobs in America. They're investing in jobs abroad. The President talks a bit more about skills and infrastructure, but he wants a one-year plan. ROMANS: Right. SACHS: One-year tax cuts to be followed by tax increases later on. What's a one-year plan going to do? So, the Democrats really do focus on a kind of gimmick of do something next year before the elections. The Republicans have a longer-term view, but a wrong one, in my view, which is just cut taxes. But that's not going to solve the structural problems that our country has. ROMANS: But in this kind of political climate – I mean, real, meaningful tax reform, real, meaningful education reform, really focusing on retraining in a way that the right skills are given to the right people, that takes investments. I don't think you're going to – when can you ever see political unity on some of these big – these are big structural issues that need to be addressed. SACHS: I think the sad part is that President Obama had that chance in 2009 when he – ROMANS: When he did health care reform. SACHS: He did health care reform but we never heard a longer term strategy and a budget that would go alongside it. So, he started with what I do agree – on the Republican critique, was a bit of a gimmick, that stimulus. One jolt and we're back. But one jolt wasn't going to bring us back to competitiveness. The problem is that the opponents of this want an even worse gimmick, which is just cut taxes, give money to the rich, give money to the corporations. But if they look at what's really happening, it's not that the companies don't have money, they're filled with trillions — billions and billions of dollars that are often tax havens, that are – they've already given the tax cuts. How rich can people be without saying, OK, we'll contribute something? That's the problem with the opposition side. It's just greed at this point. ROMANS: And there's also just a lack of confidence. I mean, there's a lack of confidence from corporate CEOs who don't want to hire in this country because they don't see clarity, they say. And from Americans who are stressed. They don't have a job or they're afraid of losing their job and they're worried about their home value. SACHS: These same CEOs are hiring, but abroad. ROMANS: Right. SACHS: And why is that? That's what we need to ask. Now, Republicans say it's because of regulation. But that's not really the change going on. When you ask a real business person, and I know from my own experience, because we hire people, also – finding skilled workers is the critical issue right now. ROMANS: Right. SACHS: Better skills, people with higher education, they're employed. The people with high school degrees only, they can't find jobs that keep them in the middle class. This is America's problem.
Continue reading …Tory group proposes keeping back students who fail and replacing exam boards with single independent body Pupils should be held back a year if they fail to reach a minimum standard while more able pupils should be “fast-tracked”, under proposals to transform England’s education system outlined in a book written by a group of Tory MPs. The most able pupils could be accelerated through the system by taking courses in advanced mathematics while others take a more basic GCSE, the book, After the Coalition, proposes. The booklays out a Conservative agenda on a range of policy areas including the economy, public services and defence. On education, the MPs advocate that Britain should adopt Canada’s “escalator principle” under which the most able can move faster through the system but students who fail to reach a minimum standard will be held back. “This will guarantee that all students receive a core general education while stretching the most able. It would also put more responsibility on to the student for their own motivation. This has been lacking in Britain for too long.” The book calls for exam boards to be replaced by a central board controlled by universities to “tame grade inflation”. “This body should be free from the distortion of either government interference, or having to appeal to schools looking for lenient marking. While both schools and government would want some say in content and standards, the central focus of our independent body should be a board of the country’s top universities, setting out exactly what level of knowledge they are looking for.” The MPs also back the expansion of successful grammars. While they do not advocate a return to the 11-plus, they say that Britain has become less meritocratic since “the rise of the flawed egalitarian consensus of the 1960s”. “Although unpopular, grammar schools gave working class children a historically unequalled chance to get the best in academic education. By the end of the 1960s, only 38% of places at Oxford were afforded to privately educated pupils. The proportion is now back up to around 50%. “British politics has never been particularly logical about education, and in no area is this truer than the issue of grammar schools.” The MPs raise the prospect of allowing some selection in schools. They point out: “While selection by ability for secondary schools remains taboo, selection by ability for universities is seen as no more than best practice. At the very least, we should look into expanding currently successful grammar schools.” The education secretary Michael Gove said earlier this year that he wanted to scrap restrictions on the expansion of the most popular state schools. Ministers believe local authorities are in some cases deliberately preventing good schools from raising their “planned admissions numbers” because it becomes harder to sustain a weaker school if pupils defect. Schools GCSEs Private schools Conservatives Michael Gove Jeevan Vasagar guardian.co.uk
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