• Libya’s interim leader says Islam will be main source of law • Gaddafi loyalists kill 17 guards in Ras Lanouf • Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s to give speech in Egypt 8.25am: Welcome to Middle East Live. Two key speeches look set to be main focus today. The first was given last night by Libya’s interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil. In his first Tripoli speech he said Islam will be the inspiration for Libya’s new laws. The second will be made later today by Turkey’s prime minister Recep Tayip Erdogan in Cairo. Here’s a round up of the latest developments. Libya • In his first public speech in Tripoli, Libya’s interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil, said Islam would be the main source of legislation for the new Libya, and that extremist ideology would not be tolerated. He also called for an end to reprisals attacks against Gaddafi loyalists. We need to open the courts to anyone who harmed the Libyan people in any way. The judicial system will decide … We seek a state of law, prosperity and one where sharia is the main source for legislation, and this requires many things and conditions … Bani Walid, Sirte and Sabha are now under siege by Gaddafi forces. We are betting that our brothers in those cities will fulfil their expectations and you will see them do so soon. • Jalil is caught between Islamic conservatives and more secular figures competing for power in Libya, AP reports. It sets out the two sides in the conflict in an article published by the Washington Post: The rising tensions, which have become increasingly public, could jeopardize efforts to rebuild the country and form a cohesive state after six months of civil war. Each side accuses the other of trying to monopolize a new government. On one side stand more secular technocrats, some of whom have long lived abroad or once had ties with Gaddafi’s regime. On the other are conservatives, including the Muslim Brotherhood, who opposed Gaddafi for years on the ground in Libya and suffered during his rule. • The United Nations says it is worried about the fate of civilians trapped inside besieged pro-Gaddafi towns. “Our big concern right now is Sirte, where we are receiving reports that there’s no water and no electricity,” UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos told Reuters. The NTC has sent extra units to Bani Walid, but some fighters said this only worsened tribal tensions between fighters from other areas and those from the town. • Gaddafi loyalists killed 17 guards outside an oil refinery in Ras Lanouf on Monday in a surprise attack that demonstrated his toppled regime is still capable of striking back. The assault occurred hours after the National Transitional Council announced it had resumed some oil production. The Syrian-based TV station Arrai, read out a message that it claimed came from Gaddafi, saying he was still in Libya, but it was unable to air a televised appearance for security reasons. Rebel forces said they were meeting fierce resistance on the fourth day of fighting for the desert town of Bani Walid and were edging towards Sirte. • Amnesty International has highlighted widespread atrocities on both sides in the conflict. It offers harrowing testimony of the war crimes, killings of unarmed protesters and arbitrary detentions by Gaddafi’s security forces. But it also exposes a catalogue of reprisal attacks that have gained less international attention during the revolution. Egypt, Turkey and Israel The Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to give a speech in Cairo today at a time of rising tension between Turkey and Israel and days after an attack on the Israeli embassy in the city. Last night on Egyptian TV Erdogan gave his backing to Arab Spring uprisings . The New York Times quoted him saying: The world is changing to a system where the will of the people will rule. Why should the Europeans and Americans be the only ones that live with dignity? Aren’t Egyptians and Somalians also entitled to a life of dignity? Syria • Russia has rebuffed western attempts to increase the pressure on the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad. President Dmitry Medvedev said after talks with David Cameron that additional pressure was “absolutely not needed” because existing UN and European Union sanctions were squeezing the regime. • The United Nations has appointed three experts to investigate allegations of shoot-to-kill policies, enforced disappearances, and torture in Syria after estimating that the number of people killed in the government crackdown increased to 2,6000. Sergio Pinheiro, a former professor and human right from Brazil, will chair the independent commission. • Activists and human rights groups are calling on the Arab League to follow up on a regional initiative to end the Syrian crisis by demanding guarantees that Assad immediately stop using violence against protesters. A statement issued by a coalition of more than 170 local and international organisations comes ahead of a meeting of foreign ministers of the pan-Arab organization in Cairo to discuss a recent visit by the league’s chief, Nabil Elaraby, to Syria. Libya Muammar Gaddafi Egypt Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan Syria Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest US foreign policy Nato Israel Palestinian territories Niger Bashar Al-Assad Matthew Weaver guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …After Hitting GOP Candidates from Left, NBC’s Williams Presses Obama from Left
September 13, 2011 No Comment
A few days after he hit Republicans from the left when he moderated a presidential candidate on MSNBC, NBC’s Brian Williams pressed President Barack Obama with the concerns of Obama supporters to the President’s left ( “Members of your base are asking: ‘When are you going to get your Harry Truman on?’” and “What do you say to those Americans who voted for that man on the poster that said ‘Hope’?”). In between, he empathized with how Obama had to deal with an irrational House Republican caucus, ie the Tea Party members. ( Video after the jump) Incredibly, in the interview aired on Monday's NBC Nightly News , but conducted on Saturday just two days after Obama’s big raise taxes/spend more speech, Williams never challenged Obama on it beyond cuing him up: “Did you come to a decision that what the country needs is in large part a good old public works bill?” Obama responded by touting how “the plan that I put forward — the American Jobs Act — puts construction workers back to work, puts teachers back to work, puts our veterans who are coming home looking for a job back to work, the long-term unemployed back to work. It provides tax breaks for small businesses when they hire new employees. So this package, it's estimated, would help the economy grow by as much as an additional two percent. That could mean an additional two million jobs.” Instead of challenging that claim or pointing out how even Democrats had rejected the proposed tax hikes when they controlled the House and Senate, or even noting Obama’s disconnect with an electorate obviously opposed to more spending, Williams painted Obama as a victim of irrational conservatives: All of this, of course, is if you get what you want in a highly toxic atmosphere and it sure looked to me from the outside like you went into the debt ceiling fight thinking, surely they will do the statesman-like thing, surely they won't go there. And it seemed to me as if Speaker Boehner was coming to you saying, look, if it were up to me, we would do this, but I've got this membership problem. And they went there and now that marks our politics. Earlier, by Kyle Drennen, re Monday’s Today show: “ Brian Williams Wonders When Obama Will 'Channel His Inner Harry Truman '” From last Wednesday night, with video: “ NBC Debate Moderators Pepper Republicans with Questions from the Left .” The questions from Williams in the interview excerpts aired on the Monday, September 12 NBC Nightly News: # Occurs to me we are sitting thirty feet from Harry Truman’s official White House portrait. Members of your base are asking: “When are you going to get your Harry Truman on?” # Did you come to a decision that what the country needs is in large part a good old public works bill? # All of this, of course, is if you get what you want in a highly toxic atmosphere and it sure looked to me from the outside like you went into the debt ceiling fight thinking, surely they will do the statesman-like thing, surely they won't go there. And it seemed to me as if Speaker Boehner was coming to you saying, look, if it were up to me, we would do this, but I've got this membership problem. And they went there and now that marks our politics. # Your approval, 44 percent. On your handling of the economy, 37 percent. Voters now prefer a generic, as-yet-unnamed Republican. And most Americans now say that you are in something that you can't likely recover from. Do you accept those numbers? Do you have to wear those? # You see what's out there. You see what's being said about you. What do you say to those Americans who voted for that man on the poster that said “Hope”? MSNBC.com video of the entire interview segment aired on Monday’s NBC Nightly News.
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NHS costs squeeze means longer waiting lists – and growing numbers of patients opting to pay for operations, say private firms Private healthcare firms are experiencing an increase in business caused by the financial squeeze across the NHS in England, a new report on the sector shows. Independent providers are benefitting from the growing number of patients who are choosing to pay for their own care after having treatment delayed or denied altogether by an NHS primary care trust (PCT). In a survey of 101 influential industry figures – including chief executives, investors and advisers – 34% said budgetary pressure in the NHS had led to increased demand for private healthcare. While the reasons were not given, experts said the NHS’s need to cut costs was prompting patients to fund their own hip or knee replacement, hernia repair or cataract removal. “We are certainly picking up that some patients are being asked to wait longer than they would have expected and are therefore deciding to pay for themselves rather than wait,” said David Worskett, chief executive of the NHS Partners Network , which represents more than 30 firms – both for-profit and not-for-profit – that work with the NHS. Worskett said “misguided” decisions of many PCTs to force patients to wait many months for treatment, often until the next financial year, lay behind the growing trend. Many PCTs are rationing access to care as the NHS struggles to adjust to a 0.1% annual increase in its budget, after years of big rises, and the need to make £20bn of efficiency savings by 2015. The trend is a boost for a UK private health market which that was hit hard by the downturn in 2008 and for which recovery since has lagged behind that seen elsewhere in Europe, according to Credit Suisse. It is contained in HealthInvestor magazine’s annual study of the industry’s fortunes in conjunction with law firm Nabarro, called The Healthcare Industry Barometer 2011, which is published today. Mark Varian, of Ramsay Healthcare, which has more than 3,500 staff and runs 34 hospitals and treatment centres, said business was growing because of tighter NHS budgets. Hospital trusts unable to treat patients within the 18-week deadline set by the government have been paying Ramsay to treat NHS backlogs. “They are using us as an overflow. [NHS] Waiting lists are extending and of course some hospital trusts are talking to us about helping them achieve their 18-week target,” Varian said. All 34 of their facilities in England have signed contracts since June with hospital trusts, and growing numbers of trusts are doing the same in order to get people treated on time, he said. The expansion of patients’ right to choose where they are treated, between NHS and private centres, was another reason for Ramsay seeing more state-funded patients. Private firms receive only the same amount as an NHS hospital, called the “tariff”, when they reach such agreements, whereas usually prices in the commercial sector are higher. Private acute healthcare in the UK is worth an estimated £7.2bn, with independent hospitals contributing £5.1bn of that, said HealthInvestor’s editor-in-chief Vernon Baxter. But the survey also reveals that 76% of those questioned agreed or strongly agreed that “continued political uncertainty around the fate of [health secretary] Andrew Lansley’s reforms is now harming companies active in this sector. Over 80% believe the public and medical backlash against Lansley’s NHS shake-up has prompted many investors to leave the sector because of the risks involved. There is deep disappointment that the coalition’s NHS policies have not produced more opportunities for the sector. Only 22% of industry figures agree that “the coalition has supported the recovery of the UK independent healthcare market”, while 39% disagree. However, while 42% are not optimistic that the coalition will accelerate the private sector’s role in the NHS, 55% are quite or very optimistic. But 55% think that handing control of £60bn of the NHS budget to GP-led clinical commissioning groups in 2013 will ultimately produce a more plural and competitive market in healthcare. “The current lack of optimism in the healthcare industry is seen by some as a natural consequence of high expectations for rapid reform a year ago being dashed by current political uncertainty,” said Warren Taylor, head of healthcare at Nabarro. “However, for those taking a longer term view, there’s much to merit cautious optimism. The direction of NHS reforms under the coalition remains positive for the sector.” Healthcare industry NHS Health Denis Campbell guardian.co.uk
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Works from Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement at London’s Royal Academy of Arts from 17 September to 11 December, highlight the artist’s mastery of colour, the human form and even empty spaces
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The outrage concerning New York Times columnist Paul Krugman's disgusting comments on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 came from all quarters of the political arena Monday. Never one to mince words, Fox News's Greg Gutfeld on “The Five” said what many Americans were feeling about this liberal sociopath , “Go to hell, Paul Krugman, you bearded, bitter buffoon” (video follows with transcript and commentary): GREG GUTFELD, HOST: Welcome back to THE FIVE. So, on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, “New York Times” columnist Paul Krugman delivered the odious piece of dribble ever on the attack — well, at least since the last time he wrote about it. The headline is, quote, “The Years of Shame,” end quote. And no, it's not directed at radical Islam. Instead, he targets America and the, quote, “fake heroes.” Krugman claims that the atrocity has been hijacked. The sick word given that he's not actually talking about the real hijackers who killed some 3,000 Americans. No, he's referring to people like George Bush and Rudy Giuliani who he thinks capitalized on the horrible crimes. But the worst part, at the end of this column, the creep writes, “I'm not going to allow comments on the post for obvious reasons.” That obvious reason, he's a coward. I mean, why else would you ban responses? He's like a 10-year-old boy crank-calling all of us only to hang up even before he hears a response, hearing his shame for his own wickedness. Now, I watch the memorial services and I feel sorrow for the families whose grief never really ends. But since I'm lousy at emotional reflection I usually avoid it. But at least I can summarize what many feel today in nine words: go to hell, Paul Krugman, you bearded, bitter buffoon. Hey, Dana, there is something wrong with him. Can we pretty much agree? DANA PERINO: Yes, week after week, it gets a little bit more crazy. I mean, when he did that thing about like for the stimulus bill, we should to have the alien invasion, if you all remember that. Perino was referring to a story first reported by NewsBusters last month wherein Krugman,
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Click here to view this media Why isn’t the mainstream media saying anything about a so-called objective media outlet partnering with a mainstream Republican organization like the Tea Party Express? I’m watching the debate right now but I’ve got to tell you all…this intro was insulting and beneath our political process.
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• Serb wins third grand slam title of year • Completes victory 6-2, 6-4, 6-7, 6-1 Novak Djokovic might still be the king of tennis but it took a struggle of epic proportions over four sets at Flushing Meadows to rip Rafael Nadal’s fingers from his remaining crown. The Serb beat him for the sixth time in six finals this year to take the Spaniard’s US Open title in a match of so many highs the lows were rendered irrelevant, a price worth paying for one of the finest finishes to a major in recent times. The sustained quality of the exchanges, in rallies that ran to 30 shots and more, left the 24,712 excitement junkies packed into the Arthur Ashe stadium delirious on a balmy New York Monday night and the combatants drained of the last drop of their genius. It took the world No 1 four hours and 10 minutes to subdue the reigning champion 6-2, 6-4, 6-7, 6-1 on a night when one miracle followed another. It was not just the length of the fight that made it such a compelling sporting occasion but the ability and willingness of both players to come back from impossible positions. Nadal lost his serve 11 times, yet never gave up; Djokovic, battered in the tie-break, took a medical time-out at the start of the fourth set, then immediately broke Nadal, going on to finish a job he had looked like completing maybe two hours earlier. The tournament was introduced by an earthquake, survived a hurricane, was embarrassingly mismanaged as courts and nerves cracked in the second week as the elements returned to mock the organising committee, then was marred by a Serena Williams tantrum on Sunday. But the men’s delayed final restored the championship’s integrity in the most emphatic manner. The crowd responded to the mood. Several times the chair umpire, Carlos Ramos, had to call for quiet from supporters of both players who were shouting either during serve or on critical strokes in a rally. The interruptions seemed to disturb Djokovic more than Nadal. It was an unequivocal statement by Djokovic. There can be no argument that he has the measure of not just Nadal but Roger Federer, the world No3 whom he beat in that remarkable semi-final on Saturday. It was his third slam title of the year, after Melbourne and Wimbledon, and only a magical reincarnation of the old Federer stopped him reaching the final at Roland Garros. Andy Murray was the other player to beat him in a year in which he hit peak after peak, culminating here with another crushing defeat of the world No2. If this were a fight, Nadal would have been punched to a pulp at the end but Djokovic’s knuckles would have been bruised beyond recognition. Djokovic, who has a win-loss record in 2011 of 64-2 with more to come, hit him hard and deep, wide and handsome, then had to take similar punishment in return. There was such ferocity in some of the winner’s ground strokes that Nadal had to reply leaning back and hitting from way behind the baseline. For sustained passages of play he simply could not get into range to hit easy winners. His points were dredged from desperate deaths or scored on his opponent’s errors. Nadal started so well and had the majority of the crowd with him when he broke Djokovic early in each of the first two sets, only to surrender the advantage at once. Stirred, Djokovic retaliated fiercely. But the Mallorcan’s serve let him down at crucial points, dipping to 50% in the second set, when he looked like being blown away. But nobody could doubt Nadal’s fighting heart. On one of the few occasions when he had Djokovic on the back foot, 2-0 up at the start of the second set thanks to six unforced errors by his opponent, he was perfectly placed to extend his lead. Then came the game of the match: a 17-minute duel on Nadal’s serve in which he was dragged into eight deuce points and Djokovic finally broke him on the sixth opportunity. It came at the end of another long, gruelling rally, Nadal, straining backwards in mid-court banging a tired smash into the net. If that was the longest war, there were several other skirmishes nearly as tough. In the fifth game of the third set, having broken back in the previous game, a 27-shot rally at 40-30 up ended in agony for Nadal and another deuce battle. They traded so many quality shots in the exchanges that followed it seemed the game would never end. When it did, the ball flew limply down the tram-lines off Nadal’s racket to give Djokovic yet another glimmer of a kill. They went at it all the way to the final bell and there were tears, inevitably, when the deed was done. The mutual respect between them is palpable and that is something not always evident at the summit of international sport. They did their sport a great service. US Open 2011 Tennis US Open tennis Novak Djokovic Rafael Nadal Kevin Mitchell guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Matthews Bashes Bush’s ‘Rhetorical Ability’ – Then Calls Saturday’s Speech ‘Masterful and Wonderful’
September 12, 2011 No Comment
In less than 30 minutes Monday, George W. Bush went from being a former president with “slight” “mental” and “rhetorical ability” to a “masterful and wonderful” speaker. Such hypocrisy came from MSNBC's Chris Matthews. Let's play Oddball (video follows with transcript and commentary): CHRIS MATTHEWS: But doesn’t it to this day, you guys, still scare you in your spine that a president with as slight a mental and as a rhetorical ability as George W. Bush – he was no Churchill, he was no Hitler, he was no Stalin, he was no call to arms kind of guy – was able to talk the American people into that war over absolute B.S.
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Click here to view this media Republican state Rep. Dale Folwell, who is co-sponsoring an effort to make marriage discrimination a part of North Carolina’s state constitution, asserted Monday that without the constitutional amendment, LGBT people would actually be at a risk of losing rights. To back up his argument, Folwell cited a decision by the Univ. of Rochester requiring domestic partners to get married to continue receiving health care benefits after New York legalized same sex marriage. “I’ve met with the opposition,” Folwell said during a House Rules Committee debate. “And like in every bill that I’ve ever worked on, when I meet with with the opposition, I learn something. Recently I met with the professor over at — [ Dr. Maxine Eichner ] from UNC Chapel Hill — and I asked this question… Is it possible that if we don’t bring certainty to this issue in North Carolina — give people an opportunity to vote on it — is it possible that people that she advocates for can actually lose rights?” “What we just learned after I asked that question, today or last week the University of Rochester, a private institution in New York that previously gave health care rights to same sex couples, are now rescinding those rights by saying that if you want to receive health care benefits then you have to get married. So, that’s a right that was taken away from a private institution because of laws being uncertain.” Since North Carolina is banning same sex marriage instead of legalizing it, many may question the logic of Folwell’s claim. The Rules Committee subsequently gave the bill a favorable report, sending it to the House floor. The full House could vote on the measure as soon as Monday afternoon.
Continue reading …Tonight at 8pm is the latest Republican presidential candidate debate. This event is sponsored by the Tea Party Express and will be broadcast live on CNN television and also online . CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, who has been rather race-obsessed and protective of President Obama, will be the host. If you're watching the debate, feel free to join fellow NBers in a live chat about the debate right here on this post. Note: You will need an Adobe Flash-enabled browser to participate. After the debate is over, we'll leave the chat up for a few hours and then turn this into an open thread about the debate.
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