Actress Mila Kunis: ‘I Love Barack Obama,’ Adds Young Republicans Are ‘Ill-Informed’
September 7, 2011 No Comment
Actress Mila Kunis granted an interview (and cover photo) to Stylist magazine and proclaimed “I love Barack Obama” and that young Republicans are “ill-informed” in Middle America and can’t tell you why they oppose Obama. She lectured others to get educated and explain how you voted, and “don’t tell me it’s because of religion either because that whole thing is knocked completely out the window.” In the same interview, when they asked if she would write a movie script, Kunis explained “I can barely write an e-mail. I can’t form a sentence to save my life.” Everyone is waiting to know what Mila Kunis believes on the debt limit: STYLIST: How do you feel about the US debt crisis? KUNIS: I love Barack Obama. I voted for him and I will forever be proud of my vote, so I can’t say anything bad against him – other than I think America is in a very temperamental state, and the decision that was made and the compromises made mean, in my opinion, that people are going to pay for a very long time. There is no revenue that’s going to come from these compromises. None. We are no longer going to be the leading power, at all; if China takes their money away for the States we are done. Done. I know that he [Obama] tried. I know because you keep reading these reports of him trying to compromise with the Tea Party and the Republican Party and trying to come up with a 50-50 agreement. I don’t think it was one. I feel the Democratic Party compromised everything and the Republican Party compromised pretty much nothing. STYLIST: It’s pretty terrifying how much power the Tea Party seems to have in the US – we’re watching Sarah Palin with open mouths. KUNIS: Honestly, I love politics. I do. And maybe they know something that I don’t know, and that’s the only thing I can hope for. But unless you show me some revenue that’s going to be made, we’re about to become a third-world country. OK I’m being dramatic, but we sure as hell are losing a lot of power. And when you lose financial power and the dollar drops, the power is gone. So to put two and two together, Kunis is proud of her vote for Obama, and under Obama, the country is in dramatic decline. And yet Kunis thinks the rest of the country isn't connecting dots: STYLIST: Does it frustrate you how many people are politically unaware, particularly in our age group? KUNIS: Yes, because you are given such an amazing opportunity with so much information. Why is no one taking advantage of it? You don't have to watch Fox News or CNN or MSNBC; you don't have to be part of a political party, you could just read. Why is nobody reading? I feel like, in our generation, people don't read. STYLIST: It’s true… KUNIS: They don't read books, they don't read the paper, they don't read the news. So obviously you are incredibly ill-informed to the point where they will go do these tests in Middle America, And they'll ask, 'OK, what party are you?' And they'll say, 'Republican'. 'Why?' And they can't even tell you. They have no idea what the Republican Party stands for. Why did I vote for Obama? I can tell you why I voted for him, what I agreed and disagreed with him on, for hours. It's crazy to me that people don't educate themselves about the world considering so many of them have children who are going to suffer because of it. Whoever you vote for, don't do it just because. And don't tell me it's because of religion either because that whole thing is knocked completely out the window. So you better just educate yourself. Kunis also says she's very proud of providing the voice of Meg on “Family Guy” and loves it when people yell “Shut up, Meg!” on the street.
Continue reading …Actress Mila Kunis: ‘I Love Barack Obama,’ Adds Young Republicans Are ‘Ill-Informed’
September 7, 2011 No Comment
Actress Mila Kunis granted an interview (and cover photo) to Stylist magazine and proclaimed “I love Barack Obama” and that young Republicans are “ill-informed” in Middle America and can’t tell you why they oppose Obama. She lectured others to get educated and explain how you voted, and “don’t tell me it’s because of religion either because that whole thing is knocked completely out the window.” In the same interview, when they asked if she would write a movie script, Kunis explained “I can barely write an e-mail. I can’t form a sentence to save my life.” Everyone is waiting to know what Mila Kunis believes on the debt limit: STYLIST: How do you feel about the US debt crisis? KUNIS: I love Barack Obama. I voted for him and I will forever be proud of my vote, so I can’t say anything bad against him – other than I think America is in a very temperamental state, and the decision that was made and the compromises made mean, in my opinion, that people are going to pay for a very long time. There is no revenue that’s going to come from these compromises. None. We are no longer going to be the leading power, at all; if China takes their money away for the States we are done. Done. I know that he [Obama] tried. I know because you keep reading these reports of him trying to compromise with the Tea Party and the Republican Party and trying to come up with a 50-50 agreement. I don’t think it was one. I feel the Democratic Party compromised everything and the Republican Party compromised pretty much nothing. STYLIST: It’s pretty terrifying how much power the Tea Party seems to have in the US – we’re watching Sarah Palin with open mouths. KUNIS: Honestly, I love politics. I do. And maybe they know something that I don’t know, and that’s the only thing I can hope for. But unless you show me some revenue that’s going to be made, we’re about to become a third-world country. OK I’m being dramatic, but we sure as hell are losing a lot of power. And when you lose financial power and the dollar drops, the power is gone. So to put two and two together, Kunis is proud of her vote for Obama, and under Obama, the country is in dramatic decline. And yet Kunis thinks the rest of the country isn't connecting dots: STYLIST: Does it frustrate you how many people are politically unaware, particularly in our age group? KUNIS: Yes, because you are given such an amazing opportunity with so much information. Why is no one taking advantage of it? You don't have to watch Fox News or CNN or MSNBC; you don't have to be part of a political party, you could just read. Why is nobody reading? I feel like, in our generation, people don't read. STYLIST: It’s true… KUNIS: They don't read books, they don't read the paper, they don't read the news. So obviously you are incredibly ill-informed to the point where they will go do these tests in Middle America, And they'll ask, 'OK, what party are you?' And they'll say, 'Republican'. 'Why?' And they can't even tell you. They have no idea what the Republican Party stands for. Why did I vote for Obama? I can tell you why I voted for him, what I agreed and disagreed with him on, for hours. It's crazy to me that people don't educate themselves about the world considering so many of them have children who are going to suffer because of it. Whoever you vote for, don't do it just because. And don't tell me it's because of religion either because that whole thing is knocked completely out the window. So you better just educate yourself. Kunis also says she's very proud of providing the voice of Meg on “Family Guy” and loves it when people yell “Shut up, Meg!” on the street.
Continue reading …Actress Mila Kunis: ‘I Love Barack Obama,’ Adds Young Republicans Are ‘Ill-Informed’
September 7, 2011 No CommentActress Mila Kunis granted an interview (and cover photo) to Stylist magazine and proclaimed “I love Barack Obama” and that young Republicans are “ill-informed” in Middle America and can’t tell you why they oppose Obama. She lectured others to get educated and explain how you voted, and “don’t tell me it’s because of religion either because that whole thing is knocked completely out the window.” In the same interview, when they asked if she would write a movie script, Kunis explained “I can barely write an e-mail. I can’t form a sentence to save my life.” Everyone is waiting to know what Mila Kunis believes on the debt limit: STYLIST: How do you feel about the US debt crisis? KUNIS: I love Barack Obama. I voted for him and I will forever be proud of my vote, so I can’t say anything bad against him – other than I think America is in a very temperamental state, and the decision that was made and the compromises made mean, in my opinion, that people are going to pay for a very long time. There is no revenue that’s going to come from these compromises. None. We are no longer going to be the leading power, at all; if China takes their money away for the States we are done. Done. I know that he [Obama] tried. I know because you keep reading these reports of him trying to compromise with the Tea Party and the Republican Party and trying to come up with a 50-50 agreement. I don’t think it was one. I feel the Democratic Party compromised everything and the Republican Party compromised pretty much nothing. STYLIST: It’s pretty terrifying how much power the Tea Party seems to have in the US – we’re watching Sarah Palin with open mouths. KUNIS: Honestly, I love politics. I do. And maybe they know something that I don’t know, and that’s the only thing I can hope for. But unless you show me some revenue that’s going to be made, we’re about to become a third-world country. OK I’m being dramatic, but we sure as hell are losing a lot of power. And when you lose financial power and the dollar drops, the power is gone. So to put two and two together, Kunis is proud of her vote for Obama, and under Obama, the country is in dramatic decline. And yet Kunis thinks the rest of the country isn't connecting dots: STYLIST: Does it frustrate you how many people are politically unaware, particularly in our age group? KUNIS: Yes, because you are given such an amazing opportunity with so much information. Why is no one taking advantage of it? You don't have to watch Fox News or CNN or MSNBC; you don't have to be part of a political party, you could just read. Why is nobody reading? I feel like, in our generation, people don't read. STYLIST: It’s true… KUNIS: They don't read books, they don't read the paper, they don't read the news. So obviously you are incredibly ill-informed to the point where they will go do these tests in Middle America, And they'll ask, 'OK, what party are you?' And they'll say, 'Republican'. 'Why?' And they can't even tell you. They have no idea what the Republican Party stands for. Why did I vote for Obama? I can tell you why I voted for him, what I agreed and disagreed with him on, for hours. It's crazy to me that people don't educate themselves about the world considering so many of them have children who are going to suffer because of it. Whoever you vote for, don't do it just because. And don't tell me it's because of religion either because that whole thing is knocked completely out the window. So you better just educate yourself. Kunis also says she's very proud of providing the voice of Meg on “Family Guy” and loves it when people yell “Shut up, Meg!” on the street.
Continue reading …Actress Mila Kunis: ‘I Love Barack Obama,’ Adds Young Republicans Are ‘Ill-Informed’
September 7, 2011 No Comment
Actress Mila Kunis granted an interview (and cover photo) to Stylist magazine and proclaimed “I love Barack Obama” and that young Republicans are “ill-informed” in Middle America and can’t tell you why they oppose Obama. She lectured others to get educated and explain how you voted, and “don’t tell me it’s because of religion either because that whole thing is knocked completely out the window.” In the same interview, when they asked if she would write a movie script, Kunis explained “I can barely write an e-mail. I can’t form a sentence to save my life.” Everyone is waiting to know what Mila Kunis believes on the debt limit: STYLIST: How do you feel about the US debt crisis? KUNIS: I love Barack Obama. I voted for him and I will forever be proud of my vote, so I can’t say anything bad against him – other than I think America is in a very temperamental state, and the decision that was made and the compromises made mean, in my opinion, that people are going to pay for a very long time. There is no revenue that’s going to come from these compromises. None. We are no longer going to be the leading power, at all; if China takes their money away for the States we are done. Done. I know that he [Obama] tried. I know because you keep reading these reports of him trying to compromise with the Tea Party and the Republican Party and trying to come up with a 50-50 agreement. I don’t think it was one. I feel the Democratic Party compromised everything and the Republican Party compromised pretty much nothing. STYLIST: It’s pretty terrifying how much power the Tea Party seems to have in the US – we’re watching Sarah Palin with open mouths. KUNIS: Honestly, I love politics. I do. And maybe they know something that I don’t know, and that’s the only thing I can hope for. But unless you show me some revenue that’s going to be made, we’re about to become a third-world country. OK I’m being dramatic, but we sure as hell are losing a lot of power. And when you lose financial power and the dollar drops, the power is gone. So to put two and two together, Kunis is proud of her vote for Obama, and under Obama, the country is in dramatic decline. And yet Kunis thinks the rest of the country isn't connecting dots: STYLIST: Does it frustrate you how many people are politically unaware, particularly in our age group? KUNIS: Yes, because you are given such an amazing opportunity with so much information. Why is no one taking advantage of it? You don't have to watch Fox News or CNN or MSNBC; you don't have to be part of a political party, you could just read. Why is nobody reading? I feel like, in our generation, people don't read. STYLIST: It’s true… KUNIS: They don't read books, they don't read the paper, they don't read the news. So obviously you are incredibly ill-informed to the point where they will go do these tests in Middle America, And they'll ask, 'OK, what party are you?' And they'll say, 'Republican'. 'Why?' And they can't even tell you. They have no idea what the Republican Party stands for. Why did I vote for Obama? I can tell you why I voted for him, what I agreed and disagreed with him on, for hours. It's crazy to me that people don't educate themselves about the world considering so many of them have children who are going to suffer because of it. Whoever you vote for, don't do it just because. And don't tell me it's because of religion either because that whole thing is knocked completely out the window. So you better just educate yourself. Kunis also says she's very proud of providing the voice of Meg on “Family Guy” and loves it when people yell “Shut up, Meg!” on the street.
Continue reading …$30m of gems that were Elizabeth Taylor’s lasting love go up for auction
September 7, 2011 No Comment
300 ‘exquisite’ items include treasures given by her twice-husband Richard Burton There was jewellery for the eight wedding days, the numerous film premieres, the table tennis victories and of course Tuesdays. Who among us does not get an ‘it’s Tuesday and I love you’ gift? The woman who certainly did was Elizabeth Taylor and it helped her build up one of the most remarkable and dazzling private collections of jewellery ever created. Following her death in March aged 79, Christie’s announced on Wednesday it is to sell nearly 300 of the star’s jewels over two sessions in New York. There will be diamonds, pearls, emeralds, rubies and sapphires; rings, earrings, necklaces, brooches, tiaras and more in a sale expected to make over $30m (£19m). The chairman and president of Christie’s America, Marc Porter, said the sale promised “to captivate the auction world”. He added: “This is without a doubt the greatest private collection of jewellery assembled in one place.” Taylor’s obsession with jewellery is well-chronicled. Her twice-husband Richard Burton said: “I introduced Liz to beer, and she introduced me to Bulgari.” If your jaw would ever drop at a piece of jewellery then it would drop at some of the gifts from Burton, not least “the Elizabeth Taylor Diamond”, a 33.19 carat monster of a diamond ring that she cheerfully wore most days after being given it in 1968. Taylor once said: “My ring gives me the strangest feeling for beauty. With its sparks of red and white and blue and purple, and on and on, really, it sort of hums with its own beatific life.” Its estimate may be a tad beyond most means – $2.5m to $3.5m. Burton was also responsible for “It’s a beautiful day, I love you” gifts and an “It’s Tuesday, I love you” present of a Bulgari emerald suite – necklace pendant, ring, bracelet, earrings – collected over the course of many trips to the Bulgari boutique on Rome’s Via Condotti while they were filming Cleopatra. He is alleged to have claimed “the only word Elizabeth knows in Italian is Bulgari”. Then there is his 1968 Christmas present to her which she almost missed because Burton had buried it so deep in her Christmas stocking. The perfect red ruby ring is estimated at $1m to $1.5m. Two years later Burton and Taylor were relaxing at their luxury chalet in Gstaad playing ping pong. A challenge was set: if Taylor could take 10 points off him he would get her a diamond, and of course she did. The result was three very small diamond rings known as the ping pong diamonds, which may be more in some people’s price range at $5,000 to $7,000. Another Burton gift is a necklace – La Pérégrina – which contains one of the most important pearls there is, one discovered in the early 1500s in the Gulf of Panama which Philip II of Spain gave as a wedding gift to his wife Mary Tudor. Of course Taylor went through her husbands, and there are gifts in the sale from others, including husband number three Mike Todd, who died in a plane crash a year after their marriage in 1957. She wore the diamond tiara he gave her – “you are my queen” – to the Oscars in 1957, where Todd won best picture for Around the World in 80 Days. Another present was the Cartier Ruby suite which he surprised her with as she was swimming laps in the pool of her luxury Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat villa. She was without a mirror and looked at her reflection in the pool and wrote afterwards: “I just shrieked with joy, put my arms around Mike’s neck, and pulled him into the pool after me.” It will be a sale the like of which has not been seen since Sotheby’s sold Wallis Simpson’s vast collection of jewellery by the shores of Lake Geneva in 1987. Taylor was, naturally, at the sale, outbidding everyone to buy the “Prince of Wales” brooch that she admired whenever she saw the duchess. Other pieces in the sale relate to specific films such as her diamond, gold, emerald and sapphire Night of the Iguana brooch which always brought to mind lovely days spent at her Mexican residencia in Gringo Gulch, Puerto Vallarta – joined, as it was, by a bridge to Burton’s. Taylor always intended that her collection would go to auction. In her 2002 memoir, My Love Affair With Jewellery, Taylor wrote: “I never, never thought of my jewellery as trophies. I’m here to take care of them and to love them. When I die and they go off to auction I hope whoever buys them gives them a really good home.” François Curiel, Christie’s international jewellery director, recalled first meeting Taylor in 1998: “It was clear that she possessed an expert’s eye for craftmanship, rarity, quality and history. She collected the best pieces from the best periods, and as a result her collection boasts exquisite examples from the most celebrated of jewellery designers.” The jewellery will be sold over two sessions on 14 December. It will be on display at Christie’s London on 24-26 September. Elizabeth Taylor Mark Brown guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …$30m of gems that were Elizabeth Taylor’s lasting love go up for auction
September 7, 2011 No Comment300 ‘exquisite’ items include treasures given by her twice-husband Richard Burton There was jewellery for the eight wedding days, the numerous film premieres, the table tennis victories and of course Tuesdays. Who among us does not get an ‘it’s Tuesday and I love you’ gift? The woman who certainly did was Elizabeth Taylor and it helped her build up one of the most remarkable and dazzling private collections of jewellery ever created. Following her death in March aged 79, Christie’s announced on Wednesday it is to sell nearly 300 of the star’s jewels over two sessions in New York. There will be diamonds, pearls, emeralds, rubies and sapphires; rings, earrings, necklaces, brooches, tiaras and more in a sale expected to make over $30m (£19m). The chairman and president of Christie’s America, Marc Porter, said the sale promised “to captivate the auction world”. He added: “This is without a doubt the greatest private collection of jewellery assembled in one place.” Taylor’s obsession with jewellery is well-chronicled. Her twice-husband Richard Burton said: “I introduced Liz to beer, and she introduced me to Bulgari.” If your jaw would ever drop at a piece of jewellery then it would drop at some of the gifts from Burton, not least “the Elizabeth Taylor Diamond”, a 33.19 carat monster of a diamond ring that she cheerfully wore most days after being given it in 1968. Taylor once said: “My ring gives me the strangest feeling for beauty. With its sparks of red and white and blue and purple, and on and on, really, it sort of hums with its own beatific life.” Its estimate may be a tad beyond most means – $2.5m to $3.5m. Burton was also responsible for “It’s a beautiful day, I love you” gifts and an “It’s Tuesday, I love you” present of a Bulgari emerald suite – necklace pendant, ring, bracelet, earrings – collected over the course of many trips to the Bulgari boutique on Rome’s Via Condotti while they were filming Cleopatra. He is alleged to have claimed “the only word Elizabeth knows in Italian is Bulgari”. Then there is his 1968 Christmas present to her which she almost missed because Burton had buried it so deep in her Christmas stocking. The perfect red ruby ring is estimated at $1m to $1.5m. Two years later Burton and Taylor were relaxing at their luxury chalet in Gstaad playing ping pong. A challenge was set: if Taylor could take 10 points off him he would get her a diamond, and of course she did. The result was three very small diamond rings known as the ping pong diamonds, which may be more in some people’s price range at $5,000 to $7,000. Another Burton gift is a necklace – La Pérégrina – which contains one of the most important pearls there is, one discovered in the early 1500s in the Gulf of Panama which Philip II of Spain gave as a wedding gift to his wife Mary Tudor. Of course Taylor went through her husbands, and there are gifts in the sale from others, including husband number three Mike Todd, who died in a plane crash a year after their marriage in 1957. She wore the diamond tiara he gave her – “you are my queen” – to the Oscars in 1957, where Todd won best picture for Around the World in 80 Days. Another present was the Cartier Ruby suite which he surprised her with as she was swimming laps in the pool of her luxury Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat villa. She was without a mirror and looked at her reflection in the pool and wrote afterwards: “I just shrieked with joy, put my arms around Mike’s neck, and pulled him into the pool after me.” It will be a sale the like of which has not been seen since Sotheby’s sold Wallis Simpson’s vast collection of jewellery by the shores of Lake Geneva in 1987. Taylor was, naturally, at the sale, outbidding everyone to buy the “Prince of Wales” brooch that she admired whenever she saw the duchess. Other pieces in the sale relate to specific films such as her diamond, gold, emerald and sapphire Night of the Iguana brooch which always brought to mind lovely days spent at her Mexican residencia in Gringo Gulch, Puerto Vallarta – joined, as it was, by a bridge to Burton’s. Taylor always intended that her collection would go to auction. In her 2002 memoir, My Love Affair With Jewellery, Taylor wrote: “I never, never thought of my jewellery as trophies. I’m here to take care of them and to love them. When I die and they go off to auction I hope whoever buys them gives them a really good home.” François Curiel, Christie’s international jewellery director, recalled first meeting Taylor in 1998: “It was clear that she possessed an expert’s eye for craftmanship, rarity, quality and history. She collected the best pieces from the best periods, and as a result her collection boasts exquisite examples from the most celebrated of jewellery designers.” The jewellery will be sold over two sessions on 14 December. It will be on display at Christie’s London on 24-26 September. Elizabeth Taylor Mark Brown guardian.co.uk
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Ministers are looking at how benefits, or tax credits could be taken away under plans being drawn up in response to the riots Magistrates and crown court judges could be asked to dock benefits from convicted criminals under preliminary proposals being drawn up by the government in response to the riots, the Guardian can reveal. Ministers are looking hard at how benefits, or tax credits, could be taken away to show criminals that privileges provided by the state can be temporarily withdrawn. Under the proposals anyone convicted of a crime could be punished once rather than potentially facing separate fines – first by a magistrates court and then a benefit office. By giving powers to the courts to strip benefits, the Department of Work and Pensions would no longer be obliged to intervene directly in the criminal justice system. Sources indicate that a vast array of punitive options are being examined as Whitehall races to meet an October deadline to publish its post-riot response. Number 10 is actively looking at the withdrawal of child maintenance or child benefit from parents who allow children to truant, or repeatedly allow them to stay on the streets late at night. Ministers are also looking at ensuring prisoners released from jail without a job are fast-tracked on to the government’s Work Programme. Some councils have announced plans to evict families of convicted rioters from social housing. But ministers are increasingly wary of measures to evict families after a child has broken the law, pointing out that government has a duty to prevent hardship, and might anyway simply be required to rehouse them in more expensive bed-and-breakfast accommodation. David Cameron has also drafted in the victims’ commissioner, Louise Casey, to set out how the government should intervene with the 120,000 families identified as having deep-seated problems. Casey, best known for her invention of the controversial antisocial behaviour orders, oversaw a multi-agency approach to problem families from the Home Office. She has in the past expressed frustration at the lack of co-ordination between government agencies in their efforts to help chaotic families, and Cameron regards her as well placed to judge what went wrong or right with Labour programmes. Ministers have pointed to the failure of health officials – locally and nationally – to co-operate with efforts to identify problem families. Health officials claim they have a duty to patient confidentiality, but in fact are often best placed to identify early a family liable to go off the rails. In 2008 Gordon Brown promised to target “more than 110,000 problem families with disruptive young people”. Parents were to be put on intensive courses to help them supervise their children. In response to the riots, Cameron said he would require each family’s problems be addressed by the end of parliament. The latest official figures show that in 2009-10 only 3,518 families were actually in the intervention programme and it has helped only 7,300 families since being set up in 2006. The Department for Education has compiled a list identifying the whereabouts of problem families. But since coming to power the Conservatives have removed ringfencing from the programme. Westminster council is now being cited by ministers for running the most successful example of a family recovery programme. Set up in 2008, parents joining a six-month programme are required to sign a contract with the council to take part. A team is appointed for a family as a single contact point acting as the gateway to all public services. The agreement sets out the possible sanctions – eviction, parenting orders, care proceedings and other forms of court action – in the event of a repeated failure to co-operate with the programme. The council claims the average number of arrests for crime households dropped from 9 to 1.5 a month and antisocial behaviour was reduced by nearly half. The government is also looking at offering clear options to rehouse families where a gang member wants to leave a gang but fears retribution. Ministers want more councils to be open about the scale of the gang problem, and claim that until the pervasiveness of gangs is admitted, progress will not be made. Ministers are also looking at schemes in Boston and New York, where the police do much more after hours to help youngsters. They believe the crisis gives the police an opportunity to rethink its concept of community policing. Ministers also suggest the option of a public inquiry into the riots has not yet been irrevocably ruled out. So far the government has appointed a panel to hear voices from inner-city communities where the riots occurred. Cameron is instinctively opposed to a further expensive public inquiry so soon after he appointed the inquiry into the future of media regulation. UK riots State benefits Welfare Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Ministers are looking at how benefits, or tax credits could be taken away under plans being drawn up in response to the riots Magistrates and crown court judges could be asked to dock benefits from convicted criminals under preliminary proposals being drawn up by the government in response to the riots, the Guardian can reveal. Ministers are looking hard at how benefits, or tax credits, could be taken away to show criminals that privileges provided by the state can be temporarily withdrawn. Under the proposals anyone convicted of a crime could be punished once rather than potentially facing separate fines – first by a magistrates court and then a benefit office. By giving powers to the courts to strip benefits, the Department of Work and Pensions would no longer be obliged to intervene directly in the criminal justice system. Sources indicate that a vast array of punitive options are being examined as Whitehall races to meet an October deadline to publish its post-riot response. Number 10 is actively looking at the withdrawal of child maintenance or child benefit from parents who allow children to truant, or repeatedly allow them to stay on the streets late at night. Ministers are also looking at ensuring prisoners released from jail without a job are fast-tracked on to the government’s Work Programme. Some councils have announced plans to evict families of convicted rioters from social housing. But ministers are increasingly wary of measures to evict families after a child has broken the law, pointing out that government has a duty to prevent hardship, and might anyway simply be required to rehouse them in more expensive bed-and-breakfast accommodation. David Cameron has also drafted in the victims’ commissioner, Louise Casey, to set out how the government should intervene with the 120,000 families identified as having deep-seated problems. Casey, best known for her invention of the controversial antisocial behaviour orders, oversaw a multi-agency approach to problem families from the Home Office. She has in the past expressed frustration at the lack of co-ordination between government agencies in their efforts to help chaotic families, and Cameron regards her as well placed to judge what went wrong or right with Labour programmes. Ministers have pointed to the failure of health officials – locally and nationally – to co-operate with efforts to identify problem families. Health officials claim they have a duty to patient confidentiality, but in fact are often best placed to identify early a family liable to go off the rails. In 2008 Gordon Brown promised to target “more than 110,000 problem families with disruptive young people”. Parents were to be put on intensive courses to help them supervise their children. In response to the riots, Cameron said he would require each family’s problems be addressed by the end of parliament. The latest official figures show that in 2009-10 only 3,518 families were actually in the intervention programme and it has helped only 7,300 families since being set up in 2006. The Department for Education has compiled a list identifying the whereabouts of problem families. But since coming to power the Conservatives have removed ringfencing from the programme. Westminster council is now being cited by ministers for running the most successful example of a family recovery programme. Set up in 2008, parents joining a six-month programme are required to sign a contract with the council to take part. A team is appointed for a family as a single contact point acting as the gateway to all public services. The agreement sets out the possible sanctions – eviction, parenting orders, care proceedings and other forms of court action – in the event of a repeated failure to co-operate with the programme. The council claims the average number of arrests for crime households dropped from 9 to 1.5 a month and antisocial behaviour was reduced by nearly half. The government is also looking at offering clear options to rehouse families where a gang member wants to leave a gang but fears retribution. Ministers want more councils to be open about the scale of the gang problem, and claim that until the pervasiveness of gangs is admitted, progress will not be made. Ministers are also looking at schemes in Boston and New York, where the police do much more after hours to help youngsters. They believe the crisis gives the police an opportunity to rethink its concept of community policing. Ministers also suggest the option of a public inquiry into the riots has not yet been irrevocably ruled out. So far the government has appointed a panel to hear voices from inner-city communities where the riots occurred. Cameron is instinctively opposed to a further expensive public inquiry so soon after he appointed the inquiry into the future of media regulation. UK riots State benefits Welfare Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano Tuesday laughed off attacks on her by the Drudge Report , saying that the conservative website was “just wrong” to suggest the government was overreaching in its efforts to keep Americans safe. “I have my own nickname,” Napolitano told Politico ‘s Mike Allen . “It’s kind of a deal. You know that you’ve made it when you get your own nickname.” “I think my nickname is ‘Big Sis.’ And I don’t think [Matt Drudge] means it kindly, actually,” she added. “I think what he means is we are watching too much — kind of an Orwellian view. And he’s just wrong — he’s just wrong.” The DHS secretary explained that her department’s privacy office took great care to prevent government overreaching. “Madam Secretary, what I thought you were going to say — and why I really perked up — I thought you had a nickname for him,” Allen noted. “Maybe,” Napolitano replied, laughing. “No, I think we should try to keep our discussion at a high level.”
Continue reading …Libyan leaders fear Gaddafi may flee south across the border into Niger
September 7, 2011 No Comment
Niger’s foreign minister warns that the country does not have the means to close the border Libya’s new leaders were urgently trying to stop Muammar Gaddafi fleeing south as neighbouring Niger said it would be impossible to close its border, and evidence emerged suggesting the fugitive dictator was last seen in the very southern-most part of Libya. As the National Transitional Council (NTC) announced it had sent a delegation to Niamey to discuss how to stop “any kind of infiltration” by Gaddafi or his family, Niger’s foreign minister said the former ruler had neither crossed nor asked to cross the border. However, a day after it emerged that Gaddafi’s personal security chief had been admitted to the country, Niger’s foreign minister Mohamed Bazoum told the BBC that it had not decided whether it would accept Gaddafi himself or hand him over to the International Criminal Court (ICC). “We have no means to close the border … It is too big and we have very, very small means for that,” he said. Fathi Baja, the head of political affairs for the NTC, said the group was determined to try to prevent the dictator fleeing to Niger or Algeria. “I think he’s near one of these borders … and he’s looking for a chance to leave. We’re asking every country not to accept him. We want these people for justice,” Baja told Reuters. The leader of the interim government’s manhunt, who said late on Tuesday that Gaddafi had last been seen three days before near the village of Ghwat, around 200 miles from the border with Niger. Hisham Buhagiar told Reuters: “We have it from many sources that he’s trying to go further south, towards Chad or Niger.” It was not possible to confirm whether this supported another claim made on Wednesdayby a spokesman for Tripoli’s new military council, according to which Libyan fighters had located Gaddafi at an undisclosed location in Libya and had surrounded him on all sides. Anis Sharif said authorities were waiting to decide whether to capture or kill him. “He can’t get out,” Sharif told the Associated Press, without giving any more detail of the presumed location. “We are just playing games with him.” In a signal of just how mired in contradiction and confusion the manhunt is, Libya’s new deputy defence minister Mohammad Tanaz said the NTC did not know where Gaddafi was. Finding him, he added, was not a “priority”. As fresh detail emerged of the convoys reported to have crossed the Niger-Libya border in recent days, the government in capital Niamey acknowledged that Gaddafi’s former aide Mansour Dhao had been allowed in to the country “for humanitarian reasons”. Bazoum said that at least three convoys had come in to Niger containing, he claimed, several pro-Gaddafi businessmen, as well as Agaly ag Alambo, a Tuareg rebel leader. There were fewer than 20 of them, he added, and they would be free to stay in Niger. The US said it believed senior Gaddafi regime figures had also crossed over the border, but not Gaddafi himself. In Ougadougou, Burkina Faso, president Blaise Compaoré denied reports it had offered asylum to the former Libyan despot. As the search for Gaddafi continued, lead rebel negotiator Abdullah Kanshil said his son Saif al-Islam had been spotted in the town of Bani Walid on Monday and was probably still there. “Saif was sighted two days ago,” he said on Wednesday in Boshtata, about 50km from the town. “He’s coming in and out.” Kanshil said that Bani Walid was made up of 52 villages, three of which were still occupied by pro-Gaddafi gunmen. It was also possible that Saif could be hiding in its numerous caves. Another “big fish” might also be in the town, Kanshil added. Pressed for details, he replied: “Another of the sons. The ugly one.” Peace talks appeared to break down on Tuesday. But Kanshil insisted: “There is a lot of progress today in the conference with the clan leaders in Bani Walid. They are safe and sound. A few people waved their guns and cursed at them [after talks yesterday] but the people of Bani Walid made they got home to their families.” Asked if would be necessary to take Bani Walid by force, Kanshil said: “No, we hope not. The people of Bani Walid are with the revolution. But there are 80 snipers there, that’s our worry. Some in caves, some on roofs of buildings, some walking in places.” Any decision on an attack rested with the National Transitional Council, he said. “They are the leadership.” Muammar Gaddafi Libya Niger Arab and Middle East unrest Lizzy Davies guardian.co.uk
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