• Uefa president Platini says he has ‘only one tongue’ • Scotland only nation backing FA’s request to delay election Michel Platini has ruled out standing for the Fifa presidency until 2015 because he has “only one tongue”. If in the unlikely event that the Football Association’s initiative to gain the support of 153 other federations succeeds in delaying the Fifa presidential election – so far it has the public backing only of Scotland – succeeds, a rival candidate would be sought. However, when the Guardian asked the Uefa president if he intends to rescue Fifa from its ongoing scandals Platini responded by saying: “Scandals? I only know what I see in the newspapers and you work for the newspapers. You know more than me. “I have been elected Uefa president. I have four more years. Can I do two jobs? I have only one tongue.” Platini is clearly not prepared to mount a coup, and stands in line for what is likely to be an orderly transition into the role in 2015, when his Uefa mandate expires. The three-time European footballer of the year has expressed his ambitions to that effect, saying: “Fifa is like the International Olympic Committee was some years ago. I think we are at the end of a system based on politics. I think it will finish in the next few years and we will have people from the sport. I think Fifa has to come back to football.” The Guardian understands that the 21 surviving executive-committee members of Fifa were unanimous in expressing their support for the incumbent president, Sepp Blatter, at its meeting at Fifa House yesterday. Fifa Michel Platini Sepp Blatter Football politics Matt Scott guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
WHAT IF….. Luigi’s Adventure Part 2 – got trapped by dry bones! Back From The Dead littlemissmandu says: Mr Mandu came in and asked me a question while I was midway through @GoTracy . I couldn't respond, merely squeaked!
Continue reading …
Former Conservative peer falsely filed for travel and overnight subsistence to claim more than £11,000 from taxpayer, court told The disgraced former Conservative peer Lord Taylor of Warwick has been jailed for 12 months over false parliamentary expense claims. Taylor falsely filed for travel and overnight subsistence to claim more than £11,000 from the taxpayer, Southwark crown court, in London, heard. The 58-year-old told the House of Lords members’ expenses office that his main residence was a house in Oxford, when in fact he lived in west London. The peer never stayed at, and only twice visited, the Oxford property, which was owned by his half-nephew’s partner. He was therefore not entitled to claim money for travelling from Oxford to London and staying overnight in the capital. Passing sentence, Mr Justice Saunders said Taylor had lied to journalists investigating his expenses and lied while giving evidence to the jury on oath during his trial. He said: “The expenses scheme in the House of Lords was based on trust. Peers certified that their claims were accurate. They were not required to provide proof. It was considered that people who achieved a peerage could be relied on to be honest. “Making false claims involved a breach of a high degree of trust. The expenses scandal has affected the standing not just of the House of Commons but also the House of Lords.” MPs’ expenses House of Lords Crime guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Eric Cantor Doubles Down on His Hostage Taking of Tornado Victims for Spending Cuts
May 30, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Yashwanth Manjunath at Alan Colmes Liberland summed up House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s hostage taking on Face the Nation very well here — Eric Cantor Doubles Down On Using Disaster Victims As Hostages To Spending Cuts : Last week Alan mentioned how Eric Cantor is denying emergency disaster relief funds to tornado victims in Joplin, MO unless they are first paid for with politically-motivated spending cuts. Today on CBS’ Face the Nation Cantor doubled down on using the tornado victims as political hostages for spending cuts to clean energy. He compared the situation to that of a family facing an unexpected expenditure. “Because families don’t have unlimited money,” Cantor said. “And, really, neither does the federal government.” I could go into all of the different macroeconomic reasons why comparing the budget of the United States federal government to that of a typical American family is one of the most moronic and ignorant analogies ever made, but that is an argument for another day. The much larger issue with Cantor’s comments are the disdain and callousness he is showing towards the Joplin victims, his vile political opportunism, and worst of all, his unbearable hypocrisy. Read on… As Murshed already pointed out here last week , the one word that immediately comes to mind for this — heartless. While they were mourning their dead in Joplin today, Cantor’s on the television still hostage taking before allowing them some help. I’m not sure how much more that party has to do to prove that they hate the working class in America, but they seem determined to make sure everyone knows it with this callousness.
Continue reading …
What you are about to read is an excerpt from a little picture book for adults I wrote. It is the story of someone trying to come up with the perfect graduation speech. I love graduation speeches. I have always loved them, I will always love them. Once when I was in my twenties, I laid on my old girlfriend’s peach couch (which I still had, but not my girlfriend) and watched twelve hours of graduation speeches on Sunday being televised on that odd BOOK TV channel. I have never been happier. Which isn’t to say that I haven’t been bored by graduation speeches. Of course I have. Like everything, they are often better in theory. But the thing I find so compelling about them is that they represent this moment in time when someone is trying to make sense of his or her life. We spend so much time blindly getting through our days (if we are lucky) and so little time stepping back and reflecting. Graduation speeches force you to reflect. They are about consciousness. Nothing is better than consciousness. (Except oddly, unconsciousness. Not that I really mean that, but I guess I do.) Anyhow, so that ultimately is what I believe all graduation speeches have in common — they are saying, be conscious. And forgive me for being like this, but I will only be this way for one more second, be conscious. Okay, now you can go back to the rest of your life. Just like we all do after we hear a graduation speech.
Continue reading …
What you are about to read is an excerpt from a little picture book for adults I wrote. It is the story of someone trying to come up with the perfect graduation speech. I love graduation speeches. I have always loved them, I will always love them. Once when I was in my twenties, I laid on my old girlfriend’s peach couch (which I still had, but not my girlfriend) and watched twelve hours of graduation speeches on Sunday being televised on that odd BOOK TV channel. I have never been happier. Which isn’t to say that I haven’t been bored by graduation speeches. Of course I have. Like everything, they are often better in theory. But the thing I find so compelling about them is that they represent this moment in time when someone is trying to make sense of his or her life. We spend so much time blindly getting through our days (if we are lucky) and so little time stepping back and reflecting. Graduation speeches force you to reflect. They are about consciousness. Nothing is better than consciousness. (Except oddly, unconsciousness. Not that I really mean that, but I guess I do.) Anyhow, so that ultimately is what I believe all graduation speeches have in common — they are saying, be conscious. And forgive me for being like this, but I will only be this way for one more second, be conscious. Okay, now you can go back to the rest of your life. Just like we all do after we hear a graduation speech.
Continue reading …Mitch McConnell: Paul Ryan Medicare Plan ‘On The Table’ In Debt Ceiling Discussions
May 30, 2011 No Comment
WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Sunday that the Medicare reform plan authored by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan would be “on the table” with respect to negotiations over raising the debt ceiling. “We are going to discuss what ought to be done,” McConnell said during an appearance on Meet The Press. “I can assure you that to get my vote to raise the debt ceiling, for whatever that is worth… Medicare will be a part of it.” Using the Ryan plan as an option for debt ceiling negotiations is a new marker for GOP leaders, who have long insisted legislation should include strict spending caps. McConnell’s remarks suggest not only that GOP leadership is looking for cover for the party’s Medicare voucher proposal — forcing Democrats to either support elements of the plan or risk default — but also that the two parties may be moving further apart as that deadline nears. Indeed, elsewhere on Sunday, presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty reiterated his skepticism that reaching the debt ceiling would cause much economic disruption at all. “I don’t think we should raise the debt ceiling,” Pawlenty told ABC’s This Week. “And if the Congress moves in that direction, and the president, they’d better get something really good for it and it better be permanent and it better be structural, like a balanced budget amendment and like permanent caps and limits on spending that are specific, not just aspirational.” “[T]here are some serious voices challenging” the idea that hitting the debt ceiling would be catastrophic, he added. “And the answer is nobody really knows because we’ve not been at this point before.” Democrats, for their part, continued to pound away at the Ryan plan on Sunday, arguing that it was a non-starter as part of both the budget proposal and the debt ceiling discussions. Sen. Chuck Schumer’s office flagged the McConnell quote well before it aired on television in D.C. (the New York Democrat visited Meet The Press after McConnell). And the Senator himself released a statement shortly thereafter. “Leader McConnell continues to embrace his party’s plan to end Medicare as we know it, and again refused to take it off the table,” said Schumer. “A deal on deficit reduction is only possible if Republicans remove Paul Ryan’s plan from consideration so we can return our focus to ways to achieve savings that extend the life of Medicare in its current form.”
Continue reading …Mitch McConnell: Paul Ryan Medicare Plan ‘On The Table’ In Debt Ceiling Discussions
May 30, 2011 No CommentWASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Sunday that the Medicare reform plan authored by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan would be “on the table” with respect to negotiations over raising the debt ceiling. “We are going to discuss what ought to be done,” McConnell said during an appearance on Meet The Press. “I can assure you that to get my vote to raise the debt ceiling, for whatever that is worth… Medicare will be a part of it.” Using the Ryan plan as an option for debt ceiling negotiations is a new marker for GOP leaders, who have long insisted legislation should include strict spending caps. McConnell’s remarks suggest not only that GOP leadership is looking for cover for the party’s Medicare voucher proposal — forcing Democrats to either support elements of the plan or risk default — but also that the two parties may be moving further apart as that deadline nears. Indeed, elsewhere on Sunday, presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty reiterated his skepticism that reaching the debt ceiling would cause much economic disruption at all. “I don’t think we should raise the debt ceiling,” Pawlenty told ABC’s This Week. “And if the Congress moves in that direction, and the president, they’d better get something really good for it and it better be permanent and it better be structural, like a balanced budget amendment and like permanent caps and limits on spending that are specific, not just aspirational.” “[T]here are some serious voices challenging” the idea that hitting the debt ceiling would be catastrophic, he added. “And the answer is nobody really knows because we’ve not been at this point before.” Democrats, for their part, continued to pound away at the Ryan plan on Sunday, arguing that it was a non-starter as part of both the budget proposal and the debt ceiling discussions. Sen. Chuck Schumer’s office flagged the McConnell quote well before it aired on television in D.C. (the New York Democrat visited Meet The Press after McConnell). And the Senator himself released a statement shortly thereafter. “Leader McConnell continues to embrace his party’s plan to end Medicare as we know it, and again refused to take it off the table,” said Schumer. “A deal on deficit reduction is only possible if Republicans remove Paul Ryan’s plan from consideration so we can return our focus to ways to achieve savings that extend the life of Medicare in its current form.”
Continue reading …
WASHINGTON — The still unsettled race for the Republican nomination to challenge President Barack Obama in 2012 is getting more interesting. After months of resisting calls to join the contest, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Friday he would consider it. That could reshape the GOP field, adding a sitting governor who has never lost an election. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin also sent a jolt through the party with the announcement of a campaign-style bus tour along the East Coast, the latest possible contender to stand up since Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels announced last weekend that he would not run. And former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is heading to New Hampshire next week, further stirring speculation that he will jump into the still-gelling field. Perry, the longest serving governor in Texas history, would bring conservative bona fides, a proven fundraising record and a fresh voice. Even as Perry’s closest advisers say he has no intention of getting in the race, he has methodically raised his profile, fanning interest. “I’m going to think about it,” Perry said Friday. “I think about a lot of things.” That was enough to set off speculation he would jump into a campaign that lacks a clear front-runner. Social conservatives are still shopping for a candidate. Tea party activists want one of their own. Establishment Republicans remain divided on a choice. Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, is the closest to a favorite at this point. Like Giuliani, he ran for the nomination in 2008, losing out to Arizona Sen. John McCain. Romney will formally kick off his campaign in the early primary state of New Hampshire next Thursday, the same day that Giuliani is now scheduled to headline a fundraiser for the state Republican Party and have lunch with several GOP activists. Evangelicals who dominate the Iowa and South Carolina nominating contests are unlikely to back Romney or former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman; some call the two men’s shared Mormon faith a disqualifier. Twice-divorced former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, too, has problems, although Gingrich is quick to note he has been with his third wife for more than a decade. Last month, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, fresh off a turn as the chairman of the Republican Governors Association, said he wouldn’t make a White House bid; that unlocked many of the donors for Perry. It also opened the door for a sought-after Southern candidate. While Gingrich is running his campaign from Georgia, he has lived near Washington for decades and is hardly the regional candidate Perry could be. Mark McKinnon, a veteran political consultant who advised President George W. Bush’s campaigns, said of Perry, “The only real question is: Why wouldn’t he run?” Still, Perry has for months insisted he had no interest in a White House bid. “I don’t want to be the president of the United States,” he said flatly in November. With those refusals, he took the reins of the Republican Governors Association for a second term as chairman earlier this year, a signal he was serious about sitting 2012 out; he told fellow Republicans he wouldn’t split his time between the RGA and a presidential campaign. Since then, Perry’s refusal seems to have softened, albeit ever so slightly. Asked Tuesday whether he would rule out a run, Perry left the door open. “I’ve got my focus on where it is supposed to be and that is the legislative session,” he told reporters. “Like I’ve said multiple times, I’m not going to get distracted from my work at hand, I’m not going to get distracted by that.” The Texas legislative session ends Monday. “The candidates that are running are not the candidates that people want,” said Ryan Hecker of the Houston Tea Party Society. “They’re looking for someone, almost wistfully.” In recent years, Perry has made a sport out of bashing Washington. Most often, he assails the federal government for failing to secure the U.S. border with Mexico. In November, he published a book, “Fed Up!” In the book he describes the federal government as financially reckless and out of control and calls for a resurgence of state-based power. Since he was re-elected to a third term, Perry has hopscotched across the country, making several trips to Washington and taking center stage at every conservative gathering of high-profile Republicans. From the Conservative Political Action Conference to a celebration commemorating what would have been Reagan’s 100th birthday, Perry has constantly brushed elbows with GOP heavyweights. Texas Democrats sought to paint that travel as a disqualifier. “Governor Perry spends so much time jetting across the country, playing celebrity and ignoring Texas priorities, that he already fits the mold of a typical Washington politician. If Perry finally announces his candidacy, he would fit right into a GOP field that’s already well-treaded by aspiring celebrities hawking books and reality TV shows,” Texas Democratic Party spokeswoman Kirsten Gray said. While professing to be focused on the state Legislature, Perry is also commenting on national policy debates that have little relevance to Texas. He issued a statement last week after Obama’s foreign policy speech. “President Obama’s speech today continues a misguided policy of alienating our traditional allies, in this case Israel, one of our strongest partners in the war on terror,” Perry said, joining the field of likely GOP presidential contenders in criticizing Obama’s foreign policy. In or out of the race, Perry is scheduled to address conservative voters next month at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, a gathering that has become a showcase of Republican presidential wannabes. ___ Castro reported from Austin, Texas.
Continue reading …
Age UK predicts more than 1m will be without support by 2014 Social care in England is “grossly inadequate” and “totally failing” to meet the needs of disabled people aged over 65, according to a new report. Research by Age UK has found that of the 2 million older people in England with care-related needs, just 800,000 receive formal support from public or private sector agencies. But the picture is growing even bleaker, warns the report, Care in Crisis : with spending cuts under way, more than 1 million of the most vulnerable pensioners in England will be left without help or support by 2014, it concludes. “There has been unprecedented debate on the future of care – both its long-term funding and the ‘transformation’ of council provision today,” said the report’s author, Andrew Harrop , Age UK’s director of policy and public affairs. “But in the meantime, local authority spending decisions have changed the facts on the ground, with a significant deterioration in services for older people. “Over the last six years publicly funded social care for older people has been systematically starved of cash,” he said. Elaine McDonald, a 67-year-old former ballerina, is taking her local authority of Kensington and Chelsea to the supreme court for reducing her care package from seven days a week to just one. McDonald has had to use a wheelchair since a stroke in 2007. Since the local authority reduced her care package, she has had two serious falls, one of which led to a broken hip. “I have worked and paid taxes since I was 16, and have lived in the borough for 47 years, so I don’t think I am asking for much in return,” she said. Since 2004, net spending on older people’s social care has risen by 0.1% a year in real terms, a total of £43m, while real spending on the NHS has risen by £25bn. “Spending cuts are projected to reduce spending on older people’s care by a minimum of £300m over four years,” said Harrop. “Real spending on older people’s care will be £250m lower in 2014 than in 2004. Over the same period, the number of people over 85 has risen by two-thirds to 630,000 people.” The Care in Crisis report said that while half of councils provided support to people assessed as having “moderate” needs in 2005, that had fallen to 15% by 2011. The Age UK report found huge regional discrepancies in the quantity and quality of care for older people: Tower Hamlets, the highest-spending local authority, spends five times as much on each older resident as Cornwall, the lowest-spending. “Age UK found that public sector commissioners are underpaying for older people’s care homes by a total of around half a billion pounds,” Harrop said. “The average shortfall per resident is £60 per week, rising to £120 per week in south-east England. Many care homes are demanding that older people and their relatives ‘top up’ their care fees with private money.” It is, he said, a “real injustice” that forces families to subsidise the state’s statutory duties. Especially when, he points out, younger service users are allocated an average of £78 a week per person, compared to £53 a week per older person. Reform, however, cannot be achieved without billions of pounds of new money, the researchers found. “Today taxpayers spend 0.5% of GDP on care for older people in England. If we merely maintain this level we will cause misery and danger for hundreds of thousands of frail older people,” said Harrop. In a costed package of solutions, the report estimates that Britain needs to spend a minimum of 0.9% of GDP on care in later life by the mid-2020s: around £2-3bn a year. The publication of the Age UK report comes as The Dilnot Commission finalises its recommendations on the future funding of care and support in England. The independent commission is due to publish its findings at the beginning of July. Martin Green, chief executive of the English Community Care Association , said: “We need the Dilnot Commission to come up with a solution, but we also need politicians with the guts to actually implement it. Older people Disability Social care Amelia Hill guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …