enlarge Oh goody : President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support for rebel forces seeking to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, government officials told Reuters on Wednesday. Obama signed the order, known as a presidential “finding”, within the last two or three weeks, according to four U.S. government sources familiar with the matter. Such findings are a principal form of presidential directive used to authorize secret operations by the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA and the White House declined immediate comment. News that Obama had given the authorization surfaced as the President and other U.S. and allied officials spoke openly about the possibility of sending arms supplies to Gaddafi’s opponents, who are fighting better-equipped government forces. Here’s how I predict this will play out: We spend a crap-load of money maintaining air strikes and funneling all kinds of weapons to the Libyan rebels. They eventually topple Gaddafi. A great day for freedom! John McCain will send out a Twee t telling us he’s having dinner with the very interesting rebels at their ranch. The good news: If we give them more arms, they’ll embrace freedom! It then turns out that the Libyan rebels we armed have ties to terrorist organizations. Libya becomes a safe haven where al-Qaeda can plan attacks on the United States. We get hit with another terrorist attack and then go re-invade Libya. No one in the media will bother to point out that we put these guys in power in the first place. Instead, the Republican or Democrat who’s heading the State Department at the time will tell us that “nobody could have predicted” Libya would become a safe haven for terrorism. And finally, we’ll make the war deficit-neutral by laying off a bunch of teachers. This sort of thing seems to happen quite frequently. So frequently, in fact, that even some of the dim bulbs in Congress are starting to take notice : Members of Congress have expressed anxiety about U.S. government activates in Libya. Some have recalled that weapons provided by the U.S. and Saudis to mujahedeen fighting Soviet occupation forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s later ended up in the hands of anti-American militants. There are fears that the same thing could happen in Libya unless the U.S. is sure who it is dealing with. The chairman of the House intelligence committee, Rep. Mike Rogers, said on Wednesday he opposed supplying arms to the Libyan rebels fighting Gaddafi “at this time.” “We need to understand more about the opposition before I would support passing out guns and advanced weapons to them,” Rogers said in a statement. If the past is any guide, Rogers will soon forget all about this and give Obama and the CIA a blank check to do whatever they want. We aren’t a very smart country. It’s amazing we’ve survived as long as we have. UPDATE : Oh this just gets better and better : The new leader of Libya’s opposition military spent the past two decades in suburban Virginia but felt compelled — even in his late-60s — to return to the battlefield in his homeland, according to people who know him. Khalifa Hifter was once a top military officer for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, but after a disastrous military adventure in Chad in the late 1980s, Hifter switched to the anti-Gadhafi opposition. In the early 1990s, he moved to suburban Virginia, where he established a life but maintained ties to anti-Gadhafi groups. The good news is that “Hifter” sounds an awful lot like “Hitler.” It shouldn’t be too hard to make him out to be the greatest most evilest ever threat to world peace when we re-invade Libya ten years from now.
Continue reading …The needs of vulnerable disabled people are being sidelined by overstretched services, and families such as ours are fracturing My husband and I are currently facing one of the most difficult decisions of our lives. Do we place our disabled daughter in residential care? Parenting a child with any disability is extremely tough. We have to face many hurdles, from the lack of adequate respite provision to verbal abuse on the streets. Social exclusion also adds to the pressure on family life. Life can be extraordinarily bleak. Autism, learning disability and epilepsy are Emily’s diagnoses. Her level of care needs are high and her medical needs are in a fluid state as we try to achieve the correct epilepsy medication for her. We are currently wading through the quagmire of side-effects, but for us it is her violence that takes the greatest toll. The lack of a tangible sign of her disability – such as a wheelchair – have led many people in public to wrongly conclude that she is a badly parented troublemaker. She is noisy and she draws the eye, as she often wears a pair of pink earmuffs to protect her ears from crying babies. “Look at that, ” a teenage boy once said, spotting Emily in a shopping centre and pointing her out to his mates. That phrase is branded into my memory. “That” is a person. My daughter. I made this point to the young man responsible. Admittedly when I pointed out the error of his ways I may not have done so as calmly as I’m doing now, but I feel I covered the basics. I’ve fought for her and loved her and cried for her for longer than I can remember, but I find we are now torn between what Emily wants and what we need, because her violence – so rooted in her anxiety and need to control her environment – has brought us to crisis point. Her shouting led to slapping, and that led to punching. How long before she headbutts one of us? Or worse? Her world at home is dovetailed to her needs, but she will always have to live to the agenda of others so am I, by facilitating this, actually doing her a disservice? At 14, is she simply demonstrating extreme teenage rebellion – albeit one which is now dangerous? Stranger danger, the bogeyman of the terrified modern parent, is never far from our minds because abuse of disabled people in all forms outside their homes is not just the stuff of nightmares . We are battling to get the Children with Disabilities team to listen, to give us more than platitudes. We have asked for help and were given emergency respite but the service, accessed by Emily for the last seven years, is now apparently no longer an option. There are now no emergency respite beds at respite units in Shropshire. If we need it again, they will send her to a foster family. Many parents of disabled children who battle daily with overstretched support services, the bullying of their children, and meetings that fail to deliver meaningful support, end up divorcing. Or they become so entrenched in caring responsibilities that they believe they alone can give their child what they need. One example of this is the case of Stephania Wolf , whose disabled daughter, Sam, apparently starved to death after Stephania died. Stephania had reportedly turned down offers of support, yet neighbours say that she put a “Help” sign on the roof of her house in the months before they died. Ultimately, they were both failed. Other parents who lack support have lost hope, as Fiona Pilkington did . She killed herself and her disabled 18-year-old daughter in 2007, after years of abuse from youths who waited outside her house. Services were sparse then, when there was money to be spent, let alone now. My fear is that, in a time of recession, the very real needs of vulnerable people and their families are being sidelined. How can we let that happen? In 2007, disability charity Scope ran their Time to Get Equal week. The survey they commissioned was very revealing in finding that “over a quarter of respondents would pay £1 a week extra council tax to ensure disabled people in their area could get the support they need – and nearly one in 10 people would pay an extra £5 a week or more.” I wonder if that still holds true today. Our family, like many others in a similar situation, is fracturing. This is the reality. To make this terrifying decision takes energy, clarity and time. Yet we are at crisis point. They say you should never make important decisions when you’re upset. Wise words indeed. Long-term care Disability Autism Health Social care Public sector cuts Public services policy Nicola Clark guardian.co.uk
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After shock resignation from Berkshire Hathaway empire, David Sokol says he did nothing wrong in buying stake in Lubrizol oil company David Sokol, once seen as the favoured successor to Warren Buffett, has rejected claims of insider trading and defended his purchase of shares in a company shortly before it was bought by the billionaire. Speaking for the first time since his shock resignation from the Berkshire Hathaway empire was announced on Wednesday night, Sokol insisted he had behaved legally and honourably. Sokol told CNBC he had no influence over which companies Buffett invested in and that his decision to quit Berkshire was unrelated to his stake in Lubrizol. “I don’t believe I did anything wrong,” Sokol told CNBC. “I made an investment that I believed in. If I didn’t believe in the company, I wouldn’t have invested in it.” Sokol told CNBC he had been contacted by bankers from Citigroup on 13 December last year. They suggested a number of potential acquisition targets including Lubrizol. Sokol concluded that Lubrizol was the most attractive and asked the bankers to set up a meeting between himself and chief executive James Hambrick. Sokol then attempted to buy 50,000 shares in the company, but only managed to acquire 2,300 which he sold shortly afterwards. In early January, he bought another 96,000 shares at about $104 (£65) each. According to Buffett , Sokol suggested buying Lubrizol on 14 or 15 January. The $9.7bn deal was announced on 14 March after Berkshire’s $135-per-share offer was accepted, giving Sokol a paper profit of almost $3m. Sokol acknowledged the Lubrizol stake did raise questions. “I can understand the appearance issue and that’s why we decided to make it public.” he said. The stake would eventually have been revealed under regulatory filings. During the TV interview, which was eagerly watched on Wall Street and in the City, Sokol explained he had no influence over whether Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway would decide to bid for a company. “I don’t think there was any impropriety,” he insisted. “I didn’t have any inside information.” “The reality is that I didn’t think there was a 5% chance of Warren being interested in the company.” Sokol, who chaired several Berkshire subsidiaries, including the corporate airline, NetJets, said he had not been contacted by the Securities Exchange Commission over his share dealings. He also told CNBC that Charlie Munger, another of Buffett’s top lieutenants, had owned 3% of Chinese carmaker BYD before asking Sokol to examine teaming up with it. Berkshire bought 10% of BYD in September 2008 . Questioned about the timing of the move, Sokol said the team at NetJets could run the airline without him and that, by departing now, it would help the usual discussions about Buffett’s succession at Berkshire’s annual meeting at the end of April. Looking ahead, Sokol said he was keen to set up and run his own fund. He was also ebullient in his praise for the company he is leaving behind. “No disrespect to Warren or Berkshire – frankly, I love both of them,” he said. Sokol was also sufficiently relaxed to conclude the interview by wishing his granddaughter Lucy a happy birthday. Warren Buffett Investing Financial sector US economy Economics United States Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
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Select committee also says MPs who believe they are victims of phone hacking should pursue the matter in court A powerful committee of MPs said on Thursday that hacking mobile phones belonging to members of the House of Commons could amount to contempt of parliament. A report on phone hacking published by the select committee on standards and privileges concluded hacking could be in contempt, “if it can be shown to have interfered with the work of the house or to have impeded or obstructed an MP from taking part in such work”. That might result in fines being levied in exceptional circumstances, MPs said. The committee added that in the vast majority of cases MPs who believe they have been victims of phone hacking should pursue the matter through the courts. Former culture secretary Tessa Jowell is one of more than half a dozen public figures who are suing either the Metropolitan police or the News of the World for breach of privacy, alleging journalists on the paper worked with a private investigator to illegally access their mobile phone messages. Chris Bryant, the Labour MP for Rhondda, has said “at least eight” MPs had their mobile phone voicemails hacked by the paper. MPs passed a motion tabled by Bryant in September asking the cross-party committee to urgently consider whether hacking could be considered to be in contempt of parliament. In their report, MPs said it was not within the committee’s remit to consider the law surrounding hacking, which is currently the subject of a separate inquiry being carried out by the home affairs select committee. But it said that if it was proved that hacking “impede[d] a member in the performance of his or her duty … there would be little if any room for doubt that hacking could be a contempt”. It added that the house did not have the power or resources to investigate hacking and that this was a matter for the police. Members should notify the police if they suspected an offence had taken place, it said. MPs recommended that a privileges bill due to go through parliament later this year should include a description of what constitutes contempt, which is currently not clearly defined. The committee also said parliament’s power of imprisonment should be removed in the bill but it should retain the right to reprimand offenders in person and levy fines. “The imposition of a fine, where justified by the facts and by the circumstances, is more consistent with modern practice and would be more likely to be proportionate to an offence such as hacking”. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook Phone hacking Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers News of the World News International Tessa Jowell House of Commons House of Lords James Robinson guardian.co.uk
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• Libyan foreign minister flees to Britain • Obama authorises covert action in Libya • US hands over operations to Nato • Loyalists push further east 11.19am: The Guardian has been told that General Khouildi Hamidi, Muammar Gaddafi’s intelligence coordinator, is defecting from the Gaddafi regime. We’re trying to confirm this. 10.55am: Worrying reports from Bahrain that the prominent blogger Mahmood al-Yousif has been arrested in the country. The Guardian has just spoken to Mahmood’s brother, Hani, who said police turned up at Mahmood’s house outside Manama at 3am on Wednesday morning with a warrant for his arrest. The al-Yousif family have since not heard anything from Mahmood since he was permitted one phone call to his son on Wednesday morning. Hani, who has lived in the UK for the past 16 years, said that only Mahmood, 50, and his 17-year-old son Arif were in the house at the time of the arrest. Mahmood’s wife, who is Scottish, is in Scotland at the moment, while he has two daughters who are studying in Vancouver. Hani, 42, said Mahmood tweeted just before his arrest “the police are here for me”, but said that post, and several other tweets were deleted after Mahmood had been detained. Hani told the Guardian that Arif, who witnessed his father’s arrest, said police had taken all Mahmood’s computer equipment after the arrest. The most recent tweets on the blogger’s @mahmood twitter account all appear to have been automatically generated, with the last ‘real’ tweet apparently sent on 28 March . Hani said from his knowledge of other bloggers’ travails with security forces in Bahrain writers are usually arrested and then released. “But the family are worried, because we’ve not heard anything,” Hani said. You can read Mahmood’s blog – Mahmood’s Den – here . 10.45am: Our politics live blogger Andrew Sparrow is following the foreign secretary’s speech : Hague says he is launching the Foreign Office report on human rights. The full report is now on the Foreign Office website . The government promised a foreign policy that would have support for human rights and poverty reduction at its core, he says. Support for human rights “is part of our national DNA”. The Libyan people have suffered serious human rights abuses for decades. Their plight is now worse than ever, he says. Britain and its allies have intervened in Libya to save lives. It is action that is “legal, necessary and right”. Hague says Moussa Koussa travelled to the UK under his own free will. The government will release further details later. He is one of the most senior members of the regime. His resignation shows that Colonel Gaddafi’s regime is “fragmented, under pressure and crumbling from within”. • Moussa Koussa is not being offered any immunity from prosecution, Hague says. 10.39am: William Hague is speaking at the Foreign Office. He’s expected to give more details on Moussa Koussa’s defection. We’ll follow it live here. 10.21am: The Belgian newspaper De Standaard has posted footage of Belgian F-16 fighter jets in action. This video shows one jet bombing a (grounded) Libyan plane. Hat-tip to LibyaFeb17.com for the link. 10.12am: CNN has interviewed the mother of Iman al-Obeidi, the 29-year-old Libyan woman who said she was raped by Gaddafi militia. “If I were to see his face, I would strangle him (Gaddafi),” Aishah Ahmad told CNN in an interview at her home in the eastern coastal city of Tobruk. 10.05am: The BBC live blog has come across this blog written by regime spokesman Musa ibrahim’s German-born wife, Julia Ramelow. She wrote on 14 March. I’m not sure what to write really. I am stunned by the atrocities I have seen committed by these so-called rebels. Hangings. Beheadings. Immolations – and then they pulled out the heart and stamped on it. Is that what they want Libya to become? 9.50am: More evidence of mounting international pressure on Gaddafi. His regime has been ordered to appear before Africa’s highest court to face charges of “massive violations of human rights” for killing peaceful demonstrators, in a story Owen Bowcott and Maya Wolfe-Robinson had last night . The announcement from the African court on human and peoples’ rights in Arusha, Tanzania, is likely to be welcomed by the Nato coalition as a significant sign of international support. The “order for provisional measures” issued by the court unanimously declares that the “government of the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya” must immediately refrain from any action that would result in loss of life or breach human rights. It also summons the Tripoli regime to appear before the court within 15 days to explain what measures have been taken to implement the order. 9.40am: Nato is now officially in command of all air operations over Libya, having taken over from the US. The alliance took charge at 6am GMT this morning. The operation, codenamed Unified Protector, includes includes enforcement of the no-fly zone, maintaining the arms embargo on Libya, and the protection of civilians. The handover came after some fractious haggling , with the French reluctant to move to a structure that it feared would hamper its capacity for action. Turkey, a Nato member, wanted to clip France’s wings. 9.28am: Jack Straw, the former foreign secretary, told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme that Kousa’s defection could be a tipping point. From a distance, what’s clear is that there is unlikely to be any military ‘victory’ for either side. So it does depend on which side psychologically collapses. I don’t think the rebels are going to, and nobody wants them to, so it is about boring your way inside the brain and heart of the regime. There is a tipping point with all of these regimes and I think Musa Kusa’s apparent defection – certainly his unscheduled visit here – will be a very important factor in just adding to the weight against the Gaddafi regime and tipping the balance against him. 9.22am: Chris McGreal, who is in Benghazi, tells us that Gaddafi has taken a leaf out of the rebels’ book, copying their tactics and putting them to effective use. He seems to have adopted the rebel tactics of using pick-up trucks with machine guns mounted on the back. Highly mobile, much faster than using heavy armour, they’re able to sweep through the desert and around the rebels. Not only is he copying what the rebels are doing, he is doing it much better in the sense that he has much more disciplined troops. Chris also thinks giving the rebels more weapons won’t do much good as they lack training or the tactical nous. Those weapons might even fall into the hands of Gaddafi’s troops and turned against them. 8.50am: This Observer article in 2003 underlines Mousa’s importance in bringing Libya in from the cold and has good background on Mousa’s earlier radicalism. Kousa first came to notoriety in 1979 when he became head of the Libyan mission and de facto Libyan ambassador to Britain, delivering an astonishing interview to Times journalist Michael Horsnall in 1980 that amounted to an announcement of intent to commit murder. 8.41am: Vivienne Walt at Time magazine has a typically thorough piece on the importance of Kousa’s defection. Kusa was a long-standing chief of Libya’s intelligence service, before being appointed Foreign Minister in 2009. That means he likely holds critical information which could ultimately lead to international indictments against Gaddafi and his family, including whether the Libyan leader ordered the Pan Am jet to be shot down over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1989, an attack which killed 270 people. She also points out that Kousa was a central figure in helping to negotiate Libya’s detente with the US in 2003. Along with Saif al-Islam (one of Gaddafi’s sons), he persuaded Gaddafi to abandon his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, and opted to share intelligence information with the US on al-Qaida operatives in Libya. It was Kusa’s sharp instincts which in fact led to the drastic change in Libya’s political international standing in 2003. 8.23am: It seemed inevitable that tales of CIA skullduggery in Libya would emerge sooner or later. Sure enough, it’s all over the US papers today after Reuters broke the story . Both the New York Times and the Washington Post report on the presence of CIA operatives to gather information about the rebels. Both say that Obama signed a secret order several weeks ago authorising the CIA to carry out a clandestine effort to provide arms and other support to Libyan opposition groups. The New York Times says in addition to the CIA presence, dozens of British special forces and MI6 intelligence officers are working inside Libya. US officials told the Times that British forces have have been directing air strikes from British jets and gathering intelligence about the whereabouts of Libyan government tank columns, artillery pieces and missile installations. More from the Times. In recent weeks, the American military has been monitoring Libyan troops with U-2 spy planes and a high-altitude Global Hawk drone, as well as a special aircraft, JSTARS, that tracks the movements of large groups of troops. Military officials said that the Air Force also has Predator drones, similar to those now operating in Afghanistan, in reserve. Air Force RC-135 Rivet Joint eavesdropping planes intercept communications from Libyan commanders and troops and relay that information to the Global Hawk, which zooms in on the location of armored forces and determines rough coordinates. The Global Hawk sends the coordinates to analysts at a ground station, who pass the information to command centres for targeting. The command center beams the coordinates to an E-3 Sentry Awacs command-and-control plane, which in turn directs war planes to their targets. The Washington Post notes that such operations are risky. The CIA’s history is replete with efforts that backfired against US interests in unexpected ways. In perhaps the most fateful example, the CIA’s backing of Islamic fighters in Afghanistan succeeded in driving out the Soviets in the 1980s, but it also presaged the emergence of militant groups, including al-Qaida, that the United States is now struggling to contain. Gaddafi can be expected to exploit these reports for maximum propaganda and to try to tar the rebels as “imperialist stooges”. 8.00am: Diplomatically, Muammar Gaddafi suffered a blow as his foreign minister and close adviser, Mousa Kousa, fled to Britain on a specially arranged flight organised by the British intelligence services. Gaddafi’s justice and interior ministers resigned shortly after the uprising began last month, but Kousa is the first high-profile resignation since the international air campaign began. Kousa’s decision to abandon the regime came as it emerged that Barack Obama had signed a secret government order authorising covert US help to the Libyan rebels via such organisations as the CIA. The order, known as a “finding” was signed within the last two or three weeks. The move will undoubtedly fuel speculation that the US and its allies are planning to arm the rebels. On the ground, Gaddafi’s forces have recaptured much of the ground they lost at the weekend, pushing the disorganised rebels out of the important oil towns of Ras Lanuf and Brega. The regime’s counterattack has outmaneouvred the poorly disciplined and untrained rebels. They barely made a stand at Brega before turning and fleeing toward Ajdabiya, 100 miles south of Benghazi. If the government were to move on Ajdabiya, the road to Benghazi, the rebel stronghold would be open again. • Libyans could face deadlock as both sides run low on arms . • Libyan and Middle East unrest as it unfolded yesterday. • Interactive: Gaddafi forces push rebels back. Libya Arab and Middle East unrest Syria Yemen Bahrain Middle East Mark Tran Adam Gabbatt guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …An Ohio House panel today passed a bill that would curb collective bargaining rights for public-sector unions, after adding a number of controversial amendments. The new additions would allow public workers to opt out of paying dues, force unions to hold a vote before spending money politically, and allow local…
Continue reading …Chuck Schumer Caught on Tape Instructing Fellow Dems on How to Spin Media, Networks Ignore
March 30, 2011 No Comment
New York Senator Chuck Schumer was caught on tape Tuesday instructing his Democratic colleagues on how to spin the media with regard to “extreme” Republicans and their budget cuts. “I always use extreme…That is what the caucus instructed me to use,” Schumer blurted. The liberal senator was apparently unaware his comments were being recorded (The remarks were made moments before a conference call with reporters began.) Tuesday’s nightly newscasts on NBC, ABC and CBS all skipped the story. On Wednesday, Good Morning America, Today and Early Show did the same. The New York Times' Caucus blog explained: After thanking his colleagues — Barbara Boxer of California, Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland, Thomas R. Carper of Delaware and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut — for doing the budget bidding for the Senate Democrats, who are facing off against the House Republicans over how to cut spending for the rest of the fiscal year, Mr. Schumer told them to portray John A. Boehner of Ohio, the speaker of the House, as painted into a box by the Tea Party, and to decry the spending cuts that he wants as extreme. “I always use the word extreme,” Mr. Schumer said. “That is what the caucus instructed me to use this week.” Other journalists at the Times seemed to follow the proper wording. In a March 30 op-ed entitled “Why We're Fasting,” food writer Mark Bittman portrayed the Republicans as willing to “starve” poor Americans “to death”: “I stopped eating on Monday and joined around 4,000 other people in a fast to call attention to Congressional budget proposals that would make huge cuts in programs for the poor and hungry….These supposedly deficit-reducing cuts — they’d barely make a dent — will quite literally cause more people to starve to death, go to bed hungry or live more miserably than are doing so now. And: The bill would increase defense spending.” While ABC’s GMA found no time for Schumer and his planned spin for journalists, the ABC program did cover breast-feeding dolls and whether it’s “too much too soon.” CBS’s Early Show featured a former girlfriend of the late JFK Jr. She informed viewers that kissing him was “magical.” NBC’s Today covered a conversation between two babbling babies. — Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter .
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NPR's Wade Goodwyn noticeably minimized the presence of anti-illegal immigration conservatives from Texas on Tuesday's All Things Considered. Goodwyn tilted towards so-called ” welcoming ” and ” tolerant ” Republicans in the state by a three to one margin, and gushed over the ” thousands of illegal immigrants building neighborhoods ” during the ” Hispanic-friendly ” term of then-Governor George W. Bush. Host Michelle Norris set the biased tone in her introduction for the correspondent's report: “In Texas, the Republican Party is changing tack on illegal immigration. The relatively welcoming, tolerant attitude embraced by George W. Bush when he was governor is waning. It's been overtaken by a flood of Arizona-style get-tough measures . Nearly 100 immigration bills have been written or filed in the current legislative session.” Goodwyn trumpeted how ” Texas is now more than ever in the nation's conservative vanguard, and among its most conservative leaders is House Representative Leo Berman from northeast Texas, around Tyler.” He continued by acting as if distance from the border mattered in the illegal immigration debate: “Though Berman's district is about as far from the Mexican border as you can get and still be in Texas, he's leading the charge on immigration.” After playing two sound bites from Rep. Berman and noting some of the other anti-illegal immigration proposals in the Texas state legislature, the NPR reporter gave his positive spin about Bush's years as governor: GOODWYN: This is a significant change in strategy for the Texas GOP. In the mid-'90s, Texas Republicans watched as their party in California went on an anti-illegal immigration crusade and lost control of the state. But in Texas, the economy was booming ; the suburbs of Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio were exploding; and thousands of illegal immigrants sat astride 2-by-4s, nail guns in hand, building those neighborhoods . (audio clip of radio ad in Spanish) So, Governor Bush and his man Karl Rove crafted a different strategy from their California colleagues: Hispanic-friendly . UNIDENTIFIED MAN 1 (from political ad for then-Governor George W. Bush): Used to be, I just pulled the lever Democrats. These days, I look for the person with a good record who believes what I believe: hard work, family, responsibility: George Bush. GEORGE W. BUSH: I appreciate that and I agree. That's why I'm working hard to make sure all our children can succeed, and I need your vote to continue. GOODWYN: The result? In 1998, George W. Bush crushed his Democratic opponent, getting nearly half the Hispanic vote, a triumph that placed him on the path to the presidency one year later. The young governors of Texas and Florida learned their early political style at their father's knee. Not only was he a former president of the United States, he was a Texas oilman, and for generations, those independent oil producers, along with farmers and Texas ranchers, have employed i nexpensive, hard-working Mexican laborers . Goodwyn followed this turn to the past with three sound bites from one of the current advocates for illegal immigration in Texas, playing up his Republican credentials, all the while hinting that much of the state GOP has become extreme: GOODWYN: … In the halls of the Texas Capitol in 2011, Bush's approach is considered insufficiently conservative by most Republicans . The one powerful interest group that still thinks Bush had it right is the Texas Association of Business. BILL HAMMOND, TEXAS ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESS: In Texas, if suddenly, all of the undocumented workers were simply to go back to their home of origin, it would be disastrous for the Texas economy. GOODWYN: Bill Hammond is the president of the Texas Association of Business. It is no exaggeration to say his membership supplies the Texas Republican Party a large measure of its fiscal lifeblood . He has lots of friends here. On behalf of his clients, the thousands of big and small-business owners in Texas, Hammond is roaming the Capitol, trying to impart a bit of reality about the Lone Star State's economy . HAMMOND: The impact on this Texas state economy of immigrant labor is about $17 billion a year. That's an enormous segment of our economy, and we simply would not be able to function without these people. GOODWYN: Until this year, Hammond and his Republican allies in the Texas legislature have been able to kill most immigration bills in committee. Hammond would like to expand the immigration pipeline, to allow more workers to legally enter the state. That proposal currently has zero chance. HAMMOND: Today, 56 percent of Texans under the age of 25 are minorities. The growth in the population has been largely Hispanic over the last 10 years. I believe the Republican Party is throwing away their future. As if these three clips weren't enough, the correspondent turned to one of Rep. Berman's pro-illegal immigration colleagues in the Texas House, a Latino Republican whose district borders Mexico: TEXAS STATE REPRESENTATIVE AARON PENA: The tone of the debate is basically saying, we don't want you. This is a war over our culture. These people bring diseases into our country. GOODWYN: House Representative Aaron Pena is a Republican who represents Hidalgo, on the border. There are six Hispanic Republicans in the Texas House, and Pena says they've been trying to convince some of their colleagues to tone down the anti-Hispanic rhetori c. PENA: Many times, you won't see our handiwork out in public. It's done behind the scenes. GOODWYN: Pena says there are plenty of Texas Republicans who quietly share his concerns about the tone of the debate and its long-term effect on Hispanic voters. At the end of his report, Goodwyn played one more sound bite from Rep. Berman, and all but suggested that the issue of illegal immigration was just a side issue: BERMAN: Most Hispanics right now do vote Democrat. There's no question about it. So, what vote are we going after? We're going after a vote that doesn't vote Republican anyway. GOODWYN: It's too early to tell how many of the 100 bills will become law. If the Texas House is hot for immigration bills, the Texas Senate seems less so. It's distracted by a $27 billion budget deficit that's threatening to gut the state . On March 18, NPR's Mara Liasson completely omitted conservatives who are opposed to “comprehensive” immigration reform” during her report on Utah's “milder” immigration measures. While one might credit Goodwyn for at least finding one anti-illegal immigration conservative for his report, both his and Liasson's report perpetuate their taxpayer-funded network's reputation for liberal bias. — Matthew Balan is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here .
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Embattled Italian PM also offers tax breaks to island’s residents as critics accuse him of using diversionary tactics Facing fierce criticism over his handling of a wave of north Africans landing on the Italian island of Lampedusa, Silvio Berlusconi has put on a vintage display of showmanship, claiming he would empty the island of immigrants within 60 hours, nominate locals for a Nobel peace prize and buy a holiday home there. So far this year 18,000 north African migrants have sailed to the island, which has only 5,000 native inhabitants. During a lightning visit to Lampedusa, which is closer to Africa than the Italian mainland, Berlusconi told cheering locals that six chartered ferries were arriving to pick up the remaining 6,000 migrants, mainly young Tunisian men, who have made the sea crossing since the collapse of the Tunisian government in January and the suspension of coastal patrols. The migrants will join other north Africans who have already been transferred to centres and camps on the mainland after paying out thousands of euros to make the often perilous crossing. “In 48 to 60 hours, Lampedusa will be inhabited only by Lampedusans,” said Berlusconi. Locals have protested against the nightly arrivals by using fishing boats to block the harbour entrance as the island’s immigrant centre was overwhelmed, food supplies ran short and migrants bivouacked on a rubbish-strewn hill overlooking the port. To frequent applause, Berlusconi told residents he would give them tax breaks and propose they receive the Nobel peace prize for their patience, later telling a press conference he would push for the construction of a casino and a golf course. “We are buying up the fishing boats so that they cannot be used for the crossings,” he said. “That way when I am out of politics I will use them to set up a fresh fish business.” The prime minister also said he would use his private TV channels to promote the relaunch of tourism in Lampedusa. While surfing the internet before his visit, he added, he had purchased a beach house on Lampedusa, which he visited before leaving the island. A local couple living next door to the €2m house said they had been woken on Tuesday night by noises from the house. “I thought it was the Tunisians,” said Rosina Licciardi, “but it was the gardener and his wife cleaning things up.” Berlusconi said he would also ask the mayor to plant a few more trees on the island and paint the houses brighter colours. Opposition members alleged Berlusconi’s appearance was a diversionary tactic as his supporters in parliament worked on a measure trimming the statute of limitations for first-time offenders, a measure they claimed is designed to cancel the prime minister’s ongoing trial for bribing British lawyer David Mills. “Over there he bought a house, while here he bought himself safe conduct,” said Pier Luigi Bersani, the head of the opposition Democratic Party. Berlusconi is now seeking to convince Italy’s regional governors to put up the migrants brought ashore. Over 3,000 who have already escaped from makeshift camps have travelled to Ventimiglia seeking to cross into France, where many have relatives. Interior minister Roberto Maroni has told parliament that a deal was underway with the Tunisian government to take the migrants back. “If they are economic migrants, and most of them are, then Italy can repatriate,” said Laura Boldrini, a UN spokeswoman, “Many come from villages on the coast and worked in the tourism industry but now fear job cuts.” Italy will need to identify each migrant and serve an expulsion order, which can be appealed against, added Boldrini. Maroni has warned that the Tunisians may be just a warm up for 50,000 migrants fleeing the war in Libya. Boldrini said 1,500 people had crossed to Italy so far from Libya, mainly Eritreans, Ethiopians and Somalis. Silvio Berlusconi Italy David Mills Europe Tom Kington guardian.co.uk
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Libya rebels withdraw from oil town as international coalition continue discussions over legality of arming them Troops loyal to the Libyan leader, Colonel Gaddafi, have retaken the key oil port of Ras Lanuf, forcing rebel fighters into a chaotic retreat under a barrage of tank and artillery fire. Nato planes bombarded the regime troops as their outgunned opponents continued to fall back from positions taken earlier in the week, when they had advanced within 60 miles of Sirte, Gaddafi’s home city. Meanwhile, as the debate within the anti-Gaddafi international coalition over the legality of arming the rebellion continued, the foreign secretary, William Hague, said that it would be possible to supply weapons under certain circumstances. Earlier, David Cameron told the Commons that no decision had been made but he “would not necessarily rule out the protection of civilians in certain circumstances”. The rebel’s rapid withdrawal came just days after insurgent fighters raced westwards following the destruction of government tanks and artillery in five days of aerial bombardment in the town of Ajdabiya. Ragtag opposition fighters have repeatedly been forced to retreat after fierce bombardments by the more disciplined government troops. “Gaddafi hit us with huge rockets. He has entered Ras Lanuf,” rebel fighter Faraj Muftah told Reuters after pulling out of the oil port. “We were at the western gate in Ras Lanuf and we were bombarded,” said a second fighter, Hisham. Scores of rebel four-wheel pick-ups raced east, away from Ras Lanuf, a Reuters journalist saw. Speaking to the Commons, Hague revealed that five Libyan diplomats had been expelled from the regime’s London embassy because they represented a potential security risk. Hague said that while the current arms embargo prevented weapons being provided to the whole of Libya, UN resolution 1973 allowed “for all necessary measures to protect civilians” to be taken. The British government’s view, which was not necessarily shared internationally, was that this meant rebels protecting civilians could be armed although ministers had “not yet taken a decision”, he said. Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said on Tuesday that she believed arming rebels was legal under the UN security council resolution which sanctioned the no-fly zone and air operations. But experts in international law have questioned this interpretation , saying that it would breach the arms embargo on Libya agreed last month. There also remain questions about who is represented in the interim national council (INC) guiding the uprising. In Washington, Admiral James Stavridis, Nato’s supreme allied commander in Europe, told the Senate that intelligence reports had suggested “flickers” of al-Qaida or Hezbollah presence within the rebel movement. A UK diplomat, Christopher Prentice, the ambassador in Rome, met rebel leaders in their stronghold of Benghazi on Monday and Tuesday, the Foreign Office has said. Cameron told the Commons during prime minister’s questions: “In terms of the situation on the ground it is an extremely fluid situation, but there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that the ceasefire is still being breached and it is absolutely right for us to keep up our pressure under UN security council resolution 1973.” Asked by the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, whether the terms of the resolution that authorised “all necessary measures” to protect Libyan civilians, overrode the arms embargo, Cameron said: “I have said before in the House that we must do everything to comply with both the security council resolutions. “The arms embargo applies to the whole of the territory of Libya, but at the same time UN security council resolution 1973 allows all necessary measures to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas. “Our view is that this would not necessarily rule out the provision of assistance to those protecting civilians in certain circumstances. We do not rule it out but we have not taken the decision to do so.” Cameron said coalition forces had “taken action yesterday against regime forces harassing civilian vessels trying to get into Misrata”, the rebel-held town in the west of Libya, under siege from Gaddafi’s troops for several days. The RAF had flown 24 sorties over Libya on Tuesday night and Wednesday. “Tornado aircraft destroyed artillery and an armoured fighting vehicle near Sirte,” he told MPs. He also revealed that in his talks with the INC’s special envoy at Tuesday’s international conference on the Libya crisis, he had been “reassured” the group wanted its role to be transitional. “They are democrats. They are not tribal, and they want to see a future for the whole of Libya where the people have a choice over how they are governed.” Hague told the Commons afterwards: “To underline our grave concern at the [Gaddafi] regime’s behaviour, I can announce to the House that we have today taken steps to expel five diplomats at the Libyan embassy in London, including the military attache. The government also judged that were these individuals to remain in Britain, they could pose a threat to our security.” Libya Arab and Middle East unrest Muammar Gaddafi Middle East Nato James Meikle guardian.co.uk
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