Four Italian journalists taken at gunpoint in Libya were freed Thursday in a raid on the house where they were being held, an official said. (Aug. 25)
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US report revealing fears over military growth is dismissed by Chinese officials as ‘cold war mentality’ China appears on track to forge a modern military by 2020, a rapid buildup that could be potentially destabilising to the Asia-Pacific region, the Pentagon has said. Fuelled by its booming economy, China’s military growth in the past decade has exceeded most US forecasts. Its aircraft carrier programme, cyberwarfare capabilities and anti-satellite missiles have alarmed neighbours and Washington. Some China watchers, including members of the US Congress, note with apprehension that rising Chinese defence spending coincides with Washington’s plans for defence cuts. “China clearly believes that it can capitalise on the global financial crisis,” said the house armed services committee chairman, Howard McKeon, adding that the US military presence in the Pacific must not be sacrificed in an attempt to control US spending. The US defence department’s annual assessment to Congress on the Chinese military flagged all the major concerns about China’s growing military might, including Beijing’s widening edge over Taiwan. It also noted cyber-attacks in 2010 – including those on US government computers – that appeared to have originated in China. “We have some concerns [on cyber] about some of the things that we’ve seen. And we want to be able to work through that with China,” said Michael Schiffer, a deputy assistant secretary of defence. The report focused on 2010, a year when the Pentagon said China’s military modernisation programme paid “visible dividends”. It cited China’s fielding of an operational anti-ship ballistic missile, continued work on its aircraft carrier programme and the completion of a prototype of China’s first stealth fighter jet, the J-20. The J-20 programme, the Pentagon report said, would not achieve “effective operational capability” before 2018. “Despite continued gaps in some key areas, large quantities of antiquated hardware and a lack of operational experience, the PLA [China's People's Liberation Army] is steadily closing the technological gap with modern armed forces,” the report said. A spokesman for China’s embassy in Washington said the report was “a reflection of cold war mentality” and would be used as a tool to depict China as a threat. “We hope the US will take practical steps to work with China for stable and healthy military ties by following the spirit of mutual respect, mutual trust, reciprocity and mutual benefit,” the embassy spokesman Wang Baodong said in an email. The military buildup could have a destabilising effect on the region, Schiffer said, calling for greater openness by the PLA and more bilateral military dialogue. “The pace and scope of China’s sustained military investments have allowed China to pursue capabilities that we believe are potentially destabilising to regional military balances,” Schiffer said. The Pentagon said that despite its progress at becoming a more potent regional military power, Beijing was not expected to be able to project and sustain large forces in high-intensity combat operations far from China before 2020. That is something the United States, still the predominant military power in the Pacific, has been able to do throughout the world for decades. One of the best ways for a military to project power is with aircraft carriers and China launched its first carrier – a refitted former Soviet craft – for a maiden run earlier this month. Schiffer said he believed Beijing was working towards building its own domestically produced aircraft carriers and sources told Reuters China was building two carriers. Still, the report said any domestically produced Chinese aircraft carrier would not be operational until at least 2015 if construction were to start this year. “Whether or not this [China's carrier programme] proves to be a net plus for the region or for the globe or proves to be something that has destabilising effects and raises blood pressure in various regional capitals I think remains to be seen,” Schiffer said. One of the biggest irritants in the US-Chinese relationship is Taiwan. The PLA suspended military ties with the United States for most of 2010 over US arms sales to Taiwan and warned that a renewed flurry of engagement could again be jeopardised by new arms sales to an island China sees as a renegade province. Schiffer said the US government had not yet made a decision on any new arms sales to Taiwan, comments echoed at the state department. A Reuters report this month said the US sale of 66 new Lockheed Martin F-16 C/D fighter jets to Taiwan appeared unlikely. China US foreign policy United States guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media It looks like Jack Cafferty decided to carry a little water for the AstroTurf “tea party” with a bit of fearmongering over our debt and deficit with this dishonest bit of editorializing on CNN’s The Situation Room. First of all, repeat after me Jack — there is no tea party. The so-called “tea party” is nothing more than the far right-wing of the Republican Party that’s been with us for ages now, with big monied corporate interests along with your sorry excuse for a “news” channel along with Fox promoting them. And all of your attempted re-branding here is not going to change that. And if Cafferty wants to blame the problems with our debt and deficit on the current administration, I’ve got a couple of charts and an article at the New York Times he needs to read — How the Deficit Got This Big . Here are the charts from the article. enlarge Credit: The New York Times enlarge Credit: The New York Times And here’s more from Jon Perr from last year on the drivers of our deficit — Boehner Lies About Bush Tax Cuts and Deficits . And from Jon’s post, here’s another chart for Jack Cafferty. enlarge Credit: CBPP If Jack Cafferty is really concerned about getting our fiscal house in order, he’d be going after these “tea partiers” for being obstructionists on job creation and for protecting their rich campaign donors from having to pay any more in taxes. Transcript of Cafferty’s remarks via his blog — Tea Party effect on 2012 elections? : The national debt is increasing by an astounding $3 million a minute; $3 million. Meanwhile, President Obama and Congress are on vacation. When the president took office in January 2009, the national debt was $10.6 trillion. Less than three years later, it’s $14.6 trillion. Obama has presided over the fastest, largest increase in the national debt in our country’s history, something to be truly proud of. Under President George W. Bush, the national debt increased by $4.9 trillion, but it took eight years to increase that much. Obama has the distinction of putting us an additional $4 trillion in the hole in less than three years. And he’s still talking about wanting to spend more. It’s insane. These rates of borrowing are unsustainable. It is far and away the biggest problem we may have ever been faced with. Eventually, our country’s survival will be at stake. And whether anyone likes it or not, the tea party seems to be the only group that gets it. The group became a force during the midterm elections because of the growing national debt and the refusal of Washington to do anything about it. In fact, the recent debt ceiling standoff was driven by a group of only 60 tea party members in the House of Representatives. You can bet that the tea party will continue to ring the alarm bells as we head into the 2012 elections – and it should. Because just remember this: In the time it would take you to listen to this Cafferty File segment – a minute and a half or so – our national debt increased by more than $5 million. Here’s my question to you: What effect will the tea party have on the 2012 elections?
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Substitute hosting on HLN's The Joy Behar Show, on Tuesday, CNN's Don Lemon prodded Jay Bakker, the son of televangelist Jim Bakker, to accuse Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann of exploiting fears of Christians as he claimed that the GOP presidential hopefuls were: “playing to a group of people who deal a lot with fear and using fear to control folks.” The dismissive Bakker then asserted: “I feel like they've kind of hijacked Christianity,” and added that he thinks the Perrys and Bachmanns were advancing “fairy tales” that global warming doesn't exist and claimed they wanted to “ignore” science. Lemon initially invited on Bakker to analyze the discussion he had with his previous guest, Randy Roberts Potts about what it was like to grow up gay in the “shadow” of his grandfather televangelist Oral Roberts. However it wasn't long before Lemon switched topics to the 2012 GOP primary race, as seen in this exchange from the August 23 show:
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Substitute hosting on HLN's The Joy Behar Show, on Tuesday, CNN's Don Lemon prodded Jay Bakker, the son of televangelist Jim Bakker, to accuse Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann of exploiting fears of Christians as he claimed that the GOP presidential hopefuls were: “playing to a group of people who deal a lot with fear and using fear to control folks.” The dismissive Bakker then asserted: “I feel like they've kind of hijacked Christianity,” and added that he thinks the Perrys and Bachmanns were advancing “fairy tales” that global warming doesn't exist and claimed they wanted to “ignore” science. Lemon initially invited on Bakker to analyze the discussion he had with his previous guest, Randy Roberts Potts about what it was like to grow up gay in the “shadow” of his grandfather televangelist Oral Roberts. However it wasn't long before Lemon switched topics to the 2012 GOP primary race, as seen in this exchange from the August 23 show:
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Spotlight on restraint tactics as Phillip Hulmes, 53, becomes third person in eight days to die after being shot with the stun gun Police restraint tactics are under fresh scrutiny after a third member of the public died following the use of either a Taser stun gun or pepper spray by officers. Amnesty International said the number of fatalities over the past eight days had reaffirmed its concerns that Tasers were “potentially lethal” weapons. Initial reports suggest Philip Hulmes, 53, was hit by a Taser after refusing to leave his terraced house in Over Hulton, near Bolton on Tuesday night. It is understood that his daughter had called the police after he locked himself inside his house while in possession of a knife and began to harm himself. Greater Manchester police said when officers arrived they were threatened by the man and a decision was made to “deploy the Taser”. “Following that, it became quite obvious the man had serious stab wounds to his stomach,” a spokesman said. “He was taken to Royal Bolton hospital for treatment to his injuries but died a short time later. The coroner has been informed and an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death has begun by Greater Manchester police’s professional standards branch.” A postmortem was being carried out on Hulmes and the death has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission. As forensic teams moved into the property on Wednesday, Kenneth Brown, who lives several doors away, said he had watched the events unfold. “We saw all the flashing lights and police and ambulance at the front,” he said. “They were shouting through the front door begging for him to open up and they had to smash it down in the end. His daughter came down and asked him to open the door.” Brown said his neighbour had worked as an HGV driver but was made redundant. Most recently, he was employed by a firm which delivered parts for mechanics. As investigators began piecing together the events which led to Hulmes’s death a white police tent covered the entrance to his property on a busy main road near the M61. Christine Bellis, 61, another neighbour said Hulmes had lived alone and was a regular dog walker who was very friendly and easy to talk to. “All we know was that the paramedics said that he had a knife with him. The police had to smash the door down,” she said. “He really was a nice bloke who kept himself to himself. We think that he had a bit of heart trouble.” Christine’s husband Raymond, 62, added: “This is a real tragedy. It is terrible because he was a very nice man.” The death of Hulmes came as the IPCC continued its investigations into two other fatalities after the use of restraint techniques by police in two different forces; Cumbria and Cheshire. Dale Burns, 27, died after being subjected to shocks from a Taser gun and pepper spray when police were called to his flat in Cumbria last week and Jacob Michael, 25, died on Monday after being pepper sprayed during his arrest by 11 officers in Widnes, Cheshire. Postmortems into Burns and Michael have proved inconclusive and investigators are waiting for the results of toxicology tests for more information. Simon Chesterman, the Association of Chief Police Officers lead officer on Tasers, told the Guardian their use was carefully scrutinised by the scientific and medical community, and in cases where there were fatalities, by the IPCC. “Where a Taser is associated with injury or something more serious then clearly there will be full investigation of that. We will be looking at the outcomes of those investigations to see if our guidance to officers needs to change. We need to understand the full circumstances of the cases and we should avoid any knee-jerk responses.” But Helen Shaw, co-director of Inquest, the charity that advises the family of those killed in contentious circumstances, said the police did not seem to have learned lessons from a pattern of cases where inquest juries had found “overwhelming evidence of unlawful and excessive use of force or gross neglect. “Whilst we await the outcome of the inquests and investigations into these recent deaths it is imperative that the police are reminded that they cannot act with impunity.” Tasers Police Independent Police Complaints Commission Weapons technology Helen Carter Sandra Laville guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Andy Coulson ‘broke’ Commons pass rules by failing to declare NI payments
August 24, 2011 No Comment
· Cameron sponsored pass for ex-head of communications · NI ‘considering ending payment of Coulson’s legal fees’ Andy Coulson appears to have broken House of Commons rules by failing to declare payments and benefits he received from News International while holding a parliamentary pass sponsored by David Cameron. Registers held in the Commons archive, seen by the Guardian, reveal that in September 2007 – three months after Coulson was employed by Cameron’s office – the former News of the World editor failed to declare the health insurance, company car and severance payments he was receiving from his old employers. The records also show that for at least two months after he resigned from his position as No 10′s head of communications in January this year, Coulson continued to hold a parliamentary pass, sponsored by Downing Street, which allowed him access to parliament as a No 10 employee. That will raise new questions about whether Coulson – who Cameron has admitted seeing on a social basis since his resignation – continued to perform an unofficial role for the Tories after he had left. The Labour MP Tom Watson called for the parliamentary commissioner for standards to investigate. Commons rules say all holders of parliamentary passes sponsored by MPs, which allow unfettered access to most of the parliamentary estate, must register any paid employment, gifts or benefits worth more than £329 they receive within that calender year from sources that could “in any way” relate to their work in parliament. The Guardian also understands that News International continued to pay Coulson’s legal bills after he stepped down as the editor of the News of the World in January 2007. The company is considering ending the arrangement after this week’s revelations that Coulson had continued to receive payments after becoming Cameron’s director of communications. Coulson is understood to have consulted lawyers frequently since leaving News International after several public figures brought civil cases against the News of the World, alleging that their voicemail messages had been hacked. News International paid his legal bills last December when he was a witness in the perjury trial of the former Scottish MP Tommy Sheridan. The company declined to comment. Cameron and George Osborne first employed Coulson when the Conservatives were in opposition in July 2007. He appeared on the next register for MP-sponsored passes, published in September, declaring no other employment, gifts or benefits in that calendar year. It is now known that he received hundreds of thousands of pounds in “several” instalments from News International after leaving the company. He also failed to register the health insurance and company car he received from the company under gifts or benefits. Coulson’s pass was personally sponsored by Cameron, not the Conservative party. His register entry noted only that he was director of communications and planning for the Conservative party, making no mention of any other income. From October, his pass switched to a journalist’s pass, sponsored by the Conservatives, which operated with a separate declaration register. Declarations are only required of an “occupation or employment”, earning more than £657 in that calendar year, that could be benefited from access to parliament. For his entire period working for Cameron at Conservative campaign headquarters, and subsequently in Downing Street, Coulson declared nothing on the registers. A Conservative spokesman said: “It is the individual’s responsibility to declare relevant financial interests to the parliamentary pass office. “We were not aware until Monday night of allegations that Andy Coulson’s severance package, agreed with News International before he was employed by the Conservative party, was paid in instalments that continued into the time he was employed by the Conservative party.” Watson, a member of the culture select committee who has campaigned on the phone hacking debate, is writing to the parliamentary commission for standards to complain about the apparent breach. “We now know that, in September 2007, Andy Coulson was receiving staggered payments, free private healthcare and apparently a motor car from News International,” Watson said. “When he applied for his House of Commons pass, Mr Coulson was expected to declare these hidden payments under parliament’s transparency rules. He failed to do so. “Moreover, instead of being allocated a political party press pass, he was placed on David Cameron’s personal allocation of passes. This meant David Cameron had to personally vouch for his application, so presumably they had a discussion about it. I’m writing to the standards commissioner to request he investigates the matter.” Commons officials confirmed that it could take up to a month for people who hand their passes in to be removed from the register of journalists’ interests. Coulson resigned on 21 January and appears on the next two registers, published in March and April, but not from June. That suggests he could have continued to hold his Downing Street-sponsored pass up until May, four months after his resignation. He resigned from News International after the jailing of two private investigators who worked for the News of the World, during his time as the paper’s editor, for phone hacking. Andy Coulson News International News of the World David Cameron Conservatives Tom Watson Labour Polly Curtis James Robinson guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Feingold’s Progressives United To Push Dems To Walk Away From Bad Super Committee Deal
August 24, 2011 No CommentI wonder if this will work. Democrats seem almost congenitally incapable of holding the line on Democratic values, so maybe a big push on this will work: Former Sen. Russ Feingold and his new group Progressives United are petitioning the six House and Senate Democrats serving on the joint deficit Super Committee to walk away if Republicans don’t budge on tax increases, and insist on cutting entitlement benefits. “If we don’t get our policy priorities, Democrats need to be ready to walk away from the deal,” Feingold emailed his supporters. “You can guarantee extremists on the other side will continue to push relentlessly to give even more to corporations and put even more of the burden on the middle class. We have to fight harder than they will.” He lists the bright lines: 1. Ensure millionaires, billionaires, and big corporations pay their fair share of debt reduction, 2. No cuts to Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits, 3. No giveaways to corporate interests, 4. Or no deal. His concern — which progressives widely share — is that Republicans will refuse to raise a penny of revenue, particularly from wealthy Americans, and leave the Committee’s Democrats to pick between significant entitlement cuts or the trigger penalty , which would fall most heavily on Medicare providers and national defense.The effort is aimed at Democrats so that they don’t lose their spine at that key moment. “We can have leverage with the Democrats on the super committee, but we need to build it,” Feingold said.
Continue reading …Joe Biden wasn't praising China's one-child policy, he was criticizing it, the Obama White House is insisting. Caroline May of the Daily Caller has the story : In the wake of an onslaught of criticism for Vice President Joe Biden’s comments in China about “not second guessing” the country’s one-child policy, the Obama administration has issued a statement of clarification. “The Obama Administration strongly opposes all aspects of China’s coercive birth limitation policies, including forced abortion and sterilization,” Biden’s spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff told The Daily Caller in an email. “The Vice President believes such practices are repugnant.” Barkoff explained that Biden was attempting to critique the restrictive system with his comments. “He also pointed out, in China, that the policy is, as a practical matter, unsustainable,” Barkoff added. “He was arguing against the One Child Policy to a Chinese audience. ” What say you? Does the explanation pass the smell test? If not, does it even matter given how the mainstream media are largely ignoring the matter anyway?
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IPCC to investigate police use of Taser to subdue man, 53 – the third fatal arrest using stun gun or pepper spray in a week A man who stabbed himself in the abdomen has died after being Tasered by police officers. Philip Hulmes, 53, was hit with electric probes from the stun gun after barricading himself in his home in Over Hulton, near Bolton, on Tuesday night. It is thought a concerned relative called police to the house at 8.30pm. Police were told that Hulmes, who was armed with a knife, had locked himself in, was making threats and had begun to stab himself. Officers arrived and smashed a hole in the door. When they spotted his injuries they called for Taser-trained back up. After further failed attempts to talk him out of the building they broke in and used the stun gun. He was taken to the Royal Bolton Hospital but he died about half an hour later. Investigations by the Professional Standards Branch and the Independent Police Complaints Commission are due to begin. Greater Manchester police said the officers had been threatened. They entered the house and deployed a Taser. “After it was deployed, it became apparent he had a serious self-inflicted stab wound to his abdomen,” police said in a statement. “A Home Office postmortem examination is due to be carried out later today.” The GMP’s Professional Standards Branch will oversee the investigation and will be making a mandatory referral to the IPCC. The commission is also investigating another death when up to 11 officers arrested a man after restraining him with pepper spray. The man became unwell and died in hospital within two hours. Jacob Michael, 25, from Widnes, Cheshire, died after he became ill on Monday evening. He managed to flee police but was brought down on a grass verge close to his home and restrained. Some witnesses expressed concerns about the arrest. The IPCC said pepper spray had been used and its investigators would carry out inquiries. Cheshire police’s assistant chief constable expressed his condolences to the man’s family and friends. “I believe it is important for the community to know that the detailed postmortem examination … found no physical injuries on Jacob that could be attributable to a cause of death,” ACC Philip Thompson said. “Whilst pepper spray was discharged during the course of his arrest, there is no evidence that the use of pepper spray was the sole factor or indeed a contributory factor to Mr Michael becoming unwell some time after his arrest or as a cause of his death.” He appealed for calm and said further extensive tests would help establish an exact cause of death. Last week, 27-year-old bodybuilder Dale Burns died in Cumbria after he was Tasered and sprayed with pepper spray by police during an arrest. A postmortem was unable to establish a cause of death. The IPCC is investigating Cumbria police. Tasers Police Independent Police Complaints Commission Helen Carter guardian.co.uk
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