“A Tribute to the Media,” a ten-minute video, honoring television coverage of the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. This was shown at the Media Research Center’s “DisHonors Awards” held in Washington, DC on January 17, 2002 when we took a time-out for a few minutes to pay tribute to the patriotic work of journalists during the national crisis. The video starts with clips of the breaking news reporting that Tuesday morning, moves to world reaction, memorial services and search efforts; then to the patriotism displayed by Americans, the U.S. military response, Dan Rather and Geraldo Rivera rallying behind President Bush. It includes powerful commentaries from two leading journalists who have since passed away: Tim Russert and Tony Snow.
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enlarge Nothing, it seems, ever changes. Click here to view this media The ’70s were interesting times (interesting in the Chinese curse sense). We had Inflation, Stagflation, Whip Inflation Now and host of other economic maladies in between. In 1970, NBC Radio as part of their Second Sunday Documentary series, ran this episode called Inflation: The Economic Plague from March 3, 1970. On hand were a host of pundits, including Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics, which loomed large during the Nixon years and every sign that things weren’t getting any better or planning on getting better any time soon. And 41 years later, it’s still about the economy.
Continue reading …Explicit Language Warning: Longshore Union Member Attacks Media: ‘Get Your F–ing Camera Out of Here’
September 10, 2011 No Comment
A member of the Pacific Northwest longshoreman’s union — the union recently embroiled in violent protests across Washington State where windows were smashed, containers of grain were dumped and guards were held hostage — verbally attacked and threatened a media crew Friday. The news correspondent and his cameraman turned up at the union’s local headquarters in Longview, Washington to ask about the… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : The Blaze Discovery Date : 09/09/2011 23:06 Number of articles : 5
Continue reading …Rick Perry Already Walking Back His Social Security is a ‘Ponzi Scheme’ Comments
September 10, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media As Lawrence O’Donnell noted in his “Rewrite” segment this Friday, after not realizing when to shut his mouth during the debate at the Reagan Library this week on whether or not he actually believed that Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme” and a “monstrous lie” to our kids, it appears he’s now attempting to “rewrite” his remarks. From ThinkProgress — Rick Perry Says It’s ‘Misinformation’ To Suggest He Wants To Abolish Social Security : Today at a campaign stop in Newport Beach, California, one attendee asked Perry for his reaction to Romney’s charge that he wants to “abolish Social Security because it’s a Ponzi scheme.” Perry responded, “I’d say that’s misinformation “: ATTENDEE: Romney’s advisers said you want to abolish Social Security because it’s a Ponzi scheme. What do you say to that? PERRY: I’d say that’s misinformation. We just want to fix it. ATTENDEE: Are they distorting your record? PERRY: (No response, shakes his head.) O’Donnell went on to explain why Social Security is not a Ponzi scheme and why it’s not going to go broke, ever. There is the matter of how much we are willing to put into the program and how much it should be paying out, but it’s fully funded for years to come as we’ve discussed here already, as long as it has workers paying their payroll taxes and continuing to fund the system. O’Donnell finished up by explaining why Ponzi might have got a kick out of Perry. O’DONNELL: Charles Ponzi who was as much of an egomaniac as any of our politicians, would probably get a big kick out of Rick Perry. When Ponzi got out of prison for the last time in Boston, it was actually in Charlestown, where he got out of prison, he told reporters, “I went looking for trouble, and I got it.” If the Perry campaign does not yet have a motto, I know of nothing more fitting than the words of Charles Ponzi, “I went looking for trouble, and I got it.”
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Result of pioneering experiment may offer way of levelling corporate playing field for female high-fliers “There is no ‘I’ in team, but there is in win,” the basketball star Michael Jordan famously observed. But now it appears that such an emphasis on the role of the individual is a very male approach when it comes to competing. Indeed, a study suggests that women are much more willing than men to compete as part of a team. Nearly two-thirds of the “gender competition gap” – the gap between the likelihood of men or women to enter a competition – disappears when people are offered the chance to compete in two-person teams rather than as individuals.Academics Andrew Healy and Jennifer Pate claim that their findings, published in the Economic Journal , have important implications for the design of competitive environments, such as elections and corporate career ladders. The pair believe their research reveals that competing in teams “levels the playing field” by encouraging a higher number of qualified women to take part and discouraging unqualified men. They argue that this insight should help organisations to select the best-qualified leaders. The economists conducted an experiment in which the participants had to answer maths problems as quickly as possible. Participants in teams decided whether they wanted to be paid according to the number of problems their two-person team answered correctly or whether they wanted to enter a competition against three other teams. Individual participants decided whether they wanted to compete against three other individuals. The results highlighted huge differences between the genders: ■ Even though men and women performed equally well on the task, 81% of men chose to compete as individuals compared with 28% of women. ■ When participants competed in teams, the gender competition gap shrank by 31 percentage points to 22%, with 67% of men choosing to enter the competition compared with 45% of women. Previous research has shown that a man is much more likely to choose to compete compared with a woman, even when the two are equally good at a given task. The professors claim their study suggests that this gender competition gap can be narrowed by simple changes to the environment in which competitions are held. The economists suggest the gender competition gap may help to explain the continuing lack of women in positions of power. There are only five women CEOs of FTSE 100 companies. The likes of Angela Ahrendts at Burberry, Cynthia Carroll at Anglo American and Dame Marjorie Scardino at Pearson are extremely rare. However, a new way of measuring their performance – one that focuses on their ability as part of a team rather than in a testosterone-loaded, gladiatorial-style competition – could change this, the economists suggest. “It appears to be the case that women often opt out of entering these competitive environments,” Pate said. “Importantly, while qualified women opt out, unqualified men opt in. As a result, the gender competition gap may result in organisations failing to select the most qualified leaders.” Healy added: “The results of this study have implications for the nature of competitions. Competitions held on the basis of team performance rather than individual performance may attract more women – and fewer men.” The findings also have signficance for the world of politics. Women are much more likely to be active in politics in countries with party lists than in those where a single person is elected. For example, in Germany and New Zealand, where representatives are elected by each method, the economists claim women are about three times more likely to be elected from the team-based competitions than the individual ones. Gender Women Equality Women in politics Jamie Doward guardian.co.uk
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• Press refresh or turn on the auto-update for the latest • Email rob.smyth@guardian.co.uk with your thoughts • Get all the latest scores here 10.32pm Andy Murray walks out on court, headphones on as ever. Presumably he’s listening to this . Nadal bounces out after him. On Sky, Boris Becker, Greg Rusedski and Annabel Croft all tip Nadal to win. 10.14pm The winner of this match will play Novak Djokovic in Monday’s final. He has just completed an epic victory over Roger Federer: 6-7, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5. 10.02pm “So you want to know what’s going on in the world?” says Paul Taylor. “I’ll tell you what’s going on in the world. The world is gong to hell in a handbasket, if you ask me. That nice lady who ran over Reese Witherspoon the other day is being forced to retake her driving test just because she’s 84 years old. What kind of a dumb reason is that? For Christ’s sake, leave people alone, can’t you?” 9.50pm “You ask, ‘What’s the rumpus?’” begins Mac Millings. “I’ll tell you what the rumpus is. Some people dislike Andy Murray, but I don’t. His QF victory means that I have not missed a rarely-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rubberneck the 21st Century Sideshow Attraction known as Rob Smyth’s Fumbling Foray Into Tennis Commentary. It’s just like the other kind of Smyth Fumble, in that you’re in the dark, aren’t sure of the rules, and don’t know a forehand from foreplay. At least it’ll last more than a couple of minutes, eh? Unless there’s an early groin pull. Or a premature moisture stoppage. Etc.” Oh, Millings . Anyway, enough of that tennis lark . Recent MBMs/OBOs/GBGs have been far too dull and full of, y’know, sport. What else is going on in the world? What’s the rumpus? Preamble The book says we may be through with the past, but the past ain’t through with us . It certainly ain’t through with Andy Murray. Every time he goes into a grand slam match against one of Federer, Djokovic and Nadal, he does so with a diabolical monkey on his back: a record two wins out of ten and eight sets out of 33 in slams against the big three. And that record is getting worse. Since beating Nadal in the quarter-finals of the 2010 Australian Open he has lost five in a row and trails 15-1 on sets. Murray knows that many people think the story has already been written, that he will continue to bang his heid against the brick wall for the rest of his career, and that he is never going to win a slam. Even when Federer retires he will have to find a way past Djokovic and Nadal, two men with the will of Keyser Soze. It’s enough to drive a man to the offy. For Murray, the first challenge tonight is not to beat Nadal; it’s to think he can beat Nadal. US Open 2011 US Open tennis Andy Murray Rafael Nadal Tennis Rob Smyth guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …David Cameron urged to get tough with Russia over Sergei Magnitsky’s death
September 10, 2011 No Comment
PM should use Kremlin visit to raise the case of whistleblower lawyer’s death, say politicians from US and UK Former US presidential candidate John McCain is among a number of senior American politicians urging David Cameron to bar from Britain dozens of Russian officials implicated in the controversial death of a whistleblower. The prime minister arrives in Moscow on Monday, his first visit to the Kremlin, amid mounting international pressure to follow the lead of the US by introducing visa bans for individuals linked to the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. The 37-year-old was working for a British company when he exposed the biggest tax fraud in Russian history . After accusing Interior Ministry officials, Magnitsky was arrested and died in police custody after being denied essential medical care. Investigators say the father of two was tortured and badly beaten in the hours before his death in November 2009. The case has become a focal point for activists seeking to highlight state corruption in Russia. Cameron is being urged to make it clear that employees of British companies in Russia cannot be abused with impunity. In July the case prompted the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, to introduce a travel ban and freeze the assets of 60 Russian officials implicated in Magnitsky’s death. But even though Magnitsky was directly employed by William Browder , who runs a London-based investment fund, Hermitage Capital Management, the UK government has failed to act or even criticise the Russian authorities over the affair. On the eve of Cameron’s trip, senior US officials said he needed to demonstrate his human rights credentials. McCain, a US senator, told the Observer : “We hope the British government will seriously consider visa bans and asset freezes on the Russian government officials implicated in the torture and murder of Sergei Magnitsky, as we have proposed in Congress.” Democrat senator Benjamin Cardin, who tabled the Sergei Magnitsky rule of law and accountability bill , backed by 18 other senators, added: “I encourage the British and other governments to join the United States in imposing sanctions against the people who were involved in the death of Magnitsky. It is when allies work together on human rights that we can be most effective.” Pressure is also building on Cameron closer to home. Labour MP Chris Bryant, a former Foreign Office minister, said: “Britain should be making it absolutely clear that anybody involved in the corruption that Magnitsky revealed, or in his murder, is quite simply not welcome in this country. I hope Cameron is not going to be as gullible to swallow bland assurances by [president) Dmitry Medvedev and [prime minister] Vladimir Putin or be so eager to please that he fails to raise the important human rights abuses in relation to Magnitsky and [Mikhail] Khodorkovsky.” Khodorkovsky, the former chief executive of the oil company Yukos, was found guilty last year of theft and money laundering by a Moscow court, but is deemed a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. Cameron’s meeting with Putin will be the first official Russian contact with Britain since an unproductive bilateral meeting with Tony Blair during a G8 summit in 2007. Anglo-Russian relations remain tarnished by the murder of British citizen and Putin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 with a radioactive isotope. Britain has repeatedly asked without success for the extradition of the chief suspect in the Litvinenko case, former KGB officer Andrei Lugovoi, who has since been elected to the Russian parliament. Another former Foreign Office minister, Denis MacShane MP, believes Cameron should concentrate on bringing those responsible for Magnitsky’s death to justice. “After grandiose claims about promoting human rights in Libya, David Cameron should not wimp out of supporting human rights in Russia, especially when it concerns a British citizen, a London-based firm and his murdered lawyer. It would be deplorable if the US and other EU states took the lead while Cameron refused to take similar action.” Browder said: “The prime minister has a very simple decision to make. Does he want the Russian officials who sadistically tortured and murdered a lawyer working for a British firm to be allowed to enter our country and use our banks? This is not a question that the government can avoid by hiding behind bureaucratic language. How the government answers this question will send a strong message to dictators around the world.” Downing Street declined to say whether Cameron would raise the case with Putin. Russia David Cameron Human rights Vladimir Putin Dmitry Medvedev Europe Mark Townsend guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Exhibit A In The Partisan Take on Terror: Ahmed Warsame, Detained at Sea
September 10, 2011 No Comment
“Human rights” lawyers for suspected terrorists used to have a very receptive media to publicize their claims.
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Fashion-conscious coach parties expected to keep shopping giant running until 2012 Olympics The largest urban shopping mall in Europe will open in east London this week amid hopes that foreign shoppers might bring in the cash that British shoppers seem unwilling to part with. One financial expert said experts could not say that the project would have been cancelled had anyone been able to predict the economic slowdown, but with the capital awash with rising numbers of tourists, it could well be down to London’s cachet with fashion-conscious Europeans to keep our stores afloat. The massive new Westfield Stratford City mall – with its 300 shops, 70 restaurants and bars, a 17-screen cinema and 1.9m sq feet of retail space – opens on Tuesday in Stratford at the site of next year’s Olympic Games, at a time when o ne in seven shops in Britain are boarded up as retailers struggle. Richard Dodd of the British Retail Consortium said: “Any retailer or developer would want to be able to choose a time to open, and we wouldn’t choose the conditions we have now. But that doesn’t mean that if they knew in the past what it would be like now they would have cancelled.” Dodd added: “Consumer confidence is very weak. Our own figures for August showed that spending was only 1.5% higher than in August a year ago, but that is less than inflation and we’ve had a VAT rise. People bought less stuff this year than a year ago. And all the indicators are that people feel their own costs are rising.” But with the Australian-based Westfield company – which has another, slightly smaller mall in west London – bringing in 10,000 jobs to what is one of the most deprived parts of the city, it is not just big businesses that hope the glamour of Tuesday, when pop star and occasional X Factor judge Nicole Scherzinger will open the shopping centre, will stick with it. In total, £1.45bn and 40,000 tonnes of steel have gone into construction – Marks & Spencer and John Lewis have taken huge outlets. They will be joined by names such as Topshop, River Island, Primark, Boots and Goldsmiths, which will be selling some of its jewellery from vending machines. Westfield will undoubtedly benefit from the Olympics, and developers expect around 70% of the 10 million visitors to the Games to pass through. “Westfield is not being built solely for the Olympics, but it’s a major long-term investment by retailers for that part of east London, and it needs to be successful well outside of any Olympic considerations,” said Dodd. There has been a surge in European tourists in London this year, mostly French, German and Spanish, many attracted by the spending power of their euros against a weak pound, and this has kept many retailers in the capital afloat. Westfield will be hoping for a share of the continental visitor spending power, much of which at the moment is spent in the West End triumvirate of Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street. Jace Tyrrell, of the New West End Company, said there is no fear that the West End will lose custom to the new project. “We’re relaxed about Stratford. We’ve seen a huge rise in European shoppers and I don’t think we’ll lose too many to a mall.” But coaches are already offering direct runs from Paris to Stratford. Eurostar, which is also reporting a rise in the popularity of London as a destination for its passengers, will not stop at Stratford International at the very least until after the Games, when the train operator will review its decision. But the transport links from other parts of London are fast and varied and as the 150 cleaners put the final polish on the site, shops and developers at Westfield Stratford City are hoping for a brighter, long-term future. Westfield facts 40,000 tonnes of structural steel was used in the construction – equivalent to the weight of 80 million medals. 10,000 permanent jobs have been provided – 2,000 of which have gone to local unemployed people. 4 million people live less than 45 minutes away and have £3.24bn to spend. 1.25m metres of cable is in the centre. Plus 30,000 metres of piping. 150 cleaners are clearing the site to be ready for Tuesday’s opening. 75% of Stratford City’s electrical power will be met by an onsite power plant. Retail industry Olympic Games 2012 London Tracy McVeigh Simon Goodley guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Gaddafi’s diehard secret police dig in as Nato jets blast desert stronghold
September 10, 2011 No Comment
Fierce resistance from fighters loyal to the dictator have stopped rebels in their tracks in the hills leading to Bani Walid Nato launched air strikes against Bani Walid, one of the last remaining Libyan towns still held by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi. Loyalists were mounting fierce resistance, fuelling speculation about which regime figures were hiding in the desert bastion. Rebel commanders believe several hundred fanatical fighters are trapped in the town, a maze of hills and fortified positions 90 miles south-east of the capital, Tripoli. Street-to-street fighting raged and loyalists were accused of firing Grad rockets from civilian homes. Air strikes hammered fortified positions near the town centre, including buildings thought to shelter Scud missiles that have already been launched against rebel-held Misrata. Overnight fighting saw eight prisoners, one of them a brigadier, captured by rebel patrols, and one unit of Misrata’s Halbus brigade, thought to be operating with forward air controllers of the SAS, is now six miles from the town centre. But the fierce resistance convinced rebel forces to cancel an attack planned for the early hours of the morning, together with an offensive further east at Sirte, Gaddafi’s birthplace and his final coastal stronghold. Three weeks after rebel forces entered Tripoli, and with the new government, the National Transitional Council, completing its move to the capital, loyalist units continue to hold out in Sirte and in a series of desert towns far to the south. The impetus appears to be not realistic hopes of victory but fear of retribution if loyalist units surrender. War crimes investigations are already well advanced in Libya, and lists of names linked to so-called blood crimes have been circulated around rebel units, with trial and execution the likely fate of Gaddafi loyalists who surrender. Regular soldiers, by contrast, are deserting in droves, with rebel units finding outlying positions around Bani Walid deserted. Khalid Abdula Salem, commander of the rebel Western Front, said advanced units were inside the suburbs of the sprawling town and found many people flying the green flag of Gaddafi. He said no reprisals were being taken against them. “Some houses now have our flag, some have the green flag. For those houses, we take down the green flag.” He said that an attack order for the early hours of the morning was cancelled, apparently to give Nato jets freedom to strike. “We have an order from the National Transitional Council not to go inside,” he said. Ranged against the rebels are more than 600 diehard Gaddafi loyalists, including men of the Legion Thoria,Gaddafi’s secret police, and units of the elite 32nd Brigade, commanded by the dictator’s son Khamis. Khamis is thought to have fled the town, leaving his men to their fate. Salem said the town’s defenders also included mercenaries from a rebel faction in Darfur, who had first been encountered when Misratan rebels broke their siege late last month. Bani Walid will prove a tough nut to crack: loyalist forces are dug into caves among the twisting valleys that lead into the town. In the town centre they are barricaded into a former Kalashnikov machine-gun factory, the university and a half-built replica castle built on a hill as a luxury residence for Gaddafi. Bani Walid’s tribal elders, who were once among Gaddafi’s staunchest supporters, last week gave their permission for opposition forces to enter the town, but say they are powerless to overcome the loyalist units within. Instead, it is likely the rebels will have to winkle them out: at the rebel forward base of Abdul Rauf, five tanks and more than 100 black pickup trucks, most mounting rockets or anti-aircraft guns, stood ready for an assault. Standing at a checkpoint facing the empty desert highway that leads to the town, rebel fighter Abdul Fatah Susi said: “The guys in there [Bani Walid] are Legion Thoria, that’s why they don’t want to give up. “We are ready to attack.” Libya Muammar Gaddafi Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Africa Nato Chris Stephen Abdul Raufu Mustapha David Smith guardian.co.uk
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