Charity chief says that planned £500 weekly limit on amount families can claim will have huge human and social cost The government’s benefits cap could make more than 80,000 children homeless and push many thousands more into poverty, says the Children’s Society. In a devastating critique of the plan to limit the amount even the largest families can claim in benefits, Bob Reitemeier, its chief executive, said there would be a huge “human and social cost” if the reforms went ahead. The welfare reform bill, which proposes a £500 a week cap on the amount families can claim for housing, childcare and sustenance, is set to return to parliament in the House of Lords on Tuesday after making unsteady progress through the Commons earlier this year. The society says 200,000 children will have their lives affected by the changes to the amount their parents can claim and 27,600 adults and 82,400 children could be made homeless. While supporters of the benefits cap claim it would simply mean families would be forced to move into cheaper accommodation, government figures suggest 70% of those who will be hit are already living in social housing. Reitemeier said changes to the proposed legislation were urgently needed. “The reason we are so concerned about children is that three in four of the people that are going to be affected by the benefits cap are children and I don’t think that’s publicly understood”, he said. “There are some main concerns: one is that the children will be made homeless, possibly 80,000 children, which would be a significant change to their lives. “Secondly, what we think could happen is that those children already in poverty, below 60% of the median income line, will fall into severe poverty, less than 40% of the median income. This has a very human and social impact on their lives.” The Children’s Society also believes that children, who are nine times as likely as adults to be hit by the cap because of the prevalence of large families among those claiming benefits, will experience lower levels of wellbeing. It says it understands the element of unfairness in people who are on benefits having large families catered for, but that the government should ensure children do not suffer for their parents’ decisions. The £500 cap is based on the average annual household wage of £26,000. The charity proposes that instead the government should work out the level of the cap – the universal credit – by basing it on the average household income of working families with children, which would include in-work benefits. “Ideally we would say reverse the cap, but if it is a political agenda going forward then our view would be that the government should use average income, including in-work benefits for working families with children, to calculate the cap,” Reitemeier said. “That would change the cap from £500 [a week] to a higher amount.” It is understood the charity’s concerns are shared at the highest levels of the coalition government, particularly among Liberal Democrats. Last night Karen Buck MP, the shadow minister for welfare reform, said she could not understand why the government was moving ahead with its policy. She added: “The household benefit cap will punish children disproportionately and increase homelessness with all the human and economic costs that implies. Worse still, cuts in childcare reduce the capacity of families to make work pay and so avoid the cap. “We saw from leaked warnings this summer that the housing department fears that Department for Work and Pensions cuts will increase homelessness and now this is being confirmed. What is the point of policies which cost more than they save?” A spokeswoman for the DWP said that additional take up of benefits due to the simplicity of the new system would actually take half a million people out of poverty. She added: “Someone in work should be better off than someone on benefits – this is at the heart of our welfare reform. There must be a clear incentive to work. No one will be worse off as a result of Universal Credit.” Welfare Children Liberal-Conservative coalition Homelessness Child benefit Daniel Boffey guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Nikki Haley Wants Drug Testing for Jobless Benefits and Makes Up Stats to Support Them
September 10, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Gov. Nikki Haley (R) told the Lexington Rotary Club Thursday that she wants South Carolinians to undergo drug screenings before they can receive unemployment benefits. “I so want drug testing,” she said. “I so want it.” “The problem is that I’ve got to make sure the numbers work… It’s certainly not off the table for me. It’s something that I’ve been wanting since the first day I walked into office, but we do have not make sure it’s not politically popular, it’s actually a good feasible thing to do.” The South Carolina Republican recalled a story about the high rate of drug test failures at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory. “Down on River Site, they were hiring a few hundred people, and when we sat down and talked to them — this was back before the campaign — when we sat down and talked to them, they said of everybody they interviewed, half of them failed a drug test, and of the half that was left, of that 50 percent, the other half couldn’t read and write properly,” Haley explained. But Department of Energy spokesman Jim Giusti told The Huffington Post’s Arthur Delaney that the failure rate was far lower than Haley had claimed. “Half the people who applied for a job last year or year 2009 did not fail the drug test,” Giusti said. “At the peak of hiring under the Recovery Act, we had less than 1 percent of those hired test positive.” He added that job applicants are not even tested at the River Site until after they have been hired.
Continue reading …Sally Quinn Column on 9/11 Trashes Conservative ‘Ignorance,’ Sharia ‘Scare Campaigns’
September 10, 2011 No Comment
In Saturday's On Faith section in the Washington Post, they allow religious leaders to reflect on 9/11, including Imam Abdul Faisal-Rauf, the organizer of the Ground Zero mega-mosque proposal in Manhattan through his Cordoba Initiative. (He said don't worry about those violent Muslim radicals, they're a tiny and spent force.) Sally Quinn, the editor of the On Faith website, unleashed a column in the Metro section that quickly transformed from thoughts about where she was on 9/11 to trashing the “right wing Christians” for denouncing Islam and the intensifying “ignorance” of politicians and their clueless “scare campaigns” against Sharia law. She even blamed the media for calling Muslim terrorists Muslims and not calling Christian terrorists Christians: Sadly, the answers many came up with after 9/11 were to blame this and other atrocities on Muslims. There are over a billion Muslims in the world. Most are peaceful. Only a handful distort their religion to commit murderous acts. In the past decade, false perceptions and ignorance have intensified. When Barack Obama ran for president many thought he was Muslim (he is a Christian but almost 20 percent of Americans today still believe he is a Muslim and have a negative opinion of him for that reason.) Since then we have had candidates like John McCain say he would have trouble voting for a Muslim for president and Herman Cain saying he wouldn’t want a Muslim in his administration. Right wing Christian leaders have denounced Islam. Politicians have run scare campaigns against “sharia law” about which they clearly have no clue. The outcry against the proposed Mosque at Ground Zero, which was not a mosque and not at Ground Zero, became an international affair. The Koran burning resulted in many deaths abroad. Women wearing headscarves have been forced to defend their choices. Muslim terrorists are routinely identified as Muslim terrorists while Christian terrorists are not identified by their religion. Why won’t Muslim leaders speak out against terrorism if they are so against it, critics ask? They do all the time in newspapers and Web sites, including this one. Muslim communities across the nation are constantly reaching out to combat those who attack a religion that has been hijacked by a small group of zealots. One such effort, this week in Washington, are blood drives around the country to try to save more lives than those lost on 9/11. These are citizens who care deeply, many of whom have sent sons and daughters to fight and die for this country. At Dulles Airport last weekend with my family, I watched as a Muslim family, father and son in Western clothes, mother and daughter in long dresses but no headscarves, baby girl in tow, were stopped at immigration and fingerprinted. “Why don’t they dress like Americans?” someone in the crowd murmured. My daughter in law, who is half Persian and has not yet received a passport with her new surname, was questioned by the immigration officer when we came through. “How is she part of the family?” he asked. I pointed out that she was my son’s wife and that she had a different name from her husband as did I. I, of course, was not questioned. As I mentioned, I did not pray on 9/11. The only thing I could think of to pray about was for answers and there were none. However, I will pray this Sunday. I will pray that we as Americans, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Atheists, Agnostics and others can come together to end prejudice, discrimination and hatred. Violence is not more a feature of Islam, than those qualities are features of other faiths and people of no faith. Let’s stop it before it gets really ugly and turns us into the very people we criticize and so desperately do not want to be. Quinn took the same approach in a new interview about 9/11 with evangelical preacher and author Joel Osteen: QUINN: Obviously the terrorists were Muslim and then a lot of people sort of became anti-Muslim in this country because of that. You know, there are over a billion Muslims in the world and most of them are peace-loving. What do you say to your parishioners and people you speak to when they try to blame Islam for this and focus in on that as sort of the source of evil? OSTEEN: I always encourage them that this is a small group of people that are way off base. It’s not one religion; you can’t define them all as a whole.
Continue reading …Britain braces itself for storms and floods as hurricane Katia approaches
September 10, 2011 No Comment
Winds of up to 80mph are predicted to hit north-west Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England Severe gales and flooding are expected to hit parts of the UK as hurricane Katia makes its way across the Atlantic. Winds of up to 80mph are predicted to hit north-west Scotland by Monday, with Northern Ireland, north Wales and northern England also likely to be affected. Forecaster Michael Dukes, of MeteoGroup UK, said: “It looks likely that this will be a significant storm event for mid-September. Strong winds have been predicted, which could result in trees coming down, causing major structural damage and travel delays. Inevitably, with the remnants of a tropical storm, there will also be a risk of flash flooding. “The hurricane is moving slowly at the moment and current predictions show that the remnants of the storm will hit north-west Scotland by Monday.” While it is rare for so-called “warm core” hurricanes to turn into “cold core” hurricanes crossing the Atlantic, rather than declining into a depression, unusual weather conditions have made hurricane Katia more threatening. The storm will hit the west coast of Ireland first. “This is on the way and it is a significant storm,” Met Éireann forecaster Gerry Murphy said. His organisation is predicting winds of 100mph, with the north seeing the worst winds. By the time Katia reaches the UK on Monday, it is expected to have declined from a category four hurricane – the maximum is five – to a strong post-tropical storm. On Saturday morning Katia remained a category one hurricane and was accelerating north-eastwards. It is expected to make landfall in Ireland around dawn on Monday. Tropical hurricanes are usually slow-moving phenomena, fuelled by warm seas and humid air, which fizzle out as they move north into the colder air of the Atlantic. In Katia’s case, however, it appears that unusually low-altitude and strengthening jet stream winds between North Carolina and New York are providing the storm with an oceanic conveyor belt, speeding its passage towards Ireland and the UK and allowing it to maintain an unusual intensity. Tom Tobler, of MeteoGroup, added: “It is looking like the storms will hit early on Monday morning, with the most severe weather coming in the middle of the day. Gusts of over 60mph will be seen quite widely over northern and central Scotland and Northern Ireland and even down into northern England. “The maximum gusts in western Scotland could easily get up to 75 or 80mph and potentially it could get above that. It could cause disruption and uproot trees, especially as they still have a lot of leaves on, being early autumn.” Forecasters say the predicted high winds could coincide with high tides and western coasts in particular are at risk from localised flooding. An Environment Agency spokesman said: “At present there is a low risk of flooding across the north coast of Wales and the north-west coast of England during Monday from strong to gale force winds, large waves and a surge which coincides with a period of spring tides.” Weather Flooding Scotland Wales Northern Ireland Ireland United States New York Peter Beaumont guardian.co.uk
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• Email john.ashdown@guardian.co.uk with your musings • Press F5 to refresh this page or use our auto-refresher • Holler at John on Twitter if you are in to that sort of thing • Click here for all the latest scores across Europe 3.27pm: Port Vale, in their grey knickers, have gone 1-0 up against the hapless Plymouth. And in better news for the south coast, Southampton are now 2-1 up against Steve McClaren’s Nottingham Forest. 3.25pm: Finally, a bit of a breather. It’s been a hectic start. Everton, Manchester City, Stoke and Chelsea are ahead. The only game in the Premier League that is goalless is the affair at the Emirates. With 25 minutes gone things might start getting cranky there soon. 3.23pm: Palace have come from behind to lead 2-1 at Elland Road and in that big game in League Two I mentioned earlier Morecambe are 2-0 up against this morning’s leaders Crawley. 3.22pm: “‘Glanced wide by Bendtner – Who really should have done better,’ will probably be the name of his autobiography,” reckons Lucien Hoare. The place to be for shots on target, though, is Gigg Lane – it’s Bury 1-3 Rochdale with only a quarter of the game gone. 3.21pm: GOAL! Stoke 1-0 Liverpool (Walters 21pen) Against the run of play at the home side take the lead. Carragher concedes the spot-kick, Walters makes no mistake from the spot. 3.20pm: GOAL! Everton 1-0 Aston Villa (Osman 19) Can’t tell you how it happened I’m afraid, but the Toffees are one-up. 3.19pm: MISSED PENALTY! And Carlos Tevez is the culprit. Al Habsi makes the save, but it was a weak effort. 3.18pm: … GOAL! Sunderland 0-1 Chelsea (Terry 18) … the free-kick thwocks a post but Sunderland can’t clear and the ball breaks to Terry who smacks the ball home at the second attempt. Harsh on Sunderland, who’d been matching the visitors. 3.17pm: Anelka gets tripped on the edge of the box, giving Chelsea a very dangerous set-piece … 3.15pm: Arsenal are this close to going ahead at the Emirates. Walcott beats the keeper but his shot is cleared off the line by Caulker. 3.14pm: Stunning save from Friedel keeps Tottenham on level terms at Molineux. There’s goalmouth action all over the place thus far. 3.13pm: GOAL! Manchester City 1-0 Wigan (Aguero 13) The Argentinian duo combine up front for City – Tevez sets up Aguero for the opening goal of the game. 3.11pm: Sunderland have a dangerous free-kick at the Stadium of Light – whipped in by Cattermole, glanced wide by Bendtner who really should have done better. It was a free header, 10 yards out. 3.11pm: Arteta is on set-piece duty for Arsenal – he whips in a corner that is cleared by Ashley Williams for the Swans. 3.10pm: And Southampton have equalised. And so have West Ham. So it’s as you were. 3.09pm: Goals in the Championship: Portsmouth are ahead at Upton Park, and Forest are 1-0 up at Southampton. 3.07pm: Stunning save from Szczesny keeps the scores level at the Emirates, with Graham close to poking Swansea into a surprise lead. 3.05pm: An early goal the A58 derby between Bury and Rochdale – the Dale are ahead at Gigg Lane. 3.03pm: Aaron Ramsey has missed an early chance at the Emirates. And Liverpool have started strongly at the Britannia Stadium. 3.01pm: What ho! Optimism alert! “I am an Arsenal fan and I am feeling thoroughly optimistic about the new signings,” writes Robert Murphy. “Today’s team, on paper at least, seems to have a balance and maturity that I haven’t seen in an Arsenal team for a long time. I predict a 3-0 Arsenal win. I should have learned by now, but I haven’t. Also, PG Wodehouse is the funniest writer I have ever read.” 2.55pm: Carlos Tevez has apparently taken his nippers on the pitch pre-match. They seem to have spent as much time on the pitch as their dad has of late. 2.51pm: From the Twittersphere: this is slightly troubling from Plymouth fan Jo Lumani. Port Vale will be facing Argyle at Home Park today wearing “grey jerseys and grey knickers” according to the teamsheet . 2.47pm: “Not all Everton fans agree, but I love a Wilsonesque 4-6-0,” writes Gary Naylor. “With Rodwell and Fellaini holding, I expect Osman, Coleman, Bily and Cahill to raid forward. Who picks up whom?” 2.41pm: The sun is shining at Molineux. Which is a good job for those in the not-yet-completed North Bank . Pre-kick-off email dept. “Never got into the TV version of Jeeves and Wooster,” writes Ed. “The idea of it is good – Fry and Laurie perfect casting etc. – but it just can’t emulate Wodehouse’s zip, pep and guile. Much like some team or other can’t emulate some other team or other, or something. Well, you fill in the football analogy bit.” “The Verve (from l-r),” begins Dan Poole. “Joe Cole with hair; Paolo Maldini after a month or two in Wigan; Harry Redknapp back in the day; Richard Dunne’s second cousin once removed. ” The gaffer , Sean Ingle, reckons the lay on Everton is the bet of the day today. He says put your house on it and he’ll personally refund anyone who loses money by following his advice.* *Please note: Sean will not personally refund personally refund anyone who loses money by following his advice. Man City v Wigan Man City: Hart, Richards, Kompany, Lescott, Clichy, Milner, Toure Yaya, Johnson, Silva, Aguero, Tevez. Subs: Pantilimon, Zabaleta, Dzeko, Nasri, Toure, Balotelli, Razak. Wigan: Al Habsi, Boyce, Caldwell, Lopez, Figueroa, Rodallega, Diame, Watson, McArthur, Moses, Di Santo. Subs: Kirkland, McCarthy, Crusat, Gomez, Sammon, Jones, Stam. Referee: Martin Atkinson (W Yorkshire) Arsenal v Swansea Arsenal: Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs, Ramsey, Frimpong, Arteta, Arshavin, Walcott, van Persie. Subs: Fabianski, Park, Andre Santos, Djourou, Chamakh, Benayoun, Coquelin. Swansea: Vorm, Rangel, Caulker, Williams, Taylor, Agustien, Britton, Allen, Sinclair, Dyer, Graham. Subs: Tremmel, Dobbie, Lita, Moore, Bessone, Gower, Richards. Referee: Stuart Attwell (Warwickshire) Sunderland v Chelsea Sunderland: Mignolet, Bardsley, Bramble, Brown, Richardson, Larsson, Cattermole, Gardner, Colback, Sessegnon, Bendtner. Subs: Westwood, Wickham, Vaughan, Ji, Turner, Elmohamady, McClean. Chelsea: Cech, Bosingwa, Ivanovic, Terry, Cole, Mata, Lampard, Ramires, Meireles, Sturridge, Anelka. Subs: Hilario, Luiz, Torres, Malouda, Kalou, McEachran, Romeu. Referee: Lee Probert (Wiltshire) Stoke v Liverpool Stoke: Begovic, Huth, Shawcross, Upson, Wilson, Pennant, Delap, Whitehead, Etherington, Walters, Crouch. Subs: Sorensen, Whelan, Jones, Wilkinson, Shotton, Jerome, Palacios. Liverpool: Reina, Carragher, Skrtel, Agger, Jose Enrique, Kuyt, Adam, Lucas, Henderson, Downing, Suarez. Subs: Doni, Johnson, Carroll, Maxi, Coates, Spearing, Bellamy. Referee: Mark Clattenburg (Tyne & Wear) Wolverhampton v Tottenham Wolverhampton: Hennessey, Stearman, Johnson, Berra, Ward, Kightly, Henry, O’Hara, Hunt, Doyle, Fletcher. Subs: De Vries, Elokobi, Hammill, Milijas, Vokes, Foley, Jarvis. Tottenham: Friedel, Walker, King, Kaboul, Assou-Ekotto, Kranjcar, Parker, Modric, Bale, Adebayor, Defoe. Subs: Cudicini, Bassong, Livermore, Pavlyuchenko, Townsend, Falque, Giovani. Referee: Peter Walton (Northamptonshire) Everton v Aston Villa Everton: Howard, Hibbert, Jagielka, Distin, Baines, Coleman, Fellaini, Rodwell, Bilyaletdinov, Osman, Cahill. Subs: Mucha, Drenthe, Stracqualursi, Neville, Gueye, Barkley, Vellios. Aston Villa: Given, Hutton, Dunne, Collins, Warnock, Petrov, Delph, N’Zogbia, Agbonlahor, Heskey, Bent. Subs: Guzan, Ireland, Albrighton, Delfouneso, Clark, Bannan, Herd. Referee: Michael Oliver (Northumberland) 2.17pm: In fact, Andre Villas Boas’s team selection is very interesting: Sturridge, Mata and Meireles all start . 2.14pm: Villas Boas has made good on his threat – Torres drops to the bench for Chelsea. 2.10pm: Parker starts for Spurs, Falque on the bench, while Jenas isn’t in the Villa squad at Goodison Park. Full details shortly. 2.07pm: At Manchester City: “Edin Dzeko left out after playing two full games for Bosnia, Aguero played 9 and 14 mins for Argentina, Tevez had week off” writes our man Daniel Taylor on Twitter. The City team: Hart, Richards, Kompany, Lescott, Clichy, Y Toure, Milner, Johnson, Silva, Aguero, Tevez 2.05pm: Some early team news from the Emirates: Arteta starts, as does Mertesacker. Preamble What-ho clockwatchers, all. Hope you’re in fine fettle. Me? In the pink, old fruit, in the pink. Though I feel I may have been watching too many episodes of Jeeves and Wooster just recently. So what have we got to look forward to in the 3pm Premier League kick-offs? Stoke v Liverpool Everton v Aston Villa Manchester City v Wigan Wolves v Tottenham Sunderland v Chelsea Arsenal v Swansea It’s an intriguing set of fixtures . Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham will all do well to pick up three points, Everton against Villa is a tough one to call and Arsenal really must, must beat Swansea. Further down the leagues Crawley’s trip to Morecambe is a meeting of two pace-setters in League Two, Sheffield Wednesday v MK Dons and Huddersfield v Tranmere are highlights in League One and West Ham v Portsmouth and Southampton v Forest are worth keeping an eye on in the Championship. Speaking of Arsenal, as I was a sentence or so agho, I cycled past the Emirates on my way into the office this morning, with the fans already milling about near Finsbury Park or making their way to the ground. Spotted one newly-bought shirt with “ARTETA 10″ on the back, and another emblazoned with the words “YOU CAN’T BUY HISTORY”, which was either a) a rather pricey way, given the cost of letters on the back of shirts, of having a dig at Manchester City or b) being worn by a man who works in a record shop that sells nothing but Verve singles and has grown tired of telling customers when certain LPs are out of stock. I like to think it was the latter, and that he has an away kit with “YOU CAN’T BUY LUCKY MAN” on the back and a goalkeeper’s jersey saying “RICHARD ASHCROFT? SORRY WE DON’T DO SOLO STUFF. PLEASE LEAVE. AND LEAVE NOW”. Premier League Championship League One League Two John Ashdown guardian.co.uk
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For Hollywood, to push America’s morality buttons is a win-win proposition. When they challenge those moribund “traditional values,” they not only strike a blow for the sexual revolution, they create the cherished publicity “buzz” that brings attention – and viewers – to their shows. It explains why ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” named to their cast America’s most famous “transgender” activist, who was once the cute little blond daughter Chastity that everyone of a certain age remembers from the old Sonny and Cher show on CBS, and is now the female-denying Chaz Bono. ABC didn’t name Bono because she’s known as a dancer. They named her because she’s well-known as an “LGBT” activist, with an emphasis on the “T.” Bono has been a spokessomething for the gay-left Human Rights Campaign’s National Coming Out Day and served as Entertainment Media Director for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). For its part, GLAAD is extra-delighted, because the cast now includes Bono and Carson Kressley, the most lecherous member of the old show “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” who went on to host the Lifetime makeover show “How to Look Good Naked.” The Bono choice outraged many fans of the show, who’ve considered the ballroom-dancing showcase to be a sort of old-fashioned safe harbor families could enjoy – although certainly the outfits and some of the dances are designed to maximize sexiness. In a way, the Bono choice is counter-programming to last fall’s casting of Bristol Palin – who was chosen as a “star” because of her mother’s fame, not her own. Palin-haters rooted against Bristol throughout the show, and when she made it all the way to the finals (more buzz, buzz, buzz), ABC and The Washington Post paid for a poll question to ask if her dancing was good enough. Can anyone imagine they’ll do a poll on whether Chaz can do the cha-cha? Bristol Palin didn’t do teen-abstinence dances last fall, and there would have been hell to pay had she in any way promoted her issue. Not so with the “T” issue. The cultural politics last year were really saved for bisexual activist and comedian Margaret Cho, who danced for “gay pride” in a rainbow dress on the show. Cho proclaimed to viewers, “We wanted to celebrate pride. It's a tough time for the gay community. A lot of gay teenagers have committed suicide, so we want this to end now!” If Chaz Bono were going to perform the entire season as a man, with no reference to her actual gender, then ABC wouldn’t be offering that LGBT “educational” opportunity. It is why no one should have any doubt that Chaz Bono is going to be instructing America about the need to overcome their “transphobia” – on the show and everywhere else. On ABC’s “Good Morning America” on September 6, the network used the opposition of the American Family Association as a foil to promote the show. “It’s made me realize I’m really glad I’m doing this, because America really needs to see this,” Bono said. “You know, it just kind of shows why for me it's important to be on the show, because so little still is known about what it means to be transgender, and there's so many just completely inaccurate stereotypes and thoughts that people have.” Four days earlier, ABC put on gay publicist Howard Bragman to call the AFA a “hate group” inspiring “hate opinions on e-mail” that are like “people writing on a bathroom wall.” AFA may as well write on bathroom walls. It’s not getting a lick of air time on ABC. This is Bono’s year of media activism, complete with a book last spring called “Transition” (promoted all over the “news” channels) and a promotional one-hour Oprah Winfrey Network special called “Becoming Chaz,” hailed as the story of a “valiant struggle of a sensitive individual to become who he really is.” Nowhere in any of this celebration is the hard reality. Despite her low voice, and her sideburns, and her awful decision to amputate her own breasts,”Chaz” remains a woman. It’s ridiculous for ABC to argue children won’t be confused by this political-correctness crusade. The entire “transgender” propaganda movement is confused. Indeed, there is a new sexual category to go alongside G, L, B, and T – “Q” for questioning. ABC and the rest of the media universe can do all the pretending they want, but that’s not going to make Chaz a real male. It’s not a “completely inaccurate stereotype” for people to say so. Silly, old-fashioned me: I’m stuck on human beings made as males and females.
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Rebels advancing on the town of Bani Walid come under rocket attacks from hundreds of soldiers loyal to Gaddafi Anti-Gaddafi forces are closing in on one of the four towns still controlled by the Libyan dictator but are meeting fierce resistance from up to 1,000 fighters. Rebel fighters launched an assault on the town of Bani Walid on Friday and had hoped to capture it overnight but they were hit with rocket attacks. Despite the bombardment, columns of vehicles drove toward the frontline, with fighters in pick-up trucks shaking their fists in the air and shouting “Here come the Libyans.” “We are going in today,” Abdullah Kanshil, an official of the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC), told reporters outside the town, 150 km (95 miles) south-east of Tripoli. “Civilians will be protected. We are already inside the city and we have found rocket launchers in the houses. We have thousands of fighters,” he said. Kanshil said about 1,000 soldiers loyal to Gaddafi were defending the town – many more than the 150 previously estimated. “They are launching Grad rockets from private houses so Nato (warplanes) cannot do anything about it,” he said. Heavy fighting erupted around Bani Walid and the coastal city of Sirte, Gaddafi’s birthplace, on Friday, a day before the deadline for a negotiated surrender set by the NTC. NTC officials said the truce was effectively over, paving the way for what could prove the final battles of a civil war that evolved from February’s popular uprising against Gaddafi. He said he believed hundreds of “extremely professional” soldiers from all parts of the country were defending the town. Akram Ramadan, a fighter outside Bani Walid, said after overnight skirmishes: “Gaddafi gangs are resisting very hard, they have mercenaries, volunteers and snipers.” Libya Middle East Muammar Gaddafi Africa Lisa O’Carroll guardian.co.uk
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Egypt declares state of alert after three die and more than a thousand are injured as crowds storm the Israeli embassy in Cairo Israel has evacuated its Egyptian ambassador after crowds stormed the embassy in Cairo, plunging Egypt’s ruling army deeper into its worst diplomatic crisis since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak. Egyptian prime minister Essam Sharaf is holding a crisis cabinet meeting and a state of alert has been declared as protesters remain on the streets following the violence on Friday, burning tyres and chanting slogans against the governing military council. A senior Egyptian official says at least three people died and more than 1,000 were hurt during street clashes with police and army troops after an angry mob attacked the embassy building. Deputy health minister, Hamid Abaza, says one of the three fatalities in the violence late on Friday was a man who died of a heart attack. Abaza told The Associated Press on Saturday he doesn’t know the cause of the other two deaths. He says at least 1,093 people were injured in the clashes. The protesters pelted the police and the military with rocks, prompting the troops to fire tear gas and shoot into the air. Only 38 of the injured remained in hospital. Earlier, the protesters tore down a security wall outside the Israeli mission and stormed the embassy’s offices. Police fired shots in the air and teargas to disperse the crowd. Early on Saturday morning around 500 demonstrators remained near the embassy, which overlooks the Nile, and a few threw stones at police and army vehicles. But police gradually pushed them back and secured the area. An Israeli official said the rampage marked a further deterioration of diplomatic ties between Israel and Egypt since the fall of Mubarak. The Israeli ambassador, Yitzhak Levanon, his family and most of the staff and their dependents some 80 people were evacuated out of the country by military aircraft overnight, the official added. Only the deputy ambassador remains in Egypt. “That the government of Egypt ultimately acted to rescue our people is noteworthy and we are thankful,” the official said. “But what happened is a blow to the peaceful relations, and of course, a grave violation of accepted diplomatic behaviour between sovereign states.” The incident was the second major eruption of violence at the embassy since five Egyptian border guards were killed last month during an Israeli operation against gunmen. That incident prompted Egypt briefly to threaten to withdraw its envoy. “This action shows the state of anger and frustration the young Egyptian revolutionaries feel against Israel especially after the recent Israeli attacks on the Egyptian borders that led to the killing of Egyptian soldiers,” Egyptian political analyst Nabil Abdel Fattah said. Israel is already embroiled in a diplomatic feud with Turkey, formerly one of its closest allies, over Israel’s armed assault on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in which nine people were killed. Presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahy called for the army to take a “serious stance matching the public anger” towards Israel but said violence sullied the image of Egypt’s uprising. Last month a man climbed up a flagpole on the Israeli embassy and took down the flag, replacing it with the Egyptian flag. Protests continued until Friday’s violence. Egypt Middle East Israel Africa Arab and Middle East unrest David Batty guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …New Mediaroom clients to bring Microsoft’s TV platform everywhere this year
September 9, 2011 No Comment
The days of being tied to a traditional TV to watch your favorite shows is becoming less and less of a dream — at least for Mediaroom 2.0 users, like those who subscribe to AT&T U-Verse. It hasn’t even been a full year since Xbox 360 owners were first able to launch a U-Verse blade to watch TV, but it has been about nine months when we first heard rumors of Mediaroom clients for Windows Media Center (aka Monaco), Silverlight (aka Taos) and Windows Phone (aka Rome) would see the light of day. A recent post on William Zhang’s blog, a Microsoft employee, confirms the rumored code names in addition to giving us reason to believe those using Mediaroom 2.0 software might still realize the three screen dream by the end of 2011 after all. New Mediaroom clients to bring Microsoft’s TV platform everywhere this year originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Sep 2011 23:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Michael Stern Hart created the free online ebook library long before the advent of Kindle, Nook or iPhone Long before the Kindle, Nook or iPhone, there was Michael Stern Hart and his Project Gutenberg , a network of volunteers dedicated to providing free online access to as many books as they could. Hart, who is also considered the founder of the ebook, died Tuesday at his Illinois home, said Stephanie Gabel of Renner-Wikoff Chapel and Crematory. He was 64. Gabel did not know the cause of death. Hart was a student at the University of Illinois when he founded Project Gutenberg 40 years ago. He got started in 1971 by typing the text of the US Declaration of Independence into a computer network that he and about 100 others had access to. In an interview last year, he said the project, and partners it works with, had made more than 100,000 books available for free online. His obituary, posted on Project Gutenberg’s website , said Hart worked as an adjunct professor – someone who works without tenure and has to, effectively, be rehired every year. But in interviews over the years, he made clear the project was his life’s work and joy. “I get little notes in the email, saying, ‘Hey! I just [found] Project Gutenberg, and this is great stuff,’” Hart told WILL radio in Urbana in a 2003 interview. “You get people that [it] just tickles their fancy, and they just read and read and read, and they’re so happy about it.” Hart was born in Tacoma, Washington state, in 1947 and grew up in Urbana. He served in the US army before graduating from the university with a liberal arts degree. Books added to Project Gutenberg were initially typed by Hart and others for distribution. The project has sometimes been criticised for errors and typographical mistakes. But Hart said he just wanted to distribute as many books as possible. “This mission is, as much as possible, to encourage all those who are interested in making ebooks and helping to give them away,” Hart wrote on the project’s website. He later noted: “Project Gutenberg is not in the business of establishing standards.” Ebooks E-readers United States Libraries guardian.co.uk
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