Colbert PAC Launches First Ad Asking Iowa Voters to Support Rick ‘Parry’ in Ames Straw Poll
August 11, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media As Lawrence O’Donnell noted during his “Rewrite” segment during Wednesday night’s Last Word , everyone was wondering what Stephen Colbert would do once he launched his new super PAC. Well, this week we got our answer with the first ad from the PAC, asking Iowa voters to support Rick “Parry” in the Ames Straw Poll. Here’s more from The Hill — VIDEO: Colbert launches first super PAC ad : Comedian Stephen Colbert’s super PAC released its first ad , “Episode IV: A New Hope” paid for by Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow. The video takes aim at the money being spend to promote candiates before the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa. Rather than support any of the declared Republican candidates — or Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is expected to join the field — Colbert asks voters to write-in Rick Parry. That’s with an “A” for America and Iowa, the ad says. Colbert lampooned the Citizens United v. FEC decision on his show since the Supreme Court struck down campaign finance laws and allowed corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money on behalf of candidates. Colbert’s joke to form his own super PAC became a decision with real-life implications for campaign finance.
Continue reading …Colbert PAC Launches First Ad Asking Iowa Voters to Support Rick ‘Parry’ in Ames Straw Poll
August 11, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media As Lawrence O’Donnell noted during his “Rewrite” segment during Wednesday night’s Last Word , everyone was wondering what Stephen Colbert would do once he launched his new super PAC. Well, this week we got our answer with the first ad from the PAC, asking Iowa voters to support Rick “Parry” in the Ames Straw Poll. Here’s more from The Hill — VIDEO: Colbert launches first super PAC ad : Comedian Stephen Colbert’s super PAC released its first ad , “Episode IV: A New Hope” paid for by Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow. The video takes aim at the money being spend to promote candiates before the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa. Rather than support any of the declared Republican candidates — or Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is expected to join the field — Colbert asks voters to write-in Rick Parry. That’s with an “A” for America and Iowa, the ad says. Colbert lampooned the Citizens United v. FEC decision on his show since the Supreme Court struck down campaign finance laws and allowed corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money on behalf of candidates. Colbert’s joke to form his own super PAC became a decision with real-life implications for campaign finance.
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Mass protests expected in response to regime’s sustained crackdown as 10 people die in raids on Qusayr and Deir Ezzor Pro-democracy protesters in Syria pledged defiance on Thursday as security forces killed at least 10 more people in raids and repression continued, despite widespread international condemnation. Mass demonstrations are expected across the country on Friday – being called a day of “not kneeling” by organisers. The Facebook group The Syrian Revolution 2011 said in a defiant message on the internet: “We only kneel before God.” Seven died after tanks entered Qusayr, near the border with Lebanon, and three others in Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria – both incidents reported by the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Tanks and troop carriers were also seen moving into the town of Saraqeb in northwestern Idlib province bordering Turkey, it said. Activists used Twitter to describe a mass rally in Idlib, with calls for the overthrow of the Assad regime. There was no sign of a let-up in a security crackdown that started on the eve of Ramadan 11 days ago. The opposition Local Co-ordination Committees said it had counted 257 dead since then – one person killed every 50 minutes. The US has estimated that 2,000 people have been killed since the uprising began in March. Syrian state media sought to convey a very different impression, showing pictures of troops leaving Hama after “restoring order” in the third largest city. On Wednesday, security forces reportedly shot dead 18 people in the Baba Amro area of nearby Homs, where heavy machine gun fire was heard on Thursday. A video posted on YouTube , an important means of communication for the Syrian opposition, showed four local men lying dead or badly injured on a street. Others showed a man said to have been run over by a tank and two men with horrific injuries. Residents reported all communications with the city had been severed. In Qusayr, security forces and Shabiha militiamen were described as looting and destroying shops while mosques were closed and calls for prayer banned. The latest attacks came a week after the UN security council called for an “immediate” halt to the Syrian violence. The council was told in a briefing on Wednesday that there had been no decrease in the deaths of protesters. Diplomats from western countries warned that the council would have to consider “further action” if events did not improve. The US is poised to demand explicitly and unconditionally that President Bashar al-Assad leave power. US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and UN envoy Susan Rice have said that Assad has lost his legitimacy to rule, but Washington has so far resisted issuing a direct call for him to step down. US and British diplomats were looking at detailed reports of Wednesday’s talks in Damascus between Assad and the Turkish foreign minister, Ahmet Davotoglu, which lasted for nearly seven hours and covered many “substantive points” including the demand that Syrian security forces be withdrawn from cities. Ignoring international outrage, the Syrian leader has pledged a relentless battle against “terrorist groups” he says are fomenting a popular uprising. On Wednesday, Assad reportedly admitted that his security forces had made “some mistakes” in battling protests, during talks with the deputy foreign ministers of Brazil, India and South Africa, which have all opposed tougher UN action against Syria. Syria Middle East Protest Arab and Middle East unrest Bashar Al-Assad Ian Black guardian.co.uk
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News International faces civil action by Lib Dem MP whose voicemail messages Glenn Mulcaire admitted intercepting in earlier criminal case The Liberal Democrat MP, Simon Hughes, is to sue News International over phone hacking at the News of the World, he confirmed on Thursday. Hughes told the Evening Standard: “It is important now that all those who were clearly the subject of criminal activity help to get to the bottom of what happened during this dark period in British journalism.” Hughes’s decision to take legal action against Rupert Murdoch’s Sunday tabloid, which was closed last month, is significant because the private investigator employed by the paper has already been convicted of targeting his mobile phone. Glenn Mulcaire pleaded guilty to hacking into Hughes’s messages, along with those left on mobiles belonging to seven other people, in 2006. That means Mulcaire will be unable to resist complying with any court order Hughes obtains that requires the former investigator to say who asked him to intercept Hughes’s messages. In other cases currently going through the civil courts, Mulcaire’s legal team has successfully appealed against such orders by arguing that he would be incriminating himself if he were to comply with them by admitting his guilt. Mulcaire will not be able to mount the same argument when Hughes takes legal action, against News International subsidiary News Group Newspapers, because he pleaded guilty to hacking his phone five years ago. That could lead to more News of the World journalists being named. Three of the original eight victims named in the 2006 legal action have already sued the paper’s owner. Publicist Max Clifford received a £1m payout and Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the PFA, received a secret £700,000 sum in 2008 in a deal approved by James Murdoch. Football agent Sky Andrew is also pursuing legal action. He is one of the victims named in a court case scheduled to be heard early next year. It was Andrew’s court action that forced Mulcaire to name the News of the World’s former assistant editor (news) Ian Edmondson as the person who ordered him to hack into Andrew’s phone. That claim undermined the paper’s defence that hacking was the work of a “rogue reporter”. The paper was closed by James Murdoch last month after publishing for 168 years. On Wednesday night, his father Rupert Murdoch conceded during a press call with journalists and media analysts for News International parent company News Corporation’s annual results that the company had to “get to the bottom of” what happened at the title. “Were there a dozen guilty people or two dozen?” the News Corp chairman and chief executive said . Greg Miskiw, who on Thursday became the 12th person arrested by police officers investigating alleged phone hacking by the News of the World as part of the Metropolitan police’s Operation Weeting, has been released on bail. Miskiw held a senior editorial role at the now-defunct Sunday tabloid until 2005, when he joined a news agency in Manchester before moving to Florida. He told reporters last month that he was returning to the UK to meet police officers. • 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 . News of the World Simon Hughes News International Phone hacking Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers James Robinson guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Jay Carney vs Jay Carney: Attacked Bush’s 2001 ‘Heartland Tour,’ Defends Obama’s 2011 Midwest Job-Creation Tour
August 11, 2011 No CommentJay Carney, meet Jay Carney. In 2001, the then-Time magazine reporter wrote a snarky piece criticizing President George W. Bush's month-long vacation that was billed as a “Home to the Heartland” tour. But almost exactly 10 years later Carney, now the Obama White House's press secretary is defending President Barack Obama's Midwest job-creation tour and vacation at Martha's Vineyard. “I don't think Americans out there would begrudge that notion that the President would spend some time with his family,” claimed Carney at a recent press briefing. But that's exactly what he, as a private citizen working for Time, did in 2001 with a Republican in the White House, even though the unemployment rate the month before Obama's vacation (9.1 percent) was almost double what it was the month before Bush's (4.6 percent.) Referring to one stop in the tour where Bush assisted in building a trail at the Rocky Mountain National Park, Carney chided: “Bush didn't actually help build that trail so much as he posed for the cameras as he simulated the act of helping build the trail.” Fast forward to August 2011, when Carney complained “the air of cynicism is quite thick” in the briefing room after reporters questioned Obama's upcoming road trip, adding, “The idea that the President of the United States should not venture forth into the country is ridiculous.” Never mind that years earlier the former Time reporter lamented Bush's “cynical attempt” to shape public opinion with a cross-country bus tour. Obama recently promised he “will not rest” until the jobs issue is solved – right before announcing his month-long vacation to Martha's Vineyard. Tisk tisk, Mr. President. 2001 Jay Carney would not be pleased. (H/T Mark Levin Show) –Alex Fitzsimmons is a News Analysis intern at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
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Press Complaints Commission confirms magazine admitted digital alteration of bride image for 9 May royal wedding edition Grazia has admitted that it inadvertently slimmed down the waist of the Duchess of Cambridge by digitally altering a controversial cover picture of her in her Alexander McQueen wedding dress. In its 9 May edition the weekly fashion title published a photo of what appeared to be an impossibly thin looking bride standing alone from the day of the royal wedding, which reignited the debate over the presentation of the female form in women’s magazines. The Bauer Media-owned magazine has admitted that it did doctor the original image, of William and Kate leaving Westminster Cathedral after their wedding ceremony. In the process of removing her husband, the Duke of Cambridge, from the original photo and digitally reinstating Kate Middleton’s right arm – by using a mirror image of her left arm – to give the impression she was posing on her own, her waist was also reduced in size. After investigating a complaint that the image had been manipulated, the Press Complaints Commission said: “The magazine explained how the image had been altered to remove the arm of Prince William so that the duchess could be featured on the cover alone. “This involved mirroring one of the duchess’s arms and an inadvertent result of the change was the slimming of her waist.” In a statement Grazia said it had wanted “a great image of the duchess on her own, but all the photographs had the duke in too … so we asked our reproduction house to remove him from the picture (common practice among glossy magazines). This would have left the Duchess with only one arm, so they copied over her arm to complete the picture.” . Grazia said it “would like to reassure all our readers that we did not purposely make any alternations to the Duchess of Cambridge’s image to make her appear slimmer, and we are sorry if this process gave that impression”. The final image on the front cover shows the duchess with a sharper than normal synched waist and a disconnection between the bodice of the dress and the skirt on her right side, showing where the technicians had been at work. The Duchess of Cambridge is not the first to have her image electronically enhanced for a glossy magazine cover. Kate Winslet, an actor renowned for celebrating a normal figure has fallen victim to the airbrush on more than one occasion. In 2003, the editor of GQ admitted digitally lengthening and slimming her legs for a raunchy cover shoot in which she posed in a basque and high heels. Winslet protested that she “was pretty proud of how my legs actually looked in the real picture”. Last month L’Oréal was forced to pull adverts for foundation creams featuring Pretty Woman star Julia Roberts and supermodel Christy Turlington after admitting the images had been digitally retouched. Four years ago advertising watchdogs also criticised L’Oréal for a mascara advert in which Penélope Cruz wore false eyelashes. • 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 . Magazines The Duchess of Cambridge Press Complaints Commission Censorship Bauer Royal wedding Photography Women Alexander McQueen Fashion Lisa O’Carroll guardian.co.uk
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Sarah Palin and Rick Perry still not formally seeking presidential nomination, so Romney and Bachmann will vie for spotlight • In pictures: Republican contenders in Iowa The Republican race for the White House heats up over the next three days, beginning on Thursday night with a nationally televised debate where some contestants will be vying to become the frontrunner and others trying to avoid being knocked out. With eight declared candidates on stage, it is already a crowded field. But a lot of the focus in the hall will be on two absent Republicans: Texas governor Rick Perry, who is expected to announce on Saturday that he is planning to join the race, which is likely to see him move into first position; and Sarah Palin, who has not declared but will continue her tease of supporters with a visit to Iowa. The event at Iowa state university in Ames is the biggest of the presidential debates so far as Republicans battle it out to take on Barack Obama for the White House in 2012. Mitt Romney, who lost out to John McCain for the Republican nomination in 2008, is the current frontrunner nationwide, while congresswoman Michele Bachmann is, according to polls, the frontrunner in Iowa, where the first caucus is scheduled to be held in February. For other candidates such as businessman Herman Cain, former House speaker Newt Gingrich and former senator Rick Santorum, the debate may be a last chance to prevent their campaigns running out of financial backers and volunteers. The debate, sponsored by Fox News and the Washington Examiner, will see the debut of Jon Huntsman, former US ambassador to Beijing in the Obama administration. Huntsman has positioned himself more to the centre than others on the stage. He has failed to make any impression so far on the campaign. The debate comes two days before the Iowa straw poll. A good performance could help push a candidate into the top spot. “It puts so much pressure on these candidates to perform well,” Chuck Laudner, a former executive director of the Republican party of Iowa, told the Des Moines Register. “A bad performance has the real chance of sinking their straw poll numbers.” Romney failed to connect with voters in Iowa in 2008. He is not officially standing in the straw poll on Saturday, mainly because he knows he would lose it. Huntsman is not standing either for the same reason. It is a traditionally important election event in which campaign teams invest lots of money and energy; a piece of old-fashioned theatre in which candidates occupy tent space and are available for most of the day to the electorate. As an added attraction Bachmann is offering live music, provided by a country and western band. Laudner told the Des Moines Register the best strategy for those taking part in the debate would be to ignore Romney. “They’re speaking to the straw poll crowd and they’ve got him beat at the straw poll already,” he said. “If anybody they’d probably take a shot or two at Rick Perry.” The candidate under the most pressure in the debate is Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, who is basing his campaign on winning Iowa but has seen Bachmann pull ahead after a strong performance in the last debate in New Hampshire. Pawlenty was widely viewed as being too cautious in that debate, unwilling to take on Romney on issues such as health. Ron Paul, an outsider, commands a fervant band of supporters and is good at fundraising, both of which should ensure he does well in the straw poll. Although much time is devoted to the poll, past results have proved to be a poor indicator of the eventual winner in Iowa, never mind the eventual Republican nominee. Perry is scheduled to visit Iowa on Sunday after trips on Saturday to South Carolina and New Hampshire, other early voting states in the Republican nomination battle. Palin’s supporters in Iowa say they expect her to make an appearance on Friday at the Iowa state fair. She sent an email out on Wednesday that she would be heading to Iowa with her bus tour, which began on the East Coast in May. The next big debate is scheduled for September, in California, and Perry is likely to be in the race by then. Republican presidential nomination 2012 United States Republicans US elections 2012 US politics Sarah Palin Rick Perry Mitt Romney Ron Paul Michele Bachmann Tim Pawlenty Jon Huntsman Ewen MacAskill guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Sarah Palin and Rick Perry still not formally seeking presidential nomination, so Romney and Bachmann will vie for spotlight • In pictures: Republican contenders in Iowa The Republican race for the White House heats up over the next three days, beginning on Thursday night with a nationally televised debate where some contestants will be vying to become the frontrunner and others trying to avoid being knocked out. With eight declared candidates on stage, it is already a crowded field. But a lot of the focus in the hall will be on two absent Republicans: Texas governor Rick Perry, who is expected to announce on Saturday that he is planning to join the race, which is likely to see him move into first position; and Sarah Palin, who has not declared but will continue her tease of supporters with a visit to Iowa. The event at Iowa state university in Ames is the biggest of the presidential debates so far as Republicans battle it out to take on Barack Obama for the White House in 2012. Mitt Romney, who lost out to John McCain for the Republican nomination in 2008, is the current frontrunner nationwide, while congresswoman Michele Bachmann is, according to polls, the frontrunner in Iowa, where the first caucus is scheduled to be held in February. For other candidates such as businessman Herman Cain, former House speaker Newt Gingrich and former senator Rick Santorum, the debate may be a last chance to prevent their campaigns running out of financial backers and volunteers. The debate, sponsored by Fox News and the Washington Examiner, will see the debut of Jon Huntsman, former US ambassador to Beijing in the Obama administration. Huntsman has positioned himself more to the centre than others on the stage. He has failed to make any impression so far on the campaign. The debate comes two days before the Iowa straw poll. A good performance could help push a candidate into the top spot. “It puts so much pressure on these candidates to perform well,” Chuck Laudner, a former executive director of the Republican party of Iowa, told the Des Moines Register. “A bad performance has the real chance of sinking their straw poll numbers.” Romney failed to connect with voters in Iowa in 2008. He is not officially standing in the straw poll on Saturday, mainly because he knows he would lose it. Huntsman is not standing either for the same reason. It is a traditionally important election event in which campaign teams invest lots of money and energy; a piece of old-fashioned theatre in which candidates occupy tent space and are available for most of the day to the electorate. As an added attraction Bachmann is offering live music, provided by a country and western band. Laudner told the Des Moines Register the best strategy for those taking part in the debate would be to ignore Romney. “They’re speaking to the straw poll crowd and they’ve got him beat at the straw poll already,” he said. “If anybody they’d probably take a shot or two at Rick Perry.” The candidate under the most pressure in the debate is Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, who is basing his campaign on winning Iowa but has seen Bachmann pull ahead after a strong performance in the last debate in New Hampshire. Pawlenty was widely viewed as being too cautious in that debate, unwilling to take on Romney on issues such as health. Ron Paul, an outsider, commands a fervant band of supporters and is good at fundraising, both of which should ensure he does well in the straw poll. Although much time is devoted to the poll, past results have proved to be a poor indicator of the eventual winner in Iowa, never mind the eventual Republican nominee. Perry is scheduled to visit Iowa on Sunday after trips on Saturday to South Carolina and New Hampshire, other early voting states in the Republican nomination battle. Palin’s supporters in Iowa say they expect her to make an appearance on Friday at the Iowa state fair. She sent an email out on Wednesday that she would be heading to Iowa with her bus tour, which began on the East Coast in May. The next big debate is scheduled for September, in California, and Perry is likely to be in the race by then. Republican presidential nomination 2012 United States Republicans US elections 2012 US politics Sarah Palin Rick Perry Mitt Romney Ron Paul Michele Bachmann Tim Pawlenty Jon Huntsman Ewen MacAskill guardian.co.uk
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Mark Ciavarella Jr took $1m in bribes from the builder of two detention centres in return for filling them with juvenile offenders A long-serving judge has been ordered to spend nearly 30 years in prison for his role in a bribery scandal that prompted the state’s high court to overturn thousands of juvenile convictions. Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr was sentenced on Thursday to 28 years in prison for taking $1m (£617,000) in bribes from the builder of two juvenile detention centres in a case that became known as “kids-for-cash”. The Pennsylvania supreme court overturned about 4,000 convictions issued by Ciavarella between 2003 and 2008, saying he violated the constitutional rights of the juveniles, including the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea. Ciavarella, 61, was tried and convicted of racketeering charges earlier this year. His lawyers had asked for a “reasonable” sentence in court papers, saying, in effect, that he had already been punished enough. “The media attention to this matter has exceeded coverage given to many and almost all capital murders, and despite protestation, he will forever be unjustly branded as the ‘kids for cash’ judge,” they said. Federal prosecutors accused Ciavarella and a second judge, Michael Conahan, of taking more than $2m in bribes from the builder of the PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care detention centres and extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars from the facilities’ co-owner. Ciavarella, known for his harsh and autocratic courtroom demeanour, filled the beds of the private lockups with children as young as 10, many of them first-time offenders convicted of petty theft and other minor crimes. The judge remained defiant after his arrest, insisting the payments were legal and denying he incarcerated youths for money. The jury returned a mixed verdict following a February trial, convicting him on 12 counts, including racketeering and conspiracy, and acquitting him on 27 counts, including extortion. The guilty verdicts related to a payment of $997,600 from the builder. Conahan, meanwhile, pleaded guilty last year and awaits sentencing. Pennsylvania United States guardian.co.uk
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Tallinn police evacuate and cordon off building as news website reports shooter may have taken hostage There has been a shooting inside the Estonian defence ministry in central Tallinn, officials said. Spokesman Peeter Kuimet said there had been an “incident involving guns” inside the ministry and that police are on the scene. The government said all employees have evacuated the building and police have cordoned off the surrounding area. The Postimees, a leading daily paper and website in Estonia, is reporting the shooter may have taken a hostage inside the ministry. The Delfi news website reported from the scene that there had been shots approximately 20 minutes apart and that two people jumped through a window and ran away after the second shot. Hannes Kont, the director of press at the fefence ministry, told the Associated Press that the minister, Mart Laar, was not in the building when the shooting started. Estonia Europe guardian.co.uk
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