Chris Matthews Asks Panel Which GOP Presidential Candidate Might be a Great One and is Met With Crickets
July 17, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media On this weekend’s Chris Matthews Show, Matthews’ “Big Question” for the week was this: Of the Republicans running for president, which one offers the best chance of becoming, a great president? The response, mainly crickets by his panelists John Heilemann, Kelly O’Donnell, Gloria Borger. The only one willing to give him an answer was Joe Klein. His response of what Republican president might end up on Mount Rushmore — Barack Obama. That’s a pretty sad state of affairs with our current field of Republican candidates when all of them were not willing to say anything good about any of them. And someone should remind Joe Klein that to be an actual Republican these days and not the Villagers imaginary idea of what remains of the Republican Party, you have to be a bat shit crazy ideologue who’s not willing to negotiate with anyone on anything if you think there’s political gain in it and the public will fall for it. I’m not any happier than a lot of us with how far both parties have moved to the right and how money is corrupting our political process, but sorry Joe, the party that has run off the cliff with being insane should not have their label attached to our current president. I’d like for him to be further to the left like the rest of us, and as aggravated as I have gotten with what’s he’s been willing to concede to the other side and with validating a lot of their talking points, I would not wish having to navigate this current political climate he walked into and the Congress he’s been forced to deal with on my worst enemy. And today’s current Republican Party does not deserve to have anyone who is even half-way sane tagged with their label. They deserve to be called out for the zealots and TeaBirchers they are that have taken over their party.
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Rowan Williams dismisses George Pitcher following Tory protests over a controversial magazine article condemning coalition The archbishop of Canterbury has dismissed his spin doctor after just nine months following Tory protests over a controversial magazine article condemning the coalition. George Pitcher, an Anglican priest and former journalist, was hired last October as public affairs secretary at Lambeth Palace and engineered Rowan Williams’s stint as guest editor for the New Statesman last month which saw the archbishop launch a sustained attack on the coalition. His criticism, seen by Whitehall as the most outspoken by an archbishop in a decade, pitted him against the state and left Lambeth Palace officials scrambling to minimise the damage as Conservative politicians and peers berated the archbishop either through the media or through channels at the Church of England. Sunday, Lambeth Palace confirmed that Pitcher was leaving, but refused to say whether the New Statesmen stint had anything to do with his exit. “George was contracted to advise the archbishop on public affairs issues and that contract expires on 30 September, when he will have completed projects he was asked to undertake.” When approached by the Guardian about his departure Pitcher said: “I am returning to journalism, a culture to which I am better suited.” In the two-page editorial entitled “The government needs to know how afraid people are”, Williams said the coalition was facing “bafflement and indignation” over its planned health and education reforms. “With remarkable speed, we are being committed to radical, long-term policies for which no one voted,” he wrote. David Cameron rejected such assertions, saying he disagreed with Williams. “I’ve never been one to say the church has to fight shy of making political interventions, but what I would say is that I profoundly disagree with many of the views that he’s expressed, particularly on issues like debt and on welfare and education.” He added: “I am absolutely convinced that our policies are about actually giving people greater responsibility and greater chances in their life and I will defend those very vigorously.” Rowan Williams Religion Liberal-Conservative coalition Riazat Butt guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media As we reported earlier, Rebekah Brooks had resigned from News International just the other day. Things just got much worse for the former News of The Day editor. Rebekah Brooks has been arrested by police investigating allegations of phone hacking by the News of the World and allegations that police officers were bribed to leak sensitive information. The Metropolitan police said a 43-year-old woman was arrested at noon on Sunday, by appointment at a London police station. Brooks, 43, resigned on Friday as News International’s chief executive. She is a former News of the World editor and was close to Rupert Murdoch and the prime minister, David Cameron. A spokesman for Brooks said she did not know she was going to be arrested when she handed in her resignation. Brooks was taken into custody at midday on Sunday, after agreeing to attend a London police station for questioning. Her spokesman, Bell Pottinger chairman David Wilson, said she did not know she was to meet with police until late on Friday, and that she did not know the appointment would result in her arrest. The News International chief executive announced her immediate departure from the company on Friday morning. She had agreed to give evidence this coming Tuesday to the culture select committee’s inquiry into allegations of phone-hacking at the News of the World. Her lawyers are currently in discussion with the committee about whether she should attend. Wilson said: “It’s left Rebekah in a very difficult position and has left the committee in a very difficult position”. The BBC is reporting that the timing of the arrest undermines what the MP’s can ask her at the committee: Liberal Democrat MP Adrian Sanders, a member of the select committee, questioned the timing of the latest arrest. “In whose interest was it for this arrest to take place before Tuesday? Because if it does impede what we can ask, that’s not going to go down well with my fellow committee members. “Quite why now, just a few hours before our select committee meets, an arrangement has been made for an arrest. A lot of people are going to think this is very, very odd. “If this is designed to take the spotlight off the police at the same time giving a shield to Rebekah Brooks, that’s a very serious matter indeed. We don’t know how much this is going to impede our questioning until we’ve been able to sit down and talk it through with the parliamentary counsel.” Another member of the select committee, Labour MP Jim Sheridan, said he hoped her arrest would not affect her appearance before MPs. “The police will do whatever it is they feel necessary to do, and if they feel it’s necessary to arrest Rebekah Brooks at this time, then so be it. “I don’t buy into the conspiracy theories that the police are doing something underhand. I think it’s just that if they feel it necessary, then so be it. Their inquiry, it’s far, far more important than any other inquiry.” Labour MP Chris Bryant, who believes his phone was hacked, also has concerns about the timing of the arrest. Either way there’s serious pressure being applied to Rupert Murdoch and his empire.
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Click here to view this media Ali Velshi grilled anti-tax zealot Grover Norquist about his responsibility for Republicans being completely inflexible on raising taxes today on CNN’s Your Money, and you can read the transcript of that back and forth here , but it was the segments preceding and following that interview and David Gergen’s comments that had me irked after watching this. Norquist was painted as an extremist and a rigid ideologue, but what did we get for analysis surrounding that? David Gergen repeating one right-wing talking point after another on the “bloated welfare state” and how wonderful austerity measures will be for our economy and making excuses for these House Republicans playing hostage with raising the debt ceiling even as he admits he’s not quite sure if they’re insane enough to wreck our economy on purpose. David Gergen can always be counted on for some right-wing turd polishing and for helping to move that Overton window to the right. We need to be having some honest discussions about how to get our economy back on track and Americans back to work, but in our corporate media those discussions never include fixing our trade laws or not rewarding companies for shipping jobs overseas and instead we’re being told that these politicians are somehow “principled” because they believe in myths and trickle-down economics. Sorry Gergen but I think it’s perfectly fair to villainize them when they’re doing things that harm Americans and our economy and doing them on purpose. VELSHI: David, you have been in the White House. You understand how people think. Why are some people so concerned, particularly those who are concerned with scoring political points — why is it this fealty to lower taxes overtaking the idea that this actually could have broader and more devastating effect, to not raise this credit limit? GERGEN: Well, I think, ultimately, the Republicans — at least I hope — will agree to go and lift the debt ceiling. Certainly, Speaker McConnell (SIC) has agreed to that. Certainly — I mean, Speaker Boehner has certainly. Mitch McConnell has over on the Senate side. But there is a strong sentiment among Republicans that the cuts that are on the table now are illusory, that there are some gimmicks in there, that just as we saw at the end of last year, we had this announcement about great, big budget cuts — when you really broke it right down, it didn’t turn out to be very much. VELSHI: Right. GERGEN: You remember that. Turned out to be peanuts. There’s a strong feeling that what they’re being asked to do is to agree to cuts that are not actually — that are actually quite modest, and then increase taxes, and in effect, to pay for the welfare state, a bloated welfare state. And they would like to shrink the size of the welfare state. This is ultimately a conversation, a debate, a debate, you know, a food fight over how big the American government should be. And you know, that’s why they’re not — that’s why they’re not doing it. But I — the question becomes — I cannot believe, at the end of the day, House Republicans will be so recalcitrant that they’ll take us into default. It just — I — I — that would be so much beyond what I think we’ve ever experienced, Ali, knowing we’re on the edge of Niagara Falls, knowing we’re on the edge of a precipice, I can’t believe they’ll take us over. VELSHI: You would think so and you would hope so. I don’t know. VELSHI: David, Grover Norquist is remarkably committed to what he’s talking about. But he — there is a problem here. There’s an underlying problem that politicians in America cannot do something that risks their seat because their voters won’t let them. And pledges like this contribute to a great deal of inflexibility in Washington. GERGEN: Well, Ali, listen, let me put my cards on the table. And Grover knows this. I have supported the Simpson-Bowles plan all along. I do believe that taxes need to go up as part of an effort — overall effort to get the deficits under control. But you know, in fairness, you know, Grover does have a point. And Simpson-Bowles itself said — it wasn’t one-to-one, a tax increase versus $1 in spending cuts, it was two-to-one in spending cuts versus tax increases. The Simpson-Bowles commission recognized that the — more central than taxes is the question of how much we’re now spending. We’ve taken the level of spending in this country from about 20 percent of GDP at the federal level up, as you well know, to 24 to 25 percent over the last two years, another year in sight for 25 percent. And what Republicans are saying is you got to sweat that down. And I believe that taxes ought to go up as part of this package, but I think it’s unfair to villainize the Republicans when, in fact, there is a very real possibility that the Senate will present a plan which will have $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion dollars in cuts and no tax increases, and that’s what the president is ultimately going to accept, and that may be where we come out at the end of the day. VELSHI: The problem — GERGEN: I just — I think — VELSHI: The issue is more political, David. GERGEN: I think to say that default versus tax increases is — is — it misstates the problem somewhat. VELSHI: Yes, well, I’m not sure why the two are in the same discussion. I would have really preferred that they deal with the debt ceiling, and they deal with spending and taxing entirely separately. But we’re not in that position, David. The reality is, in part because of people like Grover Norquist, we’re not in that position. A lot of people who otherwise would vote for an increase in the debt ceiling can’t do so because they are not in a position to compromise. GERGEN: Well, yes and no. I — it comes back, Ali, to what people fundamentally believe is the problem. And Republicans fundamentally believe that this underlying problem is we’ve allowed spending to go higher and higher, and they don’t want to raise taxes to pay for that. They would rather see it shrink down. The Democrats — I — you know, who — and I’m not trying to villainize Democrats, either. I think that they come from a very sincere place of really wanting to provide a stronger social safety net. They want to provide, you know, far more services to the country. And they believe that the rich ought to pay a lot more to get there to — to get there. VELSHI: Diane Swonk, is there any way to reduce our debt, to get into a situation where our deficits are not as big in a meaningful way to the tune of $2.4 trillion that we’re talking about without increasing some taxes? SWONK: Oh, there’s a way to do it. It’s whether or not that’s really going to be politically acceptable to the American public. The kind of pain that that would induce — and I agree completely with David on this one. The kind of pain that that would induce is not something that we’re really ready to swallow. There’s a balance in this country between spending and tax cuts. And it is more. We do need to cut spending more than raise taxes. VELSHI: David Gergen, thanks very much. David Gergen is CNN’s senior political analyst. Diane Swonk is a chief economist with Mesirow Financial.
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Israelis complain they are being forced to move to the suburbs as the prime minister promises to look into the rent crisis Dozens of protest tents have been erected in Tel Aviv, with plans for further encampments in other Israeli towns and cities. But the nascent protest movement is not about democracy or dictators – but house prices. In an echo of the tactics of pro-democracy protesters in the region, students and young workers in Israel’s main city have pledged to remain in the protest tents until action has been taken to address the issue of high housing costs. Hundreds of supporters joined the core of tent-dwellers in Rothschild Avenue, one of the city’s most prosperous streets, over the weekend. The National Students’ Union, which joined the protest after it began, said it would pitch further protest camps in universities and colleges around the country. Protesters told the Israeli media that rents were too high and that the cost of buying homes was prohibitive. “I work as a waitress and study, I receive regular help from my parents, and I’m still overdrawn at the bank,” 26-year-old student Lior Birger told Yedioth Ahranoth. Her rent was 2,300 shekels (£416) a month. Nir Ginosar, 35, said he, his wife and child were forced to leave Tel Aviv for cheaper housing in the suburbs. “Both I and my wife work and earn a decent living, but without help from our parents we’ll never get to buy a home. Our struggle is for working folks who simply can’t make ends meet.” The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, promised Sunday’s cabinet meeting that the government would address the protesters’ concerns. “I am aware of the rent crisis,” he said. “I am certainly aware of the housing crisis … We are a small country. We have a very large demand for apartments, both for purchase and for rental, and there are not enough apartments.” He said the government would tackle the “insane bureaucracies” that were to blame for the dearth of new construction. Demand for housing is high in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other main cities where most employment is concentrated. The shortage of property is exacerbated by a large number of homes owned by American and European Jews who visit Israel two or three times a year. In some areas, the burgeoning ultra-orthodox community has added to the pressure on housing stock. Ultra-orthodox families are large; having eight or nine children is not uncommon. The Israeli authorities say there is plenty of available housing outside the main cities, and financial incentives are offered to those willing to relocate. Housing minister Ariel Attias told Ma’ariv newspaper: “These people sitting in tents here in Tel Aviv don’t want to live in the periphery. The fact of the matter is that there is only a shortage in areas of high demand. Another fact is that there are plenty of apartments available at much lower prices [outside Tel Aviv]. The world does not begin and end in Tel Aviv.” The city authorities said they would permit the protest tents to remain as long as demonstrators maintained public order. Israel Protest House prices Binyamin Netanyahu Middle East Harriet Sherwood guardian.co.uk
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• Email scott.murray@guardian.co.uk for HOT GOLF CHAT • Marvel at Paul Lawrie’s hole-by-hole guide to Sandwich • Click here for the official Open 2011 leaderboard • Acquaint yourself with The Joy of Six: Open nightmares • Purchase, for pennies, the tale of the Open’s most useless hero 1.15pm: Sergio’s roll continues! He birdies 7 after sending a beautiful second shot pin high to 20 feet. His eagle effort is wonderful, but stops two blades of grass short on the right-hand lip. He tickles it in for birdie; he’s level par for the tournament! But dreadful luck for his playing partner Rory McIlroy, who addresses his ball to hit his birdie effort, only for it to be moved six inches by the wind. Because he’d grounded his putter, that’s a one-stroke penalty. He misses what becomes a par putt, and walks off the green with a six, sporting a wry grin. 1.05pm: It’s been another distressing day for the young Korean player Jung-Gon Hwang. The 19-year-old prospect was three shots off the lead after the first round, having shot a 68, and was still in the thick of it on +2 after day two. But he suffered in the storms yesterday, shooting an 83, and today experienced further sensations of unhappiness and tumult, carding four double bogeys – three of them on the bounce over the front nine – on his way to a nine-over 79. He’s finished the tournament in last place, needless to say, a whopping +24. Small mercies, though: he hasn’t shot the worst round of the day. At the moment, the American Harrison Frazar holds that unwanted record, having carded an 80. England’s Kenneth Ferrie and Sweden’s Henrik Stenson could equal that or do even worse: they’re respectively +10 and +9 for the day, after 16 and 15 holes. 1pm leaderboard: +1 Garcia (6) Selected other scores: -5 Clarke (2.10pm) -4 Johnson (2.10pm) -2 Fowler (2pm) Bjorn (2pm) -1 Jimenez (1.50pm) Glover (1.50pm) Par Kim (1.40pm) Mickelson (1.40pm) Hansen (1.30pm) Coetzee (1.30pm) Love III (1.20pm) Kaymer (1.20pm) 12.57pm: Garcia keeps the momentum going by knocking in his par putt! Brilliant! He’s -3 through 6, and +1 for the tournament, with the very inviting par-five 7th coming up. 12.55pm: Brilliance from Garcia, who spashes out from that deep bunker, right across the green to six feet. He’s got a chance to save par, though you can’t trust him with that putter. Meanwhile here’s what I’ll be watching on repeat once this is all over. “I don’t know if you’ve mentioned the Golf Boys Making of… video,” writes Gary ‘Monty’ Naylor, “but it’s very Spinal Tap.” “This would maybe work for you. Give you the image of hair.” 12.50pm: A huge par putt on 8 keeps Tom Lewis at +3. He’s been wonderful this week, and not just because of that opening-day 65 either. Meanwhile on 6, it begins: Sergio overhits a fade with his tee shot and plops his ball into a deep greenside bunker. A moment of genius is required here, because he’s got no room for error, having started nine shots off the lead. BAH, basically. 12.45pm: It’s now raining at Sandwich. Nothing tempestuous, just a good honest shower. On 5, Garcia taps in his short birdie putt, and he’s now only +1, six off the lead! Keep it up, Sergio, please. Please. He won’t keep it up, will he? I’m not falling into this trap again. 12.40pm: The wind is really getting up at Royal St George’s, so much so that balls have been gently oscillating on the greens. It’s not stopping Tom Watson, though, who is this close to rolling in a 25-footer for birdie on 3. Meanwhile SERGIO NEWS: on 5, he nearly holes his second, a short wedge that rolls an inch past the cup on the left and rests 18 inches away. He couldn’t, could he? Please. This is going to really annoy me when the wheels come off, as they surely will. “I’m going for Kaymer on penalties – sorry, in a play-off,” writes Gary Naylor, dipping into his Big Tome of Cheap But Amusing National Stereotypes (Guardian Books, 1986) . “And less of Monty being old – he’s younger than me!” And yet still way past his peak, Naylor, not as good as he used to be. But don’t feel too bad about it; at least you’re still making a small contribution to this year’s Open. 12.35pm: The amateur hero of the week, Tom Lewis, has just rolled a 50-foot eagle effort home on 7. He’s now -3, and four strokes ahead of his rival for the silver medal, the US amateur Peter Uihlein. Some more admin before we continue. This is the leaderboard as it stood at the end of the third round, and as it stands now. -5 Clarke (2.10pm) -4 Johnson (2.10pm) -2 Fowler (2pm) Bjorn (2pm) -1 Jimenez (1.50pm) Glover (1.50pm) Par Kim (1.40pm) Mickelson (1.40pm) Hansen (1.30pm) Coetzee (1.30pm) Love III (1.20pm) Kaymer (1.20pm) 12.30pm: A birdie for the Masters champion Charl Schwartzel on the 1st. Meanwhile SERGIO HAS JUST DRAINED AN 80-FOOTER FOR BIRDIE ON 3. A huge left-to-right break, judged perfectly! Good lord. He punches the air with his fist. The putt of the week? Along with Clarke’s eagle effort on 7 on Friday, yes. He’s +2 now, and on the move! Let me reiterate, because I’ll probably never have the chance to write this again: Sergio Garcia has just hit the putt of the week. McIlroy double bogeys the hole to drop back to +5, but let’s not take the wind out of our own sails here. 12.20pm: And we begin with early moves we like: Rory and Sergio have both birdied the 2nd to move to +3. “Am I correct in understanding that the planets aligned to give us Sergio and Rory paired up on the last day of The Open?” begins the extremely correct Ed Ed. “What’s the largest deficit ever made up to win an Open? If it’s fewer than 9 strokes, get ready for a run at a new record. Oh oh oh…..don’t know how I’ll be able to sit still through the front nine.” Paul Lawrie was ten shots behind Jean van de Velde going into the final day of the 1999 Open at Carnoustie. So in theory it’s on. You’d have to say they’re too far back, but let’s not be ruling anything out just yet. Right. Here we go… The weather: Blustery. Anything could happen, basically. I could have saved myself a lot of time and just posted that. Problem is, of course, there are some damn fine young golfers battling him for the prize. Clarke’s leading the field on -5, but the excellent if fragile Dustin Johnson is only one shot behind him at -4. Tucked in behind the leading duo, alongside Bjorn at -2, is the brilliant Rickie Fowler. Martin Kaymer, with one major already to his name, might have got his bad round out of the way yesterday, and is lurking on level par, alongside Anthony Kim, who has yet to deliver on his immense promise but has been quietly efficient all week. And then there’s Brian Wilson Lucas Glover, George Coetzee, Anders Hansen, Adam Scott, Zach Johnson, Chad Campbell… Or perhaps this is finally the moment for Thomas Bjorn, who threw away the 2003 Open here at Sandwich in a bunker at the 16th. Or is it the day of destiny for Cohiba-sucking horizontal Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez? Or – let’s not get too Eurocentric about this – perhaps the immensely likeable Phil Mickelson will finally put one of his trademark last-day charges together at a tournament he rarely features heavily in. Davis Love III? Tom Lehman? Tom Watson? A story, please. Give us a story. For the love of the golfing Gods, will one of you old buggers go out there and win it for us? “You know, maybe we’re just not good enough people to have a story this good happen to us.” So said legendary Sports Illustrated writer Dan Jenkins in the immediate aftermath of Tom Watson’s heartbreaking failure to win the 2009 Open at Turnberry as a 59 year old. Well, I hope you’ve all been well-behaved little girls and boys since then. Because Watson’s heroic near miss was the third in a triptych of toks to the teeth, following Colin Montgomerie’s fruitless pursuit of Tiger Woods at St Andrews in 2005 and Greg Norman’s brave attempts at Birkdale in 2008. We’re due one. Darren Clarke, 42 years old and full of steak and fine wines, step forward because this could be your time. The Open 2011 Golf The Open Scott Murray guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Northern Ireland police ombudsman in call for clerical child abuse investigation
July 17, 2011 No Comment
Lady O’Loan calls for an independent investigation across Ireland following the Cloyne report into abuse by priests Northern Ireland’s first police ombudsman and one of its most prominent Catholics has called for an island-wide independent investigation into clerical child abuse. Lady O’Loan’s call comes in the aftermath of the Cloyne report into priests who sexually abused children in the Co Cork diocese. The Archbishop of Cloyne, Dr Dermot Clifford, issued a written apology on Sunday to all victims of abuse which was read out at masses across the diocese. The report concluded that abuse allegations against priests in Cloyne had not been properly handled by the former bishop John Magee, who was a confidante to three popes when he worked for the Vatican in Rome. O’Loan told Radio Ulster this morning that children’s safety came before the cost of any such investigation. “I think what we need is an independent investigation system which would operate across the island of Ireland which would be funded by the bishops. It would be expensive but it would not be nearly as expensive as having children being abused.” O’Loan headed a number of highly controversial reports into the behaviour of police in Northern Ireland including a critical examination of how the Royal Ulster Constabulary mishandled the Omagh bomb inquiry – the single biggest atrocity of the Troubles. Her demand carries weight as O’Loan is a devout Catholic and a leading lay figure in the church in Northern Ireland. The letter from Clifford highlights “the consistent failure” to report allegations of abuse to gardaí and the health authorities. It was revealed that the Vatican backed the diocese in ignoring the Irish church’s own guidelines on child protection. Clifford’s letter tells the people of Cloyne that they are entitled to expect that all abuse complaints will be handled according to official church guidelines and he is truly sorry that this has not always been the case. Northern Ireland Catholicism Child protection Ireland Christianity Europe Henry McDonald guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …WaPo Seeks Out Hustler Porn Emperor Larry Flynt to Lecture Murdoch on Media Ethics
July 17, 2011 No Comment
The Washington Post can really pick them when selecting a guest lecturer to Rupert Murdoch on media ethics: pornographer Larry Flynt. In a Sunday Outlook section article is the headline “ The people vs. Rupert Murdoch : Hustler magazine founder Larry Flynt says his fellow media mogul has gone too far.” Yes, somehow, Larry Flynt gets to pose as The People. Flynt lectured at Murdoch: “One cannot live off the liberty and benefits of a free press while ignoring the privacy of the people. People such as Murdoch and I, as heads of publishing conglomerates, have a responsibility to maintain and respect this boundary.” The Post editors clearly enjoy the notion that Larry Flynt oozes on a higher plane than Murdoch in the media world. This sentence sticks out in the piece: “Meanwhile, Roger Ailes, chief of Murdoch's Fox News, runs a well-oiled propaganda machine.” After all, to the WashPost elite, pornography is just harmless fun, while Fox News is ruining democracy and civil discourse. This would be Flynt’s summary paragraph: I test limits by publishing controversial material and paying people who are willing to step forward and expose political hypocrisy. Murdoch's minions, on the other hand, pushed limits by allegedly engaging in unethical or criminal activity: phone hacking, bribery, coercing criminal behavior and betraying the trust of their readership. If News Corp.'s reported wrongdoings are true, what Murdoch's company has been up to does not just brush against boundaries – it blows right past them. But some of the reported wrongdoings of the Murdoch papers have already been debunked. The leftist paper The Guardian has run a correction and apologized to The Sun, one of Murdoch's British tabloids, for reporting that The Sun had obtained medical records for ex-prime minister Gordon Brown's son. After the Guardian's story this week, The Sun denied the report and obtained an affidavit from its source, a member of the public whose son also suffered from cystic fibrosis. The correction ran on page 36 – not exactly where the original story ran. That story broke on Friday, but apparently the Post is too lazy (even online) to correct Flynt from charging: “News Corp. employees allegedly hired known criminals to obtain private information about former British prime minister Gordon Brown when his infant son was given a diagnosis of cystic fibrosis.” Flynt is especially ridiculous while he proclaims great respect for the right to privacy, which usually means the right to page through his skeezy parade of female sexploitation. Flynt knows he has violated the privacy of conservative politicians, but he believes that if your public conservatism gets in the way of fun-loving Flynt-style politicians like Bill Clinton, then your privacy rights are terminated: I do not create sensationalism at the expense of people living private lives. Yes, I have offered money to those willing to expose hypocritical politicians — one of those offers, in 1998, resulted in the resignation of Bob Livingston, a Republican congressman from Louisiana who voted to impeach President Bill Clinton despite his own extramarital affairs. I focus not on those who are innocent, but rather on those who practice the opposite of what they very publicly preach. This may be considered an extreme or controversial practice in getting a story, but it is far from criminal. Flynt concluded: “Members of the news media walk a fine line between fully leveraging freedom of the press and respecting their responsibilities to the public. It is a difficult balancing act. Murdoch seems to have fallen off the tightrope. Let’s just hope he doesn’t take all of us down with him.” Shame on The Washington Post for this tabloidish turn. They really couldn’t help their liberal Fox-hating selves on this low road.
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Mount Lokon on Sulawesi island shoots hot ash and debris 3,500 metres into the air, sending villagers racing to shelters A volatile volcano in central Indonesia has unleashed its most powerful eruption yet, spewing hot ash and smoke thousands of metres into the air and sending panicked villagers racing back to emergency shelters. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Mount Lokon, located on northern Sulawesi island, has been dormant for years but rumbled back to life late last week. A series of overnight blasts on Thursday and Friday claimed one life – a woman who suffered a heart attack as she fled. But Surono, a government volcanologist who uses only one name, said Sunday’s eruption at 10.35am has released the greatest amount of energy so far, shooting soot and debris 3,500 metres into the sky. “We’re hoping this helped ease pressure building up behind the magma dome and that we’ll now start seeing a reduction in activity,” he said. “But it’s too early to know.” More than 33,000 people live along the slopes of Mount Lokon, taking advantage of fertile soil to grow cloves and coffee. About 5,000 of them with homes nearest to the crater have been relocated in recent days to schools, mosques and other makeshift shelters near the base. Despite warnings that the mountain was still not safe, some had returned early on Sunday to tend to their crops and their livestock. The powerful explosion sent them racing back down the slopes, some jumping into cars and motorcycles, others rounded up by soldiers and police and escorted down in trucks. “It was huge,” said Henny Lalawi, who works as a picker for a coffee plantation. “It sounded like a bomb and then I saw the crater burst, sending ash high into the air. It was pretty awesome, really.” She said she’ll have to go back when things settle down. “It’s only ash, after all, and I need the work.” Mount Lokon is one of about 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia. Its last major eruption in 1991 killed a Swiss hiker and forced thousands of people to flee their homes. Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 240 million people, is prone to earthquakes and volcanoes because it sits along the “Ring of Fire”, a horseshoe-shaped string of faults that lines the Pacific Ocean. Indonesia Natural disasters and extreme weather guardian.co.uk
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enlarge Credit: FDR Library FDR – that small and well-upholstered minority who didn’t want to pay for a civilized society. Click here to view this media In keeping with our current preoccupation with taxes, the deficit and spending, I thought I would run an address President Franklin Roosevelt gave while campaigning for re-election in 1936. Seems the subject of taxes has been with us for a very-very long time. And it also seems the ones doing the most complaining haven’t changed very much in the past 200 or so years. Comforting, I suppose. But you’d think by now it would get a little tired. In 1936 though, FDR had a few choice words nestled in what has become a timeless address. President Roosevelt : “In 1776 the fight was for Democracy in Taxation. In 1936 there is still the fight. Mister Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said ‘taxes are the prices we pay for civilized society’. One sure way to determine the social conscience of a government is to examine the way taxes are collected and how they are spent. And one sure way to determine the social conscience of an individual is to get his tax reaction. Taxes, after all are the dues we pay for the privilege of membership in an organized society. And as society becomes more civilized government, national and state and local, is called on to assume more obligations to its citizens. The privileges of membership in a civilized society are vastly increased in modern times. But I am afraid we still have many who still do not recognize their advantages and want to avoid paying their dues.” Tax breaks for the wealthy were a concept well in place by the time Hoover was President. FDR : “To divide fairly among the people the obligation to pay for these benefits has been a major part of our struggle to maintain Democracy in America. Ever since 1776, that struggle has been between two forces; on the one hand there has been a vast majority of citizens who believe the benefits of democracy should be extended and who are willing to pay their fair share to extend them. And on the other hand, there has been a small but powerful group which has fought the extension of these benefits because they did not want to pay a fair share of their cost. That was the lineup in seventeen hundred and seventy-six and it’s the lineup today. And I am confident that once more, in nineteen thirty-six democracy in taxation will win. Here is my principle, and I think it’s yours too; Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle.” So hearing this now and knowing it was from the dim-distant past of 1936, it makes the current situation and posturing that much more absurd. Unfortunately if it were only absurd it would be laughed off. But it has become deadly serious business in the ensuing years. And I keep reminding myself that Fair is a place in Pomona California where people get together once a year and show cows.
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