Chris Matthews Asks if Michele Bachmann is in Tune With the Republican Base
July 10, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media After showing a number of clips in the run up to the next segment where Michele Bachmann clearly showed she didn’t have a lot of use for either facts or concern for flame throwing, the panel on The Chris Matthews Show pondered whether the now very “serious” and now “disciplined” Michele Bachmann somehow has her finger on the pulse of the Republican electorate in America. What was amazing to me is that even after showing how off the cliff Bachmann is and that there is no way in hell she should be elected to lead this country, they pretty much calmly discussed how the Republican Party has gone off the rails, and without explaining just how dangerous someone like Bachmann would be should the American public actually turn out to be insane enough to elect her, and pondered whether Bachmann now represents the heart of the Republican Party. I never thought I’d live see the day when our beltway Villagers were seriously discussing Michele Bachmann’s potential road to the presidential nomination, but here we are. MATTHEWS: Andrea, I hear something there that’s powerful. It’s connecting the regular people, the base of the country, the regular people and their sense of conservative history, their conservative view of history. MITCHELL: I think you’re actually right and there’s a new PEW poll which says that people do not want to see their Medicare, Social Security, I mean, not surprisingly, they don’t want to see their benefits cut, they don’t want to see taxe increases. The majority of people in this country are not willing to do the things that John Boehner is now prepared apparently to do, that the President wants us to do, that leadership, arguably needs to do in order to get past this crisis. Michele Bachmann really has her finger on that pulse. She’s put up a new ad, her first ad in Iowa, which said I will not vote for a debt ceiling. MATTHEWS: No matter what’s on it. MITCHELL: Exactly. And even if it has all of the cuts that the Republicans want. So she is taking it one step farther and I think that she is really in tune with the majority of the people, whether they understand the facts or not. MATTHEWS: Okay, that’s Iowa, the religious right and she may be perfectly, you know… perfect pitch, will that sell across the Republican base of the country? Can she compete for the nomination right to the end? PAGE: I don’t think so. She has all of the vulnerabilities of Barry Goldwater who got the nomination back in ’64… MATTHEWS: But he won the nomination. PAGE: But he did because at that time the moderates were weak and they’re weak now. That’s her best shot because it’s a shrunken party from what it used to be. But I think because of recent events a lot of the Republican moderates, the David Brooks type are going to be the ones to stand up and call a halt, but after South Carolina. MATTHEWS: I wonder whether the cerebral writers like George Will and David Brooks, great people, are not really in tune with that base out there, is she? WOODWARD: Well, that’s right and this could be a flash in the pan and remember Mike Huckabee won the Iowa primary in 2008, Buchanan won the New Hampshire primary in 1996. So we’ll just have to see, but I would go the conventional wisdom route on this. I think this all helps Romney. There’s lots of debate. There’s lots of pie throwing. She probably won’t go in the history books. But again, you never know in American politics… MATTHEWS: Jamie there’s some spark there I hear. She seems to have the perfect pitch for some people in the country. TARABAY: Well I think… I think there’s something interesting about the fact that she’s so categorical about it. She’s yes or no. And for a lot of back and forth that we see in Washington, I think that must be very refreshing. MATTHEWS: I think the purity tests that she passes, they’re so crystal clear, I think there’s a potential that there’s been tectonic shifts in the Republican Party over the years, that places her more in the center of the real Republican heart than Mitt Romney, who I think still is seen as a moderate, and that party is not run by moderates. MITCHELL: Well, it’s the calendar that’s in her favor. If you look at Iowa, to a certain extent New Hampshire, perhaps less though, but certainly South Carolina and then you go down to Florida. She’s got that geography and calender in her favor.
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Socialist hopeful in French election threatens legal action over rumours and allegations her husband is Islamist Martine Aubry, a challenger for the Socialist ticket in next year’s French presidential election, has threatened legal action over allegations that her husband is an Islamist and denounced rumours that she has suffered from alcoholism. Politicians on the left have long warned that the 2012 French presidential race risked descending into a battle of personal smear campaigns. Charges of attempted rape against the former Socialist frontrunner Dominique Strauss-Kahn in New York and a new legal complaint over an alleged attempted rape in France, as well as stories on his wealth and pursuit of women, have intensified the scrutiny of presidential hopefuls. Aubry, the Socialist leader and mayor of Lille, threatened to sue websites which did not remove references to her husband, the lawyer Jean-Louis Brochen, as an “Islamist” or “Salafist”. In 1993, before France’s law banning religious symbols in schools, Brochen defended schoolgirls threatened with exclusion for wearing headscarves and a Jewish boy who wore a skull cap. Brochen, a staunch secularist, has said it was a lawyer’s role to defend all sorts of cases. The Journal du Dimanche reported that Aubry made telephone warnings to people she suspected of slandering her husband or spreading rumours that she had fought alcoholism or suffered health problems. These included a former minister under Jacques Chirac and a senior figure at the Elysée. The paper said one former government minister had said in private, without producing proof, that Aubry had undergone two detox treatments for alcohol use in a clinic in the south of France. Socialists suspect the Elysée and Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling rightwing UMP party of stoking gossip against Aubry. This charge was rejected outright by Nadine Morano, minister for learning and vocational training, who said Aubry was portraying herself as a victim to detract from the shortcomings of the Socialist campaign. In recent days, Aubry has repeatedly dismissed the rumours. Le Monde reported that on a Turin trip, Aubry joked to media: “You all know I swig whisky hidden under my djellaba [north African loose robe].” The former rightwing prime minister Dominique de Villepin, who also has ambitions to challenge Sarkozy for the presidency, said rumours about Aubry were “scandalous” and “foul” and warned that no one should play dirty politics. The latest poll, for Ifop, found that 46% of French people felt the Socialist François Hollande was most capable of beating Sarkozy, followed by Aubry on 27%. France Europe Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk
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You are not ready for what you’re about to see. I’m at a loss for words over this… I’ve simply never before seen a video game achieve this level of storytelling, action, emotion, realism, and show-me-something-I’ve-never-seen-before ingenuity. It’s utterly jaw-dropping. The fifteen-minute BioShock Infinite demo you’re about to watch is the same demo that was shown to members of the media at E3 — the… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Forever Geek Discovery Date : 09/07/2011 05:19 Number of articles : 3
Continue reading …You are not ready for what you’re about to see. I’m at a loss for words over this… I’ve simply never before seen a video game achieve this level of storytelling, action, emotion, realism, and show-me-something-I’ve-never-seen-before ingenuity. It’s utterly jaw-dropping. The fifteen-minute BioShock Infinite demo you’re about to watch is the same demo that was shown to members of the media at E3 — the… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Forever Geek Discovery Date : 09/07/2011 05:19 Number of articles : 3
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Interim leader’s speech fails to convince protesters blocking off Cairo bureaucratic headquarters and road to Suez canal Protests have brought Egypt’s administrative and commercial nerve centres to a standstill , as government attempts to stem a growing wave of opposition to military rule succeeded only in galvanising demonstrators further. The interim prime minister, Essam Sharaf, took to the airwaves late on Saturday pledging to “meet the people’s demands”, following mass rallies across the country in which Egyptians accused the ruling council of army generals of betraying the revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak this year . In a short and strained address to the nation, Sharaf said all police officers accused of killing protesters would be stopped from working, and promised that the trials of former Mubarak ministers and other regime officials would proceed “as soon as possible”. He insisted that social and economic problems would be reviewed by the army-appointed transitional cabinet. But activists dismissed the announcement as empty rhetoric and claimed it contained nothing substantive. “His speech sounded like one of these tricks of the old government,” Sherif, an engineer in his late 20s, told local news website Ahram Online. “If this government is unable to take serious steps, it should resign.” Several thousand people flocked to Cairo’s Tahrir Square after Sharaf’s speech. Anti-government activists have taken control of the roads there and an open-ended sit-in began on Friday. By Sunday morning, access to the Mugamma – a giant concrete building on one side of the square that serves as the bureaucratic heart of the Egyptian state – had been blocked off, with some employees reportedly joining the protests. In Suez, another focal point for political unrest, the families of some of those killed in the anti-Mubarak uprising helped protesters cut off the main highway between Cairo and Sokhna port, the main transit point for goods entering and leaving the Suez canal. The canal has also been targeted by strikes and protests in recent days, although officials insisted that international maritime traffic remained unaffected. Sharaf – a popular choice among revolutionaries when he was first appointed interim prime minister in March – has repeatedly claimed that he draws his legitimacy from Tahrir, and said again on Saturday that “the people” were the only sovereign power in Egypt. But analysts believe that the army generals have given him little control over policy and personnel decisions, and in recent weeks the 59-year-old has cut an increasingly frustrated figure in public. Egyptian newspapers used their Sunday editions to highlight the widening gap between the supreme council of the armed forces, which assumed power in the aftermath of Mubarak’s overthrow and has promised democratic elections before the end of the year, and large sections of the general public who believe that the pace of reform is too slow. “Protesters: Sharaf’s decisions are not enough — Calls for hunger strikes and civil disobedience,” stated the front-page headline in state-owned al-Ahram, the country’s biggest-selling daily. Al-Tahrir, a new Egyptian paper that emerged out of the revolution, splashed with a smiling photo of the country’s de facto leader, Field Marshall Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, under the words “The Marshall doesn’t respond.” Activists have called for another round of mass demonstrations on Tuesday. Egypt Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Africa Jack Shenker guardian.co.uk
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Increasing numbers of schools encouraging pupils to submit forms as early as September, says Mary Curnock Cook Teenagers are applying to universities several months too early, the head of the university admissions service has said, signalling a potential overhaul of the system. Mary Curnock Cook, the chief executive of Ucas, said many teenagers were applying to institutions to which they had “no intention” of going and had not yet visited because of pressure to complete their application forms at the start of their final year at school. Applicants should send their forms by mid-January to start their degrees in the autumn, but Curnock Cook said increasing numbers of schools encouraged pupils to submit the forms as early as September. Preliminary findings of a Ucas review into the admissions process showed that applicants were applying “earlier and earlier” and that many later changed their minds after they applied, Curnock Cook told the Guardian. Ucas will report the full findings in the autumn. “Giving people the opportunity to make choices later might be a helpful development,” she said. “A couple of terms might make a difference and give people the opportunity to make their choices later. Most visit the universities after they have applied and lots change their minds. Our research shows lots put names on their forms that they have no intention of going to.” Her comments could pave the way for a system in which students apply to university only when they have their final A-level grades. At the moment, teenagers apply with predicted grades. However, such a change would not be for a few years and would mean that exams were moved forward, shortening the school year. The government’s white paper on higher education, published last month, stated that ministers were considering moving to this system, which it said could bring “significant” benefits. Applicants are encouraged to designate one university as their top choice and another as their “insurance”. However, Curnock Cook said, there was considerable misunderstanding among schools and pupils, with the review showing that 40% of insurance choices were for universities that demanded the same or higher grades than applicants’ top choices. She said Ucas was looking into whether it could “design something better”. Curnock Cook said applicants who were “at the lower end of the high ability group” were narrowing their chances by only applying to top-20 universities. “It is not a good strategy for them to put all their eggs in one basket,” she said. “Sixth-form advisers need to make these things much clearer.” On Monday universities will hear whether a quango has approved their targets to improve their mix of low-income and other students from under-represented groups. Universities that want to charge tuition fees of more than £6,000 a year from autumn 2012 have to have these targets approved by the Office for Fair Access (Offa). It will publish each university’s “access agreement” later this week. University administration Higher education Students Colleges Jessica Shepherd guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Increasing numbers of schools encouraging pupils to submit forms as early as September, says Mary Curnock Cook Teenagers are applying to universities several months too early, the head of the university admissions service has said, signalling a potential overhaul of the system. Mary Curnock Cook, the chief executive of Ucas, said many teenagers were applying to institutions to which they had “no intention” of going and had not yet visited because of pressure to complete their application forms at the start of their final year at school. Applicants should send their forms by mid-January to start their degrees in the autumn, but Curnock Cook said increasing numbers of schools encouraged pupils to submit the forms as early as September. Preliminary findings of a Ucas review into the admissions process showed that applicants were applying “earlier and earlier” and that many later changed their minds after they applied, Curnock Cook told the Guardian. Ucas will report the full findings in the autumn. “Giving people the opportunity to make choices later might be a helpful development,” she said. “A couple of terms might make a difference and give people the opportunity to make their choices later. Most visit the universities after they have applied and lots change their minds. Our research shows lots put names on their forms that they have no intention of going to.” Her comments could pave the way for a system in which students apply to university only when they have their final A-level grades. At the moment, teenagers apply with predicted grades. However, such a change would not be for a few years and would mean that exams were moved forward, shortening the school year. The government’s white paper on higher education, published last month, stated that ministers were considering moving to this system, which it said could bring “significant” benefits. Applicants are encouraged to designate one university as their top choice and another as their “insurance”. However, Curnock Cook said, there was considerable misunderstanding among schools and pupils, with the review showing that 40% of insurance choices were for universities that demanded the same or higher grades than applicants’ top choices. She said Ucas was looking into whether it could “design something better”. Curnock Cook said applicants who were “at the lower end of the high ability group” were narrowing their chances by only applying to top-20 universities. “It is not a good strategy for them to put all their eggs in one basket,” she said. “Sixth-form advisers need to make these things much clearer.” On Monday universities will hear whether a quango has approved their targets to improve their mix of low-income and other students from under-represented groups. Universities that want to charge tuition fees of more than £6,000 a year from autumn 2012 have to have these targets approved by the Office for Fair Access (Offa). It will publish each university’s “access agreement” later this week. University administration Higher education Students Colleges Jessica Shepherd guardian.co.uk
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• Alonso enjoys first victory of the season at Silverstone • Vettel ends up second while Button fails to finish Fernando Alonso won his first grand prix for nine months with the 27th victory of his career as Ferrari continued to improve their competitiveness. It was a memorable way for Ferrari to celebrate the 60th anniversary of their first win here. It was the Spaniard’s first victory since his win in South Korea in October last year. But the real thrills were taking place behind him, with Red Bull team-mates Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber battling it out for second place and Lewis Hamilton coming under increasing pressure from Felipe Massa. Vettel, who still managed to increase his lead in the world championship table by three points to 80, did hold off Webber to take second. But despite saying in the past that the two drivers were free to race, Red Bull gave Webber the chilling message on the last lap: “Mark, maintain the gap.” Webber though, appeared to ignore the message and continued to race Vettel until the end of the race. Hamilton had a brilliant afternoon. Starting in 10th place, with a car well off the pace over the weekend, he charged up the field, overtaking Paul di Resta to take sixth place, before moving up to fifth by passing the other Briton in the race, his team-mate Jenson Button. He eventually finished fourth. But it was another difficult day for McLaren. Button, making his 12th attempt to win a podium place in the British Grand Prix, failed to finish, retiring after a pit-stop mistake resulted in his front right wheel almost falling off. Hamilton only just finished the race, running out of fuel and having to slow down as Massa closed on him. Hamilton was brilliant but his recent criticism of the team was justified. But the day belonged to Alonso. He said afterwards: “This is a very special day for Ferrari and I’m very happy. It means a lot to all the guys who work for Ferrari.” Formula One Fernando Alonso Ferrari Motor sport Paul Weaver guardian.co.uk
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US academic calls for armed guards to protect heritage sites from theft and damage in midst of conflict or disaster Museum guards and others tasked with protecting the world’s cultural treasures should be routinely armed to defend heritage sites from the depredations of conflict, according to a leading expert. Professor Lawrence Rothfield, faculty director of the University of Chicago’s cultural policy centre, told the Guardian that ministries, foundations and local authorities “should not assume that the brutal policing job required to prevent looters and professional art thieves from carrying away items is just one for the national police or for other forces not under their direct control”. He was speaking in advance of the annual conference of the Association for Research into Crimes Against Art (ARCA), held over the weekend in the central Italian town of Amelia. Rothfield said he would also like to see museum attendants, site wardens and others given thorough training in crowd control. And not just in the developing world. “Even in the US and other very stable countries, disasters can occur that open the door to looting,” he said, citing New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina as an example of how quickly normality can disintegrate. His controversial proposal follows a string of heritage disasters arising from the turmoil in the Middle East. In 2003, looters ransacked the Iraqi national museum . In January, as protests against the regime of President Hosni Mubarak gathered momentum, thieves broke into the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo . Most recently, there have been reports that the Libyan conflict has put some cultural treasures at risk. Another conference, held under the auspices of Unesco and the Italian government at Caserta near Naples this month, heard from representatives of the anti-Gaddafi rebels of a robbery at the Bank of Benghazi in May. One of those present reported that the treasures stolen included Greco-Roman gold and silver artefacts and coins. Rothfield’s views hardened while conducting a study of the Cairo museum raid. Much remains unclear about the incident, including whether “the whole thing was a well-controlled gambit to persuade the international community that the country was descending into chaos and that the revolt needed to be crushed”, he said. But two key points had emerged. One was that the museum authorities were unable to count on the police when they needed them most. The second was that no amount of education on the value and importance of cultural heritage would prevent a disaster. Egyptians have long been schooled to treasure the evidence of their past. But, said Rothfield, “even if you have 90% of the people on your side, it doesn’t take many others to do the damage”. That, of course, does not mean education is dispensable. One of Rothfield’s fellow speakers at ARCA’s conference was Laurie Rush, an archaeologist attached to the US army’s 10th Mountain Division. Her mission is to help soldiers identify cultural property in their forward deployments and keep damage to a minimum. Five years ago, her unit produced a pack of cards, each with a different message about heritage protection. The nine of spades, for example, has a picture of a Chinook helicopter and the message: “Rotor rush can damage archaeological sites. Locate your landing zones a safe distance away from known sites.” Rush said she had secured changes to army regulations, and these had saved a Mesopotamian settlement, several thousand years old, near forward operating base Hammer, east of Baghdad. “A young soldier contacted us having seen military contractors scooping up dirt to make an earthen wall. He realised it was archaeological material and, because of our project, there were military regulations that empowered the base commander to give orders for the protection of the site.” Many other sites in Iraq have been less fortunate. The invasion was the prelude to a calamity for Iraq’s cultural heritage. Rothfield said it was estimated that looters had dug up three times the area excavated before the invasion. “The Baghdad museum lost around 15,000 items, half of which were recovered. But the country has lost several hundred thousand items, and they will probably never come back,” he said. Museums Libya Egypt Iraq Italy Europe John Hooper guardian.co.uk
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• Phaedra Almajid now says claims of bribes were fabricated • Insists that she has not been pressured or paid for retraction The “whistleblower” who alleged Qatar paid huge bribes to three African Fifa executive committee members during the gulf nation’s campaign to host the 2022 World Cup has retracted the story, saying she “fabricated” it all. The allegations, that Qatar’s bid paid $1.5m (£935,000) to the three Africans, Issa Hayatou, Jacques Anouma and Amos Adamu, to secure their votes, were not published in any newspaper, but the House of Commons select committee for culture, media and sport did publish them, based on a letter from the Sunday Times . That meant the allegations of serious corruption, revealed by “a whistleblower who had worked with the Qatar bid”, were reported here and around the world with the protection of parliamentary privilege. The whistleblower, publicly identifying herself as Phaedra Almajid, was head of international media relations at Qatar’s 2022 bid between May 2009 and March 2010. She now says she entirely fabricated that story of bribes paid by the Qatar bid, and other corruption allegations, because she wanted to “hurt” the bid after they decided to move her from her job. She said she was “furious” at the bid’s suggestion that she was not handling the international media competently, and, “acting irrationally”, decided to make up the corruption stories “to show them I could control the international media”. She now says she came to feel “sorry” and “guilty” for having severely damaged the bid’s reputation, and that she never expected her stories to reach as far as the UK parliament and an intention by Fifa to investigate them. The Guardian spoke to Almajid from Qatar itself, where we conducted an exclusive newspaper interview with the bid’s chief executive, Hassan al-Thawadi, which will appear online on Monday. He said that Almajid had been in contact with the bid wanting to retract her story, and facilitated our conversation with her. Both she and the bid insist they did not put pressure on her to issue her retraction, nor paid her or helped her in any way. “The decision to make this admission is entirely my own,” she said in a statement made on a website specifically created for her retraction. “I have not been subject to any form of pressure or been offered any financial inducement.” http://www.qatarwhistleblower.com/ http://www.sportsfeatures.com/soccernews/story/48970/world-exclusive-by-keir-radnedge-it-was-all-lies-says-qatar-2022-whistleblower Fifa World Cup 2022 David Conn guardian.co.uk
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