Video: Bashir’s Non-Response Response After Scolding Palin’s ‘Illegal’ Bus Tour
June 2, 2011 No Comment
As NewsBusters reported first , MSNBC anchor Martin Bashir insisted on his May 31 program that Sarah Palin's Northeast bus tour amounted to a “breach in federal law.” After a number of sites linked to the original NewsBusters piece, Bashir responded today to the “abusive messages” he's allegedly endured in the fallout of his controversial remarks, although he avoided addressing his bizarre claim that the former Alaska governor violated federal law by flying the American flag on her tour bus. [Video embedded after the page break.] “And judging by the number of abusive messages to myself and my family online and on my office voicemail, there's been quite the reaction to my comment regarding Sarah Palin and the real purpose of her bus tour,” complained Bashir. The British-born Bashir went on to flash his green card to prove to his alleged detractors that he is indeed a legal resident: “For the avoidance of any doubt, I want to assure you that I am a legal, permanent resident of the United States. This is my green card.” While the former ABC Nightline anchor doubled down on his contention that Palin is only interested in making money, he explicitly refused to address his most egregious comment. On Tuesday, Bashir questioned Palin's patriotism and suggested she's a criminal: “In fact, the whole thing could be in breach of a federal law because the United States Flag Code establishes important rules for the use and display of the stars and stripes, the flag of the United States.” But on Thursday, Bashir pretended to have never uttered such offensive bile, even though it was those comments that were the most controversial. Still waiting for you to “Clear the Air,” Martin. –Alex Fitzsimmons is a News Analysis intern at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
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Phillip Garrido sentenced to 431 years to life for kidnapping and raping Dugard and holding her captive for 18 years A convicted sex offender and his wife have been jailed for life for kidnapping and raping Jaycee Dugard when she was 11 and holding her captive for nearly 20 years. Phillip Garrido, 60, was sentenced to 431 years to life in prison by a California court after pleading guilty to kidnapping and 13 sexual assault charges, including six counts of rape and seven counts of committing lewd acts captured on video. El Dorado County district attorney Vern Pierson described Garrido as “a sexual predator who stole the childhood and innocence from an 11-year-old child”. Garrido’s wife Nancy, 55, who also pleaded guilty, was handed a 36-year sentence. Before the couple were sentenced in the court in Placerville, the victim’s mother, Terry Probyn, read out a statment by Dugard, now 31, in which she described her 18-year ordeal at the Garridos’ hands. “I chose not to be here today because I refuse to waste another second of my life in your presence,” Dugard wrote, addressing Phillip Garrido. “Everything you ever did to me was wrong, and I hope one day you will see that. “I hated every second of every day for 18 years. You stole my life and that of my family.” Following her kidnapping in South Lake Tahoe, California, in 1991, Dugard was confined to a hidden backyard compound which she later shared with two daughters fathered by Phillip Garrido. Dugard called Garrido a liar, and said what his wife did to her was evil. She said she hoped both of them would have as many sleepless nights as she had. “There is no God in the universe that would condone your actions,” Dugard said, addressing Nancy Garrido. Dugard, who has written a memoir set to be published next month, said she was doing well now, and told Phillip Garrido: “You do not matter any more.” The plea deal was designed, in part, to spare Dugard and her children from having to testify at a trial. Both Garridos have waived their right to appeal. Dugard was grabbed by Nancy Garrido from the street where her family lived and forced into a car driven by Phillip Garrido on 10 June 1991. The abduction took place as Dugard’s stepfather watched her walk to a school bus stop. The couple held Dugard prisoner at their home in Antioch for the next 18 years, four months and 16 days. She was initially locked in a backyard shed and then confined to a series of tents she would later share with the daughters fathered by Garrido and delivered by his wife. Dugard last year received a $20m (£12m) settlement from the state of California under which officials acknowledged repeated mistakes were made by parole agents responsible for monitoring Phillip Garrido. California has since increased monitoring of sex offenders. The case drew international attention after Dugard and her daughters were discovered in August 2009. Dugard has written a memoir, A Stolen Life, which will be released in July. Jaycee Lee Dugard kidnap United States David Batty guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Karmic Update: Russell Pearce recall campaign turns in 18,000 signatures — more than twice what’s needed
June 2, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media We’ve been tracking the recall campaign against Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce, author of SB1070, because he insisted on playing his nativist fiddle in the Senate while Arizona’s economy burned to the ground. It probably hasn’t helped that he’s become belligerent whenever anyone brings up his role in the Fiesta Bowl scandal, either. Of course, Greta Van Susteren knew better than to ask Pearce any such tough questions last night on her Fox show. She mostly lobbed out the news of the day — the fact that the people leading the recall had filed more than twice what they needed, some 18,000 signatures — and let him swing away. But Pearce looked scared, and he should be: In a celebratory display of unprecedented organization, a bipartisan group of activists poured into the Arizona secretary of state’s office yesterday with more than 18,300 signatures to demand the recall of State Senate president Russell Pearce. The filing of the petitions marked the culmination of a campaign that has defied expectations, and a watershed moment for the beleaguered state. Once the state and Maricopa County recorders verify the legal requirement of 7,756 signatures from the traditionally conservative and Mormon-founded Mesa district, Pearce—who is considered by many as the de facto governor and motivating force behind the state’s notorious blitz of extremist policies on education, health, guns and immigration—will become the first State Senate president in American history to be recalled. Those signatures contain a message : Recall proponents say they filed petitions bearing 18,315 signatures. But campaign chairman Chad Snow acknowledged thousands of those might be duplicates or signatures of people who live outside the Senate President’s district. “We want those extra petition signatures to send a message,” Snow said. “We want to send a message to Sen. Pearce, to every legislator down here at the Arizona Legislature that this kind of extreme, ideologically driven policies will no longer be tolerated in our state.” Pearce claimed to Van Susteren that most of the signatures would be proven ineligible and that his legal team intended to contest them. Then he claimed that the people involved in the recall are “radical leftists” and “anarchists.” Then he claimed that his nativist agenda was in fact extremely popular with his constituents. Right. Of course, he has formed a response team : His supporters have formed their own group, The Citizens Who Oppose the Pearce Recall, and on Tuesday launched a website to solicit donations to fight the recall effort. “We will not sit back and let out-of-state and out-of-district special interests attempt to use a recall to harass and intimidate Arizona’s constitutionally elected officials,” said Matt Tolman, chairman of the group. “We will oppose this recall so that President Pearce and other officials can do the job for which they were elected.” I hope the folks in Mesa are ready for the fight of their lives.
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Peter Bennett condemned for racist, sexist language as QC upholds claim over firm’s misuse of public funds The head of human resources at Network Rail, who was condemned by an independent inquiry for a long running record of bullying and using sexist and racist language, has escaped disciplinary action and will retire on a generous, publicly-funded pension. Former staff who say they were pushed out of Network Rail by Peter Bennett are particularly angered by the internal email from the company’s chief executive, David Higgins, announcing Bennett’s departure, which praises his “professional approach”. The email said Bennett, who earns an estimated £350,000 a year in salary and benefits, would remain in his post before taking early retirement later this year. It was sent four days before Antony White QC, appointed by Network Rail to investigate allegations of impropriety within the company, expressed his amazement at Bennett’s behaviour and that there was no record of his ever being disciplined. White, from Matrix Chambers, wrote in his report: “I find it little short of astonishing that the director of human resources of a major national company described a senior female employee in his department who was complaining of sex discrimination as ‘a silly cow’ and a black female employee who had recently succeeded in a race discrimination case … as a ‘silly fucking black bitch.’” It was “equally astonishing”, White said, that Bennett wrote in a formal employment tribunal document that a sexually suggestive comment towards a junior female colleague “would not have been unwanted”. White’s 143-page report dismissed as unfounded a series of claims by the TSSA trade union that Network Rail’s former chief executive, Iain Coucher, and other senior staff abused their positions for financial gain. When White looked into separate allegations that the company, which received £3.7bn from the Department for Transport (DfT) last year, misused public funds by repeatedly paying off staff to avoid embarrassing industrial tribunals, he documented a wealth of damning evidence about Bennett’s style, none of which appears to be disputed by Network Rail. An outside consultants’ study in 2007 found Bennett’s methods to be “universally” disliked by staff, due to his abrasive style and “wholly inappropriate” language. White himself heard evidence about Bennett’s “bullying and blatant sexist language and conduct”, including the routine use of offensive comments and jokes and inappropriate physical advances to female colleagues. Bennett had no comment about the report or the allegations. Such claims have surfaced before, with Network Rail repeatedly saying Bennett had “no case to answer”. White discovered an internal investigation confirmed many of the allegations yet concluded they did not amount to serious misconduct. Network Rail said Bennett had been verbally warned about his behaviour, but White said he could find no record of this. He said: “I find it impossible to avoid the conclusion that Network Rail simply failed to take Mr Bennett’s admitted and established misconduct seriously.” The one specific claim about the abuse of public funds upheld by the QC relates to Victoria Lydford, a high-flying senior HR manager who took the company to an industrial tribunal after alleging Bennett unfairly sidelined her when she returned from maternity leave. The investigation uncovered legal advice to Network Rail urging it to settle Lydford’s claim before the hearing as she would almost certainly win her case and the publicity would cause “considerable collateral damage”. The eventual payout, protected by a confidentiality clause but reportedly close to £500,000, constituted a misuse of public money, the QC found. A former Network Rail staff member, who asked not to be named, said Bennett was known throughout the organisation as a “school bully” with extremely worrying attitudes to women: “He was a vulture. In our old headquarters, a lot of female staff would try very hard to get a position as far away as they could from where Peter sat. But it wasn’t just women. If you were a man and he found you wouldn’t stand up to him, Bennett would bully you mercilessly.” A Network Rail spokesman said the company had no comment to make beyond last week’s statement which welcomed White’s report and said the company was “profoundly different today in terms of both its leadership tone and standards of acceptable behaviour”. The company’s new senior management team has spoken previously of wanting to change a prevailing “militaristic” culture inside Network Rail. A DfT spokesman said the report “highlighted some serious issues”. He added: “We welcome the action Network Rail has taken to ensure there is no repeat of these failings, and we hope this report draws a line under the allegations.” Network Rail Travel & leisure Transport Discrimination at work Work & careers Equality Peter Walker guardian.co.uk
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No plans to officially mark president’s 80th birthday amid growing concern over Cuba’s ageing leadership Raúl Castro turns 80 on Friday but Cuba is playing down the president’s birthday amid concern over the island’s ageing leadership. No official celebrations have been announced in the apparent hope of letting the event slide by, rather than refocus attention on the elderly figures who run the government and Communist party. The deputy president, José Ramón Machado Ventura, is 80 and Fidel Castro, who is retired but retains influence, is 84, meaning the three most important political figures are octogenarians. The government’s official No 3, vice-president Ramiro Valdés, 79, will soon join the club. At a Communist party congress in April Raúl Castro called the absence of younger leaders “really embarrassing” and lamented that fresh talent had not been groomed to take over. He promised to “rejuvenate” senior positions and said the party would consider limiting leaders, including himself, to a maximum of two five-year terms. But instead of promoting new faces at the congress Castro chose Machado and Valdés as his deputies. The appointments, said analysts, betrayed a failure of nerve as Cuba struggles to liberalise a moribund, centrally planned economy. “Their challenge is to bring in a younger generation but instead Raúl picked someone even older than him as his chief deputy,” Ann Louise Bardach, a Cuba expert and author of Without Fidel, told Associated Press . “It just shows how unconfident they are. They missed an opportunity.” The band of young guerrillas that seized power in 1959 has remained largely hermetic in power and has looked with suspicion on rising newcomers. In 2009 mooted successors such as Carlos Lage, a then 57-year-old vice-president, and Felipe Pérez Roque, the 43-year-old foreign minister, were respectively demoted and fired . Raúl is now a month older than Fidel was when a serious intestinal illness forced the latter to step down in 2006 . “And [Fidel] was always much healthier than Raúl as a young man … and now Raúl is 80,” said Bardach. Nevertheless the president appears in good shape. This week he accompanied Brazil’s former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, on a tour of Cuba and joked with reporters about his birthday. “How do I look?” he asked. “How many old men of 60 are there who aren’t in my shape?” Cuba Fidel Castro Rory Carroll guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …No plans to officially mark president’s 80th birthday amid growing concern over Cuba’s ageing leadership Raúl Castro turns 80 on Friday but Cuba is playing down the president’s birthday amid concern over the island’s ageing leadership. No official celebrations have been announced in the apparent hope of letting the event slide by, rather than refocus attention on the elderly figures who run the government and Communist party. The deputy president, José Ramón Machado Ventura, is 80 and Fidel Castro, who is retired but retains influence, is 84, meaning the three most important political figures are octogenarians. The government’s official No 3, vice-president Ramiro Valdés, 79, will soon join the club. At a Communist party congress in April Raúl Castro called the absence of younger leaders “really embarrassing” and lamented that fresh talent had not been groomed to take over. He promised to “rejuvenate” senior positions and said the party would consider limiting leaders, including himself, to a maximum of two five-year terms. But instead of promoting new faces at the congress Castro chose Machado and Valdés as his deputies. The appointments, said analysts, betrayed a failure of nerve as Cuba struggles to liberalise a moribund, centrally planned economy. “Their challenge is to bring in a younger generation but instead Raúl picked someone even older than him as his chief deputy,” Ann Louise Bardach, a Cuba expert and author of Without Fidel, told Associated Press . “It just shows how unconfident they are. They missed an opportunity.” The band of young guerrillas that seized power in 1959 has remained largely hermetic in power and has looked with suspicion on rising newcomers. In 2009 mooted successors such as Carlos Lage, a then 57-year-old vice-president, and Felipe Pérez Roque, the 43-year-old foreign minister, were respectively demoted and fired . Raúl is now a month older than Fidel was when a serious intestinal illness forced the latter to step down in 2006 . “And [Fidel] was always much healthier than Raúl as a young man … and now Raúl is 80,” said Bardach. Nevertheless the president appears in good shape. This week he accompanied Brazil’s former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, on a tour of Cuba and joked with reporters about his birthday. “How do I look?” he asked. “How many old men of 60 are there who aren’t in my shape?” Cuba Fidel Castro Rory Carroll guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Britain asks Iran to investigate death of women’s rights activist Haleh Sahabi
June 2, 2011 No Comment
Daughter of veteran dissident leader died from a heart attack after scuffles with security forces at her father’s funeral Britain has called on Iran to launch an immediate investigation into the death of Haleh Sahabi, the daughter of a veteran Iranian dissident who died during scuffles with security forces at her father’s funeral on Wednesday. Sahabi was leading the procession at the ceremony by holding a picture of her father, Ezatollah Sahab. She died from a heart attack after reportedly being attacked by an agent and falling down. The Foreign Office (FCO) has joined the US state department and human rights organisations in urging Iran to carefully look into the case. “We call for an immediate and transparent investigation into her death and call on the Iranian authorities to allow her family and friends to mourn her father and her deaths without interference,” an FCO spokesperson said. Her funeral was held within hours of her death by authorities fearing popular protest. She was reportedly buried late at night in contrast to Islamic customs. Her relatives said her body was “confiscated” and her family were deprived of performing normal religious rituals. Iran’s opposition has blamed a security agent for Sahabi’s death, but authorities said she was already suffering from “high blood pressure and blood sugar”. “We are particularly disturbed by reports that her death followed heavy-handed action by the Iranian security forces at the funeral and by reports that the Iranian authorities rushed her burial that night with a limited traditional funeral,” an official spokesperson said. Haleh Sahabi, a women’s rights activist, was serving a two-year prison sentence but was allowed out temporarily to attend the funeral of her father, a highly respected dissident who was jailed before and after the 1979 Islamic revolution and spent a total of 15 years in prison. He headed an alliance of politicians whose activities came under scrutiny in recent years especially after the disputed presidential election in 2009 which gave Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term in the office. Iran Middle East Saeed Kamali Dehghan guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Click here to view this media Wisconsin will be holding recall elections for six Republican state senators in July, a fact that has the Wisconsin GOP suffering a major case of heartburn . Governor Scott Walker made no bones about it: The only thing that could stop the radical Republican agenda is this recall elections. So rather than campaign to save their seats, they’re playing a little dirty politics. Via the LaCrosse Tribune : La Crosse County Republicans discussed running a spoiler candidate against Democrat Jennifer Shilling in an effort to delay the recall election of Sen. Dan Kapanke, according to a secret recording of the party’s general membership meeting last week. On the recording obtained by the Tribune, party vice chairman Julian Bradley says he just spoke with Mark Jefferson, executive director of the state GOP , and “we are actively keeping our ears to the ground and if anybody knows anybody for a candidate that would be interested on the Democratic side in running in the primary against Jennifer Shilling…. So if anybody knows any Democrats who would be interested, please let us know.” Kapanke, a second-term Republican, is expected to face a recall election July 12, unless more than one challenger comes forward. Shilling, a five-term state representative from La Crosse, is the only candidate to declare her intention to run. Should a primary be necessary, the general election would be pushed back, according to scenarios proposed by the Government Accountability Board. That, Bradley said on the tape, “would give the state senator an extra month to campaign in. The opposition would obviously have to spend more time and more money.” Mark Jefferson was just named to be the Midwest regional director for the national GOP and is a former aide to Reince Preibus , RNC Chair. Dirty politics, indeed, but not surprising. What I enjoyed about this tape was hearing just how nervous they are about these recalls. When you’re hoping that public employees — the same public employees who just turned up en masse to protest Scott Walker’s radical agenda — are sleeping through the recall elections , I’d say it’s pretty certain you know you’re toast.
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Arctic Monkeys have abandoned lurching darkness for wistful guitar pop. It suits them Listen to Suck It and See here Those looking for evidence that things are as they always were in the world of Arctic Monkeys – that the celebrity girlfriends, chumminess with P Diddy and sojourns in Hollywood mansions while recording in LA have failed to impact on what Bernard Ingham would call the Yorkshireman’s “awkward gene” – might alight on the two songs they chose to trail their fourth album. Brick By Brick was leaked by the band in March, three minutes of sludgy filler with drummer Matt Helders on vocals. “I wanna feel your love, I
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British oil company seeking up to $16m in damages for four-day occupation that disrupted operations on the Leiv Eiriksson rig British oil company Cairn Energy has filed legal papers with a Dutch court to claim up to $16m (£9.8m) from Greenpeace for disrupting its oil drilling operations in the Arctic. In a move that could bankrupt the environment group, the company is also seeking to have Greenpeace fined €2m (£1.76m) for every day it continues to try to prevent work. The draconian legal move comes after Danish marines boarded Cairn’s giant Leiv Eiriksson drilling platform early on Thursday. They evicted two Greenpeace climbers who had spent four days in a survival pod attached to the drilling platform. The company has claimed in interviews that the four-day Greenpeace occupation had “no impact on its schedule”, but Cairn says in the court documents: “The defendants are preventing the exploitation of the platform. All delay of the platforms during its journey to the respective drilling locations and each hindrance during the drilling activities will lead to delay of the operations. Plaintiffs estimate the damage resulting from delay to those drilling activities at least $4m (£2.5m) per day. The urgent character of the plaintiffs demand thus speaks for itself.” Greenpeace reacted with defiance, saying it would fight the case. “This oil company has been hiding behind the Greenland government and the Danish navy, and now it’s trying to use the Dutch courts. It can hire all the lawyers it likes, but it can’t hide the huge risks it’s taking with this beautiful and fragile environment. Cairn is threatening us with a huge legal hammer now, it wants to shut down our campaign to kick the oil companies out of the Arctic, but we’ll challenge them and their lawyers every step of way. The stakes are high here, the Arctic is in the front line of climate change. We won’t stop shining a light on this dangerous deep water drilling operation in the Arctic.” The legal summons, which will be heard on Monday in Amsterdam where the Greenpeace ship Esperanza is registered, asks the judge to “… order defendants to cease all unlawful activities within one hour of handing down the judgment in this matter against the platforms and to order their employees, their aids or their sympathisers to cease all unlawful activities against the platforms, to allow the safe and unhindered exploitation of the platforms, at a penalty of €2m for each day or part thereof during which defendants are not complying with this order.” Cairn is spending around $1bn over the next two years seeking oil in Arctic waters , but can only work during a short three-month window when weather conditions allow exploration. It is thought to be paying $500,000 a day to hire the Leiv Eiriksson, one of the largest oil platforms in the world. Cairn last night denied it was trying to bankrupt Greenpeace, saying that it was seeking to prevent further interference with its work in the Arctic. “Cairn respects the rights of individuals and organisations to express their views in a safe and peaceful manner but would be concerned with anything that presents a safety risk for those involved and the operations,” the company said in a statement. Oil companies have a long history of challenging protest groups in the courts but have mostly backed off after facing bad publicity. BP sued Greenpeace and four of its senior staff for $2.3m in 1997 after activists occupied an oil platform, but later dropped the case. Greenpeace Activism Oil Energy Fossil fuels Cairn Energy Oil and gas companies Oil Energy industry John Vidal guardian.co.uk
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