Experts warn that care home provider could soon collapse into administration The crisis at troubled care home provider Southern Cross has deepened after the company slashed its rent payments in an effort to keep its 750 residential homes running. Healthcare specialists warned on Wednesday that Southern Cross could collapse within months if it cannot hammer out a credible restructuring plan with its banks and landlords. The ongoing turmoil has left the company’s 31,000 elderly residents and their families facing an uncertain future , prompting fierce criticism of its management and strategy. “Southern Cross certainly could go under,” William Laing, health economist at Laing and Buisson, told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme, speaking after Southern Cross unilaterally decided to hold back 30% of its rent payments over the next four months. Southern Cross has been in serious trouble for several months, and has already breached key conditions imposed by its bankers. It has blamed public spending cutbacks for reducing its earnings from local councils – a key source of revenue, along with rising rents and increased care costs. City analysts, though, say the company is paying the price for poor decisions taken when it was owned by a private equity company. Laing believes that most of Southern Cross’s care homes would keep running if it slumped into administration, as they are more valuable as operating business than empty buildings. There is concern, though, that local authorities may struggle if they were suddenly handed control of the company’s sites. Peter Hay, the president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said the situation at Southern Cross was extremely worrying, and suggested that a small number of its homes may have to close. However, he moved to reassure residents and their families. “Underneath there is a viable business that can be structured … there is no need to talk about mass closure, or the mass movement of people in these homes.” Southern Cross was floated on the stock market in 2006 by private equity firm Blackstone. Southern Cross had enthusiastically followed a strategy of buying up nursing homes, then selling them onto landlords, and relying on affordable borrowing costs to pay its rents. This approach began to unravel in 2007, when the credit crunch struck. Laing criticised the company for effectively mortgaging itself to the hilt in the run-up to the financial crisis. “The company did make some strategic errors,” he said, while Hay claimed that the company had failed in the past to make the care and security of its residents its top priority. The GMB union has been a vocal critic of Southern Cross, and on Wednesday it said that the UK government must now step in. “These are not factories facing closure, they are a vital part of the social fabric of every community,” said GMB general secretary Paul Kenny. Twenty four MPs have signed a recent early day motion urging ministers to get ready to intervene in the Southern Cross debacle. Rent payments deferral Southern Cross itself warned last month that it is now in a “critical financial position”, after seeing rent payments rise faster than its income. The firm, which leases most of its properties, estimated that the number of admissions from local authorities has dropped by 15% over the past year. On Tuesday it announced that it will defer 30% of its monthly cash rental payments from 1 June to 30 September 2011, creating what it called a “summer platform” during which it could agree a restructuring package. “The objective will be to emerge with a stable and sustainable business model for the continuing care of our residents. Our primary concern is the continuity of care to all our 31,000 residents,” said chairman Christopher Fisher. However, none of its landlords have yet said whether they back the plan. Southern Cross made a pre-tax loss of £310.9m in the six months to 31 March, and its auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers recently warned there was “significant doubt” over its ability to keep running . Southern Cross Healthcare Healthcare industry Social care Long-term care Health Older people Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Experts warn that care home provider could soon collapse into administration The crisis at troubled care home provider Southern Cross has deepened after the company slashed its rent payments in an effort to keep its 750 residential homes running. Healthcare specialists warned on Wednesday that Southern Cross could collapse within months if it cannot hammer out a credible restructuring plan with its banks and landlords. The ongoing turmoil has left the company’s 31,000 elderly residents and their families facing an uncertain future , prompting fierce criticism of its management and strategy. “Southern Cross certainly could go under,” William Laing, health economist at Laing and Buisson, told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme, speaking after Southern Cross unilaterally decided to hold back 30% of its rent payments over the next four months. Southern Cross has been in serious trouble for several months, and has already breached key conditions imposed by its bankers. It has blamed public spending cutbacks for reducing its earnings from local councils – a key source of revenue, along with rising rents and increased care costs. City analysts, though, say the company is paying the price for poor decisions taken when it was owned by a private equity company. Laing believes that most of Southern Cross’s care homes would keep running if it slumped into administration, as they are more valuable as operating business than empty buildings. There is concern, though, that local authorities may struggle if they were suddenly handed control of the company’s sites. Peter Hay, the president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said the situation at Southern Cross was extremely worrying, and suggested that a small number of its homes may have to close. However, he moved to reassure residents and their families. “Underneath there is a viable business that can be structured … there is no need to talk about mass closure, or the mass movement of people in these homes.” Southern Cross was floated on the stock market in 2006 by private equity firm Blackstone. Southern Cross had enthusiastically followed a strategy of buying up nursing homes, then selling them onto landlords, and relying on affordable borrowing costs to pay its rents. This approach began to unravel in 2007, when the credit crunch struck. Laing criticised the company for effectively mortgaging itself to the hilt in the run-up to the financial crisis. “The company did make some strategic errors,” he said, while Hay claimed that the company had failed in the past to make the care and security of its residents its top priority. The GMB union has been a vocal critic of Southern Cross, and on Wednesday it said that the UK government must now step in. “These are not factories facing closure, they are a vital part of the social fabric of every community,” said GMB general secretary Paul Kenny. Twenty four MPs have signed a recent early day motion urging ministers to get ready to intervene in the Southern Cross debacle. Rent payments deferral Southern Cross itself warned last month that it is now in a “critical financial position”, after seeing rent payments rise faster than its income. The firm, which leases most of its properties, estimated that the number of admissions from local authorities has dropped by 15% over the past year. On Tuesday it announced that it will defer 30% of its monthly cash rental payments from 1 June to 30 September 2011, creating what it called a “summer platform” during which it could agree a restructuring package. “The objective will be to emerge with a stable and sustainable business model for the continuing care of our residents. Our primary concern is the continuity of care to all our 31,000 residents,” said chairman Christopher Fisher. However, none of its landlords have yet said whether they back the plan. Southern Cross made a pre-tax loss of £310.9m in the six months to 31 March, and its auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers recently warned there was “significant doubt” over its ability to keep running . Southern Cross Healthcare Healthcare industry Social care Long-term care Health Older people Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
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• Click F5 to refresh and post your thoughts below • Whistleblower Blazer ‘sacked’ • Fifa must postpone election, says FA chairman 9.30am: And so the unquestioning support for Blatter continues. The man from Benin announces: “We must be proud to belong to Fifa. We must massively express our support to President Blatter. Please applaud!” Cue loud applause. 9.25am: Now it’s the turn of a delegate from Haiti, who makes a candy-floss sweet five-minute paean to Blatter. As does the head of the Congo FA, who makes also makes a direct criticism of the English FA: “He who accuses must provide evidence,” he fumes. Has he been living on Mars in the past week? And there’s more: “A single candidate sometimes proves that people are satisfied with that candidate,” says the Congo FA man, to loud applause from the floor. 9.15am: FA chairman David Bernstein is called to the stage and makes a short – but direct speech – calling for a delay in the Fifa presidential election. “A lot of people have warned me I shouldn’t be making this speech,” he begins, “but Fifa is a democratic organisation” [cue no laughter at all from the delegates]. Bernstein continues: “The election has turned into a one-horse race. Only with a contested election will the winner have…a proper, credible mandate. We are faced by an unsatisfactory situation & universal criticism from governments, sponsors, media and public.” He is applauded by roughly three people as he leaves the stage. 9.10am: This from our reporter David Conn: Swiss FA president is saying sports bodies are here because it is welcoming. Demonstrators outside say it’s for tax breaks. Not everyone outside is demonstrating, mind. This from Richard Conway of Sky Sports: “Page 3 girls from The Sun offering cash to FIFA members on arrival.” 9.00am: Fifa’s general secretary Jérôme Valcke, making his first public appearance since his claims that Qatar “bought” the 2022 World Cup were made public, takes a roll call of members at the congress. “Afghanistan: present; Albania: present …” An hypnotic 10 minutes later he breaks the torpor by announcing, “The 208 member associations are all present, Mr President.” Yes, even Libya. Cue applause from Fifa delegates. 8.45am: Sepp Blatter opens the final day of the 61st Fifa congress with his usual rambling platitudes and appeals to Fifa’s ‘family’, and a nod, at least, to the choppy waters that Fifa suffered in recent days. “The Fifa ship must be brought back on the right route,” says Blatter. “And I am the captain. And I can only do it with your help.” Good morning and welcome to our live blog on the Fifa presidential election, writes Sean Ingle. Over the next 10 hours or so we will bring you the latest news and reaction from the final day of the Fifa congress, plus analysis and comment from our reporters David Conn and Matt Scott on the ground. Yesterday the Football Association proposed that the election be postponed , but few rallied round their tattered flag; Michel Platini declined to risk a last-minute challenge to Sepp Blatter , and Concacaf’s acting president, Lisle Austin, first attempted to sack the whistleblower and Warner’s chief accuser, Chuck Blazer, only for the confederation to issue a statement an hour later saying he had no authority to do so. So what will today bring? The unopposed election of Sepp Blatter, sure, but perhaps the odd moment of discomfort for Fifa along the way too. Fifa Sepp Blatter Sean Ingle Paul Doyle guardian.co.uk
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International Atomic Energy Agency report says weak emergency protocols intensified crisis after Japan earthquake International nuclear inspectors have criticised the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant for failing to prepare for a tsunami of the size that slammed into the facility on 11 March, sparking the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl. In a preliminary report issued on Wednesday, inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] said Tokyo Electric Power [Tepco] had underestimated the risk of a giant tsunami, and urged authorities to closely monitor the health of plant workers and members of the public. The team, led by Britain’s chief nuclear safety official, Mike Weightman, said lack of preparedness had contributed to the crisis at Fukushima, where workers are still trying to restore cooling systems to reactors, three of which suffered meltdowns soon after they were struck by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and 14-metre tsunami. Weightman dismissed speculation that the earthquake had caused substantial damage before the tsunami arrived. “In terms of the cause it is clear – the direct cause was a tsunami, associated with an earthquake, of tremendous size,” he told reporters. The three-page report said Tepco had failed to heed warnings by government experts and its own scientists of the possibility of waves big enough to breach the plant’s 5.7-metre protective wall. “We had a playbook, but it didn’t work,” said Tatsujiro Suzuki, the vice chairman of Japan’s Atomic Energy Commission. The IAEA report said: “The tsunami hazard for several sites was underestimated. Nuclear plant designers and operators should appropriately evaluate and provide protection against the risks of all natural hazards.” The inspectors said the global nuclear industry should regularly review the risks posed by natural disasters and “harden” its ability to respond to emergencies. They said “simple, effective [and] robust equipment should be available [at all nuclear plants] to restore essential safety functions in a timely way for severe accident conditions”. Despite the criticism, Tepco will have been encouraged by the IAEA’s appraisal of its post-disaster response. “The response on the site by dedicated, determined and expert staff, under extremely arduous conditions has been exemplary and resulted in the best approach to securing safety given the exceptional circumstances,” it said. The team delivered its report to the prime minister, Naoto Kan, who was expected to face a no-confidence motion in parliament later on Wednesday, over what some regard as his poor handling of the nuclear crisis. Voting on the motion will take place on Thursday. Kan is expected to survive, unless the main opposition party can persuade enough rebels in his own party to vote for the motion. The IAEA inspectors will present their findings at a meeting of member-state ministers in Vienna later this month. The need to improve their ability to withstand earthquakes and tsunamis could lead to more nuclear plant closures in Japan while they undergo maintenance work. In the worst-case scenario, all of Japan’s 54 reactors could be closed by the middle of next year, according to some reports, removing almost a third of the country’s power generation and raising the possibility of long-term power rationing. The IAEA inspectors urged Japan to step up efforts to monitor the health of Fukushima workers and people living nearby. The accident has forced more than 80,000 people living near the plant to evacuate their homes, while concern is rising over the effects of accumulated radiation on the health of those living in the wider Fukushima region. While it described the evacuation and attempts to protect the public as “impressive and extremely well-organised,” the team said “a suitable and timely follow-up programme on public and worker exposures, and health monitoring would be beneficial”. Japan disaster Japan Nuclear power Natural disasters and extreme weather Justin McCurry guardian.co.uk
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Female-centred comedies such as Bridesmaids are great, but male-run Hollywood and male-dominated audiences just don’t get the joke When Harry Met Sally , possibly the last great American comedy to depict men and women not just as adults but as vaguely compatible, famously claimed that men and women can’t be friends. While my respect for this film or, indeed, any film in which the main characters do karaoke to The Surrey With a Fringe on Top will always be sky high, on this point I have long disagreed with the film’s writer, Nora Ephron . I have plenty of male friends with whom “the sex thing”, as Harry memorably refers to it, has never got in the way, but maybe that’s just because none of them know the lyrics to Oklahoma! But Ephron and I were both wrong: not only can men and women not be friends, they can barely stand to be in the same movie with one another. This summer, ye olde battle of the sexes is being played out in cinemas with The Hangover Part II in one corner, and, for the ladies, Bridesmaids in the other. The Hangover Part II is hilarious only in its disregard for its audience: it is exactly the same as The Hangover, with the only nods to novelty being that Bangkok has been swapped for Vegas, a monkey for a baby and a missing brother-in-law for a missing groom. Bridesmaids opened in the US two weeks ago with heavy responsibility on its taffeta shoulders. “Bridesmaids: Women Can Be Funny Too?” snarked the snarky website Gawker . Happily, Bridesmaids, which is smart and joyful, has proved that having a vagina is no bar to having comic timing. Something, though, is missing from both movies: the other gender. One is almost entirely female and the other – as is usually the way with American comedies – is almost entirely male. This is odd in itself (audiences in the 1930s and 40s could cope with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant snapping out one-liners on the same screen) but it’s the way these movies effect gender segregation that underlines the real problem female comic actors face today. In Bridesmaids, the men are sidelined but have personalities and pose no threat to the bond between the women. In The Hangover Part II, the women have no roles other than the shrewish wife and the hot if silent babe, and only when the men get away from their wives and girlfriends can they be themselves – which in this film involves (SPOILER ALERT) having sex with a male prostitute. In a gymnastic leap of logic, the movie uses this jaunt as proof that the character is worthy of his bride. Now, to look too closely at the gender politics of The Hangover Part II is to risk getting butterfly fragments in one’s eye as it splits on the wheel. But they do highlight a common trope in American comedies: the adult relationships are not so much husband and wife as Mean Mommy and Infantilised Man Child. Another comedy opened last week in the US that’s weirdly similar to The Hangover Part II in that respect: Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris . Gil, played by Owen Wilson, is only able to write his novel when he gets away from his horrible fiancee, played by Rachel McAdams. Wilson and McAdams also starred in Wedding Crashers . Midnight in Paris could almost be that film’s sequel as they are playing the same parts: she is the daughter of wealthy parents; he is Owen Wilson. But McAdams has morphed from the sweet thing in Wedding Crashers to the dream-crushing bitch that, according to American comedies, women become once they ensnare their man. Two more films out this summer, Crazy Stupid Love and The Change-Up , are also predicated on the idea that life as a single man is the dream and life as a married man is equivalent to castration. It’s hard to know who should be more insulted by the cliche: women for being portrayed as humourless bitches or men for getting the overgrown baby role. For too long, American comedies have struggled to conceive of a role for women other than soul-sucking wife or smoking hot chick. This is partly because only 17% of directors, producers and writers in Hollywood are women, according to a recent survey, and films that feature women in full possession of a brain are pretty much always written or directed by women. It would be easy to blame Judd Apatow , creator of the bromance genre, for this trope, and some have seen Bridesmaids, which he produced, as his atonement. But Apatow’s biggest success, Knocked Up , emphasised that the misbehaving men are wrong and the complaining wife is totally right. Yet he, like all male comedy writers, reserves the funny lines for the men. “I’m a dude . . . so I lean men, just the way Spike Lee leans African American,” he told the New Yorker . Yet there is another factor and it’s not, contrary to Christopher Hitchens ‘s claim, that women aren’t funny, but that funny women seem to repel male audiences. Thus, female actors often get shunted into humourless roles. In the same New Yorker article, producer Michael Shamberg said: “If you make a guys’ comedy you can get the girls, but if you make a girls’ comedy the guys will go, ‘That’s just chick stuff.’” This is depressingly true. Despite excellent reviews for Bridesmaids, and terrible ones for The Hangover Part II, the former made less than a third of what the latter did in its opening weekend. And this is why Bridesmaids will be the exception and The Hangover Part II the rule. What do you know, Harry was right: the sex thing just got in the way. Judd Apatow United States Comedy Hadley Freeman guardian.co.uk
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Alleged mastermind of 2001 attacks and four other suspects to be tried by military court and could face death penalty US military prosecutors have refiled terrorism and murder charges against the accused mastermind of the September 11 attacks and four other men under a revamped trial process at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The charges against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the others allege that they were responsible for planning the attacks that sent hijacked planes into the World Trade Centre in New York, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 people in 2001. Prosecutors have recommended that the trial be a capital case, which could bring the death penalty. The five men were charged previously in connection with the attacks, but those charges were dropped in 2009 when the Obama administration hoped to close the US detention facility at Guantánamo and do away with Bush-era military commissions for trying terror suspects. The other four alleged co-conspirators are Waleed bin Attash, better known as Khallad, a Yemeni who allegedly ran an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan and researched flight simulators and timetables; Ramzi bin al-Shibh, a Yemeni who allegedly helped find flight schools for the hijackers; Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, accused of helping nine of the hijackers travel to the US and sending them $120,000 for expenses and flight training; and Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, a Saudi accused of helping the hijackers with money, western clothing, traveller’s cheques and credit cards. All five men were charged with conspiracy, murder in violation of the law of war, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, destruction of property in violation of the law of war, hijacking aircraft and terrorism. The men initially were charged with the same offences in February 2008, but that plan stalled in 2009 as President Barack Obama ordered a review of the military commission system. That November, the attorney general Eric Holder announced that the five would face trial in a civilian court in New York. That plan, however, was widely opposed by Republicans in Congress, as well as some New York Democrats, and Congress passed legislation prohibiting any move to bring Guantánamo detainees to the US. About two months ago, the Obama administration bowed to political pressure and backed off the plan, saying it would instead prosecute them before a military commission. And the chief prosecutor in the office of military commissions, Captain John Murphy, said he would recommend a joint trial at Guantánamo for all five. C Dixon Osburn of Human Rights First said it was regrettable that the administration had to shelve its plans to prosecute the cases in civilian courts. Federal courts, he said, “have successfully convicted more than 400 persons of terror-related crimes since 9/11, have more criminal laws to incapacitate possible terrorists and have more than 200 years of precedent to guide them”. Dominic J Puopolo Jr, a Miami computer consultant whose mother was killed in the 9/11 attacks, attended the trial in Germany of a Moroccan man accused of aiding the plotters and had hoped to attend the trial of Mohammed and the others held at Guantánamo. He had been frustrated by the lack of apparent progress and said he was “pleasantly surprised” to receive notification on Monday from the defence department that charges would be filed again. “Just to get this started back in Guantánamo Bay is a big deal,” said Puopolo, whose mother was on board the American Airlines flight that the hijackers crashed into one of the twin towers. “I have every intention of making a stand and going there if offered.” Under the military commission’s process, the charges will be forwarded to the convening authority, Bruce MacDonald, who will decide whether to refer any of the charges for trial by military commission. Guantánamo Bay Cuba United States September 11 2001 Global terrorism guardian.co.uk
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Mutilated body of Hamza al-Khatib given to family as state TV says injuries were faked by conspirators The new face of the Syrian revolution is chubby, has a winning smile and belongs to a 13-year-old named Hamza al-Khatib. The boy, from a village called al-Jizah near the southern city of Deraa, has become the most famous victim yet of Syria’s bloody chapter of the Arab spring. Hamza was picked up by security forces on 29 April. On 27 May his badly mutilated corpse was released to his horrified family, who were warned to keep silent. According to a YouTube video and human rights activists, Hamza was tortured and his swollen body showed bullet wounds on his arms, black eyes, cuts, marks consistent with electric shock devices, bruises and whip marks. His neck had been broken and his penis cut off. Like Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman who was shot dead in street protests after Iran’s disputed presidential elections two years ago, Hamza has come to symbolise the innocent victims in a struggle for freedom against tyranny and repression. In the YouTube video, a picture of Hamza is held above his coffin. It shows his angelic grin and thick head of black hair. He is dressed in a polo shirt. Below the gold-framed photo lies his body. “He was taken alive and he was killed because he called for freedom,” says the voice-over. Other grainy clips show crowds holding a banner saying: “The martyr Hamza al-Khatib, killed under torture by Assad’s gangs.” Cries of “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) were heard at his funeral and pro-democracy protesters have designated this Friday as “Children’s Friday” in his memory.” Hamza’s violent death is being discussed all over Syria as citizens struggle to come to terms with the brutality that has accompanied the two-month uprising against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. The official media are focusing on troops and police who have been killed by “armed terrorist gangs”. Videos of protests on Saturday show crowds chanting for Hamza in towns as far away as Latakia, home to the Assad clan. “The case has upset all of us,” said a former security officer and father of four from Homs. “The brutality, especially to children, is only causing more people to come out – as it did in Deraa at the start of the protests.” Several Facebook pages have been started, including one with more than 61,000 followers called “We are all Hamza al-Khatib”. “Hamza has become a poster boy for the Syrian revolution,” said Malik al-Abdeh, whose London-based Barada TV broke the story by broadcasting the YouTube clip last Thursday, before it went global on al-Jazeera Arabic on Friday. “It’s the same thing that happened with Mohammed Bouazizi [the vendor who burned himself to death in protest] in Tunisia and Khaled Said [who was killed by police] in Egypt. But this was not another young man. He was just a boy.” Syria’s official media have accused al-Jazeera and other satellite channels of peddling propaganda. State television aired an hour-long programme on Tuesday night on the death of Hamza. Accompanied by a doctor, Akram Shaar, and a psychological doctor, Majdee al-Fares, the presenter promised to expose the “whole truth” of the affair. The doctors said the marks on Hamza’s body were not signs of torture, as activists have alleged, but were faked by conspirators. The doctors said Hamza died from bullet wounds but that conspirators created the marks on his body, trying to give the people a Syrian equivalent to Bouazizi in order to agitate them. The programme also showed a pre-recorded conversation with Hamza’s father and an uncle who said they trusted a pledge made by Assad to look into the circumstances of Hamza’s death. The interior ministry said it would set up a committee to look into the tragedy. None of Hamza’s relatives could be reached for comment. Hamza’s father, Ali, 65, was detained on Saturday, according to activists in Damascus. Wissam Tarif, the director of the human rights group Insan, said Hamza’s uncle was picked up on Monday and his brother had also been detained. The Syrian government has not allowed foreign journalists into the country since the uprising began in March. Demands for UN access have been rebuffed. Syrian activists and rights organisations say more than 1,100 people have been killed and thousands rounded up and tortured in the past 10 weeks, but Hamza’s is the most brutal case yet. The fact that the body was returned to the family rather than disposed of was intended to warn off other people, they said. “This is a message from the state to all protesters,” said a human rights expert who runs the Monitoring Protests Facebook page which focuses on abuses during the protests. “They are trying to say, ‘We don’t spare anyone and if you continue protesting this what we are going to do to you and your kids.’
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Click here to view this media Rolling Stone has done a great piece about Fox News and its impact on this country. I love this excerpt: The result of this concerted campaign of disinformation is a viewership that knows almost nothing about what’s going on in the world. According to recent polls, Fox News viewers are the most misinformed of all news consumers. They are 12 percentage points more likely to believe the stimulus package caused job losses, 17 points more likely to believe Muslims want to establish Shariah law in America, 30 points more likely to say that scientists dispute global warming, and 31 points more likely to doubt President Obama’s citizenship. In fact, a study by the University of Maryland reveals, ignorance of Fox viewers actually increases the longer they watch the network. That’s because Ailes isn’t interested in providing people with information, or even a balanced range of perspectives. Like his political mentor, Richard Nixon, Ailes traffics in the emotions of victimization. “ What Nixon did – and what Ailes does today in the age of Obama – is unravel and rewire one of the most powerful of human emotions: shame ,” says Perlstein, the author of Nixonland. “He takes the shame of people who feel that they are being looked down on, and he mobilizes it for political purposes. Roger Ailes is a direct link between the Nixonian politics of resentment and Sarah Palin’s politics of resentment. He’s the golden thread.” Much of the article is similar to what John and Dave wrote about in “Over the Cliff”, but the Rolling Stone article reaches even farther. For example, Fox News has created a “fundraising juggernaut” for Republicans, which is what enabled Republicans to bounce back so hard after being trounced in 2008: But Ailes has not simply been content to shift the nature of journalism and direct the GOP’s message war. He has also turned Fox News into a political fundraising juggernaut. During her Senate race in Delaware, Tea Party darling Christine O’Donnell bragged, “I’ve got Sean Hannity in my back pocket, and I can go on his show and raise money.” Sharron Angle, the Tea Party candidate who tried to unseat Harry Reid in Nevada, praised Fox for letting her say on-air, “I need $25 from a million people – go to SharronAngle.com and send money.” Completing the Fox-GOP axis, Karl Rove has used his pulpit as a Fox News commentator to promote American Crossroads, a shadowy political group he founded, promising that the money it raised would be put “to good use to defeat Democrats who have supported the president’s agenda.” Just this morning, Fox and Friends ran four separate segments over their 3-hour time slot about Sarah Palin. They didn’t stop there, though. There were 3 segments on Chris Christie, and an interview with Michele Bachmann where she got to play coy about her upcoming “major announcement” in Waterloo, Iowa. Then they pivoted to a Palin vs. Bachmann narrative for the last hour. Anyone with half a brain knows Sarah Palin isn’t going to run for President. She is just the next Donald Trump lined up to keep wingnut engagement high while the candidates jockey for funding and position. Kaili Joy Gray at Daily Kos has it right: So you can all hop off the Palin Paparazzi Tour of 2011, go back to your air-conditioned offices, sit back, and let her show off her savvy “new social media” skills on Twitter and Facebook—and Fox “News”—and then mock the holy hell out of her for being a fucking idiot. That’s all. That is the sum total of the amount and kind of attention she deserves. You don’t have to treat her like a serious presidential candidate, or even a serious person. Despite her protestations that she doesn’t want media attention, she’s starving for it. Hell, she quit her job as governor just so she could devote herself full-time to getting you to give her attention in the pages of your Very Serious papers. This is our Very Serious Political Media. The Beltway Boys. Today’s hot stories include more Breitbart mania, Palin, Bachmann and Christie. This is because they do not really want anyone to think about how Republicans are trying to force a financial crisis on this country by holding a faux debt ceiling vote today which will fail without Very Serious Spending Cuts, or how cynical it is to cry wolf over the national debt while refusing to raise revenues to cover it. They don’t want us to keep talking about the Paul Ryan plan to destroy Medicare, or how they’d love to kill Social Security and Medicare with one smooth debt ceiling stone. So instead we get Palin, Bachmann, and a world turned upside down over absolutely…nothing.
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Electoral commission launches case review into claims Huhne failed spending as Essex police conclude speeding inquiry Chris Huhne is facing a second potentially damaging inquiry after the elections watchdog announced it was reviewing all his expenses from the general election in response to allegations he broke the rules. The electoral commission has launched a case review into the energy secretary’s election expenses after receiving detailed claims that he failed to declare all his spending. The matter, which could be referred to the police, comes as Essex police prepares to conclude its inquiry into allegations that Huhne broke the law by asking his wife to take points he incurred for speeding. Last week, the electoral commission rejected a complaint due to insufficient evidence from two Liberal Democrat councillors in Huhne’s Eastleigh constituency that he made false declarations in his election expenses. But on Tuesday an official case review was launched after more detailed allegations were made by the Sunlight Centre for Open Democracy, which is run by Paul Staines and Harry Cole, who also writes for the rightwing Guido Fawkes blog. The allegations are that Huhne spent not only more than he declared but above the legal limit in election campaigns. The Sunlight centre is claiming: • Huhne failed to declare all spending on letters to constituents. • Items that were marked as national campaign spending did not subsequently show up on the national returns. • Huhne claimed £85 for a new website, which the Sunlight centre is alleging could not reflect its true cost. This week, police are expected to hand a dossier of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service relating to the allegations that Huhne asked his wife to take points for a speeding offence to avoid losing his licence. The electoral commission review, and potentially a second police inquiry, adds to the pressure on Huhne. The police can launch an inquiry into alleged expenses irregularities only up to 12 months after the event. That deadline expires on 10 June, and the commission will not report until 24 August. Cole has been advised that he can personally make a complaint to the police, which he said on Tuesday he was “actively considering”. Huhne said in a statement: “I have full confidence that my agent has declared my election expenses correctly and I look forward to this complaint being rejected as roundly as the last one.” An electoral commission spokesman said: “The commission received an allegation regarding Chris Huhne MP’s 2010 general election expenses on 25 May. Following an initial assessment of the information, we have now started a case review into the matter. The review will look to establish the facts of the case, firstly for the purposes of transparency and also for possible future guidance.” Chris Huhne MPs’ expenses Liberal Democrats House of Commons Polly Curtis guardian.co.uk
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CBS's Erica Hill strongly hinted on Monday's Early Show that Sarah Palin's “extended flirtation…with running” for president and speaking only to Fox News to the detriment of the rest of the media would sour her with the voters. Hill asked former Mitt Romney aide Kevin Madden, ” Does any of this risk though rubbing voters the wrong way? ” The anchor brought on Madden and former Clinton spokesman Joe Lockhart to discuss the former Alaska governor and the rest of the possible and actual 2012 presidential field for the Republican Party. After the Republican strategist agreed to a large extent with Hill in his answer to this question, she turned to Lockhart for his left-of-center view: “From a Democratic standpoint, if Sarah Palin jumped into the race, how do you think that would work out for President Obama?” In reply, the former Clinton mouthpiece regurgitated a common liberal talking point about Palin: LOCKHART: Well, I think from a Democratic point of view, it's the best thing that could happen . The problem is that Sarah Palin sucks up all of the energy and the coverage. She's irresistible. She's like a walking reality TV show. You know, it's crazy, it's colorful, and the rest of the field- they're pretty serious men and women, and they- just like Donald Trump did for the first part of this, as we go into the second phase, they're going to struggle . You know, we're not talking about Tim Pawlenty this morning. We're not talking about Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman, I think, the people who really fight out this nomination, and that's a problem for them, and the White House just needs to sit back and watch. Later in the segment, Madden's role as a former aide seemed not so former, as he lauded his former boss's record, but also conceded that he wasn't a lock for the Republican nomination: MADDEN: Well, look, I think the fundamentals of this election are already framed around the economy. And Governor Romney has had the best record, I think, on the issue of the economy, given that he's had private sector experience, and he turned around Massachusetts when they were struggling with their economy . But that doesn't really mean that there's not going to be another event that can shift this back to national security or foreign policy, where another candidate may be able to showcase their profile. The full transcript of Erica Hill's segment with Kevin Madden and Joe Lockhart, which aired 9 minutes into the 7 am Eastern hour of Tuesday's Early Show: ERICA HILL: We want to turn now to the race for the White House and the most high-profile non-candidate for president right now. Sarah Palin is currently on her East Coast bus tour, making a stop in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on Memorial Day, where she addressed the question everyone is asking: is she really considering taking the plunge? FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR SARAH PALIN: I honestly don't know. It's still, you know, a matter of looking at the field and considering much. There truly is a lot to consider before you throw yourself out there in the name of service to the public because it's so all-consuming. HILL: Joining us now from Washington, Republican strategist Kevin Madden, a former Mitt Romney campaign aide, and Democratic strategist Joe Lockhart, who was White House press secretary under President Clinton. Good to have both of you with us this morning. Kevin, I'm going to start with you on the Sarah Palin question because we have to ask it. It's this extended flirtation, you might almost call it, with running. The only media, too, she wants to speak to is her employer, Fox News. Does any of this risk though rubbing voters the wrong way? KEVIN MADDEN: Well, it doesn't fit the 'seems like you're not running' because you want to be president and you're not running because you're- you want to be a serious candidate. Instead, you're using a presidential campaign as a vehicle to build a little bit more of a profile as a celebrity, or somebody who's going to be on TV- somebody's who's going to be selling books and giving speeches. That tends to rub voters the wrong way, because, right now, they feel like there are very big challenges, and they think that the candidates that they want to see on the campaign trail are the ones who are really dealing and very acutely focused on the substance of problems or substance of challenges that we face as Americans. So it could turn off a lot of voters who are really looking at this race that's framed around the big issues. HILL: Joe, Kevin laid out some of the challenges from the Republican standpoint there. From a Democratic standpoint, if Sarah Palin jumped into the race, how do you think that would work out for President Obama? JOE LOCKHART: Well, I think from a Democratic point of view, it's the best thing that could happen. The problem is that Sarah Palin sucks up all of the energy and the coverage. She's irresistible. She's like a walking reality TV show. You know, it's crazy, it's colorful, and the rest of the field- they're pretty serious men and women, and they- just like Donald Trump did for the first part of this, as we go into the second phase, they're going to struggle. You know, we're not talking about Tim Pawlenty this morning. We're not talking about Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman, I think, the people who really fight out this nomination, and that's a problem for them, and the White House just needs to sit back and watch. HILL: So Kevin, looking at that, throwing out a few names there, including Mitt Romney, who, as we mentioned, you worked for in the last campaign, who should we be paying attention to this morning in the Republican field? MADDEN: Well, I think those top three, I think, are the ones that have the organization. They seem to have the compelling argument for many of the voters in the early primary states. Governor Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Jon Huntsman- I think those are the folks that seem to be taking the most concrete steps toward building real serious campaigns and real serious candidacies in those early states like Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and onward. But then you have another group of folks who have national name identification, like Newt Gingrich, who are also very serious with voters and are taking, you know, making the- taking the right organizational steps to compete in these early primary states. HILL: They may be more serious, but Romney has that massive war chest he's been amassing, as we know, Joe. But Jon Huntsman, in many ways it would seem, could appeal the most to independents. Is he, perhaps, the biggest threat to the White House? LOCKHART: Well, listen, it's hard to know because all of this is on paper now. I think if you look at the last couple of primaries, it's the person who got hot at the end, to use a sports metaphor- John Kerry in 2004, John McCain in 2008, who both rebuilt from, you know, disastrous starts. So I wouldn't count anybody out, and I think Huntsman may be the one who, because he's not well known and if he keeps a general low profile between now and, say, you know, post-Thanksgiving, could be the hot ticket. You want to be the hot candidate, the 'it' candidate as you go into Iowa and New Hampshire, and not the one who was talked about six months earlier. HILL: Kevin, given that and how difficult it can be to upset any incumbent, who do you think has the best chance of being that hot, 'it' candidate? MADDEN: Well, look, I think the fundamentals of this election are already framed around the economy. And Governor Romney has had the best record, I think, on the issue of the economy, given that he's had private sector experience, and he turned around Massachusetts when they were struggling with their economy. But that doesn't really mean that there's not going to be another event that can shift this back to national security or foreign policy, where another candidate may be able to showcase their profile. And then, also, I think these candidates have enough time to build up, you know, an argument in the early primary states with Republican voters that they can also be a very serious nominee and they can win- they could take the nomination in the end. So, I will say the one thing that's defining this electorate right now is its volatility. There's been twenty point swings on issues, twenty point swings on candidates. So it's going to be- that's why we have these primaries. (Hill laughs) That's the process that really starts to produce the best nominee. HILL: All right. So what you're saying is no name is appearing in your crystal ball this morning? (laughs) MADDEN: No, no. It is not a- it's definitely not- this field is very unsettled right now. HILL: The good news is is it gives us lots to talk about in the coming weeks- MADDEN: Absolutely- HILL: Kevin Madden and Joe Lockhart, thank you both this morning. LOCKHART: Thanks. MADDEN: Nice to be with you.
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