A selection of Steve Bell’s witty cartoons and cutting political commentary marking 30 years drawing for the Guardian Steve Bell
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The top job at the IMF usually goes to a European while an American leads its sister organisation, the World Bank The battle for the top job at the IMF has intensified as a group of leading emerging economies attacked Europe’s “obsolete” grip on the position ahead of an expected declaration from French finance minister Christine Lagarde that she wants to be head of the organisation on Wednesday. The Bric nations – Brazil, Russia, India and China – along with South Africa said in a rare joint statement that the choice of managing director on the basis of nationality undermines the legitimacy of the International Monetary Fund, and stressed it should be based on competence. “The recent financial crisis which erupted in developed countries, underscored the urgency of reforming international financial institutions so as to reflect the growing role of developing countries in the world economy,” they said. They called for the end of the “obsolete unwritten convention that requires that the head of the IMF be necessarily from Europe,” which dates back to the founding of the agency at the end of the second world war. The top job at the IMF usually goes to a European while an American leads its sister organisation, the World Bank. However, the Bric countries did not suggest an alternative candidate to Lagarde, who is set to formally announce her candidacy on Wednesday. She has garnered support in Europe – including from the UK government – and the United States. Hours before the Bric statement was issued in Washington, France’s government said China would back Lagarde to succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who resigned after being charged with sexually assaulting a hotel maid in New York. China’s foreign ministry declined to comment. Lagarde has played a key role in protecting France’s financial system since the crisis struck, but she faces a possible legal probe of her role in a payout to Bernard Tapie, a prominent French businessman, to settle a dispute with a state-owned bank in 2008. Mexico has nominated its central bank chief , Agustin Carstens, for the IMF role. Former South African finance minister Trevor Manual has been mooted as a possible candidate, although he is currently involved in a racism row which would undermine his diplomatic credentials, and Russia has said it would back Kazakhstan’s central bank chief, Grigory Marchenko. IMF Christine Lagarde Economics Global economy Dominique Strauss-Kahn Julia Kollewe guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Jane Corwin sees early lead dissolve after coming out in favour of Republican plan to cut millions from Medicare Democrats have won a heavily Republican upstate New York congressional seat, in a special election that was regarded as a potential bellwether for US national elections next year. Erie County clerk Kathy Hochul edged past Republican state assemblywoman Jane Corwin to win the seat in the 26th congressional district in north-west New York state. The rural-suburban district between Buffalo and Rochester is one of the state’s most conservative. But Corwin saw her early lead dissolve after coming out in favour of a Republican budget plan that would cut billions from Medicare, the popular government healthcare plan for senior citizens. The Democratic victory in the strongly Republican district came just six months after the Republicans rode discontent over the soaring deficit and fragile economic recovery to a sweeping victory in November’s congressional elections. The Republicans picked up 63 seats to regain control of the House of Representatives and trimmed the Democrats’ majority in the Senate. Hochul’s victory gives the Democrats hope that they can use voters’ anxiety over Republican proposals to overhaul Medicare to their advantage in November 2012, when all seats in the House and a third of seats in the Senate are on the ballot. President Barack Obama will also be seeking re-election. At the same time, Republicans find themselves on the political defensive on the Medicare issue, exhibiting significant internal strains for the first time since last autumn’s electoral gains. With 89% of precincts reporting, Hochul had 48% of the vote, compared with 42% for Corwin. A third candidate, Jack Davis, with 9%, also siphoned votes away from Corwin by running as a supporter of the ultra-conservative Tea Party movement. Scores of Hochul supporters, roaring with delight and chanting “Kathy, Kathy, Kathy,” jammed into a UAW union hall in Buffalo suburb Amherst for Hochul’s victory speech. The crowd chanted “Medicare, Medicare.” The seat became vacant in February when Republican Chris Lee, who won in 2010 with 74% of the vote, resigned after shirtless photos he sent to a woman surfaced online. The 26th congressional district was one of only four districts in the state out of 29 that favoured Republican John McCain over Barack Obama in 2008. But Corwin, a multimillionaire state assemblywoman, watched her lead evaporate after expressing support for a plan crafted by House budget committee chairman Paul Ryan to strip billions from Medicare. Corwin said she supported the Ryan plan as a way to ensure Medicare for future generations. Under Ryan’s proposal, Medicare would remain unchanged for those 55 or older, including the millions who receive healthcare under the programme. Anyone younger would be required to obtain coverage from a private insurer when they turn 65, with the government providing a voucher to subsidise part of the cost of premiums. Hochul quickly seized on Corwin’s position and cast herself as the protector of Medicare in a district with a large population of voters over 55. Hochul’s ads said that she wants to reduce government spending, but blasted Corwin for favouring Medicare cuts “to pay for more tax cuts for multimillionaires”. Corwin tried to shift her position, suggesting she would favour changing the Ryan plan if elected. The race had long been expected to be an easy victory for Republicans, but once the race turned unexpectedly competitive both national parties and several independent groups poured in more than $2m (£1.23m) to sway voters. Lee, who had just started his second term, abruptly resigned after a gossip website published a shirtless mobile phone picture he had sent to a woman he had been flirting with on Craigslist, the classified ads website. Tuesday’s vote will not have an immediate effect on the balance of power in Washington. Republicans still hold a commanding majority in the House. A recent Associated Press-GFK poll found that most Americans do not believe Medicare has to be cut to balance the federal budget. Democrats Republicans New York US elections 2012 US Congress United States US politics guardian.co.uk
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Five police officers killed and at least 30 wounded in latest violence to hit Pakistan since killing of Osama bin Laden A suicide car bomber has struck a police building in Pakistan’s main north-west city, killing five police officers and wounding at least 30 others in the latest violence to hit the country since the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Although no group immediately claimed responsibility for the early morning strike on Wednesday in Peshawar, the attack added to growing fears of a long, bloody summer as Pakistani Taliban and other al-Qaida-affiliated groups carry out threats to avenge the al-Qaida chief’s death. Already this month, the Pakistani Taliban have claimed they carried out three revenge attacks, including a deadly 18-hour siege of a naval base. The bomber’s target appeared to be a building belonging to the police’s criminal investigation department, but the station was located in an army cantonment and military facilities are also nearby, said Liaquat Ali Khan, a senior police official in Peshawar. Investigators with the police counter-terrorism unit were stationed at the centre, said Fayaz Khan Toru, the leading police official in north-west Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. Police officer Mohammad Zahid was in the basement of the building when the bomb went off. “I felt like the sky fell on me,” Zahid said from the hospital where he was being treated for multiple injuries. “The explosion jammed the door of my room in the basement, but there was a small hole in the wall so I crawled through that. When I got outside, there was lots of dust and smoke.” Military forces quickly sealed off much of the area as machines were brought in to sift through the facility’s wreckage. “Our determination is much higher than before, and we will fight till the defeat of these terrorists,” said Bashir Bilour, a senior official with the provincial government. Since the death of Osama bin Laden, US-Pakistan relations have sunk to new lows. The Pakistani Taliban are exploiting the tense relations by promising to attack both Pakistani and western targets to avenge Bin Laden’s death. The militant group has long despised the Pakistani government and army for their alliance with the US, a sentiment shared by many ordinary Pakistanis. Since the Bin Laden raid, the group has taken responsibility for a twin suicide bombing at a paramilitary police training facility that killed around 90 people and a car bomb that slightly wounded two Americans in north-west Pakistan. Pakistan Taliban Osama bin Laden Global terrorism guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media A huge win happened tonight for the Democratic Party and to Congresswoman-Elect Kathy Hochul because Republican voters are afraid that they will lose their Medicare at the hands of the GOP. NY Times: Voters, who turned out in strikingly large numbers for a special election, said they trusted Ms. Hochul, the county clerk of Erie County, to protect Medicare. “ I have almost always voted the party line,” said Gloria Bolender, a Republican from Clarence who is caring for her 80-year-old mother. “This is the second time in my life I’ve voted against my party.” Pat Gillick, a Republican from East Amherst, who also cast a ballot for Ms. Hochul, said, “The privatization of Medicare scares me.” The district, which stretches from Buffalo to Rochester, has been in Republican hands for four decades, producing influential figures like Representative Jack Kemp and siding with Carl P. Paladino, a Republican, over Andrew M. Cuomo in the governor’s race last year. via emailed press release: DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz released the following statement after Congresswoman-Elect Kathy Hochul’s victory in the New York Special Election : “I wholeheartedly congratulate Congresswoman-Elect Hochul and her grassroots supporters for their hard work and dedication despite being outspent by a 2-to-1 margin. Tonight’s election result is not just a victory for Congresswoman-Elect Kathy Hochul, it’s a victory for the residents of Western New York and for Americans who believe that our elected leaders should fight to protect Medicare and ensure that our government works for our seniors, working families and young people . Kathy’s Republican opponent, and those who spent a small fortune on her behalf in a solidly Republican district, found out the hard way that their extreme plans to abolish Medicare and slash Medicaid and investments in health care, education, innovation and job creation are wrongheaded and unpopular even in a district that should have been a cakewalk for the Republican candidate.
Continue reading …Republican Strategist Feehery: We’ve Got to Voucherize Medicare if We Want to Keep the Department of Defense
May 24, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media I’m not sure if “Republican strategist” or probably better described, U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobbyist , John Feehery meant to actually say this out loud on television, but I think he accidentally told the truth on Hardball. While defending Paul Ryan and the Republican’s plan to turn Medicare into a voucher program as a means of “saving” Medicare, at the very end of the segment Feehery lets one slip with their real priorities. Medicare and our social safety nets must be sacrificed if we want to keep a Department of Defense. So we’ve got to keep pouring billions into these bottomless pits where we invaded countries that were not a threat to us and our so-called “war on terror”, or we gut Medicare. Those are the choices. No raising taxes to pay for invading other countries. No cuts to our military industrial complex. Take it out of the hide of the poor and our seniors instead. We knew these were their priorities already. It’s just unusual to hear one of them actually say it out loud. And as Digby noted on the rest of Feehery’s spin here: This is some great GOP messaging from strategist John Feehery today on Hardball: Feehery: This is the same program that was put out by John Breaux and Bill Thomas back in the 1990s. We have to fix Medicare for the long term. Obviously competition has to be involved with it. Obviously what Paul Ryan has said is, “if you’re under 55 this is something you might have to deal with, if you’re over 55 it’s not gonna touch you.” That’s something that polls very well with seniors. This is a beginning of a conversation. This is a beginning of a conversation and it has to happen. Matthews; You sound desperate. You’re skirting and saying it doesn’t matter if you’re over 55. Feehery: That’s what the plan says, if you’re over 55 it’s not going to impact you. And that’s an important talking point. All the members of congress that I’ve talked to when they go back to their constituents over 55 that sells. Now I don’t happen to think that’s fair. I’m under 55 and if there’s going to be reform I think the old guys have to pay as well, but I’m not running for office so … Read on…
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Chris Hutcheson can be named in a case involving his family after court of appeal partially lifts privacy order A superinjunction obtained by the father-in-law of the television chef Gordon Ramsay has been partially lifted by an order of the court of appeal. Chris Hutcheson failed in an attempt to retain an injunction gagging the press in a case involving his family. The decision is a further setback to the power of privacy orders to restrict reporting and comes on the day after an MP named Ryan Giggs as the footballer identified on Twitter as having brought an injunction to prevent publication of allegations he had an affair. Hutcheson can be named after the court partially lifted anonymity over the legal action. He had appealed against a refusal in December by high court judge Mr Justice Eady to grant him an interim injunction restraining newspapers from publishing “private information”. Hugh Tomlinson QC, for Hutcheson, said the case related to “family issues – conduct which might well be said to be morally blameworthy” but not criminal or regulatory misconduct. Upholding Justice Eady’s decision, the Master of the Rolls, Lord Neuberger, said: “We consider he was right to dismiss KGM’s [ Hutcheson's] application for restraint on publication of certain information.” Tomlinson said Hutcheson’s case was that the information he was seeking to keep out of the newspapers was “purely a private matter of concern only to him and a small number of other individuals”. He was “not a public figure, not a premiership footballer” and he did not hold any public office or official position. Hutcheson and his celebrity chef son-in-law parted company last October in a public falling out. The Master of the Rolls, sitting with Lord Justice Etherton and Lord Justice Gross, will consider on Wednesday what material from the high court judgment can now be disclosed to the public. He warned that, until then, details of the judgment must not be published. But he added that newspapers and the media could use information about the case before then if it came “from an independent source”. The appeal court decision was a victory for the publishers of The Sun, Daily Mirror and Daily Mail, which had opposed Hutcheson’s application for a gagging order. Superinjunctions Injunctions Gordon Ramsay Media law Newspapers & magazines Press freedom Newspapers Owen Bowcott guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media Former President George W. Bush was almost hit by a foul ball at Monday night’s White Sox vs. Texas Rangers baseball game. White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski leaped toward Bush to try to catch the ball but missed. “Just cause he was the president doesn’t mean I wouldn’t jump on top of him,” Pierzynski told Bush, according to Fox’s Orlando affiliate .
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Cabinet minister interviewed by Essex police over allegations he passed speeding penalty points on to someone else Cabinet minister Chris Huhne and another person, believed to be his ex-wife, Vicky Pryce, have been interviewed by police over allegations he tried to pass speeding points on to someone else in March 2003. Huhne is battling to save his reputation in the face of accusations by his wife that he made her accept the points. At the weekend, Pryce piled further pressure on Huhne when she released a copy of her driving licence to a Sunday newspaper showing that she had received three points on 12 March 2003. Huhne denies the allegations. On Tuesday Essex police said: “We can confirm that two individuals have been interviewed today at police stations in Essex and London in respect of allegations regarding a speeding offence.” The force did not confirm whether either interview was carried out under caution, but stressed no arrests had been made. A spokeswoman for Huhne said: “Chris Huhne helped Essex police with their inquiries today and looks forward to an early resolution of this issue.” Chris Huhne Allegra Stratton guardian.co.uk
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José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva fought against illegal loggers and had received death threats but was refused police protection Six months after predicting his own murder, a leading rainforest defender has reportedly been gunned down in the Brazilian Amazon. José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife, Maria do Espírito Santo, are said to have been killed in an ambush near their home in Nova Ipixuna, in Pará state, about 37 miles from Marabá. According to a local newspaper, Diário do Pará , the couple had not had police protection despite getting frequent death threats because of their battle against illegal loggers and ranchers. On Tuesday there were conflicting reports from about whether the killing happened on Monday night or Tuesday morning. A police spokesperson said there were reports of a “double homicide” at the settlement called Maçaranduba 2. In a speech at a TEDx event in Manaus, in November , Da Silva spoke of his fears that loggers would try to silence him. “I could be here today talking to you and in one month you will get the news that I disappeared. I will protect the forest at all costs. That is why I could get a bullet in my head at any moment … because I denounce the loggers and charcoal producers, and that is why they think I cannot exist. [People] ask me, ‘are you afraid?’ Yes, I’m a human being, of course I am afraid. But my fear does not silence me. As long as I have the strength to walk I will denounce all of those who damage the forest.” Roberto Smeraldi, founder and director of the environmental group Amigos da Terra, who worked with Da Silva in the Amazon, said he had been in a meeting with Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, discussing changes to the forest code when the news broke of Da Silva being killed. “He was convinced he would be killed one day,” Smeraldi said. He added that Da Silva had been “very active” in the fight against illegal forest burning and logging. According to Brazilian media reports, Rousseff has asked her chief of staff, Gilberto Carvalho, to offer support to the murder investigation. “We now have another Chico Mendes,” said Felipe Milanez, an environmental journalist from São Paulo, referring to the Amazonian rubber-tapper who became an environmental martyr after his murder in 1988. Milanez said that in a recent phone conversation with Da Silva’s wife she had suggested the situation was “getting very ugly”. Milanez added: “He knew the threats were very real. He was scared.” A 2008 report compiled by Brazilian human rights groups listed Da Silva as one of dozens of Amazon human rights and environmental activists “considered at risk” of assassination. Brazil Forests Tom Phillips guardian.co.uk
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