Click here to view this media Stories change hearts and minds. We know that. What we also know is that stories in person, and in video, move hearts and minds the best. And as the struggle for equality continues for LGBT people, we know there are no shortage of stories regarding personal struggles… and no shortage of minds to change. That’s where you come in. This morning, Dustin Lance Black, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Milk and other award-winning movies and documentaries, sent an e-mail to our Courage Campaign members announcing the Testimony: Take A Stand video contest: It’s a partnership we are doing in an effort to find the next great stories that shape public opinion about LGBT equality — submitted by you or your friends, family and colleagues. Testimony: Take A Stand is the name for our new project we have been rolling out: a one-stop shop hub for stories of struggle to achieve LGBT equality. Dustin Lance Black and his camera crew will be reviewing submissions and pick three incredible stories to record for television. He will then hop on a plane to fly to wherever you live and record your submission for TV, so Americans can learn why its important for our community to be equal. You can sign up here, and the deadline is June 15th. Think of what it could achieve — Zach Wahls’ story, or Dan Choi’s, or Ed and Derence’s featured here at C&L in March, targeted to advertise in places like Minnesota, where we need to change minds on marriage in advance of the 2012 ballot initiative. Or New York State, where we have a few Senators whose constituents are on the fence about marriage equality. From marriage to adoption, bullying to being transgender, there is no shortage of stories, and no shortage of minds we need to change. That’s where this project comes in. You can sign up and get more details here . Or, do you know someone — a kid who’s been bullied at school, a couple who faced medical problems at the hospital because of DOMA, a transgender women fired at the workplace? Let them know. Submissions are due by 11:59 PM PST on June 15th. So flip open those camcorders, handheld cams and computer cameras and take a minute to record your Testimony. Let’s change some minds. http://www.couragecampaign.org/DustinLanceBlack Disclosure: I serve as Director of Online Programs at the Courage Campaign.
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Joplin’s former mayor describes disaster scene as a ‘war zone’ which has destroyed entire neighbourhoods and left 90 dead Rescue workers struggled through strong winds and hail today to locate survivors of the worst tornado in half a century, after 90 people were killed in a small Missouri town. After a night of terror, Joplin awoke to unimaginable destruction: a vast expanse of splintered trees where entire neighbourhoods once stood, cars flung about like toys. Sunday’s tornado cut a six-mile swath through the centre of town, wrecking churches, schools, businesses and homes. The town fire department estimated up to a third of buildings were damaged or destroyed. The former mayor, Gary Shaw, described the scene as a war zone. “The trees,” he told National Public Radio, “they’re like somebody’s taken a knife and cut all the bark off of them. We’ve lost tonnes and tonnes of homes, and we have people out trying to uncover the dead right now.” Some of the worst destruction was at a hospital, which took a direct hit, blowing the roof off the nine-storey building. At least four people were confirmed dead at St John’s Regional Medical Centre. Witnesses said the tornado hovered over the hospital for about a minute, stripping off roofs and blowing in windows. It is thought 183 patients were in the hospital when the storm warning sirens went off, Miranda Lewis, a hospital spokeswoman, told CBS television. At least four were confirmed dead on Monday . Nurses told of desperate attempts to move patients away from windows and into enclosed hallways before the funnel cloud descended. Some patients were evacuated on pick-up trucks. But rescue workers told reporters that many of the patients had been cut by glass after the windows were blown out. The ceiling of the emergency room caved in. Trolleys were tossed more than five city blocks away, and medical records and s-rays were scattered for 60 miles. Cars were flung out of the car park into a heap. A helicopter was hurled out of the landing pad, and flipped on its side, its rotors a twisted wreck. This morning, the hospital looked as if it had been bombed. “Every window in that building is now broken,” Melodee Colbert-Kean, a city council woman, told National Public Radio. “Cars are tumbled all over the parking lot.” Officials said the hospital was now unusable. The seriously ill were transported out of town to other hospitals. Those able to walk were taken to a makeshift ward at a community centre. Across the southern end of town, an estimated 2,000 buildings were damaged, street signs and other landmarks vanished rendering Joplin unrecognisable to residents who had spent their lives there. “You see pictures of world war two, the devastation and all that with the bombing. That’s really what it looked like,” Kerry Sachetta, the principal of a flattened Joplin high school, told reporters. “I couldn’t even make out the side of the building. It was total devastation in my view. I just couldn’t believe what I saw.” But the scale of damage in Joplin did not begin to emerge until early morning when the city manager, Mark Rohr, held a press conference outside the ruin of the hospital. And there was more to come. Thunderstorms, 60mph winds and in some instances hail stones, slowed the search for survivors. Meanwhile, the national weather centre forecast violent weather, including tornadoes, all week in Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Missouri’s governor, Jay Nixon, said he feared the death toll would rise as rescue workers began searching the rubble for survivors and bodies. “I don’t think we are done counting,” he told reporters. But he said he remained hopeful of finding survivors in the rubble. “I still believe that because of the size of the debris and the number of people involved that there are lives to be saved.” As rescue workers moved out to look for survivors in the rubble, fires from gas leaks burned across the city. Downed power lines blocked roads. Nixon said he had reports of 15 missing elderly residents from a care home. The website of the local paper, the Joplin Globe, carried messages from people searching for loved ones. And with phone services down, dazed survivors tried to make their way through streets blocked by debris to look for relatives. Outside a mound of debris that was once a shopping mall, Justin Gibson pointed to a black pickup truck tossed into the ruins of a hardware store that he said had belonged to his room mate’s brother. “He was last seen here with his two little girls,”, Gibson told reporters. “We’ve been trying to get hold of him since the tornado happened.” But there were also triumphs. Search crews pulled people from the rubble of a local Wal-Mart and a hardware chain. Sunday’s twister was the second deadly tornado event in less than a month. About 350 people were killed after an estimated 200 tornadoes ripped across Alabama and five other southern states. The storms set a record for the deadliest single tornado event, but even that has been eclipsed by the devastation in Joplin, a town of around 50,000. It was the town’s misfortune to take a direct hit from the tornado. “If the Joplin tornado had struck 10 miles north, we wouldn’t be hearing about it, but it went right through the centre of town,” said Robert Henson, a spokesman for the University Corporation of Atmospheric Research. Still, said Josh Wurman of the Centre for Severe Weather Research, the tornadoes could have inflicted even greater casualties and damage. “What if this had gone through St Louis or Oklahoma City or Chicago instead of Joplin,” he said. “The potential consequences would have been much worse. It would kill many more people and destroy many more structures.” United States Natural disasters and extreme weather Suzanne Goldenberg guardian.co.uk
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Privacy laws left in chaos after Man Utd star identified in parliament, prompting calls for review of rules on social media A complete recasting of social media and internet regulation was signalled by the government as an MP used parliamentary privilege to name Ryan Giggs as the footballer identified on Twitter as having brought an injunction to prevent publication of allegations he had an affair with a former reality TV star. David Cameron, facing an increasingly aggressive tabloid campaign to stop the high court granting injunctions protecting the privacy of celebrities, announced a joint parliamentary committee to examine the complex related issues of privacy, injunctions, the regulation of the internet and the role of the press complaints commission. He said the current position was not sustainable. During Commons questions on the government’s move, the Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming named the Manchester United player , wrongfooting the Speaker, John Bercow, and instantly opening the floodgates to reporting by the mainstream media. Hemming said he had a right to do so because the footballer had already been named by 75,000 people on Twitter, but many MPs and peers accused him of being a self publicist who had abused parliamentary privilege. Just as the footballer’s name began to circulate widely across the media after Hemming’s intervention, a high court judge ruled against the Sun newspaper and insisted that the injunction preventing him being named should still be upheld, in a decision that media organisations had not expected. Mr Justice Tugendhat, delivering his ruling on Monday night, acknowledged “it is obvious that if the purpose [of the injunction] was to protect a secret then it would have now failed”, but argued that its purpose was to protect the footballer from “harassment”. In March, the Ministry of Justice published proposals for a draft defamation bill intended to address all the key issues of defamation and privacy on the internet including the responsibility of internet service providers to police material published on their sites. Calling for “a time out” to re-examine the issue of privacy, Cameron said: “It’s not fair on the newspapers if all the social media can report this and the newspapers can’t and so the law and the practice has got to catch up with how people consume media today. I don’t think there’s an easy answer to this.” The formal announcement of the joint committee was hastily made by Dominic Grieve, the attorney general. The joint committee, due to be report this autumn, was a deliberate effort by a nervous government to turn the future of press freedom and privacy into a cross-party issue, so reducing pressure on Cameron personally to reach potentially controversial conclusions. Its conclusions could nonetheless have far-reaching ramifications for tabloid newspapers too if the government attempts to reframe privacy laws. The government’s efforts to contain the controversy fell apart when Hemming used Grieve’s Commons statement on the joint committee to declare: “Mr Speaker, With about 75,000 people having named Ryan Giggs on Twitter it is impractical to imprison them all …” His defiance led to gasps and a shout of “disgrace” before a startled Speaker quickly interrupted. “Let me just say to the honourable gentleman, I know he’s already done it, but occasions such as this are occasions for raising the issues of principle involved, not seeking to flout for whatever purpose,” Bercow said. Within minutes of Hemming naming Giggs, mainstream newspapers and broadcasters used the protection of privilege to identify the footballer. Hemming later said he was trying to stop lawyers for Giggs using the courts to oppress and imprison individuals in secret just for retelling gossip on Twitter. He said: “The first steps had been taken to identity people who had started the gossip. There are people who are jailed in secret in this country.” Hemming had already tested judicial authority last week by revealing the banker Sir Fred Goodwin had been granted a superinjunction. Hemming’s move was condemned by MPs and peers. John Whittingdale, the Conservative chairman of the culture select committee said: “If MPs think the law is wrong then we should change the law rather than flout the law.” Lady Kennedy, the Labour peer, said: “The reason most of the tabloid press want to write about footballers lives is to make a profit. Newspapers are in a parlous state at the moment … we need a more grown up debate than this.” Last week, it emerged that the high court had granted its initial ruling on the basis of a belief that the footballer may well have been blackmailed by Imogen Thomas. She had been accused in evidence submitted by the player of asking him for £50,000 and then £100,000 for her silence – a claim she denies. However, Mr Justice Eady indicated that he was inclined to believed the player’s account, concluding there was “ample reason not to trust Thomas”. Mr Justice Tugendhat’s ruling was the third time in on Monday the injunction had been upheld, with verdicts from two different judges, underlining the strength of judicial feeling on the controversy. Mr Justice Eady said in a written judgment: “Should the court buckle every time one of its orders meets widespread disobedience or defiance? In a democratic society, if a law is deemed to be unenforceable or unpopular, it is for the legislature to make such changes as it decides are appropriate”. However, the Sun chose to come back to the high court after a Scottish newspaper, the Sunday Herald, printed a barely concealed photograph of the footballer on its front page and Cameron said in an interview on ITV’s Daybreak programme that he was aware of the footballer’s identity “like everybody else”. Representing the Sun in the second hearing, Richard Spearman QC told the court that keeping the privacy injunction in place was futile. He said that “today this has moved on very dramatically” and that the footballer had conceded “an own goal” by allowing his legal team to threaten legal action against Twitter and its users. Privacy & the media Ryan Giggs Newspapers & magazines Twitter Internet Blogging House of Commons Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Barack Obama cuts short Ireland visit after concerns over volcanic ash cloud
May 23, 2011 No Comment
Presidential entourage leaves Dublin sooner than expected after fears Airforce One could be grounded Barack Obama has been forced to leave Ireland early due to fears Airforce One could be grounded by a new volcanic ash cloud blowing down from Iceland. The US president flew to London on Monday evening just hours after he received a rapturous reception in central Dublin from more than 25,000 people during a speech in which he pledged that America would continue to stand by peace-makers in Northern Ireland. A White House spokesman confirmed that concerns over the ash cloud from the Grimsvötn volcano forced the presidential entourage to make a swifter than expected exit from the Republic. He had been expected to stop off Tuesday morning at Glasnevin cemetery en route to the airport to pay homage at the crypt of Daniel O’Connell, in an acknowledgement of the 19th century Irish nationalist leader’s role in opposing the slave trade. It was not the first time in the daythat the president’s travel arrangements had to be changed somewhat hastily. Earlier, the presidential Cadillac, nicknamed “the Beast” for its bomb-proof features, failed to make it out of the US embassy in Dublin after getting stuck on a ramp. The Obamas had to abandon the car in front of waving crowds and switch to another vehicle to drive them to the Marine One helicopter that took them to visit his ancestral home in Moneygall, County Offaly. Back in Dublin at the end of a packed day, Obama told thousands gathered in Dublin’s College Green that “America will stand by you always in your pursuit of peace”. Earlier the president had described the peace process in Northern Ireland as a “ripple of hope” to people trapped in other conflicts across the world. In a show of solidarity with some of the key players in the peace process before his speech, Obama met briefly with Northern Ireland’s first minister, Peter Robinson, and the deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness. Addressing the crowds gathered near Ireland’s first parliament and close to Trinity College, Obama said: “Ireland, you need to understand that you have already passed the world’s highest hopes. A dream has turned to a reality because of the work of this nation.” To the delight of thousands who continually chanted “Obama, Obama” even before he took to the podium at teatime, the president said: “This little country that inspired the biggest things – your best days are still ahead of you.” Obama also praised the work of the late taoiseach Dr Garret Fitzgerald, who died last week, for pioneering the peace process in Northern Ireland. At the start of a week when he seeks European help to resurrect the Middle East peace process, the president emphasised “how inspired we have been by the progress that has been made in Northern Ireland. Because it speaks to the possibilities of peace and people in long-standing struggles being able to re-imagine their relationships.” Referring to the pint of Guinness he drank earlier in a pub in Moneygall, Obama told his outdoor audience in Dublin: “I feel even more at home after that pint that I had. I feel even warmer.” While the crowds were kept off the route that the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh travelled on through Dublin last week, Obama drew large numbers of adoring admirers. Thousands had queued patiently in the streets of central Dublin for a chance to see the president in the flesh from early Mondaymorning. They had to pass through security cordons controlled by sharply dressed US secret service officers in sunglasses who were standing at airport-style checkin centres. In one part of Dublin the crowds snaked past the city’s Olympia Theatre all the way back to Christchurch Cathedral and then back on to Dame Street. Among those waiting to pass through the security checks was Dubliner Aaron Heffernan who not only bore an uncanny resemblance to Obama but even dressed like the president in a long, black Crombie coat, black gloves with an American flag pinned to his lapel. Even his hair cut was the same. “I came here to get some inspiration as I want to stand for the presidency of Ireland this October,” the 21-year-old drama student said. Putting on his best Obama voice, Heffernan added: “Don’t say a 21-year-old can’t be president of Ireland. As the man would say himself – Yes we can!” The majority of those filing up towards the tented security area were children, young people and families, including a group of secondary school pupils from St.MacDarat’s school in south-west Dublin who admitted they had bunked off their lessons to see the president. On Dame Street, Yasmine Leonard, 16, said she had been waiting since 9am to get a chance to see Obama. “I think he is amazing and it’s educational for me to be here as I am learning something. It’s like a history lesson so I haven’t missed my studies,” she added. Her friend Phillipa Allen from the Greenhills district said she would rather see the president than Irish singing superstars Jedward, who were on the bill to entertain the waiting crowds before Obama took to the stage. “The president is far, far cooler than the Jeds,” she said. Barack Obama Ireland Europe Iceland volcano 2011 (Grimsvotn) Natural disasters and extreme weather Iceland United States Henry McDonald guardian.co.uk
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Disorganisation and splits within activists’ ranks said to deter others from joining movement Syria’s anti-government protesters are battling against internal divisions and growing frustration as the movement against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, now in its third month, appears to have reached a stalemate. Unlike Egypt and Tunisia, where the leaders took their leave in a relatively swift and peaceful manner, protesters are realising that Syria’s regime, willing to shoot dead hundreds and lock up thousands to hang on to power, is a harder nut to crack. With the known death toll approaching 900 after 76 people were killed at the weekend, protesters are starting to reflect on what more they can do. “We want to regain our dignity and liberty, and be able to choose our government freely. Other than that there is little agreement,” said Waleed al-Bunni, a doctor and dissident currently in hiding. There is disagreement about whether or not to negotiate with the government, what tactics to adopt for the street protests, and even whether the demonstrations began too soon. “Maybe we should have waited and got better organised before we took to the streets,” said one protester in his 20s in the central city of Homs. A middle-aged woman whose son is out protesting said she offered to send him to Egypt to learn from activists but “he and his friends were so enthused by the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia they couldn’t wait”. But others said they had to take the opportunity presented by the initial victories of the Arab spring. Many in urban centres are disconnected from a mainly rural uprising, and tribal groups have their own specific codes, requiring revenge for bloodshed, said a diplomat in Damascus. When on 13 May the government said it would open a national dialogue – a pledge that looks increasingly insincere – opposition figures took different stances. Older veteran figures such as Louay Hussein, an Alawite writer who met presidential emissaries, advocated negotiations. But others, such as Razan Zeitouneh, a 35-year-old lawyer and activist, rejected any form of contact. “I am adamantly opposed to dialogue before all violence is stopped and all political prisoners are released,” she said. This disorganisation has alienated some of those who would have joined the protest movement. Two months of action have polarised Syrians. Those advocating change encompass all ages, levels of education and religions but predominantly young men are taking to the streets. “I fear people see young men in tracksuits or look at people coming out in rural areas and don’t see it as a movement that they relate to,” said the middle-aged woman. A university graduate and young professional in the capital said she would like change but “these people don’t know what they want”. What started as disparate demands – outrage at the torture of a group of children in Deraa and corruption of the governor in Homs – crystallised as protesters became united in anger at violence meted out by the regime. But more recently, the lack of a common strategy is becoming more evident. Nidaa Hassan is a pseudonym for a journalist in Syria Arab and Middle East unrest Bashar Al-Assad Syria Middle East Protest Nidaa Hassan guardian.co.uk
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Northern Irish solicitor murdered by paramilitaries was, however, threatened by police before she was killed by car bomb The security forces did not collude directly with loyalist paramilitaries who murdered the Northern Ireland solicitor Rosemary Nelson, a public inquiry has concluded. But the 40-year-old lawyer was abused and threatened by Royal Ulster Constabulary officers before she was killed by a bomb under her car at her home in Lurgan in 1999, the inquiry found. The conclusion of the long-running inquiry was welcomed by the Northern Ireland secretary, Owen Patterson, as proof there had been no “conspiracy”. The report’s damaging passages, however, highlight concerns raised by human rights groups during the Troubles. Lurgan, in mid-Ulster, has been a centre of sectarian conflict. It is now the centre of resurgent dissident republicanism. Nelson, who represented clients in many terrorism cases, became identified in the eyes of local loyalists with republican clients. That perception was, at the very least, reinforced by the police, the report said. An assault on Nelson by officers in Portadown two years before her death “had the effect of legitimising her as a target” in the eyes of loyalists, it noted. RUC intelligence about her had also leaked out into the community. “There is no evidence of any act by or within any of the state agencies [RUC, Northern Ireland Office (NIO), the army or MI5] which directly facilitated Rosemary Nelson’s murder,” the inquiry concluded. “But we cannot exclude the possibility of a rogue member or members of the RUC or the army in some way assisting the murderers to target [her].” It added: “Some members of the RUC made abusive and/or threatening remarks about Rosemary Nelson to her clients. This became publicly known.” There was also negligence by state agencies which failed to protect her. Instead they rendered her “more at risk and more vulnerable,” the inquiry found. The local RUC – apart from “negligently” failing to stop officers from threatening and abusing her – failed to follow though on promises to pay special attention to her home and offices, it said. “There was a corporate failure by the RUC to warn Rosemary Nelson of her vulnerability and offer her security advice.” RUC Special Branch is criticised for providing “incomplete” cooperation. They are said to have been “over-possessive” about their intelligence. The NIO is blamed for dealing with warnings about the threat to her safety from human rights groups in a “mechanistic way” and for failing to get involved “proactively”. Presenting the report to the House of Commons, Patterson said: “I am profoundly sorry that omissions by the state rendered Rosemary Nelson more at risk and more vulnerable.” “It is clear that just as Lord Saville found no evidence of a conspiracy by the British state; just as Lord Maclean found no evidence of state collusion in the murder of [the loyalist] Billy Wright; so this panel finds no evidence of any act by the state which directly facilitated Rosemary Nelson’s murder.” Margaret Ritchie, leader of the Social Democrat and Labour party, said: “I am very disturbed at some of the findings of the inquiry into the murder of Rosemary Nelson. It is quite clear the report raises serious issues and identifies major failings. “Rosemary Nelson made it her duty to uphold law, order and justice on behalf of society and its citizens. It is clear that the authorities failed to uphold their duty of care towards her as a citizen and offer reasonable protection. “If these failings are not tantamount to collusion then exactly what do they amount to? “To this day no one has been charged with Rosemary Nelson’s murder – all efforts must be redoubled in order to bring those responsible to justice.” The RUC has since been reformed as the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland Police Crime Owen Bowcott guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media Click here to view this media Roger Ailes has been a brilliant TV man who has turned Fox News into a right-wing ratings winner on cable TV. However, some of the choices he’s made haven’t panned out in the long run for the GOP and he’s been turning on the people he helped create. First Glenn Beck, and now, Momma Bear Palin. Or so we’re told in a great piece in the NY Mag: All the 2012 candidates know that Ailes is a crucial constituency. “You can’t run for the Republican nomination without talking to Roger,” one GOPer told me. “Every single candidate has consulted with Roger.” But he hasn’t found any of them, including the adults in the room—Jon Huntsman, Mitch Daniels, Mitt Romney—compelling. “He finds flaws in every one,” says a person familiar with his thinking. “He thinks things are going in a bad direction,” another Republican close to Ailes told me. “Roger is worried about the future of the country. He thinks the election of Obama is a disaster. He thinks Palin is an idiot. He thinks she’s stupid. He helped boost her up. People like Sarah Palin haven’t elevated the conservative movement.” In the aftermath of the Tucson rampage, the national mood seemed to pivot. Ailes recognized that a Fox brand defined by Palin could be politically vulnerable. Two days after the shooting, he gave an interview to Russell Simmons and told him both sides needed to lower the temperature. “I told all of our guys, ‘Shut up, tone it down, make your argument intellectually.’ ” “Roger thinks Palin is an idiot. People like her haven’t elevated the conservative movement.” For Ailes, Tucson was a turning point, suggesting an end to the silly season that had lasted most of Obama’s term as president and that Ailes had promoted and profited from. While Sean Hannity and other Fox pundits continue to hammer away at Obama, Ailes is hedging his bets. The network is pushing to make news anchor Bret Baier a bigger star. Shepard Smith’s newscast has flashes of outright liberalism. And last month, Ailes encouraged Bill O’Reilly—who seemed to be fading at the height of Beck’s power but now has been recast as the right’s reasonable man, Jon Stewart’s comic foil—to shoot down the “birther” conspiracy and other assorted right-wing myths that have dogged Obama since his election. It’s a long piece and well worth the read. Ailes was successful in reigniting the right-wing base and helping them to take back the House, so I’m not celebrating this story as much as some people are. Transmitting John Birch Society and Ayn Rand beliefs on a massive scale has only damaged America and the working class that helps make him as rich as he is.
Continue reading …New facts released by the office of House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., reveal a hidden tax increase in President Obama's budget proposal. Obama's plan would, these facts demonstrate, impose a 20 percent increase in the top income tax rate – a significantly greater increase than the president has admitted. The news media fancies itself a watchdog, so if the president is going to dramatically hike taxes, one would hope that Americans would hear about it first. But thus far, there has been almost no coverage of these stealth tax hikes. On Monday, Washington Post fact-checker Greg Kessler confirmed the veracity of Ryan's claims. Whether other major media outlets report on them will be the true test. Congressman Ryan broke down the president's proposed tax hikes into a pair of separate measures that effectively increase the top tax rate. Taken with an existing Medicare payroll tax, the new top tax rate under Obama's plan would be 44.8 percent, not the 39.6 percent the administration claims – and significantly higher than current top tax rates. The first provision of Obama's budget that Ryan's office noted is the reinstatement of so-called “PEP and Pease” provisions, which refer to two laws that limited deductions for high-income taxpayers. Kessler reported Monday: Ryan calculates that reinstating “PEP and Pease” would add about 2 percentage points to a wealthy person’s tax rate. The precise calculation can vary, but Ryan’s estimate appears to be in the ballpark. Ryan then adds Medicare payroll taxes to his total rate. Unlike Social Security, there is no wage cap on Medicare taxes. Currently, employees and employers split the cost of the 2.9 percent Medicare tax, though many economists say it makes sense to assume some of the employer’s tax payments result in lost wages for the employee. Ryan does that to come up with a “net” tax rate of 2.3 percent. (However, we should note, this is an existing tax; it is not new under Obama.) Interestingly, when some conservatives complain that half of all Americans do not pay income taxes, they are not counting payroll taxes, which is the main tax paid by lower-income Americans. We have not seen Ryan make this claim; it certainly would be inconsistent for him to count payroll taxes here and not in other circumstances. Meanwhile, starting in 2013, the new health care law adds a surtax on high earners — an additional 0.9 percent tax on incomes over $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples filing joint returns. For someone making $390,050, thus triggering the 39.6 percent tax rate, that means at least an extra $12,600 in Medicare taxes just from the health care law. (The health care law also imposes additional taxes on investment income, but we won’t get into that now.) Adding up all of these figures, you get to an effective marginal rate of nearly 45 percent. One can quibble with some of the assumptions, but tax experts we checked with found Ryan’s calculations to be reasonable. The two percent income tax increase from PEP/Pease and the 0.9 percent “surtax” imposed to pay for Obamacare, when taken with the 2.3 percent payroll tax increase, bring the new top tax rate to 44.8 percent. The hidden tax hikes in Obama's budget amount to a 7.5 percent increase in income taxes for top earners – a 20 percent increase over current rates. The new top tax rate under Obama's budget would be the highest it's been since the 1980s, and significantly higher than the president himself has admitted. The revelations are crucial as a means to evaluate the administration's performance on the number one policy priority of American voter: jobs. Raising tax rates on the highest income earners can depress job growth, as the wealthiest Americans are generally the ones investing in job-creating ventures. So a push to so dramatically increase taxes on those earners is anathema to a job-creating economic agenda. The president himself has criticized the business community for supposedly sitting on $2 trillion in capital (a claim that was itself misleading ). But Obama apparently expects investors to risk what capital they have without knowing whether they will face punitive tax rates in the near future. So the “uncertainty factor” of these stealth tax hikes, which would raise rates even higher than the roughly 40 percent claimed by the White House, undermines the president's own rhetoric on job creation. Not only is this tax increase likely to hinder job creation, it is unlikely to meaningfully contribute to deficit reduction, for reasons detailed in this video, compliments of Learn Liberty : So the president's stealth tax increase will not likely aid in efforts to address the electorate's top priority, or its own stated goal of bringing down the federal budget deficit. Will the media report on these tax hikes now that they have been unearthed, or simply accept the president's claims at face value? The Washington Post has admirably taken the lead. Let's hope that others follow.
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Results seen as protest vote against Spain’s José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s handling of economy since 2008 The PSOE socialist party of Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is licking its wounds after defeat by the conservative opposition People’s party (PP) in municipal and regional elections. In what was widely seen as a protest vote against Zapatero himself and his handling of Spain’s economy, his party lost control of key city halls in places such as Barcelona and Seville while the PP took control of most of the country’s powerful regional governments. The central Castilla La Mancha region, Aragon and the Balearic islands all ejected socialist administrations. “We are aware of the situation that had distanced people from our party and caused them to criticise us with their vote or abstention,” party spokesman José Blanco said. The socialist drubbing came just 10 months before a general election and appeared to clear the way for PP leader Mariano Rajoy to take possession of the prime minister’s Moncloa Palace residence on his third attempt. The voting coincided with the eruption of numerous popular protests against established politics across Spain, with demonstrators camping out in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol and in dozens of other cities. A backdrop of 21% unemployment and sluggish growth has spread pessimism throughout Spain as the country struggles to find its feet after the global 2008 financial crash. The socialists lost one in five voters on Sunday, compared with the municipal elections of 2007. Not all those votes were picked up by other mainstream parties, however, and the number of spoilt ballots doubled. But overall turnout was a high 66%. Zapatero is blamed by some for mismanaging a debt crisis that saw Spain on the edge of disaster last year. Others dislike the austerity measures he has since imposed in order to avoid a Portuguese- or Greek-style debacle in Spain. His popularity has plunged since a U-turn last year saw him bring in a strict deficit-cutting plan, which he has pledged to stick to, along with labour and pensions reforms. Markets reacted nervously to the poll result on Monday, pushing up the price of Spanish bonds and pushing down Spanish share prices. The PP urged Zapatero to call a snap general election. “Zapatero and the whole socialist party must reflect on what has happened. Spain cannot waste another year like this,” said the party’s general secretary María Dolores de Cospedal. The one socialist leader to have survived Sunday’s debacle, the head of the Extramadura regional government Guillermo Fernández, also suggested that an early general election might be considered. Zapatero is not standing for re-election so the socialists must first choose a new leader to take them into the 2012 poll, with deputy prime minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba and defence minister Carme Chacón regarded as favourites. Party officials said that a timetable for electing the new leader would be set on Saturday. With a general election due in Portugal on 5 June, and with opinion polls showing that socialist prime minister José Sócrates will struggle to hang on to power, the rolling back of leftwing politics that has already taken place in northern Europe now appears to have moved south. Spain José Luis Zapatero Europe Global recession Protest Giles Tremlett guardian.co.uk
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Sarah Teather says the supply of speech therapy and basic equipment for children with special needs has become a ‘postcode lottery’ The children and families minister has attacked the health service for failing some of the country’s most vulnerable young people. Sarah Teather said the chance of a child receiving much-needed speech and language therapy was “between low and nil”, while the wait for a wheelchair could be “really long”. Teather, who spent most of her own secondary school days in a wheelchair after suffering from a viral infection, said the health service “has not always been good at doing its fair share for children in this position”. Families were often left as the “piggy in the middle”, she said in an interview with the Guardian. Health workers often agreed with parents that a child needed a wheelchair, incontinence pads or a form of therapy, but “nobody pays for it” and it fails to arrive, she said. This could severely impair a child’s chances in the future, she warned: “A six-month wait for speech and language therapy can be critical; an 18-month wait can be really critical.” In some cases, by the time a wheelchair arrives, a child has grown too big for it, she said, adding that it was a “postcode lottery” to get basic equipment. Government proposals, published in a green paper in March, would improve life for children with special needs and disabilities and their families, she said. At the moment, children with severe or multiple health and learning disabilities receive a statement from their local authority. This covers only the services that schools are expected to give children, rather than those they need from the health service or social services. The green paper proposes to replace the existing statement of special educational needs with a single care plan covering schooling, health and social services from birth to the age of 25. This would mean a child’s educational, social and health needs would be dealt with together. The plan would reflect a family’s needs and ambitions for the child’s future and would be continually reviewed. The green paper also set out plans to give parents a personal budget to spend on services such as one-to-one tuition, laptops and wheelchairs. “Rather than a family having to go to the council trying to bang down their door to get something, [the council] are coming to you saying, this is what we normally provide. The family then has a conversation about whether it is appropriate,” Teather said. The government also plans to introduce into all schools a programme to help children with special needs improve at a faster rate. Researchers found the Achievement for All programme helped nine- and 10-year-olds with special needs to learn reading, writing and maths three times faster than they were expected to under the national curriculum. Under the same programme, 14- and 15-year-olds with special needs made progress in maths and English that was equivalent to having an extra term of lessons in a year. The programme, which has been piloted in 454 schools in 10 local authorities since 2009, works by setting pupils regular targets. Teachers and parents discuss progress three times a year for a minimum of 45 minutes. Children with special needs and disabilities are strongly encouraged to join school clubs and activities outside lessons. Sonia Blandford, director of the programme, said it could reduce by 10% the proportion of children registered as having special needs. Special educational needs Learning disability NHS Health Children Social policy and administration Health policy Schools Jessica Shepherd guardian.co.uk
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