Able Seaman Ryan Samuel Donovan admits killing Lieutenant Commander Ian Molyneux aboard HMS Astute A Royal Navy sailor has pleaded guilty to shooting dead an officer and the attempted murder of three other crew onboard the nuclear submarine HMS Astute. Able Seaman Ryan Samuel Donovan, 23, of Dartford, Kent, admitted shooting Lieutenant Commander Ian Molyneux, 36, with an SA80 rifle while the sub was docked in Southampton on 8 April this year. He also admitted the attempted murders of Petty Officer Christopher Brown, 36, Chief Petty Officer David McCoy, 37, and Lieutenant Commander Christopher Hodge, 45, during a goodwill visit to the city. Donovan fired the SA80 six times in the control room of the sub, aiming at the four named victims and killing Molyneux. It is believed Donovan was on sentry duty and the shooting happened during a weapons changeover between shifts. Hodge was also shot in the incident but he survived his injuries. The shootings took place as local dignitaries, including the city council’s mayor, chief executive and leader Royston Smith, were being given a tour of the submarine while it was berthed at the Eastern Docks on a five-day official visit to the Hampshire city. Smith wrestled Donovan to the ground soon after he started firing at around noon. Describing his dramatic involvement, he told the BBC: “Two shots were fired, straight after he entered the control room again and began shooting again. “I ran towards him, I pushed him against the wall, we wrestled to take the gun from him. “He fired again, I wrestled again to get the weapon from him. I pushed him to another wall, I wrestled him to the ground and managed to take the weapon away from him then others came to help to restrain him.” Molyneux’s widow, Gillian, described the father-of-four, from Wigan, as “utterly devoted to his family”. She added: “Everything he did was for us. He was very proud to be an officer in the Royal Navy submarine service.” Military Crime guardian.co.uk
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As Travellers and protesters block site to keep out bailiffs, UN official reveals attempt to broker ‘less dramatic solution’ The government has blocked attempts by the United Nations to help negotiate a deal between Travellers at the Dale Farm site in Essex and Basildon council, which is set to send in bailiffs to evict 86 families from their homes, the Guardian has learned. As an estimated 200 protesters and Travellers blocked the site’s entrance at Dale Farm on Monday to prevent bailiffs from entering, it emerged that the government had refused offers of help from the UN high commissioner for human rights in Brussels. Jan Jarab, Europe representative of the commissioner, said the government had unofficially made it understood that the UN commission would not be welcome at the Dale Farm site. Basildon council was understood to be in 11th-hour talks with the Travellers on Monday morning. A council spokesman said fresh talks were “likely”. He added: “We are happy to have a meeting to agree how to carry out this operation in a safe and peaceful manner, but talks about the legality of the eviction or to try and delay the operation are not on the table.” Jarab said: “We offered to be part of a negotiation to try and arrive at a less dramatic solution at Dale Farm. There was communication between the British government and our headquarters but it was made clear to us that we would receive a letter that that offer was rejected. “It is terribly sad and I am disappointed. A forced eviction is a dramatic event for the people concerned.” The proposed evictions would send the wrong signal to other councils in the UK and other countries in Europe, he added. “It is actually very symbolic: this is the largest Irish Traveller site in the UK and it sends the message across the UK and also across the European Union that the government is putting its weight behind an eviction-based approach.” At the site, several protesters had chained themselves to cars and concrete blocks to prevent the evictions, which they say will make 400 people homeless. Some residents have already pulled their homes off the site, many over the weekend, with a large number parked on the legal site adjacent to the unauthorised plot. Wearing a blue boiler suit and resting on an old sofa cushion, a protester called Jessica, who did not want to give her surname, said campaigners were “showing physical support and physical solidarity”. She said: “Four hundred people are being made homeless. What are we doing throwing these people into destitution? Do we want more poverty in this country? “The people here are losing everything: their homes, their land, the money they’ve spent on this land and their whole community. If they can’t live in a scrapyard, where can they live? It is prejudice and discrimination and that’s why we are here.” By mid-morning there was no sign of bailiffs attempting to enter the site, but a helicopter circling overhead was a constant presence. Dale Farm resident Kathleen McCarthy, from just behind the barricade, made a plea to Basildon council and David Cameron to stop the eviction. “If you are human beings this could still be stopped. I would plead and beg to stop this,” she said. “We’ll go anywhere. You can have this scrapyard; we don’t want it. We just want somewhere to go.” Dale Farm Roma, Gypsies and Travellers United Nations Human rights Alexandra Topping guardian.co.uk
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Cable says he is ‘positively committed’ to the coalition ahead of keynote conference speech in which he will unveil plans to call time on spiralling boardroom pay Follow the latest developments on our conference live blog Vince Cable, the business secretary, has ruled out a “coalition divorce” as he outlined Liberal Democrat ministers’ commitment to turn the economy around. Cable said he was “positively committed” to the government as he prepared to make his keynote speech at the Lib Dem annual conference, in which he will unveil plans to “call time” on spiralling boardroom pay . Cable did a round of media interviews on Monday morning to flesh out his plans to force companies to publicly justify handing out multimillion-pound packages. But as delegates gather for the third day of the conference in Birmingham, he was pressed on the party’s relationship with its coalition partners after party president Tim Farron set the cat among the pigeons when he joked on the conference stage that divorce from the Conservatives in “three or four years” was inevitable. Cable insisted he and Lib Dem colleagues are “most definitely not talking about coalition divorce”. He told BBC News: “We are committed to the coalition government. We have a massive task to do to turn the economy around. It has to be done in an environment of fairness, which is where this issue of reward for failure comes in, but nobody is talking about divorce. We have to stick with the financial discipline – it is actually fundamental.” As Lib Dem ministers take turns at the conference podium to reassure members that the party is punching above its weight in government, Cable was also asked about comments he made to undercover Daily Telegraph reporters last year in which he claimed to have a “veto” and could bring down the coalition government by walking out. Asked on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme if he still believed he had a veto, Cable said he was not thinking in “those negative terms”. “I am positively committed to the coalition,” he said. “We have got a long haul major task of sorting out the economy at the same time delivering fairness – we have got to get that right and I think my role in the coalition is an important one. I am business secretary, I am supporting economic growth while at the same time contributing to the very substantial cuts we have got to make.” Cable was also pressed on a report in today’s Financial Times that a new £12bn black hole has opened up in the public finances. The forecast suggests the government will either have to prolong austerity measures into the next parliament, or introduce further spending cuts or tax rises to balance the books by the end of parliament. The business secretary said he had not seen the figures cited in the FT and did not recognise them. “There is actually quite a lot of flexibility built into our existing fiscal plans and it’s very difficult to envisage circumstances in which the government would want to deflate the economy or take demand out of the economy,” said Cable. In his speech to the party conference, Cable will take aim at corporate “rewards for failure”. He will announce that all directors of firms listed on the London Stock Exchange will be required to clearly set out the total value of salary, shares, pensions and bonuses every year. From October firms must disclose the criteria used to determine their reward packages. Cable told Today that giving shareholders a veto over the deals was “one of the options” and that he was “well-disposed” to the idea. “What we want to do is reward success in business. We want entrepreneurs to succeed, be properly rewarded, [as well as] risk-takers [who bring] inward investment,” he said. “What we do not want is rewards for failure, and the pattern over the last decade or so has been that there has been a massive increase in executive pay, management pay – 400% over a decade at a time when share prices for the owners have not increased at all and basic pay has not increased. “Something has gone wrong in the market for senior executives and we want to resolve that.” Conference will also debate phone hacking today, with calls for the press watchdog, the Press Complaints Commission, to be replaced with a body with power to impose large fines on newspapers that breach the code of conduct. The motion will also call for an increase in the punishment for those breaking the Data Protection Act so offenders can be sent to jail. Delegates will also debate a motion criticising the large number of lengthy jail sentences handed down by the courts to those involved in riots this summer, and urging ministers to drop plans to make it easier for rioters and their families to be evicted from social housing. On Monday afternoon the Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg, will take questions from the audience. Liberal Democrat conference 2011 Vince Cable Liberal Democrat conference Liberal Democrats Liberal Democrat conference 2010 Executive pay and bonuses Economic policy Liberal-Conservative coalition Hélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk
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European bank shares among leading fallers prior to crucial meeting over Greece receiving €8bn to stave off default Stock markets fell sharply on Monday amid growing tensions over the EU’s failure to resolve the Greek debt crisis. European bank shares led the fallers, hours ahead of crucial talks that will help determine whether Greece receives €8bn (£6.96bn) of funds it needs to stave off default. In London, the FTSE 100 index lost more than 80 points in early trading, a fall of 1.5%. Germany’s Dax, France’s CAC, Spain’s Ibex and Italy’s FTSE MIB opened between 2.3% and 2.9% lower. The sell-off followed a weekend meeting in Wroclaw , Poland, where EU countries failed to come up with a consensus on how to prevent a Greek default. European leaders clashed with US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner, who told them to stop “loose talk” that was damaging the eurozone and bringing “catastrophic risk” to global financial markets. Michael Hewson, market analyst at CMC Markets, said: “The lack of any headway at the Ecofin weekend meeting in Poland, along with a swift dismissal of advice from Geithner, merely serves to highlight the simmering tensions among European politicians as they try to balance the competing demands of political unpopularity at home against the need to reassure financial markets.” Shares in French bank Société Générale tumbled over 6% in Paris, making SocGen the biggest faller among European banks. In London, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and Lloyds Banking Group all fell by more than 5%. Investors are braced for another week of turbulence as the world’s finance ministers and central bankers gather in Washington for the International Monetary Fund’s annual meeting. In Asia, markets were also bathed in red. While Japan’s Nikkei was closed for a national holiday, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 2.4% and markets in Taiwan, Seoul, Singapore, Shanghai and Jakarta were down more than 1%. Oil prices also slipped, with Brent crude falling below $112 a barrel. Gold, seen as a safe haven investment, strengthened. Spot gold hit $1,824 an ounce. More austerity ahead? Greek prime minister George Papandreou has scrapped plans to attend the IMF meeting and held an emergency cabinet meeting on Sunday to discuss additional austerity measures, ahead of a crucial conference call with EU, European Central Bank and IMF officials – the troika – on Monday. The Greek government will continue its meeting after being told that the next tranche of the bailout, €8bn due at the end of the month, hinges on further belt-tightening. “The timing of a Greek default remains in the hands of the troika and it is difficult to believe that they will decide to pull the plug at this stage because of the potential impact upon the other troubled sovereigns and the banking sector,” said Gary Jenkins, head of fixed income at Evolution Securities. “That said, who knows what contingency plans they have prepared behind closed doors (although the fact that they have leaked like a sieve throughout the crisis suggests we would have heard about them if they had …) and on the day that all the ducks are lined up then that might be the day that support for Greece is withdrawn. However, comments from the German finance minister that ‘membership in a monetary union is an opportunity, but also a heavy burden … the Greeks must decide whether they want to bear this burden’ might suggest that the endgame is nigh.” Elsewhere, credit ratings agency Moody’s is expected to announce within a month whether it plans to downgrade Italy’s Aa2 rating, a move that could escalate the European debt crisis, although Standard & Poor’s already rates the country two notches lower at A+. European debt crisis European banks Europe European Central Bank FTSE Stock markets Banking Greece Europe Nikkei Société Générale Royal Bank of Scotland Lloyds Banking Group Euro Julia Kollewe guardian.co.uk
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West Midlands police question suspects over alleged plot to carry out act of terrorism Six men have been arrested in Birmingham as part of a large intelligence-led counter-terrorism operation, police said on Monday morning. The men were detained at or near their homes overnight on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism in the UK. A spokeswoman for West Midlands police said the men, aged between 25 and 32, were taken into custody by unarmed officers in the Moseley, Sparkbrook, Sparkhill, Ward End and Balsall Heath areas of Birmingham between 11.30pm on Sunday and 1am on Monday. The spokeswoman also confirmed that a 22-year-old woman from Saltley, Birmingham, had been arrested at 6.30am on suspicion of failing to disclose information contrary to the Terrorism Act 2000. The suspects are being held for questioning at an unnamed police station in the West Midlands police area, the spokeswoman added, and specialist police teams are now searching their homes and seven other properties in Birmingham. In a brief statement, West Midlands police’s assistant chief constable for security, Marcus Beale, said: “The operation is in its early stages so we are unable to go into detail at this time about the nature of the suspected offences. “However, I believe it was necessary to take action at this time in order to ensure public safety.” The nature of the suspected offences has not been disclosed but there has been a heavy police presence in the city due to the Liberal Democrats’ autumn conference taking place at Birmingham’s International Convention Centre. UK security and terrorism Birmingham guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Brazilian police arrest suspects in Amazon murders of environmentalists
September 19, 2011 No Comment
Two held over killings of José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and Maria do Espírito Santo, who were dedicated to saving the rainforests Police in the Brazilian Amazon say they have arrested two men in connection with the murders of two rainforest activists who were gunned down in May. José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife, Maria do Espírito Santo, were killed on 24 May, six months after Ribeiro da Silva had predicted he could be killed at any time, during an international environmental conference . The activists were known for their vocal stance against illegal loggers, cattle ranchers and charcoal producers that were operating in Praia-Alta Piranheira, the remote Amazon settlement in Brazil’s Para state, where they lived. On Sunday, nearly four months after the killings, police said they had arrested two of their three prime suspects during a dawn raid on a jungle camp around 32 miles from the Amazon town of Novo Repartimento. Police said they had seized three revolvers and one shotgun during the raid on the alleged killers. “The family’s reaction is happiness, happiness, happiness,” Ribeiro da Silva’s sister Claudelice Silva dos Santos told the Guardian on Monday, as the two suspects were reportedly transferred by helicopter to a prison in Belem, the state capital. “We have been waiting for this news for nearly four months.” Police named the prisoners as José Rodrigues Moreira, supposedly a small-time cattle rancher who is accused of ordering the killings, and his brother Lindon Johnson Silva Rocha, who allegedly carried out the executions. “Hidden in a tent in the middle of the forest, the two brothers were armed and even tried to escape as they were being surrounded by police,” security authorities said in a statement. Alberto Lopes do Nascimento, the third man wanted for the assassinations, had not been arrested, family members said. Ribeiro da Silva and Do Espírito Santo had suffered regular death threats because of their fight to protect the environment, and last November Ribeiro da Silva told a TEDx conference in Manaus he expected to be killed. “I will protect the forest at all costs. That is why I could get a bullet in my head at any moment,” he said. Their murders, six months after Ribeiro da Silva’s speech, triggered widespread outrage in Brazil and made headlines around the world. The country’s president, Dilma Rousseff, ordered a federal police investigation into the killings and hundreds of paramilitary troops were deployed in the region. Silva dos Santos, Ribeiro da Silva’s youngest sister, described the arrests as the “second step” towards justice. “Now we want convictions,” she said. She said she hoped police investigations would continue, to establish whether the murders were part of a wider conspiracy. “We believe there are more people involved [in the murders],” she said. Brazil Amazon rainforest Forests Deforestation Tom Phillips guardian.co.uk
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Stage set for new showdown with Republicans as US president targets the rich for $1.5trn of tax increases Barack Obama is expected to unveil plans to reduce the massive US deficit by about $3.6trn over the next decade. The plan looks set to spark yet more confrontation with his Republican critics. Roughly half of the savings would come from tax increases, according to people briefed on the proposals. The Republican opposition is staunchly against tax hikes. Obama will unveil the new proposals on Monday at the White House. They will be submitted to a congressional “super-committee” that was created in August to draw up a deficit-reduction plan. The president is also expected to propose nearly $250bn in cuts to spending on Medicare, the federal health care program that primarily benefits the elderly; $330bn in cuts to other mandatory benefit programs; and underline savings of $1trn from the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. According to initial reports there would be no changes in social security and no increase in the Medicare eligibility age, which the president had considered this summer. Obama’s plans would include roughly $1.5trn in tax increases aimed mainly at wealthy Americans and corporations, people familiar with the proposal said. The president is set to unveil a “Buffett tax” aimed at those earning $1m or more a year and named after billionaire investor Warren Buffett, a persistent critic of low tax rates for the rich. The Republican House speaker, John Boehner, has made clear that he will not support any tax increases. Given opposition to Obama and tax increases, the Republican-controlled Congress is unlikely to pass the package. The super-committee must report its findings before 23 November otherwise $1.2trn in cuts to defence and entitlement programmes will go into effect automatically in 2013. Obama’s plans look set to spark a fierce debate as the two sides attempt to negotiate a compromise ahead of the deadline. Obama’s proposed Buffett tax, first revealed over the weekend, has already attracted sharp criticism. Any further tax increases on wealthy Americans or corporations will undoubtedly face a similar assault. By combining cuts and tax increases the president is attempting to be true to his promise of his “balanced approach” requiring “shared sacrifice”. In August the president took to the road to sell his vision of a balanced approach to tackling US debt. “If everybody took an attitude of shared sacrifice we could solve our deficit and debt problem next week,” Obama said. “I need you to send a message to folks in Washington: stop drawing lines in the sand.” Obama backed away from proposing sweeping changes to Medicare, following the advice of fellow Democrats that it would only give political cover to a privatisation plan supported by House Republicans that turned out to be unpopular with older Americans. Administration officials said 90% of the $248bn in 10-year Medicare cuts would be squeezed from service providers. The plan does shift some additional costs to beneficiaries but those changes would not start until 2017, and administration officials made clear as well that Obama would veto any Medicare cuts that were not paired with tax increases on upper-income people. The president’s plan also calls for cuts of $72bn over 10 years from Medicaid, the federal-state health care program for low-income people and the severely disabled. States, hospitals and advocates for the poor are expected to resist those. Monday’s proposals will be the president’s fourth package of deficit-reduction ideas this year. Poll figures show the electorate is losing faith in the president and his ability to tackle the US’s economic malaise. According to a recent Gallup poll 26% of Americans now approve of Obama’s record on the economy, 11 points lower than in May. The president has been making big moves to address the nation’s financial problems. This month he unveiled a $477bn jobs plan aimed at getting more Americans back to work. Boehner has attacked the jobs plan, saying high taxes, too much regulation and government interference are the real drains on job creation. “The members of the president’s cabinet are not doing their jobs if they aren’t constantly focused on removing impediments to job growth,” he said. “If they’re not focused on that, they should be fired.” Obama administration US economy Barack Obama United States guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Stage set for new showdown with Republicans as US president targets the rich for $1.5trn of tax increases Barack Obama is expected to unveil plans to reduce the massive US deficit by about $3.6trn over the next decade. The plan looks set to spark yet more confrontation with his Republican critics. Roughly half of the savings would come from tax increases, according to people briefed on the proposals. The Republican opposition is staunchly against tax hikes. Obama will unveil the new proposals on Monday at the White House. They will be submitted to a congressional “super-committee” that was created in August to draw up a deficit-reduction plan. The president is also expected to propose nearly $250bn in cuts to spending on Medicare, the federal health care program that primarily benefits the elderly; $330bn in cuts to other mandatory benefit programs; and underline savings of $1trn from the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. According to initial reports there would be no changes in social security and no increase in the Medicare eligibility age, which the president had considered this summer. Obama’s plans would include roughly $1.5trn in tax increases aimed mainly at wealthy Americans and corporations, people familiar with the proposal said. The president is set to unveil a “Buffett tax” aimed at those earning $1m or more a year and named after billionaire investor Warren Buffett, a persistent critic of low tax rates for the rich. The Republican House speaker, John Boehner, has made clear that he will not support any tax increases. Given opposition to Obama and tax increases, the Republican-controlled Congress is unlikely to pass the package. The super-committee must report its findings before 23 November otherwise $1.2trn in cuts to defence and entitlement programmes will go into effect automatically in 2013. Obama’s plans look set to spark a fierce debate as the two sides attempt to negotiate a compromise ahead of the deadline. Obama’s proposed Buffett tax, first revealed over the weekend, has already attracted sharp criticism. Any further tax increases on wealthy Americans or corporations will undoubtedly face a similar assault. By combining cuts and tax increases the president is attempting to be true to his promise of his “balanced approach” requiring “shared sacrifice”. In August the president took to the road to sell his vision of a balanced approach to tackling US debt. “If everybody took an attitude of shared sacrifice we could solve our deficit and debt problem next week,” Obama said. “I need you to send a message to folks in Washington: stop drawing lines in the sand.” Obama backed away from proposing sweeping changes to Medicare, following the advice of fellow Democrats that it would only give political cover to a privatisation plan supported by House Republicans that turned out to be unpopular with older Americans. Administration officials said 90% of the $248bn in 10-year Medicare cuts would be squeezed from service providers. The plan does shift some additional costs to beneficiaries but those changes would not start until 2017, and administration officials made clear as well that Obama would veto any Medicare cuts that were not paired with tax increases on upper-income people. The president’s plan also calls for cuts of $72bn over 10 years from Medicaid, the federal-state health care program for low-income people and the severely disabled. States, hospitals and advocates for the poor are expected to resist those. Monday’s proposals will be the president’s fourth package of deficit-reduction ideas this year. Poll figures show the electorate is losing faith in the president and his ability to tackle the US’s economic malaise. According to a recent Gallup poll 26% of Americans now approve of Obama’s record on the economy, 11 points lower than in May. The president has been making big moves to address the nation’s financial problems. This month he unveiled a $477bn jobs plan aimed at getting more Americans back to work. Boehner has attacked the jobs plan, saying high taxes, too much regulation and government interference are the real drains on job creation. “The members of the president’s cabinet are not doing their jobs if they aren’t constantly focused on removing impediments to job growth,” he said. “If they’re not focused on that, they should be fired.” Obama administration US economy Barack Obama United States guardian.co.uk
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Follow the Guardian’s live coverage of the Emmy awards 2011 with Matt Wells, Sarah Hughes and Hadley Freeman 7.19pm: We’re playing the compulsory awards ceremony red-carpet drinking game. One for “I love your dress”, two for “my jewels are from Bulgari”. Sobriety will be a struggle tonight, I can tell this already. 7.13pm: Glee star Lea Michelle has arrived on the red carpet, dressed, appropriately, in a red capret. 7.10pm: Sharp questions from the Red Carpet on E! Entertainment. Presenter to Melissa McCarthy : “Do you own anything you wear?” 7.08pm: Sarah Hughes is next to me on the live blog sofa, and here’s her opening take. SH : Growing up in a gambling family awards shows were generally seen as just another forum to bet on so I thought we’d kick off with a quick guide to this year’s runners and riders. In the comedy category Modern Family looks almost certain to win for the second time, Downton Abbey is expected to see off Mildred Pierce in the best miniseries category (aka the compulsory HBO award), while the main drama category looks like a straight fight between Boardwalk Empire and Mad Men. That said I’m always a fan of a risky bet and would be very happy if football drama, Friday Night Lights was finally recognised for four outstanding seasons (we’ll just pretend that season two never happened). As for the rest while I’d love to see awards go to Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights), Amy Poehler (Parks & Recreation), Louis CK (Louie) and either Jon Hamm (Mad Men) or Steve Buscemi (Boardwalk Empire) but the problem with the Emmys is that you never know exactly which way the voters will swing. Thus logic (and the bookies) might say that Jon Hamm is the favourite to win the outstanding actor, drama category but given that this is the event which awarded James Spader over James Gandolfini in 2007 it’s equally possible that Hugh Laurie will get the nod after six years of nominations and no win. As for the rest if I was placing my money where my words are then I’d say that in addition to Laurie, Laura Linney will take best actress, comedy, Julianna Margulies will win best actress, drama and Steve Carell will get the outstanding actor, comedy award as acknowledgement for his time on The Office, even though the season itself was pretty poor. Of course all those predictions will probably be completely incorrect so feel free to mock me all over the internet when I turn out to be wrong. 6.50pm: Lizz Winstead is raring to go already. You can follow her on Twitter if you can’t get enough of her here. She notes there are more black people running for the Republican presidential nomination than up for awards tonight. It’s always exciting to see pretty white folks in Hollywood congratulate themselves for finding so many pretty white people to reward. It makes People Magazine’s job that much easier. But alas again this year, I will be disappointed. I was really hoping now that they have added the category, “Outstanding Reality Show” or “Fame Thirsty Talent Vortex” if you prefer, they would have considered specifics Emmy’s for “Excellence In Defining Women As Shrewish Greed Bots ” and “Best Knocked Up Teen” but sadly I may have to wait another year. At least they will have pretty gowns and won’t have to suffer a tax hike. 6.30pm ET: Can last year’s Emmy’s be topped? Now there’s a phrase you don’t hear about the US TV industry’s annual gong-a-thon very often. In fact, mostly never. But in 2010, after years of shambolic broadcasts, badly briefed presenters, over-runs and idiosyncratic awards choices, the organisers finally got it together . In an article headlined ” Were these the best Emmy’s ever ?” New York magazine described last year’s event as the “least excruciating televised awards show since the 2009 Oscars”. Which is quite something for New York magazine. But it wasn’t just that new shows like Modern Family and Glee finally knocked the tired favourites off the podium. In fact it wasn’t that at all. It was mostly the best Emmy’s ever because of this: – an intro of unparalleled genius topped only by the reaction of Susan Sarandon, who summed up the feelings of the room when she wolf-whistled enthusiastically at Jimmy Fallon, the cast of Glee, Jon Hamm, Tina Fey and Randy Newman, who performed Born to Run in a contagiously full-on show choir style. This year, Glee star Jane Lynch is hosting the show, which is being broadcast in the US on Fox. Can we expect another classic year? It’s a pretty strong nominations field . (Here’s the full list .) Or can we just expect still to be here at midnight? On the live blog sofa for you tonight are Guardian fashion guru Hadley Freeman , TV blogger Sarah Hughes, and me, an Emmys newbie, for live coverage of the show. I know what you’re thinking: what do that lot know about anything. Fortunately we have a real expert on board: co-creator of the Daily Show, Lizz Winstead , is standing by to provide the sharp and snark that is the hallmark of Guardian live blogs. Well, except the ones about the Middle East . Emmys 2011 Television United States Television industry US television US television industry Matt Wells Hadley Freeman Sarah Hughes guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Herman Cain Claims He Doesn’t Want to Compromise the Confidentiality of His Economic Advisers
September 18, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain appeared on Fox News Sunday again this weekend and he’s still out there touting his ridiculous 999 plan as some magical cure for our economy, when it’s pretty much more of the same that we’ve been hearing from most of these Republicans, which is to lower taxes on the rich at the expense of everyone else and privatize Social Security . When Chris Wallace pointed out to Cain that they took a look at his plan and his numbers didn’t quite add up and even though Cain claimed his plan was researched by leading economists, they couldn’t find any of their names. Cain’s explanation — he doesn’t want to “compromise their confidentiality.” I’d say it’s more likely he either doesn’t have any advisers who are actually economic experts, or they’re about as reputable as Arthur Laffer and his infamous Laffer Curve he drew on a napkin that got all the right-wingers worked into a frenzy as an excuse for the rich not to pay their fair share of taxes. Transcript via Fox News : WALLACE: OK, you are now pushing what you call the 999 plan for economic growth — 9 percent corporate flat tax and 9 percent personal flat tax and 9 percent sales tax, but you would eliminate the payroll tax, the estate tax and the tax on capitol gains. Question, what do you think that would do to the economy? CAIN: It would boost the economy and here’s why. Think about the fact that corporations now are looking at for the next year and few months a 35 percent top corporate tax rate. To wake up and say you mean the tax rate is going to be 9 percent? That is going to inspire the business community. Secondly, small businesses which generate most of the jobs, they are also going to be excited because it is going to treat subchapter S and S corporations the same. What the president doesn’t understand, a lot of people don’t understand, is when he throws around numbers like everybody making over $250,000 is going to impose another tax, he is punishing small business, because with a subchapter S corporation, if you eke out a profit, you have to run it through personal income tax and you could be penalized if you make too much money. WALLACE: Let me ask you about this, though, you say that this plan would be revenue neutral, yet you would lose all these rates — you would lower all these rates, you would eliminate the deductions and we’d end up with the same amount of total revenue for the government as what we currently have. We went to your website to try to check this out. There is no explanation on your website of how you arrived at 999 or how these numbers add up. CAIN: Here is how we arrived at it. I had some of the best economists in this country help me to develop this plan. You know, my background is mathematics. It was a simple regression analysis. We took the government data and looked at how much tax revenue from personal income tax, how much tax revenue came from corporate tax, how much revenue came from capitol gains tax, how much revenue from the death tax. We added them all up and you do a simple regression analysis and say in order to reduce this much on corporate income, personal income and national sales tax, what should that number be if we equally break up those three buckets. It was a simple regression analysis. WALLACE: Now you say that, and you say — and you just repeated that this plan was researched and developed by some of the leading economic thinkers in the country. Again we looked at your website, no mention of anyone. CAIN: No, I haven’t put them on there, — the most important thing is to put the plan on there. We are following up now with an official scoring of my plan, but because the way it was derived was so simple to produce such a simple concept we didn’t make that a priority. WALLACE: All right. But let me ask you about this, because Mitt Romney came out with a 59-point plan on jobs. Glenn Hubbard who was — is now the Dean of Columbia Business School and was the chairman of the council of economic advisers for George W. Bush wrote the forward, helped him develop the plan. Tell me the name of one of these leading economic thinkers who helped you come up with this plan. CAIN: The chairman of my economic advisers is a gentleman by the name of Rich Lowery of Cleveland, Ohio. He worked with a couple of other people quite frankly that are well known that I’m not at liberty to mention their names. WALLACE: Why not? CAIN: Because they have their own independence businesses and I don’t want to compromise their confidentiality at this point. When they tell me it is OK to mention their names publicly, I will mention it. But I — trust me, it was a couple of people that you know very well. But I don’t want to compromise their… WALLACE: But wouldn’t they be proud? I mean, if this is a great plan wouldn’t they be proud to say? CAIN: They’d be proud after I get it passed. And then they would be. But no, Chris, I got some people to work — help me go through the thinking on this that I’m not going to compromise their confidentiality at this point just to prove to people that this is a well thought out plan. WALLACE: Well, let me just say, because there isn’t a whole lot of back up, and we don’t have the bona fides of a guy like Glenn Hubbard. We tried to do our own very rough analysis and you are a lot better of this idea of regression analysis than we are. It looks to us under your plan corporations and the wealthy will end up paying a considerably less than they currently do, and lower income people, particularly the 45 percent, roughly of Americans who don’t pay any income tax now will end up paying a lot more true? CAIN: No. Not true. Everyone who works pays the payroll tax, which is 15.3 percent. So even if you don’t own a corporation and don’t have to pay corporate taxes, your tax goes from 15.3 to — Secondly on the national sales tax. WALLACE: Yeah, but what about the 45 percent who don’t pay income tax now? CAIN: A good economic growth plan should not be designed to help more people not pay taxes, Chris. And let me give you the statistic as to why. 50 percent of the taxpayers pay 97 percent of the taxes. What are we supposed to do, get that number to 50 percent paying 100 percent? No. And — WALLACE: I’m not saying it’s wrong, I’m just saying though that they’re going to end up paying more in taxes. CAIN: They are going to end up paying some taxes, but not necessarily more. And here’s why. The individual taxpayer will decide how they spend their money in terms of the 9 percent sales tax. OK? Now, their behavior will determine how much tax they pay. Only if they spend every dime that they make will they pay the full 9 percent. It will encourage savings and it will encourage people to be responsible for their own decision-making WALLACE: Mr. Cain, we’re going to have to leave it there. It is one of the new plans, one of the few new plans that’s come out. And we’re going to have to explore it some more. CAIN: We will have it officially explored (ph), and I’m going to try to get my advisers to allow me to use their name. WALLACE: Well, we would like to have them and you back on. Mr. Cain, it’s always a pleasure. CAIN: Thanks, Chris. It’s a pleasure. Thank you. WALLACE: And we’ll see you at the big debate on Thursday in Florida. CAIN: I’ll be there. I’ll be there. WALLACE: I am sure you will be. Me too.
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