Impressionist Jim Meskimen performs Clarence’s speech from William Shakespeare’s Richard III in a bevy of celebrity voices from Harvey Keitel to Woody Allen to Droopy Dog. This has been making the rounds, but I noticed it via an approving tweet from Craig Ferguson (@craigyferg), who Meskimen impersonates in the video. Meskimen is an American actor Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Laughing Squid Discovery Date : 20/07/2011 20:09 Number of articles : 4
Continue reading …
Obama and Republicans are locked in talks over a deal to raise the US debt ceiling. Follow the twists and turns here live 11.41am: The debt ceiling seems to not be at the front of the minds of the people asking questions at the town hall. Next question: “Hi, my name is Steve, I’m a doctoral student here.” Obama responds: “What are you studying?” “Political rhetoric,” says Steve. “Uh-oh,” says Obama, “How am I doing?” 11.35am: Next questioner begins by asking Obama, “Obviously you’ve had a successful presidency…” Obama cuts in: “That’s not obvious to everyone.” The question is, what mistakes have you made? Obama replies that he would have been more aggressive on the economy in the first year: I could have told the American people more clearly how tough this was going to be, how tough and long lasting this recession was going to be. But the president has to project confidence and optimism, he says, and the banking sector was in serious trouble – suggesting that he had to talk it up. Over the first two years I was so foccused on policy, getting the policy right, that I forgot part of my job was explaining to the American people why that policy was a good thing. 11.26am: Obama now taking questions from the audience – and one from a man suggesting using the 14th amendment (allowing presidential powers) and waiting until the next election so that Americans have the chance to vote out “these hooligans in the House”. Obama replies saying that the debt ceiling needs to be raised now to avoid the possibility of a default, so he doesn’t have the luxury of letting that happen. “It is not an option for us to default. My challenge then is to get something passed.” On the 14th amendment, Obama says “I’ve talked to my lawyers” and they say invoking the 14th amendment here is not an option. That could change, of course. “There are going to be a certain set of equities that we are not going to be prepared to sacrifice,” says Obama, leaving a slight hint that there are circumstances in which he does hit the nuclear option of the 14th. 11.21am: Obama says he’s willing to sign up to a deal that makes heavy cuts in domestic and military spending – and reels off some statistics (the lowest level of domestic spending since the Eisenhower administration, and so on) to prove it. But he says that politicians in both parties aren’t happy. Obama is off on a well-polished riff about the problems of politics in Washington, tapping into the desire for a deal that recent opinion polls reveal. “Americans voted for a divided government. They didn’t vote for a dysfunctional government,” is one of his lines that is a ong-time favourite of his speech-writers. 11.15am: Before describing the debt ceiling debate as “a crisis manufactured in Washington,” Obama says that both parties are to blame for the size of the federal budget deficit: But both parties have a responsibility to solve it. If we don’t solve it every American will suffer. 11.10am: Obama now speaking at College Park – home of the University of Maryland and indeed a very large Ikea – and goes straight into discussing the debt ceiling and the state of the US economy: This is actually a debate about you and the people of America and the challenges we face. He says that his “number one concern” is the state of the economy. “It’s the first thing I think about when I get up in the morning ands the last thing I think about at night.” 11am: Welcome to live coverage of the non-stop negotiations over the US debt ceiling going on in Washington DC. So far there’s a lot of hot air – and that’s not just the incredibly humid twmperatures above 40C that the city is experiencing. But there are signs of a deal emerging. The New York Times reports today: Congressional and administration officials said that the two men, who had abandoned earlier talks toward a deal when leaks provoked Republicans’ protests, were closing in on a package calling for as much as $3 trillion in savings from substantial spending cuts and future revenue produced by a tax code overhaul. But can they sell it to their respective parties? It’s not looking good so far. Coming up, President Obama is about to speak to a town hall meeting in College Park, Maryland, where he is expected to address the debt ceiling talks and the state of the economy. US economy Obama administration US Congress Republicans US politics United States Economics Richard Adams guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
An explosion has damaged government buildings in Oslo with injuries reported. The cause of the blast has yet to be ascertained. If you have any information please email me at haroon.siddique@guardian.co.uk or contact me via Twitter @haroon_siddique 4.39pm: According to reports from the newspaper Dagsbladet, the bomb was meant to target the office of the oil and energy ministry, Lars Eriksen in Demark informs me. Rumours have been rife of additional bombs (possibly two more) in Oslo. NRK (the state broadcaster) is saying police believe there are no more bombs. But Nicholas Karlsen in Oslo emailed me to say that Aftenposten newspaper is reporting police believe it is possible there two more bombs that they haven’t located yet. 4.25pm: Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor at the Observer, says a jihadist group is most likely to be behind the blast: It has been known for some time that al-Qaida core and other related “franchises” – including in the most active in Yemen – have been attempting to develop operations. Which leads to a second question: why Norway?… The answer to that is three fold. In then first instance, with the increased levels of security and surveillance in the UK and the US as well as other European capitals, Norway might have been seen as a softer target despite the recent breaking up of an al-Qaida cell in Norway. A more detailed explanation of the problems that Norway has had with Al Qaeda were supplied a year ago by the Atlantic magazine i n an article by Thomas Hegghammer , a senior fellow at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment in Oslo, and Dominic Tierney. That piece followed the arrest of three men in Norway and Germany for allegedly plotting a terrorist attack involving peroxide explosives. All of those arrested were were Muslim immigrants to Norway. The first explanation,” wrote Hegghammer and Tierney, “is Afghanistan. Norway has been part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan from its foundation in late 2001…. In late 2007, for example, Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaida’s second-in-command, said that the group had previously threatened Norway because it “participated in the war against the Muslims… A second contributory factor for why Norway may have been eyed in the past for potential jihadi terrorist attack is the fact that in 2006, a Norwegian newspaper reprinted a series of Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad which prompted threats against the country. A third potential explanation is the recent decision last week by a Norwegian prosecutor filed terror charges against an Iraqi-born cleric for threatening Norwegian politicians with death if he’s deported from the Nordic country. The indictment centered on statements that Mullah Krekar – the founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam – made to various media, including American network NBC. 4.14pm: The Norwegian state broadcaster now says two people are confirmed dead . 4.11pm: Oslo police also referred to “deaths and injuries” but did not specify numbers. So far one person has been confirmed dead as a result of the explosion, which police now say was caused by a bomb. 4.09pm: Oslo police have said the explosion was caused by a bomb, the BBC just said. 4.05pm: ABC News reports that the “was [the] result of a massive vehicle bomb, according to US government sources on the scene”. Swedish reporter Carl Kleberg has tweeted this: Police stops reporter of #Norway’s Aftenposten: “because there are still two bombs that we don’t know where they are.” #Oslo 3.59pm: An Icelandic MP has tweeted that seven people have been admitted to hospital in Oslo. Eyewitnesses say there are many ambulances on the scene. Mike Emery, working in Norway for a charity, emailed me: According to NRK (Norwegian public service broadcaster) there is broken glass up to 1km from the blast site. July is the holiday month in Norway and almost everyone goes on vacation. We have to hope that many people are on holiday. The blast happened after 3.15pm and Norway is on Summer Working Hours meaning people leave work at 3pm. Let’s hope this is the case. 3.51pm: Here’s another video showing the extent of the devastation wreaked by the explosion . _ 3.45pm: NRK, the Norwegian broadcaster, says that one person has been killed , Lars Eriksen in Denmark informs me. Senior adviser Oivind Ostang told Norwegian TV2. We can confirm that everybody who was working in the prime minister’s office today are safe. The only thing I know is that there has been a fire or something approaching a fire in the R4-buildling which houses the oil- and energy office. 3.42pm: This video shows windows blown out and people walking over pavements covered in shattered glass . 3.40pm: A Norwegian reporter told the BBC she is in a buidling five blocks away and its windows have been blown out by the explosion. She used the word “bomb” before clarifying that she had no evidence the cause of the explosion was a bomb but suggested that she could not see what else would cause an explosion of such magnitued. 3.34pm: Several people have been injured in a large explosion which has damaged government buildings in central Oslo, including the office of the Norwegian prime minster. A Reuters correspondent said he counted at least eight injured people after the unexplained blast. The tangled wreckage of a car was outside one building but the cause of the blast was unknown with police and fire officials refusing to comment. The explosion at around 3.30pm (2.30pm BST) blew out most windows on the 17-storey building housing prime minister Jens Stoltenberg’s office, as well as nearby ministries including the oil ministry, which was on fire. Norwegian news agency NTB said the prime minister is safe. Newspaper offices in the area were also reportedly damaged. The city centre – which usually empties in July as Norwegians take holidays – is currently closed off with all public transport to and from the centre suspended. Norway Haroon Siddique guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
A loud explosion shattered windows Friday at the government headquarters in Oslo which includes the prime minister’s office, injuring several people. (July 22)
Continue reading …
Talking at the Comic-Con launch of his latest film ‘Real Steel,’ actor Hugh Jackman talks about the impressive special effects used in the robot boxing sequences, and confesses his love for the comic book crowd. (July 22)
Continue reading …Arrested for role in phone hacking, News Corp’s Neil Wallis was hired by Scotland Yard. Is he linked to the Climategate hoax?
July 22, 2011 No CommentNeil Wallis, the man behind the phone hacking for News Corp, was also hired by Scotland Yard to consult for them — right at the same time, coincidentally, that the Yard decided not to dig deeper into the phone hacking — which is unbelievable, when you wrap your head around it. Likewise, I’m sure you remember when climate-change deniers — especially those employed by Fox News — seized on some hacked emails and then had a field day. Keith Olbermann wonders if Wallis had a hand in the leaked emails and breaks it down. Ultimately, you have to wonder if the fake “ClimateGate scandal” was a product of hacking by News Corp as well. : The Murdoch Phone-Hacking Scandal may have just metastasized. The so-called “Climate-Gate” controversy — in which e-mails about global warming were stolen from researchers at Britain’s University of East Anglia in November, 2009 — now turns out to bear the stamp of Neil Wallis, one of the key figures in Murdoch’s hacking of the phones, voicemails, and other electronic communications of thousands of people. Wallis is unique in this scandal. He had been the Executive Editor of Murdoch’s News Of The World when hacking was at its peak. Yet in 2009 he wound up being hired by the police as a public relations consultant while the police investigated the hacking scandal. And he wound up spying for Murdoch’s people on what Scotland Yard was investigating. Wallis was, as the New York Times put it, “reporting back to News International while he was working for the police on the hacking case.” Moreover, while Wallis was keeping Murdoch’s organization apprised of what and whom the police were investigating, the police were trying to convince other news organizations not to cover the story — a suppression of evidence that benefited both the police and Rupert Murdoch. As the British newspaper The Guardian reported last Friday: “Scotland Yard’s most senior officers tried to convince the Guardian during two private meetings that its coverage of phone hacking was exaggerated and incorrect without revealing they had hired Neil Wallis…” It was neither exaggerated nor incorrect. Last Thursday, Neil Wallis was arrested. Last night, it was revealed that while acting as a double-agent for Scotland Yard and Murdoch, Wallis was also consulting Conservative Party Leader David Cameron during the 2010 election that saw Cameron rise to become the nation’s Prime Minister. Today, bobbing up to the surface through this vast ocean of ethical filth, comes Neil Wallis’s role… in “Climate-Gate.” On November 20th, 2009, somebody broke into a computer server at the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, and stole thousands of emails and computer files. The documents were leaked to Climate Change Deniers, and although exhaustive analysis later proved that the emails merely revealed scientists’ anxiety that Climate Data and Research were being properly handled and studied, the Deniers have treated those emails as if they were a kind of Holy Grail of fraud. They claim the emails not only disproved all of climate change, but also that they proved that scientists had doctored data in order to exaggerate the urgency of an international conference on climate change coming up the next month in Copenhagen in Denmark. As the corporations and lobbyists who sought to feed the myth that there is no man-made climate change disseminated, exploited and deliberately misinterpreted the stolen e-mails — and used Fox News and other Murdoch enterprises as their principle venues — the victims, the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, decided they’d better hire a public relations pro to help them fight back. They hired… Neil Wallis… read on More and more information is coming out in the very real Rupertgate scandal, and Wallis is in the middle of it all. UPDATE: James Murdoch has now had his testimony questioned by former NOTW executives: Evidence on phone hacking given to MPs by News International chairman James Murdoch has been called into question by two former executives at the firm. He told the media committee on Tuesday he had not been “aware” of an email suggesting the practice went wider than a “rogue” News of the World reporter. But ex-NoW editor Colin Myler and ex-NI legal manager Tom Crone have now said they “did inform” him of the email. Mr Murdoch later said he “stands by his testimony”. Meanwhile, the BBC has learned the FBI plans to contact actor Jude Law following claims his mobile phone was hacked during a visit to the US. It is alleged a story published by the NoW in 2003 was based on information obtained from his voicemail which, if proved, could lead to charges in the US because his phone would have been operating on a US network. News International denies the claims.
Continue reading …Media Mash: Despite MSM Slamming ‘Cut, Cap and Balance,’ 66% of Americans Want It
July 22, 2011 No Comment
While the media have been busy persistently denouncing the Cut, Cap and Balance plan as Republicans “wasting time” with a “show” plan that has “no chance of passage,” the public aren't accepting the media spin. A CNN poll shows nearly 2/3rds of Americans favor that approach to tackling the national debt and balancing the budget, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell noted on the July 21 “Hannity” program (video follows page break):
Continue reading …Toshiba Regza 32BC3 HDTV features power saving button, destined for Japanese shores
July 22, 2011 No Comment
The latest member of Toshiba Regza family of HDTVs, the 32BC3, just had it’s pretty little IPS face revealed in Japan. Unlike most sets you see these days, this 32-incher sports only a 1,366
Continue reading …Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will sign the death warrant for “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” soon after he is officially sworn in today, according to Pentagon sources. Panetta and other defense chiefs will certify that the military is ready to ax the policy barring gays from serving openly, starting a 60-day…
Continue reading …
Claims that James Murdoch knew three years ago that phone hacking at the News of the World was not confined to a single “rogue” reporter have been referred to the police. Labour MP Tom Watson said he was contacting Scotland Yard after two former senior executives at the paper publicly challenged Mr Murdoch’s evidence to the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee earlier this week. Prime Minister David Cameron said Mr Murdoch clearly had “questions to answer in Parliament” following the intervention of former editor Colin Myler and former legal manager Tom Crone. In his evidence to the committee on Tuesday, Mr Murdoch said he was unaware of an email suggesting hacking at the paper was…
Continue reading …