NPR’s Talk of the Nation devoted a segment on Tuesday afternoon to the question “What Happened to the Political Left?” For answers, host Neal Conan brought on the leftist professor Michael Kazin and Katrina Vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation magazine. It didn’t get hilarious until Kazin made the claim that nowhere in Flyover Country — in Iowa or Nebraska, for example — can you hear a left-winger on the radio. Somehow they all forgot that NPR stations are taking our tax dollars and insuring these left-wing voices are on the radio, including Iowa Public Radio and Nebraska Educational Telecommunications (NET) Radio. Somehow, the network motto isn't “NPR: Where Leftist Hosts Talk to Leftist Guests About Where All the Leftists Went.” This is where the laugh track should begin: MICHAEL KAZIN: But I think one of the things I stress in – both in my book “American Dreamers” and also in the article in the [New York] Times last Sunday, is the kind of institutions that people on the left need to build are institutions which really get out to what we call ordinary Americans, average Americans. You know, I'm struck whenever I go to Iowa, Nebraska, that you turn on AM radio or even most FM radio, and you hear mostly evangelical stations, country stations and religious stations. I love country music, but, you know, you don't hear a left point of view there, and you don't have people who are, you know, left-wing activists who for the most part are really active in those areas. NEAL CONAN: Air America was not a great success. KAZIN: Nope. As he said these words, this leftist was being heard on hundreds of NPR stations in rural areas and small towns. Air America was not a great success in part because there was already a left-wing NPR station in many hundreds of cities. They had to raise capital. They couldn’t just tax the people and then smear some of the taxpayers footing the bill. There was also this hilarious exchange about how leftists don't spread a message to college students: CONAN: I was interested in your piece, Michael Kazin, when you wrote that the more conservative colleges are presenting a more coherent narrative to their students. KAZIN: Yeah, I'm not sure it's the job of universities or colleges to present a narrative to their students. You know, I teach at a fairly liberal Catholic college, Georgetown, and I don't feel like I want to organize my students to believe one certain thing or another, but it's clear that conservative Christian colleges especially believe in a certain point of view about the Bible, about morality generally, and also about politics. Neal Conan set it up this way, which studiously avoided the question of the leftist president sitting in the White House and how he’s performed: CONAN: The economy stinks. Unemployment hovers above nine percent, banks foreclose on more and more houses, the income gap continues to widen as the rich get richer, and too many in the middle class slip down the economic ladder. People are frustrated and angry, and nearly all the political energy comes from the right. The other side mounted protests in Wisconsin earlier this year, civil disobedience at the White House over the XL Pipeline, and rallies continue on Wall Street, but there's a difference between protests and a movement. Conservatives have shifted the middle, and they dominate the dialogue. What happened to the left? NPR should know better than to say conservatives dominate the dialogue. They certainly can’t get their “fair share” of air time on NPR.
Continue reading …NPR’s Talk of the Nation devoted a segment on Tuesday afternoon to the question “What Happened to the Political Left?” For answers, host Neal Conan brought on the leftist professor Michael Kazin and Katrina Vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation magazine. It didn’t get hilarious until Kazin made the claim that nowhere in Flyover Country — in Iowa or Nebraska, for example — can you hear a left-winger on the radio. Somehow they all forgot that NPR stations are taking our tax dollars and insuring these left-wing voices are on the radio, including Iowa Public Radio and Nebraska Educational Telecommunications (NET) Radio. Somehow, the network motto isn't “NPR: Where Leftist Hosts Talk to Leftist Guests About Where All the Leftists Went.” This is where the laugh track should begin: MICHAEL KAZIN: But I think one of the things I stress in – both in my book “American Dreamers” and also in the article in the [New York] Times last Sunday, is the kind of institutions that people on the left need to build are institutions which really get out to what we call ordinary Americans, average Americans. You know, I'm struck whenever I go to Iowa, Nebraska, that you turn on AM radio or even most FM radio, and you hear mostly evangelical stations, country stations and religious stations. I love country music, but, you know, you don't hear a left point of view there, and you don't have people who are, you know, left-wing activists who for the most part are really active in those areas. NEAL CONAN: Air America was not a great success. KAZIN: Nope. As he said these words, this leftist was being heard on hundreds of NPR stations in rural areas and small towns. Air America was not a great success in part because there was already a left-wing NPR station in many hundreds of cities. They had to raise capital. They couldn’t just tax the people and then smear some of the taxpayers footing the bill. There was also this hilarious exchange about how leftists don't spread a message to college students: CONAN: I was interested in your piece, Michael Kazin, when you wrote that the more conservative colleges are presenting a more coherent narrative to their students. KAZIN: Yeah, I'm not sure it's the job of universities or colleges to present a narrative to their students. You know, I teach at a fairly liberal Catholic college, Georgetown, and I don't feel like I want to organize my students to believe one certain thing or another, but it's clear that conservative Christian colleges especially believe in a certain point of view about the Bible, about morality generally, and also about politics. Neal Conan set it up this way, which studiously avoided the question of the leftist president sitting in the White House and how he’s performed: CONAN: The economy stinks. Unemployment hovers above nine percent, banks foreclose on more and more houses, the income gap continues to widen as the rich get richer, and too many in the middle class slip down the economic ladder. People are frustrated and angry, and nearly all the political energy comes from the right. The other side mounted protests in Wisconsin earlier this year, civil disobedience at the White House over the XL Pipeline, and rallies continue on Wall Street, but there's a difference between protests and a movement. Conservatives have shifted the middle, and they dominate the dialogue. What happened to the left? NPR should know better than to say conservatives dominate the dialogue. They certainly can’t get their “fair share” of air time on NPR.
Continue reading …Operation Cross Check, a seven-day “enforcement and removal” sweep, rounded up 2,901 immigrants with criminal records in the largest crackdown in the history of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, reports the New York Times . Of those, more than 1,600 had been convicted of a felony, while the…
Continue reading …Mother tells of murder arrest after hospital missed infection in son, 3
September 29, 2011 No CommentAlfie Podmore could have survived if antibiotics had been prescribed at Birmingham children’s hospital, inquest told A mother was held on suspicion of murder when her three-year-old son died three days after being released from hospital suffering from an infection that developed into pneumonia. Alfie Podmore, from Quinton, Birmingham, would probably have survived had he been given antibiotics, an inquest has heard. His 21-year-old mother, Abby Podmore, was arrested and held in a police station for 24 hours and was not able to see her son’s body for 10 days. The inquest heard Alfie had not been seen within the one-hour target time at Birmingham children’s hospital where he was taken on 3 February. A report from the hospital said Alfie had not been not showing many of the typical signs of pneumonia. But the hospital later said it could have done more to help him. The hearing at Birmingham coroner’s court heard how Alfie complained to doctors of a pain in his shoulder, and the hospital admitted it was unusual for a child of his age to be able to identify a specific area of the body where there was pain. No blood tests were carried out. The Birmingham coroner, Adrian Cotter, said: “Alfie definitely had an infection, it may have shown up on an x-ray or with a blood test but we don’t know if it would have done because those things were not done.” In a statement to the inquest, Abby Podmore, a dental nurse, said her “horrifying” arrest had robbed her of the chance to grieve for her son. Alfie had been taken ill while at nursery on 2 February. The following day, he was taken to hospital but was discharged after staff failed to diagnose a developing infection on his lung. He died at home on 6 February after developing septicaemia. Telling how she tried in vain to revive her son when she found him on the morning of 6 February, Podmore said: “I knew he was not breathing so I started to give him CPR [cardiopulmonary resuscitation].” An ambulance then arrived, the inquest heard, but police asked her to leave the house and change out of her clothes. Podmore said: “I found it distressing because I wanted to be with his body. I was in a state of shock and didn’t know what was going on.” Two riot vans and a total of 15 police officers then arrived and her partner was also detained. “I couldn’t believe what was happening – I felt like I was being treated like a criminal,” she added. Neighbours had looked on as Podmore and her partner were arrested, “I remained in a police station for 24 hours,” she said. “Looking back, I feel I have been robbed of the chance to say goodbye to Alfie.” In a statement released in July, West Midlands police said it had launched an internal investigation into the arrest. Dr Phillip Cox, a consultant paediatric pathologist, told the inquest that Alfie had about a pint of fluid on his chest and that if he had been given antibiotics he probably would have lived. A postmortem found he died from natural causes. The inquest continues. Birmingham NHS Police Health Children Helen Carter guardian.co.uk
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Nearly two weeks ago, an estimated 3,000 people assembled at Battery Park with the intention of occupying Wall Street. They were an eclectic group, mostly young, some with beards and tattoos, other dressed in shorts and sneakers; a few even wore suits for the occasion. But nearly everyone was angry at what they saw as
Continue reading …NYT Puzzler: Gov. Christie Not Really Bipartisan Because…A Dem Called Him a Bully?
September 29, 2011 No CommentDoes the New York Times fear a Chris Christie presidential run? On Thursday reporters Michael Shear (pictured above) and Richard Perez-Pena issued the New Jersey governor a pre-emptive reality check in response to his speech at the Reagan Presidential Library: “ Not All Buy Christie’s Assertions of Bipartisanship – New Jersey Governor’s Critics Say Acrimonious Dealings Accompany Accomplishments .” But the Times provided a lopsided portrait, either by leaving out the offensive things Christie’s opponents have said about him, or actually quoting Democrats insulting Christie as if that somehow proves Christie is offensive. If he runs for president, Chris Christie might highlight the themes he mentioned on Tuesday night in his speech at the Reagan Presidential Library, promising a new era of bipartisanship and compromise like the one he largely takes credit for achieving as governor of New Jersey. “Our bipartisan accomplishments in New Jersey have helped to set a tone that has taken hold across many other states,” Mr. Christie told a rapt audience in Simi Valley, Calif. “This is the only effective way to lead in America during these times.” Except that is not exactly how everyone sees it. …. Mr. Christie once said to reporters, of a state senator in her 70s who had criticized him, “Can you guys please take the bat out on her for once?” When another Democratic legislator seemed to question Mr. Christie’s parenting, he said “she should really be embarrassed at what a jerk she is.” After a tough budget battle in June, Stephen M. Sweeney, the Senate president and one of Mr. Christie’s allies in the Legislature, called him “a bully and a punk,” “mean-spirited,” “spoiled,” “vindictive” and “a cruel man,” adding, “I wanted to punch him in his head.” Not exactly the stuff of happy-go-lucky bipartisanship and easygoing compromise. How do Sweeney’s playground insults translate into proof of Christie’s nastiness, as opposed to the immaturity of Democrat Sweeney himself? Back in April, co-author Pena treated as a serious breach of decorum the relatively mild “bat” metaphor Christie used in front of reporters. The story’s text box: “The governor uses violent imagery while talking to reporters about a state senator.” Thursday's Times's story ignored how Christie’s opponents have said worse about him. In April 2010 local TV station WPIX reported on a memo released by a New Jersey teachers union that closed with a mock prayer: “Dear Lord…this year you have taken away my favorite actor, Patrick Swayze, my favorite actress, Farrah Fawcett, my favorite singer, Michael Jackson, and my favorite salesman Billy Mays….I just wanted to let you know that Chris Christie is my favorite governor.” Shear and Perez-Pena mentioned Christie's scuffles with unions without quoting anything said by the unions against Christie. Some of the most important pieces of legislation of his tenure have gotten through the Democratic Legislature with mostly Republican support, while most Democrats voted against them. And the unions, in particular, have bristled at the governor’s decision to single them out in his efforts to deal with the state’s finances. In town halls across New Jersey, Mr. Christie has been assailed by teachers who have accused him of attacking their profession and pushing through anti-union legislation by bullying Democratic legislators. In most of the town halls, Mr. Christie gave as good as he got. The Times made a strange concluding choice to challenge Christie: AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, who exploited the tenth anniversary of 9-11 with an offensive online essay , blaming Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Karl Rove, the Koch brothers, etc. for pushing “hate” in the wake of the tragedy. Richard L. Trumka, the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. in Washington, said: “There’s a major difference between talking about compromise and bipartisanship in a rhetorical speech and actually practicing it. Any worker in New Jersey who’s experienced Chris Christie’s idea of compromise, which panders to corporate interests and leaves working families behind, will tell you that it’s not working for them.”
Continue reading …German lawmakers have cleared the way for an expansion of the size and powers of the euro zone bailout fund, in a major step toward tackling the bloc’s sprawling sovereign debt crisis. A clear majority of lawmakers in Germany’s lower house of parliament voted today in favor of expanding the…
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Here’s the trailer for Stephen Daldry’s adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, based on a script by Eric Roth. The movie has been a curiosity for me for months in part because the book is a piece of post-modernism that doesn’t lend itself easily to adaptation, and in part because Daldry chose a non-actor, Thomas Horn, to play the central role of 11-year old… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : /Film Discovery Date : 29/09/2011 02:38 Number of articles : 4
Continue reading …Met investigates how Theresa May’s diary was found in Glasgow concert hall
September 29, 2011 No Comment
Police officer subject to ‘local management action’ after reporter from Police Review magazine discovers book at memorial event Scotland Yard has been called in after a personal diary belonging to Theresa May, the home secretary, was mislaid in a Glasgow concert hall. The Metropolitan police is investigating how the book was lost but a spokesman said May’s security had not been compromised. In fact the personal diary was found at the concert hall by a reporter from Police Review, a magazine for police officers, who was attending the same National Police Memorial Day event as the home secretary. Police Review – which is read by 140,000 officers – returned the diary, but not before copying information from within it. The weekly magazine said it would be publishing details of her diary entries in its issue due out on Friday. Reports coming out of Whitehall said the person responsible for mislaying the diary was May’s protection officer. A Scotland Yard spokeswoman later said: “Following an investigation, and as part of the MPS [Metropolitan police service] misconduct process, an officer has been subject to local management action. The officer has not been suspended.” Police Review said the diary included details of when May would be working out at a gym in her Maidenhead constituency in Berkshire, as well as details of meetings she had planned with senior police officers. These meetings have now taken place. There was also one mystery entry – a scribbled mention of the News of the World, the Sunday tabloid which closed in July. The diary also mentioned a meeting with Keith Bristow, chief constable of Warwickshire police, whom the document described as an “NCA [National Crime Agency] candidate”. The NCA has not yet had a chief appointed. The meeting was scheduled to occur at the Home Office headquarters on Marsham Street, central London. Scotland Yard said earlier: “We are aware that a document was misplaced and are looking into the circumstances of how this occurred. The paper was not protectively marked. Security was not compromised.” The diary featured timings and addresses for events May was to attend in the Maidenhead area, including a charity cabaret evening at Wentworth Golf Club, according to Police Review. The book also contained mobile phone numbers for her private secretary and for other contacts. May flew to Scotland on Sunday for the memorial day. Before attending the event, she had a “private meeting” with Stephen House, chief constable of Strathclyde police – who had been one of the favourite candidates to be commissioner of the Met. May spoke to him about Strathclyde’s approach to tackling gangs then had lunch with Nick Herbert, police minister. May’s diary reportedly stated that after returning to England, she was to attend a magistrates court open morning in Maidenhead and to appear on the Anne Diamond show on BBC Radio Berkshire. On Tuesday there was the meeting with Bristow, and one later with the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, in his office. Police Review said it contacted the Home Office on Monday to organise the diary’s safe return and held back from publishing details of the meetings until after they had taken place. Theresa May Police Scotland Metropolitan police London Sandra Laville guardian.co.uk
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Neville Thurlbeck, the paper’s former chief reporter, has withdrawn from an employment tribunal hearing due to take place on Friday A News of the World reporter claiming he had blown the whistle on phone hacking at the Sunday tabloid has pulled out of an employment tribunal hearing in his unfair dismissal case . Neville Thurlbeck, the paper’s former chief reporter, was due to appear for a hearing related to his case at East London Tribunal Service in Stratford on Friday but has withdrawn. He was sacked by Rupert Murdoch’s News International earlier this month and was asking the tribunal to force the company to continue to pay him on the grounds that he was a whistleblower and should not have been fired. News International confirmed that he had now withdrawn this “application for interim relief”. It is not clear however whether he will continue with a case for unfair dismissal. His unfair dismissal case emerged earlier this week. Thurlbeck has been a central figure in the affair and was arrested and bailed in April on suspicion of conspiring to intercept voicemail messages. Earlier this week he was re-bailed until March pending further questioning. The Guardian revealed two years ago the existence of a “for Neville” email – believed to be a reference to Thurlbeck – sent to private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, which contained a transcript of messages left on a mobile phone belonging to Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive Gordon Taylor. The “for Neville” email contradicted the defence that News International had maintained until late 2010, that phone-hacking was limited to Mulcaire and one “rogue reporter” on the News of the World, former royal editor Clive Goodman. Both were jailed in early 2007 for phone-hacking offences. •
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