Click here to view this media Well, it appears that Fox has another fabricated non-issue to get worked up about this week: the Obama administration creating a rapid-response team to debunk falsehoods and respond to unfavorable stories in the media. Of course the talking heads at Fox — being the leading purveyors of those falsehoods — weren’t happy. Monica Crowley was asked about the new staffer, Jesse Lee, and what role he’d be playing for the Obama administration — and of course she just had to get in a reference to the supposed “Chicago way” they play politics, think gangsters… wink, wink… and claimed that they were just trying to “intimidate their political opponents.” Sadly Fox proves every day why such a response team would be necessary since telling lies all day about Democrats is pretty much their stock and trade. Media Matters has more — Fox Accidentally Justifies Obama’s Online Rapid Response Group : Fox & Friends this morning reacted to a new effort by the White House to respond to reports that the White House had created an online rapid response team to debunk falsehoods about the administration, among other things, by doing what they do best: freaking out. Yesterday, the Huffington Post reported that White House staffer Jesse Lee would be filling a new position “for helping coordinate rapid response to unfavorable stories and fostering and improving relations with the progressive online community.” Huffington Post further reported that “the White House will be adopting a more aggressive engagement in the online world in the months ahead.” Fox, the leading cable news source for anti-Obama smears, did not care for this development. Read on…
Continue reading …
Regulator Ofqual’s chief executive backs plans and admits there is ‘a public perception that things aren’t what they used to be’ Exam boards could be fined for offering second-rate qualifications, the government’s exam standards regulator for England has warned. Glenys Stacey, the Ofqual chief executive, said it was “unusual” that the regulator did not have the right to impose financial penalties and spoke of the need for penalties as well as incentives for boards. The education bill going through parliament gives Ofqual greater powers to hold exam boards to account, but new legislation would be needed before it could fine them. The regulator is currently able to de-register an exam board and prevent it from offering qualifications, but the bill would gives it an extra responsibility to ensure that England’s examinations and qualifications keep pace with its international competitors. Stacey told the Guardian that Ofqual may “find that our range of powers needs augmenting in some way”. “All regulators want the greatest range of tools and you’d expect us to be seeking those. We are intent on working the tools we have in earnest, it’s whether a fining option has a particular place,” she said. “There may be a place for fining … we will be exploring this with government.” However, Stacey added that Ofqual was working with exam boards, rather than “plotting against” them. In March, a government-commissioned report into vocational courses- said thousands of students were gaining qualifications did not lead to jobs or further training. Professor Alison Wolf, an expert in public policy, found that while there were some worthwhile apprenticeships in building and manufacturing, and hairdressers’ training was of a good standard, there was a raft of courses “that do not do people any good”. Stacey said Ofqual, which was established as an independent non-ministerial government department a year ago, was developing a “harder-wired” stance so that exam boards were at “the level we prescribe and we have real certainty about what they prescribe”. She spoke of the need for “carrot and stick incentives” so that qualifications were “at the line or above it”. “Regulators have to earn their stripes. They don’t seek to be liked, but they seek to be respected,” Stacey said. “The regulator is planning to hold discussions over whether standards have fallen, risen or been maintained with exam boards and others “close to the issue”. The regulator’s chief executive said it faced a challenge in changing the view that exams were getting easier. “There is a public perception that things aren’t what they used to be. As a regulator we need to get under the skin of that,” she said. “What we hope to get is a better understanding as to what the perception is and what the reality is.” Stacey said the regulator would be looking closely at qualifications offered in Singapore, South Korea and Finland, among others. Last July, Ofqual said a science GCSE that almost 500,000 pupils took was too easy. In some cases, pupils had to gain fewer than half the available marks to be awarded an A grade, and only six out of 30 marks for a C. Students were not given the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of scientific concepts. Earlier this week, a report by Ofqual showed that the number of A-level and GCSE qualifications taken in England, Wales and Northern Ireland fell by almost 6% last year, while Diplomas, BTECs and City & Guilds courses shot up by 11%. Schools GCSEs Regulators Vocational education Further education Students Higher education Jessica Shepherd guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Conservative peer will be sentenced in six weeks after denying six counts of false accounting The Tory peer Lord Hanningfield has been found guilty of six counts of expenses fraud. Hanningfield – tried at Chelmsford crown court under his name, Paul White, on Thursday – had denied six counts of false accounting relating to his parliamentary expenses. The prosecution said he had claimed for overnight stays in London, between March 2006 and April 2009, when he had actually returned home to Essex. White told the court he had seen it as a “living out of London allowance” rather than overnight subsistence. The jury found the 70-year-old peer guilty on all six counts and he will be sentenced in six weeks. White, who was an Essex councillor for 40 years and led the council from 2001 until he was charged in 2010, was made a life peer in 1998. He was a frontbench spokesman on business while the Conservatives were in opposition, but was suspended from the parliamentary party after being charged. During the trial, he said he “quite honestly assumed” he could claim the maximum amount after learning that this was what 85% of peers did. Asked by his defence counsel why he thought he was entitled to the full sum, he said: “The £30-£40 a day that was then available on the daily allowance was very little.” The peer, from West Hanningfield, near Chelmsford, told the court he spent “a minute a month” completing the Lords expenses claim form in exactly the same way each time, not even including rises in train fares. “If I had known how important some people saw those forms [as being], I would have done much more. I didn’t see it as self-certifying, I saw it as means of getting expenses,” he said. “No one ever told me those forms were so important. I am horrified to be where I am now because of those forms.” He said he had been told nothing about expenses when he was given an induction into the House of Lords for new peers and paid “very little attention” to the guidelines on the back of the claim forms. Hanningfield said many other peers saw the Lords as a “club”. He alleged that another peer who had a main home in London had designated a cottage in Wales as their primary address and claimed the full allowances for overnight subsistence. The court heard that White, from a farming background, receives only the state pension and a small agricultural pension of £120 a month. He would be entitled to a local government pension for his 40 years on Essex county council, but “never got around to filling in the forms”, the jury was told. The peer said he paid off the mortgage on his bungalow 10 years ago, but recently remortgaged it to help pay for his lawyers during the trial. Prosecution over his expenses spelled the end of his long career in Essex politics; he stepped down as the county council leader the day he was charged. In 2005, he was behind a parliamentary question which revealed that Tony Blair had spent more than £1,800 of public money on cosmetics and make-up artists for media appearances since becoming prime minister. White became emotional during his trial when he was asked whether it had been appropriate to claim back the cost of paying someone to walk his dog. “As I lived alone, I wouldn’t survive without my dog – it’s someone I could talk to and walk with,” he said, adding that he had worked long hours and allowed work to “take over my life”. During his trial, he denied living an extravagant lifestyle, saying: “Most of my clothes are from Marks & Spencer. I enjoy the occasional glass of wine but that’s about it. I have no savings, no stocks and shares, nothing like that.” MPs’ expenses House of Lords Conservatives David Sharrock guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …NEC Director Gene Sperling has been a supporter of the deficit-hawk side of the Obama administration team, which I’ve been very unhappy about, because of what might be cut in their grand bargaining scheme. But yesterday he turned my head (in a good way) with his no-nonsense approach and rebuke to Paul Ryan’s ridiculous Randian budget, this time while speaking at another Pete G. Peterson deficit do-dah. WSJ: Anyone who thought the White House and House Republicans were close to a deficit-reduction deal only needed to sit through five minutes of the 2011 Fiscal Summit held by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation in Washington. Those would be the five minutes when House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) wrapped up his wide-ranging remarks and when White House National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling began his talk.“I want to point out how isolated the House Republicans are,” he said. “Serious people doing serious discussions do not take an absolutists position that you cannot have a penny of revenue.” He said Mr. Ryan has “put himself in a box” with his unwillingness to raise tax revenue. He said this forced Republicans to call for “very severe cuts” that if “explored” by Americans “they would not be proud of.” Mr. Sperling attacked the House Republican proposals to overhaul Medicare and Medicaid, saying that the $770 billion in savings Republicans wanted from changing Medicaid would be unnecessary if Republicans would agree to roll back certain tax cuts. “You can’t say to anybody who would be affected by that, that we have to do that, that we have no choice,” he said. “The fact is that all of those savings would be unnecessary if you were not funding the high income tax cuts.” He also said that Mr. Ryan was wrong when he said that raising taxes as part of a broader package would hurt economic growth. “Everything he said I heard nine million times in 1993 ,” said Mr. Sperling, who was NEC deputy director in the Clinton administration and later became Mr. Clinton’s national economic adviser. With all the deficit blabber coming from the Beltway — from the Village press to the Cat Food Commission to the Gang of Six and then to VP Biden’s group — I, like many, have been waiting for the shoe to eventually drop. And Medicaid seemed like the most vulnerable target to be part of some grand-ass bargain proposal. NEC Sperling hit Paul Ryan hard over the head just by using the Bush Tax Cuts alone. He makes other important points as well. Digby: No Dice To medicaid Cuts This is really important. Sperling has been one of the foremost proponents of the Grand Bargain and this pretty unequivocally takes Medicaid cuts off the table. It will always be vulnerable — whenever the Republicans get the chance they will try to cut Medicaid, especially once it is expanded to cover more people. They will be desperate to call it a welfare program that somehow is keeping people from being productive members of society. But if the Dems can at least protect what exists now and get the expansion enacted it will be harder. Sperling’s comments were terribly important in that it positioned it as a safety net program that helps the middle class as much as the poor and I’m not sure most people know that. You rarely hear much about Medicare, but a huge number of families across America use it. It’s an important part of the safety net for our seniors. You know, Republicans used the bogus ” death panels” talking point to attack health-care reform, but what Paul Ryan proposed in reality are real death panels, because if anything like his ideas are ever implemented, the consequences for our seniors will be catastrophic. d-day weighs in : Sperling apparently also said “From a values perspective, we should be very deeply troubled by the Medicaid cuts in the House Republican plan.” This is excellent. If the White House fights for Medicaid rather than wanting to gain “credibility” through a deal, it cuts off that avenue of escape for Republicans. Safety-net programs could then get untouched and deferred until after the 2012 elections. This would be the best-case scenario at this point.
Continue reading …
Click here to view this media Well, we’ve been saying all along that Sarah Palin — riding on the wings of her own narcissistic religious delusion — would of course be running for the Republican nomination for the presidency in 2012. And now, it appears, the confirmation is getting closer : Ms. Palin has reshuffled her staff, rehiring two aides who have helped plan her political events. And she is expected to resume a schedule of public appearances soon — perhaps as early as this weekend — to raise her profile at a moment when the Republican presidential field appears to be taking final form. The drumbeat intensified on Tuesday night when the conservative filmmaker Stephen K. Bannon was quoted on RealClearPolitics, a political news site, as saying that he was releasing a feature film he made with Ms. Palin’s acquiescence about her tenure as governor of Alaska. The film is to be shown next month in Iowa, whose caucuses open the nominating contest. Taken together, the moves are at odds with conventional wisdom — if not wishful thinking — among establishment Republicans in Washington that Ms. Palin has decided not to run. That thinking has been voiced increasingly as the party’s professional political class, which Ms. Palin has railed against, has sought to declare the field of candidates closed. Ms. Palin would undoubtedly be able to raise substantial campaign financing and attract constant media attention if she ran. But she is a divisive figure in the party, and would have to overcome what polls have consistently suggested is skepticism and even opposition to her among some fellow Republicans. Still, supporters of Ms. Palin say that her constituency beyond the Beltway remains eager, and aides and associates have said she is receptive to their calls of “Run, Sarah, run.” “All indications are that she will be in — her supporters have an intuition about it,” said Jeff Jorgensen, chairman of the Republican Party of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, where Ms. Palin came in second in a straw poll last week. “People are looking for somebody, a Ronald Reagan reincarnate, who does not seem to be out there yet.” Indeed, the forthcoming Palin movie is what has the fanboys really worked up the most. Sean Hannity ran a clip of it last night, hinting that it was a preview of her entry into the race. And then, as TBogg observes, there are the uber-fanboys over at Conservatives4Palin, who are practically moaning in religio-military ecstacy: Some things on my mind at this hour: 1. This is a masterstroke. Everyone has been caught off guard. The Lefties are totally flummoxed. They expected to dominate the news with Bailey and the Caller story, now its SARAH IS COMING. 2. Washington will be in complete turmoil. They thought they might get Sarah to reconsider. and stay out. She’s not. She’s coming in. The Donor Class now knows that she will be in the game. This frustrates Mittens, TPaw, and most of all, the Bush Family. 3. This tells me something else: Palin has her TO&E almost ramped and ready. There is more behind the scenes than we know. State by state websites are probably ramped up, using O4P as the skeletal front. The fundraising machine is probably amped and ready. The FEC papers are filled out and ready to file. 4. Her position papers, some of them genuinely radical, are ready to go. 5. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, prepare for genuine, on the ground, protracted infantry warfare. This will be All Eastern Front, All The Time. Expect this to be an extremely long and protracted effort that will take up the next 18 months of our lives. The Country is Worth It. Remember, people gave their lives so we could bang away on a computers and vote our consciences. McCain spent five years in a box so we could do this stuff. Do not forget who made the next 18 months possible. Men who laid down their lives at places like Gettysburg, Chancellorsville, Belleau Wood, Midway, Peleileu, the Chosin Resevoir, Khe Sanh, and Fallujah, made it possible for us to fight for the life of our country. Oh, and don’t forget to seek God’s guidance and fortification in prayer. I intend to do that. Haven’t done much of it lately. That’s a part of my life that needs to change. Sarah’s example is a good one. The road ahead for Palin, her family, her team, and for us, is a long and bitter one. But there have been tougher, blacker days. Mr. Churchill spoke to the King’s Subjects for the first time as Prime Minister on May 19, 1940 on the BBC. The British Expeditionary Force had just been unceremoniously expelled from the Continent, courtesy of the Panzertruppen. France was well on its way to becoming a German satrapy. And all of England would come under the ferocious assault of the Deutches Luftwaffe within a month. Chruchill was stern in his address. He did not mince words. He told his fellow subjects of the enormity of the task at hand, and of the apparent imminence of invasion of the British Isles. Having made his speech, he finished with a peroration that has come down to the ages and I believe applies here: “Today is Trinity Sunday. Centuries ago words were written to be a call and a spur to the faithful servants of Truth and Justice: ‘Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valour, and be in readiness for the conflict; for it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation and our altar. As the will of God is in Heaven, even so let it be.’” I suspect Joe McGinniss is basically right : Her people are out there, they are numerous, they are angry: and there is not another credible Republican candidate in the race. Up to this point, Sarah has laughed all the way to the bank. Now she hopes to laugh all the way to the White House–swept there by a tidal wave of “real” Americans who don’t like elitist liberals (i.e. for a start, anyone with a college education) portraying them as racist, pitchfork-carrying buffoons. Neither Romney nor Pawlenty can active them, but Sarah can. And she plans to. Because God is telling her to do so. Oh, man, this makes what I’ve written in THE ROGUE about how steeped she is in Christian Dominionism all the more relevant. She truly believes her “prayer shield” will keep her invulnerable to attacks between now and election day 2012. After that, she’ll lay down the shield and pick up the sword of fire with which she’s waiting to smite all of us who do not see her as Queen Esther. Mind you, I’m not in the least persuaded that Palin could ever win the presidency. But I think you can make an easy case for her winning the GOP nomination. No one else can capture the religious-right bloc the way Palin can — and that’s a more significant start than any of the other candidates have.
Continue reading …NewsBusters Publisher Brent Bozell Reacts to Ed Schultz’s Apology to Laura Ingraham
May 26, 2011 No Comment
Ed Schultz's apology was full, unequivocal and a breath a fresh air. We wish Ed would have shown the same remorse when saying we should ‘rip out’ Dick Cheney’s heart, when he called Liz Cheney “shooter's little girl,” or when he said Republicans enjoyed watching people with cancer die. MSNBC should have demanded apologies for the litany of offenses in Ed’s past.
Continue reading …
HSBC and RBS among global banks involved, according to leaked Libyan Investment Authority report obtained by Global Witness • Read the full leaked report here HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland were among major global banks which held billions of dollars of Libyan state funds, a leaked report reveals. The world’s biggest banks led by France’s Société Générale, and including Goldman Sachs and Nomura, were involved in $5bn (£3.1bn) of deals involving Libya, according to an internal report for the Libyan Investment Authority obtained by UK campaign group Global Witness. It reveals the scale of the banks’ involvement with Muammar Gaddafi’s regime. Many of the LIA’s assets have been frozen under international sanctions since February. The document, dated June 2010, outlines where Libya’s oil riches of $53bn were invested. HSBC held $293m in 10 cash accounts, and invested $275m in a hedge fund, while another $110m of Libyan money was invested in a private equity fund managed by RBS. Goldman Sachs had $44m in four cash accounts. The report shows that almost $4bn was held in investment funds and structured products with banks and hedge funds, with Société Générale alone holding $1bn, while JP Morgan Chase had $171m and the New York hedge fund Och-Ziff $329m. The bulk of the LIA’s deposits – $19bn – was held by Libyan and Middle Eastern banks, however, including the Central Bank of Libya, the Arab Banking Corporation and the British Arab Commercial Bank. The report shows that Libya suffered heavy losses on the investment products sold by global banks – one of the most eye-catching losses was a 98.5% fall in the value of the sovereign wealth fund’s $1.2bn equity derivatives portfolio. HSBC and RBS refused to comment, citing client confidentiality. “It is completely absurd that banks like HSBC and Goldman Sachs can hide behind customer confidentiality in a case like this. These are state accounts, so the customer is effectively the Libyan people and these banks are withholding vital information from them,” said Charmian Gooch, director of Global Witness. She called on governments to force banks and investment managers to disclose the state-owned funds they manage. The Libyan authority held $5.2bn in shares and $3.4bn in bonds. The document outlines the stakes owned by the sovereign wealth fund in global companies such as BP, General Electric, Vivendi, Citigroup and Deutsche Telekom. It has already been reported that the fund owned chunks of Italy’s UniCredit bank, industrial group Finmeccanica, UK publishing group Pearson, owner of the Financial Times, and telecoms company Vodafone. The Gaddafi family has significant personal control over the state funds invested in the LIA. According to the prosecutor of the international criminal court: “Gaddafi makes no distinction between his personal assets and the resources of the country.” Banking HSBC Royal Bank of Scotland Libya Middle East Africa Julia Kollewe guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Rapists now face longer in jail than those convicted of manslaughter, according to 2010 criminal justice statistics The average sentence for rape is now more than eight years – longer than the average prison term for manslaughter, according to Ministry of Justice figures published on Thursday. The 2010 criminal justice statistics show that the average sentence for rape of a woman was just over 97 months, two months higher than the 2009 figure and significantly higher than the 78 months – or six-and-a-half years – that was typical in 1996 when the Conservatives were last in power. But the figures show that 134 of the 984 rapists jailed last year in England and Wales were given sentences of four years or less. Only one got less than 12 months. The justice ministry figures cast fresh light on the political row last week sparked by a clash between the justice secretary, Kenneth Clarke, and Gabrielle Browne, an attempted rape victim, over his plans to increase the maximum discount for an early guilty plea for all crimes from 33% to 50%. Clarke denied claims that the average sentence was only five years, raising the prospect that under his plan rapists would serve just over a year. The average 97-month sentence for rape includes the current 33% maximum discount for those who plead guilty. Browne said after meeting Clarke this week that she had been persuaded by his sentencing discount plan as it would only apply if suspects pleaded guilty as early as possible. The annual criminal justice bulletin shows that the average prison sentence in England and Wales for all offences is 13.7 months – up by just over two months since 2000. But this excludes the more punitive indeterminate sentences, including imprisonment for public protection and life, under which criminals are given no fixed release date. The number serving indeterminate sentences has risen by 900 in the past year. Robbers in particular are now getting longer sentences. The figures also show a sharp decline in the use of cautions by the police in the past three years They peaked in 2007 at 363,000 and last year fell by 16% to 243,000. Justice ministry statisticians said the fall coincided with the scrapping of targets for the police for the number of offenders brought to justice. The bulletin also shows a startling 28% fall in juveniles entering the criminal justice system. But justice ministry officials said the decline was probably more to do with a greater use of informal warnings and other unrecorded measures by the police than representing a real drop in juvenile crime. Rape Crime Kenneth Clarke UK criminal justice Alan Travis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Clinton to Ryan Backstage at Peterson Foundation Debate: ‘Give Me a Call’ to Discuss Medicare
May 26, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Let’s just say both Clinton participating in anything sponsored by the Peterson Foundation that wants to privatize Social Security and that has been doing their best running around the country trying to scare everyone that the United States is going broke because they don’t want to see taxes raised, and him cozying up to Paul Ryan backstage at their debate doesn’t exactly leave me feeling warm and fuzzy inside to put it mildly. Rachel Maddow wasn’t too thrilled with watching this either in the clip above. Bill Clinton to Paul Ryan on Medicare Election: ‘Give me a Call’ : The day after the stunning upset in the special congressional election in upstate New York, Rep. Paul Ryan is a man under fire. But ABC News was behind the scenes with the Wisconsin Congressman and GOP Budget Committee Chairman when he got some words of encouragement none other than former President Bill Clinton. “So anyway, I told them before you got here, I said I’m glad we won this race in New York,” Clinton told Ryan, when the two met backstage at a forum on the national debt held by the Pete Peterson Foundation. But he added, “I hope Democrats don’t use this as an excuse to do nothing.” Ryan told Clinton he fears that now nothing will get done in Washington. “My guess is it’s going to sink into paralysis is what’s going to happen. And you know the math. It’s just, I mean, we knew we were putting ourselves out there. You gotta start this. You gotta get out there. You gotta get this thing moving,” Ryan said. Clinton told Ryan that if he ever wanted to talk about it, he should “give me a call.” Ryan said he would. Read on…
Continue reading …
John Cooper found guilty of four killings in 1980s that rocked rural west Wales A former farm labourer has been given four life sentences for four shotgun murders that rocked a quiet community in west Wales in the 1980s. John Cooper, a prolific burglar, was convicted of killing holidaymakers Peter and Gwenda Dixon as they walked the coastal path in Pembrokeshire in 1989. Cooper, who was described in Swansea crown court as a “cold and calculating” killer, also murdered millionaire farmer Richard Thomas and his sister, Helen, in 1985 before setting fire to their remote Pembrokeshire farmhouse to try to cover his tracks. In addition, Cooper, 66, was found guilty of carrying out two sex attacks on teenagers in 1996, again in Pembrokeshire. Swansea crown court was told he carried out the killings and attacks for “pitiful financial gain” and “sexual gratification”. The murders of the Dixons, who were from Oxfordshire, became particularly notorious. One theory of the time was that they might have been murdered by the IRA, after an arms dump was found nearby. But after Dyfed-Powys police launched a cold case review in 2006, fresh scientific tests pointed to Cooper as the killer and sex attacker. The jury was told that Cooper was a burglar and robber who was jailed for 16 years in 1998 for a string of offences in the area. He was depicted as a clever and cunning outdoorsman who used hedgerows as “safes” to hide the valuables he stole and cut escape routes through fences and fields and to evade capture. He was proud of his survival skills and followed what he claimed was an “SAS handbook”. Peter Dixon, 51, and his wife, Gwenda, 52, were walking on the Pembrokeshire coastal path in the summer of 1989 on the last day of their holiday when Cooper pounced with his double-barrel shotgun. He sexually assaulted Mrs Dixon and forced marketing manager Mr Dixon to reveal his bank card pin. The bodies of the Dixons were found near the village of Little Haven, six miles from the scene of the unsolved murders of Richard and Helen Thomas, 58 and 54. They were gagged and shot three days before Christmas in 1985 at Scoveston Park manor. After the killings, a fire was set to destroy evidence, the jury heard. In 1996 Cooper carried out a double sex attack after finding a group of teenagers in a field near his home at night, the court heard. Wearing a balaclava and carrying a sawn-off shotgun, he raped one of the girls at knifepoint and indecently assaulted a second girl. During the cold case review, traces of blood shown to be Mr Dixon’s were found on a shotgun owned by Cooper. Traces of Mr Dixon’s blood were also discovered on a pair of shorts worn by Cooper. Crime Wales Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …