NewsBusters Publisher Bozell to CNN: Zakaria Must Recuse Himself Immediately
May 16, 2011 No CommentThe President’s secret meetings with Fareed Zakaria – the same reporter who openly used a CNN network broadcast to promote Obama in 2008 – show a clear and disturbing double standard at CNN. For decades, the liberal media have repeatedly condemned conservatives in the media who communicated privately with Republican presidents. They furiously attacked George Will in 1980 when he advised candidate Ronald Reagan, and trounced on Roger Ailes when he sent President Bush a note about the new war on terror in the wake of September 11th.
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Imogen Thomas fails to overturn gagging order surrounding unnamed Premier League footballer The Big Brother star who on Monday failed to overturn a high court gagging order brought by a Premier League footballer denied accusations that she attempted to blackmail the player. Imogen Thomas, 28, denies attempting to solicit £100,000, a signed football shirt, and matchday tickets from the high-profile footballer in order not to speak out about their alleged six-month affair. Mr Justice Eady on Monday refused a joint bid by Thomas and the Sun newspaper to overturn the high-profile footballer’s privacy injunction — before setting out his reasons for doing so in an eight-page judgment. Eady said there was “ample reason not to trust” Thomas, and said the evidence before the court on 14 April “appeared strongly to suggest that the claimant [the anonymous footballer] was being blackmailed”. He later records that she denies asking the footballer for money and that he has come to no conclusion on the allegation. The footballer accused Thomas of repeatedly demanding £50,000 from the footballer in March. He agreed to meet her “in a hotel where he was staying” in April. There he gave her “a signed football shirt” but said he was not prepared to give her “the sum of £50,000″. She asked to see him again shortly afterwards to which “he agreed with reluctance” and provided her with some football tickets. Although the position was “by no means clear” Mr Justice Eady said he believed that evidence “appeared to suggest” that the reality TV star arranged two hotel meetings with the player apparently “in collaboration with photographers and/or journalists”. The player claimed that on 13 April, he texted Thomas to say that he might be willing to offer her some money after all. At this point, Thomas is accused of attempting to solicit £100,000 from the player. “The evidence before the court at that point, therefore, appeared strongly to suggest that the claimant was being blackmailed (although that is not how he put it himself),” Eady said on Monday. “I hasten to add, as is obvious, that I cannot come to any final conclusion about it at this stage. I have to make an assessment of the situation on the limited (and untested) evidence as it now stands.” However, Eady added: “I now wish to make it clear that, shortly before this judgment was handed down, Mr Price [David Price QC, Thomas's lawyer] stated on his client’s behalf that she denies either causing the publication in the Sun on 14 April or asking the claimant for money.” Eady ruled the footballer, who brought the privacy injunction last month, is “entitled to a reasonable expectation of privacy”, and that there has been “no countervailing argument” to suggest that the rights of Thomas and the Sun to freedom of expression should prevail. He added that there was “no suggestion of any legitimate public interest in publishing” the story. In a ruling likely to have far-reaching consequences for similar so-called “kiss and tell” stories, Eady ruled that “as in so many kiss and tell cases … the answer is not far to seek”. The Sun, he said, had not even argued that the story was in the public interest. Eady added: “The majority of cases over the last few years … would appear to be of the so-called ‘kiss and tell’ variety and they not infrequently involve blackmailing threats. Blackmail is, of course, a crime and in that context the courts have long afforded anonymity to those targeted as a matter of public policy. This has not hitherto been questioned.” Thomas was in court for the ruling on Monday. In a statement on behalf of Thomas by her lawyer, the Big Brother star said she was “stunned” with how she was portrayed in the ruling. In a statement released just after the hearing, she said: “What’s more I can’t even defend myself because I have been gagged. If this is the way privacy injunctions are supposed to work there is something seriously wrong with the law.” • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook . Media law Privacy & the media The Sun News International National newspapers Newspapers Newspaper formats Superinjunctions Premier League Josh Halliday guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Challenge to Boehner: Ask Senate Republicans to Join Him on Ryan’s Road to Recession
May 16, 2011 No Comment
Benjy Sarling from Talking Points Memo reported on Sunday that the embattled House Republican leaders are looking to “shock” their joke Medicare plan “back to life with a new message.” Representation Paul Ryan is going to try to sell his laughable “Path to Prosperity” nonsense at the Economic Club of Chicago today. Apparently watching the Speaker humiliate himself at the Economic Club of New York did not do anything to deter Ryan. Even Boehner blasted this out on his Twitter account on Friday: enlarge News reports that SS & Medicare will run out of money sooner than expected only underscore the importance of enacting Path to Prosperity Okay, couple of things here. I will first show how disingenuous and dishonest Boehner was with the first part of his tweet. I will then point out if Boehner really wants to talk the talk on “Path to Prosperity,” how he will get prime opportunity to goad his Republican colleagues from other chamber in Congress to walk the walk this week. First, let me start with those news reports. Boehner was excitedly referring to was article like this one in the Bloomberg , talking about a release of a report by the Social Security and Medicare Board of Trustees, which found that the Medicare Trust Fund would become insolvent in 2016 without the deficit reduction provisions in the Affordable Care Act. What Boehner and his cronies do not want you to know that the report actually made it pretty clear that Social Security and Medicare are in good shape because of landmark legislation such as the Affordable Care Act passed under the stewardship of a Democratic President and Democratically controlled Congress. The report also supported the Democratic argument that it’s the extreme Republican economic and fiscal policies that have taken a negatively impacted the finances of those programs. Leader Nancy Pelosi set the record straight : “Unlike the Republicans who voted to end Medicare as we know it, we must build on the reforms in the Affordable Care Act, which strengthened Medicare and extended its solvency without reducing benefits to our seniors. “Republicans have now voted to end Medicare while giving billions to Big Oil and millionaires. Republicans have long been up to the same tricks with Social Security, putting the economic security of America’s seniors at risk. Democrats created Social Security and Medicare; we have sustained them for generations; we are working to strengthen, not end them.” As did Democratic Leaders from Ways and Means Committee – Sander Levin (D-MI) and Pete Stark (D-CA): Ranking Member Levin: “This report makes clear just how vital health care reform is to the life of Medicare, yet Republicans continue to pursue a one-two punch against the program through their plans to turn Medicare into a voucher program and their efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The deep recession has set back the solvency of Medicare and we will fight, at every step, Republican efforts to use that as justification to gut a program vital to the lives of so many Americans.” Ranking Member Stark: “Today’s Trustees’ report spotlights how the Medicare reforms in the Affordable Care Act are a boon to the program’s strength and solvency. To protect the health of Americans of all ages, we must defeat Republican attempts to end Medicare and gut health reform.” And Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman : “The Medicare Trustees Report underscores the importance of last year’s historic health care reform law in improving and stabilizing Medicare,” said Rep. Waxman. “Provisions in the law extend Medicare for eight years beyond 2016 when it otherwise would go bankrupt. The report also shows that the Affordable Care Act’s improvements can stabilize the program while still preserving it for generations to come. This is in stark contrast to the Republican budget which would destroy the Medicare program.” In addition, the Center for American Progress in response to the above referenced report laid out in this issue brief that Medicare remains “the best option for ensuring quality health care for our retirees, for controlling costs for taxpayers, for administering benefits to Medicare patients, and for spreading the risks of insuring our elderly across our nation.” Yet, there was Boehner tweeting away like a once again looking like someone who has no idea what the heck he is talking about. Beyond embarrassing that the Speaker of the United States cannot recognize the basic facts about our Medicare program. What is especially hilarious that even a crazy and reactionary Republican, and a delusional Presidential candidate such as Newt Gingrich wants no part of Ryan’s Medicare plan . Yesterday Newt laughed Ryan’s plan off as “right wing social engineering.” So if Boehner really wants to bear hug Ryan’s joke of a Medicare plan, here is what he should do this week – he can start today. You see the Senate will most likely being voting on Ryan’s budget plan in next couple of weeks . It is coming up and it is going to happen soon. If Boehner feels sooo strongly about his pal’s “Path to Prosperity,” then he needs to make direct statements urging his Senate GOP colleagues to vote for it. He should specifically call out Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) to come out in support of it. He should chide his Republican Senators such as Lamar Alexandar (R-TN) and Rob Portman (R-OH) for not fully embracing Ryan’s plan . If Boehner wants to walk the walk on Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity” he needs to forcefully ask the Senate Republicans to join him on path to recession in the coming days.
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When an admittedly liberal Nobel laureate in economics thinks trying to balance the budget is holding America hostage, one has to wonder if there are any adults remaining on the left side of the aisle. Consider what New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote Monday: Six months ago President Obama faced a hostage situation. Republicans threatened to block an extension of middle-class tax cuts unless Mr. Obama gave in and extended tax cuts for the rich too. And the president essentially folded, giving the G.O.P. everything it wanted. When an opinion piece begins with dishonesty, it's all downhill from there. The position Obama found himself in last December was all of his own doing. He and the Democrat Party that controlled the White House and both chambers of Congress had all year to propose and pass a budget. Instead, because it was an election year and they knew what they would offer the American people would not be well-received, they punted and waited literally until the last minute. Having been severely rebuked at the polls by a nation fed up with their profligate spending, Obama and the Democrats found themselves with little bargaining power as the clock approached midnight, and ended up accepting a far worse outcome than if they had performed their Constitutional duties in a more timely fashion. It is therefore dishonest of Krugman to call that a hostage situation for the Party he unashamedly supports put itself in that position by abdicating their responsibility as elected officials. With a groundwork of lies laid in the opening sentence, Krugman continued deceiving his readers: Now, predictably, the hostage-takers are back: blackmail worked well last December, so why not try it again? This time House Republicans say they will refuse to raise the debt ceiling — a step that could inflict major economic damage — unless Mr. Obama agrees to large spending cuts, even as they rule out any tax increase whatsoever. And the question becomes what, if anything, will get the president to say no. Once again, the fact that we're at this point is Obama and the Democrats' own doing. This debt ceiling issue could have been addressed months ago. However, the current White House resident loves working in crisis mode. Just ask his former Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emanuel who famously said you should never let a good crisis go to waste. Virtually everything proposed by this President wreaks of urgency and hostage taking. If we don't immediately pass a stimulus package, we're going into a depression. If we don't immediately bail out General Motors and Chrysler, we're going into a depression. If we don't immediately pass ObamaCare, we're going into a depression. This has been the modus operandi of this administration since before Obama was sworn in. Now these crisis-loving folks are trying to convince the American people that the world will come to an end if we don't immediately raise the debt ceiling, this despite the existence of numerous budgetary mechanisms that would keep much of the government running for several months if a solution isn't quickly arrived at. Not surprisingly, Krugman is willing to play his part in scaring the citizenry: Consumer spending would probably crash, as nervous seniors started wondering how to pay for rent and food. Businesses that depend on government purchases would slash payrolls and cancel investments. Furthermore, markets might well panic, especially if interest payments are missed. And the consequences of undermining faith in U.S. debt might be especially severe because that debt plays a crucial role in many financial transactions. Well, despite Monday being the deadline, stocks are currently trading near their post-recession highs and there hasn't been any mass-liquidation of U.S. treasury paper in the weeks leading up to today. I guess the end of the world has once again been delayed. But Krugman wasn't done: So hitting the debt ceiling would be a very bad thing. Unfortunately, it may be unavoidable. Why? Because this is a hostage situation. If the president and his allies operate on the principle that failure to raise the debt ceiling is an unthinkable outcome, to be avoided at all cost, then they have ceded all power to those willing to bring that outcome about. In effect, they will have ripped up the Constitution and given control over America's government to a party that only controls one house of Congress, but claims to be willing to bring down the economy unless it gets what it wants. But the president can't call the extortionists' bluff unless he's willing to confront them, and accept the associated risks. You got that? It's the end of the world as we know it if we don't raise the debt ceiling, but the President has to be willing to risk this – wait for it! – for the good of the nation. Keep in mind that all the Republicans are asking for – with the budget having ballooned by 41 percent in the past four years and Social Security and Medicare closer to bankruptcy than previously thought! – is some spending cuts to slow the rate of debt growth in the future. Is trying to balance the budget akin to sticking a gun to someone's head? Isn't it really the President and his Party that are holding America hostage by refusing to address the debt issue? This White House resident even ignored all the recommendations of his own bipartisan deficit commission. So who's holding whom hostage, and exactly why is it okay for the President to take the country into what Krugman thinks is the abyss, but it would be immoral for the Republicans to do it? As I've been saying for years, it takes a lot of rationalizations to be a liberal these days.
Continue reading …They really seem to be floundering from plan to plan, but at least they’ve recognized that pouring radioactive water into the sea isn’t making things any better: TOKYO — An adviser to Prime Minister Naoto Kan indicated Sunday that a plan to flood and cool the No. 1 reactor’s containment vessel at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant with water will be abandoned as holes have been created by melted nuclear fuel at the bottom of the pressure vessel. Goshi Hosono, tasked with handling the nuclear crisis, told TV programs, however, that the government will keep intact the ‘‘road map’’ devised by plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co to bring the Nos. 1 to 3 reactors under control within six to nine months. On the original plan to completely submerge the 4-meter-tall fuel rods by filling the vessel with water, Hosono said, ‘‘We should not cause the (radioactive) water to flow into the sea by taking such a measure.’‘ Hosono said that the government will instead consider ways to decontaminate water used to cool fuel in the reactor so that the water can be reused. And in other news, TEPCO is maneuvering to have Japan’s taxpayers pick up the cleanup bill . How… American!
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Former Big Brother contestant and the Sun fail to overturn injunction taken out by Premier League footballer • Read the judgment in full Imogen Thomas, the former Big Brother contestant whose relationship with a married Premier League footballer was made the subject of a court gagging order, has failed in a joint bid with the Sun to overturn the injunction. Thomas said on Monday she was “stunned” following the high court judgment by Mr Justice Eady and claimed there was “something seriously wrong with the law”. “Yet again my name and reputation have been trashed while the man I had a relationship with is able to hide,” said Thomas, speaking outside the high court. “What’s more I can’t even defend myself because I have been gagged. If this is the way privacy injunctions are supposed to work there is something seriously wrong with the law. “I have read the judgment and I am stunned by how I am portrayed.” Thomas was speaking after Eady explained why he made an order banning journalists from reporting the identity of a footballer involved in a relationship with the reality television contestant. He also issued a written account of his reasons for making the order after listening to arguments from lawyers representing the footballer, Thomas and the Sun newspaper at a private hearing.
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Londoners asked to remain vigilant after Met police receive coded warning from dissident republicans Scotland Yard are investigating a “coded” bomb threat made against central London, on the eve of the Queen’s visit to Ireland. Police said on Monday that the warning did not give any details about the time or place of any device. The Guardian understands the warning was telephoned in to police late on Sunday afternoon by a caller claiming to represent the dissident republican cause. The caller used a codeword, although it was not recognised as being associated with any group. Officers are already on high alert over the “severe” terrorist threat from al-Qaida-inspired violence, with the threat from Irish terrorism judged by MI5 to be one level lower at “substantial”. News of the warning was passed to officers going out on patrol and made public by police at lunchtime on Monday. The Metropolitan police said: “A bomb threat warning has been received relating to central London today. The threat is not specific in relation to location or time. “The Metropolitan police service, City of London police and British Transport police are working closely together and all officers have been advised to be a highly vigilant to ensure the safety of London. Policing operations and contingency planning remain under constant review and a wide range of overt and covert tactics will continue to be used in London. “At this time Londoners should continue to go about their business as usual but we encourage the public to remain vigilant and report any information about unusual activity or behaviour which may be terrorist-related to the confidential anti-terrorist hotline on 0800 789 321.” There was a large-scale security alert near Buckingham Palace on Monday morning. Roads around the Admiralty Arch area of the Mall were reopened before noon after a security scare in the early hours. A painstaking search was launched and roads were closed around the ceremonial gateway that leads from the corner of Trafalgar Square after an officer spotted “something suspicious” at 4.20am. There was also understood to have been a controlled explosion of a suitcase in nearby Northumberland Avenue as officers swooped on suspicious packages. The threat level from Irish-related terrorism has not been raised after the codeword warning to police. Coded warnings were often used by Irish terrorists in their campaign of violence against the British mainland. A hallmark of al-Qaida-inspired violence is the lack of any warning. UK security and terrorism Northern Ireland London The Queen Metropolitan police Police Vikram Dodd guardian.co.uk
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French writer Tristane Banon claims the IMF chief acted like a ‘rutting chimpanzee’ in an attack on her nine years ago A French writer who claims Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted her nine years ago is to file an official complaint, her lawyer has announced. Tristane Banon previously described the attack, which happened when she was in her early 20s, in a television programme in 2007, when she called Strauss-Kahn, whose name was bleeped out, a “rutting chimpanzee.” She consulted a lawyer at the time, but was persuaded not to take action by her mother, a regional councillor in the Socialist party and friend of the Strauss-Kahn family. Banon is goddaughter to Strauss-Kahn’s second wife. Banon’s lawyer, David Koubbi, said: “We are planning to make a complaint. I am working with her.” Koubbi said Banon, now 31, was “literally blown over” when she heard the claims Strauss-Kahn had attacked a hotel chambermaid in New York. “At the same time, she was certainly not surprised,” he said. Across France, after the shock of Strauss-Kahn’s arrest on sex charges in New York, speculation, self-pity and conspiracy theories have blossomed. For some, the story of Strauss-Kahn’s apparently self-inflicted fall from presidential hopeful to prison cell was a combination of sordid tale and Shakespearean tragedy. For others the story was so extraordinary it smacked of a set-up. Only three weeks ago, Strauss-Kahn evoked such a possibility in an interview with French newspaper Libération when he said he thought he was under surveillance and named the three principal difficulties he foresaw if he was to stand for the presidential elections. “Money, women and the fact I am Jewish.” He added: “Yes, I like women … so what?” He said he could see himself becoming the victim of a honey trap: “a woman raped in a car park and who’s been promised 500,000 or a million euros to invent such a story …” But not in his or his Socialist party’s worst nightmares, nor in President Nicolas Sarkozy’s wildest dreams, could anyone imagine Strauss-Kahn, nicknamed with almost tacit admiration the Great Seducer, being at the epicentre of what was described as a “political earthquake”. Jean-Marie Le Guen, a Socialist party MP who has known Strauss-Kahn for 25 years, said the story was “not credible” and inconsistent with what he knew of the politician’s character. “Seduction, yes, but no way would he use constraint or violence. A certain number of facts, and certain aspects of the story we are hearing from the press, make this not credible.” He said Strauss-Kahn had not fled the scene of the alleged crime as reported but had lunched in New York before catching a flight booked weeks previously. France-Soir reported that when plain-clothed police officers approached the politician in the first-class section of the Air France plane bound for Paris, he looked up at them and asked: “What’s the matter?” Le Guen said his friend knew he would be the target of mud-slinging but added: “What they are asking us to believe … it’s just hallucinations. I’m a doctor and I know this can happen. We knew there would be hyper-violent attacks on him [Strauss-Kahn]. We could hear the knives being sharpened in preparation.” Libération editor Nicolas Demorand suggested France was having its first sex scandal “à l’anglo saxonne” and was “brutally entering a zone of public debate which, up to now whether because of the cultural exception, the ‘latin’ identity or democratic weakness has been confined to rumours and gossip among a small inner circle”. “Politicians … enjoy a particular tolerance on this subject,” he wrote. “Part of the shock comes also from the unusual scene, until now unthinkable here: police arresting a top-level politician on a matter of morals.” There is sympathy for Strauss-Kahn’s third wife, television journalist Anne Sinclair, who Le Guen said was bearing up with “strength and courage”. In a spasm of self-flagellation, political commentators spoke of the affair as a disgrace and humiliation for France, referring to the country as “the victim” in the affair. Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, the ecology minister, did at least mention the 32-year-old chambermaid allegedly attacked by Strauss-Kahn. “As well as the presumed victim, the chambermaid, there is a proven victim … France. We should remember the facts are very serious; in France we tend to treat things like this a little bit lightly,” she told news agency AFP. Of the pictures of Strauss-Kahn being led in handcuffs by New York police, criticised by some, including Le Guen as “hyper violent”, Kosciusko-Morizet said the French politician was a suspect like any other. “I have confidence in American justice … it’s so French to see conspiracies everywhere, it’s something I believe that’s in our culture.” The Socialist party was holding an emergency meeting to decide on how to react to the crisis in its ranks. Two months from the closing date for the party’s primary election in October, Strauss-Kahn was the opposition’s main hope of unseating Sarkozy. Dominique Strauss-Kahn France Europe United States IMF Kim Willsher guardian.co.uk
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Former Scotland Yard commander’s conviction ruled unsafe after court of appeal hears main witness was a benefit fraudster The court of appeal has quashed the conviction of a former police chief who was found guilty by a jury of framing a man. Former Scotland Yard commander Ali Dizaei was jailed for four years in February 2010 for abusing his office after a row in a London street with Waad al-Baghdadi, who was the main prosecution witness. The Crown Prosecution Service has announced that there will be a retrial. Lawyers for Dizaei told the court of appeal the conviction was no longer safe because Baghdadi had lied to secure thousands of pounds of benefits, as well as in his court evidence. On Monday appeal court judges decided the conviction was unsafe. Dizaei’s 25-year police career ended after his conviction, when he was drummed out of the Metropolitan police in disgrace. The appeal court heard Baghdadi had lied to the pension and benefits departments to pretend his father was alive so he could collect his £100-a-week pension, plus an allowance for caring for him. Thousands of pounds in benefits went into bank accounts controlled by Baghdadi, said Michael Mansfield QC, representing Dizaei. The fraud went on long after his father’s death in March 2006, and he was still claiming up until February this year. Lord Justice Hughes, after hearing the evidence, declared on the first day of the hearing: “There is a clear prima facie case of benefit fraud.” Baghdadi was arrested by police on 6 March and bailed until May. In all, Baghdadi claimed £18,000 from an attendance allowance for his dead father, a carer’s allowance and a pension, as well as income support. There was also an application to the social fund for a loan bearing the signature of his dead father, the court heard. Mansfield alleged Baghdadi had lied to get into Britain, falsely claiming he was fleeing persecution in Iraq. In fact, he had been born and raised in Iran. This falsehood was also told by Baghdadi at the original trial of Dizaei, where his accuser had also wrongly stated his name and age, as well as his nationality. Some of the fraud, said Mansfield, was ongoing at the time of the 2008 clash with Dizaei and at the time of the trial, where the jury were told nothing of the alleged fraud and Baghdadi was presented as a witness of truth. Mansfield said the evidence showed Baghdadi was capable of a “pattern of persistent and elaborate deceit” and in recent police interviews had still not been telling the truth. Hughes, after accepting the “clear prima facie case he [Baghdadi] is a fraudster”, told Mansfield he would have to show how this made the jury’s decision to believe Baghdadi’s evidence over Dizaei’s testimony unsafe. “It’s all very well showing this man is a fraudster, how does it affect the conviction?” Hughes asked. Mansfield replied: “It impacts on the safety of the conviction quite dramatically,” adding that Baghdadi had been pivotal to the conviction. The crown argued that much of the material about Baghdadi’s benefit claims may have been known by Dizaei at the time of the trial and thus did not count as new evidence, which is needed to overturn the jury’s verdict in the original trial. Dizaei, a former leader of the National Black Police Association, was an outspoken critic of the police on race and a key figure in a racism row that erupted at the top of Scotland Yard in 2008. Dizaei was convicted of falsely arresting Baghdadi in a dispute over money and then lying in official statements, claiming he had been assaulted and threatened by Baghdadi. The crown alleged that on 18 July 2008, Dizaei clashed with 24-year-old Baghdadi, who claimed the police commander owed him £600 for a website he had designed. In 2003 Dizaei was cleared of criminal charges after a massive covert operation against him by his own force. He returned to the Metropolitan police after that acquittal, but few if any leaders in the force want Dizaei, who has been a constant thorn in their side, to return. Ali Dizaei Police Immigration and asylum Crime London Court of appeal Vikram Dodd guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …David Gregory Quotes Tom Coburn’s Views on Gingrich’s Affairs in the Wake of the Ensign Scandal
May 16, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media On Meet the Press, David Gregory asked serial adulterer Newt Gingrich if he was going to have any problems with social conservatives who have called him a hypocrite for carrying on his own affairs while going after Bill Clinton. And who does David Gregory decide to quote here? Senator Tom Coburn. The same Tom Coburn that just helped to negotiate bribes for now former Senator John Ensign, who may now be facing criminal charges for his behavior. GREGORY: You look at the field that’s starting to take shape on the Republican side — and we’ll put the, the current polling on the board — Mike Huckabee is now not running. He was high up there. Donald Trump . You were there at 10 percent. And our latest poll still indicates that you’ve still got high negatives. There’s still a high unfavorable rating. Some of that, Mr. Speaker, has to do with your own personal life , the fact that you’ve been married three times, you had extramarital affairs , one of — during which the time that Republicans were pursuing President Clinton for impeachment that earned you the label of being a hypocrite. And I wonder how you’re going to deal with this, particularly when social conservatives , like Tom Coburn , senator from Oklahoma , has said the following about you. And I ‘ll put it up on the screen. This was from last summer. Senator Coburn “made it clear that he won’t be on Newt Gingrich ‘s 2012 presidential bandwagon. ” Gingrich ‘is a super-smart man, but he doesn’t know anything about commitment to marriage ,’ he said of the thrice-married former House speaker . ‘He’s the last person I’d vote for, for president of the United States . His life indicates he does not have a commitment to the character traits necessary to be a great president.’” Someone needs to tell David Gregory that his irony alert button is broken. That or he’s desperate not to remind the viewers about the Ensign scandal at all.
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