Click here to view this media Since so many of the undeclared potential presidential contenders decided to skip the first official Republican primary debate, Saturday Night Live decided to treat us to their version of the GOP 2012 Undeclared Candidates Debate, with Tina Fey returning as Sarah Palin. The segment also featured Bill Hader as Fox’s Shepard Smith, Jason Sudeikis as Mitt Romney, Darrell Hammond as Donald Trump, Kristen Wiig as Michele Bachmann, Bobby Moynihan as Newt Gingrich and Kenan Thompson as the Rent is Too Damn High Party’s Jimmy McMillan. As expected, Fey stole the show with her Palin impression.
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Inspired by British satire In The Loop, first French film to tell story of a serving president breaks last taboo It threatens to be so true to life that it’s more like a documentary than a feature film. “I’m surrounded by cretins!” shouts a stack-heeled, would-be French president at his terrified advisers. “Remember, I’m a Ferrari. When you open the bonnet, you use white gloves.” When the Cannes film festival opens next week, it will break the last taboo in French film. La Conquête, a scathing portrait of Nicolas Sarkozy’s rise to power – the first French feature film brave enough to tackle a serving president – will be shown on La Croisette after a row over whether officials wanted to sideline it to spare the Elysée’s blushes. Inspired by the merciless British satire In the Loop, and subtitled “The man who won the presidency, but lost a wife”, it hopes to skewer Sarkozy’s rage, ambition and problems with women. But it faces the same problem as Italian director Nanni Moretti’s Berlusconi-inspired The Caiman: how do you parody a man who has already become a parody of himself? This year’s Cannes is already displaying an unprecedented Sarkozy theme. The first lady, Carla Bruni, will appear in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, while the French director Pierre Schoeller’s L’Exercice de l’Etat fictionalises the personal sacrifices of a government minister. Sarkozy, record-breakingly unpopular one year before a tough battle for re-election, cannot risk appearing on the red carpet himself, nor can Bruni. It would send the wrong message about lavish partying to cash-strapped France. But the Elysée is already on a damage-limitation offensive over La Conquête. In recent days, Sarkozy has been brandishing a three-page handwritten letter from the actor who plays him. Denis Podalydès is one of France’s biggest theatre stars, a leftwinger whose line in Shakespearean figures like Richard II has set him up well for playing right-winger Sarkozy’s 2007 rise to power. He recently wrote to Sarkozy explaining his role in the film, which the president has taken as an admission that the film isn’t too cruel. But the Elysée is clearly irked by the film. Several Sarkozy advisers have dismissed the trailer as “a ridiculous charicature”. Producers said French TV channels self-censored and refused to contribute funding for the “dangerous and risky project” and the script was leaked, perhaps reaching as high as the Elysée. Rachida Dati, the former Sarkozy protégée and minister, reportedly tried to contact the actor playing her, but was brushed off. This week Carla Bruni admitted she was “worried” about the film, which depicts Sarkozy’s split from his previous wife, Cécilia. She said: “It’s a period that I experienced like everyone else, observing the presidential candidates from the outside. I would really like to watch this film with that same sense of distance, but I’m not sure I can.” Even the film poster has made the political class cringe. Designed by the English team who worked on In the Loop, it shows a pair of short legs in stacked heels, dangling off a high stool, echoing a scene in the film where the diminutive Sarkozy throws a tantrum that his chair is too high. Podalydès has described his Sarkozy character as both “endearing and insufferable”, “mature and immature”, someone totally “animal” who cares little about philosophy. He recently met Sarkozy at the Elysée and said the president told him: “I don’t like power, but I like exercising it.” The script is based on an analysis of Sarkozy by the political historian and documentary maker, Patrick Rotman. But French critics have warned they want more than just accurate Sarkozy-mimicry and hunger for a piece of fiction that explores the president’s narcissistic yet unfathomable personality. Le Figaro’s Sebastien Le Fol said he wanted the emotional resonance of British films like The Queen or the Tony Blair-Gordon Brown drama, The Deal. “La Conquête will only win us over if it allows us to enter the unconscious of a man of state and reveal the workings of power.” Other key Cannes films The Tree of Life The reclusive American film-maker Terrence Malick’s family drama with mysterious cosmic element. It’s only his fifth feature in 40 years. Melancholia A sci-fi, apocalyptic wedding drama, from the Danish maverick director Lars Von Trier who shocked Cannes with the film Antichrist in 2009. This Must Be The Place Sean Penn plays a 50-year-old ex-rocker who travels across the US on the trail of a Nazi war criminal. The Skin I Live In Spanish director Pedro Almodovar’s creepy revenge saga about a plastic surgeon. Death of a Samurai Japanese director Takashi Miike’s honour and revenge story is billed as the first 3D film to be shown at Cannes. We Need To Talk About Kevin Lynne Ramsay’s family drama based on the novel about middle-class parents struggling to make sense of a high-school massacre is Britain’s competition hope. France Europe Cannes 2011 Cannes film festival Nicolas Sarkozy Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Inspired by British satire In The Loop, first French film to tell story of a serving president breaks last taboo It threatens to be so true to life that it’s more like a documentary than a feature film. “I’m surrounded by cretins!” shouts a stack-heeled, would-be French president at his terrified advisers. “Remember, I’m a Ferrari. When you open the bonnet, you use white gloves.” When the Cannes film festival opens next week, it will break the last taboo in French film. La Conquête, a scathing portrait of Nicolas Sarkozy’s rise to power – the first French feature film brave enough to tackle a serving president – will be shown on La Croisette after a row over whether officials wanted to sideline it to spare the Elysée’s blushes. Inspired by the merciless British satire In the Loop, and subtitled “The man who won the presidency, but lost a wife”, it hopes to skewer Sarkozy’s rage, ambition and problems with women. But it faces the same problem as Italian director Nanni Moretti’s Berlusconi-inspired The Caiman: how do you parody a man who has already become a parody of himself? This year’s Cannes is already displaying an unprecedented Sarkozy theme. The first lady, Carla Bruni, will appear in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, while the French director Pierre Schoeller’s L’Exercice de l’Etat fictionalises the personal sacrifices of a government minister. Sarkozy, record-breakingly unpopular one year before a tough battle for re-election, cannot risk appearing on the red carpet himself, nor can Bruni. It would send the wrong message about lavish partying to cash-strapped France. But the Elysée is already on a damage-limitation offensive over La Conquête. In recent days, Sarkozy has been brandishing a three-page handwritten letter from the actor who plays him. Denis Podalydès is one of France’s biggest theatre stars, a leftwinger whose line in Shakespearean figures like Richard II has set him up well for playing right-winger Sarkozy’s 2007 rise to power. He recently wrote to Sarkozy explaining his role in the film, which the president has taken as an admission that the film isn’t too cruel. But the Elysée is clearly irked by the film. Several Sarkozy advisers have dismissed the trailer as “a ridiculous charicature”. Producers said French TV channels self-censored and refused to contribute funding for the “dangerous and risky project” and the script was leaked, perhaps reaching as high as the Elysée. Rachida Dati, the former Sarkozy protégée and minister, reportedly tried to contact the actor playing her, but was brushed off. This week Carla Bruni admitted she was “worried” about the film, which depicts Sarkozy’s split from his previous wife, Cécilia. She said: “It’s a period that I experienced like everyone else, observing the presidential candidates from the outside. I would really like to watch this film with that same sense of distance, but I’m not sure I can.” Even the film poster has made the political class cringe. Designed by the English team who worked on In the Loop, it shows a pair of short legs in stacked heels, dangling off a high stool, echoing a scene in the film where the diminutive Sarkozy throws a tantrum that his chair is too high. Podalydès has described his Sarkozy character as both “endearing and insufferable”, “mature and immature”, someone totally “animal” who cares little about philosophy. He recently met Sarkozy at the Elysée and said the president told him: “I don’t like power, but I like exercising it.” The script is based on an analysis of Sarkozy by the political historian and documentary maker, Patrick Rotman. But French critics have warned they want more than just accurate Sarkozy-mimicry and hunger for a piece of fiction that explores the president’s narcissistic yet unfathomable personality. Le Figaro’s Sebastien Le Fol said he wanted the emotional resonance of British films like The Queen or the Tony Blair-Gordon Brown drama, The Deal. “La Conquête will only win us over if it allows us to enter the unconscious of a man of state and reveal the workings of power.” Other key Cannes films The Tree of Life The reclusive American film-maker Terrence Malick’s family drama with mysterious cosmic element. It’s only his fifth feature in 40 years. Melancholia A sci-fi, apocalyptic wedding drama, from the Danish maverick director Lars Von Trier who shocked Cannes with the film Antichrist in 2009. This Must Be The Place Sean Penn plays a 50-year-old ex-rocker who travels across the US on the trail of a Nazi war criminal. The Skin I Live In Spanish director Pedro Almodovar’s creepy revenge saga about a plastic surgeon. Death of a Samurai Japanese director Takashi Miike’s honour and revenge story is billed as the first 3D film to be shown at Cannes. We Need To Talk About Kevin Lynne Ramsay’s family drama based on the novel about middle-class parents struggling to make sense of a high-school massacre is Britain’s competition hope. France Europe Cannes 2011 Cannes film festival Nicolas Sarkozy Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk
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‘Phoenix four’ disqualified from directorships after paying £42m in bonuses while running car firm into the ground Four former MG Rover directors, who paid themselves millions as they ran the car manufacturer into the ground, have been banned from acting as company directors for a combined total of 19 years. The so-called ” Phoenix four ” of Peter Beale, John Towers, Nick Stephenson and John Edwards acquired Britain’s last remaining volume car producer from BMW for a nominal £10 in 2000, with the enthusiastic backing of the then Labour government. They then spent the next five years pocketing huge awards before the company collapsed in 2005, owing £1.3bn to creditors and putting thousands of people out of work. Edward Davey, the business minister with responsibility for corporate governance and company law, said: “These disqualification undertakings represent a successful conclusion to a lengthy and complex investigation into the collapse of MG Rover. The outcome of this case serves as an important reminder that unacceptable conduct by company directors can result in lengthy periods of disqualification.” From 17 May, Beale will not be able to work as a director for six years, Towers and Stephenson for five and Edwards for three. When MG Rover collapsed in April 2005 with the loss of 6,500 jobs, the Phoenix four and former MG Rover chief executive Kevin Howe had paid themselves a total of £42m . Howe has not been banned. The disqualifications follow a government report into the financial affairs of MG Rover and its associated companies that found that the conduct of the Phoenix four made them unfit to be company directors. It added that the directors manipulated the assets and income streams through the use of companies in which they, rather than the creditors of MG Rover had an interest, allowing them to benefit through large salaries, dividends and profits. The quartet described the report as a “witch-hunt” and a “whitewash” . Rover Automotive industry Simon Goodley guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …‘Phoenix four’ disqualified from directorships after paying £42m in bonuses while running car firm into the ground Four former MG Rover directors, who paid themselves millions as they ran the car manufacturer into the ground, have been banned from acting as company directors for a combined total of 19 years. The so-called ” Phoenix four ” of Peter Beale, John Towers, Nick Stephenson and John Edwards acquired Britain’s last remaining volume car producer from BMW for a nominal £10 in 2000, with the enthusiastic backing of the then Labour government. They then spent the next five years pocketing huge awards before the company collapsed in 2005, owing £1.3bn to creditors and putting thousands of people out of work. Edward Davey, the business minister with responsibility for corporate governance and company law, said: “These disqualification undertakings represent a successful conclusion to a lengthy and complex investigation into the collapse of MG Rover. The outcome of this case serves as an important reminder that unacceptable conduct by company directors can result in lengthy periods of disqualification.” From 17 May, Beale will not be able to work as a director for six years, Towers and Stephenson for five and Edwards for three. When MG Rover collapsed in April 2005 with the loss of 6,500 jobs, the Phoenix four and former MG Rover chief executive Kevin Howe had paid themselves a total of £42m . Howe has not been banned. The disqualifications follow a government report into the financial affairs of MG Rover and its associated companies that found that the conduct of the Phoenix four made them unfit to be company directors. It added that the directors manipulated the assets and income streams through the use of companies in which they, rather than the creditors of MG Rover had an interest, allowing them to benefit through large salaries, dividends and profits. The quartet described the report as a “witch-hunt” and a “whitewash” . Rover Automotive industry Simon Goodley guardian.co.uk
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‘Phoenix four’ disqualified from directorships after paying £42m in bonuses while running car firm into the ground Four former MG Rover directors, who paid themselves millions as they ran the car manufacturer into the ground, have been banned from acting as company directors for a combined total of 19 years. The so-called ” Phoenix four ” of Peter Beale, John Towers, Nick Stephenson and John Edwards acquired Britain’s last remaining volume car producer from BMW for a nominal £10 in 2000, with the enthusiastic backing of the then Labour government. They then spent the next five years pocketing huge awards before the company collapsed in 2005, owing £1.3bn to creditors and putting thousands of people out of work. Edward Davey, the business minister with responsibility for corporate governance and company law, said: “These disqualification undertakings represent a successful conclusion to a lengthy and complex investigation into the collapse of MG Rover. The outcome of this case serves as an important reminder that unacceptable conduct by company directors can result in lengthy periods of disqualification.” From 17 May, Beale will not be able to work as a director for six years, Towers and Stephenson for five and Edwards for three. When MG Rover collapsed in April 2005 with the loss of 6,500 jobs, the Phoenix four and former MG Rover chief executive Kevin Howe had paid themselves a total of £42m . Howe has not been banned. The disqualifications follow a government report into the financial affairs of MG Rover and its associated companies that found that the conduct of the Phoenix four made them unfit to be company directors. It added that the directors manipulated the assets and income streams through the use of companies in which they, rather than the creditors of MG Rover had an interest, allowing them to benefit through large salaries, dividends and profits. The quartet described the report as a “witch-hunt” and a “whitewash” . Rover Automotive industry Simon Goodley guardian.co.uk
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Provincial governor says at least 18 fighters have been killed after waves of Taliban attacks on officials in Kandahar Afghan troops have engaged in running battles with Taliban fighters in Kandahar, a day after insurgents launched waves of attacks on government and police targets . Gunfire and explosions echoed across the city through the morning as Afghan forces, aided by Nato-led coalition troops, tried to mop up pockets of insurgent fighters, including some who were holed up in a shopping centre. The governor of Kandahar province, Tooryalai Wesa, declared that the attacks had been put down, but soon after he spoke bursts of gunfire were heard from the shopping centre. Wesa said at least 18 fighters, many of them suicide bombers, had been killed. Three members of the Afghan security forces and one civilian were also killed, he said. Another 40 people were wounded, including 14 police. Four insurgents were captured, all of whom had been part of a mass jailbreak from Kandahar’s main prison two weeks ago, Wesa said. The interior ministry said eight suicide bombers had attacked Wesa’s office, an office of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency and police outposts on Saturday. The Taliban claimed responsibility, saying it was part of a week-old spring offensive. The attacks were not in revenge for the killing of Osama bin Laden, a Taliban spokesman said, despite claims to the contrary by the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai. The Taliban said escapers from the jailbreak were among hundreds of fighters involved in the attacks. Other attacks occurred in the neighbouring Arghandab river valley west of the city, an important insurgent route for moving men and weapons into Kandahar. Afghanistan Taliban guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Provincial governor says at least 18 fighters have been killed after waves of Taliban attacks on officials in Kandahar Afghan troops have engaged in running battles with Taliban fighters in Kandahar, a day after insurgents launched waves of attacks on government and police targets . Gunfire and explosions echoed across the city through the morning as Afghan forces, aided by Nato-led coalition troops, tried to mop up pockets of insurgent fighters, including some who were holed up in a shopping centre. The governor of Kandahar province, Tooryalai Wesa, declared that the attacks had been put down, but soon after he spoke bursts of gunfire were heard from the shopping centre. Wesa said at least 18 fighters, many of them suicide bombers, had been killed. Three members of the Afghan security forces and one civilian were also killed, he said. Another 40 people were wounded, including 14 police. Four insurgents were captured, all of whom had been part of a mass jailbreak from Kandahar’s main prison two weeks ago, Wesa said. The interior ministry said eight suicide bombers had attacked Wesa’s office, an office of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency and police outposts on Saturday. The Taliban claimed responsibility, saying it was part of a week-old spring offensive. The attacks were not in revenge for the killing of Osama bin Laden, a Taliban spokesman said, despite claims to the contrary by the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai. The Taliban said escapers from the jailbreak were among hundreds of fighters involved in the attacks. Other attacks occurred in the neighbouring Arghandab river valley west of the city, an important insurgent route for moving men and weapons into Kandahar. Afghanistan Taliban guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Provincial governor says at least 18 fighters have been killed after waves of Taliban attacks on officials in Kandahar Afghan troops have engaged in running battles with Taliban fighters in Kandahar, a day after insurgents launched waves of attacks on government and police targets . Gunfire and explosions echoed across the city through the morning as Afghan forces, aided by Nato-led coalition troops, tried to mop up pockets of insurgent fighters, including some who were holed up in a shopping centre. The governor of Kandahar province, Tooryalai Wesa, declared that the attacks had been put down, but soon after he spoke bursts of gunfire were heard from the shopping centre. Wesa said at least 18 fighters, many of them suicide bombers, had been killed. Three members of the Afghan security forces and one civilian were also killed, he said. Another 40 people were wounded, including 14 police. Four insurgents were captured, all of whom had been part of a mass jailbreak from Kandahar’s main prison two weeks ago, Wesa said. The interior ministry said eight suicide bombers had attacked Wesa’s office, an office of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency and police outposts on Saturday. The Taliban claimed responsibility, saying it was part of a week-old spring offensive. The attacks were not in revenge for the killing of Osama bin Laden, a Taliban spokesman said, despite claims to the contrary by the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai. The Taliban said escapers from the jailbreak were among hundreds of fighters involved in the attacks. Other attacks occurred in the neighbouring Arghandab river valley west of the city, an important insurgent route for moving men and weapons into Kandahar. Afghanistan Taliban guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Almost Half of Detroit’s Adults Are Functionally Illiterate. Why Aren’t We Addressing Those Education Issues?
May 8, 2011 No CommentEducation “reform” isn’t going to do squat for students whose families are steeped in poverty and its side effects — like illiteracy. Research shows that children whose parents read to them have much bigger vocabularies and do better in school. If your parents can’t even read, how does that happen? How does a parent check your homework, or respond to notes from the teacher? We need another wave of Great Society programs, and instead we get deep cuts in the few social programs we have left: Detroit’s population fell by 25 percent in the last decade. And of those that stuck around, nearly half of them are functionally illiterate, a new report finds. According to estimates by The National Institute for Literacy, roughly 47 percent of adults in Detroit, Michigan — 200,000 total — are “functionally illiterate,” meaning they have trouble with reading, speaking, writing and computational skills. Even more surprisingly, the Detroit Regional Workforce finds half of that illiterate population has obtained a high school degree. The DRWF report places particular focus on the lack of resources available to those hoping to better educate themselves, with fewer than 10 percent of those in need of help actually receiving it. Only 18 percent of the programs surveyed serve English-language learners, despite 10 percent of the adult population of Detroit speaking English “less than very well.” Additionally, the report finds, one in three workers in the state of Michigan lack the skills or credentials to pursue additional education beyond high school. In March, the Detroit unemployment rate hit 11.8 percent, one of the highest in the nation, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last month. There is a glimmer of hope, however: Detroit’s unemployment rate dropped by 3.3 percent in the last year alone.
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