Lowry Calls Obama Classless, Clift Asks ‘What Would You Expect From Kenyan Socialist With No Birth Certificate?’
April 17, 2011 No Comment
For the second week in a row, Newsweek's Eleanor Clift and National Review's Rich Lowry had quite a battle on PBS's “McLaughlin Group.” This time the fireworks started when Lowry called President Obama classless for the way he treated Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) at Wednesday's speech on deficit reduction which led Clift to ask, “What else would you expect from a socialist born in Kenya who’s hiding his birth certificate?” (video follows with transcript and commentary): ELEANOR CLIFT, NEWSWEEK: It is perfectly fair politics to point out that Paul Ryan’s plan gets its cuts from taking money away from two-thirds of the public that is poorer, and hands it over in tax cuts to the top class… RICH LOWRY, NATIONAL REVIEW: It is revenue neutral. CLIFT: …and to call that classless… LOWRY: It’s a revenue neutral tax reform… CLIFT: Who gets… LOWRY: …it does not cut taxes. That is wrong. JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, HOST: Don't you think you’re a little pessimistic? CLIFT: Excuse me! The savings he gets he transfers to the upper class, and you call the President's speech classless? What do you mean by that from a party that's in favor of birther talk. MCLAUGHLIN: Let him answer, let him answer. LOWRY: He invited Paul Ryan to sit in there in front of him and tell him he hates autistic kids fundamentally. That is classless, Eleanor. There's no other word for that. CLIFT: What else would you expect from a socialist born in Kenya who’s hiding his birth certificate? LOWRY: Maybe a little class. Maybe a little class. He’s President of the United States. MCLAUGHLIN: Wait a minute, there’s too many people talking here. Let's hear from Buchanan. Who’s the demagogue? PAT BUCHANAN: In the President's speech there were real aspects of demagoguery. He’s talking about kids with autism and the rich getting their tax cuts. MCLAUGHLIN: You don’t think the American people could see through that and they saw that it was demagoguery. BUCHANAN: Demagoguery works, John. Indeed it does, and as Buchanan said during this same segment, such demagoguery might end up getting Obama reelected. Makes you proud to be an American, doesn't it?
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President’s ‘no-women’ comment draws hundreds of thousands of enraged Yemenis out for mass protests Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated across Yemen on Sunday, denouncing President Ali Abdullah Saleh for saying women should not take part in protest rallies. In a speech on Friday, Saleh condemned the mingling of men and women at demonstrations, saying it violated Islamic law. The comments enraged many Yemenis and prompted the youth movement to call for mass protests, on what they called a day of honour and dignity. There was a significant turnout, with more than 100,000 people – and significant numbers of women – taking to the streets in Taiz and tens of thousands more marching in Ibb, Aden, Shabwa and other cities. Demonstrators also demanded the president step down. Abdel-Malek al-Youssefi, a youth movement activist and organiser, said the protests could be “the last nail in Saleh’s coffin”. Yemen has been racked with anti-government demonstrations for the past two months. The protesters are calling for steps to improve livelihoods and open up the country’s restricted political life. It was a young woman who first led anti-Saleh rallies on a university campus in January, but women did not begin taking part in large numbers until early last month. While Yemen has conservative social and religious traditions, women can vote, run for parliament and drive cars, unlike in neighbouring Saudi Arabia. Near-daily protests and defections by key allies in the military, powerful tribes and diplomatic corps have failed to bring an end to Saleh’s 32-year autocratic rule. A crackdown on protesters by government forces has killed more than 120 people, according to Yemeni rights groups, but has not deterred the crowds from gathering. Last week, the six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council offered a proposal in which Saleh would transfer power to his deputy, seeking an end to the unrest. The opposition criticised the proposal for not suggesting the power transfer should be immediate. Opposition members are expected in the Saudi capital on Sunday to explain their position to Riyadh and other Gulf mediators. Meanwhile, in Syria, thousands of people waving national flags and demanding freedom took to the streets Sunday, the day after President Bashar al-Assad promised to end nearly 50 years of emergency rule, hoping to quell the uprising. Activists had called the protests to mark Independence Day, and to bolster the month of demonstrations against the country’s authoritarian regime. More than 200 people have been killed by security forces trying to crush the protests using live ammunition, tear gas and batons over the past four weeks. Demonstrations also erupted on Sunday in the southern agricultural city of Deraa, which has become the centre of the protest movement, and the nearby town of Suweida. Witnesses reached by telephone said tens of thousands of people were marching in Deraa, shouting “Whoever kills his own people is a traitor!” Others shouted “The people want to topple the regime,” which was the rallying cry during protests in Egypt and Tunisia that ousted the countries’ longtime leaders. Another demonstration in Suweida drew about 300 people. Witnesses said police beat up demonstrators with batons, injuring several of them. The witness accounts could not be independently confirmed because Syria has placed tight restrictions on media outlets and expelled foreign journalists. The demonstrations come despite promises by Assad to end the widely despised state of emergency rule by next week at the latest, and implement other reforms following more than a month of unprecedented – and growing – demonstrations. Syria Yemen Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Bashar Al-Assad Protest guardian.co.uk
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Police arrest 16-year-old on suspicion of murder of James Kouzaris, 24, and James Cooper, 25, in Newtown, Sarasota Two British holidaymakers have been shot and killed in Florida in what police believe may have been a botched robbery. James Kouzaris, 24, and James Cooper, 25, former students at the University of Sheffield, were found dead in Newtown, a crime-ridden neighbourhood of Sarasota, at about 3am on Saturday. Police have arrested a 16-year-old on suspicion of murder but were unable to provide any further details about what the two friends were doing in the early hours of the morning in an area of the city notorious for gang activity. “That is one of the key things we are investigating, just why they were there,” Captain Paul Sutton of the Sarasota police department told the Guardian. “At approximately 3am on 16 April, Sarasota police officers responded to a 911 call, the caller advised that a person was lying on the ground covered in blood. “Officers checking the area located two male victims.” Despite local reports to the contrary, no bullet casings were found at the scene, Sutton said. Neither of the victims was carrying a weapon. Additionally, no trace of drugs nor an abnormally large amount of money was found. “There is no link between the victims and the suspect,” Sutton said. “A 16-year-old male, a resident of Sarasota, was arrested on two counts of murder and it’s likely he’ll be indicted on those charges as an adult at a later date.” Florida is one of the states that still has the death penalty on its statutes. The crime scene is a far cry from the sugar-sand beaches and luxurious resorts of Longboat Key, 12 miles away, where police said that Cooper and Kouzaris had been staying. Newtown, situated on the mainland north of Sarasota’s downtown area, is an economically depressed, social housing district with high unemployment, a history of gang violence and a crime rate higher than any other area of the city. According to his Facebook page, Kouzaris had spent most of the past few months touring South America, posting pictures of his travels from Argentina, Brazil and Ecuador. He returned to the UK at the end of last month before setting off again a week later to Florida with Cooper, a part-time tennis coach he befriended when they were students together at the University of Sheffield. An acquaintance of Cooper in the UK told the Guardian: “It’s a shock. They were just enjoying a two-week break away from everything.” The two victims exchanged messages on Facebook before their trip in which expressed how much they were looking forward to going to Florida and their holiday. The British consulate in Miami issued a statement saying that next of kin had been notified. Officials from a consular office in Orlando were believed to be heading to Sarasota to offer assistance. Police, meanwhile, said a press conference was scheduled to take place at 10am on Monday. The suspect is currently being held at the Sarasota county jail. United States Richard Luscombe guardian.co.uk
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Michihiro Kono has taken over a company destroyed by the disaster, and is determined to reopen its doors In less tumultuous times, Michihiro Kono could have expected a seamless transition as the new head of the soy sauce company he took over from his father at the start of the month. But in post-tsunami Japan, Kono is the president of a company that, by any conventional measure, no longer exists. Yet amid the devastation and despair, Kono’s optimism is proof that, just weeks after the disaster that killed 28,000 people, some residents of this fishing town in Iwate prefecture are daring to think of the future. All that remains of the business his family has run for nine generations is an early-19th-century document confirming its legal status, a handful of metal signs, soya beans and bottles of soy sauce, and an unshakable belief that he will reopen his doors. “There is no doubt in my mind that we will be back in business,” the 37-year-old says. “My family has been making soy sauce in Rikuzentakata since the Edo era, and we owe it to our customers to get back on our feet.” Outside the prefabricated hut that serves as his makeshift office stand crates containing those treasured bottles of soy sauce, including one from a limited edition to mark the firm’s bicentenary in 2007. Inside hangs a sign rescued from the debris, bearing one of the company’s mottos: spreading gratitude through food. Yanagisa soy sauce, fermented in barrels made of local cedar, is famed for its exquisite fragrance. Its storehouse was a symbol of the town, which was reduced to rubble by waves that easily breached its 6.5-metre tsunami wall. At the site of his former factory, a few blocks away from his destroyed home, it is just possible to catch the aroma of soy sauce on the afternoon breeze. The new plant will have to be built in a different location with a supply of pristine water, he says, and a new generation of clients found if the venture is to survive. It will be at least five years before the next bottle of Yanagisa soy sauce is produced. Until then, the firm will act as an agent for other manufacturers in an attempt to reconnect with his remaining customers. The stream of letters urging Kono to rebuild is testament to Yanagisa’s place at the heart of Rikuzentakata’s commercial life. One, requesting a bottle of soy sauce, was accompanied by a 10,000 yen note and instructions for the change to go towards the firm’s renaissance. “About 70% of our customers died or were made homeless in the tsunami,” Kono says. “If we just do the same as before, our sales will be a third of what they were. We need to do a 180-degree turn. This company is 200 years old. If we want it to last another 200 years, this is the moment of reckoning.” The same could be said for the entire town, where 2,000 of the 23,000 residents died and 80% of the 8,000 homes were swept away. Led by a young mayor, Futoshi Toba, whose wife died when waves engulfed their seaside town, Rikuzentakata is emerging as a model for the post-disaster recovery. Earlier this month it became the first town to erect temporary homes, albeit enough for only one in every 50 people who applied to live in them. The town will need around 4,000 units, but they won’t be ready until August. Almost 1,200 people applied to live in the first batch of 36 homes, half of which were reserved for elderly and disabled people, and single women with children. “We’re building them as quickly as we can,” says Tomoyuki Murakami, a town official. Authorities in the three worst-hit prefectures have requested 60,000 prefab homes they hope will be completed within six months. But builders are struggling to find space for them on the few slivers of land on higher ground. So far they have secured land for just 8,000 homes. “There are still about 7,000 people living in evacuation centres in Rikuzentakata, so we want to build more temporary shelters quickly and give people the opportunity to rebuild their lives in privacy,” says Murakami, who has continued working despite losing both of his young children in the tsunami. “We’re taking slow steps in the right direction.” Yukie Sato, who is living in a school gymnasium with her mother and son, is among those hoping to secure temporary housing. Her husband, a government official, went straight back to work after being rescued from the roof of the town hall, where he survived by clinging on to the perimeter fence while 70 of his colleagues drowned. “Even if we get rent-free temporary housing, we will still have to pay electricity and gas bills, and buy food,” says Sato, 27. “I don’t know how it will all work out. My car was swept away, my workplace has gone, and we have no money.” In Kono’s neighbourhood, 99% of which lies in ruins, every child from kindergarten to middle school age was led to safety by quick-thinking teachers and elderly locals, some of whom were swallowed up by waves as they ushered children to higher ground. But for 24 hours, Kono was convinced that his wife and their three young children had perished. The family were reunited three days later, but Kono’s grandmother is still missing. As he waited for news of his family, Kono distracted himself by accounting for his 45 employees and their relatives. It was then he discovered that his head of sales, a 30-year-old volunteer firefighter, had drowned trying to close the harbour gates. Today he is preparing to attend a welcome party, complete with cups of tea and slices of cake, for two new employees. Before he returns to his makeshift HQ, Kono leads us up a crooked stairway to the temple where he and dozens of others spent the night of the tsunami, shaking with cold and traumatised by the panoramic view of their ruined homes. “I stood here and thought there’s no way my children could have survived.” Then, as he gazes at the flattened town below, company president Kono becomes Kono the father, and for the first time today his eyes fill with tears. “It’s time to go,” he says. Japan disaster Japan Natural disasters and extreme weather Justin McCurry guardian.co.uk
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Comments come amid concerns tinkering with constitution could reopen debate in Australia about monarchy David Cameron has played down the prospect of an imminent change in the rules of royal succession amid concerns that constitutional tinkering could spark a fresh campaign in Australia for it to become a republic. The wedding of Prince William to Catherine Middleton on 29 April has focused attention on the issue. The deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, had said he was actively pursuing a plan to scrap the principle that gives preference to male heirs, but the prime minister warned that any progress would be complicated and slow. “This has been discussed before and everyone in the frontline of politics agrees that this does need to change and there are conversations ongoing,” Cameron told the Murnaghan programme on Sky News. “But it clearly does take some time, because the Queen is not just queen of the United Kingdom but of many other countries around the world and so changes have to be changes that all countries take on board and put in place and there are discussions with those countries ongoing, but these things, I’m sure, will take some time.” It is understood one particular concern is Australia, where it is thought that any attempt to legislate on the laws of succession would reopen the fierce debate about the abolition of the monarchy. Cameron’s comments came as some Tories expressed anger that Clegg was being presented as the champion of change on the issue. “The idea that Clegg is pressing for this, and that the PM is dragging his heels because he’s not in favour of rights for women, is totally ludicrous,” said one Tory source. “We want change, too, but it’s more complicated than it sounds. A number of different governments would have to pass new laws and, although in principle that should be straightforward, in practice other governments might say it’s not a priority for them.” The issue of primogeniture has occupied UK governments on and off for years, with individual MPs making numerous attempts to steer reforms through parliament. The most recent came from Labour’s Keith Vaz in January. At the time, Downing Street acknowledged that elements of the 1701 Act of Succession, which also bars Roman Catholics from succeeding to the throne, were “discriminatory”, but said change would be “difficult and complex”. Last month, Prince William was urged by the Labour MP and historian Tristram Hunt to “subtly show his support” for the reform campaign. On Sunday Clegg, who is responsible for constitutional reform within the government, said that most people would see the current accession rules as outdated. He said: “My own personal view is that in this day and age, the idea that only a man should ascend to the throne would, I think, strike most people as a little old-fashioned. And that if Prince William and Catherine Middleton were to have a baby daughter as their first child, I think most people would think it perfectly fair and normal that she would eventually become queen of our country.” Monarchy Constitutional reform Conservatives Andrew Sparrow Matthew Taylor guardian.co.uk
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PM to share platform with Labour’s John Reid, while opposition leader joined by Vince Cable David Cameron will today declare that he is opposing the alternative vote from gut instinct as much as from rational argument as he goes head to head on the issue of voting reform with Ed Miliband. The prime minister and the Labour leader are due to make speeches on the subject at rival events at almost exactly the same time. With coalition and Labour splits on full display, Cameron will be joined by John Reid, the former Labour home secretary, while Miliband will be accompanied by Vince Cable, the business secretary. Cameron has not shared an anti-AV platform with a Labour politician before and he will insist that he and Reid “don’t agree on much”. Reid is expected to reciprocate the sentiment, but will say “some issues are so important that they transcend party politics” and that he and Cameron are opposed to AV because they are “united in believing that politicians are the servants of the people”. The campaign has, at times, become particularly acrimonious, with Lord Ashdown, the former Lib Dem leader, accusing George Osborne and other Tories campaigning for a no vote in the AV referendum of “cynical smears and scaremongering”. But Cameron and Miliband are expected to seek to raise the tone of the debate by focusing more on the respective merits of the existing first-past-the-post voting system and AV. Claiming the debate on AV too often involved “a language of proportionality and preferences, probabilities and possibilities”, Cameron will say: “For me, politics shouldn’t be some mind-bending exercise. It’s about what you feel in your gut – about the values you hold dear and the beliefs you instinctively have. And I just feel it, in my gut, that AV is wrong.” The prime minister will argue that AV will take power away from the people. “I want a system that lets you, as the Americans say, ‘throw the rascals out’,” he will say, claiming AV would “damage our democracy permanently” and lead to more hung parliaments. This assertion was disputed by the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, who told the BBC’s Politics Show that AV would not lead to more coalition governments. “More hung parliaments have been delivered under first past the post than have been delivered under AV in Australia,” the Lib Dem leader said. But Cameron said the coalition would survive whoever won the referendum: “Whoever is on the losing side, as it were, will just have to pick themselves up and say: well, it was a fair argument, a fair fight, a fair referendum, the country has decided and now we have got to get on with all the things that really matter so much.” The PM also found himself defending his chancellor after Osborne was singled out for attack in a particularly strongly worded article by Ashdown. Osborne infuriated AV campaigners last week by suggesting the Electoral Reform Society should not be funding the yes campaign because its subsidiary, Electoral Reform Services Ltd, a company that organises elections, could profit from a switch to AV. The ERS says it is completely untrue but Five days ago, lawyers for the ERS sent a letter to journalists saying that although ERSL makes money from election administration, the type of election system used is “entirely irrelevant” to the provision of these services and “a change in the voting system would, therefore, have absolutely no impact on any of the revenue earned by the ERSL.” Osborne said its involvement in the funding of the yes campaign “really stinks”, prompting Ashdown to accuse him and other anti-AV campaigners in an article in the Observer of resorting to “smears, deliberate misrepresentations and sometimes even downright lies”. On Sky News, Cameron said: “The point George Osborne made, that the Electoral Reform Society is a big funder of the yes campaign, that it has an organisation that could make money out of it, that’s a fact, and I think there’s nothing wrong with bringing that fact out,” he said. But although this seemed potentially provocative, Ashdown subsequently praised the prime minister for focusing in his Sky interview largely the substantial issues at stake in the campaign. Cameron also insisted that the coalition would survive whoever won the referendum. said yesterday: “Whatever the result on May 5, this is a five-year government, Nick [Clegg] and I are absolutely committed to taking the government and its programme forward,” he said. “Whoever is on the losing side as it were will just have to pick themselves up and say: well, it was a fair argument, a fair fight, a fair referendum, the country has decided and now we have got to get on with all the things that really matter so much.” AV referendum Alternative vote Electoral reform Conservatives David Cameron George Osborne Labour David Miliband John Reid Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg Vince Cable Paddy Ashdown Liberal-Conservative coalition Andrew Sparrow guardian.co.uk
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Open letter accuses health trusts of letting public down by branding some elective surgery ‘lower value’ Read the FSSA’s letter Growing numbers of patients are being wrongly denied a new hip, a weight loss operation or even cancer treatment because of NHS cost-cutting, the leaders of Britain’s surgeons have warned. Increasing rationing of operations is forcing patients to endure pain, injury or disability because NHS primary care trusts (PCTs) are ignoring evidence about the effectiveness of certain treatments simply to balance their books. The warning from the Federation of Surgical Specialty Associations (FSSA), which represents the nine major types of surgeon in the UK, is in an open letter passed to the Guardian. It accuses trusts of letting down needy patients by branding forms of elective surgery as of limited clinical value in order to help them cope with the NHS’s tough financial climate. The FSSA, which represents about 15,000 surgeons, says it is “concerned that lists of surgical procedures and interventions, deemed of low clinical effectiveness or of ‘lower value’, are being used by PCTs to limit access to certain procedures … Review of the lists reveals that there is little or no evidence to support the view that many of the procedures are of limited value to individual patients”. The unprecedented statement goes on: “For example, the lists include types of hip, spinal, ENT [ear, nose and throat], dental, bariatric [obesity] and cancer surgery for which there is overwhelming evidence of benefit. The only justification for these lists can be that they are a means of reducing expenditure at a time when the NHS faces a financial crisis.” The surgeons’ move highlights the fact that PCTs across England are increasingly delaying or denying patients access to surgery to repair a hernia, replace an arthritic hip or knee, and remove cataracts, infected tonsils, gallstones, wisdom teeth, adenoids and varicose veins. Some are even restricting the number of patients who can have a hysterectomy or have their baby in a planned caesarean section. Surgeons, heath charities and patients’ groups are increasingly frustrated that PCTs are introducing what they regard as arbitrary lists of treatments of supposedly low or no clinical value despite medical evidence that many help relieve patients’ symptoms. The joint statement says the FSSA is concerned the evidence for the lists is “very poor and it is therefore inappropriate for them to be used to determine patient care without the involvement of the Specialty Associations”. Many PCTs, which commission and pay for healthcare, are struggling with the fact that, after a decade of budget increases averaging 7% a year, the NHS in England has to find £20bn in “efficiency savings” by 2015 and cope with close to zero annual rises during the same period. While they are rationing care, many hospitals and ambulance services are shedding staff. Peter Kay, chairman of the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA), the largest of the letter’s nine signatories and to which 4,000 surgeons belong, said: “This growing rationing is unfair because it is leaving more and more patients in pain, discomfort and misery. But it’s also a false economy because it stops some people from getting back to work and costs the state unnecessarily in welfare benefits for others. Plus conditions like arthritic knees, hernias and varicose veins don’t get better by waiting – they get worse and can cost more to treat when the patient is eventually treated.” Kay said he deplored refusing senior citizens a new hip or knee. “Older people are easy targets. Arthritis means they may be hobbling around and become virtual prisoners in their own home, dependent on friends and relatives, if rationing means they do not get the operation they need.” Surgeons’ leaders have been talking to the Department of Health (DH) since last autumn about the increasing use of the lists. The DH has voiced concern but so far failed to intervene or produce a single national list for England of treatments which can be restricted because agreed evidence shows they have limited effect. “Many tens of thousands” of patients, and potentially as many as 200,000 a year, are affected by the rationing, Kay believes. “This all makes a mockery of [health secretary] Andrew Lansley’s mantra that for patients, there should be ‘no decision about me without me’, as patients are not involved and PCTs aren’t assessing the severity of their condition.” Lansley’s radical reorganisation of the NHS is partly to blame, Kay said. “PCTs are doing anything they can to balance their books by the time that the new GP commissioning consortiums take over in 2013. I think that’s what’s driving this.” The trend would exacerbate existing postcode lotteries in the availability of certain treatments, he added . Last week the Audit Commission said PCTs could save up to £500m a year by carrying out far fewer operations which it said had limited clinical use. The King’s Fund thinktank also urged the NHS in some places to stop removing so many children’s tonsils or varicose veins in order to help it meet what it called “the biggest financial challenge in its history”. The Patients Association has been receiving a growing number of calls from patients who have had elective surgery delayed or denied. One with an arthritic knee told them in January: “I have been to my GP begging for them to speed up my knee replacement, but he says there is no funding and I will have to wait until April. I can’t do anything, not even go to the shops, and it’s so painful if I put any weight on it I scream.” The health department said: “We welcome the leadership of top surgeons and value their commitment. We share their passion for the NHS. We have invested an extra £11.5bn in the NHS and have been clear there is no excuse for waiting times to increase.” The shadow health secretary, John Healey, said: “Short-term decisions are being taken across the health service, in part because of David Cameron’s NHS reorganisation plans. Faced with a huge upheaval and greater financial uncertainty, PCTs are now cutting back on services. People are starting to see the NHS go backwards again under the Tories, with waiting times rising, operations blocked and frontline posts going. So much for David Cameron’s promise to ‘protect’ the NHS.” On Sunday, in a Sky interview, Cameron said that there would be “proper and substantive changes” to the bill setting up the new GP-led consortiums at the end of the two-month pause in its passage through parliament. Stressing that he took “absolute responsibility” for the legislation, Cameron signalled that the fresh consultation now taking place would lead to the membership of the consortiums being widened. NHS Health policy Public sector cuts Public services policy Public finance Health Andrew Lansley David Cameron Liberal-Conservative coalition Denis Campbell guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Fox Panel Paints Food Stamp Recipients as Nanny State and Crack Cocaine Addicts
April 17, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media I’m not sure who watches these Saturday morning “business” shows on Fox besides those of us that monitor the media on a regular basis, but I’ve got to wonder just who the producers of Fox’s horrid Cashin’ In think they’re appealing to with segments like this? When we were in good economic times, I can see a show getting away with demonizing those in need of food stamps as they did here, but these days where there are so many people out of work, I can’t imagine them having too many viewers left who do not either know someone in need of these services or in need of assistance themselves. It really would be nice to see this show among others go away like Beck’s show because they’re just as awful. h/t Media Matters
Continue reading …AP’s Feller Asks Obama About Thursday ‘Third World’ Comment the Wire Service Flushed Out of Early Report
April 17, 2011 No Comment
The Associated Press's Ben Feller was granted the opportunity to interview President Obama on Friday. In the transcript , Feller interrupts Obama's long-winded response to his previous softball question (“Are the Republican leaders lacking compassion and they're pessimistic?”) by beginning another question, which is shown as having been stopped before completion: Q. You said they might lead us to third world – It's impressive that Feller even knew that Obama, as reported by AFP, indeed accused Republicans of creating a fiscal plan that would, in Obama's words, turn the U.S. into: “… a nation of potholes, and our airports would be worse than places that we thought — that we used to call the Third World, but who are now investing in infrastructure.” That's because, as seen here , there is no current story at the AP's home site obtained in a search on “Obama third world” (entered without quotes): The only item referencing Obama's “third world” comment is Feller's interview (the April 14 Libya story is unrelated). The wire service is still carrying a home-site story on the Chicago speech where Obama made his “third world” remark. From all appearances, at least one of their reporters was there, as these paragraphs from an unbylined Thursday evening report show: Obama says Republican efforts to go after him in a politically expedient way create problems for them.
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The news that Lost creator JJ Abrams is to publish a novel has got rumour mill working overtime A series of phone calls announce the imminent arrival of an untitled manuscript to several unsuspecting publishers; a book arrives, but with different words deleted in each copy; no one else has any idea about the contents aside from rumours of a reclusive novelist, a love story and a high-concept notion about changing the way we think about books for ever . . . News that JJ Abrams will have a book out next year was delivered in a way that wouldn’t feel out of place in one of his TV shows or films: part corporate espionage; part copyright paranoia; total entertainment. So what do we know so far? As well as directing Super 8, writing Mission Impossible 4, and producing Star Trek 2, JJ Abrams, the co-creator of Lost, Alias and Fringe has found time to write his first book. Or rather, he’s found time to “create” it – novelist Doug Dorst is also on board for some, if not all, of the actual typing. It’s no surprise Abrams is turning his hand to literature. Lost was littered with literary allusions, from characters named after philosophers such as Locke, Rousseau and Hume, to Bad Twin, a spin-off novel supposedly written by “Gary Troup” – one of the ill-fated passengers on board Oceanic 815, which crashed at the start of the series. It remains to be seen whether or not the Hollywood uber- producer will “reinvent the reading experience” as his UK publisher suggested, “explode the bonds of the novel in ways no book has ever done” as the US publisher hopes, or just, you know, put his name on a novel. But one thing is clear. He has managed to turn the anticipation of every “Untitled JJ Abrams Project” into a fine art. Both Cloverfield and this summer’s Super 8 first appeared on the geek radar as UJJAPs – riding the buzz (“Ooh, what is it?”) before the answer (“Oh, it’s an alien”). The long process of anticipation – from teaser trailer to finished article – has become part of the way we consume entertainment. Sometimes it’s even the most satisfying moment. When all you have got are tiny spoilers, there is nothing inconvenient like the whole show, film or book to spoil the possibility that the latest UJJAP might just be as good as it sounds. JJ Abrams Lost Television Drama Fantasy US television Richard Vine guardian.co.uk
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