Bachmann accuses Weiner of trading in ‘fiction’ on budget. His retort: ‘I don’t think you want to go there’
March 18, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media There’s something about Anthony Weiner that seems to really get under Sean Hannity’s skin. Maybe it’s the way he makes both Hannity and his guests look like utter buffoons. That might have something to do with it. Such as when Michele Bachmann went on with Hannity and Weiner the other night, producing hilarious exchanges such as this one: HANNITY: Here’s my point, $3.7 billion, we have nearly $5 trillion now accumulated Obama debt, $5 trillion. You tell me how much you are willing to cut out of the budget? WEINER: Well, let me ask you something. Is it accumulated Obama debt when President Bush left office, there was 700,000 job losses that month. There are more private sector jobs created under President Obama in his two years — HANNITY: That’s a lie. WEINER: It is a fact. HANNITY: Congressman, I know you are a Democrat and I know you’re a bitter partisan. But in the month of February — WEINER: No, I’m just a partisan. HANNITY: Stop it. In the month of February our deficit — WEINER: Don’t call me names, Sean. It is almost St. Patrick’s Day you are going to call me names? HANNITY: Yes. Our deficit was $223,000 for the month. In 2007, if we are looking at real dollars and real money, we paid less in a year than we did for the month of February! WEINER: Well, look, I will tell you this. The deficit right now comes from three places. One, unfunded wars, two, enormous numbers of jobs lost a tragedy that President Bush drove us into this cliff and three tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. HANNITY: Congresswoman Bachmann, you know, George Bush has been out of office for nearly 2-1/2 years he can’t get over it. Barack Obama’s budgets nearly $5 trillion in debt. He won’t mention where he would cut. I’ll ask you the same question — WEINER: What do you mean he? HANNITY: That would be you! Congresswoman, where would you cut? BACHMANN: You know, Sean. I had no idea that Representative Weiner was such a reader of fiction. He’s a huge fiction reader because that’s all of his numbers. I wanted to mention — WEINER: Bachmann, I don’t think you want to go there. I don’t think you want to go there, Bachmann. Weiner later repeated that Bachmann’s little bit of projection was “ironic”. No kidding. After all, this is the congresswoman who’s been running around (mostly on Fox) for the better part of a couple of weeks now claiming that there is $105 billion in health-care reform implementation “secretly” tucked into the budget — even though it’s one of the most publicly debunked bogus republican claim in awhile. The Washington Post’s fact checker dismissed it as “bordering on the ridiculous”, while PolitiFact dismantled it as well. I also liked the parting shots that Weiner got in: WEINER: I believe when there are millions of Americans not working because of the Bush decisions that we do have to take care of those people and that adds cost, no doubt about it. HANNITY: Congressman, you’re going to have to man-up. You have to sit at the table and put your pants on — WEINER: Make it three on one or four on one next time, I’m ready for you. HANNITY: You are a star. Just go look in the mirror. WEINER: I love these balanced debates. HANNITY: Yes, well, that’s what it is. BACHMANN: Tell me about it. HANNITY: Tell me about it. If Weiner keeps this up, they’ll never let him back.
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The liberally-biased mainstream media didn't let a catastrophe go to waste, using the Japanese tsunami as an opportunity to suggest, falsely, that Republicans would like to cut the budget for NOAA in such a way that would threaten the Pacific tsunami warning system. NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told the audience of last night's “Hannity”:
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Government commission exploring the case for a British bill of rights is divided between human rights act supporters and critics The government commission that will investigate the case for a British bill of rights is set to be deadlocked from the start, with its membership evenly split between human rights act supporters and sceptics. Sir Leigh Lewis, a veteran civil servant and former permanent secretary, is to head the controversial committee of high-level barristers jointly appointed by the Tories and the Liberal Democrats. The deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, has appointed some of the most enthusiastic supporters of human rights, including Lord Lester, Baroness Kennedy and Philippe Sands. However, their views will be counterbalanced by those of Michael Pinto-Duschinsky, a Brunel University research fellow who has recently argued that Britain should cut its ties with the European court of human rights (ECHR), based in Strasbourg, as it has “virtually no democratic legitimacy”. However, the terms of the commission make it clear there will be no attempt to withdraw from the ECHR, stating that the commission will seek to “incorporate and build on” ECHR obligations and “ensure that these rights continue to be enshrined in UK law”. The commission – which is believed to have had a difficult birth after the chairmanship was turned down by Rachel Lomax, another ex-Whitehall mandarin and former deputy governor of the Bank of England – will provide an interim report to Clegg and the justice secretary, Kenneth Clarke, next year. Other members of the commission include Martin Howe QC, Jonathan Fisher QC, Anthony Speaight QC, Pinto-Duschinsky and Sir David Edward. Fisher has been the most enthusiastic supporter of a British bill of rights in this group. Some Tories believe a system modelled on the US supreme court and constitution would work in the UK and help pave the way to a full pullout from the European convention on human rights and the Strasbourg court that rules on its provisions. Nick Clegg said: “Human rights are fundamental to our democracy. They act as a safeguard, protecting individual citizens from the state abusing its power. The commission’s work will help us maintain, and build upon, an enduring framework of fundamental rights that will prevent the abuse and erosion of these freedoms for generations to come.” Clarke, the justice secretary, said: “The commission has a very important role to play in examining the operation of the ECHR and how we implement human rights in the UK. I hope that this work will help to inform the debate on human rights at home and assist us as we continue to press for reform of the Strasbourg court.” Howe, a barrister specialising in intellectual property law, is a veteran eurosceptic and leading light of the Conservative party commission calling for a UK bill of rights to replace the ECHR. Fisher, a commercial lawyer specialising in tax and fraud, who also sat on the Tory party internal commission, is another human rights act sceptic. Speaight, in his own pamphlet, the Human Rights Act – Legal Pathways, spelled out the constitutional niceties of replacing the HRA with a UK bill of rights. On the other side of the argument is Lord Lester of Herne Hill, the leading Liberal Democrat human rights lawyer who campaigned for 30 years to make the ECHR directly enforceable in the British courts. Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws, a Labour peer, is an expert in human rights law and civil liberties and was a key figure in the campaign to introduce the human rights act. Sands is a professor of international law, a Matrix Chambers barrister, and author of Lawless World and Torture Team. The final member is Edward, a Scottish appeal court judge who served on the European Court of Justice for 12 years. The chairman, Lewis, is a former permanent secretary at the Department of Work and Pensions and the Home Office. He has a strong reputation for delivering improved public services notably in passport offices and job centres. British bill of rights Human rights European court of human rights Court of justice of the European Union Nick Clegg Liberal Democrats Patrick Wintour Alan Travis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Old Walker Campaign Ad Shows Him in Support of Recalls and Statewide Organizing
March 18, 2011 No CommentOh the irony. Gotta’ love the line about not wanting to be among a “lot of angry people.” Sorry Scotty, but I think that’s what you get to look forward to until they recall you next year. h/t Laffy
Continue reading …Libyan foreign minister Lusa Kusa announced Friday morning that the country's military would cease attacks against rebels there. The announcement came after the United Nations approved a US-led no-fly-zone over Libya in a 10-0 vote (with five abstensions) Thursday evening. The Washington Post reported Friday : “We decided on an immediate cease-fire and on an immediate stop to all military operations,” Libyan foreign Minister Musa Kusa told reporters in the capital, Tripoli. He said Libya “takes great interest in protecting civilians” and that it would also protect foreigners and foreign assets in the country… The vote marked a dramatic turn in the world’s response to the Libyan crisis after weeks of debate and reluctance by many to intervene, and it comes as rebel forces were said to be on the brink of defeat. Celebrations erupted across Benghazi as word of the vote reached the rebels. Clerics chanted “God is great” over mosque loudspeakers, and the streets were filled with celebratory gunfire and people waving the pre-Gaddafi Libyan flag adopted by the rebels. So did the no-fly-zone accomplish its objective, or is it too early to tell? Hindsight is of course 20-20, but do you think it was the right course of action – at the right time – for the United States and the international community to take? Remember, Moammar Gaddafi had said his troops would go “door-to-door” with “no pity, no mercy,” a statement with more than a hint of genocidal intent.
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The Fighter director could turn attention to breast-obsessed film-maker who straddled indie and soft porn, reports say David O Russell aims to follow the Oscar-winning success of The Fighter with a biopic of Russ Meyer, the large-breast-obsessed, DIY director of cult films such as Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and Supervixens, Deadline reports . Russell is looking to adapt Jimmy McDonough’s biography of the 1960s and 70s film-maker, titled Big Bosoms and Square Jaws: The Biography of Russ Meyer, King of the Sex Film. Merritt Johnson, who worked as an assistant on Russell’s film Three Kings, is being tapped to take screenwriting duties. Film critic Roger Ebert, who collaborated with Meyer on the 1970 film Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, tweeted: “I’m thrilled.” Meyer holds a unique position in Hollywood history as a director who straddled the worlds of independent film and the emerging softcore porn industry during an era that slowly began to accept nudity and even on-screen copulation in US cinemas. With his fascination with actors with sizeable breasts, who he often depicted in dominance over their male counterparts, his work has over the decades entered pop culture and stubbornly refused to budge. Some critics see him as a feminist film-maker of sorts, while others point to instances of rape and violence against women in his films as indicative of exploitation and misogyny. Meyer retired a wealthy man in the 1980s following the emergence of the home video market, having retained all rights to his films, many of which he wrote, directed, produced and even distributed himself. It is said that interested parties who wanted to buy videos of his movies were dealt with by the man himself, who continued to work out of his California home. Meyer died in 2004 aged 82, from pneumonia. Russell’s The Fighter was nominated for seven Oscars this year and was one of the ceremony’s big winners, with Christian Bale and Melissa Leo winning supporting actor awards. David O Russell Ben Child guardian.co.uk
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Despite a drop in its valuation, Phones 4u is still growing strongly, reporting a 20% increase in sales last year to more than £900m Phones 4u has been sold to private equity house BC Partners in a deal worth up to £700m after the mobile retailer’s owners performed an about-turn on disposal plans. The chain of more than 500 stores was sold by Providence Equity Partners in a secondary buyout worth between £600m and £700m. Providence bought the business from John Caudwell as part of a wider £1.46bn deal in 2006, in a transaction that netted the entrepreneur £1.2bn. The move comes months after Providence called off a planned sale after failing to draw a satisfactory offer. Phones 4u is still growing strongly, reporting a 20% increase in sales last year to more than £900m. BC said it expected to grow the business further as smartphones like the iPhone spur another surge in the mobile market. “With its market-leading position, strong and trusted brand, multi-format strategy, and extensive store network, Phones 4u is ideally positioned to benefit from further strong growth in the smartphone market. We look forward to working with management, and investing further across the business to maximise its growth potential,” said Andrew Newington, managing partner at BC. Tim Whiting, Phones 4u’s chief executive, said: “I am delighted to have the backing of BC Partners. Their track record of growing businesses is hugely impressive, and I am looking forward to working with them in the years ahead.” London-based BC has a portfolio of 16 companies that generate a combined turnover of €27bn (£23bn). The investments include Foxtons, the estate agent firm, the Fitness First gym chain and Intelsat, a satellite company. In 2003 it sold a stake in Trader Media Group, owner of Auto Trader magazine, to Guardian Media Group, publisher of the Guardian, in a deal valuing the business at more than £1bn. Private equity Telecommunications industry Retail industry Mobile phones Telecoms Dan Milmo guardian.co.uk
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• UN resolution backs no-fly zone and air strikes • Britain to deploy Tornado and Typhoon jets • Gaddafi denounces vote as ‘flagrant colonisation’ • Unrest continues in Bahrain and Yemen • Read the latest summary of today’s events • Read the Guardian’s latest news story 12.46pm: Koussa steps up his offensive: Libya also finds it “unreasonable” that the resolution allows the use of military power. “There are signs that this might indeed take place,” he said. “This goes clearly against the UN charter, and it is a violation of the national sovereignty of Libya. “It is also a violation of article 42 of the charter.” 12.43pm: A change in tone from Koussa, as he criticises the UN resolution: “My country is very serious about continuing the development – economic, social of the Libyan nation,” Koussa says. “We express our sadness towards what the resolution has included, and of procedures againstt the Libyan nation, such as the no-fly zone”, Koussa says. He said the inclusion of commerical flights will “increase the suffering of Libyan people”, and says the international community should have exempted these flights from the resolution. “Also the total and inclusive freezing of al Libyan assets and investments will have a very negative impact on normal Libyans,” the foreign minister says. 12.40pm: Koussa continues to stress that Libya’s actions are done in accordance with the UN’s resolution. “We agree to the article on the protection of civilians,” he says. “Therefore, building on this, the Libyan state encourages the opening of all dialogue channels with everyone interested in the territory of Libya.” 12.38pm: “Libya has decided an immediate ceasefire and stoppage of all military operations,” the country’s foreign minister Mousa Koussa says. 12.36pm: Koussa says that Libya has studied the resolution. “MY country will try to deal with this resolution,” Koussa says. “Libya has now got knowledge of the resolution, and in accordance with article 25 of the UN charter and given that Libya is a member of the UN security council, Libya is committed to accept the UN security council resolution.” 12.34pm: The Libyan Foreign Minister, Mousa Koussa, is preparing to speak to journalists in Tripoli. We’ll follow it live. 12.18pm: More from Nick Watt in the House of Commons, where Mark Reckless, a Conservative backbencher, has “asked the awkward question of the day”. Reckless asked the prime minister whether the operation would be better if Ark Royal, equipped with Harrier aircraft, could take part. The aircraft carrier was decommissioned as part of the strategic defence and security review last year. Hilary Benn, the shadow leader of the commons, welcomed the decision to hold a debate on the military action on a substantive motion, followed by a vote on Monday. Benn pointed out that it is exactly eight years ago to the day since MPs voted to approve the Iraq war. Jack Straw, the foreign secretary at the time, set a precedent by giving MPs a vote on a substantive motion. Until then debates about British military action were technically adjournment debates. This meant the only vote MPs could hold was on whether to adjourn the house. 12.12pm – Yemen: While the prime minister has been speaking about the planned military action in Libya, there have been disturbing events in Yemen, where citizens in Sana’a have been shot dead. The Guardian’s Tom Finn is at a mosque in the city, and says he has counted 17 dead people being brought into the building wrapped in blankets. “The doctor says [there are] double that in the hospital,” Tom tweets . Al Jazeera English is reporting that up to 30 people have been killed and 200 injured after security forces opened fire in Sana’a. 12.07pm: Our colleague, Ian Black, who is in Tripoli, says Muammar Gaddafi is far from cowed by last night’s vote at the UN , although there is a mood of nervousness in the city as well as defiance: Gaddafi was pretty defiant from the start, he gave an interview to Portuguese TV just as the vote was about to take place and it was clear at that stage it was going to produce a no-fly zone and he was very ominous. He was talking about how the world goes crazy, we’ll go crazy too… He was menacing about and to the people of Benghazi. He said there would be no mercy, no pity. If you were a rebel in Benghazi you could be forgiven for feeling quite anxious. 12.03pm: The Guardian’s chief political correspondent, Nick Watt, has been following the questions to Cameron in the Commons following the prime minister’s statement. Nick says there is “strong praise” for Cameron from both sides of the House, “though some Labour MPs are voicing doubts”. James Arbuthnot, the Tory chairman of the commons defence select committee, said the prime minister has shown a “breathtaking degree of courage and leadership”. Mike Gapes, the former Labour chairman of the commons foreign affairs select committee, congratulated Cameron, British diplomats at the UN and the French government. But Jeremy Corbyn, the veteran left winger, asked why action was being taken to protect human rights in Libya while no action was being taken in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Natascha Engel, a Labour MP, questioned whether the air strikes would compound a difficult situation. David Winnick, a veteran Labour MP, warned that Britain could be dragged into a third war in ten years. Nicolas Sarkozy has invited members of the Arab League to a meeting in Paris on Saturday. David Cameron will attend. Nick says that David Cameron has told MPs that the government will publish a summary of the legal advice by Dominic Grieve, the attorney general, which has given formal approval for British participation in Libya. “This will be published before a commons debate on Monday when MPs will vote on the military action,” Nick says. “In another departure with Tony Blair’s approach over the Iraq war in 2003, the prime minister announced that the international development secretary Andrew Mitchell is to chair a cross-Whitehall group to coordinate humanitarian efforts in Libya.” 12 noon: Welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the crisis in Libya as the UN backs military action and the British government commits RAF jets to the operation. You can find our earlier coverage here . Here are the main points of the story so far: British and French military aircraft are preparing to protect the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi after the UN security council voted in favour of a no-fly zone and air strikes against Muammar Gaddafi’s forces. Resolution 1973 authorises “all necessary measures” short of a ground invasion to protect civilians in Libya. The British prime minister, David Cameron, said RAF Tornadoes and Typhoons would be deployed in the operation . They will be moved to air bases “in the coming hours”, Cameron told the House of Commons in London. He said: “The attorney general has been consulted and the government is satisfied that there is a clear and unequivocal legal basis for the deployment of UK forces and military assets.” Gaddafi has warned that any foreign attack on Libya would endanger air and maritime traffic in the Mediterranean area. In a defiant and menacing radio address on Thursday night, the Libyan leader sald. “No more fear, no more hesitation, the moment of truth has come. There will be no mercy. Our troops will be coming to Benghazi tonight.” Libya Arab and Middle East protests Middle East Adam Gabbatt Mark Tran guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …On Friday, The Washington Post clearly displayed its bias in favor of liberal NPR with two supportive editorials (including one from a “conservative”) and a slanted news story on Thursday's House vote on NPR. That story, by Felicia Sonmez , had a 6-to-4 tilt in quotes toward NPR advocates — if you don't consider Republicans NPR advocates. Sonmez only found NPR lovers among the Republicans to quote, and left out all the arguments about high salaries and liberal elitism and bias. In fact, the word “liberal” doesn't appear in the article: Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-Calif.) said he appreciated some of NPR’s programming but added that “half the American people have never even heard of, much less even listened to, NPR.” Rep. Rich Nugent (R-Fla.) argued that those watching the House debate on Thursday were likely watching it on C-SPAN, which doesn’t receive federal funding. “A lot of us like NPR,” he said, later adding: “We’re not trying to harm NPR. We’re actually trying to liberate them from federal tax dollars.”
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There is no more insightful or enduring study of the troubled mind than Albrecht Dürer’s 1514 engraving Albrecht Dürer’s Melencolia I has cut its black lines deep into the modern imagination. It shows a winged being who sits in apparent dejection, surrounded by unused objects of science, craft and art, holding a pair of dividers as she broods. Her face is a mask of darkness, but her bright eyes glare, revealing an acuteness of mind that contrasts with her exhausted pose. In 16th-century portraits, the head resting on hand pose was to become a universal image of the soul afflicted by sad thoughts – as in Moretto da Brescia’s Portrait of a Young Man in London’s National Gallery. The influence of Dürer’s print is everywhere in Renaissance Europe. But what is equally amazing is the power of this 1514 work to fascinate us today, as when Günter Grass uses Dürer’s print to meditate on modern politics in his 1973 book From the Diary of a Snail. Dürer’s work of art continues to appeal because it is a diagnosis. It describes a malaise in the way a doctor might list symptoms. Sitting around, head in hand? Face a bit shadowy? My diagnosis: melancholia. Helpfully, Dürer even names this condition on the banner held aloft by a bat-like creature. Since people still suffer from melancholy – more likely calling it depression, the dumps or the blues – Dürer’s image continues to resonate. As does his implication that melancholy afflicts the most ambitious human efforts, that it is a historical and collective, not just a personal, fate. The diagnosis that Dürer offers is rooted in medieval medicine. According to the notion of the “humours”, melancholy was caused by an excess of black bile – hence the darkened face and the appropriate black ink. But Dürer offers something else not found in the old pseudo-science – a sense of a soul weighed down by its own intellect. In fact, the roots of his visionary masterpiece lie in Renaissance Italy, which he had visited and whose artists he knew well. In 15th-century Florence, philosopher Marsilio Ficino claimed that intellectuals, gifted and introspective souls like himself, were especially prone to the malaise of melancholy. He proposed various magical remedies to lift it – often invoking the power of the planet and goddess Venus to bring joy to the joyless. Dürer powerfully translates Ficino’s idea of the sad intellectual into a heroic portrait of a great mind surrounded by unused tools of discovery and creation. Yet there is something more still. Dürer, we can guess from this print, knew the darkness of melancholy personally. He also knew it was the curse of one of the greatest artists of his time: his contemporary Leonardo da Vinci, whose art he had studied. Da Vinci notoriously suffered from a strange affliction that stopped him finishing his paintings. He fretted for years over a colossal statue of a horse that he never made, and started a battle painting that he left as a ruinous sketch on a wall in Florence. By 1514, he was a byword for mystifyingly irresolute genius. Is Melencolia I an allegorical portrait of the creative paralysis of da Vinci, the paragon of Renaissance art who Dürer aspired to emulate – flaws included? If so, this would be the first of many Germanic attempts to understand Leonardo, including Goethe’s famous essay on The Last Supper, and Sigmund Freud’s book Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of his Childhood . Freud diagnoses Leonardo in modern clinical language. But nothing he says, there or elsewhere, is any more insightful than Albrecht Dürer’s majestic and enduring study of the troubled human mind. Art Depression Jonathan Jones guardian.co.uk
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