Fighting Spending Cuts in Ohio, NY Times Focuses on Union Jobs, Not $8B Deficit
March 16, 2011 No Comment
The New York Times versus state spending cuts. Reporter Sabrina Tavernise went to the downtrodden town of Gallipollis, Ohio, and collected a grab bag of sympathetic liberal anecdotes about government workers threatened by a bill that would restrict public-sector unions, for Wednesday’s “ Ohio Town Sees Public Job As Only Route To Middle Class .” Tavernise focused solely on the plight of low-income workers, including unionized government workers, while failing to mention the state's $8 billion deficit (a number included only in an Associated Press sidebar story, “Governor's Budget Seeks To Limit Union Influence.”) Jodi and Ralph Taylor are public workers whose jobs as a janitor and a sewer manager cover life’s basics. They have moved out of a trailer into a house, do not have to rely on food stamps and sometimes even splurge for the spicy wing specials at the Courtside Bar and Grill. While that might not seem like much, jobs like theirs, with benefits and higher-than-minimum wages, are considered plum in this depressed corner of southern Ohio. Decades of industrial decline have eroded private-sector jobs here, leaving a thin crust of low-paying service work that makes public-sector jobs look great in comparison. Now, as Ohio’s legislature moves toward final approval of a bill that would chip away at public-sector unions, those workers say they see it as the opening bell in a race to the bottom. At stake, they say, is what little they have that makes them middle class. Tavernise described Gallipolis as “a faded town on the Ohio River, one whose fortunes fell with the decline in industries like steel in bigger cities along the river.” She certainly painted it bleakly: Today, storefronts are mostly dark. About one in three people live in poverty. Billboards advertise oxygen tanks and motorized wheelchairs. Old photographs in a local diner look like an exhibit from a town obituary. The region has some of the highest rates of prescription drug abuse in the state, with more people dying from overdoses than car crashes, according to Ed Hughes, executive director of the Counseling Center in Portsmouth, about 55 miles west of here. Tavernise forwarded the liberal claim that wages have stagnated over the last few decades, without any countervailing conservative context . She failed to note that standards of living have certainly improved for the average American since 1970 (home computers and big-screen televisions, to name two), and that workers’ benefits have risen faster than inflation. Many economists also see flaws in how inflation is measured, which make the income figures look worse than they are. Tavernise then quoted a left-wing professor as an income expert. Wages at the bottom of the labor market have stagnated since 1970, with inflation gobbling up gains made over the years. The federal minimum wage buys a lot less today; it represented just 38 percent of the average hourly wage for private, nonsupervisory workers in 2010, down from 47 percent in 1970, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. “The wage story is incredibly bleak for everyone from the middle on down,” said Jacob S. Hacker, a political science professor at Yale University and co-author of “Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer — And Turned Its Back on the Middle Class.” “We’ve gotten dramatically richer as a society, but if you’re a wage earner below the median, you’ve seen your wages stagnate or shrink.” She concluded with a sympathetic anecdote: [Jodi] ]Taylor was washing dishes when the State Senate passed the labor bill this month. She sat down and cried when she heard the news. It does away with seniority and leaves out any job protection for workers with longer service, putting public workers — most of whom are not eligible for Social Security — at risk of losing their retirement income. “I’m scared,” Ms. Taylor said. “You just start to think, what about this, what about that? This is going to hurt a lot of people.” On February 23 Tavernise, writing with A.G. Sulzberger called the Tea Party movement “ far-right ”: “Taking a cost-cutting position against unions is part of the mantra for far-right groups like the Tea Party, and not necessarily unpopular.”
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G4S company and guards on flight carrying Jimmy Mubenga could be charged with manslaughter Scotland Yard is considering bringing a corporate manslaughter charge against the world’s largest private security firm over the death of an Angolan deportee. Detectives investigating the death of Jimmy Mubenga, who collapsed while being deported on a commercial flight from Heathrow, have interviewed whistleblowers from G4S, the company hired by the government to deport foreign nationals. They are considering whether the company could be held responsible for his death under rarely used legislation that came into force three years ago. Passengers on British Airways flight 77 told police they saw three G4S guards heavily restraining Mubenga, who they said had been complaining of breathing difficulties before he collapsed. The guards were later arrested in connection with the death and, following interviews this week, were bailed until 4 May. They could face manslaughter charges. However, sources with knowledge of the case have said police are also considering passing a file to the Crown Prosecution Service recommending a corporate manslaughter charge against G4S. The first and only company to be convicted under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 was found guilty last month. Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings was fined £385,000 for the death of Alexander Wright, 27, a geologist who suffocated when he became trapped in a collapsed trench. Under the legislation, prosecutors need to prove a person’s death was caused by a gross breach of duty of care by a company. They also need to convince a jury that the actions of a company’s “senior management” were a substantial element in that breach. A prosecution of this kind against G4S, which receives more than £600m from the government for services including the running of four prisons, three immigration removal centres and 675 court and police cells, would be highly damaging to the Home Office. G4S is the second-largest private employer in the world and boasts a £7bn turnover. Police have recently interviewed three G4S whistleblowers , who last month told parliament that the company repeatedly ignored warnings from staff that potentially lethal force was being used against deportees. They said executives were warned about one technique nicknamed “carpet karaoke”, which involved bending deportees over in aircraft seats to silence them. The whistleblowers, who include a G4S charter operations manager who said he warned seniors they risked “playing Russian roulette with detainees’ lives”, are known to be cooperating with police and providing detailed paperwork they say corrobarates their claims. Detectives are also seeking to track down other individuals from G4S known to have concerns about safety standards and training at the company. Heathrow CID opened the inquiry into the death of Mubenga, 46, hours after he collapsed on the aircraft as it prepared for departure to Luanda on 12 October. The flight was delayed for 24 hours and passengers were transferred to a nearby hotel overnight. The following day, the passengers were interviewed by police but, owing to their imminent departure, only spent around 40 minutes each speaking to detectives. Days later, the Metropolitan police’s homicide unit took over the case after the Guardian independently tracked down passengers who said Mubenga had complained he was unable to breathe for several minutes before his collapse. The unit arrested three guards, aged 35, 48 and 49, and questioned them under caution. Police have tried to trace other passengers for more in-depth interviews. Four G4S whistleblowers last month submitted evidence to the Commons home affairs select committee. The evidence, obtained by the Guardian, alleged serious failings by G4S. It also contradicted some of what senior G4S officials told MPs at a hearing after Mubenga’s death. Keith Vaz, who Labour MP who chairs the committee, said the possibility that whistleblower evidence could assist the police investigation represented “progress”. His committee has yet to decide whether to recall the G4S officials or hold further evidence sessions. “I am not surprised that the police have decided to take the matter forward given the circumstances surrounding this case,” he said. “I am sure the members of the home affairs committee will want to look further into this case during their inquiry into the deportation of detainees.” Committee member Julian Huppert, a Lib Dem MP, said police interest in the parliamentary testimony showed “how strong the committee process is”. “I am glad the home affair select committee hearing has led to this outcome,” he said. G4S said in a statement: “As this is the subject of an on-going investigation, we are unable to comment as this time. We can confirm that G4S has received no approach at this time from the authorities in relation to the company’s position and potential liabilities.” Jimmy Mubenga Immigration and asylum Police Crime Angola Paul Lewis Matthew Taylor guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …G4S company and guards on flight carrying Jimmy Mubenga could be charged with manslaughter Scotland Yard is considering bringing a corporate manslaughter charge against the world’s largest private security firm over the death of an Angolan deportee. Detectives investigating the death of Jimmy Mubenga, who collapsed while being deported on a commercial flight from Heathrow, have interviewed whistleblowers from G4S, the company hired by the government to deport foreign nationals. They are considering whether the company could be held responsible for his death under rarely used legislation that came into force three years ago. Passengers on British Airways flight 77 told police they saw three G4S guards heavily restraining Mubenga, who they said had been complaining of breathing difficulties before he collapsed. The guards were later arrested in connection with the death and, following interviews this week, were bailed until 4 May. They could face manslaughter charges. However, sources with knowledge of the case have said police are also considering passing a file to the Crown Prosecution Service recommending a corporate manslaughter charge against G4S. The first and only company to be convicted under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 was found guilty last month. Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings was fined £385,000 for the death of Alexander Wright, 27, a geologist who suffocated when he became trapped in a collapsed trench. Under the legislation, prosecutors need to prove a person’s death was caused by a gross breach of duty of care by a company. They also need to convince a jury that the actions of a company’s “senior management” were a substantial element in that breach. A prosecution of this kind against G4S, which receives more than £600m from the government for services including the running of four prisons, three immigration removal centres and 675 court and police cells, would be highly damaging to the Home Office. G4S is the second-largest private employer in the world and boasts a £7bn turnover. Police have recently interviewed three G4S whistleblowers , who last month told parliament that the company repeatedly ignored warnings from staff that potentially lethal force was being used against deportees. They said executives were warned about one technique nicknamed “carpet karaoke”, which involved bending deportees over in aircraft seats to silence them. The whistleblowers, who include a G4S charter operations manager who said he warned seniors they risked “playing Russian roulette with detainees’ lives”, are known to be cooperating with police and providing detailed paperwork they say corrobarates their claims. Detectives are also seeking to track down other individuals from G4S known to have concerns about safety standards and training at the company. Heathrow CID opened the inquiry into the death of Mubenga, 46, hours after he collapsed on the aircraft as it prepared for departure to Luanda on 12 October. The flight was delayed for 24 hours and passengers were transferred to a nearby hotel overnight. The following day, the passengers were interviewed by police but, owing to their imminent departure, only spent around 40 minutes each speaking to detectives. Days later, the Metropolitan police’s homicide unit took over the case after the Guardian independently tracked down passengers who said Mubenga had complained he was unable to breathe for several minutes before his collapse. The unit arrested three guards, aged 35, 48 and 49, and questioned them under caution. Police have tried to trace other passengers for more in-depth interviews. Four G4S whistleblowers last month submitted evidence to the Commons home affairs select committee. The evidence, obtained by the Guardian, alleged serious failings by G4S. It also contradicted some of what senior G4S officials told MPs at a hearing after Mubenga’s death. Keith Vaz, who Labour MP who chairs the committee, said the possibility that whistleblower evidence could assist the police investigation represented “progress”. His committee has yet to decide whether to recall the G4S officials or hold further evidence sessions. “I am not surprised that the police have decided to take the matter forward given the circumstances surrounding this case,” he said. “I am sure the members of the home affairs committee will want to look further into this case during their inquiry into the deportation of detainees.” Committee member Julian Huppert, a Lib Dem MP, said police interest in the parliamentary testimony showed “how strong the committee process is”. “I am glad the home affair select committee hearing has led to this outcome,” he said. G4S said in a statement: “As this is the subject of an on-going investigation, we are unable to comment as this time. We can confirm that G4S has received no approach at this time from the authorities in relation to the company’s position and potential liabilities.” Jimmy Mubenga Immigration and asylum Police Crime Angola Paul Lewis Matthew Taylor guardian.co.uk
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More than 100,000 jobs lost in 2010 as Labour accuses Office for Budget Responsibility of getting its forecasts wrong Public sector workers are being laid off much faster than officials forecast, with more than 100,000 jobs being lost over the past 12 months. Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed a decline of 111,000 in “general government” workers, 1.9% of the total, during 2010; 66,000 of the jobs were in local government. In its forecast with the budget last June, George Osborne’s Office for Budget Responsibility predicted a decline of 0.1%, equivalent to 5,500 jobs, in general government employment between the financial years of 2009-10 and 2010-11. In its revised November estimates, the OBR shifted its estimate of the number of government employees in 2010-11 down by a further 40,000; but yesterday’s 111,000 figure means job losses are running twice as fast as it expected. Liam Byrne, shadow work and pensions secretary, said: “If the OBR has underestimated the rise in public sector unemployment, then that makes the outlook for jobs even worse.” On the ONS’s wider measure of public sector employment, which includes public sector corporations, the government’s austerity drive claimed 132,000 public sector jobs in 2010, with the rate of job losses gathering pace through the year. Some 45,000 public sector jobs were lost in the final three months of 2010 alone, including 32,000 in schools and colleges, despite the promise to protect education. There was also a surprise rise of 9,000 jobs in “public administration”, raising a question about whether the government is finding true efficiencies. The decline in public sector jobs overall is partly attributed to the government’s recruitment freeze, but the pace suggests cuts are already translating into job losses. It is now known that, overall, 170,000 local government workers have got “at risk” notices, which will take some months to translate into redundancies. The ONS figures show the total of unemployed people increased by 27,000 in the three months to January to reach 2.53m, the highest figure since 1994. Ministers said the figures show that the private sector is picking up staff and offsetting some of the public sector redundancies, citing a 77,000 rise in jobs from non-state employers in the final three months of 2010. The figures also show a 45,000 fall in public sector jobs between October and November 2010. In 2010 there was a 132,000 reduction in public sector employment, a decrease of 2.1%. Of those laid off in the last quarter of 2010, 9,000 were in central government, 24,000 in local government, and 12,000 in quangos and other public corporations. Regions with the biggest falls in public sector jobs were: Yorkshire and Humber (22,000); the north-west (19,000); and the south-west (18,000). In Whitehall the largest losses were in the Department for Work and Pensions (1,670), the Home Office (1,190), and Revenue & Customs (640). Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: “These job losses
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More than 100,000 jobs lost in 2010 as Labour accuses Office for Budget Responsibility of getting its forecasts wrong Public sector workers are being laid off much faster than officials forecast, with more than 100,000 jobs being lost over the past 12 months. Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed a decline of 111,000 in “general government” workers, 1.9% of the total, during 2010; 66,000 of the jobs were in local government. In its forecast with the budget last June, George Osborne’s Office for Budget Responsibility predicted a decline of 0.1%, equivalent to 5,500 jobs, in general government employment between the financial years of 2009-10 and 2010-11. In its revised November estimates, the OBR shifted its estimate of the number of government employees in 2010-11 down by a further 40,000; but yesterday’s 111,000 figure means job losses are running twice as fast as it expected. Liam Byrne, shadow work and pensions secretary, said: “If the OBR has underestimated the rise in public sector unemployment, then that makes the outlook for jobs even worse.” On the ONS’s wider measure of public sector employment, which includes public sector corporations, the government’s austerity drive claimed 132,000 public sector jobs in 2010, with the rate of job losses gathering pace through the year. Some 45,000 public sector jobs were lost in the final three months of 2010 alone, including 32,000 in schools and colleges, despite the promise to protect education. There was also a surprise rise of 9,000 jobs in “public administration”, raising a question about whether the government is finding true efficiencies. The decline in public sector jobs overall is partly attributed to the government’s recruitment freeze, but the pace suggests cuts are already translating into job losses. It is now known that, overall, 170,000 local government workers have got “at risk” notices, which will take some months to translate into redundancies. The ONS figures show the total of unemployed people increased by 27,000 in the three months to January to reach 2.53m, the highest figure since 1994. Ministers said the figures show that the private sector is picking up staff and offsetting some of the public sector redundancies, citing a 77,000 rise in jobs from non-state employers in the final three months of 2010. The figures also show a 45,000 fall in public sector jobs between October and November 2010. In 2010 there was a 132,000 reduction in public sector employment, a decrease of 2.1%. Of those laid off in the last quarter of 2010, 9,000 were in central government, 24,000 in local government, and 12,000 in quangos and other public corporations. Regions with the biggest falls in public sector jobs were: Yorkshire and Humber (22,000); the north-west (19,000); and the south-west (18,000). In Whitehall the largest losses were in the Department for Work and Pensions (1,670), the Home Office (1,190), and Revenue & Customs (640). Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: “These job losses
Continue reading …Here’s a very bad rhyme: It wasn’t long too ago, When Sarah ditched her igloo. Now she’s free, Getting paid by Fox with glee But why are Conservatives now crying? Is comparing her to Al Sharpton very mean? Conservatives flock to her like Charlie Sheen? Bill Kristol has ditched her Roger Ailes just snitched her Oh, how the times have changed. Al Sharpton is a favorite whipping post for the entire Conservative movement and has been for decades so you know when they start to compare her to him, things are not rosy in Moose Country. Palin ‘becoming Al Sharpton’? Palin’s politics of grievance and group identity, according to these critics, is a betrayal of conservative principles. For decades, it was a standard line of the right that liberals cynically promoted victimhood to achieve their goals and that they practiced the politics of identity — race, sex and class—over ideas. (Related: Republicans learn cost of attacking Palin ) Among those taking aim at Palin in recent interviews with POLITICO are George F. Will, the elder statesman of conservative columnists; Peter Wehner, a top strategist in George W. Bush ’s White House, and Heather Mac Donald, a leading voice with the right-leaning Manhattan Institute. Matt Labash, a longtime writer for the Weekly Standard, said that because of Palin’s frequent appeals to victimhood and group grievance, “She’s becoming Al Sharpton , Alaska edition.”— This year, the conservative intelligentsia doesn’t just tend to dislike Palin — many fear that her rise would represent the triumph of an intellectually empty brand of populism and the death of ideas as an engine of the right. “This is a problem for the movement,” said Will about what Palin represents. “For conservatism, because it is a creedal movement, this is a disease to which it is susceptible.” The line of modern conservatism that can be traced back to National Review founder William F. Buckley would be broken by Palin, Will said. “There’s no Reagan without Goldwater, no Goldwater without National Review and no National Review without Buckley — and the contrast between he and Ms. Palin is obvious.” Asked if the GOP would remain the party of ideas if Palin captures the nomination, Will said: “The answer is emphatically no.” — Columnist Charles Krauthammer, without talking about Palin specifically, noted that “there’s healthy and unhealthy populism,” and there is concern about the rise of the latter. “When populism becomes purely anti-intellectual, it can become unhealthy and destructive,” said Krauthammer. — When former first lady Barbara Bush recently observed tartly that she thought Palin would be happiest staying put in Alaska rather than running for president, the former Alaska governor responded on Laura Ingraham’s radio show that the Bushes are “blue bloods who want to pick and choose their winners instead of allowing competition to pick and choose the winners.” Then there was this morning’s grim polling news : Sarah Palin’s ratings within the Republican Party are slumping, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, a potentially troubling sign for the former Alaska governor as she weighs whether to enter the 2012 presidential race. For the first time in Post-ABC News polling, fewer than six in 10 Republicans and GOP-leaning independents see Palin in a favorable light, down from a stratospheric 88 percent in the days after the 2008 Republican National Convention and 70 percent as recently as October The GOP Grand Poobahs really don’t want her to run for President, because they know the Republican primary will turn into a Tea Party donnybrook. Can it get much worse for her when Roger Ailes lets it be known that he’s unhappy with her too? Before Sarah Palin posted her infamous “Blood Libel” video on Facebook on January 12, she placed a call to Fox News chairman Roger Ailes. In the wake of the Tucson massacre, Palin was fuming that the media was blaming her heated rhetoric for the actions of a madman that left six people dead and thirteen others injured, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Palin told Ailes she wanted to respond, according to a person with knowledge of the call. It wasn’t fair the media was making this about her. Ailes told Palin that she should stay quiet. “Lie low,” he said. “There’s no need to inject yourself into the story.” Palin told Ailes that other people had given her that same advice. Her lawyer Bob Barnett is said to have cautioned her about getting involved. The consensus in some corners of Palin’s camp was that she faced considerable risks if she spoke out. But, this being Sarah Palin, she did it anyway. Ailes was not pleased with her decision, which turned out to be a political debacle for Palin, especially her use of the historically loaded term “blood libel” to describe the actions of the media. “The Tucson thing was horrible,” said a person familiar with Ailes’s thinking. “Before she responded, she was making herself look like a victim. She was winning. She went out and did the blood libel thing, and Roger is thinking, ‘Why did you call me for advice?’” Here’s the post I wrote about her blood libel response to the criticisms she took over the target map ad: Calling it ‘Blood Libel’ just opens Sarah Palin to a whole new realm of well-earned criticism Oh, lookie here….A new Al Palin posting on her Facebook page which is titled: T he $4-Per-Gallon President . For a second I thought she meant Bush. I wonder if she even wrote it?
Continue reading …Here’s a very bad rhyme: It wasn’t long too ago, When Sarah ditched her igloo. Now she’s free, Getting paid by Fox with glee But why are Conservatives now crying? Is comparing her to Al Sharpton very mean? Conservatives flock to her like Charlie Sheen? Bill Kristol has ditched her Roger Ailes just snitched her Oh, how the times have changed. Al Sharpton is a favorite whipping post for the entire Conservative movement and has been for decades so you know when they start to compare her to him, things are not rosy in Moose Country. Palin ‘becoming Al Sharpton’? Palin’s politics of grievance and group identity, according to these critics, is a betrayal of conservative principles. For decades, it was a standard line of the right that liberals cynically promoted victimhood to achieve their goals and that they practiced the politics of identity — race, sex and class—over ideas. (Related: Republicans learn cost of attacking Palin ) Among those taking aim at Palin in recent interviews with POLITICO are George F. Will, the elder statesman of conservative columnists; Peter Wehner, a top strategist in George W. Bush ’s White House, and Heather Mac Donald, a leading voice with the right-leaning Manhattan Institute. Matt Labash, a longtime writer for the Weekly Standard, said that because of Palin’s frequent appeals to victimhood and group grievance, “She’s becoming Al Sharpton , Alaska edition.”— This year, the conservative intelligentsia doesn’t just tend to dislike Palin — many fear that her rise would represent the triumph of an intellectually empty brand of populism and the death of ideas as an engine of the right. “This is a problem for the movement,” said Will about what Palin represents. “For conservatism, because it is a creedal movement, this is a disease to which it is susceptible.” The line of modern conservatism that can be traced back to National Review founder William F. Buckley would be broken by Palin, Will said. “There’s no Reagan without Goldwater, no Goldwater without National Review and no National Review without Buckley — and the contrast between he and Ms. Palin is obvious.” Asked if the GOP would remain the party of ideas if Palin captures the nomination, Will said: “The answer is emphatically no.” — Columnist Charles Krauthammer, without talking about Palin specifically, noted that “there’s healthy and unhealthy populism,” and there is concern about the rise of the latter. “When populism becomes purely anti-intellectual, it can become unhealthy and destructive,” said Krauthammer. — When former first lady Barbara Bush recently observed tartly that she thought Palin would be happiest staying put in Alaska rather than running for president, the former Alaska governor responded on Laura Ingraham’s radio show that the Bushes are “blue bloods who want to pick and choose their winners instead of allowing competition to pick and choose the winners.” Then there was this morning’s grim polling news : Sarah Palin’s ratings within the Republican Party are slumping, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, a potentially troubling sign for the former Alaska governor as she weighs whether to enter the 2012 presidential race. For the first time in Post-ABC News polling, fewer than six in 10 Republicans and GOP-leaning independents see Palin in a favorable light, down from a stratospheric 88 percent in the days after the 2008 Republican National Convention and 70 percent as recently as October The GOP Grand Poobahs really don’t want her to run for President, because they know the Republican primary will turn into a Tea Party donnybrook. Can it get much worse for her when Roger Ailes lets it be known that he’s unhappy with her too? Before Sarah Palin posted her infamous “Blood Libel” video on Facebook on January 12, she placed a call to Fox News chairman Roger Ailes. In the wake of the Tucson massacre, Palin was fuming that the media was blaming her heated rhetoric for the actions of a madman that left six people dead and thirteen others injured, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Palin told Ailes she wanted to respond, according to a person with knowledge of the call. It wasn’t fair the media was making this about her. Ailes told Palin that she should stay quiet. “Lie low,” he said. “There’s no need to inject yourself into the story.” Palin told Ailes that other people had given her that same advice. Her lawyer Bob Barnett is said to have cautioned her about getting involved. The consensus in some corners of Palin’s camp was that she faced considerable risks if she spoke out. But, this being Sarah Palin, she did it anyway. Ailes was not pleased with her decision, which turned out to be a political debacle for Palin, especially her use of the historically loaded term “blood libel” to describe the actions of the media. “The Tucson thing was horrible,” said a person familiar with Ailes’s thinking. “Before she responded, she was making herself look like a victim. She was winning. She went out and did the blood libel thing, and Roger is thinking, ‘Why did you call me for advice?’” Here’s the post I wrote about her blood libel response to the criticisms she took over the target map ad: Calling it ‘Blood Libel’ just opens Sarah Palin to a whole new realm of well-earned criticism Oh, lookie here….A new Al Palin posting on her Facebook page which is titled: T he $4-Per-Gallon President . For a second I thought she meant Bush. I wonder if she even wrote it?
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Raymond Davis flown to US airbase after payments made to relatives of men shot dead by intelligence agent in Lahore Raymond Davis, the CIA spy charged with murder in Pakistan, has flown out of the country after the relatives of two men he killed dropped charges in exchange for “blood money” of at least $1.4m (£874,000) and help in resettling abroad. Davis slipped out of Lahore on a special flight from the old city airport after being released from the sprawling jail where he had been held for almost 10 weeks amid a diplomatic storm that rocked relations between the two allies and sucked in President Barack Obama. A Pakistani official said the 36-year-old US spy was bound for an airbase in Afghanistan, then on to the US. Davis was freed under Islamic laws that allow a murderer to walk free on payment of compensation to the family of his victims. The acquittal took place during a closed hearing at Kot Lakhpat jail where no reporters were present. “The court first indicted him, but the families later told the court that they have accepted the blood money and they have pardoned him,” said Rana Sanaullah, the Punjab law minister. The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, thanked the families for pardoning Davis and allowing the American to go. Speaking from Cairo, Clinton said the US had not paid to win Davis’s release. The dramatic case has become an obsession in Pakistan since Davis, a bulky former special forces soldier, opened fire on two men at traffic lights on 27 January. Davis claimed he acted in self-defence against robbers, but prosecutors said he shot one in the back as he ran away. Several officials said the men he killed were linked to Pakistani intelligence. The deal to free Davis was an unusual mix of Islamic law and tense backroom negotiations between American and Pakistani spies and diplomats. A senior Pakistani official said the US paid in the region of $700,000 (£436,000) to relatives of both men, while another $700,000 was paid to family of a third man killed by a US rescue vehicle, also presumed to be driven by CIA employees. Washington also undertook to facilitate the future resettlement of family members in the US or a Gulf state such as Dubai, the official added. “The Americans will be helpful to the families,” he said. But the deal was also a defeat for US diplomacy, which had insisted Davis was a bona fide diplomat who enjoyed immunity from prosecution. In the early stage of the controversy, the US accused Pakistan of “illegally detaining” Davis, while Obama defended him as “our diplomat”. The carefully orchestrated legal events in Lahore belied weeks of negotiations between the CIA and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which have been at barely concealed loggerheads over the incident. The legal manoeuvres were “a fig leaf”, one official admitted. The idea of a payment was first mooted between Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, and Senator John Kerry in February. But the arrangement first needed the co-operation of Pakistani intelligence, which seemed determined to press its advantage. Relations between the two spy agencies had been fragile for months. In December the CIA station chief had to leave Islamabad after being named in the press; ISI officials were angry that their chief, General Shuja Pasha, had been named in a New York lawsuit brought by victims of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The ISI had been unaware of Davis’s CIA role in Pakistan, where he was employed to protect operatives gathering information about groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant Islamist group close to Pakistan’s intelligence service and linked to terrorist attacks against India, and relations between the CIA and ISI were strained as a result. The CIA director, Leon Panetta, phoned the ISI chief, General Shuja Pasha, last month to try to smooth relations. Media leaks in the Pakistani press during the stop-start trial kept the pressure on the US, such as the publication last weekend of the names and passport details of other “Raymonds” – Americans suspected of entering Pakistan under false pretences – in a newspaper. The report quoted “official sources”. In return for Davis’s release, the ISI has obtained an undertaking from the CIA about covert operations on their turf, the Pakistani official said. “They will do nothing behind our backs that will result in people getting killed or arrested.” There were other indications that a deal had been worked out. The US embassy press release welcoming Davis’s release was initially dated March 10 – around the same time a deal was struck in Washington. Analysts also noted that General Pasha, who was due to retire this month, obtained an unusual one-year extension of tenure this week. Kerry, head of the Senate foreign affairs committee, who is often used as a go-between in difficult issues, is thought to have raised the issue of compensation with the Pakistan government on a visit to Islamabad on 16 February. Kerry’s visit, devoted to securing Davis’s release, was initially believed to have been a failure. But US officials have been working behind the scenes since then at trying to secure the deal. Kerry said: “This was a very important and necessary step for both of our countries to be able to maintain our relationship and remain focused on progress on bedrock national interests, and I’m deeply grateful for the Pakistani government’s decision. “We deeply regret the loss of life that led to this difficulty in our relationship and the demonstrations on Pakistan’s streets, but neither country could afford for this tragedy to derail our vital relationship. We look forward to working with Pakistan to strengthen our relationship and confront our common challenges.” The US state department released a statement by the US ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron Munter, who accompanied Davis on the flight from Pakistan to Afghanistan. Munter thanked the families of their victims for pardoning Davis. “I am grateful for their generosity.” He stressed that the US justice department has opened an investigation into the shooting in Lahore. He added: “Most of all, I wish to reaffirm the importance that America places in its relationship with Pakistan, and the commitment of the American people to work with their Pakistani counterparts to move ahead in ways that will benefit us all.” As night fell in Lahore, there was a small protest outside the US consulate where Davis claimed to work, led by demonstrators from the Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s main religious party. Further protests are expected after prayers on Friday. Meanwhile, the CIA continued drone strikes in the tribal belt, firing three missiles at a car in North Waziristan that reportedly killed five people. It was the 16th drone strike in Pakistan this year. CIA United States Pakistan Declan Walsh Ewen MacAskill guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …It looks like Sharron Angle sees the House of Representatives as an easier win than the US Senate. Today she announced a run for the US House (NV-2) to replace Rep. Dean Heller, who is running for John Ensign’s seat in the Senate. The 2012 elections will be an interesting test for the Tea Party. Assume they’ll be well-funded so blanketing districts with ads and propaganda will be no problem. What may be a problem, however, is how they’re perceived given the overplayed hands unfolding right now in many states as well as the mainstream Republican Party’s frustration with them in the US Congress. Angle’s election to the House of Representatives isn’t a given, but it will be a bellwether for the Tea Party’s viability. And just imagine the fun she can have with Virginia Foxx and Michele Bachmann if she wins.
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Click here to view this media CBS News reported Wednesday that a violent man waving a tea party flag was arrested at a Democratic rally in Houston, Texas after he charged the podium.
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