David Norris drops out of race over revelation he pleaded for clemency for former partner over rape of 15-year-old boy The prospect of Ireland electing Europe’s first gay president is over after the leading candidate dropped out of the race following a scandal involving his former partner’s rape of a 15-year-old boy. David Norris announced he was withdrawing from the contest after it emerged he had written to the Israeli authorities in 1997 appealing for clemency for his former partner, Ezra Yitzhak Nawi. The Israeli peace activist was later found guilty of the statutory rape of the Palestinian boy and served time in prison. On the steps of his Dublin home, Norris acknowledged the enormous damage inflicted on his campaign after appearing to be the popular choice with a consistent poll lead over his rivals. While his decision to enter the race had made it possible for a gay candidate to stand for president, the independent senator said it was time to bow out. “I would have loved to have had the opportunity as president of Ireland to extend that to the service of the entire people but that is no longer possible.” He said he had always conducted himself with the dignity and decorum that would be expected of any potential president. “The recent frenzy threatened to erode that principle and it is now time for me to reassert as far as possible control of my life and destiny.” Norris’s fate was sealed on Tuesday night when members of the Irish parliament withdrew their support for his candidacy. Under the Irish constitution, a candidate cannot stand for the presidency unless he or she has the support of 20 TDs or senators, or command the backing of a number of county councils. Norris had won the backing of one council while some councillors had refused to even meet him. His campaign was also damaged by the resignation of several election workers over the Nawi scandal. They were angered over being kept in the dark about Norris’s letters on Irish parliamentary notepaper to Israeli authorities, giving a character reference to his former partner and pleading for clemency. Norris, Ireland’s leading James Joyce scholar, refused to answer questions from the media outside his house on the street where he established the James Joyce Centre. Defending his record, Norris said, speaking from a script: “I deeply regret the most recent of all the controversies concerning my former partner of 25 years ago, Ezra Nawi. The fallout from his disgraceful behaviour has now spread to me and is in danger of contaminating others close to me both in my political and personal life. It is essential that I act decisively now to halt this process.” With characteristic flourish, he added: “As I came across the Samuel Beckett bridge today into my mind came his words about humanity and frailty: ‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.’ ” Struggling to be heard among the media throng outside the house, a middle-aged woman cried out: “Stay in the race, don’t let the media drive you out.” But Norris had already gone back inside, his attempt to succeed Mary McAleese as the head of the Irish state this October in ruins. Ireland Europe Henry McDonald guardian.co.uk
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enlarge Credit: Political Carnival The difference between a documentary and a reality show is staging. A documentary tells a story about real life. The subjects are normally not paid, not actors and the story is non-fiction. It’s a quiet, illuminating and thoughtful genre (read: boring). Reality shows are like life, in that people on these programs do things people do in real life, (i.e. travel, date, lose weight) but the circumstances are contrived. The contestants are put in artificial situations with heightened rewards and it’s put on camera. The stakes are fake. The participants pre-screened. The episodes are scripted. It’s “reality” television. It’s like reality…only augmented for drama and ratings. Enter the United States Government. Civics and public servants are usually a snooze fest. Rules and procedures and suit-fillers giving long speeches are not all that interesting. Sure there was the occasional duel involving a member of Congress in the last 235 years. Bill Clinton’s enemies brought us a primetime sex scandal. But for the most part politics was watching history in the making, which is like watching anything else being made…slow and tedious. Think documentary. It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment politics crossed over into full reality show mayhem. These things usually happen in a “perfect storm” situation. Meaning: it wasn’t just one thing. It was a couple of unforeseen events happening all at once – all horrifying to Republicans. One was the meltdown of the financial system in 2008. It was the moment Bush had to “abandon free market principles to save the free market system” with TARP. The other was McCain’s concession. Go ahead and watch the speech again . The homogeneous crowd looks like they’re at a wake for a Ralph Lauren and L.L. Bean murder/suicide as their candidate says Barack Hussein Obama will be his president. If deregulation and tax cuts had done what they was claimed they would do and not wreck the world’s economy – then maybe having a guy whose middle name was the same as a Middle Eastern dictator we’ve spent trillions to take out, as the new president – wouldn’t have seemed so drastic. But this is the moment when politics went from CSPAN to Jerry Springer . What happens when a guest on Springer gets accused of something and he’s clearly at fault? He gets louder and starts throwing out desperate accusations. “How do I know you didn’t give it to me ?!” So instead of contrition – they opted for defensive blustering with something vaguely foreign-sounding to blame. This is the tea party: Freaked out Republicans. Lovers of unpaid-for tax cuts, unpaid-for wars and saturnalia on Wall Street were faced with the evidence that their ideas, when implemented, are terrible. So they took a cue from reality shows – they went full bombast. Then it was Obama (whose name also sounds like Osama) who passed TARP and doubled the debt ( when that actually happened under the “compassionate conservative” Bush with a GOP Congress). And just like when reality show producers figured out backstabbing and borderline psychopathic contestants meant ratings – during the health care reform debate the Republicans learned anything chanted by old people on television (no matter how nonsensical) dominates the debate. “Keep the government out of my Medicare!” For the last two and a half years politics has been trash television. We’ve had right-wing stars staying relevant through mudslinging and shamelessness. The tea party wouldn’t be satisfied with just one Snooki. We’ve had fake stings by phony pimps and ideology-driven hoaxes. Astroturf is being sold as organic outrage. In short: it’s staged. It’s over-produced indignation by interest groups that don’t do as well in the dullness of documentary style politics and need the chaos of the ridiculous to keep progress at bay. Cutting government spending (think government jobs ) during record unemployment? More tax cuts for the top 1% during record low tax rates and unprecedented tax exemptions? Do these ideas sound like something people come up with when they’re not just cynically throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks? How many times do the cable news networks need to have a countdown clock up for congressional dustups that could shut down the government? We’re being held captive by stunts. Choreographed stunts. This is not what deliberative government looks like. This is what deliberate turmoil looks like. Re-printed with permission
Continue reading …Chris Matthews Slams Matt Kibbe for His ‘Tea Party’ Being Incapable of Governing
August 2, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media I think Chris Matthews has finally had a belly-full of these TeaBirchers who’ve been taking the government hostage trying to get their balanced budget jammed through the legislature or at least force all of them to vote on it. They’ve been claiming — as FreedomWorks’ Matt Kibbe did here — that it would be acceptable to take us past the August 3rd deadline on default. Matthews railed on Kibbe for pretending that would be in any way a responsible way for members of Congress to act and blasted Kibbe and the so-called “tea party” House members that are beholden to his group and others as incapable of governing. After watching the last few interviews Matthews has had with tea partiers, I think Matthews (like a lot of us) is genuinely angry and tired of these people’s games. Tried of them threatening to burn the whole place down if they don’t get their way. Sadly unlike his cohort Rachel Maddow, he still paints them as being remotely grass roots instead of pointing out who’s funding them as Rachel has . He also still allows his viewers the impression that this is some genuine third party movement instead of a Republican re-branding effort to try to distance themselves from George W. Bush.
Continue reading …Chris Matthews Slams Matt Kibbe for His ‘Tea Party’ Being Incapable of Governing
August 2, 2011 No CommentClick here to view this media I think Chris Matthews has finally had a belly-full of these TeaBirchers who’ve been taking the government hostage trying to get their balanced budget jammed through the legislature or at least force all of them to vote on it. They’ve been claiming — as FreedomWorks’ Matt Kibbe did here — that it would be acceptable to take us past the August 3rd deadline on default. Matthews railed on Kibbe for pretending that would be in any way a responsible way for members of Congress to act and blasted Kibbe and the so-called “tea party” House members that are beholden to his group and others as incapable of governing. After watching the last few interviews Matthews has had with tea partiers, I think Matthews (like a lot of us) is genuinely angry and tired of these people’s games. Tried of them threatening to burn the whole place down if they don’t get their way. Sadly unlike his cohort Rachel Maddow, he still paints them as being remotely grass roots instead of pointing out who’s funding them as Rachel has . He also still allows his viewers the impression that this is some genuine third party movement instead of a Republican re-branding effort to try to distance themselves from George W. Bush.
Continue reading …CBS and ABC Ignore Biden ‘Terrorist’ Dust Up, NBC Only Promotes His Denials
August 2, 2011 No Comment
On Monday, Politico reported that “several sources” in a private meeting of House Democrats confirmed that Vice President Joe Biden accused Tea Party Republicans of having “acted like terrorists.” CBS and ABC completely punted the story on their evening and morning newscasts. NBC made mention of the controversy, but only to further Biden's denial of having made the comment. CBS's omission was particularly stunning given that Evening News anchor Scott Pelley interviewed the Vice President on Monday. Politico noted that Pelley actually did ask about the 'terrorist' remark: “'I did not use the terrorism word,' Biden told CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor Scott Pelley.” However, Pelley's question and Biden's denial were completely scrubbed from the portion of the interview aired on Monday's Evening News or Tuesday's Early Show. What part of the interview did make the cut? This exchange in which Pelley invited Biden to decry incivility in Washington: SCOTT PELLEY: Having watched all of this over the last few weeks, has Washington lost its ability to make deals and talk to each other? There has been so much name-calling, so much finger-pointing. JOE BIDEN: This is a cycle. This is a cycle. I predict to you that a lot of those new members who came here with 'My way or the highway,' they'll either be on the highway or they'll learn that they have to have compromise. Meanwhile, on ABC's World News, correspondent Jon Karl simply noted that Biden “came to Capitol Hill to close the deal, giving House and Senate Democrats a much-needed pep talk.” Good Morning America similarly ignored the terrorist comment. On NBC's Nightly News, Capitol Hill correspondent Kelly O'Donnell reported: “…the Vice President was in a heated meeting with liberal Democrats in the House, many of them were throwing around terms like 'terrorist' and 'hostage takers,' referring to the Tea Party. Tonight, the Vice President's office says he didn't use those words and doesn't believe it's appropriate fo political discourse, but members did.” She failed to point out Politico's “several” Democratic sources claiming otherwise. In addition, in the taped report that followed, O'Donnell declared: “The Vice President met privately for hours with House and Senate Democrats to take the heat and cool some tempers.” On Tuesday's NBC Today, O'Donnell didn't even mention Biden's denial, but simply explained that he had gotten “caught up in that conversation” of House Democrats calling Tea Party members of Congress terrorists.
Continue reading …CBS and ABC Ignore Biden ‘Terrorist’ Dust Up, NBC Only Promotes His Denials
August 2, 2011 No Comment
On Monday, Politico reported that “several sources” in a private meeting of House Democrats confirmed that Vice President Joe Biden accused Tea Party Republicans of having “acted like terrorists.” CBS and ABC completely punted the story on their evening and morning newscasts. NBC made mention of the controversy, but only to further Biden's denial of having made the comment. CBS's omission was particularly stunning given that Evening News anchor Scott Pelley interviewed the Vice President on Monday. Politico noted that Pelley actually did ask about the 'terrorist' remark: “'I did not use the terrorism word,' Biden told CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor Scott Pelley.” However, Pelley's question and Biden's denial were completely scrubbed from the portion of the interview aired on Monday's Evening News or Tuesday's Early Show. What part of the interview did make the cut? This exchange in which Pelley invited Biden to decry incivility in Washington: SCOTT PELLEY: Having watched all of this over the last few weeks, has Washington lost its ability to make deals and talk to each other? There has been so much name-calling, so much finger-pointing. JOE BIDEN: This is a cycle. This is a cycle. I predict to you that a lot of those new members who came here with 'My way or the highway,' they'll either be on the highway or they'll learn that they have to have compromise. Meanwhile, on ABC's World News, correspondent Jon Karl simply noted that Biden “came to Capitol Hill to close the deal, giving House and Senate Democrats a much-needed pep talk.” Good Morning America similarly ignored the terrorist comment. On NBC's Nightly News, Capitol Hill correspondent Kelly O'Donnell reported: “…the Vice President was in a heated meeting with liberal Democrats in the House, many of them were throwing around terms like 'terrorist' and 'hostage takers,' referring to the Tea Party. Tonight, the Vice President's office says he didn't use those words and doesn't believe it's appropriate fo political discourse, but members did.” She failed to point out Politico's “several” Democratic sources claiming otherwise. In addition, in the taped report that followed, O'Donnell declared: “The Vice President met privately for hours with House and Senate Democrats to take the heat and cool some tempers.” On Tuesday's NBC Today, O'Donnell didn't even mention Biden's denial, but simply explained that he had gotten “caught up in that conversation” of House Democrats calling Tea Party members of Congress terrorists.
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Home secretary’s proposal angers officers, some of whom already expect to lose £4,000 a year through pay reforms Senior police officers are facing up to £2,800 extra a year in pension contributions as a result of the Whitehall public spending cuts drive. The home secretary, Theresa May, told the police service on Tueday that rank and file officers should expect annual rises in contributions of £349 for a new constable to £1,169 for a senior PC. The increases are being introduced as part of the government’s target of cutting the public sector pension bill by £2.8bn a year and follow detailed announcements last week on the additional contributions facing teachers, nurses and civil
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Agreement to increase US debt limit gains enough votes to pass in Senate – with Obama expected to sign it into law immediately Congress has buried the spectre of a US debt default after it finally passed a deficit-cutting package – but the shadow lingered of a possible painful downgrade of the top-notch American credit rating. Just hours before the Treasury’s authority to borrow funds ran out, the Senate voted 74 to 26 to pass a hard-won compromise to lift the US government’s $14.3 trillion debt ceiling to last beyond the November 2012 elections. President Barack Obama, who will seek a second term next year, was expected to immediately sign the deal into law. His signature is set to draw a line under months of bitter partisan squabbling over debt and deficit strategy that had threatened chaos in global financial markets and dented America’s stature as the world’s economic superpower. There was little suspense about the outcome of the vote in the Democratic-controlled Senate. The bill overcame its biggest hurdle late on Monday when the Republican-led House of Representatives passed the $2.1 trillion deficit-reduction plan despite some resistance from Tea Party conservatives and liberal Democrats. Uncertainty remained, however, over whether the budget deal goes far enough in reining in deficits to satisfy major ratings agencies, which have threatened to downgrade the United States’ AAA credit rating. Such a move would raise borrowing costs and act as another drag on the stumbling economy. Ratings agency Standard and Poor’s said in mid-July there was a 50-50 chance it would cut US ratings in the next three months if lawmakers failed to craft a meaningful deficit-cutting plan. S&P could downgrade US ratings soon after the bill is signed by Obama, given that the agency will have all the information it needs to make a decision. Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner said he expected the ratings agencies to take a “careful look” at the situation but he was not sure whether the United States would be spared from a downgrade. “I don’t know. It’s hard to tell,” he told ABC News. The plan calls for $2.1 trillion in spending cuts spread over 10 years, and creates a congressional committee to recommend a deficit-reduction package by late November. That appears to fall short of rating agency S&P’s previous assertion that $4 trillion in deficit-reduction measures would be needed to avoid a downgrade by showing that Washington was putting the country’s finances in order. US Congress US economy US politics United States Barack Obama Economics guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media New York magazine writer Frank Rich explained Monday that Rupert Murdoch’s unethical business practices were not limited to Britain. “I think that we’re deluding ourselves if we think the whole Murdoch culture has not spread to America,” Rich told HLN’s Joy Behar. “We’re reading all this sort of exotic stuff about having British police on the payroll. Bernie Kerik was on the Murdoch payroll. He had a huge advance from Harper Collins. And you know, the piece I’ve written in New York that’s out today, I talk about the bullying things that they do. It’s not just about politics. It’s not just about Fox being right-wing. It’s about them going after people who are personal enemies, Bill O’Reilly having producers stalk people on the street.” “Liberals love to criticize Fox because it’s not fair and balanced and all that. They like to criticize the Post because it’s very right wing. Forget about the politics. This is about power and money, punishing enemies that they don’t like, for reasons that could be personal or business, not just political.” “They’re thugs,” Behar remarked. “Yes,” Rich agreed. “It’s thuggery. And I think this scandal is going to play out like Watergate for a couple of years.”
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Dragons’ Den star calls in police and deletes tweets appearing to solicit violence after Russian threatens to harm daughter The Dragons’ Den star Duncan Bannatyne has been forced to delete tweets after offering a £50,000 reward for anyone who broke the arms of a man who used Twitter to threaten his daughter. Someone going by the name of Yuri Vasilyev tweeted Bannatyne three days ago, saying: “I’m looking for a £35,000 investment to stop us hurting your Hollie Bannatyne. We will bring hurt and pain into your life. We are watching her. She is very attractive. Want photos?” After revealing that police had been informed of the threat, Bannatyne told his 371,653 Twitter followers: “I offer £25,000 reward for the capture of the coward who calls himself @YuriVasilyev_ Double if his arms are broken first.” He added: “I am serious btw [by the way]. I think he is in Moscow.” Bannatyne’s strategy appears to echo the plot of the film Ransom , in which a millionaire, played by Mel Gibson, puts out a bounty on the criminals who have kidnapped his son. A number of Twitter users were quick to take Bannatyne to task for appearing to solicit violence. “Just read it thought it was a bit irresponsible of @DuncanBannatyne. Some nutter will take it seriously,” wrote one . Bannatyne replied: ” Good I want you to. ” Another user went further , asking: “You are seriously trying to pay someone, to break someone’s arms, on an incredibly public forum? Fair enough … Just to clarify, you 100% want everyone to know you are seriously doing this. Despite it being illegal?” The criticism appeared to bring about a change of heart, and Bannatyne deleted the offending tweets and amended his offer to ” £30,000 reward for info leading to his arrest “. However, he kept up the pressure, telling his followers he had tracked the alleged criminal to an internet cafe in Moscow. “@YuriVasilyev_ My people are getting closer to you every minute, run and hide you little coward in Moscow,” he tweeted . ” Go home to your mum and cry we are closing in on you little boy.” The saga was picked up across Twitter, leading parody – ” I offer £25 for the capture of my 3-year-old. Double if her toenails are clipped ” – and more serious points. Many users made comparisons with the Twitter joke trial in which Paul Chambers was convicted of “menace” for threatening to blow up Robin Hood airport in a humorous tweet. “I hope Bannatyne doesn’t threaten to blow Russian chap sky high if there’s any snow in Moscow. Then he’ll be in trouble,” wrote David Allen Green , the New Statesman’s legal correspondent who also represents Chambers. Bannatyne’s agent confirmed that the police had been informed. On Tuesday afternoon, Bannatyne released a statement saying: “My family is well protected but I take any threat to them very seriously and will do all I can to ensure the person or people involved are caught.” The entrepreneur, author and philanthropist made no mention of the deleted tweets. Dragons’ Den Twitter Internet Crime Sam Jones guardian.co.uk
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