Rep. Grijalva: ‘This deal trades peoples’ livelihoods for the votes of a few unappeasable right-wing radicals’: UPDATE 1,2,3,4,5
July 31, 2011 No CommentThere’s an outcry coming from Progressives at this point, including myself and any way you look at it, John Boehner will need Democratic votes to get something done in the HOUSE. Rep. Raul Grijalva, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, today released the following statement on the emerging debt deal via email: “This deal trades peoples’ livelihoods for the votes of a few unappeasable right-wing radicals, and I will not support it. Progressives have been organizing for months to oppose any scheme that cuts Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security, and it now seems clear that even these bedrock pillars of the American success story are on the chopping block. Even if this deal were not as bad as it is, this would be enough for me to fight against its passage. This deal does not even attempt to strike a balance between more cuts for the working people of America and a fairer contribution from millionaires and corporations. The very wealthy will continue to receive taxpayer handouts, and corporations will keep their expensive federal giveaways. Meanwhile, millions of families unfairly lose more in this deal than they have already lost . I will not be a part of it. Republicans have succeeded in imposing their vision of a country without real economic hope. Their message has no public appeal, and Democrats have had every opportunity to stand firm in the face of their irrational demands. Progressives have been rallying support for the successful government programs that have meant health and economic security to generations of our people. Today we, and everyone we have worked to speak for and fight for, were thrown under the bus. We have made our bottom line clear for months: a final deal must strike a balance between cuts and revenue, and must not put all the burden on the working people of this country. This deal fails those tests and many more. The Democratic Party, no less than the Republican Party, is at a very serious crossroads at this moment. For decades Democrats have stood for a capable, meaningful government – a government that works for the people, not just the powerful, and that represents everyone fairly and equally. This deal weakens the Democratic Party as badly as it weakens the country. We have given much and received nothing in return. The lesson today is that Republicans can hold their breath long enough to get what they want. While I believe the country will not reward them for this in the long run, the damage has already been done. A clean debt ceiling vote was the obvious way out of this, and many House Democrats have been saying so. Had that vote failed, the president should have exercised his Fourteenth Amendment responsibilities and ended this manufactured crisis. This deal is a cure as bad as the disease. I reject it, and the American people reject it. The only thing left to do now is repair the damage as soon as possible.” Move On: “We urge the White House and all in Congress to keep negotiating for a deal that protects Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid and asks millionaires to pay their fair share,” UPDATE I: Dick Durbin agrees with me and says that this debt ceiling vote is killing Keynesian economics. UPDATE II: Sam Stein: Harry Reid Tentatively Signs Off On Debt Ceiling Deal UPDATE III: CNN’s Money says that spending cuts now are not good for the economy: NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — If the debt ceiling goes up, government spending is most likely going down. And with the economy grinding to a halt, the timing couldn’t be worse… read on UPDATE IV: Greg Sargent is shrill. UPDATE V : And as I figured, Boehner’s trying to reduce defense spending cuts in the deal : House Speaker John A. Boehner was attempting to scale back the $350 billion in immediate Pentagon cuts that would be included in the initial $1 trillion in spending cuts. Democrats said Mr. Boehner was also trying to minimize the amount of automatic cuts to defense spending that would occur if a special congressional committee was unable to reach a broader agreement later this year.
Continue reading …Lindsey Graham Still Not Ready to Back Debt Ceiling Deal Even After it Appears GOP is Getting Everything They Wanted
July 31, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Par for the course, if it’s Sunday, we’re going to be treated to another interview by either John McCain or his BFF here, Lindsey Graham. Heaven forbid any actual progressive Democrats are allowed on the air to voice their opinions on this debt ceiling debacle. Apparently Sen. Lindsey Graham isn’t ready to get behind these compromises being offered during the debt ceiling negotiations because they didn’t get Democrats to just dismantle all of our social safety nets immediately. Heaven forbid it appears these guys already got concessions on just about everything they wanted and that still isn’t good enough for them. They should have raised the debt ceiling before this new House of Representatives got into office so they weren’t put in the position of negotiating with these hostage takers in the first place because it looks like Lindsey Graham and the Republicans’ idea of “winning” is the complete destruction of our middle class in America, which has been obvious to a lot of us for a long time now. Transcript via This Week : AMANPOUR: Every Republican congressman from your own state voted against Speaker Boehner’s plan… GRAHAM: They did. AMANPOUR: … even though it did contain the balanced budget amendment. GRAHAM: Yeah. AMANPOUR: Do you think they’ll get behind this current framework that we’ve been describing? GRAHAM: You know, I don’t see many conservatives getting behind this, quite frankly, because you don’t overall. I’ve learned in politics the hard way, don’t oversell, and don’t tell people they should feel good when they have a reason not to feel that great. AMANPOUR: Will it pass? Will enough get behind it? GRAHAM: I think half the conference in the Republican House must vote for this. To President Obama, to David… STEPHANOPOULOS: Only half? GRAHAM: I think that’s the minimum, because I like John Boehner. Maybe he can get more, but it’s a $3 trillion package that will allow $7 trillion to be added to the debt over the next decade. (CROSSTALK) STEPHANOPOULOS: But you know the politics as well as I do… GRAHAM: So how much celebrating can you do about that? STEPHANOPOULOS: In order to get something like this through that does not include — it looks like this will not include revenue increases… GRAHAM: No revenue. That’s a win. STEPHANOPOULOS: I know where you stand on that. GRAHAM: That’s a win. STEPHANOPOULOS: That is a win. It would only get half? GRAHAM: My belief is, what do I tell people at home who say, what did you do about getting us out of debt? I slowed down how much debt you add. Instead of adding $10 trillion, we’re going to add $7 trillion. I slowed down the growth of government, but it still grows every year. For those who came out to vote in 2010 to say, get the size and scope of Washington changed in the new direction… (CROSSTALK) STEPHANOPOULOS: If you only get half, this could go… (CROSSTALK) GRAHAM: It doesn’t go in the new direction. STEPHANOPOULOS: With only half the Republican conference, this could go down. GRAHAM: Well, I’ll tell you, our Democratic friends provided no votes to John. There’s no plan by the president. Harry Reid’s plan is going nowhere. AMANPOUR: But you say there’s no plan, sir, but he’s moved so far, in fact, entirely to your side. GRAHAM: His — his — his rhetoric has moved. The reason everybody’s moved in town… AMANPOUR: But this is all spending cuts. GRAHAM: Well, let me tell you. There’s people in my party moved. There are people in my party who really are not that excited about cutting government… STEPHANOPOULOS: You’re not ready to vote for this, are you? GRAHAM: I can’t — from — from a big picture, I’m not ready to vote for this. And let me tell you why — excuse me, George — the bottom line here is, the people who got elected are not excited about being Republicans or Democrats, particularly on the Republican side. They’re excited about results. And it is fair to say, we’ve achieved a significant change in the way Washington works by paying for the debt ceiling increase and not passing it onto the credit card. We have not achieved entitlement change. We have not reduced the size and scope of government. We’re going in the wrong direction at a slower pace, and for a lot of people, that is not winning.
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She’s not a feminist, but says women are born creative. Juliette Binoche talks to Laura Barnett about her spat with Gérard Depardieu, bad reviews – and why acting is like peeling onions One Sunday a couple of months ago, Juliette Binoche bumped into Gérard Depardieu while
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Expenses, bonuses and hacking crises share origins, says campaign group that includes Greg Dyke and Philip Pullman Declaration: A new jury to put the British public interest first Britain is being run by a “feral” elite whose members are responsible for a series of crises – from phone hacking to the row over bankers’ bonuses – which have scarred the country, a new, non-party group headed by the author Philip Pullman claims. A 1,000-strong “public jury” should be selected at random to draw up a “public interest first” test to ensure that power is taken away from “remote interest groups” which currently treat the public with contempt, according to the group’s declaration. The call for a public jury , which has been signed by 56 academics, writers, trade unionists and politicians from Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Green party, is published in the Guardian. Its signatories include Greg Dyke, former director general of the BBC, Caroline Lucas, the only Green MP who is also her party’s leader, and the civil liberties campaigner and Labour peer Lady Kennedy. Guardian columnists Polly Toynbee and Madeleine Bunting have also signed the declaration. Launched by Neal Lawson, a former adviser to Gordon Brown who chairs the left of centre Compass group, the group says that decisive action is needed to wrest power back from a small elite. “Something is unravelling before our eyes,” the group says. “From bankers to media barons, private interests have bankrupted and corrupted the public realm. Power, for so long hidden in the pockets of a cosy elite, has been exposed. Those who wield it have been found wanting – in scruples, in morals and in decency.” The group says that the three crises – MPs’ expenses, bankers’ bonuses and illegal phone hacking – share common origins. “Politicians, bankers and media moguls … share a common culture in which greed is good, everyone takes their turn at the trough, and private interest takes precedence over the public good.” In a Guardian article, the authors of the declaration warn of a “feral” elite. Lawson and Andrew Simms, fellow at the New Economics Foundation, write: “With no pressure for higher ethical standards, the new all-powerful elites were like kids left free in the sweetshop, going feral as they lost all self-control and all touch with society.” The group says that 1,000 citizens should be selected at random to sit on a public jury that will propose reforms to banking, politics. The jury, to be funded from the public purse, would examine: • Media ownership. • The financial sector’s role in the crash. • MP selections and accountability. • Policing and public interest. • How to apply a “public interest first” test more generally to British political and corporate life. The declaration’s main critique of Britain – that power is concentrated in the hands of a small elite – echoes the thinking of Ed Miliband. The Labour leader, who has been praised for shaping the public response to the phone-hacking scandal, recently said that too much power in the media and other industries is concentrated in the hands of too few people. “The powerful are very good at talking about the responsibilities of the powerless but they aren’t very good at looking at their own responsibilities,” Miliband told the Times on 23 July as he called for the “big six” energy companies to be broken up. “Labour is the party of the grafters, the people who work hard and do the decent thing but don’t feel they get a very fair deal out of society.”The declaration is also signed by Lord Wood, an Oxford don who is a senior adviser to Miliband. MPs’ expenses Labour Liberal Democrats Green party Caroline Lucas Ed Miliband Executive pay and bonuses Banking Phone hacking Greg Dyke Police Protest Philip Pullman Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk
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With Greece in financial meltdown and the country rocked by protests we offer a beginner’s guide to the crisis Among the chic bars along Thessaloniki’s historic waterfront, one restaurant stands out. “We want our money!” reads a banner dangling from the terrace of an American-themed diner and grill. Inside, 12 staff have changed the locks, are serving cans of supermarket beer to supporters and taking it in turns to sleep nights on the restaurant floor in protest at months of unpaid wages and the restaurant’s sudden closure. This is the new symbol of Greece’s spiralling debt crisis: a waiters’ squat. Margarita Koutalaki, 37, a softly spoken waitress, divorced with an 11-year-old daughter, worked here part-time for eight years, earning about €6.50 (£5.70) an hour. Now she is taking turns to sleep on an inflatable mattress in an upstairs room, guarding the squat, while her parents babysit her child. “I’m owed about €3,000 in unpaid wages,” she says, warning her plight is shared by legions of workers all over Greece who are waiting for months for outstanding pay from struggling business owners. “At first we were told we’d be paid the following month, then the pay stopped completely and we were told by phone that the restaurant was closing. We’re still working, we’re keeping the place going, providing food and drinks to our supporters. We’ve got more clients than before. This protest is all we can do. It comes naturally.” The waiters serve cheap drinks and cut-price dinners to a new clientele of leftists and protesters from the four-month-old “indignants” movement, who would previously never have set foot in this bastion of imperialism, the Greek franchise of US giant Applebee’s. A banner in English tempts tourists with cheap souvlaki and meatballs “in support of the workers”. It is one month since Greece was paralysed by a general strike over harsh austerity measures, with mass street demonstrations and running battles between police and protesters in Syntagma Square, Athens. Greeks are more distrustful than ever of their political class and its ability to lead them out of the crippling financial crisis. Polls show growing contempt for all parties and the discredited political system. Unemployment is at a record high of 16% – far higher for young people. Those lucky enough to still have a job have suffered dramatic salary cuts and tax increases. Doctors and nurses recently staged walkouts over hospital cuts. Taxi drivers have hobbled Greece with strikes in the past two weeks, protesting at government plans to open up the industry. Their tactics included blocking ports and opening the Acropolis ticket office to let tourists in free. Crucially, Greece’s long-running “civil disobedience” movement, where ordinary citizens refuse to pay for anything from road tolls and bus tickets to extra doctors’ charges, has not fizzled out in the summer holidays. The “We Won’t Pay” offensive is championed as the purest form of “people’s power”. Organisers warn it could gain renewed force in September as the government launches a new round of financial restraint. On the main Athens-Thessaloniki road, as drivers file back into Thessaloniki from a Sunday at the beach, a crowd of civilians in fluorescent orange safety bibs stand guard at the barriers to the main road toll into Greece’s second city. Their jackets are emblazoned with “Total Disobedience”. They push aside the red-and-white barriers and wave drivers through without paying the €2.80 toll. Banners read: “We won’t pay”, and “We won’t give money to foreign bankers”. Drivers gratefully drive through, some giving the thumbs up. “We’ll see a resurgence of civil disobedience in the autumn,” says Nikos Noulas, a civil engineer from Thessaloniki, in a city centre cafe as he rolls out a series of posters championing the refusal to pay. Living a 40-minute drive from the city centre, he commutes by motorbike for what scarce work remains, but avoids paying for bus tickets or tolls. He also stages supermarket ambushes, handing shoppers big protest stickers to place on any goods they consider ludicrously expensive. Milk is a favourite. Noulas and his group fill trolleys with goods and ask the manager for a 30% discount. When refused, they abandon the full trolleys at the till. He acknowledges that a recent police clampdown has made things harder: “If a police officer is watching, there’s little choice but to pay a road toll.” But he says breaking the law by not paying small tolls or bus fares is far less serious than corrupt politicians and cartels which, he claims, ran Greece for decades with impunity. “This has taught us that the Greek people can resist. It has ignited public sentiment,” he says. The road-toll protest movement began more than two years ago outside Athens to counter what is seen as an extortionate and corrupt road toll system, with drivers expected to pay for stretches of road that have yet to be built. Some residents face paying more than €1,500 a year in tolls to get around their own neighbourhoods. By the start of this year, the movement was flourishing and included refusals to pay for Athens metro tickets, with protesters covering ticket machines with plastic bags, as well as a long-running bus fare boycott in Thessaloniki after price rises by state-subsidised private firms. Others refuse to pay their TV licences. Leftwing parties became involved, boosting the campaign’s visibility. By March, more than half of the Greek population supported the “We Won’t Pay” notion. The government heaped criticism on what it deemed an irresponsible “freeloader” mentality, warning that the non-payers would bring the country into disrepute and were starving the state of vital revenue from transport services. New laws were brought in on ticket evasion and police cracked down. George Bakagiannis, an IT manager from the Athens area, has avoided paying road tolls for two years, simply stepping out of his car and pushing open the barrier at toll booths. His group stages toll-booth ambushes for two to three hours several times a week, waving drivers through without charge. He has branched out into demonstrations against the €5 fee for doctors’ consultations. He says: “We go to the hospital and close the cashier’s room, telling people, ‘Don’t pay, we’re here.’ This isn’t our crisis, it’s the government’s crisis. They steal our money; they’re stealing our lives. Now they want us to believe even our savings aren’t safe in the bank. This movement will grow in this autumn because things are so bad now that people genuinely don’t have the money to pay.” The social commentator and writer, Nikos Dimou, says: “It’s the beginning of a divorce between the Greeks and their politicians. That’s what all these movements have in common: they are all about a loathing and abhorring of the political class.” In Thessaloniki, Greece’s second city, feelings run high. The “indignants” had their tents forcibly cleared from Athens’ Syntagma Square this weekend, but Thessaloniki’s ancient waterfront fortification, the White Tower, is still surrounded by protest tents and draped in banners reading “For sale” and “Not for sale.” Northern Greece has been badly hit by the crisis. Businesses began closing long before the full force of the financial meltdown. So many people are too poor to regularly use their cars and so many businesses have ground to a halt that Thessaloniki’s municipality has claimed a vast improvement in the air quality of the notoriously congested city. On 10 September, when the Greek prime minister George Papandreou appears at Thessaloniki’s famous international fair to unveil his new economic measures, he will be met by demonstrations. Thessaloniki protesters are using flash-mobbing, where crowds turn up unexpectedly to picket banks and public buildings. The latest target was the German consulate, where dozens of demonstrators chanted and spray-painted the pavement, demanding the European Union did more for Greece as plainclothes police looked on. At the demo on 20 July, Barbara, 30, a Greek language teacher, who did not want to give her surname, said she was serving coffee in a bar for €30 per nine-hour shift on the black economy. She lives with her father, a pensioner, and mother, a shop owner who is deeply in
Continue reading …With Greece in financial meltdown and the country rocked by protests we offer a beginner’s guide to the crisis Among the chic bars along Thessaloniki’s historic waterfront, one restaurant stands out. “We want our money!” reads a banner dangling from the terrace of an American-themed diner and grill. Inside, 12 staff have changed the locks, are serving cans of supermarket beer to supporters and taking it in turns to sleep nights on the restaurant floor in protest at months of unpaid wages and the restaurant’s sudden closure. This is the new symbol of Greece’s spiralling debt crisis: a waiters’ squat. Margarita Koutalaki, 37, a softly spoken waitress, divorced with an 11-year-old daughter, worked here part-time for eight years, earning about €6.50 (£5.70) an hour. Now she is taking turns to sleep on an inflatable mattress in an upstairs room, guarding the squat, while her parents babysit her child. “I’m owed about €3,000 in unpaid wages,” she says, warning her plight is shared by legions of workers all over Greece who are waiting for months for outstanding pay from struggling business owners. “At first we were told we’d be paid the following month, then the pay stopped completely and we were told by phone that the restaurant was closing. We’re still working, we’re keeping the place going, providing food and drinks to our supporters. We’ve got more clients than before. This protest is all we can do. It comes naturally.” The waiters serve cheap drinks and cut-price dinners to a new clientele of leftists and protesters from the four-month-old “indignants” movement, who would previously never have set foot in this bastion of imperialism, the Greek franchise of US giant Applebee’s. A banner in English tempts tourists with cheap souvlaki and meatballs “in support of the workers”. It is one month since Greece was paralysed by a general strike over harsh austerity measures, with mass street demonstrations and running battles between police and protesters in Syntagma Square, Athens. Greeks are more distrustful than ever of their political class and its ability to lead them out of the crippling financial crisis. Polls show growing contempt for all parties and the discredited political system. Unemployment is at a record high of 16% – far higher for young people. Those lucky enough to still have a job have suffered dramatic salary cuts and tax increases. Doctors and nurses recently staged walkouts over hospital cuts. Taxi drivers have hobbled Greece with strikes in the past two weeks, protesting at government plans to open up the industry. Their tactics included blocking ports and opening the Acropolis ticket office to let tourists in free. Crucially, Greece’s long-running “civil disobedience” movement, where ordinary citizens refuse to pay for anything from road tolls and bus tickets to extra doctors’ charges, has not fizzled out in the summer holidays. The “We Won’t Pay” offensive is championed as the purest form of “people’s power”. Organisers warn it could gain renewed force in September as the government launches a new round of financial restraint. On the main Athens-Thessaloniki road, as drivers file back into Thessaloniki from a Sunday at the beach, a crowd of civilians in fluorescent orange safety bibs stand guard at the barriers to the main road toll into Greece’s second city. Their jackets are emblazoned with “Total Disobedience”. They push aside the red-and-white barriers and wave drivers through without paying the €2.80 toll. Banners read: “We won’t pay”, and “We won’t give money to foreign bankers”. Drivers gratefully drive through, some giving the thumbs up. “We’ll see a resurgence of civil disobedience in the autumn,” says Nikos Noulas, a civil engineer from Thessaloniki, in a city centre cafe as he rolls out a series of posters championing the refusal to pay. Living a 40-minute drive from the city centre, he commutes by motorbike for what scarce work remains, but avoids paying for bus tickets or tolls. He also stages supermarket ambushes, handing shoppers big protest stickers to place on any goods they consider ludicrously expensive. Milk is a favourite. Noulas and his group fill trolleys with goods and ask the manager for a 30% discount. When refused, they abandon the full trolleys at the till. He acknowledges that a recent police clampdown has made things harder: “If a police officer is watching, there’s little choice but to pay a road toll.” But he says breaking the law by not paying small tolls or bus fares is far less serious than corrupt politicians and cartels which, he claims, ran Greece for decades with impunity. “This has taught us that the Greek people can resist. It has ignited public sentiment,” he says. The road-toll protest movement began more than two years ago outside Athens to counter what is seen as an extortionate and corrupt road toll system, with drivers expected to pay for stretches of road that have yet to be built. Some residents face paying more than €1,500 a year in tolls to get around their own neighbourhoods. By the start of this year, the movement was flourishing and included refusals to pay for Athens metro tickets, with protesters covering ticket machines with plastic bags, as well as a long-running bus fare boycott in Thessaloniki after price rises by state-subsidised private firms. Others refuse to pay their TV licences. Leftwing parties became involved, boosting the campaign’s visibility. By March, more than half of the Greek population supported the “We Won’t Pay” notion. The government heaped criticism on what it deemed an irresponsible “freeloader” mentality, warning that the non-payers would bring the country into disrepute and were starving the state of vital revenue from transport services. New laws were brought in on ticket evasion and police cracked down. George Bakagiannis, an IT manager from the Athens area, has avoided paying road tolls for two years, simply stepping out of his car and pushing open the barrier at toll booths. His group stages toll-booth ambushes for two to three hours several times a week, waving drivers through without charge. He has branched out into demonstrations against the €5 fee for doctors’ consultations. He says: “We go to the hospital and close the cashier’s room, telling people, ‘Don’t pay, we’re here.’ This isn’t our crisis, it’s the government’s crisis. They steal our money; they’re stealing our lives. Now they want us to believe even our savings aren’t safe in the bank. This movement will grow in this autumn because things are so bad now that people genuinely don’t have the money to pay.” The social commentator and writer, Nikos Dimou, says: “It’s the beginning of a divorce between the Greeks and their politicians. That’s what all these movements have in common: they are all about a loathing and abhorring of the political class.” In Thessaloniki, Greece’s second city, feelings run high. The “indignants” had their tents forcibly cleared from Athens’ Syntagma Square this weekend, but Thessaloniki’s ancient waterfront fortification, the White Tower, is still surrounded by protest tents and draped in banners reading “For sale” and “Not for sale.” Northern Greece has been badly hit by the crisis. Businesses began closing long before the full force of the financial meltdown. So many people are too poor to regularly use their cars and so many businesses have ground to a halt that Thessaloniki’s municipality has claimed a vast improvement in the air quality of the notoriously congested city. On 10 September, when the Greek prime minister George Papandreou appears at Thessaloniki’s famous international fair to unveil his new economic measures, he will be met by demonstrations. Thessaloniki protesters are using flash-mobbing, where crowds turn up unexpectedly to picket banks and public buildings. The latest target was the German consulate, where dozens of demonstrators chanted and spray-painted the pavement, demanding the European Union did more for Greece as plainclothes police looked on. At the demo on 20 July, Barbara, 30, a Greek language teacher, who did not want to give her surname, said she was serving coffee in a bar for €30 per nine-hour shift on the black economy. She lives with her father, a pensioner, and mother, a shop owner who is deeply in
Continue reading …Libyan rebels under increasing strain after attack on ‘renegades’ in Benghazi
July 31, 2011 No Comment
Divisions deepen over killing of Abdul Fatah Younis, while forces elsewhere report gains in Misrata and Nafusa mountains Fears of a fracturing of Libya’s opposition heightened after units loyal to the ruling National Transitional Council stormed the base of what it said was a renegade unit in the rebel capital, Benghazi. Four fighters were killed and six wounded in the attack on the al-Nidaa Brigade, blamed for Thursday’s assassination of army commander Abdul Fatah Younis. NTC spokesman Mahmoud Shammam said the attack on the base was ordered two days after the brigade, which officials claim is Islamist, attacked two Benghazi jails, freeing more than 200 inmates. “Thirty men surrendered and we took their weapons,” Shammam said. “We consider them members of the fifth column,.” One unverified rumour in Benghazi is that the al-Nidaa brigade received secret coded orders communicated through an announcer, Yusef Shakir, on Muammar Gaddafi’s Libyan state television. Three Libyan state TV transmitters were bombed by Nato on Saturday night. Gaddafi’s regime claimed three journalists were killed and a further 15 people wounded. “We are not a military target,” said Libyan government spokesman Khalid Bazelya. “We are not commanders in the army and we do not pose a threat to civilians.” However, the Ministry of Defence defended the attack on the transmitters. He said: “This strike was an attempt to disrupt the broadcast of Gaddafi’s murderous rhetoric, which has repeatedly sought to incite violence against fellow Libyans.” Outwardly, foreign backers of the rebels insist the NTC is sound, with French defence minister Gerard Longuet saying that Paris was not pushing for an immediate resolution: “Impatience is never a good adviser.” He insisted an end to the conflict rested with the people of the Libyan capital: “Things have to move in Tripoli. To put it clearly, the population has to rise up.” Nerves remain frayed in Benghazi and questions remain over the role, if any, of NTC officials in the death of Younis, following an admission that he had been arrested for questioning on treason allegations just hours before his death. In London, the defence secretary, Liam Fox, would not be drawn on which group may have been responsible for the assassination of Younis. “It’s not yet clear who carried out the killing and there are claims and counter-claims,” he said. “It will be at least several days until we know exactly what the situation was. There has always been a mixture of people who make up the opposition forces in Libya – hardly surprising given the history of the country – and it would be for the Libyans themselves to sort out exactly how any power structure develops post-Gaddafi.” Sir Menzies Campbell, former leader of the Liberal Democrats, said the killing raised questions about the stability of the NTC and demonstrated the need for a “wholesale” review of policy. He told Sky News: “The assassination has thrown into fairly sharp focus the whole question of the transitional national council. What kind of government [it would be], for example, [if] it ever got to Tripoli. “I also think that claims of success have always got to be taken with a certain amount of scepticism because it’s not about just taking ground temporarily, its taking it permanently. I’ve been saying I think we should take this period for a wholesale examination of policy. “I supported the military action – I continue to support the British government’s involvement – but I think we have to have a pretty clearer view about what the NTC would be like were they ever to get to Tripoli.” In stark contrast to the tension and uncertainty in Benghazi, rebel forces in both Misrata and the Nafusa mountains reported significant breakthroughs against government forces. West of the besieged city of Misrata, rebel units aided by intensive Nato bombing broke through the front line in several places, advanced nine miles and captured abandoned tanks, artillery and truck-mounted grad rocket launchers near the town of Zlitan. Four of the huge 155mm guns were seen by the Guardian being hauled by grad trucks from the front line late on Saturday night. Fierce fighting for Zlitan continued on Sunday, bringing the death toll of rebel fighters over the weekend to 23, with more than 100 wounded and three civilians killed in shelling of Misrata city. Rebel commanders claim that government forces appear to be disintegrating in many sectors. “The resistance today was not that much. I don’t know, maybe he doesn’t have an army,” said Mohammed Elfituri of the Faisal (Sword) Brigade. “We thought that it would be hard work [but] we moved 15 kilometres.” Similar gains were reported by rebel units pushing north from bases in the Nafusa mountains, who say they have captured one town, Hawamid, and surrounded a second, Tiji, 150 miles south west of Tripoli. Libya Middle East Africa Muammar Gaddafi Abdel Fatah Younis Foreign policy Europe Chris Stephen Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk
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Activists describe massacre in central city of Hama after armoured units break through barricades to crush protests Syria’s uprising faced one of its defining moments when President Bashar al-Assad followed in his father’s footsteps and sent in tanks to crush protests in the central city of Hama, killing up to 100 people and triggering a new wave of international outrage. The National Organisation for Human Rights said in total 136 people had been killed in Hama and three other towns. Activists described a massacre after armoured units ended a month-long siege to smash through makeshift barricades around the city just after dawn on the eve of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. International media are still largely banned from Syria but citizen journalists ensured that the scale and brutality of the crackdown was visible to the outside world. Video clips posed on YouTube showed unarmed civilians taking cover from shelling and heavy machinegun fire as hospitals struggled to cope with 200 casualties by mid-morning . Bodies lay scattered on the streets, residents reported. “They started shooting with heavy machine guns at civilians, at the young men protecting the barricades,” Omar Halabi, a local activist, told the Guardian. Syria, with a population of 23 million, is experiencing the bloodiest days yet of the Arab spring, which began with the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. Assad, once hailed as a modernising reformist, has ruled since 2000. The government said “armed gangs” with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades were vandalising public and private property in Hama, attacking police stations, erecting barricades and burning tyres. Hama, known as a conservative stronghold of the country’s Sunni Muslim majority, has a special resonance in Syria as the scene of a notorious massacre in 1982 when the Ba’ath regime crushed an Islamist uprising that challenged the rule of the president’s father, Hafez. At least 10,000 were killed then. Sunday’s crackdown involved troops and security agents accompanied by busloads of irregular militiamen known as Shabiha (Ghosts) who belong to the same Alawite minority as the Assad family. The official Sana news agency said two security force personnel were killed in Hama and three during unrest in Deir Ezzor, on the eastern border with Iraq, where government armoured units continued an assault over the weekend. Violence was also reported from Deraa in the south and in parts of Damascus. Hama residents told Reuters that army snipers had climbed on to the roofs of the state-owned electricity company and the main prison, while tank shells were falling at the rate of four a minute in and around the north of the city. Electricity and water supplies to the main neighbourhoods had been cut, a tactic used regularly by the Syrian military when storming towns to crush protests. Halabi described people walking towards tanks armed only with wooden bats, steel bars or stones. “It’s a massacre. They want to break Hama before the month of Ramadan,” an eyewitness who identified himself as Ahmed, told the Associated Press by telephone. Al-Arabiya TV reported that some soldiers had refused to fire on protesters and had joined them. But unlike Libya, Syria has not yet experienced any high-level defections from the military. Film clips showed bloodied corpses in hospital mortuaries, clouds of smoke, the sound of explosions and gunfire, and demonstrators chanting “Allahu Akbar” (God is great). Britain condemned the “appalling” onslaught, long anticipated by the Syrian opposition. “Such action against civilians who have been protesting peacefully in large numbers in the city for a number of weeks has no justification,” said William Hague, the foreign secretary. Speaking to the BBC from Damascus, a spokesman for the US embassy described “full-on warfare by the Syrian government on its own people … That’s the armed gang that is striking terror into the hearts of the people”. The US ambassador has been told he cannot leave the city after enraging the government by paying a high-profile visit to Hama last month. President Barack Obama said he was “appalled” by the brutality of the Syrian government and described reports from Hama as “horrifying”. Precise casualty figures were unclear but they rose throughout the day. The local co-ordination committee, which organises and monitors anti-government protests, said it had the names of 49 civilians who had died in the onslaught on Hama. By nightfall the numbers were nudging 100 for Hama alone. Hama has been a focus of anti-regime protests since early June, when security forces shot dead at least 70 people. Since then it has fallen out of government control, with protesters holding the streets and government forces ringing the city and conducting overnight raids. But apart from ritual condemnation, the latest bloodletting looks unlikely to trigger any significant international response, given the sharp divisions among the veto-wielding five permanent members of the UN security council. Limited sanctions on key officials imposed by the US and EU have been shrugged off by the regime. “It is incredible to consider that since March the Syrian regime has slaughtered over 1,500 people, arrested thousands, tortured people to death, and yet the UN security council has yet to issue a resolution,” said Chris Doyle of the Council for Arab-British Understanding. “Russia, China and other countries such as Brazil should have to explain their appalling positions.” An activist group, Avaaz, said last week Syrian forces had killed 1,634 people in the course of their crackdown during four-and-a-half months of protest, while at least 2,918 had disappeared. A further 26,000 had been arrested, many of whom were beaten and tortured, and 12,617 remained in detention, it said. Syria Middle East Protest Arab and Middle East unrest Bashar Al-Assad Ian Black guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …On Meet The Press, Obama Adviser Plouffe Drops Some Pretty Big Hints About The Fate Of Our Retirement Programs
July 31, 2011 No CommentFor those of you who came in during the third act, a guide to reading between the lines as Obama political adviser David Plouffe makes the rounds of the Sunday shows: First, despite what he says during this appearance on Meet the Press, there is no such thing as “a balanced deficit reduction package that doesn’t harm the economy ” during a prolonged recession. Nope, not gonna happen. (Just ask Paul Krugman, Joe Stiglitz, Dean Baker or Jared Bernstein.) Second, there’s nothing “balanced” about a scenario where the public deals with the brunt of extensive cuts with no additional revenue and three, Social Security and Medicare are in the gun sights. Notice how he works that in there: “Our view is things like Social Security and Medicaid, you know, they can’t be part of the solution here unless you’ve got a balanced package that includes tax reform.” Whee! David, please tell your boss: We don’t see Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid as “part of the solution” to a manufactured debt crisis. They already are a solution, one that’s worked very well for us, and we want no part of your plan: MR. GREGORY: I’m joined now by senior adviser to the president David Plouffe. Welcome back to MEET THE PRESS. MR. DAVID PLOUFFE: Good morning, David. MR. GREGORY: So from your vantage point, you’re inside the room. Is that overly rosy, or are you that close? MR. PLOUFFE: Well, we don’t have a deal. Everyone is cognizant, as, as Chuck Todd just reported on, both the legislative clock and, more importantly, the default clock. So the hours are ticking here. I think what’s clear is that there’s general agreement that we’re going to have deficit reduction in two stages. The first is going to be something the parties largely agree on, about $1 trillion in deficit reduction. The second stage is going to be the trickier, elements of entitlement reform and tax reform, which this supercommittee’s going to be charged with. And I think it’s going to be incumbent on the leaders in Congress to appoint people to those committees who are going to drive to yes, to try and compromise, get out of their party’s comfort zone. MR. GREGORY: Let… MR. PLOUFFE: Yeah. MR. GREGORY: Let me be clear, though. What will the president accept as a deal? MR. PLOUFFE: Well, first of all, we–it’s clear our economy is obviously not as strong as any of us would like it to be. This debt ceiling cloud has harmed our economy . Why on earth would we want to go through this again a few short months from now? MR. GREGORY: So it has to be through 2012. MR. PLOUFFE: So–for the economy, number one. Number two, we want to make sure that if there is an enforcement mechanism–and again, the committee is not going to be charged with just doing spending cuts only. The committee’s going to be charged with looking at our entire deficit reduction problem and look at things like tax reform and revenue. You need–you want something to compel this committee to act. That was part of the president’s approach that he laid out to the country a few months ago, that there would be a debt cap that would enforce action. So you want to have something that compels both parties to act. Because I do think there’s going to be a lot of pressure, rightly, on this committee to produce something that Congress can vote on. Yes. MR. GREGORY: But, but a lot of people watching this have got to be wondering, what’s actually going on today? What is the fighting about? So first stage, you, you cut government spending over a 10-year period to raise the debt ceiling. Part of that is a second stage, another committee in Washington that looks at really making the hard decisions. And then if they don’t make the hard decision, something forces Congress’ hand. So again, what will the president accept as a consequence to force the, the Congress’ hand? MR. PLOUFFE: Well, again, it might be more enjoyable to negotiate this with you this morning. I, I can’t get into a great amount of detail. But I think that, one, we have to make sure that you can agree on the initial set of spending cuts. The process for the committee, it’s essential, we think, that the debt ceiling get extended off into the future so it doesn’t hurt the economy. Then we want to make sure whatever enforcement mechanism is something, one, that if it were triggered, you know, you think the country could live with; but secondly, strong enough to compel folks to act. And I think that you, you see, this has been a healthy debate. I think the country’s learned a lot about our debt and deficit problems. I think there’s been some education here in Washington. And I think what’s clear is, you know, where the president stands is where the American people stand, that if we’re going to do another set of deficit reduction, over $1 trillion, they’re going to insist it be balanced. Because if you’re a middle-class family, if you’re a senior citizen… MR. GREGORY: But it’s not going to be balanced. There’s no tax increases in this. MR. PLOUFFE: But… MR. GREGORY: You–the president said it had to have tax increases, it must–had to be balanced. MR. PLOUFFE: The committee–yeah. MR. GREGORY: That’s not what’s in this deal. MR. PLOUFFE: Well, listen, this committee’s going to be charged with coming up with additional deficit reduction. There’s no way to do it without smart entitlement reform and tax reform. MR. GREGORY: So you only get to do potential tax increases as part of a second stage of spending cuts that a committee has to agree to? MR. PLOUFFE: Well, the first stage–it’s clear in this first stage what we’re going to get is an extension of the debt ceiling… MR. GREGORY: Right. MR. PLOUFFE: …you’re going to get that first set of spending cuts over $1 trillion, and then you’re going to get this committee that’s going to be charged with reporting out, hopefully, a balanced deficit reduction plan. MR. GREGORY: Well, what is healthy about this debate? I mean, you talk about another supercommittee. Seventeen months ago the president convened a debt commission, the proposals, recommendations from which were not acted on by the president or Congress. Now you’re talking about another committee. Nobody’s yet making the hard choices about two-thirds of the budget, which is entitlement spending . So what’s healthy about this debate? MR. PLOUFFE: Well, it’s certainly not been a healthy debate in, in the short-term. I think the American people are sitting back and saying, you know, “I’m going through tough things in my life, and these folks are sitting there arguing with each other, unwilling to compromise, do tough things.” Particularly the House Republicans this week. But I would say this. The president laid out several months ago a $4 trillion deficit reduction plan. What we were striving to do with the speaker of the House was a, a big deficit reduction package that wouldn’t have a supercommittee , we would have done it right now. That wasn’t possible. The speaker of the House, pulled by the right wing of his party, walked away from that. But the president’s going to be committed over these next few months, as I–and I think members of Congress needs to be as well, that we need to finish the job here. And the way they’re going to finish that job is to have a balanced deficit reduction package that doesn’t harm the economy. MR. GREGORY: Let me ask you some other pressing matters. I’ve spoken to top figures on Wall Street who say this is a code red day, all hands on deck preparing for a market shock as early as tomorrow. What is your message? What is the president’s message to investors around the globe at this moment? MR. PLOUFFE: Well, I think it is that we have to get this solved. Today is obviously a critical day. We have to give confidence that there is a pathway to make sure that we both reduce the debt ceiling–and let’s not underestimate the debt reduction is an important part of this . So I think that… MR. GREGORY: But that doesn’t sound like a very certain message to investors. I mean, should they be assuaged by that? MR. PLOUFFE: Well, listen, the best way we’re going to assuage investors, the rest of the world, most importantly, the American people, is to solve this problem. And I think in the coming hours–and we’re literally talking about in the coming hours–I think it’s incumbent on congressional leaders to compromise that last bit so we can have a deal that, again, the House Republicans mysteriously, because I don’t know anyone who watches this who would think this is a good idea, wanted us to go through this whole three-ring circus again in four or five months. MR. GREGORY: Well… MR. PLOUFFE: We’re not going to do that because it’s bad for the economy. MR. GREGORY: If we have a default, who gets paid first? How does Treasury make that decision? MR. PLOUFFE: Well, listen. At the appropriate point, the Treasury Department is obviously going to lay out for the American people how this would operate. MR. GREGORY: When… MR. PLOUFFE: Our focus right now is solving this problem. If we’re not able to reach a deal, then Treasury’s going to have to report to the American people exactly how this is going to happen. MR. GREGORY: Chairman Mullen… MR. PLOUFFE: Yes. MR. GREGORY: …is in Afghanistan. He told our troops fighting there he didn’t know the answer to when and whether they would get paid. Will the president insist that if there’s a default, that troops get paid? MR. PLOUFFE: Again, the Treasury Department will–and by the way, what Admiral Mullen talked about, you know, it’s outrageous that here we are, 60 hours away from the United States of America potentially defaulting for the first time, and the reason we’re here is that, particularly Republicans in the House, but, but Republicans generally have been unwilling to compromise. So at the appropriate point, if we get to that point, the Treasury Department will lay out very clearly for the American people, most importantly for investors, folks around the world, exactly what would happen if we default. MR. GREGORY: I want to be clear on what the president would accept. In terms of cuts, in the first state or the second stage, in other words, that–what’s called in Washington a trigger, which means that whatever forces Congress’ hands if they don’t continue to cut government spending, something would happen. We know the president is open to tax increases automatically. Would he also accept a deal that would cut Social Security benefits or Medicare benefits if Congress doesn’t act? MR. PLOUFFE: Well, first of all, when you say open to tax increases, let’s remember what the president’s for: closing tax loopholes; making sure that millionaires and billionaires, large corporations, through tax reform contribute. What you see the Republican Party largely wanting to do is ask senior citizens, college students, the middle class to pay all the freight here. And people are outraged by that. Everyone’s going to have to do their part here. So, in deficit reduction–and again, this next stage, the first stage is going to be some domestic spending cuts in Defense and non-Defense, that both parties largely can come to agreement on. Not easy, but a first stage. Second stage is going to be a discussion in Congress about things like tax reform and entitlement reform. Our view is things like Social Security and Medicaid, you know, they can’t be part of the solution here unless you’ve got a balanced package that includes tax reform. MR. GREGORY: So we’re still at a stalemate when it comes to that, in terms of that second stage. Another option that’s been talked about and there’s been pressure from Democrats is invoking the 14th Amendment. This is the key piece of the 14th Amendment. “The validity of the public debt of the United States authorized by law shall not be questioned.” The president could unilaterally raise the debt ceiling. Will he do that if it comes to that? MR. PLOUFFE: Listen, we’ve been, we’ve been asked them question a lot. And I think particularly when you come to the closing hours of this crisis, a lot of people are suggesting off-ramps. There is no off-ramp here. You know, we… MR. GREGORY: So the 14th Amendment is not an option. MR. PLOUFFE: No. We, we’ve looked at that. The only way out of this is for Congress to act, for the Republicans in Congress to be willing to compromise a little bit. You know, the debt ceiling’s been raised dozens of times historically. It shouldn’t take, you know, a constitutional crisis for us to pay the bills on our credit card that Congress has already racked up. MR. GREGORY: The backdrop for this, as you know, is an economy in trouble. The Wall Street Journal described it this way in terms of economic recovery. This was yesterday. “The government on Friday reported that the economy grew at a rate of just 1.3% in the second quarter, failing to bounce back from knocks earlier in the year. Estimates of first-quarter growth were also revised down to 0.4%. As a result, the pace of economic recovery has been one of the worst since World War II. … That’s particularly bad news as the economy confronts the threat of a default on the nation’s debt.” Is the Obama recovery much more like a bust? MR. PLOUFFE: No. What, what also was reported this week is you went back three years and the depth of the recession the president inherited was even more severe than anyone realized. I mean, the worst since F.D.R. inherited the Depression. So we had a long, you know, we had growth in negative six, negative seven, just terrible. So what we have to do is–now, from those terrible depths we’ve made progress. We continue to see some positive job growth, but not nearly as rapid enough. First of all, this debt ceiling problem, it’s not just harmed investors, it’s clear it’s harmed consumer confidence, business confidence, small and large. We have to remove this cloud. Secondly, Congress can do some things right now. We can pass trade deals that can help us compete. We can pass patent reform so that our innovators have an easier time getting their ideas to market. We can work together to build roads and bridges and put construction workers back to work. We can–we have a payroll tax looming, by the way, that would expire next year, which would be about $1,000 tax increase on every American if we don’t pass it. So we’ve got to get through this debt ceiling for a lot of reasons, but the focus here in Washington has to centrally go back to how we’re going to create jobs, how we’re going to grow this economy. MR. GREGORY: Before you go… MR. PLOUFFE: Yeah. MR. GREGORY: …you are the president’s top political adviser. As you look at what Washington has done, essentially a failure to govern, do you now think a third party is a viable alternative in the 2012 race? MR. PLOUFFE: Well, that’ll be up to the American people. Here’s what I would say… MR. GREGORY: Yeah, but you’re, you’re the expert inside the White House. MR. PLOUFFE: Well, I can speak to this. I think that most Americans believe that the president has tried to tackle tough problems. I think they’re clear that here is a president who was willing to do some tough things that obviously we took some criticism from our own party on. So he’s walked the walk in terms of how we solve the deficit, someone who’s clearly been willing to compromise. And what’s interesting is the president, last Monday night in his speech to the nation and again Friday, asked the American people to reach out to Congress through tweets, through e-mails and calls and say, “Demand a compromise.” And the reaction was overwhelming. I think people are very frustrated and they want their leaders, obviously, to have strong principles. But at the end of the day, as they’re going through the struggles in everyday life, what they can’t afford is their leaders to be engaged in a three-ring circus. MR. GREGORY: Does… MR. PLOUFFE: So… MR. GREGORY: Does it open up a third party or not? MR. PLOUFFE: Well, listen, you know, that’ll be up to the American people. What I’m confident in is that the president’s leadership is something that was rewarded in 2008. I think people think he’s the one person here who’s focused every day on solving problems, not trying to score political points. And that’s going to be one of the reasons he’s going to be re-elected in 2012. MR. GREGORY: All right. We’re going to leave it there. David Plouffe, we’ll be watching. Thank you very much.
Continue reading …Will Chuck Schumer’s Defense cutting ‘Equality Sword’ bring Republicans to their knees? UPDATED: Triggers agreed upon?
July 31, 2011 No CommentI included this clown logic by Schumer earlier, but I wanted to highlight it in a separate post. Sen. Schumer is trying to make us believe that the threat of defense spending cuts will be enough to keep Republicans in line if there’s a Super Cat Food Commission. CNN Transcript: BORGER: But it’s the second part of the deal, I think, that could give Democrats some heartburn here. And that is the question of this enforcement mechanism for cuts in the second part of this, and Senator McConnell was essentially saying that this could affect across-the-board cuts in things like entitlement programs and no revenue. So how do you negotiate that? SCHUMER: Well, certainly the enforcement mechanism is one of the key issues that is still being debated, and it’s one of the issues that has made this process go on for so long. And here is what you had to say about it. An enforcement mechanism gets — doesn’t require, but importunes, makes it very likely that the people in this bipartisan, bicameral committee come to an agreement, because if they don’t, the pain inflicted is so great that they have an incentive to come to an agreement. Now that means there should be a sword of equal sharpness and strength hanging over each party’s head, obviously the sword over the head of Democrats are the cuts. We don’t like them. We want to help middle class people pay for their kids to get to college help with prescription drugs, things like that. What is the sword over the Republican? Well, it has to be equal — the one thing we are certain of, it has to be of equal sharpness and strength. The preference would be some kind of revenues on wealthy people, on tax loopholes that would be in that. But another alternative possible, being discussed, no agreements have been reached, would defense cuts of equal sharpness and magnitude to domestic cuts. And in the past, when the trigger has had significant defense cuts, it has brought the parties to the table, and they’ve come up with a balanced agreement that had both revenues and cuts. BORGER: So, what you would like, essentially, is if this committee gets deadlocked, which is a possibility to say, here are all the things everyone hates sitting out there, and they will all be triggered and they will occur? SCHUMER: Yes. That’s right. And that, hopefully, brings the parties to an agreement that each side… BORGER: What if it doesn’t? SCHUMER: Well, if it doesn’t the — we hope it does, because if the sword is tough enough and sharp enough the likelihood of agreement increases. And in the past that has worked. He’s trying to sell us on an imaginary sword that is so powerful just the threat of it will bring Republicans to their knees. I loved Game of Thrones, but we’re not in Westeros , Chuck. We’re supposed to trust this sword to protect our seniors and our working class families from draconian cuts to our safety net programs in a Super Congress setting? The Tea Party Caucus will hold up anything that has revenue increases so is he saying that defense cuts will make them suddenly not try to gut Medicare? UPDATE: Jake Tapper reports that the trigger deal is all but done: Sources from both parties tell ABC News that the major potential roadblock in deficit negotiations– the triggers — are now essentially agreed upon. The plan is for the House to vote on this tomorrow, assuming all goes according to plan. The agreement looks like this: if the super-committee tasked with entitlement and tax reform fails to come up with $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction that passes Congress, the “neutron bomb” goes off, — as one Democrat put it — spending cuts that will hit the Pentagon budget most deeply, as well as Medicare providers (not beneficiaries) and other programs. If the super-committee comes up with some deficit reduction but not $1.5 trillion, the triggers would make up the difference. So it’s a minimum $2.7 trillion deficit reduction deal. — Both sides will declare victory –- last week the biggest difference between the Boehner and Reid proposals was whether, as the GOP demanded, there would be another debt ceiling vote before the election. That wont happen in this deal. But at the same time, Republicans got almost every single other item that they pushed in this process. So what’s left to discuss on the triggers according to Jake? 1) The exact ratio of Pentagon to non-Pentagon cuts in the trigger – Democrats want 50% from the Pentagon, Republicans want less; 2) Democrats want to exempt programs for the poor from the cuts. Also Democrats say –- if tax reform doesn’t happen through the super-committee, President Obama will veto any extension of Bush tax cuts when they come up at the end of 2012, further creating an incentive for the super-committee to act. And you were wondering where the Bush Tax cuts were, weren’t you?
Continue reading …