This isn’t about debt or deficits — Republicans just want a reason to impeach Obama
July 31, 2011 No Comment
Not very many people seem to have caught the drift of this recent Glenn Beck rant, which was noted at Media Matters for its classic Beckian illogic, with the Mad Hatter declaring that if we can’t use Hitler analogies in “logical conversation,” then “We are going to be a society of gas chambers!” What he and his sidekick were talking about, though, was comparing the Obama administration to Hitler and the Nazis in the event the president decides to simply invoke the 14th Amendment and raise the debt ceiling by executive order. Because then, you see, he would just be a dictator. This is the narrative that’s gradually building on the Right as a counter-narrative to the obvious point that if Obama uses the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling, it will be because Republicans in Congress failed to act. No, instead, it will be because he is intent on seizing dictatorial powers. And for that, they will then argue, he must be impeached. Andrew Sullivan lays it out : Here’s the scenario. The House GOP pushes for completely unserious Boehner plan (including a balanced budget amendment) that they know will be vetoed; they then filibuster the Reid plan in the Senate, forcing Obama to invoke a 14th Amendment executive prerogative, which they will then turn around and impeach him for. Far-fetched? I hope so. But every time you think you have reached the end of Republican extremism, they manage to move further out of the solar system. It’s not really that far-fetched, considering that Republicans have been mouthing the I-word with great lust for some time now. Last we heard, they wanted to impeach him over Libya. If he resorts to the 14th Amendment, they are already lining up to impeach him. Right-wing talk-show host Mark Levin said it explicitly two weeks ago: Click here to view this media If Barack Obama attempts to destroy the Separation of Powers doctrine, if he intends to seize Congressional power when it comes to borrowing and spending despite the plain wording of Article 1 Section 8 Clause 2. In other words if he’s going to violate his oath of office…then he needs to be impeached. … Should he attempt to seize explicit Congressional power, we’ve got to make a case that we don’t like dictators in this country and that we will not accept dictators in this country. There’s not even a colorable argument that can be made that justifies the President of the United States seizing for himself the authority to “borrow money on the credit of the United States.” And should Chuck Schumer continue to urge this and should the President do it, then Chuck Schumer should be expelled from the United States Senate when the Republicans take it back over as they will. We already know that Republicans believe it’s smart political strategy to destroy the economy so that it can be blamed on Obama . They’re willing to throw the country into economic ruin just in the hopes that it will work to their political advantage. And if the president stops them? They will make him pay.
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Captain accused of being drunk as tragedy follows recent Volga river sinking that killed 122 At least eight people drowned when an overcrowded pleasure boat collided with a barge on Moscow’s Moskva river. Seven people were rescued in the sinking early on Sunday morning in central Moscow, which came three weeks after a decrepit overcrowded pleasure boat sank in the Volga river, killing 122 of the 201 people on board. Revellers had gathered on the small boat, called the Lastochka, to celebrate the 31st birthday of a Turkish citizen, according to news reports. Survivors said the owner’s ship and captain, who died in the sinking, had been drinking. “Rescued passengers say the captain, Gennady Zinger, was drunk and didn’t let anyone steer the boat,” Pavel Seliverstov, the head of Moscow’s investigative committee on transport, told the tabloid Life News. Witnesses said the ship was manoeuvring wildly on the river. It sank at about 1am after crashing into a barge. Vladimir Markin, spokesman for Russia’s investigative committee, told Russian news agencies the boat was built to carry 12 passengers, but 17 boarded. One passenger disembarked during the nighttime voyage, he said. Markin said Zinger had been fined three times, including as recently as June, for violating safety rules on the boat. The incident shook a country still reeling from the 10 July sinking of the Bulgaria, an overcrowded vessel loaded mainly with women and children when it sank in the Volga. The tragedy highlighted the poor state of Russian infrastructure, as well as the ubiquity of corruption in the country. The Soviet-era boat had been having engine troubles before leaving port, and was carrying nearly twice the number of passengers it was than its licence allowed to. The head of the company that rented the Bulgaria and the inspector who declared the boat fit to sail have both been arrested. President Dmitry Medvedev reacted harshly to the Volga sinking: “Everyone involved in organising this should bear responsibility. “Next time, every official, regardless of his rank, will understand that consequences for such a ship leaving a port can be not only disciplinary, but criminal.” The tragedy came as Russia held nationwide celebrations for Navy Day. Russia Europe Miriam Elder guardian.co.uk
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Department of Health says compulsory question about donation is aimed at giving people more opportunities to sign up Anyone applying for a driving licence from Monday will be obliged to answer a question about joining the organ donor register, the health department has announced, in an attempt to boost the numbers of potential donors. Those applying for a licence online will be obliged to tick one of three boxes about the register as a condition of completing the form. They can say they would like to sign up there and then, that they are already on the register or that they would like to think about it on another occasion. A similar question existed previously but it was optional and many applicants missed or ignored it. The change is the latest salvo in a long-running campaign by the Department of Health to increase the number of organ donors, which currently stands at about 18 million – 29% of the population. While the numbers signing up has risen significantly in recent years, they are not keeping pace with an ever-increasing demand for transplants, caused in part by less healthy lifestyles – for example, adult-onset diabetes with associated kidney failure. The previous Labour government considered the idea of presumed consent, in which people would have to actively opt out if they did not wish to donate organs after their death. However, a consultation taskforce concluded in 2008 (pdf) that it would be possible to instead significantly increase the rate of donation under existing laws. Monday’s change, involving licence applications in England, Scotland and Wales, is a key part of this, given that about half of the approximately 1m new names on the organ donation register every year currently come through driving licence applications. The intention, said Chris Rudge, national clinical director for transplantation at the Department of Health, was to give people as many opportunities as possible to sign up. “From various polls and surveys we know two things: one, virtually everybody in the country would accept an organ transplant if they needed one to save their own life; but we also know that a very large majority – probably of the order of 90% – are in favour of donating organs after death,” he said. “There’s a variety of reasons why they don’t put their name on the organ donor register, but by far the most common is they just don’t get round to it.” If the change to the driving licence form brought in significantly more donors, similar questions could be added in the future to other official online forms, Rudge said. “But I think we have to be a little bit cautious about not barraging people with this. If people are continually asked the same question, over and over again, you get irritated by it.” More than 7,500 people are awaiting an organ transplant and an average of three die every day, according to the NHS Blood and Transplant service. Ahead of Transplant Week earlier this month, the service released figures showing that, despite the bigger pool of potential donors, patients face increasingly long delays, with the average wait for a new kidney rising 20% over three years. The department is particularly keen to boost donor register membership among black and Asian communities, which comprise less than 2% of the register but more than a quarter of those awaiting transplants. Organ donation Public services policy Health Health policy Transport policy Transport Peter Walker guardian.co.uk
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Middle-ranking universities may offer scholarships to lure AAB-grade students or higher away from elite universities The highest performing A-level candidates could be tempted with cut-price deals on tuition fees from next year, as some English universities face increased pressure to maintain student numbers. Sir Steve Smith, president of the vice-chancellors’ umbrella group Universities UK, said in an interview that the highest-achieving students will be “gold dust” in the new system, due to come in next year. He said universities that currently attract a small proportion of students with the best grades would face difficult decisions: “They are going to have to work out if they start ‘buying’ AAB students. “One of the implications is that those students become like gold dust for their reputation. So you might have an incredibly strong series of incentives.” Reforms proposed by the government will allow institutions to take on unlimited numbers of students who achieve AAB or higher at A-level. There will also be extra places for cheaper institutions that charge an average fee of £7,500 or less. The reforms, outlined in a white paper, effectively squeeze middle-ranking universities that charge high fees, removing some of their best-performing applicants who are likely to be targeted by elite institutions. Some universities are preparing to drop their fees in response, so they can gain extra places under the £7,500 threshold. The coalition’s proposals mark a radical change from the current system in which each university is allocated a fixed number of government-funded places for home undergraduates each autumn. Among the first to offer a deal to entice high-fliers is the University of Kent, which will give £2,000 scholarships to any recruit for 2012 who gains three As in their A-levels, regardless of family income. The prospect of cheaper deals for high achievers was criticised by Gareth Thomas, the shadow universities minister, who said the money should be spent on widening access to students from poorer backgrounds. Nearly a third of students achieving AAB or above are from private schools and 20% of those achieving the highest grades at state sixth forms are in grammar schools. Thomas said: “If vital money to help those from less well-off backgrounds is instead being used by universities as a marketing gimmick because they are worried about a drop in student places, this is yet another sign that the government didn’t think through their plans in the white paper or the trebling of tuition fees.” The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which is responsible for universities, said: “As long as universities are meeting their access agreements, it is up to them how much they charge. We don’t disagree with what they are doing. “Universities need to meet tough new criteria for attracting the brightest students from lower income backgrounds, including offering fee waivers and bursaries. These additional scholarships will help universities to attract the brightest and the best students.” In an interview with the Sunday Times, Smith, who is vice-chancellor of Exeter University as well as being head of Universities UK, predicted that application numbers are likely to be down by at least 10% in 2012 because of student fears of debt and a fall in the number of school-leavers. This could put more pressure on universities to cut fees. He also said he expected to record substantial numbers of courses closing, particularly in sciences, as many universities decide they can no longer afford to run expensive, laboratory-based degrees. He warned that universities could be faced with European Union applicants “flooding in”, because it will be virtually impossible to force them to repay their student loans once they return to their home countries. Higher education Students Access to university A-levels Schools Tuition fees Jeevan Vasagar guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Surprise! Any Debt Ceiling Deal Will Kick Taxes Down To State And Local Levels
July 31, 2011 No CommentThe Tea Party “patriots” and political apostles of Pope Grover are really shooting themselves in the foot on this one, and they’re just too dumb to realize it. There just isn’t that much discretionary spending left to cut — which means it will come from state budgets, where the pain will be amplified on the local level. It will be interesting to watch all these Republican governors and state legislators try to explain away the eventual steep rise in state and local taxes, trying desperately to distance themselves from the consequences of their “cut cut cut” rhetoric. Wait until all those Medicare-loving tea lovers find out their spouses who need nursing home care will no longer be eligible — because the Medicaid funds aren’t there anymore. Congratulations, all of you – here comes your instant karma! Among the biggest items on the chopping block in Congress are education and Medicaid spending — federal dollars that make up the largest parts of most states’ budgets. Nearly every state government has already set its budget for the next year — some for the next two years — under the assumption that federal spending would remain more or less consistent. If such money is abruptly pulled, states won’t suddenly be able to change their spending obligations or raise taxes. “They’re going to have to eat that in some way, and many will pass [the cuts] onto local governments,” said Frank Shaforth, director of the Center for State and Local Government Leadership at George Mason University. Amid the recession and dropping revenues, there’s already been an uptick of bankruptcy filings by cities, towns and rural districts across the country over the past two months and there could be more if Washington follows through on its promise to slash spending as soon as possible. “The cities and counties that already in bad shape — they’re the first ones to go,” White said. Even if state governments hold special sessions to cut spending further, their cuts will still “filter through to the local government,” he added. “Public-sector workers get laid off. There’s higher employment and lower spending.” Local governments will try to raise property taxes to raise revenue, which could be yet another drag on a housing market that’s yet to recover. Those who fail to meet their fiscal obligations could see their credit downgraded, making it even harder for them to borrow money to build basic local infrastructure, while both the president and the GOP have threatened to pull funds for state infrastructure. What was once an ideological abstraction — “austerity” — will have very real effects on everyday life for average Americans. Some state and local officials are already bracing for the worst. As the Pew Center on the States notes, Virginia’s Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) has proposed borrowing money fromthe state treasury to cover federal Medicaid funds, and the California state treasurer is considering a Wall Street loan to help the state make ends meet in August. With state and local voices largely absent from the Washington debate, officials and advocates are struggling to make their concerns heard — and remind Congress that slashing federal spending could have a massive, unanticipated ripple effect on every level of government. Meeting with Sen. Mark Warner (R-Va.) on Tuesday, Shaforth told the ex-governor, “I want you to put your governor hat back on… This is the United States — this is not just the federal government.”
Continue reading …Networks Submerge Disastrous GDP Numbers Into Debt Ceiling Impact; ABC Spikes Revised 1st Q Flatline
July 31, 2011 No Comment
The broadcast network evening newscasts on Friday night noted the very anemic second quarter GDP growth rate at 1.3 percent, but instead of stressing how it showed the weak economic state well before the debt ceiling showdown, they submerged it into warnings of how the delay in getting a deal is hurting the economy. On ABC’s World News , Bianna Golodryga, aka Mrs. Peter Orszag , the wife of Obama’s former OMB Director, helped her husband’s ex-employer by failing to even mention the worst news of the day: the revision of the first quarter GDP down to a flat line 0.4 percent from the original 1.9 percent estimate. At least CBS and NBC considered that newsworthy. “Sounding the alarm,” Diane Sawyer teased ABC’s July 29 World News , “the stock market sinks again as we learn the economy is grinding to a halt. Is the debt stalemate in Washington sending the U.S. straight into another recession?” Golodryga used the weak GDP as justification for a debt ceiling deal: “Washington was looking for any sense of urgency to break their political impasse. They got it with today’s weak numbers. And while America and the world waited for action, they once again saw nothing giving them hope.” She highlighted how the debt ceiling situation has cost people money, only after that getting to the better of the two fresh GDP numbers: While the clock has been ticking down toward the debt deadline, so to has the stock market. In just the past week, the stalemate in Washington has contributed to a total loss of $183 billion in Americans' retirement accounts with the average 401(k) losing $4,300. All this while today’s numbers show that the economy grew by just 1.3 percent during the last three months, a big disappointment, half of what economists say we need to see a drop in the unemployment rate… Fill-in NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt announced: “Gross Domestic Product, the broadest measure of the economy, rose just 1.3 percent this spring. That's weak. And below what economists had forecast. The really bad news came in the revised number for the first quarter of this year, 0.4 percent. The economy was basically flat lining.” To CNBC’s David Faber, Holt recognized: “There is no way to sugar coat the numbers. Is the bottom line was the recession deeper than any of us thought?” Instead, however, of looking at the weak economy illustrated by the low GDP, Holt focused on how the debt ceiling debate is hurting the economy: “All the anxiety and uncertainty in Washington is taking a toll on Wall Street and on Main Street as well. NBC's Ron Allen joins me now from Detroit with more on that.” Ron Allen began: Good evening, Lester. So many people we talked to said they are concerned about interest rates rising on home mortgages, on credit cards, worried about their 401(k) plans taking yet another hit. Especially here in the Midwest, cities like Chicago and here in Detroit, where they finally are beginning to see some signs of the economy picking back up. The lunch crowd at Detroit's 1917 American Bistro has been pretty steady lately. A great indicator for owner Donald Studvent who lost his job and started his own business about two years ago. Now he sees what is happening in Washington as a real threat… On CBS, anchor Bob Schieffer fretted over how “Washington was dithering” at a time when the economy “is already a basket case.” Reporter Anthony Mason warned: “The economy’s in even worse shape than we thought. It grew at a meager 1.3 percent in the quarter just ended, while growth in the first quarter was revised down to just .4 percent.”
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Pilot dies from burns and teenage passenger remains critical after light aircraft crashed between two houses on Friday One of two men injured in a plane crash on Friday has died, police have said. The men suffered extensive burns after their light aircraft crashed between two semi-detached houses in Salford, Greater Manchester shortly after takeoff and burst into flames. A Greater Manchester police spokesman said the 59-year-old pilot died on Sunday morning and his 19-year-old passenger remained in a critical condition in hospital. The single-engine Piper PA38 Tomahawk aircraft left City Airport Manchester on Friday afternoon, flying only a short distance before coming down and hitting the two homes in Newlands Avenue, Eccles. Extensive structural damage was caused to one of the properties. No one apart from the occupants of the aircraft, operated by Ravenair Flying School, was injured. A spokeswoman for North West ambulance service said: “There were two patients on board who both suffered burns.” She said the pilot had 70% burns, while the passenger suffered 60% burns. They were taken by air ambulance to Wythenshawe hospital. Greater Manchester fire and rescue service station commander Paul Duggan said neighbours rushed to help the stricken pilot and his passenger, who had landed “fairly neatly” between the two homes at numbers seven and nine Newlands Avenue. He said: “The plane had also caught fire, so a number of people, including an occupant of the property, two passersby and a passing police officer, then tried to fight the fire by putting water on it. “That was fairly successful but not until some burns had been sustained by the occupants of the aircraft. “One occupant of the plane was removed quite quickly but the second had to be cut from the wreckage.” Structural engineers from Salford city council assessed the damage to the two buildings and arranged temporary accommodation for the two families affected. A spokeswoman for City Airport said: “The Civil Aviation Authority has been informed, as has the Department of Transport’s air accident investigation branch. “The aircraft was operated by Ravenair Flying School. Investigations are now under way by both the emergency services and the AAIB.” Plane crashes Air transport Manchester guardian.co.uk
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Official inquiry into Iraq war expected to focus on former prime minister’s failure to consult the cabinet fully in run-up to invasion Tony Blair is likely to be criticised heavily by the official inquiry into the Iraq war, which is expected to focus on his failure to consult the cabinet fully in the run-up to the 2003 invasion. The Mail on Sunday reports today that Sir John Chilcot, the former permanent secretary at the Northern Ireland Office who is chairing the inquiry, has identified a series of concerns. These include: • failing to keep cabinet ministers fully informed of Blair’s plans in the run-up to the invasion in March 2003. The committee is understood to have been impressed by the criticism voiced by Lord Butler of Brockwell, the former cabinet secretary, that Blair ran a sofa government. • failing to make proper preparations for the post-war reconstruction of Iraq. • failing to present intelligence in a proper way. In his inquiry into the use of intelligence, published in July 2004, Butler said the usual MI6 caveats were stripped out of the famous Downing Street arms dossier of September 2002. • failing to be open with ministers about understandings Blair reached with George Bush in the year running up to the invasion. Blair today hit out at the Mail on Sunday. A source close to the former prime minister said: “This is a deliberate attempt to pre-judge a report that hasn’t even been written yet.” Angus Robertson, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, said: “The tapestry of deceit woven by Tony Blair over the past decade has finally unravelled. Despite his best attempts to fudge the issue when he was called to give evidence, the Chilcot inquiry have recognised the former prime minister’s central role in leading the UK into worst foreign policy disaster in recent history. “While no inquiry will ever bring back those lost in Iraq, this comprehensive review by Sir John Chilcot will at least provide some explanation of the decisions which led to the disastrous invasion.” There has been speculation at senior levels of Whitehall that Chilcot and the members of his inquiry are planning to criticise Blair when they publish their report in the autumn. Some members of the inquiry, including the former British ambassador to Moscow Sir Rod Lyne, put Blair under pressure in his two appearances before them. Members of the inquiry have said in private to former colleagues in Whitehall that the best way to gauge the inquiry’s findings is to identify areas that have been raised repeatedly by Chilcot and his team. Three key areas which fall into this category are the lack of proper cabinet consultation, the use of intelligence, and the failure to make preparations for the post-war reconstruction. It is expected that the inquiry will take a dim view of the Downing Street dossier on Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, published on 24 September 2002. This included the notorious claim that Iraq could launch a WMD attack in 45 minutes. In launching the report, Blair told an emergency session of the Commons: “His [Saddam Hussein's] weapons of mass destruction programme is active, detailed and growing. The policy of containment is not working. The weapons of mass destruction programme is not shut down; it is up and running now.” Blair later stated he was wrong to have been so categorical about Iraq’s WMD programme. The inquiry is likely to criticise Alastair Campbell, Blair’s former director of communications, who was instrumental in drawing up the dossier. Campbell has always maintained that Sir John Scarlett, then chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, was in charge of the dossier. But Major General Michael Laurie told the inquiry in a letter in May that the dossier was designed to “make the case for war”. Campbell wrote back to the inquiry to say: “Witnesses who were directly involved in the drafting of the dossier have made clear to several inquiries that at no time did I put anyone in the intelligence community under pressure, or say to them or anyone else that the then prime minister’s purpose in publishing the dossier was to make the case for war.” The inquiry is also expected to focus on Blair’s assurances to Bush in the run-up to the Iraq war. Blair rejects criticism that he told the former president in a meeting at his Texas ranch in April 2002 that he would support an invasion as long as the US agreed to try to secure agreement from the United Nations. In addition, the inquiry will address the failure to make adequate preparations for the post-war reconstruction of Iraq. Major General Tim Cross, who was attached to the US post-war Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, told the inquiry of a meeting he had with Blair on 18 March 2003, two days before the invasion. In written evidence, he said: “I told him that there was no clarity on what was going to be needed after the military phase of the operation, nor who would provide it. Although I was confident that we would secure a military victory, I offered my view that we should not begin that campaign until we had a much more coherent postwar plan.” Cross told the inquiry in person in December 2009: “He nodded and didn’t say anything particular. I didn’t expect him to look me in the eye and say, ‘This is terrible, we are going to pull the whole thing off.’ I was just one of a number of people briefing him.” Tony Blair Iraq Middle East Iraq war inquiry Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk
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Syrian troops’ assault on opposition stronghold appears to be part of nationwide offensive ahead of start of Ramadan Scores of people have been shot dead and there were reports of bodies lying in the streets of the opposition stronghold of Hama following a tank assault as Syrian troops unleashed an apparent nationwide offensive targeting protesters against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Videos posted online showed columns of black smoke rising from Hama after tanks moved in at dawn, with witnesses reporting indiscriminate firing at citizens. Residents shouted “God is great!” and threw firebombs and stones at the tanks as they pushed through the city. Assad’s forces also opened fire in the eastern cities of Deir Ezzor and Al Boukamal and the southern town of Hirak. “The tanks came into the city around 5.30am from four different directions,” a Hama resident said by telephone, as gunfire was heard in the background. “They ran over some of the makeshift checkpoints and there is gun and tank fire,” he said. The death toll continues to rise, with activists saying at least 40 people may have been killed in Hama alone. Bodies were reported to be piling up in hospitals, where doctors were calling for blood donations. The foreign secretary, William Hague, condemned the assault. “I am appalled by the reports that the Syrian security forces have stormed Hama with tanks and other heavy weapons this morning killing dozens of people, he said. “Such action against civilians who have been protesting peacefully in large numbers in the city for a number of weeks has no justification.” Those confirmed dead include Khaled al-Hamed who, activists from the Local Coordination Committees said, was shot and then run over by one of the tanks while attempting to flee from his neighbourhood. In what appears to be a coordinated nationwide assault on the eve of Ramadan, the military moved into Deir Ezzor and Al Boukamal on Saturday, according to activists and residents, with reports of a further 10 people shot dead there on Sunday. Four people were killed after forces entered the southern town of Hirak, close to the southern city of Deraa where protests first broke out en masse, the Local Coordination Committees said. More than 200 people were also arrested in Moadimiyeh, close to Damascus, in dawn raids. Activists say they believe the regime is trying to scare people off the streets before Ramadan, when protests are expected to intensify after daily evening prayers. “It’s a massacre. They want to break Hama before the month of Ramadan,” a witness who identified himself by his first name, Ahmed, told The Associated Press by telephone from Hama. He said he had seen up to 12 people shot dead in the streets in a district known as the Baath neighbourhood. Most had been shot in the chest and head, he said. A doctor, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Reuters that the city’s Badr, al-Horani and Hikmeh hospitals had received 24 bodies. “There are bodies uncollected in the streets,” said another resident, adding that army snipers had positioned themselves on the roofs of the state-owned electricity company and the main prison. Tank shells were falling at the rate of four a minute in and around northern Hama, residents said. The now notorious government official Reem Haddad, who has provoked comparisons with Iraq’s Comical Ali for insisting on absurd explanations for the brutal government responses to protests, told al-Jazeera that forces had entered Hama because people could not go about their daily life. “It’s as if it belongs to another planet,” she said. Human rights groups say 1,600 civilians have died in the crackdown on the largely peaceful protests since mid-March and thousands have been detained. But the bloodshed has only served to rally more people to the streets, while the regime has focused on consolidating its support base. After offers of dialogue and reforms accompanied by raids, killings and arrests failed to kowtow protesters, the regime appears to have decided to escalate its use of brute force. “The attack [on Hama] appears to be part of a coordinated effort across a number of towns in Syria to deter the Syrian people from protesting in advance of Ramadan, Hague said. “President Bashar is mistaken if he believes that oppression and military force will end the crisis in his country. He should stop this assault on his own people now.” Hama has become the epicentre of demonstrations with thousands taking to central al-Aasi square after government forces moved out of the city following the shooting dead of more than 70 people on 3 June. While protesters have controlled the streets, government forces have surrounded the city since the start of July and conducted overnight raids. Before the assault on Hama, electricity and water supplies had been cut, activists said, in a tactic regularly used by the regime before entering towns. Analysts say the regime had been holding off from attacking Hama because of its historical sensitivity. In 1982, at least 10,000 people were killed in the Sunni city of 800,000 when the army put down an armed Islamist revolt against the rule of Assad’s late father, Hafez. Earlier this month the US and French ambassadors made a visit to the city to show solidarity with the protesters, while the Turkish prime minister, Recip Tayyip Erdogan, has said there must not be “another Hama” in reference to 1982 massacre. There were also reports this weekend of a Syrian army colonel saying he had founded an army of defectors after fleeing with hundreds of soldiers. The man, identifying himself as Colonel Riad al-Asaad, told AFP: “I am the commander of the Syrian Free Army” and warned against any attack on Deir Ezzor. Amateur footage circulating online also purported to show soldiers defecting in Hama, including one video showing soldiers kissing protesters. Nour Ali is the pseudonym of a journalist in Damascus Syria Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest guardian.co.uk
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• Email rob.smyth@guardian.co.uk with your thoughts • Press refresh or hit the auto-update for the latest • Follow Rob Smyth on Twitter , if that’s your thing 16th over: England 48-1 (trailed by 67 on first innings; Strauss 16, Bell 23) Another delightful boundary from Bell, this one pushed straight back down the ground off the bowling of Sreesanth. The ball is swinging a little, but the pitch isn’t doing too much at the moment. We’re not going to have a Test like this , are we? “Wasn’t too long ago that the OBO was filled with please for rain, rain and more rain,” says Aram Gumusyan. “Now there’s heady talk of symbolic maces? Watch out for when The Man comes round, and his name is Hugh G. Bris.” Nah, I’m not having that. None of us are saying that it will happen or that it deserves to happen, but it’s close enough to make discussion of it entirely legitimate. It’s not like we’re rushing to the machine in the toilet just because a girl said hello to us. 15th over: England 42-1 (trailed by 67 on first innings; Strauss 15, Bell 18) Strauss drives Kumar pleasantly thorugh mid off for four. If I wasn’t terrified of being savaged by twos of readers for tempting fate, I’d say England have started the day very promisingly. ” Scyld Berry?” says Ali Kinnaird. “A name with no vowels? This is a first for me! Are there any other names with no vowels in them? Thank you.” I can’t think of any surnames without a vowel in them. 14th over: England 38-1 (trailed by 67 on first innings; Strauss 11, Bell 18) Bell lashes Sreesanth through the covers for four, prompting a cry of ‘Shot!’ from Strauss at the other end. He didn’t quite do the full ‘Ian Ronald Bell’, like Agent Cooper in Twin Peaks, but it was still a nice moment. “Here on Star Cricket, Sunny and Ravi Shastri had a right go at Vaughan, Sunny wanted VVS to take Michael to court,” says Vivek Radhakrishnan. “Entertaining rants by both of them. Where do stand on this issue, Rob?” I am saying absolutely nothing on this subject. Hell does hath fury like a woman scorned, and I suspect we’ll witness it at some stage before the end of August. 13th over: England 31-1 (trailed by 67 on first innings; Strauss 9, Bell 13) Some early swing from Praveen Kumar. Mind you, he could swing the ball in an airless bunker. Strauss tucks him through midwicket for three, and then Bell deliberately fiddles one to third man for four. England trail by 36, and will probably want at least another 285 runs in this innings. “What a glorious series this has been, like waking up after a huge bender on the first night of a holiday and realising you have no hangover, the sky is blue and you still have 5 nights to play with,” says Guy Hornsby. “It’s hard to recall it’s only 7 days old. With Trott seemingly out, today is all about our Eoin. I desperately hope he gets a big score. Having an on-song Morgan in your Test side for the next six or seven years. Imagine that!” He should come out swinging today. Forget the technical concerns and the poor form and do what he does best: just hit the ball. 12th over: England 24-1 (trailed by 67 on first innings; Strauss 6, Bell 9) Sreesanth bowls the first over of the day, trying to draw Bell into a drive outside off stump. He declines, so it’s a maiden. “First! (Sorry)” says Ryan Dunne. “Do teams still get the giant mace if they become No1 team in the world? Would it be put on display on Lord’s or the like, or would Swann be allowed to play about with it for cool Twitter photos? I remember when Duncan Fletcher said (well, he would) that his achievements with England in the 00s far dwarfed anything the country managed in the 80s; could a case be made that England deserve serious plaudits (including more gongs from the Queen) if they reach No1, or has Test cricket overall declined too much from the heady days of 2005?” I think it’ll be a huge achievement if England manage it. Fletcher was right; England were often hopeless in the 1980s. Scyld Berry wrote a fine piece on that subject in the very first edition of The Wisden Cricketer. And yeah, they do get the mace. “Good morning,” says John Starbuck. “It’s been announced that Trott will bat though no-one knows what position yet.” Crikey, that is a surprise. No10 or 11? Thought for the day This series is going to kick off very soon, isn’t it? Trottwatch He faced only two balls in practice this morning before going off for an injection. It seems very unlikely he will bat. Preamble Morning. These days everyone wants to be FIRST! We’re a culture obsessed with the first: first impression, first match of the season, first meal (Paulie Walnuts says breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and wise men don’t argue with Paulie), first date, first injunction, first pint after eight hours kissing the feet of The Man. In some contexts, however, the second is far more important. For example, a monstrous slab of lunchtime meat at The Hawksmoor trumps Frosties anyday, although you can tell Paulie that. Similarly, the second set of a tennis match is surely the most significant, when the contest is almost completed at 2-0 or comes alive at 1-1. That’s the scenario we have at Trent Bridge today, where an excellent Test match will probably be decided, if not actually completed. Either England go 2-0 up or India level it at 1-1 with power, Sehwag and Zaheer to add. The English cricket lover in me is desperate for England to win; the Test cricket lover in me is equally desperate for India to win. Think about how empty 2005 would have been had Australia gone 2-0 up at Edgbaston, and not just because England were losing. Six years ago we had the best of both worlds – an epic series and an England win. So this time we want India to win here, England to win by one wicket at Edgbaston and then by one run at The Oval, thus clinching the series 3-1 and going top of the Test Championship. Is that so much to ask? All that said, I suppose we could live with England winning by 114 runs here after a staggering 121-ball 132 from Eoin Morgan. India in England 2011 England cricket team India cricket team Cricket Over by over reports Rob Smyth Rob Bagchi guardian.co.uk
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