Anders Brehing Breivik took part in online discussions with members of the EDL and other anti-Islamic groups Anders Brehing Breivik, the man accused of the murder of at least 91 Norwegians in a twin bomb and gun massacre, boasted online about his discussions with the far right English Defence League and other anti-Islamic European organisations. The Norwegian prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, said Norwegian officials were working with foreign intelligence agencies to see if there was any international involvement in the slaughter. “We have running contact with other countries’ intelligence services,” he said. Breivik was arrested on Utøya island where he shot and killed at least 84 people, mostly teenagers, at a youth summer camp for supporters of Norway’s Labour Party after bombing Oslo’s government district just hours before.Dressed as a policeman, he ordered the teenagers to gather round him before opening fire on them. Survivors described how dozens of people were mown down. Edvard Fornes, 16, described how the gunman told the youths, “Don’t be shy,” and, “Come and play with me,” before executing them. “There were two kids lying, hiding, in a ditch saying, ‘please, please don’t shoot us,’ and he shot them.” Another youth, Ida Knudsen, 16, said she had been in a group of 100 who had initially ran from the killer, but that was reduced to around 60 as the gunman pursued them. Eventually she was one of 12 who climbed into a boat and escaped. With the entire island a crime scene, officers were still combing the shoreline on Saturday and boats were searching the water for more bodies amid fears the toll could rise further. The police were continuing to investigate whether there had been a second gunman on the island. The disclosure of Breivik’s claimed links with other far right organisations came as details emerged about the rightwing Christian fundamentalist and freemason behind Norway’s worst post-war act of violence. It was revealed that the 32-year-old former member of the country’s conservative Progress Party – who had become ever more extreme in his hatred of Muslims, left wingers and the country’s political establishment – had ordered six tonnes of fertiliser in May to be used in the bombing. While police continued to interrogate Breivik, who was charged with the mass killings, evidence of his increasingly far right world view emerged from an article he had posted on several Scandinavian websites, including Nordisk – a site frequented by neo-Nazis, far right radicals and Islamophobes since 2009. The Norwegian daily VG quoted one of Breivik’s friends saying that he had become a rightwing extremist in his late 20s and was now a strong opponent of multi-culturalism, expressing strong nationalistic views in online debates. Breivik had talked admiringly about conversations he had had with unnamed English Defence League members and the organisation Stop the Islamification of Europe over the success of provocative street actions leading to violence. “I have on some occasions had discussions with SIOE and EDL and recommended them to use certain strategies,” he wrote two years ago. “The tactics of the EDL are now to ‘lure’ an overreaction from the Jihad Youth/Extreme-Marxists, something they have succeeded in doing several times already.” Contacted about the allegation by email by last night the EDL had not answered. The latest disclosures came as the Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg flew by helicopter to a hotel in the town of Sundvollen – close to the island of Utøya – where many survivors were taken and where relatives converged to reunite with their loved ones or to identify their dead. “A whole world is thinking of them,” Stoltenberg said, his voice cracking with emotion. He said the twin attacks made Friday the deadliest day in peacetime Norway. “This is beyond comprehension. It’s a nightmare. It’s a nightmare for those who have been killed, for their mothers and fathers, family and friends,” he said. Buildings around the capital lowered their flags to half-staff. People streamed to Oslo cathedral to light candles and lay flowers; outside, mourners began building a makeshift altar from dug-up cobblestones. On Saturday the Queen wrote to Norway’s King Harald to offer her condolences and express her shock and sadness. Breivik’s Facebook page was blocked, but a cached version describes a conservative Christian from Oslo. The profile veers between references to lofty political philosophers and gory popular films, television shows and video games. The account appears to have been set up on 17 July. The site lists no “friends” or social connections. Norway Europe Mark Townsend Peter Beaumont Tracy McVeigh guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Anders Brehing Breivik took part in online discussions with members of the EDL and other anti-Islamic groups Anders Brehing Breivik, the man accused of the murder of at least 91 Norwegians in a twin bomb and gun massacre, boasted online about his discussions with the far right English Defence League and other anti-Islamic European organisations. The Norwegian prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, said Norwegian officials were working with foreign intelligence agencies to see if there was any international involvement in the slaughter. “We have running contact with other countries’ intelligence services,” he said. Breivik was arrested on Utøya island where he shot and killed at least 84 people, mostly teenagers, at a youth summer camp for supporters of Norway’s Labour Party after bombing Oslo’s government district just hours before.Dressed as a policeman, he ordered the teenagers to gather round him before opening fire on them. Survivors described how dozens of people were mown down. Edvard Fornes, 16, described how the gunman told the youths, “Don’t be shy,” and, “Come and play with me,” before executing them. “There were two kids lying, hiding, in a ditch saying, ‘please, please don’t shoot us,’ and he shot them.” Another youth, Ida Knudsen, 16, said she had been in a group of 100 who had initially ran from the killer, but that was reduced to around 60 as the gunman pursued them. Eventually she was one of 12 who climbed into a boat and escaped. With the entire island a crime scene, officers were still combing the shoreline on Saturday and boats were searching the water for more bodies amid fears the toll could rise further. The police were continuing to investigate whether there had been a second gunman on the island. The disclosure of Breivik’s claimed links with other far right organisations came as details emerged about the rightwing Christian fundamentalist and freemason behind Norway’s worst post-war act of violence. It was revealed that the 32-year-old former member of the country’s conservative Progress Party – who had become ever more extreme in his hatred of Muslims, left wingers and the country’s political establishment – had ordered six tonnes of fertiliser in May to be used in the bombing. While police continued to interrogate Breivik, who was charged with the mass killings, evidence of his increasingly far right world view emerged from an article he had posted on several Scandinavian websites, including Nordisk – a site frequented by neo-Nazis, far right radicals and Islamophobes since 2009. The Norwegian daily VG quoted one of Breivik’s friends saying that he had become a rightwing extremist in his late 20s and was now a strong opponent of multi-culturalism, expressing strong nationalistic views in online debates. Breivik had talked admiringly about conversations he had had with unnamed English Defence League members and the organisation Stop the Islamification of Europe over the success of provocative street actions leading to violence. “I have on some occasions had discussions with SIOE and EDL and recommended them to use certain strategies,” he wrote two years ago. “The tactics of the EDL are now to ‘lure’ an overreaction from the Jihad Youth/Extreme-Marxists, something they have succeeded in doing several times already.” Contacted about the allegation by email by last night the EDL had not answered. The latest disclosures came as the Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg flew by helicopter to a hotel in the town of Sundvollen – close to the island of Utøya – where many survivors were taken and where relatives converged to reunite with their loved ones or to identify their dead. “A whole world is thinking of them,” Stoltenberg said, his voice cracking with emotion. He said the twin attacks made Friday the deadliest day in peacetime Norway. “This is beyond comprehension. It’s a nightmare. It’s a nightmare for those who have been killed, for their mothers and fathers, family and friends,” he said. Buildings around the capital lowered their flags to half-staff. People streamed to Oslo cathedral to light candles and lay flowers; outside, mourners began building a makeshift altar from dug-up cobblestones. On Saturday the Queen wrote to Norway’s King Harald to offer her condolences and express her shock and sadness. Breivik’s Facebook page was blocked, but a cached version describes a conservative Christian from Oslo. The profile veers between references to lofty political philosophers and gory popular films, television shows and video games. The account appears to have been set up on 17 July. The site lists no “friends” or social connections. Norway Europe Mark Townsend Peter Beaumont Tracy McVeigh guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …One of the thing I learned while in the Clinton White House is that most Washington rumors, I’d say generally around two out of three, are false. In a deadline/crisis period that number goes to about 95 percent false. And by rumors, I am including most news reports, which trade in rumor, gossip, and leaks designed to help the agenda of the leaker. So most of what is coming out of D.C. right now on the default crisis is garbage. What deal is up and what deal is fading changes so fast that it may even be true at the moment it is reported, but could be completely reversed 15 minutes later. So every time your blood pressure spikes in the coming days, just take a Valium like a normal person (as the sister-in-law character from “Desperately Seeking Susan” would say), and go do something other than watching cable TV. Having said all that, though, there are some things that seem a lot more certain. The economy, already stalled, will have more roadblocks piled in its way. Middle-class and poor people will get more cuts in government programs that really do matter to their lives and their incomes. Nothing will be done to actually make the investments in infrastructure and housing and manufacturing we so desperately need. It is a sad state of affairs. Many people, me included, have all kinds of theories — short-term and long-term — as to how we have gotten into this terrible place, but that is not my subject today. I want to talk about what happens if the worst of the rumors becomes mainly what happens. I still am hoping against hope that the final deal the President agrees to will not be as bad as the current rumors have it. Maybe the details will be a lot better than what they sound like today. Maybe the rumor mill just has it wrong, and that the deal that happens doesn’t have cuts in Social Security or Medicare that hurt the middle class. Maybe the McConnell-Reid compromise, which right now is the best of the deals out there, will come back into favor. But if this deal does as much damage to the middle class and poor as is currently rumored, if any tax increases are fudged so that might not even happen at all, then I think progressives have to declare all-out war on the deal and try to rally Democratic members of the House and Senate to vote against it and defeat it. I want to be clear: I don’t believe that means declaring war on the President. The idea of Bachmann or Romney or one of these other Ryan-budget loving extremists as President, with these Republicans in charge of Congress, is a mortal threat to everything any progressive person, or for that matter any of the 80 percent of Americans who care about the middle class, cares about. Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid and Pell Grants would likely be gone, not just cut, by the time they were through. We still have to help get Obama re-elected, no matter how much we oppose him on specific issues. But just because you support his re-election doesn’t mean you have to support a terrible budget deal. If it is as bad as it looks like it might be, we have to leave no stone unturned in tracking down every Democratic vote to beat this bill. As bad as a default will be, and it would be very bad for the economy, decimating the middle class for generations would be worse. I also think if a bad deal goes down, the President and Congressional leaders would very quickly pass a version of the McConnell compromise, which would not be nearly as damaging as a bad deal. We live in dark times, and they will get darker if the President is not re-elected. But that doesn’t mean the rest of the Democratic Party has to support him when he is wrong on policy.
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At least 11 dead and dozens injured after two trains crash in Zhejiang province, causing carriages to fall from a bridge At least 11 people have died after two high-speed trains crashed into each other in China’s eastern province of Zhejiang on Saturday, causing two carriages to fall off a bridge, the state news agency Xinhua reported. Another 89 people have been sent to hospital, it added. Each carriage could carry about 100 people, Xinhua said. The accident occurred after the first train was hit by lightning and lost power, and was then rear-ended by another bullet train, Xinhua added, citing provincial television. Pictures on state television’s main news channel showed one carriage on the ground under the bridge, with another hanging above it. The government has spent billions of dollars boosting the railway network of the world’s most populous country and has said it plans to spend $120bn (£73bn) a year, over several years, on railway construction. But the vast network has been hit by a series of scandals and safety incidents over the past few months. Three railway officials have been investigated for corruption so far this year, according to local media reports. In February, Liu Zhijun was sacked as railways minister for “serious disciplinary violations”. He had spearheaded the investment drive into the rail sector over the last decade. The flagship Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail line that opened earlier this month has been plagued by power outages, leaving passengers stranded for hours on stuffy trains on at least three times since it was opened. The Beijing-Shanghai link is the latest and most celebrated portion of a network the government hopes will stretch over 28,000 miles by the end of 2015. China Rail transport guardian.co.uk
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Singer, whose 2006 album Back to Black won five Grammy awards, found dead at her flat in north London Singer Amy Winehouse, who achieved worldwide fame with her album Back to Black, has been found dead at her flat in north London. The body of the 27-year-old Grammy award-winner was discovered at the property in north London by emergency services at around 3.54pm on Saturday afternoon. It is understood her death is being treated as “unexplained”. Her death comes just a month after she called off some European tour dates after she was jeered for a shambolic performance during a concert in Serbia. Winehouse’s 2006 breakthrough album Back to Black won five Grammy awards, but her music has since become overshadowed by her chaotic lifestyle and run-ins with the law. Amy Winehouse London Pop and rock David Batty guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …For weeks, Republican presidential candidates have been a running a gauntlet of ever-more draconian pledges put forth by party purists. Grover Norquist’s anti-tax oath , the Susan B. Anthony List anti-abortion manifesto , the ” Marriage Vow ” and the ” Cut, Cap and Balance ” pledge are just some of the multiplying litmus tests now demanded by social and economic conservatives alike. But as the 2012 primaries approach, another de facto requirement for GOP White House hopefuls is emerging. That is, candidates must not only (a) proclaim that they have been called on God to seek the presidency, but (b) declare that divine intervention is the cure for what ails America. Call it the Divine Right Pledge . And so far, it’s one most of the GOP field seems more than willing to take. Of course, the GOP has long been parodied as “God’s Own Party.” But now, the Party of Lincoln is rapidly turning Honest Abe’s mantra (“My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side.”) on its head. Texas Governor and possible instant GOP frontrunner Rick Perry provides a case in point, with check marks in both columns of the God Pledge. As he explained his likely White House run : “I’m not ready to tell you that I’m ready to announce that I’m in. But I’m getting more and more comfortable every day that this is what I’ve been called to do. This is what America needs.” If the Lord is calling on Rick Perry to lead the United States, Perry plans to call Him back when it’s time to actually run it. On August 6th in Houston, Governor Perry will tunnel under the wall separating church and state to lead The Response , an evangelical day of prayer and fasting seeking divine intervention for America. As Perry put it: “I sincerely hope you’ll join me in Houston on August 6th and take your place in Reliant Stadium with praying people asking God’s forgiveness, wisdom and provision for our state and nation. There is hope for America. It lies in heaven, and we will find it on our knees.” Perry, whose faith-based policy like the governors of Georgia and Oklahoma includes asking residents to pray for rain for their drought-stricken state, later explained that the solutions to America’s woes are above his pay grade : “I think it’s time for us to just hand it over to God and say, ‘God, You’re going to have to fix this.’ (That Perry may now skip the August 6 event in Houston may just be confirmation that God wants him in Washington DC instead.) Rep. Michele Bachmann may know much about history, but she does know that God is on her side. The self-proclaimed ” fool for Christ ,” who in 2006 warned that ” we are in the End of Days ” and counseled “wives, you are to be submissive to your husbands,” has been also called on by God. As it turns out, more than once . In 2006, Bachmann announced that “God then called me to run for the United States Congress.” But after explaining that she needed “inner assurance” from the Lord before taking the presidential plunge, Bachmann confirmed to Iowa Public Television that she had received it from Him. “Well, every decision that I make I pray about as does my husband and I can tell you, yes, I’ve had that calling.” And Bachmann, who asked “that the Lord will give us a special anointing on how to put our team together,” has in turn called on Him to smite her political opponents. In December 2009, Bachmann joined an evangelical “prayercast” asking God to stop health care reform . “We deserve Your wrath,” Bachmann prayed and asked, “but would You yet give our nation mercy?” And in 2010, Bachmann proclaimed her vengeful God would really get his wrath on if the United States did not support Likud policy in Israel : At a Republican Jewish Coalition event in Los Angeles last week, Rep. Michele Bachmann offered a candid view of her positions on Israel: Support for Israel is handed down by God and if the United States pulls back its support, America will cease to exist… “I am convinced in my heart and in my mind that if the United States fails to stand with Israel, that is the end of the United States…[W]e have to show that we are inextricably entwined, that as a nation we have been blessed because of our relationship with Israel, and if we reject Israel, then there is a curse that comes into play. And my husband and I are both Christians, and we believe very strongly the verse from Genesis [Genesis 12:3], we believe very strongly that nations also receive blessings as they bless Israel.” Of course, Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann have a lot of company among the Republican contenders claiming that God is in their amen corner. Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum , who famously warned against the prospect of ” man-on-dog ” marriages, blamed liberal Boston for clergy sex abuse there and declared the American Left ” hates Christendom ,” explained that his 2012 presidential run is “about going on to the battlefield and defending God’s truth in the World.” He knows this, because God told him so : “It really boils down to God’s will. What is it that God wants? … We have prayed a lot about this decision, and we believe with all our hearts that this is what God wants.” Ditto for former pizza mogul Herman Cain . Cain, who would require special loyalty oaths for Muslim government officials and supports local bans on mosques , told a Tea Party event in April that the Lord wanted him to go from the pizza over into the fire: Cain told the crowd about his battle with cancer in 2006, saying he’s been “totally cancer free” for the past five years. “You want to know why? God said, ‘Not yet Herman,’” Cain told the crowd. “God said, ‘Not yet. I’ve got something else for you to do.’ And it might be to become the president of the United States of America.” While Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin have been no-shows for the 2012 race, they too pass the Divine Right Pledge twin tests with flying colors. While God apparently didn’t call Huckabee’s number for 2012, last time around the Arkansas Governor explained his early success by citing “the same power that helped a little boy with two fish and five loaves feed a crowd of 5,000 people and that’s the only way that our campaign could be doing what it’s doing.” As for the half-term Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin explained to the February 2010 Tea Party Convention that “it would be wise of us to start seeking some divine intervention again in this country, so that we can be safe and secure and prosperous again.” And Palin, who asked Alaskans to pray for a natural gas pipeline and declared that her selection as John McCain’s running mate was ” God’s plan ,” believed that despite grim polling numbers He would be with her on Election Day 2008 : “To me, it motivates us, makes us work that much harder. And it also strengthens my faith, because I’m going to know, at the end of the day, putting this in God’s hands, that the right thing for America will be done at the end of the day on Nov. 4. So I’m not discouraged at all.” God, it seems, wanted Barack Obama in the White House. God’s Pledge, however, is proving more problematic for others in the Republican field. Newt Gingrich became a Catholic only after personally demonstrating that marriage is an institution between one man and three women in rapid succession. (Gingrich nevertheless blamed his philandering on “how passionately I felt about this country.”) Fellow Mormons John Huntsman and Mitt Romney face an uphill task when even Fox News hosts conclude each is “obviously not…a Christian.” Romney, who famously ruled out Muslims from serving in his cabinet , has yet to credit God for either his frontrunner status or for ensuring America’s future success. But in his much-hyped 2007 “Faith in America” speech , Romney at least reached out to his party’s evangelical primary voters by suggesting atheists had no place in the American community: “Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom opens the windows of the soul so that man can discover his most profound beliefs and commune with God. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone.” Then there’s Tim Pawlenty . The supposed Sam’s Club Republican whose tax plan is a massive gift to the money-changers has deployed his wife to make the case that “knowing that you’re just going to rest in who God is, and he’s going to lead the way every day.” But while T-Paw is now following in the footsteps of George W. Bush by citing Jesus Christ as his political hero , three years ago Pawlenty compared himself to someone else: Later in the speech, Pawlenty compared himself to Ricky Bobby, the coarse, clumsy NASCAR driver played by Will Ferrell in the comedy “Talladega Nights.” In one scene, Bobby prays to God for Doritos and Taco Bell before thanking the Lord for his “red hot smoking wife.” “I’m like the Talladega guy,” said Pawlenty. “because I want to thank the Lord for my smoking-hot wife.” Of course, the belief in America’s providential role in the world is a common one and a recurring theme throughout U.S. history. But America’s greatness, as President Obama has repeatedly suggested , was “not inevitable… America prevailed because we chose to move forward as one nation, as one people.” And while politicians routinely express their faith in God, it is now becoming disturbingly common for them to claim God’s faith in them. (It does, as Michele Cottle suggested, provide a helpful cover for their naked ambition.) And that’s a sadly ironic turn of events for the Party of Lincoln , one whose namesake after all lamented near the end of the Civil War: “Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes.” As Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Sarah Palin and other Republican White House wannabes claim God’s mantle for themselves and their nation, it’s worth remembering the words of that Dire Straits song: “Two men say they’re Jesus, one of them must be wrong.” (This piece also appears at Perrspectives .)
Continue reading …Striking the blind spot: Norway terror attacks that killed 80 carried out by Islamophobic right-wing extremist
July 23, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media It looks like everyone’s first guess (including ours ) about the perpetrators of yesterday’s terrorist attacks in Norway that killed 80 people — that it was Islamist radicals — was dead wrong. Devin Burghart at IREHR has the wrapup : Shortly before midnight on Friday, July 22, police arrested a 32-year-old Norwegian man who allegedly went on a murderous shooting spree at a Labor Party youth camp on the island of Utoya and may also be responsible for the horrific bombing in Oslo earlier in the day. enlarge Anders Behring Breivik The man arrested for the attack has been identified as Anders Behring Breivik. Norwegian TV2 reports that Breivik belongs to “right-wing circles” in Oslo. Sources in Norway tell IREHR that Breivik has been known to write posts in right-wing internet forums in Norway, where he has described himself as a “nationalist” and has also written numerous screeds critical of Muslims. The Associated Press reports that Breivik has a Glock pistol, a rifle and a shotgun registered in the Norwegian gun registry. According to his Facebook page (since taken down), in 2009 Breivik established a business called GeoFarm, which he claimed to be engaged in the cultivation of vegetables. Such a business would give him access to large amounts of fertilizer, which could be used in the making of explosives. According to witnesses in Utoya, the gunman was dressed as a police officer and gunned down young people as they ran for their lives at a youth camp. Police said Friday evening that they’ve linked the youth camp shooting and Oslo bombing. Late Friday, police also tell Reuters that the killings are of “catastrophic dimensions”, and that the total number dead from the attacks may rise above eighty, just on Utoya. Seven people are currently reported dead from the Oslo bomb blast, though that number may climb. William MacLean at Reuters reports that the attack signals an intensification in right-wing extremist activity in Europe, which was already rising significantly in recent years: A report that Norway’s bomb and gun rampage may be the work of a far-right militant confronts Europe with the possibility that a new paramilitary threat is emerging, a decade after al-Qaida’s Sept. 11 attacks. One analyst called the attacks possibly Europe’s “Oklahoma City” moment, a reference to American right-wing militant Timothy McVeigh who detonated a truck bomb at a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people. Police forces in many western European countries worry about rising far-right sentiment, fueled by a toxic mix of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant bigotry and increasing economic hardship. But violence, while sometimes fatal, has rarely escalated beyond group thuggery and the use of knives. That may have changed in Oslo and on the holiday island of Utoya on Friday. Seven people were killed in a bombing in the capital — Western Europe’s worst since the 2005 London al-Qaida-linked suicide attacks that killed 52 people — and at least 80 in a shooting rampage by a lake. Independent Norwegian television TV2 reported on Saturday that the Norwegian man detained after the attacks had links to right-wing extremism. Police were searching a flat in west Oslo where he lived, TV2 said. “If true this would be pretty significant — such a far-right attack in Europe, and certainly Scandinavia, would be unprecedented,” said Hagai Segal, a security specialist at New York University in London. “It would be the European/Scandinavian equivalent of Oklahoma City — an attack by a individual (with extremist anti-government views, linked to certain groups) aimed at the government by attacking its buildings/institutions.” “The next key question is whether he was acting alone, or whether he is part of a group.” James Fallows has a tart reminder for those who, like Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post, took that ounce of speculation and tried making a ton of speculative anti-Islamic hay out of it: No, this is a sobering reminder for those who think it’s too tedious to reserve judgment about horrifying events rather than instantly turning them into talking points for pre-conceived views. On a per capita basis, Norway lost twice as many people today as the U.S. did on 9/11. Imagine the political repercussions through the world if double-9/11-scale damage had been done by an al-Qaeda offshoot. The unbelievably sweeping damage is there in either case. It’s also a sobering reminder that, while we’ve been obsessing nationally over the supposed threat of Islamist radicals — embodied by Peter King’s haplessly myopic hearings on domestic terrorism — the reality remains that right-wing extremist terrorism remains the most potent domestic-terrorism threat in America as well. Indeed, the number of violent domestic-terrorism incidents has been steadily rising for the past two years, but the threat has gone largely ignored. Indeed, the Obama administration has kowtowed to right-wing complaints by gutting our own government’s intelligence-gathering capacities in this area. We shouldn’t assume that this is a problem isolated to Europe — especially given the track record of right-wing extremists in the USA in recent years.
Continue reading …Reason’s Nick Gillespie Exposes Maher Hypocrisy: Would You Give Up This Show to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint?
July 23, 2011 No Comment
Bill Maher on Friday once again got caught in his own hypocrisy. As HBO's “Real Time” host waxed philosophic about socialism and “shared sacrifice” for the good of the country, Reason TV's Nick Gillespie stumped the sometimes comedian by asking if he would give up his cars or his television show to reduce his carbon footprint (video follows with transcript and commentary): BILL MAHER, HOST: It seems like, you know, the idea of socialism and sacrifice and we're all in it together, which is socialism is a very bad word in this country, but we had last weekend out here in something called Carmageddon where they closed the 405 and we thought it was going be horrible. But you know what? They educated the public, they asked them to help and participate, and they did, and it made me think maybe this could, crazy idea, maybe the idea of asking people to sacrifice and actually, you know, bringing them into the situation they would respond. DONNA BRAZILE, DEMOCRAT STRATEGIST: Shared sacrifice. NICK GILLESPIE, REASON TV: But what's the sacrifice? I mean, just don't use the 405 for a weekend. MAHER: That's true. It wasn’t a big sacrifice. DONNA BRAZILE: But really, stay off the roads, walk, talk to your neighbor, you know, get around. MAHER: Some of these things are not that difficult. I read in USA TODAY this week that if every American just gave up eating meat and cheese one day of the week, it would be the equivalent of saving 91 billion driving miles in a year. So, people should give up meat and cheese one day of the week to reduce total carbon dioxide emissions. But when Gillespie made “shared sacrifice” personal to Maher, he froze up like a deer in headlights:
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enlarge When Rupert Murdoch gave his testimony earlier this week in London, former New York City School Chancellor Joel Klein was sitting directly behind him. After a stormy tenure in New York City where he fought teachers unions and closed schools according to the Michelle Rhee School Destruction Model , he left and took what looked to be a cushy job at News Corp helping Murdoch launch his for-profit education products. Getting in the middle of another public dustup was the last thing on his agenda when he joined Murdoch’s media empire last November as a $2 million-a-year executive vice president, leaving his flap-prone post as chancellor of New York City’s school system to sit on News Corp.’s board of directors and advise the company’s entry into the for-profit education market . Klein is nothing if not savvy in the ways of big media companies; his wife, Nicole Seligman, is chief counsel for the Sony Corp. But Klein doesn’t just have ties to Rupert Murdoch. He’s also “like this” with Michelle Rhee from his time in New York. GothamSchools.org, in 2009: Michelle Rhee touted her red-track/green-track teacher pay proposal last night at Pace University, saying it’s made such a splash that Mayor Bloomberg asked Chancellor Joel Klein if they could bring a similar model to New York. The proposal, which is being negotiated with the D.C. teachers union right now, would award some first-year teachers nearly $40,000 raises in exchange for giving up their tenure rights — while others could choose a “red” path where they retain tenure but are paid less. Rhee said the model came up in a recent chat with Klein, who she said she speaks to regularly to share “best practices” and to commiserate. Klein told her that Mayor Bloomberg had asked if they could bring the red/green plan to New York. “Apparently Klein said to him, ‘Not even you have enough money to do all of that in New York City,’” she said. Rhee’s plan, if passed, will be financed by private philanthropy for the first five years , she said. See that private philanthropy claim there at the bottom? This is a Rhee hallmark. She rides into school districts on promises of private benefactors if only those schools will just clean up their acts and get it together the way she envisions. She doesn’t name the private benefactors, so let me name a few who spend millions of dollars on Rhee’s enterprises: Devos, Walton, and the Friedman foundations, whose sole goal is to turn public school districts private. She’ll deny that, of course, but as was reported over at Daily Kos , she slipped up and let it out with regard to Tennessee: In essence, Rhee has been edging out of the closet on this issue, showing her opposition to collective bargaining first and foremost through her actions, but slipping every now and then and letting it come through in her words. That’s what happened in Tennessee over the weekend, in which she talked about her support for school vouchers privatization, and: She also praised the Tennessee legislature for its recent stances on education, calling its work “aggressive and courageous laws.” That would be a clear reference to the Tennessee bill eliminating collective bargaining and preventing teachers’ unions from making campaign contributions or lobbying the state legislature; it was passed at the same time as a bill allowing corporations to give direct contributions to political candidates. To this point, Rhee has been working the “Democrat who saw the light” angle as she works overwhelmingly with Republicans. That image has deteriorated to the point where she had to shore up her credentials as a non-Republican by hiring DNC spokesman Hari Sevugan to shill for Students First. But at this point, you have to wonder why she’s making the even a halfhearted effort to pretend she’s anything but a John Kasich-Rick Scott-Scott Walker Republican when it comes to education issues. The Nation ties it up in a nice neat package: But what’s been less well understood is the impact the scandal might have on Murdoch’s attempt to make a profit off the American public sector, most notably through seeking to provide technology services, such as data-tracking systems and video lessons, to public school districts . Last November, shortly after hiring Klein, News Corp. acquired Wireless Generation, an education technology firm that had worked closely with Klein during his tenure as chancellor on two projects: ARIS, a controversial (and buggy) data system that warehouses students’ standardized test scores and demographic profiles; and School of One , a more radical attempt to use technology to personalize instruction, reorganize classrooms, and reduce the size of the teaching force.The acquisition put Klein, who was set to supervise Wireless Generation, in an awkward position vis à vis city ethics regulations. Back to those non-profits for a minute. It’s no secret that Rhee has set a goal of securing $1 billion in donations for her Students First organization in order to evangelize her message to reform privatize our public school system and destroy unions. Those goals are perfectly in line with Murdoch’s business model with regard to his education products too. So do they have a connection, given the common links with Klein? Possibly, as The Nation reports. But scrutiny on Murdoch’s school agenda is growing. Aware of the media titan’s relationship with former DC schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, education reporter Alexander Russo tried to find out if Murdoch had donated to StudentsFirst , Rhee’s PAC. The group’s goal is to act as a political counterweight to teachers’ unions.“After two days of emails and phone calls—they must have been freaking out behind the scenes trying to figure out what to do—a Rhee spokesperson would neither confirm nor deny the Murdoch money,” Russo wrote .“ Our policy doesn’t allow me to reveal who our donors are or aren’t ,” the spokesman said. Watch this space for more. It would be great if the FBI would look at those ties in addition to what they’re already investigating. I’ll be watching.
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enlarge When Rupert Murdoch gave his testimony earlier this week in London, former New York City School Chancellor Joel Klein was sitting directly behind him. After a stormy tenure in New York City where he fought teachers unions and closed schools according to the Michelle Rhee School Destruction Model , he left and took what looked to be a cushy job at News Corp helping Murdoch launch his for-profit education products. Getting in the middle of another public dustup was the last thing on his agenda when he joined Murdoch’s media empire last November as a $2 million-a-year executive vice president, leaving his flap-prone post as chancellor of New York City’s school system to sit on News Corp.’s board of directors and advise the company’s entry into the for-profit education market . Klein is nothing if not savvy in the ways of big media companies; his wife, Nicole Seligman, is chief counsel for the Sony Corp. But Klein doesn’t just have ties to Rupert Murdoch. He’s also “like this” with Michelle Rhee from his time in New York. GothamSchools.org, in 2009: Michelle Rhee touted her red-track/green-track teacher pay proposal last night at Pace University, saying it’s made such a splash that Mayor Bloomberg asked Chancellor Joel Klein if they could bring a similar model to New York. The proposal, which is being negotiated with the D.C. teachers union right now, would award some first-year teachers nearly $40,000 raises in exchange for giving up their tenure rights — while others could choose a “red” path where they retain tenure but are paid less. Rhee said the model came up in a recent chat with Klein, who she said she speaks to regularly to share “best practices” and to commiserate. Klein told her that Mayor Bloomberg had asked if they could bring the red/green plan to New York. “Apparently Klein said to him, ‘Not even you have enough money to do all of that in New York City,’” she said. Rhee’s plan, if passed, will be financed by private philanthropy for the first five years , she said. See that private philanthropy claim there at the bottom? This is a Rhee hallmark. She rides into school districts on promises of private benefactors if only those schools will just clean up their acts and get it together the way she envisions. She doesn’t name the private benefactors, so let me name a few who spend millions of dollars on Rhee’s enterprises: Devos, Walton, and the Friedman foundations, whose sole goal is to turn public school districts private. She’ll deny that, of course, but as was reported over at Daily Kos , she slipped up and let it out with regard to Tennessee: In essence, Rhee has been edging out of the closet on this issue, showing her opposition to collective bargaining first and foremost through her actions, but slipping every now and then and letting it come through in her words. That’s what happened in Tennessee over the weekend, in which she talked about her support for school vouchers privatization, and: She also praised the Tennessee legislature for its recent stances on education, calling its work “aggressive and courageous laws.” That would be a clear reference to the Tennessee bill eliminating collective bargaining and preventing teachers’ unions from making campaign contributions or lobbying the state legislature; it was passed at the same time as a bill allowing corporations to give direct contributions to political candidates. To this point, Rhee has been working the “Democrat who saw the light” angle as she works overwhelmingly with Republicans. That image has deteriorated to the point where she had to shore up her credentials as a non-Republican by hiring DNC spokesman Hari Sevugan to shill for Students First. But at this point, you have to wonder why she’s making the even a halfhearted effort to pretend she’s anything but a John Kasich-Rick Scott-Scott Walker Republican when it comes to education issues. The Nation ties it up in a nice neat package: But what’s been less well understood is the impact the scandal might have on Murdoch’s attempt to make a profit off the American public sector, most notably through seeking to provide technology services, such as data-tracking systems and video lessons, to public school districts . Last November, shortly after hiring Klein, News Corp. acquired Wireless Generation, an education technology firm that had worked closely with Klein during his tenure as chancellor on two projects: ARIS, a controversial (and buggy) data system that warehouses students’ standardized test scores and demographic profiles; and School of One , a more radical attempt to use technology to personalize instruction, reorganize classrooms, and reduce the size of the teaching force.The acquisition put Klein, who was set to supervise Wireless Generation, in an awkward position vis à vis city ethics regulations. Back to those non-profits for a minute. It’s no secret that Rhee has set a goal of securing $1 billion in donations for her Students First organization in order to evangelize her message to reform privatize our public school system and destroy unions. Those goals are perfectly in line with Murdoch’s business model with regard to his education products too. So do they have a connection, given the common links with Klein? Possibly, as The Nation reports. But scrutiny on Murdoch’s school agenda is growing. Aware of the media titan’s relationship with former DC schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, education reporter Alexander Russo tried to find out if Murdoch had donated to StudentsFirst , Rhee’s PAC. The group’s goal is to act as a political counterweight to teachers’ unions.“After two days of emails and phone calls—they must have been freaking out behind the scenes trying to figure out what to do—a Rhee spokesperson would neither confirm nor deny the Murdoch money,” Russo wrote .“ Our policy doesn’t allow me to reveal who our donors are or aren’t ,” the spokesman said. Watch this space for more. It would be great if the FBI would look at those ties in addition to what they’re already investigating. I’ll be watching.
Continue reading …