Media Matters has put together a compilation of how Fox News creates a smear and uses all of their show hosts to perpetuate it. It’s a shining example of what they do not only to organizations like Media Matters, but to politicians, people, and other media outlets who might not agree with them. Rupert Murdoch may be in hot water in England right now, but watch this video and tell me that Roger Ailes hasn’t used the same tactics. Let’s hope Congress has the will to investigate. If not the House, then the Senate, at least.
Continue reading …Social Security and Medicare Changes May Look Good On Paper, But Let’s Look At Political Reality
July 12, 2011 No CommentThe problem with liberals, I think, is that they’re just not paranoid enough. And so, they frequently agree with ideas, policies and legislation that look good on paper, but turn into something completely different once Republican or Blue Dog politicians get their hands on them. This post by economist Jared Bernstein is a good example . He’s defending the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (where he works) from an attack by the Washington Post’s Robert Samuelson that accuses them of being the “other extreme” from Grover Norquist: CBPP does not consider Social Security and Medicare “too popular to assail.” The Center has long said that while vulnerable beneficiaries need to be protected, this should not preclude changes to the programs’ benefit structures. It has, for example, supported the use of the chain-weighted CPI to adjust for price changes in Social Security benefits for current and future retirees, if the move to the chained CPI is applied government-wide (including to the tax code) and accompanied by a measure to moderate the effect on the oldest and most vulnerable beneficiaries. Okay, first problem: “Accompanied by a measure to moderate the effect on the oldest and most vulnerable beneficiaries.” Bernstein worked in the White House, for heaven’s sake. He must know how unlikely it is that this Republican house (or any other Republicans, for that matter) will ever support adequate supports. (Hell, look what they did to premium supports in the optimistically-named “Affordable Care Act.”) And even if a Democratic majority passes an adequate support, a Republican majority will cut it again. It’s what they do. The Center has consistently supported charging higher Medicare premiums to upper-income beneficiaries; it recommended the changes included in the Affordable Care Act in this area well before that law was enacted. And it has emphasized that Medicare should lead the way in slowing the growth of health care costs. None of these were or are popular moves with many progressives — they would slow the growth of benefits relative to their current path or pare benefits back — but the Center’s support for them is based on policy, not political, analysis. Yes, I get that. I understand that’s how think tanks have to operate — but it’s also like leaving a loaded gun on the table. Once Medicare is means-tested, it becomes just another welfare program. And we just saw what happens to any funding that doesn’t have a powerful political constituency. In short, CBPP has publically disagreed with those who say Social Security benefits can’t be touched at all and that all changes affecting Medicare benefits should be put off limits. CBPP has sounded the alarm for many years about long-term deficits and has certainly not shied away from addressing the need to raise some taxes on people below $250,000, as well as those above it. One of our most pressing concerns in recent years has been the need for more revenue to adequately meet present and especially future needs of our population, and in this regard, CBPP and Bob Greenstein have on numerous occasions advocated full expiration of the Bush tax cuts ., not just the tax cuts for people above $250,000. Yet Samuelson implies our lack of support for even the expiration of the high-end cuts. In sharp contrast to Norquist, CBBP does not ask members of Congress to sign pledges and discourages them from doing so.We have not come to these positions lightly. Anyone who knows the Center’s work knows how hard we have fought over the past three decades for programs that protect vulnerable Americans. But when our analysis leads us to positions that are potentially unpopular with one side or the other, we do not shy from those conclusions. They’re so earnest, aren’t they? And don’t get me wrong, CBBP does really good things — but their work doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Here’s the problem: They’re thinking like scientists. Just like J. Robert Oppenheimer, they don’t foresee the harm that may result. It’s a think tank, they’d be crippled if they only considered what was politically feasible — but they should at least acknowledge the practical danger.
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Climate Reality Project aims to expose reality of global warming crisis and kicks off with a 24-hour live streamed event It should almost be called Inconvenient Truth 2.0. Five years after Al Gore launched his original documentary project, the former vice-president returned on Tuesday with a new campaign aimed at exposing the full scale of the climate crisis. Gore’s Climate Reality project announced it would kick off with a 24-hour live streamed event on 14 September. The day’s events will include a new multimedia presentation by Gore that will “connect the dots” between extreme weather events and climate change, a statement said. The campaign represents a modest comeback for Gore who has reduced his public profile on climate action in the past few years – probably out of consideration for the political consequences to his fellow Democrat Barack Obama. It is being launched four years after Inconvenient Truth, based on Gore’s climate change slide-show, won an Oscar for best documentary . The project made Gore the most visible advocate for action on climate change in the US – but it also made him an even greater target for the oil and coal lobby and Republicans. Republicans attacked Gore’s calls for climate action as a symbol of government excess. In recent years, the new conservative majority in the house of representatives has gone even further, casting almost any sort of environmental issue – including even a move to energy-saving bulbs – as an assault on personal freedom. But Gore came back into the spotlight last month in an essay in Rolling Stone in which he also accused Obama of failing to fight hard enough for climate action. Tuesday’s announcement, which echoed some of the themes in Gore’s Rolling Stone piece, suggests the former vice-president thinks the time has come for a broader fightback. “As the impacts of climate change are growing more prevalent, so is the resistance to finding the truth and implementing solutions. Just like the tobacco companies that spent decades in denial that smoking causes cancer, oil and coal companies are determined to sow denial and confusion about the science of climate change, ignore its impacts, and create apathy among our leaders,” the release said. “This event is the first step in a larger, multifaceted campaign to tell the truth about the climate crisis and reject the misinformation we hear every day.” Gore gave further details of the project in an interview with the climate blogger Joe Romm, saying the event would feature a new 30-minute slideshow with video on extreme weather events. Gore will host the event from New York City, but new content will be added to the slide show for the 24 locations used in each time zone. “Each site where a presentation originates will have basically the same 30-minute slide show, but with slides used in each time zone that illustrate particular impacts and particular efforts towards solutions at the venue representing than that time zone. And then the second 30 minutes of each hour will include a panel discussion focused on the climate crisis and the solutions to it from the perspective of leaders and scientists and others in that particular location. So it will be a 24-hour event,” he told Romm. Climate change Al Gore Activism Suzanne Goldenberg guardian.co.uk
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Weeks of fierce fighting sees troops consolidate positions less than 100 miles from the capital, Tripoli A flattened lamp-post, two neat rows of bullets and a no-left-turn sign lying on the tarmac road mark the frontline in Libya’s western mountains. Nearby are seven young men, leaning against a battle-scarred building they say was once a guardhouse for Italian soldiers during the second world war. Another sits on a rock, gazing into the desert of no man’s land in search of Muammar Gaddafi’s forces, said to be little more than a mile away. The advance in the Nafusa mountains has raised hopes of a significant breakthrough for rebels striving to reach Tripoli and topple Gaddafi. Whereas the battlefields in eastern Libya have reached a virtual stalemate, rebel soldiers have seized 25 miles of this arid, hot, rocky terrain in recent weeks, putting government troops on the defensive. But it is a hard campaign, an attritional struggle unlikely to meet Nato’s timetable for an end to the war, especially with a further slowdown expected for Ramadan next month. The rebels are forced to consolidate their incrementalgains before they can think about moving forward. The young men guarding the frontline post at Qawalish said Gaddafi’s troops tried to retake it two days ago and subject them to a nightly bombardment of Grad rockets, peaking from 11.30pm to 4am. “We are not scared,” said a 21-year-old, who gave his name as Ahmed, half-an-hour after another rocket had thudded into the earth nearby. “We are OK, we just take these things, we get used to it. It’s the Gaddafi army who’s afraid.” Sitting on a wooden crate of ammunition and wearing a Valencia football shirt, army trousers and trainers, Ahmed said he was risking his life for two reasons: “Democracy. Freedom.” Qawalish fell to the rebels a week ago as, mile by mile, they gradually push from west to east along the mountain ridge. On the road to the frontline the Guardian saw a series of ghost towns which were home to thousands of residents during peacetime. There were wrecked shop fronts and petrol stations, abandoned mosques, concrete buildings blackened by fire, cars blown upside down and tanks and rocket launchers apparently destroyed by Nato air strikes. Government soldiers who were not killed or captured during these battles appeared to have fled, leaving a trail of abandoned uniforms, boots and weapons still visible in the shade of trees where they once camped. Along roads the rebels used to move in on Qawalish, government forces planted 240 anti-personnel mines and 72 anti-tank mines, say Human Rights
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WikiLeaks founder’s counsel claims in high court that Swedish judges were misled about sexual assault and rape allegations The European arrest warrant issued for the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, is invalid, the high court was told on Tuesday, because of significant discrepancies between its allegations of sexual assault and rape and the testimonies of two women he allegedly had sex with. The warrant details four allegations of unlawful coercion, sexual molestation and rape, relating to encounters between Assange and two Swedish women while on a trip to Stockholm last August. But Ben Emmerson QC, for Assange, said the warrant was a misinterpretation of the evidence and it was “surprising and disturbing” that Swedish district judges who requested Assange’s extradition had been misled. Emmerson was opening the latest step in the Australian’s attempt to avoid being sent to Sweden for questioning and possible charges which Assange has said he fears could pave the way for him to be further extradited to the US. There he could face charges relating to the leak of hundreds of thousands of classified government documents through WikiLeaks. An earlier appeal failed and Assange has appointed a new legal team which is taking a more conciliatory approach. Emmerson told Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Ousely that there was no evidence about there being a lack of consent in the encounters as appeared to be suggested in the wording of the arrest warrant. He said three of the allegations would not amount to criminal offences under English law. Emmerson said: “The senior district judge found that those factual allegations would establish dual criminality on the basis that lack of consent, and lack of reasonable belief in consent, may properly be inferred from the conduct described, particularly the references to ‘violence’ and a ‘design’ to ‘violate sexual integrity’. However, that description of conduct is not accurate. The arrest warrant misstates the conduct and is, by that reason alone, an invalid warrant.” Emmerson examined the witness testimonies of the encounters in graphic detail. Referring to evidence of an encounter on the night of 13 August given by a woman known as AA who was hosting Assange at her apartment, Emmerson said: “The appellant’s physical advances were initially welcomed but then it felt awkward since he was ‘rough and impatient’… they lay down in bed. AA was lying on her back and Assange was on top of her … AA felt that Assange wanted to insert his penis into her vagina directly, which she did not want since he was not wearing a condom … she did not articulate this. Instead she therefore tried to turn her hips and squeeze her legs together in order to avoid a penetration … AA tried several times to reach for a condom which Assange had stopped her from doing by holding her arms and bending her legs open and try to penetrate her with his penis without using a condom. AA says that she felt about to cry since she was held down and could not reach a condom and felt this could end badly.” But, Emmerson said, crucially there was no lack of consent sufficient for the unlawful coercion allegation, because “after a while Assange asked what AA was doing and why she was squeezing her legs together. AA told him that she wanted him to put a condom on before he entered her. Assange let go of AA’s arms and put on a condom which AA found.” Emmerson told the court the case did not hinge on whether Assange accepted this version of events and others relating to other incidents because there were no charges against him, but whether the arrest warrant in connection with them was valid on “strict and narrow” legal grounds. As if to illustrate the change of strategy by Assange’s new legal team, Emmerson said: “Nothing I say should be taken as denigrating the complainant, the genuineness of their feelings of regret, to trivialise their experience or to challenge whether they felt Assange’s conduct was disrespectful, discourteous, disturbing or even pushing at the boundaries of what they felt comfortable with.” Assange was in court with supporters including Vaughan Smith, the founder of the Frontline Club who is hosting his house arrest at Ellingham Hall in Norfolk, and John Pilger, the veteran investigative journalist. Assange arrived at about 9.15am, saying nothing to questions as he moved at a snail’s pace through a tight scrum of photographers. He was asked if he was looking forward to his latest day in court and whether he would take the case to the supreme court if he lost over the next two days. He said nothing. By the court railings, small groups of protesters gathered, including one carrying a banner saying: “Free Assange! Free Manning! End the wars.” Julian Assange WikiLeaks Rape Sweden Europe Robert Booth guardian.co.uk
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Subpoena from 3M would force defence secretary Liam Fox to answer claim under oath in US court Liam Fox, the defence secretary, may be forced to give evidence in a blackmail trial in the United States, the Guardian has learnt. The “unprecedented” legal action could make Fox the first serving British cabinet minister to give evidence in a serious legal case in America. The Guardian understands that US conglomerate 3M is preparing to serve Fox with a subpoena demanding that he gives evidence over a claim that he was aware of a threat to interfere with the award of a knighthood to 3M’s British-born chief executive. It has been alleged that a private equity partner of the Ministry of Defence demanded that 3M hand over $30m (£18.5m) or risk the embarrassment of the government interfering with the knighthood award to George Buckley, 3M’s chief executive. It has been alleged that Fox was party to a conversation about the alleged suggestion. A 3M subpoena would force Fox to answer the claim under oath. An email to the private equity company from 3M’s lawyers, seen by the Guardian, said: “We request that you accept subpoenas on [Fox's] behalf for the production of documents and deposition upon oral testimony.” 3M’s lawyers have yet to serve a subpoena on Fox. Harvey Boulter, chief executive of Porton Capital, which worked with the government to develop innovative technology to help combat MRSA, has been accused of blackmail and served with legal papers. Boulter and Porton Capital deny the claim. According to 3M’s lawyers, Boulter told them that if an earlier legal battle over the MRSA technology was not settled out of court he would use his political influence to interfere with Buckley’s recently awarded knighthood. The blackmail case is built on emails Boulter sent to 3M’s lawyers last month. “As a result of my meeting [with Fox] you ought to understand that David Cameron’s cabinet might very shortly be discussing the rather embarrassing situation of George [Buckley]‘s knighthood. It was discussed today,” Boulter said in one of the emails. “Governments are big and sometimes decisions in one part are not well co-ordinated.” Bill Brewer, 3M’s lawyer, said: “We are committed to determine who aided, abetted or participated with Boulter in any manner relative to the demands that were made to 3M during the weekend of 18 June.” The MoD has denied that Fox discussed the continuing legal case or Buckley’s knighthood. However, in a new statement, Boulter has again claimed that he and Fox discussed the litigation. The MoD declined to issue a fresh statement. Mark Stephens, a high-profile media lawyer with London firm Finers Stephens Innocent, said: “Calling a serving British cabinet ministers to give evidence is pretty unprecedented.” Stephens said that if the subpoena is served Fox would be pushed to give evidence in America or speak to US lawyers in a British court. Private equity Liam Fox United States Defence policy Rupert Neate guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …President Obama put out his call yesterday for a Grand Bargain, which includes cuts to Medicare and Social Security as reported by Sam Stein. Many Democratic politicians like Nancy Pelosi have been railing against cutting our safety net programs to appease the Tea Party base over the debt ceiling. Well, guess who sided with the Dems? Sen. Olympia Snowe: Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe (ME) said she will not support any debt deal that includes cuts to the two social safety net programs, citing “strong bipartisan support.” “There are solvency problems with both programs. They have to be addressed but not as part of the debt reduction talks ,” Snowe told the Bangor Daily News. It’s unclear how she would square that position with her support for a balanced budget amendment. But Snowe added, “There are a lot of tax credits that are not needed and should be repealed” — a position with which Maine’s other Republican senator, Susan Collins, agreed. “We spend billions of dollars a year in subsidies that go to some very wealthy corporate farmers,” Collins said. There’s a lot of craziness infecting our political system since this debt ceiling kabuki dance began and now Snowe adds her voice to the debate. At least she’s on the right side of it even if her purposes are self serving or don’t match up with some of her other positions. Eric Cantor does take the cake with his absurd remarks: At his weekly press availability House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said the key Republican concession is “the fact that we are voting — the fact that we are even discussing voting for a debt ceiling increase.” He claimed this was a significant move. “What I don’t think the White House understands is how difficult it is for fiscal conservatives to say they’re going to vote to pay for a debt ceiling increase.” Just before leaving for the White House, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) also told reporters that a “balanced” approach is one where Obama agrees to the GOP’s fiscal framework and Republicans agree to prevent a default. “Most Americans would say that a balanced approach is a simple one: the administration gets its debt limit increase, and the American people get their spending cuts,” Boehner said. The glaring problem with this interpretation is that Republican leaders have admitted that raising the debt ceiling is imperative — not an arbitrary policy preference of the President’s. Well yes. But why should they give up real anything at this point when they are still getting so much without it? See, Republicans won’t destroy us if they get everything they want. That’s fair, isn’t it? Digby links to a very shrill post by Marc Toma on Obama’s presser. The Disappointing Embrace of Job Killing Austerity I just hope no deal gets done at all rather than see trillions of dollars of austerity cuts so millionaires don’t get a tax credit for flying around in private jets and then maybe we’ll have a clean vote on something that has always been clean. There are some who see three dimensional chess being played by the administration so the GOP looks like buffoons at the end of the day, but too much damage has already been done to poor Mr. John Maynard Keynes for me. If that is the case, then let us not forget what type of media world we live in and then please tell me what outcome will be transmitted to the public. I’d like to know.
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Shakil Afridi, who helped track down Osama bin Laden using DNA samples, is being held by ISI in Pakistan Fears are growing for the safety of the Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA search for Osama bin Laden, as relations between Islamabad and Washington move closer towards breakdown. Pakistan threatened to pull its soldiers off its side of the border with Afghanistan on Tuesday in a tit-for-tat move after the US said it would hold back $800m (£500m) of military aid. The doctor who helped the CIA, Shakil Afridi, is being held by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency. The Guardian has revealed that Afridi had worked for the CIA in the weeks leading up to the raid on the Bin Laden compound in Abbottabad, northern Pakistan, in an attempt to collect DNA samples from those who lived in the house. The intelligence agency wanted to confirm suspicions that the al-Qaida leader and his family were hiding there. The detention of Afridi has introduced further tension to US-Pakistani ties, which had already been damaged by the killing of Bin Laden by US forces on 2 May. Washington is concerned that Pakistan is not hunting down the network that kept Bin Laden in Abbottabad for five years but is instead on a witch-hunt for those who helped the CIA track him down. The doctor, a senior government employee, was initially detained in Peshawar in the north-west but may have been transferred to custody in Islamabad. It is thought that he has not been formally charged, which is not unusual for someone being held by the ISI. The Pakistani authorities are holding him for working for a foreign intelligence agency, which carries harsh punishment, including the death penalty. The Guardian story was headline news in Pakistan on Tuesday but so far, government officials have offered no comment. The CIA was never sure that Bin Laden was hiding in the Abbottabad house, so the Pakistani doctor, who would have been paid handsomely for his work for the CIA, was hired to try to collect DNA samples from those in the house to see if they were Bin Laden family members. Afridi set up a fake vaccination programme to get access to the Bin Laden compound. In Abbottabad, an atmosphere of fear hangs over the town, with Pakistani intelligence agents having terrified the population into silence. Washington is to withhold $800m of military aid to Pakistan. Much of that money would have gone toward reimbursing Pakistan for the costs of keeping over 100,000 troops in the tribal area, guarding the porous border with Afghanistan, under a scheme known as Coalition Support Funds. “This is money we have already spent on this war,” Ahmad Mukhtar, Pakistan’s defence minister, said in an interview with Express 24/7, a Pakistani news channel. “The next step is that the government or armed forces will remove these soldiers from the border.” According to figures released by Congress, Washington has paid Pakistan $8.9bn in Coalition Support Funds since 2001. The money is meant to pay for the costs of maintaining the Pakistani troops in the tribal area. Pakistan’s armed forces are accused of allowing militants to sneak across the border, from safe havens in the tribal area, to carry out attacks in Afghanistan. However, Pakistan says it maintains 1,100 border checkpoints. If they were removed, Taliban would be able to pour across unhindered, a potential disaster for the coalition effort in Afghanistan. But Mukhtar’s comment are likely to be a warning shot, as pulling out those troops from the tribal area would create a sizeable security threat to Pakistan too. Pakistan Osama bin Laden Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Saeed Shah guardian.co.uk
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Climate secretary unveils a package of far-reaching reforms in the biggest shake-up of the electricity market since privatisation • Follow the day’s events and post your comments here Households and businesses across the UK face a future of power blackouts unless they help to pay for major new investments in the country’s creaking infrastructure, the energy secretary warned on Tuesday. “We have to stop dithering – you can have blackouts or you can have investment. Which do you want?” asked Chris Huhne, unveiling a package of far-reaching reforms in the biggest shake-up of the electricity market since privatisation. He said the UK’s energy infrastructure, from ageing power stations to an outdated grid, was in such poor state that it would cost scores of billions of pounds to overhaul, even without investment in low-carbon generation. Government estimates show the total investment required in both electricity and gas is likely to be £200bn by 2020. The reforms – to come into effect from 2013 – include new long-term contracts for renewable energy generation, a minimum price for carbon emissions from fossil fuel plants, and contracts that encourage companies to help their customers become more energy efficient. Huhne also ushered in a new “dash for gas”, inviting the construction of new gas-fired power stations with a promise that a new ” emissions performance standard ” would be set at a rate that favoured gas but blocked new coal-fired power. He promised this new regulation would not be reviewed until 2015, and any revision would not be retroactive, giving gas companies a clear window for investment. “We are sending a clear signal that we do want new gas,” he said. Some critics have labelled the reforms too expensive, claiming they would add hundreds of pounds in “green taxes” to already stretched consumer energy bills and penalise heavy industry. But Huhne rebuffed claims that investing in greener energy – one of the aims of the reforms, as well as improving the security of electricity supply – would lead to an increase in bills. “I am absolutely convinced that what we are doing is the best possible solution for the British consumer,” he said. Government estimates show that if the reforms are implemented, consumers are likely to see smaller rises in their energy bills in the next two decades than if the current market is allowed to continue. On previous policies, consumers would face an increase of about £200 on a yearly bill by 2030, but because of the reforms, this increase is likely to be limited to £160. Charles Hendry, a Conservative energy minister, backed up his coalition partner. “One of the reasons [the UK has] historically had the lowest prices is that we have not seen the necessary investments in the replacement of new power plants,” he said. Green campaigners are concerned that the UK may be locked into an over-reliance on gas – not least because Huhne himself blamed recent energy bill rises on soaring gas prices. Friends of the Earth pointed out that gas prices have risen 84% since 2004, and domestic energy bills by 90%. Over the same period, the costs of renewables have increased to only about 1% of energy bills. Andy Atkins, executive director, said: “If we keep relying on dirty imported energy and expensive nuclear to power our homes, we’ll all pay the price for years to come.” Others complained that the government had not done enough to break the “stranglehold” of the six biggest energy companies, from which 99% of consumers get their energy. John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, said: “They have been given a continued licence to pocket rather than save customers money. For millions of consumers, many now living in fuel poverty, this white paper just increased the amount they will have to fork out each year without fundamentally changing the foundations for a shift to an energy efficient and renewable energy economy – the only way customers can in future be protected from the rise in fossil fuel prices.” Energy Green economy Energy bills Consumer affairs Household bills Energy industry Chris Huhne Green politics Fiona Harvey guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media ABC News presented undercover video Monday that confirms the clinic owned by Michele Bachmann and her husband Dr. Marcus Bachmann does indeed try to “pray away the gay.” The Nation reported last week that Andrew Ramirez’s mother took him to the clinic in 2004 at the age of 17 because he said he was gay. “[One counselor's] path for my therapy would be to read the Bible, pray to God that I would no longer be gay,” Ramirez said. “And God would forgive me if I were straight.” Undercover video from the pro-gay group Truth Wins Out provided further evidence that the Bachmann clinic practices gay-to-straight therapy. John Becker, who visited the clinic with two hidden cameras, was told that he could be completely free of his homosexual urges. “You’re in the midst of a storm, in the midst of a battle,” a therapist explained. “I think it’s possible to be totally free of them.” “The truth is God, God as designed our eyes to be attracted to the woman’s, to the woman’s body, to be attracted to, you know, everything. You know, to be attracted to her breasts,” he added. “He seemed to believe genuinely in his heart of hearts that, somehow, my homosexuality could be cured and could be eliminated,” Becker told ABC News. The American Psychological Association has said that there is no evidence that therapy can change sexual orientation.
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