MSNBC's advertisements for liberalism in its “Lean Forward” campaign aren't just on TV. Near the front of this week's edition of Newsweek is a one-page print ad with a picture of Chris Matthews at a desk. Underneath that image is a hand-written message, white type on black, like a chalkboard. This is the Matthews lecture we get, in all caps: that liberals “advance liberties” and beat conservatives: Over time, people who advance liberties tend to win the argument, whether it's for women, African Americans, immigrants, or the gay community. In the end, America takes the side of the people looking for rights. Then, in larger type, and emphasized with a rectangle drawn around it is this: “THAT'S ONE OF THE WONDERS OF THIS COUNTRY. EVENTUALLY, WE LIVE UP TO OUR IDEALS.” Signed, “– Chris Matthews”. After that is the obligatory “Lean Forward” logo at the bottom. Left unexplored in this assertion is the notion that “leaning forward” in this way is not just an expansion of rights, but often a reallocation of rights. Full civil and voting rights for blacks was living up to our ideals, but “affirmative action” insisted on affirmative discrimination against whites. Some college applicants or job applicants had their “rights” limited for liberal ideals. Granting “abortion rights” to women certainly limited a baby's right to life. How granting amnesty to illegal aliens (which isn't completely explicit in this sloganeering) is living up to our founding ideals isn't explored. “Living up to our ideals” on gay rights also means an end to the freedom of people to have a “discriminatory” [ie., traditional religious] opinion on the sinfulness of homosexuality. But most of all, making liberals into the liberty-advancers of the political debate is general is ludicrous.
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Media on standby for handover of tens of thousands of emails sent when Sarah Palin was governor of Alaska Sarah Palin is braced for the release of tens of thousands of emails sent when she was governor of Alaska and which opponents say could damage a potential run for the White House. The emails, copies of which will be obtained by the Guardian, date from her inauguration as governor in 2006 through to being propelled to fame as the Republican vice-presidential candidate in 2008. The controversial time saw her initial sky-high approval ratings plummet and ended up in a series of rows, including an ethics investigation and a falling-out with her running-mate, John McCain. Palin’s critics say she and her allies had stalled a Freedom of Information request for the emails made in September 2008. But Linda Perez, administrative director to the present Alaska governor Sean Parnell, a Palin ally, denied there had been any obstruction. “It was the sheer volume,” she said. “Nothing else.” Her office is due on Friday to hand over six boxes containing 24,199 pages of printed emails to the Guardian and other media organisations that had applied for copies. Our reporters will immediately begin sifting the documents for stories but the Guardian plans to publish thousands of the raw mails as quickly as possible to allow readers to scan them for interesting material. We’ll be asking users to help us by tagging unread mails according to the subjects they cover and how interesting they are, and alert our editors to those which warrant further investigation. The release comes the week after Palin’s highly publicised bus tour of the east coast in which she said she is still considering whether to seek the Republican nomination for the 2012 White House race. Palin, in an interview last week with Fox, said she was relaxed about the emails because every rock that could be kicked over had been. But a note of caution crept in when she added that “a lot of those emails obviously weren’t meant for public consumption”. She has a semi-authorised version of her time as governor due to be released next month as a documentary. Earlier email releases highlighted the big role that Palin’s husband, Todd, played behind-the-scenes in her administration. But these releases are dwarfed by today’s volume. Such is the level of interest in Palin that 15 US media organisations, including CNN, Fox, the New York Times and the Washington Post, are expected to crowd into the court building in the state capital to take possession of their copies. A media race will then begin to find any stories in the thousands of pages of printed mails. The main value of the emails will be in offering insights into her character. Her critics portray her as vindictive, small-minded and paranoid, more focused on celebrity than policy. Her supporters, including members of the Tea Party movement, blame such negative appraisals on a liberal media out to get her, citing bias in their failure to request the emails of Barack Obama and other prominent Democrats. Andree McLeod, a long-time Palin critic who lives in Anchorage and who is among the private citizens who made the original Freedom of Information request, said: “The emails will demonstrate Sarah’s fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants administration … the loose, rogue kind of government she ran.” McLeod is sceptical about how much damaging information will come out given the length of time Palin and her lawyers have had to go through them. About 2,275 emails have been withheld and some of the 24,199 have been redacted. Perez said that, with the release on Friday, staff will begin working on Freedom of Information requests dealing with Palin’s remaining time in office, up to her resignation in July 2009. The Guardian has t his week been the target of rightwing ire for reporting that Sarah Palin would be denied a meeting with one of her political idols, Lady Thatcher, on the grounds that it would be “belittling” for the former prime minister. The conservative radio host Rush Lindbaugh denounced the report , ahead of Palin’s brief visit to London next month, as “preposterous”. A Thatcher ally had told the Guardian that aides of the former Iron Lady, who is in poor health, would ensure she had an “off day” if necessary during Palin’s visit. Sarah Palin US politics Alaska Republicans Tea Party movement United States Ewen MacAskill guardian.co.uk
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PM is meeting university leaders in Whitehall to discuss the coalition’s blueprint for higher education The prime minister will meet university leaders in Whitehall to discuss the coalition’s long-awaited blueprint for higher education. The private meeting on Friday will be hosted by the universities minister, David Willetts, but David Cameron will attend some of it. The agenda for the meeting is thought to be the government’s white paper, which will outline reforms to higher education, and a discussion on how universities can contribute to the growth of the economy. Research Fortnight magazine claims universities have been unable to agree on any clear objectives for the meeting. There is feverish speculation in universities over when the white paper will be published. It has been delayed since January. Vince Cable, the business secretary, told MPs earlier this week that he believed it would be published next month. It is expected to pave the way for many more private colleges to offer degree places. The government believes this will spark more competition in the sector and therefore force universities to improve or be taken over. The government is also seeking to expand student numbers without extra cost to the taxpayer – and has considered a controversial proposal to let students pay for extra “off-quota” places that would not be funded by the state. Last year, MPs voted to raise tuition fees to a maximum of £9,000 by the autumn of 2012. But earlier this week, MPs on the Public Accounts Committee said ministers had underestimated how many universities would charge the maximum and now faced an annual bill that was “several hundred million pounds” higher than anticipated. The average fee of those universities that have made their plans for 2012 public is £8,765. The government modelled its plans on an average fee of £7,500. Gareth Thomas, Labour’s shadow universities minister, said Cameron needed to “fundamentally rethink his decision to treble tuition fees and cut university funds by so much”. “The quality of higher education is at stake too from major cuts in investment funding for new research and teaching facilities and from an expansion of US-style unregulated private for-profit providers.” The prime minister regularly meets vice-chancellors and did so before the vote on tuition fees in December last year. Education policy Liberal-Conservative coalition David Cameron Higher education Conservatives David Willetts guardian.co.uk
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Environment secretary holds drought summit with major water users as England and Wales face worst dry spell since 1990 Parts of East Anglia are officially in a state of drought, according to the English environment department Defra and the Environment Agency. Areas in the south-west, south-east, the Midlands and Wales are experiencing near-drought conditions following the driest spring on record in south-east and central southern England. Overall, England and Wales are at their driest since 1990. Widespread hosepipe bans are unlikely, although Severn Trent Water has said it is considering “every option”. Farmers face restrictions on drawing water from water courses and rivers to protect wildlife. Farmers’ leaders have appealed for authorities not to “just turn taps right off” and instead allow them to eke out supplies. They are attending a “drought summit” on Friday convened by the environment secretary, Caroline Spelman, which will include utility companies, supermarkets and industrial leaders. In East Anglia some farmers and growers have volunteered to irrigate only at night in an effort to reduce evaporation. Users are forming water co-operatives to share the limited amounts available. Spelman said: “Water companies are confident that supplies are high enough so that widespread restrictions to the public are unlikely. We’re doing all we can to reduce the impact on agriculture and wildlife, but everyone can play their part. “Households know how to use less water and everyone can do their bit to use water more wisely, not only through the summer but throughout the year.” She told the BBC that water companies were better prepared for the problems than in the past, having drastically cut leaks from pipes. “Just bringing in blanket bans can have unintended consequences. You can, for example, put a garden centre out of business.” Thames Water said its reservoirs were 90% full but urged customers to be careful in their water use as it was too early to predict what the summer would be like. Paul Leinster, the chief executive of the Environment Agency, said it had worked with water companies and other water users to have plans in place to cope with drought and ensure there was enough water for people, businesses and the environment. “Many rivers have low flows as result of the dry weather which can harm wildlife and increase the impact of pollution incidents, so we are stepping up our monitoring to be able to respond quickly. “Low river flows also impact on business, as it abstracts millions of gallons from rivers on a daily basis and we need to ensure this is sustainable.” Craig Bennett, the policy director of Friends of the Earth, told the BBC that although many water companies had “raised their game” on preserving supplies, successive governments had taken “precious little action” to stop “unsustainable abstractions” and limit building where there was not sufficient water infrastructure. Drought Water Caroline Spelman James Meikle guardian.co.uk
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Race circuit chairman says it ‘has been made clear that this fixture cannot progress and we fully respect that decision’ The Bahrain Grand Prix has finally been cancelled after Formula One teams complained about competing in the country, which has been racked by months of popular uprisings against the regime. Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone had already announced the race was now “not on” after a complaint from teams at the rescheduling of the event, which was initially put back to 30 October amid condemnation from human rights groups. The Bahrain International Circuit chairman, Zayed Alzayani, said: “While Bahrain would have been delighted to see the grand prix progress on 30 October in line with the World Motor Sport Council’s decision, it has been made clear that this fixture cannot progress and we fully respect that decision. “We want our role in Formula One to continue to be as positive and constructive as it has always been; therefore, in the best interest of the sport, we will not pursue the rescheduling of a race this season.” The Formula One Teams Association (Fota) wrote to the FIA on Tuesday with objections to the race being held, understood to be based on personnel and logistics. The event had been originally scheduled for March but was postponed as clashes intensified between Bahrain’s majority Shia population and the Gulf kingdom’s security forces, heavily backed by the forces of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. Pressure on organisers to not reschedule the motor race had been intense, with a Facebook campaign calling for its cancellation receiving 320,000 signatures. At least a quarter of staff from the Grand Prix’s organising committee, Bahrain International Circuit, all of them Shia, were sacked in April after being accused of taking part in anti-government demonstrations. Clashes have continued since martial law was lifted, though not on the same scale as the running battles seen in mid-February and March. Authorities have been pursuing Shia opposition supporters who staged street marches to demand greater freedoms, equal rights and an elected government in the island kingdom. As the violence intensified, the calls for reform became calls for an overthrow of the 200-year-old Sunni dynasty, which demonstrators say actively discriminates against the country’s majority Shia population. Formula One Bahrain Arab and Middle East unrest Protest Middle East Motor sport David Batty guardian.co.uk
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enlarge Putting Freebasing in the dictionary wasn’t his original intention. Click here to view this media Not a terribly good day if you were a popular Comedian or a President. News bulletins broke over the air on June 9, 1980 of an accident concerning Richard Pryor , which left him hospitalized in critical condition and with a 25-30% chance of survival. All because of, initially reported, an exploding Butane Lighter. A few raised eyebrows, to be sure. But later it was revealed Pryor was allegedly engaged in that recent phenomenon known as “Freebasing” – another new word to quickly enter our Lexicon of Popular Culture. Meanwhile, President Carter had his woes but certainly not of the pharmaceutical kind. His was an angry crowd in Miami, mostly blacks displaced by the recent riots. With tossed bottles and rocks at the motorcade as it left downtown Miami. Carter claimed unawares, although the photographer who was cold-cocked from a “things go better with” bottle claimed otherwise. And not the least of the Carter woes came in the form of a foul up in speaker appearances in Seattle that threatened to put him on the same podium as Presidential Challenger Senator Ted Kennedy, causing ruffled feathers and egg smeared faces from the organizers. The Kennedy camp grimaced and said “thanks, but no thanks”. And meanwhile, the Middle East continued to be the Middle East with on-again/off-again/maybe/kind-of peace negotiations between all the usual suspects stopping and starting every other minute or so. And so the World turned, albeit akimbo on this 9th day of June in 1980. As reported by CBS Radio Hourly News.
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In the aftermath of Rep. Anthony Weiner getting caught for sending lewd images of himself through Twitter, Congressmen have been tweeting less, reports The Hill. (LIST: The 10 Best Weinergate Tweets) It’s impossible to say whether the drop in tweeting by lawmakers is attributable to Weiner’s problems, as last week did include the Memorial Day
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Cabinet secretary approves investigation into leak, which appears designed to damage shadow chancellor Sir Gus O’Donnell, the cabinet secretary, sanctioned an investigation in the early hours of Friday morning into the leaking of private papers belonging to Ed Balls after a complaint from the shadow chancellor. In an extraordinary twist to the leaking of the papers to the Daily Telegraph , which appears designed to damage Balls , the cabinet secretary approved an investigation after the shadow chancellor complained that he last saw the documents in the education department a year ago. The documents show Balls was the key figure in “Project Volvo”, designed to oust Tony Blair and prepare Brown for the Labour party premiership. Balls contacted David Bell, permanent secretary at the education department, to say he last saw the papers in a file on his desk at the department shortly before the general election. The papers were not among correspondence sent to his Commons office after the election, by which time Balls had stood down as education secretary. Bell formally ordered the inquiry after consulting O’Donnell. The office of Balls indicated early on Friday morning that Balls: • Last saw the papers in a file on his desk in the DCSF with other personal items before he left for the general election. • Has not seen the papers since, was not aware they were missing until now and, to the best of his knowledge, they were not in the boxes of papers and belongings that arrived in his House of Commons office from the department after the election. The investigation will raise questions about whether the new government was involved in the leaking of the papers. Ed Balls Tony Blair Politics past Labour Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum hopes that Google will do something to disassociate his name with with a sex act. The top search results on the worlds most popular Internet search engine conflates the former senator’s name with anal sex . MSNBC’s Chuck Todd talked to Santorum about his “Google issue” Thursday. “Do you think google has any responsibility in how its search engine works,” Todd asked. “It comes with the territory,” Santorum explained. “There are foul people out there who do horrible things. It’s unfortunate some people thought it would be a big joke to make fun of my name. That comes with the territory.” “You don’t think google should step in themselves?” Todd prodded. “I don’t know how they’ve treated other circumstances and other situations, whether they treated it differently than mine. I would suggest that if they have treated it differently and have done things stop this kind of this vile activity and filth on the Internet, they should apply it equally to me and everybody else,” Santorum said.
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On Thursday's Early Show, CBS's Seth Doane and Chris Wragge lauded playwright Larry Kramer and his ” brilliantly done … and very good ” play, “The Normal Heart,” while glossing over his long history of radical homosexual activism. Kramer once denigrated former President Ronald Reagan as ” Adolf Reagan ” and even went so far to call for ” Nuremberg trials ” to try not only Reagan, but even the top brass of the New York Times for perpetrating a ” holocaust ” against homosexuals. Doane's report on the Tony-nominated play aired 14 minutes into 8 am Eastern hour as part of the morning show's regular “CBS Health Watch” feature. The correspondent touted “The Normal Heart” as “a moving reminder of how far we've come, and how far we still have to go.” After playing some clips from the active Broadway production, Doane played his first clips from his interview of Kramer. The writer himself made the only vague reference to his role as an “activist,” and the journalist decided to highlight how his subject passed out literature after each showing of the play: DOANE (voice-over): Playwright Larry Kramer based the main character, Ned Weeks, on his own life. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR 1 (from the play “The Normal Heart”): Welcome to gay politics- DOANE: A man outraged at those ignoring the disease. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR 1: I'm beginning to think that you and your straight world are our enemy – KRAMER: I was not an activist until 1981, believe it or not . DOANE (on-camera, from taped interview): Until AIDS. KRAMER: Until AIDS, yes. DOANE (voice-over): (clip of protesters chanting, “Hey hey, ho ho”) Back in '81, when those first cases appeared, AIDS was called a 'gay cancer'- little was known, though much was feared …. DOANE (on-camera): The actors told us that the director told them to think of this as a horror story. KRAMER: It was that. It was- it's still a horror story. DOANE (voice-over): AIDS rates continue to climb, with 7,000 new cases identified worldwide every day, giving reason for Kramer to keep fighting . ELLEN BARKIN, TONY NOMINEE, FEATURE ACTRESS IN A PLAY: You will find Larry Kramer outside the theater, handing out a flier, educating the audiences . Later in the segment, Doane used Kramer's own label about himself as he interviewed a doctor who treats AIDS patients: DOANE (on-camera): Are activists, like Larry Kramer , raising their voice today, 30 years later, for good reason? DR. JONATHAN JACOBS, INFECTIOUS DISEASES, WEILL CORNELL MEDICAL CENTER: Oh, the activists are definitely raising their voice for good reason. Unfortunately, most of the activists from the early days have actually died of this disease. So, there are fewer left. The playwright is much more than a mere “activist” (he gave a further hint of his radicalism with the copy of ” The Chomsky-Foucault Debate on Human Nature ” that was proudly displayed on his desk, but only momentarily visible during the report; see screen cap here . Of course, both Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault are well-known leftists.). The militant organization ACT UP, which infamously disrupted a Catholic Mass at New York City's St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1989, credits Kramer as being an inspiration for the founding of the organization for a speech beseeching the local homosexual community to become more politically active. Over a decade later, after the 2004 death of former President Reagan, the writer published an essay in The Advocate magazine bearing the ” Adolf Hitler ” slur as its title. As MRC president Brent Bozell noted in his June 16 column that year , the essay began with even more vitriol: ” Our murderer is dead. The man who murdered more gay people than anyone in the entire history of the world, is dead. More people than Hitler even .” Two year later, Bozell spotlighted Kramer again as he expanded his Nazi comparison to include not only Reagan, but also the leaders of The New York Times: Just a few weeks ago, a…panel on the 25th anniversary of the first New York Times article on AIDS included radical activist Larry Kramer, who distributed his wild remarks in advance, claiming among other things that ” the gay population of the world has been and continues to be targeted for extinction .” His written remarks also called for ” Nuremberg trials ” to hold not only the late Ronald Reagan, but the owners and editors of – how's this for gratitude?– The New York Times to be tried like Nazi war criminals for the AIDS holocaust . None of this came up at any point during Doane's report. In fact, he and Wragge concluded the segment with further praise of the writer: DOANE (voice-over): But with 'The Normal Heart' now on Broadway, Larry Kramer is affecting a new generation of audiences . DOANE (on-camera): When I watched the play, there were people all around me in tears by the end . KRAMER: Good. I wrote this play to make people cry- good. It's the saddest thing I've ever known. DOANE: AIDS? KRAMER: AIDS- the whole thing; not just the illness, the fact that people die needlessly . That's what makes you cry. DOANE (live): In the production, the real names of those who've died because of AIDS are projected on the stage. It's a tragic list that only continues to grow. The play is scheduled to remain on Broadway through July 10th. WRAGGE: And it is a brilliant play – DOANE: It really is – WRAGGE: We've talked to Jim Parsons, who has been on the program before. Ellen Barkin is wonderful in it . James Benjamin Hickey, like you mentioned, also nominated for a Tony for it. For a play that sends such a wonderful message, I don't want to, I guess, give the impression to the people that it's this one real long, depressing play. It's brilliantly done and it's very good . DOANE: And it's funny – WRAGGE: Yeah- DOANE: There are a lot of very funny moments through the entire production. The audience is laughing and crying, but mostly crying by the end. WRAGE: But Mr. Kramer is- he's out there at the end, handing out those pamphlets . DOANE: He is. WRAGGE: Seth, thank you very much.
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