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| Re: From The Press (World Topics) [message #109405 is a reply to message #108363 ] |
Fri, 31 July 2009 11:56   |
 sh 
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From Today's Wall Street Journal
German Firm in Iran Bans Staff Protests
By FARNAZ FASSIHI and MATTHEW KARNITSCHNIG
A privately owned German company, Knauf Gips KG, warned its Iranian employees working in Iran that they would be immediately dismissed if caught in antigovernment protests, according to a document reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Iran's government pressured Knauf to issue the order after a senior executive was arrested during Friday prayer demonstrations two weeks ago, according to people familiar with the case. The company, which has 22,000 employees around the world, was told that such a letter would be a condition for the executive's release.
The order by Knauf, a drywall-manufacturing company with decades of business history in Iran, shows how foreign companies in Iran are vulnerable to severe repercussions if they don't comply with demands from the regime.
Since protests following Iran's June 12 presidential election, Iran has cracked down on opposition supporters, particularly Iranians or dual nationals employed by Western companies, embassies and the media. Iran has accused some of fomenting a "velvet" revolution and acting as links between opposition leaders and foreign countries.
Protesters have come from all walks of life. The employee at the center of the Knauf controversy is a 34-year-old dual national of Germany and Iran and heads the company's Iran operation. He was released four days after Knauf agreed to issue the order but faces trial, according to the company and others.
Isabel Knauf, a founding-family member who is on the supervisory board of the Iran operation, signed a letter that was circulated confidentially to its hundreds of Iranian employees on July 21.
"We would like to remind all of our employees to remember that they are not only representing their private opinion when being politically active, but their actions could fall back negatively on our Knauf companies in Iran," said the letter, which was reviewed by the Journal. "Therefore, from now on, if anybody from our company gets caught demonstrating against the current government, he or she will be immediately dismissed."
Germany's commercial relations with Iran stretch back to the Middle Ages and have been particularly strong since the beginning of 20th century. Germany is Iran's third-largest trading partner after the United Arab Emirates and China.
Some 85 German companies have operations in Iran, ranging from Deutsche Lufthansa AG to auto supplier ZF Friedrichshafen AG, according to the German-Iranian Chamber of Commerce. In addition, 7,000 to 8,000 German companies conduct business in Iran through local representatives, the chamber says.
Iran has been heavily criticized in the West, particularly by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for its use of force in crushing opposition rallies against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
So far, Bavaria-based Knauf appears to be the only German company to issue such an order, according to Michael Tockuss, managing director of the Hamburg-based German-Iranian Chamber of Commerce. Other companies have advised employees to avoid large crowds for their own safety, he said.
But the crisis is having an impact on foreign companies, consultants said. "Certainly, it is not business as usual for Western companies in Iran; not under these circumstances," said an Iranian consultant in Dubai.
Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler AG, which has a representative office in Tehran, places no restrictions on employees' political activities outside work hours, according to a spokeswoman.
A number of major German companies active in Iran, including Siemens AG, Linde AG and BASF AG, said they have similar policies. "If employees are politically active, that is their private business," said Thomas Moller, a spokesman for BASF.
Reached by phone in Turkey, Ms. Knauf described the situation as "very complicated," declining to discuss the matter in detail because the case is pending. People close to the company said their primary concern in writing the letter was the executive's safety.
Knauf General Counsel Jörg Schanow said employees aren't allowed under company policy to participate in demonstrations as company representatives. Knauf's intention with the letter wasn't to forbid its Iranian employees from participating in all demonstrations, he said. "One should exercise some restraint if such actions are going to damage the company," Mr. Schanow said.
Founded in 1932 by two brothers, Karl and Anton Knauf, the company is run by the founders' sons. In addition to drywall, Knauf makes other building materials, and has annual revenue of about €5.5 billion ($7.7 billion). Its U.S. operation, in Shelbyville, Ind., makes building insulation.
Some Iranian employees of European companies in Iran expressed outrage at being punished by a European company for practicing democratic values such as protesting. They said European companies should use their economic clout and long ties to pressure Iran's government to respect human rights.
A German Foreign Ministry spokesman said the government wasn't aware of the Knauf case but added, "If it's true that German companies are restricting or forbidding staff from demonstrating, then the German government doesn't welcome it."
Some Western governments have tried to discourage firms from trading with Iran or investing heavily there, partly because of sanctions and because of Mr. Ahmadinejad's hostile standoffs with the West over Iran's nuclear program.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124900417227095813.html#mod= rss_whats_news_us
—Almut Schoenfeld and Marcus Walker contributed to this article.
Write to Farnaz Fassihi at farnaz.fassihi@wsj.com and Matthew Karnitschnig at matthew.karnitschnig@wsj.com
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| Re: From The Press (World Topics) [message #110203 is a reply to message #109405 ] |
Thu, 08 October 2009 12:06 |
sh
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New Study Estimates Global Muslim Population at 1.57 Billion
Nearly a Quarter of World Population is Muslim
October 7, 2009
WASHINGTON, Oct. 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new, comprehensive demographic
study of more than 200 countries finds that there are 1.57 billion Muslims of
all ages living in the world today, representing 23% of an estimated 2009
world population of 6.8 billion. Released today by the Pew Research Center's
Forum on Religion & Public Life, Mapping the Global Muslim Population offers
the most up-to-date and fully sourced estimates of the size and distribution
of the worldwide Muslim population, including sectarian identity.
Key findings include:
-- While Muslims are found on all five inhabited continents, more than
60%
of the global Muslim population is in Asia and about 20% is in the
Middle East and North Africa.
-- The Middle East-North Africa region has the highest percentage of
Muslim-majority countries. More than half of the 20 countries and
territories in that region have populations that are approximately 95%
Muslim or greater.
-- More than 300 million Muslims, or one-fifth of the world's Muslim
population, live in countries where Islam is not the majority
religion.
These minority Muslim populations are often quite large. India, for
example, has the third-largest population of Muslims worldwide. China
has more Muslims than Syria, while Russia is home to more Muslims than
Jordan and Libya combined.
-- Of the total Muslim population, 10-13% are Shia Muslims and 87-90% are
Sunni Muslims. Most Shias (between 68% and 80%) live in just four
countries: Iran, Pakistan, India and Iraq.
Previously published estimates of the size of the global Muslim population
have ranged widely, from 1 billion to 1.8 billion. The new study is based on
the best available data for 232 countries and territories. Pew Forum
researchers, in consultation with nearly 50 demographers and social scientists
at universities and research centers around the world, analyzed about 1,500
sources, including census reports, demographic studies and general population
surveys, to arrive at these figures -- the largest project of its kind to
date.
The report includes an executive summary, maps and charts illustrating
Muslims' geographic distribution, explanations of the study's methodologies
and a list of data sources by country. The report is available online
(http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=450).
These findings on the world Muslim population lay the foundation for a
forthcoming study by the Pew Forum, scheduled to be released in 2010, that
will estimate growth rates among Muslim populations worldwide and project
Muslim populations into the future. The Pew Forum plans to undertake similar
demographic studies of the major global religions in the future.
The Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life delivers timely,
impartial information on issues at the intersection of religion and public
affairs. The Pew Forum is a nonpartisan, nonadvocacy organization and does not
take positions on policy debates. Based in Washington, D.C., the Pew Forum is
a project of the Pew Research Center, which is funded by The Pew Charitable
Trusts.
--------
SOURCE Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life
Loralei Coyle, Communications Manager, +1-202-419-4556, or Robert Mills,
Communications Associate, +1-202-419-4564, both of Pew Research Center's Forum
on Religion & Public Life
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| Re: From The Press (World Topics) [message #110213 is a reply to message #110206 ] |
Thu, 08 October 2009 13:43 |
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| Walid wrote on Thu, 08 October 2009 12:57 |
Did Pew release other studies on other religions or is this mainly a Muslim thing since the report posted ends with something about Pew looking into other religions in the futute? A quick check on Pew revealed that it's a charity trust with a budget of $300 millions in 2008 and it;s into all kinds of social studies and programs.
There's a report on the net in which it explains that in about 20 or 25 years, there will be more Muslims than any others in countries like France, Holland, the UK, Germany, and several others. It appears to be a hoax and after a couple of hours chasing after a source and finding nothing, I gave up on it. For non-Muslims it was a spooky report.
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I agree. I thought the same when I read the report (it seems tailored to thew political message of anti immiration parties)
There is not going to be a majority of Muslims in the UK, France and Germany in 20-25 years. Before that happens, the electorate will turn to the far right for stricter asylum policies, for reports like this one would make people fear for their culture.
Magnus K.
"The thing that's wrong with the French is that they don't have a word for entrepreneur." -George W. Bush
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| Re: From The Press (World Topics) [message #111126 is a reply to message #110236 ] |
Wed, 21 October 2009 23:30 |
sh
Messages: 8918
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Location: Israel |
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Reporters Without Borders have published their Press Freedom Index for 2009. You can see how countries are ranked.
"Press freedom must be defended everywhere in the world with the same energy and the same insistence," Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-François Julliard said today as his organisation issued its eighth annual world press freedom index.
"It is disturbing to see European democracies such as France, Italy and Slovakia fall steadily in the rankings year after year," Julliard said. "Europe should be setting an example as regards civil liberties. How can you condemn human rights violations abroad if you do not behave irreproachably at home? The Obama effect, which has enabled the United States to recover 16 places in the index, is not enough to reassure us."
Reporters Without Borders compiles the index every year on the basis of questionnaires that are completed by hundreds of journalists and media experts around the world. This year's index reflects press freedom violations that took place between 1 September 2008 and 31 August 2009.
Europe no longer an example?
Europe long set an example in press freedom but several European nations have fallen significantly in this year's index. Even if the first 13 places are still held by European countries, others such as France (43rd), Slovakia (44th) and Italy (49th) continue their descent, falling eight, 37 and five places respectively. In so doing, they have given way to young democracies in Africa (Mali, South Africa and Ghana) and the western hemisphere (Uruguay and Trinidad and Tobago).
Journalists are still physically threatened in Italy and Spain (44th), but also in the Balkans, especially Croatia (78th), where the owner and marketing director of the weekly Nacional were killed by a bomb on 23 October 2008.
But the main threat, a more serious one in the long term, comes from new legislation. Many laws adopted since September 2008 have compromised the work of journalists. One adopted by Slovakia (44th) has introduced the dangerous concept of an automatic right of response and has given the culture minister considerable influence over publications.
Israel: operation media crackdown
Operation Cast Lead, Israel's military offensive against the Gaza Strip, had an impact on the press. As regards its internal situation, Israel sank 47 places in the index to 93rd position. This nose-dive means it has lost its place at the head of the Middle Eastern countries, falling behind Kuwait (60th), United Arab Emirates (86th) and Lebanon (61st).
Israel has begun to use the same methods internally as it does outside its own territory. Reporters Without Borders registered five arrests of journalists, some of them completely illegal, and three cases of imprisonment. The military censorship applied to all the media is also posing a threat to journalists.
As regards its extraterritorial actions, Israel was ranked 150th. The toll of the war was very heavy. Around 20 journalists in the Gaza Strip were injured by the Israeli military forces and three were killed while covering the offensive.
Iran at gates of infernal trio
Journalists have suffered more than ever this year in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Iran.
The president's disputed reelection plunged the country into a major crisis and fostered regime paranoia about journalists and bloggers.
Automatic prior censorship, state surveillance of journalists, mistreatment, journalists forced to flee the country, illegal arrests and imprisonment – such is the state of press freedom this year in Iran.
Already at the lower end of the rankings in previous years, Iran has now reached the gates of the infernal trio at the very bottom – Turkmenistan (173rd), North Korea (174th) and Eritrea (175th) – where the media are so suppressed they are non-existent.
Obama effect brings US back into top 20
The United States has climbed 16 places in the rankings, from 36th to 20th, in just one year. Barack Obama's election as president and the fact that he has a less hawkish approach than his predecessor have had a lot to do with this.
But this sharp rise concerns only the state of press freedom within the United States. President Obama may have been awarded the Nobel peace prize, but his country is still fighting two wars. Despite a slight improvement, the attitude of the United States towards the media in Iraq and Afghanistan is worrying. Several journalists were injured or arrested by the US military. One, Ibrahim Jassam, is still being held in Iraq.
http://www.rsf.org/en-classement1003-2009.html
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| Re: From The Press (World Topics) [message #111134 is a reply to message #111126 ] |
Thu, 22 October 2009 07:41 |
Walid 
Messages: 14089
Registered: October 2006 |
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| sh wrote on Wed, 21 October 2009 23:30 |
Europe no longer an example?
...France (43rd), Slovakia (44th) and Italy (49th)... they have given way to young democracies in Africa (Mali, South Africa and Ghana) and the western hemisphere (Uruguay and Trinidad and Tobago).
Journalists are still physically threatened in Italy and Spain (44th), but also in the Balkans, especially Croatia (78th), where the owner and marketing director of the weekly Nacional were killed by a bomb on 23 October 2008.
Israel: operation media crackdown Operation Cast Lead, Israel's military offensive against the Gaza Strip, had an impact on the press. As regards its internal situation, Israel sank 47 places in the index to 93rd position. This nose-dive means it has lost its place at the head of the Middle Eastern countries, falling behind Kuwait (60th), United Arab Emirates (86th) and Lebanon (61st).
As regards its extraterritorial actions, Israel was ranked 150th. The toll of the war was very heavy. Around 20 journalists in the Gaza Strip were injured by the Israeli military forces and three were killed while covering the offensive.
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These revelations are probably shocking to see for some here that believe that Europe can do no wrong and that third world countries are in no way comparable to it or others that still believe themselves about Israel being the only democracy in the Middle-East. Ranking 93rd overall and 150thin extraterritorial actions would normally tell people that they should stop with the phony bragging. But then again, most Isrelis don't give a damn what others thing because they are sure that the sun revolves around them.
[Updated on: Thu, 22 October 2009 07:51]
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| Re: From The Press (World Topics) [message #111138 is a reply to message #111134 ] |
Thu, 22 October 2009 08:18 |
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| Walid wrote on Thu, 22 October 2009 07:41 |
| sh wrote on Wed, 21 October 2009 23:30 |
Europe no longer an example?
...France (43rd), Slovakia (44th) and Italy (49th)... they have given way to young democracies in Africa (Mali, South Africa and Ghana) and the western hemisphere (Uruguay and Trinidad and Tobago).
Journalists are still physically threatened in Italy and Spain (44th), but also in the Balkans, especially Croatia (78th), where the owner and marketing director of the weekly Nacional were killed by a bomb on 23 October 2008.
Israel: operation media crackdown Operation Cast Lead, Israel's military offensive against the Gaza Strip, had an impact on the press. As regards its internal situation, Israel sank 47 places in the index to 93rd position. This nose-dive means it has lost its place at the head of the Middle Eastern countries, falling behind Kuwait (60th), United Arab Emirates (86th) and Lebanon (61st).
As regards its extraterritorial actions, Israel was ranked 150th. The toll of the war was very heavy. Around 20 journalists in the Gaza Strip were injured by the Israeli military forces and three were killed while covering the offensive.
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These revelations are probably shocking to see for some here that believe that Europe can do no wrong and that third world countries are in no way comparable to it or others that still believe themselves about Israel being the only democracy in the Middle-East. Ranking 93rd overall and 150thin extraterritorial actions would normally tell people that they should stop with the phony bragging. But then again, most Isrelis don't give a damn what others thing because they are sure that the sun revolves around them.
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We are still ahead of Sweden, which is, after all, what is most important with the entire index 
I am sorry, I became a bit guilty of the "sun revolves around" bit.
Still, never underestimate the joy beating Sweden in...anything...gives a shameless Norwegian 
[Updated on: Thu, 22 October 2009 08:23]
Magnus K.
"The thing that's wrong with the French is that they don't have a word for entrepreneur." -George W. Bush
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| Re: From The Press (World Topics) [message #111819 is a reply to message #111324 ] |
Wed, 04 November 2009 17:31 |
ODP1 
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UNITED NATIONS -- The U.S. called on the United Nations to take action after a Security Council committee said Iran violated international sanctions banning it from exporting munitions, which the U.S. says were headed to Syria.
A U.S. official said the incident occurred Jan. 19 and 20, when the Cypriot-flagged Monchegorsk, which originated in Iran, was boarded in the Red Sea by the USS San Antonio. The ship was ordered to port in Cyprus, where authorities there found 1,980 wooden cases of powder for 130mm guns and 1,320 cases of powder and powder pellets for 125mm guns, according to a Cypriot government report reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Also discovered were 60 barrels full of 39mm shells, 810 cases of propellant for 125mm guns and eight cases of 120mm mortar components, the report said. Three of the 98 containers onboard were too heavy to move and still haven't been searched, the report said. The munitions are being stored on Cyprus.
Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., told reporters after a meeting of the 15-member Security Council Tuesday that she "clearly condemned the violation of the Monchegorsk vessel." She said she backed the move by the council's committee monitoring the sanctions to give Iran and Syria 10 working days "to provide prompt explanation for their actions."
"We would then expect the committee to follow up and take any appropriate action," Ms. Rice said, but added, "I don't think this is the place to foreshadow what that action will be."
After the Security Council meeting, Iran issued a statement that ignored the U.N. findings and reasserted that its nuclear program was peaceful.
The incident comes amid continued concern about Iran's nuclear enrichment program, which the West fears has a military purpose. Iran says the program is for civilian use only. The Security Council three times imposed sanctions on Iran to force it to suspend enrichment. Though the Obama administration has signaled a thawing of relations with Iran, Ms. Rice told the Security Council that after this incident the U.N. must redouble its efforts to monitor the sanctions.
The discovery of arms is worrying to Washington because the U.S. and Israel have long maintained that Iran and Syria supply Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza with armaments.
In a March, 2007 resolution, the Security Council imposed an arms export embargo on Iran tacitly designed to prevent those groups from getting arms. The resolution suggests that embargo violations can be punished by non-military measures "such as complete or partial interruption of economic relations and ... the severance of diplomatic relations."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123673405099190313.html
"The idea of a two state solution is strongly supported [by Pals] but only if the border is the 1967 border and refugees are given the right of return. The question is what type of two state solution [is supported]?"- Dr Jabil Rabah Near East Consulting
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| Re: From The Press (World Topics) [message #112094 is a reply to message #111916 ] |
Tue, 17 November 2009 18:30 |
ODP1
Messages: 6658
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http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/taliban-blames-b lackwater-for-pakistan-bombings/?hp
On Monday, Al Jazeera reported that a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban said the group accepted responsibility for only some of the recent suicide bombings in Pakistan, laying the blame for others, including a deadly attack on a market last month that killed more than 100 civilians, on the American security firm formerly known as Blackwater. The spokesman claimed that the firm, now called Xe, was involved in an attempt to discredit the militants by staging deadly attacks.
This video report from Al Jazeera includes shots of of Azam Tariq, a spokesman for the broad alliance of Pakistani militant groups known as the Tehrik-i-Taliban, saying, "I want to tell the people in Pakistan and the Muslim nation that the Tehrik-i-Taliban are not responsible for the bombings, but Blackwater and Pakistan's spy agency are behind them."
According to The Associated Press, the spokesman tried to pass off blame for two recent attacks that were particularly deadly, saying:
The dirty Pakistani intelligence agencies, for the sake of creating mistrust and hatred among people against the Taliban, are carrying out blasts at places like the Islamic university, Islamabad, and the Khyber bazaar, Peshawar.
The A.P. also reported that the video, posted on YouTube on Sunday, bore the logo of Al Qaeda's media wing, As-Sahab. The A.P. noted that this was "the first time the Taliban spokesman has appeared in an As-Sahab video," suggesting that there are "growing links between the two groups."
An earlier report on the Web site of The Daily Times, a publication based in Lahore, said that the spokesman had also suggested that the ruling Pakistan People's Party was involved in the attacks, adding, "All these killings by the infamous Blackwater are aimed at maligning the Taliban."
"The idea of a two state solution is strongly supported [by Pals] but only if the border is the 1967 border and refugees are given the right of return. The question is what type of two state solution [is supported]?"- Dr Jabil Rabah Near East Consulting
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| Re: From The Press (World Topics) [message #112339 is a reply to message #112094 ] |
Sun, 22 November 2009 06:02 |
Walid
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This article is not what's in the press but about the press itself. It discusses the dying days of New York City's last 2 remaining rags and the author explains why he wishes a faster death upon them. Although Christopher Ketcham wrote it in a quasi-humouristic manner, he is dead serious in his contempt for New York's not so finest tabloids; as part of his dislikes, Israel, that he refers to as the "hegemon", evidently occupies a front seat:
November 19, 2009
Please Die!
The Dumbest Newspapers at the Center of the World
By CHRISTOPHER KETCHAM
http://www.counterpunch.com/ketcham11192009.html
How can one describe appropriately the act of sitting down to read – if that's even the proper term for the experience – the New York Post and Daily News, the two remaining big city tabloids in America's biggest city? I am tempted toward the kind of hyperbole one finds in their pages. Reading the Post/News, I imagine, is like getting your head bashed in by a half-naked drunk on a corner who then apologizes by rubbing the sports section on your belly. It's like having rats run up your leg to whisper in your ear that the cheese on Page 6 is all the truth ye need to know. It's like finding a pubic hair in your teeth only to be told, "That's dinner. Enjoy." One feels that brain cells have been lost after only a few minutes with the tabloids, that the scope of reality has been reduced to a pinhead somewhere in a pile of New York hay (good luck finding it), that one has entered a funhouse of comic book casuistry where good and evil vie in the best-accoutered spandex for control – the world of the purely reductionist, the world of the line-toeing moral pedant drill sergeant who is at once willfully stupid, resentfully petty, painfully gimmicky, groaningly hamfisted, who tosses anvils from skyscrapers to kill a fly...while at the same time a voice, loud and strong and god-like, announces: "Dear reader, whatever prejudice and misconception you already have about government, Wall Street, the economy, education, race, religion, and your bad health, we will confirm. Just buy the paper!" The tabloids offer a wondrous kind of "news" in that one almost always feels less informed as a result of their reporting, truth per usual being hostage to the braying of headlines and the battle for circulation and the art of reducing complexity, nuance, ambiguity, contradiction – reality! – to column-inches that can be clutched in a child's hand and are forgotten a day later. (The news never stops – except to drive out truth with the harpies of the "deadline".)
So, for example, we have the primal scream, the ape-like pounding of chest and head, over the decision by the Obama Administration last Friday to try the alleged 9/11 conspirators in Manhattan federal court. The bloodlust of the past week in the Post and the News, taken as artifice and political propaganda, has something leadenly Al Qaeda-like about it in the execution but shows none of the mastery of the language. Osama bin Laden is in fact a mite bit smarter in his message: At least he has the courtesy to explain, in clear and precise words, that the Islamists have good reason to hate the United States government because of its endless meddling in the Middle East. (Such a long list: an embargo that kills half-a-million Iraqi children in the 1990s; invasion and occupation that chalks up an Iraqi death toll now approaching 700,000; the persistent blind-mole blowjobbery via bombs and ammo and aircraft handed over to the Israeli hegemon to keep Palestinians in concentration camps and ensure a regional arms race; the propping up of the oil-deranged criminal caliphates and fat-necked strongmen who would rather their good citizens, along with the Palestinians, be washed down the Nile in a flood of feces...the list running on and on.)
One can only imagine what the proud parochial minds at the Post/News would make of Islamic troops stomping around Brooklyn harassing our women and children, looking up their skirts for bombs and other things, or, worse, interrupting with small-arms fire the dinner hour at Elaine's. The chief concern of the tabloids is that the 9/11 defendants, after they are slapped down with the guilty verdict about which we are so happily certain, might not be sent to death. If sentenced to death, the further worry is they might not get the full tickertape stoning on Broadway before heading to Golgotha and the deliciousness of crucifixion. As both the Daily News and Post report, presumably citing knowledgeable sources, the 9/11 conspirators are going "straight to hell." (Nota bene: God, hell, heaven, satan, evil, evil and evil – these make an everyday appearance as editorial compass points at the tabloids, in a witchy redneck amalgam of Irish/Italian Catholic brimstone, with Jewish resentment thrown into the mix over Israel's not being declared greatest country ever, forever.)
The message is that the defendants must be killed, as quickly as possible and with as much expedience as will allow when the legalities are pushed under the rug. Why offer a fair trial to the Al Qaeda pigfuckers? Well, what's the point of a trial at all if it is not fair? Otherwise, we're on a fast-track to a Stalinist show trial. It's an issue of great moral import as to our real intentions, a legal-philosophical question so key, so pertinent, so totally newsworthy – that it's lost in the "coverage" of the painted whirligig called the "news."
Speaking of unfair trials: my own revelation about the creeps who "edit and report" at the Post and the News came about while investigating a 2003 murder story that the tabloids got wrong from day one, as is their wont (there is not the same sense of accomplishment getting it wrong a day late). The errors of fact, the aspersions cast wide and thoughtlessly, the pall of emotionalism that swallowed the words on the page, heaped one after another like poison water balloons from a rooftop, arguably helped put an innocent man in prison. The case, which I wrote about for Vanity Fair, was what the tabloids headlined, with the usual telegraphic talent, "The Grid-Kid Slay," as the victim was a high school football star gunned down in cold blood on a Brooklyn street. The News and Post cried out for the district attorney to find the killer, but for a year no perp turned up to walk for the cameras. How could this be? cried the tabloids. The killer is loose! He must be found! Anyone will do!
A 20-year-old named John Giuca, who hosted the football player at a house party just hours before his murder, was soon picked up by the DA's detectives, and the leaks went out from the DA's office to the chopping block at the tabloids. Giuca was no longer simply a young guy who threw a party and who the DA had little real evidence against. He was now head of a street gang, the "Ghetto Mafia," arch-fiend, octopus-armed director of events that led to the murder (dispatching his henchman to kill the victim). The always execrable Andrea Peyser, the Post pundit who (my sources tell me) sprays ammonia in her eyes to start the day, all but declared Giuca guilty, and though she was kind enough to refer to him as a "skinny punk," she couldn't even report out his name correctly: Peyser wrote him up as "Guica," and so did just about every one of the scores of articles about the case in the Post – so much for fact-checking.
John Giuca, who was studying to be a detective, was now beyond redemption; he was even declared the "Tony Soprano" of Brooklyn. The News and the Post pounced on whatever they could find: Giuca was once arrested for drug dealing, they reported, and he had once fired a gun in the air. They were fed blindly at the trough by the DA's office, because none of it was true. "I hated those fucking reporters," John Giuca's mother, Doreen Giuliano, told me. "The drugs were one bag of pot and one pill that was found on his friend – not even on John! So there's five guys – what, were they all gonna break the pill apart and sell it?" And the gun charge? Giuca was lighting firecrackers and got written up for it when he was 17 years old. After his arrest for the murder of the football player, "unnamed witnesses," produced by the DA's office, came forward to attest that the fireworks were pistols. "These assholes at the Post," said Doreen. "They never even checked the facts. They took the DA's spin on it whole-hog and now John is a drug dealer and a gun-wielding thug."
Henceforth, Doreen would not believe another word she read in the Daily News or the New York Post. Her son was convicted – in part because several of the jurors were influenced by the wonderful reportage in the tabloids – and is today serving 25 years to life. But heck: this is all a moot point. The readers elsewhere don't seem to believe the words either. The Post dropped its circulation by 200,000 over the last twelve months, the Daily News declined by 250,000 – statistics in the ongoing tragic death throes of the American newspaper. In the case of the last of New York's tabloids, since we know enough about how the dimwits have driven into the gutter once great papers, it's a senescence long overdue.
Christopher Ketcham, a freelance writer in Brooklyn, NY, is writing a book about secessionist groups in the US. You can write him at cketcham99@mindspring.com or see more of his work at christopherketcham.com.
[Updated on: Sun, 22 November 2009 06:07]
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| Re: From The Press (World Topics) [message #112704 is a reply to message #81925 ] |
Mon, 30 November 2009 07:28 |
whodey 
Messages: 5179
Registered: December 2006 |
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A Surplus of Men. A Deficit of Peace?
By Jonathan Power
November 24, 2009
LONDON - A census released in Beijing reported that there is now an extraordinary imbalance in the birth-rate - 117 boys are being born for every 100 girls. In southern Hainan province the gap widens to an astonishing 135/100 ratio. In China today about 97% of all unmarried persons aged between 28 and 49 are male.
China is probably the world leader in using cheap scans to enable parents to know the sex of their child in the womb and, despite breaking the law, to find a doctor who will abort a foetus for no more reason than it happens to be female. However, this practice is also widely practised in many other Asian countries. India is not far behind. Adding the two countries together there are perhaps between 60 and 70 million missing females in Asia.
The historical record suggests that societies that breed surplus males end up with more crime and with a higher propensity for going to war. Within twenty years both China and India will end up with around 30 million young surplus males. They have no brides, no families, and thus will tend to be roamers, migrants and putative warriors.
Those who think that by a quick fix they can boost the family fortunes by getting rid of apparently useless girls will find all too quickly that having sons grow up that lose out in the highly competitive stakes for gaining a wife quickly trade away their society's natural charm and stability. The equilibrium of everyday life will be gradually but surely undermined by the horrors of surplus testosterone.
Whatever else the female does for the male she calms him down and gives him a centre of gravity, opens doors to other interests outside the boys' own world, smothers him with family life and family responsibilities, and perhaps gives him both a reason to be and the chance of daily success that endures, although the world outside may be undermining him, thwarting him, and perhaps on occasion besting him. Even in the most male orientated or most female liberated of cultures these essential truths seem to hold.
According to one study "The Moral Animal" by Robert Wright, "an unmarried man between 24 and 35 years of age is about three times as likely to murder another male as a married man the same age". Another study by Allan Mazur and Alan Both published in the June 1998 issue of the academic magazine, "Behavioural and Brain Science", argues that testosterone levels in men who court women and then marry drop relative to men who do not. "Testosterone levels may explain the low criminality found among married men".
Hudson and Den Boer have done some intriguing research on the effect of male dominated populations. One study was of the Nien rebellion in China of 1851-63, finally quelled in 1868. This occurred in the poor area of Huai-pei in northern China. After a particular bad period of failed harvests the people began a policy of female infanticide, and between one-fifth and one quarter of all females were killed as children in the hope that the remaining boys would be more adept at bringing in an income for parents who knew they would age prematurely. In reality, bereft of brides, many young men took to banditry.
They began as salt smugglers but ended up attempting to overthrow the Qing dynasty. At the peak of their rebellion there were some 100,000 of these "bare sticks" as they were called. The imperial government was compelled to import foreign arms and modernize its army along Western lines. Only then was the rebellion crushed.
There is much more of this kind of research in the article and doubters should look up the original. Common sense suggests there is something in it, even though we know the pogroms in Rwanda took place in a society that had an almost perfect sex ratio. Of course, the sex-imbalance theorists cannot explain everything and violence and war come about for a wide number of reasons, from environmental stress in the case of Rwanda to the vanity and short sightedness of politicians in the case of the First World War. Yet this theorizing perhaps explains why, when Britain lost so many of its young men in the trenches of World War 1, a female dominated post war society helped propel Britain for a while into serious disarmament and a near pacifist foreign policy.
In his important article in Foreign Affairs Francis Fukuyama has wondered whether a democratic country's propensity towards a peaceful foreign policy is better explained by the status of women in democracies than by the simple existence of democratic institutions themselves. It could explain in part why the U.S. and Britain are more warlike than the Scandinavian countries.
And Asian leaders should start to ask themselves if war between India and China or India and Pakistan (another sex imbalanced country) is rather more likely in the coming years because what is going on today in village hospitals and doctors' surgeries all over Asia. A surplus of men, a deficit of peace, perhaps?
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| Re: From The Press (World Topics) [message #113099 is a reply to message #112704 ] |
Fri, 11 December 2009 22:38 |
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| whodey wrote on Mon, 30 November 2009 07:28 |
A Surplus of Men. A Deficit of Peace?
By Jonathan Power
November 24, 2009
LONDON - A census released in Beijing reported that there is now an extraordinary imbalance in the birth-rate - 117 boys are being born for every 100 girls. In southern Hainan province the gap widens to an astonishing 135/100 ratio. In China today about 97% of all unmarried persons aged between 28 and 49 are male.
China is probably the world leader in using cheap scans to enable parents to know the sex of their child in the womb and, despite breaking the law, to find a doctor who will abort a foetus for no more reason than it happens to be female. However, this practice is also widely practised in many other Asian countries. India is not far behind. Adding the two countries together there are perhaps between 60 and 70 million missing females in Asia.
The historical record suggests that societies that breed surplus males end up with more crime and with a higher propensity for going to war. Within twenty years both China and India will end up with around 30 million young surplus males. They have no brides, no families, and thus will tend to be roamers, migrants and putative warriors.
Those who think that by a quick fix they can boost the family fortunes by getting rid of apparently useless girls will find all too quickly that having sons grow up that lose out in the highly competitive stakes for gaining a wife quickly trade away their society's natural charm and stability. The equilibrium of everyday life will be gradually but surely undermined by the horrors of surplus testosterone.
Whatever else the female does for the male she calms him down and gives him a centre of gravity, opens doors to other interests outside the boys' own world, smothers him with family life and family responsibilities, and perhaps gives him both a reason to be and the chance of daily success that endures, although the world outside may be undermining him, thwarting him, and perhaps on occasion besting him. Even in the most male orientated or most female liberated of cultures these essential truths seem to hold.
According to one study "The Moral Animal" by Robert Wright, "an unmarried man between 24 and 35 years of age is about three times as likely to murder another male as a married man the same age". Another study by Allan Mazur and Alan Both published in the June 1998 issue of the academic magazine, "Behavioural and Brain Science", argues that testosterone levels in men who court women and then marry drop relative to men who do not. "Testosterone levels may explain the low criminality found among married men".
Hudson and Den Boer have done some intriguing research on the effect of male dominated populations. One study was of the Nien rebellion in China of 1851-63, finally quelled in 1868. This occurred in the poor area of Huai-pei in northern China. After a particular bad period of failed harvests the people began a policy of female infanticide, and between one-fifth and one quarter of all females were killed as children in the hope that the remaining boys would be more adept at bringing in an income for parents who knew they would age prematurely. In reality, bereft of brides, many young men took to banditry.
They began as salt smugglers but ended up attempting to overthrow the Qing dynasty. At the peak of their rebellion there were some 100,000 of these "bare sticks" as they were called. The imperial government was compelled to import foreign arms and modernize its army along Western lines. Only then was the rebellion crushed.
There is much more of this kind of research in the article and doubters should look up the original. Common sense suggests there is something in it, even though we know the pogroms in Rwanda took place in a society that had an almost perfect sex ratio. Of course, the sex-imbalance theorists cannot explain everything and violence and war come about for a wide number of reasons, from environmental stress in the case of Rwanda to the vanity and short sightedness of politicians in the case of the First World War. Yet this theorizing perhaps explains why, when Britain lost so many of its young men in the trenches of World War 1, a female dominated post war society helped propel Britain for a while into serious disarmament and a near pacifist foreign policy.
In his important article in Foreign Affairs Francis Fukuyama has wondered whether a democratic country's propensity towards a peaceful foreign policy is better explained by the status of women in democracies than by the simple existence of democratic institutions themselves. It could explain in part why the U.S. and Britain are more warlike than the Scandinavian countries.
And Asian leaders should start to ask themselves if war between India and China or India and Pakistan (another sex imbalanced country) is rather more likely in the coming years because what is going on today in village hospitals and doctors' surgeries all over Asia. A surplus of men, a deficit of peace, perhaps?
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Equality promotes harmony. Inequality promotes social chasms, and chasms/cleavages promotes disputes, as Fukuyama well knows (not that I am one of his fans, but the good Francis is hardly an idiot...)
Magnus K.
"The thing that's wrong with the French is that they don't have a word for entrepreneur." -George W. Bush
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| Re: From The Press (World Topics) [message #113546 is a reply to message #113099 ] |
Wed, 23 December 2009 20:28 |
sh
Messages: 8918
Registered: December 2006
Location: Israel |
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The perfect gift? How about an end to loneliness – and not just at Christmas
Let us take as our seasonal text the words of St Elvis of Memphis:
It'll be lonely this Christmas,
Lonely and cold.
It'll be cold, so cold
Without you to hold
This Christmas ...
As so often, the king was on to something. He understood that loneliness, while a chronic, daily condition for so many, gains an extra sting during the days of yuletide cheer. For the other 360-odd days of the year, you can bustle about, filling the day with errands and noise. But Christmas allows no hiding place. There can be no excuses, not when everyone else seems to be with someone, cosy in the company of friends or family. The message coming from every song on the radio and every ad on the telly is that if you are alone at Christmas, you are lonely.
Of all the statistics spelling out gloom, those on loneliness can strike the most heartbreaking chord. We know there are people who will be sick or suffering on 25 December, just as there are on any other day. But the notion of passing that day in solitary – silent, when the rest of the nation is with other people – seems harder to bear.
But the lonely are not alone: there are many of them. Recent research showed one in three of those over 60 do not talk to a friend or family member for as long as a week, while one in 10 can pass a whole month without such a conversation. That latter figure means that there are 850,000 Britons who are seriously lonely.
The result is not only personal pain for those individuals, but also for society. The World Health Organisation rates loneliness as a higher health risk than lifelong smoking, while researchers see a link between a lack of social interaction and Alzheimer's disease, an illness costing – through drugs, care and loss of employment – an estimated £17bn each year.
But we are not powerless against this problem. A pilot scheme called Get Together has just wrapped up in Westminster and will soon be introduced across London. It rejects the old approach – "befriending" schemes, which take inspiration from the dating business and tends to be dogged by long waiting lists and be poor in terms of delivering lasting results – chiefly because the lonely soul and volunteer befriender, brought together randomly, often have nothing in common.
With the Get Together scheme, if you're lonely you sign up to a phone group on a topic that interests you – it might be music or politics – and then, at the appointed hour, you join six or eight others and a moderator on the line for an hour's chat. The organisers aim to bring together those who live near each other, so that they might meet up afterwards. The trial run in London brought astonishing results: those who would clam up if they were ushered into a room full of strangers found they could open up on the phone with a group who shared an interest.
Read on:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/22/loneline ss-at-christmas-public-services
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| Re: From The Press (World Topics) [message #115694 is a reply to message #81925 ] |
Thu, 18 February 2010 08:04 |
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Individual insurance rates soar in 4 states
By LINDA A. JOHNSON, AP Business Writer Linda A. Johnson, Ap Business Writer Fri Feb 12, 8:39 pm ET
TRENTON, N.J. – Consumers in at least four states who buy their own health insurance are getting hit with premium increases of 15 percent or more — and people in other states could see the same thing.
Anthem Blue Cross, a subsidiary of WellPoint Inc., has been under fire for a week from regulators and politicians for notifying some of its 800,000 individual policyholders in California that it plans to raise rates by up to 39 percent March 1.
The Anthem Blue Cross plan in Maine is asking for increases of about 23 percent this year for some individual policyholders. Last year, they raised rates up to 32 percent.
Kansas had one recent case where one insurer wanting to raise most individual rates 20 percent to 30 percent was persuaded by state insurance officials to reduce the increases to 10 percent to 20 percent. The insurance department would not identify the company but said it was not Anthem.
And in Oregon, multiple insurers were granted rate hikes of 15 percent or more this year after increases of around 25 percent last year for customers who purchase individual health insurance, rather than getting it through their employer.
Premiums are far more volatile for individual policies than for those bought by employers and other large groups, which have bargaining clout and a sizable pool of people among which to spread risk. As more people have lost jobs, many who are healthy have decided to go without health insurance or get a bare-bones, high-deductible policy, reducing the amount of premiums insurers receive.
Steep rate hikes in this sliver of the insurance market — about 13 million Americans, as of 2008 — have popped up sporadically for years. Experts see them becoming increasingly common.
"You're going to see rate increases of 20, 25, 30 percent" for individual health policies in the near term, Sandy Praeger, chairwoman of the health insurance and managed care committee for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, predicted Friday.
Most states don't have the legal authority to block or reduce health insurance rate increases, Praeger noted.
"When you see stories like (Anthem's), you can almost guarantee there's going to be increased consumer protection activity" in state legislatures, she said.
Her group doesn't track rates state by state, but Praeger said it likely will start doing so, "if we don't get any kind of meaningful reform at the federal level."
Politicians and even some health insurers, including Anthem, are urging a revival of the stalled effort in Congress to overhaul the health care system, arguing everyone needs to be covered by health insurance in order to prevent such premium spikes.
In Maine, where Anthem dominates the market, its proposal has several consumer groups planning big rallies at two public hearings on the rates, on Feb. 22 and 24.
Under Anthem's proposal, a family of four could be charged up to $1,876 per month if the proposed rates are allowed to take effect in July.
"The rate request should be denied on its face. It's outrageous," said Greg Howard, spokesman for Maine Change That Works. "We are in the middle of ... this record-breaking type of recession, and they're doing what they need to guarantee profit margin."
On Friday, Maine House Speaker Hannah Pingree and Senate President Elizabeth Mitchell wrote to two congressmen who have scheduled a Feb. 24 hearing on Anthem's pending rate hikes in California, asking them to also look into the proposed hike in Maine.
"We frankly have been very frustrated by the size of these increases," Pingree told The Associated Press. "Obviously, they are attempting to price certain people out of the market."
Last year, Maine's Superintendent of Insurance Mila Kofman rejected Anthem's initial requests, which would have increased individual rates an average of 18.5 percent. She allowed an average increase of 10.9 percent, with the highest increase at 32.4 percent.
Anthem sued the state. Oral arguments in the case are to be scheduled before the Maine Superior Court for mid-March.
Anthem spokesman Chris Dugan said Friday evening the company wants the court to review Kofman's decision because it didn't allow the company an operating profit. He said the rates requested for 2010 are needed "to make sure that we have adequate resources to cover the remaining members" in the insurance plans.
WellPoint, based in Indianapolis, has said it needs to raise rates so much because the weak economy has resulted in fewer people remaining in the individual market in California, and many who do have serious health problems. It says costs of caring for them have been rising due to higher provider prices and more use of diagnostic tests.
In Oregon, state insurance officials have concluded that rising costs justify the higher individual premiums, particularly because most insurers cut rates too much in 2006 and then got hit with significant losses. So double-digit increases, some 25 percent or higher, have been approved, or reduced a bit from 2007 to 2010.
Insurance Division spokeswoman Cheryl Martinis said the agency has started posting details of all proposed increases on its Webspace site and e-mailing customers want a proposal comes in so they can comment.
"People are extraordinarily upset in Oregon, as they are nationwide, about health care costs," she said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100213/ap_on_he_me/us_insurance _rates_states/print
Just a note - Anthem is the largest insurer in each state. In some states, BC/BS is the only insurer left in business - a monopoly
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent - Isaac Asimov
Mark of Lewiston
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| Re: From The Press (World Topics) [message #115696 is a reply to message #81925 ] |
Thu, 18 February 2010 08:43 |
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And another interesting development:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100217/ap_on_bi_ge/us_humana_jo b_cuts
All the right euphemisms are used.
Health insurer Humana plans to cut 2,500 positions
Wed Feb 17, 1:15 pm ET
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The insurer Humana said Wednesday it will cut about 2,500 positions as it adjusts to a smaller enrollment.
Its Medicare enrollment slid 24 percent last year to 3.4 million people, while its commercial enrollment fell 6 percent to roughly the same amount.
The Louisville company, however, said it will add 1,100 positions in growth areas like medical-cost containment and pharmacy management.
The net loss of 1,400 jobs amounts to 5 percent of its work force. The reductions will come mostly from attrition, outsourcing and job eliminations.
Humana said the changes would not affect its 2010 earnings guidance of between $5.15 and $5.35 per share.
Humana said it has to align its size with its membership. The insurer's total enrollment fell 11 percent last year. Humana finished 2009 with about 10.3 million people.
Humana Inc. sells commercial insurance and Medicare Advantage plans, administers Medicaid coverage and provides coverage through the military's Tricare program.
Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear said he's confident Humana will emerge from the restructuring as "a more efficient and competitive business." Beshear said the state is ready to assist Humana with the restructuring and help people who lost jobs with the transition to new jobs.
"Make no mistake, today's news is difficult to hear," Beshear said. "We hope many of those displaced will be employed in these developing positions."
Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson said the city will try to lure as many of the 1,100 new positions to Louisville as possible.
"I'm hopeful the restructuring will make Humana a stronger company and put it back on the road to the levels of job expansion we have seen in recent years," Abramson said.
Other health insurers also have announced job cuts over the past several quarters. Insurers have struggled during the recession with enrollment losses in their employer-based plans, as companies cut jobs and reduced the number of people covered by private insurance.
Aetna Inc. has cut 1,250 jobs since November. WellPoint Inc. and Cigna Corp. also have cut more than 1,000 jobs since the recession started.
Humana said the reduction will help it create "a more efficient, agile infrastructure," while also giving it resources to invest in growth opportunities.
Humana earned $250.7 million, or $1.48 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2009 on $7.63 billion in revenue.
The company's commercial segment reported a wider fourth-quarter pretax loss mainly due to a higher percentage of premiums going to cover medical claims along with other higher expenses. Chief Operating Officer Jim Murray said earlier this month Humana was "stepping back and reorganizing our commercial business."
[Updated on: Thu, 18 February 2010 08:45]
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent - Isaac Asimov
Mark of Lewiston
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| Re: From The Press (World Topics) [message #116104 is a reply to message #81925 ] |
Fri, 05 March 2010 09:09 |
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Interesting Twist in California Politics
California's GOP Senate race heating up over unlikely issue: Israel.
Posted at 12:11 AM on Friday, Mar. 05, 2010
By Rob Hotakainen - rhotakainen@mcclatchydc.com
WASHINGTON – California is flat-out broke, and there are plenty of things for would-be senators to talk about: two wars, a battered economy and a massive effort to overhaul the nation's health care system.
But the state's GOP Senate race has been heating up over an unlikely issue: Israel.
With former Rep. Tom Campbell leading in the polls, his challengers for the Republican nomination – former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and Assemblyman Chuck DeVore – are taking persistent shots at the front-runner, saying his record has been consistently anti-Israel.
As a result, Campbell will have to play defense today, when California's GOP Senate candidates meet in their first debate, broadcast on Sacramento's KTKZ (1380 AM) at noon.
On Monday, Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, asked Campbell to explain why he voted against aid to Israel when he was in Congress, why he opposed recognizing Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and why he accepted contributions from groups that have been linked to Islamic extremists.
The Campbell camp says that the former congressman has a pro-Israel record and pushed for today's debate as a way to fully air the charges against him.
But Fiorina will face some hard questioning, too. DeVore plans to ask about her years as the head of Hewlett-Packard, when he says the company made millions by selling printers and other goods to Iran through a distributor in the Middle East.
"This is the time bomb waiting to explode on the Fiorina campaign," said Josh Trevino, DeVore's spokesman.
Julie Soderlund, a spokeswoman for Fiorina, called them "unfounded attacks."
"These politically motivated allegations are false, based solely on speculative media reports and are not supported by any verified facts," Soderlund said.
Campbell is eager to talk about Iran's nuclear capabilities. With Iran developing a nuclear weapon and having already announced its position that Israel has no right to exist, he is defending Israel's right to prevent a nuclear attack by Iran, with the use of force, if necessary.
"Everyone prays for a peaceful resolution, but we must also be realistic," Campbell said last week.
All in all, it's shaping up to be a fiercely contested race, which will be decided in a primary on June 8. The winner will try to unseat Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer in November.
In advance of the debate, the rhetoric has gotten plenty hot: Last week, one of Campbell's prominent supporters said that Fiorina's campaign manager had called Campbell an anti-Semite, a charge that was quickly denied.
James Fisfis, Campbell's spokesman, said the attacks against Campbell "have sunk to unforeseen depths, going from bizarre to, now, grotesque."
Campbell, who was elected five times to the U.S. House, wants today's debate to focus on national security and foreign policy.
Fisfis said the public should hear "a mature, unbridled discussion" about where the candidates stand on those issues.
Campbell opposes civilian trials for terrorists and opposes closing the Guantánamo Bay prison.
In response to the controversy over Israel, Campbell said he voted against a $30 million increase in aid to Israel because it would have taken money from an aid allotment for Africa. Campbell, who then served as a senior member of the Africa subcommittee of the House International Affairs Committee, feared the transfer would hurt African projects already in the works.
Campbell said the Jerusalem vote, which occurred in 1990, was introduced by a Democrat as a way to embarrass the George H.W. Bush administration. He said he agreed in principle that Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital but that he acceded to the administration's request to vote no.
And regarding his alleged link to extremists, Campbell now admits he made a mistake in associating with Sami Al-Arian, a sympathizer of radical Islamic movements. Campbell wrote a letter of recommendation on his behalf, but he notes that even George W. Bush posed for a photograph with Al-Arian in the spring of 2000, when he was campaigning for president.
Campbell said he became linked to Al-Arian at a time of outreach to Muslim Americans.
With Campbell admitting to a mistake, his challengers have been on the offensive on Israel.
Fiorina wants Campbell to release the letter of recommendation that he wrote for Al-Arian and to disclose the name of a Georgetown professor who allegedly asked him to write it.
And DeVore last week called for banning the UC Irvine Muslim Student Union after students disrupted a speech by Israel's ambassador to the United States.
Fiorina wants to broaden the debate to talk about the economy and tax issues as a way to criticize Campbell, who joined the race in January and is its most recent entrant.
"Tom Campbell's support for tax increases and his association and even defense of people with ties to extremist and terrorist organizations are of great concern to Carly, and she looks forward to talking to Tom directly about his views on those topics," said Soderlund, Fiorina's spokeswoman.
The Fiorina campaign has begun calling Campbell "Taxin' Tom."
DeVore, running last in the polls, is eager to focus on Israel and Iran and have both Campbell and Fiorina defending their past records.
"It's a great opportunity to stand shoulder to shoulder with these people and explain why he's the only consistent conservative with nothing strange to explain about the past," said Trevino, DeVore's spokesman. "I think it'll be a great contrast."
http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/03/05/1847056_p2/californias-g op-senate-race-heating.html
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent - Isaac Asimov
Mark of Lewiston
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| Re: From The Press (World Topics) [message #116574 is a reply to message #81925 ] |
Tue, 30 March 2010 00:55 |
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 Republicans spent $1,946 at topless club
By CHARLES BABINGTON (AP) – 1 hour ago
WASHINGTON — The Republican National Committee spent $1,946 last month at a sex-themed Hollywood club that features topless dancers and bondage outfits. Now the GOP wants its money back.
Listed in a monthly financial report, the amount is itemized as expenses for meals at Voyeur West Hollywood.
RNC spokesman Doug Heye said Monday the committee doesn't know the details of how the money was spent, all who may have attended or the nature of the outing, except to say it was an unauthorized event and that the expenditure was inappropriate.
The RNC will be reimbursed by Erik Brown of Orange, Calif., the donor-vendor who billed the committee for the club visit, Heye said.
Brown did not respond to an e-mail and phone message seeking comment. The transaction was first reported by the Daily Caller.
Since November, the RNC has paid Brown's company, Dynamic Marketing Inc., about $19,000 for printing and direct-mail services, campaign spending reports show. He has contributed several thousand dollars to the party.
The most recent financial disclosure report said the RNC spent more than $17,000 for private planes in February and nearly $13,000 for car services. Heye said such services are used only when needed.
The $1,946 for meals at Voyeur West Hollywood was the most eye-catching item in the monthly report. RNC Chairman Michael Steele, whose spending decisions have angered some donors in this midterm election year, had nothing to do with the nightclub expenditure, Heye said.
The conservative group Concerned Women for America said the RNC should disclose more about the episode.
"Did they really agree to reimburse nearly $2,000 for a bondage-themed night club?" group president Penny Nance asked in a statement. "Why would a staffer believe that this is acceptable, and has this kind of thing been approved in the past?"
Much of the most lavish spending by the major political parties is associated with fundraisers, which often target wealthy people.
The RNC spent $144,549 for rooms at the Four Seasons Resort in Jackson Hole, Wyo., in 2009. On March 19, 2009, it spent $31,980 for catering by the Breakers Palm Beach in Florida.
The RNC paid $18,361 over the past several months to the "Tiny Jewel Box" in Washington for "office supplies," which may have included trinkets or gifts for big donors. It spent $13,622 at Dylan's Candy Bar in New York City.
Some Republican officials and donors have complained about Steele's spending decisions, saying the party should devote every available dollar to trying to win House and Senate races this fall. He held this year's four-day winter meeting at a beachfront hotel in Hawaii, although it often takes place in Washington.
Some donors grumbled when Steele spent more than $18,000 to redecorate his office. Steele, a former Maryland lieutenant governor, also has received substantial fees for making speeches, even though the RNC pays him a full-time salary.
Steele's supporters say he has brought a refreshing frankness and energy to the party's leadership.
Associated Press writer Sharon Theimer contributed to this report.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5icTETB_uSQ nOSdtZmS_Qn5YO74PgD9EOIMLG0
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent - Isaac Asimov
Mark of Lewiston
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| Re: From The Press (World Topics) [message #118922 is a reply to message #81925 ] |
Mon, 26 July 2010 09:00 |
whodey 
Messages: 5179
Registered: December 2006 |
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Oliver Stone: Jewish control of the media is preventing free Holocaust debate
Jewish control of the media is preventing an open discussion of the Holocaust, prominent Hollywood director Oliver Stone told the Sunday Times, adding that the U.S. Jewish lobby was controlling Washington's foreign policy for years.
In the Sunday interview, Stone reportedly said U.S. public opinion was focused on the Holocaust as a result of the "Jewish domination of the media," adding that an upcoming film of him aims to put Adolf Hitler and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin "in context."
"There's a major lobby in the United States," Stone said, adding that "they are hard workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington."
The famed Hollywood director of such films as Platoon and JFK, also said that while "Hitler was a Frankenstein," there was also a "Dr Frankenstein."
"German industrialists, the Americans and the British. He had a lot of support," Stone told the Sunday Times, adding that "Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people, 25 or 30 [million killed]."
Referring to the alleged influence of the powerful Jewish lobby on U.S. foreign policy, Stone said that Israel had distorted "United States foreign policy for years," adding he felt U.S. policy toward Iran was "horrible."
"Iran isn't necessarily the good guy," Stone said, insisting that Americans did not "know the full story."
Stone's comments to the Sunday times echo pervious remarks by the Hollywood director, regarding what he conceives as the distorted view of figures such as Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin in U.S. media.
Earlier this year, Stone, speaking at the at the Television Critics Association's semi-annual press tour in Pasadena said that "Hitler is an easy scapegoat throughout history and it's been used cheaply."
"He's the product of a series of actions. It's cause and effect ... People in America don't know the connection between World War I and World War II, Stone said adding that through his documentary work he has been able to "walk in Stalin's shoes and Hitler's shoes to understand their point of view."
"We're going to educate our minds and liberalize them and broaden them. We want to move beyond opinions ... Go into the funding of the Nazi party. How many American corporations were involved, from GM through IBM. Hitler is just a man who could have easily been assassinated," Stone said.
Waiting for the s$%# to hit the fan...... 
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| Re: From The Press (World Topics) [message #118962 is a reply to message #118922 ] |
Wed, 28 July 2010 18:35 |
whodey
Messages: 5179
Registered: December 2006 |
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| whodey wrote on Mon, 26 July 2010 09:00 |
Waiting for the s$%# to hit the fan......
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And it sure did, as expected.
ADL chief: Oliver Stone's apology 'insufficient'
Anti-Defamation League national director Abraham H. Foxman said on Wednesday that the apology issued by Hollywood director Oliver Stone earlier this week for comments he made about the Holocaust and Jews did not go far enough
"Oliver Stone's apology stops short and is therefore insufficient," Foxman said.
Stone's original statements to The Sunday Times sparked a massive backlash, with many Jewish organizations and Israeli officials condemning Stone's statements.
On Wednesday, Foxman said that Stone's apology was not satisfactory.
"While [Stone] now admits that Jews do not control Hollywood, the media and other industries, he ignores his assertion that Jews are "...the most powerful lobby in Washington" and that "Israel has f***** up United States foreign policy." This is another conspiratorial anti-Semitic canard that Mr. Stone needs to repudiate," Foxman said.
I am sure an "amended" apology will be forthcoming shortly. After all, I dont think Mr. Stone is ready to retire from showbusiness yet 
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| Re: From The Press (World Topics) [message #118971 is a reply to message #81925 ] |
Thu, 29 July 2010 06:55 |
whodey
Messages: 5179
Registered: December 2006 |
Member |
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And here it is, thank God we didn't have to wait more than 24 hours
ADL accepts Oliver Stone apology over Holocaust, U.S. Jews remarks
The Anti-Defamation League accepted on Wednesday Oliver Stone's second apology over remarks he made in an interview to the Sunday Times earlier this week, in which he spoke out against what he saw as the negative influence of U.S. Jews on Washington's foreign policy.
On Sunday, the famed Hollywood director told the Times of London that Jewish control of the media was preventing an open discussion of the Holocaust, adding that the U.S. Jewish lobby has been controlling Washington's foreign policy for years.
"I do agree that it was wrong of me to say that Israel or the pro-Israel lobby is to blame for America's flawed foreign policy," Stone said in a statement released on Wednesday, adding that his comment was "not true and I apologize that my inappropriately glib remark has played into that negative stereotype."
Stone added that he was "categorically opposed to anti-Semitism - and all other racist ideologies."
Yep, in Hollywood you can say any vile thing you want about Muslims or Arabs and fill your movies with stereotypical characters and behavior of said Muslims and Arabs, and your career will flourish. On the other hand, you'd think people in the movie business would know by now that saying anything against the Jewish lobby will get them in hot water. So if you're gonna say something you will have to abjectly apologize twice for within 48 hours if you want to keep working in Hollywood, why even bother saying it??
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