Source: Page 222 of White Noise Keywords: "degree," "swept," "aged," "audience"

From: maff <maff91@yahoo.com> Subject: OT: Help the aged? Date: 30 Aug 2007 Newsgroups: alt.atheism

Help the aged? Open Thread August 30, 2007 1:30 PM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/open_thread/2007/08/help_the_aged... Amid all the complaints about youthful hooligans, the Daily Telegraph has now turned its attention to Britain's delinquent pensioners - the "Saga louts". A psychiatrist has come out in favour of raising alcohol prices, stating that as prices dropped in the previous decades and heavy drinking became more socially acceptable, more older people were admitted to hospital with alcohol-related illnesses. Turkey's about turn Maureen Freely August 30, 2007 1:00 PM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/maureen_freely/2007/08/turkeys_ab... Two days into his presidency, Europe seems willing to give Abdullah Gül a chance. His distracted detractors continue to remind us that he is a devout Muslim, he worked in the Saudi banking sector for a few years, belongs to a party that once described democracy as a train leading to an Islamist state, and has a wife who wears a headscarf. But during his years as Turkey's foreign minister, he has won the trust and respect of Europe's diplomatic community. Over the past five years he has worked tirelessly to push forward the EU reform agenda, and one of his first acts as president was to call for this programme (which slowed during the tumultuous run-up to July's general election) to be pursued with renewed vigour. This made for a refreshing change from the outgoing president, who by the end of his term in office had become the Turkish military's mouthpiece and rubber stamp. But Sezer, too, was highly regarded by Turkey's democrats when he first became president. And though it is unlikely that Gül will buckle in the same way, he will still have to find some way to do business with the military if he is to achieve anything at all. Though the army is less involved in the day to day running of government than it was before the EU reforms began, it remains a powerful force in Turkish politics, as does the nationalist ideology it has propagated and enforced since the founding of the republic in 1923. Locked in a crisis Juliet Lyon August 30, 2007 12:30 PM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/juliet_lyon/2007/08/locked_in_a_c... The illegal strike that shook ministers, managers and many of the POA members who felt compelled to take part is over and talks begin on Friday. What is there to talk about? A starting point would be the state of our beleaguered prison system and the state of those who live and work in it. Prison is our least visible and, arguably, most neglected public service. Political rhetoric, disjointed legislation and scaremongering in the popular press have led to inflation in sentencing, damaging over-use of custody and staggering increases in the prison population - from just over 60,000 people in 1997 to almost 81,000 today. Staffing levels have not kept pace and now the service faces further swingeing cuts. Prison staff and governors expect to cope with most things. Essentially reactive in nature and unique among public services, the prison service cannot, and does not, operate admissions or gate- keeping policies. Unlike schools, which can and do exclude challenging students, or hospitals, which can and do refuse to treat difficult patients, prisons must accept all those sent by the courts. Throughout the afternoon and into the night people arrive having been stacked up in prison vans. Some will have wet or soiled themselves on excessive journeys from one overcrowded establishment to another. High numbers will be withdrawing from class A drugs and very many will be mentally ill. On arrival, often with no accompanying information to go by, staff will try to assess people at risk to themselves or others and, in most cases, to offer some support and reduce distress. New hope from Hope Michael Dougherty August 30, 2007 12:00 PM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/michael_dougherty/2007/08/candida... "Appealing", "rock solid," "quick and funny," "tougher than he lets on," even "adorable." Those are just some of the ways voters in New Hampshire described Mike Huckabee to me when I trailed him on his recent campaign swing through the state. One of his staffers explained at a house party in North Conway: "He doesn't fit into any box they make." After months of focusing on the top tier candidates for the Republican nomination, such as Rudy Giuliani and John McCain, the electorate seems to be discovering the charming southern preacher who plays electric bass in a rock band. In style and substance, Huckabee is a refreshing Republican. While the former governor of Arkansas has social conservative credentials - anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, and so on - his rhetoric and style is more folksy than confrontational. He wants to "seal the border" with Mexico, but he forcefully denounces hostility towards immigrants as sinful. He touts his successes in providing health care to needy children in Arkansas - a rare boast for a self-described fiscal conservative. He discusses tax policy, theology and funk album cover art with ease and disarming sincerity. Falling off a glass cliff Vicky Frost August 30, 2007 11:30 AM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/vicky_frost/2007/08/falling_off_a... There are few things I can't imagine - but getting paid £23m to go to work every year is pretty high on the list. What would I do with that much cash? Would it be even possible to spend it? What, in fact, would £23m even look like? That anyone might think that their talents and expertise are worth so much money - particularly when compared with the salaries of those underlings who actually keep the company running on a daily basis - is a pretty horrible thought. But then the fact that boss's salaries soared 37%, to almost 100 times more than those of their staff, is a pretty horrible statistic, as Deborah Hargreaves blogged on Cif this week. The problem though, doesn't end with the inequality between top executives and the employees who do their bidding. What today's boardroom figures also highlight is that if you want to earn big bucks, don't be a woman. George Bush, meet John Major Ewen MacAskill August 30, 2007 11:00 AM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ewen_macaskill/2007/08/george_bus... Not many people know, or at least remember this, but my Guardian colleague Mike White was mainly responsible for the string of sex and financial scandals that helped bring down John Major's government. At the 1993 Conservative party conference, Tim Collins - then a very young and inexperienced press officer before going on to become an MP - was briefing ahead of the prime minister's speech. It was a tame speech but it spoke about "back to basics". Mike White asked if that meant morality. It was obvious that Collins had not thought about it, and gave a reply that basically amounted to "Why not?". That was it: journalists briefed their editors that Major was about to embark on a moral crusade. When the speech was delivered, there was no mention of crusades, moral or otherwise. But, having sold the story of a moral crusade, almost everyone wrote it anyway. We mean green Chris Huhne August 30, 2007 10:30 AM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/chris_huhne/2007/08/we_mean_green... If politics is famously the art of the possible, human beings are facing one hell of a challenge. Climate chaos now calls for urgent measures if we are to hold global warming to anything near the 2C above pre-industrial levels that will be dangerous. Mainstream parties have to begin talking not just about the problem, but about the radical solutions that will be necessary to deal with it. That is what we in the Liberal Democrats have done with the first comprehensive plans ever set out by a British political party to decarbonise every part of the economy: transport, energy, housing, offices and factories. Our objective is as ambitious as that set out by Sweden, Norway and New Zealand. We want no less than a ">zero- carbon Britain by 2050. Companions through the ages Ros Taylor August 30, 2007 10:00 AM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ros_taylor/2007/08/companions_thr... "What can be more delightful than to have someone to whom you can say everything with the same absolute confidence as to yourself?" Cicero asked in his essay on friendship, written around 44BC. And there are those - Cif contributor Indra Adnan among them - who worry that social networking, and Facebook in particular, is taking away the spontaneity of friendship and debasing that noble ideal. Certainly, few of us can say of all our Facebook friends what Cicero said of his: that mutual friendship sprang from an "inclination of the heart combined with a certain instinctive feeling of love". "Friending" someone (and note the verb: befriending them would be far too Samaritan-like) means something quite different. But does that really debase it? In truth, Facebook has conventions every bit as rigid as those of the Elizabethan court or the 18th century salon. The site offers friends a limited range of social interactions - gift-giving, joining groups, writing on friends' walls - and enforces them strictly. The social codes are as non-negotiable as anything in Austen. Offenders are threatened with exclusion. A range of conversational topics such as photo albums, bookshelves and Scrabble are imported from the real world for mutual entertainment. And then there is poking. Small is beautiful Madeleine Bunting August 30, 2007 9:30 AM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/madeleine_bunting/2007/08/willing... The British have a curious reticence about spending money on pre- school care. Long after many other European countries had established all kinds of pioneering nursery provision (such as the Italian system of Montessori or the Steiner influenced systems of Germany) the British still had no national provision. It wasn't until 1998 that Gordon Brown and the Treasury, spotting the link between poverty, educational underachievement and early years intervention, began to take this seriously as an area of public policy. But we persist in thinking that it should be cheap and productive - a combination which is notoriously difficult to pull off in this Cinderella zone of the welfare state. Contrary to received wisdom, looking after small children is both labour intensive and highly skilled work. All the world's a stage Tommy Dodds August 30, 2007 9:00 AM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/tommy_dodds/2007/08/all_the_world... My last outing on Cif was an interesting affair in which I tried vainly to convince readers of the importance of humanities subjects in schools. I was accused, wrongly as it happens, of suggesting that Shakespeare was of a greater importance than maths in general. I don't, of course, really believe that to be the case but the episode did throw up a most relevant issue: where exactly do theatre studies as a whole come into education? To me it was the most valuable part of my education and one of the only lessons I took that seemed to be genuinely worthwhile but there are many that don't have the opportunity to experience it. English, maths, science and religious education are all compulsory, forced upon students whether they like it or not but the study of theatre is always left to one side, considered as the poorer cousin of these "respectable" subjects. Plane facts Richard George August 30, 2007 8:00 AM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/richard_george/2007/08/plane_fact... It's hard to think of an interest group with more to lose from curtailing flights than the British Airline Pilots' Association (Balpa). So it wasn't surprising that during the recent Camp for Climate Action Balpa called for "peace talks" with the environmentalists, claiming that "most flights, compared with other transport modes, are green". Having a declared interest shouldn't disqualify you from voicing your opinion - provided your argument is grounded in fact. Unfortunately, Balpa's recent report, Aviation and the Environment is anything but. Despite claims from Balpa's chairman, Captain Mervyn Granshaw that "we were determined from the outset to concern ourselves only with the facts", the report makes some very basic mistakes which could leave readers confused. A Marshall plan for the Middle East? Nicolaus Mills August 29, 2007 10:00 PM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/nicolaus_mills/2007/08/marshall_p... Nearly sixty years ago, on September 22, 1947, the 16 western Europeans nations that became the first recipients of Marshall plan aid sent to the US a two-volume report describing their economic situation. What made the report a breakthrough for the 16 nations, which two months earlier had formed themselves into the Committee of European Economic Cooperation (CEEC), was the unity it reflected. As the preamble of the report observed: "The participating countries recognize that their economic systems are interrelated and that the prosperity of each of them depends upon the restoration of the prosperity of all." Another militant bites the dust Brian Whitaker August 29, 2007 9:30 PM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/brian_whitaker/2007/08/another_mi... With books about "how I came to my senses and gave up being a militant leftie/militant Islamist" [delete as applicable] all the rage at the moment, it's good to find one author who still has enough principles not to burden the shelves of Waterstones with his mid-life-crisis. Happily, the latest newcomer to this burgeoning literary genre of political/religious recantations is posting his story, chapter by chapter, on the internet - which allows anyone to read it (or, indeed, to give up reading it after only a few pages) at no cost to themselves. The legacy of Katrina Michael Tomasky August 29, 2007 8:30 PM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/michael_tomasky/2007/08/here_on_t... Here, on this second anniversary in the US of Hurricane Katrina, it's worth looking back over the events of that fateful day. Fateful isn't too strong a word: It was on August 29, 2005, and over the next three or four days, that the presidency of George Bush fell into the toilet from which it has never emerged. If you're still not sure exactly why, this timeline will help explain things. There are several such timelines online from which this abbreviated one is drawn. Marching orders Conor Foley August 29, 2007 7:45 PM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/conor_foley/2007/08/marching_orde... Paul Barker, the country director for the US aid group Care has been expelled from Sudan. He was told by the Sudanese government's Humanitarian Aid Commission that he had 72 hours to leave the country. No reasons were given for the decision although it was said to relate to state security. I have previously worked with Paul in Afghanistan where he managed the Care country programme. A friend of mine, Clem Cantoni, was kidnapped while she was working for Care there and it seems that his expulsion from Sudan is related to an internal memo that he wrote for Care Sudan staff on potential security threats. He is the third prominent foreigner to be expelled from the country in a week, after the EU ambassador and a Canadian diplomat were ordered to leave last Thursday. Breaking free Erwin James August 29, 2007 7:00 PM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/erwin_james/2007/08/breaking_free... A pleasing antidote for me to the news of the wildcat prison officers strike in England and Wales is the launch today of a book of poetry written by adult and adolescent women in HMP Cookham Wood, Kent. The book, with a forward by writer Esther Freud and published by the charity Create, is the culmination of one of the charity's projects: Free Inside. Create employs professional artists to work with disadvantaged and disengaged groups across the country in order to bring a sense of value and worth to those who might feel themselves to be on the fringes of society. The poet Leah Thorne led the workshops at Cookham Wood. A cultural success story Iain Macwhirter August 29, 2007 6:15 PM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/iain_macwhirter/2007/08/a_cultura... Now, here's a cultural success story of truly epic proportions. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe alone has sold 1.7m tickets this year - that's more than twice the number sold by the Manchester Commonwealth Games. It does this every year. And the official Edinburgh International Festival hasn't even finished yet, so its figures are still to come. The Edinburgh Book Festival has attracted 200,000 to its Charlotte Square tent city, which means that the Edinburgh culture-fest's final score will be well over 2 million. The Adelaide arts festival, Edinburgh's nearest rival, shifts only 250,000. Wrong-footed at every turn Dilip Hiro August 29, 2007 5:30 PM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/dilip_hiro/2007/08/wrong-footed_a... In his second major speech on Iraq and the region on Tuesday - with its focus on the alleged depredations of the Iranian regime - the US president, George Bush, found himself wrong-footed by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations watchdog on nuclear issues. Addressing the American Legion in Reno, Nevada, Bush said: "Iran's active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust." It is rocket science Tim Radford August 29, 2007 5:00 PM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/tim_radford/2007/08/it_is_rocket_... Science is hard to begin with. It goes on getting harder, which sets a special problem for school examiners, in light of today's recommendations that GCSE science papers should be made easier. Who ever thought science should be easy? It is done by PhDs, not dilettantes. And it has been difficult from the start: there is nothing simple about working out the relationship between a falling apple and an orbiting moon, and it took an Isaac Newton to manage it. But there is a special problem about science. It is not like Latin, or needlework. Science goes on getting harder every year. There are more professional scientists at work now than have ever lived, and they produce more data, more interpretation, more provocative hypotheses and a more profound but still provisional understanding of the material world every year. Even the most diligent physicists can barely keep up with the advances in their own discipline, let alone all the other branches of science. In the course of one working lifetime, researchers have: Criminal behaviour Eric Allison August 29, 2007 4:33 PM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/eric_allison/2007/08/criminal_beh... The speed with which the Prison Officers Association (POA) organised their strike - and the secrecy that surrounded it - suggests that the union may have been taking lessons from some of the more sophisticated members of the criminal fraternity currently held in Her Majesty's jails. The Ministry of Justice admit to being caught on the hop by the strike action and I have it on good authority that the POA executive did not inform their branch secretaries that the strike was being called until 6am this morning. They kept their members in the dark knowing full well that, if ministers had known of the intended walk out, they would have sought an injunction aimed at forcing prison staff back to work. Beyond the bravado Martin Woollacott August 29, 2007 3:45 PM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/martin_woollacott/2007/08/beyond_... Bluster and bravado know no frontiers. They are the common recourse of beleaguered politicians everywhere, and between President Bush and President Ahmadinejad this week there was not much to choose. If we are to believe the Iranian leader, Iran stands ready, with not much more than a nod to its neighbours, to fill the vacuum the Americans will soon leave in Iraq, and indeed in the Middle East as a whole. In addition, according to Ahmadinejad, the country's command of nuclear technology is progressing in leaps and bounds. If we are to believe the American leader, the United States is ready to confront every Iranian move, and the president has issued new orders to his commanders in Iraq to counter Iranian infiltration and arms smuggling. The arrest in Baghdad of a group of Iranians, shortly after the American president had stopped speaking in Reno, Nevada where he had been addressing American veterans in his second big speech on Iraq and the Middle East in a week, seemed to add substance to that assertion. Yet things are seldom quite what they seem in relations between Iran and America. The arrested Iranians, experts from the Iranian electricity industry invited by the Iraqi government, were soon released, with an American military spokesman terming their detention "a regrettable incident". In Tehran, the Iranian foreign ministry observed, rather mildly, that Bush's charges were "not true", which was about the least he could say in the circumstances. The flame blame game Kat Christofer August 29, 2007 3:00 PM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/kat_christofer/2007/08/the_flame_... Greeks are known for smoking too much, driving too fast and living life as if there's no tomorrow. These are inherent rights of being free, much like procrastinating, bending the rules and getting away with it. They're national pastimes. But when half of Greece becomes an inferno and innocent people die, where does responsibility begin and freedom end? "Responsibility" is a word rarely used, as if an eternal cross to bear or a sign of weakness. So whenever something bad happens it's purely about a pastime more popular than football - blame. It's always someone else's fault. History's hooligans Alastair Harper August 29, 2007 2:30 PM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/alastair_harper/2007/08/historys_... Whether they need re-education, a damn good thrashing, or just need to stick their heads up a cow's arse, it seems there's no doubt that children have never been such horrendously violent lunatics before. The nation's youth have become obsessed with milk, Beethoven and eyeliner. They parade down our streets, emptying lead into each other just as readily as their more innocent predecessors did only by pencil misadventure. What no one seems to want to say is that this viewpoint makes no sense away from the newspapers or television screens. Youths haven't suddenly encountered a certain seminal computer game and metamorphosed into feral droogs. British teenagers are, historically speaking, having less sex, engaging in fewer wars and generally having the most innocent journey up to 18 since the days of Eden. The garden, not Anthony. For every surly hooded gentleman, there are 20 snot-nosed, mono-browed young things nervously spending their Saturdays at Age Concern to spruce up their university application. Nigeria's anti-gay witch-hunt Peter Tatchell August 29, 2007 2:00 PM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/peter_tatchell/2007/08/nigerias_a... The arrest on August 5 of 18 men at a private party in the northern state of Bauchi is the latest incident in a wave of ongoing homophobic persecution in Nigeria - much of which is incited by Christian bishops and Muslim imams. Bauchi is a predominantly Muslim region that has adopted sharia law. Police officers acted on a tip-off from the hisbah Islamic anti-vice squad of the Bauchi sharia commission. They seized the men, aged 18 to 22, in rooms at the Benko hotel in Bauchi. Hitting the high notes Open Thread August 29, 2007 1:04 PM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/open_thread/2007/08/hitting_the_h... In a bid to prevent Amy Winehouse's continuing drug addiction from growing any worse, her in-laws have appealed both to her fans and to the music industry, calling for a boycott of her music. Winehouse and her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, do not consider themselves drug addicts, her father in-law Giles Fielder-Civil said but stated "they both need to get medical help, before one of them, if not both of them, eventually will die." Do our executives have no shame? Deborah Hargreaves August 29, 2007 12:30 PM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/deborah_hargreaves/2007/08/do_bri... The Guardian's pay survey shows yet again that directors have awarded themselves huge increases in their annual pay packages. These were up 37% last year compared to an average rise in earnings of 3.3%. The average chief exec's pay is now £2.9m - that is 98 times more than the average employee in a FTSE 100 company. And the averages mask a yawning gap between directors and workers at companies that employ a lot of women and part-timers. The boss of Punch Taverns, for example, earns 1,148 times the pay of his workers. At Tesco, Terry Leahy takes home more than 400 times the wages of those on the shop floor. Directors justify their high salaries and performance-related bonuses with the argument that they are in an international talent pool and if Britain wants to retain top performers, it must pay them well. They also cite private equity, where huge rewards are on offer, as competing with public companies. These arguments are, in my view, spurious. The number of British executives that are actually headhunted by overseas companies is so small as to be irrelevant. Private equity is also a whole different proposition where directors have to put their own money on the line. The threat of a threat Naomi Wolf August 29, 2007 12:00 PM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/naomi_wolf/2007/08/the_threat_of_... Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is getting a pounding, from liberal blogs and her Democratic rivals for the presidency, because she had the temerity to warn voters that a possible terrorist attack before the election might strengthen the Republicans' hand. Chris Dodd called the comment "tasteless" and liberal bloggers are savaging her for, in their view, caving to the Republican framing of the terror issue. These critics are being extraordinarily historically naive. If all Clinton meant was that a genuine terror attack would empower Republicans, then under the current social consensus, her comment is in poor taste. (Though this notion, that examining the possible domestic fallout of terror attacks is vulgar or unpatriotic, is one of those quasi-Victorian conventions that does not serve the vigorous debate needed in a time of crisis). But if Clinton is also trying to warn voters about something even more difficult for us to talk about, then she is absolutely right, even brave, and her critics are frighteningly ill-informed about the past. What the papers say ... Michael White August 29, 2007 11:34 AM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/michael_white/2007/08/what_the_pa... You may not have spotted it, but some of today's newspapers report that Gerry McCann, father of missing Madeleine, "stormed" out of a Spanish television studio after being persistently asked for detailed answers on the case which Portuguese law prevents him from divulging. Kate McCann stayed on the set and explained "it's the pressure" and her husband came back and apologised after a five-minute break. Sounds fair enough to me. But what is striking - yet again - is the way the papers report this sort of incident as if it's nothing to do with them. His own private Idaho Melissa McEwan August 29, 2007 11:00 AM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/melissa_mcewan/2007/08/his_own_pr... So - conservative Republican senator Larry Craig from Idaho was arrested in Minnesota for soliciting sex from an undercover male cop in a public toilet, a downright Shakespearean reenactment of which you can find at Crooks & Liars. (Or peruse the police report at The Smoking Gun.) Craig's guilty plea comes after decades of being dogged by rumours of "Teh Gay" and inevitably issuing stern denials, throughout a career that has seen him consistently vote against the interests of the LGBT community, from his support of the Federal Marriage Amendment banning same-sex marriage to his lack of support for prohibiting job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. That is the conservative Republican way, after all - you don't get to be (and then not be) presidential candidate Mitt Romney's senate campaign co-chair if you're not wildly hostile to fags, and certainly not if you're one yourself. Obama's Religion http://www.nysun.com/article/61600 By K E N N E T H B LAC K WE L L August 30, 2007 In light of recent polls, pundits have speculated that Senator Obama will need a miracle to win his party's presidential nomination. After offending many of the nation's ministers, priests, and rabbis in a speech this summer, he better have a direct line to the almighty. Mr. Obama accused Conservative Christian leaders of "hijacking" religion several weeks ago. While seeking to impose his own secular agenda through houses of worship, the senator condemns any pastor or priest who disagrees with it. Blogger Known Well in Politics Turns His Attention to Attack on Obama Campaign http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/30/us/politics/30obama.html?ref=politi... By MIKE McINTIRE In the current presidential contest, the ObamaTruth.org project is one of the more sophisticated assaults on a candidate. Obama: Is America Ready? Part Two of a NewsChannel 15 Special Report http://www.wpde.com/news/viewarticle.asp?view=6471 8/30/2007 12:05:56 AM Nearly 1,800 people showed up to hear Senator Barack Obama at Coastal Carolina University last week. By all political standards, he's a Democratic rock star. "I would say here in South Carolina we have by far the best grassroots organization I think people have seen in a very long time," Obama told NewsChannel 15's Jim Heath in an exclusive interview. "We have volunteers coming out of the woodwork. Young people are getting involved. We've got just a terrific operation." Obama's aggressive stance on subprime lending http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/8/29/225127/712 by Max Fletcher, Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 10:51:27 PM EST Today, in an opinion piece in the Financial Times entitled Fine unscrupulous lenders, Barack Obama introduced his plan to solve the financial crisis brought on by the meltdown in the subprime mortgage sector. Obama started out with a rebuke of subprime industry practices, along with a stearn warning about the potential consequences of the present crisis. He also indicted the lobbying culture in Washington as complicit in the problem: The implosion of the subprime lending industry is more than a temporary blip in our econ­omic progress. It is a cancer that, given today's integrated financial markets, threatens to spread with devastating impact to housing and to our economy as a whole, unless we act to contain it. It is also a parable about how an excess of lobbying and influence can defeat common sense rules of the road, placing both consumers and our nation's economic well-being at risk. When The Cameras Are Off: Barack Obama's Hurricane Katrina Record http://thinkonthesethings.wordpress.com/2007/08/29/when-the-cameras-a... It is nice that everyone is giving speeches and putting out ten-point plans to commemorate Hurricane Katrina. However, I'm more interested in knowing what people have been doing when the cameras were off. What is your record on this issue? New Orleans and Barack Obama's plan to rebuild the Gulf Coast http://nyenevada.blogspot.com/2007/08/new-orleans-and-barack-obama-pl... I received the following from Senator Barack Obama I'd like to share with you. It seems appropriate since today is the second anniversary of the destruction of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Dear Jack A house built on a strong foundation should withstand floods and high winds. A government built on a strong foundation of solidarity and common purpose should aid its citizens when their houses are not strong enough. Obama started Transforming Politics today http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/8/29/203819/435 by SmithsLastWord Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 06:29:36 PM PDT The public is about to be transformed by the option of voting the interests of a majority for a change.  Politics will someday get back to it's usual sordid self but for awhile we will witness a liberal renaissance led by the majority who found a champion today.  Politics is not just a game for the benefit of the affluent this year. Political histories should remember this as the day when an issue was directly raised by a savvy political genius who transformed the political landscape by connecting with a majority of  American voters who had previously abandoned politics.  Today Obama tackled the "Fine unscrupulous mortgage lenders" in one of their favorite publications. Financial Times readers include a few livid or worried well heeled loan sharks gussied up by their mouthpieces as gentlemen. JUST A SHORT NOTE: http://www.thebarackobamareport.com/the_barack_obama_report/2007/06/j... I will be moving this weekend which luckily falls right in line with my host's plan to do some maintenance on their servers this weekend. I will have to dismantle my computer on Friday and it won't be hooked up until Monday.  I will be posting until then and will do a post before I dismantle my computer set-up to move it to it's new home.  I am excited about this move because I found a great place to live and can't wait to get set up. Note to Hillary Clinton:  I am moving closer to a good friend who knows you well, so you can well expect some serious responses to YOUR blog Hillary44.org.  Along with POSITIVE ARTICLES about Senator Obama and his campaign, I intend to debunk every single post on that website and more.  So be prepared! Hillary44 and Big Media's Freedom to Quote Whatever They Feel Like http://www.buckeyestateblog.com/hillary44_and_big_medias_freedom_to_q... Submitted by Jerid on Wed, 06/27/2007 - 12:46pm. Yesterday ABC News called me up for an interview for a piece they were writing regarding the presidential contest. The focus was a website that the media has drawn into question, Hillary is 44. I have an idea http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/dianelake/CXBz By vwcat - Jun 23rd, 2007 at 1:32 pm EDT this may not be one of the more inspiring and uplifting ideas but, I read that Hillary has a blog called Hillary44.  It posts all these pro Hillary articles which is expected and all.  but, there is also negative ones about her rivals.  She seems to be a bit obsessed with Sen. Obama and it's heavy towards posting anti Obama articles for her readers to use in smearing him. The great global coal rush puts us on the fast track to irreversible disaster http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/aug/30/climatechange.energy The dirtiest fossil fuel of all is on the resurgent, dressed in climate-friendly garb. We'd be wise not to flirt with it     * John Harris     * The Guardian     * Thursday August 30 2007 With that briefly infamous field in Middlesex now restored to suburban anonymity and the cadres of the Camp for Climate Action presumably considering their next move, the airwaves and news wires once again carry a depressingly familiar sound. Last week, the actress and alleged green convert Sienna Miller did the radio and television rounds, refusing to countenance the idea of reducing her air travel but advising the public to turn down their central heating. We now learn that the BBC has been planning Planet Relief, an eco-telethon set to feature tireless environmental campaigners such as Ricky Gervais and Jonathan Ross. Meanwhile, David Cameron is apparently preparing to add to the noise by returning to his own eternally confused kind of greenery. The need for an old foe http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2158434,00.html If chaos is to be averted in the Middle East, Washington must give Russia a more active role Basil Markesinis Thursday August 30, 2007 The Guardian Nearly 40 years after the Americans escaped from the rooftops of Saigon, this great country may be on the verge of a second retreat, this time from Iraq. To be sure, this exodus has not begun yet, and President George Bush's recent speech on the "lessons from Vietnam" suggests that he is in denial. How superficial the parallel was that he drew has been noted by many. The consensus is that the speech was little more than spin, preparing official reaction to the publication of General David Petraeus's report on the effects of the "surge" of US forces in Iraq. Now we see what the return of Tory Britain would be like http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2158456,00.html David Cameron's support for Boris Johnson, tax cuts and longer jail terms shows that the real Conservative party is reasserting itself Seumas Milne Thursday August 30, 2007 The Guardian Six months ago, David Cameron's Tories were 10 points ahead in the opinion polls and all the rage in liberal metropolitan Britain. After years when even to admit you were a Tory among those Norman Tebbit once dismissed as the chattering classes was tantamount to owning up to an embarrassing disease, it was suddenly cool to be a Conservative. In the dog days of Blairism, Cameron lost no opportunity to parade his newfound progressive credentials. After three decades of Thatcherism, he promised to "stand up to big business" - something Tony Blair would never have dreamed of saying - and make the test of Tory policy how it helped "the disadvantaged in society, not the rich". Along with his fellow Cameroons, he paraded his green credentials, made liberal noises about sexuality and, even if he never actually said he would "hug a hoodie", was at pains to emphasise the social and emotional roots of youth criminality. Critics of the growing pay gap are missing the point http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2158432,00.html Revealing what the average chief executive earns sends an important message to aspirational and able young people Peter Newhouse Thursday August 30, 2007 The Guardian The disclosure of executive directors' pay is good for society. Rather than being a cause for hand-wringing and envy, the Guardian pay survey's revelations of what our best managers can earn from running the UK's biggest listed companies should encourage others to follow in their footsteps. The survey found that directors' pay at the 100 largest such firms has risen by 37%, with the average chief executive receiving £2.9m, including salary, benefits, bonuses and gains from share incentive schemes. These figures send an important message to able and aspirational young people. No milk, no madeleines http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2158433,00.html Asia's new taste for dairy could seriously threaten our remembrance of things pasteurised Agnès Poirier Thursday August 30, 2007 The Guardian I had sworn never to fall into an anti-globalisation rant but, let's face it, globalisation is a bummer. And I'm not saying this because I'm French. All of us watch the daily turmoil in the financial markets with fear and little understanding; wake up in a gut-wrenching panic about the imminent housing property crash; suffer devastating floods and unprecedented heatwaves (don't tell me there is no link between globalisation and climate change). And soon we'll be struck by an even bigger crisis. Globalisation is going to strike us where it hurts most: in our stomachs. Some of us have already forgotten the meaning of seasonal fruit and vegetables and think that Starbucks offers authentic Italian coffee culture. But what's currently cooking up in the food industry will touch us to the core. We are committed to making classical music more accessible http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2158426,00.html Don't underestimate the efforts of orchestras to tackle elitist stereotypes, says Stephen Maddock Thursday August 30, 2007 The Guardian Philippa Ibbotson makes a strong case for how classical music can "shake off its elitist stigma" (Instruments of change, August 21), but I think she rather understates what some of today's orchestras are already doing to tackle stereotypes and make their music more accessible. Earlier this year, England's eight publicly funded symphony orchestras set out a statement of common vision and aims. We at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra joined with the Hallé, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Philharmonia, London Philharmonic and London Symphony orchestras to make a collective commitment to the future of classical music. Last night's TV: The Restaurant Nancy Banks-Smith August 30, 2007 8:50 AM http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/tv/2007/08/last_nights_tv_the_restaurant.... There are not many celebrity chefs left uncaught. Raymond Blanc, a big fish, has finally been enticed on to TV with the promise of a reality show in the best possible taste. In itself, something of a contradiction in terms. The Restaurant (BBC2), carrying his imprimatur, would be unique for its niceness. Contestants would not be humiliated or berated. As Raymond Blanc put it, he doesn't like to jump on the face of someone who is already down. Though, as a matter of sober fact, that is the only time you can jump on someone's face. He is French to a degree that would seem implausible in 'Allo 'Allo! Thirty-five years in boskiest Oxfordshire have made no discernable dent in his Frenchness. Sometimes his accent covers the sense like a sauce. He encouraged the contestants with word and, of course, gesture: "Put all your heart, all of your strength, all of your desire into it. Take it on! Braise it!" Much later that night, I suddenly woke up, sat up straight and said, "Oh ... embrace it!" The importance of doubt http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2158503,00.html John Cornwell struggled with his faith for two decades before finally returning to Christianity. Here he explains why Richard Dawkins, and all those who believe religion is the root of all evil, completely fail to understand what it means to believe Thursday August 30, 2007 The Guardian It is a year since Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion prompted a torrent of adulation and anguished riposte. The crucial issue he raised is not so much that religious believers can morph into violent extremists (which they patently can), but what is to be done about it. Dawkins thinks that religion is irrational, because it means accepting truths without logic and evidence; and dangerous, because such systematic irrationality can lead to extreme acts of violence. So hideously irrational and dangerous is the disease of faith, he claims, that faith instruction to the young is worse than paedophile abuse. Dawkins wants to rid the world of religion. Bhutto close to deal with Musharraf http://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,,2158551,00.html President agrees to quit army and drop graft charges against exiled leaders Declan Walsh in Islamabad and Ian Black Thursday August 30, 2007 The Guardian President Pervez Musharraf and his exiled rival Benazir Bhutto edged closer last night to a power-sharing deal that would see Gen Musharraf retire from the army. An agreement was "80 to 90% complete" said Ms Bhutto from London, where she has been negotiating with a senior Musharraf adviser and the Pakistani military's spy chief. Nearly 18,000 still missing from Balkan wars http://www.guardian.co.uk/yugo/article/0,,2159158,00.html Fred Attewill and agencies Thursday August 30, 2007 Guardian Unlimited Almost 18,000 people are still missing following the bloody break-up of the former Yugoslavia, the International Committee of the Red Cross said today. Out of a total of 17,882 still unaccounted for, 13,449 disappeared during the worst of the three main conflicts, the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia. Republican in gay sex sting isolated by party http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2158524,00.html · Calls for investigation after senator's guilty plea · Latest in series of scandals to rock election hopes Ewen MacAskill in Washington Thursday August 30, 2007 The Guardian The Republican party yesterday distanced itself from senator Larry Craig after it emerged he had entered a guilty plea to disorderly conduct in a sex sting in a men's toilet at Minneapolis airport. Fellow Republican senators, as well as activists in his home state of Idaho and elsewhere, were withdrawing support. Republican senators called for an investigation by the Senate ethics committee. Police sergeant Dave Karsnia was investigating allegations of sexual conduct in the airport toilets in June when he went into a stall. The complaint against Craig claimed he moved his foot into Karsnia's stall and tapped his foot, "a signal often used by persons communicating a desire to engage in sexual conduct". He also made hand movements. The officer showed Craig his badge. >From Russia with $3 billion. Another Putin opponent may have fled to London http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2158599,00.html · Wanted oligarch gives investigators the slip · 'Unprecedented bullying' by state revealed in letter Luke Harding in Moscow Thursday August 30, 2007 The Guardian Relations between Russia and Britain were facing fresh turbulence yesterday after a billionaire oligarch wanted by the Kremlin for tax evasion was reported to have escaped to London. Mikhail Gutseriyev - the former head of one of Russia's largest private oil firms - disappeared from Russia last week. On Tuesday a court in Moscow issued a warrant for his arrest. Last month Mr Gutseriyev stepped down from his oil company, RussNeft, citing "unprecedented bullying" by Vladimir Putin's government. Mr Gutseriyev - whose personal fortune is estimated at $3bn - accused the Kremlin of "illegally" forcing him out of business using trumped-up tax claims. Mahdi army calls six-month truce after fighting leaves 50 dead http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2158710,00.html · Backlash from fellow Shias after three days of clashes · Al-Sadr orders days of mourning and shuts office Ewen MacAskill in Washington Thursday August 30, 2007 The Guardian The Iraqi militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr, called a six-month truce yesterday after fighting with a rival Shia Muslim group in the holy city of Kerbala left more than 50 dead. A spokesman for the Mahdi army claimed they would lay down their weapons for six months and, during this time, would attack neither other Shia groups nor the US army. Taliban leader and RAF gunner killed in Afghanistan http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,2159015,00.html James Sturcke Thursday August 30, 2007 Guardian Unlimited A Taliban leader has been killed in Afghanistan, the country's government said today, as the deaths of a British soldier and a civilian translator were confirmed after an explosion in the country's south. Mullah Brother was killed in an American-led pre-dawn raid in the southern province of Helma Chileans take to streets in anger at regime http://www.guardian.co.uk/chile/story/0,,2158717,00.html · Hundreds arrested in clashes with police · Economic inequality at heart of protest in capital Jonathan Franklin in Santiago and agencies Thursday August 30, 2007 The Guardian Thousands of Chileans took to the streets yesterday in a burgeoning middle class revolt against the 17 years of coalition government that has ruled since the fall of Augusto Pinochet in 1990. Hundreds of Chileans were arrested as they approached the presidential palace. Squares in and around the palace became a chaotic mix of mounted police, riot troops and teargas. As water cannons blasted protesters, waves of students counterattacked with rocks. Burning barricades almost closed central Santiago. US bars American witnesses from inquests of British soldiers http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2158603,00.html Audrey Gillan Thursday August 30, 2007 The Guardian American witnesses will not be allowed to travel to the UK to attend inquests into the deaths of British soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. A letter sent to all coroners in England and Wales makes it clear that US military personnel will not cooperate with their inquiries. In a document published yesterday, the Ministry of Defence makes it clear that requests from coroners for witnesses to appear will be turned down. The document says: "The US have confirmed categorically that they will not provide witnesses to attend UK inquests. While coroners may continue to ask for US witnesses to attend ... they should be aware that there will in all cases be a refusal." Essence of kangaroo among scams to fleece Sydney tourists http://www.guardian.co.uk/australia/story/0,,2159051,00.html Barbara McMahon in Sydney Thursday August 30, 2007 Guardian Unlimited Marvelling at the architecture of the Sydney opera house or sunbathing on Bondi beach are essential boxes to tick for most tourists visiting Australia's de-facto capital city, but some gullible visitors are being charged for the privilege. According to a new report, visitors to the former Olympic city are being ripped off by unscrupulous guides who are fleecing travellers and tarnishing its image as a world-class destination. The report commissioned by the Tourism Business Alliance, released today, reports various scams designed to extract every last dollar out of visiting tourists. As well as being charged to see free landmarks, they are also tricked out of their money in under-the-counter foreign exchange deals. Mayor causes stink on homeless http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,,2158534,00.html Angelique Chrisafis in Paris Thursday August 30, 2007 The Guardian First, Paris Metro replaced its platform benches with small plastic seats that homeless people could not stretch out and sleep on. Now a suburban mayor has been forced to backtrack after causing outrage by ordering a spray that makes doorways smell so badly it repels anyone with a sleeping bag. Argenteuil, a Paris suburb of 100,000, has long tried to deter its homeless population of 15, particularly the four or five who sleep near the emergency exits of a shopping centre. Father forced to lynch son by Peru vigilantes http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2158532,00.html Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent Thursday August 30, 2007 The Guardian A mob in Peru forced a farmer to lynch his own son, a teenager accused of killing and robbing, in a brutal example of vigilante justice. Gerardo Parisuana reportedly hanged his son Gary last week after 3,000 people surrounded the family home in Patascachi, a remote village in the highland of province of Huancane near the border with Bolivia. The victim, said to be aged 16 or 17, was lynched after reportedly confessing that he was the leader of a gang of cattle rustlers which had killed at least seven people. The mob forced the father to participate in the killing in front of the victim's mother as a warning to other families to rein in wayward youths. Sandstorms sweep away parts of China's Great Wall http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2158547,00.html The Great Wall of China, built to withstand raiding hordes from the steppes, is now in peril from a far more insidious threat: sandstorms generated by desertification in the country's north-west Chris Gill in Shanghai Thursday August 30, 2007 The Guardian The Great Wall of China, built to withstand raiding hordes from the steppes, is now in peril from a far more insidious threat: sandstorms generated by desertification in the country's north-west. The wall was built over several dynasties and despite its failure to prevent invasions, it has become a national symbol. Each dynasty favoured different construction methods, and a 40-mile section built during the Han dynasty, which used mostly packed earth bricks, is now being swept away. Mandela takes his place in Parliament Square http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,2158564,00.html Hugh Muir Thursday August 30, 2007 The Guardian Few would have paid much attention to the two young black men surveying the landscape around Parliament Square in 1962, but it was then that Oliver Tambo and his friend Nelson Mandela joked about what must have seemed a preposterous notion. "We hoped that one day a statue of a black person would be erected here" alongside that of the former South African leader General Jan Smuts, Mr Mandela recalled yesterday. Welcome to Hillywood: how Rwanda's film industry emerged from genocide's shadow http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2906341.ece By Steve Bloomfield in Kigali Published: 30 August 2007 Eric Kabera was sitting beside the pool at Kigali's Mille Collines hotel when he decided to make Rwanda's first feature film. It was 1997, the influx of foreign journalists had slowed and his work as a local fixer had dropped off w ith it. A Rwandan Tutsi who had spent most of his life in exile in Goma, eastern Zaire, it was the lack of global attention paid to his country's genocide that concerned him, not the lack of work. A film about the genocide would, he thought, remind people across the world of what happened in three terrible months in 1994. Is the French left ready to be led by an openly gay politician? http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2906335.ece By John Lichfield in Paris Published: 30 August 2007 A new star is rising on the French Left, propelled by pedal power, loathing of Ségolène Royal and the conviction that the French love affair with Nicolas Sarkozy cannot last. Bertrand Delanoë, 56, the popular mayor of Paris, has the small matter of his own re-election to contend with next Spring. No matter. His friends and allies are convinced that only he can rescue the divided and quarrelsome Parti Socialiste from a permanent takeover by the defeated but unbowed presidential candidate, Mme Royal. Leading article: This is no time for sabre-rattling http://comment.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/article2906296.ece Published: 30 August 2007 Rhetorical subtlety has never been George Bush's forte, and a hall- full of reliably patriotic veterans has long been his audience of choice. But the verbal onslaught he launched on Iran before the American Legion in Nevada this week took his post-Iraq sabre-rattling to a new, more dangerous, level. It is true that Mr Bush regularly blames Iran when US efforts in Iraq are stalling, and the degree of Iran's villainy tends to be magnified in proportion to US setbacks. Yet the terms in which Mr Bush couched his speech to veterans in Reno were especially inflammatory. Adrian Hamilton: Bush's increasingly tenuous hold on reality http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_a_l/adrian_hamilton/artic... Published: 30 August 2007 One explanation for President Bush's rant against Iran this week, following on from his extraordinary speech comparing Iraq with Vietnam last week, is that the pressure is finally getting to him. US presidential history, from Woodrow Wilson to Ronald Reagan by way of F D Roosevelt is replete with presidents who on grounds of failing powers shouldn't really have been allowed to go on. Beseiged by events, cast down by the opinion polls, isolated by the loss of his closest advisers, it would not be surprising if this particular US President was now losing it. It's unnerving for the rest of the world, of course, as Bush's finger is still on the nuclear button, raising the terrifying prospect that his vision of nuclear holocaust in the Middle East could be set off not by Tehran but the US President himself launching an attack on Iran which then involved Israel with all its nuclear weaponry. It's unlikely, I know, but it's not something that can absolutely be ruled out given the way that the White House is now ramping up the confrontation with Iran.

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