The EU should be stronger and more united. Great Britain should belong to the Union.
Die EU sollte stärker und geeinter sein. Großbritannien sollte der Union angehören.
L'UE devrait être plus forte et plus unie. La Grande-Bretagne devrait appartenir à l'Union.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Sarkozy bildet Regierung um: Eric Woerth neuer Arbeitsminister
NZZ ONLINE: Auf die herbe Schlappe der konservativen UMP bei den Regionalwahlen hat der französische Staatspräsident Nicolas Sarkozy mit einer Kabinettsumbildung reagiert. Prominentester Abgang: Arbeitsminister Xavier Darcos. Er wird vom bisherigen Haushaltsminister Erik Woerth ersetzt.
Nach der Niederlage gegen die linke Opposition bei den Regionalwahlen ist Frankreichs Staatschef Nicolas Sarkozy unter Zugzwang geraten. Noch am Montag bildete er die Regierung um.
Der bisherige Budgetminister Eric Woerth übernimmt das Arbeits- und Sozialministerium, wie das Präsidialbüro mitteilte. Der bisherige Arbeitsminister, Xavier Darcos, scheidet aus der Regierung aus. Darcos war durch seine schwere Niederlage in der Region Aquitaine angeschlagen. >>> sda/afp/dpa | Montag, 22. März 2010
Former SS Member Gets Life Sentence
Obama Signs Health-Care Reform Bill
Barack Obama Signs Health Care Bill in Victory Tainted by Sceptical Public
THE TELEGRAPH: A triumphant President Barack Obama signed an historic health care reform bill into law on Tuesday, declaring that it represented what "generations of Americans have fought for, and marched for, and hungered to see".
But even as he celebrated the end of 14-months of often bitter struggle, he was preparing to sell the scheme to a still-sceptical public.
The new law, which came after united opposition of Republicans on Capitol Hill as well as dozens of conservative Democrats, will extend health insurance to millions of uninsured.
"We have now just enshrined the core principle that everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their health," Mr Obama said at a signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House. >>> Toby Harnden in Washington | Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Glum Outlook For British Employment
Gay Soldiers Attack US General Who Claimed Homosexuals Were to Blame for Srebrenica
THE TELEGRAPH: Gay soldiers have threatened to take a US general to court over his claim that the presence of homosexual troops was responsible for the Dutch army's failure to prevent the Srebrenica massacre.
John Sheehan, a former US general and Nato commander, outraged the Netherlands last week when he alleged that openly gay Dutch soldiers had so damaged military morale that the country's army was powerless to prevent genocide in Bosnia.
Up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys were massacred by Bosnian Serb forces after Dutch UN peacekeepers failed to prevent the fall of the Srebrenica enclave in July, 1995, a legacy that has continued to haunts the Netherlands.
Peter Schouten, a Dutch activist, has founded the "Pink Army" to bring a class action lawsuit against General Sheehan in a Californian federal court.
With the support of the Dutch Homosexuality and Armed Forces Foundation, Mr Schouten is aiming to recruit seven homosexual Dutch soldiers to file slander and defamation charges against the general.
The litigants will demand a full-page retraction in US and Dutch newspapers, full legal costs and will ask US judges to send the retired general on compulsory "sensitivity training". >>> Bruno Waterfield | Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Dawkins Compares Creationists to Holocaust Deniers
Facebook Row as Middle East Officials Ban User 'Who Insulted Islam'
THE TELEGRAPH: A row has erupted in the Middle East after officials banned a Facebook user in Abu Dhabi for breaking the law after they “insulted” Islam by claiming to be Allah.
All internet providers in the United Arab Emirates have been ordered to block the unnamed user behind the site, after he alleged his claims were supported by verses of the Koran.
His actions sparked a wave a protest, with many calling on users to boycott the social networking site unless the site was removed.
After dozens of complaints about the Arabic-language site, titled “God and Prophets”, the country’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) announced this week it would ban the user from holding an internet account.
But that decision was met with more protest from what some viewed as censorship of the internet.
The user claimed they were an atheist and believed in no God but him/herself, reports in the Middle East claimed.
They said that Muslim prophets would be able to connect with users through the site, which contained Koranic verses and also appeared to mock Islam, as well as answering their questions.
The site soon had more than 600,000 followers, with many critical of the site.
Mohammad Al Ganem, the authority’s General Manager, defended the authority’s decision to ban the site, saying it “insulted” Islam.
“TRA received numerous calls and complaints from internet users expressing their anger against unidentified people who created a site on Facebook that is offending to God, prophets, messengers, the Holy Koran and even to all God's books," he told Gulf News.
"The creator of this site which he named ‘God and Prophets' Site', attributes divinity to himself and spreads distorted writing pretending they are verses from the Koran.
“He also declared writing a new book falsifying himself as a god.” He added: “He spreads talk that is insulting to the prophets and to their holy stature.
“This is considered to be a felony according to the federal law." >>> Andrew Hough | Friday, March 19, 2010
Nétanyahou reste ferme face à son «ami» américain
«Le peuple juif a construit Jérusalem il y a 3.000 ans et le peuple juif construit Jérusalem aujourd'hui», a déclaré Benyamin Nétanyahou, devant le Congrès annuel de l'Aipac à Washington. Photo : Le Figaro
LE FIGARO: En plein refroidissement entre les deux pays et quelques heures avant un entretien avec Barack Obama, le premier ministre israélien a réaffirmé le droit de l'Etat hébreu de construire à Jérusalem-Est.
«Jérusalem n'est pas une colonie. C'est notre capitale.» En pleine crise diplomatique avec son allié américain autour de la construction de nouvelles colonies à Jérusalem-Est, Benyamin Nétanyahou est resté lundi soir sur sa position.
Le premier ministre israélien était l'hôte d'honneur à Washington du Congrès annuel de l'American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), le principal lobby pro-israélien aux Etats-Unis. Au cours de sa déclaration devant près de 8.000 personnes, il n'a fait aucune mention directe à la querelle actuelle sur les nouvelles implantations juives à Jérusalem-Est. Il y a quinze jours, son gouverment avait annoncé la construction de 1.600 nouveaux logements dans cette partie de la ville. L'annonce, faite en pleine visite du vice-président américain Joe Biden, avait été perçue à Washington comme un affront.
Benyamin Nétanyahou y a tout de même fait allusion, en estimant qu'il suivait dans la Ville sainte la politique de tous les gouvernements d'Israël depuis 1967, date de l'annexion de Jérusalem-Est, non reconnue par la communauté internationale. «Le peuple juif a construit Jérusalem il y a 3.000 ans et le peuple juif construit Jérusalem aujourd'hui», a-t-il asséné. La veille, l'homme fort du Likoud avait réitéré ses excuses pour le moment de l'annonce, mais aussi son refus de geler les constructions. Une douzaine de nouveaux quartiers juifs abritent quelque 200.000 Israéliens vivant dans ce secteur, aux côtés de 270.000 Palestiniens. Clinton : «des choix difficiles mais nécessaires» >>> Par Thomas Vampouille | Mardi 23 Mars 2010
Une majorité d'Américains contre la politique d'Obama
LE FIGARO: INFOGRAPHIE - C'est la première fois qu'un sondage CNN fait état de 51% de mécontents.
Après un an de mandat, la cote de popularité de Barack Obama est descendue des cimes. Selon un sondage CNN *, le président américain totalise, pour la première fois, 51% de mécontents. Le sondage a été réalisé entre vendredi et dimanche, quelques heures avant le vote de la très controversée loi sur l'assurance-maladie. Même si son adoption est une victoire majeure pour le président américain, les dix mois d'âpres négociations qui l'ont précédé ont écorné sa popularité. L'évolution est symptomatique d'un certain malaise : le sondage de CNN fait apparaître que 46% des Américains interrogés soutiennent la politique de Barack Obama, alors qu'ils étaient 54% en décembre et 76% en février 2009, peu après sa prise de fonction. >>> Par Charlotte Menegaux et Laure Kermanac'h | Mardi 23 Mars 2010
Harvard Prof. Niall Ferguson on Decline of America and Rise of a New Global Economic Order
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«Der Euro liegt im Sterben»
NZZ am SONNTAG: Die Währungsunion und der Euro leiden an einem Geburtsfehler, sagt der Historiker Niall Ferguson. Die Währungsintegration sei zum Scheitern verurteilt, da einzelne Mitglieder ausscheren und wieder eigene Währungen einführen werden. Interview: Chanchal Biswas und Charlotte Jacquemart
NZZ am Sonntag: Der Euro-Raum und der Euro werden seit Wochen heftig durchgeschüttelt, weil der griechische Staat ein Schuldenproblem hat. Was läuft falsch mit der Einheitswährung?
Ferguson: Der Euro krankt an denselben Mängeln wie vor zehn Jahren. Ich habe 1999 darauf hingewiesen, dass der Euro eine instabile Konstruktion ist. Mit dem Euro-Raum wurden zwar eine Währungsunion und eine gemeinsame Währung geschaffen, aber die Mitgliedstaaten haben an ihrer eigenen Finanzpolitik festgehalten. Das bedeutet, dass niemand dafür sorgt, dass das Verhältnis zwischen Ausgaben und Einnahmen in den einzelnen Ländern in etwa übereinstimmt.
Warum wäre das wichtig?
Eine gemeinsame Währung funktioniert nur, wenn sich keines der Mitgliedländer übermässig verschuldet. Das ist aber im Euro-Raum schwierig, nur schon weil die Mitgliedstaaten Bevölkerungen haben, die unterschiedlich schnell altern, und weil sie ihren Bewohnern unterschiedlich grosse Altersrenten versprochen haben. Diese Ungleichheiten gab es immer, aber erst die weltweite Finanzkrise hat sie zutage gebracht. Jetzt ist allen bewusst, auf welch schmalem Grat sich die Staaten Portugal, Italien, Spanien und Griechenland finanzpolitisch bewegen. Und wie gross ihr Abstand zu Deutschland oder den Niederlanden ist.
Warum spielen in der Währungsunion demografische Unterschiede eine Rolle?
Staaten mit grosszügiger sozialer Wohlfahrt, die Renten garantieren und diese früh zahlen, müssen dies mit Steuereinnahmen finanzieren. Steigen diese Ausgaben schnell, weil die Bevölkerung schnell altert, wird der Sozialstaat aus den Angeln gehoben. Das ist in den südlichen Ländern des Euro-Raums der Fall, deshalb werden ihre Defizite grösser. >>> Interview: Chanchal Biswas und Charlotte Jacquemart | Sonntag, 21. März 2010
Muslim Europe: The Demographic Time Bomb Transforming Our Continent
THE TELEGRAPH: The EU is facing an era of vast social change, reports Adrian Michaels, and few politicians are taking notice
Britain and the rest of the European Union are ignoring a demographic time bomb: a recent rush into the EU by migrants, including millions of Muslims, will change the continent beyond recognition over the next two decades, and almost no policy-makers are talking about it.
The numbers are startling. Only 3.2 per cent of Spain's population was foreign-born in 1998. In 2007 it was 13.4 per cent. Europe's Muslim population has more than doubled in the past 30 years and will have doubled again by 2015. In Brussels, the top seven baby boys' names recently were Mohamed, Adam, Rayan, Ayoub, Mehdi, Amine and Hamza.
Europe's low white birth rate, coupled with faster multiplying migrants, will change fundamentally what we take to mean by European culture and society. The altered population mix has far-reaching implications for education, housing, welfare, labour, the arts and everything in between. It could have a critical impact on foreign policy: a study was submitted to the US Air Force on how America's relationship with Europe might evolve. Yet EU officials admit that these issues are not receiving the attention they deserve.
Jerome Vignon, the director for employment and social affairs at the European Commission, said that the focus of those running the EU had been on asylum seekers and the control of migration rather than the integration of those already in the bloc. "It has certainly been underestimated - there is a general rhetoric that social integration of migrants should be given as much importance as monitoring the inflow of migrants." But, he said, the rhetoric had rarely led to policy.
The countries of the EU have long histories of welcoming migrants, but in recent years two significant trends have emerged. Migrants have come increasingly from outside developed economies, and they have come in accelerating numbers.
The growing Muslim population is of particular interest. This is not because Muslims are the only immigrants coming into the EU in large numbers; there are plenty of entrants from all points of the compass. But Muslims represent a particular set of issues beyond the fact that atrocities have been committed in the West in the name of Islam.
America's Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, part of the non-partisan Pew Research Center, said in a report: "These [EU] countries possess deep historical, cultural, religious and linguistic traditions. Injecting hundreds of thousands, and in some cases millions, of people who look, speak and act differently into these settings often makes for a difficult social fit."
How dramatic are the population changes? Everyone is aware that certain neighbourhoods of certain cities in Europe are becoming more Muslim, and that the change is gathering pace. But raw details are hard to come by as the data is sensitive: many countries in the EU do not collect population statistics by religion. >>> Adrian Michaels | Saturday, August 08, 2009
Nuclear Terror Risk to Britain from Al-Qaeda
THE TELEGRAPH: Britain faces an increased threat of a nuclear attack by al-Qaeda terrorists following a rise in the trafficking of radiological material, a government report has warned.
Bomb makers who have been active in Afghanistan may already have the ability to produce a "dirty bomb" using knowledge acquired over the internet.
It is feared that terrorists could transport an improvised nuclear device up the Thames and detonate it in the heart of London. Bristol, Liverpool Newcastle, Glasgow and Belfast are also thought to be vulnerable.
Lord West, the Security Minister, also raised the possibility of terrorists using small craft to enter ports and launch an attack similar to that in Mumbai in 2008, when more than 150 people were killed.
The Government is so concerned about the threat that it is setting up a command centre to track suspicious boats.
The terrorism threat level was raised from "substantial" to "severe" in January after the failed attempt to blow up an aircraft over Detroit on Christmas Day.
Three separate reviews of the country's ability to prevent a major terrorist attack were published simultaneously yesterday, before an international meeting on nuclear security in Washington next month. >>> Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent | Monday, March 22, 2010
Britain to Expel Israeli Diplomat Over ‘Mossad’ Assassination in Dubai
THE TELEGRAPH: Britain will expel an Israeli diplomat over the use of cloned British passports in the killing of a senior Hamas commander in Dubai.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband is due to address Parliament on Tuesday afternoon on the issue.
A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment ahead of the statement, says Britain will expel one Israeli diplomat.
Ron Proser, the Israeli Ambassador to London, was summoned to the Foreign Office on Monday to be told the results of an inquiry into the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, whose body was discovered in a luxury Dubai hotel room on January 20.
Several members of the team suspected of killing him were found to be travelling on passports cloned from documents belonging to British citizens living in Israel. Other passports had been stolen from Irish, German, Australian and French citizens.
A senior Israeli diplomat would be expelled as a mark of the “anger” within the Government that British passport holders had been put at risk as a result of the operation.
A ministerial statement to be made to Parliament on Tuesday will formally name the Israeli security services as responsible for the cloning of up to 15 British passports, which were copied after being taken away by airport officials. >>> Rosa Prince, Political Correspondent | Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Sarkozy's UMP Party Dealt Electoral Blow
Malawi Gay Couple To Face Trial
THE GUARDIAN: Court approves prosecution of engaged pair, while aid donors condemn their imprisonment and the fact that homosexuality remains a crime in Malawi
THE TELEGRAPH: Charles Moore reviews 'Trials of the Diaspora’ by Anthony Julius and finds the author's vigilance justified.
England can make the dubious boast of being the first country to have expelled the Jews en masse, in 1290. It also invented one of the strangest types of anti-Semitism, the blood libel. In the Middle Ages, Jews were massacred in York, Lincoln and elsewhere because of claims that they had kidnapped and killed Christian children for the blood of ritual sacrifice. This image of horror is still used against Jews. Modern newspaper cartoons – it is often in cartoons that the underlying visceral feeling appears most clearly – quite often depict Israeli leaders as deliberately killing children, and sometimes as vampiric. By a peculiar twist in our politics, such cartoons are now much more likely to appear in grand Leftish papers – such as the Guardian and the Independent – than in Right-wing popular ones.
There never was any evidence for the blood libel. But total lies can be surprisingly effective. In our time, the more important anti-Semitic lie is the denial of the Holocaust. You would think that its blatant untruth would kill it, but it turns out that the sheer scale of the lie has a curious power. Holocaust denial is a frequent feature of modern Muslim anti-Semitism, assiduously promoted by President Ahmedinejad of Iran. In this country, the Muslim Council of Britain, while not actually denying the events of the Second World War, objects to what it sees as the privileged status the words "the Holocaust" confer on Jews. It will only mark the Holocaust if other genocides are commemorated too, and many extreme Muslims pretend that Israel is itself genocidal.
Holocaust denial helps resolve a dilemma in the minds of anti-Semites. They believe that Jews secretly rule the world. But if this is true, how can it be that they allowed six million of their number to be murdered? Answer: it didn't happen! The Jews pretended they had been killed in order to win unique sympathy, set up their own state, and advance their power. The same mind-warp is applied to more recent events. Polls suggest that large minorities of Muslims believe that "the Jews" blew up the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Such madness is not confined to ignorant Muslim masses stirred up by fanatics: I have heard it seriously advanced by non-Muslims at a respectable dinner party. >>> Charles Moore | Monday, March 22, 2010
White House Defiant Over Republican Backlash
TIMES ONLINE: A day after winning the health reforms on which President Obama has staked his first term in office, the White House dismissed threats to repeal the historic Bill and challenged Republicans to fight it on its substance.
Republican lawyers in at least 12 states announced repeal attempts yesterday, based on claims that the Bill to extend health insurance to 95 per cent of Americans for the first time infringes on states’ rights.
Robert Gibbs, Mr Obama’s press secretary, tried to disarm the legal threat that is turning into the spearhead of an angry Republican backlash to the Bill. “A lot of big pieces of legislation are challenged in some ways,” he said in the first White House briefing since Sunday’s late-night vote. Asked if he thought that the appeals would succeed, Mr Gibbs said: “We don’t.”
He also hinted at the battle to come in which Democrats will dare Republicans to claw back the new benefits and tax credits being made available to middle and lower-income Americans in the next four years as part of the $940 billion (£622 billion) legislation.
“If people want to campaign on taking tax cuts away from small businesses, taking assistance away from seniors getting prescription drugs, and a mother knowing that [her] child can’t be discriminated against by an insurance company . . . then we’ll have a robust campaign on that,” Mr Gibbs said.
It is a campaign for which Republicans are planning even as Democratic leaders in the Senate prepare to push through the final elements of a complex reform package that seemed dead just two months ago, but is now destined to change American society. >>> Giles Whittell, Washington | Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Hillary Clinton Warns of Gulf in US-Israeli Relations
THE TELEGRAPH: Hillary Clinton has warned Israel that it was creating a gulf in its relationship with the United States, escalating a row over plans to expand a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem.
Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, ordered Benjamin Netanyahu to reverse a decision to build 1,600 homes for Israeli settlers. Photograph: The Telegraph
Delivering an unexpectedly robust address to America's most powerful pro-Israel lobby, the US secretary of state sent a strong signal that the Obama administration would not back down in its two-week stand-off with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister.
Speaking as Mr Netanyahu arrived in Washington for high-level talks, Mrs Clinton cautioned that Israel's refusal to halt construction in the territories it occupied after the 1967 Six-Day [War] was emboldening its enemies.
She also hinted for the first time that the United States could reduce its role in the Middle East peace process if Mr Netanyahu did not bow to demands that he reverse a controversial housing project in predominantly Arab East Jerusalem.
"New construction in East Jerusalem or the West Bank undermines mutual trust," she told members of the AIPAC lobby group.
"It exposes daylight between Israel and the United States that others in the region hope to exploit. And it undermines America's unique ability to play a role – an essential role, I might add – in the peace process."
Mrs Clinton's implicit rebuke sets the stage for an intriguing encounter between President Barack Obama and Mr Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday evening. >>> Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem and Rob Crilly | Monday, March 22, 2010
Google Stops Censoring Search Results in China
THE TELEGRAPH: Google has stopped censoring search results in China in defiance of authorities there.
It is the latest step in a deepening row between the internet giant and Beijing over censorship and hacking.
Speculation had been mounting that Google was preparing to announce a decision to pull out of China, which is the world’s largest internet market by users, or at least shut down its Chinese search engine.
But instead it has decided to redirect users of its China search engine Google.cn to the Hong Kong-based Google.com.hk.
China has repeatedly warned Google that it will face consequences if it does not comply with censorship rules.
Google’s chief legal officer David Drummond said: “We want as many people in the world as possible to have access to our services, including users in mainland China, yet the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement.
“We believe this new approach of providing uncensored search in simplified Chinese from Google.com.hk is a sensible solution to the challenges we’ve faced. It’s entirely legal and will meaningfully increase access to information for people in China. >>> Nick Allen in Los Angeles | Monday, March 22, 2010
China Warns US Not to 'Politicise' Google Row
TIMES ONLINE: Google’s closure of its search engine in China should not damage Sino-US relations as long as it remains an isolated act by a commercial company, China’s Foreign Ministry said today.
The statement from Qin Gang, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, more modulated in tone than an angry tirade earlier from the State Council Information Office, signals that Beijing wants the US Government to keep out of the row over censorship.
Mr Qin said that the Government would handle the Google case “according to the law” and any repercussions would not damage Sino-US ties already strained over a currency dispute.
Mr Qin said: “I don't see it influencing Sino-US relations unless some people want to politicise it.”
Google had said two months ago that it would quit the mainland market if it were required to continue to submit to censorship after cyberattacks originating in China. >>> Jane Macartney, Beijing, and Mike Harvey, San Francisco | Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Google Goes Uncensored in China
German Nuns Investigated for Sex Abuse
THE TELEGRAPH: Two German nuns are under investigation for the alleged sexual abuse of children in the Pope's native Bavaria, as a Vatican expert warned that the abuse scandal rocking the Church is likely to drag on for years.
The two sisters, along with four priests, are at the centre of fresh allegations of the abuse of minors in the diocese of Regensburg in southern Germany.
The new investigation was announced by a spokesman for the diocese, although there were no further details of when and where the abuse took place or how many children were involved.
The diocese is acting on some of the 300 claims of sexual or physical abuse at institutions run by the Church which have flooded in since Germany was swept up in a scandal which has also caused shock and anger in Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria and Brazil.
"The work of the last 14 days has shown us that serious wrongdoing was committed by spiritual leaders and members of the church," said the spokesman, Clemens Neck.
"We deeply regret what the spiritual leaders and church members did to these children and youths, and we ask for forgiveness on their behalf."
He said most of allegations dated back to the 1970s and had therefore expired under Germany's statute of limitations, but they would still be referred to the public prosecutors' office.
They concern the Etterzhausen school just outside Regensburg – a feeder school for the Domspatzen boys choir, which was led from 1964 to 1994 by the Pope's older brother, Georg Ratzinger, 86.
He has admitted that on occasion he slapped pupils in order to discipline them, but was not aware of any sexual abuse. >>> Nick Squires in Romen | Monday, March 22, 2010
Germans Travel to Poland for Work
THE TELEGRAPH: Unemployed Germans have begun travelling to Poland in search of jobs - in a dramatic reversal of the usual trend for immigrant workers.
Thousands of people from eastern Germany are now commuting across the border into western Poland in an effort to escape the downturn afflicting the region.
The strength of the Polish economy and the weakness of its once all-powerful German peer is behind the change in fortunes.
As many as 2,500 Germans are now registered to work in the region surrounding the north-western city of Szczecin but officials believe the real figure is far higher due to people working on the black market.
While some work in call centres, the construction sector has proved popular, and many workers prefer to go unregistered in order to pocket extra money.
In Uecker Randow, the German district that lies just a stone's throw from Szczecin, unemployment lies close to 20 per cent and the area is blighted by one of Germany's highest rates of long-term unemployment. >>> Matthew Day in Warsaw | Monday, March 22, 2010
Alcoholic Foods Off the Menu in Dubai
THE TELEGRAPH: Food lovers in Dubai are up in arms after reports that dishes such as coq au vin and rum-laced tiramisu could be banned from hotels.
Authorities plan to step up the enforcement of a 2003 law prohibiting restaurants from using alcohol in food preparation, according to local media reports.
Inspectors are said to be hunting for illegal alcohol inside sauces, soups and desserts.
The Dubai Municipality sent out a circular to hotel managers "strictly enforcing the ban on use of alcohol in food items and their sale," an official told The Khaleej Times.
"Though most regulations under the local order have been enforced properly, Article 15, which bans the use of alcohol in food preparations, their display and sale was not implemented effectively," said Ahmed Abdul Rahman Al Ali, head of food inspection for the municipality. >>> | Monday, March 22, 2010
Highlights of Speeches at Dem Caucus
Same-Sex Couples Wed in Washington
Monday, March 22, 2010
The Latest Radio Show
THE GATHERING STORM RADIO SHOW: If you missed the last radio show, why not come on over and hear a recording? I'm on it with Always On Watch and WC. The show was on March 12. To listen, click here. Hope you enjoy the show. – Mark
Villepin sur le point de créer son mouvement politique
Dominique de Villepin a prévu de tenir une conférence de presse jeudi pour exposer sa «vision de l'avenir». Photo : Le Figaro
LE FIGARO: Dans la foulée des régionales, plusieurs proches de l'ancien premier ministre ont annoncé qu'il devrait achever son retour sur la scène politique jeudi, en prenant une «initiative (…) au service des Français».
Les lignes bougent au lendemain des régionales. Alors qu'à gauche, Daniel Cohn-Bendit en appelle à former une «coopérative politique», à droite c'est Dominique de Villepin qui s'apprête à lancer son mouvement.
Selon plusieurs membres de son entourage qui s'exprimaient dimanche soir, l'ancien premier ministre devrait en effet annoncer jeudi la création d'un «mouvement au service des Français». Dominique de Villepin «va parler jeudi de l'avenir. Il va prendre une initiative», a affirmé la présidente de «Club Villepin», Brigitte Girardin. Lundi François Goulard, député UMP du Morbihan et proche de «DDV», a confirmé que ce «nouveau parti politique» sera officiellement créé en juin, précisant qu'il «n'a pas pour l'instant de nom».
En Chine depuis une dizaine de jours, Dominique de Villepin doit rentrer en France en début de semaine. Il a prévu de tenir une conférence de presse jeudi pour exposer sa «vision de l'avenir». La création de son mouvement s'inscrirait logiquement dans le parcours de l'héritier du chiraquisme, qui tente depuis plusieurs mois de s'imposer comme alternative de droite à Nicolas Sarkozy. Une popularité inégalée à droite >>> Par Thomas Vampouille | Lundi 22 Mars 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: A prisoner addicted to tobacco is seeking damages after he was banned from smoking for swearing at a prison officer.
Lawyers acting for Jack Richard Foster claim the staff at High Down prison, Surrey, breached their client's human rights by submitting him to ''cruel and unusual punishment''.
They argued that, as a tobacco addict and habitual smoker, he should have been given nicotine skin patches, chewing gum or some other means to satisfy his nicotine craving during the period the smoking ban was in force.
Philip Rule, appearing for Foster, said at the High Court in London today the case also raised concern over the adequacy of the guidance given by Justice Secretary Jack Straw concerning the denial of nicotine to prisoners as a punishment for breaches of discipline.
Mr Justice Collins adjourned the case so that more information could be gathered. He said it should come on for a full hearing in June-July this year.
He described the legal issue raised as ''quite an important one for the future''. >>> | Monday, March 22, 2010
Bangladeshi Man Beheaded to Redden Bricks
THE TELEGRAPH: A Bangladeshi man was beheaded by labourers who burnt his head in a kiln in the belief this would redden their bricks, police said on Sunday.
Four suspects were arrested for murdering the 26-year-old bricklayer in a remote town in northern Bangladesh on the instructions of the brick-field's owners, said Golam Sarwar Bhuiyan, a local police chief.
"They said the owners were unhappy as the brick-field was not producing reddish bricks despite enough heating. A fortune teller then suggested that the brick-field needed a human sacrifice," he said. >>> | Sunday, March 21, 2010
Christian B&B Owners Turn Gay Couple Away
MAIL ONLINE: Police launched an investigation today after a Christian bed and breakfast owner turned away a gay couple because she said it was 'against her convictions' to let them share a bed.
Michael Black, 62, and John Morgan, have complained of unlawful discrimination after they were not allowed to take up their booking at the B&B in Cookham, Berkshire.
The couple had booked a double room at the £75-a-night guest house on Friday and were met outside by owner Susanne Wilkinson.
She later admitted she had turned the couple away because it was her policy not to let same sex couples share a room.
Mr Black and Mr Morgan, from Brampton, Cambridgeshire, say they were treated like lepers.
A Black Day for the US: America Takes Its First Shaky Steps Towards a Socialist State
If you thought this was merely healthcare reform, think again! President Barack Hussein Obama has just managed to pull off the biggest change in American politics – ever.
So now we know for sure what we had suspected all along. Now we know what he was talking about when he spoke about “change we can believe in”. For with this bill, Obama has managed to turn America away from raw capitalism. From now on, America will be working ever so assiduously towards Obama’s dream of a socialist state. Capitalism has seen the failure of the banking sector; and government intervened. We now see government intervening in the health of the nation. This is Obama’s coup de grâce. He has dealt capitalism as we have known it in America its death blow. America will never be the same again.
If you think this healthcare reform will end with this bill, think again. It will not. This health bill will usher in a multitude of changes down the road. All sorts of side industries will spring up in the new nanny state. Health and social workers, for a start, will be legion in years to come. They will interfere in many aspects of a person’s life. Personal responsibility has been dealt a nasty blow with this bill; and Obama knows it.
Furthermore, it will be very difficult to turn back from here, because these will become entitlements. Entitlements, once granted in a democracy are very difficult to take away from the electorate. Politicians depend on the voters to be re-elected, remember?
The cost of this healthcare bill is already astronomical. If you think it will end with this tab, think again. The costs of universal healthcare just increase and increase – always! The government can never find enough money to satisfy the needs of the healthcare system. There will be nurses and supervisors and managers and managers’ managers, and social workers and para-medics, to say nothing of equipment which is becoming evermore sophisticated and evermore expensive. Then there'll be all the free-loaders who will fly to America from abroad to take advantage of the first-rate healthcare that will be available to them – for free! To provide all these resources the healthcare system will need revenue; so, in years to come, taxes will have to increase and increase – steadily.
Nicolas Sarkozy’s Right-wing UMP Thrashed in French Elections
THE TELEGRAPH: Nicolas Sarkozy will seek to relaunch his embattled presidency on Monday after his Right-wing party suffered a crushing defeat in France’s regional elections, seen as a test of his popularity.
French current Socialist President of Poitou-Charentes region Segolene Royal. Photograph: The Telegraph
Mr Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) was on course last night to lose in all but one of 22 regions in mainland France. As one analyst put it, the president must reinvent “le Sarkozysme 2.0” — a new ideology to woo disillusioned voters in the run-up to 2012 presidential elections.
A coalition between the opposition Socialists and Greens, whose party is called Europe Ecologie, swept the floor in the second round vote marked by a low turnout - 51 per cent - and the lowest score for the Right in more than three decades.
As polling stations closed, exit polls gave the Socialists and Greens 54 per cent of the vote, the UMP 36 percent and the far-Right National Front just under nine per cent.
Despite pushing hard-line policies on immigration and security, the president’s allies were weakened by a strong showing for the National Front, which won no regions but was in 12 run-offs.
The UMP’s sole consolation, besides holding Alsace, was taking the Indian Ocean island of Réunion. >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Sunday, March 21, 2010
Regionalwahlen in Frankreich: Das angekündigte Debakel des Nicolas Sarkozy
WELT ONLINE: Nicolas Sarkozys Partei UMP erleidet bei den französischen Regionalwahlen eine schwere Niederlage – Sozialisten siegen in fast allen Regionen. Schon bald trifft Sarkozy mit Premierminister Fillon zusammen: Es wird damit gerechnet, dass der Präsident zumindest mit einer kleinen Kabinettsumbildung reagiert.
Regierungschef François Fillon nannte das Ergebnis von 36 Prozent "eine Enttäuschung" für die Bürgerlichen, für die er Verantwortung übernehme. Bild: Welt Online
Die Regierungspartei von Präsident Nicolas Sarkozy hat in der zweiten Runde der Regionalwahlen die erwartete deutliche Niederlage hinnehmen müssen. Nach ersten Hochrechnungen kam die UMP im Landedurchschnitt auf lediglich 36,1 Prozent der Stimmen. Die Sozialisten (PS), die in den meisten Regionen mit Grünen und Kommunisten gemeinsame Listen gebildet hatten, kamen dagegen auf 54,3 Prozent. Die rechtsextreme Front National erreichte landesweit 8,7 Prozent.
In den 22 französischen Kern-Regionen konnte sich die UMP lediglich im traditionell rechten Elsass durchsetzen. Selbst im ebenfalls in der Regel konservativ tendierenden Korsika setzte sich die PS – wie in 19 weiteren Regionen - durch. Im Languedoc-Roussillon siegte zudem mit Gerge Frèche ein Kandidat, der nur deswegen nicht mehr offiziell als Sozialist gilt, weil die Parteiführung unter der Vorsitzenden Martine Aubry den Provinzfürsten wenige Wochen vor der Wahl wegen als antisemitisch interpretierbarer Bemerkungen von ihrer Liste gestrichen hatte.
Die Regionalwahlen sind die letzten Wahlen in Frankreich vor der nächsten Präsidentschaftswahl im Jahr 2012 und gelten deshalb als wichtiger Stimmungstest. Sarkozy wird am Montagmorgen mit Premierminister François Fillon im Élysée-Palast zusammenkommen und über Konsequenzen aus dem Wahlergebnis beraten. >>> Von Sascha Lehnartz | Sontag, 21. März 2010
Boy Arrested After Wal-Mart Announcement for 'All Black People' to Leave
THE TELEGRAPH: Police in New Jersey have arrested a 16-year-old boy after a Wal-Mart store broadcast an order for 'all black people' to leave the building.
The boy has been charged with bias and intimidation after the racist message was relayed via the store's public address system last week.
According to police, the boy picked up a public-address telephone in the Wal-Mart in Washington Township and said: "All black people, leave the store now."
A store manager apologised for the announcement, and police reviewed CCTV footage to find the boy.
Rafael Muñiz, the Washington Township police chief, said that while the cameras did not record anyone speaking on the public-address system, images showed three people – the suspect, a young man and a woman – standing near the phone just before the announcement, and rushing from the store just after it.
If convicted, the boy, from Atlantic County, New Jersey, could face a year in a juvenile detention centre. >>> | Tuesday, March 22, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: In the second extract from his new book, Philip Johnston says we must restore traditional British common sense.
When I was growing up, there were two common phrases that you hardly ever hear today. One was: "It's a free country." The other was: "There should be a law against it." They tended to be uttered by people older than my parents who had been born not long after the First World War and may well have fought in the Second.
These phrases captured the essence of Britishness and why those wars were fought. We were, or imagined ourselves to be, "a free country" in a way that most European countries were not and had never been. That notion of being free defined us. We were not people subject to arbitrary state power and we both knew it and could say it. Perhaps this first phrase was used ironically at times; but when I heard it as a young boy it had a sense of certainty and permanence about it. What are we? A free country.
The second phrase also says much about the sort of country we were, and are no longer. There were, obviously, lots of laws but they were less restrictive of individual activity. They set parameters within which the "free" bit could be exercised and were governed by common law precedents handed down over the centuries. We had liberty; we did not have licence.
Yet there were clearly things of which many people, especially older ones, disapproved and that they sometimes wished could be legislated away, such as the looser morals that were on show in the 1960s. You could imagine an old codger leering at a girl in her thigh-high mini-skirt in 1963 (when sexual intercourse began, according to the poet Philip Larkin) and saying: "There should be a law against it." And if the girl had overheard, she would have replied: "It's a free country, grandad. Mind your own business."
However, neither of these phrases applies today. We are no longer a free country, not in the way previous generations would have understood the phrase; and as for the demand for laws, there almost certainly already is a law against it. >>> Philip Johnston | Sunday, March 21, 2010
'Bad Laws' by Philip Johnston (Constable) is out on Thursday and is available for £8.99 plus 99p postage and packing from Telegraph Books. Please call 0844 871 1514 or go to books.telegraph.co.uk
Historic U.S. Healthcare Bill Passes
Major Changes Ahead As Health-Care Reform Passes
Health-Care Reform Major Win for Obama Presidency
US Congress Passes Barack Obama's Historic Health Care Reform Bill
THE TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama has convinced Democrats in the US Congress to pass his historic health care reform bill, handing the president a victory that will give nearly every American the right to health coverage and could define his time in office.
“We proved we are still a people capable of doing big things and tackling big challenges,” said Mr Obama. Reprising his campaign mantra he added: “This is what change looks like, tonight we answered the call of history.”
His victory came by a narrow margin of 219 to 212, with all Republicans and 34 Democrats opposing. But it secured the most sweeping domestic reform since the 1960s that a few weeks ago seemed dead and buried when the Democrats lost a crucial Senate by-election in Massachusetts.
Though the president will sign last night’s bill into law, the process will not end until later in the week, when Democrats in the Senate are expected to complete a complex set of manoeuvres that will create a compromise bill.
The president therefore avoided a victory lap in comments made from the East Room of the White House shortly before midnight in Washington, though privately White House advisers said this was “a wonderful, wonderful night” and some could not contain their smiles as the president made his short, televised address.
As hundreds of angry protesters outside the Capitol chanted “Kill the Bill”, Democrats were able to muster they votes they needed after the president reached a last minute compromise with anti-abortion congressmen.
He agreed to issue an executive order as soon as the bill was passed that would prevent any circumvention of the existing ban on federal funding of elective abortions, which a small group of Catholic Democrats said was threatened by the language of the bill.
“This bill is complicated, but it’s also very simple: illness and infirmity are universal, and we are stronger against them together than we are alone,” said Steny Hoyer, the Democratic House Majority Leader before the vote. >>> Alex Spillius in Washington | Monday, March 22, 2010
Nile Gardiner: Congress Health Care Vote: A Dark Day for Freedom in America
THE TELEGRAPH: The passage last night of Barack Obama’s health care reform bill through the House of Representatives is yet another blow to freedom in America inflicted by the Obama administration. The legislation, which comes at a staggering cost of $940 billion, will hugely add to the already towering national debt, now at over $12 trillion. It is yet another millstone round the necks of the American people, already faced with the highest levels of unemployment in a generation.
It is also a great leap forward by the United States towards a European-style vision of universal health care, which will only lead to soaring costs, higher taxes, and a surge in red tape for small businesses. This reckless legislation dramatically expands the power of the state over the lives of individuals, and could not be further from the vision of America’s founding fathers. It has also been rushed through Congress without proper scrutiny, in the face of overwhelming public opposition, and with not an ounce of bipartisan support.
Above all the health care bill is a thinly disguised vanity project for a president who is committed to transforming the United States from the world’s most successful large-scale free enterprise economy, to a highly interventionist society with a massive role for centralized government. The United States has thrived as a nation for over 230 years precisely because of its love for freedom and its belief in free markets. Read on and comment >>> Nile Gardiner | Monday, March 22, 2010
This Time Change Really Is Coming to America
TIMES ONLINE: Barack Obama is wrong to suggest he knows what change looks like but right to urge the public to get ready
There was no champagne for the President, at least not in public. Instead there was a short walk to the microphone at ten to midnight and a low-key speech to weary reporters. Embedded in it were six words that he had waited a long time and twisted a lot of arms to say: "This is what change looks like".
It is hard to overstate the effect the reforms passed last night will have on the American way of life, because the unknowable changes may be even more profound than those that are already known.
Thirty-two million people will be forced or helped to buy health insurance for the first time. Ninety-five per cent of Americans will thus have coverage, up from roughly 85 per cent. The dream of universal coverage will not become a reality overnight, but it will come closer than ever in US history, and closer to levels taken for granted in other advanced economies. >>> Giles Whittell, Washington | Monday, March 22, 2010
Ein historischer Entscheid mit Folgen: Reaktionen zu Obamas Gesundheitsreform in der amerikanischen Presse
NZZ ONLINE: Grosses Thema in der amerikanischen Presse ist der knappe Erfolg von Obamas Gesundheitsreform im Kongress. Die Spaltung, die sich in der Frage zwischen den politischen Kräften abzeichnete, prägt auch die Meinungen in der Medienlandschaft.
Die Kommentare der amerikanischen Presse zur Verabschiedung von Obamas Gesundheitsreform im Kongress sind so kontrovers wie die Haltung der beiden wichtigsten Parteien. Die konservativen Zeitungen stützen die Meinung der Republikaner, wonach die Reform den Vereinigten Staaten eine Schuldenlast von unerhörtem Ausmass auflade. Die linksliberalen Blätter streichen den sozialen Fortschritt heraus, der Ungerechtigkeiten ausgleiche und Benachteiligten den Zugang zur medizinischen Versorgung garantiere. Graben zwischen den Parteien >>> Isabelle Imhof | Montag, 22. März 2010
MAIL ONLINE: Vote is compared to civil rights legislation of 50s and 60s / Reform leaves nation polarised as backlash begins / Democrats set to pay price in November mid-term elections / Final tally is 219 to 212
Barack Obama hailed the passing of his historic healthcare overhaul last night, declaring: 'This is what change looks like.'
The jubilant president was preparing to sign his £600billion plan into law after the House of Representatives passed the bill in a cliffhanger vote - a victory that U.S. presidents have been trying to achieve for nearly 100 years.
Many are already comparing the vote to just a rung below the enactment of civil rights legislation in the 1950s and 1960s.
But with the nation polarised by the healthcare debate, many are wondering if Mr Obama has made a historic mistake.
The cost to his party and himself could be crippling, analysts have warned. America is heading into mid-term congressional elections in November - and many are now worried that the Democrats are set to pay a high price for healthcare.
The damage to Mr Obama and his party is already considerable.
The president staked his domestic agenda on healthcare last summer. His stand generated the grass-roots 'Tea Party' movement, sparked angry town hall meetings across the nation, and saw his poll numbers plunge to below 50 per cent in some places.
Couverture santé : Obama remporte un vote historique
Le vice-président Joe Biden (en arrière-plan) et le président américain Barack Obama. «Nous avons prouvé que nous restions un peuple capable de grandes choses», s'est félicité le chef de l'Etat à l'issue du vote dimanche soir. Photo : Le Figaro
LE FIGARO: Après des mois d'âpres négociations, le président américain a remporté une bataille qu'aucun démocrate n'avait gagné en 100 ans de vie politique : donner à toute la nation une vraie couverture maladie.
«Nous avons prouvé que ce gouvernement, un gouvernement élu par la nation pour servir la nation, continue d'agir pour la nation. Nous avons prouvé que nous restions un peuple capable de grandes choses». Par ces mots, Barack Obama a salué sobrement dimanche le passage du projet de réforme du système de santé américain auquel il travaillait depuis plus d'un an. Une réforme dont il a revu certains objectifs à la baisse mais qui restera probablement le symbole de sa législature et fait aboutir un combat mené par les démocrates depuis un siècle.
Dimanche soir, à l'issue de dix heures de débats, la Chambre des représentants a approuvé par 219 voix contre 212 le texte adopté le 24 décembre par le Sénat, envoyant ainsi à une courte majorité le texte à la Maison-Blanche pour promulgation par le président Obama.
Dimanche après-midi pourtant, l'issue du vote était toujours incertaine. Pendant les débats, les républicains ont réitéré leur opposition à un plan jugé trop coûteux. Mike Pence, numéro trois de l'opposition, a ironisé : «Il n'y a qu'à Washington qu'on peut dire qu'on dépense 1.000 milliards tout en faisant économiser de l'argent aux contribuables». Mais les chefs démocrates ont fini par obtenir le ralliement du démocrate anti-avortement Bart Stupak et de ses partisans. Un précieux soutien rendu possible grâce au compromis passé avec Barack Obama qui s'est engagé à signer un décret pour réaffirmer l'interdiction des financements fédéraux pour l'avortement.
Certains démocrates ont néanmoins refusé de s'engager pour une réforme que les sondages disent impopulaire. Selon un récent sondage du Wall Street Journal, 36% des Américains jugent la réforme positive, contre 48% qui l'estiment négative et 15% sans opinion. Au total, 34 démocrates ont finalement voté contre le projet de loi tout comme la totalité des 178 républicains. 32 millions d'assurés supplémentaires >>> Par Pauline Fréour | Lundi 22 Mars 2010
Obama's Health Care Bill: Courageous Or Electoral Suicide?
THE TELEGRAPH: Catastrophic victory. Electoral suicide. An act of political courage that will rescue his presidency. The verdicts on Barack Obama's successful push to pass health care reform by the narrowest of margins are sharply divided.
In the short term, few would dispute that Mr Obama registered a significant political achievement. He showed that Democrats, holding power in the White House and both houses of Congress, could muscle a major bill through. Finally, he did something.
He put his personal prestige on the line by persisting with the measure despite the stunning blow of losing a Senate seat in Massachusetts in January largely because of popular discontent with it. Reforming America's health care system had eluded presidents back to Theodore Roosevelt, who left office 101 years ago.
But one man's courage is another's folly and the victory came at a huge cost for Mr Obama. He campaigned on a lofty vow to usher in a new era of bipartisanship in Washington. That died late on Sunday when health care passed without a single Republican vote – and with 34 Democrats voting against.
Never before had landmark legislation – the bill reshapes one-sixth of the American economy – been passed without even a smidgen of bipartisan consensus.
The process took 14 months and at times showed politics at its ugliest, with closed-door horse-trading (despite Mr Obama's trumpeting of a new transparency) and grubby deals like the notorious "Louisiana Purchase" and "Cornhusker Kickback".
Almost every other political priority was pushed aside and the "laser focus" on jobs that the White House kept promising never materialised. >>> Toby Harnden in Washington | Monday, March 22, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Thousands Rally Against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
Police officers scuffle with protesters during an opposition rally in Moscow on Saturday. Photograph: Arab News
ARAB NEWS: MOSCOW: Russian police broke up an opposition demonstration in Moscow on Saturday, one of around 50 rallies across the country with thousands protesting falling living standards under Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
A coalition of opposition groups declared a national “Day of Anger” with nationwide rallies tapping into anger which has been rising since the economic crisis hit. The protests mixed local issues with anger at the federal government.
Opposition groups have been heartened by unusually large rallies in recent months. But riven by division they were unable to match the 10,000 people who gathered for a January rally in the western city of Kaliningrad, one of the largest in a decade.
“The mood has changed, but it has not yet turned into a movement,” said Masha Lipman, an analyst with the Carnegie Moscow Center think-tank. But for the micro-managers in the Kremlin “the stakes are extremely high,” she said.
At least 1,500 people turned out in the Pacific port of Vladivostok, raising their hands to support a motion to dismiss Putin’s government. Around 1,000 rallied in Saint Petersburg and hundreds gathered in several other cities.
“People have no work and they are fed up,” said Ivan Fotodtov, 26, a Vladivostok web designer who braved snow to protest rising bills cutting into his stagnant wages. >>> Aydar Buribayev | Reuters | Sunday, March 21, 2010
Obama "Confident" Health Insurance Reform Will Pass
We're Headed Straight Off a Cliff If Health Care Passes
FOX NEWS: Never has “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you” sounded more like an empty promise.
Pork is the preferred legislative meat for members of Congress, but this weekend they opted for bologna as they tried to convince the public – and themselves – that their so-called “health care” or health insurance “reform” monstrosity will be good for us. At least Castor oil was supposed to work even though it tasted awful. This bill not only tastes bad, it will curdle the best health care system in the world, which could be made a lot better, but will be made much worse with many of the provisions in this legislation.
Democrats now readily admit that Medicare is full of waste, fraud and abuse, but they want us to believe they can run an even larger venture without throwing additional money away. Amazing!
President Obama again claimed in Saturday remarks to the House Democratic caucus that the bill will reduce the deficit by $1.3 trillion. He must know that isn’t true because the money “saved” from Medicare cuts will go to pay for new spending. Only in Washington can you save money and spend money at the same time.
Addressing critics of the bill, President Obama said no one is “going to pull the plug on grandma.” They won’t have to. Grandma will be denied treatment because she will be too much of a financial burden on government. It’s called rationing. Grandma had better start working out, eating lots of oatmeal and hope she doesn’t get sick. Why do you think the president kept mentioning sick children? It’s because children are the ones who will get the most – and best – treatment. Rahm Emanuel’s brother, Ezekiel, has said government has a right to decide how many health care dollars you are worth. And if children with a lifelong taxpaying potential are worth more than grandma who is taking more from the tax pot than she is contributing, that’s too bad for grandma.
The president also said the bill will save money by requiring only one test by the doctor “not five tests.” But what if the first test doesn’t reveal the nature of an illness? Suppose a cancer is hiding in one organ and the test is for cancer in another organ? A second (or fifth) test might reveal the location of the disease, but under Obamacare, a government bureaucrat will allow just one test. -- It’s a form of Russian roulette. >>> Cal Thomas, FoxNews.com | Saturday, March 20, 2010
Tea Partiers Call Frank a "Fa**ot"
ADVOCATE.COM: Tea Party members who were protesting health care reform on Capitol Hill Saturday heckled a number of congressmen, including Barney Frank, as the lawmakers passed through the Longworth House office building. Frank, who is openly gay, was called "fa**ot," while Rep. John Lewis, a hero in the civil rights movement, was called "ni**er."
Frank told the Washington newspaper The Hill that he was also called a “Homo Communist” and told to “go homo to Massachusetts." He also had to call Capitol police “to move away” five or six protesters who were banging on his office door and yelling through the mail slot. >>> Advocate.com Editors | Saturday, March 20, 2010
France Loses Faith in Sarkozy
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: As the French go to the polls for their regional elections, many wonder whether France's love affair with Nicolas Sarkozy is well and truly over.
Sarkozy: Heralded as France's saviour when he took over from an ageing and lethargic Jacques Chirac in 2007, Mr Sarkozy has since then lost the support of a large chunk of his right-wing electorate. Photo: The Sunday Telegraph
It was just what the beleaguered party faithful wanted: a glitzy election rally with an upbeat message that their leader's huge reform programme was on track, with his ministers handling the economic crisis better than neighbours like Britain.
But days before France goes to the polls in regional elections, the man whose record and reputation are on the line was nowhere to be seen at his own party's final polling push – and his name was not directly mentioned.
Three years after President Nicholas Sarkozy swept triumphantly into the Elysee Palace to usher in what he promised was a new era of change for France, few from his camp will admit it – but he has become an electoral liability.
As his Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) fought against the prospect of losing control of the last of mainland France's 22 regions in the second round vote, the man standing amid the blue balloons and wild adulation in the eastern Alsace region was the Prime Minister François Fillon. It was his final stop in a race around France to muster the votes needed for an eleventh-hour victory.
Mr Sarkozy stayed away, hoping that by doing so these elections would be considered local affairs – a vote for who controls transport, schools and development budgets.
But however he spins it, the midterm regional elections are seen as a key test on how much the French have fallen out of love with their president, and the response is likely to be a humiliating slap in the face. >>> Henry Samuel in Strasbourg | Sunday, March 21, 2010
