'The Government's row with the BBC over the coverage of its welfare changes has escalated. Downing Street was infuriated when housing benefit claimant David Bennett challenged Iain Duncan Smith on the Today Programme to live on £53 a week, saying that Bennett was living on substantially more than that and that his claims should have been checked before being broadcast.Taken from The Mail - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2308778/JAMES-FORSYTH-United-grief--loss-just-save-Tories.html
But Number 10 is now apoplectic after learning that Bennett was approached when he posted criticisms of David Cameron and the welfare changes on the BBC's user-generated content hub.
This has added to the Government's suspicions that the BBC was deliberately setting the Welfare Secretary up for a rough ride.'
'My skepticism gained further momentum by hearing and reading news headlines such as: "With more than 2000 years of Jewish heritage, Egypt shuts down its last synagogue," or "Attacks on Coptic places of worship continue," and "Egyptian high profile officials call Jews `apes,`" and "David Gerbi, the Libyan-Italian Jew who returned to his homeland, receives death threats," and "The last synagogue in Iraq is closed, signaling the end of a 2,700-year Jewish presence there."
These and other similar examples were indications that not only were the remaining small Christian and particularly Jewish communities becoming extinct in the Muslim world, but the already low tolerance towards the "other," was shrinking. This is the main reason I continue to believe that Arab uprisings are unlikely to bring any change for the better.'
'A poll of attitudes in Gaza and the West Bank by a Palestinian group found a sharp drop in support for rocket attacks on Israel and a slight rise in backing for the moderate Fatah political movement, in a report released Wednesday.
The survey, conducted by the Ramallah-based Jerusalem Media and Communications Center found that 38.4 percent of Palestinians supported firing rockets at Israel, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported.'
'Blythe is a drama teacher with a workshop company that visits secondary schools. She specialises in "facilitating workshops for young, excluded and potentially criminalised individuals and uses drama techniques she has developed to explore resolution of conflict and oppression," according to the company's website.'
One excerpt from this Daily Mail piece struck me http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2306564/Margaret-Thatcher-Public-anger-BBC-bias-Viewers-hit-lengthy-coverage-poll-tax-miners-strike.html
'One of Thatcher's arch critics – former Labour MP Tony Benn – was one of the first invited to speak on BBC 5 Live and BBC World Service and was given free rein to criticise Lady Thatcher.
He said: 'Margaret Thatcher taught us the meaning of class war, we have paid a very heavy price for it.
'She used the power she had to make war on the miners and the trade union movement . . . and it was a very divisive period as Prime Minister, but you have to recognise that was what she believed and that meant she was not just fooling and she did in a sense open up the meaning of the phrase 'class war" as she used her power to make war on trade unions and the majority of the population.''
Dershowitz: I Challenge Carter to Human Rights Debate at Cardozo
I will come, at my own expense, to debate Jimmy Carter on Carter's own human rights record. If Cardozo will have me, I will come and provide the students, the administration and anyone else that is interested, with a first rate debate about the meaning of human rights and they can decide whether what Jimmy Carter has done, constitutes human rights or human wrongs.
Alan Dershowitz, Felix Frankfurter professor of law at Harvard Law School, has challenged former president Jimmy Carter to a debate on his human rights record.
Dershowitz spoke by telephone to a reporter with The Jewish Press, on Monday, April 8, in response to the news that the Cardozo School of Law’s Journal of Conflict Resolution will be honoring Carter with the “International Advocate for Peace” Award this Wednesday, April 10, as reported that morning.
During the course of the interview, the law professor recounted the widespread death and devastation caused by Carter’s efforts at “human rights.”
“What should be discussed is not Jimmy Carter’s role as a peacemaker, but instead it should be his role as a deal breaker,” said Dershowitz. He then proceeded to tick off the bases for his reasoning.
“First, it was Carter who advised Yassir Arafat not to accept the peace deal offered in 2000-01. That failure led to the deaths of more than 4000 Israelis and Arabs.”
“Secondly, by encouraging and supporting Hamas, and always placing the blame on Israel, Carter has guaranteed the continuation of terrorism.” Indeed, “Carter has embraced Arafat, he’s embraced Mashaal, why, he’s never met a terrorist he didn’t love, and never met an Israeli whom he did.”
“And third,” the professor said, “it was Carter who was responsible for not acting to prevent the death of two million Cambodians at the hands of Pol Pot. Carter was the president of the United States and yet he did not intervene in that slaughter, he did not lead and prod the United Nations to take action.”
Dershowitz paused, to sum up, “Carter has prevented peace, encouraged terrorism and done more than anyone else to isolate and demonize the Middle East’s only democracy, Israel.”
But Dershowitz wasn’t finished.
“Jimmy Carter has distorted the very meaning of human rights, he has turned the concept on its head, what he does should be called ‘human lefts.’”
What does that mean?
“The way human rights should be addressed is based on ‘worst, first,’ you deal with the most egregious wrongs, the worst kind of abuses committed by governments first,” Dershowitz explained. “He’s turned everything upside down. Instead of Israel, just look over a little to the south, “Saudi Arabia is the worst human rights violator in the world: sex segregation, gender preference discrimination, religious discrimination,” that’s where a real human rights activist would focus, said the law professor.
“But Jimmy Carter was bought and paid for by the Saudis. The Carter Center stopped criticizing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia when the Saudis started funding it.”
'Wind companies are not owned and operated by idealistic entrepreneurs. They are run by some of Canada's, and the world's, biggest corporations, including pipeline and pulp and paper companies.More here http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/mcguintys-legacy-is-a-green-nightmare/article8131320
Wind contracts are flipped like other financial instruments. NextEra, the outfit that cut down the eagle's nest, is the largest generator of wind and solar power in North America. Because of a lucrative U.S. tax break for wind power, the company has paid no U.S. corporate income tax for several years, despite billions in profits. Big Wind is among the biggest lobbyists in Washington.'
