Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2010/12/31/bloomberg_digs_out_of_political_storm_248099.html
John McCain Evo Morales William Mountbatten-Windsor Prince William Charles Mountbatten-Windsor
Friday, December 31, 2010
Hotel attack could reignite Ivory Coast civil war, Ban Ki-moon warns
UN secretary-general alarmed by physical threats to winner of disputed presidential election
The United Nations has warned supporters of Ivory Coast's incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo that they would reignite a civil war if they go ahead with a threatened attack on the hotel in Abidjan where his rival is based.
A pro-Gbagbo youth leader has said that the backers of Alassane Ouattara, whom the UN says won the disputed election on 28 November, have until Saturday to "pack up their bags".
The UN's Martin Nesirky said the secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, was alarmed by the comments and believed that an attack could reignite civil war.
Ban warned Gbagbo's supporters to "refrain from such dangerous irresponsible action" at the Golf Hotel which is protected by 800 blue-helmeted UN peacekeepers and hundreds of rebels loyal to Ouattarato.
Charles Ble Goude, a fiery supporter of Gbagbo, reportedly said Ouattara and his supporters "have until 1 January 2011 to pack their bags and leave the Golf Hotel".
The newspaper Le Temps reported Ble Goude as telling Gbagbo supporters in the Yopougon district, where a UN patrol was surrounded by a mob on Tuesday and one peacekeeper was wounded by a machete: "He who attacks Laurent Gbagbo will sorely regret it. No one can remove our president from power."
Under a peace deal following the 2002-3 civil war, the UN was given the duty of certifying the results of this year's election. It declared Ouattara the winner, supporting the findings of the country's own electoral commission chief.
But Gbagbo insists he won, pointing out that the Ivory Coast constitutional council declared him the winner. The council, which is led by a Gbagbo ally, invalidated half a million ballots from Ouattara strongholds in the north.
The US and other world powers have insisted Gbagbo hand power to Ouattara.
The British foreign secretary, William Hague, said the UK would support a UN-sanctioned military intervention by Ivory Coast's neighbours who have threatened to consider force if Gbagbo refuses to hand over power.
Hague told BBC radio that Britain hopes Gbagbo can be persuaded to step down, or will go voluntarily following the freezing of his bank accounts. Gbagbo "should not underestimate the determination of the international community", he said.
Meanwhile, human rights groups warned that security forces loyal to Gbagbo were abducting political opponents with reports of dozens of bodies being dumped near a large forest.
The UN believes up to 80 bodies may have been moved to a building among shacks in a pro-Gbagbo neighbourhood. Investigators have tried to visit the scene several times, and even made it as far as the building's front door before truckloads of gunmen forced them to leave.
A second mass burial site is believed to be located near Gagnoa in the country's interior.Gbagbo's government has repeatedly denied the existence of mass graves following violence that has left at least 173 confirmed dead.
Ecowas, the Economic Community of West African States, which has sent troops to intervene in several nations over the past two decades, met last Wednesday in Abuja, Nigeria.
They decided to give negotiations more time, saying that mediators would return to Ivory Coast next week.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/31/ivory-coast-civil-war-threat
Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud King Abdulla Osama bin Laden Tony Blair Sam Brownback
Billy Bragg: Are you ready for the revolution?
Billy Bragg and his guitar have been summoning us to the barricades for the past three decades, and today he's more hopeful for real change than ever before
'Look out the window, Jon," says Billy Bragg, bounding from a low-slung taupe armchair in a swish hotel room that's every shade of brown. He's still fired up from playing to 3,000 people the night before in an old cinema on the Commercial Road in east London, hard by the hallowed anti-fascist ground of Cable Street, and also the house where his mum was born: the last date of a triumphant UK tour on which that characteristically gruff, tender, fervent call to arms of his has ? rejoice! ? rarely felt more relevant.
With love songs and folk anthems and an unshakeable commitment to democratic socialism, Bragg and his guitar have been preaching a modest, very English kind of revolution from stages up and down the land for more than three decades now, and seriously, he's seldom felt more hopeful something might come of it.
We look out of the fifth-floor window over the frozen rooftops of central London. "Is it cold out there?" he asks. "Is it very cold? Are there clouds ? heavy clouds? It looks to me like it's going to snow, Jon. Course, you can never say for sure. But there are things happening now that I've never seen before. Something's moving."
It's difficult, in truth, not to be stirred by the strength of his convictions; he's 53 now, a successful singer-songwriter living in a nice, big house overlooking the sea in Dorset, and still angry. But let's consider the signs.
The first stirrings, he reckons, were in May, when the forces of righteousness won the battle of Barking: all 12 of the BNP councillors elected in 2006 were sent packing, and party leader Nick Griffin given a right kicking in his bid for parliament. (Not, of course, that the victorious Margaret Hodge MP should be counted among the forces of righteousness, since New Labour ? Bragg is quite clear about this, and cares because Barking is where he was born ? was "absolutely complicit" in the fact the battle had to be fought in the first place.) No, the people of Barking saw the British National Party for what it was, and they ran it out of their town.
"What had happened in Barking," says Bragg, "was that Tony Blair had said: we can take the white working class for granted. Barking and Dagenham doesn't really belong in the south-east of England; it's a post-industrial town. But the people aren't racist, no more than anywhere else. What they wanted was decent social housing, better hospitals, proper schools, decent jobs. They felt disaffected, disenfranchised, and they had the BNP knocking at their door."
So they sought out "the bluntest weapon they could find, to send a message to New Labour ? and it was those toe-rags". Four years later, though, they'd looked into the eyes of the beast. They'd understood the BNP was never "going to bring Henry Ford back to Dagenham". They voted clearly and unambiguously, and the BNP was vanquished.
"And what that says to me," says the Bard of Barking, who devoted a great deal of energy to the battle in a town that has, for some years now, boasted a Bragg Close, "is, I'm really quite encouraged. We can trust our fellow citizens."
Bragg's always been an optimist ? ever since he bought his way out of the army in 1981, got politicised by Rock Against Racism and a formative Clash concert, released his first record and, in 1983, persuaded John Peel to play it by sprinting round to the BBC with a mushroom biryani when Peel happened to mention, on air, that he was feeling a bit peckish.
"I have to be [an optimist]," he says. "I'm a socialist. I'm a glass-half-full person. Look, if we're going to do this, we have to believe we can, don't we? Nothing pisses me off more than the cynics. Not sceptics. I mean the people who've given up hope, and want you to give up too. Eeyores. The BNP ? they're cynics. You know, it's not capitalism or conservatism that's the greatest enemy of those of us who want to make a better society, it's cynicism. Not least our own. We have to guard against our own cynicism, too. Look at me: I once voted for Tony Blair."
But there's plenty to feel optimistic about, he reckons, for this Year of (Possible) Revolution 2011. Things are afoot, and on several fronts. The battle of Barking was just the start. Politics in the second decade of the 21st century are, against all expectations, starting to look quite exciting. "Free market capitalism," declares Bragg cheerfully, sucking on a mineral water, "is in crisis."
Because what people are beginning to grasp, he says, is that we have to find "a way to hold the markets to account ? rules to constrain their worst excesses, and to make sure that when the banks fuck up, they're the ones that lose their arses, not us. Self-regulation's an oxymoron. Turbocharged capitalism's tanking: people are coming to understand that unregulated markets are a scam, a profiteering scam."
It was, sadly ? if inevitably ? under New Labour that the City was raised to its present pinnacle. "All growth is good ? that was a dogma shared by all the parties," Bragg says. "But when you've got a chancellor saying, 'I can't do that because the markets won't like it ?' Well, a society run by the market isn't a democracy. The market's like fire, you know? Constrain it, harness it, and it'll provide you with warmth and light and heat for your cooking ? Let it rip, and it'll destroy everything you hold dear."
He's warming with Essex eloquence to his theme, the boy who failed his 11-plus, who was never expected to do anything but work in the car plant; the young punk rocker whose dad, Dennis, warehouse worker, sales manager for a Barking hat maker, died of lung cancer at the age of 52, when Billy was just 18. ("I'm older than my dad ever was," he says later, outside in the corridor. "That's part of what's made this year special.")
But it's not just the markets that people have had enough of. "There's a whole lot of issues out there beginning to coalesce: tuition fees, bank bonuses, tax avoidance, the decimation of the public sector, fair pay, opposition to globalisation ? And what connects them all, Jon? A wishy-washy word called fairness."
But that fairness, he goes on, is "nothing to do with the Big Society I hear David Cameron talking about. It's a society run for the benefit of all, that puts markets at the service of the people, not the other way round. It's a compassionate society."
Which brings us, he believes, to the potential game-changer here, the one big difference between now and, say, 1968: the fact that, these days, "We're living in a post-ideological period."
The people out protesting now, Bragg says, are the first generation ever to be able to talk about socialism without having the long shadow of Karl Marx hanging over them. If, indeed, they even describe it as such. "To be honest, I don't care if it's called socialism," he says. "Anyway, what is socialism but organised compassion?"
Today's young protestors, he points out, "don't need the SWP to tell them what they're fighting for, or the TUC to tell them where to march. They're making their own connections, and at the bottom of them all is an absolute sense of unfairness. That's what's politicised them. Not some abstract interest in dialectical materialism."
He doesn't hold with violence, mind: "One of the lessons of the failed anti-globalisation protests is, you don't change the world by smashing up branches of McDonald's." Nor, he says, are these protestors Thatcher's children. "They're Attlee's children," he insists. "They're standing up and saying, this should be funded from collective provision. Besides, there was a generation between ours and this one, you know. They were Thatcher's children. They went shopping."
And where is music in all this? Back in the days of the miners' strike, of Red Wedge, the Falklands and the poll tax, there was music, wasn't there? So where is it now? It's a question, he admits, that he's thought about a lot. The 60s generation, Bragg reckons, believed they could change the world through music, because their own lives had been changed forever by rock'n'roll.
"It wasn't that simple," he says. "You can't change the world by selling records. But in the 1980s, that helped me, and others like me. Because when Red Wedge and all that happened, the people who ran the music magazines, they'd all been teenagers in 1968. They gave us a platform. Whereas today, it's not accepted for young bands to be political. They need to feel confident, to feel they've got a base, and it's not there yet. It'll come, though. No one wrote about Vietnam until they started conscripting college-age kids."
The musicians of Bragg's generation can help, he believes, by "showing them that they're not the first to have fought the fight. That's the real role of the musician. Look at me. I wouldn't be sitting here if I hadn't once been to see the Clash. But it wasn't the Clash that changed my world. It was the audience. In the office I was working in at the time, there was a lot of casual racism. I didn't like it, but I wasn't big enough to say anything. But then I went along to Victoria Park in Hackney one afternoon, and there were 100,000 kids there who felt exactly like me. So I went back to work on Monday morning, and I knew I wasn't alone. My world hadn't changed, but my perception of it had. And that's the role of the musician."
Changing perceptions or not, Bragg's never been busier. Besides the tour and the battle of Barking, last year he refused to pay his tax bill as long as the government refused to cap bonuses at the Royal Bank of Scotland. He's visited a dozen prisons as part of his Jail Guitar Doors campaign to bring music-making into prisons; he's been working with the Featured Artists Coalition, representing artists' interests in the digital age.
He curated the Leftfield pop-and-politics tent at Glastonbury; appeared at Speakers' Corner; performed in Pressure Drop, "part play, part gig, part installation" at the Wellcome Collection; visited and inspired student sit-ins. And he was in America for the mid-terms.
As a tactical Lib-Dem voter since 2001, he feels "a dreadful sense of betrayal" now they're in government. "They had some positive things in their manifesto, and they seem to have abandoned the lot of 'em." But he is still a firm believer in the benefits of more plurality in politics, and has been active in the Take Back Parliament campaign for voting reform.
He's taken some flak, but hey, "If you stick you arse out the window, you never know if they're going to kiss it, kick it or stick a flag in it." Right now, though, wife Juliet and son Jack ? who took to the stage with his dad last night ? are waiting down the corridor, eager to start the drive back to Dorset.
Last year was, he says, "a galvanising year", and 2011 will be more so. "I'm excited, really. We should never underestimate the vigour of youth, and their ability to remake the world. We've got a lot to learn from them ? their ability to join things up, take the initiative, not hang around and see what Marx would have said. The old men can sit and shake their heads, you know. Or they can follow the students to the barricades. I know where I'll be."
Here's wishing you a very Happy New Year, Mr Bragg.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/jan/01/billy-bragg-saturday-interview
Rev. Al Sharpton Than Shwe Aung San Suu Kyi Yulia Tymoshenko Elizabeth Windsor
New Congress and Health Care: Rocky Road?
New provisions under the health care law will roll out starting Jan. 1, but the the debate over health care reform is far from over as lawmakers in both chambers craft ways to tweak the controversial legislation.
In the Senate, an unusual alliance has formed between Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who voted for the health care legislation, and Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., whose election to the late Sen. Ted Kennedy's seat nearly derailed the law.
The two senators are crafting a plan that would allow states to opt out of the Affordable Care Act if their programs meet the standards of the federal health care law and do not add to the deficit.
It's designed to throw a bone to conservatives who want to repeal the law. But rather than give states all the power to make their decisions, states would still have to meet guidelines set by the federal government, even if they don't want to carry out the new law.
Wyden and Brown have hailed their work as a sign of bipartisanship. There's little so far to indicate whether others are on board, but the two senators' effort has kicked off a debate that has simmered underneath the surface in the Senate.
"I see the potential for all sorts of shifting alliances in the Senate. I think people have paid attention to the Brown-Wyden bill. I think that's less a policy issue and more an opening bid on the politics, if you will," said Ed Haislmaier, a senior research fellow in health policy studies at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
"From a policy perspective this is very very small," he said. "What it is is the first tentative step on both sides, but it becomes a nucleus that you can then widen the circle."
State governments across the country, from Arizona to Florida, argue that the law impinges on their sovereignty and adds a burden at a time when they're already struggling with budget deficits.
Supporters of the Wyden-Brown plan say giving states authority is crucial to improving the health care system.
"To impose Arizona's value system on Massachusetts will be traumatic," and vice versa, said former Human and Health Services Secretary Mike Leavitt.
Virginia faced the first victory in this battle when a federal judge ruled earlier this month that the health care law violates states rights. A similar 20-state law is pending in Florida.
As senators work out ways to tweak the health care law, incoming Republican freshman in the House of Representatives vow to take a vote to repeal the Cass, even if only for symbolic purposes, since it's unlikely to pass in the Senate and can ultimately be vetoed by President Obama.
"Repeal and replace continues to be what the Republicans have committed themselves to," Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-La., told ABC News. "We are not naive. We know the president will most likely veto the bill to repeal the whole piece. But on the other hand, there are some things that are so onerous that quite likely they can be repealed piece by piece."
Source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=84e58fd1cf21cd3790b50dc38cd03f43
George Soros Aung San Suu Kyi Queen Elizabeth II King Abdullah Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Northern Ireland water crisis
The towns and villages experiencing shortages and alternative water supplies
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/interactive/2010/dec/31/northern-ireland-water-shortages
Newt Gingrich Rudolph Giuliani Al Gore Chuck Hagel Stephen Harper
Some governors plan toned-down inaugural affairs
CHICAGO |
CHICAGO (Reuters) - With the economy showing signs of life but millions of Americans still out of work, some newly elected or re-elected governors are keeping their inaugural parties simple, ranging from blue jeans to barbecue.
In New York, Governor-elect Andrew M. Cuomo plans a private swearing-in on Friday, followed by a small inauguration ceremony on Saturday and a public receiving line at the executive mansion.
In Minnesota, Gov.-elect Mark Dayton will wear blue jeans to his "People's Inaugural Ball" on January 8, which will be open to all Minnesotans for $15 to $30 a ticket.
In Texas, officials will host a "family-friendly" barbecue on the Capital grounds, at $8 a person. And in California, Gov.-elect Jerry Brown plans a free reception at the California State Railroad Museum.
"If you're looking for pomp and pageantry you'll have to look elsewhere," Evan Westrup, a spokesman for Brown, said in an interview.
The inaugurations come as most states continue to face big budget deficits, sluggish revenues, increased demand for services and the end of federal stimulus funding.
Cuomo said in a statement that "this is not a time for the grand and expensive celebrations of the recent past."
Texas Gov. Rick Perry's inaugural information web site noted that the planned January 18 Texas ceremony is "scaled back" from prior years, with a barbecue rather than a parade, and an evening celebration where cocktail attire is "recommended rather than formal."
Not everyone's sparing the pomp -- incoming Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a former health industry executive and venture capitalist, has raised $2 million for his inaugural party set for January 4, according to local media reports.
A ticket to the event goes for $95. Proceeds from funds raised by the black-tie event will go to the Wounded Warrior Project, according to Scott's web site.
(Writing by Mary Wisniewski, with reporting by Karen Pierog and Eric Johnson, Editing by Peter Bohan)
Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/Reuters/PoliticsNews/~3/YzXlOfEjMkE/idUSTRE6BU2UR20101231
Ted Kennedy John Kerry Ban Ki-moon Henry Kissinger Dennis Kucinich
The Year That Humbled the Establishment
David Paul Kuhn, RCP
The media establishment that hyped this Democratic president but refused to be humbled with him. Pundits' premises so fundamentally disproved. The conservative collapse that was not. The so-told emerging liberal era that was not. The Democratic leaders who bought the hype, acting on the masochistic premise that if big liberal things were done, the American mind's apprehension to big liberal things could be undone. The hapless Republican generals saved by conservative foot soldiers. A liberal opposition that, all over again, undid itself in Pyrrhic victory. It was a year of...
The media establishment that hyped this Democratic president but refused to be humbled with him. Pundits' premises so fundamentally disproved. The conservative collapse that was not. The so-told emerging liberal era that was not. The Democratic leaders who bought the hype, acting on the masochistic premise that if big liberal things were done, the American mind's apprehension to big liberal things could be undone. The hapless Republican generals saved by conservative foot soldiers. A liberal opposition that, all over again, undid itself in Pyrrhic victory. It was a year of...
Mitch McConnel Rush Limbaugh George Bush George W. Bush Hillary Clinton
The rest is history: 2010 in podcasts
Welcome to our pick of audio highlights from 2010, presented by Pascal Wyse.
Hopefully there is something for everyone here: poetry from Simon Armitage, World Cup fury from Football Weekly, music from Orbital, a man with a lampshade for a head and a guided walk along the Thames with Ian Sinclair.
You can listen to the original podcasts these clips were taken from via the links below.
Thanks for listening ? and Happy New Year.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/audio/2010/dec/31/best-of-podcasts
Ted Kennedy John Kerry Ban Ki-moon Henry Kissinger Dennis Kucinich
The WikiLeaks War on America
Jonathan Foreman, Commentary
The indefinable international organization known as WikiLeaks was relatively unknown between its setting up in 2006 and the April 2010 premiere it staged at the National Press Club in Washington of the "Collateral Murder" video"”a selection of stolen and decrypted gun-camera footage that purportedly shows the unlawful killing of Iraqi civilians and two Reuters journalists by the crew of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter. Skillfully edited and promoted, and widely accepted by the mainstream media as proof of a U.S. war crime, the video won WikiLeaks fame and...
The indefinable international organization known as WikiLeaks was relatively unknown between its setting up in 2006 and the April 2010 premiere it staged at the National Press Club in Washington of the "Collateral Murder" video"”a selection of stolen and decrypted gun-camera footage that purportedly shows the unlawful killing of Iraqi civilians and two Reuters journalists by the crew of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter. Skillfully edited and promoted, and widely accepted by the mainstream media as proof of a U.S. war crime, the video won WikiLeaks fame and...
Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2010/12/31/the_wikileaks_war_on_america_248096.html
Vladimir Putin Muammar Qaddafi Condoleezza Rice Bill Richardson Mitt Romney
2010 Was Bad for Obama. Could 2011 Be Worse?
Nile Gardiner, Telegraph
Ignore the revisionist hype in sections of the liberal media about President Obama staging a (mythical) political comeback - this is a presidency with an approval rating of 45 percent (according to the RealClear Politics poll of polls), that presides over a nation where just 27 percent of voters think the country is moving in the right direction, and which just 29 percent of Americans think will be returned to power in 2012. The White House may be claiming a couple of political wins in the dying embers of the lame duck Congress after expending a great deal of political capital in the...
Ignore the revisionist hype in sections of the liberal media about President Obama staging a (mythical) political comeback - this is a presidency with an approval rating of 45 percent (according to the RealClear Politics poll of polls), that presides over a nation where just 27 percent of voters think the country is moving in the right direction, and which just 29 percent of Americans think will be returned to power in 2012. The White House may be claiming a couple of political wins in the dying embers of the lame duck Congress after expending a great deal of political capital in the...
Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2010/12/31/2010_was_bad_for_obama_could_2011_be_worse_248112.html
Saparmurat Niyazov Ehud Olmert Ron Paul Colin Powell Vladimir Putin
To Bee or Not to Bee
Although the calamity-plagued Spiderman musical grabs most of the news coverage, ballet has its own costume malfunctions and stage mishaps to contend with. Haglund, who attended the official premiere of ABT's Nutcracker last night at ABT, reports on an incident involving a pistil-packin' mama and a buzzing suitor:
One of the Bumble Bees attempted to pollinate one of the Flowers and their costumes became attached. One of the costumes ripped open baring the chest of . . . the Bumble Bee. They struggled with each other for a moment while everyone else continued to dance. When it became apparent that they would either have to dance forever attached or leave the stage, the Bumble Bee made a quick-thinking theatrical motion to wings, and the two ran off. A few bars later, the Bumble Bee buzzed back on stage and subsequently the Flower blossomed once again from wings...
Good thing they didn't equip the bee costumes with stingers because who knows where one of them might get stuck?
It was a different pair of principals from the preview performance, bringing a different tempo and temperature.
Clara, the Princess, and the Nutcracker Prince were Gillian Murphy and David Hallberg. Tonight was decidedly different than last night. It was much cooler and much more traditional in feeling than the glorious, at times wild, energy of Part and Gomes the night before. While Murphy's and Hallberg's lines and pirouettes may have been cleaner and conservative, their dancing didn?t really connect them to the younger Clara and the Nutcracker Boy. Many will prefer the calmer, more traditional approach, but Haglund was so overwhelmed by Part and Gomes? take on the whole story that tonight was a bit of a let-down. No one can really legitimately voice any complaints about the technique, though; it was pristine. Murphy and Hallberg approached the Grigorovich lift differently. She releved and he just picked her up and walked forward. There was a little bit of a bauble in her extended leg but there was never any threat of the pose dismantling. Hopefully one of the principal couples will find the courage to execute this lift in the true spirit of Grigorovich.
"Glorious, at times wild, energy"--yes, I believe that's what my intermission oracle meant when he said of Veronika's Act One dancing, "She really turned that mother out."
Again, I apologize for using technical ballet terminology seldom heard outside the Vaganova Academy, but such is the language I speak and breathe.
One of the Bumble Bees attempted to pollinate one of the Flowers and their costumes became attached. One of the costumes ripped open baring the chest of . . . the Bumble Bee. They struggled with each other for a moment while everyone else continued to dance. When it became apparent that they would either have to dance forever attached or leave the stage, the Bumble Bee made a quick-thinking theatrical motion to wings, and the two ran off. A few bars later, the Bumble Bee buzzed back on stage and subsequently the Flower blossomed once again from wings...
Good thing they didn't equip the bee costumes with stingers because who knows where one of them might get stuck?
It was a different pair of principals from the preview performance, bringing a different tempo and temperature.
Clara, the Princess, and the Nutcracker Prince were Gillian Murphy and David Hallberg. Tonight was decidedly different than last night. It was much cooler and much more traditional in feeling than the glorious, at times wild, energy of Part and Gomes the night before. While Murphy's and Hallberg's lines and pirouettes may have been cleaner and conservative, their dancing didn?t really connect them to the younger Clara and the Nutcracker Boy. Many will prefer the calmer, more traditional approach, but Haglund was so overwhelmed by Part and Gomes? take on the whole story that tonight was a bit of a let-down. No one can really legitimately voice any complaints about the technique, though; it was pristine. Murphy and Hallberg approached the Grigorovich lift differently. She releved and he just picked her up and walked forward. There was a little bit of a bauble in her extended leg but there was never any threat of the pose dismantling. Hopefully one of the principal couples will find the courage to execute this lift in the true spirit of Grigorovich.
"Glorious, at times wild, energy"--yes, I believe that's what my intermission oracle meant when he said of Veronika's Act One dancing, "She really turned that mother out."
Again, I apologize for using technical ballet terminology seldom heard outside the Vaganova Academy, but such is the language I speak and breathe.
Source: http://www.vanityfair.com/online/wolcott/2010/12/to-bee-or-not-to-bee.html
Sam Brownback Laura Bush George W. Bush George H. W. Bush Jimmy Carter
UK faces legal challenge from family of Bangladeshi allegedly tortured by 'death squad'
Lawyers acting for the family of MP Salauddin Chowdhury claim the British government was complicit in his alleged torture
The British government faces a legal challenge over allegations it was complicit in the torture of Bangladeshi MP Salauddin Chowdhury, who was arrested by the country's security forces earlier this month.
Lawyers acting for the 63-year-old's family claim the training provided by British forces to Bangladesh's Rapid Action Battalion [RAB], which arrested Chowdury, places the UK in breach of its obligations under international law.
RAB members have been held responsible for hundreds of extrajudicial killings since the unit was established in 2004. The unit itself admits to being responsible for more than 600 deaths, which it euphemistically attributes to "crossfire".
Details of British support for RAB were revealed in US embassy cables released by WikiLeaks and reported by the Guardian. They show that Britain has been providing training in "investigative interviewing techniques" and "rules of engagement".
According to Amnesty International, Chowdury was detained and tortured by RAB officers and Bangladeshi intelligence officials at an apartment in the Banani district of Dhaka on 16 December. His captors are alleged to have brought with them a number of torture implements and a doctor, who is alleged to have revived him three times after he lost consciousnes. The mistreatment is said to have included applying electrodes to his genitals, beating him, slitting his stomach with razors and twisting his toenails and fingernails with pliers.
According to Amnesty, Chowdury was initially arrested for questioning over an arson attack in which a person died, and was then reported to have been charged with offences allegedly committed during Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence. He is now being held in prison in Bangladesh.
Today his son, Fayyaz Chowdury, called on the British government to intervene.
"The UK government is up to its neck in this case having provided practical and financial support to RAB who are responsible for my father's ill-treatment. I am a British national and they must now intervene to secure my father's immediate release from prison and a binding undertaking from the Bangladesh government that he will not be subjected to any further torture and ill-treatment or a patently unfair trial."
The Foreign Office has defended the training offered to RAB as "fully in line with our laws and our values". A spokesman sought to suggest it was providing only "human rights training" for RAB, although RAB's head of training told the Guardian he was unaware of any human rights training since he was appointed last June.
Phil Shiner, of Public Interest Lawyers, which is bringing the legal challenge on behalf of Fayyaz Chowdury said: "The UK government owe the clearest of international obligations to my client, a British citizen, in circumstances where they are complicit in the torture of people like Mr Salauddin Chowdury. These obligations reflect international law principles that prohibit states from aiding and assisting other states in international crimes such as torture and extrajudicial executions. The UK government must use all means at their disposal to secure the immediate release of my client's father and to ensure that he cannot face a kangaroo court for war crimes that he did not commit."
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/31/bangladesh-britain-legal-challenge-torture
John Boehner Sarah Palin Sean Hannity Harry Reid Mitch McConnel
Letters: BSkyB deal is a political issue
The furore over Vince Cable's remarks about BSkyB disguises a serious political issue that arises from a contradiction in the way in which competition issues are handled (Report, 30 December). The Competition Commission has shown limited understanding of the real world, as evidenced by its decision on the takeover of convenience stores by Tesco and Sainsbury's, and its failure to get to grips with the domination of the supermarkets over their suppliers.
The commission tends to adopt an overly academic approach in which certain quantitative criteria are given undue weight in an attempt to provide a spurious objectivity, at the expense of an understanding of the reality of business relationships and other social, economic and environmental issues which are political in nature. Vince Cable is right in implying that decisions over cases such as BSkyB should ultimately be political ones ? albeit based on a clear policy stance. The basic problem with News International's complaint about "due process" is the treatment of economic and political questions in a quasi-legal manner. This serves to put the focus on whatever hard data the commission comes up with, downplaying qualitative judgments.
Christopher Swain
Henham, Essex
? An ICM poll on whether Rupert Murdoch should be allowed to purchase the remaining 61% of BSkyB showed only 5% in favour with 44% against the deal with opposition strongly against in all three political parties. Clearly Ofcom would be wise to take the public's clearly expressed views on this matter. It is relatively easy to stop this takeover now, more difficult to reverse it in the future. A complete review of the issue of media ownership, control and use is long overdue. There is too much potential for abuse of the media both commercially and politically. Perhaps we should copy one aspect of US legislation: only those with US nationality can own large chunks of the US media.
Brian Bean
London
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/31/bskyb-deal-a-political-issue
The Meaning of Auld Lang Syne
Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal
You know exactly when you'll hear it, and you probably won't hear it again for a year. The big clock will hit 11:59:50, the countdown will begin"”10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4"”and the sounds will rise: the party horns, fireworks and shouts of "Happy New Year!"And then they'll play that song: "Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and days of auld lang syne?"It is a poem in Scots dialect, set to a Scots folk tune, and an unscientific survey says that a lot of us...
You know exactly when you'll hear it, and you probably won't hear it again for a year. The big clock will hit 11:59:50, the countdown will begin"”10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4"”and the sounds will rise: the party horns, fireworks and shouts of "Happy New Year!"And then they'll play that song: "Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and days of auld lang syne?"It is a poem in Scots dialect, set to a Scots folk tune, and an unscientific survey says that a lot of us...
Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2010/12/31/the_meaning_of_auld_lang_syne_248107.html
Rev. Al Sharpton Than Shwe Aung San Suu Kyi Yulia Tymoshenko Elizabeth Windsor
Government by Regulation. Shhh.
Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post
Most people don't remember Obamacare's notorious Section 1233, mandating government payments for end-of-life counseling. It aroused so much anxiety as a possible first slippery step on the road to state-mandated late-life rationing that the Senate never included it in the final health-care law.Well, it's back - by administrative fiat. A month ago, Medicare issued a regulation providing for end-of-life counseling during annual "wellness" visits. It was all nicely buried amid the simultaneous release of hundreds of new Medicare rules.Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.),...
Most people don't remember Obamacare's notorious Section 1233, mandating government payments for end-of-life counseling. It aroused so much anxiety as a possible first slippery step on the road to state-mandated late-life rationing that the Senate never included it in the final health-care law.Well, it's back - by administrative fiat. A month ago, Medicare issued a regulation providing for end-of-life counseling during annual "wellness" visits. It was all nicely buried amid the simultaneous release of hundreds of new Medicare rules.Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.),...
Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2010/12/31/government_by_regulation_shhh_248092.html
John McCain Evo Morales William Mountbatten-Windsor Prince William Charles Mountbatten-Windsor
Northern Ireland water crisis
The towns and villages experiencing shortages and alternative water supplies
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/interactive/2010/dec/31/northern-ireland-water-shortages
Gloria Arroyo Joe Biden Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud King Abdulla Osama bin Laden
Ministers must 'wise up not clam up' after WikiLeaks disclosures
Information watchdog urges Whitehall to be more open and adapt to fact that any official communications could be leaked
The government should take the WikiLeaks revelations as a lesson that civil servants and ministers can no longer assume they operate in private, and "wise up" to a world where any official communication could be made public, according to the information commissioner.
Christopher Graham, the independent freedom of information watchdog, told the Guardian that the website's disclosures had profoundly changed the relationship between state and public, in a way that could not be "un-invented". But he warned against "clamming up," saying the only response was for ministers to be more open.
Speaking after weeks of revelations from US embassy cables published by WikiLeaks, he said: "From the point of view of public scrutiny, the web and the internet has empowered citizens. Governments now need to factor in that things can be WikiLeaked.
"We are strongly of the view that things should be published. Where you're open things will not be WikiLeaked. Whatever view you take about WikiLeaks ? right or wrong ? it means that things will now get out. It has changed things. I'm saying government and authorities need to factor it in. Be more proactive, [by] publishing more stuff, because quite a lot of this is only exciting because we didn't know it. You can't un-invent WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks is part of the phenomenon of the online, empowered citizen ... these are facts that aren't going to go away. Government and authorities need to wise up to that."
Governments around the world have condemned the leaking of 250,000 US embassy cables to the website WikiLeaks, which has produced startling revelations about diplomatic briefings, the behaviour of governments and international relations. The Guardian and four other newspapers around the world have published a series of in-depth reports from the cables, redacting some information to protect individual sources where publication could put them or their families at personal risk, where there are questions of national security and military sensitivity, or legal considerations of defamation.
Graham, who has been information commissioner since last year, said he opposes the indiscriminate leaking of information. The Freedom of Information Act appoints the information commissioner to weigh up a presumption of publication of government communications, with the necessity to protect national security and individuals' privacy.
He said: "The difference between what I do and what Julian Assange [the founder of WikiLeaks] does is the difference between freedom of information and free-for-all. Freedom of information accepts that there are some things where you need to strike a balance. The free for all says isn't this exciting, we didn't know it ? never mind the casualties. Life is much more complicated than that.
"That doesn't mean that pubic authorities shouldn't sit up and take notice of what's happening with WikiLeaks. Even if you're working within the structures of freedom of information, things may get out. It's as well to recognise that fact."
He said the revelations would inevitably impact on how governments work, but urged ministers not to react by trying to control information more tightly. "One response is that they will clam up and not write anything down, which is nonsense, you can't run any organisation that way. The other is to be even more open. The best form of defence is transparency ? much more proactive publication of what organisations do. It's an attitude of 'OK. You want to know? Here it is'."
The introduction of the Freedom of Information Act by the previous government had begun to change officials' attitudes to public data, but too often many still behave as if they are governing "in private", he said.
"It is on occasion like drawing teeth, if we were much better about being open and upfront. If all of us just accept that this is the people's information and 99.9% should be out there in all its tedium, you wouldn't have WikiLeaks."
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/dec/30/wikileaks-freedom-information-ministers-government
Wu Yi Viktor Yushchenko Nancy Pelosi Speaker Pelosi Tea Party
Venezuela condemns "imperial" U.S. visa reprisal
CARACAS |
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela condemned on Thursday the United States' revocation of its ambassador's visa as an "imperial" move by President Barack Obama's government, saying the measure should be immediately overturned.
In the latest flare-up between the ideological foes, Washington withdrew the visa of ambassador Bernardo Alvarez on Wednesday in retaliation for the rejection by socialist President Hugo Chavez of Obama's nominated envoy to Caracas.
Diplomat Larry Palmer had criticized Venezuela's government, saying morale in its military was low, and that there were clear ties between members of the Chavez administration and leftist rebels in neighboring Colombia.
"This is a new aggression by the State Department," Roy Daza, a prominent ruling party member who heads parliament's foreign affairs committee, told Reuters. "The only possible solution is for the United States to rectify its position."
The tit-for-tat appeared to bury any lingering prospects of rapprochement between the Obama administration and Chavez, who has inherited Fidel Castro's mantle as Latin America's leading critic of the United States.
Despite the diplomatic spat, few expect either Venezuela or the United States to risk jeopardizing trade ties -- principally oil -- crucial to both nation's economies.
The OPEC member is one of the top five oil suppliers to the United States, exporting 930,000 barrels per day of crude and products in October, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. (r.reuters.com/pef34r)
Chavez had blocked Palmer's arrival because of the diplomat's comments in a letter to a U.S. senator during his confirmation process. In addition to Palmer's views on military morale and Colombian rebel links, he had also alleged growing Cuban influence in Venezuela's armed forces.
"Mr. Palmer insulted, slandered and lied shamelessly in his speech to the Senate. For this reason, he disqualified himself as the United States' diplomatic representative to Venezuela," Daza said in a telephone interview.
"IMPERIAL MENTALITY"
When Obama took office in January 2009, promising more engagement with foes, there had been expectations of a possible rapprochement. Chavez toned down his tirades against the "empire" and shook hands with the new U.S. leader at a summit.
But within months, Chavez said Obama was disillusioning the world by following his predecessor George W. Bush's foreign policies, and the rhetoric from Caracas cranked up again.
His government said Washington's insistence on naming Palmer showed its "policy of aggression" against the Venezuelan people, and Chavez said the diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks had proved that all U.S. ambassadors were "spies."
Daza said the visa revocation showed there had not been any real change in the U.S. line toward the rest of the world.
"It shows that the change in U.S. president did not represent a change of the imperial mentality," he said.
Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/Reuters/PoliticsNews/~3/zwE328hCIok/idUSTRE6BT30420101230
Paul Martin John McCain Evo Morales William Mountbatten-Windsor Prince William
Letters: Funding pressure on charities
I support Community Links' assertion that public spending cuts could doom the "big society" (Report, 30 December). We have recently surveyed voluntary and community sector organisations in the north-east. Of those who responded, 88% source some or all of their funding from the public sector and 62% of these have already seen a decrease in their funding. More than a third have made staff redundant and nearly half are using their reserves. In this climate, where most organisations are experiencing an increase in demand for their services, 64% expect to be closing a service in the next year, 50% are considering reducing the number of beneficiaries they support, and 26% say they may close.
If the big society is to mean anything, the voluntary and community sector has a vital role to play, with its track record of reaching the parts that others cannot, providing essential services to the most vulnerable in our society at a local level, and using and supporting trained volunteers in the most effective ways. Instead, many organisations see themselves going to the wall in the next 12 months and most of the rest will be battling to meet increasing demand with fewer resources.
Mike Worthington
Chair, Voluntary Organisations Network North East
? On 4 January 2011, VAT will rise from 17.5% to 20% and result in Sue Ryder losing �1m a year in irrecoverable VAT. The charity sector as a whole will lose a further �145m, on top of the �1bn already lost. With �1m a year, we could fund a 16-bed hospice for six months, or provide 50,000 hours of in-patient care. On the same day, we are launching a campaign to hold the government to its commitment to cut red tape for charities. Companies, local authorities and some areas of the NHS can reclaim VAT, yet our charitable hospices, care centres and homecare services are left to swallow this burden. The "big society" will only be possible if we are afforded the same benefits as the NHS and local authorities.
Paul Woodward
Chief executive, Sue Ryder
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/dec/31/funding-pressure-on-charities
John Boehner Sarah Palin Sean Hannity Harry Reid Mitch McConnel
New Year, New Health Care Provisions
The new year brings new changes in the U.S. health care system.
Although most of the new provisions that will roll out next week as part of the Affordable Care Act apply mainly to insurers, they will have a direct impact on consumers too.
Here's a look at some of the changes Americans can expect starting Jan. 1, 2011.
End of Life Care:
One provision that triggered particular controversy earlier this year was end-of-life counseling, which the federal government will pay for starting Jan. 1.
The White House points out that the option to allow older Americans to receive end-of-life counseling was signed into law by President George W. Bush, and the only new aspect is that such visits will now be covered as part of the new annual wellness visit created by the Affordable Care Act.
Still, the provision has revived discussion of "death panels," a term first coined by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and could be one of the targets for repeal or defunding in the new Congress.
Filling the Medicare 'Doughnut Hole':
Pharmaceutical manufacturers will have to provide a 50 percent discount on brand-name prescription drugs to older Americans who fall into the "doughnut hole," the out-of-pocket expenses Medicare recipients have to pay once their prescription drug costs reach $2,830.
The "doughnut hole" will eventually be phased out so that enrollees in the Medicare Part D drug coverage program will be responsible only for 25 percent of their prescription drug costs by 2020.
In 2010, elderly Americans who fell into the gap received a $250 rebate check.
More Medicare Benefits:
There will be a 10 percent Medicare bonus payment for primary care services, and a 10 percent Medicare bonus payment to some surgeons in specialties with fewer doctors.
That component of the health care bill lasts until Dec. 31, 2015.
The new law eliminates any cost sharing Medicare beneficiaries need to pay for preventive care and waives the deductible for colorectal cancer screening tests.
A 15-member, independent advisory board will be established to study how to reduce Medicare spending if it exceeds targeted growth rates.
Medical Loss Ratio for Insurers:
Under the new law, insurance companies serving the large group market will have to devote 85 percent of every dollar to patient care and improving quality of care, and not to such expenses as overhead costs, executive salaries or dividends for shareholders. For those serving small business and individuals, that has to amount to 80 percent of every dollar.
If insurance companies fail to meet these standards, they will have to provide rebates to consumers.
The medical loss ratio -- the ratio of medical expenses to administrative spending -- came under fire last year when some companies, such as McDonald's, reportedly threatened to drop limited coverage plans because of the new standards.
Medicaid Expansion:
A new program will go into effect that will provide matching federal funds for long-term care services under Medicaid. The federal government will also provide funds for home health care and attending services for people with disabilities.
The Medicaid expansion under the new health care law has met with resistance from many state governments that say it puts additional burdens on them at a time when they're struggling with budget deficits.
Source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=dd7c8ba7bea2b52cbfa80aab55c953dc
Rudolph Giuliani Al Gore Chuck Hagel Stephen Harper Dennis Hastert
Venezuela condemns "imperial" U.S. visa reprisal
CARACAS |
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela condemned on Thursday the United States' revocation of its ambassador's visa as an "imperial" move by President Barack Obama's government, saying the measure should be immediately overturned.
In the latest flare-up between the ideological foes, Washington withdrew the visa of ambassador Bernardo Alvarez on Wednesday in retaliation for the rejection by socialist President Hugo Chavez of Obama's nominated envoy to Caracas.
Diplomat Larry Palmer had criticized Venezuela's government, saying morale in its military was low, and that there were clear ties between members of the Chavez administration and leftist rebels in neighboring Colombia.
"This is a new aggression by the State Department," Roy Daza, a prominent ruling party member who heads parliament's foreign affairs committee, told Reuters. "The only possible solution is for the United States to rectify its position."
The tit-for-tat appeared to bury any lingering prospects of rapprochement between the Obama administration and Chavez, who has inherited Fidel Castro's mantle as Latin America's leading critic of the United States.
Despite the diplomatic spat, few expect either Venezuela or the United States to risk jeopardizing trade ties -- principally oil -- crucial to both nation's economies.
The OPEC member is one of the top five oil suppliers to the United States, exporting 930,000 barrels per day of crude and products in October, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. (r.reuters.com/pef34r)
Chavez had blocked Palmer's arrival because of the diplomat's comments in a letter to a U.S. senator during his confirmation process. In addition to Palmer's views on military morale and Colombian rebel links, he had also alleged growing Cuban influence in Venezuela's armed forces.
"Mr. Palmer insulted, slandered and lied shamelessly in his speech to the Senate. For this reason, he disqualified himself as the United States' diplomatic representative to Venezuela," Daza said in a telephone interview.
"IMPERIAL MENTALITY"
When Obama took office in January 2009, promising more engagement with foes, there had been expectations of a possible rapprochement. Chavez toned down his tirades against the "empire" and shook hands with the new U.S. leader at a summit.
But within months, Chavez said Obama was disillusioning the world by following his predecessor George W. Bush's foreign policies, and the rhetoric from Caracas cranked up again.
His government said Washington's insistence on naming Palmer showed its "policy of aggression" against the Venezuelan people, and Chavez said the diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks had proved that all U.S. ambassadors were "spies."
Daza said the visa revocation showed there had not been any real change in the U.S. line toward the rest of the world.
"It shows that the change in U.S. president did not represent a change of the imperial mentality," he said.
Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/Reuters/PoliticsNews/~3/zwE328hCIok/idUSTRE6BT30420101230
Prince Charles Camilla Mountbatten-Windsor Duchess of Cornwall Robert Mugabe Ralph Nader
Nut Dish
Gad, Christmas again?
Didn't we just celebrate Christmas last year?
It just never fricking stops. Every year like clockwork it comes around.
Then, blink, it's New Year's Eve and everybody's boring year-in-review lists and essays, and before you know it it's Valentine's Day and we've got Vermont Teddy Bears coming out of our ass.
Which is not to say I don't wish all of you special heartfelt holiday greetings.
Last night I essayed my first Nutcracker of the enchanted season. Let me stipulate that I'm not a Nut nut, unlike some balletomanes I could mention who have so many Nutcrackers notched on their bedposts that they can tell you all about the variant foreign and domestic productions, excisions, interpolations, and hooter size on Mother Ginger until your eyeballs fall out and roll around on the floor. I suppose it's useful to know, simply as conversation fodder, that in the Buenos Aires version Drosselmeyer sends one of the cavalry out to fetch him a pack of Camels (very tricky thing to mime, by the way) and that in the Tampa-St. Pete production there's a layover in Atlanta, but too much pedantry can take the sparkle out of the snowy pageantry, so please, think of the children.
There were a ton of kiddie-roonies on stage last night and a ton in the audience for the Joffrey Ballet School's Nutcracker, choreographed and directed by Michael Chernov and Gelsey Kirkland, and the evening has to counted as a splendid success--the production was charming, sweet without being cloying, comic without being broad, and inspiritedly danced by the hopes of tomorrow. Haglund, who was there last night, though we must have missed each other in the mad crush of humanity, writes:
...the dancers are a group with extremely wide ranging abilities. But each one carries Gelsey?s sensibilities. The arms are low, the bodies are high, the fingers and hands are perfectly formed, the eyes reach for the balcony. Basically, the art is in the details, not the athleticism. Nice to see.
The beautiful costumes and handsome scenery including a grandfather clock with huge owl wings appended to it added much to the charm of this Nutcracker at Friday's premiere performance. The little soldiers, who were sent to fight the mice, arrived on stage inside a huge armoire and descended to the fight via a big green slide. Of course, each soldier slid down precisely on the music. There was a cute dancing donkey. The Arabian section, often cast with only one or two dancers, had soloists and a corps.
The ballet?s choreography overly-challenged some of the dancers, but even when the feet, legs, and centers went awry, the upper bodies still maintained composure and the assigned character. For students who don?t get on stage much, this was an impressive feat.
I'm glad Haglund clarified that it was a donkey on stage, because when it appeared I thought it was a special guest appearance by Secretariat from Craig Ferguson's show, which may explain why I was the only one in the audience who stood up and started dancing a crazy hello. Well, these things happen, and the children around me seemed to enjoy it, judging by their gurgling laughter.
Didn't we just celebrate Christmas last year?
It just never fricking stops. Every year like clockwork it comes around.
Then, blink, it's New Year's Eve and everybody's boring year-in-review lists and essays, and before you know it it's Valentine's Day and we've got Vermont Teddy Bears coming out of our ass.
Which is not to say I don't wish all of you special heartfelt holiday greetings.
Last night I essayed my first Nutcracker of the enchanted season. Let me stipulate that I'm not a Nut nut, unlike some balletomanes I could mention who have so many Nutcrackers notched on their bedposts that they can tell you all about the variant foreign and domestic productions, excisions, interpolations, and hooter size on Mother Ginger until your eyeballs fall out and roll around on the floor. I suppose it's useful to know, simply as conversation fodder, that in the Buenos Aires version Drosselmeyer sends one of the cavalry out to fetch him a pack of Camels (very tricky thing to mime, by the way) and that in the Tampa-St. Pete production there's a layover in Atlanta, but too much pedantry can take the sparkle out of the snowy pageantry, so please, think of the children.
There were a ton of kiddie-roonies on stage last night and a ton in the audience for the Joffrey Ballet School's Nutcracker, choreographed and directed by Michael Chernov and Gelsey Kirkland, and the evening has to counted as a splendid success--the production was charming, sweet without being cloying, comic without being broad, and inspiritedly danced by the hopes of tomorrow. Haglund, who was there last night, though we must have missed each other in the mad crush of humanity, writes:
...the dancers are a group with extremely wide ranging abilities. But each one carries Gelsey?s sensibilities. The arms are low, the bodies are high, the fingers and hands are perfectly formed, the eyes reach for the balcony. Basically, the art is in the details, not the athleticism. Nice to see.
The beautiful costumes and handsome scenery including a grandfather clock with huge owl wings appended to it added much to the charm of this Nutcracker at Friday's premiere performance. The little soldiers, who were sent to fight the mice, arrived on stage inside a huge armoire and descended to the fight via a big green slide. Of course, each soldier slid down precisely on the music. There was a cute dancing donkey. The Arabian section, often cast with only one or two dancers, had soloists and a corps.
The ballet?s choreography overly-challenged some of the dancers, but even when the feet, legs, and centers went awry, the upper bodies still maintained composure and the assigned character. For students who don?t get on stage much, this was an impressive feat.
I'm glad Haglund clarified that it was a donkey on stage, because when it appeared I thought it was a special guest appearance by Secretariat from Craig Ferguson's show, which may explain why I was the only one in the audience who stood up and started dancing a crazy hello. Well, these things happen, and the children around me seemed to enjoy it, judging by their gurgling laughter.
Source: http://www.vanityfair.com/online/wolcott/2010/12/gad-christmas-again-didnt-we.html
Mitt Romney Karl Rove Rick Santorum Arnold Schwarzenegger Rev. Al Sharpton
Thursday, December 30, 2010
To Bee or Not to Bee
Although the calamity-plagued Spiderman musical grabs most of the news coverage, ballet has its own costume malfunctions and stage mishaps to contend with. Haglund, who attended the official premiere of ABT's Nutcracker last night at ABT, reports on an incident involving a pistil-packin' mama and a buzzing suitor:
One of the Bumble Bees attempted to pollinate one of the Flowers and their costumes became attached. One of the costumes ripped open baring the chest of . . . the Bumble Bee. They struggled with each other for a moment while everyone else continued to dance. When it became apparent that they would either have to dance forever attached or leave the stage, the Bumble Bee made a quick-thinking theatrical motion to wings, and the two ran off. A few bars later, the Bumble Bee buzzed back on stage and subsequently the Flower blossomed once again from wings...
Good thing they didn't equip the bee costumes with stingers because who knows where one of them might get stuck?
It was a different pair of principals from the preview performance, bringing a different tempo and temperature.
Clara, the Princess, and the Nutcracker Prince were Gillian Murphy and David Hallberg. Tonight was decidedly different than last night. It was much cooler and much more traditional in feeling than the glorious, at times wild, energy of Part and Gomes the night before. While Murphy's and Hallberg's lines and pirouettes may have been cleaner and conservative, their dancing didn?t really connect them to the younger Clara and the Nutcracker Boy. Many will prefer the calmer, more traditional approach, but Haglund was so overwhelmed by Part and Gomes? take on the whole story that tonight was a bit of a let-down. No one can really legitimately voice any complaints about the technique, though; it was pristine. Murphy and Hallberg approached the Grigorovich lift differently. She releved and he just picked her up and walked forward. There was a little bit of a bauble in her extended leg but there was never any threat of the pose dismantling. Hopefully one of the principal couples will find the courage to execute this lift in the true spirit of Grigorovich.
"Glorious, at times wild, energy"--yes, I believe that's what my intermission oracle meant when he said of Veronika's Act One dancing, "She really turned that mother out."
Again, I apologize for using technical ballet terminology seldom heard outside the Vaganova Academy, but such is the language I speak and breathe.
One of the Bumble Bees attempted to pollinate one of the Flowers and their costumes became attached. One of the costumes ripped open baring the chest of . . . the Bumble Bee. They struggled with each other for a moment while everyone else continued to dance. When it became apparent that they would either have to dance forever attached or leave the stage, the Bumble Bee made a quick-thinking theatrical motion to wings, and the two ran off. A few bars later, the Bumble Bee buzzed back on stage and subsequently the Flower blossomed once again from wings...
Good thing they didn't equip the bee costumes with stingers because who knows where one of them might get stuck?
It was a different pair of principals from the preview performance, bringing a different tempo and temperature.
Clara, the Princess, and the Nutcracker Prince were Gillian Murphy and David Hallberg. Tonight was decidedly different than last night. It was much cooler and much more traditional in feeling than the glorious, at times wild, energy of Part and Gomes the night before. While Murphy's and Hallberg's lines and pirouettes may have been cleaner and conservative, their dancing didn?t really connect them to the younger Clara and the Nutcracker Boy. Many will prefer the calmer, more traditional approach, but Haglund was so overwhelmed by Part and Gomes? take on the whole story that tonight was a bit of a let-down. No one can really legitimately voice any complaints about the technique, though; it was pristine. Murphy and Hallberg approached the Grigorovich lift differently. She releved and he just picked her up and walked forward. There was a little bit of a bauble in her extended leg but there was never any threat of the pose dismantling. Hopefully one of the principal couples will find the courage to execute this lift in the true spirit of Grigorovich.
"Glorious, at times wild, energy"--yes, I believe that's what my intermission oracle meant when he said of Veronika's Act One dancing, "She really turned that mother out."
Again, I apologize for using technical ballet terminology seldom heard outside the Vaganova Academy, but such is the language I speak and breathe.
Source: http://www.vanityfair.com/online/wolcott/2010/12/to-bee-or-not-to-bee.html
Norton Hears a Who
I had the outlaw pleasure of meeting Jim Norton and catching one of his sets at an undisclosed location a few weeks ago, and--such modesty--during our conversation he never once mentioned he was good friends with Broadway legend Elaine Stritch.
The man on the right is, of course, legendary director Quentin Tarantino, whom I also had the pleasure of meeting recently, though I recall his hair being shorter.
The man on the right is, of course, legendary director Quentin Tarantino, whom I also had the pleasure of meeting recently, though I recall his hair being shorter.
Source: http://www.vanityfair.com/online/wolcott/2010/12/norton-hears-a-who.html
Rick Santorum Arnold Schwarzenegger Rev. Al Sharpton Than Shwe Aung San Suu Kyi
Nick Hayes on police tactics and civil liberties
Secure our liberty! Roger, over and out ?
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cartoon/2010/dec/31/nick-hayes-cartoon-police-protests
Tony Blair Sam Brownback Laura Bush George W. Bush George H. W. Bush
Viewing Tip
Tonight's David Lynch Foundation benefit event "Operation Warrior Wellness"--raising money to teach military veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder the practice of Transcendental Meditation--can be seen live-streaming here beginning 9 PM EST.
The celebrity line-up includes Clint Eastwood, Katy Perry, and robot abuser Russell Brand, whom we hope has learned contrition since his wilding episode last week (see below).
The celebrity line-up includes Clint Eastwood, Katy Perry, and robot abuser Russell Brand, whom we hope has learned contrition since his wilding episode last week (see below).
Source: http://www.vanityfair.com/online/wolcott/2010/12/tonights-david-lynch-foundation-benefit.html
Wu Yi Viktor Yushchenko Nancy Pelosi Speaker Pelosi Tea Party
Government told to vaccinate millions more against flu
? Lansley accused of U-turn as campaign is restarted
? Tory MP warns health secretary over NHS reforms
Health secretary Andrew Lansley was tonight under pressure to get a grip on the winter flu outbreak, amid warnings that millions more people need to be vaccinated in order to prevent a mounting toll of deaths.
Lansley was accused of a U-turn as he reinstated a public health advertising campaign after he was warned by government advisers of the need to improve immunisation rates which are at their lowest this winter for many years.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), the government's advisers on vaccines to prevent serious illness, said 16 million Britons are at serious risk from flu. The committee said a greater uptake of the flu jab was vital among groups including pregnant women, those with breathing conditions such as asthma, and people with diabetes or heart, liver or kidney disease.
Lansley reinstated the national Catch It, Bin It, Kill It advertising campaign. It had been discontinued despite helping educate the public to adopt good hygiene habits during last year's H1N1 swine flu epidemic at a cost of just �609,000.
He has been criticised for not instigating the campaign to urge everyone at risk to get a seasonal flu jab from their GP, for ending the Catch It publicity drive, and for not ensuring that all under-fives were offered the vaccine.
But the JCVI ruled out the need for under-fives to be added to the list of those advised to get routinely vaccinated, and said there was not enough evidence to justify recommending that switch.
There were 12 more deaths in the last week from flu, bringing the total this winter to 39, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) said today. Thirty-six of them were killed by H1N1 swine flu, which is the most virulent of the two main flu strains currently circulating. The other three died after contracting Influenza B, the other strain. All except one of the 39 were under 65 and four were under five, which underlined how the dominance of this winter's flu by H1N1 means it is mainly affecting groups other than the elderly.
Significantly, 23 of 38 of the fatalities belonged to one of the clinical "at risk" groups whose health is at potentially serious risk if they get infected. And only two out of 33 had received a winter flu jab recently, despite their vulnerable health status, the HPA confirmed.
With experts predicting the next few days will bring the peak of this winter's flu season there were signs that the NHS is under growing pressure. The number of people receiving critical care in hospital, mainly because their breathing has been badly affected by flu, leapt from 460 to 738 in the last week ? a rise of over 50%. Arrowe Park hospital, in Merseyside, has stopped allowing visitors to come and see patients in a bid to ensure that patients are kept as clear of flu as possible.
The expert committee held a teleconference yesterday after the Department of Health (DH) asked them to review whether the existing vaccination policy, which has been subjected to serious criticism in recent days, needed to change. They said: "It would be hoped that influenza circulation will have subsided within a month. The greatest gain will be achieved in increasing vaccine uptake in the clinical risk groups." These groups total some 14.5 million people in England alone, and about 16m in the UK.
Lansley's Labour counterpart, John Healey, said: "I welcome Andrew Lansley's U-turn on the use of a public advertising campaign to help tackle the flu crisis. The health secretary made a serious misjudgment when he axed the annual autumn advertising campaign to help public understanding of this flu and boost vaccinations for those most at risk. At a time when the NHS is stretched and playing catch up, the decision he has taken today is better late than never."
"With Britain about to go back to school and work after the Christmas and New Year break, I welcome Andrew Lansley's change of mind on public advertising to back up the efforts of doctors, nurses and midwives to boost flu-jab protection for the groups most at risk and to advise people on how to deal with those in the family who have flu."
Lansley is about to overhaul both the NHS and public health budgets which will see GPs commission �80bn of healthcare.
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/dec/30/winter-flu-vaccinations-andrew-lansley
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