Youssou N’Dour Thrown Off Ballot In Senegal, Youths Riot, Feds To End Occupy DC, The Pentagon’s Floating “Mothership”

January 28th, 2012 - by: danny

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Quote of the Day: Noam Chomsky Remembers Howard Zinn

“Howard’s remarkable life and work are summarized best in his own words. His primary concern, he explained, was ‘the countless small actions of unknown people’ that lie at the roots of ‘those great moments’ that enter the historical record – a record that will be profoundly misleading, and seriously disempowering, if it is torn from these roots as it passes through the filters of doctrine and dogma.”

Daily Beast: Obama Unveils Plan to Curb College Costs

As prefaced in his State of the Union address, President Obama proposed a plan Friday to reduce college costs by tying federal student aid money to universities’ tuition rates and the value they provide graduates. Under the plan, colleges would be rewarded based on their success in offering lower tuition prices to benefit low-income students, the White House said in a statement. A key aspect of the plan is that it wouldn’t increase taxpayer dollars, because students would pay off aid money with interest. Obama announced the proposal before 4,000 students at the University of Michigan, who cheered “Four more years!” The visit at Michigan was an official government event and the last stop on a three-day, five-state tour in which the president planned to spell out the ideas in his SOTU speech and appeal to the middle class.

Meanwhile:

Release: GRADS FIGHT SALLIE MAE’S ‘UNEMPLOYMENT PENALTY’ WITH ONLINE CAMPAIGN

50,000 people join campaign on Change.org calling on Sallie Mae to immediately stop charging jobless students a $50 “unemployment fee” per loan for forbearance

WASHINGTON, DC – More than 50,000 people in all 50 states have joined a popular campaign on Change.org calling on Sallie Mae to stop charging jobless borrowers a $50 fee for forbearance on their student loans. Borrowers who can’t pay the extra fee are put into default.;

Stef Gray, a recent graduate of a public college who took out private student loans through Sallie Mae, is leading the campaign on Change.org after being hit with the fee when she asked for a forbearance.

“What Sallie Mae is doing is wrong,” said Gray, who launched the campaign on Change.org. “My loan already grows by more than $1,000 in interest every three months when it’s in forbearance, and I pay almost 10% in interest because my parents weren’t alive to cosign my loans.”

•LBN: Is Hillary Ready To Leave Politics?:

Its not the first time shes said shes getting out of politics after her current job, but Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made it clear Thursday that shes ready to call it quits. In a meeting with State Department employees, Clinton said shes tuckered out after 20 years on the high wire of American politics. She said she will finish her term and, if President Obama wins re-election in November, will serve with him until he finds a replacement. She hasn’t been following the election season or the GOP debates, which she acknowledged was a little odd for her. But after being first lady, senator, an aspiring presidential candidate and finally Secretary of State, Clinton said it would probably be a good idea just to find out how tired I am.”

•Fluent on Ron Paul: ‘Associates: Paul pursued strategy of publishing controversial newsletters’

•Fluent: Secret Service to probe bullet-ridden Obama image’

Department of Military Cutbacks

WP: Pentagon to send floating base to Mideast for use by commandos

The Pentagon is rushing to send a large floating base for commando teams to the Middle East as tensions rise with Iran, al-Qaeda in Yemen and Somali pirates, among other threats.

In response to requests from the U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, the Navy is converting an aging warship it had planned to decommission into a makeshift staging base for the commandos. Unofficially dubbed a “mothership,” the floating base could accommodate smaller high-speed boats and helicopters commonly used by Navy SEALs, procurement documents show.

BBC: Senegal’s 85 year old President Allowed to Run Again, Singer Youssou N’Dour Thrown Off Ballot

Clashes have erupted in Senegal’s capital Dakar, after the top court said President Abdoulaye Wade could run for a third term in next month’s poll.

Angered by the decision, protesters threw stones at riot police, who responded by firing tear gas.

Mr Wade, 85, has already served two terms. But the constitution was amended since he was last elected, and he has argued the law is not retroactive.

In its ruling, the court barred famous singer Youssou N’Dour from running.

The opposition had earlier warned it would hold street protests if Mr Wade’s candidacy was approved, and crowds had gathered in central Dakar to await the ruling.

After the decision came through, youths in the area around Place de l’Obelisque set fire to tyres and engaged in running battles with police.

The commissioner of Dakar police, Arona Sy, told AFP a policeman was killed in the clashes.

The authorities said the protest would be tolerated in spite of an official ban on demonstrations.

The constitutional court’s statement, issued late on Friday, listed 14 candidates – including Mr Wade – as eligible to stand in the 26 February election.

The court ruled that Youssou N’Dour’s candidacy was invalid because he had not gathered the required number of signatures.

The Grammy award-winning musician announced he would stand earlier this month, saying “the people are fed up with career politicians who almost all enriched themselves with the state’s money”.

Youths at Place de l’Obelisque told Associated Press that they planned to turn the square into the equivalent of Egypt’s Tahrir Square if Mr Wade’s candidacy was allowed to go ahead.

Senegal is seen as one of the most democratic and stable countries in West Africa – it is the only country in the region never to have experienced a military coup.

However, tension is rising ahead of the election and one prominent politician has been charged with murder.

By Glenn Greenwald, ICH: The Human Rights “Success” In Libya

When the West invokes human rights concerns to justify an attack on a dictator whom it has long tolerated (and often even supported), that is rather compelling evidence that human rights is the packaging for the war, not the goal.

Fidel Castro: The ‘idiocy and ignorance’ of US Republican race

News from Spain, France, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Syria, England, the Malvinas and several other parts of the planet are serious and all foretell political and economic disaster due to the foolhardiness of the United States and its allies.

WP: Economy Grows But Not By Much

U.S. economy grew at 2.8 percent rate in fourth quarter

The U.S. economy grew at a modest 2.8 percent rate in the final three months of last year, the fastest growth in 2011. Americans spent more on cars and trucks, and companies built up their stockpiles. But growth in the October-December quarter — and all of 2011 — was held back by the biggest annual government spending cuts in four decades.

Washington Times: Conservatives Blame Obama for Growth in Food Stamp Use

This year, more than 46 million (15 percent of all Americans) will get food stamps. … That’s 45 percent higher than when Obama took office, and twice as high as the average for the previous 40 years.

Should We Bank On Banks?

Another Bank Outrage by Mandelman (Ml-Implode.com): Unnecessary, Unreasonable and Unthinkable

Because I just cant believe that anyone would intentionally do this to the parents of an autistic 12 year-old girl invite them to apply for a loan modification, and then after six months, leave them over a weekend with the uncertainty of losing the only home they’ve known for 15 years… in a matter of days the home in which they have raised four children all because he was injured while while working for the school district… and she lost her second job… its simply unthinkable.

•NYT: Romney’s Close Ties To Goldman Sachs

•NY Times OpEd: Banks Taketh, but Don’t Giveth

The banks that are engaged in a Manhattan land grab seem to be in the business of taking our money but not in the business of giving it back.

Poland: Anti-Counterfeiting Or Censorship?

Thousands of protesters have taken to Poland’s streets over the signing ?of an international treaty activists say amounts to internet censorship.

On January 26 Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement in Tokyo.

Today, the European Union and 22 member states signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), ?Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced. They have now joined the ?US and seven other nations that signed the treaty last October.

Related to ACTA, a chapter in the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) “would have state signatories adopt even more restrictive copyright measures than ACTA,” reports the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Twitter Agrees To Censorship

Mark Gibbs, Forbes Gibbs writes: “In what can only have been a fit of corporate insanity, Twitter announced that it has the ability to filter tweets to conform to the demands of various countries.”

AP reports , what we reported Yesterday : Jesse Jackson Appeals to Grammy Awards For Fairness

•Daniel Victor, Slate: Anti-Muslim Training, Sex Predators, and the Labor Behind iPads

Occupy Updates

Fluent: ‘Park Service: Occupation ends Monday’

Guardian: Occupy Activists Evicted From London Office Block

Media

Eric Boehlert, RSN/Media Matters: How Fox News Is Destroying the Republican Party

“True, conservatives in recent years have shown virtually no interest in critiquing, let alone trying to rein in, Ailes’ empire. Still, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Fox’s programming and the radical, fear-based agenda it’s setting for Republicans is now doing lasting damage to the Grand Old Party.”

Fluent: Writers condemn violence against Mexico journalists

NUMBER 47: David Lindorff: What Would Peter Zenger Say:

We are the Champions…of the World?

Say it loud and say it proud: We’re Number 47! We’re Number 47! Boo-yah!

If you want to know why the US — beacon of freedom, land of the First Amendment — is now ranked number 47th (out of 179) in terms of freedom of the press in the annual ranking put out by Reporters Without Borders, below South Africa, Botswana, South Korea and Comoros, and just above Argentina, Romania and Latvia, you could ask Mike Bloomberg, the billionaire mayor of New York and himself owner of a huge news organization, or his Chief of Police Raymond Kelly.

For that matter you could ask the mayors and police chiefs of Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, Boston, Philadelphia, or a host of other cities.

Better yet, ask the mayor of Oakland and her police department’s latest gestapo chief, Howard Jordan.

According to Reporters Without Borders, what caused the US to plunge from 20th place last year, up there with Ireland, Germany, Belgium and Japan, down to 47th this year, was the way reporters were treated by police as they tried to cover the Occupy Movement that began last September. ‘’

In Memoriam: Kevin White, Former Mayor Of Boston

“Boston Globe: Kevin Hagan White, a political figure who helped transform Boston into a world-class city during 16 often turbulent years as mayor, died last night in his Beacon Hill home, his family said in a statement. He was 82 and was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease about a decade ago…

A larger-than-life presence of his era, Mr. White had deep roots in the parochial old political culture of the city, but lightning instincts and a roving intellect that propelled him to national stature. Amid society-altering upheavals of the era — the civil rights movement, Vietnam War, and Watergate — he adapted and survived, at times reinventing himself.”

One Achievement: He saved Boston from a major riot by supporting a concert by James Brown,

Humor From The Onion: Did The Media Treat Bachmann Unfairly Because She’s An Insane Woman?

Letters

Robert Youngman writes;

“Hi Danny,

Enjoyed your piece on Aljazeera…….

You made two comments which I believe are invariably interconnected.

“The assumption is that the media is neutral, they’re just to show us what’s happening. Unrecognized is that they are in a race too, for ratings, revenues and recognition. The TV reporters and pundits who get far more “face time” than the politicians are political to the core, as interested in promotion and attention as the people they cover.”
and………..

Former Washington Post and CNN/Daily Beast commentator Howard Kurtz was one of the few pundits to recognize that Gingrich successfully turned a major media assault on him back on to the media in his first response to a question from his colleague John King on his treatment of his ex-wives.

“Newt Gingrich probably won the debate in those opening moments,” Kurtz said. “And I must say that I thought it was a misstep for (CNN’s) John King, who is a fair and seasoned and balanced reporter, to make that the very first question of the debate.”

And it is for this reason that I believe CNN’s John King KNEW EXACTLY WHAT HE WAS DOING when he made that the very first question of the debate to Newt Gingrich. Surely, it is in CNN’s (and all of the other network’s) best interests to have the contest for the Republican candidate for President to go on as long as possible. John King readily admitted that he expected Gingrichs’ answer to be what it was, but of course he would never admit that his underlying intention was actually to help Gingrich’s chances in the South Carolina primary to keep the race going – which I believe it was.

Unfair and/or unethical on John King’s part? Probably, but as you said – the media is looking out for the media first……..

Nat Segaloff writes:

I just found your terrific September 5, 2001 piece “When Is a Journalist a Journalist” on the Media Channel site and will cite it for my Committee rather than bother you for the same thing in a personal e-mail. Great writing and information.

Compelling Visual: Underwater Wreckage Photos

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