USA – Page 6 – Slugger O'Toole

“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun”

Pete Baker on January 11, 2011, 5:17 pm

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Former Irish News columnist Jude Collins popped up on Talkback today to add his voice to the various media commentators complaining about the dangerous rhetoric of the US right-wing in the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Arizona. But in his eagerness to attribute blame Jude Collins has become somewhat confused about the facts. Of the two, the death of Gabrielle Giffords is the easier to explain. It may be, as US right-wing commentators claim, that the …

Wikileaks: “What [Sinn Féin] cannot stand, he said, is skepticism.”

Pete Baker on December 13, 2010, 3:48 pm

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The Guardian has a good round-up of most of the significant Process™ related sections of the US Embassy cables released by Wikileaks. But there are a few sections worth highlighting in that they corroborate elements of other accounts that have been published previously. In particular the account by Mary-Alice Clancy. From a US Embassy cable dated 04 February 2005 5. (C) XXXXXXXXXXXX said that the GOI’s approach to the peace process was to “sit tight” and let Sinn Fein find its way back. Equally, …

“they are doing nothing which the Provisionals didn’t do before them and with the same political rationale”

Pete Baker on October 27, 2010, 3:32 pm

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Somewhat related to this previous post. In the Belfast Telegraph, Eamonn McCann makes the point I remember almost breaking down as I spoke as the realisation hit me that the difference between Ned McCann and Patsy Gillespie was nothing except 25 years. Just as the difference between Patsy and Gerry McConnell was 20 years. Oglaigh na hEireann hadn’t sucked the idea from their thumbs. This consideration, the fact that precedent is provided by the actions of some who have since …

“There can be no greater endorsement of our world class skills and knowledge base…”

Pete Baker on October 19, 2010, 3:55 pm

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I’d welcome Peter Robinson’s call to end state-funding of faith-based schools if I thought he was serious about separating church and state. But he’s just as unlikely now, as he was then, to intervene whenever a supernaturalist Minister attempts to influence what’s on display in our museums, or at our World Heritage site, or in schools within the Lurgan District Council area. And what is Sinn Féin’s position on the DUP leader’s de-segregated objective? The Northern Ireland deputy First Minister, Sinn Féin’s …

Does Glenn Beck really have blood on his hands?

Paul Evans on October 16, 2010, 10:33 pm

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Here’s a question for you: In continuing to employ Glenn Beck, does Fox News really have blood on its hands? Beck peppers his ‘libertarian’ populist screeds with conspiracy theories, and in one recent case, a nutcase – claiming to be inspired by him – is targeting liberals for assassination. Many of his followers are plainly deluded, and he doesn’t seem to apply any standard of evidence gathering to his journalism. Depressingly, it appears that followers of pundits such as Beck …

Bill Clinton’s Big [Economic] Ideas for NI…

Pete Baker on September 29, 2010, 10:59 pm

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Or, as I think I heard it described on the fawning UTV report, his “special insight” on developing the local Northern Ireland economy, ahead of next month’s one-day US economic forum on NI. According to the BBC report Mr Clinton said new jobs could be created through greater investment in renewable energy and rebranding the local fishing industry [as “organic”]. The second is hardly a unique selling point. And I’m sure I’ve seen the first suggested somewhere else before… But we, including …

Now he wants them to “wake up”…

Pete Baker on September 22, 2010, 12:14 pm

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According to The Guardian report that’s the message US President Barack Obama is sending to the Democrats ahead of the up-coming mid-term congressional elections, as another advisor leaves. From The Guardian report Obama deployed a carrot and stick approach at the three events – a televised town hall meeting and a fundraising dinner in Washington, and a speech to party members in Philadelphia. On the one hand he attempted to assuage Democratic doubts about his administration, but he then went …

Il sorpasso

Mack on August 16, 2010, 1:51 pm

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Due to below par second qaurter Japanese GDP growth, China has overtaken Japan to become the worlds second largest economy. Bloomberg report China surpassed Japan as the world’s second-largest economy last quarter, capping the nation’s three- decade rise from Communist isolation to emerging superpower. Japan’s nominal gross domestic product for the second quarter totaled $1.288 trillion, less than China’s $1.337 trillion, the Japanese Cabinet Office said today. Japan remained bigger in the first half of 2010, the government agency said. …

US Ratings Agencies : Um.. please don’t use our ratings

Mack on July 21, 2010, 12:08 pm

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So, just as Ireland get’s downgraded by Moody’s, the Financial Reform Bill in the USA throws a spanner in the works, potentially making the agencies liable for inaccurate ratings. Their response – ‘stop using them please’. From the Wall Street Journal (via Naked Capitalism) The nation’s three dominant credit-ratings providers have made an urgent new request of their clients: Please don’t use our credit ratings. The odd plea is emerging as the first consequence of the financial overhaul that is …

“brutal security forces, pliant courts and tightly controlled news media”

Pete Baker on July 5, 2010, 4:41 pm

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The Irish Times reports a warning from the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, about countries which, according to Freedom House, are “using brutal security forces, pliant courts and tightly controlled news media to systematically crush political dissent” “We must be wary of the steel vice in which many governments around the world are slowly crushing civil society and the human spirit,” Mrs Clinton told an international meeting of democracies. Don’t worry. She’ll still be encouraging investment here… Pete Baker

Battleground Ireland : The proxy war

Mack on June 29, 2010, 10:57 am

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US neo-Keynesians and the ‘Austerians‘ are slugging it out over the Irish approach to managing the crisis. At stake, the future of US and perhaps global economic policy. First up the Keynesian New York Times :- In Ireland, a Picture of the High Cost of Austerity Rather than being rewarded for its actions, though, Ireland is being penalized. Its downturn has certainly been sharper than if the government had spent more to keep people working. Lacking stimulus money, the Irish …

Was Friedman right? The debate on American post-1980 reforms

Mack on May 27, 2010, 10:56 am

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Interesting debate in the US blogosphere on the pro-market reforms implemented in the US (and other countries including Britain & Ireland) since 1980. Paul Krugman defends the large rise in American living standards pre 1980 liberalisation and contrasts it with more moribund growth there after while Scott Summer highlights the reversal of the American economies (and that of other reformers) relative decline. Krugman – Read almost any conservative commentator on economic history, and you’ll find that the era of postwar …