The former foreign secretary said the parties “have to do more” to support women in politics after Home Secretary Theresa May and Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman were confirmed as the only two to gain senior roles in the coalition Cabinet.
Cheryl Gillan and Baroness Warsi are the only other women to feature at the top table.
Ceri Goddard, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, called for political leaders to “really put their money where their mouth is” by following examples set in Europe.
The working group established by the PLP has now met on a number of occasions, we have taken evidence from many members of the PLP, and we have received a number of written submissions, for which many thanks.
Yesterday, the Ohio Senate passed by a single vote a radical bill that would strip most of the state’s public employee unions of their collective bargaining rights. Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) claims doing so will save the state over a billion dollars, yet he continues to defend tax breaks and loopholes for the wealthy that would serve the same purpose. Graham said the administration and board of education are working on ways to make the schools more efficient and to build on the educational strengths. He also promised to provide “truly open and accountable leadership.”
“We know we need to continue to earn the community’s trust and support, and continue to re-earn that trust in order to keep our schools strong,” he said.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican like his Wisconsin counterpart, Scott Walker, praised the development. Both have pushed the collective bargaining bills as part of budget-balancing measures.
“This is a major step forward in correcting the imbalance between taxpayers and the government unions that work for them,” Kasich said.
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The Army has filed 22 new counts against suspected WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning.
Bradley Manning, the military intelligence analyst who is accused of leaking a trove of government files to WikiLeaks a year ago.
The new charges more accurately reflect the broad scope of the crimes that Pvt. 1st Class Manning is accused of committing,” Capt. John Haberland, a legal spokesman for the Military District of Washington, told CBS News.
The new charges, filed under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, include wrongfully causing intelligence to be published on the Internet, knowing that it will be accessed by the enemy, that US officials have asserted could put soldiers and civilians at risk.
The charge sheet filed by the Army is quite vague and neither indicates what specifically Manning did to violate this provision nor the identity of the “enemy” to whom he is alleged to have given intelligence.
”Westboro Baptist Church Wins Supreme Court Appeal Over Funeral Protests”
The Supreme Court, in an 8-1 decision, has ruled that the incredibly offensive protest staged by Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church at the Kansas funeral of Matthew Snyder a marine killed in Iraq was a legitimate exercise of free speech.
Westboro alerted local authorities to its funeral protest and fully complied with police guidance on where the picketing could be staged. The picketing was conducted under police supervision some 1,000 feet from the church, out of the sight of those at the church.
Speech is powerful. It can stir people to action, move them to tears of both joy and sorrow, and as it did here inflict great pain.
On the facts before us, we cannot react to that pain by punishing the speaker, Roberts said.
As a nation we have chosen a different course to protect even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate, the chief justice wrote.
The Unanimous Declaration of Independence made by the Delegates of the People of Texas in General Convention at the town of Washington on the 2nd day of March 1836.
When a government has ceased to protect the lives, liberty and property of the people, from whom its legitimate powers are derived, and for the advancement of whose happiness it was instituted, and so far from being a guarantee for the enjoyment of those inestimable and inalienable rights, becomes an instrument in the hands of evil rulers for their oppression.
On April 21, 1836, Texas Republic soldiers attacked Santa Anna’s troops and the Battle of San Jacinto was underway. It took 18 minutes for Texas to secure its independence from Mexico.
I know many of my non-Texas readers don’t care about today. And I know a lot of current Texans, especially those in the legislature, too often don’t represent my home state the way I’d like.
But I am still proud of my West Texas heritage and thrilled to be back home.
Last year, Rudy’s Bar-B-Q raised more than $10,000 for the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund with its Texas Independence Day special offer and Follow2Support initiative.
Navy Times says, “Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered the Kearsarge and the amphibious transport dock Ponce to move from the U.S. Central Command region into the Mediterranean Sea to provide the capability for evacuation or humanitarian aid.”US stock futures are pointing slightly higher after a broad sell-off in yesterday’s session. The Dow fell 168 points or 1.4 percent to 12,058; the S&P 500 dropped 20 points to 1306; and the NASDAQ tumbled 1.6 percent to 2737. April Crude Oil settled at $99.63 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest close since September, 2008.Secretary of State Hilary Clinton says the U.S. must lead the international response to the crisis. Britain is working on a plan to impose a no-fly zone over the country. Today the United Nations voted to suspend Libya from the U.N. Human Rights Council.
Gates said the U.N. Security Council hasn’t authorized military force and there was “no unanimity within NATO for the use of armed force.”
Also, “we also have to think about, frankly, the use of the U.S. military in another country in the Middle East,” Gates said.
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”Oil prices jump on Middle East, Bernanke comments”
During a speech in Jackson Hole, Wyo., on Aug. 27, Bernanke outlined an effort to spur economic growth, prevent prices from falling and push markets higher through the purchase of government bonds.
Benchmark West Texas Intermediate for April delivery gained $2.66 to settle at $99.63 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
In London, Brent crude gained $3.62 to settle at $115.42 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
The comments suggest Bernanke will keep the Fed on course to complete $600 billion of Treasury purchases through June under the second round of so called quantitative easing. He pledged to act if higher commodity prices persist, spurring inflation and increasing inflation expectations.
Mr. Bernanke said the deficit is the single biggest issue facing the economy, characterizing the near-record shortfall as a “near and present danger” that could trigger a financial crisis on the scale of the one that drove the global economy into recession in 2008.
Three weeks after igniting a firestorm of protest from unions, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker introduced a budget Tuesday that would slash more than $1.25 billion from aid to local governments.
Democrats and their allies are incensed about deep cuts Walker wants to make to schools and local governments. Walker said he’s making the tough choices to finally solve Wisconsin’s perennial deficits.
“This is a reform budget,” Walker said in prepared remarks. “It is about getting Wisconsin working again, and to make that happen, we need a balanced budget that works — and an environment where the private sector can create 250,000 jobs over the next four years.”
Walker’s proposals have stirred a national debate over public-sector unions and drawn tens of thousands of protesters to the Capitol for three weeks.
Professional Fire Fighters Association of Wisconsin Vice President Alan Hefter accuses Walker of assaulting core values.
Republican lawmakers praised the plan, calling it a bold and decisive way to balance a projected $3.6 billion budget shortfall.
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In its final act on FY2011 Appropriations, the 111th Congress extended the Continuing Resolution (CR) until March 4, 2011. The CR (H.R. 3082) essentially continues funding for most programs at the FY2010 level. However, the total funding rate for the bill is $1.16 billion higher than 2010 level. This termination was requested in the President’s budget request. The states have yet to spend large amounts of funding provided by this program, and both the House and Senate proposed eliminating the program last year. Broadband Direct Loan Subsidy (U.S. Department of Agriculture) = -$29 million. No funds were requested for this program in the president’s budget request.House Republicans have said they want to drastically cut government spending now, but Democratic lawmakers have pushed for at minimum funding operations near fiscal 2010 levels until October.
The senior defense officials said programs and projects that are delayed or postponed end up costing more, and often with lower workmanship, because they tend to get rushed. ]]>
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee got his facts wrong when he claimed twice during an interview Monday that President Obama was raised in Kenya.Huckabee’s claim that President Obama grew up in Kenya is false. President Obama was born in Hawaii and spent part of his youth in Indonesia, not Kenya. The president’s biological father was Kenyan, and Obama barely knew him.Huckabee made the comments while discussing “Birthers” — people who believe that Obama was born outside the country and is therefore not eligible to be president. During his 2008 campaign, the Obama camp released his birth certificate and his birth announcements from 1961 to two Honolulu newspapers to prove that he was born in the US.
And, it can’t be said often enough, being against imperialism is and almost always has been the policy of the United States of America. OK, granted, there’s plenty of hypocrisy over the years in the US version of anti-imperialism, but still, that’s certainly been the policy with regard to Africa, and it’s at least somewhat bizarre for Huck or D’Souza or Newt or anyone to claim that opposing British rule in Kenya is a sign of unAmerican beliefs. ]]>