Jack Storry is the International Officer of the Young Fabians

“In 75 days France will elect a new President.”

That is how Axelle Lemaire, Parti Socialiste candidate for the Northern Europe constituency in the coming French legislative elections, began her speech at Tuesday’s event in Parliament hosted by the Young Fabians and Labour Movement for Europe. It was a stark reminder of just how close the second most populous country in Europe is to electing its next President.

Lemaire described it as her deepest wish that Parti Socialiste candidate François Hollande is elected as the next president of France, and when asked whether she thought he would be, answered with a clear “Yes”. She cited three factors for her confidence – Hollande’s strong position, Sarkozy’s weaknesses and the context of the election.

Lemaire first highlighted the strong polling position of Hollande. Polling in recent days has shown Hollande extend his lead in the first round to 8 points and his margin in a head-to-head runoff with Sarkozy to 16 points (58 per cent – 42 per cent). This follows a trend over the last month which has shown consistent and growing leads for Hollande.

Lemaire then turned her focus to the poor record of President Nicolas Sarkozy. She said his record was 2.8 million people unemployed, a rising budget deficit, rising public debt and the loss of France’s AAA credit rating.

Lemaire also attacked Sarkozy on the lack of a legacy, saying:

“After five years there is not one single reform that he can put forward as having effectively changed the county”

It is clear that the French left have a finely tuned attack line on Sarkozy and intend to make his record a key issue of the campaign.

Finally, Lemaire stated she felt the context of the election was a strength for Hollande. The election is taking place at a time when the right in France is failing to respond to the economic crisis and people are can see left is a genuine alternative. Lemaire said there is a distinct feeling that this election is a now or never moment.

Whether Hollande is able to capture the Palais de l’Élysée on May 6th remains to be seen, but it is clear that the Parti Socialiste find themselves the best position in more than a decade to do so.

See also:

• How can we have fairer capitalism? – Sara Ibrahim, January 13th 2012

• Cameron didn’t sign EU deal because it’s not in the interests of the one per cent – Shamik Das, December 9th 2011

• Eurozone crisis: A threat or a promise from the credit rating agencies? – Ben Fox, December 6th 2011

• French primaries point the way for democracy – Will Straw, October 11th 2011

• Where does NATO, Cameron, and the West stand after the Libyan intervention? – Marcus Roberts, August 22nd 2011

With former Pennsylvanian Senator Rick Santorum winning a clean sweep of three state contests last night in the race to be the Republican nominee to be President, it appears the GOP has a real problem. 

Although it is almost certain that frontrunner Mitt Romney, with huge advantages of money and organisation over his three main rivals, will have the most delegates at the Republican convention in Florida in August, he may not have a majority.

It appears that two of the U.S.’s four major regions, just don’t like Romney. Last month, Newt Gingrinch won a dramatic victory in South Carolina in the South, 40 per cent to 28 per cent.

Meanwhile Romney won the diverse state of Florida, but in its the northern panhandle, much more representative of the South as a whole, swung decisively behind Gingrich. 

Romney was meant to be strong in the Midwest, where his father was the governor of Michigan, but last night Minnesota (where Romney came third on 17 per cent) and Missouri (where he came second on 25 per cent) voted for Santorum. Beyond there, Santorum won in Colorado (40 per cent to Romneys 35 per cent), whose large Mormon population was expected to be a crucial factor in a Romney victory.

If the former Massachusetts governor fails to win a majority of delegates, the potential nightmare of a ‘brokered convention’ looms. Candidates try to cut deals on the floor of what is usually a coronation, or – as a last resort - a new candidate has to be selected.

Psephological whizz Nate Silver over at the New York Times’ FiveThirtyEight  blog decribed just how much difficulty Romney is in:

“Mr. Romney has had deep problems so far with the Republican base, going 1-for-4 in caucus states where turnout is dominated by highly conservative voters.

“Mr. Romney is 0-for-3 so far in the Midwest, a region that is often decisive in the general election.”

“He had tepid support among major blocks of Republican voters like evangelicals and Tea Party supporters, those voters making under $50,000 per year, and those in rural areas. Instead, much of his support has come from the wealthy areas that Charles Murray calls Super ZIPs — few of which are in swing states in the general election.”

Silver goes on to compare the characteristics of the race to the Republican battle of 1976 and the Democrat contest of 1984, which both produced losing candidates.

The Washington Post points to how bad the Colorado result was for Romney:

“Mitt Romney took the state with 60 percent of the vote in 2008 — two days before ending his presidential bid. He chose to hold his results-watching rally in Denver, a sign of confidence, but he wound up delivering his remarks to the crowd long before most of the results rolled in.”

On the conservative National Review’s blog, the Corner, election expert Larry Sabato confirms the grim spring facing the frontrunner:

“The big picture view is simple. Much like McCain in ’08, Romney will continue to struggle to consolidate his position, even after it has become obvious that he is the only candidate with the national organization to grind out the 1,144 delegates needed to win the nomination and face President Obama in the fall.

“Romney is going to have to find new ways to strengthen his candidacy beyond simply unloading negative ads. A good campaign to study would be Bill Clinton’s in 1992.

“The parallels aren’t precise but there are some lessons nonetheless. If Romney can’t learn them, he’s going to have a long, difficult spring full of intermittent defeats and rampant speculation that the convention will have to turn away from all four of the current candidates to produce a fall winner.”

See also:

• Romney bizzarely pleased that Donald Trump has endorsed him –Alex Hern, February 3rd 2012

• The World Outside Westminster – Oh, Carolina – Tom Rouse, January 22nd 2012

• Mitt Romney wins New Hampshire: Press round-up – Alex Hern, January 11th 2012

• Iowa 2012: Meet the candidates – Chris Tarquini, January 3rd 2012

• USA 2012: The conspiracy aimed at nailing Palin – Alex Hern, December 14th 2011

• Romney bizzarely pleased that Donald Trump has endorsed him –Alex Hern, February 3rd 2012

Left Foot Forward’s Ed Jacobs is a member of the Christian Socialist Movement and City Evangelical Church in Leeds and writes in a personal capacity.

As Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov today meets with President Bashar al-Assad in Damascas, the estimated 2.5 million Christians in Syria live in fear, stuck between a rock and a hard place.

As the news of Syrians being slaughtered continues at a relentless pace, it is thought that over one hundred Christians have now been targeted, either killed or kidnapped in brutal ways. Reporting last month, the organisation Barnabas Fund which campaigns on behalf of persecuted Christians has explained:

The Christian community in Syria has been hit by a series of kidnappings and brutal murders; one hundred Christians have now been killed since the anti-government unrest began.

A reliable source in the country, who cannot be identified for their own safety, told Barnabas Fund that children were being especially targeted by the kidnappers, who, if they do not receive the ransom demanded, kill the victim.

And the source provided detailed information – some of which cannot be made public for security reasons – about incidents that have taken place since Christmas.

Two Christian men, one aged 28, the other a 37-year-old father with a pregnant wife, were kidnapped by the rebels in separate incidents and later found dead; the first was found hanged with numerous injuries, the second was cut into pieces and thrown in a river. Four more have been abducted, and their captors are threatening to kill them too.

On 15 January two Christians were killed as they waited for bread at a bakery. Another Christian, aged 40 with two young children, was shot dead by three armed attackers while he was driving a vehicle.”

Perhaps because of such brutality, however clear things might seem, Christians in Syria remain wary of what “change” might mean for their country, looking to Iraq where their brothers and sisters in Christ are now making a mass exodus as a result of the attacks they have faced and Egypt where the prospect of an Islamist government has been matched by on-going attacks on Christians in a way not previously seen under President Hosni Mubarak.

Aware of this, President Assad is now using a policy of fear to court favour among Syria’s Christian communities. In an article published recently in “The Australian”, Richard Beeston explained:

When Father Basilious Nasser got an urgent call to say that one of his parishioners had been shot and needed help, the priest went immediately. As he tried to rescue the man on a street in the city of Hama, the cleric was shot twice by a sniper and died.

It is still unclear whether he was killed by government forces or the opposition, but his death nine days ago has shocked the Christian community.

For centuries, the ancient eastern churches have thrived on their ability to avoid becoming embroiled in the region’s volatile politics. But increasingly, the 2.5 million Christians in Syria fear being dragged into the violence.

There is no end in sight to the bloodshed, and hopes for a foreign-mediated solution dimmed yesterday as UN Security Council members failed to reach agreement yet again on a resolution to end the violence.

The fateful moment for Syria’s Christians can be traced back 10 months ago, when President Bashar al-Assad summoned leaders of the community to his palace and gave them an ultimatum: support me, or your people will suffer.

Perhaps mindful of the plight of the Christians in Iraq and Egypt, who have come under attack since the removal of secular dictatorships over the past decade, the leaders agreed.

As the West continues to look in anticipation at the opportunities that the Arab Spring could present, in Egypt and Iraq to name just two countries, the long lost promise of democratic futures, based on freedoms allowing Christians to pursue their faith free from intimidation, has so far failed to materialise.

Having actively called for President Mubarak to go in Egypt, intervened in Libya and spent years in Iraq we have a responsibility now to use all the muscle and leverage we have secure such freedoms. It is only then that Christians in Syria will truly have the confidence to escape the grip of fear with which President Assad now holds them.

And that goes for our “friends,” for want of a better word, too.

When Saudi Arabia for example finds itself third on the list of countries that persecute Christians, with reports before Christmas of 42 Christians in the country being arrested and tortured, why then did David Cameron’s recent visit to Saudi include a delegation of arms deals?

How perverse that we sell arms to a government that then subsequently used them to persecute Christians among others. Likewise, whilst Afghanistan, a country we supposedly “liberated” from the Taliban is second on the watch list of countries persecuting Christians, coming behind only North Korea, what message does it send when we sign a long-term partnership agreement with them?

In an e-petition I’ve recently established I call for the government to take action on three fronts:

1. To hold a full debate on the floor of the House of Commons on the issue of the persecution of Christians worldwide, mirroring similar debates in the Lords to enable our elected representatives to express their views.

2. That the government should be prepared to use sanctions, such as those related to trade where supposedly “friendly” countries fail to protect Christians from persecution or worse still, perpetrate such acts themselves.

3. To establish a new, annual report on the state of religious freedoms worldwide to highlight and expose those countries that fail to uphold the basic right to allow freedom of religion, free from intimidation.

In his speech marking the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, David Cameron spoke of the UK as a “Christian country” before declaring that should “actively stand up and defend” the values and morals from it that have shaped the UK. It’s time to stand up and stand up clearly for those very same values and moral worldwide as well.

As we look at the hideous position Syria’s Christians now find themselves in, let us remember the words of Martin Luther King:

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.”

See also:

• Syria: When will the West act? – Shamik Das, January 2nd 2012

• MPs to consider Christian freedoms in Algeria – Ed Jacobs, October 26th 2011

• West must do more to support religious freedom following the Arab Spring – Ed Jacobs, October 11th 2011

• Alexander: Britain should lead North Africa to European companionship – Alex Hern, October 10th 2011

• Faith schools improve social cohesion. Discuss… – Jo Thomas-Corr, January 28th 2010

Besieged residents of the Syrian city of Homs are crying out for Western intervention to save them from being slaughtered at the hands of Bashar al-Assad.

There are calls for “unilateral American and British intervention” after the shameful Russian and Chinese vetoes at the UN, and further pleas for a no-fly zone, which could result in up to “70 per cent” of the Syrian Army defecting.

Death stalks Homs, which is under its fiercest attack of the 11-month uprising; the BBC’s Paul Wood says there is now “nowhere to hide” for the city’s people.

Alaa al-Sheikh, spokesman for the Khaled Bin Waleed brigade of Syrian rebels, told The Henry Jackson Society’s Michael Weiss that 42 people had been killed in the city of Rastan alone, describing how:

“There are bodies that could not be documented because they were completely mutilated and disfigured.”

Al-Sheikh pleads:

“As an activist and a coordinator for the Khaled Bin Waleed brigade, I state that we in Homs, Idlib and Damascus suburbs call for unilateral American and British intervention. We also want to improve our relations with the US administration and people after the revolution, but we need you to save us.

“We are getting slaughtered, save us.”

As Weiss explains in the Telegraph, what is now needed “is not condemnations, demarches and shuttered embassies but a Western equivalent of intervention in Syria”, in the form of:

• Humanitarian “safe areas” to provide food, aid and medical supplies to the civilian population and give the various opposition groups a headquarters inside their own country;

• Advanced weapons and communication devices for the Syrian rebels;

• A no-fly zone to stop the regime from using its aircraft to conduct reconnaissance, offload security personnel and – yes – strafe rebel strongholds from the sky.

Also pleading for action is Danny Abdul Dayem, in the Baba Amr district of Homs, who told the BBC:

“I’ve been up from five o’clock am from the rockets, they started hitting us with rocket launchers from five am, more than 300 rockets have landed in just this area I’m sitting in in Baba Amr. I went to the field hospital at seven am, more than 25 pieces of bodies, children, women, men, dead people, either by shelling in their houses - the rockets either killed them in their houses – or the sniper even shot them.

“One of my friend’s dad died by a sniper. He was crying and he was asking me, he wanted a pen, he just wanted a pen to write on the cover of his dad because they’ve got a sheet around his dad, he wanted to write his dad’s name on the cover, that’s all he wanted, a pen.

“There’s bodies. Until now, the bombardment hasn’t stopped by rockets, this is the first time they have hit us with rockets. They used to bombard us with, for six months, they have been bombarding us with tank shells and mortar bombs, but today they started with rockets, rocket launchers, this is after what the UN did two days ago, what the UN cited, the UN gave our regime the green light to kill, the UN gave the Assad regime to kill more, they gave him the ok, they told him that no one’s gonna, gonna do anything about it, no one’s gonna help the Syrian people.

“All we’re asking about is help, they’ve hit part of the field hospitals, it’s not a normal hospital, it’s not a private hospital, it’s not a government hospital, it’s one of the field hospitals we have here in Baba Amr, we did it in one of the civilian houses, he had allowed us to do a field hospital in his house, one of the rockets landed in that field hospital, killed the doctors and killed the nurses and the patients in it, now we have only one field hospital left in Baba Amr.

“You should see all the injured people on the floor, we have no place to put them, some of them are dying from a stupid injury like a bullet in the leg, or a bullet in the hand, cos we have no time to rescue them, we don’t have enough doctors, we can’t even stitch up their wounds, there’s so many injuries, there’s more than 20 bodies unknown, we don’t know who they are cos their faces are blown up, the pieces of bodies, you should see the bodies we have here on the ground, you can’t move them.

“Baba Amr, this area in Homs, is surrounded by snipers and barricades, army barricades, they’re not letting anyone out or anyone in, they’re not letting any medication in, any doctors in, any help in, they shot at some civilian guards they were trying to get medication in, and they also shot at two ambulance, Red Crescent ambulance, they wouldn’t let them in…

“They [the Free Syria Army] can’t do anything about this, this is bombarding from 15 kilometres away, how are they gonna stop rockets from landing on civilian houses, they cannot attack, as we explained a long time ago, the Free Syrian Army here, are here to defend only, they can defend, they can defend us from the army coming in, but they can’t defend us from bombardment, even they can’t do anything now, all they have is some Kalashnikovs and some RPGs and just now I saw what President Obama said on TV, that they wanna do, they wanna solve this problem without any military, without any military problems between them and Syria.

“Let me just say something: this Syrian regime will not go down, they will not leave without force, without military hits, we need no fly zone, which we don’t have; if we had no fly zone 70 per cent of our Syrian Army will defect with their heavy artillery and their tanks but they can’t because they will be hit by planes, until now we’re being bombarded.

“What the Free Syrian Army tried to explain to me about the plan was, is that the Syrian Army are going to bombard us for five days, they’re gonna pile us, they’re not gonna let no medication in or food in for five whole days, then the Army’s gonna try and get in, that’s their plan.”

The BBC’s Paul Wood adds from Homs:

“Syrian state television denied that there had been any bombardment. It said residents were setting fire to piles of rubbish on the roofs of their homes to trick the world into thinking that there was an attack.

“There is no doubt, however, from what we have seen and heard, that hundreds of shells and mortars have been fired at this place during the day. As I write this, the windows of the house we are in are still reverberating from the impact of a shell, probably in the next street.

“It is true that people have been setting fire to rubbish in the streets. They believe it will confuse the guidance systems of rockets apparently being fired at them. They are probably mistaken.

“People in this part of Homs say these attacks are the worst they have known since the beginning of the uprising, almost a year ago. The bombing has been going on for several days now.”

As we have long said on Left Foot Forward, something, something, must be done; how many more must die before our eyes?

See also:

• Anti-Assad activist: “We need help… We need a no-fly zone… ASAP” – Shamik Das, February 1st 2012

• Syria: When will the West act? – Shamik Das, January 2nd 2012

• Syria ‘safe havens’ point to growing likelihood of civil war – Alex Hern, November 25th 2011

• A Syrian civil war is becoming ever more likely – Alex Hern, October 27th 2011

• Syrian government uses hospitals against protesters – Alex Hern, October 25th 2011

• Syrian Uprising: YouTube clips show continued demonstrations after Hama massacre – Daniel Elton, August 1st 2011

• Syria, where innocence is no defence – Dominic Browne, June 1st 2011

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US 2012: GOP race

Mitt Romney stormed to victory in Florida, ending the day with a comfortable 14-point win over Newt Gingrich. In large part this was due to an advertising blitz in the last week of the campaign, with estimates suggesting Romney spent up to five times as much on advertising as Gingrich.

However, this advertising blitz did little to encourage Republican voters to turn out, with 300,000 fewer voters turning out this year than in 2008.

Sober minds within the GOP must now consider whether their campaign to find a non-Romney nominee is now all but over. More moderate voices will be calling for the party to unite behind Romney and anoint him as their candidate. Doing so will avoid a protracted scrap and give the party the best chance of beating President Obama in November.

The president has not been siting idly by while the Republican party try and find a credible challenger.

US 2012: Obama

The President’s expansion of a scheme to help homeowners struggling with mortgage payments has been widely criticised by opponents as a election year ploy. This is unlikely to dismay the Obama administration, who will view helping the middle classes versus helping the rich as one of the key dividing lines between the two parties in the run up to November’s election.

He echoed this theme in a speech to the National Prayer Breakfast, arguing Jesus would have taxed the rich and criticising Romney’s remark that he’s “not very interested in the poor”.

This attempt to draw clear dividing lines between the parties comes on the back of a poll which reveals Obama to be the most polarising President of the last 60 years.

In part this reflects longer-term trends in US politics which have resulted in the GOP moving steadily further right in response to Bill Clinton’s repositioning of the Democrats. However, it does run contrary to the bi-partisan spirit of Obama’s election campaign, in which he promised to heal the scars which divided the country.

The drawing of battle lines is matched by a small revival in Obama’s poll ratings, with the latest Gallup polls giving him a 46 per cent approval rating. Although still a long way off the ratings he would hope for in an election year, this increase does suggest that he has arrested his recent slump off the back of last week’s State of the Union address.

More importantly, the US’s economy looks set to continue to grow, with recent data showing that hiring levels have hit a high not seen since January 2008.

Egypt

Egypt was rocked by a disaster, which has uncomfortable echoes of the Hillsborough tragedy.

Seventy four fans were killed following a pitch invasion and riot at a match between two of the country’s leading football clubs. This is the latest in a string of incidents to have hit Egypt in recent months and in an attempt to protect themselves, politicians have been quick to divert the blame elsewhere.

Prime minister Kamal el-Ganzouri has blamed Egypt’s Football federation for the disaster, dissolving the body and referring officials to the state prosecutor. However this response has not chimed with ordinary Egyptians, who took to the streets of Cairo on Thursday to protest against the Police’s failure to do more to prevent the tragedy.

Colombia

A terrorist attack in Colombia killed seven and injured 70 more after a motorcycle laden with explosives drove into a police station in the notorious city of Tumaco. Police officials have blamed the rebel group Farc for the bombing.

This bombing is the latest suspected attack by the left-wing rebels, who remain active despite repeated efforts by the government and military to shut them down. Farc have yet to claim responsibility for the attack, but were responsible for a similar attack in October, which claimed the lives of ten soldiers.

Syria

The ongoing crisis in Syria looks set to continue. Russia’s refusal to support a proposed UN embargo on the country has led the US and its partners to drop demands for sanctions.

In exchange, Russia has agreed to support a resolution which its proponents believe will pave the way for a regime change in the nation. However, the new deal permits Russia to continue selling weapons to Syria, raising questions about what effect, if any the UN’s efforts will have on the ground.

Also this week:

• Sign up to our new weekly email on the US 2012 and the latest news from around the world, The World Outside Westminster

• Romney bizarrely pleased that Donald Trump has endorsed him – Alex Hern

• Anonymous expose Ron Paul’s racist links – Alex Hern

• Maryland madness: 14-year-old girl’s birthday wish? “Ban gay marriage” – Shamik Das

• Tories delay enshrining 0.7% target in law. Again. When will they legislate? – Shamik Das

• USA 2012: Mitt spends four times as much as Gingrich, gets 1.4 times the votes – Alex Hern

• Anti-Assad activist: “We need help… We need a no-fly zone… ASAP” – Shamik Das

• New European Industrial Workers Federation looms – Tony Burke

• On its tenth anniversary, the Global Fund is in crisis – David Taylor

• Occupy and its Indian sister movement are fighting the same battles – Dr Kailash Chand OBE

• USA: The state of the unions – Tony Burke

Yesterday was Groundhog Day in the United States, and soon after Punxsutawny Phil gave the bad news that we’ve got six more weeks of winter, Mitt Romney received his own bad news: He’s been endorsed by Donald Trump.

In case you forgot – or wiped from your mind – Trump’s earlier escapades in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, Evan McMorris-Santoro of Talking Points Memo rounds up the only things you need to know to decide what Trump’s endorsement means:

He’s As Much Of A Birther As He Ever Was

Not even the release of President Obama’s long-form birth certificate has swayed Trump from his role as the most famous face on the movement that claims the occupant of the White House is a foreign-born fraud.

In October, Trump’s spokesperson told me “I don’t know” if the long-form certificate is real. Trump himself told Piers Morgan that he thinks the certificate is “a forgery” during that same week.

He Pushed Another Racist Anti-Obama Conspiracy Theory In December

Since the current indications are that this endorsement is heading Mitt Romney’s way, that could mean the former Massachusetts governor will wind up standing next to a man who recently accused Obama of ignoring Christmas in favor of Kwaanza.

The completely untrue right-wing meme was a favorite of the darker corners of the conservative movement. Standing with and/or accepting the endorsement from Trump opens up the prospect of having to distance himself from this kind of material down the road.

A Fox Poll Found He’s A Net Negative To Whomever He Endorses

In September, a Fox News Poll asked respondents if an endorsement from Trump would make them more or less likely to support a candidate. The results? Just six per cent said they would be more likely to vote for a Trump-backed candidate, while 31 per cent said they would be less likely. The rest said it would make no difference at all.

And yet stand with Trump Romney did, telling reporters:

“There are some things that you just can’t imagine happening in your life – this is one of them. Being in Donald Trump’s magnificent hotel and having his endorsement is a delight.”

Romney’s hope will be that Trump will give him sorely needed right-wing credentials, necessary to both win some votes back from Newt Gingrich in future primaries, and energise a base which he will need to turn out in full force come November. The risk is that Trump will alienate the very independents that are Romney’s biggest weapon against Obama.

It’s a risk that might be worth taking were Trump a meek talking head - but when you take on a personality as large as his, there is always the risk that you lose control.

The Democrats’ response to the news was simply to repost the press release to their supporters with the words:

In case you missed it.

Obama has already made his feelings about Trump clear at the White House Press Correspondents’ Dinner last year:

De. Li. Cious!

See also:

• USA 2012: Mitt spends four times as much as Gingrich, gets 1.4 times the votes – Alex Hern, February 1st 2012

• The World Outside Westminster – Oh, Carolina – Tom Rouse, January 22nd 2012

• Mitt Romney wins New Hampshire: Press round-up – Alex Hern, January 11th 2012

• Iowa 2012: Meet the candidates – Chris Tarquini, January 3rd 2012

• USA 2012: The conspiracy aimed at nailing Palin – Alex Hern, December 14th 2011

The amorphous internet collective known as “Anonymous” announced today that they have successfully attacked and overtaken the websites of American white supremacists American Third Position (A3P); in doing so, they have also, they say, uncovered evidence of close links between A3P and Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul.

In a statement on pirasec.com, Anonymous write:

Fellow anons: we are pleased to bring you the dismantling of a major US-based white supremacist network known as the “American Third Position”(A3P). These racist losers have chapters across the US, operate several white power websites, forums and online stores, and are even running a candidate in the 2012 elections…

In addition to finding the usual racist rants and interactions with other white power groups, we also found a disturbingly high amount of members who are also involved in campaigning for Ron Paul.

According to these messages, Ron Paul has regularly met with many A3P members, even engaging in conference calls with their board of directors.

Ron Paul’s racist politics and affiliations are already well known, being viciously anti-immigrant, anti-abortion and against gay marriage – not to mention having authored the racist “Ron Paul Papers” and receiving financial support from other white power groups (pictured with Don Black from stormfront.org [A large white-supremacist forum]).

Hard to believe Ron Paul draws some support from the left and the occupation movements, especially now that it is confirmed Ron Paul hangs out with straight up racist hate groups.

Ron Paul’s racism has been noted before.

In December, the Atlantic selected some of the most astonishing quotes from the newsletters he used to send out as a congressman, including:

“Given the inefficiencies of what DC laughingly calls the criminal justice system, I think we can safely assume that 95 percent of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal.”

“We are constantly told that it is evil to be afraid of black men, it is hardly irrational.”

[After the Los Angeles riots] “Order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks.”

[Martin Luther King was] “the world-class philanderer who beat up his paramours” [who] “seduced underage girls and boys.”

When asked on CNN about the newsletters, Paul walked out of an interview, denying he wrote them – although the Washington Post reports that he did indeed sign off on them.

Ron Paul is not, it appears, a particularly nice man; not even for a Republican presidential candidate.

See also:

• The World Outside Westminster – Falklands, nukes, protests and Gingrich – Chris Tarquini, January 29th 2012

• The World Outside Westminster – Oh, Carolina – Tom Rouse, January 22nd 2012

• Who is the Democrats’ Republican candidate? – Alex Hern, January 4th 2012

• Iowa 2012: Meet the candidates – Chris Tarquini, January 3rd 2012

• The global financial crisis, not 9/11, has defined the last decade – Tom Rouse, September 11th 2011

In opposition, David Cameron made much of his commitment to ringfence aid spending, as part of his detoxification strategy, pledging not to balance the books on the backs of the world’s poorest. All well and good. Yet the government has delayed enshrining the 0.7 per cent target in law. Again. And again. And again.

As Left Foot Forward reported on June 4th 2010, just weeks after the election, it’s a promise the Tories failed to immediately deliver once they’d made it to power, omitting it from their first Queen’s Speech. Back then, there was criticism the legislation wouldn’t make the statute book by the September 2010 New York Millennium Development Goals summit; it now looks like it won’t even be law by the May 2012 Cape Town MDG summit.

Yesterday, international development secretary Andrew Mitchell revealed the legislation would once again be delayed, telling The Sun:

“I don’t think it physically can now because there is not enough time left. We have signed off on the Bill and it’s now with the business managers. They will proceed with it when there is parliamentary time. The most important point, though, is that we are actually doing it – and we have set that out in the figures”

This despite the Tory manifesto pledge (page 117, pdf) to “lock in” the 0.7% target from next year:

“A new Conservative government will be fully committed to achieving, by 2013, the UN target of spending 0.7% of national income as aid. We will stick to the rules laid down by the OECD about what spending counts as aid. We will legislate in the first session of a new Parliament to lock in this level of spending for every year from 2013.”

And the coalition agreement pledge (page 22, pdf) that:

“We will honour our commitment to spend 0.7% of GNI on overseas aid from 2013, and to enshrine this commitment in law.”

As former Department for International Development special adviser Richard Darlington writes in the New Statesman:

This has been one of the longest ever Parliamentary sessions in history, running from May 2010 to May 2012. So what’s gone wrong?

There are still ten weeks left in this Parliamentary session and another three when MPs will be on holiday. DFID’s Bill is short with just a handful of clauses. It has already had pre-legislative scrutiny from the International Development Select Committee and there is cross-party consensus. There is no prospect of it being overturned in the Lords. It could probably be passed on a one line whip on a Thursday afternoon or Friday morning.

Adding:

The last time they were in office, the Conservatives halved the aid budget. Labour trebled it. [See Figure 7.1]. The reason the Conservatives made the promise was to achieve all-party consensus and put the issue beyond doubt.

Desmond Tutu said that “a promise made to the poor is a sacred thing”. Politicians should keep their promises, or risk proving cynical voters right when they say that politicians never keep their word.

Figure 7.1:

This is one Tory promise, more than any other, that David Cameron knows he cannot break; the futures of literally millions of the world’s poorest depend upon it.

See also:

• Conservatives to meet aid target by counting ‘made up’ debt relief as aid – David Taylor, January 9th 2012

• Tories are balancing the books on the backs of the world’s poorest – David Taylor, December 2nd 2011

• An open letter to David Cameron on the importance of the 0.7% target – David Taylor, May 17th 2011

• Government review of UK aid – goals and reaction – Shamik Das, March 1st 2011

• Commitment to ring fence UK aid welcome but questions remain – David Taylor, October 21st 2010

• Tories break promise to legislate on 0.7% in first parliament – David Taylor, June 4th 2010

• Campaign launched to commit UK to spending 0.7% of income on development aid – David Taylor, February 3rd 2010

Mitt Romney has comfortably won the Florida primary, leaving the Republican nomination his for the taking. But his victory came at a very literal cost – Romney vastly outspent his main opponent, and ran a hugely negative campaign with the money.

The Daily Kos reports:

After South Carolina’s strong win for Newt, we began to see what Mitt Romney’s wealthy donors empowered him to do: by outspending Gingrich 4:1, Romney was able to launch an air war in Florida that decimated Gingrich.

Romney’s positive ads constituted a small fraction of the media buy, and by the end, Romney had himself a landslide… and sliding favorables that may come back to haunt him in November.

That it was the money wot won it is agreed by most commentators, but not by Romney himself.

TPM argues instead that:

Mitt Romney wants you to dwell on a comeback kid narrative. His camp’s version goes something like this: here’s a guy who was knocked off his game by the genie let out of the bottle by the Supreme Court’s Citizen’s United ruling.

Just as he was consolidating his victory in New Hampshire and his (rescinded) triumph in Iowa, suddenly a billionaire casino mogul showed up and flung millions of dollars at his bomb-throwing opponent.

And yet, the narrative goes, like a mythical hero he emerged from the flames hardened, sharpened, and willing to fight back. He raised his game in the debates and pushed back his surging rival, ultimately romping to victory by a serious margin.

With two (and a half) victories behind him now, and his opposition still failing to coalesce behind any one candidate, what will stop Romney getting the nomination? It could be the man himself, with his gaffe-filled campaign showing no signs of getting any less embarrassing.

Think Progress reports that yesterday, Romney said:

I’m not concerned with the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it.

Mitt “corporations are people, I’m not concerned with the very poor, I don’t know my first name” Romney may still be an entertaining prospect for a candidate, and he is certainly less scary a prospect than Rick Santorum.

As Wonkette points out, the ungoogleable candidate was either very self-aware, or completely clueless, as he delivered his concession speech in Florida:

If there’s one message that I think we got from the campaign in Florida is that Republicans can do better. We can do better than this.

We can do better than the — the discussion and the — and the dialogue and the — and the accusations that were going on in the state of Florida. And — and, really, this campaign, you know, went downhill.

Truer words never spoken, Santorum.

See also:

• The World Outside Westminster – Oh, Carolina – Tom Rouse, January 22nd 2012

• Mitt Romney wins New Hampshire: Press round-up – Alex Hern, January 11th 2012

• Iowa 2012: Meet the candidates – Chris Tarquini, January 3rd 2012

• USA 2012: The conspiracy aimed at nailing Palin – Alex Hern, December 14th 2011

• USA 2012: Cain self-destructs, and Huntsman attempts to drag Romney into the fray – Alex Hern, November 1st 2011

As the UN dithers over whether to take action against the brutal repression of Bashar al-Assad, with Russia set to veto any resolution, the mass killing at the hands of the Syrian regime goes on. And on. And on.

Emad Mahou, an activist with the Syrian Revolution Co-ordinators Union, today revealed 18 more people were killed by the security forces in Zabadani, close to Wadi Barada, following heavy bombing in the Barada Valley. Among the victims is a 12-year-old girl. He said the assault was carried out by the Republican Guard, commanded by Bashar al-Assad’s feared brother Maher.

This afternoon, Emad called for the West to step up the pressure on Assad, saying the people of Zabadani are “waiting for them to help us”, and that, though the town was under the control of the Free Syria army, without Western intervention “as soon as possible”:

“We are waiting for them to help us, to put some more pressure on the system. We need help to get free from this regime. They are killing us very day, they are bombing us. A few months ago they were shooting us, now they are bombing us with tanks. Maybe tomorrow they will bomb us with aeroplanes…

“Zabadani is liberated. There is no army inside Zabadani, there are no security [forces] inside Zabadani. It is a liberated city and the Free Syrian Army hold the city till now but we are afraid of any invasion from the regime. We cannot fight them forever… we will run out of bullets, we will run out of rockets. We need help.

“We need help from Europe from the the US. We need a no-fly zone, we need them to help us as soon as possible, we can’t stand alone.”

He also said:

“A huge, huge number [of troops] belonging to the Republican Guard were invading the valley of Barada, Wadi Barada, with tanks and they were bombing two cities, Basemah, and the second is Deir Qanoun…

“There are around 11 houses [which] fell down to the ground on the heads of their residents. After five or six hours there were negotiations between the army and the civilians there. They [the army] said get out and take your martyrs and wanted men from the ground. When they got out to take them they [the army] started to shoot them.

“Members of the Free Syrian Army started to fight with the Republican Guard in the area called Ashrafiet al-Wadi… Members of the Free Syrian Army had a big fight with the Republican Guard and kill about 20 of them and destroy a tank.

“We don’t know why they [the Republican Guard] are in the area right now but you can say all the people here are against the system. People go out to protest, to topple the regime, to say we want the regime to leave.”

Listen to Emad’s plea for help:

As Left Foot Forward has long reported, the heinousness of Assad’s regime knows no bounds; as Hamza Fakher, a pro-democracy activist, recently revealed:

“The repression is so severe that detainees are stacked alive and kicking in shipping containers and disposed off in the middle of the sea.

“It is so bad that they’ve invented a new way of torture in Aleppo where they heat a metal plate and force a detainee to stand on it until he confesses; imagine all the melting flesh reaching the bone before the detainee falls on the plate.

“It is so bad that all demonstrators have opted for armed resistance. They know it is about survival now, not about freedom any more. This needs to be highlighted: Syrians are fighting for their lives now, not for freedom.”

People buried alive in shipping containers, tortured on hot metal plates, protesters murdered in hospitals, protesters gunned down and bombed… Something needs to be done. And soon.

See also:

• Syria: When will the West act? – Shamik Das, January 2nd 2012

• Syria ‘safe havens’ point to growing likelihood of civil war – Alex Hern, November 25th 2011

• A Syrian civil war is becoming ever more likely – Alex Hern, October 27th 2011

• Syrian government uses hospitals against protesters – Alex Hern, October 25th 2011

• Syrian Uprising: YouTube clips show continued demonstrations after Hama massacre – Daniel Elton, August 1st 2011

• Syria, where innocence is no defence – Dominic Browne, June 1st 2011

• No easy path to democracy for Syria – Shashank Joshi, March 30th 2011