| | July 17, 2012 | | HOT SEAT In congressional testimony Tuesday, Ben Bernanke warned that economic growth has tapered and improvements to America’s unemployment rate have been “frustratingly slow.” The Daily Beast’s Robert Shrum on whether the chairman can ignore political pressure and do his job. NO MEDALS So much for the gold medal for security performance. Nick Buckles, the head of private security contractor G4S, told a parliamentary inquiry that he was “deeply sorry” for the failure to meet security obligations at the London Olympics. The company was granted a $450 million contract, but has since failed to provide enough guards. Now that 3,500 more British soldiers have been added, the total has hit 17,000—some of whom just returned from Afghanistan. Buckles agreed with the panel that the company’s performance was a “humiliating shambles.” Some police forces are now controlling security for areas of London, though the overall security plan has not changed. NOT FRIENDS The secret to successful unity governments? Unity. The national body formed in Israel months ago has collapsed, after Shaul Mofaz, head of the Kadima Party pulled out of talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Mofaz cited differences over the universal draft law. Netanyahu had a majority of 94 of 120 members in Parliament, but the unity government hit a wall when trying to decide on regulations for drafting ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arabs. It’s unclear whether there will be early elections now. Old News The Romney campaign is using clips of Hillary Clinton attacking then-opponent Barack Obama during the 2008 Democratic primary for its own negative TV ads. Clinton insists that the ads are "waste of money" since voters already know what happened in 2008. "I am out of politics, and I haven't seen any of the ads that you're talking about," she told CNN while in Jerusalem. "But I have to say that it's a waste of money. Everybody knows I ran against President Obama in 2008. That's hardly news. Everybody knows we ran a hard-fought campaign and he won. And I have been honored to serve as his secretary of state." FALLOUT Sylvester Stallone’s late son isn't resting in peace, as his cousin took to the Internet to criticize Sly and his wife's parenting less than a week after Sage’s death. The Daily Beast’s Paula Froelich reports on the family feud. | |
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