bat down / go to bat for, downgrades, House Ways and Means Committee

Ukrainian Special Forces Due in Odessa After Clashes

A top Ukrainian minister said on Monday that a new special forces unit was drafted into southern Odessa after police failed to bat down days of deadly violence involving pro-Russian separatists that killed dozens of people



人們似乎正在就美國應該降低企業所得稅率的想法達成一致。奧巴馬總統和眾議院籌款委員會(House Ways and Means Committee)主席戴維·坎普(Dave Camp)眾議員都表示，他們希望在不減少政府收入的前提下這麼做，但是在大部分細節上他們存在分歧








The downgrading of Europe

Barack Obama’s new defence plans neglect Europe at their peril...


Google, Twitter Go to Bat For Theflyonthewall

By REUTERS

Published: June 22, 2010

(Reuters) - Google Inc and Twitter Inc have asked an appeals court to overturn a lower court's decision to bar Theflyonthewall.com from issuing immediate news on analyst research from several Wall Street banks, court documents showed.
Theflyonthewall.com posted headlines from research reports and press releases on its website, often before banks could share their recommendations with their clients.
In March, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote said Theflyonthewall.com engaged in "systematic misappropriation," essentially getting a "free ride" from its quick publication of upgrades and downgrades that can move stocks higher and lower.
The ruling was made in favor of Bank of America Corp's Merrill Lynch unit, Barclays Plc and Morgan Stanley, which had earlier sought court intervention to ban Theflyonthewall from using their research reports.
However, in a filing with an appeals court late on Monday, Google and Twitter argued that in the age of Internet and instantaneous communication, banning of Theflyonthewall.com's immediate news dissemination was "obsolete."
"News reporting always has been a complex ecosystem, where what is 'news' is often driven by certain influential news organizations, with others republishing or broadcasting those facts -- all to the benefit of the public," the companies said in the filing.
Google and Twitter argued that upholding the district court's decision would give those who obtained the news first strong incentives to block others from obtaining the same information.
The companies also said it was tough to implement "any period of exclusivity" for news.
It would be impossible to craft and enforce a rule restricting the dissemination of readily accessible factual information, the companies said. They requested the court to recognize that "hot news" misappropriation could no longer be practically or fairly applied.
"How, for example, would a court pick a time period during which facts about the recent Times Square bombing attempt would be non-reportable by others?" the companies said in the filing.
The case is IN re: Barclays Capital et al v Theflyonthewall.com, Case No. 10-1372, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Valerie Lee)

Definition of downgrade

verb

Pronunciation: /ˈdaʊngreɪd, daʊnˈgreɪd/

[with object]

• reduce to a lower grade, rank, or level of importance:some jobs had gradually been downgraded from skilled to semi-skilled

noun

Pronunciation: /ˈdaʊngreɪd/

• 1an instance of reducing someone or something’s rank, status, or level of importance: downgrades by debt-rating agencies outnumber upgrades by five to one

• 2North American a downward gradient on a railway or road: a steep downgrade for which he had to put the car in second

Phrases

on the downgrade

North American in decline:profits are on the downgrade

***

verb (bats, batting, batted)

[no object] Back to top  

• 1(Of a sports team or player) take the role of hitting rather than throwing the ball: Australia reached 263 for 4 after choosing to bat

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• 1.1 (bat for (or go to bat for)) • informal, chiefly North American Defend the interests of; support: she turned out to have the law batting for her

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• 2 [with object and adverbial of direction] Hit at (someone or something) with the flat of one’s hand: he batted the flies away

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Phrases

bat a thousand

US • informal

Be very successful; achieve perfection: with tortellini in brodo, I batted a thousand—both kids had seconds

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off one's own bat

British At one’s own instigation; spontaneously: when he didn’t chase the dog she came back off her own bat

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right off the bat

North American At the very beginning; straight away: I managed to have a disagreement with him right off the bat

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Phrasal verbs

bat around (or about)

• informal, chiefly North American Travel widely, frequently, or casually: I’m always batting around between England and America

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bat something around (or about)

• informal Discuss an idea or proposal casually or idly: we bat around a wide variety of issues

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go to bat for
Take the side of, support, defend. For example, Dad will always go to bat for his kids. This term originated in baseball, where it means simply substituting for another batter, but it is the idea of helping one's team in this way that has been transferred to more general use. [Slang; early 1900s]