TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
Dec 12, 2012 4:08pm
Liberals Reject, Conservatives Embrace Kristof’s Welfare Argument
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New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, the journalist who champions human rights around the world, wants the government to stop giving welfare checks to poverty-stricken children with disabilities. It’s a stance that inspired solidarity with conservatives and fiery criticism from liberals, not Kristof’s usual reception.
In an op-ed published in the Sunday Times titled “Profiting from a Child’s Illiteracy,” Kristof argued that Social Security and welfare benefits are perpetuating the cycle of poverty in America.
It’s an argument that goes back decades, and it has generally been favored by conservatives. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan used it to condemn President Obama’s social policies throughout the presidential election, saying such benefits lead to dependency, not self-sufficiency.
Speaking with Kristof on MSNBC Monday, Republican Joe Scarborough praised Kristof’s idea that the benefits are perpetuating a cycle of dependence.
“Whether you’re in Midtown Manhattan or at the Capitol in Washington, you now have generations of Americans that have been raised with this as a way of life,” Scarborough said. “And the great question is, how do we break the cycle?”
Kristof’s op-ed suggested reinforcing learning programs that work with children to overcome illiteracy. He quoted conservative scholar Richard Burkhauser, saying today’s welfare programs give parents an incentive to encourage their children to do poorly in schools.
“I hope that the budget negotiations in Washington may offer us a chance to take money from S.S.I. and invest in early childhood initiatives instead,” Kristof, 53, wrote, referring to Supplemental Security Income, a U.S. Treasury-funded program that gives stipends to low-income children and elderly or disabled adults.
Such a suggestion is rarely heard from liberals, and it was not well received.
“Oh, dear god, have I seen this movie before. You have the heartbroken local bureaucrat without any specific examples, just ‘many people.’ You have the statistics-free analysis of programs, and you have the pet ‘scholar’ from the American Enterprise Institute who, in a stunning coincidence, writes a book concluding pretty much the same thing about social-welfare programs that everyone else at AEI believes,” Charles Pierce wrote in Esquire magazine’s politics blog.
“And, of course, there is the anguished liberal conscience of the Times columnist. What’s missing, of course, are any of the actual people who allegedly are getting fat on disability payments.”
Kristof, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, supported his claim that parents benefit from their children’s failure on a quote from the head of a literacy program in rural Kentucky, who told him parents were preventing their children from learning to read.
Jonathan Stein, a lawyer at advocacy firm Community Legal Services, countered that low-income children who are illiterate don’t automatically qualify for disability benefits.
“Illiteracy is NOT and has never been a ground of eligibility to obtain SSI child disability benefits,” Stein wrote in an email.
West Virginia literacy specialist Judy Azulay was shocked to read Kristof’s op-ed. She said the Times columnist “usually is right on the mark,” but in this case she found him way off.
“Parents want to see their kids succeed,” Azulay said. ”Sometimes parents who are not educated and who have had terrible experiences with the school don’t know how to help their kids, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t want their kids to succeed. It’s a different issue.”
Azulay has worked in West Virginia schools and with individual literacy tutoring for almost three decades. In the rural areas where she works, Azulay said, the problem is not SSI but a lack of access for families to the resources available.
“Even if the families have money from SSI or other sources to use for transportation to get them to after-school or tutoring programs there is no transportation that they could even spend money on,” Azulay said. “There’s no public transportation, and there’s no taxi cabs. There’s no way that you can get a kid access to services.”
Rep. Tim Murphy said he sees this, too, in rural areas of his Pennsylvania district.
“In instances like that it’s important to have transportation to a program part of the time but also programs going to children’s homes, which is probably a greater benefit,” Rep. Murphy, R-Pa., said by phone today. “But it’s also important that the child goes to the programs where they can see there’s a world out there that they can aspire to learn more from and be better in what they do.
“It isn’t just enough to give them a check. They need to have hope,” Murphy said, paralleling a line in Kristof’s op-ed that argued U.S. families have modern conveniences but “what they don’t have is hope.”
As for abuse of the system, Murphy said during his time as a psychologist, he saw patients whose parents he felt were “trying to game the system.”
“That’s a legitimate concern, if those parents are intentionally harming the child’s intellectual and academic development. That is abuse and it should be prosecuted as such,” Murphy said.
“To what extent that exists, I don’t know. Maybe it’s a small percentage. But it is important when those factors exist.”
12 December 2012 Last updated at 14:45 ET
Syria 'fires Scud-type missiles at rebels'
Forces loyal to the Syrian government have fired "Scud-type missiles" at rebels, media have quoted US officials as saying.
A number of short-range, unguided ballistic missiles had been launched, US and Nato officials said.
The US state department would not confirm the type but said missiles had been deployed. It said Syria was resorting to "more vicious weapons".
Separately, a series of blasts has hit the Syrian capital Damascus.
'Napalm-like bomb'
A US official quoted by Reuters and Associated Press confirmed the use of Scud-type missiles.
AP quoted the official as saying that more than half a dozen missiles were fired from the Damascus area into northern Syria. There was no indication any chemical weapons had been used, the official said.
Reuters also quoted a Nato official in Brussels as saying: "Allied intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets have detected the launch of a number of unguided, short-range ballistic missiles inside Syria this week. The trajectory and distance travelled indicate they were Scud-type missiles."
US state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said she was not going to comment on "the intelligence of precise missiles" but confirmed that "in recent days we have seen missiles deployed".
She added that the US had also seen a "napalm-like" bomb that was "completely indiscriminate".
Ms Nuland said: "As the regime becomes more and more desperate, we see it resorting to increased lethality and more vicious weapons moving forward."
White House spokesman Jay Carney said if the Scud reports were true "this would be the latest desperate act from a regime that has shown utter disregard for innocent life, utter disregard for the lives of its own citizens".
Mr Carney highlighted President Barack Obama's announcement on Tuesday recognising the Syrian opposition coalition as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
"We are working with our international partners to help strengthen the opposition and to further isolate and sanction the Assad regime," Mr Carney said.
On Wednesday a meeting of more than 100 nations in Morocco - the Friends of Syria - also agreed to recognise the opposition National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Force as the sole representative of the Syrian people.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the recognition would open the way for greater humanitarian assistance and possibly military aid for the forces seeking the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad.
The UK, France, Turkey and Gulf states had already given their recognition to the group.
Deir Ezzor plea
Violent opposition to Mr Assad's rule continued in Syria on Wednesday.
The building of the Syrian interior ministry in the capital Damascus was targeted by three explosions, state TV said, one a car bomb.
There had been "a number of deaths and injuries" and damage to the building, the report said.
The interior ministry is in the Kafar Souseh district, an area on the south-western outskirts of the capital where fighting has previously been reported between government forces and rebels.
Earlier on Wednesday, one person was killed and several were injured in two car bombs near the justice ministry in the suburb of Jaramana, according to state-run news agency Sana.
Fighting in Damascus's southern suburbs has intensified in recent weeks as rebels try to close in on the capital.
Also on Wednesday, medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said tens of thousands of people, many of them wounded, were trapped in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor due to intense fighting and aerial bombardments.
12 December 2012 Last updated at 15:38 ET
Panamanian held in Spain with cocaine breast implants
A Panamanian woman has been arrested in Spain with fake breast implants that turned out to be plastic bags containing 1.4kg of cocaine.
When the 20-year-old was stopped for a search at Barcelona's Prat international airport, police noticed that she had gauze under her breasts.
She said she had had plastic surgery two months before, but the wounds were open and she was still bleeding.
She was taken to hospital, where the cocaine bags were removed.
Spanish police say thousands of people try to take illegal drugs into the country every year, but this is the first time they have come across fake breast implants containing cocaine.
Flights coming from South America, where most of the world's cocaine is produced, are subject to thorough checks.
The young Panamanian woman had flown in from Colombia and initially denied having any illegal drugs on her, police said.
But on closer examination, they were able to see a "white object" through her wounds.
The seized cocaine has a street value of at least 60,000 euros ($80,000; £50,000).
12 December 2012 Last updated at 11:57 ET
Ravi Shankar, Indian sitar maestro, dies
COMMENTS (105)
Indian sitar maestro Ravi Shankar has died in a hospital in the US, aged 92.
His family said he had been admitted to the Scripps Memorial Hospital in San Diego last week, but had failed to recover fully from surgery.
Shankar gained widespread international recognition through his association with The Beatles.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described him as a "national treasure and global ambassador of India's cultural heritage".
In a statement quoted by Reuters, Shankar's wife Sukanya and daughter Anoushka said he had recently undergone surgery which would have "potentially given him a new lease of life".
"Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of the surgeons and doctors taking care of him, his body was not able to withstand the strain of the surgery," they said.
"We were at his side when he passed away.
"Although it is a time for sorrow and sadness, it is also a time for all of us to give thanks and to be grateful that we were able to have him as a part of our lives. He will live forever in our hearts and in his music."
Anoushka Shankar is herself a sitar player. Shankar's other daughter is Grammy award-winning singer Norah Jones.
'Respect for music'
George Harrison of the Beatles once called Shankar "the godfather of world music".
He played at Woodstock and the 1967 Monterey Pop festival, and also collaborated with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and jazz saxophonist John Coltrane.
Shankar also composed a number of film scores - notably Satyajit Ray's celebrated Apu trilogy (1951-55) and Richard Attenborough's Gandhi (1982) - and collaborated with US composer Philip Glass in Passages in 1990.
Talking in later life about his experiences at the influential Monterey Pop festival, Ravi Shankar said he was "shocked to see people dressing so flamboyantly".
He told Rolling Stone magazine that he was horrified when Jimi Hendrix set his guitar on fire on stage.
"That was too much for me. In our culture, we have such respect for musical instruments, they are like part of God," he said.
In 1999, Shankar was awarded the highest civilian citation in India - the Bharat Ratna, or Jewel of India.
On Wednesday morning, shortly after his death, the Recording Academy of America announced the musician would receive a lifetime achievement award at next year's Grammys.
The Academy's President Neil Portnow said he had been able to inform Shankar of the honour last week.
"He was deeply touched and so pleased," he said, adding, "we have lost an innovative and exceptional talent and a true ambassador of international music".
Born into a Bengali family in the ancient Indian city of Varanasi, Ravi Shankar was originally a dancer with his brother's troupe.
He gave up dancing to study the sitar at the age of 18.
For seven years Shankar studied under Baba Allauddin Khan, founder of the Maihar Gharana style of Hindustani classical music, and became well-known in India for his virtuoso sitar playing.
For the last years of his life, Ravi Shankar lived in Encinitas, California, with his wife.
12 December 2012 Last updated at 11:23 ET
Bosnian Serb Zdravko Tolimir convicted over Srebrenica
A Bosnian Serb former general has been sentenced to life in prison for genocide during the Bosnian war at the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
Zdravko Tolimir was convicted for his involvement in the killings of more than 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995.
Tolimir, 64, was arrested in Serbia in 2007 after two years on the run.
Judges said the former intelligence chief was the "right hand" of Ratko Mladic, also on trial at The Hague.
Three judges on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) found Tolimir jointly responsible for some of the most notorious crimes against humanity committed by Serb forces during the 1992-95 conflict.
"The accused not only had knowledge of genocidal intent of others but also possessed it himself," said Presiding Judge Christoph Fluegge.
"He is therefore responsible for the crime of genocide."
'Disruptive conduct'
Tolimir stood, removed his glasses and crossed himself three times as the verdict was read out, but showed no emotion as he was told he would spend the rest of his life in prison.
Before the verdict was delivered, he said: "I wish for these proceedings to be concluded in accordance with God's will."
The 64-year-old had defended himself throughout the trial, arguing that the killings at Srebrenica were part of a military operation against terrorists rather than a massacre.
He was given warnings about "disruptive conduct" in court.
Since his arrival in The Hague there had been concerns about his poor health and high blood pressure, says the BBC's Anna Holligan in The Hague.
Military commander Mladic and his political leader Radovan Karadzic are still on trial at the ICTY for overseeing Serb atrocities during the conflict, in which some 100,000 people died.
Gen Tolimir was in charge of intelligence and security for the Bosnian Serb army during the war, and reported directly to Gen Mladic.
He was accused of knowingly participating in the forced expulsion of Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) from the Srebrenica and Zepa enclaves, in the knowledge that "individual killings would occur as a result of the joint criminal enterprise".
"It was his men... who were at the detention and execution and burial sites, making sure that murder operation did its evil work until the last bullet was fired and the last body buried," said the prosecution.
He was also accused of the cruel and inhumane treatment of Bosniak civilians who were detained at Bratunac and Zvornik, as well as the destruction and theft of Bosniak property.
He was accused of helping disable UN troops during the Bosnian Serb attack on Srebrenica by lying to Unprofor, the UN contingent in Bosnia at the time.
After the signing of the Dayton peace accords he served as Bosnian military representative to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
He then worked as an adviser to Biljana Plavsic, the former president of Republika Srpska, before retiring from the army in 1997.
In February 2005 the Hague tribunal indicted him for war crimes.
Canada to Consider Other Planes Besides F-35
By By ROB
TORONTO
abcnews.go.com
Canada to consider other fighter gets besides costly F-35
The Associated Press
Canada is considering buying fighter jets other than U.S.-made F-35's because of escalating costs associated with Lockheed Martin's troubled Joint Strike Fighter program, the country's defense minister said Wednesday.
Defense Minister Peter MacKay said the government needs to ensure a balance between military and taxpayer interests.
MacKay said Canada needs to have all viable options on the table to replace the current fleet of 1980s-vintage CF-18s, which the government says will reach the end of their projected service life around 2020.
He reiterated that Canada wants to buy 65 jets for about $9 billion. But escalating costs and delays have dogged the F-35, which is now the most expensive U.S. Department of Defense procurement program ever.
A KPMG report says the lifetime cost of Canada owning 65 F-35's is estimated at $45.8 billion over 42 years.
MacKay had previously said it would buy the F-35, but the government never signed a binding contract. The government has since come under pressure because of ballooning costs and because other bids were not considered. An independent panel will consider a new range of options.
The government acknowledged Wednesday it could still buy the F-35. Other planes that could be considered include Boeing's Super Hornet or the European consortium made Eurofighter Typhoon jet.
Japan has said it may cancel its plans to buy dozens of the F-35s and Australia has said that to cut costs it is pushing back delivery of most of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. The Netherlands has also said it will trim its order.
The next-generation fighter is set to become the centerpiece of U.S. and allied air forces. Canada is a funding partner in developing the Joint Strike Fighter. Most of the funding comes from the United States, while Australia, Turkey, Britain, Italy, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands are also funding partners.
Odd note is the ABC web site lists it as Copy write for 12-13-12 It's still the 12th as of posting I know for sure as today is my birthday I am turning 30... God I feel old at three decades.
