Wednesday, December 11, 2013
CONTACT ME AT: manessmorrison2@yahoo.com


News Clips For The Day


Boehner lashes out at conservative groups on budget deal – NBC
By Michael O'Brien, Political Reporter, NBC News


Republican leaders defended a modest budget deal that would maintain government operations through 2015 amid conservative opposition that could scuttle the legislation in the House. 

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, lashed out at conservative advocacy groups that have encouraged GOP lawmakers to oppose a budget framework unveiled last night by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

"They're using our members and they're using the American people for their own goals," an animated Boehner told reporters at the Capitol. "This is ridiculous."

Ryan and Murray, the top budget officials in their respective chambers, announced an agreement that would set baseline spending levels for the 2014 and 2015 fiscal years. The agreement calls for spending levels slightly above the cap established by the automatic spending cuts known as the "sequester" through a combination of reforms, cuts and new, non-tax revenue.

Conservative groups had been girding themselves against the deal before its details were finalized, mostly because the spending levels exceed sequester levels. The Club for Growth, Americans for Prosperity and Heritage Action -- each of them well-financed conservative advocacy groups that hold some sway over Republican primary voters -- have begun lobbying furiously against the modest government funding agreement.

"By having a budget agreement that does not raise taxes, that does reduce the deficit and produces some certainty and prevents government shutdowns -- we think is a good agreement," Ryan, the architect of the budget agreement, said after a closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans.

Of the package's prospects for passage, the 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee added: "We feel very good at where we are with our members."
The Republican leadership's struggle to manage its restive conservative flank is a familiar storyline to any observer of Congress over the past three years. Boehner's decision to side with conservatives and drive a hard bargain over government spending and the Affordable Care Act contributed in large part to the government shutdown in October that nearly threatened default on the national debt.

If conservatives balk at supporting the legislation, Boehner would need to turn to Democrats to help advance the package through the House. The speaker did just that in passing legislation to end the government shutdown earlier this year.
Some high-profile conservatives have already stated their opposition to the legislation, though, including two contenders for the Republican Party's presidential nomination in 2016: Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla.


Boehner seems to have had second thoughts about supporting the conservative wing of his party, at least about government shutdowns. I'm glad to see that. Working with the opposing party is what used to be done much more often. Sometimes I complained about it, but it is better than gridlock. Our blockbuster legislation such as school desegregation would not have occurred without it. It makes him more of a statesman and less of a politician. I think there are fewer citizens in favor of a shutdown now, even among Republicans, than three months ago. There were no winners last time, and the government cannot be allowed to default on its debts.





Senator suspends top aide amid child porn raid – NBC
By Michael O'Brien, Political Reporter, NBC News


Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, R, placed his chief of staff on administrative leave without pay after the staffer's personal residence was searched in connection to a child pornography investigation.

Alexander, a veteran senator who's up for re-election in 2014, said that law enforcement agents had conducted a search this morning of the residence of Ryan Loskarn.

"I am stunned, surprised and disappointed by what I have learned," Alexander said in a statement. "Based on this information, I immediately placed Mr. Loskarn on administrative leave without pay. The office is fully cooperating with the investigation.”

A chief of staff is typically the most senior staff position in a congressional office. That role carries even more import in an office like Alexander's, which carries a degree of seniority and influence with it.

U.S. Postal Inspectors conducted the raid. 
“The Postal Inspectors Service was involved in a law enforcement action in Southeast DC," a spokesman for the agency told NBC News, declining further comment.


http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/what-the-wild-things-are/201009/whos-looking-child-porn-now-and-why


What The Wild Things Are
Understandings of Self, Awareness, and Mental Health in an Ever-Changing World – September 6, 2010
by Samantha Smithstein, Psy.D.

On Friday, more news broke regarding the child pornography scandal at the Pentagon that surfaced this summer. In July, it was discovered that more than 250 civilian and military employees of the Defense Department -- including some with the highest available security clearance -- used credit cards or PayPal to purchase images of children in sexual situations. This was out of the total 5,000 Americans that were discovered to be purchasing child pornography though the investigation.

This Friday it was reported that only 52 of the suspects at the Pentagon were investigated and just 10 were charged with viewing or purchasing child pornography. The investigation evidently focused on individuals who had high security clearance and could be subject to blackmail.

However, there is another story in all of this that deserves coverage as well: what about the 5,000 Americans that were all purchasing child pornography with their credit cards or through Paypal? In spite of ever-increasing sophisticated methods authorities have to track the images and track-down and arrest users, child pornography is a multi-billion dollar industry and among the fastest growing criminal segments on the Internet. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children claims that around 20% of all pornography contains children, and the US Department of Justice estimates that pornographers have recorded the abuse of more than one million children in the United States alone.

Obviously, there is a story here about the children being sexually abused and record of their abuse being distributed and sold to millions of viewers. That story is horrible in and of itself. But the other story is of the viewers and purchasers of these images.

To be sure, some percentages of those individuals viewing the images are pedophiles - individuals who suffer from a sexual disorder that makes them attracted to prepubescent children. And some of those individuals will also sexually abuse children during the course of their life. Nevertheless, a great number of the individuals viewing child pornography are not in this category. These individuals are often engaged in compulsive sexual behavior or "sex addiction," viewing pornography for hours at a time, searching for more and more intense images in order to get the same addictive rush. They stumble upon child pornography and are often horrified when they see it for the first time. But then there is something so taboo and so charged about it that they find themselves returning for the "high"... even when the thought of children being sexually abused makes their skin crawl and they feel sickened by it when they think about what they are looking at.

There is something about the Internet and it's illusion of privacy and, even more importantly, is illusion of it being "unreal" that makes it the perfect venue for people to end up doing things that they would never consider doing otherwise - be it having affairs, gambling, stealing, shopping, exposing their genitals, or looking at child pornography. Even for people working at the Pentagon.


I have, thank goodness, never been “sex addicted,” especially in this way of having no rules at all. I don't like any form of pornography, either in books or on the screen. Doing that would make me feel guilty, when I wouldn't necessarily feel guilty about performing a normal sex act with someone to whom I am bonded and have developed a close and warm personal relationship.

I wonder how many women participate in this kind of thing? Many women will buy a book like 50 Shades Of Gray or, if you remember from the 60's, Valley Of The Dolls for its sexual scenes. Some few women are pedophiles, I think. There was a case about five years ago when the abductor and killer of a five year old girl turned out to be a woman.

Two hundred fifty of the DOD employees sounds like a high number to me, though, especially out of such a highly trusted population. Five thousand over the general population using the Internet isn't that surprising, unfortunately. A child goes missing every month or so somewhere in the country.

One thing the article didn't say, and I would like to know, is what are “the fastest growing criminal segments on the Internet?” Do we mean the Mafia?” I understand they have multiple branches of criminal activity, while also carrying on many legitimate businesses.

What isn't surprising in today's news article is that one highly trusted man, Ryan Loskarn, gave in to the temptation to look in a sexual fashion at little children. It is sad and depraved, but at least he has been punished. I do hope he is not hired back.




Poll: High marks for Pope Francis, but liberals and conservatives split on pontiff – NBC

By Domenico Montanaro, Deputy Political Editor, NBC News

Fifty-seven percent of Americans have a positive impression of Pope Francis while just five percent view him negatively, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.  That is among the best scores for any public figure and certainly better than most, if not all, current American politicians and political parties.  Pope Francis was named Time magazine's "Person of the Year"Wednesday morning.

Inside those poll numbers though, liberals and conservatives are split on the newly installed Catholic pontiff who has shaken up some traditions of the papal hierarchy and taken an approach that favors compassion over doctrine.
In a new mission statement, Pope Francis insisted that the C
hurch reform itself and pay more attention to the poor, and also wrote the Church must abandon its complacent attitude that says "we have always done it this way." NBC's Brian Williams reports.

Self-described liberals, Democrats, and Obama voters are driving the bulk of his popularity in the U.S. They view this pope more positively than conservatives, Republicans, Romney voters, and Tea Party supporters.

Francis, who has eschewed the elaborate trappings of the Vatican and called for greater acceptance of gays and atheists, gets a 64 percent positive rating from liberals. He gets a similar 64 percent from Democrats and 69 percent from Obama voters.

On the other hand, conservatives give him a lower 45 percent favorable rating, Republicans give him 50 percent, and Tea Party supporters 48 percent. And nine percent of Tea Party supporters view him negatively. That's the most of any of the six groups polled.

Francis has rankled some traditionalists and conservatives for his call that the church be more inclusive. In September, he said the church had grown “obsessed” with abortion, gay marriage and contraception.

The Pope is making headlines once again for his candid interview with "America Magazine," where he said the Church must not be obsessed with issues related to gay marriage or contraceptives. He called for new balance, warning that if the Catholic Church doesn't make changes, it could fall like a house of cards. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.

On gay priests, Francis told reporters, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” That's a big departure from his predecessor, who called being gay a “strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil.”

From 80s teen actor Kirk Cameron (who balked at the pope's outreach to an atheist writer) to Catholic bishop taking perceived public swipes at the pontiff's message, there's no shortage of papal skepticism.

Conservatives like Sarah Palin – the failed Republican vice-presidential nominee and Tea Party darling – said she’s been “surprised” and taken “aback” by statements from Francis that sound "kind of liberal.” She later apologized.

And the more-tepid support from conservatives could be one reason Francis is not quite as popular yet as the late-Pope John Paul II.
In 1998, 65 percent of Americans had a favorable impression of John Paul II, though he had held the position for 20 years at that point.

But Francis, the Argentine-born former Archbishop of Buenos Aires, is better liked than Benedict XVI. Benedict received just a 30 percent positive rating in the February NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Back then, the Democratic coalition was among the Vatican's biggest detractors.
Francis is also viewed in better light than the Catholic Church itself, which gets a 36 percent positive rating and a 17 percent negative rating.

That's an improvement from the 31 percent positive/26 percent negative rating in February, before Francis was installed. In fact, by a 41 percent to 3 percent margin, Americans say Francis’ actions have given them a better impression of the church; 35 percent say they have made no difference.

Interestingly, American Catholics also view this pope more positively than the church itself. Catholics give Francis a 76 percent positive rating versus 62 percent for the church.

Non-Catholics also have a far more favorable impression of Francis than the Catholic Church. Half of Protestants (50 percent) and those of other religions (52 percent) view him positively. But they are much less favorable toward the Catholic Church – with Protestants saying they have just a 32 percent positive/13 percent negative view of the church, and those in other religions with a more negative 23 percent positive/31 percent negative view.


I have been following Pope Francis with approval and quite a bit of surprise, while fearing that there will be a conservative backlash within the Catholic Church that is strong enough to limit what he can do in the world. So far, it doesn't look as though that is true, at least among American Catholics. It's not surprising that the Tea Party is most solidly against him, because they don't like any changes, and he certainly wants change.

“Pope Francis insisted that the Church reform itself and pay more attention to the poor,” is certainly not the description of a conservative thinker. I think he came from a country where there are many poor people with too many children and wants to see that situation changed. I hope he continues to follow his path and makes changes within the Catholic Church, because they often seem to stand against progress on principle. That, to me, should not be a “Christian” virtue. Jesus himself was in favor of forgiveness and inclusion, and always helped the poor.





Student wins $100,000 Siemens prize for pandemic flu research project – NBC
Tanya Lewis LiveScience


Eric Chen, Individual Winner of the Grand Prize $100,000 Scholarship. Project: "Discovery of Novel Influenza Endonuclease Inhibitors to Fight Flu Pandemic"
Research on drugs to combat a flu pandemic and on plants' resistance to ozone claimed top honors in the 2013 Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology.
A student from California and a team of three students from New York took home $100,000 scholarships for the two studies, respectively, from the Siemens Foundation, which announced the contest winners Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

High-school senior Eric Chen of Canyon Crest Academy in San Diego, Calif., won the individual category for his discovery of powerful influenza enzyme inhibitors, which could be used to develop anti-flu drugs. Priyanka Wadgaonkar, Zainab Mahmood and JiaWen Pei from George W. Hewlett High School in Hewlett, N.Y., shared the $100,000 prize in the group category for their work on ozone resistance in plants. [ In Photos: 2013 Siemens Science Competition Finalists ]

"These students represent the future of our competitive global workforce and will propel our nation toward continued economic growth and success," David Etzwiler, chief executive officer of the Siemens Foundation, said in a statement. "We look forward to seeing their future accomplishments in college and beyond."

A total of 20 students who won regional competitions in November — six individuals and six teams — took part in the finals this past weekend at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. They presented their work to a panel of judges consisting of renowned scientists and mathematicians. The winners join an elite group of just 14 individual and 14 team winners from past years. Siemens has held the competition since 1998.

Chen, the winning individual, used a combination of computer modeling and lab experiments to screen more than 100,000 drugs in order to identify a few that effectively blocked influenza viruses. The work could lead to the development of anti-flu drugs to protect against future flu pandemics.

Chen said the 2009 swine flu outbreak in his hometown of San Diego inspired him to pursue flu research. He won the Google Science Fair Grand Prize and was a finalist at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair this year for the same work on influenza.

The winning team, from Hewlett, N.Y., characterized the gene for a protein (a building block of cells) that confers resistance against ozone pollution in ferns. Ground-level ozone causes more damage to plants than all other air pollutants combined, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. The resistance gene, which evolved early on in plants, could be used to protect important crops from ozone, drought and soil salinity, which cost billions of dollars in damage each year.
Team member Wadgaonkar of Woodmere, N.Y., said her parents' work in cell biology and gastroenterology inspired her interest in science, and she hopes to become an emergency room doctor some day.

Teammate Mahmood of Hewlett, N.Y., is a member of the National Honor Society, a Euro Challenge Finalist and recipient of the United States Army Award. She hopes to pursue a career in engineering.

The third team member, Pei of Valley Stream, N.Y., is also a member of the National Honor Society, in addition to the Foreign Language Honor Society, chorus and orchestra. She hopes to become a physician.
The Siemens Foundation awarded smaller scholarships ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 to the remaining finalists.

The Siemens Competition, a leading science research competition for high-school students administered by the College Board, was launched in 1998. More than 2,400 students, a record number, registered for the competition this year, submitting 1,599 projects. The foundation selected 331 semifinalists, 100 regional finalists and 20 national finalists.

The regional competitions were held at six universities: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Notre Dame and The University of Texas at Austin.


Chen's work sounds like Ph D level research. He certainly won lots of attention for it, between the Siemens Competition and the Google and Intel prizes. I tried to look up “Endonuclease Inhibitors” in Wikipedia and I couldn't understand the explanation. Anti-flu drug is going to have to be good enough. He is only a high school senior, though at an academically advanced school – Canyon Crest Academy in San Diego, Calif.

According to Wikipedia, the school is a public high school established in 2004 which has won top awards of high schools in San Diego County. “CCA's demographic is dominated by Caucasians and Asians from the affluent surrounding neighborhoods of North San Diego County,” so they aren't admitting every student. I assume there are some black and Hispanic students, though probably the most academically advanced and either “affluent” or on scholarship. At least I hope there are. At any rate, congratulations to Eric Chen. I'm sure he worked hard for his results.




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Woman Pleads Guilty To Mailing Ricin To Obama, Bloomberg – NPR
by Scott Neuman
­
A former actress who sent ricin-laced letters to President Obama and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has pleaded guilty in federal court in Texarkana, Texas, as part of a deal to limit her sentence to no more than 18 years.

Shannon Guess Richardson, a mother of six from Texas, had minor roles in The Walking Dead and The Blind Side. She mailed three ricin-laced letters from New Boston, Texas, near Texarkana, and then contacted police to say that her estranged husband had done it.

As The Two-Way's Mark Memmott reported in May:
"The letters reportedly focused on the national debate over gun control and threatened violence if more restrictions are put on gun ownership. The ones sent to Bloomberg and the gun control group showed traces of ricin, a deadly poison, in preliminary tests. The letter sent to Obama [was] being tested."
The Associated Press says that Richardson, 35, "acknowledged in a signed plea agreement document filed Tuesday that she ordered castor beans online and learned how to process them into a substance used to make ricin. She obtained an email address, a PayPal shopping account and a post office box in her husband's name without his knowledge, according to the document."

The AP continues:
"On the morning of May 20, she said, she waited for Nathan Richardson to go to work.
" 'After he left the house, I printed the mailing labels for President Barack Obama, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Mark Glaze with The Raben Group,' Richardson said in the document. Glaze is director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Bloomberg's group advocating for tougher gun control.

"The letter to Obama, according to the document, read: 'What's in this letter is nothing compared to what ive got in store for you mr president.'
" 'You will have to kill me and my family before you get my guns,' the letter read. 'Anyone wants to come to my house will get shot in the face.' "


Some subjects certainly do attract more extremists than others. I have been the recipient of a few of the hysterical letters that the gun rights groups send out to get contributions and other help. You would think that the USA has been taken over by evil left-wing forces to read one of their letters. To me, the “evil” is on their side of the argument, since they want to see all citizens armed no matter what the terrible mistakes and crimes that ensue. To me, it is clear that armed people kill more of their neighbors than unarmed people do. George Zimmerman probably wouldn't have beaten Trayvon Martin to death in a fair fight.




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A Midwestern Meatpacking Town Welcomes Immigrants – NPR
by Peggy Lowe
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Meatpacking plants used to be located in urban centers like Kansas City and Chicago. Over the past few decades, many plants have moved to rural Midwestern towns, which have seen a huge influx of immigrants as a result. Yesterday, we reported on tiny Noel, Mo., which has struggled to help assimilate the newcomers who work at a large poultry plant. Today, we have this report from Garden City, Kans., a meatpacking town that embraces its new cultures.

The chemistry lab at Garden City Community College is buzzing, and Binh Hua and My Nguyen are at the front of the class. The two young women wear protective goggles, their long black hair pulled into ponytails, as they wait for the professor to bring the class to order.

These Vietnamese 18-year-olds have both benefited from the beef industry since their parents moved here to work in the huge Tyson Food, Inc., plant. Now they dream of computer and medical degrees as their parents do the hard work of turning animals into beef at a slaughterhouse on the outskirts of town. Both students graduated from high school in just three years and they're trying to earn associate degrees by next year.

"We really like to graduate early because we think high school wasn't challenging enough and we were looking for challenging courses and stuff —" Hua says.
"— And we get a head start in college," Nguyen adds.

In A Small Missouri Town, Immigrants Turn To Schools For Help
Hua and Nguyen represent the newest chapter in an age-old American story: immigrants have always worked in the meatpacking plants, lured by steady — if hard — work. Since 1980, when the first slaughterhouse was built in Garden City, Kans., the newcomers have doubled the population to roughly 30,000, and turned a white cowtown into a cultural crossroads where minorities are now the majority. But Garden City's response differed from many in the rural Midwestern towns. City leaders decided early on that they would embrace these newcomers.

"The vision was: we have these people here, are we going to accept them as a blessing or are we going to consider them a curse?" asks Levita Rohlman, who was part of a faith-based group that helped usher in the new wave of Garden City's immigrants.
Joining many Mexican-Americans here in the early 1980s were Vietnamese and other Southeast Asians. And then came immigrants from South America. Now it's Somali and Burmese refugees who are settling.

Abdifatah Abdullahi is a 25-year-old Somali who landed in Garden City almost a year ago. He works the second shift at Tyson, is a part-time Somali translator at the local refugee center and attends college. Abdullahi says it should be obvious why he came here: "To look for a better life and to look for a better education. That's what I come to look for here."

Two students in a "newcomer" class at Florence Wilson Elementary School in Garden City, a Somali girl (left), and a Hispanic boy.
Peggy Lowe/Harvest Public Media

What he and others found was a large network of social services: Food banks, shelters, English classes and job assistance.
Take one of Garden City's "newcomer" classes, located at a local elementary school. In this class, kids are temporarily separated from the rest of the school so they can try to assimilate into their new surroundings. Many were born in refugee camps and have never seen basic plumbing, let alone a pencil. And some of them are simply hungry. The starting pay at the Garden City Tyson plant is $13.50 an hour, but it's difficult to support a family on that. Three-quarters of the students get free or reduced-price lunch and requests for food stamps are up 230 percent in just the last five years.

Garden City's refugee and immigrant population is expected to grow, as Tyson continues recruiting more workers. And those who arrive here will get lots of help and a hand up toward a better life.

Back at the chemistry lab, Binh Hua says that she's doing OK in the class and that she doesn't leave the library until it closes every night at 10 p.m.. Even then, she still gets home before her parents who work the late shift at the Tyson plant, her father on the hot, bloody kill floor, her tiny mother using a razor-sharp knife to cut the hulks of beef.
"My mom and dad just always said, 'I'm doing this for you,'" Hua says


I hope these immigrants are legally working here. It sounds as though they are, since major companies like Tyson's would not, I wouldn't think, try to get around the law. It's good to see so much progress happening between the parents who are providing food and shelter and the children who are working hard in school. It's a happy story.