Saturday, March 8, 2014


News Clips For The Day


http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/07/us-ukraine-crisis-idUSBREA1Q1E820140307
Ukraine standoff intensifies, Russia says sanctions will 'boomerang'
By Steve Gutterman and Andrew Osborn
MOSCOW/SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine Fri Mar 7, 2014 6:28pm EST

(Reuters) - Russia said any U.S. sanctions imposed on Moscow over the crisis in Ukraine will boomerang back on the United States and that Crimea has the right to self-determination as armed men tried to seize another Ukrainian military base on the peninsula.

In a telephone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned against "hasty and reckless steps" that could harm Russian-American relations, the foreign ministry said on Friday.

"Sanctions...would inevitably hit the United States like a boomerang," it added.

It was the second tense, high-level exchange between the former Cold War foes in 24 hours over the pro-Russian takeover of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said after an hour-long call with U.S. President Barack Obama that their positions on the former Soviet republic were still far apart. Obama announced the first sanctions against Russia on Thursday.

Putin, who later opened the Paralympic Games in Sochi which have been boycotted by a string of Western dignitaries, said Ukraine's new, pro-Western authorities had acted illegitimately over the eastern, southeastern and Crimea regions.

"Russia cannot ignore calls for help and it acts accordingly, in full compliance with international law," he said.

Serhiy Astakhov, an aide to the Ukrainian border guards' commander, said 30,000 Russian soldiers were now in Crimea, compared to the 11,000 permanently based with the Russian Black Sea fleet in the port of Sevastopol before the crisis.

On Friday evening armed men drove a truck into a Ukrainian missile defense post in Sevastopol, according to a Reuters reporter at the scene. But no shots were fired and Crimea's pro-Russian premier said later the standoff was over.

Putin denies the forces with no national insignia that are surrounding Ukrainian troops in their bases are under Moscow's command, although their vehicles have Russian military plates. The West has ridiculed his assertion.

The most serious East-West confrontation since the end of the Cold War - resulting from the overthrow last month of President Viktor Yanukovich after protests in Kiev that led to violence - escalated on Thursday when Crimea's parliament, dominated by ethnic Russians, voted to join Russia.

The region's government set a referendum for March 16 - in just nine days' time.

JETS, DESTROYER
Turkey scrambled jets after a Russian surveillance plane flew along its Black Sea coast and a U.S. warship passed through Turkey's Bosphorus straits on its way to the Black Sea, although the U.S. military said it was a routine deployment.
European Union leaders and Obama said the referendum plan was illegitimate and would violate Ukraine's constitution.

The head of Russia's upper house of parliament said after meeting visiting Crimean lawmakers on Friday that Crimea had a right to self-determination, and ruled out any risk of war between "the two brotherly nations".

Obama ordered visa bans and asset freezes on Thursday against so far unidentified people deemed responsible for threatening Ukraine's sovereignty. Earlier in the week, a Kremlin aide said Moscow might refuse to pay off any loans to U.S. banks, the top four of which have around $24 billion in exposure to Russia.

Japan endorsed the Western position that the actions of Russia constitute "a threat to international peace and security", after Obama spoke to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
China, often a Russian ally in blocking Western moves in the U.N. Security Council, was more cautious, saying economic sanctions were not the best way to solve the crisis and avoiding comment on the Crimean referendum.

The EU, Russia's biggest economic partner and energy customer, adopted a three-stage plan to try to force a negotiated solution but stopped short of immediate sanctions.
The Russian Foreign Ministry responded angrily on Friday, calling the EU decision to freeze talks on visa-free travel and on a broad new pact governing Russia-EU ties "extremely unconstructive". It pledged to retaliate.

"GUERRILLA WAR?"
Senior Ukrainian opposition politician Yulia Tymoshenko, freed from prison after Yanukovich's overthrow, met German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Dublin and appealed for immediate EU sanctions against Russia, warning that Crimea might otherwise slide into a guerrilla war.

Brussels and Washington rushed to strengthen the new authorities in economically shattered Ukraine, announcing both political and financial assistance. The regional director of the International Monetary Fund said talks with Kiev on a loan agreement were going well and praised the new government's openness to economic reform and transparency.

The European Commission has said Ukraine could receive up to 11 billion euros ($15 billion) in the next couple of years provided it reaches agreement with the IMF, which requires painful economic reforms like ending gas subsidies.

Promises of billions of dollars in Western aid for the Kiev government, and the perception that Russian troops are not likely to go beyond Crimea into other parts of Ukraine, have helped reverse a rout in the local hryvnia currency.

In the past two days it has traded above 9.0 to the dollar for the first time since the Crimea crisis began last week. Local dealers said emergency currency restrictions imposed last week were also supporting the hryvnia.

Russian gas monopoly Gazprom said Ukraine had not paid its $440 million gas bill for February, bringing its arrears to $1.89 billion and hinted it could turn off the taps as it did in 2009, when a halt in Russian deliveries to Ukraine reduced supplies to Europe during a cold snap.

In Moscow, a huge crowd gathered near the Kremlin at a government-sanctioned rally and concert billed as being "in support of the Crimean people". Pop stars took to the stage and demonstrators held signs with slogans such as "Crimea is Russian land", and "We believe in Putin".

IMPORTANT DIFFERENCES
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said no one in the civilized world would recognize the result of the "so-called referendum" in Crimea.

He repeated Kiev's willingness to negotiate with Russia if Moscow pulls its additional troops out of Crimea and said he had requested a telephone call with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

But Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov ridiculed calls for Russia to join an international "contact group" with Ukraine proposed by the West, saying they "make us smile".

Demonstrators encamped in Kiev's central Independence Square to defend the revolution that ousted Yanukovich said they did not believe Crimea would be allowed to secede.
Alexander Zaporozhets, 40, from central Ukraine's Kirovograd region, put his faith in international pressure.

"I don't think the Russians will be allowed to take Crimea from us: you can't behave like that to an independent state. We have the support of the whole world. But I think we are losing time. While the Russians are preparing, we are just talking."
Unarmed military observers from the pan-European Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe were blocked from entering Crimea for a second day in a row on Friday, the OSCE said on Twitter.

The United Nations said it had sent its assistant secretary-general for human rights, Ivan Simonovic, to Kiev to conduct a preliminary humans rights assessment.

Ukrainian television has been replaced with Russian state channels in Crimea and the streets largely belong to people who support Moscow's rule, some of whom have harassed journalists and occasional pro-Kiev protesters.

Part of the Crimea's 2 million population opposes Moscow's rule, including members of the region's ethnic Russian majority. The last time Crimeans were asked, in 1991, they voted narrowly for independence along with the rest of Ukraine.

"With all these soldiers here, it is like we are living in a zoo," Tatyana, 41, an ethnic Russian. "Everyone fully understands this is an occupation."

(Additional reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel in Simferopol, Lidia Kelly in Moscow, Luke Baker and Martin Santa in Brussels, Steve Holland and Jeff Mason in Washington, Lina Kushch in Donetsk and Pavel Polityuk in Kiev, Writing by Paul Taylor and Philippa Fletcher; Editing by Angus MacSwan)




“Part of the Crimea's 2 million population opposes Moscow's rule, including members of the region's ethnic Russian majority. The last time Crimeans were asked, in 1991, they voted narrowly for independence along with the rest of Ukraine....With all these soldiers here, it is like we are living in a zoo," Tatyana, 41, an ethnic Russian. "Everyone fully understands this is an occupation." It looks like there are Russian speakers in Crimea who would not vote to join Russia, but prefer to remain part of Ukraine. I am hopefully waiting for the Referendum in Crimea.

Meanwhile the US is sending some military forces into the Black Sea and Obama has moved to freeze assets and ban visas for some unnamed Russians. The EU has announced a three-stage plan to try to force a negotiated solution. Plan details are not provided. Russia threatened to retaliate, presumably with sanctions of their own. According to Ukrainian border guard Serhiy Astakhov there are now 30,000 Russian troops in Crimea. A number of European countries plus Japan have sided with the US. Today will probably bring even more changes. I will add news articles covering developments.




Millennials: Liberal but not Democratic, poll shows – CBS
By Stephanie Condon CBS News March 7, 2014, 5:44 PM

Millennials, people between the ages of 18 and 33, vote heavily Democratic and have liberal views on a number of issues like the role of government, same-sex marriage and marijuana legalization. At the same time, half of them describe themselves as political independents and just 27 percent identify as Democrats, a Pew Research Center survey shows.

Just 31 percent of millennials say there is a great deal of difference between the Republican and Democratic parties. More people in older generations -- including 58 percent of the "silent" generation, which includes people ages 69 to 86 -- say there are big differences between the parties.

Pew surveyed 1,821 adults nationwide, including 617 millennials, from Feb. 14-23.
Pew found that 51 percent of millennials say they don't expect there to be any money in the Social Security system by the time they retire, while an additional 39 percent said the system will only be able to provide them with benefits at reduced levels. However, 61 percent oppose benefit cuts to Social Security.

On the issue of immigration, 55 percent of millennials said they favor a path to legalization for those who entered the country illegally -- making them the only age group in which a majority held that view.

Millennials are as skeptical as older generations of the Affordable Care Act, Pew found. Still, 54 percent of millennials said it is the federal government's responsibility to ensure all Americans have health care coverage -- older people are less likely to say that.




I really don't understand how anyone could argue that there are few differences between Democrats and Republicans. It is true that mainstream members of both parties are not really extreme in their leanings to the left or the right. That is why, before the Tea Party began to try to mold the Republicans into a far right organization, it was a good deal easier to make laws. There has usually been, in the past, some voting across party lines on issues before Congress. Now it's gridlock most of the time, and more radically right wing bills have been written.

I do consider doing away with Social Security – or robbing the fund of its continued daily income by allowing workers to set their money aside in a private retirement fund instead – to be a radical right move. People who have paid into the Social Security system all their working lives could find themselves without benefits when they are older and unable to work or get a job even if they do want to work, if the ongoing SS funding is disrupted in that way.

Some highly conservative Republicans have expressed a desire to do away with the public education system by “starving it out.” Private schools, even those church schools, will be too expensive for many poor people. Wealthy people can send their kids to private schools any time they want to. They shouldn't try to disrupt the basic education and college prep courses available to underprivileged and lower Middle Class students in the public school system.

As for the Independents, there have always been a number of them, and political candidates must woo them and convince them to get their vote. Candidates need to talk a great deal more about concrete issues and governmental policies to show the “differences” between the opposing party lines. If they would simply answer questions from the press in a straightforward way rather than dodging the content of the question and mouthing platitudes they would be more likely to win votes. Nothing is more boring than a carefully sanitized political speech, especially if it goes on for more than ten minutes and doesn't show the politician's positions.






3 young kids walk to police HQ in bitter cold, mom arrested
By Crimesider Staff CBS News March 7, 2014

FARMINGTON, N.H. - A New Hampshire mother is facing charges for allegedly leaving her three young children home alone, after the kids showed up at the police station looking for a ride to school.

Officials say Katarina Short, 26, of Farmington, left a five, four and one-year-old home alone for more than an hour while she ran an errand on Tuesday morning.

Temperatures were around zero degrees at the time, and officers say the children were fully dressed in boots and winter coats when they showed up at the station. They credit the five-year-old with making sure they were all appropriately dressed for the weather.

Short, a single mom, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and with providing false information to police.

The three children have been placed in foster care at least until a hearing scheduled for March 18.




This mother's photograph shows a woman who is not alert and possibly intoxicated. That was a very smart five year old. Not only did she get them all dressed for the weather, she knew to go to a police station and ask for help. None of those children was old enough to be left alone. This is a sad story, but unfortunately things like this happen every day, usually in poverty stricken households where the woman can't pay for child care. Even wealthy people are known to drink, use drugs, or be mentally disturbed enough to endanger their children, though. Hopefully this woman will get mental health counseling and be supervised if she is a drinker or drug user, and above all her children should not be given back to her until she is able to provide good care.




Rep. Alan Grayson won't be charged after domestic violence allegation-- CBS
CBS News/AP March 7, 2014

ORLANDO, Fla. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., won't face any charges over a fight with his estranged wife, authorities in Florida said Friday.

Officials with the Orange County Sheriff's Office said that probable cause didn't exist to support the allegation by Grayson's wife that he had pushed her against the front door of their home. Grayson had denied the allegation.

A judge granted Lolita Grayson a restraining order against the Democratic congressman from Orlando earlier this week after she alleged that Grayson pushed her last Saturday when he stopped by the house.

Lolita Grayson filed for divorce in January. On Wednesday, she asked a judge to enter a default judgment, claiming Grayson had failed to respond to her petition in a timely manner.

Terry Young, an attorney for Lolita Grayson, didn't respond to a phone call or email.
Alan Grayson's attorneys released a video Wednesday that they said supported the congressman's account.

The video shot by a staffer for the congressman shows Lolita Grayson walking from a red minivan parked in front of their home, pointing her finger and shouting. The video then cuts to the congressman and his wife arguing at the front door to the house. It then shows Lolita Grayson pushing her hand at her estranged husband's face. Alan Grayson was at the house to visit his children.

"Today the Orange County Sheriff's Department confirmed what we have known all along: Congressman Grayson did nothing wrong," Grayson's spokeswoman Lauren Doney said in a statement. "We are relieved that this ridiculous ordeal is over, and that the Congressman can continue to focus on taking care of his family and serving his constituents."




Sometimes in cases of domestic abuse the attacker is the wife. Women can have explosive tempers, too, and may cynically think that no judge will believe the husband's account if he makes a complaint. This woman guessed wrong. I hope the police arrest her and charge her with battery and making a false police report.




Russia's Goal In Ukraine: Three Scenarios – NPR
by Greg Myre
March 08, 2014
­
Russia has effectively taken control of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula without a shot fired in anger. Now a larger question looms: What is Russian President Vladimir Putin's ultimate goal in Ukraine?

Russia and pro-Russian groups in Ukraine are moving swiftly to consolidate their hold on Crimea. Ukraine's interim government acknowledges it has lost control of the region. The U.S. and Europe have imposed limited sanctions and are discussing more, but their leverage is limited.

Putin and Russia hold most of the cards, analysts say, and they offer three broad scenarios about how the current crisis could play out.

1. Russia Keeps Advancing. Russia has faced few repercussions so far for its intervention beyond international criticism and mild sanctions and this may tempt Moscow to go further.

Some ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine say they want Moscow to intervene in their region. Ethnic Russians have staged demonstrations, and even taken over government buildings temporarily, but the Ukrainian government remains in control for now.
Would Russia consider taking action?

Cossacks stand guard at the entrance to the Crimean Parliament building on Friday in Simferopol, Ukraine. Russian Cossacks, some heavily armed, have taken up guard duties at road checkpoints, border crossings and other key facilities that were previously guarded by local, pro-Russian militants across Crimea in recent days.

"We know Putin wants Crimea at the very least. I think he also wants parts of eastern Ukraine, but we don't know what he will do," said Sergii Leshchenko, deputy editor of Ukrainska Pravda, an online paper in Kiev. "Putin is playing hardball and he wants to restore as much of the Soviet Union as he can get away with."

However, Russian moves beyond Crimea would further escalate the crisis. It could provoke violence in Ukraine and prompt the international community to take stronger action than it has so far.

Also, it's important to remember that Crimea is a special case. It was part of Russia for centuries before Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev gave it to Ukraine as a gift in 1954. It's geography as a peninsula also makes it a place apart.

Therefore, many analysts don't see Russia moving troops or making other blatant grabs in eastern Ukraine at this point, though they don't rule it out.

"While both Ukraine and the West would howl in protest, Western inaction at Putin's successful wresting of control of (disputed territory) from Georgia in 2008 and Crimea from Ukraine recently might well lead him to conclude that he can do this again with little cost," says Mark Katz of George Mason University, who writes frequently on Russia.
­
2. Russia Holds Crimea And Pressures Ukraine. This may be the most likely scenario, according to many analysts.
With each passing day, Russia and its allies in Crimea are reinforcing the peninsula's ties to Russia. Crimean lawmakers traveled to Russia and were warmly received by fellow legislators on Friday, a day after Crimea's parliament voted to align itself with Russia.

Despite opposition from Ukraine, a March 16 referendum is planned in Crimea so residents can choose if they want to become part of Russia. Crimean broadcasters are now showing Russian television stations. Flights from Crimea's main airport to the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, now depart from the international terminal, suggesting that the rest of Ukraine is now considered a foreign country.

The Russians could also play a disruptive role in Ukraine's national elections, set for May 25, to replace the government ousted last month by protesters in Kiev.
Russia's intervention in Crimea has turned many voters against pro-Russian candidates in Ukraine, according to Leshchenko, the Ukrainian journalist. But, he adds, "Russia doesn't want this election to take place at all and I think they are going to make a great effort to stop the entire process."

Russia also has the ability to put financial pressure on Ukraine, which is extremely vulnerable economically. Moscow is already saying it will increase the price of gas that it ships to its neighbor.

3. Russia Makes Limited Concessions. Putin and Russia have already gone too far to pull back to the positions in place before the current crisis, said Stephen Larrabee, who specializes in European Security at the Rand Corp.

"What's happened in Crimea is a fait accompli. You aren't going to get the Russians out of there," Larrabee said. "I can't see Putin agreeing to withdraw troops that are already there. It would be losing face with his own public."

In Putin's view, his ally in Ukraine, the former president Viktor Yanukovych, was ousted in a coup. In taking Crimea, Putin sees himself as standing up for Russia and ethnic Russians in former Soviet states.

Still, there may be limits to how far Putin will go. He believes Russia should be a major player in many parts of the globe, and if he finds himself isolated over Crimea, it may revise his calculations. In addition, sanctions and other punitive measures may have limited impact in the short term, but could bite over time.
"There is, it seems, little the West can do to evict the Russian troops," wrote Max Boot in Commentary magazine. "But there is much more that the West could be doing to make Russia pay a higher cost for its brazen aggression."

The U.S. Treasury Department could ban Russian financial institutions from interacting with U.S. banks, and force other countries to comply or face a similar ban, he wrote. That would be a major step and European banks would surely balk. But Russia is now part of the global economy and could be harmed by a concerted sanctions effort.

Greg Myre is the international editor for NPR.org. You can follow him on Twitter @gregmyre1




If the US can gather support from many nations to isolate Putin diplomatically, he may pull out of Crimea or refrain from going beyond it into other parts of the Ukraine, and sanctions may over the long term make Russia think again, according to Myre. I can't help wondering what Putin the man would do if the US actually did declare war on Russia. Still I'd rather see NATO and the UN do that kind of action rather than the US unilaterally. I think Putin may push things until he is strongly confronted, but will stop the aggressive behavior if he is. I don't think Putin is mentally unbalanced, and would probably act rationally rather than willingly allow a full scale war. I also don't think Putin is motivated by philosophical principles or by nationalism, so much as by greed. Maybe Obama does need to become more hard line and push him back. That's usually the case with bullies.



­Lawmaker Wants To Ban Orcas At San Diego's SeaWorld – NPR
by Scott Neuman
March 07, 2014
­
A California lawmaker has proposed a measure that would prohibit SeaWorld San Diego from using orcas in its shows.

Richard Bloom, a Santa Monica Democrat, says the documentary Blackfish, which examines the 2010 death of a SeaWorld trainer who was killed by a captive orca, inspired him to push the bill.

Blackfish, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, also highlights other incidents in which trainers were either hurt or had close calls with orcas, also known as killer whales. The filmmakers detail what they say are cramped living conditions for the marine mammals, the centerpiece of SeaWorld's acrobatic shows.
"There is no justification for the continued captive display of orcas for entertainment purposes," Bloom said Friday. "These beautiful creatures are much too large and far too intelligent to be confined in small, concrete tanks for their entire lives."

SeaWorld Entertainment, the parent company that also runs parks in Orlando, Fla., and San Antonio, Texas, has called Blackfish "propaganda," saying "the film conveys falsehoods, manipulates viewers emotionally and relies on questionable filmmaking techniques to create 'facts' that support its point of view."

The company says Blackfish gives the false impression that conditions at the parks are harmful to whales and trainers, and also that SeaWorld has covered up information related to fatal 2010 training mishaps.

The New York Times reported last month that:
"Blackfish has become a rallying point for those who oppose the use of killer whales for entertainment in the SeaWorld parks, and it has drawn large audiences in theaters and on TV. But SeaWorld has defended its practices, mounting an aggressive pushback against the film.

"The company continued its counterattack with a complaint delivered ... to the Labor Department. It accuses the official examining an orca's 2010 fatal attack on a SeaWorld trainer of ethical violations, including leaking confidential documents to the makers of Blackfish."

On Monday, The Associated Press said the film's director, Gabriela Cowperthwaite, issued a statement to the news agency denying the Labor Department investigator ever provided information related to the investigation.




"These beautiful creatures are much too large and far too intelligent to be confined in small, concrete tanks for their entire lives." I couldn't agree with this more. Elephants are another very similar case. Animal psychologists have demonstrated high orders of intelligence in a number of animals which we hold captive. In the case of the elephants there may come a time when zoos are the only place were elephants can be found, as they are on their way to extinction in the wild, but there are modern and more humane ways of holding an animal than many zoos use. I am proud of our state zoo in Asheboro, North Carolina, where there are no small caged areas. They are enclosed, but there is room for them to move around and they are not forced to perform tricks.