Saturday, August 30, 2014


News Clips For The Day


http://news.yahoo.com/audacity-taupe-obama-suit-creates-sartorial-stir-222521652.html

'The audacity of taupe': Obama suit creates sartorial stir

Washington (AFP) - The subjects were serious enough at President Barack Obama's impromptu press conference Thursday, but many viewers and the collective press corps seized on something more immediately visible: his tan suit.

The president's decision to address the media in a breezy, light-colored summer suit swiftly took center stage for many even as he addressed Russian responsibility for rebel actions in Ukraine and ongoing US air strikes against Islamists in Iraq.

"Yes we tan!" became the mocking rally cry on social media as Obama gave a statement and then took questions from what some have deemed a horrified press corps.

Back in 2012 Obama told Vanity Fair that "I wear only gray or blue suits." By breaking that promise Thursday -- even with what many acknowledge was a sharp-looking, seasonal get-up -- Obama inadvertently gave birth to #suitgate.

And the snark from America's aspiring fashion critics exploded on Twitter.

"I'm sorry but you can't declare war in a suit like that," guffawed Wall Street Journal reporter @damianpaletta.

"The Audacity of Taupe," tweeted Jared Keller, a programming director at startup MicNews.

Other comments were similarly charitable.

"I hope they have a suitable strategy to keep isis at beige, i mean what?" tweeted Washington Post blogger Alexandra Petri (@petridishes).

Not everyone was amused. Someone immediately started the parody handle @Obamasuit, but Twitter has already suspended the account.


COMMENTS:

JM 3 minutes ago

Yesterday I wore a navy t-shirt, black shorts, gray Hanes underwear, white Hanes ankle-high socks, and gray Skecher tennis shoes. I can honestly say nobody gave a #$%$ what I wore. If anybody really had any class they wouldn't care what Obama wears either. People tend to forget that the President is a human being although Republicans would have you believe otherwise. He is married, has children, eats food, wears clothes, probably belches and passes gas. I know I do. I know you do too. Give it a rest. Tomorrows headlines will probably be Obama orders missile attack in Middle East after eating a hot dog with ketchup and mustard smothered in onions.


Donald B 4 hours ago

I find myself wondering just how small and insignificant would a persons life have to be to think that this sort of thing was important? There is war, hunger, poverty, and unrest around the world, and people are dying in their thousands, and these people think that this sort of thing is not only important enough to post about, but then some person who apparently had the good sense to leave his or her name off the story wrote about it, Yahoo used to be a good place to get the news, but now it's just bubblegum for the brain dead.


Road Runner 3 hours ago

Are you kidding me press corp? You focus on the color of the President's suit? You are acting like a bunch of gossiping "women" (pardon me, Ladies as I am a woman too but just trying to make a point we all understand). President Obama looked professional and color does not matter content of the speech matters. In South Florida you would wear any color any time. Focus, focus on what is important and not waste space nor words on s... like this. Absurd!!!


Tabbs 9 hours ago

Oh for the love of all ... It's no wonder this country is falling apart when the press corp is more worried about what color his suit is (it isn't like he came out in his boxers or briefs) than what his policy is over whatever issue he was speaking about. I don't like the man's politics and have never hidden that, but I also don't believe he should be judged on anything that isn't affecting the welfare of this country. Suit color does not meet the litmus test.


Truth-hurt 19 hours ago

I wonder where are the real news reporters now days... The media is turning into a joke. Who cares what he or anyone is wearing. Anything you can write about that is related to what is happening in the world? Are these journalists just out of college? Grow up and bring some worthy news! Nice way to try to distract the masses with stupidity. Sad thing is that some people buy into it.


Sgt Tyree 1 hour ago

There was a time in the not so distant past when suits like this were considered both fashionable and seasonal. Men wore suits, women wore dresses, and people dressed up to go out to dinner and/or church. I think people felt good about themselves both inwardly and outwardly. In fact I think people behaved better then and paid attention to their grooming. Then "casual Friday" came to be and business in America started dressing like a bunch of PGA pro's. Then it became standard business fare. Now people dress like slobs and grooming has been replaced by tattoos. This suit should be the least of anyone's concerns.




I did notice with surprised pleasure how the president looked in that new suit. He also sometimes is seen in blue jeans and a couple of times topless at the beach. He is a very well-built, trim and handsome man, and he looks good in all his clothes. Without being vain, he is obviously interested in dressing well, and I don't think his wife has to pick his tie color, either. The comments from the public underneath the article were as interesting as the article itself. As a criticism of the president, his failure to wear blue or gray is completely unimportant to any logical person, and I noticed that it was considered so by most of the readers. These people showed me how many people do like the president, unlike the Tea Partiers and other disgruntled types who seem to hate him deeply. There is no question that much of their attitude is due to racial bias.





California man found guilty of murder after his dogs kill woman
CBS/AP August 29, 2014, 9:17 PM

LANCASTER, Calif. -- A man whose four dogs mauled a 63-year-old woman to death was found guilty Friday of murder.

A Los Angeles County jury convicted 31-year-old Alex Jackson of second-degree murder in the death of Pamela Devitt, CBS Los Angeles reported. He could get 24 years to life in prison when he is sentenced Oct. 3.

Devitt was out for a morning walk in the desert town of Littlerock on May 9, 2013, when she was set upon by four pit bulls.

The coroner said she died from blood loss after being bitten 200 times. The dogs dragged her 50 yards, took off her scalp and removed an arm.

Prosecutors said Jackson was not just negligent but knew that his animals could endanger someone's life. They presented evidence that Jackson's dogs were involved in at least seven other altercations in the 18 months leading up to the attack on Devitt.

Several horseback riders said they had been chased or bitten by Jackson's dogs. Neighbors said the dogs jumped over the fence and made it difficult to retrieve mail. A mail carrier testified that he was unable to make a delivery to Jackson's residence because of a threatening dog that eventually chased his vehicle for half a mile.

Defense attorney Al Kim said Jackson was taking the brunt of the rural area's growing frustration over abandoned animals.

"At some point, something needs to be done about these stray dogs, and I think an unfair amount of responsibility is being directed at my client," Al Kim said. "Does that mean he's a murderer? Absolutely not."

The National Canine Research Council estimates about 30 people are killed by dogs each year. Murder charges are rare because prosecutors must prove that the defendant knew the dogs were dangerous before the killing.

Jackson testified he was unaware of most of the incidents. He said if he thought the dogs were capable of killing someone, he would have gotten rid of them.

At the time of his arrest, Jackson had eight dogs living at the home he shared with his mother. He had placed the four involved in the attack in his garage.

"I feel terrible about it. This isn't anything that I orchestrated or planned, that I wanted to have happen," he said.

Animal control officers testified that an inebriated Jackson told them shortly after the attack: "If you mess with me, you're coming into the lions' den."

The victim's husband, Ben Devitt, said he wanted a guilty verdict "so it sets a precedent and makes people aware that their dogs can create a dangerous situation."

Jackson was also found guilty of three drug charges. Police said that when they first went to his property to investigate the mauling, they found a marijuana farm. The drug charges included cultivating marijuana and possession and sale of a controlled substance.

Jackson was found not guilty of an assault charge stemming from an alleged run-in with a horseback rider who claimed his dogs also attacked the horse.




Animal control officers testified that an inebriated Jackson told them shortly after the attack: "If you mess with me, you're coming into the lions' den." The victim's husband, Ben Devitt, said he wanted a guilty verdict "so it sets a precedent and makes people aware that their dogs can create a dangerous situation." Jackson was also found guilty of three drug charges. Police said that when they first went to his property to investigate the mauling, they found a marijuana farm. The drug charges included cultivating marijuana and possession and sale of a controlled substance.... Prosecutors said Jackson was not just negligent but knew that his animals could endanger someone's life. They presented evidence that Jackson's dogs were involved in at least seven other altercations in the 18 months leading up to the attack on Devitt..... Defense attorney Al Kim said Jackson was taking the brunt of the rural area's growing frustration over abandoned animals.'At some point, something needs to be done about these stray dogs, and I think an unfair amount of responsibility is being directed at my client,' Al Kim said. 'Does that mean he's a murderer? Absolutely not.'

Of course the defense attorney will say the community is up in arms against the “stray dogs” that live there, but these dogs aren't strays. They are owned by a man who probably wanted protection for his marijuana farm. Secondly, they are not just any breed. They are pit bulls. They are one of the top two or three killer breeds, and they are bred specifically to fight. They are not very tall, but they are heavy and very strong, with strong jaws. In addition, if they are not very carefully and gently raised and socialized, they are aggressive.

See this article on dangerous banned dogs: http://listverse.com/2011/08/23/top-10-banned-dog-breeds/. From that article is the following. “In the late 1980s, an epidemic of attacks by Pit Bull type dogs, and other related breeds, led to widespread bans. In 1991, the Parliament of the United Kingdom banned the ownership of Japanese Tosa Inus, Argentine Dogos, Fila Brasilieros and Pit Bulls, with many other countries following suit soon after. Even in areas where having such dogs is legal, it can be nearly impossible for homeowners to get liability insurance if they own one of the breeds below.”

To me, we need to ban them in this country as well, along with the others on the list. At the top of the list is the American Bulldog, which is not a pit bull. The pit bull is also on the list. Here is the description of an American Bulldog. I have never seen one, so I don't think most people have them. Of this dog the article says, “ Banned in Denmark, Singapore and various municipalities, the American Bulldog’s origins are in the deep south, where it was used as a farm dog. Its specialty is catching feral hogs, which can weigh several hundred pounds and wield savage tusks. When cornered, these razorbacks are nasty fighters, requiring a dog of great strength and athleticism to fight them, battling the hog into submission and holding it down until the hunter arrives. For this reason, they have a very high pain threshold. The American Bulldog can weigh from 70-120lbs., though many have been known to grow even larger.” This simply isn't a dog that fits into a quiet neighborhood in a city, or for that matter in the country. They can't be controlled, and nobody needs to fight wild hogs or bear anymore.

Interestingly the German Shepherd, Doberman and Rottweiler are not on the list, though all have been known to kill people. All of them are relatively intelligent dogs,though, and not so aggressive as the pit bull unless they have been abused by their owners. It's possible to make any dog vicious if it is beaten heartlessly or kept tied up on a short chain all the time. Whatever the type of dog, though, if it aggressively attacks any human or even the neighbor's dog or cat, it should be euthanized in a merciful manner. People should not have a right to keep such a dog.







Hamptons residents shocked by KKK recruitment fliers
CBS NEWS August 30, 2014, 9:36 AM

HAMPTON BAYS, N.Y. -- Some homeowners in the Hamptons are puzzled and angry after finding recruitment pamphlets for the Ku Klux Klan at their homes,CBS New York station WCBS-TV reports.

Fernando Alvarez said he found the fliers under his Hampton Bays door. His family was left wondering if they were targets of the hate group or if the leafleting was random.

"We were really shocked that ... in this area we can have KKK," Alvarez said.

Hampton Bays, the town of Southampton's most populous hamlet, has 13,000 residents - 30 percent of whom are Hispanic.

Brandon Scibek, a Hampton Bays homeowner, said he, too, received the pamphlet.

"It's unfortunate," he said. "But it's not something you can really prevent. It's covered under freedom of speech."

Others on Columbine Avenue who found the fliers stuffed into their mailboxes were at a loss to explain why bigotry over race and ethnicity would rear its ugly head there.

"It is offensive," one man said. "There's no doubt about it."

"I'm just saddened," one woman said. "It's just sad."

Local community center St. Rosalie's said those responsible for the fliers are a small group of people living in the past.

"These people came in the middle of the night," Sister Mary Beth Moore said. "We know somebody heard their dogs barking at midnight. These are people who are not honorable enough to share their point of view in the daylight, and we hope they go back to North Carolina, where their horrible little pamphlets came from."

The Loyal White Knights, a KKK branch based in the South, referred WCBS-TV to its grand dragon, Robert Jones. He said he is unaware of the efforts in the Hamptons but added: "Everybody's fed up with immigration ... that is why we have so many people from New York calling right now."

Police said the action is not criminal thus far.

"No charges at this time," said Southampton Town Police Sgt. Susan Ralph. "Right now, it's relating to freedom of speech. We have referred the incident to Suffolk County Police Department's bias crimes unit."

Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst said the KKK is looking for attention and that residents should be careful not to overrespond, adding they should rip up and throw away the literature.

Community advocates vowed to rally against the KKK if more recruitment pamphlets appear.




“They're here!” the little girl in the movie “Poltergeist” cries out, as a host of evil ghosts make contact with her. To me, going out in your pleasant community to find KKK posters inviting everyone to join in with their vile organization is like this little girl. She doesn't realize that the beings are demonic. The KKK, amazingly, still finds enough converts to continue to exist. The brochure pictured with this article has a crude drawing of a Mexican, a Jewish man, and a black man, each with exaggerated facial and cultural features to make them recognizable by their stereotypes.

Most Americans today wouldn't join the KKK, but too many of them still carry de facto racism within their own minds, in that too many whites will not voluntarily associate with black or Jewish people. That keeps individuals from getting to know each other personally and making friends across the color lines. A small majority of the US population are progressives, politically, economically and socially, and want to work for what I call a civilized society, but a loud and very stubborn large minority want a return to the Jim Crow days in which all whites, even the poor, were considered superior to blacks. Of the Jewish people, unfortunately, some of them are anti-black as well.

As long as we hold these destructive biases, our society will continue to fail as a benign and fair democracy. I am sad every time I see one of these stories, and they do continue to come out in the press. Luckily, such people are not in the majority, and I can successfully avoid associating with them just as they avoid the blacks, Hispanics and Jews. I would like to see us as one well-integrated society moving toward an enlightened goal, but unfortunately here is another accursed KKK flyer.

“Local community center St. Rosalie's said those responsible for the fliers are a small group of people living in the past. 'These people came in the middle of the night,' Sister Mary Beth Moore said. 'We know somebody heard their dogs barking at midnight. These are people who are not honorable enough to share their point of view in the daylight, and we hope they go back to North Carolina, where their horrible little pamphlets came from.'.... The Loyal White Knights, a KKK branch based in the South, referred WCBS-TV to its grand dragon, Robert Jones. He said he is unaware of the efforts in the Hamptons but added: 'Everybody's fed up with immigration ... that is why we have so many people from New York calling right now.'.... Community advocates vowed to rally against the KKK if more recruitment pamphlets appear.” If the local community does unite against the KKK propagandists, here and in other places where this activity occurs, we will continue to move toward a moral, educated and liberated culture. I hope and believe that most Americans do want this goal.





Blueprint for Peace: What Ferguson Can Learn From Cincinnati – NBC
BY JON SCHUPPE
August 30th 2014

A few days after the rioting began in Ferguson, Missouri, earlier this month, Damon Lynch III and Iris Roley flew down from Cincinnati with a document they believed could help bring peace.

Lynch, a pastor, and Roley, a small business owner, had been leading voices against Cincinnati police in 2001, when an officer’s shooting of an unarmed young black man triggered riots there. The scene in Ferguson was eerily reminiscent of that experience, and the activists felt a duty to share the story of how their divided city healed itself and became a model for community-police relations. “I’d hate to see Ferguson waste this opportunity for change,” Lynch explained.

Their first stop after arriving in Missouri was an Office Depot, where they ran off 100 copies of the document: a historic agreement between the Cincinnati police and local civil rights groups that served as the framework for an arduous reform process. They stuffed each stack of more than 20 double-sided pages into a white envelope and wrote their names and numbers on the outside, along with their message: "A Way Forward." Then they hit the streets.

It was Saturday, a full week since Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson had shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown. A brief period of calm had been shattered overnight by a new wave of violence, triggered in part by local police's release of a video that appeared to show Brown stealing a box of cigars from a liquor store minutes before the confrontation with Wilson. Maybe Ferguson wasn't quite ready for their message. They continued anyway.

They stayed four days, handing their packets to officials, academics and civil rights advocates during the day and joining the protests and rallies at night. And they tried to identify the street-level leaders who would be needed to guide their community out of this mess. They saw the anger and fear, and felt the sting of tear gas. “But the main goal was, ‘How does Ferguson get reformed?'” Lynch recalled.

The way forward may still seem impossible. But the Cincinnati project is widely seen as a proven path, and perhaps Ferguson’s best hope.

One of the people Lynch and Roley met was Tony Rothert, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri. Rothert didn’t know much about the Cincinnati story. After they told it, his initial response, he said, was: “That’s great, but how did you get there? How did you get started?”

The first step, the activists told him, was arguably the toughest.

In Cincinnati, things once seemed just as grim as they do in Ferguson. The April 2001 shooting of 19-year-old Timothy Thomas set off four days of looting and rioting, the boiling over of long-simmering distrust between police and the black community. The Cincinnati Black United Front, of which Lynch and Roley were members, organized a devastating boycott of downtown businesses. Police staged a work slowdown. Crime increased. The U.S. Justice Department stepped in to monitor the situation.

But even with the federal government looking over Cincinnati’s shoulder, some forward-looking leaders realized that true reform required a genuine desire for change. They initiated a parallel trust-building effort that explored in painful detail each side’s long history of concerns and complaints — which then-Police Chief Thomas Streicher called a “living autopsy.” It took a long time just to get everyone to sit at the table voluntarily.

“Once people get organized, they become focused on what they want, and that’s when the shift happens,” Roley said.

The result was the Collaborative Agreement of 2002, signed by the local ACLU, the Black United Front, the city government and the police union. It outlined a series of reforms that would profoundly alter the way police and blacks dealt with each other. A related deal with the Department of Justice went a step further, adding a federal monitor to oversee compliance.

After six years, the federal government stepped away. Left in place was a new culture of law enforcement, and a growing confidence among blacks. Police began closely tracking the use of force and traffic stops, and readily shared that information with the public. They adopted a “problem-oriented policing” strategy to focus on the most troublesome places and people. They trained officers to be more mindful of citizens’ concerns. They improved recruiting. They set up an “early warning system” to identify rogue officers. The city also created a Citizens Complaint Authority to investigate police shootings, other uses of force and accusations of misconduct.

Streicher led the police department through those changes before retiring in 2011. He now runs a consulting business, helping other cities navigate similar crises. His partner is one of his former antagonists, an ACLU lawyer who sued him multiple times. In the early days of the Cincinnati talks, Roley “wouldn’t have spit on me if I was on fire,” Streicher said. But when the rioting broke out in Ferguson, she called him and said, “They’re going to need our help.”

"I need your help, whether you trust me or you don’t.”

Streicher said that if he were leading the Ferguson police, he’d start by seeking out the most influential people in the business, religious and advocacy communities. “I’d tell them, ‘I need your help, whether you trust me or you don’t.’ Some will help, and some will say, 'You should have come to me before.' But a voice of reason will emerge.”

Whether that will happen in Ferguson is an open question. The city remains in crisis mode. Federal, state and local officials have said they will review policies, ranging from police militarization to the lack of black officers, that fueled the riots. But frustration and skepticism run rampant. Police are still on the defensive, with citizens filing lawsuits alleging improper use of force during the protests. NBC News sought comment from the local police chief, as well as current and former leaders of other police agencies in the St. Louis region. Only one of them responded, but that person declined to speak publicly.

The uncertainty is why people who were involved with the Cincinnati agreement insist that Department of Justice monitoring is crucial. Federal oversight kept opposing sides at the table in the early days of negotiations. “A lot of it was forced, initially,” said Robin Engel, who heads the Institute of Crime Science at the University of Cincinnati and helped police implement reforms.

And yet there is movement.

Inspired by Lynch and Roley’s visit, the Missouri ACLU has begun exploring ways to bring people together for initial talks, Rothert said. “The experience in Cincinnati has shown that the police and the community can put things into place so they are much more effective in making everyone’s life better,” he said. "I hope everyone realizes that we can’t just go back and hope everything will go away.”

Roley, meanwhile, has returned to Ferguson on a second visit, this time at the request of residents. She’s telling them more about the Cincinnati story, and encouraging them to get organized and to focus their attention on police reform. It’s a hard sell, because many cannot imagine working alongside the police — and many officers probably think the same thing.

“Before you get to collaboration, there’s a lot of organization and work that has to happen in the community,” Roley said. “That is the blueprint. But first, residents have to believe in it. And then the police will be forced to change.”




“The scene in Ferguson was eerily reminiscent of that experience, and the activists felt a duty to share the story of how their divided city healed itself and became a model for community-police relations. 'I’d hate to see Ferguson waste this opportunity for change,' Lynch explained..... Their first stop after arriving in Missouri was an Office Depot, where they ran off 100 copies of the document: a historic agreement between the Cincinnati police and local civil rights groups that served as the framework for an arduous reform process.... Roley, meanwhile, has returned to Ferguson on a second visit, this time at the request of residents. She’s telling them more about the Cincinnati story, and encouraging them to get organized and to focus their attention on police reform. It’s a hard sell, because many cannot imagine working alongside the police — and many officers probably think the same thing.”

I am tempted to quote this whole article, as nearly every paragraph contains vital information, but I won't. I will just say that this story is so good that I wouldn't be at all surprised if someone should make a movie of the changes that occurred for the better in Cincinnati, as a result of this process; and the uses that Ferguson then chooses to make of it, which is a story yet to be enacted. People in these small cities and towns across the US, who tend to vote “conservative,” are not, I don't believe deeply evil. They are just caught up in a vicious back and forth between blacks and whites – like the feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys – and nobody can figure out how to put their guns down. Asian people, Islamic groups, Hindus and American Indians, plus of course, Jews, have also been known to be the butt of the “white backlash.” We have to build justice and tolerance for all as people or we will lose our beloved “City on the hill.”

Our country has to come to terms, one individual at a time, one city at a time, with the fact that unless we want a new civil war here, people will have to step across the color line and meet each other in respect rather than because they are forced to do so. If we consider ourselves to be Christians or otherwise religious, we should accept the Golden Rule and make it our basic tenet. I suspect Jesus would hate to see his people engaging in this interracial hatred. A certain set of Christians stress that their members should “believe” every word of the Bible verbatim – especially about Jesus rising from the dead – but they don't pay the same attention to the rules that he specifically gave them to build their lives around: “God is Love” and “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Until Christianity is reformed in that way, we will remain crippled by our hatreds and lack of generosity.





Saudi King Warns of Terrorist Threat to Europe, US – ABC
By Abdullah Al-Shihri and Sameer Yaacoub
Associated Press
August 30, 2014

The king of Saudi Arabia has warned that extremists could attack Europe and the U.S. if there is not a strong international response to terrorism after the Islamic State group seized a wide territory across Iraq and Syria.

While not mentioning any terrorist groups by name, King Abdullah's statement appeared aimed at drawing Washington and NATO forces into a wider fight against the Islamic State group and its supporters in the region. Saudi Arabia openly backs rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad, but is concerned that the breakaway al-Qaida group could also turn those very same weapons on the kingdom.

"If neglected, I am certain that after a month they will reach Europe and, after another month, America," he said at a reception for foreign ambassadors Friday.

Official Saudi media carried the king's comments early Saturday.

"These terrorists do not know the name of humanity and you have witnessed them severing heads and giving them to children to walk with in the street," the king said, urging the ambassadors to relay his message directly to their heads of state.

The Islamic State group has been fighting moderate rebels, other extremists and Assad's forces in Syria for nearly three years. Iraq has faced an onslaught by the Sunni extremists and their supporters since early this year, and the country continues to be roiled by instability.

While providing arms and support to Sunni militants in Syria, Saudi Arabia has denied directly funding or backing the Islamic State group.

British officials raised the country's terror threat level Friday to "severe," its second-highest level, because of developments in Iraq and Syria, but there was no information to suggest an attack was imminent. The White House has said it does not expect the U.S. to bump up its terrorism threat warning level.

Saudi Arabia, a major U.S. ally in the region, has taken an increasingly active role in criticizing the Islamic State group. Earlier this month, the country's top cleric described the Islamic State group and al-Qaida as Islam's No. 1 enemy and said that Muslims have been their first victims. State-backed Saudi clerics who once openly called on citizens to fight in Syria can now face steep punishment and the kingdom has threatened to imprison its citizens who fight in Syria and Iraq.

A decade ago, al-Qaida militants launched a string of attacks in the kingdom aimed at toppling the monarchy. Saudi officials responded with a massive crackdown that saw many flee to neighboring Yemen. In the time since, the kingdom has not seen any massive attacks, though it has imprisoned suspected militants and sentenced others to death.

Meanwhile Saturday, police in Iraq said a suicide bomber drove his explosives-laden car into an army checkpoint in the town of Youssifiyah, killing 11 people, including four soldiers, and wounding at least 24 people. Youssifiyah is 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Baghdad.

Hours later, a roadside bomb targeting an army patrol killed two soldiers and wounded five in Latifiyah, a town 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Baghdad.

Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to journalists.




"'If neglected, I am certain that after a month they will reach Europe and, after another month, America,' he said at a reception for foreign ambassadors Friday.... 'These terrorists do not know the name of humanity and you have witnessed them severing heads and giving them to children to walk with in the street,' the king said, urging the ambassadors to relay his message directly to their heads of state.... While providing arms and support to Sunni militants in Syria, Saudi Arabia has denied directly funding or backing the Islamic State group..... Saudi Arabia, a major U.S. ally in the region, has taken an increasingly active role in criticizing the Islamic State group. Earlier this month, the country's top cleric described the Islamic State group and al-Qaida as Islam's No. 1 enemy and said that Muslims have been their first victims.”

This is what I would like to see – for the peaceful followers of Islam to say that al-Qaeda and the Islamic State are “Islam's No. 1 enemy,” as they are rapidly giving the name of Islam a terrible reputation. Many people in the US at this time either fear or hate Islamic influences, which is a very short distance from hating Islamic people themselves; and I must say, if any group should ever try to institute Sharia Law in the US, I personally would advocate making such an effort a crime. That anti-feminist body of rules is totally vile in my view and against democracy's most basic beliefs.

For now, however, what we have is a pointed warning for Western powers to unite immediately against ISIS militarily. I agree that it shouldn't be allowed to continue to gain strength until it proceeds to Europe and the US to conduct attacks. Saudi Arabia has made a turnaround in its policies toward Saudi citizens going to fight in Syria or Iraq, imprisoning them. The Saudi leader stressed that though their forces are fighting against Assad, they are not fighting with ISIS, which is meanwhile fighting all comers in Syria as it tries to carve out its own territory there. It's a complicated situation, but as long as Middle Eastern countries are fighting against ISIS, I feel more secure. There seems to be a need for a coalition to fight ISIS, and Saudi Arabia could be part of that.





How Are Different Asian-American Groups Faring Economically? – NPR
by KAT CHOW
August 30, 2014

The United States Department of Labor recently published a report with a detailed breakdown of the different economic outcomes that various Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders have faced.

As a group, the report points out, "AAPI workers have had more favorable economic outcomes than workers in any other racial group." But the report is a good reminder that each of the ethnic groups within the monolithic umbrella of "Asian-Americans" is vastly different, with varying financial circumstances and degrees of educational attainment.

This report is a follow-up to a similar report from 2011. While some of the 2011 report's findings were widely reported, a few of the details in this more recent update stuck out to us (emphasis ours):

• "Overall, 53.4 percent of Asians over the age of 25 have a bachelor's degree or higher — the highest percentage by far among the major race groups."

• "The AAPI community has the second highest share of unemployed workers who are long-term unemployed (41.7 percent) ... Asian Americans who are unemployed, are without work for longer than whites and Hispanics."

• "When controlled for age, sex and educational attainment, unemployment rate for Indians is actually higher than comparable whites. This difference suggests that the Indian community as a whole tends to be more educated, but when looking at similarly situated white workers, their employment outcomes are less favorable."

• "More Filipino women are employed (57.1 percent) than any other community; Indians had the smallest share of employed women (36.8 percent.)"

• "Like other predominantly immigrant groups, members of the AAPI community also tend to have a lower median age than the overall population (Asian 33.6, Pacific Islanders 27.4, and U.S. Overall 37.6)."

• "Within the AAPI community, the Vietnamese, 'Other Asian,' and Chinese groups have the highest percentage of high school dropouts (29.3, 22.3 and 18.4 percent respectively) and all have a higher percentage than the white community (13.0 percent). On the other hand, the Japanese, Korean, and Filipino groups have the lowest percentage of members with less than a high school diploma (4.8, 7.1, and 7.4 percent respectively)."

• "The official poverty measure for the AAPI community as a whole is 12.1 percent, which is still much lower than black (27.2 percent) and Hispanic (25.6 percent) measures, but closer than might be expected to the white official poverty levels (12.7 percent)." But as the report notes, "The official poverty measure (OPM), however, has well known flaws that may particularly distort comparisons of AAPI poverty to that of other racial groups."




“As a group, the report points out, 'AAPI workers have had more favorable economic outcomes than workers in any other racial group.' But the report is a good reminder that each of the ethnic groups within the monolithic umbrella of 'Asian-Americans' is vastly different, with varying financial circumstances and degrees of educational attainment.... 'The official poverty measure for the AAPI community as a whole is 12.1 percent, which is still much lower than black (27.2 percent) and Hispanic (25.6 percent) measures, but closer than might be expected to the white official poverty levels (12.7 percent).'”

To boil this down, “53.4 percent of Asians over the age of 25 have a bachelor's degree or higher … The AAPI community has the second highest share of unemployed workers who are long-term unemployed (41.7 percent)... the Indian community as a whole tends to be more educated, but when looking at similarly situated white workers, their employment outcomes are less favorable.... Vietnamese, 'Other Asian,' and Chinese groups have the highest percentage of high school dropouts.... Japanese, Korean, and Filipino groups have the lowest percentage of members with less than a high school diploma...”

So let's say that those who don't drop out of high school and especially if they attain at least a bachelor's degree , they should have jobs and make more money than other racial and cultural minorities. Unfortunately, they don't. The AAPI community has 41.7 percent of the long term unemployed groups in the US, and have almost the same number of people living under the poverty level as whites, but significantly less than blacks and Hispanics. Nearly everything about the ranking of groups in the US has to do with skin color and cultural or religious affiliation, including who is more likely to be hired with an equivalently high level of education. The Asians haven't as a whole made better incomes and held employment than the whites, but they have over blacks and Hispanics.

Men who went to Vietnam sometimes married a Vietnamese woman and brought her home, but many of them came back with a hard set prejudice against them instead, calling them unpleasant names in many cases. It didn't help that Vietnamese came here as refugees in fairly large numbers after the war (thus becoming a nuisance to many whites, like the present-day Hispanics) and “took American jobs.” Many of them became fishermen as they had been in Vietnam, competing for the same fish with Americans. There were some incidents of attacks against them in the Gulf of Mexico over fishing competition.

There is a persistent prejudice that many Asians are the most intelligent of all the races. Clearly if Chinese students are dropping out of high school at a high rate, unless it is due to bullying or something like that, they may not be so much brighter than the whites. I think that the simple fact that WASPS or White Anglo-Saxon Protestants have the highest status ranking in this country in almost any group selection process, they will tend to have the highest self-confidence as a result, and therefore probably succeed more easily in most ways. White Protestant Americans tend to be very highly prejudiced against all other groups which will, therefore, define who is running the businesses and who is hiring the employees, and the result is shown in this article – 41% of the long term unemployed are Asian. It's the old “invisible hand of the market” at work.