Friday, September 19, 2014


News Clips For The Day


Britain breathes a collective sigh of relief
CBS/AP September 19, 2014, 1:10 AM

EDINBURGH, Scotland -- Scottish voters have rejected independence, deciding to remain part of the United Kingdom in a historic referendum that shook the country to its core.

The decision prevented a rupture of a 307-year union with England, bringing a huge sigh of relief to the British political establishment. Scots voted 55 percent to 45 percent against independence in a vote that saw an unprecedented turnout.

A majority of voters did not embrace Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond's impassioned plea to launch a new state, choosing instead the security offered by remaining in the United Kingdom.

"We have chosen unity over division," Alistair Darling, head of the No campaign, said early Friday in Glasgow. "Today is a momentous day for Scotland and the United Kingdom as a whole."

Salmond conceded defeat, saying "we know it is a majority for the No campaign," and called on Scots to accept the results of the vote.

"This has been a triumph for the democratic process and for participation in politics," he said, insisting that London-based politicians were now expected to honor their promises of giving more powers to Scotland.

As CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips reports, however, Scotland may have stepped back from the brink of leaving the U.K., but big promises were made to keep them in, and while the vote may not have broken up Britain, it has changed it forever.

In a speech after the results were official, Prime Minister David Cameron promised to live up to commitments to Scotland made ahead of the independence vote, including plans for new powers on tax, spending and welfare.

Cameron said the new plans will be agreed on by November, with draft legislation by January.

"We will ensure that those commitments are honored in full," Cameron said.

He said this requires that people in other parts of the United Kingdom to have more rights to govern their own affairs, particularly in England.

"I've long believed that a crucial part of this debate that's missing is England. ... The question of English votes for English laws, the so called 'West Lothian question,' requires a definitive answer."

The No campaign won the capital city, Edinburgh, by a margin of 61 percent to 38 percent and triumphed by 59 percent to 41 percent in Salmond's home city of Aberdeen.

The Yes campaign won Glasgow, Scotland's biggest city, but it was not enough.

Salmond had argued that Scotland could go it alone because of its extensive oil reserves and high levels of ingenuity and education. He said Scotland would flourish on its own, free of interference from any London-based government.

Nonetheless, the skilled 59-year-old leader of the Scottish National Party came close to winning independence - his long-cherished goal - and still won a promise of new powers for Scotland from rattled London politicians.

Many saw it as a "heads versus hearts" campaign, with cautious older Scots concluding that independence would be too risky financially, while younger ones were enamored with the idea of building their own country.

The result saves Cameron from a historic defeat and helps opposition chief Ed Miliband by keeping his many Labor Party lawmakers in Scotland in place. His party would have found it harder to win a national election in 2015 without that support from Scotland.

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a Scot, returned to prominence with a dramatic barnstorming campaign in support of the union in the final days before the referendum vote. Brown argued passionately that Scots could be devoted to Scotland but still proud of their place in the United Kingdom, rejecting the argument that independence was the patriotic choice.

"There is not a cemetery in Europe that does not have Scots, English, Welsh and Irish lined side by side," Brown said in his final speech before the vote. "We not only won these wars together, we built the peace together. What we have built together by sacrificing and sharing, let no narrow nationalism split asunder."

For his part, Cameron - aware that his Conservative Party is widely loathed in Scotland - begged voters not to use a vote for independence as a way to bash his party.

The vote against independence keeps the U.K. from losing a substantial part of its territory and oil reserves and prevents it from having to find a new base for its nuclear arsenal, now housed in Scotland. It had also faced a possible loss of influence within international institutions, including the 28-nation European Union and the United Nations.

The decision also means Britain can avoid a prolonged period of financial insecurity that had been predicted by some if Scotland broke away.

In return for staying in the union, Scotland's voters have been promised significant - though somewhat unspecified - new powers by the British government, which had feared losing Scotland forever.

As results came in, the Yes camp appeared resigned to defeat. Saying she was "personally bitterly disappointed" with the results, Deputy Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon told BBC that Scottish nationalists "need to pick ourselves up and move on."

After the polls closed late Thursday, a nationwide count began immediately. Many Scots stayed up overnight in homes and bars, awaiting the result.

"Why not roll the dice for once?" Yes supporter Thomas Roberts said at one Edinburgh polling station. "I'm going to sit with a beer in my hand watching the results coming in."
Eager voters had lined up outside some polling stations even before they opened Thursday. More than 4.2 million people had registered to vote - 97 percent of those eligible - including residents as young as 16.

For some, it was a day they had dreamed of for decades. For others, the time had finally come to make up their minds about the future - both for themselves and for the United Kingdom.

"Fifty years I fought for this," said 83-year-old Isabelle Smith, a Yes supporter in Edinburgh's maritime district of Newhaven, a former fishing port. "And we are going to win. I can feel it in my bones."

But financial consultant Michael MacPhee, a No voter, said he would observe the returns "with anxiety."

Scottish independence is "the daftest idea I've ever heard," he said.




“The decision prevented a rupture of a 307-year union with England, bringing a huge sigh of relief to the British political establishment. Scots voted 55 percent to 45 percent against independence in a vote that saw an unprecedented turnout. A majority of voters did not embrace Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond's impassioned plea to launch a new state, choosing instead the security offered by remaining in the United Kingdom.... 'This has been a triumph for the democratic process and for participation in politics,' he said, insisting that London-based politicians were now expected to honor their promises of giving more powers to Scotland.... In a speech after the results were official, Prime Minister David Cameron promised to live up to commitments to Scotland made ahead of the independence vote, including plans for new powers on tax, spending and welfare.... He said this requires that people in other parts of the United Kingdom to have more rights to govern their own affairs, particularly in England. 'I've long believed that a crucial part of this debate that's missing is England. ... The question of English votes for English laws, the so called 'West Lothian question,' requires a definitive answer.'... Many saw it as a 'heads versus hearts' campaign, with cautious older Scots concluding that independence would be too risky financially, while younger ones were enamored with the idea of building their own country....”

Democracy has worked again. I will clip any article I see that defines the powers that Scotland has gained from the UK by its unity vote yesterday. The advantage to UK by being more generous to the Scottish people is that they will keep access to oil reserves, a nuclear arsenal, and positions in the EU and UN, plus possibly avoiding “a prolonged period of financial insecurity” without the Scots. The UK are among “the good guys” of the world in most ways that I can think of, and they are invaluable friends to the US. We as citizens of a democratic nation need their support against our international enemies of several groups. Besides, I visited there in 1987 and found it beautiful as well as archaeologically fascinating. If I had to move from the US I would go to England to live.





Mom questioned over son's solo outdoor playtime
CBS NEWS September 19, 2014, 6:46 AM

A Texas mom started a parenting debate this month, blogging about her six-year-old playing outside by himself.

She described her shock and anger when police and Child Protective Services came knocking on her door, CBS News correspondent Manuel Bojorquez reports.

Kari Anne Roy knows all about the joys and challenges of raising a child. She has three of them. Her youngest -- six-year-old Isaac -- recently gained the privilege of playing outside alone for a few minutes.

Isaac said his rules were laid out for him: don't go past "the top of the hill where the stop sign is."

But a seemingly well-intentioned neighbor brought Isaac back home one day.

"There was this kind of disconnect there that I was smiling and saying, 'yes he was outside playing' and she was like, 'well, he was outside by himself' and I said, 'yes he was outside by himself playing, as six-year-olds do,'" Roy said.

But it didn't end there. Soon, Roy had another knock on the door: a police officer who questioned her, but left. A few days later, Child Protective Services (CPS) arrived and questioned each of her children.

"Like, 'have you taken drugs or alcohol?' 'Have you seen movies of naked people.' 'Has anybody touched you?' They had to investigate," Roy said. "If CPS gets a call, you want them to check on the welfare of the children. However, I think when they are getting these kinds of frivolous calls, it's wasting resources."

Roy said that while supervision is important, letting children have their space is valuable too.

"I think when it comes to children, you have to give them the experience of life," Roy said. "It's doing them a disservice if we keep them trapped in the house until they are 16 and then they are off to high school."

Diane Debrovner, deputy editor at Parent's Magazine, says this is a debate largely fueled by fears, like kidnapping by a stranger, which statistically is very low.

"We wish we could let our children play more but everyone is more worried about safety and I think that this case raises some thorny issues about how much authority you have over making decisions for your own child, and where the boundaries are for neighbors stepping in and making judgments about your parenting," Debrovner said.

In late June, a South Carolina mother was arrested for allegedly leaving her nine-year-old daughter at a park for hours while she worked at a fast food restaurant. She's fighting the charges.

Roy's case never got to that level. The worst part for her was her children feeling they'd done something wrong and fearing being taken away by authorities.

"If you're a parent and you're not comfortable with your kid being outside without your eyes on them, totally cool," Roy said. "I'm not going to tell you you can't do that. Just please don't tell me what I can do with my child, and I think everyone can get along."
Texas police does not specify how old a child must be before they can be outdoors alone. The Texas police closed the case with no charges filed.





“'I think when it comes to children, you have to give them the experience of life,' Roy said. 'It's doing them a disservice if we keep them trapped in the house until they are 16 and then they are off to high school.' Diane Debrovner, deputy editor at Parent's Magazine, says this is a debate largely fueled by fears, like kidnapping by a stranger, which statistically is very low. 'We wish we could let our children play more but everyone is more worried about safety and I think that this case raises some thorny issues about how much authority you have over making decisions for your own child, and where the boundaries are for neighbors stepping in and making judgments about your parenting,' Debrovner said.”

Here I go again with the “when I was a kid” commentary, but I had much more freedom than this. Some neighborhoods are genuinely dangerous in the daytime on the street, but I doubt if Ms. Roy lives in a ghetto. From her statements in this news article she is a well-educated and sensible person. There are many kids living in inner city areas who do risk their lives every day, though, because they have to walk to and from school through some very dicey areas. Much of the threat comes from other kids – gang members, etc. And there was a terrible story here in Florida a couple of years ago about a young girl – eight or so years old – who had to walk home, but it wasn't considered an unsafe neighborhood. Her parents weren't worried about her. Unfortunately she had to pass the house of child molester who was not on the molester list, and he somehow lured her to his house, then raped and killed her. He has been sentenced to life in prison as a result of the crime. Any child needs to taught to be wary of adults, especially men, and not to respond to anyone who tries to approach them, even if he's saying that “he is looking for his puppy,” as one seducer did. They must learn early not to trust everybody. That's part of basic “steet smarts.” It's possible for them to be polite to strangers while keeping a safe distance.

If I were a parent I would investigate the sexual predator list for the community, teach her to kick, bite and scream if anyone tries to lay hands on her, and ride around the route she has to go in my car to see if ne'er do wells are hanging out anywhere, and if possible try to get another neighbor's child to walk with her, but then I would let her walk to school if it were only a few blocks or maybe as much as a mile. I walked back and forth some 8 or 10 blocks when I was in the first few years of my schooling, even at the tender age of six years. I can remember a few times being, wet, cold or too hot from the exercise, but I was never threatened. I had already been taught to cross streets and railroad crossings safely, so there was no problem with that. A kid needs to be well-controlled enough that he won't for any reason run out in front of a car or play on a railroad track.

I understand the fears of many adults nowadays, as there is so much in the news about sexual predators, but a child needs to learn to elude, outwit or fight an attacker, and as importantly they need to grow up without being overly timid about life. Rules like a kid has to be with an adult every moment until they are in high school is very harmful to their psyche. Confidence is one of the most basic things we need to learn in growing up.





White House: NFL needs to "get a handle" on domestic violence
CBS NEWS September 19, 2014, 6:06 AM

The White House Thursday sternly told the NFL that "it's important that the league get a handle" on players who commit child abuse and domestic violence and that the league must "have a zero tolerance" regarding those issues.

A senior administration official told reporters during a briefing about a new White House public awareness campaign on preventing sexual assaults on college campuses that "the most recent revelations of abuse by the NFL players is really deeply troubling."

"The NFL has an obligation not only to their fans but to the American people to properly discipline anyone involved in domestic violence or child abuse and more broadly, gain control of the situation," the official continued.

"Many of these professional athletes are marketed as role models to young people and so their behavior does have the potential to influence these young people, and it's one of the many reasons it's important that the league get a handle on this and have a zero tolerance."

The official's comments come as the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell are facing criticism after numerous off-field incidents involving players including Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson and, most recently, Jonathan Dwyer.

After the Baltimore Ravens cut Rice earlier this month, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement, "The President is the father of two daughters. And like any American, he believes that domestic violence is contemptible and unacceptable in a civilized society. Hitting a woman is not something a real man does, and that's true whether or not an act of violence happens in the public eye, or, far too often, behind closed doors. Stopping domestic violence is something that's bigger than football - and all of us have a responsibility to put a stop to it."

The White House's new initiative, "It's on Us", "aims to fundamentally shift the way we think about sexual assault, by inspiring everyone to see it as their responsibility to do something, big or small, to prevent it," the White House said in a statement. It's being launched in conjunction with colleges, universities, students, the NCAA, and "private companies that have strong connections with students," the statement continued.




'The NFL has an obligation not only to their fans but to the American people to properly discipline anyone involved in domestic violence or child abuse and more broadly, gain control of the situation,' the official continued. 'Many of these professional athletes are marketed as role models to young people and so their behavior does have the potential to influence these young people, and it's one of the many reasons it's important that the league get a handle on this and have a zero tolerance.'... After the Baltimore Ravens cut Rice earlier this month, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement, 'The President is the father of two daughters. And like any American, he believes that domestic violence is contemptible and unacceptable in a civilized society. Hitting a woman is not something a real man does, and that's true whether or not an act of violence happens in the public eye, or, far too often, behind closed doors. Stopping domestic violence is something that's bigger than football - and all of us have a responsibility to put a stop to it.'... 'It's on Us', 'aims to fundamentally shift the way we think about sexual assault, by inspiring everyone to see it as their responsibility to do something, big or small, to prevent it,' the White House said in a statement.”

This article is clearly and forcefully stated. I'm glad to see President Obama speak up on issues that affect the common man in his daily life. It adds a soul to an otherwise lofty position above us. Like Teddy Roosevelt, Obama obviously believes in the power of “the bully pulpit,” and so do I. My parents used to talk about Franklin Roosevelt's “fireside chats.” Most people are interested in what the president thinks about social issues as well as politics, and a president is an effective voice to lead society in a positive direction. I'm so glad that Obama is an eloquent speaker, and a basically good person. I like him very much.









A Coastal Paradise Confronts Its Watery Future – NPR
by JON HAMILTON
September 18, 2014

Dan Reiter, 37, is a long-board surfer and contractor who used to live in Tampa, Fla. Then he discovered the surf breaks along a stretch of coast south of Cape Canaveral. "It's one of the most beautiful places in the world to live and surf and raise your kids," says Reiter, 37, as we watch head-high waves roll into Hightower Beach.

But there's trouble in this coastal paradise. It's on a low-lying barrier island that's getting lower as sea level rises. So the cities here are looking for ways to keep the water at bay or retreat from it.

Reiter applauds these efforts but thinks that ultimately they will fail. "The idea of planning is really important to lengthen how long we can stay here," he says. "But you know in the end it's the same as living on a fault line, or just living in general. You know you're going to die at some point."

The question is: When? And the city of Satellite Beach is working hard to make sure it's not anytime soon.

About 11,000 people live in the city, which advertises itself as a wholesome place for families rather than as a tourist attraction. Locals jokingly call their home "Mayberry by the Sea."

Sea-level rise has been a hot topic here since 2004, when a pair of hurricanes scoured away the beach, damaged several properties and destroyed at least one waterfront home. "When that house went into the water, that was very surprising to people," says Courtney Barker, the city manager.

It was no surprise to coast scientists, though. About half the land in Satellite Beach is less than 6 feet above the water. And the direst projections of sea-level rise put some neighborhoods underwater within a few decades.

Whether or not those projections are accurate, Barker says, the problem is something the city can't ignore. "We have evidence of coastal erosion and we have flooding during rain events that has gotten worse," she says. "We're at a point where we recognize that we may have a problem in the future, and we need to sit down with the public and hash out a way to address it."

But, how? At one extreme, the city could retreat — abandoning structures that are in harm's way, or moving them to higher ground. Unfortunately, there's not much higher ground available.

At the other extreme, the city could gird the coast with seawalls, levees and dikes. But that tends to increase erosion elsewhere, and geologists say the ground here is so porous that water would still seep in.

So next week, the city will hold a public meeting to begin a debate about how to become more resilient. "Everything is on the table," says Frank Catino, mayor of Satellite Beach.

A Man-Made Problem

The fact that Satellite Beach is actually talking about sea-level rise puts it far ahead of many other communities, says John Fergus, a retired Air Force officer who has encouraged the city to begin planning. But Satellite Beach also faces some major challenges, he says.

To show me what he means, Fergus takes me on a pontoon-boat tour of the waterways on the lagoon side of the island. "Where we are right now used to be palmetto scrub," he says as we glide past a Mediterranean-style waterfront mansion and many simpler homes along the narrow canals.

The neighborhood we're in was transformed from swamp to subdivision in the 1950s and 1960s, Fergus says, by dredging canals and then using the spoil to build up adjacent land. As a result, he says, many homes sit just a few feet above the water, along a coastline that is entirely man-made.

And most other parts of the city also have been shaped by people. Almost every buildable lot is occupied. The beaches are covered with sand brought in from other areas. Even the city's nature park is on a man-made island.

This sort of artificial landscape is common in this part of Florida, says Randy Parkinson, a coastal geologist who has spent years studying the challenges facing coastal cities. "When I first came up to this area from Miami, I tried to find a wetland that had not been altered by human activity," he says. "But there are no natural habitats left."

That's a big problem in an era when the sea is rising and storms may be getting more powerful, Parkinson says: "I see a train wreck."

But Satellite Beach is doing some things that could help it avoid or at least delay that wreck, he says. To show me what he means, he takes me to Hightower Beach Park, not far from where I spoke with Reiter, the surfer.

About 15 years ago, the city acquired this half-mile of coastline from an owner who had been planning a condo. Instead, the city rebuilt the dune and protected it by planting sea oats and building a wooden crossover for beachgoers. The result, Parkinson says, is, "a buffer between the Atlantic Ocean energy and your urban landscape."

Projects like this one will give people on this island a bit more time to figure out what to do next, he says. But they won't stop sea-level rise.

Reiter says he doesn't want to leave the area but probably will be forced to at some point. "Let me put it this way," he says: "My daughter is 7 and I'm not planning on leaving her the house as a legacy. So when she's 40 and 50 years old, I think we're probably going to be somewhere else — maybe somewhere in Virginia, up on a mountain."




“But there's trouble in this coastal paradise. It's on a low-lying barrier island that's getting lower as sea level rises. So the cities here are looking for ways to keep the water at bay or retreat from it. Reiter applauds these efforts but thinks that ultimately they will fail. 'he idea of planning is really important to lengthen how long we can stay here,' he says. 'But you know in the end it's the same as living on a fault line, or just living in general. You know you're going to die at some point.'... 'When that house went into the water, that was very surprising to people,' says Courtney Barker, the city manager. It was no surprise to coast scientists, though. About half the land in Satellite Beach is less than 6 feet above the water. And the direst projections of sea-level rise put some neighborhoods underwater within a few decades.... At one extreme, the city could retreat... At the other extreme, the city could gird the coast with seawalls, levees and dikes. But that tends to increase erosion elsewhere, and geologists say the ground here is so porous that water would still seep in....”

This is the second coastal city that was in the news over the last few years for trying to develop a forward-looking plan to avoid a major contest with the sea. Retreating is probably the only real answer. Demolish the buildings that are probably going to be underwater in the next half century and move the city maybe ten miles inland is probably better than the dykes and sea walls mentioned in this article. Jacksonville, FL, where I live, has an area about ten miles wide bordering the coast that, due to its elevation, will probably be underwater in any major storm that hits us directly. Luckily most hurricanes go farther north or south of us rather than hitting here. There is a neck of land just north of the city that juts out into the sea and some people think that protects our particular stretch of beach from the path of most storms, somehow guiding the storm out and up.

Our first few miles from the water is in a “must evacuate” section in the case of a hurricane. Luckily I live west of that, and I may be gone to my ultimate reward by the time sea levels rise to that degree, but in this way and a few others – such as the extreme drought on the California coast during the last four years – we are already seeing signs of the problems from global warming. The evidence of greater ingress of the storm surge in hurricanes is something that will become an economic and security factor within the next ten years, I think. Moving city limits back farther inland should probably start now, to avoid some of those problems, and keeping it from being an emergency situation.

I hate to think of beautiful St. Augustine being underwater. It's the oldest city in the US, and full of historic spots, plus it's simply charming and relaxing, with a population of only 13,407. If you ever come here to visit you must go to the old Spanish fort there. It is kept in good condition, with shows several times a day featuring reenactors dressed in 17th century Spanish uniforms. It's great fun!




Court Says Navy Investigators Illegally Scan Civilian Computers – NPR
by MARTIN KASTE
September 18, 2014

An appeals court ruling has offered a rare glimpse at the extent to which military police investigations reach into civilians' computers. Apparently, they scan civilian computers quite often — and to a degree that a 9th Circuit appeals court has now found violates the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act.

Some background: Posse Comitatus bars the military from enforcing state laws. But each military branch is still allowed to police — and investigate — its members off-base. The Navy has the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and one of its units based in Georgia spends its time looking for Navy personnel who trade in child porn online. One of those searches caught a civilian, Washington state resident Michael Dreyer. When NCIS saw that he wasn't in the military, its investigators passed the information on to civilian law enforcement, which led to Dreyer's arrest and prosecution.

And that's the problem, says the court. Military police aren't supposed to be making cases against civilians.

The problem is how they caught him. We're not talking about NSA-level espionage; this is more basic. NCIS is using software that scans file-sharing services such as Gnutella for illicit images. Civilian law enforcement agencies use the same kind of software, without the court's objection. If you open your computer up to file-sharing, it's pretty much guaranteed that the "shared" portion of your hard drive will be scanned by law enforcement — repeatedly.

The NCIS agent who caught Dreyer testified that he used the software to target file-sharers with IP addresses in the state of Washington, because it has Navy installations. But since there's no way to narrow that kind of search to Washington residents who are in the military, he was effectively searching the whole state.

The court likened that to having military police stop cars in downtown Seattle on the "off chance" that a drunken driver was in the military.

Dreyer's appellate attorney, Erik Levin, says the appeals court recognized that an important American legal principle was at stake.

"Part of the fabric of our culture is a deep-seated suspicion of the military engaging in civilian affairs," says Levin. "What [NCIS] did here is really unprecedented."

The decision to throw out Dreyer's 18-year sentence was not unanimous. One member of the three-judge panel, Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain, agreed that the NCIS has violated the Posse Comitatus Act, but he disagreed with what he called "the majority's misbegotten remedy for that violation."

"This case provides no justification for setting a convicted child pornographer free," O'Scannlain wrote.

This case may seem like a one-off situation, but it's not. Members of the U.S. military live online just as much — or more — than the rest of us, and military police are there watching them. Levin says the Georgia NCIS agent admitted that his unit routinely searches computers across whole geographic areas, and he knows of at least one other case of a civilian who was prosecuted after being caught by a military search.

As more civilians are caught in these military police investigations, Posse Comitatus is likely to come up again.




“The problem is how they caught him. We're not talking about NSA-level espionage; this is more basic. NCIS is using software that scans file-sharing services such as Gnutella for illicit images. Civilian law enforcement agencies use the same kind of software, without the court's objection. If you open your computer up to file-sharing, it's pretty much guaranteed that the "shared" portion of your hard drive will be scanned by law enforcement — repeatedly.... The court likened that to having military police stop cars in downtown Seattle on the "off chance" that a drunken driver was in the military. Dreyer's appellate attorney, Erik Levin, says the appeals court recognized that an important American legal principle was at stake. 'Part of the fabric of our culture is a deep-seated suspicion of the military engaging in civilian affairs,' says Levin. 'What [NCIS] did here is really unprecedented.'”

Given the situation with child pornography nowadays, especially on the Internet, I am sorry to see that the bad guy was liberated by the court. However, the military police when they catch a civilian will have to refrain from notifying the police, as they did in this case. Or the local police could set up a sting specifically to try to catch him. There have been more than one case of local police stinging would-be sexual predators, though, with the take-down being filmed for the news. I saw two of those shows. I remember a rabbi, a school principal, and other unlikely individuals. The “perps” were invited into the house to wait, they thought, for a teenaged girl and instead encountered detectives from the police department. It was a great show, but it made me very uneasy about the landscape outside our homes, and the number and type of predators that are out there.






Ukrainian President Thanks Congress For Supporting Freedom – NPR
by SCOTT NEUMAN
September 18, 2014

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko addressed a joint meeting of Congress today, thanking lawmakers for their support of Kiev in its fight against Russian-backed separatists.

Freedom, Poroshenko said, is "at the core of Ukrainian existence.

"We have an unbreakable will to live free," he said, saying his nation was "at the center of the most heroic story of the last decade."

Calling Russia's annexation of Crimea a "most cynical act of treachery," Poroshenko thanked lawmakers for standing by his government.

"More of you were with us over the last winter. I thank you for this solidarity," he said to loud applause.

Poroshenko is in the United States to lobby the White House and Congress for increased aid in his country's fight against the insurgency in its eastern provinces.

However, The Washington Post notes: "Amid concerns about Ukraine's commitment to anti-corruption efforts and Western caution about escalating a military conflict with Russia, it remained far from clear that Ukraine's leader would leave Washington with a substantial new pledge of support."

Poroshenko also plans to meet with President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry and House Speaker John Boehner.

The Associated Press writes:
"White House officials made clear that Poroshenko's visit — his first to the U.S. since being elected this summer — was aimed in part at sending a message to Russia about the West's backing for the embattled former Soviet republic.
" 'The picture of President Poroshenko sitting in the Oval Office will be worth at least a thousand words — both in English and Russian,' White House spokesman Josh Earnest said."

Last week, Boehner said of the Ukrainian leader's plan to visit: "Having President Poroshenko address Congress is another signal of our steadfast commitment to the aspirations of his people."

His visit follows a similar stop in the Canadian capital on Wednesday, where the Ukrainian president was met with cheers and standing ovations in a speech before Parliament.

"To be frank with you, I feel very much at home with you here today in a country that is very close to Ukraine," Poroshenko told members of Parliament in Ottawa. "Canada is a friend, indeed."




"'The picture of President Poroshenko sitting in the Oval Office will be worth at least a thousand words — both in English and Russian,' White House spokesman Josh Earnest said." President Obama may still be loath to get too deeply involved in Ukraine, but it seems to me that we could give them weapons and possibly even “military advisors,” as the Russians are doing for their rebels and we are doing in Iraq. If Russia should become emboldened toward a goal of conquest over its past subjects, Europe will suffer severely. I don't trust Putin. I think he has a fixed idea about grabbing some of Russia's own land back and becoming another Julius Caesar. He's smart, but he isn't quite civilized, and certainly not honest. His game-playing in Ukraine is evidence of that. Hopefully we will give President Poroshenko some substantial aid.