Friday, October 10, 2014


News Clips For The Day


ISIS encroaches on ultimate prize in Iraq
By ELIZABETH PALMER CBS NEWS October 10, 2014, 6:25 AM

BAGHDAD -- Militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have infiltrated one of Baghdad's outer suburbs, Abu Ghraib which is only eight miles from the runway perimeter of Baghdad's international airport.

It's cause for serious concern now that the Iraqi Defense Ministry has confirmed ISIS has MANPADs, shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles.

The Iraqi army is still patrolling Abu Ghraib, but they play cat and mouse with the ISIS fighters who stage hit and run attacks on security forces.

It's a mixed picture around the city. ISIS took over the city of Fallujah -- only about 40 miles west of Baghdad -- in January, and the Iraqi security forces have fought in vain for a year to force them out.

Instead, and in spite of weeks of U.S.-led airstrikes, ISIS has gradually extended its reach. The extremist group is now either present or in control of a huge swath of countryside, forming a 180-degree arc around the Iraqi capital from due north around to the west, and all the way to the south.

Around this zone there have been skirmishes, and occasionally heavy fighting, with Iraqi security forces and Shiite militias battling ISIS.

American jets have carried out more than two dozen airstrikes in the area, mainly near Fallujah and the city of Ramadi, further to the west.

Inside Baghdad itself, there are ISIS sleeper cells that carry out almost daily bombings and assassinations.

An Iraqi officer told CBS News that the airstrikes are helping to clear an ISIS-free buffer zone around the city, where there are Iraqi boots on the ground. In fact, there are 60,000 men assigned to defend the capital, but it's not clear they are disciplined enough to put up a sufficient fight if ISIS launches a major offensive.

As at least three major Iraqi military debacles have shown over the past five months -- the most stunning being the quick fall of Mosul in the north -- the army is plagued with problems of poor leadership and endemic corruption that undermine their effectiveness as a fighting force.

As CBS News correspondent David Martin reported from the Pentagon on Thursday, due to the relatively poor performance of the Iraqi troops west of Baghdad, the airstrikes are having a limited impact.

In a clear indication of both the urgency of stopping any advance on Baghdad from the West, and in the need for precision strikes around the densely populated city, the U.S. used Apache attack helicopters -- for the first time in the fight against ISIS -- in Anbar province on Sunday.

The militants largely control the main highway between Baghdad and the border with Jordan, to the west, and the desert surrounding it.




“The Iraqi army is still patrolling Abu Ghraib, but they play cat and mouse with the ISIS fighters who stage hit and run attacks on security forces.... Instead, and in spite of weeks of U.S.-led airstrikes, ISIS has gradually extended its reach. The extremist group is now either present or in control of a huge swath of countryside, forming a 180-degree arc around the Iraqi capital from due north around to the west, and all the way to the south.... Inside Baghdad itself, there are ISIS sleeper cells that carry out almost daily bombings and assassinations. An Iraqi officer told CBS News that the airstrikes are helping to clear an ISIS-free buffer zone around the city, where there are Iraqi boots on the ground. In fact, there are 60,000 men assigned to defend the capital, but it's not clear they are disciplined enough to put up a sufficient fight if ISIS launches a major offensive.... As CBS News correspondent David Martin reported from the Pentagon on Thursday, due to the relatively poor performance of the Iraqi troops west of Baghdad, the airstrikes are having a limited impact.”

I am of the opinion that the main problem is the Iraqi Army either can't or won't fight when they are severely threatened. Are they lacking in equipment and basic supplies? Are they that thoroughly terrified of ISIS? Do they lack a central identity as Iraqis, which would give them something concrete to fight for? Are they not trained in tactics? Whatever it is, Obama is unwilling to send in a large number of ground troops to do more than train and assist, so we may be seeing the end of Iraq as a nation. The courageous Kurds, meanwhile, have yet to receive heavy armaments from the Pentagon, while our city police forces continue to get armored vehicles capable of standing up to land mines. The situation is really upside down.





Two win Nobel with fight for children's rights
CBS/AP October 10, 2014, 5:08 AM

OSLO, Norway -- Children's rights activists Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan and Kailash Satyarthi of India and have won the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee cited the two "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education."

"Showing great personal courage, Kailash Satyarthi, maintaining Gandhi's tradition, has headed various forms of protests and demonstrations, all peaceful, focusing on the grave exploitation of children for financial gain," said the Nobel Committee.

The Committee lauded Yousafzai for showing, "by example that children and young people, too, can contribute to improving their own situations," and noted that she had done so "under the most dangerous circumstances."

Yousafzai, now 17, spoke out publicly about her right to an education in Pakistan's volatile tribal region -- where Taliban militants hold sway and often target women and girls who attend school. She was attacked on her way home from school in Oct. 2012.

She was shot at close range but survived and refused to bow to Taliban threats, taking on a far higher-profile role and advocating women's rights around the world.

The Nobel Committee said it "regards it as an important point for a Hindu and a Muslim, an Indian and a Pakistani, to join in a common struggle for education and against extremism."

The founder of the Nobel Prizes, Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, said the prize committee should give the prize to "the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."

The committee has interpreted those instructions differently over time, widening the concept of peace work to include efforts to improve human rights, fight poverty and clean up the environment.




“'Showing great personal courage, Kailash Satyarthi, maintaining Gandhi's tradition, has headed various forms of protests and demonstrations, all peaceful, focusing on the grave exploitation of children for financial gain,' said the Nobel Committee. The Committee lauded Yousafzai for showing, 'by example that children and young people, too, can contribute to improving their own situations,' and noted that she had done so 'under the most dangerous circumstances.'... The committee has interpreted those instructions differently over time, widening the concept of peace work to include efforts to improve human rights, fight poverty and clean up the environment.”

Malala Yousafzai has shown great strength under extreme pressure from the Taliban, ending in her being shot in the head. She not only recovered, she has become a full scale activist in the cause of education for women in Pakistan. She faces the cameras at all times with a serene and positive smile and has addressed the UN, and she is only 17 this year. She is no “typical teenager.” Kailash Satyarthi is less well known, at least to me, so I have included below excerpts from this Wikipedia biography and the companion article on child labor in England and the US. It was not until 1938 that the US Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, putting the modern regulations into place, so we are not so very far ahead of places like India in this way. Big business unregulated is based on unfair and corrupt practices. That's why I vote Democrat.


Kailash Satyarthi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kailash Satyarthi (born 11 January 1954) is an Indian children's rights activist and a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.[1] He founded the Bachpan Bachao Andolan — or Save the Childhood Movement — in 1980 and has acted to protect the rights of 80,000 children.[3][4]

He was awarded the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, jointly with Malala Yousafzai, "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education".[5][6]

Kailash Satyarthi was born on 11 January 1954 in Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh. He studied electrical engineering[7] atSamrat Ashok Technological Institute (SATI), Vidisha M.P. and then pursued post-graduate studies in high-voltage engineering. He then taught as a lecturer at a college in Bhopal for few years.[8]

Work[edit]

In 1980 he gave up his career as a teacher and became secretary general for the Bonded Labor Liberation Front; he also founded the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Mission) that year.[9][10] He has also been involved with the Global March Against Child Labor[11] and its international advocacy body, the International Center on Child Labor and Education (ICCLE),[12] which are worldwide coalitions of NGOs, teachers and trades unionists, and also the Global Campaign for Education.[13][14] He served as the President of the Global Campaign for Education, from its inception in 1999 to 2011, having been one of its four founders alongside ActionAid, Oxfam and Education International.[15]

In addition, he established Rugmark (now known as Goodweave) as the first voluntary labelling, monitoring and certification system of rugs manufactured without the use of child-labour in South Asia.[16] This latter organisation operated a campaign in Europe and the USA in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the intent of raising consumer awareness of the issues relating to the accountability of global corporations with regard to socially responsible consumerism and trade.[17] Satyarthi has highlighted child labor as a human rights issue as well as a welfare matter and charitable cause. He has argued that it perpetuates poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, population growth and other social problems,[18] and his claims have been supported by several studies.[19][20] 

He has also had a role in linking the movement against child labour with efforts for achieving "Education for All".[21] He has been a member of aUNESCO body established to examine this and has been on the board of the Fast Track Initiative (now known as theGlobal Partnership for Education).[22] Satyarthi serves on the board and committee of several international organisations including the Center for Victims of Torture (USA), the International Labor Rights Fund (USA), and the International Cocoa Foundation. He is now reportedly working on bringing child labour and slavery into the post-2015 development agenda for the United Nation's Millenium Development Goals.[23]

Satyarthi, along with Pakistani activist Malala Yousufzai, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education".[24]Satyarthi is the seventh Nobel Prize winner for India and only the second Indian winner of the Nobel Peace Prize after Mother Teresa in 1979.[1]



http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/history-child-labor

A History of Child Labor
Reviewed by Milton Fried
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
The New Book of Knowledge. Grolier Online, 2014. Web. 26 June 2014.

There was a time when many U.S. children toiled in factories for 70 hours a week, until child labor laws went into effect in the 1900s.

In the late 1700's and early 1800's, power-driven machines replaced hand labor for making most manufactured items. Factories began to spring up everywhere, first in England and then in the United States. The factory owners found a new source of labor to run their machines—children. Operating the power-driven machines did not require adult strength, and children could be hired more cheaply than adults. By the mid-1800's, child labor was a major problem.

Children had always worked, especially in farming. But factory work was hard. A child with a factory job might work 12 to 18 hours a day, six days a week, to earn a dollar. Many children began working before the age of 7, tending machines in spinning mills or hauling heavy loads. The factories were often damp, dark, and dirty. Some children worked underground, in coal mines. The working children had no time to play or go to school, and little time to rest. They often became ill.

By 1810, about 2 million school-age children were working 50- to 70-hour weeks. Most came from poor families. When parents could not support their children, they sometimes turned them over to a mill or factory owner. One glass factory in Massachusetts was fenced with barbed wire "to keep the young imps inside." These were boys under 12 who carried loads of hot glass all night for a wage of 40 cents to $1.10 per night.

Church and labor groups, teachers, and many other people were outraged by such cruelty. The English writer Charles Dickens helped publicize the evils of child labor with his novel Oliver Twist.

Britain was the first to pass laws regulating child labor. From 1802 to 1878, a series of laws gradually shortened the working hours, improved the conditions, and raised the age at which children could work. Other European countries adopted similar laws.

In the United States it took many years to outlaw child labor. By 1899, 28 states had passed laws regulating child labor. Many efforts were made to pass a national child labor law. The U.S. Congress passed two laws, in 1918 and 1922, but the Supreme Court declared both unconstitutional. In 1924, Congress proposed a constitutional amendment prohibiting child labor, but the states did not ratify it. Then, in 1938, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act. It fixed minimum ages of 16 for work during school hours, 14 for certain jobs after school, and 18 for dangerous work. Today all the states and the U.S. government have laws regulating child labor. These laws have cured the worst evils of children working in factories.

But some kinds of work are not regulated. Children of migrant workers, for example, have no legal protection. Farmers may legally employ them outside of school hours. The children pick crops in the fields and move from place to place, so they get little schooling.

The Canadian provinces today have child labor laws similar to those in the United States. Most other countries have laws regulating child labor, too. But the laws are not always enforced. Starting in 1999, over 160 countries approved an International Labor Organization (ILO) agreement to end the worst forms of child labor. (The ILO is a part of the United Nations.) The agreement came into effect in the year 2000. According to the ILO, the number of child laborers around the world has been falling. However, as of 2006, there were still 218 million child laborers worldwide; 126 million of them were engaged in hazardous work. The ILO also runs the world's largest program to help countries eliminate child labor.





Violence mars 2nd night of protests in St. Louis
CBS/AP October 10, 2014, 4:39 AM

ST. LOUIS -- Protesters angered by the fatal shooting of a black 18-year-old by police faced off with officers in south St. Louis for a second night as accusations of racial profiling prompted calls for a federal investigation ahead of a weekend of planned rallies and civil disobedience.

State and city leaders have urged the Justice Department to investigate the death of Vonderrit D. Myers in the Shaw neighborhood Wednesday night, fearing he was targeted because he was black. Police say the white officer who killed Myers was returning fire, but Myers' parents say he was unarmed.

"This here was racial profiling turned deadly," state Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, a St. Louis Democrat, said at a news conference Thursday.

Myers' death comes two months after the Aug. 9 fatal shooting of Michael Brown, a black unarmed 18-year-old, by a white police officer in nearby Ferguson. Brown's killing sparked dozens of often violent protests in the St. Louis suburb. A state grand jury is deciding whether Officer Darren Wilson will face charges in his death.

Late Thursday night following a quiet candlelight prayer vigil for Myers, hundreds of people joined a more rowdy gathering in Shaw to protest his death.

Police in riot gear lined up on a high street, flanked by brand name stores and restaurants. Protesters yelled abuse and profanities to taunt the officers, who silently stood their ground. Police helicopters buzzed above the neighborhood. Officers used pepper spray to force the crowd back.

Some protesters burned the American flag, while others banged on drums and shouted "This is what democracy looks like!" Some slammed the sides of police vans. Broken glass littered the street.

Eventually the protesters backed off, moving a couple of blocks away. Riot police remained in the area.

Two arrests were made, reports CBS St. Louis affiliate KMOV-TV.

St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson, who was on-scene, told the station that at one point, a large knife came flying out of the crowd and hit an officer in the shoulder. "Fortunately, not the blade edge," he said.

Dotson said officers defused the volatile situation with "dialogue and communication" with the protesters.

Organizers say thousands of activists and protesters from around the country are expected to come to the St. Louis area for four days of rallies, marches and civil disobedience to protest the Ferguson shooting, racial profiling and police violence. The events, which start Friday and include a march Saturday in downtown St. Louis, have taken on added urgency in the wake of Myers' death.

"This is a racial powder keg," said Jerryl Christmas, a St. Louis attorney who was among more than 20 black leaders who joined Nasheed at a news conference Thursday outside police headquarters. "All this is going to do is escalate the situation."

Police say Myers was both armed and aggressive, using a stolen 9 mm gun to shoot at the officer.

Syreeta Myers said her son was holding a sandwich, not a gun. "Police lie. They lied about Michael Brown, too," she told The Associated Press by phone Thursday.

Dotson said the officer spotted Myers and two other males around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday while working a security job and patrolling a neighborhood near the Missouri Botanical Gardens. Dotson said the officer, who was off-duty but wearing his uniform, became suspicious when one of them started to run.

He chased them, first in his car and then on foot, Dotson said.

During the chase, he got into a physical altercation with Myers, who ran up a hill, turned and fired at the officer, the chief said. The officer, who wasn't hurt, shot back.

Ballistic evidence shows Myers fired three shots before his gun jammed, Dotson said. Police said they recovered the 9 mm gun, which was reported stolen on Sept. 26.
The officer fired off 17 rounds. Preliminary autopsy results show a shot to the head killed Myers, according to medical examiner Dr. Michael Graham.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Graham said Myers was shot six or seven times in the lower extremities and the fatal shot entered his right cheek.

Authorities have not released the name of the six-year veteran of the St. Louis Police Department. The 32-year-old officer is on paid administrative leave pending an investigation.

An attorney for the officer told the newspaper that his client served with the U.S. Marines in Iraq and was "shaken up" by the incident. He called claims that Myers was carrying a sandwich not a gun "ridiculous."

Online court documents show Myers was free on bond when he was killed. He had been charged with unlawful use of a weapon, a felony, and misdemeanor resisting arrest in June.

Myers' was the third fatal shooting of a black male by St. Louis-area police since Brown's death.

"It's imperative that we began to heal this community," Nasheed said. "This community has been broken down. We have too many deaths at the hands of police officers."




“State and city leaders have urged the Justice Department to investigate the death of Vonderrit D. Myers in the Shaw neighborhood Wednesday night, fearing he was targeted because he was black. Police say the white officer who killed Myers was returning fire, but Myers' parents say he was unarmed.... Late Thursday night following a quiet candlelight prayer vigil for Myers, hundreds of people joined a more rowdy gathering in Shaw to protest his death. Police in riot gear lined up on a high street, flanked by brand name stores and restaurants. Protesters yelled abuse and profanities to taunt the officers, who silently stood their ground. Police helicopters buzzed above the neighborhood. Officers used pepper spray to force the crowd back.... St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson, who was on-scene, told the station that at one point, a large knife came flying out of the crowd and hit an officer in the shoulder. 'Fortunately, not the blade edge,' he said. Dotson said officers defused the volatile situation with 'dialogue and communication' with the protesters. Organizers say thousands of activists and protesters from around the country are expected to come to the St. Louis area for four days of rallies.... 'This is a racial powder keg,' said Jerryl Christmas, a St. Louis attorney who was among more than 20 black leaders who joined Nasheed at a news conference Thursday outside police headquarters. 'All this is going to do is escalate the situation.'... Authorities have not released the name of the six-year veteran of the St. Louis Police Department. The 32-year-old officer is on paid administrative leave pending an investigation. An attorney for the officer told the newspaper that his client served with the U.S. Marines in Iraq and was 'shaken up' by the incident. He called claims that Myers was carrying a sandwich not a gun 'ridiculous.'”

Again a single officer, not even on duty, takes on three black youths who aroused his suspicion by one of them beginning to run when they saw his uniform and the others followed. He should have called headquarters for backup before confronting them. That would be to have aid in their capture and to have witnesses. However he chose to chase them alone, first in his car and then on foot, and finally cornered them, as one young man Myers pulled a gun and shot at him. The officer shot back seven times. The final shot was to the head. He also was not wearing a camera on his uniform, so it's his word against theirs. That's one of the basic problems in these confrontations. The police should have evidence when they do these take downs.

There was no sign that the youths were engaged in any crime, except that they ran. That alone is grounds for further investigation, however, as people who weren't doing anything wrong shouldn't have run. They may have been planning to sell drugs on the street or perhaps commit a robbery, of course. The youth's mother said he didn't have a gun, but just a sandwich. There has been no report on the character of Myers, such as school grades, church membership, etc. Those things could modify the impression of guilt.

As it is, it's fodder for more civil disobedience or worse, riots. The black St. Louis lawyer Jerryl Christmas said, “'All this is going to do is escalate the situation.'” Even if the police don't want to rein in their officers actions because they feel these episodes are justified police shootings, as a community in a nation that needs to be peaceful rather than in a constant state of opposition, city leaders need to make rules against these thoughtless actions. It would have been better for the three youths to run away than for this shooting to have occurred. Why did the officer give chase when he wasn't on duty and had no backup? It's my opinion that he didn't think the situation through from the standpoint of eliminating fatal incidents, and that's what the cities need to be working on.





Microsoft CEO blasted over remarks on women's pay
CBS/AP October 10, 2014, 5:36 AM

NEW YORK -- Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella apologized Thursday night and said he was wrong for saying that women don't need to ask for a raise and should just trust the system to pay them well.

Nadella was blasted on Twitter and in blog posts for his comments, which were made earlier Thursday at an event for women in computing. Tech companies hire many more men than women. And beyond the tech industry, women are typically paid less than men.

He had been asked to give his advice to women who are uncomfortable requesting a raise. His response: "It's not really about asking for the raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along." Not asking for raise, he added, is "good karma" that would help a boss realize that the employee could be trusted and should have more responsibility.

But his comments caused an uproar online, and Microsoft posted a memo from him on its website. In it, Nadella said he answered the question "completely wrong" and that he thinks "men and women should get equal pay for equal work. And when it comes to career advice on getting a raise when you think it's deserved, Maria's advice was the right advice. If you think you deserve a raise, you should just ask."

His interviewer at the event, Maria Klawe, president of Harvey Mudd College and a Microsoft director, had told him she disagreed, which drew cheers from the audience. She suggested women do their homework on salary information and first practice asking with people they trust.

Still, his comments at the event, the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, underscored why many see technology companies as workplaces that are difficult to navigate or even unfriendly for women and minorities. Tech companies, particularly the engineering ranks, are overwhelmingly male, white and Asian.

Criticized for their lack of diversity, major companies say they are trying to address the problem with programs such as employee training sessions and by participating in initiatives meant to introduce girls to coding.

Twenty-nine percent of Microsoft's employees are women, according to figures the Redmond, Washington-based company released earlier this month. Its technical and engineering staff and its management are just 17 percent female.

That's roughly comparable to diversity data released by other big tech companies this year.

"Without a doubt I wholeheartedly support programs at Microsoft and in the industry that bring more women into technology and close the pay gap," Nadella wrote in his memo to employees.

"I think it was a surprisingly unvarnished moment," New York Times tech columnist Molly Wood said. "You have to imagine that if someone within Microsoft was already concerned about treatment of women there, they might be feeling a little more concerned now."

Nadella is in his first year as Microsoft CEO and makes $1.2 million per year. But with potential bonuses, he could earn nearly $5 million.




“Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella apologized Thursday night and said he was wrong for saying that women don't need to ask for a raise and should just trust the system to pay them well. Nadella was blasted on Twitter and in blog posts for his comments, which were made earlier Thursday at an event for women in computing. Tech companies hire many more men than women. And beyond the tech industry, women are typically paid less than men. He had been asked to give his advice to women who are uncomfortable requesting a raise. His response: 'It's not really about asking for the raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along.' Not asking for raise, he added, is 'good karma' that would help a boss realize that the employee could be trusted and should have more responsibility.... Tech companies, particularly the engineering ranks, are overwhelmingly male, white and Asian. Criticized for their lack of diversity, major companies say they are trying to address the problem with programs such as employee training sessions and by participating in initiatives meant to introduce girls to coding.... Nadella is in his first year as Microsoft CEO and makes $1.2 million per year. But with potential bonuses, he could earn nearly $5 million.”

Only 29% of Microsoft's workforce are women, and of those only 17% are employed in technical and engineering positions. I wonder what percentage of young women are getting technical degrees suitable for such jobs now. I also wonder how many make applications to Microsoft and other IT companies nowadays. Satya Nadella, according to Wikipedia, was born in India in 1967, but is an American citizen. Indians are not known for their liberal views on women, however, even if they aren't Islamic.

I do think he learned a lesson in this episode on what not to say. Within hours he did an about face and said how wrong his answer was, and that “'Without a doubt I wholeheartedly support programs at Microsoft and in the industry that bring more women into technology and close the pay gap,' Nadella wrote in his memo to employees. His warning about good and bad karma was an indication that he foresees discontent among the men if women are advanced, however. There have been comments in the press about the poor treatment of women in the IT industry over the last year or so that I have been doing this blog, ao there is still relatively little progress. Maybe if women push harder that will change.






U.S. troops prep to face an invisible enemy
CBS NEWS October 10, 2014, 6:51 AM

American soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division -- 700 of them -- are to leave in just two weeks for a mission that's anything but typical, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Axelrod.

Usually troop deployment takes six months of preparation, but this time troops will train and be ready to ship out in a total of just six weeks.

Sergeant Anthony Maddox told Axelrod that in his 15 years in the Army, he's never had a day like this.

"Just like a hostile combatant on the battlefield, it can kill you," Maddox said. "But this one isn't so much ... you can't see it -- you know it's there, but you can't see it."

Maddox and more than 100 of his fellow soldiers from the 101st Airborne spent four hours in a training facility Thursday.

They're learning safety measures and being outfitted with gear to protect them from the new, invisible adversary, the deadly Ebola virus.

Troops were taught how to put on different pieces of protective equipment.

They'll use Hazmat-like suits -- the yellow for standard protection, the white for more dangerous environments -- and rubber gloves and gas masks to protect their faces and lungs.

They were paired up to check and double-check everything was in its proper place and to help decontaminate each other when taking their suits off; that's when the majority of contaminations occur.

But so far, the men don't seem worried about contracting the virus.

"I haven't heard anyone express that, no," said Battalion Commander Nikolaus Guran. "They want to know about it, and they want to learn about it, and they want to learn how to deal with it."

The U.S. Military has 350 personnel in West Africa already, with almost 4,000 more expected to be deployed.

Costing nearly $1 billion, the mission will help with logistics and to build medical centers with 17, 100 more beds.

But the vast majority of the soldiers don't expect to come into direct contact with the disease.

"We're supporting, so it would be very unlikely that one of our soldiers would encounter Ebola or someone infected with Ebola," Commander Guran said.

Still, soldiers like Sergeant Maddox are not taking anything for granted.

"It makes you more cautious, you feed off it," Sergeant Maddox said. "And it makes you prepared to be that much more careful when you're dealing with this particular threat."

Officials said Thursday the mission could last for as long as a year. It all depends on how fast these countries are able to contain the virus.




“'Just like a hostile combatant on the battlefield, it can kill you,' Maddox said. 'But this one isn't so much ... you can't see it -- you know it's there, but you can't see it.' Maddox and more than 100 of his fellow soldiers from the 101st Airborne spent four hours in a training facility Thursday. They're learning safety measures and being outfitted with gear to protect them from the new, invisible adversary, the deadly Ebola virus.... They were paired up to check and double-check everything was in its proper place and to help decontaminate each other when taking their suits off; that's when the majority of contaminations occur.... The U.S. Military has 350 personnel in West Africa already, with almost 4,000 more expected to be deployed. Costing nearly $1 billion, the mission will help with logistics and to build medical centers with 17, 100 more beds.... Officials said Thursday the mission could last for as long as a year. It all depends on how fast these countries are able to contain the virus.”

There have been so many slip ups among healthcare workers – otherwise why would so many of them have contracted the disease – that I fear for these relatively untrained men and women. Nonetheless, the need for more hospital beds is obvious, and perhaps for keeping order in some places.

There will be no panacea until a vaccine is developed and rushed out to the field, however. There is no time for years worth of scientific tests to prove the safety and effectiveness. There should be some trials, of course, but that can be done on patients who have contracted Ebola already and desperately need a treatment. I think there are enough Africans now who have recovered from Ebola and therefore who have antibodies in their systems, and who could donate their blood. A group like these soldiers could organize blood donations en masse. The main problem with blood donations seems to be that the blood types have to match. Red Cross does that kind of thing all the time.





VOTER ID LAWS


Judge strikes down Texas voter ID law
CBS/AP October 9, 2014, 11:44 PM

AUSTIN, Texas - A federal judge on Thursday likened Texas' tough voter ID law to a poll tax meant to suppress minority voters and blocked Texas from enforcing it just weeks ahead of next month's election, knocking down a measure the U.S. Justice Department condemned in court as deliberately discriminatory.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos of Corpus Christi is a defeat for Republican-backed photo ID measures that have swept the U.S. in recent years and have mostly been upheld in court. And it wasn't the only one. The U.S. Supreme Court also blocked Wisconsin from implementing a law requiring voters to present photo Ids.

Gonzales Ramos, an appointee of President Barack Obama, never signaled during a two-week trial in September that she intended to rule on the Texas law - rebuked as the toughest of its kind in the U.S. - before Election Day. But the timing could spare an estimated 13.6 million registered Texas voters from needing one of seven kinds of photos identification to cast a ballot.

The Justice Department says more than 600,000 of those voters, mostly blacks and Hispanics, currently lack any eligible ID to vote.

Gonzales Ramos' ruling says the law "creates an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote, has an impermissible discriminatory effect against Hispanics and African-Americans, and was imposed with an unconstitutional discriminatory purpose." It added that the measure: "constitutes an unconstitutional poll tax."

Republican Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's office said it would appeal.

"The State of Texas will immediately appeal and will urge the Fifth Circuit to resolve this matter quickly to avoid voter confusion in the upcoming election," said Lauren Bean, a spokeswoman for Abbott's office.

Early voting is scheduled to begin Monday, Oct. 20.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder looks at the ruling as a victory for his moves to challenge the voter identification laws in Texas

"We are extremely heartened by the court's decision, which affirms our position that the Texas voter identification law unfairly and unnecessarily restricts access to the franchise," Holder said in a statement released Thursday night. "Even after the Voting Rights Act was seriously eroded last year, we vowed to continue enforcing the remaining portions of that statute as aggressively as possible. This ruling is an important vindication of those efforts."

Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said, "The Court today effectively ruled that racial discrimination simply cannot spread to the ballot box."

Nineteen states have laws requiring voters to show identification at the polls. Courts across the country have knocked down challenges - including at the U.S. Supreme Court - but the Texas case attracted unusual attention from Holder.

He brought the weight of his office into Texas after the Supreme Court last year struck down the heart of the Voting Rights Act, which had prohibited the state from enacting its voter ID law signed by Republican Gov. Rick Perry in 2011. Democrats and minority rights groups joined the Justice Department in the lawsuit.

The full Voting Rights Act had blocked Texas and eight other states with histories of discrimination from changing election laws without permission from the DOJ or a federal court. Holder vowed to wring whatever protections he could from the new and weakened version, and made Texas a first target.

But prevailing in court required proving intentional discrimination, and Texas maintained that opponents produced no evidence.

Abbott is favored to win the race to replace Perry as governor. His office said minorities and whites alike supported the law in public opinion polls. It also pointed to other states, such as Georgia and Indiana, where the similar measures have been upheld.

But opponents slammed Texas' law as far more discriminatory. College students IDs aren't accepted by poll workers, but concealed handgun licenses are. Free voting IDs offered by the state require a birth certificate that costs little as $3, but the Justice Department argued that traveling to get those documents imposes an outsize burden on poor minorities.

As a result, opponents say, Texas has issued fewer than 300 free voter IDs since the law took effect. Georgia, meanwhile, has issued 2,200 voter IDs under a similar program with more robust outreach.

Texas has already conducted two smaller statewide elections under voter ID, in which no widespread issues were reported



http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/10/09/supreme-court-wisconsin-voter-id/16985963/

Supreme Court blocks Wisconsin's voter ID law
Richard Wolf, USA TODAY
October 9, 2014

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Thursday night blocked Wisconsin from implementing its new voter identification law on the eve of next month's elections.

In a related action, a district court judge in Texas ruled that state's voter ID law is racially discriminatory and violates the Voting Rights Act. The state attorney general's office said it would appeal.

Both Wisconsin and Texas had claimed the new rules were intended to crack down on instances in which voters impersonate others at the polls. Such incidents are extremely rare, courts have found.

The Supreme Court's order reverses a trend established by the justices in two other cases from Ohio and North Carolina, in which they allowed voting restrictions imposed by Republican legislatures to take effect.

In all three cases, however, it appeared the court wanted to respect changes made by elected officials without confusing or disenfranchising voters.

The court gave no reason for its action, as is routine for such emergency orders. But Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented, arguing that the court cannot block an appeals court ruling unless the lower court "clearly and demonstrably erred in its application of accepted standards."

In Wisconsin, the state requires voters to produce photo ID at the polls based on a 2011 law that was rolled out in time for low-turnout primaries the following year. Because of early problems, a state court blocked further use of the law.

Earlier this year, a federal district judge ruled the law unconstitutional because it disproportionately affected black and Hispanic residents. He also said the rationale for the law -- voters impersonating others at the polls -- was virtually non-existent.

A three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision last month, in part because of last-minute changes made by state officials to ease the burden on those lacking the proper ID. The full appeals court then deadlocked 5-5 on whether to reconsider the issue, thereby keeping the photo ID rule in place.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Advancement Project, a civil rights group, contend that the law jeopardizes the votes of some 300,000 residents who lack the proper ID — particularly racial minorities, seniors, students and people with disabilities.

Imposing the photo ID requirement "will cause chaos at the polls and will disenfranchise many thousands of Wisconsin voters," they argued in their petition to the Supreme Court. The groups said the justices should block the law for now and grant one of the cases challenging photo ID for a full hearing and decision.

State officials argued that they had been implementing the photo ID rule since early September. "Plaintiffs are asking this court to pinball state and local election officials between enforcing and not enforcing the law with November elections less than four weeks away," their brief said. "Voters would get the pinball treatment, too."

In the other two recent voting-rights cases, the Supreme Court acted differently:

• It allowed Ohio officials to eliminate one of five weeks set aside for early voting, as well as some evening and Sunday hours.

• It allowed North Carolina officials to eliminate same-day voter registration and discount votes cast mistakenly in the wrong precincts. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor dissented from that ruling.

All three cases are part of a broader national challenge by groups aligned with Democrats and minorities against laws passed by Republican legislatures that tighten voting procedures. Other cases are pending in Texas and Arkansas. Most face continued court battles that ultimately could be heard by the Supreme Court and decided on their broader merits.



discount voteswww.npr.org/2012/08/27/160138434/judge-halts-ohio-law-that-could-discount-votes

Judge Halts Ohio Law That Could Discount Votes – NPR
by CARRIE JOHNSON
August 27, 2012

A judge has given Ohio unions a preliminary injunction stopping a new state law that could endanger provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct, even if the cause is poll worker error.

 federal judge has put the breaks on an Ohio law that threatened to discount thousands of votes in a state that's key to the presidential race. The judge says the law could infringe on the constitutional rights of voters who cast provisional ballots in the wrong precincts because of mistakes by poll workers.

That's a big deal because Ohio voters in recent elections cast more than 100,000 provisional ballots. In 2008, the state threw out 14,000 of them because of errors. The Service Employees International Union and other groups say that's not fair. They sued to stop enforcement of the law before the November elections.

Today, a federal judge in Ohio agreed. The judge issued a preliminary injunction, ruling the law could disenfranchise thousands of Ohio voters and deprive them of their equal protection and due process rights under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

Ohio State University law professor, Dan Tokaji, says the court ruling could cast a long shadow.

DAN TOKAJI: In a close race, provisional ballots can make the difference between defeat and victory.

JOHNSON: A spokesman for Ohio's Secretary of State told NPR, he respectfully disagrees with the ruling and said the state is likely to appeal. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.





TEXAS – “A federal judge on Thursday likened Texas' tough voter ID law to a poll tax meant to suppress minority voters and blocked Texas from enforcing it just weeks ahead of next month's election, knocking down a measure the U.S. Justice Department condemned in court as deliberately discriminatory. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos of Corpus Christi is a defeat for Republican-backed photo ID measures that have swept the U.S. in recent years and have mostly been upheld in court. And it wasn't the only one. The U.S. Supreme Court also blocked Wisconsin from implementing a law requiring voters to present photo ID.... But the timing could spare an estimated 13.6 million registered Texas voters from needing one of seven kinds of photos identification to cast a ballot. The Justice Department says more than 600,000 of those voters, mostly blacks and Hispanics, currently lack any eligible ID to vote. Gonzales Ramos' ruling says the law 'creates an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote, has an impermissible discriminatory effect against Hispanics and African-Americans, and was imposed with an unconstitutional discriminatory purpose.' It added that the measure: 'constitutes an unconstitutional poll tax.'... But opponents slammed Texas' law as far more discriminatory. College students IDs aren't accepted by poll workers, but concealed handgun licenses are. Free voting IDs offered by the state require a birth certificate that costs little as $3, but the Justice Department argued that traveling to get those documents imposes an outsize burden on poor minorities.”

WISCONSIN – “Both Wisconsin and Texas had claimed the new rules were intended to crack down on instances in which voters impersonate others at the polls. Such incidents are extremely rare, courts have found. The Supreme Court's order reverses a trend established by the justices in two other cases from Ohio and North Carolina, in which they allowed voting restrictions imposed by Republican legislatures to take effect.... Earlier this year, a federal district judge ruled the law unconstitutional because it disproportionately affected black and Hispanic residents. … The American Civil Liberties Union and the Advancement Project, a civil rights group, contend that the law jeopardizes the votes of some 300,000 residents who lack the proper ID — particularly racial minorities, seniors, students and people with disabilities.... All three cases are part of a broader national challenge by groups aligned with Democrats and minorities against laws passed by Republican legislatures that tighten voting procedures. Other cases are pending in Texas and Arkansas. Most face continued court battles that ultimately could be heard by the Supreme Court and decided on their broader merits.”

Republicans have long been trying to disenfranchise certain groups. The groups in question now include more than just blacks – Hispanics, college students, seniors, and people with disabilities, in other words, people who tend to vote Democratic. I'm sure they feel that all is fair in love and war, but to me it's just dirty politics. There are a few more Democrats than Republicans in the country, so that if a candidate like Barak Obama with wide appeal to all Democrats is in the running, all his followers will tend to make a huge effort to get to the polls and vote. This results in a victory.

The Republicans would love to rule by financially overwhelming the Democrats with expensive mud slinging television ads and gifts by big businesses to Congressmen and Senators to influence legislation. They have never depended on the vote to gain control, but they still want to control as in the days of the Jim Crow South by preventing blacks and others from voting. The following 2013 ruling by the Supreme Court is responsible for the rash of state laws tightening restrictions on the eligibility of specific voters, the handling of provisional ballots, and the elimination of early voting. See below:


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/26/us/supreme-court-ruling.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Supreme Court Invalidates Key Part of Voting Rights Act

The Supreme Court on Tuesday effectively struck down the heart of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by a 5-to-4 vote, freeing nine states, mostly in the South, to change their election laws without advance federal approval. At the core of the disagreement was whether racial minorities continued to face barriers to voting in states with a history of discrimination.

“Our country has changed,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority. “While any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions.” The decision will have immediate practical consequences. Texas announced shortly after the decision that a voter identification law that had been blocked would go into effect immediately, and that redistricting maps there would no longer need federal approval. Changes in voting procedures in the places that had been covered by the law, including ones concerning restrictions on early voting, will now be subject only to after-the-fact litigation.