Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/287352005?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Column: No big compromises? Blame party power
WASHINGTON (AP) -- These days, it sounds like an improbable fairy tale: politicians with deeply differing visions of America setting aside disagreements to reach a grand compromise on a critical issue.
That's exactly what happened in 1790, when the Founding Fathers overlooked their parochial interests ? and defied their staunchest backers ? by agreeing, for the good of the fledgling union, to put America's capital in a neutral place along the Potomac River.
Would the same outcome happen today? Fat chance.
In this polarized and partisan era, Washington careens from one crisis to the next even as the country faces huge problems that threaten its standing in the world. With power divided on Capitol Hill, bipartisan solutions are necessary. And yet, while both Democrats and Republicans talk a lot about compromise ? a cross-the-aisle, solutions-driven approach ? few seem willing to give ground to fix what ails the nation.
The latest example is the stalemate over deep budget cuts set to take effect Friday, absent a bipartisan deal. The cuts likely will inconvenience average Americans and may slow the nation's fragile economic recovery. Both sides are dug in on their ideological positions. President Barack Obama and his Democrats want more tax increases, while Republicans demand more spending cuts.
This is the fifth fiscal standoff since this period of divided government began in 2011, when Republicans took over the House while Democrats continued to control the Senate. In the other cases, both sides reached mini-deals to avert immediate crisis ? only to ignore the larger issues. Skyrocketing debt and persistent deficits. Rampant waste, fraud and abuse. Budget-busting Social Security and Medicare programs.
Why does Washington get so caught up this cycle of panic ? whether manufactured or real ? only to ultimately put a Band-Aid on the country's biggest gushers without ever mending the underlying wounds?
Politicians have little incentive to take the risk of working with the opposing party to reach solutions that will fundamentally fix a problem. They operate in a system that makes it hard to roll the dice because they're putting their own jobs on the line. Robust Republican and Democratic parties ? and their conservative and liberal activists, whose voices drown out the centrist Americans seeking remedies ? usually rebuke them rather than reward them.
"Rebels, risk takers and creative thinkers are marginalized early and are seldom promoted up the ladder of local/state/national politics," says David A. Drupa of the Society for Risk Analysis.
These days, he says, politicians seem to be allowing the short-term benefit for themselves ? winning re-election ? drive their decision-making, without getting far enough along in their return-on-investment analysis to examine the long-term benefit for the nation.
"They're trying to win the next battle, the next matchup, the next race, at all our peril," Drupa says.
Both parties promise to use their bank accounts to protect lawmakers who stick with their ideological positions, and punish those who don't. Deep-pocketed groups on the far right and far left also go after those deemed unfaithful.
At the same time, party leaders have proven extraordinarily successful in drawing congressional boundaries in a way that actually discourages House members from collaborating and all but ensures their re-elections if they don't. Most districts are stocked with hard-core Republicans and Democrats who typically will vote for lawmakers only if they demonstrate consistent party loyalty.
So the easy thing for lawmakers to do is just that. It's much harder to meet in the middle.
Thus, when Washington's players do end up compromising on the meaty matters, it's usually in a piecemeal way that kicks the larger problems to future generations. Those who dare to try to solve the big problems typically find they lack the juice, lose re-election or get so fed up with the gridlock that they retire.
All this is precisely what George Washington worried would happen if the country devolved into factions.
"He thought political parties would tear up the union and it wouldn't survive," says Willard Sterne Randall, a biographer and historian who has written several books on the Founding Fathers.
The first president's fear of factionalism was so great that he decided on a second term as Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, whose political bases were businessmen and farmers, respectively, battled over competing visions for the union.
Yet while they differed, they also compromised when necessary ? as they did during the "Dinner Table Bargain" that resulted in Washington becoming the nation's capital instead of New York, Philadelphia or elsewhere.
"They weren't at each other's throats politically. They could get together on a major issue," Randall says. "They wanted the union to survive, so they compromised where they had to for the good of it. That's the kind of tone there was. They were pragmatic idealists, and in Congress now, they are ideologues."
So how do we get back to those more reasonable roots?
The Democratic and Republican parties are strong, and they probably won't face serious threats from third parties in the near future. They certainly won't eliminate gerrymandering unless voters force it.
So maybe it's time for something radical, or at least radically reasonable. Maybe this is the moment for a few of the frustrated Americans in the middle ? many of whom reject the extremes, complain about stalemate and fear for the nation's future ? to take a risk.
What if they stepped forward as candidates with a promise that they'll do only what they think will solve the country's big problems, regardless of what it could mean for their political careers? What if they rejected the strict adherence to orthodoxy that party bosses demand? What if they promised to only serve one term, choosing explicitly to put the country's future over their own?
And then, by not going to Congress primarily to get re-elected, they just might end up with a surprising reward: getting re-elected.
Wouldn't the country ? not to mention this supposedly neutral city on the banks of the Potomac ? be better for it?
___
EDITOR'S NOTE ? Liz Sidoti is the national politics editor for The Associated Press. Follow her on Twitter: http://twitter.com/lsidoti
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/column-no-big-compromises-blame-134634051.html
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Friday, February 22, 2013
Thugs face jail for baseball bat and stabbing attack on soldier
The seven-strong mob used a baseball bat, a knife and a bottle as terrible injuries were inflicted on Alfred Kyei-Baffour outside Guildhall in the City.
Ghanaian Mr Kyei-Baffour, who is in the British Army, was stabbed three times, suffering wounds to his bowel and liver. Royal London Hospital surgeons saved his life and he has since returned to active duty. Six men and a woman were expected to be jailed in connection with the attack in the early hours of July 15 last year.
Mr Kyei-Baffour was on leave and had been out drinking with three friends, the Old Bailey heard. His group tried to chat up some women outside the Cape Bar opposite Wood Street police station, one of whom was Jasmine Nassif, 21, girlfriend of 22-year-old Ismail Francis.
Prosecutor Christopher Hehir said that as Francis made it clear he did not like the group talking to his girlfriend, five other men became involved and police intervened and moved people along.
The soldier and his friends went back to their BMW but as they drove off they passed Francis and Nassif getting into their Vauxhall Astra. Words and gestures were exchanged and Mr Kyei-Baffour and his friends got out of their car, the court heard. The other men involved in the initial exchange stopped the two cabs they were riding in so they could join the attack.
Nassif took a baseball bat from the Astra boot and handed it to Francis who used it to attack Mr Kyei-Baffour and his friends, the court heard. Nassif was also seen hurling a bottle from the boot.
Mr Kyei-Baffour, who was stabbed early in the attack, was also hit with the baseball bat by Colin Mbagwu, 27, as he got back into his car.
The two minicabs from Addison Lee waited as the violence unfolded in Gresham Street. One of the drivers was told to leave and when he refused he was asked: ?Do you want to get stabbed too??
The soldier?s car was stopped by police and he was taken to hospital.? Francis was seen doing a "celebratory jig? with Marlon Brown, one of his group, the Old Bailey heard.
City of London police worked with the Met?s Haringey gangs unit in identifying the suspects.
City of London Police Commander Wayne Chance said: ?We will not tolerate this kind of violent behaviour.
?Anyone coming to the City of London with the intention of being violent should know that they will be dealt with so that those wishing to enjoy the vibrant nightlife in the City can do so without fear.?
Six men admitted violent disorder at an earlier hearing. They are: Francis, of Enfield; Brown, 27, of Tottenham; Mbagwu, of Hornsey; Rowan Lopez, 25, of Muswell Hill; Leonel Streete, 23, of Wood Green, and Riquel Peterson, 24, of Holloway. Nassif, of Enfield, was found guilty of the same charge at the Old Bailey this month.
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Iran move to speed up nuclear program troubles West
VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran has begun installing advanced centrifuges at its main uranium enrichment plant, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Thursday, a defiant step that will worry Western powers ahead of a resumption of talks with Tehran next week.
In a confidential report, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said 180 so-called IR-2m centrifuges and empty centrifuge casings had been put in place at the facility near the town of Natanz in central Iran. They were not yet operating.
If launched successfully, such machines could enable Iran to speed up significantly its accumulation of material that the West fears could be used to devise a nuclear weapon. Iran says it is refining uranium only for peaceful energy purposes.
Iran's installation of new-generation centrifuges would be "yet another provocative step," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in Washington.
White House spokesman Jay Carney warned Iran that it would face further pressure and isolation if it failed to address international concerns about its nuclear program in the February 26 talks with world powers in the Kazakh city of Almaty.
Britain's Foreign Office said the IAEA's finding was of "serious concern". Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the report "proves that Iran continues to advance swiftly towards the red line" that he laid down last year.
Netanyahu, who has strongly hinted at possible military action if sanctions and diplomacy fail to halt Iran's nuclear drive, told the United Nations in September Iran must not be allowed to amass enough higher-enriched uranium to make even a single warhead.
Iran denies Western accusations that it is seeking to develop a capability to make atomic bombs. Tehran says it is Israel's assumed nuclear arsenal that threatens peace.
Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, told Iranian media the U.N. agency's report showed "no evidence of diversion of material and nuclear activities towards military purposes."
U.S. lawmakers meanwhile are crafting a bill designed to stop the European Central Bank from handling business from the Iranian government, a U.S. congressional aide said on Thursday, in an attempt to keep Tehran from using euros to develop its nuclear program.
In the early stages of drafting, it would target the ECB's cross-border payment system and impose U.S. economic penalties on entities that use the European Central Bank to do business with Iran's government, the aide said on condition of anonymity.
The aide disclosed the new push for sanctions ahead of fresh talks on Tuesday in which major powers hope to persuade the Iranian government to rein in its atomic activities, which the West suspects may be a cover to develop a bomb capability.
RISING WESTERN PRESSURE
It was not clear how many of the new centrifuges Iran aims to install at Natanz, which is designed for tens of thousands.
An IAEA note informing member states late last month about Iran's plans implied that it could be up to 3,000 or so.
Iran has for years been trying to develop centrifuges more efficient than the erratic 1970s IR-1 model it now uses, but their introduction for full-scale production has been dogged by delays and technical hurdles, experts and diplomats say.
The deployment of the new centrifuges underlines Iran's continued refusal to bow to Western pressure to curb its nuclear program, and may further complicate efforts to resolve the dispute diplomatically, without a spiral into Middle East war.
Iran has also started testing two new centrifuge types, the IR-6 and IR-6s, at a research and development facility, the IAEA report said. Centrifuges spin at supersonic speed to increase the ratio of the fissile isotope in uranium.
In a more encouraging sign for the powers, however, the IAEA report said Iran in December resumed converting some of its uranium refined to a fissile concentration of 20 percent to oxide powder for the production of reactor fuel.
That helped restrain the growth of Iran's higher-grade uranium stockpile since the previous report in November, a development that could buy more time for diplomacy.
The report said Iran had increased to 167 kg (367 pounds) its stockpile of 20 percent uranium - a level it says it needs to make fuel for a Tehran research reactor but which also takes it much closer to weapons-grade material if processed further.
NEW OFFER TO IRAN
One diplomat familiar with the report said this represented a rise of about 18-19 kg since November, a notable slowdown from the previous three-month period when the stockpile jumped by nearly 50 percent after Iran halted conversion.
Israel last year gave a rough deadline of mid-2013 as the date by which Tehran could have enough higher-grade uranium to produce a single atomic bomb if processed further. Experts say about 240-250 kg of 20 percent enriched uranium would be needed.
But a resumption of conversion, experts say, means the Israeli "red line" for action could be postponed.
Refined uranium can fuel nuclear energy plants, which is Iran's stated aim, or provide the core of an atomic bomb, which the United States and Israel suspect may be its ultimate goal.
Next week's talks between the six powers and Iran to try again to break the impasse in the decade-old dispute are their first since mid-2012, but analysts expect no real progress toward defusing suspicions that Iran is seeking atomic bomb capability.
The United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany - a group known as the P5+1 - want Iran to halt 20 percent enrichment and shut the Fordow underground plant where this takes place.
Iran wants them to recognize what it regards as its right to refine uranium for peaceful purpose and to relax increasingly strict sanctions battering its oil-dependent economy.
The powers plan to offer to ease sanctions that bar trade in gold and other precious metals with Iran in return for Iranian steps to shut down the nation's newly expanded Fordow uranium enrichment plant, Western officials told Reuters on Friday.
A U.S. official said the United States was ready to meet bilaterally with Iran in Almaty, something he said Tehran had not agreed to since 2009, when Iranian officials initially appeared to accept a deal on curbing the nuclear program and then backed away.
"You've heard us say repeatedly we are open to meeting bilaterally within the context of P5+1," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "I fully expect we'll be ready to meet them bilaterally if they are willing. We'll see in Almaty."
In Paris, deputy foreign ministry spokesman Vincent Floreani said the powers were ready to make a new offer to Iran with "significant new elements" and that they hoped Tehran would engage seriously in the negotiations.
Iran has suggested that shutting down Fordow in exchange for a lifting of gold sanctions would not be acceptable.L6N0BI4A3]
(Additional reporting by John Irish in Paris,; Zahra Hosseinian in Zurich,; Rachelle Younglai, Arshad Mohammed and Matt Spetalnick in Washington and Paul Carrel in Frankfurt; Editing by Roger Atwood and David Brunnstrom)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-move-speed-nuclear-program-troubles-west-003949850.html
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Thursday, February 21, 2013
Hawaii to suffer most as global seas rise -- study
NASA
The Hawaiian Islands, seen from space, are the most vulnerable to uneven global sea level rise due to melting glaciers and ice sheets.
By John Roach, Contributing Writer, NBC News
Melting ice in Greenland, Antarctica and elsewhere will push up seas unevenly around the world, according to a new study that finds some of the highest waters will inundate Honolulu, Hawaii.?
At the poles, sea levels will actually fall because of the way sea, land and ice interact. For example, the sheer mass of water held in ice in Greenland and Antarctica generates a gravitational field that pulls in the surrounding water. As ice there melts, the gravitational pull weakens and the water is redistributed.
In addition, the melting ice on Antarctica and Greenland will lighten the load on the land beneath it, allowing the land to rebound up and the seafloor to drop a corresponding amount.
"Meaning that as the seafloor deepens, there is another component of sea-level fall, ironically, around these piles of ice," Charles Fletcher, a geologist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, explained to NBC News.
Fletcher was not involved in the new study but is familiar with its findings, particularly the vulnerabilities of Hawaii ? and, more broadly, tropical islands in the Pacific Ocean ? to global sea-level rise.?
Modelling glacier wastage
The research was co-led by Giorgio Spada, a professor of Earth physics at the University of Urbino in Italy. It is "the first study to examine a regional pattern of sea-level changes using sophisticated model predictions of the wastage of glaciers and ice sheets over the next century," he told NBC News via email.
He and colleagues used the model to investigate sea level under two future scenarios of sea-level rise: a mid-range, likely-to-happen one and one closer to the upper limit of what?s plausible. Under both, maximum sea-level rise is expected at Honolulu, the researchers reported Feb. 13 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.?
In the mid-range scenario, worst-affected equatorial oceans could see as much as two feet of sea-level rise, when the fact that water expands as it warms is taken into account. Under the high end, the rate of sea-level change in Honolulu will exceed 0.3 inches a year during the second half of this century.?
Sea-level rise will also be greater than average in Western Australia and throughout the atolls and islands in the tropical Pacific Ocean. In Europe, sea levels will rise, but will likely be lower than the global average given the continent?s proximity to Greenland and the dropping sea levels there.
Incomplete picture
But the picture is far from complete, cautioned Fletcher.
"What this paper and other models have not been able to do because, ultimately, it is too chaotic, is to predict what the winds will be doing," he explained.?
For example, enhanced trade winds associated with a phenomenon called the Pacific Decadal Oscillation are pushing the Pacific Ocean surface westward. As a result, annual sea-level rise in Hawaii is currently about half the global average rate of about 0.1 inch a year, while in the western Pacific the rate is more than 0.3 inch a year.
This may, or may not, change with the next phase of the oscillation, noted Fletcher, whose own research recently highlighted how groundwater beneath land rises with sea levels and could breach the surface, causing severe flooding in places such as Honolulu.
"Overall, the (new) paper is one more twig in the bundle of concerns that low-lying coastal cities, and especially Pacific islands, are highly vulnerable to this problem of sea-level rise," he said, adding that "these Pacific islands have contributed almost nothing to the problem of global warming."
Related stories:
John Roach is a contributing writer for NBC News. To learn more about him, check out his website.?
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Most Recent from the Home Improvement:Tools and Equipment Category. As far as the structure of this hand tool is concerned, it comes with an open frame and includes pins that are located at either end of the frame securing a thin, strip like blade.
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Source: http://www.hellofour.com/blog/34325/hitachi-power-tools-stanley-tool-bag/
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