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Saturday, July 30, 2011

House rejects Senate Democratic debt bill

WASHINGTON — The Republican-led House on Saturday rejected a Senate Democratic bill to raise the nation's debt limit just three days before the deadline to avert an unprecedented U.S. financial default. President Barack Obama and lawmakers remained at loggerheads on any possible compromise.

With tensions high at a rare weekend session, the legislation failed on a 246-173 vote that was largely symbolic. The Senate has yet to vote on the bill.

Saturday's result, however, could pave the way for negotiations on a compromise with Tuesday's deadline on the government's ability to pay its bills fast approaching.

Shortly after the House vote, Obama stepped back into the debt-ceiling talks, calling Congress' top two Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, to the White House for a meeting Saturday afternoon.

"We now have a a level of seriousness with the right people at the table,'' Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said at a news conference, where he was joined by House Speaker John Boehner.


Obama, in his weekly radio and Internet address, warned that "there is very little time" and pleaded with both Republicans and Democrats to stop political gamesmanship.


"The time for compromise on behalf of the American people is now," Obama said.

Earlier in the week, after a speech from the Diplomatic Room at the White House urging compromise, Obama reiterated his call to action on Twitter: "The time for putting party first is over. If you want to see a bipartisan #compromise, let Congress know. Call. Email.Tweet. --BO".

Pelosi, for her part, told the House on Saturday it was "time to end this theater of the absurd. It's time for us to get real."

Resolution remained elusive. Some 43 Senate Republicans said they opposed the Democratic bill by Reid. His alternative measure would raise the debt limit by $2.4 trillion while cutting spending by $2.2 trillion.


In a letter to Reid, they wrote that the bill "fails to address our current fiscal imbalance and lacks any serious effort to ensure that any subsequent spending cuts are enacted." The 43 are enough to block passage of Reid's bill.

Setting the stage for the high-stakes weekend, Senate Democrats late Friday killed a House-passed debt-limit increase and budget-cutting bill less than two hours after it squeaked through the House. Reid set up a test vote for the wee hours of Sunday morning to break a GOP filibuster on his own legislation.

Saturday's debate in the House was heated and sometimes nasty, with occasional efforts to shout down speakers. Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., railed against the "pernicious nonsense" from Republican Rep. David Dreier of California.

Freshman Rep. Alan Nunnelee, R-Miss., said, "This Harry Reid plan offers no real solutions to the out-of-control spending problems."

Countered Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C.: "The clock is ticking and Republicans are continuing to play political games."

Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., read a statement that then-Sen. Barack Obama had delivered years ago against raising the debt limit.

House Democrats said they would put aside their resistance to legislation that makes deep spending cuts and back the measure in a show of strength that could improve Reid's leverage in negotiations.

"There are some misgivings, but it's the only game in town," said Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., as he emerged from an hour-long closed door meeting.


Democrats, Republicans and the White House, meanwhile, were expected to be deep in conversation in hopes of a potential compromise. Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was likely to play a pivotal role.

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., told MSNBC's "The Last Word" that McConnell had said he will not negotiate with Reid, just with President Barack Obama.

The outcome of the weekend endgame was anything but clear as Democrats and Republicans remained at odds over how to force lawmakers to come up with additional budget savings later this year beyond the almost $1 trillion in agency budget cuts over the coming decade that they basically agree on.

At the start of the Senate's session Saturday, Reid appealed to Republicans to work with him on his proposal, particularly McConnell.

"We're willing to listen to Republican ideas to make this proposal better, but time is running short," Reid said.

First Read: Democrats in retreat?
McConnell said the Reid plan wasn't "going anywhere. Senate Republicans refuse to go along with this transparently political and deeply irresponsible ploy to give the president cover to make our debt crisis even worse than it already is."

After a brutal week on Wall Street — investors lost hundreds of billions of dollars as the markets lost ground every day — pressure is intense to produce an accord before the Asian markets open on Sunday afternoon.

Story: Global concern over US debt ceiling disagreement

The House measure squeaked through on a 218-210 vote, with 22 Republicans joining united Democrats in opposing the GOP measure, which pairs an immediate $900 billion increase in U.S. borrowing authority along with $917 billion in spending cuts spread over the coming decade.

Friday's roll call came after Boehner had been forced to call off a vote slated for Thursday in the face of tea party opposition to the measure. He added a provision requiring that a second, up to $1.6 trillion debt increase be conditioned on House and Senate passage of a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution, which would require an unrealistic two-thirds vote by each chamber to send it to the states for ratification.

Boehner's move only cemented Democratic opposition to the measure and complicated prospects for a weekend compromise that could clear both houses and win Obama's signature by next Tuesday's deadline. And by appeasing the tea party by adding the balanced-budget amendment poison pill, Boehner seemed to hand endgame leverage to Reid and Obama.

Boehner said the House bill — before the addition of the balanced-budget amendment — mirrored an agreement worked out with Reid last weekend.

Story: Benefit recipient? Disruptions may be coming

Still, as soon as the measure reached the Senate side of the Capitol, Senate Democrats scuttled it. The vote was 59-41, with all Democrats, two independents and six Republicans joining in opposition.

Reid's alternative measure would raise the debt limit by up to $2.4 trillion, enough to meet a demand by Obama that the increase be sufficient so that Congress doesn't have to wrestle with it again until 2013.

Administration officials say that without legislation in place by the end of Tuesday, the Treasury will no longer be able to pay all its bills. The result could inflict significant damage on the economy, they add, causing interest rates to rise and financial markets to sink.


Executives from the country's biggest banks met with U.S. Treasury officials to discuss how debt auctions will be handled if Congress fails to raise the borrowing limit before Tuesday's deadline.
Boehner: Obama needs to pull U.S. from financial 'cul-de-sac'


Pelosi: House GOP debt stance 'perfectly absurd'

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Friday, July 29, 2011

U.S. ends 'constructive' talks with N.Korea

NEW YORK — The United States concluded "constructive" talks with North Korea on Friday and will consult with Seoul and other allies on possible next steps toward reopening discussions of Pyongyang's nuclear program, the State Department said.

U.S. Special Envoy for North Korea Stephen Bosworth held two days of talks with veteran North Korean nuclear negotiator Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan at the U.S. mission to the United Nations in New York, their first such interaction since 2009.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the talks were "constructive", but stressed that it was too early to say what decisions Washington might take on resuming six-nation nuclear negotiations suspended since 2008.

"These were exploratory talks. We were clear-eyed going into them," Toner told a news briefing in Washington. "We're going to assess next steps, but we're going to do that in consultation with our partners."

U.S. officials have emphasized they are in no rush to restart the arms-for-disarmament negotiations that collapsed in 2009 when North Korea quit the process after new U.N. sanctions were imposed following a new nuclear test by Pyongyang. North Korea also tested an atomic device in 2006.

Washington and its allies Seoul and Tokyo have been pressing North Korea to take real steps to demonstrate its sincerity ahead of any new negotiations, saying they are not interested in simply holding talks for talks' sake.

Story: US-N. Korea nuclear talks: Why return to table now?

Toner said that Robert King, the Obama administration's special envoy for human rights, joined the talks on Friday but could give no further details on what was discussed.

The so-called "six party talks" include South Korea, Japan, Russia and China as well as North Korea and the United States.


China, Pyongyang's chief international backer, has been urging a resumption of the broader negotiations.

In 2005 the six parties signed a document spelling out a process in which North Korea would scrap its nuclear programs in exchange for economic and energy aid and diplomatic relations with the United States and Japan.
North Korea has called for a peace treaty to replace the truce that ended the 1950-1953 Korean War.


The current talks follow signs that tensions between North Korea and South Korea are easing since two attacks last year blamed on the North that killed 50 South Koreans.

South Korea has softened its demand for an apology from North Korea over the 2010 attacks as the precondition for resuming dialogue.

Foreign ministers from the two sides met on the sidelines of an Asian security conference in Indonesia Saturday for the first time since 2008.

The United States and China have agreed on a three-stage process to resume the six-party talks. The first stage is the two Koreas engaging bilaterally, the second involves talks between the North and the United States, and the third stage is the six-party talks.

 
President Obama & South Korean President Lee

President Obama and President Lee of the Republic of Korea Talk to the Press


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Bush explains 9/11 classroom reaction

Image: Poster promoting  National Geographic Channel documentary marking the 10th anniversary of 9/11 attacks.LOS ANGELES — Former President George W. Bush says what some people took as his apparent lack of reaction to the first news of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks was actually a conscious decision on his part to project an aura of calm in a crisis.

In a rare interview with the National Geographic Channel, Bush reflects on what was going through his mind at the most dramatic moment of his presidency when he was informed that a second passenger jet had hit New York's World Trade Center.

Bush was visiting a Florida classroom when Chief of Staff Andrew Card whispered into his ear , "A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack." The classroom scene was caught on TV film and has often been used by critics to ridicule his apparently blank face.

"My first reaction was anger. Who the hell would do that to America? Then I immediately focused on the children, and the contrast between the attack and the innocence of children," Bush says in an excerpt of the interview shown to television writers on Thursday.

Bush said he could see the news media at the back of the classroom getting the news on their own cellphones "and it was like watching a silent movie."

Bush said he quickly realized that a lot of people beyond the classroom would be watching for his reaction.

"So I made the decision not to jump up immediately and leave the classroom. I didn't want to rattle the kids. I wanted to project a sense of calm," he said of his decision to remain seated and silent.

"I had been in enough crises to know that the first thing a leader has to do is to project calm," he added.


The National Geographic Channel will broadcast the hour-long interview on Aug. 28 as part of a week of programs on the cable network called "Remembering 9/11" that mark the 10th anniversary of the attacks.

The interview was recorded over two days in May, without any questions being submitted in advance, the channel said.

Lawmakers seek to restore 9-11 Commission

National Geographic said Bush gives "intimate details" of his thoughts and feelings in a way never seen before. Most of the interview is about the first minutes and hours of the day that Islamic militants hijacked four planes and crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.


Executive producer and director Peter Schnall said Bush, who has adopted a low public profile since leaving office in January 2009, brought no notes to the interview.

"What you hear is the personal story of a man who also happened to be our president. Listening to him describe how he grappled with a sense of anger and frustration coupled with his personal mandate to lead our country through this devastating attack was incredibly powerful," Schnall said.

U.S. television networks are planning a slew of specials to mark the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11 attacks. Those on National Geographic also include a documentary on the continuing U.S. war on terror, and stories of ordinary people on Sept. 11, 2001, called "Where Were You?"

Ten Minute Vid of Bush in Classroom on 9/11

Bush Watched First Plane Impact




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Thursday, July 28, 2011

Soldier arrested near Fort Hood in 'terror plot'

An AWOL U.S. soldier facing a court-martial was gunning for "military personnel" when he was arrested with bomb-making materials near the U.S. military base at Fort Hood, Texas, authorities said Thursday.

Killeen, Texas, police arrested Pfc. Naser J. Abdo, 21, of Garland, Texas, on Wednesday afternoon at a motel near Fort Hood, Police Chief Dennis Baldwin said Thursday afternoon. He was arrested without incident and was being questioned at the Killeen City Jail by police and officers from Fort Hood's Criminal Investigative Division.

Confirming a report by NBC News early Thursday, Baldwin said at a news conference that "military personnel were targeted" at the base, where a gunman killed 13 people in 2009.

"I would call it a terror plot," he said, adding: "We would probably have been giving a different briefing here if he had not been stopped."

Abdo, an infantryman with the 1st Brigade Combat Team (Rear Provisional) of the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., was arrested at an America's Best Value Inn on South Fort Hood Road, initially on child pornography charges stemming from an investigation at Fort Campbell.

Abdo went missing this month after he was recommended for a court-martial on those charges. Abdo, who has mounted an extensive public campaign to leave the Army, has denied he was involved in child pornography.

Tip from gun store

U.S. officials told NBC News that police went to Abdo's motel room on a tip from a gun dealer who said Abdo was asking suspicious questions about smokeless powder, a component often used in pipe bombs. Explosives were found in the room and in a backpack, the officials said.

A U.S. military official said Abdo was overheard saying he wanted to attack Fort Hood and that he repeated the statement after he was in custody. Authorities said it was not clear whether his alleged intended targets were soldiers in general or specific individuals on the base.


In an in-house alert it sent to Army facilities worldwide, the Army Operations Center said the suspect "admitted to planning an attack on Fort Hood." He had a bomb, a gun, a "large quantity" of ammunition and an Army uniform, said the alert, which was first reported Thursday morning by The Army Times.

Authorities would not confirm that Abdo had a uniform with him.

Police and the FBI said Abdo — pronounced AB-doo — would likely be charged with possession of bomb-making materials and transferred to federal custody.

The threat "has been eliminated and mitigated, and there was nothing to indicate he was acting with anyone else," said Erik Vasys, a spokesman for the FBI in San Antonio.

Baldwin agreed, saying, "We are not aware of any additional threats."

Child porn charges block discharge as conscientious objector


Abdo sought conscientious objector status last year, arguing that his Muslim beliefs prohibited military service. The Army approved his application in May, then, two days later, it charged him with possession of child pornography, which put his discharge on hold, he said on a Facebook page.

The page has since been removed, but Fort Hood confirmed Thursday that Abdo's conscientious objector application was approved "in May 2011" and that he was then charged with possession of child pornography on May 13.

"Since he is in the custody of civilian authorities, jurisdiction over any potential new charges is yet to be determined," the base said in a statement. "If returned to military control, he may face additional charges including AWOL."

Shortly before the Article 32 hearing last month that recommended he face a court-martial, Abdo told NBC station WSMV-TV of Nashville, Tenn.: "I did not put child pornography on the government computer." He said the timing of the charges "sounds pretty fishy."

A spokesman for the military said the charges were "completely unrelated" to Abdo's conscientious objector application.

Abdo's campaign to leave the Army got considerable coverage beginning in August, when he gave several televised interviews.

Child porn charges block discharge as conscientious objector


Abdo sought conscientious objector status last year, arguing that his Muslim beliefs prohibited military service. The Army approved his application in May, then, two days later, it charged him with possession of child pornography, which put his discharge on hold, he said on a Facebook page.

The page has since been removed, but Fort Hood confirmed Thursday that Abdo's conscientious objector application was approved "in May 2011" and that he was then charged with possession of child pornography on May 13.

"Since he is in the custody of civilian authorities, jurisdiction over any potential new charges is yet to be determined," the base said in a statement. "If returned to military control, he may face additional charges including AWOL."

Shortly before the Article 32 hearing last month that recommended he face a court-martial, Abdo told NBC station WSMV-TV of Nashville, Tenn.: "I did not put child pornography on the government computer." He said the timing of the charges "sounds pretty fishy."

A spokesman for the military said the charges were "completely unrelated" to Abdo's conscientious objector application.

Abdo's campaign to leave the Army got considerable coverage beginning in August, when he gave several televised interviews.

"As my time came near to deployment, I started asking the question more seriously whether God would accept what I was doing and whether I was really meant to go to war, as opposed to the peace that Islam preaches," he said in an August interview with Headline News. He made similar comments in interviews with al-Jazeera.


As recently as June, Abdo was pursuing his battle on the Facebook page, where he described himself as "engaged in a struggle against religious discrimination and for freedom of conscience in the US Army."

The last update was June 21, thanking his supporters. In his next-to-last update, posted nine minutes earlier, he says he could not find a way to delete the account and so "after this update I will be leaving." He did not say where he was going.

James Branum, the lawyer who represented Abdo during his proceedings at Fort Campbell, told the New York Daily News that he had not heard from his client "for quite a while."

"I'm not sure what to think about this," Branum said.

Fort Hood, the largest U.S. military base in the world, was the scene of a mass shooting that killed 13 people in November 2009. The arrest Wednesday raised concerns that a possible repeat attack may have been in the works.

The American-Statesman reported that the gun store where Abdo was first identified by a clerk was the same Killeen store where the suspect in the 2009 shootings, Maj. Nidal Hasan, bought a gun, ammunition and laser sights that he allegedly used.

"We are aware at this time that Killeen Police Department arrested a soldier yesterday," Fort Hood said in a statement. "We continue our diligence in keeping our force protection at appropriate levels."

Ft. Hood Plot Arrest
Fort Hood




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Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Military in full control when China's Su-27s crossed centerline: MND

Taipei, June 25 (CNA) The military reacted in accordance with emergency response regulations when two Chinese Su-27 jet fighters were spotted over waters west of the Taiwan Strait centerline on June 29, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said Monday in a statement.

The ministry was responding to a United Daily News report on the same day that a People's Liberation Army Su-27 crossed the Taiwan Strait centerline late last month when it was chasing a U.S. U-2S high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft.

The Chinese fighter turned back to the mainland after two Taiwanese F-16 fighters scrambled to the nearby airspace, the newspaper said.

The MND confirmed the report, but added that the brief traverse was not a deliberately provocative act.

The statement further said the military has consistently kept a close eye on Chinese military aircraft's activities in skies over the Taiwan Strait that separates Taiwan and mainland China.

"As long as any emergency situation is detected, the military has never hesitated to send our Air Force aircraft to the region for precautionary warnings," the MND statement said.

In taking such actions, the MND stressed that it has followed the "no provocation" principles in dealing with relevant situations. The ministry further said it will continue emergency preparedness and readiness to ensure airspace safety. (By Hsieh Chia-chen and Sofia Wu) enditem/ly


F-16 V.S. Su-27

Fighter Jet Su-27



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Suicide spikes among middle-aged women

At 23, Julie Boledovich Farhat decided to leave her boyfriend, three siblings and beloved hometown in Michigan to focus on saving her mother.

After watching her mom, Gail Boledovich, battle schizophrenia for three years and suffer from hallucinations and delusions, Julie resolved to take an engineering job in Bowling Green, Ky., and buy a house where her mom could live with her and have a beautiful garden and even an art studio to create her mosaics. Gail would be spared the stress of having to work or pay bills. Everything would work out, Julie thought.

Image:Boledovich familyBut Gail Boledovich never made it to Kentucky. She took her own life on May 1, 2005, two days before her 49th birthday. She died from an overdose of prescription-strength Benadryl pills that doctors had prescribed to her to help her sleep at night. Boledovich took the lethal dose in the middle of the day.

Farhat’s mom could have been anyone’s mom, or aunt — or wife.

A new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) shows a 49 percent increase in emergency department visits for drug-related suicide attempts for women aged 50 and older.

And women aged 40-69 are more at risk of killing themselves than other women, according to new research on age-specific suicide rates between 1998 and 2007. In 2007, this age group made up 60 percent of the 7,328 suicides reported among women.

But why middle-aged women?

It could just be a question of numbers: One in four adults in the U.S. has a treatable mental health condition, and middle-aged women are one of the fastest-growing populations in the country.

Or it may have something to do with baby boomers’ higher rates of substance abuse, an important risk factor in suicide, said Julie Phillips, Ph.D., a social demographer and associate professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Phillips calculated the age-specific rates from data from the National Center for Health Statistics and the Census Bureau. And during the nine-year time period she studied, suicide rates are fairly stable for women younger than 40, and for women older than 70, suicide rates are actually on the decline.

Women over 50 may also be in crisis because pain and sleep disorders — common problems with aging — can lead to an increased use of prescription drugs, according to Albert Woodward, Ph.D., the project director of SAMHSA’s Drug Abuse Warning Network. According to the SAMHSA report, suicide attempts involving drugs to treat anxiety and insomnia increased 56 percent. Woodward adds that older women may experience depression because of health changes and other negative life events.

Loneliness and depression are also suicide risk factors. "Older women especially in the U.S. are more isolated and separated from daily human contact outside of work and the internet," says Ellyn Kaschak, Ph.D., emeritus professor of psychology at San Jose State University and the editor of the journal Women & Therapy.

Dr. LeslieBeth Wish, a psychologist and licensed clinical social worker in Sarasota, Fla., has found through her online surveys, lectures and focus groups a startling increase in suicide attempts with women ages 45 to 54. Women are susceptible to depression but older women may also be suffering from pre-menopause hormone fluctuations that can affect mood changes and depression. Also, existing long-term illnesses such as lupus or multiple sclerosis can worsen and breast cancers and other cancers might be diagnosed.

Dr. Wish also says middle-aged women are more aware of their mortality and may be disappointed and disillusioned that it’s too late for happiness. Transitioning to becoming an empty nester can also be stressful for women.

“Mental illness is a real debilitating illness,” Farhat says. “But unlike someone who is physically disabled, no one holds the door open for a person on the street having hallucinations.”

In honor of her mother, Farhat, now 30, and her three siblings started Mind Over Matter (MOM), a small nonprofit aimed at promoting mental health awareness and raising money for research and suicide prevention in Michigan.

“Society puts so much emphasis on how these people die, but I loved my mom — the way she died had nothing to do with the person she was.”

Suicidology part 1

Part 2



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Friday, July 22, 2011

Toyota’s New In-Car Technology: A Steering Wheel Heart Monitor

By Yoshio Takahashi


Toyota Motor Corp.’s former president Katsuaki Watanabe once said that the auto maker wanted to develop the ideal dream car of the future – the more you drive, the healthier you become. A dream, but maybe no longer a pipe dream.

This week the country’s biggest auto maker showed off something it called “emergency-response technology,” a system to prevent major accidents caused by sudden changes in the driver’s physical condition. Toyota said it is working on the system to make it commercially available in future.


The space-age sounding system was one of a number of safety technology systems demonstrated to reporters Thursday at Toyota’s state-of-the-art Higashifuji technical center located at the foot of Mt. Fuji.

The media tour of the facility, which was initially scheduled in late March but postponed after the March 11 earthquake, comes as the car maker looks to shore up its vehicle safety record after it came under fire for its global recall woes last year. The facility in Susono city, Shizuoka was opened to the media for the first time since 2007.

And the driver monitoring system? In a survey of more than 170 fatal accidents, about a fourth were caused by sudden changes in drivers’ physical condition, of which 70% were related to heart disease, according to Minoru Makiguchi, a project manager in charge of the new system.

The system monitors the driver’s cardiovascular functions through the person’s grasp of the steering wheel, in which an optical sensor is mounted, and detects risks of heart problems. In the experimental system installed in a Prius, the chart of the driver’s heartbeat and electrocardiogram can be viewed on the display of the in-car navigation system.

If the system detects unusual heart movement, a message appears on the display to advise the driver to go see a doctor, or a warning to head straight to a hospital if the condition is likely to become critical.

Mr. Makiguchi said the system could be used to check other health conditions, though he didn’t elaborate on other possible items that could be added. But if a driver can monitor his or her health every morning on the drive to the office, it could effectively become something to help the driver get healthier, just as Mr. Watanabe dreamed.

Still, there are some challenges that the company would need to overcome that a car maker doesn’t usually face.

“We will have to get approval from the health ministry if this is considered as medical equipment,” Mr. Makiguchi said.
Tokyo Motor Show 2007






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