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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Yahoo Inc. /quotes/zigman/59898/delayed/quotes/nls/yhoo YHOO -1.64% said Friday afternoon that executive vice president and general counsel Mike Callahan has resigned from the company. Yahoo made the disclosure in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The resignation is effective July 9. Callahan has been with the company since December of 1999. No reason was given for the move, though a company memo obtained by the AllThingsD technology blog said he planned to "move on to other opportunities." The company said Ron Bell, another long-time vet who has been serving as general counsel for products and the Americas region, will serve as interim general counsel.
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Two NSW government schools international students received the prestigious International Student of the Year Awards.
International student graduates as Student Ambassadors represent DEC International at official functions throughout the year including festivals, training days and awards ceremonies.
Six NSW government schools international students were finalists at the 2012 International Student of the Year Awards.
The 2013 annual award presentation for international students was held at Government House in the presence of Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir AC CVO, Governor of NSW on 28 February 2013.
Nineteen international students have been inducted as 2012 Department of Education and Communities (DEC) International Student Ambassadors.
This time last year, students from Furukawa Reimei Junior High School were dealing with the aftermath of Japan's earthquake and tsunami.
Three students were recognised for their outstanding school and community contributions at the International Students Festival and Awards Ceremony.
The award for the Academic Achievement in the 2011 Higher School Certificate (HSC) was presented to Vietnamese student Minh Thuy Thai who attended Canley Vale High School.
School locations
Search for NSW government primary and high schools available for enrolment by international students or temporary residents:
Find out more about studying at a NSW government schoolNews and updates
Do you need help?
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DEC International or an authorised agent
for help with choosing a school or enrolling.

subset: commoncrawl


text: We have heard of your greatness spyro, the way you stop Malfor and saved the world is a story that gives us hope, hope that we need for the dark times we are in. My name is Elora and my Island is called Avalon, we have been seeking heroes to help us as we can't stop the darkness that has taken our island. We are trap in a diamension we don't understand and we are forced to serve the master of the darkness, they have summoned three horriable servent who have killed anyone who get in there way. Many of our people have died in the brutalness of this. Please, you must help us. We are not strong enough to stop them and we don't know who is behind the darkness. Please Legendry dragon, we need your help Spyro looked at the letter, he knew he had to help them. "Cynder, we have to help them" Spyro said to her.


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Apartment Investment and Management Company (AIV) |
Hey ladies
I have done a bit of shopping around and internet hunting and found I really really love the strapless wedding dresses. I have found two in an online shop named Dudool. I love both for different reasons and need to choose one in the next week or two.
These are the two:

Click for details

Click for details
They are pretty different but both so feminine and lovely! Let me know your thoughts. Any feedback would be great!


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You must earn 10,000 points to post other members' whiteboard
Happy Thanksgiving, BadgerBoy.
Hi. We've both got just over 100 consecutive days. And close to the same GB age. Have a good Sunday. Chris
A belated congratulations on the new racer and the retiring of the big rig!
Congratulations on having the stamina to post for 900 consecutive days. Keep up the Great Work. Warren {:-)
Happy Belated Birthday.... Gooo O-K-C !
2.2 million points...wow, something to strive for! would surely improve my chances of winning the $250
Congrats on getting to one year of consecutive days of posting!
Congratulations on becoming the 9th person in the OKC Leaders 2 million point club. Gary
Just keep posting every day and you will move up fast. 975 per day and 1075 on Sunday. 750 for 5 gas prices, 100 for 5 forum posts and 125 to read 5 news articles . Gary.Just 76 more days to get your speed lines back.


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You're watching...
Sen. McCain: The video is not to blame, it's terrorism
Arizona senator on president's handling on Mideast unrest
Sep 21, 2012
John Mccain
You're watching...
Arizona senator on president's handling on Mideast unrest
Sep 21, 2012
John Mccain
Also in this playlist...
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Wisconsin's alerts and exam and they still hate us from Pakistan to Bangladesh India.
To Afghanistan.
Thousands of anti American protesters taking to the streets again today.
In Pakistan it was actually a government holiday -- this as questions continue to mount over that attack on the US consulate in Libya.
And conflicting comments from the White House John McCain is here to weigh in on both.
Welcome everybody got Neil Cavuto and this is the seat in Pakistan today.
Not a great scene police firing live -- -- protesters throwing rocks and Schwartz.
Meanwhile it gets worse after torching of theater fifteen people killed dozens more in the protests allegedly fuel.
By that anti -- -- a video that the president referred to when asked about the Libya attack that left our ambassador in three other Americans dead.
What we've seen over the last week week and a half is something that actually we've seen in the past.
Where there is an offensive video or Khartoum.
Directed -- the Prophet Mohammed.
And this is obviously something that that is used as an excuse by some.
To carry out inexcusable violent acts.
Directed at westerners or Americans.
That game on the heels of this statement from white house Press Secretary Jay Carney.
And I quote here it is I think self evident that what happened in -- -- was a terrorist attack our embassy was attacked violently.
But that follows this.
These protests.
Were in reaction to a video we have no information to suggest that it was a pre planned.
Attack it is not a reaction to the nine elevenths anniversary.
That we know of all right so are you confused well a lot of folks are especially my next guests -- Arizona Republic can former presidential candidate.
John McCain he's a ranking member on the armed services committee.
So that they're still not speaking with one voice here senator what do you make -- -- Well I think were at first they try to get away with said that it was just spontaneous demonstration.
We all know that people come with mortars and heavy weapons and rocket propelled grenades two your usual.
It was just sheer foolishness.
On their part.
What they -- -- whole.
Message of the U Obama administration is they got them alive and so therefore you don't have to.
Worry about extremists and al-Qaeda the fact is this was probably from an al-Qaeda affiliated.
Or an al-Qaeda organization there in -- guys see that carried out -- very well orchestrated attack.
And it resulted in the tragedy.
That took the lives of four brave Americans and again it is.
Just incredible to blame the video.
The video is not to blame the people that are pushing the video the people that are using the video.
As a way of inflaming.
Passions throughout the Middle East how -- for more videos -- they're going to be -- and finally.
What about freedom of speech we still believe that people as long as they don't commit a crime.
Are allowed to have freedom of speech we should be standing up for that.
But now it's spread so all these other countries and whether it's the video or just a follow up on when -- -- in Libya.
It almost that gives the appearance of the whole Middle East being on fire went but it -- -- the way things stand now.
Going into what are at least half a dozen planned demonstrations throughout the Middle East this weekend.
Osama bin Laden said there's so strong horse in the week course people like the strong horse we have sent the message -- leaving lead from behind.
We are failing in Iraq -- so -- engine planes fly over Iraq to deliver arms to -- aside and al-Qaeda is on her.
Resurgence in Afghanistan we just saw.
The greatest single attack as far as money.
I was concerned -- on our base in Kandahar where we lost some 200 million dollars worth of aircraft and we have canceled training and operations with -- Afghans because we don't trust him because of this.
Killing by Afghans of Americans in uniform by the way these well that this was a very very.
Professional -- they made on the base in Kandahar.
To Iran where the Iranians don't think we're serious while we do is criticize Israel.
Mentality is really shouldn't attack Iran and in Syria 25000.
People have been massacred.
And the -- United States doesn't even speak on their behalf.
They believe that America is weak and that we're withdrawing it and that's what it's all about.
But the more violence a lot of the folks -- senator the more they're inclined to say.
That held within I -- Ron -- -- with me a couple of days ago and senator and I'd I'd mention to him.
You thought it was a good idea -- still stand and encourage the moderates throughout the Middle East particularly in places like Libya.
He took a different view I want you to hear this and business.
They have to realize it doesn't do any good what good was at forty billion dollars or so do we gave to Mubarak in Egypt.
It finally fell apart and there's chaos there now so I would say it was a bad investment from.
That -- is no more good money after bad.
-- I just I just wish that senator Paul who has never traveled to that part of the world.
Would have been with me on July 7 to me and and ambassador Chris Stevens when thousands of people in Tripoli said thank you America thank you.
Look that moderates just won the election in Libya this is an attempt.
The extreme Muslims to take over through use alarms and demonstrations and rioting in all the things you're seeing.
What they can't achieve it at the ballot box and finally could I mention you know the Camp David accords.
Part of the deal was that we would provide economic aid to both Israel and Egypt.
We break that my friend -- there will be.
Significant consequences inevitably -- isn't -- -- -- agent though senator we're actually giving it.
Stewart through the Muslim brother.
Well again this president Marcy went to Tehran and condemned Bashar -- he is not.
Broken the Camp David accords between Egypt and Israel.
Do you want is that in our interest to see Egypt's economy collapse I don't think so I don't see how about it -- look sort of best case -- Well it looks like it's in very tough shape but I I think that a total collapse obviously would have.
Significant ramifications -- this debate began.
After World War I as to whether we should go on the League of Nations in the thirties with Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh in the isolationist.
Here after the war World War II with a -- wing in the Eisenhower wing of the party.
And now understandably.
Because of our economic difficulty this isolationist wing.
Of the Republican Party is very active again I understand that and I respect it I just wish they would spend some time in the region.
You mentioned your party a senator and I I do wanna just some comments you made.
I think it was yesterday -- -- before.
-- you you were moralists telling Republicans were second guessing at.
Criticizing the Romney campaign -- -- I think you -- -- a tad more colorful but.
And Romney saying much the same today in a radio interview.
Your argument is -- that it makes his situation worse or exposes Republican week.
This -- -- what.
My argument is.
That if you attack.
Our nominee who was selected by our party through a legitimate process.
At a time when there may be some stumbles who are you helping.
Julio assisting by doing that and sense and and one -- any view on the ballot.
From that brownies and man in the arena.
Whether you agree or disagree with the campaign -- he's waging.
Our objective is to elect him and if you do things that are hurt its ability to be elected for.
Eagle purposes or whatever it is.
Then it seems to me that that's not a proper thing to do and there are many ways to communicate with the Romney campaign.
Doing it in such a public fashion and I say to Peggy -- without respect -- where -- on the -- Yes he was particularly harsh -- doubling down on -- criticism.
What do you say to her beyond you know.
-- -- -- -- And I just say that do you realize that you are providing ammunition.
To the left who will be.
Using that to try to diminish Mitt Romney in the eyes of the voters.
And actually that's the effect that it probably has over time but you know there were a lot of these are good and decent man.
Good and decent man.
The -- is why mention it because in 1980 they would.
They were saying much -- -- their -- -- a moderate part of the party was.
About some statements Ronald Reagan would make it -- well you know David a decent -- back and forth.
But Ronald Reagan won -- -- -- so in what will exercise is now.
In 2007.
You may recall that are.
Campaign for the nomination totally collapse of China I can't tell you that.
Number of experts inside the beltway that had reason so why we collapsed they were a little bit surprised.
When we made a comeback.
Everybody's free.
To make whatever comments they want to but why would do most of them come from anonymous sources isn't that kind of cowardly.
That's a very good points and it.
Always good seeing you sir thank you very much thank you sir John McCain to.
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My shares in my NV+ suddenly became unavailable, Firmware 4.1.8 . I tried shutting down the NAS with power button but nothing happened even if the button was hold for a minute. I restarted the NAS by unplugging the power cord but it got stuck in FS check for more than 24h. I then unplugged the cord and rebooted with FS Check by-passed. The NAS finally booted telling me the drive #2 has growing smart errors but all my shares were accessible. However the same issue happened again after a few minutes but this time the NAS always hangs at Resync. The NAS is visible in RAIDar but not with Frontview. RAIDar says "Resync 0% complete, time to finish 6 min, …" and it's been like this for over 24h.
Do you think that replacing the drive #2 will resolve the problem? Is there anything I should do before replacing the drive?
Thank you for your help!


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Kathy McManus, M.S., R.D., is the director of the department of nutrition at Brigham and Women's Hospital. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science from Simmons College, completed her Dietetic Internship at Brigham and Women Hospital, and received a Master of Science degree in nutrition from Framingham State College.
Yo-yo dieting refers to repeatedly losing weight and then gaining it back. This is often associated with a very low calorie diet. There is usually an initial success, but the weight loss can't be maintained due to the diet's severe nature.
Yo-yo diets lead to the loss of body fat, but the body also loses lean muscle. With less lean muscle, your metabolic rate is lowered. When you resume your normal eating habits, you add back more body fat and the cycle continues. With added body fat, your overall health deteriorates. This can lead to chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and coronary artery disease.
Also, this type of dieting can take a negative emotional and motivational toll on the dieter. You may feel defeated and unwilling to try to maintain a healthy weight. Remember, the goal of a healthy weight is a good one. But instead of trying fad diets, talk to your doctor or a dietician about how to lose weight the right way. You'll have a better shot at keeping it off.


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Big congrats to newcomer Elle Varner for her debut album Perfectly Imperfect securing the number 4 spot on Billboards 200. Varner's album was originally only expected to sale low, but she exceeded those expectations with over 31k. Also, Rick Ross's album God Forgives, I Don't sold 60k this week bringing its total to 279k.
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© 2012 GOWHERE — All Rights Reserved
"Love is the bridge between you and everything." ~Rumi


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Due to very high fire danger conditions, Naturescape is closed and Kings Park afternoon guided walks are cancelled today.
Read more...Free Bold Park walk - Peas anyone?
- When:
- 09:00am - 10:30am, Thursday, 08 August 2013
- Where:
- Tuart Car Park - Bold Park, Floreat
Peas anyone?Not the type you have with meat and three veg, but one of the biggest families of Australian native plants. With 19,000 species peas are a heavyweight in the plant world. Like the garden variety, they also have a pod with seeds but this wild bunch can pack a toxic punch. Winter is the perfect time to see an array of spectacular specimens in bloom throughout Bold Park from the crimson Cockies Tongue to the rambling Native Wisteria. Behind their spectacular floral displays these plants conceal a seedy side, doing deals and paying bribes to secure their place in the bush. Find out more about this intriguing family of plants by joining the volunteer guides on an informative morning walk through Bold Park. |
Presenter |
Bold Park Volunteer Guides from the Friends of Bold Park Bushland. |
Cost |
Free |
Bookings |
Bookings are not required. |
What to bring |
Please wear sturdy shoes and come prepared for the weather with a hat, raincoat and drinking water. |
Notes |
Meeting location at Tuart car park, Perry Lakes Drive, Floreat. This walk requires a moderate level of fitness. There are no public toilets in Bold Park but there are toilets close by at the playground at the southern end of Perry Lakes Reserve. |
Further information |
Contact the Friends of Bold Park or download the Bold Park Guided Walks brochure below: |


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Incorporating Emu Bay, Cape Cassini, Stokes Bay, Snelling Beach, Middle River, Western River Cove, King George Beach
The North Coast has its own unique character - from the rugged, isolated northwest through to the expansive white sandy beach of Emu Bay. Eighteen kilometres northwest of Kingscote, Emu Bay is a beautiful 4km beach with safe swimming and vehicle access. A favourite swimming beach for the locals, this quiet town is a haven for holidaymakers. Anglers can try their luck from the jetty or launch their boats from the access ramp. West of Emu Bay, the delightful North Coast is the perfect place for a few days retreat from the busier South Coast of Kangaroo Island. A mixture of tall cliffs, deserted sandy coves and beaches line the coast with conservation parks, hills, valleys and rolling farmland meeting the sea. Base yourself at one of the quiet self-contained retreats and enjoy fishing, beachcombing and touring. The South Coast attractions are within easy reach of both Emu Bay and the North Coast.
Search for Accommodation in Emu Bay
Search for Accommodation in Wisanger
Search for Accommodation in Stokes Bay
Search for Accommodation in Middle River
Search for Accommodation in Gosse
Search for Accommodation in Cape Borda
Visit with our friendly staff at Kangaroo Island's only Accredited Visitor Information Centre and let us help you customise an itinerary as unique as you are to get the most from your time on Kangaroo Island. Kangaroo Island Gateway Visitor Information Centre - Howard Drive, PENNESHAW SA 5222Open: Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Weekends & Public Holidays 10am-4pm, Closed Christmas Day.
While all Kangaroo Island accommodation is suitable for exploring the Island, particular regions of the Island afford different advantages. Whether you are arriving in the evening and need accommodation close to the ferry port, you prefer to be close to shops and restaurants or if you really want to get away from it all and stay in a more secluded area, there is a region on Kangaroo Island to suit everyone.


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It's been another great year for hard-hitting or wonderfully creative documentary films, from Sarah Polley on her family to Jeremy Scahill on targeted killing abroad (and need I mention my own on Beethoven's Ninth?).
Last night I watched another film on the just-announced shortlist of finalists for this year's Academy Award for the genre: Blackfish.
As you may have heard, it takes a deep (so to speak) look at the practice, over the past four decades, of capturing orcas in the wild and hauling them to the Sea Worlds of the world. The film raises alarms not just about these magnificent creatures but the danger to trainers and performers at the water expos. We see shocking footage of numerous deaths or near-death experiences of humans leading to a current legal action that has, for now, curtailed the man-to-whale contact in the shows.
But at the heart of it, and I do mean heart, is the foul practice of capturing the orcas at sea and breaking up their families (among the tightest in creation). Who knew that, like Indian tribes of yore, each grouping of orcas has their own "language"? That they can live for 100 years? That the mothers and kids stay together their entire lives (yes, as often the case, the dads are around but not central). And so on.
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You may shake with anger and sadness on viewing this film, or at least give your cat or dog an extra hug.
Here's the trailer:
Time magazine has named Pope Francis as its Person of the Year. It is hard to quarrel with their choice of a pope who attacks the "idolatry of money," not to mention a pope who when asked about gay members of the clergy said, "Who am I to judge?" Oh, and the fact that he makes Rush Limbaugh burst a vein is just a bonus.
That said, Pope Francis would not have been my choice. For me, a "Person of the Year" is someone who is the personification of the issue that has shaped society most decisively in the previous calendar year. My choice would have been either the late Trayvon Martin, murdered in 2012 yet immortalized in 2013, or national security state whistleblowers Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden. These are three people whose legacy will extend far beyond 2013.
In considering my Sportsperson of the Year, I apply the same lens: who best represents what I believe to be the most important narrative in the sports world from 2013? The story of the year in sports is, for me, a no-brainer. This has been the year when the "last closet" has been breeched with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender athletes, as well as their allies, finally being heard. To see athletes like Jason Collins and Brittney Griner come out of the closet; to see LGBT athletes and allies from around the globe pledge to use the platform of the 2014 Sochi Olympics to stand up to Russia's draconian anti-gay laws; to see organizations like the You Can Play project and Athlete Ally take center state; to see NFL players like Chris Kluwe and Brendon Ayanbadejo helping to lead victorious fights for marriage equality; to see the NFL Players Association sell t-shirts of NFL player/allies, is to indeed see the walls of the "last closet" begin to start tumbling down.
My Sportsperson of the Year, however, is none of these people. I was tempted to choose Jason Collins, but the inability of even one NBA general manager to sign Collins to a contract makes his narrative incomplete, not reflecting the hope and possibility that this past year represents.
The story that best demonstrates the distance traveled in 2013 is the story of Robbie Rogers, and he is my Sportsperson of the Year. Robbie Rogers is a professional soccer player who in incredibly dispiriting fashion both came out of the closet and retired in February at age 25. Rogers told the world that he could not imagine being both a pro athlete and openly gay. "I wouldn't want to deal with the circus," he said. "Are people coming to see you because you're gay? Would I want to do interviews every day, where people are asking: 'So you're taking showers with guys—how's that?… Fuck it. I don't want to mess with that."
It was tragic. Yet then two events took place that changed Rogers's life. One was seeing Collins come out and get a powerfully positive response from the sports world. The other was speaking to 500 LGBT teenagers and not being able to explain to them why he had retired. "I seriously felt like a coward," he told USA Today. "These kids are standing up for themselves and changing the world, and I'm 25, I have a platform and a voice to be a role model. How much of a coward was I to not step up to the plate?"
Rogers then the day after Collins came out, signed with the Los Angeles Galaxy. On May 26, Rogers became the first openly gay male athlete to take the field in North America.
Afterward, Rogers had a remarkable life lesson to share. "I don't know what I was so afraid of," he said. "It's been such a positive experience for me. The one thing I've learned from all of this is being gay is not that big of a deal to people…. I think as the younger get older and the generations come and go, I think times are just becoming more accepting."
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Oh, one last note: Robbie Rogers considers himself a devout Catholic and said, "Being Catholic—and people may disagree—but we are called to love everyone. Be honest. Be true in your relationship with God. I've always lived that way."
With that line comes clarity about the people who have truly shaped our world in 2013. Pope Francis is the reflection of changes taking place in our society. Robbie Rogers is that change personified. Rogers said, "It is awesome to be part of a movement that his changing society." He needed that movement to step forward, but because he was brave enough to not only come out but come back, he is also expanding that movement to empower countless others. He is my Sportsperson of the Year.
Read Next: Dave Zirin looks at how Mandela fought for his ideals on the sports field as well as the podium.
The last thing that President Obama needs right now, as he struggles to finalize an accord with Iran and get the peace conference on Syria up and running next month, is a showdown over Ukraine. But he might just get one. The three-week-old crisis there is teetering on the brink of something far worse, as protesters vow to expand their demonstrations and security forces threaten a general, violent crackdown. Despite signs that the government in Kiev may be trying to negotiate a resolution to the standoff, and despite nationally televised talks between Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovich and his three predecessors, there's enormous potential for uncontrolled violence.
The right in the United States, especially the neoconservative anti-Russia lobby, is in a lather, perhaps intoxicated by the toppling of a statue of V.I. Lenin in Kiev by anti-government protesters. Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Edward Lucas, author of The New Cold War: Putin's Russia and the Threat to the West, urges the United States and the Europeans to expand the confrontation from Ukraine to Russia itself. If Ukraine "falls into Russia's grip," he warns, "Europe's own security will also be endangered." Complaining angrily that the West has allowed Russia to threaten Ukraine, Lucas says:
The best way Europe or America can help Ukraine—and Georgia and Moldova—is to take a much tougher stance with Russia. The EU may not want to play geopolitics. But geopolitics is being played in Europe, and EU interests and members are at stake.
The EU should freeze Russia's request for visa-free travel for holders of "official" passports. America and EU countries should also freeze Russia's application to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Paris-based good-governance club. The EU should intensify its scrutiny of Gazprom's behavior in the European gas market, and pursue its upcoming antitrust "complaint" (in effect a prosecution) against the Russian state-owned giant with the greatest vigor possible.
It is time to show Mr. Putin that his hunting license in Russia's neighborhood is now canceled.
But Lucas isn't confident that anything like that will happen. "Don't hold your breath," he concludes.
But everyone ought to be holding their breath—and avoiding sharp public comments such as Secretary of State John Kerry's unfortunate remark that he was "disgusted" by the Ukraine government's decision to clear part of Independence Square, where the protests are centered, by force yesterday. (This is the same Kerry who seem quite solicitous of Egypt's military, which has used vastly stronger violence, killing hundreds, in suppressing protests there since the July coup d'état.) Said Kerry:
"The United States expresses its disgust with the decision of Ukrainian authorities to meet the peaceful protest in Kyiv's Maidan Square with riot police, bulldozers, and batons, rather than with respect for democratic rights and human dignity. This response is neither acceptable nor does it befit a democracy."
And Kerry couldn't resist getting in a plug for Ukraine's Orthodox Church, which is rallying the protesters: "As church bells ring tonight amidst the smoke in the streets of Kyiv, the United States stands with the people of Ukraine."
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After days of playing down the crisis in Ukraine, the United States has lately upped its involvement, with Vice President Biden calling Yanukovich and Victoria Nuland, a quasi-neocon who serves as assistant secretary of state, dropping in on Kiev to contribute her two cents.
The crisis began when Yanukovich, under severe pressure from Russia, opted not to sign an agreement with the European Union and instead signaled his decision to join an economic pact linking Russia and a handful of former Soviet states. Earlier this year, Russia threatened to bring Ukraine to its knees via a trade embargo and other measures, taking advantage of the fact that Ukraine is heavily dependent on Russia economically, and it is near bankruptcy, needing an infusion of something like $18 billion to stabilize itself. The accord with the EU, accompanied by the usual demands from the International Monetary Fund, would force Ukraine to accept stringent economic austerity measures to qualify for aid, and the EU also wants Yanukovich to free political prisoners, including an imprisoned former prime minister, Yulia Timoshenko. Russia, on the other hand, won't come to Ukraine's aid until and unless it gets assurances that Ukraine won't become part of an EU-NATO alliance against Moscow. So, as long as Ukraine is caught between east and west, Cold War–style, it's unlikely that either side will come to Ukraine's aid economically.
Maybe Yanukovich can play both sides against each other. As The New York Times reports:
Russia has indicated some willingness to help, potentially with a combination of lower gas prices, the refinancing of existing debt and, perhaps, a small bridge loan, but not until the political turmoil has been resolved. … The possibility that Ukraine could be tipped back into Russia's orbit has set Western officials scrambling, in part to put together a more palatable aid package that perhaps would persuade Mr. Yanukovich to reconsider signing the accords.
President Obama and Kerry ought to urge the EU to rejigger the offer to Ukraine, tell Russia that they are willing to meet them halfway, and work out a Solomon-like solution that gives everyone a win-win.
But, on the right, there is strong pressure on Obama to turn this into a good-vs.-evil struggle of titanic, Manichean proportions. Take, for example, the near-hysterical words of George Wiegel, writing in National Review:
For while there are many factors impelling Ukrainians into the streets these days, the most basic question at issue in the confrontation between the protesters and the government of Viktor Yanukovych is this: Will conscience, tethered to moral truth and ordered to the common good, be permitted a place in the Ukraine of the 21st century? Or is Ukraine condemned by history, by geography, and by the toxic aftereffects on its culture of seven decades of Communism to be an outlier or exile in the contemporary drama of freedom, governed by brute force detached from any notion of moral responsibility?
Before this becomes Axis of Evil Revisited, Obama needs to reign in Kerry and Nuland and calm things down.
Read next: Stephen F. Cohen's thoughts on the New York Times coverage of the protests in the Ukraine.
The trouble with making "functional" government the great aspiration of the American experiment – as so many pundits and politicians now do – is that a smoothly operating Congress is not necessarily moral, humane or even economically smart.
It is important to remember this disconnect as we consider the budget deal announced late Tuesday by House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, and Senate Budget Committee chairman Patty Murray, D-Washington.
"This agreement breaks through the recent dysfunction to prevent another government shutdown and roll back sequestration's cuts to defense and domestic investments in a balanced way," said Murray. "It's a good step in the right direction that can hopefully rebuild some trust and serve as a foundation for continued bipartisan work."
Ryan was equally self-congratulatory, declaring that – after a fall the saw a government shutdown, nasty wrangling over the historically uncontroversial task of raising the debt ceiling and general congressional dysfunction – he and Murray had achieved "a clear improvement on the status quo."
"This agreement makes sure that we don't have a government shutdown scenario in January," he added. "It makes sure we don't have another government shutdown scenario in October. It makes sure that we don't lurch from crisis to crisis."
Murray and Ryan are excited that they had stopped fighting for long enough to agree to $63 billion in "sequester relief" – as opposed to an actual end to sequestration – and $23 billion in net deficit reduction. They're also glad that they have set the discretionary spending level for fiscal year 2014 at $1.012 trillion, while setting the level at $1.014 trillion for fiscal year 2015. That apparently qualifies – in the eyes of the budget negotiators – as a sufficient alternative to lurching from crisis to crisis.
But the agreement does not address the crises that matter. "This plan won't create jobs, get the economy back on track, or meaningfully cut the deficit," explains Congressman Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon.
And that's not the worst of it.
What of the 1.3 million jobless Americans who – with a fully Dickensian twist – now stand to lose Federal unemployment benefits three days after Christmas?
The budget agreement does not look like a "step in the right direction" for them. And unless Democrats succeed in renewing benefits in a distinct piece of legislation that apparently must pass this week – as Congress is moving rapidly toward recess – many of the most economically vulnerable Americans will be "lurching from crisis to crisis" very soon.
Their crisis is our crisis. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, extending benefits for the long-term unemployed would boost a still slow economy by two-tenths of a percent in the coming year – creating 200,000 needed jobs. As the CBO explains: "Recipients of the additional benefits would increase their spending on consumer goods and services. That increase in aggregate demand would encourage businesses to boost production and hire more workers than they otherwise would, particularly given the expected slack in the capital and labor markets."
Without providing for the extension, something that easily and appropriately could have been done in the budget agreement, Ryan and Murray failed in their most basic humanitarian and economic duties.
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And what of the federal workers and members of the military who will be required to take what is effectively a pay cut in order to pay more for their retirement benefits?
"Federal workers have sacrificed over $113 billion for deficit reduction since 2011, including a three-year pay freeze and increased pension contributions for newly hired employees. This figure does not include the up to eight furlough days caused by sequestration this summer and a 16-day shutdown in October which resulted in financial hardship and profound anxiety for half the government's workforce and their families," noted unions that represent federal employees. "Given these contributions, we are dismayed to learn that increasing the pension contributions and/or changing the retirement formula for current federal employees is on the table. This is simply unacceptable."
This is, also, absurd.
Despite Murray's prodding, the House and Senate budget chairs did not close a single tax loophole. But they did come up with a scheme to take money away from public employees and people serving in the military – effectively reducing what millions of Americans will have to spend on Main Street.
Members of House and Senate who are paid $174,000 annually, collect generous benefits and – thanks to redistricting and an incumbent-rewarding campaign finance system – enjoy no small measure of job security, can pat themselves on the back for breaking through "the recent dysfunction." But forcing others to lurch from crisis to crisis so that you can tell yourself you have taken "a step in the right direction" is socially and economically dysfunctional. Not to mention cruel, and irresponsible.
Read Next: Jessica Weisberg explains how inequality has been woven into the fabric of American society.
Last month, we noted that a bipartisan group of senators, lead by Jeff Merkley of Oregon, introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that asked President Obama to seek a vote in Congress over whether to extend the war in Afghanistan through "2024 and beyond," as the potential security pact with the Afghan government proposes.
Monday, the contours of a Senate deal to advance the NDAA were announced—and Merkley's amendment will not be receiving a vote.
This is despite the amendment gaining even more support among powerful Democrats, including one—Alaska Senator Mark Begich—who is up for re-election in 2014, a possible barometer of how politically toxic the war has become (67 percent of Americans don't think the war was worth it, according to a recent poll).
The amendment now counts Senators Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT), Ron Wyden (D-OR) Joe Manchin (D-WV), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Jon Tester (D-MT), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Patty Murray (D-WA) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT), along with Merkley and Begich as co-sponsors.
Senator Tom Coburn is threatening to dramatically slow down the NDAA if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid doesn't allow Senators to propose amendments, but that gambit is unlikely to work.
But Merkley isn't giving up—his office pledged to bring a similar bill back for consideration before the security pact is finalized, and expressed dismay that the measure likely won't be considered this year.
"Senator Merkley is disappointed that his amendment will not get a vote during the Defense Authorization debate," said Jamal Raad, Merkley's press secretary. "He still thinks it is important that before we commit massive resources and thousands of troops to another decade in Afghanistan, Congress should vote, and he will continue pushing for a vote."
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Meanwhile, the seemingly smooth negotiations between the United States and Afghanistan seem to have hit a snag, with Afghan President Hamid Karzai calling for delays and protesting several provisions. That may yet scuttle another decade of war. But Merkley and his colleagues are pressing on, holding to the notion that Congress ought to have a say on another decade of war with an essentially new mission.
Read Next: The Nation's interactive database of civilian casaulties in Afghanistan.
This is part one of a series on the perils of privatization. Check back soon for the next installment.
Riding the buses in Chicago has been awfully fun this busy Christmas Season. Half the time, it's been free.
This fall, you see, after a series of delays, the city brought online a new fare payment system called "Ventra" in which customers tap "smart cards" against electronic readers at bus entrances and train station turnstiles. Only it turns out these cards are not so smart. Half the time, tap after tap after tap, the damned things don't work, and the bus driver just exasperatedly waves you through. Although it hasn't been as much fun for the passengers who exited the bus through the front door and discovered that, if their purses or backpacks brushed too close to the reader, they were charged twice. Or for a guy named Al Stern who became a local celebrity after receiving an e-mail on Friday, September 6, informing him he'd be receiving a Ventra card in the mail soon to replace his "Chicago Card," which was the previous prepayment system (which worked fine). Four minutes later he got the same e-mail, then four minutes after that, then four minutes again after that, and so on and so forth all the way until the next morning. Twenty-four days later he arrived home to a pile of 91 envelopes shoved through his mail slot, each holding a Ventra card; the next day, 176 more arrived, each one, he later discovered, canceling the last. "You have to call and activate it," he told Crain's Chicago Business, "but I've been afraid to do that."
The goofs accelerated, like Lucille Ball working at the assembly line, or Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times. At the end of November federal workers discovered they could "pay" fares by scanning their employee IDs. ("Please be advised that intentional misuse of federal credentials is prohibited," the local EPA office wrote employees.) Other customers reported being double-, triple- or even quadruple-billed. At the end of October the Chicago Tribune reported, "CTA employees are being 'verbally attacked daily by angry riders' who are blaming them for problems with the new transit-fare payment system"; their union called on the Chicago Transit Authority to scrap Ventra until the bugs were worked out. The city started charging the vendor for the proliferating lost revenue, while that vendor kept promising serial "software fixes" that never seemed to do anything but introduce novel problems. At the end of November came news that when people tapped their wallets, like they used to do without problem with their old Chicago Cards, random credit or debit cards were charged. Then, last week, the "CTA: Ventra Glitches Mostly Gone But Delays Remain." Rush-hour outages began, and some buses stopping accepting fares altogether. That came two days after the headline, ""CTA: Ventra glitches mostly gone but delays remain."
It's been our own municipal version of the Obamacare rollout—which means everyone should pay attention. For the root problem is exactly the same. Congressman Henry Waxman argued about glitches in the ACA, "if anybody's head should roll, it should be the contractors who didn't live up to their contractual responsibility." But that's only half right. Consider the sign Harry Truman used to keep on his Oval Office desk: "The buck stops here." The problem is not just the profusion of private contractors who do the public's business so poorly; it's the fact that the public's business is being so relentlessly privatized by the government executives in charge. Slowly, the perceived imperative to privatize has become the political tail that wags the policy dog. The results are before us.
Why, indeed, was this massive change in how Chicagoans pay for their bus and train fares initiated in the first place? "What was wrong with the old system? It worked fine," ran the first comment on the Chicago Tribune's article on all the abuse the poor bus drivers are facing from frustrated customers. Ran the second, "I have never even heard a compelling argument as to WHY we needed a new system to begin with."
Well, my friends, here's your compelling argument: under the old system, rich investors didn't get a piece of the action. Under this one, they most decidedly do.
The contract to replace Chicago's fare payment system was awarded to the publicly traded corporation Cubic in 2011 by the previous mayor, Richard M. Daley, for $454 million, and implemented with alacrity by the current mayor Rahm Emanuel. I'll have much more to say about this company and its many dubious works in the next part of this series. For now, consider this. In a separate part of the project, Chicagoans are offered the following opportunity, as advertised on the back of their Ventra cards: "Go beyond transit. Call or go online to activate your Money Network® MasterCard® Prepaid Debit Account and use your Ventra Card for purchases, direct deposit, bill pay, and at ATMs." This is how the City of Chicago intended to turn its millions of captive citizens over to the commercial banking industry: hoovering spare change from the pockets of Chicago's marginal communities into corporate America's overstuffed coffers.
Chicagoans who choose to turn bus cards into bank cards will be socked with hidden fees: $1.50 every time they withdraw cash using your bus-card-cum-bank-card from an ATM,$2.95 every time they add money using a personal credit card. Two dollars for every phone call with a service representative (or, oops, each "Operator Assisted Telephone Inquiry"). Two bucks for a paper copy of their account. An "account research fee" of $10 an hour.
At which point, learning about all that, they might cry, Help! Let me out of this "deal"! Well, that'll cost them $6—a "balance refund fee."
Now, turning your bus card into a bank card is optional—a program supposedly intended to help Chicago's underbanked poor. I liked this observation, however, from a Tribune article last March: "It may be a tough sell, some experts said. Many low-income individuals are cash-centric in their spending habits because they are wise to the way of credit-card charges." But not to fear, if you're a Master of the Universe investing in one of the participating multinational banking concerns—Mastercard, First Data, or MetaBank—backing the play. Even though Chicago's impoverished might not make ready marks for the scam, Chicagoans who don't choose the banking option will suffer hidden charges. There is, for instance, a $7 "dormancy" fee if you don't use your transit card for eighteen months, with another $5 charge tacked on for every dormant month after that.
Note that I said hidden fees. How hidden? Well, the only reasons Chicagoans learned about them was that the Chicago Tribune pored through over 1,000 pages of legal boilerplate (for more on how impossibly complex user contracts rip off consumers generally see my reporting here) and discovered them.
The reporters at the local CBS affiliate, meanwhile, reported that First Data got an "F" rating from the Better Business Bureau, with ninety-seven complaints filed against it over the past three years. MetaBank was recently ordered to pay $5.2 million by federal regulators for another public/private hustle, a now-discontinued program of issuing debit cards funded by tax refund loans at interest rates between 120 and 650 percent with a fee of $2.50 per $20 loaned.
The Trib noted, "Neither the CTA nor Cubic…nor MasterCard; nor MetaBank; nor First Data, which will issue the prepaid debit accounts, have disclosed the extra charges or how consumers can avoid them." The city promised, though, that a "CTA public education campaign on all aspects of the Ventra card, including the fees, will start soon." I must have missed it. Another fee which all transit users will have to bend over backward to dodge is the $5 it costs to get a transit card in the first place. That $5 is supposed to be refunded if you register your card online or by phone. I didn't learn about that until I began researching this piece, though I was unable to make the site work on my decrepit old computer. Then they decided to waive the $5 fee, but only if you buy your card via phone or online, not at vending machines—which sort of compounds the insult against less-savvy customers or those with decrepit computers, doesn't it?
Now, you might think poorer Chicagoans without even decrepit old computers should be able to hobble along paying for their fares like they always have, in cash. But single-ride tickets are going to be $3, instead of the normal $2.25—with what the CTA calls a seventy-five-cent "convenience fee" tacked on.
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Chicagoans, these are the business partners your city has chosen. And this is the man in charge of protecting you from them: Forest Claypool, president of the Chicago Transit Authority. Some protector. Claypool wrote that "the 'convenience fee' covers the cost of producing the disposable tickets and is 'entirely avoidable to any and every customer' so long as they purchase and register Ventra cards.'" But as I noted above, poor people tend to use cash because they don't trust cards—reasonably enough. But the black-hearted bureaucrat "bristled at the characterization by many critics that cash-payers are being penalized…'There is no $3 cash fare,' he said. 'The $3 is if a person chooses a disposable, one-ride ticket. It has nothing to do with cash.' "
The editors of Crain's Chicago Business, no Bolsheviks they, disagree with his blithe assessment. They say "the embedded fees could prey upon the least financially savvy among us, those for whom a $5 charge here and a $7 fee there add up to real money… They rely on people's ignorance to take in money. And that's not the kind of business our public servants ought to be in."
So, so naïve, Crain's Chicago Business. That's precisely the business our public servants want to be in—"public" servants like Mayor Emanuel. As Chicago anti-privatization activist Tom Tresser explained to me last summer, "We have a massive global movement of capital which, because they've burned their own fucking houses down through their own greed, don't have the gilt returns that they're used to receiving…. So the new guaranteed annual returns that big business and big capital are looking for is our assets."
Next time, I'll focus on the particular big business behind the fare collection system in Chicago—and in Sydney, Vancouver and London, too. I guarantee it will be eye-opening.
Read Next: Greg Kauffman on a Senate plan to cut food stamps.
Editor's Note: Each week we cross-post an excerpt from Katrina vanden Heuvel's column at the WashingtonPost.com. Read the full text of Katrina's column here.
Leaders from across the world will gather in South Africa this week to pay tribute to the most extraordinary leader of our lifetime, Nelson Mandela. The chorus of tributes, from across the globe and across the political spectrum, cannot hope to do justice to this remarkable man, who emerged from twenty-seven years in prison with a grace, dignity and will sufficient to transform the brutal apartheid system peacefully and spread hope across the world.
But Mandela was not always universally praised. In fact, US administrations of both parties were far from ardent opponents of South Africa's apartheid regime or supporters of Mandela and his organization, the African National Congress (ANC). Conservatives in particular long saw the apartheid regime as an anti-communist bulwark in the Cold War. After Mandela was sentenced to life in prison, the conservative National Review magazine defended South African courts for sending up "a batch of admitted terrorists to life in the penitentiary." Conservative Russell Kirk opined that democratic rule in South Africa would bring "the collapse of civilization," and the resulting government would be "domination by witch doctors…and reckless demagogues."
President Richard Nixon and his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, believed the apartheid regime was an essential ally that was here to stay, arguing in a secret National Security Council policy study—dubbed the "Tar Baby" report—that the United States shouldn't risk getting stuck in support of the oppressed majority.
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Ronald Reagan branded the ANC a terrorist organization while dismissing apartheid as more of a "tribal policy than a racial policy." He advocated "constructive engagement" with the regime, calling for closer trade relations while opposing economic sanctions. The emerging new right gleefully joined in labeling the ANC and other African liberation movements communist, while promoting their own "freedom movements," largely tribal and racialist alternatives. Jack Abramoff, later infamously indicted for illegal lobbying and financial frauds, became president of the International Freedom Foundation, later exposed as a front group for the South African Army, established to discredit the ANC as communists and terrorists. Grover Norquist and others mobilized to counter the divestment movement. (Norquist sported a bumper sticker saying "I'd rather be killing commies.") In 1990, when Mandela was released from prison and traveled to the United States, the Heritage Foundation called him a terrorist.
Editor's Note: Each week we cross-post an excerpt from Katrina vanden Heuvel's column at the WashingtonPost.com. Read the full text of Katrina's column here.
E-mail questions, tips or proposals to firstname.lastname@example.com. For earlier dispatches, check out the previous post. Edited by James Cersonsky (@cersonsky).
1. In DC, DREAMers Join the Fast
On December 1, I traveled to DC with other leaders from United We Dream–Tampa Bay. We met with our members of Congress, demanding that they lead on immigration reform for our families. We also joined the #Fast4Families. Our movement is proud to stand with Eliseo Medina, a labor leader and voice in this movement for decades, and the other leaders for a moral awakening and to send a message to Speaker Boehner to stop delaying immigration reform. As a citizen from a mixed status family, I'm fighting for my sister, who is undocumented, and my parents, who remain undocumented and haven't seen my 24-year-old brother since they left Mexico twenty years ago.
—Rosalba Ortiz
2. In El Paso, Dream 30 Meet New Asylum-Seekers
While the Dream 30 were detained at El Paso Processing center in Texas this past October, the cases of many immigrants who had passed their credible fear interview, the first step for asylum, but still had not been released was brought to our attention. The failure to release them flies in the face of a 2009 ICE memorandum establishing that those "found to have credible fear" and who present "neither a flight risk nor danger to the community" qualify for parole. So far, the National Immigrant Youth Alliance has found more than 100 cases where detainees are being held despite meeting criteria for parole, including three cases of pregnant women detained in conditions detrimental to the health of their unborn babies and several instances of harassment based on religious or sexual identity. We are asking for a full congressional review of the facility and of local ICE officials who are not releasing detainees under the memo.
—National Immigrant Youth Alliance
3. In California, Activists Disrupt Obama, U-Lock to ICE
On November 25, Ju Hong, a University of California student and member of Asian Students Promoting Immigrant Rights and Education, or ASPIRE, intervened in President Obama's immigration reform speech in San Francisco. Hong pleaded with Obama to stop the deportations, a message that ASPIRE has echoed. That same day, three young women u-locked their necks to the front gates of a detention center in the city of Adelanto. And then, on December 2, Orange County organizers held an action in front of a detention center, insisting ICE be shut down and reiterating the national call for administrative relief for all and an end to deportations.
—Carolyn Vera
4. Mandatory Minimums Get Tabled, for Now
The Chicago Chapter of Black Youth Project 100 is organizing to stop SB 1342 from becoming law in the State of Illinois. SB 1342 would require anyone caught with an illegal firearm to receive mandatory one-year sentencing and a felony charge. Decades of research demonstrate that laws like SB 1342 do not actually decrease gun violence or make our communities safer. This law will put more black bodies in prison at the expense of unaccountability for illicit gun sellers; our communities need good schools and good jobs, not more incarceration. On December 2, BYP 100 members joined Project NIA in an action outside Chicago's City Hall to send a message that young black people are invested in making sure SB 1342 does not become law. SB 1342 was expected to be voted on during the December special session, but has been delayed until the upcoming spring session. BYP 100 Chicago will continue gathering petition signatures and phone-banking, focusing on key members in the Illinois State Legislature. For us, this is personal.
—Charlene Carruthers
5. Stand Your Ground Inches Forward, Opposition Grows
In November, the Ohio House of Representatives voted to bring Stand Your Ground to Ohio. In spite of ten city council resolutions against the shoot-first law, opposition from police associations, prosecutors and legal professionals and sustained outcry from faith groups and youth, state representatives are still pushing forward with the bill. After the Ohio Student Association delivered 10,000 petition signatures with the Ohio Organizing Collaborative and the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus and died-in outside the statehouse, our representatives continued to ignore the voices of Ohioans opposed to the bill. So we disrupted the vote, and are getting ready to turn up the pressure as it moves to the Senate, #unafraidtogether.
—James Hayes
6. Youth Services International Meets a Youth Groundswell
In Florida, Dream Defenders are preparing for a long battle against a huge corporation profiting off youth incarceration: Youth Services International. In recent years, Florida has privatized the entirety of its $183 million juvenile commitment system—the country's third largest, after only California and Texas. This means more young people in YSI prisons, boot camps and detention centers, which have a long history of abuse and negligence. Two lawsuits have just been filed against YSI, CEO James Slattery and staff at its Broward and Pembroke Pines facilities, accusing staff of physical and emotional abuse and the corporation of negligence. Despite its history, the Department of Juvenile Justice and Secretary Wansley Walters are still in the process of granting the company another contract for a facility in Miami, the third contract since a Huffington Post investigation brought the facility to light. Dream Defenders have been visiting the members of the Senate Criminal Justice and Civil Rights Subcommittee to demand that YSI be granted #NoMoreContracts in the state.
—Dream Defenders
7. At GWU, the Minimum Wage Moves
With skyrocketing housing costs, too many DC residents cannot find the money to continue calling the city home on the current minimum wage, $8.25 an hour. On December 3, the DC City Council passed both the Minimum Wage Amendment Act and Earned Sick and Safe Leave Amendment Act. The legislation brings DC's minimum wage to $11.50 by 2016, incrementally increasing every year, and ties it to the Consumer Price Index. Students from the George Washington University Roosevelt Institute have joined a coalition of community organizations, including the DC Jobs with Justice, RESPECT DC and multiple local unions, to put grassroots pressure on the council. Activists have visited council offices, filled up the hearing room meetings and organized numerous rallies. Leading up to a follow-up vote on December 17, students will continue applying pressure to the council.
—Yasemin Ayarci and Joelle Gamble
8. At Alvarez High School, Students Get a Rare Win
On November 25, the Providence Student Union's "No More School Closings!" campaign culminated in a big win. Back in October, the Providence School Department announced a plan to close Providence's Alvarez High School, where the Providence Student Union has a youth-led chapter. Less than an hour after we got the news, a large group of PSU members were standing together in the Providence School Board's chambers, ready to speak out against the department's proposal. After a month of organizing, from rallying the community, to successfully pushing the city council to pass a resolution against the closure, to packing school board meetings and more, the school board voted to keep Alvarez High School open.
—Providence Student Union
9. Free Speech at UC?
Students at the University of California–San Diego are being charged with violating the student conduct code after disrupting Chancellor Khosla's speech at the annual Founders' Day event. On November 15, in the lead-up to a one-day student strike in solidarity with striking campus workers, students read demands and grievances to the chancellor involving the conditions of workers, grad students and undergrads in the University of California amid growing privatization. Though this was the third consecutive Founders' Day disruption, it was the first year with charges. In response, students have started a petition and a letter writing campaign and have planned several demonstrations, including a mock checkpoint where students are to cross the line and shut up as they symbolically have their freedom of speech taken away.
—Emily Stoffer
10. A Union at NYU?
After an eight-year struggle, the Graduate Student Organizing Committee/UAW and Scientists and Engineers Together/UAW reached a historic agreement with New York University in which the administration will remain neutral and respect our right to vote on union representation on December 10 and 11. A majority vote by more than 1,200 GAs, TAs and RAs would restore collective bargaining—once again making NYU the only private institution with a graduate employee union—and put us in position to have a new contract in place by the end of the academic year. Looking forward to voting "yes" to win back the Union, a group of more than 100 graduate employees from every major department across NYU and the Polytechnic Institute of NYU has endorsed the agreement, which expands the number of eligible graduate employees beyond the previous contract and includes a joint statement affirming that collective bargaining will "improve the graduate student experience" and "sustain and enhance NYU's academic competitiveness."
—Matt Canfield
If you don't live or work in Washington, a chronicle of staffing changes on the Beltway is about as interesting as faraway mild weather or a stranger's dreams. In other words: not very. But Representative John Boehner announced a new hire last week whose presence in the Speaker's office implies that immigration reform is still a viable possibility, or at least that Boehner would like it to be. That hire's name is Becky Tallent and until last week she was the director of immigration policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Before that, she was an aide to two Arizonan Republicans who advocated for immigration reform—Senator John McCain and Representative Jim Kolbe. Immigration reform is a notoriously stagnant area of policy—Congress has been trying to get a bill passed since 1996 —and Tallent seems to have a reputation for getting things done. "You don't hire Becky Tallent if what you want is someone to twiddle her thumbs and just buy you time. You hire Becky to help craft solutions and turn them into law," Anna Navarro, a former aide to McCain, told MSNBC.
Tallent's approach, based on an op-ed she published in The Christian Science Monitor last month, will likely be piecemeal; she'll separately tackle border security, new visa requirements, and the status of undocumented residents already living here. "For the House to pass immigration reform, it needs an opportunity to work through its own process, moving smaller, piecemeal bills that members feel they have the opportunity to review and allow their constituents to vet," Tallent wrote. What she does not say, of course, is that a comprehensive bill would be a political coup for Obama and that is a legacy Republican congressmen do not want to grant him. The Bipartisan Policy Center published a report in August that called for increased border security, a "rigorous" path to citizenship accessible to all undocumented immigrants, more employment-based immigration, and a regulated temporary worker program. But to advocate for these reforms separately is to risk that one or more of them not be passed at all.
A multi-step approach to immigration reform has become more widely accepted in Washington. President Obama has said that he would gladly approve of a series of smaller bills rather than a single comprehensive one. "If they want to chop that thing up into five pieces, as long as all five pieces get done, I don't care what it looks like, as long as it's actually delivering on those core values that we talk about," the President has said.
A piecemeal approach will invite a dozen different proposals on who can stay and who must go, dictating which families can be spliced across international borders and how. Currently, Representative Eric Cantor and Representative Bob Goodlatte, both Republicans from Virginia, would like to only offer a path to citizenship to young, undocumented immigrants—so-called "Dreamers." Representative Mike Coffman, a Republican from Colorado, would only offer it to those who enlist in the military. Late last month, President Obama quietly issued a memo allowing for undocumented family members of some military personnel to remain in the country. The President appears to be more frequently exercising his right to make relatively minor administrative adjustments to immigration laws, approaching reform in bits.
Yesterday, a group of protesters from the organization We Belong Together gathered on the Hill. Many of the protesters were children who had been separated from parents because of immigration issues. In 2012 alone, the group says, 152,000 children in the US had a parent deported. Two of the protesters, Javier and Angel, are 16-year-old twins and US citizens. They live in Oakland with their father and 9-year-old brother, who are also citizens, while their mother lives in Oaxaca because she's unable to get a visa. She was detained at the border in 2011 when their family returned to California after a visit to Mexico and she's had to stay there since. "It's been hard on my dad," Angel told me. He and Javier take care of their younger brother; they drop him off and pick him up from school. "He looks at us like parents," Angel said.
There's also Fast for Families, a coordinated hunger strike to demand a path to citizenship for all undocumented residents. (The Obamas paid hunger strikers a visit over Thanksgiving.) This morning, eight New Jersey activists lay in the snow outside the ICE detention center in Elizabeth blocking all outgoing traffic. "Don't deport my mama," they yelled. "Not one more." (By 9 this morning, all protesters appear to have been arrested.) The surge of activism comes just after the release of new data from the Justice Department showing that immigration prosecutions reached an all-time high in 2013, with new cases being filed against 97,384 defendants.
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Polls show that a majority of Americans want a comprehensive immigration reform bill that includes all the tenets outlined by Tallent's former employer, more border security and a path to citizenship. Advocates include business leaders (see Mark Zuckerberg's recent immigration hackathon), who believe such a bill would be economically advantageous, and religious organizations. Perhaps a piecemeal approach will appeal to Republicans in the House, but can Tallent make it appeal to voters?
Read Next: David Mizner on why hunger strikes are erupting around the world.
The South African Constitution minces no words regarding access to medical care.
"Everyone has the right to have access to health care services, including reproductive health care," the document declares, adding that: "The state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realization of each of these rights."
At a time when the United States is engaged in an archaic debate over whether to even try and provide universal access to health care, most other countries well understand the absurdity of conditioning access to basic human needs—including access to healthcare, housing and education—on the ability to pay.
That understanding was championed by Nelson Mandela, whose life and legacy is being honored this week by President Obama, members of Congress and leaders from around the world. Fittingly, the memorials for Mandela will coincide with this week's sixty-fifth anniversary of the adoption (on December 10, 1948) by the United Nations General Assembly of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—a document that the former South African president revered as a touchstone for nation building and governing.
Mandela, a lawyer by training and a student of constitutions, steered South Africa toward a broad understanding of human rights. When his country adopted its Constitution in 1996, he announced that "the new constitution obliges us to strive to improve the quality of life of the people. In this sense, our national consensus recognizes that there is nothing else that can justify the existence of government but to redress the centuries of unspeakable privations, by striving to eliminate poverty, illiteracy, homelessness and disease. It obliges us, too, to promote the development of independent civil society structures."
There are many reasons to honor Mandela. And there is much to be borrowed from his legacy.
But it is absolutely vital, as we focus on this man, to recall his wise words with regard to human rights—and the role that government had in assuring access to those rights.
Mandela embraced the great vision of the twentieth-century idealists who, at the end of World War II, recognized a responsibility to address the inequality that fostered fear, hatred and totalitarianism. It was an American, Eleanor Roosevelt, who reminded Americans seventy years ago that "at all times, day by day, we have to continue fighting for freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom from fear, and freedom from want—for these are things that must be gained in peace as well as in war."
President Franklin Roosevelt, with his 1941 "Four Freedoms" speech, had begun to scope out the broader definition of human rights, speaking not just of First Amendment liberties but also of a "freedom from want – which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world."
After her husband's death in 1945, Eleanor Roosevelt carried the vision forward in her dynamic role as the first chairperson of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. She oversaw the development of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document that affirmed: "Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality."
The declaration also held out this promise: "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control."
When the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was celebrated in 1998, Mandela addressed the UN General Assembly.
"Born in the aftermath of the defeat of the Nazi and fascist crime against humanity, this Declaration held high the hope that all our societies would, in future, be built on the foundations of the glorious vision spelt out in each of its clauses," said Mandela, who had in the preceding decade made the transition from prisoner to president of South Africa. "For those who had to fight for their emancipation, such as ourselves who, with your help, had to free ourselves from the criminal apartheid system, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights served as the vindication of the justice of our cause. At the same time, it constituted a challenge to us that our freedom, once achieved, should be dedicated to the implementation of the perspectives contained in the Declaration."
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Mandela accepted that challenge, and explained that it remained unmet in much of the world.
"The very right to be human is denied everyday to hundreds of millions of people as a result of poverty, the unavailability of basic necessities such as food, jobs, water and shelter, education, health care and a healthy environment," he said. "The failure to achieve the vision contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights finds dramatic expression in the contrast between wealth and poverty which characterizes the divide between the countries of the North and the countries of the South and within individual countries in all hemispheres."
The president of South Africa was explicit in his criticism of leaders who failed—by "acts of commission and omission"—to address civil and economic injustice.
"What I am trying to say is that all these social ills which constitute an offence against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are not a pre-ordained result of the forces of nature or the product of a curse of the deities. They are the consequence of decisions which men and women take or refuse to take, all of whom will not hesitate to pledge their devoted support for the vision conveyed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," he explained.
Looking to the future, Mandela concluded, "The challenge posed by the next 50 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, by the next century whose character it must help to fashion, consists in whether humanity, and especially those who will occupy positions of leadership, will have the courage to ensure that, at last, we build a human world consistent with the provisions of that historic Declaration and other human rights instruments that have been adopted since 1948."
Douglas Foster on the meaning of Mandela.


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May 23, 2012
Story at a Glance
On Wednesday, May 30, 2012, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) will host a public pre-construction meeting for the U St. Streetscape Project.
Media Contacts
(Washington, DC) — On Wednesday, May 30, 2012, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) will host a public pre-construction meeting for the U St. Streetscape Project. This meeting is being held in conjunction with Councilmember Jim Graham and other Ward 1 stakeholders. Representatives from DDOT will meet with the public to discuss the project details, explain the impacts that construction will have on the community and to also answer questions or concerns about the construction activities planned for this project.
The U St. Streetscape Project will include the following features and improvements:
The construction for this project is scheduled to start on or about June 11, 2012 and be completed by spring of 2013 barring any unforeseen or weather conditions. DDOT will start first with reconstructing a 0.4-mile segment of Historic U Street from 9th Street to 14th Street NW.
For more information on the project and to sign up for future updates visit www.UStreetProject.com .
Questions about this project may be directed to the DDOT Project Manager - Wendy Peckham at (202) 671-4581.
DDOT is committed to ensuring that no person is excluded from participation in, or denied the benefits of, its projects, programs, and services on the basis of race, color, national origin, or gender, as provided by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or on the basis of disability as provided by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
If you need special accommodations or language assistance services (translation or interpretation), please contact Chinaka A. Young at (202) 641-6739 or firstname.lastname@example.com no later than 48 hours in advance of the meeting. These services will be provided free of charge.
The District government has provided links as a courtesy and is not responsible for information on websites outside the DC portal. Inquiries should be made to the sponsoring organizations.