Friday, August 15, 2014

Boko Haram Abduct Dozens Of Boys In Nigeria

August 15, 2014 | Filed under: Africa |

Misguided Arab slaves have turned against Nigeria

JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Suspected Boko Haram terrorists have abducted dozens of boys and men in a raid on a remote village in northeast Nigeria, loading them onto trucks and driving them off, witnesses who fled the violence said on Friday.

The kidnappings come four months after Boko Haram abducted more than 200 schoolgirls from the village of Chibok.

Several witnesses who fled after the Sunday’s raid on Doron Baga, a sandy fishing village near the shores of Lake Chad, said the terrorists had burned several houses and that as many as 97 people were unaccounted for.

“They left no men or boys in the place; only young children, girls and women,” said Halima Adamu, sobbing softly and looking exhausted after a 180 km (110 mile) road trip on the back of a truck to the northern city of Maiduguri.

“They were shooting sporadically. There was confusion everywhere. They started parking our men and boys into their vehicles, threatening to shoot whoever disobey them. Everybody was scared.”

The villagers said six older men were also killed in Sunday’s raid.

Boko Haram, seen as the number one security threat to Africa’s top economy and oil producer, has dramatically increased attacks on civilians in the past year, and the once-grassroots movement has rapidly lost popular support as it gets more blood thirsty.

Its solution – kidnapping boys and girls – is chilling echo of Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army, which has operated in the same way in Uganda, South Sudan and central Africa for decades.

The military did not respond to a request for comment. A security source said they were aware of the incident but were still investigating the details.

The Arab/Muslim Slave Trade In Africa – The Untold Story

Friday, August 15, 2014

Police: Teen shot by cop suspect in recent robbery - Yahoo News

Police: Teen shot by cop suspect in recent robbery - Yahoo News

Ferguson Police Chief Releases Officer's Name

JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Folks, In light of this new information which still hasn't been substantiated concerning a robbery, I still hope the you don't let the conversation change or focus switch now from a unarmed black youth being killed to a criminal been shot and killed. "Why Should The Conversation Change".

A suburban St. Louis police chief on Friday identified the officer whose fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager ignited days of heated protests, and released documents alleging the teen was killed after a robbery in which he was suspected of stealing a $48.99 box of cigars.

Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson released several police reports and documents during a news conference where he also identified the officer involved as Darren Wilson, who has been on administrative leave since he shot 18-year-old Michael Brown on Aug. 9.

Brown and his friend, Dorian Johnson, were suspected of taking a box of cigars from a convenience store in Ferguson that morning, according to police reports. Jackson said Wilson went to the area after a 911 call
reporting a "strong-arm" robbery just before noon. He said a dispatcher gave a description of the robbery suspect, and Wilson, who had been assisting on another call, was sent to investigate.

Wilson, a six-year veteran of the police department, encountered Brown just after 12:01 p.m., with a second officer arriving three minutes later, Jackson said.

Brown's uncle, Bernard Ewing, questioned whether Wilson really believed Brown was a suspect. He noted Johnson's account that the officer told the two young men to get out of the street and onto the sidewalk, and that Brown had his hands up when he was shot.

"If he's a robbery suspect, they would have had the lights on," Ewing said. "If you rob somebody, you would tell them, 'Get on the ground' or something, not, 'Get off the sidewalk.'"

"It still doesn't justify shooting him when he puts his hands up," he added. "You still don't shoot him in the face."

A phone message seeking comment from the family's attorney, Benjamin Crump, wasn't immediately returned.

Brown's death has sparked several days of clashes with furious protesters in the city. The mood was quelled on Thursday after the governor turned oversight of the protests over to the state Highway Patrol. State troopers walking side-by-side with thousands of peaceful protesters replaced the image of previous nights: police in riot gear and armored tanks.

But the police chief's announcement Friday was met with immediate disbelief and anger by several dozen community members who also attended the news conference, which was hastily held at a gas station burned during a night of looting earlier in the week in Ferguson, a town of 21,000 that is nearly 70 percent black and patrolled by a nearly all-white police force.

"He stopped the wrong one, bottom line," yelled Tatinisha Wheeler, a nurse's aide who was at the news conference.

A couple dozen protesters began marching around the charred gas station and in the street chanting, "Hands up, don't shoot," and, "What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!"

Police have said Brown was shot after an officer encountered him and another man on the street during a routine patrol. They say one of the men pushed the officer into his squad car, then physically assaulted him in
the vehicle and struggled with the officer over the officer's weapon. At least one shot was fired inside the car before the struggle spilled onto the street, where Brown was shot multiple times, according to police.

Dorian Johnson has told media a different story. He said he and Brown were walking in the street when an officer ordered them onto the sidewalk, then grabbed his friend's neck and tried to pull him into the car before brandishing his weapon and firing. He said Brown started to run and the officer pursued him, firing multiple times.

Tensions in Ferguson boiled over after a candlelight vigil Sunday night, as looters smashed and burned businesses in the neighborhood, where police have repeatedly fired tear gas and smoke bombs.

By Thursday, there was a dramatic shift in the atmosphere after Gov. Jay Nixon assigned protest oversight to Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson, who is black and grew up near Ferguson. He marched alongside protesters, along with other high-ranking brass from the Highway Patrol and the St. Louis County Police Department.

"We're here to serve and protect," Johnson said. "We're not here to instill fear."

The streets were filled with music, free food and even laughter. When darkness fell — the point at which previous protests have grown tense — no uniformed officers were in sight outside the burned-out QuikTrip
convenience store that had become a flashpoint for standoffs between police and protesters.

"All they did was look at us and shoot tear gas," Pedro Smith, who has participated in the nightly protests, said Thursday. "This is totally different. Now we're being treated with respect."

The more tolerant response came as President Barack Obama spoke publicly for the first time about the shooting — and the subsequent violence that shocked the nation and threatened to tear apart Ferguson.

Obama said there was "no excuse" for violence either against the police or by officers against peaceful protesters.

Attorney General Eric Holder has said federal investigators have interviewed witnesses to the shooting.

Monday, August 11, 2014

Renewed rioting after killing of black Missouri teen - Yahoo News

JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Rioting broke out for a second night in Ferguson, Missouri, despite calls on Monday for calm from the mother of a black teenager who was shot to death by police during the weekend.

Police clad in riot gear released tear gas to disperse a crowd estimated in the hundreds gathered near a building that burned during Sunday night's rioting, Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson said.

Jackson said officers were focused on dispersing the crowd, which was much smaller than the night before, but were making arrests and reported being fired on at some locations.

"They are shooting at us now," Jackson said, adding that officers from 10 to 15 jurisdictions were assisting Ferguson.

Michael Brown, 18, was shot to death in the mostly black St Louis suburb of Ferguson on Saturday afternoon after what police said was a struggle with a gun in a police car. The FBI opened a probe into the racially charged case.

A witness in the case told local media Brown had raised his arms to police to show he was unarmed before being killed.

"He just graduated and was on his way to college," said Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, speaking through tears at a news conference. She said her first-born son's first day back at school would have been Monday.

"We can't even celebrate," she said.

Brown's family has hired Benjamin Crump, the attorney who represented the family of Trayvon Martin, a black teenager who was shot to death by a community watch volunteer in 2012.

The FBI opened a concurrent federal inquiry into the case intended to supplement the main investigation by St. Louis County police, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. It was not immediately clear from police why Brown was in the police car. At least one shot was fired during the struggle, and then the officer fired more shots before leaving the car, police said.

OFFICER NOT IDENTIFIED

The officer, who was not identified, is a six-year veteran and has been put on administrative leave, police said. The officer's race has not been disclosed.

Dorian Johnson told television station KMOV that he and Brown had been walking when an officer confronted them, drew a weapon and shot. Johnson said that Brown put his hands in the air and started to get down, but the officer kept shooting.

Jackson said there was plenty of physical evidence and witness testimony. "I really believe we can get to the truth of what happened here," he said.

Demonstrations to call for justice for Brown turned violent Sunday night, with crowds breaking the windows of cars and stores, setting a building on fire and looting shops. At least two dozen businesses were damaged, 32 people were arrested, and two police officers were injured.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at the town's police station on Monday to demand murder charges against the officer responsible for the shooting. Police arrested up to 15 people on Monday during the mostly
peaceful demonstration in which protesters put their hands in the air as if surrendering and chanted, "Stop the killer cops."

"I think it is crazy. It's nonsense. What does it bring back? It's not going to bring the man back," said Adrian Brewer, 30, an African American from a city near Ferguson.

Brown's mother said her son had been planning to study heating and air conditioning repair at a technical college.

Michael Brown, Sr., the teen's father, told reporters his son was "silly" and "could make you laugh." "We need justice for our son," he said.

Three of the Ferguson Police Department's 53 members are black, Jackson said. About two-thirds of Ferguson's population of about 21,000 are black, according to U.S. Census figures.

Ferguson's median household income is $37,517, less than the Missouri average of $47,333.

Most of the communities around Ferguson have gone from white to mostly black in the last 40 years, said Terry Jones, political science professor at University of Missouri-St. Louis.

"There's a long history of racial injustice," said Jones. "Slowly and not so surely, the St. Louis metropolitan area has been trying to figure out a way forward. As the Michael Brown shooting indicates, there are often setbacks."

Friday, August 8, 2014

Reagan aide Jim Brady's death ruled homicide - Yahoo News

Reagan aide Jim Brady's death ruled homicide - Yahoo News

JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
This week's death of former White House press secretary James Brady, who survived a gunshot wound to the head in a 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, has been ruled a homicide, District of Columbia police said Friday.

Federal prosecutors said only that they are reviewing the ruling. But a law professor and an attorney for John Hinckley Jr., who was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the shooting, said bringing new charges against the 59-year-old in Brady's death seemed unlikely.

"I think it (the medical examiner's ruling) will mean nothing," long-time Hinckley attorney Barry Levine told The Associated Press. "No prosecutors will bring such a case. The notion that this could be a successful prosecution is far-fetched. There is no legal basis to pursue this."

Brady lived through hours of delicate surgery and further operations over the past 33 years, but never regained normal use of his limbs and was often in a wheelchair.

An autopsy revealed the cause of death to be a gunshot wound and its health consequences, and the manner of death was ruled a homicide, according to a news release Friday from District police spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump. Nancy Bull, district administrator for the Virginia medical examiner's office, which made the ruling, declined to disclose any more results of the autopsy and referred inquiries to District police.

Besides partial paralysis from brain damage, Brady suffered short-term memory impairment, slurred speech and constant pain. His family said he died Monday at age 73 at his Virginia home from a series of health issues.

William Miller, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, said the office "is reviewing the ruling on the death of Mr. Brady and has no further comment at this time." District police and the FBI are also reviewing the case.

Tung Yin, a professor of law at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon, said Friday that it's rare that the act that could be considered the cause of a homicide occurred so long ago.

"It seems a little bit unprecedented," Yin said of the Virginia medical examiner's ruling. He said such cases more likely involve a person in a coma who dies some time later.

He said bringing such a case could cause problems for prosecutors, because Hinckley Jr. was found was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

"A jury has already concluded on the same incident that he (Hinckley Jr.) was not guilty. Nothing today changes that," Yin said, even if prosecutors say Hinckley is no longer insane. "That doesn't change what he was 33 years ago."

Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate Reagan outside the Washington Hilton Hotel on March 30, 1981, just two months into the new president's term. Reagan nearly died from a chest wound. Three others, including Brady, were struck by bullets from Hinckley's handgun.

In 1982, Hinckley Jr. was found not guilty by reason of insanity of all charges in a 13-count indictment, including federal counts of attempted assassination of the president of the United States, assault on a federal officer and use of a firearm in the commission of a federal offense, as well as District of Columbia offenses of attempted murder, assault and weapons charges. The District of Columbia offenses included charges related to the shooting of Brady.

Levine said prosecutors would have the additional challenge of proving that Brady's death this week was the result of an act 33 years ago. "How do you prove causation beyond a reasonable doubt?" he asked.

Gail Hoffman, a spokeswoman for Brady's family, said the homicide ruling "is not a surprise to any of us." She said the family would respect whatever prosecutors think is appropriate in dealing with the ruling.

Levine said Hinckley wanted to express his deep sympathy for Brady's family. "He has the highest regard for (James) Brady," he said.

Officials at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, where Hinckley is a patient, have said that the mental illness that led him to shoot Reagan in an effort to impress actress Jodie Foster has been in remission for decades. Hinckley has been allowed to leave the hospital to visit his mother's home in Williamsburg, Virginia, and can now spend more than half of his time outside the hospital on such visits.

Levine doesn't expect the homicide ruling to affect Hinckley continuing to be allowed to continue the visits.

Brady undertook a personal crusade for gun control after suffering the bullet wound. The Brady law, named after him, requires a five-day wait and background check before a handgun can be sold. President Bill Clinton signed it into law in 1993.

Thursday, August 7, 2014

American Forces Said to Bomb ISIS Targets in Iraq - NYTimes.com

JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
American military forces bombed at least two targets in northern Iraq on Thursday night to rout Islamist insurgents who have trapped tens of thousands of religious minorities in Kurdish areas, Kurdish officials said.

Word of the bombings, reported on Kurdish television from the city of Erbil, came as President Obama was preparing to make a statement in Washington.

Kurdish officials said the bombings targeted fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria who had seized two towns, Gwer and Mahmour. Residents who had fled those areas by car were heard honking their horns in approval. But Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said on Twitter that the reports of the bombings were false.

Obama administration officials had said earlier in the day that Mr. Obama was considering airstrikes or airdrops of food and medicine to address a humanitarian crisis among as many as 40,000 members of religious minorities in Iraq, who have been dying of heat and thirst on a mountaintop where they took shelter after death threats from ISIS.<iframe width="480" height="373" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" id="nyt_video_player" title="New York Times Video - Embed Player" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/bcvideo/1.0/iframe/embed.html?videoId=100000003044294&playerType=embed"></iframe>

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Conservatives get their Obamacare wish — and now condemn their own sabotage - Salon.com

JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
There was once a time – five months ago, to be precise – when the big fear surrounding the Affordable Care Act was that it would cause health insurance premiums to “skyrocket.” That, at least, was the terminology the Hill used in a headline for a story on its health policy blog, which quoted a handful of anonymous insurance executives in reporting that “ObamaCare-related premiums will double in some parts of the country, countering claims recently made by the administration.” The Hill’s report was eagerly shared and promoted by conservative and Republican opponents of the ACA, who waved it around as proof that the law was a disaster.

Despite all the fanfare, there was little reason to believe the Hill’s reporting. The ACA’s first open enrollment period was still going at that point, so there was no way to know how many Obamacare enrollees there were, their ages, their health status – all factors that go into calculating rate increases. Getting a better picture of what the rate adjustments for 2015 would like required waiting, and patience.

Well, now we’re starting to see the picture develop, and it looks very different from the 100-percent increases conservatives were secretly (or overtly) hoping for just a few months ago. PricewaterhouseCoopers put together a “preliminary look at 2015 individual market rate filings,” and they found that, for the 27 states for which data are available, the average premium increase will be 7.5 percent. It’s all preliminary, of course, but it’s a hell of a lot better than the Hill’s citation of a former insurance executive’s “gut” feeling. The New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn writes that “the experts I consulted all saw the available information as relatively encouraging, particularly in comparison to what many were predicting just a few months ago.”

So where are conservatives looking for proof that the Affordable Care Act is not living up to its moniker? Florida. The Miami Herald reported earlier this week that “Floridians who buy health insurance on the individual market for next year will face an average increase of 13.2 percent in their monthly premiums, according to rate proposals unveiled Monday by the state’s Office of Insurance Regulation.” That isn’t anywhere near the “skyrocketing” that Republicans assured us was coming, but 13.2 percent would qualify as a “double-digit rate increase,” and conservatives were quick to point that out. (Consumer health advocates in the state accused regulators of employing a flawed methodology, as the Herald notes.)

One loud critic of the Florida premium increase is the state’s Republican governor, Rick Scott, who said in a statement that “Obamacare is a bad law that just seems to be getting worse,” and “Florida families are going to be slammed with higher costs. Obamacare has failed to live up to its promises in nearly every way.” That’s an audacious statement for Scott to make, given that he and the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature did everything in their power to make it as difficult as possible for the Affordable Care Act to function in the state. They set out to sabotage the law, and now they’re trying to score political points off the fruits of their sabotage.

Florida was one of the many states that refused to expand Medicaid and refused to build their own health insurance exchange. But Rick Scott went a step further and turned the state into a laboratory of anti-Obamacare activism. He and the state Legislature passed a law last June that temporarily suspended the ability of state regulators to negotiate with insurance companies on premiums for individual insurance plans. At the time, Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson accused Scott of doing pretty much exactly what he’s doing right now: “Nelson … contended in his veto request that legislators removed state rate regulation in order to blame the health care overhaul if rates go up.”

Scott’s opposition to Obamacare and his commitment to its failure were such that he actively worked against the interests of his constituents. He and the Legislature passed another law in 2013 that “made it more difficult for Floridians to obtain the cheapest insurance rates under the exchange and to get help from specially trained outreach counselors.” All this despite the fact that Florida, at the time of the ACA’s rollout, had the second highest uninsurance rate in the country.

Generally speaking, Obamacare is performing well in the states that embraced the law, and not as well in the states that rejected expanded Medicaid and declined to build their own insurance exchanges. It’s a simple bit of cause-and-effect logic: cooperation with Obamacare produced better outcomes, while opposition made the law less effective. But the Republicans and conservatives who fought desperately against the law’s success are now professing to be absolutely shocked and appalled that the Affordable Care Act isn’t able to fully make good on its promises. That’s about as disingenuous an argument as you can make.

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Try Governing for a Change | Sen. Barbara Boxer

Try Governing for a Change | Sen. Barbara Boxer

OBAMA FRUSTRATED

JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
On their way out of town Friday night, House Republicans launched a mean-spirited assault on immigrant children.

It was stunning. One by one, Republican members of the House voted to turn their backs on fairness, compassion and common sense -- and go after DREAMers in California and across America.

We are talking about children and young adults -- many of whom were brought to our country as infants -- who grew up here, went to school here, work here and live here as our neighbors and friends. Now the GOP wants these young dreamers and their families out. It's sad, it's ugly, and it's against everything we stand for as a country.

I am pretty sure that I've never quoted George Will approvingly before, but he had it exactly right when he said: "My view is that we have to say to these children, 'Welcome to America. You're going to go to school and get a job and become Americans.'" He also said, "The idea that we can't assimilate these 8-year-old criminals with their teddy bears is preposterous."

It was also heartless. Watching that surreal scene on the floor of the House felt like The Wizard of Oz -- with the GOP as the Tin Man searching for a heart. Because while the House Republicans cheered for themselves on that fateful night, history will not look kindly on their ugly attacks on immigrant children.

And this is not an isolated example. On issue after issue facing our country, this is a Republican Party so obsessed with blocking the president -- and now suing the president -- that it has abdicated its most basic responsibility to govern.

Take immigration reform. The sad irony is that we would be better equipped to handle this influx of Central American children if Republicans had just allowed a vote on the bipartisan Senate bill to fix our broken immigration system. Instead they have ignored economists, Fortune 500 CEOs and the Chamber of Commerce who know how much reform would help our economy. They ignore the will of our people. And they have ignored the foundation of America -- a place where almost all families trace their roots to lands half a world away.

It is the same with the highway bill. We live in the most advanced democracy in the world, and yet our roads and bridges are falling apart.
Our states, our cities, our drivers, our workers -- everyone is counting on us to fund our critical infrastructure over the long haul. Instead, the House GOP keeps passing short-term band-aids paid for with gimmicks. That isn't governing, it is posturing.

And it isn't governing when Republicans refuse to raise the minimum wage, which has been frozen for five years; when they refuse to make college more affordable for millions of middle class families; or when they refuse to keep bosses from denying their employees access to affordable birth control and other critical health care services. None of that is governing.

I have served with three presidents of the other party. I get it. You are not always going to agree. But you are elected to put politics aside and solve the biggest challenges facing the American people, and that is not happening today.

If all your news came from press releases issued by House Republicans, you would never know that the president has ended two wars.

You would never know that he helped pave the way for 53 straight months of private-sector job growth.

You would never know that the president brought the American auto industry back from the brink, despite the GOP cries of "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt."

You would never know that the deficit has been reduced by more than half.

And you would never know that he brought Osama bin Laden to justice.

You wouldn't hear about any of that. In fact, if you got all your news from House Republican press releases, all you would know about the GOP's do-nothing agenda is what they are against: anything President Obama does to move America forward.

Of course, this blind opposition is the foundation of the Republicans' partisan lawsuit. Their complaint, in a nutshell, is that the president actually wants to govern.

Instead of suing President Obama for governing, the House GOP should try it sometime.

Our country, our economy, and our children -- all of them -- would be much better for it.

Follow Sen. Barbara Boxer on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/SenatorBoxer

Monday, August 4, 2014

‘Alan has withdrawn’: U.S. man jailed in Cuba tells family he plans to commit suicide

‘Alan has withdrawn’: U.S. man jailed in Cuba tells family he plans to commit suicide

"Stock Photo: Hands Of The Prisoner In Jail (Image Toned)" on Shutterstock: http://tinyurl.com/om8o35u

"Stock Photo: Hands Of The Prisoner In Jail (Image Toned)" on Shutterstock: http://tinyurl.com/om8o35u

JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Three hundred U.S. rabbis urged President Barack Obama to “take action” to secure the release of Alan Gross, a U.S. government subcontractor jailed in Cuba who has grown increasingly suicidal and has said goodbye to his family, his lawyer said on Monday.

Gross, 65 and in deteriorating health, has served nearly five years of a 15-year sentence on his conviction for attempting to establish Internet communications for Cuban Jews.

His imprisonment remains a serious obstacle to improving U.S.-Cuban relations, which have been marked by more than 50 years of hostility.

A subcontractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development, he was working on a project Cuba considered illegal and subversive when he was arrested in 2009.

“Alan went to Cuba on behalf of our government. His immediate release from prison in Cuba and return to the U.S. must be a priority for our nation. Indeed, we believe this is a moral imperative,” the rabbis wrote in a letter dated Friday and released to the media by Gross’ lawyer on Monday.

Last year, a bipartisan group of 66 U.S. senators sent a similar letter to Obama, but little apparent progress has been made toward Gross’ release.

Gross has vowed not to spend another year in prison, threatening to take his own life, according to his Washington-based lawyer, Scott Gilbert.

Increasingly despondent, especially since the death of his 92-year-old mother in June, Gross has lost 100 pounds (46 kg) in prison and most of the vision in his right eye, and his failing hips prevent him from exercising, according to Gilbert.

Gross has said goodbye to his wife and youngest daughter and is refusing to see any visitors, Gilbert’s office said in a statement.

“Alan has withdrawn, and he told me that his life in prison is not a life worth living,” the statement quoted Gilbert as saying.

Cuba has called for a swap of Gross for three of its spies serving long prison terms in the United States, a proposal the Americans have rejected. The United States has repeatedly demanded Gross’ release, although formal talks on the issue have never taken place.

“We keep his case at the forefront of discussions with the Cuban government,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Monday. “We urgently reiterate our call for the Cuban government to release him immediately.”

Israel accepts Egyptian cease-fire plan - Yahoo News

JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Israel and Hamas on Monday accepted an Egyptian cease-fire proposal meant to halt a monthlong war, signaling an end to the bloodiest round of fighting between the bitter enemies could finally be approaching.

The sides said a preliminary 72-hour truce was to begin at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) Tuesday. Egypt was then set to host indirect talks to work out a long-term truce over the next three days.

A delegation of Palestinian officials from various factions, including Hamas, has been negotiating with Egypt in recent days. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said the group had accepted the plan.

"It's clear now that the interest of all parties is to have a cease-fire," said Bassam Salhi, a member of the Palestinian delegation. "It's going to be tough negotiations because Israel has demands too."

The war broke out on July 8 when Israel launched an air campaign in response to heavy rocket fire out of Hamas-controlled Gaza. Israel expanded the operation by sending in ground forces on July 17 in what it described as a mission to destroy a network of tunnels used by Hamas militants to stage attacks. The army said it is close to destroying the last of the tunnels.

Several previous cease-fires have collapsed, including a similar plan for a 72-hour truce that broke down last Friday in heavy fighting. Both sides blamed each other.

An Israeli official said Israel would respect the cease-fire, but that it was watching the negotiations "with a certain amount of skepticism" given the previous failures.

He spoke on condition of anonymity pending a formal announcement by the Israeli government.

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Sen. Tim Scott Says GOP Must Win ‘War of Ideas’ - ABC News

Sen. Tim Scott Says GOP Must Win ‘War of Ideas’ - ABC
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
There are times when Sen. Tim Scott, the lone Republican African-American in Congress, would like to turn down the volume on some of the shrill and inflammatory comments from his fellow senators.

“Yes,” Scott told “This Week.” “I mean just to be blunt? Absolutely.”

Whose microphone would he go after first?

“I can’t be that blunt,” he said with a laugh, but added he could name several from both sides of the aisle. “We could turn it down a little bit and look for ways to work together.”

Scott, a South Carolina Republican, is one of the newest members of the Senate. He was appointed to his seat by Gov. Nikki Haley, filling the vacancy created by the retirement of Sen. Jim DeMint, and is running for election in November.

Besides being the only Republican African-American in Congress, he is also the first black Southern Senator since Reconstruction. He said the Republican Party could start making gains diversifying their ranks by changing their tone.

“We have to be intentional about our approach to reaching out to every single voter,” Scott said. “We don’t simply need to win the demographic war. We need to win the war of ideas. We need to be in a
position to share our ideas in places where we haven’t traditionally gone.”

Scott said Republicans should also spend more time focusing on the poor and middle-class and improving access to education, which is at the heart of what he calls an “Opportunity Agenda” he is promoting in South Carolina and in speeches across the country.

“There’s always room for improvement, without any question,” Scott said. “One of the things I’ve said very consistently is that we have to play in the education space. My life was changed because of public education.”

Scott, 48, has ascended from the Charleston County Council to the House of Representatives to the Senate in less than five years. He is a rising star among tea party conservatives.

“He’s a core conservative,” said John Steinberger, an early tea party activist who is now the chairman of the Charleston County Republican Party. “He articulates what he believes and resonates really well with
South Carolina Republicans. He’ll hopefully grow the Republican Party and make other people realize we’re the party of opportunity.”

Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., is skeptical that Scott has had any influence on the Republican approach to governing.

“It’s always good to have diversity, but diversity can be skin color and it can be philosophy,” Clyburn said. “I would hope that the Republican Party would be a little more diversified in its approach to governance.”

For his part, Scott said he is working to strike an optimistic message for the Republican Party. He said the party should improve its salesmanship.

“There’s no doubt that if you’re looking for a way to make a difference, you have to understand the sales cycle,” Scott said. “You have to have rapport and credibility. You have to uncover the problem,
present a solution, overcome the options and repeat the process so it works.”

Israel withdraws most troops from Gaza - Yahoo News

Israel withdraws most troops from Gaza - Yahoo News

JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Israel withdrew most of its ground troops from the Gaza Strip on Sunday in an apparent winding down of the nearly monthlong operation against Hamas that has left more than 1,800 Palestinians and 60 Israelis dead.

Even as Israel said it was close to completing its mission, heavy fighting raged in parts of Gaza, with at least 10 Palestinians killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike near a U.N. shelter, according to U.N. and Palestinian officials. The U.S. and the United Nations condemned the attack in unusually strong terms.

And with Hamas officials vowing to continue their fight, it remained uncertain whether Israel could unilaterally end the war.

Israel launched its military operation in Gaza on July 8 in response to weeks of heavy rocket fire, carrying out hundreds of airstrikes across the crowded seaside territory. It then sent in ground forces July 17 in what it said was a mission to destroy the tunnels used by Hamas to carry out attacks.

Hamas has fired more than 3,000 rockets into Israel during what has turned into the bloodiest round of fighting ever between the two enemies.

Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, confirmed the bulk of ground troops had been pulled out of Gaza after the military concluded it had destroyed most of the tunnel network.

He said Israel had detected some 30 tunnels that were dug along the border for what he called a "synchronized attack" on Israel.

"We've caused substantial damage to this network to an extent where we've basically taken this huge threat and made it minimal," he said. The army had thousands of troops in Gaza at the height of the operation.

In southern Israel, armored vehicles could be seen rolling slowly onto the back of large flatbed trucks near the Gaza border, while soldiers folded flags from atop a tank and rolled up their belongings and
sleeping bags.

Lerner said, however, that the operation was not over and that Israel would continue to target Hamas' rocket-firing capabilities and its ability to infiltrate Israel.

While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press on against Hamas, he is coming under international pressure to halt the fighting because of the heavy civilian death toll.

U.N. officials say more than three-quarters of the dead have been civilians, including the 10 people killed Sunday at a U.N. school that has been converted into a shelter in the southern town of Rafah.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the attack a "moral outrage and a criminal act" and demanded a quick investigation, while the U.S. State Department said Washington was "appalled" by the "disgraceful" attack.

According to witnesses, Israeli strikes hit just outside the main gates of the school. The Red Crescent, a charity, said the attack occurred while people were in line to get food from aid workers. Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said in addition to the dead, 35 people were wounded.

Robert Turner, director of operations for the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency in Gaza, said the building had been providing shelter for some 3,000 people. He said the strike killed at least one U.N. staffer.

"The locations of all these installations have been passed to the Israeli military multiple times," Turner said. "They know where these shelters are. How this continues to happen, I have no idea."

Inside the U.N. school's compound, several bodies, among them children, were strewn across the ground in puddles of blood. "Our trust and our fate are only in the hands of God!" one woman cried.

The Israeli military said it had targeted three wanted militants on a motorcycle in the vicinity and was "reviewing the consequences of this strike."

In the current round of fighting, U.N. shelters have been struck by fire seven times. UNRWA, the U.N. agency that assists Palestinian refugees, says Israel has been the source of fire in all instances. But it also has said it found caches of rockets in vacant UNRWA schools three times.

Israel accuses Hamas of using civilian areas for cover and says the Islamic militant group is responsible for the heavy death toll because it has been using civilians as "human shields."

Israeli artillery shells slammed into two high-rise office buildings Sunday in downtown Gaza City, police and witnesses said. Al-Kidra said more than 50 Palestinians were killed, including 10 members of one family in a single strike in the southern Gaza Strip.

Israel said that it attacked 63 sites on Sunday and that nearly 100 rockets and mortars were fired at Israel.

Israeli officials said the military would reduce its ground activities in Gaza but would respond to continued attacks from Gaza with airstrikes.

"It's not a withdrawal," said Israeli Cabinet minister Amir Peretz told Channel 10 TV. "It's setting up a new line that is a more controlled line with the air force doing its work."

In Gaza, Hamas officials said they would not halt the rocket fire without an end to an Israeli blockade of the territory that has devastated the local economy. Israel imposed the blockade in 2007, saying the measures are needed to keep Hamas from arming.

"If Israel stops unilaterally, Hamas will declare victory and will not grant any security or truce to Israel," said one senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing internal Hamas
deliberations. "In this case, we are going to live under a war of attrition until a political solution is found."

Meanwhile, the Israeli military death toll rose to 64 after Israel announced that Hadar Goldin, a 23-year-old infantry lieutenant feared captured in Gaza, was actually killed in battle. Some 15,000 people attended his funeral Sunday.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon revealed on his Facebook page Sunday that he is a distant relative of Goldin and had known him his whole life. The information was previously kept under wraps while Goldin was feared abducted.

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