Obama to lay out go-it-alone approach in State of Union speech - Yahoo News

Obama to lay out go-it-alone approach in State of Union speech - Yahoo News
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:

President Barack Obama will lay out his strategy for getting around a divided Congress starting with a
wage hike for federal contract workers in a State of the Union speech on
Tuesday that reflects scaled-back legislative ambitions after a tough
year.
Obama will say in his 9 p.m. EST (0200 GMT Wednesday) address that he will bypass fractious

U.S. lawmakers and go it alone in some areas with a series of executive
actions aimed at boosting the middle class, many that do not require
congressional approval.

Trying to breathe new life into his presidency and boost congressional
Democrats facing re-election battles in November, Obama will tell
Congress he is eager to work with lawmakers, "but America does not stand
still - and neither will I."

"So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to
expand opportunity for more American families, that's what I'm going to
do," Obama will say, according to speech excerpts released by the White
House.

The White House said Obama would announce that he is issuing an executive order to raise the
minimum wage to $10.10 an hour for federal contract workers with new
contracts.

White House releases State of the Union prep video
Play video
In his address, Obama will also call on Congress to pass a bill to increase the federal minimum

wage for all workers to $10.10 an hour from $7.25 and index that to
inflation.

The executive order raising the level for federal contract workers, which applies to
new contracts or existing contracts in which terms are being changed,
will take effect at the beginning of next year, with janitors and
construction workers among the beneficiaries.

Issuing the order allows the Democratic president to bypass Congress,
where Republicans oppose a broad increase in the minimum wage. But
liberals felt Obama's move did not go far enough, arguing that he should
have extended the wage hike to existing federal contracts.

"This action, while a step forward, suggests he may still be unwilling
to take the fighting stance necessary to deliver the big wins over
growing inequality that our country desperately needs," said Jim Dean,
chairman of the liberal advocacy group Democracy for America.

White House officials said Obama would also announce new executive
actions on retirement security and job training to help middle-class
workers expand economic opportunity.

View gallery

U.S. President Barack Obama sits inside the Oval Office with a pen in hand as he prepares for Tuesda …

Obama will say he is
offering a set of "concrete, practical proposals" to speed up economic
growth and strengthen the middle class, which he says has lost jobs
because of shifts in technology and global competition.

"Today,
after four years of economic growth, corporate profits and stock prices
have rarely been higher, and those at the top have never done better.
But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened. Upward
mobility has stalled," Obama will say, according to the excerpts.

"The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many
Americans are working more than ever just to get by - let alone get
ahead. And too many still aren't working at all," Obama also said in the
excerpts.

REDUCED AMBITIONS

With three years left in
office, Obama has effectively reduced for now his ambitions for grand
legislative actions, having already seen many proposals blocked in a
Congress in which Democrats control the Senate and Republicans run the
House of Representatives.
View gallery

The U.S. Capitol building is seen before U.S. President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union …

Obama is expected to renew his appeal for a long-stalled
overhaul of U.S. immigration policy that has been stymied by
congressional Republicans. He also will promote his signature healthcare
law, four months after its disastrous initial rollout.

Republicans clambered for some of the same rhetorical ground as Obama in
pledging to narrow the gap between rich and poor but staked out a
different vision for doing so.

"It's one that champions free
markets and trusts people to make their own decisions, not a government
that decides for you," Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chairwoman
of the House Republican Caucus, said in her party's response to Obama's
speech. "It helps working families rise above the limits of poverty and
protects our most vulnerable."

White House officials said the president would try to work with
Congress to accomplish his agenda, but would also try to advance it
through executive actions if necessary.

Congressional Republicans expressed skepticism.
View gallery

A tourist takes a picture of the the U.S. Capitol building before U.S. President Barack Obama delive …

House Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, said that while Obama may have
the authority to raise the minimum wage on federal contracts, the impact
will be "close to zero" because it will only affect future contracts.

He also said an across-the-board increase in the minimum wage could
harm the economy. "When you raise the cost of something, you get less of
it," Boehner told a news conference after a party meeting near the U.S.
Capitol. "And we know from increases in the minimum wage in the past,
that hundreds of thousands of low-income Americans have lost their
jobs."

'COMES DOWN TO ECONOMIC ISSUES'

Obama is trying to
recover from a difficult fifth year in office, when immigration and gun
control legislation failed to advance in Congress, his healthcare law
struggled out of the starting gate, and he appeared uncertain about how
to respond to Syria's civil war.

Polls reflect a dissatisfied and
gloomy country. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released on
Tuesday showed 68 percent of Americans saying the country is either
stagnant or worse off since Obama took office. People used words like
"divided," "troubled" and "deteriorating" to describe the state of the
country, the poll showed.

A central theme of the address, Obama's
sixth such annual speech in the House chamber, is addressing income
inequality, as middle-class Americans struggle to get ahead even while
wealthier people prosper in the uneven economic recovery.


"It comes down to economic issues," said Andy Smith, director of the
University of New Hampshire Survey Center. "The economy is going to be
the thing that determines whether people have confidence in the
president. If the economy is doing well, people will forgive a lot of
the things the president has done or not done."

Attending the speech will be a variety of Americans who will sit in the
gallery with the president's wife, Michelle Obama, symbolizing issues
important to the White House. They will include heroes from last year's
Boston Marathon bombings, a firefighter who led the rescue response to
an Oklahoma tornado, and an openly gay basketball player.

One of Obama's goals is to lay out ideas that Democratic congressional
candidates can adopt in the run-up to November elections as they try to
hold on to their Senate majority and challenge Republicans for control
of the House.

Obama will talk up themes from the speech in a two-day road trip starting on Wednesday
that will include stops in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and
Tennessee.

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright Bashes the President at MLK Birthday Breakfast - The Root

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright Bashes the President at MLK Birthday Breakfast - The RootThe Rev. Jeremiah Wright left no stone unturned in the bashing of President Obama when speaking at a breakfast co-hosted by the Chicago Teachers Union to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.

JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
The one-time friend and pastor to the president claimed that Abraham Lincoln, whom Obama greatly admires, loved to tell darkie jokes and that the U.S. secretary of education was hired because he has a good hook shot.

While several news outlets were invited to attend the event, all cameras were asked to leave once the hot-blooded pastor took the lectern. CNN reporters were able to capture some of the speech using a cellphone camera, and Wright drew gasps when he said that the president receives a "kill list."

"Every Tuesday morning, there’s a kill list that the president decides who they’re going to kill this week," Wright said.

Wright also took the opportunity to knock the president's administration on its drone policy. According to the Sun-Times, the pastor reportedly told the audience, "King said 'I have a dream.' Barack said, 'I have a drone.'

"That's not the man of peace you just talked about," Wright can be heard saying. "That's a man controlled by government. A government based on militarism, racism and capitalism."

But Wright wasn't done there. He took shots at the 16th president, whom Obama has often quoted in key speeches. "Abraham Lincoln liked to tell darkie jokes," Wright said and the Sun-Times reports. "He liked to hear darkie jokes and he used the n-word incessantly."

Wright also questioned how Education Secretary Arne Duncan landed his job—after he "ruined the school system" in Chicago as CEO of schools.

"A good hook shot playing basketball with ... Barack Hussein Obama," Wright said to chuckles, the Sun-Times reports.

The relationship between Wright, pastor emeritus at Trinity United Church of Christ, and the president grew contentious after footage of Wright's sermons drew national attention during the 2008 presidential race, including one in which he can be heard proclaiming, "God damn America." Right-wing politicians used the sound bite to claim that Obama's connection to Wright somehow made him un-American, a claim that forced the president to distance himself from Wright.

Cops Caught On Video Beating Homeless Man To Death Acquitted Of Charge

Cops Caught On Video Beating Homeless Man To Death Acquitted Of Charge
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
An Orange County jury returned a unanimous not-guilty verdict Tuesday in favor of two former Fullerton, California police officers, Manuel Ramos and Jay Cicinelli, who had been charged with murder and manslaughter arising from the July 5, 2011 death of Kelly Thomas, a hapless 37-year-old schizophrenic living on the streets of the Southern California suburb, located near Disneyland.
After deliberating less than a full day, the eight female and four male jurors exonerated both defendants despite repeated viewings of the graphic video, which shows multiple punches, kicks, chest compressions and tasings over a nine-minute period.
Paramedics resuscitated Thomas and rushed him to the hospital, where he arrived comatose. He survived for five days, until his condition became hopeless and life support measures were terminated.
The medical examiner determined that Thomas’s death was caused when four to six police officers piled onto his chest. That, along with profuse bleeding from his nose and face, cut off oxygen to his brain.
The stomach churning 33-minute surveillance video is available in various formats on news websites and YouTube. It speaks for itself.
The video caused an uproar. Three members of the Fullerton City Council were recalled after they initially tried to defend the officers’ actions. Ultimately, the officers were fired and the Fullerton Chief of Police was forced into retirement.
The victim’s father, Ron Thomas—himself a former police officer—campaigned relentlessly for the officers to be criminally prosecuted. Two months after the incident, Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas announced the filing of murder and manslaughter charges against three of the six officers. In a highly unusual move, Rackauckas personally presented the case against the first two officers rather than delegating the task to one of his deputies, although he had not tried a case in 15 years.
Rackauckas announced that, in light of the verdict, charges against a third officer, Joseph Wolfe, will be dismissed.
The victim’s parents, Ron and Cathy Thomas, were visibly disturbed when the verdicts were read late yesterday afternoon, and family members could be heard sobbing.
Ron Thomas denounced the verdict immediately as “a miscarriage of justice.” He added, “It’s so blatant. It means none of us are safe.”
“I’m just horrified. They got away with murdering my son,” Cathy Thomas said. “He was so innocent. It just isn’t fair at all. I guess it’s legal to go out and kill now.”
On talk radio less than an hour later, Ron Thomas alluded to the social divide in Orange County, a highly affluent and politically conservative enclave south of Los Angeles.
The parents’ comments speak to issues much larger than this case. The jury’s sanctioning of such blatant police violence is reminiscent of the recent acquittal of George Zimmerman, the vigilante who murdered Trevon Martin.
The prosecution focused on the video recording, which it synchronized with the belt recorders worn by the officers creating a sometimes grainy visual with clear sound.
Apparently, the incident was triggered by a phony crime report made from a local restaurant to remove Thomas, who was well known in the area as “Crazy Kelly,” so that he would not offend diners. Ramos, who knew Thomas from prior encounters, found him sitting harmlessly on a bench at the nearby Fullerton bus depot. During several minutes of often irrational banter, Ramos accused Thomas of “rattling car doors” in the parking lot. After Thomas refused to sit still with his legs stretched out in front of him and his hands on his knees, as Ramos demanded, Ramos put on latex gloves and said: “Now, see my fists? They’re getting ready to f*ck you up.”
When Thomas stood and moved away, Ramos tackled him, punching his ribs. Other officers joined in. Cicinelli fired his Taser darts into Thomas, shocking him repeatedly with the electrical current. Cicinelli then removed the cartridge and burned Thomas’s flesh with the bare Taser electrodes—the so-called “drive stun” technique—and then beat him over the head with the Taser handle. Other officers, not on trial, hit him with batons and suffocated him with their body weight.
Thomas can be heard crying out during the beating, “I’m sorry dude, I’m sorry,” “I can’t breathe, dude,” and, finally, “Help me, Dad, help me.” Those were his last words.
The trial began on December 2, and moved through the testimony of 25 witnesses in less than four weeks. There was a two-week hiatus for the holidays, and then several days of closing arguments before the jury received the case last week.
None of the several eyewitnesses who saw the beating testified. Instead, all the prosecution evidence was presented through investigators and expert witnesses. As in the Zimmerman trial, police witnesses openly sympathized with the defense. The first prosecution witness, Fullerton Police Captain Lorraine Jones, for example, said she knew Cicinelli for years, that he “had a good reputation,” “was well-respected and handled calls appropriately.”
Fullerton Police Corporal Stephen Rubio, an internal affairs investigator called by the defense, testified that the video recording did not show any violation of Fullerton Police Department policy, except that perhaps Ramos should not have used profanity.
While no juror has yet spoken on the deliberations or the reasons for their decisions, the fact that certain officers, including those responsible for asphyxiating Thomas with their body weight, were not charged, no doubt contributed to the result.

Caught On Video: Kelly Thomas Beaten To Death By Police Officers

African Countries Targeted For Deeper Imperialist Intervention

African Countries Targeted For Deeper Imperialist Intervention
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Fierce battles have taken place in two states in South Sudan. Unity state, an oil-producing area, was retaken by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A).
Other gains in Jonglei state by Juba around the capital of Bor have occurred with the assistance of the Ugandan military during the first full week of January.
The intervention of Uganda, a close political and military ally of the United States, demonstrates the side in the conflict in which Washington has taken. There has been increased military and political pressure on the forces loyal to ousted Vice-President Riek Machar to drop demands for the release of political prisoners and to declare a ceasefire along with the government of President Salva Kiir.
In Jonglei state, the capital of Bor is poised for an attack by the SPLA in order to drive out the final bastion of control by the dissidents loyal to Machar within key areas inside the country. On January 12 it was announced by the U.S. State Department that a special envoy had met with Machar to urge him to reach accommodation with Kiir.
Earlier in the week on January 6, Republic of Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir visited Juba the capital of South Sudan. He held talks with his counterpart Salva Kiir on developments involving the factional power struggle that erupted on December 15 in Juba.
Later reports indicated that there was a secret agreement between Bashir and Kiir to form a joint military force to contain the expansion of territory controlled by the units of the SPLA that are aligned with Machar. Bashir denied that such an agreement had been reached with South Sudan.
Nonetheless on January 11 the spokesperson for the SPLA acknowledged reports that forces loyal to Machar were prevented from entering the Republic of Sudan around the oil-producing area of Heglig. The dissident troops under the command of Machar denied that such an incident took place.
According to Phillip Aguer, the spokesperson for South Sudan army (SPLA) confirmed reports from his Sudanese counterpart, saying they are still pursuing remnants of the Machar-allied forces. “We have reports that some of those who fled towards Sudan have reported themselves to Heglig. And we are told some have been disarmed by the Sudan Armed Forces. Other refused and retreated”, he told the Sudan Tribune.
Aguer said the Sudanese Armed Forces had tracked down a number of them in Karasana, north of Heglig, saying, “They reached there yesterday [Friday, January 10] evening”.
Central African Republic Government Removed at Regional Meeting

Alexandre-Ferdinand Nguendet was appointed by France to be the new leader of Central African Republic

Also in the neighboring Central African Republic the government of interim President Michel Djotodia was forced to resign during a meeting with regional leaders on January 10 in N’Djamena, the capital of Chad. The entire regional council appointed by Djotodia last year was flown to Chad where France and the host country’s government expressed their deep dissatisfaction with developments inside the CAR.
After the announcement of Djotodia’s removal, there were scenes of jubilation in the streets of Bangui, the capital. An effort to broker a truce between the former Seleka coalition groupings and the Anti-Balaka militias took place on January 11. (January 12)
Although groups within the respective camps pledged to work together to repair the damage done to the country since last March, there were reports of fighting throughout the weekend. Some mosques were reportedly looted as youths sought to exact revenge on what was perceived as a Djotodia regime that represented a religious minority who total 15 percent of the population in the country of 4.7 million people.
France has deployed 1,600 troops to the CAR which has drawn the scorn of one religious minority community. Chad has approximately 800 troops along with other forces from the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville).
Paris has continued to appeal to the United Nations Security Council for additional peacekeeping soldiers. A report surfaced that the European Union would possibly send a contingent of troops to the CAR as well.
Both the CAR and South Sudan are a reflection of the crisis in the post-colonial and neo-colonial state in Africa. Imperialism still dominates the economic relations of production inside its former colonies. France and the U.S., which is supporting President Francois Hollande’s military interventions in Africa, are seeking broader avenues of economic exploitation on the continent.
U.S. Admits to Military Advisers in Somalia
The Pentagon also revealed in the Washington Post during early January that it has military advisers operating in the Horn of Africa nation of Somalia. This comes as no surprise to anti-imperialists who have followed the situation inside the country for the last two decades.
Even though U.S. Marines were forced to withdraw from Somalia during 1993-94, they have maintained a presence through the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Special Forces for many subsequent years. The CIA maintains an office in the capital of Mogadishu and a drone station exists in Somalia which is coordinated with similar operations throughout the Horn of Africa region out into the Indian Ocean islands Seychelles.
Over 20,000 troops are occupying Somalia with the full financial, intelligence, diplomatic and military support of Washington. The African Union Mission for Somalia (AMISOM) is staffed largely by troops from Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti and Sierra Leone, states that are closely aligned with the U.S. and Britain.
The ongoing factional conflicts in Central and East Africa provide a rationale for the deepening of military involvement by the U.S. and other imperialist states and their allies. The Kenyan Defense Forces, which has several thousand troops in southern Somalia, was reported to have carried out aerial bombardments of areas in the region where the Al-Shabaab Islamic resistance organization has bases. (January 10)
These interventions will continue until an anti-imperialist foreign policy is adopted by the majority of African Union member-states. The genuine independence of Africa cannot occur as long as the various military apparatuses of the nation-states are controlled and directed by the imperatives of imperialism.
Interventions by the imperialist states in Africa and in other parts of the world are not a reflection of their strength but of their weaknesses. The crisis in world capitalism provides very few alternatives to war abroad and increasing economic exploitation and repression within their own borders.

Analysis: Weighing power among branches, U.S. court could tip against president - Yahoo News

Analysis: Weighing power among branches, U.S. court could tip against president - Yahoo News
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
When a prominent U.S. appeals court last year slashed President Obama's power to appoint government officials, many legal experts said the Supreme Court would be unlikely to let that surprising decision stand.

But that view may underestimate the allure of the lower court's reasoning to the dominant, conservative wing of the high court, which takes up the case Monday.

In its January 2013 ruling involving "recess appointments" to a key regulatory agency, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit repeatedly invoked the nation's early history and a literal reading of key constitutional terms.

Such an "originalist" approach in the past persuaded the court under Chief Justice John Roberts to take bold action. In 2008, for example, the court for the first time endorsed an individual right to own guns, based on the early history of the Second Amendment. Conservatives controlled that 5-4 decision.

The new case, National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning, revolves around the president's power to appoint top officials with the "advice and consent" of the Senate. A "recess appointments" clause in the Constitution supplements that power by letting the president make temporary appointments when the Senate is not in session.

Judge David Sentelle, who wrote the D.C. Circuit opinion, said the recess-appointment power can be exercised only between defined sessions of Congress, not during breaks within a session, as commonly occurs, and that a president could fill only those vacancies that arise after Congress has recessed.
That interpretation conflicts with the practices of most presidents and Senates -- Democrat and Republican - over the past century.
In its appeal, the Obama administration warned that the D.C. Circuit opinion "would eviscerate" the president's appointment power and "dramatically upset" the equilibrium between political branches.

While that remains to be seen, the outcome of the case would affect the president's ability to make certain recess appointments, whether for urgent vacancies or to seat long-stalled nominees. The disputed labor-board vacancies had been caught up in partisan wrangling, and Obama's action was a move around Senate inaction.

GROUNDED IN HISTORY

Judge Sentelle's reliance on originalist interpretations could particularly influence Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, who among the nine justices search most for the original understanding of the Constitution's drafters.

To back up his view that only vacancies arising during a recess are covered, Sentelle cited a leading dictionary from the 18th Century and said George Washington understood the recess appointments power to extend only to such vacancies.

Sentelle also repeatedly cited the Roberts' Court's seminal 2008 Second Amendment ruling, District of Columbia v. Heller. In that decision, the other conservatives, Roberts and Justices Anthony Kennedy and Samuel Alito joined with Scalia and Thomas.

The notion that the D.C. Circuit judgment was grounded in history and tradition was advanced forcefully in briefs submitted to the justices by lawyers for Noel Canning, the soda-bottling company challenging the labor-relations board appointees, and by two groups of leading conservative law professors.
A group of professors led by Stanford Law Professor Michael McConnell takes issue, for example, with an administration claim that President Washington made at least two recess appointments to fill vacancies that had first arisen before recesses began.

McConnell, a former U.S. appeals court judge, counters with documents from President Washington to the Senate that the brief says demonstrate that the two vacancies actually arose during the recesses.

McConnell also argues that only in recent decades has it become commonplace for presidents to make "recess appointments" to vacancies occurring earlier during a session -- as opposed to during the formal recess break.

As the dueling parties argue over artifacts of history, administration lawyers highlight an opinion written by Attorney General William Wirt in 1823 that would support filling vacancies that arose before a recess. The challengers contend subsequent attorneys general opinions are at odds with that.

Such contradictory interpretations of history and constitutional text arise regularly in Supreme Court cases, and it will fall to the justices to resolve the conflict.

Washington lawyer John Elwood, a former Bush Justice Department official who has focused on recess-appointment powers, said supporters of upholding the D.C . Circuit have "assembled significant evidence" that the drafters of the Constitution and early presidents believed an office must fall vacant during the recess to be subject to a recess appointment.
"The originalist case ... is more powerful than I thought beforehand," Elwood said.

Yet, Elwood, like other legal analysts, is still hedging his bets on how the justices will rule - particularly because while the Roberts Court has shifted to the right, it is also known for incremental moves.

One narrow way to resolve the case would be tied to a secondary issue: whether a president's recess-appointment power extends to when the Senate is convening in "pro forma" sessions every three days. In such sessions, no business is conducted and often only a single senator is present. The Senate, in fact, has used such recurring short meetings to try to avert presidential appointments.

When President Obama made the disputed appointments on January 4, 2012, the Senate was holding a series of pro forma sessions with intervening three-day recesses.

If the justices turn to that narrow question of the validity of pro forma sessions - which the Obama administration argues cannot become a tool to prevent "recess" appointments - they would avoid a more sweeping decision.

The D.C. Circuit declined to address the question of how pro forma sessions of the Senate may affect a president's appointment power. But the justices themselves added it to their agenda when they agreed to take up the case -- perhaps signaling an interest in avoiding a more contentious fight over separation of powers.

Immigration Debate Ignores Highly Skilled Black Workers

Immigration Debate Ignores Highly Skilled Black Workers
 
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
As a two-year budget conjures up illusions of congressional comity and President Obama is desperate for a legislative recharge, there is much hype about a big immigration deal on the horizon. But, despite the huge political, economic and cultural implications for the country, Black folks have little skin in the game.
How did that happen?
It’s no secret Democrats and Republicans view immigration as their default key to Latino-voter gold. The immigration conversation is the gateway campaign drug that most political strategists assume will bag their candidates tons of brown voters for years to come. Hispanic elected officials also accept it, cynically, as political raison d’être and leveraging. Black voters, in case you missed it, are so 20th century — even though they consistently outperform in most election cycles.
But, perhaps more significant and less reported is Silicon Valley dropping obscene amounts of cash on Washington lobbying and campaign cycles to get immigration fixed. Soon after a 2012 election cycle in which the information-technology sector funneled more than $200 million in campaign contributions to candidate coffers, immigration has started heating up as a major issue again — although only 4 percent of Americans (and, get this, only 8 percent of Hispanics) identify it as their “most important issue.”
The alignment of tech-industry dominance in politics — which now outspends defense contractors — with the emergence of immigration reform as a key Washington priority is no accident. Silicon Valley (figuratively known) is pressed bad for an immigration fix. Through the government’s H-1B visa program, highly skilled foreigners with digital talents can share their expertise with American companies. The problem, however, is demand outstripping bureaucratic capacity: H1-B visas are capped at an annual 85,000 slots, with the latest Senate-passed compromise promising more than double that. That’s not enough, apparently, considering H-1B visa workers fill more than half of all IT jobs in the U.S.
So, when IT companies talk reform, the focus typically falls on Asian workers from far-flung places. And despite the current national fad pushing native-born Americans into technology careers, Silicon Valley kings don’t have time for that: They need skilled labor now as the digital space grows rapidly.
But there’s a missing piece in the political jigsaw puzzle that is immigration reform. It is Black immigrants who, according to Pew, comprise nearly 10 percent of the total foreign-born population. You’d never know that based on the pre-baked parameters of the current debate.
According to the Migration Policy Institute (Pdf), Black Diaspora immigrants (especially African immigrants) are among the highest-educated, English-proficient and highest-skilled of migrant populations in the U.S. — with many highly qualified for those same tech jobs. An oft-cited State University of New York study goes bold: African migrants are, actually, more educated than Asian migrants. That drops dynamite on rigidly held notions and stereotypes about race and intelligence. African migrants even out-degree White immigrants from Europe, Russia and Canada 44 percent to 29 percent.
But while African and Caribbean migrants represent one of the fastest growing and most super-educated migrant groups in the nation, they are also a lost population, relying heavily on the fate of “diversity visas” in cluttered immigration-reform legislation to determine their future here. And, obviously, immigration reform is not high on the U.S. Black agenda priority list. High unemployment and other bad stuff can easily distract an American Black family. As a result, immigration is not receiving needed attention, despite the fast-growing share of the population that African and Caribbean migrants account for in major Black communities in places such as New York, Miami and Washington, D.C.
So when House Speaker John Boehner recently signaled an opening to revive immigration-reform prospects, there was little sense that Congressional leaders would be checking in with the Congressional Black Caucus to get their take on it. The tiny and informal bipartisan House “Gang of 8” that’s tasked itself to craft a bill has tinkered along for a while now without any Black members on it, save CBC input graciously channeled through fellow Democrats who promise solids one way or the other.
But, since out of sight is out of mind, their role is largely uncertain. Perhaps that calculus dramatically changes depending on what pressure, if any, Black migrant advocates in predominantly Black Congressional districts can bring. Something needs to change soon: Persuading the tech sector to include tech-skilled Black Diaspora migrants in the debate might be a good place to kick and push. (Maybe that will happen since newly elected Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) is the top recipient of that sector’s political cash.) But once deals are cut, bills are passed and outcomes take shape, many could end up — once again — on the short end of the political stick.

Anti-immigration group says Hispanics lack ‘strong family values’ and will ‘unmake’ America | The Raw Story

Anti-immigration group says Hispanics lack ‘strong family values’ and will ‘unmake’ America | The Raw Story
 
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
A spokesman for the right-wing think tank the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) said in a pair of interviews with the Washington Times that immigration reform will cause “the unmaking of America.” According to senior CIS policy analyst Stephen Steinlight, Hispanic immigrants are bad for the U.S. because they lack “strong family values.”
Steinlight told Joseph Cotto of the Times, “We can expect disaster. In sum, we’ll witness the unmaking of America. It would subvert our political life by destroying the Republican Party. The Hispanic vote will make the Democrats the PRI of America. A GOP relic might survive regionally, but could never successfully contest a national election.”
PRI is Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party, the most powerful party in that country, which dwarfs all opposition and controls virtually every public office.
“America would turn into a One Party State which, like all others, would be tyrannical and corrupt,” Steinlight warned. “The political center would lurch to the left. Political liberty, the freedom to choose among authentically different alternatives, would be lost.”
In addition, he said, Hispanics aren’t “natural conservatives,” as some say they are, because they don’t exemplify “family values.”
“Illegitimacy is inimical to ‘family values,’” Steinlight insisted, “yet Hispanics have a high rate and have witnessed the greatest increase of any group: 19 percent in 1980 to 42 percent in 2003. More female-headed single-parent households deepens Hispanic poverty resulting in anti-social behavior such as teenage child-bearing, the highest school drop-out rate, and high crime and incarceration rates.”

Black Women Hit Hard By Unemployment Cuts • Africanglobe.net

Black Women Hit Hard By Unemployment Cuts • Africanglobe.net
 
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
On December 30^th, 1.3 million Americans saw an end to “long-term” unemployment benefits. The 113^th Congress allowed these emergency benefits to expire before taking a holiday recess. And while all Americans collecting long-term – longer than 26 weeks worth – benefits have been impacted by this lack of movement in Washington DC, Black women stand to face distinctly difficult circumstances if those benefits remain suspended.
Most states originally offered no more than 26 weeks of unemployment “insurance” or aid. But after the Great Recession— which began in late 2007–benefits were extended across the country. In some states, benefits could be collected for two years or longer. President George W. Bush ushered in these changes to unemployment insurance as he exited the White House. This infusion of capital into the middle and lower classes was seen as a method to keep the country afloat and stimulate the economy via consumer spending,
Six years later, the very same workers who were so integral to America’s economic recovery have fallen victim to Congress’ “government by crisis” style of legislating. The Republican-led House of Representatives signaled in early December that they would be working to end long-term emergency unemployment aid. Amounting to nothing more than a bargaining chip for congressional Republicans, emergency unemployment insurance benefits contribute to a healthy and thriving economy.
Black women were hit hard during the economic recession and continue to struggle even during the country’s recovery. In 2011, the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) published a study which found that Black women only made up 12.5 percent of all female workers in June of 2009, yet accounted for over 42 percent of job losses for all women between June 2009 and June 2011. Similarly, Black women’s unemployment rate increased 2.1 percent in the same period— three times the increase of the next highest unemployment rate (Black men).
Even well into President Obama’s second term, Black women continue to struggle with unemployment. The NWLC released a study in 2013 which found that Black women were the only subgroup of women who did not see a decline in unemployment rates. As other racial, ethnic, and gender groups have seen improvements in their employment status, Black women continue to lose jobs at disturbing rates.
In an effort to discourage the lapse in benefits, the White House published a report in December detailing the state by state impacts of failing to reauthorize emergency unemployment. According to the report, Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) lifted an estimated 2.5 million people out of poverty in 2012.
Conversely, the White House predicts that 3.6 million more people will lose unemployment benefits beyond the 26 week mark in 2014. And, this legislative change may cost both jobs and gross domestic product (GDP.) The outlook is extremely negative for all impacted. And, sadly, most Black women have little security shielding them from disparate long term economic effects.
Juxtapose these statistics with the fact that half of all Black children in this country live with a single mother and that minimum jobs are disproportionately held by Black women. Without a second salary in the household to depend on, these economic hardships are unilaterally daunting for Black women, with or without children, seeking to earn a living.
The greatest impacts of these benefit losses will be felt by families, especially those headed by single Black women. In 2014, the dissimilar impact to black working mothers and families will be palpable. The onus is on Congress to address and represent constituents of all walks of life. Black women are counting on them, but will it matter?

Judge: Chicago’s ban on gun sales unconstitutional | theGrio

Judge: Chicago’s ban on gun sales unconstitutional | theGrio

JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
"Well Folks Here Is One For You, It Seems To Me And I Am Only Given My Opinion And Thoughts On This Gun Control Mess."
What Some People View As A Problem To Having A Right To Have A Gun Or Not Have One, It Seems To Me That The Underlying Question Is To Gun Control Is It Whether A Person 'Dies By The Right To Have A Gun Or Dies By A Gun', That's Just My Thoughts.
It Seems That Guns Don't Stop Killing, Guns Have Not Deterred Crime, Killings, Loss Of Property Or Person, And If It Did Then Why Is What I Just Said True And If You Think I Am Lying Then All The News Media, Government Reports, Police Reports, NRA Is Lying.
You Know Cain Used The Jawbone Of A Camel To Kill His Brother Abel, So I Guess If You Take Away All The Guns The People Will Kill A Jackass And Take His Jawbone And Still Kill People, That's Just My Opinion.
I Read Somewhere In A Book And It Have A Passage That Read Something Like This: 'if you live by the sword, then you will surely die by the sword'
That's Just My Opinion And Thoughts!
Now Here Is The Story — A federal judge on Monday overturned Chicago’s ban on the sale of firearms, ruling that the ordinances aimed at reducing gun violence are unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Edmond E. Chang said in his ruling that while the government has a duty to protect its citizens, it’s also obligated to protect constitutional rights, including the right to keep and bear arms for self-defense. However, Chang said he would temporarily stay the effects of his ruling, meaning the ordinances can stand while the city decides whether to appeal.
Broderick Drew, a spokesman for Chicago’s law department, did not immediately return telephone calls for comment.
The decision is just the latest to attack what were some of the toughest gun-control laws in the nation. In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Chicago’s long-standing gun ban. And last year, Illinois legislators were forced by a federal appeals court to adopt a law allowing residents to carry concealed weapons in Illinois, the only state that still banned the practice. The resulting state law largely stripped city and officials of surrounding Cook County of their authority to regulate guns, which especially irked officials in Chicago, where residents had to apply for concealed-carry permits through the police chief.
Chang’s decision came in a lawsuit filed by the Illinois Association of Firearms Retailers and three Chicago residents. The judge noted Chicago’s ban covers not only federally licensed firearms dealers, but also gifts among family members, all in the name of reducing gun violence.
Chang wrote that the nation’s third-largest city “goes too far in outright banning legal buyers and legal dealers from engaging in lawful acquisitions and lawful sales of firearms, and at the same time the evidence does not support that the complete ban sufficiently furthers the purposes that the ordinance tries to serve.”
Chicago, which last year had more homicides than any city in the nation, still has an assault weapons ban.
City officials have long acknowledged the ban on gun sales has been ineffective, because sales are legal in some surrounding suburbs and states.

Senate confirms Yellen to chair Federal Reserve :: WRAL.com

Senate confirms Yellen to chair Federal Reserve :: WRAL.com

 

 JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
The Senate confirmed Janet Yellen on Monday as the first woman to lead the Federal Reserve, elevating an advocate of fighting unemployment and a backer of the central bank's efforts to spur the economy with low interest rates and massive bond purchases.
Yellen, 67, will replace Ben Bernanke, who is stepping down after serving as chairman for eight years dominated by the Great Recession and the Fed's efforts to combat it.
Senators confirmed her by 56-26, with numerous absences caused by airline flight delays forced by arctic temperatures around much of the country. All 45 voting Democrats were joined by 11 Republicans in supporting Yellen, while 26 Republicans voted "no."
Vice chair of the Fed since 2010, Yellen begins her four-year term as leader of the century-old bank on Feb. 1. With the economy rebounding from the depths of the recession but only modestly so far, many economists expect her to focus on how to nurture growth without putting it into overdrive, which could risk fueling inflation.
"The big debate will be when the Fed should tighten and how much, rather than when to step on the gas pedal and how hard," predicted Bill Cheney, chief economist for John Hancock Financial Services, who envisions a growing economy this year.
Under Bernanke, the Fed has driven short-term interest rates down to near zero and flushed money into the economy with huge bond purchases, which it has just started to ease. Yellen, a strong Bernanke ally, has supported those policies and is expected to continue them until concrete signs emerge of sustained improvement of the economy and job market.
In a written statement, President Barack Obama said Yellen's approval means "the American people will have a fierce champion" who will protect them.
"I am confident that Janet will stand up for American workers, protect consumers, foster the stability of our financial system and help keep our economy growing for years to come," Obama said.
Lobbyists for the banking and financial services sectors issued statements pledging to work with Yellen. Both industries have led a fight to water down restrictions imposed by Obama's 2010 law overhauling how the nation's financial system is regulated.
A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Yellen previously headed the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, chaired President Bill Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers and has been an economics professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
Yellen, who as an academic has focused on unemployment and its causes, is considered a "dove" who wants the Fed more focused on creating jobs because unemployment is high and inflation is low. "Hawks" on these issues prefer a stronger emphasis on preventing inflation.
In brief debate on her nomination, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, lauded Yellen, who was one of the first to warn in 2007 of a housing bubble that could burst and damage the entire economy.
"She understands how risky financial practices deep inside the largest Wall Street banks can have a terrible and terrifying impact on American families," Brown said.
But Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, criticized Yellen for supporting the Fed's "easy money" policies of low interest rates and bond purchases.
"No one can deny that the risks are real and could be devastating" if those policies continue for too long, Grassley said.
Yellen's GOP critics have said the Fed has inflated stock and real estate prices by pumping money into the markets, creating investment bubbles that could burst and wound the economy anew.
Some also warn that as the Fed starts to trim its bond holdings, it could spook financial markets, threatening the economy's recovery by causing stock prices to drop and interest rates to rise.
Last month, the Fed announced that it will start gradually reducing its $85 billion in monthly bond purchases, trimming them back initially to $75 billion this month and taking "further measured steps" as economic conditions improve.
But the Fed also indicated that it will keep supporting an economy that it considers less than fully healthy. It said it will continue to keep interest rates low and try to boost unusually low inflation, which can slow spending and borrowing.
During her November confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee, Yellen said the Fed's bond buying program has successfully supported the economy by keeping long-term borrowing rates low.
The Fed's holdings have reached $4 trillion, more than quadruple their level before the financial crisis hit in late 2008.
The U.S. economy has grown only modestly since the Great Recession officially ended in June 2009, though it has shown encouraging signs in recent months.
Unemployment fell to 7 percent last month, down from a recent peak of 10 percent in October 2009. The economy grew at an annual rate of 4.1 percent from July through September and has added an average 200,000 jobs monthly since August.
President Barack Obama nominated Yellen in October after considering selecting Lawrence Summers, a former Treasury secretary who had been a close Obama adviser early in his presidency. Summers withdrew after opponents complained about his temperament and past support for bank deregulation.
Obama called Yellen a "proven leader" and hailed her frequent focus on the unemployed, saying, "She understands the human cost when people can't find a job."
She will be the first Fed chair newly appointed by a Democratic president since Paul Volcker, picked by President Jimmy Carter, left the post in 1987. Clinton reappointed Alan Greenspan and Obama gave Bernanke a second term, though both were initially chosen by GOP presidents.
Yellen will preside over her first Fed meetings as chair on March 18 and 19.

Barbara Mikulski: Within ‘striking distance’ on budget - David Rogers - POLITICO.com

Barbara Mikulski: Within ‘striking distance’ on budget - David Rogers - POLITICO.com


JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:

Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski said Monday she is “very encouraged” by the progress made in talks with the House and believes the two sides are within “striking distance” of reaching agreement this week on a long-sought omnibus bill to keep the government funded through September.
The Maryland Democrat conceded that “sticking points” remain over President Barack Obama’s health care program and financial reforms, as well as new education initiatives for preschool-age children. But her tone was consistently positive in a short hallway interview, and she seemed confident that there is a path to resolve the final issues.

“I’m very encouraged. I think we’ve made a lot of progress,” Mikulski said. “We’re within striking distance. I think we’re going to get it.”

Hundreds of pages long, the $1 trillion-plus measure will literally touch every corner of government and is a crucial second step following on the bipartisan budget agreement reached in December.
Much as the December deal set new caps for spending by Congress, the bill now spells out where those dollars go. Its very scope and detail invite conflict, which makes the House-Senate talks such a challenge. But the whole endeavor has huge implications for the Appropriations leadership and Congress more broadly after the turmoil of recent years.
Speed is essential given the deadlines ahead.
The government remains under a stopgap continuing resolution or CR due to expire on Jan. 15 and Congress leaves soon after for its mid-January recess. As a practical matter, some extension of the CR will be needed — and should not be controversial if the omnibus is proceeding on course. But the Appropriations leadership wants to keep any extension short so that the pressure is on to complete passage before lawmakers leave Jan. 17.
Weather delayed a meeting planned Monday between Mikulski and her House counterpart, Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) — “snowbound in Louisville,” she said. But the two were expected to talk, and Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, the ranking Republican on the Senate panel, was described as also supportive of getting a bill.
Shelby is an important player as the former Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee chairman and an opponent of Obama’s financial reforms. He also stood out last month for his opposition to the December deal, which was strongly backed by Rogers.
But the senator’s spokesman, Jonathan Graffeo, said Shelby has been working “side by side” with Mikulski “to reach an agreement that they can both support.”
The stakes are big for the White House and Obama’s Cabinet as well. Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the new director of the Office of Management and Budget, has brought a greater energy to the task, and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has worked the phones with Republicans as well as Democrats in an uphill fight to move ahead with reforms at the International Monetary Fund.
But Lew stands out for his willingness to work both sides of the aisle — something many in Obama’s Cabinet fail to do. And Obama is paying a price for hasty concessions in the past and his often feckless approach to appropriations generally.
For example, the administration had requested $4.8 billion in fiscal 2013 for the program management account within the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services — the chief source of discretionary funds to implement the president’s health care reforms.
But the White House then settled for just $3.8 billion last spring — a number that only got worse with sequestration.
Through the summer, the administration was able to buy time by tapping into mandatory funds, authorized by the Affordable Care Act and separate from appropriations. But these wells are beginning to run dry.
A $1 billion implementation fund created by ACA is largely depleted, for example. And the White House’s own allies were upset when it took more than $450 million out of the Prevention and Public Health Fund, a priority for Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Attention is now focused more on a third, separate innovation fund, which received a lump sum $10 billion appropriation over 10 years under ACA. The money is intended to explore new ways to reduce costs and improve services for Medicare and Medicaid, not to implement health reform per se. But it could be a way to meet CMS needs here, thereby freeing up more discretionary money in the program management account.
In the case of Obama’s financial reforms, the dollars for regulatory agencies are far less — even as they affect the conduct of far greater markets.
A case in point is the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which was assigned a greater role over derivative markets under the Dodd-Frank law in 2010 but has met strong resistance from conservatives like Shelby who hold the purse strings.
In the wake of sequestration, the current appropriation for the CFTC is $194.6 million — more than one-third less than Obama requested. Indeed, it is also less than the agency received in 2011 and 2012, and in terms of personnel, the staff of 652 at the CFTC today is about 50 fewer than what the agency had 15 months ago at the end of fiscal 2012.
Mikulski’s reference to Obama’s preschool education initiatives is a measure too of how tight the overall caps remain even with the adjustments allowed in the December budget.
Nondefense spending will be restored to $491.8 billion — roughly the same levels as before the March sequestration cuts. But that’s far less than President George W. Bush enjoyed at the end of his administration in 2008 and it will require Mikulski to cut $14 billion from the domestic spending bills that her committee approved over the summer.
Back then, adding $750 million for preschool development grants in the Education Department was doable. Now it is harder, and even powerhouses like the National Institutes of Health may find it hard to get back to just the level promised last spring.
Rogers must worry too about selling a package that will have far less for the Pentagon than the defense appropriations bill that he helped pass in the House in July. But negotiators have helped themselves here by using a higher number for overseas contingency or OCO funds than the administration asked for in its final budget request.
This is not out of line with the House budget resolution, which also used the higher number. But it does buy some precious leeway for security accounts, since OCO dollars are counted outside the caps. And the December budget agreement was silent on the subject of what number to use.