Obama, GOP leaders lay down markers on budget deal

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Taking little time to celebrate, President Barack Obama is setting out to leverage his re-election into legislative success in an upcoming showdown with congressional Republicans over taxes, deficits and the impending "fiscal cliff." House Speaker John Boehner says Republicans are willing to consider some form of higher tax revenue as part of the solution ? but only "under the right conditions."

All sides are setting out opening arguments for the negotiations to come.

Even before returning to Washington from his hometown of Chicago, Obama was on the phone Wednesday with the four top leaders of the House and Senate ? Boehner included ? to talk about the lame-duck Congress that convenes just one week after Election Day.

Without a budget deal to head off the fiscal showdown, the nation faces a combination of expiring Bush-era tax cuts and steep across-the-board spending cuts that could total $800 billion next year. Economists have warned that could tip the nation back into recession.

Vice President Joe Biden, flying to his home in Delaware from Chicago, told reporters aboard Air Force Two that the White House was "really anxious" to get moving on the problem. He said he'd been making a lot of calls and "people know we've got to get down to work and I think they're ready to move." He didn't identify whom he'd been speaking with but predicted the "fever will break" on past legislative gridlock after some soul-searching by Republicans.

The White House held out this week's election results as a mandate from voters for greater cooperation between the White House and Congress. At the same time, it reiterated Obama's top priorities: cutting taxes for middle-class families and small businesses, creating jobs and cutting the deficit "in a balanced way" ? through a combination of tax increases on wealthier Americans and spending cuts.

Obama told the congressional leaders he believed "the American people sent a message in yesterday's election that leaders in both parties need to put aside their partisan interests and work with common purpose to put the interests of the American people and the American economy first," the White House said in a statement.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., channeled Obama in calling for a quick solution to the fiscal showdown and saying that asking "the richest of the rich" to pay more should be part of the equation. He added that he'd "do everything within my power to be as conciliatory as possible" but added, "I want everyone to also understand you can't push us around."

"Waiting for a month, six weeks, six months, that's not going to solve the problem," Reid said on Capitol Hill. "We know what needs to be done. And so I think that we should just roll up our sleeves and get it done."

Former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle said the postelection congressional session offers a good chance to reset the dynamics between the White House and congressional Republicans in search of compromise.

"I think there's the urgency of the matter that probably goes beyond anything we've seen to date," he said. "The urgency of the repercussions of driving off the cliff are so grave that I can't imagine that failure is an option."

Both Biden and Reid pointed to election exit poll results showing that most Americans support higher taxes on the wealthy.

Biden said there was "a clear sort of mandate about people coming much closer to our view about how to deal with tax policy," adding that "there's all kinds of potential to be able to reach a rational, principled compromise."

Boehner, for his part, said that for Obama to get support for new revenues, "the president must be willing to reduce spending and shore up the entitlement programs that are the primary drivers of our debt."

"We aren't seeking to impose our will on the president; we're asking him to make good on his 'balanced' approach," the Ohio Republican said on Capitol Hill.

The reference to a balanced approach to deficit reduction reflected Obama's campaign-long call for higher taxes on incomes above $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples. That was something Boehner made plain he opposes.

The House speaker said conditions on higher taxes would include a revamped tax code to make it cleaner and fairer, fewer loopholes and lower rates for all, adding that "we're closer than we think to the critical mass needed legislatively to get tax reform done."

Boehner did not specify what loopholes House Republicans might consider trimming.

Obama spent a rare morning off Wednesday at his home on Chicago's South Side, then stopped off at campaign headquarters to meet privately with staff and thank them for their work in the long, grueling campaign. Workers climbed on top of desks to get a good look at the president.

Then Obama and his family flew back to Washington together on Air Force One. The president appeared to be in a good mood, racing younger daughter Sasha up the steps, then calling out "Come on slowpokes" to wife Michelle and older daughter Malia.

___

Associated Press writers Julie Pace, Ken Thomas and Andrew Taylor contributed to this report.

___

Follow Nancy Benac on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/nbenac

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-11-08-US-Deficit-Fight/id-56b644c27e8140a19dd2ff7be963d931

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China's stealth fighter mission a timely show of military power | The ...

China has flown a successful test mission of its next-generation stealth fighter, its second working prototype of the radar?invisible planes that could eventually fly from a Chinese-built aircraft carrier.

The 11-minute test flight of the plane, which state media hailed as a milestone for fifth-generation fighter aircraft, is the second such trial. Its true performance remains a mystery, but having two such prototypes would put China behind only the US in that field of stealth-fighter technology.

The flight in northeastern Shenyang was photographed by Chinese military enthusiasts and represents a rare show of technological progress, almost certainly timed to trumpet

Source: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/asia/article3587530.ece

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A Poor Economy Means More Unclaimed Bodies ? this ain't livin'

Throughout human history, the body has held special significance to numerous cultures, and ceremonies have been performed around and with the body for centuries. ?Laying the body to rest? is an integral part of the grieving process, and a great deal hangs upon it. Whether it?s a rain-drenched funeral with all the trimmings or a few people sadly watching a friend in a cardboard box being shuffled into a retort, dealing with the body, confronting the body, interacting with the body, is part of death. It?s tangible proof that the deceased is really gone, and not coming back.

Last year, I wrote about the creep in funeral costs occurring across the United States, spurred by a number of factors including increasing boldness on the part of the industry when it comes to gouging consumers. Despite numerous laws designed to prevent that very thing, funeral directors are ready and willing to extort what they can from grieving families; they know that few consumers know their rights, and fewer still are going to be comfortable looking them up and challenging a funeral director in the midst of handling a traumatic and possibly sudden event.

But even the most bare-bones of funerals is expensive, these days. ?No-frills cremation,? as it?s sometimes called, is basically the cheapest option you can get, involving little more than refrigeration of the body, cremation in a temporary container, and preparation of the cremated remains for a family member to take home. This can run into the thousands, which is leading some families to make a rather heartbreaking decision: abandoning their dead.

Unclaimed dead are also an ancient tradition. People who died alone and isolated were taken into the custody of the place where they died, and their handling depended on tradition. They might be given basic burials in a pauper?s graveyard, for example, or, today, cremated and stored with other unclaimed remains in the event a family member or friend tracked them down. Taking care of the dead was considered an ethical issue as well as a public health one; one couldn?t well leave dead bodies lying around because that would reflect horribly on the ethics and social responsibility of a society, and it would potentially attract insects and other unwanted visitors.

Indigent burials in the past in the United States primarily involved people separated from their family; homeless people, people without any family, and others in a position of total isolation. When they died alone and possibly far from home, local coroners and medical examiners would process them accordingly and maintain records. If someone came looking for the dead, cremated remains could be released for a fee, or arrangements could be made for exhumation and reburial, if desired.

As a public service, indigent burials aren?t even offered in all states, but those that do are facing rising expenses for handling remains. Now, they?re dealing not just with people who die without families, but those with families who can?t afford their burial, or refuse to pay for it. While the death of a family member can be heartbreaking, and families want to be able to mourn according to their own traditions and preferences, sometimes holding a funeral just isn?t possible, and the body has to be left to the coroner?s office because the family can?t afford it.

The number of fundraisers I?ve seen in the last year alone asking for assistance with funeral costs has been staggering. Particularly in regions like Chicago, plagued with an epidemic of violence against young Black men, the number of families struggling to meet funeral costs is rising, and that forces people to make tough choices. Sometimes it?s simply not possible to bury a family member with dignity and the honours the family wishes they could provide. Instead, they?re forced to leave the body unclaimed, not taking responsibility for it and allowing a municipality or county to foot the bill for storage and eventual cremation or burial.

In Illinois, at least, there?s been a proposal to use unclaimed bodies in medical research, and it?s created an outcry from people who are angered by the idea of bodies being used for research without the consent of their former occupants. If little is known about an unclaimed body, for example, we have no idea if the deceased had religious or personal objections to medical research, or would have participated in a directed donation program permitting some forms of research and not others. Illinois is simply trying to deal with a growing problem in the most efficient way possible, and argues that unclaimed bodies could be valuable contributions to research, but it still creates unease among those with concerns about respect for the dead.

We are living in a country where people cannot afford funerals. It?s worth noting, in light of my recent commentary on benefits, that many employers historically assisted with the costs of funerals, providing families with support to help them cover expenses ranging from buying the coffin to hiring an officiant. Life insurance can provide benefits that help pay for a funeral, but it takes a while for the insurance to pay out, and the family may be left in an awkward position, unable to borrow or make arrangements to cover the cost. And many young people dying suddenly don?t have life insurance, benefits, or other protections?or they were so mired in debt at the time of their deaths that the estate will be snarled, making it very hard to extract funeral costs in a timely fashion.

I can?t help but view rising numbers of unclaimed dead as an economic indicator, a coffin index, as it were, of where we are as a nation.

Source: http://meloukhia.net/2012/11/a_poor_economy_means_more_unclaimed_bodies.html

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U.N. rights boss calls on China to address Tibetan self-immolations

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations' most senior human rights official urged China on Friday to address deep-rooted frustrations that have led to desperate forms of protest by Tibetans, including some 60 self-immolations since March 2011.

Navi Pillay called on the Chinese authorities to release detainees, allow independent human rights monitors to visit Tibet, and to lift restrictions on media access to the restive Himalayan region.

"Social stability in Tibet will never be achieved through heavy security measures and suppression of human rights," Pillay said, in a rare statement critical of China.

Her spokesman said the appeal was not issued to coincide with a Communist Party congress opening next week, but that the "time had come to talk publicly" about allegations of violence against Tibetans seeking to exercise their fundamental freedoms.

China's foreign ministry was not immediately available for comment. Beijing has branded the self-immolators "terrorists" and criminals and accused the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Dalai Lama, of inciting them.

In the statement, Pillay "urged Chinese authorities to promptly address the longstanding grievances that have led to an alarming escalation in desperate forms of protest, including self-immolations in Tibetan areas".

As United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, she said she recognized Tibetans' intense sense of frustration but urged community and religious leaders to use their influence to help prevent people from setting themselves on fire.

The victims include seven Tibetans who set fire to themselves in the past two weeks in protest against what they said was repressive Chinese rule in the Himalayan region.

"UNDERLYING PROBLEMS"

"Those are an illustration of how serious the situation is," Pillay's spokesman, Rupert Colville, told a news briefing in Geneva.

"We don't see any progress in dealing with the underlying problems facing Tibetans both in Tibet and in other areas, because quite a few of the self-immolations have been in Tibetan areas outside Tibet itself," he said, referring to Sichuan and Gansu provinces, next to what China calls the Tibet Autonomous Region.

Pillay urged Beijing to respect Tibetans' rights to peaceful assembly and expression and to release anyone detained for exercising those rights.

Arrests, disappearances and curbs on the cultural rights of Tibetans persist, she said.

Cases have included a 17-year-old girl said to have been severely beaten and sentenced to three years in prison for distributing flyers calling for Tibet's freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama, she said.

Others had been sentenced to four to seven years for writing essays, making films, or distributing photos of events in Tibet outside China, Pillay added.

Beijing brands the Dalai Lama a dangerous separatist. He denies supporting violence, saying he merely seeks greater autonomy for his homeland, which he says is a victim of Chinese "cultural genocide".

Activists say China tramples on religious freedom and culture in Tibet, which has been ruled with an iron fist since the 1950 takeover. China rejects such criticism, saying its rule ended serfdom and brought development to a backward area.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Additional reporting by Sui-Lee Wee in Beijing; Editing by Jon Boyle and Andrew Osborn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-n-rights-boss-calls-china-address-tibetan-095754862.html

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Turn a Necktie into a Smartphone Case and Wallet

by Adam Dachis

You can make a smartphone case out of practically anything these days, but it turns out that a necktie can double as both a case and a wallet.

The Growth of Science and the Implications for Education

I recently read an interesting article in Reason.com entitled "Half of the Facts You Know Are Probably Wrong". The article provides two interesting facts about science:

1. Scientific data grows at 4.7% per year
2. Scientific data has been doubling every 15 years since the 17th century (a mathematical derivative from annual growth of 4.7%)

Obviously back in the 17th century the addition to scientific data every 15 years was quite small, but today the additions are considerable and much information previously developed is being proven wrong every 15 years.?

A 15 year period closely approximates the time a child is in school in the U.S. prior to university. This child is learning scientific facts and scientific reasoning. Scientific reasoning is probably less affected by the growth in information although new methods are constantly evolving with the increased use of technology. However, the facts the child learns are outdated in large part by the doubling of scientific information and many facts learned will turn out to be wrong. The question is why we put so much emphasis in science education on memorizing facts. Perhaps we should be emphasizing scientific reasoning and leave the facts to Google or Wolfram Alpha. Of course, teaching scientific reasoning and critical thinking would probably be much more challenging and difficult to test in examinations, but it would be more valuable than examinations of facts that are outdated or wrong.

Source: http://sophisticatedfinance.typepad.com/sophisticated_finance/2012/11/the-growth-of-science-and-the-implications-for-education.html

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Free and Fair Elections

Ambassador Madina Jarbussynova, OSCE project coordinator in Ukraine, and Volodymyr Mandzhosov, head of Ukraine's TV and radio council

OSCE/Oksana Polyuga.

The Iowa secretary of state threatened on Tuesday to arrest election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe if they come within 300 feet of polling places. Texas issued a similar warning last week. An OSCE official responded that the United States is obligated to invite observers to the election. Is it illegal for Iowa and Texas to bar international election monitors?

Sort of. OSCE members, including the United States, have agreed to ?invite observers? from other OSCE countries to ?observe the course of their national election proceedings, to the extent permitted by law.? At the same time, many states have statutes that forbid loitering, electioneering, or congregating within a certain radius of a polling place. Iowa and Texas have staked out a somewhat novel position this year, because state governments haven?t interpreted the activities of international election monitors as loitering or congregating in the past few elections. The polling place laws are intended to prevent voter intimidation and crowding?not legitimate observation by an intergovernmental body. Still, it?s highly unlikely the issue will come before a judge. The OSCE agreement isn?t legally binding, and its explicit accommodation for domestic laws appears to give state governments wide latitude. The federal government has also failed to issue legislation forcing states to comply with the OSCE agreement.

Even if the agreement were written more strictly, it?s not clear that the OSCE would have any legal recourse. States have gotten away with violating treaties in the past. In 2007, for example, the Supreme Court ruled that the Bush administration couldn?t stop the state of Texas from executing a Mexican national who hadn?t been notified of his right to speak to a consular officer, in violation of the Vienna Convention.

The dispute between Iowa and Texas and the OSCE is more a diplomatic controversy than a legal one. The United States often signs international agreements to encourage other countries to do the same, then either explicitly exempts itself from some aspects of the treaties or simply fails to comply with them. This practice becomes a major issue only when, as in this case, American noncompliance makes it into international media. Russia, which has a long history of constructively barring foreign election observers in violation of its OSCE obligations, has already accused the United States of hypocrisy over the situation in Iowa and Texas.

It?s not yet clear how the election observer controversy will be resolved. In an attempt to defuse the confrontation in Texas, an OSCE ambassador said on Friday that his election monitors don?t need to be inside of polling places to complete their work. This statement, although diplomatic, is puzzling. Election monitors check to make sure paper ballots are placed into boxes, that the boxes are sealed, and that voters? names are being checked off of registration lists as they cast their votes. They also ensure that no form of intimidation is occurring inside the polling place. While observers may attempt to confirm these facts through voter interviews conducted several hundred feet from the polls, it?s certainly not how the process normally works.

Got a question about today?s news? Ask the Explainer.

Explainer thanks Doug Chapin of the University of Minnesota, Judith Kelley of Duke University, author of Monitoring Democracy: When International Election Observation Works, and Why It Often Fails, and Richard Pildes of the NYU School of Law, an author of The Law of Democracy: Legal Structure of the Political Process.

Video Explainer: Why don't we just get rid of the Electoral College?

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=b4988918184843e9ea1c08d4a07817b4

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