Mawlawi still in Ain al-Hilweh: report
Fugitive terror suspect Shadi Mawlawi is still in Ain al-Hilweh camp despite reports to the contrary, according to his...
Monday, 2 February 2015
Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Rand Paul Jump Into Vaccine Debate
Update, 10:40 p.m. ET:
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., another potential presidential nominee, told radio host Laura Ingraham on Monday that he thought most vaccinations should be voluntary, The Washington Post reports.
The senator, an ophthalmologist away from his political life, later told CNBC that vaccination should be encouraged, but that he also had heard of children developing "profound" mental impairment after being vaccinated.
Original Post:
As the country deals with what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is calling a record number of measles cases, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a rumored 2016 presidential contender, has jumped into the national debate on vaccines.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie waves to reporters as he leaves Downing Street in London on Monday. Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images hide caption
itoggle caption Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie waves to reporters as he leaves Downing Street in London on Monday.
Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
Christie was visiting a facility in England of an American company that makes a flu vaccine. Being that the current measles outbreak has been driven by unvaccinated children, a reporter asked, did he think Americans should vaccinate their kids?
Christie said he and his wife decided to vaccinate their kids, and that is "the best expression I can give you of my opinion."
But then he went on to seemingly allow for some wiggle room: "I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well so that's the balance that the government has to decide. But I can just tell people from our perspective, Mary Pat and I have had our children vaccinated and we think it's an important part of making sure we protect their health and the public health."
Quickly, Christie was criticized on Twitter by Dan Pfeiffer, a top adviser to President Obama. Pfeiffer called on Christie to clarify his statement.
Obama, he noted, has said that without dispute, science has validated vaccines.
"There is every reason to get vaccinated, but there aren't reasons to not," Obama told NBC News.
Pfeiffer said it was "important that responsible leaders speak with one voice."
Christie's office quickly clarified what the governor meant.
His spokesman, Kevin Roberts, said in a statement emailed to the press that Christie "believes vaccines are an important public health protection and with a disease like measles there is no question kids should be vaccinated."
The balance he was talking about has to do with different states requiring "different degrees of vaccination," the statement said.
Clarence B. Jones, Advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Visits the White House
President Barack Obama meets with Clarence Jones, who worked with Martin Luther King, Jr. on the “I Have a Dream" speech, and guests in the Oval Office, Feb. 2, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Earlier this afternoon, President Obama welcomed Clarence B. Jones — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s personal attorney and advisor — to the White House.
The FCC May Call the Internet a Utility, Defend Net Neutrality
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. Via Getty Images.
The FCC is set to propose new rules that will reclassify the Internet as a public utility and forbid Internet service providers from slowing down traffic to certain websites—a potentially huge win for supporters of net neutrality.
The move would affect both mobile carriers and more traditional ISPs utilizing cable, fiber optic, and DSL lines. It would also reclassify ISPs as “common carrier” telecommunications firms (rather than information services), subjecting them to further regulation, including over their pricing. With this and the recent move to reclassify broadband to higher speed tiers, it looks like the FCC is ready to get proactive about defending users.
The full text of the proposal is expected on Thursday, with a vote on the regulations later this month. Many of the affected companies may look to file suit against the FCC if they’re reclassified as common carriers, something they’ve threatened in the past, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Source: Wall Street Journal.
Originally published by Popular Mechanics.
Nasrallah’s fiery speech casts gloom over dialogue
BEIRUT: Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah’s fiery speech on new rules of engagement with Israel is likely to cast a pall of gloom over a fresh round of talks between the Future Movement and the resistance party set for Tuesday, Future officials said Monday. Meanwhile, France envoy Jean-Francois Girault arrived in Beirut as part of a French initiative aimed at breaking the 8-month-old presidential deadlock.
“Sayyed Nasrallah’s speech will not help the dialogue,” Future MP Ammar Houri told The Daily Star. “Instead of easing tensions in the country, Nasrallah opted to take Lebanon to the regional arena, that is, Iran, by imposing new rules of engagement with Israel.”
In addition to Nasrallah’s speech, Houri said the issue of celebratory gunfire, that “terrorized” the people in Beirut and its southern suburbs, fired by Hezbollah supporters before, during and after Friday’s speech, would definitely be brought up for discussion by the Future delegation.
Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk, one of three Future officials representing the movement in the dialogue with Hezbollah, said Tuesday’s meeting, the fifth round of talks between the two rival and influential parties, would be difficult following Nasrallah’s speech. “The Future delegation will frankly express its opinion in this speech. But what matters is that dialogue will continue despite its difficulty,” Machnouk said in remarks published by As-Safir newspaper Monday.
Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, head of the parliamentary Future bloc, and a number of Future and March 14 politicians have slammed Nasrallah’s defiant speech in which he announced that his group from now on would not recognize the rules of engagement with Israel, raising fears over the fate of U.N. Resolution 1701 that ended the 34-day Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.
In his speech, which came two days after Hezbollah fighters ambushed an Israeli military convoy in the occupied Shebaa Farms, killing two soldiers in retaliation for the Israeli airstrike that killed six party fighters and a top Iranian general in Syria’s Golan Heights on Jan. 18, Nasrallah warned that his group would respond to any Israeli attack at any time and in any place.
However, Speaker Nabih Berri, who has been hosting the Future-Hezbollah talks at his Ain al-Tineh residence since they began Dec. 27, said the dialogue would not be affected by the diatribe against Nasrallah’s speech.
During their session last week, the Future Movement and Hezbollah agreed to take “practical steps” aimed at bolstering stability. These included the removal of political slogans, portraits, signage and banners for Hezbollah, the Future Movement and Berri’s Amal Movement from the streets of Beirut, as a means to defuse sectarian and political tensions fueled by the war in Syria.
Machnouk chaired a security meeting at his office Monday devoted to discussing the elimination of political slogans along the coastal highway from the southern city of Sidon to Tripoli in the north starting Thursday, the National News Agency reported. It said Machnouk issued instructions to security chiefs and governors on the need to remove all political and religious slogans, in addition to illegal billboards, along the road in a move heralding the beginning of a campaign to eliminate slogans, banners and pictures from all areas.
According to March 8 sources, Tuesday’s session will pursue discussions on defusing Sunni-Shiite tensions – the main item on the dialogue agenda, which also includes finding a mechanism to allow the election of a president, boosting efforts to combat terrorism, promoting a new electoral law and energizing stagnant state institutions.
The dialogue between Hezbollah and the Future Movement, whose strained ties have heightened sectarian and political tensions, and sometimes put the country on edge, has won support from rival politicians, as well as from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, the U.S. and the European Union.
Meanwhile, Girault did not speak to reporters upon his arrival to Beirut Monday night. His visit is part of a French initiative aimed at ending the political impasse that has left Lebanon without a president for over eight months.
This is Girault’s second visit to Lebanon in less than two months as part of a regional tour. He had also visited Saudi Arabia and Iran, two regional powers that exert great influence in Lebanon, and the Vatican, for talks on the presidential deadlock.
It was not immediately known whether Girault, head of the French Foreign Ministry’s Middle East and North Africa Department, was carrying new proposals to end the vacuum in the country’s top Christian post.
Asked if Girault’s visit would bring anything new concerning the presidential election, Houri told Ash-Asharq radio station: “We will again listen to what he will say. But it is no secret that the presidential issue has been confiscated by Iran at the hands of Hezbollah.”
Rival Lebanese leaders have repeatedly said that a Saudi-Iranian rapprochement is essential to facilitate the election of a president.
New engagement rules pose challenge for the government
By shattering the rules of engagement with Israel and imposing a new political and security equation, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah has presented the Lebanese government with a tough challenge regarding its commitment to U.N. resolutions, political sources said.
The government will have to decide between its declared commitment to U.N. Resolution 1701 and the disassociation policy regarding the conflict in Syria, as well as the obligations of the Baabda Declaration on the one hand, and allowing Hezbollah to monopolize the decision of war and peace on the other, the sources said.
Resolution 1701 ended the 34-day devastating war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.
The Baabda Declaration, endorsed by rival Lebanese leaders during a National Dialogue session chaired by then-President Michel Sleiman at Baabda Palace in June 2012, called for distancing Lebanon from regional and international conflicts, particularly the conflict in Syria.
Officials from the Future Movement and their March 14 allies have slammed Nasrallah’s speech last week in which he announced that the rules of engagement between Hezbollah and Israel had ended.
In his speech, which came two days after Hezbollah fighters ambushed an Israeli military convoy in the occupied Shebaa Farms, killing two soldiers in retaliation for the Israeli airstrike that killed six party fighters and a top Iranian general in Syria’s Golan Heights on Jan. 18, Nasrallah warned that his group would respond to any Israeli attack at any time and in any place.
Ministerial sources in the March 14 coalition said the majority of Lebanese have become concerned about the situation in their country in light of the defiance declared by Hezbollah leaders and Iranian political and military officials.
The March 14 parties are currently reassessing the latest developments before taking a firm stance on three fronts, the sources said.
First, in their assessment of the period from Feb. 14 – the anniversary of the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri – to Mar. 14 – the anniversary of the Independence Uprising – the March 14 parties will come up with recommendations affirming the coalition’s continued struggle to consolidate independence, sovereignty, freedom, democracy and a comprehensive national reconciliation, the sources said.
Second, March 14 ministers are expected to ask their March 8 and Hezbollah counterparts in the government questions dealing with the exclusivity of the Lebanese state in declaring war, despite the knowledge that the government was formed as a result of an American-Saudi-Iranian consensus and the stance of these three countries so far is not to topple it, according to the sources.
Third, the Future Movement delegation will raise during the fifth round of dialogue with Hezbollah officials Tuesday the issue of unruly gunmen who fired celebratory gunfire in parts of Beirut and the southern suburbs before and after Nasrallah delivered his speech and the consequences of Hezbollah’s military intervention in Syria, as well as other issues, such as the Hezbollah-linked Resistance Brigades.
According to the same sources, Hezbollah’s new military equation calls on the March 14 parties to adopt a new practical approach because the most serious part in Nasrallah’s speech was that he has shattered all rules of engagement with Israel, unilaterally taken the decision to go to war with Israel and spelled out new enemies – the jihadi groups – while retaining the right to respond to them.
The sources said the government, with good intentions, has declared that Hezbollah’s retaliatory attack in the Shebaa Farms did not violate Resolution 1701 and did not cross the Blue Line, while it, along with the international community know it was a breach.
Therefore, after Hezbollah violated the international guarantee through the party’s “Communique No. 1” on the Shebaa attack, the government is left with two choices: either to take a different stance or publicly call on the international community to abolish this resolution and replace it with Hezbollah’s guarantee, the sources said.
While waiting to see how internal political parties would react to the consequences entailed by the change in the rules of engagement between Hezbollah and Israel, the sources pointed out that there is about one month before the Security Council issues its regular report on the implementation of Resolution 1701.
If the reports says that the Lebanese government had provided a political cover for the Shebaa operation, it would then face a predicament, as it would be impossible for it to ask the international community for military aid for the Army and security forces and assistance to Syrian refugees, while it is shelteringa Lebanese party bent on violating one of the resolutions of this community, the sources said.
Cabinet’s survival not threatened by incidents
BEIRUT: The Cabinet’ survival will not be affected by recent security developments in the country, ministerial sources from various political factions said, as Prime Minister Tammam Salam prepares to celebrate his government’s first anniversary.
The sources said that Salam, who will have cake with ministers later this week to mark the occasion, was able to contain the repercussions of Israel’s strike on the Hezbollah convoy in the Syrian town of Qunaitra on Jan. 18 and the party’s response in Lebanon’s occupied Shebaa Farms 10 days later.
The strike killed six Hezbollah fighters and an Iranian general.
The sources said that Salam managed to protect the government from divisive reactions to Hezbollah’s military operation in the Shebaa Farms which killed two Israeli soldiers.
Two days after Hezbollah’s retaliation, the party’s Secretary-General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said in a speech that the Qunaitra attack had shattered the rules of engagement with the Jewish state.
This prompted a fierce reaction from March 14 officials, particularly former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who said that Nasrallah’s remarks were “unilateral and hasty and eliminated the will of the Lebanese people who are committed to [U.N] Resolution 1701,” which ended the summer 2006 war with Israel.
The sources said that these fierce reactions did not have a negative impact on Salam’s national unity Cabinet. Future Movement leader former premier Saad Hariri did not comment on Nasrallah’s latest address, as he has on previous speeches.
As for other divisive topics, such as the firing of Casino du Liban employees, the filling of the port Basin 4 or raising the retirement age of officers, Salam is confident that the government will come up with a solution for each issue despite the apparent difficulties.
The sources said that the sectarian dimension that underscores the disputes over Casino du Liban and the fourth basin did not signal the imminent formation of an alliance between rival Lebanese Christian groups.
If this happened it could alter the Cabinet balance and even undermine the government.
Rival Christian parties, including the Lebanese Forces and the Marada Movement, back truckers at the Port of Beirut who have launched an open-ended strike to protest the controversial filling of Basin 4.
Opposing Christian groups have also condemned the decision to lay off 191 employees at Casino du Liban who were said to be unproductive and causing the casino to lose revenue.
The sources said that the stances of Christian political parties over these matters were driven by narrow interests.
They added that the protests and the strikes by truckers and Casino du Liban employees could be easily addressed, particularly because agreement exists over the two issues. Rival Christian parties have not yet forged an alliance mirroring that which brought major Christian political parties together at the outset of Lebanon’s 1975-1990 Civil War.
The sources ruled out the possibility of such an alliance soon, saying that the outcome of dialogue between the Free Patriotic Movement and the LF did not indicate this would happen.
The sources said that the LF and the FPM have so far agreed on topics which they cannot decide on alone, such as the need to draft an election law providing fair representation for Christians and to boost the powers of the president.
As for an agreement on the country’s new president, which Christian parties have a large say in, the sources said that the issue was left for the meeting between FPM leader Michel Aoun and head of the Lebanese Forces Samir Geagea which is expected to happen on Mar Maroun Day, next Monday.
UNIFIL chief briefs Salam on returning stability
UNIFIL chief meets Berri over border violence
UNIFIL chief Maj. Gen. Luciano Portolano met Saturday with Speaker Nabih Berri over the latest wave of violence that...
Khalil wants investigation into LibanPost corruption
Finance minister calls for LibanPost corruption probe
Lebanon’s finance minister called Monday for a comprehensive investigation into corruption at the country's main...
Interior Ministry’s pronouncement on civil marriage spurs controversy
BEIRUT: Pro-civil marriage activists rejected an announcement by the Interior Ministry Monday stating that Lebanon cannot recognize civil marriages registered on its territories due to the absence of an official law governing the process. “Civil marriage laws are not the responsibility of the Interior Ministry,” lawyer Talal Husseini, a pro-civil marriage activist, told The Daily Star. “The [current] law [which was approved by the Justice Ministry] will not change because it has nothing to do with the Interior Ministry.”
Generally, Lebanese couples wishing to carry out civil marriage travel abroad to places like Cyprus or Turkey. While the Lebanese state fully recognizes civil unions completed outside Lebanon, civil marriages performed on Lebanese territories, that several couples have opted for in the past year, look to be problematic.
Husseini explained that civil marriage contracts performed in Lebanon had proven to be legal under Lebanese law and the Interior Ministry could not refuse to register a legal marriage that is accepted by the Justice Ministry.
His remarks came following an announcement from Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk in which he said that while he supported the principle of optional civil marriage, the registration of those contracts requires a specific law outlining the procedure.
A statement from the Interior Ministry said that the 1936 law, which pro-civil marriage activists say legalizes civil marriage, also stipulates the need for an official mechanism regulating the practice of civil marriage. This mechanism must be submitted to the Cabinet before the law can be implemented, the statement said.
“We face this every time there is a new interior minister but everyone knows that the Justice Ministry has made it legal,” Husseini said.
Last year, the High Committee for Consultations in the Justice Ministry approved the first civil marriage to be performed in Lebanon between Kholoud Succariyeh and Nidal Darwish, after the couple removed their official sects from their documents.
Husseini and other pro-civil marriage activists helped the couple stake their claim over an interpretation of decree No. 60 of the 1936 law, which grants civil rights to people with no religious affiliation.
The couple went on to have a child who became the first child to be born from a civil marriage registered in Lebanon.
Since their marriage, Husseini said seven other civil marriage contracts had been issued in Lebanon.
“Nobody can take back our marriage,” Darwish told The Daily Star defiantly. “I got married in Hermel, that’s where I registered my marriage, that’s where I registered the birth of my son, so what mechanism are you talking about?”
“They are submitting to pressure from religious figures that are against civil marriage,” he added.
The announcement indicates a change in the interior minister’s attitude toward civil marriage. In January 2013, Machnouk expressed his support for civil marriage via a post on his Facebook page.
“What’s the difference between a couple going to Cyprus to have civil marriage and those who do it in Lebanon if it was optional?” the Facebook post read. “Why don’t we facilitate the issue for them rather than having them travel outside the country? I accept freedom for every citizen regarding what they want to do in their private life.”
The Facebook post was widely shared following the announcement. However, Machnouk did state that he supports the principle of civil marriage.
Both Husseini and Darwish maintain that the Interior Ministry’s announcement will have little impact on those wishing to complete a civil marriage contract in the future, as the law remains unchanged.
They plan to hold a news conference Thursday in which they will issue a response to the Interior Ministry’s decision.
“[At the news conference] we’re going to give the response of the Lebanese people,” Darwish said. “We will explain that this announcement is not worth the ink it was written with.”
Gov. Scott Walker Eyes 2016, But Can He Get Past Labor's Loathing?
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker spoke about taking on public employee unions, and the protests that followed, at a recent candidates forum in Iowa. He said what people may not know is that protesters — as many as 1,000 of them — showed up outside his home while his family was there. He says he also received death threats. Scott Olson/Getty Images hide caption
itoggle caption Scott Olson/Getty Images
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker spoke about taking on public employee unions, and the protests that followed, at a recent candidates forum in Iowa. He said what people may not know is that protesters — as many as 1,000 of them — showed up outside his home while his family was there. He says he also received death threats.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
There is not a lot of love between the U.S. labor movement and those on the long list of potential 2016 Republican presidential hopefuls. But there is one name among the GOP prospects that labor truly despises — and fears. He is Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who weakened unions in his own state and appears ready to make his battles with labor a centerpiece of a bid for the White House.
In 2011, thousands protested outside Wisconsin's Capitol building, opposing Walker's bill to eliminate collective bargaining rights for many state workers. Andy Manis/AP hide caption
itoggle caption Andy Manis/AP
In 2011, thousands protested outside Wisconsin's Capitol building, opposing Walker's bill to eliminate collective bargaining rights for many state workers.
Andy Manis/AP
Walker's approach on a recent Saturday in Iowa was telling. In a downtown Des Moines theater full of conservative activists, he spoke for 22 minutes. But right off the top, and at length, he told the tale of how he took on public employee unions in Wisconsin. That effort — largely successful — triggered massive protests at the state Capitol and brought years of turmoil, including a fractious attempt to recall him from office.
"You know all about the protests," he said at that candidates forum. "At one point there were 100,000 or more protesters in and around our state Capitol. They were banging on the drums [and] they were blowing the horns. They had signs and banners."
Walker, now fresh off re-election to a second term, walked back and forth across the stage. He said what people may not know is that protesters — as many as 1,000 of them — showed up outside his home while his family was there. And, he told the Iowa crowd, there were death threats.
"Most of those death threats were ... directed at, me, but some of the worst were directed at my family. I remember one of the ones that bothered me the most was someone literally sent me a threat that said they were gonna gut my wife like a deer."
"Most of those death threats were ... directed at me, but some of the worst were directed at my family. I remember one of the ones that bothered me the most was someone literally sent me a threat that said they were gonna gut my wife like a deer."
It was a line designed to shock the audience. And one that set Walker apart from the other speakers that day, including Ted Cruz, Rick Perry, Mike Huckabee and Chris Christie. Those are all GOP household names. Not so for Walker. In fact, it's likely few in the theater had ever seen him in person, even if they knew his record.
But he wrapped up his remarks to big applause and cheers.
Now for the reaction from a leading labor activist, who knows Walker's record all too well.
"Scott Walker is an extremely divisive guy. He created a war zone in Wisconsin, pitting families against families, neighbors against neighbors. That's how he won," says Steve Rosenthal, a former political director for the AFL-CIO who currently works as a Democratic strategist and organizer. His animus toward Walker — and his policies — is widely shared by labor activists all across the country.
"Scott Walker is an extremely divisive guy. He created a war zone in Wisconsin, pitting families against families, neighbors against neighbors."
"There were labor leaders who called him the poster child a few years ago, public enemy No. 1, who really went all out to try to beat him in Wisconsin and weren't successful," he says. "The fact that he is now potentially emerging on the national stage is really scary. And you could see a scenario where he could become the Republican nominee."
Back in Iowa, Dennis Goldford, who teaches political science at Drake University, attended the forum where Walker spoke. He notes that the Wisconsin governor portrays himself as a victim when he talks of huge protests at his home, and of death threats.
"He emphasized this sense of being under threat by opponents who oppose everything he stands for," Goldford says. "But the more important subtext was that he's tough enough to take on these elements that threaten the very way of life these conservative Republicans believe is under siege."
And Walker is staking out a lane for his expected presidential campaign. He ended his remarks in Iowa to more applause saying: "With your help I have no doubt we can move this country forward, we can have our own American revival. God bless you; thanks for letting me share with you today."
Like Groundhog Day, There's A Routine To White House Budget Debut
What's the point of a White House budget besides using up a lot of paper and ink? So the administration can lay out its political priorities and draw contrasts with the Republicans.
Copyright © 2015 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
A Look At What's Inside Obama's Budget Proposal
President Obama's budget proposes more government spending and more taxes on the wealthy. How will Republicans respond?
Copyright © 2015 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
Journalist Jorge Ramos Takes On Obama, Republicans
Univision's veteran news anchor Jorge Ramos, shown here during an interview in 2008, has sparred with both Republican and Democratic politicians. Lynne Sladky/AP hide caption
itoggle caption Lynne Sladky/AP
Univision's veteran news anchor Jorge Ramos, shown here during an interview in 2008, has sparred with both Republican and Democratic politicians.
Lynne Sladky/AP
My parents, who immigrated from Mexico in 1985 and 1996, respectively, weren't so sure when I told them I wanted to be a journalist when I grew up. "How about being a car mechanic?" they suggested gently. That is, until I informed them I was interviewing for an internship at Univision in Miami, where Jorge Ramos worked.
"Echale ganas," they began to tell me. "Keep putting the effort."
I didn't get the job, but the fact remains that Univision is the news for my parents — sorry, NPR — and for millions of Latinos in the U.S. Launched in 1962, the New York-based network has beat out all the major television networks — English- and Spanish-language — among younger prime-time viewers.
That's why the silver-haired Ramos, whose Noticiero Univision nightly newscast averages about a million viewers, is poised to have a big role in the 2016 presidential elections. He's been called the Walter Cronkite of Latino America, and the New York Times is on it in a great profile that it recently published about Ramos:
"Remember what L.B.J. said, 'When you lose Walter Cronkite, you've lost the war'?" said Matthew Dowd, a campaign adviser to George W. Bush, recalling the oft-cited if disputed story that President Lyndon B. Johnson said he lost "middle America" when Cronkite turned against the Vietnam War. Among Latino voters, Mr. Ramos has the sort of influence and audience that Cronkite had more broadly among Americans in his day.
Mr. Ramos is "not only a journalist, he's become the voice of the Latino constituency," Mr. Dowd said. "And that's where Republicans have to worry — you don't want to lose Jorge Ramos."
President Obama participates in a town hall hosted by Univision with news anchor Jorge Ramos in 2011. Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
itoggle caption Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
President Obama participates in a town hall hosted by Univision with news anchor Jorge Ramos in 2011.
Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
Ramos, who also writes a regular column in Reforma, the prominent right-leaning Mexican newspaper, has for years criticized Obama for not living up to his 2008 campaign promise to reform the immigrant system by the end of his first year — which the president made on Ramos' show. But increasingly, he has turned his sights on Republicans.
In 2013, Ramos relentlessly questioned Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, about the government shutdown and his stance on immigration reform on his program, America with Jorge Ramos. "Your father became a citizen in 2005," Ramos said. "Why don't you give other immigrants the same possibility, the same opportunity your father had?"
Ramos showed up to a Capitol Hill press conference and surprised House Speaker John Boehner by asking why he was "blocking" immigration reform.
And in 2012, at a Q&A session that aired on his Sunday show, Al Punto, he asked then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney this: "You said that God created the United States to lead the world. ... With all due respect, how do you know that?"
He has sparred with Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio about making inmates wear pink underwear, and arranged chats about immigrant labor in restaurant kitchens with Anthony Bourdain. In a broadcast last summer, he took off his white Converse shoes, strapped a GoPro camera on and famously swam across the Rio Grande at the border to show the dangers young migrants face when crossing.
Ramos immigrated from Mexico on a student visa in 1983, and settled in Los Angeles. In 2008, at the age of 50, he became a U.S. citizen. Ramos did stints as a host on Telemundo and ESPN Deportes, and was just 28 when he cemented his role as news anchor for Univision.
Ramos built a reputation with his against-the-grain interviews of controversial Latin American leaders like former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and Jose Mujica of Uruguay. In 2011, he pointedly asked Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto about his finances and the mysterious death of his first wife. Conservative blogger Matt Drudge has called Ramos "the last journalist standing."
His potential as a political influence may have been magnified after the Republican National Committee omitted Univision from the list of networks selected to host a primary debate, a move that a USA Today editorial called a cop-out: "The RNC decision to exclude Univision is misguided. In their desire to avoid facing questions on the issue of immigration, Republicans are choosing to avoid a potentially huge Latino audience."
Perhaps the party is really choosing to avoid Ramos.
It remains to be seen how else Republicans could reach out to Latino voters, but in the months before the 2016 elections, Ramos will surely be there asking pointed questions — in English and Spanish — at every step. He told the Times: "The new rule in American politics is that no one can make it to the White House without the Hispanic vote. So we still expect all candidates from both parties to talk to us."
Check out the rest of the Times piece for more on how Republicans view Ramos, and an earlier piece by Time magazine about whether a run for office might be in the cards for Ramos himself.
Use This Genius Hack and Never Shovel Snow Again
One of the best things about winter watching the soft, fluffy white stuff that dreamily drifts from the sky. One of the worst things about winter is having to shovel that magical white stuff from your driveway and lawn incessantly, having to bend over, scoop, and throw, time and time again, ad nauseum.
Well, luckily, there's a solution to this tedious task, and it's kind of unbelievable. Apparently, if you pack the snow properly, you can just roll it away just like a rug. YouTube user Joshua Jordan shows everyone how it's done in the video above, and it's certainly looks a lot easier and more fun than using the caveman tool known as a shovel. But the end result is also beautiful: a lawn filled with what looks like haystacks made of snow in the heart of winter.
Originally published by Country Living
Health Ministry seizes non-compliant thyme shipment
Health Ministry seizes non-compliant thyme shipment
Twenty-four tons of thyme that had been refused entry into Saudi Arabia was seized by Lebanon’s Health Ministry...
18-year-old killed in Lebanon ski accident
18-year-old killed in Lebanon ski accident
The American University of Beirut and College Notre-Dame de Jamhour mourned Monday the death of 18-year-old Melanie...
The Cruelest Way for a Season to End
If we didn’t know it before, we know it now: The game-ending interception is the most shocking way a sporting event can end, and the cruelest way for an incredible drive and an incredible season to be callously snuffed into historical irrelevance. Nothing could have been more unexpected than Russell Wilson throwing the Super Bowl into the hands of an undrafted rookie free agent on second down from the goal line when a touchdown—perhaps by way of a simple handoff to the the most powerful, sure-handed running back in the game—would win them their second straight title. It was the most nonsensical ending to a Super Bowl we’ve ever seen.
No play in basketball can turn the tide so instantaneously. Out-of-nowhere goals in hockey and soccer can feel just as much like a knife in the heart, but if a team has the puck or ball close to the net, anything is possible. The walk-off home run in baseball may be just as if not more unlikely than a game-clinching interception, but at least the fans on the wrong end of the eventual outcome have a few seconds to simultaneously hold out hope and steel themselves against the worst when the ball is still in the air. Regardless of whom you were rooting for, Malcolm Butler's interception to ruin the Seahawks' storybook drive to end their storybook season just felt... bizarre.
That split second when Malcolm Butler just happened to decide to jump the pick route Ricardo Lockette was running will be branded into the memories of Patriots and especially Seahawks fans for the rest of their lives. Neither will either fanbase forget Butler's name. It will forever elicit warmth and joy for drinks on the house for everyone in New England, and its mere mention will forever take any Seahawks fan into a dark, dark place. "Malcolm Butler" will cause their stomachs to turn for years.
The play was so shocking and so surreal that it rendered the rest of one of the most evenly contested, well-played Super Bowls insignificant by comparison. If the teams played that game 10 times, each would probably win 5 and lose 5. It was back-and-forth the entire way, and as always seems to be the case in memorable Super Bowls, it saw the emergence of some of the most unlikely of heroes. Butler will go down in history, of course, but the performance turned in by Seahawks wide receiver Chris Matthews, who if not for Russell Wilson would have won the MVP should the Seahawks have punched it in at the end, was just as out-of-nowhere as Butler's interception. Matthews looked like one of the best receivers in the league, pulling in four difficult catches for 109 yards and a touchdown. They were the first four catches of his career, and prior to the Super Bowl he'd only touched the ball in an NFL game once before, when he secured the key onside kick that propelled the Seahawks to victory over the Packers two weeks before.
Then there was Jermaine Kearse, whose acrobatic, bobbling-the-ball-on-his-back catch put the Seahawks on the goal line with a chance for a win that would have been as miraculous as the Helmet Catch in 2008. And like Mathews, Kearse was an unexpected hero from the Packers game, catching the winning touchdown in overtime. Instead, Butler's interception turned Kearse's heroics a few seconds earlier into an inconsequential footnote.
Everyone will—and already has—blamed it on the play call. Why throw the ball into anything resembling traffic on second down when you have Beast Mode a few yards away from the goal line? Running it probably would have been the right decision, but when something as unexplainable as that interception happens, we're immediately going to grasp for anything logical to blame—THIS was what went wrong for the Seahawks, we need to say. But if Butler hadn't thought to jump the route and the Seahawks had won the game, no one would have even called it a gutsy play call. It would have just been an easy, safe slant route, a pitch-and-catch for one of the most clutch players in the league, who no one could fathom would throw an interception in that situation. One simple instant, an inch either way, turned what would have been an unremarkable play call into one of the worst in NFL history.
If nothing else, Super Bowl XLIX serves as a harsh reminder that sports can be stranger than fiction. If we want to maintain any semblance of sanity, we just have to give ourselves over to the game's randomness. We're setting ourselves up for heartbreak by investing so much of ourselves in something over which we have no control, and these moments of heartbreak far outnumber those of jubilation. This is a universal truth of sports fandom, and every city must learn this lesson at some point. No matter how many times we draw up the storybook ending in our head, it's never going to totally bear itself out that way, not entirely. We can only understand the ultimate devastating reality of being a sports fan through experience, and the Seahawks are no exception. Unfortunately for the 12th Man, they had to learn this lesson in the cruelest, most unexpected way imaginable. As for Patriots fans...
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The beans, found to be infested with bugs, were confiscated and samples taken for analysis.
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Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
Obama's Budget Proposal Lifts 2013 Caps, Adds Billions In Spending
President Barack Obama, shown speaking at the University Of Kansas on January 22, defends his budget as an exercise in "middle-class economics." But forecasters at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center say the 60 percent of Americans at the middle of the income ladder will more or less break even, while most benefits will go to low-income families. Jamie Squire/Getty Images hide caption
itoggle caption Jamie Squire/Getty Images
President Barack Obama, shown speaking at the University Of Kansas on January 22, defends his budget as an exercise in "middle-class economics." But forecasters at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center say the 60 percent of Americans at the middle of the income ladder will more or less break even, while most benefits will go to low-income families.
Jamie Squire/Getty Images
President Obama is calling for tens of billions of dollars in new government spending, setting up a clear contrast with the new Republican Congress.
The president's $3.99 trillion budget proposal, released Monday, would lift the automatic spending caps imposed in 2013.
"Let's take a scalpel and not a meat cleaver," Obama told Democratic members of Congress in Philadelphia last week. "And let's make sure that we're funding the things that we know help American families succeed. That's a smart thing to do."
All told, the president wants to spend $37 billion more than the caps allow on domestic programs. That would pay for things like an expanded child care tax credit and subsidies to help students attend community college at no cost.
Obama is also proposing an extra $38 billion in defense spending. The White House says that money would help pay for the ongoing fight against the militant group calling itself the Islamic State, as well as military support for NATO allies rattled by Russian aggression in Ukraine.
The president wants to offset those costs with higher taxes on big banks and the wealthy. His plan would raise about $210 billion over the next decade by raising the capital gains tax rate and taxing gains on inherited wealth. A new financial fee on highly-leveraged banks would generate another $110 billion over the next ten years.
The president is also proposing a one-time, 14 percent tax on the profits that US corporations have amassed overseas. That would raise an estimated $238 billion to help fund improvements to roads, bridges, and other public works.
"All of the proposals that I put forward in the State of the Union we can pay for by fixing a tax code that is riddled with loopholes for special interests," Obama said. "And if Republicans don't agree with my approach for paying for it, then they should put forward their own proposals."
Republicans now control both chambers of Congress, and they're unlikely to approve the president's proposed tax hikes. They might be willing to give ground on the spending caps, though.
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Many of the components of Obama's budget proposal were laid out in his January speech.
Obama's budget would cut the federal deficit to $474 billion in the upcoming fiscal year. That's just 2.5 percent of the overall economy, and White House forecasters expect the deficit to remain at a manageable three percent of GDP or less throughout the ten-year budget window. That's only if Republicans agree, however, to a substantial boost in tax revenues.
The president has already scrapped one idea from the budget: a plan to tax 529 college savings accounts. Critics of the 529 plans complain the tax-advantaged accounts primarily benefit upper-income families. But a White House proposal to eliminate the tax break (worth a paltry $1 billion over the next decade) ran into a storm of protest from both Republicans and Democrats, and the administration quickly backed down.
While Obama defends his budget as an exercise in "middle-class economics," a preliminary analysis by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center found otherwise. Forecasters at the center say while the wealthiest Americans would pay higher taxes under the president's plan, most of the benefits would go to those at the bottom of the income ladder. The 60 percent of Americans in the middle would more or less break even.
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Copyright © 2015 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
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