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Saturday, January 28, 2012

St. Louis hosts 1st big parade on Iraq War's end

Niliah Banks, foreground, works with other students in her fifth grade class at Ross Elementary create hand-made signs Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Creve Coeur, Mo. The signs will be used when St. Louis hosts a "Welcome Home the Heroes from Iraq Day" on Jan. 28 with a noontime parade through downtown to welcome veterans of the war in Iraq. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Ross Elementary fifth grade students, clockwise from left, Juilanna Bell, Mollie Weinberg, Courtney Turner and Mckenzie Thompson work to create a hand-made sign Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Creve Coeur, Mo. The sign will be used when St. Louis hosts a "Welcome Home the Heroes from Iraq Day" on Jan. 28 with a noontime parade through downtown to welcome veterans of the war in Iraq. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

ST. LOUIS (AP) ? Since the Iraq War ended there has been little fanfare for the veterans returning home. No ticker-tape parades. No massive, flag-waving public celebrations.

So, two friends from St. Louis decided to change that. They sought donations, launched a Facebook page, met with the mayor and mapped a route. On Saturday, hundreds of veterans are expected to march in downtown St. Louis in the nation's first big welcome home parade since the last troops left Iraq in December.

"It struck me that there was this debate going on as to whether there should or shouldn't be a parade," said Tom Appelbaum, one of the organizers. "Instead of waiting around for somebody somewhere to say, 'Yes, let's have a parade,' we said, 'Let's just do it.'"

Appelbaum, a 46-year-old lawyer, and Craig Schneider, a 41-year-old school technology coordinator, said they were puzzled by the lack of celebrations marking the war's end. But, they wondered, if St. Louis could host thousands of people for a parade after their beloved Cardinals won the World Series, why couldn't there be a party for the troops who put their lives on the line?

The effort got help with donations from two corporations with St. Louis connections ? $10,000 from Anheuser-Busch and $7,500 from the Mayflower moving company. Individual donations have boosted the project's total budget to about $35,000. By comparison, more than $5 million was spent two decades ago on New York's welcome-home parade for Gulf War veterans who helped drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.

Ticker-tape salutes to returning troops are part of the American culture, including parades in many cities honoring veterans of World War I and World War II.

Since the end of the latest war in Iraq, there have only been small events at military posts, gatherings of families at airports and a low-key appearance by President Barack Obama at Fort Bragg, N.C., a base that endured more than 200 deaths from fighting in the war.

In St. Louis, Army Spc. James Casey appreciates the handshakes he's gotten at local and often informal observances of his 11.5 years with the Army Reserve and three tours in Iraq, which included the 2003 invasion. But the 29-year-old father of a year-old daughter relishes attending the St. Louis parade he considers "the proper welcoming home we all know we deserve."

He hopes larger U.S. cities follow suit.

"For the longest time, St. Louis has been the east-meets-west society, so I'm not surprised it's happening here. Hopefully, everybody sees what we're doing and grabs onto this," Casey said Friday. "Something like this ? where it's showing support for those that have served ? is not just a thank you. It's an embracing of the sacrifice so many Americans have made."

Celebrating the end of the Iraq War hasn't been as simple as the outpourings after the world wars, said Wayne Fields, professor of English and American Culture Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. With 91,000 troops still fighting in Afghanistan, many Iraq veterans could be redeployed ? suggesting to some that it's premature to celebrate their homecoming.

"We're not celebrating the end of a war the way we were with V-E Day or V-J Day (after World War II)," Fields said. "Part of what this is trying to do is recognize the special service of those who were there even though we can't declare a victory over a clearly identified enemy."

In May 2003, then-President George W. Bush landed on an aircraft carrier to hail the end of major combat operations in Iraq. Behind him during that speech was a banner that read, "Mission Accomplished," yet U.S. troops remained in Iraq for 8 ? more years.

Even some of the festivities in St. Louis will serve as a reminder that Bush launched the Iraq War as part of the larger war on terror following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

As part of the weekend, a "Reading of the Fallen" will begin at 9:11 p.m. Friday at Soldiers Memorial downtown. It will continue until the names of the approximate 6,500 Americans killed since the attacks are read.

"Veterans have sacrificed so much for the safety and well-being of St. Louisans," Mayor Francis Slay said. "This is a chance to demonstrate our appreciation for them."

City officials agreed to waive permit fees and allow use of streets for the parade from the heart of downtown along Market Street to Union Station, the former train station that is now a shopping center and hotel. A "Resource Village" will be set up there that will include food, music and entertainment but will also connect returning vets with organizations to help ease transition to civilian life.

Organizers expect about 100 parade entries ? floats, marching bands, first-responders, veterans groups. Appelbaum said that while the parade marks the end of the Iraq War, any military personnel involved in post-Sept. 11 conflicts are welcome.

Appelbaum has no idea how many people will turn out to cheer on the troops but said response has been overwhelming despite the lack of any substantial marketing.

"It's significant that this is strictly a grassroots effort, and coming out of the heartland of the U.S., I think it really says something," he said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-27-Iraq%20War-Parade/id-0cb57a954f6c474ca4301a700dbb5c99

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Friday, January 27, 2012

The days of the 15 percent tax rate are numbered

The top tax rate on long-term capital gains is currently 15 percent. That?s why Mitt Romney is talking so much about his tax returns.?Often overlooked is the fact that the days of the 15 percent tax rate are numbered.

The top tax rate on long-term capital gains is currently 15%. That?s why Mitt Romney is spending so much time talking about his tax returns.

Skip to next paragraph Donald Marron

Donald B. Marron is director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. He previously served as a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers and as acting director of the Congressional Budget Office.

Obama: Republicans will struggle to defend economy

President Barack Obama shakes hands after a speech at Buckley Air Force Base, Colo., Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/The Denver Post, Helen H. Richardson) MANDATORY CREDIT; MAGS OUT; TV OUT

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is signaling he'll base part of his re-election campaign on an argument that Republicans are pushing discredited economic ideas.

In an interview with ABC News, Obama says the best strategy for economic revival is avoiding the Bush administration and financial community policies that led to the near-collapse of the U.S. economy in the fall of 2008.

Obama said the country has "an economy that was built on debt and flimsy financial deals." He added in the interview broadcast Friday that this is a strategy the Republican Party will have to defend this fall, "whether it's Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum, or somebody else,"

The president said, "Why we would want to adopt something that we just tried, and didn't work, doesn't make sense."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-27-Obama-Campaign/id-e1904f7421c948d5bdd9f71b7733cf58

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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Russia assails US over Guantanamo prison (AP)

MOSCOW ? Russia's Foreign Ministry has accused the U.S. of breaking international law by keeping terror suspects in indefinite custody without trial at the Guantanamo Bay prison.

In a statement posted on its website Sunday, the ministry said the prison at the U.S. Navy base in eastern Cuba represents a "flagrant violation of international law."

The Foreign Ministry also criticized the National Defense Authorization Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama on Dec. 31, which includes a provision allowing indefinite military detention without trial. The ministry claimed the act contradicts U.S. obligations under international humanitarian law.

Russia in the past has reacted angrily to the accusations of human rights breaches that the U.S. State Department has leveled at it in its annual reports.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/russia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120115/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_us_rights

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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Whitner's hit on Thomas ruled legal - New Orleans Saints ...

The helmet-to-helmet hit by San Francisco safety Donte Whitner that sent Saints running back Pierre Thomas to the locker room early in Saturday?s NFC playoff game was legal.

Whitner was not penalized because the tackle was not against a defenseless player. Helmet-to-helmet hits are banned against defenseless players in eight categories, and a runner is not one of those categories. Thomas was considered a runner because he?d made a catch, turned and made a ?football move? before being hit.

The eight categories were incorporated into one new rule last March, and a new rule extended the protection for a receiver who has completed a catch until he has had time to protect himself or has clearly become a runner. Thomas had become a runner.

?Even though you get a little extra protection while trying to complete the catch, you are not a defenseless player once you have made that football move,? Mike Pereira, former director of officials for the NFL and now a Fox TV commentator said Sunday. ?The notion is the runner has the opportunity to clearly protect himself.?

The eight defenseless player categories are:

(1) A player in the act of or just after throwing a pass;

(2) A receiver attempting to catch a pass; or who has completed a catch and has not had time to protect himself or has not clearly become a runner. If the receiver/runner is capable of avoiding or warding off the impending contact of an opponent, he is no longer a defenseless player;

(3) A runner already in the grasp of a tackler and whose forward progress has been stopped;

(4) A kickoff or punt returner attempting to field a kick in the air;

(5) A player on the ground at the end of a play;

(6) A kicker/punter during the kick or during the return;

(7) A quarterback at any time after a change of possession, and

(8) A player who receives a ?blindside? block when the blocker is moving toward his own end zone and approaches the opponent from behind or from the side.

The competition committee that recommends rules changes could re-examine such hits in the offseason.

?The committee always closely studies and analyzes anything having to do with player safety,? NFL spokesman Michael Signora said Sunday.

Source: http://www.sunherald.com/2012/01/15/3688208/whitners-hit-on-thomas-ruled-legal.html

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Monday, January 16, 2012

GOP maps strategy in wake of payroll tax debacle

Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, front right, shakes hands with a boy during a visit to the Vidigal slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Monday Jan. 9, 2012. Boehner toured a Rio de Janeiro shantytown that has recently been taken over from drug traffickers by police. Boehner is leading a seven-member congressional delegation to Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

FILE - In this photo taken Nov. 16, 2011, astronaut and former Ohio Sen. John Glenn, center, poses with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., left, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., on Capitol Hill in Washington, during a ceremony where Glenn received a Congressional Gold Medal. Glenn says he believes an "unattractive" elections process discourages the best people from pursuing public service. The 90-year-old Democrat is optimistic that good people will run for office but understands some might shy from opening their lives to intense public scrutiny, he told The Columbus Dispatch in a wide-ranging interview published Sunday, Jan. 8, 2011. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? When last seen in Washington, House Republicans were furious with their own leader, Speaker John Boehner, and angry with their Senate Republican brethren over how the showdown over the Social Security tax cut turned into a year-end political debacle.

The holidays and three weeks away from the Capitol have tempered some of the bad feelings, but several GOP lawmakers' emotions are still raw as Congress returns for a 2012 session certain to be driven by election-year politics and fierce fights over the size and scope of government and its taxing, spending and borrowing practices.

In the week before Christmas, House Republicans revolted against the Senate-passed deal to extend the payroll tax cut for two months for 160 million workers and ensure jobless benefits for millions more long-term unemployed. Facing intense political pressure, Boehner, R-Ohio, caved, daring tea partyers and other dissenters to challenge his decision to pass the short-term plan without a roll-call vote. None stepped forward to stop him.

"A lot of us who went into battle turned around and no one was behind us," freshman Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., said last week, sounding like the fight was still fresh and insistent that leadership had abandoned them.

"A lot of us are still smarting," he added.

The two-month extension that Senate Republican and Democratic leaders Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid had characterized as a draw ended up as a big victory for President Barack Obama at the end of a year in which Republicans had forced him to accept a series of spending cuts.

Grievances are certain to be aired at a House GOP retreat in Baltimore later this week. The strategy and agenda session also will be a gripe session for some of the 242 House Republicans.

"It might be a little more spunky than normal," said Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.

Senators come back to Capitol Hill on Jan. 23.

The wave of Republicans who lifted the GOP to the House majority in the 2010 elections emerged from their first year frustrated by the limitations of divided government and the recurring, down-to-the-wire fights over spending ? in April, the squabble was over keeping the government operating, and in August lawmakers dueled over increasing the nation's borrowing authority. And at year's end, there was another rhetorical shoot-out over keeping the government running.

Tea partyers who came to Washington intent on deep cuts to counter the growing deficit railed against the budget numbers and the all-too-frequent fights.

"There was a Groundhog Day quality to 2011," said freshman Rep. Nan Hayworth, R-N.Y.

Boehner, who frequently had to rally the disparate elements of his caucus, was a bit bruised by the year's final act. Still, he remains well in control of his caucus, with Republicans recognizing that any leadership challenge or internal strife now would be politically disastrous.

In the coming year, House Republicans remain doubtful about accomplishing anything more than the must-do spending bills and a year-long extension of the Social Security tax cuts, unemployment benefits and a reprieve in the cuts to doctors for Medicare payments. Congress faces a Feb. 29 deadline to agree on a new extension, no easy task after last year's deep divisions but politically inevitable as lawmakers would be loath to raise taxes in an election year.

Uncertain is the fate of a highway bill and reauthorization of a farm bill, legislation that could mean jobs in a struggling economy but measures also likely to get caught up in the typical fight over how to pay for the programs.

Republicans are pinning their hopes on November's elections and the tantalizing possibility that the GOP holds the House, wins four or more of the Senate seats needed to seize control and the party's nominee ousts Obama. Controlling both the presidency and Congress would be a mandate for significant change.

Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla., bemoaned the failure last summer of the so-called "grand bargain" between Obama and Boehner for massive spending cuts, the promise of overhauling the tax code and reductions in entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare. The bipartisan deficit-reduction supercommittee fared no better in the fall.

"It's hard to see us getting out of the mess we're in until there's another election," Rooney said.

The year of brinksmanship produced little legislation that became law while approval ratings for Congress dropped to single digits. The House passed 384 measures in 2011, the Senate 402, according to the Congressional Record. The Senate had 24 bills enacted into law, the House 56 in one of the least productive years in history.

Republicans are gearing up for Obama campaign attacks on a "do-nothing Congress," ready to counter that many of their bills went nowhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Top on the list: The House completed a budget last year and the Senate did not.

Last April, the House passed a $1.019 trillion budget plan that would have sharply cut spending, changed Medicaid into a block grant program and transformed Medicare by providing voucher-style federal payments to buy private insurance coverage instead of direct government payments to health care providers. Democrats vilified the plan by Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and warned of the impact the Medicare changes would have on seniors.

Ryan is expected to unveil another budget this spring. Mulvaney said the GOP is eager to push for changes in the budget process, beginning with requiring Congress to pass a budget.

Adding to the uncertainty in a volatile election year are the dozen or so House Republicans whose tea party purity about reducing the government's reach often outweighs re-election concerns, making other Republicans nervous as the party looks to hold onto its 50-seat edge.

Some have dubbed the tea partiers the "Braveheart caucus" for their affection for the 1995 Mel Gibson movie about William Wallace, who led the fight for Scotland's independence. Wallace was hanged and quartered.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-16-Smarting%20Republicans/id-5dbc3cb5295944a8b3de415ddb922f76

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Gadget Watch: Control a PC with body motions

A boy plays with a motion sensing 3D version of the video game Fruit Ninja at the LG exhibit at the 2012 International CES tradeshow, Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2012, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

An industry affiliate tries out a Prime Sense depth control camera to change the volume on a television at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show, Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012, in Las Vegas. The technology allows control of electronic devices with body motion. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Prime Sense employee Adi Berenson demonstrates the use of depth control cameras at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show, Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012, in Las Vegas. The technology allows control of electronic devices with body motion. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

LAS VEGAS (AP) ? Don't trash your keyboard and mouse just yet. But three companies at the International Consumer Electronics Show demonstrated depth-sensing cameras that let you to control your computer by moving your hands or body.

Microsoft's Kinect add-on for the Xbox 360 console has already popularized these cameras for gaming. Now, the technology is being set loose for use on other devices. However, like many gadgets shown at the annual Las Vegas-based extravaganza of phones, PCs and TVs, the cameras aren't quite ready for the mass market.

The companies showed off their cameras to give software developers and gadget makers a chance to work with the technology and incorporate it in their products. For the rest of us, it's a taste of what the future might hold.

WHY IT'S HOT: The cameras represent another challenge to the keyboard-and-mouse regime, which is already being eroded by touch screens. If you're in front of a depth-sensing camera, you don't have to touch the screen to control it with your fingers or hands. (This works with non-depth-sensing cameras as well, but they're not as good at figuring out what you're doing.) At the PrimeSense booth, visitors could browse and play the contents of a digital video library with hand gestures ? basically, anything you'd do with a mouse today. The Israeli company's camera goes into the Kinect and is now sold separately as the Asus Xtion.

BEHIND THE LENS: The cameras can tell how far away things are in their field of vision. PrimeSense does this by sending out an invisible pattern of light, and registering how it's deformed when it hits objects. SoftKinetics' camera works almost like radar, but with light: it sends out infrared light and measures how fast it comes back. Where it takes longer, it figures out that that part of the image is further away.

THE DOWNSIDE: If you buy one of these now, there isn't much you can do with it, unless you're a software developer. The Asus Xtion comes with a few simple Kinect-like games for your PC. For all of these cameras, the depth-sensing range is limited to about 12 feet, and at the far end of the range, accuracy is reduced. That means finger gestures may not be picked up from across the living room.

AVAILABILITY: Microsoft said it will start selling a "Kinect for Windows" camera starting Feb. 1st, for $249. Asus started selling the Xtion in December for $149. SoftKinetics, a Belgian company, started selling its camera around the same time for $499.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-01-13-Gadget%20Show-Gadget%20Watch-Depth%20Cameras/id-ea3dab201f9448c4a85d2a97c3d030b0

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Saturday, January 28, 2012

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