AND THE THIRD ANGEL FOLLOWED THEM, SAYING WITH A LOUD VOICE, IF ANY MAN WORSHIP THE BEAST AND HIS IMAGE, AND RECEIVE HIS MARK IN HIS FOREHEAD, OR IN HIS HAND. *** REVELATION 14:9
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Aid Package For Ukraine Moves Slowly Through Congress
by David Welna
March 13, 2014 5:00 AM
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Democrats and Republicans generally agree that Congress needs to approve an aid package quickly. But it's proven harder than expected for everyone to agree on what should be in that aid package.
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Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill are agreeing on something these days, that Congress needs to approve an aid package quickly for the fledgling and nearly broke government now ruling Ukraine. But it's been harder than expected for the House and Senate to agree on what should or should not be in that aid package. The biggest sticking point: a change in the rules at the International Monetary Fund that the Obama administration considers critical for rescuing Ukraine.
Here's NPR's David Welna.
DAVID WELNA, BYLINE: For the Obama administration, the $1 billion in loan guarantees the House approved last week for Ukraine is simply not enough. Appearing before a House panel yesterday, Secretary of State John Kerry said stabilizing Ukraine financially requires ratification of a set of reforms for the International Monetary Fund that have languished over the past four years due to Congressional inaction.
SECRETARY JOHN KERRY: It's only through the IMF, a reformed IMF, that Ukraine is going to receive the additional help it needs in order to stand on its own two feet.
WELNA: Kerry's plea was, in fact, heeded by his former colleagues in the Senate. New Jersey Democrat Bob Menendez, Kerry's successor as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, unveiled a bipartisan aid package for Ukraine that included loan guarantees, sanctions against those violating human rights in Ukraine or undermining its stability, and then one last provision.
SENATOR BOB MENENDEZ: It provides needed reforms to the United States' participation in the International Monetary Fund, which would allow the United States to leverage significant support from the IMF for Ukraine today, and for similar unforeseen crises in the future.
WELNA: Ranking Republican Bob Corker of Tennessee declared while he strongly supported including the IMF reforms in the aid package...
SENATOR BOB CORKER: This is going to be a little bit more difficult on our side of the aisle. I'll put it that way.
WELNA: Indeed, Kentucky Republican Rand Paul questioned whether it made sense to lend any money to Ukraine.
SENATOR RAND PAUL: I would ask for a show of hands of those would personally buy Ukrainian debt.
(LAUGHTER)
PAUL: Ukrainian debt is rated triple C-, not one person in this room would buy it. There's no expectation they can pay it back.
WELNA: Paul said because Ukraine owes Russia so much money, any loan to Ukraine would just end up in Russia's coffers. But Arizona's John McCain, a fellow Republican, wasn't buying it.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: This whole situation in Ukraine is extremely fragile, and I would think the worst thing that we could do right now is say that we aren't going to assist you.
WELNA: In the end, only three Republicans on the panel opposed the aid package, which is now headed for a vote by the full Senate. But even if it wins quick approval there, it would still have to be reconciled with the House-passed Ukraine aid package, which does not include the IMF reforms. House Speaker John Boehner yesterday showed no inclination of going along with the Senate's version.
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN BOEHNER: This IMF money isn't necessary for dealing with this Ukraine crisis that we see today.
WELNA: Other House Republicans made it clear they had little use for the IMF anytime. Ted Yoho is a freshman from Florida, who's on the Foreign Affairs Committee. The IMF, he says, does not figure in the U.S. Constitution.
REPRESENTATIVE TED YOHO: Where does it say that we should have an International Monetary Fund that we should supply and support?
WELNA: So you would actually prefer that there not be U.S. participation in the IMF?
YOHO: When we're $17.4 trillion in debt and I've got people in my district that can't get health care or they can't send their kids to school, I think we need to look at that real carefully.
WELNA: Other House Republicans say the IMF reforms would diminish the clout of the United States by giving more of a voice to emerging nations, including Russia. But the refusal by Congress to ratify changes at the IMF has already reduced Washington's standing there, according IMF expert Scott Morris. He's a former Treasury Department official who's now at the Center for Global Development. He says House Republicans may, in fact, be strengthening Russia's hand at the IMF by refusing to approve reforms there.
SCOTT MORRIS: It's kind of a strange reaction to concerns about declining U.S. influence, is that you basically seek to hammer the nail in the coffin.
WELNA: Some House Republicans think a deal still is possible to get a Ukraine aid package soon. North Carolina's Patrick McHenry says if an unrelated provision sought by Republicans were added that blocks the IRS from cracking down on political non-profits, it just might pass the House.
REPRESENTATIVE PATRICK MCHENRY: Congress has done dumber and sillier things.
WELNA: But with Congress set to leave for a weeklong break, there's little chance of a Ukraine aid package emerging anytime soon. Ukraine's new prime minister, Arseny Yatseniuk, was at the Capitol last night meeting with congressional leaders, just days before Crimea is to vote on seceding from Ukraine to join Russia. With nothing concrete agreed upon yet about helping a struggling nation, a promised photo op of Yatseniuk with Speaker Boehner ended up getting canceled. David Welna, NPR News, the Capitol.
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p.s.
Listen to the podcast and hear Senator Menendez speak of CRISISES.
Where did this man get his PHD? Guantanamo U, or perhaps, Jer-see City University?
What a maroon!
SENATOR BOB MENENDEZ: It provides needed reforms to the United States' participation in the International Monetary Fund, which would allow the United States to leverage significant support from the IMF for Ukraine today, and for similar unforeseen (CRISISES) crises in the future..
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Obama’s Meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk
By Luke Coffey
On March 12, the new interim Prime Minister of Ukraine, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, will meet with President Barack Obama at the White House. This will be the first such visit since the removal of Viktor Yanukovych’s government.
In what is best described as a blatant disregard of Ukraine’s national sovereignty, Russian troops continue to occupy key sites across the Crimean Peninsula. President Obama needs to use this meeting as an opportunity to show American solidarity with and support for the Ukrainian people.
Ukrainians Have Already Voted
Not content with the Ukrainian people looking to the West, Vladimir Putin has indicated that he will protect ethnic Russians living in Crimea and Ukraine’s other eastern provinces. Russia’s parliament quickly authorized the use of military force in Ukraine. Currently, Russia enjoys de facto control of the Crimean Peninsula, occupies important military and security-related sites there, and has announced an illegitimate referendum for March 16 to allow the people of Crimea a vote to determine whether they want to join the Russian Federation.
In 1991, soon after the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine’s Supreme Council voted to declare Ukraine’s independence. A referendum was held later that year to affirm public support for independence from Moscow.
Ukrainians had the choice of either endorsing the declaration of independence from Moscow or not. The referendum was held on December 1, 1991, and all residents of Ukraine over 18 years of age, including Soviet troops stationed in Ukraine, were eligible to vote.
Turnout was impressive. Over 84 percent of eligible voters in Ukraine (32 million people) voted, and 90.32 percent endorsed independence. All 24 Oblasts, the one Autonomous Republic (Crimea), and the two Special Cities (Kyiv and Sevastopol) voted for independence.
Stop Dithering and Start Acting
Recent events have confirmed what many already knew: The so-called Russian reset is dead. Crimea is under the control of Moscow, and it does not appear that Russian troops will be leaving anytime soon. Russia will attempt to use the illegal referendum on March 16 as a way to justify its imperial annexation of part of a neighboring country. This referendum should not fool anyone, and the international community should recognize Russia’s behavior for what it is: a direct violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Russia’s recent irredentist behavior in Crimea has made many NATO partners with sizable Russian populations, especially in the Baltics, nervous. There are a number of steps that can be taken to keep America’s NATO allies safe while demonstrating to Russia that its behavior is unacceptable. President Obama should:
- Show solidarity with the Ukrainian people. President Obama should offer his and America’s public support to the people of Ukraine during this difficult period. It should be made crystal clear that Russia’s irredentist behavior cannot go unchecked.
- Declare the upcoming referendum illegitimate. The Russian plan to hold a referendum for the Crimean people is an attempt to offer post-facto legitimacy to its illegal military intervention and occupation of Crimea. The outcome of the referendum will likely be engineered to support Moscow’s aims. The U.S. should declare the referendum illegitimate.
- Stop holding aid to Ukraine hostage to IMF politics. The White House wants Congress to attach its approval of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) governance “reform package” that has been pending for three years to any legislation providing urgently needed U.S. financial assistance to Ukraine. Congress should refuse the Obama Administration’s attempt to link urgent assistance to Ukraine to approval of the IMF governance reform package.
- Commit to a speedy and robust ballistic missile defense in Europe. Central and Eastern European countries view NATO’s ballistic missile defense system as a fundamental part of the alliance’s defense. It is essential that the Administration uphold missile defense commitment to its allies in Europe, especially after its loss of credibility following the abrupt cancellation of the third site in 2009.
- Show U.S. commitment to NATO. The U.S. should be reassuring NATO members in Central and Eastern Europe that their defense is guaranteed and that spillover from any possible conflict will be contained. This could mean temporarily deploying assets to the region required to defend the territorial integrity of NATO countries near Russia. More important, it should be made clear to Russia that any armed aggression toward a NATO member will immediately cause the U.S. to call for NATO to invoke Article 5 of the Washington Treaty.
- Ease Central and Eastern European reliance on Russian natural gas. Some countries of Central and Eastern Europe are entirely dependent upon Russian natural gas imports. In conjunction with recent regional projects to build natural gas import terminals, increased American exports would allow policymakers in the region greater freedom to pursue geostrategic aims without worrying about energy considerations.
- Enact sanctions on Russia. Washington should implement targeted sanctions aimed directly at Russian officials responsible for violating Ukrainian sovereignty, including freezing financial assets and imposing visa bans.
- Enforce the Magnitsky Act. The Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act denies U.S. visas to, and places financial sanctions on, Russian officials and individuals guilty of human rights violations. It should be swiftly enforced against any Russian officials involved in the incursions into Crimea and any human rights violations in Ukraine.
- Work with European partners. The President himself should take the lead in urging European allies to adopt a robust stance against Russian expansionism and join the U.S. in a tough sanctions regime that will directly impact those in Russia’s government who are involved in any aggression in Ukraine. For example, it is unacceptable that France will continue to sell two amphibious assault ships to Moscow or that Spain continues to allow the Russian navy access to its territories in North Africa.
- Withdraw immediately from New START. New START is a fundamentally flawed treaty that dramatically undercuts the security of the U.S. and its allies. It is an extraordinarily good deal for the Russians, as it significantly limits Washington’s ability to deploy an effective global missile defense system. It does nothing at all to advance U.S. security while handing Moscow a significant strategic edge.
Show American Support
President Obama cannot ignore what is happening in Eastern Europe while hoping that it will simply disappear. Russians respect strength and consistency, neither of which has been displayed by President Obama or his European counterparts.
President Obama’s meeting with Prime Minister Yatsenyuk offers a perfect opportunity to show American support for the Ukrainian people.
—Luke Coffey is Margaret Thatcher Fellow in the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, a division of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies, at The Heritage Foundation.
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Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee claims Constitution is 400 years old
By Cheryl K. Chumley - The Washington Times
Thursday, March 13, 2014
** FILE ** Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Texas Democrat. (Associated Press)
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat representing Texas, suggested during a recent address to congressional colleagues that the Constitution and the American system of governance has lasted about 400 years — insinuating that our guiding legal document was signed around 1614.
Her statements, as picked up the The Washington Free Beacon: “Maybe I should offer a good thanks to the distinguished members of the majority, the Republicans, my chairman and others, for giving us an opportunity to have a deliberative constitutional discussion that reinforces the sanctity of this nation and how well it is that we have lasted some 400 years, operating under a Constitution that clearly defines what is constitutional and what is not.”
Ms. Lee is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Virginia Law School.
The Constitution was formally adopted on Sept. 17, 1787. It was then ratified on June 21, 1788 and went into effect in March of 1789.
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Joel Osteen’s church robbed of $600G in cash, checks
Published March 11, 2014
FoxNews.com
FILE: Joel Osteen's church announced that $600,000 were stolen in donations. (Reuters)
Televangelist Joel Osteen's church in Houston announced Monday that $600,000 in Sunday donations were stolen from its safe last weekend, MyFoxHouston.com reported.
The heist at Lakewood Church wasn't discovered until 8:30 a.m. Monday morning when a church employee and off-duty Harris County Sheriff's Officer noticed the break in, the report said. Investigators believe the theft occurred sometime between Sunday afternoon and Monday morning.
The donations were from services on March 8 and March 9 and included cash, checks and credit cards. Lakewood has asked anyone who attended services this weekend to pay attention to their accounts and report any suspicious activity.
"The funds were fully insured, and we are working with our insurance company to restore the stolen funds to the church," the Lakewood statement said, according to The Houston Chronicle.
Lakewood stresses this was not a data breach, but says the theft was limited to donations made in the actual services.
More than 40,000 people attend weekly services led by Osteen, whose televised sermons reach nearly 100 countries.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Franciscans take modern approach to begging for alms
Associated Press
Tuesday, March 11, 2014 9:02pm
Associated Press
Friar Stefano Tamburo, head of the Franciscan convent in Rome, said the convent launched a $125,000 Kickstarter project to restore a cell.
Pope Francis' namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, founded his order of mendicant friars in the 13th century after receiving a calling from God to "rebuild my church."
Some 800 years later, St. Francis' followers are rebuilding his church in the ancient tradition of door-to-door begging that St. Francis championed — but with a very modern twist.
With interest in things Franciscan at an all-time high, the friars who run the San Francesco a Ripa church in Rome launched a Kickstarter online fundraising campaign Tuesday to raise $125,000 for the restoration of the tiny cell where St. Francis stayed when he came to Rome to see the pope.
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"Like the friars in the past would go asking for a piece of bread, today we are going to ask for a dollar, a euro, so we can make this place as it was in the time of St. Francis," said the Rev. Stefano Tamburo, the 43-year-old guardian of the sanctuary who is spearheading the campaign.
Kickstarter is one of dozens of crowd-funding websites that have sprung up in recent years to let people raise money for specific projects. Since it was founded in 2009, Kickstarter campaigns have included Spike Lee movies, funky restaurants, arts projects and business startups, according to its website.
Throngs of pilgrims have been flocking to the Franciscan sanctuary ever since the first pope named after Francis was elected a year ago. "We've seen a significant increase in pilgrims, but also Romans who maybe didn't know about this place," Tamburo said.
Franciscans take modern approach to begging for alms 03/11/14 [Last modified: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 9:01pm]
© 2013 Tampa Bay Times
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Abuse Charges Roil Heavily Catholic Puerto Rico
ARECIBO, Puerto Rico March 12, 2014 (AP)
By DANICA COTO Associated Press
First, the Catholic Church announced it had defrocked six priests accused of sex abuse in the Puerto Rican town of Arecibo. Then, local prosecutors disclosed that at least 11 other priests on the island were under investigation for similar accusations.
Now, as U.S. authorities acknowledge that they, too, are looking into abuse allegations by priests on this devoutly Catholic island, many are reeling from revelations of abuse involving some of the U.S. territory's most beloved clerics.
Puerto Ricans had largely been spared the lurid accounts of sex abuse involving the Catholic Church, and many had come to believe they were immune. But Barbara Dorris, a director with the U.S.-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said the new reports mean it's likely the problem is much worse than previously imagined.
"In general, these things tend to snowball because victims are afraid to come forward," Dorris said. "If the priests have been on this island for a while, it probably means that it's dozens upon dozens of victims out there."
Puerto Rico Justice Secretary Cesar Miranda said last week that at least four dioceses are being investigated. He also warned he might file charges against church officials suspected of withholding information.
He described the situation as "truly scandalous."
"We are not going to rest," Miranda said. "We are going to capture them, we are going to process them and we are going to put them in jail."
Allegations of sex abuse by priests are not new here, but the latest wave of investigations has dwarfed anything seen on the island of 3.6 million people, more than 70 percent of whom identify themselves as Catholic.
"People want to believe in the specialness of the priests, in the power of the priests," said Richard Sipe, a California-based psychologist and former priest who is an expert on clergy sexual abuse. "The Latin American community is much slower in bringing charges against the priests. ...The priests themselves are held in greater esteem, and the culture is identified with the Catholic Church more closely."
On a recent Sunday morning in Arecibo, churchgoers streamed through the heavy wooden doors of the city's 17th century cathedral. A swell of voices soon joined the priest inside in prayer, while 44-year-old Jose Soto hurriedly walked past the Mass in the town's deserted streets.
"When you go in through those doors, it is supposed to be a spiritual, wholesome place," he said, adding that he once regularly attended Mass in the cathedral. "You don't know who you're listening to anymore ... It's like using the word of God for other purposes."
The wave of allegations began in late January with a series of reports in local media, primarily in the newspaper El Nuevo Dia.
In response, Arecibo Bishop Daniel Fernandez released a statement disclosing that since 2011 he had defrocked six priests accused of sex abuse, an unusually large number for a diocese with about 90 priests. Church officials said they have also provided counseling for at least one alleged victim and reparations in an unspecified number of cases across the island.
Last week, one of Arecibo's defrocked priests, Edwin Antonio Mercado Viera, was charged with committing lewd acts. The 53-year-old, who had been a popular figure in the parish, is accused of fondling the genitals of a 13-year-old altar boy in 2007.
Prosecutor Jose Capo Rivera said the bishop himself is "part of the investigation" due to accusations he committed lewd acts involving a minor. Fernandez has said he is innocent.
"Clearly, it's revenge for the decisions I've taken since the moment I assumed leadership of the diocese, where the situation that I found was not the most positive," he said in a written statement.
Agnes Poventud, an attorney for a man who says Fernandez molested him when he was child, told The Associated Press that federal agents recently interviewed her and her client. She declined to say when the alleged abuse occurred or how old her client was at the time, only to say he was a minor.
A federal official confirmed to the AP that U.S. authorities have requested information about alleged clergy abuse from the Puerto Rico Justice Department. The official agreed to discuss the case only if not quoted by name because the information was not yet public.
Further revelations have followed the Arecibo cases. The Diocese of Mayaguez, on Puerto Rico's west coast, said it has handled four cases of alleged sex abuse, the majority of them being reviewed by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which takes on such accusations.
In addition, San Juan Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez Nieves said prosecutors are investigating six alleged sex abuse cases in the diocese of Puerto Rico's capital. He said the accused priests have been suspended and the statute of limitation has expired in five cases.
Prosecutors also are investigating a sex abuse allegation in the Diocese of Caguas, Capo said.
Meanwhile, justice officials accuse the Arecibo diocese of withholding information and are fighting a lawsuit still pending in court that the diocese filed to keep secret the names of alleged victims to protect their confidentiality. Prosecutors assert the move is intended to protect the accused priests, a charge diocese attorney Frank Torres denies.
"The church has cooperated and has a policy of transparency, but that cooperation does not mean the church is free to violate the guarantees of confidentiality it has awarded the victims," Torres said in a phone interview.
Diocese officials in Puerto Rico say that the statute of limitations has expired in many cases, an argument that Florida-based lawyer Joseph Saunders said has been the church's first line of defense. He said many church officials argue they should have been sued when the alleged violations occurred.
"Nobody sued a bishop or a priest back then," he said. "There's an underlying fear of going to hell for suing the bishop."
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“To me, this is a no-brainer”: Catholic lawmaker introduces LGBTQ rights measure in Kansas
Thursday, Mar 13, 2014 01:37 PM EST
"We’re defeating our own purpose as a country that wants to be inclusive," explained state Rep. Louis Ruiz
Katie Mcdonough
(Credit: AP Photo/Mathew Sumner)
A Democratic state lawmaker in Kansas has proposed an LGBTQ nondiscrimination measure just a month after his colleagues in the Kansas House passed a bill allowing businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ people.
Rep. Louis Ruiz, a practicing Catholic, called his nondiscrimination measure a “no-brainer.”
“What’s our message when we have these type of discriminatory bills that come out at either the federal or the state level? We’re defeating our own purpose as a country that wants to be inclusive. To me, this is a no-brainer,” he told the Wichita Eagle.
The measure would add gender and sexual identity and expression to existing anti-discrimination statutes around race, religion and gender. And while religious lawmakers he serves with in the House have used their faith as a justification to enshrine discrimination into Kansas law, Ruiz said he believes his faith is well protected and wants to see those same protections extended to his fellow Kansans.
The need for such a bill, particularly so soon after the House passed a measure to legalize discrimination, is clear, advocates say.
“If you look at the bills that people are trying to pass that would permanently enshrine open discrimination against gay and lesbian Kansans, can you think of a better reason why we should introduce something [like this bill]?” Witt said at the Capitol on Tuesday.
Katie McDonough is an assistant editor for Salon, focusing on lifestyle. Follow her on Twitter @kmcdonovgh or email her at kmcdonough@salon.com.
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Pope Francis invited to address U.S. Congress
Reuters, 13/03 22:08 CET
By David Lawder
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday invited Pope Francis to address a joint session of Congress – an unprecedented event – during an expected visit to the United States next year.
Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill have quickly sought to invoke the popular pontiff’s devotion to the poor.
Francis, who on Thursday marked the first anniversary of his election as the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, is widely expected to travel to Philadelphia in September 2015 to attend the World Meeting of Families.
Mayors of several other U.S. cities have invited him to visit and Boehner moved to secure a spot on the pope’s itinerary in a letter to sent to the pontiff on Thursday.
“It is with reverence and admiration that I have invited Pope Francis, as head of state of the Holy See and the first pope to hail from the Americas, to address a joint meeting of the United States Congress,” Boehner said in a statement.
While Pope John Paul II visited Washington in 1979 and Pope Benedict XVI visited the U.S. capital in 2008, the U.S. Senate Historian’s office said it has no record of a pontiff ever addressing Congress.
“Pope Francis has inspired millions of Americans with his pastoral manner and servant leadership, challenging all people to lead lives of mercy, forgiveness, solidarity, and humble service,” added Boehner, the highest-ranking U.S. elected official who is Catholic.
But the Ohio Republican also used the occasion to reiterate Republicans’ views that increased government spending and welfare programs are not the way to meet Americans’ responsibility to care for the poor and the most vulnerable.
He said Americans “have embraced Pope Francis’ reminder that we cannot meet our responsibility to the poor with a welfare mentality based on business calculations. We can meet it only with personal charity on the one hand and sound, inclusive policies on the other.”
BUDGET CRITICISM
Boehner and Republican House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, also a Catholic, have come under fire in recent years from U.S. Catholic bishops over their spartan budgets, which have proposed major cuts to programs aimed at helping the poor, in part to reduce tax rates.
Ryan and Boehner have argued that federal handouts and big government programs violate the Catholic principle of “subsidiarity,” which suggests that human affairs are best handled at the lowest level, closest to those affected. Instead, they advocate that the action of individuals, charities and private institutions and firms should take precedence in caring for the poor.
Previous Ryan budgets backed by Boehner have prompted sharp criticism from U.S. Catholic bishops, who have argued that their cuts would hurt the poor, elderly and sick, conflicting with Church teachings to aid the vulnerable.
Francis, a Jesuit who has taken a vow of poverty, last November called unfettered capitalism as a “new tyranny,” and criticized “trickle-down” economic theory, which is favoured by many U.S. Republicans.
In his first major document authored as pope, he argued that growth encouraged by unfettered financial markets will not result in greater social justice and inclusiveness.
In the same document, the pontiff also lamented growing income inequality around the world, a cause that U.S. Democrats have taken up as they seek to win back more seats in November congressional elections.
“This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation,” Francis wrote.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, who is also Catholic, welcomed Boehner’s invitation to the pontiff.
“Pope Francis has lived his values and upheld his promise to be a moral force, to protect the poor and the needy, to serve as a champion of the less fortunate, and to promote love and understanding among faiths and nations,” Pelosi said.
President Barack Obama, who is advocating an increase in the U.S. minimum wage, among other social policies, is scheduled to meet with the pope at the Vatican on March 27 during a trip to Europe.
(Reporting by David Lawder; editing by Sandra Maler, David Storey and G Crosse)
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Wall Street tumbles as Ukraine tensions rise, China slows
By Angela Moon
NEW YORK Thu Mar 13, 2014 4:56pm EDT
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange March 11, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Brendan McDermid
Related Topics
Russia »
(Reuters) - U.S. stocks tumbled on Thursday, with the Dow and the S&P 500 suffering their worst day since early February, on rising concerns over Ukraine and Russia and new signs of a slowdown in China.
Selling accelerated in afternoon trading after Russia launched military exercises near its border with Ukraine, showing no sign of backing down in its plans to annex its neighbor's Crimea region despite a stronger-than-expected push for sanctions from the EU and the United States.
In an unusually robust and emotionally worded speech, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned of "catastrophe" unless Russia changes course.
The CBOE Volatility index VIX .VIX, Wall Street's so-called fear gauge, jumped more than 12 percent to 16.22. The index usually moves inversely to the S&P 500. A key emerging market exchange-traded fund, iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM.P), fell 1.8 percent to $38.19.
"(Ukraine headlines) are certainly going to be the catalyst but there is more under the surface," said Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment strategist at Windham Financial Services in Charlotte, Vermont.
"There is no military solution to this. All it is, is positioning - and let's be realistic, these Chinese numbers last night were not good."
China's economy slowed markedly in the first two months of the year, as growth in investment, retail sales and factory output all fell to multi-year lows.
The S&P 500 broke below its 10-day and 14-day moving averages, which were acting as short-term technical support levels. It also broke below the 1,850 level.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 231.19 points or 1.41 percent, to 16,108.89, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 21.86 points or 1.17 percent, to 1,846.34 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 62.912 points or 1.46 percent, to 4,260.42.
Economically-sensitive sectors such as industrials .SPLRCI, down 1.5 percent, and technology .SPLRCT, down 1.6 percent, fared the worst. General Electric (GE.N) fell 1.6 percent to $25.34; Apple Inc (AAPL.O) lost 1.1 percent to $530.65.
Earlier, gains were supported by better-than-expected weekly initial jobless claims and retail sales data for February, although the prior month of retail sales was revised lower.
Import prices increased 0.9 percent last month, their biggest rise in a year as petroleum soared, but there was little sign of a broad pick-up in imported inflation.
About 7.5 billion shares traded on U.S. exchanges, according to BATS Global Markets, above the 6.8 billion daily average so far this month.
(Editing by Nick Zieminski)
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Wednesday, March 12, 2014
At Least One Dead in East Harlem Building Collapse
BREAKING NEWS
Wednesday, March 12, 2014 11:09 AM EDT
At Least One Dead in East Harlem Building Collapse
| At least one person was killed when two buildings collapsed in East Harlem on Wednesday morning, according to authorities, and a senior city official suggested that there would most likely be more fatalities. | |||
| Witnesses reported hearing what sounded like an explosion before the buildings collapsed. Flames and smoke could be seen billowing from the street, and the force of the damage blew out windows in neighboring buildings. | |||
| At least 16 people were injured, including four seriously, according to city officials. The police said that two residential buildings — 1644 and 1646 Park Avenue — had collapsed. | |||
READ MORE »http://www.nytimes.com/2014/. . | . | . |
Our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government
By the decree enforcing the institution of the papacy in violation of the law of God, our nation will disconnect herself fully from righteousness. When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near.
Testimonies for the Church Volume 5, p.451
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Obama to meet Pope Francis during March trip
The Oval David Jackson, USA TODAY 9:23 a.m. EST January 21, 2014
(Photo: Amit Dabush, AP)
President Obama will meet with Pope Francis on March 27, capping a European trip that will take him to the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy.
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Queen to meet Pope Francis for first time on Vatican visit in April
Queen and Duke of Edinburgh to have private audience with pontiff after meeting Italian president
Giorgio Napolitano
The Guardian, Tuesday 4 February 2014 08.33 EST
The Queen and Prince Philip will have a private audience with the Argentinian pontiff. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
The Queen is to meet Pope Francis for the first time on a visit to the Vatican in April, the British embassy in Rome has announced.
The meeting – the first between the supreme governor of the Church of England and the leader of the Roman Catholic church since 2010 – will take place as part of a wider visit to Rome.
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will have a private audience with the pontiff, who is from Argentina, in the Vatican on 3 April.
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Feinstein: CIA searched Intelligence Committee computers
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Video: Senate Intelligence Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) accused the CIA of breaking the law by searching her committee's computers. The Post's Karen Tumulty, Scott Wilson, Terence Samuel and Adam Goldman explain the impact in Washington.
By Greg Miller, Ed O’Keefe and Adam Goldman, Published: March 11
A behind-the-scenes battle between the CIA and Congress erupted in public Tuesday as the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee accused the agency of breaking laws and breaching constitutional principles in an alleged effort to undermine the panel’s multi-year investigation of a controversial interrogation program.
Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) accused the CIA of secretly removing documents, searching computers used by the committee and attempting to intimidate congressional investigators by requesting an FBI inquiry of their conduct — charges that CIA Director John Brennan disputed within hours of her appearance on the Senate floor.
Video
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) questioned whether a CIA search of congressional records might have undermined government oversight during a Senate floor speech Tuesday.
Read more:
Why the CIA and lawmakers are feuding![]()
Adam Goldman MAR 11
What you need to know about the dispute over an investigation o the agency’s interrogation program.
Transcript: Feinstein says CIA searched Intelligence panel computers![]()
MAR 11
“Let me say up front that I come to the Senate floor reluctantly,” she said.
Transcript: Brennan says his agency has done nothing wrong
MAR 11
“If I did something wrong, I will go to the president and I will explain to him exactly what I did and what the findings were,” he said.
Senators praise Feinstein speech, want answers from CIA![]()
Wesley Lowery and Ed O'Keefe MAR 11
If true, “this is Richard Nixon stuff,” one senator says.
Feinstein described the escalating conflict as a “defining moment” for Congress’s role in overseeing the nation’s intelligence agencies and cited “grave concerns” that the CIA had “violated the separation-of-powers principles embodied in the United States Constitution.”
Brennan fired back during a previously scheduled speech in Washington, saying that “when the facts come out on this, I think a lot of people who are claiming that there has been this tremendous sort of spying and monitoring and hacking will be proved wrong.”
The dueling claims exposed bitterness and distrust that have soared to new levels as the committee nears completion of a 6,000-page report that is expected to serve as a scathing historical record of the agency’s use of waterboarding and other brutal interrogation methods on terrorism suspects held at secret CIA prisons overseas after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Displaying flashes of anger during her floor speech, Feinstein said her committee would soon deliver the report to the White House and push for declassification of a document that lays bare “the horrible details of the CIA program that never, never, never should have existed.”
The latest dispute is in some ways a proxy for a deeper conflict over that document. The CIA and the committee are at odds over many of the report’s conclusions about the effectiveness of the interrogation program, but they are battling primarily over tension that surfaced during the investigation.
Feinstein’s remarks provided the most detailed account of that investigation, describing an arrangement in which the CIA set up a secret facility in Northern Virginia with computers where committee investigators were promised unfettered access to millions of operational cables, executive memos and other files on the interrogation program.
The disagreement between Feinstein and Brennan centers on whether agency employees or committee staff members — or both — abused their access to that shared network to gain an upper hand.
Feinstein implied that the CIA sabotaged the committee’s efforts from the outset, loading a massive amount of files on computers with no index, structure or ability to search. “It was a true document dump,” she said.
Over a period of years, investigators pored over more than 6.2 million classified records furnished by the CIA, using a search tool that agency technical experts agreed to install. But U.S. officials said the committee gained access to a set of documents that the agency never intended to share, files that were generated at the direction of former director Leon E. Panetta as part of an effort to take an inventory of the records being turned over to Feinstein’s panel.
The two sides have engaged in heated exchanges in recent days over the nature of those files and how they were obtained.
Referring to them as the “Panetta internal review,” Feinstein insisted that committee staff members discovered the documents during an ordinary search of the trove. She said they are particularly valuable because in tracking the flow of documents, CIA employees in some cases drew conclusions about their contents that match the subsequent interpretations made by committee staff members.
Jeremy Bash, Panetta’s former chief of staff, said Tuesday that that was never the director's intent. Panetta “did not request an internal review of the interrogation program,” he said. “He asked the CIA staff to keep track of documents that were being provided. . . . He asked that they develop short summaries of the material, so that we would know what was being provided.”
Meanwhile, a letter that Brennan distributed to the CIA workforce on Tuesday raised questions about Feinstein’s claims and her awareness of how and when the committee obtained what she is calling the Panetta review files.
The letter, which Brennan sent to Feinstein on Jan. 27 and which was attached to a message he sent the workforce, recounts a meeting they had weeks earlier to discuss the matter. During that meeting, Feinstein said she didn’t know that the committee already had copies of the Panetta review. Brennan pushed her to explain why the panel had recently requested the files when they were already in its possession.
“You informed me that you were not aware that the committee staff already had access to the materials you had requested,” Brennan wrote, according to a copy obtained by The Washington Post. Brennan urged Feinstein to work with the agency to determine how the committee had obtained the documents, a request she ultimately rejected, officials said.
The CIA began to suspect that the panel had obtained those files this year after lawmakers referred to the supposed “internal review” publicly. U.S. officials said CIA security personnel then checked the logs of the computer system it had set up for the committee, and found that the files had been moved to a part of the network that was off-limits to the CIA.
“They did something to get those documents,” said a U.S. official briefed on the matter. A security “firewall was breached. They figured out a work-around to get it.” The official declined to elaborate.
Feinstein said the review documents were “identified using the search tool provided by the CIA” but she was careful not to say precisely how they were obtained. “We don’t know whether the documents were provided intentionally by the CIA, unintentionally by the CIA, or intentionally by a whistleblower,” she said.
She acknowledged, however, that committee investigators made hard copies of those files and whisked them away to its offices on Capitol Hill, in part because the committee had previously seen cases in which more than 900 pages of records disappeared from the database with no explanation.
Feinstein expressed outrage that the CIA referred the matter to the FBI. “There is no legitimate reason to allege to the Justice Department that Senate staff may have committed a crime,” she said, describing the move as a “potential effort to intimidate this staff, and I am not taking it lightly.”
She also noted that the referral was made by Robert Eatinger, the CIA’s acting general counsel, who previously served as the top lawyer for the department that ran the CIA’s secret prisons, and who “is mentioned by name more than 1,600 times in our study.”
Feinstein, who has been a staunch supporter of other CIA programs including its drone campaign, said the agency may have violated Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches, as well as laws against domestic surveillance.
Although Republicans on the committee initially voted in favor of opening the investigation, GOP members abandoned the effort after it began and none has voted to endorse it.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a member of the intelligence panel, told Bloomberg News that the dispute is “more complicated than what’s being put out there by Senator Feinstein or others. . . . I don’t think anyone has a clean hand and I think it’s important for the full truth to come out. I think people may be surprised to learn that, in this case, there were no good guys and maybe two or three bad ones.”
[Read a full transcript of Feinstein’s remarks.]
Brennan said he had ordered the CIA’s inspector general to review the agency’s conduct. The inspector general, in turn, has issued a separate referral seeking a Justice Department review.
Asked whether he would resign if the CIA was found to be in the wrong, Brennan said he would let the president decide his fate. “If I did something wrong, I will go to the president,” the director said. “He is the one who can ask me to stay or to go.”
Ellen Nakashima and Julie Tate contributed to this report.
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Above the Law: Secret Deals, Political Fixes, and Other Misadventures of the U.S. Department of Justice
David Burnham
Above the Law: Secret Deals, Political Fixes, and Other Misadventures of the U.S. Department of Justice
Scribner, 1996
ISBN 0-684-80699-1
444 pages, $27.50 hb.
Reviewed by Gary McGath
This review copyright 1996 by Gary McGath
The Department of Justice wields a great amount of power; and as our government as a whole grows more powerful and abusive of our liberties, it is only to be expected that many of these abuses will be found in its law enforcement apparatus. David Burnham has provided an illuminating account of some of these abuses.
Burnham's political sympathies clearly lie toward the left side of the conventional political spectrum, but he addresses his subject matter with a minimum of bias. For example, in discussing the Senate's investigation of Watergate, he points out that previous Presidents, notably Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson, had also made use of the FBI for their own political purposes, obtaining background checks on their opponents and leaking information to influence campaigns.
Some of Burnham's views are disturbing. For instance, he notes that two-thirds of the corporations in a survey violated environmental laws, in the opinion of their own lawyers; but rather than thinking that there might be something wrong with a system of laws which makes the large majority of the affected parties criminals, he appears to take this as evidence that not enough businesses are being prosecuted. But the fact that Burnham provides enough facts to support arguments against his own conclusions does illustrate his thoroughness.
Both Democratic and Republican administrations come under scrutiny. Burnham condemns Jimmy Carter's orders to expel Iranian students en masse and Bill Clinton's exploitation of the Oklahoma City bombing to promote "antiterrorism" legislation which "had very little to do with terrorism," as well as Ronald Reagan's alleged violation of tax laws and Richard Nixon's many manipulations. And he gives credit where due to Republican actions, such as Rep. Henry Hyde's strong opposition to the excesses of civil forfeiture. (Yes, this is the same Hyde who wrote language into the Telecommunications Act outlawing the posting of information about abortion. His name seems eerily appropriate.)
The discussion of the FBI's attempts to increase its surveillance capabilities and reduce the privacy of citizens will be of special interest to most of the online readers of this review. Burnham discusses the efforts to make the key-escrowed Clipper chip the de facto standard for encryption, Louis Freeh's campaign to outlaw strong encryption and obtain a vast expansion of federal wiretapping capability, and the sweeping use of telephone call logs to gain information on anyone who calls or is called by a suspect. The book argues that Freeh has used distorted statistics to make the crime problem look worse than it is; while its does not directly tie this to Freeh's claims that encryption will frustrate legitimate law enforcement efforts, the material in the book provides at least a starting point for casting doubt on the FBI chief's arguments.
In discussing the War on Drugs, Burnham takes a conventional liberal position; he does not dispute the legitimacy of laws criminalizing people's choice to ingest certain substances, but he recognizes that the enforcement of anti-drug laws is ineffective in stopping drug abuse, especially harsh on some ethnic groups, and often detrimental to people's liberties. He notes that intensive anti-drug efforts have often let crimes against people increase by diverting enforcement resources. He also points out the rapidly growing cost to the taxpayer: "For the Justice Department alone, spending for drug-control purposes has grown at an astonishing pace, increasing more than eleven times, from $360 million in 1981 to slightly more than $4 billion in 1994."
The current Attorney General also comes in for criticism; for example, Burnham notes that Janet Reno has spoken in favor of arbitrary sentencing disparities in drug laws and has defended the practice of seizing the assets of people who have not been convicted of any crime. Curiously, there is no mention of the Waco siege, although other examples of stormtrooper justice are cited.
Above the Law is heavy but rewarding reading for those who want to learn more about how the growth of government power has injured our liberties. While I do not agree with all of Burnham's conclusions, I think he has presented a compelling and well-documented case that the government officials who are charged with protecting us from crime are often the ones from whom we are most in need of protection.
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Elaine Pagels on Book of Revelation
Guest(s):
Elaine Pagels
08.07.2011
Renowned religious historian Elaine Pagels says the Book of Revelation is the Bible's most controversial book and she explains its enduring appeal. Pagels is the award-winning author of "The Gnostic Gospels." She digs into the history of the Book Revelation and speculates on why this book became part of the Biblical canon.
P.S.
More on Elaine Pagels
Source:
Early life and education
Pagels was born in California, the daughter of a research biologist.[2] Pagels began attending an evangelical church as a teenager, attracted by the certainty and emotional power of the group, but ceased attending church after the death of a Jewish friend in a car crash when other church members said that her friend had not been saved and would go to hell. Pagels said, "Distressed and disagreeing with their interpretation — and finding no room for discussion — I realized that I was no longer at home in their world and left that church."[3] Pagels remained fascinated by the power of Christianity, both for fostering love and for the divisiveness that can shadow the belief that one has received a divinely revealed truth.[4][5]
She graduated from Stanford University, earning a B.A. in 1964 and M.A. in 1965. After briefly studying dance at Martha Graham's studio, she began studying for a Ph.D. in religion at Harvard University as a student of Helmut Koester and part of a team studying the Nag Hammadi library manuscripts.
She married theoretical physicist Heinz Pagels in 1969.[6] They have two children, Sarah Pagels DiMatteo and David V. Pagels. Their son Mark died when he was six and a half years old.[7] Upon completing her Ph.D. in 1970, she joined the faculty at Barnard College. She headed its department of religion from 1974 until she moved to Princeton in 1982.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_Pagels
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Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Gender equality MDGs unlikely to meet 2015 deadline
11 Mar 2014 - 3:52pm
The United Nations says it is unlikely to meet the 2015 deadline on the Millennium Development Goals for improving equal rights for women.
By
Abby Dinham
Source
World News Radio
UPDATED YESTERDAY 4:57 PM
(Transcript from World News Radio)
The Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs, are a set of eight statements that all UN members agreed upon in the hope of achieving them by next year.
They include the eradication of poverty, equal education and empowering women.
Now the UN's Commission on the Status of Women has gathered for its 58th annual session to review the progress of the MDGs, but so far the report card is disappointing.
Gender equality MDGs unlikely to meet 2015 deadline
The United Nations says it is unlikely to meet the 2015 deadline on the Millennium Development Goals for improving equal rights for women.
Opening the 2014 session of the Commission on the Status of Women, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon stated that until gender inequality is abolished in all forms, the international community could not call itself dignified.
Mr Ban says the Commission's current focus is on women's education and reproductive rights, and also mapping a way forward to continue the progress that's been made so far.
"In that time we must also define a post-2015 development agenda. I count on your wisdom and commitment to bring the voices of women and girls to the table. I count on you to champion the human rights of all women and girls. You can count on my full support."
More than 6,000 UN representatives and non-government organisations have come together for the session to discuss a lack of progress on reaching the Millennium Development Goals.
UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka says there are high expectations that the MDGs will facilitate a 'great leap forward' for women's rights.
And so she says action must be taken to ensure that progress is made before the 2015 deadline.
"That would change the world for the better and that the lives of women and girls in the world, no matter who they are, no matter where they are, will change forever. So that the investments that keep us here that bring us here will enrich our lives, as they look up to us to fight their battles to win them, the battle against hunger, abuse, landlessness and illiteracy."
Over the two-week session, representatives will discuss access for females to education, health and birth control, and equal access to full employment.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon told the assembly that gender gaps are particularly noticable among rural populations and for Indigenous peoples, those with a disability and minority or marginalised groups.
Philippine Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN Libran Cabactulan says the Commission must achieve a transparent review of all measures taken by the UN to reach the MDGs.
"The task before this Commission is to assess achievements and progress made by women and girls in relation to the Millennium Development Goals, and to highlight the gaps and challenges. We need to have frank and open discussion about what works, where the gaps and challenges and why we have not been able to make the progress we had hoped for."
One of the gaps identified by Secretary General Ban is a lack of participation in politics by women across the world.
Under the current Abbott government Australia has only one female federal minister - Julie Bishop.
University of Newcastle Associate Professor Martin Watts says as a wealthy country, Australia is setting a poor example of gender equality to the rest of the world.
"I find it extraordinary, I think the Labor party has handled the participation of women rather better. I know a Liberal MP has suggested the introduction of quotas, so maybe that's the way to go."
The UN Commission on the Status of Women will conclude its review of the progress of Millennium Development Goals on the 21st of March.
Source
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Is the Senate's climate change all-nighter more than a one-night stand?
By Leigh Ann Caldwell, CNN
updated 12:52 PM EDT, Tue March 11, 2014
Calved icebergs from the nearby Twin Glaciers are seen floating on the water on July 30, 2013, in Qaqortoq, Greenland.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Senate Democrats held all-night session to draw attention to climate change
The issue has fallen off the radar with the help of wealthy opponents
Wealthy environmentalist Tom Steyer has put it back in the spotlight
Washington (CNN) -- It might not have had the drama of a Sen. Ted Cruz overnight talk-a-thon, but some Senate Democrats hope their all-night effort draws similar attention to their issue that has been stalled in Congress: climate change.
Mirroring a tactic employed by Cruz during his marathon effort aimed at derailing Obamacare, Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts read from Dr. Seuss during his turn speaking just before midnight Tuesday.
He chose the children's book "The Lorax," which touches on the environment.
"But now says the Once-ler, now that you're here, the word of the Lorax seems perfectly clear. Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better," Markey read, then added his own thoughts: "So to my colleagues here in the Senate and everyone watching and following tonight thank you for caring a whole awful lot."
Twenty-eight Dems participate
The effort by 28 Democratic senators was launched in part by Rhode Island's Sheldon Whitehouse, who credits warming oceans for the state's disappearing idyllic and populated coastline.
Whitehouse has spoken about the issue every week the Senate has been in session for the past two years, culminating in 60 speeches that have gone largely unnoticed by the public.
He and fellow Democratic members of the climate change caucus hope their all-night session propels the issue back into the spotlight since it has been on the back burner for several years.
"There's a group of senators who have not given up on getting something done on climate change and aren't willing to just sit quietly through the current status quo," Whitehouse told CNN in a phone interview on Monday.
After climate change legislation, one of President Barack Obama's top three priorities entering office, failed in 2010, the issue fell off the radar. The President rarely talked about it. Congress did little to address it.
"If you were looking for reassurance that somebody took this seriously in Washington, you weren't finding much," Whitehouse said.
Why the renewed focus on climate change?
The third rail
Climate change turned into an issue that few wanted to touch, especially those facing difficult reelection campaigns.
When Democrats tried to pass legislation that would have capped carbon emissions, skepticism around climate change reached an all-time high.
According to Gallup, 48% of respondents said the issue on its face is exaggerated.
Opponents, led by organizations and businesses involved in the fossil fuel industry, successfully turned public opinion and stopped any efforts in its tracks.
The death of climate change
Opponents successfully renamed cap and trade, which referred to legislation that placed limits on carbon emissions by power plants and other major polluters, to "cap and tax."
Amid recession, they argued the proposal would kill jobs and raise energy prices.
Key players in changing the dynamic of the debate were the Koch Brothers, billionaire businessmen who made their fortune in the oil and gas industry and have also spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to defeat Democrats.
Cap and trade would have cut into Koch industries' revenue, which is estimated to hover around $100 billion per year.
Tim Phillips, the President of Americans for Prosperity, the political organization backed by the Kochs, said that killing climate change legislation in a Democratic-controlled Washington was his organization's major accomplishment.
"Stopping cap and trade was a crucial policy victory that most folks would have thought impossible at the time," he said during a recent interview. "Defeating that was an enormous policy victory that has lasting policy repercussions in a good way."
Not only did they kill the legislation, they successfully helped to elect a crop of new lawmakers who don't believe that human activity is the cause of global warming.
According to the League of Conservation Voters, 100 lawmakers currently fall into their ranks.
Whitehouse had this response: It's "something that his grandchildren will be very ashamed of."
Opinion: Why are we still debating climate change?
The top Republican in the Senate, Sen. Mitch McConnell, took to the floor Monday afternoon to deride the climate change talkers as "cruel."
"Families are losing work because of government attacks on the coal industry," McConnell said, referring to his home state of Kentucky. "And tonight you're going to hear 30 hours of excuses from a group of people who think that's OK. Well it's not OK. It's cruel."
A revival?
The death of cap and trade triggered new fears among environmentally friendly legislators.
"It is unfortunate," Whitehouse said. "History will look back at the propaganda effort of the carbon polluters as one of the most sophisticated and complex propaganda efforts that human kind had to withstand."
But since then, the public has started to shift its opinion.
According to Gallup, 41% now say that climate change is exaggerated -- 7 points lower than its high in 2010. And the number of those who say the seriousness of the issue is underestimated is on the rise.
Now Whitehouse thinks it's his side's turn to make a move. He has buy in from the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid who told reporters last week that it is "the worst problem" the world faces.
But they have to start at Square One by working to convince the public that climate change is real.
The Senate's all-night session is well-timed.
Wealthy former hedge fund manager Tom Steyer is willing to spend Koch-like money to push the issue of climate change and defeat skeptics in the 2014 midterms.
Whitehouse, who has known Steyer since college, said if he can make good on his pledge to infuse the effort with $100 million, he would "help to neutralize an incredibly one-sided spending."
"We can change the conversation very quickly."
The absentees
But not all Democrats - and no Republicans - are on board. Notable senators were absent from the overnight session Monday into Tuesday.
They include those who have difficult election campaigns, including Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Mark Begich of Alaska.
Republicans aren't letting Landrieu's absence go unnoticed.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee, which aims to get Republicans elected to the Senate, put out a web video Tuesday, criticizing Landrieu for allowing the talk-a-thon to take place. The video also argues she doesn't stand up enough for American energy.
Tiernan Sittenfeld, a senior vice president of the League of Conservation Voters, said the fact that just over half of the Democratic caucus is willing to speak in the wee hours of the night about climate change is "incredibly exciting" and "good politics."
In fact, Whitehouse is working to ensure that climate change is a topic in the 2016 presidential race by traveling to Iowa next week to talk to voters and activists.
He insists he is not running for President but wants to make sure those who do talk about the impact of climate change.
Obama's engagement
After a hiatus post 2010, the Obama administration is also back in the climate change game.
President Barack Obama proposed his Climate Action Plan this past summer that would create carbon pollution standards for power plants and expand renewable energy production. And in his new budget plan, the President proposed funding to study the impacts of climate change.
Secretary of State John Kerry said last month that climate change is the "greatest challenge of our generation."
Whitehouse is optimistic that the tide is turning. So much so that he traveled to Sea Island, Georgia, this past weekend to speak at the conservative American Enterprise Institute conference.
"I think it went pretty well," he said.
Is it time to agree on climate change?
CNN's Ted Barrett, Ashley Killough and Jonathan Helman contributed to this story.
Source
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The emergence of radical Catholic social philosophy
Catholic Progressives in England after Vatican II -- By Jay P. Corrin
In his latest book, Jay P. Corrin examines a significant and little-known subject: the post-Vatican II Catholic progressive movement in Britain, its leaders, and the political and cultural context of the time. He focuses on the emergence of reformist thinking as represented by the Council, and the corresponding revolutionary response triggered by the church’s failure to expand the promises of reform to the satisfaction of Catholics on the political left. The resistance of the Roman Curia, the clerical hierarchy, and many conservative lay men and women to reform was challenged in 1960s England by a cohort of young Catholic intellectuals; in response, they launched a path-breaking journal of ideas called Slant.
What made Slant revolutionary was its success in developing a coherent philosophy of revolution based on a synthesis of the “New theology” fueling Vatican II and the New Left’s Marxist critique of capitalism. Called “a fascinating story” by The Tablet, Corrin’s account of the Slant movement draws “copiously on conversations and correspondence with participants, notably Terry Eagleton, Bernard Sharratt, Martin Shaw, Adrian and Angela Cunningham and Christopher Calnan” Their bold and imaginative efforts inspired many younger Catholics who had despaired of connecting their faith to contemporary social, political, and economic issues.
“In Catholic Progressives in England after Vatican II, Jay P. Corrin situates the journal Slant within the broad sweep of reformist Catholic thinkers and actors across the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. Drawing upon an impressive range of primary and secondary sources, both scholarly and journalistic, Corrin illuminates the journal’s pivotal role in English Catholic liberal thought and action and the impact its contributors’ ideas continue to exert across the decades.” —Steve Rosswurm, Lake Forest College
Jay P. Corrin is professor of social sciences at Boston University. His book Catholic Intellectuals and the Challenge of Democracy (University of Notre Dame Press, 2002) won the American Catholic Historical Association’s John Gilmary Shea Prize in 2003.
Catholic Progressives in England after Vatican II
Jay P. Corrin
Publication Date: November 29, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-268-02310-2 / Paperback $49.00
ISBN: 978-0-268-07700-6 / Ebook Perpetual Ownership, $34.30; Ebook 30-day Ownership, $7.00
To order: http://undpress.nd.edu/book/P03079
The University of Notre Dame Press is one of the leading American university presses publishing in the areas of religion and theology. For our complete list, visit us at http://undpress.nd.edu
Contact
Emily McKnight
emcknigh@nd.edu
574.631.4909
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