Jeb Bush says illegal immigration often 'an act of love' - Yahoo News

Jeb Bush says illegal immigration often 'an act of love' - Yahoo News
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Jeb Bush, a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2016, said on Sunday that illegal immigrants who come to the United States to provide for their families are not committing a felony but an "act of love."

In comments at odds with the views of many in his party, Bush, the son of the 41st president and brother of the 43rd, said of the divisive immigration issue: "I think we need to kind of get beyond the harsh political rhetoric to a better place.

"I'm going to say this and it will be on tape and so be it," Bush said in an interview with Fox News host Shannon Bream in an event at the Texas presidential library of his father, George H.W. Bush.

"The way I look at this is someone who comes to our country because they couldn't come legally ... and they crossed the border because they had no other means to work, to be able to provide for their family, yes,
they broke the law, but it's not a felony. "It's an act of love, it's an act of commitment to your family.

Jeb Bush Discusses Politics, But Not Presidency

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Bush, 61, added: "I honestly think that that is a different kind of crime. There should be a price paid, but it shouldn't rile people up that people are actually coming to this country to provide for their families." Bush repeated at the event that he would decide on a presidential bid by the end of the year.
A comprehensive immigration reform bill passed the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate in June 2013 but has stalled in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

Republican lawmakers have cited deep divisions in the party over the issue, including granting legal status to 11 million undocumented immigrants.

A Republican Party review after the last presidential election had urged the party to embrace immigration reform to attract more Hispanic support. Democratic President Barack Obama, who was re-elected in 2012, won 71 percent of the Hispanic vote to Republican challenger Mitt Romney's 27 percent.

Immigration Reform Activists Block Tucson Court

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Recent polls have suggested that if he were to run, Bush, a former Florida governor, would be weighed down by Americans' lingering attitudes toward his brother, George W. Bush, who left office in January 2009 as one of the least popular presidents in U.S. history.

In a Washington Post/ABC News poll last month, nearly half the voters surveyed said they "definitely would not" vote for Jeb Bush in 2016 - a level of disapproval matched only by Romney. Even Bush's mother, former first lady Barbara Bush, has been lukewarm about the notion of another son running for president.

Asked by Bream about the critical considerations that would go into his decision on whether to run for the presidency, Bush said one was whether he could do it with a "hopeful, optimistic message" that avoids drawing him into a political "mudfight."

The other consideration, he said, "is it OK for my family? Is it something that isn't a huge sacrifice for our family." He added: "It turns out that not running has generated more interest than if I said I was running."

NYC Mayor de Blasio Rips Corporate Welfare, Champions a Living Wage - The Good Men Project

NYC Mayor de Blasio Rips Corporate Welfare, Champions a Living Wage - The Good Men ProjectJohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
The newly elected mayor of New York City has come out strong against corporate welfare and income inequality, and he has a plan to help remedy them. During an interview with WNYC reporter Brian Lehrer, Mayor Bill de Blasio said, “If we’re subsidizing companies, we have every right to demand a living wage for the people they pay.”

DeBlasio set his sights, more specifically, on the fast food industry. In October, a report found that American taxpayers hand out over $3.8 billion every year to help subsidize workers pay for the countries top 10 largest fast food chains. The subsidies include welfare to help supplement their workers’ poverty wages, SNAP benefits so they can afford to eat, and Medicaid so that they do not die from a preventable illness. All while raking in record profits year after year.

The increased awareness led to a historic walk out of non-unionized workers. Among their strongest supporters was de Blasio. Prior to his election,he joined fast food employees during protests in which they
demanded a higher minimum wages, benefits and a union. While the walk out was not immediate successful, they did change the conversation in America to a much more pressing issue. One that de Blasio heard loud and clear. At the time, he said,

“The bottom line is, this is an unsupportable situation where every day hard-working people can’t meet, and the companies involved certainly can do more.” Americans have built a cynicism towards what a politician says versus what they will actually do, and for good reason. When we vote, we make the best choice possible then hope we made the right choice. DeBlasio is not that kind of politician. Instead, he took to heart the anger and frustration of low-wage employees and wants to create laws that would help level the playing field.

The mayor is expected to soon introduce legislation expanding living wage protections to New York. Under a proposal introduced this past summer, de Blasio would raise the wage for employees at companies receiving city subsidies–including some retail and fast-food restaurants–to $11.75 an hour with benefits.
De Blasio said during the WNYC interview that he will fully unveil his plan to combat income inequality during next weeks State of the City address.

Another possible plan that de Blasio is considering is asking Albany to allow New York City the power to set its own minimum wage. This idea is a lot like the one that would split California into two different states. New York City is one of the most expensive cities to live in the world. The needs of the people in the city differ greatly from the rest of the state. Even at $11.75 an hour, trying to support a family would still be at a poverty level.

If de Blasio is granted the right to set his own minimum wage, it could give the city the power it needs to reduce income inequality. A higher minimum wage will mean more money in the pockets of workers which
builds a thriving economy. While Republicans will try to argue the theory that a higher minimum wage would mean less jobs, the facts simply say otherwise. De Blasio and the Democratic Party are on the right side
of this issue. The question is, will enough Americans create enough noise to force Congress to do the right thing by them?

Turkey shoots down Syrian plane it says violated air space - Yahoo News

Turkey shoots down Syrian plane it says violated air space - Yahoo News
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Turkish armed forces shot down a Syrian plane on Sunday that Ankara said had crossed into its air space
in an area where Syrian rebels have been battling President Bashar al-Assad's forces for control of a border crossing.
"A Syrian plane violated our airspace," Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told an election rally in northwest Turkey. "Our F-16s took off and hit this plane. Why? Because if you violate my airspace, our slap after this

will be hard."

Syria condemned what it called a "blatant aggression" and said the jet was pursuing rebel fighters inside Syria. It said the pilot had managed to eject before the plane crashed. The Turkish general staff said

one of its control centers detected two Syrian MIG-23s around 1 pm (1100 GMT) and warned them four times after they came close to the Turkish border.

One plane entered Turkish airspace at Yayladagi, east of the Kasab border crossing, it said. A Turkish F-16 fired a rocket at the Syrian jet and it crashed around 1,200 meters (1,300 yards) inside Syrian territory.

Amateur video released by rebel fighters showed smoke rising from wooded hills in the border area where they said the plane had come down. The rebels have been fighting since Friday for control of the Kasab

crossing, one of several counter-offensives since they retreated this week from a crusader castle near the Lebanese frontier and town on a vital cross-border supply route.

Gunfire in Syria as much awaited aid is halted 
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State television said Hilal al-Assad, a cousin of the president and local leader of the National Defence Force militia which has been supporting the army's efforts to crush the rebellion, was killed near Kasab on Sunday.

Assad's soldiers, backed by Iran and Shi'ite forces from Iraq and Lebanon's Hezbollah, have been pushing rebels back in the centre of the country around Damascus and Homs, but have only a minimal presence in most of north and eastern Syria.

"UNPRECEDENTED" TURKISH INTERVENTION
The incident occurred six months after Turkish warplanes shot down a Syrian helicopter which crossed into Turkish airspace in the same border area.

Once a close ally of Assad, Erdogan became a fierce critic of the president's military response to Syria's uprising and has sheltered and supported rebels battling to overthrow him. Authorities in Damascus say this
week's Islamist rebel offensive around the Kasab border crossing marked a new escalation, accusing Turkey of firing tank and artillery shells into Syria to provide cover for the fighters.

A source at Syria's foreign ministry called Turkey's actions "unprecedented and unjustified", state news agency SANA said.

More than 140,000 people have been killed in Syria's conflict, while 2.5 million refugees have fled to neighboring countries and millions more need humanitarian aid.

Assad's forces have already lost control of most border crossings with Turkey during the three-year civil
war but had held on to Kasab, gateway to the coastal province of Latakia that has remained an Assad stronghold.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said heavy clashes continued for a third day around Kasab, where rebels have seized control of the border crossing but Assad's forces, who still control
the nearby Kasab village, have been fighting back, supported by air power.

The British-based anti-Assad Observatory said rebels also launched another attack in Latakia on Sunday in the village of Solas, about 25 km (15 miles) south of Kasab. They also fired two rockets into the coastal city of Latakia, the main hub for operations to ship out Syria's chemical weapons for destruction under a deal reached with the United States and Russia. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

In the northern city of Aleppo, rebels said they had captured a former police station on the edge of the city's ancient citadel, as well as installations in the Layramoun district and a nearby hill overlooking the main road into Aleppo from the northwest.

Moldova tells Russia: don't eye annexation here - Yahoo News

Moldova tells Russia: don't eye annexation here - Yahoo News
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
The president of ex-Soviet Moldova warned Russia on Tuesday against considering any move to annex his
country's separatist Transdniestria region in the same way that it has taken control of Crimea in Ukraine.

The president's comments came one day after the speaker of Transdniestria's separatist parliament, during a trip to Moscow, urged Russia to incorporate his mainly Russian-speaking region, which split away from Moldova in 1990.

Moldovan President Nicolae Timofti said Russia would be making a "mistake" if it agreed to the request for annexation from Transdniestria's parliamentary speaker, Mikhail Burla. "This is an illegal body which has taken no decision on inclusion into Russia," Timofti told a news conference. "I believe that Burla's actions are counter-productive and will do no good for either Moldova or Russia. And if Russia makes a move to satisfy

such proposals, it will be making a mistake," he said. President Vladimir Putin and the ethnic Russian leaders of Ukraine's Crimea region signed a treaty on Tuesday in Moscow making the Black Sea peninsula part of Russia after its voters overwhelmingly backed such a move in a referendum on Sunday.

The Russian-speakers of Transdniestria seceded from Moldova in 1990, one year before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, amid fears that Moldova would shortly merge with neighboring Romania, whose language and culture it broadly shares.

The separatist region fought a brief war with Moldova in 1992 and it declared itself an independent state, but it remains unrecognized by any country, including Russia.

"INTERNATIONAL NORMS"

 Attempts to resolve the dispute have made little progress, with Russian "peacekeepers" standing guard over a large Soviet-era arsenal. A referendum in Transdniestria in 2006 produced a 97.2 percent vote in favor of joining Russia, an even higher score than in Crimea's referendum. Unlike Crimea, however, it is located far from Russia. It shares a border with Ukraine.

Moldova, one of Europe's poorest countries, has been governed by pro-Western leaders since 2009. It has clinched an association agreement with the European Union, as currently sought by the pro-Western leaders
who came to power in Ukraine after the removal of Moscow-backed President Viktor Yanukovich.

In his remarks, Timofti denounced as illegal the referendum in Crimea and any bid by Russia to annex the peninsula, echoing criticism from Ukraine's pro-Western leaders, the United States and EU countries.
Russia says it is acting in Crimea in accordance with international law. Timofti said Moldova wanted to solve its Transdniestria standoff through talks anchored in upholding the country's territorial integrity. "Russia has repeatedly stood by this. Our expectations from Russia are that it will observe international norms in Transdniestria," he said. Reports from Moscow said speaker Burla told Russian officials his region had given approval in principle to a law that would ensure the implementation of Russian legislation by Transdniestria.

"Transdniestria's very difficult situation could be made even worse if Moldova, which has already signed an association agreement with the EU, now adopts restrictive economic measures," Russian media quoted Burla as saying. It was Yanukovich's decision last November not to sign Ukraine's association agreement with

the EU and to seek closer economic ties with Russia instead that ignited the street protests that eventually forced his removal from office.

Baltimore set to repay $4 million in misspent homeless funds | Baltimore Brew

Baltimore set to repay $4 million in misspent homeless funds | Baltimore Brew
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
In a major setback to The Journey Home, the mayor’s signature homeless program, the Board of Estimates is scheduled to allocate nearly $4 million in general funds to reimburse the federal government for
mishandling homeless funds spent between 2009 and 2011.

The settlement, listed on Wednesday’s board agenda, will end a nearly two-year battle with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) over the use of $9.5 million in Homelessness
Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing funds awarded to Baltimore as part of President Obama’s 2009 Recovery Act.

Following a critical audit by HUD’s Inspector General, the agency made a final determination that $3,756,025.35 of the funds given to non-profit grantees as part of The Journey Home program violated federal eligibility requirements or were not part of the program’s terms and conditions.

City Hall Deflects Blame
A dozen providers – including Prisoner’s Aid Association, People Encouraging People (PEP), AIDS Interfaith Residential Services (AIRS), the city’s Community Action Centers, and St. Vincent de Paul – could not document how millions of dollars were used.

The Mayor’s Office of Human Services administered the funds, and United Way of Central Maryland served as fiscal agent for The Journey Home program.

Both groups allowed federal funds to be dispersed to providers on a predetermined basis before any documentation of spending was received, according to HUD’s Inspector General.

HUD reported that several subgrantees had conflicts of interest, and the city’s Homeless Services office hired a top employee based on an “oral contract” that was paid for with federal funds. In response,
Olivia Farrow, director of Human Services, and Kate Briddell, Homeless Services chief, insisted that the city would document and account for all of the spending.

Even last month, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was denying that the matter was anything more serious than misplaced paperwork and confusion caused by a federal program that was hastily set up to address the Great Recession and mortgage crisis.

The mayor said other cities also failed to document funds for the program, but a review of HUD inspection reports by The Brew indicated that Baltimore was, by far, the worst violator.
Following media reports, officials from St. Vincent De Paul, Catholic Charities and Health Care for the Homeless stood alongside the mayor last month to defend the program.

Asked who was to blame for the debacle, the Mayor told The Brew: “I tend to think blame is someone else’s game. This to me is about serving homeless individuals, and this was done. Serving families in need, and that was done. For me, at the end of the day, it’s about reputable service providers providing good services for people in need.”
___________________________________________________________
OUR COVERAGE OF THE DISPUTED FUNDS
• What a federal audit tells us about city spending (12/5/12)

• City reserves $7 million to repay mismanaged federal homeless grant (12/3/13)

• Questions but no answers on mismanaged homeless services grant (1/8/14)

• HUD tells city to repay nearly $4 million in misspent homeless funds (2/25/14)

• Documents show: HUD last year ordered review of 64 homeless grants (2/26/14)

• Mayor and homeless providers praise grants faulted by HUD (2/26/14)
__________________________________________________________
During the February 26 news conference, the mayor cautioned reporters that the city may not have to reimburse HUD in cash. She said, “There are a lot of ways to get to that 3.7 [million dollars]. At this point,
it is not clear whether it has to be dollar-for-dollar.”

Asked if the city was seeking a special deal with HUD, she answered, “It’s too early to say.” In its still-unreleased report (obtained by The Brew), HUD’s Baltimore field office stipulated that the money had to come from non-federal city funds, meaning from the taxpayer-financed general fund.

This week’s Board of Estimates agenda shows that the federal government hasn’t backed down – and is demanding its money right down to the penny.

Crimeans overwhelmingly vote for secession - Yahoo News

Crimeans overwhelmingly vote for secession - Yahoo News
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Fireworks exploded and Russian flags fluttered above jubilant crowds Sunday after residents in Crimea
voted overwhelmingly to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. The United States and Europe condemned the ballot as illegal and destabilizing and were expected to slap sanctions against Russia for it.

Related Stories

• Crimea votes on whether to secede from Ukraine Associated Press
• Ukraine PM says his nation will 'never surrender' Associated Press
• Crimea nearer to split with Ukraine MarketWatch
• Crimeans vote today in a disputed referendum to split from Ukraine The Week (RSS)
• Crimeans vote today in a disputed referendum on whether to split from Ukraine The Week (RSS)

Ukraine's new government in Kiev called the referendum a "circus" directed at gunpoint by Moscow — referring to the thousands of Russian troops now in the strategic Black Sea peninsula after seizing it two weeks ago.

But after the polls closed late Sunday, crowds of ethnic Russians in the regional Crimean capital of Simferopol erupted with jubilant chants in the main square, overjoyed at the prospect of once again becoming part of Russia.

The Crimea referendum offered voters the choice of seeking annexation by Russia or remaining in Ukraine with greater autonomy. After 50 percent of the ballots were counted, Mikhail Malishev, head of the referendum committee, said more than 95 percent of voters had approved splitting off and joining Russia.

Opponents of secession appeared to have stayed away Sunday, denouncing the vote as a cynical power play and land grab by Russia.

Russia was expected to face strong sanctions Monday by the U.S. and Europe over the vote, which could also encourage rising pro-Russian sentiment in Ukraine's east and lead to further divisions in this nation of 46
million. Residents in western Ukraine and the capital, Kiev, are strongly pro-West and Ukrainian nationalist.

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An Ukrainian policeman exits a voting booth after casting his vote in Perevalne, Ukraine, Sunday, Ma …

The Crimean parliament will meet Monday to formally ask Moscow to be annexed and Crimean lawmakers will fly to Moscow later in the day for talks, Crimea's pro-Russia prime minister said on Twitter.

In Moscow, the speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament, Sergei Naryshkin, suggested that joining Russia was a done deal.
"We understand that for 23 years after Ukraine's formation as a sovereign state, Crimeans have been waiting for this day," Naryshkin was quoted as saying by the state ITAR-Tass news agency.

Russian lawmaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky said the annexation could take "from three days to three months," according to Interfax.
Some residents in Crimea said they feared the new Ukrainian government that took over when President Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia last month will oppress them.

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A Ukrainian policeman looks at ballot boxes after casting his vote in Perevalne, Ukraine, Sunday, Ma … "It's like they're crazy Texans in western Ukraine. Imagine if the Texans suddenly took over power (in Washington) and told everyone they should speak Texan," said Ilya Khlebanov, a voter in Simferopol.

In Sevastopol, the Crimean port where Russia now leases a major naval base from Ukraine for $98 million a year, more than 70 people surged into a polling station in the first 15 minutes of voting Sunday.

Ukraine's new prime minister insisted that neither Ukraine nor the West would recognize the vote.
"Under the stage direction of the Russian Federation, a circus performance is underway: the so-called referendum," Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Sunday. "Also taking part in the performance are 21,000 Russian troops, who with their guns are trying to prove the legality of the
referendum."
As soon as the polls closed, the White House again denounced the vote.

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Pro-Russia demonstrators storm the prosecutor general's office during a rally in Donetsk, Ukrain … "The international community will not recognize the results of a poll administered under threats of violence," it said in a statement. "Russia's actions are dangerous and destabilizing."

Russia raised the stakes Saturday when its forces, backed by helicopter gunships and armored vehicles, took control of the Ukrainian village of Strilkove and a key natural gas distribution plant nearby— the first Russian military move into Ukraine beyond the Crimean peninsula of 2 million people. The Russian forces later returned the village but kept control of the gas plant.

On Sunday, Ukrainian soldiers were digging trenches and erecting barricades between the village and the gas plant.
"We will not let them advance further into Ukrainian territory," said Serhiy Kuz, commander of a Ukrainian paratrooper battalion.

Despite the threat of sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin has vigorously resisted calls to pull back in Crimea. At the United Nations on Saturday, Russia vetoed a Security Council resolution declaring the
referendum illegal. China, its ally, abstained and 13 of the 15 other nations on the council voted in favor.

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A man and child exit a voting booth after casting a vote in the Crimean referendum in Simferopol, Uk … German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke to Putin by phone Sunday, proposing that an international observer mission in Ukraine be expanded quickly as tensions rise in the east. Her spokesman said she also condemned the Russian seizure of the gas plant.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry also spoke and agreed to support constitutional reforms in Ukraine that could ease the tensions, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. Ukraine's Regional Policy Minister Volodymyr Groisman told The Associated Press the new government was already working on giving towns and regions more autonomy but said there were no plans to turn Ukraine into a federation.

In Donetsk, one of the main cities in eastern Ukraine, pro-Russia demonstrators called Sunday for a referendum similar to the one in Crimea.

In Sevastopol, speakers blared the city anthem up and down the streets but the military threat was not far away — a Russian naval warship still blocked the port's outlet to the Black Sea, trapping Ukrainian boats.

At a polling station inside a historic school, tears came to Vladimir Lozovoy, a 75-year-old retired Soviet naval officer, as he talked about his vote.

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A woman casts her ballot at a polling station in Simferopol, Ukraine, Sunday, March 16, 2014. Reside … "I want to cry. I have finally returned to my motherland. It is an incredible feeling. This is the thing I have been waiting for for 23 years," he said.

But Crimea's large Muslim Tatar minority — whose families had been forcibly removed from their homeland and sent to Central Asia during Soviet times — remained defiant.
The Crimea referendum "is a clown show, a circus," Tatar activist Refat Chubarov said on Crimea's Tatar television station. "This is a tragedy, an illegitimate government with armed forces from another country."

The fate of Ukrainian soldiers trapped in their Crimean bases by pro-Russian forces was still uncertain. But Ukraine's acting defense minister, Igor Tenyuk, was quoted as saying Sunday that an agreement had been reached with Russia not to block Ukrainian soldiers in Crimea through Friday. It was not clear exactly what that meant.

On the streets of Simferopol, blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags were nowhere to seen but red, white and blue Russian and Crimean flags fluttered in abundance.

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A man holds a ballot after casting a vote in favor of separation from Ukraine in the Crimean referen …

Ethnic Ukrainians
interviewed outside the Ukrainian Orthodox cathedral of Vladimir and
Olga said they refused to take part in the referendum, calling it an
illegal charade stage-managed by Moscow. Some said they were scared of
the potential for widespread harassment.

"We're just not going to play these separatist games," said Yevgen Sukhodolsky, a 41-year-old prosecutor from Saki, a town outside Simferopol. "Putin is the fascist. The Russian government is fascist." Vasyl Ovcharuk, a retired gas pipe layer, predicted dark days ahead for Crimea. "This will end up in military action, in which peaceful people will suffer. And that means everybody. Shells and bullets are blind," he said.

Waiting for China to Speak Out Against Putin - Bloomberg View

Waiting for China to Speak Out Against Putin - Bloomberg View
\JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
The world's condemnation of Vladimir Putin's power grab in Ukraine is missing one important voice: China's. That's no surprise.
Since assuming office, Chinese President Xi Jinping has put great emphasis on building up his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Both men fancy themselves strong, charismatic leaders bent on restoring their nations to greatness.
But if China wants to be the world leader it claims to be, it cannot afford to sit on the sidelines this
time. Xi spoke with U.S. President Barack Obama on Sunday night and, contrary to Russian claims
of Chinese support, agreed on the "importance of upholding principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity, both in the context of Ukraine and also for the broader functioning of the international system." That's a nod in the right direction, not a bold step.
The difficulty for Xi is that he considers Russia -- his first overseas stop after becoming president -- to be a useful counterbalance to the West. It's also an increasingly important source of energy and advanced weaponry.
Even as China, in its one public comment on Russia's incursion in Crimea, reaffirmed its respect for Ukraine's independence and sovereignty, it underscored that "there are reasons that the Ukrainian situation is what it is
today" -- a reference to the messy collapse of the Soviet Union, which both Xi and Putin agree was a tragedy.
Yet the real bond in the Sino-Russian relationship is the very principle Putin has just violated in Ukraine: noninterference in another nation's internal affairs. Moscow and Beijing cling tightly to the dictum to justify United Nations Security Council vetoes. It's critical to both, given their shared worries about how outsiders might exploit ethnic tensions and democracy movements within their countries.
If Putin continues to advance in Ukraine, forcing a military confrontation or breakup of the country, he may well push China to take a stronger stand. The truth is that in material terms, China gains less than Russia does
from their relationship. The latter accounts for a little more than 2 percent of China's external trade. While volumes are growing, in 2011 China got only about 6 percent of its imported oil from Russia. And though China is Russia's largest trading partner, Putin has also been hedging his bets. He has sought to expand rail links, pipelines and energy exports not just to China but also to both Koreas and to China's archrival Japan.
Russia is aiming to sell sophisticated weaponry to India, and has deepened economic and military relations with Vietnam. Moscow has longstanding fears about Beijing's influence in its Far East, where an influx of Chinese traders has virtually colonized the region.
In other matters affecting international stability, China has acknowledged its responsibility to get involved. It has, for instance, agreed to chase pirates off the coast of Somalia even if they flee into territorial waters, and it has chosen not to obstruct some international sanctions against Iran and North Korea. Implicitly tolerating Putin's adventurism now only reinforces fears about China's behavior -- especially among its neighbors, who already suspect that it aims to annex several islands and atolls across the East and South China Seas.
China ultimately shares the same goals in Ukraine as the rest of the world: to affirm the sanctity of international borders, avoid bloodshed and restore stability to global markets as quickly as possible. All would be accomplished much faster and more durably if China spoke out now against Putin's aggression.

Is Ben Carson 2016's sleeper candidate? | TheHill

Is Ben Carson 2016's sleeper candidate? | TheHill
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Neurologist Ben Carson could be 2016’s sleeper presidential contender. You won’t find him in early polls, and he doesn’t make headlines for huddling with top advisers in primary states. Carson is lauded for his plainspoken yet forceful ability to speak clearly about the party’s values. The retired neurosurgeon, rose to prominence after delivering a controversial speech at last year’s National Prayer Breakfast, where he lambasted President Obama and his policies while standing just feet away from the president.

Now, his supporters believe Carson, as a black Republican and a true political outsider, could be the one GOP candidate capable of taking down Hillary Clinton.
That simple star power has made him one of the biggest draws at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, earned him a prime speaking slot on Saturday, and and even inspired an unlikely movement to draft him into the presidential race.
But for as much of a surprise as his rise with conservatives has been, he’s still a reluctant candidate. Carson maintains he doesn’t want to run and isn’t making any serious preparations for a bid, but in a Thursday interview with The Hill, it was clear that he has thought seriously about the logistics of a campaign.
“My hope, obviously, is that someone else will really catch fire and generate a great deal of enthusiasm. If that doesn’t happen in another year and there’s still a lot of people clamoring for another option, then I will have to really look seriously at it,” he told The Hill in a phone conversation.
But people are already clamoring for Carson. He wouldn’t give specifics on where his packed speaking schedule had taken him in the past few months, but said he visits states in every corner of the country, headlining fundraisers and civic events and speaking at schools about conservative principles and on the dangers of ObamaCare.
“People are so thrilled to see that they’re not the only one with common sense. But the problem is the
people with common sense have been beaten down so they’re afraid to express themselves,” he said.
That’s why he’s trying to “wake the American people up” — a central theme of his speech on on CPAC’s closing day.
“I’m going to talk about how [conservatives have] been picking on little things and making big arguments out of them, rather than looking at the big things that are destroying our country,” he said, noting the national debt as an example of a troubling “big thing.”
But don’t call his address a precursor to a presidential run. Carson said that “if it’s supposed to happen it’s going to happen,” and that he’s leaving the preparations “in the hands of God.” Or, the hands of Vernon
Robinson, a former congressional candidate and George H.W. Bush appointee and one of the co-founders of the Draft Ben Carson for President Committee.
The organization raised $2.83 million from 47,000 donors in its first six months of operation — considerably more than the $1.25 million the similar “Ready for Hillary” effort made in its first six months, and they’ve deployed 1,700 active volunteers to GOP functions nationwide to gather draft signatures. Standing in the noisy hallways of CPAC, where a troupe of volunteers were passing out “Ben Carson for President” swag two floors down, Robinson told The Hill that the group is hoping to triple that sum by the end of the year.
“We’re trying to do three things: Get a million people to sign the [draft] petition by the end of the year, raise someplace between $7 or 8 million from 150,000 donors by the end of the year and we’re trying to build a
political infrastructure,” he said.
Robinson is so enthusiastic about Carson for president because, he says, he may be the only candidate that can take down Clinton.
“He’s the only guy who can broaden the GOP base, get 17 percent of the black vote, get a healthy number of Hispanic voters, while still staying true to conservative ideals,” Robinson said. “[Carson’s] very effective at communicating conservative ideas so that the average American can understand.
Carson said he was aware of the draft effort but that he would “have to see something on a sustained basis” in terms of encouragement to run, and that “$2-3 million is not anywhere close to enough money” to support a campaign.
Carson did say, however, “I’ve heard from some very big donors” encouraging him to run, though he wouldn’t offer any names. He readily acknowledges that he’s not steeped in politics and would need a
team with that experience to mount a strong challenge.
And, as any serious contender would do, he’s sizing up the field before he makes his decision.
“I really am waiting more to see what the field looks like. If there’s somebody out there who is truly exciting people, there wouldn’t be any need for me to run,” he said.
But that hasn’t happened yet: “I think there are a lot of potential people. No one has really grabbed the
imagination of the American people.” Indeed, if the need is there, he just might do it. Begrudgingly.
“I don’t particularly want to do it,” he told The Hill, “but I would never turn my back on my fellow Americans.”

Mitch McConnell On Tea Party Challengers: 'We Are Going To Crush Them Everywhere'

Mitch McConnell On Tea Party Challengers: 'We Are Going To Crush Them Everywhere'
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says he isn't worried about tea party-backed candidates challenging GOP incumbents in this year's midterm elections.

"I think we are going to crush them everywhere," McConnell told the New York Times in an interview published Saturday. "I don't think they are going to have a single nominee anywhere in the country."

McConnell is one of several senators facing tea party opposition in their primary races this spring. McConnell's main opponent is Kentucky businessman Matt Bevin, who has spent the campaign attacking the senator's conservative credentials. As the Associated Press reported last month, McConnell and other GOP incumbents have started to come out aggressively against these candidates, using opposition research to undermine them.

“Mitch McConnell is clearly in trouble in this primary or he wouldn’t be attacking Matt Bevin and declaring
war on conservatives,” the Senate Conservatives Fund's Matt Hoskins told the Times.

However, polls in the race tell a different story. A survey released last month by GOP firm Wenzel Strategies found McConnell with a 42 point lead over Bevin, while a Bluegrass Poll pinned McConnell's lead at 26 points.

The Kentucky primary will be held May 20.

Michele Bachmann jewsplains to U.S. Jews that they are buzzkilling her End Times dream date | The Raw Story

Michele Bachmann jewsplains to U.S. Jews that they are buzzkilling her End Times dream date | The Raw Story

JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Michele Bachmann (R-North Bedlam) is not very happy with American Jews. No siree, she most definitely is not.

After all that American conservative evangelical Christians have done for The Chosen People, they persist in not choosing Republicans at the voting booth. C’mon, you guys! The Bible-thumpers are totally looking
the other way about that little misunderstanding a couple of thousand years ago when you guys kinda-sorta killed Their Lord and Savior, The Prince of Peace, Son ‘O God: Jesus “MC J.C” Christ.

So can you folks of the Hebrew persuasion maybe help a Brother In Christ out and  vote for a Republican, even if he’s a Mormon,  once in awhile?

C’mon …. be a mensch (Jewish for: ‘cool dude’) just once!

Apparently it’s not in the Kabbalah cards,  so Michele sat down with Tony Perkins from the Family Research Council, (‘Murican for: ‘chock full ‘o Godbotherers’) to explain that U.S Jews are bring about the destruction of their homeland – which is, admittedly,  kind of bad for them – but it’s actually really worse for her because she’s not getting any younger and the End Times aren’t getting here any faster.

And you know why?

According to Right Wing Watch, Michele says it’s all because of those meddling Jews and that schvartzer in the, previously, White House:

The Jewish community gave him their votes, their support, their financial support and as recently as last week, forty-eight Jewish donors who are big contributors to the president wrote a letter to the Democrat [sic] senators in the US Senate to tell them to not advance sanctions against Iran. This is clearly against Israel’s best interest. What has been shocking has been seeing and observing Jewish organizations who it appears have made it their priority to support the political priority and the political ambitions of the president over the best interests of Israel. They sold out Israel. Why it was just last year when Bachmann warned that the End Times Are Nigh:

“This happened and as of today the United States is willingly, knowingly, intentionally sending arms to terrorists, now what this says to me, I’m a believer in Jesus Christ, as I look at the End Times scripture, this says to me that the leaf is on the fig tree and we are to understand the signs of the times, which is your ministry, we are to understand where we are in God’s end times history.”

“Rather than seeing this as a negative, we need to rejoice, Maranatha
Come Lord Jesus, His day is at hand,” Bachmann continued. “When we see
up is down and right is called wrong, when this is happening, we were
told this; these days would be as the days of Noah.”

Cosmology note:  Noah opens nationwide on March 28, so that has to mean something. Right?

Anyway, everybody knows that Jesus won’t come back until Israel is all nice and tidy,  so it would be greatly appreciated if the U.S. Jews would clean up their act, stop hanging around with riff-raff (like giving him money and smokes), and stop treating Israel like a frat house; maybe make the bed,  wash a few dishes and take out the empties.

Then, when He gets here, the Jews  can all convert which will totally make up for that little whoopsie-doodle! from a couple of thousand years ago…

Bless your Savior-denying  (John. 1:11) hearts…

Big names set to win in Texas primaries shaken by Tea Party influence - Yahoo News

Big names set to win in Texas primaries shaken by Tea Party influence - Yahoo News
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Texans went to the polls on Tuesday in primary elections where the top candidates for governor were
projected to post easy wins and favorites of the conservative Tea Party movement shook up several races with established Republicans.
U.S. Senator John Cornyn, a Republican, will win his race by a wide margin, local media projected. Attorney General Greg Abbott, the leading Republican candidate for governor, and state Senator Wendy Davis, the top Democratic Party candidate, were also projected to win in landslides, they said.

Run-off elections will be held on May 27 between the top two vote-getters in races where a single candidate did not win an outright majority.

The vote marks a changing of the guard for the Republicans with long-serving Governor Rick Perry not seeking re-election, perhaps to pursue a presidential run in 2016. Republicans dominate the statehouse and have not lost a statewide race since 1994. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz has emerged as one of the leaders of the Texas Republicans, pushing politics in the already conservative state even further to the right, analysts said. He is a favorite of the Tea Party movement, which is considered both conservative and libertarian and also populist in advocating for a smaller federal government and tax cuts.

Perry, governor since 2000, has won praise for increasing jobs, exports and the size of the Texas economy, which has a $1.4 trillion annual GDP, slightly larger than South Korea's.
Perry has been criticized for not doing enough to improve schools or provide health insurance for the poor,
while pushing a socially conservative agenda with increased abortion restrictions and a ban on same-sex marriage.
A host of Republican hopefuls have been trying to ride on the coattails of new star Cruz, turning campaigns into raucous affairs about how much they despise President Barack Obama's healthcare policy, embrace the constitutional right to bear arms and see a need to raise alarms about undocumented immigrants.
"The Republican lieutenant governor's race and attorney general's race have been races to the right," said Sherri Greenberg, Director at the Center for Politics and Governance at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas.
These two races were likely heading for run-offs. In the Dallas area, U.S. Representative Pete Sessions is the most prominent Republican in the Tea Party firing line. Challenger Katrina Pierson's website features a picture of Cruz and a quote in which he calls her "an utterly fearless principled conservative."
Less than 1 percent of the precincts had reported in that race as of 8:30 p.m. U.S. Central Time, according to official voting results. In neighboring Fort Worth, Cruz has endorsed local Tea Party leader Konni Burton as the Republican nominee for a state Senate seat. Burton was the early leader in the race.
State Senator Ken Paxton, running in a crowded field for attorney general, has featured a comment on his website in which Cruz calls him a "conservative warrior."
Paxton took an early lead over Dan Branch, a long-serving member of the Texas House in that race.

Former NAACP President Ben Jealous Joins Kapor Center - The Root

Former NAACP President Ben Jealous Joins Kapor Center - The Root

JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Benjamin Jealous left the NAACP in January, but, he says, he plans to “stay on track with my life’s mission of leveling the playing field in this country.” And in the next phase of his career—as a venture partner at
the Kapor Center for Social Impact—he’ll be focused on “trying new ways” to expand opportunities for young black and Latino students and entrepreneurs.

Jealous—who became the youngest-ever president and CEO of the nation’s best-known civil rights organization when he took over at the end of 2008—is moving on, but he’s clear about what his legacy is at the NAACP.

Brought in to bring the association into the digital age and get “engaged online in a serious way,” Jealous says that under his leadership, the NAACP “went from less than 200,000 to more than 2 million digital activists.” He believes that “in any type of battle,” including ongoing civil rights struggles, “the ability to get the resources to the front line is really what makes or breaks your success.” And to that end, he says, in five years the association was able to “massively expand” its donor base.

Going forward, Jealous says, “restoring Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act” will be the NAACP’s top priority, but it’s one they’ll have to take on without him, because he’s already beginning a new chapter at Kapor.

The center invests in tech companies that aim to narrow the divide in educational and entrepreneurial opportunities for African Americans and Latinos, particularly in the information technology sector.

When asked if part of the motivation for his next move was a sense that civil rights was migrating away from a government focus—particularly in light of President Barack Obama’s new emphasis on public-private partnerships like his My Brother’s Keeper initiative—Jealous suggested that his is a “‘both-and’ generation” of civil rights leaders who have “stayed in the groove of ‘We shall overcome’” and “resisted the temptation of ‘I shall overcome,’” and have “understood implicitly that we have to be willing” to address civil rights challenges “by any means that work.”

That includes My Brother’s Keeper, of which the Kapor Center is a sponsor.

He’ll be working now to “diversify the start-up culture of the Silicon Valley by any means,” including efforts like Kapor’s sponsorship of “hack-athons” that provide experience for elementary and middle schools students who want to enhance their computer-programming skills and its funding of University Now, a program designed to ease the cost burden of tuition for minority students seeking advanced degrees.

The Kapor Center also works with start-ups like Pigeon.ly, a service that provides lower-cost digital communication between prison inmates and their families, and Regalii, another service that allows immigrant families to digitally pay bills for their families in their home countries.

The goal, says Jealous, is to provide seed investments for “disruptive technologies that promise to have a positive social impact” and “close gaps in access, opportunity and participation” for African Americans and Latinos in the start-up economy.

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Dreaming of a White GOP - The Daily Beast

Dreaming of a White GOP - The Daily Beast
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
In the dreams of one infamous conservative writer, the GOP is the party of white people. But the reality is that the dream has already come true.

John Derbyshire was a columnist for the National Review before he was fired for defending his racism in print. Now, the erstwhile pundit is writing for white nationalists, and denouncing Republicans for trying to expand their tent and appeal to minorities:

He said “conservatives are the only people in the U.S.A. trying to ‘transcend contentious racial issues,’” but agreed  with his “friend” — white nationalist Jared Taylor – that white people should stop trying to get along with black people. “Whites may as well start asserting themselves  and join in fighting for the spoils,” Derbyshire said. “If that’s right, ‘colorblind conservatism’ is a dead end, and the future of the conservative movement is as a home for white ethnocentrism.”What’s funny, of course, is that this isn’t far from the GOP’s current  position. Setting aside questions of policy and ideology, it’s a simply a fact that the vast majority of Republican voters are white. In 2012, 87 percent of self-described Republicans were white, according to a  pre-election analysis from the Pew Research Center. Likewise, a 2013 survey from Gallup found similar results—89 percent of Republican responders  were white, compared to 2 percent who were black and 6 percent who were  Latino.

What’s more, on an ideological level, the Republican  preference for low taxes, small government, and fewer services is  attractive to white voters with high levels of ethnocentrism or racial  resentment. To wit, in their book Us Against Them: The Ethnocentric Foundations of American Public Opinion, political scientists Donald Kinder and Cindy Cam find a strong connection between white ethnocentrism and opposition to higher spending on welfare, food stamps, and other public assistance programs. This, however, doesn’t extend to Medicare and Social Security—there, ethnocentrism correlates with higher support.

In other words, the stronger you identify with being white, the more likely it is you want cuts to welfare and other programs associated with minorities. By contrast, you don’t have the same antipathy for our entitlement
programs, which lack the same association.

This, it should be said, has a clean fit with the GOP’s domestic approach, which combines traditional entitlement spending with deep cuts to safety net programs like food stamps and unemployment insurance.

To return to Derbyshire’s argument, it is more than clear that the Republican Party is preferred vehicle of ethnocentric whites. But this isn’t to say that the party is prejudiced, or acting with ill-intent. Far from
it. Instead, it’s to make this observation: If you oppose spending on minorities, then your interests overlap with the party that opposes spending, period. Or, put another way, the GOP can reject the Derbyshires of the world, but as long as it sticks to small government conservatism, it can’t avoid them.

Afro Latinos' Mixed Identity Can Leave Them Out of the Mix

Afro Latinos' Mixed Identity Can Leave Them Out of the Mix
JohnButts@JBMedia Reports:
Afro Latino Marco Davis laughed when he recalled the lengths he went to keep in touch with Black and Latino alumni groups when he graduated from Yale University.
“One year I would put down that I was Hispanic so I could keep in touch with the Latino groups on campus that I was involved with, and another year I would put down Black, so I could get their information. I would alternate because I wasn’t able to put down that I belonged to both,” said Davis, 43, who has a Jamaican father and a Mexican mother. “The university said they didn’t have it built in to their computers to check off more than one box at a time, and I had to do just one.” Like Davis, other Afro Latino Americans feel they
straddle two communities, each with a distinct heritage and history celebrated in the U.S. eight months apart. Black History Month comes to a close Friday and Hispanic Heritage Month begins in mid-September.
Black Latinos say there is little understanding of their mixed heritage, and little knowledge of the history of the importation of slaves by Spanish-speaking countries of which many, though not all, are descendants.
Yet growing racial pride and a move to a more multiracial society with changing demographics are helping this group stake a claim to being both Black and Latino.
Davis, now working in the Obama administration in Washington, D.C., grew up in a predominantly African American neighborhood in New York. “We weren’t Puerto Rican (the majority Latino population in New York), and people never heard of people like us,” explained Davis. “The Black people knew we spoke Spanish but they didn’t make the connection to the Hispanic community, and the Latinos didn’t quite get it, and others just assumed I was Black and that’s it.” But he attended Mass at a Mexican church two towns over, and spent summers visiting relatives in his mother’s hometown of Guadalajara, Mexico. In college, he joined a historically Black fraternity while also becoming involved with Latino groups on campus. “It really opened my eyes. I felt connected to both, but I remember being asked what would my loyalty be if there was ever a problem, and I would think, why do I have to choose? I navigate both worlds. I don’t have a choice. It’s who I am.”
That is the fundamental challenge of being an Afro Latino in the United States, said Davis. “I walk down the street and people assume I am a Black man and nothing more. The story of the Afro Latinos is a chapter in our society that hasn’t been well written. It’s a story that still needs to be told. We are of both worlds. It’s not either or, and people don’t get that.”
Some of that history will be discussed Thursday night in Washington, D.C. at a symposium on Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, held by the Smithsonian Latino Center and the Schomburg Center.
A writer, historian and activist, Schomburg is the namesake of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, part of the New York Public Library system. Schomburg’s research collection laid the
foundation for the study of Black history and culture, according to the library.
But many may not know that in addition to being a Black man, Schomburg was Puerto Rican and self-identified as afroborinqueño. Puerto Rico was known as Borinquen before the arrival of the Spanish.
“He pioneered the concept of an African Diaspora — that Black people around the world are connected,” said Ranald Woodaman, Smithsonian Latino Center director. Schomburg was also involved in fighting for the
independence of Cuba and Puerto Rico. Woodman said it is important for Latinos to claim his “Latinidad” as well, and make sure he is part of the Latino Pantheon. Last week, the Washington, D.C. Mayor’s
Office on Latino Affairs, with the Afro Latino Alliance, held a two-day forum and gala devoted to recognizing dual Afro Latino identity. Organizers deliberately chose Black History Month for the event and
plans are being made for an event in September. “Afro Latinos have a right to celebrate Black History Month,” said Roland Roebuck, 66, a D.C. government retiree who advises the Afro Latino Alliance in
Washington, D.C.
Roebuck said an “invisibility” exists, which often keeps Afro Latinos “out of the mix.” Born in New York and raised in Puerto Rico, Roebuck said when he first moved to Washington in the early 1970s, after serving in the U.S. Air Force, he was told by African Americans, “you’re not a full-time brother.”
“The African American community may find it strange, but the only difference between us is the language, and the geography. It’s about where the slave ships landed,” Roebuck said.
Howard University history lecturer J. Santiago Mauer, who also uses the pen name Msomi Santiago Moor, said Black people don’t just speak English, but he did not know that growing up in Ohio as an African American.
Afro Latinos, he said, “need to be unapologetically Black. It’s okay to be Black and speak Spanish.”
About 3 percent of the 51 million people who identified as Hispanic or Latino on the 2010 Census also identified as Black.

<blockquote”>

The story of the Afro Latinos is a chapter in our society that hasn’t been well written. It’s a story that still needs to be told.

Filmmaker Dash Harris, who is of Panamanian descent, hopes to bring more exposure to the Afro Latino experience though a documentary series, Negro. Harris said the work grew from her own frustrations.

“I was exhausted trying to explain who I am,” Harris said. “I’m not here to convince anyone about their African ancestry because that’s a fact. It’s about educating the next generation.”

Afro Latina Sarita Copeland Singh, a Washington lawyer married to a Trinidadian with Indian roots, said she sees change afoot.

“We definitely need to hear and learn more about Afro Latinos so that it won’t seem so unusual,” said Singh, 30, who is of Panamanian descent. “My young daughter already moves easily between both worlds.”

UN wants 10,000 soldiers, 1,820 police for C.Africa - Yahoo News

UN wants 10,000 soldiers, 1,820 police for C.Africa - Yahoo News
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Monday recommended deploying 11,820 peacekeepers in strife-torn Central African Republic, including 10,000 soldiers and 1,820 police officers, to re-establish order.
In a report sent to the 15 members of the Security Council, Ban specified that the peacekeeping mission should focus, in the initial stage, on "the protection of civilians." However, the mandate for the proposed operation would be progressively expanded to cover "support for the political process" of transition, in

particular restoring the government's authority over the country and organizing elections, safeguarding the delivery of humanitarian aid, the respect of human rights and the return of those displaced by the violence.

"It is envisaged that the strength of the peacekeeping operation would comprise up to 10,000 troops and 1,820 police personnel," and included logistical and transport support, such as helicopters, the report explained. The deployment would be rolled out in stages. "To deal with immediate security needs, there will be an initial surge of military personnel and corresponding military enablers," the report said. "Police will also be phased in and, as the security environment improves, should eventually replace the bulk of the initial military surge capacity," first in the capital, Bangui, and then in the provinces. Little by little, a large civilian component would be added, though the report does not specify exact numbers. These civilians -- administrators, engineers, rights observers and lawyers -- will be charged with helping organize elections, promote national reconciliation and to rebuild a national government that hasn't been effective for months and which no longer provides essential services for the population. But even in the best case, UN peacekeepers couldn't be deployed for another six months -- not before September or October -- because of the time

required to mount such an operation. The former French colony was thrown into chaos after rebels from the mainly Muslim Seleka group seized power in a March 2013 coup. The Muslim-Christian violence that has erupted in its wake -- killing thousands and displacing around a quarter of the country's 4.6 million people -- has prompted the United Nations to speak of fears of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

An African Union-led force, MISCA, nearly 6,000-strong, is already engaged on the ground, as are 2,000 French soldiers from the Sangaris operation.