Obama presses liberal agenda as he starts 2nd term

FILE - In this Jan. 14, 2013 file photo, President Barack Obama gestures speaks during his final news conference of his first term in the East Room of the White House in Washington. President Barack Obama's fledgling second term agenda so far reads like a progressive wish list. In less than a week, he's vowed to tackle climate change, expand gay rights and protect government entitlements. His administration lifted a ban on women in combat and expanded opportunities for disabled students. Proposals for stricter gun laws have already been unveiled and plans for comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants, are coming soon. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

FILE - In this Jan. 14, 2013 file photo, President Barack Obama gestures speaks during his final news conference of his first term in the East Room of the White House in Washington. President Barack Obama's fledgling second term agenda so far reads like a progressive wish list. In less than a week, he's vowed to tackle climate change, expand gay rights and protect government entitlements. His administration lifted a ban on women in combat and expanded opportunities for disabled students. Proposals for stricter gun laws have already been unveiled and plans for comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants, are coming soon. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? From gun control to gay rights, President Barack Obama's second-term agenda is shaping up as an unabashedly liberal wish list.

In less than a week, he's vowed to tackle climate change and protect government entitlements. His administration has lifted a ban on women in combat and expanded opportunities for disabled students. Proposals for stricter gun laws have already been unveiled, and plans for comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants, are coming next week.

Obama's full embrace of such an agenda suggests a president both freed for action by his re-election win and seeking to capitalize on it.

"There is a deep recognition that he has a short period of time to get a lot done," said Jennifer Psaki, Obama's 2012 campaign spokeswoman. "The American people are seeing a man who is determined to finish what he started in his first term, pushing through his agenda without the burden of running for re-election."

But following through and winning approval for his proposals will require cooperation from a Congress that is nearly as divided now as it was before the November elections.

"If the president pursues that kind of agenda, obviously it's not designed to bring us together," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who calls the start of Obama's second term "a new era of liberalism."

And it's not just congressional Republicans who could stand in Obama's way as he seeks to make good on his pledges. Senate Democrats from conservative-leaning states ? who, unlike Obama, still face future elections ? may have reservations about backing a liberal agenda in the lead-up to the 2014 midterms.

Democratic resistance is already proving to be a problem for some of the toughest gun control measures that Obama proposed ahead of his inauguration in response to the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn. An assault weapons ban, in particular, appears to be in jeopardy, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada among the Democrats yet to voice support.

Obama's tilt to the left follows a presidential campaign that left open questions about what policies he would pursue if he won a second term. His most specific campaign pledge was to let George W. Bush-era tax cuts expire for the wealthiest Americans, a step he was able to achieve during the "fiscal cliff" negotiations in late December.

That's why many of his strongest supporters were surprised ? some pleasantly ? by the issues he raised in his inaugural address, particularly his call for tackling the threat of climate change, a topic that garnered little attention during the campaign.

And after campaigning on a balanced approach to deficit reduction, including making tough choices on entitlement programs, Obama used his inauguration to extol the virtues of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. He made just one reference to the huge federal deficit.

Obama has previously said he's willing to put government entitlements on the table as Washington seeks to reduce the deficit, and aides say his inaugural address doesn't change that.

Obama also became the first president to use the word "gay" in an inaugural address, asserting that the nation's journey is not complete until "our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law."

Progressive groups welcomed the president's rhetoric, but made it clear that words alone would not be enough.

Adam Green, co-founder of the political action group Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said that if the president's inaugural address does become a template for his second-term governing strategy, "that will allow the president to win big victories and secure a legacy of bold progressive change that helped millions of Americans."

"We hope he goes that route, and we will proudly rally to his side if he does," Green said.

It remains to be seen how vigorously Obama pursues the agenda items he outlined in his inaugural address. White House officials have already struggled this week to back up his rhetoric with specific policy proposals

Still, people close to the president say he feels emboldened since winning re-election and wants to act quickly on progressive issues that eluded him during his first term. His supporters have also created a campaign spin-off organization to support his second-term agenda.

The outside group, Organizing for Action, will employ many of the same people who led Obama's two presidential bids and will have access to his campaign's voter and donor data. The new group is expected to focus on backing his positions in legislative battles, including gun control and immigration.

Some of what the president may pursue, particularly when it comes to climate change, may be through executive branch actions that don't need congressional approval.

The Pentagon this week acted on its own to lift a ban that kept female service members out of combat positions. And the Education Department unilaterally ordered schools to include students with disabilities in sports programs or provide equal alternative options.

White House officials are scouring rule books for other actions the West Wing and government agencies can take on their own.

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Associated Press writers Josh Lederman contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-01-25-Obama's%20Liberal%20Agenda/id-bd2173d9b41c4c3db32bb2b47e9b45ec

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What's a filibuster look like? Not Jimmy Stewart

FILE - This undated black-and-white file photo provided by Columbia shows James Stewart in a scene from the movie: "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington". The Senate has more filibusters than ever these days. But you'd hardly know it by watching the chamber on C-SPAN. Filibusters are procedural delays that outnumber lawmakers, used to try killing bills and nominations. They seldom look like the exhausted talkathon waged by the devoted senator portrayed by Stewart in the film, ?Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.? Instead, lawmakers intent on killing a bill simply inform majority Democrats that to pass the measure, they will need yes votes from 60 of the 100 senators. With Democrats controlling just 55 votes, nothing can pass without at least some Republican support. A tentative agreement Thursday between party leaders would curb the use of filibusters a bit, but still let the minority party force majorities to get 60 votes to prevail. (AP Photo/Columbia, File)

FILE - This undated black-and-white file photo provided by Columbia shows James Stewart in a scene from the movie: "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington". The Senate has more filibusters than ever these days. But you'd hardly know it by watching the chamber on C-SPAN. Filibusters are procedural delays that outnumber lawmakers, used to try killing bills and nominations. They seldom look like the exhausted talkathon waged by the devoted senator portrayed by Stewart in the film, ?Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.? Instead, lawmakers intent on killing a bill simply inform majority Democrats that to pass the measure, they will need yes votes from 60 of the 100 senators. With Democrats controlling just 55 votes, nothing can pass without at least some Republican support. A tentative agreement Thursday between party leaders would curb the use of filibusters a bit, but still let the minority party force majorities to get 60 votes to prevail. (AP Photo/Columbia, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? From Jimmy Stewart's fictional all-night talkathon to real-life dramas over World War I and civil rights, the Senate's filibuster has played a notable ? sometimes reviled ? role in the nation's history. Now the slow-moving, famously deliberative chamber has dialed it back, though modestly.

Filibusters are procedural delays that outnumbered lawmakers use to try killing bills and nominations. But they seldom look like the speech delivered by the exhausted, devoted senator portrayed by Stewart in the film, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."

In fact, the Senate currently has more filibusters than ever. But you'd hardly know it by watching the chamber on C-SPAN television.

These days, lawmakers intent on killing a bill simply inform majority Democrats that to pass the measure, they will need yes votes from 60 of the 100 senators. With Democrats controlling just 55 votes, nothing can pass that threshold without at least some Republican support.

And that has brought the Senate virtually to a standstill on a list of sweeping legislation, from tax hikes on the wealthy to limits on greenhouse gas emissions. The resulting gridlock helped inspire recession-weary Americans to slap the last Congress with some of the lowest approval ratings in history.

The Senate late Thursday overwhelmingly approved a bipartisan agreement to limit the use of filibusters when the chamber begins debating a bill and when it wants to try writing compromise legislation with the House. It also will speed approval of some nominations by reducing the amount of debate allowed after the Senate has voted to end a filibuster.

But the pact will still leave the minority party other opportunities on every bill to force majorities to get 60 votes to prevail. Still, the changes will clear the way for other legislation, like a $50.5 billion emergency relief measure for Superstorm Sandy victims that the Senate plans to approve Monday.

Defenders of filibusters say the enormous power it gives to the minority party is what differentiates the Senate from the House, where rules give almost absolute power to the majority party when it remains united.

Opponents say the practice makes a mockery of the concept of majority rule. Democrats say today's Republicans use the tactic far too often, while GOP senators insist they employ it so frequently because today's Democratic leaders block them from offering amendments.

Numbers compiled by the Senate Historian's Office underscore how the practice has grown.

There were 73 votes to end filibusters ? called "cloture votes" ? in the two-year Congress that ended early this month. There were 91 cloture votes in the Congress that ran from 2009 to 2011, and 112 in the Congress that last from 2007 to 2009. Republicans were in the Senate minority for all of those years.

Each of those numbers exceed the number of cloture votes in any previous Congresses. The Congress that was in session in 1939, the year Stewart's movie was made, didn't have any such votes.

Originally, there were no rules that could stop senators from debating as long as they wanted.

President Woodrow Wilson persuaded senators to approve a rule in 1917 stopping such delays with a two-thirds vote. Two years later it was used for the first time, when senators used cloture to end delaying tactics holding up approval of the Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I. And in 1957, South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond, then a Democrat, set a record by speaking for 24 hours, 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act.

Despite his effort ? which included reading the election laws of all the states ? the measure eventually became law.

The number of votes needed to end filibusters was changed in 1975 to a three-fifths majority. That's 60 votes today.

The delaying tactics were used by a string of Southern senators to try thwarting civil rights legislation. The longest filibuster on record stretched over 57 days as Southerners used various tactics to unsuccessfully try blocking the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Over time, the maneuver has been used on dozens of issues including efforts to abolish the Electoral College, block a 1974 genocide treaty, grant pardons to Vietnam War draft evaders and to add an anti-abortion amendment to the Constitution.

There are few restraints on what senators can say while filibustering on the Senate floor.

According to a 1940 study, Sen. Huey Long of Louisiana used some of his time describing his technique for frying oysters. A 1992 filibuster on a tax bill by then Sen. Alphonse D'Amato, R-N.Y., that lasted 15 hours and 14 minutes, including his singing a rendition of "South of the Border."

Filibusters in which senators actually spoke continuously on the floor began dying out in the 1970s and 1980s, when the chamber's leaders decided the delays were preventing too much work from getting done, according to Senate Historian Donald Ritchie.

In addition, while filibustering senators only needed a handful of lawmakers to keep talking, the majority party had to keep at least 51 senators nearby, often sleeping on cots in the Senate cloakroom, Ritchie said. That was needed to prevent the minority from voting to adjourn the Senate and further delaying the legislation in question. As a result, filibusters proved more exhausting to the majority than to filibustering lawmakers, he said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-01-24-US-Taming-the-Filibuster/id-4d07c1f6ed08479bad0d83d172d05045

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NASA Super-TIGER balloon shatters flight record

Jan. 24, 2013 ? Flying high over Antarctica, a NASA long duration balloon has broken the record for longest flight by a balloon of its size.

The record-breaking balloon, carrying the Super Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder (Super-TIGER) experiment, has been afloat for 46 days and is on its third orbit around the South Pole.

"This is an outstanding achievement for NASA's Astrophysics balloon team," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Keeping these huge balloons aloft for such long periods lets us do forefront science that would be difficult to do otherwise."

Super-TIGER is flying a new instrument for measuring the rare heavy elements among the flux of high-energy cosmic rays bombarding Earth from elsewhere in our Milky Way Galaxy. The information retrieved from this mission will be used to develop an understanding where these energetic atomic nuclei are produced and how they achieve their very high energies.

Super-TIGER launched Dec. 8, 2012, from the long duration balloon site near McMurdo Station, Antarctica. The massive 39-million cubic foot scientific balloon carries the 6,000 pound Super-TIGER payload -- equivalent to a large sports utility vehicle -- at a float altitude of 127,000 feet, more than four times the altitude of most commercial airliners. Size-wise, more than 200 blimps could fit inside the balloon.

The Super-TIGER flight shattered the previous record of 41 days and 22 hours, previously set in 2005. The Super-TIGER team plans to fly for another 8-10 days to have it fly closer to McMurdo Station before terminating the flight and recovering the experiment.

"It has taken eight years, but we are so excited about breaking the long duration balloon record. In addition, it looks like the Super-Tiger flight, which is still collecting science data, will raise the bar by a week or two," said Debora Fairbrother, chief of the Scientific Balloon Program Office at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

The long duration balloon site at Willy Field, McMurdo Station, takes advantage of the stratospheric anti-cyclonic wind pattern circulating from east to west around the South Pole. The stratospheric wind circulation combined with the sparsely populated continent of Antarctica allows for long duration balloon flights at altitudes above 100,000 feet.

The National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs manages the U.S. Antarctic Program and provides logistic support for all U.S. scientific operations in Antarctica. The NSF Antarctic Support Contractor provides material support to the NASA Balloon Program, including support of launch and recovery operations throughout the Antarctic Campaign.

The principal investigator of the Super-TIGER mission is Dr. Walter Binns of Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.

NASA's Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, is responsible for launch operations and command and control of the balloon during flight.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/V2eutG4fEXc/130124163409.htm

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A new type of volcanic eruption

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Scientists based in the UK and New Zealand have described a "new" type of volcanic eruption.

Volcanic eruptions are commonly categorised as either explosive or effusive. But now, in research published this month in Nature Geoscience, researchers at Victoria University, Wellington and the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton have uncovered a previously undocumented type of eruption in underwater volcanoes ? by looking at tiny original bubble spaces trapped in volcanic rock.

Inside volcanoes, gases are dissolved in the molten magma as a function of the very high pressures and chemistry of the magma. In the same way that gases dissolved in carbonated drinks bubble up when you take the lid off, when magma is erupted as lava, the pressure is relieved and the gases exsolve to form small gas bubbles or so-called "vesicles". In explosive eruptions these vesicles expand so quickly they fragment the magma, violently ejecting lava, which cools and degasses to form solidified pumice that can be sufficiently light to float on water.

In air pumice is obviously associated with violent, explosive eruptions. Consequently underwater volcanoes flanked by highly vesicular pumice have, to date, also been interpreted as having erupted explosively.

But the results of this study indicate that there is a third eruptive style unique to underwater volcanoes, which is neither effusive nor explosive.

"By documenting the shape and density of bubbles in pumices generated by an underwater caldera volcano in the southwest Pacific Ocean ? the Macauley volcano ? we found large differences in the number and shape of "bubbles" in the same pebble-sized samples, different to anything previously documented," said Professor Ian Wright of the National Oceanography Centre, who co-authored the paper.

"This range of bubble densities distinct in these pumice samples indicates that the lava erupting from the caldera was neither vigorous enough for an explosive eruption, nor gentle enough for an effusive flow."

The study proposes that rather than exploding in the neck of the volcano, the formation and expansion of bubbles in the magma created a buoyant foam, which rose to the seafloor and then buoyantly detached from the volcano as molten pumice balloons but with chilled margins. During its ascent to the sea surface, the vesicles within the molten interior would have continued to expand as the pressure ? this time from the weight of the seawater ? reduced.

"These processes explain the unique bubble structure seen in the samples analysed, which could have only occurred with an intermediate eruption style and in an underwater setting," said Professor Wright.

"We conclude that the presence of widespread deposits of pumice on underwater volcanoes does not necessarily indicate large-scale explosive volcanism."

The authors proposed that this style of eruption be named Tangaroan, the Maori god of the sea, and name of the research vessel used to collect the samples.

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National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (UK): http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk

Thanks to National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (UK) for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126389/A_new_type_of_volcanic_eruption

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iPad mini won?t help Apple?s sliding tablet share, according to new report

iPads

Apple?s (AAPL) share of the global tablet market will continue to drop this year despite the launch of the iPad mini, a new report claims. Citing data obtained from unnamed sources at tablet vendors, Digitimes on Wednesday reports that Apple?s share of the tablet market is expected to dip in 2013. Market research firm IDC estimated Apple?s 2012 tablet market share at 53.8%. Digitimes? report claims that Apple is not likely to launch any new tablets until the second half this year and new offerings from Apple?s Android rivals will send Apple?s global share of the market below 50% for the first time.

[More from BGR: As data gets cheaper for Verizon to transmit, customers are paying more]

This article was originally published on BGR.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ipad-mini-won-t-help-apple-sliding-tablet-184056347.html

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N. Korea: Rocket, nuclear tests will 'target' US

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By Ju-min Park and Choonsik Yoo, Reuters

SEOUL - North Korea said on Thursday it would carry out further rocket launches and a nuclear test that would target the United States, dramatically stepping up its threats against a country it called its "enemy".

The announcement by the country's top military body came a day after the United Nations Security Council agreed a U.S.-backed resolution to censure and sanction the country for a rocket launch in December that breached U.N. rules.

Kim Hong-Ji / Reuters

U.S. Special Representative for North Korea policy Glyn Davies, center, speaks at a news conference in Seoul on Thursday.

"We are not disguising the fact that the various satellites and long-range rockets that we will fire and the high-level nuclear test we will carry out are targeted at the United States," North Korea's National Defense Commission said, according to state news agency KCNA.

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North Korea is believed by South Korea and other observers to be "technically ready" for a third nuclear test, and the decision to go ahead rests with leader Kim Jong-un who pressed ahead with the December rocket launch in defiance of the U.N. sanctions.?

"Whether North Korea tests or not is up to North Korea," Glyn Davies, the top U.S. envoy for North Korean diplomacy, said in the South Korean capital of Seoul as KCNA released its statement.

"We hope they don't do it. We call on them not to do it," Davies said. "This is not a moment to increase tensions on the Korean peninsula."

The North was banned from developing missile and nuclear technology under sanctions dating from its 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests.

The concern now is that Pyongyang, whose only major diplomatic ally, China, endorsed the latest U.N. resolution, could undertake a third nuclear test using highly enriched uranium for the first time, opening a second path to a bomb.

North Korea's propaganda poets stay true to their muse despite world's laughter

Its previous tests have been viewed as limited successes and used plutonium, of which the North has limited stocks.

North Korea gave no time-frame for the coming test and often employs harsh rhetoric in response to U.N. and U.S. actions.

Its long-range rockets are not seen as capable of reaching the United States mainland and it is not believed to have the technology to mount a nuclear warhead on a long-range missile.

"The UNSC (Security Council) resolution masterminded by the U.S. has brought its hostile policy towards the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (North Korea) to its most dangerous stage," the commission was quoted as saying.

Related:

?North Korea pledges to boost nuclear capability after UN rebuke

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/23/16669567-north-korea-rocket-launches-nuclear-tests-will-target-us?lite

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Victim 6 sues Penn State, Sandusky, his charity

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) ? A young man who testified at a child sex abuse trial last summer that former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky tickled and grabbed him in a campus shower in 1998 sued him, his charity and the university on Tuesday.

The man, previously described as Victim 6 in court papers, filed the federal lawsuit in Philadelphia as John Doe 6, claiming that Sandusky's behavior was "ratified" by The Second Mile charity and Penn State and that the organizations acted with reckless indifference to his rights. He is seeking at least $75,000 in damages.

The lawsuit alleges that Penn State intentionally didn't oversee Sandusky properly and failed to report him to authorities when he was suspected of abusing children, allowing him to commit "his criminally outrageous and depraved acts."

It claims Penn State and The Second Mile "turned a blind eye to Sandusky's sexual exploitation" of children and "fostered a culture and/or code of silence" that kept abuse allegations from being reported.

The lawsuit says Sandusky used The Second Mile, which he founded in the 1970s, as a "'hunting ground' for victims of his perverted desire to sexually abuse minor boys." The charity, in an email from official David Woodle, said it would respond to the lawsuit "through the legal process."

Penn State declined to comment on Tuesday. Messages left for Sandusky's civil lawyers in New Jersey were not immediately returned.

Victim 6 testified Sandusky called himself "the Tickle Monster" and grabbed the then-11-year-old boy inside a university shower, saying he was going to squeeze his guts out. He said Sandusky also grabbed him and lifted him to the shower head to rinse soap from his hair.

He testified that when he returned to his home in a State College apartment complex, he told him mother his hair was wet because he had showered. His mother's complaint began a police investigation into Sandusky, but no charges were filed until the attorney general's office arrested Sandusky in November 2011.

The lawsuit is critical of how authorities, including the Penn State Police Department, handled Victim 6's case, calling it an intimidating and otherwise abusive investigation.

Victim 6, now 26 years old, told jurors this summer he lived in Colorado.

Sandusky, a former assistant to longtime Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, was convicted of sexually abusing Victim 6 and nine other boys. He is serving a sentence of 30 to 60 years in prison but maintains his innocence.

For Victim 6, Sandusky was convicted of unlawful contact with minors, corruption of minors and endangering the welfare of children. Victim 6 testified that on the day he was abused, Sandusky gave him a pair of Paterno's socks.

Three former university administrators also face trial on charges of perjury, obstruction and other offenses in the Sandusky case. They deny the allegations.

The abuse scandal at Penn State led to the dismissal of Paterno, who died months later, and elicited landmark NCAA sanctions including a four-year postseason ban and significant scholarship cuts. A vigil to mark the anniversary of Paterno's death, which occurred a year ago Tuesday, was being held in State College.

Several lawsuits have been filed by Sandusky's accusers. Penn State has been negotiating with them in an effort to settle their claims and avoid protracted litigation.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/victim-6-sues-penn-state-sandusky-charity-212826443--spt.html

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