DebateGate

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/muslim-americans-give-obama-80-percent-a

Eighty percent of Muslim Americans approve of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president, according to a newly released survey conducted by the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center, a partnership between Gallup and the Crown Prince Court of Abu Dhabi.

According to the survey, 65 percent of Jewish Americans approve of the job Obama is doing; 60 percent of atheists, agnostics, and those of no religion approve; 50 percent of Catholics approve; 37 percent of Protestants approve and 25 percent of Mormons approve.

Although published this month, the survey of Muslim Americans was actually completed on April 9. (In Gallup’s overall polling in the week that ended April 10, Obama’s approval was at 45 percent, slightly higher than the 42 percent it hit last week.)

Obama’s approval among Muslim Americans has declined since 2009 but still remains far higher than the approval President George W. Bush’s won among Muslim Americans in 2008.  In that year, only 7 percent of Muslim Americans said they approved of the job Bush was doing.

In 2009, 84 percent of Muslim Americans said they approved of the job Obama was doing. That dropped to 78 percent in 2010 and then rose to 80 percent this year.

The Abu Dhabi Gallup Center says it interviewed 3,883 self-identified Muslim Americans between Jan. 1, 2008 and April 9, 2011 to get its polling trends in that community. The interviews were part of Gallup’s ongoing polling of at least 1,000 American adults 350 days per year.

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/elections/article_0eab6966-c2a9-11e0-a206-001cc4c03286.html

After tens of millions of dollars spent by outside interest groups, dozens of attack ads and exhaustive get-out-the-vote efforts, Democrats on Tuesday fell short of their goal of taking control of the state Senate and stopping the agenda of Gov. Scott Walker.

Republicans won four of six recall races, meaning the party still holds a narrow 17-16 majority in the Senate — at least until next week, when Sens. Robert Wirch, D-Pleasant Prairie, and Jim Holperin, D-Conover face their own recall elections. A third Democrat, Sen. Dave Hansen, D-Green Bay, easily survived a recall attempt last month.

Sens. Robert Cowles, R-Green Bay, Sheila Harsdorf, R-River Falls, Luther Olsen, R-Ripon, and Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, successfully defended their seats Tuesday.

Challengers state Rep. Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse, and Jessica King unseated incumbent state Sens. Dan Kapanke, R-La Crosse, and Randy Hopper, R-Fond du Lac.

Going into Tuesday, Republicans controlled the body 19-14, so Democrats needed to win at least three seats and hold onto two more next week to take over.

"The revolution has not occurred," said UW-Milwaukee political science professor Mordecai Lee, a former Democratic lawmaker. "The proletariat did not take over the streets."

Tuesday's recalls were largely seen as a test of Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who has drawn national attention since unveiling his controversial plan to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from most public workers. Proof of that was visible on election night as national news organizations broadcast from across the state and political pundits led their newscasts with result updates and discussed their ramifications on the nation's political landscape.

Republican senators were targeted for recall after backing Walker's plan. Democratic senators came under attack for leaving the state to delay a vote on the measure.

However, the focus of the recalls has since expanded, shifting away from the collective bargaining fight toward issues such as taxes and funding for public schools and seniors.

A couple thousand Democratic supporters gathered at the state Capitol Tuesday night, hopeful at first but deflated when it appeared they might fall short of the three victories they needed.

Still, some praised Democrats' modest gains.

"I think the fact that this election is going on right now is a victory in and of itself. We put them on the hot seat," said Randy Bryce, 46, of Caledonia, who came to the Capitol Tuesday with his wife and 4-year-old daughter. "I would have liked to have seen us run the table on them, but this is okay for now."

Several media reported Darling was waiting for Pasch to make a concession speech shortly before midnight, But Darling's victory allows Republicans to continue to control the Legislature and set the agenda.

"I don't think there is much of a moral victory in taking only two," UW-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin said. "This was all about taking command of the Senate."

Tuesday's unofficial results capped the most expensive elections in state history.

Cash flowing into the recalls already has approached $30 million, and total spending by third-party groups and candidates could top $40 million, election watchdogs say. That total would double spending on all 116 of last fall's state legislative races combined.

Outside interest groups have spent millions on both sides, from conservative organizations like Wisconsin Club for Growth, Wisconsin Family Action, and Citizens for a Strong America to pro-union and liberal groups like We Are Wisconsin, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, and Democracy for America.

Many view the races as a sign of whether the next Wisconsin politician facing recall will be Walker himself. The governor remained largely absent from any public appearances with the GOP senators targeted for recall.

Tony Spencer, a 36-year-old laid-off carpenter from Shorewood, voted for Darling's challenger, Democratic state Rep. Sandy Pasch.

"I'm in a private union, so they haven't necessarily come after me," Spencer said. "But everybody should have the right to be in a union. I came out to stop all the union-bashing stuff."

But John Gill, 45, of Menomonee Falls, voted for Darling and questioned the opposition's anti-GOP rhetoric, which went far beyond collective bargaining.

"This was all supposed to be about the workers' rights, so to speak. But that has not been brought up one time. It's all been misleading, the attack ads, things like that," Gill said. "The one reason they started this recall, they didn't bring up once."

Read more: http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/elections/article_0eab6966-c2a9-11e0-a206-001cc4c03286.html#ixzz1UdHazYLM

30,000 college students kicked out of food aid program in Michigan
State's new eligibility rules to save $75M; more students got aid than thought
Paul Egan/ Detroit News Lansing Bureau

Lansing — Michigan has removed about 30,000 college students from its food stamp program — close to double the initial estimate — saving about $75 million a year, says Human Services Director Maura Corrigan.

Federal rules don't allow most college students to collect food stamps, but Michigan had created its own rules that made nearly all students eligible, said Brian Rooney, Corrigan's deputy director. As a result, the number of Michigan college students on this form of welfare made the state a national leader. For example, Michigan had 10 times the number of students on food stamps as either Illinois or California, Rooney said.

Cutting off the students is part of what Corrigan says is an effort to change the culture of the state's welfare department and slash tens of millions of dollars of waste, fraud and abuse.

"Maybe (students) could go get a part-time job — that's what I did," said Corrigan, a former justice of the Michigan Supreme Court who attended Detroit's Marygrove College and University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.

"We want to encourage people to be self-sufficient, not to be dependent on the government," she said in an interview with The Detroit News.

But critics say state funding has shrunk and tuition has skyrocketed since Corrigan attended college in the late '60s and early '70s. They cite Michigan's still-battered economy and say the suffering the cuts will create won't be apparent until after cash-strapped students return to campuses this fall.

Corrigan, appointed by Republican Gov. Rick Snyder in January to head the $6.9 billion Department of Human Services, has also ordered administrators to start looking at applicants' assets, not just their income. That move follows an uproar after it was revealed Leroy Fick of Auburn remained eligible for food stamps and continued using them after he won $2 million in the state lottery TV show "Make Me Rich!" in June 2010.

If cutting millionaires off food stamps is a no-brainer, some say cutting off most students is less clear cut.

Kayla Neff, a 19-year-old Spanish and computer science student at Central Michigan University who qualified for food stamps in September, said it's tough to find a job in Michigan, particularly for students with little experience.

Neff said she and her father share about $150 a month in grocery money from the program, which "made all the difference in the world," but her eligibility is now under review.

"Students should be focusing on their education, not whether or not they'll be able to eat dinner or whether they can manage to find a job and balance it on top of their studies," Neff said in a Friday email interview from Mount Pleasant.

CMU was singled out by Corrigan as having publicized students' eligibility for food stamps on the university's website. University spokesman Steven Smith said Friday he wanted to research the issue, but "I am confident no official CMU site would promote this kind of activity."

The number of students taken off food stamps was close to double the estimate of 10,000 to 18,000 before the policy change was implemented in April.

Under the federally funded program, college students generally aren't eligible, Rooney said. But Michigan had created an exception for those participating in a valid employment and training program. Employment training was defined as attending college, he said.

Corrigan said one large Michigan school, which she did not identify, had 3,500 students on the program.

Many see using food stamps while attending school as a scam, and former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick described it in much that way in his new autobiography.

Kilpatrick, who was recently released from state prison after serving time for violating probation and awaits trial on federal corruption charges, revealed he used food stamps when he attended Florida A&M University in the late 1980s and early 1990s. At the time, his mother was a state representative and his father was a top Wayne County official.

"The food stamp game is an old hook-up in neighborhoods from Detroit to Tallahassee," Kilpatrick said in the book. "If you could get them, especially as a struggling college student, then you did."

Though still commonly known as food stamps, the state's Food Assistance Program now uses debit cards called Bridge Cards to provide assistance to eligible recipients.

Even after the recent removal of 30,000 college students from the food stamp program, close to 2 million Michigan residents — one in five — are on the program, Rooney said.

Not all college students have been kicked off food stamps. For instance, single moms who go to school can still be eligible, as can certain students who work at least 20 hours a week.

Still, critics say Corrigan's changes are too sweeping and each student's case should be examined on its merits.

Nate Smith-Tyge, director of the Michigan State University Student Food Bank, said the stereotypical profile of the middle-class freshman getting dropped off at the new dorm room by Mom and Dad no longer applies.

"A more nuanced approach would have been more humane," Smith-Tyge said. "This sort of carte blanche decision is going to adversely affect people who really needed it. At what cost does it eliminate some abuse?"

Corrigan also detailed steps she is taking to make sure big lottery winners can no longer get food stamps.

As part of its arrangement for federal funding, Michigan in 2000 opted to determine eligibility based only on income and not consider assets, partly because the program is easier to administer that way, Rooney said.

Starting Oct. 1, assets will also be considered in determining eligibility for new applicants, he said. The assets of existing food stamp recipients will also be examined as their cases are re-evaluated every six months.

"We're going to take a look at everyone in the system," he said.

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110808/POLITICS02/108080356/30-000-college-students-kicked-out-of-food-aid-program-in-Michigan#ixzz1UTJs58hd

State and local education officials have been begging the federal government for relief from student testing mandates in the federal No Child Left Behind law, but school starts soon and Congress still hasn't answered the call.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan says he will announce a new waiver system Monday to give schools a break.

The plan to offer waivers to all 50 states, as long as they meet other school reform requirements, comes at the request of President Barack Obama, Duncan said. More details on the waivers will come in September, he said.

The goal of the No Child Left Behind law is to have every student proficient in math and reading by 2014. States have been required to bring more students up to the math and reading standards each year, based on tests that usually take place each spring. The step-by-step ramping up of the 9-year-old law has caused heartburn in states and most school districts, because more and more schools are labeled as failures as too few of their students meet testing goals.

Critics say the benchmarks are unrealistic and brands schools as failures even if they make progress. Schools and districts where too few kids pass the tests for several years are subject to sanctions that can include firing teachers or closing the school entirely.

Through the waivers, schools will get some relief from looming deadlines to meet testing goals as long as they agree to embrace other kinds of education reforms such as raising standards, helping teachers and principals improve, and focusing on fixing the lowest performing schools.

Duncan and Melody Barnes, director of the Domestic Policy Council at the White House, said the administration will encourage every state to apply and will work with them to meet the requirements.

Nothing in this plan for temporary relief from some aspects of the federal law will undermine what Congress is still discussing in terms of revising federal education laws, Duncan said. The long-awaited overhaul of the law began earlier this year in the U.S. House, but a comprehensive reform appears far from the finish line.

"What we do in terms of flexibility can be a bridge or transition," he said. "We all want to fix the law. This might help us get closer to that."

The chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, however, says he is worried about Duncan's waiver plan.

"I remain concerned that temporary measures instituted by the department, such as conditional waivers, could undermine the committee's efforts to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act," said Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., in a statement, referring to the formal name of the No Child Left Behind law.

The Obama administration requested a revision more than a year ago. Duncan said another school year is about to start and state education officials have told him they can't keep waiting for relief from the mandates.

"I can't overemphasize how loudly the outcry is to do something now," Duncan said.

Duncan has warned that 82 percent of U.S. schools could be labeled failures next year if No Child Left Behind is not changed. Education experts have questioned that estimate, but state officials report a growing number of schools facing sanctions under the law.

Montana Schools Superintendent Denise Juneau said she welcomed the waiver proposal, as long as it offers relief from the 2014 deadline. She said her state isn't afraid of high standards and education reform but needs enough time to reach those standards and freedom to institute change in a way that works for Montana.

Montana decided to skip a planned increase in its testing goals this past school year.

"I don't mind the goals and we're certainly not afraid of accountability. They can set the bar wherever they want. They just have to let us have the flexibility to get there," Juneau said. "We can definitely meet any bar they throw at us."

The chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee said he understands why it was time for the administration to take action.

"This Congress faces real challenges reaching bipartisan, bicameral agreement on anything," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, in a written statement. "Given the ill-advised and partisan bills that the House majority has chosen to move, I understand Secretary Duncan's decision to proceed with a waiver package to provide some interim relief while Congress finishes its work."

Harkin said he remains committed to keep working toward a bipartisan solution to reform the federal education law.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/aug/7/gas-prices-up-despite-use-of-reserves/

More than a month after the Obama administration said it would tap the country’s emergency oil reserve to try to combat supply disruptions in the Middle East, gas prices at the pump actually have risen 10 cents.

President Obama had hoped the move, coming at the onset of the summer driving season, would temper the loss of supplies due to the ongoing civil war in Libya. Working with international allies, the U.S. said on June 23 that it would release 30 million barrels of oil over 30 days, while other countries with strategic reserves agreed to release another 30 million, in staggered sales during July.

And prices at the pump did dip, at first, from a nationwide average of $3.61 down to $3.55, according to AAA. But by last week, they had rebounded and the price per gallon stood a dime higher than when the administration first made its decision.

“Although it helped initially to pull down prices it was probably too little,” AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesman John Townsend said, pointing out that the nation consumes as much as 20 million barrels of oil a day. “This is just a drop in the bucket.”

Prices may be about to see some relief, though for unwelcome reasons. Last week’s stock market drop and fears of the lingering sour economy have already begun to put downward pressure on oil, which analysts said will translate to lower pump prices — potentially trumping even the administration’s oil release.

The Obama Energy Department had resisted calls earlier this year to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, but reversed course in June, saying its release of 30 million barrels from the nation’s emergency stockpile was intended to address an estimated loss of 1.5 million barrels a day of light sweet crude in Libya. The department said it has met that goal.

“We believe that the coordinated release of 60 million barrels of oil by partners around the globe, the majority of which will continue to enter the market over the coming month, has played an important role in addressing the oil supply disruption resulting from the situation in Libya,” Energy spokesman Damien LaVera said. “The United States will continue to closely monitor oil market conditions and is prepared to take further action if needed.”

Even as the administration cited the need to manage supply disruptions in its June 23 announcement, it nevertheless noted that prices were “significantly higher” ahead of the summer driving months of July and August than they had been prior to the Libyan unrest.

For its part, the International Energy Agency — a group representing 28 of the world’s top oil-consuming countries — in late July decided against releasing additional supplies into the market, citing a rise in OPEC oil production despite the situation in Libya.

Established in response to the 1973-1974 oil embargo, the SPR is stored in underground caverns along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf coasts. Presidents have the authority to access it at their discretion.

Prior to this summer, the U.S. last tapped the SPR in response to Hurricane Gustav in 2008, though that action was technically an “exchange” because the oil companies later resupplied the stockpile after the disruption. The most recent emergency sales were after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and amid the 1991 Gulf War.

The latest drawdown, which officials expect to be completed by the end of August, will leave the SPR with about 700 million barrels.

Critics questioned the timing and effectiveness of the move, saying it was too little to make a dent in world supplies and also drains the strategic reserve, leaving it less ready for a major emergency.

“The typical use and the reason the Strategic Petroleum Reserve was used in the past was when there was a direct threat to world oil supplies or something like a hurricane,” said Dan Kish, senior vice president for policy at the Institute for Energy Research. “It’s like one of those fire extinguishers that says ‘break glass in case of emergency.’ [The Obama administration] decided to be the high-school delinquent who broke the glass so he could spray the fire extinguisher at his buddy.”

If the administration really wanted to send a reassuring signal to oil markets, Mr. Kish said, it should open up currently off-limits areas in Alaska to oil drilling and speed the permitting process of projects like the proposed extension of the Keystone pipeline, which transports oil from Canada to refineries in the U.S.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_AFGHANISTAN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-08-06-06-27-19

31 Americans killed

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A military helicopter crashed in eastern Afghanistan, killing 31 U.S. special operation troops and seven Afghan commandos, the country's president said Saturday. An American official said it was apparently shot down, in the deadliest single incident for American forces in the decade-long war.

The Taliban claimed they downed the helicopter with rocket fire while it was taking part in a raid on a house where insurgents were gathered in the province of Wardak late Friday. It said wreckage of the craft was strewn at the scene.

NATO confirmed the overnight crash took place and that there "was enemy activity in the area." But it said it was still investigating the cause and conducting a recovery operation at the site. It did not release details or casualty figures.

"We are in the process of accessing the facts," said U.S. Air Force Capt. Justin Brockhoff, a NATO spokesman.

But a senior U.S. administration official in Washington said it was apparently shot down by insurgents. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the crash is still being investigated.

The toll would surpass the worst single day loss of life for the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001 - the June 28, 2005 downing of a military helicopter in eastern Kunar province. In that incident, 16 Navy SEALs and Army special operations troops were killed when their craft was shot down while on a mission to rescue four SEALs under attack by the Taliban. Three of the SEALs being rescued were also killed and the fourth wounded. It was the highest one-day death toll for the Navy Special Warfare personnel since World War II.

With its steep mountain ranges, providing shelter for militants armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers, eastern Afghanistan is hazardous terrain for military aircraft. Large, slow-moving air transport carriers like the CH-47 Chinook are particularly vulnerable, often forced to ease their way through sheer valleys where insurgents can achieve more level lines of fire from mountainsides.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday gave the first public word of the new crash, saying in a statement that "a NATO helicopter crashed last night in Wardak province" and that 31 American special operations troops were killed. He expressed his condolences to President Barack Obama.

The helicopter was a twin-rotor Chinook, said an official at NATO headquarters in Brussels. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he was receiving his information from an Afghan officer in Kabul.

The crash took place in the Sayd Abad district of Wardak province, said a provincial government spokesman, Shahidullah Shahid. The volatile region borders the province of Kabul where the Afghan capital is located and is known for its strong Taliban presence.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement that Taliban fighters downed the helicopter during a "heavy raid" in Sayd Abad. He said NATO attacked a house in Sayd Abad where insurgent fighters were gathering Friday night. During the battle, the fighters shot down the helicopter, killing 31 Americans and seven Afghans, he said, adding that eight insurgents were killed in the fight.

There have been at least 17 coalition and Afghan aircraft crashes in Afghanistan this year.

Most of the crashes were attributed to pilot errors, weather conditions or mechanical failures. However, the coalition has confirmed that at least one CH-47F Chinook helicopter was hit by a rocket propelled grenade on July 25. Two coalition crew members were injured in that attack.

Meanwhile, in the southern Helmand province, an Afghan government official said Saturday that NATO troops attacked a house and inadvertently killed eight members of a family, including women and children.

NATO said that Taliban fighters fired rocket propelled grenades and small arms fire at coalition troops during a patrol Friday in the Nad Ali district.

"Coalition forces responded with small arms fire and as the incident continued, an air strike was employed against the insurgent position," said Brockhoff. He added that NATO sent a delegation to meet with local leaders and investigate the incident.

Nad Ali district police chief Shadi Khan said civilians died in the bombardment but that it was unknown how many insurgents were killed.

Helmand, a Taliban stronghold, is the deadliest province in Afghanistan for international troops.

NATO has come under harsh criticism in the past for accidentally killing civilians during operations against suspected insurgents. However, civilian death tallies by the United Nations show the insurgency is responsible for most war casualties involving noncombatants.

In south Afghanistan, NATO said two coalition service member were killed, one on Friday and another on Saturday. The international alliance did not release further details.

With the casualties from the helicopter crash, the deaths bring to 365 the number of coalition troops killed this year in Afghanistan and 42 this month.

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Where do I begin?

How about that night, a couple weeks ago, when Obama went on national TV and gave that terrible whining childish partison speech and basically said he wouldn't sign any bill that wasn't to his liking. Well he signed a crap bill and the markets all over the world are tanking as a result. Looks like he's back to owning the economy because he got the bill he wanted, signed it, and by signing it he endorsed it.

Parents defend Atlanta school caught up in scandal

By Ty Tagami

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
9:39 p.m. Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Parents of students at an Atlanta public school where cheating was alleged to have occurred on a statewide test on Tuesday night defended their school and teachers at a town hall meeting.

“We’ve been extremely pleased with the instruction my children have received,” said Quinnie Cook-Richardson, one of several parents at the troubled West Manor Elementary School who spoke at the meeting.

Her son’s teacher had him reading within a year, she said, adding, “They are an example of what is right with Atlanta Public Schools.”

Cook-Richardson was among a parade of parents who defended a school where the principal has been asked to resign because of the scandal surrounding the 2009 Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests.

“This school is in pain,” said Sherida Ragland, the former Parent-Teacher Association president at West Manor. “There are 300 other parents who couldn’t make it [tonight] and they’re feeling the same way.”

The town hall meeting, held at Jean Childs Young Middle School in southwest Atlanta, was called by the school board representative for the area, LaChandra Butler Burks.

“The entire district is hurting,” she told the parents. She said employees named in the report would get due process in termination hearings. Meanwhile, she said, the school system must work on its “culture.”

The parents were worried about the effect of the scandal and investigation on their kids.

Angela Lawson coordinated a reading group this summer with her son’s classmates. “They have a thirst for knowledge,” she said.

Also Tuesday, about 15 clergy, parents and community members attended the early portion of a planned six-hour vigil outside Atlanta Public Schools.

On a small stretch of sidewalk outside the district’s headquarters in downtown Atlanta, participants sang songs and offered prayers on behalf of the leadership, teachers and children in Atlanta Public Schools.

The event was organized by Rev. Timothy McDonald of First Iconium Baptist Church in East Atlanta as a way to highlight the work of the thousands of teachers and employees not associated with the cheating scandal.

“There’s too much anxiety from teachers, principals and students,” he said. “It’s time to turn this around and get excited for the school year.”

Leading up to the start of the school year, the district has been communicating with parents and community members through an active Twitter account, @apsupdate, and Facebook page.

In another development, the legal bills of former Atlanta schools superintendent Beverly Hall, as they relate to the district's ongoing cheating scandal, have cost APS more than $53,000 so far, according to Channel 2 Action News.

http://www.ajc.com/news/parents-defend-atlanta-school-1069715.html