Hope And Change Diary: Unemployment At 10% After Two Years Of Obama (How's That Hope And Change Working For You?)

PRINCETON, NJ -- Unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, is at 10.0% in mid-October -- essentially the same as the 10.1% at the end of September but up sharply from 9.4% in mid-September and 9.3% at the end of August. This mid-month measurement confirms the late September surge in joblessness that should be reflected in the government's Nov. 5 unemployment report.

Certain groups continue to fare worse than the national average. For example, 14.2% of Americans aged 18 to 29 and 13.8% of those with no college education were unemployed in mid-October.

Fewer Working Part Time Looking for Full-Time Employment

The percentage of part-time workers who want full-time work is at 8.6% of the workforce, not much different from the 8.7% at the end of September, but well below the 9.2% reading in the middle of last month.

Underemployment Is Declining

The decline in part-time workers wanting full-time work has led to a situation in which underemployment is declining even as unemployment is increasing. The 18.6% mid-October underemployment figure (the sum of the 10.0% unemployed and the 8.6% employed part time but wanting full-time work) is down slightly from 18.8% at the end of September and is the same as the reading in the middle of last month.

U.S. Unemployment Rate Should Increase on Nov. 5

Gallup's unemployment measure showed a sharp increase to double digits at the end of September, before seasonal adjustment. The mid-October measurement suggests the resulting double-digit unemployment rate has been maintained during the first half of the current month. In turn, this suggests that the government will report an increase in the U.S. unemployment rate for October.

In this regard, Gallup modeling suggests the government's unemployment rate report for October will be in the 9.7% to 9.9% range when it is released Nov. 5. The government's last report showed the U.S. unemployment rate at 9.6% in September on a seasonally adjusted basis, as Gallup anticipated. In addition to seasonal adjustments, the official unemployment rate is likely to be held down by a continued exodus of people from the workforce. It is easy for potential workers to become discouraged when the unemployment rate is expected to remain above 9% through the end of 2011.

In this regard, the lack of increase in Gallup's underemployment measure when the unemployment rate is increasing would normally be a good sign for jobs and the economy. However, the current decline in the percentage of workers employed part time but looking for full-time work is not necessarily positive. It might be that some workers who are employed part time are losing their jobs -- becoming unemployed or dropping out of the workforce -- and are not being replaced, while new part-time workers are not being hired.

Regardless, Gallup's employment data continue to reveal little good news for consumer spending, retailers, or the unemployed as the holidays approach.

Gallup.com reports results from these indexes in daily, weekly, and monthly averages and in Gallup.com stories. Complete trend data are always available to view and export in the following charts:

Daily: Employment, Economic Confidence and Job Creation, Consumer Spending
Weekly: Employment, Economic Confidence, Job Creation, Consumer Spending

Read more about Gallup's economic measures.

Survey Methods
Gallup classifies American workers as underemployed if they are either unemployed or working part time but wanting full-time work. The findings reflect more than 18,000 phone interviews with U.S. adults aged 18 and older in the workforce, collected over a 30-day period. Gallup's results are not seasonally adjusted and tend to be a precursor of government reports by approximately two weeks.

Results are based on telephone interviews conducted as part of Gallup Daily tracking Sept.16-Oct. 15, 2010, with a random sample of 18,218 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, selected using random-digit-dial sampling.

For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±1 percentage point.

Interviews are conducted with respondents on landline telephones and cellular phones, with interviews conducted in Spanish for respondents who are primarily Spanish-speaking. Each daily sample includes a minimum quota of 150 cell phone respondents and 850 landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas among landline respondents for gender within region. Landline respondents are chosen at random within each household on the basis of which member had the most recent birthday.

Samples are weighted by gender, age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, education, region, adults in the household, cell phone-only status, cell phone-mostly status, and phone lines. Demographic weighting targets are based on the March 2009 Current Population Survey figures for the aged 18 and older non-institutionalized population living in U.S. telephone households. All reported margins of sampling error include the computed design effects for weighting and sample design.

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

For more details on Gallup's polling methodology, visit www.gallup.com. (Source)

Barry As President: How To Deal With Our Trade Deficit With China--Run Away From The Fight

(Reuters) - The Obama administration backed away on Friday from a showdown with Beijing over the value of China's currency that would have caused new frictions between the world's only superpower and its largest creditor.

The Treasury Department delayed a much-anticipated decision on whether to label China as a currency manipulator until after the U.S. congressional elections on November 2 and a Group of 20 leaders summit in South Korea on November 11.

Washington and the European Union accuse China -- set to become the world's second-largest economy after the United States this year -- of keeping the yuan artificially low to boost exports, undermining jobs and competitiveness in Western economies.

Fears are growing of a global "currency war" as major trading powers, such as the United States and Japan, seek to weaken their currencies while emerging economies such as Brazil and South Korea raise or threaten tougher controls to limit capital flows.

The decision to delay the Treasury's semi-annual currency report reflects a desire by the Obama administration to pursue diplomacy to resolve the dispute with China rather than provoke a confrontation that could potentially lead to a trade war and affect long-term interest rates.

In July, China held $847 billion in U.S. government debt.

In its statement, the Treasury seemed to be encouraged by China's recent action to allow its currency to rise by roughly 3 percent against the dollar since June 19.

"Since September 2, 2010, the pace of appreciation has accelerated to a rate of more than 1 percent per month," it said. "If sustained over time, this would help correct what the IMF (International Monetary Fund) has concluded is a significantly undervalued currency."

China argues that moving too quickly with currency reforms could devastate its export-driven economy.

It blames the United States for sluggish growth, high debts and an easy monetary policy that has flooded the market with newly printed dollars, weakening the U.S. currency and putting pressure on emerging countries to keep their currencies low.

But Washington argues that Beijing could relieve that pressure by letting the yuan strengthen.

"YUAN SHOULD NOT BE A SCAPEGOAT"

The Treasury said the G20 gathering in Seoul would give world leaders an opportunity to look at how best to rebalance the global economy. This was not just the responsibility of China and the United States, it stressed.

In another important summit, leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum will meet on November 13-14.

"The Treasury will delay the publication of the report on international economic and exchange rate policies in order to take advantage of the opportunity provided by these important meetings," it said.

China left little doubt about the rancor that would ensue if it is branded as a currency manipulator -- a largely symbolic move by the United States that would mandate more consultations with Beijing but no immediate penalties.

"The Chinese yuan should not be a scapegoat for the United States' domestic economic problems," Commerce Ministry spokesman Yao Jian said on Friday.

The decision to delay the Treasury report appears to have been taken at the last minute. Industry sources had been primed to expect it by 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT) on Friday.

The Obama administration, seeming to anticipate criticism from U.S. lawmakers who are pushing for stronger action against China, brought forward an announcement of an investigation into whether Chinese support for its clean energy sector violates international trade rules.

But that was not enough to appease Democratic Senator Charles Schumer, who has sponsored legislation to get tough with China over its currency practices.

"The Obama administration is treating the symptom but not the disease," he said. "An investigation into China's illegal subsidies for its clean energy industry is overdue but it's no substitute for dealing with China's currency manipulation."

CONGRESS EYES DUTIES ON CHINA

The Treasury's decision may raise pressure on the Senate to approve a bill passed by the House of Representatives that would allow the United States to slap duties on imports from countries with fundamentally undervalued currencies.

"Democrats and Republicans alike in Congress are prepared to move legislation confronting China's currency manipulation this year," Schumer said. "We hope to have the administration's support but will go forward without it if necessary."

There had been speculation Obama might be tempted to label China as a currency manipulator for the first time in 16 years to look tough before the elections in which his Democrats risk big losses over discontent with his handling of the economy.

But there are concerns about angering China, whose support is needed on issues such as rebalancing the global economy, climate change and the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea.

In an article published on Friday, Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan pledged a continuation of yuan reform but only on Beijing's gradual terms. (source)

Barry As President: Immigration Cases Solved--Dismissing All Cases

In the month after Homeland Security officials started a review of Houston's immigration court docket, immigration judges dismissed more than 200 cases, an increase of more than 700 percent from the prior month, new data shows.

The number of dismissals in Houston courts reached 217 in August — up from just 27 in July, according to data from the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which administers the nation's immigration court system.

In September, judges dismissed 174 pending cases — the vast majority involving immigrants who already were out on bond and had cases pending on Houston's crowded downtown court docket, where hearings are now being scheduled into 2012.

Roughly 45 percent of the 350 cases decided in that court in September resulted in dismissals, the records show.

The EOIR data offer the first glimpse into Homeland Security's largely secretive review of pending cases on the local immigration court docket.

In early August, federal attorneys in Houston started filing unsolicited motions to dismiss cases involving suspected illegal immigrants who have lived in the country for years without committing serious crimes.

News of the dismissals, first reported in the Houston Chronicle in late August, caused a national controversy amid allegations that the Obama administration was implementing a kind of "backdoor amnesty" — a charge officials strongly denied.

In recent weeks, some immigration attorneys reported the dismissals have slowed somewhat, while others reported they now have to ask ICE trial attorneys to exercise prosecutorial discretion in order to have their cases dismissed. Others, however, said they are still being approached by government attorneys seeking to file joint motions for case dismissal.

"They're still doing it," said immigration attorney Steve Villarreal. "They're just doing it quietly."

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials declined this week to discuss specifics of the docket reviews and dismissals, which are also going on in several other cities, including Dallas and Miami.

In response to the Houston EOIR data, ICE spokeswoman Gillian Brigham noted that immigration judges can terminate cases for other than prosecutorial discretion, such as when ICE does not meet its burden of proof. The Houston immigration courts averaged about 38 case terminations each month in the 10 months prior to the DHS review.

Broad set of criteria

ICE has tried to downplay the docket reviews, suggesting in some media accounts that they were limited to cases involving illegal immigrants with pending petitions filed by U.S. citizen relatives.

However, EOIR's liaison with the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Raed Gonzalez, said he was briefed on the guidelines in August directly by DHS' deputy chief counsel in Houston and described a broader set of internal criteria.

Government attorneys in Houston were instructed to exercise prosecutorial discretion on a case-by-case basis for illegal immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for at least two years and have no serious criminal history, Gonzalez said.

To qualify for dismissal, defendants also must have no felony record or any misdemeanor convictions involving DWI, sex crimes or domestic violence, he said.

Several dismissed cases examined by the Chronicle involved defendants without U.S. citizen relatives but with arguments for dismissal on humanitarian grounds, such as illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children who have stayed out of trouble and are enrolled in college.

Supporters of the review called it a necessary, common-sense step to reduce the system's staggering backlog, which hit an all-time high this year. In June, the number of pending immigration cases nationally reached 247,922, including 7,444 in Houston.

By moving to dismiss cases for people who have stayed out of trouble, the agency will be better able to use its limited resources to more rapidly deport those with serious criminal records, supporters said.

"It makes all of the sense in the world," John Nechman, a Houston immigration attorney, said of the review, which has led the dismissals of cases for several of his clients.

Dismissed, but still illegal

The dismissals essentially mean that officials are no longer actively trying to remove defendants through the immigration court system, though they can refile such charges at a later date.
The dismissals do not convey any kind of legal status, so recipients remain illegal immigrants and cannot work legally in the U.S.

But critics still charge that the dismissals show the government is not enforcing the law.

"When you have this kind of mass dismissal, it sends a very clear message to illegal immigrants, and to society at large, that the government is not serious about enforcing the laws," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, an organization that advocates for stricter border controls.

"This type of action muddles the message so both the public at large as well as illegal immigrants don't know what to think." (source)

Hope And Change Diary: Stimulus Bill Witness In Obama's White House Is Laid Off (How's That Hope And Change Thing Working For You Now?)

Toledo Public Schools teacher Amanda VanNess, second from right, is on hand as President Obama signs the stimulus bill.

TPS teacher who watched Obama sign bill is laid off

Board not using $7.6M share to rehire workers

As Toledo Public Schools teacher Amanda VanNess stood in the Oval Office and watched President Obama sign an education stimulus bill, she already knew she'd lost her teaching job back home to budget cuts and low seniority.

The $26 billion stimulus bill, designed to save 160,000 teacher and other government jobs across the nation, couldn't save her position at Pickett Elementary.

In fact, Ms. VanNess has been laid off twice from TPS this year.

TPS hasn't spent a dollar of the $7.6 million in teacher rehire money it received from the Aug. 10 bill, opting instead to save it for next school year to rehire or retain a myriad school employees - probably not teachers.

The legislation allows the one-time money to be spent that way over the two school years.

The hard-fought federal legislation was sold as a way for school districts to call back laid-off teachers or to save others from losing jobs. But as of Nov. 15, Ms. VanNess will be without a teaching assignment, according to TPS' human resources department.

Ms. VanNess, 25, couldn't be reached for this story, but the irony of her situation was featured in the Wall Street Journal last week and on television and talk radio.

The stimulus measure gave governors $10 billion in education aid to hire and retain certain local school district workers and about $16 billion to help cover increased costs for Medicaid, the state-level health-care program for the nation's poor. More people access Medicaid in hard economic times.

The bill was stalled in Congress, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) called members back from a break in August to push it through. The legislation has become a powerful symbol in the rhetorical battle over the wisdom of stimulus spending and debate over government's proper size.

And Ms. VanNess' job loss has become political foil for the anti-Obama right as midterm elections approach.

To set up the bill signing in the Oval Office, the American Federation of Teachers contacted local union President Fran Lawrence and asked if she knew of a Toledo teacher who could come to Washington to stand with the President.

Ms. Lawrence thought of Ms. VanNess because she had been notified about her job loss. Ms. Lawrence said she doesn't feel the situation is ironic because Ms. VanNess was already laid off when the stimulus bill was signed.

The young teacher had received a letter in early July with an effective layoff date of Aug. 25.

Ms. VanNess traveled to Washington Aug. 10, but her plane was late and she missed attending a morning press conference when the President discussed the bill, Ms. Lawrence said.

But Ms. VanNess arrived in time to watch congressional debate about the bill, which passed on a party-line vote. Later, as she and the other visiting teachers with their guides approached the Oval Office, the door opened unexpectedly. The President emerged, reached out his hand, and said, "You must be Amanda, you were MIA this morning," said Ms. Lawrence, recounting what Ms. VanNess told her.

Ms. VanNess, the other teachers, and Education Secretary Arne Duncan stood behind the President as he signed the bill.

Ms. VanNess was officially laid off the day before school started, Aug. 25, about two weeks after her Washington trip.

She fell prey to budget cuts designed to close a $39 million deficit last school year. About 400 employees, including 237 teachers, received pink slips.

Student services were cut and bus service curtailed affecting about 5,000 students, and elimination of middle school and freshman sports.

About 24,350 students are enrolled in TPS.

Ms. VanNess was quickly reassigned as a second-grade permanent substitute at Reynolds Elementary School because a position opened up unexpectedly.
But Oct. 1, she was notified again. With falling enrollment, 14 more teachers were let go, effective Nov. 15. According to the union contract, the district must continue to employ the teachers for 45 days after they are notified.

"It's terrible," Ms. Lawrence said. "I wish they would have used some of that money not to lay off those 14 teachers because that disrupted those classrooms."

TPS released its head count for this school year in mid-September, down more than 5 percent. Many parents pulled their children because of cuts to services.

TPS Superintendent Jerome Pecko said the district expects a $44 million deficit next school year. He said he's scoured the wording of the federal legislation for permissible uses beyond rehiring teachers.

As enrollment falls, the district doesn't need as many teachers, and Mr. Pecko said he must balance all needs for students. He said the district might use the money to hire its own crossing guards, instead of using an outside company, and to hire more bus drivers to restore service to where it was before last year's budget cuts. (source)

After Years Of Attempts, Obama's Half Brother In Kenya Says He Married Teen

NAIROBI, Kenya – President Barack Obama's polygamist half brother in Kenya has married a woman who is more than 30 years younger than him.

The 19-year-old's mother told The Associated Press on Friday she is furious that her daughter quit high school and married the 52-year-old.

Mary Aoko Ouma says her daughter tried to marry Malik Obama two years ago, but the mother says she wouldn't give permission.

Malik Obama, who is Muslim, has two other wives. Polygamy is legal in Kenya if it falls under religious or cultural traditions.

In an interview broadcast by Kenya's NTV that was filmed without his knowledge, Malik Obama says he married the 19-year-old but didn't say when. (source)

Ft Hood Gunman Screams "Allahu Akbar" While On His Jihad Mission Of Shooting Unarmed US Soldiers

FORT HOOD, Texas – As dozens of soldiers lay dead or bleeding in a Fort Hood processing center last year, a gunman went outside and continued firing as others ran to nearby buildings, hid behind cars or carried wounded comrades to safety, witnesses told a military court Friday.

Chief Warrant Officer II Christopher Royal said he ran out of the center where soldiers were preparing to deploy after he heard gunshots and saw the shooter, but then decided to go back and try to stop the rampage, because "I told myself I could not let him get away with it."

Royal testified Friday during an Article 32 hearing that will determine whether Maj. Nidal Hasan should stand trial in the Nov. 5 shootings on the Texas Army post. The 40-year-old American-born Muslim has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. The hearing is to resume Monday.

Crouching behind a car while deciding how to take the gunman "by surprise," the unarmed Royal saw a soldier run out of the back door and then fall face-down in the grass after the man chased and shot him, he testified. The shooter later started firing at Royal, who then ran to a nearby building to warn others to stay inside — and then realized he had been shot in the back, Royal said.

Sgt. Lamar Nixon testified Friday that after he escaped and ran into a nearby building, he and another soldier "bolted back out" and picked up a wounded comrade even though they still heard gunfire.

Nixon said he recognized Hasan as the gunman. Nixon, who worked in the building where soldiers must get vaccines and other routine medical tests before deployment, said Hasan had been there two or three times, including the morning of Nov. 5. Hasan had been at the center earlier to get vaccines because he was to be deployed the following month, but he did not respond when Nixon greeted him, the soldier testified.

Nixon said he remembered Hasan because of "his stature and just how he composed himself — stoic." The next time Nixon saw Hasan, it was after lunch when the psychiatrist stood from behind a front counter and began shooting after yelling "Allahu Akbar!" — "God is great!" in Arabic, Nixon testified.

Twenty-nine witnesses over three days have appeared in the courtroom or by video link. They have given similar accounts of how the rampage began, saying Hasan fired into a crowded waiting area and then walked around the building, shooting people as they hid under chairs and tables, pausing only to reload.

Some witnesses testified that Michael Grant Cahill, a civilian physician assistant, and Capt. John Gaffaney, a psychiatric nurse preparing to deploy to Iraq, each were fatally shot after picking up chairs to try to stop Hasan.

Only one witness has testified he saw two weapons. Others have said they saw one weapon, but descriptions about the gun have varied.

Addressing the court via video link from Afghanistan Friday, Spc. Megan Martin said the gunman was "shooting everything that moved." She was part of the 467th Medical Detachment, the combat stress unit Hasan was supposed to deploy with.

Immediately after the shootings, reports emerged that Hasan had been trying to get out of his pending deployment because he opposed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He had been saying goodbye to friends and neighbors, and had given away his Quran and other belongings.

Hasan's lead attorney John Galligan asked Martin on Friday if the tragedy could have prevented her from deploying to a combat zone.

"I wanted to carry on with the mission, sir, as my fallen soldiers would want me to," she said.

Earlier Friday under cross examination, Pfc. Lance Aviles said he used his cell phone to record the rampage inside the processing center but was ordered by an officer to delete both videos later the same day. Aviles was not asked if he knew why the officer ordered the videos destroyed.

It's unclear exactly what the footage showed, although it could have been used as evidence in the case. Prosecutors have not said whether they'll seek the death penalty if the case goes to trial.

Hasan, who was paralyzed after Fort Hood police shot him that day, remains jailed in the Bell County Jail, which houses suspects for nearby Fort Hood. The military justice system does not have bail for defendants.(source)

Democrat Congress Further Endangers US Solvency By Passing 1.3 Trilion Dollar Budget

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration said Friday the federal deficit hit a near-record $1.3 trillion for the just-completed budget year.

That means the government had to borrow 37 cents out of every dollar it spent as tax revenues continued to lag while spending on food stamps and unemployment benefits went up as joblessness neared double-digit levels in a struggling economy.

While expected, the eye-popping deficit numbers provide Republican critics of President Barack Obama's fiscal stewardship with fresh ammunition less than three weeks ahead of the midterm congressional elections. The deficit was $122 billion less than last year, a modest improvement.

Voter anger over deficits and spending are a big problem for Democrats this election year. Republicans are slamming Democrats — who face big losses in November — for votes on Obama's $814 billion economic stimulus last year and on former President George W. Bush's $700 billion bailout of Wall Street.

Democrats say the recession would have been worse if the government hadn't stepped in with those programs to prop up the economy. They also note that most of the bailout, which began during the previous administration and was supported by many Republicans in Congress, has been repaid.

Outside of the bailout, the federal budget went up by 9 percent in the 2010 budget year to $3.5 trillion, the Congressional Budget Office reported last week. Food stamp payments rose 27 percent as record numbers of people took advantage of the programs, while unemployment benefits rose 34 percent as Congress extended benefits for the long-term jobless.

"The FY 2010 deficit remained elevated as a result of the severe economic recession, high unemployment, and the financial crisis inherited by the current administration," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and acting White House budget director Jeffrey Zients said in a statement announcing the results.

Rising deficits will present headaches for policymakers regardless of which party controls Congress after November.

The administration is projecting that the deficit for the 2011 budget year, which began on Oct. 1, will climb to $1.4 trillion. Over the next decade, it will total $8.47 trillion. Deficits of that size will constrain the administration's agenda over the next two years and will certainly be an issue in the 2012 presidential race.

"Since the Democrat majority has taken control of the nation's checkbook, deficits have risen to staggering levels and will average $1 trillion annually for the next decade under the president's policies," said Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H. "These abrupt and shocking changes in our fiscal situation cannot be dismissed as 'inherited' problems when the tally of the majority's spending spree has climbed into the trillions."

Government revenues rose by $57.4 billion in 2010 compared to 2009, but more than two-thirds of that increase reflected higher payments from the Federal Reserve to the Treasury on all the investments the central bank has made to support the economy and the financial system during the recession.

Income tax revenue fell slightly as unemployment stays near 10 percent nationwide, though corporate tax receipts were up almost 40 percent as the economy slowly pulls out of the worst recession since the Great Depression.

Leading officials with the National Association for Business Economics forecast this week that the 2011 deficit will total $1.2 trillion, only slightly better than the administration's estimate. They cited excessive federal debt as their single greatest concern, even more so than high unemployment.

Obama's bipartisan deficit commission is supposed to report a deficit-cutting plan on Dec. 1, but panel members are unsure at best whether they'll be able to agree on anything approaching Obama's goal of cutting the deficit to about 3 percent of the size of gross domestic product (GDP).

The recommendations of the commission need the backing of 14 of its 18 members to trigger a congressional vote. Building that level of consensus will be difficult. Republicans are strongly opposed to a plan that includes tax increases to chip away at the deficit. Democrats are less inclined to move a package that relies solely on spending cuts.

Even if Congress doesn't vote on a deficit-cutting proposal, it faces the challenge of reaching a consensus on what to do with the Bush-era tax cuts that are set to expire on Dec. 31.

The Republicans are fighting to renew all of the tax cuts. Obama and the Democrats want to extend the tax cuts for every family making less than $250,000, but let them expire for the wealthiest households.

The difference between the two parties amounts to $700 billion that would be added to projected deficits over the next decade if the tax cuts for the wealthy were extended along with the other tax cuts.

So far, the huge deficits have not been a threat to the country. That's because interest rates have been so low coming out of the recession and the United States has been seen as a safe haven for foreign investors willing to keep buying U.S. Treasury bonds.

But the situation could change once the economy gains more momentum, analysts warn.

"If we get to 2013 and policymakers don't look like they have a credible plan to deal with the deficit, then interest rates are likely to rise significantly and that will jeopardize the recovery we have under way at that time," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. (source)

Guantanamo Bay: Another Look Behind The "Innocent Prisoners"

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – A plea deal that would reportedly keep a Guantanamo prisoner in custody for eight more years isn't sitting well with a key witness against him: a former Army sergeant who was partially blinded and lost a friend in the firefight that led to the alleged al-Qaida militant's capture.

Layne Morris said Friday that Canadian-born Omar Khadr should get at least 20 years in prison, and perhaps much longer.

"They ought to lock him up until he's no longer a threat, and if that's for the rest of his life, so be it," Morris said in an interview with The Associated Press a day after Khadr's lawyers disclosed they were negotiating a possible plea deal.

Khadr, who was 15 when he was captured following the firefight in Afghanistan in 2002, was originally scheduled to go on trial Monday at the U.S. base in Cuba. He faces war crimes charges that include murder for allegedly throwing a grenade that killed Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer, a special forces medic from Albuquerque, New Mexico. If convicted, he faces a maximum life sentence.

The trial began in August but was put on hold when Khadr's defense lawyer fell ill and collapsed in the courtroom.

With plea talks under way, a military judge postponed the resumption of the trial, the first at Guantanamo under President Barack Obama. The war crimes tribunal is scheduled to reconvene Oct. 25 — but that could turn into a sentencing hearing if an agreement is reached.

Khadr's lawyers and U.S. officials declined to release details about any proposed agreement. But the Toronto Star reported that a proposal already approved by the military would impose a sentence of less than 10 years, on top of the time he has already been in custody. Postmedia News, another Canadian outlet, said he would get eight, with one more in Guantanamo and the rest in his native country. Both cited anonymous sources.

There have been plea talks before, but Khadr himself has resisted, saying it would excuse the harsh treatment he endured during captivity. He also denies throwing the grenade that killed Speer.

The Khadr case is problematic for the U.S. because of his age and the fact that his father, who was killed in 2003, had close ties to senior al-Qaida leaders. His lawyers and human rights groups say Khadr was a child soldier, essentially brainwashed by his family, who should be sent home and rehabilitated.

But unlike most war crimes cases at Guantanamo, his involves specific American victims.

Morris, now retired from the Army and living in a suburb of Salt Lake City, Utah, is scheduled to travel to Guantanamo to testify as a witness. He said he appreciates the challenge that prosecutors face with the case but nevertheless hopes for a longer sentence.

"Knowing the facts of the case, I would think your average American would be disappointed that somebody who had demonstrated the capacity and the willingness to kill American soldiers would get a mere eight years," he said in a phone interview. "That seems short to me."

Morris was blinded in his right eye during the assault on the militant stronghold in which Speer was killed. He said he doesn't seek a longer sentence out of vengeance but for the sake of his comrade's family and because he believes Khadr, now 24, remains a danger to the U.S. It wouldn't matter to him whether Khadr serves prison time in Guantanamo, Canada or somewhere in the U.S.

"He should get 20 years and then be evaluated to see if he is still a security threat," Morris said. "And if he is, then he can do another 20 years. And if he has somehow seen the error of his ways, and if someone wants to take a chance with him somewhere in Canada, I would be OK with it." (source)

Nancy Pelosi: "We Have To Pass The Bill So That You Will See What's In It"

Nancy Pelosi: "As Smug As I Wanna Be" (Too Important To Debate)