Life of the Party - New York Times

Right, you from Florida and Tim Scott from South Carolina.
I think that there is a changing wind. There are black conservatives out there, and their voices need to be heard.

Like other Tea Party candidates endorsed by Sarah Palin, you came from a nonpolitical background. A longtime Army officer who rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel, you retired in 2004 after being investigated for firing a handgun close to the head of an Iraqi policeman during an interrogation. Is that correct?
Yes, I did that, but let me tell you what happened. I went through what is called a nonjudicial punishment, where I was fined $5,000. I redeployed from Iraq, and I retired with full rank and benefits and an honorable discharge, and that’s the end of it.

Do you consider President Obama a good leader?
Not really.

Do you think those in the military respect him?
I don’t know, you gotta ask guys in the military, but I will tell you this: I think that going in in the middle of the night doesn’t show leadership.

Are you referring to that recent three-hour trip to a base in Afghanistan? He needs to consider his own safety, doesn’t he?
Leaders lead by example, and if I’m asking my young men and women to go out there and puttheir lives on the line, I should be willing and able to do the exact same thing. As I told my soldiers when I was commander in Iraqin 2003, the most expendable person in our battalion was me.

Didn’t George W. Bush go in for a surprise visit to Iraq under similar circumstances? Remember the platter-of-turkey photo op on Thanksgiving Day?
I’m not saying that’s right, either. I’m saying that my understanding of leadership is a little bit different. Leadership is about being a servant first.

Even though you’re a Republican, did you feel a sense of pride when President Obama was elected?
I don’t look to a man to get pride in myself. It’s not about having a black president, it’s about having a good president, and I think that’s the most important thing. This country needs a good leader, and I don’t care if he’s purple or green but yes, there are some people that saw in him a sense of pride.

Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, said last year that blacks don’t have a reason to vote Republican because Republicans haven’t given them one.
I think that there are some objective criteria that you can look at that Chairman Steele needs to try to work through.

What made you become a Republican?
When I retired out of the military, I registered myself as a Republican because my views and perspectives were more in line with that party.

You were raised in Atlanta, in a military family of Democrats, and were the middle of three boys. Are your wife and two daughters Republicans?
After all of the crap that I was put through in this election campaign, I don’t think they’ll be liberals any time soon.

What do you mean by crap?
When you turn on the television and people are accusing you of being a member of a white outlaw motorcycle gang and saying that you run drugs and deal with prostitution, I think that’s a little bit over the top. My opponent was very nasty.

You haven’t started your new job. But you probably feel ready to retire.
No. I have not yet begun to fight, as John Paul Jones said.

INTERVIEW HAS BEEN CONDENSED AND EDITED.

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Notre Dame rolls past Miami Hurricanes in Sun Bowl - MiamiHerald.com

EL PASO -- This wasn't a rivalry renewed.

It was a maddening mismatch.

All the Miami Hurricanes can do now is hope that new football coach Al Golden, famous for resurrecting Temple University, can weave his magic in Coral Gables.

In the first game between Notre Dame and Miami in 20 years, the Irish made the Hurricanes look helpless, cruising to four first-half interceptions and a 33-17 victory in the Hyundai Sun Bowl.

The Canes (7-6) have lost three games to end the season and four of their past five bowl games, their last postseason victory coming against Nevada in Larry Coker's final game as coach in 2006.

The Irish (8-5) ended their season with their fourth consecutive victory, as a bundled up pro-Notre Dame crowd of 54,021 -- the largest in Sun Bowl history -- watched approvingly.

Star receiver Michael Floyd scored two touchdowns in a 100-plus-yard performance, and senior safety Harrison Smith had three interceptions, two off starter Jacory Harris and the other off Stephen Morris.

UM has thrown 27 interceptions this season, the most in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

Hurricanes fans might have seen it coming, as the sun rose over a Sun Bowl Stadium field covered with snow and ice from a rare snowfall in the desert Thursday night. By kickoff, thanks to furious work, the artificial turf was green again -- but it was 34 degrees.

UM faltered from the start. The Canes missed tackles, racked up penalties, threw to the wrong team and couldn't make many plays -- poor execution overall.

Notre Dame had a 27-3 lead by halftime. By then, it was all but over, and the rivalry had become the rout. The Hurricanes finally scored with 10:36 remaining on a 6-yard pass from Morris to Leonard Hankerson.

UM got its second touchdown on a 42-yard pass from Morris to Tommy Streeter with 4:01 remaining.

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Sprint Nextel May Purchase More Clearwire Debt; Clearwire Chairman Departs - Forbes

Sprint Nextel , the country's third largest mobile provider, will likely purchase $200 million worth of Clearwire debt so that it is able to maintain its 50 percent stake in the company, according to a Kaufman Bros analyst.

Sprint ( S - news - people ) shares are higher by about one percent.

Also, Clearwire ( CLWR - news - people ) said that Chairman Craig McCaw intends to leave the company. McCaw informed Clearwire on December 29 about his departure, and the company emphasized that the departure was not the result of a disagreement.

Clearwire shares are lower by about 1.5 percent.

Market News Video produces and distributes online videos about stocks and investing.

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China Vows Net Phone Crackdown - Radio Free Asia

Beijing may be moving to tighten censorship and protect state-owned companies.

AFP

A Hong Kong man looks at the image of a Mandarin teacher in mainland China speaking to students across the globe via Skype, March 27, 2007.

Chinese officials and media are warning of a crackdown on "illegal" Internet telephony services, like those provided by Skype, that are not licensed or approved by the country's powerful telecoms regulator.

"We are currently working together with relevant departments to launch a crackdown on illegal voice-over-IP (VoIP) telephony," Beijing's ministry of industry and information technology (MIIT) said in a statement carried on its website.

"We are looking to recruit members of the public who have clues in cases of illegal Internet telephony," said the statement, dated Dec. 10 but featured prominently in official media reports on Friday.

The statement provided a hotline number for anyone wanting to report information to the authorities.

Lucrative

The ministry's move is seen by some as a means of protecting the lucrative international call business of China's state-owned telecom operators.

Others have speculated that the government is also concerned that high-level encryption on VoIP services such as Skype make calls too difficult for the authorities to monitor.

Skype has been a popular tool with activists and others who want to share information relatively freely, getting around the complex system of blocks and filters known collectively as the Great Firewall (GFW).

Gong Shujia, an expert in electronic communications at George Mason University, said the fixed-line service providers found it very hard to compete with the Internet-to-phone services.

"If you have a fixed-line telephone in your home, that'll cost you 30-40 yuan per month, whereas if you use Internet phone services you will only spend 2-3 yuan per month," Gong said.

Important factor

But he said profits were not the only concern behind Beijing's planned crackdown on Internet telephony.

"There are two issues here. One is the issue of the profits of the telephone service providers," Gong said.

"The other is that any information sent as speech over these networks...is already encrypted when it leaves your computer."

"Even if someone was listening in, they wouldn't be able to hear the sound, so I think that is also another important factor [behind this decision]," he added.

Officials have so far declined to clarify the implications of the message for specific services.

But the Beijing Morning Post on Thursday quoted MIIT vice-minister Xi Guohua as saying only state-owned major Chinese telecommunications operators were licensed to provide Internet phone services linking telephones and computers.

Discounted rates

Beijing officials have made similar statements in the past, and also declined to clarify their implications for services such as Skype.

However, Xi said communications between computers (PC-to-PC) remained open to China's 450 million Internet users.

Currently, Skype operates both PC-to-PC calling services, which are free, and PC-to-phone services which enable users to dial international phone networks from their PC at discounted rates.

The ministry has previously said unlicensed VoIP services are illegal, but has declined to specify what action would be taken.

The Beijing Morning Post cited the case of UUCall, a homegrown VoIP service which calls itself "the first Chinese Internet phone brand," which was shut down in October 2009.

UUCall resumed business in February after moving its domain name to Hong Kong, the paper added.

"Not banned"

Netizens hit back at the proposed ban, complaining that VoIP was a public good that should not be declared illegal.

"What benefits people is not legal. I really want to curse out loud," one angry user said.

Skype told Bloomberg on Friday that its services in China remained operational.

“Skype is not banned,” Jennifer Caukin, a Palo Alto, California-based
spokeswoman for the service provider, said in an e-mail to the financial news service.

“Our users in China currently can access Skype via Tom Online, our majority joint venture partner.”

Reported by Shi Shan for RFA's Mandarin service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

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New Year's Eve tornadoes kill 6 in Ark., Mo. - Houston Chronicle

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Tornadoes fueled by unusually warm air pummeled the South and Midwest on Friday, killing at least six people and injuring dozens more across Arkansas, Missouri and Illinois. Forecasters said storms could hit along a stretch from near Chicago to New Orleans later in the evening as New Year's Eve celebrations begin.

Three people died in the northwestern Arkansas hamlet of Cincinnati when a tornado touched down just before sunrise, and three others died when a storm spawned by the same weather system ripped up the Missouri countryside near Rolla. A number of storms were also reported in the St. Louis area.

The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said storms later Friday could do more damage from northern Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico as communities prepare to mark the start of the new year. Forecasters posted tornado watches for the region that were set to run until 8 p.m.

"It sucked me out of my house and carried me across the road and dropped me," Chris Sisemore of Cincinnati told The Associated Press on Friday. "I was Superman for a while. ... You're just free-floating through the air. Trees are knocking you and smacking you down."

Sisemore said he tried to crawl under his bed and cling to the carpet, fearful a nearby pecan tree would fall into his home. As he nursed cuts, scrapes and bruises to his arms, knees and back, he recalled opening his eyes as he flew because he didn't believe he'd see 2011.

"I wanted to see the end coming. You're only going to see it one time and I thought that was it," he said. "It takes more than a tornado to get me."

In south-central Missouri, 19-year-old Megan Ross and her 64-year-old grandmother Loretta Anderson died at a Lecoma farm where their family lived among three mobile homes and two frame houses, Dent County Emergency Management Coordinator Brad Nash said.

A mother and an infant in the trailer were able to run to a sturdier home, he said.

"We found debris from one of the trailers a mile away," Nash said. "One of the frames of the trailer was 15 feet up in a tree. All the frames were all twisted up," and refrigerator from one of the mobile homes was found 200 yards away, he said.

Another woman was killed north of Rolla, not far from Lecoma, when a tornado destroyed a home, according to emergency managers in Phelps County.

Phelps County Emergency Management Director Sandy North identified that county's victim as Alice Cox, 69, who was from Belle, Mo., and was in the Rolla area visiting a friend.

In Arkansas, Gerald Wilson, 88, and his wife, Mamie, 78, died in their home and Dick Murray, 78, died after being caught by the storm while milking cows, Washington County Sheriff Tim Helder said.

Sisemore's mother, Margie Sisemore, said her son thought a tree had come crashing through his window.

"He jumped under his bed, said it grabbed his legs — took him up through the ceiling and he landed over yonder," she said, gesturing across the street near where the Wilsons died.

At Fort Leonard Wood, a storm damaged 20 homes in a neighborhood that houses officers. The fort directed essential personnel to report for duty and that all nonessential personnel should stay away. Spokesman Jeff S. Maddy said many from the fort were traveling for the holidays.

"The good thing here is if you had to have a storm like this, it couldn't happen at better time because we have the holiday season and so many people are visiting family and friends away from Fort Leonard Wood."

In Rolla, Judy Welch, 57, said she called her husband after the storm passed to tell him their home was gone but that she was able to account for their 13 dogs, including nine German shepherds. A number of cats that had scurried away hadn't returned.

"I kept praying to God. The house shook so bad, the windows were bowing and then going back to normal," Welch said.

Overnight storms damaged buildings and boat docks around Table Rock Lake in southern Missouri, leaving several boats adrift after wrenching them from their moorings. Several homes and businesses were damaged in the St. Louis County town of Sunset Hills, and a church was damaged in nearby Fenton.

In Illinois, a tornado may have touched down in Petersburg, northwest of Springfield, where about two dozen homes were damaged — some severely — and a woman was injured when her car was struck by a falling tree branch. Her injuries weren't believed to be life-threatening.

A tornado was spotted over Interstate 55 in Mississippi while broad swaths of Louisiana and Mississippi were under tornado watches as severe weather moved across the South. An approaching storm front has triggered a tornado watch for some West Tennessee counties.

Several flights to and from the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport at Highfill were delayed or canceled Friday morning until crews could clear debris littering the runway.

The region has been bracing for severe weather for much of the week. Gulf moisture riding southerly winds pushed temperatures into the upper 60s and 70s on Thursday — ahead of a cold front expected to drop temperatures into the teens by Saturday morning.

"This storm system has been showing significant signs that it could develop," said Chris Buonanno, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in North Little Rock who was monitoring the storms as they moved deeper into Arkansas. "Conditions are favorable for seeing a severe outbreak.

"In the winter you don't always have the instability" that would allow tornadoes to develop, Buonanno said. "This time, we have the instability."

While the spring brings most of the region's tornadoes, violent weather at this time of year isn't unheard of. A February 2008 outbreak killed 31 in Tennessee and 14 in Arkansas, and in January 1999 two separate outbreaks across the South killed 18, including seven in Arkansas.

A year ago, there were no tornado deaths nationwide between Oct. 9, 2009, and March 10, 2010.

Buonanno said there appears to be some association between changes in South Pacific Ocean temperatures and changes in the flow of the jet stream in the central part of the United States, causing an uptick in violent weather.

Friday's tornado fatalities are the first in the nation since Sept. 16, when a woman hit a falling tree while driving in Queens, N.Y., and a man was killed in his home at Belleville, W.Va. The deaths push this year's count to 42 nationally, and to 5 in Arkansas. The deaths in Missouri were its first of the year.

___

Associated Press writers Margaret Stafford in Kansas City, Mo., Sophia Tareen in Chicago and Kelly P. Kissel in Little Rock; and AP photo stringer April Brown in Cincinnati, Ark., contributed to this report.

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New year's mission at NASA: repair new cracks on Discovery fuel tank - Christian Science Monitor

Newly discovered cracks in the space shuttle Discovery's external fuel tank will keep repair crews busy into the New Year's weekend as NASA eyes a Feb. 3 launch for the orbiter and its six-member crew.

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The small cracks, uncovered Thursday as technicians used X-ray devices to inspect the external tank, represent the latest bump along the road to launch. The cracks were found following a chain of inspections, repairs, and more inspections dating back to Discovery's scrubbed Nov. 5 liftoff.

That liftoff was canceled after unacceptably high levels of explosive hydrogen were detected outside a crucial fixture on the side of the tank. The fixture transfers excess gas that accumulates as the tank fills to a line that carries the hydrogen to a flare stack, where the excess gas is burned.

IN PICTURES: NASA's Space Shuttle

When technicians returned to the launching pad after the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks had been emptied, they noticed cracks in the external tank's foam insulation at one of 108 "stringers" – long U-shaped aluminum ribs that reinforce a section of the tank's outer shell. This section, toward the top of the tank, spans a gap between the hydrogen and oxygen tanks inside.

Once technicians removed the cracked segment foam in anticipation of repairing it, they found that the stringer beneath the foam had cracked, too – shifting enough to fracture the foam. Subsequent inspections showed that a second, adjacent stringer hosted a small crack as well.

Although these cracks have appeared in past tanks and were successfully repaired, this incident was unusual because in the past, the cracks were caught far earlier in the shuttle program's inspection process, mission managers say.

As a result, they wanted to take the time needed to review the inspections on this tank to make sure the process hadn't broken down. And if it hadn't, they wanted to get a clear grasp of the causes that would trigger cracks at the last minute.

The problem appeared on the side of the tank facing the underside of the orbiter, where the shuttle's heat-shedding tiles and carbon-composite edged to the wings could be vulnerable to damage if a piece of foam broke loose and struck them.

In 2003, the shuttle Columbia broke up on reentry, killing its seven-member crew – an accident traced to chunks of foam striking the orbiter's thermal-protection system during ascent.

In this case, technicians were able to repair the stringers on the pad. On Dec. 15, controllers refilled the external tank to see if the repairs held up to the expansion and contraction the tank experiences as it undergoes the extreme temperature changes presented by ultra-cold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.

But managers were uncertain if the problem extended to additional stringers on sides of the tank workers can't reach while the shuttle is on the pad. So on Dec. 21, Discovery headed back to the towering Vehicle Assembly Building for additional inspections.

The cracks technicians uncovered Thursday appeared to vindicate the decision to send Discovery back to the barn for an additional look. Officials say they could decide on Jan. 3 whether to return the orbiter to the pad after weekend repairs or keep Discovery in the Vehicle Assembly Building for additional modifications to the tank.

IN PICTURES: NASA's Space Shuttle

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