Obama giving NYC its moment of justice on bin Laden

NEW YORK — President Obama punctuated his success in bringing to justice Osama bin Laden on Thursday with a visit to those on the front line of the 9/11 attack — families and colleagues of those killed at the site .

President Obama participates in a wreath laying ceremony at the 9/11 Memorial in New York City, May 5.

Under sunny skies, multiple construction cranes, and the unfinished bulk of the first tower to rise at Ground Zero, Obama laid a wreath at the emerging 9/11 memorial in a solemn ceremony. He placed the flowers in front of a tree that survived the attack and then turned to hug Payton Hall, 14, who was standing with her friend, Madison Robertson, 14.

Both girls, from Rumson, N.J., lost their dads on 9/11 and had written letters to the president - and to Justin Bieber - several months ago.

"I just wanted to share my story,'' Payton said.

"He just said how proud of us he is,'' Madison said.

Payton also said she was stunned when the White House called. "I was so shocked," she said. "I did not think he would write back.''

Crowds with flags and cameras lined Church Street on the eastern edge of the 16-acre construction site.

The wreath laying site is between two reflecting pools that mark the footprints of the destroyed towers. The tree was found growing on the site after the collapse and is called the Survivor Tree. It was taken away from the site, nursed back to health and returned this year.

After the wreath laying, Obama met with about 60 relatives of the nearly 3,000 people who died during the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that led to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Earlier Obama told a Manhattan fire fighting crew that lost 15 members on 9/11 that the death of bin Laden sends a strong message to both the nation and the world.

"When we say we will never forget, we mean what we say," Obama said during a stop at the fire station .

The president also visited a Manhattan police station to speak with more of the first responders, telling officers, "I am here basically to shake your hand and say how proud I am of all of you."

The weekend raid on bin Laden in Pakistan "sent a signal that we have never forgotten the extraordinary sacrifices that were made on 9/11," Obama said. "We did what we said we were going to do."

Obama's stop at the "Pride of Midtown Firehouse" in Midtown at 48th Street and Eighth Avenue was greeted to applause from a nearby crowd. Obama greeted each member of the company and then stopped to examine a plaque bearing the names of 15 fire fighters who gave their lives on 9/11.

"This is a symbolic site of the extraordinary sacrifice that was made on that terrible day almost 10 years ago," Obama told company members.

The president then went in to lunch with crew now assigned to Engine Company 54, Ladder 4, Battalion 9. The president joked that he also visited the firehouse because "I hear the food was pretty good."

One of the family members watching the wreath laying was Christopher Cannizzaro, 10, of Staten Island, whose father Brian was a firefighter. He said Obama gave him a fist bump and he gave the president a prayer card for his dad. "It was just a very nice experience," he said.

His mother, Jackie Cannizzaro-Hawkins, who remarried, said she told the president "Thank you. Thank you for seeing it through." Obama's visit to the WTC site "means the world to me. It was appropriate. He never forgot."

White House spokesman Jay Carney called the event a "cathartic moment for the American people."

Security was tight as crowds started to gather in New York in anticipation of Obama's visit.

Jim Riches, a retired deputy chief with the city fire department and father of Jimmy Riches, a firefighter who was killed in the collapse of the North Tower, was among those scheduled to meet with Obama. He recalled that at a meeting in 2009, Obama told the 9/11 families that he was determined to get bin Laden.

"He did a great job and he deserves credit for it. He had the conviction to do it,'' Riches said Wednesday evening.

"It'll be a pleasure just to shake his hand,'' said Bill Doyle, whose son Joey was killed in the twin towers.

Doyle was flying to New York from his home in Florida on Thursday morning to attend the meeting with Obama. "It was remarkable, the decision (to attack bin Laden's hide-out), and it was gutsy by President Obama,'' he said.

"I'd love to meet that Navy SEAL that put a bullet in that guy's head,'' Doyle said.

Susan Dahill, communications director for Voices of September 11, a family support and advocacy group, said that Mary and Frank Fetchet, the group's founders, would be among those at the meeting. They planned to take printed messages to Obama that family members who were not invited posted on the group's Facebook page.

The couple's 24-year-old son Bradley was killed on 9/11.

The message from Alexandra Luckett, who lost her brother in the collapse of the North Tower, was heartfelt: "Please thank President Obama from everyone in Ted Luckett's family for finally bringing us some justice!'' she wrote on Facebook. "I hope this brings a little peace to this country and that the war will soon come to an end. I love the Navy Seals! Great job. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!''

Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked jets and flew two of them into the World Trade Center's twin towers. Both buildings collapsed, trapping thousands inside and also claiming the lives of firefighters and others who had rushed to help them. A third plane slammed into the Pentagon. Officials have speculated that a fourth plane had been heading for the U.S. Capitol or perhaps even the White House when it crashed in Pennsylvania.

A few days later, President George W. Bush stood amid the rubble and spoke through a bullhorn. When one worker yelled, "I can't hear you," the president responded: "I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you! And the people — and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!"

All these years later, Obama said this is no time for gloating. "We don't need to spike the football," he said as he told CBS on Wednesday that he would keep bin Laden's death photos sealed.

Obama invited Bush to join him Thursday, but the former president declined.

"The ceremony will provide some closure to a horrific event," said Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Firefighters, who was invited by the White House to attend Obama's Ground Zero event.

Contributing: Martha T. Moore in New York; David Jackson in Washington, D.C.; Carolyn Pesce in McLean, Va.; Associated Press

For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.We've updated the Conversation Guidelines. Changes include a brief review of the moderation process and an explanation on how to use the "Report Abuse" button. Read more.

USATODAY.com

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Brewer Signs Bill Giving Tea Party-Backed Flag Same Status as U.S. Flag

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law this week a bill that prevents homeowners associations from banning the black-on-yellow Gadsden flags -- the Tea Party-favored banners displaying the coiled rattlesnake and "Don’t Tread on Me" message.

Under the new law, the flag has the same protected status as the American flag, the flags of any military branch, the state flag, the POW-MIA flag and the flag of any Arizona Indian nation. But homeowners associations can still prohibit residents from flying more than two flags at once and restrict a flag pole to the height of the resident's roof.

The flag is named after American statesman Christopher Gadsden who designed it in 1775. It was originally used by the U.S. Marine Corps during the American Revolution and was meant to represent the 13 original colonies and their battle for independence from the British monarchy. Since then, it has been reintroduced by numerous groups as a symbol of American patriotism. The Tea Party movement is the latest group to adopt the flag for its message against big government.

The flag became a flashpoint in Arizona last summer after a suburban Phoenix homeowner refused to bow to his homeowners association's demands that he remove his flag within 10 days for face a $25 fine. Andy McDonel of Leveen, Ariz., said he wouldn't take his flag down unless a judge ordered him to.

During debate in the Arizona Legislature, critics of the bill said support for the flag was a slippery slope.

"Are we next year going to be voting to allow our peace sign flag to be allowed," Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego said, according to the Arizona Daily Star.

But Republican Rep. David Gowan rejected that argument.

"The Tea Party may use the flag. But it is a United States flag," the newspaper quoted him as saying.

Print Email Share Comments Recommend Tweet View ArticleLeave a CommentSort: NewestSort: Oldest Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. You must login to comment.

View Article

View All Comments

Latest Politics VideosMore »

View the Original article

Giving comfort to the youngest quake survivors

By Dan MacMedan, USA TODAY

Kozue Shimabukuro visits one of her patients, 7-year-old Michael Holloway, in the UCLA Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. She helped out in her native country after the March 11 quake.

EnlargeCloseBy Dan MacMedan, USA TODAY

Kozue Shimabukuro visits one of her patients, 7-year-old Michael Holloway, in the UCLA Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. She helped out in her native country after the March 11 quake.

That's what the traumatized children of Japan need in the wake of a massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami that rocked the country one month ago, pediatric experts say.

Just back from Japan, after three weeks caring for the youngest survivors, critical care pediatrician Kozue Shimabukuro tells the story of a boy she met in Yamada, one of the towns heavily damaged after the catastrophic magnitude-9.0 quake.

"There was nothing wrong with him on the outside," Shimabukuro says of the boy about 8 years old. "He just wanted to be with us."

PHOTOS: Landscape of lossFrom the time she arrived in Yamada on March 21, the child showed up at the medical clinic every day. "Days go by and I realize he was alone," she says.

A native of Okinawa, Shimabukuro has studied and practiced medicine in the United States for the past 15 years and has worked in other disaster-struck countries, including Burma and Thailand.

Initially in Yamada, she says she treated some children for asthma and mild skin infections, but most of the youngsters who survived were fairly healthy. Her greatest concern is for their mental health, she says, because many, like the young boy, appeared to have lost family.

"I kept asking the boy, 'So who are you staying with?' And he wouldn't say anything. He was like the master at folding origami. I asked him, 'Who taught you this?' " He told her that his grandmother used to say that kids nowadays play too many video games.

"He said she told him, 'If you do origami, you'll be smarter.' But I never saw his grandmother," Shimabukuro says. She says after the aftershocks — which were frequent — the boy would grab onto her and ask if he was going to be OK.

The organization Save the Children estimates about 100,000 children are among the displaced population in Japan. That figure is still growing, says Irwin Redlener, president and co-founder of the Children's Health Fund and the director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. "We have an increasing number of people being evacuated from varying distances from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant," Redlener says. The plant was damaged and is still vulnerable to aftershocks.

He says the displaced children will need water, food, a place to sleep, toys and schooling. Children with chronic health conditions such as asthma and diabetes are especially vulnerable. But equally at risk is their mental health, he says.

"They'll require a lot of support from parents and community, but if parents are themselves stressed and community resources are limited, you've removed critical buffers that protect children under stress," Redlener says.

He says that a well thought out recovery plan that involves getting schools operating again is key — that studies show ongoing disruption to a child's education adds to anxiety and can lead to long term disabilities, such as depression.

The acute phase — stretching from days after the event to about three months — is hardest on children, says Henri Ford, a surgeon at the Children's Hospital Los Angeles.

"The good thing is children are resilient," Ford says. "Get them beyond the acute phase and shower them with hope and they will come out OK in the end."

Wealthy countries tend to recover from disasters faster than poor countries, says Steven Berkowitz, associate professor of clinical psychiatry and director of the Penn Center for Youth and Family Trauma Response and Recovery.

Japan also has a close-knit society with a strong sense of family that Berkowitz says he hopes will help it mend.

"They're more likely to do the kinds of things for kids that need to be done as a society and as a nation," he says.

Shimabukuro says one 7-year-old girl really left a mark on her heart.

"She said since yesterday she can't walk," Shimabukuro says. "She's feeling really weak in the knees. So I checked her and neurologically everything was fine. I told her she is a little bit dehydrated. Nothing is wrong.

"But she kept crying and crying for 30 minutes," Shimabukuro says. "I hugged her. She was sobbing and then she told me, 'I want my daddy to give me a piggyback ride again. I want him to carry me on his back because I can't walk.' "

The child's father had died.

"I felt like I was so useless," Shimbukuro says.

Later, Shimabukuro says, she saw what the best medicine for the child was:

"I saw the grandpa. He carried her on his back."

For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters

View the Original article

Lawmakers Weigh Giving Up Paychecks if Shutdown Forces Federal Furlough

AP

Sen. Joe Manchin listens to testimony on Capitol Hill March 29 during a hearing on Libya.

With Congress headed for a shutdown unless a spending deal is reached, lawmakers are trying to make this failure of governance seem a tad less offensive to everyday Americans by vowing to give back part of their $174,000 paychecks. 

The fact that hundreds of thousands of federal workers could be furloughed while, by law, the members of Congress who caused the problem would continue to get paid is a cruel twist in the mechanics of a shutdown. In response, lawmakers have floated several ideas for docking their own pay. 

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who is independently wealthy, told Fox News he already gives his salary away to charity. But regardless of economic station, he urged his colleagues to follow suit and turn away their paychecks if the government shuts down. 

"Members should not be saying, 'Well, I need my money when in fact other federal workers aren't getting it," Issa said. 

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. -- who also is a millionaire, though he accepts a congressional paycheck -- plans to either decline pay or donate it to charity if there's a shutdown, a spokesman told FoxNews.com. 

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., said she will donate her pay to a nonprofit serving military families.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., made a similar pledge, passing around a letter to colleagues Thursday urging them to join him in returning their paychecks. 

"The bottom line is this: I can't imagine that the President, Vice President or any Member of Congress -- Republican or Democrat -- thinks they should get paid when the government has shut down," Manchin wrote. 

Not everyone's signing on. 

On the House side, Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., told MSNBC she can't afford it. 

"I have to tell you that I live paycheck to paycheck, like most Americans," she said, explaining that she has student loans, a 2-year-old son and residences on both coasts. "It's very difficult for me to say, 'Hey, I can give up my paycheck,' because the reality is, I have financial obligations that I have to meet on a month-to-month basis that doesn't make it possible for me. 

"Now if you're a member of Congress who is a millionaire, and there are quite a few members of the House and Senate that are, it's really not a problem for them," she added. 

Some lawmakers have tried to require that members of Congress don't get paid in the event of a shutdown. 

"They shouldn't be getting paid. Just like federal employees shouldn't be getting paid," House Speaker John Boehner told ABC News. 

But there are political and constitutional hurdles. 

The Senate already passed a Democrat-authored bill to block congressional salaries last month. But the House did not follow. 

"If Speaker Boehner were really serious about preventing members of Congress from being paid during a government shutdown, he would immediately pass our 'no budget, no pay' bill," Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said in a statement Thursday. 

Yet Democrats also will not take up a Republican version of the congressional no-pay bill -- one which was connected to a House budget bill cutting $61 billion which Democrats roundly oppose. 

Not only will neither chamber pass the other's no-pay bill, but the 27th Amendment to the Constitution provides that laws changing congressional pay don't take effect until the following term. 

Issa noted this concern, as did Sen. Christopher Coons, D-Del. But Coons said the Constitution wouldn't prevent lawmakers from volunteering to give up their pay. 

"There is a constitutional issue here. We might have to voluntarily give back our pay in the event of a shutdown. But I think the pain here ought to be spread broadly," Coons told Fox News. "The average folks out there watching this ought to know that we in Washington get it, that a shutdown is an embarrassing failure on our part to do the job we were hired to come here and do." 

Dan Weiser, spokesman for the chief administrative officer of the House, said members of Congress have to receive their paychecks by law, but that, if they don't give them to charity, they can also use them to pay down the national debt. However, The Washington Post reported last month that just a few lawmakers have gotten in the habit of doing that, and that donations from Congress to the debt totaled just $15,000 in 2010. 

Meanwhile, the Obama administration is urging Congress to make sure federal workers get back-pay in the event of a shutdown, even though they would not be paid during the shutdown itself. 

Jeffrey Zients, deputy director in the White House Office of Management and Budget, noted that furloughed employees were ultimately paid retroactively following the 1995 shutdown, and urged Congress to make sure they are reimbursed should the government shut down this weekend.

Related Links Congressional Blame Game Begins Before Government Shutdown Starts Print Email Share Comments Recommend Tweet View ArticleLeave a CommentSort: NewestSort: Oldest Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. You must login to comment.

View Article

View All Comments

Latest Politics VideosMore »

View the Original article