How Boehner’s Plan B for the ‘fiscal cliff’ began and fell apart

John A. Boehner’s week on the brink ended in a painfully familiar place.

It began last week when President Obama delivered a stern message to the House speaker: If there was going to be a deal to tame the nation’s debt, it had to happen now. If they went over the “fiscal cliff,” it would only become harder to reach a deal, Obama said.

The next day, Friday, Boehner (R-Ohio) phoned Obama offering what seemed like a major breakthrough: Republicans would agree to raise tax rates for the first time in decades if the president gave a key concession on entitlement reform.

That offer set in motion seven days of dealmaking, posturing and cajoling by Boehner and other House leaders, first on a grand deal with the White House and then on a Plan B with their own House caucus. By Thursday night, both deals had fallen apart, and Boehner was near tears in announcing the failure to his colleagues, Republicans said.

The failure of a grand bargain was the latest oh-so-close moment for Obama and Boehner, who have been dancing around a deal to cut the deficit for the better part of the past two years. And the collapse of Plan B set a new low in Boehner’s sometimes rocky relationship with a House Republican caucus that has long been uneasy about the speaker’s dealmaking with Obama.

Following the latest breakdown in negotiations, Democrats said Boehner should return to the bargaining table with Obama — or just let House Democrats and 25 or so Republicans vote for a Senate-approved plan to extend tax cuts for the middle class. But Republicans said the well has been so poisoned that restarting bipartisan talks would be more difficult than ever.

In a statement late Thursday, Boehner said it was now up to Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Obama to come up with an agreement — without explaining what role he would play. The speaker ignored reporters’ questions and, at 8:04 p.m., he walked out of the Capitol.

A week earlier, the possibility of a deal seemed as promising as it ever had.

As he was heading home to Ohio for the weekend, Boehner called Obama with an offer to allow tax rates for incomes above $1 million to rise from 35 percent to 39.6 percent. In exchange, Boehner demanded a key change to entitlement spending that would lead to reduced benefits.

With a potential $1 trillion in spending cuts — out of a total $2 trillion debt deal — Boehner also suggested that the debt ceiling could be lifted a similar amount and give the Treasury another year of borrowing authority.

The next 72 hours would prove critical. Having offered so much, Boehner hoped he could keep the details quiet long enough for him to get Obama to agree to enough spending cuts to satisfy his caucus — and so that his leadership team could make the case for compromise in person.

But the details did not stay secret for long. Reports leaked out Saturday evening that Boehner had agreed to raise taxes on millionaires. That was followed by a more alarming leak Sunday evening that Boehner was also willing to grant Obama another increase in the federal debt limit. Home in their districts, unsuspecting rank-and-file Republicans were stunned.

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Britain's Akram Khan's dance of creative destruction

PARIS: A year ago, Akram Khan was told his dance career was over. Now, with the Olympics ceremony under his belt, two films on the boil and three shows on tour, Britain's best-known choreographer could hardly be busier if he tried.

The 38-year-old ball of energy is in Paris this month with his most personal work to date, DESH, a full-length solo exploring his family roots in Bangladesh, through his signature fusion of contemporary dance with north Indian Kathak.

Khan's schedule for the coming months sounds like a plate-spinning act, but when he ripped his Achilles tendon during a rehearsal last January, doctors feared he would never dance again.

"It was very traumatic," he told AFP, "Ballet dancers don't come back after an Achilles tendon rupture. It's very rarely possible."

Shows were cancelled, plans cut short as Khan -- unable to walk for two months -- headed into a "humiliating" round of surgery and physiotherapy.

"I'm a dancer, so it's ego you know, somebody's telling you how to do a simple walk. I wanted to shoot them!"

"But from that it went into running, jogging, then jumping, then a little bit of confidence comes back.

"And then suddenly you're in the Olympics!" joked Khan, who choreographed and performed in a segment of the August opening ceremony.

In his solo DESH, a chameleonic Khan gives life to a dense cast of characters as the action shifts, dreamlike, from his south London birthplace to the grimy, noisy streets of Bangladesh over 80 visually-sumptuous minutes.

While he has recovered mobility, Khan has yet to get his full strength back, and had to make changes to perform the show, on world tour after premiering in London to rapturous reviews last year.

"You find other ways, and that was very valuable," he said, "I'm stronger in other ways."

Right now Khan is preparing a duet with the Flamenco dancer Izrael Galvan, in between touring with two more of his shows -- Gnosis and Sacred Monsters.

Come May he will premiere a creation called iTMOi inspired by Igor Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" in the French city of Grenoble, before taking that show on the road as well.

Recent sideline projects have included teaming up with the artist Anish Kapoor to shoot a spoof "Gangnam Style" video in support of Chinese dissident artist Ai Wei Wei.

As if that wasn't enough, he is choreographing a film called "Desert Dancer", based on the true story of a young Iranian man persecuted for his love of dance, and is hoping to direct a film based on DESH.

In terms of juggling projects, Khan says he is busier than ever before. And in March he will become a father for the first time, when his Japanese dancer wife gives birth to a baby girl.

The story of Khan's injury and recovery loops back to an earlier one of how, as a little boy, he liked to break things to see what was inside.

"I was destructive as a child, I was fascinated to see things broken and put back together again," he told AFP, "I was very physical, I couldn't keep my hands still."

That was how Khan's mother started teaching her three-year-old son the folk dance Kathak, today the backbone of his art. To tire him out, like others might send a child to kick a ball around the yard.

Formal lessons followed aged seven, but it was long a battle of wills with a mother determined to share -- "impose", he jokes -- her culture with him.

"It was traumatic," said Khan, who talks with disarming candour, and wry humour, of his upbringing, "My mother used to bribe me, with toys, each performance I would get a little matchbox car."

While he jokes about his strong-willed mother, Khan is clear the "challenging relationship" in his life is with his father, bent on rooting out the Westerner in his son and making a true Bengali of him.

"DESH is very much about my father," he says of the piece, which opens with a scene showing him burying his father before pounding violently at the earth, as if to root out the story of their shared past.

Like a grown-up version of the creative destruction he displayed as a child.

Co-created with the poet Karthika Nair, the visual designer Tim Yip and the composer Jocelyn Pook, the work has a political dimension too, reflecting his sense that "everything is political" in Bangladesh, starting with the drinking water polluted by Western waste dumping.

"This is my story. It's part true, part lie," he says, "It needed to be epic, because it was very personal."

But for now, Khan jokes, he is done digging for his family roots: "I think I need to move on -- I need to get a life!"

-AFP/fl

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CWG scam: Delhi court orders framing of charges against Suresh Kalmadi & others

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court today ordered framing of charges against sacked CWG organising committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi and others for offences of forgery, cheating and conspiracy in a games-related graft case.

Special CBI Judge Talwant Singh passed the order on framing of charges against Kalmadi, former OC secretary general Lalit Bhanot and nine others for illegally awarding a contract to Swiss firm, Swiss Timing Omega, causing huge loss to the exchequer.

The court said "prima facie" charges of cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy and for offences under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act are made out against eight accused persons and three companies.

"Charges under section 120B (criminal conspiracy), 201 (destruction of evidence), 420 (cheating), 467, 468, 471 (relating to forgery), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC and section 13(1)(d) read with section 13(2) (criminal misconduct by public servants) of the PC Act is ordered to be framed against all the accused," the court said.

"Put up for formally framing of charges on January 10 at 10.30am," the judge said.

The accused have been charge sheeted by the CBI for "illegally" awarding a contract to install Timing, Scoring and Results (TSR) system for the 2010 CWG to Swiss Timing at inflated rates causing a loss of over Rs 90 crore to the public exchequer.

Besides Kalmadi and Bhanot, the other accused in the case are OC's director general V K Verma, director general (procurement) Surjit Lal, Joint director general (sports) ASV Prasad and treasurer M Jayachandran. They are no more associated with the sporting body.

Promoters of two construction companies — P D Arya and A K Madan of Faridabad-based Gem International and A K Reddy of Hyderabad-based AKR Constructions are also accused in the case. Swiss Timing Omega is also an accused in the case.

The CBI had alleged that Kalmadi and others had rejected Spanish firm MSL's much lower bid of Rs 62 crore and awarded the contract to Swiss Timing Omega, causing a loss of over Rs 90 crore to the exchequer.

During the arguments on charges, CBI counsel V K Sharma had argued that Kalmadi and others had decided to award the contract for installing the TSR system for the CWG to Swiss Timing even before the firm had bid for it.

Sharma had also said that for TSR installation, two bids had been received - one from Swiss Timing and other from MSL Spain, and the same were opened on November 4, 2009 but Kalmadi and Verma had announced in a meeting on October 12, 2009 itself that the contract would be given to Swiss Timing.

He had also said Kalmadi had made up his mind in advance to award the contract to the Swiss firm.

Kalmadi's counsel, however, had argued that the facts given in the CBI's charge sheet were contrary to the documents which the agency had filed in the court.

Kalmadi had told the court that he was only doing the work assigned to him as the OC chairman and nothing wrong was done by him in the entire process.

The counsel appearing for other accused had also opposed the allegations levelled against them by the CBI.

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Hollies Get Prickly for a Reason

With shiny evergreen leaves and bright red berries, holly trees are a naturally festive decoration seen throughout the Christmas season.

They're famously sharp. But not all holly leaves are prickly, even on the same tree. And scientists now think they know how the plants are able to make sharper leaves, seemingly at will. (Watch a video about how Christmas trees are made.)

A new study published in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society suggests leaf variations on a single tree are the combined result of animals browsing on them and the trees' swift molecular response to that sort of environmental pressure.

Carlos Herrera of the National Research Council of Spain led the study in southeastern Spain. He and his team investigated the European holly tree, Ilex aquifolium. Hollies, like other plants, can make different types of leaves at the same time. This is called heterophylly. Out of the 40 holly trees they studied, 39 trees displayed different kinds of leaves, both prickly and smooth.

Five holly leaves from the same tree.

Photographs by Emmanuel Lattes, Alamy

Some trees looked like they had been browsed upon by wild goats and deer. On those trees, the lower 8 feet (2.5 meters) had more prickly leaves, while higher up the leaves tended to be smooth. Scientists wanted to figure out how the holly trees could make the change in leaf shape so quickly.

All of the leaves on a tree are genetic twins and share exactly the same DNA sequence. By looking in the DNA for traces of a chemical process called methylation, which modifies DNA but doesn't alter the organism's genetic sequence, the team could determine whether leaf variation was a response to environmental or genetic changes. They found a relationship between recent browsing by animals, the growth of prickly leaves, and methylation.

"In holly, what we found is that the DNA of prickly leaves was significantly less methylated than prickless leaves, and from this we inferred that methylation changes are ultimately responsible for leaf shape changes," Herrera said. "The novelty of our study is that we show that these well-known changes in leaf type are associated with differences in DNA methylation patterns, that is, epigenetic changes that do not depend on variation in the sequence of DNA."

"Heterophylly is an obvious feature of a well-known species, and this has been ascribed to browsing. However, until now, no one has been able to come up with a mechanism for how this occurs," said Mike Fay, chief editor of the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society and head of genetics at the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens. "With this new study, we are now one major step forward towards understanding how."

Epigenetic changes take place independently of variation in the genetic DNA sequence. (Read more about epigenetics in National Geographic magazine's "A Thing or Two About Twins.")

"This has clear and important implications for plant conservation," Herrera said. In natural populations that have their genetic variation depleted by habitat loss, the ability to respond quickly, without waiting for slower DNA changes, could help organisms survive accelerated environmental change. The plants' adaptability, he says, is an "optimistic note" amidst so many conservation concerns. (Related: "Wild Holly, Mistletoe, Spread With Warmer Winters.")

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Fiscal Cliff 'Plan B' Is Dead: Now What?

Dec 20, 2012 11:00pm

The defeat of his Plan B — Republicans pulled it when it became clear it would be voted down — is a big defeat for Speaker of the House John Boehner.  It demonstrates definitively that there is no fiscal cliff deal that can pass the House on Republican votes alone.

Boehner could not even muster the votes to pass something that would only allow tax rates on those making more than $1 million to go up.

Boehner’s Plan B ran into opposition from conservative and tea party groups -including Heritage Action, Freedom Works and the Club for Growth – but it became impossible to pass it after Senate Democrats vowed not to take up the bill and the president threatened to veto it.  Conservative Republicans saw no reason to vote for a bill conservative activists opposed – especially if it had no hopes of going anywhere anyway.

Plan B is dead.

Now what?

House Republicans say it is now up to the Senate to act.  Senate Democrats say it is now up to Boehner to reach an agreement with President Obama.

Each side is saying the other must move.

The bottom line:  The only plausible solution is for President Obama and Speaker Boehner to do what they have failed repeatedly to do:  come up with a truly bi-partisan deal.

The prospects look grimmer than ever. It will be interesting to see if the markets react.

SHOWS: This Week

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Big-spender ex-PM to be Japan's finance chief: report

TOKYO: A former Japanese prime minister known as a big spender in his political and personal life, will likely become the country's next finance minister and deputy premier, a report said on Thursday.

The leading Nikkei business daily said incoming Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will tap 72-year-old Taro Aso as finance chief and his own deputy, in a new government set to be formed next week.

Aso's past spending habits are in line with those of Abe, whose conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) swept to victory in national elections on Sunday, pledging to boost the nation's ailing economy.

Aso, a fourth-generation politician who became Japan's prime minister in 2008, served as foreign minister during Abe's 2006-2007 stint in Japan's top political job.

As prime minister, Aso launched a series of economic stimulus packages worth hundreds of billions of dollars to prop up Japan's long-struggling economy.

But his time as premier ended in less than a year as the long-ruling LDP lost a historic election to the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in 2009, while Aso's own missteps dented his popularity.

The scion of a wealthy family, he faced criticism for regular outings to luxurious hotel bars and mispronouncing commonly-used Chinese characters that make up part of the Japanese writing system.

Just a week before before his party lost to the DPJ, and as the economy sputtered, Aso was quoted as saying that "if you don't have money, you'd better not get married", dealing another blow to his profile.

In 2006, while he was foreign minister, a New York Times editorial branded Aso "Japan's offensive minister" for praising aspects of his country's colonial history in Asia, a particularly sore point in China and on the Korean peninsula.

His previous spending policies, however, were similar to those pledged by Abe -- to turn on the fiscal taps.

Abe has said he will pressure the Bank of Japan into more aggressive easing to power the world's third-largest economy, which may have slipped into recession in the third quarter.

A senior LDP official said on Wednesday that the incoming government would launch a spending package worth about 10 trillion yen ($118 billion) aimed at injecting life into the nation's limp economy.

- AFP/al

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US asked to term 1984 anti-Sikh violence a genocide

WASHINGTON: A petition with more than 46,000 signatures, including 29,000 online, submitted to the Obama administration urges it to recognize the organized violence perpetrated against Sikhs during November 1984 as "genocide".

The rights group " Sikhs for Justice" (SFJ) has also announced plans to converge on Capitol Hill Feb 1, during the constituent work week of the House of Representative to lobby in support of the Sikh genocide petition, the group said.

The US department of state's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour that deals with issues relating to the international human rights violations and crimes against humanity is expected to respond on the Sikh genocide petition, it said.

In support of the petition, the SFJ has submitted "1984 Yes it is Genocide" report to Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner.

The 300-page report presents evidence showing that Sikhs were killed in large numbers in those 19 states of India where the Congress party was in power during November 1984 and role of Congress leaders in inciting and organising violence with intent to destroy the Sikh community.

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Detecting Rabid Bats Before They Bite

A picture is worth a thousand words—or in the case of bats, a rabies diagnosis. A new study reveals that rabid bats have cooler faces compared to uninfected colony-mates. And researchers are hopeful that thermal scans of bat faces could improve rabies surveillance in wild colonies, preventing outbreaks that introduce infections into other animals—including humans.

Bats are a major reservoir for the rabies virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. Previous research shows that bats can transmit their strains to other animals, potentially putting people at risk. (Popular Videos: Bats share the screen with creepy co-stars.)

Rabies, typically transmitted in saliva, targets the brain and is almost always fatal in animals and people if left untreated. No current tests detect rabies in live animals—only brain tissue analysis is accurate.

Searching for a way to detect the virus in bats before the animals died, rabies specialist James Ellison and his colleagues at the CDC turned to a captive colony of big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus). Previous studies had found temperature increases in the noses of rabid raccoons, so the team expected to see similar results with bats.

Researchers established normal temperature ranges for E. fuscus—the bat species most commonly sent for rabies testing—then injected 24 individuals with the virus. The 21-day study monitored facial temperatures with infrared cameras, and 13 of the 21 bats that developed rabies showed temperature drops of more than 4ºC.

"I was surprised to find the bats' faces were cooler because rabies causes inflammation—and that creates heat," said Ellison. "No one has done this before with bats," he added, and so researchers aren't sure what's causing the temperature changes they've discovered in the mammals. (Related: "Bats Have Superfast Muscles—A Mammal First.")

Although thermal scans didn't catch every instance of rabies in the colony, this method may be a way to detect the virus in bats before symptoms appear. The team plans to fine-tune their measurements of facial temperatures, and then Ellison hopes to try surveillance in the field.

This study was published online November 9 in Zoonoses and Public Health.

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Obama Invokes Newtown on 'Cliff' Deal

Invoking the somber aftermath of the school massacre in Newtown, Conn., President Obama today appealed to congressional Republicans to embrace a standing "fair deal" on taxes and spending that would avert the fiscal cliff in 13 days.

"If there's one thing we should have after this week, it should be a sense of perspective about what's important," Obama said at a midday news conference.

"I would like to think that members of that [Republican] caucus would say to themselves, 'You know what? We disagree with the president on a whole bunch of things,'" he said. "'But right now what the country needs is for us to compromise.'"

House Speaker John Boehner's response: "Get serious."

Boehner announced at a 52-second news conference that the House will vote Thursday to approve a "plan B" to a broad White House deal -- and authorize simply extending current tax rates for people earning less than $1 million a year and little more.

"Then, the president will have a decision to make," the Ohio Republican said. "He can call on Senate Democrats to pass that bill or he could be responsible for the largest tax increase in American history."

Fiscal Cliff Negotiations: Trying to Make a Deal Watch Video

House Speaker John Boehner Proposes 'Plan B' on Taxes Watch Video

'Fiscal Cliff' Negotiations: Deal Might Be Within Reach Watch Video

Unless Congress acts by Dec. 31, every American will face higher income tax rates and government programs will get hit with deep automatic cuts starting in 2013.

Obama and Boehner have been inching closer to a deal on tax hikes and spending cuts to help reduce the deficit. But they have not yet had a breakthrough on a deal.

Obama's latest plan would raise $1.2 trillion in new tax revenue over 10 years, largely through higher tax rates on incomes above $400,000. He also proposes roughly $930 billion in spending cuts, including new limits on entitlement spending, such as slower annual cost-of-living increases for Social Security beneficiaries.

Boehner has agreed to $1 trillion in new tax revenue, with a tax rate hike for households earning over $1 million. He is seeking more than $1 trillion in spending cuts, with significant changes to Medicare and Social Security.

The president said today that he remains "optimistic" about reaching a broad compromise by Christmas because both sides are "pretty close," a sentiment that has been publicly shared by Boehner.

But the speaker's backup plan has, at least temporarily, stymied talks, with no reported contact between the sides since Monday.

"The speaker should return to the negotiating table with the president because if he does I firmly believe we can have an agreement before Christmas," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., a White House ally.

Schumer said Obama and Boehner are "not that far apart" in the negotiations.

"If they were to come to an agreement by Friday, they could write this stuff over the Christmas break and then we'd have to come back before the New Year and pass it," Schumer said.

Obama said he is "open to conversations" and planned to reach out to congressional leaders over the next few days to try to nudge Republicans to accept a "fair deal."

"At some point, there's got to be, I think, a recognition on the part of my Republican friends that -- you know, take the deal," he told reporters.

"They keep on finding ways to say no, as opposed to finding ways to say yes," Obama added. "At some point, you know, they've got take me out of it and think about their voters and think about what's best for the country."

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HK probes Jackie Chan "guns and grenades" claim

HONG KONG: Hong Kong police said they will investigate comments made by action star Jackie Chan that he had used guns and grenades to confront triad gang members.

The Rush Hour star told the Guangzhou-based Southern People Weekly magazine that he had been "bullied" by triads, or the Chinese organised crime societies, that were once powerful and thrived in the Asian financial hub.

"In the past, when they bullied me, I hid in the United States. They opened fire at me once I got off the aeroplane," Hong Kong's South China Morning Post quoted him as saying in the magazine interview published last week.

"From that moment on, I needed to carry a gun every day when I went out," said the Hong Kong born star, who has played a hero cop that took on crime lords in his hugely popular Cantonese crime action film series 'Police Story'.

The 58-year-old actor said he had to confront a gang of 20 members once with guns when the group surrounded him with knives at a Hong Kong eatery.

"I told them they had been going too far and that I had been hiding from them. Later on, I confronted them with two guns and six grenades," he said, without saying when the incident occurred or how it ended.

A police spokeswoman on Wednesday said they will probe Chan's comments but stopped short of saying whether they will question him.

"We will see what he has said in the interview first," the spokeswoman said.

Chan suggested in the same interview that protest in the semi-autonomous Hong Kong that was returned to Beijing in 1997 should be restricted, sparking criticism from activists and politicians.

- AFP/al

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