Obama hits McCain on Social Security

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama criticized Republican John McCain's approach to Social Security on Saturday, saying it would undermine the government program aimed mainly at retirees.

Obama said McCain's campaign has suggested trimming Social Security benefits and raising the eligibility age, according to prepared remarks of his speech to a gathering of the AARP, an advocacy group for older Americans. Obama was addressing the group via satellite.

McCain has not specifically embraced such plans. But by saying "everything is on the table" in discussing changes to Social Security, he has opened himself to such criticisms from Democrats.

Obama also said McCain wants to privatize a portion of Social Security. McCain has praised the notion of letting younger workers place a portion of their Social Security taxes into a package that is invested and follows them to retirement, but he has not made it a campaign promise.

All workers pay Social Security payroll taxes on the first $102,000 of their annual income. The money pays for benefits for current retirees and for other government programs. Analysts say the program will begin running short of funds in a few decades if it is not changed.

Obama cited his proposals to place a new Social Security payroll tax on incomes above $250,000 and to eliminate federal income taxes for older people making less than $50,000 a year. He also said he would "allow the government to negotiate with drug companies to lower costs for seniors, and we'll allow reimportation of drugs from other countries and ensure their safety."

The Wall Street Journal reported in March that McCain's top aides were "considering cost-of-living adjustment cuts and raising the retirement age as part of their Social Security plan." McCain has not endorsed or rejected those ideas.

McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said the Republican nominee "has always promised to fiercely protect Social Security benefits."

Martin should fight job bias

The beauty of Labor Secretary Lynn Martin's Aug. 8 "glassceiling" initiative was in its timing. Nobody can accuse her offailing to recognize that discrimination is alive and well incorporate America, now that study after study is saying the samething.

Women and minorities are indeed held back by discrimination,according to yet another survey of Fortune 500 companies, releasedSunday.

The trouble with Martin's strategy for dealing with outrightviolations of Executive Order 11246, which bans employers withfederal contracts from discriminating, is in her breezy confidencethat those naughty boys will do the right thing, now that she's askedthem to.

That view has also been expressed by Peter J. Eide, manager oflabor law for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "When the secretary oflabor says something, people listen," he said two weeks ago.

But the new data show very little improvement in the past 25years, despite the threat of sanctions under the executive order.Several recent Supreme Court rulings have made it more difficult forwomen and minorities to bring discrimination lawsuits. And Eide, whohas yet to admit the existence of a glass ceiling, said again Sundaythat women are "being given" higher positions all the time.

Martin's own findings, based on a selective Labor Departmentanalysis of 94 firms, found only 6.6 percent of the executive slotsfilled by women and 2.6 percent by minorities in 1990. A moreexhaustive study of the top 500 firms, by researchers at theUniversity of Southern California, paints an even gloomier picture:Women held only 2.6 percent of the top jobs, when top was defined as"vice president or above," and 4.5 percent of the corporate boardseats in 1990, it found. And women at the top earned 42 percent lessthan their male peers.

And don't go thinking that boards are integrating faster thanexecutive suites, warns Eleanor Smeal, president of the FeministMajority Foundation, which released the findings Sunday. "When youlook at the actual names, you find the same token woman sitting on 10corporate boards," she said.

Without vigorous enforcement of the federal order, the reportestimates, basing its conclusions on women's rate of ascent duringthe past 25 years, it will take another 475 years for women toachieve anything like parity in top management.

The administration apparently is not even considering vigorousenforcement. Asked if she would deny federal contracts to companiesthat discriminate, as she is empowered to do, Martin said two weeksago that she is "not going to go after employers with a 500-poundhammer." She will encourage voluntary efforts with publicrecognition for those making changes, she said, to the dismay ofanybody who'd been hoping for more than lip service.

Martin's disavowal of the 500-pound hammer approach could makethings even worse for women and minorities by signaling employers,who need no longer fear the loss of their multimillion-dollargovernment contracts, to quit worrying. "What she's really saying tocorporate America," Smeal said, "is, we will do nothing if youdiscriminate."

This was, in effect, what the last administration said, when itcame out against affirmative action. But the last administrationnever admitted it had evidence of continuing discrimination or hadfailed to enforce its own rules.

This one has.

Carole Ashkinaze is a member of the Chicago Sun-Times editorialboard.

International law expert Antonio Cassese dies

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Renowned international law expert Antonio Cassese, who served as first president of the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal and later as president of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, has died after a long battle with cancer, the Lebanon tribunal announced Saturday.

The court set up to prosecute the assassins of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri said in a statement that Cassese died peacefully at his home in Florence, Italy, on Friday night.

"For members of the tribunal he was the Maestro, whose towering ability as a jurist and a statesman was equaled by the immense personal warmth and humanity which made him our dear friend," said David Baragwanath, who succeeded Cassese less than two weeks ago as president of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon after the Italian stepped down on health grounds.

Cassese was still working as an appeals judge at the tribunal at the time of his death.

Cassese was one of the world's most respected experts in international law. He guided the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia during its first years of operation, from 1993-97, and led the United Nations' International Commission of Inquiry into Genocide in Darfur in 2004.

Cassese was born in 1937 in Italy. The Lebanon tribunal did not release his exact age.

"He created and was the pre-eminent figure in modern international criminal law," Baragwanath said. "His family extended across the globe to wherever there was injustice. His vision, intellect, dynamism and courage changed attitudes, institutions and lives."

Cassese was professor of international law at the University of Florence from 1975 until 2008 and was a visiting fellow at Oxford University's All Souls College from 1979-80.

He published extensively on international law, particularly international criminal law, and received several awards for his work.

Funeral arrangements were not immediately announced.

Devine issues consumer alert on reparations scam

Devine issues consumer alert on reparations scam

In response to Ald. Dorothy Tillman's (3rd) call for an investigation, Cook County State's Attorney Dick Devine Wednesday issued a consumer alert warning the public, especially Black seniors to ignore a bogus slave reparations letter.

Devine asked seniors not to respond to these mail solicitations that ask for their names, addresses, Social Security numbers, date of birth and other data requesting the information to be sent to a Washington, D.C. post office that is registered to T.R.E.A. Senior Systems League.

Devine said T.R.E.A. Senior Systems' League, a not-for-profit firm based in Alexandria, VA, says the letters were not authorized or distributed by their organization.

After the sender fills out the form, the perpetrators of this scam claim they will be mailed an application to receive their $5,000 reparations settlement check.

Except, Devine said it is not true. Rather, he called the letter a "cruel hoax" that targets the elderly. "The federal government has not enacted a `Slave Reparation Act' and no one is eligible for a $5,000 payment," said Devine.

"Giving out the kind of personal information requested in this letter can lead to identity theft," he said.

Tillman said: "Lassar said he would turn it over to the Secret Service. I think it is very serious, and we commend Lassar and Devine. I would hope that on Sunday all African American ministers will tell their congregation not to fill out this form and to be a part of this hoax...."

According to Devine, copies of this hoax letter has been received throughout America including Philadelphia, Milwaukee, and Baton Rouge.

Devine asked the public to call me with their questions or complaints at his Consumer Fraud Division: 312-603-8600.

Article Copyright Sengstacke Enterprises, Inc.

Elliott Abrams, Council On Foreign Relations

(This is not a legal transcript. Bloomberg LP cannot guarantee its accuracy.)

ELLIOTT ABRAMS, SENIOR FELLOW FOR MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, TALKS ABOUT LIBYA AT BLOOMBERG SURVEILLANCE

FEBRUARY 28, 2011

SPEAKERS:

TOM KEENE, BLOOMBERG SURVEILLANCE HOST

KEN PREWITT, BLOOMBERG SURVEILLANCE CO-HOST

ELLIOTT ABRAMS, SENIOR FELLOW FOR MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS

8:37

TOM KEENE, BLOOMBERG SURVEILLANCE HOST: From the Council on Foreign Relations, Elliott Abrams. Good morning.

ELLIOTT ABRAMS, SENIOR FELLOW FOR MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Good morning.

KEENE: What has changed over the weekend? I mean it becomes a blur. I think we become numbed to so much of this. What has changed over the weekend?

ABRAMS: Two things. One, Gaddafi is not doing well. His efforts to strike back and crush this rebellion don't seem to be working and you do get virtually unanimous world condemnation and action against him in the UN.

Secondly, it looks as if there is a shipment of oil from the eastern part of Libya as you were mentioning a couple of minutes ago. That's new.

The third thing I guess is we see the rebellions continue to spread. There was something in Oman, which is really about the sleepiest place in the whole Arab world, in addition to continue demonstrations in Egypt and Tunisia. So the spirits continue to rise.

KEN PREWITT, BLOOMBERG SURVEILLANCE CO-HOST: How does the region look a year from now?

ABRAMS: Oh, boy. I think first of all it looks variegated. That is it is not going to be the same in every one of these countries. And some of them are going to be quite calm and others are not. I think it looks difficult.

That is this is not going to be a Czech Republic style velvet revolution where a year from now in every one of these countries we are going to say, oh, that's wonderful. That just looks like Vermont or New Hampshire, you know, the way the democracy is working. In a lot of places, I think there will be continued demonstrations and dissatisfaction.

And one thing that does worry me, in a place like Egypt people may be expecting magic in the economy. You know, I'm poor, I don't have a job, this will fix it. A year from now, those people will still be poor and still not have jobs. And what worries me is the possibility of kind of Argentina-style economic populism.

PREWITT: Well, in the case of Libya anyway, let's say Gaddafi falls and leaves or whatever. It's a real power vacuum, isn't there? I mean there are no trade union - no organizations really except tribes. Is that what happens? It descends into tribalism?

ABRAMS: Well, you certainly don't have the kind of society you have in Tunisia. You don't have the army the way you do in Egypt. And it may - it may descend that way. There is a little bit of hope. People do seem to be spontaneously organizing in the east.

There are some remaining officers from the free officers movement of which Gaddafi was a part that overthrew the king in 1969. If you take the prestige of a few of them and some of the notables in the society - engineers, doctors, professors - it is possible you can get some kind of provisional government.

I hope that the Europeans and we are thinking about that - meaning the White House - right now and are reaching out to people and trying to help them put together a provisional government because it may just be a matter of days before Gaddafi goes. And I don't think he leaves the country. I think frankly the way this ends is with him dead.

KEENE: Elliott Abrams, you've got a weekly standard article. You've got a lovely sentence here, "Once again silence is the right response for countries with no options and no capabilities. For the United States, the right reaction to such threats and such fears is to call Musa Kusa - (well, excuse me,) the right reaction here is to do more than silence." Explain that, please. What would you like to see from the administration?

ABRAMS: Well, the administration has been, in my view, behind the eight ball for days. It was very quiet when the Arabs and Europeans were denouncing Gaddafi, the United States was not doing much.

And the reason the administration kept saying was there are Americans in Libya and we have to be silent until they are out. Well, the striking thing about that was the Europeans weren't silent and they had people in Libya. The Arabs weren't silent. They had people in Libya.

When we finally got our people out, we did it by a ferry that sat there for three days and then was able to move. You know, the Chinese sent a gun boat and so did several of the European countries. My feeling was that we looked weak. That we looked afraid of Gaddafi.

Musa Kusa is the intelligence chief and now foreign minister. And what I thought we should do is to call him up on the phone and tell him touch an American, take an American hostage and you are a dead man. I think that is the kind of language Gaddafi and his henchmen understand a lot better than diplomacy and careful restraint in language.

PREWITT: Well, as you put it in your Wall Street Journal op-ed recently, Musa Kusa, his suave and murderous intelligence chief, Michigan State University class of '78.

ABRAMS: Yes, Musa Kusa is really quite a debonair fellow, perfect English, well dressed, expensive suits. And, you know, a Spartan fan I suppose.

But a lot of American blood on his hands. This is the guy behind PanAm 103, the plane that they blew up in the sky over Lockerbie. It is quite a crew.

KEENE: When you look at the crew of nations of the Middle East, one thing I noticed this weekend, Elliott, from people from all persuasions is they are pretty much exhausted by it. What is the self-help prescription for the Middle East?

You know, to get out, you think of Albert Hourani and you go through a colonial stage and a little bit of true capitalism in Egypt maybe in the middle part of the last century. Do you see a self-help prescription across the Middle East.

ABRAMS: You know, one of the good things about the way these revolts have played out is that they are all coming from within. Arab regimes have fallen when we knocked them over, for example, Iraq.

This is not coming from outside. This is not long lines of the history of colonialism or of American intervention. This is entirely internal and spontaneous. And that shows the kind of life for -

KEENE: Right.

ABRAMS: - Arab society that we haven't seen in a very long time.

KEENE: Well, are we, Elliott, unfortunately we are short on time here, but are we just slaves to our oil policy here? Is that all we are really talking about?

ABRAMS: We have been too much, and I hope that one of the things that this teaches is yet again to move away from the dependence on Arab oil. The oil producers have generally been some of the most retrograde countries when it comes to reform.

They just spend all that money to buy off public support. The king of Saudi Arabia did it again today, to spend some of the reserve. That is not a substitute for reform, and I wish they - it would be better for them as well as for us if they would learn that lesson.

KEENE: Let's leave it there. Elliott Abrams, thank you so much, the Council on Foreign Relations. Ken, that's not talk you usually see in the op-eds. Tough talk there.

PREWITT: Yes.

***END OF TRANSCRIPT***

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Italian Soccer Summaries

Summaries Sunday from Italy's Serie A (home teams listed first):

Catania 2, Cagliari 1

Catania: Giuseppe Mascara (37), Rocco Sabato (87).

Cagliari: Jeda (6).

Halftime: 1-1.

Chievo Verona 0, Juventus 2

Juventus: Alessandro Del Piero (40), Vincenzo Iaquinta (53).

Halftime: 0-1.

Fiorentina 2, Atalanta 1

Fiorentina: Felipe Melo (20), Alberto Gilardino (23).

Atalanta: Sergio Floccari (77 penalty).

Halftime: 2-0.

Genoa 4, Reggina 0

Genoa: Diego Milito (53 penalty, 74, 89), Giuseppe Sculli (81).

Halftime: 0-0.

Inter Milan 1, Udinese 0

Inter: Julio Ricardo Cruz (90).

Halftime: 0-0.

Lazio 3, Siena 0

Lazio: Mauro Zarate (58), Tommaso Rocchi (86, 90).

Halftime: 0-0.

Napoli 2, Sampdoria 0

Napoli: Daniele Mannini (23), Marcelo Zalayeta (74).

Halftime: 1-0.

Defending champion Harrington chasing a repeat at British Open

Defending British Open champion Padraig Harrington put himself in position for a repeat, claiming a share of the lead Saturday at blustery Royal Birkdale.

With winds gusting close to 40 mph (64 kph), Harrington was joined at the top by Jim Furyk, K.J. Choi and 53-year-old Greg Norman, looking to become golf's oldest major champion at the oldest of the big four tournaments.

Anything close to par was a brilliant score on this day. While the sun finally came out after two gloomy days, the wind off the Irish Sea really picked up, holding up shots and sending them flying off line. One player, Anthony Kim, saw his ball blow off the green after he had marked it ready for a putt.

"It was probably about as tough as you can play out there," said 2003 Open winner Ben Curtis, who was thrilled to get off the course with a even par 70 and a share of the clubhouse lead _ at 7-over 217.

David Duval felt Birkdale's wrath. The 2001 Open champion quickly fell out of contention with an ugly 10-over 44 on the front side, going from three shots off the lead to 10.

Choi began the day as the only player under par through 36 holes, but a double-bogey on the massive sixth hole put him in the same company as everyone else. When he three-putted from just off the green at No. 8, the South Korean found himself in a four-way tie for the lead.

Clearly comfortable in the windy conditions, Harrington knocked in two birdies on the front side, including a chip-in at No. 5, and made the turn with a 34 that kept him at 2 over for the tournament. On Wednesday, he wasn't even sure if he'd be able to play because of a sore wrist.

Norman, a two-time Open winner who married tennis great Chris Evert three weeks ago, got off to a shaky start with bogeys on three of his first six holes. But a 364-yard drive at No. 8 set him up for an 8-foot birdie putt that brought a smile back to his face.

Jim Furyk was grinding out a solid round of his own. The 2003 U.S. Open winner closed the front side with two straight birdies, getting back to even for his round and part of the pack at 2 over.

No one else was within three strokes of the leaders. Camilo Villegas and Robert Allenby were tied at 5 over, with five more players another shot back.

Duval was hoping to show he has regained the form that carried him to the world's No. 1 ranking and the claret jug at Lytham. But, coming off a second-round 68, he returned to the form that sent his career into a seven-year skid that he's still struggling to halt.

The wind carried Duval's second shot of the day into the tall, tangly grass right of the green, forcing him to take a penalty drop for an unplayable lie. He wound up with a triple-bogey, which was just the start of his woes.

Duval bogeyed the next three holes before finally making his first par at No. 5. But a double-bogey at the sixth was quickly followed by two more bogeys.

Norman yanked his opening tee shot into the tall grass, had to punch out and took bogey. The Shark made another at the third, where a 4 1/2-foot putt rolled all the way around the edge of the cup and stayed out, dropping him three strokes behind Choi.

By the turn, Norman had caught the 36-hole leader.

The wind was the main story. Phil Mickelson's cap blew off in the middle of the 15th fairway. A course worker retrieved it for Lefty, who shot a 76 that likely erased whatever faint hopes he had for contending on Sunday. Anthony Kim, who carded a 71 for 7-over 217, was caught in a long delay at the 10th after he marked his ball on the green only for the wind to then blow it backwards 15 yards and off the putting surface. He called a rules official who stopped play at the hole until the wind had died down.

"It felt like we went through a war especially on 10 we had that 45 minute delay," Kim said. "I didn't know what was going on. I waited and wondered if they were going to call play."

It was possible to go low, but Curtis had to hole out from 165 yards at No. 3 to do it. The American turned away in disgust after hitting the shot, but the wind blew it back on line _ and right into the cup for an eagle 2. He was tied at 217 with England's Ross Fisher (71) and Kim, who eagled 17 after 10 straight pars.

Davis Love III and Henrik Stenson also shot 70 to sneak onto the leaderboard.

Villegas found the going much tougher after closing Friday's round with five straight birdies for a 65, the best round of the tournament so far and certainly unreachable on Saturday. He bogeyed two of the first four holes and was trying to hang on.