Wednesday, June 25, 2014

stephanopoulos-talks-republican-primaries-circa-event

Stephanopoulos talks Republican primaries at CIRCA event

Henry Willson / Senior Staff Photographer

QUESTION, ANSWER | Journalist and former Clinton adviser George Stephanopoulos answers students’ questions on Tuesday.

Columbia Daily Spectator

February 29, 2012, 5:02am

“Good Morning America” anchor George Stephanopoulos, CC ’82, touched on issues ranging from the Republican presidential primaries to the media’s role in politics at a question-and-answer session hosted by the Columbia International Relations Council and Association on Tuesday afternoon.

Stephanopoulos, speaking with approximately 40 students over lunch, said he believes that the race for the Republican nomination will be decided both by the economy and by how much the candidates attack each other over the next few months.

President Barack Obama, CC ’83, is currently on the threshold of winning or losing the election, Stephanopoulos said.

He called Obama a “slight favorite,” but added that “to win, it takes an awful lot of luck.” He said that a winning candidate has to “match temperament and policy to the moment.”

Stephanopoulos also addressed the way the Internet has shaped journalism, arguing that while it serves as a “tremendous tool for political and civic engagement and action,” it also has its downsides.

“The most pernicious thing is that it does encourage cocooning—basically seeking out people who only agree with what you already believe in and reinforcing those beliefs,” Stephanopoulos said.

Students asked Stephanopoulos about his work as a political journalist. Some asked about the Jan. 7 Republican presidential primary debate in New Hampshire, during which Stephanopoulos asked former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney about his views on contraception.

William Prasifka, CC ’12, said that Stephanopoulos posed the contraception question either because he knew that “the Obama administration would propose the controversial new rule on contraception,” or because the White House had asked him to pose the question. Stephanopoulos responded that this theory was “crazy.”

Stephanie Bradford, CC ’12, said she wished she could have heard more about Stephanopoulos’ story. He was an adviser to President Bill Clinton before becoming a prominent political journalist.

“While I wish he could have given more of his own personal opinion with his history, as a political adviser ... I thought he was very diplomatic and bipartisan,” Bradford said.

Charles Stam, CC ’12, said he appreciated Stephanopoulos’ candor.

“It was good to hear someone you see on TV speak directly to individual concerns, and I thought he answered very honestly,” Stam said. “He spoke his mind.”

Grace Rosen, CC ’14, echoed this sentiment, comparing Stephanopoulos to “West Wing” character Sam Seaborn—who was modeled after Stephanopoulos.

“He walked the line between being political and talking about politics, which is an interesting impression because we wanted him to be all Sam Seaborn about it,” Rosen said. “He’s a good speaker.”

Stephanopoulos said his interest in politics was sparked by his encounters with political science professors at Columbia. He said that his time at Columbia was “one of the highlights in my life,” and that it felt good to “be back home” on Tuesday.

Slate: Al-Qaida’s Seven Rules for the Effective Terrorist

Al-Qaida’s Seven Rules for the Effective Terrorist

ISIS is breaking all of them. It will live to regret it.

By William Saletan

Osama Bin Laden sits with adviser Ayman al-Zawahiri. — For years, Osama Bin Laden and his lieutenants, like adviser Ayman al-Zawahiri, right, tried to explain to their affiliates the folly of unchecked brutality. ISIS isn't getting it.

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is scaring the hell out of everyone. It has infested Syria, overrun Iraq, alarmed Iran, and convinced U.S. politicians it’s the most dangerous terrorist organization ever. But frightening everyone isn’t a long-term growth strategy. ISIS is destroying itself.

Will Saletan writes about politics, science, technology, and other stuff for Slate. He’s the author of Bearing Right. Follow him on Twitter.

Al-Qaida, the organization from which ISIS recently split, understands this truth. For years, Osama Bin Laden and his lieutenants tried to explain to their affiliates the folly of unchecked brutality. In letters and directivescaptured in the 2011 raid on his compound, Bin Laden stressed the importance of patience, discretion, and public opinion. His advice, boiled down to seven rules, forms a clear outline of ISIS’s mistakes.

1. Don’t fight civil wars. Bin Laden recognized that battling for territory against local governments was a lousy way to get to theocracy. In a 2010 letter, he explained why this wouldn’t work in Yemen:

As for the local enemy, such as if the Yemenis were to begin a long battle against the security services, this is a matter that will weigh on the people. As time goes by, they will begin to feel that some of them have been killed and they will start to want to stop the fighting. This would promote the ideology of secular governments that raise the motto of pleasing all sides.

ISIS rejects this rule. It calls itself a state. It measures its progress in territory. It’s trying to control as many as 40,000 square miles with an estimated 10,000 fighters. Meanwhile, the parties that have won seats in the new Iraqi parliament are scrambling to form a government that can appease all sides and pacify the country, just as Bin Laden anticipated.

2. Don’t kill civilians. That was Bin Laden’s principal regret. He called for guidelines that would instruct jihadists to avoid “unnecessary civilian casualties.” Mass bombings in mosques and other public places, he lamented, had resulted in “the alienation of most of the nation from the Mujahidin.”

ISIS spurns this guidance. It has slaughtered civilians in Syria and Iraq, according to Human Rights Watch and the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. It targets not just enemy soldiers but anyone who has worked for the government. In Syria, an important cleric renounced ISIS because it blew up children and other civilians. In Iraq, Baathists fighting alongside ISIS have promised to restrain it from killing “innocent people.”

3. Don’t flaunt your bloodlust. One of the captured al-Qaida letters, believed to have been written by Bin Laden or his aide, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, urges al-Qaida’s Yemeni affiliate to “stay away from words that will affect the people’s support to the mujahidin.” The letter says the group must “carefully write our statements in order to avoid all accusation against us from the enemy, who accuse us of being animals and killers.”

ISIS advertises its savagery. It chops off people’s heads. It vows to kill every Shiite. It posts videos in which captives are shot dead and moving cars are machine-gunned. A week ago, ISIS uploaded photos purporting to show its fighters executing 1,700 captured Iraqi soldiers. “The filthy Shiites are killed in the hundreds,” said one caption. “The liquidation of the Shiites who ran away from their military bases,” said another. “This is the destiny of Maliki’s Shiites,” said a third. “Look at them walking to death on their own feet,” said a fourth. It’s hard to imagine propaganda better designed to repulse the public and galvanize the enemy.

4. Don’t rule harshly. Bin Laden was a theocratic fundamentalist, but he cautioned his allies to avoid the “alienation from harshness” that was “taking over the public opinion.” The worst offender was Somalia’s al-Shabab. In a 2011 letter, Bin Laden urged Atiyah to “send advice to the brothers in Somalia about the benefit of doubt when it comes to dealing with crimes and applying Shari’a, similar to what the prophet (PBUH) said, to use doubts to fend off the punishments.”

When ISIS captures a city, it follows this rule at first. But soon, the nice-guy act disappears. The group seizes property and humanitarian aid. It executes Christian and Muslim “apostates.” Two days after taking Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, ISIS banned booze and cigarettes, instructed women to stay home, and announced that government employees who failed to repent would be put to death. This behavior antagonizes Sunni fighters who have collaborated with ISIS. “In some areas that ISIS has taken they are killing our people, they are imposing their Islamic laws on us,” one tribal leader told the New York Times. “We do not want that.”

5. Don’t claim territory unless you can feed the people. In his 2010 letter, Bin Laden warned:

The issue of providing for basic needs is a matter that must be taken into consideration before taking control of nations or cities. If a controlling force, that enjoys the support of the majority where it has taken control, fails to provide for the basic needs of the people, it will lose their support and will find itself in a difficult position that will grow increasingly difficult with each passing day. People will not bear seeing their children die as a consequence of a lack of food or medicine.

ISIS pays no heed to this guidance. Its founding literature says that for people who fall under its dominion, “improving their conditions is less important than the condition of their religion.” In Fallujah, a city ISIS has controlled for six months, the Red Cross reports “a severe shortage of food, water and health care.”

6. Don’t fight with your allies. Bin Laden tried to rein in the fratricidal belligerence of ISIS’s precursor organization, al-Qaida in Iraq. He asked his associates to “resolve any conflicts between all of the Jihadi entities in Iraq.” He cited these conflicts as a lesson for the Yemenis, whom he cautioned against confrontations with potential Muslim partners:

Many Iraqis joined the mujahidin against the Americans until some mistakes happened when some of al-Anbar tribe’s children were attacked without a reason of self-defense (they were not a threat to the mujahidin), but they were registering in the security force compound. This attack resulted in the tribe working against the mujahidin.

The lesson is lost on ISIS. It refused to cooperate with al-Qaida’s Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front. It attacks other Syrian rebels. On June 8, ISIS bombed Kurdish offices in Iraq. On June 22, it destroyed the homes of members of a Baathist organization that has been crucial to ISIS’s success in Iraq. It also killed family members of a leader of another Iraqi Islamic militant group. Now some of the Baathists are fighting ISIS, and Kurdish militiamen are helping the Iraqi Army recapture towns.

7. Don’t alarm your enemies prematurely. In 2010, Bin Laden advised his followers in Yemen not to escalate the war there, in part because “the emergence of a force in control of the Mujahidin in Yemen is a matter that provokes our enemies internationally and locally and puts them on a great state of alert.” The Saudi rulers, once alerted, would “pump huge funds into recruiting the Yemeni tribes to kill us. They will win over the swords of the majority, which will put the Mujahidin force in Yemen under enemy fire” at a time when “the capabilities of our brothers there are not yet such that they can enter this sort of struggle.”

ISIS displays no such patience. It has earned and roused enemies with reckless haste. Its fighters have seized crossing points on the Syrian and Jordanian borders. They attacked the Turkish consulate in Mosul, carting away staff members and their families, purportedly for “investigations.” They seized 31 Turkish truck drivers, reportedly demanding $5 million in ransom. They attacked a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra. In three days, they raced hundreds of miles from Mosul to Baghdad, vowing to “invade the Shia in their homes.”

Now the Syrian military, which had previously steered clear of ISIS, isbombing ISIS militants in Iraq. Thousands of Shiites are signing up to reinforce the Iraqi Army. The United States and Iran—sworn enemies for decades—are exploring a limited partnership to stymie ISIS’s advance. Political factions are trying to organize a multiethnic government in Baghdad. The Turkish government is almost certainly drawing up plans to strike back. ISIS is creating a war between itself on one side, and every Iraqi constituency and adjoining country on the other. That’s not chaos. It’s unity.

We’ve been here before. Eight years ago, jihadists in Iraq made the same mistakes. They alienated the public and were driven out by tribes that had fought alongside them. They’ve returned as ISIS only because Iraq’s government persecuted Sunnis and ignored the tribes. Now the jihadists are back to doing what they do best: destroying lives, communities, and themselves.

Charles Stam

A REPORTER AT LARGE

CHANGE THE WORLD

Silicon Valley transfers its slogans—and its money—to the realm of politics.

BY GEORGE PACKER

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/05/27/130527fa_fact_packer?currentPage=all

Friday, May 23, 2014

Charles Stam

Monday, May 19, 2014

Graduation speaker blasts students

Graduation speaker blasts students

Amen

WSJ: Congratulations to Class of 2014, Most Indebted Ever

Congratulations to Class of 2014, Most Indebted Ever

Phil Izzo

As college graduates in the Class of 2014 prepare to shift their tassels and accept their diplomas, they leave school with one discouraging distinction: They’re the most indebted class ever.
The average Class of 2014 graduate with student-loan debt has to pay back some $33,000, according to an analysis of government data by Mark Kantrowitz, publisher at Edvisors, a group of web sites about planning and paying for college. Even after adjusting for inflation that’s nearly double the amount borrowers had to pay back 20 years ago.

Meanwhile, a greater share of students is taking on debt to finance higher education. A little over 70% of this year’s bachelor’s degree recipients are leaving school with student loans, up from less than half of graduates in the Class of 1994.

The good news for the Class of 2014 is that they likely won’t hold the title of “Most Indebted Ever” very long. Just as they took it over from the Class of 2013, the Class of 2015 will probably take it from them.
But as the debt burden of college graduates continues to rise faster than inflation, it begins to complicate the question of whether a bachelor’s degree is worth the expense. So far, that answer is a firm “yes.” College graduates have a lower unemployment rate and make more money than their contemporaries without a degree. Of course, some majors pay more than others, but in just about every industry workers with college diplomas are paid more than their counterparts without one. And the more education a person has, the greater the pay advantage becomes. (Although, that also often means more loans. “About 15% of graduate and professional school students graduate with six‐figure student loan debt, compared with only 0.3% of undergraduate students,” Mr. Kantrowitz says.)

: Zuma Press

But will the debt associated with a college degree always be worth it? That’s a little less clear. “A good rule of thumb is that undergraduate and graduate students should borrow no more for their entire education than their expected salary at graduation,” Mr. Kantrowitz says. For the average borrower, that’s still a pretty good bet right now. Granted, not everyone has the same debt, and not everyone gets a job at graduation. But if we compare student debt for young college graduates and salaries for young people with degrees, we can get a sense of where we stand.
In 2012, the most recent year for which data are available, workers with just a bachelor’s degree were making a median salary of $46,900 a year while the average student loan balance for people under 30 years old was $21,400. Those numbers aren’t directly comparable, but it does seem that most young people can pay back their debts.
The problem developing is that earnings and debt aren’t moving in the same direction. From 2005 to 2012, average student loan debt has jumped 35%, adjusting for inflation, while the median salary has actually dropped by 2.2%. If that continues debt burdens could start to become more unwieldy.

There is already evidence of this in the housing market. A report this week from the New York Fed looked at how student debt is affecting entry into the housing market. Researchers Meta Brown, Sydnee Caldwell, and Sarah Sutherland found that a smaller proportion of people at age 30 have mortgages that at any time in a decade. But for the first time starting in 2012, having student loans made it less likely that a 30-year-old would have a mortgage.

Now, 30 still is pretty young and perhaps the student debt is just causing workers to put off home purchases for a little while. Separate research from Richard Fry at the Pew Research Center, looked at the debt burdens and net worth of those with and without student debt. Those data showed that for people under 40, the same proportion of college graduates with and without student debt also had mortgage debt. But those data are a little older — they were collected in 2010 — and they include people with much lower student debt burdens. And they also show that people under 40 with student loans had more other debt — credit cards and auto loans — and a lower net worth than their peers without student debt. As student debt gets heavier, it’s also likely to increase those other burdens, and make it harder to afford a house.
Housing, an important driver of overall economic growth, has bounced back from the lows following the recent recession. Mortgage debt increased in 2013, according to separate research from the New York Fed, which is good news for the overall economy. But all of the growth came from people under 40 years old. If student debt is putting a ceiling on that growth, it’s bad news for the broader economy.