Debt Limit Negotiating Tactic? No Negotiating

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden walk away from the podium after Obama made a statement regarding the passage of the fiscal cliff bill in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Analysis

New for 2013: In the Washington, D.C. fiscal wars we’ve gone from everything must be on the table to politicians declaring they won’t debate.

The fiscal cliff deal either averted disaster or compounded the problem, depending on who you ask. It certainly created new mini-cliffs in a few months as Congress and the president square off on the debt ceiling, spending cuts and government funding. But it also made sure the vast majority of Americans won’t see as big a tax hike as they might have.

President Obama was pretty clear late on New Year’s night as he reacted to Congress’s passage of a bill to take a turn away from the fiscal cliff. He won’t negotiate with Republicans about the debt ceiling.

“Now, one last point I want to make,” said the president, before wrapping up and hopping on Air Force One for a redeye to Hawaii. “While I will negotiate over many things, I will not have another debate with this Congress over whether or not they should pay the bills that they’ve already racked up through the laws that they passed.”

(Read more here about the Fiscal Cliff)

That’s pretty clear. No debt ceiling negotiation. Then he added for emphasis: ”Let me repeat: We can’t not pay bills that we’ve already incurred. If Congress refuses to give the United States government the ability to pay these bills on time, the consequences for the entire global economy would be catastrophic — far worse than the impact of a fiscal cliff.”

But in Washington, saying you won’t do something these days has almost become like an opening bid. At least, that’s how Republicans are treating the president’s line in the sand.

“The president may not want to have a fight about government spending over the next few months, but it’s the fight he is going to have because it’s a debate the country needs,” wrote Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican, in an op-Ed on Yahoo! News about 36 hours later. “For the sake of our future, the president must show up to this debate early and convince his party to do something that neither he nor they have been willing to do until now.”

“We simply cannot increase the nation’s borrowing limit without committing to long overdue reforms to spending programs that are the very cause of our debt,” McConnell said.

The national debt is soon set to reach $16.4 trillion. That’s not a problem that can be solved with one bill or budget. And the two sides will have to figure out some sort of way to talk about entitlement/social safety net reform – meaning things like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security – in addition to cutting spending and, most importantly, hope for an improving economy, to deal with those deficits.

House Speaker John Boehner, who has several times now failed to reach a big, broad fiscal deal with President Obama, told colleagues, according to The Hill newspaper, that he’s done with secret White House negotiations. He wants to stick with the constitutional way of doing things, with hearings and bills that are debated on Capitol Hill rather than hatched by the vice president and Senate Republicans.

Okay. Obama won’t negotiate on the debt ceiling. McConnell won’t not negotiate on the debt ceiling. Boehner doesn’t to do things by the book.

But McConnell won’t negotiate on taxes any more.

“Predictably,” McConnell had written earlier in his post, “the president is already claiming that his tax hike on the ‘rich’ isn’t enough. I have news for him: the moment that he and virtually every elected Democrat in Washington signed off on the terms of the current arrangement, it was the last word on taxes. That debate is over.”

It’s a new chapter in the ongoing fiscal saga in Washington. Back when the two sides were talking about a grand bargain or a big deal – some sort of all-inclusive reform that would right the listing deficit with one flip of the rudder – the popular trope was that “everything must be on the table.” That’s basically how Obama put it back in the summer of 2011 when he and Boehner failed to reach a grand bargain. He wanted higher taxes – they were calling them revenues back then. More recently, after Obama won the election and when he and Boehner were trying to hammer out another grand bargain to avert the fiscal cliff, Boehner wanted entitlements on the table. That means he wanted to find ways to curb future spending.

Both sides are declaring they won’t debate certain points, but this far – a full two months – before the mini-cliffs start, those are easier declarations to make than they will be when the government is in danger of defaulting or shutting down.

Even though they’re trying to take elements off the table, both men hope that coming negotiations can be a little more cordial and a little less down-to-the wire.

“Over the next two months they need to deliver the same kind of bipartisan resolution to the spending problem we have now achieved on revenue — before the 11th hour,” wrote McConnell.

“The one thing that I think, hopefully, in the New Year we’ll focus on is seeing if we can put a package like this together with a little bit less drama, a little less brinksmanship, not scare the heck out of folks quite as much,” said Obama.

That’ll be tough if neither side will talk about what the other side wants to talk about.

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Myanmar: Evolution, not revolution

Tourists walk around the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon in April. The tourism industry is set for expansion.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Myanmar is undergoing incremental change, welcomed by all, says Parag Khanna


• But he says people still tread lightly, careful not to overstep or demand too much


• Myanmar has survived succession of natural and man-made ravages, Khanna adds


• With sanctions lifted, foreign investment is now pouring in from Western nations

Editor's note: Parag Khanna is a Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation and Senior Fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. His books include "The Second World," "How to Run the World," and "Hybrid Reality."

Yangon, Myanmar (CNN) -- Call it a case for evolution instead of revolution. While the Arab world continues in the throes of violence and uncertainty, Myanmar is undergoing incremental change -- and almost everyone seems to want it that way.

The government is lightening up: holding elections, freeing political prisoners, abolishing censorship, legalizing protests, opening to investment and tourists and welcoming back exiles. But the people still tread lightly, careful not to overstep or demand too much. Still, the consensus is clear: Change in Myanmar is "irreversible."

Read more: Aung San Suu Kyi and the power of unity

As the British Raj's jungle frontier, Burma was a key Asian battleground resisting the Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia during World War II. As with many post-colonial countries, the euphoria of independence and democracy in 1948 gave way in just over a decade to the 1962 coup in which General Ne Win nationalized the economy and abolished most institutions except the army.

Parag Khanna

Non-alignment gave way to isolationism. Like Syria or Uzbekistan, Myanmar became an ancient Silk Road passageway that almost voluntarily choked itself off, choosing the unique path of a Buddhist state conducting genocide, slavery, and human trafficking.

Watch: Myanmar in grip of economic revolution

The military junta began its increasingly cozy rapproachment with Deng Xiaoping's China in the 1970s, just as China was opening to the world, and used cash from its Golden Triangle drug-running operations to pay for Chinese weapons.

Mass protests, crackdowns and another coup in 1988 led to a rebranding of the junta as the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) and the country's official renaming as the Union of Myanmar.

Terrorized, starving and homeless: Myanmar's Rohingya still forgotten

The 1990 elections, in which Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won a majority of the seats, were annulled by the SLORC, which continued to rule until 2011 when it was formally disbanded. Most international sanctions on Myanmar have now been lifted.

Read more: Myanmar: Is now a good time to go?

In just the past few years, Myanmar has survived a succession of natural and man-made ravages, from the brutal crackdown on the Saffron Revolution of 2007 (led by Buddhist monks but more widely supported in protest against rising fuel prices and economic mismanagement), to Cyclone Nargis (which killed an estimated 200,000 people in 2008) to civil wars between the government's army and ethnic groups such as the Kachin in the north and Shan and Karen in the east, and communal violence between the Muslim Rohingya (ethnic Bengalis) and Buddhist Rakhine in the west.

There are still approximately 150,000 Karen refugees in Thailand (and over 300,000 total refugees on the Thai-Burmese border) and more than 100,000 displaced Rohinya living in camps in Sittwe. So difficult is holding Myanmar together that even Aung San Suu Kyi, who helps lead the national reconciliation process, ironically advocated the use of the army (which kept her under house arrest for almost two decades) to pacify the rebellions.

Though sectarian conflict between Muslims and Buddhists in Rakhine underscores the Myanmar's tenuous search for national unity, the genuine efforts at religious pluralism are reminiscent of neighboring India: Every religion is officially recognized, and days are given off for observance. Surrounding Yangon's downtown City Hall is not only the giant Sule Pagoda but also a mosque, synagogue, church and Jain temple. The roundabout is therefore a symbol of the country's diversity -- but also the place where protesters flock when the government doesn't live up to promises.

Q&A: What's behind sectarian violence in Myanmar?

Scarred from decades of oppressive and ideological rule and still beset by conflict, it is therefore against all odds that Myanmar would become the most talked about frontier market of the moment, a top Christmas holiday destination and a case study in democratic transitions. Myanmar's political scene is now a vibrant but cacophonous discourse involving the still-powerful army; upstart parliament; repatriated civilian advisers; flourishing civil society, including human rights groups, ambitious business community, the Buddhist religious community, and a feisty media (especially online).

The parliament is pushing for accountability in telecom and energy contracts, and its speaker, Shwe Mann, is already maneuvering to challenge the chairman of his Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) -- current president Thein Sein -- in the 2015 elections.

In the meantime, however, the establishment in Yangon and the new capital of Napyidaw need to focus much more on building capacity. Thein Sein, who traded in his uniform for indigenous attire in 2011, has reshuffled the Cabinet to make room for functional experts in the energy and economic portfolios. He's even spearheaded an anti-corruption drive, admitting recently that Myanmar's "governance falls well below international standards." By many accounts he is also very open to advice on investment and other reforms.

He will need it, as Myanmar faces crucial tests of its international credibility in the coming years. In 2013, Myanmar will play host to the World Economic Forum (WEF) as well as the Southeast Asian Games. In 2014 it will chair the ASEAN regional group, and in 2015 it is expected to enter a new ASEAN Free Trade Area.

The military's power is still pervasive, placing it somewhere on the spectrum between Indonesia, where military influence has been rolled back, and Pakistan, where the military still dominates. On the streets, it's often difficult to know who is in charge.

One numerological fetish led to the driving side being unilaterally changed, making Myanmar the rare place where the steering wheel is (mostly) on the right, and cars drive (mostly) on the right. At least a dozen official and private newspapers (though private daily papers are not allowed yet) are on offer from meandering street hawkers, while you inch through Yangon's increasingly dense daily traffic jams.

At this time of year, visitors to Burma enjoy crisp, smoky morning air and dry, starry nights. Yangon is undergoing a construction boom, with faded colonial embassies turned into bustling banks, the national independence column being refurbished and redesigned with a park, and tycoons building columned mansions near downtown -- and seeking Buddhist blessings by pledging lavish donations for the construction of even more monasteries and pagodas.

By 2020, the population of Yangon could easily double from the current 5 million, at which point it may look like a mix of Calcutta and Kuala Lumpur.

Thant Myint-U, the grandson of former U.N. Secretary-General U Thant and noted historian of modern Burma, now wears several hats related to ethnic reconciliation, foreign donor trust funds and urban conservation. He says that as foreign aid flows grow from trickles into a flood, they have to be systematically focused on sustainable employment creation and infrastructure. USAID has pledged to spend more than $150 million in Myanmar in the next three years.

Myanmar's opening, however, is strongly motivated by an anti-Chinese sentiment that is part of a much wider global blowback against China's commercial and strategic encroachment
Parag Khanna

Outside of Yangon, the pace of Burmese society slows to a timeless pace -- as do Internet connections. On village roads, cycle rickshaws and monks with parasols amble by fruit vendors and car part stalls. Whether at the Dhammayazika Pagoda in Bagan or Mandalay Hill in that city, locals enjoy watching sunrises and sunsets as much as tourists.

Traveling around Myanmar, one observes the paradox of a country that has massive potential yet still needs just about everything. Yangon's vegetable market is a maze of tented alleys overflowing with cabbage, pineapples, eggplant and flowers, but they are still transported by wheelbarrows and bicycles. Ox-drawn ploughs still power farming in much of the country, meaning agricultural output of rice, beans and other staples could grow immensely through mechanization.

Similarly, the British-era light-rail loop circling Yangon takes about three hours to ride once around, with no linking bus services into downtown. But with cars already clogging the city, a major transport overhaul is essential. The communications sector actually needs to be re-invented. At present, the country's Internet and mobile phone penetration are only just growing; both are still governed by India's 1886 Telegraph Act. Mobile penetration is only 3 million but could easily grow to 30 million (half the population) within the next couple of years, as the price of SIM cards come down (so far from $2,000 to about $200), and foreign telecoms are allowed in to provide data coverage.

With sanctions lifted, foreign investment is now pouring in from Western nations, in addition to the players who have been making inroads for years such as China, Thailand and Singapore. The paradox, however, is that Myanmar lacks the infrastructure (physical and institutional) to absorb all the investor interest.

Major nations have thus focused on special economic zones that they themselves effectively run. The way Japan has moved into Myanmar, one would think that its World War II imperialism has been forgotten. After their major bet on the Thilawa special economic zone south of Yangon, Japanese contractors have plans to deepen the Yangon River's estuary so that cargo ships can sail directly up to the city's shores and offload more containers of cars that are already being briskly snapped up at busy dealerships.

Besides natural gas and agriculture, everyone agrees that tourism will comprise an ever-larger share of the country's GDP. Especially with much of the country off-limits to foreigners due to security restrictions and the military's economic operations, tourists already clog all existing suitable hotels in Yangon, Bagan and Mandalay, meaning a massive upgrade is needed in the hospitality sector.

Annual tourist visits are climbing 25% annually to an estimated 400,000 for 2012. Daily flights arrive packed from around the region, with longer-haul routes beginning from as far afield as Istanbul and Doha.

Still, Myanmar is a traveler's dream come true. In Bagan, you can walk or take a sunrise jog around countless pagodas that feel like they haven't been touched in 800 years -- some actually haven't. There is also the sacred and enchanting Golden Rock; the pristine beaches of Ngwe Saung, which rival the best of Thailand and the Philippines; the temperate climate of Inle Lake; the Himalayan foothills near Putao in far northern Kachin state where one can trek; the rich dynastic history of Mandalay; and the languorous Irrawaddy River cruises that harken to George Orwell's "Burmese Days."

Yangon has a pleasant charm and gentle energy, with vast gardens and riverside walks, the grandeur of centuries-old monuments such as the Shwedegon Pagoda, a fast-growing cultural scene of art galleries and music performances, and a melting pot population of all Myanmar's tribes as well as industrious overseas Indians and Chinese, who make up 5% of the nation's population.

Mandalay in particular is where one feels the depth of China's demographic penetration into Myanmar, owing not only to recent decades of commercial expansion from gems trading to real estate but also centuries of seasonal migrations across the rugged natural border with Yunnan province. Some have begun to call the Shan region "Yunnan South."

The combination of the Saffron Revolution, civil strife, sanctions, its economic lag behind the rest of ASEAN, and the status of becoming a captive resource supplier to China all played crucial roles in Myanmar's opening. China has traditionally been a kingmaker in isolated and sanctioned countries and well-placed to capitalize on the infrastructural and extractive needs of emerging economies as well.

For China, Myanmar represents a crucial artery to evade the "Malacca trap" represented by its dependence on shipping transit through the Straits of Malacca. In 2011 China was still far and away the largest foreign investor in Myanmar, bringing in $5 billion (of a total of $9 billion) across their 2,000-kilometer (1250-mile)-long border. The massive ongoing investments include 63 hydropower projects, a 2,400-kilometer (1500-mile) Sittwe-to-Kunming oil pipeline from the Bay of Bengal and a proposed gas pipeline to China's Yunnan beginning at Myanmar's Ramree Island -- not to mention an entire military outfitted with Chinese tanks, helicopters, boats and planes.

Myanmar's opening, however, is strongly motivated by an anti-Chinese sentiment that is part of a much wider global blowback against its commercial and strategic encroachment. Even well-kept generals are fundamentally Burmese nationalists and awoke to the predicament of total economic and strategic dependence on China. The government has taken major steps to correct this excessive tilt, suspending a major hydroelectric dam project at Myitsone and re-evaluating Wanbao Mining company's giant copper mine concession near Monywa.

Myanmar is now deftly playing the same multi-alignment game mastered by countries such as Kazakhstan in trying to escape the Soviet-Russian sphere of influence: courting all sides and gaining whatever one can from multiple great powers and neighbors while giving up as little autonomy as possible.

India sees Myanmar as the crucial gateway for its "Look East" policy and is offering substantial investments in oil and gas as well as port construction and information technology; Europe has become a larger investor, especially Great Britain; Russia is being courted as a new arms supplier; Japan is viewing Myanmar as its new Thailand for automobile production; and of course, U.S. President Barack Obama visited in December, paving the way not only for greater U.S. investment but even for Myanmar to potentially participate in the Cobra Gold military exercises held annually with America's regional allies.

Obama was not only the first U.S. president to visit Myanmar but also the first to call it by that name, conceding ground in a long-running dispute. The administration hopes that North Korea, Asia's still frozen outcast, will learn the lessons from Myanmar's steady but determined opening.

But countries that are playing multi-alignment don't have to thaw domestically -- witness Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan. Myanmar is simultaneously undergoing political liberalization and international rehabilitation -- a tricky and laudable feat for sure but not one North Korea is likely to emulate entirely. What the two do have in common, however, is the growing realization that having China as a neighbor is both a blessing and a curse.

During my visit to the "Genius Language School," where university students go for professional English tutoring, I asked the assembled round table whether they were happy that Obama came to visit and whether they considered America a friend. All giggled and chanted: "Yes."

Then I asked, "Are you afraid of China?" And the answer came in immediate, resounding unison: "Yes!"

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Parag Khanna.

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Primary schools to receive new teachers twice a year

SINGAPORE: From 2015, primary schools will receive a new batch of teachers twice each year - instead of the current arrangement where new teachers are deployed in June - following changes to the timing of the annual intake of the Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) (Primary) programme.

The PGDE (Primary) programme is a one-year diploma course conducted at the National Institute of Education. Currently, its graduates are deployed along with their counterparts in the Diploma in Education and Bachelor of Arts (Education) or Bachelor of Science (Education) programmes.

With the change, graduates from the PGDE (Primary) will be posted to their schools in January, instead of June.

Responding to TODAY's queries, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said the key reason for the change is to "better support the schools' manpower needs at the primary level".

Its spokesperson said: "This will allow for two batches of trained teachers to graduate from the different programmes in NIE to be posted to the primary schools ... each year, thereby reducing the schools' waiting time to fill vacancies for trained teachers."

To effect the change, the intake for PGDE (Primary) will be shifted from July to January - starting this year.

The MOE spokesperson said that email notifications were sent in April last year to those who were due to enrol in the programme in July this year - many of whom are currently doing contract teaching - but will now start their course in January next year.

"School leaders with untrained teachers in their schools affected by this change were similarly informed," she said.

While primary school principals whom TODAY spoke to welcomed the change, one untrained teacher who had been due to start the PGDE (Primary) programme this year was upset that he has to wait another six months to begin classes.

The 30-year-old teacher, who wanted to be known only as Mr Tan, said he found out about the change in February last year after MOE replied to his email query on the starting date of his course.

He claimed that he has not received an official notification.

After spending the past year doing contract teaching, Mr Tan said he would have to continue for another year because of the change.

It is not clear how many prospective trainee teachers are affected by the shift in the timing of the intake this year, as the MOE did not reply to queries on the intake size of the PGDE (Primary).

The current teaching force is about 33,000 strong. On average, 2,000 new teachers are recruited each year.

Principals said the change was timely, given how more teachers are taking up MOE initiatives such as the Part-Time Teaching Scheme (PTTS), and the enhanced Professional Development Leave (PDL) scheme which allow teachers with at least six years' service to take leave at half pay to undergo professional development.

Punggol View Primary Principal Kelvin Tay said: "Having two batches would ease issues that come up when teachers are away, such as on maternity leave or professional development, and it would help fill deployment gaps."

As the school calendar begins in January, Nanyang Primary School Principal Lee Hui Feng noted that getting new teachers in the same month will reduce changes to teaching personnel in the middle of the school year.

- TODAY/xq

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Bill that caused GOP fight up for a vote

By Ben Brumfield and Tom Watkins, CNN

updated 7:23 AM EST, Fri January 4, 2013

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• FEMA warns money is running out of the flood insurance program


• The last House session canceled a vote on $60 billion in aid


• Congress will consider a $51 billion package later


• FEMA urges "timely congressional action"

(CNN) -- The House is poised to vote Friday on a $9.7 billion Superstorm Sandy aid package after delays over fiscal cliff bickering and a warning from federal officials that funds are running out.

Frustrated victims of the massive October storm in the Northeast watched this week as a vote on a much larger $60 billion package got canceled.

Lawmakers are expected to pass the first portion Friday and weigh in on the remaining $51 billion in broader aid on January 15.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency notified the outgoing Congress on Tuesday -- its last day in session -- that without additional borrowing authority, it will run out of money within days to compensate storm victims under the National Flood Insurance Program.

The large aid package not voted on included more than $9.7 billion in new borrowing authority, according to the federal emergency agency.

It urged "timely congressional action" to meet survivors' needs.

Rep. Peter King blasts his own party

Outgoing lawmakers dropped what seemed like a sure thing for the suffering region into the lap of the new Congress, which convened Thursday. It will now consider it in two parts.

Republicans in the last Congress criticized proposed congressional "pork" spending in the bill that was unrelated to Sandy needs.

Democrat and Republican lawmakers in the region, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, had unleashed a firestorm of criticism at their own party in the House for not addressing the measure as originally planned.

"New Jersey deserves better than the duplicity we saw on display," Christie said, adding, that this is "why the American people hate Congress."

GOP civil war over Sandy relief

Later, closed-door meetings with House Republicans from the Northeast and their leaders Eric Cantor and John Boehner calmed some sentiments.

Boehner is the House speaker while Cantor is the Majority leader.

Democrats were less mollified.

"It's really unbelievable how Speaker Boehner and his party could just walk away," said Christine Quinn, speaker of the New York City Council. "To promise us a vote weeks from now? Why should we believe him at all? It's just shocking."

In a statement, Boehner and Cantor said "critical aid" to storm victims should be the first priority of the new Congress. Both were re-elected and have retained their leadership positions in the new House.

The Senate, which had already approved the larger Sandy plan that the House declined to consider, is expected to sign off on the scaled-back version Friday as well, according to a Democratic leadership aide.

But Senators will hold off on any further action.

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Video shows teens joking about alleged rape victim

(CBS) In August, the family of a 16-year-old girl accused multiple Steubenville, Ohio, high school students of raping her while she was passed out during a night of pre-football-season partying.

Two Steubenville High School football players have been indicted for rape, and the case is set to go to trial in February. But on Wednesday, a video appeared online that depicts teenage males who appear to be joking about details of the alleged rape.

The nearly 13-minute video posted on YouTube consists mostly of one teenage male hysterically laughing as he entertains an unseen cameraman and others in the room with remarks such as "They raped her harder than that cop raped Marcellus Wallace in 'Pulp Fiction'," and, "They raped her quicker than Mike Tyson raped that one girl." 

The New York Times reported last month that photos of the alleged rape victim were posted on social media. In one, according to the paper, the girl "is shown looking unresponsive as two boys carry her by her wrists and ankles."

The case has generated controversy partly because it has been playing out online, and partly because in Steubenville, where the high school football team is a source of great civic pride, the Times reports that some say the incident is an example of the perils inherent in granting teen athletes special stature. 

Multiple versions of the video were posted on YouTube on Jan. 2. A group of hackers called KnightSec, who claim affiliation with Anonymous, say they have collected and posted information about the students accused in the attack - as well as those they believe shot and appeared in the video. In an online message, the group threatened to release what they compiled, "unless all accused parties come forward by new years day and issue a public apology to the girl and her family."

The video, which has more than 100,000 total views, appears to have been recorded on the night of the incident. One male recalls seeing the girl vomit, and more than one of the males refer to "that girl" as being drunk. So drunk, apparently, that the teen on whose face the video camera is focused cracks himself up joking that she is "so dead."

"She is deader than Trayvon Martin," he laughs, referring to the Florida teen killed in February 2012.

The teen also makes remarks implying that he may have witnessed at least some of the incident: "You didn't see how they carried her out," he says. And: "They peed on her, that's how you know she's dead."

And also: "She is so raped right now."

The alleged victim is not named in the video and her name has not been released. CBS affiliate WTRF reports that Anonymous plans to rally in support of the alleged victim at the Jefferson County Courthouse on Jan. 5.

Steubenville Police Chief Bill McCafferty did not return Crimesider's calls for comment, but released a statement to WTRF that reads, in part, "The Steubenville police department has been aware of this recent video that was released. Since late August 2012 the subject who made the video was interviewed. This has all been turned over to the prosecutors which are the Ohio Attorney General's Office, who is prosecuting this case."

In the video now being circulated, excerpts of which are above, one voice off camera tells the speaker, "this isn't funny" and that his remarks are "childish."

"That's like, rape," says the unseen male. "They raped her."

"What if that was your daughter?" says another off-camera male.

"But it isn't," says the teen making the jokes. "If that was my daughter I wouldn't care, I'd just let her be dead."

Eventually, someone asks the cameraman, "Are you still videotaping?"

The cameraman replies with a laugh: "Yes."

Additional reporting by Will Goodman

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Quadruple Amputee Gets Two New Hands on Life

It's the simplest thing, the grasp of one hand in another. But Lindsay Ess will never see it that way, because her hands once belonged to someone else.

Growing up in Texas and Virginia, Lindsay, 29, was always one of the pretty girls. She went to college, did some modeling and started building a career in fashion, with an eye on producing fashion shows.

Then she lost her hands and feet.

Watch the full show in a special edition of "Nightline," "To Hold Again," TONIGHT at 11:35 p.m. ET on ABC

When she was 24 years old, Lindsay had just graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University's well-regarded fashion program when she developed a blockage in her small intestine from Crohn's Disease. After having surgery to correct the problem, an infection took over and shut down her entire body. To save her life, doctors put her in a medically-induced coma. When she came out of the coma a month later, still in a haze, Lindsay said she knew something was wrong with her hands and feet.

"I would look down and I would see black, almost like a body that had decomposed," she said.

The infection had turned her extremities into dead tissue. Still sedated, Lindsay said she didn't realize what that meant at first.

"There was a period of time where they didn't tell me that they had to amputate, but somebody from the staff said, 'Oh honey, you know what they are going to do to your hands, right?' That's when I knew," she said.

After having her hands and feet amputated, Lindsay adapted. She learned how to drink from a cup, brush her teeth and even text on her cellphone with her arms, which were amputated just below the elbow.

"The most common questions I get are, 'How do you type,'" she said. "It's just like chicken-pecking."

PHOTOS: Lindsay Ess Gets New Hands

Despite her progress, Lindsay said she faced challenges being independent. Her mother, Judith Aronson, basically moved back into her daughter's life to provide basic care, including bathing, dressing and feeding. Having also lost her feet, Lindsay needed her mother to help put on her prosthetic legs.

"I've accepted the fact that my feet are gone, that's acceptable to me," Lindsay said. "My hands [are] not. It's still not. In my dreams I always have my hands."

Through her amputation recovery, Lindsay discovered a lot of things about herself, including that she felt better emotionally by not focusing on the life that was gone and how much she hated needing so much help but that she also truly depends on it.

"I'm such an independent person," she said. "But I'm also grateful that I have a mother like that, because what could I do?"

Lindsay said she found that her prosthetic arms were a struggle.

"These prosthetics are s---," she said. "I can't do anything with them. I can't do anything behind my head. They are heavy. They are made for men. They are claws, they are not feminine whatsoever."

For the next couple of years, Lindsay exercised diligently as part of the commitment she made to qualify for a hand transplant, which required her to be in shape. But the tough young woman now said she saw her body in a different way now.

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Why U.S. lives under the shadow of 'W'

Julian Zelizer says former President George W. Bush's key tax and homeland security policies survive in the age of Obama

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Julian Zelizer: For all the criticism Bush got, two key policies have survived


• He says fiscal cliff pact perpetuates nearly all of Bush's tax cuts


• Obama administration has largely followed Bush's homeland security policy, he says


• Zelizer: By squeezing revenues, Bush tax cuts will put pressure on spending

Editor's note: Julian Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of "Jimmy Carter" and of "Governing America."

Princeton, New Jersey (CNN) -- Somewhere in Texas, former President George W. Bush is smiling.

Although some Democrats are pleased that taxes will now go up on the wealthiest Americans, the recent deal to avert the fiscal cliff entrenches, rather than dismantles, one of Bush's signature legacies -- income tax cuts. Ninety-nine percent of American households were protected from tax increases, aside from the expiration of the reduced rate for the payroll tax.

Julian Zelizer

In the final deal, Congress and President Barack Obama agreed to preserve most of the Bush tax cuts, including exemptions on the estate tax.

When Bush started his term in 2001, many of his critics dismissed him as a lightweight, the son of a former president who won office as result of his family's political fortune and a controversial decision by the Supreme Court on the 2000 election.

But what has become clear in hindsight, regardless of what one thinks of Bush and his politics, is that his administration left behind a record that has had a huge impact on American politics, a record that will not easily be dismantled by future presidents.

The twin pillars of Bush's record were counterterrorism policies and tax cuts. During his first term, it became clear that Obama would not dismantle most of the homeland security apparatus put into place by his predecessor. Despite a campaign in 2008 that focused on flaws with the nation's response to 9/11, Obama has kept most of the counterterrorism program intact.

Opinion: The real issue is runaway spending

In some cases, the administration continues to aggressively use tactics his supporters once decried, such as relying on renditions to detain terrorist suspects who are overseas, as The Washington Post reported this week. In other areas, the administration has expanded the war on terrorism, including the broader use of drone strikes to kill terrorists.

Now come taxes and spending.

With regard to the Bush tax cuts, Obama had promised to overturn a policy that he saw as regressive. Although he always said that he would protect the middle class from tax increases, Obama criticized Bush for pushing through Congress policies that bled the federal government of needed revenue and benefited the wealthy.

In 2010, Obama agreed to temporarily extend all the tax cuts. Though many Democrats were furious, Obama concluded that he had little political chance to overturn them and he seemed to agree with Republicans that reversing them would hurt an economy limping along after a terrible recession.

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With the fiscal cliff deal, Obama could certainly claim more victories than in 2010. Taxes for the wealthiest Americans will go up. Congress also agreed to extend unemployment compensation and continue higher payments to Medicare providers.

But beneath all the sound and fury is the fact that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, for most Americans, are now a permanent part of the legislative landscape. (In addition, middle class Americans will breathe a sigh of relief that Congress has permanently fixed the Alternative Minimum Tax, which would have hit many of them with a provision once designed to make sure that the wealthy paid their fair share.)

As Michigan Republican Rep. Dave Camp remarked, "After more than a decade of criticizing these tax cuts, Democrats are finally joining Republicans in making them permanent." Indeed, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the new legislation will increase the deficit by $4 trillion over the next 10 years.

The tax cuts have significant consequences on all of American policy.

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Most important, the fact that a Democratic president has now legitimated the moves of a Republican administration gives a bipartisan imprimatur to the legitimacy of the current tax rates.

Although some Republicans signed on to raising taxes for the first time in two decades, the fact is that Democrats have agreed to tax rates which, compared to much of the 20th century, are extraordinarily low. Public perception of a new status quo makes it harder for presidents to ever raise taxes on most Americans to satisfy the revenue needs for the federal government.

At the same time, the continuation of reduced taxes keeps the federal government in a fiscal straitjacket. As a result, politicians are left to focus on finding the money to pay for existing programs or making cuts wherever possible.

New innovations in federal policy that require substantial revenue are just about impossible. To be sure, there have been significant exceptions, such as the Affordable Care Act. But overall, bold policy departures that require significant amounts of general revenue are harder to come by than in the 1930s or 1960s.

Republicans thus succeed with what some have called the "starve the beast" strategy of cutting government by taking away its resources. Since the long-term deficit only becomes worse, Republicans will continue to have ample opportunity to pressure Democrats into accepting spending cuts and keep them on the defense with regards to new government programs.

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With his income tax cuts enshrined, Bush can rest comfortably that much of the policy world he designed will remain intact and continue to define American politics. Obama has struggled to work within the world that Bush created, and with this legislation, even with his victories, he has demonstrated that the possibilities for change have been much more limited than he imagined when he ran in 2008 or even in 2012.

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Julian Zelizer.

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Subaru recalls up to 630,000 US vehicles over faulty light

WASHINGTON: Japanese automaker Subaru could recall up to 630,000 cars and SUVs in the United States because of a faulty puddle light that could short-circuit, possibly sparking a fire, the firm said Thursday.

Subaru did not say whether it was aware of any accidents or injuries as a result of the defect, which affects certain 2006 to 2012 Legacy, Outback, Tribeca and Forester vehicles equipped with an optional accessory light.

"A short circuit can develop when either the puddle light or connector are exposed to an electrolytic moisture source (i.e. salt water) and it penetrates the circuit board of the puddle light or the pins of the puddle light connector," the company wrote in a notice to federal safety regulators.

"This may generate heat which may melt the plastic resulting in smoke or fire."

Subaru said the first complaint of "smoke and/or fire" was in 2007, adding that the company had made several changes to try to fix it.

After determining in a review begun in 2011 that the defect related to safety, the company ordered the recall. Affected vehicles will be equipped with an additional fused-harness, free of charge.

- AFP/ir

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New Congress, old drama

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The fiscal cliff was averted, but issues like the the sequester and debt ceiling await


• The new Congress will vote on $60 billion in aid to Superstorm Sandy victims


• House Speaker John Boehner canceled the vote on the aid in light of the fiscal cliff vote


• Democrats gain seats in both chambers, but Republicans keep control of the House

(CNN) -- A new Congress takes office Thursday, and many of the same difficult issues that snagged the last one will fall into its lap.

President Barack Obama has signed into law a bill to avert the fiscal cliff, a deal worked out after lengthy, grinding friction between Democrats and Republicans. The political theatrics kept Americans and people around the world on pins and needles over how the outcome would affect the shaky global economy.

But the sequester -- a set of automatic spending cuts of up to 10% to the budgets of most agencies and programs -- lies ahead. It has been pushed back to the end of February.

At about the same time, a decision on the debt ceiling that the last Congress postponed will be due.

As an early order of business, the new Congress will address the massive aid package for Superstorm Sandy victims. House Speaker John Boehner scrapped a vote to approve the $60 billion measure late Tuesday in the wake of the vote on the fiscal cliff bill, triggering irate reactions from politicians in both parties from New York and New Jersey.

Republican Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey attacked his own party members in Washington, blasting "the toxic internal politics of the House majority."

A vote on $9 billion for immediate aid is now set for Friday, with the balance of $51 billion due for consideration January 15.

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There have been subtle changes in the makeup of the lawmaking bodies.

Although Republicans retained control of the House after the 2012 elections, Democrats gained seats in that chamber. They also expanded their control of the Senate.

Republicans will fill 234 seats in the new House, down from 242. Democrats will take 201, up from 193.

In the Senate, voters handed two former GOP seats to Democrats for a new balance of 55-45. The 55 Democratic seats include two independents who caucus with the party.

The small shift in numbers could make a difference in votes across party lines.

How much more you'll pay under fiscal cliff deal

The House will vote on its speaker position, and their are questions about whether Boehner will receive the gavel again in light of recent tensions.

The House vote on a deal approved by the Senate also split the parties, but enough Republicans crossed party lines for the bill to pass handily with a 257-167 vote. On Tuesday night, 172 Democrats and 85 Republicans favored the bill; 16 Democrats and 151 Republicans opposed it.

Congress also passed a bill approving defense expenditures, which the president signed into law.

A number of moderates on both sides lost their seats in the House, which is likely to make the lawmaking body even more polarized.

Partisan banter and stern words form the president preceded the convening of the 113th Congress on 1/3/13.

Before leaving Washington for Hawaii on Tuesday night, Obama warned Congress that he will not tolerate another act of prolonged brinksmanship.

"While I will negotiate over many things, I will not have another debate with this Congress over whether or not they should pay the bills that they've already racked up through the laws that they've passed," he said.

Hours later Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell swiped back at the president in an op-ed piece he wrote for Yahoo News.

"I have news for him," McConnell wrote. "The moment that he and virtually every elected Democrat in Washington signed off on the terms of the current arrangement, it was the last word on taxes. That debate is over."

But to get through the debt ceiling, the self-imposed limit on how much the U.S. government may borrow, there will have to be debate over spending, he insisted.

The ceiling of $16.394 trillion has already been reached.

CNN's Josh Levs, Tom Watkins, Holly Yan, Robert Yoon and Ashley Killough contributed to this report

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Will GOP unite before next fiscal fight?

Anyone who thought Republicans were too focused on spending cuts in the "fiscal cliff" negotiations should brace themselves for what's next.

Tuesday's votes on the "fiscal cliff" deal divided the GOP: More than half of House Republicans voted against it, primarily complaining about its lack of spending cuts. Yet on the Senate side, all but three Republicans supported the measure.

A couple of the Senate's most conservative Republicans say they understand why their House counterparts opposed the bill -- it's littered with special-interest giveaways, was secretly drafted in the dead of night and extends spending on programs like unemployment insurance without paying for them. At the same time, those senators say, those House Republicans may have been too concerned about their outsider, tea party reputations to accept the overwhelming upside of the bill -- making the Bush-era tax rates permanent for nearly all Americans.

"This is not meant to reduce the deficit," Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., told CBSNews.com about the "fiscal cliff" deal. "This was meant to reduce taxes. The deficit is a different issue."

The nation's spending habit, however, is exactly the issue that will be on the table in a matter of weeks from now, when Congress will have to raise the debt limit, as well as reconsider the "sequester" spending cuts that were only put on hold for two months in the "fiscal cliff" bill.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., another conservative who voted for the "fiscal cliff" deal, said voters can expect to see "a strongly united Republican party coming out of this."

"I think what the American public is going to see is President Obama's campaign pledge," he said. "He made the rich pay their fair share -- he got that. Now it's very legitimate for Republicans to demand and see what is the other part of his 'balanced approach'... His tax increase, at most, will close 5 percent of the deficit. What's the other 95 percent? What's his plan to save Social Security? To save Medicare?"

A few weeks ago, many hoped the "fiscal cliff" negotiations would result in a balanced, comprehensive approach to the nation's fiscal issues. Everything seemed to be on the table: entitlement reform, the debt limit, strategic spending cuts with which to replace the sequester, and new tax revenue.

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Repairing the Republican party

The ultimate deal, brokered by Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was much more limited. Still, some conservatives saw plenty to be pleased with.

Inhofe said he was "in shock" Congress managed to pass an extension of the farm bill, a permanent fix to the alternative minimum tax, the "doc fix" for Medicare reimbursement rates and an extension of the child tax credit, among other things. He also hailed the limited increases in the estate tax and the capital gains tax, which could have gone much higher. "The only bad thing in this thing from a conservative standpoint: they've expanded unemployment insurance too far," he said.

That didn't stop right-wing commentators from berating Republicans for giving up on spending cuts. "The Republican Establishment in Washington, DC should be burned to the ground and salt spread on the remains," RedState.com blogger Erick Erickson wrote. Columnist Charles Krauthammer called the bill "a complete surrender on everything."

Inhofe chalked up the angry punditry to "demagoguing," noting that he and others who supported the measure are regularly named some of the Senate's most conservative members.

On the House side, Inhofe said, "Most of the ones that would be categorized as tea partiers are those who got in [to office] being critical of the establishment and sincerely wanting less government, less taxes, less spending. We all feel that way, but they were a little afraid they'd be portrayed as insiders, thinking, 'The electorate back home elected me to do something the establishment is not doing.'"

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