Obama says he deserves re-election, job’s not done

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama says he deserves re-election, despite the nation’s economic troubles.

Obama said in a pre-Super Bowl interview on NBC that his administration is creating more than 250,000 jobs a month, the most since 2005, and a reversal from the 750,000 jobs the economy was losing three years ago.

The president said American manufacturing still needs a boost and “We have got to make sure we are pushing American energy, not just oil and gas, but clean energy.”

Obama also said the country needed to return to “old-fashioned American values,” so “everyone gets a fair shake.”

Three years ago, Obama said if the economy hadn’t turned around by this time, his presidency would be “a one-term proposition.”

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-02-05-Obama-Economy/id-f5b7e86bdac943f0ac2ac4a53265606e

smallville finale angelman syndrome successful metra mitch daniels charlie sheen twitter mississippi

Written on February 8th, 2012 , savor Tags: , ,
Obama ‘putting colleges on notice’ on high tuition

President Barack Obama speaks at the University of Michigan’s Al Glick Field House, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

President Barack Obama speaks at the University of Michigan’s Al Glick Field House, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

President Barack Obama greets supporters after his speech at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich., Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

President Barack Obama speaks at the University of Michigan’s Al Glick Field House, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

President Barack Obama speaks at the University of Michigan’s Al Glick Field House, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

President Barack Obama speaks at the University of Michigan’s Al Glick Field House, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) ? President Barack Obama fired a warning at the nation’s colleges and universities on Friday, threatening to strip their federal aid if they “jack up tuition” every year and to give the money instead to schools showing restraint and value.

Obama can’t proceed, though, without the OK from Congress, where the reaction of Republican lawmakers ranged from muted to skeptical. Higher education leaders worried about the details and the threat of government overreach, and one dismissed it as mere election-year “political theater.”

Average tuition and fees at public colleges rose 8.3 percent this year and, with room and board, now exceed $17,000 a year, according to the College Board.

Obama delivered his proposal with campaign flair, mounting a mainstream appeal to young voters and struggling families. He said higher education has become an imperative for success in America, but the cost has grown unrealistic for too many families, and the debt burden unbearable.

“We are putting colleges on notice,” Obama told an arena packed with cheering students at the University of Michigan.

“You can’t assume that you’ll just jack up tuition every single year. If you can’t stop tuition from going up, then the funding you get from taxpayers each year will go down.”

Obama is targeting only a small part of the financial aid picture ? the $3 billion known as campus-based aid that flows through college administrators to students. He is proposing to increase that amount to $10 billion and change how it is distributed to reward schools that hold down costs and ensure that more poor students complete their education.

The bulk of the more than $140 billion in federal grants and loans goes directly to students and would not be affected.

Rising tuition costs have been attributed to a variety of factors, among them a decline in state dollars and competition for the best facilities and professors. Washington’s leverage to take on the rising cost of college is limited because American higher education is decentralized, with most student aid following the student. And that’s not counting the legislative gridlock.

“If you were a betting person, you would not bet on it getting done, simply because the political atmosphere in Washington is so poisonous,” said Terry Hartle, senior vice president at the American Council on Education, an organization that represents colleges in Washington.

Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, said Obama put forward “interesting ideas that deserve a careful review.” But Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., who leads a House panel with jurisdiction over higher education, said Obama’s plan should have tackled federal regulations that she said contribute to the problem.

The top Democrat on the House education committee, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., said Congress has bipartisan concern about the rising costs of college and thinks the president’s plan will open up a conversation about the problem. Some Republicans in the past, including Rep. Buck McKeon of California, have offered proposals similar to the president’s.

Others were sharper in their critique.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., a former education secretary, questioned whether Obama can enforce any plan that shifts federal aid away from colleges and universities without hurting the students it is meant to help. “The federal government has no business doing this,” he said.

Enacted or not, Obama’s plan may have the kind of popular appeal he can use in the campaign.

In Ann Arbor, he soaked up the cheers of students as he outlined the agenda from his State of the Union speech, and gave a shout out to the popular quarterback of the school’s football team. And Obama used the college-aid matter to put the onus for action on Republicans, again painting them as obstructionists and himself as the fighter for the middle class.

Mary Sue Coleman, president of University of Michigan, said schools should be challenged to find ways to restrain costs, but they can’t continue to make up for state cuts. Money for state universities in Michigan dropped by 15 percent in this year’s state budget, and many ? including the University of Michigan ? raised tuition to help make up for the lost support.

Obama challenged states to be more responsible, too.

“He recognizes every part of it,” Coleman said. “That’s what was so powerful about the speech.”

Kevin Carey, policy director at the independent Education Sector think tank, said higher education leaders will surely detest Obama’s plan even if they do not say so directly.

“Instead, they’ll work behind the scenes to kill it,” Carey predicted.

University of Washington President Mike Young said Obama showed he did not understand how the budgets of public universities work. Young said the total cost to educate college students in Washington state, which is paid for by both tuition and state government dollars, has actually gone down because of efficiencies on campus. While universities are tightening costs, the state is cutting their subsidies and authorizing tuition increases to make up for the loss.

“They really should know better,” Young said. “This really is political theater of the worst sort.”

Obama also wants to create a “Race to the Top” competition in higher education similar to the one his administration used on lower grades. He wants to encourage states to make better use of higher education dollars in exchange for $1 billion in prize money. A second competition called “First in the World” would encourage innovation to boost productivity on campuses.

Obama is also pushing for the creation of more tools to help students determine which colleges and universities have the best value.

Michigan was Obama’s last stop on a five-day trip to sell his State of the Union agenda in politically important states.

The White House has begun facing criticism from Republicans and daily questions from reporters about the blurring of Obama’s governing and campaign-style events. Presidential spokesman Jay Carney said Obama went before Michigan students to promote a policy idea.

Said Carney: “We’re not going to tell people not to applaud.”

___

Associated Press writers Ben Feller and Julie Pace in Washington, David Runk in Ann Arbor, Mich., and Donna Gordon Blankinship in Seattle contributed to this story. Hefling contributed from Washington.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-27-Obama/id-347bdccf1c714f99a661408b3f9b25c4

ascension opi vitamin d journal ets bermuda triangle nascar

Written on January 30th, 2012 , savor Tags: , ,
Czechs, world leaders mourn Vaclav Havel (AP)

PRAGUE ? Thousands of Czechs paid tribute to Vaclav Havel on Sunday, braving cold and snow at the spot where the leader of the peaceful anti-communist revolution rallied protesters.

Mourners, some of them too young to remember 1989′s “Velvet Revolution,” met at downtown Wenceslas Square, where Havel once spoke before hundreds of thousands of people expressing their outrage at the repressive communist regime.

They jangled their keys to make noise as anti-communist demonstrators did, sang the national anthem and observed a minute of silence for the playwright-turned politician, who died Sunday.

“His legacy will be that ‘truth and love must prevail over lies and hatred,’” Havel’s former adviser Tomas Sedlacek told the crowd, quoting Havel’s revolutionary motto.

Barbora Rubova, born two years after the end of the repressive communist regime, said it was important to show her respect to the man who helped kick off the fall of the Iron Curtain and served as president of Czechoslovakia, and later the Czech Republic.

“He laid foundations of democracy for us all,” she said.

A black flag flew over Prague Castle, the presidential seat, while many Czechs stood in line to have a chance to light candles to remember Havel. “Mr. President, thank you for democracy,” read a note placed at the monument to the revolution in downtown Prague.

Others visited his villa to lay flowers and light candles. Josef Klik, a 67-year-old, was among the mourners.

“He is an unforgettable person who contributed to the fall of communism,” Klik said. “And after that, he remained a moral authority for ordinary people.”

Bells tolled from cathedrals and churches across the country at 6 p.m. Prague archbishop Dominik Duka, who spent some time with Havel in a communist prison, said Havel “knew what it meant to lose freedom, be denied dignity, what is repression and imprisonment.”

“I am convinced that we all, no matter what our political or religious views are, should pay respect to him and thank him,” Duka said.

The Czech government meets Monday to declare a period of official mourning. Havel’s body will go on display at the Prague Crossroads, a former church that Havel turned into a space for conferences and artistic events, on Monday and Tuesday and then at Prague Castle on Wednesday and Thursday, officials said.

Czech public television announced it would broadcast Havel’s film version of his last play, “Leaving,” his directorial debut. Czech public radio said it would play some of the favorite music of the noted rock music fan.

Vaclav Klaus, Havel’s political archrival who replaced him as president in 2003, said condolence books will be available for people to sign at the Prague castle the same day.

Klaus called Havel “the symbol of the new era of the Czech state,” and Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg added that Havel “returned dignity to the Czech nation.”

Tributes poured in from around the world. The founder of the Polish anti-communist Solidarity movement and former president Lech Walesa called Havel “a great fighter for the freedom of nations and for democracy.”

President Barack Obama praised Havel for his “peaceful resistance (that) shook the foundations of an empire, exposed the emptiness of a repressive ideology, and proved that moral leadership is more powerful than any weapon.”

Havel’s funeral may take place on Friday, the local CTK news agency reported. Details are being worked out by the government in coordination with Havel’s family.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111218/ap_on_re_eu/eu_czech_havel_remembered

spam knowledge lexisnexis miranda kerr education triglycerides congo

Written on January 2nd, 2012 , savor Tags:
Obama’s crossover message, from kitchen to mansion (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Donna and Patrick Festa, a working-class couple in Scranton, Pa., and Jack Rosen, an affluent businessman from New York’s Upper East Side, live worlds apart.

Campaigning for re-election, President Barack Obama dips into both worlds. On a recent trip, he joined the Festas in their tidy South Scranton home to discuss his jobs initiatives. Hours later, he was in Rosen’s spacious house, amid a trove of contemporary art, raising money from high-dollar donors.

As he focuses his message on income inequality, Obama’s policy and political goals find him spanning the gulf between the 1 percent and the 99.

The White House is increasingly relying on working-class Americans to put a face on the president’s economic policies, arranging kitchen table chats or cafe roundtables between Obama and representative beneficiaries of his initiatives. It’s an involved process, requiring advance vetting to get the most illustrative individual or family to reinforce the president’s agenda. It’s a blend of reality and stagecraft designed to convey a front-page image or a six-second video clip on the evening news that advances the president’s story line.

At the same time, with re-election in mind, the president is spending more and more time raising campaign money from wealthy donors. Intimate moments with contributors are rarely captured on camera, and while reporters get to hear the president’s opening remarks at fundraising events, the interaction with donors occurs after reporters have been ushered out.

The juxtaposition may seem stark ? from coffee mugs to wine crystals, from a middle-class neighborhood in Las Vegas to the Bellagio Hotel and Casino. But Obama’s message to both is a variation on what has become a common refrain of spending to create jobs, payroll tax cuts and higher taxes on the wealthy.

“We don’t just ask for sacrifices from seniors, we don’t just ask for sacrifices from union members, we don’t just ask for sacrifices from teachers, we ask for sacrifices from the people who are in the best position to sacrifice,” he told donors recently.

Still, the contrast can provide rich fodder for Republican attacks. After Obama in October attended one fundraiser hosted by actor Will Smith and producer James Lassiter and another by the star couple Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith, the Republican National Committee pounced with a news release headlined, “As Americans Continue to Deal With the Effects of Obamanomics, Obama Connects With His Celebrity Friends.”

No doubt, all leading candidates for president raise money from wealthy donors, and fundraising by incumbent presidents is especially visible. For the White House, it’s a matter of sticking to the same message no matter who the audience is.

“Anyone who’s in the game has to be sensitive to the fact that he’s going to be appearing before well-dressed, deep-pocketed audiences in very fancy houses and penthouse suites,” said Chris Lehane, a Democratic operative and presidential campaign veteran. “You always have to be conscious and recognize the imperative of being consistent.”

When addressing donors, Obama says he is willing to cut spending but he also is asking “the most fortunate among us to do a little more to pay their fair share.”

“We’re not trying to sneak one by them,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. “They understand, and they support the president because of it.”

Rosen, a developer and chairman of the American Council for World Jewry, said he’s had no problem recruiting donors because of the president’s stance on taxes. “For the most part, my friends and people I talk to say they don’t object to paying a higher tax,” he said in an interview. “Certainly in last week’s event, no one said they wouldn’t come because he’s trying to increase their taxes.”

When he does find reluctance from donors, he said, it tends to come from financial executives pushing back on Obama’s banking policies, not his calls for higher personal income taxes.

“I have a number of people I know on Wall Street who don’t like what they hear,” Rosen said.

As for creating clashing images with Obama’s outreach to the middle class, White House officials say that’s less a concern than showing the president being exposed to real-life examples of the economic struggles he wants his policies to address.

“Holding up a specific family or a specific business or a specific citizen and illustrating how they would tangibly benefit from the policy agenda that the president is promoting is one of the most effective ways to cut through what’s otherwise the jargon of the political process,” Earnest said.

People chosen for those set pieces often get word just days before an Obama visit. The Festas were notified on the Sunday evening before Obama’s trip to Scranton on a recent Wednesday.

Patrick Festa, an elementary school teacher, and Donna Festa, a graphic designer, fit the bill as the president promoted the advantages to the middle class of extending the current payroll tax cut. Their names were culled from a list provided by the White House Office of Public Engagement, and they were selected from three households that made a final list.

The Festas were sworn to secrecy. An advance team descended on their house to examine logistics. They removed glass from picture frames to eliminate camera glare, they relocated a Christmas tree, moved some furniture out of the way and arranged some Christmas decorations to make them more visually appealing. Eventually, the Secret Service let the neighbors in on the visit.

When reporters were finally ushered in, Obama was seated at the end of a dinner table adorned with Christmas balls. The cameras shuttered as Obama asked Donna Festa about her job. Within 40 seconds, the press was ushered away. Obama stayed about 10 more minutes.

“We told president we were fortunate that we had jobs,” Donna Festa said in an interview. “But that as for getting ahead, it’s very tight.”

The glass is back in the picture frames and the furniture has been relocated, but Donna Festa said the family liked where the Christmas tree ended up. It’s a mystery to her how they ended up on the White House short list.

“Our neighbors are still abuzz about it,” she said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111214/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_stagecraft

skype problem slash lenny kravitz kroger oprah winfrey jamie foxx dream on

Written on December 17th, 2011 , savor Tags: , ,
Argentine leader vows to fine-tune model in second term (Reuters)

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) ? Cristina Fernandez began a second term as Argentine president on Saturday, vowing to make the economy more competitive by fine-tuning the offbeat, high-growth policies that please voters but spook investors.

The center-left leader won a landslide re-election in October to four more years in office on the back of sizzling economic growth and a wave of sympathy following the death last year of her husband and predecessor as president, Nestor Kirchner.

Still dressed in mourning black, an emotional Fernandez received the presidential sash from her daughter as cheering supporters threw ticker tape inside Congress, where she defended Argentina’s model versus that of developed countries.

“They govern with growth targets for the financial sector and … we govern with growth targets for work and employment. These are at the center of our government and this will continue,” Fernandez, 58, said in her speech.

“Our national project will continue until not one poor person remains.”

High inflation, capital flight and tight finances are raising concerns about the sustainability of Fernandez’s big-spending policies as a worsening global outlook weighs on grain prices and reduces demand from neighboring Brazil.

Fernandez acknowledged Argentina would need to improve its competitiveness and announced she would create a government office to do so, but she appeared to rule out a sharp devaluation of the peso.

Investors big and small have been betting on a faster rate of currency depreciation to make local industry more competitive since inflation of roughly 25 percent has raised costs and made producing in Argentina less viable.

“Competitiveness is the great challenge we will face in the period ahead. Improving competitiveness will not happen by joining those who devalue or by joining those who increase the debt load but rather by adding value, innovation, science and technology,” she said.

Fernandez has shunned credit markets and reduced the country’s debt burden, although many analysts think she may have to tap markets next year as the trade surplus narrows and foreign reserves available for paying debt dry up.

PRIORITIES

In her inaugural speech, Fernandez urged Congress to pass laws to limit foreign land ownership and crack down on tax cheats. She will also be eager to usher the 2012 budget through before the end of the year. With a majority in Congress again after a two-year lapse, that should not be a problem.

She has already made several policy adjustments. Days after she was re-elected with 54 percent of the vote, Fernandez took measures to boost dollar supplies on the local market and imposed currency controls to cool demand.

Those measures were designed to counter surging capital flight and bolster the central bank’s reserves.

She also has started dismantling multibillion-dollar state subsidies on water, natural gas and utility bills.

Deeper public spending cuts or caps on wage demands likely will lead to struggles with the powerful trade unions that provide key support for Peronist politicians like Fernandez.

Fernandez indicated in her speech she may take a harder line with the unions. She said recent strikes in Santa Cruz province cost the country $820 million.

“With us there is the right to strike, but not blackmail or extort,” Fernandez said, urging union and business leaders to act responsibly in the run-up to annual wage talks.

“We need you to make an effort in a complicated world,” she said.

A more market-friendly approach was evident in her choice of former Finance Secretary Hernan Lorenzino as economy minister, which analysts said could signal a drive to return to global markets by addressing lingering fallout from the 2002 debt default.

Amado Boudou, the former economy minister, took office as Fernandez’s vice president.

“What’s happened so far has been reassuring for those who thought something scary would happen in the second term,” said political analyst Federico Thomsen.

ARM-TWISTING

Thousands of supporters, many of them young people, gathered outside the pink presidential palace where rock and folk musicians led the inaugural festivities as the president presided over a jubilant swearing-in ceremony of her ministers.

Regional leaders such as Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff attended Saturday’s inauguration. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who had been due to make his first official trip abroad since cancer treatment, canceled at the last minute.

Also present was controversial price watchdog Guillermo Moreno, known for arm-twisting company executives into lowering prices and increasing exports. He was sworn in again as commerce secretary and is seen having greater influence over trade flows in Fernandez’s new administration.

During her stormy first term, Fernandez nationalized private pensions, fought with farmers over export taxes and ignored international arbitration awards to private firms hurt during the 2001/02 economic crisis.

Opposition lawmaker Juan Pedro Tunessi said Fernandez’s inaugural speech included a “capricious interpretation of reality, which denies inflation and wants to make us believe the world is falling apart and Argentina is the only place where things are going well.”

(Additional reporting by Hilary Burke and Luis Andres Henao; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111211/ts_nm/us_argentina_fernandez

hon underground fossil whale wars dna faa heather graham

Written on December 13th, 2011 , savor Tags: , ,

gethardcashhijack.com is proudly powered by WordPress and the Theme Adventure by Eric Schwarz
Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS).

gethardcashhijack.com