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Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Analysis: U.S. ramps up warnings on Iran strike risks (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The United States has pointedly ramped up its public warnings over the last few weeks about the risks of military action against Iran, accompanied by private words of caution to Israel, which sees Tehran's nuclear push as a direct threat.
But so far, at least, comments by U.S. and Israeli officials suggest that Washington's private lobbying has yet to convince Israeli hard-liners and even some moderates that alternatives, like sanctions and diplomatic pressure, will ultimately succeed in curbing Iran's nuclear ambitions.
It is unclear whether the differing views are any indication about whether Israel might be moving closer to a go-it-alone military strike, an option Tel Aviv has ruled out for the moment. Indeed, that may ultimately not be the case.
Rhetoric has periodically escalated over the years, often bolstering pushes - like the present one - for tougher sanctions against Iran.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a speech on Sunday widely seen within Israel as hinting about policy on Iran, spoke about making "the right decision at the right moment," even when allies object.
A nuclear-armed Iran, Netanyahu has said, is an existential threat to Israel.
Netanyahu's comments came on the heels of U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's strongest comments yet explaining America's concerns about a military strike on Iran.
Panetta said it risked "an escalation" that could "consume the Middle East in confrontation and conflict that we would regret." It could also hobble the fragile U.S. and European economies and might do little to actually stop Iran from getting an atomic weapon - a goal Tehran denies having.
Iran says its uranium enrichment is for peaceful purposes.
Panetta, citing conversations with his "Israeli friends," said an attack would only set back Iran's nuclear program by one to two years at best. He also warned about blowback to U.S. forces in the region.
"The United States would obviously be blamed and we could possibly be the target of retaliation from Iran, striking our ships, striking our military bases," Panetta told a forum in Washington on Friday.
Panetta privately outlined U.S. concerns in talks with Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Canada last month, including the impact a strike would have on the world economy.
Analysts say Tehran could retaliate by closing the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway where about 40 percent of all traded oil passes.
GLOBAL MELTDOWN
President Barack Obama, who is gearing up for a re-election battle next year, has had more trouble than his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, in winning Israeli trust.
Bruce Riedel, a former adviser to the Obama administration and former senior CIA expert on the Middle East, said Washington was deeply wary of being dragged into a conflict that, from its perspective, might be unnecessary.
"Obama knows a strike on Iran by Israel will create a regional war and a global economic meltdown that America will have to clean up," Riedel said.
"And he knows Israel - with its own considerable nuclear arsenal - does not face an existential threat from a nuclear Iran."
But, even considering likely retaliation on U.S. forces, the top U.S. military officer told Reuters in an interview this week he did not know whether the Jewish state would even give the United States notice ahead of time if it decided to act.
General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also suggested there was a gap in perspective between Israel and the United States, which sees sanctions and diplomatic pressure as the right path to take on Iran.
"I'm not sure the Israelis share our assessment of that. And because they don't and because to them this is an existential threat, I think probably that it's fair to say that our expectations are different right now," Dempsey said.
Iran is facing another wave of sanctions following a report last month by the U.N. nuclear watchdog which said Tehran appeared to have worked on designing an atom bomb and may still be pursuing secret research to that end.
Barak said on Thursday an Israeli attack on Iran was not imminent. But, asked about Dempsey's comments to Reuters, Barak said Israel "greatly respects" the United States.
"But one must remember that ultimately, Israel is a sovereign nation and the Israeli government, defense forces and security services - not others - are responsible for Israel's security, future and existence," Barak said.
Barak, in a radio interview, said Israel would be very glad if sanctions and diplomacy brought the Iranian leadership to a clear decision to abandon its nuclear military program.
But, "unfortunately, I think that is not going to happen," he said.
(Additional reporting by Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem and; David Alexander in Washington; Editing by Warren Strobel and; Philip Barbara)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111205/wl_nm/us_iran_us
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Monday, December 5, 2011
Lindsay Lohan Cast on Big Brother?!
Lindsay Lohan is used to avoiding crude shanks in big house ... but can she handle being stabbed in the back in a different sense in the Big Brother house?
Reports have surfaced saying the one-time actress is in negotiations to come aboard the reality show in a bid to relaunch her career after years of legal woes.
It'd be a huge coup for the show, but is there any truth to said rumor?
"Lindsay is not doing Big Brother," her rep tells E! News, matter of factly.
It's unclear if Lindsay Lohan could have joined the show even if she wanted to, given her community service and psychotherapy requirements. If LiLo went into that house and survived all the way to the finale, it'd be like three months of isolation!
We'd miss her so much ... and yet not.
"We hope that the courts will make a special allowance in this case. There aren't any more controlled environments than the Big Brother house," a hopeful source said.
That's true, no way could she do drugs or steal jewelry without cameras seeing it. A moot point in any case. Fortunately, Lindsay Lohan in Playboy is still a go, and soon!
Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/12/lindsay-lohan-cast-on-big-brother/
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Lady Gaga Debuts ?Marry The Night? & Explains Meaning (VIDEO)
Lady Gaga Debuts “Marry The Night” & Explains Meaning (VIDEO)
Lady Gaga has opened up about her sadness after being dropped from her first label Island Def Jam Records, saying it inspired her new video [...]
Lady Gaga Debuts “Marry The Night” & Explains Meaning (VIDEO) Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News
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Sunday, December 4, 2011
A glimmer of good news for Obama in jobs report
President Barack Obama gestures while speaking in a building under construction in Washington, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011, part of his Better Building Initiative to promote energy efficient buildings. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
President Barack Obama gestures while speaking in a building under construction in Washington, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011, part of his Better Building Initiative to promote energy efficient buildings. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
President Barack Obama listens while touring a building under construction in Washington, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011, part of his Better Building Initiative to promote energy efficient buildings. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Finally, a flicker of economic hope for President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats, even if it's a faint one.
November's sharp drop in the unemployment rate shows that jobs are finally moving in the right direction and suggests the economy is on firmer footing as the country heads into a presidential election year.
The Labor Department reported the jobless rate fell to 8.6 percent in November from 9 percent the month before, a 2? year low.
That's still high unemployment by historical standards. And lots of problems still lurk ? from Europe's debt crisis to congressional gridlock to the tens of millions of Americans still out of work or otherwise feeling economic distress. Furthermore, part of the improvement came because 300,000 people stopped their job searches and were no longer counted as unemployed.
But Friday's report, combined with other recent economic data showing advances in manufacturing and consumer spending, could give Obama momentum for the re-election campaign.
The White House and congressional Democrats were quiet in showing any enthusiasm they might have felt, instead using the new figures to step up criticism of anti-tax Republicans for blocking measures they said could help create even more jobs. Those include an extension of an expiring Social Security payroll tax cut that largely benefits the middle class.
"The unemployment rate went down," Obama said. "And despite some strong headwinds this year, the American economy has now created in the private sector jobs for the past 21 months in a row. That's nearly 3 million new jobs in all, and more than half a million over the last four months."
Said House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson of Connecticut: "Today's unemployment numbers, while encouraging, simply underscore the urgency for Congress to address the top issue facing American families? jobs."
Republicans were publicly unimpressed with the jobs report, insisting Obama hadn't done enough and emphasizing that the jobless rate was still higher than when he took office in January 2009, when it stood at 7.7 percent.
"Any job creation is welcome news, but the jobless rate in this country is still unacceptable. Today marks the 34th consecutive month of unemployment above 8 percent," said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
That view was echoed on the campaign trail.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, in a Fox News interview, acknowledged that the report was good news but said it wouldn't help Obama politically. "This is the slowest recovery we've seen since (President Herbert) Hoover," Romney said. "He's going to have a hard time putting perfume on this pig." Hoover held office from 1929 to early 1933, at the outset of the Great Depression.
Despite stimulus measures by the Obama administration, Congress and the Federal Reserve, unemployment has remained high, peaking at 10.1 percent in October 2009 and staying around 9 percent for most of 2011.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, another Republican seeking Obama's job, noted that a major part of the sharp drop in the unemployment rate was "not because entrepreneurs were creating new jobs" but because some 300,000 Americans "have simply given up looking for work."
"The Obama model of class warfare, government takeovers in the economy and creating fear and uncertainty for job-creators have failed," Gingrich asserted.
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., made a similar point about discouraged jobless workers and said, "My heart breaks as we approach the holidays for American families who have been abandoned by this president so that he can implement his radical agenda."
The president didn't try to take credit for the lower figures.
Asked about Obama's measured response, White House press secretary Jay Carney said: "We don't make much out of one month's numbers. We look for trends, and we know we have an enormous amount of work to do. 8.6 percent unemployment is way too high."
Still, "there's a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel" for gloomy Democrats, said Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University. "It's good news, but it's the kind of thing you have to rejoice about quietly. You don't want to hear the champagne corks popping. There's still so many people unemployed."
But Baker said that if Obama can demonstrate a "reasonable decline over time" in the jobless rate, people might give him the benefit of the doubt. "It doesn't have to get to historical lows to convince people that you're on the right track."
No president since Franklin D. Roosevelt has been re-elected with a jobless rate higher than 8 percent. Roosevelt won re-election in 1936 with a rate of 16.6 percent, and again in 1940 with a rate of 14.6 percent ? but joblessness was on the way down from a peak of around 25 percent.
The jobless rate peaked at 10.6 percent during the brutal 16-month 1981-82 recession while Ronald Reagan was president. But on Election Day 1984 it had fallen to 7.2 percent.
Obama used a joint appearance with former President Bill Clinton on Friday to renew his call to a fractured Congress to extend and expand the cut in the payroll tax that finances Social Security and Medicare. The tax cut, due to expire at the end of the year, affects more than 160 million Americans.
Republicans favor extending the tax cut, but have blocked Democratic attempts to do so by paying for it with a new tax on households with more than $1 million in annual taxable income.
With polls showing most Americans favor higher taxes on the wealthy to help bring down soaring budget deficits, Obama and congressional Democrats are portraying Republicans as defenders of the wealthy at the expense of the middle class ? a political theme they're sure to carry into the election year.
The jobs report comes during a week that saw solid stock market gains, including a near-500-point Dow Jones industrials rise on Wednesday, all potential good news for Obama.
"Let's say the stock market goes up another 500 or 600 points, and unemployment goes down below 8 percent by Election Day. That could allow for a big Obama surge," said Thomas Cronin, a presidential historian at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colo.
But that "if" is a big one.
The prospects of significantly bringing down the jobless rate to pre-recession levels anytime soon "remain slim," suggests University of Maryland business economist Peter Morici. "The economy must add 13.1 million jobs over the next three years_364,000 each month_to bring unemployment down to 6 percent."
___
Follow Tom Raum on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tomraum
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IPhone surpasses celebs, news as most searched on Web (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? Apple's iPhone edged past major news events, celebrities and pop stars as the top searched term on the Web in 2011, according to Yahoo!
The digital media company said the smartphone proved more popular than reality television celebrity Kim Kardashian, pop star Katy Perry and singer and actress Jennifer Lopez, who placed in the top five.
American Casey Anthony, the woman acquitted of the murder of her young daughter after a highly publicized trial, was No. 2.
"This is the first time since 2002 that we have had a gadget at No.1, which is an iPhone." Vera Chan, a Web trend analyst at Yahoo!, said in a conference call announcing the results of the review now in its 10th year.
"Even though the product has been around for four years it just became such a major news story," she added.
PlayStation2 topped the list in 2002.
Chan credited the iPhone with helping to facilitate political movements around the world and said the device embodied the vision of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs who died in October.
Women dominated the list, capturing six out of the top 10 spots. Troubled actress Lindsay Lohan made headlines for a brief stay in jail and court appearances for violating probation on drunken driving and theft charges captured the No. 6 spot.
Actress Jennifer Aniston, a first timer on the top 10 list along with Lopez, came in eighth.
In addition to the Casey Anthony trial, the Japan earthquake and Osama bin Laden who was killed in a U.S. assault in Pakistan earlier this year, were the only news stories to make the top 10.
"People don't have to search for details they get in the news, and it is rare that a news story end up on the overall list," said Chan.
Pop princess Britney Spears, who dominated the list in the top spot for four consecutive years, failed to make the list this year.
"American Idol," which was the most search item in 2004, placed seventh.
The Yahoo! list is based on aggregated visitor activity on the network and billions of consumer searches.
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Saturday, December 3, 2011
EVDrive offers first batch of e-Moto-CRF250R bikes for $13,700
Continue reading EVDrive offers first batch of e-Moto-CRF250R bikes for $13,700
EVDrive offers first batch of e-Moto-CRF250R bikes for $13,700 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Dec 2011 02:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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