Monday, 27 June 2011
Right Turn: Didn't Obama pledge to complete 3 free-trade deals?
The Wall Street Journal reports: "U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk on Monday appealed to congressional leaders to begin work "without delay" toward ratifying a free-trade deal with South Korea, even as Republican leaders continued to press to link such action with movement on trade pacts with C...
Bachmann gives Romney a run in Iowa Poll
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann are neck and neck atop the Des Moines Register Iowa Poll on the Republican presidential field.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43537815/ns/politics-decision_2012/
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Sunday, 26 June 2011
Afghans step up as U.S. troops withdraw: Karzai
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration's plan to withdraw some U.S. troops from Afghanistan is a welcome sign the country can start defending itself, President Hamid Karzai said in remarks aired on Sunday. 
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Spike in gas prices offsetting U.S. tax cut, Obama says
President Obama acknowledged Friday that the fast-rising cost of gasoline could diminish the effect of policies designed to stimulate economic growth, but warned that he is not yet prepared to unleash the nation's energy reserves to bring down the price of oil.
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Obama keeps his eye on independent voters
President Obama's Friday news conference did little to advance U.S. policy on Libya or clarify the White House's position on resolving the budget impasse in Congress. The president nonetheless conveyed one unmistakable impression: He is now focused intently on winning back independent voters.
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Abbreviated Pundit Round-up
Visual Source: Newseum
Gideon Rose offers up what at first seems like an odd role model for Obama as he seeks to get out of Afghanistan.
What he needs is a strategy for getting out without turning a retreat into a rout ? and he would be wise to borrow one from the last American administration to extricate itself from a thankless, seemingly endless counterinsurgency in a remote and strategically marginal region. Mr. Obama should ask himself, in short: What would Nixon do?...
It may seem crazy to regard the American withdrawal from Vietnam as anything but disastrous. Our local ally collapsed two years after signing a peace deal, our enemies triumphantly conquered the country we had fought for more than a decade to defend, and the image of panicked friends reaching in vain for the last helicopter out of Saigon remains seared into our national consciousness. But Mr. Nixon actually did a lot right in Vietnam, and his approach there was not the primary cause of the war?s ignominious end.
Stephanie Clifford looks at the uses of that 2% oil that doesn't end up going into pushing a vehicle along road, rails, or sky.
Since petroleum replaced whale oil as a main fuel source more than a century ago, chemical companies and refineries have found a startling range of uses for it, from asphalt to vanilla flavoring in ice cream to pills from the drugstore. It has oozed into everyday life...It's nice to think about what we'll do for lubricants when the oil runs out, but first let's stop burning the other 98% of oil so there will be plenty around for other things. Speaking of which...
Joe Nocera gets a glimpse of our future from the seat of the Chevy Volt.
People who follow the car business like to say that this particular moment in automotive history is the closest we?ll ever come to seeing what the industry was like a century ago. Back then, there were dozens of auto companies, all experimenting with different ways to power a car, a race ultimately won by the gasoline-powered combustible engine. ... nobody yet knows what kind of infrastructure will develop around the electric car. Is lithium ion ultimately the right battery chemistry? How quickly will the cost of the battery ? which is the most expensive feature in an electric car ? come down? When will the battery size shrink, and its power increase?At least it's a glimpse of my future, since the Volt is otherwise known as that-car-I-put-in-a-downpayment-for-but-won't-get-until-November.
Carl Zimmer researches one of the most difficult problems in science ? how to handle bad science.
n May, for instance, the journal Science published eight critiques of a controversial paper that it had run in December. In the paper, a team of scientists described a species of bacteria that seemed to defy the known rules of biology by using arsenic instead of phosphorus to build its DNA. Chemists and microbiologists roundly condemned the paper; in the eight critiques, researchers attacked the study for using sloppy techniques and failing to rule out more plausible alternatives.Science may be "self-correcting," but when addressing studies that involved months or years of original research, it can be years or decades before anyone gets around to trying to replicate the results. Scientists can also run into an issue that's very familiar to journalists, including bloggers.But none of those critics had actually tried to replicate the initial results.
Even when scientists rerun an experiment, and even when they find that the original result is flawed, they still may have trouble getting their paper published. The reason is surprisingly mundane: journal editors typically prefer to publish groundbreaking new research, not dutiful replications.
Susan Cain boldly peeks into the question of shyness. Is it really a disorder?
Before 1980, this would have seemed a strange question. Social anxiety disorder did not officially exist until it appeared in that year?s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the DSM-III, the psychiatrist?s bible of mental disorders, under the name ?social phobia.? It was not widely known until the 1990s, when pharmaceutical companies received F.D.A. approval to treat social anxiety with S.S.R.I.?s and poured tens of millions of dollars into advertising its existence.Or do these traits actually give their "sufferers" an evolutionary advantage in many circumstances?
According to Daniel Nettle, a Newcastle University evolutionary psychologist, extroverts are more likely than introverts to be hospitalized as a result of an injury, have affairs (men) and change relationships (women). One study of bus drivers even found that accidents are more likely to occur when extroverts are at the wheel.
George Will joins those who look to Texas for another Republican savior.
Supposed examples of Perry?s extremism evaporate in sunlight. One is that he intimated support for Texas?s secession from the Union. After people shouted ?Secede!? at a rally, he said that he understood their frustration but added: ?We?ve got a great union. There is absolutely no reason to dissolve it.? He signed a law requiring women seeking abortions to be shown sonograms of their babies. Do people objecting to this mandatory provision of information object to the new graphic warnings on cigarette packs?See? Perry isn't an egotistical extremist who thinks that climate change is a hoax and that the best way to deal with water resource issues is prayer, he's a reluctant politician who will have to be dragged into the spotlight to save the party. Glad we cleared that up.
Dana Milbank voices some of the anger from the left.
Democrats are less angry with Obama now than when he struck a deal with Republicans preserving the Bush tax cuts. But the breadth of Obama?s fights with his political base is striking.Maybe that's because poll after poll has demonstrated that no matter what they call themselves, most Americans hold positions on a whole raft of issues that are progressive. Now if we could only find someone who was a great orator and in a perfect position to defend and push those positions. Oh wait, we have... nope, still waiting.Compounding the feeling of betrayal is the progressive lawmakers? belief that Obama was one of them ? not some centrist, Clintonian character. I?m sympathetic to Obama?s instincts to keep to the political center, but the routine spurning of his political base does seem extravagant.
On top of that, Obama has little to show for his intramural squabbles. Clinton?s heresies earned him the support of independents (the expanding economy certainly helped), but, according to the latest Bloomberg poll, only 23 percent of independent likely voters support Obama?s reelection, while 36 percent say they will definitely back another candidate.
Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/6VF57PYcwZA/-Abbreviated-Pundit-Round-up
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The Fact Checker: Is Rep. King's claim about radical Muslim imams true?
"The only real testimony we have on it was actually from Sheikh Kabbani, who was a Muslim leader during the Clinton Administration, he testified, this is back in 1999 and 2000, before the State Department that he thought over 80 percent of the mosques in this country are controlled by radical Ima...
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Obama focuses on revitalizing manufacturing in weekly address
Of course, there?s been a real debate about where to invest and where to cut, and I?m committed to working with members of both parties to cut our deficits and debt. But we can?t simply cut our way to prosperity. We need to do what?s necessary to grow our economy; create good, middle-class jobs; and make it possible for all Americans to pursue their dreams.
Segueing from his speech announcing a drawdown of troops in Afghanistan to "nation building here at home," President Obama in his weekly address this morning hammered on the need to invest and build out the stagnating economy and focus on job creation. The address was recorded at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, where the president announced a new alliance between university research departments, the government and private enterprise.
He used the example of a firm called RedZone Robotics to illustrate the new push for cooperation through the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership and benefits that will come from it:
Their mission is to come up with a way to get ideas from the drawing board to the manufacturing floor to the marketplace as swiftly as possible, which will help create quality jobs, and make our businesses more competitive. But they also have a broader mission. It?s to renew the promise of American manufacturing. To help make sure America remains in this century what we were in the last?a country that makes things. A country that out-builds and out-innovates the rest of the world.
Infrastructure-building, creating new jobs in emerging industries and reinvigorating America's manufacturing base are all tied in with the president's view of how we move ahead.
He closed the address with his signature acknowledgement of tough times but his basic optimism in America's ability to survive:
I know these have been tough years for American manufacturing, and all the workers and families who?ve built their lives around it. But being here in Pittsburgh, I?m hopeful about the future. I?m hopeful when I think about how companies like RedZone are reinvigorating manufacturing or about how what started as a small trade school is now a global research university. We are a people who?ve always adapted to meet the challenges of a new time; who?ve always shaped our own destiny, and I?m absolutely confident that that?s what we?re going to do one more time.
The full transcript can be found beneath the fold and on the White House website.
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Saturday, 25 June 2011
The Fix: Palin: The GOP's Pelosi?
Sarah Palin's unfavorable rating has spiked to a new high, adding further fuel to the argument that her presidential campaign may be doomed before it begins.
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Whitey and Billy Bulger's Rise to Power
They were the kings of Boston, perhaps the two most-feared men in a fierce city ? for reasons that were often, though not always, opposed.
Source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=3a0b38e2bcd2c8715bfca99a65f15c1d
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Cuomo signs same-sex marriage into law
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the state's marriage equality bill, making New York the sixth and largest state in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage. 
Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_allpolitics/~3/Cc5vAlqrx3A/index.html
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Exclusive: Oil Industry Forms New Astroturf Group To Manipulate 2012 Republican Primary In Iowa
As the Republican presidential candidates tour Iowa hoping to lock up the 2012 nomination, they will hear an assortment of questions on energy policy. Some of them, ThinkProgress has learned, will be planted by the oil and natural gas lobby to steer the candidates toward pro-Big Oil policies. A recent campaign stop by Rick Santorum [...]
Source: http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/06/25/252591/oil-industry-astroturfing-2012/
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Watch: Michelle Obama's South Africa Trip
First lady shares words of inspiration with young women from across Africa.
Source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=a2b87f62d0e4f2f56a9d7eb488c4e442
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Joe Miller told to reimburse Alaska for election challenge
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Failed Senate candidate Joe Miller must reimburse Alaska more than $17,000 in legal fees and costs incurred during his fight to overturn Lisa Murkowski's write-in victory, a state judge ruled on Friday. 
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White House to work with both sides on gun control measure
President Obama called Sunday for greater enforcement of gun control laws and improved background checks in the wake of the January shootings in Tucson.
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Friday, 24 June 2011
Wisconsin Lawmakers pass union bargaining bill as protests rage
March 10 (Bloomberg) -- The Wisconsin Assembly voted 53-42 to give final passage to a bill curbing collective bargaining for most government workers that was stalled for weeks when Democratic senators left for Illinois to prevent a quorum.
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Ex-Detroit mayor secures parole
He will be released from a Michigan prison on or after July 24, the Associated Press reports.
Source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/57729.html
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Republican claim that Cantor's walkout was planned doesn't add up
Republicans claim they are unified (Jason Reed/Reuters)
GOP aides and lawmakers said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor?s (R-Va.) decision to exit debt talks led by Vice President Biden was inevitable.The timing of Cantor?s exit from the talks has been discussed for weeks, and senior House Republicans cast it as a natural progression for the negotiations.
This strikes me as a bit of revisionist history by Republicans. According to the article, Republicans claim that Boehner and Cantor were leading "a coordinated effort that was weeks in the making." But on Wednesday night, Boehner met privately with President Obama, offering no indication that Cantor was about to pull out of the discussions.
That means Boehner either withheld information from President Obama on Wednesday night, or he was blindsided by Cantor. The latter seems more plausible, especially in light of this:
Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said Cantor consulted Boehner Thursday morning before announcing his decision to leave the talks, which puts those negotiations in limbo.
If the decision really were weeks in the making, Boehner would have already known about Cantor's withdrawal plans. Instead, he's saying he wasn't notified until Thursday morning.
I'm only speculating here, but it seems plausible Cantor had gotten wind of Boehner's meeting with Obama and decided to pull out of the negotiations because he feared that Boehner would undercut him.
If that, or anything like it, is what's going on here, we're witnessing a serious split in the GOP. They have obvious incentive to paper over their differences because if the GOP is divided, their leverage on the debt limit craters.
As things currently stand, Boehner will need 216 votes to raise the debt limit. There's 239 Republicans, and ten of them have already effectively ruled out voting to raise the limit. That means he can only lose thirteen more members of his caucus before he needs Democratic votes to raise the limit. Given the likelihood of that scenario, John Boehner is going to need Democratic votes to raise the debt limit, and that means he's going to need to find a way to compromise?and Eric Cantor doesn't appear interested in helping.
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