Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Dems: Fast & Furious just 1 of 4 misguided probes (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Democrats looking into Operation Fast and Furious say a yearlong investigation has turned up no evidence that the flawed gun smuggling probe was conceived or directed by high-level political appointees at Justice Department headquarters.

The probe, the Democrats say, was just one of four such operations that were part of a misguided five-year-long effort, during both the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, in the Phoenix division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives against firearms trafficking along the Southwest border.

"Operation Fast and Furious was the latest in a series of fatally flawed operations run by ATF agents in Phoenix and the Arizona U.S. Attorney's Office," the report from Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee says.

It is expected to differ sharply with the conclusions of Republicans, who will question Attorney General Eric Holder about Operation Fast and Furious at a hearing Thursday before the committee.

On Tuesday, the committee's chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., threatened to pursue contempt of Congress proceedings against the attorney general on grounds the Justice Department has not turned over all the records subpoenaed by the committee. Issa gave Holder until Feb. 9 to comply.

"Your actions lead us to conclude that the department is actively engaged in a cover-up," Issa wrote in a letter to Holder. Over three months ago, the panel subpoenaed all the Justice Department's records about Fast and Furious from after Feb. 4, 2011.

That was the date the Justice Department incorrectly told Congress that ATF had not approved allowing the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser. On that date, Justice told Congress it makes every effort to intercept illegally purchased weapons.

Also that day, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, head of the department's criminal division, suggested letting some illicit "straw" weapons buyers in the U.S. transport their guns across the border into Mexico where they could be arrested. According to an email turned over Friday night to Issa's committee, Breuer made the suggestion to Mexican law enforcement officials because it "may send a strong message to arms traffickers." Mexico has more stringent gun control laws with longer prison terms than those in the U.S., where small-time "straw" buyers working for major arms traffickers seldom face any significant jail time.

Responding to the Democrats' report, Sen. Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that the idea that "senior political appointees have clean hands in these gun-walking scandals doesn't pass the laugh test ... They ignored the warning signs and failed to put a stop to it or hold anyone accountable. Lanny Breuer is a senior political appointee, and he admits to knowing about gun-walking as early as April 2010."

Beginning six years ago, according to the Democrats' report, ATF agents in Phoenix devised a strategy to forgo arrests against low-level straw purchasers of guns while attempting to build bigger cases against higher-level traffickers, a risky tactic known as gun-walking.

"The committee has obtained no evidence indicating that the attorney general authorized gun-walking or that he was aware of such allegations before they became public," said the Democrats' report, "Fatally Flawed: Five Years of Gunwalking in Arizona." "None of the 22 witnesses interviewed by the committee claims to have spoken with the attorney general about the specific tactics employed in Operation Fast and Furious prior to the public controversy."

Rather than halting operations after flaws became evident, the ATF's Phoenix division "launched several similarly reckless operations over the course of several years, also with tragic results," the report said. "Each investigation involved various incarnations of the same activity: Agents were contemporaneously aware of illegal firearms purchases, they did not typically interdict weapons or arrest straw purchasers, and firearms ended up in the hands of criminals on both sides of the border."

Operation Fast and Furious came to light following the December 2010 slaying of U.S. border agent Brian Terry near Nogales, Ariz. Two guns connected to suspects in the Fast and Furious investigation were found at the Terry murder scene.

Operation Fast and Furious was the fourth such ATF gun-walking probe, according to the Democrats' report, which was based on documents collected by the committee.

The first gun-walking probe, said the report, was Operation Wide Receiver, in which ATF agents, for over a year starting in 2006, watched traffickers buying guns from a gun dealer and driving them across the border into Mexico. According to a memo by William Newell, who was in charge of the Phoenix division at the time, one of the suspects told the gun dealer that the "firearms are going to his boss in Tijuana, Mexico, where some are given out as gifts." ATF officials believed they had sufficient evidence to arrest and charge the suspects, but as one agent said at the time, "we want it all," according to an email between two ATF supervisors in Arizona.

A year after Wide Receiver began, ATF initiated attempts to coordinate with Mexican officials. Numerous attempts at cross-border interdiction failed, according to the Democrats' report, with ATF agents expressing concern over the operation.

In a 2007 case, ATF agents targeted Fidel Hernandez and several alleged co-conspirators who purchased more than 200 firearms and were believed to be transporting them into Mexico.

William Hoover, then ATF's assistant director of field operations, temporarily halted operations after being informed of several attempts at coordinating with Mexican law enforcement authorities.

The defendants were brought to trial in 2009, but acquitted after prosecutors were unable to obtain the cooperation of the Mexican law enforcement officials who had recovered firearms purchased by Hernandez.

In a 2008 case, ATF agents in Phoenix focused for a year on a network of illicit gun buyers who were purchasing weapons from the same gun dealer who had cooperated in Operation Wide Receiver.

Members of the network, led by Alejandro Medrano, were eventually sentenced to multiyear prison terms for trafficking more than 100 firearms to a Mexican drug cartel.

In Operation Fast and Furious, ATF agents in Phoenix late in 2009 identified a network of more than 20 straw purchasers believed to be trafficking military-grade assault weapons to Mexican drug cartels. Twenty people were charged in the case.

ATF Deputy Director William Hoover became concerned about the number of firearms involved in the case and ordered a strategy for the investigation to be brought to an end. Newell in Phoenix expressed frustration with ATF headquarters in Washington and "the operation continued to grow and expand rather than wind down over the months to follow," the Democrats' report said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_on_go_co/us_fast_and_furious

auburn football costumes seth macfarlane bobby flay clemson football the new girl miami hurricanes football

Severe python damage to Florida's native Everglades animals documented in new study

ScienceDaily (Jan. 30, 2012) ? Precipitous declines in formerly common mammals in Everglades National Park in Florida have been linked to the presence of invasive Burmese pythons, according to a study by Michael Dorcas, an associate professor of biology at Davidson College, and colleagues. The research is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study, the first to document the ecological impacts of this invasive species, strongly supports that animal communities in the 1.5-million-acre park have been markedly altered by the introduction of pythons within 11 years of their establishment as an invasive species. Mid-sized mammals are the most dramatically affected, but some Everglades pythons are as large as 16 feet long, and their prey have included animals as large as deer and alligators.

"The magnitude of these declines underscores the apparent incredible density of pythons in Everglades National Park and justifies the argument for more intensive investigation into their ecological effects, as well as the development of effective control methods," said Dorcas, lead author of the study and author of the 2010 book Invasive Pythons in the United States.

He continued, "Such severe declines in easily seen mammals bode poorly for the many species of conservation concern that are more difficult to sample but that may also be vulnerable to python predation."

The most severe declines, including a nearly complete disappearance of raccoons, rabbits and opossums, have occurred in the remote southernmost regions of the park, where pythons have been established the longest. In this area, populations of raccoons dropped 99.3 percent, opossums 98.9 percent and bobcats 87.5 percent. Marsh and cottontail rabbits, as well as foxes, were not seen at all.

The researchers collected their information via repeated systematic night-time road surveys within the park, counting both live and road-killed animals. Over the period of the study, researchers traveled a total of nearly 39,000 miles from 2003 to 2011 and compared their findings with similar surveys conducted in 1996 and 1997 along the same roadways before pythons were recognized as established in Everglades National Park.

The authors also conducted surveys in ecologically similar areas north of the park where pythons have not yet been discovered. In those areas, mammal abundances were similar to those in the park before pythons proliferated. At sites where pythons have only recently been documented, however, mammal populations were reduced, though not to the dramatic extent observed within the park where pythons are well established.

"Pythons are wreaking havoc on one of America's most beautiful, treasured and naturally bountiful ecosystems," said U.S. Geological Survey director Marcia McNutt. "Right now, the only hope to help halt further python invasion into new areas is swift, decisive and deliberate human action."

The authors suggested that one reason for such dramatic declines in such a short time is that these prey species are "na?ve" -- that is, they not used to being preyed upon by pythons since such large snakes have not previously existed in that ecosystem.

"It took 30 years for the brown treesnake to be implicated in the nearly complete disappearance of mammals and birds on Guam; it has apparently taken only 11 years since pythons were recognized as being established in the Everglades for researchers to implicate pythons in the same kind of severe mammal declines," said Robert Reed, a USGS scientist and co-author of the paper. "It is possible that other mammal species, including at-risk ones, have declined as well because of python predation, but at this time, the status of those species is unknown."

Another coauthor of the study was John Willson '02, a research scientist at Virginia Tech University who has worked with Dorcas on several studies, and co-authored the book Invasive Pythons in the United States.

Willson commented, "Our research adds to the increasing evidence that predators, whether native or exotic, exert major influence on the structure of animal communities. The effects of declining mammal populations on the overall Everglades ecosystem, which extends well beyond the national park boundaries, are likely profound, but are probably complex and difficult to predict. Studies examining such effects are sorely needed to more fully understand the impacts pythons are having on one of our most unique and valued national parks."

On January 23 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published a rule in the Federal Register that will ban the importation and interstate transportation of four non-native constrictor snakes that threaten the Everglades, including the Burmese python. These snakes are being listed as injurious species under the Lacey Act.

In addition to Dorcas and Willson, authors of the study are Robert N. Reed, USGS; Ray W. Snow, NPS; Michael R. Rochford, University of Florida; Melissa A. Miller, Auburn University; Walter E. Meshaka, Jr., State Museum of Pennsylvania; Paul T. Andreadis, Denison University; Frank J. Mazzotti, University of Florida; Christina M. Romagosa, Auburn University; and Kristen M. Hart, USGS.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:


Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Davidson College.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Michael E. Dorcas, John D. Willson, Robert N. Reed, Ray W. Snow, Michael R. Rochford, Melissa A. Miller, Walter E. Meshaka, Jr., Paul T. Andreadis, Frank J. Mazzotti, Christina M. Romagosa, and Kristen M. Hart. Severe mammal declines coincide with proliferation of invasive Burmese pythons in Everglades National Park. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1115226109

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/f_u6QPu5lpY/120130193241.htm

leona lewis carlos beltran air jordan 11 concord unemployment extension the thin man republic wireless space ball drops on namibia

Monday, January 30, 2012

Gingrich calls Romney ?a pro-abortion, pro-gun-control, pro-tax-increase liberal? (The Ticket)

Newt Gingrich after attending a church service in Lutz, Florida (Matt Rourke/AP)LUTZ, Fla.--With just two days left to campaign before voters go to the polls in Florida's Republican primary, Newt Gingrich?unleashed some of his harshest criticism of Mitt Romney yet.

"This party is not going to nominate somebody who is a pro-abortion, pro-gun-control, pro-tax-increase liberal," Gingrich told reporters Sunday after he attended a morning service at a Baptist church. "It's not going to happen."

Gingrich, who has been telling crowds in Florida that if he wins the state he will go on to secure the party's nomination,?downplayed new polls showing him trailing Mitt Romney by double digits in this state and repeated his vow to stay in the race until the party convention in August.

"I think that the election will be substantially closer than the two polls that came out this morning," Gingrich said. "You'll notice that 48 hours ago there was another poll that showed us tied."

"I think there are a lot of things going on," he added. "But the most significant thing in both polls this morning is that when you add the two conservatives together, we clearly beat Romney"--a reference to the combined support for Gingrich and Rick Santorum.

Romney received the support of 42 percent of likely Republican voters in Florida in a new NBC News/Marist poll,?taken between Jan. 25 and Jan. 27. Gingrich was 15 percentage points behind, at 27 percent, while Santorum received the support of 16 percent of the poll's respondents. Ron Paul was at 11 percent. The margin of error was plus or minus 5.5 percentage points.

Another survey, conducted from Jan 24 to Jan. 26 by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research on behalf of several Florida news outlets, put Romney at 42 percent, with Gingrich at 31 percent and Santorum at 14 percent. Ron Paul came in fourth at 6 percent. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

Other popular Yahoo! News stories:

Want more of our best political stories? Visit The Ticket or connect with us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or add us on Tumblr.

Handy with a camera? Join our Election 2012 Flickr group to submit your photos of the campaign in action.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theticket/20120129/el_yblog_theticket/gingrich-calls-romney-a-pro-abortion-pro-gun-control-pro-tax-increase-liberal

lingual braces joe mcginniss joan crawford joan crawford kat dennings listeriosis bonobos

[OOC] Cave Natives

Forum rules
This forum is for OOC discussion about existing roleplays.

Please post all "Players Wanted" threads in the Roleplayers Wanted forum!

This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?Cave Natives?. Anything posted here will also show up there.

Topic Tags:

Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.
This is the auto-generated OOC topic for the roleplay "Cave Natives"

You may edit this first post as you see fit.

User avatar
drampire
Member for 2 years



Do you have anyone playing the girl yet? And if not can I reserver her?

User avatar
Kirai-chan
Member for 4 years



Post a reply

RolePlayGateway is a site built by a couple roleplayers who wanted to give a little something back to the roleplay community. The site has no intention of earning any profit, and is paid for out of their own pockets.

If you appreciate what they do, feel free to donate your spare change to help feed them on the weekends. After selecting the amount you want to donate from the menu, you can continue by clicking on PayPal logo.

Who is online

Registered users: AgelasticBoy9, Agent*, AiraValkov*, Akantha, Alexander_Right, allimagination*, amyreinreaper, Animality Opera, Annalysa Jones, aod0209, Arietta, Armageddon, Ashtonwolf, Athra*, Atomos, AugustaBlaze*, Azure Limit*, Baby, Barel*, barney_fife, BaronVonFruitypants*, BAWADABOO, Beach-Born-Boy, Beta Type Jakuri, BilgeWater*, birdguard, black-as-night_oni, blackwolf*, BleedingLover, BlueWind_22, brianja2, Bromander Shepard, Brony Otaku, BSDJoker*, cass-isnt-here, ChaosxChild13, Chari*, Chiba Tomoe, Choclate~Pyrus*, Chulance*, CiksKayVolts, cmpuncle, codemaster23, Corvan, CountessMomo*, CrashQueen*, Crystal Flamedance, Cubrick, Dark Star, DarkAngel13, dealing with it*, deathrisesagain, dig17*, DivineBitterness*, Drowssword, dudedude889, DumbDora, Eiris*, Ellipse, EmoAngel, emotionless*, Eteles*, Everscale*, FalloutRomanae, Fatal_Flaw_Enki*, Finalhazard3*, FizzGig*, flying monkey child, Forevveru, Forget~Me~Not, freakofnature, Fuarie, Furry Dragon*, GamerX*, GenericUserName*, Gintoki Sakata, girlwt*, Google [Bot], Google Adsense [Bot], Google Feedfetcher, GotDraggedIntoThis*, Grimpunker96*, Hadespwr*, hayleymaee, Haziso*, HeroOfAwesomeness*, Horseygirl, Hozashuu, Iandak, Iced Fire, IckyThePenguin, Ikiros*, Ikuto Tsukiyomi Fan, iowa90, Ironman11*, I'm a Radical Dame!, Jag*, Jaybt9*, Jo_Tunn*, Kai, KenXin, Kenzi*, Kirinak*, kkpigs, Konstantein, Lainpinky131, Lastnote*, Lego's Apex Predator*, Lifecharacter*, Lucentfir*, Lucky_Joker*, LuckyNumber24, Lux_Disraeli, maddenbaby, Magix, Majestic-12 [Bot], MarchHare*, Marcus*, Marionette*, Mat_z6, McDevious*, mgoodwin2, minibear, Mr. Crow*, Mr_Doomed, MSN [Bot], MSNbot Media, MusicLover*, NasiaWords, negabandit86, Neon.lynxie, Nightgem, Nivosity, Nobu*, NotAFlyingToy, NotSoHeartless*, Oborosen, OdiOdi, OfLonglight, Otowar*, parallelzero, Patcharoo*, Pencil Eraser, Ping264, PirateofPie*, Princess Awinita*, PrincessBoy, PrincessX18*, Quinapalus, rabble_rouser, Random Kat*, Rawr413*, RebornAncient12, Rem?us*, Revolverhelden, RiotTerritory, Riverstyx777*, RogueMinstrel*, Romaneck, Ropeburn*, Rougeshadow*, Ryand-Smith*, RydeDawg*, Saikua*, Saken, sao, Saviarre*, Saxious, scrambles, SeraphicStar, Shadetree76*, Shaodow*, Shavnia_Velmount, Shpleem*, SilverStar89, SinAngel*, Sirius Baren, Skyeblueme3, Skylite, SkyRight, Smileybird*, Smokescreen*, Sneakyrio, Solo Wing Pixy*, Sorella*, souloe, speckles32shido, StandardFiend, Starryskies*, Stilts*, Stitchedintoreality, stormwolf321, Sullenkiller, SuperQ19, SylviaMoon, Sylwyn*, Syn_Maxwell, Tearen Wover*, TechGorilla*, Terrus, The Angry Penguin*, The Illusionist*, The Painkiller*, The Protagonist, The Vampire Mistress, the_judged*, TheDarkWorgen*, TheTreForce*, Tiko*, Tonks, triblade*, Trickster, True Grave, Tyliana*, UltimateGM, Usui*, Vestiline, ViceVersus, Wake*, Walking-travesty*, Winds Of Fate, Wing06Twilight, Wren, Wudgeous, xXxCryptic-AngelxXx, Ylanne, Zenia, Zero Reaper, ZeroTolerance, zerr0max*, Zodia195, zody, zolzol*, ? Reality ?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/fDb6_N-IZbw/viewtopic.php

tebow denver broncos contraband tim tebow denver vs new england denver broncos vs new england patriots cruise ship sinking

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Quest for the golden cross (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? January has turned out strong for equities with just two trading days to go. If you're afraid to miss the ride, there's still time to jump in. You just might want to wear a neck brace.

The new year lured buyers into growth-related sectors, the ones that were more beaten down last year. The economy is getting better, but not dramatically. Earnings are beating expectations, but at a lower rate than in recent quarters. Nothing too bad is coming out of Europe's debt crisis - and nothing good, either - at least not yet.

"No one item is a major positive, but collectively, it's been enough to tilt it towards net buying," said John Schlitz, chief market technician at Instinet in New York.

Still, relatively weak volume and a six-month high hit this week make some doubt that the gains are sustainable.

But then there's the golden cross.

Many market skeptics take notice when this technical indicator, a holy grail of sorts for many technicians, shows up on the horizon.

As early as Monday, the rising 50-day moving average of the S&P 500 could tick above its rising 200-day moving average. This occurrence - known as a golden cross - means the medium-term momentum is increasingly bullish. You have a good chance of making money in the next six months if you put it to work in large-cap stocks.

In the last 50 years, according to data compiled by Birinyi Associates, a golden cross on the S&P 500 has

augured further gains six months ahead in eight out of 10 times. The average gain has been 6.6 percent.

That means the benchmark is on solid footing to not only hold onto the 14 percent advance over the last nine weeks, but to flirt with 1,400, a level it hasn't hit since mid-2008.

The gains, as expected, would not be in a straight line. But any weakness could be used by long-term investors as buying opportunities.

"The cross is an intermediate bullish event," Schlitz said. "You have to interpret it as constructive, but I caution people to take a bullish stance, if they have a short-term horizon ."

GREECE, U.S. PAYROLLS AND MOMENTUM

Less than halfway into the earnings season and with Greek debt talks over the weekend, payrolls data next week and the S&P 500 near its highest since July, there's plenty of room for something to go wrong. If that happens, the market could easily give back some of its recent advance.

But the benchmark's recent rally and momentum shift allow for a pullback before the technical picture deteriorates.

"We bounced off 1,325, which is resistance. We're testing 1,310, which should be support. We are stuck in that range," said Ken Polcari, managing director at ICAP Equities in New York.

"If over the weekend, Greece comes out with another big nothing, then you will see further weakness next week," he said. "A 1 (percent) or 2 percent pullback isn't out of the question or out of line."

On Friday, the S&P 500 (.INX) and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) closed their fourth consecutive week of gains, while the Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) dipped and capped three weeks of gains. For the day, the Dow dropped 74.17 points, or 0.58 percent, to close at 12,660.46. The S&P 500 fell 2.10 points, or 0.16 percent, to 1,316.33. But the Nasdaq gained 11.27 points, or 0.40 percent, to end at 2,816.55.

For the week, the Dow slipped 0.47 percent, while the S&P 500 inched up 0.07 percent and the Nasdaq jumped 1.07 percent.

A DATA-PACKED EARNINGS WEEK

Next week is filled with heavy-hitting data on the housing, manufacturing and employment sectors.

Personal income and consumption on Monday will be followed by the S&P/Case-Shiller home prices index, consumer confidence and the Chicago PMI - all on Tuesday.

Wednesday will bring the Institute for Supply Management index on U.S. manufacturing and the first of three key readings on the labor market - namely, the ADP private-sector employment report. Jobless claims on Thursday will give way on Friday to the U.S. government's non-farm payrolls report. The forecast calls for a net gain of 150,000 jobs in January, according to economists polled by Reuters.

Another hectic earnings week will kick into gear with almost a fifth of the S&P 500 components posting quarterly results. Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), Amazon (AMZN.O), UPS (UPS.N), Pfizer (PFE.N), Kellogg (K.N) and MasterCard (MA.N) are among the names most likely to grab the headlines.

With almost 200 companies' reports in so far, about 59 percent have beaten earnings expectations - down from about 70 percent in recent quarters.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak and Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Jan Paschal)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/bs_nm/us_usa_stocks_weekahead

ice cream sandwich android harry belafonte harry belafonte batman arkham city weather orlando winston churchill winston churchill

NYC police commissioner son investigated after rape report (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Greg Kelly, son of New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, is under investigation, his lawyer said on Thursday following media reports that a Manhattan woman accused him of rape.

A woman around the age of 30 made the complaint against Kelly, a local television news host, on Tuesday night at a Manhattan police station, according to New York media reports. She said the incident occurred more than three months earlier.

To avoid possible conflicts of interest that might arise in a police investigation of the commissioner's son, the case was handed over to Cyrus Vance, Jr., the Manhattan District Attorney.

The New York Police Department did not immediately respond to queries about the case. A spokeswoman for the district attorney declined to comment on the case.

Andrew Lankler, Greg Kelly's lawyer, said his client was innocent.

"Mr. Kelly is aware that the New York County District Attorney's office is conducting an investigation," Lankler said in a statement to the media.

"Mr. Kelly strenuously denies any wrongdoing of any kind, and is cooperating fully with the district attorney's investigation. We know the district attorney's investigation will prove Mr. Kelly's innocence."

The woman told police that she met Kelly on the street and had drinks with him in Manhattan on October 8, according to media reports. They then went to her office at a nearby law firm where she says he raped her, the media reports said, quoting unnamed law enforcement officials.

Her statements to police could not be independently confirmed by Reuters.

Kelly did not appear in his usual role as co-host of "Good Day New York" on the Fox station WNYW on Thursday morning. A spokeswoman for Fox Television Stations referred queries to Kelly's lawyer.

It's been a rough week for Commissioner Kelly, who came under fire on Wednesday from U.S. Muslim civil rights groups demanding his resignation over an offensive video shown to police officers.

The commissioner said he regretted cooperating with the makers of "The Third Jihad: Radical Islam's Vision for America," which shows footage of suicide bombers and says the "true agenda of much of Muslim leadership in America" is to "infiltrate and dominate America."

(Editing By Barbara Goldberg and Paul Thomasch)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/us_nm/us_kelly_newyork

occupy oakland yahoo.com/mail david nelson david nelson frank miller 60 minutes oobleck

Jesse Jackson adds voice to Grammy protest (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Civil rights activist the Rev. Jesse Jackson on Friday urged Grammy organizers to reinstate 31 ethnic and minority musical categories that have been cut from the music industry's top awards.

In a letter to Recording Academy president Neil Portnow, sent three weeks before the February 12 Grammy Awards show, Jackson said the elimination of awards for Native American and Hawaiian musicians, and cuts in Latin Jazz, R&B and other categories were ill-considered and unfair.

Jackson said some of the categories dropped by the Recording Academy in a major overhaul last year "constitute the very heart of the music that nourishes and inspires minority communities."

Writing on behalf of the Rainbow Push Coalition of U.S. civil rights groups, Jackson called for an urgent meeting with Portnow to try and resolve the conflict that has spurred months of protests and a lawsuit by leading musicians.

Portnow said on Friday he was "receptive to meeting with the Rev. Jackson to explain how our nomination process works and to show the resulting diverse group of nominees it produced" for this year's Grammy Awards.

Paul Simon, Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt and Bobby Sanabria are among dozens of musicians who have protested the decision, announced last April, to slash the number of Grammy categories to 78 from 109 for the 2012 Grammy Awards.

Some categories, such as Hawaiian and Native American albums were dropped completely, while others including Latin music and R&B saw the number of award categories halved.

Portnow said at the time the changes were necessary to maintain "the prestige of the highest and only peer-recognized award in music."

Sanabria and three other Latin Jazz musicians filed a lawsuit in New York in August saying the cuts would harm their careers financially. They have also called for a boycott of the CBS network, which broadcasts the annual Grammy Awards show in Los Angeles.

The 2012 Grammy Awards take place on February12. Rapper Kanye West leads the field of contenders with seven nominations followed by British singer Adele, Bruno Mars and alternative rock band Foo Fighters.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Corrects Jackson name in paragraph 1.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/music_nm/us_grammys_protest

snowman playstation network down martin scorsese houston astros google music 2013 ford escape stop online piracy act

Friday, January 27, 2012

Prevalence of oral HPV infection higher among men than women

Thursday, January 26, 2012

The overall prevalence of oral human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is approximately 7 percent among men and women ages 14 to 69 years in the United States, while the prevalence among men is higher than among women, according to a study appearing in JAMA. The study is being released early online to coincide with its presentation at the Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium.

"Oral HPV infection is the cause of a subset of oropharyngeal [relating to the mouth and pharynx] squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC). Human papillomavirus?positive OSCC are associated with sexual behavior in contrast to HPV-negative OSCC that are associated with chronic tobacco and alcohol use. At least 90 percent of HPV-positive OSCC are caused by high-risk (or oncogenic) HPV type 16 (HPV-16), and oral infection confers an approximate 50-fold increase in risk for HPV-positive OSCC. The incidence of OSCC has significantly increased over the last 3 decades in several countries, and HPV has been directly implicated as the underlying cause," according to background information in the article. "Although oral HPV infection is the cause of a cancer that is increasing in incidence in the United States, little is known regarding the epidemiology of infection."

Maura L. Gillison, M.D., Ph.D., of the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbus, and colleagues examined the prevalence of oral HPV infection in the United States. The researchers used data from a cross-sectional study as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2009-2010, a statistically representative sample of the U.S. population. Men and women ages 14 to 69 years examined at mobile examination centers were eligible. Participants (n = 5,579) provided a 30-second oral rinse and gargle with mouthwash. For detection of HPV types, DNA purified from oral exfoliated cells was evaluated via testing methods.

The researchers found that the overall prevalence of oral HPV infection was 6.9 percent, and the most prevalent HPV type detected was HPV-16 (1.0 percent). The prevalence of oral HPV infection had peaks in different age ranges, with a first peak in prevalence observed among those 30 to 34 years of age (7.3 percent) and a second, higher peak among those ages 60 to 64 years (11.4 percent). Men had a significantly higher prevalence than women for overall oral HPV infection (10.1 percent vs. 3.6 percent). Prevalence of HPV was higher among current smokers and heavy alcohol drinkers and among former and current marijuana users.

The authors also found that oral HPV prevalence was associated with several measures of sexual behavior, including higher prevalence among individuals who reported ever having had sex vs. not (7.5 percent vs. 0.9 percent). Prevalence of HPV increased with lifetime or recent number of partners for any kind of sex, vaginal sex, or oral sex.

In analysis inclusive of individuals 14 to 69 years of age, factors independently associated with prevalent oral HPV included age, sex, lifetime number of sexual partners, and current number of cigarettes smoked per day.

The researchers write that their data provide evidence that oral HPV infection is predominantly sexually transmitted. "Taken together, these data indicate that transmission by casual, nonsexual contact is likely to be unusual."

"Our results have important research as well as public health implications. Natural history studies of cervical HPV infection were essential for the development of public health interventions, such as HPV vaccination to prevent and HPV detection to screen for cervical cancer," they write. "Natural history studies of oral HPV infection are therefore necessary to understand the effects of age, sex, and modifiable risk factors (e.g., smoking and sexual behavior) on the incidence and duration of oral HPV infection."

"Vaccine efficacy against oral HPV infection is unknown, and therefore vaccination cannot currently be recommended for the primary prevention of oropharyngeal cancer. Given an analysis of U.S. cancer registry data recently projected that the number of HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancers diagnosed each year will surpass that of invasive cervical cancers by the year 2020, perhaps such vaccine trials are warranted. Such trials could inform ongoing discussions regarding the benefits of HPV vaccination for males, given the higher prevalence of oral HPV infection demonstrated here as well as higher incidence of HPV-positive OSCC among men," the authors conclude.

(JAMA. 2012;307[7]doi:10.1001/JAMA.2012.101.

###

JAMA and Archives Journals: http://www.jamamedia.org

Thanks to JAMA and Archives Journals for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 92 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117091/Prevalence_of_oral_HPV_infection_higher_among_men_than_women

storage wars millionaire matchmaker millionaire matchmaker shawshank redemption 3 10 to yuma west virginia football west virginia football

Box Office Preview: 'Underworld' to bite again (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? Sony's "Underworld: Awakening" should be wide awake atop the domestic box office again this weekend, with a gross of around $12 million following last weekend's $25 million debut and continued dominance midweek.

Of course, the "Underworld" vampires will have to contend with newfound action star Liam Neeson as Open Road unleashes the R-rated Alaskan adventure "The Grey," which should wolf down from $10 million to $12 million in receipts.

Flying into its second weekend, Fox's World War II drama "Red Tails" from George Lucas will set its sights on a gross in the $10 million range.

Crowding those skies even more will be Sam Worthington as the "Man on a Ledge," a debuting crime thriller from Summit Entertainment that should also earn around $10 million.

With two Oscar nominations, including best picture, the 9/11 drama "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" from Warner Bros. enters its second weekend of wide release with solid momentum. But it will have to contend with the opening weekend of Lionsgate's Katherine Heigl comedy "One for the Money" for a spot in the top 5 and grosses in the $8 million to $10 million range.

Look for major Oscar nominees such as "The Descendants," "Hugo" and "The Artist" to get a bit of an "Oscar bounce" as their higher profiles and additional screens make them more of a "must see" this weekend.

___

Paul Dergarabedian is president of the Box Office Division of Hollywood.com and provides box office analysis for The Associated Press.

___

Online: http://www.Hollywood.com

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_bi_co_ne/us_box_office_preview

are you afraid of the dark are you afraid of the dark dallas news google tv cornel west marzieh vafamehr marzieh vafamehr

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Calif. poised to vote on new 'clean car' regs (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO ? California is poised to vote on new rules that would require automakers to build cars and trucks by 2025 that emit about three-quarters less smog producing pollutants and also mandate that one of every seven new cars sold in the state be a zero emission or plug-in hybrid vehicle.

The California Air Resources Board will begin hearing testimony Thursday in Los Angeles on its "Advanced Clean Car" program, and is expected to continue on Friday.

The new emissions standards, which also include big cuts in greenhouse gas pollutants, would begin with new cars sold in 2015, and get increasingly more stringent until 2025. Generally, the regulations would require a 75 percent reduction in smog emissions in new cars by 2025, and a 34 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over roughly the same time.

The new rules will continue the state's first-in-the-nation greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars and trucks, which went into effect in 2009. This time, the greenhouse gas reduction element of the program was designed with the federal regulators so that it will match national standards expected to be passed later this year.

"When we did the first greenhouse gas standards, it was war," said Tom Cackette, deputy director of the board, referring to legal challenges from auto dealers and business groups after the state passed the initial greenhouse gas emissions limits.

"They sued us in two federal courts. Fortunately, from our viewpoint, they lost. Over that time, with the increase in gas prices, the shake-up in the auto industry brought new management which looked at the future. Where's our future? It's not profits next quarter but how do we make a sustainable business."

California's smog emissions standards are often more strict than federal ones, which means other states often adopt them as their own.

Fourteen other states, including Washington, New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts, have adopted California's current emissions goals, which is why the new regulations could have a wide-ranging effect. Of those states, 10 have also adopted the zero-emission vehicle standards as well.

In addition to new smog and greenhouse gas emissions limits, the regulations being voted on also includes a new zero-emissions vehicle mandate. The goal is to have 1.4 million zero-emission and plug-in hybrids on California roads by 2025. But the program also looks ahead to 2050, laying groundwork for a goal of having 87 percent of the state's fleet of new vehicles fueled by electricity, hydrogen fuel cells or other clean technologies.

"This regulation is planned over a 40-year horizon, and that is extremely unusual," said board spokesman David Clegern. "But it gives us time to put the pieces in place with no surprises. The individual companies can plan for changes and develop the technology, and over the long haul, it will shift us away from reliance on petroleum."

The board's meeting comes just three days after federal regulators met in San Francisco to hear public comment on the Obama administration's national fuel economy standards, the most far-reaching in history. If passed later this year, they would require the average passenger car to reach a 54.5-mph standard by 2025.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 13 automakers, CARB and others worked together so that when the federal government passes its greenhouse gas emissions limits later this year, they will match California's and create one national standard.

Some automakers said the market for clean car technology is already spurring the technology and innovation the regulations seek to influence.

"Yes, the cars will be lighter, compact, far more fuel efficient. That's what the mandate will be. It's not enforced by the government but really by the economics of the future," said Michael Dobrin, a spokesman for Toyota.

Yet some auto dealers have argued that the government's emphasis on strict pollution controls will result in much higher prices for consumers.

Forrest McConnell, director of the National Automobile Dealers Association, testified during the federal hearing Tuesday that tightening fuel efficiency standards will result in unaffordable cars.

"We all want better fuel economy, but it is not free. By adding $3,200, if not more, to the average cost of a car, over seven million Americans will be priced out of the market, fleet turnover will be reduced, and public policy benefits will be delayed," McConnell said.

Other dealers say consumer demand for electric and hybrid vehicles is not what the board hopes it is.

The California New Car Dealers Association says hybrid vehicles, which have been marketed and sold for 13 years, only make up 2.1 percent of the national market, and 4.1 percent of California's market. They say the goal of making one of every seven new cars sold in California a zero-emission vehicle in roughly the same amount of time is unrealistic.

"Rather than setting vehicle manufacturers, new car dealers, and alternative vehicles themselves up for another predictable failure, (the board) should adjust the mandate to reflect a goal that is realistic and attainable," said Jonathan Morrison, the state dealers' association's director of legal and regulatory affairs.

The air board's research and environmental advocates dispute those cost increase estimates, and say increases in hybrid and other sales continue to rise as more cars hit the market. They argue that fuel cost savings will make up for any vehicle price increase.

"Our research shows a $1,400 to $1,900 car price increase, but over the life of the vehicles, the owners save $6,000 in reduced fuel and maintenance costs," said Clegern.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_re_us/us_california_clean_car_standards

shawshank redemption 3 10 to yuma west virginia football west virginia football black friday violence black friday violence il postino

Obama pitches tax, jobs ideas on campaign-style tour (Reuters)

CHANDLER, Arizona (Reuters) ? President Barack Obama took his State of the Union tax and job ideas on the road on Wednesday, striking a populist tone in the 2012 swing states Iowa and Arizona to make his case for a second White House term.

Starting a three-day tour that will also take him to Nevada, Colorado and Michigan, all crucial to his re-election chances, Obama amplified his proposals to help companies that keep jobs at home and eliminate tax breaks for those that outsource.

"Let's stop rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas," he said outside an Intel computer chip facility under construction in Arizona, standing in front of a giant crane.

"What we should do is subsidize and give help and tax breaks to companies that are investing here, that are bringing jobs back to the United States," the president said, also pressing his argument for higher taxes on the rich as a way to heal the U.S. economy and reduce the deficit.

On Tuesday night, Obama used his last State of the Union speech before November's election to cast himself as a champion of the middle class. But with most Americans unhappy with his economic leadership, he faces a tough re-election challenge.

In Iowa, the president defended his record and sought to turn up the heat on Republicans in Congress he has accused of obstructing his economic recovery efforts, especially moves to close tax loopholes on big companies and the very wealthy.

"There are people in Washington who seem to have collective amnesia. They seem to have forgotten how we got into this mess," Obama told workers at a conveyor belt factory there. "They want to go back to the very same policies ... that have stacked the deck against middle-class Americans for years."

Republicans have accused Obama of promoting the "politics of envy" and pursuing policies that kill jobs and hinder growth. They argue tax hikes would hurt small businesses and suppress job creation, a top concern of voters this year.

ON THE BIG STAGE

In his Tuesday night address that afforded him one of his biggest political stages of the year, Obama set as a central campaign theme a populist call for greater economic fairness.

He mentioned taxes 34 times and jobs 32 times during his hourlong speech, emphasizing the two issues at the heart of this year's presidential campaign. But Obama seemed to put no blame on himself for a fragile economic recovery and high unemployment that could trip up his re-election bid.

A highlight of the State of the Union was a call to set a 30 percent minimum tax on millionaires, known as the "Buffet rule" because it is favored by billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

While the principal proposals in the speech were considered unlikely to gain traction in a divided Congress, the White House believes the ideas can appeal to voters who are frustrated with Wall Street excesses and dysfunction in Washington.

Obama's tax message got extra legs from the release of tax records by Mitt Romney, a Republican presidential contender who is one of the richest men ever to run for the White House. He pays a lower effective tax rate than many top wage-earners.

Romney, campaigning in Florida for next Tuesday's party primary, accused the Democratic president of being "detached from reality" in his appeals to voters who have suffered economic hardship under his tenure.

The U.S. unemployment rate was 8.5 percent in December, several percentage points higher than the normal rate for the United States. No president in the modern era has won re-election with the jobless rate that high.

(Additional reporting by Alister Bull and Steve Holland; Writing by Laura MacInnis and Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Eric Walsh)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/ts_nm/us_usa_obama_speech

regis and kelly reno fire regis philbin last show regis philbin last show crystal cathedral sarah vowell fire in reno

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Unprecedented, man-made trends in ocean's acidity

Monday, January 23, 2012

Nearly one-third of CO2 emissions due to human activities enters the world's oceans. By reacting with seawater, CO2 increases the water's acidity, which may significantly reduce the calcification rate of such marine organisms as corals and mollusks. The extent to which human activities have raised the surface level of acidity, however, has been difficult to detect on regional scales because it varies naturally from one season and one year to the next, and between regions, and direct observations go back only 30 years.

Combining computer modeling with observations, an international team of scientists concluded that anthropogenic CO2 emissions over the last 100 to 200 years have already raised ocean acidity far beyond the range of natural variations. The study is published in the January 22 online issue of Nature Climate Change.

The team of climate modelers, marine conservationists, ocean chemists, biologists and ecologists, led by Tobias Friedrich and Axel Timmermann at the International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, came to their conclusions by using Earth system models that simulate climate and ocean conditions 21,000 years back in time, to the Last Glacial Maximum, and forward in time to the end of the 21st century. They studied in their models changes in the saturation level of aragonite (a form of calcium carbonate) typically used to measure of ocean acidification. As acidity of seawater rises, the saturation level of aragonite drops. Their models captured well the current observed seasonal and annual variations in this quantity in several key coral reef regions.

Today's levels of aragonite saturation in these locations have already dropped five times below the pre-industrial range of natural variability. For example, if the yearly cycle in aragonite saturation varied between 4.7 and 4.8, it varies now between 4.2 and 4.3, which ? based on another recent study ? may translate into a decrease in overall calcification rates of corals and other aragonite shell-forming organisms by 15%. Given the continued human use of fossil fuels, the saturation levels will drop further, potentially reducing calcification rates of some marine organisms by more than 40% of their pre-industrial values within the next 90 years.

"Any significant drop below the minimum level of aragonite to which the organisms have been exposed to for thousands of years and have successfully adapted will very likely stress them and their associated ecosystems," says lead author Postdoctoral Fellow Tobias Friedrich.

"In some regions, the man-made rate of change in ocean acidity since the Industrial Revolution is hundred times greater than the natural rate of change between the Last Glacial Maximum and pre-industrial times," emphasizes Friedrich. "When Earth started to warm 17,000 years ago, terminating the last glacial period, atmospheric CO2 levels rose from 190 parts per million (ppm) to 280 ppm over 6,000 years. Marine ecosystems had ample time to adjust. Now, for a similar rise in CO2 concentration to the present level of 392 ppm, the adjustment time is reduced to only 100 ? 200 years."

On a global scale, coral reefs are currently found in places where open-ocean aragonite saturation reaches levels of 3.5 or higher. Such conditions exist today in about 50% of the ocean ? mostly in the tropics. By end of the 21st century this fraction is projected to be less than 5%. The Hawaiian Islands, which sit just on the northern edge of the tropics, will be one of the first to feel the impact.

The study suggests that some regions, such as the eastern tropical Pacific, will be less stressed than others because greater underlying natural variability of seawater acidity helps to buffer anthropogenic changes. The aragonite saturation in the Caribbean and the western Equatorial Pacific, both biodiversity hotspots, shows very little natural variability, making these regions particularly vulnerable to human-induced ocean acidification.

"Our results suggest that severe reductions are likely to occur in coral reef diversity, structural complexity and resilience by the middle of this century," says co-author Professor Axel Timmermann."

###

University of Hawaii ? SOEST:

Thanks to University of Hawaii ? SOEST for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 28 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116927/Unprecedented__man_made_trends_in_ocean_s_acidity

superbowl tom brady alex smith alex smith lee evans lee evans birmingham news

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Ben Franklin: Founding father, inventor, geo-engineer?

Back in 1784, Ben Franklin noted the effect of volcanoes on climate. Was he the world's first geo-engineer?

Do you miss the 1990s? ?Those were the days before field experiments and RCTs where the typical paper might start, "This paper exploits a natural experiment to study the effect of X on Y." ? I have just learned that Ben Franklin was way ahead of us. ?Back before the QJE existed, ?in 1784 to be precise, ?Franklin noted??that after volcano eruptions that temperatures were lower. ? Geo-engineering has some empirical basis. ?How do I know this? I attended a Freshmen lecture at UCLA today.

Skip to next paragraph Matthew Kahn

Mathew is an economics professor at UCLA and has written three books: Green Cities (Brookings Institution Press); Heroes and Cowards (Princeton University Press, jointly with Dora L. Costa); and in fall 2010, Climatopolis: How Our Cities Will Thrive in the Hotter World (Basic Books).

Recent posts

To quote Scientific American and Karen Harp, "In 1784, Benjamin Franklin made what may have been the first connection between volcanoes and global climate while stationed in Paris as the first diplomatic representative of the United States of America. He observed that during the summer of 1783, the climate was abnormally cold, both in Europe and back in the U.S. The ground froze early, the first snow stayed on the ground without melting, the winter was more severe than usual, and there seemed to be "a constant fog over all Europe, and [a] great part of North America."

Now that empirical economists are working on climate change adaptation, what other research could be conducted on geo-engineering and its direct consequences and unintended consequences? ?Will a future James Bond movie plot focus on Bond having to help or kill a "geo-engineer"? ?

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on greeneconomics.blogspot.com.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/uOWsxNUBwtg/Ben-Franklin-Founding-father-inventor-geo-engineer

martin luther king jr quotes nfc championship game golden globes red carpet martin luther king jr i have a dream speech packers score ricky gervais napoleon dynamite

UK proposes binding shareholder vote on pay (AP)

LONDON ? The British government is proposing giving shareholders of major companies a binding vote on executive pay.

U.K. Business Secretary Vince Cable said Monday that the new regulations could require pay arrangements to be supported by 75 percent of shareholders. At the moment, these votes are advisory and not binding.

Executive pay has been a sensitive issue in the U.K., especially when it comes to leading banks backed by the taxpayer, either through bailouts or the implicit guarantee that big banks will not be allowed to fail.

Cable says the government would also this year propose legislation requiring companies to publish their pay policy, how it was implemented, and to what extent that reflected the views of employees.

"The evidence is very clear that business and investors recognize that there is a disconnect between top pay and company performance and that something must be done, Cable said in the House of Commons.

"We cannot continue to see chief executives' pay rising at 13 percent a year while the performance of companies on the Stock Exchange languishes well behind."

The High Pay Commission, an independent body, reported last year that executive pay in Britain's top 100 corporations had risen had risen far faster than overall pay.

At oil company BP, for instance, the top executive was paid 63 times the company's average pay in 2009-2011. At Barclays bank the multiple was 75 times, as was bailed-out Lloyds Banking Group.

Cable said the government would also look at ways of promoting greater diversity on boards of directors.

"Within the FTSE 350 (share index), around 6 percent of remuneration committee members are executives in other companies," he said.

"There's a perceived conflict of interest here, as these individuals have a personal interest in maintaining the status quo in pay-setting culture and pay levels."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_britain_executive_pay

michael buble michael buble teddy roosevelt rita hayworth rita hayworth lakers rumors kellie pickler

Monday, January 23, 2012

A look at key moments in the SC primary (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Some notable moments from Saturday's South Carolina presidential primary:

___

Fixing for a fight:

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney told supporters Saturday to get ready for a long battle ahead.

Romney took sharp aim at President Barack Obama, as well as his GOP rivals' criticism of his time at Bain Capital, the private equity firm he founded.

"If Republican leaders want to join this president in demonizing success and disparaging conservative values, then they're not going to be fit to be our nominee," he said.

Romney finished No. 2 behind Gingrich, having placed first in the New Hampshire primary.

___

Haley's short coattails:

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is riding a wave of popularity. But that wasn't enough to help Romney, whom she endorsed in the primary.

Exit polls found two-thirds of Saturday's voters approved the way Haley is handling her job as governor, including nearly three-quarters of tea party supporters. But Romney won over only about 3 in 10 of those who approved of her job performance.

Gingrich, for his part, won support from about 4 in 10 Haley supporters.

__

`Occupy' Santorum:

Even the "Occupy Wall Street" movement had its moment Saturday.

During Rick Santorum's speech, the former Pennsylvania senator pledged to work to help Americans achieve their potential. But one Occupy protester interrupted him with a jeer: "Unless you're gay. Occupy!" Santorum has long been criticized by gay-rights groups for his opposition to same-sex marriage.

Other Occupy protesters tried to draw focus as Santorum shook hands with supporters after his speech. Santorum's aides and volunteers grabbed the protesters and hauled them from the ballroom at the Citadel.

__

Internet devilry:

Some of South Carolina's notorious 11th-hour shenanigans emerged in a race known at times for its nastiness.

On Saturday, fake email reports ? later denounced by Gingrich and his campaign ? spread on the Internet about Gingrich and his ex-wife Marianne.

State Attorney Gen. Alan Wilson ordered a preliminary review of the phony messages to see if any laws had been broken.

__

Late to the party:

Few things could stop Gingrich Saturday night ? except for a traffic accident.

Campaigning up to the very end, Gingrich ran through five campaign stops on primary day. That included his last at a burger restaurant in Laurens, about an hour northwest of Columbia, where his victory celebration was to take place.

But an accident on the highway delayed Gingrich's bus, making him late to greet supporters.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign_primary_takeaways

miami hurricanes vlad the impaler michael lohan fiddler on the roof rally squirrel rally squirrel scumbag steve