Greece given 10 days to act on reforms

From: AAP October 09, 2012

GREECE must deliver on scores of broken promises by next week's EU summit if it wants long-delayed loans, its creditors said as they eased the release of money for Portugal and launched a new "bazooka".

"Acting means acting," International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said after talks with eurozone finance ministers due to broaden out to include European Union partners on Tuesday.

As German Chancellor Angela Merkel readied to brave Athens later the same day - sealed off with thousands of police on high alert - the ministerial focus switched away from Spain again despite the IMF announcing an inspection trip to monitor "financial sector reforms."

Months of uncertainty about a bailout request from Madrid had looked until recently like dominating the summit of EU leaders in Brussels on October 18-19, but as so often over the past two-and-a-half years, the bloc is likely to try to make a breakthrough on Greece.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg prime minister who chairs the Eurogroup, said a desperately-needed next loans payout, worth 31.5 billion euros ($40.43 billion), could only go through if Athens "demonstrates" it can "implement" 89 planned reforms such as privatisations "by 18 October at the latest".

The scores of "prior actions" involve major privatisations and a whole set of reforms to labour markets or bureaucratic red-tape.

Juncker said that after being debriefed by the troika of international lenders - the European Commission, IMF and European Central Bank - "we were pleased to hear substantial progress has been made on Greece, specially in the last days."

But talks between Greece and the troika must be finalised, he stressed.

Payment of the tranche has been blocked since June.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said on Friday that if the next aid instalment did not arrive soon, state coffers would be empty by November.

The Eurogroup showed they were ready to reward Portugal for reforms after Lisbon unveiled new tax hikes as part of its 2013 budget.

Ministers approved a 4.3 billion euros ($A5.52 billion) tranche of EU-IMF loans, hours after hailing the entry into service of the European Stability Mechanism.

This 500 billion euro ($A641.68 billion) war chest, delayed by a challenge in Germany's Constitutional Court, was given AAA ratings by credit giants Fitch and Moody's, although the latter took the shine off the party by giving it a "negative" outlook.

Juncker said the fund's entry into service marked a "historic milestone in shaping the future of monetary union.

By the end of the month it will contain 200 billion euros ($256.67 billion), with resources left in a temporary fund, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), taking combined lending capacity to 700 billion euros ($A898.36 billion).
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http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/greece-given-10-days-to-act-on-reforms/story-fn7j19iv-1226491925069

Candidates clash in fiery VP debate
From: AFP October 12, 2012 1:37Pm


JOE Biden has rained rhetorical punches on Republican Paul Ryan in a fiery vice presidential debate, desperate to stem Democratic Party panic after Barack Obama's lifeless display last week.

Vice President Biden and Mr Ryan, nearly 30 years his junior, clashed sharply on Iran, Libya, Afghanistan and top domestic issues including health care, abortion and tax on a combustive evening in Kentucky.

Mr Biden also savaged surging Republican nominee Mitt Romney over his remark to rich donors that 47 per cent of Americans were "victims" reliant on government, an attack Mr Obama avoided in his debate loss to Mr Romney, to the fury of Democrats.

In a crackling showdown, Mr Biden, 69, came under intense pressure from Mr Ryan on the Obama administration's handling of the crisis sparked by the killing of the US ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, in Benghazi on September 11.

."We will find and bring to justice the men who did this. Whatever mistakes were made, will not be made again," a steely Mr Biden vowed, and then swiftly went on offense, touting Obama's record on national security.

Passionate and adamant, Mr Biden was on a mission to reverse Mr Romney's polling surge and steady worried Democrats, and drew on his years as a foreign policy expert to repel his well-briefed opponent's attacks.

But his constant quirky smirking and guffaws on a split screen when the earnest Ryan, 42, gave his answers risked distracting millions of television viewers watching at home, and could dominate the post-debate fallout.

Mr Biden highlighted Mr Obama's honoured promise to end the war in Iraq, his effort to bring troops home from Afghanistan by 2014 and his decision to make the operation to hunt and kill Osama bin Laden a top priority.

"The president of the United States has led with a steady hand and clear vision. Governor Romney, the opposite," he charged.

Mr Ryan, a Wisconsin congressman, replied with a fierce assault on Mr Obama's foreign policy and complained that the US ambassador to Paris had a Marines detachment while Stevens, in restive Libya, did not.

"Look, if we're hit by terrorists, we're going to call it for what it is, a terrorist attack," Mr Ryan said, hitting a Republican theme that Mr Obama did not want to admit the truth for political reasons.

Mr Ryan also charged there was a deeper problem for Mr Obama.

"What we're watching is the unraveling of the Obama foreign policy, which is making things more chaotic and us less safe," Mr Ryan said.

Mr Biden, with typical Irish-American blarney, replied: "With all due respect, that's a bunch of malarkey."

Immediate analysis by pundits scored the clash a draw, with Mr Biden apparently doing enough to cheer gloomy Democrats and Mr Ryan avoiding serious errors that could haunt the Republican ticket.

Mr Obama, who watched the debate aboard Air Force One, told reporters he "could not be prouder" of Mr Biden and his strong advocacy of the middle class.

Mr Romney called Mr Ryan to congratulate him on his performance, aides said.

With Iran's nuclear drive casting a shadow over America's immediate foreign policy, Mr Biden said that the Islamic Republic was still a "good way away" from getting an atomic bomb, and vowed it would never get there.

He accused Mr Romney and Mr Ryan of recklessly talking tough on Iran.

"Facts matter. All this loose talk about all they have to do is get to enrich uranium and they have a weapon. Not true. Not true," he said.

Mr Ryan however claimed Mr Obama had been asleep at the switch.

"Let's just look at this from the view of the Ayatollahs," he said.

"What do they see? They see this administration trying to water down sanctions in Congress for over two years. They're moving faster toward a nuclear weapon. They're spinning the centrifuges faster."

Mr Biden also took on Mr Romney over his remark in a secretly filmed fundraiser with rich donors that 47 percent of Americans are "victims" who dodge taxes, rely on the government and will not take responsibility for themselves.

"These people are my Mom and Dad, the people I grew up with, my neighbors. They pay more effective tax than Governor Romney pays in his federal income tax," Mr Biden said, making an attack Mr Obama eschewed last week.

The rivals, both Roman Catholics, also engaged over abortion, a hot button issue as both sides chase the crucial women's vote.

Mr Biden warned that if Mr Romney and Mr Ryan were elected, they would choose a Supreme Court justice that would be sure to oppose the right to terminate a pregnancy.

New polling today bolstered the impression that Mr Romney's surge had lifted the Republican ticket into at least a tie less than a month before election day.

Rasmussen Reports had Mr Obama up a single point in its national poll of those likely to vote on November 6, while Gallup had a similar margin but with Mr Romney on top.

A flurry of state polls revealed the race was essentially a toss-up.

An NBC/Wall Street Journal survey had Mr Obama up six points in what may be the kingmaker state, Ohio, but two other surveys in the state said the race was within a single point.

Mr Romney had narrow leads in other battlegrounds Colorado and Virginia, while Mr Obama was up in another Virginia poll and led by one percent in Florida. There were signs of a narrowing race in other key states.

Today's clash served as a warm-up act for the final two bouts between Mr Obama and Mr Romney, in New York state on October 16 and in Florida on October 22.

AFP

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/us-election/foreign-policy-clash-in-vp-debate/story-fn95xh4y-1226494421429

Early voters key to deciding US presidency

September 30, 2012
Nick O'Malley

THE US election could be decided long before election day as the two contenders mobilise to have their supporters take advantage of early voting laws.

By Friday night it was estimated at least 30,000 people had already voted, many of them in the key swing state of Iowa, which allowed ballots to be cast from Thursday.

It is estimated that this year up to 40 per cent of voters will cast their ballots early - either in person or by mail - rather than joining the long queues on Tuesday, November 6.

Polls open in Ohio on Tuesday and more than 50 per cent of Florida voters are expected to vote early after it begins to accept ballots at the end of October. Both sides believe that in North Carolina, Colorado and Nevada as much as 70 per cent of the vote could be cast early.

President Obama's campaign is seeking to entrench the slight lead he has carved out in the polls by encouraging supporters to vote early.

According to Michael McDonald, who studies early voting at George Mason University, if either candidate secures a strong enough early lead in Ohio and Florida, the election could be won days before the election day.

Dr McDonald, who designed America's first early voting campaign strategy for the Democrats in California says that those people who have contacted election officials in their states requesting early ballots will now be contacted by volunteers equipped with detailed information in a ''micro-targeting'' campaign.

In many states election officials share the names of those requesting early ballots with the campaigns, along with information as to whether they are registered as Democrats, Republicans or independent voters.

The campaigns will cross-reference that information with consumer databases and any information they have gathered on the voters through previous campaign work.

''They will probably know their age, their race and their income bracket. They may have an idea how they have voted in the past. They will know what sort of car they drive - Volvos are Democrats, Beamers are Republicans. They will know how often they go to Starbucks.''

In 2008 Barack Obama's campaign won the early voting by a big margin, but the Romney campaign demonstrated in the primaries that it was prepared for early voting.

On Thursday morning in Iowa most of those in the queues to vote were wearing Obama campaign badges, and the New York Times reported that the Iowa Secretary of State's office said Democrats had a 5-to-1 advantage over Republicans in the numbers of absentee ballots requested statewide.

Dr McDonald said the early voting patterns might more closely mirror the polls. If that is so, Mitt Romney has a tough fight ahead.

According to the Huffington Post's Pollster.com average of 470 polls Obama had a lead of 48.7 per cent to 44.5 per cent yesterday nationally and measurable leads in the key states.

Both candidates have cut back on public appearances as they concentrate on preparing for the first debate, to be held in Colorado on Wednesday.

Each campaign is working hard to lower expectations for its candidate.

In a leaked memo senior Romney strategist Beth Myers noted that Wednesday's debate would be the President's eighth one-on-one debate but Romney's first. She also noted that the President was a ''universally acclaimed public speaker''.

The Obama campaign has been reminding reporters that Mr Romney had 20 debates during the primaries with Newt Gingrich shortly before Mr Gingrich's campaign collapsed.

''I will just take this opportunity to say that Mitt Romney on the other hand has been preparing earlier and with more focus than any presidential candidate in modern history. Not John F. Kennedy, not President Bill Clinton, not President George Bush, not Ronald Reagan prepared as much as he has,'' White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters on Air Force One.

''So, there's no question that he will have a lead on how prepared he is.''

Given the President's tight but consistent lead, the first debate is critical to the Romney campaign. But by the time the two meet again on October 16, some states could be slipping out of reach.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/early-voters-key-to-deciding-us-presidency-20120929-26s8l.html#ixzz295lXZzrr

Greek police accused of using 'human shield'
DateOctober 12, 2012 - 11:58PM
Helena Smith

A woman was reportedly used as a human shield by authorities during a protest in Athens.

ATHENS: Greek authorities have launched an investigation into allegations that riot police used a female protester as a human shield during demonstrations over a visit to Athens by the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, this week.

Witnesses said the young woman, who has yet to be identified, was frogmarched in handcuffs ahead of riot police as protesters threw stones at officers.

Magistrates have launched a separate inquiry into a report that protesters arrested after clashing with supporters of the neo-nazi Golden Dawn party were tortured at the Attica General Police Directorate. Human Rights Watch said accountability for police abuse was urgently needed.

The group said: "The scenes described by the victims to reporters are deeply shocking. No one should be treated that way by police. Greece needs to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation of their allegations."

The inquiry into the human shield allegations was opened after photographs began to circulate on the internet, triggering condemnation of the tactics law enforcement officials stand increasingly accused of employing in Greece.

"It is being investigated," said Lieutenant Colonel Christos Manouras, Greece's police spokesman. "We want to find out what these pictures hide."

In the pictures, a young woman, her face daubed in white anti-teargas solution, with a pink rucksack on her back, is seen being escorted by riot police before being placed in front of the unit when it encounters stone-throwing protesters. Witnesses said the woman appeared disoriented and terrified.

Foula Pharmacides, a shipping company employee, had taken part in the demonstration outside parliament, but fled down a side street off Syntagma Square when police fired teargas to disperse the crowds. She described terror on the woman's face.

"As the squad moved down Xenofontos Street with the girl, the protesters appeared. Then when the protesters started throwing things, the cop holding the girl takes her from the front of the unit to the back to face them and he starts moving her like a shield from left to right.

"The girl was falling down and he was picking her up. She was crying and clearly terrified. I couldn't believe it. You only ever see this sort of thing in the movies. Everyone started screaming 'Shame on you! Shame on you!' I remember there were two women next to me and they were crying, too, and screaming for the police to stop."

Another witness, Sokratis Michalopoulos, said: "I don't think I will ever forget her face. It was as if she were an object not a human being and I think she was in shock. She was definitely being used as a shield. Thank God photographers were there and we now have cameras on phones otherwise people would think we were mad. No one would believe us."

As Greece descends into further chaos amid mounting social and political tensions, accusations of police brutality are growing. In recent months, reports have multiplied of codes of conduct being flouted by law enforcement officers.

They have been attributed to the force's links with Golden Dawn, whose popularity has surged on the back of soaring crime and anti-immigrant hysteria.

"The police are angry. They are overstretched and underpaid and becoming increasingly anti-government and radicalised, in this case to the right," said Panos Garganas, a prominent leftist activist.

Guardian News & Media



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/greek-police-accused-of-using-human-shield-20121012-27hrj.html#ixzz298MlOvj4

US TV writer accuses Romney of plagiarism

by: Sandy Cohen From: AAP October 13, 2012 5:58PM

..Peter Berg wrote a letter to Romney on Friday saying he's "not thrilled" that the Republican presidential candidate is using the phrase "Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose" on campaign posters and his Facebook page.

On the TV show, a small-town Texas football coach uses the phrase to inspire his players before taking the field.

Berg's agent distributed the letter to the media.

In it, the writer-director-actor says Romney's politics and campaign aren't aligned with the themes of the TV series.

Berg goes on to thank the governor for supporting the show but says, "please come up with your own campaign slogan".

The Romney campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/us-tv-writer-accuses-romney-of-plagiarism/story-e6frf7k6-1226494913776

The A to Z of American politics

October 20, 2012

From the fiscal cliff to Mitt Romney's dog, Nick O'Malley and Tom Threkhold strip back the jargon of the US election campaign.

ADELSON

The biggest individual political donor in US history, Sheldon Adelson is the 79-year-old casino magnate who has donated $70 million to Republicans so far. Adelson has pledged to spend $100 million or ''whatever it takes'' to defeat Obama. Adelson is anti-union and pro-Israel. See Citizens United.

BAIN CAPITAL is the private equity firm Mitt Romney founded and ran in the 1980s and '90s, and the source of his estimated $250 million fortune. Newt Gingrich first attacked Bain for slashing jobs for profit during the GOP primaries. Romney survived the claim he was a ''predator capitalist'' to win nomination, but the assault legitimised the issue for use by Obama in the general election. Democrats run countless ads portraying Romney as a heartless corporate raider who made his wealth by firing workers and shipping jobs to China.

CITIZENS UNITED is a conservative political group that wanted to pay to air a documentary criticising Hillary Clinton in the 2008 primaries, but was prevented by regulations on how private groups could spend money in elections. The group challenged on freedom-of-speech grounds and the case eventually found its way to a sympathetic conservative Supreme Court, where it became one of a series of cases that scrapped most restrictions on political spending in America. The basic thinking went like this - speech is good for democracy, spending money on political campaigning is a form of speech, more spending equals more speech equals more democracy. Of course critics have pointed out that it also means people with more money get more democracy too. Citizens United gave rise to ''PACS'' - Political Action Committees, groups that banded together to support or attack candidates - that had no limits on the amount of funds they could gather and spend.

DOUBLE DOWN

The blackjack term that has become the most irritating and overused of the American political lexicon. In a new ad attacking Romney for advocating increased tax cuts Obama says, ''In other words, he'd double down on the same trickle down policies that led to the crisis in the first place.'' Political pundits are addicted to it too. If the migration of ''working families'' is any guide, expect to be assaulted by Australian politicians accusing one another of doubling down on bad policy in years to come.

ELECTORAL COLLEGE

Presidents are not elected by the people, but by the Electoral College, a group of 538 ''electors'' allocated to the states. When a party wins the popular vote in a state, it actually wins the number of votes that state has in the college. To win the White House a candidate must then secure 270 votes in the Electoral College. The college's votes are allocated to the states according to population. Each state receives one vote for each seat it has in the House of Representatives, plus one each for its two senators. Therefore, the smallest states have three votes in the Electoral College (one member in the House of Representatives and two senators) and the biggest, California, has 55 votes in the Electoral College. This also explains why states such as Ohio are so important in selecting the president. California might have the most Electoral College votes, but it is a safe Democratic state. Ohio is a swing state with 20 crucial Electoral College votes. It is possible, though rare, for a candidate to win a majority of votes in the Electoral College - and thus the presidency - without winning the most popular votes. The last time this happened was 12 years ago in the disputed election between George W. Bush and Gore.

FISCAL CLIFF

The fiscal cliff is a treat awaiting the winner of the November election in much the same way the financial crisis was waiting for Obama in 2008. Because the deadlocked Congress could not reach a budget deal last year it instead agreed to a series of automatic tax increases and spending cuts (now known as the fiscal cliff) to kick in to save $1.2 trillion over the next decade should they not arrive at a deal by the end of the 2012. The Bush tax cuts and the Obama payroll tax holiday will evaporate; defence spending will be slashed. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects that if this all goes into effect the economy will contract by an annualised rate of 2.9 per cent in the first half of 2013.

GROVER NORQUIST is the man many hold responsible for preventing moderate Republicans from coming to a budget deal with the Obama administration. Norquist is the founder of Americans for Tax Reform and the creator of the ''Taxpayer Protection Pledge'', which was signed by 95 per cent of all Republican congress members and all but one of the 2012 Republican presidential candidates. Signatories pledge never to raise any tax under any circumstance.

HEALTHCARE

Obama's first term will be defined by his attempt at healthcare reform, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act [''Obamacare''] of 2010. America's healthcare system - one of the most expensive and inefficient in the industrialised world - is the primary source of the country's high deficits and national debt. Plans to reform it had been kicked around for 50 years before President Obama took on the cause. Obamacare is hated by Republicans (though the mandate is based on laws passed by Mitt Romney when he was governor of Massachusetts) and remains broadly unpopular. The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the mandate in June. Under a re-elected Obama presidency it will be entrenched, under Romney it would be repealed.

IMMIGRATION, particularly the movement of large numbers of Mexicans into the US over the past four decades, has reshaped US politics. To hold conservative border-states Republicans took ever more harsh stances against illegal immigrants, alienating the growing Hispanic voting population, but entrenching the party's support among working-class whites. Democrats have courted the Hispanic vote by calling for laws to help immigrants in the country illegally to obtain legal status and, one day, become citizens. The DREAM Act, legislation intended to help the children of illegal immigrants become US citizens if they obtain higher education or serve in the military, is widely supported by Democrats and opposed by Republicans.

JOSE GODINEZ-SAMPERIO, a young law graduate found himself at the centre of national politics when he applied to the Florida bar. Jose came to America with his parents at nine, never had documents, but passed from primary school through to law school, topping his classes all the way. He has asked the state's Supreme Court to allow him to practise and is a vocal member of a growing activist group whose slogan ''Undocumented Unafraid Unashamed'' has changed US politics. See Immigration.

KEYSTONE

The Keystone XL pipeline - an extension to an existing line that would move crude oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast of Texas has become emblematic of the energy debate in this election. Romney accuses Obama of rejecting a planned extension because he was in thrall to environmentalists. In fact, many of those objecting were Republican-voting ranchers along the route. Romney would allow the pipeline to be built, but both parties enthusiastically support American independence from foreign energy sources.

LIBYA

Polls show most Americans trust President Obama to manage America's national security, in particular because of the killing of Osama bin Laden and many other senior al-Qaeda figures by US Special Forces and drones. A September attack by Islamic militants on a US consulate in Benghazi, Libya that claimed the lives of four diplomats has opened the president up to criticism from Republicans, who allege the administration let security at American diplomatic outposts slacken and refused to acknowledge that the murders were a terrorist attack.

MIDDLE CLASS

The only class that matters in this election is the middle class. The poor are absent and the stinking rich only exist when Obama is discussing Romney.

NATE SILVER has become one of the most significant figures in American punditry, using the near-unique strategy of mostly being right. Silver - a sort of cross between Antony Green, Doogie Howser and Nostradamus - picked 49 of 50 states in the last election. His blog FiveThirtyEight is now published by The New York Times.

OCTOBER SURPRISE

An event which takes place late in the election season, that has the potential to change the game. The term came into widespread use after 1972, when national security adviser Henry Kissinger announced ''We believe peace is at hand'' in Vietnam, 12 days before the presidential election. Now discussed almost daily.

POLLING

There are hundreds of national and state polls, tracking how Obama and Mitt Romney are doing nationally and in each battleground state. Pollsters have come under criticism this election season, mostly from conservatives, for giving too much weight to pro-Obama voting groups and thus ''skewing'' the polls against the Republican Romney. These attacks have died down since many of those same polls show Romney gaining on Obama or actually in the lead.

QUANTITATIVE EASING is the main stimulus tool the US Federal Reserve uses in its efforts to kick some life into the listless American economy. The central bank injects a predetermined sum of money into the economy by buying financial assets from commercial banks and other private financial institutions. The last round, popularly known as QE3, which occurred on September 13, proved controversial, after the Romney campaign attacked it as ''sugar high economics''.

RESTORE OUR FUTURE, the richest super PAC supporting Mitt Romney, has so far spent $97 million. See Citizens United.

SEAMUS was the Romney's Irish setter who the candidate strapped in a cage on the roof of the car during the 12-hour drive from Massachusetts to Ontario during the Romney's 1983 family holiday. The incident lead to the founding of Dogs Against Romney, a lobby group and associated super-PAC (yes, see Citizens United) whose slogan, I Ride Inside, is one of best of the campaign.

TEA PARTY

The Tea Party movement was born early in 2009 in reaction to Obama's use of the federal government and its spending power to lift the economy out of the Great Recession. Although originally conceived as a libertarian grassroots movement focusing on economic issues, many Tea Party groups are, in fact, funded by prominent figures on the right and polls show the average Tea Party supporter is very conservative on social issues and backs the use of government power to restrict gay marriage and abortion. Tea Party groups seized control of many state Republican parties and successfully pressured Republicans in Congress and presidential candidates to move to the right and oppose any compromise with Obama.

UNEMPLOYMENT

America's stubbornly high unemployment rate is the central complaint against the Obama administration. On October 5, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the official unemployment rate had dropped from 8.1 per cent to 7.8 per cent, the same level it was when Obama took office. True, but as Obama keeps telling anyone who will listen, at that time the economy was shedding 700,000 jobs a month, and since then it has created 5 million jobs. One of the main causes of frustration for Republicans throughout the campaign has been the comparative buoyancy of Obama's polls despite the unemployment rate. No president in a generation had won a second term with so many out of work, but equally none has lost when the trend over the two years leading up to the election has been consistently down.

VOTER I.D.

Groups allied with the Republican Party allege widespread voter fraud, mainly by ethnic minorities, in favour of Democratic candidates, though no examples of such fraud have ever been produced. Nevertheless, Republicans have enacted or attempted to enact laws at the state level to force voters to show various forms of identification before being allowed to vote - forms that ethnic minorities are less likely to have than white voters.

WAR ON WOMEN

The gender gap in American politics has existed for decades, with men favouring Republicans and women favouring Democrats. Democrats have sought to harness this trend by arguing Republicans, particularly evangelical Christians of the right have been waging a ''War on Women''. Republicans at state and federal level who have supported laws restricting access to abortion and contraception while opposing equal pay guarantees have given them ammunition. Republicans in Virginia attempted to pass a law that would force women to undergo a medically unnecessary transvaginal probe before seeking an abortion and a Republican Senate candidate in Missouri alleged women could not become pregnant when ''legitimately raped''.

XYZINGERS

Part of the preparation for a presidential debate is to equip the contender with what staff and media call "zingers" - memorable lines that will linger in the days after the encounter. Romney dominated Obama in the first debate this year, but Obama landed the best zinger in the second when he said: ''You know, I don't look at my pension, it's not as big as yours so it doesn't take as long."

■ In the first two weeks of November, the US and China, will choose their next leaders. Today the Herald begins its in-depth coverage of the US presidential poll and the once-in-a-decade Chinese leadership transition.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/data-point/the-a-to-z-of-american-politics-20121019-27wsa.html#ixzz29qKTyKSW

Romney primary message shifts as election nears
KASIE HUNT, Associated Press, STEVE PEOPLES, Associated Press
Updated 3:20 p.m., Saturday, October 20, 2012

LEESBURG, Va. (AP) — On immigration, taxes and women's issues, Mitt Romney is abandoning his "severely conservative" talk of the Republican primary season and moving sharply to the political center as he looks to sway on-the-fence voters in the campaign's final three weeks.

At the same time, the GOP presidential nominee's advisers and the Republican National Committee are looking to give Romney more routes to reaching the 270 Electoral College votes needed for victory. They are weighing whether to shift resources from North Carolina, where Republicans express confidence of winning, into states long considered safe territory for President Barack Obama, including Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

The evolving strategy comes as both candidates work to capitalize on their second debate-stage meeting, a Tuesday night face off in which Romney emphasized his bipartisan credentials as well as his efforts to hire women while Massachusetts governor, and declared, "I'm not looking to cut taxes for wealthy people."

One day after the debate, Romney's camp conceded that Obama had a strong performance and mapped out a plan for the Republican to focus on the economy in the coming days, including delivering a speech on spending and debt early next week. Romney also intends to continue aggressively reaching out to the narrow slice of moderate, undecided voters.

The former Massachusetts governor, who described himself as "severely conservative" in February, offered a moderate message while appealing directly to women voters Wednesday in Virginia, which Obama won four years ago and is up for grabs now.

"This president has failed America's women," Romney told an estimated 3,500 supporters Wednesday gathered outside Tidewater Community College in Chesapeake. "They've suffered in terms of getting jobs. They've suffered in terms of falling into poverty."

At an evening rally in Leesburg, he cited the struggle of single mothers and called for more cooperation in politics.

"I want to ensure that we come together as Republicans and Democrats. People of all the states, come together," Romney said at an evening rally that drew 8,500 to northern Virginia.

He also has softened his tone on women's issues as he looks to cut into Obama's polling advantage among women.

Romney's opposition to Planned Parenthood was a common theme during the primary, and Obama hammered the Republican on Tuesday over his plan to cut funding for Planned Parenthood, the network of clinics that provide women's health care and also provide abortion services.

Romney hasn't backed away from that stance; his plan to cut Title X, which funds family planning health services, is still listed on his website. But he isn't quick to talk about it either. Earlier this month, he told the Des Moines Register's editorial board that he didn't intend to pursue any abortion-related legislation as president, and then back tracked.

Romney had also been careful not to take a position against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. That bill, the first Obama signed as president, requires employers to prove that differences in pay are related to qualifications, not to gender; it also allows more time for employees to sue employers if they are discriminated against.

Romney adviser Ed Gillespie said Tuesday night that Romney had opposed the Ledbetter legislation all along but, a day later, the aide said he had been wrong.

Looking to cut into Obama's polling edge with Hispanics, Romney assailed Obama on Tuesday for failing to live up to a promise to try to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill. He tried to offer a sunny explanation for a phrase he favored earlier this year: self-deportation — essentially, creating employment and enforcement conditions so harsh that immigrants are forced to leave.

During the primary season, Romney insisted he wouldn't talk about a comprehensive plan until the U.S. border with Mexico was more secure.

"Secure the border. Once we do that, we can start talking about the 11 million or whatever number that may be that are in the country illegally," Romney said in a debate in Iowa last year.

Romney also is emphasizing his plan to overhaul the nation's tax system, including the declaration that wealthy Americans won't get a tax break under his plan. The campaign's internal polling during the debate found that to be his most popular line, along with his promises to help small businesses and reduce the nation's deficit.

The tax pledge is a departure in tone, if not policy, from his position during the primary, when his comments were squarely focused on his plan to cut tax rates by 20 percent across the board.

"By reducing the tax on the next dollar of income earned by all taxpayers, we will encourage hard work, risk-taking, and productivity by allowing Americans to keep more of what they earn," Romney told the Detroit Economic Club earlier this year.

Tuesday night, it was a different message. Said Romney: "I'm not looking to cut taxes for wealthy people. I am looking to cut taxes for middle-income people."



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Romney-primary-message-shifts-as-election-nears-3957032.php#ixzz29tV1a59F

US presidential election by numbers and the $1bn presidency

by:
Staff reporter From:
News Limited Network October 22, 2012
2:33PM

WHOEVER gets sworn in on January 21st as the next US president, the race to get there will have cost around $1 billion and that's not the only wild election number doing the rounds.

1. Show me the money
As the candidates prepare for the last of the three debates which will be televised live tomorrow (AEDT), it seems it cost of a White House run has risen in an economy that is still struggling the recover from the global financial crisis.

Mitt Romney

President Barack Obama’s team has raised $969 million according to POLITICO, while Republican challenger Mitt Romney’s campaigned has taken in $919 million.
. These impressive figures include campaign funds, party committees and independent groups or parties linked to each candidate- known as super PACs.
Outside groups alone have raised over $840 million, according to the Sunlight Foundation.

Barack Obama

As both campaign enter the final weeks of what is tipped to be one of the tightest races in US history, coverage of the contest has also reached saturation point.
2. Paul Ryan's "topless" pics
“Paul Ryan shirtless” is currently Googled nine times more often than the Republican candidate for Vice-President’s famous budget plan.
Those wanting to see Ryan's abs - famously earned through the P90X home exercise regime - come mostly from blue Democratic states, rather than Republican ones, according to the New York Times.

Paul Ryan

Each month 5000 people search Google for information on Mitt Romney’s choice of underwear and potentially his Mormon faith since many practising Mormons wear the specially-designed temple garments.
"Barack Hussein Obama" is a popular search term in red states while blue states search more often for "Willard Mitt Romney".
This isn’t the first time that Google searches have made news. On the 2008 election day, one in every 100 searches for Obama also included either “KKK” – a reference to the Klu Klux Klan - or the word “n*****”.
“McCain life expectancy” also became a popular search term once the Republican candidate John McCain nominated Sarah Palin as his running mate.
3. What women want
Meanwhile, voters in 2012 are split along gender lines. Women overwhelming support incumbent Barack Obama while Romney would be 45th president if only men vote, according to the New York Times.
On average, President Obama is leads by 9 points among women, but trailing by 9 points with men.
4. The support of the troops
Just to confound expectation, it turns out that the Obama campaign has raised $536,114 from military personnel or civilians employed by the military compared with $287, 435 for Mitt Romney's election campaign, according to opensecrets.org.
With polls still calling a tight race for the November 6 poll, with numbers like this, experts say predicting the outcome is getting harder.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/us-presidential-election-by-numbers-and-the-1bn-presidency/story-fnd134gw-1226500779434

Obama's 'horses and bayonets' go viral

by: By Glenn Chapman From: AAP October 23, 2012 6:41PM

CAVALRY comments galloped online as a shot by President Barack Obama about "horses and bayonets" became the most talked about moment of the final presidential debate on Twitter.
Online sparring between supporters of Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney spiked during Monday's debate after Romney derisively remarked that "our navy is smaller now than (at) any time since 1917".

Obama countered that Romney didn't understand the modern military, saying "we also have fewer horses and bayonets" to laughter from the audience.

"We have these things called aircraft carriers where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines," he said, adding that analysing military capabilities was not "a game of Battleship".

The exchange quickly trended on Twitter as #horsesandbayonets and within minutes of the debate's close a CavalrymenForRomney.com website featured a forlorn warrior on horseback holding a Romney banner on a pike.

"So much sass I was not ready to handle," one online comment read. "OMG, that's a double burn."

Obama's shot echoed at Tumblr.com where artists posted cartoons and playfully doctored images poking fun at a Romney military based on outdated equipment like horses.

A freshly-launched "Horses and Bayonets" page at Facebook with a charging US cavalry photo bore the mocking message: "I stand with Mitt Romney. We must buy more horses and bayonets to strengthen our military."

The Facebook page racked up more than 3500 "likes" shortly after launch.

Obama's "horses and bayonets" barb caused Twitter message volume during the debate to hit a peak of 105,767 tweets, according to the popular San Francisco-based micro-blogging service.

"While it was a busy evening with several events competing for viewers' attention, the political conversation on Twitter remained strong, with 6.5 million tweets sent about the 90-minute debate," the firm said in a blog post.

A Twitter user thrilled that hashtag #horsesandbayonets caught on quickly as a trending topic and said she was eager to see what parody was in store at US television comedy show Saturday Night Live.

"Bayonets and horses will go down in the history books," Golden Globe winning actress Bette Midler said in a tweet.

Another message spoke of the potential for "a dressage-based foreign policy: equestrian fetishism in the Romney White House", referring to the horse-dancing Olympic event that a mare owned by Romney's wife Ann takes part in.

A social networking denizen chimed in to say that his family still has his great-grandfather's bayonet from serving in the US cavalry during World War I and that the government could have it back if it was needed.

Someone with the screen name ifdreamstherebe insisted that the jokes obscured the larger point.

"Sure, we can arm all of our military forces to the hilt, with any and everything they could possibly need... But, do we have to?"

Other users saw Obama's comments as a rare "smackdown" moment in the debate, with one joking that the president should have "picked up a mic and dropped it" after delivering the line.

Some users felt Obama's response was too sarky, with Charles Lane saying the president had a "mocking and belittling tone".

"I still like my bayonet. But what do I know. I only served in two wars," wrote Kurt Schlichter.

Other critics pointed out that Marines are still issued bayonets and tweeted pictures of modern-day US soldiers armed with them.

"To Republicans countering Obama's bayonet lines by talking about how Marines still use bayonets: Stop. You're embarrassing yourselves," tweeted one user.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/breaking-news/obama-mocks-romneys-horses-and-bayonets/story-e6freuz9-1226501536584

Neck and neck as candidates head for the line

October 24, 2012 - 3:23PM
Nick O'Malley

CRAWFORDSVILLE, Indiana: A day after the last presidential debate and a fortnight before the deadlocked election, both campaigns hit battleground states yesterday, repeating their killer lines from the night before.

In Nevada Mitt Romney, who had pulled his punches during the final debate in an apparent bid to appear calm and presidential, repeated his line that Barack Obama's attacks on him "were not an agenda" to improve America.

We believe we're leading nationally and we're leading in these battleground states.
He argued that without such an agenda the President had been forced to rely on gimmicky attacks using Big Bird (a reference to Mr Romney's plan to cut funding to public broadcasting) and "Romnesia", a reference to Mr Obama's claim that Mr Romney had not been consistent in his policy positions.

On stage in Florida Mr Obama was unabashed.

"If you say you are a car guy but you wrote an article titled 'Let Detroit go bankrupt', you definitely have a case of Romnesia," he said at one point.

"Don't worry, ObamaCare covers pre-existing conditions. We can fix you up. We can cure this disease." During a conference call Obama campaign leaders claimed to be confident.

"This is a race we believe we're leading," said the senior strategist David Axelrod. "We believe we're leading nationally and we're leading in these battleground states.

"We know what we know and they know what they know and I'm confident that we're going to win this race and we'll know who is bluffing and who isn't in two weeks," he said.

"This race has settled into exactly where we thought it would be and it's the race that we've prepared for."

Though Mr Obama was widely viewed to have won Monday night's debate there is no evidence yet that his victory will have a significant impact on the race.

The Democrat campaign manager, Jim Messina, said the plan they had laid out at the beginning of the race to win the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the election was still intact.

"We are tied or ahead in every battleground state and we're not leaving anywhere where we're tied or ahead," he said, "Romney hasn't been able to knock us out of a single battleground." The polls suggested that despite the hundreds of millions spent so far and the year of campaigning, the race is a dead heat.

The latest CBS News national poll – conducted between the second and third debates – shows Mr Obama in the lead 48 to 46 per cent, within the poll's margin of error. Yesterday's ABC/Washington Post poll also had the two campaigns within the margin.

Gallup's daily tracking poll put Romney ahead, as it has since the days after the first debate in Denver. The Real Clear Politics poll average put Mr Romney ahead by a point and gave him a five-vote lead in the electoral college, but Associated Press estimated Mr Obama was ahead 237 electoral votes to Romney's 191, with 110 undecided.

Minor controversies erupted over the day. The failed candidate Donald Trump boasted he would reveal an "October surprise" about the President, prompting speculation he would reveal divorce papers allegedly drawn up some time ago by Michelle Obama.

And last night the right-wing Republican Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock said during a debate, "I think, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen." Mr Romney's campaign soon distanced itself from the comments.

Democrats have claimed throughout the campaign that Republicans are engaged in a "war on women" and have been relying on a slipping advantage among women voters to win the election.



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/neck-and-neck-as-candidates-head-for-the-line-20121024-28542.html#ixzz2ACvRe8nP

Wikileaks releases US classified detention documents

by:
Charles Miranda in London From:
News Limited Network October 25, 2012
8:20PM

WIKILEAKS has released a new set of classified US government documents regarding detainee policies over the past decade.

The whistleblowing website tonight released five restricted files from the US Department of Defense, including the standard operating procedure manual for Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay.

Over the next month, the website will publish more than 100 classified documents covering operating procedures at detention camps in Iraq and Cuba.

Earlier today, Britain was formally asked to guarantee Wikileaks founder Julian Assange safe passage to a hospital in London if required with officials at his Ecuador Embassy bolt-hole worried about his physical and mental health.

In the latest complex issue to befall the British and Ecuador governments with the 41-year-old Australian, Ecuador Vice Foreign Minister Marco Albuja Martinez said the situation was now becoming a serious issue of human rights.

. “Assange has grown noticeably thinner and we are very concerned about his health,” Mr Martinez said yesterday.

“If he falls ill we will have to choose between two alternatives - to treat Assange at the embassy or hospitalise him.”

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange addresses the press and supporters from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in August. There are concerns about his health.

To do the latter he would have to leave his sanctuary where he enjoys political asylum from British authorities who are armed with an arrest warrant.

Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino told reporters in Quito today he had requested a meeting
with his British counterpart William Hague.

Patino said he wanted to discuss Assange's worsening health following more than four months in the embassy where he is sheltering to avoid prosecution.

Ecuador said it had asked the British government for written assurances that Assange, who has been granted asylum by Quito, will not be arrested in the event of hospitalisation.

"As a result of the government of Britain's not giving safe passage, Julian Assange's health most certainly is beginning to be jeopardised and this is very serious,'' Patino said in an earlier radio interview.

"We had hoped that the British government would defend and respect human rights and international law,'' said Patino, adding that he had learned that Assange is suffering from problems with his vision.

"I hope that we will not have cause to regret a serious situation there,'' Patino said.

The Wikileaks founder has been at the embassy since June after a British court ruled he should be extradited to Sweden to face serious sex assault allegations. Assange has denied the claims which he says were trumped up so as to extradite him to the US where he faces prosecution for publicly releasing hundreds of thousands of sensitive diplomatic and military cables.

He has been complaining about his deteriorating health for a couple of weeks now.

Police have been stationed about the Ecuador embassy in fashionable Kensington around the clock since June at a cost of AUD$2 million including at one stage more than 40officers or more than $17,000 on a normal day.

British Secretary of State William Hague last month admitted the issue was at a deadlock.
Meanwhile, fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood visited Assange yesterday wearing a T-Shirt made famous by the Anonymous protest group “I am Julian Assange”. She has been a long supporter of him but it was the first visit she has made.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/wikileaks-releases-detention-documents/story-fnd134gw-1226502816778

What Are the Odds That Israel Just Attacked Sudan?

OCT 24 2012, 6:21 PM

It's not often that a government eagerly announces a military facility in its capital city has been destroyed in a stunning and audacious sneak attack, even in light of plausible evidence to the contrary. Yet here we are: Yesterday, Sudanese culture and information minister Ahmed Bilal Osman alleged that the previous evening, four Israeli fighter jets flew over Khartoum from the east and partially destroyed the Yarmouk munitions factory, in the city's south. 

The night before, the governor of Khartoum claimed on local television and radio that an accidental fire was to blame for the incident, according to sources I was able to contact in Sudan. And Israel is an all-too-convenient scapegoat for everything from shark attacks to major political assassinations. After all, it makes intuitive sense that a broke, beleaguered and internationally-sanctioned Sudanese government would rather trumpet its failure in protecting the capital than allow an exploding weapons factory to serve as an all-too-obvious reminder of the country's dysfunction. Blaming an external enemy could unite a fractured and restive populace; indeed, nationalistic feeling surged during the country's brief military confrontation with the South Sudan this past spring. Acknowledging the truth has no such advantage. It is plausible that Sudan's nominally-Islamist and Iran-allied government would rather blame Israel than openly acknowledge the depths that austerity, economic depression and international pariah-status have brought it to. There was reason to doubt Osman's claims.

But there is plenty of reason not to dismiss them. Evidence abounds that the facility was destroyed in an aerial bombardment. An AFP report from Khartoum states that both an AFP journalist and local residents witnessed either an "aircraft or missile" flying overhead. The journalist "saw two or three fires flaring across a wide area, with heavy smoke and intermittent flashes of white light bursting above the state-owned factory." A video of the incident uploaded to YouTube is consistent with this description -- it's clear that there were explosions above the factory, even if it is unclear what caused them. Yesterday, Girifna, a global network of Sudanese anti-regime activists with numerous sources and members in Khartoum, tweeted, "witnesses suggest [the facility] was attacked."

There's really only one country that has the capabilities or the motive to wage a pinpointed aerial assault on a single wing of a single weapons facility in the southern reaches of city of a 5 million people: Israel. The defense ministers of Sudan and Iran signed a "military cooperation agreement" in 2008. Sudan has hosted Iranian Revolutionary Guard personnel, and allegedly served as a transit point for weapons bound for Hamas, in the Gaza Strip. The Israelis are acutely aware of the situation: an April, 2009 diplomatic cable published by Wikileaks paraphrases Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as telling U.S. officials that "the arms pipeline runs from Iran to Sudan to Egypt." And in a meeting with U.S. special envoy Scott Gration, Sudanese intelligence chief Salah Ghosh acknowledged that anti-Israel weapons smuggling was occurring on Sudanese territory -- but denied that his government was directly involved ("'The Rashaida (tribe in the eastern Sudan engaged in smuggling) in many countries is now beginning to talk about killing Americans and Israelis,'" Ghosh was reported as saying).

Israel might have struck inside the Sudan before: once, in early 2009, when it allegedly destroyed a 23-truck weapons smuggling convoy in the country's east, and again in April of 2011, when Israel might have been responsible for the bombing of a Hamas arms trafficker in Port Sudan. Assuming it was also Israel's doing, the destruction of the weapons facility would represent another level of audacity. "I would say that if the Sudanese government's claims are correct, then this is longest strike -- the farthest strike -- ever executed by the Israeli air force," says Ehud Yaari, the Israel-based Lafer International Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "We are talking about something that is 1,800 or 1,900 kilometers [from Israel], depending on the route. That's farther away than the range from Israel to the main Iranian nuclear installations in Natanz and Qom."

Khartoum isn't just further away and more densely populated than either of Israel's previous alleged targets inside the Sudan. It's probably better-protected as well. According to the 2012 edition of the International Institute for Strategic Studies' The Military Balance, the Sudanese air force still consists of 61 combat capable aircraft, as well as Russian-built Divina 2 anti-aircraft missiles. It's unlikely that the Sudanese air force's rusting collection of Cold War-era MiGs and Sukhois could take out a column of Israeli fighter jets. But an attack on the Sudanese capital is hardly a risk-free proposition, or at least it isn't as easy as attacking remote tracts of desert hundreds of kilometers northeast of Khartoum.

So why do it? Yaari hypothesizes that the facility was partly dedicated to the Iranian-assisted production of weapons headed for Gaza. "There is reason to believe that Iranians were involved in the production of munitions there, and that it was used for the weapons smuggling operation that has been going through Sudan for years now into the Sinai." Even so, it might never be publicly known why the Israelis were convinced that the destruction of the facility was worth such a unique and potentially-dangerous mission. "If it is the Israelis who carried it out they must have had very good reason to put pilots in hazard's way. This is something unprecedented in terms of the range."

Maybe that's the entire point. This was undoubtedly an anxious week for Israel's diplomatic and security apparatus. This week, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar, became the first head of state to visit the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip, in effect legitimizing the group's control of the coastal territory at time when Israel is still attempting to politically, physically, and military isolate the Islamist militant movement. Unnervingly, al-Thani's visit coincided with an uptick of Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians living in the areas around Gaza; over 60 rockets and mortars landed in Israel on Tuesday and Wednesday alone. The Khartoum attack (if there was one) might have been a dramatic victory over Hamas and an allied government at a time when tensions between Israel and Gaza appear to be escalating. And it's one that doubled as a very public reminder--perhaps to a certain would-be developer of nuclear weapons -- of exactly what the Israeli military is capable of.

Or it might have been nothing more than a fire at a munitions facility. When reached for comment on Wednesday afternoon, Aaron Segui, the spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., offered a straightforward "no-comment," then another "no comment" when asked if the statement could be interpreted as a denial. The mystery of what happened in Khartoum continues -- for now.

White voters back Romney over Obama

October 26 2012 at 09:46am
By Peer Meinert

US President Barack Obama's support from white voters has dropped dramatically, according to a poll published on Thursday by the Washington Post.

Obama, the first African-American to hold the highest elected office in the country, lags behind Republican Mitt Romney among white voters by 21 percentage points, the poll shows. Four years ago the difference was only 8 percentage points at this stage of the race between Obama and Senator John McCain.

Fifty-nine percent of white likely voters are for Romney, while 38 percent of white likely voters support Obama, indicating the 2012 election could be more polarised along racial lines than any presidential contest since 1988.

Obama gets overwhelming support from non-whites - 79 percent. In 2008, approximately 80 per cent of all non-whites supported Obama, including 95 per cent of black voters.

The national tracking poll was conducted by the Washington Post and ABC News. - Sapa-dpa

http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/white-voters-back-romney-over-obama-1.1411743

Mitt Romney is a bullshitter: Barack Obama
October 26, 2012 12:49 IST

While presidential battles are never fought with sweet talk, US President Barack Obama [ Images ] took his opponent bashing to a new level when he termed his Republican challenger Mitt Romney a "bullshitter".


The remarks that came in an interview to Rolling Stone magazine were essentially a light hearted aside, but led to many a raised eyebrow.


Obama has repeatedly called Romney untrustworthy for his changing positions on major issues and even coined a whole new term for his condition -- Romnesia.


This time, however, the President took it a notch higher when responding to a suggestion on his popularity in kids, he said the young ones could see who was a 'bullshitter'.


"You know, kids have good instincts," Obama offered.


"They look at the other guy and say, 'Well, that's a bullshitter, I can tell," the US President said.


Obama said this when the editor interviewing the President told him that his six-year-old had asked him to convey to Obama that 'You can do it'.

"That's the only advice I need," he said.

"I do very well, by the way, in that demographic. Ages six to 12? I'm a killer," he joked.


Obama also said that by the next Halloween he hopes Romney will be an ex-presidential candidate.


The Obama Campaign later asked journalists not to get "distracted by the word".


"The president is someone who says what he means and does what he says," spokesman Dan Pfeiffer tried to clarify.


During the interview, Obama also spoke about his "terrific relationship" with former president Bill Clinton [ Images ], who he said was regularly giving him good advice.


"Not only is he a great politician, but he's also somebody who has a lot of credibility with the public when it comes to how the economy works. Because the last time we had healthy, broad-based growth was when he was president, and people remember that. So he can say things that people immediately grab on to.


"And one of the things he said during the convention that I thought was very helpful was to put this whole economic crisis in context," Obama said.


He said that unlike Franklin D Roosevelt who came into office when the economy had already bottomed out, he himself assumed office when things were "sliding".


"Because of the actions we took, we averted a Great Depression -- but in the process, we also muddied up the political narrative, because it allowed somebody like Romney to somehow blame my policies for the mess that the previous administration created.


"Bill Clinton can point that out in ways that are really helpful and really powerful," Obama said.

http://www.rediff.com/news/report/mitt-romney-is-a-bullshitter-barack-obama/20121026.htm

Romney adviser raises race card

From: AAP October 26, 2012 8:29PM

AN outspoken surrogate for Mitt Romney's White House campaign has suggested that race was a factor in former secretary of state Colin Powell's endorsement of President Barack Obama.

Former New Hampshire governor John Sununu told CNN late on Thursday that the re-endorsement of Obama by Powell - a Republican who served in both Bush presidencies but backed Obama in 2008 - was possibly due to both men being African-Americans.

"Frankly, when you take a look at Colin Powell you have to wonder whether that's an endorsement based on issues or whether he's got a slightly different reason for preferring President Obama," Sununu told CNN host Piers Morgan.

"When you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the United States, I applaud Colin for standing with him."

The remarks by Sununu, a prominent and often flamboyant supporter of Romney, could inject race into a campaign the Republican challenger has tried to keep focused on the sluggish US economy.

The remarks came just two days after Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, explaining his anti-abortion stance, sparked controversy by saying that pregnancies caused by rape are "something God intended to happen".

Those remarks threatened to slow Romney's progress in winning over vital women voters in key swing states and gave Obama an opening to brand Republicans as extremists when it comes to women's rights.

Sununu's remarks could prove less damaging - as Obama already enjoys overwhelming support among African-American voters - but may further distract from Republicans' central argument against the president's economic policies.

The two presidential candidates are locked in a virtual tie less than two weeks ahead of the November 6 election, with Romney enjoying a slight lead in national polls but Obama holding a narrow edge in vital states.

Powell, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George H. W. Bush and secretary of state under President George W. Bush, is a moderate Republican once seen as a promising presidential prospect.

In his re-endorsement of Obama on Thursday, Powell credited the president with recent improvements in the economy and praised him as a steely commander-in-chief who had wound down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/breaking-news/romney-adviser-raises-race-card/story-e6freoo6-1226504220498

Hardline views on rape in Republican mainstream

October 27, 2012
William Saletan

WASHINGTON: First it was Todd Akin. Then Steve King. Then Joe Walsh. Then Richard Mourdock.

One after another, Republican congressional nominees opened their mouths, inserted their feet and embarrassed their party.

Mr Akin, running for the US Senate in Missouri, said rape survivors don't need abortions because ''if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down''.

Mr King, an Iowa congressman up for re-election, deflected a question about abortions for 12-year-old rape victims by saying: ''I just haven't heard of that being a circumstance that's been brought to me in any personal way''. Mr Walsh, a House incumbent in Illinois, asserted that ''with modern technology and science, you can't find one instance'' where abortion is necessary to protect a woman's life or health.

Mr Mourdock, the Republican nominee for US Senate in Indiana, opined that ''even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen''.

For Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, these episodes have been a two-month headache. First, he had to override his vice-presidential candidate, Paul Ryan's, opposition to abortions for rape victims. Then he had to apologise for Mr Akin's comment. Then he had to apologise for Mr Mourdock's. And the apology tour might be just getting started, because they are hardly alone.

Their view - that abortion should be banned even in cases of sexual assault - isn't just the party's official position. It's the most commonly held position among new Republican nominees for the US Senate.

Thirty-three Senate seats are at stake in next month's election. Five are held by Republican incumbents whose nominations were never seriously contested. In the remaining 28 states, three nominations (Connecticut, Hawaii and Rhode Island) were won by pro-choice candidates.

Eight (Arizona, California, Florida, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Virginia, and Wisconsin) went to candidates who said abortion should be outlawed except in cases of rape or incest.

Three (Delaware, Maryland and Minnesota) went to pro-lifers who haven't clarified their stance on exceptions. The rest - 12 nominations - went to candidates who would ban abortion even for survivors of sexual assault. That's a plurality of the party's primaries.

In Vermont, the state right-to-life committee-certified Republican nominee, John MacGovern, as ''fully pro-life''. When asked whether ''a woman should be forced by the government to give birth to a rapist's baby'', he said: ''I've always in my career and to this day been loyal to the principle of life … I'm pro-life to my core.''

In Ohio, the state Treasurer, Josh Mandel, rejected a rape exception: ''I'll do everything I can to protect innocent life.''

In Michigan, congressman, Pete Hoekstra, was asked if a woman should have to bear her rapist's child. Already on record against a rape exception, he replied: ''I believe life is a gift.''

In New York, a member of Mr Romney's Justice Advisory Committee, Wendy Long, boasted during her primary that she was ''100 per cent pro-life'', whereas her opponents would grant ''exceptions'' to an abortion ban.

In Washington, state senator, Michael Baumgartner, admitted that ''rape is a tragedy'' but concluded: ''I still believe life begins at conception. That is consistent with my Catholic beliefs. And I believe we must protect life.''

In North Dakota, a reporter asked the congressman, Rick Berg: ''You would not make an exception for rape?'' Mr Berg replied: ''No.''

The Senate numbers for Republicans are equally striking. Of the 28 non-incumbent nominees, 12 to 15 share the view of Mr Akin, Mr Mourdock and the party platform: a rape victim should not end her pregnancy.

This is no longer a fringe position. It isn't a couple of gaffes by renegade crackpots. It's the predominant view among Republican nominees for the nation's highest legislative body. It's what the Republican Party is.

Slate



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/hardline-views-on-rape-in-republican-mainstream-20121026-28b40.html#ixzz2ASqTQpGI

Hardline views on rape in Republican mainstream

October 27, 2012
William Saletan

WASHINGTON: First it was Todd Akin. Then Steve King. Then Joe Walsh. Then Richard Mourdock.

One after another, Republican congressional nominees opened their mouths, inserted their feet and embarrassed their party.

Mr Akin, running for the US Senate in Missouri, said rape survivors don't need abortions because ''if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down''.

Mr King, an Iowa congressman up for re-election, deflected a question about abortions for 12-year-old rape victims by saying: ''I just haven't heard of that being a circumstance that's been brought to me in any personal way''. Mr Walsh, a House incumbent in Illinois, asserted that ''with modern technology and science, you can't find one instance'' where abortion is necessary to protect a woman's life or health.

Mr Mourdock, the Republican nominee for US Senate in Indiana, opined that ''even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen''.

For Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, these episodes have been a two-month headache. First, he had to override his vice-presidential candidate, Paul Ryan's, opposition to abortions for rape victims. Then he had to apologise for Mr Akin's comment. Then he had to apologise for Mr Mourdock's. And the apology tour might be just getting started, because they are hardly alone.

Their view - that abortion should be banned even in cases of sexual assault - isn't just the party's official position. It's the most commonly held position among new Republican nominees for the US Senate.

Thirty-three Senate seats are at stake in next month's election. Five are held by Republican incumbents whose nominations were never seriously contested. In the remaining 28 states, three nominations (Connecticut, Hawaii and Rhode Island) were won by pro-choice candidates.

Eight (Arizona, California, Florida, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Virginia, and Wisconsin) went to candidates who said abortion should be outlawed except in cases of rape or incest.

Three (Delaware, Maryland and Minnesota) went to pro-lifers who haven't clarified their stance on exceptions. The rest - 12 nominations - went to candidates who would ban abortion even for survivors of sexual assault. That's a plurality of the party's primaries.

In Vermont, the state right-to-life committee-certified Republican nominee, John MacGovern, as ''fully pro-life''. When asked whether ''a woman should be forced by the government to give birth to a rapist's baby'', he said: ''I've always in my career and to this day been loyal to the principle of life … I'm pro-life to my core.''

In Ohio, the state Treasurer, Josh Mandel, rejected a rape exception: ''I'll do everything I can to protect innocent life.''

In Michigan, congressman, Pete Hoekstra, was asked if a woman should have to bear her rapist's child. Already on record against a rape exception, he replied: ''I believe life is a gift.''

In New York, a member of Mr Romney's Justice Advisory Committee, Wendy Long, boasted during her primary that she was ''100 per cent pro-life'', whereas her opponents would grant ''exceptions'' to an abortion ban.

In Washington, state senator, Michael Baumgartner, admitted that ''rape is a tragedy'' but concluded: ''I still believe life begins at conception. That is consistent with my Catholic beliefs. And I believe we must protect life.''

In North Dakota, a reporter asked the congressman, Rick Berg: ''You would not make an exception for rape?'' Mr Berg replied: ''No.''

The Senate numbers for Republicans are equally striking. Of the 28 non-incumbent nominees, 12 to 15 share the view of Mr Akin, Mr Mourdock and the party platform: a rape victim should not end her pregnancy.

This is no longer a fringe position. It isn't a couple of gaffes by renegade crackpots. It's the predominant view among Republican nominees for the nation's highest legislative body. It's what the Republican Party is.

Slate



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/hardline-views-on-rape-in-republican-mainstream-20121026-28b40.html#ixzz2ASqTQpGI

Spanish jobless rate breaks past 25%, worse to come

October 27, 2012 - 7:09AM

Spain's jobless rate broke the 25-per cent barrier for the first time in modern history as austerity cuts squeezed the recession-struck economy, the government said Friday.

Tens of thousands of jobs were destroyed in the third quarter as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government raised taxes, cut spending and pondered whether to seize a eurozone rescue line.

The unemployment rate rose to 25.02 per cent in the third quarter -- the highest since General Francisco Franco's death in 1975 -- from 24.63 per cent in the previous three months, official data showed.

Among workers aged 16-24 the jobless rate towered at 52.34 per cent in the third quarter, only slightly down from 53.27 per cent in the previous quarter, the National Statistic Institute said.

"They are very negative figures," said Soledad Pellon Bannatyne, market strategist at brokerage IG Markets.

"We are talking about the highest unemployment rate in the history of Spain. It's beating new records and that is perhaps the worst part of what this crisis is leaving us."

Pellon predicted no improvement for next year, either.

She said the economy needed to grow by more than 1.5 per cent in order to generate new jobs but even the government's optimistic forecast was for a economic contraction of 0.5 per cent in 2013.

"With that 0.5-per cent fall there won't be a single job created. More than that, with that 0.5-per cent fall we will carry on destroying jobs," the economist said.

After more than a year of recession, the soaring jobless figures and biting cuts have prompted growing street protests and unions have called a general strike for November 14.

The jobs figures, the latest chapter in a long, grim economic story for Spain, had only a short impact on the stock exchange, with the IBEX-35 index recovering most of its losses following strong US growth figures to close 0.05 points lower at 7,775.6 points.

A total of 5.78 million people searched in vain for work in the July-September quarter, up 85,000 from the previous three months, the official data showed.

The number of Spanish households in which every member is out of work climbed to 1.74 million -- or one in ten of Spanish homes.

The jobless rate was "eye-catching" but the biggest concern was the cumulative fall in employment over the past 17 quarters, said Raj Badiani, London-based economist at analytical group IHS.

Spain's jobs drama is being fed by a recession that is now moving into a second year, according to the Bank of Spain.

The economy has been shrinking since mid-2011 and is expected to decline again in the third quarter of 2012 at a rate of 0.4 per cent, the same as in the previous three months, the central bank said this week.

But "to the person on the street, the destruction of several million jobs since late-2007 coupled with an unemployment rate at 25.0 per cent are a more relevant guide to the depth of recession, and even suggest that Spain is being engulfed by near-depressionary conditions," Badiani said.

Employment will sink further in 2013 as austerity cuts chip away at public sector jobs and as private firms are hit by slumping demand, he said. At the same time, the property market had yet to hit bottom.

Spain, the fourth-largest economy in the 17-nation single currency area, has launched a vast programme including spending cuts and tax rises to save 150 billion euros ($US194 billion) between 2012 and 2014, prompting mass street protests.

After missing last year's deficit-cutting target by a large margin, Spain promised to lower the overall public deficit to 6.3 per cent of economic output this year and to 4.5 per cent of output next year.

Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said the latest job losses were mostly in the public sector.

"The public and regional administrations are making a big effort to contain the public deficit," she told a weekly news conference.

"We have to continue adopting basic structural reforms that allow the jobs to be created and make us competitive



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/world-business/spanish-jobless-rate-breaks-past-25-worse-to-come-20121027-28bxi.html#ixzz2AV4SGVxz

Romney hit by aide's race gaffe

DateOctober 28, 2012
Alex Spillius, Raf Sanchez


One of Mitt Romney's campaign chairmen has hastily withdrawn his suggestion that Colin Powell, the former secretary of state, only endorsed Barack Obama for re-election because they are both black.

The former New Hampshire governor John Sununu said the endorsement by Mr Powell, a Republican who served in both Bush presidencies but backed Mr Obama in 2008, could be explained by the fact that the men were of the same race.

''Frankly, when you take a look at Colin Powell you have to wonder whether that's an endorsement based on issues or whether he's got a slightly different reason for preferring President Obama,'' Mr Sununu told CNN.

''When you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being President of the United States, I applaud Colin for standing with him.''

The remark prompted swift criticism and Mr Sununu quickly released a statement backtracking on his comments.

''Colin Powell is a friend and I respect the endorsement decision he made and I do not doubt that it was based on anything but his support of the President's policies,'' he said.

The remarks by Mr Sununu, one of Mr Romney's most prominent and flamboyant supporters, proved an unwelcome distraction as the Republican prepared to give a speech on the economy.

It is not the first time Mr Sununu has been accused of injecting the issue of race into the presidential election. In July he told reporters on a conference call that he wished Mr Obama ''would learn how to be an American'' and was forced to apologise.

Earlier this month, he was criticised for describing the president as ''lazy'' after his poor performance in the first presidential debate.

Mr Powell, whose parents were immigrants from Jamaica, served as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff under George Bush snr and as secretary of state under his son.

He is a moderate Republican once seen as a promising presidential prospect. He made no mention of race in his endorsement of Mr Obama on Thursday, saying instead: ''I signed on for a long patrol with President Obama and I don't think this is the time to make such a sudden change.''

Mr Powell credited the President with recent improvements in the economy and praised him as a steely commander-in-chief who had wound down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also expressed scepticism that Mr Romney would be able to cut taxes and increase military spending without adding to the federal government's budget deficit.

Polls of likely voters in three competitive states showed Mr Obama leading in Nevada and Ohio and tied with Mr Romney in Colorado.

Telegraph, London; Bloomberg



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/romney-hit-by-aides-race-gaffe-20121027-28c9m.html#ixzz2AYaUBKSm

Spend and bend as poll goes down to the wire

DateNovember 3, 2012
Nick O'Malley US Correspondent

''Can we win all of them? Probably not. Can we win some of them? I think probably so.''

The Obama campaign responded with its own ad spending, though its chief adviser, David Axelrod, declared on morning television he would shave off his moustache should Democrats lose those states.

In previous elections this might have been a clearer indication Republicans were confident of winning Florida and Virginia - traditionally Republican states that were won by Mr Obama in 2008 that Republicans lead in some polls - as well as Ohio.

But this year both parties and the groups supporting them are brimming with cash due to relaxed donations laws, so the investment of time by the leaders and their key surrogates has become an increasingly crucial indicator of strategy and confidence.

On Wednesday, Mitt Romney spent all day in Florida, on Thursday he divided his time between Virginia and Ohio. Only on Friday did Mr Romney finally dedicate a full day to Ohio.

To grasp how these tea leaves are being read, you need to look back to the electoral map.

The president is not elected by popular vote but by the Electoral College. Each state is allocated college votes proportional to their population. There are 538 votes in total, so to secure the White House a candidate must win 269 votes plus one for a majority.

The Democrats began the election with an advantage because many of the most populous states are strong Democrat - or dark blue - states.

These include California (55 votes) and New York (29).

Mr Obama began the campaign with 201 likely votes, Mr Romney with 191, according to the Real Clear Politics analysis.

By this measure, this leaves 11 states as contestable, and of these the most valuable are those with the most electoral votes in which the contenders are closest.

Crucial states then include Florida (which has 29 votes and where Mr Romney is leading by 1.2 percentage points), Virginia (13, Romney + 0.5) and Ohio (18 votes, Obama + 2.3). This is where the maths becomes cruel to the Republicans. Mr Obama needs fewer swing states to win.

Robert Alexander, professor of politics at Ohio Northern University, said if the Romney campaign was so confident that it was making a genuine push into places like Minnesota, it would be unlikely to see its leaders still on the ground in Virginia and Florida.

Rather they would be in the new battlegrounds, or more likely they would be giving Ohio more attention.

Famously, no Republican has ever won the election without winning Ohio, and no Democrat has done so since JFK in 1960.

''I like the newspaper headline I saw the other day, [that said] this is an election to be President of Ohio,'' Professor Alexander said on Thursday night. ''Mother nature has been unkind to the Republicans too.''

He believes that hurricane Sandy forced Mr Romney off front pages at a crucial time, while the President has remained a fixture of coverage due to his role in the storm recovery.

By Professor Alexander's calculation, if Mr Romney lost Ohio he would need a near clean sweep of other battlegrounds, like Wisconsin, Iowa, Nevada, Colorado and New Hampshire, to find a path to 270 Electoral College votes.

He suggests there is ''gamesmanship'' not only in the public comments of the campaigns, but even in how they are spending their money.

Nonetheless he agrees with other analysts that the race remains too close to call and has even begun receiving calls from reporters wondering how a tie in the Electoral College would play out. (After a congressional vote Mr Romney would be president, Joe Biden vice-president, he says.)

A more likely possibility is that Mr Obama could win the Electoral College vote but lose the popular vote.

This presents no legal quandaries, but would deprive the White House of a strong mandate weeks before it needs to negotiate a budget deal to prevent automatic tax increases and spending cuts agreed to when Democrats and Republicans failed to come to a budget deal.

This could stall America's slow economic recovery.



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/spend-and-bend-as-poll-goes-down-to-the-wire-20121102-28pk6.html#ixzz2B7MTuenW

Early voting gives Obama the edge

From: AP November 03, 2012 11:31PM

PRESIDENT Barack Obama is heading toward election day with an apparent lead over Republican Mitt Romney among early voters in key states.

..But Mr Obama's advantage isn't as big as the one he had over John McCain four years ago, and that gives Mr Romney's campaign hope that the former Massachusetts governor can erase the gap in Tuesday's election.

About 25 million people already have voted in 34 states and the District of Columbia. No votes will be counted until election day but several battleground states are releasing the party affiliation of people who have voted early.

So far, Democratic voters outnumber Republicans in Florida, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio. Republicans have the edge in Colorado.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/early-voting-giving-obama-the-edge/story-e6frf7k6-1226509869839

New poll shows Barack Obama-Mitt Romney race tied

From:
AFP November 04, 2012
5:46PM .

JUST 48 hours before election day, the race for the White House is tied, with both President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney receiving 48 per cent support among likely votes, a new poll has found.

The latest ABC News/Washington Post survey also showed today that even independents, whose decision can push one of the candidates over the top, are now evenly divided: 46 per cent favour Obama and 46 per cent Romney.

Even the candidates' likability ratings, where the president used to lead by a wide margin, have practically evened out.

Obama says he wants the wealthiest Americans to pay more tax, instead of the middle class. With Middle America bearing the brunt of the US recession, you have probably heard Obama trumpet how his policies have saved families earning $US50,000 a year $3600 in taxes. Part of his tax platform is the Buffett Rule, named after billionaire investment guru Warren Buffett, who famously proclaimed that it’s not fair for his secretary to pay a higher rate of tax than he does. Obama agrees – and says households earning more than $1 million should not pay a lower tax rate than a middle-class family. Instead, Obama wants millionaires to pay a minimum of 30 per cent tax. He’s also proposed cutting tax loopholes for high-income households, eliminating special tax breaks for oil and gas companies, closing loopholes for Wall Street investment fund managers, and getting rid of benefits for corporate jet owners. He also wants to eliminate tax cuts for the rich, which he says are single taxpayers making over $US200,000 or married couples making more than $US250,000.

Romney wants to cut tax rates by 20 per cent, which he says will spur jobs growth. Cutting tax rates for small businesses would prompt those businesses to hire more workers, he says. However, Obama has attacked Romney’s tax cut plan, saying it would cost $US5 trillion. That’s based on a Tax Policy Center study which found lost tax revenues would cost $US480 billion by 2015, or $US4.8 trillion this decade. However, Romney has also proposed closing so-far-unspecified loopholes and deductions, which mean the loss of revenue wouldn’t be as extreme. Romney has also criticised Obama for failing to support the ‘Simpson-Bowles’ laws to keep the deficit under control. Created in 2010, the Simpson-Bowles would have included various options to cut spending and raising taxes to tackle the deficit. But it died, after failing to get support from the bipartisan commission. Although Romney criticises Obama about this, his running mate Paul Ryan was on the commission and also voted against the plan, saying it didn't properly address healthcare entitlements.
Fifty-four per cent of likely voters now express a favourable opinion of Obama while 53 per cent do the same about Romney.
But the candidates, according to the poll, fare differently among various social and ethnic groups.
. Obama, for example, leads among women by a margin of six per cent while Romney leads among men by seven per cent.
Whites favour Romney by a margin of 20 per cent, but Obama leads by a 59 per cent margin among non-whites.


As in the 2008 election, young adults favour Obama by a 25 per cent margin while seniors prefer Romney by 12 per cent.
And Romney practically owns evangelical white Protestants, leading by a 70 per cent among this group.
The survey had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/new-poll-shows-obama-romney-race-tied/story-fnd134gw-1226510098918

It bothers me that "pro-lifer", "Anti-abortion" and "fucking asshole" have become synonymous with the word "Republican".