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Yale football coach Tom Williams resigns amid investigation into his claims he'd been Rhodes Scholar candidate. Source: http://twitter.com/AdamKissel/statuses/151462856724975617
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WASHINGTON ? Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich failed to qualify for Virginia's Super Tuesday primary ballot, the latest setback for a candidate whose standing in polls has been slipping. Gingrich's campaign said he would pursue an aggressive write-in campaign, though state law prohibits write-ins on primary ballots.
The state party said early Saturday that Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry had failed to submit the required 10,000 signatures to appear on the March 6 ballot.
Failing to get on the ballot in Virginia, where Gingrich lives, underscores the difficulty first-time national candidates have in preparing for the long haul of a presidential campaign.
And it illustrates the advantage held by Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, who has essentially been running for president for five years. Romney's team, larger than those of most of his opponents, has paid close attention to filing requirements in each state. He will appear on the Virginia ballot along with Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who also has run a national campaign before.
Ironically, Gingrich had a slight lead over Romney in a Quinnipiac poll of Virginia Republicans released earlier in the week.
The former House speaker surged in popularity in early December and tried to use that momentum to make up for a stalled campaign organization. But his standing in polls has slipped in recent days amid a barrage of negative ads in Iowa, where the Jan. 3 caucuses begin the contest for the Republican presidential nomination.
Three other candidates ? Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman ? did not submit signatures before Virginia's deadline of 5 p.m. Thursday.
Gingrich's campaign attacked Virginia's primary system on Saturday, saying that "only a failed system" would disqualify Gingrich and other candidates and vowing to run a write-in campaign.
"Voters deserve the right to vote for any top contender, especially leading candidates," Gingrich campaign director Michael Krull said in a statement. "We will work with the Republican Party of Virginia to pursue an aggressive write-in campaign to make sure that all the voters of Virginia are able to vote for the candidate of their choice."
However, according to state law, "No write-in shall be permitted on ballots in primary elections."
"Virginia code prohibits write-ins in primaries. He can't do it," said Carl Tobias, a law professor at University of Richmond.
Tobias said Gingrich may have had trouble meeting a requirement that he must submit 400 signatures from each of Virginia's 11 congressional districts.
Gingrich's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Gingrich had been concerned enough to deliver his signatures personally. Rushing Wednesday from New Hampshire, which holds its primary on Jan. 10, he had supporters sign petitions before entering a rally in Arlington, Va.
Virginia GOP spokesman Garren Shipley said in a statement that volunteers spent Friday validating signatures on petitions that Romney, Paul, Perry and Gingrich had submitted. "After verification, RPV has determined that Newt Gingrich did not submit required 10k signatures and has not qualified for the VA primary," the party announced early Saturday on its Twitter feed. Shipley did not respond to telephone calls Saturday seeking comment.
Forty-six delegates will be at stake in Virginia's Super Tuesday primary. That's a small fraction of the 1,144 delegates needed to win the nomination. But they could prove pivotal in a close race, especially for a candidate like Gingrich, who expects to do well in Southern contests.
Gingrich already missed the deadline to appear on the ballot in Missouri's Feb. 7 primary, though he insists it doesn't matter because the state awards delegates based not on the primary but on a Republican caucus held in March.
Meanwhile, Virginia's Democrats said President Barack Obama's re-election campaign gathered enough signatures to get him on the state's primary ballot though he was the only candidate who qualified.
___
Associated Press writers Will Lester and Stephen Ohlemacher contributed to this report.
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Ben Elias, Sterne Agee industrials analyst, shares his view on GE's run in December and discusses other industrials, as well.
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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/45776673/
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2011 Chevy Equinox four-cylinder AWD
2011 Chevy Equinox four-cylinder FWD
LOCATION
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OUTDOOR TEMP RANGE
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CONDITIONS
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THE TESTS
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WASHINGTON ? Continuing a tax cut of up to $40 a week for workers and unemployment benefits for millions of jobless hit a wall Tuesday as the House rejected a two-month extension of both, and President Barack Obama blamed Republicans for the stalemate.
"The clock is ticking, time is running out," Obama said shortly after House voted 229-193 to request negotiations with the Senate on renewing the payroll tax cuts for a year.
House Speaker John Boehner, told that Obama had sought his help, replied, "I need the president to help out." His voice rose as he said it, and his words were cheered by dozens of Republicans lawmakers who have pushed him and the rest of the leadership to pursue a more confrontational strategy with Democrats and the White House in an already contentious year of divided government.
This time, it wasn't a partial government shutdown or even an unprecedented Treasury default that was at stake, but the prospect that payroll taxes would rise on Jan. 1 for 160 million workers and long-term unemployment benefits end for millions of jobless victims of the worst recession since the 1930s.
Yet another deadline has been entangled in the dispute, this one affecting seniors, but the administration announced it had finessed a way around it. Officials said paperwork for doctors who treat Medicare patients in the early days of the new year will not be processed until Jan. 18, giving lawmakers more time to avert a 27 percent cut in fees threatened for Jan. 1.
Whatever the stakes, there was little indication that Republicans would get their wish for negotiations with the Senate any time soon. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., issued a statement saying he would be happy to resume talks on a yearlong measure ? "but not before" the House ratifies the two-month bill and sends it to Obama for his signature.
Given Obama's remarks and Reid's refusal to negotiate, it was unclear what leverage Republicans had in the year-end standoff. It appeared likely the partisan disagreement could easily persist past Christmas and into the last week of the year.
The standoff was sowing confusion in business, running out of days to adapt to any new payroll tax regimen. Even the Senate's proposed two-month extension was creating headaches because it contained a two-tiered system geared to ensuring that higher-income earners paid a higher rate on some of their wages, according to a trade group.
"There's not time enough to do that in an orderly fashion," said Pete A. Isberg, president of the National Payroll Reporting Consortium trade group. "We're two weeks away from 2012." He wrote a letter to congressional leaders this week warning that the Senate bill "could create substantial problems, confusion and costs."
Democrats pounced on Republicans for rejecting the Senate bill, emboldened by polls finding Obama's approval rising and that of the congressional Republicans fading. They noted that several lawmakers whom Boehner appointed to negotiate a compromise had recently criticized an extension of payroll tax cuts.
Democrats also introduced legislation in the House to ratify the two-month bill that passed the Senate.
Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the second-ranking House Democrat, asked Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., if he was "prepared to bring that bill to the floor" if no compromise was in sight by year's end.
Canter dodged the question, responding that if Democrats wanted to do their part, they could appoint negotiators.
They didn't.
For his part, Boehner sent a letter to the president, noting he had requested a yearlong extension of the tax cut and the House had approved one. "There are still 11 days before the end of the year, and with so many Americans struggling, there is no reason they should be wasted," he wrote, asking Obama to call the Senate back from its year-end vacation.
In his appearance before White House reporters, Obama said Republicans would be to blame for the consequences of a standoff. "Right now, the recovery is fragile, but it is moving in the right direction," he said. "Our failure to do this could have effects not just on families but on the economy as a whole." Obama requested the extension of the payroll tax and unemployment benefits in the fall as part of his jobs program.
As recently as Friday, it appeared a compromise was in sight on the legislation.
After efforts to agree on a yearlong extension sputtered, Senate Republicans and Democrats agreed on the two-month renewal, with the bill's estimated $35 billion cost to be covered by an increased fee on mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That assured deficits wouldn't rise, a key Republican objective.
Republicans also prevailed on their demand to require Obama to decide within 60 days the fate of a proposed Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline that promises thousands of construction jobs. The president's political supporters are divided on the Keystone XL project, with environmentalists generally opposing it and blue collar unions in favor, and Obama had hoped to avoid making a decision until after the 2012 elections.
The measure quickly cleared the Senate on a vote of 89-10, with 39 of 46 Republicans in favor. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the GOP leader, said he was optimistic the House would go along.
Not so.
On a telephone conference call on Saturday, numerous GOP lawmakers told Boehner and the leadership they opposed the Senate-passed measure.
While House Republicans quickly developed their plan ? reject the Senate bill and seek negotiations on a compromise ? there were undercurrents of dissent.
One Republican, Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, told fellow lawmakers at a closed-door meeting Monday night that he had been inaccurately quoted in an email from an unidentified GOP aide that described the contents of a private conference call, making it appear that the leadership itself was divided. Two lawmakers said details from the email found their way into print quickly after the conference call.
"It implied the speaker (Boehner) was in one place and the rest of leadership in another," Cole said in an interview Tuesday. "That wasn't the conversation."
Other Republicans said Boehner bristled in Monday night's meeting when asked whether he had given his blessing to the 60-day Senate compromise, replying that he had not and challenging one questioner to get his facts correct. They spoke on condition of anonymity, noting the events had occurred behind closed doors.
At the end of their first year in office, there was no doubt about the ability of dozens of first-term Republicans to flex their muscle.
As late as Monday night, several officials said, Cantor outlined a plan for the House to vote down the Senate bill, then vote separately to seek negotiations with the Senate.
Several Republicans objected, noting that would allow House Democrats an opportunity to go on record in favor of a payroll tax cut extension. The plan was changed, and in proceedings during the day, there was no opportunity for a straightforward yes-or-no vote on the Senate-passed bill that Democrats and the White House favor.
___
Associated Press writers Ben Feller, Alan Fram, Laurie Kellman, Larry Margasak, Andrew Taylor and Paul Wiseman contributed to this report.
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The idea of tougher, water-resistant electronics is nothing new, but this year we’ve seen rugged smartphones becoming increasingly more mainstream. Motorola has had a go at this type of product with its DEFY line, while Casio gave us the ridiculous G’zOne Commando, a phone you could probably drive a tank over. The Xperia Active sees Sony Ericsson enter this arena with a water-resistant, aluminum-framed device, aiming to strike a balance between ruggedness, aesthetics and pocketability.
We’ve been getting to grips with the Xperia Active over the past couple of weeks, so read on to find out what we thought ...
  A well-built and good-looking device with speedy internals and a bright, clear screen. Water resistance works as advertised. Lots of bundled accessories. |  Will be too small and too bulky for many. Paltry internal storage and tiny SD card. |
  It's not the phone for everyone, but the Xperia Active is well-suited to the particular niche it's aiming for. It's a thoughtfully-designed smartphone that will appeal to anyone after something a little tougher, or smaller, than what's offered by mainstream devices. | |
Inside this review | More info |
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/km8VnAUcNdw/story01.htm
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MIAMI (AP) ? Erik Spoelstra and the Miami Heat have agreed on a contract extension, ending any speculation that Pat Riley's protege would be a lame-duck coach this season.
Riley, the team president, made the announcement Friday. The Heat typically does not release terms of deals for coaches and executives, and Riley did not divulge any details of Spoelstra's extension. Spoelstra is beginning his fourth season as coach and his 17th season with the team overall.
"We have one of the great young coaches in the league, an absolute member of this family and has been for a long time, so we want him to become a Hall of Famer," Riley said Friday. "So it's been taken care of."
The 41-year-old Spoelstra was not available for immediate comment. The Heat had the day off Friday, and Riley spoke at his annual preseason availability.
Earlier this week, Spoelstra said he did not expect his contract to be a distraction, noting that Riley and the Arison family have never given him any reason to be worried about his status with the organization.
"It's a family here," Spoelstra said, "and I'm part of that."
Riley also addressed his own status with the team, reaffirming that he loves his role in Miami and does not see himself leaving any time soon.
In his first three seasons, Spoelstra has gone 148-98 in regular-season games, 18-15 in playoff games. A year ago, he led the Heat to a 58-24 mark and a 14-7 record in the postseason, where Miami lost the NBA finals to Dallas in six games.
"Me and Erik, our relationship will continue to grow," Heat forward LeBron James said this week. "It's much better today than it was the first day of practice last year. We didn't know each other at all. We were still learning each other. We'd seen each other from a distance. I'd seen him coach from the sideline ... he'd seen me play while he was coaching from the sideline. Our relationship is really good right now. I'm happy with where we are right now."
Riley said the team has been working on Spoelstra's deal "for a while."
Spoelstra came to the Heat in 1995, working his way up from the video room. Spoelstra was particularly close to Stan Van Gundy during his stint in Miami. When Van Gundy stepped down in 2005, Riley took over, and Spoelstra became the heir apparent.
When Riley decided in 2008 that his coaching days were over again, he and Heat owner Micky Arison quickly agreed Spoelstra was the right one for the job. Clearly, that hasn't changed.
"I think he's so much more comfortable his own skin," Riley said. "Contrary to what people might think, I am not a helicopter flying over the top of him all the time. I give him tremendous freedom and space, because I trust the fact that he's in there working every day. He is somebody who is very innovative, and he's not afraid to take some risks."
Riley is a regular onlooker at practice, and he and Spoelstra talk just about every day. But Riley insists the coaching is done by Spoelstra and his staff.
"He does a great job on the bench coming out of timeouts and being prepared for things," Riley said. "And I think the experience last year of also being in the finals and going down to the game that meant the difference in your season and going through that and that pain will help him. I think he's grown leaps and bounds, and he's the perfect coach for this team."
The core of Heat players ? James, Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, Udonis Haslem, Mario Chalmers, Mike Miller and so on ? are all under contract for several years to come.
Riley thought it was vital to have their coach be in the same position.
"He never would have been a lame-duck coach even though (media) would have made him one," Riley said. "Guy in the last year in his contract, that wasn't the reason why we did it. The reason why we did it is because we wanted to extend him and keep him in the family and not have somebody come in and steal him away from us. I mean that sincerely ... and I think the players feel the same way."
NOTES: Riley said F Mike Miller was never a candidate to be designated as the team's amnesty player this season. "We want Mike to play for us and make jumpers and help us and just like he did in the playoffs," Riley said. ... His thoughts on the end of last season and what he learned: "What I learned about last year is what I learned about every year that you don't win a championship: You feel misery. That's all."
___
Follow Tim Reynolds on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ByTimReynolds
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CNBC's Jon Fortt reports on 'Betterworks,' a company that offers affordable perks and benefits for employees.
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WASHINGTON ? College students taking longer than six years to obtain their undergraduate degree would have their Pell grants cut off next school year under a $1 trillion budget bill passed Friday in the House.
Millions of students each year receive Pell grants, which are offered to low-income students and don't have to be paid back.
The bill keeps the maximum grant award at $5,550, but seeks to save $11 billion over the next decade in Pell dollars, in part, by reducing the maximum number of years the grant can be received from nine to six.
It's estimated that about 100,000 students would be affected by the change, said Amy Wilkins, the vice president for government affairs and communications at the advocacy group Education Trust. Students who take that long to get a degree typically are either transfer students who don't receive full credit for previous coursework or those working and supporting a family, Wilkins said. Some, she said, will be surprised to learn they may have to come up with thousands of dollars to make up the difference.
"For those 100,000 kids, it's pretty bad," Wilkins said.
The bill also reduces the income level under which a student will automatically be eligible to receive the maximum Pell grants from $30,000 to $23,000. And, it requires recipients to have a high school diploma, GED certificate or complete a homeschooling program to receive a Pell grant.
As more low-income students have enrolled in college during a weak economy, spending on Pell Grants has exploded, nearly doubling in just over two years to $34.8 billion. In 2008-2009, according to data collected by the College Board, 6.2 million students received Pell Grants averaging $2,945; in 2010-2011 9.1 million received grants averaging $3,828.
In other education areas, popular initiatives for special-needs children and disadvantaged schools were basically frozen in the bill, and Obama's "Race to the Top" initiative, which provides grants to winners in exchange for reforms the administration favors, would absorb a more than 20 percent cut.
The bill next goes to the Senate, which was expected to pass it on Saturday.
_____
AP Education Writer Justin Pope contributed to this report.
_____
Online: http://www.edtrust.org/
_____
Kimberly Hefling can be followed at http://twitter.com/khefling
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CAIRO (Reuters) ? Three people were killed as troops fought daylong battles with protesters, showing the tensions seething in Egypt nine months after Hosni Mubarak's fall, even in the midst of polls meant to herald a promised transfer to civilian rule.
The Health Ministry said 257 people had also been wounded in the clashes in Cairo on Friday, where anger at the actions of the security forces turned the city centre into a smoke-filled battleground shortly after two days of mostly peaceful voting.
Egypt's Dar al-Iftah, the body that issues Islamic fatwas (edicts), said one of its top officials, Emad Effat, was among the dead, the state news agency MENA said.
The violence has sharpened tensions between the ruling army and its opponents, and clouded a parliamentary vote set to bring Islamists, long repressed by Mubarak, to the verge of power.
Clashes around the cabinet offices and parliament raged on after nightfall, with protesters throwing petrol bombs and stones at soldiers who used batons and what witnesses said appeared to be electric cattle prods.
Some of the casualties had gunshot wounds, but the ruling military council, in a statement read on state television, denied that troops had used firearms and rejected accusations by pro-democracy activists that the army had ignited the unrest by trying to disperse a sit-in outside the cabinet office.
The army said the trouble had begun when an officer tasked with maintaining security outside parliament had been attacked.
RESIGNATION THREAT
A new civilian advisory council set up to offer policy guidance to the generals said it would resign if its recommendations on how to solve the crisis were not heeded.
One of its members, presidential candidate Amr Moussa, told an Egyptian television channel that the body had suspended its meetings until the military council met its demands, including halting all violence against demonstrators.
Islamist and liberal politicians decried the army's tactics.
"Even if the sit-in was not legal, should it be dispersed with such brutality and barbarity?" asked Mohamed ElBaradei, a presidential candidate and former U.N. nuclear watchdog head.
The sit-in outside the cabinet office was a remnant of far bigger protests last month around Cairo's Tahrir Square in which 42 people were killed shortly before voting began in Egypt's first election since the army council took over from Mubarak.
"The council wants to spoil the elections. They don't want a parliament that has popular legitimacy, unlike them, and would challenge their authority," said Shadi Fawzy, a pro-democracy activist. "I don't believe they will hand over power in June."
A big turnout in the first round of the election, which began on November 28, had partly deflated street protests against army rule. But the unrest had already prompted the government to resign and the generals to pledge to step aside by July.
The army is in charge until a presidential election in June, but parliament will have a popular mandate that the military will find hard to ignore as it oversees the transition.
On Sunday, a new cabinet is to hold its first full meeting since it was sworn in on December 7 and plans to weigh new austerity measures to address a wider-than-expected budget deficit.
But the latest violence may make it even harder for Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri, who has made law and order a priority for his interim government, to gain credibility.
Adel Soliman, head of Cairo's International Centre for Future and Strategic Studies, said Ganzouri had not responded decisively to the crisis despite saying his government had wide authority. "There is complete silence from all those in power."
(Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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WASHINGTON ? Entering 2012, President Barack Obama's re-election prospects are essentially a 50-50 proposition, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll. It found that most Americans say the president deserves to be voted out of office even though they have concerns about the Republican alternatives.
Obama's overall standing in the poll suggests he could be in jeopardy of losing re-election even as the survey showed that public's outlook on the economy appears to be improving. For the first time since spring, more people said the economy got better in the past month than said it got worse. The president's approval rating on unemployment shifted upward ? from 40 percent in October to 45 percent in the latest poll ? as the jobless rate fell to 8.6 percent last month, its lowest level since March 2009.
But Obama's approval rating on his handling of the economy overall remains stagnant: Thirty-nine percent approve and 60 percent disapprove.
Heading into his re-election campaign, the president faces a conflicted public. It does not support his steering of the economy, the most dominant issue for Americans, or his overhaul of health care, one of his signature accomplishments, but it also is grappling with whether to replace him with Republican contenders Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich.
The poll found Americans were evenly divided over whether they expect Obama to be re-elected next year.
For the first time, the poll found that a majority of adults, 52 percent, said Obama should be voted out of office while 43 percent said he deserves another term. The numbers mark a reversal since last May, when 53 percent said Obama should be re-elected while 43 percent said he didn't deserve four more years.
Obama's overall job approval stands at a new low, with 44 percent approving and 54 percent disapproving. The president's standing among independents is worse: Thirty-eight percent approve while 59 percent disapprove. Among Democrats, the president holds steady with an approval rating of 78 percent while only 12 percent of Republicans approve of the job he's doing.
"I think he's doing the best he can. The problem is the Congress won't help at all," said Rosario Navarro, a Democrat and a 44-year-old truck driver from Fresno, Calif., who voted for Obama in 2008 and intends to support him again.
Robin Dein, a 54-year-old homemaker from Villanova, Pa., who is an independent, said she supported Republican John McCain in 2008 and has not been impressed with Obama's economic policies. She intends to support Romney if he wins the GOP nomination.
Obama, she said, "spent the first part of his presidency blaming Bush for everything, not that he was innocent, and now his way of solving anything is by spending more money."
Despite the soft level of support, many are uncertain whether a Republican president would be a better choice. Asked whom they would support next November, 47 percent of adults favored Obama and 46 percent Romney, the former Massachusetts governor. Against Gingrich, the president holds a solid advantage, receiving 51 percent compared with 42 percent for the former House speaker.
The potential matchups paint a better picture for the president among independents. Obama receives 45 percent of nonaligned adults compared with 41 percent for Romney. Against Gingrich, Obama holds a wide lead among independents, with 54 percent supporting the president and 31 percent backing the former Georgia congressman.
Another piece of good news for Obama: People generally like him personally. Obama's personal favorability rating held steady at 53 percent, with 46 percent viewing him unfavorably. About three-quarters called him likable.
The economy remains a source of pessimism, though the poll suggests the first positive movement in public opinion on the economy in months. One in five said the economy improved in the last month, double the share saying so in October. Still most expect it to stay the same or get worse.
"I suppose you could make some sort of argument that it's getting better, but I'm not sure I even see that," said independent voter John Bailey, a 61-year-old education consultant from East Jordan, Mich. "I think it's bad and it's gotten worse under (Obama's) policies. At best, it's going to stay bad."
Despite the high rate of joblessness, the poll found some optimism on the economy. Although 80 percent described the economy as "poor," respondents describing it "very poor" fell from 43 percent in October to 34 percent in the latest poll, the lowest since May. Twenty percent said the economy got better in the past month while 37 percent said they expected the economy to improve next year.
Yet plenty of warning signs remain for Obama. Only 26 percent said the United States is headed in the right direction while 70 percent said the country was moving in the wrong direction.
The president won a substantial number of female voters in 2008 yet there does not appear to be a significant tilt toward Obama among women now. The poll found 44 percent of women say Obama deserves a second term, down from 51 percent in October, while 43 percent of men say the president should be re-elected.
About two-thirds of white voters without college degrees say Obama should be a one-term president, while 33 percent of those voters say he should get another four years. Among white voters with a college degree, 57 percent said Obama should be voted out of office.
The poll found unpopularity for last year's health care overhaul. About half of the respondents oppose the health care law and support for it dipped to 29 percent from 36 percent in June. Just 15 percent said the federal government should have the power to require all Americans to buy health insurance.
Even among Democrats, the health care law has tepid support. Fifty percent of Democrats supported the health care law, compared with 59 percent of Democrats last June. Only about a quarter of independents back the law.
The president has taken a more populist tone in his handling of the economy, arguing that the wealthy should pay more in taxes to help pay for the extension of a payroll tax cut that would provide about $1,000 in tax cuts to a family earning about $50,000 a year. Among those with annual household incomes of $50,000 or less, Obama's approval rating on unemployment climbed to 53 percent from 43 percent in October.
The Associated Press-GfK Poll was conducted Dec. 8-12 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. It involved landline and cellphone interviews with 1,000 adults nationwide and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
___
Associated Press writer Stacy A. Anderson and News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.
___
Online:
http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com
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'Tis just weeks before Christmas and all through the land,
The prospects for Republicans aren't looking so grand.
As dear Santa is donning his festive red suit,
Both on network and cable, all we hear of is Newt.
Pawlenty dropped out, then we lost Herman Cain,
Of initial contenders, only several remain.
Perry stays on, though we know he can't win it,
For whenever he opens his mouth... foot is in it.
And Bachmann, my goodness, her campaign is failin',
She's enough to make feminists love Sarah Palin.
And then there's Ron Paul, a most loveable crank,
That he can't be elected, lucky stars we must thank.
Another one who simply can't find a quorum,
Is the earnest young moralist, Richard Santorum.
No matter how much sanctimony he floats,
It seems nobody, listens, he garners no votes.
And what must be going through Romney's poor mind?
When no matter who falters, he still stays behind.
Like the kid on the playground, with brand new gym shoes,
Mitt's the very last pick, for they all know he'll lose.
How ironic for Huntsman, another Latter-Day Saint,
Is losing to Gingrich, (who a Saint he sure ain't!)
Huntsman and Mitt, Mormon men all their lives,
And it's Newt who's had fun taking multiple wives!
But Newt is the man, and he's most entertaining,
And the fun just gets better, as the polls show him gaining.
He takes millions from Freddie, "just consulting," he claims,
Nope, he'd never take money to advance Freddie's aims.
He never would lobby, he's just a historian,
He proclaims with a sneer and a tone quite stentorian.
And among the grand plans he declares for the nation,
Is a whole new approach to poor kids' education.
Clean toilets! Sweep floors! That will teach them to learn,
How to get off the dole... their own keep they should earn.
Because black kids in poverty have it too easy,
The fathers are lazy and the mothers are sleazy.
Political memories have too rapid extinction,
For we seem to forget Newt's most ignoble distinction.
His greatest achievement, not campaigns or speeches,
Is how Congress addressed Newt's deep ethical breaches.
Peers delivered a stern, quite direct, reprimand,
And fined Newt the Speaker about $300 grand,
In all of our history, only once this transpired.
(If it happened to you or to me, we'd be fired.)
But Newt's made of Teflon and his every transgression,
Just goes poof as he genuflects, goes to Confession,
Whatever his faith at the time happens to be,
He's got some religion to lean on, to say, "Forgive me."
But even if Newt wins each coming primary,
Imagine the huge load of baggage he'll carry!
But let's not complain, not be driven to tears,
'Cause it also means Barack gets another 4 years!
But enough about Newt, 'tis the season for joy,
And to all Huff Post readers, to each girl and each boy,
Whether atheist, Muslim, or fan of the Pontiff,
Merry Christmas to some and to others, Good Yontiff!
?
Follow Steve Nelson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/snelson0248
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-nelson/twas-the-night-before-christmas-parody_b_1144308.html
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HOLIDAY CHEER: FedEx Corp. said Thursday its net income nearly doubled in its fiscal second-quarter, driven by online holiday sales.
THE NUMBERS: The Memphis, Tenn., company earned $497 million, or $1.57 per share, compared with $283 million, or 89 cents per share a year earlier. Last year's quarter included 27 cents in charges related to a business unit combination and legal reserve. FedEx's revenue rose 10 percent to $10.59 billion in the recent quarter.
IN WITH THE NEW: FedEx Corp. also said Thursday that it signed a deal to buy 27 new Boeing 767-300 aircraft, with the first three set to arrive in 2014. They will replace planes that are as much as 40 years old.
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CAIRO (Reuters) ? Egyptians voted on Monday in run-off contests for parliamentary seats, with the Muslim Brotherhood's party trying to extend its lead over hardline Islamists and liberal parties in a political landscape redrawn by the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak.
The Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) is set to take the most seats in Egypt's first free election in six decades, bolstering its hand in any struggle with the ruling army council for influence over the most populous Arab nation.
The Brotherhood, banned from politics until an uprising ended Mubarak's 30-year rule on February 11, said after the first-round vote that everyone should "accept the will of the people."
Its stiffest competition has come from the ultra-conservative Salafi al-Nour Party. Alexandria, Egypt's second city, was expected to see some of the tightest races between the two parties in the run-off votes for individual candidates.
"The Brotherhood will win, we know them. The Salafis are new to us and we don't know what they will do," said Walid Mohamed, 30, a quality controller at a drugs factory in Alexandria.
"The competition won't weaken either of them. The most important thing is that the winners rule us by Islam," he added.
The phased election that runs until January is part of a promised transition from military to civilian rule in July after a presidential election in June.
The head of the election committee, Abdul Moez Ibrahim, had put the turnout in last week's voting at 62 percent, but on Monday he told a news conference the figure had been revised to 52 percent, blaming a counting error.
The appeal of Islamist parties derives partly from perceptions that they are less corrupt due to their religious principles, and partly because those principles strike a deep chord in a conservative, poorly educated society.
A Pew Global Attitudes Project report released a year ago found that about four-fifths of Egyptians favored Islamic punishments such as stoning for adultery, whippings and cutting off of hands for theft, and death for those who leave Islam.
In Port Said at the northern end of the Suez Canal, some voters seemed to be rethinking after last week's Islamist gains.
"I came to vote for the independent candidate. I reject the Salafis because they did nothing for Port Said. I'm worried about Islamists controlling Port Said's seats after they won the voting for lists," said Medhat al-Sayyed, 43.
A housewife named Amani Ibrahim, 47, said she had voted for Islamists in the first round "but as a result of the violations I saw from Islamist candidates, particularly using mosques for campaigning, I'll vote for the independent candidate today."
IRREGULARITIES
FJP campaign workers drove around Alexandria in mini-buses canvassing for votes. They and their Salafi counterparts handed out flyers for their candidates, in violation of election rules.
But when Nour campaigners began distributing flyers at one Alexandria polling station, an army officer told them to leave. At other polling stations, Islamist campaign workers with laptops offered assistance to voters, as in last week's polls.
In Cairo, Jihan Moussa, 39, a veiled pharmacist, said she had voted for the Egyptian Bloc which she described as centrist. "I am against any party based on religion," she added.
The rise of Salafis has alarmed many Egyptians, including a 10 percent Christian minority, because of their view that strict sharia (Islamic law) should govern all aspects of society.
The pragmatic Brotherhood is wary of allying with Salafis, who only recently ventured from preaching into politics.
"The Salafis are abiding by sharia ... while the Brotherhood play politics," said Amin Ibrahim, 38, a print worker voting in Alexandria, regarded as a stronghold of Islamists.
Nour Party leader Emad Abdel Ghaffour made it clear he would not play second fiddle to the Brotherhood.
"We hate being followers," Ghaffour told Reuters. "There might be a consensus but ... we will remain independent."
Voting was slow in Cairo, Alexandria and Port Said, in contrast to the crowds at polling stations last week.
The election committee listed first-round shortcomings such as polling stations opening late, ballots arriving late and campaigning at polling stations, but said these would not recur.
Under a complex system, two-thirds of the 498 elected lower house seats go proportionately to party lists, with the rest going to individual candidates, who must win more than 50 percent of votes in the first round to avoid a run-off.
Only four seats were won outright in the first round, leaving 52 to be decided in run-off voting on Monday and Tuesday, 24 of them contested between the FJP and Nour.
The Brotherhood, Egypt's best-organized political group and popular with the poor for its decades of charity work, wants to shape a new constitution to be drawn up next year.
That could be the focus of a power struggle with the army council, which wants to keep a strong presidential system, rather than the parliamentary one favored by the Brotherhood.
Election committee figures from last week's polls show an FJP-led list securing 36.6 percent of votes, Nour's Salafi list 24.4 percent and the Egyptian Bloc 13.4 percent.
The result has unnerved Israel, concerned about the fate of its 1979 peace treaty with Egypt.
"We hope any future government in Egypt will recognize the importance of keeping the peace treaty with Israel in its own right and as a basis for regional security and economic stability," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.
The future of the peace deal between Egypt and Israel is a concern for its sponsor, the United States, which has backed it with billions of dollars in military aid for both countries.
(Additional reporting by Tamim Elyan in Alexandria and Yusri Mohamed in Port Said; Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Tim Pearce)
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Public release date: 5-Dec-2011
Share ] Contact: David Orenstein
david_orenstein@brown.edu
401-863-1862
Brown University
PROVIDENCE, R.I. Brown University -- The fungi of the Candida genus, known to millions of patients worldwide for their ability to cause serious infections, were once all thought to be asexual. Even after scientists discovered that the mating habits of Candida albicans were many and varied, they remained convinced that many of the more infectious ones did not mate. Now with the first report that Candida tropicalis can mate sexually as well, the chastity of the whole genus comes into further doubt.
"I think the really asexual fungi are going to turn out to be the exception, rather than the rule," said Richard Bennett, assistant professor of biology at Brown University and senior author of the report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The revelation that C. tropicalis mates sexually is not simply prurient. Some scientists, including Bennett, hypothesize that the pathogen's mix of sexual behaviors may have evolved as a survival tactic. When things are going well, it may be best to reproduce asexually to keep a successful genome fairly stable. If conditions become hostile, then it makes sense to switch to sexual reproduction to accelerate the creation and proliferation of new, adaptive traits.
"Sex is really good for microbes when times are hard," Bennett said. "That's the time when you need to adapt and try various combinations of your genes or alleles."
The at least occasionally sexual nature of C. tropicalis may mean that the species can evolve faster than scientists thought it did, Bennett said. That means it may also be more capable of developing increased virulence or drug resistance.
What the student saw
The research began somewhat unintentionally in the spring of 2010 when Allison M. Porman, a new graduate student, was on a brief rotation through Bennett's lab. Porman happened to notice that a Petri dish of C. tropicalis had separated out into darker and lighter regions. This suggested that the fungi had formed two separate phenotypes, with an intriguing similarity to the "white" and "opaque" phenotypes of C. albicans. In C. albicans, that distinction is not just one of color, but also of mating behavior.
Porman rejoined the lab and led the experiments described in the new paper. What she, Bennett, and their co-authors discovered was not only that C. tropicalis mates and that the mating depends on pheromones, but also that the genetic "switch" that converts the fungus from its chaste "white" state to its more libidinous "opaque" state shares a key gene in common with that in C. albicans called WOR1. And yet, they determined the sequence of necessary regulatory events involving WOR1 doesn't proceed in exactly the same way in C. tropicalis as in C. albicans. In C. albicans one trigger among several appears to be temperature. The team is still trying to figure out what turns C. tropicalis on.
"It's been really hard to find the trigger," Bennett said. "We can't force the switch in either direction. We have to just plate loads of cells and hope we get the one random event that switches to the other state."
Finding the right environmental trigger could either support or undermine the hypothesis that fungus employs sex as a survival tactic. It could also offer clues to finding the presumed mating behavior of other Candida species.
###
In addition to Porman and Bennett, other authors include Kevin Alby and Matthew Hirakawa. The National Institutes of Health supported the research.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 5-Dec-2011 Share ] Contact: David Orenstein
david_orenstein@brown.edu
401-863-1862
Brown University
PROVIDENCE, R.I. Brown University -- The fungi of the Candida genus, known to millions of patients worldwide for their ability to cause serious infections, were once all thought to be asexual. Even after scientists discovered that the mating habits of Candida albicans were many and varied, they remained convinced that many of the more infectious ones did not mate. Now with the first report that Candida tropicalis can mate sexually as well, the chastity of the whole genus comes into further doubt.
"I think the really asexual fungi are going to turn out to be the exception, rather than the rule," said Richard Bennett, assistant professor of biology at Brown University and senior author of the report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The revelation that C. tropicalis mates sexually is not simply prurient. Some scientists, including Bennett, hypothesize that the pathogen's mix of sexual behaviors may have evolved as a survival tactic. When things are going well, it may be best to reproduce asexually to keep a successful genome fairly stable. If conditions become hostile, then it makes sense to switch to sexual reproduction to accelerate the creation and proliferation of new, adaptive traits.
"Sex is really good for microbes when times are hard," Bennett said. "That's the time when you need to adapt and try various combinations of your genes or alleles."
The at least occasionally sexual nature of C. tropicalis may mean that the species can evolve faster than scientists thought it did, Bennett said. That means it may also be more capable of developing increased virulence or drug resistance.
What the student saw
The research began somewhat unintentionally in the spring of 2010 when Allison M. Porman, a new graduate student, was on a brief rotation through Bennett's lab. Porman happened to notice that a Petri dish of C. tropicalis had separated out into darker and lighter regions. This suggested that the fungi had formed two separate phenotypes, with an intriguing similarity to the "white" and "opaque" phenotypes of C. albicans. In C. albicans, that distinction is not just one of color, but also of mating behavior.
Porman rejoined the lab and led the experiments described in the new paper. What she, Bennett, and their co-authors discovered was not only that C. tropicalis mates and that the mating depends on pheromones, but also that the genetic "switch" that converts the fungus from its chaste "white" state to its more libidinous "opaque" state shares a key gene in common with that in C. albicans called WOR1. And yet, they determined the sequence of necessary regulatory events involving WOR1 doesn't proceed in exactly the same way in C. tropicalis as in C. albicans. In C. albicans one trigger among several appears to be temperature. The team is still trying to figure out what turns C. tropicalis on.
"It's been really hard to find the trigger," Bennett said. "We can't force the switch in either direction. We have to just plate loads of cells and hope we get the one random event that switches to the other state."
Finding the right environmental trigger could either support or undermine the hypothesis that fungus employs sex as a survival tactic. It could also offer clues to finding the presumed mating behavior of other Candida species.
###
In addition to Porman and Bennett, other authors include Kevin Alby and Matthew Hirakawa. The National Institutes of Health supported the research.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/bu-ift113011.php
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