Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/193037972?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Fur flies in snub of Scorsese "Hugo" dog (Reuters)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? It's no secret that during Hollywood's awards season, complex character roles often get overlooked in favor of more uplifting performances. But when Martin Scorsese saw such a slight befall his "Hugo" star, he was not about to slink away with his tail between his legs.
The esteemed filmmaker took a stand and barked loudly for that actor -- and now Blackie the Doberman is at the center of a heated award campaign.
In an op-ed piece in Sunday's Los Angeles Times, Scorsese -- whose 3D adventure "Hugo" leads this year's Academy Awards race with 11 nominations -- voiced his outrage over the Doberman pinscher's omission from nominations for the inaugural Golden Collar Awards.
"How could she not be nominated?" he wrote, noting the two nods -- two! -- for the plucky little terrier Uggie of "The Artist" fame. (Notably, the silent movie romance is second only to "Hugo" in Oscar nods with 10.)
Oh, the injustice.
So Scorsese -- he of "Taxi Driver" and "Raging Bull" fame -- took the matter one step further, urging a write-in campaign for Blackie.
Dog News Daily, the online magazine behind the Golden Collars, took up the gauntlet Sunday, inviting fans of Blackie to make their preference known.
"We will do what Mr. Scorsese so eloquently requests of the LA Times readers as well as fans of HUGO and Dobermans everywhere," the site's editors wrote. "If Blackie receives 500 write-in 'NOMINATE HUGO'S BLACKIE' posts by Monday, February 6th on Dog News Daily's FACEBOOK PAGE then the Golden Collar nominating committee will request that the panel of 14 judges add HUGO'S BLACKIE as the 6th Nominee in the Best Dog in a Theatrical Film category."
Should Blackie be added to the ballot, she'll be competing with Uggie, arguably this year's highest-profile canine. The Jack Russell terrier received his Golden Collar nominations for performances in both "The Artist" and "Water for Elephants."
Uggie, too, is at the center of a social media campaign, instigated by Moveline on Facebook to urge an Oscar nod for the terrier.
In the campaign for Blackie, hardly a whimper. Until now. The muzzles are off and the dog race is on.
Also vying for top dog at the February 13 Golden Collars are Cosmo ("Beginners"), Denver ("50/50") and Hummer ("Young Adult"). But Scorsese is mad about Blackie.
In his op-ed piece, Scorsese pointed out the dynamics working against actors of the Doberman persuasion. "Jack Russell terriers are small and cute," Scorsese reminded readers. "Dobermans are enormous and -- handsome. More tellingly, Uggie plays a nice little mascot who does tricks and saves his master's life in one of the films, while Blackie gives an uncompromising performance as a ferocious guard dog who terrorizes children. I'm sure you can see what I'm driving at.
"We all have fond memories of Rin Tin Tin and Lassie, the big stars, the heroes, but what about the antiheroes? We have learned to accept the human antihero, but when it comes to dogs, I guess we still have a long way to go."
(Reporting by Sheri Linden; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
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Monday, January 30, 2012
Why Are We Giving Away Billions in Foreign Aid? (ContributorNetwork)
COMMENTARY | According to a Reuters report, the U.S. has announced it wants to give close to $1 billion to Bangladesh over the next five years to alleviate poverty and malnutrition, help with family planning and infectious diseases, research farm productivity and address climate change. We've already given that country $5.7 billion as of 2011, the report states.
It always shocks me when I hear -- amid all the noise about how broke our government is -- that we're giving billions to help other countries. It's not that I'm against helping, mind you. I tend to think charitable giving is something better left in the hands of private organizations, with private dollars, however. But it isn't. What's more, according to a June Fox News report, we're giving hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to countries we're borrowing billions of dollars from, including China, Brazil, Russia, India, Mexico and Egypt. As a side note, I did not realize we were borrowing money from Mexico, but according to the report, it holds $28.1 billion of U.S. Treasury bonds.
The Fox News article states much of this money is going to preventing tuberculosis and AIDS/HIV, combating weapons of mass destruction and counterterrorism. But that's not all. The Census Bureau compiles foreign aid information, with reports that can be found in PDF format on its website. According to the 2012 statistical data, in 2009, the U.S. provided almost $45 billion in foreign aid, including about $34 billion in economic aid and a little over 11 billion in military aid.
Of the U.S. economic aid in 2009, the largest recipients were Afghanistan and Iraq, followed by Pakistan and Sudan. The West Bank/ Gaza tops of the list of the five countries receiving the most economic aid from the U.S., with a little over $1 billion worth. In military aid, more than $5.7 billion went to Afghanistan. Over $2 billion went to Israel. Egypt received more than $1 billion. Did you know we were sending military aid to Egypt?
The list of countries we send our money to is daunting. The amount of money we send to them is crazy. According to the figures, since 2001, that amount has increased from $16,836,000,000 to $44,957,000,000. And we don't have enough to pay our own bills. And we listen to our Congress talk about cutting our spending. I think we need to cut down on the high-priced gifts and loans we're giving to everyone else.
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Ancient Mummy Had Prostate Cancer
CAIRO -- A professor from American University in Cairo says discovery of prostate cancer in a 2,200-year-old mummy indicates the disease was caused by genetics, not environment.
The genetics-environment question is key to understanding cancer.
AUC professor Salima Ikram, a member of the team that studied the mummy in Portugal for two years, said Sunday the mummy was of a man who died in his forties.
She said this was the second oldest known case of prostate cancer.
"Living conditions in ancient times were very different; there were no pollutants or modified foods, which leads us to believe that the disease is not necessarily only linked to industrial factors," she said.
A statement from AUC says the oldest known case came from a 2,700 year-old skeleton of a king in Russia.
Related on HuffPost:
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New look at evidence OK'd in fatal 1989 Pa. fire (AP)
PHILADELPHIA ? A federal appeals court has granted another look at the evidence in the case of a man convicted of killing his daughter in what authorities alleged was an arson fire two decades ago in eastern Pennsylvania. Defense attorneys and some arson specialists say that determination was made using what's now considered flawed science.
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday granted 76-year-old Han Tak Lee's request for an independent examination of evidence from the July 1989 fire that killed 20-year-old Ji Yun Lee at a religious retreat in the Pocono Mountains.
Attorneys for Lee argue that advances in fire science now show that expert testimony was unreliable.
Defense attorney Peter Goldberger says his client is "delighted." Monroe County District Attorney David Christine says an appeal is under consideration.
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Irish voters would back EU fiscal treaty: poll (Reuters)
DUBLIN (Reuters) ? Irish voters would narrowly back a proposed European Union treaty to tighten budget rules if it was put to a referendum, an opinion poll showed on Saturday, but a quarter of those questioned said they were still undecided.
European leaders are expected to agree on the fiscal compact on Monday in a bid to regain market confidence in the public finances of the 17 countries sharing the euro.
Irish citizens, who are entitled to vote on any major transfers of powers to Brussels, are seen as one of the biggest obstacles to overhaul of the bloc. They have twice rejected changes to EU treaties before voting through amended versions.
Forty percent of the 1,000 people questioned in the Sunday Business Post/Red C poll said they would vote in favor of the treaty, with 36 percent opposed. Twenty-four percent said they did not yet know how they would vote.
The government has said it will seek legal advice before deciding whether to hold a referendum, but 72 percent of those polled said the treaty should go to a vote.
EU officials agreed to the new treaty in December, aiming to push ahead with deeper economic integration and tackle a euro zone debt crisis.
(Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Ben Harding)
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
Video: US coupon craze turns to medical care
>>> back now with a sign of the times and an increasing popular way to get healthcare these days online coupons. some who can't afford health insurance and are in desperate need of healthcare say sites like groupon and living social can be a life saver , but that has some health experts worried and they're issuing a word of caution.
>> reporter: in this economy, who isn't looking for a good deal?
>> thank you.
>> reporter: matthew marco with its found one at a place that doesn't usually screen discounts -- the dentist.
>> cleaning, x-ray and examination, you know, immediately i thought well, this is too good to be true.
>> reporter: but it was true. at dr. greg diamond's office. these three procedures should have cost matthew more than $500 but he got them for less than $60.
>> it was like any other cleaning and x-ray and examination experience i have had. if not better. something that i would consider for other healthcare needs.
>> reporter: a deal and part of a new trend. coupon sites expanding from travel and restaurant offers to include checkups and other health care procedures.
>> this would about providing a service to people who don't feel that they could afford dentistry.
>> reporter: for dr. diamond, it produced volume.
>> approximately 1,300 new patients over a 24-hour period.
>> reporter: according to a company that tracks data on websites, consumers saved between $500,000 and $700,000 and the number of weight loss offers sky rocketed. but is it safe when it comes to your well-being? some fear people will look for deals without doing the research.
>> we do not know -- at least i don't know what sort of credentials, what sort of vetting these groups have when they're recruiting a healthcare provider .
>> reporter: living social and groupon, two popular discount websites, say they have procedures in place to screen all merchants including doctors before a deal reaches your in box.
>> getting that e-mail was a second chance for me.
>> reporter: for this woman who has no health insurance and a tight budget, the decision was simple.
>> i was putting it off. there were medical issues that were starting to develop. i needed this to take myself to the next level.
>> reporter: proof that next checkup could be well worth it in more ways than one.
Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/46176617/
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How to Get to the Seafloor Without Holding Your Breath [Design]
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/JYrbLGiprig/
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Heart of silk: Scientists use silk from the tasar silkworm as a scaffold for heart tissue
ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2012) ? Max Planck scientists have used silk from the tasar silkworm as a scaffold for heart tissue.
Damaged human heart muscle cannot be regenerated. Scar tissue grows in place of the damaged muscle cells. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim are seeking to restore complete cardiac function with the help of artificial cardiac tissue. They have succeeded in loading cardiac muscle cells onto a three-dimensional scaffold, created using the silk produced by a tropical silkworm.
Of all the body?s organs, the human heart is probably the one most primed for performance and efficiency. Decade after decade, it continues to pump blood around our bodies. However, this performance optimisation comes at a high price: over the course of evolution, almost all of the body?s own regeneration mechanisms in the heart have become deactivated. As a result, a heart attack is a very serious event for patients; dead cardiac cells are irretrievably lost. The consequence of this is a permanent deterioration in the heart?s pumping power and in the patient?s quality of life.
In their attempt to develop a treatment for the repair of cardiac tissue, scientists are pursuing the aim of growing replacement tissue in the laboratory, which could then be used to produce replacement patches for the repair of damaged cardiac muscle. The reconstruction of a three-dimensional structure poses a challenge here. Experiments have already been carried out with many different materials that could provide a scaffold substance for the loading of cardiac muscle cells.
?Whether natural or artificial in origin, all of the tested fibres had serious disadvantages,? says Felix Engel, Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim. ?They were either too brittle, were attacked by the immune system or did not enable the heart muscle cells to adhere correctly to the fibres.? However, the scientists have now found a possible solution in Kharagpur, India.
At the university there, coin-sized disks are being produced from the cocoon of the tasar silkworm (Antheraea mylitta). According to Chinmoy Patra, an Indian scientist who now works in Engel?s laboratory, the fibre produced by the tasar silkworm displays several advantages over the other substances tested. ?The surface has protein structures that facilitate the adhesion of heart muscle cells. It?s also coarser than other silk fibres.? This is the reason why the muscle cells grow well on it and can form a three-dimensional tissue structure. ?The communication between the cells was intact and they beat synchronously over a period of 20 days, just like real heart muscle,? says Engel.
Despite these promising results, clinical application of the fibre is not currently on the agenda. ?Unlike in our study, which we carried out using rat cells, the problem of obtaining sufficient human cardiac cells as starting material has not yet been solved,? says Engel. It is thought that the patient?s own stem cells could be used as starting material to avoid triggering an immune reaction. However, exactly how the conversion of the stem cells into cardiac muscle cells works remains a mystery.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Max-Planck-Gesellschaft.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Chinmoy Patra, Sarmistha Talukdar, Tatyana Novoyatleva, Siva R. Velagala, Christian M?hlfeld, Banani Kundu, Subhas C. Kundu, Felix B. Engel. Silk protein fibroin from Antheraea mylitta for cardiac tissue engineering. Biomaterials, 2012; 33 (9): 2673 DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2011.12.036
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120127135943.htm
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Zynga Brings Social Gaming To The Bingo Hall With Newest Facebook Title
There's been one trend we've been noticing over the past few years when it comes to Zynga's game development strategy. The social gaming giant likes to re-create classic games like Hangman or hidden puzzles and add social elements for gameplay. We saw this with the release of Hanging With Friends, Scramble With Friends, Hidden Chronicles. And As Zynga revealed in October, next up is Bingo. Today, the company is revealing its social take on Bingo via a Facebook game, which will be joining Zynga Poker in Zynga?s newest franchise, Zynga Casino. Currently, the game is in private beta but will be launching to the public soon. In terms of actual gameplay, Zynga Bingo works similarly to the way an ordinary bingo game works. And if you've played Zynga Poker before, the game mechanics and nuances will feel familiar to you as well. As numbers are called out in the game, you cross off those that match on your card, with the winner being the first person who reaches a consecutive pattern on the card from the drawn numbers.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/S0QhwlHjMCQ/
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Friday, January 27, 2012
Lazio defender Dias banned for 3 Cup matches
Associated Press Sports
updated 10:45 a.m. ET Jan. 27, 2012
MILAN (AP) -Lazio defender Andre Dias has been banned for three Italian Cup matches for taking a swipe at the head of AC Milan midfielder Mark van Bommel.
The referee missed the incident during the second half of Milan's 3-1 quarterfinal win on Thursday, even though Van Bommel ended up on the ground.
The league judge also banned Inter Milan coach Claudio Ranieri for one match for insulting the referee during a 2-0 loss to Napoli on Wednesday.
Since Lazio and Inter have already been eliminated, Dias and Ranieri will serve out their bans next season.
Milan faces Juventus in one semifinal, and Napoli meets Siena in the other.
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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More newsAFP - Getty Images'Bad losers' and?'animals'
Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernandez has labeled Real Madrid's players bad losers and animals after his club won their latest ill-tempered matchup.
Hope for Solo
Ailing U.S. goalie Hope Solo practices ahead of Friday's do-or-die game vs. Costa Rica.
Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46163291/ns/sports-soccer/
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Accel And SV Angel Back Endorse With $4.25 Million To Close The Loop Between Shoppers And Brands
Brands and businesses can track their reputations online and connect with consumers through social media. But what about in the real world? One of the biggest prizes in Startupland will go to whoever can figure out how to connect real-world shopping to brands and businesses. Steve Carpenter is going after that prize with his latest startup, Endorse. Carpenter has been incubating the company for a year as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Accel. (He sold his last company, Cake Financial, to Etrade in 2010). Endorse just raised $4.25 million in a Series A led by Accel, with SV Angel also investing. His co-founders and team include early employees from YouTube and Paypal (Erik Klein, Mayrose Dunton, and Franck Chastagnol).Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/k0Vou_QVMC8/
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Obama: 'I Will Not Walk Away From The Promise Of Clean Energy'
President Obama called for more domestic oil and gas production, saying that "a future where we're in control of our own energy" is within reach, where the nation's security and prosperity would not be so closely linked to unstable parts of the world.
Toward that end, he said his administration would open more than 75 percent of potential offshore oil and gas resources for development.
The president stressed that the country already has progressed toward energy independence and used less foreign oil last year "than in any of the past 16 years."
The president also stressed his continued commitment to clean energy, despite the criticism his administration faced after the solar company Solyndra went bankrupt ? even though it had received more than $500 million in loan guarantees.
"Some technologies don't pan out; some companies fail. But I will not walk away from the promise of clean energy," Obama said.
He conceded that the climate on Capitol Hill is not right for legislation to fight global warming, but he called on Congress to pass bills to improve energy efficiency and set a clean energy standard to require that a certain portion of the country's electricity comes from renewable sources like wind and solar.
Other new energy initiatives Obama mentioned included:
? Hosting enough clean energy projects on public land to power 3 million homes with electricity.
? Requiring companies to disclose the chemicals they use when they drill for gas on public lands.
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Scientists say Facebook's roots go way, way?back
Coren Apicella
A woman from Tanzania's Hadzabe tribe studies a social-networking chart.
By Alan Boyle
Hunter-gatherers exhibit many of the "friending" habits familiar to Facebook users, suggesting that the patterns for social networking were set early in the history of our species.
At least that's the conclusion from a group of researchers who mapped the connections among members of the Hadza ethnic group in Tanzania's Lake Eyasi region. The results were published in this week's issue of the journal Nature.
"The astonishing thing is that ancient human social networks so very much resemble what we see today," senior author Nicholas Christakis, a sociologist at Harvard Medical School, said in a university news release. Researchers from Harvard, the University of California at San Diego and Cambridge University worked together to document the Hadza's social networks.
"From the time we were around campfires and had words floating through the air, to today when we have digital packets floating through the ether, we've made networks of basically the same kind," Christakis said.
Another co-author of the study, UCSD's James Fowler, said the results suggest that the structure of today's social networks go back to a time before the invention of agriculture, tens of thousands of years ago.
For decades, social scientists have puzzled over the origins of cooperative and altruistic behavior that benefits the group at the expense of the individual. That seems to run counter to a basic "tooth and claw" view of evolution, in which each individual fights for survival, or at least the survival of its gene pool. One of the leading hypotheses is that a system to reward cooperation and punish non-cooperators ("free riders") grew out of a sense of genetic kinship between related individuals. But how far back did such a system arise?
Harvard Medical School researcher Coren Apicella discusses the Hadza social network.
To investigate that question, researchers spent two months interviewing more than 200 adult members of the Hadza group who still live in a traditional, nomadic, pre-agricultural setting. To chart the social connections, the researchers asked the adults to identify the individuals they'd like to live with in their next encampment. They also looked into gift-giving connections by giving their experimental subjects three straws of honey ? one of the Hadza's best-loved treats ? and asking them to assign them secretly to anyone else in the camp. That exercise produced a complex web of 1,263 "campmate ties" and 426 "gift ties."
Separately, the researchers gave the Hadza additional honey straws that they could either keep for themselves or donate for group distribution. That was used as a measure of cooperation vs. non-cooperation.
When the researchers analyzed all the linkages, they found that cooperators tended to group themselves together into one set of social clusters, while non-cooperators were in separate clusters. Even when other factors were taken into account, such as connections between kin and geographical proximity, the cooperation vs. non-cooperation distinction was significant. That finding suggested that even in pre-agricultural societies, social networking strengthened the connections between people inclined toward different kinds of behavior.
"If you can get cooperators to cluster together in social space, cooperation can evolve," said Coren Apicella, a postdoctoral researcher specializing in health-care policy at Harvard Medical School and the Nature paper's first author. "Social networks allow this to happen."
The researchers said the dynamics of the Hadza social networks ? including the kinds of ties that bind a group's most popular members and the reciprocal connections within the group?? were indistinguishable from previously gathered data about social networks in modern communities.
"We turned the data over lots of different ways," Fowler said in the news release. "We looked at over a dozen measures that social network analysts use to compare networks, and pretty much, the Hadza are like us."
Beyond the Facebook angle, the rise of relationships between cooperative individuals has larger implications for the study of human evolution. "This suggests that social networks may have co-evolved with the widespread cooperation in humans that we observe today," the researchers wrote.
Update for 2:15 p.m. ET: In a Nature commentary, University of British Columbia anthropologist Joseph Henrich said that the study provided a "glimpse into the social dynamics of one of the few remaining populations of nomadic hunter-gatherers" ? and pointed up the parallels between modern-day social networking and the kind of society in which our distant ancestors lived.
One of the more interesting findings was that non-cooperators preferred to associate with other non-cooperators, rather than with the givers in the Hadza group, Henrich told me. That could be because people tend to make those they associate with more similar to themselves ? sort of like a curmudgeonly married couple. Or it could be because non-cooperative types avoid the cooperators in the first place ? sort of like the high-school kids who shun the goody-goodies and form their own clique of bad boys and girls.
Henrich said the cooperation vs. non-cooperation distinction was surprisingly strong. "In fact, the gift-network results indicate that this extends to friends of friends: if your friend's friend is highly cooperative, you are likely to cooperate more, too."
He said the findings support the principle of homophily in social relations: "People tend to pick people like themselves." But does the cooperation connection apply to modern-day social networks as well? If you're a giving person, do you tend to friend other givers online? "We don't know," Henrich told me. That's a topic for further research.
Update for 10:35 p.m. ET: In a follow-up phone interview, Fowler told me the results that he and his colleagues are reporting add a new twist to the old nature vs. nurture debate. People aren't shaped merely by genetics and their physical environment, he said.
"Social networks were actually just as important as the other two," he said. There may even be a genetic component to the associations you make. Along with Christakis and UCSD's Christopher Dawes,?Fowler conducted research suggesting that genetic factors?affect social behaviors.?Previous studies have also shown that social networking among hunter-gatherer societies like the Hadza are not governed strictly by kin-based relationships.
"What's new here is that we've specifically tied this idea of cooperation to ties between non-kin," Fowler said.
Fowler acknowledged that studying hunter-gatherer societies are not a foolproof way to trace the evolutionary roots of the behaviors we see in modern-day society, including Facebook friending and Twitter tweeting. "This isn't necessarily the be-all and end-all of determining what we were like hundreds of thousands of years ago," he said. But considering that scientists can't interview?Stone Age social networkers, Fowler believes this is one of the best methods available to anthropologists.
More social-network science:
In addition to Apicella, Christakis and Fowler, authors of "Social Networks and Cooperation in Hunter-Gatherers" include Cambridge University's Frank Marlowe.
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
Source: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/25/10234789-facebooks-roots-go-way-way-back
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
FACT CHECK: Obama pushes plans that flopped before
President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. Listen in back are Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner, right. (AP Photo/Saul Loeb, Pool)
President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. Listen in back are Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner, right. (AP Photo/Saul Loeb, Pool)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? It was a wish list, not a to-do list.
President Barack Obama laid out an array of plans in his State of the Union speech as if his hands weren't so tied by political realities. There can be little more than wishful thinking behind his call to end oil industry subsidies ? something he could not get through a Democratic Congress, much less today's divided Congress, much less in this election year.
And there was more recycling, in an even more forbidding climate than when the ideas were new: He pushed for an immigration overhaul that he couldn't get past Democrats, permanent college tuition tax credits that he asked for a year ago, and familiar discouragements for companies that move overseas.
A look at Obama's rhetoric Tuesday night and how it fits with the facts and political circumstances:
___
OBAMA: "We have subsidized oil companies for a century. That's long enough. It's time to end the taxpayer giveaways to an industry that's rarely been more profitable, and double-down on a clean energy industry that's never been more promising."
THE FACTS: This is at least Obama's third run at stripping subsidies from the oil industry. Back when fellow Democrats formed the House and Senate majorities, he sought $36.5 billion in tax increases on oil and gas companies over the next decade, but Congress largely ignored the request. He called again to end such tax breaks in last year's State of the Union speech. And he's now doing it again, despite facing a wall of opposition from Republicans who want to spur domestic oil and gas production and oppose tax increases generally.
___
OBAMA: "Our health care law relies on a reformed private market, not a government program."
THE FACTS: That's only half true. About half of the more than 30 million uninsured Americans expected to gain coverage through the health care law will be enrolled in a government program. Medicaid, the federal-state program for low-income people, will be expanded starting in 2014 to cover childless adults living near the poverty line.
The other half will be enrolled in private health plans through new state-based insurance markets. But many of them will be receiving federal subsidies to make their premiums more affordable. And that's a government program, too.
Starting in 2014 most Americans will be required to carry health coverage, either through an employer, by buying their own plan, or through a government program.
___
OBAMA, asking Congress to pay for construction projects: "Take the money we're no longer spending at war, use half of it to pay down our debt, and use the rest to do some nation-building right here at home."
THE FACTS: The idea of taking war "savings" to pay for other programs is budgetary sleight of hand. For one thing, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been largely financed through borrowing, so stopping the wars doesn't create a pool of ready cash, just less debt. And the savings appear to be based at least in part on inflated war spending estimates for future years.
___
OBAMA: "Through the power of our diplomacy a world that was once divided about how to deal with Iran's nuclear program now stands as one."
THE FACTS: The world is still divided over how to deal with Iran's disputed nuclear program, and even over whether the nuclear program is a problem at all.
It is true that the U.S., Europe and other nations have agreed to apply the strictest economic sanctions yet on Iran later this year. But the global sanctions net has holes, because some of Iran's large oil trading partners won't go along. China, a major purchaser of Iran's crude, isn't part of the new sanctions and, together with Russia, stopped the United Nations from applying similarly tough penalties.
___
OBAMA: "Tonight, I want to speak about how we move forward, and lay out a blueprint for an economy that's built to last - an economy built on American manufacturing, American energy, skills for American workers, and a renewal of American values."
THE FACTS: Economists do see manufacturing growth as a necessary component of any U.S. recovery. U.S. manufacturing output climbed 0.9 percent in December, the biggest gain since December 2010. Yet Obama's apparent vision of a nation once again propelled by manufacturing ? a vision shared by many Republicans ? may already have slipped into the past.
Over generations, the economy has become ever more driven by services; not since 1975 has the U.S. had a surplus in merchandise trade, which covers trade in goods, including manufactured and farm goods. About 90 percent of American workers are employed in the service sector, a profound shift in the nature of the workforce over many decades.
The overall trade deficit through the first 11 months of 2011 ran at an annual rate of nearly $600 billion, up almost 12 percent from the year before.
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OBAMA: "The Taliban's momentum has been broken, and some troops in Afghanistan have begun to come home."
THE FACTS: Obama is more sanguine about progress in Afghanistan than his own intelligence apparatus. The latest National Intelligence Estimate on Afghanistan warns that the Taliban will grow stronger, using fledgling talks with the U.S. to gain credibility and stall until U.S. troops leave, while continuing to fight for more territory. The classified assessment, described to The Associated Press by officials who have seen it, says the Afghan government hasn't been able to establish credibility with its people, and predicts the Taliban and warlords will largely control the countryside.
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OBAMA: "On the day I took office, our auto industry was on the verge of collapse. Some even said we should let it die. With a million jobs at stake, I refused to let that happen. In exchange for help, we demanded responsibility. We got workers and automakers to settle their differences. We got the industry to retool and restructure. Today, General Motors is back on top as the world's number one automaker. Chrysler has grown faster in the U.S. than any major car company. Ford is investing billions in U.S. plants and factories."
THE FACTS: He left out some key details. The bailout of General Motors and Chrysler began under Republican President George W. Bush. Obama picked up the ball, earmarked more money, and finished the job. But Ford never asked for a federal bailout and never got one.
___
OBAMA: "We can also spur energy innovation with new incentives. The differences in this chamber may be too deep right now to pass a comprehensive plan to fight climate change. But there's no reason why Congress shouldn't at least set a clean energy standard that creates a market for innovation."
THE FACTS: With this statement, Obama was renewing a call he made last year to require 80 percent of the nation's electricity to come from clean energy sources by 2035, including nuclear, natural gas and so-called clean coal. He did not put that percentage in his speech but White House background papers show that it remains his goal.
But this Congress has yet to introduce a bill to make that goal a reality, and while legislation may be introduced this year, it is unlikely to become law with a Republican-controlled House that loathes mandates.
___
OBAMA: "Right now, because of loopholes and shelters in the tax code, a quarter of all millionaires pay lower tax rates than millions of middle-class households."
THE FACTS: It's true that a minority of millionaires pay a lower tax rate than some lower-income people. On average, though, wealthy people pay taxes at a much higher rate than middle-income taxpayers.
Obama's claim comes from a Congressional Research Service report that compared federal taxes paid by people making less than $100,000 with those paid by people making more than $1 million. About 10 percent of families with incomes under $100,000 paid more than 26.5 percent in federal income, payroll and corporate taxes. And about a quarter of millionaire taxpayers paid a rate lower than that.
___
OBAMA: "We can't bring back every job that's left our shores.... Tonight, my message to business leaders is simple: Ask yourselves what you can do to bring jobs back to your country, and your country will do everything we can to help you succeed."
FACT CHECK: Many of the jobs U.S. companies have created overseas won't return because they were never in the United States in the first place.
As Obama said in his speech, U.S. workers have become more productive and labor costs have fallen.
But there are powerful forces pushing the other way: Many of the overseas jobs in U.S. companies weren't transferred from the U.S. They were created in fast-growing markets in Latin America, Asia and elsewhere to serve customers in those markets. Companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index now earn more than half of their revenue from overseas.
That has fueled more job creation abroad. U.S. multinationals cut more than 800,000 jobs in the United States from 2000 to 2009, according the Commerce Department. They added 2.9 million overseas in the same period.
___
OBAMA: "Anyone who tells you that America is in decline or that our influence has waned doesn't know what they're talking about ... That's not how people feel from Tokyo to Berlin; from Cape Town to Rio; where opinions of America are higher than they've been in years."
THE FACTS: Obama left out Arab and Muslim nations, where popular opinion of the U.S. appears to have gone downhill or remained unchanged after the spring 2011 reformist uprisings in the Middle East. A Pew Research Center survey in May found that in predominantly Muslim countries such as Turkey, Jordan and Pakistan, views of the U.S. were worse than a year earlier. In Pakistan, a major recipient of U.S. foreign aid that went unmentioned in Obama's speech, just 11 percent of respondents said they held a positive view of the United States.
___
Associated Press writers Tom Raum, Anne Gearan, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Martin Crutsinger, Jim Drinkard, Dina Cappiello, Erica Werner, Andrew Taylor, Christopher S. Rugaber and Stephen Ohlemacher contributed to this report.
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Video: Mitt Romney to Release Taxes
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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/46113045/
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Obama to take on economy in State of the Union
FILE - In this Jan. 13, 2012, file photo, President Barack Obama speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington. President Barack Obama commands center stage in a political year so far dominated by Republican infighting, preparing to deliver a State of the Union address that will go right to the heart of Americans' economic anxiety and try to sway voters to give him four more years in office. He is expected to urge higher taxes on the wealthy, propose steps to make college more affordable and offer new remedies for the still worrisome housing crisis. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, File)
FILE - In this Jan. 13, 2012, file photo, President Barack Obama speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington. President Barack Obama commands center stage in a political year so far dominated by Republican infighting, preparing to deliver a State of the Union address that will go right to the heart of Americans' economic anxiety and try to sway voters to give him four more years in office. He is expected to urge higher taxes on the wealthy, propose steps to make college more affordable and offer new remedies for the still worrisome housing crisis. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is ready to reclaim the spotlight with a plea for economic fairness in a State of Union address that opposition Republicans panned in advance as a rehash of old ideas.
Obama delivers his third State of the Union address Tuesday in a capital and country shot through with politics, with his re-election campaign well under way and his potential GOP opponents lobbing attacks against him daily as they scrap for the right to take him on.
Obama's 9 p.m. EST address to a joint session of Congress and millions of television viewers will be as much as anything an argument for his re-election, the president's biggest, best chance so far to offer a vision for a second term.
Senior political adviser David Plouffe said Tuesday morning the president is "happy to have a debate" about his performance.
Bill Galston, a former Clinton administration domestic policy adviser now at the Brookings Institution, said, "Almost by definition it's going to be at least as much a political speech as a governing speech."
"The president must run on his record," Galston said, "and that means talking candidly and persuasively with the country about the very distinctive nature of the challenges the American economy faced when he took office and what has gone right for the past three years, and what needs to be done in addition."
With economic anxiety showing through everywhere, the speech will focus on a vision for restoring the middle class, with Obama facing the tricky task of persuading voters to stick with him even as joblessness remains high at 8.5 percent. Obama can point to positive signs, including continued if sluggish growth; his argument will be that he is the one to restore economic equality for middle-class voters.
Implicit in the argument, even if he never names frontrunners Gingrich and Mitt Romney, is that they are on the other side.
Obama's speech will come as Gingrich and Romney have transformed the Republican campaign into a real contest ahead of Florida's crucial primary next week. And he'll be speaking on the same day that Romney, a multimillionaire, released his tax returns, offering a vivid illustration of wealth that could play into Obama's argument about the growing divide between rich and poor.
Asked in an interview Tuesday about Romney's relatively modest tax rate in the range of 15 percent, given that he's a multi-millionaire, Plouffe said, "We need to change our tax system. We need to change our tax code so that everybody is doing their fair share."
Obama will frame the campaign to come as a fight for fairness for those who are struggling to keep a job, a home or college savings and losing faith in how the country works.
The speech will feature the themes of manufacturing, clean energy, education and American values. The president is expected to urge higher taxes on the wealthy, propose ways to make college more affordable, offer new steps to tackle a debilitating housing crisis and push to help U.S. manufacturers expand hiring.
Aides said the president would also outline more specifics about the so-called "Buffett Rule", which Obama has previously said would establish a minimum tax on people making $1 million or more in income. The rule was named after billionaire Warren Buffett, who has said it is unfair that his secretary pays a higher tax rate than he does.
White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said on Twitter Tuesday that Buffett's secretary, Debbie Bosanek, would attend the State of the Union in the first lady's box.
Even before Obama delivered his speech, Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, said he already felt "a sense of disappointment."
"While we don't yet know all of the specifics, we do know the goal," he said. "Based on what the president's aides have been telling reporters, the goal isn't to conquer the nation's problems. It's to conquer Republicans. The goal isn't to prevent gridlock, but to guarantee it."
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has called the themes of Obama's speech a "pathetic" rehash of unhelpful policies. But he said Tuesday he hoped Obama would "extend somewhat of an olive branch" to work with Republicans on the economy during his prime-time address.
For three days following his speech, Obama will promote his ideas in five states key to his re-election bid. On Wednesday he'll visit Iowa and Arizona to promote ideas to boost American manufacturing; on Thursday in Nevada and Colorado he'll discuss energy; and in Michigan Friday he'll talk about college affordability, education and training. Polling shows Americans are divided about Obama's overall job performance but unsatisfied with his handling of the economy.
The lines of argument between Obama and his rivals are already stark, with America's economic insecurity and the role of government at the center.
The president has offered signals about his speech, telling campaign supporters he wants an economy "that works for everyone, not just a wealthy few." Gingrich, on the other hand, calls Obama "the most effective food stamp president in history." Romney says Obama "wants to turn America into a European-style entitlement society."
Obama will make bipartisan overtures to lawmakers but will leave little doubt he will act without their help when it's necessary and possible, an approach his aides say has let him stay on offense.
The public is more concerned about domestic troubles over foreign policy than at any other time in the past 15 years, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center. Some 81 percent want Obama to focus his speech on domestic affairs, not foreign ones; just five years ago, the view was evenly split.
On the day before Obama's speech, his campaign released a short Web ad showing monthly job losses during the end of the Bush administration and the beginning of the Obama administration, with positive job growth for nearly two Obama years. Republicans assail him for failing to achieve a lot more.
Presidential spokesman Jay Carney said Monday that Obama is not conceding the next 10 months to "campaigning alone" when people need economic help. On the goals of helping people get a fair shot, Carney said, "There's ample room within those boundaries for bipartisan cooperation and for getting this done."
Plouffe appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" and was interviewed on NBC's "Today" show and "CBS This Morning."
___
Associated Press writers Ben Feller, Julie Pace and Alan Fram contributed to this report.
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Five Reasons to Ignore Newt Gingrich as a Candidate (ContributorNetwork)
COMMENTARY | The GOP is still looking for their candidate to go up against President Barack Obama in the upcoming 2012 presidential election. While each has his or her flaws and drawbacks, some are worse than others. Take Newt Gingrich for example. Let's look at five strong reasons he does not deserve the power and influence afforded the presidency.
Disdain for human life. There's just no kind way to word this point. In 1996, then Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich proposed H.R. 4170: Drug Importer Death Penalty Act of 1996. When the word "smuggler" comes up in a discussion, few people would imagine someone carrying as little as two ounces of marijuana as very much of a smuggler. The very idea of a human life being worth less than the government's control of marijuana - an idea with which medical and legal experts even sometimes contend - indicates either a disdain for human life, or an inability to think here in the real world. Death for a month's worth of pot? Really?
He supported the recent bailouts. Granted, he may not be the sole cause of the nation's present economic woes, but he contributed. It would be irresponsible to blame one man for all of the housing market collapse. But, according to a story on Bloomberg.com, Newt Gingrich was paid to sell conservatives in Congress on supporting Freddie Mac. For a "conservative" candidate who claims to have such "vision," he sure did sell out cheaply enough.
The FBI once considered him a target for a sting. A story published on washingtonpost.com tells how, back in 1997, Newt Gingrich's name came up in a "legislation-for-hire" scheme involving him, his wife at the time Marianne and an Iraqi arms dealer who wanted the arms embargo lifted from Iraq. Fortunately for Gingrich, the FBI didn't have enough evidence directly linking him to knowledge of being involved, so the proposed sting was dropped. Still, America needs a president we know we can trust, not one who must constantly be second-guessed.
Look at how he treats his other relationships. Any man who's ever had an ex-wife to cope with knows how angry she can be. The problem for us, as a nation, isn't that he has one, or more failed marriages behind him, but what Marianne Gingrich shared with politicsdaily.com helps us all to see a little bit more of the personality behind the publicly marketed image of the man. In some cases, we do want to see how the sausage is made, especially when that sausage wants to lead the most powerful nation on Earth.
And who doesn't trust Jon Stewart? As usual, someone with a sense-of-humor, intelligence and charm puts it better than anyone else could: "Gingrich is Reagan, if he were abandoned as a child and raised by a family of cactuses." The point is clear: Gingrich is no Reagan. Why should we buy pandering?
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Monday, January 23, 2012
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`Underworld' sinks teeth into box office with $25M (AP)
LOS ANGELES ? Kate Beckinsale is back with a vengeance, with her latest "Underworld" movie opening at No. 1 this weekend.
"Underworld Awakening" made an estimated $25.4, distributor Sony Screen Gems reported Sunday.
This is the fourth film in the vampire action saga. Beckinsale starred in the first two movies as the warrior Selene, then bowed out of part three but returned for this latest installment. "Underworld Awakening" was shown for the first time in 3-D as well as on IMAX screens, where it made $3.8 million. That's 15 percent of the film's weekend gross, which is a record for an IMAX digital-only run.
Sony had hoped the film would end up in the low-$20 million range. But Rory Bruer, the studio's president of worldwide distribution, says the fact that it did even better ? despite a snow storm that hit much of the Midwest and East Coast ? primarily has to do with Beckinsale's return.
"She is such a force. Her character ? you just can't take your eyes off of her. I know the character is very dear to her, as well, and she just kills it," Bruer said. "The 3-D aspect of the film also brings something, makes it a fun, visceral ride."
Opening in second place was "Red Tails" from executive producer George Lucas, about the Tuskegee Airmen who were the first black fighter pilots to serve in World War II. It made an estimated $19.1 million, according to 20th Century Fox, which was well above expectations; the studio had hoped to reach double digits, said Chris Aronson, executive vice president of domestic distribution.
"I believe what George Lucas has stated all along: This is an important story and a story that must be told. It is a true story of American heroism and valor and audiences have really responded to this message," Aronson said. "People want to feel good about themselves, they want to be uplifted. We have enough hard crud going on in this country right now. Times are tough, and if we look back and are told a story of some really fantastic deeds, that's really compelling moviegoing."
Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian said a grass-roots effort to get groups of people into the theaters to see "Red Tails," along with positive word-of-mouth, helped its strong showing. The film saw an uptick from about $6 million on Friday to $8.65 on Saturday.
Overall box office is up 31 percent from the same weekend a year ago, Dergarabedian said, thanks to new releases as well as movies like "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," which had limited runs for awards consideration at the end of 2011 and are now expanding nationwide. The 9/11 drama from Warner Bros., starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock, came in fourth place with $10.5 million.
Last week's No. 1 film, the Universal smuggling thriller "Contraband" starring Mark Wahlberg, dropped to the No. 3 spot with $12.2 million. It's now made $46.1 million in two weeks. Meanwhile, Steven Soderbergh's international action picture "Haywire" from Relativity Media, starring mixed martial arts superstar Gina Carano in her first film role, opened in fifth place with $9 million, which was above expectations.
"This is a great, perfect January weekend. You've got these holdover films and newcomers creating an overall marketplace that people are really responding to," Dergarabedian said. "It sounds clich? but this marketplace really has something for everyone."
As for worldwide box office, "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn ? Part 1" has now crossed the $700 million mark. The first half of the finale of the girl-vampire-werewolf love triangle franchise has grossed an estimated $701.3 million in global box office receipts since its release last November, according to Lionsgate, which recently acquired Summit Entertainment, which distributes the series.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "Underworld Awakening," $25.4 million ($13.4 million international).
2. "Red Tails," $19.1 million.
3. "Contraband," $12.2 million.
4. "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," $10.5 million.
5. "Haywire," $9 million.
6. "Beauty and the Beast (3-D)," $8.6 million.
7. "Joyful Noise," $6.1 million.
8. "Mission: Impossible ? Ghost Protocol," $5.5 million. ($9.4 million international).
9. "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," $4.8 million. ($18.1 million international).
10. "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," $3.75 million ($15.7 international).
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Estimated weekend ticket sales at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada) for films distributed overseas by Hollywood studios, according to Rentrak:
"Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," $18.1 million.
"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," $15.7 million.
"Underworld Awakening," $13.4 million.
"Mission: Impossible ? Ghost Protocol," $9.4 million international.
"Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked," $9.3 million.
"Puss in Boots," $8.7 million.
"Journey 2: The Mysterious Island," $8.2 million.
"War Horse," $7.3 million.
"The Descendants," $6.2 million.
"The Darkest Hour," $5.1 million.
___
Online:
http://www.hollywood.com
http://www.rentrak.com
___
AP Movie Writer Christy Lemire can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/christylemire/
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Hamas lawmakers arrested at Red Cross in Jerusalem (AP)
JERUSALEM ? Two lawmakers from the militant Palestinian party Hamas were arrested after hiding for over a year inside a Red Cross compound in Jerusalem, an Israeli police spokesman said Monday.
The spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, said the men were wanted for "Hamas activities." He would not elaborate.
Red Cross officials confirmed the men had been holed up inside. In a statement, the Red Cross said that Khaled Abu Arfa and Mohammed Totah sought refuge in the compound on July 1, 2010, to escape Israeli arrest.
Israel, the U.S., EU and Israel list Hamas as a terror group due to its suicide bombings and other attacks aimed at civilians that have killed hundreds of Israelis.
Israel bans Hamas from operating in Jerusalem. Last week Israel arrested the Hamas speaker of the Palestinian parliament.
Rosenfeld said the Hamas men were arrested when they ventured outside the Red Cross compound Monday.
Shortly after the arrests, a group of Palestinians forced their way into the Red Cross compound, Red Cross spokeswoman Cecilia Goin said. "They acted violently against Red Cross staff and then left," Goin said. Nobody was seriously hurt, she said.
Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri confirmed they were hiding at the Red Cross for a year and a half. "This is a Zionist crime," he said. "Their abduction is a violation of their rights."
Hamas lawmakers have taken refuge at the Red Cross compound before. Last September Israeli police arrested another Hamas lawmaker who had been hiding at the facility for a year.
The men were Hamas lawmakers in the Palestinian parliament, which has not functioned since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007 from the Palestinian Fatah Party of President Mahmoud Abbas.
They were among four Hamas officials Israel arrested in 2006 after an Israeli soldier was abducted by Gaza militants allied to the militant Islamic group.
After spending time in jail, they were ordered to leave Jerusalem but hid at the Red Cross instead to avoid expulsion.
"Hamas forcing itself on the Red Cross is not new," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said. "It raises serious questions about the abuse by Hamas of Red Cross neutrality and about the impotence of the Red Cross to counter such abuse."
In July last year, Israel sought clarifications from the Red Cross following a demonstration outside the organization's Gaza headquarters for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, including many involved in deadly attacks. Israel charged that the Red Cross helped organize the event and said such activities compromise its neutrality.
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Facing long odds and steep climb, Santorum digs in (AP)
CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. ? Newt Gingrich has the momentum. Mitt Romney has the money.
Rick Santorum? He has neither at the moment.
Not that he's going to let details like that stop him from pressing ahead in his White House quest. Or, for that matter, hurdles like scant cash in an expensive state and a rapidly disappearing opportunity to emerge as the consensus candidate of conservative voters now that Gingrich has emerged as the leading anti-Romney candidate.
"Our feeling is that this is a three-person race," Santorum insisted on CNN's "State of the Union." He added that he felt "absolutely no pressure at all" to abandon his bid given Gingrich's rise.
Still, Santorum acknowledged a hard road ahead in what he called "a tough state for everybody."
"It's very, very expensive. It's a very short time frame," he said.
The former Pennsylvania senator placed third in Saturday's South Carolina primary.
Gingrich scored his first win, entering the Florida campaign with the political winds pushing the former House speaker from behind. Romney, who has raised mounds of cash, came in second and was ready to regroup with sophisticated political machines in the upcoming states, Florida included.
Underscoring Santorum's challenges, he was taking a few days away from the campaign trail in Florida this week to restock his thin campaign bank accounts. He plans fundraisers in other states, leaving Gingrich and Romney with free rein in Florida, while he stops in states such as Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri. Money is a necessity in a state like Florida with numerous expensive media markets and where campaigns are usually won on TV.
That's not a natural fit for Santorum, who has run his campaign on a shoestring and won the Iowa caucuses ? albeit narrowly ? by spending more than a year making house calls to voters and traveling the state in a pickup truck.
To make up ground and perhaps earn some free media, Santorum is going on the attack.
Standing in a strip mall's parking lot here Sunday before heading to fundraising events, Santorum cast Romney as an inconsistent figure who would not be an effective foil to President Barack Obama's re-election bid and argued that Gingrich was too "high risk" to be the Republican standard-bearer.
"Trust is a big issue in this election," Santorum told several hundred people. "Who are you going to trust when the pressure is on, when we're in that debate? It's great to be glib, but it's better to be principled."
He also met privately Sunday with pastors and delivered a sermon at Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach, where he emphasized his conservatism. Santorum, who sprinkles his campaign speeches with his Catholic faith, is banking on evangelicals to coalesce around him over the thrice-married Gingrich or Romney, a Mormon.
"Can he win? Only God knows," said David Babbin, a voter here who works at the nearby children's hospital and likes Santorum. "But I believe in miracles."
Still, he noted one of the candidate's challenges: "Rick Santorum is one of us. And that's his biggest flaw ... We live in a society that is `American Idol' and Rick Santorum is not like that."
Santorum has other hurdles beyond what even admirers call his lack of charisma.
His tough talk on Social Security and Medicare ? ending benefits for wealthier retirees, cutting payments to those who don't need them ? is going to dog him here in a state of 3.3 million seniors, or 17 percent of the population. AARP estimates that more than a third of those seniors would have incomes below the poverty line without Social Security and one in three seniors rely on Social Security as their sole source of income.
Santorum didn't mention those proposals at his first public campaign event since the primary in South Carolina.
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