Priebus vs. Obama: 'Sinking Ship' Remark Shows Incivility (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Reince Priebus, Francesco Schettino, Barack Obama.

If we only knew the name of the U.S. president until now, and not the name of the Republican National Committee chairman or the captain of the sunken Italian cruise ship, chances are today we know all three.

That's because Priebus has compared Obama to "our own little Capt. Schettino," the analogy being that Obama, in heading for the campaign trail, has bailed out on his presidential duties and the sinking ship of the federal government, the same as Schettino allegedly bailed out of the Costa Concordia while some of his passengers were ultimately drowning.

Priebus' predecessor as RNC chair, Michael Steele, deemed the remark as "inappropriate." Steele no doubt holds no love lost toward Priebus, the foe who ousted him. But his description of "inappropriate" simply seems, well, appropriate.

Of course, far worse condemnations have been uttered in politics. To start, Obama and George W. Bush are merely the two most recent presidents to have been compared to Hitler. Sometimes, the cited examples of incivility seem minor by comparison.

Obama once misguidedly joked the Jonas Brothers, idolized by his daughters, could face his protective-fatherly "predator drones" if they ever tried to get fresh with the girls. Sarah Palin's political action committee drew mapped cross-hairs on the districts of congressional incumbents targeted for defeat, which unfortunately included the district of Gabrielle Giffords before she was shot.

At the time, Giffords presciently reacted, "When people do that, they've got to realize there are consequences."

Those are words of wisdom for anyone in public life, or anyone who criticizes those in public life, or for that matter, anyone engaging in any form of communication. Be sensitive and avoid violent, tragic references. Priebus should be the latest to learn, and should apologize.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120130/pl_ac/10904951_priebus_vs_obama_sinking_ship_remark_shows_incivility

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Gingrich tags Romney with 'liberal' label (AP)

LUTZ, Fla. ? Newt Gingrich on Sunday called GOP president rival Mitt Romney a "pro-abortion, pro-gun control, pro-tax increase liberal."

Gingrich made the comments outside a megachurch in Lutz, Fla., two days before the pivotal presidential primary.

Gingrich is trailing Romney in Florida and has been labeling the former governor a Massachusetts moderate. Now Gingrich is moving his 2012 rival even further left.

He also criticized Romney's campaign tactics during two television interviews Sunday morning, decrying his opponent's "basic policy of carpet-bombing his opponent."

One of the ads being run by Romney suggests that Gingrich is exaggerating his ties to Ronald Reagan. Gingrich chafed at that, noting that the former president's son Michael was joining him on the campaign trail Monday "to prove to everybody that I am the heir to the Reagan movement, not some liberal from Massachusetts."

Former GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain, a tea party favorite, will also appear with Gingrich on Monday.

At a large rally Sunday at The Villages, a sprawling retirement community in central Florida, Gingrich accused Democratic President Barack Obama of coddling foreign leaders like Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"I believe we need to be stronger than our potential enemies," Gingrich told the crowd. "The president lives in a fantasy world where there are no enemies, there are just misguided people with whom he has not yet had coffee."

He said Chavez "deliberately, cynically and insultingly gave him an anti-American book and Obama didn't have a clue that he'd been insulted."

He said the Obama administration should be focused on Ahmadinejad's "pledge to wipe out Israel and drive America out of the Middle East."

"But if I were a left-wing Harvard law graduate surrounded by really clever left-wing academics I would know that this was really a sign that (Ahmadinejad) probably had a bad childhood," Gingrich said.

He described Obama's approach to Ahmadinejad as, "If only we could unblock him we could be closer to him and we could be friends together."

Gingrich, who served in the House for two decades, also made a populist pitch as a Washington outsider. He said the GOP's "old establishment" is trying to block his path to nomination.

"It's time that someone stood up for hard-working, taxpaying Americans and said, `Enough,'" Gingrich said. "And if that makes the old order uncomfortable, my answer is, `Good.'"

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_el_pr/us_gingrich

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Scrapbooking Our Pets

ScrapbookingOurPets

Growing up I had dogs, cats, birds, fish and even a turtle. Right now I have two cats. They?re brothers that we adopted years ago when they were kittens. Since they are a big part of our family, it makes sense to scrapbook them.

Here are a few pages that I have made about my pets:

Stewart2005_web

BestFriend-web

My daughter is five years old now and loves to ?read? our family scrapbook. Some of her favourite pages are about our pets. She especially finds it interesting and almost unbelievable that they were a part of the family before she was!

If you are interested in scrapping about your pets, I put together a list of journaling prompts to get your creativity flowing:

  • How did you adopt your pet?
  • How did you name your pet?
  • What pets did you have as a child?
  • What was your pet like as a kitten/puppy/etc.?
  • Do you have any funny training stories to tell?
  • Does your pet have any neat tricks?
  • What?s a typical day like for your pet?
  • How does your pet fit into your family?
  • Does your pet have any quirky habits?
  • Does your pet have a special toy or blanket?
  • Who takes care of your pet? What chores are required to look after it?
  • Does your pet go on vacation with you?
  • How does your pet participate in your holiday celebrations? Does your dog get a special treat at Thanksgiving? Does your cat cozy up under the Christmas tree?

Pet Supplies

There is almost no end to the digital supplies you could use for pet pages because almost any all-purpose kit in your digi stash would work. There is also a plethora of amazing pet themed kits you can consider for your pages:

Pet Shop: Playful Pups by Heather Roselli

Furry Friends by Pink Reptile Designs

Must Love Dogs

Cat Feltys

(PS ? Clever Monkey Graphics also has a Dog version of these felt element!)

Puppy Tales by Cinnamon Designs

Inspiration Pages

Pet pages can be sweet or funny! Take a look at these great pages. (All the pages are linked to their gallery posts with credits.)

1015

A-Spoiled-Dog-Lives-Here_SM_layout

VW_I_Am_A_Princess2

2410prettykittyweb

I hope you found some inspiration to help you scrap your family pets!

Happy scrapping!

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About Heddy

Heddy is a team member and contributing writer at The Daily Digi. Read more about Heddy here. This entry was posted in Topics to Scrap. Bookmark the permalink.

Source: http://thedailydigi.com/scrapbooking-our-pets/

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Sea lions 'shot' on US west coast

Eight sea lions have been found shot dead in the US state of Washington in the past few weeks, wildlife officials have told a local TV station.

The bodies of seven sea lions with bullet wounds were recently found on the Nisqually River, KING-TV reports.

An eighth sea lion was found dead in West Seattle on 23 January. The Seal Sitters conservation group said it, too, had been shot.

Fishermen regard sea lions as pests because they prey on salmon.

The Seal Sitters say the eighth dead animal was a California sea lion, a mature male. The species is protected under the US Marine Mammal Protection Act.

"Evidence of a 'penetrating' wound, suspected to be that of a bullet, was found deep in the tissue and tracked back to the entrance wound," the Seal Sitters said on their blog.

The sea lion's remains were analysed by a biologist from the Washington Department of fish and wildlife.

The examination also revealed a wound from a shark bite and the sea lion's intestines were twisted, the Seal Sitters said.

One of the animals found on the Nisqually River was a Steller sea lion, protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Both the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are investigating the deaths, KING-TV reports.

"California sea lions are sometimes viewed as a nuisance by commercial fishermen and there are records of stranded sea lions with gunshot wounds and other human-caused injuries," the NOAA says on its website.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-us-canada-16776395

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Sanctions to hit EU buyback firms: Iran oil chief (Reuters)

TEHRAN (Reuters) ? European companies owed oil by Iran could lose out if Tehran imposes a ban on crude exports to the European Union next week, the head of Iran's state oil company said on Saturday.

Iran's parliament is due to debate a bill on Sunday that would cut off oil supplies to the EU in a matter of days, in revenge for a decision last Monday by the 27 EU member states to stop importing crude from Iran as of July 1.

"Generally, the parties to incur damage from the EU's recent decision will be European companies with pending contracts with Iran," Ahmad Qalebani, head of the National Iranian Oil Co. told the ISNA news agency.

"The European companies will have to abide by the provisions of the buyback contracts," he said. "If they act otherwise, they will be the parties to incur the relevant losses and will subject the repatriation of their capital to problems."

By turning the sanctions back on the EU, Iranian lawmakers hope to deny Europe the six-month window it had planned to give those countries most dependent on Iranian oil - including some of the most economically fragile - time to adapt.

The EU banned imports of oil from Iran on Monday and imposed a number of other economic sanctions, joining the United States in a new round of measures aimed at deflecting Tehran's nuclear development programme.

Under buyback contracts, a common feature of the Iranian oil industry, investments in oil field projects are paid back in oil, often over many years.

Italy's Eni says it is owed $1.4-1.5 billion in oil for contracts in Iran dating from 2000 and 2001 and has been assured by EU policymakers its buyback contracts will not be part of the European embargo but the prospect of Iran acting first may put that into doubt.

The EU accounted for 25 percent of Iranian crude oil sales in the third quarter of 2011.

(Writing by Robin Pomeroy; Editing by David Stamp)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/ts_nm/us_iran_oil_sanctions

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Spice Girls Reuniting for Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee (omg!)

Spice Girls Reuniting for Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee

The biggest girl group of the '90s is making a comeback!

Spice Girls singer Melanie Brown revealed the band will be reuniting this summer during a recent interview on Australian TV -- but contrary to reports, it won't be for the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony.

PHOTOS: Sexy British stars!

"I think the Queen's Jubilee concert is the event I'd be looking at more closely for that to happen," the 36-year-old said. Realizing she revealed too much, the singer quickly changed the subject.

According to The Sun, Brown told TV crew members backstage: "I am going to be in such strife for saying that. It's all so totally bloody top-secret still."

PHOTOS: Victoria Beckham's wildest outfits

The "Scary" musician and her bandmates -- Victoria "Posh" Beckham, 37, Geri "Ginger" Halliwell, 39, Emma "Baby" Bunton, 36, and Melanie "Sporty" Chisholm, 38 -- last performed together during a reunion tour that kicked off in 2007.

"I'm always down for a Spice Girls reunion," Brown said. "I love the Scary hair and platforms. Any time of day or night I'll be there."

PHOTOS: Victoria Beckham's posh pregnancy

To mark 60 years of Queen Elizabeth II's reign, the Diamond Jubilee will take place on June 4, 2012. The group will perform in front of the royal family, including Prince William, 29, and Kate Middleton, 30.

Get more Us! Follow us on Twitter, Friend us on Facebook, Subscribe to Us Weekly

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_spice_girls_reuniting_queen_elizabeths_diamond_jubilee182917413/44339168/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/spice-girls-reuniting-queen-elizabeths-diamond-jubilee-182917413.html

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Deal of the Day ? 42? LG 42LW5300 Class 3D LED 1080p 120Hz HDTV with 3D Blu-ray Player and 4 Pairs of 3D Glasses

Today’s LogicBUY Deal is $600 off the 42″ LG 42LW5300 Class 3D LED 1080p 120Hz HDTV bundled with a 3D Blu-ray disc player and 4 pairs of 3D glasses for $799.99.? Features:? LED Plus display 2D technology, LG Cinema 3D technology, 2D to 3D conversion, 42″ 1920×1080 display, 4,000,000:1 contrast ratio, 3 HDMI inputs, more. [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2012/01/28/deal-of-the-day-42-lg-42lw5300-class-3d-led-1080p-120hz-hdtv-with-3d-blu-ray-player-and-4-pairs-of-3d-glasses/

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Spain unemployment hitting nearly 1 of 4 workers (AP)

MADRID ? Spain's brutal unemployment rate soared to nearly 23 percent Friday and closed in on 50 percent for those under age 25, leaving more than 5 million people ? or almost one out of every four ? out of work as the country slides toward recession.

Spain's National Statistics Institute reported that 5.3 million people were jobless at the end of December, up from 4.9 million in the third quarter ? a jump in the unemployment rate from 21.5 percent to 22.9 percent in the fourth quarter.

For those under age 25, the rate hit a whopping 48.5 percent, and the institute also reported that Spain now has 1.6 million households in which no one has work.

The numbers didn't surprise Spaniards, who are gearing up for another recession after the economy briefly surfaced from a crippling two-year downturn triggered by the 2008 credit crunch and a burst domestic real estate bubble that had supercharged Spain's economy for nearly a decade.

Spain already has the highest unemployment rate in the 17-nation eurozone, where the average jobless rate is just above 10 percent. Ireland holds the No. 2 spot with 14.6 percent unemployment and had to take an international bailout last year.

Javier Pelayo, an unemployed construction worker begging outside a Madrid subway station, said he hasn't had steady work for more than a year. He sat on a piece of cardboard with a handwritten placard reading: "For the love of God, help me feed my son."

"They have evicted me from my house and I've come to the capital to see if my luck improves, but this is how you find me," said Pelayo, 40, who moved to Madrid with his wife and son after losing five years worth of mortgage payments on his apartment because he couldn't make the payments.

Even highly trained professionals have extreme difficulty find work, or anything that pays enough for them to make it on their own in Spain. Katia Linderman Matas, a biologist, said she's looked for years for a job in Spain but will now search in Austria and Germany because she speaks German.

"(In Spain) you have to work nine hours instead of eight with bad conditions and the money isn't enough for you to get by," said Matas, 29. "If I wasn't living with my mother, I don't know what I'd be doing now."

Spain was Europe's top job creator until 2008, and began to emerge from recession at the end of 2010 but is now expected to head into a new one this quarter, and the average yearly salary is only about euro21,000 ($27,600).

Spain's new center-right government said the bad unemployment news wasn't a surprise and that an overhaul of labor laws aimed at spurring job growth will be put into place this month.

"It's a negative report and one that will make the government work with greater intensity," said Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria.

The economy shrank 0.3 percent during the fourth quarter, and the Bank of Spain last month predicted the economy will contract 1.5 percent in 2012. Meanwhile, a survey of 4,576 businesses last week by Spain's Chamber of Commerce showed only 3.7 percent expect to add new jobs in the first quarter of this year. The rest said they would keep employment the same or cut jobs.

Saenz de Santamaria said the unemployment news "will lead the government to accelerate the rhythm of reforms," and experts said the government must make drastic labor law changes to make it easier for businesses to fire workers and negotiate with unions.

Under the current system, people who are laid off or fired must be paid between 20 to 33 days of salary per year worked, and companies can't negotiate directly with their unionized workers because they must adopt wage deals set for entire sectors.

"(Companies) need strategic planning to match workers with the needs of the economy, but even if you reform the labor laws, it's not going to jump-start employment immediately," said Antonio Barroso, an analyst for the Eurasia Group consulting firm. "You need credit, you need the financial sector to improve."

Other analysts think Spain might get a boost from looser labor reforms because most of Spain's businesses have less than 100 employees.

"A lot of these businesses with say three or four workers might hire another person, or they could go from six workers to eight, but they are waiting for the government to make its moves," said Francesc Pujol, an economics professor at the University of Navarra.

The government on Friday unveiled a budget-discipline law that will allow the government to impose penalties on debt-laden regional governments if they run deficits after 2020. Spain's regions ? like states or provinces ? must bring their spending under control by that year or face possible fines of 0.2 percent of regional gross domestic product, said Finance Minister Cristobal Montoro.

Spain's deficit for 2011 is expected to be 8 percent of national income, 2 points above the former Socialist government's predictions. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy acknowledged that regional government deficits, most of which are run by his center-right Popular Party, were responsible for 75 percent of the deviation.

Rajoy's government is still committed to reducing the deficit to 4.4 percent in 2012 and down to the EU limit of 3 percent the following year, although with a recession looming, that pledge may prove very difficult to keep.

Since taking office Dec. 23, the government has approved austerity measures to rein in the country's swollen deficit with euro8.9 billion ($11.5 billion) in spending cuts and euro6.2 billion ($8.2 billion) in tax increases.

With so much economic gloom in Spain, 24-year-old Anderson Heras was pondering heading back to his native Ecuador after working for years in Madrid as a waiter.

His most recent job offer was from a restaurant for 10 days per month on contract and the rest under the table in cash. A supermarket said it might hire him if he did a weeklong unpaid tryout.

Government unemployment office worker Iria Regueiros said most people seeking jobs have little hope and aren't qualified enough to find work elsewhere in Europe.

"Spain has broken down," she said. "I don't see a common (European) market. We don't share a common language, our qualifications aren't governed by the same yardstick and in the end we are at the mercy of a system that's been set up more for financial institutions than anything else."

___

Associated Press writer Harold Heckle contributed from Madrid.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_europe_financial_crisis

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Obama urges Congress to act in election year (AP)

CAMBRIDGE, Md. ? President Barack Obama rallied House Democrats for an election-year fight, urging them to work with Republicans if they show some willingness to put politics aside but telling the rank and file to call them out if they stand in the way.

Addressing Democrats on the final day of their three-day annual retreat, Obama outlined the political stakes over the next few months as congressional Democrats try to push his agenda in the face of Republican opposition, the GOP choses its nominee and signs of recovery in a fragile economy go a long way to determining his re-election chances and the party's fate.

Obama said Democrats should seize the opportunity "whenever there is a possibility that the other side is putting some politics aside for just a nanosecond in order to get something done for the American people, we've got to be right there ready to meet them," the president told the sometimes raucous crowd.

However, "where they obstruct, where they're unwilling to act, where they're more interested in party than they are in country, more interested in the next election than the next generation, then we've got to call them out on it," the president said. "We've got to push. We can't wait; we can't be held back."

Coming off a three-day tour to promote his State of the Union message, Obama promised a "robust debate about whose vision is more promising" when Republicans choose their nominee.

On a day when reports showed the economy picking up late in 2011 but still considered "fragile" by the White House, Obama told Democrats wondering about their re-election prospects: "It's going to be a tough election because a lot of people are still hurting out there and a lot of people have lost faith generally about the capacity of Washington to get anything done."

House Republicans, who held their retreat in Baltimore last week, have repeatedly said the election will be a referendum on Obama's policies, especially his handling of the economy.

The president acknowledged that Democrats have embraced parts of his agenda when it was politically difficult and in some cases costly. The party took a drubbing in the midterm elections, losing control of the House and seeing their ranks diminished in the Senate.

And despite some past clashes with House Democrats over his willingness to compromise with Republicans, Obama was warmly received and was introduced as "our champion" by Rep. John Larson of Connecticut.

The president returned the warmth with a vote of confidence that Democrats would win back the House in November, making a nod to their leader as "soon-to-be once-again Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi."

"I believe in you guys. You guys have had my back through some very tough times," said the president, who received a small gift ? a DVD of House Democrats singing Rev. Al Green's "Let's Stay Together."

Last week, at a fundraiser at the Apollo Theater in New York, Obama stood on the stage and crooned a line from the Green classic.

Democrats were upbeat at their three-day session, energized by Obama's State of the Union address and its populist themes as well as recent polls showing more Americans say the country is on the right track and approve of Obama's handling of the economy. Divisions in the Republican ranks that were on full display last year in the fight over extending the payroll tax cut and the bitter battle between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich for the GOP presidential nomination also lifted Democratic spirits.

But the relationship with the White House hasn't always been cordial. Vice President Joe Biden, who addressed the Democrats prior to Obama's speech, described some of the rough patches.

He noted that several members in the room were mad at him in December 2010 after Obama negotiated an extension of President George W. Bush's tax cuts over the objections of some House Democrats. Last year, frustrated Democrats complained the Obama gave away too much in negotiating a spending bill and an agreement to raise the government's borrowing authority.

Biden said Pelosi told him at the last conference to "get tough. Enough is enough." He said the "message was heard. The message was heard. And I think we've delivered."

The vice president was more pointed in his political remarks than Obama and called out some Republicans by name. He said the American people will reject GOP unwillingness to compromise and its blatant determination to make Obama a one-term president.

Of the presidential candidates, Biden said Romney's criticism of the auto bailout and a host of positions stated by rival Newt Gingrich on government intervention will create a clear contrast for voters.

"These guys are helping us by saying what they believe," Biden said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_go_co/us_house_democrats

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