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Saturday, April 27, 2013

Todd Akin: Karl Rove 'Has Made Himself An Expert' (VIDEO)

If It's Sunday, It's Meet The Press

Feb. 27, 2000: George W. Bush strategist Karl Rove discusses the 2000 Election on NBC's "Meet the Press" (Photo by Michael Smith)

The Butterfly Ballot

Nov. 9, 2000: Karl Rove (L), Chief strategist for Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush, holds up a copy of a Cook County, Illinois, election butterfly ballot. Rove questioned statements from the campaign of Democratic candidate Al Gore that criticized the use of the same-style ballot in Palm Beach county, Florida. (PAUL RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)

Sworn In

Jan. 22, 2001: Senior George W. Bush staff members, Counselor to the President Karen Hughes (L), Senior Political Advisor to the President Karl Rove (2nd L), National Security Advisor to the President Condoleezza Rice (2nd R), and Presidential Spokesman Ari Fleischer (R) hold their right hands up during a swearing-in ceremony of dozens of staff members in the East Room of the White House. (PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)

Side By Side

Sept. 27, 2001: U.S. President George W. Bush (L) walks with his chief political adviser Karl Rove after returning to the White House in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Salute

Oct. 5, 2001: U.S. President George W. Bush's senior adviser Karl Rove makes a signal to a White House media member as he stands in the wings of the Rose Garden in Washington, D.C. (PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)

Bundle Up

Feb. 20, 2003: White House Senior Advisor Karl Rove (R) and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice walk toward the Marine One at the White House in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Making A Point

May 7, 2003: Bush political advisor Karl Rove speaks at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics on the campus of Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire. (Photo by Michael Springer/Getty Images)

Can I Have Your Egg Autograph?

May 7, 2003: Bush political advisor Karl Rove is asked to autograph eggs at a 'Politics & Eggs' luncheon at the Bedford Inn in Bedford, New Hampshire. (Photo by Michael Springer/Getty Images)

Congratulations, Graduates

May 8, 2004: Karl Rove, chief political advisor to President Bush, speaks to graduates of the Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. (Photo by Eric Brady/Getty Images)

Shield The Security Advisor

Dec. 3, 2004: Presidential advisor Karl Rove(L) jokingly shields National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice from the press in Washington, D.C. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

Do You See What I See?

July 14, 2005: U.S. President George W. Bush and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove walk from the Oval Office across the South Lawn of the White House toward Marine One in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Traffic Jam

Oct. 25, 2005: President Bush's senior advisor Karl Rove drives his car out of his driveway in Washington D.C. Rove is a key figure in the CIA leak investigation headed by Federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Mirror, Mirror On The Car

Oct. 27, 2005: President Bush's senior advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove looks through his sideview mirror as he arrives at the West Wing of the White House in Washington, DC. Rove was a key figure in the CIA leak investigation headed by Federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Listen Up

Feb. 27, 2006: White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card (L) whispers in the ear of Senior White House Advisor Karl Rove as US President George W. Bush (not pictured) addresses a meeting of the National Governors Association in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, D.C. (JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

Reading List

May 15, 2006: White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove holds up a copy of 'Kings of the Hill,' by Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne Cheney, while delivering remarks on economic policy at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

We're Thirsty

Jan. 25, 2007: White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove (L), Communications Director Kevin Sullivan (C) and Spokesperson Tony Snow jokingly drink water at the same time before U.S. President George W. Bush participated a round table event at Saint Luke's East Hospital in Lee's Summit, Missouri. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

Look, Obama's In The Paper

Jan. 17, 2007: White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove points to today's edition of USA Today with U.S. Senator Barack Obama, D-IL, on the front page as he awaits U.S. President George W. Bush's arrival at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. (JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

Wiping His Forehead

March 28, 2007: Karl Rove, White House Deputy Chief of Staff, wipes his forehead before rapping with 'Who's Line is it Anyway?' stars Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood during the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association Dinner in Washington, D.C. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

Hug It Out

Aug. 13, 2007: U.S. President George W. Bush embraces Karl Rove, Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor, after a statement by Rove at the White House in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Intensity

Oct. 21, 2008: Karl Rove, former Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to U.S. President George W. Bush, speaks during a panel discussion at the 2008 Mortgage Bankers Association Conference and Expo in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Hold The Phone

Aug. 28, 2012: Karl Rove, former Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Policy Advisor to U.S. President George W. Bush, walks on the floor before the start of the second day of the Republican National Convention at the Tampa Bay Times Forum in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/26/todd-akin-karl-rove_n_3160116.html

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Friday, April 26, 2013

5 Tips for Buyers Who Want a Million-Dollar Home | AOL Real Estate

By Dolly Lenz

Called the "Queen of Real Estate" and even "Jaws" for her aggressively successful tactics, super broker Dolly Lenz (pictured in the inset above) has sold over $8.5 billion dollars in high-end properties, catering to clients like Barbra Streisand, Billy Joel and P. Diddy. Now she's revealing five tips to buying a million-dollar home.

In a Buyer's Market: Be Aggressive

In a buyer's market, sellers have fewer options. Buyers are scarce and, therefore, they have the upper hand in that they are better able to dictate terms. In this instance, buyers can be aggressive in their bidding and are free to probe how motivated a seller is to sell. In this environment, buyers should consider asking the seller to pick up certain closing costs, include furnishings as part of the deal, and even request seller financing.

In buyer's markets, sellers become very competitive with one another and buyers can use this to their advantage. Buyers should not be shy about using one seller against another and see which one will offer a better deal. This is especially advantageous in neighborhoods which have similar homes and buyers are indifferent about which property they prefer.

In a Seller's Market: Be Prepared

In a seller's market, multiple bids on the same property are common as inventory levels are low. Nothing gets a seller's attention more than a buyer who is both ready and able to consummate a deal. For this reason, potential buyers have to be prepared before they start bidding. Obviously, cash is king and those paying cash are in a commanding position to seal the deal with a seller. But for most buyers, financing is a necessary element to a purchase, and those bidding with commitment in hand stand a much better chance of attracting a seller's attention than those without.

Demonstrating an ability to act quickly is also desirable to sellers. This obligates a buyer to be responsive to a seller's communications in real time and be prepared with pre-approved financing, a closing attorney and a flexible closing date. Most people think that the bidder offering the highest price will get the deal but often that is not the case.

Savvy sellers evaluate all the terms of a deal as a package and price is only one factor. For example, most sellers will find a $1 million offer with a commitment letter for 70 percent financing superior to a higher offer of $1,060,000 with a contingency of 80 percent financing, unless the buyer with the higher offer can demonstrate likelihood that they will obtain the necessary financing.

Beware the Onerous Mortgage Contingency

In negotiating a deal, both buyers and sellers assume risk. Just as you are taking a risk by agreeing to buy, a seller takes on risk by agreeing to sell. Naturally, a seller wants a deal with zero contingencies, to eliminate the likelihood of the buyer backing out, while a buyer wants a deal with as many contingencies as possible, should his circumstances change.

The mortgage contingency is a major contract issue for both buyer and seller, and as a buyer you want to obtain terms that are favorable to you. Failure to do this properly could jeopardize your contract deposit. The key element is to establish a maximum amount you are going to finance, and the higher the percentage you can get in the contract, the better off you'll be. The seller will try to negotiate a lower percentage, but the key is to establish a number that you are comfortable with.

See more tips to buy a million-dollar home at CNBC.

See more on CNBC:
Why Housing Stalled: $1 Trillion in Student Debt
CNBC Explains REO
CNBC Explains Jumbo Mortgage

More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
Find homes for sale in your area.
Find foreclosures in your area.
Find homes for rent in your area.

Follow us on Twitter at @AOLRealEstate or connect with AOL Real Estate on Facebook.

Source: http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2013/04/26/buying-million-dollar-homes/

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Rhode Island's marriage equality strategy a 'recipe' for other states?

Rhode Island is days away from becoming the 10th US state to allow same-sex marriage. The combination of coalition building and old-fashioned politics that got it passed is 'a recipe that could definitely be replicated in other states,' says Speaker of the House Gordon Fox, but opponents credit shifting national attitudes.

By David Klepper,?Associated Press / April 25, 2013

Rev. Betsy Garland (l.) and Rev. Dr. Byron Eddy Waterman, volunteers for Rhode Islanders United for Marriage, sign in at a 'weekend of action' on April 20, in Providence, R.I. Volunteers from around New England pitched in to help connect Rhode Islanders with their senators to express their support for marriage equality.

Bizuayehu Tesfaye / Courtesy of Human Rights Campaign / AP

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Phone banks, an army of volunteers and alliances with organized labor, business leaders, and religious clergy propelled gay marriage to victory in Rhode Island this week, a savvy and coordinated strategy that relied on growing public support and old-fashioned bare-knuckle politics.

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Gay marriage legislation had failed every year in Rhode Island since 1997, leaving the heavily Catholic state the lone holdout in New England as the five other states changed their marriage laws. That's soon set to change. The state Senate voted Wednesday to allow gay marriage, and Gov. Lincoln Chafee plans to sign the bill into law following a final, procedural vote in the House next week.

The successful campaign could serve as a model for similar efforts in other states and reflects the increasingly sophisticated political strategy driving what just two decades ago was dismissed as a fringe issue with little public support, advocates and lawmakers alike say.

"This was a victory won by many people, because that's what it takes," House Speaker Gordon Fox, a Providence Democrat who is gay and led House efforts to pass gay marriage, said Thursday. "You bring everyone together, and you're stronger for it. It's a recipe that could definitely be replicated in other states."

Opponents, however, say their defeat in Rhode Island was less about dogged political strategy than it was the national conversation on gay marriage.

"It's a campaign that's been promoted by Hollywood, by the news media, by educational institutions," said Scott Spear, a spokesman for the National Organization for Marriage's Rhode Island chapter. "I think the local group was just on that wave. They didn't create it, they just rode it."

Rhode Island will be the 10th state to allow gay marriage when the legislation takes effect Aug. 1. Supporters in Delaware and Illinois are also hoping to follow this year. Efforts are also underway in other states, including New Jersey, Oregon and Minnesota.

Polls show support has surged since 1996, when Gallup found that 27 percent of Americans backed same-sex marriage. Now Gallup finds that 53 percent support giving gay and lesbian couples the right to marry.

The momentum is clear in Rhode Island. Two years ago, gay marriage legislation didn't even get a vote in the General Assembly. This year, it passed the House 51-19 and the Senate 26-12.

"We are close to the end of a journey that began in 1997," said Ray Sullivan, campaign director for Rhode Islanders United for Marriage, which led the push for the legislation. "When we began this campaign in January, many thought we'd never succeed in the Senate."

The strategy that ultimately proved successful began two years ago after the previous significant effort to pass gay marriage fell apart. House Speaker Gordon Fox, who is gay, abandoned his push for gay marriage after it became obvious the legislation wouldn't pass the Senate, where Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed was a formidable opponent. It was a bitter defeat, and advocates vowed to focus on electing candidates who supported gay marriage in the 2012 elections.

Rather than court one-issue candidates, marriage advocates formed ties with the AFL-CIO, environmental activists, and other progressive groups. By teaming up, the coalition was able to pool their support for candidates with wider voter appeal ? and who also happened to support gay marriage. The strategy worked, and in November several new gay marriage supporters were elected to the House and, more significantly, the state Senate.

Encouraged by those gains, Fox vowed to hold a House vote on gay marriage in the first month of this year's legislative session. The bill's easy passage so early in the session allowed supporters to focus their attention on the Senate.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/TITNYNcLB48/Rhode-Island-s-marriage-equality-strategy-a-recipe-for-other-states

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NASA probe observes meteors colliding with Saturn's rings

Apr. 25, 2013 ? NASA's Cassini spacecraft has provided the first direct evidence of small meteoroids breaking into streams of rubble and crashing into Saturn's rings.

These observations make Saturn's rings the only location besides Earth, the moon and Jupiter where scientists and amateur astronomers have been able to observe impacts as they occur. Studying the impact rate of meteoroids from outside the Saturnian system helps scientists understand how different planet systems in our solar system formed.

The solar system is full of small, speeding objects. These objects frequently pummel planetary bodies. The meteoroids at Saturn are estimated to range from about one-half inch to several yards (1 centimeter to several meters) in size. It took scientists years to distinguish tracks left by nine meteoroids in 2005, 2009 and 2012.

Details of the observations appear in a paper in the Thursday, April 25 edition of Science.

Results from Cassini have already shown Saturn's rings act as very effective detectors of many kinds of surrounding phenomena, including the interior structure of the planet and the orbits of its moons. For example, a subtle but extensive corrugation that ripples 12,000 miles (19,000 kilometers) across the innermost rings tells of a very large meteoroid impact in 1983.

"These new results imply the current-day impact rates for small particles at Saturn are about the same as those at Earth -- two very different neighborhoods in our solar system -- and this is exciting to see," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "It took Saturn's rings acting like a giant meteoroid detector -- 100 times the surface area of the Earth -- and Cassini's long-term tour of the Saturn system to address this question."

The Saturnian equinox in summer 2009 was an especially good time to see the debris left by meteoroid impacts. The very shallow sun angle on the rings caused the clouds of debris to look bright against the darkened rings in pictures from Cassini's imaging science subsystem.

"We knew these little impacts were constantly occurring, but we didn't know how big or how frequent they might be, and we didn't necessarily expect them to take the form of spectacular shearing clouds," said Matt Tiscareno, lead author of the paper and a Cassini participating scientist at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. "The sunlight shining edge-on to the rings at the Saturnian equinox acted like an anti-cloaking device, so these usually invisible features became plain to see."

Tiscareno and his colleagues now think meteoroids of this size probably break up on a first encounter with the rings, creating smaller, slower pieces that then enter into orbit around Saturn. The impact into the rings of these secondary meteoroid bits kicks up the clouds. The tiny particles forming these clouds have a range of orbital speeds around Saturn. The clouds they form soon are pulled into diagonal, extended bright streaks.

"Saturn's rings are unusually bright and clean, leading some to suggest that the rings are actually much younger than Saturn," said Jeff Cuzzi, a co-author of the paper and a Cassini interdisciplinary scientist specializing in planetary rings and dust at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "To assess this dramatic claim, we must know more about the rate at which outside material is bombarding the rings. This latest analysis helps fill in that story with detection of impactors of a size that we weren't previously able to detect directly."

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras. The imaging team consists of scientists from the United States, England, France and Germany. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

For images of the impacts and information about Cassini, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov .

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

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

Journal Reference:

Matthew S. Tiscareno, Colin J. Mitchell, Carl D. Murray, Daiana Di Nino, Matthew M. Hedman, J?rgen Schmidt, Joseph A. Burns, Jeffrey N. Cuzzi, Carolyn C. Porco, Kevin Beurle, and Michael W. Evans. Observations of Ejecta Clouds Produced by Impacts onto Saturn?s Rings. Science, 2013; 340 (6131): 460-464 DOI: 10.1126/science.1233524

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/space_time/astronomy/~3/SgDGsVxA4wQ/130425144654.htm

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Thursday, April 25, 2013

White House defends decision to not send witness to drone hearing (Washington Bureau)

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Egypt pushes ahead with controversial law

CAIRO (AP) ? Egypt's Islamist-led parliament on Wednesday pushed ahead with a controversial judicial law, despite a rising uproar among judges and the opposition who fear Islamists' control over courts.

The judiciary, with mostly secular-minded professional judges, is seen by many Egyptians as the only remaining buffer against Islamists' monopoly of power following the ouster of authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Since then, Islamist parties have swept most polls and dominated legislative councils and the presidency, the country's top executive post.

The opposition vowed to escalate a campaign against the bill and judges called for emergency meeting later in the day.

Presidential spokesman Ihab Fahmy told reporters on Wednesday that the Islamist president respects the judges and has assured them that he won't accept an assault on the judiciary.

"The president is keen on containing the judiciary crisis," he said. He added: "The president firmly stressed that it's unacceptable to hurt or encroach on the judiciary."

Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi has been fighting with judiciary since he was elected last summer.

Last year, courts disbanded the parliament, dominated by Islamists, over unconstitutionality of the election law and last month challenged a parliamentary elections law.

Morsi has waged a campaign against the judiciary and the country's most prestigious Supreme Constitutional Court, saying judges were plotting conspiracies against his administration.

At the same time as Fahmy's remarks, the legislative committee of the upper house, which was seated as a transitional parliament, voted in favor of three draft laws on the judiciary proposed by Islamist groups and opened the floor for further debate.

One proposed by Morsi's Freedom and Justice party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood group, drops the retirement age for judges from 70 to 60, which would affect nearly a quarter of Egypt's 13,000 judges and prosecution officials. The draft also would bar the courts from reviewing or overturning the presidential decrees issued by Morsi late last year.

The same proposal mandates that judges oversee polling stations and punish those who refuse to carry their duties ? a job that used to be voluntarily. Last year, during the vote over a controversial draft of the country's new constitution that was written by Morsi's allies many judges boycotted the vote to protest a decree that temporarily granted Morsi's decisions immunity from judicial review.

The crisis over the judiciary is a reflection of the deep-polarization that split the country into proponents and opponents of Muslim Brotherhood rule and that also prompted resignations of top Morsi's aides and advisers.

On Monday, the top legal adviser of Morsi Mohammed Fouad Gadallah resigned. In his three-page resignation letter, he said he wanted to shed light "on the extent of the danger facing the country" at a time when "personal interests are overwhelming national interests."

Two days earlier, Justice Minister Ahmed Mekki, an Islamist supporter, submitted his resignation, complaining that Morsi supporters were "trampling" on the judiciary. He too criticized the president's handling of the dispute with the judiciary and failure to reach out to critics.

Fahmy, the presidential spokesman, told reporters that Morsi accepted Gadallah resignation and refused to comment on the reasons given in the resignation saying, "this is a personal point of view that we don't comment on." He said that Morsi will form a new panel of legal advisers.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-pushes-ahead-controversial-law-143148323.html

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Samsung Galaxy S 4 review

This is the story of a little smartphone series that grows up and, three years later, positions itself to take over the world. The device in question, the newest addition to that lineup, doesn't really need much of an introduction thanks to some of the most successful marketing campaigns in the world. We'll be happy to give it anyway: pictured atop this very text sits the Samsung Galaxy S 4, the latest and greatest flagship out of Korea. This is the hero, the device chosen to lead the charge for Samsung as it ventures deeper into 2013, and it's fitted with the best of everything: a 1080p Super AMOLED display, 1.9GHz quad-core (or 1.6GHz Exynos 5 Octa 5410, depending on market) chipset, Android 4.2, 13MP camera and a wide assortment of brand-new firmware amenities, to name just a few.

Despite the fact that its predecessor sold millions upon millions of units in the past year, the Galaxy S 4 isn't alone in its quest for global Android domination this time. HTC, the underdog of the fight, has launched the One, a flagship that rivals the GS 4 in almost every way and does so in a physically attractive package complete with a solid aluminum build. Where do these two devices stand in comparison to each other? Does the GS 4 reign supreme? Will its onslaught of new software features send the phone to the top of the pack? These answers and more await you after the break.

Gallery: Samsung Galaxy S 4 review