Obama proposals face quick opposition in Congress

President Barack Obama, flanked by Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, gestures as he gives his State of the Union address during a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday Feb. 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, Pool)

President Barack Obama, flanked by Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, gestures as he gives his State of the Union address during a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday Feb. 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, Pool)

President Barack Obama shakes hands with Vice President Joe Biden after the president gave his State of the Union address during a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday Feb. 12, 2013. House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio is at left. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

First lady Michelle Obama is applauded before President Barack Obama's State of the Union address during a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday Feb. 12, 2013. Front row, from left are, Nathaniel Pendleton, Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton, Mrs. Obama, Menchu Sanchez and Jill Biden. Second row, from left are, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, Deb Carey, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Amanda McMillan, Lt. Brian Murphy and Marie Lopez Rogers. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama set up high-stakes clashes with Republicans over guns, immigration, taxes and climate change in a State of the Union address that showcased his determination to mark his legacy. Rep. Paul Ryan said Obama could better achieve his goals if he would get out of "campaign mode."

At the center of looming confrontations in Washington is a fight over the very role of government, with Obama pushing a raft of new initiatives to improve preschool programs and voting, boost manufacturing and research and development, raise the minimum wage and lower energy use. "It is our unfinished task to make sure that this government works on behalf of the many and not just the few," he said.

Republicans who control the House and hold enough votes to stall legislation in the Senate were just as quick to declare that the government helps best by getting out of the way.

Ryan, the GOP's vice presidential candidate last fall, said Wednesday morning that Obama's leadership style stands in the way of bipartisan efforts to resolve problems like the ballooning deficit. "He seems to always be in campaign mode, where he treats people in the other party as enemies rather than partners," the Wisconsin Republican said in an interview on "CBS This Morning."

Ryan was asked if he supported House Speaker John Boehner's remark Tuesday that he didn't believe Obama "has the guts" to stand up to liberals in his own party on spending cuts.

"That's why the congressman makes remarks like that," Ryan said of Boehner.

Ryan's comments came just hours before Obama was to set off on a three-state trip, starting in North Carolina, to sell to voters the programs he outlined in his address. Obama hit the road frequently in campaign-style trips in December to appeal directly to voters for the approach that he favored, including new taxes, to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff."

Republican critics have said the president should stay home and focus his attention on dealing directly with Congress on these issues.

In the formal Republican response to Obama's address, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said, "More government isn't going to help you get ahead. It's going to hold you back. More government isn't going to create more opportunities. It's going to limit them."

"And more government isn't going to inspire new ideas, new businesses and new private sector jobs. It's going to create uncertainty," said Rubio, a rising star in the party.

Uncompromising and aggressive, Obama pressed his agenda on social issues and economic ones, declaring himself determined to intervene to right income inequality and boost the middle class. He called on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants, far-reaching gun control measures and a climate bill to cut greenhouse gas emissions. He threatened to go around Congress with executive actions on climate change if it fails to act.

But Obama cannot count on willing partners on those issues, any one of which could tie Congress in knots for months with no guarantee of success. Gun control, which Obama made a focus of his speech, faces dim prospects on Capitol Hill. The prospect for immigration legislation is better, but no sure thing. Climate change legislation is given no chance of success.

And Obama addressed relatively briefly the looming fiscal crises confronting the nation and inevitably sucking up oxygen on Capitol Hill ? the deep automatic spending cuts or "sequester" to take effect March 1, followed by the government running out of money to fund federal agencies March 27. He made clear he will continue to press for the rich to pay more in taxes, a position Republicans have rejected.

Republicans, meanwhile, made clear they're in little mood to cooperate.

"We are only weeks away from the devastating consequences of the president's sequester, and he failed to offer the cuts needed to replace it," Boehner said in a statement. "In the last election, voters chose divided government which offers a mandate only to work together to find common ground. The president, instead, appears to have chosen a go-it-alone approach to pursue his liberal agenda."

Earlier Tuesday, in a meeting with television correspondents and anchors, Boehner, R-Ohio, said immigration is about the only item on Obama's list that has a chance of passing this year. He said the president is more interested in getting a Democratic majority in both chambers next year.

Obama did reiterate his willingness to tackle entitlement changes, particularly on Medicare, though he has ruled out increasing the eligibility age for the popular benefit program for seniors.

"Those of us who care deeply about programs like Medicare must embrace the need for modest reforms ? otherwise, our retirement programs will crowd out the investments we need for our children and jeopardize the promise of a secure retirement for future generations," he said.

"But we can't ask senior citizens and working families to shoulder the entire burden of deficit reduction while asking nothing more from the wealthiest and most powerful."

On immigration, a bipartisan group of negotiators in the Senate is working to craft legislation embracing Obama's call for a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants but making such a path contingent on first securing the border, a linkage Obama has not supported.

But there's no guarantee the Senate bipartisan plan will find favor with the full Senate or the House. The first test may come Wednesday morning when the Senate Judiciary Committee opens its hearings on a comprehensive immigration overhaul. Deep fault lines emerged even before the hearing began, with a leading committee Republican, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, calling Obama's remarks on immigration "deeply troubling."

"The biggest obstacle we face to reform is this nation's failure to establish lawfulness in the system," Sessions said. "The president's immigration plan meets the desire of businesses for low-wage foreign workers while doing nothing to protect struggling American workers."

The president implored lawmakers to break through partisan logjams, asserting that "the greatest nation on earth cannot keep conducting its business by drifting from one manufactured crisis to the next."

"Americans don't expect government to solve every problem," he said. "They do expect us to forge reasonable compromise where we can."

___

Associated Press writers Julie Pace and Stephen Ohlemacher contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-13-US-State-of-Union/id-21cd7649080745189c3e3830adcc4f92

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Six Historical Reasons Why the Stock Market Is Near a Top

Tuesday, February 12th, 2013
By Michael Lombardi, MBA for Profit Confidential

Stock advisors have been telling their clients that the key stock indices are going higher and the stock market rally is here to stay. But for this market analyst, as the key stock indices make new highs, my skepticism increases. Here?s why:

Many stock advisors are calling for a break by the key stock indices above their 2007 highs. Take the S&P 500, for example; the index is inching closer to the 1,575 level?its all-time high. Unfortunately, as the index moves higher, volume has been declining. Just look at the chart below. The last time the S&P 500 reached its top, it was actually on increasing volume. (Note: volume is at the bottom of the chart.)

Chart courtesy of www.StockCharts.com

But this is not all. In addition to low participation, as the key stock indices rise, corporate insiders have become big net sellers of stock. According to the Vickers Weekly Insider Report, for the week ended February 1, 2013, corporate insiders of companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) sold 9.20 shares for every one share they bought. In December 2012, they were selling 8.39 shares for every one share they bought. (Source: Market Watch, February 6, 2013.) The activity of corporate insiders, many of whom have their companies included in key stock indices, shouldn?t be taken lightly.

Next, the number of stock advisors turning bullish on key stock indices in favor of a stock market rally is near a 12-month high. According to Investors Intelligence, there are more stock advisors turning bullish now than at any other time since mid-February 2012. (Source: Investors Intelligence, February 6, 2013.) This is a contrarian indicator; the more bullish stock advisors are on key stock indices, the more likely the stock market will go the other way.

And we have the National Association of Active Investment Managers? survey telling us that in the last week of January, equity exposure by funds reached a multi-year high. The survey posted a reading of 104.25?a reading above 100 suggests funds are fully invested in equities. (Source: National Association of Active Managers web site, last accessed February 11, 2013.) This tells us that mutual funds are fully invested. A stock market cannot continue to rise if funds are not putting more money into the market. And historically, whenever mutual funds have been fully invested like they are today, key stock indices have gone down.

Finally, margin debt?the amount of money borrowed to buy securities on the NYSE?is near a five-year high. This means that investors are taking on more leverage. Margin debt on the NYSE has been increasing since July 2012. It stood at $330 billion at the end of December 2012. Last time it reached this high, it was in February 2008. (Source: New York Stock Exchange web site, last accessed February 11, 2013.)

If we move away from the technicals and fundamentals of the stock market and look at the economy, the situation isn?t any better. The U.S. economy experienced a contraction in gross domestic product (GDP) in the fourth quarter of 2012 for the first time in three-and-a-half-years. One more quarter of negative GDP takes the U.S. into an official recession?imagine how fast consumer spending will come to halt then as consumer confidence plunges!

Dear reader, stock market rallies usually end as optimism peaks. This is what I believe we are currently witnessing. I believe we are near a top for the stock market. Do the key stock indices have enough steam left for one big, final blow-off? Sure they do. But the sustainability of the rally just isn?t there?the key stock indices are getting very close to a top.

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Source: http://www.profitconfidential.com/stock-market/six-historical-reasons-why-the-stock-market-is-near-a-top/

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Obama leads chorus of condemnation

On a large television screen in Pyongyang, state television announces the news that North Korea conducted a nuclear??Bully pulpit, meet the nuclear pulpit. Hours before President Barack Obama planned to deliver his State of the Union, North Korea announced overnight Tuesday that it had tested a nuclear device in response to what it described as American hostility. The defiant move opened the president up to Republican criticism on foreign policy.

Obama promptly led a chorus of international condemnation, warning that the ?ill-advised? and ?highly provocative? test and a Dec. 12 ballistic missile launch ?do not make North Korea more secure.?

?The danger posed by North Korea?s threatening activities warrants further swift and credible action by the international community,? the president said in a written statement released by the White House.

The timing was no accident. North Korea?s Stalinist state, technically still at war with South Korea, frequently tries to seize global attention with threats to turn that country's capital, Seoul, into a ?lake of fire.? North Korea also celebrated July 4, 2006, with a ballistic missile launch.

One week ago, it released a bizarre video showing a city resembling New York under missile attack?to the strains of ?We Are the World? on the piano. (It could also be an early present for North Korea leader Kim Jong Un's late father, Kim Jong Il, whose birthday officially falls on Feb. 16).

Administration officials worry that North Korea may be making progress towards constructing a nuclear bomb small enough to fit on a ballistic missile that might someday be able to reach the continental U.S. Obama, like Bush before him, has tightened economic sanctions on the regime in Pyongyang while working with China, Russia, Japan and South Korea in the so-called ?Six-Party talks? to pressure the North. Of those countries, China is often described as holding the key: It is North Korea?s last patron in the international community. And it sharply condemned the test.

In Washington, Obama vowed that the U.S. will "continue to take steps necessary" to defend itself and its allies.

?We will strengthen close coordination with allies and partners and work with our Six-Party partners, the United Nations Security Council, and other U.N. member states to pursue firm action,? he declared.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper?s office confirmed that America?s spy agencies believe North Korea ?probably conducted an underground nuclear explosion? with a yield of ?approximately several kilotons.? (One kiloton = the approximate power of 1,000 tons of dynamite.)

In Congress, leading Republicans responded by criticizing North Korea?and Obama, who planned to promote nuclear arms reductions in his State of the Union speech.

?It is unfortunate that despite repeated overtures, the North Korean government has chosen to further isolate itself and increasingly destabilize the region,? said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon, R-Calif. "It is also unfortunate that on the same day the president of the United States plans to announce further reductions in U.S. nuclear weapons, we see another hostile regime unimpressed by his example.?

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., said the test shows North Korea isn?t about to give up on its nuclear program and warned it ?demands the Obama administration?s attention.?

Royce said Obama?s North Korea policy has ?failed? and urged tougher sanctions aimed at ?crippling? its military capabilities.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-ill-advised-north-korea-nuke-test-needs-151613718--politics.html

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Simulation helps scientists better understand the origin of our solar system

Feb. 13, 2013 ? Simulations boost the significance of image and measurement data from space missions: based on the example of an asteroid, Bernese astrophysicist Martin Jutzi shows how collisions with other celestial bodies can be reconstructed and that even the internal structure of so-called protoplanets can be described. These models help to understand the development of our solar system.

Four and a half billion years ago, dust particles in a giant, dusty gas cloud combined to form increasingly large clumps. These collided, aggregated and thus grew into planets. Between the planetary orbits of Mars and Jupiter, however, hundreds of thousands of smaller fragments remained. They formed the so-called asteroid belt and hardly changed their composition since then. Asteroids thus contain an inestimable amount of information on the origin of our solar system. In research, particular attention is paid to an asteroid called Vesta: with a diameter of around 500 kilometres, it is one of the three largest asteroids and considered to be a protoplanet. Moreover, it is the only known asteroid to have an earth-like structure -- with a core, mantle and crust.

Computer simulation reconstructs collisions between asteroids

Using a three-dimensional computer simulation, Martin Jutzi from the Center for Space and Habitability (CSH) at the University of Bern has now accurately reconstructed how Vesta collided with other asteroids twice over a billion years ago. The models show that the protoplanet owes its elliptical shape to these collisions and that they also scarred its surface structure. The simulations also enable detailed conclusions on the composition and properties of Vesta's interior to be drawn for the first time, which helps us to better understand the evolution of the solar system.

After all, the formation of planets largely depends upon collisions between celestial bodies. "Our method facilitates especially informative analyses of image and measurement data from space missions," says Martin Jutzi. The study, which was conducted in collaboration with researchers from the EPFL, France and the USA, features as the cover story in the February 14 issue of Nature.

Models uncover hidden secrets

Previously, observations with the Hubble Space Telescope provided initial evidence of a giant crater at Vesta's south pole. Then, in 2007, NASA's "Dawn" probe began its space voyage into the solar system's past. Starting in the summer of 2011, it closely orbited Vesta for one year. Images from within the visible range as well as other measurement data provided information on the asteroid's topography and the composition of the minerals that are visible on its surface. It became apparent that the crater observed by Hubble at Vesta's south pole is actually composed of two partially overlapping basins.

Based on this information, the computer simulations by Jutzi's team now demonstrate exactly how two consecutive impacts of celestial bodies led to the formation of the observed overlapping basins, which almost span the entire southern hemisphere of Vesta. The models show the size (66 and 64 kilometres in diameter), velocity (5.4 kilometres per second) and the impact angle of the bodies that collided with Vesta. This reveals a lot about the properties of the objects that were near the protoplanet a billion years ago.

The final images of the simulations closely resemble the shape and topography of Vesta's southern hemisphere as observed by the Dawn mission. The models even accurately reproduce the spiral-shaped structures inside the youngest crater which are visible on images from the Dawn mission. "This shows how reliable our method is," rejoices Jutzi. The researchers assume that the models also provide information about previously hidden features of Vesta. For instance, the simulations reveal that the material exposed by the impacts comes from depths of up to 100 kilometres. "Based on the sort and distribution of this material we are able to precisely reconstruct the various inner layers of Vesta," explains Philippe Gillet, Direktor des Earth and Planetary Science Laboratory der EPFL.

"The fact that we can now look inside such protoplanets makes entirely new perspectives in the research on the history of our solar system possible," says Jutzi.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Bern.

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Journal Reference:

1. M. Jutzi, E. Asphaug, P. Gillet, J.-A. Barrat, W. Benz. The structure of the asteroid 4?Vesta as revealed by models of planet-scale collisions. Nature, 2013; 494 (7436): 207 DOI: 10.1038/nature11892

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/top_news/top_technology/~3/7uxbp91_2jc/130213132013.htm

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Obama to announce return of 34,000 troops from Afghanistan (reuters)

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Investing News: Expert Analysis, Investment Tools, Stock Screeners ...

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Source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15839069/Investing_News_Expert_Analysis_Investment_Tools_Stock_Screeners_and_Financial_Strategy_Information__CNBC

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New Gardens: An Overview ? Cold Climate Gardening

In October 2011 our family relocated to a house and land about twenty minutes from our former location. The old house and the new house are both in rural areas, although the new location is less densely populated and more wooded, and generally quieter, with less traffic.

The General Prospect

The most noticeable change for us is the view. Our former home faced a field leading to a little brook valley, and wooded hills rising up behind. We had a view, a vista.

This is what we saw from the kitchen door at the old house.

At the new house, the woods starts directly across the street.

This is the view out the kitchen door at the new house. Pretty, but no long line-of-sight.

At the old house, the view to the back was more obstructed, but still allowed the eye to travel.

When the trees were bare, it was even easier for the eye to travel up the hill at the old house.

From the back deck of our new house, your gaze once again meets the edge of the woods.

I?m not saying this is bad, just different. If you are familiar with Julie Moir Messervy?s design archetypes, you might say we went from an island vantage point?being in the middle of an open space?to a harbor vantage point?enclosed and surrounded by the woods. Some family members really miss an expansive view of the sky and often walk down the road to a farm where the pastures and fields enable them to enjoy such a view.

The Lay of the Land

A map of the house and surrounding landscape. The arrows indicating slope all point downhill. Click on the image to enlarge.

The house is situated on land that slopes from front to back, dropping steeply down from the driveway and then sloping much more gradually to the brook in back. After that, the slope once again rises. There is another brook that travels under the road and forms the northern boundary of our property. These two brooks merge and flow into a culvert just off our property. In general, the side brook has more water than the back brook. This past summer, the back brook went dry, and the side brook was reduced to a trickle. How our ten-acre parcel fits into the surrounding area was aptly described by my son:

?here the property sits at an odd place in the lay of the land. It rests in a crook of the hill?s shoulder, so it seems when you stand there you might be situated within a small enclosed valley. The reality is, you are perched near the top of a hill and if you fought your way through the scrub and trees to the western rise nearby, you would find in due time the land falls off quite sharply, and steeply, to open on a vast valley, far greater than you would expect. But that valley, or the descent to the north if you follow the creek, are both well beyond the ten acres. Here, with all of that unknown, it seems you stand in a small dish of a valley, the hollow of a hand sheltered from the bigger world.

The Landscape

As best as I can infer, the former owners viewed the landscape as a way to set off the house and not much more. When we arrived, there were foundation shrubs along the front of the house, a bed of ditch lilies (Hemerocallis fulva) along the side and a few shrubs and hostas edging the back. Most puzzling to me was a scrubby area of shrubs and saplings on the northwest side of the house.

Almost all the vegetation growing in this area could have been planted by birds eating fruit or seeds.

Given the manicured look of the rest of the landscape, this spot looks like it was not mowed for years and the birds planted most of it. It doesn?t seem to serve a function in the landscape, and the slope doesn?t seem as steep as some other areas of the lawn. It is a favorite place for the birds waiting for their chance at the feeder, and it has a lovely patch of bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) in the spring.

The one area that you could have reasonably called a garden when we moved in is this steeply sloping area by the carriage barn.

This area had seen better days by the time we looked at the house for the first time, but it was clearly intended to be an ornamental garden.

The real estate copy referred to it as a perennial border, but there are a lot of shrubs in there, and it really doesn?t border anything. Since the slope is its defining characteristic, I call it the slope garden.

The Soil

The soil is rocky clay.

When you stick a shovel in the soil, it lifts up in chunks.

You don?t have to work hard to find rocks here. These were laying on the surface and laid over a muddy area to provide better footing.

It?s even rockier and clayey-er than our previous house. Although, after more than twenty years of rock-picking and soil-amending at the old house, perhaps we really don?t remember precisely how bad it was when we first moved there. At any rate, drainage is poor. In the woods we have a lot of moss growing, and after a heavy rain, there are puddles in the lawn.

First in a Series

This is the first in a series of posts about my thoughts when designing new garden areas and revamping existing ones in our new location. In the coming weeks, I hope to describe many of the areas labeled on the map. My goal today is to give you a point of reference when I talk about various areas of the garden. I?d be interested in hearing your thoughts.

Tagged as: map, views

About Kathy Purdy

Kathy Purdy discovered the joys of writing in fourth grade, when she started corresponding with a former classmate. She's been writing letters ever since, first on looseleaf, then electronically, and now as weblog entries. That makes you, the blog reader, her pen pal. Her first independent (though frustrating) attempts at gardening were made in high school, though the gardening bug didn't bite hard until her mid-thirties, when she found herself mistress of a rural home on 15 acres. ? USDA Hardiness Zone:4 ? AHS Heat Zone: 3 ? Location: rural; Southern Tier of NY ? Geographic type: foothills of Appalachian Mountains ? Soil Type: acid clay ? Experience level: intermediate ? Particular interests: colchicums, narcissus, cottage gardening, NY native plants, gardening with/for children

Source: http://www.coldclimategardening.com/2013/02/11/new-gardens-an-overview/

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