Sears Holdings moved on Thursday to allay fears that it could run low on cash this year, announcing plans to sell stores in transactions that the company says could raise nearly $800 million.
Sears may be giving up its most profitable stores in exchange for a quick cash infusion today. In one of the transactions, Sears also expects current shareholders to foot the bill, potentially leaving indoor-outdoor thermometer them more exposed to the troubled retailer.
These moves come as the company’s largest investor, its chairman, Edward S. Lampert, has been increasing his personal stake in the company. Mr. Lampert engineered the merger of Kmart and Sears, Roebuck, in a $11 billion deal in late 2004, and his hedge funds now own 61 percent of the stock.
“As a matter of fact, spinoffs like these could leave Sears with a very unprofitable core Sears U.S. business,” said Mary Ross Gilbert, an analyst with Imperial Capital, a brokerage firm.
The price of Sears shares jumped 18.7 percent on Thursday, to $61.80, even as the company reported weak financial results.
Critics say that under Mr. Lampert the company has not spent solenoid valve enough to update its stores and that now, in the face of intense competition, Sears is in danger of permanently falling out of shoppers’ favor.
In a letter to shareholders, Mr. Lampert said: “We made it through the financial crisis and the housing crisis. Now we intend to make it through our current challenges and restore confidence in the company.”
For the year, Sears reported a loss of $3.14 billion, a number that included $2.7 billion of charges, compared with a profit of $133 million for 2010. The fourth quarter had a $2.44 billion loss, compared with a profit of $382 million the previous year.
The company also reported an annual decline in revenue, its fifth in a row. Such trends are a stark reminder that Sears’s problems have deepened since it came under Mr. Lampert’s control.
As Sears’s problems have persisted, all eyes are on its cash flows as concrete vibrating screed investors weigh its chances of survival. The company tacitly acknowledged the attention on its cash on Thursday.
It does not normally hold conference calls to discuss financial results, but Lou D’Ambrosio, Sears’s chief executive, said one of the reasons it did so after the latest earnings release was “to make our funding strategy clear.”
Analysts are also keeping an eye on Sears’s suppliers, as well as the companies, called factors, that make cash advances to the suppliers based on the goods they sell to Sears. If vendors and factors become wary of Sears’s creditworthiness, the retailer may have to pay suppliers cash upfront for goods, which could be a huge drain on liquidity.
“The focus of the call was for the vendors, and steps taken were all focused on near-term cash generation,” said Gary Balter, a retail analyst with Credit Suisse.
Sears said it had $277 million of adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda. But Ms. Ross Gilbert said that excluded $383 million of cash contributions to tomato paste its pensions. Including that would put Ebitda deep in negative territory. And if Sears’s top line continues to decline, the loss could be even deeper this year.
But Sears also has sizable cash sources. It had about $2.5 billion available on two credit lines at the end of January, though the company may draw much of that this fall as it spends large amounts stocking its stores ahead of the holidays.
This is where the property sales announced Thursday become important. If they all occur, and Sears succeeds in cutting costs and slashing inventory, the company could have a sizable cash cushion in the fall. That would bolster confidence and perhaps persuade suppliers not to demand upfront cash payments for their goods.
But the danger is that Sears may be selling some of its best properties, which could mean even worse operating results in the future. On the conference call on Thursday, a Sears executive declined to ac power cord say what proportion of its stores was profitable.
One of the asset sales appears to be in the bag. General Growth Properties, a mall operator, has agreed to buy 11 Sears properties, which will raise $270 million.
However, the other deal — which aims to raise as much as $500 million and is slated for later this year — is less straightforward. In effect, Sears aims to sell its smaller Hometown and Outlet stores to any interested Sears shareholders. The company said Mr. Lampert’s hedge funds expected to participate and exercise their rights in full.
The big question now is how many more of these types of sales Sears could do. More than 120 properties cannot be sold because they are effectively locked in an insurance subsidiary. Others may be harder to sell because metal stamping they are in less attractive malls.
Furthermore, agreements with Sears’s creditors may contain restrictions on assets sales. A Sears spokeswoman said, “The domestic credit agreement contains customary limitations on asset sales.” But she added, “We do not believe our debt agreements place material restrictions on us that would prevent us from taking value-adding actions, such as those announced today.”
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Maryland Senate approved a same-sex marriage bill
The Maryland Senate voted Thursday evening to legalize same-sex marriage, the latest sign of growing national recognition of such unions among gay and lesbian couples.
Six states and the District of Columbia already issue same-sex marriage licenses -- Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont. Five states -- Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey and Rhode Island -- allow civil unions that sheet metal stamping provide rights similar to marriage.
"All children deserve the opportunity to live in a loving, caring, committed, and stable home, protected equally under the law," O'Malley said in a statement after the vote.
New Jersey lawmakers approved same-sex marriage this month, but Gov. Chris Christie vetoed the legislation. He has said voters should decide the issue in a statewide referendum.
The flurry of activity is a stark change from two decades ago, when the issue of same-sex marriage first gained national attention. Just a decade ago, no states allowed such unions.
In 1996, when Congress defined marriage solely as a union between a man and a woman, 68% of Americans opposed same-sex marriage, with just 27% in favor, according to polling by Gallup. By May 2011, the ac power cord lines had crossed, with 53% of Americans in favor and 45% opposed, according to the organization.
The Maryland vote comes less than two weeks after Washington legislators voted to legalize same-sex marriage. That measure will take effect in the summer if it survives a likely court challenge.
Voters in Minnesota and North Carolina, meanwhile, will consider proposals in November to ban gay marriage in those states. New Hampshire lawmakers may also consider a repeal of its same-sex marriage law, according to the National Organization for Marriage, which opposes same-sex marriage. Lawsuits seeking to expand civil unions or turn back laws banning same-sex marriages are working through the courts in at least 12 states, including Hawaii, Minnesota and California, the organization said.
In November, the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press reported a more divided public -- 46% in favor of same-sex marriages and 44% opposed. But Pew also said the tomato paste uptick in support seems to be gaining steam, having jumped 9 percentage points in two years.
"There's no question that with so many Americans having changed their minds and opened their hearts as they've heard the stories of real couples and thought about why marriage matters, we now have tremendous momentum towards ending marriage discrimination," said Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to Marry, which favors recognizing a right to marriage for gay couples.
Same-sex marriage became a national issue in 1993, after the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that a ban on same-sex marriages violated the state constitution.
Legislation was introduced recently to allow same-sex marriages in Illinois, and bills from 2011 remain technically active in Hawaii and Minnesota, said Jack Tweedie of the National Council of State Legislatures. It's unclear whether any will see significant action, he said.
An effort is also underway to put a proposal to legalize same-sex concrete vibrating screed marriage on the November ballot in Maine, where voters previously overturned a 2009 state law authorizing same-sex marriage.
In California, meanwhile, a federal appeals court recently ruled against a voter-passed referendum that outlawed same-sex marriage. It said such a ban was unconstitutional and singled out gays and lesbians for discrimination. The case appears to be eventually headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Citing the 31 states in which voters have approved measures defining solenoid valve marriage as a union between a man and a woman, National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown said he doesn't believe polls saying that a majority of Americans now support same-sex marriage.
Brown said Democratic legislatures -- not voters -- have been behind most of the recent action on same-sex marriage. Upcoming ballot initiatives will give voters an opportunity to refute the polling, and Brown says they will.
"The reality is that in these 31 states, everywhere we've had a vote, is that voters have said they believe marriage is an institution between a man and a woman," Brown said.
"What you will see is that there will be a vote in states representing all the different regions of this country and people are going to have the chance to say, Digital thermometer emphatically, 'No'," Brown said.
Six states and the District of Columbia already issue same-sex marriage licenses -- Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont. Five states -- Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey and Rhode Island -- allow civil unions that sheet metal stamping provide rights similar to marriage.
"All children deserve the opportunity to live in a loving, caring, committed, and stable home, protected equally under the law," O'Malley said in a statement after the vote.
New Jersey lawmakers approved same-sex marriage this month, but Gov. Chris Christie vetoed the legislation. He has said voters should decide the issue in a statewide referendum.
The flurry of activity is a stark change from two decades ago, when the issue of same-sex marriage first gained national attention. Just a decade ago, no states allowed such unions.
In 1996, when Congress defined marriage solely as a union between a man and a woman, 68% of Americans opposed same-sex marriage, with just 27% in favor, according to polling by Gallup. By May 2011, the ac power cord lines had crossed, with 53% of Americans in favor and 45% opposed, according to the organization.
The Maryland vote comes less than two weeks after Washington legislators voted to legalize same-sex marriage. That measure will take effect in the summer if it survives a likely court challenge.
Voters in Minnesota and North Carolina, meanwhile, will consider proposals in November to ban gay marriage in those states. New Hampshire lawmakers may also consider a repeal of its same-sex marriage law, according to the National Organization for Marriage, which opposes same-sex marriage. Lawsuits seeking to expand civil unions or turn back laws banning same-sex marriages are working through the courts in at least 12 states, including Hawaii, Minnesota and California, the organization said.
In November, the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press reported a more divided public -- 46% in favor of same-sex marriages and 44% opposed. But Pew also said the tomato paste uptick in support seems to be gaining steam, having jumped 9 percentage points in two years.
"There's no question that with so many Americans having changed their minds and opened their hearts as they've heard the stories of real couples and thought about why marriage matters, we now have tremendous momentum towards ending marriage discrimination," said Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to Marry, which favors recognizing a right to marriage for gay couples.
Same-sex marriage became a national issue in 1993, after the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that a ban on same-sex marriages violated the state constitution.
Legislation was introduced recently to allow same-sex marriages in Illinois, and bills from 2011 remain technically active in Hawaii and Minnesota, said Jack Tweedie of the National Council of State Legislatures. It's unclear whether any will see significant action, he said.
An effort is also underway to put a proposal to legalize same-sex concrete vibrating screed marriage on the November ballot in Maine, where voters previously overturned a 2009 state law authorizing same-sex marriage.
In California, meanwhile, a federal appeals court recently ruled against a voter-passed referendum that outlawed same-sex marriage. It said such a ban was unconstitutional and singled out gays and lesbians for discrimination. The case appears to be eventually headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Citing the 31 states in which voters have approved measures defining solenoid valve marriage as a union between a man and a woman, National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown said he doesn't believe polls saying that a majority of Americans now support same-sex marriage.
Brown said Democratic legislatures -- not voters -- have been behind most of the recent action on same-sex marriage. Upcoming ballot initiatives will give voters an opportunity to refute the polling, and Brown says they will.
"The reality is that in these 31 states, everywhere we've had a vote, is that voters have said they believe marriage is an institution between a man and a woman," Brown said.
"What you will see is that there will be a vote in states representing all the different regions of this country and people are going to have the chance to say, Digital thermometer emphatically, 'No'," Brown said.
Putin to arouse Russia's enemy in a campaign speech
In a short but fiery presidential campaign speech, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday called on voters to prepare for battle to protect the country's future.
Putin, who presents himself as a defender of Russia, has about 50% support nationwide and is expected to win his third presidential term in the March 4 election, in part because there are no strong opponents on the indoor-outdoor thermometer ballot. Large antigovernment protests have been held recently in response to parliamentary elections won by Putin's party that many considered damaged by fraud.
In his speech Thursday, Putin did not specify who or what Russia would face in battle, though he has described protest leaders as agents of the West. He spoke of the 1812 battle of Borodino and quoted from a school curriculum poem by Mikhail Lermontov: "'Let's die near Moscow like our brothers!' And to die we promised and the oath of loyalty we kept."
"We won't allow anybody to interfere with our internal affairs and we won't allow anybody to impose his will on us because we have a will of our own!" Putin told the crowd, largely made up of government workers brought near the Luzhniki soccer stadium in chartered buses. "The battle of Russia is continuing! Victory will be ours!"
Some in the crowd praised the prime minister and former president and carried signs with slogans such as "Putin Is Our President" or "Putin Is the Best," while others showed little enthusiasm, at times hesitating to say why they were solenoid valve attending a pro-Putin rally. Some said they were reminded of the Soviet era, when national holidays meant every enterprise and organization was ordered to provide a certain number of people equipped with paper flowers, balloons, banners and posters of leaders.
Government opponents and foreign influences are threatening to weaken Russia, Putin told tens of thousands of people at a rally in Moscow held on Defender of the Fatherland Day, a national holiday known as Red Army Day during the Soviet era.
The rally participants marched through the winter sludge before entering the soccer stadium. Men with harmonicas mixed with the crowd, playing popular songs.
Svetlana Petrova, a social worker from a Moscow suburb, said she was not ordered to attend the vibrating screed rally. "No, I volunteered!" she said, giggling. Her colleagues laughed.
One young municipal worker from Zelenograd, an industrial town northwest of Moscow, who gave his name only as Nikolai, said he and his fellow workers were offered an extra day off to compensate for the time they spent demonstrating for Putin.
Yevgeny Krasilich, an engineer from Mosgortrans, a Moscow city-owned company in charge of municipal transportation, said that under Putin his salary was constantly growing and that he had bought an apartment, a tomato paste dacha and a car. Krasilich, a father of two and grandfather of three, said his company brought at least 5,000 members of its 30,000-person workforce to the rally.
"I am happy with everything and I want my life to go on the same way," Krasilich said. "Putin is our only hope and guarantee!"
Alexei Stebennikov, who is unemployed, said Putin is a great talker and that he doesn't drink or smoke and thus sets a good example for youths.
In front of them were Cossacks dressed in trench coats and mutton fur hats and a big group of middle-aged men and women representing the Industrial Wastes company. They were drinking hot tea from plastic glasses and carrying portraits of a very youngish-looking Putin.
Boris Dubin, a senior researcher with the independent Levada Center polling organization, said Putin's approach Thursday stemmed from the protests after the December parliamentary elections and showed the ac power cord authoritarian leader's increasing reliance on the rhetoric of confrontation and war.
Denis Grishin, a municipal worker from central Moscow who said he was enlisted by the administration to come to the rally after his night shift, was holding a banner which read in English: "In Putin we trust." Grishin said he didn't know the meaning of the banner, which was handed to him by one of the organizers, and did not want to vote for Putin.
"The recent mass public protests … demonstrated that Putin's positions are no longer as reliable as they used to be and this victory will not be accepted by many," Dubin said. "Putin is flexing his war sheet metal stamping muscles today to a crowd which doesn't want war and which doesn't see any danger to the country and they don't fall for such rhetoric."
Putin, who presents himself as a defender of Russia, has about 50% support nationwide and is expected to win his third presidential term in the March 4 election, in part because there are no strong opponents on the indoor-outdoor thermometer ballot. Large antigovernment protests have been held recently in response to parliamentary elections won by Putin's party that many considered damaged by fraud.
In his speech Thursday, Putin did not specify who or what Russia would face in battle, though he has described protest leaders as agents of the West. He spoke of the 1812 battle of Borodino and quoted from a school curriculum poem by Mikhail Lermontov: "'Let's die near Moscow like our brothers!' And to die we promised and the oath of loyalty we kept."
"We won't allow anybody to interfere with our internal affairs and we won't allow anybody to impose his will on us because we have a will of our own!" Putin told the crowd, largely made up of government workers brought near the Luzhniki soccer stadium in chartered buses. "The battle of Russia is continuing! Victory will be ours!"
Some in the crowd praised the prime minister and former president and carried signs with slogans such as "Putin Is Our President" or "Putin Is the Best," while others showed little enthusiasm, at times hesitating to say why they were solenoid valve attending a pro-Putin rally. Some said they were reminded of the Soviet era, when national holidays meant every enterprise and organization was ordered to provide a certain number of people equipped with paper flowers, balloons, banners and posters of leaders.
Government opponents and foreign influences are threatening to weaken Russia, Putin told tens of thousands of people at a rally in Moscow held on Defender of the Fatherland Day, a national holiday known as Red Army Day during the Soviet era.
The rally participants marched through the winter sludge before entering the soccer stadium. Men with harmonicas mixed with the crowd, playing popular songs.
Svetlana Petrova, a social worker from a Moscow suburb, said she was not ordered to attend the vibrating screed rally. "No, I volunteered!" she said, giggling. Her colleagues laughed.
One young municipal worker from Zelenograd, an industrial town northwest of Moscow, who gave his name only as Nikolai, said he and his fellow workers were offered an extra day off to compensate for the time they spent demonstrating for Putin.
Yevgeny Krasilich, an engineer from Mosgortrans, a Moscow city-owned company in charge of municipal transportation, said that under Putin his salary was constantly growing and that he had bought an apartment, a tomato paste dacha and a car. Krasilich, a father of two and grandfather of three, said his company brought at least 5,000 members of its 30,000-person workforce to the rally.
"I am happy with everything and I want my life to go on the same way," Krasilich said. "Putin is our only hope and guarantee!"
Alexei Stebennikov, who is unemployed, said Putin is a great talker and that he doesn't drink or smoke and thus sets a good example for youths.
In front of them were Cossacks dressed in trench coats and mutton fur hats and a big group of middle-aged men and women representing the Industrial Wastes company. They were drinking hot tea from plastic glasses and carrying portraits of a very youngish-looking Putin.
Boris Dubin, a senior researcher with the independent Levada Center polling organization, said Putin's approach Thursday stemmed from the protests after the December parliamentary elections and showed the ac power cord authoritarian leader's increasing reliance on the rhetoric of confrontation and war.
Denis Grishin, a municipal worker from central Moscow who said he was enlisted by the administration to come to the rally after his night shift, was holding a banner which read in English: "In Putin we trust." Grishin said he didn't know the meaning of the banner, which was handed to him by one of the organizers, and did not want to vote for Putin.
"The recent mass public protests … demonstrated that Putin's positions are no longer as reliable as they used to be and this victory will not be accepted by many," Dubin said. "Putin is flexing his war sheet metal stamping muscles today to a crowd which doesn't want war and which doesn't see any danger to the country and they don't fall for such rhetoric."
Monday, February 20, 2012
The national debt higher than the expected $ 1 trillion in 10 years
President Obama rolled out an election-year budget on Monday that would delay action to reduce the national debt in favor of fresh spending on Democratic priorities aimed at rebuilding the American middle class.
In his final budget request before facing voters in November, Obama called for $350?billion in new stimulus to maintain lower payroll taxes, bolster domestic manufacturing, lure jobs back indoor-outdoor thermometer from overseas, hire teachers, retrain workers and fix the nation’s crumbling infrastructure. There would be only modest trims to federal health programs and no changes to Social Security, the biggest drivers of future borrowing, despite last year’s raucous political debate over the federal debt.
Federal agency budgets would be face limits agreed to during last year’s budget battles, forcing belt-tightening at the Pentagon and the lowest spending on domestic agencies as a percentage of the economy in at least a decade.
Obama said his proposal would save at least $4?trillion over the next 10 years and stabilize government borrowing. But Republicans blasted the budget as insufficient, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) deriding it as “a campaign document.”
Instead, Obama would reduce deficits by raising taxes by nearly $2?trillion over the next decade on corporations and the wealthy, in part by letting expire George W. Bush-era tax cuts on household income over $250,000 a year. And the president is encouraging lawmakers to rewrite the tax code to remove the alternative minimum tax for middle-class solenoid valve families and require millionaires to pay at least 30?percent of their annual income to the Internal Revenue Service.
Despite the savings, budget deficits would be markedly higher than they would under a debt-reduction plan Obama submitted to Congress in September, staying well above $600?billion a year for most of the next decade. The portion of the debt held by outside investors would climb to $18.7?trillion by 2021, or 76.5 percent of the overall economy — twice the size of the debt before the recession hit in 2007 and $1?trillion higher than the president’s September forecast.
Administration officials blamed that increase in large part on gloomier economic projections, which tend to depress tax collections, increase government spending and drive up deficits. Since the budget was prepared, job growth has proved stronger than expected, officials said, adding that the picture would look brighter today.
But White House economic adviser Gene Sperling acknowledged that the administration added “our aspirations” to the $3.8?trillion request for fiscal 2013. New initiatives would increase 10-year deficit concrete vibrating screed projections by about $350?billion. They include an extra $125?billion for road and rail projects, as well permanently extending tax breaks that provide families up to $10,000 for college tuition and reward businesses for conducting research in the United States.
In an unusually partisan budget message to Congress, Obama wrote that “reining in our deficits is not an end in itself” but “a necessary step to rebuilding a strong foundation so our economy can grow and create good jobs.” Drawing a sharp contrast with his Republican opponents, Obama said his approach “rejects the ‘you’re on your own’ economics that have led to a widening gap between the richest and poorest Americans.”
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney called Obama’s plan “an insult to the American taxpayer” that would not take “meaningful steps tomato paste toward solving our entitlement crisis.”
The budget marks the second year in a row Obama has ignored calls to restructure Social Security and Medicare, the nation’s major entitlement programs. Last year, he declined to endorse the recommendations of a bipartisan fiscal commission he appointed to develop a electric winch debt-reduction strategy. He and other Democrats have refused to consider deep cuts to benefits unless Republicans reevaluate their stand against higher taxes.
“Today, we are seeing signs that our economy is on the mend. But we are not out of the woods yet. Instead, we are facing a make-or-break moment for the middle class, and for all those who are fighting to get there,” Obama wrote. “This is the defining issue of our time.”
Republicans charged that the president had met his debt-reduction goals with tax increases and accounting gimmicks while ignoring the massive cost increases that are looming on the horizon as the nation’s population ages.
“Instead of an America built to last, this is a plan for an America drowning in debt,” House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (Wis.) told reporters. “All we’re getting is more gas thermocouple spending, more borrowing.”
Administration officials noted that the changes would increase projected savings significantly compared with the 2012 budget request, which offered $1?trillion less in 10-year deficit reduction.
“This is a Democratic budget that has savings in Medicaid. It has some savings from new beneficiaries in Medicare in 2017,” Sperling told reporters. “It has a lot of very tough choices.”
Some independent budget analysts applauded the White House for sticking to its previous goal of slicing $4?trillion from future borrowing. But others expressed disappointment power supply cord that the White House didn’t move the conversation forward.
The budget released Monday would trim spending on federal health-care programs by about $360?billion over the next decade, primarily by reducing payments to drug companies and other providers. Starting in 2017, Obama also proposes to raise Medicare premiums for new retirees and seniors with higher incomes, start charging co-payments for home health-care services, and penalize patients who buy Medigap policies to take care of Medicare co-payments and deductibles.
“Their plan isn’t actually big enough yet to fix the problem,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “It has a lot of good components. But they haven’t done enough to make sure that plan becomes the beginning of a national discussion so that we actually get the job done.”
In a preemptive attack issued hours before the budget was made public, Romney signaled that overhauling entitlement sheet metal stamping programs would be a key issue in November if he wins the GOP nomination. He has called for far-reaching changes to Social Security and Medicare that would transform the retirement landscape for future retirees by raising the Social Security eligibility age, reducing checks for higher-income seniors and replacing the open-ended Medicare entitlement with limited federal payments that could be used to buy private insurance.
In his final budget request before facing voters in November, Obama called for $350?billion in new stimulus to maintain lower payroll taxes, bolster domestic manufacturing, lure jobs back indoor-outdoor thermometer from overseas, hire teachers, retrain workers and fix the nation’s crumbling infrastructure. There would be only modest trims to federal health programs and no changes to Social Security, the biggest drivers of future borrowing, despite last year’s raucous political debate over the federal debt.
Federal agency budgets would be face limits agreed to during last year’s budget battles, forcing belt-tightening at the Pentagon and the lowest spending on domestic agencies as a percentage of the economy in at least a decade.
Obama said his proposal would save at least $4?trillion over the next 10 years and stabilize government borrowing. But Republicans blasted the budget as insufficient, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) deriding it as “a campaign document.”
Instead, Obama would reduce deficits by raising taxes by nearly $2?trillion over the next decade on corporations and the wealthy, in part by letting expire George W. Bush-era tax cuts on household income over $250,000 a year. And the president is encouraging lawmakers to rewrite the tax code to remove the alternative minimum tax for middle-class solenoid valve families and require millionaires to pay at least 30?percent of their annual income to the Internal Revenue Service.
Despite the savings, budget deficits would be markedly higher than they would under a debt-reduction plan Obama submitted to Congress in September, staying well above $600?billion a year for most of the next decade. The portion of the debt held by outside investors would climb to $18.7?trillion by 2021, or 76.5 percent of the overall economy — twice the size of the debt before the recession hit in 2007 and $1?trillion higher than the president’s September forecast.
Administration officials blamed that increase in large part on gloomier economic projections, which tend to depress tax collections, increase government spending and drive up deficits. Since the budget was prepared, job growth has proved stronger than expected, officials said, adding that the picture would look brighter today.
But White House economic adviser Gene Sperling acknowledged that the administration added “our aspirations” to the $3.8?trillion request for fiscal 2013. New initiatives would increase 10-year deficit concrete vibrating screed projections by about $350?billion. They include an extra $125?billion for road and rail projects, as well permanently extending tax breaks that provide families up to $10,000 for college tuition and reward businesses for conducting research in the United States.
In an unusually partisan budget message to Congress, Obama wrote that “reining in our deficits is not an end in itself” but “a necessary step to rebuilding a strong foundation so our economy can grow and create good jobs.” Drawing a sharp contrast with his Republican opponents, Obama said his approach “rejects the ‘you’re on your own’ economics that have led to a widening gap between the richest and poorest Americans.”
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney called Obama’s plan “an insult to the American taxpayer” that would not take “meaningful steps tomato paste toward solving our entitlement crisis.”
The budget marks the second year in a row Obama has ignored calls to restructure Social Security and Medicare, the nation’s major entitlement programs. Last year, he declined to endorse the recommendations of a bipartisan fiscal commission he appointed to develop a electric winch debt-reduction strategy. He and other Democrats have refused to consider deep cuts to benefits unless Republicans reevaluate their stand against higher taxes.
“Today, we are seeing signs that our economy is on the mend. But we are not out of the woods yet. Instead, we are facing a make-or-break moment for the middle class, and for all those who are fighting to get there,” Obama wrote. “This is the defining issue of our time.”
Republicans charged that the president had met his debt-reduction goals with tax increases and accounting gimmicks while ignoring the massive cost increases that are looming on the horizon as the nation’s population ages.
“Instead of an America built to last, this is a plan for an America drowning in debt,” House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (Wis.) told reporters. “All we’re getting is more gas thermocouple spending, more borrowing.”
Administration officials noted that the changes would increase projected savings significantly compared with the 2012 budget request, which offered $1?trillion less in 10-year deficit reduction.
“This is a Democratic budget that has savings in Medicaid. It has some savings from new beneficiaries in Medicare in 2017,” Sperling told reporters. “It has a lot of very tough choices.”
Some independent budget analysts applauded the White House for sticking to its previous goal of slicing $4?trillion from future borrowing. But others expressed disappointment power supply cord that the White House didn’t move the conversation forward.
The budget released Monday would trim spending on federal health-care programs by about $360?billion over the next decade, primarily by reducing payments to drug companies and other providers. Starting in 2017, Obama also proposes to raise Medicare premiums for new retirees and seniors with higher incomes, start charging co-payments for home health-care services, and penalize patients who buy Medigap policies to take care of Medicare co-payments and deductibles.
“Their plan isn’t actually big enough yet to fix the problem,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “It has a lot of good components. But they haven’t done enough to make sure that plan becomes the beginning of a national discussion so that we actually get the job done.”
In a preemptive attack issued hours before the budget was made public, Romney signaled that overhauling entitlement sheet metal stamping programs would be a key issue in November if he wins the GOP nomination. He has called for far-reaching changes to Social Security and Medicare that would transform the retirement landscape for future retirees by raising the Social Security eligibility age, reducing checks for higher-income seniors and replacing the open-ended Medicare entitlement with limited federal payments that could be used to buy private insurance.
New York Nightclub Brawl Sends Monaco Prince to the Hospital
A brawl at a Manhattan nightclub over the weekend ended with Monaco's Prince Pierre Casiraghi in the hospital and a New York man facing assault charges.
The incident occurred around 2 a.m. Saturday at the Double Seven Nightclub, when according to indoor-outdoor thermometer police 24-year-old Casiraghi, the grandson of Grace Kelly, got into a confrontation with 47-year-old Adam Hock, a former nightclub owner.
Casiraghi reportedly approached Hock, leading to a physical confrontation. Hock, who according to the New York Post was sitting with friends including supermodels Natasha Poly, Valentina Zalyaeva and Anja Rubik, allegedly punched Casigraghi and three friends who came to his aid.
"Pierre's face looked broken, with deep cuts and blood everywhere," a witness told the New York Post. "He looked like he solenoid valve needed plastic surgery."
Hock was arrested and charged with four counts of third-degree assault.
Hock's lawyer, Sal Strazzullo, said his client acted in self defense and was trying to protect the people he was sitting with.
"The complaint speaks for itself, when it comes to four men allegedly saying that my client was the vibrating screed attacker," Strazzullo told ABCNews.com. "It was four men against one."
Aaron Richard Golub, who is representing the Casiraghi and his friends, disputes the idea that Hock was protecting his friends.
"This incident was tomato paste entirely unprovoked," Golub told ABCNews.com. "It was a one sided incident [and] not from my client's side."
According to Golub, Casiraghi was treated for his injuries at a New York hospital over the weekend and then released.
The incident occurred around 2 a.m. Saturday at the Double Seven Nightclub, when according to indoor-outdoor thermometer police 24-year-old Casiraghi, the grandson of Grace Kelly, got into a confrontation with 47-year-old Adam Hock, a former nightclub owner.
Casiraghi reportedly approached Hock, leading to a physical confrontation. Hock, who according to the New York Post was sitting with friends including supermodels Natasha Poly, Valentina Zalyaeva and Anja Rubik, allegedly punched Casigraghi and three friends who came to his aid.
"Pierre's face looked broken, with deep cuts and blood everywhere," a witness told the New York Post. "He looked like he solenoid valve needed plastic surgery."
Hock was arrested and charged with four counts of third-degree assault.
Hock's lawyer, Sal Strazzullo, said his client acted in self defense and was trying to protect the people he was sitting with.
"The complaint speaks for itself, when it comes to four men allegedly saying that my client was the vibrating screed attacker," Strazzullo told ABCNews.com. "It was four men against one."
Aaron Richard Golub, who is representing the Casiraghi and his friends, disputes the idea that Hock was protecting his friends.
"This incident was tomato paste entirely unprovoked," Golub told ABCNews.com. "It was a one sided incident [and] not from my client's side."
According to Golub, Casiraghi was treated for his injuries at a New York hospital over the weekend and then released.
Spain sending military planes to retrieve treasure
Spain said Monday it will soon send hulking military transport planes to Florida to retrieve 17 tons of treasure that U.S. undersea explorers found but ultimately lost in American courts, a find experts have electric winch speculated could be the richest shipwreck treasure in history.
The Civil Guard said agents would leave within hours to take possession of the booty, worth an estimated euro380 million ($504 million), and two Spanish Hercules transport planes will bring it back. But it was not exactly clear when — Monday or Tuesday — the planes and the agents would leave Spain.
Last week, a federal judge ordered Tampa-based Odyssey Marine Exploration to give Spanish officials access to the silver coins and other artifacts beginning Tuesday.
Odyssey found them in a Spanish galleon, the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, in 2007 off Portugal. Spain argued successfully in court that it never relinquished ownership of the ship or its contents.
The Spanish Culture Ministry said Monday the coins are classified as national heritage ac power cord and as such must stay inside the country and will be displayed in one or more Spanish museums. It ruled out the idea of the treasure being sold to ease Spain's national debt.
Besides its debt woes, Spain is saddled with a nearly dormant economy and a 23 percent jobless rate.
Odyssey made an international splash in 2007 when it recovered the 594,000 coins and other artifacts from the Atlantic Ocean near the Straits of Gilbraltar. At the time, experts said the coins could be worth as much as $500 million to collectors, which would have made it the richest shipwreck treasure in history.
The company said in earnings statements that it has spent $2.6 million salvaging, transporting, sheet metal stamping storing and conserving the treasure.
Odyssey fought Spain's claim to the treasure, arguing that the wreck was never positively identified as the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes. And if it was that vessel, then the ship was on a commercial trade trip — not a sovereign mission — at the time it sank, meaning Spain would have no firm claim to the cargo, Odyssey argued. International treaties generally hold that warships sunk in battle are protected from treasure seekers.
The Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes was sunk by British warships in the Atlantic while sailing digital thermometer back from South America with more than 200 people on board.
The Civil Guard said agents would leave within hours to take possession of the booty, worth an estimated euro380 million ($504 million), and two Spanish Hercules transport planes will bring it back. But it was not exactly clear when — Monday or Tuesday — the planes and the agents would leave Spain.
Last week, a federal judge ordered Tampa-based Odyssey Marine Exploration to give Spanish officials access to the silver coins and other artifacts beginning Tuesday.
Odyssey found them in a Spanish galleon, the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, in 2007 off Portugal. Spain argued successfully in court that it never relinquished ownership of the ship or its contents.
The Spanish Culture Ministry said Monday the coins are classified as national heritage ac power cord and as such must stay inside the country and will be displayed in one or more Spanish museums. It ruled out the idea of the treasure being sold to ease Spain's national debt.
Besides its debt woes, Spain is saddled with a nearly dormant economy and a 23 percent jobless rate.
Odyssey made an international splash in 2007 when it recovered the 594,000 coins and other artifacts from the Atlantic Ocean near the Straits of Gilbraltar. At the time, experts said the coins could be worth as much as $500 million to collectors, which would have made it the richest shipwreck treasure in history.
The company said in earnings statements that it has spent $2.6 million salvaging, transporting, sheet metal stamping storing and conserving the treasure.
Odyssey fought Spain's claim to the treasure, arguing that the wreck was never positively identified as the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes. And if it was that vessel, then the ship was on a commercial trade trip — not a sovereign mission — at the time it sank, meaning Spain would have no firm claim to the cargo, Odyssey argued. International treaties generally hold that warships sunk in battle are protected from treasure seekers.
The Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes was sunk by British warships in the Atlantic while sailing digital thermometer back from South America with more than 200 people on board.
Election hinges on New Hampshire, where Obama has 59.4 percent chance of victory
As though New Hampshire wasn't already overprivileged enough in the broken primary system, the state may be the one to tip the scales in the general election to solenoid valve either party. According to The Signal's elections model, which orders the states from most to least likely to go to the Republican candidate, a GOP win in New Hampshire gives the challenger 270 votes to Obama's 268. If the president wins, he carries the election with 272 votes to his opponent's 266.
Our model, which I developed with Yahoo Labs economist Patrick Hummel by analyzing data from the past 10 elections, gives Obama a 59.4 percent likelihood of winning in the Granite State. This number is slightly higher than our prediction in our first post about our equations last week because the Real Clear Politics average of presidential approval polls has increased from 48 to 49 percent. The most likely outcome is still that Obama will win by 303 votes, carrying Ohio and Virginia as well as New Hampshire. As we noted before, however, elections are just as subject to chance as football games, and if the tomato paste contest were held 100 times, we'd expect the Republican to win about forty times.
What if Obama wins Ohio but loses New Hampshire? The math is easy enough to tally, but in fact this is something our model does not allow. That is because prominent research on presidential models demonstrates that the most efficient way to predict state outcomes is to rank them in the order that they fall from one candidate to the other, rather than consider them as 50 independent contests. Since Virginia is more likely to vote Republican than either Ohio or New Hampshire, for example, if it votes Democratic then we assume the other two did as well.
Of course, in reality the states do not line up like dominos. Instead, they are independent elections in which we can draw correlations from regional or ideological ties that lead some states to move in tandem. While it's very difficult to imagine scenario where the Republican wins Delaware, a reliably Democratic state, and loses Oklahoma, a staunch conservative bastion, we can easily imagine the electric winch dice falling in a way that gives Virginia to the Democrats while Ohio and New Hampshire go Republican. More work needs to be done to identify all these relationship with any precision, as the noted paper makes clear. We'll be launching a predictions game at The Signal later this year that we hope will help produce this data.
We should note that, while this model does not use prediction market data--that seems like cheating--its prediction of a 59.4 percent likelihood of an Obama victory is nearly exactly where the spread currently sits. And of course, there is still a lot of campaign left. If we had had this model ready to publish just a few weeks ago, it would ac power cord have pointed toward a more likely Republican victory, as Obama's job approval ratings were significantly lower. While the model currently predicts a second term for the president, his position is precarious. Drop his approval rating three percentage points, to 46 percent, and New Hampshire flips columns and the Republican wins 52.9 percent of the time.
Our model, which I developed with Yahoo Labs economist Patrick Hummel by analyzing data from the past 10 elections, gives Obama a 59.4 percent likelihood of winning in the Granite State. This number is slightly higher than our prediction in our first post about our equations last week because the Real Clear Politics average of presidential approval polls has increased from 48 to 49 percent. The most likely outcome is still that Obama will win by 303 votes, carrying Ohio and Virginia as well as New Hampshire. As we noted before, however, elections are just as subject to chance as football games, and if the tomato paste contest were held 100 times, we'd expect the Republican to win about forty times.
What if Obama wins Ohio but loses New Hampshire? The math is easy enough to tally, but in fact this is something our model does not allow. That is because prominent research on presidential models demonstrates that the most efficient way to predict state outcomes is to rank them in the order that they fall from one candidate to the other, rather than consider them as 50 independent contests. Since Virginia is more likely to vote Republican than either Ohio or New Hampshire, for example, if it votes Democratic then we assume the other two did as well.
Of course, in reality the states do not line up like dominos. Instead, they are independent elections in which we can draw correlations from regional or ideological ties that lead some states to move in tandem. While it's very difficult to imagine scenario where the Republican wins Delaware, a reliably Democratic state, and loses Oklahoma, a staunch conservative bastion, we can easily imagine the electric winch dice falling in a way that gives Virginia to the Democrats while Ohio and New Hampshire go Republican. More work needs to be done to identify all these relationship with any precision, as the noted paper makes clear. We'll be launching a predictions game at The Signal later this year that we hope will help produce this data.
We should note that, while this model does not use prediction market data--that seems like cheating--its prediction of a 59.4 percent likelihood of an Obama victory is nearly exactly where the spread currently sits. And of course, there is still a lot of campaign left. If we had had this model ready to publish just a few weeks ago, it would ac power cord have pointed toward a more likely Republican victory, as Obama's job approval ratings were significantly lower. While the model currently predicts a second term for the president, his position is precarious. Drop his approval rating three percentage points, to 46 percent, and New Hampshire flips columns and the Republican wins 52.9 percent of the time.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Paul McCartney received his star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame
He brought several Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member pals along for the ride, including Neil Young, who gave McCartney a cheery introduction, Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh and power supply cord pop music power couple Elvis Costello and Diana Krall. Jazz great Herbie Hancock was there as well as musician-producer Don Was and former Electric Light Orchestra leader/Traveling Wilburys member Jeff Lynne. McCartney's wife, Nancy, and son, James, also attended the ceremony.
"I'm so proud to be doing this," he added. "As a musician, as a songwriter, Paul's craft and his art are truly at the top of his game, the way Charlie Chaplin was an actor. He has an ability to put melodies and feelings and chords together, but it's the soul that he puts into everything he does that makes me feel so good and so happy to be here."
Although Starr, the only other surviving Beatle, lives in Southern California, McCartney said, "Ringo's a little under the weather, so he's not here." The comment drew sighs of disappointment from onlookers.
"Let me tell you a little bit about our friend Paul here just as a musician," said Young, wearing a black gas thermocouple leather Buffalo Springfield tour jacket. "When I was in high school and the Beatles came out, I loved the Beatles and I tried to learn how to play like them, and no one could figure out what Paul was doing on the bass. Not only was he playing differently because he plays left-handed, he played notes that no one had put together before -- in a way that made us stand in awe of this great musician."
"When I was growing up in Liverpool and listening to Buddy Holly and the other rock 'n' roll greats, I never thought I'd ever come to get a star on the Walk of Fame," said McCartney, 69 -- a sentiment probably shared by members of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, who had been after him to accept the award ever since it was approved for him in 1993. "But here we are today," he said.
Many fans who showed up in Hollywood brought various bits of memorabilia in hopes of snagging an autograph: One teenage girl had a worn LP copy of his first solo album, 1970's "McCartney." Others leaned across metal electric winch police barricades with copies of "A Hard Day's Night," "Beatles for Sale," "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," books, photos and a plethora of other items.
"Today," not coincidentally, was the 48th anniversary of the Beatles' game-changing U.S. television debut on "The Ed Sullivan Show." The ceremony also came synergistically just two days after the release of McCartney's latest album, "Kisses on the Bottom," a collection of mostly pre-rock pop songs he loved as a child, supplemented by two originals.
Always the Beatle most attuned to business matters, he closed his succinct speech by telling fans and others "around the world that I send you all hugs and kisses on the bottom."
It's a particularly busy week for McCartney: After the star ceremony, he was slated to do a live performance in one of Capitol's recording studios to be streamed live at 7 tonight on iTunes and Apple TV. On Friday, he's the guest of honor at the Recording Academy's annual MusiCares Person of the Year all-star tribute gala and fundraiser. And Sunday, he's on tomato paste tap to perform during the Grammy Awards telecast.
Only one succeeded: On his way back into the Capitol building, McCartney spotted Fullerton 18-year-old Paul Madariaga holding up a Hofner bass guitar like the one McCartney first popularized nearly half a century ago when he was just out of his teens. McCartney gave a nod and the instrument was handed to him. The world’s most famous bassist hoisted it aloft, as he often does at the end of his concerts, scribbled his name across the front with a hastily solenoid valve supplied Sharpie and passed it back to Madariaga.
"I'm so proud to be doing this," he added. "As a musician, as a songwriter, Paul's craft and his art are truly at the top of his game, the way Charlie Chaplin was an actor. He has an ability to put melodies and feelings and chords together, but it's the soul that he puts into everything he does that makes me feel so good and so happy to be here."
Although Starr, the only other surviving Beatle, lives in Southern California, McCartney said, "Ringo's a little under the weather, so he's not here." The comment drew sighs of disappointment from onlookers.
"Let me tell you a little bit about our friend Paul here just as a musician," said Young, wearing a black gas thermocouple leather Buffalo Springfield tour jacket. "When I was in high school and the Beatles came out, I loved the Beatles and I tried to learn how to play like them, and no one could figure out what Paul was doing on the bass. Not only was he playing differently because he plays left-handed, he played notes that no one had put together before -- in a way that made us stand in awe of this great musician."
"When I was growing up in Liverpool and listening to Buddy Holly and the other rock 'n' roll greats, I never thought I'd ever come to get a star on the Walk of Fame," said McCartney, 69 -- a sentiment probably shared by members of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, who had been after him to accept the award ever since it was approved for him in 1993. "But here we are today," he said.
Many fans who showed up in Hollywood brought various bits of memorabilia in hopes of snagging an autograph: One teenage girl had a worn LP copy of his first solo album, 1970's "McCartney." Others leaned across metal electric winch police barricades with copies of "A Hard Day's Night," "Beatles for Sale," "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," books, photos and a plethora of other items.
"Today," not coincidentally, was the 48th anniversary of the Beatles' game-changing U.S. television debut on "The Ed Sullivan Show." The ceremony also came synergistically just two days after the release of McCartney's latest album, "Kisses on the Bottom," a collection of mostly pre-rock pop songs he loved as a child, supplemented by two originals.
Always the Beatle most attuned to business matters, he closed his succinct speech by telling fans and others "around the world that I send you all hugs and kisses on the bottom."
It's a particularly busy week for McCartney: After the star ceremony, he was slated to do a live performance in one of Capitol's recording studios to be streamed live at 7 tonight on iTunes and Apple TV. On Friday, he's the guest of honor at the Recording Academy's annual MusiCares Person of the Year all-star tribute gala and fundraiser. And Sunday, he's on tomato paste tap to perform during the Grammy Awards telecast.
Only one succeeded: On his way back into the Capitol building, McCartney spotted Fullerton 18-year-old Paul Madariaga holding up a Hofner bass guitar like the one McCartney first popularized nearly half a century ago when he was just out of his teens. McCartney gave a nod and the instrument was handed to him. The world’s most famous bassist hoisted it aloft, as he often does at the end of his concerts, scribbled his name across the front with a hastily solenoid valve supplied Sharpie and passed it back to Madariaga.
Romney's negative ads could cost him voters
Santorum's lament has already been sung — with encores — by former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who has twice been on the receiving end of millions of dollars of attack indoor-outdoor thermometer advertising from Romney and his supporters. Now, however, it's not just Romney's rivals who are saying Romney is all negative, all the time. As he trains his sights on Santorum, he faces increasing complaints that his focus on rubbishing his opponents, successfully, is coming at the expense of a compelling message and his own appeal to voters.
The Romney campaign began pointing the dagger at Santorum immediately after an embarrassing loss in three state contests Tuesday, when Romney began tagging Santorum as a Republican who had helped the party "lose its way" by "spending too much, borrowing too much, and earmarking too much." Santorum and Gingrich "are the very Republicans who acted like Democrats" when it came to spending in Congress, he said.
Romney has been taken to task by The Wall Street Journal editorial page, which said he "isn't winning friends with his relentlessly negative campaign" and "needs … to make a better, positive case for his candidacy beyond his business résumé."
"This week's results show that Romney has convinced conservatives that he can convince them that someone else is a solenoid valve bad choice," says Dan Schnur, who headed John McCain's 2000 campaign and is now director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California. "But he hasn't yet convinced them that he'd be a good choice."
Romney's attacks from the stump, on television, and supplemented by the pro-Romney super PAC, Restore our Future, have been effective. And the volatile swings of the nominating process mean that voters have seen those tactics repeated.
When Texas Gov. Rick Perry jumped into the race, Romney hammered him on immigration. When Gingrich surged in the concrete power screed polls in Iowa, Restore Our Future ran hundreds of TV ads pounding on the former speaker, and Romney finished far ahead of Gingrich. After Gingrich won South Carolina, the campaign and the super PAC ran ads lambasting him in Florida, where the former Massachusetts governor won.
"The criticism of Romney is not so much that he's gone negative, but that when he gets into trouble, he over-relies on that approach to the point that voters don't hear the more positive messages."
In opinion surveys, Romney does seem to be losing friends: In a Washington Post/ABC poll taken Jan. 18-22, before the Florida primary, Romney was tomato paste seen unfavorably by 49% of voters compared with 31% who saw him favorably, a big swing from the 39% favorable, 34% unfavorable rating for Romney in the same poll taken two weeks before.
"He needs to increase the appeal of his own candidacy and his own brand,"' says Donna Brazile, a Democratic political strategist-turned-CNN analyst. "The cumulative effect of these negative ads is it's not only … disintegrating his opponents, but it's also hurting his image. It's very difficult to sustain (the message that) 'I'm a businessman, I'm Mr Fixit'… when the other part they've seen is you're also the guy who is demolishing and demagoguing your opponents."
In Michigan, which holds its primary Feb. 28 along with Arizona, Romney's attacks on his opponents won't be a problem, says Greg McNeilly, a Republican strategist. Voters there expect gas thermocouple that "if you believe you're better than somebody else, you try to punch the other guy out."
A bigger danger, he says, is that while Michigan voters know the Romney family well — Romney grew up there and his father was governor — they don't necessarily know what Mitt Romney wants to do to solve their economic problems. "They know who he is and what he's about. What is missing is if you stopped Republican voters on the street and said, 'What is Mitt Romney going to do policy-wise?' that they'd be able to give you a succinct response. That's his challenge."
Brazile, the Democrat, agrees. "What they're hearing ac power cord from the Republicans is 'We dislike President Obama,' " she says. "That'll get you a lot of votes, but that won't get you across the proverbial finish line."
The Romney campaign began pointing the dagger at Santorum immediately after an embarrassing loss in three state contests Tuesday, when Romney began tagging Santorum as a Republican who had helped the party "lose its way" by "spending too much, borrowing too much, and earmarking too much." Santorum and Gingrich "are the very Republicans who acted like Democrats" when it came to spending in Congress, he said.
Romney has been taken to task by The Wall Street Journal editorial page, which said he "isn't winning friends with his relentlessly negative campaign" and "needs … to make a better, positive case for his candidacy beyond his business résumé."
"This week's results show that Romney has convinced conservatives that he can convince them that someone else is a solenoid valve bad choice," says Dan Schnur, who headed John McCain's 2000 campaign and is now director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California. "But he hasn't yet convinced them that he'd be a good choice."
Romney's attacks from the stump, on television, and supplemented by the pro-Romney super PAC, Restore our Future, have been effective. And the volatile swings of the nominating process mean that voters have seen those tactics repeated.
When Texas Gov. Rick Perry jumped into the race, Romney hammered him on immigration. When Gingrich surged in the concrete power screed polls in Iowa, Restore Our Future ran hundreds of TV ads pounding on the former speaker, and Romney finished far ahead of Gingrich. After Gingrich won South Carolina, the campaign and the super PAC ran ads lambasting him in Florida, where the former Massachusetts governor won.
"The criticism of Romney is not so much that he's gone negative, but that when he gets into trouble, he over-relies on that approach to the point that voters don't hear the more positive messages."
In opinion surveys, Romney does seem to be losing friends: In a Washington Post/ABC poll taken Jan. 18-22, before the Florida primary, Romney was tomato paste seen unfavorably by 49% of voters compared with 31% who saw him favorably, a big swing from the 39% favorable, 34% unfavorable rating for Romney in the same poll taken two weeks before.
"He needs to increase the appeal of his own candidacy and his own brand,"' says Donna Brazile, a Democratic political strategist-turned-CNN analyst. "The cumulative effect of these negative ads is it's not only … disintegrating his opponents, but it's also hurting his image. It's very difficult to sustain (the message that) 'I'm a businessman, I'm Mr Fixit'… when the other part they've seen is you're also the guy who is demolishing and demagoguing your opponents."
In Michigan, which holds its primary Feb. 28 along with Arizona, Romney's attacks on his opponents won't be a problem, says Greg McNeilly, a Republican strategist. Voters there expect gas thermocouple that "if you believe you're better than somebody else, you try to punch the other guy out."
A bigger danger, he says, is that while Michigan voters know the Romney family well — Romney grew up there and his father was governor — they don't necessarily know what Mitt Romney wants to do to solve their economic problems. "They know who he is and what he's about. What is missing is if you stopped Republican voters on the street and said, 'What is Mitt Romney going to do policy-wise?' that they'd be able to give you a succinct response. That's his challenge."
Brazile, the Democrat, agrees. "What they're hearing ac power cord from the Republicans is 'We dislike President Obama,' " she says. "That'll get you a lot of votes, but that won't get you across the proverbial finish line."
Santorum Adjusting to Star Treatment on Trail
A crowd of well-wishers and autograph-seekers surrounded Rick Santorum at an event hall here this week. The place was packed; dozens of men, women and children stranded outside stood in the cold just to catch a glimpse of him.
On Tuesday night, Mr. Santorum stunned the political world by winning the Minnesota and Colorado caucuses and a nonbinding primary in Missouri, reviving his flagging candidacy. On Wednesday and Thursday, at a series of power cord campaign stops in the suburbs north of Dallas and in Oklahoma, Mr. Santorum took advantage of a burst of momentum and campaign donations that have followed his three victories. Though overtaking Mitt Romney, the Republican front-runner, is still a formidable challenge, Mr. Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, has become as much of a political rock star as he has ever been in his life.
As his remarks suggest, he has had a curious reaction to the sudden attention — he is trying to make it seem natural and inevitable, carrying himself not as an upstart or an underdog, but as a front-runner. In his speeches in Texas and Oklahoma, he cast his main rival as President Obama, not Mr. Romney or Newt Gingrich, his rival for the conservative Republican voter.
People approached him with tears in their eyes. They gave him cowboy hats, personal notes, quilts sewn for his seriously ill 3-year-old daughter and envelopes with checks gas thermocouple inside. His campaign had raised $1 million online in 24 hours. Earlier, at a nearby hotel, he had to apologize to those hoping to have their pictures taken with him, explaining that he had a television show to get ready for..
“We need to have someone who’s going to go out and paint that vision of what America looks like versus Barack Obama,” Mr. Santorum said on Wednesday evening in the Dallas suburb of Allen. “We need to make him and his failed policies electric winch the issue in this race. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m the best candidate to do that.”
And his support among social conservatives, meanwhile, is hardly assured: the endorsement he received shortly before the South Carolina primary in January from a group of evangelical leaders and Christian conservatives meeting in Texas did little for him then.
Though he may want to sound like a front-runner, the reality is that he has neither the organization nor money that a front-runner in a national race usually commands.
“The voters took a serious look at him in Iowa, and then his poll numbers dropped precipitously, when they decided he wasn’t ready for the tomato paste biggest job on the planet,” said Jim McGrath, a Republican strategist in Houston who is a supporter of Mr. Romney’s. “He pops up with a big night earlier this week, and he should be congratulated for that. But there’s nothing to indicate that there is a durable confidence in Santorum in this bump that is any different than the last bump that faded. His political stock has been a little shaky.”
“I love that he carries the family values with him,” said Becky Boydstun, 37, a stay-at-home mother from Frisco, Tex., who stood on a bench outside the packed barn-style hall in Plano trying to hear his speech. “When you don’t put yourself up on a pedestal, when you can relate to people on a general level, it draws them to you even more.”
Before Thursday, Max Lubitz, 25, a military officer who is on leave at Tinker Air Force Base near Oklahoma City, had been torn between voting for Mr. Gingrich or Mr. Santorum. After watching Mr. Santorum, he said he would support him. “I think this speech sealed it for me,” he said. “The electricity was alive in the room.”
But his digs at the president are not what people talk about as they crowd solenoid valve around him to shake his hand. It is his 3-year-old daughter, Isabella, or Bella, as she is known, who has a fatal chromosomal disorder called Trisomy 18. Bella’s struggle is the emotional undercurrent of his campaign and, for his supporters, has become inseparable from Mr. Santorum’s appeal as a Christian conservative who opposes abortion.
As he has throughout the campaign, he linked conservative social values to economic prosperity. In Texas, he prayed with a group of pastors, met with Tea Party activists and told the members of the Republican Women of North Collin County that a strong family unit is not only good for the country, but also good for the economy.
In Oklahoma City on Thursday morning, he was scheduled to speak at a gun range and shooting sports complex, but because of the expected turnout, the event was moved to the ballroom of a nearby convention center. Mr. Santorum addressed roughly 1,000 people about the dangers of big government and attacked President Obama’s health care, energy and economic policies.
“When she got pneumonia, he stopped his campaign,” said Stephanie Broardt, an Oklahoma City stay-at-home mother who stood on a digital thermometer chair to watch his speech. “He strikes me as a good father. That’s another reason why I love him, because he’s a family man. Other candidates cannot say that.”
On Tuesday night, Mr. Santorum stunned the political world by winning the Minnesota and Colorado caucuses and a nonbinding primary in Missouri, reviving his flagging candidacy. On Wednesday and Thursday, at a series of power cord campaign stops in the suburbs north of Dallas and in Oklahoma, Mr. Santorum took advantage of a burst of momentum and campaign donations that have followed his three victories. Though overtaking Mitt Romney, the Republican front-runner, is still a formidable challenge, Mr. Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, has become as much of a political rock star as he has ever been in his life.
As his remarks suggest, he has had a curious reaction to the sudden attention — he is trying to make it seem natural and inevitable, carrying himself not as an upstart or an underdog, but as a front-runner. In his speeches in Texas and Oklahoma, he cast his main rival as President Obama, not Mr. Romney or Newt Gingrich, his rival for the conservative Republican voter.
People approached him with tears in their eyes. They gave him cowboy hats, personal notes, quilts sewn for his seriously ill 3-year-old daughter and envelopes with checks gas thermocouple inside. His campaign had raised $1 million online in 24 hours. Earlier, at a nearby hotel, he had to apologize to those hoping to have their pictures taken with him, explaining that he had a television show to get ready for..
“We need to have someone who’s going to go out and paint that vision of what America looks like versus Barack Obama,” Mr. Santorum said on Wednesday evening in the Dallas suburb of Allen. “We need to make him and his failed policies electric winch the issue in this race. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m the best candidate to do that.”
And his support among social conservatives, meanwhile, is hardly assured: the endorsement he received shortly before the South Carolina primary in January from a group of evangelical leaders and Christian conservatives meeting in Texas did little for him then.
Though he may want to sound like a front-runner, the reality is that he has neither the organization nor money that a front-runner in a national race usually commands.
“The voters took a serious look at him in Iowa, and then his poll numbers dropped precipitously, when they decided he wasn’t ready for the tomato paste biggest job on the planet,” said Jim McGrath, a Republican strategist in Houston who is a supporter of Mr. Romney’s. “He pops up with a big night earlier this week, and he should be congratulated for that. But there’s nothing to indicate that there is a durable confidence in Santorum in this bump that is any different than the last bump that faded. His political stock has been a little shaky.”
“I love that he carries the family values with him,” said Becky Boydstun, 37, a stay-at-home mother from Frisco, Tex., who stood on a bench outside the packed barn-style hall in Plano trying to hear his speech. “When you don’t put yourself up on a pedestal, when you can relate to people on a general level, it draws them to you even more.”
Before Thursday, Max Lubitz, 25, a military officer who is on leave at Tinker Air Force Base near Oklahoma City, had been torn between voting for Mr. Gingrich or Mr. Santorum. After watching Mr. Santorum, he said he would support him. “I think this speech sealed it for me,” he said. “The electricity was alive in the room.”
But his digs at the president are not what people talk about as they crowd solenoid valve around him to shake his hand. It is his 3-year-old daughter, Isabella, or Bella, as she is known, who has a fatal chromosomal disorder called Trisomy 18. Bella’s struggle is the emotional undercurrent of his campaign and, for his supporters, has become inseparable from Mr. Santorum’s appeal as a Christian conservative who opposes abortion.
As he has throughout the campaign, he linked conservative social values to economic prosperity. In Texas, he prayed with a group of pastors, met with Tea Party activists and told the members of the Republican Women of North Collin County that a strong family unit is not only good for the country, but also good for the economy.
In Oklahoma City on Thursday morning, he was scheduled to speak at a gun range and shooting sports complex, but because of the expected turnout, the event was moved to the ballroom of a nearby convention center. Mr. Santorum addressed roughly 1,000 people about the dangers of big government and attacked President Obama’s health care, energy and economic policies.
“When she got pneumonia, he stopped his campaign,” said Stephanie Broardt, an Oklahoma City stay-at-home mother who stood on a digital thermometer chair to watch his speech. “He strikes me as a good father. That’s another reason why I love him, because he’s a family man. Other candidates cannot say that.”
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Argentina to protest British "militarization" of the United Nations in recent Falklands
Argentina will lodge a complaint with the United Nations Security Council over the U.K.’s “militarization” of indoor-outdoor thermometer the southern Atlantic Ocean around the Falkland Islands, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said.
The dispute between Argentina and the U.K., which went to war over the islands in 1982, deepened in 2010 after four British companies announced plans to search for oil around the archipelago, located about 480 kilometers (280 miles) from the South American mainland. The explorers are targeting 8.3 billion barrels in the waters this year, three times the U.K.’s reserves.
“This is a regional and global issue because they are militarizing the South Atlantic once again,” Fernandez told an audience at the presidential palace that included her Cabinet and the nation’s military chiefs. “There is no other way to interpret the decision to send a destroyer, a huge and modern destroyer, to accompany the Royal heir, whom we would have loved to see in civilian clothing instead of a military uniform.”
The Foreign Ministry will protest Britain’s decision to send one of its newest destroyers, HMS Dauntless, to the islands, to replace an older ship at the same time Prince William is deployed to the archipelago, Fernandez said last night in Buenos Aires. The 58-year-old president has rounded up fresh support in Latin America for her position in recent weeks.
London-based Borders & Southern Petroleum Plc will drill the Stebbing prospect this month, one of three Falkland areas that Morgan Stanley ranks among the world’s top 15 offshore roller blind prospects this year.
Rockhopper Exploration Plc, based in Salisbury, England, is seeking partners for the $2 billion development of its Sea Lion field, the islands’ first economically viable oil find.
Argentina traces its ties to the Falklands to 1820 when Colonel David Jewett claimed possession of the islands in the name of the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata. England assumed military control of the archipelago in 1833, evicting Argentine authorities the following year.
Tensions between the two countries escalated over William’s arrival at the islands last week for a tour of duty as a military pilot. Argentina’s Foreign Ministry said in an statement last week that Argentines regret that William traveled to the islands with the “uniform of a conqueror.”
“We are people that have suffered too much violence in our country, we are not attracted by games of guns and wars,” Fernandez said at the ceremony, in which she ordered a three- decade old report on the war to be reviewed and declassified.
In a show of support for Argentina’s claim, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Nicaragua, Cuba and Antigua and Barbuda have agreed to ban ships flying the Falkland Islands flag from their ports.
Argentine military dictator Leopoldo Galtieri ordered the solenoid valve invasion of the Malvinas, as the Falklands are known in Argentina, on April 2, 1982. Argentine troops were defeated by British forces on June 14, 1982. The war bolstered the government of then-U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, known as the “The Iron Lady,” and helped her win elections the following year.
The dispute between Argentina and the U.K., which went to war over the islands in 1982, deepened in 2010 after four British companies announced plans to search for oil around the archipelago, located about 480 kilometers (280 miles) from the South American mainland. The explorers are targeting 8.3 billion barrels in the waters this year, three times the U.K.’s reserves.
“This is a regional and global issue because they are militarizing the South Atlantic once again,” Fernandez told an audience at the presidential palace that included her Cabinet and the nation’s military chiefs. “There is no other way to interpret the decision to send a destroyer, a huge and modern destroyer, to accompany the Royal heir, whom we would have loved to see in civilian clothing instead of a military uniform.”
The Foreign Ministry will protest Britain’s decision to send one of its newest destroyers, HMS Dauntless, to the islands, to replace an older ship at the same time Prince William is deployed to the archipelago, Fernandez said last night in Buenos Aires. The 58-year-old president has rounded up fresh support in Latin America for her position in recent weeks.
London-based Borders & Southern Petroleum Plc will drill the Stebbing prospect this month, one of three Falkland areas that Morgan Stanley ranks among the world’s top 15 offshore roller blind prospects this year.
Rockhopper Exploration Plc, based in Salisbury, England, is seeking partners for the $2 billion development of its Sea Lion field, the islands’ first economically viable oil find.
Argentina traces its ties to the Falklands to 1820 when Colonel David Jewett claimed possession of the islands in the name of the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata. England assumed military control of the archipelago in 1833, evicting Argentine authorities the following year.
Tensions between the two countries escalated over William’s arrival at the islands last week for a tour of duty as a military pilot. Argentina’s Foreign Ministry said in an statement last week that Argentines regret that William traveled to the islands with the “uniform of a conqueror.”
“We are people that have suffered too much violence in our country, we are not attracted by games of guns and wars,” Fernandez said at the ceremony, in which she ordered a three- decade old report on the war to be reviewed and declassified.
In a show of support for Argentina’s claim, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Nicaragua, Cuba and Antigua and Barbuda have agreed to ban ships flying the Falkland Islands flag from their ports.
Argentine military dictator Leopoldo Galtieri ordered the solenoid valve invasion of the Malvinas, as the Falklands are known in Argentina, on April 2, 1982. Argentine troops were defeated by British forces on June 14, 1982. The war bolstered the government of then-U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, known as the “The Iron Lady,” and helped her win elections the following year.
American football, NBC, I'm sorry "obscene gestures": singer flip birds in the Super Bowl halftime show
The NFL and NBC issued apologies late Sunday after a performer extended her middle finger on camera during the Super Bowl halftime show starring Madonna.
M.I.A., a British singer who was performing alongside Madonna tomato paste, flipped the bird on air just seconds after a digitized blurring occurred on screen. The performer also may have uttered an expletive on camera, according to various published reports, but it was not clearly heard during the telecast.
The statements issued after the game hinted at some tension between NBC and NFL over who was more responsible for the mishap, with NBC acknowledging its screening technology didn't work fast enough--but also noting the network left the hiring of M.I.A. to the league.
An NBC spokesman explained that a system in place during the telecast attempted to blur the image but was late by two-third of a second, or 20 frames. He could not identify how many seconds of delay were in place during the broadcast.
"The NFL hired the talent and produced the halftime show," the network said in a statement. "Our system was late to obscure the inappropriate gesture and we apologize to our viewers."
The spokesman could not confirm that there was hydraulic hose fittings any audible expletive from M.I.A. that was heard on camera.
The NFL issued a statement of its own regretting the incident, but used a far more loaded adjective to describe the on-air gesture. "There was a failure in NBC's delay system. The obscene gesture in the performance was completely inappropriate, very disappointing, and we apologize to our fans," read the statement.
"Obscene" is a far more dangerous word than "inappropriate" given it borrows from the term the FCC employs in its monitoring of language and imagery used on broadcast TV.
The incident could mean NBC is headed for the kind of controversy CBS found itself in eight years ago as a result of the infamous "wardrobe malfunction" that occurred during the halftime show, when singer Janet Jackson's nipple was gas thermocouple exposed on the air as she performed with Justin Timberlake.
Sources suggested that the NFL didn't see any sign of M.I.A. making such a gesture during rehearsals preceding the Super Bowl.
M.I.A., a British singer who was performing alongside Madonna tomato paste, flipped the bird on air just seconds after a digitized blurring occurred on screen. The performer also may have uttered an expletive on camera, according to various published reports, but it was not clearly heard during the telecast.
The statements issued after the game hinted at some tension between NBC and NFL over who was more responsible for the mishap, with NBC acknowledging its screening technology didn't work fast enough--but also noting the network left the hiring of M.I.A. to the league.
An NBC spokesman explained that a system in place during the telecast attempted to blur the image but was late by two-third of a second, or 20 frames. He could not identify how many seconds of delay were in place during the broadcast.
"The NFL hired the talent and produced the halftime show," the network said in a statement. "Our system was late to obscure the inappropriate gesture and we apologize to our viewers."
The spokesman could not confirm that there was hydraulic hose fittings any audible expletive from M.I.A. that was heard on camera.
The NFL issued a statement of its own regretting the incident, but used a far more loaded adjective to describe the on-air gesture. "There was a failure in NBC's delay system. The obscene gesture in the performance was completely inappropriate, very disappointing, and we apologize to our fans," read the statement.
"Obscene" is a far more dangerous word than "inappropriate" given it borrows from the term the FCC employs in its monitoring of language and imagery used on broadcast TV.
The incident could mean NBC is headed for the kind of controversy CBS found itself in eight years ago as a result of the infamous "wardrobe malfunction" that occurred during the halftime show, when singer Janet Jackson's nipple was gas thermocouple exposed on the air as she performed with Justin Timberlake.
Sources suggested that the NFL didn't see any sign of M.I.A. making such a gesture during rehearsals preceding the Super Bowl.
For Woods, Early Lesson in Pressure Resonates
Before Tiger Woods became the Mariano Rivera of golf, he struggled to close out a victory on the PGA Tour the way Kyle Stanley and Spencer Levin have in recent weeks.
At the 1996 Quad City Classic, his third event after ac power cord turning professional, Woods started the final round with a one-stroke advantage that he stretched to three after two holes. But he was derailed by a quadruple bogey on one hole and a four-putt on another.
Woods wound up tied for fifth, four strokes behind Ed Fiori, a 43-year-old who had gone 14 years between victories. Afterward, the runner-up, Andrew Magee, observed: “You know, we are not going to lie down out there. I think this was a blessing in disguise for Tiger.”
On Tuesday, speaking in advance of his first Pebble Beach National Pro-Am appearance since 2002, Woods echoed Magee.
“What that allowed me to do is understand and feel the heat at this level,” Woods said, adding: “So that helped a lot going through that one tournament. It showed me that, one, I could get there, and two, where I needed to improve.”
The next month, Woods charged from four strokes back to defeat Davis Love III in a playoff in Las Vegas for the first of his 71 tour victories. Since the 1996 Quad City tournament, Woods has taken at least a share of the lead into the final round of 51 PGA Tour events and won 48 of them. He held a piece of the lead in his opening event of the 2012 season, in the United Arab Emirates, and finished tied for third.
“I think for me, personally, I’ve always been excited about gas thermocouple being in that position,” Woods said. “One, I know I’ve played well to get there, so just trying to do the same things I did to get there and hopefully, it will be enough.”
Woods has won the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am once, in 2000 when he erased a seven-shot deficit in the final seven holes to reel in the rookie Matt Gogel, the 54-hole leader. Gogel demonstrated he learned from the experience by carving out a victory here in 2002.
For those who find themselves carrying the lead into the final day, experience is the best caddie. On that day in 2000, Gogel played the front nine in 31 strokes. That was the same score Woods posted in the pressure cooker that is the back nine, where Gogel carded a 40.
Recalling his mind-set, Woods said, “Matt had never won a golf tournament at the time, and I figured if I could just somehow get within one or two of him with a few holes to go, that was kind of the goal.”
Stanley employed the same thinking on Sunday in Scottsdale, Ariz., when he caught and passed Levin, who has not won on the tour, in much the same way that Brandt Snedeker had tomato paste caught and passed Stanley in La Jolla, Calif., the previous week.
“It’s very hard to win out here,” said Woods, who once made it look easy. From 1997 to 2009, he averaged nearly six wins a year.
Woods’s last official PGA Tour title came at the BMW Championship in September 2009, as his path to the winning circle has been diverted by personal issues and injuries. (Woods won the Chevron World Challenge, an unofficial PGA Tour event that he hosted, in December.)
“I feel very at peace where I’m at,” he said. “I had to make some changes, and that took time, and I’m starting to see the results of that now, which is great.”
Woods feels pressure to win this week, but not for the solenoid valve obvious reason. He knows there are a lot of people eager to see him win again, but there are also two fans who simply desire to see him.
“My kids are becoming at an age now where they want to see Daddy on TV,” Woods explained, referring to his daughter Sam, 4, and his son, Charlie, who turns 3 Wednesday.
He said he tells them that to be on TV, he has to play well. Their response, Woods said, smiling, is always, “Well, Daddy, can you please play well?”
Woods added, “I get more satisfaction out of that part of my life now, so golf is more enjoyable than it used to be, for sure.”
At the 1996 Quad City Classic, his third event after ac power cord turning professional, Woods started the final round with a one-stroke advantage that he stretched to three after two holes. But he was derailed by a quadruple bogey on one hole and a four-putt on another.
Woods wound up tied for fifth, four strokes behind Ed Fiori, a 43-year-old who had gone 14 years between victories. Afterward, the runner-up, Andrew Magee, observed: “You know, we are not going to lie down out there. I think this was a blessing in disguise for Tiger.”
On Tuesday, speaking in advance of his first Pebble Beach National Pro-Am appearance since 2002, Woods echoed Magee.
“What that allowed me to do is understand and feel the heat at this level,” Woods said, adding: “So that helped a lot going through that one tournament. It showed me that, one, I could get there, and two, where I needed to improve.”
The next month, Woods charged from four strokes back to defeat Davis Love III in a playoff in Las Vegas for the first of his 71 tour victories. Since the 1996 Quad City tournament, Woods has taken at least a share of the lead into the final round of 51 PGA Tour events and won 48 of them. He held a piece of the lead in his opening event of the 2012 season, in the United Arab Emirates, and finished tied for third.
“I think for me, personally, I’ve always been excited about gas thermocouple being in that position,” Woods said. “One, I know I’ve played well to get there, so just trying to do the same things I did to get there and hopefully, it will be enough.”
Woods has won the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am once, in 2000 when he erased a seven-shot deficit in the final seven holes to reel in the rookie Matt Gogel, the 54-hole leader. Gogel demonstrated he learned from the experience by carving out a victory here in 2002.
For those who find themselves carrying the lead into the final day, experience is the best caddie. On that day in 2000, Gogel played the front nine in 31 strokes. That was the same score Woods posted in the pressure cooker that is the back nine, where Gogel carded a 40.
Recalling his mind-set, Woods said, “Matt had never won a golf tournament at the time, and I figured if I could just somehow get within one or two of him with a few holes to go, that was kind of the goal.”
Stanley employed the same thinking on Sunday in Scottsdale, Ariz., when he caught and passed Levin, who has not won on the tour, in much the same way that Brandt Snedeker had tomato paste caught and passed Stanley in La Jolla, Calif., the previous week.
“It’s very hard to win out here,” said Woods, who once made it look easy. From 1997 to 2009, he averaged nearly six wins a year.
Woods’s last official PGA Tour title came at the BMW Championship in September 2009, as his path to the winning circle has been diverted by personal issues and injuries. (Woods won the Chevron World Challenge, an unofficial PGA Tour event that he hosted, in December.)
“I feel very at peace where I’m at,” he said. “I had to make some changes, and that took time, and I’m starting to see the results of that now, which is great.”
Woods feels pressure to win this week, but not for the solenoid valve obvious reason. He knows there are a lot of people eager to see him win again, but there are also two fans who simply desire to see him.
“My kids are becoming at an age now where they want to see Daddy on TV,” Woods explained, referring to his daughter Sam, 4, and his son, Charlie, who turns 3 Wednesday.
He said he tells them that to be on TV, he has to play well. Their response, Woods said, smiling, is always, “Well, Daddy, can you please play well?”
Woods added, “I get more satisfaction out of that part of my life now, so golf is more enjoyable than it used to be, for sure.”
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