Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111205/tv_nm/us_cenkuygur
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Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Former MSNBC host Cenk Uygur on his new Current TV show (Reuters)
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Reuters - Cenk Uygur promises a stepped-up version of "The Young Turks" when it debuts on Current TV Monday.
[OOC] Bloody Night
Forum rules
This forum is for OOC discussion about existing roleplays.
This is the auto-generated OOC topic for the roleplay "Bloody Night"
Well, i must say, i'm rather pleased at how well this is turning out! I think we can start if you guys want???
This forum is for OOC discussion about existing roleplays.
Please post all "Players Wanted" threads in the Roleplayers Wanted forum!
This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?Bloody Night?. Anything posted here will also show up there.Topic Tags:
Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.This is the auto-generated OOC topic for the roleplay "Bloody Night"
You may edit this first post as you see fit.
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BelleOceane - Member for 0 years
I would like to reserve the second killer and I can send in a victim as well.
La Dispute
It must be true what people say,
that only time can heal the pain.
And every day I feel it fade away, but-
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kelsiikhaos - Member for 1 years
I'd like to reserve a victim please.
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bananaramma - Member for 0 years
Tossed up a Vic hope you like :)
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
?I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.?
?I guess I just prefer to see the dark side of things. The glass is always half empty. And cracked. And I just cut my lip on it. And chipped a tooth.?
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Lux_Disraeli - Member for 0 years
-Lux_Disraeli~I love it! Very well done!
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BelleOceane - Member for 0 years
Okay she's up but I think I might need to change her age cause she's 22 but thats up to you. I explained why she might be a victim.
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bananaramma - Member for 0 years
You can change her if you want, but it's not necessary. Very well done, though! I like her!
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BelleOceane - Member for 0 years
Well, i must say, i'm rather pleased at how well this is turning out! I think we can start if you guys want???
If we do, then I'll add updates of what's going on so that anyone can join midway through. Also, if anyone else wants to join, they can act like they're new in town so it wouldn't be wierd if they didn't have any idea what was going on!
But it's up to you guys, i'll post a starting post and you can chose to post or not!
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BelleOceane - Member for 0 years
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Monday, December 5, 2011
Bulshada SSC Ee Norway Oo Samaysatay Urrur Lagu Magacaabo SAHAN COMMUNITY
Bulshada reer SSC ee ku dhaqan Dalka Norway ayaa markii ugu horey ku dhawaaqay Urrur ay ku midaysanyihiin kaasoo loo bixiyay SAHAN COMMUNITY urrurkaasoo wax badan ka qaban doona isku xidhka bulshada SSC ee Dalkaas Norway iyo guud ahaanba Bulshada SSC ee ku dhaqan Daafaha Dunida.
Urrurkan ayaa ahaan doono mid u samaysan sida urrurada bulshada SSC ee Wadamada Dunida kaasoo leh Gudoomiye kuxigeen iyo dhamaan xubnaha golayaasha dhexe iyo fulinta.
Xubnaha Urrurkan waxay ugu bushaaraynayaan Bulshada SSC urrurkan oo isagu ka qayb qaadanaya dadaalada horumarineed ee Bulshada SSC,
Dhawaana waxaan idiin soo gudbinaynaa warbixino ku saabsan urrurkan SAHAN COMMUNITY NORWAY.
Hoos ka daawo Afhayeenka Urrurkaas oo ka warbixinaya urrurkan iyo aasaaskiisa.
Qaar kamid xubnaha Urrurka SAHAN COMMUNITY NORWAY.
Gudoomiye Siciid Axmed Suudi
gudmiyo ku xigeen maxmed Caamir Xassan
Kormeerka Guud Ee Urrurka Deeq Cali Duulane
Madaxa Garabka Haweenka Layla maxamuud Jiidhe
Khasnajiga Imaan Axmed Cartan
Afhayeenka Urruka Abshiir Maxmued Diiriye.
Halkan Kadaawo waraysi afayeenka Uruka
Daalacday:91Short URL: http://boocameonline.com/?p=22218
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Posted by lasanod on Dec 3 2011. Filed under Suugaan, Wararka. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entrySource: http://boocameonline.com/?p=22218
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Syracuse accuser links alleged sex abuse to his own arrest (Reuters)
SYRACUSE, New York (Reuters) ? A man accusing an ex-Syracuse basketball coach of molesting him as a boy said that because of the alleged abuse he never learned sexual boundaries and this may have led to his own arrest on similar charges of fondling a boy.
In a telephone interview with Reuters on Thursday after a court hearing in a sex abuse case against him in Maine, Zach Tomaselli said that he was abused at age 13 by former Syracuse coach Bernie Fine and by his father, Fred Tomaselli.
But the credibility of Tomaselli, now 23, of Lewiston, Maine, has been questioned by his own father who says Zach is lying, and because of Zach's own major legal problems.
"Bernie and my father had a lot to do with confusing my understanding of what a normal relationship should be between an adult and a teenage boy," Zach Tomaselli said.
"I wish I grew up in an environment where I could have understood what was normal," he added. "I really think I wouldn't be in this situation if it weren't for the abuse."
Fine has called the allegations "patently false," and Fred Tomaselli denies abusing his son. New York State police confirmed that they had investigated the alleged abuse by his father but no charges were filed. They would not say why.
"We still love him and we hope that he recovers from his problems," Fred Tomaselli said on Friday. "I can't speak to the other accusers, but I can tell you 100 percent, actually 1,000 percent, that my son was not abused by Bernie Fine."
Asked directly if he abused his son, Fred Tomaselli said: "He's lying."
"New York State Police have already come out and said they didn't find anything," Fred Tomaselli said.
Zach and Fred Tomaselli both said they are estranged.
Despite credibility questions, a law enforcement official working on the case told Reuters that Zach Tomaselli's account was important in deciding recently to reopen an investigation six years after accusations against Fine first surfaced.
Tomaselli is one of three men who have accused Fine of abuse -- the others being former ball boys for the basketball team Bobby Davis and Mike Lang.
The Syracuse accusations emerged after a similar sex abuse scandal involving a longtime assistant football coach at Penn State University startled the nation and prompted the dismissal of the university president and legendary football coach Joe Paterno for failing to tell police.
In the wake of Penn State, Syracuse fired Fine on Sunday just hours after ESPN aired audio of what it said was a call between Fine's wife Laurie and alleged victim Bobby Davis in which she appeared to admit knowledge of the alleged abuse.
A grand jury is investigating the accusations against Fine, but unlike the Penn State coach, Fine has not been charged with any crime. Multiple attempts to reach Fine in person at his home and by phone were unsuccessful this week. Fine's attorney had no comment for this story.
On Thursday, Zach Tomaselli appeared in Superior Court in Maine to face charges of sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy he met at a day camp where he was serving as a counselor.
He was arrested on April 11 on charges including sexual assault, exposing himself to a child and unlawful sexual touching. Tomaselli's lawyer on Thursday sought to have a police interview with him barred from evidence, saying police had failed to follow procedures. A judge has not yet ruled.
Zach Tomiselli would not comment on the details of the case against him, but did say that he feels "guilt and shame" that he put himself in the position of facing criminal charges.
Tomiselli said he is angry that he is being held accountable for his alleged actions, while no charges have been filed against the alleged actions of Fine or his father.
"It was very hard to sit there in the courtroom realizing both Bernie and my father have never had to go through a courtroom setting and they were both the ones who abused me," he said. "I never really hated Bernie before until today."
ZACH'S ACCOUNT
As a child, Tomaselli said he lived with his parents in Copenhagen, N.Y., a small town 90 miles north of Syracuse. Prior to the start of Syracuse' 2001-2002 basketball season, he said his father took him to a team autograph session.
Tomaselli said his father met Bernie Fine there and after speaking with him, introduced the assistant basketball coach to Zach Tomaselli. "Bernie had asked for our phone number after talking to us for over an hour," he said.
Tomaselli said Fine called his parents in early 2002 to invite him, then 13, to a Syracuse away game in Pittsburgh.
"They (parents) told me to behave myself and what to expect taking the bus by myself on this trip." Tomaselli said he boarded a bus of what he assumed were team staff "not fans." . Everything seemed "normal," he said, even plans to stay in a hotel room with Fine.
"Mr. Fine was the one that invited me and it was very clear from the beginning that I was expected to stay in that room."
It was a room with two beds and as Tomaselli sat on his bed, Fine put on some pornography, he said. "He ... asked me if I liked it several times,"
"...He said that sometimes friends touch each other and help each other masturbate."
He said Fine did this to him several times that night and the entire ordeal was confusing. Tomaselli said that he was taught to believe this was wrong. But allegedly being sexually abused by his father prior to the Fine incident blurred his sense of judgment, he said.
"What Bernie did to me, I didn't think it was wrong because my father had been doing it to me for at least 4-5 months before that," he said.
Reuters was unable to corroborate independently Tomaselli's account of events surrounding the alleged 2002 incident at a Pittsburgh hotel.
GOING PUBLIC
In November, Tomaselli said he learned of Fine accuser Bobby Davis' story by listening to ESPN radio. Tomaselli decided to go public with his accusations against Fine because it appeared Davis' allegations were too old.
"I knew the statute of limitation laws in New York very well because I had reported my father (to police)," he said. Under New York law the limit is five years after the victim reaches the age of 18. The other two accusers were older.
Tomaselli contacted an ESPN reporter who put him in touch with Davis, who recommended he speak to Syracuse police, he said. Reuters could not reach Davis for comment, but an ESPN spokeswoman confirmed ESPN put Tomaselli in touch with Davis.
Tomaselli said that he testified to police for some four hours. "I felt validated at that point ... I was asked if I thought I could pass a lie detector test and I said yes."
"Through a lot of the searching of Bernie Fine's house and looking at the tape of the Pittsburgh game, police have been able to confirm that I was in Pittsburgh," Tomaselli said.
Reuters has not been able to corroborate that police have confirmed Tomaselli was in Pittsburgh for the game in 2002.
Tomaselli said the intense national interest in the Fine accusations has increased scrutiny in his own case.
"The first court hearing there weren't any media. But now it felt like the eyes of the world were on my case," he said.
(Editing by Greg McCune)
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Sunday, December 4, 2011
New Flu Strain Makes Health Experts Nervous
News |
Health
Is a new strain of H3N2 swine flu a danger to public health or just to the reputations of public health experts?
?| December 2, 2011?|
Image: Flickr/gilt gluttony
A new variant of a flu virus that circulates in pigs has been jumping occasionally into people, providing a surprisingly early opportunity for public health officials to test out some of the lessons learned from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic.
Since the virus was first spotted in July, there have been 10 cases, all but one of which were children under the age of 10. (The exception was a 58 year old.) All the cases have been in the United States; there have been no reports of this virus in people or pigs anywhere else
The most recent infections, in three young children in Iowa, almost certainly involved person-to-person spread. The Iowa cluster is likely larger ? no one in the first child?s family had exposure to pigs, suggesting an unidentified person was the source of virus.
The cases leave public health authorities in the U.S. and elsewhere wondering if a new swine-origin influenza virus is circulating at low levels among humans ? and what needs to be done if that is indeed happening. (Read ?Flu Factories? in the February Scientific American (preview) to learn why health authorities fear the next pandemic virus may emerge as a result of industrial farming? practices.)
Given the mercurial nature of influenza viruses?which can easily mutate into lethal pathogens?ignoring the new virus is not an option, even though to date there have been no deaths and most of the infections have produced only mild symptoms. But the widespread perception that the 2009 swine flu pandemic was much ado about nothing means health authorities risk further damage to their already battered credibility if they sound an alarm and this virus turns out to be a dud. And they know it.
The World Health Organization is working to be ready to react if needed, but wants to make sure it neither under-plays or over-plays its response to this potential new threat, which is technically known as a swine origin influenza A virus of the H3N2 subtype. The new virus has acquired the M gene of the 2009 pandemic H1N1 virus; studies suggest that this gene may enhance transmissibility of the virus.
"We are closely following the information coming out of the U.S. And we just are making sure that if we need to be more active, we will be more active, or if we need to stand down we can do so,? says Keiji Fukuda, the UN health agency?s assistant director-general for health security and environment.
Among the things the WHO is working on is finding a scientifically correct yet politically sensitive name to call this virus. Sales of pork plunged in 2009 when the new H1N1 was identified as swine flu, a reference to the fact it was comprised mainly of genes from influenza viruses that circulate in pigs.
This H3N2 poses similar naming challenges. There is already a human H3N2 ? a distant cousin of this pig virus ? so some way to differentiate the viruses is needed. Pork producers are concerned about how communications about the virus will be handled, admits Paul Sundberg, vice-president for science and technology for the National Pork Board, who says his group has already met with officials at the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control in Atlanta to discuss the naming challenging.
Fukuda says the WHO is trying to draw on the experience of 2009 as it maps out its response to the new virus. ?It frequently comes up as a question: ?What did we learn from that pandemic that we ought to be thinking about in terms of this situation???
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=575cdfee86c80b969bf0ece47d58a323
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Saturday, December 3, 2011
Sellafield waste reactor proposal
30 November 2011
Last updated at 15:12 ET
Plans to build a new reactor at Sellafield in Cumbria to convert waste plutonium into electricity have been proposed by energy company GE Hitachi.
The multi-billion pound reactor would recycle waste from the UK's nuclear plants, currently stored at Sellafield.
The government spends ?2bn a year managing it and is looking at options including reprocessing or storage.
GE Hitachi's Danny Roderick said the 600-megawatt plant could recycle the existing stockpile in about five years.
He said: "We could take that 100 tonnes of plutonium oxide and put it through our prism reactor to make power."
He also claimed it would cost less than building new mixed-oxide fuel (MOX) plants, an alternative method of reusing the stockpile of separated plutonium.
Britain's only MOX plant at Sellafield closed earlier this year because of the uncertain demand from Japan following the Fukushima nuclear crisis.
Mr Roderick said: "This proposal is still in the consultation process with the UK government. But, if the government decided to pursue the reuse option, we want to be there."
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/uk-england-cumbria-15969289
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Friday, December 2, 2011
State cos to cut petrol prices from Thursday (Reuters)
NEW DELHI (Reuters) ? State-run oil firms will cut petrol prices by 0.78 rupees a litre, or nearly 1.2 percent from Thursday, Indian Oil Corp said, the second cut this month, reflecting global prices and potentially easing near double-digit inflation.
Reduction in international gasoline prices and a declining rupee led to the downward revision in petrol prices by 0.65 rupees a litre, excluding state levies, from Dec. 1, said IOC, the country's biggest fuel retailer.
"(The) current trend is of increasing international gasoline prices and further deterioration of exchange rate," the IOC statement said, indicating if this continues there could be an increase in gasoline prices from Dec 16.
On Wednesday spot Singapore gasoline prices on FOB basis rose to about $110 a barrel while rupee declined 0.35 percent.
The companies had cut petrol prices by about 3.2 percent earlier this month, the first reduction in retail prices in nearly three years and the first since prices were decontrolled in June 2010.
Petrol prices have come down significantly from about $116/ barrel in the first half of this month to about $109/barrel and the exchange rate has deteriorated from 49.32 rupees to a dollar to 51.51, the statement added.
India's three state fuel retailers -- IOC, Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp discuss prices every two weeks and tend to move their prices in tandem.
Gasoline has a 1.09 percent weighting in the inflation index. Near double-digit consumer prices have provoked criticism of the government, which subsidises other fuels such as diesel and cooking gas.
Despite a cut in prices, gasoline in India will cost more than in the United States or neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh.
India's petrol consumption in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012 is set to grow at 5 percent, its weakest pace in at least six years as diesel prices are significantly lower and the gap has encouraged fuel switching.
Gasoline is not as widely used as diesel in India - accounting for around 10 percent of fuel demand compared with about 40 percent for diesel - but it is high-profile because it powers many of the cars owned by the growing middle class.
"In view of the lingering pessimistic economic perceptions and persistent high oil prices moving in a narrow range, the current trend of gasoline consumption is expected to continue for the remaining months of the year," Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell said in a note posted on its website on Wednesday.
India's economy grew 6.9 percent in July-September, its slowest pace in more than two years, and infrastructure output in October grew a marginal 0.1 percent, the slowest in more than six years.
IOC statement said state-fuel retailers' daily revenue losses on subsided fuel sales to rise 4.52 billion rupees from Thursday compared with 3.48 billion rupees in the second half of this month.
$1=52.20 Rupees
(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; editing by Malini Menon)
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3 Afghan policemen die in roadside bombing
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? Afghan officials say three policemen died and four others were wounded in an explosion in northeast Afghanistan.
Kamen Khan, a police official in Baghlan district of Baghlan province, says all seven were riding in an Afghan National Police vehicle on Thursday morning when it hit a roadside mine.
On Tuesday in a neighboring district, two German troops were wounded when their vehicle ran over a roadside bomb.
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Thursday, December 1, 2011
Pakistan PM: No more "business as usual" with U.S. (Reuters)
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) ? Pakistan's Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani ruled out "business as usual" with the United States on Monday after a NATO attack killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, and the army threatened to curtail cooperation with Washington on Afghanistan drastically.
Saturday's incident on Pakistan's border with Afghanistan has complicated U.S. attempts to ease a crisis in relations with Islamabad and stabilize the region before foreign combat troops leave Afghanistan.
"Business as usual will not be there," Gilani told CNN when asked if the relationship with the United States would continue. "We have to have something bigger so as to satisfy my nation."
Gilani's comments reflect the fury of the Pakistani government and military, and the pressure they are under from their own people. "You cannot win any war without the support of the masses," he said. "We need the people with us."
The relationship, he said, would continue only if based on "mutual respect and mutual interest." Asked if Pakistan was receiving that respect, Gilani replied: "At the moment, not."
Gilani's comments cap a day of growing pressure from the Pakistani military, which threatened to reduce cooperation on peace efforts in Afghanistan.
"This could have serious consequences in the level and extent of our cooperation," military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told Reuters.
Pakistan has a long history of ties to militant groups in Afghanistan so it is uniquely positioned to help bring about a peace settlement, a top foreign policy and security goal for the Obama administration.
Washington believes Islamabad can play a critical role in efforts to pacify Afghanistan before all NATO combat troops pull out in 2014, and cannot afford to alienate its ally.
Pakistan shut down NATO supply routes into Afghanistan in retaliation for the weekend shooting incident, the worst of its kind since Islamabad allied itself with Washington in 2001.
"We have been here before. But this time it's much more serious," said Farzana Sheikh, associate fellow of the Asia program at Chatham House in London.
"The government has taken a very stern view. It's not quite clear at this stage what more Pakistani authorities can do, apart from suspending supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan."
Adding a new element to tensions, and a diplomatic boost for Islamabad, Pakistan's ally China said it was "deeply shocked" by the incident and expressed "strong concern for the victims and profound condolences for Pakistan.
Russia, which has been seeking warmer relations with Pakistan as worry grows over the NATO troop pullout in Afghanistan, said it was "unacceptable" to violate the sovereignty of states even when hunting "terrorists."
On Saturday, NATO helicopters and fighter jets attacked two military outposts in northwest Pakistan, killing the 24 soldiers and wounding 13 others, the army said.
"TRAGIC, UNINTENDED"
NATO described the killings as a "tragic, unintended incident" and said an investigation was underway. A Western official and an Afghan security official who requested anonymity said NATO troops were responding to fire from across the border.
Pakistan's military denied NATO forces had come under fire before launching the attack, saying the strike was unprovoked and reserving the right to retaliate.
Abbas said the attack lasted two hours despite warnings from Pakistani border posts. "They were contacted through the local hotline and also there had been contacts through the director-general of military operations. But despite that, this continued," he said.
After a string of deadly incidents in the largely lawless and confusing border region, NATO and Pakistan set up the hotline that should allow them to communicate in case of confusion over targets and avoid "friendly fire."
Both the Western and Pakistani explanations are possibly correct: that a retaliatory attack by NATO troops took a tragic, mistaken turn in harsh terrain where differentiating friend from foe can be difficult.
An Afghan Taliban commander, Mullah Samiullah Rahmani, said the group had not been engaged in any fighting with NATO or Afghan forces in the area when the incident took place. But he added that Taliban fighters control several Afghan villages near the border with Pakistan.
A similar cross-border incident on September 30, 2010, which killed two Pakistani service personnel, led to the closure of one of NATO's supply routes through Pakistan for 10 days.
The attack was the latest perceived provocation by the United States, which infuriated and embarrassed Pakistan's powerful military in May with a unilateral special forces raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
OBAMA EFFIGY BURNED
The main Pakistani association that delivers fuel to NATO forces in Afghanistan said it would not resume supplies soon in protest against the NATO strike.
In the Mohmand region, where the attack took place, hundreds of angry tribesmen yelled "Death to America." About 200 lawyers protested in Peshawar city, some burning an effigy of U.S. President Barack Obama.
Newspaper editorials were strident. "We have to send a clear and unequivocal message to NATO and America that our patience has run out. If even a single bullet of foreign forces crosses into our border, then two fires will be shot in retaliation," said the mass-circulation Urdu language Jang newspaper.
The NATO strike has shifted attention away from what critics say is Pakistan's failure to go after militants.
Pakistan joined the U.S. global war on militancy launched after al Qaeda's September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, and won billions of dollars in aid in return.
But the unstable, nuclear-armed country has often been described as an unreliable ally, and the United States has resorted to controversial drone aircraft strikes against militants on Pakistani territory to pursue its aims.
U.S. frustrations grew so much that Obama ordered the raid that killed bin Laden in Pakistan be kept secret, knowing it could make the United States even more unpopular in Pakistan.
(Additional reporting by Zeeshan Haider and Rebecca Conway in ISLAMABAD, Izaz Mohmand, Jibran Ahmad and Faris Ali in PESHAWAR, and William Maclean in LONDON; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by David Stamp)
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Romney knocks Gingrich as 'lifelong politician'
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign stop, Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2011, in Medley, Fla. While others focus on Iowa's caucuses or the early primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina, Romney is set to spend the day in the state welcoming endorsements from three top Cuban-American Republicans, attending several fundraisers and visiting the port in Tampa to discuss trade policy. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign stop, Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2011, in Medley, Fla. While others focus on Iowa's caucuses or the early primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina, Romney is set to spend the day in the state welcoming endorsements from three top Cuban-American Republicans, attending several fundraisers and visiting the port in Tampa to discuss trade policy. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
MIAMI (AP) ? Mitt Romney aggressively criticized rival Newt Gingrich on Tuesday, calling the former House speaker a "lifelong politician" and questioning Gingrich's ability to fix the country's struggling economy.
Romney, speaking a day after Gingrich criticized him during a campaign stop in South Carolina, told Fox News that Gingrich wasn't as likely to beat President Barack Obama in a general election.
"I think to get President Obama out of office, you're going to have to bring something to the race that's different than what he brings. He's a lifelong politician," Romney said of Gingrich. "I think you have to have the credibility of understanding how the economy works. And I do."
Throughout the campaign, Romney has emphasized his business experience over his political tenure as governor of Massachusetts.
"I think I stand, by far, the best shot of replacing President Obama among the Republicans in the field," Romney said Monday.
Romney has rarely had such harsh words for any of his many Republican rivals, largely choosing instead to attack Obama, stay above the primary fray and frame himself instead as the likely nominee. His pointed criticism illustrates how seriously he is taking Gingrich's recent rise as the main conservative alternative to Romney in the race.
Gingrich had harsh criticism for Romney on Monday. In South Carolina, he called himself "a lot more conservative than Mitt Romney and a lot more electable than anybody else."
"It's wrong to go around and adopt radically different positions based on your need of any one election, then people will have to ask themselves, 'What will you tell me next time?'" Gingrich said in a slap at Romney's history of changing positions on issues.
Romney defended himself against that charge in his Tuesday interview with Fox. "Your list is just not accurate," Romney said when asked by anchor Bret Baier about changing his stances on climate change, abortion, gay rights and immigration. "So, one, we're going to have to be better informed about my views on issues."
Romney relied instead on a character argument to defend his record. "You can look at a person who has devoted his life to his family, to his faith, to his country," he said, a line he used in a presidential debate.
That, too, is a subtle criticism of Gingrich: the former House speaker had an extramarital affair and has been married three times.
The primary, so far, has seen a series of conservatives ? Rep. Michele Bachmann, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and businessman Herman Cain ? jump ahead in polls only to fade after mistakes or, in Cain's case, allegations of sexual harassment and an extramarital affair.
At the end of a stop at the port in Tampa, Romney ignored shouted queries from reporters, instead insisting that he holds regular news conferences.
"You guys, we have press avails and press conferences almost every day, and that's when I answer the questions," Romney said. "When I'm meeting people, it's not a good time to answer questions that are important and require good attention and a thorough answer."
The last time Romney took questions from a group of reporters was last Wednesday in Des Moines.
Associated Pressnor easter nor easter st.louis cardinals st.louis cardinals drag me to hell alot alot
Dear Nicole: Quit playing it safe on 'X Factor'
Ray Mickshaw / Getty Images
"The X Factor" has fairly decent judges in L.A. Reid, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell. But Nicole Scherzinger, second from left, not so much.
By Craig Berman, TODAY.com contributor
Dear Nicole,
I?m writing to you as a public service on behalf of everyone who watches ?X Factor.? I genuinely like the show, but I?m worried about it because right now you?re dragging it down single-handedly.
You?re a judge and a mentor of the over-30s, but as of now, you?re mostly just taking up space. We?re two months into ?X Factor? and I can?t remember a single thing you?ve said. You rarely have anything to say when judging others, nor do you seem to have the same personality from day to day. One week you're headbanging to a Josh Krajcik song, and the next you're sitting there demurely like a soccer mom.
Here's the problem: Right now, you have no identity as a judge. You're not critical.? You're not entertaining. You're not funny. You're never going to out-flake co-judge?Paula Abdul. You had that little made-for-TV feud with Simon Cowell going on for a few episodes, but he?s moved on to L.A. Reid now. You?re just bland and boring.
I know that you may be feeling some pressure. You weren't the first choice as a judge, and I wish they had stuck with the original plan, both because I liked Cheryl Cole and because you would have probably helped Steve Jones to be less stiff as a host. Maybe that?s what?s causing you to react by playing it safe.
It?s disappointing, mostly because I?ve seen you sing. When you?re onstage with the dancers behind you and the audience in front of you, you project total confidence and attitude. In addition, you, more than anyone else on the show, know what it takes to make it in the music business as a manufactured superstar and how hard it is to build on that initial burst of recognition once the show goes away. You?re an original ?Popstar,? for crying out loud, even if few remember Eden?s Crush. You?re a Pussycat Doll.
But when you?re behind the podium, you look like you?re petrified to say anything mean or to make a mistake. And you need to stop behaving like that.
So do the contestants a favor: Be honest with them. Tell Drew that she?s got to do something to bring the show?s energy up every now and then instead of sticking with the teen angst ballads every week. Inform Rachel Crow that she needs to add a little edginess to her personality if she wants to avoid being labeled as a Disney Channel singer. Figure out if Chris Rene is a one-hit wonder with ?Young Homie? or if he?s got something else in the tank. Stop treating the?hopefuls?like precious flowers who will wither and die if criticized, and start telling them what they need to do to succeed.
At the very least, do something besides sit there and offer meaningless platitudes every week. The audience needs more, the contestants need more, and you probably need more if you want to come back next season.
Sincerely,
Craig
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