Obama an Athlete? Another Media Fiction (+video)
Photo Credit: Pablo Martinez Monsivais
Adding insult to injury, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie made good on his first throw…
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Russia to Send Nuclear Submarines to Southern Seas
Photo Credit: Reuters
The plan to send Borei-class submarines, designed to carry 16 long-range nuclear missiles, to the southern hemisphere follows President Vladimir Putin’s decision in March to deploy a naval unit in the Mediterranean Sea on a permanent basis starting this year.
“The revival of nuclear submarine patrols will allow us to fulfill the tasks of strategic deterrence not only across the North Pole but also the South Pole,” state-run Itar-Tass cited an unnamed official in the military General Staff as saying.
The official said the patrols would be phased in over several years. The Yuri Dolgoruky, the first of eight Borei-class submarines that Russia hopes to launch by 2020, entered service this year.
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Shale Oil Boom Rattles OPEC
Photo Credit: joern_kh
The shale boom began in the U.S. as a ripple in North Dakota and Texas. Some thought its impact would be limited and regional, not global. Now that uptick on our domestic production curve has triggered a tsunami with geopolitical implications.
That’s because the U.S. does not need 100% energy independence to get OPEC’s attention. Due to production but also conservation and a protracted recession, our need for imported oil has contracted from 60-70% of consumption to about 40%, headed south. As the world’s largest crude oil market, changes in our domestic supply picture must necessarily reshuffle the import mix. Remember how skeptics argued that the shale boom is “a mirage“? I have often maintained that domestic supply increments of 500,000 barrels per day can be significant in a worldwide 90 million bpd marketplace. We’re starting to see that play out, albeit in some surprising ways.
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Marco Rubio Touts Chris Christie in Fundraising Pitch
Photo Credit: AP
The pairing of Rubio and Christie is interesting for a few reasons, including that both are often mentioned as potential 2016 GOP presidential hopefuls. Christie has been hit by conservatives for appearing with Obama during the final week of the election after Hurricane Sandy, a move critics said unnecessarily undermined Mitt Romney.
And Rubio — one of the party’s brighter young stars after he defeated then-Gov. Charlie Crist in the tea party wave of 2010 — has been dinged by some conservatives over his work on the immigration reform bill that recently cleared a Senate committee.
“Conservative leadership is hard to find these days, but the voters in New Jersey have seen it firsthand,” Rubio writes in the email from his Reclaim America PAC.
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Dems Rebel Against Obama’s Environmental Agenda
Photo Credit: Daily Caller
“The EPA’s proposed limits on greenhouse gas emissions threaten the livelihood of our coal miners to the point of killing jobs and crippling our state and national economies, while also weakening our country’s efforts toward energy independence,” said West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin.
West Virginia and Montana are joining Kansas in filing an amicus brief to urge the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a challenge to rules that give the federal government the power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The states want the court to rule that the EPA misinterpreted its authority under the Clean Air Act and has overreached.
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Russian Forces Arrest Mayor of Dagestan City Where Tsarnaev Lived
Photo Credit: Reuters
Said Amirov, the 59-year-old mayor of Makhachkala, has been in a wheelchair since 1993, when one attempt on his life severed his spine. His southern Russian city is known for frequent bombings and shootouts among police, criminal gangs and Islamic fighters. For six months last year it was home to Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the accused Boston Marathon bombers. His parents live there now.
Amirov was seized by troops wearing camouflage, helmets and bulletproof vests and armed with automatic rifles. They surrounded his palatial house on the Caspian Sea, according to a video shown on LifeNews, a Web site that has close connections to the security services. The streets in the neighborhood were blocked by heavy-duty machinery, and troops took cover behind a tall fence, aiming their weapons at the house. Amirov did not resist and was reportedly flown to Moscow by helicopter.
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Harris Poll: Only a Third of U.S. Adults are Happy
Photo Credit: Candie_N (Welcome Spring)
A Harris Poll of 2,345 U.S. adults surveyed online April 10-15 by Harris Interactive found certain groups, such as minorities, recent graduates and the disabled, trended downward in the last couple of years.
“Our happiness index offers insight into what’s on the minds of Americans today and is a reflection of the state of affairs in our country,” Regina Corso, senior vice president of the Harris Poll, said in a statement. “While the attitudes on the economy may be improving, we’re seeing that this is not translating into an improvement in overall happiness.”
Since last measured two years ago, the Happiness Index was especially low among the Hispanic-American population.
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Ex-Microsoft Manager Plans to Create First U.S. Marijuana Brand
Photo Credit: Reuters
Jamen Shively, a former Microsoft corporate strategy manager, said he envisions his Seattle-based enterprise becoming the leader in both recreational and medical cannabis – much like Starbucks is the dominant name in coffee, he said.
Shively, 45, whose six years at Microsoft ended in 2009, said he was soliciting investors for $10 million in start-up money.
The use, sale and possession of marijuana remains illegal in the United States under federal law. Two U.S. states have, however, legalized recreational marijuana use and are among 18 states that allow it for medical use.
“It’s a giant market in search of a brand,” Shively said of the marijuana industry. “We would be happy if we get 40 percent of it worldwide.”
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GOP Divide Between Senators Paul and McCain Over Syria Grow Deeper
Photo Credit: AP/REUTERS
Paul, a first-term senator and Tea Party favorite surging in popularity, took the latest shot by opposing aid to the rebels – a key part of McCain’s plan to end the two-year Syrian civil war in which 70,000 civilians and others have been killed.
“It is very clear that any attempt to aid the Syrian rebels would be complicated and dangerous, precisely because we don’t know who these people are,” Paul wrote in an opinion piece earlier this week. “The situation in Syria is certainly dire. … Al Qaeda is making confirmed inroads into the country. No one wants to see Syria become a bastion of extremism. But like other American interventions in the past, U.S. involvement could actually help the extremists.”
But McCain, fresh off a secret trip to Syria, on Friday upped his call for intervention — telling the Associated Press the opposition needs heavy weapons.
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Magnitude 6.5 Earthquake Strikes Taiwan, Some Damage
Photo Credit: /luca
The quake struck 24 miles southeast of the city of T’ai-chung at a depth of nine miles, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The agency initially said it was 6.6 magnitude but later downgraded it slightly.
Taiwan television said the quake triggered a gas explosion in the centre of the island but it gave no details. There were no reports of any casualties.
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