The 2011 version of Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic is a different fighter in and out of the cage than we saw in the early 2000's. Whether that will lead to one final win tomorrow night is anyone's guess, but? Cro Cop is at peace with whatever happens.
"I'm relaxed, there's no pressure on me. I will do best to beat Roy, who I respect a lot. I don't want to underestimate him,"Cro Cop said during the UFC 137 press conference. "But if you ask me, this is the most important fight in my career. This will be the most important fight in my career and that's why I trained so hard for Saturday evening. I'm just looking forward to it."
Cro Cop's lost two straight and 3-of-5. More importantly, he was the victim of terrible knockout at UFC 128 at the hands of Brendan Schaub. He faces another fighter badly in need of a win in Roy Nelson. Cro Cop doesn't want to go out with three straight losses.
"[...] this could easily be my last fight in the UFC. It has nothing to do with the result, if I win or lose. Especially if I lose, but even if I win it could be my last fight in the UFC. And I'll really give my best and hope this will be an attractive fight. I cannot afford anymore, especially in this fight, that it's declared as the most boring fight of the evening like the fight with Frank Mir. I think me and Roy will perform a good fight and the fans will be satisfied and excited," said Cro Cop.
If he sounds too relaxed, don't be fooled because Cro Cop told the media on Wednesday he has some extra motivation, he wants to avoid ridicule in his home country.
"People in my country will say, 'If you beat him, you beat a fat guy', and if you lost to him they start laughing to me, 'You lost against him', but he's a super dangerous guy who can knock out anyone. Some people might be tricked by his body, but he's a dangerous guy," said Cro Cop.
Nelson is a minus-275 favorite in Las Vegas sportsbooks. A Cro Cop bet brings back plus-235.
Presidental candidate Herman Cain speaks during the Washington County Republican Committee's annual Lincoln Day Dinner on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011, in Springdale, Ark. (AP Photo/Beth Hall)
Presidental candidate Herman Cain speaks during the Washington County Republican Committee's annual Lincoln Day Dinner on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011, in Springdale, Ark. (AP Photo/Beth Hall)
ATLANTA (AP) ? He is the man with the mustache who takes a rebellious drag on a cigarette in the Herman Cain Internet ad gone viral.
"We've run a campaign like nobody's ever seen," he says before taking a puff. "But then America's never seen a candidate like Herman Cain."
Meet Mark Block, Cain's unorthodox campaign manager. Perhaps no one is more responsible for the Georgia businessman's meteoric rise in the presidential polls than Block, a Republican strategist and tea party leader who's left a trail of questionable campaign work behind him.
Block has been accused of voter suppression and was banned from running Wisconsin political campaigns for three years to settle accusations he coordinated a judge's re-election campaign with a special interest group.
Records show Block has faced foreclosure on his home, a tax warrant by the Internal Revenue Service and a lawsuit for an unpaid bill. He also acknowledges he was arrested twice for drunken driving.
On the presidential trail, some former Cain staffers say Block broke promises. Traditional GOP strategists have been scratching their heads at his renegade tactics to win the White House, all but ignoring some early states in favor of a book tour and swings through states without early primaries.
Those who know Block say he's long been a maverick who isn't afraid to reset boundaries.
"Mark doesn't go to the how-to-run a campaign guidebook when deciding how to do things," said Jared Thomas, who was a state director for the anti-tax group Americans for Prosperity Georgia when Block led the Wisconsin chapter. "He's all about advancing conservative ideals and conservative goals, and he really doesn't mind stepping on toes in the process."
In an interview with The Associated Press at Cain's campaign headquarters south of Atlanta, Block acknowledged ruffling some feathers because he ? and the Cain campaign ? don't "fit the mold."
"Can you imagine Karl Rove doing what I did with that cigarette?" he said with a laugh, referring to George W. Bush's straight-laced political guru.
"It's a joke around here, 'Let Block be Block," he says. He had been doing just that moments earlier, smoking his now signature cigarette on an office balcony overlooking a golf course.
The Web video has now been spoofed on just about every comedy show imaginable. And he seems both pleased and appalled at the attention it's received.
"This country is going to hell in a handbasket and that is what we're talking about?" he says.
Block's entry into politics came early. In 1974, he became the first 18-year-old elected to office in Wisconsin, capturing a seat on the Winnebago County Board of Supervisors.
But Block's reputation was marred when he was accused of illegally coordinating state Supreme Court Justice Jon Wilcox's 1997 re-election campaign with a special interest group that favored school vouchers. In 2001, he agreed to pay $15,000 and was banned from running Wisconsin political campaigns for three years to settle the case. Block made no admission of wrongdoing in the settlement. Block told the AP that he had not coordinated with the group and called the charges "ridiculous."
Unable to make a living in politics, Block paid the bills stocking shelves at a Target. He has the "Mark" nametag mounted on his desk at Cain headquarters.
Block said it was during those tough times that his home went into foreclosure and his personal life unraveled, resulting in two arrests for drinking and driving.
"That's why I don't drink anymore," he said.
But Block engineered a comeback when he was hired in 2005 as the Wisconsin director of Americans for Prosperity, the group founded by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch. He also helped organize the tea party in Wisconsin and in that role met Cain, the former Godfather's Pizza chief executive who'd come aboard as a speaker after a failed U.S. Senate campaign in Georgia.
In Cain's new memoir, he writes that he and Block bonded when they were paired in a car for a whirlwind eight-stop, day-and-a half tour to launch new Americans for Prosperity chapters.
Still, it wasn't long before Block's campaign work again was being questioned.
In 2007, a local prosecutor investigated the group's robo-calls against a proposed $119 million school building referendum that would have raised property taxes. The prosecutor concluded that although the calls were misleading and distorted the impact of the referendum on taxpayers, the case was not strong enough to bring charges.
In 2010, a liberal group, One Wisconsin Now, said it had obtained an audio recording of a tea party meeting that indicated Block was involved in an effort to try to prevent legal voters from casting ballots in Democratic-leaning neighborhoods. A tea party organizer says on the audio that Americans for Prosperity had agreed to pay for sending a mailer to mostly Democratic-leaning minority and student voters and then use any of them returned as undeliverable to support their challenges at the polls on Election Day. One Wisconsin Now called it a notorious voter suppression scheme known as "caging," but law enforcement officials did not investigate.
Block also denied any wrongdoing in those instances, calling them baseless claims made by liberals who disagreed with his political views.
Working for Cain, Block has been accused by former Iowa staffer Kevin Hall of trying to cover up Cain's employment of Scott D. Toomey. Toomey was at the center of a financial scandal when he was part of a gay pride group in Madison, Wis., but later became a top adviser to Cain. Hall said Block told him to tell supporters that Toomey was not involved in the campaign and that they simply had Toomey continue working as an outside consultant, not a paid staffer.
Hall also complained that Block told him Cain would not spend as much time and money competing in the Iowa straw poll in August as Hall was promised when he was hired.
"There's a reason some people are former staffers," Block observes dryly.
In "This is Herman Cain!" the GOP presidential candidate writes that Block thinks outside the box.
"In my case, thinking way out of the box. And that's one of the reasons we have a great relationship," Cain wrote.
___
Follow Shannon McCaffrey at www.twitter.com/smccaffrey13
KABUL, Afghanistan ? An Afghan official says insurgents have launched an attack on a U.S.-run civilian and military base in the southern city of Kandahar.
Kandahar provincial police chief, Gen. Abdul Razzaq says at least three insurgents had taken over an office in front of the base on Thursday afternoon and started shooting. The base is home to NATO troops, including Americans, and a provincial reconstruction team.
Razzaq says he was at the base for a meeting when the attack started.
Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi says two of the attackers have been killed, but he had no other details.
A hospital in Kandahar said at least one civilian was killed and at least two others and a member of the Afghan security forces have been wounded.
The Obama administration on Thursday unveiled its road map for solar energy development, directing large-scale industrial projects to 285,000 acres of desert land in the western U.S. while opening 20 million acres of the Mojave for new development.
The Bureau of Land Management's long-awaited "solar energy zones" are intended to make some of the desert's most sensitive landscapes less desirable for solar prospecting by identifying "sweet spots" that have already passed environmental requirements and therefore promise expedited permitting, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said.
"These 445 square miles of zones are ? where development will be driven," Salazar said on a conference call with reporters.
The 17 solar energy zones in six western states ? including two extensive areas in California ? were identified by their absence of major environmental or cultural conflicts. But nothing prevents a developer from requesting permission to build on federal land outside the preferred areas.
The policy, which is expected to be finalized sometime next year, would not apply to the 13 solar projects already under construction across the West, nor the 79 pending applications that would occupy 685,000 acres of public land. There are 20 utility-scale solar applications awaiting approval in California.
Industry and environmental groups have eagerly anticipated release of the plan, with both sides saying much is at stake. Solar developers need to site projects ahead of deadlines for billions of dollars in federal and state subsides. Conservation groups contend that the desert ? home to scores of endangered plants and animals ? is not capable of absorbing industrial-scale change.
The solar industry, which had a hand in crafting the proposed regulations, applauded the additional clarity they provide but bridled at the zone approach.
"While we are still reviewing all of the details in this proposal, there are some significant areas of concern," said Rhone Resch, president of the Solar Energy Industry Assn. "Siting flexibility and access to transmission are key to the financing and development of utility-scale solar power plants. Both aspects must be reflected in the final" plan.
And the Bureau of Land Management's failure to make vast swaths of the desert off-limits to development irked some environmentalists.
The bureau "never will close the door on anything; that's the only thing that has been consistent in this whole process," said Janine Blaeloch, director of the Western Lands Project. "They won't put their foot down."
Critics contend that the policies are too late, coming after three years of free-for-all leasing that encouraged rampant speculation. Since the leasing began, the Bureau of Land Management has been working to process more than 300 solar applications. Many are in California's Mojave Desert, where the state's eastern counties have seen the cost of private land soar and desert given over to what will be hundreds of square miles of mirrors.
Renewable energy is a centerpiece of President Obama's energy policy, which aims to reduce American dependence on foreign oil while developing domestic clean energy that creates jobs.
The government has spent millions of dollars to develop a framework to regulate solar operations on public lands, electing to write new protocols rather than apply existing leasing rules for oil and gas.
The first draft of the Bureau of Land Management plan that was released Thursday cost the agency more than $13 million to prepare. Additionally, as of last year, the bureau had spent more than $18 million to more accurately map federal land holdings.
Combined, those projects consumed nearly 80% of the Recovery Act funding set aside for the bureau's entire renewables program, according to an analysis by the Interior Department's inspector general.
BRUSSELS?? NATO unexpectedly postponed a definite decision to end its bombing campaign in Libya as consultations continued Wednesday with the U.N. and the country's interim government over how and when to wind down the operation.
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Last week, the alliance announced preliminary plans to phase out its mission on Oct. 31. NATO's governing body ? the North Atlantic Council, or NAC ? was expected to formalize that decision Wednesday.
Air patrols have continued in the meantime because some alliance members were concerned that a quick end to NATO's seven-month operation could lead to a resurgence in violence.
On Wednesday, spokeswoman Carmen Romero said NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen was consulting with the United Nations and Libya's National Transitional Council.
"The NAC will meet with partners on Friday to discuss our Libya mission and take a formal decision," she said, adding that there was an "ongoing process" in the U.N. Security Council.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Tuesday during a visit to Japan that some of Libya's leaders had called for NATO to continue its mission "during this interim as they try to establish some new governance."
But a NATO official, who could not be identified under standing rules, said the alliance had not received any formal request from the Libya's transitional government to prolong its air and naval patrols past the end of the month.
NATO's 26,000 sorties, including 9,600 strike missions, destroyed about 5,900 military targets since they started on March 31. These included Libya's air defenses and more than 1,000 tanks, vehicles and guns, as well as Gadhafi's command and control networks.
NATO strikes played crucial role for rebels The daily airstrikes enabled the rebels' ragtag forces to advance and take Tripoli two months ago. On Sunday, Libya's interim rulers declared the country liberated, launching the oil-rich nation on what is meant to be a two-year transition to democracy.
In Qatar, Libya's interim leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil attended an international planning conference Wednesday with representatives of Gulf states and Western powers that participated in the Libyan operation.
The meeting is expected to focus on how the allies could help the new authorities bring stability to the nation.
Qatar, a leading Arab backer of the uprising to topple Gadhafi's regime, contributed warplanes to the NATO-led air campaign and helped arrange a critical oil sale to fund the former rebels.
The United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Sweden also joined in the NATO war effort.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A new report indicates a big jump in Android Market applications, just one day after another report found that Android tablets had taken more than one-quarter of world market share from Apple's iPad. According to mobile-research firm Research2Guidance, the Android Market has been undergoing what it described as "exponential growth."
In the recently completed third quarter of this year, the number of active mobile apps in the Market was about 319,000. This is lower than the 460,000 in Apple's app store, but the firm found that, on average, each Android developer has placed more than six apps in the Market since its launch, while iOS developers have only placed an average of four each.
500,000 vs. 600,000
If measured as total number of applications published, rather than active mobile apps, the Android Market has had about 500,000 and the App Store about 600,000. Over 37 percent were later removed from the Market for various reasons, while the App Store removed only about 24 percent. Some of the reasons for removing apps included multiple trials, incompatibility with the latest operating system, developer abandonment and low quality.
But, in a way, the comparison of how many have been published and later removed is apples and oranges. Google lets virtually any app get published, and later removes the bad ones, while Apple has a rigorous approval policy that occurs prior to publishing.
When measured by the user base, the research firm projects that the user base for the Android Market will actually exceed Apple's by this year's end.
A new analysis from ABI Research shows that Android phones are now downloading more apps total than iPhones, and have a 44 percent worldwide share of mobile app downloads. However, it also notes that there are now 2.4 Android handsets for every iPhone, which means that each Android phone is downloading half as many apps as each iPhone.
'Apple's Superior Monetization'
ABI also noted that Android handset shipments in the second quarter increased by 36 percent year-over-year, while the iPhone increased 9 percent.
A key for Apple is whether the best third-party developers continue to write for its platform. ABI said in a statement that "Apple's superior monetization policies attracted good developers within its ranks, thus creating a better catalog of apps and customer experience," which is helping to maintain its developer ranks.
Android's key advantage, the report said, is its open-source nature, which has rapidly expanded the installed base and made an attractive target for developers.
On Friday, a report from research firm Strategy Analytics found that the worldwide market share of Apple's iPad, which had been 96 percent of the tablet category earlier this year, was now at 67 percent. Android tablets accounted for 27 percent, up from 2.3 percent at the end of 2010. This dramatic change in market share occurred even though Apple increased its unit sales by 20 percent from the second to the third quarter.
FILE - In this Jan. 3, 2009 file photo, Rajat Kumar Gupta, former Chairman of Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, listens to a statement, during a session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Gupta, former Goldman Sachs board member, surrendered to federal authorities Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011 in New York to face criminal charges stemming from a massive hedge fund insider trading case. (AP Photo/Keystone/Alessandro Della Bella, File)
FILE - In this Jan. 3, 2009 file photo, Rajat Kumar Gupta, former Chairman of Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, listens to a statement, during a session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Gupta, former Goldman Sachs board member, surrendered to federal authorities Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011 in New York to face criminal charges stemming from a massive hedge fund insider trading case. (AP Photo/Keystone/Alessandro Della Bella, File)
FILE - In this Jan. 3, 2009 file photo, Rajat Kumar Gupta, former Chairman of Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, speaks during a session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Gupta, former Goldman Sachs board member, surrendered to federal authorities Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011 in New York to face criminal charges stemming from a massive hedge fund insider trading case. (AP Photo/Keystone/Alessandro Della Bella, File)
FILE - In this Jan. 3, 2009 file photo, Rajat Kumar Gupta, former Chairman of Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, speaks during a session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Gupta, former Goldman Sachs board member, surrendered to federal authorities Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011 in New York to face criminal charges stemming from a massive hedge fund insider trading case. (AP Photo/Keystone/Alessandro Della Bella, File)
NEW YORK (AP) ? A former board member of Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble pleaded not guilty Wednesday to federal charges accusing him of acting as "the illegal eyes and ears in the boardroom" for a friend, a billionaire hedge fund founder sentenced this month to 11 years in prison in the biggest insider trading case in history.
The case, built partially on wiretaps used for the first time in insider trading, has offered unprecedented insight into greed at the highest levels of Wall Street. The arrest of Rajat Gupta took it one step higher.
The indictment unsealed Wednesday accuses Gupta of cheating the markets with Raj Rajaratnam, the 54-year-old convicted hedge fund founder who was the probe's prime target.
Gupta, 62, quietly surrendered early in the day at the FBI's New York City office, a few blocks north of the ongoing Occupy Wall Street demonstration against what protesters call a culture of corporate greed. His lawyer called the allegations "totally baseless."
Swarmed by photographers, Gupta left the courthouse shortly before 4 p.m.
Gupta, of Westport, Conn., pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and five counts of securities fraud, charges that carry a potential penalty of 105 years in prison. He was freed on $10 million bail, and conditions require him to remain in the continental United States. An April 9 trial date was set.
The indictment in U.S. District Court in Manhattan alleges Gupta shared confidential information about both Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble at the height of the financial crisis from 2008 through January 2009, knowing that Rajaratnam would use the secrets to buy and sell stock ahead of public announcements.
In a release, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Gupta broke the trust of some of the nation's top public companies and "became the illegal eyes and ears in the boardroom for his friend and business associate, Raj Rajaratnam, who reaped enormous profits from Mr. Gupta's breach of duty."
Alluding to the wide scope of the prosecution, he added: "Today we allege that the corruption we have seen in the trading cubicles, investment firms, law firms, expert consulting firms, medical labs, and corporate suites also insinuated itself into the boardrooms of elite companies."
In all, 56 people have been charged in insider trading cases since Bharara took over shortly before Rajaratanam's October 2009 arrest. Of those, 51 have been convicted and 21 sentenced to prison terms ranging from no prison time to 11 years, the longest prison term ever given in an insider trading case.
FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Janice Fedarcyk said Gupta's arrest was the latest to occur in an initiative launched by the FBI in 2007 against hedge fund cheats.
"The conduct alleged is not an inadvertent slip of the tongue by Mr. Gupta," she said. "His eagerness to pass along inside information to Rajaratnam is nowhere more starkly evident than in the two instances where a total of 39 seconds elapsed between his learning of crucial Goldman Sachs information and lavishing it on his good friend."
Authorities said they relied on wiretaps for the first time because it became apparent inside traders were employing the tactics of common criminals to evade detection. If the Gupta case goes to trial, taped conversations would be key evidence, as it was in the Rajaratnam trial.
The Rajaratnam probe led to a major spinoff investigation of expert networking firms, with investigators targeting those who enabled corrupt employees at public companies to divulge secrets to hedge fund managers as if their conversations were legitimate research.
Gupta's lawyer, Gary P. Naftalis, said in a statement Wednesday that his client had only legitimate communications with Rajaratnam.
"The government's allegations are totally baseless," he said. "The facts in this case demonstrate that Mr. Gupta is innocent of any of these charges and that he has always acted with honesty and integrity. ... We are confident that these accusations ? which are based entirely on circumstantial evidence ? cannot withstand scrutiny and that Mr. Gupta will be completely exonerated of any wrongdoing."
Aside from being a former director of the Wall Street powerhouse Goldman Sachs, Gupta is the former chief of McKinsey & Co., a highly regarded global consulting firm that zealously guards its reputation for discretion and integrity.
Gupta was also a former director of the huge consumer products company Procter & Gamble Co., a pillar of American industry and one of the 30 companies that make up the Dow Jones industrial average. P&G owns many well-known brands including Bounty, Tide and Pringles.
The Indian-born defendant's name played prominently at the criminal trial this year of Rajaratnam, who was convicted after prosecutors used a trove of wiretaps on which he could be heard coaxing a crew of corporate tipsters into giving him an illegal edge on blockbuster trades.
Jurors heard testimony that at an Oct. 23, 2008, Goldman board meeting, members were told that the investment bank was facing a quarterly loss for the first time since it had gone public in 1999.
Prosecutors produced phone records showing Gupta called Rajaratnam 23 seconds after the meeting ended, causing Rajaratnam to sell his entire position in Goldman the next morning and save millions of dollars.
Rajaratnam also earned close to $1 million when Gupta told him that Goldman had received an offer from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway to invest $5 billion in the banking giant, prosecutors said.
In one tape played at trial, Rajaratnam could be heard grilling Gupta about whether the Goldman Sachs board had discussed acquiring a commercial bank or an insurance company.
"Have you heard anything along that line?" Rajaratnam asked Gupta.
"Yeah," Gupta responded. "This was a big discussion at the board meeting."
Prosecutors sought to maximize the impact of the Gupta tape by calling Goldman Sachs chairman Lloyd Blankfein to testify that the phone call violated the investment bank's confidentiality policies.
The Securities and Exchange Commission also brought civil insider trading charges against Gupta on Wednesday.
Besides highlighting the Goldman allegations that came out during the Rajaratnam trial, the indictment also accused Gupta of providing Rajaratnam in January 2009 with a tip that P&G was not going to meet sales growth expectations for the fiscal year. As a result, prosecutors said, Rajaratnam told a portfolio manager about the tip and certain funds sold short about 180,000 shares of P&G stock.
Daniel Alpert, managing partner at the investment bank Westwood Capital LLC, said Gupta, who did not benefit financially, demonstrates that passing information to friends is just as dangerous as trading on secrets.
"There is not a single person out there who doesn't know he is playing at the edges of propriety when he is doing it, and few who don't feel a pang of guilt after having done so," Alpert said.
"This has many of the same attributes as organized crime prosecutions," he said. "Until you throw the kingfishes in jail, there is unlikely to be any deterrent effect."
___
AP Business Writer Daniel Wagner contributed to this report.
You might feel like the king of the couch, but let's face it -- picking up the remote can be exhausting. Hisense is hoping to lighten your load with the launch of its new Android-based Smart TV with hands-free eyeSight gesture recognition technology -- the Series XT710. Slated to launch in China, the TV features a 2D sensor, designed to understand your hand movements and interpret your every channel changing whim. Besides flipping between reruns of Law and Order and Jersey Shore, couch potatoes will also be able to play games and access Android applications through the intelligent tube. Now, if it could only help us pop our popcorn. Jump past the break to check out the full PR.
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Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /home/lern2pla/public_html/external.php on line 697 Lern2Playhttp://www.lern2play.com Lern2Play.com features a large MMORPG Forum with over 265,000 posts. Active MMORPG and MMO community and MMO Games Forums. Join now to talk about Lord of the Rings Online, World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, Star Wars Galaxies and more.enhttp://www.lern2play.com/images/lern2play/misc/rss.jpgLern2Playhttp://www.lern2play.com Footloose (2011) DVD ENG DVDRip HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/110806-footloose-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-hq-1-link-no-rar.html Faces in the Crowd (2011)DVD ENG DVDRip HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/110805-faces-in-the-crowd-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-hq-1-link-no-rar.html Elevate (2011) DVD HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/110804-elevate-2011-dvd-hq-1-link-no-rar.html Drive (2011) DVD ENG DVDRip HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/110803-drive-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-hq-1-link-no-rar.html Dream House (2011) DVD ENG DVDRip HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/110802-dream-house-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-hq-1-link-no-rar.html http://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/110801-whats-your-number-2011-r5-xvid-fusion-fs.html Dolphin Tale (2011) DVD ENG DVDRip HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/110800-dolphin-tale-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-hq-1-link-no-rar.html Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011) ENG DVDRip 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/110799-crazy-stupid-love-2011-eng-dvdrip-1-link-no-rar.html http://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/110798-cowboys-and-aliens-2011-dvdrip-1-single-link.html Courageous(2011) DVD ENG DVDRip HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/110797-courageous-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-hq-1-link-no-rar.html The Sorcerer And The White Snake 2011 DVDSCR XviD-TeaMarYzs FShttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/110796-the-sorcerer-and-the-white-snake-2011-dvdscr-xvid-teamaryzs-fs.html Contagion (2011) DVD ENG DVDRip 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/110795-contagion-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-1-link-no-rar.html http://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/110794-being-elmo-a-puppeteers-journey-2011-dvd-hq-1-link-no-rar.html Anonymous (I) (2011) DVD ENG DVDRip HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/110793-anonymous-i-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-hq-1-link-no-rar.html Abduction (2011) DVD ENG DVDRip HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/110792-abduction-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-hq-1-link-no-rar.html
Update: And proving our point that Twitter isn't exactly the best way to go about something like this, Motorola has deleted any Tweet that references doing anything with a 6-week window. Carry on.
Original: Let's explain (again) what's about to happen here: Motorola, on Twitter, responded to someone with the following:
We'll be releasing devices for ICS 6 weeks after Google releases the final version of it.
The Twitter account later clarified, saying the Droid RAZR, Bionic and Xoom "Will get ICS within 6 weeks of Google's public push," and they'll confirm other devices later on. We'll believe it when we see it. Dunno how many times we've had to say this, folks, but there's a reason carriers and manufacturers don't give precise windows for updates -- and even vague time lines are often missed. (Never mind the fact that "official" information on Twitter and Facebook isn't always as official as you might think.) It was the same way with Froyo updates. It was the same with (and still is, unfortunately) with Gingerbread updates.
The point is this: We have no doubt that Motorola, HTC, LG, Samsung and every other manufacturer is hard at work at figuring out which devices can -- and should -- be upgraded. But if you start a six-week countdown from the instant the Ice Cream Sandwich code drops in AOSP, you're setting yourself up for a big bag of hurt, should things take a little longer than planned. That's not to say we're not hoping for speedy updates across the board. It's just that history has taught us different.
Source: @Motorola; thanks to everyone who sent this in
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? The weak housing sector continues to pose a strong headwind to the U.S. economic recovery, and the Federal Reserve could potentially do more to drive down mortgage rates to support the sector, a top Federal Reserve official said on Monday.
William Dudley, president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, also warned about the risks of "spillover" effects from Europe's debt crisis.
Dudley's comments marked the second time in a week that a Fed policy maker highlighted the possibility that the U.S. central bank could do more to support the housing market.
Housing has been a persistent headwind to the U.S. economic recovery. A glut of foreclosed homes on the market and tight credit have contributed to a sector virtually stuck in the mud and unable to gain traction.
"Breaking this vicious cycle is one of the most pressing issues facing policy makers," Dudley said in a speech at Fordham University's Gabelli School of Business in New York.
"Clearly we've indicated our interest in supporting the housing market in keeping mortgage rate spreads, and spreads between mortgage rates and Treasury yields, from getting too elevated," Dudley said.
"Depending on how the world evolves, we potentially could move to do more in that direction."
Dudley, who as head of the New York Fed has a permanent voting seat on the Fed's policy-setting committee, said the U.S. central bank will continue to do everything within its power to help the economic recovery.
Dudley's comments come on the heels of remarks by Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo last week that there was "ample room" for policy makers to do more to spur economic growth and that more mortgage-related securities purchases should be on the table.
Faced with the worst recession in decades, the Fed in late 2008 cut rates to near zero and has since bought $2.3 trillion in bonds to spur a recovery.
U.S. central bank officials regularly cite housing as having hamstrung the recovery from the worst recession in decades. But the purchase of mortgage securities was a controversial part of the first round of quantitative easing in 2009, and some officials criticize it for propping up a specific sector of the economy.
Speaking in the New York City borough of the Bronx, Dudley called the housing market "a serious impediment" to a stronger recovery, which this year has been plagued by "quite disappointing" growth in gross domestic product.
Yet the rebound has been weak and is now threatened by Europe's debt crisis, casting doubt on the central bank's strategy and effectiveness but also raising some expectations for more asset purchases.
"The Fed is doing -- and will continue to do -- everything within its power to promote jobs and price stability," said Dudley.
"Without robust growth, the economy is more vulnerable to negative shocks, which unfortunately seem to keep coming," he added. "It is like riding a bicycle -- at a slow speed, the bicycle wobbles and the risk of falling rises."
Another Fed regional president, Richard Fisher of the Dallas Fed, said he would be reluctant to endorse more aid to the housing sector.
"There are other initiatives that the fiscal and other authorities can take that would possibly pick housing up off the floor, but I think it is going to be a very long-term process," said Fisher, who spoke in Toronto. "I think we have to be careful not to get into fiscal initiatives at the central bank."
INFLATION VS UNEMPLOYMENT
Europe, meanwhile, threatens to drag the world into another recession as policymakers there wrangled this past weekend over a possible Greek default and its impact on the European banking system.
Dudley, citing the effect on stock markets and on bank lending, warned, "To date, these effects have been much more acute in Europe than in the United States, but there are spillovers to our nation, and we need to monitor them carefully."
Dudley, however, said he sees the inflation rate, which has been higher than the Fed's preferred level of 2 percent, falling, barring more energy price jumps. "I believe that underlying fundamentals will help to subdue inflation over the next few quarters," he said.
Another Fed regional president, whose dissenting votes on recent Fed easing put him on the opposite end of the policy spectrum from Dudley, agreed.
"Inflation is not the problem in the United States right now," said Richard Fisher, of the Dallas Fed, adding that high unemployment is the biggest problem facing the U.S. economy.
But he did not advocate more action by the Fed. Repeating his long-held view, Fisher said the Fed has filled the economy's "gas tank," and adding any more heft to the Fed's $2.8 trillion balance sheet would be of "questionable efficacy."
Last month, the Fed announced a plan, known as Operation Twist, to replace $400 billion of short-term securities in its portfolio with longer-term debt in order to lower longer-term rates and stimulate the economy.
(Additional reporting by Andrea Hopkins in Toronto and Ann Saphir in Chicago; Editing by Leslie Adler)
BEIJING ? Two Chinese officials have been jailed for leaking economic data to securities brokerages and four people who work in the financial industry are being investigated, a state prosecutor said Monday.
Li Zhongcheng, deputy director general of the national prosecutor's office that investigates official misconduct, said the two individuals shared classified data about economic growth rates, inflation, retail sales, investment and loan growth ? all information with the potential to influence stock prices.
"The leaking of national macroeconomic data harms economic operations, prevents fair market competition, and affects government credibility, thereby causing heavy losses to the interests of the country, society and individuals," Li told reporters at a press briefing in Beijing.
Li said the two officials worked in the National Bureau of Statistics and the People's Bank of China and were sentenced to five and six years in jail, respectively. Four people in the securities industry are under investigation.
Chinese economic data are watched closely by investors around the world. Getting access to leaked indicators can allow traders to make profits at the expense of other investors by anticipating how stock and bond prices will react when the information is officially released.
Li said Sun Zhen, former deputy director of the secretary's office at the National Bureau of Statistics, disclosed 27 items of classified statistical data and Wu Chaoming, former deputy director of the financial history research office at the People's Bank of China, leaked 25 items of unreleased classified data to 15 employees of the securities industry.
The deputy director of National Administration for the Protection of State Secrets, Du Yongsheng, said Sun and Wu profited by trading stocks based on the information they divulged and also received payoffs in the form of fees for delivering lectures at brokerage events.
Du said the superiors of Wu and Sun might also face investigation and punishment, but didn't elaborate. He declined to respond when asked which brokerages were involved.
Contact: Scott Merville smerville@mdanderson.org 713-792-0661 University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
Previously unknown role of FoxM1 is crucial to regulation of brain tumor stem cells
Two previously unassociated proteins known to be overly active in a variety of cancers bind together to ignite and sustain malignant brain tumors, a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reports this week in the journal Cancer Cell.
This research is the first to connect FoxM1 to a molecular signaling cascade that regulates normal neural stem cells, said senior author, Suyun Huang, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor in MD Anderson's Department of Neurosurgery.
"When FoxM1 binds to beta-catenin, we found that it also supports the self-renewal and differentiation of glioma- initiating cells, cancer stem cells thought to drive glioblastoma multiforme," Huang said.
Glioblastoma multiforme is the most common and lethal form of brain tumor. Glioma- initiating cells are prime suspects in the disease's resistance to treatment and ability to reoccur.
Protein's connection could be drug target
The scientists established the relationship between FoxM1 and beta-catenin in a series of cell line experiments and then confirmed their findings in mouse models of human glioblastoma and in an analysis of human tumors.
FoxM1 and beta-catenin separately so far have largely evaded targeting by drugs. Huang and her team are focusing on the details of the connection between the two proteins in search of small molecules that might block their binding.
"Our study might lead to the development of a new class of small-molecule anti-cancer drugs, including but not necessarily limited to glioblastoma multiforme," Huang said. Much preclinical work remains before such a drug can be identified and brought to clinical trial.
Blocking FoxM1 reduces glioblastoma in mice 100 percent
FoxM1 previously was known solely as a transcription factor a protein that binds to the DNA in a gene's promoter region to prompt the gene's expression of messenger RNA that is processed into a protein.
Structural analysis led Huang and her team to suspect FoxM1 might be a binding match for beta-catenin, a crucial protein in the Wnt signaling pathway, which regulates self-renewal and differentiation of neural stem cells. When a normal cell divides, it produces two copies of itself. A neural stem cell produces one copy of itself (self-renewal) and a copy of a functional brain cell, such as a neuron or an astrocyte (differentiation). Mutations occur in the Wnt pathway in other types of cancer, but are largely absent in glioblastoma.
Blocking either FoxM1 or beta-catenin function strongly influenced whether mice injected with glioblastoma cells developed brain tumors. Most dramatically, blocking FoxM1 with short hairpin RNA completely prevented development of brain tumors in 38 mice, while all 20 with unimpeded FoxM1 developed tumors.
In a series of cell line experiments leading to the mouse model research, the group found:
FoxM1 is expressed at high levels in glioma and in glioma-initiating cells.
FoxM1 and beta-catenin bind to each other in tumor cells.
Wnt promotes the movement of both FoxM1 and beta-catenin to the cell nucleus.
FoxM1 is required for beta-catenin to move to the cell nucleus in both neural stem cells and in tumor cells.
The FoxM1 and beta-catenin connection is required for transcription and expression of beta-catenin Wnt- targeted genes in the nucleus.
Interaction between the two proteins is critical to both cell renewal and differentiation in glioma stem cells.
The team analyzed 40 glioblastoma samples and found FoxM1 moderately expressed in 14 and highly expressed in 18. Levels of FoxM1 in the cell nucleus correlated directly with levels of beta-catenin expression and the expression of two Wnt target genes.
Additional analysis of eight tumors found the two proteins present together in the cell nuclei and a direct correlation with the presence of one protein marker for glioma-initiating cells.
###
Co-authors with Huang are first authors Nu Zhang, Ph.D., and Ping Wei, Ph.D., Aihua Gong, Ph.D., Wen-Tai Chiu, Ph.D, Hsueh-Te Lee, Ph. D, Jianfei Xue, Ph.D., Mingguang Liu, M.D., Yong Wang, Ph.D., and Raymond Sawaya, M.D. ,of MD Anderson's Department of Neurosurgery; Howard Colman, M.D., and W.K. Alfred Yung, M.D., of MD Anderson's Department of Neuro-Oncology. Keping Xie, M.D., Ph.D .,of MD Anderson's Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology and the program in cancer biology at The University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Science at Houston; Rene Medema, M.D., of the Department of Medical Oncology, UMC Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands; and Xi He, Ph.D., and He Huang, Ph.D., of the F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center, Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School.
Artwork chosen by Cell Press for the cover of Cancer Cell was designed by Huang's daughter Victoria Xie, a sophomore at Michael DeBakey High School for Health Professions in Houston.
This research was funded by grants from the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, a multidisciplinary research grant by MD Anderson, and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
About MD Anderson
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston ranks as one of the world's most respected centers focused on cancer patient care, research, education and prevention. MD Anderson is one of only 40 comprehensive cancer centers designated by the National Cancer Institute. For eight of the past 10 years, including 2011, MD Anderson has ranked No. 1 in cancer care in "Best Hospitals," a survey published annually in U.S. News & World Report.
Get MD Anderson News Via RSS Follow MD Anderson News on Twitter
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Scott Merville smerville@mdanderson.org 713-792-0661 University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
Previously unknown role of FoxM1 is crucial to regulation of brain tumor stem cells
Two previously unassociated proteins known to be overly active in a variety of cancers bind together to ignite and sustain malignant brain tumors, a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reports this week in the journal Cancer Cell.
This research is the first to connect FoxM1 to a molecular signaling cascade that regulates normal neural stem cells, said senior author, Suyun Huang, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor in MD Anderson's Department of Neurosurgery.
"When FoxM1 binds to beta-catenin, we found that it also supports the self-renewal and differentiation of glioma- initiating cells, cancer stem cells thought to drive glioblastoma multiforme," Huang said.
Glioblastoma multiforme is the most common and lethal form of brain tumor. Glioma- initiating cells are prime suspects in the disease's resistance to treatment and ability to reoccur.
Protein's connection could be drug target
The scientists established the relationship between FoxM1 and beta-catenin in a series of cell line experiments and then confirmed their findings in mouse models of human glioblastoma and in an analysis of human tumors.
FoxM1 and beta-catenin separately so far have largely evaded targeting by drugs. Huang and her team are focusing on the details of the connection between the two proteins in search of small molecules that might block their binding.
"Our study might lead to the development of a new class of small-molecule anti-cancer drugs, including but not necessarily limited to glioblastoma multiforme," Huang said. Much preclinical work remains before such a drug can be identified and brought to clinical trial.
Blocking FoxM1 reduces glioblastoma in mice 100 percent
FoxM1 previously was known solely as a transcription factor a protein that binds to the DNA in a gene's promoter region to prompt the gene's expression of messenger RNA that is processed into a protein.
Structural analysis led Huang and her team to suspect FoxM1 might be a binding match for beta-catenin, a crucial protein in the Wnt signaling pathway, which regulates self-renewal and differentiation of neural stem cells. When a normal cell divides, it produces two copies of itself. A neural stem cell produces one copy of itself (self-renewal) and a copy of a functional brain cell, such as a neuron or an astrocyte (differentiation). Mutations occur in the Wnt pathway in other types of cancer, but are largely absent in glioblastoma.
Blocking either FoxM1 or beta-catenin function strongly influenced whether mice injected with glioblastoma cells developed brain tumors. Most dramatically, blocking FoxM1 with short hairpin RNA completely prevented development of brain tumors in 38 mice, while all 20 with unimpeded FoxM1 developed tumors.
In a series of cell line experiments leading to the mouse model research, the group found:
FoxM1 is expressed at high levels in glioma and in glioma-initiating cells.
FoxM1 and beta-catenin bind to each other in tumor cells.
Wnt promotes the movement of both FoxM1 and beta-catenin to the cell nucleus.
FoxM1 is required for beta-catenin to move to the cell nucleus in both neural stem cells and in tumor cells.
The FoxM1 and beta-catenin connection is required for transcription and expression of beta-catenin Wnt- targeted genes in the nucleus.
Interaction between the two proteins is critical to both cell renewal and differentiation in glioma stem cells.
The team analyzed 40 glioblastoma samples and found FoxM1 moderately expressed in 14 and highly expressed in 18. Levels of FoxM1 in the cell nucleus correlated directly with levels of beta-catenin expression and the expression of two Wnt target genes.
Additional analysis of eight tumors found the two proteins present together in the cell nuclei and a direct correlation with the presence of one protein marker for glioma-initiating cells.
###
Co-authors with Huang are first authors Nu Zhang, Ph.D., and Ping Wei, Ph.D., Aihua Gong, Ph.D., Wen-Tai Chiu, Ph.D, Hsueh-Te Lee, Ph. D, Jianfei Xue, Ph.D., Mingguang Liu, M.D., Yong Wang, Ph.D., and Raymond Sawaya, M.D. ,of MD Anderson's Department of Neurosurgery; Howard Colman, M.D., and W.K. Alfred Yung, M.D., of MD Anderson's Department of Neuro-Oncology. Keping Xie, M.D., Ph.D .,of MD Anderson's Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology and the program in cancer biology at The University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Science at Houston; Rene Medema, M.D., of the Department of Medical Oncology, UMC Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands; and Xi He, Ph.D., and He Huang, Ph.D., of the F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center, Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School.
Artwork chosen by Cell Press for the cover of Cancer Cell was designed by Huang's daughter Victoria Xie, a sophomore at Michael DeBakey High School for Health Professions in Houston.
This research was funded by grants from the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, a multidisciplinary research grant by MD Anderson, and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
About MD Anderson
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston ranks as one of the world's most respected centers focused on cancer patient care, research, education and prevention. MD Anderson is one of only 40 comprehensive cancer centers designated by the National Cancer Institute. For eight of the past 10 years, including 2011, MD Anderson has ranked No. 1 in cancer care in "Best Hospitals," a survey published annually in U.S. News & World Report.
Get MD Anderson News Via RSS Follow MD Anderson News on Twitter
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
No matter what country you're in, you'll find at least one body-painted sports nut willing to act a fool in the name of fandom. To figure out what makes these hooligans tick, Sharp's setting up trucks outside EuroCup 2012 matches to measure fans' brainwaves using biometric technology. Once inside these mobile FanLabs, volunteers will watch the game while wearing the company's NeuroSky headsets -- a super sensitive EEG that uses dry electrodes to measure cerebral activity. By looking at brainwaves, along with heart rate and vocal excitement, scientists hope to reveal what levels of attention, stress, relaxation and excitement a fan goes through while supporting a specific team. Even if you're not lending your melon to science, you can still join in the fun online, and see how you stack up against fans from around the world. So, bust out the body paint, grab your foam fingers and check out the video after the break.
You've planed your costume, carved some pumpkins, and bought a gallon of apple cider. Now all you need to make All Hallows' Eve complete is a good horror movie. Fear not: It's Rotten Tomatoes Horror Countdown 2011, a compendium of horror shows with enough vampires, zombies, specters, and mad slashers to keep your spine tingling long after your trick-or-treat candy has gone stale.
Before we get started, a word about how we arrived at our final list. We've used a weighted formula that takes into account a movie's Tomatometer, number of reviews, and release date. Also, every movie here needed at least 20 reviews to qualify for inclusion. So get ready to take a walk through our house of horrors -- better known as RT's Horror Countdown 2011!
WASHINGTON ? After years on the political back burner, education is making a comeback in Washington, driven in large part by Democrats.
President Barack Obama has made saving teachers' jobs a key part of his effort to sell his $447 billion jobs package as he travels the country. Senate Democrats have made dramatic pleas to help schools with budget woes, and in a last-ditch effort to get at least part of the president's plan passed, a vote is expected soon on a section of the plan designed to save the jobs of teachers and first responders.
Separately, a Senate committee was to meet Wednesday to debate and amend the education law known as No Child Left Behind, one of the most significant efforts in the Senate to update the law since it was passed in 2002. Signaling some rare bipartisanship on Capitol Hill, Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., the top senators from their respective parties on education, announced agreement on the bill Monday.
But that agreement didn't satisfy the Obama administration, which voiced concern that the bill doesn't include a requirement that states and local districts develop plans for evaluating teachers and principals.
Last month, Obama announced he was frustrated that Congress hadn't fixed No Child Left Behind, despite widespread agreement that the 2002 law had flaws. He said he would allow states that met certain conditions to get around some of the provisions of the law. At least 39 states, in addition to the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, have told the Education Department they intend to seek a waiver.
Republicans have scoffed at many of the Democrats' efforts. On Tuesday, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell likened the president's jobs plan to "bailouts" that perpetuate economic problems, not solve them. He said the "American people didn't send us here to kick our problems down the road, and they certainly didn't send us here to repeat the same mistakes over and over again ? and then stick them and their children with the tab."
As for changes to No Child Left Behind, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., a former education secretary, said Monday that while he wasn't completely happy with the Harkin-Enzi bill, he planned to support passing it out of committee because if Congress didn't act, Education Secretary Arne Duncan would become a "waiver-granting czar" under Obama's plan.
Alexander said there was no reason Congress couldn't fix the law and send it to Obama by the end of the year before the first waivers are expected to be issued to states.
On the House side, a GOP-led committee has forwarded three bills that would revamp aspects of the law but has yet to fully tackle some of the more contentious issues, such as teacher effectiveness and accountability.
The White House has said that nearly 300,000 jobs in the education sector have been lost since 2008 and that Obama's plan would support the hiring or re-hiring of 400,000 educators.
When the president's plan was brought up in the Senate last week, not a single Republican senator supported it and it died. Democrats then said they would bring up parts of it separately, starting with the plan to save teachers' and first responders' jobs. Focusing on the plights of students unable to take physical education and art classes and school districts that have moved to a four-day school week because of budget cuts could help to put a sympathetic face on the administration's jobs plan and make it harder for Republicans to attack.
Obama, at a stop Tuesday at Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown, N.C., sought to sell his plan by emphasizing that budget problems could get worse for schools.
"I hope that members of Congress are going to be doing a little bit of listening to teachers and educators," Obama said. "We have a tendency to say great things about how important education is in the abstract, but we don't always put our money where our mouth is, and it's absolutely critical right now to make sure that we don't see the kinds of cutbacks that we've been seeing."
In support of the president's jobs plan, labor unions were expected to give the White House a boost Wednesday by sending hundreds of teachers, police and firefighters to a rally on Capitol Hill.
Terry Madonna, a political science professor at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., said he thinks Obama recognizes the pinch states and local governments are feeling and genuinely believes that educators' and first responders' jobs need to be preserved.
Madonna added that there's no doubt Obama can help rally key constituent groups such as teachers unions to support his plan. Along the way, Madonna said, the president is helping to make an argument that will probably be key to his re-election campaign ? that Republicans are obstructionists.
"I don't think there's any doubt that they have constituencies in unions, they have constituencies in school boards, they have constituencies in elected officials. You get a lot of potential political support from the folks who deliver these services," Madonna said. "So I think he gains a lot out of that."
___
Associated Press writer Sam Hananel contributed to this report.
___
Kimberly Hefling can be followed at http://twitter.com/khefling
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Public release date: 21-Oct-2011
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