A new Grecian formula…

“LONDON (MarketWatch) – A deal between the pro-bailout New Democracy party and socialist Pasok has been struck to form a new coalition government following parliamentary elections on Sunday, news reports said. Details of who the ministers will be are expected to be finalized later Wednesday, according to the reports. The BBC further said that the small Democratic Left party also is expected to be part of the governing coalition with New Democracy and Pasok. As the winner of the majority vote in the elections on Sunday, New Democracy had until Thursday to form a government; otherwise the antiausterity Syriza would have had a chance, as it came in second.”

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House Republicans appear to be charging ahead with a high-drama contempt vote against Eric Holder, after GOP Rep. Darrell Issa said the attorney generally failed to produce the documents he requested for the probe into the Justice Department’s botched Fast and Furious operation.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. ET on Wednesday. Barring a last-minute document dump from Holder, lawmakers are poised to vote on a contempt resolution following debate this morning.

If the vote proceeds, Republicans have more than enough votes on committee to pass the resolution. However, Holder would not be considered to be held in contempt of Congress unless and until the full House approves the measure.

Issa and Holder have been going back and forth since last week over Issa’s request for documents. Issa, R-Calif., indicated a willingness to postpone the vote after Holder indicated a willingness to make compromises and supply some documents in response to House Republicans’ subpoena.

But Issa told reporters after a roughly 20-minute meeting with Holder Tuesday that the attorney general instead briefed them on the documents in lieu of delivering them.

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“The Federal Reserve is debating whether or not it will stimulate the economy to encourage job creation, but any decision to intervene won’t work, says Dick Bove, a banking analyst at Rochdale Securities.

Scrapping regulations to encourage more lending will give the economy the jolt that it needs, Bove says.

“It seems clear that the United States economy’s growth is slowing and that the global economy is facing major challenges. This suggests a need for some action by the Federal Reserve and other central banks,” Bove writes in a note to clients, CNBC reports.

“It also appears to be just as evident that lowering interest rates to zero and printing more money are not effective options.”

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“French President Francois Hollande pushed German leaders to use the European Union’s permanent rescue fund to buy debt from countries such as Italy that have taken steps to revamp their economies.

“Italy has launched an idea that deserved to be looked at,” Hollande told reporters after a summit of Group of 20 leaders in Los Cabos, Mexico. The proposal is for “virtuous countries like Italy,” which have improved their public finances, to “be able to get funding for their debt” at better rates than countries that didn’t make the same efforts.”

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The president is a lot more popular on Martha’s Vineyard than the men and women who guard him.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/06/19/exclusive-secret-service-agents-partied-like-rock-stars-on-obamas-vineyard-vacation/#ixzz1yGDGJld8

Here is a look at how the president may be performing. This article looks at many areas of the economy showing what has transpired since Obama took office.

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You can spin anything in any direction. So in this article we have a look at some recent comments by Romney and how others interpret them.

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Contributing to the woes in Europe in a majority win for socialists in France. The win gives Hollande an upper hand who is decidedly against bailouts and Frnace being a shoulder for weaker countries to lean on.

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Sophisticated cameras and microphones will put passengers at the Ottawa airport under greater scrutiny than ever before.

Photograph by: Mike Carroccetto , The Ottawa Citizen

OTTAWA — Sections of the Ottawa airport are now wired with microphones that can eavesdrop on travellers’ conversations.

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is nearing completion of a $500,000 upgrade of old video cameras used to monitor its new “customs controlled areas,” including the primary inspection area for arriving international passengers.

As part of the work, the agency is introducing audio-monitoring equipment as well.

Read more:http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Ottawa+airport+wired+with+microphones+Border+Services+prepares+record+travellers+conversations/6788759/story.html#ixzz1y4Rnnyk4

A user-friendly guide to the Greek elections…

Read the article here.

(CNN) — In 2008, President Obama campaigned on a message of “Hope and Change.” Thursday, speaking in Ohio, the president announced his re-election campaign message of “Divide and Blame.”

The president had to give another economic speech, nearly an hour long, because he has not given us economic results. America does not need excuses; we need leadership.

The president’s speech was a speech of excuses, basically blaming President Bush and tax cuts for all that ails the American economy. The president announced his intention to run against George Bush, but he is a little late — he missed that election by eight years. By the way, even that is not a campaign he can win; I recommend that he should try to run against Nixon instead.

President Obama cannot ask Americans if they are better off than they were four years ago, and so is trying to blame others for his record. Over half a million fewer Americans have jobs today than when he took office.

After his advisers projected that his $800 billion stimulus bill would keep unemployment below 8%, it has remained above that benchmark for a record 40 months and counting. Median family net worth has hit a two-decade low, median household income has declined, more than 30% of borrowers are underwater on their mortgage, 23 million Americans remain unemployed or underemployed, and half of college graduates this year come out of school unemployed or underemployed.

Being president is a hard job. One of the hardest parts is that you can’t just make excuses. Harry Truman understood this. It’s just not allowed from the president of the United States. Excuses make the president look small and weak. It is frankly a little embarrassing.

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The GOP’s all-important social conservatives may be getting more comfortable with Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith — but liberals are increasingly wary about the candidate’s religion in the run-up to November, according to a new study.

The study found anti-Mormon attitudes have increased since Romney’s 2008 presidential bid and are highest among liberal and non-religious voters. Their discomfort could pose a problem for the Republican candidate in November.

“The victory of Mitt Romney in the 2012 Republican primary has convinced many observers that Romney’s Mormon religion is now irrelevant to his electoral chances,” wrote study author David Smith. But “aversion to Mormons is still an important force in American public opinion, and one that seriously affects Romney’s chances even if he ultimately overcomes it.”

The study found attitudes about Mormonism among Evangelicals has largely remained unchanged since 2007 — when 37 percent said they were “less likely to vote for a Mormon candidate for president,” compared with 33 percent this year.

However, that sentiment among non-religious voters increased from 21 percent to 41 percent over roughly the same period.

Among liberal voters, 43 percent said they were less likely to vote for a Mormon presidential candidate in 2012, compared with 28 percent in 2007.

Political strategist Elliott Curson said Thursday that Romney’s religion becomes less of concern “as each day goes by.”

“Still, some people will not vote for Romney because he’s not of their religion, and some people will not vote for Obama because he’s not like them,” said Curson, a media consultant for Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

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In a Europe where the outcome of most elections is predicted weeks before votes are cast, the triumph of left-wing Syriza in May’s Greek elections was one of the few shocks of recent years.

The party often described as near-Communist in its rhetoric is neck-and-neck with right-wing New Democracy in the polls ahead of Sunday. Talking to people in Athens, it’s not difficult to see why foreign analysts and officials are afraid that Syriza will win most of the votes this weekend.

“What are the old parties doing? They’ve had their chance and look where we are,” Angelis, a waiter in a café opposite Greece’s parliament building, told CNBC. He’s planning to vote for Syriza on Sunday.

Syriza’s very newness is one of its advantages. The Greek people are increasingly fed up with corruption, which is one of many drags on their economy, and the older parties have all had their corruption scandals over the years.

They also have the advantage of never having backed the bailout – or the “memorandum” as it is known in Greece – which is the focus of much discontent in the country.

Measures which have been enacted by the technocratic government to try and meet the terms of the bailout often appear to have created more problems than they have solved. For example, electricity bills were raised by a controversial new property tax, but consumers were allowed to put off paying those bills.

Now, an estimated 500,000 households haven’t paid their electricity bills for more than three months and the state-run energy company needs to pay $657.2 million which it doesn’t have to its banks by June 22.

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“In order to secure a new international trade agreement with Pacific nations, the Obama administration appears willing to grant foreign corporations the power to avoid U.S. laws.

“Reuters) – President Barack Obama, seeking to counter deep doubts about his economic leadership, will ask voters on Thursday for more time to boost growth while arguing that his Republican rival Mitt Romney would resurrect policies that plunged the United States into crisis.

Obama will use a campaign speech in the battleground state of Ohio to try to bounce back from a series of recent setbacks.”

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Pro growth spending policy talk seems to be fading in Europe as Germany warns that Italy needs to walk the road of austerity.

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The Syrian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Tuesday saying that the US is covering up terrorist crimes and distorting the facts about what is happening in

Syria. ”

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“Mitt Romney pledged to replace the U.S. health-care overhaul with a plan relying on private markets to provide “access to good health care” for every American, as he revived attacks on President Barack Obama’s signature achievement that the U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to rule on.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee told small business owners in Orlando, Florida, that he would implement policies, including tax breaks, aimed at helping the private market care for the uninsured and those with preexisting medical conditions.

“Free enterprise is the way America works,” Romney told the group gathered in the warehouse of Con Air Industries, which makes air filters. “We need to apply that to health care.”
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“The U.S. added seven economies to the list of nations qualifying for an exemption from financial sanctions on Iranian oil imports, penalties intended to pressure Iran’s leaders to abandon any nuclear weapons ambitions.

India, South Korea, Turkey, South Africa, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Taiwan will not be penalized by the U.S. for continuing to import oil from Iran over the next six months because they have proven they “have all significantly reduced” the volume of the oil they buy from Iran, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement yesterday.”

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This is a great law !

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