Palin Considering 2012 Run, Defends Limbaugh's Use Of 'Retard' On Fox News Sunday

Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin didn't cage her answer when pressed Sunday morning as to whether she would consider a run for president in 2012.

"I would, I would if I believe that is the right thing to do for our country and the Palin family. Certainly I would do so," she told "Fox News Sunday," in an interview that was taped before she addressed a Tea Party convention the night before. Regarder Film en streaming"I think that it would be absurd to not consider what it is that I could potentially do to help our country ... . I won't close a door that perhaps could be open for me in the future."

In her first Sunday show appearance, the 2008 vice-presidential candidate predicted that, if the election were held today, President Barack Obama would actually lose the office he won just a year-and-a-half ago. But -- citing a column written by Pat Buchanan -- she left open the possibility that his fates could change, particularly Film en streaming if a major attack were to be launched against Iran.

Palin also used her platform to continue a call for the president to rid himself of his closest advisers. On Attorney General Eric Holder, she labeled his handling of captured terrorists -- "allowing them our U.S. constitutional protections when they do not deserve them" -- a firing offense. On Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emanuel,Film action en streaming gratuit she said his comments calling liberal groups "f-ing retards" was "indecent and insensitive" and cause for his dismissal.

But the former governor went to great and sometimes awkward lengths to insist that when conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh used the same exact term to describe the same exact group, it was simply in the role of political humorist.

"They are kooks, voire Film comedie en streaming gratuit so I agree with Rush Limbaugh," she said, when read a quote of Limbaugh calling liberal groups "retards." "Rush Limbaugh was using satire ... . I didn't hear Rush Limbaugh calling a group of people whom he did not agree with 'f-ing retards,' and we did know that Rahm Emanuel, as has been reported, did say that. There is a big difference there."

In the 30-minute sit down with host Chris Wallace, Palin addressed a wide swath of largely political topics -- the policy minutia, undoubtedly, saved for another time and place.

She dismissed charges that her husband Todd played an unacceptably active role in guiding her administration as governor, after it was revealed in recently disclosed emails that the "first dude" was often consulted on weighty matters.

She acknowledged moderate successes in Obama's foreign policy -- specifically towards Afghanistan and Pakistan -- but still questioned why the president "pals around" with domestic terrorists (Bill Ayers).

Finally, she declined several attempts to weigh in on other perspective 2012 candidates, citing only Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) as someone who she admired and found intriguing.

The impression, in the end, was left that she was charting out a candidacy of her own. Pressed about reports that she was being consulted by a group of Washington-based advisers -- those insider elites she often bemoans -- on issues both domestic and foreign, she didn't exactly shoot down the idea that it was prep work for a White House run.

"Ever since our PAC was formed we have had good people contributing, some, many volunteers, I guess you would call them advisers yes, fire away emails to me every morning saying this is what happened in Washington overnight, you need to be aware of this," Palin said. "I have no idea how conventionally people [run for the White House]. How they open a door that perhaps isn't even open. ... I don't know how any of that stuff works. I'm just appreciative of having some good information at my fingerprints now."

Click here to find out more! Your request is being processed... Palin Tea Party Speech: Obama Policies To Be Short-Lived

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Sarah Palin is predicting a good year for conservative candidates for public office, saying voire Film comedie en streaming gratuit the policies of President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress will be short-lived.

The 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee told the national "tea party" Film en streaming convention in Saturday that a string of recent Republican victories at the polls, including Scott Brown's longshot win in last month's special Senate election in Massachusetts, bodes well for conservative candidates this year.

She told the convention in Tennessee that if there's hope for the tea party movement in Massachusetts,Regarder Film en streaming there's hope everywhere.

The Obama administration has Film action en streaming gratuit argued that the nation's financial system was on the verge of collapse when Obama took office last year, and is now in the early stages of recovery.

Thousands of dinosaur footprints uncovered in China

BEIJING (AFP) – Archaeologists in China have uncovered more than 3,000 dinosaur footprints, state media reported, in an area said to be the world's largest grouping of fossilised bones belonging to the ancient animals.

The footprints, believed to be more than 100 million years old, were discovered after a three-month excavation at a gully in Zhucheng in the eastern province of Shandong, the Xinhua news agency reported.

The prints range from 10 to 80 centimetres (four to 32 inches) in length, and belonged to at least six different kinds of dinosaurs, including tyrannosaurs, the report said Saturday.

Wang Haijun, a senior engineer at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the prints faced the same direction, Xinhua said.

This indicated a possible migration or a panic escape by plant-eating dinosaurs after an attack by predators, Wang added.

Archeologists have found dinosaur fossils at some 30 sites in Zhucheng, known as "dinosaur city."

The region has seen two major digs since 1964, and experts say the discovery of so many dinosaurs in such a dense area could provide clues on how the animals became extinct millions of years ago.

Plans are being made to set up a fossil park in the area.

Iran's leader orders further enrichment of uranium

By NASSER KARIMI,

TEHRAN, Iran – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered his country's atomic agency on Sunday to begin enriching uranium to a higher level, a move that's likely to deepen international suspicion over the country's intentions for its nuclear program.

Ahmadinejad's latest pronouncement on the issue of enriched uranium coincided with a call Sunday by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates for the international community to rally together to pressure Iran into abandoning its nuclear program.

Speaking to reporters during a weeklong European tour, Gates said that "if the international community will stand together and bring pressure" on Iran, "I believe there is still time for sanctions to work."

He declined to be specific about the type of sanctions he had in mind, but explained that the focus should be on putting pressure on the government in Tehran and not hurting the people.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in an interview on CNN's State of the Union show brodcast Sunday that increasingly other nations were beginning to see Iran's nuclear program as a threat.

"The rest of the world has really begun to see Iran the way we see it," she said.

In comments broadcast on state television, Ahmadinejad said: "God willing, 20 percent enrichment will start" to meet Iran's needs. He did not give a date for the start of the enrichment process.

While the 20 percent threshhold is substantially below the 90 percent plus needed to make fissile warhead material, any move by Iran to enrich to 20 percent would raise international alarm bells because it would bring Iran substantially closer to weapons capacity.

That is because enriching from 20 percent to weapons grade can be done much more quickly and with much less equipment than from the low-enriched stockpile Iran now posesses.

David Albright, whose Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security tracks suspected proliferators, said that it would take 2,000 centrifuges about a year to turn Iran's 1.8 ton stockpile of 3.5 percent uranium into enough weapons grade uranium for one warhead. But he said it would only take 500 to 1,000 centrifuges, and half a year, to move from 20 percent to 90 percent plus enriched material.

By enriching its present 3.5 percent uranium stockpile to 20 percent, "it would be going most of the rest of the way to weapon-grade uranium," he said.

Ahmadinejad was speaking at a meeting attended by the head of Iran's atomic energy agency, Ali Akbar Salehi.

Turning to Salehi, Ahmadinejad said: "Mr. Salehi, begin production of 20 percent" enriched uranium.

Producing enriched uranium is the international community's core concern over Iran's disputed nuclear program since it can be used to make nuclear weapons. Iran says its program is for peaceful purposes.

Iran and the West have been discussing a U.N. plan under which Iran would export its low-enriched uranium for enrichment abroad. The plan, which comes from the International Atomic Energy Agency, was first drawn up in early October in a meeting in Geneva between Iran and the six world powers. It was refined later that month in Vienna talks among Iran, the U.S., Russia and France.

The Vienna talks came up with a draft proposal that would take 70 percent of Iran's low-enriched uranium to reduce its stockpile of material that could be enriched to a higher level, and possibly be used to make nuclear weapons. That uranium would be returned about a year later as refined fuel rods, which can power reactors but cannot be readily turned into weapons-grade material.

In what was interpreted to be a possible shift of policy on a major issue, Ahmadinejad said last week he was ready to export his country's low-enriched uranium for higher enrichment abroad, saying Iran had "no problem" with the plan. Sunday's comments, however, appeared to justify the skepticism with which his Tuesday's comments were met by world leaders.

Salehi, the head of the Iranian atomic energy agency, later appeared to play down the significance of Ahmadinejad's comments. He told the official IRNA news agency the president was giving a "preparedness order" so Iran would be ready to enrich its uranium if the exchange with the West fails to take place.

He said the higher enrichment would be carried out in facilities in the central Iranian town of Natanz.

Ahmadinejad on Sunday made no mention of his own announcement on the issue last week, saying only that Iran remained ready to have "interaction" with the West over providing fuel to Iran "without condition."

But a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, said Sunday that 20 percent uranium enrichment for use by Tehran's research reactor was within the country's right as a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA. The uranium enrichment will be carried out under IAEA supervision, he said.

The enrichment, he added, would not affect Iran's readiness to swap its low enriched uranium for higher enriched one.

On Sunday, Ahmadinejad said Iran has acquired laser technology for enrichment of uranium, but added, "For now, we do not intend to use it." He did not say why.

Iran's ambivalence over the enrichment issue comes at a time when the United States and its Western allies have been pushing for a fourth round of U.N. sanctions to be slapped on Iran over its disputed nuclear program. But with Russia, and especially China, skeptical of any new U.N. penalties, they have to tread carefully to maintain six power unity on how to deal with the Islamic Republic.

International concerns include Iran's refusal to heed U.N. Security Council demands that it freeze its enrichment program; fears that it may be hiding more nuclear facilities after its belated revelations that it was building a secret fortified enrichment plant, and its stonewalling of an IAEA probe of alleged programs geared to developing nuclear arms.

Obama admits health care overhaul may die on Hill

By ERICA WERNER,

WASHINGTON – No, maybe he can't. President Barack Obama, who insisted he would succeed where other presidents had failed to fix the nation's health care system, now concedes the effort may die in Congress.

The president's newly conflicting signals could frustrate Democratic lawmakers who are hungry for guidance from the White House as they try to salvage the effort to extend coverage to millions of uninsured Americans and hold down spiraling medical costs. Obama's comments Thursday night came hours after Republican Scott Brown was sworn in to replace the late Edward M. Kennedy, leaving Democrats without their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, and Obama's signature health legislation with no clear path forward.

"I think it's very important for us to have a methodical, open process over the next several weeks, and then let's go ahead and make a decision," Obama said at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser.

"And it may be that ... if Congress decides we're not going to do it, even after all the facts are laid out, all the options are clear, then the American people can make a judgment as to whether this Congress has done the right thing for them or not," the president said. "And that's how democracy works. There will be elections coming up, and they'll be able to make a determination and register their concerns."

It appeared to be a shift in tone for the issue the "Yes we can" candidate campaigned on and made the centerpiece of his domestic agenda last year. In a speech to a joint session of Congress in September, Obama declared: "I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last. ... Here and now we will meet history's test."

Sweeping health legislation to extend medical coverage to more than 30 million uninsured Americans passed the House and Senate last year and was on the verge of completion — though there were still disagreements between the two houses — before Brown's upset victory last month in a special election in Massachusetts. Since then it has been in limbo, and Obama has not publicly offered specifics to help lawmakers move forward. Congressional aides felt his remarks Thursday did not clarify matters.

"The next step is what I announced at the State of the Union, which is to call on our Republican friends to present their ideas. What I'd like to do is have a meeting whereby I'm sitting with the Republicans, sitting with the Democrats, sitting with health care experts, and let's just go through these bills. ... And then I think that we've got to go ahead and move forward on a vote," Obama said Thursday shortly after a White House meeting with Democratic congressional leaders that produced no apparent progress on health care.

"I think we should be very deliberate, take our time. We're going to be moving a jobs package forward over the next several weeks; that's the thing that's most urgent right now in the minds of Americans all across the country."

"Here's the key, is to not let the moment slip away," Obama also said.

White House spokesman Reid Cherlin said the president's position has not changed and he will not walk away from health care reform. "He used his remarks last night to motivate Democrats to come together and get this done, noting that the public will judge their leaders on what they accomplish," Cherlin said.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Friday that there was no meeting set for the president to talk over health care strategy with Republican and Democratic lawmakers. The GOP has shown more interest in opposing Democrats on the issue than in working with them.

Bipartisan congressional leaders are planning to join Obama at the White House on Tuesday, but Gibbs reiterated that the meeting will be centered on how to create jobs and boost the economy. Gibbs said White House officials are "still working with Capitol Hill on the best way forward" on health care.

Rank-and-file Democrats are eager for their leaders to settle on a strategy by the end of next week, after which lawmakers will return to their states for a weeklong recess during which they're sure to face questions from constituents. The health legislation has become unpopular with voters and a political drag in a midterm election year.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sought momentum in a speech Friday to Democratic Party activists meeting in Washington. "Standing together and working together, we will pass health care reform for the American people," said Pelosi, D-Calif.

"But recognize your role in this. We can do all the inside maneuvering and legislating and the rest, but without the outside mobilization, without your participation, nothing really great or good can happen."

Ralph Neas of the liberal National Coalition on Health Care issued a stern warning to the White House after learning of Obama's remarks.

"The time has come for more forceful presidential leadership," Neas said. Obama must explain more clearly how his health care provisions would help average Americans and must give clearer guidance to Congress, he said.

A number of Democratic lawmakers and liberal groups believe the only way to enact a worthwhile health care package is to have House Democrats hold their noses and vote for a bill the Senate passed on Christmas Eve with no GOP help. It has many provisions that House members don't like, such as a tax on high-cost health insurance plans, and they would insist that senators also pass legislation to change some of them using a controversial procedure not subject to Republican filibusters.

Some party activists saw Obama's remarks as a signal that he's pulling back from that idea. Others said he may simply be making a last overture to Republicans before using the muscular partisan strategy in the Senate.

Anne Kim, of the centrist group Third Way, saw the remarks as an acknowledgment that the White House and congressional Democrats must cool down the health care debate and regain public trust about the process being used.

Obama seeks to rally glum Dems amid GOP challenges

By PHILIP ELLIOTT,

WASHINGTON – Just a year after celebrating Barack Obama's inauguration, despondent Democrats on Saturday heard from their party leader who urged optimism in the face of Republicans' strong challenge to their congressional dominance.

At its winter meeting, a defiant Democratic Party worked to project a message of strength even as loyalists acknowledged the prospect of several defeats in November. The party that controls the White House typically loses seats during midterm elections at an average rate of 28 net House seats. President Bill Clinton, the last Democratic commander in chief, lost control of Congress in his first term and Democrats privately are predicting it could happen again.

Obama, looking to write his own history, warned fellow Democrats that "we have to acknowledge that change can't come quickly enough." He said political leaders must plot their way forward to November with an understanding of the economic difficulties Americans face.

"I understand their frustration. You understand it as well," Obama said.

A government report on Friday said 9.7 percent of the country was unemployed. Distrust of Washington has grown and spurred an anti-Washington sentiment that sent scores of activists to a "tea party" convention in Nashville on the same day. As witness to the tone, Republican Sen. Scott Brown won a special election to take the seat of the late, liberal Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts. Democrats also lost gubernatorial contests in Virginia and New Jersey that had been in Democratic hands.

Obama sought to energize Democratic loyalists against what he called "the other party." He urged Democrats to work with their Republican counterparts.

"We can't solve all of our problems alone," Obama said, as the audience sat in silence.

While Republicans have stood in solid opposition to the president's proposed overhaul of health care, Obama insisted he wasn't willing to abandon his top domestic priority that consumed months of his agenda and has produced slim hints of victory.

"Let me be clear: I am not going to walk away from health care insurance reform," Obama said, bringing the audience in the hotel ballroom to their feet.

Republicans, though, made clear the Democrats' current health proposals must be scrapped.

"If they get past this arrogant phase that they have been stuck in about a year, if they can work their way past that and concentrate on the real problem which is the cost, we are willing to look at it," said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. "To work together, first you have to do it on a bipartisan basis."

Obama, recognizing his agenda can't be accomplished without GOP support, in recent weeks has been emphasizing the need for bipartisanship as a way of moving forward.

"We can't return to the dereliction of duty," Obama said. "America can't afford to wait, and we can't look backward."

His party, for certain, would prefer not to revisit its ordeals of 2009, which produced some victories but hardly the narrative that would deliver them electoral victories this year.

"I know we've gone through a tough year. But we've gone through tougher," Obama said.

DNC chairman Tim Kaine, the former Democratic governor of Virginia who saw a Republican follow him into office, insisted that Democrats should not be downtrodden, even if the path forward has become more difficult following the Massachusetts Senate election.

"The ghost of Harry Truman would kill us if he heard us complaining about having only 59 Democratic senators," Kaine said.

Around the room Saturday at the DNC meeting, Democrats sought to remain upbeat.

"The fight's been tough," said Alejandra Salinas, the chair of the Young Democrats of America's Hispanic caucus. "We might lose some seats, but we'll pick up new ones."

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington's nonvoting representative in the U.S. House, said Democrats would continue to keep up the fight.

"They underestimated us four years ago when we took back the Congress," she said. "They underestimated Barack Obama when he took back the White House. The fight is on. Never underestimate Democrats."

Raymond Buckley, the chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, said the national Democratic party needs to help state groups elevate the Obama campaign rhetoric.

"We can't win in 2010 if all we're doing is celebrating the election of 2008," said Buckley, who is also vice chairman of the DNC. "We haven't gotten out the message of this administration's successes."

Judge: Pratt can't move jobs out of US Judge sides with union, says jet engine maker in US can't move out 1,000 jobs out

By Stephen Singer,

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- A federal U.S. judge ordered jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney to halt its plans to move 1,000 jobs out of Connecticut and to Japan, Singapore and the state of Georgia.

U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall in Bridgeport issued a permanent injunction, stopping the company's plans to shift the jobs.

The judge strongly criticized the subsidiary of United Technologies Corp., saying it evaded the spirit of its union contract requiring it to make every effort to keep the jobs in the state.

The union, which represents about 3,700 workers, hailed the decision. In its lawsuit, the union accused Pratt & Whitney of failing to comply with the contract that required it to do everything possible to preserve the jobs.

"This is a full win for the union," said James Parent, chief negotiator for the Machinists local.

Pratt & Whitney, reeling from a downturn in the aerospace industry, announced in September plans to shut its engine overhaul and repair plant in Cheshire by early 2011 and shift repair operations from its East Hartford facility beginning in the second quarter of this year.

Greg Brostowicz, a spokesman for Pratt & Whitney, said in an e-mailed statement that the company will consider all its options, including a possible appeal.

"We believe we upheld our contractual obligations to act in good faith and made every reasonable effort to keep this work in Connecticut," he said. "The fact remains that we face a declining aerospace market, a shifting customer base and a significant and permanent volume drop at these two facilities."

Hall said in her decision that Pratt's actions were not taken out of a "mistaken view" of what the contract required.

"To the contrary, Pratt understood its obligations, but decisively attempted to evade them," she said.

The union said its victory was only temporary because its contract with Pratt & Whitney expires in December.

"The Machinists union and its members will be gearing up for whatever fight is necessary to preserve these jobs and expand opportunities in the next contract," it said in a statement.

The Tea Party movement and immigration politics

One relatively unnoticed fact about the National Tea Party Convention that began yesterday in Nashville is the prominence there of anti-illegal immigration activists.

As I tell in an article I have out today at New America Media, the Tea Party movement is becoming the locus for a great deal of immigration activism, focused on advocating get-tough policies against illegal immigration and derailing any White House attempt to push immigration legislation that includes a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants.

There are a lot of questions surrounding the Tea Party movement in terms of how united they truly are on any issue besides limited government and lower taxes. Some people I spoke to expressed doubts the Tea Party movement had truly embraced immigration as an issue, and they said that any specific views on immigration were not necessarily applicable to the movement as a whole or a majority of tea partiers. It’s an important point to keep in mind. Also, after reporting on the movement I’ve come to think that it is unfairly caricatured, to a great extent, in much media coverage. Far from a seething crowd of angry and fearful people, I encountered polite and earnest activists thoroughly and thoughtfully engaged with the political process at a very tangible grassroots level. The Tea Party movement is just that– a movement. Social movements are notoriously mercurial, amorphous, and horizontal. Attempts to characterize all tea partiers on the basis of one or two YouTube videos showing protesters hoisting risque or offensive posters would be misleading.

Nonetheless, the inclusion at the Nashville event of anti-illegal immigration crusader Tom Tancredo as kick off speaker, and the invitation of NumbersUSA, a Washington, D.C. group that advocates for lower immigration levels, signals at least a strong interest in immigration politics. I also spoke to Tea Party movement activists or politicians with Tea Party affinities in different parts of the country who have together pushed immigration policy towards the front-burner.

Marco Rubio’s upstart conservative bid for the U.S. Senate in Florida, Judge Roy Moore for governor in Alabama, congressional races in North Carolina– I found evidence that all these races had felt the impact of Tea Party-linked pushes on the immigration issue.

The link between the Tea Party movement and immigration, of course, can be traced back to the health care debates of last summer. Illegal immigration became an important part of that conversation. In one North Carolina town hall event last August that I write about, a Tea Party movement-organized health care debate included panelists who are well-known immigration restrictionists and discussions of “anchor babies,” as well as criticisms of federal laws that provide for medical interpreters at publicly-funded hospitals.

Finally, though, as one of my sources says lower down in the article, the direction the Tea Party movement takes on immigration is still up in the air. The movement’s powerful allies in the country’s political establishment may work with grassroots activists to articulate the movement and raise its profile. If the movement consolidates, these leaders– Sarah Palin, former House majority leader Dick Armey– will have influence in determining the tone and substance of the Tea Party immigration platform. Here’s that part of the article:

Not everyone agrees that Tea Party organizing has begun exerting a significant influence on the immigration debate at a national level.

Tamar Jacoby, a conservative who heads ImmigrationWorks USA, a pro-immigration business group, agrees that Tea Partiers may take up immigration in earnest in the future.

But for the time being, she sees the Tea Partiers still in a very early stage of organizing and far more zeroed-in on limited government and fiscal issues.

And the Tea Party movement’s allies in the political establishment, Republicans like Armey of FreedomWorks and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, still have a chance to influence the course Tea Party activism will take on issues such as immigration, Jacoby said. “Leadership will matter. What Palin and Armey say will be very important.”

My article gets into Palin’s and Armey’s fairly moderate stances on immigration, and this suggests to me that the immigration issue could become something of a battleground within the movement.

An immigrant advocate in Tennessee, Stephen Fotopulos, who I quote at the end of the article, makes an interesting point, too. He mentions the case of Harold Ford, Jr. who ran for statewide office in Tennessee before turning up in New York to run for the U.S. Senate seat now occupied by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. Ford ran fairly strong-worded ads against illegal immigration in Tennessee, and those may be a liability in New York state, where immigrant voters wield serious influence. Fotopulos’s point: however much the Tea Party movement influences candidates toward a position on immigration, there are always costs to a certain stance.

A pro-immigrant, pro-legalization stance carries political risks, which is well known– but so does a hardline stance that might be perceived as hostile by immigrant families and voters.

Donors Reward Dems Who Pushed Public Option

Ryan Grim Ryan Grim –

An online effort has quietly raised nearly $90,000 in the past few days to reward three freshman House Democrats for organizing an effort to put the public health insurance option back into the Senate health care debate.

The three representatives -- Chellie Pingree (Maine), Jared Polis (Colo.) and Alan Grayson (Fla.) -- have so far received more than $20,000 each, with the rest going to Howard Dean's Democracy for America group and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), which organized the campaign and set up this website. The total itself may be less relevant than the fact that the cash has come in from more than 3,400 small donors, giving those members future access to an expanded fundraising base.

"It was easy to raise money for [the three members] because they did exactly what voters consistently say they want Democrats to do," said PCCC co-founder Stephanie Taylor. "They fought for bigger change instead of smaller change, and by fighting for the public option they showed they were willing to directly challenge corporate power on behalf of everyday people."

Grayson delivered a petition with tens of thousands of names to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) calling on him to re-insert the public option if he planned to make changes to the Senate bill using the majority-rule process known as budget reconciliation.

Pingree and Polis, meanwhile, circulated a letter calling on Reid to do the same. Some Democrats privately worried at the time that the letter would garner fewer than the 65 signatures that an earlier demand letter had pulled in and indicate fading support.

Instead, 117 members signed the letter, thanks in part to thousands of calls generated by PCCC, DFA and Credo Action to Democratic offices, urging them to sign. The action is an example of the kind of inside-outside coordination that progressives in Congress rarely engage in.

Still, it likely won't be enough to sway the Senate, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on a conference call with bloggers this week. Instead, she said, the Senate is most likely going to conform to the deal that was struck between the White House, the Senate and the House before the Senate Democratic caucus lost its 60th vote.

"They have to do what they have to do to get whatever they need to move the process along," Pelosi said. "I totally respect the process that they are going forward with and I also respect my members' enthusiasm for initiatives that we felt strongly about in the House bill. I don't know that that enthusiasm was shared across the board in all three elements of the negotiation."

The enthusiasm for the freshman effort does show, at least, that there is a reward -- beyond public support -- for Democrats who push policies favored by the progressive base.

"The $60,000 we raised in 24 hours for these Healthcare Heroes is an example of how the Democratic base rewards bold leadership and those willing to fight for a public option," said DFA's political director Charles Chamberlain. "It's time for Washington insiders to wake up to the fact that following Joe Lieberman's lead will depress the Democratic base in 2010 and result in big losses, while following the lead of these Healthcare Heroes will fire up Obama voters who still want real change."

Obama says unemployment drop "cause for hope"

LANHAM, Md. – President Barack Obama says an unexpected drop in the unemployment rate is "cause for hope but not celebration."

Speaking Friday at a small business in a Washington suburb, Obama took care not to trumpet the gains outlined in the new government report too loudly.

He said the data shows modest progress toward "climbing out of the huge hole that we found ourselves in." But he said that "far too many of our neighbors and friends and family are still unemployed," requiring much additional work to bring the economy back.

Obama also cautioned against reading too much into the single report. He said that "these numbers will continue to fluctuate for months to come."

Obama admits health care overhaul may die on Hill Obama sounding resigned on health care, says Congress may decide 'we're not going to do it'

Erica Werner

WASHINGTON (AP) -- No, maybe he can't. President Barack Obama, who insisted he would succeed where other presidents had failed to fix the nation's health care system, now concedes the effort may die in Congress.

The president's newly conflicting signals could frustrate Democratic lawmakers who are hungry for guidance from the White House as they try to salvage the effort to extend coverage to millions of uninsured Americans and hold down spiraling medical costs. Obama's comments Thursday night came hours after Republican Scott Brown was sworn in to replace the late Edward M. Kennedy, leaving Democrats without their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, and Obama's signature health legislation with no clear path forward.

"I think it's very important for us to have a methodical, open process over the next several weeks, and then let's go ahead and make a decision," Obama said at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser.

"And it may be that ... if Congress decides we're not going to do it, even after all the facts are laid out, all the options are clear, then the American people can make a judgment as to whether this Congress has done the right thing for them or not," the president said. "And that's how democracy works. There will be elections coming up, and they'll be able to make a determination and register their concerns."

It appeared to be a shift in tone for the issue the "Yes we can" candidate campaigned on and made the centerpiece of his domestic agenda last year. In a speech to a joint session of Congress in September, Obama declared: "I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last. ... Here and now we will meet history's test."

Sweeping health legislation to extend medical coverage to more than 30 million uninsured Americans passed the House and Senate last year and was on the verge of completion -- though there were still disagreements between the two houses -- before Brown's upset victory last month in a special election in Massachusetts. Since then it has been in limbo, and Obama has not publicly offered specifics to help lawmakers move forward. Congressional aides felt his remarks Thursday did not clarify matters.

"The next step is what I announced at the State of the Union, which is to call on our Republican friends to present their ideas. What I'd like to do is have a meeting whereby I'm sitting with the Republicans, sitting with the Democrats, sitting with health care experts, and let's just go through these bills. ... And then I think that we've got to go ahead and move forward on a vote," Obama said Thursday shortly after a White House meeting with Democratic congressional leaders that produced no apparent progress on health care.

"I think we should be very deliberate, take our time. We're going to be moving a jobs package forward over the next several weeks; that's the thing that's most urgent right now in the minds of Americans all across the country."

"Here's the key, is to not let the moment slip away," Obama also said.

White House spokesman Reid Cherlin said the president's position has not changed and he will not walk away from health care reform. "He used his remarks last night to motivate Democrats to come together and get this done, noting that the public will judge their leaders on what they accomplish," Cherlin said.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Friday that there was no meeting set for the president to talk over health care strategy with Republican and Democratic lawmakers. The GOP has shown more interest in opposing Democrats on the issue than in working with them.

Bipartisan congressional leaders are planning to join Obama at the White House on Tuesday, but Gibbs reiterated that the meeting will be centered on how to create jobs and boost the economy. Gibbs said White House officials are "still working with Capitol Hill on the best way forward" on health care.

Rank-and-file Democrats are eager for their leaders to settle on a strategy by the end of next week, after which lawmakers will return to their states for a weeklong recess during which they're sure to face questions from constituents. The health legislation has become unpopular with voters and a political drag in a midterm election year.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sought momentum in a speech Friday to Democratic Party activists meeting in Washington. "Standing together and working together, we will pass health care reform for the American people," said Pelosi, D-Calif.

"But recognize your role in this. We can do all the inside maneuvering and legislating and the rest, but without the outside mobilization, without your participation, nothing really great or good can happen."

Ralph Neas of the liberal National Coalition on Health Care issued a stern warning to the White House after learning of Obama's remarks.

"The time has come for more forceful presidential leadership," Neas said. Obama must explain more clearly how his health care provisions would help average Americans and must give clearer guidance to Congress, he said.

A number of Democratic lawmakers and liberal groups believe the only way to enact a worthwhile health care package is to have House Democrats hold their noses and vote for a bill the Senate passed on Christmas Eve with no GOP help. It has many provisions that House members don't like, such as a tax on high-cost health insurance plans, and they would insist that senators also pass legislation to change some of them using a controversial procedure not subject to Republican filibusters.

Some party activists saw Obama's remarks as a signal that he's pulling back from that idea. Others said he may simply be making a last overture to Republicans before using the muscular partisan strategy in the Senate.

Anne Kim, of the centrist group Third Way, saw the remarks as an acknowledgment that the White House and congressional Democrats must cool down the health care debate and regain public trust about the process being used.

Associated Press Writers Charles Babington and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed to this report.

January unemployment rate drops to 9.7 percent January unemployment rate drops unexpectedly to 9.7 percent; employers cut 20,000 jobs

Christopher S. Rugaber,

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The outlook for jobs became a bit less bleak with January's unexpected decline in the unemployment rate, which fell to 9.7 percent from 10 percent as more people said they had jobs.

Still, Friday's unemployment report showed just how deep the job crisis remains. The government now estimates 8.4 million jobs vanished in the Great Recession, and economists think the nation would be lucky to get back 1.5 million of them this year. And they say it will take at least three to four years for the job market to return to anything like normal.

A Labor Department survey of households found that 541,000 more Americans had jobs last month. But most of those gains were attributed to seasonal adjustments to the data. Without those adjustments, which account for reduced hiring during winter, the data show fewer people had jobs last month.

The unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since August, primarily because a department survey of households found a sharp increase in the number of Americans with jobs. Analysts expected an increase to 10.1 percent.

A separate survey of businesses found that employers shed 20,000 jobs last month.

January's report offers hope that employers may start adding jobs soon. Excluding the beleaguered construction industry, the private sector as a whole added 63,000 positions.

John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo, said the drop in the unemployment rate wasn't a result of a shrinking labor force, which has held the rate down in previous months.

"It simply was, people found jobs," he said. The report is "consistent with continued improvement in the labor market."

But Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics, noted that the economy has been growing for six months yet company payrolls are still shrinking.

"Based on what we've seen so far, we think it is fair to characterize this as another jobless recovery," Ashworth said.

The employment figure for November was revised higher to show a gain of 64,000 jobs, up from 4,000. But the December figure was revised lower, canceling out the gain.

The manufacturing sector added jobs for the first time since January 2007. Its gain of 11,000 jobs was the most since April 2006.

Retailers added 42,100 jobs, the most since November 2007, before the recession began. Temporary help services gained 52,000 jobs, its fourth month of gains. That could signal future hiring, as employers usually hire temp workers before permanent ones.

The average work week increased to 33.3 hours, from 33.2. That indicates employers are increasing hours for their current workers, a step that usually precedes new hiring.

The number of part-time workers who want full-time work, but can't find it, fell by almost 1 million. That lowered the "underemployment" rate, which also includes discouraged workers, to 16.5 percent from 17.3 percent. That could be a result of some part-timers moving to full-time work, economists said.

The federal government has begun hiring workers to perform the 2010 census, which added 9,000 jobs. That process could add as many as 1.2 million jobs this year, though they will all be temporary.

But job cuts at the state and local levels canceled out those gains, as government employment fell by 8,000.

Most of the 75,000 jobs lost in the construction industry came from the commercial building sector, the department said. Construction lost more jobs than other sector.

Still, jobs remain scarce even as the economy is recovering. Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation's output, has risen for two straight quarters. GDP rose by 5.7 percent in the October-December quarter, the fastest pace in six years.

Many economists say businesses are reluctant to add workers because it's not clear whether the recovery will continue once government stimulus measures, such as tax credits for home buyers, fade this spring.

The debate over health care reform and the scheduled expiration of some Bush administration tax cuts at the end of this year may also hold back some employers, many economists said.

"Until some of these uncertainties from Washington get cleared up, businesses, particularly small businesses, are going to be loath to do any additional hiring," said Hank Smith, chief investment officer at Haverford Investments.

High unemployment could restrain consumer spending, which has led most recoveries in the past. That's why many economists think the current rebound will be weak.

Public concern about persistent unemployment has forced President Barack Obama and members of Congress to shift their attention to jobs and the economy and away from health care reform. The Senate will begin working Monday on legislation that would give companies a tax break for hiring new workers, Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday.

The budget plan Obama released this week projects unemployment will still be very high -- 9.8 percent -- by the end of this year.

Danish forces disrupt pirate takeover of ship

By KATHARINE HOURELD,

NAIROBI, Kenya – Danish military forces disrupted the takeover by pirates of a cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden on Friday, marking the first time this has happened since a multinational armada deployed a year ago, a naval spokesman said.

Ten members of the Danish special forces clambered aboard the Antigua and Barbuda-flagged Ariella from a dinghy but by that time the pirates may have already been scared off when a helicopter from a Danish warship Absalon buzzed the cargo ship. The ship's 25 crew members — a Bulgarian, a Slovak, an Indian, 15 Filipinos, and 7 Ukrainians — had locked themselves in a secure room. All are reported safe.

Cmdr. John Harbour, spokesman for the European Union Naval Force, praised the NATO forces for their fast reaction and coordination with other forces in the area.

"This is the first (instance) where a warship has been able to send forces to stop a hijacking while it was in progress," Harbour said.

Cmdr. Dan B. Termansen, the commander of the Danish warship Absalon, said that crew had reported seeing a pirate firing an automatic weapon onboard their ship.

The crew "saw a skiff approaching and made full speed ahead," he said. "When they saw the first pirate onboard the deck, they fled to the safe room."

He could not say whether there were any pirates onboard the ship when he sent the special forces, he said, because the hatches were open and it was unclear where the gunmen had gone.

"I don't know if he jumped overboard when he saw the helicopter or later when he saw the special forces," he said. "We searched the ship for hours and didn't find anybody."

But Cmdr. Mikael Bill, head of the Danish Admiralty in western Denmark, said he does not believe there were any pirates onboard the ship when the special forces members arrived.

Ten Danish special forces came from the Absalon to rescue the crew of the Ariella, said Lt. Col. Wolfgang Schmidt, a spokesman for NATO's Lisbon-based Joint Command. The forces released the 25 crew from the secure room and continued to search the vessel for the pirates.

Pernielle Kroer, spokeswoman for the Danish Navy, told The Associated Press the operation involved military police and the country's elite Frogman Corps, which are part of a NATO deployment.

Warships typically do not intervene in hijackings because of the danger that crews may be hit by crossfire. Forces were able to intervene in this case because the ship had registered with naval authorities, was traveling along a recommended transit corridor and was part of a group transit, ensuring the ships had a helicopter within 30 minutes' reaction time, Harbour said.

The Ariella sent out a distress signal early Friday that was picked up by the Indian warship Tabar in the Gulf of Aden. The Indians relayed the signal to a French plane overhead, which spotted a group of armed pirates on the deck. Then the Danish troops were notified.

Other EU and American forces have intervened in pirate hostage situations, but not during the hijacking itself.

French commandos stormed a yacht last April with five hostages on board but one, skipper Florent Lemacon, was killed during the operation. American snipers also shot dead three pirates in April 2009 holding an American captain hostage on board a lifeboat after the crew of the Maersk Alabama had persuaded the pirates to leave the main ship.

Somali pirates have seized three ships this year and hold a total of nine vessels and more than 180 crew.

Piracy is one of the few ways to make money in Somalia, an arid, impoverished land torn apart by civil war. The government does not hold its own capital and can't send forces to counter the flourishing pirate bases that dot its 1,900-mile (3,100-kilometer)-long coastline.

Few remain as 1962 Pa. coal town fire still burns

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM,

CENTRALIA, Pa. – Standing before the wreckage of his bulldozed home, John Lokitis Jr. felt sick to his stomach, certain that a terrible mistake had been made.

He'd fought for years to stay in the house. It was one of the few left standing in the moonscape of Centralia, a once-proud coal town whose population fled an underground mine fire that began in 1962 and continues to burn.

But the state had ordered Lokitis to vacate, leaving the fourth-generation Centralian little choice but to say goodbye — to the house, and to what's left of the town he loved.

"I never had any desire to move," said Lokitis, 39. "It was my home."

After years of delay, state officials are now trying to complete the demolition of Centralia, a borough in the mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania that all but ceased to exist in the 1980s after the mine fire spread beneath homes and businesses, threatening residents with poisonous gases and dangerous sinkholes.

More than 1,000 people moved out, and 500 structures were razed under a $42 million federal relocation program.

But dozens of holdouts, Lokitis included, refused to go — even after their houses were seized through eminent domain in the early 1990s. They said the fire posed little danger to their part of town, accused government officials and mining companies of a plot to grab the mineral rights and vowed to stay put. State and local officials had little stomach to oust the diehards, who squatted tax- and rent-free in houses they no longer owned.

Steve Fishman, attorney for the state Department of Community and Economic Development, said "benign neglect" on the part of state and local officials allowed the residents to stay for so long.

No more.

Fishman told The Associated Press that the state is moving as quickly as possible to take possession of the remaining homes and get them knocked down.

"Everyone agreed that we needed to move this along," he said.

In 2006, there were 16 properties left standing. A year ago, the town was down to 11. Now there are five houses occupied with fewer than a dozen holdouts.

Centralia appears to be entering its final days.

The remaining holdouts, weary after decades of media scrutiny, rarely give interviews. But the town's 86-year-old mayor, Carl Womer, said he doubts he'll have to go. Indeed, Lokitis and others believe that elderly residents will be allowed to live out their final years in Centralia — even after a Columbia County judge decides next month how much they should be paid for their homes.

"Nothing's happened. We're still here," said Womer, whose wife, Helen, who died in 2001, was an implacable foe of relocation. "No one's told us to move."

Like Womer, resident John Lokitis Sr., 68, father of Lokitis Jr., was polite but short. "Why worry about it? When it comes, it comes. I don't give a rat's ass," he said, shutting the door.

Those who remain in Centralia like to keep up appearances. In mid-January, Christmas decorations still adorned the street lamps, a large manger scene occupied a corner of the main intersection and a 2010 calendar hung in the empty borough building. But the holdouts are fighting a losing battle. The building's wooden facade is in dire need of a paint job; in the Odd Fellows Cemetery, vandals recently knocked over dozens of tombstones. Nature has reclaimed parts of the town.

In reality, Centralia is already a memory — an intact street grid with hardly anything on it. All the familiar places that define a town — churches, businesses, schools, homes — are long gone.

A hand-lettered sign tacked to a tree near Womer's home directs tourists to a rocky outcropping off the main street where opaque clouds of steam rise from the ground.

"It was a real community, and people loved the place," said author and journalist Dave DeKok, who has been writing about Centralia for 30 years and recently published "Fire Underground," an updated version of his 1986 book on the town. "People lived their entire lives in that town and would have been quite happy to get rid of the mine fire and keep on living there."

With swifter action, DeKok said, that might have been Centralia's destiny.

The fire began at the town dump and ignited an exposed coal vein. It could have been extinguished for thousands of dollars then, but a series of bureaucratic half-measures and a lack of funding allowed the fire to grow into a voracious monster — feeding on millions of tons of slow-burning anthracite coal in the abandoned network of mines beneath the town.

At first, most Centralians ignored the fire. Some denied its existence, choosing to disregard the threat.

That changed in the 1970s, when carbon monoxide began entering homes and sickening people. The beginning of the end came in 1981, when a cave-in sucked a 12-year-old boy into a hot, gaseous void, nearly killing him. The town divided into two warring camps, one in favor of relocation and one opposed.

Finally, in 1983, the federal government appropriated $42 million to acquire and demolish every building in Centralia. Nearly everyone participated in the voluntary buyouts; by 1990, Census figures showed only 63 people remaining.

Two years later, Gov. Robert Casey decided to shut the town, saying the fire had become too dangerous. The holdouts fought condemnation, blocking appraisers from entering their homes. The legal process eventually ground to a halt.

Until recently, Lokitis Jr., who works a civilian job with the state police in Harrisburg, had been one of Centralia's most vocal defenders — star of a 2007 documentary on Centralia. He expressed hope that it could stage a comeback, claiming the fire had gone out or moved away.

State officials say the fire continues to burn uncontrolled and could for hundreds of years, until it runs out of fuel. One of their biggest concerns is the danger to tourists who often cluster around steam vents on unstable ground.

While Lokitis felt he was in no danger, he had little recourse than to move from his late grandfather's two-story row home on West Park Street when an order to vacate arrived, one of two such notices sent last year.

Now living a few miles away, he tacked a sign on the front porch of the old homestead. "REQUIESCAT IN PACE" — rest in peace, it said. "SORRY POP."

He couldn't bear to watch the home get knocked down a few weeks before Christmas. But he couldn't stay away, either, going back after the wrecking crew had finished its work.

"It was part of my life for all 39 years, that house," he said. "It was difficult to leave it and difficult to see it demolished."

Difficult, too, to give up his dream of Centralia's rebirth.

"I'd always hoped the town would come back and be rebuilt," Lokitis said, "but I guess that's never going to happen."

January unemployment rate drops to 9.7 percent

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER,

WASHINGTON – The outlook for jobs became a bit less bleak with January's unexpected decline in the unemployment rate, which fell to 9.7 percent from 10 percent as more people said they had jobs.

Still, Friday's unemployment report showed just how deep the job crisis remains. The government now estimates 8.4 million jobs vanished in the Great Recession, and economists think the nation would be lucky to get back 1.5 million of them this year. And they say it will take at least three to four years for the job market to return to anything like normal.

A Labor Department survey of households found that 541,000 more Americans had jobs last month. But most of those gains were attributed to seasonal adjustments to the data. Without those adjustments, which account for reduced hiring during winter, the data show fewer people had jobs last month.

The unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since August, primarily because a department survey of households found a sharp increase in the number of Americans with jobs. Analysts expected an increase to 10.1 percent.

A separate survey of businesses found that employers shed 20,000 jobs last month.

January's report offers hope that employers may start adding jobs soon. Excluding the beleaguered construction industry, the private sector as a whole added 63,000 positions.

John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo, said the drop in the unemployment rate wasn't a result of a shrinking labor force, which has held the rate down in previous months.

"It simply was, people found jobs," he said. The report is "consistent with continued improvement in the labor market."

But Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics, noted that the economy has been growing for six months yet company payrolls are still shrinking.

"Based on what we've seen so far, we think it is fair to characterize this as another jobless recovery," Ashworth said.

The employment figure for November was revised higher to show a gain of 64,000 jobs, up from 4,000. But the December figure was revised lower, canceling out the gain.

The manufacturing sector added jobs for the first time since January 2007. Its gain of 11,000 jobs was the most since April 2006.

Retailers added 42,100 jobs, the most since November 2007, before the recession began. Temporary help services gained 52,000 jobs, its fourth month of gains. That could signal future hiring, as employers usually hire temp workers before permanent ones.

The average work week increased to 33.3 hours, from 33.2. That indicates employers are increasing hours for their current workers, a step that usually precedes new hiring.

The number of part-time workers who want full-time work, but can't find it, fell by almost 1 million. That lowered the "underemployment" rate, which also includes discouraged workers, to 16.5 percent from 17.3 percent. That could be a result of some part-timers moving to full-time work, economists said.

The federal government has begun hiring workers to perform the 2010 census, which added 9,000 jobs. That process could add as many as 1.2 million jobs this year, though they will all be temporary.

But job cuts at the state and local levels canceled out those gains, as government employment fell by 8,000.

Most of the 75,000 jobs lost in the construction industry came from the commercial building sector, the department said. Construction lost more jobs than other sector.

Still, jobs remain scarce even as the economy is recovering. Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation's output, has risen for two straight quarters. GDP rose by 5.7 percent in the October-December quarter, the fastest pace in six years.

Many economists say businesses are reluctant to add workers because it's not clear whether the recovery will continue once government stimulus measures, such as tax credits for home buyers, fade this spring.

The debate over health care reform and the scheduled expiration of some Bush administration tax cuts at the end of this year may also hold back some employers, many economists said.

"Until some of these uncertainties from Washington get cleared up, businesses, particularly small businesses, are going to be loath to do any additional hiring," said Hank Smith, chief investment officer at Haverford Investments.

High unemployment could restrain consumer spending, which has led most recoveries in the past. That's why many economists think the current rebound will be weak.

Public concern about persistent unemployment has forced President Barack Obama and members of Congress to shift their attention to jobs and the economy and away from health care reform. The Senate will begin working Monday on legislation that would give companies a tax break for hiring new workers, Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday.

The budget plan Obama released this week projects unemployment will still be very high — 9.8 percent — by the end of this year.