September 2009

Iran leader issues stern warning to opposition (Reuters)

TEHRAN (Reuters) –
Iran's supreme leader told the opposition on Friday they would face a harsh response if they drew their "swords" against the ruling establishment.

The warning from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, delivered at Friday prayers three months after a disputed poll that led to widespread unrest, was a clear message he would not tolerate any threat to Iran's clerical system of government.

"Resisting the system and taking out the sword against the system will be followed by a harsh response," he told worshippers in a sermon broadcast live on state television.

"If somebody stands against the basis of the (Islamic) system and violates people's security, the system is forced to stand against it," he said.

But in his lengthy sermon Khamenei did not address proposals that Tehran on Wednesday delivered to world powers involved in efforts to resolve the issue diplomatically, but reiterated that the Islamic state should not back down on its "nuclear rights."

"It is a sign of deviation to give up one's rights, nuclear rights or non-nuclear rights, instead of insisting on them," he said.

But Khamenei, who has final say on all matters of state, added criticism and differences among officials were acceptable.

It was Khamenei's first Friday prayers sermon since the June poll, when he endorsed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election, blamed the opposition for bloodshed and accused Western powers of interfering in Iran's affairs.

The election and its turbulent aftermath plunged Iran into its deepest internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution, exposing deepening divisions within its ruling elites and adding to tension with the West.

The opposition said 70 people were killed in the unrest while officials put the death toll at up to 36 people.

Rights groups say thousands of people, including senior pro-reform figures, were arrested after the presidential poll. Most have been freed but more than 200 remain in jail, according to the opposition.

This week the authorities detained three pro-reform figures allied to opposition leader and defeated candidate Mirhossein Mousavi. They also closed down the offices of reformist cleric Mehdi Karoubi, another presidential contender in June.

Mousavi and Karoubi say the poll was rigged to secure Ahmadinejad's re-election. Officials reject the charge.

The hardline president shored up his position last week when parliament approved most of his new ministers after almost three months of political turmoil in the major oil exporter.

NUCLEAR DISPUTE GOES TO U.N.

Ahmadinejad is due to attend the U.N. General Assembly in New York this month where Iran's nuclear program will dominate behind-the-scene deliberations.

The Iranian proposal offers wide-ranging talks with the West but is silent about its nuclear program, which the West suspects may be a cover for developing nuclear weapons. Iran says the program's aim is solely to produce electrical power.

Instead of directly addressing those concerns, Iran's five-page proposal spoke generally of talks on political, security, international and economic issues.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said on Friday he was seeking an urgent meeting with Iran's top nuclear negotiator Dr Saeed Jalili after consulting the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany over the proposals.

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley called the proposals a "warmed-over version" of a previous paper that broke no new ground but said the U.S. administration believed the only way to resolve the issue was through "direct dialogue."

"If we have talks, we will plan to bring up the nuclear issue," Crowley said. "We hope ... that Iran will choose to engage the international community, to address the concerns that we have about the nuclear program."

Western powers are becoming frustrated by what they have called Tehran's "persistent defiance and point-blank refusal" to suspend uranium enrichment and its avoidance of negotiations as demanded by U.N. Security Council resolutions since 2006.

U.S. President Barack Obama has suggested Iran may face much harsher international sanctions, possibly targeting its imports of gasoline, if it does not accept good-faith negotiations by the end of September.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, whose country has veto power in the U.N. Security Council, said the Iranian proposal provided something to work with, and he ruled out the possibility of sanctions on Iran's lifeblood oil sector.

Among the issues Iran said it was willing to discuss was "putting into action real and fundamental programs toward complete disarmament and preventing development and proliferation of nuclear, chemical and microbial weapons."

Iran, the world's fifth biggest crude producer, is seen as vulnerable to oil sanctions because it imports 40 percent of its gasoline to supply the cheap fuel that Iranians see as their birthright.

(Additional reporting by Reza Derakhshi and Fedrik Dahl in Tehran, Arshad Mohammed and David Alexander in Washington, Janet McBride in Moscow, Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations and Bate Felix in Brussels; Writing by Samia Nakhoul and Elizabeth Fullerton)

Hard Labor (HuffingtonPost.com)

Read Robert Kuttner's other articles on HuffingtonPost.com

On this Labor Day, about the best the Obama Administration can say (over and over again) is that the unemployment picture would be a lot worse without the Recovery Act. Sorry, that's not good enough. It won't be good enough for the Democrats to hold onto swing seats in next year's midterm election, or for President Obama to persuade increasingly skeptical voters that he represents a solution to economic woes.

In August, the unemployment rate rose to 9.7 percent, and most forecasters think it will be in double digits before year end. In an ordinary recession, employment rebounds last because firms are reluctant to make new hires until they see a substantial pickup in demand -- and this recession is far from ordinary.

The depth of the true unemployment picture has been disguised by large numbers of workers who are on part-time furlough, who have taken pay or benefit cuts, or who are working full-time for part-time pay. The number of workers who had been working for six months or more rose to one unemployed worker in three, the Economic Policy Institute reports. So the economy is stuck in a vicious circle where weak consumer demand is inadequate to power a recovery, and government stimulus spending is not sufficient to make up the difference.

There are three parts to the woes of American workers -- falling wages, rising unemployment, and insecurity about the future. More robust policies could improve all three. For starters, we need a second stimulus bill. It could begin with emergency federal aid to state and local governments that are laying off workers and cutting services in a recession. We also need policies to create more jobs and raise wages for the long term.

Twenty five years ago, I was part of a debate on industrial policy, and I was on the losing side. Neither Democratic presidents nor Republican ones accepted the idea that it mattered whether the United States had world-class industries. After all, we were becoming a service economy, and services were just as good as products. Most economists ridiculed industrial policy on the ground that government was not competent to pick winners and that free markets would make the appropriate investment.

Well, a quarter century later, most of those services turned out to be financial services, and a lot of that sector turned out to be a bubble. The free market made one blunder after another. And ever since the financial collapse that began in the spring of 2007, government has been picking winners with taxpayer money, except that most of them are failing banks. A reading of American history reveals that the U.S. has had industrial policies all along, beginning with Alexander Hamilton's "Report on Manufactures." World War II, the Cold War, and government investment in biotech were one big industrial policy.

Go back and read books from the debate of the 1980s, like Barry Bluestone and Bennett Harrison's The Deindustrialization of America, or Steve Cohen and John Zysman's Manufacturing Matters, and they look prophetic. They lost the political argument, but they were right all along. Now, with the economy facing a prolonged stagnation, a second stimulus should not just be a shot in the arm to restore flagging demand in 2010. It should be a down-payment on serious investment in American manufacturing for a generation.

One piece of good news is that Ron Bloom, the longtime trade unionist and union-friendly investment banker who brought the rescue of GM and Chrysler to a speedy resolution, has been promoted by the Obama Administration to be a kind of manufacturing policy czar. Bloom will have his work cut out for him. For starters, he will be up against an iron consensus favoring "free trade," and an article of faith of the free-trade crowd is that there should be no efforts to promote domestic manufacturing, never mind that every modern industrial power from Brazil to Korea, Japan, and China does precisely that.

Good domestic manufacturing jobs would pay decent wages, but there is a lot more that the government needs to do, since most jobs will still be service sector jobs. As I write in a forthcoming special report of The American Prospect, government has immense unused leverage to hold government contractors to high labor standards. During World War II, the War Labor Board made sure that no employer got a war production contract unless it treated its workers decently. Henry Ford managed to hold out against unions throughout the labor organizing of the 1930s. It was the War Labor board that finally compelled him to settle with the United Auto Workers. Ford was the Wal-Mart of his day.

Later, in the 1960s, before there were the votes in Congress to pass the landmark civil rights acts, Presidents Kennedy and Johnson used the power of federal contracting to demand that any company bidding on a government contract have an affirmative plan to overcome the effects of past racial discrimination in hiring and promotion. This policy was the origin of affirmative action. If government can use its contracting power to promote equal employment for minority workers, then government can surely use that power to insist on decent wages for all workers.

Vice President Biden has made a good start with his Task Force on Middle Class Working Families. President Obama has issued some promising executive orders promoting project labor agreements and making it a bit harder for contractors to bust unions. But the task force is understaffed and does not represent a major administration initiative. To be serious, it needs to be a priority of the President, not just a project of the Vice President.

The Obama administration is on the defensive on health care in part because it is promoting an ambiguous and ultimately feeble health reform bill, but partly because health insurance has become a lightening rod for larger economic fears. Voters are not yet convinced that this president is on their side in the battle for economic security. Major steps to improve job opportunities and wages would be a good place to redeem the popular good wishes that accompanied President Obama as he took office.

Robert Kuttner is co-editor of The American Prospect, www.prospect.org, and a senior fellow at Demos, www.demos.org. His recent book is Obama's Challenge, www.obamaschallenge.com.

Read More:
Barack Obama, Bob Kuttner, Economic Recovery, Economic Stimulus Package, Economy, Health Care, Labor Day, Recovery, Recovery Act, Robert Kuttner, Second Stimulus, Stimulus, Stimulus Package

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Organic Baby

The British Dental Health Foundation's FAQ page recommends: "If you can, avoid using a dummy and discourage thumb sucking. These can both eventually cause problems with how the teeth grow and develop. And this may need treatment with a brace when the child gets older."

Newborns can respond to different tastes, including sweet, sour, bitter, and salty substances, with a preference toward sweets.

Obama names Treasury official to spur manufacturing (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
President Barack Obama plans to announce on Monday that he has named a top Treasury Department official, Ron Bloom, to lead an effort aimed at revitalizing America's hard-hit manufacturing industry.

The U.S. manufacturing industry has lost hundreds of thousands of jobs in recent years to overseas competition as some U.S. businesses have relocated abroad to take advantage of cheaper labor. Bringing an invigorated manufacturing base back to America was a campaign pledge of Obama last year.

Bloom will retain his role as a senior advisor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner assigned to Obama's task force on the U.S. automotive industry.

Bloom will travel with Obama on a visit to Cincinnati on Monday, the Labor Day holiday, where the president will speak at an event held by the AFL-CIO labor organization.

The White House said in a statement issued on Sunday that Bloom is to work with government departments including Commerce, Treasury, Energy and Labor to develop new initiatives affecting the manufacturing sector.

The White House said Obama is committed to partnering with the private sector to spur innovation, invest in the skills of American workers, and help manufacturers prosper in global markets by promoting exports.

Bloom's appointment follows news that the U.S. manufacturing sector had expanded for the first time in 18 months and had the highest monthly output in two years.

"It's a sign that we're on the right track to economic recovery, but that we still have a long way to go," Obama said in the announcement.

"We must do more to harness the power of American ingenuity and productivity so that we can put people back to work and unleash our full economic potential."

Bloom said in the statement that a strong manufacturing sector is a cornerstone of American competitiveness.

"As we meet the challenges of globalization and technological change, it is vital to have a concerted effort across the administration to support an innovative, vibrant manufacturing sector," Bloom said.

Prior to joining the Obama administration, Bloom was a special assistant to the president of the United Steelworkers Union. His responsibilities included the union's collective bargaining program.

Prior to joining the Steelworkers, Bloom was one of the founding partners of Keilin and Bloom, an investment banking firm, where he was involved in numerous transactions on behalf of the Steelworkers, the Auto Workers, the Teamsters, the Air Line Pilots Association and other unions.

Before founding Keilin and Bloom, Bloom was a vice president at the investment banking firm of Lazard Freres & Co. where he specialized in analyzing, structuring and raising financing for union-led employee-ownership transactions.

(Reporting by Steve Holland)

Rapper Ludacris gives away cars to contest winners (AP)

MORROW, Ga. – Talk about a one-man stimulus package: Grammy-winning rapper Ludacris has given away 20 cars to people who wrote about their struggles to keep their jobs for a lack of wheels of their own.
Ludacris said he was taken aback after reading thousands of essays by people struggling or unable to buy cars needed to get to and from work or find jobs. The 31-year-old rapper felt he could step in and move them ahead, partnering with a suburban Atlanta dealership for Sunday's giveaway.
"People are getting laid off, and now are looking for jobs," Ludacris said. "To be efficient, you need some transportation of your own to get there. That's why I wanted to give back to those who need it."
Each of the used vehicles included free gas for 30 days. Winning contestants were responsible for tags, registration, tax and insurance. About 4,000 contestants submitted a 300-word essay to the rapper's foundation, explaining why they deserved a car.
One of the most touching stories Ludacris read was by Mading Duor.
Duor described how he moved to the United States six years ago after his mother, father, and five brothers and sisters were killed in Sudan. The man also wrote that a son was killed by a drunken driver in Atlanta a few years back.
"His story touched my heart," Ludacris said. "He's endured so much in his life and he's still here standing. I'm very proud to have helped him."
Duor, 33, has been able to keep a steady job at a school, but each day he felt stressed about how he was going to get to work. No longer.
"I'm so happy, that I'm nervous," said Duor, who won a Nissan Maxima. "When I look at my new car, I say to myself, 'Is this really happening?'"
Crystal Beauford, a single mother who used to ride the bus to two jobs and school, now has a Saturn Ion. The 26-year-old college student doesn't know how to drive the stick-shift vehicle, but said she'll learn.
"This is going to help me out so much," Beauford said. "It's a blessing."
Ludacris won Grammys for Best Rap Album for "Release Therapy" and Best Rap Song for "Money Maker."
___
On the Net:
http://www.theludacrisfoundation.org/

Samoan drivers set for shift to the left (AFP)

APIA (AFP) –
Samoans were on Sunday sending up prayers that an impending switch to driving on the left will not spark a surge in deaths and injuries on their roads.

The Pacific Island nation of around 180,000 is set to become the first country in the world to change driving sides since the 1970s.

The switch officially takes place at 6 am on Monday (1700 GMT) but it will not simply be a matter of drivers swerving from the right to the left on the hour.

Bitter political battles over the move have died down since a court ruling at the end of August, and the country has since pulled together in a bid to ensure a smooth changeover.

Thousands in this devout Christian nation went to church Sunday, praying for a changeover "free of injury and, heaven forbid, death", an editorial in the Samoa Observer newspaper said.

"All of those who have the safety of our people -- and especially our children -- in their hearts will echo those prayers by asking the Almighty to calm our tempers and reduce our speed from tomorrow."

Road signs have been changed throughout the country and road works carried out in an attempt to ease the changeover's impact on narrow, potholed country roads fringed by high vegetation.

The government of Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi has called a two day national holiday from Monday and alcohol sales will be banned for three days to help prevent chaos.

In case things go badly, Samoa's Red Cross has been carrying out a blood donation campaign.

A radio announcement at 10 minutes to the hour will order all traffic to stop. At 6 am, cars will move to the other side of the road and will be cleared to resume travelling 10 minutes later.

The speed limit has been cut from 35 miles an hour (56 kilometres an hour) to 25 miles an hour (40 kilometres an hour) while speed humps have been installed in many busy areas to reduce speed even further.

Tuilaepa says changing sides to be in line with Australia and New Zealand means some of the 170,000 Samoans living in those countries -- which already drive on the left -- will be able to send used cars home to their relatives.

Cars would become cheaper as a result and more people in rural areas could get vehicles to help develop their land, he argues.

Opponents of the switch, including the People Against Switching Sides (PASS) movement, had argued Samoans were inadequately prepared for the switch and necessary road improvements had not been carried out.

Bus companies have threatened to go on strike from Monday because the government refused to pay the cost of changing the exit doors to the opposite side of their vehicles.

U.S. climate change bill to compete with healthcare (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
Environmentalists hope the push in Congress for climate change legislation is not overwhelmed by the debate dominating Capitol Hill over changing the U.S. healthcare system. But it might be.

Already two months behind schedule and unsure whether enough Democrats will play along, Senate leaders still aim to pass a bill by December when a United Nations summit convenes in Copenhagen to set worldwide goals for reducing carbon dioxide and other pollutants.

But as the debate over healthcare legislation rages and with President Barack Obama due to address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday to try to rescue the faltering plan, it was unclear whether rattled lawmakers will have the time -- or the inclination -- to take on climate change.

"It's not an impossibility, but it's certainly not a slam-dunk and never has been," said Frank O'Donnell, president of the activist group Clean Air Watch.

The healthcare debate, O'Donnell added, "has basically sucked all the oxygen out of the room."

With many moderate Democrats facing a tough vote on healthcare, O'Donnell wondered whether they also would be willing to do so on an environmental bill that could increase consumers' energy costs. "How many salvos in one year can they take?" O'Donnell asked.

Staffers at the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee have been working behind the scenes on language intended to reel in enough of those moderates.

Senator Barbara Boxer, who heads the committee, has been working off of a bill passed by the House of Representatives intended to cut utility and factory emissions of greenhouse gases by 17 percent by 2020, from 2005 levels. It could be late September or beyond before Boxer is ready to unveil her bill.

Beyond healthcare, the climate bill might have to compete for time with some other major debates, such as new financial industry controls, annual spending bills, U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan and some must-do tax measures.

AVERTING THE "ABYSS"

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday said the world was "heading toward an abyss" without swift action to reduce carbon emissions. Without it, he told a 155-nation climate conference in Geneva, melting polar ice and rising sea levels will threaten cities from Tokyo to New Orleans.

Environmentalists hope that such high-profile attention will help jolt Congress toward action.

While public support for healthcare legislation has eroded in recent weeks, environmentalists are heartened by polls indicating that voters want Congress to fix global warming by expanding alternative energy sources such as biofuels and solar and wind power.

"Support for energy and climate legislation held firm and ticked up a bit" lately, said Joseph Mendelson, the National Wildlife Federation's director of global warming policy.

But if the legislation sputters in the Senate, that would not halt Obama's drive to reduce carbon dioxide pollution.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering regulations that would force large polluters -- those spewing at least 25,000 tons annually -- to reduce their emissions.

"EPA can do some important things to start to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions in our country," EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said.

Interviewed on Thursday on National Public Radio, Jackson noted that her agency has authority under the existing Clean Air Act, but like Obama, she prefers Congress pass comprehensive legislation.

(Editing by Will Dunham)

New Therapy Spares Organ in Early Esophageal Cancer (HealthDay)

TUESDAY, Sept. 1 (HealthDay News) -- Early-stage cancers of the
esophagus can be treated effectively by less invasive, organ-sparing
endoscopic therapy, a new study has found.

This is good news, as esophageal cancer arising from Barrett's
esophagus is increasing in frequency faster than any other cancer in the
United States, and 90 percent of patients die within five years of being
diagnosed, according to a news release from the Mayo Clinic.

Esophageal cancer is diagnosed in its early stages about 20 percent of
the time, Dr. Ganapathy Prasad, of the department of gastroenterology and
hepatology at the Mayo Clinic and lead author on the study, published in
the September issue of Gastroenterology.

"Traditionally, esophageal cancer patients undergo a complicated
surgery to remove the esophagus," Prasad said in the news release. "Our
team compared surgery to the use of endoscopic therapy, where a scope is
inserted in the esophagus and the cancer cells are shaved off. Our results
showed the less invasive therapy was just as effective as surgery for
early-stage cancers."

The study included 178 patients with early-stage esophageal
adenocarcinoma; 132 were treated with endoscopic mucosal resection and 46
were treated surgically. The patients who underwent the less invasive
procedure -- endoscopic mucosal resection -- had a liquid injected under
the lesion and then an endoscope was used to shave off the lesions. The
other patients underwent the traditional removal of the esophagus, or
esophagectomy.

After a nine-year follow-up, both groups had an overall mortality rate
of about 20 percent. Among patients treated endoscopically, cancer
recurred in 12 percent, but recurrence could be re-treated endoscopically.

While the overall results are similar, there is no contest when the
impact on patients is compared, the study authors noted. Esophagectomy
surgery patients typically are in hospitalized for a week, and up to 50
percent of patients have complications after the surgery. In addition,
patients whose esophagus has been removed face lifelong dietary
restrictions.

On the other hand, endoscopic treatments are performed in an outpatient
setting, and patients are allowed to eat full meals within days of the
procedure, the researchers explained.

More information

Learn more about esophageal cancer from the U.S.
National Cancer Institute.

Cate Blanchett suffers head wound on stage (AP)

SYDNEY – Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett suffered a bleeding head wound when she was hit by a prop on stage Wednesday during a Sydney theater performance.
The performance of Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire" was canceled, but the 40-year-old Australian actress will return to the stage for Thursday's show, Sydney Theater Company spokesman Tim McKeough said.
"Another actor lifted the prop above his head, and she somehow sustained a minor blow to the head," McKeough said.
An audience member told Sydney's Macquarie Radio it soon became clear the accident was not part of the play.
"She had blood streaming down the back of her head and blood on the back of her neck," the unnamed theater-goer said.
Sydney Theater Company is run by Blanchett and her playwright husband, Andrew Upton.
Blanchett, who won a supporting actress Oscar in 2005 for "The Aviator," is playing the lead role of Blanche DuBois.

Weak retail report cards likely for back-to-school (AP)

NEW YORK – It may be the beginning of the year for students, but for retailers, it's report-card time. Analysts expect the early grades on the back-to-school selling season to be weak when retailers report August results Thursday.
The results will give insight into whether consumers opened their wallets after months of keeping them closed amid the recession, and how well back-to-school offerings such as trendy jeans, dresses and T-shirts are being received.
Analysts say poor sales would raise already-high fears about the crucial holiday selling season.
Labor Day falls a week later this year and several states' tax-free shopping weeks occurred in August this year rather than July, both making comparisons from a year ago difficult.
Thus, retailers and analysts said August and September taken together will likely paint a more complete portrait of back-to-school sales, crucial for teen retailers. The back-to-school season can make up about 20 percent of their annual revenue.
"According to our checks, back-to-school selling picked-up later in the month, concurrent with more school openings, and helped by weather that was drier and more seasonable than last year," wrote BMO Capital Markets analyst John Morris. "Encouragingly, mall traffic was flat for the month, versus down 4 percent a year ago."
He expects companies that focus on low prices such as Aeropostale Inc. and discounter TJX Cos. will beat expectations, while higher-priced Abercrombie & Fitch will miss expectations.
Roth Capital Markets analyst Elizabeth Pierce wrote in a client note that overall sales will likely be soft because shoppers are holding back on impulse and spur-of-the moment items, particularly early in the back-to-school season.
Still, she said sales likely "built toward the end of August driven by pre-Labor Day sales and promotions as well as by some newness and pent up demand in certain categories," such as outerwear and sweaters.
She predicted The Buckle Inc., which has managed to offer enough compelling fashion to teens to avoid the sales slump its competitors have seen, will be among the few stores reporting positive sales results.
Michael P. Niemira, The International Council of Shopping Centers chief economist, expects sales at stores open at least a year, a key retail measurement that removes the effects of store expansion, to be down 3.5 to 4 percent overall from a year ago.
Ken Perkins, president of retail research firm Retail Metrics, says that figure likely fell 3.4 percent in August, marking the 12th consecutive monthly decline. Still, that's better than the 4.7 percent drop in July, Perkins noted.
"There's still a long way to go until retailers get back to healthy growth," he said. That growth will be crucial to any recovery because consumer spending makes up about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity.
Outside of the teen stores, August results are expected to continue weak sales seen in the second quarter as consumers continue to cut back amid the recession.
"Inventory at retailers remains lean, potentially holding back sales, but possibly contributing to better margins," Stifel Nicolaus analyst Richard Jaffe said in a note. "Consumers, facing unprecedented economic uncertainty, continue to behave frugally, spending cautiously and saving vociferously, while contributing to sales weakness among apparel retailers."
Still there have been a few encouraging indicators the economy may be stabilizing. On Tuesday, the Institute for Supply Management showed the highest number for its manufacturing index since June 2007. New customer orders jumped to a level not seen since late 2004.
Elsewhere, a gauge of future U.S. home sales rose more than expected in July to the highest point in more than two years.
Perkins said the back-to-school season will be an important indicator of how the approaching holiday season crucial to retailers will turn out this year.

If results are better than expected, the holiday season "will possibly be mediocre, instead of terrible, the way it looked like it might be several months ago," Perkins said.

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