Obama and Eastwood

President Barack Obama says the ribbing Clint Eastwood gave him at the Republican National Convention last week doesn’t mean he won’t watch his movies.

“I am a huge Clint Eastwood fan,” the president said in an interview excerpt released today.

“He is a great actor, and an even better director,” he continued. “I think the last few movies that he’s made have been terrific.”

USA Today asked the president about Eastwood’s participation at the GOP convention while Obama was traveling to Iowa on Saturday. The interview will be fully released on the publication’s website Monday and in print Tuesday.

Eastwood was a much-hyped mystery speaker at the three-day long event, rousing the crowd in a 12-minute oratory that included a satirical “interview” with Obama, in the form of an empty chair. The president said he didn’t hold a grudge against the blunt performance, which some considered borderline vulgar.

“One thing about being president or running for president — if you’re easily offended, you should probably choose another profession,” the president said.

Obama said not to expect any similar acts at the upcoming Democratic convention this week in North Carolina.

“I think we’ll be playing this pretty straight,” he said.

Most of the president’s surrogates on this morning’s political talk shows largely reflected his stance, with few directly criticizing the Hollywood legend. On ABC’s “This Week,” senior adviser David Plouffe said, “We’re all Clint Eastwood fans here in the Obama campaign.”

“The president, myself, we all, I think, everyone in America thinks he’s been an amazing actor and director and an American treasure,” he told George Stephanopoulos. “I do think the Romney campaign would probably not, three days after their convention, still having questions raised about Clint Eastwood. So you’ll have to ask them how that all went down.”

Senior Republicans are quietly perplexed with the performance. And in avideo montage of the convention released today Eastwood is noticeably left out of the clipreel.

Regardless, on NBC’s “Meet the Press” this morning former candidate Newt Gingrich said it was “one level of fun,” but also “almost irrelevant.”

“It provides lots of fodder,” he said. “On the other hand, if you’re Mitt Romney and your choice is to have ‘Saturday Night Live’ decide to pick on Clint Eastwood or pick on you, I think I’d give them Clint Eastwood for every night for the rest of the campaign.”

Via ABC

Syria Damascus - latest news

Two Syrian activist groups say about 5,000 people were killed in Syria in August, making it the deadliest month since the uprising began more than 17 months ago.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sunday that 5,440 people, including 4,114 civilians were killed.

The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said 4,933 civilians were killed in August.

The civil war witnessed a major turning point in August when President Bashar Assad's forces began widely using air power for the first time to crush the revolt.

The fighting also reached Syria's largest city, Aleppo, which had been relatively quiet for most of the revolt.

Via AP

Tsunami Warnings

A major earthquake offshore of the Philippines sent people scrambling toward higher ground, generated a small tsunami and killed at least one person Friday, authorities said.

The 7.6-magnitude quake struck Friday evening, with its epicenter about 65 miles southeast of the coastal town of Guiuan, in the Philippine province of Eastern Samar, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It was about 20 miles deep.

Tsunami waves ranging from 6 to 7 inches to a foot and a half were recorded in the province of Surigao del Norte, with waves of an inch reported near the cities of Davao and Legaspi, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said.

Those waves did no known damage, but the earthquake triggered a landslide that killed one person and injured another, the council said.

"The quake occurred amid a strong rain, so the earth shook loose and there was a landslide," the country's civil defense chief, Benito Ramos, said, The Manila Times reported.

The quake was centered in the Marianas Trench in the western Pacific Ocean and was felt in the country's east, said Aimee Menguilla, a spokeswoman for the council.

Ed Serrano, the head of security at the Marco Polo Hotel in the city of Davao, about 250 miles south of Guiuan, said he felt the ground shake.

"The hotel guests were panicking," he said. "Most of them went outside."

Marie Elairon, working at the front desk at Hotel Dona Vicenta in the city of Borongan, said some people headed to mountainous areas and others took shelter in a church.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said tsunami waves were possible in a vast arc of the Pacific, but the alerts were soon canceled. The Philippines canceled an advisory urging people to evacuate early Saturday.

Ricky Carandang, President Benigno Aquino's press secretary, said there has been minor damage to roads in six provinces authorities were monitoring: Eastern and Northern Samar, Leyte, Southern Leyte, Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur. The government also reported damage to bridges and houses.

Paul Earle, a U.S. Geological Survey seismologist, said the quake was "fairly far off the coast, so it likely won't cause severe shaking damage." But, he said, an earthquake "this large could cause a lot of damage" if it were inland.

The U.S. Geological Survey initially said the quake had a magnitude of 7.9 but later revised that figure.

Via CNN

Where is Greece

Many people don't know where is Greece. This country is the center of the european crisis.

Learn where is Greece:

Robert Fisk: Another week in the violent, murderous and divided world of Syria

Via The intependent

A week is a long time in violence. It seems only yesterday – five days ago, in fact – that armed men shot Sheikh Abu Haitham al-Bortawi outside the el-Noor mosque in the Rukenadin suburb of Damascus. Went to the scene. Middle class area. Tree shaded, clean street. Ten in the morning. Turns out he was the cleric who knelt right next to Bashar al-Assad for the Eid prayers at the end of Ramadan. A dagger to the heart of the body politick.

I meet an old friend the next day at a café in Mezzeh, and he's crying. His dentist lived in Zabadani, in the hills near the Lebanese border, in Free Syria Army country. His son was warned the family home was unsafe because of incoming fire. From the army? No one's sure. But a shell hit the house and the dentist has just arrived at the French Hospital. Dead, his grieving family still at the morgue.

Then there's the two Christian guys outside town. One runs a DVD store, the other a pharmacy. Murdered. Next day, their funeral cortege is car-bombed. Twelve dead, at least 40 wounded. Turns out they had brothers in the Syrian army, apparently conscripts. Hardly a sin. But the opposition says the two men were "connected to the military".

A Syrian journalist calls me. Six Armenians have been "slaughtered with knives" in their homes. I race to the Armenian church and there is brown-robed Bishop Armesh Nalbandian next to the ancient chapel of Saint Sarkis – he has around 6,500 parishioners in Damascus – and only a few metres from the memorial to the 1915 Armenian genocide. Many of those one and a half million victims of Ottoman Turkish slaughter were put to death in the deserts north of Damascus, now the scene of another Calvary.

But the "six-dead" story is untrue, Armesh says. Good news. But no. Three Damascus Armenians have just been murdered, apparently shot. Thirty-nine-year-old Bedros Matosian died along with his younger brother Kevork and the son of one of them – the bishop isn't sure which – called Levon, who was only 22. Armed men. No identity. But the Matosians had Alawite and Sunni neighbours who were also massacred, because, so the local story goes, they refused to join the Free Syria Army.

The story depends on where you go in this divided capital. Yesterday, I take another prowl, through the Damascus suburbs; Malayha, Harasta, Zamalka, Bab Shawkeh. Thirty government checkpoints, maybe 40, but in Harasta, the Syrian Arab Republic has no sway. There are dozens of painted green, white and black FSA flags on the walls. "The free people of Harasta are denied their liberty," a slogan informs us. "Assad should go." There's a mosque so packed that the crowds have spilled on to the boiling roadway; a guy in a pick-up tells us it's safe to head for the motorway. An opposition man. A Syrian soldier in sunglasses waves us back to the autostrade of the Syrian Arab Republic.

We drive through the Assad Suburb, government housing, though some home-owners have rented to people from Zabadani – maybe a little security problem? – and just past the Tishreen military hospital (former student, one Bashar al-Assad), there's an explosion and a car with headlights zipping the street dust under its shrieking tyres and a pulverised dead dog lying inside a garage.

Up to the Kassioun mountain overlooking Damascus for lunch at Al Montagna – the only guests, save for three tired Syrian officers – and we look across at the Omayad mosque and there's a roar from the government guns on the other side of the jebel and a rumble of sound relayed mountain-to-mountain on the other side of the city. Fifteen seconds later, there's a pop far away on the edge of the Palestinian camp at Yarmouk and a smudge of grey smoke. Then another report and another rumble and another pop a bit to the right, four miles away through the heat haze. Palestinians. I close my notebook for the week.

Obama's Box

Keep the conversation going and let the voter's voice be heard.

http://obamasinbox.com/ 

Crucial week for the future of the euro

The coming days seem crucial for the future of the euro for many, even in the European Union, as pressures on the Spanish economy are rising and scenarios about further support of Greece from its partners are giving and taking, along with the conflicting views of European policies on how to manage the debt crisis in the EU.

The meetings of EU president Herman van Rompuy with European leaders are particularly important, as he will try to find a common line before the ECB meeting and the decision of the German Constitutional Court about the Permanent Support Mechanism (ESM).

Specifically, on Tuesday September 4, van Rompuy will meet with Angela Merkel, and the next day with François Hollande in Paris.

Diplomatic sources cited by the French news agency report that Greece will be found high on the agenda of van Rompuy’s diplomatic contacts, who has made an informal request for a two-year extension of the loan program.

The issue of Spain will also be discussed, about which the EU has announced that it can release up to 100 billion euros to recapitalize commercial banks, while there is still an open issue regarding its appeal for a complete bailout package, and not just for the banking system.

On Friday, September 7, van Rompuy will come to Athens to meet with prime minister Antonis Samaras. On Saturday, he will visit Cernobbio on the shores of Lake Como in northern Italy, where he will meet with Italian prime minister Mario Monti.

Greece: The package of austerity measures 11,5 billion

At 12 pm today the cabinet will sit at the negotiating table for the adoption of the new measures. The staffs have formulated their own red lines and require equivalent measures against the proposed package of 11.5 billion euros. 

After the briefing they had from the government on Wednesday evening, members of financial staffs from PASOK and the Democratic Left were in continuous consultations on Thursday. 

In PASOK Protopapas, Koutroumanis and Sachinidis met with party president Venizelos on Thursday morning, but also held a meeting amongst themselves. In the Democratic Left, Chatzisokratis discussed the proposals with president Kouvelis and later convened the central secretariat of the party. During these meetings they discussed the proposed measures of the economic team that include: 

- elimination of the 13th and 14th pensions for all pensioners without exception

- elimination of the 13th and 14th salaries for civil servants

- decrease of pensions

- elimination of seasonal unemployment benefits

- reduction of benefits for people with disabilities

- implementation of age-related criteria in EKAS

- elimination of automatic wage increases in the security forces

- reduction of tax exemptions

 

Officials also discussed the increase of the pensionable age by one or two years, which is a “red line” for many MPs of the three governmental parties. 

PASOK and the Democratic Left also seem to require equivalent measures to total cuts in the bonuses of pensioners. Their members say "no" to cuts in OGA pensions. A former PASOK government member wondered who will vote for a reduction in disability benefits. 

On the ND side, disagreements lie in different issues. According to information, they rejected the Democratic Left’s proposal for the State not to pay the total of clergy salaries, but left an open window for the possibility of cuts in the salaries of bishops.

Brahimi for Syria: The Syrian government has to meet the people's demand for change

Veteran international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi on his first day of the job Saturday told Al Arabiya television that the Syrian government has to meet the people's demand for change.

"The Syrian government has to meet the people's demand for change," Brahimi told Al Arabiya's Talal Alhaj in an interview from New York, adding that "the government's responsibility to stop the violence is bigger" than that of the opposition forces.

The United Nations announced in the middle of August that Brahimi, a veteran Algerian diplomat, would take over from Kofi Annan to negotiate an end to the 17-month old conflict in which activists say more than 25,000 people have been killed.

Former U.N. chief Annan stepped down as envoy following the failure of his six-point peace plan.

"I realize the scale of suffering of the Syrian people," Brahimi said in the Saturday interview, calling for all parties in Syria to cease violence.

Brahimi told Al Arabiya that sending Arab forces into Syria was currently not under consideration, and that "military interference in Syria means failure of diplomatic efforts."

"For me, this option is not available, and personally, this will be neither today nor tomorrow nor after tomorrow," he said.

Syria has pledged to cooperate with Brahimi, 78, who among his several high-profile positions, served as U.N. envoy in Afghanistan before and after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, and in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.

"Those I have met at the United Nations understand...that i cannot execute my mission without full and clear support on their part. I believe they understand that," Brahimi said.

Brahimi has been in New York for the past week for talks with UN leaders and senior diplomats from U.N. Security Council nations and other countries, before officially taking up his post September 1.

The envoy has reputation as a tough, independent negotiator and is also a member of the Elders, the group of former world leaders that works for global peace.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government was accused by international observers of not fully cooperating with the previous U.N. mission: ceasefire deadlines were not met by Syrian regime security forces and deadly violence continued across the country.

• 
  

Romney's bounce from convention looks short-lived: Reuters/Ipsos poll

A modest bump in popularity for U.S. presidential hopeful Mitt Romney from this week's Republican Party convention looks to be short-lived, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Democratic President Barack Obama regained a narrow lead on Saturday by 44 percent to 43 percent over his Republican challenger, former Massachusetts Governor Romney, in the latest daily installment of the four-day rolling poll.

Romney was ahead by one point in Friday's online poll and two points in Thursday's survey as his campaign came under a blaze of media attention at the convention in Tampa, Florida.

In his acceptance speech on Thursday, Romney urged voters to get behind him and help rebuild the economy. His address followed three days of speeches by Republicans, including testimonies from Romney's relatives and friends aimed at improving the image of a candidate who is often seen as stiff or aloof.

"This wasn't a lightning bolt convention," Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said. "Comparatively speaking, this was a more muted convention in general ... So it doesn't surprise me that (the bump in polls) wasn't a great deal bigger."

Post-convention poll bounces are common and typically short-lived, and Obama could see one himself next week after he formally accepts his party's nomination for a second term at the Democratic convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.

But with the candidates treading water in a dead-heat race, Clark said she expected polls to remain extremely close all the way to the November 6 vote.

Romney's muted benefit from the convention may be in part because of his decision to unveil his vice-presidential pick, Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan, weeks before the convention.

The convention was also overshadowed by Hurricane Isaac, which caused the cancellation of Monday's events, as well as a bizarre performance right before Romney's speech of Hollywood star Clint Eastwood, who addressed an imaginary Obama in an empty chair.

The Reuters/Ipsos rolling poll measures sentiment during the two-week convention season by polling over the previous four days.

The survey released on Saturday found that of registered voters who have seen, heard or read at least something about the convention, 39 percent thought it was excellent or good, with nearly as many saying it was average.

Among Republicans, 65 percent said the convention went well and 31 percent rated it average.

On Friday, the poll found Romney improving his standing with voters on various favorable characteristics, such as being "a good person" or "tough enough for the job."

Those gains largely ebbed on Saturday, but Romney continued to rise in the key category of likeability. Thirty-two percent of those surveyed found him likeable, a one-point gain from Friday. Obama's likeability lost one point to 47 percent.

The two candidates also emerged neck-in-neck in the question of who "has the right values," with Romney at 38 percent and Obama at 39 percent. On Monday, Obama led in this category by nine points with 43 percent.

For the survey, a sample of 1,505 of American registered voters was interviewed online. The precision of the Reuters/Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll has a credibility interval of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.