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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alighieri who wrote (567294)	5/20/2010 5:14:37 PM
From: longnshort	2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1576323

NPA and SEIU at the home of BofA's Gregory Baer and you libs say the tea party people are dangerous. youtube.com This is what democracy looks like! youtube.com

To: Alighieri who wrote (567294)	5/20/2010 6:41:01 PM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 1576323

AP sources: Intelligence director to resign May 20 06:22 PM US/Eastern By EILEEN SULLIVAN Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Dennis Blair, President Obama's national intelligence director, is resigning after a 16-month tenure marked by turf wars among the country's spy agencies. Blair, a retired admiral, is the third director of national intelligence, a position created in response to the failure to prevent the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Blair intends to offer his resignation Friday, one of the two officials said, adding that several candidates have been interviewed for the job. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made. His oversight of the nation's 16 intelligence agencies was marked by turf battles with the CIA director and controversial public comments in the wake of the abortive Christmas Day jetliner bombing. CIA Director Leon Panetta and Blair squared off in May over Blair's effort to choose a personal representative at U.S. embassies to be his eyes and ears abroad, instead of relying on CIA station chiefs, as had been past practice. Last May, Blair issued a directive declaring his intention to select his own representatives overseas. Word of Blair's resignation, first reported by ABC News, comes two days after a Senate report criticized his office and other intelligence agencies for new failings that allowed a would-be bomber to board a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day. The Senate Intelligence Committee found that the National Counterterrorism Center was in a position to connect intelligence that could have prevented the potentially deadly attack. As director of national intelligence, Blair oversaw the center. After the airliner bombing attempt, Blair said a new, elite federal interrogation unit of counterterrorism specialists should have been called in to question the suspected bomber, Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. But that unit, known as the High-Value Interrogation Group, was not an option because it wasn't ready for action. The HIG team was deployed after the recent Times Square bombing attempt this month, administration officials said this week. Blair also told Congress that Abdulmutallab continued to provide helpful information to investigators at a time when authorities had hoped to keep the bomber's cooperation secret. With that information divulged, FBI Director Robert Mueller confirmed at the same hearing that Abdulmutallab was cooperating. Blair was the first Obama administration official to describe the deadly shooting rampage of an Army psychiatrist as an act of homegrown extremism. The administration had previously been reluctant to call the suspect a homegrown terrorist or extremist. ___

To: Alighieri who wrote (567294)	5/20/2010 11:44:29 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1576323

Obama to Mandate Rules to Raise Fuel Standards By PETER BAKER Published: May 20, 2010 WASHINGTON — President Obama has decided to use his executive power to order tougher fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks, accelerating the fight against climate change without waiting for Congress, administration officials said Thursday. Mr. Obama plans to announce on Friday that he is ordering the creation of a new national policy that will result in less pollution from medium- and heavy-duty trucks for the first time and will further reduce exhaust from cars and light-duty trucks beyond the requirements he has already put in place. Under rules that were eventually formalized last month, new cars have to meet a combined city and highway fuel economy average of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016. The administration said the new rules would cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases by about 30 percent from 2012 to 2016. The plan Mr. Obama will announce on Friday will order further improvements in fuel efficiency for cars and light trucks made in 2017 and beyond, and in medium and heavy trucks made in 2014 through 2018. The initiative comes as the spill in the Gulf of Mexico has underscored the problem with dependence on oil, and officials said the president would cite the problem when he discusses his plan. The order allows Mr. Obama to advance his goals even as Senate Democrats have difficulty trying to pass a comprehensive energy bill that he supports. Administration officials confirmed the plan after disclosing it to environmental advocates but insisted on anonymity to avoid upstaging the announcement. In addition to the fuel efficiency and pollution standards, Mr. Obama’s directive will order more federal support for the development of new-generation cars like advanced electric vehicles and will instruct the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce pollutants from motor vehicles other than greenhouse gases. Environmentalists hailed the move. “President Obama’s oil savings proposal will reduce our dependence on oil,” said Daniel J. Weiss, director of climate strategy at the Center for American Progress, a liberal research organization. “More efficient cars and trucks will help to protect families’ budgets as well as America’s shores.” Medium and heavy trucks represent only 4 percent of all vehicles on American highways but they consume more than 20 percent of on-road transportation fuels, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, an environmental advocacy organization. Improving the average fuel economy of these trucks by 3.7 miles per gallon would reduce American annual oil consumption by 11 billion gallons in 2030, the group said. Building cleaner cars costs money but may ultimately save consumers more through lower gasoline bills. The policy already enacted will add about $1,000 to the cost of an average new car by 2016, but save about $3,000 in fuel over the life of the vehicle, according to government officials. The president will be joined Friday by environmental leaders as well as representatives of major automakers and truck manufacturers supporting the new policy, administration officials said. The Transportation Department and the Environmental Protection Agency will jointly develop the policy. Manufacturers want a single, national standard set over the long term because it is easier to meet than the patchwork quilt of regulations imposed in the past. Before the president’s initial policy a year ago, car and light-truck makers were facing fuel-efficiency standards being developed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in response to Congressional legislation, separate greenhouse gas standards being developed by the Environmental Protection Agency under the Clean Air Act and the possibility of separate standards enacted in California and 13 other states. John M. Broder contributed reporting. cnbc.com