Carter: 'Financial corruption' harms US elections

ATLANTA (AP) ? Former President Jimmy Carter issued a blistering indictment of the U.S. electoral process Tuesday, saying it is shot through with "financial corruption" that threatens American democracy.

Speaking at the international human rights center that bears his name, Carter said "we have one of the worst election processes in the world right in the United States of America, and it's almost entirely because of the excessive influx of money."

The 39th president lamented a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that allows unlimited contributions to third-party groups that don't have to disclose their donors.

The dynamic is fed, Carter said, by an income tax code that exacerbates the gap between the wealthiest Americans and the rest of the electorate, allowing the rich even greater influence over public discourse and electioneering.

He added that he hopes the "Supreme Court will reverse that stupid ruling," referring to the case known as Citizens United.

Carter praised Mexico and several countries where Carter Center staff have monitored publicly financed elections, and he said the United States should return to publicly financed elections for president. The system technically is still in place, but it is voluntary and both President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney have chosen to bypass the taxpayer money because they can amass far more on their own.

"You know how much I raised to run against Gerald Ford? Zero," Carter said, referring to his 1976 general election opponent. "You know how much I raised to run against Ronald Reagan? Zero. You know how much will be raised this year by all presidential, Senate and House campaigns? $6 billion. That's 6,000 millions."

The 87-year-old Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, appeared at The Carter Center to deliver a report on their human rights and public health initiatives around the world. They took questions from those in attendance and online viewers watching a webcast.

Carter, who left office in 1981, held forth on a range of foreign policy matters, nearly all of them situations where The Carter Center and the former president himself have been involved.

The United States, Carter said, has "less influence" over Middle East nations and diplomacy in that region than it has had at any time since Israel was established as a nation-state in 1948. "Our country's government has basically abandoned the effort," Carter said, adding that he still supports a two-state solution for Palestine and Israel.

He said he hopes Israel resists any urge to strike Iran "on its own," and he discouraged Obama from drawing a "line in the sand" that Iran would almost certainly cross.

In Syria, Carter said civil war will worsen as other nations in the region flood the participants with weapons. "There is little hope of good things coming out of Syria any time soon," he said.

He praised the Venezuelan election process. He described a touch-screen voting system that immediately records a vote in a centralized location, while also printing out a ballot receipt that allows a voter to check the accuracy of the vote. He noted "criticism of the outcome" of recent elections there but said President Hugo Chavez won "fairly and squarely."

While the former president clearly relishes the detailed discussions of world political affairs, he and his wife emphasized that the center's public health programs have had the greatest individual effects of their post-White House work.

Rosalynn Carter, who concentrates much of her work on mental health access and education, highlighted on ongoing effort to educate mental health professionals in Liberia. After three years of Carter Center involvement, three classes of nurses and other medical professionals have received advanced training in treating behavioral health concerns. The former first lady said the need is acute in the war-torn nation, which had just one practicing psychiatrist three years ago.

In the United States, she said public financing for mental health treatment is often among the first casualties of tight budgets because of the continuing stigma of the conditions. Out of fear, she said, family members and advocates "don't rise up and become concerned about it ... to the degree I'd like them to."

The former president celebrated the approaching end of the Guinea worm, a parasite that is among the world's oldest known maladies. The Carter Center began an eradication program in 1986, when 3.5 million cases were spread across Africa and Asia, concentrated in villages without clean water. As of 2011, there were 1,058 cases reported in four African nations. Eliminating the condition, Carter said, "will be one of the crowning achievements of my life. I'll soon be 88 years old. I just hope I live longer than the last Guinea worm."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/carter-financial-corruption-harms-us-elections-041802249.html

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US won't rule out militant link to attack in Libya

The deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya was staged by militants who set the building on fire. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

By M. Alex Johnson and Daniel Strieff, NBC News

New in this version: U.S. sends Navy destroyers to Libyan coast; two other victims identified as State Department employees

Updated at 7:08 p.m. ET: U.S. officials told NBC News on Wednesday that they couldn't rule out the possibility that al-Qaida-inspired Islamist militants were responsible for the attack in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi?that killed Christopher Stevens,?the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans.

Richard Engel, Jim Gold, Courtney Kube, Jim Miklaszewski, Andrea Mitchell, Kerry Sanders, Jeanee Vonessen and Robert Windrem of NBC News contributed to this report. Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.

U.S. and Libyan officials, independent analysts and postings on Islamist websites from known militant activists suggested that the attack ? which officials had previously suggested was retaliation for release of a movie critical of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad ? may have been an orchestrated assault, noting that it occurred on the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S.

The State Department ordered?all "non-emergency" U.S. personnel out of the country, but?officials told NBC News that as of now there was no plan for a total U.S. evacuation.

U.S. officials said the Navy is positioning two guided-missile destroyers off the Libyan coast to provide "additional military options" if needed.

The USS LaBoon had already arrived off the coast of Libya, officials told NBC News. The USS McFaul was expected to arrive Thursday. Both are based at Norfolk, Va., and are listed as having crews of 338.

Michael Leiter, former director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center and current NBC News terrorism expert, discusses the anti-U.S. interests that present difficulty for governments abroad.

?


Attack on the Libya consulate, as it happened

?In addition, the Defense and State departments were considering sending additional Marines to other potential trouble spots, including Cairo and Kabul, which have both seen sectarian flare-ups against the U.S.

Steven McDonald, a longtime friend of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, describes his friend's compassion, integrity and commitment.

At a briefing for reporters, Libya's interim president, Mohammed el-Megarif, suggested that the attack was timed to coincide with the anniversary specifically to "destroy democracy in Libya."

Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri released a video Tuesday marking the anniversary. In it, he called for Islamists to seek revenge for the killing by a U.S. drone strike of deputy al-Qaida leader Abu Yahya al-Libi in June.

Online postings Wednesday from Islamist militants were celebrating the attack as payback for his death, said Evan Kohlmann, an Middle East and terrorism analyst for NBC News.?One of the postings claimed responsibility for the attack in the name of Ansar al-Sharia, ???a Sunni Muslim militant faction.

/

The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed after protesters angry over a film that ridiculed Islam's Prophet Muhammad stormed the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.

Follow live developments from Libya on BreakingNews.com

Noman Benotman, a Libyan-born senior strategy analyst for the Quilliam Foundation, an antiterrorism research group in London, also said the organization's intelligence indicated that the attacks were "committed by uncontrollable jihadist groups," not by a protest mob that spontaneously erupted into violence.

Quilliam said on its website that its sources, some of whom it said were in Benghazi itself, reported that about 20 militants carried out the attack using rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

That appeared to square with an eyewitness account cited by Libya Herald, which quoted a demonstrator at the consulate as saying a protester fired a rocket-propelled grenade launcher at a police vehicle but hit the consulate building on Venezia Street, instead.

The Voice of America, meanwhile, cited similar reports that "several dozen gunmen from the Islamist group Ansar al Sharia" may have carried out the attack.

Esam Omran Al-fetori / Reuters

PHOTOBLOG: People stand near a burnt car at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said "it would be premature to ascribe any motive to this reprehensible act," but other U.S. officials said they couldn't rule out the possibility of a link to al-Liby's death or the Sept. 11 anniversary, saying the attack was too sophisticated to have been spontaneous.

In the aftermath, officials told NBC News that they were preparing to send as many as 200 Marines to Libya to bolster security around the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli. The Marines' Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team would be deployed from a Marine Amphibious Ready Group already positioned aboard a helicopter carrier in the North Arabian Sea, the officials said.

Obama condemns attack
President Barack Obama condemned the attack, in which the Americans were killed after protesters stormed the U.S. consulate Tuesday night in Benghazi.

President Barack Obama vowed to bring the killers of the four Americans to justice. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

"Make no mistake: Justice will be done," Obama said Wednesday.

Stevens, 52, was the first U.S. ambassador to be killed during an assignment since Adolph Dubs was slain in an exchange of gunfire during a kidnapping attempt in Afghanistan in 1979.

The State Department identified a second victim as Sean Smith, a Foreign Service information management officer and father of two children. Smith had previously been posted to the U.S. Consulate in Montreal, the U.S. Mission in Canada confirmed.

The State Department said the families of the two other victims were still being notified. U.S. officials would say only that they were employed by the State Department.

Ambassador Stevens was 'courageous and exemplary,' Obama says

?"While the United States rejects efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others, we must all unequivocally oppose the kind of senseless violence that took the lives of these public servants," Obama said in a statement.

Vice President Joe Biden, meanwhile, insisted the U.S. wouldn't be driven from the country.

"We never have been, and we never will be, run off, period," Biden said at a campaign event in Dayton, Ohio. "That's not who we are."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that the attack "should shock the people of all faiths around the world."

"I ask myself, how could this happen? How could this happen in a country we helped liberate, in a city we helped save from destruction?" she said. "This question reflects just how complicated and, at times, how confounding the world can be."

U.S. Muslims said they were concerned about possible retaliatory attacks on their mosques, the Washington-based Council on Arab-Islamic Relations said Wednesday as it also condemned the attacks.

"We're starting to get hate calls, and we'd already seen a wave of anti-Muslim incidents," Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for CAIR in Washington, told NBC News. "Muslims have to feel insecure."

Romney slams Obama over attacks on US officials in Libya, Egypt

Stevens apparently asphyxiated by smoke
Descriptions of Tuesday's attack depicted chaos and bloodshed, with Libyan security overrun and retreating.

Mohammed el-Megarif, Libya's interim president, apologized to the U.S. for the deadly attack. ITV's Richard Pallot reports.

Stevens died of severe asphyxiation, apparently from smoke, Ziad Abu Zeid, a Libyan doctor who treated him, told The Associated Press.

Stevens was practically dead when he arrived close to 1 a.m. Wednesday (7 p.m. ET Tuesday), and "we tried to revive him for an hour and a half but with no success," Abu Zeid said. The ambassador was bleeding in his stomach because of the asphyxiation but had no other injuries, he said.

Demonstrations in Benghazi and in Egypt broke out Tuesday following news reports about the anti-Islamic video, which ? if a trailer posted on YouTube is representative ? features an amateur cast performing a wooden dialogue of insults disguised as revelations about Muhammad.

More Middle East & North Africa coverage on NBCNews.com

Full World coverage on NBCNews.com

The diplomatic crisis in Libya and Egypt quickly turned political as the Obama and Romney campaigns traded statements overnight. NBC's Chuck Todd reports.

The attacks were the first such assaults on U.S. diplomatic facilities in either country, at a time when both Libya and Egypt are struggling to overcome the turmoil following the ouster of their longtime leaders, Moammar Gadhafi and Hosni Mubarak, in uprisings last year.

The events appeared to underscore how much the ground in the Middle East has shifted for Washington, which for decades had close ties with Arab dictators who could be counted on to muzzle dissent.

More world stories from NBC News:

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/12/13824089-us-ambassador-3-others-killed-in-attacks-on-libya-mission?lite

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Obama: US safer, resilient on 9/11 anniversary

President Barack Obama, flanked by Defense Defense Leon Panetta, left, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey, place their hands over their hearts at the Pentagon Memorial,Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012, during a ceremony to mark the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama, flanked by Defense Defense Leon Panetta, left, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey, place their hands over their hearts at the Pentagon Memorial,Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012, during a ceremony to mark the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, joined by members of the White House staff pause during a moment of silence to mark the 11th anniversary of the Sept, 11th, Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama first lady Michelle Obama, and members of the White House staff pause during a moment of silence to mark the 11th anniversary of the Sept, 11th, Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

(AP) ? President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are at Arlington National Cemetery visiting the graves of service members killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The visit to the burial ground across the Potomac River from the White House is part of the president's observance of the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The Obamas quietly walked between rows of graves at Section 60, which contains the remains of the most recent war dead. Pausing at several graves, Obama placed presidential "challenge" coins at the base of the headstones. The first headstone listed the names of 10 victims of an Oct. 26, 2009, helicopter crash in Afghanistan.

Earlier, the Obamas placed a wreath at the Pentagon and observed a moment of silence on the White House South Lawn.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-09-11-Obama-9/11/id-f72a6a093d4342b9b9ad8fb3ecf3c533

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Sony RX1: The First Full-Frame Point-and-Shoot Camera (Which Is as Crazy/Genius as It Sounds) [Cameras]

Today we met Sony's new flagship DSLR, the a99: A professional-grade, full-frame sensor camera that gives all the rest a run for their money. With that in mind, we'll just call the Sony Cyber-Shot RX1 "Honey I Shrank the Full-Frame". Yes, it's freaking crazy. It's potentially brilliant too. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/iJdzsSQL3kI/sony-rx1-the-first-full+frame-point+and+shoot-camera-which-is-as-crazygenius-as-it-sounds

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Burberry warning sends shiver through luxury sector

LONDON (Reuters) - British fashion brand Burberry issued a profit warning on Tuesday, the clearest sign yet that slowing economic growth in China and Europe's debt crisis are bringing a boom in demand for luxury clothes and accessories to a halt.

The company, famous for its raincoats lined with a distinctive camel, red and black check pattern, said it expected underlying full-year profit to be around the lower end of market forecasts.

That sent its shares down 19 percent and dragged down rivals including LVMH, the world's largest luxury goods group.

China has been one of the main drivers of a boom in luxury brands, with consumers eager to buy designer labels, including Burberry's raincoats and other high-end fashions.

But luxury goods firms' shares have wobbled in the past few months over worries about Europe's sovereign debt crisis and slowing growth in China and other emerging markets, where demand for designer brands has managed to offset weaker trends in the United States and Europe.

Morgan Stanley analysts said in a note to clients on Tuesday that Burberry's statement was the first major disappointment for European luxury companies.

Shares in France's LVMH and PPR were both down 4 percent, while Switzerland's Richemont was down 3 percent.

Burberry said comparable store sales didn't grow in the 10 weeks to September 8, the bulk of its financial second quarter, compared with a year earlier. Total sales rose 6 percent, underpinned entirely by new store openings.

That represented a marked slowdown from first-quarter retail revenue growth of 14 percent and comparable store sales up 6 percent.

The company reported a fall in first-quarter sales growth in July, as China slowed.

"Given this background, we are tightly managing discretionary costs and taking appropriate actions to protect short term profitability," Chief Executive Angela Ahrendts said on Tuesday.

Analysts had expected Burberry to post pretax profit for the year to March 2013 of between 407 and 451 million pounds ($652-$722 million), with a consensus of 433.21 million, according to a Reuters poll of 18 analysts.

"Burberry's latest results show that even the top end of the market isn't functioning at full capacity in the current economic climate," said Jaana Jatyri, CEO of fashion forecasting company, Trendstop.com.

"The global economic crisis is dragging on and the longer it drags on the less confident even wealthier individuals become. Unfortunately, people lacking confidence do not shop at Burberry."

(Reporting by James Davey and Neil Maidment; Editing by Erica Billingham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/burberry-warning-sends-shiver-luxury-sector-094041382--sector.html

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Spotted at IDF: NEC's lightweight LaVie Z Ultrabook (hands-on video)

Spotted at IDF NEC's lightweight LaVie Z Ultrabook handson video

Remember NEC's LaVie Z Ultrabook we first heard about at Computex? It's a super light (875g / 1.93 lbs) and thin (15mm / 0.59-inch) magnesium alloy system running Windows 7 that's only available in Japan and we just spotted it here at IDF 2012 in San Francisco. Spec-wise you're looking at a 1.9GHz third-generation (Ivy Bridge) Core i7 CPU, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD with integrated Intel HD 4000 GPU driving a 13.3-inch 1600x900-pixel display. It features an SD card slot on the left side, audio, USB 2.0, USB 3.0, HDMI and power connectors on the right edge and the obligatory webcam.

We spent a few minutes using the LaVie Z and were quite impressed with how lightweight and well made it is. It feels like a premium Ultrabook yet still looks unique -- unlike the plethora of me-too designs the PC industry's been dumping on the market lately (yes, we're looking at you, HP). The screen is nice and bright with decent viewing angles. NEC's done a good job with the button-less trackpad which is properly responsive. Sadly the keyboard is a bit of a mixed bag -- the short travel and small surface area of the individual keys will be an issue for some. Want to know more? Check out the gallery below and hit the break for our hands-on video.

Continue reading Spotted at IDF: NEC's lightweight LaVie Z Ultrabook (hands-on video)

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Spotted at IDF: NEC's lightweight LaVie Z Ultrabook (hands-on video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Sep 2012 18:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/11/spotted-at-idf-necs-lightweight-lavie-z-ultrabook-hands-on-vi/

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Use These Ideas To Improve Your Home | michael kors

Posted on | September 10, 2012 | Comments Off

Choosing paint over wallpaper is a great home improvement tip. Wallpaper may seem like it?s easier to clean, and it is for the most part, but if you ever want to redecorate it?s going to be difficult to remove. There is much more involved with removing wallpaper, whereas with paint, you can just paint right over it!

A good way to get things done in your house is to ask for help from friends and family. You might want to ask close friends and family members to help you repaint your kitchen. You can pay them off by buying them lunch or taking them out to dinner, it?s probably cheaper than hiring someone to do the job for you.

Are you looking for a home-improvement idea that is budget and do-it-yourself friendly? You should try painting. This can really make a room pop and make a bold statement. Think of your home as a canvas. When choosing colors, you should pick colors that are on the same line of the color wheel. This will insure that no matter the colors you choose, they will have the same hue value.

Secure your windows from potential burglars with nails! All you have to secure your windows is partially drive a nail in the inside of the sash on both sides of the window just above the bottom panel. You can make the nail removable by drilling the hole instead of driving the nail in. Allow the nail to protrude over the bottom panel so that it can?t be opened without removing the nail.

Get double-glazed windows, or even triple-glazed windows fitted to your house. These windows can decrease your annual energy bills by hundreds of dollars, as they are great insulators. They are also more difficult to smash, so you home is less likely to be broken into. Additionally, they can significantly increase the value of your home.

Give a quick update to your kitchen by wiping down the cabinets and either adding or changing the cabinet hardware. Giving your kitchen cabinets a new set of knobs or handles can really enhance the look of your kitchen without costing a lot of money. With so many styles of knobs and handles available, you can change the character of your kitchen quickly and easily.

Try laying down a new driveway outside your home. By improving the exterior of your home, you can make it look great outside and possibly increase its value. Choose a material which suits your home; there is concrete, clay tile, tarmac, natural stone, and brick that you can use. Get a professional to lay it down properly.

When planning home improvements so that you can rent an area of your house out, make sure that space will adequately house a human being. If there?s absolutely no kitchen space and only a bed can fit in the sleeping area you will get far less rent and quite likely never find a renter.

Choose two easy-to-remember days of the year to check and replace, if necessary, the batteries in your carbon monoxide and smoke detectors. New Year?s Day and the Fourth of July are ideal times to perform this task. You should also make sure that your fire extinguishers work and discuss your family?s exit strategy in the event of a fire.

Those home improvement tips were not too difficult to understand, right? They should have provided you with some insight into what you can expect from this activity. You should now feel a bit more confident and ready to start taking on improvement jobs. Try using these tips for your next job.

Karissa Stowers is known as a scholar concerning water filtration systems for home

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Source: http://how-guide.com/2012/09/use-these-ideas-to-improve-your-home/

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The 404 1,127: Where we eat our utility bill (podcast) | OJOMBO ...


(Credit:

CityofSound)

Leaked from today?s 404 episode:

? Google Glass makes catwalk debut at New York Fashion Week.

? The Fifth Element inspired: Remote-controlled roaches to the rescue.

? Odd ?digital rituals? we perform to make technology serve us.

? Will putting a car remote under your chin increase its range?

Bathroom break video: Pong traffic light in Germany.

Video voice mail: Matt is now the ultimate trucker.

Ep. 1127: Where we eat our utility bill

Listen Now:
? [Read more]

Source: http://ojombo.com/the-404-1127-where-we-eat-our-utility-bill-podcast/

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Raw Five-Point Preview: Sept. 10, 2012

All WWE programming, talent names, images, likenesses, slogans, wrestling moves, trademarks, logos and copyrights are the exclusive property of WWE, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. ? 2012 WWE, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This website is based in the United States. By submitting personal information to this website you consent to your information being maintained in the U.S., subject to applicable U.S. laws. U.S. law may be different than the law of your home country. WrestleMania XXIX (NY/NJ) logo TM & ? 2012 WWE. All Rights Reserved. The Empire State Building design is a registered trademark and used with permission by ESBC.

Source: http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/2012-09-10/five-point-preview

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