Yahoo! News: Politics News

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• White House defends Secret Service chief anew
• Trouble in threes: Scandals hamper Obama's message
• Campaign commercials give hint of ad war to come
• Clooney to hold high-end Obama fundraiser
• Boko Haram kill seven civilians in north Nigeria: government
• Sen. Webb supports opening trade with Myanmar
• Illinois governor proposes plan to rein in Medicaid
• Obama oil margin plan could increase price swings
• White House defends Secret Service chief anew
• Senate Republicans rebuke House on spending bills
• Parsons blames Citi vote on failure to communicate
• Obama '08 campaign failed to report last-minute funds
• Obama, top Senate Democrat split on nuclear nominee
• Lawyer: Nader wants jury to hear Maine case
• Campaign commercials give hint of ad war to come
• Space shuttle Discovery makes final flight to museum
• Nugent: Obama comments were metaphors, not threats
• Did the Dog Wars Jump the Shark?
• Annan's team urges swift deployment of Syria observers
• Rubio shrugs off veep talk but just wait till 2016
• Two Guantanamo Uighur prisoners head to El Salvador
• Bashir says Sudan to teach South "final lesson by force"
• U.S. struggles to head off wider Sudan conflict
• The Buck Stops Where and Presidential Travel - Today's Q's for O's WH - 4/19/2012
• White House: 'Silver spoon' words not about Romney
• Lawmakers press UK government over China murder scandal
• Fed clarifies when Volcker rule kicks in
• Egyptian protesters take long walk to Tahrir
• Oklahoma "personhood" law to grant embryos rights as people fails
• Ex-Supreme Court justice says Venezuela manipulates courts
• Commercials give hint of campaign ad war to come
• Protests rage as Bahrain Grand Prix event to start
• US helo crashes in Afghanistan with 4 US troops

White House defends Secret Service chief anew Posted: The White House expressed renewed confidence Thursday in the director of the Secret Service in the midst of a sordid prostitution scandal that has threatened to become a serious political distraction in an election year. A key lawmaker who oversees the Secret Service predicted more firings there soon.

Trouble in threes: Scandals hamper Obama's message Posted: It isn't Mitt Romney who's giving Barack Obama fits as the president pivots to re-election mode. It's those federal bureaucrats carousing in Las Vegas, the Secret Service consorting with Columbian prostitutes and U.S. soldiers posing with bloody enemy corpses.

Campaign commercials give hint of ad war to come Posted: Get ready. The presidential ad campaign coming to a TV and radio near you is going to be nasty, expensive and heavily influenced by independent groups, particularly those that favor Republican Mitt Romney over Democrat Barack Obama.

Clooney to hold high-end Obama fundraiser Posted: George Cooney has a starring role in a new Obama campaign sweepstakes.

Boko Haram kill seven civilians in north Nigeria: government Posted: MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Gunmen from radical Islamist sect Boko Haram have killed at least seven civilians in the past 24 hours in a spate of attacks in northern Nigeria, police said on Thursday. Boko Haram, which wants to carve an Islamic state out of Africa's most populous nation split evenly between Muslims and Christians, has killed hundreds in almost daily gun and bomb attacks this year. ...

Sen. Webb supports opening trade with Myanmar Posted: The United States should consider opening up trade relations with Myanmar to reward the Asian country for its democratic reforms, an influential senator said Thursday.

Illinois governor proposes plan to rein in Medicaid Posted: CHICAGO (Reuters) - Illinois Governor Pat Quinn on Thursday proposed a plan that he said would save the state's Medicaid health program for the poor from collapse by slashing spending and raising revenue via an increase in the cigarette tax. The Democratic governor's $2.7 billion plan calls for saving $1.35 billion a year by reducing eligibility and coverage, eliminating programs, and other efficiencies. It also calls for dropping rates paid to providers to save another $675 million, and increasing the state's cigarette tax by $1 per pack to raise $335.7 million annually. ...

Obama oil margin plan could increase price swings Posted: (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's bid to dampen the influence of oil speculators by having regulators set trading margins could backfire, potentially making prices even more volatile and leaving crude dominated only by those with the deepest pockets. Under Obama's request to Congress, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) would determine how much speculators need to pay to trade U.S. crude oil futures, in theory increasing the amount when prices move too far, too fast. ...

White House defends Secret Service chief anew Posted: The White House expressed renewed confidence Thursday in the director of the Secret Service in the midst of a sordid prostitution scandal that has threatened to become a serious political distraction in an election year. A key lawmaker who oversees the Secret Service predicted more firings there soon.

Senate Republicans rebuke House on spending bills Posted: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the Senate opted on Thursday not to challenge federal spending levels set in last summer's debt-limit deal, setting up a September clash with the House of Representatives that heightens chances of a government shutdown. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and nine other Republican senators voted to embrace a series of budget bills that would be in line with a $1.047 trillion discretionary spending level set by last year's Budget Control Act for fiscal 2013 starting on October 1. ...

Parsons blames Citi vote on failure to communicate Posted: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Richard Parsons, who chaired the Citigroup Inc board that lost a shareholder vote this week on executive compensation, said on Thursday that directors had failed to adequately explain to investors the methods they used to determine pay packages. At Citi's annual meeting on Tuesday, only 45 percent of shareholders endorsed the pay plan in an advisory vote required under the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial oversight law. Under Parsons' chairmanship, the Citigroup board paid CEO Vikram Pandit $15 million in 2011. ...

Obama '08 campaign failed to report last-minute funds Posted: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's 2008 election campaign failed to properly report nearly $2 million in last-minute donations to the juggernaut that swept him into the White House, but that was the only violation found in a Federal Election Commission audit of Obama's $778 million campaign. The audit, posted online on Thursday, shows Obama's campaign did not file notifications on time for 1,312 donations totaling $1,972,266, received before the November vote. ...

Obama, top Senate Democrat split on nuclear nominee Posted: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will renominate Republican Kristine Svinicki to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, defying opposition from his own party's Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the White House said on Thursday. Republicans want Svinicki, whose term as a commissioner expires in June, to stay on the panel and assert that the process has been held up because she, along with three other commission members, accused current NRC chairman Gregory Jaczko, a Democrat, of bullying women. A vacancy could cause delays in commission decisions on safety reforms at U.S. ...

Lawyer: Nader wants jury to hear Maine case Posted: A lawyer for former independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader says the consumer advocate wants a Maine jury to hear his lawsuit from the 2004 election now that it's been reinstated by the state's high court.

Campaign commercials give hint of ad war to come Posted: Get ready. The presidential ad campaign coming to a TV and radio near you is going to be nasty, expensive and heavily influenced by independent groups, particularly those that favor Republican Mitt Romney over Democrat Barack Obama.

Space shuttle Discovery makes final flight to museum Posted: CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The space shuttle Discovery made its final voyage on Tuesday: a piggyback jet ride to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum annex in Virginia. The United States retired its space shuttles last year after finishing construction of the $100 billion International Space Station, a project of 15 countries, to begin work on a new generation of spaceships that can carry astronauts to destinations beyond the station's 240-mile-high (384-km-high) orbit. ...

Nugent: Obama comments were metaphors, not threats Posted: Ted Nugent says he was just speaking figuratively when he made what some perceived to be threats against President Barack Obama.

Did the Dog Wars Jump the Shark? Posted: By now we all know about the famous ride Seamus, Mitt Romney's Irish setter, took to Canada on the roof of the car. And we're beginning to learn about President Obama tasting dog meat when he was a young boy in Indonesia, as he wrote...

Annan's team urges swift deployment of Syria observers Posted: UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N.-Arab League mediator Kofi Annan's deputy told the Security Council on Thursday that the swift deployment of more observers to Syria was needed despite continued risks and persistent violence, though some council members have expressed reluctance. A handful of observers have arrived in Syria after the Security Council authorized the deployment of up to 30 on Saturday. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is now recommending that the 15-nation council quickly pass a resolution authorizing a further "initial deployment" of up to 300 unarmed monitors. ...

Rubio shrugs off veep talk but just wait till 2016 Posted: Sen. Marco Rubio insists he'll say "thanks, but no thanks" to the vice presidential spot on the Republican ticket but suggests that anything's possible in 2016 and beyond.

Two Guantanamo Uighur prisoners head to El Salvador Posted: MIAMI (Reuters) - Two members of China's Muslim Uighur minority were released from the U.S. Guantanamo detention camp and resettled in El Salvador, becoming the first prisoners to leave the facility in more than 15 months, the Pentagon said on Thursday. The two men, whose names were not released, had been held for more than a decade without charge. A U.S. court in Washington found there was no reason to hold them and ordered them freed in 2008. The Chinese government has demanded that Uighurs held at Guantanamo be returned to China, but the U.S. ...

Bashir says Sudan to teach South "final lesson by force" Posted: KHARTOUM/JUBA (Reuters) - Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir all but declared war against his newly independent neighbor on Thursday, vowing to teach South Sudan a "final lesson by force" after it occupied a disputed oil field. South Sudan accused Bashir of planning "genocide" and said it would fight to protect its people. Mounting violence since Sudan split into two countries last year has raised the prospect of two sovereign African states waging war against each other openly for the first time since Ethiopia fought newly-independent Eritrea in 1998-2000. ...

U.S. struggles to head off wider Sudan conflict Posted: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is working to push Sudan and South Sudan back from the brink of war as the two sides ratchet up hostilities that threaten to upend the U.S.-backed peace deal that led to South Sudan's independence last year. The Obama administration's special envoy for Sudan, Princeton Lyman, said on Thursday the situation was a "very serious crisis" that threatened wider conflict between the two foes, which fought a brutal civil war for decades before finally signing a 2005 peace agreement. ...

The Buck Stops Where and Presidential Travel - Today's Q's for O's WH - 4/19/2012 Posted: TAPPER: This is the second serious security breach to take place under Director Sullivan's watch. The first one, of course, has to do with the White House crashers at the state dinner. How many incidents like this do there have to be before the president...

White House: 'Silver spoon' words not about Romney Posted: The White House on Thursday said President Barack Obama wasn't talking about Republican Mitt Romney when he said he "wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth."

Lawmakers press UK government over China murder scandal Posted: LONDON (Reuters) - Lawmakers asked the British government on Thursday about rumors that a businessman whose murder sparked political upheaval in China may have been a spy and demanded to know why it took so long for ministers to be told of suspicions about his death. Police in China initially attributed the death of Neil Heywood, 41, in a hotel room in the southwest Chinese city of Chongqing last November to cardiac arrest due to over-consumption of alcohol. ...

Fed clarifies when Volcker rule kicks in Posted: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve on Thursday clarified that U.S. banks will have at least until July 21, 2014 to ease into the Volcker rule's trading and investing crackdown, as regulators sought to temper panic on Wall Street that the restrictions would be strictly enforced starting this summer. The Fed also said it has the ability to extend the compliance period for the yet-to-be-finalized rule beyond that date if needed. ...

Egyptian protesters take long walk to Tahrir Posted: CAIRO (Reuters) - A group of Egyptians are marching 125 km (77 miles) along a major highway to Cairo to take part in a demonstration in Tahrir Square, stretching the boundaries of the country's flourishing culture of political activism. Fifteen activists decided to walk from their hometown of Suez across the desert to Cairo to show commitment to their cause: political reform and an end to the rule of army generals who have been running Egypt since Hosni Mubarak was removed from power by a mass uprising last year. ...

Oklahoma "personhood" law to grant embryos rights as people fails Posted: OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - A proposed 'personhood' law in Oklahoma that would grant embryos full rights as people from the moment of conception failed in the state's legislature without ever coming to a vote in the House of Representatives, a state lawmaker said on Thursday. The Republican-controlled House had been expected to approve the Personhood Act, which passed the state Senate in February, and Republican Governor Mary Fallin had been expected to sign it. ...

Ex-Supreme Court justice says Venezuela manipulates courts Posted: MIAMI (Reuters) - A Venezuelan Supreme Court judge who was removed from his post last month for assisting a drug trafficker has accused President Hugo Chavez's leftist government of systematically manipulating the courts, including meddling in drug cases. Eladio Aponte fled two weeks ago to Costa Rica, where he contacted officials of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and was flown to the United States, a Costa Rican official told Reuters. "It's very corrupt at every single level. ...

Commercials give hint of campaign ad war to come Posted: Get ready. The presidential ad campaign coming to a TV and radio near you will be nasty, expensive and heavily influenced by independent groups.

Protests rage as Bahrain Grand Prix event to start Posted: MANAMA, April 20 (Reuters) - Formula One cars take to thetrack in Bahrain on Friday with the government hoping asuccessful Grand Prix will draw a line under more than a year ofArab Spring protests and activists promising to mark the motorrace with "days of rage". On the eve of the first practice session, police fired teargas and stun grenades to disperse demonstrators on Thursday inthe kind of clashes that have built up in the week leading toSunday's round of the World Championship. Bahrain has been in turmoil since a democracy movementerupted last year following uprisings in Egypt and ...

US helo crashes in Afghanistan with 4 US troops Posted: A U.S. Army helicopter crashed on a nighttime mission in southwestern Afghanistan on Thursday, and initial reports from the scene indicated that as many as four soldiers may have been killed, a U.S. defense official said.

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