Analysis: Spain government is struggling in crisis

Analysis: Spain government is struggling in crisis

Spain's Socialist government is seeing its political power erode as it struggles to chart a path out of deep financial trouble, failing so far to satisfy conflicting demands to cut its budget and stimulate job creation.

The coming months could bring far more problems as Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero reforms the country's labor market, risking national strikes and the loss of support from trade unions, a core source of his center-left party's strength.

Zapatero's minority government is already running into serious trouble, although there appears to be no immediate threat of it falling.

A package of austerity measures passed by only one vote in parliament's lower chamber Thursday and the Fitch Ratings agency downgraded Spanish debt on Friday. Opposition parties have called for new elections.

Military couples balance raising children, warfare

Military couples balance raising children, warfare

Honoring the dead: US saves war memorials in Iraq

Honoring the dead: US saves war memorials in Iraq

Drilling Permits Continue to be given Despite Moratorium

Drilling Permits Continue to be given despite Moratorium

Despite a federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling, new permits and controversial environmental waivers for oil rigs continue to be granted, sparking criticism from policymakers and environmentalists.

On Thursday, President Barack Obama issued a six-month extension of the moratorium on permits and environmental waivers for the drilling of new deepwater wells. The original moratorium was ordered following the Apr. 20 explosion of the BP oil rig Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, which has become the worst oil spill disaster in U.S. history.

However, records show that since the original moratorium was issued, new permits and environmental waivers on existing drilling projects continue to be granted regularly. It is not clear whether the moratorium extension applies to new drilling on existing wells or merely new operations.

Poll Finds Anger Over Country's Leaders

Are 2/3s of you voting against your incumbent politician? Here's your chance. If the problem is entrenched politicians (which it is) then you have an opportunity to vote them out. If you have concerns just vote those that have been in office for 10 years or more. You did it with Specter and Bennett. Now you have a chance to clean house - and Senate. But the last time you were angry (in 1990s) you still re-elected most incumbents. This time it must be different. Your country's very survival is at stake. So when November 2nd comes along vote everyone except your career politician incumbent. If you don't do this then you'll have no one to blame but yourself:

Americans are increasingly optimistic about the economy, but that brightening outlook hasn't softened their outrage over the country's direction and its political leadership, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds.

Two-thirds of those surveyed this week describe themselves as "angry" about the way things are going in the USA, the highest percentage in the decade the question has been asked. By nearly 2-1, they would rather vote for a candidate who has never served in Congress over one with experience.

"We're just going to have to clean house and get people in who really care about the country," says Stephen Besz, 63, of Hokendauqua, Penn., who was among those called in the poll. He worries about the future for his son, an electrical engineer who has been looking for a job for 18 months.

On Memorial Day weekend, incumbents in general and Democrats in particular face a hot summer.

Report: US Preparing for Retaliatory Strike if Terror Attack Traced to Pakistan

Report: US Preparing for Retaliatory Strike if Terror Attack Traced to Pakistan

Transcript: President Obama News Conference (5-27-10)

Complete Transcript. Excerpt below:

Q You say that everything that could be done is being done. But there are those in the region and those industry experts who say that's not true. Governor Jindal obviously had this proposal for a barrier. They say that if that had been approved when they first asked for it, they would have 10 miles up already. There are fishermen down there who want to work, who want to help, haven't been trained, haven't been told to go do so. There are industry experts who say that they're surprised that tankers haven't been sent out there to vacuum, as was done in '93 outside Saudi Arabia. And then, of course, there's the fact that there are 17 countries that have offered to help, and the -- it's only been accepted from two countries, Norway and Mexico.

How can you say that everything that can be done is being done, with all these experts and all these officials saying that's not true?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, let me distinguish between -- if the question is, Jake, are we doing everything perfectly out there, then the answer is, absolutely not.

We can always do better. If the question is, are we, each time there is an idea, evaluating it and making a decision is this the best option that we have right now based on how quickly we can stop this leak and how much damage can we mitigate, then the answer is yes.

So let's take the example of Governor Jindal's barrier islands idea. When I met with him when I was down there two weeks ago, I said I will make sure that our team immediately reviews this idea, that the Army Corps of Engineers is looking at the feasibility of it; and if they think -- if they tell me that this is the best approach to dealing with this problem, then we're going to move quickly to execute. If they have a disagreement with Governor Jindal's experts as to whether this would be effective or not, whether it was going to be cost-effective given the other things that needed to be done, then we'll sit down and try to figure that out.

And that essentially is what happened, which is why today you saw an announcement where, from the Army Corps' perspective, there were some areas where this might work, but there are some areas where it would be counterproductive and not a good use of resources.

So the point is, on each of these points that you just mentioned, that the job of our response team is to say, okay, if 17 countries have offered equipment and help, let's evaluate what they've offered, how fast can it get here, is it actually going to be redundant or will it actually add to the overall effort -- because in some cases more may not actually be better; and decisions have been made, based on the best information available, that says here's what we need right now; it may be that a week from now or two weeks from now or a month from now, the offers from some of those countries might be more effectively utilized.

Now, it's going to be entirely possible in a operation this large that mistakes are made, judgments prove to be wrong; that people say in retrospect, you know, if we could have done that or we did that, this might have turned out differently -- although in a lot of cases, it may be speculation.

But the point that I was addressing from Jennifer was, does this administration maintain a constant sense of urgency about this? And are we examining every recommendation, and every idea is out there, and making our best judgment as to whether these are the right steps to take, based on the best experts that we know of?

And on that answer, the answer is yes. Or on that question, the answer is yes.

Chuck Todd.

Q I just want to follow up on the question, as it has to do with the relationship between the government and BP. It seems that you've made the case on the technical issues.

But onshore, Admiral Allen admitted the other day in a White House briefing that they needed to be pushed harder. Senator Mary Landrieu this morning said, it's not clear who's in charge, that the government should be in charge.

Why not ask BP to simply step aside on the onshore stuff, make it an entirely government thing? Obviously BP pays for it. But why not ask them to just completely step aside on that front?

And then also can you respond to all the comparisons that people are making about this with yourself?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, the -- I'll take your second question first.

I'll leave it to you guys to make those comparisons and make -- and make -- and make judgments on it, because -- because what I'm spending my time thinking about is, how do we solve the problem?

And when the problem is solved and people look back and do an assessment of all the various decisions that were made, I think people can make a historical judgment. And I'm confident that people are going to look back and say that this administration was on top of what was an unprecedented crisis.

In terms of shoreline protection, the way this thing has been set up, under the oil spill act of 1990 -- Oil Pollution Act -- is that BP has contracts with a whole bunch of contractors on file, in the event that there's an oil spill. And as soon as the Deep Horizon (sic) well went down, then their job is to activate those and start paying them. So a big chunk of the 20,000 who are already down there are being paid by BP.

The Coast Guard's job is to approve and authorize whatever BP is doing. Now, what Admiral Allen said today, and the reason he's down there today, is that if BP's contractors are not moving as nimbly, as effectively, as they need to be, then it is already the power of the federal government to redirect those resources; I guess the point being that the Coast Guard and our military are potentially already in charge, as long as we've got good information and we are making the right decisions. And if there are mistakes that are being made right now, we've got the power to correct those decisions.

We don't have to necessarily reconfigure the setup down there. What we do have to make sure of is, is that on each and every one of the decisions that are being made about what beaches to protect, what's going to happen with these marshes, if we build a barrier island how's this going to have an impact on the ecology of the area over the long term -- in each of those decisions, we've got to get it right.

Donor Assistance To Fight AIDS in Africa is Being Cut

Donor Assistance To Fight AIDS in Africa is Being Cut

US Senate Funds $60 billion Surge in Afghanistan

US Senate Funds $60 billion Surge in Afghanistan

Terror Attack Derails Train killing at least 65 in India

Terror Attack Derails Train killing at least 65 in India

Countdown Video: Scientist on the Oil Spill: Lack of a Plan B is "Inexcusable"

A well know Physics professor, Michio Kaku, blasted the effort to stop the Gulf oil spill as "pathetic". He says if the 'top kill' fails it would be months before the next step would be taken. He says it could possibly take years before they could stop the leak completely. He called the lack of a plan b "inexcusable." We are the "Guinea pigs" since it's never been done before.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

$23 Billion Education Bailout Falters in Congress

$23 Billion Education Bailout Falters in Congress

A $23 billion payout to save thousands of educators' jobs faltered Thursday -- perhaps for good -- to election-year jitters among moderate Democrats over deficit spending and only lukewarm support from the White House.

The proposal's chief advocate in the House abruptly canceled a committee meeting to put the money in a war spending bill. Its lead sponsor in the Senate gave up trying to do it, acknowledging he lacked the necessary votes.

Al-Qa'ida 'running out of suicide bombers in Iraq'

Al-Qa'ida 'running out of suicide bombers in Iraq'

Aid Convoy Heads for Palestinians

On the road to World War III (5-27-10): This has the potential of being catastrophic in it's implications. If the Israelis kill dozens of people on those aid ships, there would be such an outcry that it could lead to war between and muslim country and Israel. And that would necessarily involve the U.S.

in reference to:

"Pro-Palestinian activists vowed to press ahead and break an Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip yesterday by sending a convoy of aid ships despite Israeli threats to stop it. Eight ships, including four cargo vessels and a Turkish passenger ferry carrying 600 people, were heading towards Gaza in defiance of a three-year Israeli closure."
- Aid convoy heads for Palestinians - Middle East, World - The Independent (view on Google Sidewiki)

Poll: Americans say GOP can better handle threats to U.S.

My response to that: 9-11/Iraq/Afghanistan/Pakistan. All those messes happened under Bush/Republican control. Both parties are inept in protecting America.

in reference to:

"Americans are increasingly optimistic about the economy, but that brightening outlook hasn't softened their outrage over the country's direction and its political leadership, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds. Two-thirds of those surveyed this week describe themselves as "angry" about the way things are going in the USA, the highest percentage in the decade the question has been asked. By nearly 2-1, they would rather vote for a candidate who has never served in Congress over one with experience."
- Poll: Americans say GOP can better handle threats to U.S. - USATODAY.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

US fires head of agency that oversees oil drilling

US fires head of agency that oversees oil drilling

- Got have a scapegoat. Obama is showing himself to be a real politician.

Craig Crawford: "Obama's Katrina"

Craig Crawford writes in CQ Politics:

He blew it. Obama faces a meltdown akin to the unraveling of his predecessor, George W. Bush. A press conference and a visit to the region are simply too little too late. It doesn't matter whether government could do any better than the oil companies. The political fallout has taken hold. Obama failed to manage a massive crisis. There's no fixing this failure. His only hope now is changing the subject. Good Luck.

And he's no Conservative:

Video: ABC Report on President Obama's Response to the Oil Spill

Jake Tapper sounds sympathetic to the President's dilemna:

Transcript: 'Glenn Beck': Who's Laying the Framework for Global Governance?

Complete Transcript. Excerpt below:

GLENN BECK, HOST: All right. I want to talk to you a little bit about what could possibly be in our future. And I don't think there is really much speculation on this, but I want you to know the attacks are going to come fast and furious from the left. Some of them will be deserved if you take this and you go down a tinfoil hat road.

I mean, you don't need to go to the build-a-burgers. I mean, it's as useful as going to the Whatta Burgers. You don't have to do that. But like every time — every time, we will use their words to prove a point, but progressives will go nuts when they hear the term "global governance."

They hear it used. They'll tell you you're crazy. Here's an example from left wing blog, "Seriously for a moment," they write, "We have are going to have to address the paranoia at global takeover at some point probably in easy to comprehend Dick-and-Jane language for the tea party."

Well, that's good. But apparently this blogger, while sitting in his underpants in his parents' basement, failed to notice that Gustave Speth, he is the former head of the World's Resource Institute, an institute that Al Gore is part of, said back in 1997 this, "Global governance is here, here to stay. And driven by economic and environmental globalization, global governance will inevitably expand."

Oh, well, if that's all it is. A U.N. development report in 1999 — the U.N. wrote — this is important, "Governance is not government. It is the framework of rules, institutions and practices that set limits on behavior of individuals, organizations, and companies."

Oh, well, if it's only setting limits on you, but it's not a government, oh, I'm fine with it. That's all this is. It's framework — framework. It's not government. It's important for them to say those things.

All of these financial regulations that are being put into place — it's bogus and it leads to this. The bailouts — bogus. It leads to this. Climate change leads to this. It is a framework for global governance.

Europe says they want it. We'll show you what they said in a minute. The IMF is implementing it in Europe. They are telling now sovereign nations what to do right now.

But we're not moving towards it here in the U.S., are we? Well, let me show you what the U.N. said about land use, "Private landownership is also a principal instrument of accumulation and concentration of wealth, therefore contributes to social injustice. If unchecked it may become a major obstacle in the planning and implementation of development schemes."

Document says Number of Attempted Attacks on U.S. is at All-time High

Eventually some of these attacks will be successful. Unless, we create a agency dedicated to fighting terrorism (domestic and abroad). Currently, our intelligence gathering within the U.S. is woeful. The CIA is not allowed to spy domestically. And the FBI is not cut out for dealing with the al Qaeda threat. The 9-11/anthrax attacks are perfect proof of that.

Just weeks after the failed car bombing of New York's Times Square, the Department of Homeland Security says "the number and pace of attempted attacks against the United States over the past nine months have surpassed the number of attempts during any other previous one-year period."

That grim assessment is contained in an unclassified DHS intelligence memo prepared for various law enforcement groups, which says terror groups are expected to try attacks inside the United States with "increased frequency."

CNN obtained a copy of the document, dated May 21, which goes on to warn, "we have to operate under the premise that other operatives are in the country and could advance plotting with little or no warning."