The Lede Blog: Obama Speaks at Vigil for Victims of School Shooting

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December 16

Live updates from Connecticut and around the country.

December 15

Coverage of the aftermath of the Connecticut attack that left 20 children and six staff members dead.

December 14

Activist filmmakers in Cairo have released a series of Web videos urging their fellow citizens to reject a new constitution hastily approved last month by Islamist allies of President Mohamed Morsi.

December 14

Two Palestinian journalists working for Reuters were punched by Israeli soldiers as they tried to reach the scene of a fatal shooting at a West Bank checkpoint this week.

December 14

Multiple people, mostly children, were shot in Newtown, Conn., at the Sandy Hook Elementary School.

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"These tragedies must end", says Obama

NEWTOWN, Conn. - President Obama vowed on Sunday, "what is holding this Office to employ" massacre as the battles at the school here to finish that shocked the nation, the allusions to a fresh effort to the proliferation of arms put a stop to areas such as he explains that there no "excuse for inaction."

Mourners gathered at Newtown high school in Connecticut on Sunday for a service for those killed at the elementary school of sandy hook. "We need to change," said President Obama that collect. More photos».

In a surprisingly assertive speech at a memorial service for the victims of the 27, including 20 children said Mr. Obama, that the country had failed to protect his young and their leaders sit not more idle could by because "the politics are too hard." While he does not dwell, about further action he would suggest, he said, that "this tragedy must end."

The speech, a mixture of sadness and to solve, stopping it in writing to the above short flight of air force one seemed to promise a significant change in direction for a President, the weapons not made priority in four years in Office has problems. After each of the three other mass killings during his tenure Mr. Obama legislation calls renewed without beating themselves much political capital, but the final language on Sunday make it more difficult for him not to act at this time.

"No single law, no set of laws can to eliminate evil from the world or to prevent that each act of senseless violence in our society," he said. "But this can be no excuse for inaction." He added that "in the coming weeks, I makes what use this Office holds" in an effort "to prevent more tragedies as follows."

"Since we have what for an election?" he added. "We can not accept events like this as routine." Are we really willing to say that we are powerless against such carnage? That the policy is too hard? Are we ready to say that such violence our children year after year after year the price for our freedom is somehow visited? "

Mr. Obama, votive candles for each victim, respond to a strong stage in front of a table his call to action with words of consolation for the bereaved mixed city. When he read the names of the teachers killed defending their students, people in the audience gasped and wept.

The service came as new details about the terrifying moments at Sandy Hook elementary school on Friday. Authorities, that shot the shooter, Adam Lanza, his mother said Sunday, several times in the head his rampage at the school, he is still hundreds of ammunition have left, rounds if he has killed. Gov. Mohammed p. Malloy Connecticut said that Mr. Lanza even shot, such as the police, close were out suggests that he may have intended to take more lives, he had not been interrupted.

The president's trip here came amid increasing pressure on greater regulation of guns in America to urge. The President offered no specific suggestions there were no urgent meeting in the White House over the weekend draft of government official cautioned against quick, dramatic action, especially given the financial crisis at the end of the year consume most of the time the Mr. Obama expected.

But the Administration has the makings of a plan on the shelf, with action by the Justice Department over the years but never. Among other things, Democrats said, they push would an attack gun ban, which renew expired in 2004 and try to like by Mr. Lanza in Newtown used ban on high-capacity magazines. The President also said that with law enforcement and mental health, would working professionals as parents and educators.

The streets outside the funeral ceremony and the airwaves across the nation were filled with voices, which required legislative action. On the other hand, National Rifle Association and its most prominent supporters in the Congress were largely absent from the public debate.

"These events are happening more and more frequently," said Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, the independent here, before the service began, "and I'm worried that if we take a thoughtful look at it, we are not the pain, the pain and the anger, we now to lose."

Governor Malloy said on the CBS program "face the nation", that if someone in a building can burst with "you must start clips up to 30 laps on a weapon that almost instantly that can be thrown to questions whether assault weapons should the species in the United States may be distributed."

Mark Landler reported from Newtown, Conn., and Peter Baker from Washington.

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Obama warns US on cyber-threats

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20 July 2012 Last updated at 14:34 The US should take the chance to stay ahead of its cyber-adversaries, said Barack Obama Cyber-attacks pose the "most serious economic and national security" challenge America faces, said Barack Obama.

The US President spelled out the scale of the threat in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal.

Foreign governments, crime gangs and individuals were probing America's net defences every day.

The US had to do more to put essential defences in place to avoid the debilitating effects of an attack.

"It would be the height of irresponsibility to leave a digital backdoor wide open to our cyber-adversaries," he wrote in the newspaper's editorial column.

Enemies struggling to defeat the US on the terrestrial battlefield may move the conflict to cyberspace, he warned.

Mr Obama rehearsed the potential consequences of a successful cyber-attack saying it could trigger a financial crisis if banks were hit. Health emergencies could be caused by infiltrating the computer systems in hospitals or water treatment plants. And, he said, taking out power plants could bring entire regions to a standstill.

"This is the future we have to avoid," he said, urging the US Congress to pass "comprehensive cybersecurity" legislation.

A revised version of the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 was introduced to the US Senate on 20 July. It seeks to create a council that will oversee the hardening of US infrastructure to make it less vulnerable to attack.

However, said President Obama, whatever measures America did adopt must contain strong measures to protect privacy and civil liberties.

"We have the opportunity - and the responsibility - to take action now and stay a step ahead of our adversaries," he wrote. "It's time to strengthen our defences against this growing danger."

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Obama, Romney duel over economy

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Speaking to skeptical voters nationwide from the pivotal battleground of Ohio, President Barack Obama defiantly defended his record on the economy Thursday and painted Mitt Romney as the standard-bearer for those who would bring back George W. Bush's policies.

"I want to speak to everybody who is watching who may not be a supporter, may be undecided, or thinking about voting the other way," Obama said. "If you want to give the policies of the last decade another try, then you should vote for Mr. Romney."

That line drew a chorus of boos from a rowdy crowd of about 1,500 people assembled to hear Obama try to reframe what some Democrats have described as his wobbly election message.

Romney, speaking to supporters at an aluminum plant in Cincinnati moments before Obama's remarks, offered his own version of the choice voters face on Nov. 6.

"If you think things are going swimmingly, if you think the president's right when he said the private sector is doing fine, well, then he's the guy to vote for," he said.

Obama opened his remarks with a direct reference to his much-mocked claim last Friday that the "private sector is doing fine" compared to cash-strapped state and local governments. Republicans including Mitt Romney have seized on that comment to suggest the president is out of touch.

"So, Ohio, over the next five months, this election will take many twists and many turns, polls will go up and polls will go down, there will be no shortage of gaffes and controversies that keep both campaigns busy and give the press something to write about," he said.

"You may have heard I recently made my own unique contribution to that process. It wasn't the first time. It won't be the last," the president said in the verbal equivalent of a dismissive shrug.

"Of course the economy isn't where it needs to be. Of course we have a lot more work to do. Everybody knows that," Obama said from behind a lectern emblazoned with his campaign slogan, "Forward," in front of eight American flags.

Aides had suggested the president's 53-minute speech from Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland would serve to recast the debate between him and Romney on the sour economy, the top issue on voters' minds. The remarks at times seemed like a blend of the soaring oratory that carried the Democrat to his historic victory in 2008 along with the ponderous, laundry-list politics of unsuccessful "State of the Union" addresses.Obama worked to cast Nov. 6 as "a choice between two fundamentally different visions" about the best path out of the rubble left by the 2007-2008 global economic meltdown—not a referendum on an embattled incumbent at a time of 8.2 percent unemployment.

"The economic vision of Mr. Romney and his allies in Congress was tested just a few years ago," Obama said. "We tried this. Their policies did not grow the economy. They did not grow the middle class. They did not reduce our debt."

"Why would we think that they would work better this time?" said the president, who has used variations on that theme in scores of campaign events all over the country over the past few months.

"We can't afford to jeopardize our future by repeating the mistakes of the past. Not now. Not when there's so much at stake," he said.

In a preemptive rhetorical strike, Romney anticipated Obama's words: "He's going to be a person of eloquence as he describes his plans for making the economy better," Romney said. "But don't forget, he's been president for three and a half years. And talk is cheap. Action speaks very loud."

But the president emphasized the timeline of events. "Our economy started growing again six months after I took office and it has continued to grow for the last three years," Obama said.

The president also pleaded for patience—"not only are we digging out of a hole that is 9 million jobs deep, we're digging out from an entire decade"—and he blamed Republicans in Congress for stalling his efforts to revive the economy.

"What's holding us back is a stalemate in Washington between two fundamentally different views of which direction America should take," he said. "And this election is your chance to break that stalemate."

"If they win the election, their agenda will be simple and straightforward; they have spelled it out. They promise to roll back regulations on banks and polluters, on insurance companies and oil companies. They'll roll back regulations designed to protect consumers and workers while cutting taxes on the very wealthy," Obama said.

The president said he would boost investments in education, scientific research and refurbishing the country's crumbling infrastructure.

Before Obama left Washington, the Department of Labor released official data showing that weekly unemployment benefit applications rose 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 386,000—the latest sign of anemic hiring and sluggish growth.

And the Gallup polling organization released a survey showing that more than two-thirds of Americans—including half of Republicans—still pin the country's economic ills on former President Bush.

What one might call the blame gap has narrowed considerably: When Gallup first asked Americans in July 2009 whom they faulted for the poor economy, 80 percent laid a great deal or a moderate amount of blame on Bush, and only 32 percent held Obama responsible.

The current numbers show 68 percent of the public blames the former president while 52 percent say Obama deserves the criticism. (The numbers total more than 100 percent because the question was not "which one do you blame more," but how much blame each president deserves individually.)

And on Wednesday, an ABC News/ Washington Post poll showed that only 38 percent of independent swing voters viewed Obama's economic plans favorably, with a majority (54 percent) disapproving. But independent voters judge Romney's economic ideas just as harshly: 47 percent gave his economic approach an unfavorable rating, with just 35 percent finding it favorable.

The Democratic president has crisscrossed the country in recent months pleading for patience from voters still struggling in the anemic recovery and grappling with a stubbornly high unemployment rate above 8 percent. In his speeches, Obama makes a point of charging Bush and Republicans in general with the 2007-2008 meltdown and warns that Mitt Romney's economic program resembles the Bush approach "on steroids."

Among independents, who often play a role in deciding elections, 51 percent assign Obama a great deal or a moderate amount of blame, while 47 percent say he deserves not much or no blame at all. Meanwhile, 67 percent of independents say Bush bears a great deal or a moderate amount of the fault. Only 32 percent exonerate him in whole or in part.

After the speech, Obama headed to New York to make a Flag Day pilgrimage to ground zero and attend a pair of fundraisers aimed at scooping up $4.5 million for his campaign. One of the events will be hosted by actress Sarah Jessica Parker and Vogue editor Anna Wintour. Fifty guests there are due to pay $40,000 each.

"Running for president is an expensive proposition," White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One.

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The Obama Cocktail Comes to Boston

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By Kristine Hansen

On the heels of President Barack Obama's statement last week in support of marriage equality, a Boston hotel rolled out a cocktail a few days later that's in honor of this celebratory moment for the gay community.

"The Obama," the Beacon Hill Hotel & Bistro signature libation, contains Lillet Blanc, gin, fresh blueberries, and tonic water (L for Lillet, G for gin, B for blueberries, T for tonic.). It will be served on the rocks, garnished with two blueberries, in the hotel's bar daily through June 10, which is when Boston's annual Gay Pride Week ends. Each drink costs $11.

The drink is appropriately timed with an influx of gay-friendly travelers arriving to Boston for Pride Week (including the 2012 parade, which is a march to promote equal rights for gay, lesbian, and transgender people nationwide). Yet it also pays tribute to 30 years of the Pride movement worldwide, and the International Association of Pride Organizers (founded in Boston in 1982).

With just 13 rooms, Beacon Hill Hotel & Bistro–in Boston's historic and chic Beacon Hill neighborhood near the Public Garden—fuses modern amenities (the cocktail's innovative mixology, just one example) with a quaint charm. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as weekend brunch, is served daily.

For up-to-the-minute hotel and restaurant recommendations, plus the best planning advice, check out our Boston Travel Guide.

Photo credits: Courtesy of the Beacon Hill Hotel & Bistro

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Best in Blogs: Mega Millions Inspires American Dreams, Obama Campaign is Pinterest-ing

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The Mega Millions lottery drawing this Friday night will reach an all-time record jackpot of $500 million, give or take a few megabucks, giving millions of Americans reason to stop resenting the wealthy one percent and instead believe that they may join the much more elite .00000000569 percent (the odds of winning the jackpot are 175,711,536 to one). With so much at stake, mathematicians and economists have relished the opportunity to have people actually read their blogs. After a gigantic load of calculations on his blog, David Torbert concludes that "for your 'investment' of a $1 lottery ticket, your expected return is 88.2 cents for this Friday's drawing." Which on its face doesn't sound so bad, though it essentially means the more you buy, the more you lose. But opinions are mixed. "At some point it becomes what a friend calls a 'utility bet,'" says The Spectacle Blog. "In other words, the possibility, almost no matter how small, of winning such an enormous prize makes it worth taking a flier with some modest amount of money." Cunctabundus has noted that the .00000000569 percent chance of winning with one ticket "rounds to zero" - and so do the odds of winning if you buy two tickets. "And 20 tickets? Your chance of hitting the jackpot is a just over a hundred-thousandth of a percent. Say it with me, round to zero."

Stephen Bronars at Bronars Economics seems to be worried that after you win you may have to split the jackpot with others - logic that seems to be leaping ahead a little - but he concludes that "even after taking the likelihood of multiple winners into account, the expected value of a one dollar Mega Millions ticket is more than a dollar." So get in line! Everyone's an expert now, apparently. Says the Pinch That Penny blog: "As math is a fuzzy subject for me, I deferred to my buddy the math whiz (he wrote a post for me on the NBA lockout a few months ago)." Well, maybe not everyone.

It does as if like an undue amount energy is being expended wondering what everyone will do after they all win. Business Insider is on top of the topic with strategies for taking your winnings ("make sure to decide between lump sum and annuity.") and seven things you could do with the winnings ("Buy 952,000 new iPads. Donate $475,999,999 to Planned Parenthood and $1 to Susan G. Komen.")The consumer finance blog Life Inc. warns unemployed job seekers not to admit in job interviews that they'd quit after winning the jackpot: "When you answer the lottery question - or any interview question - you want to leave out any inkling you're not excited about working hard, no matter what the circumstances." The Economix blog has noted the correlation between high unemployment rates and high lottery sales: "Can't Find a Job? Play the Lottery."

Anyway - the sound you are hearing now is the alarm clock going off on Saturday morning. You didn't win Mega Millions. The next bandwagon leaving the stations appears to be...Pinterest. Yes. Says Naked D.C.: "Pinterest is the new social media revolution - an electronic scrapbook that allows you to 'pin' pictures, ideas, quotes and the like from various websites around the Internets. In short, it is the greatest invention to ever befall young, unmarried women who are looking to creep the sh*t out of their imaginary boyfriends by completely planning their wedding before they ever meet anyone." Ok, there's that, maybe. The newest Pinterest adopter appears to be Mr. President, Barack Obama, who has the worst Pinterest page ever, Naked D.C. says. Jezebel, in a comprehensive analysis of the PObama Pinterest presence, adds: "while I bet Barack Obama's got some totally cute DIY wedding flower ideas, this move makes sense in light of what appears to be the President's reelection strategy: personally befriend every woman in America."

"President Obama Joins Pinterest, Wants All Your Themed Cake Recipes," laffs WebProNews. "Obama has always had a huge presence on both Twitter and Facebook, but in the last six months, Obama has checked-in to Foursquare, started blogging away on Tumblr, went a little hipster by joining Instagram, joined Google+ and almost immediately hosted a Hangout, made his campaign playlist available on Spotify, and switched his Facebook profile over to the new Timeline." The Dallas News Trailblazers blog notes that Obama "isn't the first to use Pinterest for political purposes. Groups like liberal-leaning Think Progress have employed it to poke at GOP candidates. Ann Romney, wife of GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney, has a page of her own to collect recipes and post campaign photos." VentureBeat gets to the real point, figuring Obama's pinning will "likely be a bigger boon for the social networking site than for the campaign. Consider this yet another defining moment for the still-small, 30-person, Palo Alto-based company." Pinterest certainly is attracting a crowd. The Daily Dot broke news that a Pinterest spammer may be making $1,000 a day: "Spammers are turning innocent users' clicks into cash by running thousands of automated Pinterest profiles, and they're getting away with it for longer than any of them expected." That's $30,000 a month for doing hardly anything, says Mashable. Hey, who needs the lottery?

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