Blog Posts by Olivier Knox, Yahoo! News

Click image to see more photos. (Susan Walsh/AP)

President Barack Obama moved Friday to tighten the economic vise on Iran over its suspect nuclear program, taking a big step toward tough new sanctions aimed at crippling the Islamic republic's ability to export oil.

Obama announced in an official memorandum that he had determined that there is enough oil on world markets to go ahead with measures designed to push countries that buy Iranian crude—including key U.S. allies like Japan, South Korea and India—to get their petroleum elsewhere.

"There is a sufficient supply of petroleum and petroleum products from countries other than Iran to permit a significant reduction in the volume of petroleum and petroleum products purchased from Iran by or through foreign financial institutions," the president said in a message to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

"I will closely monitor this situation to assure that the market can continue to accommodate a reduction in purchases of petroleum and petroleum products from Iran," Obama said.

Under a law he signed in December, the president had until Friday to make a determination about whether countries that import Iranian oil could "significantly" reduce their purchases without sowing chaos in world markets.

[Related: Oil ends quarter up 14 percent on Iran, supply problems]

The law permits Obama after June 28 to effectively cut off banks still doing business with Iran from the U.S. financial system. He could also decide to exempt institutions in countries that he formally designates as having made sufficient progress on cutting imports of Iranian oil.

The United States formally complained to Moscow on Friday about possible danger to Ambassador Michael McFaul, a day after he described Russia as a "wild country" and charged repeatedly that a state-run broadcaster there may be hacking his email, spying on his telephone conversations and tracking his movements.

 "We have raised our concerns about the Ambassador's security with the Russian government," the State Department said in a terse written statement.

McFaul, a key architect of President Barack Obama's "reset" of relations with Russia, took to his Twitter feed on Thursday to charge that reporters with the Kremlin-controlled NTV television were stalking him and openly wondered how they obtained his schedule, which is not published.

"Everywhere I go NTV is there. Wonder who gives them my calendar? They wouldn't tell me. Wonder what the laws are here for such things?" he said in one Tweet. "I respect press' right to go anywhere & ask any question. But do they have a right to read my email and listen to my phone?" he said in another.

McFaul also made waves by engaging in a combative five-minute exchange in Russian Thursday with an NTV camera crew as he was on his way to a meeting with a human rights activist and critic of the Kremlin, Lev Ponomaryov.

"For me this is a very serious question because this is against the Geneva convention if you are going to get information from my telephone or my BlackBerry," McFaul said, Agence France-Presse reported.

"This is a wild country, it turns out. This is not normal. It does not happen in our country, it does not happen in Britain, in Germany, in China. Only here and only with you," he said.

In a James Bond-style montage mocking the Democrat's open-mic gaffe this week, a Karl Rove-linked independent group released a new video on Friday painting President Barack Obama as a double agent for Russia out to weaken America's national security.

President Barack Obama stars as "President Flexible." Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is "Dr. Transmitkov," a cross between the James Bond super-villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, white cat and all, and the Blofeld-inspired "Dr Evil" parody from the "Austin Powers" franchise. Incoming Russian president Vladimir Putin, shown shirtless on horseback, gets billed as "himself."

"Operation Hot Mic" keeps the Bond imagery flowing through its short 1:21 running time, opening with what appears to be a military parade on Moscow's Red Square. Obama dons a tuxedo and later on a scene highlights his open-mic exchange with Medvedev (where Obama promised he would have "more flexibility" on missile defense after the election), with narration by a woman

Democratic Sen. John Kerry charged in an Obama campaign fundraising appeal on Thursday that Republicans planned to "swiftboat" the president in the run-up to the elections and pleaded for donations to fight back, stressing that he wished "like hell" that the term would vanish from politics.

"When I was the Democratic nominee for president in one of the closest and toughest elections in history, a group of billionaires did something unprecedented: They wrote million-dollar checks to fund lies about my service on what were called 'Swift Boats' in Vietnam—and in so doing, they turned the boats my crewmates and I served on into a new political shorthand for the most vicious smears imaginable: 'swiftboating,'" Kerry said, referring to his 2004 run against then-President George W. Bush.

"I wish like hell that the term was retired from the American political lexicon, and returned to its real meaning," said Kerry. "But guess what: Bob Perry, the deep-pocketed funder of the 'Swift Boat Veterans for Truth,' just gave $3 million to Mitt Romney's super PAC.

"I know all too clearly that these guys will do or say anything to win. They'll stop at nothing. But forewarned is forearmed. Their multi-million dollar smear tactics were new in 2004; in 2012 we know their playbook, and shame on us if we don't tear it into shreds. Join me and we will stop the 'swiftboating' of President Obama," the Massachusetts lawmaker said.

(AP)

President Barack Obama won't be joining the throngs of Americans lining up to buy a Mega Millions ticket, the White House said Thursday as the multi-state lottery's jackpot hit a record estimated $540 million jackpot ($389.8 million if you take the cash option).

But "I'm going to run out and buy one," press secretary Jay Carney lightheartedly told reporters as he wrapped up his daily briefing.

Earlier, at a deli a few blocks from the White House, customers lined up six deep to trade their greenbacks for the salmon-pink tickets, some of which bear the mention "D.C. Lottery Commemorative Ticket" and "I played the world's largest jackpot!"

Carney is among the best-paid staffers at the White House, making $172,200 in 2011, according to official salary disclosures.

Writer Ambrose Bierce once called the lottery "a tax on people who are bad at math"—and the president has previously called it a "regressive tax" that affects lower-income Americans disproportionately.

The website Buzzfeed unearthed Obama's comments on the subject in 2000, when he appeared on a television panel show as a state senator from Illinois and openly worried about the game's impact on the less-well-off.

Asked by the host whether the lottery is a good investment, the future president replies: "It certainly isn't."

Click image to see more photos (Pablo Martínez Monsivais/AP)

The White House on Thursday accused Republicans criticizing President Barack Obama over his candid but caught-on-tape comments to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev—like presidential front-runner Mitt Romney and House Speaker John Boehner—of having an outdated "Cold War" mindset and said Obama would happily fight for his policy through the election.

"I'm pretty sure the Cold War ended when some of the folks in this room were still in elementary school, and any suggestion that Russia is America's No. 1 geopolitical foe represents a unique understanding of recent history," spokesman Jay Carney said wryly.

Asked whether Obama would welcome the chance to take on his critics, Carney told reporters: "At any time—and whether that happens within the context of the election, or in a foreign policy forum somewhere, or in answer to questions from you—I'm sure that he'll welcome that opportunity."

His comments came a day after Boehner wrote Obama a letter expressing concerns about the president's promise to Medvedev that the White House would have more flexibility to negotiate on missile defense after the November elections. Romney seized on Obama's comments to accuse the Democrat of having a secret agenda that would undermine national security, and labeled Russia in a CNN interview as "without question our No. 1 geopolitical foe."

[Related: Hot mics to Etch A Sketches: Gaffes on the trail aren’t telling us much this year]

The president himself was forced to address the issue on Tuesday as he attended an international summit in Seoul, South Korea, where he insisted that he only meant that partisan election-year politics complicate international arms control efforts.

President Barack Obama on Thursday pressed Congress to repeal billions of dollars in tax breaks for oil companies that are pulling down record profits, arguing that Americans hit with soaring gas prices should not also have to prop up firms that can easily "stand on their own."

"It's like hitting the American people twice. You're already paying a premium at the pump right now. And on top of that, Congress up until this point has thought it's a good idea to send billions more of your tax dollars to the oil industry," Obama said in the White House Rose Garden.

[Related: 'There is no justification' for high prices]

"It's not like these are companies that can't stand on their own. Last year, the three biggest U.S. oil companies took home more than $80 billion in profit. Exxon pocketed nearly $4.7 million every hour. And when the price of oil goes up, prices at the pump go up, and so do these companies' profits," Obama said.

The president's remarks came as the Senate, in a procedural vote, beat back a measure that would have rolled back the tax breaks. The bill fell shy of the 60 votes needed to advance, getting a 51-47 margin that saw Democrats join Republicans in opposition.

Conservative Justice Antonin Scalia suggested on Wednesday that the Supreme Court could strike the "Cornhusker Kickback" from President Barack Obama's landmark health care overhaul without having to invalidate the whole law. He was right, in a way: The notorious provision isn't in the law.

The "Cornhusker Kickback" was the derogatory nickname of one of several sweetheart deals designed to ensure that the law had enough votes to pass. Amid a public uproar, lawmakers ultimately stripped the measure from the law.

But no one—not Scalia's eight colleagues on the highest court in the land, not Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler, there to represent Obama, and not the superstar lawyer challenging the law on behalf of 26 states, Paul Clement—challenged his claim.

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Scalia's quip came on the third and final day of oral arguments before the court on what has come to be known as "Obamacare," and specifically on whether the justices could rule that the requirement that individuals buy insurance or pay a penalty was unconstitutional but not strike down the rest of the law.

Clement was arguing that the entire law had to go, and Scalia was gently challenging him.

"The consequence of your proposition, 'would Congress have enacted it without this provision,' OK, that's the consequence. That would mean that if we struck down nothing in this legislation but the—what's it called, the 'Cornhusker Kickback'—OK, we find that to violate the constitutional proscription of venality, OK?" Scalia said, to guffaws from the audience.

[Related: Supreme Court divided on whether Obama health care ruling must be all-or-nothing]

Scalia went on: "When we strike that down, it's clear that Congress would not have passed it without that. It was the means of getting the last necessary vote in the Senate. And you are telling us that the whole statute would fall because the Cornhusker Kickback is bad. That can't be right."

It isn't right.