Obama Urges Greece to Grow Its Economy

WASHINGTON â€" President Obama on Thursday urged Greece to find ways to grow its economy even as it continues to cut spending in an effort to recover from a debt-driven economic crisis.

In a meeting in the Oval Office, Mr. Obama told Antonis Samaras, the Greek prime minister, that policies focused only on spending reductions would not help Greece return to economic prosperity.

“In dealing with the challenges that Greece faces, we cannot simply look to austerity,” Mr. Obama said in brief remarks to reporters after the two leaders met. “It’s important that we have a plan for fiscal consolidation to manage the debt, but it’s also important that growth and jobs are a focus.”

Mr. Samaras echoed Mr. Obama’s concerns, noting that youth unemployment in his country had reached 60 percent. He said that Greece must reach for policies that encourage “growth and the creation of new jobs.”

“We’ve gone through thick and thin,” Mr. Samaras said. “The sacrifices made by the Greek people are huge, but they’re not going to be in vain.”

Mr. Obama waved aside questions from reporters on other topics, but announced that he planned to hold a news conference on Friday before leaving Washington the next day for a weeklong vacation on Martha’s Vineyard.

The news conference will give the president an opportunity to weigh in on a number of issues, including the cancellation of his summit with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, further revelations about government monitoring of e-mails, and the ongoing terror threat that has closed embassies around the world.

Mr. Obama has given several interviews in recent weeks and sometimes makes statements on particular topics, as when he discussed race after the verdict in the killing of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager in Florida. But his last news conference was in April.

Top McConnell Aide ‘Holding My Nose’ to Help Rand Paul

Senator Mitch McConnell’s campaign manager on Thursday confirmed the authenticity of a recording from earlier this year in which he said, quite vividly, that he was reluctantly working for Mr. McConnell to help the presidential prospects of Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky.

“Between you and me, I’m sort of holding my nose for two years because what we’re doing here is going to be a big benefit to Rand in ’16, so that’s my long vision,” said Jesse Benton, who is leading the minority leader’s re-election bid, to Dennis Fusaro, a fellow Republican operative. Mr. Benton and Mr. Fusaro worked together on the presidential campaign of Mr. Paul’s father, Representative Ron Paul, Republican of Texas.

Mr. Fusaro apparently taped the January call, the contents of which were first reported on EconomicPolicyJournal.com.

Mr. Benton’s criticism of Mr. McConnell to a fellow member of the Paul wing of the party underscores the uneasy relationship between establishment and insurgent Republicans. Mr. Benton is a Paul family loyalist: he is married to one of Ron Paul’s granddaughters and was a top aide in the younger Mr. Paul’s Senate race. His hiring by Mr. McConnell last year was seen as a signal that the Senate minority leader wanted to reach out to Tea Party Republicans.

Mr. McConnell enjoys the support of the younger Mr. Paul, Kentucky’s junior senator, but that was not enough to prevent a primary challenge from his right. Matt Bevin, a wealthy Louisville businessman, announced last month that he would run against Mr. McConnell in next year’s Republican primary.

Mr. McConnell is also facing a threat from the left: Alison Lundergan Grimes, Kentucky’s Democratic secretary of state, announced her candidacy in July.

In a statement, Mr. Benton said, “It is truly sick that someone would record a private phone conversation I had out of kindness and use it to try to hurt me.”

He continued, “I believe in Senator McConnell and am 100 percent committed to his re-election. Being selected to lead his campaign is one of the great honors of my life, and I look forward to victory in November of 2014.”

Another top McConnell aide, Josh Holmes, said Mr. Benton would “absolutely” keep his job. He declined to say if Mr. Benton had apologized to Mr. McConnell.

That Mr. McConnell is retaining an aide who disparaged his candidacy underscores how badly he needs the help of both Mr. Paul and the right more broadly. Those close to Mr. McConnell suggest that Mr. Benton was simply trying to sympathize with a fellow Paul loyalist. But political aides caught criticizing their boss typically face termination, or at least a reprimand.

Given Mr. Benton’s close ties to the Paul family, however, this is a unique case. Mr. Benton has far more leverage than a mere campaign staffer. Facing dismal poll numbers at home and something close to an insurrection from both purists and pragmatists in the Senate, Mr. McConnell has seemingly made the calculation that he can’t risk angering his base by dismissing Mr. Benton.

The phone call itself is connected to an episode from the elder Mr. Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign. An Iowa state senator, Kent Sorenson, has been accused of taking money to switch his allegiance to Mr. Paul from Representative Michele Bachmann, Republican of Minnesota.

Top McConnell Aide ‘Holding My Nose’ to Help Rand Paul

Senator Mitch McConnell’s campaign manager on Thursday confirmed the authenticity of a recording from earlier this year in which he said, quite vividly, that he was reluctantly working for Mr. McConnell to help the presidential prospects of Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky.

“Between you and me, I’m sort of holding my nose for two years because what we’re doing here is going to be a big benefit to Rand in ’16, so that’s my long vision,” said Jesse Benton, who is leading the minority leader’s re-election bid, to Dennis Fusaro, a fellow Republican operative. Mr. Benton and Mr. Fusaro worked together on the presidential campaign of Mr. Paul’s father, Representative Ron Paul, Republican of Texas.

Mr. Fusaro apparently taped the January call, the contents of which were first reported on EconomicPolicyJournal.com.

Mr. Benton’s criticism of Mr. McConnell to a fellow member of the Paul wing of the party underscores the uneasy relationship between establishment and insurgent Republicans. Mr. Benton is a Paul family loyalist: he is married to one of Ron Paul’s granddaughters and was a top aide in the younger Mr. Paul’s Senate race. His hiring by Mr. McConnell last year was seen as a signal that the Senate minority leader wanted to reach out to Tea Party Republicans.

Mr. McConnell enjoys the support of the younger Mr. Paul, Kentucky’s junior senator, but that was not enough to prevent a primary challenge from his right. Matt Bevin, a wealthy Louisville businessman, announced last month that he would run against Mr. McConnell in next year’s Republican primary.

Mr. McConnell is also facing a threat from the left: Alison Lundergan Grimes, Kentucky’s Democratic secretary of state, announced her candidacy in July.

In a statement, Mr. Benton said, “It is truly sick that someone would record a private phone conversation I had out of kindness and use it to try to hurt me.”

He continued, “I believe in Senator McConnell and am 100 percent committed to his re-election. Being selected to lead his campaign is one of the great honors of my life, and I look forward to victory in November of 2014.”

Another top McConnell aide, Josh Holmes, said Mr. Benton would “absolutely” keep his job. He declined to say if Mr. Benton had apologized to Mr. McConnell.

That Mr. McConnell is retaining an aide who disparaged his candidacy underscores how badly he needs the help of both Mr. Paul and the right more broadly. Those close to Mr. McConnell suggest that Mr. Benton was simply trying to sympathize with a fellow Paul loyalist. But political aides caught criticizing their boss typically face termination, or at least a reprimand.

Given Mr. Benton’s close ties to the Paul family, however, this is a unique case. Mr. Benton has far more leverage than a mere campaign staffer. Facing dismal poll numbers at home and something close to an insurrection from both purists and pragmatists in the Senate, Mr. McConnell has seemingly made the calculation that he can’t risk angering his base by dismissing Mr. Benton.

The phone call itself is connected to an episode from the elder Mr. Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign. An Iowa state senator, Kent Sorenson, has been accused of taking money to switch his allegiance to Mr. Paul from Representative Michele Bachmann, Republican of Minnesota.

Pogue’s Posts Blog: A New and Improved Nexus 7

OK, we get it, Google â€" you want to be a hardware company.

Well, guess what? You’re actually doing a pretty good job of it!

One year ago, you offered a seven-inch tablet called the Nexus 7. You priced it at a remarkably low $200. You admitted that you didn’t make any money on it, in hopes of selling more books, movies, music and TV shows.

And now here you are with a new version of the Nexus 7 (manufactured by Asus). And you’ve decided to name it … the Nexus 7. That’s the most confusing naming convention since â€" well, since Apple started calling every year’s iMac the iMac.

You priced the new Nexus 7 higher: $230 for the 16GB model. The 16GB iPad Mini has a larger screen, but it’s also $100 more. The value of the Nexus 7 looks even better next in the configurations with 32 gigabytes of storage ($270, versus $430 on the Mini) and, coming soon, LTE cellular Internet ($350, versus $560 on the Mini).

Meanwhile, you’ve improved the tablet in dozens of ways. You’ve added a (mediocre) camera on the back, although, bizarrely, you’ve moved the front camera way off-center. You added stereo speakers: they are fine, but not as strong or clear as the Kindle Fire’s. You threw in (very slow) wireless charging, meaning that you can set the thing down onto a compatible charging base without actually plugging in a cable.

You’ve made the thing slightly slimmer, slightly lighter (0.64 pounds) and slightly narrower â€" only 4.5 inches wide, which means that a large hand can hold the entire thing edge to edge and still have a free thumb to tap the screen.

And that screen â€" wowsers. It’s glorious, bright and sharp. You maintain, Google, that at 323 dots per inch, it’s the sharpest of any 7-inch tablet. I believe you’re right.

It’s too bad you made those design compromises, though. That nice pleather back is gone â€" on the new model, it’s just hard plastic with a slightly rubbery coating. The corners are sharper. And you made the margins on the short ends much bigger than on the long sides, making this long, skinny tablet look even longer and skinnier.

I’m so glad you focused on speed, Google. According to CNET’s benchmark testing, the new Nexus 7 was faster in most tests against the Mini and rival tablets from Samsung and Sony. Responses to touches on the screen are smooth and fluid. Battery life is around a day and a half of typical on-and-off use.

The operating system, Android 4.3 (which you still call Jelly Bean), has a few tiny tweaks and a couple of bigger improvements. First, parents can set up a children’s account so that children can access only apps that parents approve. (And it can restrict access to in-app purchases). Weirdly, though, parents can’t make the Settings app off-limits, so the truly rebellious offspring can still wreak some havoc.

Second, you added Bluetooth 4.0, which lets certain accessories â€" usually activity trackers like the Fitbit Flex â€" communicate wirelessly without draining the battery much.

The crushing disappointment is, as always, the selection of Android tablet apps. Your catalog is coming along, but a lot of “tablet apps” for Android are still just Android phone apps with wider canvases; they haven’t actually been designed to exploit the larger tablet screen efficiently, as they have on iPads.

Then again, for customers thinking more “Kindle Fire” than “iPad” â€" that is, they want the basics, like reading and watching videos and checking e-mail and browsing the Web â€" that won’t matter.

Thank you, Google. You’ve produced another deeply satisfying machine. You kept the price reasonable. And you’re doing a great job of keeping your competitors honest â€" and pushing the great tablet envelope just enough to keep things interesting.