nike shoes

Green Bay Packers' Brandon Jackson plays textbook screen; James Jones' drop inexplicable

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates launched a series of meetings with top Chinese generals Monday in a bid to shore up rocky military ties with Beijing, amid US concern over China's advanced weaponry. The trip to China by Gates, his first since 2007, comes just days ahead of a crucial visit to Washington by Chinese President Hu Jintao, and both sides are keen to show some progress in defence ties. The Pentagon chief sat down early Monday with China's defence minister, General Liang Guanglie, China's Xinhua news agency reported. Advertisement: Story continues below Beijing broke off military relations with the United States a year ago over Washington's sale of more than $6 billion in arms to rival Taiwan, and tentative plans for an earlier visit by Gates were called off. US officials, including Gates, have for years appealed to China to embrace a permanent dialogue between military leaders regardless of political disputes, but the Chinese have tended to view defence relations as a bargaining chip. China is riding an economic boom and flexing its military might, with ambitious plans to invest in sophisticated aircraft, missiles, ships and submarines. Two weeks ago, Liang vowed to keep up investments in new weapons, saying China would "push forward preparations for military conflict in every strategic direction". The United States, however, is under mounting fiscal strain, forced to cut back some weapons programmes even as it fights a grinding war in Afghanistan and still has tens of thousands of troops in Iraq. Before arriving late Sunday for three days of talks, Gates said he would appeal for a reliable security dialogue with China to avoid possible miscalculations, but expressed concern over the Asian power's anti-ship missiles and a new stealth fighter jet. "They clearly have the potential to put some of our capabilities at risk. And we have to pay attention to them, we have to respond appropriately with our own programmes," Gates told reporters travelling on his plane. "My hope is that, through the strategic dialogue that I'm talking about, that maybe the need for some of these capabilities is reduced," he said. Photos surfaced in recent days of what appears to be China's first stealth fighter jet -- a development that has highlighted China's military modernisation, as well as concerns in the region over its intentions. Japan last month labelled Beijing's military build-up a global "concern", citing its increased assertiveness in the East and South China seas. China has repeatedly insisted its military growth does not pose any threat. Boehner is going to win this one. Government spending has surged so much in the past two years that cutting $100 billion is a piece of cake. First, let’s understand exactly what Boehner and his team promised. In their “Pledge to America,” congressional Republicans wrote: “With common-sense exceptions for seniors, veterans, and our troops, we will roll back government spending to pre- stimulus, pre-bailout levels, saving us at least $100 billion in the first year alone and putting us on a path to balance the budget and pay down the debt.” Note the operative phrase, “the first year.” Those now predicting defeat for Boehner -- dare I say, rooting for it -- make his task tougher by implying that the word “fiscal” precedes “year.”ugg boots clearance Months Gone By The 2011 U.S. fiscal year began on Oct. 1, 2010, without a budget in effect, and with Democrats in charge. Since that time, the government has been funded by passage of continuing resolutions, maintaining expenditures at 2010 levels. When the current one expires on March 4, Republicans will have just seven months to make their mark on the 2011 budget. But since Boehner didn’t specify “fiscal year,” Republicans simply can say that the starting pistol went off only last week. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said as much: “We will be cutting $100 billion plus over this calendar year. If you think we’re stopping shy of $100 billion in cuts, you got another think coming.” The budget hawks have tied a hand behind their backs by vowing not to cut spending for seniors, national defense and veterans. Still, with 12 months to accomplish it, the lift is pretty easy. No Tears The Heritage Foundation’s Brian Riedl came up with an ambitious plan for cutting $343 billion in spending. I’ll shoot for one-third of that target, with the added goal of avoiding some of his proposals -- such as reducing Pell Grants and eliminating homeland-security funding to states -- that would be most likely to lead to wailing in the echoing halls of the Capitol complex. Here’s how to do it. First, it’s finally time to take on farm subsidies, which topped $15.4 billion in 2009, according to the Washington-based Environmental Working Group. Farm-state lawmakers in both parties, using the Agriculture Committee as their base, have long beaten back efforts to slash direct payments to growers. So why might now be different? Because of the unprecedented power that Boehner is investing in Ryan and the Budget Committee. This doesn’t mean America’s farmers have to be left to fend for themselves. Farmer Savings Canada has experimented with a program that provides government matching funds for farmers’ deposits into savings accounts that help them buffer their incomes against the ups and downs of farm prices. Such a program in the U.S. could achieve the objective of helping family farmers survive while enabling policy makers to withdraw billions of subsidies to big agriculture. These changes, plus closing the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Foreign Agricultural Service, would save about $19.5 billion. Not a bad start. Next, target energy subsidies, which might make us feel good but make little economic sense. As I’ve written before, if Congress wants to encourage innovation in energy, it should tax carbon, not subsidize politically favored approaches such as ethanol. Riedl says cutting energy subsidies would save about $6.5 billion. (We could go after the tax-credit subsidies too, which technically aren’t spending.) Justice Department block grants -- annual sums given to state and local governments, which largely get to decide how to spend them to achieve a certain goal -- have also been targeted for cuts, and then saved, again and again. Here, too, it’s high time to strike a blow for federalism: local law enforcement is, by definition, a local concern. That’s $7.3 billion in savings. Grounded Bureaucrats Would Americans really suffer if taxpayer-funded travel by federal employees was slashed? I doubt it. Riedl counts $22.5 billion in savings from that and from cutting in half the cost of maintaining vacant federal properties. (How about selling some of them?) The easiest cuts are to money not yet spent. There are various competing estimates of how much remains unspent from the great stimulus of 2009. I’ll take the most conservative estimate, $12 billion -- the biggest chunk of which would go toward high-speed rail, something that we all covet when visiting Europe or Asia but that would require a wholesale transfiguring of the American landscape that the U.S. simply will never do. We’re two-thirds of the way to $100 billion. Just because we’re all tired of hearing about alleged “waste, fraud and abuse” doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of it. Riedl estimates that a $5 billion investment in updated computer systems could halve errors in government payments, saving $44 billion. That lifts our spending cuts to $111.8 billion: target achieved, with wiggle room to boot. Of course, there’s still the matter of my bill.buy uggs PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — Among friends, brunch cocktails, smoked salmon and caviar, Mark Wahlberg picked up Variety's Indie Impact award (last given to Philip Seymour Hoffman) Sunday in the sunny garden of the Parker Palm Springs. Although many a publicist and guest squinted away last night's Palm Springs Film Fest gala partying, Wahlberg was in top form, having called it a night early — and rising early to attend church. Going to church daily, "allows me and enables me to do what I need to do," says Wahlberg, like "staying positive and being appreciative." Wahlberg's schedule is packed. Next he heads to New Orleans to shoot Contraband with Kate Beckinsale and Ben Foster. "We start shooting a week from tomorrow, but (first) we're doing cast read-throughs," he said, excited to get in front of the camera again. "I haven't acted in a movie in about a year. But acting also takes me away from my family, so it's difficult at times." Wahlberg, who executive-produces HBO's Entourage, wouldn't spill details on the final season coming up but resolved to "go out with a bang. We've got to take it to another level." Will there be a wedding? "I can't tell you," he hedged. "The phone would start ringing and I'd be in trouble, getting yelled at." Upon receiving the award from The Fighter director David O. Russell, Wahlberg thanked Relativity Media's Ryan Kavanaugh for "rescuing the film," after other studios turned it down. "Mark never gave up," Kavnaugh told us later at the brunch. "He built a gym in his backyard and kept training every day even though he was told the movie was dead." Martha Plimpton, in Palm Springs promoting her new film Small Town Murder Songs, spilled a few details about the remaining season of her hit show Raising Hope. "I know I can say Amy Sedaris is going to be on. She plays my nemesis cousin. She sort of comes the show to offer my husband sort of an indecent proposal," Plimpton said. Variety also handed out awards to "10 Directors to Watch," including Elgin James, who — like Wahlberg — emerged from a rough-and-tumble Boston childhood to break into Hollywood. He is bringing film Little Birds to the Sundance Film Festival this month. "It was a total shock," to be noticed by Variety, said James. "All I care about is that people see the film," which stars Leslie Mann and Kate Bosworth. Nailing the A-listers, he said, was luck. "I wrote the role for Leslie Mann. She's the only person I pictured when I was writing. I didn't think we'd have any chance to get her, but we did." Robert Duvall, who came in from Virginia for this weekend's festivities with his wife, says he's got his eye on a new screenplay that Billy Bob Thornton wrote. "It's the most unique thing I've ever read." That's the question most of the crowd at Lincoln Financial Field and most of the audience watching the Eagles-Packers game around the country undoubtedly was asking Sunday as the lanky rookie kept churning out rushing yards. He finished with 123 on 23 carries in the Packers' 21-16 win. Not bad for a kid who had 101 yards on 29 carries all season. Starks is a living Google search; his whole career has been marked by obscurity. He missed his senior season at the University of Buffalo with a serious shoulder injury but was so impressive earlier in his career that the Packers took a flyer on him in the sixth round of last spring's draft. A hamstring injury derailed his preseason and he started the year on the physically unable to perform list, missing the first nine games. He also sat out the last two games of the season. "I was with my family playing some games and watching the games and eating some popcorn and taking it all in," he said. "I just knew I would get my chance and I had to be ready to go when my number was called." It was called a lot. Packers coach Mike McCarthy said there were a few plays for Starks in the game plan, but once the kid got started, it was hard to stop him. "He established the hot hand early,'' McCarthy said, "and I rode it." Starks wasn't the only surprise contributor. Tight end Tom Crabtree had a 7-yard reception to open the scoring in the first quarter after catching only four passes all season. With all of the injuries the Packers have suffered this season, there's bound to be unheralded backups producing at this point. Said guard Daryn Colledge, "We have a lot of dudes people haven't heard about on this team." Packers players and coaches said Starks improved his practice and study habits in the last few weeks, suggesting that injuries weren't the only things holding him back. Aaron Rodgers said he "really learned how to be a pro" during that time.b urberry on sale "James Starks is just a fine young man, a very talented young man," McCarthy said. "Everybody knows his story." Well, they do now.