Liberty Newspost Sept-02-2012

Curated News Edition
- 02/09/12
http://www.LibertyNewspost.com
Fugitive U.S. businessman deported to UAE from Yemen

(Reuters: Top News)
Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:13:34 AM
SANAA| Sun Sep 2, 2012 12:13pm EDT (Reuters) - Yemen has deported an American businessman back to the United Arab Emirates from where he fled last month after being freed on bail while facing embezzlement charges, his spokesman and a Yemeni security official said on Sunday. Zack Shahin, former chief executive of Deyaar one of Dubai's biggest property developers, was detained in 2008 over embezzlement charges which he denied. Shahin went on a hunger strike in jail in May this year and was then released on $1.4 million bail in [unable to retrieve full-text content]
July after Washington expressed concern about his health. But he then jumped bail and fled to Yemen, where he was arrested last month. "Zack Shahin has been deported to the UAE at the request of the UAE government," said the Yemeni security official in Sanaa, who asked not to be named under briefing rules. The U.S. embassy in Abu Dhabi declined to comment, citing privacy considerations, and UAE government officials were not available for comment. A spokesman for Shahin's U.S. legal counsel said Yemen had originally agreed to deport Shahin to the United States, an emergency passport was obtained from there and travel
arrangements were finalized for a flight on August 18 to Istanbul. "With less than 90 minutes until his flight departed from Sanaa, Zack was notified (by Yemeni authorities) ... he would continue to be detained," spokesman Darren Spinck said in an emailed statement. "The U.S. Embassy and U.S. consular officials in Yemen had failed the most basic role of the overseas diplomatic corps protect the life and interests of U.S. citizens abroad." Shahin was deported to the UAE on September 1 and is now believed to be held at the public prosecutor's office, though there is no official confirmation of his location, Spinck added. Shahin's flight to Yemen and
deportation may embarrass U.S. authorities, who have pressured the UAE to resolve his case. There have been hearings on his case in Dubai, but no judgment. (Reporting by Mohamad Ghobari, Mirna Seliman and; Raissa Kasolowsky; Writing by Mirna Sleiman; Editing by Jon Hemming) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
China Economy's Deterioration Raises Risk of Wen Missing Target Bloomberg

(china - Google News)
Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:28:47 AM
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China Daily China Economy's Deterioration Raises Risk of Wen Missing Target Bloomberg China hasn't failed to exceed the Communist Party's annual growth target since the throes of the Asian financial crisis in 1998, and a miss of this year's 7.5 percent goal may complicate a once-adecade leadership handover. The outgoing generation of... EU trade officials face China dilemma Financial Times Chinese leader thanks Cambodia for role in sea row Philippine Star China, Germany to Settle More Trade in Yuan, Euros; What's That Mean for Gold... Town Hall The Korea Herald- Xinhua all 63 news articles
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Romney, Obama trade jabs as Dem convention looms - Newsday

(Top Stories - Google News)
Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:15:30 AM
for some time off. He and his wife, Ann, attended church services Sunday morning at the Originally published: September chapel of the Church of Jesus 2, 2012 12:04 PM Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Updated: September 2, 2012 Wolfeboro, N.H. 12:10 PM PHOTOS THROUGH THE By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS YEARS: Obama| Romney| Ryan Photo credit: AP | President SPECIALS: NY SuperPAC Barack Obama speaks during a donations| Obama's first term| campaign stop in Sioux City, Campaign finance shifts in NY, Iowa. (Sept. 1, 2012) LI| Latest election news C H A R L O T T E , N . C . - Campaign officials said Romney Republican Mitt Romney cast w o u l d s p e n d m u c h o f t h e President Barack Obama as a Democrats' convention week failed coach of a struggling team preparing for the presidential as he sought to capitalize on debates. momentum coming out of his At rallies in Cincinnati and p a r t y ' s c o n v e n t i o n . O b a m a Jacksonville, Fla., Romney dismissed the GOP gathering as channeled many voters' interest in an event suited to the era of black- the first weekend of the college and-white TV and promised to football season. outline "a better path forward" at "I don't like the way the way the the upcoming Democratic game is going under this c o n v e n t i o n w h e r e h e ' l l b e president," Romney said, pointing nominated for a second term. to the high jobless rate and The two rivals campaigned approximately 23 million people S a t u r d a y a c r o s s s e v e r a l who are unemployed or working battleground states expected to part-time. "If there's a coach decide the outcome of the closely whose record is 0 and 23 million, fought presidential contest. you get rid of him and get O b a m a w a s i n I o w a a n d someone new." Colorado, part of a three-day tour The former Massachusetts t h a t w i l l t a k e h i m t o h i s governor reiterated his pledge to convention opening Tuesday in create 12 million new jobs and Charlotte, N.C. make the U.S. energy independent Romney spoke at rallies in Ohio in eight years but did not offer and Florida before flying to his specifics on how he would vacation home in New Hampshire achieve those goals.
Obama seized on the dearth of policy details outlined by Romney and other Republicans at their convention in Tampa, Fla. "There was a lot of talk about hard truths and bold choices, but no one actually told you what they were," Obama said in Urbandale, Iowa, warning a Romney administration would offer "retreads of the same old policies that have been sticking it to the middle class for years." David Axelrod, Obama's senior campaign adviser, said the president would present a clear agenda for strengthening middle class economic security during his acceptance speech in Charlotte. "You don't hear those kinds of things from the Republican Party," Axelrod said on Fox News Sunday. "Their platform was locked up in the same vault as Mitt Romney's tax returns. They simply don't want to talk about their ideas, because their ideas are not ideas about the future." Democrats have criticized Romney for making no mention in his convention speech of the war in Afghanistan or of the thousands of troops fighting there. Romney senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom on Sunday defended that decision, saying the Republican candidate addressed the Afghan war in a speech last week to the American Legion.
"But Gov. Romney's convention speech was an opportunity for him to introduce himself to millions of voters who were seeing him for the first time," Fehrnstrom said on CNN's "State of the Union." ''In that speech, he accomplished what he set (out) to do, which is to talk about his better vision for America, with more jobs and increasing wages. He talked about the failures of the Obama presidency over the last four years." Obama was campaigning Sunday in Colorado, where he planned to speak to college students in Boulder. The president is pushing voters in states like Iowa and Colorado to take advantage of early voting rules. Early voting in Iowa opens on Sept. 27, weeks before the November 6 general election. Obama's schedule for Monday includes an appearance in Toledo, Ohio -- yet another battleground state -- before a trip to Louisiana to inspect damage from Hurricane Isaac. Romney visited Louisiana on Friday. Viewership was down markedly for the GOP convention this year. According to The Nielsen Co., some 30 million viewers tuned in Thursday night when Romney gave his acceptance speech, compared to some 40 million who
watched Arizona Sen. John McCain accept the Republican nomination in 2008. Democrats were eager to recapture the spotlight at their own gathering. But the convention's location served as an unwelcome reminder to the Democrats of an economy so weak that it threatens Obama's chances for re-election. The president carried North Carolina in 2008, but the state's unemployment rate is pegged at 9.6 percent, higher than the nation's 8.3 percent and tied with next-door South Carolina for fifth from the bottom. The Democrats' convention at the Time Warner Cable arena will feature evening speeches Tuesday by first lady Michelle Obama and San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, the keynote speaker. The president will be nominated for a new term on Wednesday, when former President Bill Clinton also will speak. Obama's prime-time acceptance speech, to be delivered at the outdoor Bank of America Stadium, caps the convention on Thursday night. Aides predict a capacity crowd will hear the speech at the site, which can hold nearly 74,000. Vice President Joe Biden delivers his own acceptance ROMNEY, page 6
Top News/
US stops training some Afghan forces after attacks - Businessweek

Submitted at 9/2/2012 10:42:20 AM
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) The U.S. military has suspended training of some Afghan forces while the Americans review the process of vetting new recruits following a spike in deadly attacks on international troops last month, officials said Sunday. There have been 34 attacks by Afghan police or soldiers on their international allies so far this year at least 12 in August alone. The members of the Afghan security forces have killed 45 international troops, putting intense strain on the relationship. The attacks have complicated a key pillar in the plan for the U.S.led coalition to withdraw by the end of 2014 training Afghan forces to take the lead in securing their own country. Lt. Col. Todd Harrell, a spokesman for U.S. special operations forces in Afghanistan, said the Americans have halted training for at least a month of about 1,000 trainees of the Afghan Local Police (ALP), a government-backed militia that is under the authority of the national police but operates independently. He said the Americans are redoing background checks on the Afghans. "The training of the ALP recruits
has been paused while we go through this re-vetting process to take a look at this process to see if there's anything that we can improve," Harrell said. "It may take a month. It may take two months. We don't know." The United States and its allies have been training the Afghan army and police so that they can gradually take over security for the country by the end 2014. They hope to have about 350,000 Afghans trained and ready by the end of the year, and gradually have been putting them in the lead for security in parts of Afghanistan since last year. Coalition authorities have said about 25 percent of this year's insider attacks had confirmed or suspected links to the Taliban. The militants have sometimes infiltrated the ranks of the Afghan army and police and in other cases are believed to have coerced or otherwise persuaded legitimate members to turn on their coalition partners. The international forces in Afghanistan have been revisiting both security for their forces and re-examining the backgrounds of the Afghan forces in the wake of the recent attacks on international troops. The coalition has already been re-vetting Afghan soldiers returning from leave. U.S. special operations forces are
responsible for the 16,000-strong ALP and decided to stop training the new recruits among them while re-vetting them. The ALP already in the field, who have already been trained, will continue to operate as normal, Harrel said. The government will also keep recruiting new members, he said. Col. Tom Collins, a spokesman for the international military coalition in Afghanistan, also said there was no set date to resume training of the ALP. The pause in training was first reported by the Washington Post. Harrell also disclosed for the first time on Sunday that the Americans last month suspended operations by the Afghan special forces last month to re-vet those soldiers for any potential ties to insurgents or any other indications that they might turn on their allies. He said the suspension lasted less than two weeks and that the forces have since resumed operations. Harrell said he was not aware of any Afghan troops who were suspended or flagged for monitoring in that round of revetting. The Post also reported that training of special operations forces had been halted. But a spokesman for the NATO training mission in Afghanistan, or NTM-
A, which oversees this training, said there has been no such pause. "There has been no halt in training with NTM-A assets as they relate to special forces," said Maj. Steve Neta of the Canadian military. He also said no other training programs involving the traditional military or police have been halted for re-vetting. The head of the Afghan special operations forces, Brig. Gen. Sayed Abul Karim, confirmed there has been no pause to the training of his forces. The program to train Afghan special operations forces had already been on break for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ended in late August, and had been scheduled to restart in midSeptember. "It will continue," he said, adding it has not been halted. "After the 15th of September, we restart," he added. The most recent insider attack took place last week when an Afghan army soldier turned his gun on Australian soldiers, killing three of them and wounding two, the Australian military. Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office condemned an operation by international troops to catch the shooter, describing it as unilateral. He alleged it resulted in the deaths of two civilians a 70-year-old man his 30-year-old son. Karzai's
office said in a statement late Saturday that the operation took place without the coordination or approval of provincial authorities and violated an agreement that calls on Afghan troops to lead night raids. Night raids have been a contentious issue between Afghan and international forces because the Karzai administration insists that they often end up killing civilians and antagonize the population, while the international coalition has maintained that they are necessary for rooting out insurgents. The U.S. military has struck an agreement to put Afghans at the head of its operations in villages, but there is no such agreement for the entire international coalition. The international military alliance responded by saying that Afghan officials approved and supported the strike. In a related incident, NATO said it arrested a Taliban insurgent who was responsible for the May 12 shooting of two members of the British military in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province in the south. At the time the man was a member of the Afghan police. An accomplice was shot and killed at the scene. The man, who was not STOPS page 6
Top News/
Syrian rebels hit back at Assad's air power

(Reuters: Top News)
of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Activist video posted on the By Dominic Evans internet showed the officers and BEIRUT| Sun Sep 2, 2012 soldiers captured by rebel fighters 10:13am EDT as well as an arsenal of rocket(Reuters) - Rebels seized an air p r o p e l l e d g r e n a d e s a n d defense facility and attacked a ammunition seized in the raid. military airport in eastern Syria on Abdulrahman said rebels also Saturday, a monitoring group attacked the Hamdan military said, hitting back at an air force airbase at Albu Kamal, close to which President Bashar al-Assad Syria's eastern border with Iraq, is increasingly relying on to crush but did not succeed in breaking his opponents. into it. The attacks in eastern oil- The attacks come three days after producing Deir al-Zor province rebels said they had damaged follow rebel strikes against several helicopters at the Taftanaz military airports in the Aleppo air base in Idlib province. The and Idlib areas, close to the border insurgents also said they have with Turkey. shot down a fighter jet and a Assad, battling a 17-month-old helicopter last week. uprising in which 20,000 people AIR STRIKES have been killed, has lost control Assad's forces have carried out of rural areas in northern, eastern numerous air strikes on civilians and southern regions and has in rebel-held areas. Helicopters resorted to helicopter gunships have strafed towns with heavy and fighter jets to subdue his foes. machineguns, and jets have The aerial bombardment has unleashed rockets and bombs driven fresh waves of refugees against opposition strongholds. i n t o n e i g h b o r i n g c o u n t r i e s , Bombardments of northern towns reviving Turkish calls for "safe such as Azaz and Anadan, of zones" to be set up on Syrian which Assad lost control weeks territory - appeals ignored by a ago, have led to thousands of divided U.N. Security Council residents fleeing to safety in and by Western powers reluctant Turkey. to commit the military forces Ankara made its call for safe needed to secure such zones. havens inside Syria after the U.N. Rebels in Deir al-Zor overran an refugee agency said the flow of air defense building, taking at Syrians into Turkey and Jordan least 16 captives and seizing an which already host more than unknown number of anti-aircraft 150,000 registered refugees - was rockets, said Rami Abdulrahman rising sharply.
Submitted at 9/2/2012 9:13:22 AM
But a ministerial meeting of the Security Council produced nothing beyond a French plan to channel more aid to rebel areas, an initiative which will do nothing to stem the flow of civilians fleeing the fighting. Turkish government sources said Ankara would again push for agreement on safe zones inside Syria at the General Assembly later this month and would try to put pressure on Russia and Iran, which strongly oppose any such action. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, a former ally of Assad, showed his frustration at the lack of international action. "We cannot take such a measure unless the United Nations Security Council decides in favor of it ... First a decision for the nofly zone must be taken, then we would be able to take a step towards a buffer zone," Erdogan said in an interview broadcast on Turkish television late on Friday. "Bashar al-Assad has come to the end of his political life. At the moment, Assad is acting in Syria not as a politician, but as an element, an actor, of war," he said. The foreign minister of Germany which holds the rotating presidency of the U.N. Security Council for September, said his country would "not stop working on Moscow and Beijing", two capitals which have blocked concerted action on Syria.
"We will not give up, not in this month either, not give up in pushing for a united stance at the Security Council," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told a news conference in Kuwait. "If we were to give up then we would be giving up on the people and that we will not do." Jordan said on Saturday it was "stretched to the limit" by the influx of refugees from southern Syria. The resource-poor kingdom of 7 million has accepted 70,000 registered refugees but says it is hosting 140,000 in local communities. Planning Minister Jafaar Hassan said the influx was "reaching limits that the government cannot continue to shoulder", estimating the cost of sheltering the refugees at $230 million this year, rising to $285 million in 2013. RECORD DEATH TOLL A United Nations official said 1,600 people were killed in Syria in the last week, the highest weekly figure in nearly a year and a half of conflict, and aid agencies say living conditions are worsening dramatically. An estimated 1.2 million people are uprooted within Syria, including 150,000 in and around Damascus, the U.N. said. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Kimoon said he had pressed the Syrian government to allow in international aid workers, and received a positive reply during
talks in Tehran this week. Ban told Reuters he had "long and in-depth discussions with the Syrian officials" on the sidelines of a Non-Aligned Movement meeting. "While I criticized all the parties that have been depending on military means to resolve this issue, the primary responsibility rests with the Syrian government," he said. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it would be wrong to press Damascus alone to end the violence. "It is absolutely unrealistic to say that the unilateral capitulation of one of the parties in conflict is the only way out, in a situation when there's ongoing urban fighting," he told students of the Moscow Institute of Foreign Relations. (Additional reporting by Nick Tattersall in Istanbul, Andrew Torchia and Yeganeh Torbati in Dubai, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman, Alexei Anishchuk in Moscow; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Diana Abdallah and Jon Hemming) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Top News/ Policy/ Economy/
Democrats working to tell their story to voters at convention - The Seattle Times
Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:32:03 AM
issues that explore the role of government. The three-day event opens CHARLOTTE, N.C. Tens of Tuesday at Time Warner Cable thousands of Democrats arrive in Arena. The convention's 5,556 Charlotte for their party's national delegates will formally nominate convention Tuesday, two months Obama and Joseph Biden as before an election that will president and vice president. Both determine the direction of a are scheduled to speak Thursday divided nation. at Bank of America Stadium. T h e D e m o c r a t i c N a t i o n a l Democrats also will hear from Convention offers a chance for former President Clinton, a top the party to try to recapture the Obama surrogate who is expected enthusiasm it had during 2008's to deliver a forceful prime-time historic race and to explain why speech on economic recovery. Barack Obama, the nation's first A number of high-profile women African-American president, such as Caroline Kennedy and should be given a second term as actress Eva Longoria will help the economy continues to falter. drive the party's pitch for a big Millions remain out of work, turnout from women and help with unemployment surpassing 8 punctuate the Democratic attack percent consistently since shortly on Republicans for what they call after Obama took office. Trillion- a "war on women." San Antonio dollar-a-year deficits have sent the Mayor Julian Castro will serve as national debt soaring. And while t h e k e y n o t e s p e a k e r , a n polls show Americans personally acknowledgment of the power of like the president, more think the Latino voice in the race and Republican Mitt Romney has a the nation. better plan to fix the economy. While Republicans were "The fire has gone out, compared criticized for not talking more to four years ago," said Andrew about Romney at their convention Kohut, president of the Pew l a s t w e e k i n T a m p a , F l a . , Research Center. Democrats hope each speaker will This week, Democrats will return to Obama and his vision for attempt to contrast the visions of the future. Obama and Romney, on fiscal " U n l i k e a t t h e R e p u b l i c a n matters and on a variety of other convention, we want to offer a content] [unable to retrieve full-text
real contrast," said Mo Elleithee, a Democratic political consultant who worked on Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. With an expected television audience of tens of millions, the convention is a chance to reach a broader base that has grown less enthusiastic in the past four years. A CNN poll released last week showed Obama with a hefty lead over Romney among registered voters 52 percent to 43 percent but among likely voters the numbers narrow considerably: 49 percent to 47 percent. Gallup recently reported that only 39 percent of Democrats are "more enthusiastic than usual" about the election, compared with 61 percent in 2008 and 68 percent in 2004. It found that 51 percent of Republicans were "more enthusiastic than usual." Obama remains popular with many key groups including African Americans, Hispanics and young voters but they are less enthusiastic than before and may not go to the polls. Of particular concern are young voters. Mindful of that, Obama embarked on a three-state swing last week to college towns in Iowa, Colorado and Virginia. Rod Smith, chairman of the Democratic Party in Florida, one [unable to retrieve full-text
of the largest battlegrounds, said that to reach the small window of undecided voters in the Sunshine State the party needs to emphasize preserving the quality of life for senior citizens and solutions to cope with the nation's growing immigrant population. Though Democrats will have to speak about the administration's mixed record of the past four years, many do not want to dwell on it. "He should fire people up by looking forward, not looking backward," Drew Lieberman, a Democratic political consultant, said of Obama. Democrats hope to contrast the two parties' policies on social issues, such as abortion rights, the environment, and most important, the plight of the lower and middle classes. "It should be more about going forward," Kohut said. "Lots of people think we haven't made a lot of progress, and you can't convince them." But independent pollster John Zogby said Obama and Democrats have done a poor job of touting their record and should take time at the convention to do so. For example, he said, they need to better explain that federal content]
stimulus money was spent on important projects, and the benefits of the health-care law. "He has a story to tell, and he needs to tell it," Zogby said. Charlotte was chosen over Cleveland, Minneapolis and St. Louis, a party bow to the importance of North Carolina to the general election. Obama narrowly carried the state in 2008, the first Democrat to win there since Jimmy Carter in 1976, in what Democrats hope was the start of an enduring push into the South and not a one-time anomaly. The convention will last three days, shortened to accommodate Labor Day on Monday. Republicans met for the same amount of time last week after the threat of Hurricane Isaac led them to cancel the first day. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Top News/ Business/ Sports/
Tibetans protest against China Defence Minister visit outside Chinese embassy ... - IBNLive.com
Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:00:23 AM
ROMNEY,
continued from page 2
AFP Tibetans protest against China Defence Minister visit outside Chinese embassy... IBNLive.com The Chinese Defence Minister will be in the country for five days from today during which India and China will discuss about
speech the same evening. Democrats are taking their turn in the convention spotlight just days after the Republicans met in having more Confidence Building Tampa to nominate Romney for Measures (CBMs) and ways of the White House and Wisconsin strengthening their military ties Rep. Paul Ryan to be vice besides other issues. (For... president. Be the first to rate: Asian giants seek better ties; 0 Click to rate China's defense minister in India This entry passed through the Reuters Full-Text RSS service if this is China's defence minister visits India AFP all 154 news articles
your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Housing associations consider Reit route - Financial Times

(housing - Google News)
STOPS
Chinese Official Shamed After Attack on Flight Attendant Wall Street Journal (blog)
Submitted at 9/2/2012 10:29:35 AM
further identified, was arrested along with another suspected insurgent on Aug. 30 in the Hisarak district of eastern Nangarhar province. ___ Associated Press writer Patrick Quinn contributed to this report in Kabul. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is
your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Wall Street Journal (blog) Chinese Official Shamed After Attack on Flight Attendant Wall Street Journal (blog) China's state-run Xinhua news agency on Saturday issued a
report largely confirming the account, originally published on Sina Corp.'s Weibo microblogging service, of a China Southern Airlines flight attendant who said she was bullied by a Chinese... and more
Housing associations consider Reit route Financial Times Housing associations have drawn up plans to raise up to 1bn from equity markets as the Treasury considers proposals to launch a new listed real estate investment trust for the sector. Ministers are considering whether to give the go-ahead to Britain... and more
Millennials are slow LIC Housing Finance plans to entering the housing market hike loan disbursements to developers - Hindu Business Line - The Star-Ledger - NJ.com
(housing - Google News) (housing - Google News)
Jaguars RB Jones -Drew ends 38day holdout, reports

(Sports News Headlines Yahoo! News)
Submitted at 9/2/2012 10:00:22 AM
LIC Housing Finance plans to hike loan disbursements to developers Hindu Business Line LIC Housing Finance, a
subsidiary of Life Insurance Submitted at 9/2/2012 6:52:31 AM Corporation of India, plans to disburse around 8-10 per cent of The Star-Ledger - NJ.com i t s t o t a l l o a n p o r t f o l i o t o Millennials are slow entering the developers by the end of this housing market fiscal. Presently, around six per The Star-Ledger - NJ.com cent of our total loan portfolio... The Millennial Generation, those and more
born between the end of the '70s and the start of the '90s, have crossed into adulthood. They are taking up the mantels passed down from generation to generation. But for varying reasons, they have been slower than...
Jacksonville Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew has ended his 38-day holdout without a new contract. [unable to retrieve full-text content]
Business/ World News/ Featured/
Here's How To Create Facebook Posts That Go Massively Viral (FB)

Samantha Felix (Business Insider)
Submitted at 9/2/2012 10:50:00 AM
George Osborne in 50bn private sector building vow - BBC News

(Nation - Google News)
Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:43:13 AM
A viral Facebook post is what digital marketers everywhere dream about at night. It is marketing gold, and better yet, it's free. Creating these illusive posts, however, can seem like the Mount Everest of content strategies. Skip directly to the guide > First, marketers need to realize there is no exact formula to viral posts. Like all good advertising and promotion, viral content takes a lot of creativity, good timing, and a bit of luck. The goal, then, is to examine the pieces of the most successful posts to understand what made them work (like Matthew Broderick's Super Bowl commercial for Honda, in which he re-enacted Ferris Bueller's Day Off). As a brand, the question facing marketers is how to achieve this Holy Grail of digital in an organic, measurable fashion. To begin with, do a little research. Find out what is going viral now. Check out sites like StumbleUpon and Buzzfeed to see what is trending. For example, BuzzFeed
BBC News George Osborne in 50bn private sector building vow BBC News The government is to underwrite up to 50bn of private sector building projects which need finance, in an effort to boost growth. It will also legislate to speed up planning decisions and encourage development of Green Belt land, if certain conditions... UK economy is healing, says Chancellor George Osborne Telegraph.co.uk George Osborne: Setback for green belt campaigners as Chancellor calls for... Daily Mail George Osborne plans deregulation of planning laws The Guardian creates a list of the top 20 viral service by giving it character. In looking to get content shared, The Press Associationposts of the week, with indicators this interactive ad for Old Spice, marketers and publishers should M y F i n a n c e s . c o . u k that show the post's reach. Terry Crews plays music by focus on content that will resonate all 115 news articles This slideshow describes the flexing his muscles, It's just a and get people talking to their creation of a good viral Facebook deodorant, but P&G continues to colleagues, friends, and families. post with examples of how they find unique ways of giving it a Check out the "Wassup" ad for have been done effectively. Make personality. (At the end of the Budweiser that got over 3.3 sure you're sharing the media video, viewers can use their million views. The ad is basically Facebook users actually want. keyboards to make their own song just a bunch of guys acting like P a n d e m i c L a b s f o u n d t h a t using the Terry Crew's muscles.) guys, talking like guys. marketers are mostly sharing text- Be familiar. See the rest of the story at (Dave Winer) based posts, but users like to share The tone of your content should Business Insider Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:29:03 AM videos and photos: be authentic and real. It should Please follow Advertising on This picture will accompany an It's got to have personality. take on a casual, conversational Twitter and Facebook. article in The New Yorker, to be Breathe life into the product or quality. AdAge explains, in published tomorrow.
Thread: Thread: Odd pic of two Presidents.
Business/
A Lot Of Kansas City Residents Are Not Signing Up For Google Fiber (GOOG)
Julie Bort (Business Insider)
Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:38:26 AM
Earlier this week, half the eligible neighborhoods in Kansas City had enough customers wanting Google's super-high-speed Internet and cable TV service. Although Google officially launched its Gigabit Internet service in July, it is using a clever model to build it out to actual neighborhoods, which Google calls Fiberhoods. Enough residents in each of these Fiberhoods must first tell Google that they want it. When the Fiberhood reaches a certain number of pre-registrations, Google will build them the service. That's a smart way to do it. It ensures that it is rolling out the service only to areas where demand is high enough to cover costs. But as of a few days ago, with about two weeks left to go for the pre-registration process, about half the eligible neighborhoods still hadn't met their quota. If you are a glass half-full kind of person, you might consider that a success -- half the neighborhoods did meet their goal. In fact, Google told TechCrunch that it was "very happy with this
number as we head into the final week of pre-registrations." But it also adjusted the goals, making it easier for more Fiberhoods to qualify. Google explained the adjusted goals in a blog post, essentially saying that the original goals were really too high. They were based on inaccurate data of how many homes actually existed in each neighborhood, Google says. The net result is that more neighborhoods may become eligible to get Google Fiber. But it also points to another simple thought: a surprisingly large
number of Kansas City residents aren't interested. There's been a lot of discussion about how Google will turn this project into a nationwide service and that it could cost hundreds of billions of dollars to do that. If Kansas City doesn't show a lot of love for it, it's going to be hard to convince Google, or other cable companies, to make that kind of investment. Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook. Join the conversation about this story
10 Things Science Can Teach Us About Being Sexy As Hell

Eric Barker (Business Insider)
Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:25:00 AM
It takes 13 milliseconds to determine if someone is hot, so what can you do to make sure you're looking good during that critical first impression? As a general rule, smiling makes you more attractive. That said, ladies, smile. Guys...well, think twice. Want to improve your smile? Smile slower. Beauty sleep? Yeah, it's real. Get some.
Red clothes. Men, women, whatever. Wear red. Guys: stubble makes you look smarter and more sociable. Keep reading at Barking Up The Wrong Tree > Please follow War Room on Twitter and Facebook. Join the conversation about this story
World News/
Raj Thackeray remark: Nitish No problem if Mulayam slams Centre, Maharashtra forms Third Front: Congress govt - Times of India - Hindustan Times (Nation - Google News)
Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:37:23 AM
IBNLive.com Raj Thackeray remark: Nitish slams Centre, Maharashtra govt Times of India PATNA/MUMBAI: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday lashed out at the Maharashtra government for not taking action against MNS chief Raj Thackeray for his threat to throw Biharis out of Maharashtra. "The MNS chief's
diatribes against Biharis pose... Congress using 'stooge' Raj Thackeray against Shiv Sena-BJP: JD(U) Daily News & Analysis Don't fear Raj Thackeray, Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil tells media IBNLive.com Raj Thackeray continues his tirade against North Indians India Today Press Trust of India- Business Standard all 428 news articles
party has the right to tread on its own way. BJP spreading anarchy: NDTV Sriprakash Jaiswal on coal issue No problem if Mulayam forms Daily News & Analysis Third Front: Congress PM must resign on Coalgate: Hindustan Times Yashwant Zee News The Congress-led UPA would Coalgate: BJP spreading anarchy n o t h a v e a n y p r o b l e m i f in the country, says Sriprakash S a m a j w a d i P a r t y p r e s i d e n t Jaiswal India Today Mulayam Singh Yadav forms a Times of India- Economic Times "Third Front" at this juncture, - NDTV senior Congress leader Digvijaya all 995 news articles Singh said today. "Every political
Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:18:23 AM
Anstruther in Fife sees mass stranding of pilot whales - BBC News

Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:32:29 AM
Vince Cable defends Nick Clegg as more Lib Dems question leadership - The Guardian
Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:33:29 AM
The Guardian Vince Cable defends Nick Clegg as more Lib Dems question leadership The Guardian Vince Cable has been forced to rally to the defence of Nick Clegg after one of his oldest political friends called on the Liberal Democrats to consider a change of leadership. As more Lib Dems
questioned Clegg's position, the business secretary said he... Cable backs Clegg to survive storm WalesOnline Nick Clegg backed by Cable in Lib Dem leadership row BBC News Lib Dems will continue to push for Nick Clegg's 'wealth tax', says Vince Cable Telegraph.co.uk Daily Mail- Mirror.co.uk all 222 news articles
Kejriwal to launch jail bharo agitation on Monday - IBNLive.com

will stage a protest outside the Parliament Street police station in... IBNLive.com IAC calls for jail bharo on Kejriwal to launch jail bharo Monday Hindustan Times agitation on Monday Arvind Kejriwal to protest IBNLive.com outside Parliament police station New Delhi: India Against on Monday Daily Bhaskar Corruption (IAC) leader Arvind Arvind Kejriwal, IAC activists to Kejriwal will lead a 'jail bharo protest outside Parliament police andolan' in the capital on Monday. station Economic Times Alleging harassment of IAC all 11 news articles volunteers, Kejriwal and others
Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:21:18 AM
BBC News Anstruther in Fife sees mass stranding of pilot whales BBC News A total of 16 whales have died after being stranded on the east coast of Scotland. Ten others were refloated after being kept alive by vets from British Divers and Marine Life Rescue but two have since re-beached. The incident between Anstruther and... Thirteen pilot whales die in mass stranding as rescuers battle to save the rest Daily Mail Rescue Teams Battle To Save Stranded Whales Sky News Pilot whales die in mass stranding off Fife coast Metro Washington Post- The Guardian all 195 news articles
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World News/ Technology/
Man killed by generator 'Fair winds' as fallen Diggers fumes in Vic bakery - travel home from Afghanistan - The Australian The Canberra Times
(Nation - Google News) (Nation - Google News)
NEWS.com.au Man killed by generator fumes in Vic bakery The Canberra Times A Melbourne man who came to Australia from Cambodia in 1990 as an asylum seeker has died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator at the bakery where he was working on Father's Day. The
man's wife and a co-worker discovered the 43-year-old man... Dad killed by poisoned gas in Father's Day bakery tragedy Adelaide Now Dad poisoned to death in Father's Day bakery tragedy in Ferntree Gully Courier Mail Father dies in bakery gas poisoning The Australian all 47 news articles
Submitted at 9/2/2012 10:29:20 AM
Brisbane Times 'Fair winds' as fallen Diggers travel home from Afghanistan The Australian THE five Diggers killed in the army's darkest day since the Vietnam war have been wished "clear skies and fair winds" for their long, sad journey home to
Australia from Afghanistan. To the mournful refrain of a lone piper,... US suspends training for new Afghan recruits Brisbane Times Tears shed as fallen Australian soldiers depart Adelaide Now troops close in on rogue Afghan soldier The Canberra Times Perth Now all 167 news articles
The weird world where Attack in street leaves man dead - Sydney 3D printing and art collide
Morning Herald
Christopher MacManus (CNET News)

Sky News Australia Attack in street leaves man dead Sydney Morning Herald ONE man is dead and another is in hospital after being found unconscious on a footpath in Sydney's south-west following an apparent attack near a pub where
they had been drinking. Police found the pair, aged 39 and 41, about 2.15am yesterday at the... Man dead after attack in Sydney Perth Now Man found injured on footpath dies Sky News Australia Man dead after Father's Day attack BigPond News all 25 news articles
While we may never think the world of 3D movies, at least the 3D printing ecosystem continues to evolve rapidly in a good direction. With interest in 3D printers, as well as accessibility to them, becoming more commonplace, an increasing number of artists use these machines -- capable of making nearly anything -- to stretch the limits of design.
The first 3D Print Show, held in London's Brewery next month -October 19-21 -- gives those in the 3D printing industry a centralized venue for collaborating and educating, as well as showing off some mindbending 3D creations. Lots of events take place at the show too, including concerts using 3D-printed instruments, competitions between makers, and a show of 3D-printed haute couture. Crave takes a look at just a few of the many art exhibits planned for the event, from some
of the best in the field. If you have a knack for art or design, you won't want to miss this expose. You might not ever think about 3D printing the same way again. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Technology/
11
4 Pro Tips For Publishers Building A Native Ad Strategy

Dan Greenberg (TechCrunch)
integrated way (see the native ad market breakdown here). Dominant social media and Editors note: Dan Greenberg is content discovery platforms t h e f o u n d e r & C E O o f including Facebook, Twitter, Sharethrough, the native video StumbleUpon and Tumblr have advertising company. Dan has a l l c h o s e n n o t t o e m p l o y been honored as an AdAge traditional display or interruptive Media Maven and was recently ads and instead incorporate native named to the Forbes 30 under 30 ads to drive revenue. The next list. You can find him on Twitter g e n e r a t i o n o f p u b l i s h e r at@dgreenberg. entrepreneurs have taken notice of Entrepreneurs are rapidly rolling this shift and are thinking hard out bold new online media about how they can also build designs that are changing our advertising formats that can be as p e r c e p t i o n o f h o w c o n t e n t native to their sites as Promoted publishers and platforms should Tweets are to Twitter or Paid look and operate (see Medium, Discovery is to StumbleUpon. Branch, and Devour). Instead of The great news for publishers is sites designed solely to maximize that advertisers are embracing page views, we are now seeing an native ads in a huge way and are i n f l u x o f p u b l i s h e r s t h a t on the lookout for new, unique incorporate content streams, grids experiences. The reason they are and galleries to produce a more buying native ads is because they fluid, less interruptive content consistently beat the paltry discovery experience. This design average engagement rates for evolution has also led to a new display advertising and provide a approach in monetization, where much better user experience than sites are now being designed from interruptive ads like pop-ups and the ground up to integrate native interstitials. Publishers now have advertising formats, rather than a business case to re-imagine how t h e t r a d i t i o n a l d i s p l a y a d advertising can look and feel. To placements. help them get there, we have put For those unfamiliar with the together four tips for publishers to term native advertising, it is help launch an effective native ad defined as ad strategies that allow strategy: Plug in Open, Then brands to promote their content Build Out Closed into the endemic experience of a In closed native advertising s i t e i n a n o n - i n t e r r u p t i v e , systems like Facebook and
Twitter, brands can create and promote customized content within the platform itself; however, that content cannot exist outside of the confines of that same platform. A closed native advertising system is a great way to increase the stickiness of a publishers site, as brands have to create their own profiles and content within the platform, such as Facebooks Promoted Posts. For publishers that are in their early stages, it makes sense to utilize an open native advertising model to quickly plug in brand content to native placements and use those performance insights to inform them on whether it makes sense to build out their own closed system. Open native advertising allows brands to use a single piece of brand content across multiple campaigns, which cuts down on their expenses and implementation time. Examples of open native advertising platforms include Outbrain and Disqus for recommended content widgets and Sharethrough for sponsored videos. Use a native friendly user interface Successful UI design for a site that is looking to offer native ad placements can take many different forms. Whether it is in a feed like Twitter, a grid like Devour, or a gallery like Etsy or
Pinterest, the key is to create a layout that can integrate brand content in a visually appealing way that wont quickly fall victim to attention deficit, as weve seen with banner blindness. Below we have called out 3 major UI trends and have included an example of their native ad implementation strategy: Stream/Feed (Ex. Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr) Brand content units are integrated within a content or social feed. Twitters Promoted Tweets are a great example of an in-feed native ad unit that drive high rates of engagement (from 1-3% on average) and work fluidly across desktop or mobile. Gallery (Ex. Pinterest, Chill, Digg) Branded content goes into individual gallery units that are both highly visual and offer room for a brief amount of copy. Before theyve even rolled out the anticipated Promoted Pins unit on Pinterest, marketers have flocked to Pinterest to promote new products and reap the rewards of their hefty referral traffic. Grids (Ex. Devour, Etsy, Imgur) Branded content is promoted within grid units that are primarily image-based with limited space for accompanying text. Devours homepage exemplifies a curated
grid layout with a well-integrated native ad placement. Build for the Brand Content Innovators Integrating native ads into your site can be difficult if you do not partner with advertisers who are creating content that viewers actually want to see. To put a native ad strategy on a viable path, publishers need to identify the brands that are actively producing high quality branded content and targeting audience segments that their site reaches. To help kick off that search, below is a short list of major brands across the top spending verticals that are producing notable original content: Technology - Intel Creative agency partners: Pereira & ODell, Virtue WW, Believe Entertainment Group Recent content includes a 6 episode social short film called The Beauty Inside, to a screenwriting contest with Roman Coppola, to a series on worldrenowned DJ Tiesto. Chief Marketing Officer Deborah Conrad Entertainment ESPN Creative agency partner: Wieden & Kennedy Recent branded content includes an 8-minute documentary on fans PRO page 15
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Technology/
Weekly Wrap-Up: Obama Shuts Down Reddit, 3D Printing And The Gun Debate, Next Month's Mobile Announcement Madness
Adam Popescu (ReadWriteWeb)
highlighted a project called Wiki Weapon that wants to prototype the world's first fully printable Submitted at 9/2/2012 5:00:00 AM gun, How 3D Printing Is President Obama takes to Reddit Inflaming The Gun Control in a social media first, the strange Debate. world of 3D printing and the gun Get Ready For The Madness: debate, and next month's mobile Next Month's Schedule of New announcement madness. All of Mobile Device Announcements t h i s a n d m o r e i n t h e During any given year, new ReadWriteWeb Weekly Wrap-up. mobile devices are announced and After the jump you'll find more released like clockwork. The of this week's top news stories on Consumer Electronics Show, some of the key topics that are Mobile World Congress and other shaping the Web - Location, App large conference herald the first Stores and Real-Time Web- plus round. The second round comes highlights from some of our six as the holiday shopping season channels. Read on for more. approaches. Spurred by Apples I Am A President--Obamamania expected announcement of the Shuts Down Reddit new iPhone on Sept. 12, In another social-media first, announcement of new devices is President Barack Obama took to about to hit fever pitch, Get Reddit today to become the first Ready For The Madness: Next sitting head of state to moderate Month's Schedule of New Mobile the site's "AMA," or, ask me Device Announcements. anything, series, I Am A President Why Job-Hopping Is Essential --Obamamania Shuts Down For Startups Reddit. A lot of people in Silicon Valley More Top Posts: How 3D are down on job-hoppers these Printing Is Inflaming The Gun days. Theyre flaky, theyre bad Control Debate employees, they steal all the If you think the gun debate in the Sharpies when they leave, blah, United States is heated now, blah, blah. But it turns out that all technological advances are about that job-hopping is an important to make it a whole lot more part of what makes the Valley so intense. Last week, Forbes special, Why Job-Hopping Is
media screensucking. While social media may be engaging, it does not always help us accomplish what really needs to get done. Its time to refocus Americas software ingenuity on making productivity software as delightful to use as social networking,Screensucking Is Sapping American Productivity And Innovation. Dell & Samsung Join Parade of Windows 8 Convertible Laptop/ Essential For Startups. Tablets Why You Should Be Terrified Of The launch of Windows 8 may A Free Trade Agreement You've still be two months away, but the Never Heard Of [Infographic] tide of new hardware releases is The Trans-Pacific Partnership beginning to swell - including (TPP) is the most influential piece hybrid notebook/tablet devices of recent legal work youve from Dell and Samsung, Dell & probably never heard of. Can a Samsung Join Parade of Windows Free Trade Agreement really 8 Convertible Laptop/Tablets. t h r e a t e n I n t e r n e t f r e e d o m , HP Envy x2 Tablet/Laptop redefine copyright and alter the Combo Cuts Across Categories course of global healthcare? You Is it a tablet? Is it a laptop? The b e t , W h y Y o u S h o u l d B e HP Envy x2 is actually both, but it T e r r i f i e d O f A F r e e T r a d e remains to be seen how well this Agreement You've Never Heard Windows 8 device actually Of [Infographic]. performs in either one of its dual Screensucking Is Sapping roles, HP Envy x2 Tablet/Laptop American Productivity And Combo Cuts Across Categories. Innovation Futurist's Cheat Sheet: Quantum You can thank Mark Zuckerberg, Computing Evan Williams and others for Moore's Law describes the turning Americas legendary phenomenon that makes this productivity into wasteful social year's computer more capable and
less expensive than last year's. But it won't go on forever. While engineers have come up with various schemes to keep it rolling, quantum computing is the best hope for extending it indefinitely. The concept has been proven in the lab, but working quantum computers are not a foregone conclusion. Here is a quick-anddirty primer on a very complicated technology, Futurist's Cheat Sheet: Quantum Computing. New Tech Incubator Focuses on Car-Based Apps Tech entrepreneur Jim Disanto sees the automobile as the next great platform for connectivity. There are a more than a billion cars in the world, he said. Every automotive OEM and Tier 1 supplier will tell you that within three years, every car will need connected systems, or youre not going to be able to sell it. That, Disanto believes, will spawn a new generation of app developers offering Internet-enabled enhancements to the driving experience, New Tech Incubator Focuses on Car-Based Apps. ReadWriteWeb Channels Enterprise WEEKLY page 16
Technology/ Sports/
13
In The World Of Tech, Women Can Have It All

Michal Tsur and Leah Belsky (TechCrunch)
Monthly featured an article that soon became the publications most popular piece of all time. Submitted at 9/2/2012 10:00:04 AM Why Women Still Cant Have it Editors note: Michal Tsur is a All, written by Anne-Marie serial tech entrepreneur, having co Slaughter, a former advisor to -founded online security firm President Obama, makes the Cyota and open-source video controversial argument that unless platform Kaltura, where she is a woman is rich, an entrepreneur, currently president. Leah Belsky o r a s u p e r - w o m a n , i t s is a fellow at the Information impossible to have it all in both Society Project at Yale Law work and family life. According School, where she contributes on to Slaughter, the competing online collaboration and demands of being a top t e c h n o l o g y p o l i c y , a n d i s professional and a good mother c u r r e n t l y S V P o f K a l t u r a . are too great women must The blossoming tech startup inevitably make trade-offs. generation, and the new wave of Within hours the piece went professional women seeking viral, as leading bloggers argued success in the workplace and at whether women can or should, home dont always cross paths. for their own well-being Tech industries suffer from a o v e r c o m e t h e s e c h a l l e n g e s noticeable lack of strong female t h r o u g h a m b i t i o n a l o n e . leadership at the top, while And as we followed the ensuing powerful women have mostly debates, we were struck by one flocked to traditional industries. thought: If there is one place Although the concept of having where women have the greatest it all might itself be elusive, its chance to carve new paths toward time that women who value both a a fulfilling life and career, its in rich home life and a fulfilling tech. career explore the tech startup Indeed, this proposition runs world. counter to the state of women in In July/August 2012 the Atlantic tech today: The majority of
funded tech startups are led by men, while women languish in mostly supporting roles. Its an issue acknowledged by professional icons such as Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook and one of the most powerful women in tech. Why then do we believe that the tech sector is where women have the best shot at having it all? Here are a few key reasons: The tech startup world values flexibility and thinking out-of-thebox. Its a place where new ideas and approaches to work are more easily embraced. And its an industry with a 24-7 work culture, which means its easier to accommodate different types of schedules whether that means going home to families early in order to work later at night. Working remotely is more accepted. The tech world understands spending time in the office is not the only means of success employees often collaborate through messages, email, phone and online meetings instead. Though empirically most startups today are still led by men,
many of these startup leaders belong to a newer generation a generation mostly raised by working moms and married to educated spouses, giving them awareness of the need for flexibility in the workplace and a recognition that their female cofounders and employees are essential to success. Many women today opt out of tech because they believe a formal engineering degree is a prerequisite. The reality is that successful tech companies require a variety of skillsets from design and community management to operations and business development- both at the entry level and in leadership positions. Significant technical skills can also be learned both on the job and outside of traditional academic education. Take Marissa Mayer vs. Sheryl Sandberg. While Mayer, the current CEO of Yahoo may have graduated Stanford with a CS degree, Sandberg, Facebooks COO, rose through the business ranks at Google, gaining enough product knowledge on the job to become one of the leading operators and
innovators in the space. Today, women are a small percentage of our industry. And yes, tech is currently powered by a male-dominated engineering and VC culture, which will remain a challenge. But these gender obstacles havent stopped womens ascent in the larger professional world. Ambition, hard work, sacrifice. and dedication are still requirements for success in tech but a decision to prioritize achievement over family is not. So, to women of the tech world and advocates everywhere: Its time to tweak our advertising and share this secret. Having it all may still not be possible in traditional career paths but we can certainly find new avenues altogether. The tech world has limitless opportunities for success, flexibility, and fulfillment. Lets make it the next frontier for women to conquer.
Djokovic warms up Ashe for Roddick

Defending champion Novak Djokovic is the warm-up act for Andy Roddick at the U.S. Open.
14
Technology/
An awesome-sounding headphone amplifier Kickstarter project

Steve Guttenberg (CNET News)
Submitted at 9/2/2012 10:06:00 AM
The Sicphones headphone amplifier(Credit: Steve Guttenberg/CNET) It was just a few weeks ago when my buddy Tyll Hertsens was raving about Colin Shaw's Sicphones amplifier Kickstarter project. Hertsens never steers me wrong, so I contacted Shaw, and a few days later I received the amp. Hertsens was right. This design uses a newly available SemiSouth silicon carbide transistor, and the amp sounds amazing. If Shaw makes his Kickstarter goal he'll be able to sell amp kits for as little as $229, and assembled amps for $279! DIY-ers can spring for just $35 and get the Sicphones amplifier PC board, assembly instructions, and parts source list. I was blown away by the sound: the Sicphones is competitive with $1,000 headphone amps. The 6x7x3.25-inch chassis is a threepiece design with laser-cut steel top and bottom panels. Shaw's friend David Tanner is responsible for the Sicphones look, and I think it's a handsome and totally unique design. Build quality is, by far, the best I've seen for the money. The rear panel hosts a pair of good-quality
RCA inputs, a power switch, and a mini connector for the included wall-wart power supply. I listened to the Sicphones with Grado RS-1, HiFiMan HE 400 and HE 500, and Sennheiser HD 700 headphones, and the sound was exceptionally clear. The amp doesn't add any warmth or richness to the sound, so it won't please buyers who listen to a lot of heavily equalized, low-bit MP3s. If the recording isn't up to snuff the Sicphones won't make it
The Sicphones amp's rear panel(Credit: Steve Guttenberg/ CNET) The Sicphones is a remarkablesounding device for $279, but there's no amp that will satisfy every taste. The sound is a little too cool for me, I kept wishing it was a little fuller or warmersounding. It certainly was powerful enough to play nice and loud, but it sounded best at quiet and medium volume levels. The clarity is beyond, far beyond what I've heard from any other under$1,000 amps, so if you crave sonic purity from your headphones, Colin Shaw's Sicphones amp is highly recommended. If Shaw's Kickstarter project doesn't reach its goal the amp will probably be made, but it might any better than it really is. The Sicphones amp was awfully wind up selling for a little more With great-sounding acoustic impressive -- the one snag was the money. Even so, it will still be jazz or classical music the bass, which was lightweight one of the most affordable madeSicphones sound was revelatory. compared with the sound of my in-the-U.S. headphone amps on The immediacy was stunning; it Schiit Lyr headphone amp. Keith the market. was like looking through a much Richards' "Main Offender" album This entry passed through the clearer window. Paul Simon's had more oomph with the Lyr. Full-Text RSS service if this is outtakes from the "Graceland" The Lyr's sound was more diffuse, your content and you're reading it sessions were a thrill. Vocals and softer, and less clear than the on someone else's site, please read acoustic guitars were palpably Sicphones'. The HiFiMan EF-6 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentrealistic. The sense of being there, headphone amp matches the only/faq.php#publishers. Five as if there was nothing separating Sicphones' transparency and has a Filters recommends: Incinerating me from the musicians, was lot more weight, but it's a $1,599 Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work. perfect. amp (review in the works).
Technology/
15
Wanna come back to my place to see my Apple store?

Chris Matyszczyk (CNET News)
Submitted at 9/2/2012 10:43:17 AM
aware of what you might think, for his blog post begins: "Call me mad. Call me crazy." Just so very homey, no?(Credit: May I pause for all fans of David Wu (with permission)) Android to pitch out of the windDavid Wu looks ridicule in the up? face and says: "Come on, ridicule, Call him crazy. Go on. He can you lily-livered lout. Show me take it.(Credit: David Wu (with what you got." permission)) You see, his enthusiasm for Wu claims he is not a designer. Apple products is such that he Indeed, his official explanation of displays it with all the gusto of a himself is "disruptive innovator," potentate who builds a temple to and "technologist." his own personal god inside his He explains that he woke up mansion. three months ago and decided to I am grateful to Razorian Fly for disrupt his home office with indicating that Wu exists and to technology. More Technically Wu himself for allowing me to Incorrect use his photographs, which he has There's an Apple pillar that looks posted on his blog. for all the world like something Oh, I can't put off the reveal any that could be on the altar of the longer. Wu has constructed an C h u r c h o f t h e L a t t e r D a y Apple store in his home office. A p p l i s t s . I know, I know. He is, at least There's a maple wood desk --
I do have one concern about this whole project. It is not that Wu might be mentally unstable, nor that he might be extremely mentally unstable. It is that Apple, given how its muscles have grown beyond the general definition of "guns", might just sue him. Do you have words?(Credit: David Wu (with permission)) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentFetzer, of course -- with the same "Every last detail was important only/faq.php#publishers. Five interlocking pattern with which to a crazy person like me," he says Filters recommends: Incinerating devotees have become familiar. on his blog. Oh, so you CAN call Assange - The Liberal Media Go And, yes, of course there's a him crazy. For he did, indeed, To Work. product cabinet. even install glass panels that give What did you think Wu was? the whole place an even greater Faint of heart? Apple feel.
PRO
who take their favorite teams to the grave. Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing- Sean Bratches Auto -Volvo Creative agency partner: Forsman & Bodenfors The auto industry has a wealth of brands that are investing heavily in branded content, such as Toyota, BMW, or Volkswagon. Check out Volvos recent video
the Ballerina Stunt. Vice President Global Marketing Richard Monturo CPG Old Spice Creative agency partner: Wieden & Kennedy Old Spice has rolled out one hit after another. From The Man Your Man Could Smell Like to the most recent Vimeo hit, Muscle Music, Brand Manager- Joshua Talge
Financial American Express No brand takes publishing more seriously than Amex. Check out their digital publishing platform Open Forum which aims to produce content to aid the growth of small businesses. Chief Marketing Officer John Hayes Provide analytics to track engagement and show viral lift Advertisers are moving beyond
simple click-through-rates (CTR) and looking for new ways to measure depth of engagement and the impact of sharing. While building out an entire analytics dashboard is a tall task for a fledgling publisher, platforms like Moat can be utilized to track advanced metrics like viewable impressions, in-view time, interaction time, interaction rate, a heat-map-like hover rate, attention
quality, and time to scroll. For publishers that want to create their own social analytics dashboards, check out Buzzfeeds Viral Dashboard, which provides data on the viral lift for each of their posts.
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Technology/
Berkeley Study: Half-Star Change In Yelp Rating Can Make Or Break A Restaurant
Gregory Ferenstein (TechCrunch)
WEEKLY
Take My Facebook Password? Over My Dead Body Is Microsoft Challenging Google on HTTP 2.0 with WebSocket? [Infographic] Social Media Security Basics Mobile For Google, to Play Is to Fight the Commoditization of Android Fuzebox, the iPad and the Reality of Simple Unified Communications Squashing Bugs: The Many Layered Approach to Mobile App Testing Cloud Follow ReadWriteCloud on Twitter and join the ReadWriteCloud LinkedIn Group. Red Hat Sets a Date for OpenShift Source Release Box Launches Its Own Enterprise Cloud Operating Ecosystem Google's Go Programming Language Grows Up: Now What? Hack Follow ReadWriteHack on
Twitter. Google Adds New Toys to OAuth Playground Trello: Online Collaboration Software at Its Finest Revenge of the DevOps: Microsoft Targets Next Visual Studio for Admins Too ReadWriteWeb Community You can find ReadWriteWeb in many places on the web, a few of which are below. ReadWriteWeb on Facebook ReadWriteWeb on Twitter ReadWriteWeb on Google+ ReadWriteWeb on LinkedIn ReadWriteWeb on Pinterest ReadWriteWeb on Storify Subscribe to the ReadWriteWeb Weekly Wrap-up Want to have this wrap up delivered to you automagically? You can subscribe to the Weekly Wrap-up by RSS or by email.
controlling for the establishments dcor, service rating, and cost. Careful readers may note that a Submitted at 9/2/2012 10:42:20 AM higher-quality rating may simply Two Berkeley economists have denote a better restaurant, and the found that the tiniest changes in study is therefore only capturing online restaurant reviews can patrons who prefer a better make or break a restaurant. A experience, who choose where to simple half-star improvement on dine independent of Yelps rating. Yelps 5-star rating makes it 30- The researchers answer this 49% more likely that a restaurant critique by looking at restaurants will sell out its evening seats. whose Yelp rating difference by Online reviews, the researchers only a little bit, but whose official conclude, play an increasingly rating is at least one-half star important role in how consumers different. judge the quality of goods and For instance, a two restaurants, services. one with a 3.74 rating and one The researchers validate the with 3.76 rating, are similar in claims by combining yelp reviews actual equality, but because of 328 San Francisco restaurants theyll get rated by yelp 3.5 and with a database that tracks real- 4.0 respectively, could receive time reservation availability from dramatically different reservation 6-8pm. The power of Yelp to fill a rates. restaurants seats and the owners See, Yelp officially rates pocketbook holds up even when restaurants in half-star intervals,
but publishes all of the ratings. The researchers can therefore recreate their own rating for each restaurant with much greater accuracy. It turns out, restaurants with strikingly similar aggregate ratings are nonetheless hurt by the official difference. Differences in customer flows between such restaurants can therefore be attributed to the ratings themselves rather than differences in the quality of food or service. The researchers also note that Yelp does not impact well-known establishments (less than 500 total ratings). In other words, noone is checking Yelp to see if they should binge at McDonalds or splurge at a celebrity restaurant. [Via The Guardian; Study PDF] [Image Credit: Flickr user williamcho]
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Technology/ Culture/ Featured/ Finance/
17
Runway Show History Infographics - The Evolution of Fashion Week Chart is Fiercely Figured (TrendHunter.com)
(TREND HUNTER - The Latest Trends)
Religious Building Birdhouses - Even Birds are Spiritual in the Frederik Roije 'Holy Homes' Series (TrendHunter.com)
Retro Gaming Light Switches Power-Up Light Switch Makes it Fun to Play with the Lights (TrendHunter.com)
Life's Greatest Investment

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Donate to World Vision

Airlines under pressure to allow internet access on aeroplanes

Katherine Rushton (Finance News - Business news from the UK and world)
Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:13:59 AM
Your gift to provide seeds, tools, and training will be multiplied 4 mean the difference between life times by grant funds, and can and death for hungry children.
For many travellers, aeroplane journeys are one of the last bastions of peace and quiet. But all that may be set to change.
Furthermore, whenever you introduce someone to the Savior, you're carrying out the work of September 2, 2012| 6:41 am the church. Jesus told His What is the most worthwhile followers to make disciples of all investment a person can make in nations (Matt. 28:19). This life? Is it a great stock that gigantic task is accomplished one produces enormous dividends? Or person at a time, as we each do a satisfying, lucrative career? For our part to share the gospel. some, family might be the answer, God's plan for enlarging His while others might choose giving kingdom is so simple--one person time and treasure to the church. telling another about the Savior. All of these things are good, but Yet we're busy and full of the Lord showed Paul what He e x c u s e s . J u s t r e m e m b e r , considered to be the best use of someone's eternal destiny is at our lives: Helping someone come stake. The joy you'll have when to a saving knowledge of Christ is you meet that person in heaven the greatest achievement possible. will far exceed any discomfort When you become an instrument you felt in sharing the gospel. in God's hands as He transfers Follow us someone from the realm of Used with permission from In darkness into the kingdom of His Touch Ministries, Inc. 2012 Son, you make a difference in the All Rights Reserved. person's eternal destiny. Not only This entry passed through the that, but Satan also receives a Full-Text RSS service if this is devastating blow. Just imagine the your content and you're reading it defeat he suffered when Paul on someone else's site, please read turned to Jesus. The same holds the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contenttrue for any new believer: All the only/faq.php#publishers. Five Devil's plans for that individual Filters recommends: Incinerating are thwarted. As a person begins Assange - The Liberal Media Go to live in God's will, there's no To Work. telling what the Lord will do in and through him.
Forgetting the War

Daniel Halper (The Weekly Standard)
Fred Hiatt, writing for the Washington Post, notes that the
war has been "almost forgotten":
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Economy/
Forget Bernanke: A Paper At Jackson Hole May Have Changed The Future Of Economics
Joe Weisenthal (Money Game)
If you just knew two things about the current state of the US economy that unemployment was unacceptably high and that inflation was subdued you'd suggest that the proper course for the Federal Reserve would be to lower interest rates, and make money cheaper. The problem is: interest rates are at ~0%. This is the defining monetary puzzle of our time. Since the crisis hit, the Federal Reserve has attempted to juice the economy through a program that's called Quantitative Easing, which is buying long-dated government bonds and mortgage backed securities It's the same scheme that the Bank of Japan has tried in its long battle against saggy growth and deflation. The effect has been to balloon the size of the Federal Reserve Balance Sheet, as you can see in this chart, which comes The Cleveland Fed. In his Jackson Hole speech in 2010 (.pdf), Ben Bernanke explained how the program worked. Specifically he cited the
"portfolio balance channel", which means that QE would work
by reducing the supply of super-
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safe Treasuries and Mortgage Backed Securities, and instead push investors into other areas (like corporate bonds), thus depressing yields and borrowing costs in the private sector. Think of it this way: During the crisis, everyone sought refuge in the safety of Treasuries. Bernanke was now seeking to deprive them of this safety valve, and force their cash into areas where it might do some good in the economy. Here are his words: The channels through which the Feds purchases affect longerterm interest rates and financial conditions more generally have been subject to debate. I see the evidence as most favorable to the view that such purchases work primarily through the so-called portfolio balance channel, which holds that once short- term interest rates have reached zero, the Federal Reserves purchases of longer-term securities affect financial conditions by changing the quantity and mix of financial assets held by the public. Specifically, the Feds strategy relies on the presumption that different financial assets are not perfect substitutes in investors portfolios, so that changes in the net supply of an asset available to investors affect its yield and those of broadly similar assets. Thus, our purchases of Treasury, agency debt, and agency MBS likely both reduced the yields on those securities and also pushed investors into holding other assets
with similar characteristics, such as credit risk and duration. For example, some investors who sold MBS to the Fed may have replaced them in their portfolios with longer-term, high-quality corporate bonds, depressing the yields on those assets as well. It's worth noting that although this was all new territory for the Fed, this wasn't new territory for monetary economists, who had spent a lot of time talking about what Japan could do to get itself out of its post-crisis funk. One of the economists who wrote a lot about Japan was Ben Bernanke. Two years later, the jury is still out on QE. The fact that unemployment is high, inflation is subdued, and growth is mediocre implies it hasn't been a raging success. Also the fact that we're talking about doing QE3 is a little bit damning. Nonetheless, at Jackson hole this year, Bernanke gave a vigorous defense of QE, meaning that not only does he believe it worked, he believes its appropriate for the ongoing labor crisis we're experiencing today. He said: Model simulations conducted at the Federal Reserve generally find that the securities purchase programs have provided significant help for the economy. For example, a study using the Board's FRB/US model of the economy found that, as of 2012, the first two rounds of LSAPs may have raised the level of output by almost 3 percent and increased private payroll
employment by more than 2 million jobs, relative to what otherwise would have occurred. So Bernanke talked about the dismal state of the economy, and he insisted that QE works, which is why so many people believe that another round is coming, if not in September, then at the December meeting. And now here's where things get interesting... Following Bernanke's speech at Jackson Hole, a paper was delivered at the conference by Michael Woodford, a Columbia economist who is considered to be one of the world's foremost experts on monetary policy and interest rates. The title of the paper was Accommodation at the Zero Lower Bound and clocking in at 97 pages, it provides an exhaustive overview of which monetary stimulus techniques really work when the Fed's official interest rates have hit ~0%. Woodford's paper was a rebuke to Bernanke. What it says is that asset purchases have modest, difficult-to-quantify effects, and are not even theoretically robust. Instead, what really works, are verbal commitments by central banks to target a certain economic or financial outcome. Woodford ends up coming out in support of Nominal GDP Level Targeting, one of the buzziest ideas in academic economics, which we'll go explain below. First, he builds the case that what central bankers say and target
actually matters. Why do people obsess so much about whether the Fed says it expects to hold rates low until 2014 or 2015? This is why. Woodford presents a clear-cut example of a central bank making a forward-looking statement, and then watching it play out in financial markets. What follows is a chunk from Woodford's paper where he describes a particular example of a bank (in this case the Bank of Canada) making an explicit conditional statement about future policy, wherein it essentially promised not to raise a specific interest rate until a specific date, so long as inflation doesn't rise above its target levels. What Woodford observers through the data is that financial contracts immediately reflected the Bank of Canada's conditional promise not to raise the rate: The occasions during the recent crisis on which central banks have indicated that they expected to maintain a xed policy rate for a specic period of time are of particular interest for purposes of our inquiry. These are especially dramatic examples of attempts at forward guidance, making a clear break from business as usual; moreover, the import of what is said for the future path of the policy rate is quite explicit and easily summarized. It is therefore of interest to consider what has happened on these occasions, even if one cannot do formal hypothesis tests with such a small sample of events, each rather
unique. A particularly explicit example of forward guidance was the Bank of Canadas statement on April 21, 2009, which announced the following: The Bank of Canada today announced that it is lowering its target for the overnight rate by one-quarter of a percentage point to 1/4 per cent, which the Bank judges to be the eective lower bound for that rate.... With monetary policy now operating at the eective lower bound for the overnight policy rate, it is appropriate to provide more explicit guidance than is usual regarding its future path so as to inuence rates at longer maturities. Conditional on the outlook for ination, the target overnight rate can be expected to remain at its current level until the end of the second quarter of 2010 in order to achieve the ination target. While the statement included the announcement of a reduction in the current target rate, it also oered explicit guidance about where the target should be expected to be, extending more than a year into the future. The release of the statement had an almost instantaneous eect on market expectations about the future path of the policy rate, as indicated by trading in overnight interest-rate swap (OIS) contracts (Figure 1). The tick-by-tick transactions data plotted in the gure show that market OIS ratesfell almost FORGET page 21
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Spain: For Whom The Bell Now Tolls

Tyler Durden
Senor Cervantes I would say that Rodrigo, as representing Spain, is about to be devoured by the Via Mark J. Grant, author of Out snakes. The central bank of Spain of the Box, just released the net capital It is an old saying; the Devil outflow numbers and they are lurks behind the cross. All is not disastrous. During the month of gold that glitters. From the tail of June alone $70.90 billion left the the plough, Bamba was made Spanish banks and in July it was King of Spain; and from his silks worse at $92.88 billion which is and riches was Rodrigo cast to be 4.7% of total bank deposits in devoured by the snakes. Spain. For the first seven months -Miguel de Cervantes, Don of the year the outflow adds up to Quixote $368.80 billion or 17.7% of the It was not so long ago that I total bank deposits of Spain and spoke at the Strategic Forum the trajectory of the outflow is which was sponsored in part by increasing dramatically. Reality is TD bank. After my presentation reality and Spain is experiencing a about Europe where I had stated, full-fledged run on its banks quite clearly, that Spain would hit whether anyone in Europe wants the wall I found myself accosted to admit it or not. by the economist of one of The Spanish ten year now yields Spains major banks. Fortunately a 6.81% and their thirty year is Craig Alexander, the senior yielding 7.34%. Spain has now set economist at TD, was walking up a fund for its regions to tap of next to me and as the quite $22.6 billion and this, in my impolite lady from Spain tried to opinion, will not even be close to verbally incase me in the famous what is asked for or required with iron lady of the Spanish the regions needing some $50-75 Inquisition he grabbed my arm billion in assistance in my and led me out to the patio to estimation. Many of the regions in speak with some other people and Spain are not paying suppliers or so saved me from not only the their other local debts and the diatribe of the loca senorita but situation is clearly out of control. from saying several impolite In October Spain has $25 billion things which I was about to say in in sovereign debt maturing plus retort. As I consider the latest data will be adding new debt under about Spain I think of this their current plan so that the incident and take some delight in snakes are not only coming out saying, I told you so or other from under the rocks but dropping t h i n g s i n a d m i s s i b l e i n m y from the trees. On top of this commentary. Bankia, late Friday, reported out To use the analogy offered by bad loans of $8.24 billion and an
operating loss of $5.58 billion causing the government to go into hyper-drive and promise to inject $5-6 billion into the bank immediately to prevent its collapse. If funds from the EU/ IMF are to be utilized, which has been widely discussed, a very political problem arises. Bankia has issued preferred shares to many of their depositors and they would be wiped out if the European money is utilized under the current regulations which would cause Mr. Rajoy more than a few problems and could send people back into the streets. Then Spain has the highest unemployment rate in Europe, even higher than in Greece, with a 25.1% jobless rate. For those under twenty-five the job situation is extreme with a 53% unemployment rate. "Was there ever a people whose leaders were as truly their enemies as this one?" -Ernest Hemmingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls The River Runs Dry Between December of 2011 and the end of March 2012 the Spanish banks bought $109 billion of the Spanish sovereign debt. Much of this was facilitated by the ECB who lowered and lowered again the collateral rules and handed the money to the Spanish banks in such a size that bad things, very bad things will result if Spain hits the wall and defaults. Then since March, as forced by their own inadequate
capital positions, the trend has reversed and the Spanish banks have sold $21.3 billion of Spanish sovereign debt with $11.7 billion in July alone as capital flees from the Spanish banks and the actuality of the balance sheets overcomes the dynamic provisioning that helped to cause the fantasy. The friendly suggestions by national governments in Europe are also getting a push back from European buyers. BNP recently imposed a $12.5 billion debt limit by country and many other banks in Europe are following suit. BNP has reduced their sovereign debt holdings by 35% since June 2011. In July, the aggregate of sovereign debt reduction for all of the French banks was $8.7 billion as they took advantage of the ECB speculation to lower their holdings. The Cries of Desperation Spains Prime Ministers rather comic call that his countrys heading into bankruptcy was a victory for all of Europe is more properly found in some Theatre of the Absurd. The recent rants and raves by the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister that the ECB should buy their debt without limit is an obvious last ditch Hail Mary pass before the plunge into the financial abyss begins. The ECB may not require audits of the national government or of the regional governments or the Spanish banks but the ECB pledge of Mr. Draghi is
dependent, you may recall, on the EU and the various stabilization funds use and alone, or with the IMF, audits will be demanded by many countries and the results of the dynamic provisioning will be found to be just what I have asserted I would bet which is the juggling of the books for all three entities. The gasps for breath will be resplendent in Paris, Berlin and in Brussels and panic attacks will be on the rise in many European capitals. Spain has begun the well -worn walk of shame already traversed by Greece, Ireland, Cyprus and Portugal. Forthcoming Events There are some major flashpoints coming soon in Europe. One is the ruling by the German Constitutional Court on September 12 whether the ESM is legal in Germany or not. While it is widely expected that the High Court will go along with the program; who knows? On Tuesday, September 4, Draghi will release his save the world plans to the European Central Banks ahead of the next ECB meeting which begins on September 5. There is a huge and serious division between Mr. Draghi and the head of the Bundesbank. There were rumors last week that Jens Weidemann, head of the German Central Bank, might resign over the policies about to be proposed by Draghi. Here we have the troubled nations SPAIN: page 24
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instantaneously at the time that the announcement was made (9:00 AM EST, shown by the vertical line). This was evidently an eect of the statement; yet since the statement included the announcement of an immediate target rate reduction, one might wonder if themoves in the OIS rates reected simply the typical implications of a cut in thecurrent target forrates months in the future, rather than anya dditional eects of the conditional commitment. It is useful to note not only that OIS rates for maturitiesas long as six totwelve months fall, but that the longer maturities fall more; that is, not only does the OIS yield curve fall in response to the announcement, but it attens. This implies eitherthatexpectations of policy rates for months in early 2010 fall even more than do nearertermexpectations, or that uncertainty about the path of the policy rateo ver the coming year has been sub stantiallyreduced (reducing the term premium). That's just one tiny example, and Woodford walks through several more, but the evidence he presents suggests that forward statements like this do matter. The second half of his paper explains why asset purchases are of only modest value. First, he rebutts an idea put forth by Milton Friedman, that if the Fed just expanded its balance sheet aggressively, then that money would eventually flow into the broader economy, boosting the amount of money out there,
and boosting total spending. But as this chart shows, even though the size of the Fed's balance sheet (the dark black line) exploded, all of the other measures (including the amount of currenty out there) remained subdued through the QE periods (which are shaded in grey). Woodford writes: There has similarly been as yet little sign of any acceleration of ination, despite the warnings of some monetarists. Thus such eects as the programs have had do not seem to support the theory of pure quantitative easing. He then takes on directly Bernanke's preferred explanation of how QE "works" the portfolio balance channel, the idea that by buying Treasuries, the Fed is pushing investors into riskier areas of the economy, where their investments will do more good, or at least lower rates for private borrowers. Woodford's argument goes into a lot of theoretical finance, and basically suggests that the mere "mix" of assets shouldn't really change their price (if markets are somewhat efficient) and that there's no good data to suggest that asset purchases have actually changed prices of various market securities. Woodford makes a point that we've made several times, which is that during periods of QE, Treasury yields have actually gone up, undermining the idea that the scheme pushes rates lower. Conversely, there are studies which show that on the
days that QE programs have been announced, yields have indeed fallen but even this evidence is muddled by the fact that a the same time QE programs have been announced, the Fed has also engaged in changing its forward outlook/commitments, therefore calling into question whether it was the purchases or the language that really moved the market. Woodford's Big Conclusion You've probably seen this chart several times in recent years. The red line represents the potential nominal GDP for the economy (which is calculated making a few assumptions like full employment). The blue line is the actual nominal GDP. What's defined the crisis, and post-crisis periods is the huge gap between total output, and total potential output. What Woodford concludes is that the Fed ought to say this: We are going to keep rates low until the blue line comes back and touches the red line. It's not that the Fed will keep rates low until the economy improves, or unemployment falls below 6%, or until inflation really starts picking up, it's only that the Fed won't ease up on the gas pedal until the economy is fully at its full output potential. The idea is that the Fed is sending a huge signal to businesses: We're going to keep money cheap for a long time, even once the economy is gaining steam, so that if you're in the game then, you're going to make huge profits. All uncertainty about when rates are raised is
taken off the table, and the Fed maintains all the credibility in the world, so long as it just sticks to that goal. Woodford writes: Standard New Keynesian models imply that a higher level of expected real income or ination in the future creates incentives for greater real expenditure and larger price increases now; but in the case of a conventional interestrate reaction function for the central bank, short-term interest rates should increase, and the disincentive that this provides to current expenditure will attenuate (without completely eliminating) the sensitivity of current conditions to expectations. If nominal interest rates instead remain unchanged, the degree to which higher expected real income and ination later produce higher real income and ination now is amplied. If the situation is expected to persist for a period of time, the degree of amplication should increase exponentially. Hence it is precisely when the interest-rate lower bound is expected to be a binding constraint for some time to come that expectations about the conduct of policy after the constraint ceases to bind should have a particularly large eect on current economic conditions to the extent, that is, that it is possible to shift expectations about conditions that far in the future. Matt Yglesias had a good post putting this into a real-world example:
...you're considering borrowing some money to build a big apartment complex. One relevant issue is the prevailing interest rate. But another relevant issue is how much money you think people are going to have to spend on rent. If someone tells you real incomes are going to rise faster than you'd previously expected, building the apartment looks better. But then again, if real incomes rise faster than expected you'll also expect interest rates to rise which cuts in the other direction. So if someone comes along and says "this is a special caserates are staying ultra-low even if some unexpected good news shows up" that has a big impact on your thinking. And since the very act of building the apartment tends to increase real incomes (gotta hire people) the commitment serves to supercharge the impact of any good news. So this is the idea Woodford's getting behind. Making a credible promise not to raise rates until a clear moment that will occur well after the recovery has really gathered steam. It's worth noting that this isn't an idea that's new to Woodford at all. Other economists (notably Scott Sumner) have been talking about similar ideas for a long time. Even Goldman has advised the Fed to set a Nominal GDP target. But this is a major moment, when a top economist at one of the world's foremost monetary policy FORGET page 26
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Economy/
Harrisburg to Run Out of Money in October; Inside America's Most Indebted City; Labyrinth of Fraud
noreply@blogger.com (Mike Mish Shedlock) (Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis)
complicated transactions and intertwining finances create a labyrinth of money that stretches decades into Harrisburgs history. Submitted at 9/2/2012 12:15:00 AM Congratulations to Harrisburg, At best estimates, based upon the capital of Pennsylvania, for reviews of independent reports having the highest per capita debt and audited financial statements, of any city in the country. the amount of debt owed by the The town's 50,000 citizens are on city and its affiliated entities t h e h o o k f o r $ 1 . 5 b i l l i o n with interest stands somewhere according to the NPR article north of $1.5 billion. Inside America's Most Indebted Thats roughly $30,285 for each City. The city has delayed of the 49,528 men, women and payments to light bulb venders children living in the city and and paper sellers. Restaurants almost twice the income of the have hired their own security. A average city resident. local strip club paid to keep the While the amount of debt is eyestreet light on. The city is popping, it is only one piece of projected to run out of money the jigsaw puzzle that is the citys entirely in October. bleak financial background. A judge has recently ordered a It does not account for past-due 1% income tax hike on the people debt payments or unfunded still left in Harrisburg. But the p e n s i o n a n d h e a l t h c a r e city council has promised to fight obligations. Nor does it include it.$1.5 Billion Does Not Include the estimated annual deficits in Schools, Pensions, Unfunded the citys and school districts Liabilities budgets, which this year are so far T h e P a t r i o t N e w s n o t e s estimated at $6.8 million for the Harrisburg's eye-popping debt city and at least $7 million for the total is just one piece of city's school district, even with drastic bleak financial puzzle cuts such as eliminating Its almost impossible to say k i n d e r g a r t e n . exactly how much money the A declining tax base contributes elected and appointed officials of to the overall problem between Harrisburg have borrowed. 2009 and 2012, the assessed value M i s s i n g f i n a n c i a l a u d i t s , of property in the city dropped by
more than $30 million, according to a school district report. Meanwhile, each time property taxes increase, fewer people pay them. According to a school district report, property tax collection rates have fallen from 87 percent to 83 percent. THE DOMINO EFFECT City schools may find themselves in a similar situation. In 2009, the district refinanced almost $280 million of outstanding debt to exit swap agreements and lower debt payments over the first few years by securing lower interest rates. It also borrowed an additional $10 million for building projects and equipment purchases. In his recovery plan, former Receiver David Unkovic noted that according to the last completed financial audit of the city and the letter of the law the city could borrow still more money. According to his offices calculations, the city could legally borrow up to an additional $117 million. Whether anyone would agree to offer the city another loan, however, is an entirely different question. Labyrinth of Fraud Whenever you see stories like
this, you can bet your last dime that massive amounts of fraud are in play. The NPR article profiled David Unkovic, the man appointed by the state of Pennsylvania to fix the Harrisburg debt problem. Unkovic resigned in May, then completely vanished from public life after scrawling out a handwritten letter of resignation. Months later, NPR tracked him down and now Unkovic believes there is something more sinister than gross mismanagement at play. From NPR"Illegal conduct occurred," Bill Cluck, who serves on the board that runs Harrisburg's incinerator, told me. "I think false statements were submitted under penalty of law to the state government in connection with the financing." Stephen Reed was the mayor of Harrisburg from 1980 to 2009. People in town famously say he never met a bond he didn't like. He used the money borrowed on the incinerator to do all sorts of things. He bought strange artifacts from all over the country, dreaming of building a Wild West museum. The city borrowed money to buy a baseball team and build a
stadium; the team was later sold at a loss. "The fundamental problem is he was borrowing more than he was really allowed to under state law," Unkovic says. In 2007, Harrisburg filed a document called an 8110 b certificate. It was a promise, Bill Cluck says, that all the previous debt borrowed on the incinerator was still self-liquidating that the incinerator would bring in enough money to pay the money that had been already borrowed on it. "They knew it wasn't true when it was submitted, and it's never been corrected to this day," Cluck says. And that, according to Cluck, was a crime. There were 17 different revenue projections showing that the incinerator could never earn back all the money that had been borrowed. So how was it that nobody none of the law firms, none of the financial advisers raised questions about the wisdom of this loan? We asked, but they refused to respond on the record. And, Cluck notes, all those advisers made HARRISBURG page 26
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23
SSA on NFP, Unconventional Policy and the Hangover

Bruce Krasting
2012 GDP is lagging that of 2Q 2012. It is certainly less than 2%. It could be less than 1.5%. The Social Security Trust Fund Assume we do get an NFP of (SSA) has provided key operating 150K. The question is, would this data for the month of September. r e l a t i v e l y g o o d r e s u l t t i e This information allows for a Bernankes hand regarding the rough estimate of this Fridays September 13 decision(s) by the NFP number. Fed? I would think so, but I dont The following chart compares the think like Bernanke. monthly data for FICA tax If the economy produces, on revenues at SSA (a proxy for total average, only 150k new jobs per payrolls) for 2012 versus 2011: month, then the unemployment A few observations: rate will remain high (8+%), for a -Payroll Tax revenues are up in long-time to come. Ben doesnt 2012 versus 2011 for every month want that to be his legacy. The this year. talk on Wall Street (and the -The rate of improvement has manipulated financial press) is declined in each quarter so far this that a new round of QE is coming year. in a fortnight. It will be $500B in -The September increase was size (spread over 6 months). It 2.25% YoY. This is a slight will be directed at MBS securities. improvement from the 2.0% gains Bernanke has referred to QE as in July and August. unconventional monetary -The gain in PR receipts in Q3 is policy. He has said that prior consistent with payroll growth of unconventional policy actions 150,000 per month. were what saved the financial My conclusions after looking at system during the emergency the numbers: days of 2008. Maybe. But the -The July NFP # of +163,000 is story of QE has not been fully above recent trend and is not told as yet. s u p p o r t e d b y t h e S S A P R Bernanke needs to change his numbers. The July number may definition of unconventional be revised down by 15K. policies. While QE1 and 2 may -The current street estimate for h a v e b e e n c o n s i d e r e d the August NFP is 118,000. I unconventional, QE3 will confirm would take theover on this t h a t w h a t w a s o n c e estimate. My range is 140-150K. unconventional, has morphed into -The SSA data suggests that 3Q something that has become very
conventional. There is nothing conventional about QE. Its dangerous that QE has gone from something contemplated only during an extreme emergency, to an everyday policy tool. I know that some folks at the Fed will read this; I ask that they pass two questions along to the Chairman. A)- What are the Fed's expectations for the market/ economic response to another round of QE? Assume we get a six-month, $500Bn LSAP targeted at MBS. Now turn it around. B)- What are the Feds expectations for the market/ economic response when the Fed announces that it will sell $500Bn of ten-year paper from its bloated inventory over a six-month period? I grant the Chairman that if A is
undertaken, there would be some modest positive consequences to both the capital markets and the broader economy. Something like a temporary 5% increase in the S&P and a 0.1 to 0.2% decrease in the unemployment rate might follow. . B must follow A at some point. When it happens, it will have very substantial consequences. Interest rates will shoot up as the Fed crowds out all other borrowers (including the US government). The stock market will fall like a stone at the announcement and continue down each month as the Fed sells. The global markets will see/feel the consequences. Banks, pension funds and savers who are loaded to the gills with long-dated bonds with 1% yields will get crushed. Some financial institutions would have to fail. A recession would be inevitable under these circumstances; unemployment would rise as a result. My point is that there are extremely asymmetrical results associated with more QE. Yes, there might be a few more months of party time. But when the party ends(it will), the cost of the party will be ten times the shortterm gain. Ben Bernanke can afford to throw another party in September.
The reason is that he will not be around when the inevitable cleanup of his mess starts. Hell be back in Princeton when the SHTF. How can one man poison the country's well ? Easy. There is no one around to tell Ben,No more! This is a one-man show, and this man is bent on destroying the future, in exchange for a few pips in the unemployment rate and another pop in the S&P today. At some point in the future Ben and his policies will be discredited. The cost will be the undoing of the country. Ben has converted monetary policy to a three-month time horizon. He gives zero consideration to the long-term consequences of his actions. I get little comfort knowing that the history books will prove that he erred at a critical time. I have kids; they will be paying for Bens mistakes for the rest of their lives. . Average: Your rating: None Average: 4( 2 votes) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five SSA page 24
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Sports/ Culture/
SPAIN:
and the healthy nations of Europe locked in mortal combat in what could become a very serious situation. It is the haves versus the have-nots and where the needy countries have more votes as one nation after another has gotten into financial trouble. Draghi may well put the funding countries in such a position that local politics will not allow what is going to be asked of them and refusals to fund could be the result which would throw the ECB into chaos. I expect a very rancorous session at the ECB with potentially explosive results. Even if the outcome is muted by the connection to the EFSF and the possible ESM, the funding may not be available when all is said and done by the individual nations and so the ECBs bond buying or other forms of Quantitative Easing may be stopped dead in their tracks by any form of help being appended to programs that may not function. I personally think that Draghi has vastly overplayed his hand and that expectations based upon his frothy comments may prove to be without merit.
Also this week we will get the release of Barrosos ambitious plans for bank oversight. He will announce a Brussels type bureaucratic scheme where the ECB will oversee all of the banks in Europe. This would be one more blow to national sovereignty and I expect a major push back from a number of countries. Germany has already come out against the concept stating that the ECB should only regulate the 25 largest banks in Europe. The plan will be put on the table no doubt but here I think that whatever may come eventually will bear little resemblance to the proposal that will be soon released. With the current trend in Europe becoming decidedly more nationalistic I think this new grand scheme will have little chance of success as proposed. The End of the Muddle We are now at the virtual epicenter of the European Crisis where decisions will have to be made; avoidance is no longer possible. We have reached the end of the road where there is no more path left for can kicking. It is now and here and in the next few
weeks where the rock and the hard place will converge and explosive political and economic consequences may result. The future has arrived in the present! Now is Here. Greece---to fund or not fund and bear the costs and market reaction. Spain---about to go bankrupt and to fund or not fund and how to do it. Expect quite serious reverberations in Spain and in Europe as the amounts of money involved are not trivial. The Firewall has been breached. Expect Firestorms. Italysoon to join the long line asking for alms. The ECB---a major fight where the troubled countries will demand so much from Germany that politics in Berlin may not allow for giving what will be demanded of them. The ECB---a grand plan to be put forth that will pit the Bundesbank against most of the other Central Banks in Europe. "You only heard the statement of the loss. You did not see the father fall as Pilar made him see the fascists die in that story she
had told by the stream. You knew the father died in some courtyard, or against some wall, or in some field or orchard, or at night, in the lights of a truck, beside some road. You had seen the lights of the car from down the hills and heard the shooting and afterwards you had come down to the road and found the bodies. You did not see the mother shot, nor the sister, nor the brother. You heard about it; you heard the shots; and you saw the bodies." -Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls There will be bodies. Average: Your rating: None Average: 5( 9 votes) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Five Best Audio Editing Applications [Hive Five]

Alan Henry (Lifehacker)
Whether you need a soundtrack for your film, you're a DJ and need to polish up your sets before sharing them, or you're a musician looking to produce the next big club hit, you need a good audio editor to eliminate noise, convert your files, edit tracks, and output the whole thing. This week, we're going to look at five of the best audio editing applications, based on your nominations. More
SSA
Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Ramsay wins European Masters to claim second tour title

Ramsay of Scotland eased to a four-shot victory in the European Masters to claim his second tour Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:21:52 AM title on Sunday. The overnight C R A N S - S U R - S I E R R E , leader carded five-under 66 in his Switzerland (Reuters) - Richie final round on the Crans-sur-
Sierre course to finish on 16under par. Ramsay led by one shot at the start of the day but five birdies in the front nine and an eagle on the 14th was more than enough to claim his first win since
the 2010 South African Open. Not even two bogeys on the 13th and 17th could ruin the 29-year-old's day. ...
Economy/
25
The Three Charts Of The Corporate Apocalypse (Or Why Aren't Low Rates Working?)
Tyler Durden
from companies - that the balance -sheet-recession mantra of debtSubmitted at 9/2/2012 11:27:51 AM minimization over profitCorporates are in relatively good maximization is in full swing in financial shape and theory says the corporatocracy - and we know should respond to high profits and from Japan that no matter how cheap debt by investing more. much extreme monetary policy is However, while high 'profits' and thrown at the wall, none of it low cost of debt are reasons for sticks. capex and opex to be rising more The Lower The Rate, The Less quickly than they are, these two They Borrow critical drives of recovery show Despite extremely low interest no signs of responding to these rates around the world's advanced profit/debt incentives - and so as economies - and lots of chatter of Citigroup notes"recovering is not high levels of new issuance, the booming". Top-down, compared fact of the matter is that net new to history, capex is low, following i s s u a n c e ( i . e . n e w - i s s u e s P/E's sentiment - especially in redemptions/maturies/coupons) Europe (indicating a lack of has remained low to negative(one c o n f i d e n c e i n t h e f u t u r e ) . of the key reasons for credit's However, at the sector level this strength as the supply drag reverses: high capex has been remains light). This is entirely given a low PE, while low capex paradoxical to the central-bankers' has a high PE. The market is mantra of reducing rates to spark e f f e c t i v e l y e n c o u r a g i n g releveraging and growth... companies to invest less and Confidence Versus Capex return more money. Longer term There is a close relationship the consequences for economic between P/E multiples and capex growth, inflation and earnings over the last 20 years. Companies growth are negative. It seems - as invest more when they are indicated by the relatively low confident about the future. They level of net borrowing during a get that confidence from the period of ultra-low interest rates markets confidence in their and the market's decision to growth prospects, as shown by a demand low capex and more yield higher P/E. As the P/E has fallen,
capex/sales has declined. This lower level of investment is likely to have an impact on the ability of companies to grow and also on the growth rates of the economies in which this spend has been reduced. Save - Or Be De-Rated The chart below shows the relationship between the level of
didnt. The equity market is clearly skeptical about the value created by high levels of capital spending. Bottom-Line: High profits and low cost of debt are reasons for capex and opex to be rising more quickly than they are. Compared to history capex is low, following the PE. However, at the sector level this reverses. High capex means a low PE, while low capex means a high PE. The market is effectively encouraging companies to invest less and return more money. Longer term the consequences for economic growth, inflation and earnings growth are clearly negative - as we trade (once again) short-term equity gain for long-term sustainable economic gain. Source: Citigroup Average: Your rating: None Average: 5( 1 vote) 2012 capex/sales and the P/E. This entry passed through the Unlike market history those Full-Text RSS service if this is companies that are spending your content and you're reading it relatively high levels of capex are on someone else's site, please read now on low P/Es. Those sectors the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentwith lower capex/sales ratios are only/faq.php#publishers. Five being rated more highly. The Filters recommends: Incinerating equity market is saying to those Assange - The Liberal Media Go companies that invest heavily in To Work. capex that it would rather they
26
Culture/
FORGET
HARRISBURG
settings made this case (and in a very thorough manner). In a note put out on Friday, JPMorgan's Michael Feroli wrote: What can be gleaned from all of this about the current thinking on monetary policy at the zero lower bound? While some of Woodford's characterizations are idiosyncratic to his own biases, many are probably indicative of where the profession is drifting. The emphasis on communication is consistent with how the minutes have been characterizing the internal Fed debate; while the market only wants to talk about QE, the Fed seems equally focused on refining their communication tools. Second, his observation that communication tools are more effective when they conditionally commit policymakers to a certain path of action also appears consistent with where the policy debate is eventually heading. Third, Woodford's criticism of balance sheet policies are probably more extreme than most researchers, as evidenced by Bernanke's strong defense of the effectiveness of such action,
though the profession may be nudging closer to his position. For example, some recent research -which Woodford cites -- is consistent with the view that much of the QE effect comes from signaling, which presumably is better done directly through communications. Even so, in his earlier talk Bernanke sounded content with conducting asset purchases even if they operated primarily through a signaling channel. Moreover, some recent internal Fed research (Kiley 2012) suggests that lowering the path of short-term rates will do more to stimulate the economy than lowering longer-term interest rate term premium -- which is arguably the path through which QE works. It should be noted that Woodford offers some lukewarm support to purchasing MBS as an adjunct to a conditional commitment on short rates -- and even more support to the idea of following the BoE's Funding for Lending Scheme -- so his talk shouldn't be construed as ruling out any usefulness for asset purchases, but rather that a conditional
commitment on interest rates should form the backbone of Fed strategy in its current predicament. We may still be many months away from an Evans-like rule being implemented, but Woodford's paper is further evidence of the favor this approach is gaining in policymaker circles. We'd also point out that Feroli's note is titled: Don't forget the undercards at Jackson Hole the boxing metaphor is pretty much perfect given that Woodford afford a major rebuke to the big guy. Bottom line: Ideas that had been buzzy and fringy not long ago are now very close to the center of the profession of monetary policy. Download the whole Woodford paper here. Makes for some great Labor Day reading. Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook. Join the conversation about this story
hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees from the loan. Almost none of the $30 million the city borrowed in 2007 went to the actual incinerator upgrade. It went to pay back old debt, and to pay fees to the many firms that set up the deal in the first place. The same firms ended up on virtually every deal, Cluck says. To make matters worse, the city ultimately was on the hook. If the incinerator couldn't make the money back, it would fall to the taxpayers of Harrisburg. And this makes Bill Cluck crazy. "Where's the advocate for the city to say, 'Hey, you're getting screwed by the terms of these deals,'" he says. "It never happened." Where Did the Money Go? Stories like this irritate me because they always seem to stop short. Citing Cluck, NRR says money went to " pay fees to the many firms that set up the deal in the first place. The same firms ended up on virtually every deal". I can certainly believe that. Indeed I would be shocked to find
out otherwise. But where is the list of names? What banks and politicians profited from these shady deals? Inquiring minds and taxpayers have a right to know. Mike "Mish" Shedlock h t t p : / / globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http:// www.sitkapacific.com/ account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.
Ray Masseys incredible hand paintings

(Holy Kaw!)
Hands are a bit like the stage crew of the art world: They do
most of the work, but get very little credit. Ray Massey puts these unsung heroes front and center, though, w i t h s o m e u n i q u e p a i n t i n g illusions thatll have you looking
twice before standing up and giving the hands a hand. Full story at Ray Massey via LikeCool. Cant quite put a finger on this
art. Permalink| Leave a comment
Economy/ Culture/
27
8 Cities Where Homebuyers Are Saving Big On Foreclosed Homes

Mamta Badkar (Money Game)
Short sales (sales of properties in default) and sales of bank-owned homes fell in the second quarter, according to the latest report from RealtyTrac. The declining levels of foreclosure inventory are driving up prices of foreclosed homes. But foreclosure sales still account for 23 percent of all residential sales in the second quarter, and many homebuyers still look to these properties for their home purchases. So, we drew on RealtyTrac's latest report to highlight the 8 metros where homebuyers can get the greatest discount on foreclosed homes. Note: All data is for foreclosed homes. Milwaukee-WaukeshaWest Allis, Wisconsin Average discount: 46.84 percent Average sales price: $98,622 Foreclosure sales as a percent of total sales: 26.47 percent Change from Q2 2011: -22.42 percent
Disgusting beach find becomes boys big payday

(Holy Kaw!)
Source: RealtyTrac San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, California Average discount: 46.91 percent Average sales price: $329,018 Foreclosure sales as a percent of total sales: 33.48 percent Change from Q2 2011: -8.54 percent Source: RealtyTrac Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, Ohio
Average discount: 46.97 percent Average sales price: $68,790 Foreclosure sales as a percent of total sales: 21.28 percent Change from Q2 2011: -9.44 percent Source: RealtyTrac See the rest of the story at Business Insider Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook.
to sun and salt have turned the substance, technically called Submitted at 9/2/2012 7:45:00 AM ambergris, into a smooth lump of Who hasnt picked up an object compact rock which feels waxy off the sand that struck their and has a sweet smell. fancy: A pretty piece of glass, a Valued at approximately $10,000 beautiful shell, a stray syringe, a p e r p o u n d , h i s p a r e n t s a r e chunk of whale vomit? doubtless thankful they made Wait, what? room for the six pounds of puke Its no chest of gold coins, but for in the car. one lucky British eight-year-old, Full story at Technabob via Daily it might as well be. What he and Mail. his family thought was a odd rock Never wearing perfume again. is actually rare whale vomit, a Permalink| Leave a comment prized ingredient of perfumes. Decades of floating and exposure
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Economy/ Culture/ Featured/
JACK BOGLE: A Financial System Train Wreck Is Coming

Sam Ro (Money Game)
Vanguard Funds founder Jack Bogle was recently interviewed by USA Today. The conversation was largely about the ETF industry, which he thinks has gotten out of control. However, Bogle's biggest concern was that Americans might not be saving enough for retirement. From USA Today's John Waggoner's interview: Q. What worries you most going forward? A. The coming train wreck in the financial system. A 401(k) is a thrift plan trying to be a retirement plan. It was never designed to be a retirement. To be
a retirement plan, you have to keep putting money in and can't be allowed to take money out, and you can't be allowed to borrow from it. And if you change jobs, you should be able to take it with you to your new job. The reality is that probably 70% of the citizens of this country will rely entirely
on Social Security. Read the whole interview at USAToday.com. Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook. Join the conversation about this story
Dem. Gov. O'Malley: We're Not Better Off Under Obama

Submitted at 9/2/2012 10:05:00 AM
The rising cost of higher education [infographic]

(Holy Kaw!)
This morning, CBS's Bob Schieffer asked a top surrogate for Barack Obama, Maryland
Democratic governor Martin O'Malley, whether Americans are better off now than they were four years ago: "No," said O'Malley, "but that's not the question of this election."
As kids head off to college this year, parents are left behind wondering how to pay for the education they anticipated for so long. Its easy for those of us who have
been there, done that, to wonder what the big deal is, but when you look at a chart like that provided in this infographic, it quickly becomes apparent just how much times have changed. Via SchoolTutoring.com. Sky-high infographics. Permalink| Leave a comment
Culture/ Finance/
29
If God Weren't Angry...

September 2, 2012| 10:26 am God doesn't have a dark side! John says, "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). It's impossible for there to be anything evil in God. It is impossible for him to feel or act unrighteously. He's entirely holy in every respect. He's completely good in everything he does. He's not evil, can't be tempted by evil, and doesn't tempt anyone to do evil. He's perfectly holy, always, and in every possible way. Implications for a Fallen World All of this has very important implications as we seek to live and minister productively in this fallen world. If God is holy and angry at the same time, then anger is not evil in and of itself. If it were, God would never be angry. The many passages that teach us God is angry simply wouldn't be in the Bible (see Exodus 32:10, 34:6; Deuteronomy 29:28; 2 Kings 22:13; Psalms 2:12, 30:5; Romans 1:18; and more). Therefore, it is not merely possible to be holy and angry at the same time, it is a calling. If you recognize and treasure the
unchanging holiness of God and his call to be holy as he is holy, you'll find it impossible to be in contact with anything that's in any way evil and not be angry. This means if we're to take seriously the call to imitate our Father in heaven, calling ourselves and others to act and respond as he does within our human limitations, we must be angry. Not selfishly angry because we're not getting our own way, but worshipfully angry in the face of anything that's a violation of what God says is right, good, loving, and true. The Anger of Grace Follow us Let's be very clear. God's anger is the anger of grace. It isn't the violent anger of unbridled and unrighteous fury. God's anger always works to right what's wrong. That's what grace does. This gracious anger has two sides to it: justice and mercy. In the gracious anger of justice, God works to punish wrong, but he does even more. God isn't satisfied merely with punishing wrong. His hunger for right is so strong that he will not relent until wrong has been completely destroyed. He will not rest until
evil is no more and justice and righteousness reign forever and ever! There is also another side to his gracious anger. It's the anger of mercy. In mercy he works to convict that is, to produce in us a sorrow for the wrongs that we think, say, and do. In mercy he works to forgive that is, to clear our moral debt. In mercy he works to empower that is, to give us everything we need to resist wrong and to do what's right. And in mercy he works to deliver. He won't be satisfied until every microbe of sin is completely eradicated from every cell of the heart of every one of his children. Where do we see both sides of God's anger coming together in one moment? On that hill outside the city gates where Jesus hung. That's where we see justice and mercy kiss. As he hung there, Jesus bore the full weight of the justice of God's anger. He paid the penalty our sin required. And on the cross Jesus became the instrument of God's merciful anger that every sinner needs. He purchased our forgiveness. If God were incapable of anger, there would have been no cross.
You see, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ forces us to deal with God's anger. It requires us to help those to whom we minister to think of God's anger in a deeper, more richly biblical way. Think about it: no anger, no cross; no cross, no hope of the final victory of righteousness, mercy, and justice. This would leave us in a world where evil exists inside us and outside us with nothing that we could do about it. The entire world and everyone in it would literally be going to hell, and we'd be along for the ride with no way of getting off. We would be both victims and also victimizers living in a now and future hell of separation from God and everything that is good, watching darkness get darker with no hope of light. There'd be no redeeming hope, no message worth taking the time to prepare and preach. Anger is one of God's most beautiful characteristics. For God's children, his anger is a place of bright hope. Because he's righteously angry with sin every day, we can rest assured that everything sin has broken will be restored. Everything sin has twisted will be straightened. Everything that's gone wrong will
be made right again. God's anger assures us that all things will be made new. Paul David Tripp is the president of Paul Tripp Ministries, a nonprofit organization that is "connecting the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life." Paul is also a professor of pastoral life and care at Redeemer Seminary in Dallas (TX) and the executive director of the Center for Pastoral Life and Care in Fort Worth (TX). Paul has written many books on Christian living that are read and distributed internationally. His newest book, "Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry" will be released in the fall. For more information about Paul and his ministry, visit www.paultripp.com. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Banks prepare to seize control of Yellow Pages publisher

Katherine Rushton (Finance News - Business news from the UK and world)
A group of banks is preparing to seize control of Yellow Pages publisher Hibu amid concerns that
its management is is not clearing its massive debt pile fast enough.
30
Culture/ Finance/
Battle Over Voter ID Laws Intensifies as Election Nears

decision that the state law violated the protections for minority voters Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:30:47 AM under the Voting Rights Act. September 2, 2012| 12:30 pm Attorney General Alan Wilson The fight over early-voting and assured the court that people ID laws, which can play a crucial without cars, birth certificates, not role in this year's election given enough time or other "reasonable that many of these laws are in key impediments" to getting photo s t a t e s s u c h a s O h i o a n d identification would be allowed to Pennsylvania, has been in the vote under the law. spotlight over the last two weeks. Closing arguments are expected On Friday, a federal judge in to be held on Sept. 24. Wilson Columbus, Ohio, favored a hinted that the state will appeal to request from President Barack the Supreme Court if the law is Obama's campaign to allow all struck down. voters in the state to cast their Follow us ballot in person during the three A day earlier, on Thursday, a days before Election Day, The three-judge panel struck down Associated Press reported. The Texas' voter ID law. The panel judge ruled that the law violates said the law would hit turnout the constitution by changing the among black and Latino voters in-person early voting deadline, and impose "strict, unforgiving and that the state was wrongly burdens on the poor." valuing certain votes above Texas Gov. Rick Perry and others. Attorney General Greg Abbott Ohio Attorney General Mike have said they will appeal the DeWine is likely to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. decision on Tuesday. "Chalk up another victory for Friday also saw wrapping up of a fraud," Perry responded to the week of testimony in the federal ruling in a statement. "Today, trial of South Carolina's lawsuit federal judges subverted the will against the Obama administration of the people of Texas and
undermined our effort to ensure fair and accurate elections." Two weeks ago, a state appeals court upheld Pennsylvania's voter ID law passed by Republicans without Democratic support. However, the ruling will be the subject of a Sept. 13 state Supreme Court hearing in Philadelphia. Opponents say these laws seek to hurt Democratic voters including Afro-Americans and Latinos. Republican lawmakers deny that, saying they intend to protect the legitimacy of the vote. South Carolina Rep. Alan Clemmons, who sponsored the state law in House, has said the law "doesn't disenfranchise anyone." This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Tweet Keeper Archives Your Old Tweets [IPhone Downloads]

Shep McAllister (Lifehacker)
way for us to export the data, or even search more than a few days' worth of Tweets. Tweet Keeper is iOS: Our Twitter feed is probably a tremendous app that will the closest thing many of us have liberate your data from the service to a daily journal or activity log, a n d m a k e i t c o m p l e t e l y and yet Twitter doesn't provide a s e a r c h a b l e . M o r e
Bidding process hampered Virgin's bid for West Coast rail contract
John Timpson (Finance News Business news from the UK and world)
Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:00:31 AM
straight-talking, common sense from the front line.
The management column:
Politics
31
Media Madness, and the Reckoning

(American Thinker)
friends? The left/liberal need to think Republicans and conservatives Last week a line was crossed, and racists is more than just full blown insanity manifested projection. At this point, it is itself in the formerly-mainstream nothing short of a mental illness. media. My friend JMH is a model It is so far divorced from reality, it of a temperate media consumer, has to be pathological. No longer but watching the coverage of the are these people able to observe Republican convention, she could reality with anything close to not contain her fury: impartiality. We are not in the Something just snapped today, world of politics, ladies and when I read about the race baiters gentlemen. We are in the world at MSNBC not even airing any of Freud, Jung, Adler, and people the Convention's minority bouncing off walls. speakers. Even if Artur Davis He's right of course. weren't black, how is it a nonHow divorced from reality is the story, when the guy who seconded claim that Republicans and Obama's nomination ends up with conservatives are racists? Bgates a prime time spot on the GOP Yahoo Washington Bureau Chief power or water or shelter, Obama media's racism and called it corrects the media narrative. Convention stage? Ditto for David Chalian, formerly at ABC hosted a lavish Super Bowl pathological: 41 voting members of the House R a c i s m i s s t a l k i n g t h e of Representatives are black. covering Ted Cruz, who pulled where he produced this famous cocktail party with $100/lb off the most spectacular extremist and fact free ambush of Sarah Wagyu beef appetizers. Worse, Republican Convention in Tampa. 39 of them are Democrats. Tea Party upsets of campaign Palin, mistakenly thought he was as Chalian was leveling that But it's not from the Republicans. (Those numbers would be 42 and 2012. It's not just MSNBC either; off mic when he said Ann and mendacious, hate-filled charge, It's from the mainstream media. 40 save for the death of a Rep in NBC"curated" both of them right Mitt Romney had no problem Obama was chatting online on First it was MSNBC treating March.) out of "some of the notable with African Americans suffering Reddit with his supporters, not convention speakers Artur Davis, Given that Democrats famously as a result of hurricane Isaac. f l y i n g t o t h e s c e n e o f t h e Mia Love, and Ted Cruz like spurn color blindness to embrace speeches" in Tampa. nonpersons. And now it's Yahoo! affirmative action, how many of I know, I know. I know. But it's They're not concerned at all. d e s t r u c t i o n . "They're happy to have a party On hearing Chalian was fired, Washington Bureau Chief David those 39 do you suppose come the brazenness of it all that just stuns me, and keeps on stunning with black people drowning," As P B S ' s G w e n I f i l l w h o s e Chalian getting caught on an ABC from majority-white districts? me, no matter how prepared to it turned out, Mitt Romney headed outrageously biased moderation in webcast saying Mitt Romney Did you guess four? expect it I should be by now. out to flood stricken Louisiana at the 2008 debates set a new low, would be "happy to have a party Meanwhile, there are two black when black people drown." Today, however, I'm also stunned the close of the convention, and rushed to his defense: Republicans in the House. They gwen ifill @pbsgwenOne Chalian, not surprisingly, was were elected from districts that are by just how deep the reservoir of only after that became known did my own anger about it has Obama cancel his fund raising mistake does not change this. fired almost immediately when 82% and 75% white, whiter than become. It's so blinding that I plans elsewhere and head out @DavidChalian is God's gift to the word got out, but the climate any district that sent a black p o l i t i c a l j o u r n a l i s m . in which he would make such an Democrat to the 112th Congress. can't even concentrate on anything there, too. In fact, Obama has a history of #IStandwithDavid11:32 AM - 29 insane statement is very much Apparently an overwhelmingly else. alive and well. Why would white electorate is no bar to a That was early in the convention. ignoring all citizens suffering Aug 12 Details" from catastrophe. In 2009 when https://twitter.com/pbsgwen anyone dream of saying such a black candidate - so long as the There was much more to be an ice storm killed 42 and left Like JMH, Roger L. Simon was thing in a semi-public situation if furious about as the coverage millions of Americans without astonished at the degree of the he didn't feel safe and among MEDIA page 32 continued.
32
MEDIA
overwhelmingly white electorate is also majority Republican. Tammy Bruce offers up a plausible theory to explain the media's insanity, insanity so widespread even the occasionally more temperate Juan Williams was shamefully swept up in it: I knew the liberal establishment would have a meltdown swathed in violence and depravity as they realized they were being rejected, and that time has arrived. Just after last night's RNC convention liberals wasted no time attacking the women they see as a threat. The truth of the matter, of course, is that liberals destroyed their own bizarre vision for the future with actions that most of America is now rejecting. Instead of looking in the mirror, they've chosen to target Mia Love and Ann Romney, two obvious conservative superstars who have appeal across the political and socio-economic spectrum. The first indication of how vile liberals will get comes from Juan Williams who called Mrs. Romney a "Corporate Wife" last night after he speech. Talk about 'coded phrases'! A 'corporate wife' is a phrase used on the left for a woman who has married for money and plays a role so she'll continue to get money. In other words, a lying whore. Both Bret Baier and Megyn Kelly sounded shocked. Immediately after that remarkable speech last night that's where Williams went. I then saw tweets with the same general message. This had clearly been a messaging decision prior to Ann's
speech. I don't think they counted on the speech being as distinctive and as strong as it was. Besides being pathological, the media approach is clearly coordinated , and understandably so given the incestuous relationships between so many in the media and the Democratic party detailed by Erick Erickson at redstate. I wonder if any of these people have noticed that the Republican Party has more elected Hispanic Congressmen and Governors than the Democrats? It is not an accident that the media, immediately after the Democrats started pushing out the War on Women, began running stories about the GOP's hostility to women. It is now not an accident that the media, led by NBC and the Politico (which also partnered on that pathetic GOP primary debate), would peddle out the GOP and race stories. It is far too much to be a coincidence that the Politico and NBC have ties, sometimes in the same bed, to Democrat and leftwing activists and then hop out of bed on the same page as the Democrats' talking points. Well, if they watched the convention on the networks, and not CSPAN, convention viewers might have missed Senator Marco Rubio and Governor Susana Martinez' stirring speeches. Watch this video to see how NBC covered some yammering by Democrat shill Andrea Mitchell instead of the first three minutes of Sen. Rubio's barnburner
speech. Quite frankly, criticism of Obama is not racism no matter that people like Lawrence O'Donnell and Chris Matthews hear dog whistles of racism in everything. (Matthews laughably went so far as to suggest he lives in D.C. and therefore has a firsthand knowledge others don't of blacks. In fact, he is paid millions of dollars a year by NBC to spew his mad commentary and lives in a very white affluent suburb in which with 2,000 residents there are a total of 10 black residents.) So out-of control is Matthews that after the RNC wrapped up, he got into a 2 AM public verbal altercation in Tampa, asking a group of Republicans if they were at a "douchebag convention." Since we now know that half a million dollars in Stimulus money was funneled to MSNBC for commercials on the Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann shows, advertising Job Corps training that produced no jobs, MSNBC henceforth should be known as "The semi-official Obama Administration News Agency," much like Al Ahram in Egypt. Investors Business Daily's cartoonist Michael Ramirez ran a cartoon of a dog labeled "Media" making love to Obama's leg. Come to think of it maybe that's a true picture, a metamorphosis that explains why so many of them hear "dog whistles" of racism that the rest of us cannot hear, drawing that notion from language that in no rational way warrants that
characterization. The media madness this past week truly was beyond parody. If you doubt me read this exchange between MSNBC's Martin Bashir and Lawrence O'Donnell in which reference to Obama's golfing is said to be a "racial double entendre" suggesting that he's like Tiger Woods "famous for chasing cocktail waitresses". (These two cuckoos aren't alone. If you want to see how idiotic P.C. language codes are becoming check out this historically inaccurate explanation by a highly paid Department of State official as to why terms like "rule of thumb" and "hold down the fort are racially insensitive and should be avoided. It's impossible not to laugh out loud until you realize how much tax revenues go to pay him and others like him to peddle this ahistoric claptrap.) As the Wall Street Journal's James Taranto reminds us: [quote] Obama's journalistic supporters live in a bizarre alternate reality in which a politician's actual words mean nothing. When the president says something foolish and offensive, he didn't say that. Meanwhile every comment from a Republican can be translated, through a process of free association, to: "We don't like black people." It's television manufacturing a virtual reality, which is to say unreality, a dangerous state of affairs. Sultan Knish has written the most brilliant essay explaining this . Here's but a tiny sample.
You really must read it all: The people who decided to make Obama popular did so through constant repetition that translated into the peer pressure of the trend. Obama became a trending topic and everyone followed along because in an unreal world, you follow the unreal leader. Obama is fake, his popularity is fake, but it's also real, because fake is now the ultimate reality. The purveyors of fakeness have demonstrated their ability to transform the unreal into the real through manufactured consensus. By insisting that something unpopular was popular often enough, they made it popular. And by insisting that something popular is really unpopular, they did the opposite. [snip] There is a very specific category of people who are uncomfortable with the way things are and for the most people these are the people who have ongoing forcible contact with realities that don't go away when the talking head begins jabbering, the memes begin spewing and the trending topics trend. These are the people who work for a living outside the bubble, who know that external safety nets are unreliable and that they are always on the edge of something... even if they don't always know what. [snip] When all the bubbles of rhetoric pop, there are still the hard unpleasant realities to deal with. Bailouts and money pits can only bury them for so long. MEDIA page 35
Politics
33
Bill Nye the Pseudoscience Guy

(American Thinker)
In a recent YouTube video, former children's TV host Bill Nye weighs in on evolutionary biology by telling the rest of us how to raise our children. If we want to deny evolution, he says, that's our business, "but don't make your kids do it." Presuming that what we teach our children is any of his business, a more fundamental question presents itself: how do we presume to teach our kids something that may or may not be true, particularly when we don't really seem to understand it? There is a tendency in the economy of belief to oversimplify. Generally speaking, this is a good thing -- or if not good, at least practical. One hardly needs to understand how an internal combustion engine works in order to drive a car. However, oversimplification is anathema to maintaining a robust and rigorous science. As Einstein famously put it, make it simple, but not simpler. He meant that any theory, if it is to be a scientific one, needs to be reduced to its fundamental elements, without omitting any elements necessary to make the theory workable. In Nye's mindset, there are two basic positions concerning evolution: 1. You believe in it, or 2. You're just a big fat doodyhead.
This, I would argue, is an oversimplification. What is most remarkable is that Nye is hardly alone in his asseveration. In fact, the vast majority of people -- among those who believe in evolution wholeheartedly, as well as those who see evolution as just so much nonsense -- seem to hold the same view. Either we believe in evolution, or we believe in God. Unfortunately, however, those who hold this view fail to understand what it implies about science and religion, setting up what philosophers of science call the Conflict Thesis -- that science and religion are mutually exclusive domains (that is, with no overlap) and are thus at odds with each other. But the Conflict Thesis is incorrect, offering up a false choice: science or religion. What, then, are we to make of Stephen C. Meyer's claim that "[s]cience, done right, leads to God"? Additionally, this already overly simplistic notion is further exacerbated by another oversimplification -- that science is a rational proposition based on reason, while religion is a spiritual proposition based on faith. Thus, scientific formulations are reliable, based as they are on the Scientific Method of observation, hypothesis, theorization, testing, and reformulation; religion, in contrast, is antithetical to the Scientific Method, akin to fairy tales and superstition. Framed in
this way, we can understand the essence of Nye's concern for what we teach our children: assuming that evolution is scientific, for any parent to teach his child to deny evolution is thus to teach him to deny reason. And Nye would be right but for the inconvenient fact that he is wholly and utterly wrong, in his basic assumptions as well as his understanding of evolution. When we examine the underlying assumptions of Nye's position, we find: Science is not "based" on reason, Religion is not "based" on faith, There's no such thing as "the" Scientific Method, Religion is no fairy tale, and Evolution is not what Nye thinks it is.
Andromeda. Nor is reason relegated only to science. Religion, too, has its rational component, with pronouncements based on observation and empirical knowledge. The Buddhist considers the Buddha, studies his life, hears his message of compassion and service to others, and makes the rational decision to emulate him. The Christian hears the story of the resurrected Christ, an event that is claimed to have occurred in real time and witnessed by some five hundred, and chooses to follow him. These are not simply matters of faith. Instead of "the" scientific method, we find any number of methodologies that share various features but which cannot be said to demonstrate anything akin to a single, uniform method. First, though reason is certainly a Consider, for instance, the notion component of scientific inquiry, it t h a t s c i e n c e i s b a s e d o n is not the only component. observation. If this is a necessary There are, for instance, any prerequisite to a scientific theory, number of scientific assumptions what are we to make of the claim that cannot be proved and thus that our universe may be only one must be accepted on faith. First of a series of universes? Has and foremost among these is the anyone ever observed one of these assumption of uniformity -- that extra universes? How can such an what applies to our corner of the observation be possible, even in universe applies to all corners. theory? There is absolutely no (This, after all, is what makes a evidence whatsoever for the universe a universe and not, say, a multiverse. And what do we call p o l y v e r s e . ) I m a g i n e t h e "the evidence of things not seen"? caterwauling among physicists if Those who equate religion with we discover that light travels at a fairy tales fail to understand what uniform speed within the confines the word means. "Religion" of the Milky Way, but at a comes from the Latin religio, variable speed in the galaxy w h i c h m e a n s " t o b i n d o r
constrict" and thus entails a twofold meaning. First, it identifies a body of adherents to the religion itself. These need not be adherents of any particular religion; it is sufficient that they identify themselves as members of the group, whatever the group. Second, it is in some way normative; that is, it prescribes what the members of the group ought to believe, though it does not necessarily imply that the members will adhere to their beliefs at all times. In other words, though a Christian will on occasion do things that are demonstrably un-Christian, this does not stop him from being a Christian altogether. Neither aspect of religio has anything to do with fairy tales. In fact, Nye's own understanding of evolution is itself a kind of fairy tale. For him, it is akin to biological magic, to be believed for its own sake. (Woe unto you, ye unbelievers!) Evolution, he says, "is the fundamental idea in all of life science, in all of biology. It's like, it's very much analogous to trying to do geology without believing in tectonic plates." Actually, it's like, it's not like that. For one, geologists operated for centuries without believing in tectonic plates. As nifty as plate theory may be, it's hardly fundamental to the idea of geology; rather, it's derived from BILL page 35
34
Politics
The Black Vote in 2012

(American Thinker)
Republicans are making another pitch to win black votes in 2012. Are we going down the same fruitless path for black voters who may be utterly locked into voting Democrat, especially when the Democrat is black? Political pundits love to put people into convenient classes, but much like the "Hispanic vote" or the "women's vote," the characterizations are far too broad. Within the Hispanic vote, for example, are people whose ethnic connections are from Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, and a number of other nations. Lumping these together as the "Hispanic vote" makes about as much sense as speaking of the "European vote." Women are just like men: they do not vote as part of some tightly knit group, but as Americans who work or stay at home raising kids or live on Social Security or are on welfare. They are the most passionate opponents of abortion and its most passionate advocates. Feminists once tried to lump all women into their collective, but that failed wildly.
Although there is a "gender gap" -- which breaks down on closer examination as a gap between married women and single women, women who work and women on welfare -- it is hard to imagine anything sillier than lumping "women" in America into a group. But that is what has happened in political punditry. There is a group of women who, often because they are unwed mothers (and for other reasons, like affirmative action), perceive their interests to be with Democrats, but that is about it. The black vote, likewise, has been irrationally thrown together as if it were a single mind, a single soul, a single voter. In fact, black Americans are disproportionately religious; they sign up for the military in greater percentages than white Americans, and many, like Star Parker, are more utterly opposed to morally destructive welfare programs than are white Americans. What is also obvious is that black Americans who are most inclined to hear the message of Republican conservatism live in the South. In 2010, 35 black Republicans ran for House seats, and 20 of those 33 came from the 11 states of the
Old Confederacy. Two of those 20 won -- Alan West of Florida and Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only black Republicans in the House. All three black Republicans running for the Senate were from the South. The highest-ranking black Republican in Congress -- indeed, the highestranking black in Congress -- has been J.C. Watts of Oklahoma, which is a conservative border state. Those black Republicans -- more than that, black conservatives -like Congressmen Scott and Alan, or Artur Davis, Condi Rice, and Herman Cain -- all came out of the South. For almost a century, the Republican Party was the only political party in the South which accepted blacks. Perhaps just as importantly, deep Christian faith is sincere and serious among blacks in the South. Indeed, that demographic group may be the most religious in America. The relative conservatism of blacks in the South may be a key to the 2012 election. Republicans like Cain, Davis, Scott, West, and Rice can speak to blacks in the South in a language very different from the atheistic Marxism which infests not only Obama, but nearly all the Chicago mafia around
him. This emphatically includes those black Americans who advise Obama. Valerie Jarrett grew up in Chicago, just like Michelle Obama. Jeremiah Wright grew up in Philadelphia, another big northern city, and his church is in Chicago. Black Republicans like Davis, Scott, West, Cain, and Rice have shown that their acquiescence in 2008, while history was being made, will not be their attitude today. In this election, for the first time in a long time, the black vote in the South really counts. Virginia, Florida, and North Carolina, the swing states today, gave a higher percentage of their vote to McCain than he got nationally. Every Republican presidential candidate since 1976 has done better in Virginia, Florida, and North Carolina than he did nationally. Obama must persuade these religiously serious and patriotic blacks in the South not only to support him, but also to be enthused enough to show up at the polls and vote for him. Yet in reality, this Chicago child, who grew up in Hawaii and went to Ivy League schools, has almost nothing in common with Southern blacks, except for race. When
Obama spoke condescendingly about bitter people clinging to their guns and religion, he could just as easily have been referring to millions of black families in the South. What, exactly, do these Americans have in common with a president who conspicuously ignores God in his public pronouncements, who wants long power in Washington (which means far away from them), and who has done nothing to help these black voters -- often the first to feel the full lash of unemployment -- out of their troubles? Obama, to these good Americans, might as well be from Mars. If Republicans can persuade Southern blacks of that, then Republicans will win the election. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
35
MEDIA
BILL
Governments sending money to banks and swapping worthless commodities that only exist in the theory of a theory only work for as long as people believe in them. Even an unreal economy reported on by an unreal media cheering on an unreal leader can only run for so long until reality punches through the illusion, the curtain falls, the magicians scramble off the stage with rabbits and doves tucked into their pants, and everyone wakes up to realize that the dream is over and we realize that we are entering a world where the stories no longer matter and history is about to begin. Tune out the media or find yourself either enraged or lulled into unreality -- brainwashed as it were. You can watch important events on CSPAN and easily access transcripts and videos of speeches and debates online. Time to stop the insanity provided by the media intermediaries and keep your mind clear. For some time now, professor Glenn Reynolds, known to many as Instapundit, has talked about "preference cascades" I think the insanity of the media is triggered by their sense that a preference cascade is building up in the US which will wash them and their political clients out to sea. What is a " preference cascade"? As described by Glenn Reynolds
in a classic 2002 essay, a preference cascade occurs when people trapped inside a manufactured consensus suddenly realize that many other people share their doubts. Preference falsification works by making doubters feel isolated and alone. In a totalitarian society, the dissenter fears that if he speaks up, his will be a lone voice, easily squashed by the enforcers of the regime. When dissenters realize they are not alone, and the true strength of their numbers becomes apparent, "invincible" regimes vanish with astonishing speed. The same effect can occur without brutal oppression, when fear of ostracism and ridicule cause people to suppress their own doubts. This kind of preference falsification requires strict discipline from the makers of opinion. Since a free society makes it very easy for individuals to change their opinions, they must be prevented from even considering such a change. Manufactured consensus is very fragile in a competitive arena of ideas, when there is no fearsome penalty for a "Fresh Air" listener who decides to switch over to Rush Limbaugh. Why do I think the media manufactured consensus is unraveling and the cascade begun?
I see signs of it everywhere. There was the 2010 wipeout of the Democrats in Congress and statehouses. There was the massive consumer Chick-fil-A response to the boycott movement, Obama's campaign staff has had a hard time meeting fund raising goals and filling the stands for his appearances. This week -- respecting his speech at the DNC convention -- they are even resorting to giving tickets to the event away free in bars. And this: Voter ID in the polls is grossly oversampling Democrats. And even Democratic pollsters are giving away the game. Polls showing Obama in the lead are, I believe, phony as his make believe large twitter following which it turns out is mostly an online audience he paid for. Here's Stephen Green: Democracy Corps - that's James Carville and Stan Greenberg's polling outfit - has Romney up 16 points with independents. 16 points. Voter ID typically runs low-tomid 30s for Republicans and Democrats alike, leaving the remainder as Independents. What's that mean? If Carville and Greenberg have it right (and many other polls show Romney way up with Indies), it can mean only one thing: Democrats are being oversampled, and grossly.
Admittedly, voter ID is a tricky thing to measure, and trickier still to sample. But most polls I've seen have had D samples the same or higher than in 2008, when Black Jesus was still bringing us the hope and change and lowering the oceans and all that stuff. And they've R samples the same or lower than 2008, even though the GOP managed to flip 63 House seats in 2010. The game is rigged. Don't let that stop you from playing. It could be just me -- after all I never watch television -- but my thought is that a convention that begins with a jummah call to Moslem prayer and features Sandra Fluke demanding we pay for her contraceptive costs is not going to turn this around for the President or his media friends. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
geology, based on current scientific understanding of the earth's structure. Evolution, likewise, is deduced from two primary observations: the fossil record, which, so it is claimed, shows evidence that life represents a continuum of biological forms expressing a progression from the simple to the more complex; and the similarity of hypothetically related species, such as human beings and apes. But these are mere claims, not scientifically, independently verified facts. The fossil record is stubbornly discontinuous, and human beings ultimately may only look like apes -- a 1972 Chevy Malibu looks an awful lot like a 1971 Chevy Malibu, but this does not mean that the '72 Malibu is biologically descended from the '71 model. Nye's position, then, is no acquiescence to scientific truth; it is merely a component of his belief system. He may as well tell us not to raise our kids as Presbyterians. And Bill Nye the Pseudoscience Guy can keep his beliefs to himself. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
36
Products/
Pax 2012: The Darkness Without

(Woot)
Submitted at 9/2/2012 10:00:00 AM
I've been to a few conventions, and PAX is by far the hardest one to cover. Maybe that's intentional, because PAX really isn't meant to be for the industry and the hangers-on. It's meant to be for gamers and nerds, and all the new games and free beta tests and swag are really sort of a thank you to the people who form the community. As a game-lover myself, I think that's great. But, at the same time, when I can only get photos like these: See? You can't tell if that's something funny or something stupid, and any reasonable editor would tell me to throw it away. But we pride ourselves on being unreasonable here at Woot, so this post is going to be about the things I'd like to show you, but can't. After the jump, you'll get to read me whining about all the fun I failed to capture. With a hard sell like that, how can you NOT join me inside? PAX is always in motion. There's always something happening. To your left is an exciting cosplayer. To your right, someone is throwing free beach balls at your face. In front of you is an amazing demo and behind you is an even better one. The lights are low, the people are in a hurry, and these all combine into a perfect storm of blurry, terrible angles. For example: This amazing two-part costume is
convention has to offer? I did get to play some games, like Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and Neverwinter Nights. They were fun, really really fun. But Metal Gear had a big sign that read NO PHOTOGRAPHY, so I couldn't bring back a photo of me doing a dramatic ninja run across a collapsing bridge. I was able to get a photo of Neverwinter's booth mascot, though. As a MMORPG, Neverwinter is designed to be played against other people, so my Man Vs Computer session wasn't really the ideal test. Even still, it was fun to run around chopping up NPCs, and the scenery looked amazing. You can see someone else's video demo here if you don't already know what D&D game is gonna look like. I'd certainly play it again. I also really enjoyed the new God Of War game, and even went to the panel to listen to the writer and designers talk about their creative process. However, when League Of Legends hero Sejuani boar's head. event. Unfortunately, it wasn't it came to photos, this was the and her boar. The boar is actually T h e L e a g u e O f L e g e n d s really camera friendly, and I got a best I could get: a guy in a costume so elaborate tournament itself was super photo that makes it seem like a The actual pony-less game takes that Ms. Sejuani had to take off e x c i t i n g ! I w a t c h e d T e a m poorly-attended high school place before the first God Of War and is just as violent as you'd the head from time to time, so he Dynamic fight Team Dignatas, drama club. didn't die of heat stroke. You can't and although I didn't completely Which is why, I think, PAX is expect. But everything is so expect him to stand perfectly still, understand the subtleties, it was best covered by the little guys. ramped up and cartoon like that right? But the wiggling made it clear TD wanted to chase DIG off Some sixteen year old kid who's it's impossible to be offended. really hard to photograph. At least the map. Control of the battle never been out of his room will When you chop someone in half I picked up these "walking out of changed at least three times, and find it much, much easier to put and they explode with more blood the club" style shots so you can some attacks grew tremendous words to the magic and wonder than a human body could possibly see the detail. applause from the large crowd. and glory. A guy like me, sent in hold, that's just Tom & Jerry! The But the poor guy was soaked in The lighting was dramatic and with a deadline? How can I just PAX page 37 sweat when he finally took off the brought a real tension to the wander and experience what the
Products/ Featured/ News Photos
37
Apple 11.6" Dual-Core i5 MacBook Air

(Woot)
Submitted at 9/2/2012 12:00:33 AM
PAX
You're the one that I want We're selling that thing by that company that makes the things that the other things want to be. You want chocolate ice cream. So, you get in your car and drive all the way to the ice cream shop (or ice cream shoppe, if it's a little fancy [or micro-creamery if it's too fancy for its own good]), only to find that they don't have any chocolate today. Instead, they have this other thing. It's a lot like chocolate, except it came out after chocolate and doesn't look or taste as good as chocolate. And if we're honest, it's really only for people who just want SOME chocolate-ISH ice
SuperSport AP PHOTOS: Scenes From the Paralympics ABC News The images are inspiring as athletes from around the globe show their prowess on the track, in the pool and on the field with (Dave Winer) site for other feeds. English- Hurricane Isaac swept through I want them all to do rivers for their talents far overshadowing language. Covers news for their Louisiana. And in this version, the their communities. They don't their disabilities. Djibouti's Submitted at 9/2/2012 6:59:54 AM geography, as well as world news, Berkman tab moves off the front have to be as fancy as this one. Houssein Omar Hassan seems to What's new: The World news tab. but not be too focused on the page. And we can help. It's important to run on air in an image from the... I started with the international United States. We already have Lots of other stuff in the pipe, as have these streams running all AP PHOTOS: Scenes from the feeds from major news outlets lots of American news in other well as a tab for the US election, over the web, not just on Twitter Paralympic Games in London such as the ABC from Australia, tabs. It was a community project as it heats up. and Facebook. Washington Post Ria Novosti from Russia, Al which was wonderful, that's why Keep the cards and letters coming Onward! all 46 news articles Jazeera, Ha'aretz, The Hindu, we have such a rich set of feeds, and keep spreading the word. NYT international feed, etc. and such an interesting tab. Especially people who work at Then I asked people who read the The NOLA tab was fascinating as news organizations and bloggers.
game will also be multiplayer so you'll at last be able to chain-whip your friends online. I'll still be doing a short list of my "Best Of" on Monday because I did take a few passable pictures, And the next day after that. And but I wanted to make you all the day after that too. There's aware that PAX carries some dark always plenty of almost secrets which are impossible to chocolate, but never the real stuff. capture. When you hear a gamer You start to lose hope. You start say "Maybe you just had to be to think, "This place is never there" in answer to your going to sell actual chocolate ice question they're pretty much cream. They're just teasing me." Then one day, there it is! Not an imitation! Not the crappy version! cream RIGHT NOW. You're not one of those people, N o ! T h e y ' v e g o t g e n u i n e , so you tell the ice cream guy, "No delicious chocolate ice cream! Right there! IN FRONT OF thanks." And he's like, "Okay, have a nice YOU! Naturally, you're so excited day!" Then just as you're leaving, that you buy yourself a cone as he shouts after you, "BTW - you quickly as you can and sit down should check back tomorrow, to enjoy it right there! because we're a weird kind of ice Well, that's kinda what today is cream store that only does one like here on Woot. flavor-a-day." Fine. You go back the next day.
right. We gave out a ton of monkeys! Thanks to all you people who wore Woot shirts! Sorry to all those who didn't get a monkey because we were trapped in a crowd! PAX coverage continues throughout the holiday weekend.
AP PHOTOS: Scenes From the Paralympics ABC News

(news photos - Google News)
Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:57:01 AM
Tabbed River 3
38
Gaming/ Featured/
Runic's post-Torchlight 2 plans: Mac port, patches, and a trip to the mountains
Mike Schramm (Joystiq)
Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:30:00 AM
Obama Surrogate Richardson: 'International Community Wants to See this President Reelected'
Submitted at 9/2/2012 10:43:00 AM
Runic's CEO Max Schaefer seems both simultaneously relieved and nervous as he sits in the Torchlight 2 booth at PAX Prime 2012. Relieved, because his company finally announced a release date for its long-awaited game, and slightly nervous, because he knows the community's judgment is finally coming. But even launch won't bring a real break for Runic: Schaefer says the company has a clear plan laid out for post-release work. A Mac port and language translations are first on the list, says Schaefer - both of those are real priorities for the team. Runic's also working on patching the game (if necessary), and getting the content editor up and running so both users and devs can make some mods and add-ons for the game. After that, says
Schaefer, he's not sure. "We'll go up into the mountains or something and figure out what to do next." Schaefer says that both a console port of Torchlight 2 and "an MMO" aren't out of the question, but there are problems with both of those ideas. "We will not be making a traditional MMO under any circumstances," he says, so a possible Torchlight MMO could
look very different from what players might imagine - a pretty different stance from what we've heard in the past from Runic Games. And while the studio had plenty of success with an Xbox Live port of its first Torchlight game (and Microsoft showed interest in a port of the second game), Schaefer says "it's a lot harder this time," given the way the game is
A surrogate for Barack Obama, former governor Bill Richardson, insisted that all around the world "the international community wants to see this president reelected." Richardson made his remarks this morning on CBS: "The president is not running overseas, but everywhere you go, all around the world-- and I travel built, to put together an Xbox a l o t - - t h e i n t e r n a t i o n a l port. All of that is a long way off, community wants to see this h o w e v e r - S c h a e f e r ' s m o r e president reelected. obviously, concerned about getting this game we've got to do it here," said Richardson. released first. Runic's post-Torchlight 2 plans: Mac port, patches, and a trip to the mountains originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 02 Sep 2012 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments
Gaming/ Politics-Right/ News Photos News Wire/
39
Geen-on-Blue: Training of Aghan Troops on Hold

(The Feed)
Epoch Times | National, World, China, Sports, Entertainment News

(Epoch Times | National, World, China, Sports, Entertainment News)
Tour Mojang's pop-up museum: view the beautiful lawsuit docs for Scrolls, the insides of a Creeper
Ben Gilbert (Joystiq)
of a Creeper (it's heart is dynamite!), and a very impressive Submitted at 9/2/2012 10:00:00 AM set of Legos. Take the tour with Mojang's more than just the us in the gallery below. studio that birthed Minecraft- it's Gallery: Mojang Museum (PAX also the studio that birthed the Prime 2012) amazing fan art you see above. Tour Mojang's pop-up museum: Beyond said art, Mojang erected a view the beautiful lawsuit docs faux museum in honor of its short for Scrolls, the insides of a life on the PAX Prime 2012 show Creeper originally appeared on floor. Joystiq on Sun, 02 Sep 2012 In it, we witnessed the actual 10:00:00 EST. Please see our (news photos - Google News) legal documents served to Mojang terms for use of feeds. head Marcus "Notch" Persson Permalink| Email this| Comments Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:27:12 AM over Scrolls, the inner workings Sunday news update on Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson + photos Examiner.com For Kristen Stewart, things keep
been prevented if existing security measures had been applied correctly. But numerous military Via New York Post: guidelines were not followed The senior commander for by Afghans or Americans Special Operations forces in because of concerns that they A f g h a n i s t a n h a s s u s p e n d e d might slow the growth of the training for all new Afghan A f g h a n a r m y a n d p o l i c e , recruits until the more than 27,000 according to NATO officials. . . Afghan troops working with his Um, finally. . . Greg Pollowitz command can be re-vetted for ties This entry passed through the to the insurgency. The move Full-Text RSS service if this is comes as NATO officials struggle your content and you're reading it to stem the tide of attacks on on someone else's site, please read NATO forces by their Afghan the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentcolleagues. The attacks, which only/faq.php#publishers. Five have killed 45 troops this year, Filters recommends: Incinerating have forced NATO officials to Assange - The Liberal Media Go acknowledge a painful truth: To Work. Many of the incidents might have
Sunday news update on Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson + photos - Examiner.com
Top Stories More than 4 million travelers are expected to go through Port Authority of New York and New Jerseys airports, bridges, tunnels, and rail lines this Labor Day weekend, [...] While many residents in The Empire State work toward banning the practice, the demand for natural gas is rising. Daily protests have been held in San Francisco following the arrest of a Falun Gong practitioner in Chinatown on Tuesdaya case that has raised concerns of discrimination. Two years after the surprise QE2 announcement, this is what the market expects from the Fed in 2012 . An insider provides a lineup of the suspected new politburo members and their duties. This entry passed through the getting progressively worse. Full-Text RSS service if this is According to Us Weekly, Kristen your content and you're reading it has been spending time off and on on someone else's site, please read at her mother's place in Woodland the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentHills since the cheating scandal only/faq.php#publishers. Five and her subsequent split with Rob. Filters recommends: Incinerating Now TMZ.com reports... Assange - The Liberal Media Go and more To Work.
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Featured/ Technology/
Voting matters
(Dave Winer)
Yes, I've started writing about politics again, and the cynics are weighing in also, as usual. Don't you know it's all theater, and there's no difference between the candidates. The world is run by a few rich people, and they don't care what we think. I've never really addressed this, and thought now was a good time to do so. My answer is this -- bullshit. That's not the way it works. You wish it worked that well, but it's actually chaotic, nonsenical, Dilbertesque, crazy, dysfunctional, self-destructive, suicidal, nutso, etc. Can you think of any more adjectives for we, as a species, net-net, have lost our minds? Go ahead and add them. The problem is evolution. Up until a few generations ago, there was no possibility of a global consciousness, and luckily for us, no need for one. Humans simply weren't powerful enough to matter. So what if we were run by crazy kings and mayors and political bosses, worst that could happen is we could spoil a small piece of land and kill ourselves,
and we surely did a lot of that! But now the stakes are much higher. We've cured disease enough to fuel a population explosion. And while we seem to be able to feed ourselves, the planet just can't support that many people in many other ways. The problem is that we don't have a collective consciousness that can change things so they work. We're still arguing about the crazy stuff we used to argue about before we became the problem for the planet. You could even see that wise-ass Mitt Romney joking about it in his speech. He says Fuck you if you think the President's job is to worry about the level of the oceans. Well it's not just his job, it's all our jobs. Every damned one of us. And thanks so much for setting us back, just a bit, Mr Republican Presidential Candidate for 2012, a title which already holds some sway. God help us if this bozo gets more responsibility. If the world were ruled by a secret cabal of rich people and their muses, I would know about it, because I know some of the people who would either be in Category 1 or Category 2. Sure they fly around and go to
important conferences and they're quoted and talked about in the Economist and the Times, but they don't really run things. They fly around a lot. Look busy. They play a Captain of the Universe on TV, but they're just people and they don't have any idea about what to do. They work at making more money, and that's fine, but it doesn't really accomplish much, one way or the other. The people we talk to with our vote is ourselves. A vote for Mitt Romney communicates this: I'm exhausted trying to keep up with everything. I want it all to be simple. Like when I was a kid and my father made all the decisions. And a vote for Barack Obama means the same damned thing. That's where the cynicism is correct. But where it's not correct is in the assumption that that's all it can mean. And in that they suffer from a lack of imagination. Even with a ridiculous choice, just a larger-than-normal number of people voting would make a difference. And then you have to judge for yourself how possible it is for us to change one of these guys to doing more of our work. For that, you have to understand
that they are people too. When Obama makes a decision in term 2 he may be thinking about how the election went and what he feels he has the mandate to do. That might change things. Listen to the guy and judge for yourself. If we, collectively, as if it were a Kickstarter project, decided to fund our election, and, as a political demonstration we all voted, that would be felt. Not by some mythical powers-that-be, but by us, by you and me and everyone else. It would be shocking. And if you're cynical you will be surprised by how much things will change in government. Everything that happens now is premised on the fact that you're dumb and you don't vote. If you change one of those perceptions and you have the power to do that, the other one will change too. Think about it. Voting does make a difference. The more people do it, the more power we will have as we go forward. BTW, today's random header graphic influenced this piece.
Withings revamps its WiFi bathroom scales, orders you to stop slouching
Daniel Cooper (Engadget)
Withings has introduced a new set of wireless bathroom scales to spare us sedentary geeks the effort of recording our weekly weighins. The updated set includes Position Control technology, which we assume means it tells you to stand up straight and suck your belly in while it's sending your details to the internet. All you need is a smartphone or tablet that can use its new Health Companion App. which came out earlier this month. It arrives in Europe at the end of September, and equipping yourself for a war on weight will cost you 120. Continue reading Withings revamps its WiFi bathroom scales, orders you to stop slouching Filed under: Cellphones, Misc, Wireless Withings revamps its WiFi bathroom scales, orders you to stop slouching originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 02 Sep 2012 07:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| Comments
Politics-Right/
41
David Frum
(David Frum)
Andrew Sullivan complained yesterday that I had engaged in a McCarthyite attack on Ron Paul by writing the following: A politician isnt answerable for the antics of every one of his supporters. But theres surely a reason, isnt there, that racists, anti-Semites, 9/11 Truthers, and Holocaust deniers are so strongly attracted to the Paul campaign. They hear something. They continue to hear it too, no matter how firmly Ron Pauls more mainstream supporters clamp their hands over their own ears. Andrews riposte: Notice how pure the smear is, enabled and not diminished by the first sentence. Notice the key concept of Beltway ideological policemen: there is a mainstream and a non-mainstream. Dabble with the latter at your peril. Since David has perished by the cult of the mainstream, its odd he should deploy it against others. But to throw in Holocaust denial and 9/11 Truthers for good measure! Really. And notice how particularly cheap and easy it is to use such tactics against a libertarian. The traditional left is often based on collective associations, building a movement out of oppressed groups and their grievances, whether it be class or race or even
sexual orientation. Libertarianism is the opposite. Its about dis associating. When you listen to Paul saying he will not turn anyone away from supporting his platform regardless of their motives or beliefs, you are hearing a reflection of his libertarianism, not his bigotry. He will accept support from any quarter and compared with the corporate money flowing into the other candidates coffers, he is about as independent as a presidential candidate can be. Because he is a radical individualist, he doesnt even understand why he should somehow explain the belief of others, or justify their support. You should ask them, not him. This kind of gotcha-association game is particularly easy because libertarians favor liberty above all, and that will necessarily mean liberty for bigots as well as others. A principled belief in states rights will doubtless lead to more racist and homophobic policies in many states but also, of course, more enlightened and successful inclusive states like Oregon or New York or Massachusetts or California. A rejection of statism might lead to more discrimination in the private sector. But it doesnt mandate it. And it need not encourage it. A noninterventionist foreign policy will allow evil to triumph elsewhere in
the world, because it believes its none of our business or too riddled with unintended consequences to try extirpating. That may be right or wrong, but it is not an approval of the evil of Assad or Ahmedinejad or the North Korean junta. And again, it is actually much deeper an American tradition than permanent warfare. But if you can trot out David Duke or Ayatollah Khamenei as potential Paul supporters, you have a very easy, cheap and essentially McCarthyite target. It saddens me that this kind of tactic works. I still believe that the newsletters, because they were in Pauls name, require a clearer explanation from Paul than the muddled ones he has given. He should not be left off the hook. And his proposals deserve a thorough vetting and discussion. But there is something awry when a candidate is assessed not on his arguments and proposals but on the shadiness and ugliness of some of his fringe supporters. Ron Pauls supporters ask that their candidate not be judged by his associates. Or by the people he chose to employ. Or by the newsletters he published. Or by the book he wrote. Or by the way he earned the largest part of his living when out of office in the 1990s. Or by his purchase of the mailing list of the Holocaust-
denying Liberty Lobby. Or by the radio shows he chooses to appear on. Or by his strategic decision to reach out to racist voters. Or by the conspiracy theories to which he lends credence, from government creation of AIDS to Israeli culpability for the 1993 bombing to a putative 9/11 coverup. And here I thought that libertarianism was a doctrine of personal responsibility? May Ron Paul at least be judged by the words he has spoken with his own mouth within the current campaign? The supporters say no again. When Ron Paul tells an interviewer that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made race relations worse, were not supposed to consider what he might mean by better. When Ron Paul warns that a border fence would be used to prevent fleeing American citizens from exiting the country, were not supposed to conclude that hes a paranoid crank. Andrew deploys what might be called the ontological defense of Ron Paul, as follows: 1) Ron Paul is a libertarian. 2) Libertarians espouse individualism. 3) Racism is a form of antiindividualism. 4) Therefore Ron Paul cannot be a racist. That is a demonstration of what
might be called the deductive method of reasoning. But theres another way to study reality: induction. Like this: 1) Ron Paul has again and again exploited bigotry, paranoia, and hate as fundraising devices. 2) Ron Paul is a libertarian. 3) So yes, I guess it is possible for a libertarian to do that. Heres my question for Ron Paul supporters: why the denial of the undeniable? Perhaps you like Pauls message of legalized marijuana? Why not just say so? You dont think its important to stop Iran from gaining nuclear weapons? Argue it forthrightly. If you regard Social Security and Medicare as literally the moral equivalents of slavery, go ahead, make your case. But all this excuse-making, special pleading and jiggering of the rules of evidence so as to exculpate Ron Paul from the record of his whole political life? For what? This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
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Social Media/
5 Apps to Take on Your Next Shopping Adventure

Lauren Indvik (Mashable!)
rewards. For scale, you'll get 60 kicks simply for walking into most partner stores, and 500 kicks 1. Shopkick will get you a $2 gift card to If you're a fan of loyalty rewards Target. If you connect your Visa programs, set up Shopkick on card to Shopkick, you'll get even your iPhone or Android device more kicks for making purchases: before your next shopping trip. Toys 'R Us, for example, rewards You can collect collect points, or customers with 520 kicks for an kicks, by scanning items in U.S. $85 purchase. partner stores, including Target, Click here to view this gallery. Macy's, Best Buy and American Want to shop smarter? Shop with Eagle Outfitters. You can then your smartphone. exchange kicks for various You're likely already aware that
your smartphone can help compare prices and review items you're shopping for in stores. But did you know certain apps can
also help you determine what you can afford to buy, or help you automatically get cash back on certain purchases, just by
checking in? SEE ALSO: 5 Companies Changing the Way We Shop Check out our top picks for essential in-store shopping apps, and add your own suggestions to the comments below. Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, Eva-Katalin More About: apps, ecommerce, features, foursquare, iphone, lifestyle, retail, shopping, trending
10 Desirable Docks That Turn Your iPhone Into a Desk Phone

Amy-Mae Elliott (Mashable!)
Bluetooth handset. Cost: $99.99 Click here to view this gallery. Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:31:40 AM Do you work at a desk and own 1. Native Union Curve Bluetooth an iPhone? Then we have some iDock stylish dock designs for you -This design offers a striking way these devices turn your Apple to dock your iPhone at your desk. smartphone into a landline-style You can charge and sync your phone, complete with standalone phone, plus make calls via the handset.
Whether you seek rad retro styling or minimalist modern
looks, there's a dock to suit your personal style in our roundup. SEE ALSO: 10 Detachable iPhone Lenses for Mobile Photographers Take a look through our handpicked selections in the gallery above. Let us know in the comments below which desk-
happy iPhone cradle you crave -and why. More About: Gadgets, Mobile, Tech, accessories, apple, features, home, iphone, lifestyle, office, trending
Social Media/ Daily World/
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Investment banking scaleback plan

the Libor-fixing scandal. "I want to hear what's on investors' minds. If they've got Barclays' new chief executive has concerns about how we run the signalled plans to shrink the bank, then I would anticipate we'll investment banking arm that change the way we do business," d o m i n a t e d t h e r e i g n o f he told the Sunday Telegraph. p r e d e c e s s o r B o b D i a m o n d . Mr Jenkins, who has been retail Antony Jenkins said tough new and banking boss since 2009, has r e g u l a t i o n s a n d a s t a g n a n t already announced a review of the economy would make "some bank's entire operations and activities in investment banking abandoned aggressive profit difficult to make an adequate targets set by Mr Diamond, who return on". had wanted to lift returns on His comments to the Sunday equity to between 13% and 15%. Times are the clearest signal yet As well as the Libor case, which that he intends to scale back cost the bank 290 million in investment banking, a move fines, Barclays has been involved which is likely to please critics of i n t h e p a y m e n t p r o t e c t i o n the sector such as Bank of insurance scandal and the misEngland governor Sir Mervyn selling of interest rate swaps to is overflowing with organization, King. businesses. productivity and learning apps for Mr Jenkins, who was appointed And his appointment came within kids of any age and grade level. on Thursday, has also promised to hours of Barclays confirming that And since it's even harder to stay do more "listening than talking" the Serious Fraud Office was up to date on all the changes as he attempts to rebuild the investigating payments made to social media platforms have been bank's reputation in the wake of Qatar Holding, which it tapped for making, we explain some of the biggest changes that happened in Facebook, Twitter and Google+. So don't Continue reading... More About: Business, COMMUNICATIONS, Features Week In Review, Social Media, Tech, trending
Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:40:06 AM
(Evening Standard - News)
59 Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed

Neha Prakash (Mashable!)
Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:11:01 AM
We're sure you spent most of the week talking to invisible presidents in a chair -- in true Clint Eastwood style -- so we don't blame you for missing out on all the digital resources and news that unfolded in the past few days. Meanwhile, millions of students are heading back into the classroom. We know that's a stressful time for both students and parents, so our resources list
funds at the height of the financial crisis in 2008. Barclays raised nearly 11 billion at the time, which effectively allowed the bank to avoid following in the footsteps of Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland by taking a state bailout. Mr Jenkins said Barclays could not rely on the global economy to provide any tailwinds to create more business and said rules preventing future financial crises, such as ring-fencing of retail arms, would also bear down on profits. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
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Daily World/
Channel clears schedule for games

Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:40:07 AM
GB cyclists in battle for gold

Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:40:08 AM
Channel 4 is clearing its daytime schedule to air more coverage of the London 2012 Paralympics after the station pulled in record viewing figures. From Monday until the end of the Games, programmes that had been planned to air on More4 in the late afternoon will now go out on the main Channel 4 station. It comes after 2.9 million viewers tuned in at around 6pm to see 17 year-old swimmer Ellie Simmonds win gold in the S6 400m freestyle with a new world record. It helped make Channel 4 the most watched UK channel between 5.50pm to 6.30pm. The channel is now set to broadcast daily coverage of the Games from 7am to 11.15pm with a 30-minute break at 7pm for the Channel 4 News.
The channel made the decision after a peak audience of 11.2 million viewers tuned in to see the Paralympic opening ceremony and there has been a peak of more than 3.3 million viewers for the first three days of live sport. Jay Hunt, Channel 4's chief creative officer, said: "The coverage of the Paralympics has completely captured the public's imagination. We are clearing our schedule to bring viewers even more of this fantastic sport." Saturday night's live Paralympic Games 2012 Tonight show peaked with 3.3 million viewers at both 8.05pm and 9.25pm with swimming and athletics coverage respectively. The figures rose to 3.5 million if the coverage from the Paralympics Extra live streams are included. The same day of live sport from the Beijing 2008 Games on the BBC highlights programme
averaged 2.1 million and peaked at 2.5 million, Channel 4 said. It means that the Paralympics' day, which has been dubbed Superhuman Saturday, has helped Channel 4 achieve its biggest Saturday all-day share in seven years. Channel 4 recorded, on average, an 11.7% share across the day on Saturday - up +113% on the previous 12-month average for Saturdays. The all-day share figure is the highest achieved by Channel 4 on a Saturday since August 27 2005. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
David Smith, James Roe, Naomi Riches, Pam Relph and cox Lily van den Broecke were given a The velodrome erupted as royal seal of approval as they won ParalympicsGB went head-to- gold in front of the Duchess of head in a thrilling gold medal Cambridge at Eton Dorney. battle in the tandem event. There was also success in the Anthony Kappes and Craig Olympic Stadium, as Welshman MacLean came out on top in the Aled Davies won gold in front of clash - which pitted them against the roaring crowd. Long jump star Neil Fachie and Barney Storey in Stef Reid, 27, set a lifetime best the sprint final. as she leapt to silver - recording The crowd rose to their feet, two new Paralympic records in producing a cauldron of noise on the process. the final day of track cycling Sophie Wells, 22, from Newark, action. Nottinghamshire, also landed Kappes and his pilot MacLean silver at the equestrian centre at comfortably won both races in the Greenwich Park. The rider, who best of three match-up. The result was born with amniotic band meant a gold and silver for the syndrome, which affects her pairings in another successful day joints, won second place in the for ParalympicsGB. Grade IV individual event. The win came minutes before Britain now sits second in the Darren Kenny, Rik Waddon and table with 12 gold, 21 silver and Jon-Allan Butterworth were 12 bronze - taking the medal haul narrowly pipped into second place to 45. in the team sprint final. It proved This entry passed through the to be the final action in the Full-Text RSS service if this is v e l o d r o m e , w h i c h s a w your content and you're reading it ParalympicsGB win a total of five on someone else's site, please read gold, seven silver and three the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentbronze medals over four days. only/faq.php#publishers. Five The dramatic scenes capped Filters recommends: Incinerating another medal-laden day in which Assange - The Liberal Media Go Britain won three gold, four silver To Work. and one bronze medals.
Politics/
45
Poll: What was the Obamateurism of the Week?

Ed Morrissey (Hot Air Top Picks)
posted at 9:31 am on September 2, 2012 by Ed Morrissey Once again, instead of writing a clever paragraph introducing the entries for this weeks OOTW, lets talk about the fundraising drive for our OOTD partner Chris Muir, creator of the New Media cartoon strip Day By Day. Chris efforts ranks as one of the best in the New Media, which anyone can confirm by shopping around a bit. His reader-dependent business model may not lead to the Glamour-ous life, but its longevity is a tribute to the loyalty of Chris readership. Its simply bad form not to support this kind of endeavor to make sure it continues. What was the Obamateurism of the Week (9/2)? Previous weekly winners in 2012: I dont think you or anybody whos been watching the campaign would say that in any way we have tried to divide the country. Hiding from WH press corps while giving interviews to People and Entertainment Tonight Asks supporters to find businesses to support his you didnt build that argument
Because were leading around the world, people have a new attitude toward America. Theres more confidence in our leadership. We see it everywhere we go. Just like weve tried their plan, we tried our plan and it worked. If youve got a business, you didnt build that. Somebody else made that happen. But the nature of this office is also to tell a story to the American people Pitches amnesty policy at naturalization ceremony of people who entered legally Removing silverware from tables before speaking to Hispanic voters Scolds American Crossroads for lack of transparency on same day Obama asserted executive privilege in Fast & Furious probe The private sector is doing fine Declares Lech Walesa too political to accept award, gives
another to Dolores Huerta, chair of Democratic Socialists of America Polish death camp [T]hose of us who have spent time in the real world. . . Adds himself into presidential histories of his predecessors, screws up JFK quote When I think about, ah, those soldiers or airmen or Marines, sailors, who are out there fighting on my behalf Includes Nazi collaborator/ Hitler admirer in proclamation for Jewish American Heritage Month Obamas griped that the American public just did not appreciate their exceptional leader Gets annoyed when asked about number of vacations, doesnt answer question Im confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress. This is my last election. After
my election I have more flexibility. Blames Fox News for his unpopularity because they hear Obama is a Muslim 24/7, and it begins to seep in Attacks Limbaugh while remaining silent on Maher contribution to his super-PAC Says when the chips are down, I have Israels back, WH claims its not a military doctrine Apology to Karzai calmed things down Uses Boeing plant in SC to cheer manufacturing after his NLRB tried to shut it down Emphasizes graduation rates in SOTU, cuts DC voucher program that nearly doubled grad rates Well, it turns out our Founders designed a system that makes it more difficult to bring about change that I would like sometimes. Finds claim of unemployment interesting because he is getting the word that womans husband should have no trouble finding
work Hails Roe as essential to allow our daughters to fulfill their dreams Shuts down DisneyWorld in order to promote tourism He didnt want to take pictures with any more soldiers; he was complaining about i t[.] Famous opponent of signing statements issues one covering 17 provisions of bill he signed Previous Obamateurisms of the Year: Giving 2 minutes of shoutouts before getting to the Fort Hood shooting ( 2009) Obama leaves Clinton at press conference podium on tax deal to attend Christmas party ( 2010) I would put our legislative and foreign policy accomplishments in our first two years against any president with the possible exceptions of Johnson, F.D.R., and Lincoln. ( 2011) Its time once again to show our support for Day By Day and its artist-publisher, Chris Muir. Chris holds an annual fundraiser to keep the adventures of Sam, Zed, Jan, and Damon coming. Chris, whose artwork has enhanced the OOTD feature since its inception for Hot Air readers, POLL: page 47
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Politics/
Something rotten in New York

Jazz Shaw (Hot Air Top Picks)
want to bother the busy folks on the ethics committee when he first caught wind of this story and Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:31:39 AM decided to settle things the old posted at 12:31 pm on September fashioned way. 2, 2012 by Jazz Shaw Two groups filed a formal We normally focus on political complaint Wednesday asking news at the national level here, N e w Y o r k s t a t e s e t h i c s but every once in a while a story enforcement agency to investigate congeals like scum on the surface state Assembly Speaker Sheldon of a state level pond which merits Silvers handling of sexualattention. Such is the case in New harassment complaints against a York State this summer. The tale high-ranking lawmaker. actually began a while back, when The National Organization for an investigation into the , er Women and Common Cause, a affairs of State Assemblyman government transparency group, V i t o L o p e z ( D - B r o o k l y n ) submitted the formal complaint, determined that he had sexually calling for a probe into Mr. harassed two young, female Silvers approval of a secret staffers, leading to his censure on $ 1 0 0 , 0 0 0 t a x p a y e r - f u n d e d the Assembly floor. And if the payment to settle accusations by story had stopped there it would f e m a l e e m p l o y e e s a g a i n s t hardly be unusual enough in Big A s s e m b l y m a n V i t o L o p e z . Apple politics to merit a column. Thats just lovely, isnt it? In a But that event turned out to be state thats already going broke, the the pebble which started a 100,000 taxpayer dollars get series of ripples across the pond. diverted to a secret slush fund to Now we find out from the Wall pay off the women in an attempt Street Journal that more ethics to keep Vito safe and sound in investigations are underway, this Brooklyn. time into the involvement of the If you dont live in New York, Assembly Speaker, Sheldon you might not be familiar with Silver. It seems that Shelly didnt that name, but hes a legend
around here. The Republicans traditionally control the state senate (by a razor thin margin) but its not the Democrats who control the Assembly its Sheldon Silver. And hes held that body in lock-down for nearly two decades. Hes the most powerful Democrat in the state even more so than the Governor, according to many accounts. But wait the trail of nasty deeds doesnt stop there! Oh no, the state Attorney General had to get in on the act as well. Michael Goodman reports: Meanwhile, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is trying to wiggle out of any responsibility for the secret payout. That wont be easy because an e-mail trail shows his office helped Silver craft the agreement and the confidentiality clause. It counts as big news that the Attorney Generals Office played any role in conspiring to hide from taxpayers such seedy deals. Are there other cases we should know about? Why yes, Michael, there are. The DA in Brooklyn, Charles Hynes, had apparently been stonewalling
any investigation into Vitos dirty laundry until recently. Its only now, with the full light of day shining on these activities and public pressure mounting that the investigation has been turned over to the Republican Staten Island DA, Dan Donovan. New York City and Albany Democrats are currently fleeing like cockroaches when the kitchen light is switched on. It will be interesting to see how much further this one goes up the food chain, particularly this close to an election. Does this mean some of these seats are going to be switching over to the GOP column? Dont kid yourself. This is New York. Charlie Rangel still has a job here, for Petes sake. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Politics/ Technology/
47
Video: Axelrod dodges the better off four years ago question; Update: Video fixed
POLL:
uses the funds raised for only the continuance of DBD. As always, the fundraiser has many fabulous gifts available at whatever level one chooses to donate. If youre thinking about donating at the Jan /Damon level or above, youll get a Last Supper Red vs Blue Ed Morrissey (Hot Air Top January 2009 and today, and asks low of 63.6% in April and is at magnet, which has depictions of Picks) Axelrod again: are voters better 63.7% now. Thats actually the personalities from New Media off now than four years ago? best measure of the Reagan myself included. Donating at the Submitted at 9/2/2012 10:01:54 AM Answer: Er . Metric. If this question doesnt Anatoly Level will get you a 915 posted at 11:01 am on September Here are the stats Wallace uses: come from the moderators at the print of the artwork. Dig deep 2, 2012 by Ed Morrissey Unemployment: 7.8% then, debates, you can bet your bottom and be part of supporting the one W a n t a p r e v i e w o f t h e 8.3% now dollar that Romney will ask it of the best New Media cartoonists presidential debates? Then spend Median income: $54,983 then, himself and that Obamas (non in the biz! two and a half minutes with this $50,964 now -)answer will be just as effective, Got an Obamateurism of the clip from todays Fox News Gas prices: $1.85 per gallon and just as revealing, as Axelrods Day? If you see a foul-up by Barack Obama, e-mail it to me at Sunday with Chris Wallace and then, $3.78 now today. David Axelrod. Wallace asks National debt: $10.6 trillion This entry passed through the obamaisms@edmorrissey.com Axelrod the quadrennial question: then, $15.9 trillion now Full-Text RSS service if this is with the quote and the link to the are voters better off now than four your content and you're reading it Obamateurism. Ill post the best years ago? When the man E x p e c t M i t t R o m n e y t o on someone else's site, please read running Team Obama tries to run memorize these statistics, and the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentaway from the question by talking perhaps toss in the civilian only/faq.php#publishers. Five about the tough environment participation rate, which was at Filters recommends: Incinerating Barack Obama inherited, Wallace 65.7% in January 2009 and in Assange - The Liberal Media Go lays out the comparison on June 2009 at the start of the To Work. economic statistics between recovery, but fell to a 30-year
Obamateurisms on a daily basis, depending on how many I receive. Include a link to your blog, and Ill give some link love as well. And unlike Slate, I promise to end the feature when Barack Obama leaves office. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Car accident stops 80eDays Tesla Roadster from completing world tour
Sean Buckley (Engadget)
Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:58:00 AM
A unfortunate traffic accident brought Rafael de Mestre's electric trek across the globe to an abrupt halt today, stopping his Tesla Roadster a scant kilometer
from the finish line. "Game over," the world traveler wrote on Facebook and Twitter, posting a picture of the damaged vehicle and assuring readers that he survived the ordeal. Since then, he's only offered a small update, electric carriage and sharing a lamenting the loss of his faithful
short video of the accident's aftermath. Lend the dejected driver some moral support (or just engage in digital rubbernecking) at the source links below. Filed under: Transportation Car accident stops 80eDays Tesla Roadster from completing world
tour originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 02 Sep 2012 11:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Chargelocator (Twitter), Electric Race (Facebook)| Email this| Comments
48
News Wire/
Dems' Debt Defense: Can't Fix It Yet

(FOXNews.com)
Submitted at 9/2/2012 12:33:25 PM
After a week of withering attacks on President Obama's fiscal record, top Democrats on Sunday defended the president's plans for shaving down the deficit -- but said balancing the budget now would actually be a bad idea. Senior campaign adviser David Axelrod, speaking on "Fox News Sunday," repeated claims that Obama's plan would cut the deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade, bringing the budget shortfall down to a point that would "stabilize" the debt. "And then, with growth, we'll be in a position to begin reducing it further," he said. But, when pressed, Axelrod would not say when the president's plan could bring the budget into balance. With the deficit clocking in at more than $1 trillion once again this year, he suggested that's not the goal in the near-term. "What's necessary is to stabilize the debt and then work from there," he said. "You can't balance the budget in the short term, because to do that would be to ratchet down the economy." Axelrod was referring to warnings that to act too quickly to close the deficit would deprive the economy of needed federal dollars at a time when it is barely
growing and is creating jobs at a still-modest pace. A recent Congressional Budget Office report said that if tax rates rise and sweeping defense cuts go into effect as planned in January, it could result in the economy contracting by .5 percent and unemployment rising to 9.1 percent -- even though the tax hikes and defense cuts would help to close the deficit. The unemployment rate now is
8.3 percent. But the Obama campaign remains at risk of appearing reluctant to act on the deficit, as the debt nears $16 trillion and interest payments on that debt rise. Republicans hammered that vulnerability this past week at their convention in Tampa, displaying two giant debt clocks in the convention hall and repeatedly noting that the debt had risen $5 trillion under his
watch. Axelrod, though, said Republicans -- with their plans to cut taxes for the middle class and the wealthy -- "are not credible on the deficit." Though GOP running mate Paul Ryan hammered the president for ignoring the plan put out by his own deficit-reduction commission, Axelrod pointed out that Ryan didn't vote for that plan either.
"(Obama) didn't let it die on the vine," he claimed, suggesting it informed his own proposals. The only reason that won't pass, he said, is Republicans won't raise taxes. Republicans claim Democrats are the ones holding back a balanced budget by refusing to compromise on entitlements. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio DEMS' page 50
News Wire/ News Photos
49
Obama Signature Claims Denied, Vets Try to Verify

(FOXNews.com)
exists in this case." - Joel Arends, Veterans for a Strong America But the White House insists Families of the Navy Seals who every letter sent out to the died after their helicopter was families of fallen service members shot down during a 2011 rescue is signed by the hand of the mission in Afghanistan recieved Commander-in-Chief. this letter which they believe was The President signs every such with an electronic signing device, letter personally, White House often referred to as an, "auto-pen." Press Secretary Jay Carney said thegatewaypundit.com Friday. An autopen is a machine that can A veterans group is vowing to get be programmed to duplicate an a handwriting expert to determine individual's John Hancock. Seen if the letters sent to parents of as more personal than a stamp but N a v y S E A L s k i l l e d i n less than a hand-signature, the Afghanistan were signed by device was first used in the White President Obama himself or an H o u s e b y P r e s i d e n t H a r r y electronic autopen that can Truman. President Obama made replicate his signature. history when he became the first Karen and Billy Vaughn, whose chief executive to use the device son Aaron Vaughn was one of 17 to sign a bill, authorizing its use to SEALs and 13 other Americans extend key provisions of the killed in a helicopter crash Aug. 6, Patriot Act last year while he was 2011, raised the issue at a Tea in France. Party rally in Tampa during the Aaron Vaughn was part of a team Republican National Convention that was sent to a mountainous that they had received a form area in the Wardak Providence in letter. Karen Vaughn said the August of last year to assist an letter, dated Sept. 23, 2011, was Army Ranger unit that was in identical with those sent to other pursuit of a senior Taliban families of SEALs who died in commander and his unit when the crash. It was later determined their Chinook helicopter was shot the signatures were mechanical. down. Nearly 40 people perished, "We are going to have nationally marking it one of the deadliest recognized handwriting experts single incident losses in the review the letters given the strong decade-long war in Afghanistan. circumstantial evidence which Veterans for a Strong America, a
Submitted at 9/2/2012 12:33:25 PM
nonpartisan military watchdog group pledged to get to the bottom of the matter. "After reviewing letters from several families of fallen Navy SEALs it appears that the letters may have been auto-penned, so we are going to have nationally recognized handwriting experts review the letters given the strong circumstantial evidence which exists in this case," Joel Arends, chairman of Veterans for a Strong America said in a statement to FoxNews.com. Arends also complained that the mailings are form letters, with only the names of the recipients changed. The White House conceded that point, but noted sending form letters has long been common practice for presidents, especially when war casualties mount. In 2003, Newsweek reported that condolence letters from President George W. Bush were also form letters, With the exception of the salutation and a reference to the fallen soldier in the text. However, four years later, the Washington Times ran a story claiming that Bush had sent personal letters to more than 4,000 families of soldiers killed in action and 9/11 victims during his presidency which was largely unnoticed by the public. Former Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld was embroiled in an auto-pen controversy of his own when criticism was made against him for not personally signing each letter. He was forced to release a statement admitting that he used the auto-pen on some letters, but only, in the interest of ensuring expeditious contact with grieving family members, before vowing that from that point forward he would personally sign each one. Print Email Share Comments Recommend Tweet Share This Article Newsletter Signup Sign up for free e-mail news alerts from FoxNews.com and FoxBusiness.com. Newsletter Signup This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Paralympics Photos: Captivating Images Of London 2012 Paralympians In ... - Huffington Post
(news photos - Google News)
Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:34:14 AM
Kansas City Star Paralympics Photos: Captivating Images Of London 2012 Paralympians In... Huffington Post South Africa's Oscar Pistorius prepares to get in his blocks before making a start in a men's 200m T44 round 1 race at the 2012 Paralympics in London, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2012. Pistorius ran a new world record in the race of 21.30 seconds. (AP Photo... AP PHOTOS: Scenes from the Paralympics Knoxville News Sentinel AP PHOTOS: Scenes from the Paralympic Games in London Newser all 167 news articles
50
News Wire/
DEMS'
Villaraigosa, chairman of the Democrats' convention, claimed on "Fox News Sunday" that Obama is ready to address entitlement reform. "He has made it absolutely clear he is willing to work on a bipartisan basis to address things like Social Security," he said. The Obama campaign, though, has spent the last several weeks hammering Ryan's plan to "voucherize" Medicare without touting any particular plan of its own to address Medicare's gaping deficits. Democratic advisers were blanketing the airwaves Sunday in the run-up to this week's Charlotte convention. They're trying to recapture the spotlight and reframe their candidate after a week of GOP attacks on the incumbent. Mitt Romney, in his nomination acceptance speech Thursday, argued that Obama's campaign does not meet a simple test -- in
that Americans, he said, are not better off today than when he took office. "This president can ask us to be patient. This president can tell us it was someone else's fault. This president can tell us that the next four years he'll get it right," he said. "But this president cannot tell us that you are better off today than when he took office." Axelrod, though, said the campaign can say "we're in a better position than we were four years ago." "The average American recognizes that it took years to create the crisis that erupted in 2008 ... and it's going to take some time to work through it," he said. Print Email Share Comments Recommend Tweet
Related Stories Axelrod to GOP: At least we're 'unified' Dem convention chairman: Reagan would not approve of GOP speeches Obama to Eastwood: No hard feelings Romney campaign claims to be closing gap in social media battle Share This Article Newsletter Signup Sign up for free e-mail news alerts from FoxNews.com and FoxBusiness.com. Newsletter Signup This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Button wins big in Belgium, catapults back into title fight

RT (News RSS : Today)
to get a victory here from light to flag is very special, Button said after the race.It hasn't been an McLaren Formula One driver easy year for me. We're going to Jenson Button of Britain is enjoy this for a little while longer followed by Lotus Formula One before we head to Monza and driver Kimi Raikkonen of Finland hopefully do the same. at the start of Belgian F1 Grand The Brit, who also took first at Prix in Spa Francorchamps the Australian Grand Prix in September 2, 2012. (Reuters/ March, catapulted himself back Sebastien Pirlet) into contention for the Formula Jenson Button has claimed his One world title. 14th career win in Formula One Reigning champion Sebastian racing his second of the year Vettel came in second ahead of following a dominant pole-to-flag Kimi Raikkonen. The German race at the Belgian Grand Prix. was arguably the biggest winner, It was also a day that standings as the Red Bull racer overtook leader Fernando Alonso will teammate Mark Webber for l i k e l y w i s h t o f o r g e t . T h e second in the overall standings. Spaniard was just one of several Vettel is now 24 points behind big names to crash out right at the top title contender Alonso. beginning of the race at the Spa Raikkonen is now in third, circuit. followed closely by Webber, I'm fine and 100 [percent] Hamilton and Button. already thinking [about] Monza! This entry passed through the Alonso wrote on Twitter. Full-Text RSS service if this is Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Perez your content and you're reading it and Romain Grosjean all forfeited on someone else's site, please read after a pile-up on the first corner. the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentPastor Maldonado also bowed out only/faq.php#publishers. Five early on. Filters recommends: Incinerating With two of his main rivals out, Assange - The Liberal Media Go Button had no problem clinching To Work. the win. This is such a special circuit, so
Submitted at 9/2/2012 10:03:07 AM
News Wire/
51
Pragues homeless take tourists off the beaten path

Aces low: Russian fighter jet buzzes highway drivers (VIDEO)

on both the city's downtown and outskirts. No one knows the streets like a An old man sleeps by the metro homeless person does, Pragulic station in Prague. (AFP Photo/ founder Katarina Chalupkova told Michal Cizek) Czech publication The Prague Prague's homeless have found a Post. She claimed that the way to profit from the citys homeless-led tours were first flourishing tourism industry: By devised by the guides themselves. o f f e r i n g a n a l t e r n a t i v e t o The tours cost around 200 Czech mainstream tour guides. The crowns ($10), half of which goes unorthodox chaperones show to the guide. Jan Badalec, a visitors another side to the city, recovering alcoholic and one of from the people who know it best. the eight guides working for The forays into Pragues gritty Pragulic, said that the initiative underbelly offer visitors a glimpse offered him the opportunity to at places inhabited by the citys improve his life. poor and homeless. Im trying to make the most of "The guide has opened quite a what life dealt me, and with the different view of Prague for me," help of God, I am, Badalec said. Tobias, a German sightseer who Pragulic's three founders Tereza participated in the tour said. The Jureckova, Katarina Chalupkova experience hadopened the world and Ondrj Klugl say that the of the homeless to him, he said. project will"contribute to the The initiative, dubbed 'Pragulic,' improvement of the situation" for targets both Czech and foreign the homeless, and will help tourists. There are currently ten combat negative stereotypes. such tours being offered, focusing Prague has a population of 1.2
million people, some 4000 of whom are estimated to be homeless and are oftenquite happily ignored by the rest of the city.Many people really criticize the homeless, they throw them all into the same bag, and thats just not right, Pragulic's founders said. Pragulic is not the first enterprise of its kind in Europe: For a number of years, Londons 'Sock Mob' offered tours led by homeless or formerly homeless people, claiming they offered a window into unseen London. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Viewers identified the plane as an SU-24, a widely used Russian attack aircraft developed in the Have you ever seen a supersonic 1960s. Several claimed that attack aircraft roar right over your though the SU-24 has been known head? A driver in southern Russia to fly at such low altitudes during had this exact experience when an A i r F o r c e e x e r c i s e s , t h o s e SU-24 warplane flew just a few exercises are never performed dozen meters over his vehicle. near federal highways like the one The driver managed to record the shown in the video. incident with a dashboard camera. Others believe the maneuver was The footage of the warplane a prank played by a daredevil flying extremely close to the pilot. Russian Air Force officials ground went viral, sparking have not yet commented on the heated online debate over whether incident. the video was genuine or fake. This entry passed through the Many argued that the video was a Full-Text RSS service if this is fake since the plane's sonic boom your content and you're reading it came before the aircraft passed on someone else's site, please read the car, not after. One possible the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentexplanation for this discrepancy is only/faq.php#publishers. Five that the sound is slightly out of Filters recommends: Incinerating synch and ahead of video, which Assange - The Liberal Media Go often happens with dashboard To Work. recordings.
Submitted at 9/2/2012 11:25:58 AM
52
News Wire/ Technology/
Chair Aside, Obama Still a 'Huge' Clint Eastwood Fan

(FOXNews.com)
Submitted at 9/2/2012 12:33:25 PM
Good, bad and downright ugly reaction to Eastwood's speech Grapevine: Mixed reviews for Eastwood's RNC appearance Hollywood critics pan Clint Eastwood's convention speech President Obama is still a fan of Clint Eastwood. The president, in an interview with USA Today, suggested he was not offended by the actor's performance during the closing night of the Republican National Convention -- in which Eastwood engaged in a one-man repartee with an empty chair meant to represent Obama. "I am a huge Clint Eastwood fan,"
the president said. "He is a great actor, and an even better director," Obama added, giving particular praise for his recent movies, which include "Invictus," "Gran Torino" and "Million Dollar Baby." The president said in the interview that organizers are planning to play it "pretty straight" during his party's national convention this coming week in Charlotte, N.C. "One thing about being president or running for president -- if you're easily offended, you should probably choose another profession," Obama said. Eastwood brought down the house in Tampa when he launched into a scathing routine in which he bantered with an empty chair, challenging the invisible president over the state of the economy and other grievances. The routine, though, prompted a
backlash from the Hollywood community and some in the media. Print Email Share Comments Recommend Tweet Share This Article Newsletter Signup Sign up for free e-mail news alerts from FoxNews.com and FoxBusiness.com. Newsletter Signup This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: go-kart made of Lego bricks, TOTO toilet bike and the launch of 'Willow Glass'
Inhabitat (Engadget)
INHABITAT'S
'Willow Glass' originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 02 Sep 2012 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| Comments
we test drove a 2013 Ford Focus Electric through the streets of San Submitted at 9/2/2012 10:00:00 AM Francisco (we admit, we did get a E a c h w e e k o u r f r i e n d s a t bit of range anxiety). And in one Inhabitat recap the week's most of the most interesting automotive interesting green developments stories from the past week, the and clean tech news for us -- it's world's first 3D-printed car-- the the Week in Green. Areion EV-- reached a top speed As we head towards the home of 141 kph. stretch of the 2012 presidential Continue reading Inhabitat's campaign, we're closely watching Week in Green: go-kart made of both candidates to see what Lego bricks, TOTO toilet bike they're doing for the environment. and the launch of 'Willow Glass' The Obama administration scored Filed under: Misc, a major win for fuel-efficient cars T r a n s p o r t a t i o n , S c i e n c e this week by finalizing new Inhabitat's Week in Green: gostandards that will increase the kart made of Lego bricks, TOTO fuel economy of cars to the toilet bike and the launch of equivalent of 54.5 mpg by 2025. But what about the cars that are INHABITAT'S page 52 currently on the road? This week

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