Thursday, December 30, 2010

Making Money Scam




People aren't going to like this post, but oh well. White people went to war with white people and slavery was abolished as a result. To be sure, black people fought and died in the fight but when it comes down to it, just as is true today, black people could not have accomplished what was without white people. This statement isn'tt to disparage black people, it is to champion white and black people working together absent race being some kind of artificial barrier to that happening. I despise the term "black community". To me, such a thing is self segregationist and racist in nature. I am sick to death of race being a line drawn between us by those who seek to divide and conquer.


We are Americans. It's the American community. No hyphens. This author writes about PEOPLE. I see no "African-American" label. That is a great thing.


Part of the fraud, part of the corruption, is this in and of itself – National Black Farmers Association. Kinda like the NAACP, UNCF and the CBC,huh? Heck, lets add Mecha and La Raza while we are at it. I am sick to death of race based groups getting a pass as if they are not race based groups. They should no more get a pass than the KKK should. Race based is race based. Period.


This separatism is the very thing that affords what this was originally about in the first place. It's what sees ugly events transpire. No amount of corrupt lawsuits will make it right. Only actions going forward will make it right. Yes, this author is 100% correct that a can of worms is being opened and that it has to be opened. But he ain't correct because he is black. He's right because he's right.


Eric Holder got it wrong. A great many of us aren't afraid to talk about race. Here we have Jimmy Dismuke and myself, both white and black men, saying the exact same thing. Color is irrelevant to substance, but you know what? Jimmy saying this is garnering thanks, I opine for the wrong reason, showing what part of the problem is. He's being thanked because he is saying what he is while being black. This saddens me. I often feel this way reading Walter Williams or Thomas Sowell. It feels as if it's "worth more" when they say these things. And I literally HATE feeling that way. I'm sick of feeling that way and that being acceptable public discourse. I'm sick of being held responsible for something I had nothing to do with – slavery and segregation – just because of my skin color. I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG and I am done with being punished as if I did. In this way, I, as a white man, understand discrimination far better than most black people, or other so called "minorities" will give me credit for. I am tired of being called a racist for saying the same things a black man says and is then thanked for saying. SICK OF IT.


It's said that there must be an uprising within a section of society, among that section itself, that has long rested on the victimization laurels because it has been led to believe endless generations are owed by all future generations. It appears that tide is rising. More and more black people are standing stand up to call that exactly what it is – bullshit. John Stossel did a bake sale deal where blacks and hispanics got special pricing – lower than for whites- and to see black women cry foul made me smile from ear to ear. Someone with no political stake in anything, just an average everyday American out and about shopping, rejected that racist garbage even when she herself could have directly benefited from it. That is AWESOME. The problem there is that I should even notice, much less care, that the woman was black! My goodness, that is soooooo screwed up. Just like feeling thankful that a black man wrote this piece. Just like Walter and Thomas.


When it comes down to it, Americans of all colors have to stand together and say firmly with serious resolve that NO MORE will ANY laws be obliged that offer one treatment to one person and a different treatment to another with skin color being the line of separation. We ALL have to reject that racist division and embrace true Equality. We have to accept that the same set of rules, and the same set of rights, apply equally to all of us. That goes for everything from gerrymandered voting districts to college scholarships.


It is time to admit that there is no such thing as black rights, white rights, brown rights, asian rights, gay rights, muslim rights, jewish rights, christian rights, poor rights, rich rights and and and…..There are only Creator endowed rights and we all have them just the same because of our common humanity, not because some bureaucrat inked them so for some and not others. Enough is Enough.


Americans must have the courage to say it out loud, to write it, to live it. Equality means giving up the race based organizations, special rule structures and special allowances or excuses. It is time for all to see how stands for true equality and who does not. Period. Time to pick a side.



The District's neighborhood listservs provide one particularly valuable service to jittery residents: they're searchable repositories of suspicious activity. Shady newspaper salespeople, magazine peddlers, people dressed as utility technicians -- just a sample of the alleged scam artists who prowl the city's residential streets in search of their next victim. Recently though, we've noticed another class of accused scammer popping up on the listservs: the guy who sells meat out of a van -- who some residents aren't just afraid will swindle their money, but perhaps also their digestive health.



"I would hope someone in our 10,000 list community who has seen them (and had their products?) could advise if they made sure that the vendor had all the needed DC business and Health Department licenses/approvals," wrote one Cleveland Park listerserv member in October about a visit another listserv member received from Butcher's Choice of Baltimore. "I do not want anyone here's first "experience" to be at a local ER."



"Did they want to be paid in cash as well? Right now, seems "fishy" to me," she added.



In response, MPD Detective John Paprcka said that the meat seller "certainly sounds suspicious," and advised residents in Cleveland Park to call 911 if they ever felt threatened. "Burglars often go to work when you go to work," added Paprcka.



The shady meat salesman reappeared on the Metropolitan Police Department's Fifth District listserv yesterday.



"I just had a gentleman from [Capital Meats] knock on my door around (3pm) this afternoon. He offered to sell me the meat that was left in his van," said one poster. "Both his van and his sweatshirt had the logo on it, but it was very strange and unsolicited and with the recent burglaries on Adams I felt a little uneasy. Just wanted to pass it along and alert my neighbors."



Ward 5 firebrand Kathy Henderson responded this morning. "We do not tolerate these unlicensed steak peddlers in our community," Henderson fired back. "Each time these fast-talking individuals offer their unsanitary, barely refrigerated meat for sale we call the police."



So is the District overrun with a bevy of rotten steak hucksters?




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Geraldine Hoff Doyle, Inspiration Behind &#39;We Can Do It!&#39; Poster <b>...</b>

Geraldine Hoff Doyle, the woman whose face inspired the famous.

Keith Olbermann: &#39;Fox <b>News</b> Is 100% Bullshit&#39;

Keith Olbermann is anything but hesitant when it comes to a battle with Fox News, and the MSNBC anchor took to Twitter Wednesday to share his views on the TV network he probably wouldn't even call a rival. "Fox News is 100% bullshit," ...

Fox <b>News</b> Channel&#39;s Kimberly Guilfoyle: Ignore CPAC boycotters <b>...</b>

Former first lady of San Francisco tells groups boycotting February convention to participate if they want to be heard.


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Tuesday, December 28, 2010

personal finance programs









Mesoloan



Now, as for today's entrepreneurs, first up today was Hardika Shah presenting Mesoloan, a small enterprise loan program for Indian entrepreneurs in the $2,000-$20,000 loan size bracket. This is a segment that is well beyond traditional micro-finance, but also somewhat below the scope of the regular financial institutions. Hardika intends to build a financial institution focused on this segment with financing from social entrepreneurship oriented venture funds like Unitus.



It turns out that in my Vision India 2020 book, I have a similar project called FDBI. My personal analysis is that to make a financial institution successful by catering to the said segment will require a tight control of the types of businesses that are financed. This is why I have focused on micro-franchise oriented businesses where a tightly controlled structure is replicated across a large number of small businesses. My recommendation to Hardika is to study the FDBI project



DaisyClip



Next Annette McClellan presented DaisyClip, a non-surgical contraception device for women that she is in the process of syndicating a $1.8 million financing round for. Her market penetration plan is to start with India, and she wanted to know what kinds of options/connections we could provide. Well, there are some government and NGO contacts that I have in mind for her to explore. However, she will, of course, need to clear the clinical trials and get the proper regulatory approvals.



Voices.com



Our next presenter was David Ciccarelli discussing Voices.com, an interesting niche marketplace for freelance voice talent used by businesses and entertainment companies. David has 25,000 freelancers of which about 20% are paying subscribers (a very good number). He also has 120,000 companies using the talent from his marketplace.



David asked how to convert more of his users to paying users. I pointed him to the oDesk case study in which I have discussed the strategy for a marketplace in great detail. David is also struggling with the notion of his community taking the transactions offline.



Well, eLance has experienced similar problems, and I asked David to concentrate on communicating to his user base of service providers the value of building a reputation through references and reviews/customer feedback. Taking the transaction offline would mean the service provider would not get any feedback from the transaction. Nor will she or he get any assistance with dispute resolution, for example. Overall, I felt that making the reputation-building features available only to the premium members would be a good way to convert more free users to paying customers.



Marketing Green Products and Services to Indian Consumers



Then Tarini Kinkar discussed a media concept for marketing green products and services to Indian consumers. The business idea was not very well fleshed out, and needs a lot of work still. One of my key concerns is that the level of awareness about green and environmentally conscious issues is very, very low in India. Also, the business model for the business is unclear.



Klonos

Republicans Were For Prevention Before They Were Against It


Sarah Kliff previews the GOP’s big box of ideas for how to force Democrats to vote against their own health care law come January. Last week, House Republicans wanted to attach repeal to next month’s doc fix, now they’re considering taking a page from Sen. Mike Johanns’ (R-NE) original 1099 repeal proposal and using prevention dollars to pay for the impending reimbursement cuts:



Republican Senate aides familiar with the issue told POLITICO they are seriously looking at the new law’s $15 billion public health commitment to finance a one-year doc fix in the next session of Congress.


One aide said health reform’s preventive health spending is one of the “top three” offsets in the law that congressional Republican staffers are eyeing, with the idea that a few moderate Democrats facing tough races in 2012 could eventually be brought on board.


As for which part of the health reform law to pull funds from, Republicans have long derided the multibillion Prevention and Public Health Fund as wasteful spending, scoffing at its investment in bike paths and farmers’ markets. One Republican Senate aide quipped that it was a “slush fund for jungle gyms.”


The fund, which began this year with $500 million, will grow to a $2 billion per year allocation by 2015. Totaling $15 billion over the next 10 years, the fund would be nearly enough to offset an entire, yearlong doc fix.


This is fairly galling, not only because a long-term investment in prevention is exactly the kind of thing that might save dollars over the long term, but also because Republicans themselves encourage Americans to take personal responsibility for their health and catch diseases before they turn into costly, chronic conditions. The “slush” fund aspect they’re referring to — as far as I can tell — is a recent HHS decision to use $250 million to expand the primary work force — the very kind of investment that would help build the infrastructure and make sure there were people to help with screenings, immunizations and other needs.


And this, is something Republicans presumably support. In July, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) tried to take credit for the prevention funds in the Affordable Care Act, something Republicans had long advocated for:



- Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said the law’s emphasis on preventive care is good “because it costs less to keep people well than to treat them when they’re sick.”


- Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY): “Congress should be able to work together on our practical ideas that the American people support, such as reforming our medical liability laws to discourage junk lawsuits…encouraging wellness and prevention programs that have proved to be effective in cutting costs and improving care.”


- Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA): “I am an original cosponsor of S. 1099, the “Patients’ Choice Act,” …. The legislation would make health care coverage accessible and affordable for all Americans through private insurance coverage, while also promoting prevention and wellness which can improve lives and lower long-term medical costs.


Kliff reports that “the idea of tying the doc fix to a partial health reform repeal has legs because it comes with a clear rhetorical message: Congress should not start creating new entitlements without the necessary funding to uphold existing ones.” I would argue that that the opposite argument can be even more persuasive — pulling money out of prevention should be dead in the water since it’s one of the handful of ideas Republicans presented as consensus areas when they urged Democrats to scrap the big bill and rally around just a few popular policies.





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The Best of 2010&#39;s Animals in the <b>News</b>

2010 produced many weird, far-out, bizarre photos of people. But let's not forget all of the animals that made headlines over the past 12 months: from a rhino cow, penguin santas and lip-syncing monkey, we offer some of the best.

Making <b>News</b> and Entertainment More Social in 2011 - Facebook <b>...</b>

In April, The Washington Post integrated Facebook Platform to create a social experience across the site with “Network News.” The Washington Post has seen more than 280% increase in referral traffic year-over-year, as news becomes ...

Phila. Gay <b>News</b> Editor On Elton John: &#39;Couldn&#39;t Find A Better <b>...</b>

After struggling to adopt for years, one of music's most influential men is now a dad. Sir Elton John and his partner, David Furnish, now have a son, born to a surrogate in California on Christmas Day.


bench craft company scam

The Best of 2010&#39;s Animals in the <b>News</b>

2010 produced many weird, far-out, bizarre photos of people. But let's not forget all of the animals that made headlines over the past 12 months: from a rhino cow, penguin santas and lip-syncing monkey, we offer some of the best.

Making <b>News</b> and Entertainment More Social in 2011 - Facebook <b>...</b>

In April, The Washington Post integrated Facebook Platform to create a social experience across the site with “Network News.” The Washington Post has seen more than 280% increase in referral traffic year-over-year, as news becomes ...

Phila. Gay <b>News</b> Editor On Elton John: &#39;Couldn&#39;t Find A Better <b>...</b>

After struggling to adopt for years, one of music's most influential men is now a dad. Sir Elton John and his partner, David Furnish, now have a son, born to a surrogate in California on Christmas Day.


bench craft company scam

The Best of 2010&#39;s Animals in the <b>News</b>

2010 produced many weird, far-out, bizarre photos of people. But let's not forget all of the animals that made headlines over the past 12 months: from a rhino cow, penguin santas and lip-syncing monkey, we offer some of the best.

Making <b>News</b> and Entertainment More Social in 2011 - Facebook <b>...</b>

In April, The Washington Post integrated Facebook Platform to create a social experience across the site with “Network News.” The Washington Post has seen more than 280% increase in referral traffic year-over-year, as news becomes ...

Phila. Gay <b>News</b> Editor On Elton John: &#39;Couldn&#39;t Find A Better <b>...</b>

After struggling to adopt for years, one of music's most influential men is now a dad. Sir Elton John and his partner, David Furnish, now have a son, born to a surrogate in California on Christmas Day.


bench craft company scam

The Best of 2010&#39;s Animals in the <b>News</b>

2010 produced many weird, far-out, bizarre photos of people. But let's not forget all of the animals that made headlines over the past 12 months: from a rhino cow, penguin santas and lip-syncing monkey, we offer some of the best.

Making <b>News</b> and Entertainment More Social in 2011 - Facebook <b>...</b>

In April, The Washington Post integrated Facebook Platform to create a social experience across the site with “Network News.” The Washington Post has seen more than 280% increase in referral traffic year-over-year, as news becomes ...

Phila. Gay <b>News</b> Editor On Elton John: &#39;Couldn&#39;t Find A Better <b>...</b>

After struggling to adopt for years, one of music's most influential men is now a dad. Sir Elton John and his partner, David Furnish, now have a son, born to a surrogate in California on Christmas Day.


bench craft company scam

The Best of 2010&#39;s Animals in the <b>News</b>

2010 produced many weird, far-out, bizarre photos of people. But let's not forget all of the animals that made headlines over the past 12 months: from a rhino cow, penguin santas and lip-syncing monkey, we offer some of the best.

Making <b>News</b> and Entertainment More Social in 2011 - Facebook <b>...</b>

In April, The Washington Post integrated Facebook Platform to create a social experience across the site with “Network News.” The Washington Post has seen more than 280% increase in referral traffic year-over-year, as news becomes ...

Phila. Gay <b>News</b> Editor On Elton John: &#39;Couldn&#39;t Find A Better <b>...</b>

After struggling to adopt for years, one of music's most influential men is now a dad. Sir Elton John and his partner, David Furnish, now have a son, born to a surrogate in California on Christmas Day.


bench craft company scam

The Best of 2010&#39;s Animals in the <b>News</b>

2010 produced many weird, far-out, bizarre photos of people. But let's not forget all of the animals that made headlines over the past 12 months: from a rhino cow, penguin santas and lip-syncing monkey, we offer some of the best.

Making <b>News</b> and Entertainment More Social in 2011 - Facebook <b>...</b>

In April, The Washington Post integrated Facebook Platform to create a social experience across the site with “Network News.” The Washington Post has seen more than 280% increase in referral traffic year-over-year, as news becomes ...

Phila. Gay <b>News</b> Editor On Elton John: &#39;Couldn&#39;t Find A Better <b>...</b>

After struggling to adopt for years, one of music's most influential men is now a dad. Sir Elton John and his partner, David Furnish, now have a son, born to a surrogate in California on Christmas Day.


bench craft company scam

The Best of 2010&#39;s Animals in the <b>News</b>

2010 produced many weird, far-out, bizarre photos of people. But let's not forget all of the animals that made headlines over the past 12 months: from a rhino cow, penguin santas and lip-syncing monkey, we offer some of the best.

Making <b>News</b> and Entertainment More Social in 2011 - Facebook <b>...</b>

In April, The Washington Post integrated Facebook Platform to create a social experience across the site with “Network News.” The Washington Post has seen more than 280% increase in referral traffic year-over-year, as news becomes ...

Phila. Gay <b>News</b> Editor On Elton John: &#39;Couldn&#39;t Find A Better <b>...</b>

After struggling to adopt for years, one of music's most influential men is now a dad. Sir Elton John and his partner, David Furnish, now have a son, born to a surrogate in California on Christmas Day.


bench craft company scam

The Best of 2010&#39;s Animals in the <b>News</b>

2010 produced many weird, far-out, bizarre photos of people. But let's not forget all of the animals that made headlines over the past 12 months: from a rhino cow, penguin santas and lip-syncing monkey, we offer some of the best.

Making <b>News</b> and Entertainment More Social in 2011 - Facebook <b>...</b>

In April, The Washington Post integrated Facebook Platform to create a social experience across the site with “Network News.” The Washington Post has seen more than 280% increase in referral traffic year-over-year, as news becomes ...

Phila. Gay <b>News</b> Editor On Elton John: &#39;Couldn&#39;t Find A Better <b>...</b>

After struggling to adopt for years, one of music's most influential men is now a dad. Sir Elton John and his partner, David Furnish, now have a son, born to a surrogate in California on Christmas Day.


bench craft company scam

The Best of 2010&#39;s Animals in the <b>News</b>

2010 produced many weird, far-out, bizarre photos of people. But let's not forget all of the animals that made headlines over the past 12 months: from a rhino cow, penguin santas and lip-syncing monkey, we offer some of the best.

Making <b>News</b> and Entertainment More Social in 2011 - Facebook <b>...</b>

In April, The Washington Post integrated Facebook Platform to create a social experience across the site with “Network News.” The Washington Post has seen more than 280% increase in referral traffic year-over-year, as news becomes ...

Phila. Gay <b>News</b> Editor On Elton John: &#39;Couldn&#39;t Find A Better <b>...</b>

After struggling to adopt for years, one of music's most influential men is now a dad. Sir Elton John and his partner, David Furnish, now have a son, born to a surrogate in California on Christmas Day.


bench craft company scam

The Best of 2010&#39;s Animals in the <b>News</b>

2010 produced many weird, far-out, bizarre photos of people. But let's not forget all of the animals that made headlines over the past 12 months: from a rhino cow, penguin santas and lip-syncing monkey, we offer some of the best.

Making <b>News</b> and Entertainment More Social in 2011 - Facebook <b>...</b>

In April, The Washington Post integrated Facebook Platform to create a social experience across the site with “Network News.” The Washington Post has seen more than 280% increase in referral traffic year-over-year, as news becomes ...

Phila. Gay <b>News</b> Editor On Elton John: &#39;Couldn&#39;t Find A Better <b>...</b>

After struggling to adopt for years, one of music's most influential men is now a dad. Sir Elton John and his partner, David Furnish, now have a son, born to a surrogate in California on Christmas Day.


bench craft company scam

The Best of 2010&#39;s Animals in the <b>News</b>

2010 produced many weird, far-out, bizarre photos of people. But let's not forget all of the animals that made headlines over the past 12 months: from a rhino cow, penguin santas and lip-syncing monkey, we offer some of the best.

Making <b>News</b> and Entertainment More Social in 2011 - Facebook <b>...</b>

In April, The Washington Post integrated Facebook Platform to create a social experience across the site with “Network News.” The Washington Post has seen more than 280% increase in referral traffic year-over-year, as news becomes ...

Phila. Gay <b>News</b> Editor On Elton John: &#39;Couldn&#39;t Find A Better <b>...</b>

After struggling to adopt for years, one of music's most influential men is now a dad. Sir Elton John and his partner, David Furnish, now have a son, born to a surrogate in California on Christmas Day.


bench craft company scam

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Whos Making Money




...hopelessly outgunned presidential campaign as if it was a business, not even spending more money than he had in hand. C'mon now, how laughable is that in this day and age in modern America that someone who wants to run the federal government should live within his own campaign means? Just like normal people who live on a real budget with no ability to vote themselves a pay raise and a higher debt ceiling when no one is watching C-SPAN!


When the ultimate Democratic winner, in league with the extraordinary gentleman Harry Reid and the tough-talking San Francisco grandma who's House speaker, has decided to spend a gazillion more dollars than any non-federal calculator has digits to display.


These people, for Nancy's sake, are already spending the income taxes of the unborn grandchildren of those 4,000 babies that Paul delivered. A shocking realization that may be helping to fuel the recent re-examination of Ron Paul, who never met a federal dollar that needed spending -- unless it was going back to his district near Houston.


Ron Paul came within something like 1,000 delegates of catching John McCain for the Republican nomination in St. Paul. But when he finally gave up, Paul still had about $5 million left over. He's been investing it traveling around the country to speak and helping like-minded RFR's (Republicans For Real) organize all over. And, who knows, maybe sell a few books.


But now, just as his fierce supporters fearlessly predicted all along, many in American politics are coming around to think that maybe RP's crazy ideas, for example, of auditing and controlling the Federal Reserve, are maybe not quite so crazy.


Our news colleague in Washington, Don Lee, details the sea-change in opinion in a comprehensive look at the old guy's rebirth for weekend print editions, which we're sharing here this morning as a distinguished guest post for Ticket readers around the world.


And for any surviving Ron Paulites, who won't dare leave their typically snippy comments below because that would require them acknowledging that their favorite fiction about a MSM conspiracy to ignore the old guy is fiction.


-- Andrew Malcolm


Because no federal funds are involved, Ron Paul would want you to click here for Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or follow us @latimestot. Or join us over here on The Ticket's new Facebook FAN page.


Here's Lee's reported news item:


For three decades, Texas congressman and former presidential candidate Ron Paul's extreme brand of libertarian economics consigned him to the far fringes even among conservatives. Not a few times, his views put him on the losing end of 434-1 votes on Capitol Hill.


No longer. With the economy still struggling and political divisions deepening, Paul's ideas not only are gaining a wider audience but also are helping to shape a potentially historic battle over economic policy -- a struggle that will affect everything including jobs, growth and the nation's place in the global economy.

Already, Paul's long-derided proposal to give Congress supervisory power over the traditionally independent Federal Reserve appears to be on its way to becoming law.

His warnings on deficits and inflation are now Republican mantras.

And with this year's congressional election campaign looming, the Texas congressman's deep-seated distrust of activist government has helped fuel protests such as the tea-party movement, harden partisan divisions in Washington and stoke public fears about federal spending and the deficit.

"People are wondering what went wrong. And they're not happy with what the....



....government is offering up," said James Grant, editor of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, offering an explanation for why seemingly wonkish arguments over interest rate policy and the money supply are spilling over onto ordinary Americans.

Some of Paul's most extreme views are still beyond the pale for most economists. Despite the eroding value of the dollar, no one expects the U.S. to return to the gold standard, as Paul advocates; most economists think that could wreck the economy.

In their less drastic forms, however, Paul's ideas are being welcomed by conservatives and viewed with foreboding by liberals. For conservatives, runaway inflation constitutes the biggest potential threat to the nation's future. Liberals worry that cutting back stimulus efforts too soon could slow or even halt the current recovery.

The debate over that question -- what the basic thrust of U.S. economic policy should be -- is likely to dominate the coming elections and Washington policymaking.

And so far, Paul and his fellow conservatives are on the offensive. President Obama and congressional Democrats are repeatedly pledging not to increase the deficit and to begin cutting back soon.

"I think we're going to be in for more revival of fiscal responsibility," said William Niskanen of the Cato Institute, who headed the Council of Economic Advisors under President Reagan.

Niskanen sees the Texas Republican's increasing influence as stemming from the continued economic weakness. "To this extent, Ron Paul gains voice," he said.

Paul would go a lot further in cutting back the government's role than even free-marketers like Niskanen support. If Paul had it his way, for instance, he would do away with the Fed entirely. In his bestselling book "End the Fed," he lambasted the central bank as an "immoral, unconstitutional . . . tool of tyrannical government."

Such rhetoric might once have been dismissed as extremism.


But Paul's anti-Fed message has drawn broad support because of the central bank's failure to restrain the flood of cheap money and excessive risk-taking in the years leading up to the financial crisis.

It has stirred rallies on college campuses and supportive commentaries from Wall Street pundits. More than 300 representatives in Congress have embraced Paul's ideas for reining in the Fed.

The response "is even more than I ever dreamed," Paul said in an interview, reminiscing about one evening during his 2008 White House run when University of Michigan students chanted "End the Fed" and burned dollar bills.

Paul, a skinny 74-year-old with a hangdog expression, understands that historical circumstances have thrust his ideas to the fore. "An intellectual fight is going on," he said.

Paul traces his economic views to his frugal upbringing in Pittsburgh at the tail end of the Depression. He saved pennies from delivering newspapers and helping out his father's small dairy business.

And his first economics class at Gettysburg College was an eye-opener, Paul said. When a professor explained how banks keep only a tiny part of their deposits on hand and earn money by lending out the rest, Paul discovered one of the "tricks" of the financial system.

Beyond that, Paul's ideas are grounded in the work of economic thinkers from an earlier era who focused on problems similar to those besetting the U.S. today.

In particular, Paul is a disciple of Ludwig von Mises, an Austrian theorist born at the end of the 19th century who contended that government intervention in an economy would fail because free markets were better at allocating resources and fueling growth.

Having lived through Germany's devastating hyperinflation in the early 1920s, which helped pave the way for Hitler, Mises wrote long before the Great Depression that over-generous credit policies would encourage excessive borrowing, creating a boom and then a bust.

Mises' ideas became central to what is known as the Austrian School of economics, which emphasized tight controls on credit and money supply, a strategy that discouraged financial ups and downs but tended to slow growth.

By 1940, when Mises arrived in America, most Western economists had embraced the competing theories of Britain's John Maynard Keynes, who called for government to stimulate the economy by spending on infrastructure and cutting interest rates.

Obama has largely followed the Keynesian script, as President George W. Bush did when the economic crisis broke.

Paul's once-lonely espousal of the Austrian School's ideas has gotten new impetus from conservative economists and Republican political strategists.

"A lot of good ideas were shoved aside because of the Depression and the rise of the Keynesian view of the world," said George Selgin, an economics professor at the University of Georgia.

Paul contends that Austrian economics explains the most recent financial meltdown: "It says if you inflate too much, if you have no restraint on monetary authorities, you're going to bring on a crisis." Now, Paul says, administration policies are leading the country toward disaster.

Selgin and many mainstream economists agree that pumping too much money into the economy can lead to trouble, but they say Paul goes too far.

In the 1930s, say Selgin and many other economists, including Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, the U.S. economy began pulling out of the Depression thanks to federal easing of monetary policy.

The economy tipped back into depression after the reins were tightened too soon.

"In this aspect of the monetary system, he's just blown it," Selgin said of Paul.

However, like Mises, whose portrait hangs on his Washington office wall, Paul is intransigent, and that has earned him an ardent following.


"His views are strong and hardheaded, but you've got to stand firm or you'll get blown over in this world," said Mark Skousen, editor of the newsletter Forecasts & Strategies and a former economics professor at Columbia University.


-- Don Lee


Photo: Larry Downing / Reuters; Orlin Wagner / Associated Press; Associated Press (Paul argues with Mike Huckabee in a GOP primary debate).


 




...millions flying in large planes all over the country to talk to friendly crowds and drive polls and make political contests into tightening horse races.

No doubt many stories will contain liberal doses of little guy comebacks-in-the-making, the most compelling of tales to American eyes, whether they are politicians, Boise State or a thoroughbred named Zenyatta always coming from the rear of the pack to win.


But what's largely overlooked this year is how U.S. elections are fundamentally changing due to something as simple as early voting.


Right now, as you read this 28 days out from the actual counting, millions of Americans are already voting. Iowans have been at it for two weeks, as has Wyoming. Ohioans started a week ago. Hoosiers on Monday, the day California mailed out millions of mail-in ballots. Illinois next week. With Alaska voting starting Oct. 18, write-in Senate candidate Lisa Murkowski has little time to teach name-spelling.


Three dozen states now allow early voting, 37 places if you think the District of Columbia matters. One-in-five U.S. voters cast their ballots early in 2004, one-in-four in 2006 and one-in-three in 2008, according to the Early Voting information Center.


The forces driving early voting are strong. It allows hard-pressed governments to spread the massive workload over a longer period.


It addresses the American public's growing appetite for on-demand services, whether at ATMs, groceries, toll-free services, even veterinarians open 24 hours a day.


In one sense early voting helps candidates' campaigns, which want to ensure the turnout of their favorable voters; for weeks campaigns can now see day-to-day government records of who's voted in-person or by mail and who's left to remind by phone.


All this was once confined to one long, hectic election day.


But the early voting movement is part of a larger fast-forwarding of modern election campaigns. John F. Kennedy announced his presidential candidacy on Jan. 3 of election year. Bill Clinton announced his in October the year before. George W. Bush in July the year before. And Barack Obama in February the year before.


So too have campaigns had to advance their strategies. That's why you now see so many political ads on August TV; once that was a month for vacations, casual chats and occasional political picnics leading up to the real start on Labor Day. Now August is a central part of the fall campaign. We could see a Republican start a 2012 presidential campaign shortly after this coming Christmas.


If internal polls show you're running behind, you'll be too tardy leaving attack ads until late October. If you're running ahead, you'll shift campaign money from late ads to support early voting and lock in your supporters' ballots before any last-minute adversity might affect the outcome.


Dismissing much of the late-developing talk about a Democratic surge, respected political prognosticator Stuart Rothenberg says last summer was the best time for that party's hard-pressed candidates to change the downbeat storyline in this challenging year of the angry voter. By early October, he maintains, the cement is drying on voters' mindsets.


Of course, you won't know the numerical outcomes until late Nov. 2. But while you've been reading this item, thousands of voters across the country made their choices for Congress, governors and nearly 7,000 state legislators who will, don't forget, be the ones redrawing legislative districts next year based on the 2010 Census data.


-- Andrew Malcolm


Speaking of voting, cast yours now by clicking to join the 53,000 global readers who follow The Ticket with Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or follow us @latimestot. Our Facebook Like page is over here. We're also available here on Kindle now.


 



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Foot fetish videos believed to feature Michelle Ryan, the wife of New York Jets Coach Rex Ryan made the rounds on the Internet on Wednesday, and Surge Desk dug up some interesting facts on what Sigmund Freud termed.

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Foot fetish videos believed to feature Michelle Ryan, the wife of New York Jets Coach Rex Ryan made the rounds on the Internet on Wednesday, and Surge Desk dug up some interesting facts on what Sigmund Freud termed.

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Foot fetish videos believed to feature Michelle Ryan, the wife of New York Jets Coach Rex Ryan made the rounds on the Internet on Wednesday, and Surge Desk dug up some interesting facts on what Sigmund Freud termed.

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Michelle Ryan and a Brief History of the Foot Fetish - AOL <b>News</b>

Foot fetish videos believed to feature Michelle Ryan, the wife of New York Jets Coach Rex Ryan made the rounds on the Internet on Wednesday, and Surge Desk dug up some interesting facts on what Sigmund Freud termed.

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Michelle Ryan and a Brief History of the Foot Fetish - AOL <b>News</b>

Foot fetish videos believed to feature Michelle Ryan, the wife of New York Jets Coach Rex Ryan made the rounds on the Internet on Wednesday, and Surge Desk dug up some interesting facts on what Sigmund Freud termed.

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Michelle Ryan and a Brief History of the Foot Fetish - AOL <b>News</b>

Foot fetish videos believed to feature Michelle Ryan, the wife of New York Jets Coach Rex Ryan made the rounds on the Internet on Wednesday, and Surge Desk dug up some interesting facts on what Sigmund Freud termed.

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<b>News</b> Conference by The President | The White House

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Foot fetish videos believed to feature Michelle Ryan, the wife of New York Jets Coach Rex Ryan made the rounds on the Internet on Wednesday, and Surge Desk dug up some interesting facts on what Sigmund Freud termed.

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Wednesday, December 22, 2010

about internet marketing

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

Social games, like FarmVille, Mafia Wars and MyTown, racked up a number of high-value brand partnerships during the past year, and the social gaming industry in general is seeing huge interest from investors and consumers.

The top 10 class='blippr-nobr'>Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook games, for example, all have more than 10 million monthly active users each, with FarmVille leading at 62 million monthly active users, followed by FrontierVille at nearly 37 million and class='blippr-nobr'>Zynga Pokerclass="blippr-nobr">zynga poker with nearly 33 million. Granted, these are small portions of Facebook’s total network of more than 500 million users. But with a budding industry like social gaming, these are still impressive numbers, especially given the growth that these games are experiencing — all of the top 10 games were launched after 2008, with the top three games being launched after mid-2009.

The U.S. population alone is also a good indicator of user adoption — one in five Americans over the age of six have played an online social game, according to a recent study.

Increased user activity has spurred attention from investors. From an acquisition point of view, we witnesed Disney’s $763.2 million acquisition of Playdom, Electronic Arts’s $400 million acquisition of Playfish, and Google’s acquisition of Slide. Regarding investment, the big winner this year is Zynga, having now raised a total of $366 million.

Brands are taking notice and acting quickly, implementing innovative ways to advertise in social games and capitalize on the rise of virtual gaming.

Carree Syrek, a partner in social media strategy at Mindshare, a global media and marketing services company, recently spoke at ad:tech on the common misconceptions that companies have about marketing in social games. Here’s are the four concerns she discussed.

1. My Audience Doesn’t Play Social Games

Brands often look at social gaming as something that only a niche group of gamers partake in, but multiple surveys show that social gaming actually appeals to a much broader audience than most would expect. One early 2010 survey found that the average social gamer was a 43-year-old female.

“One of the biggest things that I hear when I talk to brands is ’social gamers are moms. They’re middle-aged moms,’” said Syrek. “But actually, this is not the case. Each of the games or the worlds that you’re in have very specific audiences that you wouldn’t necessarily see unless you dug a little bit deeper.”

Syrek pointed to the disparity between FarmVille and Mafia Wars demographics as an example of diversity among social gamers, as presented in the 2010 PopCap Social Gaming Research Results.

  • FarmVille pulls an audience that is 62% female, 33% of its audience is between 18 and 34 years old, and the average income is between $60,000 and $100,000. The FarmVille audience is also 84% caucasian and 7% Hispanic.
  • Mafia Wars’s audience, on the other hand, is 51% female, with 28% of the audience between 18 and 34 years old, and the average income falling below $30,000. Seventy-one percent of Mafia Wars users are caucasian, while 17% are African American.

Syrek clarified that raw numbers don’t explain the full story, pointing to index numbers as a way to better understand an audience. Index numbers are used in marketing research and indicate the strength to which a certain demographic is represented on a site or service, generally with a weighted base number of 100 representing the average class='blippr-nobr'>Internetclass="blippr-nobr">Internet user.

“There are different ways to segment for ethnicity if you’re going after specific markets,” she stated. “The numbers in parentheses [as pictured above] are index numbers. So, you can see that even though, say in Mafia Wars, the African American segment is only 17% of the people who play that, their index is 198. So, you’ve got a really receptive market there that you can tap into.”

“The point is that you can actually dig deep, and you can find the proper environment for your target demographic,” stated Syrek.

Before writing off social gamers as middle-aged moms or male teenagers, be sure to look at the types of games out there and learn about their audiences — you may find that your audience is present on a few niche social games.

2. Virtual Worlds Are Not for “Serious” Companies

“I think it’s important to note that there’s a place here for everyone. It’s not just about the Jolly Green Giant being in FarmVille… it doesn’t have to be that literal, and there are spots for everyone here to play,” said Syrek.

It is a misconception that advertising in social games is only territory for entertainment brands or brands that want to be seen as “fun.” On the contrary, many serious brands were discussed during Syrek’s ad:tech session.

Linda Gangeri, manager of national advertising for Volvo Cars of North America, discussed Volvo’s recent campaign on MyTown, in which Volvo’s strategy was to “leverage location-based services to deliver Volvo-branded messaging and virtual goods to people checking in to competing dealerships.”

Upon launching the Volvo S60, the Volvo marketing team decided to test virtual goods as a way to build awareness for the new vehicle.

“It was a 30-day campaign from September 1 to September 30,” explained Gangeri. During the 30-day period, 5.3 million Volvo-branded checkins were reached, 1.3 million Volvo-branded virtual goods (including a steering wheel, a wheel, the Volvo iron mark and the S60 vehicle) were delivered, and 20,000 clicks to “See the S60 in Action” were logged, for a click-through rate (CTR) of 1.5%, which is much higher than the CTRs that the rest of the marketing industry is accustomed to.

“It gave us the opportunity to dig deeper, to immerse ourselves in an environment where people are having fun [and are] engaged, and then to take branded items, embed them and expose them to this huge audience of people,” said Gangeri, happy with the results of the campaign.

3. It’s Always About Capitalism

Within social gaming, the virtual goods market is the top revenue driver for social game creators — virtual goods makes up 90% of Zynga’s revenue, for example. Social gamers are willing to buy digital goods in order to improve their positions in the games. This is great for game creators, obviously, as they are technically selling nothing. Users buy fake shovels and tractors to tend to their fake fields. There’s a lot of money in that — the U.S. virtual goods market is predicted to pass $2 billion in 2011.

While the money is certainly there, social gaming and the virtual goods market aren’t always about capitalism. In fact, Syrek mentioned four examples of social good on social gaming platforms:

  • Pet adoptions in class='blippr-nobr'>YoVilleclass="blippr-nobr">Yoville raised $90,000 for SF/SPCA during the spring of 2009.
  • Teddy bear purchases in Mafia Wars raised more than $100,000 for Coalition for the Cure (Huntington’s Disease) in March 2010.
  • The Pandaren Monk pet in World of Warcraft generated $1.1 million in donations for the Make-a-Wish Foundation.
  • To date, Zynga players have raised more than $3 million in connection with Zynga.org social partnerships, the majority of which has been directed to the welfare of women and children in Haiti.

These cases illustrate that social games could be a good route for for-profit or non-profit businesses hoping to raise a little awareness for social good projects.

4. Social Games Are a Fad

Social networking dominates most people’s time spent online, but next in line is online gaming, Nielsen reported in August. Of course, social gaming only accounts for a portion of that sector, but still, the fact that social networking and online gaming dominate online activity is a nod to the growing importance of social gaming.

Syrek pointed to the 2010 PopCap Social Gaming Research Results to validate her argument that social gaming isn’t a fad. The study found that 24% of U.S. and UK Internet users play social games at least once a week, and that most social gamers play other genres of games, including casual and hardcore games.

In another portion of the session, Manny Anekal, director of brand advertising at Zynga, illustrated that users are spending a lot of time playing social games. FarmVille users average a whopping 68 minutes of FarmVille play per day and Mafia Wars users average 52 minutes per day on the game, according to April 2010 Cisco Security Intelligence Operation data, for example. It’s no secret that social games are engaging (and addictive), but who knew users were spending so much time tending to virtual farms and brawls?

While it is admittedly difficult to decide if social gaming is truly a fad or not, data points toward its continued and growing popularity.

What are your thoughts on marketing in social games? Let us know in the comments below.

For more Business coverage:

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I am declaring 2011 the Year of the Online SMB.


For the uninitiated, SMBs are small and medium businesses. They are the Holy Grail for business service providers because there are so darn many of them. They account for around 95% of the businesses in the US. (Either that or they supply 95% of the jobs but either way, it's pretty impressive.) I like the definition of an SMB being under 100 employees, but up to 500 employees can be deemed an SMB also. There are no hard and fast criteria for determining SMB status but we all know one when we see one.


Why do we know them? Because they are regular people trying to make their way in life and live the American Dream of being their own boss etc, etc. They are also the business people who wear so many hats that they don't have time to do half the things they need to do to be successful. They are often local business people who still feel that real relationships (ones that might actually involve an in-person look in the eye and a handshake) are important. They also are told by the Internet industry that they need to be doing all the latest and greatest Internet tricks in order to be truly successful.


This last point has resulted in some serious push back and skepticism about Internet marketing by the group, and deservedly so. They are usually fiercely independent—often to a fault. They frequently represent the best (and the worst) of the American entrepreneurial spirit, and they don't like it when someone calls them stupid, which is what the Internet marketing industry does in not-so-concealed fashion. I would say that most times the people saying these things don't even realize how they sound (which is another problem with the industry but I will not address that here).


As a result, SMBs are not as advanced as the Internet Retailer 500s of the world, but they are poised to take full advantage of Google's play into the local space. Google Place Pages, Hotpot, Boost, Tags, and whatever else Google has up its wealthy sleeves are all pointed directly at the SMB market, both B2C and B2B. Get the hint?


Google is entering a mammoth struggle for the SMB marketing budgets with the likes of Facebook, Groupon and others. They are so dedicated to this market that they are even staffing real people (that's right, warm bodies with no chips installed) selling to the SMB market.


All these factors lead to my prediction that 2011 will be the Year of the SMB. Not only will there be enough critical mass to see a real impact for many more small businesses, but there will even be an understanding of just how Google and Facebook's Places concepts will allow SMBs to enter the Mobile Age without having to spend tons of money reinventing their Internet wheel. Have you ever seen how good a fully-optimized Google Place Page looks on an iPhone or Android device? It's pretty cool.


Want another reason I am so confident that this is a safe prediction? It's the influx of Android devices (which are optimized for Google service delivery) that are hitting the market at a rate of 300,000 activations per day. It brought me into a completely other phase of the mobile age as I went from BlackBerry user to Droid X user,now using Google's free Navigation service to put Place Page layers over the GPS directions to see where restaurants and services are. I have even discovered new local businesses in my little town because of this device. I honestly thought I knew about every place here but Google proved me wrong.


Suffice it to say that I am bullish on 2011 being the year that the SMB gets into the full swing of the online marketing world. It's exciting to think about because we need more stories about people from more walks of life than the Fortune and Internet Retailer 50s who are having success online. Those stories are old and recycled to death.


I look forward to 2011 being a year of telling the hundreds, even thousands, of success stories that will help SMBs not only to be more successful but to pull this economy out of the ditch it seems to want to remain in.


What are your thoughts on my prediction?


Originally published on Biznology.


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Facebook is rolling out a new way to filter the news feed. Users with access to the redesigned feature see a drop-down arrow beside their Most Recent news feed tab on the home page, revealing filters for status updates, Photos, Links, ...


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<b>News</b> Conference by The President | The White House

News Conference by The President. South Court Auditorium, Eisenhower Executive Office Building. 4:16 P.M. EST. THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Good afternoon. I know everybody is itching to get out of here and spend some time with ...

Fox <b>News</b> Dubs Elie Wiesel &#39;Holocaust Winner&#39;

shitlox news........are we morons........you decide? right wingnut garbage...delivered in a carnival barker style ! Reply. 5. 6. Flag as Offensive. Seems fair on Dec 22, 2:03 PM said: Since it never happened. Who cares? ...

Facebook Rolling Out More Prominent Design of <b>News</b> Feed Filters

Facebook is rolling out a new way to filter the news feed. Users with access to the redesigned feature see a drop-down arrow beside their Most Recent news feed tab on the home page, revealing filters for status updates, Photos, Links, ...


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<b>News</b> Conference by The President | The White House

News Conference by The President. South Court Auditorium, Eisenhower Executive Office Building. 4:16 P.M. EST. THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Good afternoon. I know everybody is itching to get out of here and spend some time with ...

Fox <b>News</b> Dubs Elie Wiesel &#39;Holocaust Winner&#39;

shitlox news........are we morons........you decide? right wingnut garbage...delivered in a carnival barker style ! Reply. 5. 6. Flag as Offensive. Seems fair on Dec 22, 2:03 PM said: Since it never happened. Who cares? ...

Facebook Rolling Out More Prominent Design of <b>News</b> Feed Filters

Facebook is rolling out a new way to filter the news feed. Users with access to the redesigned feature see a drop-down arrow beside their Most Recent news feed tab on the home page, revealing filters for status updates, Photos, Links, ...


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Thursday, December 9, 2010

budgeting personal finances




Consumerist Budget Spreadsheet Balances Your Money, Encourages Your Nest Egg





The saving-savvy folks at The Consumerist blog have put together a template Excel spreadsheet for managing personal finances. It's the kind of thing you always say you're going to do, but they went ahead and did it for you, and it's free.

It's not a new thing, but Consumerist's budget spreadsheet, crafted during the days the site was one of our blog network brethren, has come back, after being lost to the vagaries of server maintenance. The site has instructions on setting it up, including tips on thinking through your monthly expenses and advice on how much you should plan on socking away for a rainy day, retirement, and other expenses.


Maybe you use Mint or another automated spending/saving tracker instead—but then again, maybe those tools are so automatic that you don't get a good look at your real money situation.





Automate Your Finances to Spend Less Time Managing Your Accounts





Despite how simple the process can be, most of us are terrible at saving and paying bills. Here's a strategy to effectively automate most of your finances to keep you saving and out of late fee trouble.

Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich.com has put together a system for managing your personal finances that only takes about an hour of your time each week. The video above fully explains the process in detail, but here's the gist. First, you want to set up your bills and other payments so they're all happening on the day you get your first paycheck of the month (the first of the month for most people). Once you have that in place, you want to set up automatic savings plans (Sethi suggests using Ing Direct) with sub-savings accounts that let you organize your savings into specific categories (vacation, wedding, etc.). You'll also want to send a percentage of your paycheck to your 401k, and have all of this happen immediately so that the money you see when you get paid is the money left when everything has already been saved. From there, you automatically pay as many bills as you can with your credit card (and then pay the credit card bill on pay day). For the bills you can't pay with your credit card (like rent, in most cases), you can use your online banking to automatically issue a check. This will leave a little money leftover in your checking account that you can use to budget for guilt-free spending and cash withdrawals.


As someone who's often fallen victim to the faults of automatic payments systems (despite frequently using them), definitely do not forget to stay on top of your bills nonetheless. Make sure you set some time aside at least once a month to do a little maintenance and make sure there are no bugs causing your automated finance system to break down. Sethi isn't suggesting a set-it-and-forget-it automated finance system by any means, but as someone who hates paying bills I know how easy it can be to procrastinate and ignore the task. If you set up a good automated system like this one, you'll be at a point where all you have to do is watch and fix the occasional problem as the most important things are being taken care of for you.



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Officials say it's the largest cache of homemade explosives ever found in a single location in the.


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Carbon-rich world discovered 1200 light-years away.

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Officials say it's the largest cache of homemade explosives ever found in a single location in the.


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Planet In The Sky With Diamonds - Science <b>News</b>

Carbon-rich world discovered 1200 light-years away.

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Officials say it's the largest cache of homemade explosives ever found in a single location in the.


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Planet In The Sky With Diamonds - Science <b>News</b>

Carbon-rich world discovered 1200 light-years away.

Exclusive: Sarah Palin Under Cyber-Attack from Wikileaks <b>...</b>

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Let it Burn: California &#39;Bomb&#39; House Being Destroyed « Liveshots

Officials say it's the largest cache of homemade explosives ever found in a single location in the.


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Planet In The Sky With Diamonds - Science <b>News</b>

Carbon-rich world discovered 1200 light-years away.

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Let it Burn: California &#39;Bomb&#39; House Being Destroyed « Liveshots

Officials say it's the largest cache of homemade explosives ever found in a single location in the.


bench craft company scam

Planet In The Sky With Diamonds - Science <b>News</b>

Carbon-rich world discovered 1200 light-years away.

Exclusive: Sarah Palin Under Cyber-Attack from Wikileaks <b>...</b>

The website and personal credit card information of former Gov. Sarah Palin were cyber-attacked today by Wikileaks supporters, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate tells ABC News in an email. Hackers in London that the Palin team ...

Let it Burn: California &#39;Bomb&#39; House Being Destroyed « Liveshots

Officials say it's the largest cache of homemade explosives ever found in a single location in the.


bench craft company scam

Planet In The Sky With Diamonds - Science <b>News</b>

Carbon-rich world discovered 1200 light-years away.

Exclusive: Sarah Palin Under Cyber-Attack from Wikileaks <b>...</b>

The website and personal credit card information of former Gov. Sarah Palin were cyber-attacked today by Wikileaks supporters, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate tells ABC News in an email. Hackers in London that the Palin team ...

Let it Burn: California &#39;Bomb&#39; House Being Destroyed « Liveshots

Officials say it's the largest cache of homemade explosives ever found in a single location in the.


bench craft company scam

Planet In The Sky With Diamonds - Science <b>News</b>

Carbon-rich world discovered 1200 light-years away.

Exclusive: Sarah Palin Under Cyber-Attack from Wikileaks <b>...</b>

The website and personal credit card information of former Gov. Sarah Palin were cyber-attacked today by Wikileaks supporters, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate tells ABC News in an email. Hackers in London that the Palin team ...

Let it Burn: California &#39;Bomb&#39; House Being Destroyed « Liveshots

Officials say it's the largest cache of homemade explosives ever found in a single location in the.


bench craft company scam

Planet In The Sky With Diamonds - Science <b>News</b>

Carbon-rich world discovered 1200 light-years away.

Exclusive: Sarah Palin Under Cyber-Attack from Wikileaks <b>...</b>

The website and personal credit card information of former Gov. Sarah Palin were cyber-attacked today by Wikileaks supporters, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate tells ABC News in an email. Hackers in London that the Palin team ...

Let it Burn: California &#39;Bomb&#39; House Being Destroyed « Liveshots

Officials say it's the largest cache of homemade explosives ever found in a single location in the.


bench craft company scam

Planet In The Sky With Diamonds - Science <b>News</b>

Carbon-rich world discovered 1200 light-years away.

Exclusive: Sarah Palin Under Cyber-Attack from Wikileaks <b>...</b>

The website and personal credit card information of former Gov. Sarah Palin were cyber-attacked today by Wikileaks supporters, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate tells ABC News in an email. Hackers in London that the Palin team ...

Let it Burn: California &#39;Bomb&#39; House Being Destroyed « Liveshots

Officials say it's the largest cache of homemade explosives ever found in a single location in the.


bench craft company scam

Planet In The Sky With Diamonds - Science <b>News</b>

Carbon-rich world discovered 1200 light-years away.

Exclusive: Sarah Palin Under Cyber-Attack from Wikileaks <b>...</b>

The website and personal credit card information of former Gov. Sarah Palin were cyber-attacked today by Wikileaks supporters, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate tells ABC News in an email. Hackers in London that the Palin team ...

Let it Burn: California &#39;Bomb&#39; House Being Destroyed « Liveshots

Officials say it's the largest cache of homemade explosives ever found in a single location in the.


bench craft company scam

Planet In The Sky With Diamonds - Science <b>News</b>

Carbon-rich world discovered 1200 light-years away.

Exclusive: Sarah Palin Under Cyber-Attack from Wikileaks <b>...</b>

The website and personal credit card information of former Gov. Sarah Palin were cyber-attacked today by Wikileaks supporters, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate tells ABC News in an email. Hackers in London that the Palin team ...

Let it Burn: California &#39;Bomb&#39; House Being Destroyed « Liveshots

Officials say it's the largest cache of homemade explosives ever found in a single location in the.


bench craft company scam

Planet In The Sky With Diamonds - Science <b>News</b>

Carbon-rich world discovered 1200 light-years away.

Exclusive: Sarah Palin Under Cyber-Attack from Wikileaks <b>...</b>

The website and personal credit card information of former Gov. Sarah Palin were cyber-attacked today by Wikileaks supporters, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate tells ABC News in an email. Hackers in London that the Palin team ...

Let it Burn: California &#39;Bomb&#39; House Being Destroyed « Liveshots

Officials say it's the largest cache of homemade explosives ever found in a single location in the.


bench craft company scam

Planet In The Sky With Diamonds - Science <b>News</b>

Carbon-rich world discovered 1200 light-years away.

Exclusive: Sarah Palin Under Cyber-Attack from Wikileaks <b>...</b>

The website and personal credit card information of former Gov. Sarah Palin were cyber-attacked today by Wikileaks supporters, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate tells ABC News in an email. Hackers in London that the Palin team ...

Let it Burn: California &#39;Bomb&#39; House Being Destroyed « Liveshots

Officials say it's the largest cache of homemade explosives ever found in a single location in the.


bench craft company scam

Planet In The Sky With Diamonds - Science <b>News</b>

Carbon-rich world discovered 1200 light-years away.

Exclusive: Sarah Palin Under Cyber-Attack from Wikileaks <b>...</b>

The website and personal credit card information of former Gov. Sarah Palin were cyber-attacked today by Wikileaks supporters, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate tells ABC News in an email. Hackers in London that the Palin team ...

Let it Burn: California &#39;Bomb&#39; House Being Destroyed « Liveshots

Officials say it's the largest cache of homemade explosives ever found in a single location in the.


bench craft company scam

Planet In The Sky With Diamonds - Science <b>News</b>

Carbon-rich world discovered 1200 light-years away.

Exclusive: Sarah Palin Under Cyber-Attack from Wikileaks <b>...</b>

The website and personal credit card information of former Gov. Sarah Palin were cyber-attacked today by Wikileaks supporters, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate tells ABC News in an email. Hackers in London that the Palin team ...

Let it Burn: California &#39;Bomb&#39; House Being Destroyed « Liveshots

Officials say it's the largest cache of homemade explosives ever found in a single location in the.


bench craft company scam

Planet In The Sky With Diamonds - Science <b>News</b>

Carbon-rich world discovered 1200 light-years away.

Exclusive: Sarah Palin Under Cyber-Attack from Wikileaks <b>...</b>

The website and personal credit card information of former Gov. Sarah Palin were cyber-attacked today by Wikileaks supporters, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate tells ABC News in an email. Hackers in London that the Palin team ...

Let it Burn: California &#39;Bomb&#39; House Being Destroyed « Liveshots

Officials say it's the largest cache of homemade explosives ever found in a single location in the.


bench craft company scam

Planet In The Sky With Diamonds - Science <b>News</b>

Carbon-rich world discovered 1200 light-years away.

Exclusive: Sarah Palin Under Cyber-Attack from Wikileaks <b>...</b>

The website and personal credit card information of former Gov. Sarah Palin were cyber-attacked today by Wikileaks supporters, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate tells ABC News in an email. Hackers in London that the Palin team ...

Let it Burn: California &#39;Bomb&#39; House Being Destroyed « Liveshots

Officials say it's the largest cache of homemade explosives ever found in a single location in the.


bench craft company scam

Planet In The Sky With Diamonds - Science <b>News</b>

Carbon-rich world discovered 1200 light-years away.

Exclusive: Sarah Palin Under Cyber-Attack from Wikileaks <b>...</b>

The website and personal credit card information of former Gov. Sarah Palin were cyber-attacked today by Wikileaks supporters, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate tells ABC News in an email. Hackers in London that the Palin team ...

Let it Burn: California &#39;Bomb&#39; House Being Destroyed « Liveshots

Officials say it's the largest cache of homemade explosives ever found in a single location in the.