Internet Marketing News Questions
What are some newsworthy marketing-related stories I could use for a Radio Interview? I'm conducting a radio Interview for my class and its going to be with a marketing professor. Topics might include marketing strategy or research, internet marketing, consumer behavior, new product development and management, brand or sales management, business to business marketing, e-business marketing strategy, international marketing, etc. The problem is, how do I derive a story of significance from any of these as my assignment requires? E.g.: has there been anything in the news surrounding these topics that could keep an audience intrigued and of which I could formulate some great questions? Thank u so much!
Do you ever notice how much advertising is in these internet web pages that show news articles? To show my point just take any one of those web pages, then copy and paste it into yahoo mail before you decide to send it to someone but before you hit "send" manually delete all the unneccecary bannars, photos, links, ect. You will then be able to instanty see what it is about all that over marketing hype I am talking about and maybe get why too many ads can annoy me at times.
Is there news program that shows positive news? Pretty much all of the news is dominated by negative news, things that encourage fear in the viewer....so many stabbings, bombings, crime, stock market crashes etc etc.....and all this can get pretty depressing. I was wondering if there was a news program/channel/internet channel, that ran stories of positive things and acts of kindness? It would be so much nicer to finish a days work and catch up on the news that makes you have faith in the world.
Internet book publicity firms outside the USA? I am looking for companies/firms that can market a book via internet. That can do the following:get us covered on blogs in health, news, books, and any appropriate targeted areas get us featured on podcasts have us covered by Web sites, including web sites of print publications and/or web sites with newsletters and other areas to promote in and get by-line articles syndicated to other Web sites
internet book publicity campaign firms? I am looking for companies/firms that can market a book via internet. That can do the following:get us covered on blogs in health, news, books, and any appropriate targeted areas get us featured on podcasts have us covered by Web sites, including web sites of print publications and/or web sites with newsletters and other areas to promote in and get by-line articles syndicated to other Web sites
Poll: Fox Most Trusted News Source in U.S.? The Fox News Channel is the most trusted news source in America, according to a new poll released by the BBC and Reuters that surveyed 10,000 news consumers around the world. Asked which news source they most trusted, 11 percent of Americans named Fox News - more than any other news source in the U.S. Fox News led the broadcast networks by substantial margins, with ABC coming in at 4 percent, NBC - 4 percent and CBS - 3 percent. In less crowded news markets, percentages were higher. 32 percent of Britons, for instance, named the the BBC, while 59 percent of Egyptians named Al Jazeera. The most trusted news networks on a global basis were the BBC, and CNN, the Reuters/BBC poll found. "National TV is still the most trusted news source by a wide margin, although the Internet is gaining ground among the young,
Why do politicians lack an internet presence? It seems that companies cannot do well unless they are online, marketing everywhere, sponsoring tournaments, setting up microsites, blogs, & rewards programs. How can politicians get their message out with a site, a blog, and a myspace page. I know they have excellent coverage in news, but it seems that we're in a time when people want more and more information from the people they are going to elect.
Breaking News!!? I found this in a blog------- Widely published wrestling journalist and author of the book “Wrestling Babylon”, Irv Muchnick, posted an update on his website claiming that well-placed sources within WWE have told him that Randy Orton recently attempted suicide. Muchnick was a guest on various TV programs when the Benoit tragedy was all over the news. The following is an excerpt from his website: A rumor is swirling that World Wrestling Entertainment star Randy Orton attempted suicide within the last year. Very well-placed wrestling sources tell me that the rumor is true. In the wake of the June murder-suicide of Chris Benoit and the scandal involving scads of WWE performers who ordered steroids and human growth hormone from the Internet gray-market dealer Signature Pharmacy, this is serious stuff. It’s already clear that WWE’s response to the Signature revelations — generated by the district attorney in Albany, New York, and reported by Sports Illustrated and others — is a joke. Some vague number of the miscreant wrestlers, not named, were “suspended,” but the suspension appears to have consisted of simply being downgraded for a few weeks in TV storylines. From the same evidence, Randy Orton was not touched at all. That is more than a little strange. Orton’s Signature Pharmacy order marked, at the very least, his second “strike” under WWE’s so-called wellness policy, which would have called for a 60-day (rather than a 30-day) suspension. The suicide whispers mark the problem as more than a game of “gotcha” or even taste (Orton acquired the gimmick “Legend Killer” after WWE blithely turned Eddie Guerrero’s 2005 death into just another “angle”). It’s a matter of life and death. Orton, 27, is a third-generation wrestler. He is engaged to marry Samantha Speno, a part-time gymnastics teacher, this fall. Last year Randy and Samantha moved into a country-club estate in High Ridge, Missouri (suburban St. Louis), complete with a gym, a hot tub, and four decks. what do you think about this? I think Randy is becoming the Lindsay Lohan of WWE! j/k about that last comment I made Randy needs serious help and someone needs to help him
GiftHouse.us.com? and Bullseye Marketing, Inc.? Whoa! Stay away from these "free trial, free product" ads. For the first time in 10 years I clicked on the "Victoria Secret Free Fit Flop" pretty pink yahoo.ad. Clicking the pretty pink sent me to GiftHouse.us.com...learn from me and avoid these sites. Had to install new (additional) Spam Software, Had to cancel and reissue my visa card...the whole damn mess. As expected, there is no Cust. Service Tel.# for GiftHouse.us.com and their contracted site Bullseye Marketing, Inc. GOOD NEWS IS, I have found Maryland State Attorney General Filings against this internet company who rides on the back on Bullseye Marketing, Inc. I'm searching for IP addresses in order to forward to the State of Washington Attorney Generals office. Any help is appreciated.
need marketing ideas? for car lot other than internet and news paper, any ideas? i would like to get the word around town with flyers or something but i dont know how to go about doing that, anything will help.
Learn how to invest in stock market - not the hows, but the whens? Hello everybody, I'd like to learn more about the "whens" of investing. There's a lot of material on the Internet, but most with explanation about terms, etc. What I want to know is how to decide when sell or buy on the market. I mean, what behavior to look for, what kind of news may change the market, etc. Thank you!
Looking to buy Small Dog in Houston Texas? Does anyone know some good pet stores or places to go in order to buy toy sized dogs at good prices? What about flea markets? Please give a list of places or ways to contact someone who sells them. I have been searching the internet and looking in news papers but have had no luck. I can't find one pet store in Houston, Texas that sell dogs. Houston only. Thank You
Whats going on with the housing market? I hear it in the news on the internet on the TV what is wrong with it. What is going on with the marker right now? why are people talking about it so much, what are the problems?
Media... where do people get their TV news? I was wondering around the internet and found this site: http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?PageID=834 granted, everything on the internet is not fact... what do you people think of it... overview... Fox news is higest rated... but only owns 25 percent of the market overall... CNN is at 22... networks overall at 34 percent (each being around 16/17 percent each)... MSNBC, CNBC at around 10 percent each... so if everything is liberal... except for fox... "liberals" who watch the other channels make up 75 percent of the population?
What do you think about certain markets (e.g. Whole Foods) banning the sale of live lobsters? What's your opinion about certain markets banning lobster sale b/c of inhumane and cruelty reasons. I think this is human nature. I just saw the yahoo internet news that talks about Whole Foods banning it. I mean I eat lobsters. It seems that animal cruelty rules are taken to a more extreme level. When you reply, don't say anything negative about me. It seems to me that the American culture is one of the cultures on this planet that taken animal cruelty levels quite strict.
does anyone else get sick of watching or reading the news? or t.v. and internet in general? every time i turn on a news channel or read something in the newspaper or online it absolutely disgusts me. you've got headlines about the housing market crashing, oil prices skyrocketing, stupid politicians, war, death, destruction, disease, poverty. and then there's always a new one about some jackass pro athlete that signs another $150 million contract while the rest of the world wonders how they're going to feed their family. wtf? what about the rest of us? doesn't it seem a little selfish on their part to take that kind of money? i work hard for the money i EARN and they kick back and reap the benefits of everyone else working to make more in a month than most of us make in ten years. i used to watch pro sports and avoid the news, now i don't even want to turn the t.v. on anymore. it makes me sick. am i right or just jealous that i'm not them? i don't know that i could take a $150 million contract with the current state of the union and the world.
Yahoo + Microsoft > Google !!! What do you think? The big news in the BIZZ world is "Microsoft offers to buy Yahoo for 44.6 bn dlrs". Can this merger effect GOOGLE in any way? Is it an end to the dominance of GOOGLE in internet market? or will it be the biggest mistake of MICROSOFT?
I want to quit my job and do freelance work...? It's time to start my own business. I have a salaried full-time job at a TV station in marketing, as a sales/research coordinator, where I've worked for 4 years. There's a high turnover rate in our department (due to the department head, who's a combo of the boss from the movie "Office Space" and the pointy-haired boss in the Dilbert comics). I have a B.A. in Communications, and I'm a thesis away from an M.A. in Communications, with an English/Literature Minor. I have 15 years of experience in Media, working in every form--print (as a reporter/photographer), media research, presentation & graphic design, radio/disc jockey, writing for the internet, working in television--both marketing and news. I have connections in every media, and have terrific skills in making great relationships with clients. I won awards for my work. My finances are finally getting together, and I have this strong urge to go for it. Should I? Where can I market my freelance skills the best?
I want to quit my job and work freelance and research...? It's time to start my own business. I have a salaried full-time job at a TV station in marketing, as a sales/research coordinator, where I've worked for 4 years. There's a high turnover rate in our department (many believe it's due to the dept. head, a combo of the boss from the movie "Office Space" and the pointy-haired boss in the Dilbert comics). I have a B.A. in Communications, and I'm a thesis away from an M.A. in Communications, with an English/Literature Minor. I have 15 years of experience in Media, working in every form--print (as a reporter/photographer), media research, presentation & graphic design, radio/disc jockey, writing for the internet, working in television--both marketing and news. I have connections in every media, and have terrific skills in making great relationships with clients. I won awards for my work. My finances are finally getting together, and I have this strong urge to go for it. Where can I market my freelance skills the best? Advice?
Are Spammers "Non-Profit" organizations? Per YAHOO News: Spammer "Soloway pleaded not guilty Wednesday afternoon to all charges after a judge determined that — even with four bank accounts seized by the government — he was sufficiently well off to pay for his own lawyer. He has been living in a ritzy apartment and drives an expensive Mercedes convertible, said prosecutor Kathryn Warma. Prosecutors are seeking to have him forfeit $773,000 they say he made from his business, Newport Internet Marketing Corp." Why is it legal to pay a spammer a commission to spam a product but it is illegal to spam the product?
Would you join a revolution to put an end to the imbalance of wealth? The wealthy have always made up lies as to why they deserve more, fact is that they dont. They say "free market" dictates it all, so lets tell them what we are willing to pay and see how they like it. Actors paid 20mil for one movie, 15 mil per year to read the news, 2.2 mil for one actor for one episode of frasier, 1 million a week for some guy to kick balls? The world has gone mad. Would you join a worldwide revolution where every person on the planet was joined through the internet to boycott businesses until they stopped paying CEOs 20ml a year and all the other parasites? boycott movies at random until they send actors reality cheques instead of bigger pay cheques? Its your world why shouldnt you have your FAIR share and tell the parasites where to stick it? This will be starting soon, are you in? Nice to see the idiots are out in force. Any of you SFB's wants to put their money where their mouth is then send me and email with your address. Arrested by CEOs? Does your brain ever work in conjunction with your mouth? Communism? you people are thick, nothing to do with communism How about if I make my invention so expensive that no one on the planet can afford it so you all end up living in the streets? would that be OK because thats what free enterpise is all about? Its OK if it doesnt affect you. Millions are starving and Fwits are whining about how fair it is for someone to make millions a week because they are so valuable. YOU people are morons and a discrace to humanity.
Does anyone else have a Genpet? As you may have seen on the news or the internet, "Genpets" are being marketed as the new perfect pet. My friend bought one back from Japan, where they are being released for Beta-Testing. I must say i am impressed with the modern technology of today. Does anyone else have one? Does anybody know the official release date for the U.K - I heard next Feburary, but I'm not sure. http://www.genpets.com/index.php
Time Magazine has chosen its person of the year--YOU! ...Do you feel as though you deserve it? In 1982, Time Magazine chose the computer as the "Person of the Year" and now Time Magazine has chosen its users in 2006 (you), as "Person of the Year". From the men and women in the Armed Forces overseas, to the small town working man, everybody has had an influence on the future of the entire globe and will promote the future with blogs and comments. How do you intend to celebrate the honor of being named "Person of the Year" by Time Magazine? Do you feel as though the present and the future of humanity is with the computers? Are the computers and the Internet influencing, the past, present and future of humanity by making the world and its people accessible to each other with all the blogging, interacting with different web sites, marketing/sales, politics, news, etc...? Are the established newspapers and print media becoming dinosaurs in this ever faster and faster world of getting out the news to its readers? A good trend or a bad trend?... Your thoughts
Buying a house/condo - Is it time? Hello all, I'm living in southeast Florida and renting, but we know that this has been a buyers market recently so I'm definitely in the market looking to buy an apartment or condo. My question is: In this down real estate market is now the time to buy or should I wait to see if the market gets even lower? People were saying last year that the autumn/winter of 2008 would be the time to buy but I've been reading the news on the internet that more foreclosures are piling up which brings the market down, so maybe I should wait a little longer? What reasoning or proof does anyone have on whether now is the time to buy or not? Thanks!!!
Women: What do you think of this...? "Single mom selling Fla. home and heart on Internet" " PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. - She's tried night clubs and online dating sites, but now a 42-year-old single mother is looking for love where everyone else's heart is breaking — the real estate market. After a year of trying to sell her four-bedroom home and eight years of singledom, Deven Trabosh is offering her South Florida home and a shot at marrying her on the Internet." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080627/ap_on_fe_st/heart_for_sale http://florence.en.craigslist.it/vac/725787925.html
Are you sick and tired of the Health Food (anti-meat/soda) Food Nazis? First the health Nazis attacked tobacco, after getting traction on that issue they began attacking fast food joints, then they turned their sights onto soda... the health food zealots won't be satisfied until red meat is outlawed! I don't know about you but I'm very angry and Hades will freeze over before I sit down to a supper of raw carrots and celery washed down with a disgusting glass of grapefruit juice. Fast food is just that... just something fast and convenient... soda is just a snack drink. I wouldn't go to a McDonalds or a BurgerKing for a salad or a piece of fruit and if that's all they served or even a majority of their menu I would go else where. Only a fool would attempt to eat fast food three times a day/seven days a week. But it is convenient when your either in a hurry or on the run. Are you as angry as I am? Are you sick and tired of the health food Nazis attempting to dictate what you can eat and drink? How much would you care to wager the HMO's are the ones ultimately behind the health food propaganda? ----------------------- Control tobacco, food ads to beat cancer - panel By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor Thu Aug 16, 12:14 AM ET http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070816/hl_nm/cancer_usa_dc;_ylt=Ap3_o.sabt8ApNmBJxcrP469j7AB A new presidential report on cancer takes on not only tobacco companies but the food industry while calling on the federal government to "cease being a purveyor of unhealthy foods" and switch to policies that encourage Americans to eat vegetables and exercise. The report, issued on Thursday, also urged changes in public and private insurance policies to encourage doctors to spend more time counseling patients on how to stay healthy by eating right, exercising and avoiding tobacco. "Ineffective policies, in conjunction with limited regulation of sales and marketing in the food and beverage industry, have spawned a culture that struggles to make healthy choices -- a culture in dire need of change," said the report, available on the Internet at http://pcp.cancer.gov. "Moreover, the panel was troubled to find that the efforts of those committed to an America less burdened by cancer often are compromised by federal, state, and local policies that have decreased the availability and affordability of healthy foods, limited physical education in schools, and created a built environment that discourages physical activity," it said. Several reports have shown that a third of all cancers are caused by tobacco use, and another one-third by obesity and inactivity. "This country must not ignore its moral obligation to protect the health of all Americans. We can and must empower individuals to make healthy choices through appropriate policy and legislation, and the panel urges you to use the power of your office toward this life-saving goal," the President's Cancer Panel, chaired by Howard University's Dr. LaSalle Leffall, wrote in a letter to Bush.
Why is Comcast Screwing me Over? I am located in the Memphis, TN market where Comcast has recently took over operations from Time Warner Cable. Before Comcast arrived Time Warner customers used to pay 44.95 for high-speed cable internet. Now as of July 1, 2007, they are increasing the price to 49.95, and in January the price will become a whopping $52.95. This is an outrage and in Septemeber I am going to get DSL. Now "MA BELL" will get my money. I will continue to keep my DirecTV service even though I dislike News Corp. support of all things evil. Also please look at this from a relative veiwpoint, the rates rates in your city may already be higher, but Memphis, TN has a lower cost-of-living than many parts of the country.
Some rats with that>>>>? Ill never eat at a taco bell or KFC after reading this. . I It's swing time for Village rat pack. Former worker Marcus Bonner said some were 'this big!' The rats took over W. Fourth St. Taco Bell/KFC early yesterday. And they didn't care who was watching. It was enough to make you choke on your chalupa. To the disgust of millions who watched on TV or in person, a gang of brazen rats took over a Taco Bell/KFC restaurant in Greenwich Village yesterday - scampering across tables like they owned the joint. The vermin slid down the backs of chairs, left trails of droppings on the floor and glared at passersby through the window until health inspectors shut down the eatery on Sixth Ave. near W. Fourth St. "I just ate there last night - I think I'm going to be sick," said Earl Heffintrayer, 29. "I'll never come back here again." The invasion began a little after midnight, while the restaurant was closed, creating a public relations nightmare for Taco Bell just two months after an E.Coli outbreak at the chain. Photographers and TV crews descended on the scene - and it almost seemed like the 20-odd rodents were playing to the crowd. At one point, as a Daily News reporter pressed close to the window, a rat hopped over, stood on its hind legs, put its paws against the glass and stared back. "He's coming for his close-up," a spectator quipped. The stomach-churning images were soon flashed across the nation on the Internet and TV news shows, leaving Americans a little queasy over breakfast. Those familiar with the location said the rat pack was not a surprise. "It's the dirtiest place in the neighborhood," said Joel Cohen, whose apartment overlooks the restaurant. "It's a blight." Marcus Bonner, 19, who had just finished his night shift at the McDonald's across the street, said he had been fired by Taco Bell because he complained about sanitary conditions at the eatery. "There's a hole in the wall behind the grill," he said. "The rats come through the back of the building where the trash is kept." By 10:30 a.m., a city Health Department inspector had arrived and quickly taped two yellow "Closed" notices on the windows. The operator of the franchise, ADF Fifth Operating Corp., did not return calls, but the parent company was quick to respond. "This is an isolated incident at a single restaurant ... and it is totally unacceptable," Taco Bell said in a statement. "The restaurant is closed and we will not allow it to be reopened until it has been sanitized and given a complete clean bill of health." The company blamed "construction in the basement" of the two-story building. The location was cited for a rat infestation Dec. 11 and the problem was remedied, said Mayor Bloomberg's spokesman Stu Loeser, who added that most city restaurants face health code violations at some point, correct them and reopen. The number of rodent complaints has just about doubled since Mayor Bloomberg took office in 2002, climbing to 32,200 in the fiscal year ending June30. But a report this month showed a drop of 13% from last year. The Village franchise is likely to be closed for days, but the fallout could linger longer. Taco Bell has barely recovered from last year's E. Coli disaster, which was blamed on lettuce and made 70 people ill. And it seems like investors lost their appetite a little. On a down day on the market, stock for Yum Brands Inc., which owns Taco Bell, fell 55 cents to $60.51. Former worker Marcus Bonner said some were 'this big!' The rats took over W. Fourth St. Taco Bell/KFC early yesterday. And they didn't care who was watching. It was enough to make you choke on your chalupa. To the disgust of millions who watched on TV or in person, a gang of brazen rats took over a Taco Bell/KFC restaurant in Greenwich Village yesterday - scampering across tables like they owned the joint. The vermin slid down the backs of chairs, left trails of droppings on the floor and glared at passersby through the window until health inspectors shut down the eatery on Sixth Ave. near W. Fourth St. "I just ate there last night - I think I'm going to be sick," said Earl Heffintrayer, 29. "I'll never come back here again." The invasion began a little after midnight, while the restaurant was closed, creating a public relations nightmare for Taco
What should I prepare for an interview for a Corporate Finance/Equity Market Capital Graduate Programme? I will be having a first round interview for a graduate programme position in Corporate Finance/Equity Market Capital in one of the large investment bank, in less than 1 week. What should I prepare to perform well in the interview? FYI, I am from Engineering background with lack of financial knowledge. Will reading financial news in the internet be enough to tackle some questions and show my interest in financial sectors? What kind of questions they will ask you for first round interview? Is it true that 1st round interview with the recruitment manager will be more on the general questions instead of technical ones? I am confused and nervous. Any suggestions are welcomed. Thank you ^^
Do you agree with this statement: While technologically & financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies? US lawmakers criticize Yahoo officials "While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos, D-Calif., said angrily after hearing from the two men. Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang and General Counsel Michael Callahan offered apologies and promises to do better but no specific commitments. Lawmakers insisted that Yahoo along with other companies must use its market strength to change China, not just comply with the government's demands in order to gain access to tens of millions of Internet users. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071106/ap_on_go_co/congress_yahoo
Why do some Apple fans think it is stupid for Microsoft to make MP3 players but Apple can make a cell phone? On the internet message boards, many Apple fans are bashing MS' efforts to cash in on the MP3 Player craze that Apple popularized (but wasn't the first device), saying that MS doesn't need to enter this market because of the over-bearing success of Apple and its present success with Windows and Office. MS is thus viewed as greedy. But if we apply this to everything, Wal-Mart would not be selling groceries (you know, because of all of the groceries stores it has put out of business), Fox News Channel wouldn't exist (it just couldn't possibly beat CNN), there wouldn't be all of these American Idol spin-off shows on TV this summer, Facebook and MySpace wouldn't exist because of Classmates.com, the reality TV craze wouldn't exist (why go after MTV's "The Real World" success?), Disney World would be the only theme park in Orlando, etc., AND APPLE WOULDN'T BE SUPPOSEDLY MAKING A CELL PHONE! Come on, competition is good, right? This criticism is not limited to Microsoft's hardware plans, but to Microsoft's attempts in the MP3 market in general through its PlaysForSure effort.
Are opinion polls reliable for determining the outcome of a primary? Does this explain Ron Paul's lower #'s ? Many supporters have been wondering or even worrying about the weak 1–3% opinion polling support Ron Paul has had. There are several reasons why opinion polling produces these results that most people do not know about. 1) Opinion polls are mostly conducted by using telephone landlines. The reason is that landline numbers are easy to obtain, and they produce a fairly accurate and random result for most questionnaires. As known from marketing, each product has a life cycle, and those who hang on to landline numbers tend to be late adopters of new technology. These late adopters do not use the internet, so they have (most likely) not even heard of Ron Paul. For them the choice is still between Rudy McRomney which is thus reflected on the polling result. Due to this sampling error the real support for Ron Paul is most likely stronger than the opinion polls show. 2) Many opinion polls count answers selectively. They reason that by counting only certain given opinions, uncertainty and randomness will be reduced in the opinion polling results. For example, the opinion polls ask questions such as: are you a registered supporter of the Republican party, have you voted in primaries before, what is your yearly income, when where you born etc. These questions are then used to eliminate groups such as non-registered republicans or young people. Even if this elimination is mostly statistically justified, it reduces the showing support for surprise candidates such as Ron Paul, especially when an important part of Ron Paul's campaign is to mobilize voters who do not usually vote in primaries. 3) In order to reduce the inaccuracy between two polls conducted by the same pollster, vote multipliers are added, which can be based on earlier polls, prior elections, "scientific" analyzes or just simply guesses. Here is how they work. Let's say that a vote multiplier for Rudy Giuliani is 1.2, for John McCain 1.5 and for Ron Paul –3.0. If the pure poll gives Giuliani 25%, McCain 10% and Ron Paul 10% of the vote, the opinion polls are counted to show 30% for Giuliani, 15% for McCain and only 3% for Ron Paul. The chances are that opinion polls for Ron Paul have negative multipliers, since no-one conducting the polls believes that he can win. The same phenomenon has happened in various European countries during the last five years when so-called far right parties (with anti-immigration, anti-EU and fiscal conservative views) have taken many land-slide victories, even if their results in opinion polls have been often either poor or mediocre. 4) Opinion polls are not value free or interest neutral. Even if the opinion polling company would want to conduct a poll on honest scientific standards, they still know that their poll has been ordered by USA Today, NBC, FOX News, the Washington Post or the New York Times. So a polling company's self-interest is to produce a result that the mainstream media likes. These news agencies are not interested in polls that predict a great result for Ron Paul, if they would get one, they would not publish it. This can be seen by just looking back at the polling results from as late as late April. During late April most polls did not even include Ron Paul as a potential running candidate! He only starts to show up regularly after mid-May, where as undeclared 'candidate' Fred Thompson has been included since the very beginning. Opinion polls often lie, just like statistics do. The opinion polling for the Republican primary clearly underestimates Ron Paul's real popularity, which may already be around 10%. For example, sportsbook.com (a betting site – not a pro–Ron Paul site) currently places his odds 5th in the Republican candidate nomination race and 9th in the 2008 Presidential Elections. But let's suppose that I am wrong and the opinion polls do show the real support for Ron Paul. Still, his chances for winning are very good, for the following reasons. 1) As Justin Ptak correctly pointed out, "the national polls are entirely a reflection of name identification, not voters' views of the candidates." For example Carter was only polling 1% in 1975 and he won the presidency. Back in 1991 Clinton's support was at 2% and he became the president. Joe Lieberman was leading the Democratic presidential nomination in 2003, yet he failed to win a single primary. 2) The opinion polls also fail to grasp that the Ron Paul revolution is not only a revolution of ideas; it is also revolutionizing campaign methods. Campaign methods seldom change, but in the US presidential elections they have done so twice in the past. Back in 1825 when John Quincy Adams won the presidency he revolutionized campaigning by distributing buttons and other campaign gimmicks. A second campaigning revolution took place in the 1961 elections when the televised mass media made JFK the president. The Ron Paul revolution of 2008 could be the third campaigning revolution. Earlier it was easier for politicians to lie and get away with it. Today prior speeches and voting records are easily obtainable and thus politicians become increasingly accountable of what they have ever said or done. Furthermore the mass media can no longer determine the election winners. In such an environment the few sincere honest politicians like Ron Paul will win. 3) All conducted opinion polls measure the general opinion on candidates. In elections where half the nation votes, such as the presidential election, the opinion poll results are crucial. In elections where only a minority of activists vote the opinion polling results are unimportant. The primaries are activist elections and despite all attempts to reduce uncertainty and randomness by the opinion polling companies (e.g. by methods mentioned above), the randomness and uncertainty still remain. This is due to the fact, that it is almost impossible to separate the activists from the rest in an opinion poll. For example, in the presidential primaries of 2004 only 7.2% of the Americans voted! The Democratic turnout was 11.4%, the Republican turnout only 6.6%! In these cases straw polling matters more than general opinion polls, since straw polls are conducted in places where only the best-informed and most active voters gather. In straw polls Ron Paul has done extremely well, always placing first or second, once he even made a land sliding victory gaining 65% of the popular support! 4) The opinion polls give out the impression that a candidate needs to gather millions of votes in most states in order to get the party's presidential nomination. As noted above, with only 7.2% of the Americans voting in the 2004 primaries, this is not the case. For example, in New Hampshire with a population of 1,200,000 the size of the voting age population is around 1,000,000. If 20% of the shire folk would vote (an extremely high number for a presidential primary) 200,000 votes would be cast. Half would be democratic votes. Thus even if Ron Paul would race himself against all the other republican candidates, he would win with just 51,000 votes. And this is the pessimist scenario. Most likely the voting turnout will be around 10% and no other GOP candidate will gather more than 30% of the state's votes. In this case Ron Paul will win the New Hampshire primary with only 15,000 votes! As the CNHT straw poll shows, Ron Paul already has 200 votes and judging by some videos, there are at least a thousand dedicated Ron Paulians in New Hampshire. How hard can it be for them to gather 14,000 more votes for Dr. Paul? Using the same analogy, in California, the most populous state of the Union with 36,500,000 people, the GOP primary can be won with only 450,000 votes. Ron Paul will be aided further by the fact that five small states of Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Wyoming and Maine hold their primaries before Super-Tuesday and every single primary victory will give him an election boost. The smaller the state is, the easier it is to gather a grassroots movement that can influence the election result. In the primary phase of the presidential elections the ingenuity of the Ron Paul campaign will be clearest. All other GOP candidates adhere to some stripe of neoconservatism, which will only attract the support of the old voters (i.e. of those 6.6% of the Republicans that voted in the 2004 presidential primary). The neoconservative message is old and widely hated. Ron Paul provides a culturally conservative, libertarian option with fresh ideas that appeal not only to many old voters, but to thousands of new voters who have never voted in primaries before. He has already succeeded in turning the whole Constitution party, half of the Libertarian party and many, many anti-war Democrats into registered Ron Paul Republicans. Ron Paul is also about to succeed in waking up the elderly Republican voters with the traditional conservative Republican message of life, liberty and property. The neoconservatives cannot beat him. Their individual candidates are all too power hungry to give up the race and join forces under one name in order to defeat Dr. Paul. With the primaries moved closer to each other they have no longer the option to drop out in the middle of the race, meaning that the neoconservative vote will be shattered between a dozen candidates in every, single, state. The Ron Paul revolution has already succeeded. It has brought a lot of attention to the libertarian ideas of peace and a limited government. It has also put a strain on the mass media, who can no longer deliver any information they want in any manner they please. Just like a real revolution the Ron Paul revolution has become a movement everyone wants to join. The real test for the Ron Paul revolution is not the victory over the GOP nomination, the question is how to win the presidency from a Hillary-Obama ticket, which will undoubtedly be seen as a dream team by the academia, the mass media, the special interest groups, the bureaucrats and the politicians. http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/pitkaniemi1.html
Why do Democrat Tactics Work? BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Ron in Houston, thanks for calling. You're next on the EIB Network, sir. Hello. CALLER: Mega dittos, mighty one. The reason I called, this has been a frustration for about the last three months right now. How long is everybody going to forget how many times the Democrats have tried to give away everything this country's done? I'm to the point now, I'll put up the money to basically put most of the Democratic Party on Ritalin because they're becoming an out-of-control reality program. In fact, they may be the basis for the original reality programs out there. Can you explain to me how they keep getting away with the junk they're putting out there and they do it over and over and over again. I watched it during Reagan, and when the huge threat of the Soviet Union was out there. The Soviet Union was kind of a rusty bucket ready to fall over, but until the day it happened, Reagan was looked at as a fool. I'm not particularly a big fan of George Bush, but George Bush can get the job done. Let him be president. I'm sorry. I want to just scream right now. RUSH: Wait. If I understood everything you're saying, and your call is a little distorted, you're wondering how in the world people keep falling for the same Democrat trick? CALLER: It's the same thing over and over and over again. I'm an ex-Navy officer. I spent a lot of time out on US aircraft carriers. I spent a lot of time watching situations and I'm sitting there watching what's going on and I'm watching what the media is spitting back out in the States, and there's no correlation. RUSH: Well, I explained this. Look, there's so many factors in this answer. In the first place, public education system. Young skulls full of mush have grown up not learning about history. They've grown up being told that Bill Clinton was a great president, and that Abe Lincoln is worth one paragraph. They've, in many cases, grown up and been told that the white settlers of this country, the original settlers were racists, sexists, bigots, homophobes. They've been inculcated with conflict resolution that tells them that we're the problem and we have to cave and give up. We also have a bunch of people here in a nation of prosperity and vast affluence who don't have to pay attention to these uncomfortable thing if they don't want to. They don't have to, quote, "sacrifice," as such when the Democrats and the media in concert convince them there's no problem. It's something they'd like to hear, and so they believe it. BREAK TRANSCRIPT I just had a conversation with our official call screener today, Bo Snerdley, in his office. He says people on the phones are fit to be tied, particularly at Nancy Pelosi. They're throwing the word "traitor" around all over the place. It leads me to try to explain in a little bit more depth an answer to a question we got from a caller near the end of the last hour. He was beside himself, this former Navy man, and his perception is the American people buy everything the Democrats say, and he doesn't understand it. After they said Reagan was the biggest problem facing the free world, Reagan dispatched the Soviet Union. His point was that there are so many instances where you can look, historically, and find that liberal Democrats are wrong in what they claim, not just in foreign policy, but their whole social safety net program has been a disaster, and why people don't see this, and it's very frustrating thing to him. He wanted to know why I thought that was the case, and I had a minute and a half to give an answer. For a minute and a half, it was a brilliant answer. A better answer than anybody else could utter in a minute and a half. That's because I'm a highly trained broadcast specialist who understands the nature of brevity as the soul of wit. But let me expand on this, because it is a frustrating thing, and I feel it sometimes, too, even in the midst of my optimism. Remember, I have said that during all of this the Democrats are sowing their seeds for a massive landslide defeat. There is history for that, too. There is plenty of history that the American people don't buy what the Democrats sell. The reason so many of you think that most Americans are is because of the Drive-By Media. Now, the Drive-By Media no longer has its monopoly but it's still very powerful and it's a one-note samba. It is pro-Democrat. It is pro-liberal. It is anti-Bush. It is anti-Republican, and it is relentless, and I want to remind you of something else. Everybody knows that the three nightly newscasts on the major three networks are not as large, singularly, as they used to be in terms of audience. Combined, they still reach about 30 million people a night, whereas Cronkite used to do that all by himself. There is a new media, and there's an alternative, and it's growing. It's burgeoning, and it's creating problems for the liberal Democrats, although those problems are not often recounted in their house organs, such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Drive-By television networks, the cable networks. So you're looking for validation that they are weakening, and you don't see it because what you watch on television, 90%, portrays the Democrats as omnipotent and powerful, all over the place, gaining strength, the American people love and support them, and that impression has to be considered somewhat valid, what with the election results of last November. At the same time, I don't think it's as pervasive as it used to be. But let's talk about the people that watch the nightly newscasts for one second. Many of you in this audience are multitaskers and you access a whole lot of different sources of media. You listen to this program, and you go on the Internet. You watch some cable news. You're all over the place. You read various different things. You would be surprised at the number of Americans whose only source of news is the nightly newscasts. Now, they're primarily elderly, upper middle-age and beyond. You can see that by looking at the commercials -- and I don't mean this to sound funny, even though it is. But you're watching a newscast and the commercials are burial plots here and Preparation H over there and heart medicine here and Lipitor over there. When basically 80% of the commercials are medicines to sustain your life for another five years, you know who the audience is, and that's habitual. They have not transformed into the new media. They are out there. These are people, too, that have landline telephones. These are people that have not moved into cell phones and the Internet, and guess who it is that pollsters call? Pollsters have a tough time getting hold of people with cell phones, and they're having a tougher and tougher time getting hold of people that use landline phones. But this crowd that we're talking about does; they still do. This generational shift has not been completed yet, and the people that produce these nightly newscasts are well aware of this, and they're always making efforts here to try to lower their demographics. But they've got a problem, because their newscasts happen at the end of the day when a lot of people already know what they're going to see when they turn on the nightly news. But those who watch it -- and there's 30 million of them every night, averaged, if you combine all three -- it's their first taste of the day, and they believe it. It's hook, line, and sinker. It's the Bible to them, and that's it. So there's a large chunk of it, and then you have, sadly, ladies and gentlemen, a lot of people who are just sponges, and they access the Drive-By Media, and they just believe it. It carries with it this note of authority. You know from your own experience growing up: If you read it in the paper, it was true. It's just like law enforcement never, ever falsely charges people. Law enforcement never screws up. If they say somebody did it, you think they did it. That's just human nature. I'm not even talking politics here. There's certain institutions in this country that have always enjoyed a tremendous amount of credibility and respect and very few people have ever questioned it, and the Drive-By Media is one of those. That's really the root of the question. How in the world can people continue to believe this stuff, not just the media, but how can they believe the Democrats when time and time again everything the Democrats say turns out to be not true? Here's a Navy man calling. "How can it be that people are not outraged over Pelosi? How can it be that they're not outraged over the fact that the Democrats are trying to secure the defeat and un-fund, de-fund the United States Military?" Why are there not massive protests in the street of anger and outrage over this? Well, there are answers to this, and they're traditional. Most of the people that would do those kind of protests don't ever protest. The protesters are the malcontent leftists who make it their job. They go out and they secure rent-a-mobs and they try to create chaos and tumult and this is what the media is doing, and the Democrats, they don't want you happy. They don't want you content, not with a Republican in the White House, and certainly not with a Republican they think is illegitimate, and certainly not when the Republicans run the House and Senate or ran the House and Senate. They don't want you happy. And then you've gotta factor in human nature. Sad to say, it's much easier to be a pessimist than it is to be an optimist. It's much easier to be doom and gloom. It's much easier to think the worst is going to happen than to believe the best will happen, and most people's experiences in their lives are that excrement happens, and good things are rare and they're unique, and that's why they're rare and unique, because they don't happen that much. So you factor all of these things together. You know, why is it is that Nancy Pelosi is not the equivalent of Jane Fonda, for crying out loud? She's trying to undermine her own country for her own self-interests and the interests of her party. I know it's frustrating to watch this stuff and think that most of your fellow citizens are just a bunch of blithering idiot sponges soaking it all up. I don't think it's as bad as you think, but it is a problem. There are a lot of people who are not thinkers. There are a lot of people who are not curious. There are a lot of people who want to be mired in misery or doom and gloom. It's a natural mind-set, and it's fed to them each and every day. But, as I say, if you go back and look at the number of things, historically, the Democrats don't win every election, and everything that you think is going to happen doesn't in regards to their prominence and victory. I'm telling you, I know some of you just think I'm whistling Dixie here, but far more people in this country than you might believe or you might be aware of, are watching what's happening and are just as outraged as you are, and when it comes time for them to express themselves, they will do so, and the Democrats are cruising for a major humiliation again. I don't know how soon. It may not be 2008, it may be 2010 or 2012. I'm talking about electorally, but it is going to happen. They're reconstructing the exact circumstances they created post-Vietnam going into Watergate and that they think led them to the Promised Land. Of course they lost in a 49-state landslide with George McGovern as their nominee. Guess who Democrats are talking to about advising them for their future? They're out there having conferences with George McGovern. They have a perverted sense of their own success. When it's defined and when it happens, or how it's defined and when it has happened, this is something that's just going to take time to play out. The tough thing for those of you who are affected by this, is you never, ever see this even when they do lose. Even when they're shellacked, you don't see humiliation or embarrassment in the Drive-By Media. The minute they lose, they ratchet it up again. "Okay, what are the Democrats going to have to do to win?" There is never credit for Reagan, never credit for Bush, never credit for victorious Republicans. They always slough it off to, "Well, again, the right-wing Christian hayseeds, you know? They came through. Democrats failed to," blah, blah, some other thing. Victory is never legitimate. It's because of some mistake Democrats made, and they start out trying to correct the mistakes and the media helps them out with this. It's a one-note samba for the first time in the Drive-By Media. But it's not as one sided and had as bad in terms of the perception of the majority of the American people as you believe, as you might think. Listen to the number of people who call here asking this question. You are not just lone voices appearing on this program. There are countless others, thousands, hundreds of thousands who are sitting out there and throwing things on the radio going, "Yeah! Yeah! Say it again! Say it louder!" They're just as irritated as you are. They don't have an outlet, and they're not interviewed by the Drive-By Media and so forth. News is a product like any other product that's marketed and packaged and put on the grocery shelves or any other store shelf, for sale. I don't care how lofty they think their position is because it's constitutionally protected. I don't care about any of that. These people put together an agenda. There are people (they're working right now) putting together these newscasts this afternoon and tonight, and don't believe that they're not putting these things together with their own agendas and their own desires and what they think will look good, what they think will get ratings in some cases. But for the first the most part, it's not about objectivity or reporting real news or anything of the sort. Their worldview is what it is, and things that don't fit in their worldview they don't even see. So it's buck-up time. (sigh) I hate to being an I told you so, but I warned everybody back in October, this was the kind of thing you're going to have to put up with if the Republicans lose the election. It's bad enough when they win, the Democrats are relentless -- and the Drive-Bys. But now they won, and, of course, they're puffing their chests out and they're beating their chests like King Kong, Tarzan, Mighty Joe Young, whatever you want, and they're just feeling their oats right now, and it's that pompous arrogance and condescension that's also offensive in the way they go about things. But you gotta have faith, folks. The Democrats have not totally triumphed, and they never will totally triumph. There are too many of you who care too much, who will stop it. One other factor -- and I've mentioned this before, too. Particularly when it comes to the war on terror, war in Iraq, the Drive-Bys have done one hell of a job of convincing enough Americans that there's no threat. In fact, not only is there no threat, there wouldn't be a threat at all if we weren't attacking Muslims, if Bush weren't in the White House. 9/11? Why, it was just a mere episode, and most people don't want to remember it. Most people don't want to be reminded of it. They don't want to think that they're going to be, their whole lives, constantly on a vigil protecting themselves and waiting for the next attack. That's not what being an American is. Being an American is to be insulated from the stuff that happens in the Middle East, insulated from the stuff that happens in the Third World, insulated from the stuff that happens in places like Afghanistan and what's going on in the Philippines now, and in some of Indonesia. That's not what being an American is. Being an American is about having as carefree a life as possible with the normal trials and tribulations, but it does not include getting up every day and worrying to death over whether another couple jets are going to go into another couple buildings and another 3,000 people be incinerated. If anybody comes along and convince the American people they don't have to worry about that, then they'll gladly take the bait -- and, voila! It is happening, and because of our affluence and prosperity, people are able to go live their lives however they choose and pay scant or no attention to this whatsoever, and then, some of these people, after deciding that they don't want to pay any attention to this and that they don't want to live their lives under constant fear, constant threat that this could happen again, they don't want to be vigilant about this, all it takes to add to that is everyday a pummeling of the president and the whole thing about the war on terror and how we're creating circumstances. Now the Iranians are doing what they're doing because of us. They were peace-loving people before we came along! The Iraqis had been better off with Saddam Hussein. So you couple all of that natural mind-set of what it is to be an American or what it has been to be an American, with a desire for that to continue, and then you portray the "threat" to being an American as living in the embodiment of George W. Bush. Well, you can see how some people would buy into that, because everybody wants to blame somebody other than themselves. You might say, "Well, why don't they blame the Democrats?" Because nowhere in the media are the Democrats being blamed, other than here. We're not insignificant. We're not small by any stretch. I'll tell you, Fox News is what it is, but it's a speck compared to the three networks, all the rest of the Drive-Bys and the magazines and the newspapers and so forth and so on. There are reasons for this. There are explanations for it. Solutions? Well, in my case I just rely on the ultimate judgment and decency of a majority of the American people, the vast amount of times, to prevail, and I still believe that.
The Ultimate Warrior Returning to the ring!? Ultimate Warrior's agent released the following statement today. The Ultimate Warrior Announces His Return To Pro Wrestling Staggering news resounded in the NWE Arena during the Madrid show on April 19th. More than 15,000 fans had the chance to see the award presentation which celebrated the career of professional wrestling icon, The Ultimate Warrior; who was in attendance to accept his award. However, controversy erupted during the presentation when NWE Champion Orlando Jordan mocked a young fan of Warrior's at the event. Warrior was quick to come to the defense of this fan which led to a heated conflict between Warrior and Jordan. On June 25th 2008 in Barcelona, after a 12 year absence from the ring, The Ultimate Warrior will officially make his wrestling comeback in a match against Jordan. The news was confirmed this morning by Warrior's agent, Bernie Gernay in a statement. "For over 10 years this is what the entire wrestling world has been waiting for, the return of the Warrior. We are excited to bring back the greatest character and energy to ever get into the ring. Ultimate Warrior is an incredible marketing machine and has kept a tremendous value to his name which is why the NWE has stepped up with a substantial deal that worked very well for both sides. There is no disputing that Warrior left a mark on professional wrestling that no other talent did and the reason why still today he is often imitated, but never duplicated." Over the next few days the NWE will inform fans of the preparations for one of the biggest and most important wrestling events ever to be held in Europe. As the news progresses it is sure to be the headlines of wrestling news and forums throughout the internet and will most certainly have all in the wrestling industry and fans alike in great anticipation to see what the Warrior will deliver on June 25th, and perhaps beyond. Bernie J. Gernay Agent for The Ultimate Warrior
Expanding towards social networking? New Delhi : Social networking is the service which everyone wants on there website be it Yahoo or Google. jIFFY360.com India's biggest upcoming online shopping mall for IT products scheduled to be launched on 30 Jan 2008 have made it public that they are planning to invest in social networking via internet. Recently jIFFY360.com was in news for there plan to sell out to Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group the second biggest private group in India for Rs 300 crores this news was later denied by the management of the company. jIFFY360.com have assured that they will do something unique which will be made exclusively for India. BigAdda.com an Reliance Capital company which provides users free social networking is running flop among the Indian youth inspite of big budget marketing campaign. It will be not be easy to challenge the monopoly of orkut and facebook for these upcoming sites.
What will happen if Yahoo got problem ? To all Yahoo! addicts. What happen if one day you turn on your PC, and switch the Internet Explorer (or Firefox). And.. no yahoo !? Which means: -No Yahoo! Answers! -No Yahoo! Mails! -No Yahoo! messenger (which is not really a problem, u can always use MSN or AIM, stuff like that) -NO Yahoo! games! (include the ultimate Pool games!!) -No Yahoo! Launch (for the music and video addicts) -No Yahoo! News, whatsoever. (includes Info, map, market, exchange rates, shares..the whole world will be crazy, exchange rates fluctuated) -No Yahoo! Shoppin for the shopaholics -No Yahoo! Search -No Yahooligans for your crying kids. -No Yahoo! Education (The amount of weed consumption will increase!!) -No Yahoo! Real Estates! -Pop ups appeared because of no Yahoo! Pop up blocker!! -No Yahoo! Sport. Damn I'm gettin tired. the list still goes on. You can look up to see what other services Yahoo has to offer here http://docs.yahoo.com/docs/family/more/ Shame, Yahoo doesnt pay me for this. But yea, I would like to kno your opinion?? lol This question is inspired by the stupid questions I've seen on Yahoo! Answers
About FII's Activities ?? in the share market.......? Hello friends; i have seen many times that news papers and media even the internet don't show the latest activities of the Foregin Institutional Investor's ............. Where can i find the information "fast"..........suppose today is Monday and when market closed where can on which site can i find the FII's Report of today's buying and selling..................... i am from india and i play in sensex and nifty........................... i will so much thankful to you all my friends............and also please tell me about to play intraday
Do u think our politicians will allow this hybrid car drama to survive in Indian market? Every news website u hit on the internet u are likely to read a column about newly relesed Eco friendly hybrid sedan cars, hydrogen fule based cars , Ethanol fuel cars and list goes on .But in reality these cars are far from a bulk production and I suppose at least it will take another 5 to 10 years to hit the road ( though some are avilable in the market with sky high prize) . On the other hand , fuel prize is soring and majority of the gas stations (petro banks) are owned by MPS ,MLAs and their relatives . Can u imagine politicians supporting such a move of subsidizing the prize of the new cars which would be affordable for a common man ? Do u think our politicians give a f%%% about reducing the Co2 emmision? If not, then whats the whole point in this drama which is far from reality at least in Indian market?
What is the lesson of this story? David Pradarelli Assalam-aleikum wa rahmatullah! I came to Islam pretty much on my own. I was born and raised Roman Catholic, but I always had a deep fascination with the spiritualities of other cultures. My Journey started when I desired to have a relationship with my creator. I wanted to find my spirituality, and not the one I was born with. I spent some time in the Catholic religious order known as the Franciscans. I had many friends and I enjoyed prayer times, but it just seemed to relaxed in its faith, and there was, in my opinion, too much arrogance and hypocrisy. When I had returned back from the order into secular living again, I once again was searching for my way to reach God (Allah). One night I was watching the news on television, and of course they were continuing their one-sided half-truth reports on Muslims (always in a negative light instead of balancing it by showing the positive side as well) with images of violence and terrorism. I decided long ago that the news media has no morals whatsoever and will trash anyone for that "juicy story", and I pretty much refused to believe anything they said. I decided to research Islam for myself and draw my own conclusions. What I found paled all the negative images that the satanic media spewed forth. I found a religion deep in love and spiritual truth, and constant God-mindfullness. What may be fanatacism to one person may be devotion to another. I picked up a small paperback Qur'an and began devouring everything I could. It opened my eyes to the wonder and mercy of ALLAH, and I found the fascination growing every day...it was all I could think about. No other religion including Catholicism impacted me in such a powerful way...I actually found myself in God-awareness 24 hours a day 7 days a week...each time I went to my five daily prayers, I went with anticipation...finally! What I have been searching for all of my life. I finally got enough courage to go to a mosque and profess the Shahadah before my Muslm brothers and sisters. I now am a practicing Muslim and I thank ALLAH for leading me to this place: Ashhahdu anna la ilaha ilallah wa Muhammadur rasul ALLAH! This means: "I believe in the oneness and totalness of ALLAH and that Muhammad(peace and blessings be upon him)is the chosen prophet of ALLAH." I now also accept Jesus as no longer equal with ALLAH, but sent as Muhammad was sent ...to bring all of mankind to submission to the will of ALLAH! May all of mankind find the light and truth of ALLAH. Ibrahim Karlsson I was born in an ordinary , non-religious Swedish home, but with a very loving relationship to each other. I had lived my life 25 years without really thinking about the existence of God or anything spiritual what-so-ever; I was the role model of the materialistic man. Or was I? I recall a short story I wrote in 7th grade, something about my future life, where I portray myself as a successful games programmer (I hadn't yet even touched a computer) and living with a Muslim wife!! OK, at that time Muslim to me meant dressing in long clothes and wearing a scarf, but I have no idea where those thoughts came from. Later, in high school, I remember spending much time in the school-library (being a bookworm) and at one time I picked up a translated Qur'an and read some passages from it. I don't remember exactly what I read, but I do remember finding that what it said made sense and was logical to me. Still, I was not at all religious, I couldn't fit God in my universe, and I had no need of any god. I mean, we have Newton to explain how the universe works, right? Time passed, I graduated and started working. Earned some money and moved to my own apartment, and found a wonderful tool in the PC. I became a passionate amateur photographer, and enrolled in activities around that. At one time I was documenting a marketplace, taking snapshots from a distance with my telelens when an angry looking immigrant came over and explained that he would make sure I wasn't going to take any more pictures of his mum and sisters. Strange people those Muslims... More things related to Islam happened that I can't explain why I did what I did. I can't recall the reason I called the "Islamic information organisation" in Sweden, ordering a subscription to their newsletter, buying Yosuf Ali's Qur'an and a very good book on Islam called Islam - our faith. I just did! I read almost all of the Qur'an, and found it to be both beautiful and logical, but still, God had no place in my heart. One year later, whilst out on a patch of land called "pretty island" (it really is) taking autumn-color pictures, I was overwhelmed by a fantastic feeling. I felt as if I were a tiny piece of something greater, a tooth on a gear in God's great gearbox called the universe. It was wonderful! I had never ever felt like this before, totally relaxed, yet bursting with energy, and above all, total awareness of god wherever I turned my eyes. I don't know how long I stayed in this ecstatic state, but eventually it ended and I drove home, seemingly unaffected, but what I had experienced left uneraseable marks in my mind. At this time Microsoft brought Windows-95 to the market with the biggest marketing blitz known to the computer industry. Part of the package was the on-line service The Microsoft Network. And keen to know what is was I got myself an account on the MSN. I soon found that the Islam BBS were the most interesting part of the MSN, and that's where I found Shahida. Shahida is a American woman, who like me has converted to Islam. Our chemistry worked right away, and she became the best pen-friend I have ever had. Our e-mail correspondence will go down in history: the fact that my mailbox grew to something like 3 megabytes over the first 6 months tells its own tale. She and I discussed a lot about Islam and faith in god in general, and what she wrote made sense to me. Shahida had an angels patience with my slow thinking and my silly questions, but she never gave up the hope in me. Just listen to your heart and you'll find the truth she said. And I found the truth in myself sooner than I'd expected. On the way home from work, in the bus with most of the people around me asleep, and myself adoring the sunset, painting the beautifully dispersed clouds with pink and orange colours, all the parts came together, how God can rule our life, yet we're not robots. How I could depend on physics and chemistry and still believe and see Gods work. It was wonderful, a few minutes of total understanding and peace. I so long for a moment like this to happen again! And it did, one morning I woke up, clear as a bell, and the first thought that ran through my brain was how grateful to God I were that he made me wake up to another day full of opportunities. It was so natural, like I had been doing every day of my life! After these experiences I couldn't no longer deny God's existence. But after 25 years of denying God it was no easy task to admit his existence and accept faith. But good things kept happening to me, I spent some time in the US, and at this time I started praying, testing and feeling, learning to focus on God and to listen to what my heart said. It all ended in a nice weekend in New York, of which I had worried a lot, but it turned out to be a success, most of all, I finally got to meet Shahida! At this point there was no return, I just didn't know it yet. But God kept leading me, I read some more, and finally got the courage to call the nearest Mosque and ask for a meeting with some Muslims. With trembling legs I drove to the mosque, which I had passed many times before, but never dared to stop and visit. I met the nicest people there, and I was given some more reading material, and made plans to come and visit the brothers in their home. What they said, and the answers they gave all made sense. Islam became a major part of my life, I started praying regularly, and I went to my first Jumma prayer. It was wonderful, I sneaked in, and sat in the back, not understanding a word the imam was saying, but still enjoying the service. After the khutba we all came together forming lines, and made the two 'rakaas'. It was yet one of the wonderful experiences I have had on my journey to Islam. The sincerity of 200 men fully devoted to just one thing, to praise God, felt great! Slowly my mind started to agree with my heart, I started to picture myself as a Muslim, but could I really convert to Islam? I had left the Swedish state-church earlier, just in case, but to pray 5 times a day? to stop eating pork? Could I really do that? And what about my family and friends? I recalled what Br. Omar told me, how his family tried to get him admitted to an asylum when he converted. Could I really do this? By this time the Internet wave had swept my country, and I too had hooked up with the infobahn. And "out there" were tons of information about Islam. I think I collected just about every web page with the word Islam anywhere in the text, and learned a lot. But what really made a change was a text I found in Great Britain, a story of a newly converted woman with feelings exactly like mine. 12 hours is the name of the text. When I had read that story, and wept the tears out of my eyes I realized that there were no turning back anymore, I couldn't resist Islam any longer. Summer vacation started, and I had made my mind up. I had to become a Muslim! But after all, the start of the summer had been very cold, and if my first week without work was different, I wouldn't lose a day of sunshine by not being on the beach. On the TV the weatherman painted a big sun right on top of my part of the country. OK then, some other day... The next morning; a steel grey sky, with ice-cold gusts of wind outside my bedroom window. It was like God had decided my time was up, I could wait no longer. I had the required bath, and dressed in clean clothes, jumped in my car and drove the 1 hour drive to the mosque. In the Mosque I approached the brothers with my wish, and after dhuhr prayer the Imam and some brothers witnessed me say the Shahada. Alhamdulillah! And to my great relief all my family and friends have taken my conversion very well, they have all accepted it, I won't say they were thrilled, but absolutely no hard feelings. They can't understand all the things I do. Like praying 5 times a day on specific times, or not eating pork meat. They think this is strange foreign customs that will die out with time, but I'll prove them wrong. InshaAllah! Abd al-Hayy Moore I became a Muslim when it seemed I had already accepted Islam in my bones, as if beyond choice, and I only had to make a leap to embrace it formally. Outwardly I was content; inwardly I was coasting. My three-year-old theatre company was disbanded after a hilariously chaotic production for a Tim Leary Benefit at the Family Dog in San Francisco, circa '68 -- naturally the orange juice everyone had passed around was spiked, so that chorus members were doing the final scene in the first ten minutes -- and for six months I had been methodically typing out poetry manuscripts in my attic in Berkeley preparatory to a big publishing peak. I considered myself a Zen Buddhist. But I was other things as well. My normal routine was to get up, sit zazen, smoke a joint, do half an hour of yoga, then read the "Mathnawi" of Rumi, the long mystical poem of that great Persian Sufi of the thirteenth century. Then I met the man who was to be my guide to our teacher in Morocco, Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib, may Allah be pleased with him. At first the meeting was simply remarkable, and my guide simply a remarkable man. But soon our encounter was to become extraordinary, leading to a revolution in my life from which I have never recovered and never hope to. The man looked like an eccentric Englishman. He too had only recently come out of the English version of the Hippie Wave. He was older, refined in his manners, spectacularly witty and intellectual, but of that kind prevalent then who had hobnobbed with the Beatles and knew the Tantric Art collection of Brian Jones firsthand. He had been on all the classic drug quests -- peyote in the Yucatan, mescaline with Laura Huxley -- but with the kif quest in Morocco he had stumbled on Islam and then the Sufis, and the game was up. A profound change had taken place in his life that went far beyond the psychedelic experience. For the three days following our meeting, two other Americans and I listened in awe as this magnificent storyteller unfolded the picture of Islam, of the perfection of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, of the Sufis of Morocco, and of the 100-year-old plus Shaykh, sitting under a great fig tree in a garden with his disciples singing praises of Allah. It was everything I'd always dreamed of. It was poetry come alive. It was the visionary experience made part of daily life, with the Prophet a perfectly balanced master of wisdom and simplicity, an historically accessible Buddha, with a mixture of the earthiness of Moses, the otherworldliness of Jesus, and a light all his own. The prophetic knowledge our guide talked about was a kind of spiritual existentialism. It was a matter of how you enter a room, which foot you entered with, that you sipped water but gulped milk, that you said, "Bismillah" (In the Name of Allah) before eating or drinking, and "Al-hamdulillah" (Praise be to Allah) afterwards, and so on. But rather than seeing this as a burden of hundreds of "how-to's," it was more like what the LSD experience taught us, that there is a "right" way to do things that has, if you will, a cosmic resonance. It is a constant awareness of courtesy to the Creator and His creation that itself ensures and almost visionary intensity. It is hard to put forward any kind of explanation of Islam, to try to suggest the beauty of its totality, through the medium of words. The light of Islam, since it is transformational and alchemical in nature, almost always comes via a human messenger who is a transmitter of the picture by his very being. Face to face with our guide, what struck us most was his impeccable, noble behavior. He seemed to be living what he was saying. Finally the moment came, as a surprise, when he confronted me with my life. "Well," he said one morning after three full days of rapturous agreement that what he was bringing to us was the best thing we'd ever heard, "What do you think? Do you want to become a Muslim?" I hedged. "It's the most beautiful thing I've heard about so far. After all my Zen Buddhism, all my yoga, Tibetan Buddhism and Hindu gurus, this is certainly it! But I think I would like to travel a little, see the world, go to Afghanistan (then unoccupied), maybe meet my Shaykh in a mountain village far off somewhere." "That's not good enough. You have to decide now. Yes or no. If it's yes, then we start on a great adventure. If it's no, then no blame, I've done my duty. I'll just say goodbye and go on my way. But you have to decide now. I'll go downstairs and read a magazine and wait. Take your time." When he had left th
Should Yahoo subsidiaries cooperate to help convict journalists? This is the 18th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre in Beijing. Chinese journalist Shi Tao has been sentenced to a 10-year prison sentence for revealing the fact that Chinese journalists have been ordered to censor coverage of the anniversary of the massacre. In the verdict, the court pointed out that Yahoo had provided information leading to the arrest and conviction of the journalist. Should Yahoo (and other US-based Internet companies) do anything they can to gain market share in non-democratic countries that impose censorship and criminal penalties on individuals trying to exercise what many in democratic countries think of as basic human rights? Details of the trial are at http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=22428 and http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/world/press-award-for-tiananmen-leak/2007/06/05/1180809520892.html
Re-starting a freelance career, but what basics do I need...? It's time to start my own business. I have a salaried full-time job at a TV station in marketing, where I've worked for 4 years. I have a B.A. in Communications, and I'm a thesis away from an M.A. in Communications, with an English/Literature Minor. I have 15 years of experience in Media, working in every form--print (as a reporter/photographer), media research, presentation & graphic design, radio/disc jockey, writing for the internet, working in television--both marketing and news. I have connections in every media, and have terrific skills in making great relationships with clients. I won awards for my work. I have a nice savings account, and in exactly one month it will be a nice nestegg (I didn't want to quit my job until my finances were in order). I worked as a freelancer before, and I started to market myself (and I still have some of my former contacts) I have experience, but now, I want to freelance for myself. What basics do I need to re-start?
About FII's Activities ?? in the share market.......? Hello friends; i have seen many times that news papers and media even the internet don't show the latest activities of the Foregin Institutional Investor's ............. Where can i find the information "fast"..........suppose today is Monday and when market closed where can on which site can i find the FII's Report of today's buying and selling..................... i am from india and i play in sensex and nifty........................... i will so much thankful to you all my friends............and also please tell me about to play intraday
Is this massage scam? Dear All, This was on the 9:00 o'clock news the other night and this works THIS TOOK TWO PAGES OF THE TUESDAY USA TODAY - IT IS FOR REAL PLEEEEEEASE READ!!!! it was on the news! This thing is for real. Rest assured AOL and Intel will follow through with their promises for fear of facing a multimillion-dollar class action suit similar to the one filed by PepsiCo against General Electric not too long ago. Dear Friends; Please do not take this for a junk letter. Bill Gates sharing his fortune. If you ignore this, You will repent later. Microsoft and AOL are now the largest Internet companies and in an effort to make sure that Internet Explorer remains the most widely used program, Microsoft and AOL are running an e-mail beta test. When you forward this e-mail to friends, Microsoft can and will track it (If you are a Microsoft Windows user)? For a two weeks time period. For every person that you forward this e-mail to, Microsoft will pay you $245.00 For every person that you sent it to that forwards it on, Microsoft will pay you $243.00 and ! for every third person that receives it, You will be paid $241.00. Within two weeks, Microsoft will contact you for your address and then send you a check. Regards Charles S Bailey General Manager Field Operations 1-800-842-2332 Ext. 1085 or 904-1085 or RNX 292-108 5 I thought this was a scam myself, But two weeks after receiving this e-mail and forwarding it on. Microsoft contacted me for my address and within days, I receive a check for $24, 800.00. You need to respond before the beta testing is over. If anyone can afford this, Bill gates is the man. It's all marketing expense to him. Please forward this to as many people as possible. You are bound to get at least $10, 000.00. We're not going to help them out with their e-mail beta test without getting a little something for our time. My brother's girlfriend got in on this a few months ago. When I went to visit him for the Baylor /UT game. She showed me her check. It was for the sum of $4, 324.44 and was stamped 'Paid in full' Like I said before, I know the law, and this is for real. Intel and AOL are now discussing a merger which would make them the largest Internet company and in an effort make sure that AOL remains the most widely used program, Intel and AOL are running an e-mail beta test. When you forward this e-mail to friends, Intel can and will track it ( if you are a Microsoft Windows user) for a two week time period. Try it; What have you got to lose! Mopelola Elusogbon (Mrs) External Relations Division Brass LNG Limited 19 Bishop Aboyade Cole Street, Victoria Island Lagos, Nigeria Mopelola.Elusogbon@brasslng.com tel + 234 1 2700635/6 ext 110 fax + 234 1 2703310 Cell + 234(0)8034006113
Feeling Pinch, Stores Woo Lagging Shoppers. Evaluate Article? Lackluster sales in this holiday season have retailers scrambling to wring a few last dollars from procrastinators by slashing prices, extending hours and wooing customers more persistently than last year. The moves show that retailers' strategy during this final weekend before Christmas -- when about 10% of holiday sales are expected to take place -- has become increasingly reliant on the same promotions and marathon hours once unique to the "Black Friday" weekend following Thanksgiving. But the discounts also reveal the pinch stores are in this year as the credit crunch, rising gas prices and winter storms have taken a toll on companies dependent on end-of-year sales. The tough economy has left aisles more empty this year. Total foot traffic at U.S. retail outlets took an 8.9% dive during the second full week of December, compared with the same period last year, according to an estimate from ShopperTrak RCT Corp., which bases its numbers on a formula that involves an electronic count of shoppers in malls and other retail outlets nationwide. A bright spot, however, has been online, where aggressive discounting and cut-rate deals on fast shipping have contributed to a surge in spending. From Nov. 1 to Dec. 16, online shoppers spent $23.5 billion, 19% higher than the corresponding days last year, according to comScore Inc., a Reston, Va., market research firm that tracks Web spending and traffic. Videogames, consoles and accessories are the fastest-growing category, more than doubling from the comparable period last year. Furniture, appliances and equipment ranks second, up 63%, while event tickets and consumer electronics are up 29% and 24%, respectively. Now, a final push is on, both online and in stores. Web retailers continued to hunt for business by cutting shipping charges to seal deals before the pre-Christmas shipping window closes. Shoebuy.com, a Boston-based unit of IAC/InterActive Corp. offered free express shipping until today. Online handbag merchant eBags upgraded purchases made by Wednesday from standard shipping to two-day air-shipping through UPS for no extra cost. Brick-and-mortar stores, meanwhile, retooled their hours for the weekend, hoping to spark their own shopping flurry. J.C. Penney Co. stores are staying open until midnight tonight and Saturday. Select Macy's Inc. stores on the East Coast will stay open nonstop throughout the weekend -- 107 hours straight for one branch in Queens. And New York-based FAO Schwarz made discounts of 25% to 50% on certain toys. Ed Schmults, the chief executive officer at FAO Schwarz, said that while foot traffic was up, business had not been as booming throughout the season as he hoped. The National Retail Federation, a trade group, is predicting just 4% in sales growth for 2007, the smallest growth rate in five years. Britt Beemer, chairman of America's Research Group, paints an even grimmer picture: He lowered his forecast of 2% retail sales growth to 1.8%, his lowest forecast in nearly 10 years. In the apparel category, men's clothing has showed modest single-digit growth through the first 20 days of the shopping season, according to MasterCard Spending Pulse, a unit of MasterCard Advisors, which tracks spending of all types. But women's apparel -- which last year constituted three times the sales of men's -- has been a major disappointment, as shoppers have avoided big purchases. Sales were down 5.7% from the same time last year. Retailers have responded with a flurry of price cuts, but large inventory remains in some stores. One of Gap Inc.'s Old Navy stores in downtown Chicago on Wednesday had piles of festive sweaters marked down to $20 from $36.50. Women's coats still stuffed the racks, despite being already marked down 50%, and its signature "performance fleece," also half off, was stacked eight shelves high. The bad tidings for apparel have left some retailers looking for other items to push. At Banana Republic, also owned by Gap, $64 gift sets of its perfumes, body creams and shower creams were marked down 30%. Gold-boxed gift sets of a new line of bath products at Ann Taylor Stores Corp. stores were discounted to $19.50 from $29. At Limited Brands Inc.'s Victoria's Secret, stores were piled with beauty gift sets, many 40% off. Meanwhile luxury goods are expected to have a good season this year, and retail consultant Frederick Crawford of AlixPartners predicts "pockets of good news" for high-end retail. For brands like Prada and Gucci, he expects to see 5% to 7% growth. According to retail surveys, electronics sales were down 0.5% in the three-week period between Nov. 18 and Dec. 9 compared to a year ago, according to Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for market watcher NPD Group. He said consumers in recent years have been delaying purchases until closer to Christmas, which may account for the slowdown. Indeed, Angela Smith has waited until the last week to make her purchases. A 39-year-old bank employee in Dallas, Ms. Smith said she is waiting for prices to drop further as well as trying to spend less. For her three nephews, ages 12, 8 and 7, she plans to buy remote-controlled cars, which Wal-Mart Stores Inc. initially priced at $59 and has since dropped to $49. "I am going to swing by this weekend and see if they are going to take it down one more time," says Ms. Smith, who was shopping for a co-worker's present at her local Wal-Mart midweek. Home-furnishings retailers, fighting the weak housing market, are being particularly aggressive with their promotions this year. At Williams-Sonoma Inc.'s Pottery Barn store on Chicago's Michigan Avenue, Christmas-tree-shaped candles were discounted 50%, and holiday garlands of fake evergreen branches were 30% off. Wrapped gifts such as silver jewelry boxes, also marked down 30%, were stacked high Wednesday afternoon. Home-improvement outfits like Lowe's Cos. Inc. and Home Depot Inc. are destined to be hardest hit, says AlixPartners' Mr. Crawford. "Consumers are absolutely showing us that they will be delaying discretionary purchases" like gear to remodel a kitchen, he said. A boom-bust pattern is typical after Thanksgiving's Black Friday discounts, which encourages a flurry of purchases early but leads to a tapering off in early December, killing shopping momentum. This year the pattern was more pronounced: A double-digit sales surge on Black Friday exceeded retailers' expectations; but come December, throngs of shoppers didn't return. There was one exception, however: online retail. Web merchants have discounted and promoted heavily this season, say industry analysts. Shipping promotions have been particularly popular. Sixty-eight percent of surveyed Web retailers said they are offering express shipping promotions this year, up from 49% last year, according to Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org, an online retail trade group and unit of National Retail Federation. As the boom continues, these companies are becoming increasingly creative to draw customers. This year Ice.com, a Montreal-based Internet jeweler, has rolled out new videos to promote products and free overnight shipping. It has experimented with new marketing tricks such as buying front-page ads on Microsoft Corp.'s MSN and Yahoo Inc.'s Web sites this week. Ice.com even tried to tap influencers to drive word-of-mouth among blogs, magazine mentions and celebrities.
Are you sick and tired of the Health Food (anti-meat/soda) Food Nazis? First the health Nazis attacked tobacco, after getting traction on that issue they began attacking fast food joints, then they turned their sights onto soda... the health food zealots won't be satisfied until red meat is outlawed! I don't know about you but I'm very angry and Hades will freeze over before I sit down to a supper of raw carrots and celery washed down with a disgusting glass of grapefruit juice. Fast food is just that... just something fast and convenient... soda is just a snack drink. I wouldn't go to a McDonalds or a BurgerKing for a salad or a piece of fruit and if that's all they served or even a majority of their menu I would go else where. Only a fool would attempt to eat fast food three times a day/seven days a week. But it is convenient when your either in a hurry or on the run. Are you as angry as I am? Are you sick and tired of the health food Nazis attempting to dictate what you can eat and drink? How much would you care to wager the HMO's are the ones ultimately behind the health food propaganda? ----------------------- Control tobacco, food ads to beat cancer - panel By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor Thu Aug 16, 12:14 AM ET http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070816/hl_nm/cancer_usa_dc;_ylt=Ap3_o.sabt8ApNmBJxcrP469j7AB A new presidential report on cancer takes on not only tobacco companies but the food industry while calling on the federal government to "cease being a purveyor of unhealthy foods" and switch to policies that encourage Americans to eat vegetables and exercise. The report, issued on Thursday, also urged changes in public and private insurance policies to encourage doctors to spend more time counseling patients on how to stay healthy by eating right, exercising and avoiding tobacco. "Ineffective policies, in conjunction with limited regulation of sales and marketing in the food and beverage industry, have spawned a culture that struggles to make healthy choices -- a culture in dire need of change," said the report, available on the Internet at http://pcp.cancer.gov. "Moreover, the panel was troubled to find that the efforts of those committed to an America less burdened by cancer often are compromised by federal, state, and local policies that have decreased the availability and affordability of healthy foods, limited physical education in schools, and created a built environment that discourages physical activity," it said. Several reports have shown that a third of all cancers are caused by tobacco use, and another one-third by obesity and inactivity. "This country must not ignore its moral obligation to protect the health of all Americans. We can and must empower individuals to make healthy choices through appropriate policy and legislation, and the panel urges you to use the power of your office toward this life-saving goal," the President's Cancer Panel, chaired by Howard University's Dr. LaSalle Leffall, wrote in a letter to Bush.
Will Al Sharpton be there to protest the Pimp & Ho Party in Atlanta? Group to protest 'Pimp's and Ho's' party By Jill Young Miller Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 05/17/07 By JILL YOUNG MILLER jymiller@ajc.com Protesters plan to gather Friday night outside an Atlanta club that's hosting an event advertised as a "Pimp's and Ho's" party. Meanwhile, Fever nightclub's marketing director, Tucker Kroll, said he wasn't even aware of the ads until a newspaper reporter called him. He said a promoter that Fever hires to draw people to the club, not the club itself, was responsible for the Internet ads that put a unique "twist" on the night. "I'm not going to ask him to stop," Kroll said Thursday. "It's a day before the party." The ads, from Poplife Entertainment in Atlanta, quickly sparked the formation of a group — Advocates Against the Exploitation of Young Women — to protest at the club at 1789 Cheshire Bridge Road. Erik Voss, a protest organizer, said he and others will protest also because Girls Gone Wild, a company that films women willing to bare their breasts and kiss each other for things like tank tops and trucker hats, is hosting the evening. Footage could wind up on one of the "real girls" videos the company puts out. "They have been known to exploit young women," Voss said. Kroll called the event "just a harmless party." He said, "There's no ill intention to demean girls or anything like that." Barry Roesler, a spokesman for Girls Gone Wild, said Thursday he had no comment. In September, Joe Francis and the California-based company he built on "Girls Gone Wild" videos pleaded guilty to violating federal laws designed to prevent sexual exploitation of children and agreed to pay fines totaling $2.1 million. Under a deal with the Justice Department, Francis agreed to personally pay a $500,000 fine to settle charges in Los Angeles that he failed to keep records of the ages and identities of women in his films, according to news reports. As a result, Francis said in a statement, footage of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct appeared in at least two DVDs he released. Voss said he expects from 20 to 50 people to turn out for the protest. "We're going to create awareness about the problem of the pimping of young women and the derogatory term that they use — which is 'hos' — for the young women that they exploit," he said. Among protesters may be Mayor Shirley Franklin's policy adviser on women's issues, Stephanie Davis. Davis said the event is "just one more example of how our culture is glamorizing prostitution and main-streaming the behavior so that the buying and selling of bodies becomes acceptable." Hernan Piraquive, president of Poplife, said "it's all about having a good time. It's like Halloween. People dress up as monsters." That doesn't make them monsters, he said. Piraquive posted the "pimp's and ho's party" ads. "You can't make everyone happy," he said. "But I respect their right to protest. They have freedom of speech just like I do." Said Voss, "We're using our free speech rights to call attention to these events as glamorizing something that is absolutely abhorrent."
Why do some Apple fans think it is stupid for MS to enter the MP3 market but Apple can make a cell phone? On the internet message boards, many Apple fans are bashing MS' efforts to cash in on the MP3 Player craze that Apple popularized (but wasn't the first device), saying that MS doesn't need to enter this market because of the over-bearing success of Apple and its present success with Windows and Office. MS is thus viewed as greedy. But if we apply this to everything, Wal-Mart would not be selling groceries (you know, because of all of the groceries stores it has put out of business), Fox News Channel wouldn't exist (it just couldn't possibly beat CNN), there wouldn't be all of these American Idol spin-off shows on TV this summer, Facebook and MySpace wouldn't exist because of Classmates.com, the reality TV craze wouldn't exist (why go after MTV's "The Real World" success?), Disney World would be the only theme park in Orlando, etc., AND APPLE WOULDN'T BE SUPPOSEDLY MAKING A CELL PHONE! Come on, competition is good, right?
Why do people prefer Google over Yahoo! for searching? I don't work for Yahoo! or have any tangible stake in the company, however, everyone is always talking about 'Googling' this or that and I don't understand why. Google's homepage is devoid of any information or services that would make me even consider using it as a search engine. When I come to Yahoo's home page, it knows who I am, tells me I have new mail, shows me the news, and provides me with feature stories among other things. Furthermore, Yahoo and Google both take the same amount of time to load. On a personal note, I think Google looks like a novice high schooler designed it, while Yahoo could do without the shameless amount of advertising on its home and My Yahoo pages. Further confusing me is that Yahoo is the most visited domain on the internet, yet Google controls over 60% of the search engine market. Are people actually using Yahoo for its services and then going to Google to search? I really don't get it...
Would you please read? George Bush's Resignation Speech If Bush resigned today, this is what his speech would be..... Normally, I start these things out by saying 'My Fellow Americans', not doing it this time. If the polls are any indication, I don't know who more than half of you are anymore. I do know something terrible has happened, and that you're really not fellow Americans any longer. I'll cut right to the chase here: I quit. Now before anyone gets all in lather about me quitting to avoid impeachment, or to avoid prosecution, let me assure you: There's been no breaking of laws or impeachable offenses in this office. The reason I'm quitting is simple. I'm fed up with you people. I'm fed up because you have no understanding of what's really going on in the world. Or of what's going on in this once-great nation of ours. And the majority of you are too damned lazy to do your homework and figure it out. Let's start local. You've been sold a bill of goods by politicians and the news media. Polls show that the majority of you think the economy is in the tank. And that's despite record numbers of homeowners, including record numbers of MINORITY homeowners. And while we're mentioning minorities, I'll point out that minority business ownership is at an all-time high. Our unemployment rate is as low as it ever was during the Clinton administration. I've mentioned all those things before, but it doesn't sink in. Despite the shock to our economy ofMeanwhile, all you can do is whine about gas prices, and most of you are too damn stupid to realize that gas prices are high because there's increased demand in other parts of the world, and because a small handful of noisy idiots are more worried about polar bears and beachfront property than your economic security. 9/11, the stock market has rebounded to record levels and more Americans than ever are participating in these markets. We face real threats in the world. Don't give me this 'blood for oil' crap. If I were trading blood for oil I would've already seized Iraq 's oil fields and let the rest of the country go to hell. And don't give me this 'Bush Lied; People Died' crap either. If I were the liar you morons take me for, I could've easily had chemical weapons planted in Iraq so they could be 'discovered.' Instead, I owned up to the fact that the intelligence was faulty. Let me remind you that the rest of the world thought Saddam had the goods, same as me. Let me also remind you that regime change in Iraq was official US policy before I came into office. Clinton established that policy. Bet you didn't know that, did you? You idiots need to understand that we face a unique enemy. Back during the cold war, there were two major competing political and economic models squaring off. We won that war, but we did so because fundamentally, the Communists wanted to survive, just as we do. We were simply able to out spend and out-tech them. That's not the case this time. The soldiers of our new enemy don't care if they survive. In fact, they want to die. That'd be fine, as long as they weren't also committed to taking as many of you with them as they can. But they are. They want to kill you, and the bastards are all over the globe. You should be grateful that they haven't gotten any more of us here in the United States since September 11. But you're not. That's because you've got no idea how hard a small number of intelligence, military, law enforcement, and homeland security people have worked to make sure of that. When this whole mess started, I warned you that this would be a long and difficult fight. I'm disappointed how many of you people think a long and difficult fight amounts to a single season of 'Survivor.' Instead, you've grown impatient You're incapable of seeing things through the long lens of history, the way our enemies do. You think that wars should last a few months, a few years, tops. Making matters worse, you actively support those who help the enemy. Every time you buy the New York Times, every time you send a donation to a cut-and-run Democrat's political campaign, well, you might just as well FedEx a grenade launcher to a Jihadist. It amounts to the same thing. In this day and age, it's easy enough to find the truth. It's all over the Internet, it just isn't on the pages of the New York Times or on NBC News. But even if it were, I doubt you'd be any smarter. Most of you would rather watch American Idol. I could say more about your expectations that the government will always be there to bail you out, even if you're too stupid to leave a city that's below sea level and has a Cat 5 hurricane approaching. I could say more about your idiotic belief that government, not your own wallet, is where the money comes from. But I've come to the conclusion that were I to do so, it would sail right over your heads. So, I quit. I'm going back to Crawford. I've got an energy-efficient house down there (Al Gore could only dream of) and the capability to be fully self-sufficient. No one ever heard of Crawford before I got elected, and as soon as I'm done here pretty much no one will ever hear of it again. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to die of old age before the last pillars of America fall. Oh, and by the way, Cheney's quitting too. That means Pelosi is your new President. You asked for it - you can have her. Watch what she does carefully, because I still have a glimmer of hope that there are just enough of you remaining who are smart enough to turn this thing around in 2008. So that's it. God bless what's left of America . Some of you know what I mean. The rest of you - kiss my ass!
How true is this? George Bush's Resignation Speech If Bush resigned today, this is what his speech would be..... Normally, I start these things out by saying 'My Fellow Americans', not doing it this time. If the polls are any indication, I don't know who more than half of you are anymore. I do know something terrible has happened, and that you're really not fellow Americans any longer. I'll cut right to the chase here: I quit. Now before anyone gets all in lather about me quitting to avoid impeachment, or to avoid prosecution, let me assure you: There's been no breaking of laws or impeachable offenses in this office. The reason I'm quitting is simple. I'm fed up with you people. I'm fed up because you have no understanding of what's really going on in the world. Or of what's going on in this once-great nation of ours. And the majority of you are too damned lazy to do your homework and figure it out. Let's start local. You've been sold a bill of goods by politicians and the news media. Polls show that the majority of you think the economy is in the tank. And that's despite record numbers of homeowners, including record numbers of MINORITY homeowners. And while we're mentioning minorities, I'll point out that minority business ownership is at an all-time high. Our unemployment rate is as low as it ever was during the Clinton administration. I've mentioned all those things before, but it doesn't sink in. Despite the shock to our economy ofMeanwhile, all you can do is whine about gas prices, and most of you are too damn stupid to realize that gas prices are high because there's increased demand in other parts of the world, and because a small handful of noisy idiots are more worried about polar bears and beachfront property than your economic security. 9/11, the stock market has rebounded to record levels and more Americans than ever are participating in these markets. We face real threats in the world. Don't give me this 'blood for oil' crap. If I were trading blood for oil I would've already seized Iraq 's oil fields and let the rest of the country go to hell. And don't give me this 'Bush Lied; People Died' crap either. If I were the liar you morons take me for, I could've easily had chemical weapons planted in Iraq so they could be 'discovered.' Instead, I owned up to the fact that the intelligence was faulty. Let me remind you that the rest of the world thought Saddam had the goods, same as me. Let me also remind you that regime change in Iraq was official US policy before I came into office. Clinton established that policy. Bet you didn't know that, did you? You idiots need to understand that we face a unique enemy. Back during the cold war, there were two major competing political and economic models squaring off. We won that war, but we did so because fundamentally, the Communists wanted to survive, just as we do. We were simply able to out spend and out-tech them. That's not the case this time. The soldiers of our new enemy don't care if they survive. In fact, they want to die. That'd be fine, as long as they weren't also committed to taking as many of you with them as they can. But they are. They want to kill you, and the bastards are all over the globe. You should be grateful that they haven't gotten any more of us here in the United States since September 11. But you're not. That's because you've got no idea how hard a small number of intelligence, military, law enforcement, and homeland security people have worked to make sure of that. When this whole mess started, I warned you that this would be a long and difficult fight. I'm disappointed how many of you people think a long and difficult fight amounts to a single season of 'Survivor.' Instead, you've grown impatient You're incapable of seeing things through the long lens of history, the way our enemies do. You think that wars should last a few months, a few years, tops. Making matters worse, you actively support those who help the enemy. Every time you buy the New York Times, every time you send a donation to a cut-and-run Democrat's political campaign, well, you might just as well FedEx a grenade launcher to a Jihadist. It amounts to the same thing. In this day and age, it's easy enough to find the truth. It's all over the Internet, it just isn't on the pages of the New York Times or on NBC News. But even if it were, I doubt you'd be any smarter. Most of you would rather watch American Idol. I could say more about your expectations that the government will always be there to bail you out, even if you're too stupid to leave a city that's below sea level and has a Cat 5 hurricane approaching. I could say more about your idiotic belief that government, not your own wallet, is where the money comes from. But I've come to the conclusion that were I to do so, it would sail right over your heads. So, I quit. I'm going back to Crawford. I've got an energy-efficient house down there (Al Gore could only dream of) and the capability to be fully self-sufficient. No one ever heard of Crawford before I got elected, and as soon as I'm done here pretty much no one will ever hear of it again. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to die of old age before the last pillars of America fall. Oh, and by the way, Cheney's quitting too. That means Pelosi is your new President. You asked for it - you can have her. Watch what she does carefully, because I still have a glimmer of hope that there are just enough of you remaining who are smart enough to turn this thing around in 2008. So that's it. God bless what's left of America . Some of you know what I mean. The rest of you - kiss my ass!