Tweeting With out Concern

Who could have idea inputting like quite short texts might be which means that tough?

By today, actually this stodgiest businesses are finding the option over to Flickr. They've got observed it's not yet another selling approach having a surprising label, Canada Goose Expedition it truly is a lot more like the talk they should sign up to or possibly associated risk burning off affect finished just how customers look at these folks or maybe their particular labels.

The program, which usually allows end users deliver 140-character text messages, Belstaff Outlet or perhaps "tweets, inch to help individuals who have registered that you follow them all, contains turned out to be an ideal way to realize ten years younger clients and also to guide produce a company.

But there exists a switch area. The actual just about six-year-old moderate has turned into a incredibly court grouse path, Expedition Parka as well as ill-considered twitter updates or even hacked Myspace provides experience created a lot of discomfort.

In Walk Chrysler Team LLP slice neckties having an office the fact that treated their Bebo consideration following the company delivered your twitter in which read through: "I think it is ironic which will Detroit is recognized as all the #motorcity however nobody at this point appreciates the best way to y disk drive. inch

Kenneth Cole Shows Inc. apologized following building a tall tale at the country's Flickr webpage advising typically the Silk protesters that toppled the actual place's federal before this season are certainly clamoring with the corporate entity's trends. "Millions come in upheaval with #Cairo. Gossip is usually these people read much of our cutting edge spring and coil variety is currently offered online" typically the twitter study.

An Apr twitter with United states Exhibit Corp. is bank account which pressed guidance about Intended Being a parent ended up being posted following your consideration had been jeopardized, the business stated.

In age Tweets, Expedition Parka businesses must engage the people within the common community software. Although there are a few high-profile methods factors will be able to fail, At the Holmes studies around the Information Link. Photograph: Getty Photos.

This few days AMR Corp. is the reason United states Airline carriers noticed its own matters stuck in the open spat immediately after actor or actress Alec Baldwin vented about Tweets following remaining taken off a U . s . airline ticket. "Flight clerk upon Us reamed me personally available contemplate learning KEY PHRASES T PALS, inch Mr. Baldwin tweeted, discussing some sort of Scrabble-like video game.

American responded by using Tweets seeking his or her phone knowledge. Per day later on, U . s . tweeted, "UPDATE: Information about yesterday's taken away passenger" plus a connection to an important announcement getting some sort of less-flattering bill from the passenger's action with out talking about Mr. Baldwin's identify. Mr. Baldwin deactivated their Myspace accounts following your automobile accident and even apologized to make sure you this man individuals.

Companies usually are implementing many different techniques for navigating Twitter's traps. One of the primary difficulties is without a doubt the number of individuals to put your trust in having a organization's bank account, called it's cope with. Distributed the actual guru as well lean, as well as the impediment could be mind-boggling. Authorize way too many individuals, as well as the danger connected with accidents increases. Here is the way 3 different companiesSouthwest Airline carriers Corp., Complete Meals Current market Inc. and also Greatest Invest in Company. tend to be getting close the duty:

Christie's: At the Taylor $137-million public sale causes track record

The gems grasping the top end some rates enclosed merchandise as a result of Rich Burton. Any "Taj Mahal" gemstone, that Burton awarded the girl's on her behalf 40th special birthday, Canada Goose Trillium Parka purchased with regard to $8. 8 thousand thousand, mainly because do an important thirty three. 19-carat engagement ring. "La Peregrina" -- a good gem, engagement plus dark red diamond necklace presented to Taylor by just Burton on 1969 -- appeared to be the very best retailer from $11. 8 thousand thousand.

Burton paid back $37, 000 for doing it.

Among the actual shoppers within the public auction has been an individual Betty Kardashian, Moncler Giubbotti that it seems like at this moment has a bit of deal for At the Taylor's mojo. Reality-TV starlet Kardashian suggests Taylor's "energy" has been caught within the jade wristbands which will the woman acquired Wednesday after sunset highest bidder.

Jade, Canada Goose Parka this way within the Lorraine Schwartz necklace this belonged to be able to Taylor, "transfers electrical power, inches your woman stated to United states Each week. Therefore Kardashian contains wristbands together with "her electrical power in that person. "

And Christie's, Canada Goose Jakke for this reason, provides a banking account through Kardashian's $64, nine hundred there, the actual fantastic amount the lady supposedly covered for any jade and even gem necklaces.

As any Ministry documented Sunday, eighty pieces out of Taylor's diamond jewelry set were definitely auctioned Tues around Manhattan pertaining to $115 zillion, when using the leftover 189 pieces auctioned Saturday. Some belonging to the income can drive to the At the Taylor CAN HELP Basic foundation.

More within the overdue actress' home goes at discount subsequently while in the seven days, such as many of the flick scripts and also fancy dress. During Feb, the girl's bunch of Impressionist and also Modernist talent goes at discount during United kingdom.

UCLA football team will try to bounce back one more time

Bruins have been wildly inconsistent,Canada goose expedition parka with satisfying wins followed by dispiriting losses, and vice versa. Now they face biggest test yet, playing Oregon in Pac-12 title game after losing 50-0 to USC.
UCLA running back Johnathan Franklin huddled in the back of the small locker room at the Coliseum on Saturday night,Trillium parka with no way to hide his emotions.

Stunned. Shocked. Defeated. All products of USC's 50-0 victory over UCLA.

"We've got to . . . uh . . . swallow it and accept it," Franklin said,Expedition parka then acknowledged, "50-0 is a hard pill to swallow. We did not show up. We did not show up."

Days later, Franklin showed up, smiling and determined.

"You've got to let a game like that go," Franklin said Tuesday. "I still have a chip on my shoulder. I'm still angry. Nothing has changed."

But it had.

This has been an all-too-familiar personality swing for the Bruins this season. Beat down one week,Canada goose jacket making amends the next.

This time, the chore is a little harder. The double haymaker of being pummeled by their rival and losing their coach, Rick Neuheisel, in a matter of days makes rallying for Friday's Pac-12 Conference championship game against Oregon the Bruins' toughest test.

"We don't have much to lose now," quarterback Kevin Prince said. "Coach Neuheisel is definitely gone after this game. No one expects us to win. We come out and play free."

There has been a less-stress feel to practices so far this week.

Monday was full of bluster, with players seemingly determined to support Neuheisel with effort. Tuesday was more businesslike, yet active.

Neuheisel says he has sensed a focus spawned by his firing.

"There is no question it would have been a distraction if we had been asking questions about what I needed to do to keep my job," Neuheisel said. "I'm glad, in that respect, that's behind us. I would have liked the decision to go the other way, but we're all big and can handle the eventualities that happen in this sport."

Neuheisel has seen this pendulum swing too many times this season. An exhilarating victory followed by an embarrassing loss, and vice versa.

"The negative side is we have had too much practice at bouncing back," Neuheisel said. "On the positive side, I think there is a great deal of character."

Stanford methodically disassembled the Bruins, 45-19. They came back to beat Washington State the following week.

Arizona brutally dismantled the Bruins, 48-12, in a game that included an on-field brawl. They came back to beat California the following week, then posted perhaps their most important win of the season, over Arizona State.

Utah wore UCLA down, 31-6, in the snow. The Bruins came back to rout Colorado the following week. Then came the USC debacle.

"That's been the frustrating part; we can't do it on a weekly basis," Prince said.

Netflix, MGM Ink Exclusive Streaming Deal in the U.K., Ireland

Deal includes next year's 'Hobbit' movies and ups the ante in burgeoning subscription VOD land rush in Western Europe between Netflix and Amazon-owned LoveFilm

Netflix and Metro-Goldwyn Mayer Studios have signed a multiyear agreement that will allow Netflix subscribers in the United Kingdom and Ireland in early 2012 to stream exclusive first-run theatrical movies from the vaunted film studio.
Los Gatos, Calif.-based Netflix last month said it Canada Jakker would bow streaming service in the United Kingdom and Ireland early in 2012 — the service’s first foray into Europe following foreign expansion into Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean and Mexico.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The deal ups the ante in a burgeoning subscription-VOD land rush in Western Goose Jakker Europe between Netflix and Amazon-owned LoveFilm. Indeed, it’s noteworthy that the agreement departs from Netflix’s preferred (and less-expensive acquisition) strategy to license content non-exclusively.
Appearing exclusively on Netflix within one year of their theatrical release will be upcoming feature films The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again — the highly anticipated prequels to the Academy Award-winning "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, directed by Peter Jackson. Other titles in the deal include Zookeeper, starring Kevin James,Canada Goose and the upcoming films Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, with Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton, and 21 Jump Street, featuring Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill and Ice Cube.
With the "Hobbit" films co-produced by MGM and New Line — the latter owned by Warner Bros. and projected to be a much-needed franchise replacement for "Harry Potter" — the reality is that Netflix will Canada Goose Jakke have exclusive rights to a Warner franchise it would never get in the United States. Instead, the films' domestic rights would likely fall to Warner Home Video and Time Warner-owned HBO, among other non SVOD channels. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey launches theatrically Dec. 14, 2012.
In addition, MGM catalog titles will also be available, including Capote, Fargo, The Usual Suspects, West Side Story and The Amityville Horror, among others.
“We are excited to be extending our relationship with MGM from the U.S. to these important markets and proud to be the exclusive home for their films in the traditional Pay TV window,” said Netflix CCO Ted Sarandos in a statement.

PhotoBin

HIGHLIGHTS

    * 20 pack of 4" x 8" personalized greeting cards with envelopes
    * Design where your photo is placed, choose a template & add a personal message
    * Matte, Glossy, Lustre & Metallic finishes
    * Click on this link for easy ordering & processing: http://www.photobin.com/photo_store/ladeals-cards

THE DETAILS

The holi-daze are upon us. Minimize the stress and cost with this personalized, wallet-friendly gift idea. These lightweight, 4” x 8” photo cards are suitable for all occasions and celebrations: Christmas, Happy Holidays, Hanukkah, Weddings...you name it, they got it!  And designing the card is fun, easy and totally left in your capable hands. You decide your pic placement, select a template, and add a custom message. Plus, once a template is saved, PhotoBin can re-create it to your heart's content. So, if you have a special photo and message you want to send to oodles and oodles of friends and family, just buy multiple vouchers and re-use your favorite template on additional orders. This year, send a greeting card with a message that goes way beyond words at PhotoBin!

TESTIMONIAL

“Oh, I love me some PhotoBin!  I gotta admit I was a bit skeptical but I was quickly won over. The process was surprisingly easy…service was great, pricing was very affordable…Go get yourself some PhotoBin, folks!” ~ Erica K., San Diego
THE FINE PRINT

    * Expires 4/24/12
    * Buy as many vouchers as you like - no limit
    * Only one voucher may be applied per order & must use full voucher value in single order
    * Vouchers cannot be combined with other offers
    * Shipping flat rate of $3.95 is not included
    * Production/turnaround time is three business days
    * Vouchers will be available to use 24 hours after purchase

MORE DEALS FROM PHOTOBIN

$15 for customized Photo Book (reg. $39.99)

The Cain recipe: enthusiasm, stamina and the ‘next thing’

The 40-year-old man who arrived at the Omaha headquarters of Godfather’s Pizza to become its fourth president in as many years had never visited Nebraska and knew little about pizza.

Herman Cain had been a rising star at Pillsbury, a computer scientist and mathematician turned executive who had overseen 450 Burger Kings around Philadelphia, turning the under­performing region into one of the company’s most profitable.
Cain’s performance there caught the eye of top managers at Pillsbury, who tapped him in 1986 to take over their newly purchased Godfather’s Pizza subsidiary.

A quarter-century later, as Cain has clawed his way toward the top of the Republican presidential field, he cites his tenure as head of Godfather’s as the central example of his leadership ability. Just as he turned around that floundering business, he suggests, so too could he reverse the country’s sagging fortunes as its chief executive.

Cain’s approach at Godfather’s was one part business basics, one part theatrics and two parts enthusiasm and stamina. In nearly a decade at the helm of the company, he proved himself a charismatic leader and gifted orator. To some employees, he seemed more focused on broad strategy goals than the workaday details of the business, and yet former colleagues recall the frequent sight of him in a busy pizza parlor — jacket off, sleeves rolled up, making pies or cleaning tables.

Cain focused on boosting morale and pursued a strategy aimed at revitalizing the battered company, partly through laying off hundreds of workers. While he had early successes, he later struggled. And then he moved on.

At its peak in the early 1980s, Godfather’s had more than 900 locations and more than $300 million in annual sales. By the time Cain arrived, the growth had halted. Profit was declining. Morale had plummeted.

Cain has said on multiple occasions that the company he found “had one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel.” It’s unclear whether the situation was quite so dire. Cain told the Omaha World-Herald just after he started in 1986: “Godfather’s is not dead. We’re alive and well.”

Nobody disputes that the company faced serious problems.

“Right before Herman came aboard, it was completely demoralized. Culturally, it was devastated,” recalled Larry Uhl, a marketing manager who had arrived years earlier. “Everybody was a little suspicious of him at first,” he added, noting that several presidents had come and gone, and that Cain seemed at first like just another corporate suit. But Uhl said he differed from his predecessors. “He was committed, and he knew how to get other people committed. There was this sense of urgency he had.”

Dishing up spirit

From his first day, Cain gave regular and rousing speeches — peppered with adages that he has revived on the campaign trail — urging everyone at the company to think big and share in his vision of making Godfather’s the No. 1 pizza chain in the world. “If you truly do dream of being a part of that achievement, your creative energies will be unleashed and unstoppable,” he said in a speech to employees and franchisees the month after he arrived.
Charles Henderson, who worked with Cain at Burger King and followed him to Omaha to head marketing, said Cain had a little preacher in him. “He’s very, very inspiring. The guy can convince you to run through a wall,” Henderson said.

Under pressure to produce quick results, Cain recruited more than half a dozen executives he had known at Pillsbury and Burger King.
He hired an advertising firm that had done work for Burger King to revamp Godfather’s image. The new campaign showed people suffering a “pizza emergency” that only Godfather’s could answer. One 30-second spot, for instance, showed an office secretary overcome with a pizza craving just before her lunch break. Everywhere she looks — a pie chart on her computer, the space between the hands of the clock on the wall — she sees pizza. She dashes to a Godfather’s.

Cain had a 100-day plan for turning the company around and carried it with him in a binder. He held a string of one-on-one meetings with employees and collected suggestions. From the list, he plucked ideas such as the “big value” of two pizzas for $12, as well as the “Hot Slice,” a lunchtime product meant to compete with Pizza Hut’s personal pan pizza. He introduced home delivery in certain markets. He tink­ered with the crust recipe.

Cain closed scores of low-performing stores, eliminating hundreds of jobs. He settled pending lawsuits with franchisees who had alleged that the company hadn’t honored its agreements with them, but he also warned some other franchisees to improve or update their stores, or else get left behind. As part of a career-long penchant for acronyms and easily digestible slogans — most famously his “9-9-9” tax plan offered years later — he encouraged even entry-level employees to “S.I.N.” when customers complained: Solve. It. Now.

He and his new team endured brutal hours. More than once on Sunday afternoons, the hallways of the company’s headquarters off West Dodge Road echoed with Cain’s booming baritone, as he practiced gospel tunes while he worked.

“We actually came dressed kind of like Army commandos — green shirts, green baseball caps with a target on it,” recalled Larry Gadola, a vice president of development recruited by Cain. The word “focus” was printed in the center of the target. “We were on a mission.”

Although Cain got rid of some managers at Godfather’s, he came to rely heavily on longtime executive Ronald Gartlan, who had a background in accounting and finance and knew the company inside and out. While Cain became the public face of the company, often traveling to stores around the country and maintaining a high profile, Gartlan watched over day-to-day operations. He focused on the sales numbers and kept tabs on the company’s hundreds of franchisees. He knew their likes and dislikes, their quirks and their complaints.

“Herman had the vision of what the company needed to do to go forward,” said Spencer Wiggins, who headed human resources under Cain. “Ron Gartlan, he was a nuts-and-bolts guy.”

Tim McMahon, now a business professor at Creighton University, was the original marketing director for Godfather’s. He later worked for some of its major franchisees. McMahon said Gartlan “kept the place stable financially, kept the rigor in place, while Herman kept the spirit high.”

Branson Dedicates Space Terminal

UPHAM, New Mexico—With his usual flair, British billionaire Richard Branson rappelled from a balcony, shook up a big bottle of sparkling wine and took a swig while christening the world's first built-from-scratch commercial spaceport on Monday.

Mr. Branson's Virgin Galactic will stage its commercial space-tourism venture from Spaceport America in a remote patch of desert in southern New Mexico.
He was joined by Gov. Susana Martinez, astronaut Buzz Aldrin and scores of would-be space travelers at the terminal-hangar for the dedication. It had been nearly a year since Mr. Branson was in New Mexico to celebrate the completion of the runway.

"The building is absolutely magnificent," he said. "It is literally out of this world, and that's what we were aiming at creating."

With the spaceport and mothership completed, the company is now finalizing its rocket tests.


WhiteKnightTwo, carrying SpaceShipTwo, outside the Spaceport America Terminal Hangar Facility Monday

"We're ticking the final boxes on the way to space," Mr. Branson said.

He hopes enough powered test flights of Virgin Galactic's sleek spacecraft can be completed by the end of 2012 to start commercial suborbital flights from the spaceport soon after. More than 450 people have purchased tickets to fly with Virgin Galactic. About 150 of them attended the ceremony.

Before getting to enter the hangar, the crowd was treated to a flyover by WhiteKnightTwo, the mothership that one day will help take space tourists on suborbital flights.

The $209 million taxpayer-financed spaceport will be a launch station for people and payloads on the rocket ships being developed for Virgin Galactic.

With custom metal paneling and massive panes of glass, the state-of-the-art terminal rises from the desert floor to face the nearly concrete runway nearly two miles (3.2 kilometers) long. The building will house Virgin Galactic's spacecraft, mission control and a preparation area for travelers.

It was six years ago that Virgin Galactic and New Mexico officials reached an agreement to build the spaceport. Officials said the completion of the terminal and hangar marks another major milestone that brings the dream of rocketing tourists into space closer to reality.

Still, the question many are asking is when the first ships will launch from Spaceport America. It was Mr. Branson who once predicted the maiden passenger flight would take off in 2007.

Mr. Branson acknowledged the wait in an interview Monday. He and his two children will be among the first to fly, and he said he wants to ensure he can bring them home safely.

"We want to be sure we've really tested the craft through and through before turning it over to the astronauts who bought tickets to go up," he said. "If it takes a bit longer, we'll take a little bit longer."


Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, presenting Richard Branson with a plaque from Virgin Galactic's London offices during a ceremony at Spaceport America Monday.

Commercial service will start up after the company gets a license from the Federal Aviation Administration. NASA has already signed a $4.5 million contract with the company for up to three chartered research flights.

Tickets for rides aboard WhiteKnightTwo cost $200,000. The 2 1/2-hour flights will include about five minutes of weightlessness and views of Earth that until now only astronauts have been able to experience.

Like development of the spacecraft, construction of the 110,152-square-foot (10,233-square-meter) terminal and hangar facility has been complicated. There were delays, building-code problems, contractor disputes and costly change orders.

State officials blamed the unprecedented nature of the project as well as its remote location, the lack of infrastructure and the weather.

New Mexico Spaceport Authority executive director Christine Anderson arrived at the spaceport a day early to find WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo stowed in the hangar.

"This was quite a feat," she said of the construction, joking with the crowd that she was glad the spacecraft fit in the cavernous hangar.

The building was designed by United Kingdom-based Foster + Partners, along with URS Corp. and New Mexico architects SMPC.

Virgin Galactic and officials with the New Mexico Spaceport Authority are touting the design as green. It uses geothermal energy; tubes running through the earthen berm surrounding part of the building help cool the interior; and natural ventilation can be used during mild seasons.

Hollande Wins Runoff to Become Socialist Candidate for French Presidency

PARIS — More than six months before the French presidential election, the main candidates appear to be set, with François Hollande, 57, winning a runoff election on Sunday to become the Socialist Party’s presidential candidate.
With about 2.2 million of 2.7 million votes counted, Mr. Hollande, a lawyer and career politician, was ahead of the party leader, Martine Aubry, by about 56 percent to 44 percent in their second-round contest.

Ms. Aubry conceded defeat in a televised statement, saying she wanted “to warmly salute the victory of François Hollande” and calling for party unity “around our candidate.”

The incumbent, President Nicolas Sarkozy, has yet to announce his candidacy, concentrating on his duties with the long crisis over the euro, budget deficits and the solidity of French and European banks. He is to attend a vital European Union summit meeting this month and to preside over a summit of the Group of 20 economies early next month in the southern city of Cannes. Even if he plans to seek a second five-year term — and his aides are preparing for him to do so — he may not formally announce until early next year. The first round of the presidential election is scheduled for April 22.

Mr. Sarkozy trails Mr. Hollande in opinion polls, but now that he has a specific opponent, the campaigning, overt or otherwise, will start in earnest. Other candidates are expected to run as well, including Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Front, and candidates from smaller environmental and centrist parties. But it is thought likely that Mr. Sarkozy and Mr. Hollande will face off in the final round on May 6.

The Socialists are eager for power. Since 1958, they have elected only one president, François Mitterrand, and he left office more than 16 years ago. But with Mr. Sarkozy’s popularity so low, the Socialists can taste victory, and in France the near-royal presidency carries with it many spoils. A loss this time would cause an enormous internal fight.

Mr. Hollande, born in Rouen, the son of a doctor and a social worker, has said the country needs “a normal president,” a backhanded slap at Mr. Sarkozy, who has a driven, relentless personality and who has embroiled the French more in his personal life than many people find comfortable. At 56, he is awaiting the birth of a child with his third wife, the singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.

Mr. Hollande is intelligent and witty, educated at France’s most elite schools, but inexperienced in government, as his rivals constantly point out. He was Ms. Aubry’s predecessor as leader of the Socialist Party and was close to Ms. Aubry’s father, Jacques Delors, but he has never been a government minister or run a business. He is a member of Parliament and the president of the regional department of Corrèze, a rural area best known for its connections to former President Jacques Chirac, with whom Mr. Hollande has warm relations.

Mr. Hollande inherited a region steeped in debts, many of them from Chirac-initiated infrastructure projects, and is considered to have managed the budget well. But Corrèze is one of the smallest departments in France and does not really compare with governing a nation that sits on the United Nations Security Council, possesses nuclear weapons and is the only country in the world, besides the United States, to have a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

Foreign affairs barely entered the Socialist Party’s primary and its televised debates, and Mr. Hollande is considered something of a work in progress. But foreign policy, which Mr. Sarkozy considers one of his strengths, is a prime prerogative of the French president.

The Socialist contest was always an odd one, because the putative favorite for the nomination — Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund — did not run after he was arrested on charges of attempted rape in New York. The charges were dropped, but Mr. Strauss-Kahn retreated from political life.

Ms. Aubry had made a deal with Mr. Strauss-Kahn that she would not run if he did, so in a sense she was an accidental candidate. Mr. Hollande had declared his candidacy from the outset, positioning himself as the main rival to Mr. Strauss-Kahn. A centrist, emollient figure, Mr. Hollande was the natural inheritor of those who supported the center-right Strauss-Kahn, but Ms. Aubry attacked him as “soft” and “vague.”

Mr. Hollande for many years was the partner of Ségolène Royal — his rival for the Socialist candidacy in 2007, which she won — and they have four children together. They separated that year, and Mr. Hollande now lives with a political journalist, Valérie Trierweiler, 46, who is divorced with three children. Ms. Trierweiler is said to not relish the idea of being the partner to a French president. This month the government denied reports that it was investigating her private life.

This primary was a departure for the Socialists, in that voting was open to any French citizen who paid at least one euro ($1.39) and signed a pledge to support “the values of the left and of the republic.”

About 2.7 million people voted on Oct. 9, when Mr. Hollande won 39 percent of the vote to Ms. Aubry’s 31 percent, forcing a runoff. About the same number, 2.7 million, are thought to have voted in Sunday’s second round. By comparison, more than 36.7 million people voted in the first round of the 2007 presidential contest.

Still, the Socialists called the primary a democratic advance, contrasting it to the backroom deals that resulted in Mr. Sarkozy’s becoming the candidate of his party. While the number of voters in this primary may have been relatively modest, many more watched last Wednesday’s televised Socialist debate.

The Tea Party loses another round

Top StoriesHide me

    *
    *
    *
    *
    *
    *
    *

    *
    *
    *
    *
    *
    *

BlackBerry outages spread to the U.S.

Australia’s getting a carbon tax. Who’s next?

Republican debate: Winners and losers

Iran behind terrorist plot, U.S. says

Apple’s new iPhone 4S: Four stars

Is Social Security a Ponzi scheme?

Mexican drug cartels reach into Belize

Companies use fuzzy math in job claims

A test worth keeping

Spirits: A toast to a special nobody
Dana Milbank

Dana Milbank
    Opinion Writer

The Tea Party loses another round

    * Smaller Text Larger Text Text Size
    * Print
    * E-mail
    * Reprints

By Dana Milbank, Thursday, October 13, 6:23 AM

It was a(nother) great day to be a member of the Washington elite.

On Wednesday afternoon, the House was steamrolling toward passage of a trio of free-trade agreements without a whisper of objection from the Republican side. Finally, hours into the debate, Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) rose to appeal to his fellow Tea Partyers to heed the people who elected them.
“Here we have roughly 9.1 percent unemployment in this country, due in no small part to the Washington elite jamming these job-destroying trade agreements down our throats,” Jones pleaded on the House floor. “It’s time we started listening to the will of the American people, doing what’s in the best interest of the American people, not in the best interest of the foreign nationals who desperately want to take our jobs.”

It was a passionate speech but useless. Lawmakers, including the overwhelming majority of Tea Party Republicans, voted in support of the three trade deals, which had been at the top of corporate America’s wish list.

That was just one of the day’s party favors for corporations. Hours earlier, House Speaker John Boehner made clear he would guard the corporate elite’s interests in avoiding a trade war with China. He refused to take up a bill that would have punished China for its currency ma­nipu­la­tion, saying he had “grave concerns.” (The bill would have passed easily if it had the chance.)

Boehner and his Republican colleagues aren’t necessarily wrong in their desire to expand trade with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, as they did Wednesday, or to prevent a tit-for-tat with China. But the Republican support for the free-trade deals, and the leadership’s refusal to consider the China legislation, show where the power still resides in Washington.

For all the talk of populist foment – the Tea Party on the right and the new Occupy Wall Street movement on the left – business interests remain firmly in control. Forced to choose between their voters and their donors, lawmakers don’t hesitate before choosing the latter.

There is little doubt about where the Tea Party faithful stands on free trade. A year ago, a Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll found that 61 percent of Tea Party supporters thought free-trade agreements had hurt the country, compared to 53 percent of Americans overall who held that view. Shortly after that, a Pew Research Center poll found that only 24 percent of Tea Party supporters thought free-trade agreements were good for America.

Such sentiments supported Sen. Lindsey Graham’s position when the South Carolina Republican argued Wednesday afternoon that House Republican leaders should take up the China-punishing bill, which cleared the Senate with 63 votes on Tuesday. “It is very important that House Republican leadership allow a vote on this legislation,” Graham said at a news conference with fellow Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.) and three Democratic colleagues. Those trying to avoid a House vote are “miscalculating where the country is on this issue,” he said.

Of course, Boehner et al. haven’t miscalculated at all. They aren’t scheduling a vote precisely because they know the anti-China sentiment would prevail. Graham gave a more accurate assessment of the situation when he said: “We’re opposed by a lot of people who have an interest in keeping the status quo.”

Some Tea Party Republicans in the House, such as Rep. Allen West (Fla.), joined the call for a vote on the China bill, but Boehner has no plans for the “dangerous” legislation. “What I don’t believe is appropriate is for the Congress of the United States to take this issue up and to do it within a legislative forum,” he told reporters Wednesday. He warned of a “very severe risk of a trade war.”

A similar division has appeared among Democrats over the free-trade bills. Rep. Michael Michaud (D-Maine) complained on the floor that the trade legislation “won’t do anything to reduce our 9 percent unemployment, but the big companies and the banks want it, so President Obama is going to give in to the Washington elite once again.”

Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur (Ohio) actually praised the Tea Party as she denounced lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. “Is anybody paying attention?” she demanded. “This is just another example of powerful Washington elites being totally out of step with Main Street and the American people.” Beckoning to the Republican side and then to the Democratic side, she said: “I’m proud of the Tea Partyers who are out there organizing, and I’m proud of the Occupy Wall Street people because they’re saying you folks you are out of step up here in Washington.”

They may be out of step with their constituents. But they’re perfectly aligned with the people who fund their campaigns.

Steve Jobs another Thomas Edison or Henry Ford? Maybe not.

The outpouring of appreciation for Apple cofounder Steven Jobs, who passed away this week, has surpassed levels typically reserved for presidents or popes.
Millions of lives have been touched by his sense of design and engineering acumen.

Desktop computers with dark green screens and commands entered at the keyboard gave way to mice and a point-and-click graphical screen better adapted to humans than cyborgs.

IN PICTURES: Remembering Steve Jobs

IPods packed centuries of music into a simple-to-use device not much bigger than few credit cards.

And the lowly cell phone – once a brick with shoulder straps, antenna, and handset – became a slender pocket-size phone/camera/computer that would make Star Trek's Captain Kirk chuck his tricorder in the trash. Need to analyze the mineral composition of a rock you've just picked up? Yep, there's an app for that – or soon will be.

Not one to conduct market surveys in advance of a new product, Jobs and cofounder Steve Wozniak consistently designed hardware to please themselves. And it worked.

"The richest vein for tech startups is creating the product that you want to use – that’s what Steve and Woz did," writes Guy Kawasaki in an appreciation on CNET.com.

Mr. Kawasaki served as a self-describe "evangelist" at Apple in the heyday of the Macintosh computer, targeting hardware and software developers as the company tried to loosen IBM's grip on the early desktop computer market.

But even as the remembrances and kudos came this week, others were cautioning against overstating Jobs's contributions. They noted that while his genius was unquestionable, it's unclear that he will be seen in the same light as a Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers, or Henry Ford.

Apple's innovations made personal computers fun and easier to use, writes Rick Newman, chief business correspondent with US News and World Report.

But it's unlikely the company's products have had the socially far-reaching effects of automobiles, light bulbs, and aircraft. Edison's novel bulbs, he writes, "ushered in sweeping second- and third-order changes" that included safer homes (fewer fires from candles, oil, or gas lamps) and improved working conditions in factories. With the cheap automobile came suburbs and interstate highways. Aircraft literally shrank the world.

Jobs's influence, Newman suggests, was in "showing his utilitarian competitors how to devise an artful user interface, which usually trickles down to cheaper generic devices once Apple has moved on to version 4 or 5."

The accolades and cautions highlight the fuzzy line between inventor and innovator. The invention – a light bulb – can be immediately transformative. Or it might languish, its potential unrealized, until the innovator comes along with the vision to see that potential, and the imagination and marketing savvy to modify it and popularize it.

Some ask at what cost.

Writing in the New York Times, author Michael Daisey holds that the young rebels Jobs and Wozniak of the mid-1970s would likely be taken aback by the Apple of 2011.

"Users cannot install programs themselves; they are downloaded from Apple’s servers, which Apple controls and curates, choosing at its whim what can and can’t be distributed, and where anything can be censored with little or no explanation," he writes.

And while Apple computers once were manufactured in the US, he continues, the company's products are made in China "under appalling labor conditions."

Still, Jobs pulled off something rare in the history of business, US News's Newman suggests: producing products, proffering ideas, and presenting a persona that people actually loved.

"He leaves a vast army of Apple acolytes who may propel his ideas to heights beyond Jobs's own reach," he writes.

Brooklyn performance artist to give birth before audience in gallery

This may be one of the most amazing debuts the art world has ever seen.

A pregnant Brooklyn performance artist is planing to have her baby in an art gallery in front of an audience as part of a piece examining childbirth.

Called “The Birth of Baby X,” the performance will feature artist Marni Kotak turning Bushwick’s Microscope Gallery into her “birthing room” where she will spend each day until the baby comes.

“I hope that people will see that human life itself is the most profound work of art, and that therefore giving birth, the greatest expression of life, is the highest form of art,” she said.

Kotak is due sometime in the next five weeks. Visitors to the Charles Place gallery -- where “The Birth of Baby X” starts today -- are warned that the baby may be born at any moment.

“I have decided to do this because I want to show people that, as in my previous performances, real life is the best performance art,” she said.

Kotak said that she is mentally prepared to give birth with the art world looking on.

“I wouldn’t say that I am scared to do this, because I have a good support team: my midwife, doula and wonderful husband,” she said. “Of course, I am a bit nervous about the whole process of giving birth and having a child, and like every mother, I am hoping that everything goes smoothly.

“But I am no more worried than I would be if I were having the baby at home or in a hospital.”

This isn’t the first shocking performance from Kotak, whose résumé includes “staged re-enactments of her own birth, attending her grandfather’s funeral and losing her virginity in a blue Plymouth,” according to the gallery.

Until the actual delivery occurs, visitors can watch other works by Kotak related to her pregnancy, including videos in which she films the audience at a summer festival and projects their faces onto her belly.

“With ‘The Birth of Baby X,’ ” the gallery said on its Web site, “Kotak continues to present her life experiences as works of art, works in which she strives to avoid the spectacle often involved in performance art to reach what is real.”

The baby will be the first for Kotak.

When the bundle of joy comes, she will be as surprised as anyone.

“We still aren’t sure of the baby’s gender, and my due date is a bit uncertain,” she said.

What’s next for Kotak? A work called “Raising Baby X,” of course, in which she will presumably turn crying fits, poopy diapers and sleepless nights into art.

“She [will] re-contextualize the everyday act of raising a child into a work of performance art,” the gallery said.

GM teams with car-sharing company RelayRides

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- General Motors is making it easier to let complete strangers take your car. An arrangement between the automaker's OnStar division and RelayRides, a peer-to-peer car-rental company, will give GM car owners a simple way to rent out their cars on the RelayRides network.

RelayRides lets members to rent out their personal cars to other people by the hour or the day. The company provides an online marketplace in which people can find a car to rent and, to protect owners, obtain a $1 million insurance policy that covers the car while it's being rented.
Ordinarily, vehicle owners have to install special RelayRides hardware that allows renters to unlock the car without needing a key. Now, GM will allow its OnStar hardware, already installed on most GM cars, to be used to access RelayRides cars. (OnStar has long offered remote door unlocking, generally used when keys are locked in the car or simply lost.) The renter will be able to unlock the OnStar-equipped car using a mobile phone, just as if the car had the RelayRides device installed.

"We're using technology to make both our older and newest models car-share ready and available for those owners who choose to participate in car-sharing," said Stephen Girsky, GM vice chairman.