Friday, January 28, 2011

Making Money Cash

As
General Motors has shrunk, its pool of U.S. retirees has swelled.
Today there are almost 700,000 GM retirees and just 70,000 active
workers, a 10-1 ratio. The company’s $100 billion pension fund is twice
the market capitalization of the automaker itself, and keeping up with
funding obligations acts like a ball and chain on GM’s core car-making
business. Small swings in the value of the pension plan can have
massive effects on the value of the company. “That’s no way to run a
company,” said GM’s chief financial officer Christopher Liddell.

 

I
met with Liddell during the Detroit auto show this week, and he talked
extensively about GM’s more conservative financial philosophy since
emerging from bankruptcy in July 2009. GM’s objective is to carry no
debt, fully fund its pension plan, and pay for its day-to-day
operations using cash generated from the sale of cars and trucks. It
sounds so simple, but that’s not the way GM has been run in many years.

 

GM
took a big step in that direction Friday, announcing it had
contributed $2 billion in newly minted GM stock to its U.S. pension
plan, on top of $4 billion in cash it had contributed a couple of months
back to try to bring that pension fund closer to fully funded status.
As of the end of 2009, the portfolio was $17.1 billion short of what it
should have, under government rules, to cover its current and future
pension obligations.

 

The gap likely
closed some in 2010, thanks to strong market returns, but the gains
could be offset by further swelling in the retiree ranks. GM plans to
give an annual update on the health of its pension plan next month when
it announces its fourth-quarter financial results.

 

Three
factors determine the health of any pension fund: asset returns,
company contributions and the discount rate, which is used to calculate
the present value of pension liabilities and is tied to interest
rates. In the past, market swings and interest rates would cause GM’s
pension fund to fluctuate wildly between being overfunded and
underfunded. In the 1990s, GM borrowed heavily to pay off its pension
plan, saddling itself with hefty interest payments. As long as the stock
market remained high, the value of the assets in GM’s portfolio
exceeded its liabilities. But even a change in the discount rate could
cause big swings in the plan’s funding status.

 

Between 2005 and
2007, GM’s pension plan was in great shape, and the company didn’t need
to make any contributions. But then the equity and credit markets
collapsed, coupled with declines in the discount rate (which made the
present value of GM’s pension liabilities rise significantly) and more
early retirements at GM, increasing the number of beneficiaries.
Suddenly, the pension plan was $17.1 billion in the hole.

 

“We’ve
got to get this company to where the economics, everything, is driven
around designing, selling and producing cars,” Liddell said. “Things
like the pension plan don’t enter into the equation.”

 

Liddell
said he believes GM can fully fund the pension plan within three years
at which point, he plans to “de-risk” the portfolio by investing less
in equities and real estate, and more in fixed income assets, which
generally provide a lower rate of return. “Perfection to me would be
where the assets exactly equal the liabilities in both their maturity
and their risk profile,” he said.

 

He’s not expecting perfection,
but he is expecting GM to operate debt-free in the future. It seems
like forever that GM has been up to its neck in debt, including its
pension and health care obligations to retirees. But it’s only in the
past 15 years or so that GM has been highly leveraged. Before that, it
was a AAA-rated company.

 

Now it’s working to get back there. It
off-loaded retiree health care to a union trust fund in 2009, is
working on the pension problem, and restructured the rest of its debt
during its government-controlled bankruptcy. In 2010, GM lowered its
debt from $14.2 billion to $5 billion, and reduced its $9 billion
preferred share obligation to $7 billion. It obtained a $5 billion
revolving credit loan, but Liddell said he doesn’t think GM will have
to tap into it.

 

Perfection? No. But progress, yes.

I
agree, it's not perfect but it's progress. GM is doing the right thing
by topping up its pension plan now that times are good. If they can
reach fully funded status in three years, so much the better. Of course
that entirely depends on where markets are heading. In the
meantime, GM can focus on its core business and hope that car sales pick
up steadily in the next few years.

Another Facebook change, another privacy uproar. Read the headlines and you might have thought the social network was planning to open the books on private cellphone numbers and home addresses to any advertiser willing to slip them some cash, rather than adding some more sharing options along with the usual granular control over who gets to see what of your digital details. Unsurprisingly Facebook froze its plans pending a reassessment of its privacy controls; unfortunately, nobody is taking Facebook users – and the online community in general – to task over taking some responsibility for what they share.




If you haven’t been following the story, here’s the situation in a nutshell. Facebook announced on Friday that it was planning to add address and mobile number to the personal information that could be shared with applications, websites and advertisers. As with other personal details, the degree to which that data was accessible would be managed under each user’s permissions settings: everything from a come-and-get-me open pipe to a complete block on anything being revealed. Facebook billed it as a way to “easily share your address and mobile phone with a shopping site to streamline the checkout process, or sign up for up-to-the-minute alerts on special deals directly to your mobile phone.”


Don’t get me wrong; I’m under no illusion that Facebook is doing this for altruistic reasons. Making online purchases quicker is undoubtedly handy to those who actually click through Facebook adverts, but for the social network itself it’s all about making money from its most valuable asset: its millions of registered users. Just like with a free newspaper, Facebook makes its money by showing you adverts, and it can use your personal information to tailor those ads more appropriately. Access to personal contact details, meanwhile, is even more valuable.


However, just because there’s profit to be made for Facebook, it doesn’t mean this is either bad for the user or a sign of Evil Big Business taking advantage of the general public. We manage the degrees to which we disclose personal information all the time, long before Facebook arrived and gave us a simple privacy settings page to work with. Every time you avoid giving your phone number to a door-to-door charity worker, tick the no-junk-mail box on a bank form or refuse to give your address to someone you just met at a bar, you’re exercising your own, personal privacy filter.


Perhaps I’m being unfair. After all, it only takes a quick glance at sites like Lamebook (often NSFW) to see that many Facebook users have problems with over-sharing, accidentally making public posts out of what were meant to be private messages, and generally forgetting who out of their friends and family can read what they’re saying. Maybe Facebook does have some intrinsic responsibility to shepherd its members through the difficult journey that is online life; perhaps the privacy pages really won’t be complete until there’s color coding, pop-up warnings and a virtual cash register showing just how much you’ve lined Mark Zuckerberg’s pocket.


This constant push-me-pull-me with Facebook does users no favours. Every time the privacy patrol scream, and Facebook backtracks, it reinforces the idea that the site itself is solely responsible – should be responsible – for making safe use of the information we share online. Don’t get me wrong, if Facebook was looking to sneak in a “we can sell your identify” clause into the T&Cs, that’s something worth shouting about. When, though, we muster the same amount of vitriol for sharing options that already have safeguards – safeguards that satisfactorily protect our email address and other details – it looks more like abdication of responsibility. We want to trust Facebook do “do the right thing” – based on our own interpretation of what “the right thing” is, exactly – so that we won’t have to. We can spend our time looking up old crushes, posting photos of ourselves looking fierce in clubs, and commenting on videos of cats.


Privacy is important, but the responsibility begins at the individual level. Just as you don’t hand out your address to strangers in the street, maybe giving it to every website that asks isn’t all that sensible either. Relying on other people, or companies, to protect us universally is a naivety we abandon before adulthood in the real world, yet something many seem determined to cling to online. That’s before you get to the thorny issue of lost or stolen data. In the end, it’s your life, your number, your face: it’s up to you whether it’s an open book.









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Wednesday, January 26, 2011

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PROFESSOR OF POP: KUSF In The <b>News</b>

KUSF In The News. Members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors yesterday condemned the sale of KUSF's 90.3 fm frequency to an out-of-town broadcaster. The SF Weekly covers the story at some length here. ...

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KUSF In The News. Members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors yesterday condemned the sale of KUSF's 90.3 fm frequency to an out-of-town broadcaster. The SF Weekly covers the story at some length here. ...

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Z on TV: Fox <b>News</b> dominates in SOTU cable ratings - TV show critic <b>...</b>

Fox News dominates in SOTU cable ratings. zzz Fox News was far and away the most watched cable news network during and immediately after Tuesday night's State of the Union speech. Here are the ratings from Nielsen Media Research. ...

PROFESSOR OF POP: KUSF In The <b>News</b>

KUSF In The News. Members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors yesterday condemned the sale of KUSF's 90.3 fm frequency to an out-of-town broadcaster. The SF Weekly covers the story at some length here. ...

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PROFESSOR OF POP: KUSF In The <b>News</b>

KUSF In The News. Members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors yesterday condemned the sale of KUSF's 90.3 fm frequency to an out-of-town broadcaster. The SF Weekly covers the story at some length here. ...

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Fox News dominates in SOTU cable ratings. zzz Fox News was far and away the most watched cable news network during and immediately after Tuesday night's State of the Union speech. Here are the ratings from Nielsen Media Research. ...

PROFESSOR OF POP: KUSF In The <b>News</b>

KUSF In The News. Members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors yesterday condemned the sale of KUSF's 90.3 fm frequency to an out-of-town broadcaster. The SF Weekly covers the story at some length here. ...

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Yet CBS News ran an "online poll," which is getting plenty of attention, showing that 92% of people "approve of the proposals the president made in his [State of the Union] speech." The polling method used 500 supposedly representative ...


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Guestview: Editorial independence and an ecumenical <b>news</b> agency <b>...</b>

The ecumenical news agency ENInews has been scaled back and may face more cuts as its budget shrinks.

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Yet CBS News ran an "online poll," which is getting plenty of attention, showing that 92% of people "approve of the proposals the president made in his [State of the Union] speech." The polling method used 500 supposedly representative ...


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The ecumenical news agency ENInews has been scaled back and may face more cuts as its budget shrinks.

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Yet CBS News ran an "online poll," which is getting plenty of attention, showing that 92% of people "approve of the proposals the president made in his [State of the Union] speech." The polling method used 500 supposedly representative ...


eric seiger

Guestview: Editorial independence and an ecumenical <b>news</b> agency <b>...</b>

The ecumenical news agency ENInews has been scaled back and may face more cuts as its budget shrinks.

Black Ops PS3 patch has Xbox Live error PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of Black Ops PS3 patch has Xbox Live error.

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Yet CBS News ran an "online poll," which is getting plenty of attention, showing that 92% of people "approve of the proposals the president made in his [State of the Union] speech." The polling method used 500 supposedly representative ...


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Guestview: Editorial independence and an ecumenical <b>news</b> agency <b>...</b>

The ecumenical news agency ENInews has been scaled back and may face more cuts as its budget shrinks.

Black Ops PS3 patch has Xbox Live error PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of Black Ops PS3 patch has Xbox Live error.

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Yet CBS News ran an "online poll," which is getting plenty of attention, showing that 92% of people "approve of the proposals the president made in his [State of the Union] speech." The polling method used 500 supposedly representative ...

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"I've never made out with him," Lauren Leto told me last week, between puffs of a Parliament Light. The 24-year old brunette, rocking a little black dress and flat boots, was debunking my suspicions that she might be romancing her notoriously cute business partner, Patrick Moberg, the talented artist perhaps best known for making the website NewYorkGirlofMyDreams.com in 2008.



Leto and Moberg recently launched the well-funded start-up BNTER, a site that stores the best conversations between users and their friends. BNTER comes on the heels of Leto's big Internet hit, TextsFromLastNight.com, the website that earned her two book contracts, a TV deal, and, reportedly, lots of money. But back to girl talk: "It's the same with [Texts co-founder] Ben [Bator]," she explained. "I picked such attractive co-founders, people assume we must all be dating. But, no, no, no. We're co-employees! And the thing people don't understand is that when you're, like, writing checks with someone — when money is involved — you become so sexually unattractive to that person." She exhaled. "This is why I can never get married."



Leto was smoking outside an East Village apartment playing host to the Silicon Alley version of a singles mixer — a meet-up for users of HowAboutWe.com, the dating website Brian Schechter co-founded on Valentine's Day in 2010. Users suggest date ideas or contact people whose ideas they like. "How about we go to an underground supper club?" was among the site's most popular date ideas during its first year, so Andy and Ashley — a couple who met on How About We — decided to throw the soiree, and Apt. No. 4, a traveling group of foodie friends, worked the kitchen, supplying lobster bisque and teriyaki char and drinks. Leto was a featured single on How About We this month: She answered every question with a quote from the Kelis song "Bossy"; she said she was at the party to support Schechter and not necessarily to find a man.



Nick Gray, the quick-witted Williamsburg party boy, would have it otherwise, though. "Lauren and I haven't dated yet, but I'm trying," he told us. When Leto offered no reply, Gray joked, "Awkward ..."



How About We's Schechter, meanwhile, admitted that online dating might always carry a stigma: "People say [the stigma's] decreasing, and soon there won't be any," he told us. "But when you go onto an online dating site, in some way you're confessing, 'I don't have what I want,' which is not necessarily an attractive thing. People tend to find someone attractive who has what they want. So I wonder if it's actually a psychological or cultural or almost biological thing: 'I want the one who doesn't need.'" He added: "I do think it will become increasingly normal. It's efficient. And a site that's about having fun and not confessing, necessarily, that you don't have something you want, is more likely to attract people. You're just saying, 'I want to try new restaurants!' Etcetera." Schechter has a girlfriend who he didn't meet over the Internet, but he said he still gets several e-mails a day with the subject line "How about we ...?"



Gray is one fan of the site who hasn't had much success on it yet: "I think my date ideas are intimidating to some people," he told us. "I used to think that I was a real catch, and now I've only had three people who wanted to go on my dates. Some people write, 'How about we get high and eat pizza?' and they get, like, one hundred people interested. And I write, 'Let's go to Rio for New Year's Eve!' Or, 'Let's go to Greece and open a falafel stand!' And people are like, 'Eh. Weirdo.'"



Leto claims she doesn't send many late-night texts of her own anymore because she gets up at six every morning, "so nervous" that something might have happened overnight. Telling us she still "lives poorly," she admitted she recently got an apartment of her own in Brooklyn. "I bought furniture, and I'm an adult," she added. But of dating in New York, Leto lamented: "Everyone wants something from you."



What she wanted from me, at least half-seriously, was less attention. At one point, she pretended to have stolen my tape recorder so that I couldn't report on her any further. And when I asked too many questions, she said: "This is going to seem like navel-gazing for myself. No navel-gazing allowed!" But she's just so good at all this, I informed her, as at least half the men at the party tracked her across the room. On cue, with a seemingly legitimate confusion, she asked, "Good at what?"





You're probably reading this on junk. And I'm not talking about newsprint - industry woes aside, that's high-quality stuff. But if you're on a computer or an iPad, and you're not plugged into an Internet jack in the wall? Junk, then.



But it's not your MacBook or your tablet that's so crummy. It's the spectrum it's using.



Spectrum, in the words of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, is the economy's "invisible infrastructure." It's the interstate system for information that travels wirelessly. It's how you get radio in your car, service on your cellphone and satellite to your television. It's also how you get WiFi.



But not all spectrum is created equal. "Beachfront spectrum" is like a well-paved road. Lots of information can travel long distances on it without losing much data. But not all spectrum is so valuable.



In 1985, there was a slice of spectrum that was too crummy for anyone to want. It was so weak that the radiation that microwaves emit could mess with it. So the government released it to the public. As long as whatever you were doing didn't interfere with what anyone else was doing, you could build on that spectrum. That's how we got garage-door openers and cordless phones. Because the information didn't have to travel far, the junk spectrum was good enough. Later on, that same section of junk spectrum became the home for WiFi - a crucial, multibillion-dollar industry. A platform for massive technological innovation. A huge increase in quality of life.



There's a lesson in that: Spectrum is really, really important. And not always in ways that we can predict in advance. Making sure that spectrum is used well is no less important than making sure our highways are used well: If the Beltway were reserved for horses, Washington would not be a very good place to do business.



But our spectrum is not being used well. It's the classic innovator's quandary: We made good decisions many years ago, but those good decisions created powerful incumbents, and in order to make good decisions now, we must somehow unseat the incumbents.

Today, much of the best spectrum is allocated to broadcast television. Decades ago, when 90 percent of Americans received their programming this way, that made sense. Today, when fewer than 10 percent of Americans do, it doesn't.



Meanwhile, mobile broadband is quite clearly the platform of the future - or at least the near future. But we don't have nearly enough spectrum allocated for its use. Unless that changes, the technology will be unable to progress, as more advanced uses will require more bandwidth, or it will have to be rationed, perhaps through extremely high prices that make sure most people can't use it.



The FCC could just yank the spectrum from the channels and hand it to the mobile industry. But it won't. It fears lawsuits and angry calls from lawmakers. And temperamentally, Genachowski himself is a consensus-builder rather than a steamroller.



Instead, the hope is that current owners of spectrum will give it up voluntarily. In exchange, they'd get big sacks of money. If a slice of spectrum is worth billions of dollars to Verizon but only a couple of million to a few aging TV stations - TV stations that have other ways to reach most of those customers - then there should be enough money in this transaction to leave everyone happy.



At least, that's some people's hope. Some advocates want that spectrum - or at least a substantial portion of it - left unlicensed. Rather than using telecom corporations such as Verizon to buy off the current owners of the spectrum, they'd like to see the federal government take some of that spectrum back and preserve it as a public resource for the sort of innovation we can't yet imagine and that the big corporations aren't likely to pioneer - the same as happened with WiFi. But as of yet, that's not the FCC's vision for this. Officials are more worried about the mobile broadband market. They argue (accurately) that they've already made more beachfront spectrum available for unlicensed uses. And although they don't say this clearly, auctioning spectrum to large corporations gives them the money to pay off the current owners. But even so, they can't do that.



"Imagine someone was given property on Fifth Avenue 50 years ago, but they don't use it and can't sell it," says Tim Wu, a law professor at Harvard and author of "The Master Switch." That's the situation that's arisen in the spectrum universe. It's not legal for the FCC to run auctions and hand over some of the proceeds to the old owners. That means the people sitting on the spectrum have little incentive to give it up. For that to change, the FCC needs Congress to pass a law empowering it to compensate current holders of spectrum with proceeds from the sale.



One way - the slightly demagogic way - to underscore the urgency here is to invoke China: Do you think it's letting its information infrastructure stagnate because it's a bureaucratic hassle to get the permits shifted? I rather doubt it.



Of course, we don't want the Chinese system. Democracy is worth some red tape. But if we're going to keep a good political system from becoming an economic handicap, there are going to be a lot of decisions like this one that need to be made. Decisions where we know what we need to do to move the economy forward, but where it's easier to do nothing because there are powerful interests attached to old habits. The problem with having a really good 20th century, as America did, is that you've built up a lot of infrastructure and made a lot of decisions that benefit the industries and innovators of the 20th century. But now we're in the 21st century, and junk won't cut it anymore.



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Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.


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AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: WikiLeaks: Middle East peace process exposes <b>...</b>

All the US government was interested in, Erekat went on, was "PR, quick news, and we're cost free", ending up with the appeal: "What good am I if I'm the joke of my wife, if I'm so weak?" | Facebook | Reddit | Digg | StumbleUpon ...

Tucson Hero to Sit With Michelle Obama at State of the Union on <b>...</b>

Polson Kanneth reports: Daniel Hernandez Jr., one of the heroes of the mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz., two weeks ago, tells ABC News that he will be sitting, along with his father, Daniel Hernandez Sr., with Michelle Obama at the.

Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.


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AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: WikiLeaks: Middle East peace process exposes <b>...</b>

All the US government was interested in, Erekat went on, was "PR, quick news, and we're cost free", ending up with the appeal: "What good am I if I'm the joke of my wife, if I'm so weak?" | Facebook | Reddit | Digg | StumbleUpon ...

Tucson Hero to Sit With Michelle Obama at State of the Union on <b>...</b>

Polson Kanneth reports: Daniel Hernandez Jr., one of the heroes of the mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz., two weeks ago, tells ABC News that he will be sitting, along with his father, Daniel Hernandez Sr., with Michelle Obama at the.

Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.


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AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: WikiLeaks: Middle East peace process exposes <b>...</b>

All the US government was interested in, Erekat went on, was "PR, quick news, and we're cost free", ending up with the appeal: "What good am I if I'm the joke of my wife, if I'm so weak?" | Facebook | Reddit | Digg | StumbleUpon ...

Tucson Hero to Sit With Michelle Obama at State of the Union on <b>...</b>

Polson Kanneth reports: Daniel Hernandez Jr., one of the heroes of the mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz., two weeks ago, tells ABC News that he will be sitting, along with his father, Daniel Hernandez Sr., with Michelle Obama at the.

Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.


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AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: WikiLeaks: Middle East peace process exposes <b>...</b>

All the US government was interested in, Erekat went on, was "PR, quick news, and we're cost free", ending up with the appeal: "What good am I if I'm the joke of my wife, if I'm so weak?" | Facebook | Reddit | Digg | StumbleUpon ...

Tucson Hero to Sit With Michelle Obama at State of the Union on <b>...</b>

Polson Kanneth reports: Daniel Hernandez Jr., one of the heroes of the mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz., two weeks ago, tells ABC News that he will be sitting, along with his father, Daniel Hernandez Sr., with Michelle Obama at the.

Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.


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AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: WikiLeaks: Middle East peace process exposes <b>...</b>

All the US government was interested in, Erekat went on, was "PR, quick news, and we're cost free", ending up with the appeal: "What good am I if I'm the joke of my wife, if I'm so weak?" | Facebook | Reddit | Digg | StumbleUpon ...

Tucson Hero to Sit With Michelle Obama at State of the Union on <b>...</b>

Polson Kanneth reports: Daniel Hernandez Jr., one of the heroes of the mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz., two weeks ago, tells ABC News that he will be sitting, along with his father, Daniel Hernandez Sr., with Michelle Obama at the.

Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.


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AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: WikiLeaks: Middle East peace process exposes <b>...</b>

All the US government was interested in, Erekat went on, was "PR, quick news, and we're cost free", ending up with the appeal: "What good am I if I'm the joke of my wife, if I'm so weak?" | Facebook | Reddit | Digg | StumbleUpon ...

Tucson Hero to Sit With Michelle Obama at State of the Union on <b>...</b>

Polson Kanneth reports: Daniel Hernandez Jr., one of the heroes of the mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz., two weeks ago, tells ABC News that he will be sitting, along with his father, Daniel Hernandez Sr., with Michelle Obama at the.

Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.


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AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: WikiLeaks: Middle East peace process exposes <b>...</b>

All the US government was interested in, Erekat went on, was "PR, quick news, and we're cost free", ending up with the appeal: "What good am I if I'm the joke of my wife, if I'm so weak?" | Facebook | Reddit | Digg | StumbleUpon ...

Tucson Hero to Sit With Michelle Obama at State of the Union on <b>...</b>

Polson Kanneth reports: Daniel Hernandez Jr., one of the heroes of the mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz., two weeks ago, tells ABC News that he will be sitting, along with his father, Daniel Hernandez Sr., with Michelle Obama at the.

Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.


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AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: WikiLeaks: Middle East peace process exposes <b>...</b>

All the US government was interested in, Erekat went on, was "PR, quick news, and we're cost free", ending up with the appeal: "What good am I if I'm the joke of my wife, if I'm so weak?" | Facebook | Reddit | Digg | StumbleUpon ...

Tucson Hero to Sit With Michelle Obama at State of the Union on <b>...</b>

Polson Kanneth reports: Daniel Hernandez Jr., one of the heroes of the mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz., two weeks ago, tells ABC News that he will be sitting, along with his father, Daniel Hernandez Sr., with Michelle Obama at the.

Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.


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AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: WikiLeaks: Middle East peace process exposes <b>...</b>

All the US government was interested in, Erekat went on, was "PR, quick news, and we're cost free", ending up with the appeal: "What good am I if I'm the joke of my wife, if I'm so weak?" | Facebook | Reddit | Digg | StumbleUpon ...

Tucson Hero to Sit With Michelle Obama at State of the Union on <b>...</b>

Polson Kanneth reports: Daniel Hernandez Jr., one of the heroes of the mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz., two weeks ago, tells ABC News that he will be sitting, along with his father, Daniel Hernandez Sr., with Michelle Obama at the.

Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.


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AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: WikiLeaks: Middle East peace process exposes <b>...</b>

All the US government was interested in, Erekat went on, was "PR, quick news, and we're cost free", ending up with the appeal: "What good am I if I'm the joke of my wife, if I'm so weak?" | Facebook | Reddit | Digg | StumbleUpon ...

Tucson Hero to Sit With Michelle Obama at State of the Union on <b>...</b>

Polson Kanneth reports: Daniel Hernandez Jr., one of the heroes of the mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz., two weeks ago, tells ABC News that he will be sitting, along with his father, Daniel Hernandez Sr., with Michelle Obama at the.

Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.


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AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: WikiLeaks: Middle East peace process exposes <b>...</b>

All the US government was interested in, Erekat went on, was "PR, quick news, and we're cost free", ending up with the appeal: "What good am I if I'm the joke of my wife, if I'm so weak?" | Facebook | Reddit | Digg | StumbleUpon ...

Tucson Hero to Sit With Michelle Obama at State of the Union on <b>...</b>

Polson Kanneth reports: Daniel Hernandez Jr., one of the heroes of the mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz., two weeks ago, tells ABC News that he will be sitting, along with his father, Daniel Hernandez Sr., with Michelle Obama at the.

Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.


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AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: WikiLeaks: Middle East peace process exposes <b>...</b>

All the US government was interested in, Erekat went on, was "PR, quick news, and we're cost free", ending up with the appeal: "What good am I if I'm the joke of my wife, if I'm so weak?" | Facebook | Reddit | Digg | StumbleUpon ...

Tucson Hero to Sit With Michelle Obama at State of the Union on <b>...</b>

Polson Kanneth reports: Daniel Hernandez Jr., one of the heroes of the mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz., two weeks ago, tells ABC News that he will be sitting, along with his father, Daniel Hernandez Sr., with Michelle Obama at the.

Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.


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AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: WikiLeaks: Middle East peace process exposes <b>...</b>

All the US government was interested in, Erekat went on, was "PR, quick news, and we're cost free", ending up with the appeal: "What good am I if I'm the joke of my wife, if I'm so weak?" | Facebook | Reddit | Digg | StumbleUpon ...

Tucson Hero to Sit With Michelle Obama at State of the Union on <b>...</b>

Polson Kanneth reports: Daniel Hernandez Jr., one of the heroes of the mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz., two weeks ago, tells ABC News that he will be sitting, along with his father, Daniel Hernandez Sr., with Michelle Obama at the.

Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Making Money Through


The quality of money is not strained




Bobo in the New Yorker this week (you can thank me for not excerpting the weird sexual second paragraph):





After the boom and bust, the mania and the meltdown, the Composure Class rose once again. Its members didn’t make their money through hedge-fund wizardry or by some big financial score. Theirs was a statelier ascent. They got good grades in school, established solid social connections, joined fine companies, medical practices, and law firms. Wealth settled down upon them gradually, like a gentle snow.

[....]

A few times a year, members of this class head to a mountain resort, carrying only a Council on Foreign Relations tote bag (when you have your own plane, you don’t need luggage that actually closes).





How many doctors and lawyers got own-your-own-plane rich via the gentle snow of wealth? No, don’t give me “maybe he means a two-seater”, you know that’s not what he means, and, no, making it by representing OJ Simpson or via a biotech IPO doesn’t count as count as “gentle snow”.



I’m not sure why he’s doing it, maybe to reinforce the notion of the deserving rich.



Update. This is weird and unintentionally comedic, but it didn’t creep me out as much as the paragraph about male lower bodies and female upper bodies, so I’m sharing it:





The server came to their table and took their orders. The restaurant seemed to specialize in hard-to-eat salads. Erica, anticipating this, chose an appetizer that could be easily forked and a main dish that didn’t require cutlery expertise. But Harold went for a salad, composed of splayed green tentacles that could not be shoved into his mouth without brushing salad dressing on both of his cheeks. None of it mattered, because Harold and Erica clicked. Most emotional communication is nonverbal. Gestures are a language that we use not only to express our feelings but to constitute them. By making a gesture, people help produce an internal state. Harold and Erica licked their lips, leaned forward in their chairs, glanced at each other out of the corners of their eyes, and performed all the other tricks of unconscious choreography that people do while flirting. Erica did the head cant women do to signal romantic interest, a slight tilt of the head that exposes the neck. Then, there was the hair flip: she raised her arms to adjust her hair and heaved her chest into view.







Two years into the Obama presidency and the economic data is still looking grim. Don't be fooled by the gyrations of the stock market, where optimism is mostly a reflection of the ability of financial corporations -- thanks to massive government largesse -- to survive the mess they created. The basics are dismal: unemployment is unacceptably high, the December consumer confidence index is down, and housing prices have fallen for four months in a row. The number of Americans living in poverty has never been higher, and a majority in a Washington Post poll said they were worried about making their next mortgage or rent payment.



In a parallel universe lives Peter Orszag, President Barack Obama's former budget director and key adviser, who even faster than his mentor, Robert Rubin, has passed through that revolving platinum door linking the White House with Wall Street. The goal is to use your government position to advance the interests of your future employer, and Orszag and Rubin's actions in the government and then at Citigroup provide stunning examples of the synergy between big government and high finance.



As Bill Clinton's treasury secretary, Rubin presided over the dismantling of Glass-Steagall, the New Deal legislation that would have prohibited the creation of the too-big-to-fail Citigroup. He was rewarded with a $15-million-a-year job at Citigroup, where he became a leader in the bank's aggressive move into high-risk ventures. An SEC report in September claimed that Rubin as Citigroup chairman was aware that the bank failed to disclose $40 billion it held in subprime mortgages before the collapse.



During those years at Citigroup, Rubin financed the Brookings Institution's Hamilton Project, an economic policy program, and named Orszag, a Clinton economic adviser, as its director. The Hamilton Project continued to celebrate Rubin's deregulation philosophy up to the point of utter embarrassment. Clearly, Orszag is not easily embarrassed, for upon taking his new job recently he boasted "I am pleased to be joining Citi, with its unmatched global platform and dedication to providing clients with service and advice."



The most damning comment on this corrupt syndrome was offered by former Citigroup co-chief executive John Reed, who had worked with Rubin to get Glass-Steagall reversed and now is a sharp critic of the result. "We continue to listen to the same people whose errors in judgment were central to the problem," Reed told Bloomberg News. "I'm astounded because we basically dropped the world's biggest economy because of an error in bank management." Reed estimated that the financial deregulation proposals contained in the Dodd-Frank bill and other reforms of the Obama administration represent only 25 percent of the change needed.



The failure to provide serious regulation of the financial industry to avoid future downturns is documented in devastating detail in that Dec. 28 Bloomberg report, written by Christine Harper:

"The U.S. government, promising to make the system safer, buckled under many of the financial industry's protests. Lawmakers spurned changes that would wall off deposit-taking banks from riskier trading. They declined to limit the size of lenders or ban any form of derivatives."



The reason for that failure is obvious from the president's choice of advisers featuring Rubin acolytes from the Clinton years. Harper writes: "While Obama vowed to change the system, he filled his economic team with people who helped create it," referring to, among others, Timothy F. Geithner, who had gone from the Clinton Treasury Department to head the New York Fed, where he presided over the salvaging of Citigroup and AIG. As Obama's treasury secretary he was quick to appoint a Goldman Sachs lobbyist as his chief of staff. Geithner's subservience to Wall Street was reinforced by White House top economic adviser Lawrence Summers, Rubin's deputy and then replacement in the Clinton administration who pushed through the repeal of Glass Steagall and fought against the regulation of derivatives.



And with the decisive assistance from both a Republican and Democratic president, all has worked out just as planned for the banks. Harper reports: "The last two years have been the best ever for combined investment-banking and trading revenue at Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and Morgan Stanley, according to data compiled by Bloomberg."



It's all wonderfully bipartisan. Recently it was announced that Carlos Gutierrez, commerce secretary under George W. Bush, had been named to a high position at Citigroup. For President Obama, there's no cause for worry about the loss of indispensable talent from his administration. Orszag's replacement as head of the Office of Management and Budget, Jacob J. Lew, was both a member of Rubin's Hamilton Project and a former Citigroup executive -- thus insuring that government of the banks, by the banks, for the banks shall not perish from the earth.













Source:http://removeripoffreports.net/

Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen: Green <b>News</b> Report: January 18, 2011 <b>...</b>

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Scientists warn of a future "superstorm" in CA; Obama to discuss clean energy with Chinese premier's visit?; "Managed retreat" for California coastal town; ABC Reports On Fossil-Fueled Climate ...

Knight Science Journalism Tracker » Blog Archive » Mammoths <b>news</b> <b>...</b>

“Japanese scientists attempt to resurrect Mammoth” shouted the news agency AFP (source: The online version of the Japanese newspaper “Yomiuri Shimbun”: Daily Yomiuri Online). The article lacks any hints about the major hurdles of such ...

Major earthquake strikes southwestern Pakistan – This Just In <b>...</b>

[Updated at 4:47 p.m. ET] An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.2 struck Wednesday morning in a remote area of southwestern Pakistan, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. The earthquake occurred at 1:23 a.m. (3:23 p.m. ...


Friday, January 14, 2011

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Breaking <b>news</b>: EPA vetoes Spruce Mine permit « Coal Tattoo

This news is devastating to the Southern Coal Fields and our entire state. The Spruce Number One permit was issued years ago after undergoing a comprehensive permitting process. It is hard to understand how the EPA at this late hour ...

Crunch Gym app lets you avoid check-in lines | Health Tech - CNET <b>News</b>

Crunch Fitness unveils its first app, created with IdeaWork Studios, enabling iPhone and Android users to find locations, see class schedules, and check in. Read this blog post by Elizabeth Armstrong Moore on Health Tech.

<b>News</b> Corp&#39;s The Daily iPad Newspaper Delayed By “Weeks, Not Months”

While we may all have our own opinions on whether News Corp's iPad-bound newspaper, The Daily, is a boondoggle or simply before its time, I think we were all at least looking forward to seeing what it was like. People were curious about ...


Thursday, January 13, 2011

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Tucson Memorial - Fox <b>News</b> Panel - Video | Mediaite

The first impressions in light of President Obama's speech at tonight's memorial for the victims of the Arizona shooting, and, at least on Fox News, the reviews are overwhelming positive. Charles Krauthammer ...

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Monday, January 10, 2011

Kids Making Money






Andrew Luck is returning to Stanford for 2011



Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images




ESPN.com has just released an article saying that Stanford star QB Andrew Luck will go back to school for his senior season. Luck was ranked as the No. 1 QB on almost everyone's draft board if he was to come out of school early.


For most teams, he was probably No. 1 on their draft boards. Carolina was suspected to take Luck with the first pick in this year's draft. Carolina said they were interested in the Junior from Houston, Texas.


"'I am committed to earning my degree in architectural design from Stanford University and am on track to accomplish this at the completion of the spring quarter of 2012," Luck said in a statement.


Good for Luck. Luck could have entered the draft this year and would have been the hands down No. 1 pick. He could have gotten a contract at least the size of what Sam Bradford got, which was $78 million. He could have started right away on a team that is desperate for a piece to build a team around.


However, Luck made the decision that most would call the wrong one. Why risk your No. 1 draft status to play another year of meaningless college football? Why not go to the NFL and get $40 million in guaranteed money?


I see it differently. Andrew Luck is "true old school," as his dad said. He wants to finish out his college experience and get his degree in architectural design. Props to a man who wants to go back to school and is not interested in the money and the fame and fortune that goes with the NFL life.




As we get ready for John Boehner to take the gavel from Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday, I find myself thinking back to the last time a Republican speaker took control of the House from a Democrat -- and reflecting on how far down the wrong road we have traveled since then.



It was January 1995, and Newt Gingrich, now considered a right-wing bomb thrower, was taking the gavel from Tom Foley. After taking the oath of office, he delivered a speech that praised FDR as "the greatest president of the 20th century" and presented concern for the least among us as a shared national objective. "The balanced budget is the right thing to do," he said. "But it does not in my mind have the moral urgency of coming to grips with what is happening to the poorest Americans."



For the incoming Republican speaker, reducing poverty and lifting the poor into the middle class was a moral imperative beyond the left vs. right battlefield -- not just the purview of lefties, socialists, and community organizers:

I say to those Republicans who believe in total privatization, you cannot believe in the Good Samaritan and explain that as long as business is making money we can walk by a fellow American who is hurt and not do something.... If you cannot afford to leave the public housing project, you are not free. If you do not know how to find a job and do not know how to create a job, you are not free. If you cannot find a place that will educate you, you are not free. If you are afraid to walk to the store because you could get killed, you are not free.


So now, with poverty higher than it was 16 years ago, with greater income inequality, and with the middle class struggling to hold on, what will Speaker Boehner make his number one priority? According to the Washington Post, it's "cutting spending," followed by repealing the healthcare law, and "helping get our economy moving" (no specifics on how he plans to do that).



Yet we saw on 60 Minutes that he's very aware of how fragile the American Dream has become, telling Lesley Stahl, "I can't go to a school anymore. I used to go to a lot of schools. And you see all these little kids running around. Can't talk about it." And he choked up when he did try to talk about "making sure these kids have a shot at the American Dream, like I did. It's important."





Interestingly, in his first speech as speaker, Gingrich also talked about being moved by the woes of school kids.



"I have seldom been more shaken," he said, "than I was after the election when I had breakfast with two members of the Black Caucus. One of them said to me, 'Can you imagine what it is like to visit a first-grade class and realize that every fourth or fifth young boy in that class may be dead or in jail within 15 years? And they are your constituents and you are helpless to change it?' For some reason, I do not know why, maybe because I visit a lot of schools, that got through. I mean, that personalized it. That made it real, not just statistics, but real people."



But the trajectory of our political discourse over the last decade and a half has meant that taking on poverty has gone from a moral imperative and shared national objective to an afterthought -- or no thought at all.



The question is, is there anything that can be done to help Boehner make the connection between the policies he supports and the effect those policies have on the kids who bring him to tears?



Newt Gingrich failed to follow through on the moral imperative he identified in his first speech as speaker, trading in his moral vision and replacing it 15 months later with an announcement that the Republican agenda could be reduced to six words: "Earn more, keep more, do more."



Will Boehner's take be "Earn more, keep more, cut more"? Or is there a chance he will surprise us? Maybe it's because it's close enough to Christmas that I still believe in miracles, but wouldn't it be great if the John Boehner who takes the gavel on Wednesday is the one who weeps at the thought of kids denied a shot at the American Dream?











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Verizon Wireless is ready to make <b>news</b> on Tuesday | 9 to 5 Mac <b>...</b>

It pretty clearly seems to be a sarcastic remark about the large volume of Verizon iPhone stories. This one seems pretty redundant, of course Verizon plans to make news, why else would they call a press announcement? ...

Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Masturbation Excuse FAIL - Epic Fail Funny <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Masturbation Excuse FAIL.

Harry Shearer: The <b>News</b> Doesn&#39;t Sleep -- Except on Weekends

News organizations have lately opted to hire fewer reporters, and to cut newsrooms' Saturday staffs. As NPR and Reuters issued erroneous reports of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' death this weekend, the downside of such cuts seems clear.


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Verizon Wireless is ready to make <b>news</b> on Tuesday | 9 to 5 Mac <b>...</b>

It pretty clearly seems to be a sarcastic remark about the large volume of Verizon iPhone stories. This one seems pretty redundant, of course Verizon plans to make news, why else would they call a press announcement? ...

Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Masturbation Excuse FAIL - Epic Fail Funny <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Masturbation Excuse FAIL.

Harry Shearer: The <b>News</b> Doesn&#39;t Sleep -- Except on Weekends

News organizations have lately opted to hire fewer reporters, and to cut newsrooms' Saturday staffs. As NPR and Reuters issued erroneous reports of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' death this weekend, the downside of such cuts seems clear.


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Verizon Wireless is ready to make <b>news</b> on Tuesday | 9 to 5 Mac <b>...</b>

It pretty clearly seems to be a sarcastic remark about the large volume of Verizon iPhone stories. This one seems pretty redundant, of course Verizon plans to make news, why else would they call a press announcement? ...

Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Masturbation Excuse FAIL - Epic Fail Funny <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Masturbation Excuse FAIL.

Harry Shearer: The <b>News</b> Doesn&#39;t Sleep -- Except on Weekends

News organizations have lately opted to hire fewer reporters, and to cut newsrooms' Saturday staffs. As NPR and Reuters issued erroneous reports of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' death this weekend, the downside of such cuts seems clear.


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Verizon Wireless is ready to make <b>news</b> on Tuesday | 9 to 5 Mac <b>...</b>

It pretty clearly seems to be a sarcastic remark about the large volume of Verizon iPhone stories. This one seems pretty redundant, of course Verizon plans to make news, why else would they call a press announcement? ...

Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Masturbation Excuse FAIL - Epic Fail Funny <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Masturbation Excuse FAIL.

Harry Shearer: The <b>News</b> Doesn&#39;t Sleep -- Except on Weekends

News organizations have lately opted to hire fewer reporters, and to cut newsrooms' Saturday staffs. As NPR and Reuters issued erroneous reports of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' death this weekend, the downside of such cuts seems clear.


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Verizon Wireless is ready to make <b>news</b> on Tuesday | 9 to 5 Mac <b>...</b>

It pretty clearly seems to be a sarcastic remark about the large volume of Verizon iPhone stories. This one seems pretty redundant, of course Verizon plans to make news, why else would they call a press announcement? ...

Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Masturbation Excuse FAIL - Epic Fail Funny <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Masturbation Excuse FAIL.

Harry Shearer: The <b>News</b> Doesn&#39;t Sleep -- Except on Weekends

News organizations have lately opted to hire fewer reporters, and to cut newsrooms' Saturday staffs. As NPR and Reuters issued erroneous reports of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' death this weekend, the downside of such cuts seems clear.


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Verizon Wireless is ready to make <b>news</b> on Tuesday | 9 to 5 Mac <b>...</b>

It pretty clearly seems to be a sarcastic remark about the large volume of Verizon iPhone stories. This one seems pretty redundant, of course Verizon plans to make news, why else would they call a press announcement? ...

Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Masturbation Excuse FAIL - Epic Fail Funny <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Masturbation Excuse FAIL.

Harry Shearer: The <b>News</b> Doesn&#39;t Sleep -- Except on Weekends

News organizations have lately opted to hire fewer reporters, and to cut newsrooms' Saturday staffs. As NPR and Reuters issued erroneous reports of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' death this weekend, the downside of such cuts seems clear.


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Verizon Wireless is ready to make <b>news</b> on Tuesday | 9 to 5 Mac <b>...</b>

It pretty clearly seems to be a sarcastic remark about the large volume of Verizon iPhone stories. This one seems pretty redundant, of course Verizon plans to make news, why else would they call a press announcement? ...

Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Masturbation Excuse FAIL - Epic Fail Funny <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Masturbation Excuse FAIL.

Harry Shearer: The <b>News</b> Doesn&#39;t Sleep -- Except on Weekends

News organizations have lately opted to hire fewer reporters, and to cut newsrooms' Saturday staffs. As NPR and Reuters issued erroneous reports of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' death this weekend, the downside of such cuts seems clear.


bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Verizon Wireless is ready to make <b>news</b> on Tuesday | 9 to 5 Mac <b>...</b>

It pretty clearly seems to be a sarcastic remark about the large volume of Verizon iPhone stories. This one seems pretty redundant, of course Verizon plans to make news, why else would they call a press announcement? ...

Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Masturbation Excuse FAIL - Epic Fail Funny <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Masturbation Excuse FAIL.

Harry Shearer: The <b>News</b> Doesn&#39;t Sleep -- Except on Weekends

News organizations have lately opted to hire fewer reporters, and to cut newsrooms' Saturday staffs. As NPR and Reuters issued erroneous reports of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' death this weekend, the downside of such cuts seems clear.


bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Verizon Wireless is ready to make <b>news</b> on Tuesday | 9 to 5 Mac <b>...</b>

It pretty clearly seems to be a sarcastic remark about the large volume of Verizon iPhone stories. This one seems pretty redundant, of course Verizon plans to make news, why else would they call a press announcement? ...

Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Masturbation Excuse FAIL - Epic Fail Funny <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Masturbation Excuse FAIL.

Harry Shearer: The <b>News</b> Doesn&#39;t Sleep -- Except on Weekends

News organizations have lately opted to hire fewer reporters, and to cut newsrooms' Saturday staffs. As NPR and Reuters issued erroneous reports of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' death this weekend, the downside of such cuts seems clear.


bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Verizon Wireless is ready to make <b>news</b> on Tuesday | 9 to 5 Mac <b>...</b>

It pretty clearly seems to be a sarcastic remark about the large volume of Verizon iPhone stories. This one seems pretty redundant, of course Verizon plans to make news, why else would they call a press announcement? ...

Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Masturbation Excuse FAIL - Epic Fail Funny <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Masturbation Excuse FAIL.

Harry Shearer: The <b>News</b> Doesn&#39;t Sleep -- Except on Weekends

News organizations have lately opted to hire fewer reporters, and to cut newsrooms' Saturday staffs. As NPR and Reuters issued erroneous reports of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' death this weekend, the downside of such cuts seems clear.


bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Verizon Wireless is ready to make <b>news</b> on Tuesday | 9 to 5 Mac <b>...</b>

It pretty clearly seems to be a sarcastic remark about the large volume of Verizon iPhone stories. This one seems pretty redundant, of course Verizon plans to make news, why else would they call a press announcement? ...

Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Masturbation Excuse FAIL - Epic Fail Funny <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Masturbation Excuse FAIL.

Harry Shearer: The <b>News</b> Doesn&#39;t Sleep -- Except on Weekends

News organizations have lately opted to hire fewer reporters, and to cut newsrooms' Saturday staffs. As NPR and Reuters issued erroneous reports of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' death this weekend, the downside of such cuts seems clear.


bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Verizon Wireless is ready to make <b>news</b> on Tuesday | 9 to 5 Mac <b>...</b>

It pretty clearly seems to be a sarcastic remark about the large volume of Verizon iPhone stories. This one seems pretty redundant, of course Verizon plans to make news, why else would they call a press announcement? ...

Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Masturbation Excuse FAIL - Epic Fail Funny <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Masturbation Excuse FAIL.

Harry Shearer: The <b>News</b> Doesn&#39;t Sleep -- Except on Weekends

News organizations have lately opted to hire fewer reporters, and to cut newsrooms' Saturday staffs. As NPR and Reuters issued erroneous reports of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' death this weekend, the downside of such cuts seems clear.


bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Verizon Wireless is ready to make <b>news</b> on Tuesday | 9 to 5 Mac <b>...</b>

It pretty clearly seems to be a sarcastic remark about the large volume of Verizon iPhone stories. This one seems pretty redundant, of course Verizon plans to make news, why else would they call a press announcement? ...

Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Masturbation Excuse FAIL - Epic Fail Funny <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Masturbation Excuse FAIL.

Harry Shearer: The <b>News</b> Doesn&#39;t Sleep -- Except on Weekends

News organizations have lately opted to hire fewer reporters, and to cut newsrooms' Saturday staffs. As NPR and Reuters issued erroneous reports of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' death this weekend, the downside of such cuts seems clear.


bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Verizon Wireless is ready to make <b>news</b> on Tuesday | 9 to 5 Mac <b>...</b>

It pretty clearly seems to be a sarcastic remark about the large volume of Verizon iPhone stories. This one seems pretty redundant, of course Verizon plans to make news, why else would they call a press announcement? ...

Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Masturbation Excuse FAIL - Epic Fail Funny <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Masturbation Excuse FAIL.

Harry Shearer: The <b>News</b> Doesn&#39;t Sleep -- Except on Weekends

News organizations have lately opted to hire fewer reporters, and to cut newsrooms' Saturday staffs. As NPR and Reuters issued erroneous reports of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' death this weekend, the downside of such cuts seems clear.