February 19, 2013

It's about time someone shuts this loser Angelo Carusone up! He spent over $250k on a liberal law degree from University of Madison WI and can't pass the bar exam. He wouldn't know the truth if it bit him in ugly ass. He tweets vile hate 24/7 against Glenn Beck first. Then George Soros Media Matters hired him to spew their hate for them. I hope Trump ties Carusone panties up for years. 

19
2 HRS

Donald Trump Threatens to Sue Macy’s Protester for $25 Million (Exclusive)

9:49 AM PST 2/19/2013 by Aaron Couch

“Dump Trump” organizer Angelo Carusone tells THR a cease and desist letter he received shows the "Apprentice" star engages in "bullying and intimidation."

Donald Trump The Friars Club Honors Larry King - P 2012
Cindy Ord/Getty Images
Donald Trump
Donald Trump can’t fire the man protesting his relationship with Macy’s, but the Apprenticestar might have sights on suing him.
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Trump attorney Alan Gartenhas sent a cease and desist letter to Angelo Carusone, organizer of the online campaign Dump Trump, and threatened to seek damages of “not less than” $25 million if the protest continues, The Hollywood Reporter has learned exclusively. Carusone tells THR he plans to continue the protest and called the threat of legal action "bullying" on Trump's part.
In a letter dated Dec. 27, Garten charged Carusone with undertaking “malicious efforts” to interfere with Trump’s business relationships and spreading misinformation about the size and success of the protest.
“Rather than simply engage in lawful protest, you have apparently made it your mission to interfere with and intentionally disrupt Mr. Trump’s long-standing and well-established business relationship with Macy’s as well as his contractual dealings with other third parties through mob-like bullying and coercion,” reads the letter from Garten, executive vp and litigation counsel at The Trump Organization.
(The letter can be read in full here.)
Carusone launched Dump Trump in November and asked Macy’s to sever its ties with Trump, who works as a spokesman for the company and whose brand of clothes and fragrances are carried in its stores. The campaign has charged Trump with making sexist and “racially charged” comments, which Carusone says are in opposition to Macy’s family-friendly image.
Dump Trump’s actions have included commissioning mobile billboards to circle Macy’s corporate headquarters and flagship New York location late last year. In addition, a Dump Trump petition at SignOn.org has attracted more than 680,000 signatures. Garten's letter implies Carusone's Dump Trump associates (which include the left-leaning SignOn.org) could also face legal action.
In response to the letter, Carusone engaged legal counsel from the nonprofit Public Citizen and said he intends to continue with the campaign.
“I would hope that Macy’s would recognize now that the things we’ve been saying about Donald Trump are in fact accurate, and they are cause for concern,” Carusone tells THR. “That Trump does engage in bullying and intimidation. That his brand is inconsistent with the Macy’s brand.”
In addition to threatening to seek no less than $25 million in damages, the letter also touts the recent $5 million defamation lawsuit Trump’s Miss Universe L.P. won after former contestant Sheena Monnin said the competition was “fixed” and “trashy.”
“Your unwarranted and tortious acts are far more egregious than Ms. Monnin’s defamatory statements and, I assure you, will result in a judgment of stunning proportions if you choose to persist in your illegal behavior,” the letter reads.
Carusone’s attorney, Paul Alan Levy, cited recent protests that he said illustrate that his client’s campaign is protected under the First Amendment. (Read Levy's response letterhere.)
“From the boycott of Missouri for blocking the Equal Rights Amendment to refusing to eat at Chick-fil-A for opposing gay rights, the ability to stimulate a mass ‘vote with your wallet’ campaign has been a key weapon for activists that has long been recognized under the First Amendment,” Levy says.
Garten says he was surprised to hear Carusone was going public with the letter.
“The guy’s desperate for media attention -- the guy's a loser," he says, adding that the protest has had no negative effect on the sales of Trump merchandise at Macy's.
THR has reached out to Macy's for comment.
E-mail: aaron.couch@THR.com
Twitter: @AaronCouch

February 15, 2013


Daily chart

Danger of death!

How you are unlikely to die
ON FEBRUARY 15th DA14, an asteroid 45 metres across, will sail past the Earth at 7.8km a second (4.9 miles a second). At just 27,700km away, it is well within the range of communication satellites. It will be the closest encounter on record with an asteroid this big. In 1908 an asteroid estimated to be around 100 metres in diameter destroyed 2,000 km² of forest in Siberia. Thankfully, such events are rare. NASA has identified 9,600 "near-Earth objects" since 1995, but just 861 with a diameter of 1km or more. The greatest threat to Earth is the 140-metre wide AG5; but it has just a 1-in-625 chance of hitting Earth, and not until February 5th 2040. More prosaic things are far more dangerous. According to data from America's National Safety Council, 27 people died in 2008 in America from contact with dogs (a one in 11m chance of death). The chart below compares the odds of dying in any given year from choking, cycling, being struck by lightning or stung by a bee.

Spookydude Evil George Soros Said to Make $1 Billion Since November on Yen Bet

By Katherine Burton - Feb 14, 2013 9:20 AM ET
George Soros made almost $1 billion since November from bets that the yen would tumble, according to a person close to the billionaire’s $24 billion family office.
The Japanese wager helped the firm return about 10 percent last year and 5 percent so far this year, said the person, who asked not to be named because the firm is private. The yen has weakened 17 percent versus the dollar since about the start of the fourth quarter, the worst performance over a similar period since 1985.
Enlarge imageSoros Said to Make $1 Billion Since November Betting Against Yen
George Soros, founder of Soros Fund Management LLC, at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 25, 2013. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
Soros Says Can Withdraw Credit as Economy Heals
24:19
Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire investor George Soros talks about the European sovereign-debt crisis, inflation risk and his Open Society Foundations. He speaks with Francine Lacqua at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. (Source: Bloomberg)
Billionaire George Soros Says Euro `Here to Stay'
17:38
Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire investor George Soros talks about Europe's sovereign-debt crisis, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi's policy measures and the potential impact of austerity on the region's economies. He speaks with Bloomberg Television's Erik Schatzker on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. (Source: Bloomberg)
The yen slumped and Japanese stocks rallied as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pressed the Bank of Japan to introduce additional stimulus measures. BOJ Governor Masaaki Shirakawa and two deputies will step down next month, allowing Abe to pick leaders to implement his plan for expanded monetary easing.
Scott Bessent, chief investment officer at New York-based Soros Fund Management LLC, also has 10 percent of the firm’s internally managed portfolio betting on rising shares in Japan, said the person. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index has jumped about 28 percent since the end of September.
Bessent worked for Soros in 1992 when Soros and his chief strategist Stan Druckenmiller made a $10 billion bet that the Bank of England would be forced to devalue the pound. That wager netted $1 billion. At the time Soros’s Quantum fund was $3.3 billion.
Bessent left the firm in 2000, and returned to be CIO in 2011.
Michael Vachon, a spokesman for the firm, said he couldn’t 

February 12, 2013


Married Fathers: Weapon No. 1 Against Child Poverty


June 17, 2010

Washington , D.C. , April 17, 2010 -- A wedding ring, it turns out, is the ultimate anti-poverty weapon. That conclusion from The Heritage Foundation is both encouragement and warning this Father’s Day.
“The principal cause of child poverty in the U.S. is the absence of married fathers in the home,” Robert Rector, senior research fellow at the leading Washington think tank, says in a new paper illustrating the social costs of record-high births outside marriage – and of homes without fathers.
Rector, a leading authority on poverty and welfare whose work inspired the welfare reforms of the mid-1990s, has rendered this common-sense diagnosis before. Now, “Marriage and Poverty in the U.S.: By the Numbers,” 12 new charts accompanying his paper, shows he remains on the mark despite ongoing official neglect of root causes.
The escalating rate of births to unmarried women – more than four out of every 10 babies, and a staggering seven out of 10 for blacks – has grown well beyond a crying shame.
The growing number of out-of-wedlock births draws little media attention. To the extent it does, the focus tends to stray to a less devastating, though important, social issue: teen pregnancy. In 2008, babies born to girls under 18 accounted for 130,000 or 7.5 percent of the total 1.72 million out-of-wedlock births.
“Marriage matters. But mentioning the bond between marriage and lower poverty violates the protocols of political correctness. Thus, the main cause of child poverty remains hidden from public view,” Rectorwrites. “Since the decline of marriage is the principal cause of child poverty and welfare dependence in the U.S. …it would seem reasonable for government to take steps to strengthen marriage.”
Research shows that a child raised in a home where Dad is married to Mom is much less likely to:
  • Live in poverty.
  • Get arrested as a juvenile.
  • Be suspended or expelled from school.
  • Be treated for emotional or behavioral problems.
  • Drop out before completing high school.
Taxpayers get the bill for more than $300 billion a year in means-tested government spending on low-income single moms – and, in relatively rare cases, single dads.
About two of every three poor children live in single-parent households, most headed by a mother. Yet if poor single moms married the fathers of their children, nearly two out of three would be lifted out of poverty.
“Our national tragedy is our loss of loyal fathers,” says Chuck Donovan, senior research fellow in Heritage’s DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society.
“In communities where single parenthood is relatively infrequent – and such neighborhoods are vanishing – older married men or younger men who are ‘marriage material’ can fill much of the mentoring gap,” Donovan writes. “But where will such men come from in cities where large numbers of males refuse to mentor or monitor their own children?”
Heritage analysts view the overall unwed birth rate as a widening crack that hastens the collapse of marriage.
Contrary to popular misconception, it’s not as simple as young men “manning up” and becoming the lawfully wedded husbands of their girlfriends, live-in or otherwise. Research shows these women tend to be in their 20s and without much income or education. They come to depend on public assistance and learn how to work the welfare system.
But rather than adopt policies to reverse the 50-year spike in the unwed birth rate, President Obama’s 2011 budget “would eliminate the one program dedicated to encouraging healthy marriage,”notes Jennifer A. Marshall, Heritage’s director of domestic policy studies.
“In its place would be a program promoting a notion of ‘fatherhood’ that doesn't involve the father being married or in the home,” Marshall writes. “The facts speak for themselves. It's time more policymakers noticed what the facts are saying.”

February 9, 2013


weather

The Blizzard 'Nemo' Highlights The Hype Cycle Of Storms

by 
Two women look for a taxi in New York's Times Square on Friday.Enlarge image
Two women look for a taxi in New York's Times Square on Friday.
AFP/AFP/Getty Images
If you've wondered why the blizzard dumping snow on the Northeast has a name, look no further than The Weather Channel. At the start of this storm season, the 24-hour-weather network announced, much to the chagrin of The National Weather Service, that it would give names to winter storms.
The whole storm-naming-phenomenon is just part of a recurring cycle of frenzy, buildup, climax and plateau that we seem to collectively observe with each major weather system these days.
Academics use something called a "hype cycle" to illustrate the way society adopts new technologies. Now, it's becoming increasingly clear that superstorms get hype cycles of their own. Let's break down the phases of a storm hype cycle:
Phase One: The Trigger
It's tricky to forecast the weather several weeks out, so storms like "Nemo" often start as "a cold front that may bring a few inches of snow next weekend." But once many meteorologists agree that something major is coming, the hype cycle is triggered. Use of a storm name also indicates the storm cycle has begun. (See: "Frankenstorm.") Sometime during this phase, assorted social media hashtags that may or may not feature the storm name begin proliferating cyberspace.

This is when you start seeing headlines that include any of the following terms: historic, extreme, crushing, imminent. Often these terms can be found in all caps.Elected officials start making necessary municipal or state-level preparations for the weather; the governor of Massachusetts, in anticipation of Nemo the Blizzard, banned driving on all Massachusetts streets and bridges by Friday afternoon. Airlines cancel flights. Trains stop service. Anxiety sets in. NPR's Monkey See blogger Linda Holmes put it this way, as she watched 14 hours of The Weather Channel during 2011's Hurricane Irene: "I'm convinced that wall-to-wall weather coverage soothes anxiety by making you feel (quite incorrectly) like you now have an encyclopedic knowledge of how, exactly, you might wind up with a basement full of raw sewage." Perhaps Linda's not alone.Phase Two: The Expectation Buildup
Those in harm's way are either relocating or making the decision to hunker down. On the social front, one or two key hashtags break out from the dozens of different ones that cropped up earlier. In 2012, for example, #Frankenstorm was quickly replaced by #Sandy.
Phase Three: The Wait
The speed of the Web being what it is, the media-consuming public often gets whipped up into a frenzy that crests several hours — or even days — before a storm actually begins piling an area with precipitation and doing damage. So this phase represents the gap in time between the crest of the frenzy and the storm actually arriving. Images of empty airports, train stations and people shoring up their homes flash across screens. Television reporters go live from grocery stores, where those in the storm's path have stripped shelves clean of bottled water, batteries and nonperishable food items. Over on The Weather Channel site, a blizzard countdown was measured to the second.
Phase Four: The Storm
The length of this phase depends on the size of the system. But more often than not, the actual storm lasts for a shorter amount of time than its preceding phases. A recognizable trait of this phase is that emergency crews and journalists are the only ones outside. Many of those reporters and meteorologists broadcast while getting pelted with hail, knocked down by sideways rain, swallowed by snow or otherwise suffering the very situations they are warning you to avoid. And for those actually in the path of the storm, phase four presents a rather modern and meta situation. Assuming you haven't lost electricity, it's entirely possible to find yourself watching a storm unfold on television or Twitter instead of looking out your window at wind gusts, driving rain or falling snow.
Phase Five: The Coverage Plateau And Petering Out
Coverage shifts from the disaster to what it left behind. But after a certain amount of time — a week, perhaps more — aftermath attention tends to plateau and peter out. Post-storm stories tend to show at a more surface level the way the storm shook up a community in sometimes permanent ways, but the stories don't commonly get revisited. More than three months after Superstorm Sandy, the AP reported that 42,000 of its New Jersey victims remain displaced. But after a week's worth of storm damage stories, Sandy stories largely fell off of front pages.
The danger here is that while a hype cycle tends to follow the same pattern, storms themselves can vary widely in their magnitude, scope and degree of damage to humans and creatures. If the go-to aftermath stories are the same, the public response runs the risk of becoming routine — to the detriment of those who need help. In Sandy's wake, donations of clothing piled up when aid organizations said what they really needed was cash. In other instances, blankets are sent to tropical areas or bottled water to places with abundant water resources.
With scientists predicting extreme weather systems will only increase in frequency, the storm hype cycle will likely become more common. And when the cycle is standard, the vastly different ways lives are affected could get lost.

February 1, 2013


Barack Obama Worst 

at Creating Jobs

|
Reason columnist and Mercatus Center economist Veronique de Rugy has created the above chart tracking net job creation by presidential terms since 1945.
The short version: The 21st century really sucks so far. Slightly longer version: Obama and Bush fils are the worst of the bunch.
As de Rugy notes at National Review's The Corner:
  • Since President Obama took office, fewer jobs were created than were lost. Actually, some 300,000 fewer Americans are employed then when the president took office. That’s mainly because a large number of jobs were lost during 2009 and the so-called recovery is the slowest one of all time, with very meek monthly job creation and weak economic growth.
  • It would take Obama roughly 280,000 new jobs per month for every month from now until January 2013 to get him out of last place.
  • While it would be unfair to compare Obama with Clinton, this chart shows that at this point President Obama’s job numbers are far worse than Presidents Carter, Kennedy, and Ford, who were in office almost as long or served much shorter periods than he has
De Rugy also points to work by her Mercatus colleague Keith Hall, whose chart on the employment-to-population ratio helps illustrate just how rotten this so-called recovery really is.
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