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The Owlbirdbet™ is far from dead.
-- Owlb
Not just US troops will be honored Memorial Day
(Montgomery Advertiser, Montgomery, Alabama, May 29, 2k11)
Washington Post (May25,2k11)
Reuters via The Raw Story (May23,2k11)
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Spanish Socialists hammered in election after a week of protests | The Raw Story
The center-right opposition Popular Party (PP) won its
best result in municipal elections since Spain returned to democracy
in 1978 after the Franco dictatorship.
The Uptake's Minnesota House of Representatives demo (May21,2k11)
The Raw Story (May23,2k11)
The Uptake's Minnesota House
after Defense of Marriage Act
passed into law (May21,2k11)
Fox News (May18,2k11)
by Mike Levine
All that twitters a tweet
may have to repeat,
or delete.
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Read more ...
Control. Alt. Delete!
Little more than a week after the U.S. Secret Service launched its official Twitter account, the federal law enforcement agency has had a major system failure.
Shortly after 3 p.m. Wednesday, the Secret Service's account declared on the social media site: "Had to monitor Fox for a story. Can't. Deal. With. The. Blathering."
The posting was quickly removed, but within a half-hour dozens of other Twitter users had already begun re-posting -- or "re-Tweeting" -- the message.
"Love the Secret Service tweets!" one Twitter user said.Earlier in the day, Fox News had been covering the story of Vito LaPinta, the 13-year-old from Tacoma, Wash., who was recently visited by a Secret Service agent for posting a message on Facebook suggesting President Obama should watch out for terrorist attacks in the wake of Usama bin Laden's killing. LaPinta's mother was not present when the Secret Service interviewed her son, a move she decried as inappropriate.
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Financial Times email newsletter (May12,2k11)
FT email newsletter (May17,2k11):
Greece and Portugal should both go gracefully
Even as the ink is drying on Portugal’s European Union and International Monetary Fund bail-out agreement, evidence is mounting that last year’s bail-outs of Greece and Ireland have failed.
Far from improving their access to the financial markets, Greece and Ireland face record borrowing costs. Notwithstanding the slightly less draconian terms of Portugal’s agreement, it will surely suffer a similar fate.
The EU will try to get away with “soft” restructurings, involving a combination of longer maturities and lower interest rates. But this will not work and by 2013 there will be no viable alternative to “hard” restructurings (default), comprising debt write-downs of 50 per cent or more. Unfortunately, in the case of Greece and Portugal at least, even this will not guarantee continued membership of the euro.
http://link.ft.com/r/8P1R88/XTU6HO/70OUJ/HD77WD/EWZXLG/CM/h?a1=2011&a2=5&a3=12
Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (May19,2k11)
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YouTubeServices video via yUT2ube channel,
refWrite's video partner
-- posted by Politicarp
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Wall Street Daily (May12,2k11) --
this ain't the Wall Street Journal - EconoMix
WSD is an investment email newsletter edited by Louis Basenese
My Report from the Heart
of Egypt's Historic Revolution
by Karim Rahemtulla,
Director of Options/Emerging Markets, The White Cap Research Group
When I told my friends six weeks ago that I was going to Cairo, many cautioned me against it.
After all, the country was fresh off the fierce political uprising that ousted former president, Hosni Mubarak. To this day, the region remains in flux and intensely volatile.
I must confess that when storms delayed my departure from Florida, causing me to miss three connections, I wondered if it was a sign of foreboding. My trepidation was even more palpable when I hit the streets of Cairo.
Here's what I discovered - and what the aftermath will mean for both Egypt and investors alike.
The Buzz on the Street
I landed seven hours late in Cairo at 9:00 PM. The airport was empty - an eerie feeling in a strange land experiencing a revolution.
Taking no chances, I'd already arranged transportation to my hotel. The cabbie - a young man - took us through construction sites and debris-strewn dirt roads, in order to avoid armored checkpoints.
I asked him what he thought about the uprising. Using broken English, he said, "Mubarak a bad man." He told me he valued his job, but if he made $100 per month, he'd feel fortunate.
When I reached the hotel - the beautiful Kempinski on the Nile - I was the only guest in the lobby. No wonder I scored such a good price - revolution rates!
The next day, a local guide took me to non-touristy places off the beaten path, so I could get a genuine feeling for the mood.
I wanted to meet the locals in Old Cairo... desert-dwelling Bedouins... and, through my contacts, the head of the Egyptian Stock Exchange.
The backstreets of Old Cairo are filthy. The smell from garbage, livestock and sewage was overwhelming. I'd experienced that same smell of poverty before in Asia, South America and Africa. (Poverty affects around 40% of the Egyptian population.)
I met some locals at a tea shop and was served hot tea and a hookah - a water pipe designed for smoking. One of the locals - a 60-something butcher - inhaled and proclaimed himself the local hookah-smoking champion, as he blew a long wisp of smoke.
He was just as happy as the cabbie about Mubarak's demise, saying, "It's bad for business now because people have been shut in for weeks, but we'll get our money back from that thief."
The others shared his view, except for one person, who conceded that Mubarak was "the devil we know," yet he was also sympathetic to the uncertain future for Mubarak's children. It doesn't matter where you are in the world, people are always concerned about their children's well-being.
My next stop was Tahrir Square - the focal point of the revolution.
Into the Heart of the Uprising
The 'square' isn't much more than a traffic intersection, really. Nothing like Red Square or Tiananmen Square. It just appeared more organized because the protestors used the surrounding buildings as boundaries.
There were a few civilians, a couple of armored personnel carriers and a lot of military. Make no mistake, in Egypt, the military is in charge.
My driver, who also drove for ex-president, Anwar Sadat, sadly pointed out the smoldering ruins of the Democratic Party Building, overlooking the square. It was Mubarak's party headquarters. "This would never have happened under Sadat. He was a good man, not afraid to be among the people. We never see Mubarak in public, he's a crook."
Then it was on to the Egyptian Stock Exchange, where I met the new Chairman, Mohammed Abdel Salam.
My Meeting With the Chairman of the Egyptian Stock Exchange
My first impression of the exchange? Maximum security.
Sub-machine gun-wielding soldiers guarded the entrance, and an armored personnel carrier was ominously parked across the street.
My first question to Chairman Salam regarded the seemingly premature re-opening of the exchange just a few days earlier. He admitted being under extreme pressure to open, due to a deadline imposed by Morgan Stanley's Index, which tracks emerging market shares.
You see, if the exchange hadn't opened that week, Egypt would have lost its spot in the Index, triggering severe capital outflows. Given that inflows from foreigners have exceeded outflows since the exchange's inception, nobody wanted such a favorable trend to end.
My takeaway from the trip? Egypt is in turmoil, but has huge potential...
The Move Egypt Must Make Now
For example, with major ports on the Red Sea and Mediterranean, plus the Nile and Suez Canal, Egypt possesses key trade routes. The country also boasts strong natural resources and agriculture.
However, to maximize its potential, Egypt must shake off the Mubarak hangover and start fresh. And that means forming a real government, not some temporary, power-sharing arrangement. It's important to remember, too, that while Egyptians are religious, the revolution was due to financial reasons, not religious ones. And until money starts flowing into the hands of Egypt's citizens - away from corrupt policymakers - for infrastructure projects, education and tourism, Egypt will underachieve.
It certainly won't attain first-world status - an honor it held over 5,000 years ago when it dominated much of the civilized world - until this new government takes root.
Teetering on the Brink of Global Chaos?
Egypt's potential is also set against the turmoil in the entire region. The 'Arab Spring' is in full bloom - from chaotic Libya in the West to Saudi Arabia in the East. Having crisscrossed the region for thousands of years, the desert-dwelling Bedouins I met are nervous about unrest spreading further.
Naturally, such volatility has huge implications for the oil market and global economy. In fact, any negative effects on oil production would make driving unaffordable for most of us, and non-Arab economies would come to a screeching halt. It could also trigger the start of a new global conflict (dare I say World War III?). Few could afford to be involved in such a conflict, yet - given its oil - the price of not being involved could be even greater.
Ahead of the tape,
Karim Rahemtulla
Africa appeals to potential investors for a host of reasons, as demonstrated by numerous studies. Not surprisingly, natural resources have been the catalyst for Africa's growth. The continent has the widest range of minerals, from gold, platinum and diamond to chrome, coal, cassiterite and coltan.See the picture gallery in BBC News - Africa (May10,2k11).
The continent has grown steadily at about 5.6 per cent between 2001 and 2008, thanks to a combination of structural economic and political reforms, stable macroeconomic conditions and increased foreign direct investment, or FDI, inflows - which quadrupled from just over $50 billion in 2003 to over $200 billion in 2008 - mainly from emerging economies.
At the World Economic Forum, discussions revolved around how 40 African multinational corporations, labelled together as African Challengers, outperformed the Nikkei 225, DAX 30 and the S&P 500 on revenue and profit margins from 2003 to 2008. The African Challengers came from sectors in which Africa is least developed. The largest proportion of these fast growing companies are in information and communications technology, financial services and logistics, besides mining and natural resources. In short, where there are challenges in Africa, there are also investment opportunities - and not just in natural resources.
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BBC News (May,2k11) Recommended by refWrite:
Click-up and read the complete news item.
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Wall Street Journal (May9,2k11) via Workforce (SmartBrief) May9,2k11)
Lawmakers in New Hampshire and Missouri are advancing so-called right-to-work bills that would allow private-sector workers to opt out of joining unions, the latest such efforts to curb labor unions in the legislative season that in many states is now entering the home stretch.
The measures, if successful, would mark the first expansion in a decade of right-to-work laws, which are on the books in 22 states.
Lawmakers in New Hampshire, where Republicans took control of both chambers last fall, passed a right-to-work measure last week. Its success will hinge on whether the state House of Representatives has enough votes to override a promised veto by Democratic Gov. John Lynch. If the bill passes, New Hampshire would become the first right-to-work state in the Northeast, historically a union stronghold.
In Missouri, the sponsor of a state Senate right-to-work bill is trying to shape a compromise in the final days of the legislative session.Read more ...
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-- an Aish.com video
This year Holocaust Remembrance Day was observed on May 1, 2011.
Memorial Day will be observed May 9, 2011.
And Israel's Independence Day will be celebrated on May 11, 2011, marking the Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel in 1948.
-- Politicarp for refWrite
...May 5, 2011, is the National Day of Prayer. This year's observance marks the 60th annual national prayer event. As in the past, Christians and adherents of other faiths are invited on this day to voluntarily pray according to the conventions of their own beliefs. The theme for 2011 is Psalm 91:12, "I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."
Since 1952 when the National Day of Prayer was officially created by a joint resolution of the US Congress and signed into law by President Harry Truman, every president has signed a National Day of Prayer proclamation. This year President Barack Obama recognized the significant role prayer has had in the lives of the American people, saying, "Throughout our history, Americans have turned to prayer for strength, inspiration, and solidarity. Prayer has played an important role in the American story and in shaping our Nation's leaders."
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Dr Gideon Strauss is CEO of the Center for Public Justice, a Christian political thinktank in the Washington DC area. He developed some thawts, relying on Scripture, on the USA military execution of the mass murderer Osama bin Laden who was mastermind of the 9/11 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, NY; the Pentagon, Arlington Virginia; and the further planned attack on the Capitol in Washington that was prevented by airplane passengers who sacrificed themselves by deflecting the terrorist flite path of the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93, apparently on its way toward the Capitol or the White House. They achieved their heroic goal by crashing their plane in a field near Shanksville, Somerset County, Pennsylvania. In all three locations, the death toll totaled 2,977 victims, and 19 assassins who were deployed for this purpose by Osama bin Laden. OBL was also responsible for several other mass murders in scattered places around the world; he was an ally of the Taliban in subjugating Afghanistan to a severe regime of Sharia Law, repression of women, and many other heinous perversions of justice.
Dr Strauss's article amounts to a guide for the perplexed and those in mourning, even shock, due to the atrocities of this man. Christianity Today (May2,2k11)
Hat Tip to Steve Bishop, editor, The Reformational Daily
-- Politicarp
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Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's
CBC News (May3,2k11)
refWrite editorial comment: As of yesterday's federal elections, Canada now has a majority government, a majority if we count not the popular vote, but if we count instead the number of seats won in the Parliament's House of Commons, party by party. There were four parties in the last Parliament, now augmented by a fifth party, the Green Party of Canada, which won 1 seat (the Saanich - Gulf Islands riding in the province of British Columbia).
A majority government, won by the Conservative Party of Canada under Prime Minister Stephen Harper yesterdat, will bring stability and will secure a full four year term -- unless the Prime Minister decides to call one sooner. PM Harper will probably not pull the plug early, since he has been granted in his past winning election campaigns (2006, 2008) only minority governments which served at the whim of the other three parties -- all three having been leftist. What's especially interesting is that yesterday Jack Layton's New Democratic Party, arguably the most leftist and socialist of the three, now four, opposition parties (which together received a majority of the popular vote) has become the 2nd-place party in regard to seats in the Commons, thus becoming what we call "the official opposition." He accomplished this, as predicted here, by cutting the previous 2nd place party, the Liberals, down to a rump (falling from 76 in 2008 to 34 today. Even more interesting was the movement of Lib voters away from that party in Québec where they landed on the doorstep of the NDP, and Ontario where they fled a feared national victory of the NDP and so headed strait into the arms of the Conservs.
In the 1962 election, Social Credit won 26 seats in Quebec. Caouette himself returned to Parliament as the MP for Villeneuve, a riding he held for the rest of his life (though it was renamed Témiscamingue in 1966). The party won only four seats in the rest of Canada, forcing Thompson to appoint Caouette as the party's deputy leader. Holding the balance of power in the House of Commons, Social Credit helped bring down the Progressive Conservative minority government of John Diefenbaker. However in the 1963 election, Social Credit was reduced to 24 seats nationwide.Any argument from historical analogy can only hold in certain respects regarding a current event and its suggested historical antecedant / analogue. My main point, of course, is simply that Jack Layton has a difficult job on his hands. My secondary point is that the cultural milieux of Québec gives Mr Layton little ground for relishing the youth, inexperience, and in some cases lack of fluency in French of his new caucus members from Québec -- where his numbers skyrocketed from 1 to 58 (58 out of a total of 102 in the full caucus). Mr Layton's caucus size, minus its 58 Québec numbers, is 44, which may be the statistical marker of a sociological faultline that even the amazing Jack Layton can't talk away.
Caouette fought for bilingualism in the House of Commons, winning a symbolic victory when he got the Parliament's restaurant to produce bilingual menus.[1] In this, he anticipated the official bilingualism policy that would later be put into effect by Pierre Trudeau.Caouette believed that since the party was most successful in Quebec, he should be leader of the party instead of Thompson. As well, Caoeutte and his followers remained true believers in the social credit monetary theories of C.H. Douglas while Thompson and the Social Credit Party of Alberta had largely abandoned the theory. Thompson refused to step aside, leading Caouette to leave the party, along with the rest of Quebec wing in 1963, to establish the Ralliement des créditistes as its own political party, independent of Social Credit.Main article: Social Credit Party of Canada split, 1963In the 1965 election, Caouette's Ralliement won nine seats, while Social Credit led by Thompson won five seats. In the 1968 election, Caouette's party won 14 seats while Social Credit won none. (Wikipedia)
