This Blog is created to stress the importance of Peace as an environmental directive. “I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell.” – Harry Truman
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By ELISABETH KADLEC Tuesday, October 28, 2008 Until a few years ago, I am almost embarrassed to say, I never voted. Then I became the wife of an Army officer. For me, choosing a candidate is not based on which party I tend to side with, but which candidate will make the best choices for the armed forces and my family.... ...On Nov. 4, my vote will be counted along with all military families. Not all military families’ political beliefs are the same as mine. However, I believe that we can all agree on the following: We miss our spouses. We want our soldiers to be safe. We want smart decisions to be made. Does that mean that Obama or McCain is the right choice? I have chosen to vote for Obama. • Elisabeth Kadlec, a mother of two, lives in Fayetteville.
Palin & Stevens talk about each other A look at the relationship between Gov. Sarah Palin & Sen. Ted Stevens. Author : Kyle Hopkins Date taken : July 2, 2008
Stevens and Palin were very cozy. He endorsed her candidacy for Governor and made a commercial for her. This was well after the particulars of VECO was well known. Click on title. It's an interesting video. Watch it to the end. Thank you.
Monegan at AFN (click here) Gov. Sarah Palin's former public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, talks to reporters at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention. Topics include: The Troopergate investigation, and what's next for both Monegan & Palin. Author : Alaska Politics Date taken : Oct. 23, 2008
To add dimension, the 'spots/dots' on the iceberg are penguins.
Huge Icebergs off Antarctica on February 4, 2008. Once icebergs break off the continent they enter the East Wind Drift and adds to the waters of the oceans.
Except for the rainforests and jungles of Earth, especially Indonesia; there was dearly little water vapor and Antarctica was hot.
It isn't JUST 'the man' we are electing. It is our country we are reclaiming !
“In one week, you can put an end to the politics that would divide a nation just to win an election,” Mr. Obama told a crowd of more than 4,000 in Canton, Ohio. “In one week, at this defining moment in history, you can give this country the change we need.”
October 27, 2008 Tasiilaq, Greenland Photographer states :: Lonely Iceberg. View from my veranda...Ammassalik Fjord..Kuummiut, Greenland... http://kuummiut.com
Arctic air temperatures climb to record levels (click title to entry, thank you) Thu Oct 16, 2008 6:01pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fall air temperatures have climbed to record levels in the Arctic due to major losses of sea ice as the region suffers more effects from a warming trend dating back decades, a report released on Thursday showed. The annual report issued by researchers at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other experts is the latest to paint a dire picture of the impact of climate change in the Arctic. It found that fall air temperatures are at a record 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees C) above normal in the Arctic because of the major loss of sea ice in recent years that allows more solar heating of the ocean.... An undated handout photo from the Center for Northern Studies shows the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf disintegrating. REUTERS/Denis Sarrazin/Center for Northern Studies/Handout
Local Time: 4:26 PM AKDT on October 27, 2008
Lat/Lon: 58.8° N 137.0° W
Temperature :: 46 °F / 8 °C
Conditions :: Overcast
Windchill :: 42 F/ 6 C
Humidity :: 71%
Dew Point :: 37 F/ 3C
Wind :: 9 mph / 15 km/h / 4.1 m/s from the SE
Pressure :: 30.00 in/ 1016 hPa (Steady)
Visibility :: 10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
UV :: 0 out of 16
Clouds :: Overcast 5500 ft/ 1676 m (Above ground level)
Sen. Stevens guilty on all counts, career in peril (click on title to entry, thank you) By MATT APUZZO and JESSE J. HOLLAND – 1 hour ago WASHINGTON (AP) — Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens was convicted of seven corruption charges Monday in a trial that threatened to end the 40-year career of Alaska's political patriarch in disgrace. The verdict, coming barely a week before Election Day, increased Stevens' difficulty in winning what already was a difficult race against Democratic challenger Mark Begich. Democrats hope to seize the once reliably Republican seat as part of their bid for a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.... ...Stevens faces up to five years in prison on each count when he is sentenced, but under federal guidelines he is likely to receive much less prison time, if any. The judge originally scheduled sentencing for Jan. 26 but then changed his mind and did not immediately set a date....
I used to be a huge NASCAR Fan. I watched NASCAR when far younger with my Dad, back in the day when "Stock cars were stocked cars." Mario Andre, Bill Elliot and the boys from Dawson, Georgia. Boy, is this a throw back.
The last race I attended was in 1995 at Martinsville Raceway. Martin won that race, but, he always won all the short track races.
I objected to NASCAR after a time because I objected to the 'persona' the Francis' were putting forward in their drivers. They were macho men with little representation of the environment, conscience of change to their fans promoting healthy living and quite frankly standing on the side of war, even in Iraq by allowing some of their teams to display affiliations with The National Guard, etc. The 'introduction' of the military institutions under this administration to the race car scene was an enticement that should have been regarded as inappropriate. The military is government and to have million dollar race teams involved in NASCAR and IROC was simply wrong. NASCAR is a private enterprise and it should have remained that way. Perhaps they'll think this through differently in the future.
NO, NASCAR isn't going to get off easy here. I don't mind having a military, but, there is a right and a wrong to things as they existed under Bush and NASCAR simply looked the other way and kept raking in the bucks. I do believe there needs to be a cultural awakening to some of these 'beloved' American institutions. Perhaps NASCAR can find a way to run the concept of THE GREEN MACHINES on their tracks and invite sponsors like Chevy's VOLT to symbolize the progress that needs to made in the way of personal transportation. After all, those race cars were never intended to be family cars, but, they certainly symbolized a lot of glamour to any owner.
I am so very glad to see Junior Johnson make a public decision to stand with Barak Obama and Joe Biden and the Democrats for change. He's right, there is a right side and a wrong side to life and conducting 'Robocalls' is simply wrong.
It does my heart good to have him come forward. Thank you so much. So very, very much.
Let's see now, I think Junior hales from Wilkes County, North Carolina if I remember right.
October 22, 2008 Los Angeles, California Photographer states :: A Los Angeles City FD helicopter makes water drop at night on flames from a 100 acre brush fire that burned through the Sepulveda Pass early Thursday morning. The flames briefly threatened Brentwood.
An accounting of what occurred. Most fires currently contained.
Lake Runners All Accounted For (click here) All the runners feared missing after a marathon race across the Lake District was scrapped because of storms and flooding have been accounted for. Around 2,500 people began the arduous event. Police and the RAF confirmed that all missing competitors were located after hundreds had been left stranded in the Honister Pass area. Many were forced to camp overnight in poor conditions after Britain's toughest endurance event, the Original Mountain Marathon, was abandoned yesterday due to dismal weather.... Fell running on a better day.
Mountain marathon: case studies (click here) Veterans of this year's Original Mountain Marathon tell their stories. By Paul Stokes Last Updated: 9:39PM GMT 26 Oct 2008 ...They encountered problems as the storms moved in about three quarters of an hour into the run after setting of at 9.25am. Miss Creaser said: "Up to higher heights it was getting horrendous. It was blown off my feet three times. "I have never experienced such consistently bad weather, it was unrelenting. But I don't think for the people doing it it was desperately dangerous." They climbed down off a ridge to a lower level and, five hours after starting, achieved their objective of reaching the overnight camp at Garthgate. Mr Porter said: "We have all the gear, including a mountain tent designed for the weather, and could have bivouacked overnight on the tops. We had been sent a notice last week warning of the conditions." They made their way to a café, which became a muster point after the event was called off, before being taken to the Honiston slate mine museum where they stayed overnight with other competitors. Miss Creaser said: "The WRVS were there with food for us. I feel a bit guilty at taking this food and shelter because we had come prepared."...
...For the uninitiated (click here) the Original Mountain Marathon (click title of entry for link, thank you) is a two day fell running event in the Lake District, due to the appalling weather conditions, the race has been called off, the first time in 40 years,...
The construction of buildings in this area of the world is very different. The lack of preparedness by Yemen to these storms is similar to the issues France faced when over 10,000 people died inside their homes due to high heats. These country's are experiencing severe and 'rapid' climate change and have no clue how to survive it.
A general view shows damaged houses following a tropical storm in Hadramout.
Yemen tropical storm leaves trail of destruction (click here) AP Published: October 26, 2008, 20:16 Shibam, Yemen: Ahmad Salem's family screamed on Saturday as their traditional Yemeni mud brick house disintegrated in rushing flood waters from a deadly tropical storm that has killed 61 people in southern Yemen. Hamid Al Kharashi, a police chief in the southern province of Hadramout, is warning that the death toll could rise further, since scores of people are still missing and hundreds of families are homeless or trapped by the flood waters. Rain was continuing to fall yesterday, although only lightly in Hadramout. Getting relief supplies to those affected in the remote and rugged Yemeni hinterlands has been difficult, as most roads are washed out.
October 27, 2008 0038 gmt Indian Ocean
There are repeated storms to the region and with each new storm there is more saturation of the land and increased flooding. The storms are coming off a very hot Indian Ocean.
Death toll mounts in Yemen tropical storm (click here) AgenciesLast updated: October 26, 2008, 16:41 Sayoun: The Yemeni government on Sunday said 61 people have been killed by floods that swept through the south in the wake of a massive tropical storm. Hamid Al Kharashi, a police chief in Hadramout, said the death toll could rise further since scores of people are still missing and hundreds of families are homeless or trapped by the flood waters.The Interior Ministry earlier said 58 people were killed by fierce flooding, while another six were killed in lightning strikes during two days of storms.
Musgrave is poster child of "bigotry" in Rolling Stone article By Jeremy Pelzer, PolitickerCO.com Reporter U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Fort Morgan) is the subject -- and the target -- of an article in this week's Rolling Stone about how Musgrave's electoral troubles are a sign that "the politics of bigotry" are withering away. "If Musgrave is ousted in November, as polls suggest she'll be, it's worth asking just what exactly is going on," correspondent Matt Tabbi writes. "Has there been a sea change in the electorate? Is there a place on the American map where you can actually see the country outgrowing the politics of bigotry?"
…That strategy has worked for a long time — but now, suddenly, things are different in places like the 4th District. Not only does the torch-bearing evangelical Colorado of Ted Haggard and James Dobson appear poised to turn its nine electoral votes blue for a nonwhite presidential candidate, but the congressional seat belonging to one of America's most celebrated gay-bashers in this once-impregnable Republican stronghold is also up for grabs. If Musgrave is ousted in November, as polls suggest she'll be, it's worth asking just what exactly is going on. Has there been a sea change in the electorate? Is there a place on the American map where you can actually see the country outgrowing the politics of bigotry?...
The Salt Lake Tribune Article Last Updated: 10/26/2008 10:25:04 AM MDT The thought of going to church in her southern California LDS ward makes Carol Oldham cry. She can't face one more sermon against same-sex marriage. She can't tolerate the glares at the rainbow pin on her lapel. Oldham, a lifelong Mormon, is troubled by her church's zeal in supporting a California ballot initiative that would define marriage as between one man and one woman. She feels the church is bringing politics into her sanctuary. "It has tainted everything for me," Oldham said, choking up during a telephone interview. "I am afraid to go there and hear people say mean things about gay people. I am in mourning. I don't...
…I told her it's a lie that Obama does not say the Pledge of Allegiance and it's a lie that he refuses because of his religion. And then I had to explain why a simple statement like ''Obama won't say the Pledge of Allegiance because of his religion'' is steeped in bigotry and narrow-mindedness. The same small-minded people who are spreading this lie are trying to convince voters in this country that Obama, an African-American, is a Muslim and friends with terrorists. My daughter and I watched Colin Powell appear on Meet the Press with Tom Brokaw on YouTube. I wanted her to hear the retired U.S. Army general and former U.S. secretary of state explain why he was disappointed in the approach taken by Republican presidential candidate John McCain and his campaign in recent weeks….
The truly incredible aspect to all this is that anyone running for public office should not have to defend their faith in order to participate. What difference does it make if Barak is a Christian or not? Come people. This is not US.
Obama's faith is widely mistaken in Kentucky By Jack Brammer jbrammer@herald-leader.com FRANKFORT — Public misconception is widespread in Kentucky about Barack Obama's faith, a Herald-Leader/WKYT Kentucky Poll shows. Despite heavy national media attention about Obama's faith, more than half of likely Republican voters — 54 percent — and one of every four Democrats in the state do not know that the Democratic presidential nominee is a Christian, the poll found. The poll showed that 14 percent of likely Kentucky voters — 28 percent of Republicans, 4 percent of Democrats and 11 percent of independents — think Obama adheres to the Muslim faith.
St Johnstone’s big plan to show racism the red card
Oct 24 2008
by Gordon Bannerman, Perthshire Advertiser Friday ST Johnstone and Show Racism the Red Card are joining forces for the Annual Day of Action today. Saints supporters attending the home match against Partick Thistle will be given a Saints squad poster. The Show Racism the Red Card posters have been jointly sponsored by the local branch of UNISON and the Community Safety Partnership. They will also be made available to young participants at the coaching school in the morning and to young Super J fans at their pre-match club. The Day of Action is part of Show Racism the Red Card’s Annual Fortnight of Action, which involves all professional clubs and aims to tackle anti-racism through football. Councillor Willie Robertson, chairman of Perth and Kinross Community Safety Partnership, said: “We are delighted to be able to join with UNISON to sponsor the St Johnstone ‘Show Racism the Red Card’ squad posters. It is important to deliver the message that any form of racism or discrimination is unacceptable.”
Racism and prejudice linger in Hawaii, says chief justice Justice Moon reminds lawyers of racism's shadow in state Hawaii still faces issues of bigotry and racism, says state Chief Justice Ronald Moon, who urged lawyers to help eliminate negative stereotypes of minorities. In a speech yesterday to the Young Lawyers Division of the Hawaii State Bar Association, Moon urged attorneys to review the racial, ethnic and gender makeup of their firms and establish higher recruitment standards which embrace diversity. Moon cited several recent incidents of bigotry, including: » A teenager who yelled "f haole" during the beating of a Caucasian couple in Waikele. » The Hawaii Tourism Authority chief executive who e-mailed racist jokes.
http://www.starbulletin.com/news/hawaiinews/20081025_Racism_and_prejudice_linger_in_Hawaii_says_chief_justice.html The GOP's racism problem The president of a Republican club in San Bernadino County, Calif., resigned yesterday after insulting members of her own party with an anti-Obama newsletter. The mailing contained a cartoonish picture of presidential candidate Barack Obama's head on a donkey on a $10 food stamp called "Obama bucks," surrounded by pictures of Kentucky Fried Chicken, ribs, watermelon and Kool-Aid.The hapa Obama and his hapa sister, Maya. (Democratic Party of Hawaii photo) Petty insults with racist and classist undertones have run rampant in this campaign, as many predicted. But as the name-calling and threats become more pervasive, particularly in local jurisdictions, it's the Republicans themselves who are beginning to cry. "This is what keeps African-Americans from joining the Republican Party," Sheila Raines, one of the black members of the San Bernadino club, told The Press-Enterprise in inland Southern California. "I'm really hurt. I cried for 45 minutes."
By Jennifer CalhounStaff writer When rasicms exists, everyone suffers. No one is excluded. That’s the message Nancy Shakir wants people to take home from the Anti-racism and Economics Forum on Saturday at Fayetteville State University. The forum, co-sponsored by Fayetteville State University and Cumberland County Progressives, will feature panel discussions on institutional racism, privilege, the economics of racism and how oppression affects all people. Shakir, a member of Cumberland County Progressives, defines racism as “prejudice plus power.” “It’s not just prejudice,” she said. “It’s not just bias.” Shakir and other forum leaders hope through understanding, social systems like the justice system can be improved, she said. “We’re reaching out to people who may not understand or see the institutional racism in the system,” she said. “It doesn’t only deal with issues of race for people of color, but what (racism) does to white people, as well. Both sides are losers.”
http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=308345 Police tackle city centre racism Tackling racial hate crimes is the focus of a police operation in Aberdeen this weekend. Grampian Police said more than half of all recorded racist offences in the force area happen in the city centre. Officers will be working with door staff at pubs and clubs, as well as fast food outlets. A spokesman said: "This type of conduct is extremely upsetting and insulting for victims and will not to be tolerated." Possible offenders have been warned they face being held in custody and appearing in court. The spokesman said: "The effect on a victim can be devastating. "Ultimately, a conviction for a racist offence could seriously affect you, your friends, family and employment and leave you with a life-long racist conviction. "Such behaviour in this day and age is unacceptable."
...On Oct. 10, an investigative report written by Branchflower and released by a bipartisan group of state lawmakers concluded that Palin abused her authority and broke state ethics laws by sanctioning a campaign to pressure subordinates to fire her former brother-in-law, state trooper Mike Wooten. Although Palin welcomed the probe in July, she turned against it after John McCain picked her in late August to be his running mate. The McCain-Palin campaign dispatched a team of operatives to Alaska in an effort to block or discredit the Branchflower investigation. On Sept. 2, just a day before she accepted the GOP nomination, Palin took the unusual step of filing an ethics complaint against herself. Her attorney, Thomas Van Flein, said the probe sanctioned by the Legislative Council was a partisan witch-hunt led by Obama supporters, despite the fact that it was approved by a majority of Republican lawmakers. The state personnel board, Palin and her attorneys said is the appropriate governing body to conduct a fair and nonpartisan investigation into Palin for possible ethics violations. Since the 263-page Branchflower report has been released, Palin has misrepresented the report’s findings....
Governor Sarah Palin signs House Bill 109 into law at the Alaska Public Offices Commission in Anchorage. The legislation improves Alaska’s ethics and disclosure laws.
Alaska's Former Top Cop Files Complaint Against Palin (click here) By Jason Leopold The Public Record Monday, October 13, 2008 Walt Monegan, Alaska’s former public safety commissioner fired by Gov. Sarah Palin in July due, in part, to his refusal to fire a state trooper who was married to Palin’s sister, filed a complaint Monday with the state’s personnel board calling for a hearing to “address reputational harm” caused by Palin. In a six-page complaint, Monegan’s attorney Jeffrey Feldman said Palin’s series “inconsistent and changing explanations” for firing Monegan has damaged his reputation. At first she said she wanted to take the department that Monegan headed in a "different direction." In recent weeks, Palin and campaign officials said Monegan was fired for insubordination....
UNISYS Infrared GOES West Satellite October 25, 2008 1530z
Vehicles drive on Interstate 405 and motorists watch as a brush fire burns out of control in the hills of the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles early Thursday morning, Oct. 23, 2008. Los Angeles fire spokesman Brian Humphrey says all lanes of the 405 Freeway have been closed through the Sepulveda Pass. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)
BOULDER, Colorado, October 9, 2008 (ENS) - Wildfires can hike ozone pollution to levels that violate U.S. public health and environmental standards, new research has determined. The study by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research focused on California wildfires in 2007, finding that they repeatedly caused ground-level ozone to spike to unhealthy levels across a broad area, including much of rural California as well as neighboring Nevada. Fires worsen ozone levels by releasing nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons, which can form ozone near the fire or far downwind as a result of chemical reactions in sunlight. The study was published today in "Geophysical Research Letters." It was funded by NASA and by the National Science Foundation, which sponsors NCAR....
Losses are still around 4%, but, if that continues to be cumulative it will be a far different scenario that avails itself next week. I really think all this government 'bailout' mess causes more problems in the market than it helps. If I were an investor and the governments of the world continued to throw money at failure, I would believe there was more coming that somehow my slide rule didn't pick up. I do not believe these bailouts are a good idea. Helping homeowners at the 'payment schedule' is the only bailout the USA needs.
The answer to enegy costs is NOT finding more carbon based fuels, its giving them up and using 'natural' forms of energy such as wind and solar.
...OPEC President Chakib Khelil said because Opec members produce about 300,000 barrels a day more than the official quota of close to 29 million barrels, the total reduction by the end of the year would be about 1.8 million barrels a day. Mr Khelil rejected the suggestion that the decision would hurt the global economy. "There's not going to be any impact on inflation, there's not going to be any impact on growth." Opec oil ministers said that they would review their decision at their next meeting in December, leaving open the possibility of further cuts beforehand if necessary....
Another Republican 'technology' wrongly applied. People are NOT consumer goods. They walk, talk and think which does not lend to 'inventory control.' Another WASTE of the USA Treasury.
Compliance Remains King among Consumer Goods Manufacturers Says ABI Research, but Other Benefits Begin to Prompt RFID Adoption (click here) Last update: 10:03 a.m. EDT Oct. 1, 2008 ...According to research director Michael Liard, "While compliance remains the primary motivator for RFID uptake in the consumer goods sector (in contrast to the overall RFID market) respondents to this ABI Research survey cited three other considerations that increasingly influence their decisions to trial and deploy the technology. They are: ease of scalability, business process improvement, and removal of human intervention."...
But is 'securing' inventory paying off? Is 'compliance adding expense to consumer products in a way that burdens inventories?
Attrition is a fact of life in the marketing of any product. That attrition should be statistically tracked and added into cost components for products. There is nothing wrong with security and maintaining the integrity of inventories from theft and fraud, however, the 'idea' that every item can be tracked to purchase is a bit 'ideological.'
There was a time when this form of 'inventory tracking' was considered a benefit to national security. Has that proven to be the case or does this overburden business costs with components of unproven fear?
At the borders of the USA, do we want machines dictating the traffic across those borders?
I don't think so. There is nothing like finger prints or retinal scans to insure compliance with indenity 'insurance.' Scanners that are also double checked by human contact.
(click title to entry. thank you) ....The information in these tags could be copied on to another, off-the-shelf tag, which might be used to impersonate the legitimate holder of the card if a U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents at the border see the card itself, the researchers said. Another danger is that the tags can be read from as far as 150 feet away in some situations, so criminals could read them without being detected. Although the tags contain personal information, they could be used to track a movements through ongoing surveillance, they said. Another danger is that hackers could cause EDLs to self-destruct by sending out a certain number, they said....
Madonna never knew the security of fidelity with Richie. Will she ever?
...The singer was reportedly plagued by suspicions the British director preferred his former flame Tania Strecker - a 6ft tall model with 37 in legs - especially after Tania claimed Guy was still seeing her when he began romancing Madonna....
When the markets are this depressed, the 'incremental' issues of profit and loss turn up like sore thumbs. Fine tuning what seem like 'minor' impacts on the bottom line will only increase exponentially in their benefit of redress when markets pick up again. Kindly click on title to entry. Thank you.
...Research has uncovered a great imbalance in retailer-supplier negotiations. Using a database compiled from a group of more than 400 suppliers, over 15,000 trade promotions were analysed across 30 different categories over the past five years. Incredibly, it has found that over the past year, the leading grocery retailers held on to 86% of the total incremental profits generated from "joint" retailer-supplier promotional activity. Many suppliers may not even know the exact figure for their business. And worse still for them, this lion's share of profit being kept by retailers has grown by 10% in the past five years. What's more, the percentage of sales made on promotions are increasing each year for heavy promoters. The data shows that 46% of suppliers now sell 40% of volume on promotions - up from 16% of organisations three years ago. A Cabinet Office report earlier this year showed that £10bn-worth of food is thrown away each year, and that we should cut back our spending.The Government has claimed that buy-one-get-one-free-style promotions, key consumer goods sales tools, are a major contributory factor to this level of waste. But price promotions play an important part in driving volume through consumer goods companies' factories. Not surprisingly, therefore, the smart money is going into finding ways of redistributing the wealth - by increasing the manufacturer's share of the promotional profit pie. This is because trade spend is probably the biggest area of expenditure where there is genuine scope for immediate and significant improvement. It is the biggest "win". As they say in the US, just do the maths. A company making a bottom line 10% margin, spending 20% on trade promotions, only has to increase trade spend efficiency by 1% to generate a 2% improvement in bottom-line profitability. In spite of this, there are still consumer-goods manufacturers stuck in the past, bemoaning the rising cost of manufacturing on the one hand and the increasingly aggressive retailer on the other. The traditional, default solution is to cut "discretionary spending", and at the top of this list is usually advertising investment. The argument is that "brand preference" is less important than "promotional discount" at a time of economic downturn, and that short-term volume returns (and sometimes profit) are almost always higher for promotional activity. With the packaged-goods sector investing nearly £2bn each year in advertising, cutting back media spend in order to fuel trade promotions seems like an easy answer. But the evidence suggests that this approach may be more flawed than even the most ardent advocate of (or apologist for) media spend might imagine - not least because it makes no allowance for a long-term advertising effect. More enlightened thinking now favours looking at advertising and promotional strategy as interdependent pillars. One should not be compromised to the advantage or otherwise of the other. The advertising needs of the brand, which are usually long-term, have an enormously important role to play, provided their role is properly co-ordinated with promotions. Swapping one for the other is less effective than introducing a programme of promotional best practice which can benchmark your performance against that of your peers....
With a long history of volatility, the Nikkei took a 10% decline. But, here again is another bailout plan scheduled for 2009. A 'reserve pool' is probably a better approach and any fiscal relief from the pool can be measured before it is released in anticipation of volatility.
East-Asian leaders set up regional economic safety net (click here) Albuquerque Express Friday 24th October, 2008 East Asian leaders have agreed to set up an 80-billion-dollar fund by mid-2009 to fight the global economic crisis. A major Japanese share fall during the week provided the impetus for the meeting, in which leaders of South Korea, China, Japan and the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, agreed to accelerate multilateral cooperation to create an 80 billion dollar fund and establish an independent market surveillance organization for the entire region. The new fund will take the place of the Chiang Mai Initiative, which came into being in 2000 in the wake of the 1997/98 East Asian financial crisis.
2008-10-24 00:51:58 BEIJING, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- China welcomed the scheme to establish a foreign exchange reserve pooling arrangement under the framework of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as China, Japan and Republic of Korea, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said here on Thursday. "The ASEAN members plus China, Japan and Republic of Korea, had unanimously agreed on the arrangement," he said at a regular press conference....
Former Minnesota Two Term Republican Governor endorces Barak Obama. (click here) Arne Carlson has been a bit of a maverick as he became a Republican after first signing on as a Democrat. His turn in the Governorship was hard fought and he won by a narrow margin of 3%. He served for two terms while staving off a hostile and ultra-conservative Minnesota Republican Party. He was not his party's favorite, but, he was the people's favorite.
We face serious problems, and he's shown the idealism, but also the discipline, to address them. By ARNE H. CARLSON Last update: October 23, 2008 - 7:17 PM
Without question, this election will be the most important in my lifetime. Traditionally, national campaigns have focused on which party and which candidate could best improve our lot in terms of peace and prosperity. Today, I truly believe our very survival as a successful and independent nation is at stake. This may all sound dramatic, but consider the following: •We are engaged in a war that should never have been launched and does not lend itself to an easy exit. •Our true national deficits when put on the accrual system of accounting exceed $53 trillion, or $450,000 per household. Much of that debt is owned by other nations, including Japan and China. •Since the 1970s we have promised ourselves that we would significantly reduce our dependency on foreign oil, but every effort toward success was offset by the allure of cheap oil, SUVs and massive trade deficits, and our dependency has increased. •The American dream of a growing middle class continues to be threatened. In April of this year, the Pew Research Center found that "for decades, middle-income Americans had been making absolute progress" and then concluded, "but since 1999, they have not made economic gains." In the six months since that finding, the middle-class plight has significantly worsened, with the mortgage and liquidity crisis along with growing fears of a deep recession. Politically, the Republican Party and its candidates are in full flight from this wreckage and the name "Bush," while Democrats continue to pin the tail on the elephant. It had been my hope that Sen. John McCain would have seen these series of challenges as an opportunity to redefine the Republican Party as Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower had done. This would require a global vision, financial discipline and a sense of confidence reflecting the best in American idealism. The choice of Gov. Sarah Palin as a running mate, and the resultant shallow campaign based on fear and suspicion, looks frighteningly similar to the politics of Karl Rove. Sen. Barack Obama arrived on the political scene as a wind of freshness, unity and idealism. He saw America as it could be if we reached across all divides. This long, grueling campaign has revealed a remarkably disciplined and focused leader who has the potential to become a truly great president. President John F. Kennedy spoke of the opportunity of America to pass the torch of leadership to a new generation. This is entirely appropriate for today's history, in that we need the benefit of a longer-term vision on the compelling issues of our time, ranging from global warming to exercising financial discipline. Obama is the right choice for these challenging times. Arne H. Carlson was governor of Minnesota from 1991 to 1999.
