Making Money Guide

A few years ago, the Internet experienced a video revolution. As broadband access expanded and more people began uploading content, video became an expected resource for consumers. Businesses could get more mileage out of television commercials and engage users by linking to video reviews of its products.

A year ago, we saw evidence of small and medium-sized business increasing budgets for video content – to be used both on their homepages and in advertisements. In 2009, 19% of businesses polled were using video (up from 5% in 2008) and I’m willing to bet that number will be much higher in the 2010 report that should come out later this month.

Now, as technology has become more affordable and increasingly mobile, we’re able to experience virtually anything online. As such, local search engines are evolving into master content synthesizers to meet the needs of consumers and advertisers alike – offering video and photos, local advertising deals, user reviews, QR codes, maps and directions, etc.

Consumer expectations of local search engines have never been higher. Users want to see photo and video reviews of a company’s products, read what other people have to say, and even take a virtual tour of your store or restaurant before they visit.

The same is true of small- and medium-sized business owners looking to find a competitive advantage. Local search engines are offering more dynamic content than ever before to users and it’s up to search marketers to help business owners feed that content.

It’s interesting to see how video content has changed since the advent of YouTube. Instead of traditional video advertising, we’re seeing new technology that lets users look around your business from their own home. Soon, we’ll be able to find virtual creations of almost any environment online – and those virtual tours are being integrated with current deals and other advertising promotions to drive traffic to your business.

Recently, a company called EveryScape partnered with Bing and YP to offer digital advertisers a new local search solution – virtual tours. For example, YP360 will let a user step inside a restaurant in Baltimore while they’re still on the train. They can choose a place and even set a reservation, all within the same application on their phone.

Google Earth has gone indoors and local search engines are responsible for bringing this detailed and vivid content to users while keeping it simple and accessible. And the business case for offering this new content to users and advertisers alike is clear as local advertising is expected to grow to $16.1 billion this year, up from $13.7 billion in 2010.

Even more, mobile phone advertising spending is expected to be more than a billion dollars in 2011, up 48% from 2010. Local search engines like YP and Yelp! are seeing over 20 million visitors a month, many of them accessing via mobile phones.

This is a great opportunity for local search engines and advertisers to embrace this new technology and get ahead of the pack. Effective local advertising goes beyond building a social networking presence and listing in directories – you have to make sure your content is engaging. In the online world, the savviest local search marketers who use this technology well will have the most successful campaigns.

I recommend that any business owner or local search marketer read up on the latest digital advertising solutions and consider offering your customers virtual tours of your products or store. To set your business apart, you need to stay current with the best that local search has to offer.

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

Related Topics: Locals Only

Surface Encounters

2011 Spring training: Brian Wilson of San Francisco Giants unlikely for Opening Day

San Francisco Giants closer Brian Wilson isn't likely to be ready to play by opening day for the World Series champions.

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Jon Stewart Calls Out NBC <b>News</b> For Not Reporting on GE&#39;s $0 Tax <b>...</b>

On Friday, The New York Times reported that General Electric paid no U.S. federal income tax in 2010, despite earning $14.2 billion in profits. While.

Surface Encounters

Donald Trump Will Win <b>News</b> Cycles With Birtherism [UPDATED]

The big 2012 news today is, naturally, pure malarkey from Donald Trump, who has inexplicably decided to base his reality-teevee campaign solely on birtherism. Here's Politico's Andy Barr:

Surface Encounters

Dirty Percent

Tuesday, 1 March 2011

It’s not hard to make the case that Apple’s new in-app subscription system offers numerous benefits to users, developers, and publishers. But whatever those benefits, they stem from the mere existence of these new subscription APIs. What’s controversial is the size of Apple’s cut: 30 percent.

No one is arguing that Apple shouldn’t get some cut of in-app purchases that go through iTunes. And, if Apple were taking a substantially smaller cut, there would be substantially fewer people objecting to Apple’s rules (that subscription-based publishing apps must use the system; that they can’t link to their external sign-up web page from within the app; and that they must offer in-app subscribers the same prices available outside the app).

The reasonable arguments against Apple’s policies seem to be:

• Apple should be taking less, perhaps far less, than 30 percent.




• Apple should not require subscription-based apps to use the in-app subscription APIs. If it’s a good deal for publishers, they’ll choose to use the system on their own.




• Apple should not require price-matching from subscription offers outside the app. Publishers should be allowed to charge iOS users more money to cover Apple’s cut.




• Apple should consider business models that simply can’t afford a 70/30 revenue split.

Let’s consider these in reverse order.

Apple Should Consider Business Models That Can’t Afford a 70/30 Revenue Split

Apple doesn’t give a damn about companies with business models that can’t afford a 70/30 split. Apple’s running a competitive business; competition is cold and hard. And who exactly can’t afford a 70/30 split? Middlemen. It’s not that Apple is opposed to middlemen — it’s that Apple wants to be the middleman. It’s difficult to expect them to be sympathetic to the plights of other middlemen.

Some of these apps and services that are left out might be ones that iOS users enjoy, though. This is the leading argument for how this new policy will in fact hurt users, and, as a result, Apple itself: it’ll drive good apps off the platform. Frequently mentioned examples: Netflix and Kindle. For all we know, though, Netflix may well be fine with this policy. Apple would only get a 30 percent cut of new subscriptions that go through the Netflix iOS app, and that might be a bounty Netflix can live with in exchange for more subscribers. Keep in mind, too, that Netflix and Apple seemingly get along well enough that Netflix is built into the Apple TV system software.

Kindle, and e-book platforms in general, are a different case. For one thing, Kindle doesn’t use subscriptions. Kindle offers purchases. Presumably, given Apple’s rejection of Sony’s e-book platform app last month, Apple is going to insist on the same rules for in-app purchases through apps like Kindle as they do for in-app subscriptions. If so, something’s got to give. The “agency model” through which e-books are sold requires the bookseller to give the publisher 70 percent of the sale price. So if the publisher gets 70 and Apple gets 30, that leaves a big fat nothing for Amazon, or Barnes & Noble, or Kobo, or anyone else selling books through native iOS apps — other than iBooks, of course.

But leaving aside the revenue split, there are technical limitations as well. The existing in-app purchasing system in iOS has a technical limit of 3,500 catalog items. I.e. any single app can offer no more than 3,500 items for in-app purchase. Amazon has hundreds of thousands of Kindle titles.

Something’s got to give here. I don’t know what, but there must be more news on this front coming soon. I don’t believe Apple wants to chase competing e-book platforms off the App Store.

Apple Should Not Require Price Matching

Why not allow developers and publishers to set their own prices for in-app subscriptions? One reason: Apple wants its customers to get the best price — and, to know that they’re getting the best price whenever they buy a subscription through an app. It’s a confidence in the brand thing: with Apple’s rules, users know they’re getting the best price, they know they’ll be able to unsubscribe easily, and they know their privacy is protected.

Credit card companies insist on similar rules: retailers pay a processing fee for every credit card transaction, but the credit card companies insist that these fees not be passed on to the customer. Customers pay the same price as they would if they used cash — which encourages them to use their credit card liberally. (Going further, many charge cards offer cash back on each purchase — they can do this because the cash-back percentage refunded to the customer is less than the transaction processing fee paid by the retailer.)

So the same-price rule is good for the user, and good for Apple. But Matt Drance argues that Apple could dissipate much of this subscription controversy by waiving this rule:

The requirement that IAP content be offered “at the same price
or less than it is offered outside the app,” combined with the
70/30 split, means developers must make less money off of iOS by
definition. They can’t price their IAP content higher to offset
the commission, nor can they price their own retail content lower.

If I am interpreting this correctly, I can’t bring myself to see
it as reasonable. […] I think a great deal of this drama could
go away if Apple dropped section 11.13 while keeping section
11.14: Your prices on your store are your business; just don’t
be a jerk and advertise the difference all over ours.

And I agree with him. Yes, the same-price rule is good for users and for Apple, but waiving this rule wouldn’t be particularly bad for users or for Apple, either — and it would give publishers some freedom to experiment.

I suspect one reason Apple won’t budge is that their competitors — like Amazon — insist on best-price matching.

Apple Should Not Require Apps to Offer In-App Subscriptions

I’m sympathetic to this argument, too. “If you don’t like our terms, don’t use our subscription system.” But it has occurred to me that this entire in-app subscription debate mirrors the debate surrounding the App Store itself back in 2008 — that 30 percent was too large a cut for Apple to take, that it shouldn’t be mandatory, etc. The same way many developers wanted (and still want) a way to sell native iOS apps on their own, outside the App Store, many publishers now want a way to sell subscriptions on their own, outside the App Store.

The fact is, the App Store is an all-or-nothing affair. You play by Apple’s rules or you stick to web apps through Mobile Safari. This alternative is no different for periodical publishers than it was (and remains) for app developers in general. A lot of these demands boil down to a desire for more autonomy for native iOS app developers. Apple has never shown any interest in that.

There’s one striking difference between the subscription controversy today and the App Store controversy in 2008: with subscriptions, Apple is taking away the ability to do something that they previously allowed. There was never a supported way to install native apps for iOS before the App Store. Subscriptions sold outside the App Store, on the other hand, were allowed until last month.

Apple Should Be Taking Less, Possibly Far Less, Than 30 Percent

Another difference between the App Store itself and in-app subscriptions is that with apps, Apple hosts and serves the downloads. Apple covers the bandwidth, even for gargantuan gigabyte-or-larger 99-cent games. The OS handles installation.

With in-app subscriptions (and purchases), however, the app developer is responsible for hosting the content, and for writing the code to download, store, and manage it. So — one reasonable argument goes — given that Apple is doing less for subscription content than it does for apps (or for music and movies purchased through iTunes), Apple should take less of the money.

Taken further, the argument boils down to this: that for in-app subscriptions and purchases, Apple is serving only as a payment processer — and thus, a reasonable fee for transactions would be in the small single digits — 3, 4, maybe 5 percent, say. More or less something along the lines of what PayPal charges.

Apple, I think it’s clear, doesn’t see it this way. Apple sees the entire App Store, along with all native iOS apps, as an upscale, premium software store: owned, controlled, and managed like a physical shopping mall. Brick and mortar retailers don’t settle for a single-digit cut of retail prices; neither does the App Store.

Seth Godin argues that Apple’s 30 percent cut is too big to allow publishers to profit:

Except Apple has announced that they want to tax each subscription
made via the iPad at 30%. Yes, it’s a tax, because what it does is
dramatically decrease the incremental revenue from each
subscriber. An intelligent publisher only has two choices: raise
the price (punishing the reader and further cutting down
readership) or make it free and hope for mass (see my point above
about the infinite newsstand). When you make it free, it’s all
about the ads, and if you don’t reach tens or hundreds of
thousands of subscribers, you’ll fail.

Godin’s logic strikes me as questionable. For one thing, he freely switches between a newsstand metaphor (arguing, perhaps accurately, that the App Store is too large for publishers to gain attention from potential readers in the first place — you won’t read what you never notice) and the economics of subscriptions. But subscribers are the opposite of newsstand readers. Newsstand readers are buying a single copy, often on impulse. Subscribers are readers who are already hooked, and who know what they want. Put another way, the size of Apple’s cut of subscription revenue — whether it were higher or lower — has no bearing on the “attention at the newsstand” problem.

Second, the problem facing traditional publishers today is that circulation is falling. Newsstand sales and subscriptions are falling, under pressure from free-of-charge websites and other forms of digital content. The idea with Apple’s 70-30 revenue split is that developers and publishers can make it up in volume — that people aren’t just somewhat more willing to pay for content through iTunes than other online content stores, they are far more willing. The idea is that Apple has cracked a nut no one else1 has — they’ve created an ecosystem where hundreds of millions of people are willing to pay for digital content. Thus, potentially, publishers won’t just make more money keeping only 70 percent of subscription fees generated through iOS apps than they are now with 96 percent (or whatever they’re left with after payment processing fees) of subscription fees they’re selling on their own — they stand to make a lot more money.

I’m not guaranteeing or even predicting that it’s going to work out that way. I’m just saying that’s Apple’s proposition.

Godin’s assumption is that iOS in-app subscriptions won’t significantly increase the number of subscribers. If he’s right about that, then he’s right that Apple’s 30 percent cut will prove too expensive for publishers. But Apple’s bet is that in-app subscriptions can dramatically increase the number of subscribers. Consider the app landscape. Apple’s 30 percent cut didn’t drive the price of paid apps up — the nature of the App Store drove prices down. It’s a volume game.

The App Store itself proves that Apple might be right. Like with app sales, in-app subscriptions won’t work for every publication. But it could work for many. It really is possible to make it up in volume.

And if a 70-30 split for in-app subscription revenue doesn’t work, the price will come down. That’s how capitalism works. You choose a price and see how it goes. I’ll admit — when the App Store launched in 2008, I thought Apple’s 70-30 split was skewed too heavily in Apple’s favor. Not that it was wrong in any moral sense, but that it was wrong in a purely economic sense: that it might be more than developers would be willing to bear. Apple, clearly, has a better sense about what prices the market will bear than I (and, likely, you) do.

Competition vs. Anti-Competition

One last argument I’ve seen regarding these in-app subscription rules is that it’s further evidence of anti-competitive behavior from Apple. That makes sense only if you consider iOS to be the entire field of play. Apple, though, is competing at a higher level. They’re competing between platforms: iOS vs. Kindle/Amazon vs. Android/Google vs. Microsoft, and in some ways, vs. the free web. Why should publishers make an app rather than just a mobile web site? For happier customers and more money.

Sony has a platform for e-books. Amazon has a platform for e-books. Barnes & Noble has a platform for e-books. Apple has a platform for e-books. But Apple is the only one which allows its competitors to have apps on its devices. And Apple is the anti-competitive one? I’m no lawyer, but if the iTunes Music store hasn’t yet been deemed a monopoly with Apple selling 70+ percent of digital music players, then I doubt the App Store will be deemed a monopoly for a market where Apple has never been — and, according to market share trends, may never be — the top-selling smartphone maker, let alone own a majority of the market, let alone own more than a single-digit sliver of the phone market as a whole. As for ruthless profiteering, consider that Amazon, with their e-book publishing, originally took the fat end of a 70-30 revenue split with authors.

One question I’ve been asked by several DF readers who object to Apple’s new in-app subscription and purchasing policies goes like this: What if Microsoft did this with Windows, and, say, tried to require Apple to pay them 30 percent for every purchase made through iTunes on Windows? To that, I say: good luck with that. Microsoft couldn’t make such a change by fiat. The whole premise of Windows (and other personal computer systems) is that it is open to third-party software. Apple couldn’t just flip a switch and make Mac OS X a controlled app console system like iOS — they had to introduce the Mac App Store as an alternative to traditional software installation. If Microsoft introduced something similar to the Mac App Store for Windows, Apple would simply eschew it. If Microsoft were to mandate an iOS App Store-like total control policy for all Windows software, they’d have a revolt in their user base that would make Vista look like a success.

iOS isn’t and never was an open computer system. It’s a closed, controlled console system — more akin to Playstation or Wii or Xbox than to Mac OS X or Windows. It is, in Apple’s view, a privilege to have a native iOS app.

This is what galls some: Apple is doing this because they can, and no other company is in a position to do it. This is not a fear that in-app subscriptions will fail because Apple’s 30 percent slice is too high, but rather that in-app subscriptions will succeed despite Apple’s (in their minds) egregious profiteering. I.e. that charging what the market will bear is somehow unscrupulous. To the charge that Apple Inc. is a for-profit corporation run by staunch capitalists, I say, “Duh”.

If it works, Apple’s 30-percent take of in-app subscriptions will prove as objectionable in the long run as the App Store itself: not very.

Editor’s Note: Jim Dalrymple has been writing about Apple for more than 15 years. You can follow him on Twitter @jdalrymple and on his Web site at The Loop.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Wednesday introduced the iPad 2 at a special event in San Francisco, taking even more momentum away from its competitors.

I’ve had a lot of people in the last 24 hours tell me that the iPad 2 isn’t as revolutionary as the first generation device. Yes, that’s true. But not every device a company releases has to be or can be revolutionary.

Apple has released three revolutionary products in the last decade alone: iPod, iPhone and iPad. I really can’t think of any products from Apple’s competitors that fit in the revolutionary category in that same time period.

People also said that Apple wasn’t very forthcoming with the specs of the iPad 2. Again, that’s true, but there’s a good reason for that—nobody cares.

Well, some people care. Those of us who are geeks care about specs. However, have you ever noticed that when you sit with your non-geek friends and start listing off specs their eyes glaze over and they rest their chin in their hand.

That’s because they couldn’t care less.

The iPad 2 is no slouch either. It lost one-third of the thickness of the previous generation, and therefore it is one-third less than the size of the iPad competitors too. It also has new technologies like a gyro built-in that will launch another round of cool apps.

Yesterday’s iPad 2 announcement wasn’t about the geeks—it was about all the other people who will buy an iPad. What those people want to know is “what can I do with it?”

If it fits into their lifestyle, most people are good with that. Apple showed many ways how the iPad 2 can fit into your lifestyle.

From the very beginning, Apple was very smart with how it marketed the iPad. The first thing it did was get the device into businesses and promote the fact that it could be used to get work done. And it was quite successful with that.

In an analyst call in October 2010, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said the iPad was already being used in 65 percent of Fortune 100 companies. That was four months ago and the iPad has grown since then, so we can only imagine where that number is now.

This strategy allowed Apple to do two things. If it came out with the iPad and pushed the gaming capabilities of the device, the business world would have looked at it as a toy. That would have certainly meant slower adoption. It also allowed them to work on some consumer software, two of which we saw yesterday.

In addition to the iPad 2, Jobs also unveiled iMovie and GarageBand for the iPad. This is what people want to know about—what can I do with the iPad that’s exciting and new.

Obviously, creating movies and being able to edit and share them with friends and family is a very popular thing to do these days. iMovie makes that easy.

Creating music, whether a novice or pro is also a cool thing to do. GarageBand is a great app to get that done and you can move your projects to your Mac and continue working on them.

It’s not just about the hardware. Apple delivers the whole experience that nobody else can. Jobs said yesterday that there are 65,000 apps on its App Store specifically designed for the iPad. That’s a lot of things you can do.

If you think Apple’s competitors are jumping for joy because the iPad 2 isn’t revolutionary, I believe you are wrong. I think they’re scared. Yesterday, they figured out Apple’s strategy too, but a little too late.

Surface Encounters

Surface Encounters

What is your social media brand? Do you have one? Sure, many small business owners and entrepreneurs are coming around to the enormous importance of social media as a marketing, customer service, and, yes, even sales tool. But if you haven’t thought about how social media can define your brand, you are probably missing a HUGE part of what social media tools can do for your business. Here’s more…

Tools & Techniques

Creating a great brand with these blog tools. Tools that improve the look and functionality of your blog also improve your brand. A well-maintained small business blog is one of the most obvious and least expensive branding tools at the entrepreneur’s disposal even more so than social media channels like Facebook and Twitter because of how a blog can be customized to fit your needs and personality. This list of tools is a great way to start. EpicLaunch

What Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi can teach you about social media. One of the stars of the hit reality show “Jersey Shore”, “Snooki” is a perfect example of personal brand, but social media entrepreneurs could also learn much about building their own online presence from Snooki. Being yourself and using a simple, short tag to indelibly brand your identity are also great techniques in social media. One site is already trying to apply the starlets techniques in the social media space. Brand-Yourself

Tito Philips doesn’t want your comments on his blog! At least, not if they’re the wrong kind. And the wrong kind would be comments left for no other purpose than to get the blogger and his/her readers to visit your blog and perhaps comment on it in return. Why is comment trading bad? Don’t get Tito started! There are many ways to engage in social media marketing. Be sure you understand and respect some of the attitudes you may face. Blogging Bookshelf  

News & Trends

The best of the best. Want to get a look at arguably the 20 best Facebook fan pages for business on the planet? By now you should know the value of a Facebook fan page to your branding efforts. What’s also true, however, is that not all Facebook sites are created equal. If you want to take your social media marketing to the next level, have a look at this list of cream of the crop sites. Inc.com

Even churches use social media marketing! In this article on the growing market for tech services among religious organizations, we learn that many churches have also already entered into the social media space. As houses of worship, particularly huge mega-churches, expand and build congregations, it’s easy to see how social media can work as a marketing tool here as well. Is your religious organization using social media for branding? WSJ

Tips & Tricks

20 tips that will make you a Twitter star. Among the tools popular in the new digital space is Twitter. The microblogging platform can be used for business or non-business purposes and it can be the key to your small business’s success. Learn how to use Twitter like a pro and you may be surprised at the benefits your small business gains as a result. Global Copywriting

Valuable lessons in social media. Gary Vaynerchuk, author of The Thank You Economy and a successful social media entrepreneur in his own right, has many insights to share with small business leaders seeking a new way to define their brands in an age of social communications. Read some of the takeaways Vaynerchuk shares with those trying to define their businesses with social media. E-Marketing Associates

Success Stories

Doubt the power of FB to create brand for almost anyone? You won’t after you read the story of Princeton English Professor Jeff Nunokawa and “Jeffbook”, a collection of 3,221 brief literary essays on Facebook, that have created an incredible cult status for Nunokawa in the process. His motivation? Not too different from those of most marketers. Nunokawa simply started sharing where he knew his audience already spent lots of their time. The results speak for themselves. Fast Company

Increase exposure with niche social media. Blogger Mavis Nong talks about the importance of niche social media sites including social bookmarking sites as a key method of creating exposure for your online business. Mavis talks about her experience with our sister site BizSugar.com (thanks for the shout out! ) and explains how smaller more focused social sites can sometimes have a surprising impact even larger than the big guys. Attraction Marketing Online

Opportunities

Sponsors wanted for new SugarTone Sweet Business Blogging Contest. Put the power of social media to work for your brand. We’re looking for sponsors to help with a brand new blogging contest involving two of the fastest growing small business communities on the Web, BizSugar.com and Bloggertone.com. Learn more about the contest by reading the full announcement and get in touch today! BizSugar Blog

Surface Encounters

autosport.com - NASCAR <b>News</b>: Raikkonen to compete in NASCAR

Former Formula 1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen will make a surprising move to NASCAR this year, the Finn joining the series with a new team.

Surface Encounters

Surface Encounters

Surface Encounters

The Truth About Twitter: It&#39;s The Evening <b>News</b>

Twitter is a media platform, not a social network.

Surface Encounters

About Making Money

By Richard Smith, a recovering capital markets IT specialist

Housing Wire’s Paul Jackson has another post up continuing his row with Yves over securitization chain of title issues. It presents itself as a rebuttal of her previous post, about an Alabama trial court decision that Jackson deems to be a significant defeat, but which Yves and more recently Adam Levitin have argued is both insignificant and not very relevant.

Normally I’d leave the two of them to slug it out. However, Jackson’s weekend submission, in which he says he is “going to address her latest talking points” piqued my interest. Rather than addressing any of the substance of the post itself, he mounts a bizarre attack on the motives of the attorneys behind the Alabama case, based on a pretty peculiar interpretation of one of Yves’ comments to the post. The comment:

Are you kidding? Each side spent over $250K on this case. Trials where you are making real legal arguments, as opposed to presenting papers for a judge to approve, are costly. And Alabama billing rates are a lot lower than in other states. For borrower’s counsel, since the borrower has no money, the “spent” is what their time was worth plus hard dollar expenses (experts witnesses and so on). They are out the real out of pocket real costs.

The banks’ lawyer gets paid, so yes, this is an epic fail for the bank. I’ve mentioned this in other posts. The more borrowers fight cases, the more loss severities are gonna rise. Investors already are losing 70% on the average foreclosure and housing prices are projected to fall further in most states this year. If on top of that they start having more cases with 300% losses on foreclosure, investors might wake up and finally do something a lot more serious to pressure servicers.

Sooo…bank attorneys run up a tab fighting a foreclosure in a pretty obscure courthouse, that results in a 300% loss to investors, when all the borrower’s attorney wanted was the house back and a loan modification. The big numbers are the result of the bank attorney’s posture, and of eleventh hour moves that many judges would have rejected: introducing an allonge on the eve of the trial. This was clearly a bad economic result for the borrowers’ attorney! It was not hard to see that the trial had become a war of escalation, with the bank’s attorney in an ideal position to up the ante. The post makes clear that unlike the bank’s lawyers, borrower’s counsel was “out”, in hard dollar terms, vastly less than the total, which would have to include the opportunity cost of unpaid for billing time.

For Jackson this somehow becomes the basis for a statement of his worldview: that everyone is greedy, ergo these attorneys must be too! In his own words:

Morality and the accompanying emotions to that noble love of justice are simply a varnish for the fires of greed. In other words, everything is about the money, and if you can find a viable angle to make more of it than someone else. And I mean everything.

Taking guidance from this exceedingly dubious, indeed self-refuting claim (if it’s all about the money, we can’t trust Jackson either, can we?) is quite foolish. In fact Jackson doesn’t really believe it either: elsewhere in his oeuvre, we find a bizarre exception to his rule:

Believe it or not, mortgage servicing is a noble industry. Or, at least, it’s supposed to be. Even in managing borrower defaults and repossessing property, there is something noble to the work, underneath it all — and it comes from following the law, enforcing contracts, ensuring that our nation’s system of property rights maintains its integrity for all Americans.

Though it could be that he’s just slapping a spot of varnish, on some fires of greed, for the money; I do hope that varnish isn’t flammable, Mr Jackson, or you may decide you are underpaid.

At any rate, armed only with his distractingly inept imagery and his defective moral compass, Jackson sets out on a fishing trip, in his latest, and gets hopelessly lost almost immediately:

Yves tries to suggest that in writing about the Congress case I was claiming “Mission Accomplished,” attempting to associate me with an infamous Dubya moment during the far-from-over war in Iraq. Nothing could be further from the truth.

If you have the attention span of a gnat, you might take this at face value. On the other hand, the very next sentence says this:

Yves spends a fair amount of time suggesting that the effect of the Congress case elsewhere will be muted, if it has any effect all. In attempting to minimize the relevance of this case, however, what she misses is an important reality: that the defense here saw fit to mount one in the first place.

So make your mind up, Mr Jackson: is the case widely relevant or not?

Or was the choice of court and case, perchance, simply something of a goof by some attorneys looking to develop a theory that might have more lucrative applications? That’s one sensible conclusion you could draw, and a basic step in puzzling that out, that does not even occur to Jackson, is doing some minimal research and actually looking up the plaintiff’s lawyers. And the idea that deep pockets types would go to of all places Alabama, not exactly known for cutting edge jurisprudence or friendliness to consumers, and hire two no-name attorneys to represent a black borrower, is beyond belief. If you are Jackson, though, you skip the homework, or the sanity check, and go for the ASF paranoia:

In many ways, the plight of the distressed borrower is a convenient lever to pull if — for example— you’re a buyside Wall Street firm that decided to load up with cheap nonagency mortgage-backed securities in the wake of the market’s collapse, betting on a mechanism that could open the door to damage claims and settlements worth more than the securities themselves. Or maybe a mortgage insurer looking for novel ways to repudiate claims en masse.

I’m not at all suggesting that’s what went on here…

I have a suggestion straight back at Mr Jackson: if you want to not suggest something, the best way is simply not to make the suggestion. Otherwise, it looks as if you’re trying to have it both ways.  Keeping the accusation vague is a smart move, admittedly, if you happen to be a bit clueless and not very brave. Bill Gross for one has made the trade that Jackson mentions, but does Jackson actually mean Bill Gross? He doesn’t say. Perhaps he doesn’t want Bill Gross on his case.

Yves by contrast doesn’t care a bit, roundly dissing Mr Gross’s self interested utterances. Ultimately, Jackson is too vague to be interesting here: it’s just a smear. As for the mortgage insurer theory: there’s no evidence for that either; just Tom Adam’s prior employment history and his occasional contributions at this blog. Mortgage insurers can make claims directly, on the very same theory that Naked Capitalism and the Congressional Oversight Panel have discussed. They have no reason to test a theory on a case in a largely irrelevant jurisdiction. And there are business reasons that the monolines are going the putback case route rather than this one. Remember that most of the MBS exposure (excluding CDOs) that monolines have is via HELOCs or second liens. That may put them in a position similar to that of the big banks: unwilling to take action on the first lien mortgages for fear of write downs on the second liens.

Yes, Bill Gross and MBIA and others are out there. And if they want to work the legals to make some money, or claw some back, they, or others like them, will. It’s really hard to see why the output of “Naked Capitalism” would so heavily in their ruminations as to be worth paying for (if that is what Jackson’s insinuating: he doesn’t seem to be able to bring himself to spell it out).

All of this stuff of Jackson’s is irrelevant and pretty much content-free;  but still, it’s an interesting glimpse of sell-side anxieties.

So what really matters about this case? Three things: the unfortunate Erica Congress, who has had her hopes dashed twice over now, once when she couldn’t pay her mortgage and a second time when she was turfed out of her house; and two blithe but pernicious affirmations by the judge: first, that an allonge doesn’t have to be affixed to the note, which just opens up the floodgates for document fabrication, and second that “digital signatures” are valid endorsements to the note.

Unfortunately, neither Jackson nor the judge seem to grasp the difference between a digital signature, “a mathematical scheme for demonstrating the authenticity of a digital message or document”, as Wikipedia has it, and a digitally reproduced signature, a simulacrum that can be knocked up in minutes by any sad sack in a servicer that can use Photoshop, Word, and a laser printer, and doesn’t authenticate anything at all, least of all a transfer of title. Using 21st century technology to recreate a state of screwed-up title that hasn’t existed in anglophone countries since the mid-17th century is nothing to crow about, Mr Jackson. As a citizen of the US, it ought to make your blood run cold. It’s not just about the money.

At any rate, the more this stuff is talked about, the more lawyers (in less frivolous jurisdictions) will furrow their brows about the damage being done to the integrity of basic property transfers. So we will keep the pot boiling.

It’s nearing two weeks since unions and their cohorts on the Left have thrown a nationwide fit over Scott Walker’s solution to what is ailing Wisconsin. Unions and Democrats have made Wisconsin their cause célèbre by deploying OFA astroturf, the big talking heads, as well as recruiting just about every known Grateful Dead concert attendee on their mailing lists into Wisconsin. Meanwhile, Democratic state senators (now humorously known as fleebaggers) comically continue to hold the state hostage over an issue of union power, politics and money—nothing more and nothing less.

Despite unions’ long hatred of Scott Walker, the new governor is moving to address both the symptoms of the disease and the disease itself—the public-sector union scheme that has molested Wisconsin’s taxpayers and their children by gaming the system. Unions like Wisconsin’s teachers’ union [WEAC] (which was Wisconsin’s biggest-spending lobby in 2009) have been extraordinarily adept at fixing the system through spending millions to elect politicians who, in turn, reward the unions at the expense of the taxpayers.

Now, in response to Walker’s proposals, the Left has gone overboard in their attempt to protect their stranglehold on Wisconsin taxpayers. Even though unions have made clear that their fight is not about their wages or benefits (they’ve offered concessions), they’ve made the fight all about their “right to be unionized” and the fictitious right to “collective bargaining”—which makes their cause even more despotic.

In making Madison into something reminiscent of the spectacle of the 1960s, unions, Democrats and their liberal cohorts are attempting to make the Wisconsin union battle into a civil rights battle, when it is not.  In fact, the Wisconsin fight, when compared to private-sector negotiations is about: 1) the Scope of Bargaining, 2) Union “Income” Security [Right-to-Work vs. Forced Dues], 3) whether Wisconsin should be the unions’ dues collection agency [payroll deduction of dues], and 4) whether public-sector unions should be ‘recertified’ by holding elections every year.

Contrary to the Left’s hyperbole, Scott Walker’s proposals do nothing to eliminate public-sector workers’ right to association, assemblage, or to petition their government. Even pretending that it is a “rights” issue is a mistake. There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that requires a government to engage in a back and forth negotiation with a collective of workers. In a poignant piece entitled There is No Right to Collective Bargaining, Public Service Research Foundation President David Denholm summarizes the problem with the unions’ argument, stating:

A law granting public-sector unions monopoly bargaining privileges gives a union, a special interest group, two bites at the apple. First, it uses its political clout to elect public officials. Then it negotiates with the very same officials.

When you consider that between 70 and 80 percent of all local government expenditures are personnel costs, you begin to get an idea of the magnitude of the power such laws give unions.

Not only is there no right to collective bargaining in public employment, it is wrong. Collective bargaining distorts and corrupts democratic government.

Collective bargaining is a process for employer-employee relations that was designed for the private sector. This process served as the model for the development of public-sector collective bargaining without taking into account the fundamental differences between the two sectors.

As Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour explains:

“When they have collective bargaining in Wisconsin, on one side of the table there’s state employee unions or the local employee unions. On the other side of the table are politicians that they paid for the election of those politicians,” Barbour said. “Now, who represents the taxpayers in that negotiation? Well, actually, nobody.”

Even Newsweek’s Evan Thomas noted on Sunday [via Newsbusters]:

The Democrats really depend on these public employee unions in a lot of states for their support and for their political muscle, and public employee unions got a problem here. I want to distinguish between unions and public employee unions. Unions obviously are critical, but in the public sector, public employee unions have a pretty easy time getting a lot of benefits because nobody’s really pushing back all that hard.

Admittedly, Walker’s proposals are a threat to unions in several ways. As Walker’s proposals determine:

1. The extent of what unions will be allowed to bargain about. Walker’s proposal limits bargaining to wages only, effectively eliminating the WEA Trust monopoly which gets its money from local school boards and runs it through a union-run insurance company.


2. Whether unions can have workers fired for not paying union dues. According to its most recent financial record on file, WEAC (the teachers’ union) raked in over $25 million in 2009. Walker’s proposal makes paying union dues voluntary, as opposed to mandatory. This goes to the lifeblood of any union. If, for example, 20% of those teachers who are currently required to pay union dues as a condition of employment opt out, WEAC could lose up to $5 million a year in revenue. [It is noteworthy that, in the private-sector, the SEIU will be conducting its second strike at a Pennsylvania medical center over the issue of mandatory dues.]


3. Whether the state will continue being the unions’ dues collector. Walker’s proposal eliminates’ the employers’ payroll deduction of union dues. Again, while it is commonplace for unions to negotiate payroll deduction, there is nothing anywhere (in private or public sector law) that states that it is an employers’ duty to be a union’s collection agency.


4. Whether the unions will have to ‘re-certify’ every year to maintain representational status. Of all of Walker’s proposals, this seems to be one that could be considered a ‘throw away’ item in negotiations. If Walker’s other proposals get enacted, and union-represented employees feel that the union is worthless, they can initiate an election themselves every calendar under existing law [see Section 111.83(5)[h]] .

Given the ability of the unions and their co-conspirators on the Left to hijack the issue in Wisconsin over these last two weeks, there appears no way for a “win-win” compromise to be worked out. One side or the other will win. Either the unions and the Left, or taxpayers will prevail.

If the Left wins, all chances of reforming public-sector unions will be tossed aside by weak-kneed Republicans who will then be held hostage by temper-tantrum throwing Democrats (see Indiana for example). In addition, the Left has already painted the entire Republicans party with bulls eyes and has for years. Therefore, there is no reason for GOP governors like Scott Walker, Chris Christie and John Kasich to back down, which puts the Left in an untenable situation as well.

In the meantime, the disciples of Saul Alinsky will continue their prattle, attempting to convince America that the Battle of Wisconsin is something more than a fight over union power, politics and money…even though it’s not.

_________________

“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

X-posted.

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Plutonium detected in soil at Fukushima nuke plant | Kyodo <b>News</b>

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Iranian Video Says Mahdi is &#39;Near&#39; - World - CBN <b>News</b> - Christian <b>...</b>

New evidence has emerged that the Iranian government sees the current unrest in the Middle East as a signal that the Mahdi--or Islamic messiah--is about to appear.

Search engine optimization Vancouver For any Better Marketing Solution

 

When you begin your own website there are lots of ways you will have to sell it off and something the best way is to use SEO services Vancouver if you happen to be in that area. The SEO or search engine optimization services will be the top way of getting more traffic to your site and therefore making more sales.

 

Now, you need to know that you will not use SEO service if you're not an online business - however, if you do not have an online presence if you are a offline business, then you'll not make it very far.

 

It is a popular fact that if you are planning to really make it in the offline world you need to have an online presence. This is something that all people are learning hard way. Something that you ought to also know is the fact that it's not as simple as just setting up the website and leaving it to do its things.

 

This can be done in all sorts of ways, but these companies usually take advantage of multiple techniques to create the perfect marketing technique online. You will be able to hire these phones write articles for you personally, post on forums and blogs, create meta tags and meta descriptions, clean up the code, add alt tags towards the images and much more.

 

It is very important that you simply do this because otherwise the organization that you have worked so difficult for could wind up losing all the money. If you have an internet site you want to produce, then you will also employ the expertise of a search engine optimization company, which stands for seo company. What this company does is basically take the best parts of your site, check the code, create keywords and write various articles and documents to ensure your site is placed close to the top of the list for the major search engines like google.

As a result the SEO company cannot only increase your traffic, but additionally make sure that your website is fully optimized for that internet search engine spiders that'll be introduced to it. These spiders are utilized to analyze your website and place it in certain positions determined on certain keywords.

 

If you want to use the SEO services Vancouver then all you've got to do is discover the top companies. It is through these how the SEO gets done effectively and efficiently. Because of so many SEO companies to choose from you need to be certain the main one you're going for is reliable. You should be able to ask for a failure of what you want, and also the company also needs to have the ability to tell you know long they have been operating for. This can limit the list to reveal the very best ones.

 

Search engine optimization Provided by Different Vancouver Web Companies

The Vancouver SEO company services are very beneficial for business growth as they provide quality services. If you're planning to create a website for the internet business, then you've come to right article as I will be explaining below how Search engine optimisation Vancouver company services can increase your website ranking making it popular.

Before that, you need to know what Search Engine Optimization is. It's not that complicated and I'm sure you're going to get a grasp from it reading my article. The main goal of SEO is to have increased traffic aimed at your website and target audience. It is a good decision to select a Vancouver SEO company that specializes in this kind of work, which means that your website could be listed in search engines.

There is no point in you having a website with no website ranking at all as you won't get any business and profits to survive. It is a very tough atmosphere out there because there are so many online business people just like you, who want their share of pie. You have to be aware of the truth that nearly 85% of online traffic could be got from web sites.

Whenever a user types in a keyword or keywords for which he/she wants to know in various sites, these use crawlers to obtain web sites with the relevant content and index them based on algorithms. It's not necessary to worry about the algorithms which these sites use as that is not important.

To look within the first page from the google listing, you will have to hire professionals and experts who can perform the needful to keep your website among the good books during these websites. These professionals can optimize your site content to ensure that your website gets increased traffic.

Once the traffic gets high, it is a sign that you are getting a service which will get you more revenues. SEO Vancouver company do the next to create your website appear inside the first page of search results.

Use keywords that are popularly used on search engines in your website content.
Possess a web design for your website which is simple because top sites are allergic to flash and weird designs.
Submit your site to directories.
Submit your site to directory websites.
Postings on blogs and forums with back-links for your websites. This really is considered as a very effective way to get more traffic aimed at your website as numerous internet users use blogs and forums.

SEO Vancouver company also perform site diagnostics that is a significant part in online optimization as research and analysis on finding keywords is the way to begin a SEO campaign. So, make sure you select the right SEO Vancouver company.

Are you looking for more information regarding SEO Vancouver? Visit http://www.seo4vancouver.com/seo-services.asp today!

 

What to anticipate Whenever Getting a Roofing Contractors

When it comes time to repair or even substitute your homes roof, it's really a daunting task to locate someone who is actually qualified to do the job. There are many roofers out there, however the ones who'll perform a congrats for any sensible price aren't often easy to find. If you are in the market for the service provider, make use of the tips below with regard to meeting with as well as hiring the right one.

Job interview as well as Discussion

The majority of roofers provide free consultations. This is especially important, because it gives them an opportunity to assess what your roof requirements, and it provides you with an opportunity to evaluate them. As with all of businesses, believe in intuition about the individuals a person allow up onto your roofing. No issue exactly how great a contractor's reputation or suggestion, he should start by presenting a person having a business card. If a service provider arrives searching as well as talking in an less than professional method, most likely the task he is going to perform may also be unprofessional. This is not to say that you ought to anticipate companies to arrive within fits. They will be hiking on your roofing, therefore most is going to be dressed in jeans and work boots or even sneakers. If the contractor appears to be more interested in talking on his mobile phone while on your homes roof than he is within analyzing your own roof's needs, which may be an additional indication that he's not the one for the job. For your legal safety, make sure that the contractor offers adequate legal responsibility insurance.

Roofing Assessment

Anticipate that the service provider will be rising on your roof. In fact, any kind of service provider who not need to increase on your roof to evaluate the issue should be instantly discounted. Those who are seriously interested in their own work may either create a sketching of the roof's surface area and tag trouble spots on it as they undergo their assessment, or they will consider pictures or video of the surface area while they are available online for. This is a very essential action, because it enables you to see just what the problems are as well as understand how they will be set.

Estimation

The next step will be the written estimate. The service provider will require out their loan calculator and come up with a written estimate. Some companies will go out to their own truck or van and write up the proposal, while others will crunch the actual numbers to do the job prior to you. Once you are because of the proposal, ensure that you comprehend exactly which items will be utilized, how long the task will require and if there are any extra or even concealed expenses that may occur during the repair of the roof. The contractor should be able to answer many of these concerns with ease as well as forewarn you associated with a additional costs that could be incurred should the roof's ethics end up being damaged within.

Once you have received a few written estimates from roofing companies, assess exactly what every company or contractor is willing to provide for that price. Do not always discount the highest bet, because occasionally the greatest bid will in reality function as the contractor who does the job correctly. Additionally, be skeptical associated with prices for bids which are significantly less than others. They might be utilizing substandard items or be untruthful about the possibility of concealed costs. Most importantly, trust your instincts as well as go with the actual contractor that makes you feel most comfortable about handing over your money.

 

Seven Uyghurs Sentenced to Death

2011-03-23

Critics of the sentences say China has politicized the robberies as acts of terrorism.

 

AFP

A Uyghur man walks past armed Chinese security forces in Urumqi, July 17, 2009.

Chinese authorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang have ordered the executions of seven ethnic minority Uyghur men convicted of "violent" crimes, official media said on Wednesday.

 

The death sentences were handed down by the Supreme People's Court in recent days, according to state media in the regional capital, Urumqi.

 

The men were accused in connection with three separate attacks late last year in the Silk Road city of Kashgar, according to the news website Urumqi Online.

 

According to another website, the Xinjiang-based Tianshan news site, Aimaiti Tuheti, Yiming Dawuti, and unnamed "others" killed a security guard at a pedestrian mall as part of a failed Aug. 7 robbery attempt.

 

In a separate incident on Oct. 12, it said, Nuermaimaiti Aobulikasimu and 11 others broke into a house, bound and killed the couple living in it, and took their possessions.

 

It said the group also broke into the homes of two brothers, robbed them, and killed six people in a Nov. 11 attack in Kashgar.

 

The report gave no information about the victims or the schedule for the executions.

 

Three of the men were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, a sentence that is normally commuted to life imprisonment in China's judicial system.

 

They were convicted of deliberate homicide and armed robbery by the Kashgar Intermediate People's Court in the first instance.

 

'Strike hard' campaign

 

A Han Chinese resident of Urumqi surnamed Yang said a reference to "terrorism" in official news reports on the case showed that it was being politicized by the authorities, who have launched a series of "strike hard" campaigns in Xinjiang following deadly ethnic violence in July 2009.

 

"There is an implied political meaning; that they were somehow engaged in separatist activities or ethnic divisions," said Yang.

 

Exile Uyghur groups said the trials had been conducted behind closed doors, with scant opportunity for public scrutiny.

 

"The entire process against these men, from the trial through to the judgment, was opaque," said Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress.

 

"There was also very little reasonable evidence to convict them on a legal basis, because all the evidence came from one side of the case," he said.

 

"We strongly condemn the Chinese government for continuing to pursue their policies of ethnic division," said Raxit.

 

"We are also strongly opposed to the death penalty in this case."

 

Earlier cases

 

Last month, the Supreme Court sentenced four Uyghurs to death for alleged involvement in an Aug. 19 bomb attack in Xinjiang’s western Aksu city.

 

The World Uyghur Congress pointed to concerns over lack of transparency in those cases too.

 

The Aksu blast left eight people dead, including two of the bombers, and 15 wounded after a man riding a three-wheeled vehicle threw explosives at a group of uniformed patrolmen. Four Uyghurs were arrested shortly after the attack.

 

State media characterized the cases as acts of terrorism and unrelated to longstanding ethnic tensions between Uyghurs and Han Chinese in the region.

 

Exiled Uyghur dissident Rebiya Kadeer has warned that attacks like those in Aksu will continue to occur until Beijing addresses the underlying source of tension in the region.

 

Millions of Uyghurs—a distinct, Turkic minority who are predominantly Muslim—populate Central Asia and Xinjiang.

 

Uyghurs say they have long suffered ethnic discrimination, oppressive religious controls, and continued poverty and joblessness despite China's ambitious plans to develop its vast northwestern frontier.

 

Those frustrations erupted in July 2009 in deadly riots that left nearly 200 people dead, by the Chinese government's tally.

 

At least 26 people, mostly Uyghurs, were sentenced to death in the aftermath of the riots, many of whom have been executed, according to state media.

 

China is believed to execute more people each year than the rest of the world’s countries combined, although the government does not publish official figures.

 

Rights groups say Beijing may execute as many as several thousand prisoners annually.

 

Chinese authorities blame Uyghur separatists for a series of deadly attacks in recent years and accuse one group in particular of maintaining ties to the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

 

New training scheme

 

China on Wednesday also announced a training scheme which places ethnic minority graduates from Xinjiang in work elsewhere in China.

 

Governments of the destination cities will spend 450 million yuan (U.S.$ 69 million) for the program, while Xinjiang will spend 400 million yuan (U.S.$ 61 million), the official Xinhua news agency reported.

 

The program targets some 60,000 jobless college graduates in Xinjiang, around 80 percent of whom are from ethnic minorities, and 60 percent of whom are women.

 

However, some commentators see the move as an attempt to assimilate non-Han Chinese into mainstream Chinese culture.

 

"From the point of view of ethnic minorities, the graduate work scheme is really taking the cream of youth from the minorities and using them to 'further cultural development,'" wrote one ethnic minority user on a popular microblogging service.

 

"In fact, the culture that is being advanced is Han culture, and this group of young people will have been totally brainwashed," the microblog update said.

 

An Urumqi resident surnamed Li agreed.

 

"They have run senior high school schemes like this before during the past few years," he said.

 

"Whether it's high-schoolers or graduate training programs, these are measures that are aimed at thought control and brainwashing, and the 'Partification' of their education," he said.

 

Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

Copyright © 1998-2011 Radio Free Asia. All rights reserved.

 

Wikileaks and the Uyghur People

through holly on Dec Twenty, 2010
Henryk Szadziewski, Supervisor, Uyghur Human Rights Project

If it were actually in doubt, information acquired by the whistleblower web site, Wikileaks, has verified Chinese language government fears over its ongoing control of the location this calls Xinjiang, also is referred to as Eastern Turkestan. The leaked wires from U.Utes. diplomats demonstrate the degree that Chinese authorities make an effort to convince government authorities globally to consider it's position on problems affecting Uyghurs. The wires additionally show the actual United States' issues and views regarding the ongoing repressive steps in the region.

The majority of illuminating associated with Chinese language federal government pressure would be the wires pointing to Chinese frustration, or the specter associated with Chinese language ire, within the discharge of Uyghur detainees within Guantánamo to third nations. The December Twenty nine, 08 cable television applies how Chinese language Assistant International Reverend Liu Jieyi fulfilled with the U.Utes. Ambassador to The far east to voice Beijing's strong opposition associated with launch to any kind of nation apart from China, which when the U.Utes. do certainly accede for this ask for it would "avoid harm to bilateral relations and to co-operation ‘in important areas'". In addition, the Feb '09 cable describes the way the Chinese Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, Zhang Yannian, regarded as the actual possible release of Uyghur Guantánamo detainees as "an unfavorable act towards us" along with a "slap in the face". The Ough.Utes. government was company within not really liberating the actual detainees to The far east illustrates the actual degree of the politicized character of the Chinese judicial system. Legitimate concerns more than terrorism tend to be easy to understand, however in the U.Utes. government's observe the detainees would probably face torture and execution when they returned in order to The far east

Chinese language government stress regarding the Uyghur Guantánamo detainees was not just put on the actual Ough.Utes. government, but also to New Zealand and a handful of European government authorities which were considering resettlement. Albania, Germany as well as Finland, in addition to European Union member says all appear to have borne the brunt associated with Chinese language federal government disappointment. Regarding Germany, which was at first prepared to consider two Uyghurs upon purely relief reasons, Uyghur Guantánamo instances had been much less better than other detainees because of the negative effects accepting Uyghurs would have on relations with The far east. The May 8, 2009 cable relates exactly how "German Ambassador Michael Schaefer documented which Germany had informed The far east of the Ough.S. request to simply accept a few Uighur detainees kept from Guantánamo and had been subsequently cautioned by China of ‘a heavy burden upon bilateral relations' if Indonesia had been to simply accept any detainees".

The diplomatic cables additionally talk about the actual unrest within Urumchi, the regional funds, within This summer '09. A This summer 13, 2009 cable television talking about bulk occurrences in The far east states:

"Ethnic riots such as those in Xinjiang This summer 5-7 and in Tibet in March associated with 2008 vary substantially in source as well as nature through mass incidents, XXXXXXXXXXXX stressed to PolOff [Political Officer] upon XXXXXXXXXXXX. Each present severe problems for the Party, XXXXXXXXXXXX stated, but the Celebration management would not hesitate to open fire on Uighurs or even Tibetans when they deemed it essential to restore order. Mass incidents pose another type of threat, he said, as the leadership is ‘afraid' to fire upon Han rioters with regard to fear of sparking massive public outrage that would change from the Party."

This is a relaxing viewpoint, particularly when 1 views the evidence offered by 50 percent reviews released this season by the Uyghur Individual Privileges Project (UHRP) as well as Amnesty Worldwide that detail eyewitness company accounts from the utilization of lethal reside fire against Uyghur protestors in July '09. Additionally, the declaration which fireplace wouldn't be used towards Han Chinese language protestors has resonances for the various approach taken by Chinese protection forces within Urumchi in order to Han Chinese direct orders within September 2009. Throughout individuals protests, after that Celebration Secretary, Wang Lequan, addressed protesters, who experienced required that he let them know about government responses in order to security concerns. A similar ask for to satisfy using the Celebration Assistant by Uyghur demonstrators within July wasn't fulfilled.

The actual broader consequences of the unrest additionally saw a short discussion on the effect it might possess on Iran-China relations, and on relations along with Sydney following Globe Uyghur Congress President, Microsoft. Rebiya Kadeer, talked at the Nationwide Press Club in Canberra in July 2009. Within the latter case, the Chinese government "privately warn[ed] a major Australian bank that vendors the National Push Club to use it's influence to bar the Kadeer speech there".

The U . s . States' issues concerning the scenario within the Uyghur region also come through in the cables. Inside a discussion upon plan direction in Tibet, U.S. authorities clarify that it will end up being not possible for Chinese language frontrunners to adopt a softer line "if they look like doing this under international pressure". The actual cable television dated 04 16, 08, one month after the episode of unrest in Tibetan areas, additionally relayed the actual observation "that domestic stability continues to be leadership's main concern most of all, which means there'll ‘almost surely' be absolutely no rest of the current hard collection on Tibet or perhaps in places such as Xinjiang." The information contained in the cable television additionally storage sheds light on the extreme level of sensitivity with which the Chinese government views territorial integrity, and the feasible spill more than associated with unrest through Tibet.

The prospect of methods to stress within Tibet and Xinjiang arising from municipal culture tend to be debated in a February 24, 08 cable. While recommending that China's economic success will increase it's resistance to democratic change, the cable additionally talks about exactly how Chinese language frontrunners see the usefulness associated with "a restricted growth associated with civil society, such as enhancements within the rule associated with law along with a stronger part for authorized beliefs, NGOs, non profit organizations and other actors within areas which contribute to sociable balance and do not challenge Communist Party guideline." This is a significant alternation in thinking, which has seen U.Utes. authorities promote the notion which Chinese economic improvement, as well as financial relations along with The far east brings about a progressively democratic society; nevertheless, much more belief appears to be put into the grassroots movement compared to one which starts from the best quantity of a Chinese federal government. Nonetheless, the actual cable television proves which "[i]n places such as Tibet as well as Xinjiang, the fear of separatism results in tight limitations about the development of municipal society." This method can be regarded as counter-productive through the official, that suggests that the U.S. federal government "should continue to express...serious concerns over Beijing's individual privileges report and attract China's developing consciousness that greater respect with regard to human privileges, religious freedom and the rule of law will serve to advertise the very improvement as well as sociable stability that China looks for as well as to improve China's international picture." This type of technique would take substantial diplomatic abilities considering "China's paranoid concern that the United States privately promotes regime alter and ‘separatists' in Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang".

The cables provide understanding of the actual every day business associated with diplomacy that is rarely afforded to everyone, and it is fascinating to note the amount of work done behind closed doors upon Uyghur problems. The significance of the part of the United States as a monitor of Uyghur individual rights conditions within personal conversations is made clear, and contrasts with its sensible public stance. Employees from the Uyghur Human Privileges Project is comfortable with pressure the Chinese government puts upon Uyghur activists; nevertheless, the details of Chinese government pressure on its alternatives is illustrative of the diploma which Chinese officials attempt to control contradictory narratives. With more facts in the future from Wikileaks, issues more than Uyghurs may not get the actual headlines, but the wires possess get rid of brand new light about the documentation associated with individual privileges conditions in the Uyghur region.

 

Wikileaks and the Uyghur People

through henry on Dec 20, 2010
Henryk Szadziewski, Supervisor, Uyghur Human Rights Project

Whether it had been ever in doubt, information acquired by the whistleblower web site, Wikileaks, has verified Chinese government fears more than it's ongoing charge of the location it calls Xinjiang, which is also referred to as East Turkestan. The leaked cables from U.Utes. diplomats demonstrate the actual extent that Chinese language government bodies make an effort to convince governments globally to consider its stance on issues affecting Uyghurs. The cables additionally show the actual U . s . States' issues and views concerning the on going repressive measures in the region.

The majority of lighting of Chinese language federal government pressure would be the wires pointing in order to Chinese language frustration, or the specter of Chinese ire, within the release of Uyghur detainees in Guantánamo to third nations. The Dec Twenty nine, 08 cable television relates exactly how Chinese language Helper Foreign Minister Liu Jieyi met using the Ough.S. Ambassador in order to China in order to voice Beijing's powerful opposition of launch in order to any nation other than China, and that when the Ough.S. did certainly accede to this ask for it might "avoid injury to bilateral relationships and to co-operation ‘in important areas'". Furthermore, the Feb '09 cable television describes the way the Chinese Ambassador in order to Kyrgyzstan, Zhang Yannian, regarded the feasible release of Uyghur Guantánamo detainees because "an unfriendly act towards us" along with a "slap in the face". The U.Utes. government stood firm within not releasing the actual detainees to China demonstrates the actual extent of the politicized nature from the Chinese language judicial program. Genuine concerns over terrorism tend to be easy to understand, but in the Ough.S. government's observe the detainees might most likely encounter torture and delivery when they returned to The far east

Chinese government pressure regarding the actual Uyghur Guantánamo detainees was not just applied to the Ough.S. federal government, but also to Brand new Zealand along with a handful of Western government authorities which were considering resettlement. Albania, Germany as well as Finland, in addition to Eu fellow member says just about all appear to have borne the actual brunt associated with Chinese language federal government unhappiness. In the case of Germany, which was at first willing to consider 2 Uyghurs upon solely humanitarian reasons, Uyghur Guantánamo cases had been much less preferable to additional detainees due to the unwanted effects accepting Uyghurs would have upon relationships with China. The May Eight, 2009 cable relates how "German Ambassador Michael Schaefer reported which Indonesia had knowledgeable The far east of the U.S. ask for to simply accept some Uighur detainees kept from Guantánamo and had already been consequently cautioned through China associated with ‘a large burden on bilateral relations' in the event that Germany were to accept any detainees".

The actual diplomatic cables additionally talk about the unrest in Urumchi, the regional funds, within July '09. A July 13, '09 cable television discussing bulk incidents within China states:

"Ethnic riots such as those in Xinjiang This summer 5-7 as well as in Tibet within March associated with 08 differ markedly within source as well as nature through bulk incidents, XXXXXXXXXXXX stressed in order to PolOff [Political Officer] upon XXXXXXXXXXXX. Both existing severe problems for the Party, XXXXXXXXXXXX stated, however the Celebration leadership wouldn't hesitate to open fireplace upon Uighurs or Tibetans when they considered this necessary to recover purchase. Mass incidents present another kind of risk, he explained, as the leadership is ‘afraid' to fire on Han rioters for fear of causing huge open public outrage that will change against the Celebration."

This is a chilling viewpoint, particularly when 1 views the evidence offered by 50 percent reports released this year by the Uyghur Individual Rights Task (UHRP) and Amnesty International which detail eyewitness company accounts from the use of deadly reside fire against Uyghur protestors in This summer 2009. Additionally, the declaration which fire wouldn't be used against Han Chinese protestors offers resonances for that various approach used through Chinese language protection forces in Urumchi to Han Chinese protests within Sept 2009. Throughout those direct orders, then Party Secretary, Wang Lequan, tackled protesters, that experienced demanded he let them know about federal government responses to protection concerns. An identical request to satisfy using the Celebration Assistant through Uyghur protesters within This summer was not fulfilled.

The broader consequences from the unrest also saw a short dialogue about the impact it would have on Iran-China relationships, as well as on relations with Australia following World Uyghur Congress Leader, Ms. Rebiya Kadeer, spoke in the Nationwide Press Membership within Canberra within August 2009. In the second option case, the Chinese federal government "privately warn[ed] a major Australian bank that vendors the nation's Push Club to make use of it's impact to bar the Kadeer talk there".

The United States' issues about the scenario within the Uyghur region also come through in the cables. Inside a discussion on plan direction within Tibet, Ough.Utes. authorities clarify that it'll be impossible with regard to Chinese language frontrunners to consider a softer collection "if they look like doing so below worldwide pressure". The cable dated April Sixteen, 2008, one month following the episode associated with unrest within Tibetan areas, also relayed the actual declaration "that household stability remains the leadership's main concern most of all, which means there'll ‘almost surely' end up being absolutely no relaxation of the current hard line upon Tibet or perhaps in places like Xinjiang." The information included in the cable television additionally storage sheds gentle about the severe level of sensitivity with which the Chinese federal government views territorial integrity, and the feasible drip over associated with unrest from Tibet.

The chance of solutions to tensions within Tibet as well as Xinjiang arising from municipal culture tend to be debated in a Feb Twenty-four, 2008 cable. Whilst suggesting which China's economic success increases it's resistance to democratic reform, the actual cable television additionally discusses how Chinese language leaders begin to see the usefulness of "a restricted expansion associated with civil culture, such as enhancements in the guideline associated with regulation and a stronger role with regard to authorized beliefs, NGOs, charities and other actors in areas that contribute to sociable balance and do not problem Communist Party rule." This can be a significant change in considering, that has observed U.S. officials market the notion which Chinese language economic development, as well as economic relations with China will bring about a steadily democratic culture; however, much more belief appears to be placed in a grassroots movement than one which begins in the best levels of the Chinese federal government. Nonetheless, the cable television concludes that "[i]n areas such as Tibet and Xinjiang, the fear of separatism leads to tighter limitations about the development of municipal society." This approach can be regarded as counter-productive by the recognized, that suggests that the actual Ough.S. government "should still express...serious issues over Beijing's individual rights record and appeal to China's growing consciousness which greater regard for human rights, religious freedom and the guideline of law will serve to advertise the very development and sociable balance which China looks for in addition to to improve China's international image." This type of technique would consider considerable diplomatic skills thinking about "China's weird fear that the Usa privately promotes regime alter and ‘separatists' within Taiwan, Tibet as well as Xinjiang".

The actual cables provide understanding of the actual every day business associated with diplomacy that's hardly ever owned by everyone, which is fascinating to notice the amount of function carried out behind closed doors on Uyghur issues. The importance of the actual part of the United States like a keep track of of Uyghur individual rights problems in private discussions is made clear, as well as contrasts with its sensible open public position. The staff from the Uyghur Human Privileges Task is actually well aware of the pressure china government exerts on Uyghur activists; nevertheless, the details of Chinese government stress upon its alternatives is illustrative from the diploma that Chinese language officials make an effort to control contrary narratives. With more facts to come through Wikileaks, issues more than Uyghurs might not grab the head lines, however the cables possess get rid of brand new gentle on the paperwork associated with human privileges conditions within the Uyghur region.

 

Search Engine Optimisation And Article Marketing Will Place Yourself Page 1

Search engine marketing and marketing with articles are two of the strongest strategies that can be used promoting your site and get the revenue and success that you need for your internet business. Both of these stuff has been around for a really while already but they still remain to be really effective. In reality, these have helped lots of people free themselves from the traditional means of money-generating options of society.

In this post, I will be showing the ways on how it is possible to properly execute seo and article promotion for the betterment of one's business enterprise website. Furthermore, I will be also discussing the various points that you have to consider when you are using these two online marketing strategies to promote your website and get customers. Despite the fact that article promotion and Search engine optimisation have been established for a long time already, you need to know that the trends and preferences concerning how they are performed are continually changing, which is why you need to stay up to date with these items through the help of Search engine marketing forum sites to be able to quickly adjust and discover ways to make your strategies far better.

In the past article marketing to different web-sites was once so simple yet the effects they produce for web sites really was powerful. However, stuff has changed a great deal today. Nowadays submitting the identical article to different websites is no longer a good suggestion because engines like google have now changed to a huge extent in the way they rank pages. They no more rank contents which can be identical like they used to in the past. This really is one of the best types of changes that occur in online marketing trends. This change has given birth to wide plethora of methods that web marketers are using today. Most of internet marketers now produce articles and distribute them in really popular article directory sites and await targeted traffic to make their pages. Be thought of as that most reliable Search engine optimization strategy that can be used. Aside from being effective, this provides favorable benefits on a regular basis. A small problem with this technique is that the caliber of traffic that you'll get from this won't be that good unless you do proper keyphrase research beforehand and use in-links. You first need to attend to these two things prior to deciding to submit your posts so that you won't end up losing considerable amounts of targeted visitors. Because of this you must practice good levels of diligence if you'd like your advertising initiatives to function.

Apart from articles, you can even use blogging, which is another really powerful form of internet marketing strategy today since it is highly well-liked by search engines. Within this technique, you can choose to create a single weblog that specifically targets your best market otherwise you can give rise to other weblogs which are labeled as experts within your niche.

Learn effective Vancouver search engine marketing techniques in the Vancouver SEO website.

Roofing Contractors Vancouver WA

There are lots of things to take into account when looking for a new roofing contractor. Value, experience, along with referrals are a handful of the things you will likely be concerned about. Continue reading for even more ideas.

• Finding a Roofers

Before looking for a roofing contractor, make sure you have a common idea of the task that you need to have done. By no means is it necessary to be a specialist. If you have a Roof Certification, read it extensively to find the information about your active roof. Should you not have a Ceiling Certificate, refer to documents authorized during closing to locate your Roof Inspection sheet. These files should provide everything you need to find out about your roof. Before contacting the roofing contractor, you need to have a list of requirements and requirements to help you decide exactly who is acceptable for your roofing project. Make sure to write down each potential covering contractor's answers as well as check these people against each other. If there are any inacucuracy, be sure to take note this and take this into consideration when creating a final determination. There are no uncomplicated ways to choose a roofing contractor, in case you take pay attention to to the details provided, your chances of a successful roofer project tend to be greatly increased.

One of the best methods for finding a roofing contractor is by person to person. Try requesting a friend or relative that has had covering work carried out, and was satisfied with the task. Get the brand of the enterprise and their particular contact data. If you have no word of jaws referrals, try first searching in the cell phone book and internet based. A large advert or extravagant website is not necessarily a sign of the top quality of work, but can be a great tool with regard to measuring just how long and commitment they have put in their individual profession. Also, try finding current worksites and search at the covering work which is done or perhaps the process of becoming finished. Should you be visually pleased, ask the exact property manager to the name from the roofing contractor along with their contact information.

• Research

When looking for a new roofing contractors, it's imperative to first do your current background research. Purchasing in the phone directory or on the Internet is a suitable place to find a contractor, finding essential information on most of these businesses will probably be found in other areas. First, check with locations like the Better Business Bureau, city, express, and region public records, as well as local accreditation agencies. Inquire your roofing contractor if they are a part of any roofer associations. These kind of precautions will certainly mitigate your own risks. Also ask them what sorts of roofing these people specialize in. Additionally ask your current roofing contractor about any extended auto warranties they offer on their own installed roofing. Find out what safety measures they take to avoid injury done to other regions of the home through workers. Products such as gutters, house siding, and fireplaces are close in proximity and thus susceptible to accidental damages.

Ensure all of this information is included in your written contract. Check if you need a covering permit and/or authorization from your house owners association beforehand. These people will let you know who's responsible for obtaining these enables and authorizations. If it is the responsibility of the roofer, also have that included in your contract. Whether it is your responsibility, get explained permits as well as permissions collated with the estimated roofer project and also have it clearly posted or perhaps readily available.

• Accreditation and Recommendations

Roofing Contractors are not required to be accredited in all declares. Contact community licensing organizations that oversee general design contractors for any list of needs. Once you have obtained the requirements, make a list of detailed questions to ask your current potential roofer. This simple listing should quickly help you to weed out the skilled from the dodgy roofing companies. Qualified installers should be able to very easily answer questions as well as tell you that they need to do even more research before giving a new definitive answer.

Even if any roofing contractor has all needed licensing, you need to ask to see pictures involving completed covering jobs along with speak to happy clients. Use a list of inquiries handy ought to recent customers, such as the character of the employment, timeliness, and all round satisfaction. Make certain these are the latest clients as well as cross reference if possible. When it comes to commercial roofing, make sure that your roofing contractor will be bonded. Looking at these personal references is another extra measure of security to restrict the list regarding potential covering contractors.