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No Change Or Straight Talk, Just Flip Flop

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No Change Or Straight Talk, Just Flip Flop

James William Smith

I watched the HBO miniseries on John Adams during the fourth of July weekend. The miniseries is based on the book by David McCullough on the second President of the United States. The movie portrays a somewhat vain fellow who was not a very skilled diplomat and detested the notion of compromise.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0wBXNAiOys[/youtube]

However, Adams was an passionate guy when it came to independence and the issues that the fledgling United States government faced. Certainly, John Adams did not lack for conviction on how to solve the issues of his day. The passion for solutions to the problems of the early years of this country stand in stark contrast to our Presidential candidates’ consultant, poll driven, media obsessed, national marketing campaigns of today. In the 2008 Presidential election there is one candidate (Barack Obama) running on a campaign platform of hope and government change. The other candidate, (John McCain) drives a bus and flies on a plane adorned with the campaign slogan, “The Straight Talk Express”. However, so far, in this 2008 presidential election campaign, there is very little straight talk while change is a political slogan without much substance. In fact, the only thing both major party candidates have achieved so far is to confuse the voter about what each of their respective campaigns actually stands for. Indeed, the partisans in each political party will say that their candidate is pure and it is really the other guy who shifts positions on issues to fit each changing political breeze. The record shows that these political partisans are wrong and that both candidates read from the same tired, old, campaign playbook. Barack Obama is the Democrats new age candidate of “hope” and “change”. His campaign is currently running an ad in the mid west that states that he voted for reforming welfare several years ago. The truth is that he actually voted against it when his vote counted. It well may be that he supports welfare reform today, but he did not back then. It is only one example of the disingenuous political “flip flops” in his campaign during the last several weeks. Earlier in the year, Obama pledged to use public financing as long as his Republican opponent did. He stated; “If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.” Of course there will be no pursuit of that agreement now that Obama has discovered that he can raise more money than his rival from private donors for the general election campaign. Also, consider that it was only five months ago that Barack Obama voted against a Senate bill providing retroactive immunity to telecom companies that provided information to American intelligence communities. In fact, Obama was very vocal against providing immunity for this type of surveillance which was used after 9/11 to follow-up on leads of domestic terrorist communications coming from overseas. However, last week, Obama voted “yes” on the new FISA bill that provides the same retroactive immunity that he so vigorously campaigned against just a few short months back. Indeed, recent Obama political “flip flops” seem to go on and on. Today Obama believes in gun ownership rights and says he always believed in them. However, past interviews with him on that subject reflect a much different stance on the issue. His position has changed on the issue of taxes. In 2006, he voted against extending write-offs for small businesses and the Bush tax cuts to the capital-gains rates. In addition, he has long assailed Bush’s “tax breaks for big corporations and wealthy CEOs.” However, recently, he told the Wall Street Journal that corporate tax rates could be reduced after eliminating loopholes. Everyone should remember Barack Obama’s position during the Democratic Primary on the war in Iraq. He had set a firm Iraq withdrawal timetable of 16 months. Now, the campaign’s position as stated by his foreign policy advisor, Susan Rice on MSNBC indicates that Obama would “redeploy our forces responsibly, at a rate that our commanders say is safe and sustainable.” Also, Obama has stated that an upcoming trip to Iraq will help to “refine” his policies. Obama’s flip flops even extend to his family’s role in his national campaign. Two weeks ago, he allowed both his daughters to be interviewed by the national media. Last week he said that in retrospect he regretted allowing that interview and probably would not do it again. The Straight Talk Express of Republican John McCain is certainly matching Barack Obama in the area of political flip flops. McCain previously supported an oil drilling moratorium, now he is against it. Also, he was comfortable with a windfall tax on oil companies, now suddenly he opposes it. McCain was against the current Bush wiretap program, now he is for it. He wanted to privatize Social Security, now he is against it. He used to think that the estate tax was fair, now he doesn’t. He has opposed indefinite detention of terrorist suspects. However, when the Supreme Court recently came to the same conclusion, he called it one of the worst decisions in the history of this country. There are many more examples of recent issue “flip flops” by both candidates, but by now the picture should be clear. It’s not about solutions to problems or consistent intellectual positions on the issues. Sadly, it’s all about polls, consultants, and media sound bites designed for the sole purpose of getting elected to the Oval Office in November. Therefore, this 2008 Presidential election is not about change, or straight talk, just “flip flop”.

James William Smith has worked in senior management positions for some of the largest financial services firms in the United States for the last twenty five years. He has also provided business consulting support for insurance organizations and start up businesses. Mr. Smith has a Bachelor of Science Degree from Boston College. He enjoys writing articles on political, national, and world events. Visit his website at http;//www.eworldviu.com

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No Change Or Straight Talk, Just Flip Flop

Friday, June 26, 2015

Annabel Goldie, Scottish Conservative Party leader from 2005 to 2011, has announced she will stand down as an MSP at the next elections in 2016. Goldie, who has been an MSP for the West Scotland (previously West of Scotland) electoral region since the Scottish Parliament’s formation in 1999, said she intends to focus on her role in the House of Lords, where she has been a peer since 2013.File:Annabel Goldie.jpg

In a statement today, Goldie said leading the party was an “enormous honour” for her. She also said: “It has afforded me both satisfaction and pleasure to serve my constituents and to serve the parliament and I will look back with great happiness at my time as an MSP. I am grateful to friends and colleagues from all parties for their support. Sometimes we found common ground, sometimes we disagreed but never I hope with rancour nor disrespect. Politics is a rough trade but we have built a strong parliament in Scotland of which we can all be rightly proud.” She said because of Ruth Davidson, her successor as Scottish Conservative leader, the party is now “in fine fettle and stands a great chance of making real progress in the years ahead,” concluding by saying: “I look forward to continuing to work as part of that effort in the House of Lords in the years to come.”

Davidson responded to the news by calling Goldie an “unstoppable force”, adding: “She has been an inspiration to a whole generation of Scottish Conservatives, and she has been a tremendous mentor, support and friend to me. In Holyrood, she has fostered both affection and respect from all members – regardless of their political affiliation – and her retirement from the Scottish Parliament will leave an Annabel-sized hole which won’t ever quite be filled. She is unique.” Meanwhile, David Cameron, UK Conservative leader and UK Prime Minister, said: “Annabel is one of those rare breeds in Scottish politics, somebody known by her first name alone. When she was Scottish Conservative leader, I valued her sage advice. She has been a towering strength to our party in Scotland, a doughty debater in the TV studios and Scottish Parliament and has one of the sharpest wits around. I wish her a long and happy retirement after 17 years unstinting service at Holyrood – but look forward to seeing her on the red benches of the Lords for years to come.”

	In Holyrood, she has fostered both affection and respect from all members – regardless of their political affiliation – and her retirement from the Scottish Parliament will leave an Annabel-sized hole which won’t ever quite be filled. She is unique.

Goldie, the Scottish Conservatives’ first ever female leader, was elected unopposed. She took up the role in the aftermath of David McLetchie’s resignation from the role in an expenses usage controversy and subsequent resignation of Brian Monteith from his Conservative whip role in the Scottish Parliament for briefing the media against him. Meanwhile, as Scottish Conservatives won 18 seats in the Scottish Parliament in 1999 and 2003, the party had been less successful in UK general elections in Scotland; Conservatives went up from zero out of a possible 72 UK MPs in Scotland in 1997 to one in 2001. This led to Goldie remarking in her inaugural speech in 2005 that: “The wheels are back on the wagon – and I’m the nag hitched up to tow it.” She also said: “The party is still way ahead of where it was in 1997. And my first task is to take it forward to 2007.” However, under Goldie’s leadership, the number of seats the Scottish Conservatives won in the Scottish Parliament slightly decreased from 18 in 2003 to 17 in 2007 and to 15 in 2011. At the same time, the number of Conservative MPs stood at one out of a possible 59 after the 2010 UK general election.

In the aforementioned 2005 speech, she also said the party could be trusted with devolution in Scotland, adding: “making devolution work better means real devolution: not the lumbering and cripplingly expensive array of government departments, government advisers, consultants, quangos, quasi-quangos and agencies with all their expensive appendages, but devolving down to people and their communities, their right to make their own decisions about their lives, how for example they procure healthcare and how they educate their children.” Goldie would go on to sit on the advisory board for the Smith Commission, which was set up to examine which further political powers should be devolved to Scotland following the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. More recently, Goldie supported a reduction in the voting age for Scottish Parliament elections from 18 to 16 in a vote earlier this month, commenting: “I think it is an opportunity for them to continue their high level of engagement in topical affairs that we saw with the independence referendum.”

Goldie, a member of the Salvation Army’s West of Scotland Advisory Board and a Church of Scotland elder, is not the only Scottish Conservative MSP intending to stand down in 2016. Mary Scanlon, Gavin Brown, Alex Fergusson and Nanette Milne all reportedly intend to leave the Scottish Parliament next year.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Former_Scottish_Conservatives_leader_Annabel_Goldie_to_stand_down_as_MSP&oldid=4513787”

Monday, October 19, 2009

A report accidentally published on the Internet provides insight into a secretive European Union surveillance project designed to monitor its citizens, as reported by Wikileaks earlier this month. Project INDECT aims to mine data from television, internet traffic, cellphone conversations, p2p file sharing and a range of other sources for crime prevention and threat prediction. The €14.68 million project began in January, 2009, and is scheduled to continue for five years under its current mandate.

INDECT produced the accidentally published report as part of their “Extraction of Information for Crime Prevention by Combining Web Derived Knowledge and Unstructured Data” project, but do not enumerate all potential applications of the search and surveillance technology. Police are discussed as a prime example of users, with Polish and British forces detailed as active project participants. INDECT is funded under the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), and includes participation from Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

Indicated in the initial trial’s report, the scope of data collected is particularly broad; days of television news, radio, newspapers, and recorded telephone conversations are included. Several weeks of content from online sources were agglomerated, including mining Wikipedia for users’ and article subjects’ relations with others, organisations, and in-project movements.

Watermarking of published digital works such as film, audio, or other documents is discussed in the Project INDECT remit; its purpose is to integrate and track this information, its movement within the system and across the Internet. An unreleased promotional video for INDECT located on YouTube is shown to the right. The simplified example of the system in operation shows a file of documents with a visible INDECT-titled cover taken from an office and exchanged in a car park. How the police are alerted to the document theft is unclear in the video; as a “threat”, it would be the INDECT system’s job to predict it.

Throughout the video use of CCTV equipment, facial recognition, number plate reading, and aerial surveillance give friend-or-foe information with an overlaid map to authorities. The police proactively use this information to coordinate locating, pursuing, and capturing the document recipient. The file of documents is retrieved, and the recipient roughly detained.

Technology research performed as part of Project INDECT has clear use in countering industrial and international espionage, although the potential use in maintaining any security and predicting leaks is much broader. Quoted in the UK’s Daily Telegraph, Liberty’s director, Shami Chakrabarti, described a possible future implementation of INDECT as a “sinister step” with “positively chilling” repercussions Europe-wide.

“It is inevitable that the project has a sensitive dimension due to the security focussed goals of the project,” Suresh Manandhar, leader of the University of York researchers involved in the “Work Package 4” INDECT component, responded to Wikinews. “However, it is important to bear in mind that the scientific methods are much more general and has wider applications. The project will most likely have lot of commercial potential. The project has an Ethics board to oversee the project activities. As a responsible scientists [sic] it is of utmost importance to us that we conform to ethical guidelines.”

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Although Wikinews attempted to contact Professor Helen Petrie of York University, the local member of Project INDECT’s Ethics board, no response was forthcoming. The professor’s area of expertise is universal access, and she has authored a variety of papers on web-accessibility for blind and disabled users. A full list of the Ethics board members is unavailable, making their suitability unassessable and distancing them from public accountability.

One potential application of Project INDECT would be implementation and enforcement of the U.K.’s “MoD Manual of Security“. The 2,389-page 2001 version passed to Wikileaks this month — commonly known as JSP-440, and marked “RESTRICTED” — goes into considerable detail on how, as a serious threat, investigative journalists should be monitored, and effectively thwarted; just the scenario the Project INDECT video could be portraying.

When approached by Wikinews about the implications of using INDECT, a representative of the U.K.’s Attorney General declined to comment on legal checks and balances such a system might require. Further U.K. enquiries were eventually referred to the Police Service of Northern Ireland, who have not yet responded.

Wikinews’ Brian McNeil contacted Eddan Katz, the International Affairs Director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (E.F.F.). Katz last spoke to Wikinews in early 2008 on copyright, not long after taking his current position with the E.F.F. He was back in Brussels to speak to EU officials, Project INDECT was on his agenda too — having learned of it only two weeks earlier. Katz linked Project INDECT with a September report, NeoConopticon — The EU Security-Industrial Complex, authored by Ben Hayes for the Transnational Institute. The report raises serious questions about the heavy involvement of defence and IT companies in “security research”.

On the record, Katz answered a few questions for Wikinews.

((WN)) Is this illegal? Is this an invasion of privacy? Spying on citizens?

Eddan Katz When the European Parliament issued the September 5, 2001 report on the American ECHELON system they knew such an infrastructure is in violation of data protection law, undermines the values of privacy and is the first step towards a totalitarian surveillance information society.

((WN)) Who is making the decisions based on this information, about what?

E.K. What’s concerning to such a large extent is the fact that the projects seem to be agnostic to that question. These are the searching systems and those people that are working on it in these research labs do search technology anyway. […] but its inclusion in a database and its availability to law enforcement and its simultaneity of application that’s so concerning, […] because the people who built it aren’t thinking about those questions, and the social questions, and the political questions, and all this kind of stuff. [… It] seems like it’s intransparent, unaccountable.

The E.U. report Katz refers to was ratified just six days before the September 11 attacks that brought down the twin towers of the World Trade Center. In their analysis of the never-officially-recognised U.S. Echelon spy system it states, “[i]n principle, activities and measures undertaken for the purposes of state security or law enforcement do not fall within the scope of the EC Treaty.” On privacy and data-protection legislation enacted at E.U. level it comments, “[such does] not apply to ‘the processing of data/activities concerning public security, defence, state security (including the economic well-being of the state when the activities relate to state security matters) and the activities of the state in areas of criminal law'”.

Part of the remit in their analysis of Echelon was rumours of ‘commercial abuse’ of intelligence; “[i]f a Member State were to promote the use of an interception system, which was also used for industrial espionage, by allowing its own intelligence service to operate such a system or by giving foreign intelligence services access to its territory for this purpose, it would undoubtedly constitute a breach of EC law […] activities of this kind would be fundamentally at odds with the concept of a common market underpinning the EC Treaty, as it would amount to a distortion of competition”.

Ben Hayes’ NeoConoptiocon report, in a concluding section, “Following the money“, states, “[w]hat is happening in practice is that multinational corporations are using the ESRP [European Seventh Research Programme] to promote their own profit-driven agendas, while the EU is using the programme to further its own security and defence policy objectives. As suggested from the outset of this report, the kind of security described above represents a marriage of unchecked police powers and unbridled capitalism, at the expense of the democratic system.”

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Listening_to_you_at_last:_EU_plans_to_tap_cell_phones&oldid=2611950”

Don’t Gamble On Franchise Funding Success . Finance Your Franchising Opportunity Properly!}

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Don’t Gamble On Franchise Funding Success . Finance Your Franchising Opportunity Properly!

stanprokop

Franchise funding in Canada. At times does it seem like you have to take a real gamble on the franchising opportunity just to complete a transaction properly? And then finance it? Is there a better way? We think there is, and here’s why, and how!

We’re the first to admit making that franchise purchase decision is a huge leap of faith for many existing and would be entrepreneurs. Not only is it appropriate and important to align yourself with the proper franchisor, the challenge then becomes assembling what we could call a small ‘ team ‘ of advisors and mentors. So who is on that team – typically it’s a key contact at your franchisor, your accountant or franchise lawyer, and a financing advisor of some type – it might be your banker, it might not be.So if you have a team in place is there still a gamble and risk here? To some degree yes, as the question still hangs over your opportunity, namely ‘How does franchise financing work and can I convince a lender of some sorts to approve my transaction?”If there is any good news in the cloud of doubt we seem to be casting (we’re not trying to be negative!) here it’s simply that a franchising opportunity is viewed as a positive business model in today’s Canadian lending landscape.Getting the right terms and conditions and utilizing the best finance program for franchises is key. So what then makes franchise funding and getting your acquisition in place a ‘ gamble ‘ sometimes? One thing is the quality of your team – the advice and direction you get from your franchisor, your finance partner, your specialized franchising lawyer etc are worth a million dollars… or close to it!When it comes to financing you absolutely must be working with a lender of financing advisor who is both positive, and yes, experienced! in franchise finance. The reality is that there are always naysayers in any crowd, so if you get the old line ‘ we like you and your idea but we just think it’s too risky ‘ you are absolutely going to have to replace some of our aforementioned team mates!Who are the preferred lenders in franchise funding in Canada. You might be surprised to know it’s the federal government! Under the auspices of the CSBF program thousands of franchises are financed in Canada every year. Is it an automatic approval? Hardly – but you can eliminate a lot of the gamble we have been talking about by simply focusing on a crisp presentation. That includes a solid business plan , cash flow, ( Cash repays loans by the way !) and the ability to position yourself as having an appropriate level of business or industry experience within the sector you are entering into with your franchisor .While we identified your franchisor as part of your team we would quickly hasten to say that you’re really gambling on success if you are relying on the franchisor to help you with financing in a direct manner. 99.999% of the time they don’t and won’t. That is why the CSBF program we mentioned is so popular. It’s a largely guaranteed government loan that still gives you tremendous financing flexibility. Other sources of financing include specialized franchise lenders and commercial finance and leasing firms who can assist in closing your transaction successfully.Speak to a trusted, credible and experienced Canadian business financing advisor who can assist you in removing the ‘ gambling ‘ aspect of successful franchise funding in Canada.

Stan Prokop – founder of 7 Park Avenue Financial – http://www.7parkavenuefinancial.com

Originating Canadian business financing and , specializing in working capital, cash flow, asset based financing . In business 7 years – has completed in excess of 80 Million $$ of financing for Canadian corporations . Core competancies include receivables financing, asset based lending, working capital, equipment finance, franchise finance and tax credit financing .Info re: Canadian business financing & contact details : http://www.7parkavenuefinancial.com/franchise_funding_finance_franchise_opportunity.html

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Don’t Gamble On Franchise Funding Success . Finance Your Franchising Opportunity Properly!}

Secret Tips For Healthy Skin That Will Leave You Begging For More!

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Effective Tips for healthy skin can be of immense use because a beautiful skin glowing with natural health is one of the most prized asset that you can have. A healthy glowing skin leaves such a positive impression on everyone we meet that leaves them all surprised in astonishment!We have been taught since childhood that cheating is bad. But, looking good and beautiful is a natural desire in all of us. So, it is justified to use skin care rejuvenation products to look young as a part of the effective tips for healthy skin. If a 100% natural path is what you prefer to look beautiful, then you should not apply any make-up, hair products or any skin care cosmetic products.But, avoiding any skincare rejuvenation products would make you look older prematurely. Hence it is acceptable to use skin rejuvenation products that give us young and healthy looks and make us feel more confident.Tips for healthy skin – Harmful Substances to avoidEffective tips for healthy skin would be incomplete without this revelation. You should be aware that skincare product manufacturers are using harmful substances in your much trusted skin care products. These are causing substantial damage to your skin health in the long term.A lot of the skincare products available in the market contain parabens and fragrances. Parabens are effective preservatives and help in improving the shelf life of the skincare products. They are clinically known to cause cancer.Fragrances are added to skincare products so that they smell nice. But their health consequences are very fatal because they are made out of harmful chemicals. They cause allergic reactions, skin irritation and also hinder the normal functioning of the central nervous system!Another culprit in sub standard skincare products is Mineral Oils. They work as temporary skin moisturizers and are used because they are cheap. They clog the skin pores and lead to acne breakouts and skin inflammation.There are many more hazardous chemical substances used in skincare products. You can visit my website for a comprehensive list.Thus, as a part of tips for healthy skin, it is very important that you avoid the above harmful chemicals and use such products with naturally proven effective substances that can give the best care and protection to your skin health.Tips for healthy skin – Natural Substances to look forI have discovered some secret breakthrough natural substances. One of them is Cynergy TK. It has been pioneered in New Zealand. It is being used in niche skincare product lines. It has been clinically proven very effective in enhancing the natural production of collagen and elastin in the body.Collagen and Elastin are the vital skin proteins in our body which can be called as the youth giving skin proteins. They give us a firm, supple, pliant and elastic skin. In your youth days, these were produced in ample quantity by your body, but as you age, their natural production slows down and skin aging signs like wrinkles, saggy skin and age spots begin to show up.In clinical trials on human volunteers, Cynergy TK showed amazing results. It showed more than 14% improvement in skin moisture retention and more than 42% improvement in skin elasticity in a period of 18 days.As Cynergy TK has been pioneered in New Zealand, you might not have heard its name yet in the western world. It might become a household name in some years, but as of now it is only known to some individuals like you and me who have done some research.And internet has brought it into the reach of anyone, anywhere on the globe. A soft and beautiful skin need not remain just a dream any more, the effective tips for healthy skin can make you achieve that in reality.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETaUvt4hnWI[/youtube]

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No Change Or Straight Talk, Just Flip Flop

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