Clipmarks | masbury's clips

Friends of the Earth endorses Obama

Sun, 04 May 2008 04:39:14 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: due to Clinton support of "gas tax holiday"

One endorsement not affecting the delegate count but reflecting a possible opinion swing is that of Friends of the Earth, which endorsed Obama today due to Clinton's support for a "gas tax holiday." A Siegel identifies Clinton's aggressively flawed position on that issue as one with the potential to push some environmentalists off the fence.

Tags: elections, environment, green

Networks' military analysts pitched gov't views, sought millions in contracts

Sun, 04 May 2008 00:38:57 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Illegal covert Pentagon program not being covered by MSM

Clip Source: www.counterpunch.org

The Pentagon launched its covert media analyst program in 2002, to sell the Iraq war. Later, it was used to sell an image of progress in Afghanistan, whitewash the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, and defend the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping, as David Barstow reported in his New York Times expose.

But the pundits weren't just selling government talking points. As Robert Bevelacqua, William Cowan and Carlton Sherwood enjoyed high-level Pentagon access through the analyst program, their WVC3 Group sought "contracts worth tens of millions to supply body armor and counterintelligence services in Iraq," reported Barstow. Cowan admitted to "push[ing] hard" on a WVC3 contract, during a Pentagon-funded trip to Iraq.

Today, the broadcast and cable networks are steadfastly refusing to cover or otherwise address the Pentagon military analyst program

These officers participated in a covert government program designed to shape U.S. public opinion -- an illegal program

Tags: media, pentagon, military

Army Corps of Engineers can be held liable re: Katrina

Sun, 04 May 2008 00:19:32 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Corps' arguments for immunity dismissed

Clip Source: rawstory.com

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Army Corps of Engineers can be held liable for flood damage caused by a "hurricane highway," a navigation channel that is believed to have funneled Hurricane Katrina's storm surge into the city, a federal judge ruled Friday.

The Corps of Engineers had argued that it was immune from liability because the channel is part of New Orleans' flood control system. The law says the federal government cannot be sued if something goes wrong with a flood control project such as a levee, reservoir or dam.

Judge Stanwood Duval dismissed that argument, saying the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, or MRGO, was clearly a ship channel and not a flood control project.

Tags: katrina, new orleans

Obama "sails" to Guam victory

Sun, 04 May 2008 00:09:18 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: called a caucus, but more like mainland primaries in format

Clip Source: www.democraticunderground.com

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Sen. Barack Obama headed to victory in the Guam Democratic Party caucus Saturday, leading his rival Sen. Hillary Clinton for the four pledged delegates at stake in the race for their party's nomination.

With 95% of the vote counted, according to a CNN tally, Obama had won 53% against Clinton's 47%, even as the two hopefuls were busy campaigning for the Indiana and North Carolina primaries slated for Tuesday.

McCain "scare the heck out of" those with employer-based insurance

Sun, 04 May 2008 00:05:46 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Comments from Des Moines Register editorial

Clip Source: www.dailykos.com

The proposal [by McCain] should scare the heck out of the millions of Americans who rely on employer-based coverage...Buying individual policies means having your health history reviewed. It means not having the bargaining power and protections that come with being part of a plan offered by an employer. And it's expensive...

The senator is correct that the employer-based system of health insurance in this country isn't working. Businesses are saddled with the high costs of coverage, putting them at a competitive disadvantage in the global marketplace. Insurance shouldn't be tied to jobs.

But the more reasonable solution is to offer everyone what Medicare already offers: health coverage financed by a combination of tax dollars and participant contributions, thus allowing the huge bargaining power of millions of Americans to leverage down costs.

That idea is nowhere near as radical as forcing millions of Americans to shop for their own coverage in a profit-driven, private-insurance sector.

Tags: healthcare, mccain

Obama steady among whites; Clinton plummets among blacks

Sat, 03 May 2008 23:58:55 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Obama's favorable and unfavorable rating among whites are both up 5%; Clinton's unfavorable among blacks "in a staggering free-fall:" minus 36.

Clip Source: www.dailykos.com

The question is this: Have white Democrats soured on Obama? Apparently not. Although his unfavorable rating from the group is up five percentage points since last summer

his favorable rating is up just as much

So, to sum up: Look at the damn graphs. You can see that Clinton is in a staggering free-fall among African-American voters, her favorability is down 36 points while 17 percent view her more negatively than before, while Obama’s favorable and negative ratings among whites have paired at five point increases. You can even see the small dip - about two percentage points - in his popularity among whites that can be attributed to the news cycles about his ex-pastor, and see that it has leveled out and is now on a straight horizontal line (meanwhile, Clinton’s numbers among blacks continue on an extreme downward precipice). The greater context is that even including Obama’s slight dip, he’s more popular today among white voters than he ever was prior to February.

Tags: clinton, obama, polls, elections, politics

How to stop annoying audiences with bad PowerPoint

Sat, 03 May 2008 18:49:11 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Survey of what annoys and how to fix it

Clip Source: www.indezine.com

Survey Shows How to Stop Annoying Audiences With Bad PowerPoint

The speaker read the slides to us	60.4%
Text so small I couldn't read it	50.9%
Full sentences instead of bullet points	47.8%
Slides hard to see because of color choice	37.1%
Moving/flying text or graphics	24.5%
Annoying use of sounds	22.0%
Overly complex diagrams or charts	22.0%

Three common themes emerged from the free-form comments:

Poor Preparation of the Presentation

Balance of Slide Elements

Not Knowing How to Use the Technology

41.5% of the respondents said that more than 40% of the presentations they see contain annoying elements

Microsoft’s statistics indicate that there are

30 million PowerPoint presentations done each day

Conclusions

Too many presenters have used PowerPoint slides as a substitute for themselves and think that the slides are the presentation

presenters must only put the key points on the slide and add to the point with the depth of information that they share verbally

Tags: powerpoint, business, presentations, communication, technology

NYTimes: "Clinton may be hopeful, but Obama rolls on"

Sat, 03 May 2008 06:31:48 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "the delegate math is not going to change"

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

despite a series of trials that have put Mr. Obama on the defensive and illustrated the burdens he might carry in a fall campaign, the Obama campaign is rolling along, leaving Mrs. Clinton with dwindling options.

Mr. Obama continues to pick up the support of superdelegates — elected Democrats and party leaders — at a quicker pace than Mrs. Clinton.

Even after Mrs. Clinton’s victory in Pennsylvania, Mr. Obama has held on to a solid lead in pledged delegates

the uncommitted superdelegates, who are likely to hold the balance of power — still seem to view their decision the way the Obama campaign would like them to see it.

“It’s about the numbers, and the numbers are the numbers,” said Chris Redfern, the chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party and an uncommitted superdelegate. “It’s not about hand-wringing. And Senator Obama has the lead.”

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

“The delegate math is not going to change significantly,” Ms. McCaskill said

I don’t see the people who are for Obama wavering one bit.”

Tags: obama, clinton, elections, politics