No Wonder People in the UK aren’t mobile – cellphone junkies and other very funky stuff from State Department budget needs to opportunities to get a $50,000 reward for a hard-drive lost by the National Archives – to new opportunities to work at the State Department and at USAID – they will be adding jobs – employment opportunities – and Egyptian elite sentenced to death for Suzanne Tamim’s death – Wow – that is amazing – thought I would never see the day

Egypt tycoon gets death for singer’s slaying
By MAGGIE MICHAEL
Associated Press
2009-05-21 02:39 PM

An Egyptian court has convicted and sentenced to death a prominent real estate mogul and lawmaker for the slaying of Lebanese pop star Suzanne Tamim, in a case that sparked a media frenzy across the Middle East.

Hisham Talaat Moustafa, who is close to President Hosni Mubarak’s eldest son, Gamal, was accused of paying a former Egyptian police officer $2 million to kill Tamim in Dubai. Authorities say Moustafa and Tamim were lovers.

The former officer, Mohsen el-Sukkary, was also sentenced to death Thursday in a court session that quickly descended into chaos after the verdict was read.

[ . . . ]

http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=955405&lang=eng_news&cate_img=1037.jpg&cate_rss=General

***

National Archives loses hard drive with Clinton era records

By Mike M. Ahlers and Elaine Quijano

CNN

The National Archives has lost a hard drive containing large volumes of Clinton administration records.

Officials at the Archives say they don’t know how many confidential records are on the hard drive. But congressional aides briefed on the matter say it contains “more than 100,000″ Social Security numbers, including one belonging to a daughter of then-Vice President Al Gore. It also contains Secret Service and White House operating procedures, the staffers said they were told.

The hard drive was last seen in the National Archive’s complex in College Park, Maryland, sometime between October of last year and the first week of February. It was discovered missing in late March, prompting a thorough search for the small, 2.5 pound device, the Archives said. When it could not be located, the inspector general’s office opened a criminal investigation.

On Wednesday, the Archives announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to its return.

[ . . . ]

The device is described as a two terabyte Western Digital MY BOOK external hard drive, measuring 6.5 x 2.1 x 5.4 inches.

More than 110 4-millimeter tape cartridges were copied onto the hard drive. The records included records from the Clinton Administration Executive Office of the President.

The inspector general said at least 100 people had access to the area where the hard drive was left unsecured, and that janitors, visitors and others also passed through the area.

[ . . . ]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/20/lost.hard.drive.clinton/index.html

updated 4 hours, 1 minute ago

***

5 Alabama police officers fired over beating caught on camera

Five police officers brutally kicked and beat an unconscious suspect after a high-speed chase through Birmingham, Alabama, in an incident caught on camera and discovered a year later.

* Footage believed to have been shot in January 2008 after 50-mile chase
* Beating occurs after car rolls over, ejecting unconscious man onto ground

[etc.]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/05/20/alabama.police.beating/index.html#cnnSTCText

updated 4 hours, 57 minutes ago

Includes Video from the actual cruiser camera on the link page above

***

FY 2010 Budget for the State Department

Secretary Clinton (May 20): “By using all the tools of American power – the talent of our people, well-reasoned policies, strategic partnerships, and the strength of our principles – we can make great strides against the problems we’ve faced for generations, and address the new threats of the 21^st century. This comprehensive approach to solving global problems and seizing opportunities is at the heart of smart power. And the President’s 2010 budget is a blueprint for how we intend to put smart power into action.” -Full Text -Best Places to Work -FY2010 International Affairs Budget

http://www.state.gov/

http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2009a/05/123679.htm

***

UK NEWS
SECRET TAX ON PHONE CALLS

A secret stealth tax is being put on every call to a mobile phone

Thursday May 21,2009
By Dana Gloger

A SECRET stealth tax is being slapped on every call to a mobile phone, it was revealed last night.

Operators are charging up to five pence a minute to phone a mobile, even if the call is made from a landline.

But it costs the companies less than one penny to connect the calls, meaning they are raking in £2.5billion a year from the fees known as mobile termination rates.

Few consumers are aware of the charges, which make up 80 per cent of the cost of phoning a mobile phone from a landline. Customers are also charged more for calls from their mobile if they are phoning somebody on a different network.

John Petter, managing director of consumer BT retail, said: “People are not aware of this issue, so it is not unreasonable to call it a stealth tax.

“It is very unfair and particularly cruel on people who do not have a mobile phone, such as some elderly people.

“These people are subsiding the profits of the mobile phone companies, even though they are not even their customers.”

[ . . . ]

“It has also proved extremely tough for small businesses who often have to call their customers on mobile numbers.”

Mr Petter blasted the charges as “extremely outdated” and said they had been introduced when mobile phone companies had first been set up. “The fees date back to when these firms were building up their networks to help them cover their start-up costs. But now they are multi-national, multi-billion pound firms, not cash-strapped businesses and they should be giving customers a fairer deal.”

Yesterday, BT joined forces with UK mobile phone operator 3 to launch the Terminate the Rate campaign, which calls for the MTRs to be scrapped.

[ . . . ]

“Mobile termination rates might sound like the obscure pre-occupations of telecom nerds or geeks but their effect is to impose an unfair tax on every household and business and organisation in the UK,” he said.

“They fatten the profits of the big four mobile players at the expense of real competition and innovation.”

[ . . . ]

The part-time freelance consultant in fashion marketing said: “Cree started using the landline when her credit ran out. She ran up huge bills calling mobiles. My phone bill went up from £60 to £190 a month.”

HR manager Claire Thompson, 31, from Surbiton, south-west London, said that the MTRs meant that her retired grandparents could not afford to call her on her mobile.

“They won’t contact me on my mobile as they are worried about getting a huge bill. I had a landline installed so they can call me on that.”

http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/102411

***

Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs

• - Contact Us

• - DipNote Blog

• - Ask the State Department Online Chats

• - Request a Speaker

• - Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs

• - Bureau of Public Affairs

• - Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs

• - Bureau of International Information Programs

• - Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy

[From - ]

http://www.state.gov/press/

there is also online chat – contacts – ask dumb questions and make suggestions opportunities form the above page link -

**

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton > What the Secretary Has Been Saying > 2009 Secretary Clinton’s Remarks > Remarks by Secretary Clinton: May 2009
FY 2010 Budget for the Department of State

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
Washington, DC
May 20, 2009

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, Senator Gregg, Senator Specter, Senator Bond. I’m very pleased to be here with you and to have this opportunity to discuss in some detail both the threats and the opportunities facing our country.

When I appeared before the Senate Appropriations Committee a few weeks ago with Secretary Gates, we both emphasized the need for a comprehensive approach to the challenges we face. We know we are confronting instability in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and the Middle East; we have transnational threats like terrorism, nuclear proliferation, climate change; and we have urgent development needs ranging from extreme poverty to pandemic disease, all of which have a direct impact on our own security and prosperity.

Now, these are tough challenges, and we would be foolish to minimize the magnitude of the task ahead. But we also have new opportunities. By using all the tools of American power – the talent of our people, well-reasoned policies, strategic partnerships, and the strength of our principles – we can make great strides against the problems we’ve faced for generations, and address the new threats of the 21st century. This comprehensive approach to solving global problems and seizing opportunities is at the heart of smart power. And the President’s 2010 budget is a blueprint for how we intend to put smart power into action.

The President’s Fiscal Year 2010 budget request for the State Department and USAID is $48.6 billion, a 7 percent increase over Fiscal Year 2009 funding levels. We know this request comes at a time when other agencies are experiencing cutbacks and the American people are experiencing economic recession. But it is an indication of the critical role the State Department and USAID must play to help advance our nation’s interests, safeguard our security, and make us a positive force for progress worldwide.

Our success requires a robust State Department and USAID working side-by-side with a strong military. To exercise our global leadership effectively, we do need to harness all three Ds – diplomacy, development, and defense.

And this budget supports the State Department and USAID in three critical ways: First, it allows us to invest in our people; second, implement sound policies; and third, strengthen our partnerships. We know it represents a major investment. And we pledge to uphold principles of good stewardship and accountability.

Let me begin with people. The men and women of the State Department and USAID may have the world in their hands, but too many are trying to balance all the balls they have in the air. Many key positions at posts overseas are vacant for the simple reason we don’t have enough personnel. In Beijing, 18 percent of our Embassy positions are open. In Mumbai, 20 percent. In Jeddah, 29 percent. And we face similar staffing shortages here at the Department in Washington as well as USAID.

We need good people and we need enough of them. That’s why the President’s 2010 budget includes $283 million to facilitate the hiring of over 740 new Foreign Service personnel. This is part of a broader effort to expand the Foreign Service by 25 percent.

The staffing situation at USAID is even more severe. In 1990, USAID employed nearly 3,500 direct hire personnel to administer an annual assistance budget of $5 billion. Today, the agency’s staff has shrunk by roughly a third, but they are tasked with overseeing $13.2 billion. To provide the oversight that taxpayers deserve and to stay on target of doubling our foreign assistance by 2015, we simply need more people, good people, to do the jobs we’re asking them to do.

We need personnel with the right skills to respond to the complex emergencies of the 21st century. And that’s why we’re requesting $323 million for the Civilian Stabilization Initiative, and that includes expansion of the Civilian Response Corps. This group of professionals will help the United States stabilize and reconstruct societies in transition from conflict and civil strife.

Now, with the right people in the right numbers, we’ll be able to implement the policies that we think are right for our country, and we’re focusing on three priorities: first, urgent challenges and regions of concern, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, Iraq and Iran, and the Middle East; second, transnational challenges, such as the one that Senator Gregg just referred to, and development assistance.

Now, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, our efforts center on the President’s goal to dismantle, disrupt, and defeat al-Qaida. And we know this requires a balanced approach that takes more than military might alone. So we’re expanding civilian efforts and we’re ensuring that our strategy is fully integrated and adequately resourced.

We’re helping Afghans revitalize their country’s agricultural sector. In study after study, what we have found is that agriculture is still the mainstay for a country that is largely rural. It was once a major source of jobs, and in fact, of export revenue. Afghanistan was considered the garden of Central Asia. Unfortunately, that has been devastated by years of war and civil strife. We’re supporting the Pakistani military as they take on the extremists who confront their country’s stability. We’re making long-term investments in Pakistan’s people and the democratically elected government through targeted humanitarian assistance. And in both of these countries, we are holding these governments and ourselves accountable for progress toward defined objectives.

Finally, we’re seeking resources to deploy a new strategic communication strategy. I would love to get into more detail with you on this, but just suffice it to say, we are being out-communicated by the Taliban and al-Qaida. That is absolutely unacceptable. It is not only true in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but as Senator Bond, who is focused on Southeast Asia knows, it’s there as well. We have to do a better job of getting the story of the values, ideals, the results of democracy out to people who are now being fed a steady diet of the worse kind of disinformation. And even more than that, seeing the media used by these extremists to threaten and intimidate every single night, just as it used to be used in Iraq until we put a stop to it.

As we move forward with the responsible redeployment of our combat forces from Iraq, this budget provides the tools we need to facilitate the transition to a stable, sovereign, and self-reliant Iraq. I was recently in Iraq and we are very focused on implementing the strategic framework that went along with the Status of Forces Agreement so that we do what we can to help increase the capacity of the Iraqi Government.

And as you know, we’re working with Israel and the Palestinian Authority to advance our goal of a two-state solution, a future in which Israel and its Arab neighbors can live in peace and security.

In addition to these urgent challenges – and there are others that I haven’t had time to mention –we face a new array of transnational threats, none more important than the one Senator Gregg highlighted, but we have others as well: energy security, climate change, disease. The United States is not immune from any of these transnational threats. And we’ve got to develop new forms of diplomatic engagement. We cannot send a special envoy to negotiate with a pandemic, or call a summit with carbon dioxide, or sever relations with the global financial crisis. But what we can do is use our ability to convene, to create pragmatic and principled partnerships. We’re working through the Major Economies Forum in preparation for the Climate Conference in Copenhagen. We’re deploying new approaches to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. We’re now a full partner in the P-5+1 talks. And as you know, the President and I have launched a six-year, $63 billion Global Health Initiative to help combat the spread of disease.

Development will play a critical role in what we try to do. And I think we have underplayed the importance of development in creating both goodwill among people and stronger partnerships with governments. We’re going to be asking for $525 million for maternal and child health, nearly 1 billion for education, 1.36 billion for addressing the root causes of food insecurity, and 4.1 billion for humanitarian assistance, including care for refugees, displaced persons, and emergency food aid. We really believe this will advance our values. And I know, Mr. Chairman, you agree with us on that.

Our smart power approach will rely on partnerships, and that begins with our own government. We are seeking an unprecedented level of cooperation between our agencies. Secretary Gates highlighted this cooperation when he testified before you last month. These partnerships are critical. If we’re going to be successful in addressing food security, then we’ve got to get everybody who deals with food aid and sustainable agriculture in the same room, around the same table, hammering out the American approach, not the State Department or the USAID or the USDA or some other approach. It’s got to be a team. And we’re trying to forge those teams. We think it will make us more efficient and cost-effective at the same time.

We’re also looking to revitalize our historic alliances in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia, strengthen and deepen our bilateral ties with emerging regional leaders like Indonesia, Brazil, Turkey, Mexico, and India, and we are working to establish more constructive and candid relationships with China and Russia.

We’re asking for $4.1 billion for contributions to multilateral organizations and peacekeeping efforts. This is a good down payment for us, because for every peacekeeper that the United Nations puts in the field, like the ones I saw in Haiti a few weeks ago, it saves us money. We don’t have to intervene, or walk away, turn our back and live with the consequences.

We’re also expanding our partnerships beyond traditional government-to-government efforts. We’re working with women’s groups and civil society, human rights activists around the world, and we’re encouraging more people-to-people cooperation. I believe this may be one of the great new tools that we have in our diplomacy. Last week, I announced the creation of a Virtual Student Foreign Service that will bring together college students in the United States and our embassies abroad to work on digital and citizen diplomacy initiatives.

But finally, we must rely on sound principles to guide our actions, and we are committed to practicing what we preach. And that includes having an accountable government here at home.
We’re working to make the State Department more efficient, transparent, and effective. For the first time, we have filled the position of Deputy Secretary for Resources and Management. And we’re going to be reforming our processes in both the State Department and USAID.

Mr. Chairman, we’re pursuing these policies because we think it’s in America’s interests. No country benefits more than the United States when there is greater security, democracy, and opportunity in the world. And no country carries a heavier burden when things go badly. Every year we spend hundreds of billions of dollars dealing with the consequences of war, disease, violent ideologies, and vile dictatorships.

Since last testifying before this Committee, I’ve traveled around the globe, covering many miles and many continents. And I can assure you there is a genuine eagerness to partner with the United States again in finding solutions. Our investment in diplomacy and development is a fraction, a tiny fraction of our total national security budget. But I really believe our country will make very few investments that do more, dollar-for-dollar, to create the kind of world we want for our children. By relying on the right people, the right policies, strong partnerships, and sound principles, we can have a century of progress and prosperity led by the United States of America.

And Mr. Chairman, thank you for this opportunity to present the President’s budget request. And I look forward to answering your questions.

# # #

http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2009a/05/123679.htm

***

EXTRA: Moved by Biden’s speech, Bosnian offers him land
Posted : Thu, 21 May 2009 08:53:50 GMT
Author : DPA
Category : News

Sarajevo – When US Vice president Joe Biden told Bosnian leaders they must finally turn away from nationalism and face the future, he touched the heart of a frustrated man who now wants to thank him by giving him land, local media reported Thursday. “When I hear him speak in (Bosnian) parliament, I was thrilled. He is the only one to speak realistically and honestly … he plainly uplifted my soul,” said the 52-year-old man, Hazim Imamovic.

Imamovic, a resident of Olovo, a town 50 kilometres northwest of Sarajevo, wants to give Biden 1,000 square metres of his land, hoping that the US politician would “come here and build a holiday home.”

The US embassy in Sarajevo said in a statement that Biden would be informed, but also that it was “highly unusual” for US officials to receive such offers.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/269795,extra-moved-by-bidens-speech-bosnian-offers-him-land.html

***

EU-China summit deadlocked on problem areas – Update
	Posted : Wed, 20 May 2009 16:59:48 GMT Author : DPA Category : Europe (World) News Alerts by Email ( click here ) Europe World News | Home

Prague – The European Union and China on Wednesday hit deadlock at a summit in Prague which had been meant to highlight their reconciliation

, as they failed to agree common language on any of the key points dividing them. As the two sides failed to bridge their differences on a number of contentious issues, including Myanmar, North Korea, Taiwan, climate change and trade liberalization, China’s Prime Minister Wen Jiabao called on the EU to expand “practical cooperation”. “

The most important thing is to stick to the principles of mutual respect and not interfere in each others internal affairs,” the Chinese premier told a news conference

after the summit. And he also urged the 27-member bloc “to ensure that our bilateral relationship will not be adversely affected by individual incidents.”

Ahead of the summit, diplomats close to the preparations said that each side had proposed a lengthy statement agreeing a common position on the contentious issues. The EU draft stretched to 10 pages of detailed diplomatic text, while China’s draft was seven pages long.

The rival drafts showed “significant differences” over the controversial issues, diplomats said. And in two hours of talks, EU leaders and Chinese premier Wen Jiabao failed to overcome those differences and agree a common position on any of the main topics.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/269716,eu-china-summit-deadlocked-on-problem-areas–update.html

***

Nancy Pelosi and the CIA – it isn’t Leon Panetta’s game – His job sits on top of the agency known for lies, it is their stock and trade – the new Director can’t speak for them or their past actions accurately – no matter what they say at the desks of the CIA operatives and supervisors – the US Congress can’t be made into a war zone by the Republicans over this – they are the ones that are accountable for torture and other violations of the US Constitution

I think the people of the United States deserve to know what actually happened when Nancy Pelosi and others were briefed about the CIA’s use of torture and specifically, waterboarding.

But, the fact is, those briefing notes will be kept hidden because the chances are really good that the CIA didn’t clearly show or describe or demonstrate what was involved in any way that would’ve warned the decision-makers of its implications. They didn’t want anyone to stop them.

The difference is whether the CIA in the briefing said they were going to pour a little water over the faces of the captives to make them think the contractors would drown them.

Or, if the CIA said in the briefing that they were going to drown the captives and bring them back from it, to see if they would tell anything that was not already known.

And, whether the CIA in those briefings with Nancy Pelosi and others was conducted in such a way that they showed actual video footage which clearly indicated how the waterboarding and other practices of torture were being done.

The fact is, the CIA and every other intelligence contractor holds beliefs that lies are a tool of the trade. Giving their policies and practices a “frame of reference” that makes them look okay when they are not, is standard operating policy when it comes to decision-makers in Congress, the executive branch administrators, cabinet members, the President and especially, the American people. It has always been that way. And every other intelligence agency in the world works that way too.

The police lie to the criminal to get him or her to confess without an attorney while claiming to be the “good guys.” The CIA and other intelligence professionals lie to the “enemy,” whoever that might be today or tomorrow, and regardless of that saying on their wall, they do not operate in truth, honesty, ethics, morals, or high regard for greater principles. That is not what they’ve been hired to do.

They, [including police officers, security contractors and intelligence agents of our government,] have been hired to screw the enemy agent and pretend they are lovers to get information.

And, to set up tricks whereby information can be gained by whatever means necessary. And, to mislead, lie, steal, shoot the idiot they want to question and ask questions while applying pressure for the poor bastard or bastardess to bleed to death.

These CIA, NSA, police, and other “security” professionals don’t know why the American people or the members of Congress we’ve elected would frown upon things like that, nor why they don’t want waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation measures” to be used, nor why these things are undesirable.

That’s why we don’t leave decisions about their actions strictly to their own best thinking. It is twisted. Their discussion of it is also twisted. They have training in making it twisted with intentional goals in mind. That is what they are good at doing because we’ve already spent a ton of money making sure they are trained to be like that.

And, when I think of what the CIA agency officials likely told anybody in Congress about what they are doing – including Nancy Pelosi – it probably went something like this -

“We are going to make them uncomfortable and inconvenience them a little but it won’t hurt them in any way. It isn’t torture – we had the lawyers check that. We might pour a little water down on them so they think we might drown them, but we will have a doctor there and a psychiatrist to make sure it won’t really hurt them. That’s okay with you all, isn’t it? We don’t foresee a problem, so there should be a lot gained and no real liability for the agency.”

I wasn’t there and don’t have the privilege of looking over the briefing notes or minutes of those meetings, but I bet the CIA wasn’t forthright about the reality of those interrogation techniques where a clear view could emerge. That is not the way they do things. It isn’t rocket science to figure out that the ability to honestly convey the truth is not one of their strong suits.

If Nancy Pelosi and others in Congress may be censured over this – then President Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and every other jackass that okay’d it needs to go before the world court and be held accountable just as we have done to every other tyrant and oppressive administration across the world.

They knew better. It isn’t possible to waterboard somebody 183 times in a month accidentally. None of them would consider it anything but torture if it were done to them.

And, it wasn’t the only way to do it, didn’t yield the degree and quantity of information they claimed and the only reason to have done it and some of the other things past a point was purely evil, sheer cruelty and sadistic psychopathic thinking.

The Republicans that are screaming for this and that against members of Congress, including Speaker Pelosi are simply trying to deflect the real targets of absolute accountability in this and in other wrongs that defied the Constitution of the United States along with the trust we placed in them.

For me, I want to believe that George Jr. didn’t do this and had a whole bunch of complete jackasses around him that were advising him badly. That is what I want to believe, but the Twin Towers came down on his watch because of the incompetence and infighting he and his cronies of the Republican party created.

And, no good bit of common sense can get through that mess of confused intellectual inbreeding they called policy in any agency they ruled. It is all – every last one of them – mucked up. Every agency, every purpose, every charter, every underlying goal and every policy twisted by their applications of it. But, they were consistent.

To find who actually was the individual or group of individuals behind these choices would be an act of God because the convoluted manner in which they governed and chose to “enact” their principles yielded the exact opposite of what they claimed to have intended – in every agency and facet of American life they touched.

There were reports that our government was broken as the news covered things last year that they found. And, they are right – it was broken and the Republicans who are now screaming against change want to keep it that way. While they are skimming around the People’s pond up there in Washington, they are failing to join with all of us in seeking solutions that will work. It is a disgusting waste of time, effort, good-will and resources.

- cricketdiane, 05-19-09

***

Nancy Pelosi and the CIA – it isn’t Leon Panetta’s game – His job sits on top of the agency known for lies, it is their stock and trade – the new Director can’t speak for them or their past actions accurately – no matter what they say at the desks of the CIA operatives and supervisors – the US Congress can’t be made into a war zone by the Republicans over this – they are the ones that are accountable for torture and other violations of the US Constitution

Leon Panetta cannot even begin to comprehend the beast that he is dealing with in the CIA. It is backwards, upside down and completely convoluted from anything that normal everyday people would consider right. That is why they can do that job. And, then we train them to be more of the same twisted thinking and actions to a greater degree of the extreme. If you don’t believe it – look into the “perception management” techniques the military and intelligence agencies are taught to use. Not for the faint of heart. – my note.

Small business – employ yourself, create your own business, develop solutions for the small business start-ups and small business owners, open access to the free market capitalism of America, small business administration, US government and state agencies that should support small business startups and small businesses continued growth, national small business week, American business and banking community – Solutions that work

Small business financing still a tough sell
Mon May 18, 2009 8:16am EDT

By Jon Cook

[ . . . ]

Bloom said financing for small business has always been a hard sell, because owners typically don’t have the collateral to justify the risk to the lender: “There historically are no grants for small business or even for large business; unless you have the next cure for cancer or some other opportunity where scale is huge and the people launching it have a tremendous track record.”

[ . . . ]

President Barack Obama is attempting to keep his pre-election promise of increased funding for small businesses through his Recovery Act, which he signed into law in February.

The legislation committed $15.5 billion to help stimulate lending to small business, most of which was to be used to buy securities backed by pools of SBA loans sold by banks and other financial institutions.

The Obama initiative also upped the percentage of SBA-guaranteed loans from 75-to-90 percent and temporarily eliminated fees for borrowers on 7(a) and 504 loans, the SBA’s two most popular loan programs.

Recently, the SBA also announced it was broadening eligibility criteria for its loan programs to allow an additional 70,000 businesses to be able to apply for assistance. The rapid moves were meant to address spiraling small business loans, which had ground to a halt with the sudden collapse of U.S. capital markets last October. SBA communications director Jonathan Swain admitted that before the new provisions were implemented, the number of SBA loans had plunged by 50 percent.

[ . . . ]

Not everyone is convinced. George Cloutier, founder and CEO of American Management Services Inc, has yet to see any of the new money getting into the hands of the hundreds of entrepreneurs he meets every week.

The leading advocate for small business has spent the last few weeks traveling the country, speaking to entrepreneurs about how the economy is affecting their companies. “For the last four dinners we’ve asked the question: Have you got any money from the SBA at all? And it’s a total zero,” he said. “Literally no one has raised their hand out of a thousand people.”

[ . . . ]

NON-TRADITIONAL FUNDING ROUTES

Internet mogul Josh Baer, who co-founded the venture capital firm Capital Factory, is doing something a little less conventional to help entrepreneurs. He and a team of 19 other mentors launched a national contest to find five entrepreneurs to help fund and mentor. The winners all received $20,000 in seed money in addition to free access to office space and expert legal, public relations and financial advice.

[ etc ]

http://www.reuters.com/article/smallBusinessNews/idUSTRE54G07920090518?sp=true

***

Saks Fifth Avenue –

24/7 CUSTOMER SERVICE: LIVE CHAT · EMAIL · 1.877.551.SAKS (7257)
INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING · SHIPPING, RETURNS & TAXES · SAKS CARD: APPLY & MANAGE · SITE MAP · CAREERS · ABOUT US

http://www.saksfifthavenue.com/html/aboutus/aboutus.jsp?bmUID=1242628314900&prp13=b13

***

My Note -

I posted the info about Saks Fifth Avenue above because it is isn’t typical for retailers, small businesses, restaurants and a variety of other businesses to be this open and inviting to the public.

From tv stations to science based products, there is an openness that invites a degree of participation by their audiences, their customers and the public at large.

But, for retailers – not so. For many small businesses – not so. For many banks and large corporations of different types – not so. But, what they do affects us.

And given any chance to say so, they want that interaction with the public and with their customers. It is strange that their actions speak otherwise.

***

I was looking for a number of different things and stumbled upon some job openings – some of them are jobs that would be really great to have. What I did not find, was any way to interact with anyone at any of the companies in any reasonable way. I understand that there are people hired whose only job is to keep people away from bothering the executive decision-makers.

It means that they are keeping themselves in a vacuum of information and then consequently, any feedback is tainted by proximity. People around these decision-makers are not in a place to tell them what they don’t want to hear or suggest the things that they can’t already see in the manner they want to see it.

If a product they have made, breaks the first time it is used – they don’t want to know that, but eventually their credibility in the market will suffer as people stay away from what they are producing, no matter how big their name and brand might be.

Customer service is not a place to defend the way they are already doing it, but many times that is what it has become. And, they don’t want to know anyway. No use in suggestions, no use in other information, no use in real-time real experiences with their stores or products or services and no use in any information that is innovative to what they are already doing.

When times are good – it probably doesn’t matter a whole lot. But, when times are tough and businesses are going bankrupt, left and right – everywhere anyone might look – then these opaque, exclusive, fortressed and evasive tactics to keep out public opinion and public interaction can mean the difference between continuing in business or not.

There are malls across the country that are in financial trouble. Right now, there are intermediate loans carrying them and their store owners across the hurdle. It might work. It might not matter what anybody says or thinks or could do to help stimulate their businesses and traffic to their properties. It might not even matter but then again . . .

***

[from SBA site]

“[e200] has given me the knowledge, courage, and access to experts and 19 other CEOs who face the same challenges I do. I highly recommend e200 to any business owner regardless of the size of the company or longevity.” (Kelly Sargent, president of Brainstorm Marketing, Des Moines, Iowa)

SBA Emerging 200 Initiative
The goal of the SBA Emerging 200 initiative is to identify 200 inner-city businesses across the country that show a high potential for growth—and to provide them the network, resources and motivation required to build a sustainable business of size and scale within a designated inner-city geographic location.

• About the SBA Emerging 200 initiative
• SBA Expands Emerging 200 Initiative to 15 Cities as First Group of Executives Complete Innovative New Program
• Participating District Office Websites
• Press Release – Emerging 200 FAQs
• Get Your Business Involved with e200

http://www.sba.gov/e200/index.html

***

My Note -

Aside from this and a couple small areas – the SBA website looks like a bank’s portal for GET A LOAN, HERE”S A LOAN, FIND A LOAN, HAVE A LOAN, this kind of loan, that kind of loan, get a loan, get a loan, get a loan and we’re only backing loans that are for those who don’t really have any need for them such that there is absolutely no risk involved in making the loans.

Look back into history – business happens when need meets with those who would satisfy it. There might be all of three pages on the SBA site about that and similar helpful things.

There are some great training modules, but their primary focus seems to be as a clearinghouse for loans and to support banks, financial companies and investment companies for those loans.

This has been the focus for twenty plus years – where the Small Business Administration was reworked by the Republican manifesto to be a free money source for the banking and commercial real estate industries. That is not what we need now.

If America is to support innovation, invention, inventiveness, direct free market capitalism, creativity, creating solutions, applying solutions, and encourage the marketability of those things – then it has to approach the problem differently than throwing loans at it to make money for bankers.

I was very discouraged to see the small-town mentality of our conference for the Small Business Administration sponsored, National Small Business Week. It reminded me of the small town news organ that describes “a good time was had by all,” and the taffeta table cloths that were so risque.

The webcasts were predominantly canned, the significant events were to give out a selection of awards rather than information rich and the attitudes of those hosting it did not include the 90% of America that needs it.

That is a really poor showing of a national agency with domestic and international standing. And, especially so, in a time of national economic crisis where there are over 20 million people who are under-employed, unemployed or in need of employment.

This is a time when we need the Small Business Administration and all of its sister agencies to get their act together with the people of the United States in every state of the Union – every last one. Every bank should be on board to help and especially since they have our money to do it.

To find out that only 25% of banks even participate with the SBA loan programs is pathetic and speaks directly to the problem banks have in concepting their participation in the community (until they come to get money from it and from taxpayers.)

There needs to be a real conference / small business tools convention that happens all over this country sponsored by the small business administration which walks us through the process – not of getting loans, but of building a business from scratch. It needs to be – A program that tells us how to find customers, how to match our talents, skills and knowledge with the needs in the marketplace, how to approach customers, suppliers and other businesses when we can’t muster the courage to know what to say, that shows our young adults and out of work employees and elderly alike – how to do the things involved in creating a successful business right now. This is not an academic exercise – nor does it need to be a bankers’ paradise for getting customers of their profitable commercial loans. That is so secondary to what the real needs are right now.

Last year, I wanted to create a show that would’ve done some of that and would bring the information hidden across agency after agency in our local, state and federal governments into the hands of the public. There are resources, we as taxpayers have already paid for information to be collected, for programs to be enacted, for resources that are available but most of them are nearly impossible to find or to use unless someone knows exactly what and where they are. Without the specific name of the program, it can’t be found. There are dates and deadlines that damn near can’t be found until a year or two later. It is ridiculous. (and just because I wasn’t allowed to make the show happen and couldn’t do it, doesn’t mean it isn’t needed or can’t be done.)

We need – A show that would tell people about these things – that would show them how to look up these things – that would put the information into their hands directly – that would walk people through the process of critical information for starting a business, finding and targeting the market, mating their skills and ideas with the needs in the marketplace, thinking in guerrilla marketing terms – and enhancing the internal flexibility to make it work.

The way the Small Business Administration has been operating for the last twenty – thirty years under the Republican direction is as an extended sales force and clearinghouse for commercial bank loans. It can’t be that anymore. The service to the community and to our national economy that must be satisfied by the Small Business Administration is to support the small businesses, the small business startups, the small business supports needed for sustained growth, flexibility and opportunity while strengthening their basic foundation in the fabric of America’s economic community.

- cricketdiane, 05-19-09

***

[from previous posts - ]

Fourteen Places To Make Money – Cricket Diane C “sparky” Phillips – 2008

Fourteen places to make money -
Cricket Diane C Phillips, 2008

1.  Take the Area Occupational Wages pamphlet or from the Department of Labor online sources (by state) and use is to target potential customers making over $20 – $25 per hour.

2.  Using this target audience, introduce products and services directly to them online through the websites, brochures, magazines, distributors and retailers already in place to reach them.

3.  Customize products and services specifically to these niche audiences. Coffee cups having sayings, emblems and ideas suited to them are more likely to interest them, etc.

4.  Find a target audience in person / on site by finding announcements of events in the area that are drawing them to participate. Using this venue, introduce the business / product / service using this opportunity. T-shirts can be sold appropriate to the audience, so can books and specialties.

5.  Tailor whatever the product or service to the specific target audience or use the basis of common ground to interest them. While discussing meetings, coffee will be served and every one there is missing someone or something else.

6.  Facilitate cooperation, analysis and brainstorming among participants involved in a common event, association or vocation / hobby / business. This helps create networks of consumers that provide a database of possible sales.

7.  Go where money runs like rivers flowing into an event, mall, highly trafficked sports or entertainment venue, trade show or similar to approach participants with availability of some specific need during the show or that will make their life better after the show.

8.  Use a theme of commonality, such as an interest – like, camping, love of animals, pets, hobbies, types of cars or activities to customize products and services. Then, target these audiences through events, publications and websites where they are involved or through stores that already attract them.

9.  Provide a service needed by everyone at least once a year or better yet, once a month. This is the basis of sales for more items in the marketplace than anything else. People do want funnel cakes when at a craft festival and they will pay for something their children can do while there.

10. Create a convenience that doesn’t exist currently but is much needed. Anything that can save time for a reasonable cost will make people’s lives more organized and do-able. To target this audience, find stress free topics and stress reduction topics and contribute there.

11. Offices and industries are a captive audience with continuing needs, some of which are being served and some which are useful and not being served. This is a good target through online high readership, interactive forums and office product websites where goods are being sold already.

12. The most creative, personable character that touches the common thread of experience with most people can be the basis for entire lines of products, opportunities and uses. However, until this character has an association with people seeing it, getting to know it and kindling a response to it – the character has little value. Target any common-theme areas for application and audience.

13. Style creates sales, money and opportunities. To target a style to a specific audience, find the places where products are already being introduced to these audiences and either use them or by-pass them using off-shoot branches of these arenas. A tv show or sitcom can introduce a product.

14. How to tell everyone at once about a product, service or business? Use television broadcast / cable opportunities through existing shows and audiences, including news, new product shows, talk shows, sitcoms and reality shows. Then, know it has to be in front of those audiences more than once in order to work and be backed up by web access to it and a strong web presence along other avenues to be credible.

Written by Cricket Diane C “Sparky” Phillips, 08-09-08, USA
Cricket House Studios 2008

August 5, 2008

***

Over 110 Things That People and Businesses Would Pay $50,000 To Have – Cricket Diane C Phillips

What would a person or a business pay $50,000+ to have?
Written by Cricket Diane C Phillips, 07-19-95, 2008, 1995
08-01-08 (typed, edited and enhanced)

Over the years, I became very weary hearing the same answer every time anyone explained what to do to get money when I needed it. Each time, the solution would be offered that I sell drugs, which I couldn’t do or play the lottery, which I wouldn’t do. At several times, I brainstormed some lists of things that would also bring money besides those two things. This is one of those lists that I created in 1995, then added to it when it was being typed up today.

1.  Do pay that for a 30-second commercial on tv stations.
2.  To buy some very small houses
3.  To buy Cadillacs, Volvos & Vans to drive
4.  To purchase some pick-up trucks
5.  Paintings done by famous artists
6.  Pave small stretches of roadway
7.  Some computer systems, programming & software
8.  Major databases & access to them
9.  Small business real estate
10. Boats, motorcycles, very fancy bikes, yachts
11. Airplanes, helicopters, & ultra-lites
12. Collectibles, rare coins, gold, silver, antique autos
13. Some designer clothing – specialty fads
14. Office rent in a big building
15. Air conditioning systems for buildings
16. Copying machines, some camera & sound equipment
17. For equipment in hair salon / store fixtures
18. Large equipment used to build buildings
19. Franchise fees
20. Pay to some people to be on tv
21  Remodeling / refurbishing / retrofitting places
22. Schools equipment & facilities
23. Swimming pools
24. 18-wheeler semi-trucks & trailers
25. Payrolls for employees
26. Management of company operations
27. Transferring stuff to other countries
28. Shipping / exporting & importing
29. Information that is hard to get or hard to find, collect, gather
30. Building materials; marble, mahogany, steel; etc.
31. Big machines, industrial & manufacturing machines
32. Surveillance & security equipment
33. Ball players to play for their teams
34. To clean Statue of Liberty
35. For the windows in office buildings
36. Interior decorations of showrooms, stores & offices
37. Music stars, actors & actresses to perform
38. Attorney services, doctor’s surgeries, hospitals, legal fees
39. Winnebagos & other driving homes (custom), rvs, busses
40. Architects, engineering, designers
41. Royalty advances to franchise licenses
42. Syndication / broadcast / publication rights
43. Subscription fees for information systems
44. Information analysis, comparison & interpretation or evaluation
45. Production direction and organization
46. Executive, producers, producers, directors, principals in production companies
47. To appear in commercials to promote products and businesses
48. For some championship horses & racecars
49. Champion jockeys, race car drivers, fighters
50. Business packages – turn key operations
51. Some comedians, comedy material, rights to use
52. Some toy, doll, stuffed animal & product designs
53. For some photography & illustrations to publish
56. For plastic surgery, teeth & breast enhancement
57. Corporate & product logos and identity packages to Fortune 500 companies and others
58. For selling many of something at a small profit
59. For illegal drug trafficking & illegal entry products
60. For public relations and promotions
61. For political insider information & policy construct
62. Contract killing; espionage corporate & political
63. Sabotage of competitors’ market operations
64. Some landscaping projects
65. Broker fees
66. Software and software licensing fees
67. Authors for rights to publish
68. For certain intellectual property rights to be used
69. Hot air balloons and specialty vehicles
70. Solar panels, specialty technologies and alternative energy systems
71. Rocket propulsion systems
72. For sponsorships and the advertising that comes with it
73. For home theater systems
74. For musical and stage equipment, stage sets, props and performance staging and lights
75. Parties, weddings and elements in them
76. Parade floats and parade character balloons
77. Participation in trade shows and conventions
78. Sailboats, racing boats, speed and ski boats
79. Most levels of employees in every category
80. Accountants and attorney services
81. Honeymoons, vacations, cruises and retreats
82. Some insurance fees for homes, individuals and businesses
83. For certain specialty and collectible items
84. Some antique furniture and vintage or specialty cars and other vehicles
85. For interior decoration / interior design for homes, lobbies, businesses, restaurants, hotels
86. Some season tickets for VIP boxes at events – sports and others
87. Music distribution rights
88. Public speaking fees and honorariums
89. Taxes
90. Golf, Country Club and other clubs and association fees
91. Professional association membership fees
92. Security systems for homes and businesses
93. Sets for televisions shows, talk shows and news shows
94. Stories, characters and story lines for tv sitcoms and movies
95. Licensing and royalty fees for characters and other brand items to be used
96. For wind turbines, some motors and engines, electric generators of size or specialized use
97. Mechanical equipment, bobcats, bulldozers, cranes, small dumptrucks
98. Electric vehicles for moving things around plants and factories, forklifts, some lab equipment
99. Some commercial buildings, commercial leases and retail store buildings and leases
100.Some patent searches and similar research
101.Rewards for recovery, information leading to recovery, bounty hunters, insurance rewards for information leading to solving crimes, arson and theft
102.Certain computer geek specialties, writing software, hacking and protection from hacking
103. Modification of existing vehicles into specialized categories, monster trucks, hot rods, etc.
104. Election, non-profits and religious campaign elements and persuasion
105. Mail-order catalogs to be created
106. Street lighting and parking lot lighting systems
107. For each foot length of a bridge to be built
108. For parking decks and skywalks to be built
109. For traffic signal systems, security traffic cam systems and other transportation signal systems
110. For certain shipping and moving of freight

Cricket Diane C “Sparky” Phillips, Cricket House Studios, 2008, 1995

August 2, 2008

***

If its broke – fix it – US policy makers – It is broke – FIX IT – Thanx – Cricket Diane C Sparky Phillips – 2008

Why are we using levee technologies from 150 years ago in America? How is it possible to believe that over a million tons of turbulent waters will be held in place by earthen levee systems? Reliability has failed, reality has shown that it doesn’t work and we have paid a huge fortune for research, research, research, study, study, study – but none of these efforts have resulted in substantial changes in the corps of engineers’ approaches nor in better systems for levees, dams, bridges, flood recovery after systems collapse nor useful updated systems. After 1993 flooding in the Midwest, how could the levee systems have not been recreated and restored to something that would work to prevent their collapse in 2008? Who decided the manner in which it was done and is about to be re-done the same way which will fail next time?

I also would like to know what specific individuals at FEMA were responsible for stopping those new goods in the warehouses from being distributed to Katrina victims in a timely manner. And, what specific individuals and chain of command decided to mark them as surplus, why the FEMA decision-makers and others in our government judged these supplies to be un-needed, and who specifically made that decision. It is our right to know why and how these decision-makers can be so completely “off”. Are they all doing drugs? Have they created a process by which they cannot make accurately based decisions? Do they not watch the news? Do they not go “on-site” before making these determinations? Are they living in some other country most of the time? Do the chain of command systems at FEMA and at the Corps of Engineers (and other agencies) form the basis for criminal negligence on a consistent basis?

Also, there was a show that described a man’s thirty years of efforts to make liquid gas from coal and he has created a proven process and method for this – why aren’t we seeing this man’s work be brought into the marketplace to solve some of the gas and diesel fuel problems? Why isn’t the man’s efforts, also shown on public broadcast, to create an algae based farming for ethanol fuels being given to distribution for the marketplace and whatever is required to do that made available to him? Where are the total electric cars that were successfully created by our automakers and why aren’t we supporting these companies, including the tesla car – to get these cars into our hands right now/ immediately? They’ve already been created, they do work, they do solve the problem and they can be made affordable for us – what is wrong with doing whatever it takes to get these to us?

Our government bias to speak for oil companies that are using our national resources to make their profits – must change. It isn’t thirty years from now to get these things done with the studies, research and alternatives that have been being designed for over thirty years back from here. The status quo isn’t a practical alternative for thirty more years, not for even two more years and in fact, not even for six more months. The speculators are engaging in illegal and criminal gambling practices at our expense and the oil companies have over three hundred percent profiteering practices which is also illegal (considered gouging, opportunistic profiteering beyond what we allow to any other business or industry or companies of any size, and they’re using natural and American taxpayers’ resources and moneys to make these profits). Our US government leadership, decision-makers from all positions are engaging in favoritism, conflicts of interest and self-serving abuses of their power and position to further the agenda for oil companies and others that are fully capable of competitiveness without these unfair advantages.
Cricket Diane C “Sparky” Phillips, 06-23-08, USA, Cricket House Studios, 2008

June 23, 2008

***

Consistency is Animal Instinct, Robotics and Programming – Cricket Diane C “Sparky” Phillips – 2008

On Common Demands for Consistency as a Judgement Guideline Used for People, Groups and Individuals

Cricket Diane C “Sparky” Phillips, 2008

Human beings are the only creature in the world that are inconsistent. They are designed that way. They are not driven by instincts. Animals are driven by instincts. Animals are consistent because they are driven primarily by instincts.

Human beings are driven by thought, learning, reasoning, free-will, creativity, choice, decision discernment skills and interpretations, sub-conscious drives – and instincts as only a part of all those things. Goal-driven and determination of the self are key factors in those choices.

Consistency is not among them. For the purposes of its survival, human beings cannot afford to be consistent, stagnant nor unchanging. That is why we are made this way – to be able to successfully compete in a complex and often changing environment, called Life on Earth. (and possibly, as part of the Universe.)

The only things that don’t change – are dead or never lived in the first place.

**

Written by Cricket Diane C “Sparky” Phillips, 05-18-08

Cricket House Studios, USA1 – 2008

“Creating the Tangible from the Impossible every day.”

May 18, 2008

***

About Money And ShareHolders And Big Business Economic Choices – Cricketdiane

About Lay-Offs and Economic Choices – 2008 – USA1

2008 Cricket Diane C “Sparky” Phillips

Does it really make sense to get rid of 4,000 people in a company who did their jobs and keep the 20 at the top who didn’t?

Obviously, those decision-makers at the top engaged in shoddy, shady and shell-game style accounting and business practices. Why reward them when they’ve driven these companies to the brink of bankruptcy and extinction? These top twenty executives are the ones who damaged profits, profitability and threatened the very survival of the company and shareholders. These are the ones who didn’t do their jobs properly, ethically, soundly and honestly which has undermined the value of these companies both now and in the future. Why keep them?

Cricket House Studios – 05-17-08

May 17, 2008

***

A.) Negotiate
B.) Barter
C.) Trade
D.) Clean-Up
E.) Trade-Up
F.) Exchange
G.) Borrow
H.) Beg
I.) Steal – (not really – permanent borrowing when approved by owner)
J.) Buy New
K.) Buy Used
L.) Buy Auctioned
M.) Buy Discounted or Clearanced
N.) Buy or Trade Salvaged
O.) Buy or Trade Online
P.) Collectors Exchange
Q.) Hobby Trade and Exchange
R.) Opportunity Exchange
S.) Barter Platform Websites Exchange and Trading
T.) Specialty Convention Trading
U.) Co-ownership – Joint ownership (for tools and large equipment)
V.) Rental or Lease
W.) Sponsorship – Get someone to sponsor acquisition
X.) Rare acquisition sources, trade – barter – buy
Y.) Pawnshop, Impound, Impound Auctions, Alternate Sources
Z.) Extreme acquisition sources, trade – barter – buy (also find a good excuse for one-time use purchase by someone or some group and buy it from them after that.)

Written by Cricket Diane C “Sparky” Phillips, 05-02-08, USA1 – USAX1 – 2008 – [CD]9

May 2, 2008

***

How Do I Know Who Can Do A Good Job In Something? – by Cricket Diane C Phillips – 2008

“I rely on the people in a trade to credential a trade. Not through symposiums nor honors that are bestowed, but upon the word of respect given to them in quiet conversation among their peers, experts, and trade membership. Whether that ‘trade’ is science, engineering, business, economics, plumbing, auto mechanix, or anything else, the real truth about knowledge, expertise, conscientiousness and application can be determined by the facts witnessed from those knowledged in the experience around it – not by the politics, policies and perspectives created about it.”

- Cricket Diane C “Sparky” Phillips Quote

04-25-08

and for the record, “Usually, I need no introduction (nor credentials although I have them) because, by the time I’m asked to be involved in a situation, people are up to their necks in shit and just real glad to see somebody that is willing to help.” – Cricket Diane C “Sparky” Phillips, quote and anecdote about my life.

Cricket House Studios – USA1 – 2008

April 26, 2008

***

[Etc.]

We are sitting on one, very small, round, floating dead rock called Earth in the middle of this moment in history and in the midst of infinity – uselessly you fight the realistic in fact – we are existing in an infinity so vast we are unable to even fully consider it. There is a sad fact that exists as a truth – we have no other place to live in the entire universe and no way to get there.

Stonewalling the progress of things that might help change the situation for the better or make it most likely to accommodate the needed changes is also not being done in isolation. History will record what you do and what you do not do during this time, in many internationally recognized interpretations of those results.

From where I stand, it looks like many in Congress are forestalling, stonewalling, hindering, slowing, distracting, falsely interpreting with intention, disseminating false and distorted information with intention, unethically barring or obstructing, and attaching riders to bills and legislation that are in no way appropriate to it and doing things to strategically bait and switch.

Those wasting our time and resources in this way for any reason need to be censured to stop its aggravation and unnecessary use of resources.

This use of our national resources including time, efforts, knowledge and audience with our Congressional leaders, staff members, aides, and everything around them in the nation including press resources, administrative resources in our government, academic resources in our nation among other things simply to serve the political gain of these individuals at the expense of us all must stop. It is no longer “business as usual.” The situation has changed and time is critical now.

Time is not on our side any longer in any area of concern. When you have served the influences and reality that is immediately evident around you up until now and done so to secure your own advantages, we all know it and have known it – and so has the World community. For each of those choices, you will be accountable sooner or later, that is a fact by nature of the responsibility inherent in the position of power and influence you accepted and hold.

Now, right now, we need you to do what you went there (to Washington) to do. Stop playing games of politics and “business as usual” tactics of power. Get done whatever it is that you as a person of conscience intended to do and get it done right now – as quickly and efficiently as it could never be done before.

know this – to play political games with your position is costing all of us dearly in precious time, resources, actions and wise decisions you could make.

Your position and your use of it is costing all of us – each and every one of us – here in the United States and around the World in precious time, resources and decision-making that we must use wisely right now. And, that we must apply and implement right now.

It is in your power and your abilities to do and to accomplish for us all. You are positioned to do so. I’m asking that you do whatever it is that your conscience would guide you to do about these matters, do it intelligently and do so now.

April 23, 2008 Posted by cricketdiane

***

Congress, Executive and Judiciary are our Team USA to solve problems – not create them

Team USA Needs To Be Solving Problems -
by Cricket Diane C Phillips, 09-04-08

When we sent people to Washington, we sent them to be our Team USA. There aren’t “two sides of the aisle”. They are sitting in official buildings we own and are all part of one team. That is why they are there.

We sent them there to spend our money wisely, to work as a team to serve our best interests and to accomplish what we alone could not. Our Congress, our Executive and our Judiciary are the Team USA that we placed there to fight the real enemies of our nation – not each other.

The real enemies are on our door steps. Evidence of these enemies is obvious. A capitalist nation cannot survive without a strong economic foundation. Our foundation and the structural tenets of that economy are crumbling. We are in danger of the harm which will come as a result. This is certainly a real enemy of our nation.

We are so completely dependent on gasoline as fuel that it is now a matter of national security. Any world power could shut off supply to our country in any great measure leaving us with a complete halt to life as we know it. Everything moves in our country by some form of petroleum. This, too, is a real enemy of our nation’s well-being and security.

Our national business assets are being sold off to foreign interests who may or may not favor us later. We will not be able to rebuild these. The jobs that were lost will not be reclaimed nor replaced. Competing with them in the marketplace, once these businesses belong to foreign interests, is unlikely. In every arena, our own businesses now owned elsewhere are competing against us for the same market shares. Since this undermines our employment base and our opportunities to realize business profitability, it is also an enemy to our nation’s sustenance.

Made in America has become known for shoddily made and overpriced. Too many recalls and unjustifiable harms, even deaths have come to those who bought products made in our recent profiteering environment. The real cost of our business interests making poor ethical choices for good profit reasons has dropped our global credentials to a pathetic level. This is definitely an enemy of the USA.

The cruelty, viciousness and complete disregard for others pervades every facet of American society. Lack of tolerance for diversity and differences has led to a land of terror for many, rather than of freedom. This has created abuses of civil and human rights everywhere in America over many years and increases each year. Clearly, this is an enemy worthy of fighting, too.

These are our real enemies. All of these items and more await on our doorstep. We elected leaders from among us to work as a team against these common enemies. What we have is a bunch of bickering demagogues who are fighting amongst themselves for their party’s interests and their own advantages.

And, meanwhile – solutions that might be enacted aren’t. People’s lives that could have been made better and more secure lay in ruin. Dismal consequences from unabated global ecological changes are unfolding. The opportunities for the US economy to be righted are missed. And, worst of all, the Team USA continues its bickering in every position from local and state governments all the way to the US Congress and the White House. Its as if it doesn’t matter as long as each party wins out over the other.

Now, our real enemies threaten to overtake us. We have solutions for many parts of them – these simply need to be placed into use. Together, we could work out the rest as we go.

September 6, 2008 Posted by cricketdiane

***

[And]

Some Solutions to the Energy – Oil Crisis – 2008

When it is a matter of national security, fairly broad extensions of immediate, timely and appropriate uses of power are available.

What is more an issue of national security in a capitalistic nation than an economic foundation that is crumbling daily before us?

Exerting these powers in measured thoughtful response to this crisis is appropriate use of them and they encompass a broad spectrum.

The what to do may be in some question but the ability to do it, is not. We have paid many years of billions of dollars for the research already completed in a number of key areas, especially in alternatives for fuel and energy. These sit idling on shelves and fail to be brought into the play of our “free market” economy.

Why not bring them into play now, if indeed competition is an integral and relevant part of our economic system? We did give aid, incentives and subsidies to our oil companies that they could thrive. Why would we not do the same for these others from pond scum farming for ethanol to coal into gas / liquid fuels to the use of kudzu and chaparral oils for conversion into fuels?

Some of the options available to exercise remedy in the current marketplace, US and Global economies are:

1. Market closure
2. Price caps
3. Specific price freezes
4. Profit caps of critical commodities
5. Suspended trading on commodities and futures
6. Re-establish subsidies to market oil’s competitors in energy / fuel distribution
7. Enforce accounting practices standards
8. Enforce regulations on NYMEX and SEC standards of practice
9. Stop allowing leveraged buys in stocks, futures, commodities and speculations
10. Re-establish manufacturing grants and subsidies
11. Create stop-gap measure for trucks, shippers, air freight and fishing industries
12. Enforce fair trade regulations in profit margins of reasonable versus gouging and unreasonable
13. Have embargo on export of any and all national crude assets / gas and byproducts, and especially diesel fuel
14. Make low cost loans and grants to truckers, airlines, shippers, rail lines, and other industries affected dramatically by the high fuel costs currently impacting them
15. Stop talking about ANWR and use our Alaskan oil being sent out elsewhere to stay here in the US – we paid for it
16. Stop playing politics with our economy – the real lives it destroys will never support a government that caused or allowed it
17. Enforce sanity of accounting and true balance on our financial sector and all other corporate entities
18. Stop bailing out your friends that sit in the top one percent of the economic echelon – they are loose cannons that will serve no one but themselves in the long run and can afford to live in any other country they choose any time and for any reason.
19. Establish “easy start up” programs for businesses. Drop fees required, drop the difficulties required and reward those who will employ and profit immediately to rebuild our economic infrastructure.
20. Create a return beyond inflation to those using their funds to back these business ventures that are immediately attractive in real money rates.
21. Stop allowing countries to heavily tariff and tax our goods and services there, including the UK and the European Union.
22. Give us an office that can facilitate international sales, requirements and other necessary options that is predictably easy and straight forward to use – no more complicated than a first grader could use.
23. Force down our natural gas and electricity prices, whatever it takes (fed ceiling on or subsidies with regulated price caps). Not only did our taxpayer dollars build their facilities, power lines and maintenance of them, we need the prices brought down before Americans die as a result of the prices.
24. Do the hydrogen bull later and immediately sponsor funding for all – electric / battery power cars – let’s get them on the road – make it affordable by grant or subsidy or tax savings to own it, to buy it and get us some batteries (lithium ion, etc.) into our market, make them affordable and sponsor car companies willing to do it with incentives –> they probably have product designs on the shelf.
25. Find a low cost air travel fuel alternative to use in our planes, a cheaper alternative particularly coal to gas process or pond scum ethanol for all government vehicles / military vehicles, ships, trains, etc.
26. Make it legal to use electric cushman vehicles, off-road vehicles, golf carts and similar vehicles for trips on the sidewalk to the grocery and other less than five mile radius jaunts.
27. Make connectedness possible to cooperate within specific industries – not for monopoly but to create new structures of cross-over alternatives and their access to distribution channels
28. Get our farmers out of the “till Under” method of getting subsidies – we need the growth capacity of all of it to meet needs. Things are different now than they were forty years ago.
29. Make it impossible to add a rider to any bill that doesn’t directly pertain to it – that is costing effectiveness of our House and Senate / all governing bodies in all levels.
30. Make possible the use of emissions cutting technology to be applied in the refineries and in new refineries so we can build some new facilities up to par and clearly non-polluting.
31. Force moratorium of use of foreclosure as a process of acceptable loss against taxes required from companies and they will start working with homeowners to get their money rather than pursuing foreclosure as a method of lowering their tax liabilities.
32. The natural resources (including oil, natural gas, electricity generated by public projects and others) belong to our nation and to her people –> not to profit driven companies – ultimately that will be the deciding factor and it will become a new landscape regardless – the resources never belonged to these corporations in the first place. Not oil, minerals, water, electricity created by publicly paid projects, not any of those and others that are national resources, ever could actually be leased to anyone for profit at the expense of the American people, no matter what has been done with it up until now.
33. There are some interesting alternatives for fuel sources including carbon dioxide in solution taken from the ambient air, using the toxic components present nearly everywhere as a conversion into a fuel source, cogon grass and its oils, chaparral and its oils, kudzu and other out of hand fast growing and heavily oxygenated plant materials, early steam engine propulsion dynamics and early electric motor-driven vehicle options. There are also suggestions that at one time the Japanese had developed a water-driven engine which used water as the fuel source – quite possibly a similar design exists within the r & d of many Detroit automakers and others. Incentives could bring these and other designs out of the closets and into operations within six – nine months.
34. Establish a preliminary safety procedure that would be very inexpensive for protecting a design prior to patent application and lower patent application fees as well.
35. There can be incentives, encouragement and payments made to anyone that retrofits their existing vehicle to run on vegetable oil, or be retrofitted into a total electric configuration. Some states are using penalties, imposing fines and discouraging these changes when the exact opposite should be occurring given the current and continuing circumstances in the energy sectors.

And one other thing, along a personal note -

Everytime I hear anyone use the current situation to instigate drilling in ANWR or anywhere else (at our expense while tearing up the territory and charging us obscene prices for gasoline and diesel fuel, etc.) – the first thing I know is “HOW DARE YOU BE THAT SHITTY and GREEDY and INSENSITIVE and UNCARING and filled with CONTEMPT for the American people?” Why would you even start to consider opening your mouth and saying something like that? “Who do you think you are?” Does it occur to any of you that the damages you’ve already done – you have to fix?

How much more do you really want to have to fix BECAUSE – BY GOD – YOU’RE GOING TO BE FIXING IT!

Maybe some of the ideas listed above will inspire some other ideas or be joined together such that solutions can be enacted very quickly. Let me know, if I can be of any further help . . .

Written by Cricket Diane C “Sparky” PHillips, 2008

06-11-08

“Creating the Tangible from the Impossible every day.”

Cricket House Studios, USA1 – USAX1 – [cd]9 – USA

*** **** *** *

June 11, 2008

[Just a thought - ]

Another idea for an energy solution – solar as fuel – Cricket Diane C Phillips – 2008

Focal Point Sun Collector -
Energy Source Possibility -
Created by Cricket Diane C Phillips 072208

focal point
Sun collector
fine point upon confined space

typical use of magnifying glass for concentration of light source

air in – heats by sun
Increased pressure by expansion
Increased heat from sun’s energy

air intake = one-way valve

heated air expands when collected sunlight envelopes cavity below collector and bounces around mirrored surfaces (shiny metal interior surface where focus has brought in collected sunlight and heat).

Expanding heated air forces out along narrowed corridor through expansion valve which only opens at a specific pressure point –> creating nozzle bursts of heated air

vacuum thus created sucks in more air to be heated = will result in pulses of air bursts for useful powering / energy to use as propulsion, mechanical motion and to turn generator mechanism for electric power generation.

** another possibility could use the physical expansion of the heated air to convert into motion using a bladder type apparatus that would inflate and act as a bellows or physically move a unit of mechanical system

Written by and created by Cricket Diane C “sparky” Phillips, on July 22, 2008, USA
Cricket House Studios, 2008

August 5, 2008 Posted by cricketdiane

(I swear I saw an ad for a “solar lighter” that looked just like what I described here last year. The ad played last night during a show on the country music channel – on 05-18-09 in the evening, I think I was watching a movie when it came on and I wrote it down somewhere to check on the company and patent – sunlighter is the name of the product which supposedly can provide a flame in windy conditions from directed sunlight – I didn’t post the design but theirs looks an awful lot like the one I drew out. Interesting. Glad to see it works.) No telling how long ago their design was made, but apparently it was good thinking about it I had last year and it does work. – I can’t wait to see it on a larger scale for a solar powered energy producing turbine from the same focused flame source using the sun’s direct energy. Very Nifty.

***

Absurd Differences between Approaches to find workable solutions for small business – National Small Business Week – from the SBA to Davos – one is an awards shindig and one is solutions oriented – guess which one offers a wealth of information – it isn’t ours –

SBA announces emergency funding for small businesses
Mon May 18, 2009 10:00pm EDT

By Jon Cook

WASHINGTON, DC (Reuters) – The U.S. Small Business Association today announced a new emergency bridge-lending program geared toward helping struggling small businesses ride out the current recession.

Calling it another “tool to our toolbox” SBA head Karen Mills said the new American Recovery Capital (ARC) program will offer “viable” small businesses temporary six-month loans of up to $35,000.

[ . . . ]

The interest-free loan must be used within six months and borrowers have up to six years to repay it. The only other stipulation is that it cannot be used to pay any previous SBA-backed loan the business may have outstanding.

[ . . . ]

Last month the SBA also dropped fees and broadened eligibility criteria for businesses applying for funding, opening the doors for an additional 70,000 companies to apply for its 7(a) and 504 lending programs.

Mills said since the Recovery Act about 10,000 new loans had been approved, causing a 25 percent boost in the SBA’s average weekly loan volumes. Since October the SBA had seen loan volumes fall by more than half.

[ . . . ]

Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu, who co-chairs the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, wants to make sure entrepreneurs like Justice are more supported by the government and banks.

Currently just 25 percent of the roughly 8,000 banks in the U.S. participate in the SBA’s lending programs and Landrieu, who worked closely with Mills to get more money for small businesses into the Recovery Act, would like to see that number be much higher.

“I’d like to get that up to 100 percent,” she confessed. “I would like to think that no one in America, who has a viable idea for a business and a decent plan and a work ethic, would ever be turned away.

“That we become a country wanting to support entrepreneurs, as opposed to making it difficult.”

[ etc ]

http://www.reuters.com/article/smallBusinessNews/idUSTRE54I0CJ20090519

***

**
EXHIBITORS

RECon provides opportunities to showcase your company to the largest gathering of shopping center professionals in the world.

Come visit our mall. This extraordinary deal making opportunity features 1,300+ of the world’s leading developers, retailers, brokers and financial institutions who come together once a year to meet, greet and conduct business. Encompassing over 1.5 million square feet (140,000 square meters) of exhibit space, it is estimated that over 25% of the industry’s transactions occur over this three day event.

Exhibitors Include:

• Shopping Center Owners/Developers
• Retailers
• Public Sector Companies
• Brokers
• Financial Institutions

http://www.icsc.org/2009SC/exhibitor.php

ReCon – The Global Retail Real Estate Convention –

ICSC – International Council of Shopping Centers

May 17 – 20, Las Vegas, Nevada

***

http://www.nationalsmallbusinessweek.com/

National Small Business Week

National Small Business Week 2009

May 17-19, 2009

Mandarin Oriental Hotel and Conference Center

1330 Maryland Avenue, S.W.
Washington, DC
20024
(202) 554-8588

2009 Schedule of Events

Keynote by Karen G. Mills
The Future of Small Businesses and Vision of the SBA
(Open to all Small Business Week Attendees)
Monday, May 18, 10:00 AM to 10:45AM
Speaker: Lisa Gersh
Oriental Ballroom

Financial Forum: Strengthening Small Businesses in a Challenging Economy
Monday, May 18, 11:00 AM to 12:15 PM
Moderator: Joseph Jordan
Speaker: Raghav Lal, Eric Zarnikow, Kenan Pankau, Judith Roussel
Sponsored by Visa
Oriental Ballroom

Town Hall Meeting: Successful Business Strategies in a Down Economy
Monday, May 18, 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM
Hosted by: JJ Ramberg
Speaker: Penny Pickett, Toby McGrath, Grady Hedgespeth, Joseph Jordan, Matt Friedman
Sponsored by IBM
Oriental Ballroom

Innovation Forum: Technology – Our Competitive Edge
Monday, May 18, 3:30 PM to 4:45 PM
Moderator: Sara Lipscomb,
Speakers: Nancy Gioia, Andrew Kruse, Stacey Wueste, Steve Quane
Sponsored by HP
Oriental Ballroom

Social Media Forum: Social Media, Transforming the Way You Do Business
Tuesday, May 19, 11:00 AM to 12:15 PM
Speakers: Alex Craddock, John Jantsch, Rieva Lesonsky, Peter Greenberger, Adam Connor
Moderator: Brian Moran
Sponsored by Visa
Grand Ballroom

http://www.nationalsmallbusinessweek.com/index.php?pID=29

(My Note – these are the meat and potatoes offered – the other events scheduled are various awards and receptions. It seems it is mostly an awards show rather than a can-do conference.)

***

Davos, Switzerland – World Economic Forum

This is a can-do conference – and the website is filled with information – the events were webcast and very specific to getting the job done. Even though it is not focused on small business, it has more information for small business than our national business week efforts by the small business administration.

http://www.weforum.org/en/index.htm

***

Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009 was released on 8 October 2008

Through its reports and activities the Global Competitiveness Network of the World Economic Forum identifies impediments to growth and thereby helps stimulate the development of relevant strategies to achieve sustained economic progress. The GCN team works with leading academics worldwide to ensure latest thinking and research on global competitiveness are incorporated into its reports.

These reports range from global coverage, such as The Global Competitiveness Report, to the regional and topical,such as the Gender Gap study, the Arab World Competitiveness Report and theThe Global Information Technology Report.

http://www.weforum.org/en/initiatives/gcp/index.htm

***

My Note -

I just thought this was interesting – the approach is practical and shows a different kind of willingness to apply workable solutions in financial methods -

http://www.aft.gouv.fr/aft_en_21/agence_france_tresor_22/partners_213/banque_france_216/the_government_787.html

AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT AND THE BANQUE DE FRANCE

The revised agreement pertaining to the Government’s Treasury Account with the Banque de France went into effect on May 1, 2002, following a thorough reworking of the wording of the earlier agreement, an effort that required more than one year of concerted action with the French central bank.

The latest agreement updates and supplements the 1994 agreement. It specifies the instruments used by the Banque de France to ensure that its client – the French Government – can keep realtime track of the credit, debit and market transactions in its account, a series of movements that involve more than 17 billion euros a day. It also integrates requirements related to the French Parliament’s approval of the first Debt and Treasury Management Program, presented in the Initial Budget Act for 2002. In particular, the Program called for use of the enhanced visibility offered by the Banque de France (on the time at which various transactions impacting the Government’s Account are debited and credited) to reduce the average unused account balance.

It also implements new security regulations designed to prevent the Government’s account balance from deteriorating after 4:15 pm due to the late entry of certain emergency transactions. This system allows AFT to reduce its contingency balance earlier in the day under satisfactory market conditions (i.e. generally before 5 pm, when most eligible counterparties still offer attractive short-term investment rates).

This improved visibility has been made possible by a set of new banking services that supplement existing ones. They are based on three key precepts: information, security and financial neutrality.

• In terms of information, the AFT requires information on those transactions initiated by the Banque de France that cannot be signalled in advance by government accountants (transactions involving African central banks or the IMF). The new agreement provides a specific framework for such transactions.

• In terms of security, the Banque de France undertakes to provide the following services:

- Uninterrupted availability of accountkeeping applications, under the terms and conditions specified in the agreement. For example, the consolidated status of treasury transactions is updated every 30 minutes at least. The new agreement also stipulates that the Treasury be swiftly informed of the occurrence of any technical incidents that affect the performance or availability of these applications.

- Compliance with standard scheduling for debiting and crediting Treasury transactions. This new and particularly important service is designed to offer the Treasury adequate visibility over its cash position, which is especially critical for timing short-term cash investments. Schedules for entering transactions in the Government account, in accordance with reporting deadlines for government accountants, were identified and streamlined where possible. In particular, the Banque de France revised its procedures for entering the principal credits from the Système interbancaire de télécompensation (SIT – interbank remote clearing system), and for processing cash transactions and payment orders for foreign accounts, bringing them forward to 4:15 pm at the latest.

- Implementation of an emergency back-up procedure in the event of an incident that affects the telecommunications link between the AFT and the Banque de France.

• The financial neutrality of the Treasury concerns two issues:

- Same-day execution of credit and debit transactions involving certain international organizations, in particular the IMF

- Compensation for investment opportunities that are missed because the Banque de France is unable to honor its contractual commitments. This clause refers primarily to incidents (such as the unavailability of Banque de France software applications at the end of the day) that disrupt the flow of information to the Treasury or prohibit the entry of transactions.

Incidents of this type prevent the AFT from ascertaining the Government’s account balance, leading to a forced halt in cash investments and money market borrowings, or to the investment of available surpluses later, and hence at much lower rates.

Overall, the new agreement with the Banque de France improves the quality of banking services provided to the Government, which enables the Treasury to reduce the amount of funds that lie dormant at the end of the day. The change should also enable the AFT to manage cash in the Government’s account with greater precision, in the taxpayer’s best interest.

Updated on 01 Nov 04

http://www.aft.gouv.fr/aft_en_21/agence_france_tresor_22/partners_213/banque_france_216/the_government_787.html

***

My Opinion -

Some of the crap we put up with in America concerning business, banking, small business and similar financial areas are a matter of logistics, but some of it is being caused by a leftover unwillingness to have transparency, unwillingness to change, unwillingness to approach hard problems with the systems and develop workable solutions then enact them, and an overall attitude of exclusion rather than inclusion.

These have continued to endure despite what any Republican says – as their efforts are to maintain the same ship, go back to the same old ways they had set up as soon as nobody is looking – and despite what any Democrat says – as their efforts fall short of cooperative workmanship on enacting solutions from those who still hold the reins of power in the business community, banking, and government agencies that serve them.

- cricketdiane, 05-19-09

***

http://newyorkcity2005.web.infoseek.co.jp/information/maps/timessquare-dtl.html

A Nifty Map of  Times’ Square – includes a bunch of stores, theaters, restaurants and hotels – very cool

Housing credit – isn’t that mortgages and mortgage backed securities? Conference in Los Angeles June 15 – 18, 2009 setting the way policies are applied in the real world – are they inviting the public to participate – well, of course not –

http://www.ncsha.org/conference.cfm/2881

2009 Housing Credit Conference & Marketplace, June 15-18 (Los Angeles, CA)

NCSHA’s annual Housing Credit conference is the industry event of the year. At this critical crossroads for the Credit, only NCSHA brings leaders and top development and monitoring staff from the state Housing Credit allocating agencies together with government officials, developers, lenders, syndicators, investors, attorneys, accountants, property managers, compliance experts, owners, and nonprofits. Across more than 30 sessions, in the Marketplace, and at several networking events, the heavy hitters of the industry and their agency partners will deliver the latest news on how to make the Housing Credit work in these unprecedented times.

Hear first-hand how the states are implementing the most significant changes to the program since its inception. Learn how the development industry continues to respond to economic and market turbulence. Join top professionals in the Housing Credit industry for intensive training, expert-led dialogues, and roundtable discussions covering today’s foremost issues in the Housing Credit world, including:

• Implementation of the new Housing Credit Exchange Program

• Impact of Tax Credit Assistance Program (TCAP) funding on development feasibility

• Outlook for Housing Credit equity market recovery

• Analysis of critical new program guidance from IRS and HUD

• Prospects for additional Housing Credit legislation in the 111th Congress

• Forecast of state agency allocation and monitoring policy changes

• New standards for development structuring and financial underwriting

• Solutions to the latest Credit compliance and management challenges

• Enhanced focus on asset management and property performance

• Identification of emerging program issues and new best practices

---

Enhanced Networking Opportunities with HFA Executive Directors

NCSHA’s Board of Directors and several new HFA executive directors working groups will meet at the Housing Credit Conference & Marketplace, meaning more allocating agency directors will be there than ever before. Sponsor the conference and get even more one-on-one time with HFA and industry leaders at the Leadership Circle Reception on Tuesday evening.

The entire conference is packed with rich networking opportunities including Monday’s allocators’ happy hour, Wednesday’s networking lunch and evening reception, the Marketplace, and several other lunches and breaks.

http://www.ncsha.org/conference.cfm/2881

(apparently the bankers, investors and bankers decide with the government representatives and it looks like they aren’t really interested in public input.)

***

http://www.ncsha.org/conference.cfm/2881/2884

My Note – I think this is where they decide how policy is applied . .

(check out the other items on this page link above)

8:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.		The Washington Report NCSHA’s legislative and policy team cover the latest from Washington, including HUD guidance on the Tax Credit Assistance Program (TCAP), Treasury guidance on the Credit-for-cash exchange program, the outlook for new Housing Credit investment incentives, and other developments affecting the Housing Credit.

applied living – places to network – find new friends – make business contacts – start your own business – conventions – be who you are – match your skills with needs – learn new things – creating your own business that works –

http://www.bookexpoamerica.com/

May 28 – 31 Javits Center, New York

The Authors. The Books. The Trends. The Buzz.

Join Us at BEA—Time is Running Out to Register!

Join us at the new and reformatted BEA—the premier event for the North American publishing industry. This year, you’ll benefit from quality over quantity, seeing and learning exactly what you need to survive today’s changing industry and challenging economy. Meet 500+ authors and discover hundreds of new titles on a Show floor bristling with 1,500 exhibitors (check out BEA Exhibitor Show Specials) and featuring the NEW Downtown Stage and Uptown Stage and the ever popular BEA Autographing Area. Learn the trends during 60+ focused sessions at the NEW “Big Ideas at BEA” Conference and don’t miss this year’s Global Market Forum: Books & Publishing in the Arab World. Experience the buzz of the book business at dynamic Special Events (buy your Special Events Tickets now). Conduct rights business at the largest North American International Rights Center. And enjoy NEW Show floor amenities such as more seating and places to eat. All of this, plus all of New York City—the publishing capital of the world.

May 28 – Conference and Special Events

May 29 – 31  Show, Conference and Special Events

Jacob K. Javits Center, New York City

BookExpo America (BEA) welcomes members of the media to attend and cover everything new and upcoming in the world of North American book publishing. For more information on how to register or to view the BEA press releases and enjoy the BookExpo Cast use the links below.

• Daily Publishing News
• Press Releases
• Exhibitor News
• Press Registration—Register for BEA and for Special Events tickets here.
• BookExpo Podcast

For more information, contact:
Roger Bilheimer Associates
36 Parish Rd.
New Canaan, CT 06840
bilheim@aol.com
Ph: 203-966-0792
Fax: 203-966-0793

http://www.bookexpoamerica.com/en/Press-Information/

***

Electronic Entertainment Expo

Los Angeles Convention Center – June 2 – 4, 2009

http://www.e3expo.com/

Entertainment Software Association

Special Ticket Discount!

Get 2 tickets for the price of 1! Offer valid from May 18th through May 29th. Click here for details!

Video Games Live is a groundbreaking live event celebrating the music of video games created by Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall. Experience a full orchestra and choir accompanied by synchronized video, lighting, special effects, crowd interactivity & live action! Plus, before the live show there will be live game competitions, a costume contest, surprise guests, game demos, prizes and more!

**

Exhibitor List -

http://www.e3expo.com/content/1146/exhibitor-list/

***

About ESA

About the Entertainment Software Association

Formed in 1994, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), formerly the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA), is the U.S. association exclusively dedicated to serving the business and public affairs needs of companies that publish video and computer games for video game consoles, personal computers and the Internet.

The ESA offers services to interactive entertainment software publishers including a global anti-piracy program, owning the Electronic Entertainment Expo, business and consumer research, federal and state government relations, First Amendment and intellectual property protection efforts.

http://www.e3expo.com/content/1144/about-esa/

**

About E3 Expo

E3 Expo is the world’s premiere trade show for computer and video games and related products. The show is owned by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the U.S. association dedicated to serving the business and public affairs needs of the companies, publishing interactive games for video game consoles, handheld devices, personal computers and the Internet. For more information, please visit www.E3Expo.com or www.theESA.com.

http://www.e3expo.com/content/1145/about-e3-expo/

**

Anime Boston
May 22 – 24, 2009
Hynes Convention Center
Boston, Massachusetts

FanimeCon
May 22 – 25, 2009
San Jose McEnery Convention Center
San Jose, California

Anime North
May 22 – 24, 2009
Toronto Congress Center
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Animazement
May 22 – 24, 2009
Raleigh Marriott City Center Hotel
Durham, North Carolina

JACON
May 22 – 24, 2009
Ramada Orlando Celebration Hotel & Convention Center
Orlando, Florida

NipponCon
May 23 – 24, 2009
Kiek In
Neumünster, Germany

Bay Area Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention
May 25 – 29, 2009
Hyatt-Regency Hotel
Santa Clara, California

A-Kon
May 29 – 31, 2009
Sheraton Dallas Hotel
Dallas, Texas

JUNE 2009

ColossalCon
June 4 – 7, 2009
Kalahari Resort and Convention Center
Sandusky, Ohio

Anime Alabama
June 5- 7, 2009
Renaissance Riverview Hotel Plaza
Mobile, Alabama

Florida Super-Con
June 5 – 7, 2009
Doubletree Miami Mart/Airport Hotel & Exhibition Center
Miami Florida

OMG! Con
June 5 – 7, 2009
Julian Carroll Convention Center
Paducah, Kentucky

Anime Evolution
June 12 – 14, 2009
Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

AnimeNEXT
June 12 – 14, 2009
Garden State Exhibit Center / Doubletree Hotel Somerset
Somerset, New Jersey

PortConMaine
June 18 – 21, 2009
Wyndham Portland Airport Hotel
South Portland, Maine

Anime Mid-Atlantic
June 19 – 21, 2009
Hampton Roads Convention Center
Hampton, Virginia

Metrocon
June 19 – 21, 2009
Tampa Convention Center
Tampa, Florida

JULY 2009

Anime Expo
July 2 – 5, 2009
Los Angeles Convention Center
Los Angeles, California

Anime Overload
July 3 – 5, 2009
Crowne Plaza Hotel Austin
Austin, Texas

Otaku Omaha
July 3 -5, 2009
Mid-America Center
Council Bluffs, Iowa

Otaku Omaha
July 3 -5, 2009
Mid-America Center
Council Bluffs, Iowa

JampCon
July 10 -12, 2009
Chattanooga Convention Center
Chattanooga, Tennessee

MACOnvention
July 10 -12 , 2009
Kuernberghalle
Leonding, Austria

Tokyo in Tulsa
July 10 – 12, 2009
Doubletree Hotel Tulsa-Downtown / Tulsa Convention Center
Tulsa, Oklahoma

AniMix
July 17 – 19, 2009
The Plaza Hotel and Conference Center
Killeen, Texas

Otakon
July 17 – 19, 2009
Baltimore Convention Center
Baltimore, Maryland

Northern Michigan Anime Convention
July 18 -19, 2009
Northwestern Michigan College
Traverse City, Michigan

San Diego Comic-Con International
July 23 – 26, 2009
San Diego Convention Center
San Diego, California

Ai-Kon
July 24 – 26, 2009
Winnipeg Convention Centre
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

AVCon
July 25 – 26, 2009
Adelaide Convention Centre
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

MechaCon
July 24 – 26, 2009
Hilton Lafayette Hotel
Lafayette, Louisiana

ConnectiCon
July 31 – August 2, 2009
Connecticut Convention Center
Hartford, Connecticut

Otakuthon
July 31 – August 2, 2009
Palais des congrès de Montréal
Montreal, Quebec, Canada

http://manga.about.com/od/fanresources/a/conventions.htm

**

http://manga.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=manga&cdn=hobbies&tm=5&f=20&su=p504.1.336.ip_&tt=2&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//www.comicbookconventions.com/

Super-Con 2009

May 19, 2009 by Richard Oh
Filed under L.A. Sequential

very nifty – great pictures of the artists doing work at the show

***

Wizard Buys Big Apple Con

« on: April 08, 2009, 06:00 PM »

Press Release

Gareb Shamus, CEO of New York-based Wizard Entertainment, today announced he has acquired Big Apple Con, one of the trailblazing brands in the comic book and pop culture world, and the longest running annual show in New York City. The “new” Big Apple Con is moving to Pier 94 in Manhattan the weekend of October 16-18, 2009.

“I’ve been going to shows in New York City since I was a kid and I have a fondness for Big Apple Con,” Shamus said. “Today’s acquisition fulfills a dream of running a mega-show in New York City unlike anything there’s ever been.”

This move also enjoys tremendous support and enthusiasm from industry leaders. “Diamond is really looking forward to working closely with our friends at Wizard as they expand into the New York market,” said Bill Schanes, Vice President for Purchasing at Diamond Comics. “We anticipate a great event based on their ability to attract key talent, to promote and market the event, and at the same time to give consumers a tremendous value for their admission price.”

Ed Fleming, CEO/Founder of Video Game Expo (VGXPO), the largest East Coast expo of its kind, announced recently its partnership with Wizard World Philly. Now, VGXPO will expand its relationship to include Chicago Comic-Con and Big Apple Con, as well. “Our partnership provides VGXPO with the ability to rapidly grow our footprint from Philadelphia to Chicago and now New York City,” he said. “We look forward to working and sharing our passion for video games with all the fans in New York.”

Michael Carbonaro, the longtime and current producer of the show, will continue to provide his limitless creativity and enthusiasm to the show.

Exhibitors will need to act fast, though, as Big Apple Con has been sold out for years. Those wishing to be a part of this exciting event should contact:

Show Manager – Benji DeJohn – bdejohn@wizardent.com (440) 567-0801

Media Contact – Joe Favorito – fatherknickerbocker1@yahoo.com (917) 566-8345

http://www.wizarduniverse.com/040809bigapplecon.html

[from]

http://www.comicbookconventions.com/forum/index.php?topic=7686.0

***

Project Curve Appeal Inc.
404-886-7801
info@projectcurveappeal.com

Mission: “Unite,Celebrate, Empower, Educate & Entertain younger, flyer, sassier curvaceous independent woman, the vendors that cater to them and the men that love them world wide”

The Definition of “Curve Appeal”:

Curve Ap?peal: [kurv uh-peel] -noun, the power to demand attention and change the distorted perspective of curvaceous women through fascinating charm and alluring confidence.

http://www.curveappealexpo.com/

September 26, 2009: The B&B EXPO

Hot off the press:

Toyl Events is known for pushing the limits and setting new trends when it comes to hosting themed events. We are most known from the Exclusive Bachelorette Party Expo & the movement that we started entitled “Project Curve Appeal” which caters to curvaceous women sizes 12 to 26. This year, we are trying something new. Each of our events have catered to women only and a common question that we have been getting from the men is “What about us?” That’s all about to change. For the first time in the 10 year history of Toyl Events, we are producing a major event that caters to both the women and the men.

On September 26, 2009 Toyl Events will host the 3rd Annual Bachelorette Expo but will also host the 1st ever Bachelor Party Expo. All the things that women love to love and all the things that men love to love. The events will be held at the same venue but will be separated.

On the ladies side: There will be accessories, novelties, beauty, spa, fashion & pole dance vendors. There will also be food, drinks, fashion shows & performers. And of course there will be a male review.

On the Men’s side: There will be vendors that cater to the fellas, Vegas style games & of course beautiful female exotic dancers.

This is the first ever public Giant Bachelorette & Bachelor Party. You do not have to be getting married to attend but you must be at least 21 years of age. Be ready to shop, eat, drink & be entertained. Also be prepared to tip the entertainers. Drink specials and VIP seating will be available. We will also have special group rates for those celebrating a special occasion such as a bachelorette, bachelor or birthday party.

Admission: General admission is $10 and may not include seating for the entertainment part of the show. VIP Seating is $25 and includes admission to the event and guaranteed seating near the stage. Group VIP Table is $500 and includes admission for up to 10 guests, appetizers, a private table & a bottle of champagne. VIP with Admission, seating and appetizers for individuals is $45pp. Buy your Tickets

Vendor rates: Basic table top $275 10×10 booth $455 and Premier vendors receive a10x20 booth as well as a one year listing on the front of two high traffic websites $855. Be a vendor

Other opportunities: We are now casting for talent to be featured al these events. Singers, Exotic Dancers etc. We are also seeking both male and female models for the fashion shows, eye candy etc. We also need Go Go dancers, Belly Dancers & attractive cocktail waitresses. Next Casting is Thursday May 21, 2009 at 7PM. RSVP for the casting call

http://www.curveappealexpo.com/our_next_main_event__september_26__2009_

***

http://plussizeyellowpages.com/

Plus-Size Directory Links

Below are links to a huge collection of plus-size resources
organized into categories for easy browsing.

http://www.kiyonna.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=KK2003&Category_Code=Dresses&sblid=Dresses

Kiyonna – in the sidebar – includes wedding dresses beyond the size six imaginary size of the magazine trade. Looks like they have some pretty things.

My note – there are sidebar ads that show prom dresses in sizes 14 – 44 and

this note in the middle of the page -

I propose that we END the “War on Obese People” and BEGIN
“A Campaign for Healthy Eating and Fitness for ALL People, of ALL Sizes.”

***

Amen to that.

A few more available jobs and a thought

Location	Title	Newspaper/Division	Modified
US – IL – Chicago	Product Director, Health	Tribune Company	5/11/2009
US – IL – Chicago	Vice President, Marketing	Tribune Company	5/11/2009
US – IL – Chicago	News Director – 720 WGN Radio	Tribune Company	5/7/2009
US – IL – Chicago	Weather Intern	Tribune Company	5/7/2009
US – IL – Chicago	Web Site Assistant Producer, Internship	Tribune Company	5/7/2009
US – IL – Chicago	Sports TV Internship	Tribune Company	5/7/2009
US – IL – Chicago	News Assignment Desk Internship	Tribune Company	5/7/2009
US – IL – Chicago	News Writing Intern	Tribune Company	5/7/2009
US – IL – Chicago	News Planning Internship	Tribune Company	5/7/2009
US – IL – Chicago	Medical Watch Internship	Tribune Company	5/7/2009
US – IL – Chicago	Morning News Internship	Tribune Company	5/7/2009
US – IL – Chicago	Morning News Anchor Internship	Tribune Company	5/7/2009
US – IL – Chicago	Program Operations Intern	Tribune Company	5/7/2009
US – IL – Chicago	Production Intern	Tribune Company	5/7/2009
US – IL – Chicago	Evening News Anchor Internship	Tribune Company	5/7/2009
US – IL – Chicago	Information Systems Internship	Tribune Company	5/7/2009
US – IL – Chicago	Human Resources Intern	Tribune Company	5/7/2009
US – IL – Chicago	Graphic Arts Internship	Tribune Company	5/7/2009
US – IL – Chicago	Account Executive	Tribune Company	5/7/2009
US – IL – Chicago	Entertainment Internernship	Tribune Company	5/7/2009
Jobs 1 – 20 of 27 found

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http://www.careerbuilder.com/csh/Results.aspx?lr=cbcb_ct&csh=cshtribune&lc=IL&kw=Journalism&cbRecursionCnt=1&cbsid=b30ae19e7fcb402f9150bbb0ad206615-296018845-wg-6

***

http://www.chicagotribune.com/about/custom/career/

Search By Job Type on this page for current jobs like those above for the Chicago Tribune

“Chicago Tribune Company is the #1 information source in Chicago and the Midwest and a progressive leader in the newspaper and information industry. We have a variety of career opportunities for you in sales / marketing, finance, editorial, production, management, information technology, interactive and more. Learn how you can join one of the many businesses we operate including Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tribune Interactive, Tribune Direct, RedEye, How and Chicago Magazine.”

• Partners: |
• Triblocal |
• metromix.com |
• Chicago Magazine |
• ViveloHoy Chicago |
• RedEye |
• CLTV |
• WGN-TV |
• WGN-AM |
• Zap2it

• amNY |
• Baltimore Sun |
• Daily Press |
• Hartford Courant |
• LA Times |
• Newsday |
• Orlando Sentinel |
• Sun-Sentinel |
• The Morning Call |
• The Virginia Gazette

**

My Note -

Now, believe it or not – this wasn’t what I was trying to find. A lot of news organizations are laying off but hiring at the same time. I don’t know – it is very confusing. That is actually true of a lot of different companies right now, though. Maybe they hire people for cheaper than the ones they had or something.

***

Well, while I’m at it -

here is the letters to the editor form page for the Chicago Tribune “Voice of the People” – it is on this page -

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-lettertotheeditor,0,3578487.customform

***

And, then I noticed this one – these folks look great – their page about employment opportunities is very gracious, and welcoming, easy to use and has several options for finding jobs or submitting resumes along with a place to register skill sets that will email when they match a job. Wowsa. – my note

TRW to participate at ESV conference

Germany – The “Enhanced Safety of Vehicles” conference will take place at the Stuttgart congress center from 15-18 June 2009. TRW joins lead sponsor Mercedes-Benz and other leading industry players as part of the conference and exhibition. TRW will present its latest safety technologies at the event.

During the technical conference engineers, representatives from official bodies and politicians will discuss measures and technologies for the further improvement of vehicle safety.

Please visit www.esv2009.com for further information.

http://www.trw.com/trw_participate_esv_conference

http://www.trw.com/

**

https://hostedjobs.openhire.com/epostings/submit.cfm?company_id=16078&version=1

Welcome to TRW Careers!

TRW Automotive is among the world’s largest automotive suppliers and is one of the top financial performers in the industry, with 2008 sales of $15 billion. As the leader in automotive safety, TRW produces advanced active systems in braking; steering and suspension; and sophisticated occupant safety systems, including airbags, seat belts and steering wheels. TRW has approximately 65,000 employees working in more than 200 locations in every vehicle-producing region worldwide. To learn more about TRW Automotive, return to www.trw.com and browse the information available on the site.

Use the Search below to review the available job opportunities within our organization.

Create Job Agent

The Create Job Agent allows you to create a profile based on your skill set. When a job opportunity is added to TRW Careers that matches your skill set, you will receive an e-mail notification. Create Job Agent or use the search below to review the available job opportunities and submit your interest.

Job Search
To search job opportunities, enter Search Terms (e.g. Engineer, Administrative Assistant, Finance Manager, etc.) OR use the Filter commands to view available positions by Job Category or Location.

Need Assistance?

Can’t find a job opportunity that matches your interest? You may submit your resume into the resume/CV repository. Once the resume/CV is submitted, it will become searchable by human resources. Please note that, when a job opportunity becomes available that matches your interest, you must also complete the application process for the specific job opportunity.

A general search turned up these three listings -

1021FAR 0046A	Principal Product Engineer- Electrical	Farmington Hills, MI, US.	05/04/2009
101FAR0045	Principal Product Engineer- Electrical	Farmington Hills, MI, US.	05/01/2009
0001-FA	Junior Financial Analyst w/m	Radolfzell, GERMANY	04/01/2009

***

TRW Opens China Test Facility

TRW Automotive Holdings has announced the opening of a new test track in Heihe, northern China. Work at the site began in 2006 and TRW states that during the last three years a “significant investment” has been made in the facility. The track specialises in winter testing and includes a variety of track surfaces designed to test active safety systems such as advanced braking and steering systems and integrated vehicle control and driver assist technologies. According to TRW, the opening of the test track, which is to receive support from the company’s Shanghai technical centre engineers, completes its footprint to locally engineer products and applications for China-based customers. More…

05-18-09

http://www.reifenpresse.de/CDML007/en/gast/detail.php?t=km&tk=2542317&RecID=19582

***

Other TRW Sites

TRW Automotive is a global technology, manufacturing and service company that provides advanced technology, systems and services to customers worldwide. At any hour, on any given day in 27 countries and more than 200 locations around the world, TRW is designing and producing world-class products for the automotive market. Our technological and systems engineering expertise sets the standards for innovation, quality and performance.

http://www.trw.com/other_trw_sites/

***

Contact Us

As the name implies, TRW Automotive is a company focused on the automotive industry and the customers it serves. If you have an inquiry regarding any aspect of our automotive business or comments on the website, we urge you to contact us using the product inquiries or website feedback forms.

For TRW’s global locations, click here.

On December 12, 2002, Northrop Grumman completed its acquisition of TRW Inc. Information about former TRW defense businesses (Space & Electronics, now Space Technology, and Systems, now Mission Systems) can be accessed from the Northrop Grumman website at www.northropgrumman.com.

Please note that the Aerospace business has been integrated into Goodrich Corp., which can be found at www.goodrich.com

Also, TRW Automotive is not in the credit reporting business. For information concerning that business or your personal credit history, contact one of the credit information management companies, such as Experian, Equifax or TransUnion.

http://www.trw.com/who_we_are/contact_us

***

My Note -

check the sidebars on the page above for all kinds of information about vehicle safety and contact information, etc. Amazing.

***

Automotive Fact Sheet

Downloadable PDF of TRW Automotive Factsheet

Headquarters

12001 Tech Center Drive Livonia, Michigan 48150 United States Phone:+1.734.855.2600

Senior Executives

John C. Plant, President and Chief Executive Officer

Steve Lunn, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

Employees Worldwide: approximately 61,000
Europe: ~ 36,500
North America: ~ 18,500
South America: ~ 4,500
Asia: ~ 5,500

Locations: TRW Automotive has more than 200 facilities in 27 countries.

http://www.trw.com/who_we_are/automative_fact_sheet

***

Interesting – maybe they need some help with something . . . HMMMM …..

- cricketdiane

***

Job Advertisement that I stumbled over – this is a great job – employment opportunities found here and there, and where to find them –

Job Advertisement that I stumbled over – this is a great job -

(and some others I found accidentally today)

European Community Shipowners’ Associations
D.     3298/09

SF     1.100

ECSA – JUNIOR ASSISTANT (M/F)

The European Community Shipowners Association (ECSA) the trade Association representing the European shipping sector controlling 41 % of the global merchant fleet, has a vacancy for a junior assistant. ECSA is established in Brussels since 1965 and works on a daily basis with the EU Institutions. For more information: www.ecsa.eu This junior assistant serving as executive adviser for administrative support would take care of tasks such as:

- Following up the work in the European Parliament.

- Monitoring and information supply of developments in the Commission, Council, Parliament and follow up on other sources of information.

- Coordination of the ECSA annual report and Newsletters.

- Conferences, workshops, seminars

- ECSA web site

- ECSA administration

- Etc.

Profile:

- Education: Bachelor (Communication sciences)

- Language: Perfect English (by preference mother tongue), knowledge of French and/or other languages helpful.

- Good analyst and drafter.

- Good communication skills.

- Experience with generally used software.(Word, Excel, Power point – Website experience helpful)

Interested candidates should send their letter of motivation, together with a detailed CV to: Alfons Guinier Secretary General Rue Ducale 67 bte 2 1000-Brussels
Guinier@ecsa.eu

http://www.ecsa.be/publications/091.pdf

***

From a website about Jobs at Sea -

Good Wages

Wages earned by seafarers are normally very generous compared to similar professions ashore. Seagoing officers are assured a very comfortable standard of living, and are usually within the upper income bracket of their national populations.

In Europe, a 22 year old working on a ship, newly qualified as a third officer, can earn a “take home” salary that is comparable to what many shore-based university graduates might hope to earn in their 30s.

In developing world countries, ships’ officers working on internationally trading ships are amongst the very highest paid in their countries.

Opportunities for accumulating savings, even when young, are considerable (unlike most people, officers have relatively few expenses when working at sea as accommodation, travel and food are all met by the employer).

The real value of wages may often be substantially greater because they are frequently tax free.

Officers who stay at sea can be promoted rapidly, eventually becoming a Captain or Chief Engineer when wages can be very considerable indeed.

Wages obviously vary according to the country in which you live and the shipping company you work for. Some types of ship require specialised skills for which pay may be higher than others. More detailed information will be available from national sources.

http://www.careers-at-sea.org/Reasons/good%20wages.htm

http://www.careers-at-sea.org/Reasons/whygotosea.htm

***

Jobs at Meredith Corporation – the publisher of Better Homes and Gardens who also -

ABOUT MEREDITH CORPORATION

Meredith (http://www.meredith.com) is one of the nation’s leading media and marketing companies with businesses centering on magazine and book publishing, television broadcasting, integrated marketing and interactive media. The Meredith Publishing Group features 25 subscription magazines — including Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies’ Home Journal, Family Circle, Parents, American Baby, Fitness and More — and publishes approximately 180 special interest publications under approximately 80 titles. Meredith has more than 400 books in print. Meredith owns 13 television stations, including properties in top-25 markets Atlanta, Phoenix and Portland, OR. Additionally, Meredith has an extensive online presence that includes more than 40 web sites and two broadband channels — Better.tv and Parents.tv.

Meredith Integrated Marketing has established marketing relationships with some of America’s leading companies. Meredith’s consumer database, which contains approximately 85 million names, is one of the largest domestic databases among media companies and enables magazine and television advertisers to conduct precise targeted-marketing campaigns. Meredith is also the leading publisher serving Hispanic women in the United States with titles such as Siempre Mujer and Ser Padres.

https://www.meredith.apply2jobs.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=mExternal.searchJobs

*** Page one of several pages – go check the site listed above ***

Account Exec BH	Chicago	Illinois	PUBL141	Full Time	Sales
Account Executive WFSB	Rocky Hill	Connecticut	WFSB10	Full Time	Sales
Account Executive WFSB	Rocky Hill	Connecticut	WFSB231	Full Time	Sales
Account Executive WGCL	Atlanta	Georgia	WGCL172	Full Time	Sales
Account Executive WNEM	Saginaw	Michigan	WNEM135	Full Time	Sales
Account Executive WNEM	Saginaw	Michigan	WNEM136	Full Time	Sales
Account Executive WNEM	Saginaw	Michigan	WNEM137	Full Time	Sales
Account Executive WNEM	Saginaw	Michigan	WNEM300	Full Time	Sales
Account Executive WSHM	Springfield	Massachusetts	WSHM186	Full Time	Sales
Account Executive, Nestle Infant Nutrition	New York	New York	PUBL158	Full Time	Sales
Accountant	Atlanta	Georgia	BRDG106	Full Time	Finance
Accounts Payable Specialist	Atlanta	Georgia	BRDG219	Full Time	Finance
Admin Asst Directive	Addison	Texas	PUBL224	Full Time	Administration
Anchor/Reporter Weather	Atlanta	Georgia	WGCL295	Full Time	News
Assignment Desk Mgr KVVU	Henderson	Nevada	KVVU188	Full Time	News
Assignment Editor WGCL	Atlanta	Georgia	WGCL267	Full Time	News
Associate Producer	Greenville	South Carolina	WHNS278	Full Time	News
Associate Producer	Nashville	Tennessee	WSMV280	Part Time w/ Benefits (30 Hours or More)	News
Asst News Director WNEM	Saginaw	Michigan	WNEM122	Full Time	News
Asstistant Editor, ReadyMade	Des Moines	Iowa	PUBL13	Full Time	Editorial

Accidentally found some jobs / employment that were just listed and the current show of commercial retail property owners, developers and bankers, in Las Vegas – May 17 – 20, 2009 – International Council of Shopping Centers ReCon Show – start your own business – small business options and resources

My Note -

I accidentally found a place that’s hiring -

***

Saks Fifth Avenue creates rewarding opportunities all of its associates.

The corporate Merchandising Division is looking for “Assistant Buyers”.

Position Overview :

The Assistant Buyer is responsible for supporting and assisting the Buyer in achieving sales and profit objectives for a merchandise category or categories. This responsibility includes day-to-day operational and administrative functions to ensure smooth operations in the buying department.

Assistant Buyer      Job Code: 12

Division:     Saks Fifth Ave
Location:     New York, NY US
Travel Involved:     None/Not Specified
Job Type:     Full Time
Job Level:      Senior
Education:     BA, 4 year degree
Category:     Merchandising
Compensation:     Not Specified

http://saksfifthave.ats.hrsmart.com/cgi-bin/a/highlightjob.cgi?jobid=12

You can apply online on this page.

(added to available jobs list – May 13, 2009)

***

[and this one - ]

Merchandise Assistant OFF 5th      Job Code: 1953

Division:     Saks Fifth Ave
Location:     New York, NY US
Travel Involved:     None/Not Specified
Job Type:     Full Time
Job Level:      Experienced
Education:     AA, 2 year degree
Category:     Clerical / Administrative
Compensation:     Not Specified

WE ARE SEEKING – Merchandise Assistants Our buying office — is seeking a Merchandise Assistant. This person must have the ability to be the “super user” of the buying office systems and will be the “go to” person for the department for data entry and entry-level support to the buyers. KEY AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY INCLUDE: Input data on computer generate purchase orders Frequently communicate with vendors concerning purchase orders, deliveries, and any anticipated problems. Facilitates transfer of merchandise from store to store Support sales personnel and store managers to answer merchandise related questions Assist with the development of weekly sales report Accurately input price changes in a timely and accurate manner Completed payment requisition for merchandise invoices Performs all administrative task that support the buying area
Requirements
University of college degree preferred not required Detail oriented Good organizational and clerical skills Strong written and oral communication skills Strong computer skills Sense of urgency Flexibility Ability to multi-task Willingness to learn MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint

http://saksfifthave.ats.hrsmart.com/cgi-bin/a/highlightjob.cgi?jobid=1953

(added to available jobs list – May 13, 2009)

***

[And, a list of all the jobs currently available - ]

http://saksfifthave.ats.hrsmart.com/cgi-bin/a/alljobs.cgi?order=jobs.timedate%20desc

***

My Note -

And, then I happened upon a trade show going on right now that looks real interesting -

RECon 2009

May 17 – 20, 2009

Las Vegas Convention Center

RECon provides opportunities to showcase your company to the largest gathering of shopping center professionals in the world. Exhibiting opportunities are available to ICSC member and non-member companies.

Exhibitor’s Profile:

Shopping Center Owners/Developers, Retailers, Public Sector Companies, Brokers, Financial Institutions and any company providing a product/service to the shopping center industry will be participating in this event.

---

Organizer:

International Council of Shopping Centers
1221, Ave Of The Americas,
New York, United States Of America.
Tel: +(1)-(646)-7283800

***

http://www.icsc.org/2009SC/index.php

International Council of Shopping Centers – ReCon Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, May 17 – 20

The Global Retail Real Estate Convention – (the place where malls are born)

***

Come visit our mall. This extraordinary deal making opportunity features 1,300+ of the world’s leading developers, retailers, brokers and financial institutions who come together once a year to meet, greet and conduct business. Encompassing over 1.5 million square feet (140,000 square meters) of exhibit space, it is estimated that over 25% of the industry’s transactions occur over this three day event.

http://www.icsc.org/2009SC/exhibitor.php

***

[And, then I found this - ]

http://abc.go.com/site/casting.html?lid=ABCCOMGlobalFooter&lpos=CASTING

Now Casting:
Supernanny
<!—The Great American Beauty
—> Dating In The Dark
Wipeout
<!—Opportunity Knocks
—> <!—Here Come The Newlyweds 2
—> <!—High School Musical: Get in the Picture!
—> <!– Wanna Bet
–> Supernanny
Wife Swap
The Bachelor
The Bachelorette
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
Shark Tank

Shark Tank

DO YOU HAVE THE NEXT GREAT MONEYMAKING IDEA? We are currently on the search for entrepreneurs, inventors, businesspersons, dreamers, promoters, creators, innovators, etc. If you feel you have a lucrative business idea but just can’t seem to secure the financial backing to get it off the ground then Shark Tank is just the show for you. Each episode features aspiring entrepreneurs pitching their business ideas to moguls in hopes of landing investment funds. Apply now for your chance to enter the “Shark Tank” and see if your idea survives.

IMPORTANT NOTICE – IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THE FOLLOWING DO NOT APPLY:

By making an email submission, you acknowledge and agree that you are making a submission solely for purposes of being considered by Mark Burnett Productions, Inc., Sony Pictures Television, Inc., American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. and their respective affiliated or related entities (collectively “Shark Tank Entities”) to be a participant on “Shark Tank” and will not receive any compensation or credit for making a submission. BY MAKING AN EMAIL SUBMISSION, YOU ARE ACCEPTING AND AGREEING TO THE ABC.COM TERMS OF USE . You understand that your email submission is not confidential nor submitted in confidence or trust and no confidential or fiduciary relationship is intended or created by making an email submission. You understand that the Shark Tank Entities are diversified companies who may possess or come to possess information similar or identical to information contained in your email submission, and you agree that any such similarity or identity shall not give rise to any claim or entitlement, whether for compensation, credit or otherwise. By making an email submission, you hereby release the Shark Tank Entities and their respective directors, officers, shareholders, employees, and licensees from any and all claims relating to your email submission, including without limitation arising from the risk of misdirection or misdelivery of your email.

[Etc.]

http://abc.go.com/site/casting.html?lid=ABCCOMGlobalFooter&lpos=CASTING

***

[My Note - it goes through all the shows listed describing what they are asking and explaining what is involved in applying. - read all entry forms carefully.]

Then, I popped over to their jobs link at ABC tele and found a note that there are no positions currently available – however, there are at Disney – which led to this –

https://disney.recruitmax.com/main/careerportal/default.cfm?szUniqueCareerPortalID=d806a3ad-06f5-4622-b614-74475b752e8e&szIsJobBoard=0

All ABC Owned Television Stations Adventures by Disney Corporate Credit Unions Disney ABC Television Group Disney Consumer Products Disney Cruise Line Disney Interactive Media Group ESPN ESPN Zone Miramax The Walt Disney Studios Walt Disney Imagineering Walt Disney Parks & Resorts Online Walt Disney Parks and Resorts

Look at all those goodies – but the way to do this is to go over to the page link above and try some search choices – there are probably a million people trying to get any of those jobs, but you never know. Resume is required.

***

Through the above Disney Companies Site  – this was listed May 13, 2009

Found this job is available – in Glendale, California

Senior Business Analyst
City	Glendale
State	CA
Position Type	Full-time
Requisition ID	197069

DCP IT is a technology service provider to Disney Consumer Products, providing a full range of IT services, including:  application development, technology strategic planning, program and project management, business analysis, training, and infrastructure planning and support.

This individual will work closely with the finance business partners to understand their reporting needs and make innovative recommendations to enhance business processes.  They will need to have a global perspective, looking across all regions when developing solutions so as to ensure they meet the needs of the entire organization.   The Senior Business Analyst will ultimately be accountable for end to end reporting and process improvement as it relates to reporting within the financial world.  They will ensure IT processes are repeatable, recommending smart approaches to gather requirements and deliver projects while improving the overall business process.

[etc.]

https://disney.recruitmax.com/main/careerportal/job_profile.cfm?szOrderID=197069&szConcept=1

***

Okay, to be honest, I was not looking for any of these things. I was looking for stores in Times Square which gave me a headache. Oh well.

New internet banking service options being planned by Branson’s Virgin group – National Small Business Week – Small Business How-to information and resources, start your own business – US small business administration opportunities – small business loans, small business how-to, small business support resources, small business federal government portals

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/may/17/virgin-online-banking-credit-crunch

Branson plans launch of Virgin internet bank

* Richard Wachman
* The Observer, Sunday 17 May 2009

Richard Branson is to launch an internet bank in a move designed to exploit public disgust with Britain’s big banks in the wake of the credit crunch.

Branson follows Tesco, which is also planning to capitalise on disenchantment with traditional banking via a big push into financial services.

[ etc ]

***

National Small Business Week – May 17 – 23, 2009

Webcasts can be seen on their website on May 18 and 19 – it is supposed to include some of the forums being hosted at the event which are probably informative – if they aren’t, email them and tell them the kinds of information that would’ve been a whole lot more helpful -

Event Registration Prices

Registration for all events but the Forums is now closed. If you are registered to attend the events, you may pick up your badge at registration starting Sunday May 17 at 3 pm.

Registration is now closed.

Cancellation Policy

We will be webcasting all of the Award Events and Forums!
Visit our Website May 18th & May 19th to view the Webcasts!

http://www.nationalsmallbusinessweek.com/

***

Small Business Resources

SBA’s Small Business Training Network

A virtual campus housing free training courses, workshops and knowledge resources designed to assist entrepreneurs and other students of enterprise. The Training Network makes SBA’s business management resources available 24/7. http://www.sba.gov/training/

Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs)

Provide management assistance to current and prospective small business owners. SBDCs offer one-stop assistance to individuals and small businesses by providing a variety of information and guidance in central and accessible branch locations. The program is a cooperative effort of the private sector, the educational community and federal, state and local governments. http://www.sba.gov/sbdc/aboutus.html

SCORE

A nationwide network of small business counselors composed of a cadre of nearly 10,500 volunteer business men and women in 389 chapters nationwide. SCORE is a unique federal government resource that utilizes volunteers, both working and retired, with expertise to advise small businesses, lead business seminars, and coach entrepreneurs online. A resource partner of the SBA for more than 40 years, SCORE has helped more than 7 million businesses succeed and stay active in the local and national small business marketplace. http://www.score.org

Get free, confidential business advice from a business expert via email. To visit the SCORE.org web site and use this tool, just follow this link: http://www.score.org/index.html

Women’s Business Centers

Represent a national network of nearly 100 educational centers providing business assistance, counseling, mentoring, training in finance, management, marketing, procurement and the Internet, as well as access to the SBA’s programs and services. They also offer specialized assistance in topics such as home-based businesses, corporate executive downsizing and welfare-to-work
Click here to download (pdf)

The National Women’s Business Council (NWBC)

A bi-partisan federal advisory council created to serve as an independent source of advice and policy recommendations to the President, Congress and the SBA on economic issues of importance to women business owners. The council’s mission is to promote bold initiatives, policies and programs designed to support woman business enterprises at all stages of development in the public and private sector. http://www.nwbc.gov

Youth Entrepreneurship

Introduces young entrepreneurs to the concept of small business ownership as a viable career choice by helping them shape their dreams of entrepreneurship. SBA’s specialized teen Web sites feature the fundamentals of starting a small business. http://www.sba.gov/teens/ and www.mindyourownbiz.org (Joint with Junior Achievement)

U.S. Export Assistance Centers (USEACs)

Provide export information and development assistance to help small businesses take advantage of export markets, including trade counseling, training, legal assistance and publications.
http://www.sba.gov/oit/export/useac.html

White House
http://www.whitehouse.gov

Small Business Administration
http://www.sba.gov

The Government’s Small Business Web Portal
http://www.business.gov

The Government’s Official Web Portal
http://www.usa.gov

U.S. Department of Energy
http://www.energy.gov

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
http://www.hhs.gov

U.S. Department of Homeland Security
http://www.dhs.gov

U.S. Internal Revenue Service
http://www.irs.gov

International Trade Administration
http://www.trade.gov

U.S. Department of Commerce
http://www.commerce.gov

U.S. Department of Labor
http://www.dol.gov

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
http://www.epa.gov

Learn About Government Contracting Opportunities

Selling products and/or services to the federal government is a powerful way to expand business opportunities. Learn about contracting opportunities with the government. Take SBA’s free online course: Business Opportunities: A Guide to Winning Federal Contracts

Financial Assistance

SBA offers numerous financial assistance programs to help small firms raise capital. Learn more about SBA’s loan guaranty and other financial assistance programs.
http://www.sba.gov/services/financialassistance/index.html

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http://www.nationalsmallbusinessweek.com/index.php?pID=20