Problems With The Pending Fiscal Cliff Deal

via forbes.com

Make no mistake; the timing of the fiscal cliff was no accident. The confluence of spending cuts and tax increases scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2013 was by design, carefully planned in an effort to force the government to address its rampant spending and borrowing.

Believe it or not, our government’s ability to borrow does have limits. When we last maxed out the ol’ credit card in August 2011, it caused a bit of a scramble, and Congress dealt with the problem as only this current Congress would: by increasing the limit and instructing a bipartisan super-committee to find a way to trim our deficit by $1.5 trillion over the next decade to reduce our reliance on borrowing. In the event the super-committee could not reach a resolution by November 2011, required spending cuts would take effect on January 1, 2013 to protect us from ourselves. The super-committee failed, resulting in the panicked debate that consumed Congress and dominated headlines for the past six weeks.

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Get Ready to Go Over the Cliff

via inc.com

The thought of planning to go over a cliff may seem incomprehensible, but in a situation where you know it might happen--like you are now--you should put a plan in place.

While Washington has shown signs of inching toward a deal that would avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, that could easily fall apart. Especially considering House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) unexpectedly canceled a vote on his own proposal yesterday.

So what do you do as a small business owner to prepare? Think of it the way you do costs versus revenue. It's obviously easier to control your expenditure than it is to spur revenue growth. A similar issue exists with the fiscal cliff. You can't control it, so focus on what you can control.

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Eric Schmidt and Stephen Colbert Discuss Politics and Google Play

via allthingsd.com

Stephen Colbert stopped off at Google’s New York office recently to chat with Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, and to promote his new book “America Again: Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren’t.”

The interview took place a while back, apparently, but the uncut version was just posted to YouTube on Friday. Schmidt, who was dressed in a shimmery baby-blue tie and gray suit jacket, lobbed some pretty easy ones at the fleece-wearing Colbert.

One highlight of the hour-long video came eight minutes in, when Schmidt told Colbert that his book was available on Google Play. “What does that mean?” Colbert asked. “It’s like the one [online store] that’s named after a rain forest?”

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40 Truthful Political Illustrations and Artworks

via inspirationfeed.com

There is always something to argue about when the topic is politics. Everybody has their on opinion on how things should be and what our leaders should do to make our life better. I’m sure everybody reading this, has their own point of view on this subject matter. We can talk about the conspiracy theories, personal interests, and shady stuff that goes on on a daily basis. However we aren’t a political blog, so let’s allow the art to express ideas and opinions of the artists. Enjoy!

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What Obama's Victory Means for Tech

via gizmodo.com

Barack Obama's victory last night has far-reaching fiscal, social, and military implications, all of which are familiar to anyone who kept at least one eye open during any of this year's debates. But what do four more years mean for tech? Turns out, a lot.

While Obama hasn't indicated that he'll dramatically change course on any of his technological policies and initiatives, it's useful to look a little closer at the ones he's got. Here's what we can expect.

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How To Vote

via gizmodo.com

The right to elect one's public representatives is the foundation upon which our democracy is built. So if you think Hurricane Sandy is going to stop Americans from choosing the next leader of the free world, demand a recount. Here's a look at the technology everyone over 18 can expect to find in a voting booth on November 6th, 2012.

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New Jersey to allow registered voters to vote by email

via digitaltrends.com

Definitely helpful for anyone in New Jersey displaced by the destructive power of Hurricane Sandy, registered voters can vote electronically this year.

Detailed within a press release from the office of New Jersey governor Chris Christie, the New Jersey Department of State has enacted a new directive that offers the ability to vote electronically to New Jersey registered voters that had to relocate due to the devastation of Hurricane Sandy. In addition to making it easier to vote for Sandy victims, this new directive also gives emergency relief workers the opportunity to vote without have to make a trip back to their home area of New Jersey. In addition to voting by email, sending a fax is also a valid method of voting for New Jersey registered voters.

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Creative Political Illustrations by Jason Heuser

via inspirationfeed.com

Jason Heuser is a US based artist from Grand Rapids, Minnesota. His love for history and drawing weird things turned into his profession. Listed below are sixteen political illustrations. These illustrations aren’t actually political, but they do feature current and previous presidents doing badass stuff. Take for example Ronald Reagan riding a velociraptor and shooting his machine gun. If that’s not epic, then I don’t know what ‘epic’ is. Enjoy!

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The logistics of voting

via techi.com

Voting sounds easy, but have you ever had to organize a poll big enough for the entire united states? I didn’t think so. Two million poll workers get together for each federal election, almost the same amount as worldwide Walmart workers.

For these poll workers, it isn’t just a side job for extra money, it’s real work, and is accessible to most Americans. Even high school students are eligible to be poll workers, so long as they keep their GPA at a solid 2.5 and are a US citizen.

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Trump to give $5 million to charity if Obama releases records

via news.yahoo.com

Donald Trump offered to pay $5 million to the charity of President Barack Obama's choice if Obama releases his college and passport records, the real estate mogul and television personality said on Wednesday.

"Frankly, it's a check that I very much want to write," Trump said in a YouTube video released via his Twitter and Facebook pages.

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Presidential Debate 2012 Live Stream: Mitt Romney, Barack Obama’s New York rematch

via news.nationalpost.com

Tuesday’s Presidential Debate is the second of two televised matches between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. The candidates will face questions from citizens on policy issues, after which they’ll each be given two minutes to respond. The segments will wrap up with one minute of follow-up discussion led by moderator Candy Crowley.

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Illustrations by Niklas Asker

via cuded.com

Niklas Asker is a Swedish painter, graphic novelist and illustrator.
In his commercial work he has done everything from illustrating the advent calendar for Swedish television in 2009 to adapting the Random House bestseller The City of Ember into a graphic novel.

Niklas has studied at Örebro Art Shcool and the Comics Art School in Malmö and is always searching the perfect balance between the concrete and the abstract, both in his comics and his painting. Niklas is continuously working with both painting and comics, letting the two complement and inspire each other.

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Watch the Vice Presidential Debate Live Stream

via mashable.com

Joe Biden and Paul Ryan will meet one another in Danville, Ky., Thursday at 9 p.m. ET for the first and only vice presidential debate of the 2012 election. Mashable readers will be able to watch the entire debate right here: We’ll have an embedded stream of the action along with a live blog including a panel of policy experts, socially savvy meme-hunters and Mashable staff.

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Mitt Romney Storms Ahead In Another National Poll

via businessinsider.com

Mitt Romney has pulled ahead of President Barack Obama in another national poll. This time, he leads Obama by a razor-thin 45-44 mark in the Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll, gaining a point from Tuesday's result.

The poll — which consists entirely of post-debate interviews — is a 6-point shift from the last Reuters/Ipsos poll before the debate, when Obama led Romney 46-41.

The key movement for Romney in the Reuters poll has come in shoring up his advantage on the economy and federal debt. Romney now has a lead on which candidate would best handle the economy and "jobs and employment" after being tied or trailing in those issues pre-debate.

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8 Ways to Watch the Presidential Debate Online

via mashable.com

Barack Obama and Mitt Romney take the stage Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET to face off against one another in the first of three presidential debates. Joe Biden and Paul Ryan also get one debate, scheduled for Oct. 11. Here’s the full schedule of debates:

Wednesday, Oct. 3 — Presidential debate on domestic policy
Thursday, Oct. 11 — Vice-presidential debate on foreign and domestic policy
Tuesday, Oct. 16 — Presidential town meeting on foreign and domestic policy
Monday, Oct. 22 — Presidential debate on foreign policy

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Leadership According to Obama and Romney

via inc.com

President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney tackled this election cycle's hot-button issues--from job creation to tax cuts--in separate 60 Minutes interviews that aired Sunday night.

But besides meticulous planning and a command of policy details, what else does it take to run the country? The candidates candidly shared their thoughts on the requirements for a commander-in-chief. (We've got the highlights here; scroll down to watch the longer video segments.)

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3 Ways Social Media Is Reshaping the Political Landscape

via readwriteweb.com

The recent political conventions underscored a few disconcerting trends. Our political leadership is not only out of touch with reality but also tends to distort the truth. How can social-media-based innovations address these challenges?

Given that social media excel at connecting people with society’s leaders, there is no question social entrepreneurs can play a major role in the country’s future. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted in his company’s S-1 IPO filing that he viewed Facebook as a tool that could “bring a more honest and transparent dialogue around government that could lead to more direct empowerment of people.”

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Was it always this bad? 50+ years of political ads [videos]

via holykaw.alltop.com

The design magazines is a great help to keep us informed of developments that brings in the world of design, only helps us with new trends coming out in the world but also to learn of the latest developments and not only that we can somehow know several graphic artists and will be very useful for inspiration, news, projects, pictures, graphics.

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Has YouTube Sided With the Democrats?

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YouTube may hold itself to be a non-bias platform with no political affiliations, but their viewers certainly are not. A large majority of YouTube’s frequent viewers seem be to favoring the Liberals, at leased based on the views and ‘likes’ their videos receive. But is YouTube itself supporting the Democratic Party?   

Google, a major financial supporter of Barak Obama, has put itself in a rather uncomfortable position. For years Google has been accused of “filtering” search result, displaying top sites based on their Silicon Valley bias, instead of an impartial algorithm. Whether these accusations are true or not, search engines are meant to be a nonpartisan tool, rather than a political platform.

Google of course purchased YouTube for $1.65 Billion in October of 2006. Since then, the video hosting site has become one of the most popular services on the Internet, as well as a major media platform.

Until today, I always saw YouTube as being impartial. However, at 8:30pm Eastern Time on Friday September 7^th I went onto YouTube and saw a democratic video entitled: “Polis 2012 Democratic Convention Speech” in the most viewed of both the daily and weekly videos. For those of you who are unfamiliar with YouTube, to get on the most viewed videosrequires hundreds of thousands of views in a short amount of time - a fairly difficult task. How many views did this video have? The video had 2,314 views and only 7 comments - not nearly enough to be displayed in this exclusive list.

It isn’t unheard of to see the occasional video slip past YouTube’s watchful eyes onto this list, but not without adding unauthentic views. It makes you wonder if perhaps the online video giant has openly stepped out to support the Democratic Party. Regardless of whether it was a mistake or intentional, any video regardless of its message should be treated with impartiality, as to let the American people vote with a clear perspective.

The big question remains - where does it end? Are the public’s search results being displayed through a political filter? Are California media companies secretly promoting videos and messages from political parties? I for one think that some of the biggest issues America is facing today is because of private corporations getting too involved in politics. In this upcoming election America: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”. God bless the USA!

- Jordan Driediger 

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Paul Ryanomics

via forbes.com

Mitt Romney’s recent announcement of Paul Ryan as his running mate makes this election even more about government spending, programs and taxes. Ryan is the primary author of the Republican-led House’s 2013 budget proposal. Consider these five proposals to evaluate Romney’s wisdom in selecting him.

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