Sunday, June 30, 2013

Tension rises ahead of Egypt protest

An Egyptian protester holds anti-President Mohammed Morsi poster and a red card with Arabic word "Leave" during a protest in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, June 29, 2013. Thousands of supporters and opponents of the embattled Islamist president held rival sit-ins in separate parts of Cairo Saturday on the eve of opposition-led mass protests aimed at forcing Mohammed Morsi from power. (AP Photo/ Amr Nabil)

An Egyptian protester holds anti-President Mohammed Morsi poster and a red card with Arabic word "Leave" during a protest in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, June 29, 2013. Thousands of supporters and opponents of the embattled Islamist president held rival sit-ins in separate parts of Cairo Saturday on the eve of opposition-led mass protests aimed at forcing Mohammed Morsi from power. (AP Photo/ Amr Nabil)

Supporters of Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi armed by sticks and shields to protect from stone attack guard their protesting site at a public square outside the Rabia el-Adawiya mosque near the presidential palace in Cairo, Saturday, June 29, 2013. Thousands of supporters and opponents of Egypt's embattled Islamist president held rival sit-ins in separate parts of Cairo Saturday on the eve of opposition-led mass protests aimed at forcing Mohammed Morsi from power. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Opponents of Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi camp outside the presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, June 29, 2013. Tens of thousands of supporters and opponents of Morsi rallied Friday in Cairo, and both sides fought each other in the second-largest city of Alexandria, where a few people were killed ? including an American ? and tens were injured while at least five offices of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood were torched, officials said. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Supporters of Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi wave his posters and national flags as they fill a public square outside of the Rabia el-Adawiya Mosque in Cairo, not far from the presidential palace, during a rally in Cairo, Saturday, June 29, 2013. Thousands of supporters and opponents of Egypt's embattled Islamist president are holding rival sit-ins on the eve of what are expected to be massive opposition-led protests aimed at forcing Mohammed Morsi's ouster. The demonstrations early Saturday follow days of deadly clashes in a string of cities across the country that left at least seven people dead, including an American, and hundreds injured. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Supporters of Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi shout anti-opposition slogans at a public square outside the Rabia el-Adawiya Mosque in Cairo, not far from the presidential palace, during a rally in Cairo, Saturday, June 29, 2013. Arabic on the headband reads, "there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah." Thousands of supporters and opponents of Egypt's embattled Islamist president are holding rival sit-ins on the eve of what are expected to be massive opposition-led protests aimed at forcing Mohammed Morsi's ouster. The demonstrations early Saturday follow days of deadly clashes in a string of cities across the country that left at least seven people dead, including an American, and hundreds injured. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

(AP) ? Organizers of a mass protest against Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi claimed Saturday that more than 22 million people have signed their petition demanding the Islamist leader step down, asserting that the tally was a reflection of how much the public has turned against his rule.

The announcement adds to a sense of foreboding on the eve of opposition-led mass demonstrations that many fear could turn deadly and quickly spin out of control, dragging the country into a dangerous round of political violence.

The demonstrations planned for Sunday reflect the growing polarization of the nation since Morsi took power, with the president and his Islamist allies in one camp and seculars, liberals, moderate Muslims and Christians on the other.

There is a sense among opponents and supporters of Morsi that Sunday's rally is a make or break day. The opposition feels empowered by the petition, known as Tamarod, or Rebel, but it offered no proof regarding the figures. If verified, it would mean that nearly double the number of people who voted for Morsi a year ago are now calling for him to step down.

"Honestly, if (Sunday) is not a game changer, we might all just pack up our bags and leave," said Mahmoud Salem, a prominent blogger known by his blog's name Sandmonkey and a vocal critic of the Muslim Brotherhood, from which Morsi hails.

While violence is likely in such a tense atmosphere, Salem said it would not play out in favor of Morsi supporters because they will be outnumbered.

"They have alienated everybody," he said. Even if no violence breaks out, Salem said civil disobedience is expected in a movement designed now to "save the country."

Morsi's supporters, on the other hand, question the petitions, saying his opponents are led by members of the ousted regime of Hosni Mubarak who are trying to orchestrate a comeback and are instigating violence.

"Today and tomorrow will be the real birth of this nation," said Hani Salaheddin, a presenter on the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated TV station Misr 25, predicting that Sunday will bring an end to the questioning of Morsi's mandate.

"Tomorrow is the end of every corrupt person," he said, as the slogan "legitimacy (of the ballot box) is a red line," appeared on the screen.

Already, clashes across a string of cities north of Cairo over the past week have left eight people dead, including an American and a 14-year old, and hundreds injured. Clashes broke out outside offices of the Muslim Brotherhood and its party in at least five different governorates, and rival protests turned into violent confrontations.

Thousands are still taking part in rival sit-ins, in place since Friday in Tahrir Square for opponents and in an east Cairo suburb, Nasr City, for supporters of Morsi.

An Associated Press reporter saw Morsi supporters at a Cairo sit-in doing military-style fitness drills, with some wearing homemade body armor and construction helmets and carrying sticks. They said they had no intention of attacking opposition protesters, and would only act in self-defense or to protect the nearby presidential palace.

Highlighting the nervousness over Sunday's protests, President Barack Obama said the U.S. is working to ensure its embassy and diplomats in Egypt are safe after the 21-year old American was killed in Alexandria, Egypt's second largest city. He urged all parties to refrain from violence and the police and military to show appropriate restraint.

Adding to the tension, eight lawmakers from the country's interim legislature announced their resignation Saturday to protest Morsi's policies. The 270-seat chamber was elected early last year by less than 10 percent of Egypt's eligible voters, and is dominated by Islamists who support Morsi.

A legal adviser to Morsi also announced his resignation late Saturday in protest of what he said was Morsi's insult of judges in his latest speech.

With a sense of doom hanging over the country, Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi last Sunday gave the president and his opponents a week to reach a compromise and warned that the military would intervene to prevent the nation from entering a "dark tunnel."

Morsi had called for national reconciliation talks but offered no specifics. Opposition leaders dismissed the call as cosmetics.

Exchange of accusations was running high Saturday, in a rivalry that has increasingly been portrayed by Morsi supporters as an attack on Islamists in power.

The Tamarod youth movement claimed its petition is evidence of what it says is widespread dissatisfaction with Morsi's administration, and has used the signature drive as the focal point of its call for millions of people to take to the streets to demand the president's ouster.

Mahmoud Badr, a Tamarod leader, told reporters Saturday a total of 22,134,460 Egyptians have signed the petition. He did not say whether there had been an independent audit of the signatures.

Badr blamed Morsi supporters of dragging the peaceful movement toward violence to "terrorize" the public and avert a mass turnout in the streets.

On Tamarod's Twitter account, the movement appealed to supporters to gather in every street in their hometowns instead of converging to the main rallies planned in Tahrir square and outside Morsi's palace.

At a press conference organized by Morsi supporters late Saturday for their members killed in recent violence, organizers showed multiple videos of previous protests where violence raged, showing images of attacks on the Brotherhood offices and blaming "paid thugs" for it.

"Tamarod are thugs," the crowd chanted at the conference held at the pro-Morsi sit-in.

Assem Abdel-Maged, leader of the formerly militant Gamaa Islamiya group, told the crowd that the Tamarod campaign was a "crusader war" against Islamists, led by extremist Christians to liberate Egypt from Islam. He added that his supporters collected 26 million signatures in support of Morsi.

"The issue now is war," he said. "Sunday's march is decisive."

Morsi's supporters have long doubted the validity and authenticity of the collected signatures.

"How do we trust the petitions?" asked Brotherhood member Ahmed Seif Islam Hassan al-Banna. "Who guarantees that those who signed were not paid to sign?"

But opponents of Morsi say the petition has already served its purpose, dealing a symbolic blow to Morsi's mandate and putting in stark terms the popular frustrations with an administration that critics say has failed to effectively deal with the country's pressing problems, including tenuous security, inflation, power cuts and high unemployment.

In a statement ahead of the protests, opposition leader Mohammed ElBaradei said massive turnout is expected Sunday, calling for it to be peaceful and civilized. He called on Morsi to listen to the masses, and accept early elections.

"All of Egypt should go down tomorrow to say that we want to go back again to the ballot box," ElBaradei said in his recorded message sent to reporters. "We gave (Morsi) a driving license but he couldn't drive the car."

He added: "We all feel the country is collapsing, not because the president is from the Brotherhood ... But because the ruling system has failed completely."

On Saturday, Morsi met with the defense and interior ministers to review preparations to protect the protesters and vital state facilities during Sunday's demonstrations.

The focus of Sunday's protests is Morsi's Ittihadiya palace in Cairo. As a precaution, the president and his family are reported to have moved into the Cairo headquarters of the Republican Guard, the branch of the army tasked with protecting the president and presidential palaces.

With expectations of violence running high, the military has dispatched troops backed by armored personnel carriers to reinforce military bases on the outskirts of cities expected to be flashpoints.

In Cairo, additional forces were deployed to military facilities in the suburbs and outlying districts. Army troops are also moving to reinforce police guarding the city's prisons to prevent a repeat of the nearly half dozen jail breaks during the chaos of the 2011 uprising.

Many Egyptians fear the new round of unrest could trigger a collapse in law and order similar to the one that occurred during the 2011 revolt. Already, some residents have increased security around their homes, erecting metal fences and installing barbed wire. Residents in some of the residential compounds and neighborhoods to the west of the city are reporting gunmen showing up to demand protection money or risk being robbed.

The police have stepped up patrols on the outskirts of the city, ostensibly to prevent weapons and ammunition from coming into the city to be used in case of an outbreak of violence. The army is advertising hotlines for civilians to call if they run into trouble.

___

Associated Press writer Maggie Michael and Hamza Hendawi contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-06-29-Egypt/id-aeb97d4a69834231ac8472cb6f0b6f77

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A space shuttle's final mission: Atlantis opens to the public (+video)

The much-anticipated Atlantis exhibit - showcasing the last space shuttle to make a mission - will open at Florida's Kennedy Space Center on Saturday.

By Elizabeth Barber,?Contributor / June 28, 2013

Here's a quick look into the current state of the new Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit opening at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in June 2013.

Space shuttle Atlantis will begin one last mission on Saturday ? and this is one on which we can join her.

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The Atlantis exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, will open to the public on Saturday, after a Friday event that boasts some 50 astronauts on the guest list.

Some 60 displays and interactive simulators in the new, much-heralded exhibit will tell the story of the entire NASA shuttle program, which was closed in 2011. Those shuttles ? beginning with the April 1981 launch of shuttle Columbia and continuing with the journeys of shuttles Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour ? were the space ambassadors on which Americans pinned their celestial dreams for some three decades.

And so, in the center of it all, is the space shuttle Atlantis.

?Although the multimillion-dollar interactive exhibit encompasses much, much more than the display of Atlantis, there is no denying, she is truly the star of the show,? said Bill Moore, chief operating officer of the visitor complex. ?We know that this majestic beauty, which safely ferried men and women to space and back on 33 successful missions, is the real reason that our guests will travel thousands of miles ? to see her in all her glory."

Bathed in purple-blue light, the shuttle?s new 90,000-square-home looks part hanger, part space. Raised some 30 feet off the ground, the shuttle is tilted at a 43-degree angle, as it would be in flight. Its payload doors are open and its robotic arm is extended. Visitors can walk both under and around the shuttle on suspended bridges, like astronauts bobbing around their home.

?Atlantis is on display as she would be normally in flight. It?s the first time ever that a lot of people are going to see her this close,? Tim Macy, director of project development and construction for Delaware North Companies Parks and Resorts, told Florida Today.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/tkf9Qh9Ahkc/A-space-shuttle-s-final-mission-Atlantis-opens-to-the-public-video

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Gay marriage opponents ask court to intervene

Cynthia Wides, right, and Elizabeth Carey file for a marriage certificate at City Hall in San Francisco, Saturday, June 29, 2013. Dozens of gay couples have lined up outside City Hall in San Francisco as clerks have resumed issuing same-sex marriage licenses one day after a federal appeals court cleared the way for the state of California to immediately lift a 4-year freeze. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Cynthia Wides, right, and Elizabeth Carey file for a marriage certificate at City Hall in San Francisco, Saturday, June 29, 2013. Dozens of gay couples have lined up outside City Hall in San Francisco as clerks have resumed issuing same-sex marriage licenses one day after a federal appeals court cleared the way for the state of California to immediately lift a 4-year freeze. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Cynthia Wides, right, and Elizabeth Carey exchange wedding vows at City Hall in San Francisco, Saturday, June 29, 2013. Dozens of gay couples have lined up outside City Hall in San Francisco as clerks have resumed issuing same-sex marriage licenses one day after a federal appeals court cleared the way for the state of California to immediately lift a 4-year freeze. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Jen Rainin, left, laughs as her wife Frances holds up their dog Punum after they were married at City Hall in San Francisco, Friday, June 28, 2013. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a brief order Friday afternoon dissolving, "effective immediately," a stay it imposed on gay marriages while the lawsuit challenging the ban advanced through the courts. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Army Capt. Michael Potoczniak, center left, and Todd Saunders, of El Cerrito, Calif., are married by deputy marriage commissioner John Loschmann, center, as witnesses Bill Hershon, left, and Sean Boileau watch at City Hall in San Francisco, Saturday, June 29, 2013. Dozens of gay couples waited excitedly Saturday outside of San Francisco's City Hall as clerks resumed issuing same-sex marriage licenses, one day after a federal appeals court cleared the way for the state of California to immediately lift a 4 ? year freeze. Big crowds were expected from across the state as long lines had already stretched down the lobby shortly after 9 a.m. City officials decided to hold weekend hours and let couples tie the knot as San Francisco is also celebrating its annual Pride weekend expected to draw as many as 1 million people. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Army Capt. Michael Potoczniak, at left, and Todd Saunders, right, of El Cerrito, Calif., exchange rings as they are married by deputy marriage commissioner John Loschmann, center, at City Hall in San Francisco, Saturday, June 29, 2013. Dozens of gay couples waited excitedly Saturday outside of San Francisco's City Hall as clerks resumed issuing same-sex marriage licenses, one day after a federal appeals court cleared the way for the state of California to immediately lift a 4 ? year freeze. Big crowds were expected from across the state as long lines had already stretched down the lobby shortly after 9 a.m. City officials decided to hold weekend hours and let couples tie the knot as San Francisco is also celebrating its annual Pride weekend expected to draw as many as 1 million people. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

(AP) ? Less than 24 hours after California started issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples, lawyers for the sponsors of the state's gay marriage ban filed an emergency motion Saturday asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the weddings being performed in San Francisco.

Attorneys with the Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom claim in the petition that the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals acted prematurely and unfairly on Friday when it allowed gay marriage to resume by lifting a hold that had been placed on same sex unions.

"The Ninth Circuit's June 28, 2013 Order purporting to dissolve the stay...is the latest in a long line of judicial irregularities that have unfairly thwarted Petitioners' defense of California's marriage amendment," the paperwork states. "Failing to correct the appellate court's actions threatens to undermine the public's confidence in its legal system."

The motion was filed as dozens of couples in jeans, shorts, white dresses and the occasional military uniform filled San Francisco City Hall on Saturday to obtain marriage licenses. On Friday, 81 same sex couples received marriage licenses.

Although a few clerk's offices around the state stayed open late on Friday, San Francisco, which is holding its annual gay pride celebration this weekend, was the only jurisdiction to hold weekend hours so that same sex couples could take advantage of their newly restored right, Clerk Karen Hong said.

A sign posted on the door of the office where a long line of couples waited to fill out applications listed the price for a license, a ceremony or both above the words "Equality=Priceless."

"We really wanted to make this happen," Hong said, adding that her whole staff and a group of volunteers came into work without having to be asked. "It's spontaneous, which is great in its own way."

The timing couldn't have been better for California National Guard Capt. Michael Potoczniak, 38, and his partner of 10 years, Todd Saunders, 47, of El Cerrito.

Potoczniak, who joined the Guard after the military's ban on openly gay service was repealed almost two years ago, was scheduled to fly out Sunday night for a month of basic training in Texas.

"I woke up this morning, shook him awake and said, 'Let's go,'" said Potoczniak, who chose to get married in his Army uniform. "It's something that people need to see because everyone is so used to uniforms at military weddings."

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that Proposition 8's backers lacked standing to defend the 2008 law because California's governor and attorney general have declined to defend the ban.

Then on Friday, the 9th Circuit appeared to have removed the last obstacle to making same sex matrimony legal again in California when it removed its hold on a lower court's 2010 order directing state officials to stop enforcing the ban.

Within hours, same sex couples were seeking marriage licenses. The two couples who sued to overturn Proposition 8 were wed in San Francisco and Los Angeles Friday.

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Austin Nimocks said on Saturday that the Supreme Court's consideration of the case isn't done because his clients still have 22 days to ask the justices to reconsider the 5-4 decision announced Wednesday.

Under Supreme Court rules, the losing side in a legal dispute has 25 days to request a rehearing. While such requests are almost never granted, the high court said that it wouldn't finalize its judgment in the case at least until after that waiting period elapsed.

The San Francisco-based appeals court had said when it imposed the stay that it would remain in place until the Supreme Court issued its final disposition, according to Nimocks.

"Everyone on all sides of the marriage debate should agree that the legal process must be followed," he said. "On Friday, the 9th Circuit acted contrary to its own order without explanation."

Many legal experts who had anticipated such a last-ditch effort by gay marriage opponents said it was unlikely to succeed because the 9th Circuit has independent authority over its own orders ? in this case, its 2010 stay.

While the ban's backers can still ask the Supreme Court for a rehearing, the 25-day waiting period is not binding on lower federal courts, Vikram Amar, a constitutional law professor with the University of California, Davis law school, said.

"As a matter of practice, most lower federal courts wait to act," Amar said. "But there is nothing that limits them from acting sooner. It was within the 9th Circuit's power to do what it did."

Also waiting to wed Saturday were Scott Kehoe, 34, and his fiance, Aurelien Bricker, 24. After finding out on Facebook that the city was issuing same sex marriage licenses Friday, the San Francisco couple rushed out to Tiffany's to buy wedding rings.

"We were afraid of further legal challenges in the state," Kehoe said.

The city, home to both a federal trial court that struck down Proposition 8 as unconstitutional and the 9th Circuit, has been the epicenter of the state's gay marriage movement since then-Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered his administration in February 2004 to issue licenses to gay couples in defiance of state law.

A little more than four years later, the California Supreme Court, which is also based in San Francisco, struck down the state's one-man, one-woman marriage laws.

City Hall was the scene of many more marriages in the 4 1/2 months before a coalition of religious conservative groups successfully campaigned for the November 2008 passage of Proposition 8, which amended the state constitution to outlaw same sex marriages.

Standing amid the beaming couples on Saturday, John Lewis and Stuart Gaffney of the advocacy group Marriage Equality USA looked like proud fathers. The men have been together 26 years, got married in February 2004, had their union invalidated six months later and then became one of the 18,000 couples estimated to have tied the knot in California before Proposition 8 was enacted.

"I don't think getting a license means as much to anyone who hasn't worked so long for it and fought so hard for it," Gaffney said. "It's been a very long engagement."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-06-29-Gay%20Marriage-California/id-4eeda45758114265a91c31d629b202f3

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Masses march in Egypt on anniversary, pushing for Morsi removal

CAIRO (AP) ? Hundreds of thousands of opponents of Egypt's Islamist president poured out onto the streets in Cairo and across much of the nation Sunday, launching an all-out push to force Mohammed Morsi from office on the one-year anniversary of his inauguration. Fears of violence were high, with Morsi's Islamist supporters vowing to defend him.

Waving Egyptian flags and carrying posters of Morsi crossed out in red, crowds packed central Cairo's Tahrir square, the birthplace of the 2011 uprising against autocrat Hosni Mubarak, thunderous chants of "erhal!", or "leave!" rang out.

At the same time, a tidal wave of crowds marched on the Ittihadiya presidential palace, filling a broad boulevard for blocks and spilling over into nearby avenues. "You lied to us in the name of religion," some chanted, and others raised a banner proclaiming, "Morsi=Mubarak. Early presidential elections." The crowds, including women, children and elderly people, hoisted long banners in the colors of the Egyptian flag and raised red cards ? a sign of expulsion in soccer.

Near Ittihadiya palace, thousands of Islamists gathered in a show of support for Morsi outside the Rabia al-Adawiya Mosque. Some Morsi backers wore homemade body armor and construction helmets and carried shields and clubs ? precautions, they said, against possible violence. Their crowd also swelled as sun went down and summer temperatures became more tolerable, but they were vastly outnumbered by anti-Morsi protesters thronging main roads and thoroughfares.

The opposition's goal is to show through sheer numbers in the street that the country has turned against Morsi to pressure him out. Similarly sized crowds turned out in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta cities of Mansoura, Tanta and Damanhour, with sizeable rallies in cities nationwide.

"Mubarak took only 18 days although he had behind him the security, intelligence and a large sector of Egyptians. Morsi got all of us against him, even the army and police," said Amr Tawfeeq, an oil company employee marching toward Ittihadiya with a Christian friend. "He won't take long. We want him out and we are ready to pay the price."

Morsi, who has three years left in his term, has said he will not step down, saying street protests cannot be used to overturn the results of a free election.

"There is no room for any talk against this constitutional legitimacy," he told Britain's The Guardian newspaper in an interview published Sunday, rejecting early elections.

If an elected president is forced out, "well, there will (be) people or opponents opposing the new president too, and a week or a month later, they will ask him to step down," he said.

As the crowds massed, Morsi's spokesman repeated the president's longstanding offer of dialogue with the opposition to resolve the nation's political crisis, calling it "the only framework through which we can reach understandings."

"I cannot imagine any substitute for dialogue," said the spokesman Ihab Fahmi. The opposition has repeatedly turned down his offers for dialogue, arguing that they were for show.

There is a sense among opponents and supporters of Morsi that Sunday is a make-or-break day, hiking worries that the two camps will come to blows, even as each side insists it won't start violence. Already at least seven people, including an American, have been killed in clashes the past week, mainly in Nile Delta cities and the coastal city of Alexandria.

But up until nightfall Sunday, violence was limited. Two offices belonging to the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party, were attacked and ransacked Sunday by protesters in the city of Bani Suef, south of Cairo.

The demonstrations are the culmination of polarization and instability that have been building since Morsi's June 30, 2012 inauguration as Egypt's first freely elected leader. The past year has seen multiple political crises, bouts of bloody clashes and a steadily worsening economy, with power outages, fuel shortages, rising prices and persistent lawlessness and crime.

In one camp are the president and his Islamist allies, including the Muslim Brotherhood and more hard-line groups. Morsi supporters accuse Mubarak loyalists of being behind the protests, aiming to overturn last year's election results, just as they argue that remnants of the old regime have sabotaged Morsi's attempts to deal with the nation's woes and bring reforms.

Hard-liners among them have also given the confrontation a sharply religious tone, denouncing Morsi's opponents as "enemies of God" and infidels.

On the other side is an array of secular and liberal Egyptians, moderate Muslims, Christians ? and what the opposition says is a broad sector of the general public that has turned against the Islamists. They say the Islamists have negated their election mandate by trying to monopolize power, infusing government with their supporters, forcing through a constitution they largely wrote and giving religious extremists a free hand, all while failing to manage the country.

With protesters from a range of social and economic levels in a festive atmosphere, the crowds resembled those from the 18 days of protests against Mubarak ? a resemblance the protesters sought to reinforce, chanting the slogan from that time: "The people want to topple the regime."

In Cairo, some marchers carried tents, planning to camp in Tahrir or outside the palace. Residents of nearby buildings sprinkled water down on the marchers to cool them in the punishing summer heat and waved flags and blew whistles in support.

"The country is only going backward (under Morsi). He's embarrassing us and making people hate Islam," said Donia Rashad, a 24-year-old unemployed woman who wears the conservative Islamic headscarf. "We need someone who can feel the people and is agreeable to the majority," added Rashad, who wore a tiny tiara in the letters of "erhal."

"Today is the Brotherhood's last day in power," said Suliman Mohammed, a manager of a seafood company who was protesting at Tahrir, where crowds appeared to approach 300,000 after nightfall.

"I came here today because Morsi did not accomplish any of the (2011) revolution's goals. I don't need anything for myself, but the needs of the poor were not met."

At the pro-Morsi rally at the Rabia al-Adawiya Mosque, the crowd chanted, "God is great," and some held up copies of Islam's holy book, the Quran.

"The people hold the legitimacy and we support Dr. Mohamed Morsi," Ahmed Ramadan, one of those at the rally said. "We would like to tell him not to be affected by the opponents' protests and not to give up his rights we are here to support and protect him."

Underlining the potential for deadly violence, a flurry of police reports on Sunday spoke of the seizure of firearms, explosives and even artillery shells in various locations of the country, including Alexandria and the outskirts of Cairo. Banks closed early and most government offices shut down on Sunday, a work day in Egypt.

The opposition protests emerge from a petition campaign by a youth activist group known as Tamarod, Arabic for "Rebel." For several months, the group has been collecting signatures on a call for Morsi to step down.

On Saturday the group announced it had more than 22 million signatures ? proof, it claims, that a broad sector of the public no longer wants Morsi in office.

It was not possible to verify the claim. If true, it would be nearly twice the around 13 million people who voted for Morsi in last year's presidential run-off election, which he won with around 52 percent of the vote. Tamarod organizers said they discarded about 100,000 signed forms because they were duplicates.

Morsi's supporters have questioned the authenticity and validity of the signatures, but have produced no evidence of fraud.

Adding to his troubles, eight lawmakers from the country's interim legislature announced their resignation Saturday to protest Morsi's policies. The 270-seat chamber was elected early last year by less than 10 percent of Egypt's eligible voters, and is dominated by Islamists.

A legal adviser to Morsi also announced his resignation late Saturday in protest of what he said was Morsi's insult of judges in his latest speech on Wednesday.

A week ago, with the public sense of worry growing over the upcoming confrontation, Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi last week gave the president and his opponents a week to reach a compromise. He warned that the military would intervene to prevent the nation from entering a "dark tunnel."

Army troops backed by armored vehicles were deployed Sunday in some of Cairo's suburbs, with soldiers, some in combat gear, stood at traffic lights and major intersections. Army helicopters flew over Cairo on several occasions on Sunday, adding to the day's sense of foreboding. The aircraft were loudly cheered every time they flew over Tahrir.

Morsi had called for national reconciliation talks in a Wednesday speech but offered no specifics. Opposition leaders dismissed the call as cosmetics.

Asked by The Guardian whether he was confident that the army would not intervene if the country becomes ungovernable, Morsi replied, "Very."

The Egyptian leader, however, said he did not know in advance of el-Sissi's comments last week.

____

AP reporters Tony G. Gabriel and Mariam Rizk contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/crowds-march-egypt-pushing-morsi-removal-154031220.html

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Google+ Tries To Gain Photo Sharing Ground By Making It Easier To Move, Download, And Upload Your Pics

autoenhancePhoto sharing just got a little better on Google+, as the social network has made it easier for users to move, download, and upload their pictures. Google+ engineering manager Jon Emerson wrote today that the new features came from user feedback. Users can more easily move batches of photos between albums, use a new download option to quickly save photos, and upload large sets of photos faster.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Eswm87AyW_A/

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CrunchWeek: Sean Parker's TechCrunch Post, VCs Get Into PR And Journalism, SnapChat Snaps Up $80 Million

Screen Shot 2013-06-29 at 2.17.53 PMWhatever happened to the slow and lazy summer news weeks of yore? This past week certainly wasn't one of them, as evidenced by all the fun stuff we had to talk about during this episode of CrunchWeek. Leena Rao, Anthony Ha and I piled ourselves into the TechCrunch TV studio to discuss some of the most interesting tech news stories from the past seven days: Sean Parker's epic guest post on TechCrunch in which he tackled the criticism of his wedding and the larger state of modern journalism, venture capital firms such as First Round Capital expanding into publishing their own content, and SnapChat's $80 million round of funding ($20 million of which went straight to the app's two young cofounders.)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/5CKfqZ10Pr0/

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Where should Snowden go? His dad, Russia, and Ecuador all weigh in.

As Edward Snowden?s father lobbies for his return to the United States, other countries are opening their arms to the former NSA contractor turned leaker.

In an interview with NBC, Lonnie Snowden expressed hopes that his son would return to the US, provided that the Justice Department plays ball. Meanwhile, Ecuador has unilaterally renounced trade agreements with the US in defiance of demands that the small South American country not accept Mr. Snowden, and Russia?s Federation Council has invited him to testify as to the extent of NSA spying on Russian citizens.

RECOMMENDED: Six countries where Edward Snowden could get asylum

For almost a week now, Snowden has been thought to be stowed away somewhere in Moscow?s Sheremetyevo airport, after having fled Hong Kong last week. Snowden is wanted by the US on charges of espionage and attempts to have him extradited have failed so far.

Snowden?s father appeared in an interview on NBC?s ?Today Show? this morning, claiming that he believes his son would willingly return to the US if certain conditions were met, reports the Canadian Broadcasting Company. Those conditions include allowing Snowden to choose the trial location, not subjecting him to a gag order, and not detaining him pre-trial.

In an effort to have these conditions met, Snowden?s father has written a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder to convey these conditions and his hopes that they would provide incentive for Snowden to return, writes the New York Daily News.

Snowden Sr., who has not spoken to his son since April, also took the opportunity to defend his son?s honor, reports Reuters:

"I love him. I would like to have the opportunity to communicate with him. I don't want to put him in peril," he said in the interview.

Snowden said he did not think his son had committed treason, even though his son broke US laws in releasing details about the federal monitoring programs.

"He has betrayed his government, but I don't believe that he's betrayed the people of the United States," he said.

THE RUSSIAN OPTION

In Russia, the Federation Council ? the Duma?s upper house ? has set up a special committee to investigate aspects of the NSA?s spying activities in Russia, and has invited Snowden to testify before them. As The Christian Science Monitor reports, the committee would like Snowden to inform it of the extent to which large Internet companies such as Google and Facebook are involved.

"We don't want to get involved in secret service conspiracies. Whatever the NSA was doing is not particularly our concern," [Sen. Ruslan] Gattarov [head of the committee] says.

At the same time, the Snowden issue has caused US relations with Ecuador to deteriorate. Snowden is currently applying for asylum in Ecuador, a decision that could take up to two months, according to The Christian Science Monitor. In response, there have been calls in the US to cut off aid to Ecuador.

Ecuador, it seems, has not taken those threats lightly, and has unilaterally broken off a preferential trade agreement with the US in order to prevent ?blackmail? over the asylum request, reports CNN:

"In the face of threats, insolence, and arrogance of certain US sectors, which have pressured to remove the preferential tariffs because of the Snowden case, Ecuador tells the world we unilaterally and irrevocably renounce the preferential tariffs," President Rafael Correa said Thursday, reiterating comments other officials from his government made earlier in the day.

But Mr. Correa, who has a history of thumbing his nose at the US, also noted that despite its support for Snowden, Ecuador cannot come to a decision on his asylum request, as he is not on Ecuadorian territory, according to Al Jazeera. "You request asylum when you are on a country's territory. Snowden is not on Ecuadorean territory, so technically we cannot even process the asylum request," Correa said.

RECOMMENDED: Six countries where Edward Snowden could get asylum

Related stories

Read this story at csmonitor.com

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/where-snowden-dad-russia-ecuador-weigh-165924579.html

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Samsung : le Galaxy S4 mieux subventionn? que l'iPhone

Samsung : le Galaxy S4 mieux subventionn? que l?iPhone

L?iPhone est depuis toujours le smartphone le plus lourdement subventionn? par les op?rateurs, ce qui n?est d?ailleurs pas sans provoquer quelques frictions sporadiques avec Apple. N?anmoins, il semble qu?un nouveau smartphone ait subtilis? ? Cupertino ce troph?e.

galaxy_s4_ad

ABI Research a conduit une ?tude montrant que c?est d?sormais le Galaxy S4 de Samsung qui est le smartphone le plus subventionn?. Aux ?tats-Unis, les op?rateurs subventionnent en moyenne 84% du prix du porte-?tendard de la marque cor?enne. Les distributeurs se refont ensuite la cerise par l?entremise des forfaits vendus sur 24 mois. Quant ? l?iPhone, et toujours en moyenne, la subvention op?rateur recouvre 74% du co?t de l?appareil. Apple se fait m?me distancer par HTC, dont la subvention moyenne sur ses smartphones atteint les 80%.

Ce niveau de subvention permet ? Samsung de vendre encore mieux son Galaxy S4. Non seulement le mobile b?n?ficie du marketing bulldozer de son constructeur ainsi que de son travail sur l?innovation logicielle qui permet de le distinguer de la meute Android, mais encore les op?rateurs sont-ils pr?ts ? prendre sur eux pour vendre l?appareil. Ce dernier ne devrait pas avoir trop de mal ? tr?ner dans les premi?res places des classements ? m?me si aux ?tats-Unis, le smartphone le plus populaire reste l?iPhone.

Source

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/phoenixjp/~3/ffxWpNWznBg/

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Saturday, June 29, 2013

It's 'Wedding Weekend In San Francisco' After Prop 8 Ruling

"A long line of fianc?s and their families snaked out of the clerk's office" in San Francisco on Saturday, the Chronicle reports, as couples lined up to be among the first to be married now that it's legal again for same-sex couples to be get hitched in California.

On this, the first weekend since the Supreme Court ruling that let stand a lower court's decision invalidating California's Proposition 8 ban of gay marriages, it was "wedding weekend" in the city, the Chronicle declares.

KTVU-TV says that "big crowds were expected from across the state as long lines had already stretched down the lobby shortly after 9 a.m. City officials decided to hold weekend hours and let couples tie the knot as San Francisco is also celebrating its annual Pride weekend expected to draw as many as 1 million people."

City Hall plans to stay open until 8 p.m. local time (11 p.m. ET) on Saturday and to be open from 8 a.m to 5 p.m. local time on Sunday.

According to the Chronicle, Saturday at City Hall "some wore shorts and sneakers while others dressed in lacy white dresses and spiked heels. They carried flowers or rainbow signs or just handbags with wedding necessities, like rings. ... The ceremonies were punctuated with whoops from a joyous crowd."

Some in the line said they were anxious to be married before any more legal challenges are filed. "You have the feeling in your mind they're going to take it away on Monday, so it's like, 'Let's go!' " Petra Torri said, according to KTVU. She and her domestic partner, Antoinette Torri, were the first couple in line Saturday.

Source: http://kuow.org/post/its-wedding-weekend-san-francisco-after-prop-8-ruling

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Plaintiffs in Calif. marriage case marry in SF

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? The lead plaintiffs in the U.S. Supreme Court case that overturned California's same-sex marriage ban tied the knot at San Francisco City Hall on Friday, about an hour after an appeals court cleared the way for same-sex couples to obtain marriage licenses for the first time in 4 1/2 years.

State Attorney General Kamala Harris presided at the wedding of Kris Perry and Sandy Stier, of Berkeley. The couple sued to overturn the state's voter-approved gay marriage ban along with Jeff Katami and Paul Zarrillo, of Burbank, who planned to marry Friday evening at Los Angeles City Hall.

"They have waited and fought for this moment," Harris said. "Today their wait is finally over."

Harris declared Perry, 48, and Stier, 50, "spouses for life," but during their vows, they took each other as "lawfully wedded wife."

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had issued a brief order Friday afternoon dissolving a stay it imposed on gay marriages while the lawsuit challenging Proposition 8 worked its way through the courts.

Sponsors of California's same-sex marriage ban said the appeals court's decision was "disgraceful."

Anthony Pugno, general counsel for a coalition of religious conservative groups, called the 9th Circuit's order an "outrageous act" by judges and politicians determined to overturn Proposition 8.

He called the court's decision an "abuse of power to manipulate the system and render the people voiceless."

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Wednesday that the sponsors of California's voter-approved gay marriage ban lacked authority to defend the measure in court once Harris and Gov. Jerry Brown refused to do so.

The decision lets stand a trial judge's declaration that the ban, approved by voters in November 2008, violates the civil rights of gay Californians and cannot be enforced.

Under Supreme Court rules, the losing side in a legal dispute has 25 days to ask the high court to rehear the case. The court said earlier this week that it would not finalize its ruling in the Proposition 8 dispute until after that time had elapsed.

It was not immediately clear whether the appeals court's action would be halted by the high court.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/plaintiffs-calif-marriage-case-marry-sf-000449812.html

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Trogan-to-English: Carroll's Apology for NCAA Violations

Many of you have seen that the University of Oregon just received a slap on the wrist for its football team's violation of NCAA rules. Notable is that former head coach Chip Kelly made an apology for his part in the scandal. Trogan-to-English compares Kelly's apology to that of former USC head coach Pete Carroll, whose team's violations dwarfed those of the Ducks.

Kelly: "... I want to apologize to the University of Oregon, all of its current and former players and their fans."

Carroll: <no apology>

Kelly: "I accept my share of responsibility for the actions that led to the penalties."

Carroll: <no acceptance of responsibility>

Kelly: "... the NCAA investigation... had no impact on my decision to leave Oregon for Philadelphia."

Carroll: the NCAA investigation had no impact on my decision to bolt from Troy to Seattle ahead of the feds.

Kelly: ".. I had every intention to cooperate with the NCAA's investigation, which I did."

Carroll: <no intention of cooperating with the investigation, purposely avoided the hearing or being questioned>

Kelly: "I do expect the... football program to continue to thrive at a high level. They are a talented and resilient group of coaches and players..."

Carroll: the program at SC will collapse without me, even though I taught Kiffin and Orgeron how to cheat. The players are spoiled and a number are criminals, so they will thrive at cheating, but not at winning ball games.

Kelly received an 18-month show-cause order from the NCAA, making it extremely difficult if not impossible for a college to hire him during that period. Carroll never received a show-cause order, so your school can pick him up right now and begin cheating in earnest. By the way, Oregon is on probation, loses one scholarship, and remains bowl eligible. SC lost several scholarships and was made ineligible for a bowl appearance.

Cheat On.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

Source: http://www.bruinsnation.com/2013/6/28/4475538/trogan-to-english-carrolls-apology-for-ncaa-violations

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Controls Sales Engineer ? Ingersoll Rand ? Dubai Jobs

At Ingersoll Rand we?re passionate about inspiring progress around the world. We know that hour by hour and day by day, we advance the quality of life by making environments safe, comfortable and efficient. Our people and our market leading brands, including Club Car?, Ingersoll Rand?, Schlage?, Thermo King?, and Trane?, contribute to a world defined by sustainable progress and enduring results.

1)Creation of Demand for Trane Controls Systems.
Promoting Trane capabilities in Controls and BMS. Developing Trane image in the market: Trusted advisor, and expert in HVAC systems, and BMS technologies.
2)Supporting the Sales Teams in winning the orders for the Controls part of their projects. Designing the Controls system for the projects, and Advocating Trane Controls and BMS solutions to win the customer orders.

Responsibilities include:

This person will be in charge of:
Creating demand and recognition for TRANE Controls & BMS solutions by :
- Promoting TRANE Controls solutions to End users, Owners, Developers and General contractors,
- Specifying/Prescribing Trane Global offer and Controls solutions with Consulting Engineers, influencing project design, and participating to technical specification writing.
- Management of the pipeline of project opportunities with the existing Commercial & Service Sales forces, in close relationship with their Sales Leaders.
- Supporting the Quotation and proposals of Controls projects in coordination with the inside Quotation Engineer.
- Supporting the Sales forces, on job by job basis, as Controls & BMS expert, to close the orders with contractors, consulting engineers, owners, FM?).
- Developing Sales Forces maturity and skills in Controls Sales
- Participate in the Handover of the won jobs to the Project Fulfillment Teams.

This person will work in close coordination with the Controls Fulfillment Team, in charge of projects fulfillment in the country.

Metrics:
- Orders & Sales (monthly plans),
- Price & Margins,
- quality (customer satisfaction audits)
- Demand Creation (Leads)
- Closure rate (efficiency of Sales process)
- Volume of Specification for Trane Controls
- Technical presentation Skills

Profile:

Degree & Experience:
- Engineering Degree (Bachelor) in Controls and/or Physics and/or Electronics and/or Electrical Instrumentation and or Mechanical.
- 8 years sales experience within a Controls company, a System-integrator or an HVAC contractor.

Skills :
- Good communication and animation skills and can strongly motivate small team, as well as drive customer group.

- Discovering and defining value proposition to a customer, based on the customer core business as well as the job environment.

- Knowledge of the Controls business : how to discover a job environment, identifying the key players in a job and understanding their expectations and mutual influences,

- Experience of Building market in the following segments and applications: Industry (pharmaceutical, food and beverage, chemicals, plastics, electronics), Offices, Hospitals, Commercial, Administrations, Army, Schools, Hotels.

- Experienced in Controls technologies (network, protocols, electronics, logic). Including knowledge of competition solutions.

- Experienced about the Energy and Building regulations that affect the HVAC control business.

Computer-skills:
- Microsoft Office package (Word, Excel, Outlook, ?K)

Language-skills:
- Fluent in reading & writing English

Internal interactions:

- Sales Engineers (Systems, Services ?K):
o Qualify projects
o Review and coordinate action plans to win the jobs
o Review project design and proposals
o Support them in customer meetings / events

- BIS (Inside Quotation Engineers):
o hand-over the input to design the systems and quote the projects
o review proposals (scope, design, price ?K)

- BPM (Controls Project Manager) / BPC (Controls Project Coordinator) :
o hand-over the job order to them

- External interactions

Job Details

Date Posted: 2013-06-29
Job Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Job Role: Other
Company Industry: Sales

Preferred Candidate

Career Level: Entry Level

Apply Now ?

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Full News here ? Bayt.com Jobs

Source: http://dubaiinformer.com/113257/controls-sales-engineer-ingersoll-rand-dubai-jobs/

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Who Needs Hispanic Votes?

Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller (L) talks to Rep. Lamar Smith.

FBI Director Robert Mueller, left, talks to Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, as he arrives at a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on June 13, 2013. The Hispanic vote in Smith's district is 27 percent, so he's not worried about backlash from voting no on immigration.

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

Imagine you?re a CEO. First of all, congratulations! Second, whether or not you can keep this job now depends on biennial shareholder votes. The day you take the job, there are 100 shareholders, and 60 of them support you. But on your second day, you get a proposal that would expand the shareholder pool over time, and you know that two out of three of the new additions would vote to remove you. Because you?re not an idiot, you deposit this plan in the circular file.

Now do you understand the plight of the Republican members of Congress? Immigration reform has been dumped in front of their doors like a USA Today in a midpriced family hotel. Most of them have no political reason to support it, and never will.

Until now the conversation about the bill?s congressional prospects has been a Lindsey Graham monologue with occasional Ted Cruz footnotes, as if the House didn?t have its own priorities and math.

Republicans currently control 234 of the House?s 435 voting districts. In 210 of these districts?eight short of the votes you need to elect a speaker?the Hispanic share of the vote is below 25 percent. Of the other 24 districts where Hispanic voters might be problematic for a Republican who attacks the immigration bill, 12 went for Mitt Romney over Barack Obama. So, if House Republicans held every one of their current seats that only have a tiny fraction of Hispanics, and the dozen with solid Hispanic votes but Republican tendencies, they?d have the majority with four votes to spare. ?Nonwhite voters are a threat to Republican White House chances in 2016, but hardly a threat to the House Republican majority,? says David Wasserman, House race editor of the Cook Political Report.

It?s clear just how skeptical House Republicans are of immigration reform when you consider that one of those 24 sent to Washington from the mixed, white/Hispanic districts is Texas Rep. Lamar Smith (Hispanic vote in his district: 27 percent), who was chairman of the House Judiciary Committee until this year, and who still gets a committee vote on a possible immigration bill. Before Thursday?s vote Smith tweeted that ?the #Senate #immigration bill ignores the will of the #American people & puts the interests of illegal immigrants & foreign workers first.?

Smith isn?t worried about any backlash to a vote against the immigration bill. Neither are most of his colleagues. The 2010 round of congressional redistricting ensured that two out of three Hispanic voters now live in Democratic districts.

Pro-reform scolds have known that for a while. ?If people are only looking at their own little backyards, yes, there are a lot of Republicans who can afford to vote no with no immediate repercussions,? says Florida-based GOP strategist Ana Navarro. ?Sure, if you?re in the middle of Iowa, you?ll be fine, but I?d like to think there are enough responsible adults in the Republican Party to pass a bill.?

But the Republican skeptics think they?re being responsible, too. Any ?comprehensive? reform they support will, by nature and design, allow more people to compete legally for jobs. That?s never going to be popular in their districts. While the opposition to immigration reform has been milder and quieter than it was in 2006?2007, there are still hints of white backlash. We saw a tremor of that this month; Republicans noticed that the Senate?s bill gave employers a small incentive to hire guest workers, because doing so would duck Obamacare?s requirements to provide health benefits.

So, what?s easier for Republicans? To give in and pass a bill that might add Hispanic voters to your districts, whom you then have to win over; or blocking the bill and upping your share of the white vote? That?s hardly a dilemma at all, and explains why the Senate bill faces such a hard road in the House. As they contemplate 2014 and 2016, Republicans are looking at elections where the white share of the vote may increase compared with 2012. They compare elections when Barack Obama was on the ballot against elections when he wasn?t. The white shares of the vote in 2008, 2010, and 2012 were, respectively, 74 percent, 77 percent, and 72 percent.

?I don't look at Obama completely as stunt casting,? says Florida-based GOP strategist Rick Wilson, ?but the fact that he was the first minority president moved a lot of minority voters. And right now the group of possible Democratic nominees for 2016 looks like a meeting of the Robert Byrd fan club. It's the white boy coalition. None of these guys will light a fire for black voters.?

But Republicans, increasingly, light a fire with whites. From 2008 to 2012, Barack Obama?s share of the white vote fell from 43 percent to 39 percent. Right after the election, the fact that Obama scored a smaller white vote than Michael Dukakis was cited as proof that the GOP needed to change. Flip the logic. If Republicans can build on the white trend but Democrats can?t build on the nonwhite trends, Republicans will be safe, for a while. If Republicans get back to the 66 percent white vote won by Ronald Reagan in 1984, they?re golden.

Democrats don?t see that happening. ?How the hell can they do better among whites than they did in 2012?? asks Paul Begala, a former Bill Clinton strategist who worked for the pro-Obama 2012 super PAC Priorities USA. ?Can they really ever get 66 percent of the white vote again? No way. First, because their white voters are old: Romney got 61 percent of whites over age 65, but only 51 percent of whites 18 to 29. What the demographers euphemistically call ?cohort replacement? is working against the GOP.? Other white subgroups, like college-educated women, gave Romney just 52 percent.?

Speaking of women! ?If Hillary runs in 2016,? says Begala, ?she has a good shot at building on Obama's dominance among younger whites and his strength among white college grads, and perhaps even outperform him among white working-class voters.?

Perhaps, but we have a better idea of what a huge white vote looks like than a post-Obama non-white/-millennial supergroup looks like. Immigration reformers have to convince House Republicans to embrace the uncertainty, and fear the familiar.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2013/06/immigration_reform_and_house_republicans_the_gop_may_not_need_hispanic_votes.html

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Building PayPal Galactic for Off-World Payments Will Take Years

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. ? Developing a cosmic cash system to meet the needs of future space tourists and interplanetary settlers is a complicated task that will take several years to complete, leaders of the new project say.

On Thursday (June 27), online-payment company PayPal and the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute unveiled PayPal Galactic, an initiative that aims to figure out the best way to process financial transactions beyond Earth.

This is much easier said than done, with many big questions demanding attention right off the bat, officials said. [9 Ways to Stay Safe Using PayPal]

"What will be our standard currency up there? How will the banking system need to adapt?" PayPal president David Marcus said here at the SETI Institute during the project's unveiling on Thursday. "How will risk and fraud management evolve? IP address from space? That's not a country for us; how are we going to deal with that?"

It's also unclear at the moment how off-world banking transactions will be regulated, and which bodies here on Earth would do the regulating, Marcus added, stressing that such issues will take a while to work out.

"We will focus on answering those questions and inviting everyone around the table who wants to participate ? scientists and the industry as well," Marcus said. "We're really, really looking forward to having the conversation for the next couple of years."

It's important to start this lengthy and involved process now, Marcus said, because private spaceflight is set to open the final frontier up to the masses soon.

Indeed, Virgin Galactic?and XCOR Aerospace may begin commercial flights to suborbital space within the next year or so. These companies are currently charging $250,000 and $95,000, respectively, for seats aboard their spaceships, but Marcus sees the price coming down dramatically before much longer.

"Futurists expect space travel to follow what happened to air travel," he said, adding that a roundtrip plane ticket from New York to Los Angeles cost $4,500 in 1935 ? the equivalent of $80,000 today.

So it's not hard to imagine that Virgin's $250,000 ticket price could come down to just a few thousand dollars in a decade or so, enabling large numbers of people to fly to space, Marcus said.

While brief suborbital flights can easily be booked and paid for here on Earth, Marcus and others see bigger things following in their wake that call out for a new off-planet monetary system ? orbiting hotels, luxury "space yachts" for the megarich and, eventually, outposts on the moon and Mars.

"The time is right," Marcus said. "Space tourism is taking off."

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter?@michaeldwall?and?Google+.?Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook?or Google+. Originally story at?SPACE.com.

Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/building-paypal-galactic-off-world-payments-years-194003872.html

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Conn. man arraigned in Hernandez murder case

Carlos Ortiz is shown during a hearing in court in Bristol, Conn., Friday, June 28, 2013. New Britain State's attorney says investigators arrested the 27-year-old Ortiz in Bristol on Wednesday in connection with the murder case against former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez. A judge ordered Ortiz turned over to Massachusetts authorities during the hearing. (AP Photo/The Bristol Press, Mike Orazzi, Pool)

Carlos Ortiz is shown during a hearing in court in Bristol, Conn., Friday, June 28, 2013. New Britain State's attorney says investigators arrested the 27-year-old Ortiz in Bristol on Wednesday in connection with the murder case against former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez. A judge ordered Ortiz turned over to Massachusetts authorities during the hearing. (AP Photo/The Bristol Press, Mike Orazzi, Pool)

This undated photo provided by the Bristol County, Mass. District Attorney's Office shows Ernest Wallace. Police say Wallace is wanted for accessory after the fact of the murder of semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd last week in North Attleborough, Mass., near the home of New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez. (AP Photo/Bristol County District Attorney's Office)

Former New England Patriots football player Aaron Hernandez stands during a bail hearing in Fall River Superior Court Thursday, June 27, 2013 in Fall River, Mass. Hernandez, charged with murdering Odin Lloyd, a 27-year-old semi-pro football player, was denied bail. (AP Photo/Boston Herald, Ted Fitzgerald, Pool)

Shayanna Jenkins, middle, fiancee of former New England Patriots football player Aaron Hernandez, is escorted by attorney Janice Bassil, left, and an unidentified attorney after a bail hearing in Fall River Superior Court Thursday, June 27, 2013 in Fall River, Mass. Hernandez, charged with murdering Odin Lloyd, a 27-year-old semi-pro football player, was denied bail. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

NORTH ATTLEBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) ? A Connecticut man arrested in connection with the murder case against former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez has pleaded not guilty to a Massachusetts firearms charge.

Twenty-seven-year-old Carlos Ortiz appeared Friday in North Attleborough court. He has been ordered held without bail until a July 9 hearing.

Before the arraignment, Ortiz's attorney, John Connors, said he spoke to his client for the first time Friday when he was returned from Connecticut. Ortiz was arrested Wednesday.

Connors declined to comment when asked whether Ortiz was cooperating with authorities and what he knows about the killing of Boston semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd.

Connors said he doesn't know the details of his client's relationship with Hernandez except that both are from Bristol, Conn.

Hernandez has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge in Lloyd's slaying.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-06-28-Hernandez-Police/id-012b9a41b53249a69e83497cbd7ddd9f

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Ways to Put a Fun Spin on Branding Your Business - Hearpreneur

The life of a business owner seems glamorous. You get to make your own hours, be your own boss and carry all the luxuries that come along with these titles and facts. But not everything about business is fun. There?s a lot about business, when you first begin, that is anything but fun. There are finances to worry over, customers to maintain, products to get shipped and created and any number of hurdles to climb. One such hurdle to climb and conquer is branding your business the perfect way. As with anything, branding your business can be a major pain at times. So taking a step back from the dark side, we asked entrepreneurs for some fun ways to brand your business.

Check out CEO Blog Nation TV on?YouTube!

Photo Credit: Heath Kane

Photo Credit: Heath Kane

Having ?play? in our DNA

It?s probably expected when you?re a children?s brand (see loubilou.com), but having added ?play? into the DNA of our brand has proven to be a great way for us to engage with our audience. Our actual customers are parents, despite focusing all our imagery and branded identity to speak to children. This approach immediately transforms people?s behaviour to the brand. As a result people instantly feel happy and inclusive when they connect to us. We also find the more fun we become the more people share and interact. Although we keep measures in place to how far we go with being fun ? as we don?t want to be seen as irreverent.

Thanks to Heath Kane, Loubilou

?

Photo Credit: Ashley Cox

Photo Credit: Ashley Cox

Creative internal branding exercises

As a member of a student-run creative communications agency, we are always looking for ways to advance our professionalism. One branding goal we had last year was to internally brand ourselves, since the expansion of our agency had grown so greatly externally, we lost sight of what we wanted our agency to be culturally. So, at one of our general meetings, each member received 10 Post-It notes and there was a moderator who asked 10 questions like, ?what three adjectives explain Cardinal Communications?? and ?what color is our organization?? to which we wrote the responses on each Post-It. At the end of the exercise we had a wall of about 800 Post-It notes that depicted how the members thought we were branded ? most of which aligned with one another. It was a really great team building experience, as well as a foundation for how to build our external brand for the future.

Thanks to Ashley Cox, Cardinal Communications

Related Post: Creating a Unique Personal Brand

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Photo Credit: Allie LeFevere

Photo Credit: Allie LeFevere

Infuse your personality

Infuse your personality, because if you don?t, guess what you?re going to have? That?s right. A boring, cookie-cutter company that looks, talks and sells like everybody else?s. And there are a few places to make your business stand-out + up as a witty, lively, boisterous [insert adjective] representation of you. Your logo, mission statement, product offerings or even the typography you use throughout the company shouldn?t be snooze-worthy. Use bold colors, brisk words, big emotion and most importantly, talk to your customers like a human, not a robot. They?ll engage more if they see you shine through your business!

Thanks to Allie LeFevere

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Photo Credit: Vincent Clarke

Photo Credit: Vincent Clarke

Be everywhere your customers are

Alfred Hitchcock was his own brand. So throughout his career, Hitchcock made sure to constantly deliver that brand to his audience in a number of interesting ways. His most unique trademark for the time involved his various cameo appearances. He appeared briefly if not openly in most of his movies. He would conduct numerous interviews in his signature suit and tie. So be everywhere your customers are. What social media sites do they spend the most time on? What other blogs do they subscribe and comment on? What other queries unrelated to your niche are they searching for? Be in their face everywhere they go. Some common, great ways to do this are through guest posting, backlinks, commenting on other blogs, bookmarking websites like Reddit, Delicious and StumbleUpon, and maintaining social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest.

Thanks to Vincent Clarke, Cinemarketers

Related Post: How Customers Can Help Promote Your Brand

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Photo Credit: Chris Pautsch

Photo Credit: Chris Pautsch

Building a fun mobile app

Many companies overlook the benefits of having a branded, customized mobile application to promote their business. Building a mobile app can be a fun experience for companies, and it doesn?t have to be expensive. Look for a reputable technology company that has existing app experience within your business or industry to create your app. They will have already done a lot of research about your industry and most likely you will benefit from that! We built a fun mobile app for the Naperville Running Company that incorporates a pace calculator for their customers to use when out on runs. This is great because the app then adds value for the customer. It isn?t just promoting the company and allowing customers to shop for new shoes. The app builds the brand?s community and engages customers with an added benefit.

Thanks to Chris Pautsch, KeyLimeTie

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Photo Credit: Billy Lowe

Photo Credit: Billy Lowe

Think of good shelf life

When I think of ways to brand myself, I think of shelf-life. Everything we do in beauty is all related to shelf-life and longevity and ?lasting impressions.? While personal care products sound like a great idea to give away or brand myself with ? they are disposable items and need to be replaced. If a customer is out at another salon or day-spa and picks up a different personal care product, then they are no longer thinking of BILLY LOWE. So I often use things like compact mirrors w/ my branding on them. I also had BILLY LOWE nickel medallions made. These look like small coins (see attachment) and people are less likely to throw these away b/c they look like money. I have people tell me all the time ?I still have your nickel medallion.? It keeps me in front of people.

Thanks to Billy Lowe

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Photo Credit: Kristin Stancato

Photo Credit: Kristin Stancato

Creating online videos

One of the first things we did when we launched X8 Drums & Percussion was to create online videos of all our instruments. At the time product videos in the musical instrument vertical were few and far between. As a musician myself I thought ?how cool would it be to be able to browse an online selection of percussion instruments and see how they sound and look while being played?. We had a fun time shooting the videos and our customers loved it. In fact, while we didn?t know it at the time, our commitment to producing online product videos really became our calling card and helped to distinguish our brand over time. We now have more than three hundred videos with millions of unique views. One other example of leveraging our brand in a fun way was getting involved in the community. After moving our business to Austin, TX we made it a priority to bring the love of drumming to the community. We quickly got situated and started producing the Austin Community Drum Circle. This event is free and open to the public. It?s a way to give back to the community, put a drum in their hand, and rock out. Big drum jams equal fun! We started hosting it once per month and the community responded. We now get on average over one hundred people showing up per event. The age range of people showing up is quite amazing. From four to eighty everyone is coming to have a good time. It?s a humbling feeling to look around at one hundred people jamming out together with big smiles on their faces. The fact that many are playing our drums is pretty cool too!

Thanks to Kristin Stancato, X8 Drums

Related Post: How to Find a Website Designer

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Photo Credit: Ben Yennie

Photo Credit: Ben Yennie

Unique business cards

When I was running a Kickstarter campaign for a film last year, one tactic we used to raise aweness and brand the film was to buy business cards for the film with Karaoke slips on the background and give them to some Traveling Karaoke hosts to use in their events. It only cost us about 30 dollars for enough cards to last a month. I regularly go out to karaoke at some of the bars they traveled to, so it was an excellent way to start a conversation and ended up paying for itself several times over in KickStarter donations, and way more in brand awareness.

Thanks to Ben Yennie, Films by Neptune

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Photo Credit: Dave Forman

Photo Credit: Dave Forman

Throwing parties

One of the ways we brand our business is to produce a party for my industry peers on the 2nd Tuesday of June. For the past 21 years, we have thrown a party called Cool Off In Style in which various hospitality vendors showcase their talents for others to see. Each year it is a different theme and at a different location. We start marketing one month out and the word of mouth and social media buzz is incredible. After the event, the photographers and videographer keep the brand going by constantly posting and talking about the event. It is a huge success.

Thanks to Dave Forman, Pour Masters Bartending Service

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Photo Credit: Jaclyn Bold

Photo Credit: Jaclyn Bold

With a clear understanding of your target market you can have fun

If you have a clear understanding of your Target Market you can have a lot of fun with branding tools for your business. I recommend that people keep it fun, lighthearted and enjoyable. e.g. M & M graphic designs could send a small packet of M&M chocolates with their invoices. From bright shirts emblazoned with the company logo and tag line to sponsoring local school sports uniforms and attending some of their games ? keep it fun. Business BBQ?s, charity work ? get out and about in your local community and get seen by lots of people.

Thanks to Jaclyn Bold, Bold Connections

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Source: http://hear.ceoblognation.com/2013/06/27/ways-to-put-a-fun-spin-on-branding-your-business/

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