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GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain's win in the Iowa straw poll is more disturbing proof that his candidacy may not be the flash in the pan that many think. Cain added to his string of straw polls wins by barely nudging out presumptive GOP presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney in the Des Moines Register's Iowa Poll. The poll, which has measured the GOP and Democratic caucus candidate preferences of Iowa voters since the 1980s, has proven credible and is carefully watched by political observers. It was the only poll to show that then Democratic presidential contender Obama had a substantial lead over party rivals Hillary Clinton and John Edwards.

But the far more intriguing thing about Cain's candidacy is the consistency of the poll numbers. He has been either at the top or near the top as a favorite among GOP voters for weeks. He has not been the proverbial flash in the pan that recent GOP presidential candidates have been. That is, the candidates burst on the scene, announce their candidacy with much fanfare, get a blast of media attention, create a momentary public buzz, and then fade quickly into the sunset. That pattern has been plainly evident in the candidacies of Michelle Bachmann and Rick Perry. They announced their candidacies with much fanfare, got a quick surge, and then when they make the inevitable gaffes, inanities, and goofball pronouncements, set against the intense glare of the media, they fade faster than the sun in an Arctic night.

But Cain hasn't. The reasons go beyond just the media and GOP voter fascination with the novelty of an African-American conservative tossing out pithy and in some cases, outrageously quotable sound bites. Cain is politically serviceable in several ways. He is the runaway pick of GOP ultra conservatives and Tea Party leaders and followers. This appears to refute the knock that they are nothing more than a pack of unreconstructed bigots that can't stomach the thought of a black man in the White House. He is an outsider. The maverick, politically unconnected, noble citizen politician always grabs media and public fascination. It's even more appealing at a time when much of the public loathes and abhors most politicians, and regards Congress somewhere between a used car salesman and a dentist. Cain has played hard on that loathing and disgust and never tires of reminding that he is not a politician, has held no office, and will manage government as if it was a corporation, and bring good business sense, management and efficiency to solve all problems. The notion of the man on the white horse riding into Washington, turning government on its head and chasing the army of corporate and fat cat lobbyists, flaks, and deal makers packing from the political temple in mad flight played well in 2008 with the Obama candidacy. It worked, and Cain took obvious note. Cain's adroit stoke of the basest of social conservative rage on immigration, abortion, religion, gun ownership, and most importantly, primitive laissez faire shred of the safety net and bare bones federal government has aroused their passions to a fever pitch.

Cain's added value is that he's the most effective among the pack of GOP presidential contenders in posing as the ABR (that's anybody but Romney) alternative. The Iowa poll reconfirmed that Romney has what's charitably called "serious vulnerabilities" meaning that ultra conservative don't like him and what they perceive he represents. These are the voters that are the most likely to vote in the official Iowa GOP Caucus in January and they say that they are three times more likely to back Cain over Romney. As a side note, with Perry fumbling and bumbling on the campaign trail and with his ultra-conservative credentials slightly frayed or at best suspect, Cain even has value as the anti-Perry Christian conservative surrogate.

GOP mainstream leaders, hard-nosed GOP political operatives, and the big gun financial donors have so far treated the Cain candidacy as a fun and games, amusing sideshow act that will fade into the dust when it comes time for the serious voting. That may well prove to be the case. Cain certainly has shown very little interest in doing the hard politicking in the key early make or break primary states, has raised a relative bare pittance of campaign monies, and has no national organization to speak of. But at this stage of the political game, that's less important than revving up a disjointed, disgruntled, and dismayed GOP party faithful. Cain is the right guy for that. And that alone guarantees him a lot more shelf life than people think or want to believe he has.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio Network. He is the author How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is host of the weekly Hutchinson Report Newsmaker Hour on KTYM Radio Los Angeles streamed on ktym.com podcast on blogtalkradio.com and broadcast on thehutchinsonreportnews.com

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/earl-ofari-hutchinson/herman-cain-2012_b_1066413.html

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PARIS (Reuters) ? Efforts to coax China into throwing the euro zone a lifeline will dominate this week's G20 Summit and leave Beijing holding the cards as world leaders try to restore market confidence with pledges to reduce economic imbalances.

Heads of state and finance chiefs from the 20 leading economies want to use the November 3-4 meeting in Cannes, France, to send a message that Europe has its debt crisis under control and any risks to the world economy are being taken care of.

Yet simmering tensions, which flared up at recent talks in Brussels and Paris, and bleak economic prospects may make it harder to stage a convincing show of unity than in 2008, when the G20 pulled together to fix the financial crisis.

As well as frustration at European dithering over its debt crisis, France and Germany have clashed over who should shoulder the bloc's losses and Washington disagrees with emerging powers over how to bolster the International Monetary Fund.

Now, Europe's need of China's surplus underlines how stagnant growth and huge debts have left the rich world economically dependent on emerging nations and with even less leverage than before to pressure Beijing over its yuan policy.

The officials will gather on the French Riviera coast against a backdrop of public anger over economic gloom and a perception that taxpayers are paying for the sins of reckless banks. Authorities are expecting hundreds of protesters.

The OECD slashed its 2012 growth outlook for the euro zone and United States on Monday and said bold G20 action was needed to restore confidence and avert a slowdown.

Despite denials from European officials that they have lost their negotiating position and promises that China would not be offered concessions, Europe's bid to have Beijing contribute to a special purpose investment vehicle (SPIV) to leverage its EFSF bailout fund has put the ball in China's court for France's final G20 gathering.

"There's no reason now why China should budge on anything," an official involved in G20 summit preparations told Reuters.

Japan also set the stage for some tetchy discussions on capital flows after it intervened on Monday to weaken the yen.

Tokyo wants G20 sympathy for having to deal with a strong currency on top of ballooning debt and a $250 billion rebuilding bill from a March earthquake and tsunami.

SHORT-TERM FOCUS

Hoping to use his G20 stewardship as a springboard for a 2012 reelection bid, French President Nicolas Sarkozy set ambitious goals including a fundamental rethink of the global monetary system and measures to fight commodity price volatility and rein in speculative capital flows.

He was forced to scale back his expectations early on, as Europe's debt crisis gathered pace. The market turmoil of recent weeks, as markets lost confidence in the euro zone, has made crisis firefighting the priority over long-term reforms.

"Clearly things have changed, especially since August. The challenge for Cannes is to find a coordinated response to this situation. Confidence will only return if we can convince markets we have a long-term vision that is flexible enough to ward off another crisis," said a French government source.

The G20's closing communique will give a vote of confidence to the crisis package agreed by euro zone leaders in Brussels last week, while noting that work still needs to be done on the specifics of strengthening the EFSF bailout fund and on fortifying member states' public finances.

With many details still up in the air, the package will be discussed in depth in Cannes, but G20 sources seemed not to be expecting commitments from China, India, Russia or the IMF, given questions about the safety of a future SPIV.

"At this moment we are not considering it because we don't have enough information," a Brazilian government source said. "If the SPIV sells paper with a triple-A rating and guarantees, then the central bank will analyze if it's worth it."

EFSF head Klaus Regling has flown to Asia to court China and Japan. China has declined to commit to anything and Japan said only that it will keep buying EFSF bonds.

"We believe the G20 summit can send a signal in terms of what is said and what is done that builds momentum on what was agreed at the summit in Brussels," said one euro zone source.

PLEDGES ON IMBALANCES

Concretely, G20 leaders in Cannes will set out a list of economic pledges, with dates, aimed at tackling the imbalances that set the stage for the 2007-09 crisis, such as the gaping U.S. trade gap and the corresponding surplus in China.

The G20 had named seven countries that should take action: the United States, China, Japan, Germany, France, Britain and India, but all 20 are now expected to promise fiscal consolidation in high-deficit economies and stimulus measures in those with surpluses.

"Each nation must do its part to ensure that global growth is balanced and sustainable," U.S. President Barack Obama wrote in a Financial Times Op-Ed ahead of the Cannes meeting.

Washington wants countries in good health to soft-pedal on austerity measures or even inject fresh stimulus, but Germany for one is not enthusiastic, and Obama's struggle to pass a jobs stimulus bill leaves him ill-placed to prod others.

As for the rest of Europe, Italy is already straining to deliver on promised reforms and France is having to hunt for new areas to cut spending so it can reach its deficit targets.

U.S. economist Nouriel Roubini told reporters in Paris last week that the issue was no longer whether there would be another recession in the euro zone, but how severe it would be.

Given their surpluses, emerging market exporters are being asked to tweak their economic models to lift internal demand, with China set to promise a 5-year plan to boost consumption.

Developing countries in the G20 are expected to show willing, but only in exchange for reassurances from Europe, whose debt crisis has already dampened their outlooks.

Less likely is any progress on the West's push to get China to increase the value of the yuan, to reduce trade imbalances.

Even before Europe's EFSF pitch, the chances of China giving up ground were dealt a blow by a U.S. bill that could slap tariffs on products from countries with weak currencies.

"It's not just about the EFSF," a European G20 source said. "The U.S. vote may make the Chinese more reticent. I don't see the environment as extraordinarily favorable."

France has dangled the idea of bringing the yuan into the basket of currencies making up the IMF's Special Drawing Right, to divert the debate onto entry criteria like free "usability."

German Deputy Finance Minister Joerg Asmussen told Reuters the entry criteria would not be watered down and it could take "some years" for the SDR basket to be expanded.

(Additional reporting by Brian Love and; Emmanuel Jarry in Paris; Claire Watson in Nice; Noah Barkin in Berlin, Louise Egan in Ottawa and Isabel Versiani in Brazilia; editing by Anna Willard)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111031/wl_nm/us_g20

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TOKYO ? Nissan Motor Co. said Wednesday its net profit for the July-September quarter slipped 4.3 percent from a year earlier, but the automaker raised its earnings outlook for the full-year on projections of higher sales.

Japan's second-biggest vehicle manufacturer seems to be weathering the strong yen and tsunami disaster better than some its rivals, including Honda and Mazda.

"In spite of unfavorable currency fluctuations, numerous natural disasters and a volatile global economy, we remain on track to deliver a significantly profitable full-year performance," CEO Carlos Ghosn said in a press release.

Sales are growing in Europe, China and the U.S., said the maker of the March subcompact and Leaf electric car.

Nissan, which is allied with Renault SA of France, raised its forecast for the full-year through March 2012 to 290 billion yen ($3.63 billion) from the 270 billion yen projected in June. Still, that would represent a 9 percent fall from profit of 319.2 billion yen in the previous year.

It projects annual sales will grow to 9.45 trillion yen from an earlier forecast of 9.4 trillion yen.

It also raised its unit sales forecast 3.3 percent to 4.75 million vehicles for the fiscal year. Sales projections for China ? 1.25 million units ? are nearly as high as the forecast for North America, at 1.35 million.

Nissan's quarterly net profit declined to 98.4 billion yen ($1.26 billion) from 101.73 billion yen last year, while half-year profit slid 12 percent to 183.4 billion yen ($2.3 billion) as sales rose 1.1 percent to 4.367 trillion yen ($54.73 billion).

During the first half of the fiscal year, sales in China rose 18.2 percent to 595,000 vehicles, claiming about 7 percent of the market there.

In other regions, sales in Europe increased 22.6 percent to 339,000 vehicles, and those in North America grew 10.8 percent to 642,000. Sales in Japan declined 14 percent to 283,000 vehicles.

Nissan is also doing well in emerging markets such as Thailand and Indonesia. Sales in Brazil increased 88.2 percent to 29,300 vehicles. The company said it is investing $1.5 billion to build a factory in Resende, Rio de Janeiro state, with a target completion date in the first half of 2014.

Nissan said it had sold 15,600 of the recently launched zero-emission Leaf electric car through September.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/earnings/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111102/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_earns_nissan

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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan?? A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a checkpoint in a neighborhood near a guest house used by the United Nations in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar early Monday, killing four guards, Afghan officials said.

Security forces were exchanging fire with armed insurgents who rushed into the area and seized control of a building, Kandahar police chief Gen. Abdul Razzaq said.

NATO said that Afghan security forces were "leading the efforts against the attackers."

Immediately after the bomb attack, which occurred at around 6:15 a.m. in Kandahar, several insurgents rushed into the area and seized control of an animal clinic near the office of the International Relief and Development organization, said Faisal Khan, head of the Kandahar Media office. The clinic and IRD offices are near guest houses affiliated with both the IRD and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, he said.

The area is also home to several other international NGO offices and guest houses.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, with spokesman Qari Youssef saying the insurgents were targeting the U.N. guest house.

Khan said two other people were wounded in the blast.

The attack comes two days after the Taliban launched a brazen midday suicide bombing in Kabul, striking a NATO convoy on Saturday and killing 17 people, including five NATO service members, eight civilian contractors and four Afghans.

With most of the attacks in Kabul blamed on the Pakistan-based Haqqani network, the convoy bombing reinforced U.S. and Afghan demands that Islamabad do more to curb militant activity and sanctuaries on its territory.

While there is no specific information linking Saturday's convoy attack to the Haqqani network, investigators say they soon will have evidence the bombing was "Haqqani-related," a western diplomat said Sunday. The diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation, said it was "very possible" the attack was the work of Haqqani fighters, who have ties to both al-Qaida and the Taliban.

In the brazen midday assault, a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle packed with explosives into an armored coalition bus traveling in the southwest end of the city. Heavily armored military vehicles also were in the convoy, but the bomber targeted the bus, which was carrying troops and civilians contractors.

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Story: Suicide bombing of NATO convoy kills 17

The Haqqanis were the specific focus of two military operations this month that involved tens of thousands of Afghan and NATO troops. They were conducted over nine days in Kabul province, Wardak, Logar and Ghazni provinces south and west of the capital and Paktia, Paktika and Khost provinces along the border. More than 200 insurgents were killed or captured. At least 20 of them had ties to the Haqqani group, including 10 identified as leaders of the network.

Marine Gen. John Allen, the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said in a recent interview with The Associated Press that the operations against the Haqqanis were conducted in preparation for next year's plan to step up operations to keep insurgents from infiltrating across the Pakistani border and into the capital, especially from the south.

"The campaign plan is to extend operations down in that area ? pretty significantly ? to secure the orbital districts around Kabul and push that security zone out," Allen said.

"The overarching campaign plan for next year is going to see us consolidate our holdings in the south, conduct operations in the east to expand the security zone around Kabul and then connect the two," he said. That also would facilitate travel along a highway that connecting Kabul with southern Afghanistan, he said.

In Saturday's attack, the force of the explosion knocked the bus on its side and ignited a large fire that sent heavy black smoke rising above the scene. Seventeen people died ? five NATO service members, including one Canadian soldier; eight civilian contractors, including two from Britain; and four Afghans, including a policeman.

A U.S. defense official initially said all the foreigners killed were American, but that could not be confirmed. NATO does not disclose the nationalities of those killed.

Fluor Corp., a company based in Irving, Texas, that employs contractors in Afghanistan, confirmed on Sunday that some of its employees, including the two British nationals, were killed in the attack. Their names were not being released out of respect for their families, said Keith Stephens, a company representative.

The deadly attack was on a thoroughfare near the landmark Darulaman Palace, the bombed-out seat of former Afghan kings. At the time of the blast, Afghan lawmakers and ministers were gathered at the parliament building nearby to remember six lawmakers killed in a 2007 suicide bombing in Baghlan province. A lawmaker from Kunar province, who was making a speech, ducked when he heard the loud explosion.

At least 11 of about 15 major attacks in the capital this year can be blamed on the Haqqanis, according to a senior official with the coalition who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss undisclosed investigative reports on the incidents.

Last month, then-Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen said the Haqqani network "acts as a veritable arm" of Pakistan's intelligence agency ? an accusation that Pakistan has denied.

Mullen accused the network of staging an attack against the U.S. Embassy and NATO headquarters in Kabul on Sept. 13 as well as a truck bombing that wounded 77 American soldiers in Wardak province. He claimed Pakistan's spy agency helped the group.

Story: In Kabul, a bowling center offers respite from war

The senior coalition official said that the Taliban, based in the Pakistani city of Quetta, appeared to linked to the Sept. 20 assassination of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, but that investigators did not see any direct tie to the Pakistani intelligence service. Rabbani, who was leading the Afghan government's effort to broker peace with the Taliban, was killed at his Kabul home by an assassin posing as a peace emissary from the insurgent group.

The United States has stepped up criticism of Pakistan and its counterterrorism cooperation but at the same time has worked to cajole the increasingly angry and resistant Pakistanis into doing more to squeeze militants on its side of the border.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered an unusually blunt warning to the Pakistanis when she visited the region last week. She said Pakistan "must be part of the solution" to the Afghan conflict. Clinton said the Obama administration expects the Pakistani government, military and intelligence services to "take the lead" in not only fighting insurgents based in Pakistan but also in encouraging Afghan militants to reconcile with Afghan society.

U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, who directs day-to-day military operations in Afghanistan, said this week that he thinks the goal to have Afghan security forces in the lead across the country by the end of 2014 can be achieved without work against militant sanctuaries in Pakistan. But he said it would be a challenge.

"In order to do that, we have to build a strong, capable layered defense with the Afghan national security forces in order to provide, you know, a proper interdiction. And that it'll be a much tougher task, he said.

___

Associated Press writers Tarek El-Tablawy and Rahim Faiez in Kabul contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45095467/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

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HUDTube Transports Your Web Videos Out of Your Browser so You Can Watch Them Like Downloaded Movies Mac: HUDTube is not your standard web video downloader as it focuses on eliminating the wait time and just making it more pleasant to watch the videos you want on your desktop or laptop. All you do is drag the video URL from your browser to HUDTube's dock icon and it'll instantly open it up in a minimalistic video player for immediate viewing.

Check out the video above for a full demonstration.

HUDTube Transports Your Web Videos Out of Your Browser so You Can Watch Them Like Downloaded Movies Aside from being able to play web videos like they're desktop videos without an hassle, one of the biggest benefits of using HUDTube instead of a Flash-based player is the reduction in CPU usage. HUDTube only used about 8-10% of my processor, whereas Vimeo/Flash fluctuated around 80-90%. If you want to watch online video without draining your laptop's battery or blasting its fans, HUDTube is a big help.

Additionally, it has a few other fun features like a video history, playlist support, and quick sharing on Twitter and Facebook (shown in more detail in the video above). You can also re-open the video in your browser if you want to get back to the original page. The only major downside is that it doesn't let you save copies of any of the videos you download for offline viewing, but hopefully we'll see that in the future. For now you can always re-download through your playlists or video history.

HUDTube (Free) | Mac App Store

You can follow Adam Dachis, the author of this post, on Twitter, Google+, and Facebook. ?Twitter's the best way to contact him, too.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/nIflJ312suk/hudtube-transports-your-web-videos-out-of-your-browser-so-you-can-watch-them-like-downloaded-movies

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By admin, on October 31st, 2011

Running a business isn?t just about earning or losing profit. It isn?t just about how good your machines are or about how good the employees are. All the things that the owner has to face are interrelated and one thing can?t just be left out because it will affect the whole business. We all know that when a person starts planning on opening a business, the thing needed for the job and the employees who would work on it are the top priority. It is true that these things are also very important but the employee has to remember that there are also some legal matters that he has to look into. One of these matters is the business insurance.

Some businessmen might overlook this need of the business simply because for them it will be additional expenses and they can?t get anything from it. Actually, on the surface getting insurance doesn?t seem to be a necessity but there will be times that the business would face some legal problems and the company has to spend a lot when it doesn?t have an affordable business insurance for itself.

There are so many ways on how to get an affordable business insurance. When you have full access to the internet, you will notice that there are hundreds of sites that offer low business insurance quotes which your company can afford. It will give you many choices that you can compare. Try to choose something that you think is not too high for your earnings but offers reasonable benefits.
Don?t go for business insurance that are too high because they would seem to be too good to be true and you might end up losing all your money. Another way of looking for suitable business insurance quotes is through an insurance agent. One good thing about getting business insurance directly from an agent is that the agent can specifically explain the details of the insurance to you. When there are questions, you can also ask the agent to elaborate on the issues that are not clear to you.

There are two basic categories in business insurance but the Property and Casualty Business Insurance is the one that is mandatory by some states or countries. This kind of insurance protects the rights of the business from claims of third parties as well some other incidents that happen unexpectedly. It is important that the business has this insurance because nowadays, just one lawsuit filed by any third party can cause damage to the business or worse, ruin it. Investing in this insurance can surely protect the company?s rights as well as protect it from other external damages or happenings that will come its way.

This money that is invested will surely benefit the company in the long run. Its benefits might not be felt in the beginning but as the company grows and expands its horizon, it will encounter so many problems and business insurance can help solve them.

Source: http://www.cnanlu.com/affordable-business-insurance/

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