Stop being so stupid, US voters tweet

The roiling debate over the US government shutdown is extending to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as fed-up Americans turn to social media to register their disgust with federal lawmakers for shutting down the government.

Those posting pulled no punches, calling members of congress 'immature', 'stupid' and 'idiots' who need to 'grow up'. There were a few attaboys, too, by self-described red-state conservatives who cheered on the Republican leadership's unwavering stance against President Barack Obama's healthcare plan, even if it meant suddenly pulling the pay cheques of about 800,000 federal workers and threatening popular federal programs.

But mostly, tweeters said they couldn't understand why a compromise between the two sides seemed so elusive.

'(hash)DearCongress, You should not be getting paid. In fact, you all should be fired!' tweeted Bruce Swedal, a 46-year-old Denver real estate agent who says he is worried about what the shutdown might do to home sales if federally backed loans dry up.

The public outcry playing out on social media sites this week is a new twist.

During the last shutdown of government operations, in 1995, angry Americans would have had to look up their congressman's address and sit down and write an old-fashioned letter or email. But with the advent of Twitter, popular hashtags like (hash)governmentshutdown and the Today show's (hash)DearCongress let voters log their complaints to all 532 members of congress at once - provided they stay within the allotted 140 characters or less.

Voters also weighed in on the more humorous side of things, offering pick-up lines that federal workers could use in bars, some of which were advertising cheap drink specials throughout the day to those furloughed.

'The library is closing, mind if I check you out instead?' one person offered with the hashtag (hash)ShutdownPickupLines.

Added another tweeter: 'It's not like we have to go to work tomorrow.'

For their part, legislators used Facebook and Twitter to reiterate long-held talking points, further angering dissenting voters.

Republicans said Obama's healthcare program would be too catastrophic to allow, while Democrats accused Republicans of sending the government into a free fall to appease a small minority.

House Speaker John Boehner's post urging Senate Democrats to back down earned more than 13,000 'likes' on Facebook and an additional 13,000-plus comments from voters, either hailing the Ohio Republican as a hero or calling him everything from a 'crybaby' to a 'terrorist'.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi's Facebook post blaming Republicans for the shutdown earned fewer than 2200 'likes' and 1400 posts.

Meanwhile, federal programs used Twitter to announce that they would no longer be responding to tweets or other social media posts until the shutdown ends. Even the first lady, Michelle Obama, said her own personal tweets would be limited.

One Twitter account, which for two years has been providing detailed updates on NASA's Voyager 2 program, offered this less-than-comforting post before going dark: 'Due to government shutdown, we will not be posting or responding from this account. Farewell, humans. Sort it out yourselves.'

Swedal, the Denver real estate agent, said in a telephone interview that he doesn't think his tweets will make a difference. In the end, he says, politicians are likely to do whatever they want.

'But at least I feel better,' he said.

source: skynews.com.au

Three reasons Obama will win; three reasons Romney will win

The most expensive election in U.S. history is almost over, and most public polls suggest President Obama has a small, but persistent, edge over his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney.

But before the final vote counts, here are three reasons each candidate has to expect victory, and a key place to watch to see who is right.

Reasons Obama will win

Economic optimism: Yes, unemployment remains high at 7.9%, and the recovery has been slow. But slow growth and no growth sit worlds apart. Incumbent presidents presiding over a growing economy with rising job numbers in the election year almost always prevail. Moreover, ever since the summer, the number of Americans expressing optimism about the economy’s future has grown. That shift shows up in pre-election polls as well as in rising consumer confidence.

Increased optimism has provided crucial lift for Obama — he wins overwhelmingly among voters who say the economy will be better next year — and it could be particularly important in key Midwestern contests, including Wisconsin and Ohio.

Latinos: For at least a decade, Karl Rove and other Republican strategists have warned that the party risked failure if it could not find a way to reach out to the country’s fast-growing Latino population. Instead of doing so this year, Mitt Romney ran a primary campaign that stressed hard-line positions against illegal immigration. The goal was to outflank Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and it succeeded, but at high cost. (And ultimately, Perry did so poorly that he might have lost anyway.)

Polls of Latino voters show that Obama probably will get 70% or more of their vote. Already, early vote statistics indicate that strong support from Latinos has given Obama a big lead in Nevada. Depending on the size of the Latino turnout, he could add Colorado and Florida to his column.

Ground game: From strategists David Axelrod and David Plouffe and campaign manager Jim Messina on down, Obama campaign officials have said for more than a year that the organization they were building to identify, register, mobilize and turn out supporters would provide the difference in a close election. So far, in the early voting, that organization has largely performed as advertised.

Even in North Carolina, where most polls have pointed to a Romney victory, Democrats have a slightly larger edge in the early vote than they had in 2008, when Obama won the state by the slenderest of margins. In Ohio and Florida, long lines, mostly of Obama supporters, circled early voting locations over the weekend and Monday. The campaign has benefited from new techniques in identifying and targeting supporters and motivating them to show up at the polls. And although Republicans also have proved they can turn out their supporters — they showed that this spring in Wisconsin’s recall election, for example — the Democrats appear to have an edge.

Reasons Romney will win

Economic performance: Yes, optimism is on the rise, but there’s no denying that a majority of Americans believes the country is headed in the wrong direction and doesn’t have confidence that Obama’s economic policies will fix it. With the economy as the issue that the great majority of voters consider their top priority, Republicans have argued that wavering voters in the end will come down on the challenger’s side. The most recent Pew Research Center survey showed Obama with a slight edge, but also showed that the number of voters who said they might yet change their minds was enough to switch the outcome.

Understating the GOP vote: Among Republican pollsters, several believe that the public polls conducted by news organizations, universities and research centers like Pew have all understated the Republican vote. The arguments for that position vary. A chief one is that the methods pollsters use to identify likely voters have overstated the partisan gap between Democrats and Republicans.

In the 2004 election, exit polls showed the number of voters identifying with each party was roughly equal. In 2008, Democrats had a substantial edge. Most,  though not all, public polls look more like 2008 than 2004, with more self-identified Democrats than Republicans. The Republicans who doubt those polls say the Democratic edge in 2008 was a one-time thing, brought on by Obama’s popularity that year. This year’s party identification should look more like 2004, they argue. Nonpartisan pollsters dispute that argument, but if it’s correct, Romney almost certainly will do better than the polls have indicated.

A smaller, older and whiter electorate: In 2008, 61.6% of the population potentially eligible to register and vote actually cast ballots. That was the highest level since before 1971, when the 26th Amendment to the Constitution gave 18-year-olds the right to vote. Most analysts expect this year’s turnout percentage to be lower. But how much? And which voters will stay home?

Professor Michael McDonald of George Mason University, the leading expert on voter turnout, estimates that 60% to 61% of the voter-eligible population will turn out. That would put the 2012 turnout level slightly lower than that of 2008, but likely higher than 2004’s 60.1%.

Some Republicans expect a bigger decline. They believe turnout of younger voters will drop significantly from 2008 levels and that minority turnout also will decline because of what they see as lowered enthusiasm for Obama. Turnout of older, white voters will rise because of greater intensity on the GOP side, they predict. The result would be an electorate that is both older and whiter than the one in 2008, which was 74% non-Latino whites, according to exit polls.

In 2004, when Bush won reelection, non-Latino whites made up 77% of the electorate, and in the 2010 midterm elections, when Republicans regained control of the House, the white share was 78%. Many Democratic strategists expect the white share of the electorate to fall to 73% this year, but some Republicans expect the white share to rise, which would give Romney an edge in key states because of the sharp racial polarization of the vote.

Early clues to which side is right?

Look for the returns from Virginia, which has among the earliest poll-closing times in the country: 7 p.m. Eastern time. Minority turnout, economic optimism and the strength of Obama’s ground game all will be in play there. If the results come in strongly for one candidate or the other, it could set the pattern for the night.

source: latimes.com

Amy Winehouse's Family Puts Late Singer's Home On The Market

Amy Winehouse's family is continuing to move on from the tragic passing of the talented British soul singer by putting her north London home up for sale.

“The Winehouses have decided to put the house on the market, with great regret,” a spokesman for the family told Reuters via email.

The Winehouses note that it simply didn't feel right for any of them to reside there. “Amy loved that house but none of the family felt it appropriate that they should live in it and it was not practical to keep it empty while paying the costs of its upkeep,” they explained.

Fans of Winehouse have ventured to the Camden property to show their respects for the late, great singer. They even transformed a nearby square into a shrine in the days following her untimely death.

Various newspaper reports suggest that the three-bedroom home is currently on the market for £2.7 million (or $4.2 mill for we Americans).

Winehouse’s final album Lioness: Hidden Treasures was released posthumously last December and contains a collection of unheard tracks that feature the likes of Nas and Tony Bennet. Winehouse seemed to have had a profound impact on Nas.

“It’s a bittersweet feeling to do something with her now that she’s not here. I’m happy… the sweet part is that we have the music, fans have new music from her,” he explained. “It’s new because they’ve never heard it. The bitter part is that she’s no longer here to really give it to us and to really live her music and for us to see her smile and hear her voice."

The rapper also recalls his fond memories of hanging with the songstress in the studio, saying, “She was hilarious, man. She would make you laugh. To her, music came so easy.”

source: mtv.com

Online sharing, how much is too much?

NEW YORK — Whether it is photos, personal status or unwanted comments, most Americans think people ‘overshare’ personal information online and a third admit not everything they post is true.

A survey for Intel Corporation on mobile etiquette and digital sharing showed that 90 percent of Americans think too much is being divulged, and nearly half feel overwhelmed by all the all the data that is out there.

One in five of the 2,008 people questioned by Ipsos Observer for Intel admitted that some of what they post is false.

“People are still sorting through what does it means to share, who is the audience you are sharing with, what do those audiences want and how do they feel about things?” said Dr Genevieve Bell, the director of user interaction and experience at Intel Labs.

“Those are the things that are really fluid. We are still sorting it out both at a personal level and a cultural level.”

For many, sharing online with smartphones, laptops, notebooks and tablets is easier than in person. A third of people admitted they were more comfortable with digital sharing than face to face, and a quarter said they had a different personality online.

About 85 percent of Americans post information online and a quarter do it every day, according to the survey. For 65 percent of U.S. adults, sharing makes them feel closer to family and friends and nearly half said it they didn’t communicate online they wouldn’t know what is going on with those near and dear to them.

But the wealth of digital information can also be annoying.

Most U.S. adults said they are vexed by people who complain constantly and similar numbers found posting inappropriate or explicit photos and private information bothersome.

Bell said the results of the poll show people are still having difficulty dealing with technology.

“The fact that people are still grappling with how to balance the benefits of mobile technology with the downsides – this means we all still have those moments of poor mobile manners,” she explained.

More than 80 percent of people in the poll said they think mobile manners are getting worse, a jump from 72 percent a year ago.

Texting while driving, talking loudly on a cell phone in a public place and having the volume too loud were the top three misbehaviors citied in the survey.

Etiquette expert Anna Post also questioned whether a person’s entire social network wants to know what they had for dinner and if it is appropriate to have three different dating profiles online.

“Sharing and getting together online are integral parts of building and maintaining relationships,” she said in a statement. “But we’re still finding our way when it comes to determining the most appropriate behavior in any given situation online.”

Most Americans are also convinced that what is posted online, stays online. Yet 27 percent said there is very little they would not share digitally.

source: interaksyon.com