During an appearance on the October 9 broadcast of The Bill Cunningham Show, Jerome Corsi, author of The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality, claimed that he "came out of Kenya" with "documents" proving that Sen. Barack Obama "made a pact with this radical leftist politician [Kenyan Prime Minister Raila] Odinga who is perfectly happy to expand Islamic Sharia law in Kenya and have tribal violence to get power." Specifically, Corsi said: "Tomorrow, in WorldNetDaily, I'm going to publish Obama's email listing the contact in his Senate office to work with Odinga. I can prove that Odinga signed this agreement to expand Sharia law, that the Muslims voted for him and I can prove that Obama knew about that agreement." He later added: "I can show that again Obama continued to work to get Odinga in power even after the tribal violence." However, the emails to which Corsi referred, posted in an October 10 WorldNetDaily article, "appear not to have been written by a native English speaker," as Politico's Ben Smith has noted.

Corsi did not reveal whether he obtained any other "documents" from Kenya besides the emails he mentioned. As Media Matters for America has noted, PolitiFact.com wrote on August 20 that Corsi's claim that Obama "openly supported" Odinga during his 2006 bid for the presidency of Kenya is "false," as Politifact "scour[ed] the public record for evidence that Obama supported Odinga" and concluded that "Obama has remained neutral in Kenyan politics."

Based on the alleged connection between Odinga and Obama, Corsi asked: "Is Obama going to expand Sharia law in the United States when he gets into power? Is he going to, in fact, engage in tribal violence and other -- or other kinds of violence in order to advance his goals?"

The two emails Corsi purportedly obtained while in Kenya -- which he claims were sent from Obama's Senate email account to Odinga's Yahoo.com email account -- were published in an October 10 "WorldNetDaily Exclusive" by WND news editor Bob Unruh, titled "Proof Obama backed ruthless, foreign thug." Unruh reported: "One e-mail purportedly from Obama, dated Dec. 22, 2006, read, 'I will kindly wish that all our correspondence [be] handled by Mr Mark Lippert. I have already instructed him. This will be for my own security both for now and in future.' " The second e-mail stated, "Thanks for contacting me about Mr Lippert through email. Contact him through mark_lippert.obama.senate.gov." Lippert was described in July by The New York Times as "Obama's former Senate foreign policy adviser" and by Newsweek as "Obama's longest-serving foreign policy adviser." The email address contained in the second email, "mark_lippert.obama.senate.gov," does not appear to be valid, because it does not contain an "@."

In an October 10 post on his Politico blog, Ben Smith wrote of the emails Corsi purportedly obtained in Kenya:

After a bit of a lull, the viral emails and general nuttiness is cresting again, and my favorite "scoop" of the day is Jerome Corsi's WorldNetDaily report on secret emails between Obama -- personally -- and a Kenyan political leader.

A small glitch: These emails, [pictured] above, appear not to have been written by a native English speaker, unless 'I will kindly wish...' is a phrase I'm just unfamiliar with. They have the unmistakable flavor of solicitations from dying African princes, who need only your bank account details to make you wealthy beyond measure.

At least the Bush National Guard documents were written in the right language.

Notwithstanding the question of whether the emails are in fact from Obama, they do not support statements made by Corsi on the Cunningham broadcast that "I can prove that Odinga signed this agreement to expand Sharia law" or that "Obama knew about that agreement." Nor do they show that "Obama continued to work to get Odinga in power" or that "Obama's been supporting him," as Corsi also claimed.

Rather than challenge Corsi on the veracity of his assertions, Cunningham, whose show is based at Cincinnati radio station WLW, said to Corsi at the conclusion of the interview: "God bless you. That's Jerome Corsi. The truth will set you free. America will hook up with Kenyans and have an Odinga-Obama administration controlling this country? Are you willing to fight like a warrior poet or will you succumb and simply fall over dead? Be a wolverine in the high ranges of the Rockies."

From the October 9 broadcast of Clear Channel's The Big Show with Bill Cunningham:

CORSI: Well, the press conference was explosive, because I could show a link that Obama and Odinga had been in touch since 2006, even through Obama's Senate campaign office. Tomorrow, in WorldNetDaily, I'm gonna publish Obama's email listing the contact in his Senate office to work with Odinga. I can prove that Odinga signed this agreement to expand Sharia law -- that the Muslims voted for him. And I can prove that Obama knew about that agreement. I can also prove those tribal violence -- Odinga lost in December 2007 -- the Luo, his tribe -- Obama's tribe -- killed 1,000 Kikuyu. They burned down 800 -- 800 churches destroyed, some of them burned down.

And I can show that, again, Obama continued to work to get Odinga in power even after the tribal violence. So, this guy Odinga's a very bad guy, and yet Obama's been supporting him despite evidence of how bad Odinga is. So, you know, it raises questions. I was gonna raise questions in the press conference. Is Odinga -- does Obama -- are they both for the expansion of Sharia law? Is the tribal violence to gain power OK with both of them? Because I can show the documents and prove that what I was saying in The Obama Nation is true, and everything I wrote in Chapter Four was more than validated.

[...]

CORSI: Now, I came out of Kenya at least with the documents, again to prove what I wrote in the book is true, and that Obama made a pact with this radical leftist politician Odinga, who is perfectly happy to expand Islamic Sharia law in Kenya and have tribal violence to get power. You know, is Obama gonna expand Sharia law in the United States when he gets into power? Is he gonna, in fact, engage in tribal violence and other -- or other kinds of violence in order to advance his goals? I mean, this is very, very radical behavior, and I can document it with what I came out of Kenya with, despite the attempt to suppress me and arrest me.

CUNNINGHAM: Well, Jerome Corsi, WorldNetDaily.com and also The Obama Nation. I read -- I look at your website every day, several times a day, and it's great work, and I'm glad your safe. Hey, do you look forward to your next trip to Kenya?

CORSI: The final immigration officer closing the door, said, "Don't ever come back to Kenya and see you in hell." I said, "Boy, they oughta appoint you minister of tourism under an Obama administration."

CUNNINGHAM: Jerome Corsi, you're a great American.

CORSI: Thank you, Bill. Great honor to be with you.

CUNNINGHAM: God bless you.

CORSI: God bless you.

CUNNINGHAM: God bless you. That's Jerome Corsi. The truth will set you free. America will hook up with Kenyans and have an Odinga-Obama administration controlling this country. Are you willing to fight like a warrior poet, or will you succumb and simply fall over dead? Be a wolverine in the high ranges of the Rockies. Do not give up the fight to keep hope alive.

a href="http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/10/08/fox_news/"Meet Andy Martin/a, aka Anthony R. Martin-Trigona, perennial losing candidate for public office and qa href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/5/15/21251/3538"one of the truly great vexatious litigators/a./q br / Martin-Trigona is known in the legal community for his prolific ipro se/i litigation, for his frequently anti-Semitic briefs (qI propose a constitutional amendment to seize the property of the Jews,/q he once wrote in a href="http://cases.justia.com/us-court-of-appeals/F2/737/1254/233151/"a bankruptcy filing/a) and for tactics like this:blockquoteTo illustrate the need to protect the identity of the judges a href="http://74.125.113.104/search?q=cache:hsSyjeAJqoUJ:https://www.tourolaw.edu/FTP/SecondCircuit/Pre95/93-5008.rtf+trigona+judge%27s+childrenhl=enct=clnkcd=6gl=us"the appeals court cited/a [a href="https://www.tourolaw.edu/FTP/SecondCircuit/Pre95/93-5008.rtf"original RTF document/a] what it called an quot;outrageous actionquot; taken by Mr. Martin to get back at the federal judge whose rulings displeased him. The court said Mr. Martin had sought to intervene in the judge's divorce case and have himself appointed as the guardian for the judge's children. (from a 1993 a href="http://www.lectlaw.com/files/fun03.htm"WSJ article/a)/blockquoteElsewhere, he's better known for his many quixotic campaigns for public office in Connecticut, Illinois, Florida, and New York. Chicago blogger and journalist Steve Rhodes a href="http://divisionstreet.wordpress.com/2008/10/10/hannity-friends/"quotes/a from a 2006 iChicago Sun-Times/i profile:blockquoteJust minutes earlier, the Near North Side resident was relating how he spent most of 2003 scouring holes in Iraq with two dogs - and a href="http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2003-07-31/news/operation-baghdad/1"pinpointed Saddam Hussein’s whereabouts/a a full two months before U.S. troops.br / br / qIt was what I would call a typical Andy Martin experience,/q he said./blockquoteLast year iThe Nation/i a href="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071112/hayes/single"identified/a Martin-Trigona as the source of the rumors that Barack Obama is a secret Muslim (he's happy to take credit: qThere's nothing sinister here. I was thinking of running for Senate and was looking for a story to put some sizzle on the plate,/q he a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/27/AR2008062703781.html?sid=ST2008062703939s_pos="told/a the iWashington Post/i in June).br / br / And last Sunday, Martin-Trigona a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndo50rszJlQ"appeared/a in the Fox/Sean Hannity documentary iObama amp; Friends: The History of Radicalism/i to speculate on early links between Obama and William Ayers: qI think a community organizer, in Barack Obama's case, was somebody that was in training for radical overthrow of the government./qbr / br / Obama communications director Robert Gibbs a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM-KjMz7PyU"responds/a to Hannity.

On the October 9 edition of MSNBC Live, after she cited an October 8 New York Times article reporting that "[t]ens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law," MSNBC's Contessa Brewer asserted that at a campaign stop in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Sen. John McCain "was talking about the importance of making sure that voters who register get a chance to go vote." Brewer then aired a clip of McCain saying: "There are serious allegations of voter fraud in the battleground states across America. They must be investigated, and no one should corrupt the most precious right we have, and that is the right to vote." As is clear from the statement Brewer aired, McCain was not talking about alleged voter disenfranchisement or allegations that people were being illegally barred from voting, as reported in the Times article to which Brewer referred; rather, he was criticizing alleged efforts to register people who are not eligible to vote.

Indeed, immediately following the portion of McCain's statement Brewer aired -- in which McCain talked about "serious allegations of voter fraud" -- McCain added, "My friends, you've seen -- you've seen the allegations, the multiple regulations [sic] under the same name, the more registered voters than the population," of which he said: "[T]hey must be investigated immediately and they must be stopped before November the 4th." At no point during his remarks did he address the Times' reporting that eligible voters were being removed from the rolls.

After airing the clip, Brewer said McCain's comment represented a "strong statement there from John McCain about these voters getting the opportunity to go in and make their choice known." MSNBC chief Washington correspondent Norah O'Donnell replied: "Yeah, it is interesting, as a lot on the right are raising concerns that ACORN [Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now] may be registering people to vote that are either dead or don't exist or whatever it may be."

From the CQ transcript of McCain's October 9 campaign event (from Nexis):

McCAIN: There's -- could I -- could I just mention? Everyone -- there's someone here who keeps yelling "ACORN, ACORN."

Now, let me just say to you there are serious allegations of voter fraud in the battleground states across America. They must be investigated. And no one should corrupt the most precious right we have, and that is the right to vote.

(APPLAUSE)

My friends, you've seen -- you've seen the allegations, the multiple regulations [sic] under the same name, the more registered voters than the population. You've seen -- these are serious allegations, my friends. And they must be investigated and they must be investigated immediately and they must be stopped before November the 4th so Americans will not...

(APPLAUSE)

... will not be deprived of a fair process in this election.

From the 3 p.m. ET hour of the October 9 edition of MSNBC Live:

O'DONNELL: We're going to continue to update you throughout this hour. We're gonna turn now to politics. Both campaigns are going after every voter possible as the state registration deadlines expire just about every day now leading up to the election.

Today's New York Times reports that tens of thousands of eligible voters in six swing states are actually being removed from the polls or blocked from registering, possibly violating federal law. For a whole new perspective on the swing states, let's go over to my colleague Contessa Brewer on the MSNBC surface.

Contessa, I know you stole that thing from --

BREWER: -- from Chuck Todd --

O'DONNELL: -- Chuck Todd, so show us how it works.

BREWER: -- feeling very territorial now over this surface.

You know, if you're talking about six -- you're talking about six states at this point, Norah, that are having voter registration problems, let's show you the electoral map. The -- if this is the way it's breaking down according to our political unit, if we were to have an election today -- and take a look at the states that are having problems: Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, North Carolina, Colorado, Nevada.

In Michigan, the number is 33,000 people kicked off the voter registration rolls. In Colorado, the number -- 37,000 people kicked off the voter registration rolls. And according to The New York Times, the number of people that have been kicked off far exceeds those who have either died or relocated.

Let me tell you why this matters. Take, for instance, Ohio, where we know we are seeing a very tight race. Twenty electoral votes up for grabs here, and take a look at the most recent poll numbers. We're seeing Barack Obama with 50 percent, John McCain with 47 percent, and that 3-percent difference, that falls within the margin of error. Statistically, this is a tie.

Now, John McCain knows that this is a pivotal battleground state, and today when he was in Waukesha, Wisconsin, he was talking about the importance of making sure that voters who register get a chance to go vote. Let me play it for you.

McCAIN [video clip]: There are serious allegations of voter fraud in the battleground states across America. They must be investigated, and no one should corrupt the most precious right we have, and that is the right to vote.

BREWER: Norah, strong statement there from John McCain about these voters getting the opportunity to go in and make their choice known.

O'DONNELL: Yeah, it is interesting, as a lot on the right are raising concerns that ACORN may be registering people to vote that are either dead or don't exist or whatever it may be.

Let's talk about those registration numbers. I was reading some of these the other day as some of the registrations closed in the states. Huge numbers in some of these battleground states. Now the Democrats outnumber the Republicans in Pennsylvania by over a million people. What have you learned?

BREWER: And take a look at North Carolina here. I mean, these are new voters. If we're taking a look, 208,000 of these are Democrats, 34,000 new Republicans. In Colorado, that number is 80,000 new Democrats, 21,000 new Republicans.

Now, mind you, we're not listing the independents who have just newly registered to vote, but obviously this is a trend that would benefit Barack Obama going into that November election, Norah.

O'DONNELL: Contessa Brewer, great, appreciate it. And Chuck is kind of worried he may be out of a job with you working that surface.

BREWER: I highly doubt that.

O'DONNELL: Thanks, Contessa.

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Finance chiefs of the world's major economies pledged on Friday to prevent big banks from collapse and to work together to stem the financial crisis after another day of gut-wrenching drops on world markets. pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/wJJn5NpJzldSWfOOlH0DpbqUW5Q/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/wJJn5NpJzldSWfOOlH0DpbqUW5Q/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=lQqG0U7B"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=1JsMUO7J"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?i=1JsMUO7J" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=Kaf3RuLE"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?i=Kaf3RuLE" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/reuters/topNews/~4/Yw8Q5aiLMD0" height="1" width="1"/

NEW YORK (AP) -- Angelina Jolie, an advocate of adoption, credits partner Brad Pitt with her decision to have biological children. In an interview with W magazine, Jolie says: "One of the life-changing things that he did, one of many, is that I was absolutely never going to get pregnant. I never felt that it was the right thing to do."...

In Alaska, a legislative panel investigating vice-presidential Sarah Palin has issued a report which finds she unlawfully abused her authority as governor by firing the state’s public safety commissioner. Also, remember that hacked Yahoo Mail account she used to hide correspondence from subpoenas? Snip from NYT: In another setback for Ms. Palin, a judge on Friday ordered the state of Alaska to preserve any government-related e-mail messages that Gov. Sarah Palin sent from private accounts. The ruling, by Craig Stowers of Anchorage superior court, came as the result of a lawsuit brought by a resident, Andree McLeod, against Ms. Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee. Ms. Palin has occasionally used private e-mail accounts to conduct state business, and her Yahoo accounts were hacked last month. The judge ordered the attorney general to contact Yahoo and other private carriers to preserve any e-mail messages sent and received on those accounts. An assistant attorney general told the court that the governor was no longer using here private e-mail accounts to conduct state business. Legislative Panel: Palin Abused Authority (New York Times) Related: Wired reported earlier this week: David Kernell, the student indicted this week for gaining unauthorized access to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's Yahoo account, was allegedly involved in computer intrusion about eight years ago when he was in middle school. He and another student guessed the password of a school server while attending Eastern Hills Middle School in Texas, and gained access to some lesson plans, according to one of Kernell's former teachers. . Palin Hacker Allegedly Involved in Another Computer Intrusion (Threat Level/WIRED)...br style="clear: both;"/ img alt="" style="border: 0; height:1px; width:1px;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?i=5ce67f468b6c4f80a905b8b3cdf11e30" height="1" width="1"/ img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=5ce67f468b6c4f80a905b8b3cdf11e30" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/

TROY, N.Y. (AP) -- Who is running for president? In an upstate New York county, hundreds of voters have been sent absentee ballots in which they could vote for "Barack Osama."...

pimg src="http://paidcontent.org/images/uploads/photo_apatricof.jpg" alt="image" align="right" width="150" height="188" /And while Sequoia and other left-coast VC firms are asking their firms to tighten up, and a href="http://venturebeat.com/2008/10/10/the-sequoia-rip-good-times-presentation-get-your-copy-here/" title="strategically leaking"strategically leaking/a their own advice about surviving the economic downturn (nevermind their investments into some ridiculous companies that don't need to survive this anyway), our own former investor bAlan Patricof/b, founder and managing director of Greycroft Partners, is asking for some restraint in the doom and gloom. His main advice: "This is not a time to panic, cut off all investment in the future, and burrow into a dark hole." The full statement from Patricof, below: /p p "The comments made by the partners of Sequoia Capital at their recently held 'CEO Summit' have been widely covered by leaks to numerous bloggers.nbsp; These bloggers have disseminated the details and spread the contagion of the sentiments to the public at large, unfortunately running the risk that the words become a self-fulfilling prophesy.nbsp; Without challenging the comments, which expressed a heightened degree of doom and gloom for the economic prospects of young start-up companies particularly, I do think it calls for a somewhat more restrained response on the outlook and required action before throwing the baby out with the bath water.nbsp; Certainly, we are going through a period of enormous economic and political uncertainty.nbsp; The loss of confidence, primarily in our financial system, as a result of the excess of the past five to ten years (if not longer - we may never know how long some of the flawed practices have been going on) is one of the leading contributors.nbsp; We are also at the moment looking for leadership on the political front and both because of very low public support for the President and because we are in the midst of a heated election for his successor, we have no real voice of authority to provide some guidance, reassurance, and inspirational confidence that the bus has a driver who knows where he is going. /p p Nevertheless, aside from an over inflated housing boom that had to collapse sooner or later and a complicated financial system that arose in part to fuel this engine, the basic economy was in reasonable shape with GNP growth and productivity gains supporting a solid, if not vibrant outlook.nbsp; (I know the automotive industry is also going through bad times but it no longer pervades the economy as once conveyed in the expression "As GM goes, so goes the nation.") bLots more in extended entry/b... br / /pp Advances in technology are allowing companies to make goods and provide services faster and cheaper.nbsp; The wireless revolution and the Internet have made the dissemination of information easier and more pervasive for the entire world and brought significant benefits to every phase of our economy.nbsp; That is not going to stop although it may temporarily slow down.nbsp; In these difficult times, there will be winners as well as losers (and the former may be fewer in number for a while). /p p The point is, the financial problems are being addressed, if not a bit belatedly, and some international mechanism will be found in short order for some coordinated policy that will restore order and confidence to the system. /p p Most young companies, with which we are specifically concerned, are financed with equity capital.nbsp; That has its positives and negatives; on the one hand, debt is a very small factor in the capital structure of most small companies so loan foreclosures and the interest rate burden are not of prime concern. On the other hand, equity capital, which is provided by private investors, requires confidence in future prospects for reaching profitability and creating a strong market value.nbsp; Certainly under current conditions it is hard to engender such confidence although history has demonstrated that it is in times like these that great opportunities are created.nbsp; I have always said, "The best time to invest is when the drums are beating, not when the trumpets are blaring!" /p p This is surely a time for companies to pay meticulous attention to detail, particularly their cost structure. It is a time to be realistic in their near term assumptions for revenue growth and take nothing for granted.nbsp; Raising additional capital to support operations is of course critical, as it is at any time, but this is particularly a time for young companies to be extra cautious in developing pragmatic assumptions of their needs and in focusing on the amount and not necessarily the cost of that capital. /p p This is not a time to panic, cut off all investment in the future, and burrow into a dark hole.nbsp; Take a page from the packaged goods industry that the time to gain market share is during tough times when your competitors are weaker in responding.nbsp; And while this may feel more directly related to portfolio companies, we as a venture industry should not retreat either.nbsp; It is our strong belief that we can and will continue to make sound investments in excellent opportunities.nbsp; It is as good a time as ever to start a company with sound fundamentals. /p p So my point is to heed the caution of the Sequoia comments but to use them only as a strong message to reexamine all cost elements and growth plans and use this opportunity to assure that you are a survivor.nbsp; Find a way to use this moment to gain your greater share of the market by providing a solution that is needed by others to improve their prospects in the difficult environment ahead.nbsp; Tighten your belt and live within your means.nbsp; Although the timing makes this message seem more prescient, it is a philosophy that works for successful companies at all times and at all stages; it is simply put, good business.nbsp; This is not a time for heroes!" /p piEconWomen, Oct. 29, 2008 | Edison Ballroom | New York City Our panels are jam-packed with top women’s media executives. Register: a href="http://econwomen-RSS.eventbrite.com"http://econwomen.eventbrite.com/a/i/p pa href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/pcorg?a=zRC6vD"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/pcorg?i=zRC6vD" border="0"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=GO1KM"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=GO1KM" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=EN6cM"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=EN6cM" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=0yKfm"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=0yKfm" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=mhWsM"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=mhWsM" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=GPAUM"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=GPAUM" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/pcorg/~4/417283035" height="1" width="1"/

Hundreds of New York voters receive absentee ballots giving them the option to vote for 'Barack Osama'

Abbey Klaassen / AdAge:
YouTube Adds Full-Length CBS Content  —  Select Cable and Network Shows Will Contain In-stream Ads  —  NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — YouTube is getting its Hulu on.  The Google-owned video site has partnered with CBS to air full-length TV shows, starting today.

NEW YORK (Billboard) - At the Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festival in Texas at the end of September, sandwiched between a stage and a small recycling center stood a white dome decorated with colorful cloud patterns. Inside the air-conditioned structure, visitors could get customized T-shirts, temporary tattoos and a mixtape of songs by artists performing at the festival. pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/Ed-A4LmRo6p6tif0kyhOyAC7PNU/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/Ed-A4LmRo6p6tif0kyhOyAC7PNU/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/technologyNews?a=osEiR8At"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/technologyNews?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/technologyNews?a=f5ELjOn8"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/technologyNews?i=f5ELjOn8" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/technologyNews?a=gnaJ5WGu"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/technologyNews?i=gnaJ5WGu" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/reuters/technologyNews/~4/uplri81hURk" height="1" width="1"/

“This is worse than a divorce. I’ve lost half my net worth and I still have a wife,” said one shell-shocked share trader at the end of the worst day on the stock market for twenty years. There was the usual grim and politically incorrect humour. There was the usual blaming of everybody else, particularly the politicians. But the main emotions were panic and fear. Panic at what was happening and fear that it might get worse. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. The Bank of England’s half-point interest rate cut on Wednesday was supposed to show its determination to prevent an economic slowdown turning into a slump. The £500 billion support package for Britain’s banks was supposed to restore confidence in the financial system. But, of course, the unprecedented moves also sent another signal. If the Bank and the Government are prepared to take such desperate measures, they must be really worried. The biggest worry is not that the actions taken by the Government -which are likely to be copied by other countries - will not work to stabilise the financial system. The worry is that even if they do work they will not prevent a deep worldwide recession. It was that fear that lay behind yesterday’s panic in the markets. The crisis has spread way beyond its origins in the US financial system. One of the triggers for the latest stockmarket slump was concerns about General Motors, whose shares tumbled 31 per cent to their lowest since 1950 on Thursday on worries that it might go bankrupt. And investors fear that the economic slowdown in the US and Europe is now spreading to fast-growing Asian markets. The panic in London started as soon as traders saw the slump in New York trading on Thursday night. A sudden collapse in the last hour of trading left American shares down about 7 per cent. Many London traders saw the news on TV screens in City bars where they were quenching the “Thursday thirst”. They left early to get into the office first thing next morning. When they arrived they surveyed the damage in Asia, where the Tokyo market dropped almost 10 per cent, for a fall of 24 per cent on the week. Within minutes of the London market opening at 8am, the FTSE 100 index was down 10 per cent, as more than £100 billion was wiped off the value of Britain’s top 100 companies. Shares swung wildly during the day and the losses were pared back in the afternoon, helped by a rally in early New York trading. But as US shares slumped back London followed, driving the FTSE 100 back down to close 8.9 per cent lower at 3,932. Investors dumped shares and anything deemed remotely risky, putting the money into gold and cash. “There are only two positions you can have in this market: cash or foetal,” was the gag going round the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The volume of trading was relatively light with the big pension funds and insurance companies sitting on the sidelines. This gave the optimists some hope. They argued that much of the fall was due to selling by hedge funds and other investors that had debt secured against their shareholdings. When these fell in value they were forced to sell by their banks, putting further pressure on share prices. Some of the selling was by investors who had been lent money by Icelandic banks that were pulling in their loans after being nationalised this week. But the pessimists said there could be further to go. “The market is trying to find the bottom and it’s just not there,” said the head of one of Britain’s biggest banks. “Irrational fear has gripped and it seems that markets will now trash almost anything that walks. For now it is unstoppable,” said Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist at BGC Partners. The collapse was particularly alarming as it came after this week’s emergency half-point interest rate cuts by Western central banks and the unveiling by the Government of a £500 billion plan to support Britain’s top banks. “We may well see another round of interest rate cuts next week,” said Mr Wheeldon. “Whatever, it is increasingly clear that attempts by the US and UK government to address the vast number of capital market issues just isn’t enough.” The bank support plan was widely acclaimed as stopping the rot in the financial system by forcing the banks to raise more capital, with taxpayers’ money if need be, and by guaranteeing new bank borrowing. In particular, it was hoped that the plan would boost confidence in the banks who have become unwilling to lend to other banks because they fear they may not get the money back. But the interest rate at which banks are prepared to lend to each other has increased since the support plan was unveiled. The head of one of Britain’s leading banks said that confidence should start to improve over the next few days. But some bankers say it is essential that other countries follow the UK lead by forcing their banks to raise capital. Other countries are examining the British plan and the US Government is looking at offering taxpayers’ money to inject into American banks, and considering guaranteeing bank debt. In London, banks were the biggest fallers with Royal Bank of Scotland down 25 per cent and HBOS down 19 per cent, as investors worried about how much the value of existing shares will be diluted by the news of the capital that must be raised. Shares in big mining companies fell sharply on fears that lower growth in India and China will reduce demand and hit metal prices. This also weakened the oil price which fell almost $8 to $78.86, compared with a high of $147 in July. But gold, seen as a safe haven in the current turmoil, rose. There were wild swings in currencies, with the pound falling to $1.69, its lowest level for five years against the dollar, and it was down 1.2 per cent against the euro. Shares in fund management companies fell sharply amid fears that retail investors will pull money out of unit trusts. European stock markets were down in line with London while trading in Moscow was suspended. The meltdown was being dubbed the Crash of 2008 and older traders were comparing it with Black Wednesday in 1987. The fall this week of 21 per cent was not as bad as the 28.3 per cent fall 21 years ago. But some traders were saying it was worse. $“At least then it was a short, sharp, shock on one day. This has been relentless all week.” All eyes are now on the meeting in Washington of finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the West’s leading economies. The US stock market recovered towards the end of trading and the Dow Jones average closed down only 1.5 per cent. If governments can provide some reassurance in Washington the optimists say that shares could rebound on Monday, when New York trading is closed. The doomsters say the FTSE 100 has another 1,000 points to go before it hits bottom. Traders are expected to be in early again on Monday morning.

Yesterday, I blogged about Neil Gaiman's Graveyard Book hitting number one on the New York Times young adult list. Neil read the entire book aloud, a chapter at a time, on his book tour, and uploaded a nightly video, so that when it was done, his reading of the whole book could be viewed for free as a series of video streams. Coincidentally, I also finished listening to the HarperCollins audio edition of Neil reading The Graveyard Book yesterday, and was overwhelmed with delight at what a wonderful, magical, sweet story this is when it's all done. The Graveyard Book retells the Jungle Book, but instead of an orphan boy lost in the jungle, raised and tormented by animals, the Graveyard Book's orphan, Bod, is orphaned by a serial killer and raised in the graveyard by ghosts (thousands of years' worth -- from pre-Roman to Victorian). Like the Jungle Book, the Graveyard Book's story takes the form of a series of loosely linked scenarios describing the childhood and coming of age of the orphan boy, in which his mischief and adventures teach him about the world he lives in and what his place in it must be. It's filled with compassion, mystery, wonder, humor (lots and lots and lots of humor), mythology, and a rich, dark, velvety spookiness that makes it especially lovely when read aloud. Gaiman's reading is, of course, superb. He's part of a very small group of writers who really bring their work to life when they read it aloud (you can hear this for yourself in the videos from the tour). The spooky hurdy-gurdy music on the chapter breaks is also a nice flourish. This is fine work, from beginning to end, and the best bedtime story read-aloud material I've encountered in a long time. Can't wait until my daughter's old enough to read this to. The Graveyard Book audiobook on Amazon The Graveyard Book on Amazon...br style="clear: both;"/ img alt="" style="border: 0; height:1px; width:1px;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?i=df6493494d9c031cf85f9ec8074e0b56" height="1" width="1"/ img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=df6493494d9c031cf85f9ec8074e0b56" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Finance chiefs of the world's major economies pledged on Friday to take decisive action and work together to stem the escalating financial crisis after another day of gut-wrenching drops on world markets. pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/Ki2viIE5QuQ9sJohE1mUD_ra5m8/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/Ki2viIE5QuQ9sJohE1mUD_ra5m8/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=wzGqlEK6"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=erX7PdWn"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?i=erX7PdWn" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=iOjhsHWv"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?i=iOjhsHWv" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/reuters/topNews/~4/3_P0jGrkMzg" height="1" width="1"/

NEW YORK - La Bourse de New York a fini vendredi sans direction claire une séance marquée par une volatilité extrême alors que s'ouvrait ...

NEW YORK (AFP) - Global stock markets went into a freefall Friday as panicked investors found no place to hide, although Wall Street managed to stem the losses in a stomach-churning session of ups and downs.

pLayoffs at Mansueto Ventures, specifically the digital side of Fast Company, the result, we're told, of a decision to fold Mansueto Digital into the company's print operations. At the same time, digital head Ed Sussman is leaving to be CEO at a start-up. (More on that to come.) Twenty employees, primarily in online and marketing, have been laid off, according to a href="http://valleywag.com/5061910/fast-company-publisher-to-lay-off-20" title="Valleywag"Valleywag/a. Earlier this year, Fast Company ramped up on digital, hiring high-profile Robert Scoble and launching a href="http://www.fastcompany.tv/" title="Fast Company TV"Fast Company TV/a. At the same time, Fast Company launched a sweeping social media initiative. Scoble stays on but will report to Fast Company magazine editor Bob Safian, who adds responsibility for a href="http://www.fastcompany.com" title="fastcompany.com"fastcompany.com/a. Scoble a href="http://scobleizer.com/2008/10/10/economic-crisis-hits-home/" title="wrote about the news"wrote about the news/a this afternoon. /p piEconWomen, Oct. 29, 2008 | Edison Ballroom | New York City Our panels are jam-packed with top women’s media executives. Register: a href="http://econwomen-RSS.eventbrite.com"http://econwomen.eventbrite.com/a/i/p pa href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/pcorg?a=JTjISY"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/pcorg?i=JTjISY" border="0"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=Qma8M"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=Qma8M" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=sM6iM"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=sM6iM" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=PIVHm"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=PIVHm" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=lgDUM"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=lgDUM" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=7zdnM"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=7zdnM" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/pcorg/~4/417199113" height="1" width="1"/

It isn't surprising that the conventional wisdom is that the news media have turned on Sen. John McCain. After all, decades of attacks from conservatives have conditioned reporters to believe that they are biased against Republicans -- even when there is scant evidence in the reporting to support such claims. And the McCain campaign has launched an all-out assault on the media, complaining relentlessly about the coverage its candidate has gotten.

On top of all that, McCain historically has been the recipient of the most favorable media coverage of any politician in modern American history. Reporters spent years all but offering to peel McCain a grape. So, just as the media judge a candidate to have "won" a debate if s/he "exceeds expectations," the fact that McCain's coverage hasn't been as hagiographic as expected has led many to conclude that it has actually been unfairly negative.

The truth is that when John McCain says "jump," the media still ask, "How high?" Think about this: When was the last time McCain or his campaign has wanted the news media to focus on something, and they have refused? From "lipstick on a pig" to Bill Ayers, the media have scampered after whatever mud McCain has flung, like a puppy dog chasing a stick thrown by its master. Sure, sometimes they have pointed out that McCain is lying -- and that's tremendous progress for a profession that has spent a decade flatly asserting McCain's honesty. But -- as I've explained in the past -- even as they've debunked McCain's claims, they've too often privileged the lie by allowing those claims to drive their coverage.

And, increasingly, they uncritically quote McCain campaign attacks on Sen. Barack Obama for things McCain himself has done. When a campaign does something like this, the media often point out the hypocrisy, and the attack backfires. But those rules don't apply to John McCain. So when John and Cindy McCain attack Barack Obama for what they describe as a vote to "cut off the funds for the troops," the news media dutifully repeat the charge -- without noting that, by the same logic, McCain also voted to cut off funds for the troops: Obama voted against a funding bill that did not include a timeline for withdrawal; McCain voted against a bill that did include a timeline for withdrawal.

The funding vote has been the subject of some of McCain's nastiest attacks recently. Cindy McCain, for example, claimed Obama's "vote to not fund my son when he was serving sent a cold chill through my body" and lectured: "I would suggest that Senator Obama change shoes with me for just one day. ... I suggest he take a day and go watch our fine young men and women deploy." You would think, then, that media reporting Cindy McCain's purported indignation would note that John McCain also voted against funding. They haven't. Indeed, some have falsely stated the opposite -- that McCain did not cast such a vote. You might even think reporters would ask the McCain campaign if Cindy McCain got a "cold chill" when her husband voted "to not fund [her] son." But there is no indication that any reporter has done so.

But the best indication that McCain has not yet truly "lost his 'base,' " as The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder put it this week, is the glaring media double standard in covering the two presidential candidates' controversial relationships.

Let's start with Bill Ayers, since the news media have spent much of the week obliging McCain's efforts to make him the focus of the campaign. As an activist in the 1960s -- when Barack Obama was a young child -- Bill Ayers was a member of the Weathermen, a group of radical activists who launched a series of violent demonstrations and bombings in protest of the Vietnam War. Ayers is now a professor at the University of Illinois in