Who Spends Most Time on Facebook?

Another great post from my friend Alex Karis…

Who Spends Most Time on Facebook?

JULY 8, 2010

How age, income and ethnicity affect time spent social networking

Embedded media -- click here to see it.

The Nielsen Company reported in June that, on average, the global consumer spends about 1 in every 4.5 minutes online on blogs or social networking sites. According to a report by market researcher Morpace, among US Facebook users time on Facebook rises to 1 in 3 minutes spent online.

Unsurprisingly, despite Facebook’s growing appeal to older users, 18- to 34-year-olds spend the most time on the site per week, at 8.5 hours out of 22.4 spent online. Weekly Facebook time drops to 4.6 hours among users ages 55 and older, representing a lower proportion of that group’s average of 21.5 hours per week on the internet.

Broken down by race and ethnicity, Morpace found Facebook usage heaviest by Asians. Not only did that group spend the most hours per week on the site, but they also devoted the greatest percentage of their weekly internet time to Facebook (39.6%, compared with 35.1% among blacks, the second-highest group). Hispanics spent the fewest hours on Facebook, and even compared with their low average time online came in last.

While the Morpace report showed a decline in both total time online and time on Facebook as incomes rose from less than $50,000 up to $100,000, affluent Facebook users making at least $100,000 annually spent the most time on the site and on the web as a whole.

In Q1 2010, comScore found that the visitors who spent the most time on Facebook also spent the most money online. Targeting users who not only spend large amounts of time on the site but also devote a large proportion of their total online activity to the social network could translate to going after the most lucrative portion of the audience.

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Graph - Telephone is in FREE FALL

Marketing Tactics 2010 - Telephone is in FREE FALL

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Nearly Three-Quarters of Marketers Have Social Strategy

Too good to not repost!

Nearly Three-Quarters of Marketers Have Social Strategy

AUGUST 27, 2010

Debra Aho Williamson Senior Analyst

Embedded media -- click here to see it.

Social media is becoming an even more integral part of the marketing landscape. According to a June 2010 survey by King Fish Media, HubSpot and Junta42, 72% of US companies said they had a social media strategy.

The three companies surveyed 457 US marketers and managers; 52% of respondents were in the publishing, media, advertising and marketing industries.

The figure is one of the highest percentages yet among surveys that queried marketers on whether they had a social strategy. In May 2010, Digital Brand Expressions found that 52% of social marketers were “operating without a game plan,” similar to the 50% found in April 2010 by R2integrated.

Marketers are realizing that a strategy is important because it allows them to plan their social activities on a long-term basis rather than focus on one-off experiments. King Fish and its partners found that 75% of the companies with a social strategy said they planned to increase their investment in the next year.

As marketers continue to invest in social media, its share of marketing budgets is expected to rise. A February 2010 survey by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business found that respondents were devoting 5.6% of their marketing budget to social media, up from 3.5% six months prior. And marketers expected the allocation to increase even further, to 9.9% in the next 12 months and 17.7% within five years.

Companies in the King Fish survey were divided on where the budget for social initiatives would come from, however. While 35% thought that funds would be allocated to a specific custom project, 33% said their company would increase marketing expenditures to focus more on social media.

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O.C. economy slowing, but no double dip

O.C. economy slowing, but no double dip

O.C.Register

August 26th, 2010 by Mary Ann Milbourn

 After a spurt earlier in the year, Orange County's economic recovery is slowing but it is unlikely to fall into a double dip recession, Wells Fargo Bank's senior economist said today.

Scott A. Anderson told a Wells Fargo breakfast group in Irvine that he expects local employment to decline 0.2% this year — not good but better than the -7.4% in 2009.

Next year, however, he predicts hiring in Orange County will grow at a 1.6% pace, outperforming the state, which will see 1.1% job growth.

"The big drag in Orange County going forward is the state and local budget problems — you're seeing some pretty big job losses," he said.

Nationwide, Anderson said the recovery has slowed considerably. He expects second quarter gross domestic product growth to be revised downward on Friday to 1.2% to 1.5% from the previous 2.4%.

That's a major pullback from the first quarter when the Bureau of Economic Analysis said GDP grew at 3.7% pace.

"We're in a quicksand recovery," said Anderson, noting the economy can't seem to gain traction in jobs or other economic growth.  "We keep getting pulled into this morass."

He said the one thing he is watching now is whether people are simply pausing in the recovery or whether they are starting to revise their business plans. He placed the odds of a double dip recession at the national level at 25%.

The major problem is that the economy remains weighed down by the housing bubble, Anderson said. With foreclosures this year likely to approach 2009's high levels, he expects home prices to drop another 6% over the next 12 months.

"Orange County won't be able to avoid lower home prices," he said, with a 6% drop likely here, too.

That means Orange County would give back most or all of the price gains homeowners have seen this year. Recent real estate surveys say local home prices were up 3% to 6% in July over July 2009.

Anderson noted that in the first half of the year, Orange County's economy was showing some strength, with a net gain of 29,000 jobs through June. July's loss of 10,300 jobs may have been an anomaly due to the layoff of temporary census workers, he said.

"Even with the monthly job loss in July, Orange County’s employment performance year-on-year improved to a positive 0.5%, while U.S. employment was unchanged from a year ago," Anderson said.

Orange County has benefited from growth in leisure and hospitality jobs as Americans vacation closer to home.

"That's a big driver for the economy in this community," Anderson said.

Still the county has a deep hole to dig out of. He noted employment here dropped 10% from peak to trough during the recession, twice the national rate. Local employment in financial services and manufacturing both fell 25% and jobs in construction dropped 40%.

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Obama Plans Refinancing Aid, Loans for Jobless Homeowners, HUD Chief Says

Obama Plans Refinancing Aid, Loans for Jobless Homeowners, HUD Chief Says

Bloomberg 

By Holly Rosenkrantz - Aug 30, 2010

The Obama administration plans to set up an emergency loan program for the unemployed and a government mortgage refinancing effort in the next few weeks to help homeowners after home sales dropped in July, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said.

“The July numbers were worse than we expected, worse than the general market expected, and we are concerned,” Donovan said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program yesterday. “That’s why we are taking additional steps to move forward.”

The administration will begin a Federal Housing Authority refinancing effort to help borrowers who are struggling to pay their mortgages, and will start an emergency homeowners’ loan program for unemployed borrowers so they can stay in their homes, Donovan said.

“We’re going to continue to make sure folks have access to home ownership,” he said.

Sales of U.S. new homes unexpectedly dropped in July to the lowest level on record, signaling that even with cheaper prices and reduced borrowing costs the housing market is retreating. Purchases fell 12 percent from June to an annual pace of 276,000, the weakest since the data began in 1963.

Sales of existing houses plunged by a record 27 percent in July as the effects of a government tax credit waned, showing a lack of jobs threatens to undermine the U.S. economic recovery.

House Sales Plummet

Purchases plummeted to a 3.83 million annual pace, the lowest in a decade of record keeping and worse than the most pessimistic forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, figures from the National Association of Realtors showed last week. Demand for single-family houses dropped to a 15-year low and the number of homes on the market swelled.

U.S. home prices fell 1.6 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier as record foreclosures added to the inventory of properties for sale. The annual drop followed a 3.2 percent decline in the first quarter, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said last week in a report.

Donovan said on CNN yesterday that it is too soon to say whether the administration’s $8,000 first-time homebuyer credit tax credit, which expired April 30, will be revived.

“All I can tell you is that we are watching very carefully,” Donovan said. “We’re going to be focused like a laser on where the housing market is moving going forward, and we are going to go everywhere we can to make sure this market stabilizes and recovers.”

Reviving the tax credit would “help enormously” in the effort to fight foreclosures and revive the economy, Florida Governor Charlie Crist said on the same CNN program. Florida has the third-highest home foreclosure rate in the country, with one in every 171 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing this year.

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The Formula for Failure and Success by Jim Rohn

The Formula for Failure and Success by Jim Rohn

Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. We do not fail overnight. Failure is the inevitable result of an accumulation of poor thinking and poor choices. To put it more simply, failure is nothing more than a few errors in judgment repeated every day.

Now why would someone make an error in judgment and then be so foolish as to repeat it every day? The answer is because he or she does not think that it matters.

On their own, our daily acts do not seem that important. A minor oversight, a poor decision, or a wasted hour generally doesn't result in an instant and measurable impact. More often than not, we escape any immediate consequences of our deeds.

If we have not bothered to read a single book in the past ninety days, this lack of discipline does not seem to have any immediate impact on our lives. And since nothing drastic happened to us after the first ninety days, we repeat this error in judgment for another ninety days, and on and on it goes. Why? Because it doesn't seem to matter. And herein lies the great danger. Far worse than not reading the books is not even realizing that it matters!

Those who eat too many of the wrong foods are contributing to a future health problem, but the joy of the moment overshadows the consequence of the future. It does not seem to matter. Those who smoke too much or drink too much go on making these poor choices year after year after year... because it doesn't seem to matter. But the pain and regret of these errors in judgment have only been delayed for a future time. Consequences are seldom instant; instead, they accumulate until the inevitable day of reckoning finally arrives and the price must be paid for our poor choices—choices that didn't seem to matter.

Failure's most dangerous attribute is its subtlety. In the short term those little errors don't seem to make any difference. We do not seem to be failing. In fact, sometimes these accumulated errors in judgment occur throughout a period of great joy and prosperity in our lives. Since nothing terrible happens to us, since there are no instant consequences to capture our attention, we simply drift from one day to the next, repeating the errors, thinking the wrong thoughts, listening to the wrong voices and making the wrong choices. The sky did not fall in on us yesterday; therefore the act was probably harmless. Since it seemed to have no measurable consequence, it is probably safe to repeat.

But we must become better educated than that!

If at the end of the day when we made our first error in judgment the sky had fallen in on us, we undoubtedly would have taken immediate steps to ensure that the act would never be repeated. Like the child who places his hand on a hot burner despite his parents' warnings, we would have had an instantaneous experience accompanying our error in judgment.

Unfortunately, failure does not shout out its warnings as our parents once did. This is why it is imperative to refine our philosophy in order to be able to make better choices. With a powerful, personal philosophy guiding our every step, we become more aware of our errors in judgment and more aware that each error really does matter.

Now here is the great news. Just like the formula for failure, the formula for success is easy to follow: It's a few simple disciplines practiced every day.

Now here is an interesting question worth pondering: How can we change the errors in the formula for failure into the disciplines required in the formula for success? The answer is by making the future an important part of our current philosophy.

Both success and failure involve future consequences, namely the inevitable rewards or unavoidable regrets resulting from past activities. If this is true, why don't more people take time to ponder the future? The answer is simple: They are so caught up in the current moment that it doesn't seem to matter. The problems and the rewards of today are so absorbing to some human beings that they never pause long enough to think about tomorrow.

But what if we did develop a new discipline to take just a few minutes every day to look a little further down the road? We would then be able to foresee the impending consequences of our current conduct. Armed with that valuable information, we would be able to take the necessary action to change our errors into new success-oriented disciplines. In other words, by disciplining ourselves to see the future in advance, we would be able to change our thinking, amend our errors and develop new habits to replace the old.

One of the exciting things about the formula for success—a few simple disciplines practiced every day—is that the results are almost immediate. As we voluntarily change daily errors into daily disciplines, we experience positive results in a very short period of time. When we change our diet, our health improves noticeably in just a few weeks. When we start exercising, we feel a new vitality almost immediately. When we begin reading, we experience a growing awareness and a new level of self-confidence. Whatever new discipline we begin to practice daily will produce exciting results that will drive us to become even better at developing new disciplines.

The real magic of new disciplines is that they will cause us to amend our thinking. If we were to start today to read the books, keep a journal, attend the classes, listen more and observe more, then today would be the first day of a new life leading to a better future. If we were to start today to try harder, and in every way make a conscious and consistent effort to change subtle and deadly errors into constructive and rewarding disciplines, we would never again settle for a life of existence—not once we have tasted the fruits of a life of substance!

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Everybody Calm Down! Armageddon Is NOT Upon Us!

Everybody Calm Down. Armageddon Is NOT Upon Us!

by Steve Harney on August 26, 2010 ·

The new housing numbers have definitely been a major news story over the last 48 hours. The Dow dropped over 100 points on the announcement of July’s existing sales numbers. The cries of a double-dip sound like the screams of Chicken Little: ‘The sky is falling! The sky is falling!’ Pundits are claiming real estate will never be looked at the same again. We asked Steve Harney to comment on what the report actual means to the housing recovery. As always, he was more than willing to share his insights. – The KCM Crew

I want to start by saying that Armageddon is not upon us. Was NAR’s Existing Home Sales Report tough to read? Yes. Were there any surprises in the report? Just one: the fact that prices have remained stable. And that was good news.

All the panic and gut-wrenching revolves around two numbers:

1. The lack of sales in July
2. The months’ supply of inventory now available

Neither number was a surprise to anyone truly following the real estate market. Right here in this blog, the KCM Crew has been claiming for the last nine months that sales in 2010 will be approximately what they were in 2009. The tax credit moved many purchases forward as buyers wanted to be in contract before the April 30 deadline. That push forward of demand created a false sense of hope that a major market comeback was taking place in the spring. It also created this current vacuum of demand during the summer.

Just as we should have realized that the great market of the spring could not be sustained, we must now realize that plummeting sales numbers will not continue. It may take one or two months for the impact of the tax credit to fully dissipate. After that, we will see a more normal buyer demand throughout the fall and winter. We must not forget that people decide to move every day. Prices are great, interest rates are at historic lows and the assortment of properties for sale is fabulous. Buyers will buy!!

In regard to the months’ supply of homes for sale, we must remember one basic principle: prices will come down if demand is constant and inventory increases. Houses will sell over the next twelve months, approximately 5 million of them. There may be more than double that amount trying to sell however. Which ones will sell? Those that are priced correctly for the current market. Your price must be compelling in order to make your home attractive to today’s buyers who have a tremendous selection of homes from which to choose.

As the year moves forward, it is my belief that months’ inventory will remain in double digit numbers. That means that prices will continue to soften.

What does this mean to you?                                                                      

You definitely will be able to sell your home and move on with your life. If that’s the goal, you will do better financially if you do it sooner rather than later.

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Five Top Tips for Personal Branding

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

Five Top Tips for Personal Branding

Personal branding is how you portray yourself to the world. It is how others actually see you, not necessarily how you may want to come across. One can create a positive brand image as a successful entrepreneur, but one can also come across as a criminal—a negative brand image. To make sure your personal branding reflects what you desire, see the following five top tips on using personal branding to succeed in your Internet marketing efforts.

Focus Your Personal Branding Efforts

Everyone is an expert on something. Put another way, no one is an expert on everything. Personal branding starts with finding those certain areas of knowledge and experience that you have accumulated that are significantly greater than the Average Joe. Find those one, two, or three things to focus on for personal branding, and write and work on those. Establishing your area of expertise is the first step in personal branding.

Find Your Voice

With personal branding, you are not an everyman – by definition, personal branding means that you are a unique being with a completely fresh perspective on things. Make sure you sound like one in your blog posts and articles and on your site. Your personal branding should be compelling and strong. To define your brand, ask yourself these questions: What is it that makes me special? Why should anyone care? Why should my customers give me some of their precious time?

Consistency, Consistency, Consistency

It’s not enough to show up on time for only one day. You have to do it again and again and again. Show consistency in personal branding: You have to portray the same personal branding in everything you do, from your home page to your contact form, from your emails to your webinars. Everything communicates your personal branding message.

Personal branding may require an investment. Spend the money to have your website professionally done and even have your articles ghostwritten if necessary. If there is a chink in the personal branding armor, someone will find it, and that one chink can be your undoing. Misspellings, grammatical errors, typos… all of these detract from your personal branding.

Get the Word Out

If you’ve taken the steps above, you’re ready to launch your personal brand. Publicize your personal brand through Internet marketing.

See how far you come rise up in the Google rankings and take steps to improve your position. “Network” your personal branding by linking to other sites that portray the appropriate image and are related to your field. Comment on the work of others (only positive) to start. Make sure to identify yourself – people need to know who you are in order to become familiar with your personal branding – and provide a link to your site.

Paid advertising opportunities such as pay-per-click can be helpful in personal branding as well. If something works, consider increasing your spending on that venue to further amplify your personal branding message.

Personal Branding Doesn’t Just Come From You

Other people also participate in your personal branding. Search the Internet periodically to find out what is being said about you, and take steps to protect your personal branding by counteracting any bad information. Unaddressed complaints or accusations are highly detrimental to your personal branding. Similarly, if someone is singing your praises, it’s always nice to acknowledge this, which further helps in positive personal branding.

If your personal branding is successful, eventually you can hire someone to do all of this for you. Just remember to monitor their work to ensure that the reputable, positive personal branding you worked so hard to create stays that way.

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Inspirational Video of Stacy Westfall - her dad died just 24 days before this competition

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Skeleton puppet dancing and singing. Funny!

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Text for Duane's Real Estate Video of the Day for August 27

Duane’s Real Estate Video August 27

“It’s a great day to be in real estate! Duane Beisner here… sales manager and a sales representative for ERA real estate.
	Duane’s Quote of the Day There is much satisfaction in work well done, but there can be no happiness equal to the joy of finding a heart that understands.  -- Victor Robinsoll

Duane’s Joke of the Day

The CIA had an opening for an assassin. After all of the background checks, interviews, and testing were done there were three finalists...
Two men and a woman.
For the final test, the CIA agents took one of the men to a large metal door and handed him a gun.
"We must know that you will follow your instructions, no matter what the circumstances.
In side of this room, you will find your wife sitting in a chair. Kill Her!!!"
The man said, "You can't be serious. I could never shoot my wife."
The agent said, "Then you're not the right man for this job."
The second man was given the same instructions. He took the gun and went into the room. All was quiet for about five minutes. Then the man came out
with tears in his eyes." I tried, but I can't kill my wife."
The agent said, "You don't have what it takes. Take your wife and go home."
Finally, it was the woman's turn. She was given the same instructions to kill her husband.
She took the gun and went into the room. Shots were heard, one shot after another. They heard screaming, crashing, banging on the walls.
After a few minutes, all was quiet. The door opened slowly and there stood the woman.
She wiped the sweat from her brow, and said, "This gun is loaded with blanks. I had to beat him to death with the chair."

Duane’s Business Tip of the Day

Trying to be successful in two careers simultaneously is like being married to two different people at the same time.

Think about it.

Darwin Award of the Day

(30 May 2009, Louisiana) Back seat drivers beware! Annoyed at how slowly her boyfriend was driving, Tamera B, 22, encouraged him to pick up the pace so she could get to work on time. Joking that it would be faster to walk to work, she opened the door of the pickup truck and stuck her foot out before falling to her death.

But wait! Was her complaint valid? Nope. Deputies of the jurisdictional Sheriff's Office stated that the truck was traveling at highway speed on I-12 at the time of the incident. Her death was ruled accidental.

Duane’s Social Commentary

I thought this article was very interesting…

"Who's hotter — Republican women or Democratic women?"

A local Minnesota Republican Party operative yesterday waded into one of the signature political issues of our time: "Who's hotter — Republican women or Democratic women?"

The Senate District 56 GOP Party posted a Web video yesterday laying out its position on the hotness question. It leads with images of prominent Republicans such as Sarah Palin, Michelle Malkin, and Michele Bachmann; the soundtrack, naturally, is the Tom Jones chestnut, "She's a Lady."

Then, there's an abrupt switch to the other side of the aisle. The theme is subtly conveyed with the strains of the Baha Men hit "Who Let the Dogs Out?" Photos of Michelle Obama, Janet Reno, Rosie O'Donnell and Hillary Clinton flash on the screen.

The video quickly made its viral way through the blogosphere, and provoked strong reaction from state politicos and others. State Democratic chairman Brian Melendez called the video "sexist and offensive."

"The day when a woman was judged by her looks rather than her competence and intelligence should have passed three generations ago," Melendez said in a statement Tuesday. "But apparently Republican leaders in the year 2010 still think of that bygone era as the good old days, and want to bring it back." Melendez called for the video's removal and an apology from branch GOP chairman Joe Salmon.

Local Republican state House candidate Andrea Kieffer also requested that the video be removed, Paul Schmelzer reports for the Minnesota Independent. Kieffer called the video a "juvenile attempt at 'marketing.' "

"This is not something I would condone, and I am sending a request that the webmaster take it down immediately," she wrote in communication with the Independent.

As of Wednesday morning, the party had removed the video from its website.

Still, Salmon took a parting shot at what he seems to view as the humorless enforcers of political correctness. "It [is] really unfortunate to relearn that the other side is severely lacking a sense of humor," Salmon tweeted Tuesday.

Calls and emails to Salmon and the site's webmaster were not immediately returned Wednesday morning. But webmaster Randy Brown told the Minnesota Independent yesterday that the video was mainly intended to inject levity in the election season. "[I]ts only intention was to bring a smile to a few peoples' faces, and possibly irritate a few others. Is it fair? Does that matter? It wasn't intended to be fair. It was intended to be funny," Brown said.

Politicians — Republicans and Democrats alike — actually didn't find it very funny when they argued Palin was the target of sexism during her 2008 vice presidential campaign. Palin herself branded Newsweek's November '09 cover photo of her in running shorts as sexist. That same image is the first photo that appears in the Minnesota GOP group's video.

It also seems that the district's image might benefit if GOP workers spent a bit less time compiling cheeky viral videos and a bit more time proofreading the party's Web page. Here's its mission statement:

"OUR MISSION: Senate District 56 Republicans [sic] exist to promote our Republican principals [sic], to help elect Republican’s [sic] to the various offices which represent our area and reflect our beliefs. We in the district support each other and our neighbors to have government enable us to succeed, and not us enabling government to grow."

Even though the offending video has been removed from the District 56 website, it of course lives on in YouTube — with the clear disclaimer that it's meant to provoke a strong reaction, and plainly succeeds. Because of its content, YouTube also requests that users register and confirm they are over the age of 18 prior to viewing. With all that in mind, the link to the video is here.

The video furor marks just the latest episode in a long season of election-year gaffes. Here's a sampling:

·                     A New Hampshire state legislator resigned last week after joking that Sarah Palin should also have died in the plane crash that killed former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.

·                     Democratic Rep. Mike McMahon of New York fired an aide after she issued a memo highlighting "Jewish money" donations to McMahon's challenger.

·                     Republican Rep. Zach Wamp, candidate for governor, last month walked back his suggestion that Tennessee secede from the federal government.

·                     Ken Buck, a tea party candidate for Colorado Senate, apologized last month for disparaging "birthers."

·                     A tea party group in Iowa removed a billboard likening Obama to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin after numerous protests persuaded group leaders that it detracted from the intended message, warning against the depredations of big government.

Duane’s Real Estate News MBA – delinquencies down overall but first time delinquencies up According to the latest data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), the nation's overall delinquency rate dropped to 9.85% in the second quarter, down from 10.06% of all loans outstanding three months earlier.  The percentage of seriously delinquent loans -- ones 90+ days late or already repossessed by lenders -- dropped to 9.11% from 9.54% in the first quarter.  The drop in loans 90 days or more lately was the biggest the MBA has ever recorded, according to the MBA's chief economist, Jay Brinkmann. "That shows we're making headway," he said.  He cited three reasons for the improvement: Fewer loans are coming into the default process; The homebuyers tax credit, which increased demand for homes, generated many pre-foreclosure sales, removing the attached delinquent loans from the statistics;  The government and lender-led mortgage modifications "cured" some payment problems.  However, even with those bright spots, there was one troubling finding: First-time delinquencies increased after four quarters of decline. It inched up to 3.51% in the second quarter from 3.45% in the first quarter. According to Brinkmann, the reversal reflects the weakness in both the housing market and the overall economy.  "It's a question of jobs," he said. "It takes a paycheck to make a mortgage payment."

I need to say this again… this market right now is the BEST Buyer’s Market you or I will ever see in our lifetime. If you or anyone who you may know is looking to buy a home or sell a home anywhere in the world, let me know. I can help.

If you are looking to make a move to real estate as a career, please shoot me an email or give me a call.

This is Duane signing off. Happy Trails to you! As always, I am proud to be an American. You can email me at duane.beisner@era.com...  Or visit my website at www.rejedi.com.

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Duane's Real Estate Video for the Day for August 27

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Announcement of a Play That My Daughter is In

Download now or preview on posterous

Cheaters.pdf (116 KB)

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21 Suggestions For Success

 Great article I saw posted...

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Archaeologists Discover Civil War Artifacts In Georgia

Interesting article... not just for Re-enactors like me...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129278077

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"Who's hotter - Republican women or Democratic women?"

A local Minnesota Republican Party operative yesterday waded into one of the signature political issues of our time: "Who's hotter — Republican women or Democratic women?"

The Senate District 56 GOP Party posted a Web video yesterday laying out its position on the hotness question. It leads with images of prominent Republicans such as Sarah Palin, Michelle Malkin, and Michele Bachmann; the soundtrack, naturally, is the Tom Jones chestnut, "She's a Lady."

Then, there's an abrupt switch to the other side of the aisle. The theme is subtly conveyed with the strains of the Baha Men hit "Who Let the Dogs Out?" Photos of Michelle Obama, Janet Reno, Rosie O'Donnell and Hillary Clinton flash on the screen.

The video quickly made its viral way through the blogosphere, and provoked strong reaction from state politicos and others. State Democratic chairman Brian Melendez called the video "sexist and offensive."

"The day when a woman was judged by her looks rather than her competence and intelligence should have passed three generations ago," Melendez said in a statement Tuesday. "But apparently Republican leaders in the year 2010 still think of that bygone era as the good old days, and want to bring it back." Melendez called for the video's removal and an apology from branch GOP chairman Joe Salmon.

Local Republican state House candidate Andrea Kieffer also requested that the video be removed, Paul Schmelzer reports for the Minnesota Independent. Kieffer called the video a "juvenile attempt at 'marketing.' "

"This is not something I would condone, and I am sending a request that the webmaster take it down immediately," she wrote in communication with the Independent.

As of Wednesday morning, the party had removed the video from its website.

Still, Salmon took a parting shot at what he seems to view as the humorless enforcers of political correctness. "It [is] really unfortunate to relearn that the other side is severely lacking a sense of humor," Salmon tweeted Tuesday.

Calls and emails to Salmon and the site's webmaster were not immediately returned Wednesday morning. But webmaster Randy Brown told the Minnesota Independent yesterday that the video was mainly intended to inject levity in the election season. "[I]ts only intention was to bring a smile to a few peoples' faces, and possibly irritate a few others. Is it fair? Does that matter? It wasn't intended to be fair. It was intended to be funny," Brown said.

Politicians — Republicans and Democrats alike — actually didn't find it very funny when they argued Palin was the target of sexism during her 2008 vice presidential campaign. Palin herself branded Newsweek's November '09 cover photo of her in running shorts as sexist. That same image is the first photo that appears in the Minnesota GOP group's video.

It also seems that the district's image might benefit if GOP workers spent a bit less time compiling cheeky viral videos and a bit more time proofreading the party's Web page. Here's its mission statement:

"OUR MISSION: Senate District 56 Republicans [sic] exist to promote our Republican principals [sic], to help elect Republican’s [sic] to the various offices which represent our area and reflect our beliefs. We in the district support each other and our neighbors to have government enable us to succeed, and not us enabling government to grow."

Even though the offending video has been removed from the District 56 website, it of course lives on in YouTube — with the clear disclaimer that it's meant to provoke a strong reaction, and plainly succeeds. Because of its content, YouTube also requests that users register and confirm they are over the age of 18 prior to viewing. With all that in mind, the link to the video is here.

The video furor marks just the latest episode in a long season of election-year gaffes. Here's a sampling:

·                     A New Hampshire state legislator resigned last week after joking that Sarah Palin should also have died in the plane crash that killed former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.

·                     Democratic Rep. Mike McMahon of New York fired an aide after she issued a memo highlighting "Jewish money" donations to McMahon's challenger.

·                     Republican Rep. Zach Wamp, candidate for governor, last month walked back his suggestion that Tennessee secede from the federal government.

·                     Ken Buck, a tea party candidate for Colorado Senate, apologized last month for disparaging "birthers."

·                     A tea party group in Iowa removed a billboard likening Obama to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin after numerous protests persuaded group leaders that it detracted from the intended message, warning against the depredations of big government.

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Duane's Real Estate Joke of the Day for August 27

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Duane's Business Tip of the Day for August 27

Trying to be successful in two careers simultaneously is like being  married to two different people at the same time.

Think about it.

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Duane's Positive Quote of the Day for August 27

There is much satisfaction in work well done, but there can be no happiness equal to the joy of finding a heart that understands. 

-- Victor Robinsoll

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Federal foreclosure prevention program is struggling

Federal foreclosure prevention program is struggling

Under the main Obama administration program to ease foreclosures, fewer than 37,000 homeowners received permanently lowered mortgage payments in July. Modification cancellations are up.

By Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times August 21, 2010

Reporting from Washington

Just as the housing market recovery has stalled, so has the Obama administration's main program to ease home foreclosures.

Only 36,695 homeowners received permanently lowered mortgage payments in July through the much-criticized Home Affordable Modification Program, the smallest increase since December, administration officials said Friday.

And the number of people dropping out of the program continued to soar. Overall, nearly half the homeowners who entered the program since it launched in March of last year have dropped out.

Many had hoped the $75-billion program would be a silver bullet to the foreclosure problem, but it's turned out to be a dud, said independent banking analyst Bert Ely. That's not surprising, he said, given the depth of the housing market crash and recession, combined with a slow recovery.

"Even with a substantial reduction in mortgage payment and even some reduction in principal, you still have people who are over their head financially because of their reduced financial circumstances," Ely said. "Isn't it time to just rethink this whole business of modification … and let the market clear through foreclosures and short sales?"

The Los Angeles-Orange County area continued to have the most active trial and permanent modifications under the program, with 44,617 total modifications in July, or 6.6% of the national total. But that was down from 48,846 total modifications in June.

The Inland Empire was third nationwide, with 35,169 total modifications in July, or 5.2% of the total.

So far, 434,716 homeowners nationwide have received permanent modifications since the program began last year. The pace had picked up significantly starting in December after administration officials began pressuring mortgage servicers to convert more three-month trials under the program into permanent modifications.

The number of permanent modifications nearly tripled from January to May. Even in June, the administration reported that more than 50,000 new permanently modified mortgages were added.

July's slowdown in the program's growth comes amid a struggling real estate market.

During the second quarter of the year, there were a record 269,952 home foreclosures, up 38% from the same period a year earlier, according to Irvine research firm RealtyTrac. Last month, Southern California home sales plunged 21.4% compared with a year earlier, according to research firm MDA DataQuick of San Diego.

"While there has been some stabilization in the housing market, it remains clear that we have more work ahead," said Raphael Bostic, an assistant secretary at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The Obama administration program provides cash incentives to servicers to modify mortgages. Homeowners who qualify first get a three-month trial modification with lower payments. If they make those payments, the modification can be made permanent. Only at that point does the servicer get the incentive payment.

The administration's stated goal was to modify 3 million to 4 million mortgages through 2012.

The pace of new, temporary mortgage modifications under the program slowed in July, increasing just 1.3% to 1.3 million. Overall, about 47% of trial modifications started since the program began have been canceled. In addition, 12,912 permanent modifications have been canceled, mostly because the homeowner missed at least three straight payments.

Increasing numbers of cancellations were the latest problem for the administration's modification program, which has been plagued by complaints from homeowners of bureaucratic runarounds by servicers, including lost paperwork and unreturned phone calls.

Herbert M. Allison Jr., the Treasury Department's assistant secretary for financial stability, said the administration expected cancellations to continue as mortgage servicers work through earlier modifications that were made without documentation. Those stated-income modifications were needed last year because so many people were in need of quick foreclosure assistance, he said.

Many of the homeowners who got those early modifications under the program were removed because it turned out they "did not meet the qualifications for various reasons, such as income levels or the fact that they were not in the home itself," Allison said.

But many of those who were canceled out of the program have been helped by modifications made outside of the Obama administration program.

For the eight largest mortgage servicers, including Bank of America, CitiMortgage and Wells Fargo Bank, 45% of homeowners whose trial modifications were cancelled received an alternative modification. Wells Fargo reported Friday that 87% of the 520,399 active modifications it had done from Jan. 1 to July 31 were through its own programs.

Administration officials said the housing market had stabilized significantly since Obama took office in January 2009, and stressed that homeowners with permanent modifications had a median payment reduction of 36%, or more than $500 a month.

But Bostic said administration officials are not "in happy land" and that the market was not yet "out of the woods."

Ely said one flaw with the administration's modification program is that it does not adequately take into account all the other debts faced by homeowners.

"There's been this hype that you could wave a magic wand, change a few things [with the mortgage payment] and everything would be hunky-dory," Ely said. "It's not playing out this way."

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A Village in Holland .. With no roads AT ALL and other photos

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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