Thursday, September 2, 2010

foreclosure law

Problem: Want of truthful, complete, and accurate education is what causes opinions to become based more on hearsay and faulty conjecture. Over stimulation and mind-altering propaganda coupled with intellectual lethargy cause a want of intellectual power and acuity among "should-be" students, which subsequently leads to the contentment of being spoon-fed your own opinion by others rather than the active, fervent, and diligent search for truth that will truly set most of you free.

Solution: Force yourself, no matter how hard it seems to be, to truly think and cogitate by yourself, without the aid of others. Force yourself to form your own conclusions that are not altered or influenced by social acceptability. Remember, if you come across a nugget of irrefutable truth, and others persecute you for either discovering it, or speaking it, then you should really re-think where their motivation comes from. Darkness HATES the light.

Facts for you all to chew on:

1. It appears to be true that the phrase "sovereign citizen" has been used by individuals and groups who may or may not have "good" or "moral" intentions.

2. It also appears to be true that it is important to certain individuals and groups to ascribe and associate the words "sovereign citizen" and their meanings to individuals and/or groups who have a perceivable negative connotation about them.

3. No one here has asked why that is.

4. In 1913, the federal constitution was illegally and unconstitutionally amended by a de facto congress among highly suspicious circumstances to create the Federal Reserve Banking System. A central bank. An idea, made clear by their own writings to be abhorrent to the founding fathers and in no way by an authority granted by the People through the constitution. The word "bank" is nowhere to be found in the constitution. The writers knew of banks, knew of the word "bank," yet never included it in the constitution.

5. During the 1930s and 40s in particular, the congress, without authority, unconstitutionally granted essentially dictatorial authority and power to president in response to the dire circumstances created by the fraudulently initiated depression.

6. The depression was a direct result of the inflation/deflation caused by the very nature of the new banking system coupled with the market manipulation of the "elite" families of this country and their foreign friends.

7. In the 1930s, the president ordered the closing of banks (bank holiday). Private banks. Then he ordered the American People to surrender their gold, all of it except a very small amount (small jewelry).

8. The REAL money that the American People had used (gold & silver) since day one, was confiscated and replaced with FIAT paper money backed by debt/credit, not real valuable materials with inherent and stable value. Effectively and actually what was essentially done was Americans gave everything that gave them economic power, the private ownership of their own money, over to the PRIVATE owners of the "Federal" Reserve Bank. Which by the way is NOT OWNED OR OPERATED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. The assets (gold, silver, real property, present and future LABOR/productivity) of the American People were pledged to international bankers in return for practically UNLIMITED CREDIT.

9. Around the same time period, the common law (the law UNDER which the constitution was written) was being extinguished and replaced by equity law. (ROMAN CIVIL LAW). Despite the information speard around about the "common law" and despite what attorneys are taught in their 3 years at law school, the common law is the system of law that allows the people of a republic to remain as free as possible. It is inherently an adversarial system that applies "real world" concepts, logic, and reason to issues for resolution or settlement. Equity law is a fictitious law system that is like playing Monopoly and making your own rules, and enforcing those rules your way. Civil law allows government to have power, sometimes more power than the citizens. Common law leaves ALL OF THE POWER in the hands of the People. That is why according to the original constitution, the founding fathers acknowledged the common law as the supreme law and made SURE it was made available through the courts to the people in all cases.

10. The fictitious "law" that equity or civil law is, is a needed tool to make things legal that ought not to be legal. Under the common law, there shall be a remedy for every wrong. Under equity/civil, the government can make murder and theft "legal." And in civil law, if there is no "law" against it, it's not a crime.

11. Under this equity law system, the government been able to make "legal" many unlawful and wrong activities perpetrated by individuals, agencies, corporations, governments, etc. Keep in mind that statutes, codes, and regulations, are called such BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT LAWS.

12. The American people existed long before the constitution or the United States. The constitution does NOT create a true nation or country. That is why there is no governor or ruler of the U.S.

13. The constitution creates a trust (corporation). That is why it has a president, vp, secretary, and treasurer, LIKE ALL CORPORATIONS.

13. Logic: according to the constitution of each State (republic/country), the People ordained and established the governments to manage the interstate and international commerce, defense, etc. of and between the states. Does it say "we the citizens" ordain and establish....? Clearly, citizens are a different term and mean something different. The term "citizen of United States" is interestingly not specifically defined as different from the common meaning until the 14th amendment in 1868. They are specifically defined as persons being born or naturalized within the united States, AND subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. This is the first time it is seen that the Federal Government has created subjects to itself. The federal government cannot possibly have jurisdiction over the people, because the people created it and are "sovereign" in relation to it. This new "entity" called a citizen of the Unites States was created right at a time coincidentally, when African slaves were now freed by law. The government created this subject entity to be a "status" to put the newly freed slaves into, so the slaves would not have the full freedom and power that the People have enjoyed. While they were at it, it did not take long for the idea to catch on that the elite could also subjugate the People using this system. People consent to it all of the time up to the present day. "Are you a U.S. CITIZEN"......"Yes, of course."

14. The People own the government, created the government, and cannot be subject to government or any acts, or "laws" it passes or propagandizes. That is why, when a crime is committed against another or his property, the government may catch the criminal and bring him/her to the GRAND JURY for indictment and trial, not to a government employee JUDGE. Because the grand jury represents and is comprised of PEOPLE, not citizens. The State and/or Federal Government has NO AUTHORITY to , itself, prosecute one of the People. UNLESS YOU CONSENT TO IT. Next time you get a traffic ticket (victimless equity crime) and go to court to fight it, tell me what you see on the docket or caption. It will say, "STATE OF MISSOURI v. JOHN SMITH, defendant." You're listed as the defendant, why is the state not listed as plaintiff? The state will NEVER declare itself as a PLAINTIFF. BECAUSE THE STATE HAS NO STANDING. IT DOESN'T ACTUALLY EXIST FACTUALLY, AND IT'S NOT SOVEREIGN RELATIVE TO YOU.

15. That is also why "arraignment" exists. The people are all sovereign. Therefore, if the government in any way wishes to prosecute you or punish you for breaking one of it's rules, especially one that didn't involve an injured party (adversary), they need to secure your consent (whether you or your attorney know it or not) to proceed in a court NOT OF LAW, but of civil rule. By entering any plea in a court that is not a court of record, (look that term up in Black's 4th) (a court of record is your birth right in this country, and it is what protects you from government oppression and tyranny) you have consented to be prosecuted according to THEIR rules and by THEM. Usually at arraignment, you are asked by a JUDGE, "You are charged with violating section 1410.9 of the California Penal Code and Title 3 section 328 of the California General Statutes, do you plead guilty, not guilty, or nolo contendere?" What he is REALLY saying is, "Do you give up your full right to a court of record, and all of your common law rights, and all of your constitutionally secured rights, and your right to NOT be under our jurisdiction by agreeing that the statutes and codes I have cited are VALID by entering a plea of any kind? Or do you object to this star-chamber kangaroo court and wish to be brought to justice in the highest and fairest court in the land?"

16. We live in a REPUBLIC. Not a Democracy. If you plan to argue this, at least look up the legal definitions of each of these terms. My guess is you won't even find the definition of "republican form of government." In a republic (esp. the one to which you pledged your allegiance) the people are free and fully sovereign. The government exists solely as an agency to aid in the affairs of the people and has no legal authority to tread in any way on your rights FOR ANY REASON.

17. A democracy is a society in which either directly or through representation, the majority has all of the rights and power and can do whatever they want, while the minority have no rights but only privileges granted to them by the majority. Individual rights do not truly exist. If the majority thinks you're a waste of air, then you are executed and your property taken. This is half a step away from pure communism.

18. So generally, the common law is the people's only real protection against the government exceeding it's authority. So don't scoff at it. If you only knew what it really was and how to use it, you might shut your trap and begin suing officials and agents who are obviously grossly out of line. They can't get off on technicalities and b .s. in your court. The shift toward Roman Civil Law (Equity/Statutes) represents an effort by the elite to crush your opportunity to protect your rights lawfully, and to bring into existence a system in which fake money, fraud, and unlimited credit can exist "legally." Ever notice "lawful" and "legal" are used together in the same sentence in some of the statutes and codes and other instances. That's because they have different meanings. Find out what they are.

19. As far as this whole "strawman" idea. I can't speak to that very much because I have not tried it or used it. But, the concept is fairly simple, it's just so obvious yet antithetical to everything we all have been led to believe, that it is a hard sell. But again, in terms of fact and logic, an accessible "trust" system must exist in order to facilitate the unlimited credit that the people bought back in 1933/35, and their must be a strawman or other corporate entity attached to you because the simple fact is, that in the equity and fiat money systems, everything is fictitious, and only fictions can interact with fictions. Think of it like playing a board game. You must have a token that represents you and your position in the game. It's all a game.

20. Also, check out the Internal Revenue Code, Title 26 U.S.C. Section 7806. Read it carefully and look up definitions if you have to. Related, did you ever wonder why it's called a tax "return" when all you seem to be doing is "paying" taxes out?

21. In ending here, I just want to be clear that my only wish is for people to seek the truth and stop arguing and asserting views like schoolchildren. Search for FACTS and use your brain to reach logical conclusions on your own. Then compare those facts with what you believe, and be better off for it. Because KNOWLEDGE IS POWER. And "he who slumbers on his rights, has none." (paraphrased)

There's a lot of despair in these parts lately and it's perfectly understandable. The country is going to hell in a handbasket and the forces of corporatism and know-nothingism are dominating the political culture while the Democrats seem to be in a state of suspended animation. It's very tempting to just tune it all out and watch TV. But we can't. Not as long as there are progressive politicians like David Segal out there on the campaign trail fighting to change things every day. If don't support real progressive leaders with a track record of success, we are basically giving up.

David is running in a primary for the Democratic nomination for Patrick Kennedy's seat against two doctrinaire establishment hacks and an anti-choice zealot and he needs our help in the home stretch. (The election is September 14th.) His most formidable rival, the mayor of Providence is using his money advantage to run a deceptive ad and David needs our help to run this rebuttal to remind people who the real progressive in the race is:

I know it's hard to get excited about politics right now. But it would be foolish for us to fail to support a young, smart progressive with a proven track record in his run for congress. Unless we are prepared to simply surrender to the forces gathering around us we need to nurture future progressive leaders who understand this political environment and have ideas about how to prevail in it. David is one of those future leaders.

Here's what Howie wrote about him when Blue America endorsed him:

David Segal is one of us. He was elected to the Providence City Council in 2002 as a Green, and is now a lefty Democratic state Rep for Providence and East Providence. He has a very clear path to victory and he can win-- and if he does, he'll be among the strongest voices for progressives in the halls of the Capitol.

David's worked on the meat-and-potato issues: Jobs, the environment, housing, progressive taxes, all with success. He's successfully pushed for expanded renewable energy, more affordable housing, against predatory lending, and for foreclosure prevention measures.

But he's never shied away from the really controversial issues: He's been a vocal leader on criminal justice reform, standing up for the rights of immigrants and for gay rights, and has pushed as hard as one can from the state level against war spending. He's an ardent supporter of gay marriage, and was the sponsor of the last year's bill, which was passed over the Governor's veto, to allow gay partners to plan each other's funerals.

He's a co-sponsor of marijuana decriminalization, and just convinced the Governor-- after two years of vetoes-- to allow a bill to become law that ensures due process for people on probation.

He's sponsored the "Bring the Guard Home" legislation, and his first act on the City Council was to pass a resolution against the war in Iraq.

But, most importantly, he's an organizer at heart, who is committed to joining the Progressive Caucus-- and making it function better. Here's an excerpt from an interview with David:

"n Rhode Island I've tried to develop alternative structures for legislators to lean on when the leadership makes such threats. I am the lead organizer for our progressive caucus. I founded a political action committee to support members of our progressive caucus so that if funding from sources dries up at leadership's request because something was done to offend them, that we would have at least some, some degree of money to fall back on to help fund our campaigns nonetheless. We funded ten, twelve races relatively modestly in the last cycle and hopefully we'll be able to do something in the forthcoming cycle."

That's the kind of inside political organizing we desperately need in the US Congress. If you can help with a few dollars today the campaign can keep its ads on the air and compete. If he wins the primary, there's almost no doubt that he will win the seat. It could be one of the few progressive victories in this midterm election.

make money from home without stuffing envelopes

personal finance books

In this, Chapter 29, Devlin uses advanced technology to track down and confront the Iranian terrorist who’s directing the Bombay-style assault on Manhattan.

New York City

Arash Kohanloo had spent a great deal of time in New York, especially for an Iranian national. Under some circumstances, his passport might have proven a bit of a bother, but the Tyler Administration had been determined to turn its back on the old ways. The fact that he was attached, however tangentially, to his country’s U.N. mission facilitated matters greatly and, even if all else failed, he had multiple passports from multiple countries, including a Swiss passport that was tantamount to an international laissez-passer. It was amazing what the combination of money and power and fear could win you.

The hotel, of course, was in lockdown. The New York authorities were smart; they had gone to school on the Bombay massacre, and knew that the fancy hotels were natural targets for gunmen with grudges. The elevators were all switched off, except for a couple of service elevators being guarded by private security. You could order room service to eat, but you had to stay in the hotel, and preferably in your room, until the “incident” was over.

All of which was fine with Kohanloo. In fact, that was just the way he wanted it. Fewer people milling about suited him just fine, and as long as the cell phone service worked he could stay in touch with everyone with whom he needed to stay in touch, and then events would unfold as they unfolded.

At the first news of the attack he had informed his people back home. He had also made certain that a specific sum of money had been wired to several bank accounts in Switzerland, the Cayman Islands, and one of the Channel Islands between Britain and France. One could no longer rely on the discretion of the Swiss. In the crackdown on international money transfers that followed in the wake of September 11, including the so-called Swift program that enabled the government to trace “terrorist” financing and thus disrupt the usual remittance channels and other mechanisms of Shari’a-compliant finance, the damned Americans had disrupted everything. This had necessitated a change in the networks, which funneled money between the Muslim lands and their bankers in London and Brussels, and for a time the stream was partly damned. But money is like water and soon enough it finds its way to its inevitable destination.

He didn’t have to come here, and it was not part of his arrangement with Skorzeny that he do so. But the opportunity to strike a blow at the heart of a politically correct America, and to supervise the operation right under their noses and in the heart of their greatest city as an honored guest was too good to resist. Skorzeny had warned him off taking personal charge, but Skorzeny was a bitter old man, not only weak but with too many weaknesses, and whatever game he was playing was known only to him.

Kohanloo looked at the array of cell phones on the table in front of him. They were all local, off-the-shelf, no-contract communication devices — “plain vanilla,” as the Americans said. To anyone tracking cell phone use — and even the Americans were not so stupid as to not be doing that — they would appear to be completely innocuous. What a pleasure it was to use the enemy’s technology against him, to take the things his infidel culture had created and to turn even the simplest things into weapons. Whether the Brothers had used box-cutters or knives on Sept. 11 was immaterial; the real weapons they wielded on that glorious day was the institutional cowardice of the Americans, especially the men, and turned that weakness into the powerful flying bombs that, Allah be praised, had taken down the Twin Towers and nearly the Pentagon itself.

For what sort of men were these, who would not fight back? Who would not defend their women and children? Who would go so willingly to their deaths, Christian lambs to the slaughter? For all its sexuality, its braggadocio, its exaggerated cartoons of men and women, it was at root exhausted, played out, expired. This was one thing that he and Skorzeny had agreed upon from the start: that what they were doing was not murder but a mercy killing, the merciful thing to do when a living organism was in its terminal stages.

The idea behind the operation was simplicity itself. Either America would fight back or she wouldn’t. The Holy Martyrs who had struck the Great Satan on Sept. 11 had succeeded beyond the Sheikh’s wildest dreams, but in a larger sense they had failed. They had not precipitated the final war between the dar al-Islam and the dar al-Harb, nor had they set the Americans to each other’s throats in a civil war over their precious national freedoms.

But this was different. This was a direct attack, man to man, on the streets of the Great Satan’s financial capital and its greatest city. This was a challenge so direct that not even The New York Times could rationalize it away. This was the event that would finally force the cowardly Americans to choose sides and then, once they had, it would be but the work of a lifetime or two to hunt the infidel dogs down — with the assistance of the collaborators, of course — and destroy them. In the end, all would be well, and all would accept the Call.

But there was another, larger, and vastly more important reason behind the martyrdom operation. The arrival of the Twelfth Imam, pbuh, could only be hastened by blood; he would not come, with Jesus at his side, until the Great Conflict was well and truly underway. All was in readiness in the Holy City of Qom, where the path had been made straight and the centuries of the false Mahdi would soon come to an end. What better way to encourage Mohammed ibn Hasan al-Mahdi al-Muntazar to finally reappear than to set the dar al-Harb aflame?

Arash Kohanloo glanced over at the television set, another typical product of western decadence. Who had need of such a monstrosity, when a simple black and white set would do? This was the problem with America: need had nothing to do with its desires, and the word “want” had transferred its meaning from the former to the latter. He was from a far older culture, an infinitely greater culture whose art and poetry before the Conquest had been unsurpassed, and while some sacrifices had had to be made in order to accommodate Revelation, the memory of the Persian Empire was imprinted on every Iranian’s soul. Even the name of the country — its new name, not the old one — signified its glorious antiquity and pride of place in the human community: Aryan.

He had lost a few of the warriors yesterday, but the rest had gone to ground as per instructions, while they waited. This, too, was part of the plan. Warriors were only martyrs who had not entered heaven yet, and his job was to supply the afterlife with fresh souls.

Still, losing warriors was one thing; having one of the enemy speak to you in Farsi was another. He sounded like a Brother, from his accent, but his words had been puzzling and mysterious, beginning with his question in French about the number of the names of God and continuing on with various obscure theological questions about the suras and the life of the Prophet, concluding with a discussion of the Twelfth Imam. And then he had lost contact with Brother Alex, whom he now must assume was dead.

But why would a Brother kill Alex? It was possible that it had been a mercy killing, that Brother Alex had somehow been wounded and had been put out of his misery in order to enter paradise. It was also possible that Brother Alex’s security had been compromised, and another of the Brothers had terminated him. It was even remotely possible that Brother Alex had been taken out by one of the New York City Police Department operatives, although the chances that the man would be a native Persian, or speak Farsi like one, were nil.

There was a fourth, and more worrisome possibility, however: that Skorzeny had double-crossed him.

Kohanloo thought for a moment. His eyes fell upon the mini-bar. It was so tempting… In the interests of taqiyya, it was permitted a devout Muslim to deceive the enemy A beer, or perhaps two, would aid in the deception.

That Skorzeny would attempt to euchre him would not surprise him in the least. The man’s reputation preceded him and if, in fact, that turned out to be the truth, it would be the last time he ever did that. For while it was permissible for him, Arash Kohanloo, to deceived a westerner with false promises, such behavior in an infidel — worse, an atheist — would not acceptable, and would have to be punished with the utmost Koranic severity.

In fact, as he looked back on it, he realized that Skorzeny had been planning an elaborate deception all along, especially the bit about his not having to come to New York. Clearly, that had been his intention all along: to force Kohanloo to accept the challenge to his manhood and specifically ignore the advice he was being given. Skorzeny had wanted him to supervise the operation from ground zero, and not from the operational safety of, say, Canada, where the Brothers were numerous and the government almost as naive, trusting and unsuspecting as those of Scandinavia. Islam had never laid historic claim to any of the lands of the North, not to mention the new world, but now, with so many Brothers acting religiously as an army of infiltration, taking advantage of the enemy’s trusting nature, his generous social-welfare programs (which were really just an inverted form of racism, since the Brothers were discouraged from gainful employment), there would soon be enough Believers to assert Islam’s historically necessary pride of place and conquer all the lands of the West, once and for all time.

He looked at the cell phone that linked him directly to Brother Alex. Should he pick it up and dial again? For one of the few times in his life, Arash Kohanloo hesitated. This was a new experience for him. having survived multiple changes of regime in Iran, from Mossadegh to the Shah to the Ayatollahs to whatever undoubtedly was coming next, he was used to acting boldly and decisively. In the Middle East, nothing was ever to be gained by caution, except the perpetuation of the same way of life that had obtained for hundreds of years. For all his piety, Kohanloo was a man of the future, not of the past: he looked forward to the inevitable victory of the dar al-Islam and was doing his best to hasten it.

He picked up the phone, a basic Nokia. then another thought occurred to him:

What if it was the NCRI? The National Council of Resistance of Iran?

That put a whole different spin on things. The NCRI, up to this moment, had been a joke. But the open rebellion against the fixed Iranian elections of 2010 had only served to encourage the diaspora Iranians, at least half of whom, it seemed, lived in Beverly Hills or elsewhere in the Greater Los Angeles area. In the old days, poor countries used to export their most miserable people to the United States, so that the those left behind might have a fighting chance at survival. Iran had gone history one better: it had exported its best and its brightest and its richest, its doctors and its bankers and its lawyers. The Revolution had driven away precisely those people a functioning modern country needed, and sent them screaming into the arms of the Great Satan himself, to luxuriate in the southern California climate and plot revenge; they were like the post-Castro Cubans, but with more money.

Up to this point, truth to tell, neither he nor any of the mullahs with whom he did such a profitable, if irreligious business, had given much of a thought to the NCRI. To put the organization in historical context, it was like one of those movements of national liberations that popped up everywhere in the 19th and 20th centuries, groups of raggedy-assed anarchists who threw bombs and occasionally got lucky in their choice of targets, but aside from Princip had very little effect upon the course of human history.

Of course, Gavrilo Princip had had a very great effect upon the course of human history. Incredibly lucky — imagine the Archduke Franz Ferdinand returning by the very same route on which he had dodged Princip’s first attempt on his life earlier that same day — but also incredibly determined, Princip had rearranged the map of Europe and, all unwittingly, doomed the West, although it had taken just about a century on the nose for that fact to become so abundantly clear. The cream of the crop of the infidel had died in the trenches and at the Somme and at Verdun, and those who were not killed were removed from the gene pool three decades later when the same war broke out all over again. As an example of national and cultural suicide, it was unequalled; no wonder their enfeebled descendents wanted nothing so passionately as to terminate themselves, their offspring, and their civilization.

Well, he was here to help that with that. If the west had become a giant suicide cult, Islam was just the death cult it was longing to meet. At last, a battle that had been waged since the seventh century was about to enter its final stages.

He still held the cell phone in his hand. In every operation, once the shooting started, there was something that would go wrong, and almost immediately. War plans were blueprints for buildings that would never get built; what emerged instead was some bastard combination of thought, luck and happenstance, and you lived with the result until you were strong enough to overturn it, or weak enough to be unable to defend it.

He pushed the redial button.

The phone rang. Once, twice…

The security signal was four rings. Anything after four rings mean the connection was compromised, and that the Brother was considered compromised, whether he was in fact dead or not. A wounded Brother was of no use to him. At four rings, the order would automatically go out to the others, identifying the fallen Brother’s last known location, with the orders that he or she should be terminated immediately. Mercy was an unknown commodity, for only Allah could dispense mercy.

Three times…

Nothing.

Arash Kohanloo’s finger hovered over the Stop button. As soon as the fourth ring ended, he would end the call and send the signal.

Four –

“Hello?”

A voice, in American English. What he expected, but not at all what he expected.

“Who is this?” he found himself saying.

There was a long pause at the other end of the line — of course, there was no line, only the infidel’s technology, which Kohanloo and his countrymen, although unable to duplicate, were only too happy to employ against the enemy — and what sounded like a clicking noise.

“Go ahead please,” came a female voice.

Now it was a male voice that spoke: “Target located. Sherry-Netherland Hotel.”

“Stand by,” said the infidel woman.

Then silence.

Arash Kohanloo tried to control his breathing. His heart rate was up, that he knew. The doctors had told him to keep it down, keep it calm, keep it within the target range lest he find himself in trouble. Damn that Skorzeny and his wily ways. Here he was, in a situation he should never have been in, and his heart rate was rising along with his blood pressure. He tried to stay calm and listen for whatever came next. There was nothing to worry about.

The fools! They had no idea he was not in the Sherry-Netherland.

“Shall I send a UAV?”

A few more crackles, then –

“Put the bird in the air and stand by.”

“The bird is in the air.”

Kohanloo couldn’t believe his ears. Surely they would not deploy a UAV — Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, more commonly known as a drone — to blast away an entire floor of an expensive hotel in midtown Manhattan. The Americans didn’t do things like that. They were always more concerned about collateral damage than they were about the success of a mission; why, a single snail darter could not only bring down a dam in Alaska, it could probably stop a convoy of Abrams tanks as well.

“Stand by to fire on my orders.”

It was a bluff. It had to be. His eyes stole toward the window of his luxury suite; the curtains were drawn. With the cell phone still pressed up hard against his ear, he moved slowly and quietly toward the window.

Now another voice came on the line. He couldn’t swear to it — and a good Muslim never took an oath except in a religious context — but it sounded awfully like that of the man he had spoke to earlier. In fluent Farsi, he said: “Go to the window.”

He hesitated a moment.

“Go to the window now.”

He went to the window.

“Now, open the curtains.”

How did they know he even had a window where he was? Or that there were curtains? Hotel. They must have guessed hotel.

‘Open them.” He didn’t like the man’s tone of voice, his peremptory way. An unbeliever should never talk to one of the Faithful like that. “Go ahead…”

He took a deep breath and opened the curtains, trying not to flinch –

“What do you see?”

—–

The panorama of New York City. No hint of the sun yet, but on this summer morning, it would be up soon. Just the gleam of the lights and, to the southwest, smoke reflected in the wasteful glare.

He slowly exhaled. “I see exactly what I expect to see, and nothing more.”

“Do you see me?”

He was feeling a little braver now, more like his old self. Of course not. ”Now who are you? What do you want?”

“Do you see me now?”

Was that the sun? The sky had brightened a bit, or perhaps his eyes were simply getting used to the darkness. He switched off the nearest floor lamp in order to see better.

“Do you know who I am?”

Still nothing. It was all a bluff. Somehow they had managed to trace the Brother’s cell signal. A cheap trick, and one that any Palestinian kid with a Bulgarian computer could manage. Nothing to –

“Smile, asshole.” That was in English.

A blinding flash. For a moment, Arash Kohanloo was sure he was dead, and that he would soon be entering paradise. He cursed himself for a fool, that he had not had time to perform his ritual ablutions in preparation for martyrdom, and then remember he was not expecting to be martyred this time out.

He was still alive. He could see.

The drone was right outside his window. It had him on video, and was transmitting his picture somewhere. Operational security was blown. It was time to regroup. He started to turn away –

“Stop. Don’t move or you’re a dead man.”

Kohanloo froze.

“Look on the wall across from you.”

Kohanloo looked.

A video image danced across the plaster and the reproduction of a Monet cathedral. It was the outline of a man, his facial features indistinct. “Look upon me,” said the voice at the other end of the cell phone. Funny; he had forgotten he was still holding it.

“Do you know who I am now?”

“No. I do not.”

“I am Azra’il. Malak al-Maut. He Whom God Helps.”

The name sent shivers down Kohanloo’s spine. Azra’il, the Arabic version of the Biblical Azrael was not to be found in the Holy Koran, but Malak al-Maut was. Another of his names. It meant the Angel of Death.

“And you,” the voice in his ear said, “are a fool. You have been used, Arash Kohanloo — used by your own country and your own government, but worse — you have been used by Satan himself.”

Seething and scared, he knew that what Malak al-Maut was saying was correct. He had never trusted Skorzeny, considered him little better than an infidel pig, no matter what religion he did or did not profess. He must escape, flee this place, use his safe exit out of here, get back to Iran and kill the man who had done this to him.

Or the men. He would not be surprised to learn that one of his enemies among the clerics had done this to them, suggested the operation just so that it would fail, in order to eliminate him, Arash Kohanloo, from any further position of influence within the regime.

“Perhaps you speak the truth,” he said in Farsi.

“You know I do,” came the voice. “And now you are mine.”

An Introduction to Insurance

Insurance is a way to manage risk. As you go through your life, there’s always a chance that you’ll be in a car accident, twist your knee, or that your home will burn down. The risk of these accidents is small, but if one of them were to happen, the effects could be catastrophic. Without insurance, you’d have to come up with the money on your own to repair your car, have knee surgery, or rebuild your home.

Although these things happen to some people, they don’t happen to everyone. With enough data, it’s possible to know roughly how many people are likely to experience these setbacks — and how much it will cost to recover from them. Using this info, an insurance company can spread the risk among all its customers.

An Elementary Example

Imagine Eastside Elementary, a school with 100 students. Every year for the past 25 years, one Eastside Elementary student has broken an arm in the schoolyard, resulting in about $5,000 in medical expenses. Without insurance, every family would have to save $5,000 to cope with the odds that their little tyke would be the one with the broken arm. At the end of the year, 99 families would have paid nothing (and have $5,000 left in savings), but one family would have paid $5,000 (and have nothing left).

With insurance, the Eastside Elementary families can join together to spread out the risk. If they created an insurance fund, all 100 families would pay $50 at the start of the school year. This $5,000 total would then go to the family of the child with the broken arm.

By spreading the risk, each family only has to save $50 instead of $5,000. Sure, that $5,000 is gone if it’s not your child who breaks her arm, but for most people, that’s an acceptable trade. Instead of having to scrape together the full $5,000, they’d rather risk losing $50 for a chance to avoid $5,000 in medical bills.

But is it really fair to have every family pay $50 into the insurance fund? Some kids go to the library at lunch to read Harry Potter and Mysterious Benedict Society books; others climb around on the jungle gym and throw stones at each other. The bookworms are much less likely to break an arm, aren’t they? And maybe the 25 years of data show that girls break their arms less often than boys. With enough info, the Eastside Elementary Insurance Fund could charge each family a different rate depending on how likely their child is to break an arm.

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Stabroek News - Retirement plans caught up in Clico (Guyana) upheaval

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TV News, Talk Shows Using Skype

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Democrats allege in a legal filing that, by plugging an Ohio gubernatorial candidate's website in a chyron, Fox News illegally contributed to the Republican's campaign.

What's The Best Way to Make Money From Home? Course xklvy

plan, that is, what exactly do you want to accomplish and how you intend to do so.
4.- And lastly, you must work hard to put everything in place and get everything working as planned.
Now, based on these principles, what is the best way to make money from home?
Well, from my own experience (since I run several businesses from home myself) your best shot is at an online business. Why?
An online business will allow you to work with what you usually have at home: a small space, a computer and an internet connection.
However, as much as people want to tell you that having an online business is the best way to make money from home (something I actually agree with), you must be aware of the fact that building such business is no easy task. Sure it will be a lot easier than most of the traditional business models, among other reasons because you really need little to no money to start and you will be able to beat the learning curve faster, however, as in any business, be prepared to work your way to profits, anything else is just a fantasy.
The hardest part of an online business really is starting and then sticking to it until you make it work, as most people tend to abandon their quest within weeks just because they are not making a lot of money, so you have to make sure you another victim of desperation and impatience.
One of the most exciting ways to earn income is from home and the good news is that as technology advances so do number of opportunities to earn good money from home. Perhaps the best way to make money from home is through some kind of internet based business. It is important to think creatively and come up with new ideas as this will set you and your website apart and give you the competitive edge necessary to succeed online long term.
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Fox News Military Analyst Comes Out As Birther

August's slow-news period would have seemed to me to be a prime period for some sort of Birther flare-up, but just past the deadline comes the news that Lieutenant General Thomas McInerney has signed an affidavit in support of Lt. Col.

Celebrity News Roundup from PopEater: Sept. 1

Want to know what's going on with your favorite TV stars when the cameras aren't rolling? Check out the latest celebrity news from our friends.

Federal Egg Recall Investigation Widens

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chance to burn off and will remain as fat.
Loosing weight fast is possible, it just takes determination and belief. Go on, give it a try it can be done and you will feel better and healthier for the effort.
here are a lot of people who would give a lot to increase their metabolism. Having a high level of metabolism enables one to burn fat and lose weight fast with the least amount of exertion. Metabolism is the rate by which the body produces and consumes energy and calories to support life.
There are several factors that affect the metabolism of a person, such as the amount of muscle tissue, the frequency of the meals one consumes, genetics, the digestive system, stress levels, personal diet, and activity levels. Metabolism slows down due to the following: loss of muscle because of not enough physical activity, the tendency of the body to cannibalize its own tissue because there is not enough food energy to sustain it, and the decrease of physical activity that comes naturally with old age.
Here are several ways to fire up one's metabolism:
1. Build up on lean, mean body mass. It is only natural that metabolism decreases along with age, but it is possible to counter the effects. The amount of muscle a person has is a very strong determinant in the ability to burn calories and shed

We?ve heard the claims before ? quick weight loss diet plans promising fast results that are nothing short of unbelievable. Many people succumb into all sorts of quick weight loss diet plans, only to lose motivation and fail miserably halfway in following the plan. Thus, they may end up right where they started or even gain a pound or two afterwards. Read on to know how to pick the right weight loss diet plan, and how to stay on course.
The term ?plan? itself denotes preparing and goal setting. It involves a highly structured, well-organized schedule of meals and food combinations you must adhere to on a stringent basis; otherwise the quick weight loss diet plan falls apart. Diets, despite their variations, all have common ground upon which each of their systems is based.
Diet Plan # 1: Ditch the Junk Foods.
Junk food is the first to go. Think of the undertaking as a challenge to be met and overcome, rather than treating it like a prison sentence.
If you go on a diet halfheartedly, fretting over the things you will be forced to give up, you will only set yourself up for failure and disappointment. Instead, set a reasonable and attainable goal and timeframe, something you?re sure to achieve, and then reward yourself afterward.
Having a sense of accomplishment is a great

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Fox News Military Analyst Comes Out As Birther

Celebrity News Roundup from PopEater: Sept. 1

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Wednesday, September 1, 2010

personal finance programs

And almost universally, there are problems. While not every state is legally bound to meet budget shortfalls—and avoid carrying deficits year-over-year—virtually every state legislature is contemplating cuts, from arts to social-welfare programs. Most are falling short.

As in personal finance, debt is the pitfall that can come back to haunt states trying to meet their financial obligations. With that in mind, The Daily Beast ranked each state in order of its debt-to-GDP ratio—the higher the ratio, the more likely a state will remain mired in debt.

The debt numbers here are from the U.S. Census and usgovernmentspending.com, which extrapolates Census data based on past state debt increases or decreases to estimate current debt levels. Future deficit levels are based on an independent analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which uses estimates of next year’s baseline budget spending compared to expected revenue. State GDP numbers are not yet available for 2009 from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, but were adjusted from 2008 levels by the same minuscule percentage decrease in the estimated GDP for the entire country from 2008 to 2009.

Once tabulated, it’s clear that debt is far from a Washington problem, and it belongs to both parties, with “red” and “blue” states, in terms of presidential choice and current governor and legislature, counted among the worst offenders. Where does your state rank? Click here.

How does your state fare in our ranking of the indebtedness of all 50 states? Click here for our rankings, from worst to first.

Amidst the nation's worst economic recession since the Great Depression, and continuing problems in California with health care, education funding, home foreclosures, and lack of jobs, how do you explain the disgraceful spending by candidate Meg Whitman in her campaign to buy the governor's office.

According to campaign finance reports filed yesterday, Whitman has spent $99.7 million the past two years, a figure that the Associated Press notes climbs to $100.3 million when including donated services.

Those numbers, which shatter campaign spending records in California and presumably exceed the amount any candidate running for any office in the U.S. other than President has spent, signal a campaign that is out of control and that shows little regard for the real life of most Californians.

With more than 2.2 million Californians are out of work (Employment Development Department, July 16, 2010), at least 6.4 million are uninsured (U.S. Census Bureau as of 2007), and California ranks 41st in the U.S. in per capita spending per pupil (National Education Association rankings), such massive resources could surely be put to better use.

Those are just three of the many signs of crisis in California that show the appalling contrast with the outrageous spending spree by one billionaire candidate who seems to be driven by personal ambition and little else.

If Whitman, whose main qualification for office appears to be her unlimited wealth, really wants to help the state, there are many other ways she could use those resources to add real social value to our state, and help Californians who are hurting, who are sick, or to bolster our education system.

At the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United, we have calculated, with the help of our research arm, the Institute for Health and Socio-Economic Policy, other, more fruitful ways that $100 million could have been spent.

• Pay monthly unemployment benefits for 82,237 unemployed Californians. (Average unemployment benefit in California is $1,216) Source: Orange County Register, July 19, 2010

• Pay the unemployment benefits for two months for the 40,000 workers she would lay off. (The U.S. Department of Labor calculates that by its broadest measure, the U-6 rate which is defined as total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, California has the highest unemployment rate in the nation, 21.9%.)

• Pay yearly health insurance premiums for 7,477 families. (Average yearly health insurance for family coverage $13,375) Source: Employer Health Benefits, Annual Survey 2009, Kaiser Family Foundation

• Fund 18,018 students at the Pell Grant maximum. (Pell Grant maximum for school year 2010-2011 is $5,550.) Source: United States Department of Education

• Pay for 11,447 pupils in California K-12. (Average expenditure per pupil in 2008-2009 school year was $8,736) Source: California Department of Education

• Pay the "fees" for 10,770 students to attend one of the University of California campuses for academic year 2009-2010. (Fees to attend UC are $9,285.) Source: University of California, Fees and Financial Aid

• By our calculations, help as many as 5,714 households avoid foreclosure The California Housing Finance Agency, the state's affordable housing bank, estimates it will help 40,000 or more households avoid foreclosure with principal write downs and other plans unveiled Wednesday. In all, the agency received $700 million for the relief programs. Source: James Wasserman, "California to help pay down homeowners' mortgage debt."

[Four out of the Top ten cities for housing foreclosures are in the Central Valley. Source: Realty Trac].

o Modesto is ranked second in the nation with 5,138 homes or 2.93 percent of all housing units in foreclosure in the first quarter

o Stockton is ranked fifth, with 6,327 homes in foreclosure, or 2.77 percent of the city's homes.

o Merced is sixth. It had 2,307 homes in foreclosure in Q1 or 2.76 of all homes.

o And Bakersfield is ninth in the nation, with 6,343 homes in foreclosure or 2.33 percent of all housing units]

• Hire as many as 1,755 new grad RNs in California for a year. Source: United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2008 Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates

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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

personal finance budgeting

BillFloat Pays Your Bills When You Can't

If money's tight and you need a little extra time to cover a bill, service Billfloat can take care of it for you and you can pay them back later.

After entering the company you need to pay, you give BillFloat the amount of the bill and your account number. It'll let you know how many days it'll float the bill (a minimum of 30) and how much you'll owe BillFloat—which is generally $5, but decreases with the number of bills you pay. BillPay will collect a little more information about you, like how you're going to pay them back, and then you'll be all set. Just make sure you'll have the money in a month, since BillFloat won't float its own bills.

Life on the fast track can be taxing. With the ever-growing list of responsibilities, we have more and more bills to pay and an even longer set of reminders and tasks there is to keep track of. Life on the fast track can be taxing.

In order to help reduce the burden of remembering the things you need to do and actually focus on the task at hand; we have 2 great iPhone apps to recommend. Both of these apps have been featured on MakeUseOf before: NotifyMe and Bills.

This week, we will be giving away 5 promo codes for each application. Find out how you can get one, after the jump.

id="more-49733">/> But first let’s take a look at the apps individually.

NotifyMe 2

NotifyMe 2 is the updated version of NotifyMe and only supports iOS4. At the very core, it is still a reminder application. You create tasks/reminders which are synced over the air to NotifyMe’s servers. When your tasks are due, you receive a push notification sent to your iPhone.

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All tasks/reminders can also be accessed online via the cloud server, notifymecloud.com and can be used to track your list of reminders easily.

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In this updated version, you can also create local reminders which are stored on your device. This is a huge help you are only looking to create short-term reminders without internet access.

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NotifyMe 2 also supports task sharing — any reminder can be shared with any authorised NotifyMe 2 user and will appear on their upcoming screen.

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For a more in-depth review of the previous version (which will also provide you with a rough concept of how the app works), please read Never Forget Anything Again With NotifyMe for iPhone

Bills

Bills (also known as Bills ~ on your table) is a simple payment tracking application. This app helps you track pending bills and their corresponding due dates efficiently and elegantly as well.

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Bills can be set to automatically repeat daily, weekly, monthly or annually. When a payment is due, you’ll receive a push notification with a gentle reminder (or pre-reminder, which you can set to occur days prior).

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For a more in-depth review, check out Never Forget To Pay Another Bill Again With Bills ~ On Your Table

How do I win a copy?

It’s simple, just follow the instructions.

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Jon Stewart Takes Fox News to Task for Not Disclosing Muslim ...

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we've got a great way for Preds fans to save some money while helping local schools, reports from the World Hockey Summit, and what is surely the worst selection in Puck Daddy's "Mt. Puckmore" series so far.

Friday, August 6, 2010

personal finances help

If you're buying a place for income, you need to understand the numbers in a deal. If you don't understand income and how income affects investment property value, then you shouldn't be investing in real estate. Savvy investors hire a team of professionals (realtor, lawyer, accountant, 1031 company, mortgage lender, inspector, and so on) to assist them in creating a proper valuation for a property. If you want to invest, you should build your team and get them to interact with each other. That's how they'll help you make smarter decisions.

For example, if you're buying a warehouse or a retail strip center, you probably aren't an expert in commercial building construction. You won't know if an interior wall is failing or if it's likely the roof will leak. You're far better off hiring a commercial property inspector to walk you through the property and help you figure out what it will take to keep it maintained and in good working order. If you buy the property and later decided to sell it and buy a different investment property, you'll need a top accountant and 1031 exchange specialist to help you complete the transaction and meet Internal Revenue Service rules.

It's really hard to do it on your own and be profitable. It's one of the biggest mistakes early investors make. At the very least, find an experienced agent who represents other investors to help you identify property and get yourself a great real estate attorney who can help draw up documents that will protect you and your other assets.

The trend in residential real estate is to build smaller, more energy-efficient houses that are cheaper to own and maintain. All of the McMansions built in the 1980s and 1990s could become white elephants that see their value erode, even as the larger market recovers.

Do you have any advice for those looking to remodel? What types of upgrades are prudent?
The remodeling industry was hit extremely hard last year, and while more people are planning to fix up their homes this year, the problem is one of financing. You either have to save up enough money to fix your house or you have to charge it on your credit card. You can no longer take out a home equity loan, use the proceeds to fix up your house, and then refinance the balance into a new mortgage. Home equity lines of credit are hard to come by these days because the federal government wants lenders to keep a percentage of every HELOC on their own books. As a result, they're few and far between.

This isn't the time to make big, flashy improvements to your home. The economy is still extremely fragile, and we may be heading for a double-dip recession. If you can live with your grungy carpet for another year, you should do it.

When it comes to fixing up your house, you want to spend as carefully as possible. Figure out what amenities are standard in your neighborhood, and then build to that level--not a penny more. If you have to sell for some reason, you don't want to take a bath financially.

What's your advice to people who are thinking it may be time to consider buying a second/vacation home? Key pointers?
I do think that now is a great time to buy. I've just blogged on the three reasons why people buy vacation homes: as a place to create family memories, as an eventual place to retire and rent out until retirement hits, and for pure investment reasons. Decide which kind of vacation home buyer you are and then reverse-engineer the process to figure out what kind of vacation home you should be buying. If you can't afford the cash down payment or have a lot of excess cash to keep the place running and in great shape, don't buy a vacation home. It's easy to think you're getting a great deal because of the purchase price, only to find yourself snowed under by management costs, cleaning expenses, and resort fees. If you're going to rent your vacation home, here are nine things you should know.

How about sellers--any advice for them? Is it a good time to trade up to a larger or better home if you can swing it?
Can you sell your home right now? Can you get enough cash out of your primary residence to be able to trade up to a larger home? What most buyers forget is that a larger home means larger utility bills, maintenance costs, and upgrading costs, as well as higher taxes and insurance premiums. There's more to maintain, cool, and decorate. Can you afford all that?

Right now, those homeowners who can sell their property, whatever size and wherever they live, control the market. The problem is that many of those sellers are so freaked out that they don't really want to buy anything right now. So, they're thinking about renting or are moving in with family or friends. We're seeing the housing market continue to shrink at the moment, but it won't always be that way.

Property values might not rebound until 2020--or later, depending on where you live. You can't make a decision about selling based on when you think the housing market will rebound. That's like saying, "Should I sell my stock today or wait for the company to rebound?" We don't know when that will happen, if ever.

If you want to sell, and have a compelling reason to move, you should figure out an exit strategy. If homes are selling in your area, then you should try to sell your house. If homes aren't selling, and you're 40% underwater with your mortgage, you'll have to either do a short sale, a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure, or a strategic default.

In 2006, recent Harvard grad Alexa von Tobel was headed for a job at Morgan Stanley. But though she would soon be managing the bank’s investments, she realized she didn’t know the first thing about her own finances. Most financial guides seemed to be written for middle-aged readers with millions in assets, rather than recent college grads. "I was reading every book I could find, but none of them spoke to me," she says. So she came up with the idea for LearnVest, an online personal-finance resource for young women like her, and ended up writing an 80-page business plan.

After two years at Morgan Stanley, von Tobel entered Harvard Business School in 2008. But upon winning a business plan competition held by Astia, a non-profit that supports women entrepreneurs, she took a five-year leave of absence and invested $75,000 of her Wall Street earnings to start LearnVest in November. She quickly enlisted advisors, including Betsy Morgan, the former CEO of the Huffington Post, and Catherine Levene, the former COO of DailyCandy, to help develop the site’s content and technology. In January 2009, she secured $1.1 million in seed funding from executives at Goldman Sachs.

LearnVest’s site launched a year later and has since signed up more than 100,000 members. It offers online budgeting calculators, video chats with certified financial planners on the company’s staff, and free e-mail tutorials on topics such as opening an IRA. The company earns revenue from advertising and by referring its users to companies such as TD Ameritrade. In April, after just four weeks of fundraising, von Tobel closed a $4.5 million investment round led by Accel Partners, which has also invested in Facebook and Etsy. (Incidentally, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg lived in the same dorm as von Tobel at Harvard.)

Von Tobel likens LearnVest to an online version of The Suze Orman Show, but with the goal of reinforcing positive finance habits early on. “Suze Orman helps 45-year-old women get out of debt,” she says. “Why not reach 20-year-olds to keep them from getting into debt?”

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Thursday, August 5, 2010

managing your personal finance

deals, Software, VC

Jive Software Nabs $30M in Round From Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital

Thea Chard 7/21/10

Jive Software, the Palo Alto, CA-based software company started in Portland, OR, has received $30 million in Series C financing led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

This latest shot of cash, part of which comes from Sequoia Capital, means the company has raised more than $57 million in the last three years. Sequoia had been Jive’s sole investor up until this point, providing $12 million back in October, and $15 million in 2007.

“This is the biggest joint investment that Kleiner and Sequoia have done since they partnered up with Google,” says Bryan LeBlanc, Jive’s chief financial officer.

The investors are betting big that Jive has figured out how to harness some key elements of social media for business. Jive provides social-networking, communication, collaboration, and social media monitoring tools to more than 5,000 businesses, a group that ranges from small and mid-size companies to huge global brands. Jive’s customer roster includes Nike, Starbucks, SAP, Cisco Systems, Charles Schwab, and Intel. The company also provides social networking and collaboration software for a number of U.S. government agencies, as well as congressional members and their staffs.

“We’re the largest and fastest-growing company in this new category,” says Christopher Lochhead, Jive’s chief strategy advisor. “It’s about a $5 billion dollar market growing at about 40 percent, and we’re the clear leaders.”

The company’s biggest competitors include Microsoft and IBM. But according to Lochhead, Jive has an advantage—the support of some significant VC dollars, which he says will give Jive the ability to expand its product offerings and hire the best talent Silicon Valley has to offer in “multiple gene pools.”

As part of the deal, Kleiner Perkins managing partner Ted Schlein will be joining the Jive board of directors. The $30 million capital will be used to “accelerate Jive’s rapid growth and further drive the company’s leadership in the social business market,” according to a company statement.

What does that mean for potential clients? That the company will be expanding on its current social business software—the “doppler weather radar” of what’s going on in specific markets as Lochhead puts it. It will also allow Jive to focus on developing four strategic pillars moving forward. First is what Lochhead calls ”Jive What Matters,” a one-stop command center that encompasses “everything that you need to get your job done,” in terms of monitoring deadlines, status updates, sales numbers, all in one place. Then there’s Jive mobile apps; social widgets, such as YouTube and SalesForce, integrated into the software; and seeking out more strategic partnerships with companies like Google and Twitter.

“What social business software entails is a new way to engage with your employees, customers and the web,” Lochhead says. “Why is it so fun, effective and easy to do all of this stuff in my personal life, and yet work sucks? All of those innovations in the consumer social web, Jive is bringing to the enterprise.” He adds: “It’s a new way to do business that allows people to work together, interact, in a way that just wasn’t possible before.”

LeBlanc, the finance chief, added: “$30 million allows us to have the currency to execute that strategy.”

Though Jive, founded in Portland, OR in 2001, relocated its headquarters to Palo Alto, CA last May, it continues to maintain a growing presence in the Pacific Northwest. The company laid off one-third of its employees—around 40 people, including the vice president of engineering and vice president of sales—after the economic down turn in 2008. But Lochhead says it’s maintained profitability and is growing again, with 270 employees spread throughout the offices in Palo Alto, Portland, OR, and Boulder, CO, as well as two outposts in Europe. In January, the company posted record profits—an 85 percent increase in full-year revenue in 2009 when compared to the previous year.

And although LeBlanc could not give us exact figures on how Jive is doing this year, he did say that the financial support from Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia is a strong indication of the company’s potential.

“We do intend to build a large, relevant software company, and often when you look at large, relevant software companies, they’re $1 billion companies,” LeBlanc said. “Having that capital now—I think it’s a testament that Sequoia has been very bullish about this space…it’s unusual and we feel, frankly, very honored to have two of the titans of Sand Hill Road both behind us.”

Thea Chard is the Assistant Editor for Xconomy Seattle. You can e-mail her at tchard@xconomy.com or follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/theachard.

As you’ll read tomorrow (or Monday), I’ve entered a new phase in my life. After years of hard work and long hours building this blog (time that I’ve enjoyed), I’ve been shifting things around so that I have more free time. As a result, I’m going to have more time to devote to creating quality blog posts, instead of rushing around at the last minute looking for something to write about.

Because of this, it’s time yet again to take requests. I do this about once a year, and it’s a great way to get a feel for what GRS readers are interested in. I’d be grateful if you’d take the time to leave a comment below with topic suggestions or article requests. It doesn’t matter if we’ve covered the subject in the past. If you’d like me (or one of the other GRS staff) to write about it, let me know.

Have there been too many articles about credit cards? Too few articles about credit cards? Would you like to know more about individual savings accounts? Do you like the articles about the psychology of spending? Would it be helpful to have somebody come in to explain insurance concepts in plain English? Should I try to persuade my wife to share more of her recipes now and then? Let me know what you’d like to read about!

While you’re all providing feedback about the site, here are a few recent articles of note:

Over at The Simple Dollar, Trent and his readers had a thoughtful discussion about the obligations of wealth. “I think there is some inherent distrust of the rich in the mainstream of American society,” Trent writes as he describes how a wealthy person can keep from alienating his friends. There’s so much to say about this topic; I’m tempted to write an entire article about it.

GRS reader Steven writes a blog called Hundred Goals, which is about achieving your goals while managing your finances. After Sierra’s post this morning about travel, he dropped me a line to let me know that he has a recent article about how to have a great vacation.

Speaking of vacation, my pal Jason over at No Credit Needed spent time compiling day-use fees and free days for state parks across the United States. Handy page to bookmark!

And here’s more travel! At The Art of Non-Conformity, my good friend Chris Guillebeau has posted a beginner’s guide to travel hacking. I’ve been asking him to share this info for a long time; now I’ve got to take responsibility to use the knowledge he’s shared.

Finally, I’ve been giving a lot of interviews lately. I’m much more comfortable with these than I used to be. (They used to scare me to death!) Some examples:

Colleen from The Frisky interviewed me about how to save money even when you’re living paycheck to paycheck. This is a tough quandary, something I’m asked about a lot.

In an interview with BeFrugal, I discuss frugality, happiness, and conscious spending. (Note: “the ballot” should be “the balance” — I must have mumbled.)

Jeff Rose at Good Financial Cents also interviewed me. This interview is very much about the process of writing a book, which may or may not interest you.

I also spoke with Beverly Harzog from Card Ratings. We chatted about credit cards, of course, but also about other aspects of personal finance.

Finally, USA Weekend has a short piece on how to give your 401(k) a midyear check, for which author Richard Eisenberg interviewed me back in May. This is a perfect example of how much work goes into even a small newspaper article. Eisenberg spent 20-30 minutes on the phone with me, and I’m sure he did the same with the other folks he quotes. Plus, I’ll bet he spent a lot of time writing. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were 4-6 hours in this small piece.

Okay, one last thing before I go. Tim pointed me to a two-year-old New York Times series about the debt trap, which includes an interactive infographic showing average household debt loads over the past century.

That’s enough links for today. Please do leave a comment with topic requests or other feedback. Meanwhile, it’s time for me to go do some yardwork…

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Jive Software Nabs $30M in Round From Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital

Thea Chard 7/21/10

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