Political stakes high as Clinton testifies on Benghazi

By Tom Curry, National Affairs Writer, NBC News

The political stakes will be high Wednesday morning when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about her role in the events leading up to the September attack on a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, that resulted in the killing of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

The stakes will also be high for a Republican member of the committee, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, whom some pundits see as a possible presidential candidate in 2016. It will be a rare instance when one potential White House hopeful gets an opportunity to interrogate a potential rival from the opposing party. Clinton herself is thought to be a strong contender for the Democratic nomination, should she chose to throw her hat into the ring.

Gary Cameron / Reuters

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks at the State Department in Washington January 18, 2013.

Rubio said Tuesday that he hoped Clinton?s testimony would shed light on ?the decision-making process in terms of the amount of security that was at the consulate. She has a unique insight that no one else in the State Department can offer, so we look forward to hearing about that.??

Last month, a report issued by the Accountability Review Board (appointed by Clinton to investigate the attack) blamed State Department officials for ?systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies? that led to protection for the Benghazi facility that was ?grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place.?

Rubio said Tuesday that one aspect of the report that bothered him was ?how much blame was put on lower-level officials in the State Department when in fact this (Benghazi) is a high-profile assignment, a high-profile installation, where we should have been aware of some of the security risks that existed.?

In an interview last October, Clinton said, ?I take responsibility. I?m in charge of the State Department, 60,000-plus people all over the world, 275 posts. The president and the vice president certainly wouldn?t be knowledgeable about specific decisions that are made by security professionals.?

'Political charade'
The furor over the Benghazi attack has already helped derail one possible nominee to replace Clinton at the State Department, United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice, whom Republicans assailed for using administration talking points that portrayed the incident as a spontaneous response to an inflammatory anti-Islamic video.

Asked whether there was any way that Wednesday?s hearing could not become a political event or spectacle, Rubio responded, ?Everyone here takes their job seriously. We understand that everyone involved cared for and highly valued the people whose lives were lost. But mistakes were made and it?s important to understand why they were made and how they were made so that they?re never made again.?

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., talks about Wednesday's Benghazi hearings and previews Sen. John Kerry's upcoming confirmation hearing.

A newly elected Democratic member of the Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, said Tuesday, ?My perspective is looking forward. I want to understand how we can better secure (U.S. diplomatic) complexes across the globe and how we can make the case here in Washington that we need the money to do it. There were resource pressures on the State Department to make decisions on security and we need to be able to have the ammunition to make the case here to increase their budget.?

Murphy said he did not see the question of whether Clinton was personally responsible for lapses in security at the Benghazi facility as the central issue in the hearing. ?The decisions that were made (regarding security in Benghazi) clearly didn?t reach Secretary Clinton?s desk and I want her thoughts on how we make sure this doesn?t happen again,? the Connecticut Democrat said.

Murphy, who served three terms in the House before winning a Senate seat, criticized Republicans on the House Oversight Committee for politicizing the Benghazi attack and for running a Benghazi hearing last year that he called ?a debacle, a political charade. I?m hopeful that tomorrow?s hearing won?t be the same.?

Stockpiled weapons?
One senator not on the Foreign Affairs Committee but who has led the call for the Obama administration to be more forthcoming about the attack, Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., said she hoped to find out from Clinton?s testimony what Clinton was told about security threats to the U.S. facility and what she was told about prior attacks on the facility. She asked, ?Does she believe in the characterization that the security was substantial and significant? That was the characterization that Ambassador Rice gave to the nation. And what conversations did she have with the president about securing the consulate??

Ayotte?made the connection Tuesday between the turmoil in Libya ? in which jihadists seized weapons stockpiles that had been amassed by the regime of toppled dictator Moammar Gadhafi ? and the danger of a similar outcome in Syria, where the security of the Assad regime?s chemical weapons stockpiles is doubt.

Ayotte, a member of a bipartisan Senate delegation that just returned from the Middle East, said, ?We have seen the lesson learned, for example, in Libya.?

She said on the Senate delegation?s trip, ?We heard in Egypt about weapons from Libya being shipped to the Sinai from Libya. There are reports that there may be connections between weapons from Libya and the (hostage taking) incident in Algeria (in which 37 were killed). We heard from leaders in the Middle East that these weapons are going throughout the Middle East from Libya. We?ve heard concerns about weapons (from Libya) getting the wrong hands?. When you don?t secure weapons and they get in the wrong hands, you put tools in the hands of terrorists.?

A theme from Rubio and other Republicans has been the Obama administration got engaged ?too late? and ?not decisively enough? in Libya, allowing chaos to prevail in some parts of the country. ?The reason why there are all these multiple militias in Libya is because this was a protracted conflict that created the opportunity and the space for these militias to form ? similar to what we?re seeing now in Syria,? Rubio said after a Dec. 20 Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

Related:

Republicans press for answers from Clinton on Benghazi

Clinton: 'We did everything we could to keep our people safe'

Rice: 'I relied solely and squarely' on intel given to me for Benghazi comments

Source: http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/22/16647765-with-her-political-future-in-question-clinton-heads-for-benghazi-testimony?lite

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Friendship replaces marriage in the modern value system ? 1000 ...

It is another interesting trend: Friendship as a value takes the place of marriage in the modern western world. What we see on the surface is the relationship status ?girl-friend?, ?boy-friend?. It is not by chance that people choose this words to explain that they are actually lovers.? In many western countries this kind of relationship has been legalized and has almost the status of marriage, even from the taxation point of view. Despite this fact people, especially males tend to see this kind of relationship as a ?light? version of marriage, a less value-loaded status with less responsibilities.

On the other hand we have a significant shift in the collective consciousness regarding the value of friendship. While the girl-friend-boy-friend-relationship has less weight than a marriage, we can see the value of friendship as an intimate relationship without any sex involved rising high.In the online world, thanks for Facebook & Co it is a matter of prestige and social value to have many friends, no matter how ?real? they are.

In the offline world people start loving, relying on, valuing friends more that their families. Why? First of all, for various reasons (one is given here) the generations of 20 to 50 year-old in the West suffer from problems with parents. For many a family is not the place to relax and enjoy, on the contrary? it is a place to quarrel, debate on relationship issues and even sue each other. At the same time it?s becoming a great problem for young people to create their own families ? may be because they have seen so many divorces, may be of high expectaions planted in minds by the mass media? Whatever it is, the lack of peace in the family corner makes people seek peace and joy elsewhere. And many find it in friendship.

A true friendship is a perfect relationship because it does not suggest any responsibilities and obligations like a marriage does. We are free to meet up, talk, do some activities together, enjoy? We do not ?have to?? and yet we are happy to help, to support, ?to be there for a friend in need?, to invest time and money. But why? What moves us?

Friendship gives the security of a ?safe? relationship and stability, which has always been the role of a marriage but seems to be not the case any more: Marriages/relationships may come and go, but a true friendship is normally a life long thing. Interestingly even happily married people value the most the fact of being friends wit each other ? and this was not the case even a century ago.

One of my favorite authors explained why friendship is the ultimate form of any relationship ?please read this beautiful piece here.

I believe that this trend of friendship becoming a higher value? is the new step in the collective evolution. Friendship across boarders is the new reality. Beautiful relationship with people from far away or at home town are part and parcel of our daily life. Getting new friendship cultivates our hearts and makes us more aware of others. It makes us collective and teaches to enjoy every human being.

With loads of love to all my online and offline friends,

axinia

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Source: http://1000petals.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/friendship-replaces-marriage-in-the-modern-value-system/

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Watch for real estate brokers, franchisors to join tech buying spree ...

January 16th, 2013 \\ Blog

Acquisition image via Shutterstock.

Om Malik recently wrote about companies that aren?t necessarily associated with technology buying up other companies that were. For example, Avis purchasing ZipCar and Athena Health buying Epocrates.

The thrust of his piece is that digital technologies are becoming the norm. Possessing digital capabilities isn?t just for hot new startup whatevers. It?s becoming table stakes.

How might this sort of trend play out in the real estate industry?

When you think about it, it might seem surprising that more straight-ahead technology acquisitions haven?t happened at the brokerage or franchise level. The real estate industry must be more lucrative than the car rental business, right?

Of course, there are really only a few national players in car rentals, and the small, local shops are just fighting for scraps. Perhaps in real estate, the busines is divided among so many different players that none of them can afford to acquire companies with interesting and useful technologies.

So maybe it?s a money thing. Let?s hold that thought for a moment as we exam the demand side of real estate technology acquisitions.

Another possibility is that perhaps there just aren?t any interesting technologies that a brokerage would want to acquire, even if it had the resources. Perhaps all the yammering about ?blahblah percent of people start their search for a house online? hasn?t spurred the development of enough useful technologies. Perhaps real estate isn?t sexy enough to attract the kind of top-notch talent that conceives and launches something like Instagram, Sparrow, Gowalla, Siri or Zipcar.

But somehow I doubt that. Partly because in writing this column I have seen a lot of fantastic and interesting technology over the years that was devoted to real and imagined problems in the real estate customer use case. There are scores of companies and entrepreneurs out there making things big and small that would be acquirable by a brokerage that wanted to achieve strategic advantage in real estate.

Just for the sake of argument, though, let?s say it could be a supply thing. Maybe no one is making technology that is worth locking up at the brokerage level.

A third possibility is that maybe no one has the right set of skills to evaluate whether a technology acquisition is viable or not. Maybe everyone who?s in a position to purchase a technology firm lacks the skills and familiarity with the medium to know whether that promising new technology is actually useful, or if it?s just a bag of wind.

Maybe the people who would be examining potential technology acquisitions don?t understand enough about meshing together cultures. And let?s be honest: a tech startup firm?s culture is quite likely to be significantly different from a real estate brokerage culture. Aligning cultures is always one of those areas of gaping misery and failure in acquisitions. Just ask Foursquare nee Dodgeball.

Perhaps a lack of leadership is to blame for a dearth of acquisitions by established real estate companies. Don?t take it personally, if you?re reading this column I?m probably not talking about you.

But you get what I?m saying here. The skills for running a brokerage might not be the same as the skills for evaluating technology and culture. And if you decide to loop in your director of IT to help, are they likely or unlikely to approve of a technology that isn?t built in house or by their new friend at the brokerage tech partnership?

Three reasons, then, we?ve covered for why brokerage hasn?t been snapping up useful technologies: brokerage is too poor to play that game, no one is making anything useful, and leadership lacks the tech or culture skills to pull it off. That?s worded a little harshly but you get where I?m at with this.

Now there?s a fourth possibility as well. The fourth possibility is that brokerages are buying technology firms. Some examples include M Realty in Portland Ore., and Beangroup in N.H. buying the firms that built their websites. Pretty shrewd acquisitions, given the cost of building and maintaining IDX websites over the past years.

Another example would be a sort of hybrid approach ? bring in a highly competent tech, marketing, and customer experience person who can adequately manage outside vendors. Jack Miller at GoodLife Team is probably the poster boy for this approach. Expand that team with some competent and dedicated support personnel, and you end up with someone like Matthew Shadbolt at Corcoran Group in Manhattan.

The hybrid group is an excellent middle way, but may lack some of the strategic advantages of the full-on technology acquisition. It?s highly dependent on the quality of that internal resource.

Also, because outside vendors make it their business to provide a standard product to all of their customers, working with an outside vendor is not necessarily the best way to achieve a strategic advantage over competitors. If everyone is getting the same product, then there is no strategic advantage.

The hybrid approach thus requires either exceptional outside-the-box sourcing capabilities, or considerable expertise in modifying or customizing off-the-rack vendor solutions.

In many ways, the hybrid approach is founded on developing and supporting the leadership capabilities at that tech/marketing level. These tech/marketing business leaders must constantly be managing cultural relationships between the core business and the vendor relationships.

This is in addition to completing all of the tech/marketing/customer experience functions for which their role is responsible. A tall order.

An acquisition would shift the cultural duties over to human resources or general C-level leadership, leaving the tech/marketing business leaders to focus on that role.

The technology firm acquisitions that are occurring in the industry appear to be happening mostly at the aggregator level: Diverse Solutions and Tigerleads for example. Perhaps this is because the aggregators have a funding model that?s different enough from brokerage.

But the aggregators are, for the most part, digital natives. Evaluating and buying technology is their core business. Merging and dealing with culture issues is common for them. Tech people typically understand distributed culture.

Will ?traditional? brokers ever stop paying monthly fees to their tech companies, and simply acquire vendors instead? Will they learn how to evaluate and purchase compelling technology that gives them a strategic advantage, and then purchase it as a means of denying that advantage to their competitors?

Now is an interesting time to consider these questions. If the market is indeed turning around, then the cost side of the tech buying equation is going to shift with it.

Gahlord Dewald is the president and janitor of Thoughtfaucet, a strategic creative services company in Burlington, Vt.

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Source: http://lotusadvisors.com/watch-for-real-estate-brokers-franchisors-to-join-tech-buying-spree/

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Top Ideas For Turning out to be A Fantastic Forex trading Trader ...

There is not an grownup that is not able to benefit from the overseas currency trade marketplace. Inside this short article you will discover the way that the forex trading industry performs, which would make it less complicated for you to start investing.

Choose a investing timetable that mirrors your personal agenda. If you only have a couple several hours through the working day to trade, take into account basing your tactic on delayed orders and opt for a bigger time body, like a day-to-day or monthly just one.

Make certain that you can customize your automatic Forex trading Technique. You ought to be in a position to choose software package that is customizable, and will match your way of undertaking points. Consider the time to appearance at the software program you want to obtain, and research if you can customise it or not.

Fx traders ought to understand that they need to not trade from the market if they are rookies or if they do not have the endurance to continue to be in it for the lengthy haul. Novices really should completely steer clear of exchanging towards current market developments, and seasoned forex traders need to be incredibly careful about doing so considering that it generally stops badly.

Don?t always acquire the same place with your trades. There are Currency trading traders who wide open at the very same placement each and every time. They stop ujp committing far too much or also little income mainly because of this. Modify your situation to latest current market conditions to become productive.

In particular never let feeling change the rational final decision you made about a quit stage. Stop reduction points are your defense in opposition to dropping your shirt. Kind in brain, that relocating a stop level immediately after it has been set, is unlikely to be a ration decision, and is normally a choice manufactured when your sentiments are heightened. You?ll only eliminate if you attempt this.

If your investing outcomes have been favorable currently, you could want to start scalping. The art of scalping calls for executing loads of smaller time-frame trades and including their earnings with each other.

When working with fx, you have to by no means give up. You have to continue to be geared up, because every trader will have negative luck. Diligence and difficult perform will make you stand out from other forex trading traders. Irrespective of appearances, keep with your instincts and time will usually guarantee good results.

Be positive to constantly have a notebook on hand. You never know when you will operate across valuable marketplace info, so this way you will constantly be geared up to report this kind of tidbits. You can do this in order to maintain track of your progress. Appearance about the tips as time passes to find out if they are relevant.

As was mentioned in the beginning of the write-up, buying and selling with Foreign exchange is only baffling for these who do not do their analysis just before commencing the dealing process. If you get the advice granted to you in the higher than article, you will start the approach of becoming educated in Currency trading trading.

Everything You Require To Know About Stock Market Shelling out, Guidelines On How To Make Dollars In The Stock Current market

Source: http://invetingmarketanalysis.com/2013/01/08/top-ideas-for-turning-out-to-be-a-fantastic-forex-trading-trader/

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App acts as a personal assistant for busy digital life

TORONTO (Reuters) - Looking for a reliable assistant for your complex digital life? A new app that can detect tasks and help users to complete them could be the answer.

Easilydo, which is available in English for iPhone and iPod Touch in 46 countries, aims to be a pervasive assistant that uncovers tasks from email, calendars, social network and address books.

Tasks it helps to tackle include sending a birthday greeting through Facebook, tracking shipments, or adding contacts to an address book. Twenty four tasks can be detected and are cued up visually within the app.

"We're focusing on the consumer with recognition that most consumers, especially those with high-end smartphones also have professional tasks that they want to get done," said Mikael Berner, the CEO of San-Francisco-based company Easilydo.

According to Berner, the app is useful for knocking off tasks in batches, and also for getting assistance with impending chores.

If there's an upcoming conference call, the app will dial into the number. If there's an in-person meeting, it will remind the user when it's time to leave, and even provide a map to get there.

"We look at your location and if there's a major change in location we calculate the drive time and notify you 15 minutes before you should leave," Berner explained.

The app is also constantly on the lookout for news from social networks using language processing technology that can detect, for example, when someone buys a new home or gets engaged, so that a greeting or gift can be sent using the app.

"Every person has to make roughly 35,000 decisions a day, and the more decisions you have to make, the more worn out you are at the end of the day," said Berner, adding that only about five percent of those decision are conscious.

Another problem the app aims to ease is context switching, being diverted from one task to another before eventually returning to complete it.

According to Berner, the average office worker switches tasks every three minutes and doesn't return to a particular task until 22 minutes later.

"We think by helping to bring the information right when you need it and when you can do something about it we're helping to reduce that problem as well," he said.

The company plans to add new tasks monthly and to create a way for users to create custom tasks. It also plans to release an Android app and hopes to work with businesses such as banks or airlines to help their customers with tasks such as paying bills, checking into airlines or booking flights.

Similar apps include Google Now for Android, and Cue for iPhone.

(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Paul Casciato)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/app-acts-personal-assistant-busy-digital-life-150339375--sector.html

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Volunteers are Trained to Become Special Education Surrogate ...

The surrogate?s main purpose is to review and sign off on the child?s individualized education plan.

by Jenn Smith -

When a struggling child has no family member or guardian to speak for them, they need someone else who can.

The?Recruitment Training and Support Center?at The?Federation for Children with Special Needs?will beat the Eagleton School in Great Barrington this coming Saturday to host orientation and training for volunteers who want to help.

The program is designed to train people to be?special education surrogate parents?(SESPs). The SESPs are appointed volunteers who act as special education decision-makers for children who are in the custody of a state agency, residential placement program or hospital.

Elaine Arsenault, outreach and recruitment specialist for the SESP program of The Federation for Children with Special Needs, said that there are currently about 600 children between the ages of 3 and 18 in Massachusetts who are eligible to be assigned an SESP. She said currently the majority of children needing an advocate are in the 7- and 8-year-old age groups.

?There?s definitely a need in the Berkshires, with places like the Eagleton School and sites in Pittsfield,? Arsenault said.

?Right now we have volunteers that are driving in from Northampton and Easthampton. We?re trying to find more volunteers in [the Berkshire County] area,? she said.

The main purpose of an SESP is to review and sign off on the?individualized education plan?(IEP) of a child with special needs. By?federal law, a parent or guardian must sign the plan in order for a young person to get the educational accommodations he or she needs. When that adult is not present, an SESP can be assigned to do the task.

Volunteers must commit to at least a year, which averages to between 10 and 20 hours.

Inmost cases, volunteers spend time observing a child or children they?re assigned to in a school setting. They are responsible for reviewing a child?s IEP, advocating for any additional services needed, and attending at least four meetings a year.

Beginning volunteers may only have a child or two to advocate for, while volunteers who are more experienced with the?special education?system might monitor progress and needs of multiple children.

Read more at?Training set for special education surrogate parents.

[Via The Berkshire Eagle]

Source: http://specialedpost.com/2013/01/08/volunteers-are-trained-to-become-special-education-surrogate-parents/

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Lenovo to release giant 27-inch 'coffee table PC'

An image provided by Lenoovo shows the IdeaCentre Horizon Table PC that they say is the first "interpersonal computer." It is a PC the size of a coffee table that works like a gigantic tablet and lets four people use it at once. (AP Photo/Lenovo)

An image provided by Lenoovo shows the IdeaCentre Horizon Table PC that they say is the first "interpersonal computer." It is a PC the size of a coffee table that works like a gigantic tablet and lets four people use it at once. (AP Photo/Lenovo)

LAS VEGAS (AP) ? Dismayed that family members are spread out over the house, each with a separate PC or tablet? Lenovo has something it believes will get them back together: a PC the size of a coffee table that works like a gigantic tablet and lets four people use it at once.

Lenovo Group Ltd., one of the world's largest PC makers, is calling the IdeaCentre Horizon Table PC the first "interpersonal computer" ? as opposed to a "personal computer."

At first glance, it looks like a regular all-in-one machine in the vein of the iMac: It's a 27-inch screen with the innards of a Windows 8 computer built into it, and it can stand up on a table.

But you can pick it up off the table, unhook the power cord and lay it flat for games of "Monopoly." It's big enough to fit four people around it, and the screen can respond to ten fingers touching it at the same time.

As a tablet, it's a monstrosity. The screen is the size of eight iPads stitched together, and it weighs 15 pounds. It's almost as homebound as a flat-panel TV.

The Table PC will include plastic "strikers" for "Air Hockey," and joysticks that attach to the screen for other games, including multiplayer shooter "Raiding Company."

Lenovo, a Chinese company that owns IBM Corp.'s former PC business, said the Table PC will go on sale this summer starting at $1,699. It's being unveiled this week at the International CES gadget show in Las Vegas.

Microsoft Corp. pioneered the idea of a table PC with the Surface, a PC with a 30-inch touch-sensitive screen released in 2008. It was designed for store displays and other commercial applications. The concept is now called PixelSense, as Microsoft started using the "Surface" name for an unrelated tablet computer last year.

More recently, Sony Corp. released the Tap 20, an all-in-one PC that can also be laid flat. But it's smaller than the Lenovo model, at 20 inches diagonally, and doesn't have as much table-oriented software as the Table PC.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-01-06-Gadget%20Show-Lenovo-Coffee-Table%20Tablet/id-f7aaa3015a5047afaa8b93fab19e9d27

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