luni, 7 martie 2011

SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog

SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog


SEOmoz Website Update - Making it Easier to Get From Here to There

Posted: 07 Mar 2011 06:38 AM PST

Posted by adamf

As part of a series of SEOmoz self-improvement efforts, we are happy to announce another update to the site! As you've probably already noticed, we just launched a brand new SEOmoz header, footer, and, with these, a distinctly new navigation. Changing navigation can be a tricky business, and if done poorly, can lead to more harm than benefit. We considered this risk when starting this project, but agreed that limitations in the existing navigation were worth addressing:

  1. Our old navigation tried to support both PRO and non-PRO usage scenarios, and in doing so, didn't do either that well. 
  2. Our existing navigation continued to get squeezed as we added new features. We needed a navigation style that would grow with us.
  3. We have a whole lot of important features that were buried, and deserved a chance to see the light of day.
  4. Our designers had some great ideas and wanted a chance make them happen.

 Given all of that, we made some important choices.

  • Create completely different navigations and styles for PRO vs. non-PRO users, targeting each to key activities
  • Support sub-menus in our navigation so more items could be accessible quickly
  • Rethink the ordering and organization of the existing elements in the navigation (without messing up the things that already worked well)

We think that the resulting update does a pretty good job of meeting our goals. I'll use the rest of this post to walk through the changes.

 

For non-PRO or logged-out visitors we created a full width blue and gold navigation. This nav is much more representative of a SAAS site, and supports the types of activities most common to first-time visitors or seekers of free content or tools.  

SEOmoz Free Header

The footer was also redesigned to be better organized and serves to expose some deeper areas of the site as well, while still maintianing space for our key marketing message:

SEOmoz free footer

 To transition to PRO, we also updated our login page, simplifying it, and adding a bit more Roger:

Login Screen

 Careful when entering your login info--Roger feels your pain when you misremember your password. D'oh!:

PRO Login Fail

Once logged in, PRO members have a very different experience. The blue and gold header is replaced with a PRO-centric menu bar to offer quick access to the sorts of features PRO members use most.  Top-level items include the PRO Dashboard, Campaigns, Research Tools, Community, and Learn SEO. In the Community and Learn SEO submenus, we have surfaced many of the frustratingly hard-to-find items like webinars, events, and videos (we get people writing in frequently asking where to find these). 

PRO Navigation

The footer for PRO members is much simplified, so as not to be a distraction when focusing on key tasks.

PRO Footer

Along with the new navigation, we have added some supporting pages. Clicking on Community from the PRO navigation takes you to a new Community Page, with a summary of recent activity easy access to key areas of the SEOmoz community: 

Community Page

 Also, our old clunky webinars page has been replaced with a more usable Webinar area. Yay!

SEOmoz Webinar

One last area I wanted to call out is a little section at the top right of each page. Using the 'magic' of dropdown menus, we have made account and help options much more accessible! For instance, it is now easy to track down and edit your user profile:

My Account Menu

And when you find a bug or think of that killer feature that you just need to share, you can send feedback or access our feature request forum from the help dropdown:

Help Menu

 OK, that's about it.  Thanks for reading through, and please send along your feedback so we can keep making this better!

 


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How to Build Links with Infographics

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 01:03 PM PST

Posted by Justin Briggs

It should be no surprise that infographics aquire links. Although they’ve quickly become a saturated tactic, they still work. I like infographics, because they’re a great intersection between traditional marketing and manual link building. In this post, I’d like to walk through my process of creating and launching a successful infographic. I’m about to tell you exactly how I’ve gotten clients hundreds of thousands of content views, thousands of social shares, and hundreds of links. It's a long post, so grab some coffee.

The Development Process

I’d like to cover my “process” for creating an infographic. This might not be for everyone, but it works for me.

Infographic Creation Process

#1 Full Team Brainstorm

At this stage, I’ll pull the whole project team together for a brainstorm. I may start with a seed set of ideas, but this is a wide open brainstorm, anything goes. We’re looking for ideas that are: interesting, appeals to the linkerati / socialrati, has real data, and some type of unique hook. An idea may come directly from a specific niche we’re targeting, or may go along with an event, such as a holiday. Try to look for angles that people don’t normally take or to present boring/common info conversely or in a off-colour way. Geoff, here at Distilled, is a beast at coming up with ideas.

#2 Research

I may only walk from the brainstorm with a vague concept and the target audience. From this point, I’ll start to research for data that can be used to form an infographic. I have a few goals for research.

  1. Find information that can be organized.
  2. Find information that can be visually represented.
  3. Data does better than just information.
  4. Focus on verifiable statistics I can cite.
  5. Focus on chunkable, tweetable statements.
  6. Focus on content that triggers an emotional response.

The output here is a Word document of information and URLs to its source.

#3 Email Brainstorm

Unless you’re a creative genius, you’ll find value in crowdsourcing for ideas and selection of data. I will send the results of the research to the entire office and collect input on best stats, how those stats can be represented, or any other cool ideas. My job is collect this input and distill it down.

#4 Develop Concept

Next up, I’ll start developing a concept. This is when you put your creative marketing hat on.

Things to consider:

  • How your data can be visually represented
  • Color themes (consider you topic and target market)
  • How to visually create an emotional response
  • Ways to add humor
  • Creating “sharable” chunks of info for easy sharing and tweeting
  • Media to be added, such as images and graphs

This is a choke point where infographics can fall short. Yes, you have a cool concept, you have the data, and maybe you even nailed your title. But what I’ve seen that works, is really catering to your target market(s) in the content of the infographic. Give them very specific, for lack of a better phrase, “Easter eggs” that will be meaningful for them. This might be a meme or a concept unique to their market. Try to play on a person's ego or emotions, or to build some form of relationship with them. This goes back to marketing and understanding the target market.

#5 Design

I’ll pass over all the information to our designer. I’ll touch on this more in a moment, but I’ve learned to be very clear in this communication. Working with a designer in the UK, in another time zone, whom you’ve never met, creates a unique work relationship. I think our process here though is valuable for any SEO working with a designer.

#6 Revisions

This should be simple, but likely won't be. After getting the first draft of the design, it’ll be passed around the office for feedback. This may include typos, content errors, or design considerations. If you don't fix, then mistakes in your graphic will be caught, and social media can be relentless in pointing them out (especially Reddit). Find the most detailed oriented person in your office and get them involved.

Next, send it off for review from your client (or boss).This is the point where your skills in getting s#!% done can make or break your linkbait. Your job is to know your client (boss) and have built enough trust with them that you can manage any pushback. Getting close to your client can be the difference between a piece of linkbait that “ok” and “awesome”.

Working with Your Designer

Infographic design is a choke point. Concepts can fall apart during the design process if not effectively managed. Tucker Cummings, at Blue Glass, recently wrote about what makes a “good” infographic. She said “if it doesn’t make you say “Wow” when you look at it, it’s probably not attractive enough”. Although an infographic needs to look good, I don't want design requirements to scare you off. As long as the design is good, fun, and interesting - I'm more concerned about the content.

My goal when working with a designer is to get something the client will like, with minimum revisions, and without annoying the designer. This is done by doing one thing.

Communicating well.

To assist in this communication, I send my designer two documents (these are actually the headings used in my last brief).

Infographic brief.docx

Client Information

  • Infographic Width
  • Target Audience
  • Client Expectations
  • Deadline
  • Hours

Infographic Information

  • Overview
  • Purpose
  • Data
  • Title
  • Theme
  • Images & Files

Infographic content.docx - Just the text in the infographic.

Tips for Working with Designer

  • Get them involved early. I send over an email after the first brainstorm. I want them to be a part of the team, not just a tool I leverage to produce the graphic. I want them excited about it and feel a sense of ownership over the project as well.
  • Don’t hinder their design. This is their job, it’s what they’re good at, so just step back and let them do it. Trust that they’re an expert at what they do (this means you have to hire a good designer in the first place.)
  • Communicate clearly. Most issues can be solved with clear communication. I promise you this is important when the designer comes in while I’m asleep.
  • Remember you’re a marketer. Trust your designer, but you know the market. Feel free to provide feedback to your designer if you feel the design won’t engage your audience appropriately.  I've had a designer change the color scheme on a graphic, because I didn’t feel it’d engage the target audience in the way I wanted. I think the revision made it a lot more effective at producing an emotional response.

The On-site Stuff

Everyone has their own way of launching an infographics.

The (almost) amazing example

Infographic Example

Around Valentine’s day, I saw what I think was an amazing infographic setup, minus one small thing. This infographic was the Valentine’s Day Spending [Infographic] by DegreeSearch.org.

This setup did a lot of things really well. It allowed the graphic to be published on the blog, but allowed them to promote it with a special landing page as well. This landing page removes almost all distractions, except for engaging with the content via social or embedding. It links back to the post and the site’s homepage. There is this wonderful share bar at the top, which allows visitors to easily share the graphic. It even sticks at the top as the user scrolls down the page.

If there is one place this page may have gone wrong, it’s right here:

infographic embed code

After the infographic, they’ve embedded Facebook comments, but placed the link embed code below it. Every time someone comments on Facebook, the embed box is pushed further down the page, to the very bottom. Since the Facebook comment box is at the bottom anyways, I would have placed the embed above the Facebook comments (unless of course the graphic's goal was to increase Facebook interactions).

My Setup

Typically, I’ll publish an infographic as a blog post and use the following setup.

on-site for infographics

Features:

  • Infographic with good file name and alt attribute
  • Share buttons (I like the style shown above the most)
  • Embed code box, with JavaScrpit to auto select all (will show, one second)
  • Embed code with good image name and alt attribute
  • Embed code links image to post and has a secondary branded link after the graphic

There are three goals: 1) ease sharing 2) ease embeding 3) make sure the embed code gives good links.

Protip: When making your embed code text area, make it autoselect all the code for easy copying. Like this:

textarea style="font-family: monospace;" onclick="this.select();"

You can see this in action over at eLocal, where my friend Adria works, on their home improvement trends infographic.

Getting Links

Everything so far is preperation for the meat of the campaign, getting the links. Infographics depend on the success of the content's creation, but I won't pretend that good content gains links all by itself.

However, good content is key. Good content, like an infographic, paired with strong outreach, can produce amazing results. But enough with the content talk, let’s get to links.

#1 Advertising

I use social media advertising to help seed infographics. Facebook ads work, but I highly recommend StumbleUpon Ads. These are cheap social oriented eyeballs and you can put yourself in front of a lot of them quickly.

Do not expect much from this traffic. It tends to bounce quickly and doesn’t convert in my experience. However, once in a while, you get in front of just the right person at the right time. On my last infographic, we spent about $500 to help seed, which lead to 10,000 paid views, but we ended receiving about twice as many SU views as that due to free stumbles.

From my experience, SU ads can drive tweets and likes, which I’ve seen from running ads after tweet volume has died off.

#2 Seeding Content: Social Sites

You’ll want to submit to relevant social media sites, but put thought into these submissions. For example, Reddit has a large number of subreddits which may work better for specific types of content. Pay attention to how you tag posts on StumbleUpon. Also you can use accounts at your disposal to seed these submissions with strong early votes where possible. There may be times when you need to call in favors.

#3 Twitter

Just like other social sites, you’ll want to promote through Twitter. Leverage relationships to get tweets from prominent Twitter users.

Find twitter users for outreach, it’s pretty easy:

#4 Manual Outreach

Lastly, you need to do traditional link building outreach.

You need to do outreach.

The type of sites I’m reaching out to will be decided in the first full team brainstorm. I’ve already identified that market, and need to contact them for links. Outreach is an art and a science in its own right, but there have been several posts written on the topic.

Don’t be afraid of outreach. It’s a lot like dating. You have to be willing to put yourself out there. Now, if only I was as good at dating as I am link building.

The secret sauce

At the start of this post, I said I’d tell you exactly how I get links with infographics, but that’s not entirely true. I left out two parts, but that’s because I can’t teach you those, but I can tell you what they are.

Contacts

Good contacts can make or break your content promotion. Do you have a PR team? Do you maintain relationships with major bloggers / journalist that can publish your content? Did you start nurturing relations with niche bloggers prior to pitching? We do.

I can’t emphasis enough the value that a handful of useful contacts, who actually reply to your emails, can have on your promotion.

Hustle

I believe hustle is my most valuable skill, in both SEO and life. Tom talks about the concept of hustle as a meme on Hacker News in his post on OnStartups about Distilled culture. Hustle is something that’s hard, maybe impossible, to teach. It's the willingness to “do whatever it takes” to get what you want.

"Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle"
- Abraham Lincoln

Success often means getting lucky, but I do believe “luck is when preparation meets opportunity”. You have to be out there hustling to find those opportunities. You have to be willing to do the work. The lengths I’ll go in outreach often result in rolled-eyes and chuckles around the office, but I get links. I get lucky with a lot of links, but I'd miss them if I wasn't out there working the process.


If you'd like to talk more about link building, you can find me on Twitter or see me in person at SMX West this week. I'll be speaking on Actionable Metrics and Diagnostics and moderating a Birds of a Feather table on link building (where you can grab lunch with me and chat about links).


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White House White Board: Austan Goolsbee on Patent Reform

The White House Your Daily Snapshot for
Monday, March 7,  2011
 

White House White Board: Austan Goolsbee on Patent Reform

In this White House White Board, Austan Goolsbee, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, explains the President's plan to reform the patent system so great American ideas can be turned into the jobs of the future quickly and effectively.

Watch the video.

In Case You Missed It

Here are some of the top stories from the White House blog.

President Obama Makes Long Distance Call to Space
Watch the video of President Obama's call to the crews of the Space Shuttle Discovery and International Space Station to congratulate them on their achievements and courage as they work and live in orbit around the Earth.

What You Missed: Open For Questions on the America's Great Outdoors Initiative
CEQ Chair Nancy Sutley and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson take your questions about the America's Great Outdoors initiative to achieve lasting conservation strategies for America's outdoor spaces.

"I'm Not Willing to Give Up on Any Child In America:" The President's Trip to Miami Central High School
As part of a month focused on education, President Obama travels to Miami Central High School in Florida to talk about his goals for improving America's schools.

Today's Schedule

All times are Eastern Standard Time (EST).

10:15 AM: The President holds a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Julia Gillard of Australia

10:30 AM: The President holds an expanded bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Julia Gillard of Australia

11:15 AM: The President and Prime Minister Julia Gillard of Australia deliver statements to the press

12:30 PM: Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney WhiteHouse.gov/live

2:20 PM: The President meets with senior advisors

WhiteHouse.gov/live  Indicates events that will be live streamed on White House.com/Live.

Get Updates

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Seth's Blog : Empathy

[You're getting this note because you subscribed to Seth Godin's blog.]

Empathy

"If I were in your shoes, I know what I would do."

Marketers can't do their jobs without understanding what a prospect wants, talks about or is interested in.

And managers (and leaders) are ineffective when they're unable to imagine life through someone else's eyes.

The problem is this: if you were in my shoes, I wouldn't be me, I would be you.

As soon as you bring your beliefs, expectations and worldview to the table, you've lost the ability to imagine what someone else would do in this situation. All you're doing is imagining what you would do.

The next time you're puzzled by the behavior of a colleague or prospect, consider the reason might have nothing to do with the situation and everything to do with who is making the decision and what they bring to it.

 
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duminică, 6 martie 2011

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis


In Praise of Extreme Public Union Lunacy in San Jose

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 05:39 PM PST

Hardly a week goes by in which I do not see examples of extreme public union idiocy. Nonetheless, it is rare to see an entirely new concept prop up. Here's a new one.

Pete Constant, a San Jose Councilman wants to answer his own phone. However, union rules dictate that he have a $70,000 assistant he does not even want. What's even more ridiculous is the union has sent this matter to the courts to resolve.

Please consider Internal Affairs: The fight over Councilman Constant's missing secretary
At a time when San Jose faces more than a $100 million budget deficit and the prospect of hundreds of layoffs, San Jose City Councilman Pete Constant is battling with a City Hall employees' union over whether he should be forced to hire an administrative assistant.

Judge Kevin McKenney of Santa Clara County Superior Court recently ordered that the case be taken to a costly arbitration instead of the state's Public Employment Relations Board -- something both Constant and the city's attorneys had sought.

That decision pleased the city's 214-member Confidential Employees Organization, which contends the city was required to confer with the union before Constant decided to eliminate the position. The job -- which requires answering phones, scheduling appointments and making photocopies, among other duties -- pays about $70,000 a year.

"My concern quite frankly is not who decides the issues. It's getting a resolution on the core issue, which is: Who should determine how I staff my office?" said Constant, who was re-elected last year to a second term representing West San Jose.

The City Council's only Republican contends that residents of the district support his ability to make decisions for them. Besides, Constant said, he prefers to do all of the secretarial work himself, with help from four full-time council aides.

Councilman Constant contends that the $70,000 can be better spent on things such as resource fairs, helping neighborhood associations, an online database that updates Constant's office with constituent information and inquiries, and license fees for an iPhone app that allows residents to easily report problems.

But LaVerne Washington, president of the employees' association, said it is not Constant's prerogative to create his own "process and procedures," which she said conflict with labor agreements between the city and the union.
In Praise of Lunacy

I commend the sheer idiocy of LaVerne Washington, president of the employees' association, in pressing this case.

LaVerne Washington shows without a doubt why the only solution to this madness is the total repudiation and complete destruction of public unions.

I cheer Washington's idiocy because this is just the kind of thing that gets the public riled up against public unions. It will backfire.

Union Slave Rules

Union rules prohibit citizens from being volunteer fireman, from volunteering to help their schools, from seeking non-union employment, and from controlling their own lives.

Now we see union rules dictate a city councilman who does not want to hire an assistant to waste $70,000 hiring one.

People cannot yell "fire" in a movie theater, for good reason. For the same reason, union rights to "organize" must stop at the point when they tread on the rights of others to pursue employment, to do whatever they want with their own time, and to not waste money hiring employees they do not need.

No one who stands up for the taxpayer in public union contracts. Worse yet, many of those contracts intrude on private rights as noted above.

The proper solution is the complete elimination of public unions and all the slavery they stand for.

Please see Paul Krugman, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher, others, Ignore Extortion, Bribery, Coercion, and Slavery; No One Should Own You! for further discussion of the slavery issue.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List


Libyan Rebels Capture Major Oil Hub; Government Forces Repel Rebel Attacks in Other Cities; How Long Can Qaddafi Hang On?

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 09:47 AM PST

Yesterday, rebels captured Ras Lanuf, a town 400 miles east of Tripoli, home of a tanker terminal that exports about 200,000 barrels of oil a day as well as Libya's biggest refinery.

However, both sides have claimed victories elsewhere, and accurate assessments of precisely what is happening are difficult.

Please consider Libya's Rebels Claim Another Oil Hub in Day of Clashes
Fighting between Libyan rebels and troops loyal to Muammar Qaddafi intensified as the opposition advanced west from the oil hub of Ras Lanuf toward the leader's hometown of Sirte.

Rebel fighters battled Qaddafi's troops today as they approached Sirte, 230 miles east of the capital, Tripoli, said Khaled el-Sayeh, a coordinator between the opposition's military forces and its interim ruling council in Benghazi.

State television reports that Qaddafi's troops had recaptured Ras Lanuf overnight were false and designed to "bring down the morale of the youths," el-Sayeh said. The rebels today remained in control of the port, which regime forces shelled with rockets and artillery, the AP reported.

Rebels yesterday took control of Ras Lanuf, 400 miles east of Tripoli, where they shot down two helicopters and a fighter jet. The town has a tanker terminal that exports about 200,000 barrels of oil a day. It also contains Libya's biggest refinery, with a capacity of 220,000 barrels a day, more than half the country's total output, according to the International Energy Agency.
Rebel Advance in Libya Set Back by Heavy Assault

The New York Times reports Rebel Advance in Libya Set Back by Heavy Assault
The Libyan military drove rebel forces back along the main coastal road on Sunday, ambushing the advancing militias as they entered the town of Bin Jawwad and pushing them out with tank fire and airstrikes, according to witnesses near the town.

The number of the casualties in the battle was unclear, but it set back the rebels' advance just a day after they celebrated a major victory in taking the vital oil port of Ras Lanuf. On Sunday, rebel leaders said they were regrouping outside that city and would begin pushing toward Bin Jawwad again.

Just outside the capital, a standoff continued in the rebel-held city of Zawiyah, a day after forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi waged a heavy assault toward the city center and then pulled back to close off all roads out.

Nineteen days after it began with spirited demonstrations in the eastern city of Benghazi, the Libyan uprising has veered sharply from the pattern of relatively quick and nonviolent upheavals that ousted the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt. Instead, the rebellion here has become mired in a drawn-out ground campaign between two relatively unprofessional and loosely organized forces — the Libyan Army and the rebels — that is exacting high civilian casualties and appears likely to drag on for some time.

That bloody standoff was evident on Saturday in Zawiyah, the northwestern city seized by rebels a week ago, where the government's attacks raised puzzling questions about its strategy. For the second day in a row its forces punched into the city, then pulled back to maintain a siege from the perimeter. Hours later, they advanced and retreated again.

By the end of the day, both sides claimed control of the city.

In Benghazi, the rebels' de facto capital, the rebels took further steps toward political organization. Their shadow government, the Libyan National Council, held its inaugural meeting Saturday and appointed a three-member crisis committee.

While the rebels may have a new defense minister in Benghazi, their fighters on the eastern front did not appear to be taking orders from anyone on Saturday as they pushed past Ras Lanuf, an oil refinery town that they retook from Colonel Qaddafi's loyalists on Friday night.

Armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers, the rebels advanced confidently by car and foot through the desert until a fighter jet was heard. Even a rumor of a jet engine in the distance would send the fighters in a mad dash through the dunes, searching for cover and firing in the air.
Slow, Uneven Progress

The battle for Libya is now 18 days and counting. The rebels continue to gain territory, then give some back only to take it again. Over time however, they appear to be advancing from multiple directions towards Tripoli.

Based on belief that Qaddafi's top military leaders would turn on him, I initially thought this would all be over in a few of weeks. So far that has not happened. Now with both sides disorganized and with rebels increasingly stretched thin as they capture more territory, how much longer this can go on remains to be seen.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List


Union Divide: Debate Over Public Unions Divides Families; Debate a Good Thing

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 01:29 AM PST

The debate over public unions has become increasingly intense, to the point of splitting families, even in once-solid union country.

Please consider In union strongholds, residents wrestle with cuts
In Midwestern union strongholds, residents torn over proposals to curb union benefits, powers.

There once was a time when Harry and Nancy Harrington -- their teenage children in tow -- walked the picket line outside the nursing home where she was a medical aide, protesting the lack of a pension plan for the unionized work force.

But those days of family solidarity are gone.

Harry now blames years of union demands for an exodus of manufacturing jobs from this blue-collar city on the shore of Lake Michigan. He praises new Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker for attempting to strip public employee unions of nearly all of their collective bargaining rights.

"I'm sorry, but the unions want to yell, they want to intimidate," says Harry Harrington, 69, as he sets a coffee cup down next to another newspaper headline about the union demonstrations.

"They want to be heard," retorts Nancy Harrington, 66, who fears a weakened union would jeopardize the teaching career of their now 38-year-old daughter.

The Harringtons typify the new national reality for labor unions. Support is no longer a sure thing from the middle class -- not even in a city long considered a union stronghold in a state that gave birth to the nation's largest public employee union. National polls show that the portion of the public that views unions favorably has dropped to near historic lows in recent years, dipping below 50 percent by some accounts.

In Racine, a nearly two-hour drive southeast of the epicenter of the union controversy in Madison, the question of the union's appropriate role has divided husband and wife, mother and child, co-workers and friends. It's the hot topic on editorial pages, at coffee shops, even at the craft club that meets in the community center at Roosevelt Park, where a dozen retired women recently were talking over the top of each other about union powers while knitting socks and hats.

Yet the teachers union is not the power it once was in the Racine area. Despite a well-funded media campaign, the union's candidate, Democratic state Sen. John Lehmen, of Racine -- a former high school teacher -- was ousted by Republican challenger Van Wanggaard in last fall's election. District voters also picked Walker over Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett.
Debate a Good Thing

This debate is a good thing. Debate portends change. Until recently few cared how much public unions and their untenable benefits were raping taxpayers. Now many do, and it's a start.

Unions have struck back of course, primarily by the same fear-mongering, extortionist tactics they always have. However, battles like these are not won in a day. Progress continues in Ohio, Wisconsin, Tennessee, New Jersey, and even California.

That's a good start.

A few years ago the only people talking about these issues were Jack Dean at Pension Tsunami and I. Even now, most bloggers have ignored the issue. Unfortunately, some bloggers such as Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism and Leo Kolivakis at Pension Pulse are on the wrong side of it.

The facts are indisputable however.
  • No one speaks for the taxpayer in so-called collective bargaining negotiations
  • Public unions are in power via a constant barrage of extortion, coercion, bribery, and backroom dealing.
  • Public unions have bankrupted countless cities and many states.
  • Public unions and collective bargaining are tantamount to slavery
For a look at the slavery debate, please consider Paul Krugman, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher, others, Ignore Extortion, Bribery, Coercion, and Slavery; No One Should Own You!

The more the issues are discussed, the better the chances of change to address the problems.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List


Echo Rolled Back

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 01:15 AM PST

A few issues came up with Echo that will prevent deployment this weekend as planned. Will postpone for another weekend.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List