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vineri, 13 iunie 2014

The President Speaks on Iraq

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This afternoon, from the South Lawn of the White House, President Obama delivered a statement on the current situation in Iraq:

Yesterday, I convened a meeting with my National Security Council to discuss the situation there, and this morning I received an update from my team. Over the last several days, we've seen significant gains made by ISIL, a terrorist organization that operates in both Iraq and in Syria. In the face of a terrorist offensive, Iraqi security forces have proven unable to defend a number of cities, which has allowed the terrorists to overrun a part of Iraq's territory. And this poses a danger to Iraq and its people. And given the nature of these terrorists, it could pose a threat eventually to American interests as well.

Now, this threat is not brand new. Over the last year, we've been steadily ramping up our security assistance to the Iraqi government with increased training, equipping and intelligence. Now, Iraq needs additional support to break the momentum of extremist groups and bolster the capabilities of Iraqi security forces.

Watch the President's full remarks on Iraq here.

Barnacle SEO: Leveraging Other Sites' Rankings - Whiteboard Friday

Posted: 12 Jun 2014 05:16 PM PDT

Posted by randfish

When ranking for incredibly competitive keywords just isn't a possibility, you can make like a barnacle on a ship, attaching yourself to the big sites that are. In today's Whiteboard Friday, Rand explains just what that means and how to go about it.

For reference, here's a still of this week's whiteboard!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week we're talking barnacle SEO. Barnacle SEO is essentially a term coined by Will Scott of Search Influence and credit to him for that. The idea that Will proposed is attaching oneself to a large fixed object and collecting benefit as the currents bring it.

Now, what that means is, like a barnacle, who's attached to a big rock or the side of a ship, the currents are bringing nutrients to you as those objects travel and as the currents bring them in. In the SEO world, this means essentially saying, "Hey, there are some keywords that are so competitive, so challenging, or so far outside of what we want to target that we're just not going to be ranking for those terms and phrases, and we don't necessarily want to invest the effort or energy, or we've already invested and we're just not making progress. But what we can do is make it so that as other people visit the top 5, 10, 20 results, they see our brand, our website linked to, mentioned, talked about, and we derive benefit from essentially latching on and attaching ourselves to these sites and pages that are ranking."

So I've gone ahead and put together an example. Let's say that I'm the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and I'm doing some SEO work for them. Their website OSFAshland.org. It's one of my absolute favorite places in the whole world, and I love going there every summer. They put on great productions. But OSFAshland doesn't rank for a lot of things around Shakespeare, and my God, some of the searches around Shakespeare stuff are incredibly popular. Shakespeare quotes, for example, gets just hundreds of thousands, if not millions of searches per month. Of course, we have people like Wikipedia, Absolute Shakespeare, eNotes, Goodreads, Shakespeare Online. All of these folks are ranking well for this query.

So potentially, OSFAshland could think about doing some barnacle SEO, attaching themselves in some way to these sites and pages that are already performing. So, for example, they might say, "Hey, with Wikipedia, we can provide some references, add some missing notable quotes, or suggest those on the talk page. Provide media. This page is going to be looking for, "Hey, could we get an example of an actor from the 'Tempest' performing this particular line about, 'We are such stuff as dreams are made on,' or what have you." They might actually have a photograph of an actor in a performance speaking those lines. Perfect.

They can provide that media to Wikipedia, put it under the Wikimedia commons license, and now they've got a reference point. It will say so and so performing at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Now even if there's not a direct link, they're building some brand equity with people who visited this Wikipedia page. Excellent.

With AbsoluteShakespeare.com or eNotes or Shakespeare Online, they could think about offering updates, suggestions, sharing videos. If they have a video of a Shakespearean actor performing this on stage, that's just a tremendous resource that these types of folks are killing for. They want to get that video snippet. They would love to be able to engage their readers more, and OSF gets the benefit of potentially hosting that video on their YouTube channel and getting some additional brand benefit in those ways.

So there's opportunity. Oftentimes it's even more direct than that. So, for example, with Goodreads, the OSF has had many notable books about Shakespeare reference them, mention them, talk about them. I believe they even have some folks from their company who've written books on these topics. They could potentially get onto this Goodreads page in more direct formats.

There's a lot of different ways, depending on who's ranking and for what, you can find opportunities. The process is pretty simple too. It's sort of the opposite of normal keyword research, where you're looking for those sort of low difficulty, high opportunity keywords. Here we're looking for the toughest keywords out there, the ones that are getting the most tremendous amounts of searches, or the ones that are getting a good amount of searches but that we're not interested or willing to target right now. We want to go find a list of sites and pages that are ranking well for these keyword terms and phrases and note opportunities.

There could be opportunities directly for links. There could be opportunities for content shares. Many, many times I've noted that people in the marketing world have a need for content around a particular topic. They're ranking well for it already. I think to myself, "Gosh, I could write a great piece for them. Or I could provide them with some great research. Or I could put together something for them, offer it to them." A lot of times those types of opportunities will be accepted if you come in knowing exactly how you're going to contribute, especially if you already have a brand or brand presence in the space.

Bus dev partnerships are another easy and interesting way to go. We've done this before where we've noted, "Hey, these sites are consistently ranking well for keywords that we're chasing here at Moz. Let's go reach out to them and talk to their audience by potentially buying some presence in their email newsletter or by working with their content team to do a webinar together."

Sometimes direct advertising can work for this. You can buy ads on some of these pages. In this case, I think only a few of the pages that were ranking in the top 10 actually did have advertisements. But oftentimes, there are more that could. Potentially, some of these you could reach out and say, "Hey, would you be willing to advertise?" Because of who the Oregon Shakespeare Festival is, in this case, they might be willing to do it.

Then your job is to essentially to pursue and execute. Now, this process is relatively simple and straightforward, but it's a very rarely pursued tactic. When people think about SEO, they think about ranking themselves. They don't think about barnacle SEO and latching onto these solitary objects, these larger objects and letting the currents bring it to them. I think this can be incredibly valuable.

One more tip. Even if none of these other options are available to you -- the content partnerships, bus dev, advertising, direct links -- even if none of them are available, think about social. What you can often do is find the people who are ranking here, look at their social accounts and see who's following them, who else might they be following. You can use something like Followerwonk, or I think Little Bird might enable you to do this. There are a few other competitors in that space. Then say, "Hey, we could get these accounts to help amplify our message or reach out to these social influencers who are clearly in this space and get things that way."

This is a process of finding marketing opportunities, and it's a creative one, one that I'd urge you to pursue.

All right, everyone, thanks so much for watching. We'll see you again next week for another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Take care.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

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Seth's Blog : Even better than an app?

Even better than an app?

Mitch writes about the very near future when most fast-serve and mid-priced restaurants will have a tablet on the table, letting you order and pay without ever speaking to a waiter. It sort of takes the magic out of restaurants for me, but I get his point.

And your store, your store is likely to become not much more than a showroom for an online seller if pointing and clicking is cheaper, faster and more satisfying than hunting down a salesperson and dealing with a transaction.

And this rash, perhaps it might be better diagnosed right now by emailing a picture of it to Jay Parkinson than it would by hassling for an appointment and spending the time and the money to drive an hour to the doctor's office to show it to someone in person.

And when was the last time you looked forward to waiting in line to talk to a bank teller? Or a loan officer?

It used to be that the goal was to be perfect, like a computer. Now, of course, that's not nearly good enough if you're in any job that can be done by a computer (or a customer with an app in his hand).

Once we acknowledge that the measurable, objective job might be taken by an app, we have to make service dramatically better than self-service, or else this job is gone. If it's not special, don't bother.

What an opportunity! Instead of seeing a job as a shuttler of information and stuff from place to place, we can acknowledge that in fact, the shuttling isn't unique or even particularly valuable. The human being part is what's worth something.

• Email to a friend •

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Assessing the Blame for Iraq: Bush, Obama, McCain, Others; Iraq Sunken Costs

Posted: 12 Jun 2014 02:49 PM PDT

In response to Iraq Splinters Into Pieces, Thank George Bush and the Neocons, I received emails from Neocon true believers and others who want to whitewash Bush's role in creating this mess.

One person said Democrats are "equally" to blame.

How laughable. Had Bush not trumped up lies, sucking Colin Powell along for the ride, the war would never have happened. Period.

Yes, Democrat nutcases went along for the ride, notably Hillary Clinton. And had she just apologized for her stupidity, she might have won the nomination instead of Obama.

Obama's Mistakes

Others pointed out that Obama made mistakes. Indeed he did. Giving weapons to Islamic rebels in Syria was one of them.

Undoubtedly that mindless action provided weapons that ended up in Iraq, not Syria.

Reader Dennis writes ..

"The current situation in Iraq didn't have to be this way for 2 reasons: 1. Bush should not have invaded, and 2. The Current Administration should not have provided assistance and weapons to the Al Qaeda linked insurgents in Syria, who intent to create an Islamist state in the region between Syria and Iraq."

I agree, 100%. But the first mistake was the most costly.

And look who thought Obama did not do enough in Syria. Why it's none other than WWIII proponent, Republican Senator John McCain.

Flashback February 16, 2014: Think Progress reports McCain: It's 'Ludicrous' To Say More U.S. Military Aid Will Worsen Syria's Civil War

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on Sunday dismissed the notion that increasing American military assistance to rebels in Syria could worsen the conflict there.

McCain has been calling for greater U.S. military intervention in Syria ever since Bashar al-Assad's regime cracked down violently on peaceful protests throughout the country in 2011. Now, with Syrian peace talks stalled and violence there getting worse and more brutal, CNN's Candy Crowley asked McCain on her State of the Union program whether adding more guns to the situation might do more harm than good. "Isn't it a terrible idea to do nothing in Syria?" McCain asked rhetorically.

But later in the segment, Crowley returned to the question. "Do you entertain the possibility," Crowley wondered, that "more harm could happen if we increased it, help militarily?"

"More harm could happen?!" McCain shot back. "Candy with all due respect that's ludicrous. That's ludicrous!"

Syria Weapons End Up In Iraq

Where did those weapons end up? My bet is the same as reader Dennis.

Yet, McCain (and other warmongers) want Obama to send more. McCain also wants missiles in the Czech Republic. Is there any war action McCain doesn't want?

Obama Won't Rule Out Airstrikes to Aid Iraq's Army

To combat Obama's mindless sending of weapons to Syria (supported 500% by McCain), Bloomberg reports Obama Won't Rule Out Airstrikes to Aid Iraq's Army.

"I don't rule out anything," Obama said today when asked whether the U.S. was willing conduct drone strikes or take other action against the jihadists. Iraq "clearly is an emergency situation" and the government there needs more help.

Any move by Obama to intervene in Iraq would hit opposition in Congress. While some lawmakers were pressing for the U.S. to act, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Representative Howard "Buck" McKeon, said he would oppose funding any military action. His counterpart in the Senate, Democratic Senator Carl Levin, said he was skeptical that air strikes made sense.

Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters that the U.S. is moving ahead with military assistance programs started with Iraq since 2011, to include expediting the lease of AH-64 Apache helicopters for delivery this year as well as delivery of 100 Boeing Co. (BA) Scan Eagle surveillance drones.

The Pentagon this month notified Congress for approval to sell Iraq an additional $1 billion in military equipment including Beechcraft AT-6C attack aircraft, AM General Humvee trucks and Raytheon Co. (RTN) aerostats.

Republicans in Congress accused Obama of ignoring a growing threat to the U.S. from the fighting in Iraq. Arizona Senator John McCain said withdrawing all U.S. forces was a mistake and that the president should fire "his entire national security team, which has been a total failure."

House Speaker John Boehner blamed the turmoil in Syria, Egypt and now Iraq on Obama's policy failures and accused him of ignoring signs of the growing threat from Sunni extremists.

"They're 100 miles from Baghdad," the Ohio Republican said at a Washington news conference."And what's the president doing? Taking a nap."

Always More!

Yep, There you have it. Boehner and McCain, want Obama to do more. Always more!

Always forgetting that Bush started this madness. And Republican readers always forget neocons pressure Obama to do the very things that blow up.

Maliki' Connection

Nouri al-Maliki' is Prime Minister of Iraq.

Who is responsible for putting Maliki' in charge? The answer is none other than George Bush.

Bloomberg continues ...

Levin, of Michigan, told reporters, "We shouldn't knee-jerk anything. We should look at all the options carefully and thoughtfully."

Levin and other lawmakers faulted Maliki for refusing to sign an agreement for some U.S. troops to remain in Iraq and for using his government to enforce Shiite Muslim rule instead of seeking accommodation with Iraq's Sunni minority.

While the militants' swift victories raise questions about Obama's 2011 decision to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq and his reluctance to help arm moderate Syrian rebels fighting Sunni extremists in that country, polls show Americans are in no mood for another overseas intervention.

Forty-seven percent want the U.S. to do less on the global stage, while only 19 percent favor more engagement, an April NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed.

Sunken Costs

People are tired of war and warmongering. Rightfully so.

The Iraq war, begun with the U.S.-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein in 2003, cost 4,490 Americans their lives, according to Defense Department data. The price for U.S. taxpayers was more than $2 trillion, according to the Costs of War Project by the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

I suggest we face the harsh reality: nothing can bring the lives lost or the money spent back. We wasted $2 trillion dollars already. Let's not waste more.

McCain, as always wants to press on. And since this is a clear case of "Mission Accomplished", somehow this is all Obama's fault.

By the way it should be perfectly clear now why elder Bush did not continue on to Baghdad and why it was a huge mistake for baby Bush to "finish the job".

Time for Self Assessment

I can and do blame Obama for countless things. But Republicans would be very wise to self-assess on Iraq, on nation building, and on warmongering in general.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Iraq Splinters Into Pieces, Al Qaeda in Control of Several Cities, Kurds Take Oil City Kirkuk; Thank George Bush and the Neocons; Iraq Before and After

Posted: 12 Jun 2014 10:10 AM PDT

"They will shower us with flowers."

Anyone recall that idiotic line from disgraced Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld?

Remember any of these lies...

"Oil will flow freely."
"The war will pay for itself."
"We know where they [WOMDs] are."

And with blatant lies and complete ineptitude, the US set about "nation building" in Iraq. It was the neocon's number one wet dream at the time.

Today the results are in. A few articles will explain how it turned out.

Islamic Militants Take Mosul and Tikrit

Please consider Militants Step Up Iraq Attack.

Militants from an al-Qaeda splinter group stormed the Turkish consulate in Mosul, Iraq's second city, on Wednesday and took 49 people hostage.

The jihadi group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (known as Isis), expanded its offensive just 24 hours after taking control of Mosul. The militants pushed south and appeared to have taken over Tikrit, the home town of Iraq's executed former leader Saddam Hussein.

Turkey called for an emergency Nato meeting while Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prime minister, discussed the issue with US Vice President Joe Biden, who told him that Washington was "prepared to support Turkey's efforts to bring about the safe return of its citizens", according to a White House summary of the conversation.

Isis's seizure of Mosul on Tuesday and its continuing offensive underline how Iraq has again been driven to the brink of civil war by political tensions between the country's Shia, Sunni and Kurdish communities, which have been exacerbated by the sectarian civil war in neighbouring Syria.

Kurds Take Oil City Kirkuk

The Financial Times reports Iraq Slides Further Into Turmoil as Kurds Take Oil City Kirkuk.

Iraq's Shia-dominated government launched air strikes on Sunni insurgent positions in and around the city of Mosul on Thursday as Islamist forces hurtled toward the capital and Kurdish troops seized control of the key oil city of Kirkuk.

State television aired images of what it described as air strikes on insurgent positions in Mosul, seized on Tuesday after a days-long assault by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (known as Isis) and its allies, as Iraqi forces abandoned their posts and fled. Turkish media also reported the Turkish military was flying surveillance drones over Mosul in a co-ordinated move with Baghdad.

Iraqi media reported clashes between Islamist insurgents and Iraqi security forces in Abu Ghraib, just west of Baghdad, as Isis warned it would take its battle to the cities of Najaf and Karbala, shrine and seminary cities holy to the Shia faith.

"Go to Caliphate Baghdad. We have a score to settle," Isis spokesman Abu Mohamed al-Adnani urged in an audio recording posted online. "We will settle our differences not in Samarra or Baghdad but in Karbala, the filth-ridden city, and in Najaf, the city of polytheism."

Insurgents Surround Iraq's Largest Refinery in Baiji

Reuters reports Insurgents Surround Iraq's Largest Refinery in Baiji.

Insurgents surrounded Iraq's largest refinery in the northern town of Baiji on Thursday, police and an engineer inside said.

Sunni militants first moved into Baiji late on Tuesday, closing in on the refinery, but later withdrew to the surrounding villages after reaching a deal with local tribal chiefs.

A witness who lives in a house near the refinery said the militants arrived in more than 50 vehicles.

ZeroHedge provides still more details in Al Qaeda Insurgents Surround Iraq's Largest Refinery.

Iraq Before and After Bush's Nation Building Effort

Before: Iraq was a functioning country.
After: Iraq is in ruins, much of its infrastructure wiped out

Before: Iraq pumped oil
After: Iraq doesn't and we have paid for that at the pump ever since

Before: Iraq was ruled by a secular leader
After: The US installed a Shiite puppet while verbally fighting Shiites in Iran

Before: Religious freedom was the norm. Catholics, Sunnis, Shiites all got along, not perfectly but acceptably
After: People are killed every day for their religious beliefs. Catholics are persecuted.

Before: Women had relative freedom
After: Women are likely to be shot in some cities if they do not cover their faces

Before: Al Qaeda was not in Iraq. Hussein wanted nothing to do with religious zealots.
After. Al Qaeda is in control of several cities

Before: Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction.
After: Quite possibly they exist in Iraq now.

Before: Iraq military was in control.
After: Iraq in open civil war, splintered into several pieces, each controlled by a different faction

Before: Iraq was no terrorist threat.
After: It sure is now.

Before: US has no embassy in Iraq.
After: US's largest embassy in the world is in Iraq

Details on that last point are rather amazing. Please consider Embassy of the United States, Baghdad.

At 440,000 square meters, it is the largest and most expensive embassy in the world and is nearly as large as Vatican City. It employs 15,000 people and cost $750 million to build. The Embassy opened in January 2009 following a series of construction delays. It replaced the previous embassy, which opened July 1, 2004 in Baghdad's Green Zone in a former Palace of Saddam Hussein.

Idiocy of Nation Building

Such is the idiocy of nation building.

Hussein was an evil man. But it cost over $1 trillion dollars to get rid of him. And it was none of our business to do so. We have ongoing expenses at the embassy. Oil prices are higher. The US could not afford any of this.

Iraq is in ruins. Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians were killed or injured. Millions more lost their livelihoods. And the US caused it.

So where is the apology?

Better yet where, are the criminal prosecutions? Are Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld any less of war criminals than Hussein?

Addendum: I nearly forgot one of the biggest one-liners of all "Mission Accomplished!"

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com