Tayyip Erdogan

“Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights,” was awarded to Mommar Gadaffi’s friend and ally, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The prize is awarded every year to an individual who has worked toward protecting and advancing human rights. “The Prize categorically believes that freedom is an indivisible natural right for Man; it is not a gift or grace from anybody, and that safeguarding it is a general human responsibility,” said a press release describing the award and announcing the 2010 winner. Erdogan, who traveled to Tripoli in November to claim the “coveted” prize was honored. “You can be sure that this award will encourage our struggle for human rights in regional and global sense,” said Erdogan “The only thing we want in our region and in the globe is peace and justice. If there is prosperity in the region, every state will benefit. All regional states would benefit from peace, harmony and stability. Everyone must be sure of one thing: Whatever we want for ourselves, we also want for others.” - The Asbarez Post

Gotti: Three Generations

John Travolta is set to play John Gotti Sr., the mobster known as the Dapper Don, in the indie pic Gotti: Three Generations. Nick Cassavetes will direct the screenplay by Leo Rossi, which focuses on the relationship between John Gotti Sr., the head of the Gambino crime family who died in prison in 2002, and his son John Gotti Jr., who took over the family business for his father, served time in prison, but then successfully escaped conviction in four subsequent racketeering trials. - The Hollywood Reporter

Gee E

Jeff Immelt
According to The New York Times, last year General Electric (GE) made over $14.2 billion in profit, but paid NO federal tax.1 None. Now GE is slashing health benefits and retirement benefits for new employees among non-union workers and is expected to push unions to accept similar cutbacks3, while its CEO, Jeff Immelt, gets a 100% pay raise.4 - moveOn

Sign the petition calling for GE CEO Jeff Immelt to step down as chair of the President's Jobs Council.

http://pol.moveon.org/immelt_must_go/?rc=tw&id=26713-10146206-KA6sn8x&t=1

Even Newt Gingrich A Little Depressed By Prospect Of Him Running For President

WASHINGTON—Expressing a reaction similar to millions of other dismayed Americans, Newt Gingrich admitted Monday that he too was feeling "pretty bummed out" about the prospect of a Newt Gingrich presidential campaign. While confirming his ardent desire to be president, the former Speaker of the House told reporters the mere fact that American voters were seriously considering Newt Gingrich to be a viable Republican candidate in 2012 was a fairly distressing development that made him question the direction the country was moving in. "Even when I see my name on a list of potential candidates, I think, you gotta be kidding me—Newt Gingrich?" said Gingrich, frowning and shaking his head in disbelief. "People are actually getting excited about the guy who engineered the 1995 government shutdown? I'm sorry, but that's just sad." "It's 2011, for God's sake," Gingrich added. "Can't we get a fresher name to represent the Republican Party in the 21st century than Newt Gingrich?" Though he acknowledged a Gingrich candidacy would definitely fire up certain segments of the conservative base, and likely build up a fair amount of momentum on name- recognition alone, Gingrich said that knowing we lived in a world where these kinds of political realities existed at all was a rather grim and sobering thought. - The Onion

Find something better than capitalism.

The world is facing a choice between international capitalism and state capitalism. A new system must be invented. - George Soros
A New World Architecture
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/soros52/English

Thanks Bob!

Microsoft threw its weight behind an existing probe Google by European Union

Microsoft Corp. on Thursday threw its weight behind an existing probe by European Union authorities into whether rival Google Inc. is abusing its dominant position in the online search market to thwart competition.

Microsoft's General Counsel Brad Smith said the company is filing its own complaint against Google with the European Commission, citing concern over "a broadening pattern of conduct aimed at stopping anyone else from creating a competitive alternative."

A spokeswoman for the Commission couldn't immediately confirm whether the complaint had already been received.

The Commission opened a formal investigation into Google's behavior last November, following complaints from several smaller Web companies that the search giant was burying them in its results and engaging in other anticompetitive practices.

Google has long pointed to Microsoft's involvement in the probe, since one of the original complainants, online shopping site Ciao, is owned by Microsoft's search engine Bing. Another company involved in the case, U.K.-based price comparison site Foundem, is a member of a Microsoft-sponsored technology organization.

Al Verney, a Brussels-based spokesman for Google, said the company wasn't surprised by Microsoft's move since one of their subsidiaries was one of the original complainants.

"For our part, we continue to discuss the case with the European Commission and we're happy to explain to anyone how our business works," Verney said.

Nevertheless, Microsoft's direct complaint adds weight to the case, since it lists several specific examples of alleged anticompetitive practices by Google involving some of the search engine's pet projects.

Smith claims that Google "put in place a growing number of technical measures to restrict competing search engines from properly accessing" its YouTube video-streaming site.

"Without proper access to YouTube, Bing and other search engines cannot stand with Google on an equal footing in returning search results with links to YouTube videos and that, of course, drives more users away from competitors and to Google," he wrote in a blog post.

Smith also said that Google blocked Microsoft's Windows Phones "from operating properly with YouTube," but offers better services to its own Android phones and iPhones, whose producer Apple Inc. does not own a search engine.

With Bing, Microsoft is one of Google's biggest direct rivals. It also has a partnership deal with the other big search engine, Yahoo! Inc.

Yet neither Bing nor Yahoo have found a way of closing in on Google, which processes two out of three online searches in the U.S. In Europe, the Mountain View, Calif.,-based company controls more than 90 percent of the search market. The two companies also compete in other areas, such as cloud computing — where they offer remote server space and software processing to clients.

Central to Thursday's complaint is how Google's practices affect advertising — the main source of revenue for Web companies offering free services.

"Google has engaged in a broadening pattern of walling off access to content and data that competitors need to provide search results to consumers and to attract advertisers," Smith said.

Microsoft claims Google is keeping some advertisers from accessing their own data and transferring it to rival advertising platforms, such as its own adCenter. That allegation echoes complaints by other companies and is part of the Commission's probe.

Smith said Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., had provided the European Commission with a "considerable body of expert analysis" to support its case.

With its complaint, Microsoft finds itself in a new situation in Europe, after it battled antitrust investigations and billion euro (dollar) fines from the European Commission for years.

"Having spent more than a decade wearing the shoe on the other foot with the European Commission, the filing of a formal antitrust complaint is not something we take lightly," Smith said.

If Google is found guilty of anticompetitive behavior it could be fined up to 10 percent of annual revenue, which reached some $29 billion last year.