ComScore: Russia Widens Online Lead In Europe With 61.3M Users; EU5 Smartphone Penetration Now 57%, Samsung, Android Leading

The analysts at comScore have today published their latest research detailing how Europe is progressing in areas like smartphone penetration, broadband and consumer digital services like video consumption -- part of comScore's ongoing Digital Future In Focus series of annual reports covering different geographical markets. In all, the online audience across the region, covering 18 continues, to creep up and at the end of 2012 was 408.3 million users, with Russia the biggest market at 61.3 million; and mobile users in the "EU5" -- the top-five markets of Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK -- are now up to 241 million, with 57% of them using smartphones.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/L-CVgi58mng/

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US Will Beef Up West Coast Missile Defense System to Protect Against North Korean Bombs (Updated)

Reports have surfaced that Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel will announce an expansion of the United States' west coast missile defenses in response to a perceived threat from North Korea. The move is a response to recent North Korean missile tests. This is mostly public relations. As we know, North Korean missiles have the range, but not the brains to hit American soil. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/7s5sMhtqIC0/us-will-beef-up-west-coast-missile-defense-system-to-protect-against-north-korea

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Unknown assailants set fire to church in Libya's Benghazi

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Unknown assailants set fire to an Egyptian Coptic church in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on Thursday, witnesses said, the second attack on the building in weeks.

Residents said the attack appeared to be in reaction to a protest at the Libyan embassy in Cairo earlier this week where Egyptian protesters burnt a Libyan flag outside the embassy and, according to police at the scene, held aloft a cross.

The demonstrators there said they were protesting the death of an Egyptian Copt in an explosion in front of a church in Libya a month ago.

The church in downtown Benghazi was heavily damaged and charred inside, witnesses said, with bookshelves ransacked. As crowds gathered at the scene, the fire was eventually put out.

Officials said they were not aware of any injured as the church was empty when the attack happened.

"There were rumors of plans to set fire to the church. We didn't hear anything today though, we just saw the smoke billowing," one resident who gave his name as Bodelal said.

This was the second attack on the Egyptian Coptic church in Benghazi in weeks. Gunmen had previously attacked it, assaulting two priests.

About 250 gathered again in front of the embassy in Cairo on Thursday, clashing with Egyptian riot police, a security source said.

"This could be reaction against what happened at the embassy. They burnt the Egyptian flag in front the embassy," another Benghazi resident, Abdusalem Salem, said.

Libya's small Christian community has expressed fears over Islamist extremism as the government struggles to impose its authority over armed groups which have refused to lay down their weapons since the 2011 war that ousted Muammar Gaddafi.

In December, an explosion at a building belonging to a Coptic church in Dafniya, close to the western city of Misrata, killed two Egyptian men and wounded two others.

Last month, four foreigners were arrested in Benghazi on suspicion of being Christian missionaries and printing books about Christianity.

(Reporting by Ali Shuaib and Firas Busalum; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/unknown-assailants-set-fire-church-libyas-benghazi-181232207.html

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Project Reason | How much do you pay for health insurance?

Skipshot - 15 March 2013 09:11 AM

So once again my Tea Bagger dad was pontificating about how Obamacare will ruin America and anyone who takes advantage of it is a leech and taker who just wants someone else to pay for their health care.? It finally came to me, he is a retired military officer who has never had to pay for health insurance out of his own pocket, so I asked him how much he thinks employer subsidized health insurance for my family of four costs.? He said somewhere around $300 - $400 a month.? When I said it was $1300 a month he was shocked.? So, maybe people who can?t afford health insurance and take their medical needs to the emergency room where the cost is borne by the taxpayer aren?t lazy free loaders who won?t get off their ass and find a better paying job.

It looks like the Tea Bag Party has a perception problem.

Of course, health insurance isn?t $1300 for every family, some are able to afford only the lowest cost insurance, but since my dad does have auto insurance he won?t pay the state minimum for auto insurance because he knows he?d be on the hook for the massive difference should he be at fault in an accident, and could lose much of his assets.? Sort of like what happens when people with cheap insurance get sick beyond the coverage and they end up bankrupt covering the difference.

Send this to your Dad and let him know he has it backwards. Obamacare is anything but socialist. If your Dad doesn?t like free riders, then he should love Obamacare:

full article
http://www.policymic.com/articles/10565/obamacare-protects-the-free-market-why-repealing-it-would-mean-a-return-to-socialism

Socialists and liberals dislike the Affordable Care Act because there is no single payer government run option. The ACA cuts socialist programs and it?s free market approach is too centrist for them.

Conservatives believe the ACA is the most liberal, socialist creation in mankind?s history and that Obama has sown the seeds for American apocalypse.

Polls show high approval of most individual parts of the law. When asked about the entire law together people hate it. Political misinformation campaigns have convinced people that socialism is taking over America.

I will address the socialism argument first and then address some of the other critics concerns.

Where did we come from before the ACA?? And where are we now?

Prior to the Affordable Care Act the costs of uninsured free riders skipping their medical bills were socialized. Rather than going bankrupt, hospitals increase the prices for the insured. Hospitals split the losses with the government. The government then taxes you higher to socialize the losses.

For example, uninsured diabetes patients were showing up in costly hospital emergency rooms for insulin when health crises arose rather than going to cheaper primary care doctors. Many couldn?t pay those bills.

Before the Affordable Care Act, the system was socialistic, and losses were distributed throughout America.
Repeal of the Affordable Care Act is a call for a return to that socialist system.

Socialism is - a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, or capital, land., in the community as a whole. [Dictionary.com]

The ACA ends the spreading of costs for unpaid bills through the community (socialism) to you that led to higher health insurance payments and higher taxes. It does this by using a method that Mitt Romney pioneered as governor of Massachusetts, which now has 98% of its residents insured. Romney even ran his first presidential campaign on his method for fixing the free rider problem.?
How does the ACA?s reduction of socialism benefit you?

The costs of free riders nails your wallet in more than one way. Your insurance premiums are higher because the costs are embedded in the services you use that your insurance company covers. Your taxes are higher because the government pays for a portion of these unpaid bills and you and all tax payers are the only source of government money. The ACA removes this socialization of costs and will save you money.

How much??

Annually, you, or your employer pays about $1000 more in insurance premiums to pay for losses that free riders brought to the system. You pay about $1000 more in taxes today. So, in total around $2000 a year comes out of your wallet because of the socialist system of the past that the Affordable Care Act replaces.

What will your costs be without free riders sucking money out of your wallet?

How will employers benefit if they pay thousands and thousands less for their hundreds of employees because they aren?t paying free riders who don?t work for them??

This could leave employers with more money in the bank to raise your pay, or hire more workers.

Repealing Obamacare returns to a system where you and your employer foot the bill for the uninsured.

Repealing Obamacare costs you at least $2000 a year.
What other socialism does the ACA cancel?

Medicare Advantage was a public-private partnership that was supposed to lower health care costs by having private insurance companies involved. The costs ballooned.?

By slashing this socialist program entirely and moving people into the more efficient Medicare system, the Affordable Care Act saves about $380 billion over a decade.?

This and other major cuts makes the ACA deficit neutral. The CBO reports that it may reduce the deficit a total of 100 billion dollars over this decade and by as much as a trillion dollars in the next decade.

Calling for a repeal of the Affordable Care Act is a call to add this socialist program back to the system and move people out of the more efficient Medicare.

Because I don?t want to move back to the Socialist system that existed before Obamacare I will address some of critics other concerns.

How does the definition of socialism apply to the private insurance?? How is private insurance improved?

Private health insurance

The purpose of private health insurance is to collect payments from everyone and then to spread the costs through the insurance pool, across the community as a whole, when people get sick. Private health insurance is a socialist approach.

When private companies provide the insurance this applies the traditions of America?s mixed market economy.? Health insurance is a socialist idea. Delivering it by companies is a capitalist idea. So, private health insurance is a socialist/capitalist system.?

When the ACA moves more people into the private health care system they are reducing government socialism and increasing private socialist/capitalism.
Repealing Obamacare means paying for more people through government programs.

Keeping Obamacare means using free-market health insurance exchanges to drive down prices of private insurance.

Addressing the critic?s worries who want to repeal the ACA and return to Socialism

Cost of the Law

Yes, the numbers look large. A price tag of $1 trillion sounds like a lot. Where were Republicans complaining when we spent $1 trillion in Iraq? This is about spending money at home.? Maybe Democrats are more concerned with spending money to the benefit of Americans than they are about blowing people up in the Middle East.

To pay for the law, Democrats slashed programs of lower priority and government socialist programs that weren?t efficient like Medicare Advantage. As stated above, there were so many programs cut that the ACA reduces the deficit by a total of $100 billion over ten years vs. the myth that it will increase the deficit.?

What do we spend now? Annually, health care costs are 23% of all government expenditures. That totals around $890 billion. Over ten years, with increased retirement of baby boomers, the total costs are about $11.2 trillion.? That includes the $1 trillion the Affordable care act spends to reduce costs and cover 30 million more Americans.

In a system where $11.2 trillion is spent in a decade, is it a tremendous amount to spend $1 trillion on cost cutting measures that reduce the deficit by $100 billion?

Tax penalties applied elsewhere

Critics fear that the government could make tax penalties to compel you to do other things like eat broccoli. But, the comparison is not sound. Inactivity in the broccoli market does not lead to the free-ridership of eating broccoli.

In health care, inactivity does lead to free-ridership. If someone goes to the grocery store (vs. going to the hospital) and they eat broccoli while standing on Aisle 3 they are stealing and will go to jail. When people refuse to pay for medical service because of inactivity - where they have not bought insurance or saved for these risky times - the costs are just passed on to you.?

You should not fear the costs being passed on to the free riders and be excited about you paying for them.

If the Affordable Care Act is repealed you will then be responsible for paying the costs of the uninsured.? Socialism returns and sucks money out of your wallet.

Ron

Source: http://www.project-reason.org/forum/viewthread/26156/

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Report: U.S. Retailers See Strong Feb. Growth | RV Business

Sales at U.S. retailers rose in February by the most in five months as an improved job market and stronger household finances cushioned the effect of higher payroll taxes, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The 1.1% advance exceeded all projections in a Bloomberg survey and followed a revised 0.2% gain in January, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast was for a 0.5% advance. Sales excluding the volatile categories of autos and gasoline rose 0.4%.

Progress in the job market is shoring up sentiment and spurring demand at merchants including Costco Wholesale Corp., easing the burden of a two percentage-point increase in the levy that funds Social Security. The boost to household wealth from home values and stock prices has also helped consumers maintain spending in the face of higher fuel prices.

?It shows some steady underlying strength,? said Terry Sheehan, an economic analyst at Stone & McCarthy Research in Princeton, New Jersey, the second-best forecaster of retail sales in the last two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. ?These numbers are cause for cautious optimism.?

Eight of 13 major categories showed increases last month, led by a 5% jump in receipts at gasoline stations that reflected higher fuel costs. Sales also climbed at building materials outlets, auto dealers and general merchandise stores.

Spending increased 1.1% at auto dealerships in February after a 0.3% drop a month earlier.

Pent-up demand for motor vehicles contributed to the increase as an aging fleet and cheap borrowing drew customers to dealer lots. Cars and light trucks sold at a faster pace in February, pushing the annualized rate of sales to 15.3 million from 14.4 million a year ago, according to data from Ward?s Automotive Group.

To view the full article click here.

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Source: http://www.rvbusiness.com/2013/03/report-u-s-retailers-see-strong-feb-growth/

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Obama, senators discuss corporate tax reform

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Republican senators on Thursday discussed working on a stand-alone corporate tax reform bill rather than the more comprehensive approach to updating the U.S. tax code that has been the goal of both political parties.

Freshman Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona said the idea was raised by fellow Republican Senator Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania and that Obama was open to the idea, although no decisions were made during their meeting in the U.S. Capitol.

Obama, according to senators, said he would support a revenue-neutral corporate tax reform effort - a message the president also delivered to House of Representatives Republicans on Wednesday.

"If he's agreed, and he has, that the lowering of rates with the corporate tax will be revenue neutral, there's no reason we can't do that now," said Flake.

Obama met with Republican senators as part of a nearly two-week-long outreach to lawmakers that the president hopes improves chances of a broad deficit-reduction deal.

But many Republicans, including Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, expressed reservations over doing corporate tax reform without comprehensive changes to the U.S. tax code.

The endless budget standoffs in Washington have highlighted stark differences over how and to what extent individuals should be taxed, with Democrats backing higher tax rates for the wealthy.

Obama and Republicans are closer together on the need to revamp corporate taxes, with both sides backing a lower top rate. The current statutory rate of 35 percent is the steepest in the industrialized world, although some companies pay far less, and others pay more.

The White House proposed a "framework" for corporate tax reform last year, that called for trimming the rate to 28 percent. Republicans generally want to pare it to 25 percent.

A key sticking point is that many businesses are set up as entities that do not pay a corporate rate. In these so-called pass-through organizations such as law firms and hedge funds, individual owners pay the individual tax rate, now topping out near 40 percent.

"On the corporate side, it sounded like we're in agreement" McConnell said Thursday.

But he added, "for myself, I don't see how you can do corporate tax reform only. We have too many (pass-through entities) all across America. ... We don't want to have an adverse effect on American small business."

(Reporting By Richard Cowan and Kim Dixon; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-senators-discuss-stand-alone-corporate-tax-reform-185756341--business.html

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Anschutz says sports company no longer for sale

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? AEG, the company that owns the NHL's Los Angeles Kings and the Staples Center, is no longer for sale, its billionaire owner Philip Anschutz said Thursday.

The announcement came amid efforts by the company to build a downtown stadium to lure an NFL team back to Los Angeles.

Anschutz said in a statement that he had made it clear that he wouldn't sell the AEG sports and entertainment company unless the right buyer came forward.

"They wanted more than what people were willing to pay," said Paul Swangard, managing director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at University of Oregon. "I just feel as though there's still differences of opinion about how valuable AEG is."

It wasn't clear how far along the company had been in the sale process or how the move might affect its plans to build the proposed 72,000-seat Farmer's Field football stadium.

Anschutz said he will resume a more active role in AEG. Tim Leiweke, who has served as president and CEO and been the face of the company for more than 15 years, is leaving, Anschutz said.

The sale of the sports and entertainment company had been expected to fetch billions of dollars.

The Los Angeles Times reported that interested buyers included Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, and Guggenheim Partners, which recently led a consortium that bought the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Last week, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said in a television interview that Anschutz had to find a buyer for AEG first before moving forward with what he termed as "uphill climb" involving the stadium effort.

Villaraigosa stressed, however, that he believes the NFL would return to Los Angeles. The city has been without an NFL team since the Rams moved to St. Louis and the Raiders departed for Oakland in 1995.

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said the league will continue to monitor the developments with the stadium proposal and "remain interested in multiple sites in the Los Angeles area."

An email message left for AEG spokesman Michael Roth was not immediately returned.

Swangard said Anschutz's decision to retain AEG will likely help the process to build a new football stadium.

"It creates certainty for the LA (football) project," he said. "If they weren't getting the price they wanted, and at the same time were getting pushback on their next big deal, this approach makes all the sense in the world."

AEG transformed the Los Angeles landscape with the opening of Staples Center in 1999. Its later addition of the LA Live entertainment complex helped revitalize the city's long-neglected downtown.

The company's holdings also include the Los Angeles Galaxy, part-ownership of the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers, and major entertainment and real estate holdings in Los Angeles.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-03-14-AEG-Anschutz/id-bb4a851d3e734fa7961eeb6f7bd8bd56

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