Could 'open marriage' claim help Gingrich win South Carolina?

As reported in leading newspaers:

In the increasingly volatile race for the Republican presidential nomination, at least one analyst suggests that Newt Gingrich’s ex-wife’s claims about his infidelity will help power him to a win in the South Carolina primary.

Why? Because Gingrich was served “a fastball down the middle” on the matter at Thursday night’s debate and “just knocked it out of the park.” So says Matthew Dowd, the GOP strategist who was on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Friday.

“This moment was a gift for Newt Gingrich,” Dowd said.

To recap: CNN’s John King wasted no time confronting Gingrich about allegations by Gingrich’s second wife, Marianne, to ABC News that he had asked for an “open marriage” during his affair with Callista Bisek, who would ultimately become his third wife.

Gingrich was ready. King had to know that he was giving the former House speaker the one thing he loves the most: the opportunity to expound upon the deficiencies of the mainstream media. And he did just that. He might have well been Claude Rains complaining about gambling in “Casablanca.”

“I think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office,” Gingrich said, his outrage dialed all the way to 11. “And I am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that.”

The attendees at the North Charleston Coliseum rose to their feet and hooted and hollered their support.
“Is that all you want to say, sir?” King asked.

Not by a long shot. “Every person in here knows personal pain,” Gingrich said. “Every person in here has had someone close to them go through painful things.  To take an ex-wife and make it two days before the primary a significant question in a presidential campaign is as close to despicable as anything I can imagine.”
There was more.

“My two daughters, my two daughters wrote the head of ABC, and made the point that it was wrong, that they should pull it. And I am frankly astounded that CNN would take trash like that and use it to open a presidential debate.”

Gingrich went on from there to aim his fire past CNN and ABC to all of the media, which, he suggested, only targets the GOP.

“I am tired of the elite media protecting Barack Obama by attacking Republicans,” he exclaimed. (Gingrich, until last year, was an analyst-for-hire on Fox News Channel.)

By the close of the exchange, it felt like the crowd would have run King out of the coliseum on a rail if it could have. Not only was Gingrich able to make everyone forget what the question was in the first place, he had been able to render his opponents onstage, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, nearly invisible.

By the time King asked them about the allegations, they all looked like they wanted to collectively hail a cab.
It remains to be seen whether Marianne Gingrich’s allegations will harm Gingrich in Saturday’s primary, but her much-publicized interview with ABC’s “Nightline” Thursday turned out to be a rehash of what had already been reported all throughout the day, with no new bombshells.

Gingrich has been coming on strong in recent polls. And Dowd on Friday said his toe-to-toe with King could put him over the top.

“On a vulnerability that many people thought he had, he had just knocked it out of the park,” Dowd said. “He could easily because of that answer last night win tomorrow in South Carolina.”

If that occurs, he said, history will be made. Never before have three different candidates won the first three nominating contests of the cycle. (Santorum declared himself the winner of the Iowa caucuses Thursday, although the contest remains in dispute.) And Gingrich’s surge comes as Romney is showing new vulnerability, bogged down by issues pertaining to his personal fortune and his tax liability.
“This thing has become another wide-open race,” Dowd said.

Megaupload.com shutdown by U.S. prompts mass website disruptions

Megaupload.com, a file-sharing website, was shut down as part of an alleged $175 million copyright infringement conspiracy, triggering an online protest that disrupted websites of the U.S. Justice Department and movie and music trade groups.

Charges against seven individuals, Megaupload Ltd. and Vestor Ltd. were unsealed yesterday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, after four of the alleged conspirators were arrested in Auckland, New Zealand. Three suspects remain at large, according to the Justice Department.
“This action is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States and directly targets the misuse of a public content storage and distribution site to commit and facilitate intellectual property crime,” the department said in an e-mailed statement.

The Megaupload indictment was made public as the U.S. Congress considers anti-piracy legislation supported by the movie and music industries that has prompted a backlash from companies including Google Inc., the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation Inc. and Web consumers. Opponents say the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect IP Act in the Senate would promote online censorship, disrupt the Web’s architecture and harm their ability to innovate.

Search Warrants

About an hour after the indictments were unsealed, the public websites of the Justice Department, the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America would not load. The hacker-activist group known as Anonymous took credit for the disruptions, citing the Megaupload prosecutions, according to Twitter accounts used to publicize the group’s activities.

The sites were disabled by a so-called directed denial of service attack, which floods websites with so much traffic that they temporarily crash without harming network systems or giving attackers access to confidential information.

“These kinds of attacks take down a website so people can’t get there,” said E.J. Hilbert, a former cybersecurity expert for the FBI. “That’s important if you’re a commercial site like Amazon.com. If you’ve got an information site like the Justice Department, it’s just a protest.”
‘Egging Your Car’

“It’s like someone egging your car,” added Hilbert, who is now a managing director at Kroll Inc., the security firm. “You wash it off and get back to business.”

The Justice Department said in a statement that it’s “working to ensure the website is available while we investigate the origins of this activity.” The disruption is being treated as a “malicious act,” according to the statement.

The Motion Picture Association of America is “working with law enforcement authorities to identify those responsible,” according to a statement from the group.

Jonathan Lamy, a spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of America, declined to comment.

Investigators executed more than 20 search warrants in the U.S. and eight other countries and seized about $50 million in assets, the department said. Since September 2005, the conspiracy — dubbed “Mega Conspiracy” by prosecutors — generated more than $175 million in criminal proceeds by distributing millions of copies of copyrighted works, including movies, television programs, music, books, video games and computer software, according to the indictment.
Premium Subscriptions

Of that, more than $150 million came from premium subscriptions and $25 million from online advertising. A lifetime subscription cost about $260, according to the indictment.
The conspiracy deprived copyright owners of more than $500 million they were entitled to, the government said.

“This looks to be an overly aggressive prosecution,” Ira Rothken, a Novato, California, lawyer and outside litigation counsel to Megaupload, said in an interview. “The indictment appears to be wrong on the facts and wrong on the law,” he said.

He said Megaupload’s website was shut with no notice from the government and no opportunity to challenge it in court. Megaupload Ltd., registered in Hong Kong, is the website’s owner of record, according to the indictment. The locales of its computer servers with the allegedly illegal content included Ashburn, Virginia, and Washington, according to the indictment.

Billion Visits

Megaupload is advertised as having more than 1 billion visits to the site, more than 150 million registered users, 50 million daily visitors, and accounts for 4 percent of Internet traffic, prosecutors said.

Megaupload paid millions of dollars in incentives to subscribers to the site, who were rewarded for uploading content that others could then use, according to the indictment.

A survey released in December of 1,600 corporate customers of Palo Alto Networks Inc., a computer security company, found 57 percent of the companies had workers who spent some time trading film clips and games on Megaupload.

The indictment contains one count of racketeering, one count of conspiring to commit copyright infringement, one count of conspiring to commit money laundering and two counts of criminal copyright infringement.

The racketeering and money laundering charges carry maximum penalties of 20 years in prison while the copyright infringement charges have maximum five-year penalties.

Conspiracy Leader

Prosecutors said the conspiracy was led by Kim Dotcom, a 37-year-old resident of Hong Kong and New Zealand, and a dual citizen of Finland and Germany, who had legally changed his last name. Dotcom founded Megaupload Ltd. and is the director and sole shareholder of Vestor Ltd., according to the indictment.

In 2010, Dotcom received more than $42 million from the conspiracy, the indictment alleges. Dotcom, who also goes by Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, was one of those arrested.
In 2002, Dotcom, then using the name Schmitz, was deported from Thailand to Germany to face insider trading and fraud charges. He was a hacker who cracked the computer systems of banks and government organizations including those of Citibank Ltd. and the U.S. Pentagon, then fled to Thailand to avoid indictment in Germany, Deutsche Presse Agentur reported.

The other three taken into custody were: Finn Batato, a German resident and chief marketing officer, Mathias Ortmann, co-founder and director, and Bram van der Kolk, who oversees programming of the Megaupload websites.

Julius Bencko, a resident of Slovakia and graphic designer, Sven Echternach, a resident of Germany and head of business development, and Andrus Nomm, a citizen of Estonia and head of software development, were also charged.


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Miss Congeniality to plead guilty in Stanley Cup riot

A former beauty queen contestant has become the second person who's offering to plead guilty to charges in the Stanley Cup riot, only to have the case delayed over arguments about allowing TV cameras in the courtroom.

Sophie Laboissonniere, 20, of Richmond, B.C., is accused of break and enter and taking part in a riot.

The Crown has applied to have the case broadcast on TV as it plans to do with others accused of taking part in the riot last June 15.

Ms. Laboissonniere's lawyer, David Baker, says his application opposing cameras will delay the guilty plea and sentencing and waste court resources in the process.

“Were it not for the Crown's application I probably would have already entered a plea and had a date for sentencing set,” he said outside court.

In a posting on her now-defunct blog, Ms. Laboissonniere said she was crowned Miss Congeniality at a Miss Coastal Vancouver pageant last year.

She's accused of helping loot the downtown London Drugs store during the riot that broke out after the Vancouver Canucks lost the Stanley Cup final to the Boston Bruins.

Mr. Baker says she's doing everything she can to atone for her public mistakes but suffers through more media attention than others because of her beauty queen past.

The first person to plead guilty in the riot, Ryan Dickinson, will also have his case delayed over the issue of cameras in the court after his lawyer told court Tuesday that he will challenge the Crown application to broadcast the proceedings.

Mr. Dickinson pleaded guilty to participating in a riot and breach of recognizance related to a previous assault charge.

Ms. Laboissonniere and Mr. Dickinson are among 30 people who have been charged so far with riot-related offences.

However, Vancouver police have recommend charges against 70 others and say hundreds of people could eventually be charged in the riot that caused millions of dollars in damage to businesses.

Ralph Fiennes reveals the psychotic complexities of Coriolanus, the man, the play and now his movie

“If she says your behaviour is heinous,” quips Cole Porter in Kiss Me, Kate, “kick her right in the Coriolanus.”

Somehow that course of action would never occur to you sitting opposite Ralph Fiennes, who has directed and starred in the brutally effective film version of Shakespeare’s tragedy, which opens in Toronto this weekend.

It was during the frenzy of last September’s Film Festival that Fiennes and I grabbed a quiet hour over lunch to discuss Coriolanus — the man, the play and the movie the 49-year-old Fiennes has made of it, which marks his directorial debut.

But it’s typical of this relentlessly honest artist that he begins by discussing a previous failure playing the role.

“I played it for the Almeida Theatre in 2000 on a double bill with Richard II. Coriolanus is a very difficult man, filled with high emotion and anger and a lot of rhetoric fuelled by rage and impatience.”

That’s a nice way of putting it. Many other people would describe this not-so noble Roman as a psychotic military hero with an insuperable ego who betrays his country rather than knuckle under to the demands of the proletariat.

“Yes, he’s a tough man,” Fiennes admits, “who simply wants to live his truth, but not all of us want to believe in that truth.

“At any rate, I felt a great sense of dissatisfaction that my portrayal back then just hadn’t quite gelled and I felt I had to revisit it.”

But this time around, Fiennes didn’t just want to indulge what he calls “the actor’s desire to have a second crack at a part he didn’t play right the first time,” but an increasing feeling that “what would really make this story work would be to tell it as a movie.

“It’s got a hard line, a strong, clear drive to it and it feels very filmic, in the way Shakespeare moves us from senate house to battlefield. I felt that if I could just get into people’s faces with this man and what he was going through, we’d have a chance of it.”

He found a willing cohort in John Logan, the acclaimed author of Red, as well the scenarist behind The Aviator, who wanted to do a modern version of Coriolanus as well and told Fiennes “the close-up will reinvent this role.”

It took Fiennes and Logan a while to settle on exactly how their modern approach would work.

“People are talking about how pertinent Coriolanus is right now because of the Arab Spring, but the point is that Coriolanus is always relevant. There is always conflict in the world and there are always military giants at the top playing with the common people like they were pawns.”

Since our conversation in September, the deaths of Gadaffi and Kim Jong II have made his point even stronger. But the multiplicity of events only underlines how wise Fiennes was not to try and pin his concept to any one leader.

“I brought John (Logan) a scrapbook full of images of politicians I had pasted together — Jacques Chirac, Madeleine Albright, Vladimir Putin — so we could look at who they were and what they represented.

“And we agreed that if we were going to make it, we had to make it on a certain scale. We wanted to go into real streets with real tanks and real soldiers. But we needed a country with cheap costs and an infrastructure we could rely on.”

At first, Fiennes was tempted by Argentina, but Eastern Europe eventually seemed the better bet, with Serbia winning out, largely because of the impressive presence of Belgrade.

“I needed a capital city with real weight. I needed a senate chamber with size and presence. I wanted a place where I could use the chambers and the corridors of power. The plotting, the planning, the people sitting in club chairs.”

And it all worked out the way he hoped. At the screening I attended in September, many people were wondering how much of Shakespeare had been rewritten to make the modern settings seem congruous and John Logan delightedly told me a few months later, “not a single word. It all fits like it was written to be played there. That’s the beauty of it.”

But Fiennes is also careful to point out that he has not slanted his film to be either for or against Coriolanus.

“I think you do the play a disservice if you give it a political spin or message. It simply says there are these problems, we all do what we must do.”

Despite the tranquility of our setting, Fiennes discovers himself being wrapped up once again in the passion of the man he played and without realizing it, his voice in volume and the veins stand out in bas-relief on his neck the way they did during the movie’s most dramatic scenes.

“It’s the equivalent of a Greek tragedy, where we witness the profound loss and waste that people and fate have inflicted on each other.

“Look, we’re all f—ked, actually. This is something we can’t ever stop.”

The cold blue fire in Fiennes’ eyes reminds you of some of the more frightening characters he has played, like super-Nazi Amon Goeth in Schindler’s List, or Francis Dollarhyde in Red Dragon (“In that one, I had to eat Philip Seymour Hoffman’s face,” he quips, “which was rather a hearty meal”), but he still insists that “Coriolanus isn’t evil. I think he may have done very extreme things in a war context, but it’s hard to call them evil.”

But then he pauses, weighing his words.

“Still, it’s true that military psyches can be stunted. They can’t often afford to have the humanist viewpoint, which is why some great generals like Patton had an almost psychotic quality.”

The mention of psychosis seems to arouse the demon in Fiennes again and he recalls the film’s pivotal scene where he turns on the people of Rome in the awe-inspiring speech that begins “You common cry of curs …” and ends with “….there is a world elsewhere.”

“I’m drawn to his outrageousness, his elitism, I admit that,” confesses Fiennes. “I know that anger. I could understand that anger. I have it inside of me.”

He slams his hand once on the table, sending the crystal, china and silverware trembling.

“He’s gone to the f---king marketplace, he’s done what they wanted and they vote him in, but then the tribunes provoke him and it all comes apart. HE comes apart! And it’s because he betrayed everything he believed in.”

Fiennes’ face across the table for one moment has the same look of fear and anger that crossed his visage as Lord Voldemort near the end of the final Harry Potter movie.

“There could never be a Coriolanus in England today. Never. The people distrust military power too much.”

But then that wickedly endearing smile breaks out.

“America, however, is another matter. I think Sarah Palin would like Coriolanus. I think she would like him a lot. She might even have him as a running mate.”

How Debt Consolidation Helps (or Hurts) the Pocketbook - Tips from American Financial Solutions

Anyone in debt has probably considered taking out a debt consolidation loan as a way to get their finances in order. While these streamlining loans may be beneficial for some, people need to understand the advantages and disadvantages of making this financial move. American Financial Solutions provides tips on how to approach a debt consolidation loan

Seattle, Wa (PRWEB) January 19, 2012

A debt consolidation loan can be a tempting option for someone who is having difficulty organizing bill payments each month. It may also be appealing for people having trouble keeping on top of bills and loan repayments due to financial reasons. However, it is important to consider all of the advantages and disadvantages of taking out a loan to consolidate unsecured debts. American Financial Solutions provides some tips and guidelines to follow when considering this type of loan.

There are two main advantages to using a debt consolidation loan. If the consolidation involves changing unsecured debts into secured debts, like a home loan, people may be able to benefit from lower interest rates. As a result, more of the money paid goes towards paying down the debt rather than interest and the debt may be paid off sooner.

The second benefit is that of convenience. Rather than making multiple payments to creditors, people make one monthly payment.

There are serious down sides to taking out a loan to repay debt as well. Unsecured consolidation loans may involve a longer repayment term. So, even if the current monthly payment is low, someone could actually end up paying more in total interest over the term of the loan. Find out the overall cost to borrow the money, before proceeding with a consolidation loan.

Also, if someone is using collateral, such as a home, to secure their debt consolidation loan, they could find themselves in a very vulnerable position. Nonpayment could cause collateral to be seized by the creditor, leaving the person in a worse situation than they were in before taking out the loan.

Finally, when a new loan is taken out and credit card accounts are paid down to a zero balance, people may be reluctant to close the accounts. They may continue to charge on the credit card accounts and end up with more debt than when they started – the original debt in the consolidation loan and the new charges on credit cards.”Failure to close the credit cards, and then running up new debt on the cards, is the most common problem we see when people try to get themselves out of debt by using a consolidation loan,” said Becky House, Education Manager for American Financial Solutions.

When looking for a loan it is important for people to work out exactly how much they need to pay back and how much they can afford to put aside for payments. They also need to establish whether they are able and prepared to secure their consolidation loan with collateral.

The next step is to shop around, examine interest rates, company profiles and their customer service backgrounds. Someone may also choose to try and negotiate for the best rate with a lender.

Debt consolidation loans can be difficult to obtain. Lenders generally do not want to lend money to pay off other debt. If someone has a history of late payments to creditors and trouble paying bills, they probably will not qualify for a debt consolidation loan. Someone with a high credit score, who also shows enough income to repay the loan, will probably qualify.

For people who do not qualify for the loan (and some who do) a debt management plan may be a good alternative because it is a consolidation of payments rather than debt. Debt management plans can be accessed with the assistance of a credit counseling agency and can help someone avoid distressing collection calls from creditors chasing payments.

A non-profit credit counseling organization can offer certified credit counselors to help people examine their financial situation and learn more about their options for debt consolidation loans, as well as debt management plans and other ways for managing unsecured debt.

American Financial Solutions (AFS) is a non-profit 501(c)3 financial education and credit counseling agency that helps people find solutions for managing their money and changing their financial lives for the better. Since 1999, AFS has helped over 750,000 individuals across the United States through one-on-one counseling, financial education classes, or the use of debt management plans. AFS is a member of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) as well as the Association for Independent Consumer Credit Counseling Agencies (AICCCA). AFS is also accredited by the Council on Accreditation (COA) and has an A+ rating by the Better Business

Pervez Musharraf admits return to Pakistan could be delayed

Pervez Musharraf has admitted that plans for a triumphal return to Pakistan later this month could be delayed.

The former military ruler has not set foot in the country since he was forced from power more than three years ago but has promised to fight elections due within the next year.

This week the government of Pakistan repeated a long-standing threat to arrest him in connection with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

On Thursday he called a press conference in London in which he admitted his plans could be delayed.

"My party leaders in Pakistan are looking at the implications of my return and will give me the recommendation whether to return or whether to postpone," he said. "I have not had any recommendations yet."

It is less than two weeks since Mr Musharraf, 58, revealed he would fly from his base in Dubai to Pakistan between January 27 and 30.

The former military ruler has not set foot in the country since he was forced from power more than three years ago but has promised to fight elections due within the next year.

This week the government of Pakistan repeated a long-standing threat to arrest him in connection with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

On Thursday he called a press conference in London in which he admitted his plans could be delayed.

"My party leaders in Pakistan are looking at the implications of my return and will give me the recommendation whether to return or whether to postpone," he said. "I have not had any recommendations yet."

It is less than two weeks since Mr Musharraf, 58, revealed he would fly from his base in Dubai to Pakistan between January 27 and 30.

However, his supporters were defeated in elections in 2008 and he resigned his position of president months later amid mass protests and the threat of impeachment.

Two warrants have been issued for his arrest since then.

He is wanted for the killing of Akbar Bugti, a Baloch rebel, in August 2006.

And he is a suspect in the 2007 assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister, for allegedly failing to provide adequate security on the day she was killed in a suicide attack.

Polls: In South Carolina, it's Mitt Romney vs. Newt Gingrich

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Four polls out Thursday paint the same picture: Saturday’s primary here has become a two-man race between Mitt Romney and a resurgent Newt Gingrich.

Gingrich has said South Carolina’s primary may be a make-or-break moment for his campaign, and he’s benefited from clear momentum and a rush of support in the final push ahead of Saturday’s vote. Gingrich appears to be winning his playoff battle with Rick Santorum to emerge as the candidate to unify the conservative, anti-Romney vote behind him.

Public Policy Polling announced Thursday afternoon that the former House speaker actually led Romney 34 to 28 in their first night of tracking. Romney’s position has held steady, but the automated Democratic pollster said Gingrich rose 11 points since its last state poll two weeks ago.

Romney held a 10-point lead in an NBC News/Marist poll posted earlier Thursday, but those numbers showed significant slippage from Monday, the night of a debate for which Gingrich earned high marks and Romney came under fire on several fronts — including his refusal to release his tax returns. On Monday, before the debate, Romney led 37 to 22 in the poll. On Tuesday, he was up only 31 to 26.

A POLITICO poll of likely South Carolina voters that was in the field through Wednesday night put Romney, at 37 percent, up seven over Gingrich. But the poll also measured intensity of support: When voters were not prompted by a list to choose from, but asked to name who they’ll vote for, Romney’s lead over Gingrich slipped to 31 to 29. Among those who say they will “definitely” support their candidate of choice, the two essentially tied, with Romney at 23 percent and Gingrich at 22 percent.

An American Research Group poll out Thursday put Gingrich ahead of Romney by one point, 33 to 32. An ARG poll taken a week earlier had Romney on top, 29 to 25. ARG is an automated poll, which is regarded as less credible than those in which operators make the calls.

A CNN/Opinion Research Center poll out Wednesday, which put Romney up 10, found that among those who identify as tea partiers, Gingrich is at 31 percent — up 10 from the start of the month. Romney leads by 30 among Republicans who don’t consider themselves part of the tea party.

Though Gingrich will be aiming to capitalize on his endorsement by Rick Perry on Thursday, there’s evidence that it won’t change the dynamics in a significant way. Of the just 4 percent who backed Perry in POLITICO’s poll, there was an even split between Romney and Gingrich when asked to name their second choice.

Meanwhile, Santorum has slipped, coming in at fourth, behind Ron Paul, in several of the surveys.

Multiple polls show that the debates have been key for Gingrich. The more of the 16 that someone has watched, the more likely they are to back Gingrich. PPP found that of the 56 percent of South Carolina voters say they watched Monday, Gingrich leads Romney 43 to 27. Among those who missed it, Romney leads 29 to 22.