Free Republic

AOL and Time Warner have finally called it quits. James Quinn looks at the souring of the dotcom match that appeared to have been made in mergers and acquisitions heaven It was an auspicious occasion, the business titans of the West standing shoulder to shoulder at the dawn of a new century. On the stage of the Shanghai International Convention Centre, in late September 1999, the crème de la crème of business achievement smiled at the hundreds of delegates, both Chinese and from around the world, who had gathered for the Fortune Global Forum. From AIG's Hank Greenberg to Viacom's...

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- AOL may lay off a third of its staff as part of a restructuring related to the company's upcoming spin-off from Time Warner Inc., the unit told regulators Thursday. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, AOL said it had informed employees of the layoffs, which are conditioned upon its successful spin-off from Time Warner (TWX 31.86, -0.96, -2.93%) . The transaction is slated for Dec. 9. AOL told employees it has announced a voluntary layoff program that starts Dec. 4 and goes through Dec. 11. The company is offering buyouts to as many as...

What do you think of President Obama's job performance? Approve Disapprove And: Did you vote for Pres__ent Obama?

In general, how does this country handle illegal immigrants? Too harshly Too leniently About right

What do you think of Carville's remarks about Beck? Thumbs up Thumbs down (called Beck nuts)

Just four months after she announced her book deal, there's a title and new release date for Sarah Palin's memoir. The 400-page book is called 'Going Rogue: An American Life.' Working with author Lynn Vincent, the former GOP vice presidential nominee turned in the manuscript ahead of schedule and publication is being moved up from spring to Nov. 17 -- in plenty of time for holiday shopping.

A Jones County inventor has filed a lawsuit against two Internet server companies. John Ishmel Henry of Soso, in May, filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. In his suit, Henry claims that “he was called and depicted as a n----r on two of the Internet service provider search engines, AOL and Google.” Henry, the original inventor of the vibrating toilet seat, was featured on the Jay Leno Show in November, 2008. “Needless to say that my invention garnered a lot of attention,” he said. “I was completely humiliated and horrified...

Has anyone noticed when they sign on to AOL, social networks or surf the net, there are banner ads touting "Obama wants to send you to college" or "Obama wants to lower your insurance". What is going on? It disturbs me that any politician would be elevated this way--especially when it puts him in the company of celebrity leaders like Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Castro and Chavez who were/are beloved leaders who promised to improve life for the believers at other people's expense. This isn't Obama paying for college or insurance, it's the taxpayers! It should be advertised as such: "Do...

Do you approve or disapprove of Obama's handling of health care? Strongly approve Somewhat approve Somewhat disapprove Strongly disapprove AND Do you approve or disapprove of Obama's overall handling of his job as president? Strongly approve Somewhat approve Somewhat disapprove Strongly disapprove

How would you rate Obama's job performance so far? Excellent Good Fair Poor AND Has your opinion of him changed over the past few months? Yes, it's improved Yes, it's worsened No

What's your general impression of Sarah Palin? Mostly negative 52% Mostly positive 43% Neutral 5% http://news.aol.com/article/sarah-palin-ethics-complaints/501303?ic...|htmlws-main|dl1|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fsarah-palin-ethics-complaints%2F501303

This is why I stopped watching David Letterman even before Jon Stewart came along: He was forever either drooling on women or treating them like they were perfect idiots, in a way he never behaved with male guests. (I did, however, enjoy the appearances of his mom Dorothy, a church secretary who was occasionally able to summon Good Dave, live from her kitchen in Indiana.) At age 62, he shouldn't need Dorothy to tell him that referring to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as having updated her "slutty flight attendant look'' is outrageous – and his "joke'' about Palin's daughter was...

I don't know Tommy Christopher personally, just from his regular gig on the Ed Morrissey show, and the fact that I follow his tweets and read some of his columns. I probably disagree with Tommy's politics 95% of the time, he is a liberal but he is not a crazy liberal and he is very funny. One story that Tommy and I agreed on was this week's disgusting piece in Playboy, the one about the ten conservative women they would like to hate f**K. We both wrote pieces on it. Tommy's piece appeared on his regular AOL column and was...

Time Warner unveiled plans Thursday to spin off AOL as an independent company, an end to the massive media media marriage formed in 2001. "We believe that a separation will be the best outcome for both Time Warner and AOL," said Time Warner (TWX, Fortune 500) chief executive Jeff Bewkes, in a prepared statement. The 2001 merger between AOL and Time Warner was applauded at the time as a visionary attempt to meld old media with new media. But synergies between the two never materialized. [Snip] Bewkes said that an independent AOL will "have a better opportunity to achieve its...

Time Warner: Mag Group May Dive 30%, TV Dips Time Warner is anticipating that ad dollars at its Turner networks will fall in a mid-single-digit percentage range for the current April-June period, a top company executive said Wednesday. At the Time Inc. magazine group, a decline in the 30% range is possible. Time Warner also indicated it would be spinning off all or part of the AOL unit soon. CFO John Martin said one contributor to the expected Turner drop this quarter is a decline in international revenue. But he said that advertisers are also exercising options to cancel spending...

Should the US government pay the pirates a ransom to secure the hostage's release? Yes No

What do you think of Palin's remarks about the media? I agree with them I disagree with them I have mixed feelings AND How has your impression of Palin changed since the election? It has gotten better It has gotten worse It has stayed the same

There's a new controversy surrounding Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's clothes, but this time, the price-tag is considerably lower. An Alaska Democrat wants the Governor to take off any clothes that bear the "Arctic Cat" logo while she's on the clock.

It wasn't supposed to happen this way. The Obama Administration and Congressional Democrats have been pursuing a strategy of tying elected Republicans to Rush Limbaugh, concocted in hopes of painting Republican opposition to the Administration policy proposals as extremist. ... The conservative radio host, and liberal scourge, reports that his ratings have nearly doubled since Democrats began their campaign to marginalize him. Revenues are up as well. ... Things are so good for him right now, even the White House has to admit its attacks on Limbaugh are becoming "counter-productive." ...

What do you think of Obama's decision to reverse Bush's policies on embryonic stem cell research? Thumbs up Thumbs down And: How would you rate Obama's first few months in office? Excellent Good Fair Poor

What grade would you give Obama's presidency so far? A B C D F

Ever since Barack Obama became a prominent political fixture in the country, he has encountered a large number of rumors and smears concerning him and his family. - - clip - - Most of the charges were, for the most part, put to rest by vigorous responses from the Obama team during the campaign. But one conspiracy theory lives on -- despite overwhelming evidence debunking it. Politico.com reports that the Birthers -- a persistent group of conservatives who believe Obama is ineligible to be president because of alleged questions surrounding his birth status -- continue to operate and thrive on...

What do you think of Limbaugh's speech? Thumbs up Thumbs down

What did you think of Obama's prime-time speech and press conference? Thumbs up Thumbs down I didn't watch And 3 more polls

n W.H., Obama staff will say cu l8r 2 im By: Ben Smith January 17, 2009 08:24 PM EST Barack Obama may get to keep his Blackberry, but David Axelrod is losing his IM. The lawyers broke the bad news to Obama aides at a briefing Friday morning convened by incoming Deputy White House Counsel Cassandra Butts: Not only are they leaving the modern world to enter a White House where some of the clunky desktop computers still run Windows 2000 but—worst of all—they'll be forced to surrender form of communication staffers have relied on for the last two years...

America Online is conducting a new poll asking readers whether they believe there is any merit to the controversy surrounding Barack Obama's citizenship – and most respondents say "yes." With nearly 77,000 national votes in the unscientific survery, some might say the poll chart looks somewhat similar to this year's electoral map, except in orange and yellow. A full 48 percent of nationwide respondents believe people should be concerned about Obama's citizenship, 45 percent say the controversy has no merit and 7 percent of voters remain undecided. America Online is conducting a new poll asking readers whether they believe there...

Yesterday the fourth law suit, challenging Obama's citizenship and Natural Born status reached the Supreme Court: 1. Philip J Berg, PA An answer from Barack Obama is due by Dec.1 2. Leo C. Donofrio, NJ The case is scheduled for conference by all 9 judges on Dec 5 3.Chris Strunck, NY filed with SCOTUS last week 4. Cort Wrotnowski, CT (second case)filed yesterday. many more to come... As explained earlier, Hawaii allows one to obtain a Certification of Hawaiian Live Birth based on a statement of one relative only. It means,that while Obama was born in Kenya, his grandma or...

In 2006, Thailand announced it was blocking access to YouTube for anyone with a Thai I.P address, and then identified 20 offensive videos for Google to remove as a condition of unblocking the site. ‘If your whole game is to increase market share,’ says Lawrence Lessig, speaking of Google, ‘it’s hard to . . . gather data in ways that don’t raise privacy concerns or in ways that might help repressive governments to block controversial content.’ In March of last year, Nicole Wong, the deputy general counsel of Google, was notified that there had been a precipitous drop in activity...

Okay... I KNOW this is ONLY an online poll, BUT... They run the poll for a week at a time and over the past 3 weeks, the votes have been going more and more towards McCain/Palin. Now even though this isn't a scientific poll, and McCain/Palin has been winning it every week, the margin keeps getting bigger. I didn't see when they first started, but 3 weeks ago McCain won 54-43%. Last week he won 56-42%! Last week at this same time, he was winning about 60-38%, and today as of 10:20 P.S.T. he is winning 68%-30%! If he continues...

McCain Says Obama's Plans Socialistic, Are McCain's remarks fair? (Answer YES) Does Powell's choice surprise you? (ANSWER NO) How does the endorsement affect the McCain campaign? (Doesn't Affect it)

McCain Says Obama's Plans Socialistic Are McCain's remarks fair?

AOL just opened up this week's poll and McCain is starting off to a CRUSHING lead! Of course, it's only an on-line poll. BUT... You have to have an account or make one, so you can't just jump on and vote like crazy! For AOL, this is BEYOND good!

Was Palin's comment about Obama fair? No 55% Yes 45% Total Votes: 212,157 Note on Poll Results

Rats hitting it hard. What's your reaction to Palin's comments leaving open the option of war with Russia? Thumbs up 19% Thumbs down 81% Total Votes: 711 Do you think Sarah Palin is prepared to be vice president? Yes 21% No 79% Total Votes: 695

Palin Says She's Ready for High Office http://news.aol.com/elections/article/palin-says-shes-ready-for-high-office/163723?icid=100214839x1209362848x1200545125

The AOL straw poll obviously tilts more towards McCain than any scientic poll - the latest has an astonishing 3-to-1 (76% - 24%) 50-state lead for McCain. I suspect AOL users are older and more white than the public at large. I think however it is useful for tracking trends - over the last 2 months it has exhibited weekly a consistent trend toward McCain. There was a huge drop-off in the last week for Obama. By way of calibration I found 2004 AOL straw poll data that showed Bush led Kerry by "only" 58% - 40% (48 states) on...

32 point lead

Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin and the city of Memphis have filed a lawsuit to learn who operates a blog harshly critical of Godwin and his department. The lawsuit asks AOL to produce all information related to the identity of an e-mail address linked to MPD Enforcer 2.0, a blog popular with police officers that has been extremely critical of police leadership at 201 Poplar. "In what could be a landmark case of privacy and the 1st Amendment," the anonymous bloggers write on the site, "Godwin has illegally used his position and the City of Memphis as a ram to...

Seems unlikely.

As Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) pursuit of Internet portal Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) drags on, Wall Street analysts are increasingly speculating the software giant may be focusing on a Plan B: Tying up with internet service provider AOL. The speculation was revived on Wednesday when The Wall Street Journal reported Microsoft executives met with representatives of Time Warner Inc. (TWX), AOL's parent company, to discuss a possible union. Microsoft has reportedly been in informal discussions in recent months to explore an AOL deal, which the Redmond, Wash.-based company sees as a potential way to boost its Internet presence. The talks come against...

A Weekly Poll of American Politics Jul 14-Jul 21 2008

The poll was restated today: 29,356 votes so far. McCain is leading Obama by 74-26%. Go to the link to vote.

In the ongoing AOL straw poll McCain is winning 50 states and 64% of the popular vote. Almost 200,000 people have voted so far. Here is the link: http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2008/07/07/aol-straw-poll-july-7-14

Rochester, NY (AHN) - New York Attorney Gen. Andrew M. Cuomo announced Thursday that AT&T and AOL have agreed to eliminate child porn news groups from their Internet servers. Child porn news groups are a major supplier of illegal images. Agreements with AT&T, the nation's largest Internet Service Provider (ISP), and AOL, the nation's third largest, are in addition to similar agreements with Verizon, Sprint, and Time Warner Cable, which Cuomo announced last month. "These agreements with two of the nation's largest ISPs to eradicate child porn websites from their servers tighten the noose around this despicable trade," Cuomo said...

AOL is always running one kind of poll or another. Throughout the primary process they have been running weekly polls on the candidates. They are self selecting so they are not scientific but I must say that overall they seem to fairly reflect what is going on. I don't know if this is because unlike say a CNN, Times or Pew poll, the AOL audience is more a representative cross section of America or voters or what. Generally their poll results seem to lean left but not overwhelmingly so. After the Heller decision their gun poll showed 60-70% supporting the...

http://news.aol.com/political-machine/straw-poll

Government meddling with the free-market forces can have ill consequences. Just look at how government mandates for corn-based ethanol have affected the global food supply. According to CNN senior business correspondent Ali Velshi, CNN viewers rate the economy as the most important issue and named gas prices as their number one concern. "AOL Money Coach" Hilary Kramer agreed with viewers, but regarded Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama's proposal as "valuable" when matched with alternative energy legislation. "Absolutely right," Kramer said on CNN's May 5 "Issue #1." "That's why Barack Obama with a $150 billion package that he wants to...

AOL contacts Microsoft as Steve Ballmer walks away from Yahoo! bid AOL, the internet arm of Time Warner, has approached Microsoft about a possible tie-up as a deal between the software group and Yahoo! unravelled, The Times has learnt. The move emerged as Microsoft this weekend said it was walking away from Yahoo!, after the online search engine rejected a second, higher offer from the software group valuing Yahoo! at $47.5 billion (£24 billion). The news broke after a meeting in Seattle on Saturday at which Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft, sought to persuade Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo,...

Bay Area cable provider Comcast Corp. and San Jose-based eBay Inc. may be potential bidders for Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, as Microsoft Corp.'s offer for Yahoo Inc. threatens to knock out the two most likely suitors for the Internet unit, Pali Research said. There's a lack of buyers for AOL, Richard Greenfield, an analyst at Pali Research, said Monday in a note. Still, Comcast Chief Executive Officer Brian Roberts may be interested in AOL to get its advertising network and Web site, he wrote. Roberts is unlikely to pay more than $10 billion, according to Greenfield. In 2000, AOL purchased...