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Sunday, March 6, 2011
Getting Defensive: 7 Blue Chip Stocks With 7 Buy-Write Option Ideas
I plan on purchasing the shares of blue chip companies and selling covered calls, allowing me to get into these shares cheaper and allowing me to still clip the coupon at least twice. I will be trimming some of the higher beta names out of my portfolio and replacing them with these seven lower beta stocks. This will allow me to participate if the market continues higher, but if the market happens to correct, my portfolio will likely decline less in value.
To continue reading this, view the full article on Seeking Alpha HERE. Sphere: Related Content
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Options Trading With My Three Favorite Consumer Discretionary Stocks
I believe a real recovery is underway and I think the stocks outlined in this article will benefit from this greatly. If we look at the Consumer Discretionary SPDR (XLY) compared to the S&P 500 SPDR (SPY) over the last year, we can see that the Consumer Discretionary SPDR has outperformed the S&P 500 SPDR by almost 9%.
To continue reading this, view the full article on Seeking Alpha HERE. Sphere: Related Content
Monday, January 31, 2011
Return Some Green Betting on the Greenback with This Bullish Option Strategy
A good question would be when are things extremely overdone? It's just a feeling that comes naturally to most people. One example would have been when the market was melting down in late 2008 and it seemed every person on TV, article online, and even your neighbor, who has no idea how to play the stock market, was calling for an even deeper correction, this would have been a great time to get long the market. Even though you wouldn't have caught the bottom in late 2008 (came in March of 2009), it was an excellent time to be buying stocks.
To continue reading this, view the full article on Seeking Alpha HERE. Sphere: Related Content
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Corning Benefits Most From the Verizon-iPhone Marriage
First I will explain why I am choosing this company versus other companies that will benefit from this news. In the spring of 2010, rumors heated up when The Wall Street Journal broke the news that Qualcomm (QCOM) was ramping up production for the long awaited Verizon iPhone and that it would likely be coming in Q1. As we know, that was right on, since the iPhone is set to debut on Verizon in February. The Google Finance chart below shows the performance of Apple (AAPL), Qualcomm (QCOM), and Verizon (VZ) since May 26, 2010.
Monday, January 24, 2011
How to Hedge With Vertical Put Spreads
With the market up over 25% since early July and the market being quite complacent lately, volatility is relatively cheap making portfolio insurance or put options also relatively cheap. Many have been stating the market is overdue for a pull back, and I also believe a correction could occur whether it be worse than expected economic data in the United States, some bad news out of Europe or Asia, or even another flash crash that spikes fear in the markets, who knows what excuse the market will use to pull back, but it will likely find one soon as we all know trees don't grow to the sky. Another thing to remember is the more we rally before any type of pull back, the worse the pull back will likely be. A 25% move higher in just 6 months is certainly a gift and some of the profits made in the recent months should be set aside to hedge out the next few months, as I stated the greater the rally - the greater the correction is typically.
To continue reading this, view the full article on Seeking Alpha HERE. Sphere: Related Content
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Time for a Correction? 5 Hedging Strategies
I have spent the majority of Wednesday evening reviewing charts - mainly of indices and sectors, to see where I would like to place my hedges. When I believe we are due for a correction, and only expecting a minor 5-7% one if that, I have no problem putting up to 2%-3% of my entire portfolio value into hedges. Just like it is smart to be diversified when purchasing equities and call options, it is smart to be diversified when shorting and buying put options. In this article I will show you 5 ideas on how I plan on hedging my portfolio and why I believe it is a good idea.
Idea #1: Hedging the S&P 500
Most portfolios have exposure to the S&P 500, so it is worth spending some money on insurance against this index.
(click chart to enlarge)
As we can see from the S&P Index SPDR (SPY) chart above, we had a pretty ugly day on heavier than normal volume Wednesday. You can also see that the RSI or relative strength has been trading in overbought territory since January 3. Typically it is a good time to lighten up or purchase protection when trading in overbought levels like this. We sold off by close to 1% Wednesday and the RSI still is trading at the higher end of the range, 64.59. You can pull up a chart of the VIX or Volatility Index, which trades inversely to the S&P 500, and you will see the VIX was trading near oversold levels in that same time frame. The VIX also had a big 9% spike Wednesday regaining the 20 day moving average, the VIX is another great indicator to get an idea of when to hedge.
S&P Hedging Strategy:
Although volatility is cheap (yes even with the 9% spike Wednesday) I would purchase put spreads versus outright put options on the S&P 500 SPDR (SPY), but I would purchase more time versus if I were just buying puts I would likely choose to purchase less time. Purchasing more time requires me to be proactive as I might have to decide when to trade out of this strategy so the hedge actually works. I would purchase March 127 put options and sell (1 for 1) March 117 put options against them. This strategy would cost me roughly $210 per put spread and would protect me down to just above the 200 day moving average at 117. If the market corrects more significantly and the SPY is trading below 117 on March expiration this strategy would return $1,000 per put spread or a return of 476%. Of course us bulls out there don't want the maximum return from this spread, but it would certainly help pad the portfolio if the market did correct in such a manner.
Idea #2: Hedging the NASDAQ 100
Like the S&P 500, many of us have exposure to big tech names which fall into the NASDAQ 100. One way we can hedge many of our stocks in the NASDAQ is to purchase similar put spreads on the Powershares QQQ Trust (QQQQ).
(click chart to enlarge)
From the chart above, we can see many similar comparisons to that of the S&P SPDR chart. ETF was trading in overbought territory for days, heavier than normal volume to the downside. But the really bearish signal I see from Wednesday's price-action, and signals a potential key reversal, is that the QQQQ managed to open on the highs, which also happens to be higher than Tuesday's high as well as the 52 week high, but gave all of Tuesday's gains back closing below Tuesday's low and on heavier volume. This is called a bearish engulfing candle pattern and cannot be illustrated any better than this.
NASDAQ Hedging Strategy:
Again I would look at using the 20 and 200 day moving average to get an idea on where to purchase and sell put options. I would buy the March 55 put options and sell the March 50 put options. I could get this strategy for roughly $84 per put spread. If the NASDAQ corrected significantly and the QQQQ was below 50 on March options expiration this strategy would return $500 per spread or a return of 595%.
Next I will outline 3 specific sectors using the Sector SPDR ETFS. I have looked at many sectors and believe the three to follow have the greatest risk and could have the most significant correction if we get a pull back.
Idea #3: Hedging the Health Care Sector
This sector had some very ugly price action as well Wednesday. We can see a very similar bearish engulf candle pattern from the chart below of the Health Care Select Sector SPDR (XLV).
(click chart to enlarge)
We can see the ETF opened within pennies of its 52 week high before selling off throughout the day. This ETF also engulfed all of Tuesday's move on greater volume. Not looking too promising for the bulls out there.
Health Care Sector Hedging Strategy:
With this ETF I am going to stay shorter term and purchase at the money February 32 put options for $46 per contract. I am choosing to stay shorter term on this ETF because the volatility stands at a whopping 14.75% (sarcastic) for February, and because I am trading on this signal and because this is sector specific I wouldn't want to overpay for time value.
Idea #4 Hedging the Energy Sector
This sector is by far one of the best performing sectors since the most recent market bottom, which leads me to believe it may have the biggest correction if we get an overall market correction.
(click chart to enlarge)
As we can see from the Energy Select Sector ETF (XLE) above, it opened on the 52 week high and sunk like a stone all day engulfing Tuesday's entire move higher, all on greater volume. This again is very ugly price action and would signal me to sell energy stocks or purchase put protection. This is one of very few ETF's that traded above 70 on the RSI for more than 3 days.
Energy Sector Hedging Strategy:
I would also plan on purchasing shorter tem puts on this ETF, because this is sector specific and would think based on the ugly price action and recent overbought levels, it is due to correct sooner rather than later. I am structuring my bet on this ETF a bit differently than the last few. As you can see from the chart of the XLE above, the stock left a couple of gaps on the way up, and I believe those have a high probability of being filled if we get a pull back. I would purchase puts below the 20 day moving average at minor support near 68, and I would sell puts near 60. Therefore I would put on a February 68/60 put spread. This would cost me roughly $75 per spread. This strategy is a bit more bearish and factors in quite a significant correction, but selling the 60 puts versus the 61 or 62 puts didn't make too much of a difference compared to potential returns, especially because that lower gap which would need to be filled around 59.94. If this ETF sold off and closed at or below 60 on February options expiration this strategy would return $800 per spread or 1,067%.
Idea #5 Hedging the Materials Sector:
This sector was perhaps the ugliest of the day Wednesday. Many of the largest holdings in the Materials Select Sector ETF (XLB) such as Monsanto (MON) and Freeport-Mcmoran (FCX) have had unbelievable runs lately and need to take a breather.
(click chart to enlarge)
This ETF had an extremely ugly potential reversal day Wednesday . The ETF opened near the high and 52 week high and sold off the entire day on very large volume engulfing all of the previous two days moves higher. This stock also fell below the 20 day moving average for the first time since mid November. This again is a potential key reversal day to watch and would be a signal to sell material stocks or put on some hedges.
Material Sector Hedging Strategy:
As we can from the minor pull back in mid November the ETF broke below the 20 day but then bounced off of the 50 day moving average and continued a nice uptrend. You will also see Fibonacci retracement levels drawn on the chart which are also key levels to watch. The Fibonacci levels come in very close to the moving averages on the chart, but I will use both to structure my put spread. Again I would choose the February contracts to keep this hedge shorter term. I would purchase my first put near the 50 day moving average at 37 and sell put options near 34. If it broke below the 50% retracement, I would want to roll out into the next month and purchase another put spread (perhaps the 34/30) as the stock would likely head lower. This strategy would cost roughly $45 per spread and would return $300 per spread or 667% if this ETF closed at or below 34 per share on February options expiration.
The ideas outlined above are bearish strategies and should not be considered if you think the ETF will continue higher or have a very minor correction in the near future. However if you feel the ETF could correct in the near future, these strategies could help protect your portfolio. To get a better understanding of stock options and different option strategies please check out my Simplified Stock Option Trading E-Books. These are just examples and are not recommendations to buy or sell any security; if you're more bullish/bearish, you'll want to adjust the strike price and expiration accordingly.
The reason option volumes have surged in the last five years is because they are a great way to hedge your portfolio as well as create income off of your shares (see chart here). Keep in mind when using this strategy it is essential that broker commissions are low enough to profit from the position.
I currently do not own any strategies mentioned above, but may open them in the next few days. Sphere: Related Content
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Options Market Findings: January 18, 2011
Banking on Citigroup to Outperform: A Bullish Option Strategy
To continue reading this, view the full article on Seeking Alpha HERE. Sphere: Related Content
Monday, January 17, 2011
3 Dow Stocks to Buy-Write Now
The first stock I find attractive from the Dow Jones Industrial average is Boeing (BA). I feel this stock is undervalued based on the future of the company and the dividend they pay. The last dividend of 42 cents was paid on November 3, 2010, so it should yield another two dividend payments by May options expiration - therefore I would likely look to write shares of Boeing out no later than May expiration. I could write the May 75 calls against shares of Boeing for about $2.00 per share bringing my cost down about 2.67% to $68 per share...
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Corning a Buy on Apple Verizon Marriage
I am getting long Corning (GLW) on the back of this deal. I believe demand for the Apple (AAPL) iPhone will pass even the most bullish estimates once it's selling on Verizon (VZ). Both Verizon and Apple have rallied greatly as well as Qualcomm (QCOM) in anticipation for this announcement, as this was a poorly kept secret.
This deal is also good for glass maker Corning Incorporated (GLW) which has been trapped in a tight range between 15-19 the last year. It looks as if the stock is finally trying to break out. I am long January 20 calls, as well as February 22 calls but I am looking longer term. I believe May 22/25 call spreads look very attractive at this point and plan on purchasing some for my portfolio on any weakness. For more information in how to trade these strategies check out my options ebook.Sphere: Related Content
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subset: commoncrawl


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As you may have heard by now, Landon Donovan, the best American soccer player ever, wasn't selected to the United States men's national team's 23-man World Cup roster. Legendary commentator Ray Hudson is really, really pissed off about that, and so today, he went on The Football Show on SirusXM to talk about it. He didn't mince words.
It was awesome, and we can't really do Hudson's verbal contortions justice, so we'll just let Uncle Ray take it away from here:


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From the beach near our house, I can look southeast across Boundary Bay and see the Cherry Point oil refinery at Ferndale, Wash.
It is about 25 kilometres away, closer to me than my office downtown.
It is especially visible at night. With its lit towers and occasional flares of burn-off, it glows brightly across the darkened bay, and you can see wraithlike plumes of steam rising into the night air above it. For anyone living on the edges of Boundary Bay, the refinery, owned by BP, is a constant presence, one of those distinguishing landmarks on the horizon of the bay's circumscribed world. An international border runs through the middle of that world, but that line is an invisible human construct. Nature ignores it.
Live here long enough and you don't give the refinery a second thought. It's just there, and it's been there since 1971, refining oil that, for the most part, has been brought down the west coast by tanker from Alaska. (A smaller portion arrives by pipeline from Canada.)
Since its beginnings, it has greatly increased its capacity. From 100,000 barrels per day in the 1970s, it now refines 234,000 barrels per day, making it the largest refinery in Washington.
It has company. The state has four refineries near the Canadian border, two in Ferndale and two in Anacortes, and the economic life of Metro Vancouver is inextricably linked to them. Of the products they produce, Metro Vancouver receives about 20,000 barrels of gasoline. Per day. Cherry Point also produces the majority of jet fuel for Vancouver International Airport, not to mention for Sea-Tac and Portland International.
Yet in the heated debate over the Northern Gateway pipeline proposal, and the Kinder Morgan proposal to triple the capacity of its Trans Mountain pipeline to 890,000 barrels per day, the long and continued existence of these Washington refineries somehow gets lost in the shouting.
It is as if by virtue of being on the other side of an international border they have no bearing on the issue, as if the environmental danger they represent, or, on the other side of the coin, the long record of operation they can claim has no bearing on us. Out of sight, out of mind.
But they aren't out of sight. They're next door, and if there were a spill from a tanker bound for one of them, the crude oil they would release wouldn't respect the 49th parallel. Boundary Bay, the Gulf Islands and the Strait of Juan de Fuca would be imperilled. For that matter, they are imperilled.
At present, more than 500 U.S.-bound oil tankers transit the Strait of Juan de Fuca every year. If they come from Alaska, they sail outside the Canadian Tanker Exclusion Zone (between 65 to 125 kilometres offshore depending where they are on the coast), and then take on pilots once they enter the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
When they emerge out of the Juan de Fuca, they head due north through Rosario Strait. Rosario Strait winds between the San Juan Islands and the mainland, and studies have shown it to be the most dangerous tanker route in Washington. At one point, the shipping lane passes between the twin reefs of Peapod Rocks and Buckeye Shoals, which are less than two kilometres apart. (Prince William Sound, the waterway the Exxon Valdez ran aground in, was 20 kilometres wide.)
According to Scott Dean, a BP spokesman out of the company's Houston, Texas offices, there "have been no major incidents involving crude tanker voyages to our refinery."
This is true, though there have been accidents at the refinery, including a fire last February that shut it down for a month. There have also been accidents in Rosario Strait involving tankers headed for other refineries, including — according to a 1989 Seattle Times series on Washington tanker traffic — the 1964 explosion of the unloaded tanker Bunker Hill, which sank to the bottom of the strait, and the 1983 near-grounding of the tanker Sohio Intrepid, which lost power and was 125 metres from the rocks before tugs reached it at the last minute and towed it to deeper waters.
Why is any of this important to the debate over Northern Gateway and Trans Mountain?
It is important because of (a) the proximity of the U.S. refineries and (b) the historical context in which they exist. That U.S. oil tankers transit waters so close to B.C. that they have threatened, and continue to threaten, our environment is a 40-year fact. That we, and Washingtonians, have lived with that threat for 40 years is also a fact.
You can take from that what you will. This column and those facts aren't meant to make a case for either side of the oil debate in B.C.
But neither should they be ignored. There is an established history of oil in that place we now call the Salish Sea, and we've been awash in it for decades.


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More Songs That Make You Feel Good
For most people, crying is more cathartic than smiling. That might be why Bob and Robin's call for Songs That Make You Weep got so many responses. But that's not to say people aren't happy.
Lots of listeners wrote in to tell us about the songs that make them feel good. Others took to the All Songs Considered Soundcloud page to share the songs that lift them up when they're feeling down.
In fact, there were so many feel-good songs to choose from that the latest All Songs show couldn't possibly handle them all. So, just like all those leftover tearjerkers, we decided to post a few more happy songs.
Check out our listeners' tales, then let us know what songs make you feel good in the comments section.
Aaron on Vampire Weekend, 'M79'
Julia wrote:
I was dropping my sister off at her apartment on a Sunday afternoon when I heard Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros' "Home." We had one of those "driveway moments" and just sat and listened. I've adored the song ever since. People, not places, have always been my sense of home, and I couldn't think of a better person to share that first listen with, or a song that sums up how I want to feel about the people in my life. Whether it's romantic or friendly, the people in my life that I love the most should make me feel as joyous as the song's horn section sounds. I don't think life gets any better than that.
"Nightswimming" by R.E.M. reminds me of my childhood and teenage years growing up in the South. Swimming in the bay, a local pond or sometimes climbing the fence of the local community pool and diving in on a hot summer night. Absolute heaven.
Kelly on Built to Spill, 'Car'
Logan wrote:
Contrarian before Mencken was cool, no matter what it is, Julius "Groucho" Marx is not for it — or so his character, Professor Wagstaff, claims in that famous scene from 1932's Horse Feathers. The fourth Marx Brothers film, the song was written by deuce aces of the era Burt Kalmar and Harry Ruby. But, as always, the delivery is all Groucho. And it gets me every time. Clad in full academic garb, his mortarboard slightly askew, Wagstaff never cites specific things to which he's opposed. "Whatever it is," he dismisses so brusquely, "I'm against it." And again, my inner curmudgeon melting, I just can't stifle the chuckles.
Danielle on The Format, 'On Your Porch'
Kimberlee wrote:
Whenever I hear "Bright Side of the Road" by Van Morrison, I'm reminded of one of the toughest years of my life... but in a good way. 2009 was full of heartbreak and struggle — a couple difficult and very emotional break-ups, the most challenging academic semester yet, graduating into the shambles of a broken economy, my closest friends moving states away, living in my parents' basement (I know that's not a big deal, but it sure wasn't my dream as a 22-year-old), and so on and so forth. Some time during all of that, a friend sent me a mix with "Bright Side of the Road" in the midst of several sad songs (lots of stuff by Boilermaker, Magnolia Electric Co, etc.), and I was suddenly at peace and even, daresay, happy about my situation. It brought everything into perspective: I was definitely in a bad phase of life, but it was just that — a phase. Surrounding me were the greatest family and friends, who not only loved me but supported and stood by me no matter what. Everyone goes through a dark time, but there will always be people to share the load and carry you through it.
Eric wrote:
A song that never fails to put me in a good mood is "1979" by The Smashing Pumpkins. Part of what I love about the song is the video they made and where I was in life when it was released. In 1996, I was 16 years old and really related to the kids in the video who were driving around for no real reason, but were also content to cruise around with friends listening to great music with the chance to be away from their parents for a while. Thinking back, life seemed so easy at the time. No indication of the peaks and valleys to come. Just cruising around, windows down, hair blowing in the wind, and great tunes pumping from a crappy car stereo. What could be better?


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The filmmakers behind "Going the Distance" were insistent on keeping it real in the romantic comedy about long distance relationships -- perhaps a little too real in the mutual phone sex scene between Drew Barrymore and Justin Long.
The scene, in which there is no nudity but a lot of of off-camera movement (and the discussed image of Marky Mark in his boxer shorts), has its humorous and uncomfortable moments. But it was even more uncomfortable to shoot according to the co-stars.
"We were comparing who had the most awkward experience -- me as a guy in a room full of men," said Long. "Or Drew."
The filmmakers (for the movie opening on Friday) actually built two sets to represent the two bedrooms a country apart and allowed the actors to portray their sex-starved characters talking on the phone during the scene to make it even more real.
Setting the shot up was pretty awkward.
"All the guys in my room were making sex jokes to keep it light," Long said with an emotional cringe. "And it made it more awkward where I had to laugh and then get into this whole sexual mode."
"But Drew had it more awkward because everyone in the room was totally stone cold silent. And respectful. And it made it that much weirder for her."
There's really no way for a crew to win in that situation, so sounds like a draw. But Long might have won the awkward gold medal for the scene when director Nanette Burstein came up and explained the proper off-camera arm movement he needed for the scene.
"I was like, 'Nanette I think I know how to do this,'" said Long. "I have had a lot of experience."


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Cruise Ship Secured as Coast Guard Searches Nearby for Missing Shipyard Worker in Mobile, Ala.
Carnival said the ship drifted and was resting against a cargo vessel.
April 3, 2013 -- The Carnival Triumph cruise ship, which broke away from its moorings in Mobile, Ala., amid high winds with approximately 800 people on board, has been resecured, and all aboard are safe and accounted for, the cruise line said.
However, a search continued for a shipyard worker believed blown into the Mobile River around the same time in a separate incident, the Coast Guard said.
Two security guards, employees of the shipyard, went into the water when their guard shack blew over during the high winds, ABC News Radio reported. One guard was pulled from the water and one remained missing.
The Coast Guard issued an urgent marine information broadcast asking mariners to be on the lookout for the missing worker amid the Coast Guard search.
"Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Mobile received a report at approximately 1:45 p.m. that a BAE Systems employee became missing after the Carnival Triumph broke free from its moorings while in dry dock at the BAE shipyard," the Coast Guard said in a prepared statement. "The missing employee is ... reportedly not wearing a life jacket. One other BAE employee was recovered safely. The ship is reportedly at the Signal International shipyard across from BAE."
The Coast Guard sent tugboats and other vessels to the scene of the loose cruise ship and officials managed to resecure it, Carnival said this evening.
"With the assistance of tugboats on site, the ship has been moved to the Mobile Cruise Terminal," Vance Gulliksen, a spokesman for Carnival, said in a written statement. "Lines have moored the ship, and, as a precaution, tugboats will remain alongside the vessel as well."
He added that hundreds of people aboard the ship were safe.
"All of the approximately 600 crew and 200 contractors who were onboard the vessel are safe and have been accounted for through a roll call," read Gulliksen's statement. "There are no reports of injuries. While assessment of damage to the ship is ongoing, initial indications suggest the damage is limited."
Carnival blamed the breakaway on wind gusts of as much as 70 mph in the area.
PHOTOS: Carnival Triumph Cruise Ship Stranded
The Triumph was towed to Mobile after losing power during a round-trip cruise from Galveston, Texas, to Cozumel, Mexico, in February, stranding 4,000 people at sea for five days. A fire broke out in its engine room, disabling the vessel's propulsion system and knocking out much of its power.
The ship was taken out of service and was expected to sail again on June 3.


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Considering two in ten sales of Ford's Expedition come from Texas — and so not to distract from the company's environmentally friendly message at the Detroit show — Ford chose the Houston auto show to launch its newest large SUV late last week. Gaining much-needed cues from the latest F-Series pickups, the new Expedition gets similar upgrades as its Explorer did last year, including electronic rollover protection and six-speed transmission, plus an EL version that's long enough to compete with the Chevrolet Suburban. Ford's betting the market for truck-like SUVs will be decline slowly, with Texas likely being the last place it'll trail off.
Check out the press release at American Car Fans
Spy Photos: 2007 Ford Expedition, Only Bigger [internal]


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Bye Feunaral Quest! (never played b4)
My Goals:
Get 50,000 Gems (DONE!)
Get Level 50 (X)
New Goals if I finish this list.
Funeral Quest sounds like a fun game. :<
Click below pls
Made by Skymod! Thank you!
This last one is from one of my favourite game series! That game series is Mother. Yeah!
This is my pet Drago.
Forum Rules


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Home » Posts tagged 'duvets'
Tag Archives: duvets
Tips To Buying Duvet Covers
Duvet covers are important bedding items. Almost all households have duvets because handling blankets and sheets is not as easy as having duvets. Duvet covers serve the purpose of covering the duvets to prevent them from getting dirty. Duvet covers can be changed based on an individual's mood or even the weather. Here are some of the factors that can be considered when getting a duvet cover.
Before purchasing a duvet cover, it is important to keep the theme of the room in mind. The duvet should match with the subject of the room so that the room does not look like it has a lot going on. Dull colors may make the room annoying as well. Boldness should sometimes be incorporated by getting bright colors that make the room look colorful.
It is important to pay attention to the sizes available. The sizes should be in line with the scale of the bed. A duvet that is bigger than the size of the bed is not a good picture. Same to one that is smaller than the size of the bed. It is, therefore, good to be keen on the sizes because they may vary. When buying online, there is a size chart that will guide the buyer, and it is important to make use of it before making a purchase.
The material of the duvet cover should be considered before making a purchase. There are different types of materials. They range from high-quality ones to the ones that are of standard quality. The ones that are of high quality have a high thread count. Therefore, they are warmer, and they aid in giving someone good sleep. They are however a bit pricey. There are ones that are poly cotton and polyester that are good depending on where they are being bought from. They are ideal to buy when one is on a tight budget.
Custom Made
There are custom made beds that do not fit any duvets. The duvets that are being bought have to be custom made so that they can fit the bed as well. The measurements have to be taken and tailored to suit the size of the bed.
Getting duvet covers may seem like a light activity but it is not. Good quality beddings improve the quality of sleep, and we know that sleep is good for the health. The duvets, therefore, are a good investment.


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In order to stay ahead of counterfeiting, the government redesigns paper money on a fairly regular basis. The Treasury Department expects to unveil a new $100 bill, but the release date is yet to be determined. The last bill to be redesigned was the $5 bill, issued March 13, 2008.
Most notable among recent design changes are the addition of colors to the bills. But there's a lot more to the redesigns than meets the eye. Literally.
Using a super-macro lens, we get up close and personal with the latest U.S. currency designs, showing in full detail some of the features you may not be aware of. And why only the very best counterfeiters in the world can pull off a bill so good that only experts can spot it as a fake.
Click ahead to see why the defense in the details.
By CNBC.com
Updated 7 Jan. 2013
Source: US Treasury Department, US Secret Service, Bureau of Printing and Engraving


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Food & Drink
The Dreamliner returns: 5 things to know
By Thom Patterson, CNN • Updated 20th May 2013
View Gallery
14 Pictures
Aviation fans have already named it Dreamliner 2.0.
No longer grounded for safety concerns, Boeing's embattled 787 Dreamliner now has a few things to prove. Monday might be a good day to start. That's when domestic Dreamliner flights return to America's airways.
At 11 a.m., United Flight 1 is scheduled to depart Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport for Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. The airline plans to roll out additional 787 flights throughout the week. Some international carriers have already resumed Dreamliner service.
For aviation enthusiasts it's kind of a big deal. As word spreads of Dreamliner's return, travel advisers report they're getting calls from curious fliers looking to connect with one of United's six 787s at Dreamliner hubs.
They want a chance to ride the 787 and experience its fancy interior lighting, high-tech windows and mysterious anti-turbulence technology. So far, United is the only U.S. carrier flying the aircraft
An F-18 pilot shows off the acrobatic capabilities of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner at the Farnborough International Air Show.
CNN's Sandra Endo reports on a battery concern that led the FAA and other world authorities to ground the Dreamliner.
CNN's Richard Quest says the Dreamliner glitches have been an extreme embarrassment for Boeing.
Lithium ion batteries aren't just in the Dreamliner. Kristie Lu Stout shows why most gadgets use the technology.
Dreamliner interactive: The Boeing 787 layout
This plane is so lightweight that it can fly farther with the same amount of fuel as heavier airliners. It can carry 200-plus passengers a third of the way around the globe. Boeing says the plane's increased profitability will open more destination cities for travelers.
Industry observers are curious to see what the future holds for Dreamliner, the first entire airline model to be grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration in more than 30 years.
Lithium-ion batteries that overheated on two Dreamliners in January prompted authorities to ground all 50 787s worldwide, but a redesigned battery system has cleared the way for the plane's return.
Behind the scenes: Boeing's Dreamliner battery fix
Here are five things about Dreamliner for American travelers to keep in mind now that it's back in service:
How safe is it?
"It's a safe airliner to get back on and fly," says Capt. Kevin Hiatt, president of the
Flight Safety Foundation
, an independent aviation safety think tank. The FAA simply exercised an abundance of caution when it grounded the aircraft, he says. What travelers should take away from the grounding is "the fact that we've got a pretty good system that works."
Still, now that all eyes are on Dreamliner in the wake of the grounding, new reports of even minor glitches are likely to make travelers nervous.
Japanese airline ANA reported an incident
that damaged an electrical distribution panel on a Dreamliner test flight on May 4. ANA blamed it on a nut that had not been properly tightened, calling it a "minor issue" unrelated to batteries.
A team made up of experts from Boeing and from outside the company redesigned the battery system, which separates, insulates and ventilates the battery cells. Passenger rights advocates have screamed "conflict of interest" about the FAA's longstanding policy allowing Boeing to certify components of its own aircraft. They're calling for more independent testing and analysis of Dreamliner's battery fix. But Hiatt says the process is safe and as independent as possible.
"Looking at historical data, we haven't had any evidence over the years that self-certification has been responsible for any problems," says John Goglia, a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board, the federal air crash investigation agency.
Travelers have such high regard for the safety of the U.S. aviation system they don't pay much attention to the kind of plane they're flying, says Brett Snyder, travel adviser and
self-described "president and chief airline dork" of CrankyFlier.com
. Most aren't worried about flying the 787, but if Dreamliner develops another problem "then that might change things."
Goglia, who also worked for years as an airline mechanic, warns that a repeat incident with the batteries "would severely impeach Boeing's engineering capabilities." Success for the Dreamliner heavily relies on no repeats, Goglia says.
How's its reputation?
When an aircraft is hit by the first FAA grounding order for an entire airliner type in three decades, does it come with a stigma? "They're definitely going to have some lumps in the road because of that," says Goglia.
On the other hand, Snyder believes the "average everyday traveler isn't looking at the specific aircraft type. They're looking at the flight times and they're looking at the prices."
"I'm sure there are some people that are feeling like they don't want to get on it," says Snyder. "They'll probably feel that way in the short term until the Dreamliner develops a "track record of being reliable and safe."
CNN.com readers have mixed feelings about the new plane.
"If there are no further incidents absolutely no one is going to remember this in a year or two," wrote one commenter. "Other troubled airplanes like the DC-10 actually killed people and still went on to be successes."
Another isn't so optimistic: "I fly between continents 1-2 times per year and have done so for the last decade and I will NEVER set foot on a Dreamliner."
How does it feel?
We'll soon find out for ourselves when we fly United Flight 1 today, but supposedly, Dreamliner air is rare up there.
New cabin environmental systems allow control of air pressure and humidity.
Dreamliner's cabin pressure is set to the equivalent of 6,000 feet above sea level -- compared to the traditional setting of 8,000 feet. Feeling like you're at a lower altitude lets the body absorb more oxygen, making passengers less susceptible to airsickness. Humidity in the cabin is supposed to feel more comfortable, too.
Everybody talks about the windows. By pushing a button under each one, it activates energized gel embedded in the windowpane, which darkens or lightens the glass. No shades necessary.
Check back here with CNN.com today and we'll let you know what these tech-laden features are really like.
How does it ride?
It's a mystery how it works, but the Dreamliner comes equipped with gust suppression technology that is designed to smooth the ride during moderate turbulence. Boeing is keeping its cards close to the vest. Suffice it to say sensors on the aircraft respond to turbulence and send command signals that adjust parts of the wings. Result: smoother flying, says Boeing. We'll check it out for ourselves.
"It looks pretty awesome, although I'd just rather not have turbulence -- then you don't need the gust suppression," jokes Snyder. "But I think it will be interesting to see how that feels, and how the plane handles it."
How did we get here?
Boeing used to think airlines felt a need for speed.
But the company soon learned it had miscalculated. What the airlines really wanted was efficiency, triggering a trend toward fuel-sipping, lightweight, long-range airliners.
Here's what happened: In the early 2000s, Boeing was brainstorming the next generation of airliners -- the first that would be built largely from lightweight carbon-composite materials.
These new planes would jet across the nation at about 650 mph -- nearly the speed of sound. They called this idea the Sonic Cruiser.
But as oil prices rose, the Sonic Cruiser took a dive. Boeing abandoned the concept, keeping the idea of a new lightweight, carbon-composite airliner. Speed was out, efficiency in. By 2003, the project had a name: Dreamliner.
This year, Boeing's rival Airbus will follow Dreamliner with its A350 XWB, another sleek, long-distance fuel-sipper that can carry 200-plus passengers.
Related story: Airbus rolls out sleek, new A350 XWB
CNN's Thom Patterson boards Boeing's Dreamliner later today for its first domestic flight on a U.S. carrier after it was grounded earlier this year. Check back for updates later today and
follow his progress on Twitter.
A year of the world's
Best Beaches
There's a perfect beach for every week of the year. Join us on a 12-month journey to see them all
Go to the best beaches


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Though we'll have to wait for the 2008 Paris Motor Show for a full reveal, bit-by-bit the specs are filtering out on the 2009 Audi S4 — or is it 2010 Audi S4 — we're still confused by Audi's lack-of-model-year naming scheme for product. We already knew it would get a supercharged (which could mean turbosupercharged, depending upon which report you read) 3.0-liter V6 backed by a 6-speed twin-clutch lovingly referred to as "S-Tronic." What's news is that traction control/AWD will be provided by the Quattro system as expected, and that the updated Audi will run the 0-to-62 (0-100 km/h) in under six seconds thanks to approximately 350 HP on tap.
What else? The twin-clutch system is a kissin' cousin of VW's DSG, swapping cogs in 200ms and weighing just 40kg more than the 6-speed manual. Of course, despite being less fun for those of us who enjoy a real stick-shift, it performs faster than the human-shifted 'box and offers benefits in CO2 emissions as well, a key selling point for our European brothers and sisters who actually have to worry about greenhouse gasses. Suckers. We just have to worry about whether it'll bankrupt our automakers. Damn you, Socialist Euro-trash and your filthy stinking government subsidies and tax exemptions. [World Car Fans]


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The Association of Golf Merchandisers is an international, professional organization of golf-related merchandisers and vendors. Members include buyers, merchandisers, golf professionals, students, club managers, owners and suppliers to the golf industry. Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, the AGM is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation founded in 1989 and governed by a 19-member volunteer Board of Directors.
The AGM mission of education is to:
Who are the members of the AGM?
More than 1,000 individuals representing private, public, resort and off-course golf specialty stores and students are active members of the AGM. Members of PGA of America and PGA of Canada comprise over 30% of the membership. AGM members are responsible for over 1,500 facilities and merchandise sales in excess of $750 million annually.
Additionally, over 150 Vendor Partners participate and through their membership, they support AGM retail-related educational programs and networking events. Each year the AGM sponsors over 30 educational seminars and networking events. The Annual Retail Conference is held each January in Orlando, Florida in conjunction with the PGA Merchandise Show.Our mission to education is resolute. Through our educational programs, materials and events, members have the necessary resources for successful and profitable retailing.
Join AGM |
Events Calendar |
Vendor Partners |
Job Opportunities |
Contact Us |
Members Only
Association of Golf Merchandisers
PO Box 7247 Phoenix, AZ 85011-7247
Phone: 602-604-8250 Fax: 602-604-8251
Email: email@example.com
© 2020 All Rights Reserved - Association of Golf Merchandisers


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'This Week' Transcript: Hillary Clinton
Transcript: Hillary Clinton
CAIRO, Feb 20, 2011 -- (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR (voice-over): This week, people power making history, a revolt in the Midwest and a revolution sweeping across the Middle East. State of siege. We take you to Wisconsin, where firefighters and teachers have stormed the capitol, lawmakers are in hiding, and the Tea Party is fighting back. Bob Woodruff with the real story, inside the battle in the heartland.
(UNKNOWN): We won in November. Elections have consequences.
AMANPOUR: Our roundtable will ask, will this spread around the rest of the country? As cuts get deep, who should bear the pain?
And freedom fever, the very latest from the Middle East, where bloody protests force another key ally to do the unthinkable. My exclusive with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the young Internet revolutionaries who tell us how they engineered the fall of America's staunchest ally with American tech, not tanks. "This Week," "People Power," starts right now.
AMANPOUR: Good morning.
Populist frustration is boiling over this week, as we said, not just in the Middle East, but in the middle of this country, as well. A budget war threatens to shut down the federal government, and now union workers fighting back are tying state and local governments in knots. Ground zero: Madison, Wisconsin.
ABC's Bob Woodruff is there, and he joins me now with the very latest. Good morning, Bob.
WOODRUFF: Good morning, Christiane.
AMANPOUR: So there have been six days of protests there so far, state employees fighting the proposed cuts to their benefits and their union's right to bargain, Democratic legislators hiding in order to stop a vote. Bob, what's driving the people that you've met there? Does it look like there's an end in sight?
WOODRUFF: Well, that's a good question. You know, this has been just a huge event. The weather is now starting to change today. They think there might be about six inches of snow today. Hopefully that's going to come to an end, as well.
But, really, the numbers are really impressive. You know, they now estimate that about 68,000 people were here yesterday. Most of them were teacher union members. But also then, for the first time yesterday, the Tea Party supporters.
WOODRUFF (voice-over): Is this what the future of American politics looks like?
(UNKNOWN): I don't think we've ever had anything like this.
(UNKNOWN): This is unprecedented for -- for our times. WOODRUFF: In Madison, the capitol building is still swelling with protesters, a near total takeover. Tens of thousands in the streets, too, determined to thwart a bill they see as a frontal assault on public labor unions.
(UNKNOWN): What's disgusting?
(UNKNOWN): Union busting.
(UNKNOWN): What's disgusting?
(UNKNOWN): Union busting.
(UNKNOWN): How do you get better teachable moments than this? If you don't like what somebody's doing, we don't just sit back and -- and watch. We don't wait four years for the next budget or election cycle. We tell them right away we don't like it.
WOODRUFF: The protesters are furious with Governor Scott Walker's plan to drastically curtail the bargaining power of their unions. Outraged public workers and their allies have dominated the scene here since last Monday. But for the first time this weekend, they had company.
(on-screen): Really what this is, is a tale of two rallies. You've got the one side, the union on this side, and then you come on over here to the Tea Party. So on one side, you've got kill the bill. On the other side, you've got pass the bill.
(voice-over): The crowd supporting the governor, smaller in size but not in conviction, came from around the state to deliver a clear message.
(UNKNOWN): But we're not going to negotiate. Why would we negotiate? We won -- we won in November. Elections have consequences. That's -- it's as simple as that. I can't make it any plainer. We won; they lost. That's what's going to happen. The bill is going to be passed.
WOODRUFF: We met Lou Debraccio (ph) early in the morning, 110 miles away from the capitol, as he and a clutch of fellow Tea Party supporters boarded a bus bound for Madison. Debraccio (ph) is a small government conservative, eager for his voice to be heard in the debate.
DEBRACCIO (ph): I want to -- I want to see the state move forward. And in order to do that, many of us in the private sector have had to sacrifice and I think necessary that -- that we all share that sacrifice. It does hit home for me. My wife is a teacher. It's going to cost our family money. But it's the right thing to do, so I support it.
WOODRUFF: While Debraccio (ph) was heading to town, chemistry teacher Anthony Schnell (ph) and his family were deep in their morning routine. J. SCHNELL: The immediate effect to our family is that we will make about $500 a month less on Anthony's paycheck. And we are just hanging on by our fingernails right now. My husband loves being a teacher. He's tried other things, and he loves education, he loves kids, he loves working with families. And for him to say I think I might have to leave this again is just heart-breaking, because it's his passion.
A. SCHNELL: This isn't about the money. It's not about the benefits. Of course, that's going to hit us, and we don't like that. But it's really about having input in the classes, you know, having input with the school board, having input with what happens.
WOODRUFF: Anthony's been coming to the protests all week, but the Tea Party's presence weighed on his mind as he approached the capitol.
A. SCHNELL: I'm a little nervous about today. I just don't know what's going happen.
WOODRUFF: Once inside the rotunda, he lost the butterflies and began working the crowd.
A. SCHNELL: Is this a budget fight?
CROWD: No.
A. SCHNELL: Is this just about money?
CROWD: No.
A. SCHNELL: Is this about us doing the best in our classrooms?
CROWD: Yes.
WOODRUFF (on-screen): They're all saying this is huge. And if it happens here, it's going to happen everywhere in the rest of the country.
(voice-over): In the rotunda, there is now a flavor of a '60s- era sit-in. In fact, some told us it's the biggest demonstration they've seen here since the Vietnam War.
(on-screen): You doing this every day until this thing -- this bill is killed?
OWEN: I think this is going to happen every day until this bill is killed. I don't think there's any way that the people in this building are going to give up the right to collective bargaining.
(UNKNOWN): I'm here because this is wrong, that this sort of shotgun legislation, ramming it through, it's the wrong way to deal with problems. This isn't about me. It's about trying to do the best we can for society and communities.
WOODRUFF: Do you think it's going to be peaceful? (UNKNOWN): I think so. I think the tensions are going to be high, but I think it's going to stay civil.
WOODRUFF: But what if this...
(UNKNOWN): Well, wait. Not civil, it's going to stay peaceful.
WOODRUFF: Lou Debraccio (ph) got an earful from the pro-labor crowd as he made his way to the Tea Party demonstration.
DEBRACCIO (ph): I'm not going to change any of their minds. They're committed enough to drive here and make signs, just like they're not going to change my mind. It's not about that. So there's limited return in talking to them.
WOODRUFF: Even some families are divided. Julie Hansen (ph) supports the governor. Her 13-year-old daughter does not.
HANSEN (ph): My 13-year-old is for collective bargaining. She went to school yesterday, and the teachers spoke to her about it.
WOODRUFF: Think she believes it and -- or just because of the one lesson from the teacher?
HANSEN (ph): We had a pretty adamant discussion.
WOODRUFF (voice-over): Jeff Strobel (ph) is here with the Tea Party. His brother-in-law is on the other side.
STROBEL (ph): And my brother-in-law is a union worker. We had a big e-mail exchange on Facebook last night. The best thing is, it was civil, it was, you know, courteous. But we kind of tried to educate each other, but we're never going to agree. He's on this side; I'm on this side. But we can talk about it.
WOODRUFF (on-screen): Still going to have a peaceful Christmas dinner together?
STROBEL (ph): As long as there's beer there, we'll be peaceful.
WOODRUFF (voice-over): Late Saturday, the governor issued a statement, turning down a compromise offer from the unions. And so here in Wisconsin, the standoff continues, for now.
For "This Week," I'm Bob Woodruff in Madison, Wisconsin.
AMANPOUR: And so is Wisconsin just the beginning? States from coast to coast are grappling with this fundamental question: In desperate economic times, which Americans should sacrifice the most? I'll put that to the roundtable coming up next.
And later, revolt in the Middle East engulfs more of America's strongest allies, with the Obama administration struggling to stay ahead of events. I'll get an exclusive progress report from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
OBAMA: Some of what I've heard coming out of Wisconsin, where you're just making it harder for public employees to collectively bargain generally, seems like more of an assault on unions. And I think it's very important for us to understand that public employees, they're our neighbors, they're our friends. They make a lot of sacrifices and make a big contribution. And I think it's important not to vilify them or to suggest that somehow all these budget problems are due to public employees.
AMANPOUR: President Obama igniting a national conversation about which Americans should feel the pain of the budget axe. With pitched battles going on right now here in Washington and in statehouses from Florida to Wisconsin to California, with me now, our roundtable, George Will, Congressman Steve Southerland, a Republican freshman from Florida, he was elected to public office for the very first time last November and sent here to Washington on a mission to cut spending. Also with us, ABC senior political correspondent Jonathan Karl and political strategist Donna Brazile, who calls herself a labor Democrat.
Thank you all for being here. So, George, Wisconsin. Is this the sort of battle that we're going to see shaping up around the country? Is this really the sort of political and philosophical debate that's going on right now about what these cuts are going to mean?
WILL: It would have been even if the president hadn't intervened. But in the span of three days, Christiane, he first submits a budget that would increase the federal deficit and, two days later, he mobilizes his party, his own political machine, and organized labor, which is an appendage to his party, to sabotage Wisconsin's attempt to do what he will not do, which is deal with the insolvency of their government. In doing so, he has set the stage for 2012 by saying the Democratic Party is the party of government, not just in having an exaggerated view of the scope and competence of government, but because its base is in public employees.
AMANPOUR: So, Donna, mobilizing his troops, sabotaging the effort to cut the budget, he did use the word "assault," the president. Is that too much? I mean, what is going on here? BRAZILE: Well, first of all, they're entering day seven of the protests. And my recollection is that President Obama commented on it in day four of the protest. So the fact is, is that this is a grassroots movement that had nothing to do with people or politicians in Washington, D.C. This has everything to do with the workers there in Wisconsin and all across the country who are feeling the effects of these draconian budget cuts.
Look, state and local workers have taken the brunt of a lot of these cuts. And they're willing to come to the table to talk to the governor to put forward more wage cuts, more pension -- pay up more money for their pension, more for their health care. Why won't the government sit down with them? That's all they want. They want the governor to sit down with them, to talk about these items, but they want their collective bargaining right, their voice at the table removed from the discussion.
AMANPOUR: Is this a defining moment for -- for the labor movement?
BRAZILE: Absolutely. Look, union membership is at an all-time low over the previous 20-year high. This is an assault on workers across the country. And people believe that they're using the pretense of a budget battle to destroy collective bargaining rights.
AMANPOUR: So, Representative Southerland, a freshman to this process, is this about fiscal responsibility? Or what is happening? Because it's happening in your state, as well.
SOUTHERLAND: It is. And as you know, with nearly all of the states requiring a balanced budget amendment, they don't have any choice. The governors have to balance their budget. I know our own governor, Governor Scott, we see similar measures being taken in the state of Florida.
And I think you're seeing this in New Jersey, you're seeing this in Wisconsin, so I think that, because they're bound by that limit of a balanced budget -- which I am in favor of at the federal level -- I think that you're going to see this around the country.
You -- look, the American family is learning they have to do more with less. And the same expectation, I think, is fair of the governments, both state and federal.
AMANPOUR: And, Jon, is it just about the budget? Or is Madison, Wisconsin, have a bigger political implication?
KARL: Oh, it clearly has a bigger political implication. Look, the president was quicker and more forceful in his denouncement of Governor Scott Walker than he was of in denouncing Hosni Mubarak. I mean, this happened, it was more forceful, it was quicker.
Madison, Wisconsin, the state of Wisconsin, this is arguably ground zero for the 2012 presidential campaign. Look, this is a state that if President Obama loses, he almost certainly is going to not win re-election. This is a state that's been solidly Democratic and (inaudible) more in the direction of Republicans, a bigger move than any other state in 2010.
I mean, look what happened. You saw the Republicans capture the governorship, capture the state legislature, two House seats, a Senate seat, and, you know, Democrats see the momentum and see real danger signs for next year.
WILL: Governor Walker was elected promising to do what he's doing. He did the same thing as county executive in Milwaukee, where he was -- there were protests, union uprisings, and he was handily re- elected.
Donna, as I'm sure you know, such heroes of the labor movement as Franklin Roosevelt and Fiorello La Guardia said there's no place in the public sector for unionization at all. As I'm sure you know, 24 states limit or deny entirely collective bargaining rights for public- sector unions. And all Mr. Scott is planning to do is limit collective bargaining to wages. What is draconian about that?
BRAZILE: Well, what these workers would like, George, since they've already given up furloughs, paid leave, unpaid leave, what they would like is -- is to have a voice at the table. They don't want their collective bargaining rights.
And, look, what we're talking about is that the governor has cherry-picked what public workers he will subject to this so-called removal of their collective bargaining rights. The firefighters, the policemen and others who supported him in his election bid, well, guess what? They don't have to worry about their collective bargaining rights.
Christiane, over 400,000 state and local employees have lost their jobs over -- during the -- the duration of the recession. They are willing -- what we've seen across the country is, these workers are willing to come to the table to talk to these governors about reducing the -- the budget deficit, but not on the backs of working people.
AMANPOUR: Let me ask you, because you brought up, George, when the governor was the county executive in Milwaukee. And there's an interesting story today. It -- it boils down, perhaps, as some might say, to sort of shared sacrifice. Where is the sacrifice going to be borne the most? And is it equitable?
I just want to ask you, you know, the articles talks about the layoffs that the governor had announced back then, in 2003, quote, "decimated" the country's public parks, the staff, reduced the number of county social workers, correction officers, janitors. As a result, park bathrooms shuttered, pools closed, and trash piled up so high. I mean, does it get to a point where too much is too much or not?
WILL: And he's re-elected.
AMANPOUR: That was my next question.
WILL: The public liked what he did.
AMANPOUR: OK. All right, well, that's the answer.
BRAZILE: They liked what he did in one county. But what you see today is an organic movement. Just like the Tea Party went out there and grabbed the microphone, what you have is grassroots people out there saying, "No more," no more budget cuts on the back of working people. The governor has proposed tax giveaways to corporations. I know he campaigned on that...
AMANPOUR: ... but people like Representative Southerland came here to -- to make those massive cuts.
SOUTHERLAND: And -- and let me say this about working people. You know, that's not just federal employees. I mean, I come from a small business, and 40 percent of the jobs lost in this recession came from small business, which makes up 85 percent of our economy.
So, you know, and I look at the retirement benefits and the benefit packages that most small businesses offer to their employees, and they pale in comparison to -- to many of the federal programs that federal employees have the benefit of. So, you know, I think many people that work in small businesses are depending upon their Social Security as their retirement.
WILL: Donna, what you call the grassroots is a tiny minority of this tiny minority of Wisconsin people who work for the government. Three hundred thousand public employees in Wisconsin went to work -- while the teachers were clutching their little signs that say it's all about the kids, they're abandoning their classrooms, lying to their supervisors, saying they were sick, and going off to protest in defense of perquisites, which if the governor cuts them as much as he plans to do, would still leave them better off than their private sector...
BRAZILE: But why should workers bear the brunt of this recession? Why are we scapegoating just public-sector employees when, in fact, the -- the folks on Wall Street and others who caused this recession, George, they're enjoying huge bonuses. Bankers are not lending to small businesses, which is why we're not creating the kind of jobs that we need. But we're trying to balance the budgets on the backs of the poor and the middle class, and that's why workers are standing up for their rights.
AMANPOUR: And do you think, though, that as some have said this is just an opportunity for union-busting?
SOUTHERLAND: Well, you know, I'm not sure if -- if that is -- if that is the focus.
AMANPOUR: I mean, some are saying that. But do you think...
SOUTHERLAND: I want to say something about, you know, Donna's comments.
BRAZILE: Now, remember, you're a freshman.
SOUTHERLAND: I remember. I remember. But let me say this...
BRAZILE: And I'm your first woman on national TV, other than Christiane. Now, be careful.
SOUTHERLAND: But I'm not a freshman at -- at -- at running our small business. And you talk about bankers lending. You know, community banks are being hammered, you know, because they're coming in, they're being taken over. They -- they can't -- they can't loan money, OK? You can't get appraisals. You look at the thrift and how they're coming in and capturing the small banks, and the small banks in our communities are -- are -- are critical to the flavor of our communities. We can't get capital. So I think -- and that's a regulation issue.
BRAZILE: ... Congress should address.
KARL: But, clearly -- clearly, what Walker is going...
SOUTHERLAND: I think we will.
KARL: I mean, Walker is going right at the public employee unions. And part of it's because of that experience he had in 2003. He has said that he wouldn't have had to make all those cuts if he could have gotten a better deal with concessions.
AMANPOUR: And it's not just Republican governors. It's -- it's some Democrats, as well. Mario Cuomo and others are having to...
KARL: But one of the things he's doing is he's saying...
BRAZILE: Andrew. Andrew.
KARL: Yeah, don't do that. One of the things that he's doing is saying that no longer will union dues be automatically taken out of public employee paychecks, so the unions would have to go out and collect those dues. This is something that's going right at the heart not necessarily of the union employees, but the union leadership.
BRAZILE: But the unions want to come to the table.
WILL: Because they know what happens.
BRAZILE: They want to come to the table, George. They've got 12 percent. They say, here, we want to contribute 12 percent. We want to give you $30 billion for this fiscal year, which ends on June 30th, and over the next two years, $300 million in concessions. Now, you don't walk away from the table or you don't come to the bargaining table when labor is ready to negotiate.
AMANPOUR: All right. We're going to continue this after a break. Tea Party revolutionaries on Capitol Hill, Washington braces for a possible government shutdown. The big question: Which side will blink first?
BOEHNER: Our goal here is to cut spending. When we say we're going to cut spending, read my lips: We're going to cut spending.
AMANPOUR: House Speaker John Boehner drawing a line in the sand. And sure enough, yesterday the House, with its Tea Party-powered freshmen, passed the biggest spending cut in modern American history.
But now it goes to the Democrat-controlled Senate, and it sets up an epic clash of ideas over how to solve a massive budget crisis. And it sets the stage for a possible government shutdown.
Joining me once again, George Will, Congressman Steve Southerland of Florida, a conservative freshman elected with Tea Party support, Jonathan Karl, and Donna Brazile.
So, you're a man on Capitol Hill. This was the first shot in this big battle over -- over spending cuts. And, really, people like Congressman Southerland showed their muscle.
KARL: This is the Tea Party's moment. I mean, imagine this. We are talking not only about cutting government spending -- Washington has never really done that -- but we're talking about how much.
I mean, even the Democrats -- even Nancy Pelosi came out with -- with a measure that would continue government funding temporarily, freezing it at last year's level. That is what Democrats traditionally would call a cut, because you're not going with inflation. So this is -- this is really a moment. This is also the Chris Christie phenomenon. Will politicians be rewarded for making tough choices, again, something I don't think we've ever seen happen?
AMANPOUR: Do you care about being rewarded about tough choices?
SOUTHERLAND: Well, I think the American people are ready. They recognize the brutal reality that we're broke. And -- and -- and you're seeing that. We just talked in the last segment about the state level, and it certainly applies here.
We've seen record deficits. And the budget that the president, you know, introduced this past week just continues to put the pedal to the metal. So, I mean, we're talking about this year alone, we're at a $1.5 trillion deficit. And, you know, we talk about draconian measures of the C.R., but that draconian is leaving our children with debt that smothers them.
AMANPOUR: Right. But in the real world, what happens if this doesn't get past the Senate or past the president? Then what?
SOUTHERLAND: Well, look, we -- I'm not -- I'm not naive to the -- to the fact that when it goes to the Senate, they're going to make their -- their changes, and then it's got to go to the president. So, you know, it will not be in the form that we produced yesterday morning at 5 a.m. when we left the House being on the floor all night.
AMANPOUR: So you're prepared for maybe half that figure?
SOUTHERLAND: Well, I'm interested. I'm eager to see what's going to happen. I don't -- I don't know what's going to happen. But I don't expect it's going to be in the same form that we produced yesterday morning.
AMANPOUR: Where is this going, George? Everybody, of course, talks about government shutdown or not. Some do.
WILL: Well, that's premature. The Democratic senators have to decide, as does the president, whether they want to spend the next two years blocking in the Senate or vetoing on the president's desk spending bills because they're too small, because they believe the government isn't spending enough.
The Democratic senators have to decide if, out of a $15 trillion economy, the economy is going to be hurt by cutting $60 billion from the federal budget. They have to decide whether, out of a $3.7 trillion budget, there isn't $60 billion of inessential spending.
AMANPOUR: But it's still the hugest proposed cut. Who's going to blink first, Donna? You've been briefed. And I know you've been talking to -- to leadership about these matters.
BRAZILE: This is very difficult. And we all recognize that we have to begin to cut spending. As Jonathan mentioned, the House Democrats, the Senate Democrats, the president has submitted a budget, the 2012 budget, that -- that will slow the rate of growth and bring down the federal deficit to 3 percent of GDP by 2015. Yeah, President Obama has a little bit of fiscal conservativism in him.
But the point is, is that this is primal scream politics; $61 billion at the current spending levels is draconian. It cuts essential, vital, necessary services.
George, it's people -- it's students who are in college right now with Pell Grants that will have to face significant cuts. It's -- it's preschoolers in Head Start that may not be able to go to school on the morning after May 4th, if we don't continue with the continuing resolution at 2010 levels.
So I think this is draconian. It's bad for the country. It's bad for the economy. And it slows down economic growth at a time when things are finally moving up.
AMANPOUR: And, Jon, do you think it's going to lead to a shutdown?
KARL: Well, it might. I think there's a real possibility of that. I can tell you this: John Boehner has been telling people privately, his Republican colleagues, that he will not allow a government shutdown. But the question is, will he be able to -- you know, to produce?
Here's the time line, though, is -- is that they just did this. The House and the Senate are gone for the next week. They have four days when they get back to work out some kind of an agreement. And if they don't do it by the end of the four days, we are at a government shutdown.
AMANPOUR: So what's going to happen? What sort of pressure -- are you going to put on the speaker?
SOUTHERLAND: Well, I think -- I think, the Republicans, we have no desire to have a government shutdown. I think that Speaker Boehner has been very, very clear. I think that he wanted to produce a bill that was legitimate. We saw over the last five days -- we saw the first C.R. that went through open rules. We had over 500 amendments. We voted on 70. And it was amazing to see the process, to see Democrats voting with Republicans on amendments. I mean, the will of the floor...
KARL: But are your colleagues going to go along with something that doesn't cut spending?
SOUTHERLAND: It's going have to cut spending.
KARL: See, that's...
SOUTHERLAND: Look, I -- I mean, we're going have to cut spending. I think...
BRAZILE: But the appropriation chair came up with $30 billion in spending cuts. And then the House can -- the ultra-conservatives -- I have no other way of describing you -- you guys decided that you needed $30 billion more.
AMANPOUR: ... the politics of a shutdown, it sunk Newt Gingrich. Would it sink Speaker Boehner?
WILL: It would do anyone any good on either side. But our viewers can do the arithmetic. They can take $60 billion for $3.7 trillion. And if that's draconian, what wouldn't be draconian?
BRAZILE: But, George, we're talking about over the next seven months. We've got -- we've got food safety workers that will be impacted. We have people who will be impacted across the board.
WILL: This budget includes $7,500 bribes for anyone who will buy a Chevrolet Volt.
AMANPOUR: ... will be...
BRAZILE: ... the Metro. We're going to need to get the bicycle out, George.
AMANPOUR: You can carry on your challenges in the green room, where the roundtable will continue.
And we turn next to the Middle East, as people-powered revolutions sweeps the region. I ask Hillary Clinton what it means for the United States. My exclusive interview, when we come back.
AMANPOUR: In the Middle East overnight, the popular uprising sweeping the region have taken their most violent turn yet. It happened in Libya. Protesters there have been calling for the removal of the strong man, Moammar Gadhafi, for the last five days. He's been in power for more than 40 years. And eyewitnesses are reporting that the military has now been firing on protesters after gaining their confidence and being welcomed into the crowd. A doctor gave a dramatic radio interview. Let's listen.
(UNKNOWN): Oh, my god. They're firing on the civilians here. They're crazy. They're going crazy here.
AMANPOUR: There are reports of hundreds dead and thousands injured in Libya.
In Yemen this morning, thousands marched again in the streets of the capital, Sana'a. The president, an important American ally in the war on terror, blamed the unrest on a foreign plot.
And in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, which protects crucial oil-shipping lanes, demonstrators retook the square where their calls for reform have now given way to calls for the king to step down.
Bahrain, of course, is also a logistical hub and command center for U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. And last night, in a 180-degree turn, the crown prince offered to open up a dialogue with the protesters. ABC's Miguel Marquez is there.
MARQUEZ: Christiane, it is amazing, the difference that 24 hours makes. This time yesterday, this country appeared poised for civil war; now it is a celebration down here at Pearl Square, as you can see. And it appears we're headed for a negotiated political settlement.
In order the get the settlement they want, these protesters are now willing to stay for the long haul. You can see they've set up tents all the way around Pearl Square here. They're even serving food out here. That tea, by the way, is called Freedom Tea, and they are very organized. This area over here is the men's section. And then right back here, all these people in black, that's the women's section.
The big question is, what will get these protesters to go home? They want a constitutional democracy. They want the king to back off of politics and become a figurehead. They want the prime minister, who's been in power for 40 years, to go home. But so much blood has been spilled here in the past week, these protesters want a significant deal. Will they get it? It's not clear. It's not clear what will get them to stop protesting, pack up their tents, and go home.
AMANPOUR: And we'll keep watching Bahrain and the other uprisings.
President Obama has called Bahrain's king -- he did that on Friday -- urging him to respect the rights of the protesters. The administration once again finds itself in a bit of a bind, as freedom activists face off against an authoritarian ally.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton walked a fine line when I spoke to her exclusively on Friday.
AMANPOUR: Madame Secretary, thank you for joining us.
CLINTON: Thank you for having me.
AMANPOUR: About Bahrain.
CLINTON: Uh-huh.
AMANPOUR: How do you assess Bahrain right now? Is it stable?
CLINTON: You know, Christiane, we've been very clear from the beginning that we do not want to see any violence. We deplore it. We think it is absolutely unacceptable.
We very much want to see the human rights of the people protected, including right to assemble, right to express themselves, and we want to see reform. And so Bahrain had started on some reform, and we want to see them get back to that as quickly as possible. AMANPOUR: What will the United States do? And will it hold Bahrain to a similar standard, as it did Egypt?
CLINTON: We -- we try to hold everyone to a similar standard, but we cannot dictate the outcomes. We cannot tell countries what they're going to do. We had, you know, no control over what happened in Egypt.
AMANPOUR: As Americans sit and watch and try to make sense of what's going on in the Arab Muslim world, is what's happening -- is the emerging new order, is it good for America? What should Americans make of it?
CLINTON: Well, I think, in general, Americans are in favor of human rights, freedom, democracy. We know that ultimately the most progress that can be made on behalf of human beings anywhere is when those individuals are empowered, when they have governments that are responsive. That's what we want to see.
At the same time, we recognize that this process can be hijacked. It can be hijacked by both outside and inside elements within any country. I mean, what a tragedy to see what happened in Iran. There was a great deal of hope and pent-up feeling that the time had come in 1979, and look at what Iran is doing today.
AMANPOUR: You want democracy. You speak about democracy. Can you control democracy? Should you control democracy? Or do you have to take the chips and let them fall where they may if you want democracy?
CLINTON: Well, I think that, first, we have to start from the basic premise as to what democracy means, and democracy is not one election that then whoever wins it decides never to have another one.
That is not what anyone wants. We want to work with those forces within societies that are yearning for change to make sure that they have the support needed and, frankly, the technical assistance, the financial assistance to be able to make it through to what is a good outcome, what they've asked for in their online blogs and in their posters and in their interviews.
AMANPOUR: I want to ask you this, because it's an in-depth interview that you've done in Bazaar. It's a beautiful layout. I'm struck by the imagery, though. You are there, beautiful, but in a corner.
CLINTON: You know, I just do what photographers tell me to do. It has no metaphorical meaning for me.
AMANPOUR: But I wanted to ask you, do you feel in a corner right now or on a tight rope, trying to balance the need for stability in countries where you have allies and interests, and your values, wanting democracy and all the human rights for the people there? Is that a struggle? CLINTON: Well, I think it is a challenge. And it is a challenge not only at this point of time in the Middle East; it is an inherent challenge in diplomacy, in America's efforts in the world. We want to advance our security, our values, and our interests. And if there were one template that could be imposed on every situation, I wouldn't need to have this job, and nobody else would have to, either. But this is often a balancing act and...
AMANPOUR: Do you feel you're at a turning point, at a sort of a tectonic shift in trying to figure out where the balance is, where your strategic interests lie?
CLINTON: Well, Christiane, we deal with, you know, so many countries around the world, some of whom are closer to our values, who see their interests in ways we do and some of who -- whom are on the opposite end of the spectrum.
AMANPOUR: In the Middle East, America's strategic interests have been with some of these autocratic rulers. They've helped you with Israel and peace in the region. They've helped you against terrorism. Do you believe that a democratic people could be a force for much more stability, longer-term stability?
CLINTON: Well, ultimately, a really truly functioning, comprehensive democracy has historically been proven to be a greater force for stability. Navigating through what are difficult choices for societies that are doing that transition is something that the United States encourages, as we did after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and will continue to encourage. At the same...
AMANPOUR: So here, will you be encouraging it here?
CLINTON: Well, we have been. But at the same time, we are also knowledgeable enough about historical experiences to know that this is not an easy journey for any people to make. There are many threats and problems along the way.
AMANPOUR: It is beyond dispute that the Obama administration scaled back their democracy and freedom agenda of the Bush administration. In Egypt, the funds for NGOs and the like, civil society, democracy-building, were cut back and furthermore were directed, when they were directed, to NGOs that were supported by the Mubarak regime. Was that a mistake?
Clinton: Well, first of all, I just reject the premise. I think that there is...
AMANPOUR: It's -- it's indisputable.
CLINTON: Well, it's not. That's just not -- that's just not the case. There were differences in approach under the same set of goals to try to promote democracy, economic opportunity, women's rights, labor organizing. There are many different ways that I think all of us, different administrations, different experts, have struggled with.
There is no debate that, for 30 years, Republican and Democratic administrations alike sent the same message to President Mubarak and the regime, that they had to change. And we were all trying different ways.
You know, I think it's fair to say that none of us were particularly successful, because we kept running into an absolute rejection that that was not going to be done in Egypt. But we tried many different approaches, and we're going to try many different approaches in different settings, as well.
AMANPOUR: The State Department just had an Arabic Twitter account, a Farsi Twitter account. This week, what do you expect to do with that?
CLINTON: Have you -- have you been following the Farsi Twitter account?
AMANPOUR: I'm following it all.
CLINTON: Excellent. Excellent. Well, what we expect to do is to be communicating through the new social media with literally millions of people around the world, because we want them to hear directly from us what our policies are. We want to use it to rebut some of the falsehoods and accusations that, unfortunately, are made against the United States.
But mostly we want to be in the mix with this incredible, young, energetic population that is seeking the same rights to express themselves as young people in the United States seek.
AMANPOUR: Thank you very much.
CLINTON: Thank you very much.
AMANPOUR: And this week, Secretary Clinton called on governments around the world to respect and promote free access to the Internet. And when we return, we'll take you inside the revolution with the anonymous online revolutionaries who launched a movement.
AMANPOUR: As we now know, behind the wave of uprisings in the Middle East is a generation of educated, Internet-savvy, young Arab professionals. And their weapons? Social media, mostly made in America, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook. In the darkest days of the protests in Egypt, two anonymous activists kept the online movement alive.
This week, they agreed to tell us the gripping story of their fight for freedom, which was not with tanks, but with tech.
AMANPOUR (voice-over): Incredibly, one of the key players in the online youth movement that helped bring down Hosni Mubarak was a 34- year-old Egyptian-American who never left Washington.
WAHAB: I had contacts on the ground. People were asking me to get messages to them. People would turn to me and be like, "What should we do?" And I'd be like, "Well, I don't know. I never started a revolution before."
AMANPOUR: A year ago, Nadine Wahab connected online with the young Google marketing executive and anti-government activist Wael Ghonim.
GHONIM: They are basically a bunch of thugs, thieves, and, you know, who have been ruining their -- our country. They're so 1970, and we're so 2010.
AMANPOUR: They'd been trying to mobilize demonstrations through Facebook since June of last year. And at first, the protests were small. But on January 25th, they posted this page calling for a protest that mushroomed into a full-scale revolt. How?
A week earlier, not so far way in Tunisia, young people had forced out their authoritarian president. They had also taken advantage of an explosion of social media that in just the last four years has electrified the Arab and Muslim world.
(on-screen): Is this explosion of technology, the access among so many people, is this the reason for these revolutions and uprisings that are going on, the turmoil?
GHOSH: It's a planning tool, an organizing tool. AMANPOUR (voice-over): Bobby Ghosh has been reporting on the youth movement for this week's Time magazine and says it's been key to spreading revolutionary fervor.
GHOSH: So Tunisians can talk to Egyptians. Egyptians can talk to Yemenis. And it shows them that they're not alone.
AMANPOUR: Arab satellite television also played a role. Electrified by what happened in Tunis, young Egyptians used Facebook to call for a protest in Tahrir Square.
GHONIM: I put out an event and say, if 100,000 people confirm in three days, then I'm going to take this seriously and, you know, try and make it 1 million.
AMANPOUR: Wael Ghonim blogged anonymously. So did his friend, Ahmed Saleh, a young lawyer, and they exchanged key tactical advice online.
SALEH: On pages, on personal accounts, on groups that have very specific instructions from Tunisians to Egyptians. And so it gives you instructions on how to deal with the tear gas, on how to deal with police generally, what the times of the day is better for you to go to the street, how to deal with rubber bullets.
AMANPOUR: The Facebook page became their corner cafe, the place to meet, to recruit and share ideas.
SALEH: One of the ideas that we're still trying to trace where it had originated was -- is the idea to go to popular areas and bring people from the popular areas to specific public squares.
AMANPOUR: After a week of protests, the Mubarak regime shut down the Internet. Wael was arrested, but he had already made a plan to preserve the online movement.
SALEH: In case he disappears or anything, I should take over the page. If he's arrested, it's very expected that he would be investigated and tortured. So if the page had stopped working at the time, that would be sort of incriminating for him.
AMANPOUR: Half a world away, Nadine had set up a makeshift war room in a D.C. townhouse.
WAHAB: When the Internet went down is when my world sort of turned topsy-turvy. It became surreal.
AMANPOUR: They were determined to keep the page up and running.
WAHAB: People would tell me, "Nadine, they're not going to come for you here." But I was terrified. When I was at night by myself, I was terrified.
AMANPOUR: At the same time in Cairo, Ahmed also continued the work Wael had started. SALEH: When I wake up early in the morning, I post five or six posts or as many as I could in very short time, couple of hours, and then I post one sentence that says, "I'm going to Tahrir."
AMANPOUR: But even they were stunned when Wael was released and Hosni Mubarak stepped aside.
GHONIM: I'm proud to be an Egyptian since I've seen all these, you know, heroes in the street doing all these things that I never thought Egyptians would do. And, you know -- you know, in -- in 15 days, Egyptians learned what does it mean to me to involve in politics and call for their rights.
AMANPOUR: That moment emboldened a movement across the Middle East, filled with young people who now believe they can break the grip of repressive regimes, armed with something as simple as a cell phone.
(on-screen): How wired is the whole region?
GHOSH: It's quite substantially wired. Even people who you would say are quite poor, live in the old city and 20 people to a small home, they have a cell phone that -- it'll have a camera. If they can afford it, it'll have sort of e-mail service or an Internet connection.
AMANPOUR (voice-over): In Bahrain, the protesters in Pearl Square have makeshift charging stations for that vital weapon against oppression.
(UNKNOWN): It plays a big role, OK, in gathering people and giving them instructions. Go here. Not go. Don't go there. OK, this place is dangerous. Don't try to attack policemen.
AMANPOUR: In Yemen, Allah Jaban (ph) is helping to mobilize young people by posting a few simple photos on Facebook.
(UNKNOWN): Those people who go out and demonstrate, they're young people, out there just to -- to ask the better for their countries and ask for their rights.
AMANPOUR: Thousands turned out and forced their president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to take back his plan to make himself president for life. Watching this wave reach its borders, Saudi Arabia is desperately trying to contain it. It set up a Facebook page where the chief of the royal court encourages you to post your complaint directly. And if you fax it in, they guarantee a response within 24 hours.
In Iran, despite the government's attempts to block it, 90 percent of the hits on this Facebook page still come from Iran.
(on-screen): The people who are doing this, are these people who are friendly to the United States?
GHONIM: They are suspicious of the United States, most of them, their entire lives. But they're not viscerally anti-American. We're not seeing flags being -- American flags being burnt. We're not seeing the American president or -- or Hillary Clinton being hung in effigy. And so if the U.S. is able to conduct some smart diplomacy, I think it's possible to get over that hump of suspicion that they have.
AMANPOUR (voice-over): The Egyptian revolution wasn't driven just by the Internet and its super users, like Wael, Nadine and Ahmed, but by forces that have sparked revolution throughout history, the fight for basic freedom that connects us all.
SALEH: The experience and the inspiration has no borders.
WAHAB: It was much bigger than any of us, and it showed a -- a different model other than violence. You saw a people come together in a way that was just wonderful.
GHOSH: The dream became true. And, you know, whatever we've been fighting for since the 25th of January is now being realized.
AMANPOUR: And I'll continue to follow the unfolding events in the Middle East in real time on Twitter and on my blog, my Facebook page, or at abcnews.com.
We'll be right back.
AMANPOUR: That's it for our program this week. Stay with ABC News and abcnews.com for all the very latest on the uprisings in the Middle East and the budget crisis here in Washington and around the country. Thank you for joining us. We'll see you again next week.