Going into the 2012 elections people on the progressive end of the political spectrum need to ask the simple question: How will the first post-Citizens United presidential election affect the outcomes for those desperately seeking social change? The most likely result, unfortunately, is that after the mountains of anonymous campaign money come crashing down in a deafening avalanche of sophisticated negative ads aimed at Democratic politicians, Republicans are probably going to come out on top. Our current collection of post-”Hope and Change,” tepid, apologetic Democrats at the national level that President Barack Obama has come to personify could get throttled just like they did in 2010.

The reality is that in 2010 the Democrats suffered what President Obama conceded was a “shellacking.” Republicans swept the table winning 63 House seats and wiping out in a single election what took the Democrats two arduous election cycles to build. Republicans also made huge gains in governorships and state legislatures, including key states (some of them “swing states”) like Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida, Michigan, and Virginia. The first midterm election in the post-Citizens United universe was a Republican rout. Going into 2012 I fear that the smug predictions I’ve been hearing throughout the corporate media of an inevitable Obama reelection are premature. Surveying the landscape I would not be a bit surprised if the Democrats lost the Senate as well as the presidency this November. The Republican strategy in Washington of making sure that the economy stays in the tank through November is working.

Take a recent example: The political talking heads on the cable news shows and on the editorial pages of what’s left of the major newspapers almost unanimously portrayed Obama’s recent deal with the Republicans to extend the payroll tax cut for two months as a “victory” for the president and his party. But it was nothing of the sort. As was the case every time Obama “negotiates” with the GOP Congress he dumped his key demand even before the “negotiations” began: the 3.8 percent surtax on millionaires and billionaires to pay for the payroll tax extension. When Senate “minority” leader Mitch McConnell is high-fiving after a deal is cut (and 89 Senators voted for it) what just transpired was no “victory” for Obama and the Democrats.

So things will lumber along in 2012, the economy will remain mired in deep recession, Washington will show again and again its complete dysfunction Replica Breitling watches, and the electorate will grow angrier and angrier. And right-wing SuperPAC money will dominate the airwaves with one simple message: the recession is Obama’s fault.

In the land that Gore Vidal called “the United States of Amnesia” one can already sense the 2008 banking meltdown and the misrule of George W. Bush and the Republican Congress (2003-2007) receding into the distance, vanishing into oblivion, going down the memory hole (insert cliché here). In 2012 nobody is going to be talking about the previous administration or the underlying causes of the great Wall Street heist of 2008.

And Obama has no one to blame but himself. The political costs of deciding not to prosecute or investigate any of the perps of the mortgage Ponzi scheme and denying the public even a handful of high-profile cases where we could convince ourselves that a little justice was served, never materialized. Instead, the Obama administration gave the banking executive hucksters a Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card and his political party is going to suffer the backlash for coddling these white-collar criminals. That failure was a key motivating force for the Occupy Wall Street movement and it is not going to go away.

The backlash will be twofold: 1) A lack of enthusiasm of the Democratic base (just like 2010); and 2) The political energies that might have been put into organizing for Democratic candidates will be focused on other causes and organizations, like OWS. Why would anybody get “fired up” by working to send back to Washington a crew of failed politicians just so they can continue to fail for four more years?

Over the course of his first term President Obama has shown that he will not do the heavy lifting required to build a sustainable and coherent challenge to the dominating narratives that the Republicans have thrown at him. He buckles and capitulates and MSNBC can call these “victories” but that’s not what millions of people who voted for Obama in 2008 believe. He was not elected to cut deals with corporate miscreants and tell us that what he really meant by the “fierce urgency of now” was that the country needed a string of U.S. presidents to move toward tiny, incremental “change” that we may or may not see in our lifetimes due to the power of the lobbies and complexity of “our” problems.

Obama’s words today, no matter how stirring or eloquent or right on, are just another small part of the cacophony of bullshit we hear from our venal, mediocre politicians every minute of every day (especially in an election year). Few people on the progressive side believe a word that comes out of his mouth anymore because they stopped listening to him about 1,500 betrayals ago.

The Occupy Wall Street movement, as inspiring as it was, unfortunately, could follow the path of the Iraq peace movement that also organized enormous demonstrations during the lead up to the Iraq war only to be brushed aside and rendered irrelevant when it came to actually having an effect on reversing disastrous policies. George W. Bush taught us that mass protest isn’t what it used to be — he compared 15 million people marching worldwide against the Iraq war in mid-February 2003 to a “focus group.” Maybe he was right. Maybe in our post-modern, fragmented and compartmentalized social unreality the will of the people matters about as much as one of Frank Luntz’s dial-a-view sessions.

Which brings me, after my many depressing points above (for which I apologize) Replica Tag heuer Watches, to the subject of this little blog: the powerful right-wing political obstacles that must be sidelined if progressive change can have any chance of success, whether Obama is at the helm or any number of the string of future presidents he now tells us we’ll probably need.

1). Grover Norquist

This un-elected, cynical, elitist political animal — with his denunciations of everything associated with the word “public” — has carved out a niche for himself in the nation’s political discourse that far surpasses any “Czar” we’ve heard Fox News howl about. Politicians across the country kiss Norquist’s ring in the form of signing a “pledge” and taking an “oath” that no matter what crisis the U.S. might enter, they will never turn to increasing taxes on the rich to help deal with it. Unless this guy’s power is curtailed there won’t be any chance for using public policy to mitigate the effects of the yawning inequality in American society.

2). Frank Luntz

This advertising technician has proved that George Orwell was correct in his prediction that political language would be manipulated by the most powerful elements of society to entrench their power. Like Norquist, Luntz has become a power among the organized Right because his amoral, unethical, manipulative, dishonest, and downright greasy wordsmithing for the 1 percent works wonders and has already polluted our public discourse. With no real watchdog in the press exposing his lies and misinformation Luntz has been free to employ his techniques with great effect for his right-wing clients. Unless his lies, and the motives behind them, are widely and continuously exposed, progressives will have difficulty framing our major political debates.

3). Roger Ailes

This cunning right-wing apparatchik consciously controls the nuances and subtleties of the “news” narratives that Fox pumps up. Ailes’s life work has already irreparably damaged the rationality of our political discourse by infusing it with lies and hyperbole in a format that ingeniously mimics a legitimate “news” broadcast. All of the superficial trappings of “journalism” are present on Fox without any of the substance. As long as Democratic presidents feel it necessary to have a sit-down interview with Bill O’Reilly (a McCarthyite blowhard who has been caught in countless lies and misinformation) there’s little hope that progressive issues are going to get a fair shake in the mainstream media (of which Fox is now central due to its dominance in the ratings).

4). The Koch Brothers

These 19th Century-style Robber Barons have been so successful in buying politicians to act as servants for their vast oil and gas holdings — even when one of their governors is exposed (as with the prank phone call to Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin) — they still keep chugging along in their apparently long-term project of turning over the United States of America lock, stock and barrel to an aggressive right-wing corporate oligarchy. Citizens United has expanded the Kochs’ power and others like them to proportions that would be unimaginable as recently as the last presidential election. The millions of dollars they routinely pump into every pet right-wing cause, and who knows how much in anonymous SuperPAC money, just further destroys the election system in the world’s oldest “functioning” democracy. Progressives either have to match the Kochs’ spending dollar-for-dollar (good luck) or somehow get their damaging effects to American democracy exposed in a vigilant press (don’t count on it).

5). Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell

This Machiavellian power monger who has abused the filibuster and imposed minority rule on this country more successfully than any Senator in U.S. history has a 100 percent winning streak in every battle he has enjoined with Obama. McConnell knows whose side he is on and he loved the Citizens United decision so much he attended the Supreme Court’s announcement of the ruling. What Obama needs more than anything in 2012 is one — just one — confrontation with McConnell where the Kentucky Senator is the clear loser and everybody in the country sees it that way. The recent vote in the Senate on the payroll tax cut extension where McConnell was seen high-fiving with Wyoming Senator John Barrasso does not bode well for the battles to come in 2012.

All these personalities can continue their work in freedom and live in the lap of luxury; they just cannot be allowed to influence the direction of the nation. They cannot be “compromised” with or brought into a “big tent,” or be “reached out to” in a spirit of “bipartisan comity” — they must be fought and pushed aside.

When Herman Cain boasted that he was the Koch Brothers’ “brother from another mother” we were shown pretty clearly that this is not your mother and father’s Republican Party. They’ve succeeded in pulling the “center” of American politics far to the right and Obama’s tepid compromises are only facilitating this rightward trajectory. We’ll have to wait and see where the limit (if any) to this 30-year rightward lurch lies. But as the Tea Party onslaught in 2010 showed us there really is no conceivable limit to how far they can pull the center to the right, unless and until there is a forceful push back from the “opposition.” Why did 200,000 people come out to hear Obama’s inaugural address? Because they wanted him to reverse the Bush policies, not continue them and in some cases expand them. Therein lies the biggest disappointment.

A new year offers the opportunity to hit the refresh button and make a fresh start on something you’ve yearned to improve for a while Replica Cartier watches, but you have not yet transcended the yearning stage to get to lasting success. In previous blogs, I’ve explored the dynamic duo that enables us to change — first our motivation — a burning desire to improve health, happiness, or performance, and our confidence — a well-grounded belief that we have the ability to be successful.

Change doesn’t happen unless we have a good dose of both motivation and confidence working together. And we can’t let either slide even a bit. It’s important to charge and recharge our motivational and confidence batteries daily.

But what exactly are we working to change? One reason that change isn’t easy is that it has many moving parts. There are the destinations that we measure — objective numbers like the pounds on a scale, resting heart rate, fitting into the jeans we wore at age 25, or subjective numbers such as rating one’s stress level or peace of mind on a scale of one to 10.

Then there are the things that we first learn how to do and then do consistently to reach our destination — new behaviors or habits such as adding more lean protein to breakfast or lunch to increase brain energy, or practicing 15 minutes of meditation three evenings a week to improve mental clarity, or doing an intense 20 minutes on an elliptical machine to relieve stress.

More fundamentally, what really must change — in order to acquire new habits that get us to our hoped-for destination — is our mind. Not just the new brain pathways that get laid down with lots of practice as we move from fragile and fledgling habits to don’t-have-to-think-about habits. What we think about ourselves, our limits, our opportunities and the forces that affect us also needs to change. As Einstein said: A problem cannot be solved at the same level that created it. It’s not possible to make lasting change in our lifestyles if our thinking isn’t also transformed.

So how does one drive to a new mindset? We each live in a box that has a ceiling set by the limits of our perspectives. Changing your mind starts with pushing a hole through the ceiling and poking your head up to see something new for the first time. Maybe it’s an “aha!” moment, or a discovery, a new insight, or an OMG realization. Eventually you’ve poked enough holes in the ceiling to rise up and reach an entirely new perspective. My primary goal as a coach is to help clients generate new insights; small changes of mind, that add up over time to equal an entirely new set of beliefs, thoughts and feelings.

You now ask, how can I coach myself to a new mindset? Let’s say that this is the year you want to remove 10 excess pounds of adipose tissue that got deposited on your frame as you fretted more than ever about work and financial stresses in the past year or two. You are hitting your head on your ceiling with a bunch of thoughts. Let’s examine how you might change them. Let’s say that the most limiting thought is, “I would love to be more fit and energetic but I do not have time to invest in getting and staying fit given my work and family responsibilities and my long commute.”

Now imagine your poking-through-the-ceiling thought is, “I do have time to invest in getting and staying fit.” What would it take to get you to think that thought?

Put on your scientist’s cap and start designing some thought experiments. One idea might be “I will get eight hours of work done in seven and a half hours if I use 30 minutes to exercise: 20 minutes to jog around my office building and yoga stretches for 10 minutes.” Another thought might be Replica Breitling watches, “I will drink only one beer on Friday and Saturday nights and wake up energetic for a 30-minute workout on Saturday and Sunday mornings.”

Once you move into a curious, experimenting mindset, and over time get to exercising three times a week, you will start to discover a lot of other things. You’ve replaced the “I don’t have time” thought with “I’m sleeping better so I’m less stressed at work and getting more done.” And you might find that your best ideas for solving intractable problems arrive out of the blue during your fast walks. Or that you’re more relaxed and focused in your conversations with your children.

By the time you’ve successfully completed the thought-shifting process, you can’t even imagine how you could have been stuck in the “I don’t have time” box you were just a few short months ago. You’ve changed your mindset. You’re outside your box. Enjoy the new horizon.

2011 was an exceptionally turbulent year, characterised by sovereign debt crises and weak political leadership in the developed world, dramatic political change and conflict in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and rising social unrest in much of the world. It featured important changes in democracy, both in the direction of unexpected democratisation and a continuation of decline in democracy in some parts of the world.

This mixed picture is illustrated by the results of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index for 2011. The Index is based on scores for 60 indicators across five different categories: electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political culture.

Countries are placed within one of four types of regimes: ‘full democracies’, flawed democracies’, ‘hybrid regimes” and ‘authoritarian regimes.’

The state of democracy deteriorated in 48 countries during 2011, out of the 167 that are covered by the Index. In 41 countries it improved and it remained unchanged in 78 countries. The top of the rankings is unsurprisingly dominated by affluent democracies such as the Nordic countries, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Interestingly, though, not one euro zone member is among the top eight.

North Korea remains at the bottom of the list in 167th position. The world’s most repressive and authoritarian regimes also include Syria, Iran, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

In most regions the average democracy score was lower in 2011 than in 2010, continuing a negative trend that has been evident for some years. There were declines in North America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America. These were offset by improvements in MENA and Sub-Saharan Africa, albeit from a low base in both cases and authoritarian regimes continue to predominate in both of these regions.

In an otherwise bleak year, the sudden rise of movements for democratic change in the Arab world underlined the enduring popular appeal of democracy. Many expected a new wave of democratisation. But it soon became apparent that the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt would not be repeated so easily elsewhere and that democracy remained an uncertain prospect. Many MENA autocracies resorted to repression or cosmetic changes. Still Replica Rolex Watches, Tunisia has been a unique success story. It not only initiated the Arab Spring but has also had the most democratic progress. Tunisia experienced the biggest increase of any country in its democracy score in 2011 and it jumped 53 places up the rankings to 92nd.

Erosion of democracy in Europe

Elsewhere, the general picture was of a decline in democracy in 2011, most notably in Europe. In Western Europe, 7 countries experienced a deterioration in 2011; none had an improvement. The main reason has been the erosion of sovereignty and democratic accountability associated with the effects of and responses to the euro zone crisis (five of the countries that experienced a decline in their scores are members of the euro zone–Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Ireland). Most dramatically, in two countries (Greece and Italy) democratically elected leaders have been replaced by technocrats. Policy in some countries is no longer being set by national legislatures, but in effect by official creditors.

Eastern Europe also provides cause for concern. More than a third of the countries in the region recorded lower democracy scores in 2011 than in 2010, and this came on the back of large declines between 2008 and 2010. The most high-profile offender was Russia, where a long process of regression culminated in its relegation to the category of authoritarian regimes. Ukraine and Hungary also had significant backsliding.

The political outlook for Europe is disturbing. The European project is under serious threat. Harsh austerity, a new recession in 2012, high unemployment and little sign of renewed growth will test the resilience of Europe’s political institutions.

US democracy, in turn, has been adversely affected by a deepening of the polarisation of the political scene, and political brinkmanship and paralysis. Both the US and the UK remain at the bottom end of the full democracy category. There has been a rise in protest movements, and problems in the functioning of government have become more prominent.

A mixed outlook

In contrast to trends in the developed world, the outlook for democracy looks more hopeful in much of emerging market world. Economic crisis does not inevitably lead to political regression; it has often also been a catalyst for change. Democratisation in hitherto authoritarian states will of course not mean a transition to fully-fledged Replica Breitling watches, consolidated democracies. Democracy means more than holding elections; it requires the development of a range of supportive institutions and attitudes. Such a transformation takes a very long time. But even imperfect or flawed democracy is far better than authoritarianism.

During a month when the abortion and contraception debate peaked — again — you would’ve thought the Sunday political shows would feature a larger than usual roster of female panelists, strategists and experts.

Not a chance.

There were a total of four female guests during the entire month of February. This bears repeating. Out of 56 guests on the Sunday shows, only four were women. Four.

This statistic probably reminds you of Republican Rep. Darrell Issa’s contraception hearing two weeks ago in which his panel of witnesses was composed entirely of men who were summoned to discuss health care for, you know, women. In fact, on the following Sunday’s edition of Meet the Press, the all-male Issa hearing was discussed at length by David Gregory, Paul Ryan and Chris Van Hollen, who we can assume are each biologically male. Smart booking choices.

Sadly, the men’s locker room on Sunday morning is a virtual bridal shower when compared to the increasingly aggressive He-Man Woman Hater’s Club known as the Republican Party.

We begin with the voice of the party, Rush Limbaugh. The “Spanky” of the club.

Yes, I get it. We shouldn’t pay attention to Limbaugh because he’s a clown. He’s nothing more than an over-drugged over-paid disc jockey who’s performing a loud-mouthed Morton Downey, Jr. routine for the much coveted paleoconservative “market segment,” as David Frum called it. All of this is true, but we can’t ignore the fact that he controls the radio with more than 15 million weekly listeners. So whenever he says something awful on our public air, it has a significant impact. For example:

“Why is contraception so important that it must be paid for by somebody else?” he demanded to know. He asked why contraceptives are “a must-have” in comparison to toothpaste, hotel rooms or a car. “Why are so many people afraid of birth?”

I wonder if it was the use of toothpaste to prevent pregnancies or if it was his alleged inability to achieve an erection that prevented him from having children during any of his three marriages. Speaking of which, I wonder if his health insurance plan paid for the Viagra he was allegedly trying to smuggle into the Dominican Republic several years ago. While we’re here, I wonder why he needed ED drugs in the Dominican Republic in the first place without any female partners with him on the trip. And if he was indeed planning to have anonymous sex (just guessing) in the Dominican Republic, I wonder whether he considered contraception to be “so important” during that potentially dangerous activity.

OK, I’m grossing myself out now. Moving on.

Over the last two days, Limbaugh reminded us in no uncertain terms of his legendary hatred of women. Since his show began in the late 1980s, he’s profited from attacking women and women’s issues practically every day. The term “Feminazis” only skims the surface of Limbaugh’s misogyny. Lately, he’s highlighted his professional class and morality by teasing and mocking the Obama girls. And here’s what he said this week about NASCAR driver Danica Patrick, who dared to express her support for the president’s contraception law:

“She was talking, Danica Patrick was talking about Obama’s contraception ruling. She was not speaking in general though it applies generally… She said, “I leave it up to the government to make good decisions for America.” … What do you expect from a woman driver?”

That’s not all. Last week, Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke spoke to an informal gathering of congressional Democrats about the Jesuit college’s refusal to cover birth control as part of its health insurance plan. Fluke told lawmakers that contraception can cost a law student up to $3,000 and a classmate recently lost an ovary because she couldn’t afford the contraception drug that would’ve prevented the recurrence of ovarian cysts. (How many “potential lives” were lost when that ovary, and its lifetime supply of unfertilized eggs, was removed?)

Here’s what Limbaugh had to say about Fluke’s testimony.

“What does it say about the college coed Susan [sic] Fluke, who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex? What does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She’s having so much sex she can’t afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex. What does that make us? We’re the pimps.”

The most popular radio talker in the world just called an ordinary citizen a slut and a prostitute in front of 15 million people. 15 million Americans tune in specifically to hear him say horrendous things like that. Many of those listeners fancy themselves to be “dittoheads,” meaning they blindly “ditto” everything that comes out of his increasingly slurred yapper.

And that’s not even the worst part of this reinvigorated conservative war against women.

In state legislatures from North Carolina to Pennsylvania Replica Breitling Watches, Republicans are pushing laws that force the usage of transvaginal ultrasound probes to be inserted into the bodies of women who are in need of an abortion. It’s a form of state-mandated rape and it’s being mandated by the so-called “small government party.”

And while Virginia and Alabama Republicans backed away from the transvaginal transducer, North Carolina already has a law on the books, and Pennsylvania is getting ready to pass its version of the transvaginal law. All of these states, irrespective of whether they keep or jettison the transducer, will continue to sanction the use of ultrasounds on women as means of intimidating them against having the procedure. Remember during the health care reform debate when Republicans blew a gasket over Medicare paying for end-of-life counseling? They said it was somehow shoving government into a private matter between doctors and patients even though it simply made this voluntary discussion affordable. But now they’re doing exactly that — shoving government into a private medical decision in the most literal sense imaginable.

Your modern Republican Party has decided that a one percent increase in taxes for multi-millionaires is an impeachment-worthy high crime, but the state-mandated insertion of an electronic device into the vaginas of women who are ostensibly struggling with the most difficult moments of their adult lives is a perfectly acceptable exercising of government power. (By the way, these are the people to whom Ron Paul — the self-proclaimed guardian of liberty — would hand the reins of, well, everything.)

Well before these new laws were introduced, including the personhood laws dictating that life begins at conception and therefore outlawing many forms of birth control, hundreds of women across the country were convicted and sent to prison because they had miscarriages. More than 300 women in South Carolina. 40 women in Alabama. Illinois prosecuted a woman for manslaughter after she gave birth to a stillborn baby. As of June, 38 states had passed “fetal homicide” laws. The consequences? Pregnant women who are suffering from drug addiction or mental illnesses are afraid to seek prenatal medical attention for fear of being arrested. It’s increasingly evident that being pregnant and in distress is almost as bad as being an illegal immigrant in America.

If Republicans were really interested in making it easier for women to carry pregnancies to term, they would pass laws to make the process safer and more affordable. Instead, they’re criminalizing it. We can only assume they’re not truly interested in fetuses or zygotes or babies who Replica Cartier Watches, by every other piece of Republican legislation, are on their own once they’re born. They’re simply interested in dominating and oppressing women because they believe women are genetically incapable of making difficult and otherwise very private life choices. Listen to Limbaugh’s rants — unburdened by the demands of politically correct language — and the truth emerges. Women are sluts and prostitutes. They hate their own biology. They’re dingbats who can’t drive. The words of the de facto leader of the Republican Party, preaching to millions of dittohead acolytes.

Again, why else are they passing these barbaric anti-woman laws and not laws that make pregnancy — laws that make womanhood — easier? We can only draw the conclusion that the Republican Party hates women.

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AUSTIN, Texas — Whole Foods Market here yesterday announced it will provide its entire selection of over 2,000 online recipes as a free App (application) to iPhone and iPod touch users.

Searchable by ingredient, special diets Replica patek philippe watches, and other elements like “budget” and “family friendly,” each recipe contains detailed preparation instructions and nutritional information, which can be copied and pasted, saved as a personal “favorite,” and emailed from within the App itself.

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The App also includes an “On Hand” feature where customers can enter ingredients and get back meal recommendations.

“We’re delighted to provide iPhone and iPod touch users with yet another way to explore their passion for food and health,” said Bill Tolany, global coordinator of integrated media for Whole Foods Market. “We’re particularly excited about the On Hand feature as a way to answer the ever so popular ‘What’s for dinner?’ question.”

Built with the new iPhone OS 3.0 software, the App also comes with a store locator, where customers use a ZIP code search or the iPhone’s built-in location finder to view maps and identify the nearest Whole Foods Market. Each store page contains operating hours, phone and address, and links to maps Replica breitling watches, directions, and store specials.

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SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook is considering raising about $10 billion in an initial public offering that would value the world’s largest social-networking site at more than $100 billion, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

The company may file for the IPO before the end of the year, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private. Exact timing for the filing hasn’t been determined, the person said.

Facebook’s $100 billion valuation would be twice as high as it was in January, when the company announced a $1.5 billion investment from Goldman Sachs and other backers. The IPO is far enough away that the details may change, said Lise Buyer, principal of the Class V Group, an IPO advisory firm.

“It’s far too early to accurately predict where the valuation will be on deal day,” Buyer said.

At $10 billion, the offering would raise more money than any other technology IPO, a sign Facebook expects investors to clamor for a piece of the social-networking company. The amount would dwarf that of the previous record holder, Infineon Technologies, which generated $5.23 billion in its 1999 debut. Agere Systems raised $4.14 billion in 2000, putting it second.

Facebook expects to be required by U.S. regulators to disclose financial results by April 30, 2012, if it doesn’t go public by then, the company said in January. Facebook decided to wait until 2012 for its IPO to give Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg more time to gain users and boost sales, people familiar with the matter said last year.

Facebook, which boasts more than 800 million users Replica breitling watches, also is increasing its focus on mobile technology, aiming to take advantage of the shift to smartphones and tablets. The company expects its next 1 billion users to come mainly from mobile devices, rather than desktop computers.

Jonathan Thaw, a spokesman for Palo Alto, Calif.-based Facebook, declined to comment on the IPO plans.

Google, one of Facebook’s chief rivals in the Internet advertising market, raised $1.67 billion in its IPO in 2004. It is now valued at $190.4 billion.

Facebook’s revenue will more than double to $4.27 billion this year from $2 billion in 2010, research firm EMarketer Inc. said in September.

At $100 billion, Facebook would be worth 23 times that projected revenue, signaling the company expects its faster growth rate to justify a premium valuation over rivals. Mountain View, Calif.-based Google trades at 6.5 times projected current-year revenue, Apple is worth 2.6 times sales and the multiple for Microsoft is 2.8.

The valuation Facebook is seeking would place it between PepsiCo, which is worth $98.5 billion, and Verizon Communications, at $102.6 billion. Apple is the world’s most valuable technology company at $349.6 billion.

Facebook’s valuation is currently pegged at $66.6 billion by SharesPost Inc., which handles trading of privately held companies. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that Facebook was considering the $10 billion IPO with a valuation of more than $100 billion. The company aims to go public between April and June, the Journal said.

Demand for technology IPOs reignited in November after a summer lull, setting the stage for Groupon Inc. and Angie’s List Inc. to go public. Groupon, the largest provider of online coupons, has lost 24 percent of its value since its debut at $20 earlier this month.

Groupon’s decline may be spurring other companies to pursue IPOs before they lose the chance, Schuster said.

“Groupon has lost a lot of steam and I believe bankers are saying, ‘The market is still hot so let’s do it right now,’” he said.

MANILA, Philippines – NBA legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson lit up the red carpet with his iconic smile for the premier of his new film, “The Announcement.”

The ESPN documentary details the former Lakers superstar’s untold story of his triumphant journey while living with HIV for more than 20 years. Mornings @ ANC, March 8 Replica breitling watches, 2012.

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By Bloomberg News

Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) — Shares of the following companies had unusual moves in Vietnam trading. Stock symbols are in parentheses and prices are as of the 11 a.m. local-time close.

The VN Index, the benchmark measure of the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange, declined 0.7 percent to 397.41.

Securities stocks: Agribank Securities Joint-Stock Co. (AGR VN), a unit of Vietnam’s biggest bank by assets, lost 3.8 percent to 5,100 dong. Sacombank Securities Joint-Stock Co. (SBS VN), fell 3 percent to 3,200 dong, the biggest loss since Jan. 9. Ho Chi Minh City Securities Corp. (HCM VN), dropped 2.1 percent to 14,200 dong.

Vietnam’s central bank will not ease restrictions on lending for stock investment, which is classified as one of the “discouraged sectors” for bank loans this year, the State Bank’s Deputy Governor Nguyen Dong Tien said yesterday.

The statement “has stamped out investors’ hope that the government may do something to boost the stock market,” said Ho Chi Minh City-based Ngo Huu Hung, deputy chief executive at Dai A Financial Investment Co. “It will worsen corporate earnings at securities companies,” he said.

Dai Thien Loc Corp. (DTL VN), a steel producer, slid 2.5 percent to 15,500 dong. The company posted a 1.8 billion-dong ($85 Replica chopard watches,600) loss in the fourth quarter, according to a statement on the exchange’s website.

Minh Phu Seafood Joint-Stock Co. (MPC VN), Vietnam’s second-biggest listed seafood company, declined 2.3 percent to 16,900 dong Replica breitling watches, the lowest close since Jan. 6. The company’s fourth-quarter net income dropped to 556.6 million dong, from 20.3 billion dong a year earlier, according to company figures posted on the exchange’s website.

–With assistance from Diep Ngoc Pham in Hanoi. Editor: Matthew Oakley

To contact the Bloomberg News staff on this story: Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen in Hanoi at uyen1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Darren Boey at dboey@bloomberg.net

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By Zulfugar Agayev

Feb. 16 (Bloomberg) — Azerbaijan’s economy expanded 1.2 percent from a year earlier in January, the State Statistics Committee said today on its website.

The non-oil economy grew 5.9 percent while the oil economy shrank 2.4 percent. Inflation was 4.8 percent Replica Breitling watches, driven by food prices Replica Breitling watches, the committee said.

Gross domestic product rose 0.1 percent in 2011.

–Editors: Andrew Langley, Eddie Buckle

To contact the reporter on this story: Zulfugar Agayev in Baku at zagayev@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Hellmuth Tromm at htromm@bloomberg.net

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