Free Flight New Media

New Business Idea Viable? Take The $20 Starbucks Test

To evaluate startup ideas, Farecast founder Hugh Crean has invented something called the $20 Starbucks test, Snooty Monkey founder Sean Johnson says in a blog post.

Here's how it works: you get a $20 bill and walk into the nearest Starbucks. And then you walk up to a random person and tell them you're worried about your brother and you'd like to buy them a cup of coffee if they'll just give you a couple of minutes to talk.

You tell them your brother is about to put all his life savings into a business idea that you think is totally crazy and your brother's wife has enlisted you to come up with arguments about why the idea sucks.

...And then you pitch them your idea, and take note of all their objections.

Rinse and repeat until your twenty bucks is gone.

 

via www.businessinsider.com

I like this idea, too. More details and hat tip to Business Insider concerning why use "brother" example at link above or here: http://www.businessinsider.com/want-to-test-your-startup-idea-try-the-20-starbucks-test-2010-12?utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Silicon%20Alley%20Insider%20Select&utm_campaign=SAI_Select_122710#close=1

Finally, Help For The Middle Class Homeowner: In or Headed to Foreclosure or You Are Underwater? Where's the Note? | Demand to see your mortgage note (Tis Likely They Cannot Find It - Which Is Very Good News For You)

The Wall Street banks’ foreclosure system is a mess. Their total disregard for mortgage laws and standards is what created the foreclosure epidemic in the first place. Now, their total mismanagement is catching up to them. As of today, some of the largest mortgage lenders – JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and GMAC (now called Ally) – have been forced to halt foreclosures in 23 states and growing. We can’t rely on Wall Street banks to follow basic rules. We have to hold them accountable. At very least, they must provide the mortgage notes.

What’s a mortgage note?

A mortgage note is the document you signed when you purchased your home loan. Mortgages contain lots of paperwork – but only the original mortgage note with your signature is proof that you owe the debt. That’s why banks need the note to prove that they own the loan and can collect payments from you. The problem is, banks now buy and sell mortgages up and down Wall Street – slicing them up and repackaging them to sell to other banks. The bank you bought your mortgage from two years ago may not be the bank that owns it today. But, in all the shuffle, the mortgage notes often don’t get transferred along with your debt.

When Wall Street banks securitized, packaged, sold, and resold our mortgages, they created a system where it is often impossible to figure out who actually owns mortgage notes and therefore has the authority to foreclose on properties. But the big banks are getting tangled up in their own web. Recent events have exposed a handful of banks that are throwing families out of their homes even though they don’t have the mortgage note that proves they actually have a legal right to do so. There have been instances of two banks trying to foreclose on the same home, and in at least one case, of a bank trying to foreclose on a house where the homeowner had never even taken out a mortgage with anyone in the first place.

Whether you are facing foreclosure, have an underwater mortgage, or are just a concerned homeowner, it’s important that you contact your bank and demand to see the original note on your mortgage. It only takes a few minutes using our free online tool.

via action.seiu.org

Share this link LIBERALLY, even to CONSERVATIVES.l :)

Two Faces of Tea Party Tom McClintock? Say One Thing and Do Another? You Decide After Reading Facts

McClintock's "pork-o-crite" letter requesting stimulus funds

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The Stimulus Bill was Intended to Create Jobs

By Over_L

McClintock's "pork-o-crite" letter requesting stimulus funds

So says our own Tom McClintock, a Tea Party Caucus member and outspoken critic of economic stimulus. Just months after trashing the stimulus bill on the floor of Congress Congressman McClintock went tin cupping for stimulus money to the Secretary of Barack Obama's Transportation Department, Ray LaHood.

 

McClintock sought funding for a rail project in Oregon and California. Here is the text of McClintock's letter to LaHood (dated September 14, 2009):

 

Dear Secretary LaHood,

 

I write in support of Lake County, OR and Modoc County, CA's application for American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 (ARRA) Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) funding.

This project would repair and rehabilitate the Lake County Railroad, a 55 mile shortline railroad, to Class II operating standards. It would replace 29 miles of rail, repair and rehabilitate 26 miles of rail, and resurface and reballast all 55 miles.

The Lake County Railroad was purchased in 1985 and it is currently the only rail connection to commerce outside Lake County. The 160 (plus) mile corridor has a direct economic impact on two States and four Counties. Both states (Oregon and California) and all four counties (Lake, Klamath, Modoc, Siskiyou) are economically depressed with a history of high unemployment in relation to the national average. The Stimulus bill was intended to create jobs so this is an ideal recipient of funding to rehabilitate a railroad that will bring economic growth to a depressed area.

I appreciate your consideration of this application.

Sincerely,

//Signed//

Tom McClintock

 

Here's McClintock in his speech at a Tea Party rally in Sacramento on April 15, 2009:

"We’ve watched how too much spending, too much borrowing and too much taxing has wrecked our state of California. We are now watching it threaten to ruin our country. And we have had enough."

 

But just five months later this same guy was writing a letter asking for government pork and giving job creation as a reason.

 

See through the sham, folks. The "Tea Party" is nothing more than the same old stuff repackaged. If you put Republicans back in power - even the Tea Party types - you will not get what you want.

 

The only way to meaningfully reduce government spending and cut taxes is to cut national defense spending. If the Tea Party crowd is not willing to touch defense then they aren't really serious about cutting spending. We spend about as much on defense as the rest of the world combined. And it's the largest part of the federal budget.

But on this question McClintock is clear: We ought to spend more on defense. This is from his campaign web site: "We need to fully fund our nation’s military in order to protect our nation from any threat in the world. Reagan’s idea of 'peace through strength' is an idea we need to return to." 

McClintock just doesn't get it. Or rather, he's just another hypocritical Tea Party politician. He gets it but he doesn't want you to know. He's a pork-o-crite. If you thought he was some sort of conservative marvel then you were sadly mistaken.

Can you say one thing and do another and get elected over and over and over. Yes you can, but you can put and end to it on November 2. DO NOT SEND TOM BACK TO DC. He is not good for the District, nor good for your county, not good for your family and not good for you.

 

FULL, UNEDITED POST, WITH COMMENTS AT AUBURN JOURNAL SITE.

Hat Tip and Shout Out To: Over_L

LINK: http://my.auburnjournal.com/detail/162063.html?content_source=&category_id=&search_filter=mcclintock&user_id=&event_mode=&event_ts_from=&event_ts_to=&list_type=&order_by=&order_sort=&content_class=2&sub_type=&town_id=#

Breaking/Urgent -- Mr. President -- PLEASE STOP THE MADNESS BANKS AND LOAN PROCESSORS HAVE CAUSED WHEN HAMP WAS TO HELP US -- USA National Foreclosure Moratorium NOW - Sign the Petition | Change.org

USA National Foreclosure Moratorium NOW

Targeting: The President of the United States, The U.S. Senate, and The U.S. House of Representatives

Started by: Andrew Delaney

This petition is to request that ALL of OUR elected Officials consider making this their #1 Issue Immediately.

This foreclosure crisis is growing exponentially and needs attention. There are questions regarding the legal aspects of what is happening in OUR courts.

Foreclosures are being processed, aka...Rocket Docket style, in FL and in many other states nationwide. Including both Judicial and Non-Judicial states.

If we dont ACT NOW we will have a country full of empty houses. For what purpose? The Housing market is scarily sluggish and the glut will continue as Americans leave their homes without knowing If they ever really had to.

Look at the TRUTH

Some light is being shed on this as a possibility , but, only in a selected 23 states? And by GMAC and not OUR Elected Officials?

There should be a USA National Foreclosure Moratorium NOW & Until Further Notice instituted by these same elected officials.

Please HELP to support this cause.

Your VOICE Still Counts. Thank You America.

via www.change.org

Mr. President. STOP THE MADNESS! REQUIRE Banksters and loan processors make those harmed whole, with penalties. Your Re-Election may depend on it.

You can go into the program (HAMP) current on your loan, just seeking reduction in monthly payment, and wind up in DEFAULT/FORECLOSURE by simply following lender/processor instructions.

Mr. President...STOP THE MADNESS.

Republicans Block Extension of TANF Emergency Fund - 250 THOUSAND Americans Loose Jobs At Midnight Tonight, September 30

This isn't some academic exercise -- by killing the measure, Republicans will force thousands of Americans out of work. The House approved an extension of the program (twice) but the Senate GOP just didn't care. As a result, the TANF Emergency Fund comes to an end tonight at midnight. Thousands of layoffs will begin quickly, and continue as we get closer to the holiday season.

And we'll once again face an ironic dynamic: Americans will get frustrated with Democrats over more job losses, instead of the Republicans responsible for killing an effective program that kept tens of thousands on the job.

Indeed, in a sane political world, the death of the TANF Emergency Fund would be a pretty big scandal, and Republicans would have been afraid to kill an effective jobs program with an unemployment rate near 10%. Instead, the GOP is counting on being rewarded by Americans for taking steps like these, and polls suggest that's exactly what's going to happen.

Republicans will keep asking, "Where are the jobs?" and no one seems inclined to answer, "Your party got rid of them."

via www.washingtonmonthly.com

Rethuglicans should be ashamed, very ashamed.

Advisory: Mark Your Calendar: October 2, 2010 -- One Nation Working Together -- Live Coverage

On Sunday, October 2nd, a coalition of more than 200 grassroots organizations will convene as "One Nation Working Together", a march and demonstration to be held at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. One Nation Working Together is demanding jobs, quality education and equality for all Americans.

Free Speech TV (FSTV) is leading a coalition of independent media outlets to provide live coverage of this historic march, including main stage speeches, interviews with organizers and analysts, and reporting from the crowd. The special program will air nationally from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm Eastern Time on DISH Network channel 9415, DIRECTV channel 348 and numerous cable stations across the country.

One Nation coverage will include exclusive interviews and reports from Laura Flanders (GRITtv),Marc Steiner, Thom Hartmann, and correspondents from The Nation Magazine, Mother Jonesand Netroots Nation.

Launched in 1995, Free Speech TV is an independent, publicly-supported, non-profit TV multi-platform digital media pioneer. Using both television and the Internet, Free Speech TV inspires viewers to become civically engaged to build a more just, equitable, and sustainable society. Free Speech TV is owned and operated by Public Communicators, Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit, tax-exempt organization, founded in 1974. Free Speech TV is based in Denver, CO.

Make sure to tune into FSTV on October 2!