We all know we are finally starting to see the sun after some pretty dark years in the world economy. We were just starting to look toward what comes next, and now we are being told in all sectors that things are going to get bad again. Rising oil prices due to revolutions happening all over the Middle East, food shortages due to crazy weather this winter, and the value of the dollar dropping are all contributing to this feeling of impending doom that is leveled over the country by the media.

Now, I know all these things are happening, and yeah, it’s a little scary. But I have to look on the bright side. Maybe all this trouble over oil will finally force the administration and Congress to address the matter of drilling in our own country. We have massive, massive amounts of oil in the Dakotas, let’s take advantage of that, bring some jobs, create some capital.

As for the food shortage, I think when there is a possibility that people won’t have enough food available, maybe we shouldn’t be making fuel out of corn, and use that food for …food.

So, the bright side of things. That’s really not as tough as you might think after all that. Things are looking up, even with the higher gas prices and some talk of food shortages. According to a recent article on Fox News, business owners all over the globe are beginning to see an uptick in business. They are starting to hire.

A poll by the Young President’s Organization revealed that (direct quote): “61% of CEOs feel conditions are improving (up 46% from the last quarterly survey) and 67% of respondents believe conditions will continue to improve in the next six months.”
Read more: http://smallbusiness.foxbusiness.com/legal-hr/2011/02/10/optimisim-businesses-applicants/#ixzz1FlHxJkY7

This is a survey taken all over the globe, with all sizes of small business. I think if the guy in Sri Lanka thinks things are looking up, certainly the folks here in the US are going to be finding jobs and getting back to work in the near future.

One really interesting point made in this article is that many times, people don’t think to reach out to small businesses. They go to the big job sites and think that they can find everything there. Not all small businesses use those sites, and if you have listened to any news reports in the last couple of years, you know that 70% of all jobs in America are with small businesses – so check out the small business sector! We’re here, we’re successful, and we need people.

Some things about big government, and this administration in particular, really tick me off make me angry. A report released just this week by the White House says that the administration has begun yet another program aimed at destroying business. Of course, small business in particular could be especially damaged – most don’t keep attorneys on retainer.

The new program set up by the Obama Administration provides workers who hate their boss, or have some complaint about their boss with a hot line number to the American Bar Association! Yeah. You read that right. Are you kidding me? The Department of Labor can’t handle it, so we redirect these people to LAWYERS???

Lawyers tend to make a big, expensive mess of everything. This seems to be a somewhat underhanded way of making life for small business, especially, even more difficult. The administration says out of one side of it’s mouth that they want to help small business because they are counting on us to start hiring. Then they go and put a roadblock up.

If you are any kind of disgruntled worker, I think there are several things you should do. Number 1 would be talking directly to your supervisor, even if he or she is the problem. If that doesn’t resolve it, follow the chain of command. Even if it isn’t resolved there, how many people are going to go and track down the Department of Labor? How many would even know to do that? I think most people would have to be pretty upset to go that far (and I am not saying that there are not instances where it is necessary), but a free hot line with advice from a lawyer? I think this is asking for a wave of calls, and a lot of money, and a lot of aggravation. It just screams ‘frivolous lawsuit’. Especially if the only way these lawyers make any money is by suing businesses. This is a bad, bad idea. I really, really hope that businesses don’t end up like so many medical practices – too many lawsuits, too many lawyers fees and insurance rates going up. But, that’s what happens when you get lawyers involved.

People get disgruntled, it happens. What do you do when an employee has a complaint? Refer them to HR? Have a sit down with the employee and hear them out?

This is certainly a major concern, and I am not up on foreign affairs enough to weigh in on the whole mess. What I did want to comment on was Google’s attempts to keep information coming out of the country, amidst government shut downs of web access. They formulated a system where people can call a hot line and leave a voice mail message that would then be tweeted.

I’m not one to give lots of props to Google. I do think they come up with useful and innovative products, but this one time, I’d like to give them props for being able to go old school a little to give a country a voice when it is needed. We’re still getting pictures and news out, so the government hasn’t been able to completely shut down the media. The in country media has been almost entirely eliminated, so while we see what is happening in Egypt, many of it’s own people would not be able to if not for cell phones and this hot line set up by Google. Score 1 for Google. Perhaps in the coming days, more ideas such as this will be needed as many foreign journalists have been rounded up and ousted from the country. I think we all need to say a prayer for Egypt.

I will say one thing right off the bat – not much of it was about our current state of the Union. The speech itself was much more about the future. President Obama spoke a lot about what he wants to do, plans to do, and so on. A lot of it sounded good, great even. The skeptic in me wonders how much of it is sincere, and how much of it is a calculated move to the center as he begins to campaign for the next election.
A few points that I am a little leery of:
1. The renewable energy plan – how does he plan to pay for this technology? I’m thinking I see some big dollar signs on future energy bills.
2. Not extending the tax credit to those in the top 2% tax bracket – you know, the job creators? I think this has been debated to death, but if it were you getting your taxes cut, would you trim your personal spending back, or just not hire a few people?
3. Amnesty – the prez. alluded to amnesty without coming right out and saying it. How would his plan work? He made mention of students of illegal immigrants who are excelling – do we just keep the honor roll students and kick the rest out? Somehow, I don’t think that’s what he had in mind, and the subsidizing and entitlements are not going to come to a roaring halt.

However, the president made some points that made sense. I hope he meant them, and will follow through with:
1. Cutting back the size and scope of the federal government. He mentioned how ridiculous and inefficient it is… here’s hoping he follows through and gets rid of even a small percentage of the bureaucracy.
2. Bringing America into the 21st Century with high speed rail, high speed internet, a solid infrastructure, and new innovation (wondering how to pay for it all, but it sounds good). – I love to hear the president sound so utterly American. “We are the nation that put cars in driveways and computers in offices; the nation of Edison and the Wright brothers; of Google and Facebook. In America, innovation doesn’t just change our lives. It’s how we make a living.”
We are the country who innovates and creates. I think these things should be rewarded, and it was good to hear that he thinks so, too. Hopefully he’ll back it up with action.
3. Education. Period. I hope that his new plan to make sure that America’s math and science meets the standards and levels of other countries actually works. I like that he is encouraging people to become teachers. I like the idea of raising standards and not accepting excuses from bad teacher. Hope it works.

Overall, while he certainly didn’t leave his left wing roots far behind, this was the first time I remember him really backing innovation, free enterprise, and bowl me over – tort reform! If only this isn’t just a move to the center to engage more of America. I hope Obama means a lot of what he said last night, and acts on it. We’ll see.

It’s a terrible thing, something no one ever expects, a gunman at any sort of public gathering, let alone a political one. It’s just not what happens in America. Except that it did. Now many are pointing fingers, trying to place blame on one person or another based on comments made in previous years, previous campaigns and what have you.

I just want to say this: It’s no one’s fault save the guy with the gun. He is a nutjob. Jared Loughner spends his time making crazy, inflammatory videos and reading the works of Karl Marx and Adolf Hitler. He is thought to be mentally unstable, and so, shooting up a bunch of innocent people on a Saturday didn’t seem like a bad idea to him.

Now, some are trying to tie this awful event to politics, because it was a political gathering, because it involved a Congresswoman from a district that Republicans hoped to gain? Utter nonsense, and a slap in the face of victims of the tragedy that occurred in Arizona on Saturday morning. Shouldn’t we be focused instead, on the lives of the people affected, and the state of Arizona, rather than pointing irrational, ridiculous fingers?

The sheriff of Pima County has gone so far as to say that perhaps people should not speak their minds so freely, if a crazy person is going to take what they say to heart and follow words with terrible deeds. No one EVER meant any harm to come to the Congresswoman, or any of the people in the crowd. Again, the focus needs to be on prosecuting Jared Loughner, not one political group or another.

Do we need to be respectful in our political discourse? Of course. Have we, in many cases, gotten so far away from respectful that we, as a country should be shamed? Quite often, my answer to that would be a resounding “yes”. So, what do we do about it? Where do we go from here? I say we pray for Arizona. We do what we can for the families and those injured, and we make an effort to be kinder, more respectful, in our political discussions. BUT, we must never be afraid to make our voices heard. We cannot allow madmen to create an environment of fear where we can no longer have discussion, even heated, vehement discussion about politics and matters of state.

But, what if it’s not? That’s a prime question, isn’t it? If it’s not overtuned I see a lot of fallout for Web based commerce. These new rules, and there are a bunch of ‘em apparently, will make doing business on the Web harder. Over regulation always does. So far, things have run smoothly, for the most part. People have been able to find a market for products that was otherwise unavailable to them – just check out Ebay and Etsy. Do you really think the big Ebay sellers would have had as much success without the Web? And as for Etsy, most of those products are handmade and so niche that finding a market for them took a pretty broad spectrum of shoppers. You’re not gonna find that at your average flea market, craft show, or what have you. Even if you did well, you couldn’t touch what was possible through Etsy, while doing business from your home. The FCC is going to make this type of enterprise really difficult. The regulations are going to be expensive, and time consuming. There is no need for any of this, so the FCC will spend a lot of time trying to legitimize it’s own existence. Part our job, as Web developers, will be to know how to work with and around the FCC regs and still help our clients make as much money as possible.

I’ll reiterate what I’ve heard so many times already – this is a solution looking for a problem, because there is no problem. This is a power grab by the current administration. No one knows, yet, what exactly the rules are going to be, as they are being decided on. What we do know is that the FCC has decided that they can police the Web. This is going to go far beyond regulating ISPs and SEs. The FCC will go for control over commerce and content – just watch. It’s about to get real interesting.

So, I really want to hear from you. What are you seeing as potential fallout from the Net Neutrality vote? How will it affect you, or your customers?

If you are wondering what Net Neutrality is, there are plenty of places on the Web to tell you, but in a nutshell, the FCC wants to be able to enforce certain rules. For example, the FCC wants to make sure that ISPs and Search Engines are providing only the information requested, that they are not stacking the results in favor of one cause or issue or marketer over another. I think this will be very difficult to enforce, I mean, whose going to sit around all day running queries to see if this ISP or that, or SE or other, appears to be slanting search results in one direction or another? Our massive, incredibly over sized government really doesn’t need to grow in this direction. The Web tends to maintain fairly well without the interference of the government. Nothing has really changed in this regard except that a governmental agency has decided to set its sights on the Web.

What will this mean in the long run? Nothing good, if you ask me. It’s going to make a mess of some things, as further regulation always does. It’ll tie the hands of a lot of folks, making it harder to earn money on the Web, and give everyone else involved in Web efforts something to complain about, and attempt to work around, and spend money to avoid. The end result will be that everything will get more expensive as a result. It’ll create a choke hold on Web based business, and give the government control over the Web like it’s never had before. Over regulation always means an economic loss. Yeah, now sounds like the perfect time for that – let’s create more economic loss.

Republican Robert M. McDowell, criticized Genachowski’s proposal in a Wall Street Journal column on Sunday.

“Nothing is broken that needs fixing … ” he wrote. “Analysts and broadband companies of all sizes have told the FCC that new rules are likely to have the perverse effect of inhibiting capital investment, deterring innovation, raising operating costs and ultimately increasing consumer prices.”

A few Dems are harping about free speech and the like, leaving me to wonder what in the world they think is happening on the Web right now. If we don’t have free speech on the Web as of now, I don’t know what you’d call it. We can now say nearly anything to anyone, anywhere in the world, anytime we want. We can find nearly any bit of information we need to make decisions large and small. We can buy anything we want. We can view nearly anything you can think of. Net Neutrality is the first foothold in the climb towards content control over the Web. Enjoy your freedom of speech while it lasts you may very well loose it soon.

Content control is just what it sounds like. The government will somehow try to make sure that for every opinion that is presented on the Web, the user is provided with the opposing view. How exactly is this possible? How in the world do they think they can enforce it? Fines when they find instances of it, surely. Sound like a Web tax to anyone else? Raise your hand if you see lots of dollar signs in this whole deal.

If this thing passes today, and I am pretty sure it will, it has to be voted on by Congress (because no one has even given the FCC the authority to do this – the Obama Administration just decided they could, so they are). That means there is one more chance this thing can be shot down. It won’t go for a vote in Congress until the new House and Senate are in session in the new year. Please make your voices heard on this one. This is a power grab by this government. They want to govern every aspect of our lives. The Web was built to provide free access to information, not regulated, government approved access. What is this? Iran? We don’t need to be regulated. We need the freedom to run our businesses, whether Web based or not, nearly every business is impacted in some way by the Web, even if it is only through local map searches. Let the Web alone – go regulate something else, FCC. I can’t imagine you are lacking anything needing a good dose of government regulation. Go run your car companies, leave the Web alone!

More info-
CNN
FoxNews

Laurel over at Black Political Buzz has some interesting insights into the earmarks and the bill in general. You should check out her list of some of the crazy earmarks. It’s almost funny. But not quite.

While I agree that the Bush tax cuts needed to be extended, I don’t think this was the way to go about it. The Republicans have traded the tax cuts for billions in earmarks, funding for Obamacare, extending unemployment benefits, and billions in other spending. Why won’t they listen? If this had been reported as what it is, another stimulus, the American public would have been vocal about not wanting more stimulus, but instead it is being touted as a tax break, so people aren’t up in arms about it. I’m thinking they will be when they see and understand what this is gonna cost us.

Why didn’t Republicans wait a few weeks and then go after a better bill that included the tax cuts, but cut the pork? They will have control of the House come January. They could have made the tax cuts retroactive to January 1, and made sure that the pork/spending/earmarks were trimmed. They didn’t do this because they wanted something pushed through now. They didn’t want to get to January 1 and realize that the American tax payer was getting hit in a down economy. I think they could have rallied and gotten a much better bill passed in January. I have to say it, though I don’t like it, but the GOP doesn’t seem to differ so much sometimes, from the Democrats. Spend! Where will it end?

Afghanistan is freezing right now, with some pretty nasty conditions. Whatever we can do to help keep them warm, I think we ought to do. If you watch the video below, you’ll see one lady who has made scarves for service people ever since WWII. That’s dedication!

Here are a few ways you can help the people who provide the safety and freedom we all enjoy:

Any Soldier Want to send your support to a Soldier in harm’s way,
but have no idea of what to send, who to send it to, or how to send it?

Help the Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan: The Care Package Project

Send a Message to Our Troops – Soldier’s Angels

And lastly, if you’d like to send a card to a recovering American soldier:
A Recovering American Soldier, c/o Walter Reed Army
Medical Center, 6900 Georgia Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20307-5001

Awesome how the web has made giving easier too – it’s just a very small way we can all say thank you to those who risk everything on a daily basis. Merry Christmas!

Net Neutrality is being sold to the American public (at least those who are paying attention to this stuff) as a safeguard, a protection against who knows what – I guess a bias by ISPs in traffic to certain sites, depending on what the ISPs want to enhance or encourage in the search traffic- in my opinion it’s a power grab. This guy, Genachowski thinks he can get away with it legally, so he’s going to try. If he is successful, it will have some significant impact on the Web.

1. Sites will be required to change the way they perform link building. For example, if you include a link to a conservative site, you will now have to offering one with an opposing viewpoint.
2. ISPs will be monitored to ensure that they are not prohibiting traffic to any sites – as in, they are not as the Washington Post put it:”favoring or discriminating against any traffic that goes over their networks.” In other words, ISPs will not be free to run their businesses as they see fit, they will have more governmental mandates and policies to follow.
3. Net Neutrality is a sneaky way of getting the Fairness Doctrine sneaked in under our noses. They want to be able to tell Web users, whether they be searchers or site owners/content providers, how to conduct themselves on the Web.

Interestingly, others of high position in the FCC don’t agree with the chairman and have released their response to the action the chairman is taking and their intentions for the meeting to be held on December 21. I think now is the time to place some calls to Congress people, and even the FCC itself to let them know how you feel about this issue. I personally am tired of government agencies deciding to regulate something that works quite well on it’s own. Commissioner McDowell and Commissioner Baker both feel that it’s not within the FCC’s authority to enforce the Net Neutrality policy, so it’ll be interesting to see how this all pans out. Their statements can be read on the FCC site.

So what do you think about this whole thing? Have you given it any thought? How will it impact your business, your presence on the Web?