By Patrick Derocher, on Thu Nov 3, 2011 at 9:15 AM ET Puppies! The City of Los Angeles has recently instituted enormous fines for these guys barking excessively in that city. Okay, maybe not puppies, per se, but the City of Los Angeles has instituted rather steep fines for “excessively barking dogs,” including $250 for a first offense, $500 for a second, and $1,000 for a third. City Prosecutor Dov Lesel defines “excessive” as happening for 10 minutes or more continuously or intermittently for 30 minutes or more during a three-hour period. One wonders how this will change the public relationship so many celebrities have with their small, loud dogs. [AZCentral.com]
By Jeff Smith, on Mon Oct 31, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET  Perry just needs to not mess up for eight weeks. I can’t imagine the numbers working on an optional 20 percent tax rate but I’m no economist. It’s not that important that the numbers work; what’s important is that he sound credible and serious defending it.
If he can do that and not get distracted by other issues, Cain will implode. Bachmann will quit shortly after Iowa and file for reelection. Gingrich will go back to selling books and speaking for $25K a pop or whatever he gets. Santorum will go back to annoying people.
And without all those candidates who’ve just been renting five to 20 percent of the voters, they’ll be up for grabs, and if anything is clear after the last five years, they aren’t really feeling Mitt Romney. So I think those voters break 2:1 or 3:1 for Perry.
 Whether that’s enough will depend on his performance, and where Paul’s five to 10 percent end up. (Huntsman’s one to two percent splits between Romney and Obama – not enough to have an impact.)
By the way, I think Huckabee could swoop in tomorrow and scoop up enough of those “rented” voters to take the nomination.
(Cross-posted, with author’s permission, from Politico’s Arena)
By Grant Smith, RP Staff, on Fri Oct 28, 2011 at 3:00 PM ET
Steve Jobs’ final lesson to us all. [Forbes]
Is Management the last bastion of American hegemony? [Fortune]
With his management background, why is Herman Cain’s campaign potentially facing internal chaos? [CNBC]
Did Hewlett-Packard make the wrong decision when they chose to keep the PC division? [Forbes]
By RP Staff, on Fri Oct 28, 2011 at 12:00 PM ET Apparently, the Great White North can’t get enough of the RP’s economic analysis. That, or Mrs. RP’s Canadian relatives have blackmailed CTV News, Canada’s CNN, into using the RP as one of their key sources for comment on the ups and downs of the American economy.
Whatever the reason, the RP returned yesterday to CTV — this time via a Sykpe interview from his office desk — to discuss yesterday’s dramatic stock market jump.
To watch the interview, click on the logo below, and then scroll down on the video player contents to find the RP:
By RP Nation, on Fri Oct 28, 2011 at 9:57 AM ET Cisco expects anyone holding a Cisco Certified Network Associate Wireless (CCNA Wireless) to have associate level expertise and skills relating to wireless LANs. A CCNA Wireless must be able to handle configuration, implementation, and support of these LANs. While the focus of a technician’s skills should be on Cisco equipment and networks, they should be skilled in operating other types of wireless networks as well.
Additionally, those holding a Cisco CCNA Wireless certification must be able to provide support for a basic wireless network, and must feel comfortable operating, configuring, and monitoring Cisco WLAN, SMB, and Enterprise networks. Cisco recently revised their CCNA Wireless exams and courses in order to reflect the most up to date information on wireless technology and wireless products. Any technician wishing to become a CCNA Wireless must have equally up to date knowledge about wireless networking.
The Cisco IUWNE exam is required to gain CCNA Wireless certification. Prior to taking the exam, Cisco requires that the technician already possess a current CCNA certification or a current CCIE certification. Many candidates take the Cisco authorized training course, “Implementing Cisco Unified Wireless Networking Essentials (IUWNE)” to increase their probability of passing the exam. Other students opt to use exam preparation materials offered through TestsLive. For students who wish to truly have an advantage over other test takers, using both types of exam preparation is recommended.
By Kristen Soltis, on Fri Oct 28, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET 
If there’s one thing that American voters are uninterested in, it is more bailouts. Unfortunately for President Obama, there’s a serious chance that’s how many voters will view the Home Affordable Refinance Program, or HARP.
President Obama is making a wise move focusing in on pocketbook issues and on choosing an initiative he can say is aimed at the middle class, particularly one that has an impact on so many key swing states.
Despite this upside, there are two critical risks HARP presents. The first is in expanding President Obama’s “credibility gap.”
 When Obama claims to have the answer to a problem, voters are increasingly skeptical that he does. The disconnect began around the stimulus and TARP. Two-thirds of voters told Pew in 2010 that the stimulus did not help the jobs situation, and 49 percent said that loans to troubled banks also did not help.
If HARP costs large sums of taxpayer money and fails to turn the housing market around quickly, voters may feel that yet again Obama overpromised, overspent and underdelivered.
Read the rest of…
Kristen Soltis: Make Sure Obama’s New Housing Plan is Not a Bailout
By Artur Davis, on Thu Oct 27, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET  Occupy Wall Street is the latest proof that populism is not a purely conservative phenomenon; instead, populism of the left or the right distrusts government as a bribed, compromised institution, and rejects consensus as a political tactic. For liberals who envy the conservative skill at converting protest movements into a sustained political force, and who want to create a left -leaning enforcer within the Democratic Party, OWS is the answer to a fantasy.
However, for Barack Obama, OWS happens to be the polar opposite of what he campaigned on as well as the message that launched him at the convention in Boston in 2004. Its “us versus them” mantra has made Wall Street its target, but its ultimate result would be a politics that is conflict-driven, divided, and bitterly conscious of the line between a “red” and a “blue” America. Obama should hear the anger in these protests, but he should recognize that it is poised to join the tea party as one more force that is pulling us apart.
Cross-posted, with permission of the author, from Politico’s Arena.
By Andrei Cherny, on Tue Oct 25, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET The American Jobs Act is dead. It’s time for the “Steve Jobs Act.”
In the wake of the Senate’s blocking of his jobs package last week, President Obama took to the road to campaign for passage of smaller chunks of his plan. While Congress should do just that, this piecemeal approach highlights a deficiency at the heart of Obama’s plan: it is a series of good ideas disconnected from any big idea.
True, Americans struggling to put food on the table and pay the mortgage are not looking for grand notions; they need the kind of immediate relief Obama’s proposals would provide. However, an America struggling to find its way in a bewildering, humbling world needs something more — a sense of larger purpose and direction.
The eulogies and encomiums delivered to Apple founder Steve Jobs seemed to capture some of this longing. They were celebrations of greatness and vision in a middling, small moment. At the end of a decade that saw Iraq, Katrina, and Lehman Brothers become watchwords of American weakness, they were paeans to someone who believed, with Thomas Paine, that we had it “in our power to begin the world over again.” But, perhaps most of all, in a floundering economy, they spoke to a sense that it is entrepreneurs and innovators — and not merely infrastructure spending and payroll tax cuts — that are needed to rebuild the engine of economic growth.
Read the rest of…
Andrei Cherny: The Steve Jobs Act; Why It’s Time to Invest in Entrepreneurs
By Grant Smith, RP Staff, on Fri Oct 21, 2011 at 3:00 PM ET
A billionaire pays a visit to Occupy Wall Street. [Forbes]
Why investor’s can’t trust any news coming out of Europe. [CNBC]
Fortune Magazine reveals their 40 under 40. [Fortune]
Occupy Wall Street and the labor movement are beginning to form an uneasy reliance. [Washington Post]
By Jeff Smith, on Tue Oct 18, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET  Jeff Smith Read the polling. It’s more suicidal for the Republicans to kill it than it is for the Democrats to push it. Let Republicans spend the next year defending those who earn over a million a year. Not a good look.
(Cross-posted, with permission of the author, from Politico’s Arena)
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