Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/295311905?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Saturday, March 30, 2013
Creative SEO Tip: Newsjacking - Search Engine Watch (#SEW)
Google is growing market share and vowing to implement more changes aimed at reducing web spam and manipulative linking. But to the average small business owner these constant changes are mystifying or even maddening. To small businesses, Google seems to be sending a consistent message: Link building, in all forms, is manipulative and bad.
But this can?t be true. We know that Google?s algorithm runs on links at the core. How can there be such a disparity between what everyone knows to be true and the message Google sends to marketers?
First Reaction: Give Up on SEO
In the face of continuing Google updates and a desire to stay ?clean,? most marketers flirt with the idea of giving up on SEO entirely and turn to PPC. PPC should be in the marketing portfolio already, as it is an excellent complement to search engine optimization.
PPC should be used for testing new keyword spaces, end-user reactions to copy, time-on-site and conversion behaviors. It is the right tool because it brings traffic quickly. But long term, PPC is expensive and estimating PPC ROI is difficult.
The next target is social media. Social media has serious media hype behind it, leading many to believe it is a viable alternative to SEO.
While social media is critical for public relations, customer service and reputation management, data strongly suggests that social media is not a great source of first-time visitors?(i.e., leads) for small businesses. Like PPC, social media is an important part of a diversified marketing strategy. And it is vital for content marketing. But it is not a silver bullet.
Second Reaction: Do SEO Faster (and More Poorly)
Faced with the realization that SEO has the strongest ROI, small business marketers often come to the conclusion that they just need to do SEO faster. Sadly, this usually means cutting corners and doing SEO more poorly.
Thin content is not a viable onsite SEO strategy. Furthermore, thin content placed in low-authority article directories does not bring strong results. Guest blog posts can be very beneficial, but not on unrelated websites. In short, link manipulation techniques that may have worked 4 years ago are now detrimental.
Avoid bad link building techniques, as Google has gotten much stronger as spotting link manipulation attempts and schemes. Don?t use spammy blog networks or buy links from shady websites. Don?t make articles without co-citation and then spin them. This is not helpful to the end-user and leaves a bad footprint in the link graph.
Final Reaction: SEO Requires Effort, Purpose and Creativity
After the dust settles (or a webmaster receives a penalty), the smart marketer starts viewing the costs associated with good SEO as a wise investment. At this point, they start to think creatively about SEO and explore the full potential of inbound marketing. They invest in building relationships while they are building links, which to the uninitiated may not even make sense. Relationships breed accountability whereas anonymity does not.
After drinking the SEO Kool-Aid, marketers recognize that their link building should be in the form of content that has real purpose and value?to the end-reader.
In short, they transform from link building SEO professionals to content marketers. They start writing for a real audience, caring about facts and statistics. The presentation of content is upgraded with relevant images and is never reused. Content is syndicated to higher-value websites now that it takes longer to procure. The end-result is stronger for end-users, and marketers invariably start to look for more creative ways to syndicate content with the hopes of something going viral.
Creative SEO Tip: Newsjacking
Newsjacking is a newer idea in SEO, but a natural extension of content marketing. While it sounds like a negative term, it is not. Newsjacking is a technique in which marketers ride existing demand associated with breaking news for exposure. In other words, smart marketers know there is extremely high demand for breaking news stories and use this to their advantage by contributing to the overall discussion.
What is newsjacking?
- Paying attention to breaking news
- Understanding the keywords being searched for in a particular news cycle
- Producing high-quality, well-researched content that serves a specific demand for information
- Syndicating content very quickly to be found when other news organizations search for sources.
Small businesses can?t newsjack any story, it has to be related to their space. But most businesses won?t have difficulty finding breaking news that somehow relates to their business.
For example, a high profile fire in a historic building could be used by a construction company to highlight the importance of local code and inspections. A bank robbery could be used by a home security company to discuss the merits of a reliable security system. In both cases, working in a natural sentence that highlights the company?s position will not be difficult.
Newsjacking is similar to content marketing in that the content comes first and the marketing second. Serve the reader?s desire for news, facts and opinion ? but use that opportunity for a branded mention and a link (yes, it is still OK to get a link when you work for it). Finally, use social media for quick dissemination and viral spread. Recognize that unlike content marketing, newsjacking is fleeting and timing is critical.
Conclusions
Regardless of the debate on Google?s effectiveness today, all agree that Google will continue to make updates to its algorithm to spot unnatural link manipulation. Smart marketers understand this trend, but don?t want to give up on SEO due to the ROI.
After exhausting PPC and social media, SEO professionals turn to high-quality, creative techniques to contribute valuable content while gaining exposure and links. Content Marketing is a well-established technique.
Newsjacking, a type of content marketing, places the emphasis on breaking news events rather than how-tos or technical Information and rides the wave of existing demand for news information to get well-earned backlinks and branded mentions.
Convergence Analytics: Digital Measurement in Transition
This joint report by ClickZ and Efectyv Marketing seeks to identify how the evolution of digital analytics affects and challenges practitioners, vendors, and investors. Download it today!
Source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2258014/Creative-SEO-Tip-Newsjacking
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House Speaker admonishes fellow Republican for immigrant slur
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner on Friday condemned a reference to migrant workers made by fellow Republican Representative Don Young, calling the comments "offensive and beneath the dignity of the office."
Young referred to migrant workers as "wetbacks" in a radio interview aired in his home state of Alaska on Thursday, but issued an apology late in the day after criticism. The term is considered a slur against illegal immigrants who crossed into the United States from Mexico.
"My father had a ranch. We used to hire 50-60 wetbacks ... to pick tomatoes ... it takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now. It is all done by machine," Young said in the interview.
The lawmaker was speaking about the economy and technology. In an initial apology, he said he did not realize the term was considered offensive.
In a later statement on Friday, Young called the term "insensitive" and "a poor choice of words."
"That word, and the negative attitudes that come with it, should be left in the 20th century, and I'm sorry that this has shifted our focus away from comprehensive immigration reform," he said.
Boehner issued a statement saying there was "no excuse" for the comments.
"Congressman Young's remarks were offensive and beneath the dignity of the office he holds. I don't care why he said it - there's no excuse," he said.
Young, who has spent 40 years in Congress, also is facing a House ethics investigation into possible misuse of campaign funds, failure to report gifts and other offenses. The ethics investigation is similar to an earlier Department of Justice inquiry, which produced no charges.
(Reporting by Kim Dixon; Additional reporting by Yereth Rosen; Editing by Jackie Frank and Ian Simpson)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/house-speaker-admonishes-fellow-republican-immigrant-slur-165553667.html
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Friday, March 29, 2013
Analysis: NKorea threat may be more bark than bite
University students punch the air as they march through Kim Il Sung Square in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday, March 29, 2013. Tens of thousands of North Koreans turned out for the mass rally at the main square in Pyongyang in support of their leader Kim Jong Un's call to arms. Placards read: ?Let?s crush the puppet traitor group? and ?Let?s rip the puppet traitors to death!? (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin)
University students punch the air as they march through Kim Il Sung Square in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday, March 29, 2013. Tens of thousands of North Koreans turned out for the mass rally at the main square in Pyongyang in support of their leader Kim Jong Un's call to arms. Placards read: ?Let?s crush the puppet traitor group? and ?Let?s rip the puppet traitors to death!? (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin)
North Koreans punch the air during a rally at Kim Il Sung Square in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday, March 28, 2013. Tens of thousands of North Koreans turned out for the mass rally at the main square in Pyongyang in support of their leader Kim Jong Un's call to arms. The placard reads: "U.S. forces, get out!" (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin)
North Korean army officers punch the air as they chant slogans during a rally at Kim Il Sung Square in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday, March 28, 2013. Thousands of North Koreans turned out for the mass rally at the main square in Pyongyang in support of their leader Kim Jong Un's call to arms. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin)
North Koreans gather during a rally at Kim Il Sung Square in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday, March 28, 2013. Tens of thousands of North Koreans turned out for the mass rally at the main square in Pyongyang in support of their leader Kim Jong Un's call to arms. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? Across North Korea, soldiers are gearing up for battle and shrouding their jeeps and vans with camouflage netting. Newly painted signboards and posters call for "death to the U.S. imperialists" and urge the people to fight with "arms, not words."
But even as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is issuing midnight battle cries to his generals to ready their rockets, he and his million-man army know full well that a successful missile strike on U.S. targets would be suicide for the outnumbered, out-powered North Korean regime.
Despite the hastening drumbeat of warfare ? seemingly bringing the region to the very brink of conflict with threats and provocations ? Pyongyang aims to force Washington to the negotiating table, pressure the new president in Seoul to change policy on North Korea, and build unity inside the communist country without triggering a full-blown war.
North Korea wants to draw attention to the tenuousness of the armistice designed to maintain peace on the Korean Peninsula, a truce Pyongyang recently announced it would no longer honor as it warned that war could break out at any time.
In July, it will be 60 years since North Korea and China signed an armistice with the U.S. and the United Nations to bring an end to three years of fighting that cost millions of lives. The designated Demilitarized Zone has evolved into the most heavily guarded border in the world.
It was never intended to be a permanent border. But six decades later, North and South remain divided, with Pyongyang feeling abandoned by the South Koreans in the quest for reunification and threatened by the Americans.
In that time, South Korea has blossomed from a poor, agrarian nation of peasants into the world's 15th largest economy while North Korea is struggling to find a way out of a Cold War chasm that has left it with a per capita income on par with sub-Saharan Africa.
The Chinese troops who fought alongside the North Koreans have long since left. But 28,500 American troops are still stationed in South Korea and 50,000 more are in nearby Japan. For weeks, the U.S. and South Korea have been showing off their military might with a series of joint exercises that Pyongyang sees a rehearsal for invasion.
On Thursday, the U.S. military confirmed that those drills included two nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers that can unload the U.S. Air Force's largest conventional bomb ? a 30,000-pound super bunker buster ? powerful enough to destroy North Korea's web of underground military tunnels.
It was a flexing of military muscle by Washington, perhaps aimed not only at Pyongyang but at Beijing as well.
In Pyongyang, Kim Jong Un reacted swiftly, calling an emergency meeting of army generals and ordering them to be prepared to strike if the U.S. actions continue. A photo distributed by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency showed Kim in a military operations room with maps detailing a "strike plan" behind him in a very public show of supposedly sensitive military strategy.
North Korea cites the U.S. military threat as a key reason behind its need to build nuclear weapons, and has poured a huge chunk of its small national budget into defense, science and technology. In December, scientists launched a satellite into space on the back of a long-range rocket using technology that could easily be converted for missiles; in February, they tested an underground nuclear device as part of a mission to build a bomb they can load on a missile capable of reaching the U.S.
However, what North Korea really wants is legitimacy in the eyes of the U.S. ? and a peace treaty. Pyongyang wants U.S. troops off Korean soil, and the bombs and rockets are more of an expensive, dangerous safety blanket than real firepower. They are the only real playing card North Korea has left, and the bait they hope will bring the Americans to the negotiating table.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said North Korea's "bellicose rhetoric" would only deepen its international isolation, and that the U.S. has both the capability and willingness to defend its interests in the region.
Narushige Michishita, director of the Security and International Studies Program at Japan's National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, isn't convinced North Korea is capable of attacking Guam, Hawaii or the U.S. mainland. He says Pyongyang hasn't successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile.
But its medium-range Rodong missiles, with a range of about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers), are "operational and credible" and could reach U.S. bases in Japan, he says.
More likely than such a strike, however, is a smaller-scale incident, perhaps off the Koreas' western coast, that would not provoke the Americans to unleash their considerable firepower. For years, the waters off the west coast have been a battleground for naval skirmishes between the two Koreas because the North has never recognized the maritime border drawn unilaterally by the U.N.
As threatening as Kim's call to arms may sound, its main target audience may be the masses at home in North Korea.
For months, the masterminds of North Korean propaganda have pinpointed this year's milestone Korean War anniversary as a prime time to play up Kim's military credibility as well as to push for a peace treaty. By creating the impression that a U.S. attack is imminent, the regime can foster a sense of national unity and encourage the people to rally around their new leader.
Inside Pyongyang, much of the military rhetoric feels like theatrics. It's not unusual to see people toting rifles in North Korea, where soldiers and checkpoints are a fixture in the heavily militarized society. But more often than not in downtown Pyongyang, the rifle stashed in a rucksack is a prop and the "soldier" is a dancer, one of the many performers rehearsing for a Korean War-themed extravaganza set to debut later this year.
More than 100,000 soldiers, students and ordinary workers were summoned Friday to Kim Il Sung Square in downtown Pyongyang to pump their fists in support of North Korea's commander in chief. But elsewhere, it was business as usual at restaurants and shops, and farms and factories, where the workers have heard it all before.
"Tensions rise almost every year around the time the U.S.-South Korean drills take place, but as soon as those drills end, things go back to normal and people put those tensions behind them quite quickly," said Sung Hyun-sang, the South Korean president of a clothing maker operating in the North Korean border town of Kaesong. "I think and hope that this time won't be different."
And in a telling sign that even the North Koreans don't expect war, the national airline, Air Koryo, is adding flights to its spring lineup and preparing to host the scores of tourists they expect to flock to Pyongyang despite the threats issuing forth from the Supreme Command.
War or no war, it seems Pyongyang remains open for business.
___
Lee is chief of AP's bureaus in Pyongyang, North Korea, and Seoul, South Korea. She can be followed on Twitter at twitter.com/newsjean. Eric Talmadge in Tokyo contributed to this report.
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rahulsmith2548: Healthy Computing - A Guide to better Computer ...
Healthy Computer Guide.
Introduction
We?ve developed this guide with the objective of offering a more helpful and convenient way to operate your personal computer. This guideline will also play a good role in lessening the usual problem of the occurrence of disabling as well as agonizing injuries which have been discussed in the Health Warning section given below. You don?t need to spend a long time looking over this guide but you will get a long-lasting benefit from whatever information you do apply.
HEALTH WARNING
The mouse and keyboard that we use lead to various severe disorders and health injuries.
When a person uses a computer, he has to undertake multiple activities at a time resulting in occasional irritations in various body parts like hands, shoulders, arms, neck etc. If you experience some symptoms like pain, discomfort, aching, throbbing, numbness, tingling, stiffness, burning sensation etc. persistently and even at the time when you are not involved in computer works,
NEVER IGNORE THESE SYMPTOMS AS THESE ARE WARNING FOR YOU AND CONSULT WITH A PHYSICIAN AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE.?
?These symptoms may be associated with the injuries which permanently disable muscles, nerves, tendons and other body parts. Some of such musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are tendonitis, tunnel syndrome, tenosynovitis etc.
Although, researchers still don?t know everything about MSDs, they agree that there are some factors which might contribute to the occurrence of MSDs for example stress and the sensitivity of a person to it, overall health, medical as well as physical condition, the positioning of a person?s body during work etc. Another factor is how much time a person spends on working.?
This ?Healthy Computer Guide? will show you the ways to work in a more convenient way with computer and decrease the possibility of encountering MSDs.?
If you want to extract detailed information on the arrangement of working place and development of the habits which may facilitate the decrease in the risk of MSDs, read ?Healthy Computing Guide? thoroughly. As there are lots of reasons which play a role in developing MSDs, so this guide may not give you idea about all the facts but you will definitely come to know about the predominant reasons. There is a history of lots of people of have gained better comfort as well as productivity after following the ways suggested by this guide. One thing you need to be clear that this guide will not act as an alternative to professional health expert or health program. If you want to know about the influence of your activities, lifestyle, medical and physical condition over MSDs then you should consult with a qualified physician.
Self-positioning
During working hour or when you are playing, try to avoid uncomfortable posture and always keep your body in comfortable position. This will not only enhance the overall productivity of you but also help to avoid the occurrence of MSDs. Don?t forget to change your positioning during lengthy task which will help you to get rid of fatigue and discomfort.
At the time of working with computer, adjust your surroundings as well as computer equipments to get a stress-free and contented posture of body parts. The arrangement of your work place in a comfortable way depends on the body size which is very unique for a person and also the work environment. The suggestions given below may help you to get a more flexible working environment.
Tips on supporting the back:
?
- In order to support lower back, use a chair (see above image).
- Make an adjustment between the surface of working area and the height of the chair to achieve a natural as well as convenient body posture (see below image).
?How to promote comfortable postures of leg:
- Clear the underneath portion of your desk to get better leg movement and comfortable positioning.
- If you feel that your feet are not having comfortable rest on floor, you can employ a footrest.
In order to obtain flexible arm and shoulder posture and minimize reaching, you may use the following tricks:
- Keep the keyboard as well as mouse at the level of same height which will be good if it is at elbow level. The upper arms of the computer operator need to fall comfortable at the sides (see detail 3).
- During typing task, keep the keyboard centered in front of the mouse (see detail 4).
- Keep the items within the reach of your arms which are more commonly used (see detail 5).
?To attain perfect positioning of wrist and finger, follow the tips given below:
- During typing work and operating mouse, hold your wrist straight and don?t bend wrists to the sides or up and down. If you have legs with your keyboard, then you can extend them to get a straight wrist posture and better comfort.
- While you are typing, your wrists should float above your keyboard to enable you the usage of whole arm to catch the distant keys without stretching your fingers.
?To avoid bending of neck, try the tips stated below:
- Adjust the positioning of top portion of the screen at your eye level (see detail 6). In case of bifocal wearers, screen may be lowered or the glasses may be customized specially for computer works upon the consultation of a professional physician.?
- It?s necessary to center the monitor in front of you. If you need to have look over the documents more than the monitor, then place the documents in front of your eye and the monitor may be placed on a side slightly.
- In order to adjust the position of documents at eye level, you may use a document holder.
- In order to sit comfortably in front of monitor, keep it at an arm away distance.
- Keep your monitor at a distant place from light sources which are involved in creating glare or you may also use window blinds for controlling the level of light.
- Never forget to clean the screen as well as the glasses if you use them.
- Learn how to adjust the brightness and contrast of the monitor.
- Select the font size on screen which is more comfortable for you if you have that facility in your computer program.
Work Lightly
All the physical forces are involved in close interaction with our body. It?s not only the high impact forces like car crash that causes injury to our body but also low impact forces result in discomfort, injury and fatigue when these physical forces are encountered over long time.
Example of some low forces:
Dynamic force: The force which is generated through movement for example pressing key during mouse clicking or typing.? ?
Static force: The force which exists for a long period for example holding phone or mouse for long time.
Contact force: A force which is generated by resting on a hard surface for example resting wrists on your desk?s edge.
Try to embrace the following ways to reduce the influences of low-impact forces:
- During typing, keep your hands as well as fingers flexible and type with very light touch, after all you don?t need to give big effort to operate your keyboard?s keys.
- Click mouse with light touch, the same formula is applicable while using joystick or any other gaming controller device. ?
- Keep your hand relaxed while holding the mouse and avoid gripping your mouse forcefully.
- Never rest your wrist or palm on a surface during typing (see detail 7). This type of rest can be taken when you have a break from typing.
- When you are on break, try to make your hands and arms relaxed. Never rest the arms or hands on the edge of your desk.
- Make the adjustment of your chair in a way that no pressure from the seat pushes the back of knees (see detail 8).
Don?t forget to take breaks
?When you will take some break from your computer work, it will give time to your body for recovering activity and thus you can avoid MSDs. Based on the type of your work, you have to decide how long you will rest and how frequent you need to take rest. Not only postponing works and relaxing is the way to enjoy a break but also some other forms of breaks are present for instance choosing a different mode of work. If you change your position from sitting to standing during phone conversation, it will definitely help you to make muscles relax.
To alter day to day tasks and work productively, embrace the following ways:
- Make a planning for both work and play in such a way that you don?t need to perform the same task over a long period.
- In order to do the same job, try to use diversified input devices. Suppose, you are doing a scrolling job, you can use both keyboard arrow key and the wheel of mouse.
- To decrease your work pressure, adopt various software and hardware. For example, you have the opportunity to use Windows logo key to enter into the Windows start menu.
- Try to learn the operations of hardware and software by following the instructions given with the products. For instance, in order to highlight the test commonly, allocate your mouse to do ClickLock.
Be Healthy
?A healthy lifestyle is also necessary to perform daily tasks in proper way with enjoyment. You need to learn the detail about your health if you want to stay productive and flexible with your computer tasks.
?In order to maintain a healthy status of health, adopt the following ideas:
- Take balanced diet as well as sufficient rest.
- Don?t miss exercise as it will improve the flexibility, strength and overall fitness of body. In order to choose the right form of exercise for you, you may consult with a qualified physician.
- Make proper stress management. By planning your work area and program properly, you can keep the racket and disturbances to a minimum level.
- In order to be clear about the relevance of different factors like diabetes, injuries, rheumatoid arthritis, pregnancy etc. to MSDs, consult with a professional health specialist.
Source: http://blog.jpofficeworkstations.com.au/2013/03/healthycomputingguide.html
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Source: http://rahulsmith2548.blogspot.com/2013/03/healthy-computing-guide-to-better.html
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Smartphone users check Facebook 14 times a day, study says
People with smartphones check their Facebook pages an average of 14 times each day. They scroll through news feeds while running errands, comment on friends' posts while shopping or at the gym, post a photo of their food plate before dinner. This adds up to an average of about 32 minutes of Facebook time on their phone ... every day.
These details come from a new study, sponsored by Facebook and conducted by data crunchers at the analytics firm IDC. The company surveyed Android and iOS users in the U.S., and 7,446 men and women between the ages of 18 and 44 shared details about their daily Facebook and smartphone habits.
On average, this group spent about two and a half hours every day on their smartphones. The most frequently used application on a smartphone? Email, followed by Facebook.
Almost half the group ? 44 percent ? used their phones as an alarm clock (I know I do), and 79 percent checked their phones within the first 15 minutes of waking up (guilty, once again).
When was the last time your phone wasn't next to you or in the same room? 25 percent of the survey group couldn't remember the last time that happened. And 79 percent of the group admitted their phones were out of reach for just two hours every day.
As you might imagine, social phone time in general doubled on weekends, when folks texted their friends and significant others, and called or emailed their parents and kids.
Seventy percent of their study group accessed Facebook from their phones ? to catch up on news feed updates, mostly ? and 61 percent used it daily. On average, Facebook took up a quarter of social time on people's phones, the rest used up mostly by calling and texting.
Do you do things differently? Let us know in the Discussion section below.
Nidhi Subbaraman writes about technology and science. Follow her on Twitter and Google+.
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Gay marriage at high court: How a case can fizzle
Wyatt Tan, left and Mark Nomadiou, both of New York City, kiss in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, March 27, 2013, prior to the start of a court hearing on the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). In the second of back-to-back gay marriage cases, the Supreme Court is turning to a constitutional challenge to the law that prevents legally married gay Americans from collecting federal benefits generally available to straight married couples. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Wyatt Tan, left and Mark Nomadiou, both of New York City, kiss in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, March 27, 2013, prior to the start of a court hearing on the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). In the second of back-to-back gay marriage cases, the Supreme Court is turning to a constitutional challenge to the law that prevents legally married gay Americans from collecting federal benefits generally available to straight married couples. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
This artist rendering shows Deputy Solicitor General Sri Srinivasan addressing the Supreme Court, including Justices Samuel Alito, left, and Elena Kagan, right, in Washington, Wednesday, March 27, 2013, as the court heard arguments on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). (AP Photo/Dana Verkouteren)
Allan Hoyle of North Carolina, with the large white sign, center, speaks out against gay marriage across from the street from the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, March 27, 2013, after the court heard arguments on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) case. The U.S. Supreme Court, in the second day of gay marriage cases, turned Wednesday to a constitutional challenge to the federal law that prevents legally married gay Americans from collecting federal benefits generally available to straight married couples. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Late in the oral argument over same-sex marriage in California, Justice Anthony Kennedy made a startling comment, given the months of buildup and mountain of legal briefs that have descended on the justices.
"You might address why you think we should take and decide this case," Kennedy said to lawyer Charles Cooper, representing opponents of same-sex marriage.
One might have thought the court had already crossed that bridge.
But now the justices were openly discussing essentially walking away from the case over California's Proposition 8, a voter-approved ban on gay marriage, without deciding anything at all about such unions.
Indeed, this case offers a rare glimpse at the court's opaque internal workings, in which justices make cold political calculations about what to do and Kennedy's often-decisive vote can never be far from his colleagues' minds.
The court on Wednesday concluded two days of arguments involving gay marriage. In the second case, a constitutional challenge to a portion of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, a majority of the court appeared likely to rule that legally married gay couples should be able to receive a range of benefits that the law currently reserves for straight married couples.
The decision to hear the DOMA case was easy. The Supreme Court almost always has the final word when lower courts strike down a federal law, as they did in this case.
Proposition 8's route to the Supreme Court was not as obvious. The appeals court ruling under review by the justices seems to have been written to discourage the high court from ever taking up the case because it applies only to California and limited a much broader opinion that had emerged earlier from the trial court.
And yet in December, the court decided it would hear the case. It takes a majority of five to decide a case a particular way, but just four justices can vote to add a case to the calendar. And the court does not disclose how the justices vote at this stage.
It seems apparent after the argument, though, that it was the conservative justices who opted to hear Proposition 8. It also seems that one factor in their decision was that this could be their last, best opportunity to slow the nation's march toward recognition of gay marriage at a time when only nine states and the District of Columbia allow gays and lesbians to marry ? despite a rapid swing in public opinion in favor of gay marriage.
From their comments and questions Tuesday, Justices Samuel Alito and Antonin Scalia indicated they preferred what they called the cautious approach: allowing the debate over gay marriage to play out in the states and not overturning by judicial fiat the will of California voters who approved Proposition 8 in 2008. Justice Clarence Thomas, as is his custom, said nothing during the argument, but he and Scalia were dissenters in the court's earlier two gay rights cases in 1996 and 2003.
Chief Justice John Roberts also had tough questions for lawyers for the same-sex couples who sued for the right to marry, and for the Obama administration.
Scalia sought to counter Kennedy's comment, and a similar one from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, that maybe the court should get rid of the case.
"It's too late for that, too late for that now, isn't it? I mean, we granted cert," Scalia said, using the legal shorthand for the court's decision to hear a case. "We have crossed that river, I think."
Once or twice a term, occasionally more often, the justices do dismiss cases after they have been argued, without rendering opinions and establishing a rule for the whole nation. The language they use is the wonderfully vague "dismissed as improvidently granted." Roughly translated, it means "sorry for wasting everyone's time."
That is one potential outcome, discussed publicly by Kennedy and Sotomayor.
Another possibility would be a decision limited to the technical legal question of whether the Proposition 8 supporters have the right to defend the measure in court. If they don't, the court can't reach the broader issues in the case.
On this point, Roberts' view seemed more in line with questions from some of the liberal justices.
So why would a justice who appeared favorably inclined to California's ban on gay marriage want to rule that the case should not even be in front of the court?
The answer is that Roberts might want to dispose of the case in this narrow way if he saw a decision in support of gay marriage emerging and wanted to block it. Or, he might choose this route if the justices appeared unable to reach a decisive ruling of any kind.
Narrowly based decisions sometimes seem more attractive to the justices than fractured rulings.
One example is the court's 2009 decision in a voting rights case in which eight of the justices agreed to sidestep the looming and major constitutional issue in the case after an argument in which the court appeared sharply split along ideological lines.
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