From Web Designer To Internet Marketer

From Web Designer To Internet Marketer

Internet is full of opportunities, especially if you're in web design and development business. Everyone needs a website, and plenty of people don't know how to make it. That's when those who know how to do it often get started with their business of building sites for others. It can be a cosy job - you can do it from home, without boss, and be well paid if you have good clients, but also, it can be a stressful job - clients that don't know what they want, but always ask for changes while building site, tight deadlines and unslept nights of work. As many jobs, it has it's upsides and downsides. But the bottom line, in most cases, is - you get paid for the project once, and that's it. It's basically an earned income - active income.

Most of web designers and developers have to be good at that field anyway, to make good sites for their clients, but, they're probably unaware of the way they can use their talents to make residual, long-term online income. The business of internet marketing involves site building, and it can be a real bonus if you're professional in it, but is focuses around giving reasons for site's visitors to want to know more and eventually buy products, if you're in affiliate marketing, which is the easiest internet marketing segment to reach into.

Affiliate marketing is a business you'll enjoy doing once get into it, because it allows you to easily merge your favorite hobbies and passions with earning money. Main story of success behind it is quite simple; choose a niche you love and enjoy working with, build up a site about that niche, or a product within it, then learn to promote the site to get traffic and earn from commissions when visitors opt in from your affiliate link.

For example, if you enjoy photography, you can start a website talking about something related to photography - you'll have to choose a niche that has enough demand by surfers and low competition. Then write and/or let others write for the site and create enough ideal content. Put your affiliate links and affiliate products on your site, also related to the topic you'll work with. Then get free traffic from link building, article marketing, or search engine optimization. You'll get surprised with the financial potential of this type of work. If your site has good enough conversion rate, you can profit a lot from just 100 visitors a day. You can easily replicate the process with other niches. The more successful sites you'll have, the better of your bank account will get.

Among all the reasons to get in the internet marketing, or joining valuable affiliate marketing communities, is that it's a permanent residual income opportunity, meaning, your links remain online always, so there will always be a chance that someone opts in from them.

You'll find plent of reasons to do this type of job along the way, but at least learning more about it is a good step, to get another benefit from your web development talent.

Source: http://www.streetarticles.com/affiliate-revenue/from-web-designer-to-internet-marketer

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Inspirational Video: Kindness | Dr. Margaret Paul's Blog

Do you remember to make kindness your highest priority? Watching this 1 minute movie, ?Kindness,? will remind you of the joy you can receive when choosing kindness.

Margaret Paul, Ph.D. is a best-selling author of 8 books, relationship expert, and co-creator of the powerful Inner Bonding? process ? featured on Oprah, and recommended by actress Lindsay Wagner and singer Alanis Morissette. Are you are ready to heal your pain and discover your joy? Click here for a FREE Inner Bonding course: http://www.innerbonding.com/welcome and visit our website at http://www.innerbonding.com for more articles and help. Phone and Skype Sessions Available. Join the thousands we have already helped and visit us now!

Source: http://margaretpaul.com/self-improvement-personal-growth/inspirational-video-kindness

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Will 2013 Bring Financial Reform?

158275491 Can the Federal Reserve, under Ben Bernanke, and the FDIC work toward meaningful financial reform in 2013? We'll see.

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

Here?s an odd prediction for the coming year: 2013 will be a watershed for financial reform. True, while the global financial crisis erupted more than four years ago, and the Dodd-Frank financial reforms were adopted in the United States back in 2010, not much has changed about how Wall Street operates?except that the large firms have become bigger and more powerful. Yet there are reasons to expect real progress in the new year.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is finally shifting its thinking. In a series of major speeches this fall, Gov. Dan Tarullo made the case that the problem of ?too big to fail? financial institutions remains with us. We need to take additional measures to reduce the level of systemic risk?including limiting the size of our largest banks. News reports indicate that the Fed has already started saying no to some bank mergers.

At the same time, the FDIC has become a bastion of sensible thinking on financial-sector issues. In part, this is because the FDIC is responsible for cleaning up the mess when financial-sector firms fail, so its senior officials have a strong incentive to protect its insurance fund by preventing risks from getting out of control. The FDIC is showing intellectual leadership as well as organizational capabilities: Vice Chairman Tom Hoenig?s speeches are a must-read.

Wall Street is pushing back, of course. But the rolling series of scandals surrounding global megabanks makes it difficult for anyone to keep a straight face when executives insist that our largest banks must maintain their current scale and scope. Do we need HSBC to facilitate global money laundering? Do we need Barclays and UBS to manipulate Libor (a key benchmark for interest rates around the world)? Do we need still more losses at poorly run trading operations for JP Morgan Chase?

The pro-bank lobby groups are positioning themselves to argue that the new resolution powers under Dodd-Frank have ended the too-big-to-fail problem, and we can expect a public-relations drive in this direction early in the new year. But the consensus view at the most recent meeting of the FDIC?s Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee (of which I am a member) was that this claim should not be taken seriously. Under Dodd-Frank, it is arguably easier for the FDIC to handle the failure of a single large financial institution than it was in pre-Dodd-Frank days. But what if two or three or seven firms are all in trouble at the same time?

The answer, as former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker implied at the meeting, is that we would be right back where we started?in the panic and frozen credit markets that followed the collapse of Lehman Bros. in September 2008. Indeed, the idea that substantial shocks could soon hit the US financial system is not far-fetched. The European debt crisis, for example, remains far from being resolved. A significant sovereign-debt restructuring there would bring down European banks and potentially damage U.S. banks?as well as financial institutions around the world.

Meanwhile, the continuing problems at European banks are a stark reminder that operating highly leveraged, thinly capitalized firms is incredibly risky. And the regulatory failures in Europe?consider the German Landesbanks, for example?will become only more obvious in the coming months. Creating a common supervisory authority will mean nothing unless it can clean up the mess created by the existing supervisors. And that cleanup will expose more of the rot in banks? current operations.

The need for banks to finance themselves with more equity and relatively less debt will be the focus of one of the main publishing events in economics in 2013. Anat Admati and Martin Hellwig?s The Bankers? New Clothes: What?s Wrong with Banking and What to Do About it? will appear officially in March, but advance copies are already being closely read in leading central banks. Bankers everywhere will rush to read it before their regulators do.

The road to the ongoing financial and economic crisis was built on a foundation of intellectual capture: not only regulators, but academics, too, became captivated by modern finance and its methods. Admati and Hellwig are at the vanguard of the counterrevolution, challenging the great myths of banking head-on.

Do we need financial institutions to be so highly leveraged (that is, carrying so much debt relative to equity)? No, they argue. If banks of all kinds were financed with more equity, they would have stronger buffers to absorb losses. Both the equity and the debt issued by well-capitalized banks would be safer?and therefore cheaper.

Bankers want to be so highly leveraged for a simple reason: Implicit government guarantees mean that they get the upside when things go well, while the downside is someone else?s problem. Contrary to bankers? claims, this is not a good arrangement for society.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=d10401ec68e2378da012419bf5d26488

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Obama says he is 'ready and willing' to get deal

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama says he is "ready and willing" to get a big package done to deal with the "fiscal cliff" and says there's no reason not to protect middle-class Americans from tax increases.

Obama says he spoke Friday with House Speaker John Boehner and met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. He says Congress should pass a plan to extend tax breaks for the middle class and extend unemployment benefits.

Obama says no one can get 100 percent of what they want and there are "real consequences" to how they deal with the across-the-board tax increases and steep spending cuts scheduled to kick in Jan. 1. Economists fear the combination could deliver a blow to the U.S. economy.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-says-ready-willing-deal-224559943--politics.html

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Post Sandy Hook: Police investigate Penn. shooting spree

Pennsylvania State Police have identified the gunman who allegedly killed four people in rural Pennsylvania Friday. While the shooting was not connected with the Sandy Hook massacre in Connecticut, police are digging into the gunman's motive.?

By James B. Kelleher,?Reuters / December 23, 2012

Pennsylvania state trooper Jeff Pettuci talks during a news conference at the Geeseytown Fire Company about shootings along a nearby rural road that left four people dead and three Pennsylvania State troopers injured on Friday, in Geeseytown, Pa.

Keith Srakocic/AP

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Investigators are searching for a possible motive in a shooting spree that left four people dead in rural?Pennsylvania, including two apparent neighbors of the gunman, state police said on Saturday.

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The violence erupted on Friday when a man with a pistol fatally shot three people in Frankstown Township, about 100 miles east of Pittsburgh, before he was killed in a shootout with state troopers as he tried to flee in a pickup truck, authorities said.

Officials identified the gunman as?Jeffrey Lee Michael, 44.

Pennsylvania?State Police?spokesman?David McGarvey?said two of the three people the gunman killed appeared to be neighbors, but gave few further details.

He said investigators "aren't aware of any dispute" between Michael and the victims, who were identified asKimberly Scott, 58,?Kenneth Lynn, 60, and?William Rhodes Jr., 38.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/nwKv47kyzMQ/Post-Sandy-Hook-Police-investigate-Penn.-shooting-spree

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Authorities: 3 set deadly Ind. blast for insurance

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? Three people charged in a gas explosion that devastated an Indianapolis neighborhood deliberately set up the deadly blast to collect a big insurance payout, authorities said Friday.

The home's owner, Monserrate Shirley; her boyfriend, Mark Leonard; and his brother, Bob Leonard, were arrested Friday and charged with murder, arson and other counts in the Nov. 10 blast that killed two people.

Shirley, 47, was facing mounting financial woes, including $63,000 in credit card debt and worsening bankruptcy proceedings, court documents say. And a friend of Mark Leonard's told investigators Leonard said he had "lost a ton of money" ? about $10,000 ? at a casino some three weeks before the explosion.

Investigators believe the trio had actually tried but failed to blow up Shirley's home the weekend before the successful timed explosion, according to Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry. The fiery blast destroyed five homes, including Shirley's, and caused widespread damage to dozens of others in the Richmond Hill subdivision in the far south side of the city.

Curry called the explosion a "thoroughly senseless act" that killed Shirley's next-door neighbors. He said the victims, John Dion Longworth, a 34-year-old electronics expert, and his 36-year-old wife, second-grade teacher Jennifer Longworth, were "in the prime of their lives."

Randall Cable, the attorney for Shirley and Mark Leonard, said he was stunned by their arrest.

"I'm just as surprised as everyone else that they've made an arrest. My clients have consistently indicated their innocence," he said.

Shirley and the Leonard brothers face two counts of murder as well as 33 counts of arson ? one count for each of the homes damaged so badly that officials have ordered their demolition.

Curry said his office would review whether to pursue the death penalty or life in prison without parole against the three, who are scheduled to appear in court Monday.

Shirley and Mark Leonard, 43, also face two counts of conspiracy to commit arson, while Bob Leonard, 54, faces a single count. Curry said the conspiracy charges stem from the failed explosion.

He said investigators determined that Shirley's home filled up with gas after a gas fireplace valve and a gas line regulator were removed. A microwave, apparently set to start on a timer, sparked the explosion, he said.

On Friday, workers using heavy equipment were removing debris from razed homes in the neighborhood.

Doug Aldridge, the head of the Richmond Hill's crime watch group, said after a neighborhood meeting that the allegations are "more than we anticipated."

"Sometimes money makes people do stupid stuff," Aldridge said.

Investigators found that in December 2011, Shirley's home insurance policy for personal property was increased to $304,000 ? an amount that was in addition to the coverage for the home itself, according to court documents.

A probable cause affidavit says Shirley filed for bankruptcy this year but stopped making her court-arranged payments and failed to appear at a July bankruptcy hearing. The home's original loan was for $116,000 and a second mortgage was taken out on the home for $65,000, the affidavit also says.

A friend of Mark Leonard's also told investigators that Leonard would surf online dating sites "and located older, heavier women, wine and dine them," then borrowed money and never paid them back, according to the affidavit.

The friend said Shirley was aware of the scheming "and was OK with it so long as he did not sleep with the women," the affidavit says.

Leonard has a criminal record that includes stalking and intimidation and convictions on dealing and possessing cocaine, according to prison records.

Two men, one fitting Bob Leonard's description, were seen at Shirley's home the day of the explosion, and Curry indicated investigators believe that's when the gas line and valve were tampered with. He said authorities are still trying to determine the second man's identity.

Curry said that the day before the blast, the brothers asked an employee of local gas utility Citizens Energy several questions, "including the differences between propane and natural gas, the role of a regulator in a house and controlling the flow of natural gas and how much gas it would require to fill a house."

Curry said Shirley and her boyfriend had followed the same pattern two weekends in a row, visiting a southern Indiana casino, dropping off Shirley's daughter with a baby sitter and boarding the family's cat.

An affidavit says that when a friend of Mark Leonard's called him Nov. 2, eight days before the successful blast, Leonard told the friend "the house blew up" and that he and Shirley were staying in an efficiency apartment.

In another call that day, Leonard told his friend he had been surfing Craigslist "looking for a Ferrari to buy" and explained that he could afford the luxury car because Shirley had jewelry insurance and "they expect to get $300,000 and he would get $100,000" in the insurance payout, according to the affidavit.

It's not clear whether investigators think Leonard believed the first explosion attempt had succeeded. Curry's spokeswoman, Brienne Delaney, said the office could not comment beyond what was in the court documents.

The day after the explosion, Bob Leonard allegedly called his son and asked him to retrieve from a white van items he said he had salvaged from Shirley's home after the blast.

"That, of course, is impossible because everything in the house was destroyed," Curry said. "Plus no one was allowed access to the property after the explosion."

___

Associated Press writer Ken Kusmer contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/authorities-3-set-deadly-ind-blast-insurance-222918721.html

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The Last Republican To Ever Vote To Raise ... - Business Insider

Technically, the GOP and Obama can get a Fiscal Cliff deal without the Republicans agreeing to raise taxes.

As Grover Norquist signaled last week, when he gave approval for Republicans to accept Boehner's "Plan B" (which would let taxes revert to Clinton-era levels for those with incomes of $1 million or more), it's okay to accept a deal if taxes rise passively.

That being said, popularly, letting taxes rise isn't that much different than voting for taxes to rise, and so GOP opposition to anything that reeks of a compromise on the tax issue remains stiff.

In the NYT Binyanim Appelbaum has a great history of the GOP's anti-tax hard line.

There are many inspirants for it (Grover Norquist, Art Laffer, etc.) but the key event was the tax increase of 1990, which violated George Bush's "read my lips" pledge, and which was seen as costing him the Presidency in 1992.

On a Saturday afternoon in October 1990, Senator Pete V. Domenici turned from a conversation on the Senate floor, caught the eye of a clerk by raising his right hand and voted in favor of a huge and contentious bill to reduce federal deficits. Then he put his hand back into his pocket and returned to the conversation.

It was the end of an era, although no one knew it then. It was the last time any Congressional Republican has voted for higher income taxes.

On this C-Span clip, at just after the 8:36:00 mark, you can hear Pete Domenici's name being called in the roll call vote.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-last-republican-to-ever-vote-to-raise-income-taxes-2012-12

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Are relationships largely determined by chemicals ... - Indian Affairs

Chemistry is a trendy word these days. A film?s success or failure is often attributed to the chemistry, or lack of it, between its actors. When two people meet for the first? time and hit it off, they have a ?great chemistry?, ?while workplace issues often stem from ?bad work chemistry?.
Love was the first relationship description to move away from the realms of physics and biology to the cauldron of heady molecules: endorphins, testosterone and oxytocin and get the identity of a sizzling chemical reaction. Do the laws of chemistry that circumscribe love hold true for other human relationships, too? Are the filial bonds that hold people together merely a set of chemical equations when broken down to the molecular level? Is there a chemical formula for every emotion?
Scientists across the globe have been working on unravelling the secrets of social neuroscience, a trendy new branch of research. There is one theory that considers every human being as a molecule, whose interactions with other individuals are like those between two giant molecules, forming affinity or repelling bonds the same way as a molecule of oxygen would react with hydrogen or iron. Another group feels that most interpersonal interactions are the play of chemicals released by these individuals, under instructions from their respective genetic codes.
A study conducted a few decades ago showed that a group of girls who lived in a confined space would have their menstrual cycles synchronised. This made scientists wonder if there were chemical cues that were making the group behave similarly, says Sanjeev Jain, professor of psychiatry at National Institute of Mental Health and Neurological Sciences (Nimhans), Bangalore. ?Similar cues must be triggering complex behaviours in people, governing group activities, courtship and mating,? says Sanjeev.
For instance, the double income nuclear family culture of present times is showing? an increasing number of youngsters affected by the maternal social deprivation syndrome. ?The absence of parents for long hours and insufficient bonding affects the secretion of most hormones from the brain?s pituitary glands, thereby affecting general growth, wellbeing and social skills,? says Dr S.K. Wangnoo, senior consultant endocrinologist at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, Delhi. Here again, there must be strong chemical cues from the parents that encourage development in the youngster.
Psychiatrists and endocrinologists loosely club individuals into three clusters. ?Cluster A people have high levels of dopamine and are the most eccentric,? says Dr Kushal Jain, psychiatrist at Vidyasagar Institute of Mental Health and Neurological Studies, New Delhi. ?They don?t mix well with others and do things their own way. They are fine to work with as long as they are not disturbed too much. Cluster B people are outgoing. They are good leaders but not necessarily good team members. These people are found to be low in dopamine, a pleasure hormone. Since their pleasure pathways don?t work too well because of a lack of dopamine, they are constantly trying to activate the pathways, which reflects in their social behaviour. These people also have interpersonal problems with others of their cluster type. Cluster C people are affable, as they have low levels of serotonin, a stress management chemical. Since this cluster lacks stress coping skills, it automatically tries to avoid conflict.?
Extremely low serotonin levels, however, are associated with mental disorders like depression. It isn?t always levels of a chemical that affect relationships. Sometimes it is how a person?s body reacts to the chemical. For instance, people with social anxiety disorders are often extra sensitive to the effects of serotonin.
These clusters could explain several interpersonal behaviours. Two constantly bickering colleagues might both be dopamine-starved, while a calm, affable person? might be running low on serotonin. Will a calm person get aggressive if injected with serotonin? ?The creator wouldn?t get the variety of individual personalities we see today if he had to depend on just dopamine and serotonin,? says Mumbai-based social psychiatrist Harish Shetty. ?Each human being should be considered a laboratory of trillions of molecules. Interaction with another such laboratory will naturally set off innumerable chemical reactions that will ultimately forge the relationship between the two.?
Chemicals don?t work solo, they like to work in a group. Human beings are the most? evolved species and can understand each other?s feelings. They have empathy. Sanjeev suggests that mirror neuron pathways in the brain play a role here. These pathways were discovered around three decades ago and have caught the fancy of neurologists and neuropsychiatrists ever since.
Why do opposites attract? According to Jain, the attraction might happen because they see in the other what they may like to see in themselves, and forge the bond through the mirror pathways.
US-based scientist Dr V.S. Ramachandran?s research suggests that empathy itself is not a metaphysical, social phenomenon, but has a neurological basis. In his study, he? gave a set of people mild electric pokes, which fired their mirror neurons for pain. The same set of neurons fired up in the same way when these people saw someone else being poked. Understanding someone?s feelings is what we call empathy. Ramachandran calls these neurons the Dalai Lama neurons.
Scientists theorise that even a human?s moral fibre is woven with the yarn of chemicals, mainly large peptide chains of molecules like hormones. Oxytocin and progesterone are the toppers in this category, being associated with lofty virtues like altruism and empathy. One research group in the west developed a nasal spray with oxytocin as the main component and, in a study, showed that inhaling it lowered the social fears of the subjects, thereby making them more trusting.
Oxytocin is released in copious amounts during childbirth and lactation. ?Delivering and bringing up a child, often at the cost of huge personal risk, requires high levels of selflessness,? says Sanjeev. So, naturally, researchers have studied this ancient molecule in depth. Released during hugging and kissing, oxytocin has earned appellations like ?the love hormone? or ?the cuddle hormone?. It is seen in high levels among prairie wolves, an extremely monogamous species, indicating? oxytocin?s role in fidelity. In pop science, oxytocin is the tend-and-befriend chemical, just as adrenaline is the fight-or-flight hormone.
Progesterone, which is present during pregnancy, is regarded as the nurturing hormone, and is also called the fidelity hormone. ?In complex species, childbirth and childcare are taxing processes requiring the participation of both parents. Fidelity is, therefore, a requisite for survival,? says Sanjeev.
Social endocrinology is still in its nascent stages and every study throws up new information. Chemicals do not always instruct us on how to behave and our behaviour, too, can release a particular set of chemicals. A recent study by the University of Michigan shows that female bonding causes a surge in progesterone levels, increasing their general levels of wellbeing. This is in contrast to the established thought that progesterone caused bonding in the first place. The study also showed that these women, when awash with progesterone surges, were also more inclined to sacrifice, even at the cost to personal risk.
Positive chemical cocktails coursing through the system will not amount to much, however, unless supported by the right genetic code, physical maturity and other factors. The nesting behaviour triggered by progesterone works best when the body is in its prime reproductive years. An immature individual might not be able to utilise the affiliation bonds induced by the hormone as effectively.
?Uptake of chemicals depends on the development of neuronic pathways in the brain,? says Sanjeev. Does that explain why people you could never get along with during your youth now seem tolerable? Similarly, adrenaline, a corticosteroid, is secreted in times of sudden stress, triggering a cascade of reactions from dilated pupils to increased heartbeats, making the individual acutely self-aware and focussed on the situation.
Yet, some decide to fight the adversary, while others choose flight. ?Herein comes personality type, which is itself etched by individual chemical concentrations in their systems,? says Wangnoo.
Behavioural scientist Anindya Sinha of the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, has been studying macaques for two decades. He has made interesting observations, based on just one molecule: a transporter of serotonin. Most macaques have only one variety of this gene, only the aggressive rhesus [where the pecking order is stringent] and egalitarian bonnet macaques [who live in democratic communities] show different expressions of the gene, or polymorphism, as it is scientifically called. Sinha?s studies demonstrate that this genetic variety is responsible for a commonly shared trait between these otherwise different macaques: adaptability. Individuals with the long gene sequence are better adapted to stress than those with the short one. But the coexistence of both gene forms within the population gives the cluster better adaptability skills, thus boosting their survival chances even in changing environments.
At a human level, Sinha extends this theory to explain why certain socially negative traits like alcoholism and drug addiction persist. These traits have been associated with the expression of particular genes. Scientists believe that genes which are bad for the survival of species are eventually weeded out of populations. But the same gene that makes a person prone to addiction might also be responsible for a positive trait like adaptability or affability that is beneficial for species survival. ?My studies focussed on just one gene expression,? said Sinha. ?Individual behaviours are sculpted when hundreds of genes act in concert. Yet, we are not just a manifestation of gene expression, because there are so many other forces also at play. There is a chemistry out there for sure. But how much is chemistry and how much is beyond it, is something we don?t know when we will decipher.?

The absence of parents for long hours and insufficient bonding affects the secretion of most hormones from the brain?s pituitary glands, thereby affecting general growth, wellbeing and social skills.
Dr S.K. Wangnoo, senior consultant endocrinologist, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, Delhi

Source: http://indianaffairs.tv/are-relationships-largely-determined-by-chemicals-released-in-individuals/

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Egyptians vote on Islamist-backed constitution

An Egyptian elderly man shows his inked finger after casting his vote on the second round of a referendum on a disputed constitution drafted by Islamist supporters of President Mohammed Morsi in Fayoum, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Cairo , Egypt, Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012.(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

An Egyptian elderly man shows his inked finger after casting his vote on the second round of a referendum on a disputed constitution drafted by Islamist supporters of President Mohammed Morsi in Fayoum, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Cairo , Egypt, Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012.(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Egyptian women voters queue outside a polling station during the second round of a referendum on a disputed constitution drafted by Islamist supporters of president Mohammed Morsi, in Giza, Egypt, Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Egyptian voters check voter lists outside a polling station during the second round of a referendum on a disputed constitution drafted by Islamist supporters of president Mohammed Morsi, in Giza, Egypt, Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie, second right, waits in line outside a polling place in Beni Suef, Egypt, to vote on a constitution drafted by Islamist supporters of Presudent Mohammed Morsi, Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Ahmed Ramadan)

Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie, second right, waits in line outside a polling place in Beni Suef, Egypt, to vote on a constitution drafted by Islamist supporters of President Mohammed Morsi, Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Mohamed Nohan, El Shorouk Newspaper)EGYPT OUT

(AP) ? Egyptians voted on Saturday in the second and final phase of a referendum on an Islamist-backed constitution that has polarized the nation, with little indication that the result of the vote will end the political crisis in which the country is mired.

For some supporters, a 'yes' vote was a chance to restore some normalcy after nearly two years of tumultuous transitional politics following Egypt's 2011 revolution, or to make society and laws more Islamic. Opponents saw their 'no' vote as a way to preserve the country's secular traditions and prevent President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood group from getting a lock on power.

"I came early to make sure my 'no' is among the first of millions today," oil company manager Mahmoud Abdel-Aziz said as he waited in line outside a polling station in the Dokki district of Giza, Cairo's twin city on the west bank of the Nile. "I am here to say 'no' to Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood," he said.

Another Giza voter, accountant and mother of three Sahar Mohamed Zakaria, had a different take on Saturday's vote.

"I'm voting 'yes' for stability," she announced.

Saturday's vote is taking place in 17 of Egypt's 27 provinces with about 25 million eligible voters. The first phase on Dec. 15 produced a "yes" majority of about 56 percent with a turnout of some 32 percent, according to unofficial results. Unofficial votes for the second round are expected late Saturday or early Sunday.

As was the case in last week's vote, opposition and rights activists reported numerous irregularities: polling stations opened later than scheduled, Islamists outside the polling stations trying to influence voters to say "yes," and independent monitors denied access.

The vote comes a day after clashes between Morsi's opponents and supporters in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. It was the latest outbreak of street violence in more than four weeks of turmoil, with the country divided first over the president's powers then over the draft constitution.

The clashes ? in which opponents of Islamists set fire to cars and dozens of people were hurt ? illustrated how the new constitution, regardless of whether it is adopted or not, is unlikely to ease the conflict over the country's future.

In Fayoum, the capital of an oasis province of the same name where Islamist groups have traditionally had strong support, a member of the local Christian community said she also supported the charter.

Hanaa Zaki said she was also voting "yes" for stability and an end to the country's deepening economic problems. Most Christians elsewhere in the country are seen to oppose the draft.

Speaking as she waited in line along with bearded Muslim men and Muslim women wearing headscarves, Zaki said: "I have a son who didn't get paid for the past six months. We have been in this crisis for so long and we are fed up."

In the village of Sanaro, also in Fayoum province some 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Cairo, farmer Azouz Ayesh sat with his neighbors as their cattle grazed in a nearby field. "I don't trust the Brotherhood anymore and I don't trust the opposition either. We are forgotten, the most miserable and the first to suffer. If I say 'yes' there will be stability and if I say 'no' there will still be no stability," he said.

"But I will vote against this constitution," he added.

In the neighboring village of Sheikh Fadl, a car fitted with loudspeakers toured the area with a man shouting, "Yes, yes to the constitution!" In the city of Fayoum, a man could be seen painting over posters urging people to vote "no."

In Giza's upscale Mohandiseen neighborhood, a group of 12 women speaking to each other in a mix of French, Arabic and English said they all intended to vote "no."

"My friends are Muslim and are voting 'no.' It's not about Christian versus Muslim, but it is Muslim Brotherhood versus everyone else," said one of the 12, Christian physician Shahira Sadeq. "Voting 'yes' does not mean stability."

Kamla el-Tantawi, 65, voted with her daughter and grand-daughter. "I voted 'no' against what I'm seeing," she said, gesturing to a woman standing close by wearing the full-face veil known as niqab and as a hallmark of ultraconservative Muslim women. "I lose sleep thinking about my grandchildren and their future. They never saw the beautiful Egypt we did."

"Morsi, God willing, will be better than those who came before him," said Zeinab Khalil, a mother of three who wears the niqab, said. "A 'yes' vote moves the country forward. We want things to calm down, more jobs and better education," she said, while waiting for her turn to vote in Giza's poor Imbaba district, a one-time stronghold of militant Islamists.

In part, Egypt's split has been over who will shape the country's path nearly two years after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak nearly two years ago.

An opposition made up of liberals, leftists, secular Egyptians and a swath of the public angered over Morsi's 5-month-old rule fear that Islamists are creating a new Mubarak-style autocracy. They accuse the Brotherhood of monopolizing the levers of power and point to the draft charter, which Islamists on the Constituent Assembly rammed through despite a boycott by liberal and secular members. They are calling on supporters to vote "no."

Morsi's allies say the opposition is trying to use the streets to overturn their victories at the ballot box over the past two years. They also accuse the opposition of carrying out a conspiracy by former members of Mubarak's regime to regain power.

If the constitution is adopted, Morsi will call for the election of parliament's law-making lower chamber to be held within two months while giving the mostly toothless upper chamber legislative powers until the lower house is seated.

The upper chamber, known as the Shura Council, was elected by less than 10 percent of the country's 50 million registered voters. It is dominated by Islamists.

Morsi was already gearing up for the next steps after the constitution's passage, making a last-minute appointment of 90 new members to the Shura Council, a third of its total membership. Current rules allow him to do so, but if he waited until the charter was passed he could only appoint 10.

Friday's appointments added to the handful of non-Islamists in the upper house, but preserved the Islamists' overwhelming hold.

A spokesman for the main opposition umbrella National Salvation Front dismissed the appointments, accusing Morsi of setting up a token opposition much like Mubarak did.

___

Associated Press writer Maggie Michael reported from Fayoum, Egypt.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-12-22-Egypt/id-8978c17f29dd4670941f0a139a3beb07

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