I have received an email for one of my Gmail accounts, advising me I can claim a cash settlement over Google Buzz.  I also received real ones did contain the key line below.   It is a phishing scam.

As a Gmail user in the United States, I just received an email that Google was obligated to send as a part of their class action lawsuit settlement regarding the way they introduced Google Buzz this past winter. The web site for the settlement is here and the PDF document that describes the settlement in detail can be found here.

Note that there is no cash settlement. For that matter, Gmail users pretty much don’t get anything. After the lawyers and expenses are paid, the rest will be distributed to organizations that “advance the privacy interests of internet users such as the Class Members.”

Here’s the key line from the email (straight from Google):

Just to be clear, this is not a settlement in which people who use Gmail can file to receive compensation.

So if you get an email asking you to send back personal information to “claim your share of the settlement cash” or directing you to a website to claim it, DON’T FALL FOR IT. It’s a scam. The only official website is linked above and it makes it pretty clear that you won’t get any cash compensation from it.

Just wanted to get this out before the inevitable scams start flooding your Inbox… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <The Business Protector>

Do not respond or give these people account information.

If you look at polls on almost any issue, the people side with the Democrats the vast majority of the time.  Given that fact, it should be a no brainer that Democrats should be a shoe-in come November, but that are not.  That’s the dilemma.  Now what?  Here are some ideas.

Victoria Newman is a proud Democrat who says that when she voted for Barack Obama in 2008, it was the most excited she’d been about politics in all her 58 years. But now, Democrats grasping to keep control of Congress will have to do without her.

Newman says she’s planning to stay home on Election Day.

As she pays for a package of corn muffins at a grocery store, Newman, a retired state employee who’s black, sums up her feelings about voting in November’s congressional elections with a dismissive flick of her wrist.

To retain House control, Democrats must find a way to reactivate core supporters and re-energize the independent and new voters who handed Obama the White House and swept Democrats into office.

It’s a tall order in dozens of competitive districts where enthusiasm for the president is at a low; even some of his strongest backers aren’t motivated to go to the polls.

The challenge is boosting Republicans’ hopes of winning the 40 seats they need to seize the House in a year when a sagging economy and disillusionment with Obama have created a grim outlook for the majority party.

National surveys show Republicans are far more enthusiastic than Democrats about the election. The latest Associated Press-GfK Poll found Obama voters are much less attuned to the fall contests than are those who supported Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona in the 2008 presidential race… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <AP/Google>

Part of the problem is Democratic mistakes.  Even before Obama’s inauguration Republicans were in full attack mode.  Democrats should have counterattacked forcefully.  Instead, they spent a year and a half accomplishing what they could in the face of unyielding opposition, and kissing elephant butt trying to get just a vote or two, which rarely happened.  They accomplished some good things, but when they did, the Republicans attacked the accomplishments.  Now from a media perspective, and bot even counting the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda at Fox, attacks are better infotainment than accomplishments and sell no soap, so the public knows all about the attacks, but very little about the accomplishments.  Thus, Democrats allowed Republicans to dominate the news.

Part of the problem is that the economy has not recovered, as voters hoped it would.  I and other well informed people knew it would not, because the Republican damage to the economy was far too severe to undo in the short term.  Adding to the problem, Obama appointed Geithner, Bernanke and Summers, banksters all, in the mistaken belief that only someone who knew the system could save it.  Republican obstruction also slowed recovery.

At this point, our best hope is to educate voters about the nature of the choice before them.  With all the Democrats’ flaws, they are far better for the poor and middle classes than the Republicans, because Democrats represent the majority of Americans.  Republicans, on the other hand, have demonstrated that they only have one policy: No Millionaire Left Behind.  That is the choice.

Consider this ad from Barbara Boxer (H/T Daily Kos)

Barbara has the right idea, here.  We need to focus the choice on this.  Who should represent America, the party that governs on behalf of most Americans or the party that governs on behalf of the top 1%?