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Republican panic at the prospect of facing Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race has suddenly reached Godzilla-nearing-Tokyo proportions.

The election is more than two years away, and Clinton hasnt even decided whether to run. But none of this seems to matter to the GOP strategists and spinmeisters who are launching the whole arsenal at her smears, innuendo, false charges. Already, theyve moved beyond distorting her record to simply making stuff up.

As these damp squibs clatter harmlessly to the ground, its useful to remember that Clinton has seen it all before. And I mean all . Anyone who thinks shell be rattled or intimidated hasnt been paying attention the past few decades.

If anything, Republicans are succeeding in raising Clintons profile and perhaps making her a more sympathetic figure. This was certainly the impact of Karl Roves smarmy and unfounded recent speculation about her health.

In December 2012, Clinton, ill with a virus, fell in her home and suffered a concussion, spent three days in the hospital, wore corrective glasses briefly for double vision meanwhile going back to work as secretary of state and made what to all appearances was a full recovery.

Rove grossly inflated the episode to 30 days in the hospital and traumatic brain injury. Appearing later on Fox News, he insisted that Clintons health is going to be an issue. The Clinton camp responded that there are no words for this level of lying and gave assurances that Clinton is in perfect health. But Roves intent was clear: Fabricate an issue, toss it out and see if it sticks.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), an all-but-announced candidate for the GOP nomination, was even less subtle, claiming that Clintons term at the State Department was characterized by massive failures. He mentioned her inability to get Russian President Vladimir Putin to behave like a model citizen something that no secretary of state, as I recall, has managed to do. Oh, and he mentioned Benghazi.

Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi. ... Get used to that name, because youll hear it a zillion times if Clinton runs. Weve seen from her appearances before Congress, however, that she answers questions about the tragedy forcefully and well. I wouldnt bet my political future on the dubious prospect that shell meekly go away if the Benghazi chant is raised to a din.

Given that Clintons actual record at State is unpromising for Republicans to attack, there is now an effort to foul the atmospherics of her tenure. Most far-fetched is the suggestion that Boko Haram might not have kidnapped those nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls if Clinton had pushed against the advice of diplomats, experts and the Nigerian government to designate the group as a terrorist organization. There is no basis for this unlikely notion. Boko Haram has been on the terrorist list since November, and it didnt stop them.

If she runs, this wont be Clintons first rodeo. It wont be the first time that bitter opponents have spun a false history out of whole cloth and tried to pin it on her. The paranoid fantasy over Vince Fosters suicide comes to mind.

Read this article:
Robinson: Clinton gets the GOP treatment

May 14, 2014: Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addresses the American Jewish Committee Global Forum closing plenary in Washington.AP

WASHINGTON Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday she was "personally skeptical" that Iran would agree to a comprehensive deal to remove its nuclear weapon capabilities but said the Obama administration faced a promising opportunity that required it to "give diplomacy space to work."

Clinton told the American Jewish Committee that American negotiators needed to be "tough" and "clear-eyed" as they conduct nuclear talks but said the ongoing talks in Vienna between six world powers and Iran represented an opportunity to reduce Iran's potential nuclear weapons-making ability. The talks are being conducted ahead of a July 20 target date for a deal.

"To get there we will have to be tough, clear-eyed and ready to walk away and increase the pressure if need be. No deal is better than a bad deal," Clinton said, adding that any agreement that endangers U.S. or Israeli national security should be rejected.

But Clinton called it a "promising development and we need to test it to see what can be achieved. This is a time to give diplomacy space to work. If it does not, there will be opportunities to put in place additional sanctions in the future."

As she considers a potential 2016 presidential campaign, Clinton's speech to the prominent Jewish organization represented one of her most vigorous defenses of her tenure at the State Department and highlighted her work to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions and promote peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

At a separate, evening forum at the World Bank to discuss gender equality, Clinton again pointed to her work to increase opportunities for women and girls around the world during her time at the State Department. A longtime women's rights champion, that piece of Clinton's biography is likely to play a prominent role should she decide to make a 2016 bid.

"I think of it as the glass half full," Clinton said of women's rights.

"I am increasingly impatient with leaders who willfully ignore the injustice that accompanies the subjugation of women and the upside of change for them and their societies. ... Be impatient. Don't be discouraged."

Sitting on stage with Clinton, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim noted he had flown to Washington that morning after spending time with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

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Hillary Clinton: No Iran nuclear deal better than 'bad deal'

PROVIDENCE, R.I. A lawyer for former House Speaker Gordon Fox told a judge Thursday more than 100 grand jury subpoenas have been issued in what he said he believes is a wide-ranging investigation by federal and state authorities that includes looking at the failed 38 Studios deal.

The attorney made the comments before Superior Court Judge Michael Silverstein as he sought to quash a subpoena issued to Fox for a range of documents related to ex-Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling's now-bankrupt company. Silverstein is overseeing a lawsuit brought by the state's economic development agency over the $75 million loan guarantee it gave 38 Studios.

"We believe it's a wide-ranging investigation," attorney Albin Moser told the judge, adding that they don't know exactly what authorities are looking for.

The Providence Democrat resigned as speaker in March, a day after his Statehouse office and home were raided by investigators. Authorities have not said what they're investigating.

In his arguments, Moser cited Fox's constitutional protection against self-incrimination. Moser said he doesn't believe that a charge against Fox is merited with regard to 38 Studios, but that "we do believe that federal and state authorities are interested" in the company. He called their interest "a link in the chain of a possible prosecution" that triggers the ex-speaker's right to invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege.

Moser wouldn't say after the proceeding whether the subpoenas are from a state or federal grand jury and declined further comment.

A federal grand jury has been meeting relating to the raid on Fox's Statehouse office, and a federal grand jury has issued at least one subpoena to Providence City Hall, which was asked for records relating to Fox. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office would not comment.

While state police say their probe into 38 Studios is ongoing, it's not clear whether a state grand jury is investigating. A spokeswoman for the attorney general's office said she could not comment.

The judge is giving Moser more time to make his case to have the subpoena thrown out. Attorneys for Wells Fargo, which issued it, object. The company is among 14 defendants named in the state agency's suit, along with Schilling.

Also in court Thursday, an attorney for one defendant told the judge a potential witness who had a consulting agreement with 38 Studios told his attorney he intended to invoke the Fifth Amendment in response to a subpoena for deposition testimony. However, Michael Corso's attorney told The Associated Press that was false. The deposition is scheduled for May 22.

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Attorney: Defense told Corso will take Fifth

In a recent Webmaster video,Matt Cutts confirmedthat Google has tried internal versions of its search engine that work entirely without links. The results are low-quality for now, he said. But this suggests that the value of the almighty link has come into question at Google, and they may be working on a version of the PageRank algorithm that doesnt depend so heavily on the link graph which means PageRank as we know it might be on the chopping block. But when?

In light of this, we asked some of our favorite SEO and inbound marketing experts to answer the following three questions:

We got great insights into the future of PageRank, links, and SEO from industry expertsAaron Wall,Rae Hoffman,Brett Tabke,Michelle Robbins,Julie Joyce,Rand Fishkin,Glenn Gabe,Barry Adams,Alan Bleiweiss,Larry Kim,Pete Meyers,Eric Enge, andDharmesh Shah(click their names to jump ahead). Prepare to have your mind blown!

Here are their answers, in no particular order:

Almost all individual signals lose value over time as more variables get added into the mix.

One could perhaps say that variables that are on the way up/gaining importance are an exception to this, but even in these cases as the search results become more ad-heavy it offsets some of those alleged gains.

Links have been losing weight for about a half-decade now due to the folding in of other metrics and increasing algorithmic and manual penalties. How far off x level of decline is really depends on loads of factors which are query and vertical dependent. Some queries are localized, some have paid vertical ads from Google, some have lots of usage data which can be folded in, some queries are mobile-centric, some queries have Google scraping-n-replacing the results with theirknowledge graph, etc. All these variations on search impact different areas to different degrees. In some areas SEO might still be profitable even for small businesses for another half-decade or decade to come. In other areas SEO will have close to a zero percent chance of being profitable unless it is done by one of the players which is already favored algorithmically before they consider investment into SEO.

And even in some of those cases which look great, Google can arbitrarily shift outcomes overnight on a vertical-wide basis. Look at the historical algorithmic performance on SEMRush for Ask.com and BizRate. One entity is an extension of the home team, while the other clearly is not.

As mentioned above, there are some vertical-based metrics Google can use for things like location or similar. And then there are a nearly limitless number of ways Google could count their passive tracking of users from logged in user accounts, Google Chrome, Google Android, Google Fiber, etc. Google can further use things like credit card registration, YouTube usage data, location, search history, Google+ activity, etc. to determine which user accounts to trust more than others.

The differential and deferentialpolicing of link-based activitiesis in effect a way of removing links, selectively.One way Google is uncounting links is through massive amounts of algorithmic and manual penalties. That in effect is a way of having links not count for some while allowing them to count for others. The broad distribution (and even amplification) of fear-based propaganda around links by various link analysis tool vendors only further removes some types of links from the link graph.

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The Future of PageRank: 13 Experts on the Dwindling Value of the Link by @egabbert

Dr. Ope Banwo - Amazing Story Of Africa #39;s Top Internet Business Consultant
http://www.opebanwo.com. Short video profile tells the amazing story of Dr. Ope Banwo, Africa #39;s Top Internet Marketing Consultant, currently making waves all over the world as a Speaker, Internet...

By: Ope Banwo

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Dr. Ope Banwo - Amazing Story Of Africa's Top Internet Business Consultant - Video