Mediaboss Marketing

by Chris Boyde

As the organisers of Rally Isle of Man continue their preparations to bring the event back to the rallying calendar this September, they are now able to announce outline details of the timetable to assist all potential participants and visitors planning.

Regulations are set to be published in early July as entries open, however a pre-registration facility has been made available at rallyisleofman.co.im for anyone planning to participate in whatever capacity.

Wed urge everyone planning to be involved with the event, whether competitors, officials, media or spectators, to fill in the form asks Rally Chairman John Gill. Itll only take a few seconds but will help us keep you as up to date as possible, and be of enormous benefit to the myriad of planning work that needs to be undertaken to give you an enjoyable a rally as possible.

Both sections of the event, the Historic Rally and Druidale Motor Clubs Duke Stages Rally are set to run the entire three days under National B status, opening them up to as wide an audience as possible. The Duke Stages will cater for all MSA permitted vehicles. In addition a single day event is also planned, covering Saturdays stages.

To help increase flexibility in opportunities to visit the island for reconnaissance, it will be permitted over the weekends of 8/9th and 15/16th September as well as on Wednesday 19th/Thursday 20th.

Scrutineering and documentation will take place during morning and afternoon on Thursday 20th September (Friday 21st for the one-day Saturday event).

The event then blasts into action that evening with a two-cars-at-a-time action stage on Douglas promenade, with stages moving through Friday day and evening and onto Saturday, with the finish due late afternoon.

Ferries to both the UK and Ireland embark on Saturday night, so presentations will be made at the finish, however for those staying for the night there will also be a rally party you cant have a Rally Isle of Man without a party!

To help take the stress out of booking arrangements, the rally has teamed up with specialist trip planners Isle of Man Events Limited (iomevents.com). Theyll be only too happy to look after the planning for your entire trip, covering travel and accommodation, with great prices.

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Rally Isle of Man 2012 confirms timetable

DOUGLAS, Isle of Man--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

: The official licensed first day cover features the Royal Barge, Gloriana and two Manx vessels and is the ultimate souvenir from what is tipped to be the highlight of the Queens Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

The Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant will showcase one of the largest flotillas ever assembled on the Thames and the biggest collection of historic vessels. The Manx vessels: a lifeboat from the historic Lady of Mann ship (the last vessel present at Dunkirk to survive), now converted as a cabin cruiser and Vital Spark one of four replica Viking longboats built to be used in the annual World Viking longboat races held in the Isle of Man, will both form a special part of 1,000 vessels and 20,000 people on the Thames on June 3.

Dot Tilbury, General Manager Isle of Man Stamps & Coins, Isle of Man Post Office said: We are absolutely thrilled Her Majesty The Queen has approved this very special first day cover to celebrate such a historic event, which is expected to be the largest live public event ever held in London. It is particularly special to us as two vessels representing the Isle of Man will be showcased in the Pageant. A numbered limited edition of just 1,000, one for every boat in the Pageant, will be carried aboard a vessel in the flotilla and authenticated by the master of the vessel. Priced at just 10, I would encourage any Royal fan to pre-order their cover now to avoid disappointment.

This magnificent Jubilee keepsake will capture the essence of the days atmosphere and better still, a percentage of each sale will benefit the Thames Diamond Jubilee Foundation, the charitable trust set-up to raise funds for the charitable projects through The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust she added.

A piece of this historic day to keep is a must, so dont miss out. The first day cover will be officially issued on June 3 but can be pre-ordered now online at http://www.iomstamps.com or by calling +44-(01624)-698-430.

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Isle of Man Post Office: Queen Approves Unique Stamps to Celebrate the Centrepiece of Her Diamond Jubilee - the Thames ...

Jeffrey Webb of the Cayman Islands was officially elected as the new CONCACAF president on Wednesday after running unopposed.

The 47-year-old will complete the four-year term of Jack Warner, who was elected in May 2010 but resigned all of his positions in football in June after 20 years in the office.

Webb, who is also the president of the Cayman Islands Football Association, thanked the CONCACAF membership for demonstrating its faith in his ability to take the confederation forward.

Over the last year, our mission and our vision have been blurred, from lawyers, to audit reports to compensation, we have deviated from our mission, Webb said in his acceptance speech. I am here, we are here, because of our love for football; the passion for the game drives and motivates our every action.

Webb also serves as deputy chairman of the FIFA Internal Audit Committee and sits on the FIFA Transparency and Compliance Committee. In addition, he is chairman of the CONCACAF Youth Committee and completed his term as chairman of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Normalization Committee on Tuesday, following the organizations Ordinary Congress that was also held in Budapest, Hungary.

The events over the past year will not define and determine our destiny, Webb said. We have a responsibility to ensure that history isnt repeated. Let us use the events over the past year as a catalyst to promote positive change. Lets see it as an opportunity to return to the core values of the beautiful game the values which enchanted and sparked our love affair with this game.

Webb becomes the fourth president in CONCACAFs 51-year history: Ramn Coll Jaumet (Costa Rica, 1961-1968), Joaqun Soria Terrazas (Mexico, 1968-1990) and Warner (Trinidad and Tobago, 1990-2011). Honduran Alfredo Hawit has been serving as interim president since Warner stepped down.

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Cayman Islands native Webb elected CONCACAF president

Want to go to a strip club and have a few drinks?

Its likely youll first have to pay a tax, if a newly proposed bill becomes state law.

Calling it a sexually oriented business tax, Assemblyman Das Williams, D-Santa Barbara/Ventura, introduced a bill that would require a charge equal to $10 per customer who patronizes strip clubs that serve alcohol. The revenue collected from Assembly Bill 2441 would help fund vital services to victims of sexual and domestic violence, as well as cover the cost to process forensic exam (or rape) kits.

The bill states the fee would not be passed on to the entertainers, and it would be up to club owners to determine the manner in which they would pay the tax.

There is evidence that shows a nexus between (sexual) violence and strip club establishments, said James Joyce, spokesperson for Williams. There is an issue of funding being decreased, and there is definitely a need to fund these vital services.

According to the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA), Californias 84 rape crisis centers served around 30,000 victims in 2011. The states general fund contributed just $45,000 to all rape crisis centers combined, equating to about $1.50 per rape victim. The federal budget has an additional proposed cut of $800,000 to the rape set-aside fund in the 2012/2013 budget.

Its essential we create a new funding stream, said Sandra Henriquez, executive director of CALCASA. There are many elements of society that encourage and foster sexual objectification, which is at the root of sexual violence. Were not saying strip clubs cause rape, but they contribute to its climate. A sexually oriented business tax sets precedents that take the public health approach, and can use this money to change awareness and attitudes and looking at those linkages.

Henriquez compared the bills public health approach to that of the states cigarette tax.

Opposition to the bill comes from the Association of Club Executives (ACE), CalSmallBiz, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and Taxpayers for Improving Public Safety.

While helping sexual assault programs is a noble cause ultimately, arbitrary and excessive taxes on citizens who like adult entertainment is but a steppingstone to tax other business, said Angelina Spencer, ACE executive director. If you tax each patron $10 per head to enter a strip club, how long will it be before an official decides its a great idea to tax every patron who walks into a bar to fund alcoholism recovery? When we recognize that most people are rational actors capable of weighing the consequences and benefits of their actions, the need for a Nanny State tax is diminished.

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New bill may tax strip clubs to pay for rape services

Are your taxes too high? When Gallup asked that question in April, tax month in the United States, 46 per cent said they were. An additional 47 per cent said their taxes were about right. Just 3 per cent said their taxes were too low.

This campaign season reflects that result. Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate, is offering a 20-per-cent tax cut for everyone. Given the mood of the conservatives in the United States today, that may not surprise you. But even President Barack Obama, who is routinely described as a socialist by his opponents, is peddling a plan under which 99 per cent of Americans would pay less than they did under the last Democrat in the White House, Bill Clinton.

This bipartisan agreement that the overwhelming majority of Americans should pay lower taxes than they did in the 1990s is remarkable for many reasons. For one thing, we are constantly hearing and it is true that U.S. politics is more polarized than ever. But unless you are a member of the 1 per cent, on this core issue there is a lot more consensus than you might think. Political strategists on both sides, it turns out, know how to read poll data.

But the really surprising thing about the no-more-tax consensus is how much of an outlier it makes the United States compared both with the rest of the world and with itself in recent history. When it comes to foreign policy or to global economic dominance, American exceptionalism may indeed be in jeopardy. But when it comes to taxes, the United States is quite different from most other Western industrialized economies.

According to the International Monetary Fund, in 2011, among the worlds 30 leading Western economies (plus Japan), only in New Zealand and in Japan was government revenue a lower share of gross domestic product than in the United States. Countries like Australia, Estonia, Ireland and Switzerland, which tend to favour low taxes and a small state, have government revenue that accounts for more of GDP than does the United States.

The Internal Revenue Service is relatively restrained, too, compared with recent history. In 1945, at the close of the Second World War, federal tax receipts were 20.4 per cent of GDP (expenditures, by the way, were 41.9 per cent, putting the federal budget deficit at 21.5 per cent, compared with 8.7 per cent in 2011). In 1952, the year the Republican Dwight Eisenhower was elected president, federal government revenue was 19 per cent of GDP. In 1988, the last year of Ronald Reagans transformational conservative presidency, the federal tax take was 18.2 per cent.

Compare those figures with that of today, when a Democrat is in the White House, nearly half of Americans think their taxes are too high, and both parties are promising to keep taxes low for all, or, in the case of the Democrats, 99 per cent of Americans. In 2011, government revenue was 15.4 per cent of GDP, lower than it was at any time during the Eisenhower or Reagan eras. Like anorexics, who think they are grossly fat when they are very thin, the American body politic is suffering from a national version of body dysmorphia, with nearly half the country believing taxes are high, when they are comparatively and historically low.

Thomas Mann, the Brookings Institution scholar and co-author of an influential new book on the polarization of U.S. politics, traces American thinking about taxes to the success of conservatives, particularly of the anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist, in steering the national conversation.

This is more of an elite phenomenon, Mr. Mann said. Its ideological. Its tribal now because of the Grover Norquist taxpayer pledge. Its as if Republicans, even if they think in more pragmatic terms, are not allowed to even consider raising taxes and certainly should be pushing at all times to cut taxes further Its become Scripture.

One cant talk rationally or on any evidence-based discussion of tax policy, he said. Its assumed cutting taxes always does good.

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Democrats lack backbone in their tax policies