He is Still a Citizen! Making a case why Kanye West deserves to be in Jail

January 31, 2014 11:33 PM
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kanye West will not face criminal charges over an incident in which he apparently punched a man in a Beverly Hills chiropractor's office, prosecutors determined Friday.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office rejected a battery case against the rapper because he had reached a civil settlement with the man and there were no significant injuries documented after the altercation.

I think this is complete Hogwash. It doesn't Matter that they settled in a civil lawsuit. He should still be charged for his CRIME, it is a misdemeanor. The District Attorney who is dropping the charges, even though Kanye West is still currently fighting another Assault and Battery case, which he is on Informal Probation.

For us Citizens, if we were caught committing a same or like-able offense while on probation, it's automatic sentencing. Why should he get special treatment?

#ArrestKanyeWest

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Rafael Cruz - The FAMiLY Leadership Summit - YouTube

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'via Blog this'

Obama is the biggest threat to our country, Impeach him Now!

Oliver Stone: Obama a wolf in sheep's clothing


Published on Dec 28, 2012
RT's Abby Martin sits down with Academy Award Winning Director, Oliver Stone, and Historian Peter Kuznick, to talk about US foreign policy and the Obama administration's disregard for the rule of law.

Mass Murderer Charles Manson Has New Music Release

Charles Manson Releases new Album, click here for details!

Police and protesters clash in Anaheim as City Council meets

Anaheim police and protesters were clashing Tuesday evening outside City Hall as bottles were thrown and police chased people on the streets and sidewalks.

A chaotic scene was unfolding as officers clad in riot gear made one arrest, according to Sgt. Bob Dunn of the Anaheim Police Department.

Sirens wailed as officers formed a skirmish line and police from Tustin and other jurisdictions poured into the city. The City Council was meeting in the wake of two deadly police shootings.

Joel Mathew Acevedo was shot and killed after he fired at an officer Sunday night. A day earlier, Manuel Angel Diaz was killed after running from police on Anaheim's east side.

Earlier Tuesday, protesters stormed up Anaheim City Hall steps and surrounded the council chambers to speak out about recent accusations of police brutality, the fourth day of such demonstrations.

More than 100 people came to protest, clutching signs that read, "Jail killer cops," and "No justice, no peace."

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GOP forcing Ron Paul Supporters to sign 'loyalty oaths' to Mitt Romney

GOP forcing Ron Paul Supporters to sign 'loyalty oaths' to Mitt Romney

California's Stockton Opts to File for Bankruptcy

In opting to become the nation's largest city to seek federal bankruptcy protection, Stockton, Calif., took a rare financial step of last resort after struggling with the economic downturn, soaring pension costs and contractual obligations.

Only 13 cities, counties and other government entities filed for bankruptcy protection last year — the highest annual level in nearly two decades. Stockton, a river port of 290,000, was the seventh U.S. municipality to file this year and the first California city since Vallejo, which sought protection in 2008, according to James Spiotto, a Chicago bankruptcy attorney who tracks municipal bankruptcies.

"Filing bankruptcy is time-consuming, expensive and complicated," said Spiotto, noting that Vallejo spent millions of dollars alone on attorneys and other bankruptcy professionals. "And you never get the results you desire."

That's why experts are divided on whether other financially struggling cities, towns and other government entities will follow Stockton to bankruptcy court. Spiotto said it will be hard and expensive for Stockton to obtain financing.

Others say bankruptcy comes with non-monetary costs, too.

"Being in bankruptcy is decimating to your staff and morale," said Deborah Lauchner, Vallejo's finance director. "There's so much uncertainty. ... We've been taken apart and ripped by the seams and everybody examined us."

Since Congress added Chapter 9 to the bankruptcy code in 1937 to allow municipalities to seek protection, some 640 government entities have filed. Last year's 13 filings almost doubled the six filed in 2010. That was the most since an equal number were filed in 1994.

By comparison, roughly 1.5 million Americans file for personal bankruptcy a year while some 50,000 companies file for business bankruptcy.

"Bankruptcy is a huge drain on municipalities, because they have limited ways to create more revenue," said Los Angeles bankruptcy lawyer Karol Denniston.

Stockton City Manager Bob Deis said officials were left with little choice but to recommend bankruptcy after failing to hammer out finance agreements with creditors to address the city's $26 million budget shortfall.

"Unfortunately we have no comprehensive set of agreements with our creditors that would eliminate the deficit and avoid insolvency," Deis said at the City Council meeting Tuesday night. He said, however, that the city was still negotiating with some creditors and could reach deals with as many as one-third of them.

"We think Chapter 9 protection is the only choice left," Deis said. "If we get any agreements, those will be honored in Chapter 9."

The City Council on Tuesday voted 6-1 to adopt a special bankruptcy budget to address Stockton's $26 million shortfall if the city files for bankruptcy, as expected, by Friday.

The city has been hit hard by high crime and the collapse of the housing market in the past three years. It's also dealt with $90 million in deficits through a series of drastic cuts.

The new budget did not call for additional service cuts beyond those that earlier slashed the police force by one-fourth, the fire department by one-third and 40 percent of other city employees, along with wages and medical benefits.

The budget approved Tuesday night would suspend payments for debts and legal claims; reduce payments for retiree medical benefits; further cut some pay and benefits; and increase revenue through code enforcement and parking citations.

In standing room only chambers, former city employees told council members about their life-threatening medical conditions and said benefit cuts meant they would effectively lose their health insurance.

"For me, bankruptcy might as well be a life sentence," said Gary Jones, a retiree who used to be a police officer in Stockton and said he was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

Other residents complained about plummeting property values, and recurring break-ins and robberies.

"The average citizen will not put up with this. Their home prices have plummeted, they have no jobs, a lot of people are getting fed up so that they have to resort to crime." said Gregory Pitsch, a 22-year-old unemployed resident who made an unsuccessful run for mayor. "I'm asking you to make the right decision, not destroy the property values in this city, which bankruptcy will do."

But city officials said this Central Valley city in California's agricultural heartland has run out of options. In recent years, thousands of new homes mushroomed in Stockton, part of a suburban housing boom that attracted buyers from the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. When the economy crashed and the construction bubble burst, Stockton was battered by foreclosures and lost income from property taxes and other fees.

Under bankruptcy protection, officials would retain power over day-to-day city operations and staffing, but a judge would take over all decisions concerning the city's debts, said Robert Benedetti, professor of political science at the University of the Pacific in Stockton.

The judge would decide which creditors should be paid, how much and in what order. He would make allowances for expenditures needed by the city to function, and it would be up to city officials to decide how to spend that money.

"One of reasons a city might want to go the bankruptcy route is that they don't want a situation where they have to pay out debts and have to close the police or fire department," Benedetti said. "Filing for Chapter 9 means you're asking the court to protect you against lawsuits from people who hold your debt.

"Bankruptcy won't take away Stockton's underlying financial problems, one of which is the economy, the high unemployment rate and the high foreclosure rate," he said. "It will take years for them to come out of this.""

If Stockton files for bankruptcy, it would be the largest city by population to do so, according to Spiotto, the Chicago bankruptcy lawyer who tracks filings. He said Bridgeport, Conn., is currently the largest city to file for bankruptcy, which it did in 1991.

Jefferson County in Alabama is the largest local government bankruptcy filing to date in terms of the size of its debt. It occurred in November 2011 and was followed by Orange County, Calif., in 1994.

Stockton was the first city to test a new state mediation law, Assembly Bill 506, which is less than six months old.

Under the law, municipalities considering bankruptcy must first negotiate behind closed doors with creditors for up to three months, with the goal of settling debts without filing for Chapter 9 protection.

Bankruptcy lawyer Denniston, who helped draft the bill, said legislators in other states are interested in how the mediation process could be used elsewhere.

"Nationwide, we're faced with a ton of municipal distress," Denniston said, noting dire economic conditions, massive foreclosures and future pension obligations. "It's the perfect storm."

Video Clip of Britney Spears Saying she's "off to see the wizard!"

Britney Spears announces she's off to see the wizard... I've been waiting to meet her for 10+ years! Can't wait!

KATY PERRY IS A MARINE TOOL!

WATCH AND LISTEN

Right Now He's Scaring the Republican Party

Viewpoints: Clear Channel violates First Amendment rights Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/03/25/4362382/clear-channel-violates-first-amendment.html#storylink=cpy

By Sue Wilson
Special to The Bee

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/03/25/4362382/clear-channel-violates-first-amendment.html#storylink=cpy

The First Amendment protection of freedom of speech is a treasure. I stand up for the rights of Rush Limbaugh, Garry Trudeau, Bill Maher and everyone else to have their say, whether I agree or not (outside incitement to violence). I do not condone censorship.

But private censorship has crept into our public airwaves, and we must stand against it.

I'm not talking about newspapers that didn't print Trudeau's Doonesbury strip, a daily 30-second read. Newspapers are private enterprise: Anyone with enough capital can start a newspaper and write what they will. Nor cable programs like "Real Time with Bill Maher," which produced 35 hours of lefty snark in 2011. Cable TV is private enterprise: when people write a check to Comcast or Direct TV, they pay private contractors, via cable or satellite, to bring programs from Playboy to Disney into their homes.

I'm talking about local TV and especially local radio, where a host like Limbaugh dominates the dial with right-wing commentary for about 750 hours each year. Broadcasting is a public-private partnership: The public owns the airwaves needed for transmission; private businesses own the buildings, equipment, etc. needed to broadcast programming. When private business goes into broadcasting, it makes a deal with the public: a free license from the Federal Communication Commission if it agrees to "serve the public interest, convenience and necessity."

Broadcasting differs from newspapers and cable; the number of frequencies available in one community are few, so only a limited number of local stations are possible. Physical scarcity is the foundation of all broadcast law.

In Sacramento, Clear Channel Communications broadcasts about 190 hours per week of one-sided political talk over three giant stations, KFBK-AM, KGBY-FM and AMFM Holding's KSTE-AM. Clear Channel management disputed that at a recent meeting with Media Action Center, Sacramento Media Group and Occupy Sacramento. But general manager Jeff Holden said he's very comfortable airing only one-sided political talk on three stations – during an election year.

But Clear Channel is violating the First Amendment rights of all who equally own the public airwaves, disagree with right-wing politics, but are not allowed to be heard at all. It is a matter of access, says the Supreme Court.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/03/25/4362382/clear-channel-violates-first-amendment.html#storylink=cpy

Gov. Brown's tax-the-rich pitch looks like a winner

— Paul Whitefield

Photo: Gov. Jerry Brown speaks at a news conference at a Boeing plant in Long Beach. Credit: Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times

Californians don’t actually hate taxes. They just don’t want to pay taxes.

Huh?

No, that’s not a contradiction. As my colleague Anthony York reported in Sunday’s Times:

California voters strongly support Gov. Jerry Brown's new proposal to increase the sales tax and raise levies on upper incomes to help raise money for schools and balance the state's budget, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll.

Sixty-four percent of those surveyed said they supported the governor's measure, which he hopes to place on the November ballot. It would hike the state sales tax by a quarter-cent per dollar for the next four years and create a graduated surcharge on incomes of more than $250,000 that would last seven years. A third of respondents opposed the measure.

Brown's new plan, rewritten recently amid pressure from liberal activist and union groups that had a competing proposal, relies on a larger share of revenue from upper-income earners than his original measure. Correspondingly, it leans less upon sales taxes, which are paid by all California consumers. The poll shows that taxing high earners is overwhelmingly popular.

You see: Californians aren’t opposed to tax increases — as long as it is someone else being taxed.

You want to raise my taxes? Over my dead body!

You want to raise taxes on the rich? As Oliver Twist might say, “More please.”

Or, as The Times story said:

"These poll results illustrate that Brown was very smart to put together this initiative the way he did," said Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC.

Well, yes. Go ahead with all those “Gov. Moonbeam” jokes if you want, but Brown is no dummy. The state needs money. Republicans in the Legislature act as if raising taxes violates one of the Ten Commandments. Californians believe, wrongly, that they are taxed to death (or rightly, that the Legislature needs to get a grip on how it spends tax dollars).

The solution? Pick on the rich. Because here’s what that strategy buys you:

Shirley Karns, 74, an independent voter from the Northern California town of Lakeport who backs the governor's new plan, said the wealthy should pay more.

"Those who have an unbelievable amount more than those who do not should contribute more," she said. "And on the sales tax, the more you buy, the more you pay. It's pretty tough on low-income people who have to pay an extra nickel here and there, but we've got to get the money from somewhere."

Shirley, we can safely assume, does not qualify for membership in the California millionaires club. (Nor, apparently, does she buy a lot of big-ticket items.)

Of course, these are just poll results. Poll results don’t matter as much as what happens when people step into that private little place called a voting booth. (See: L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley, governor’s race, 1982.)

But with the state’s education system crumbling, its infrastructure eroding and its budget bathed in red ink, a tax increase certainly appears to be at least one part of the solution.

And here’s betting that most Californians will agree in November — especially if they’re not the ones who’ll feel the pain.

California Court of Appeals Hears Facebook Privacy Case

Lonnie Wong
FOX40 News
6:30 p.m. PDT, March 23, 2012


SACRAMENTO—
Attorneys made arguments before a three judge panel today in Sacramento on whether postings on Facebook are constitutionally protected.

The case involves a jury foreman on a case in which five men were convicted in a gang beating. That juror posted observations during jury deliberations, which were seen by another juror on the trial that he befriended on Facebook.

During a court hearing in which the juror was given immunity, he admitted to the posts, one of which he said the proceedings were "boring."

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Facebook refused to comply with a subpoena seeking his posts, and another court ruled that a subpoena of the information from the juror's attorney was “overbroad." The trial judge then ordered the juror himself to turn over the posts.

The juror's attorney, FOX40 legal analyst Ken Rosenfeld, argued the Stored Communications Act protects online communications on social media sites like Facebook. He also asserted that the request by the judge was a violation of First and Fourth Amendment rights to free speech and privacy.

When Rosenfeld was asked by one justice if the federal law even applied because Facebook was not forced to turn over the material, he contended that the law applies both to Facebook and the individual using it.

"We have to have a fair system in which jurors can feel comfortable knowing that their private lives are not going to be intruded upon in reaching verdicts and making decisions," Rosenfeld told FOX40.

But attorneys for the five men who were convicted say their clients also have a constitutional right to a fair trial. They say the juror disregarded daily instructions not to communicate anything about the case and there was other evidence that he acted to prejudice the decision. Justice Louis Mauro asked if there shouldn't be some balance in the rights of the juror and those of the defendants.

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RON PAUL: ‘IT’S ABOUT TIME’ GOP RIVALS MOVE HIS WAY ON AFGHANISTAN

Reports National Journal:

Paul won standing ovations from some 4,600 people on Wednesday night at a University of Illinois rally–his largest turnout ever–for his calls to “bring our troops home!” He also told the crowd, made up mostly of college students, that “the other candidates on our side are saying we need to fight more wars.”

Asked by CBS News/National Journal about recent comments by Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum that the United States should review its commitment in Afghanistan and possibly back off, Paul replied, “It’s about time.”

“But they’re what we call chicken hawks. And they talk a lot, they push the wars, they themselves haven’t gone, and they don’t serve, and yet they … promote the wars,” he said of his rivals, who talk often of taking military action against Iran to keep it from getting a nuclear weapon.

“Sure, the politics are changing, and that’s great. We’re changing people’s minds. The American people are sick and tired of it,” Paul said…

Dozens arrested protesting education cuts at California

By Greg Lewis

SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - Dozens of protesters angry over fee hikes and budget cuts at California's public universities were arrested on Monday night during a boisterous but peaceful demonstration inside the state Capitol building.

The arrests capped a day in which hundreds of students and others marched on the statehouse and rallied outside the Capitol before many of the activists moved the demonstration inside the building, clogging hallways in and around the rotunda.

One group chanted, "No cuts, no fees. Education must be free," as they sat crossed-legged on the black-and-white tiled floor of the statehouse. The California Highway Patrol, which provides security for the building, said the demonstrators had a permit to protest inside the Capitol until 5:30 p.m. local time, and then were ordered to leave.

Police warned the protesters seven times after the building closed at 6 p.m. that they faced arrest for trespassing if they failed to disperse, and officers moved in to begin taking the demonstrators into custody at about 7:30 p.m.

"We wanted to give them every opportunity," CHP Captain Andy Menard said, adding that the estimated 45 to 50 demonstrators arrested were all given one last chance to leave the building before they were taken into custody.

"The ones who didn't are going to jail," he said.

The demonstration drew words of support from Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, who issued a statement saying the protesters "are reflecting the frustration of millions of Californians who have seen their public schools and universities eroded year after year."

He urged public support for a ballot initiative in November calling for a temporary tax increase to raise additional revenues for public education in the state, which is facing a $9.2 billion budget shortfall.

Some of the demonstrators also sought to collect signatures for a petition to put a measure on the ballot that would impose an extra 1 percent tax on individuals with annual incomes of $1 million or more.

(Additional reporting by Adam Weintraub; Editing by Steve Gorman and Tim Gaynor)

Veterans for Ron Paul Rally at White House

This Got Sidelined completely by the MSM.... post to as ,many of your friends as possible!
By Matthew Larotonda

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Current and former service members staged a rally outside the White House today in support of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul.

Several hundred troops and their supporters attended the event. The veterans were men and women, young and old, some in uniform and some in plain clothes.

The demonstration was a mostly silent affair, with the veterans standing calmly at attention in rows. An organizer bellowed that each second of quiet was for every military suicide since President Obama took office. A second moment of silence was for each soldier to die abroad under the current commander in chief.

One protester held a sign reading “Don’t let anybody make you think that God chose America to be a policeman of the whole world.” The line was paraphrased from remarks by Dr. Martin Luther King regarding the Vietnam War.

There were few picket signs, but some tea party symbols were present.

The event concluded with an organizer parading the procession away, complete with color guard.

Ron Paul shares an unusually high percentage of supporters in the military compared to the other candidates and it shows in his campaign funding. The Center for Responsible Politics reports the candidate touted more than $95,000 between September 2011 and January in individual donations from current and former members of the military, higher than any other candidate. Obama comes in second at roughly $72,000.

It is an attribute the libertarian lawmaker is quick to highlight on the campaign trail.

As a former Air Force flight surgeon, he is the only former serviceman campaigning for president.

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Paul talks hemp, federal regulation in ND visit

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul praised hemp as an alternative crop and said a free-market approach would protect the nation's environment Monday during North Dakota campaign stops that drew hundreds of cheering supporters.

North Dakota, which is holding Republican presidential caucuses March 6, is one of 13 states with a caucus or primary from Feb. 28 to March 6. North Dakota has 28 delegates to the Republican National Convention in August, although the caucus results will not dictate how any of them vote.

Paul campaigned in Williston, Dickinson, Jamestown and Bismarck on Sunday and Monday, following rival Rick Santorum's swing through Fargo, on the Minnesota border, and the northwestern oil-country town of Tioga last week.

In Jamestown, about 100 miles east of Bismarck, Paul was critical of the federal government's ban on the cultivation of industrial hemp, a crop that is related to marijuana but does not have its mind-affecting properties.

Industrial hemp is grown in neighboring Canada and other countries, where it is used to make paper, lotions, clothing and biofuels.

North Dakota's Legislature and Agriculture Department have pushed allowing hemp to be grown in the state. A state lawmaker who wanted to cultivate the crop filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against the Drug Enforcement Administration, seeking a declaration that doing so would be legal.

"There is no reason, in a free society, that farmers shouldn't be allowed to raise hemp," Paul said during a Jamestown appearance that drew about 300 people. "Hemp is a good product."

In Bismarck, where the Republican congressman spoke to about 1,200 people Monday night in the gymnasium of a private Christian school, Paul said enforcement of private property rights would be sufficient to protect citizens against pollution, rather than relying on the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

"The more socialized a system is, the worse the property is, and the worse the environment is," Paul said. "We should never be bashful about saying we believe in property rights ... and we don't have to give one inch and say that we're careless with the environment, because you don't have a right to pollute your neighbor's property."

In North Dakota's Republican presidential caucuses in 2008, Paul finished third behind Mitt Romney and John McCain, getting 21 percent of the almost 9,800 votes case.

Duane Sattler, of Richardton, was one of the sign-carrying Paul supporters who attended his Bismarck speech. His son, 13-year-old Shawn Sattler, sat nearby, waving an American flag.

"He's been standing alone a lot of times," Sattler said of Paul. "He votes for our personal freedoms, for sound money, and for less government and less taxes."

He became a Paul supporter during his presidential run in 2008, Sattler said. "I really went and did some research, and the deeper I dug, the more I liked the man," he said. "With the other candidates, the deeper I dug, the less I liked them."

YouTube enlists big-name help to redefine channels

By Ryan Nakashima, AP Business Writer | Associated Press – 7 hours ago
CULVER CITY, Calif. (AP) -- YouTube is enlisting Hollywood's help to reach a generation of viewers more familiar with smartphones than TV remotes. The online video giant is aiming to create 25 hours of programming per day with the help of some of the top names in traditional TV. The Google-owned site is spreading its wealth among producers, directors, and other filmmakers, using a $100 million pot of seed money it committed last fall. The fund represents YouTube's largest spending on original content so far.

YouTube believes it is laying groundwork for the future. While the number of traditional TV watchers has leveled off in recent years, more and more people are watching video on mobile phones, tablets and computers, especially the 18- to 34-year-old age demographic that advertisers covet. The idea is to create 96 additional YouTube channels, which are essentially artists' home pages, where viewers can see existing video clips and click "subscribe" to be notified when new content goes up.

Well-funded videos by a select roster of stars are likely to be more watchable than the average YouTube fare of cute cats and webcam monologues. YouTube is betting that a solid stream of good content will attract more revenue from advertisers, bring viewers back frequently and bolster its parent company's fledgling Web-connected-TV platform, Google TV.

The cash has enticed some of TV's biggest stars, including "Fast Five" director Justin Lin, who directs episodes of "Community," ''CSI" creator Anthony Zuiker and Nancy Tellem, the former president of CBS entertainment.

Zuiker is teaming up on a horror series for YouTube after observing his own family's behavior. His three pre-teen sons spend more time on phones, iPads and computers than watching TV these days.

"We want to jointly take the risk with YouTube and roll the dice on the future," Zuiker says. "The old regime is going to falter because everybody thinks the TV is the only device that really counts, and that's just not the case."

For producers, it's a chance to create shows that are completely free of meddling from major studios. They can also stay relevant with a younger crowd whose viewing is moving increasingly online.

Several new channels such as the extreme sports-focused Network A and Spanish-language Tutele have launched already. YouTube hopes to have them all up and running by this summer.

"This was really about galvanizing the ecosystem at large," says Alex Carloss, global head of original programming for YouTube. "We see the portfolio (of funded channels) really representing the best of TV meeting the best of the Web."

YouTube isn't the only Web video service that has started to pay for original content. Netflix Inc. recently launched the original series "Lilyhammer," while Hulu premiered "Battleground." But YouTube videos tend to be under 10 minutes, instead of fitting into traditional half-hour or hour-long TV slots. And aside from a few guidelines, ultimate control is given over to the artist, including what is uploaded and when new episodes appear. YouTubers also get away with far edgier stuff than the middle finger that rapper M.I.A. flashed during the Super Bowl halftime show.

Although YouTube's entire investment is less than half of what some studios spend on one blockbuster movie, about a third of the new channels were awarded to scrappy YouTube veterans who already know how to make it big online while keeping production costs low.
YouTube expects to recoup what it spends on the grants by sharing ad revenue the new videos generate.

At Maker Studios, which received money for three new channels, the funds have turbo-charged an already teeming operation that has about 160 full-time staff spread across several buildings crammed with props and computers in the west Los Angeles suburb of Culver City.

On a recent visit, two scenes were being shot in an alley. One was for a parody of a Christmas movie trailer. The other was for a new series about a crime-fighting van called "Si, Es I, Pepe."

Maker cranks out about 300 YouTube videos each month at a bare-bones cost of about $1,000 each.

The studio's videos generate a whopping 500 million views each month, thanks largely to established hits that include Ray William Johnson's roundup of crazy videos and such viral giants as "Epic Rap Battles of History."

Advertisers pay up to $10 per thousand views for video ads that precede the featured content, according to TubeMogul, a major buyer of YouTube ads for the nation's biggest advertisers including Proctor & Gamble Co. and News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox movie studio. Established YouTube partners share roughly half of their revenue with the site. So if Maker videos generate $1 or $2 in ad revenue per thousand views, it would just be scraping by.

Maker co-founder Danny Zappin, who quit film school to buy a high-end camera to start a career on YouTube, says it's a "tricky balance" to keep the studio's share of ad revenue higher than the cost of video-making. The undisclosed amount it got from YouTube, on top of the $4 million venture capital it received about a year ago, lets Maker put up more videos without waiting for the views and cash to roll in. "It gives us resources and runway that we wouldn't otherwise have," Zappin said.

For other less-established players in online video, the money has given them an added reason to get involved.

Former CBS executive Tellem teamed up with TV entrepreneur Brian Bedol to create Bedrocket Media Ventures, an upstart production company behind several new YouTube channels, including Network A. The funding "allowed us, or caused us, to focus on YouTube ahead of other platforms," Bedol says.

Analysts believe YouTube has made a wise investment at a time ad rates for online video are rising.

YouTube can be successful with just a few big hits — think of Rebecca Black's "Friday" — even if thousands of videos fall flat. It's similar to the hit-or-miss approach to traditional TV and movies.

"The investor community does not look at this as money wasted," Macquarie analyst Ben Schachter says.

Since promising to share ad revenue with its most popular uploaders in 2007, YouTube has invested in original content mainly by paying for equipment and training new artists, but it was never as big as this.

Backing up its new strategy, YouTube also revamped its homepage to prioritize channels and recommendations above just the most-viewed videos. The revamp allows advertisers to target popular channels or categories of content more easily.

YouTube's funding plan takes a page from Apple Inc.'s playbook. When the iPhone maker launched its App Store in 2008, a $100 million seed fund created by Silicon Valley investor John Doerr spawned hundreds of thousands of new apps.

"Our developers are not software engineers," YouTube's vice president of global content partnerships, Robert Kyncl, told a convention in January. "Our developers are Hollywood stars, are online stars, are regular folks like you and I."

If nothing else, the injection of funds will spawn content never before been seen on any screen, large or small.

"Fast Five" director Lin, who is teaming up with YouTube stars Ryan Higa and Kevin "KevJumba" Wu on the "YOMYOMF" channel, said his focus is not to try to find audiences with stereotypical Asian-American content. Rather, the idea is to give a platform to people who have unique voices but haven't been heard yet.

He says Higa and Wu didn't follow any set rules when they jumped to popularity with a mix of oddball humor, brutal honesty and rap. "They just did what they loved, and people came," Lin said. "If we're going to fail, I would rather go out with that philosophy."
___ Online: KassemG's parody of Christmas movies, http://bit.ly/yzTt5i Si, Es I, Pepe, http://bit.ly/AquLL8 Epic Rap Battles of History, http://bit.ly/xsjKks Ray William Johnson, http://bit.ly/wYDiaC YOMYOMF, http://bit.ly/ygxnuH Network A, http://bit.ly/wDeiZY Anthony Zuiker's partner, BlackBoxTV, http://bit.ly/yQFM13