Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Mr Ahmadinejad calls himself a friend of the people

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was elected Iran's president in June 2005, was an obscure figure when he was appointed mayor of Tehran in the spring of 2003.

He was not much better known when he entered the presidential election campaign, although he had already made his mark as Tehran mayor for rowing back on earlier reforms.

Since his election he has taken a tough stand on a number of foreign policy matters, in line with his hard-line background.

His comments that Israel should be "wiped off the map" and that the Holocaust was a "myth" drew widespread condemnation from the West.

Revolutionary credentials

Mr Ahmadinejad was born in Garmsar, near Tehran, in 1956, the son of a blacksmith, and holds a PhD in traffic and transport from Tehran's University of Science and Technology, where he was a lecturer.

There has been confusion about his role in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Several of the 52 Americans who were held hostage in the US embassy in the months after the revolution say they are certain Mr Ahmadinejad was among those who captured them.

New leader in his own words

He insists he was not there, and several known hostage-takers - now his strong political opponents - deny he was with them.

His website says he joined the Revolutionary Guards voluntarily after the revolution, and he is also reported to have served in covert operations during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

When he became mayor of Tehran, the former revolutionary guard curtailed many of the reforms put in place by the moderates who had run the city before him.

Iran's outgoing reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, barred Mr Ahmadinejad from attending cabinet meetings, a privilege normally accorded to mayors of the capital.

Mr Ahmadinejad reportedly spent no money on his presidential campaign - but he was backed by powerful conservatives who used their network of mosques to mobilise support for him.

He also had the support of a group of younger, second-generation revolutionaries known as the Abadgaran, or Developers, who are strong in the Iranian parliament, the Majlis.

His presidential campaign focused on poverty, social justice and the distribution of wealth inside Iran.

Hard-line approach

During his campaign, he also repeatedly defended his country's nuclear programme, which has worried the US and European Union.

Once in power, he made a defiant speech at the UN on the nuclear issue and refused to back down on Tehran's decision to resume uranium conversion.

He continued his defiance despite the reporting of Iran's nuclear programme to the UN Security Council and the possible threat of sanctions.

He said no power could take away Iran's right to nuclear fuel technology.

Mr Ahmadinejad has maintained a hard line with the US, with whom diplomatic ties were broken in 1979.

At home, he banned Western and "indecent" music from state-run TV and radio stations in December 2005.

However, BBC analyst Sadeq Saba says there have been moves inside Iran to rein in the president.

'Confrontational'

Powerful figures such as former President Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani believe Mr Ahmadinejad's confrontational approach has backfired.

They say the US struggled to report Iran to the Security Council for a long time, but with Mr Ahmadinejad's help Washington got what it wanted in a few months.

Mr Ahmadinejad has now made some small-scale concessions to moderates. He said he would not be confrontational in enforcing a campaign in Tehran to insist women obeyed Iran's strict Islamic dress codes.

He has also allowed women into major sporting events for the first time since 1979.

Mr Ahmadinejad maintains a populist streak, calling his personal website Mardomyar, or the People's Friend.

He also has a reputation for living a simple life and campaigned against corruption.

Iran's new President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has already given the world an idea of his plans for the country. The following are quotes from Mr Ahmadinejad speaking before and after his surprise win in Friday's election.

ON WINNING THE ELECTION

This is a great honour. But even greater is the honour to serve this nation, as mayor, president or road sweeper. It is no different. The greatest honour is to be certain that one is serving the great people of Iran.

ON GOVERNMENT POLICY

On the domestic scene, government policies will be based on moderation and any extremism will not only be avoided, but will be dealt with seriously.

ON RELATIONS WITH THE US

The policy of the Islamic Republic towards America has been stated repeatedly. With high self-esteem and self-confidence, our nation now is moving in the direction of development and perfection without really needing the United States.

ON US CRITICISM OF THE ELECTION

As for the US government calling the elections undemocratic, it is everyone's right to express their views. So many views are expressed around the world every day, but only those views that carry a bit of truth, reality and justice will be taken seriously.

ON RELATIONS WITH ISRAEL

I think that the situation of the leaders of the regime occupying Quds [Jerusalem] is too well-known for me to try to say something to other nations about it... Those individuals are the root cause of insecurity throughout the Middle East. They do not have the right to impose their views on others.

ON NUCLEAR POLICY

Peaceful nuclear technology is the product of scientific progress by the young people of this country. The Iranian nation has the right to advance in all peaceful scientific fields and have access to all facilities. We need this technology in the fields of energy, medicine and engineering and for our scientific progress and will continue pursuing it.

ON TALKS WITH THE EU

We will continue negotiations with the Europeans with the aim of safeguarding our national interests and emphasising the right of the Iranian nation to use peaceful nuclear energy.

ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Liberty is the very essence of the Islamic nation... We do not confine freedom to just two limited categories. We believe that there are 360 degrees of freedom. That means, the freedom to get involved in political, economic and cultural affairs, as well as in the running of the country... We are also truly concerned about certain powers' violation of human rights in the world. Today we are really concerned about the violation of the rights of religious and ethnic minorities in Europe.

ON WOMEN IN GOVERNMENT

Women play the most important role in Iran... My government will make decisions on merit. Gender boundaries will not influence my decision [on positions in the cabinet] at all.

ON THE ECONOMY

One of the main topics of our economic policy is the expansion of foreign and domestic investment... We will especially use our dear Iranians [currently living abroad] who are ready to take part in developing their country... The stock market will definitely be promoted, but of course there should be some reforms.

ON THE EXPANSION OF THE INTERNET

We cannot shut the doors to the country... We have a strong culture and we should allow it to grow.

source - news.bbc.co.uk

Bill O'Reilly

O'Reilly was born in New York City to Irish Catholic parents William and Angela O'Reilly, from Brooklyn, New York and Bergen County, New Jersey. His father was an accountant for the oil company Caltex. In 1951, his family moved to Levittown on Long Island.^[4] After graduating from Chaminade High School, a private Catholic boys high school in Mineola in 1967, O'Reilly attended Marist College, a small, co-educational private (and at the time, Catholic) institution in Poughkeepsie. While at Marist, O'Reilly played punter in the National Club Football Association,^[5] and was also a columnist and feature writer for the school's newspaper, The Circle. An honors student, he majored in history. He spent his junior year of college abroad, attending Queen Mary College at the University of London.^[6] O'Reilly received his B.A. in History in 1971. He played semi-professional baseball during this time, as a pitcher for the Brooklyn Monarchs. He unsuccessfully tried out for the New York Mets. O'Reilly later earned a masters degree in Broadcast Journalism from Boston University (where he attended school with shock jock Howard Stern) and another Master of Public Administration from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Broadcasting career

Bill O'Reilly in 1975 as the "Action Consumer trouble shooter" for ABC affiliate WNEP in Scranton, Pennsylvania.^[7]

After graduating from Marist College, O'Reilly moved to Miami, Florida at age 21, where he taught English and history at Monsignor Pace High School for two years. After leaving Miami, O'Reilly returned to school, earning a M.A. in Broadcast Journalism from Boston University in 1976. While attending Boston University, he was a reporter and columnist for various local newspapers and alternative news weeklies, including The Boston Phoenix. O'Reilly did his broadcast journalism internship in Miami during this time, and was also an entertainment writer and movie critic for The Miami Herald.

O'Reilly's early television news career included reporting and anchoring positions at WNEP-TV in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he also reported the weather. At WFAA-TV in Dallas, Texas, O'Reilly was awarded the Dallas Press Club Award for excellence in investigative reporting. He then moved to KMGH-TV in Denver, Colorado where he won a Local Emmy Award for his coverage of a skyjacking.^[8][9] O'Reilly also worked for KATU-TV in Portland, Oregon, as well as TV stations in Hartford, Connecticut (WFSB-TV), and in Boston, Massachusetts.^[9]

In 1980, he anchored his own program on WCBS-TV in New York where he won his second Local Emmy for an investigation of corrupt city marshals. In 1982, he was promoted to the network as a CBS News correspondent and covered the wars in El Salvador and the Falkland Islands from his base in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He later left CBS over a dispute concerning the uncredited use in a report by Bob Schieffer of riot footage shot by O'Reilly's crew in Buenos Aires during the Falklands conflict. (A 1998 novel by O'Reilly, Those Who Trespass: A Novel of Television and Murder, depicts a television reporter who has a similar dispute over a Falklands War report. The character proceeds to exact his revenge on network staff in a series of graphically-described murders.)^[10]

In 1986, O'Reilly joined ABC News as a correspondent for ABC World News Tonight.

In 1989, O'Reilly joined the nationally syndicated King World (now CBS) program Inside Edition, a tabloid/gossip television program in competition with A Current Affair. He started as senior correspondent and backup anchor for British TV host David Frost, and subsequently became the program's anchor after Frost's termination. In addition to being one of the first American broadcasters to cover the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, O'Reilly also obtained the first exclusive interview with murderer Joel Steinberg and was the first television host from a national current affairs program on the scene of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

In 1995, O'Reilly was replaced by former NBC News and CBS News anchor Deborah Norville on Inside Edition. He then enrolled at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he received a master's degree in Public Administration. After Harvard, he was hired by Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO of the then startup FOX News Channel, to anchor The O'Reilly Report. The show soon moved to a new time slot, and was renamed The O'Reilly Factor.

O'Reilly's radio program reaches 3.25 million-plus listeners and is carried by more than 400 radio stations.^[11] Conservative magazine NewsMax's "Top 25 Talk Radio Host" list selected O'Reilly to the #2 spot as most influential host in the nation.^[12]

Personal life

O'Reilly married Maureen E. McPhilmy, a public relations executive, in 1995. They have one daughter, Madeline, born in 1998, and a son, Spencer, born in 2003.

The O'Reilly Factor

Main article: The O'Reilly Factor

O'Reilly's television show, The O'Reilly Factor, is routinely the highest-rated show of the three major U.S. 24-hour cable news channels.^[13] The show is taped late in the afternoon at a studio in New York City and airs every weekday on the FOX News Channel at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

American Red Cross and the United Way

After the September 11 terrorist attacks, O'Reilly devoted substantial time on his television show and wrote pieces on the subject of how the United Way of America and American Red Cross failed to deliver millions of dollars in donated money, raised by the organizations in the name of the disaster, to the families of those killed in the attacks.^[14][15] In O'Reilly's view the organizations misrepresented their intentions for the money being raised by not distributing all of the 9/11 relief fund to the victims.^[16] Actor George Clooney defended the United Way. Congressional hearings were called on the matter and an investigation by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer took place. Bernadette Healey, the president of the Red Cross, resigned shortly thereafter.^[17] In sworn testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee in November 2001, Congressman J.D. Hayworth asserted that media pressure, most notably from O'Reilly, helped cause the Red Cross to increase payments to affected people and helped cause other charities to participate in an oversight database established by Spitzer.^[18]

Political beliefs and points of view

Main article: Politics of Bill O'Reilly

The O'Reilly Factor is a show which focuses on news related to politics most of the time, which O'Reilly then offers commentary about. Given the amount of time O'Reilly has been on the air, it is not surprising that his beliefs and views have been well chronicled on a variety of subjects.

He has recently adopted the term "traditionalist" when describing his points of view on various topics, saying the term is not limited to the normal party lines. In an interview with NPR, O'Reilly stated that:

"I'm not a political guy in the sense that I embrace an ideology. To this day I'm an independent thinker, an independent voter, I'm a registered independent ... there are certain fundamental things that this country was founded upon that I respect and don't want changed. That separates me from the secularists who want a complete overhaul of how the country is run." Interview

Controversy and criticism

Main article: Criticism of Bill O'Reilly

Over the years, O'Reilly has been criticized by or had disputes with rivals including Al Franken, Bill Moyers,^[19] George Clooney, Joe Scarborough, Keith Olbermann, sometimes in response to commentary by him. He draws criticism from political media watchdog groups like Media Matters for America and Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.

Extortion/Harassment controversy

On October 13, 2004, O'Reilly filed a lawsuit against O'Reilly Factor producer Andrea Mackris, her lawyer Benedict P. Morelli, and Morelli's law firm for extortion, contending Mackris had privately threatened to charge O'Reilly with sexual harassment unless he paid her more than $60 million (USD).^[20] Later that same day, Mackris filed^[21] a complaint of sexual harassment against O'Reilly.^[22]Both parties reached a private settlement whereby the sexual harassment and extortion lawsuits were dismissed. All parties agreed to keep the terms of the settlement confidential, ending what Mr. O'Reilly called a "brutal ordeal".^[23] The complaint had also sought additional damages and described alleged actions of retaliation by Fox, et al.^[23]

Books and other media

O'Reilly's Culture Warrior

O'Reilly writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column that appears in hundreds of newspapers, including the New York Post and the Chicago Sun-Times.^[24]

• Those Who Trespass. Novel.
  Bancroft Press, April 1998; reprint, Broadway Books, February 2004. 288 pages. ISBN 0-9631246-8-4.
• The O'Reilly Factor: The Good, the Bad, and the Completely Ridiculous in American Life. Non-fiction.
  Broadway Books, September 2000; reprint, Broadway Books, March 2002. 224 pages. ISBN 0-7679-0528-8.
  Reached #1 on the New York Times' Non-Fiction Best Seller list.^[25]
• The No Spin Zone. Non-fiction.
  Broadway Books, October 2001; reprint, Broadway Books, March 2003. 208 pages. ISBN 0-7679-0848-1.
  Reached #1 on the New York Times' Non-Fiction Best Seller list.^[25]
• Who's Looking Out For You?. Non-fiction.
  Broadway Books, September 2003; reprint, Broadway Books, September 2004. 224 pages. ISBN 0-7679-1379-5.
  Reached #1 on the New York Times' Non-Fiction Best Seller list.^[25]
• The O'Reilly Factor For Kids: A Survival Guide for America's Families. Non-fiction.
  HarperEntertainment, September 2004; reprint, Harper Paperbacks, September 2005. 208 pages. ISBN 0-06-054424-4.
  Co-authored with Charles Flowers. Best-selling non-fiction children's book of 2005.^[26]
• Culture Warrior. Non-fiction.
  Broadway Books, September 2006. 240 pages. ISBN 0-7679-2092-9.
  Reached #1 on the New York Times' Non-Fiction Best Seller list.^[25]
  Achieved more than one million copies in print in its first three months.
• Kids Are Americans Too. Non-fiction.
  William Morrow (October 16, 2007). 160 pages. ISBN 0060846763.

Al Gore

Al Gore speech on Nobel Prize

Former Vice President Al Gore is cofounder and Chairman of Generation Investment Management, a firm that is focused on a new approach to Sustainable Investing.

Gore is also cofounder and Chairman of Current TV, an independently owned cable and satellite television network for young people based on viewer-created content and citizen journalism. A member of the Board of Directors of Apple Computer, Inc. and a Senior Advisor to Google, Inc. Gore is also Visiting Professor at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Mr. Gore is the author of An Inconvenient Truth, a best-selling book on the threat of and solutions to global warming, and the subject of the movie of the same title, which has already become one of the top documentary films in history. In 2007, An Inconvenient Truth was awarded two Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature and Best Original Song.

Since his earliest days in the U. S. Congress 30 years ago, Al Gore has been the leading advocate for confronting the threat of global warming. His pioneering efforts were outlined in his best-selling book Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit (1992). He led the Clinton-Gore Administration's efforts to protect the environment in a way that also strengthens the economy.

Al Gore was born on March 31, 1948, the son of former U.S. Senator Albert Gore, Sr. and Pauline Gore. Raised in Carthage, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C., he received a degree in government with honors from Harvard University in 1969. After graduation, he volunteered for enlistment in the U.S. Army and served in the Vietnam War. Upon returning from Vietnam, Al Gore became an investigative reporter with the Tennessean in Nashville, where he also attended Vanderbilt University's Divinity School and then Law School.

Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, reside in Nashville, Tennessee. They have four children- Karenna, Kristin, Sarah, and Albert III; and two grandchildren: Wyatt Gore Schiff and Anna Hunger Schiff.

source - www.algore.com

Kevin Federline

Kevin Federline (aka K-Fed) danced back-up for Pink and Justin Timberlake before taking center stage as Britney Spears husband. The corn-rowed tabloid staple was first linked to Spears in April 2004, while then-girlfriend Moesha actress Shar Jackson was six months pregnant with their second child. After a paparazzi-chronicled courtship, Federline married Spears, and the couple welcomed two sons, exactly 363 days apart in age.

In November 2006, a newly fit Spears filed for divorce from Federline. Many fans hoped by dumping Federline she could make a career comeback, but instead, Spears' life started to unravel. Her excessive partying and bizarre behavior ended with a stint in rehab. During his estranged wife's troubles, the father of four took care of their two boys and shares 50-50 custody after their divorce.

Perez Hilton

Britney Spears' record label Zomba has sued celebrity blogger Perez Hilton for illegally posting tracks from her forthcoming album on his website

The company claims Hilton -- real name Mario Lavandeira -- illegally obtained and uploaded at least 10 completed songs and incomplete demos from the new CD Blackout onto the site.

The copyright infringement lawsuit was filed by Zomba -- which owns the copyright to Spears' recordings -- on Thursday in the U.S. district court in Los Angeles, but does not specify the amount of monetary damages being sought.

Zomba has confirmed Spears is not a party in the case.

It comes just a day after Lavandeira was the subject of a court summons to appear in the dock in a $20 million defamation case over claims he accused DJ Samantha Ronson of being responsible for the cocaine found in Lindsay Lohan's car following her arrest for driving under the influence.

Deposition

Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton has been summoned to court to face questioning over claims Lindsay Lohan's best friend was linked to revealing gossip about the actress.

DJ Samantha Ronson -- younger sister of British-born producer Mark Ronson -- filed a defamation lawsuit against Hilton in July after he accused the star of being responsible for the cocaine found in Lohan's car following her arrest for driving under the influence.

Ronson has also named the Sunset Photo agency in her $20 million suit.

In a supplemental declaration filed with Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, Ronson said, "I am not now and have never been a drug user. I have never handled or touched cocaine. I did not ever place any cocaine at any place at any time."

But Hilton -- real name Mario Lavandeira -- is standing by his report as "accurate and trustworthy," and his rights to freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

His lawyer, Bryan J. Freedman, said, "(Lavandeira) stands by his actions as being legal and proper and believes that the First Amendment protects him."

Freedman also claims Judge Elihu M. Berle's Wednesday court order for Hilton's deposition was just to give the prosecution another chance at trying him for defamation.

He added: "The judge at this point found that (Ronson's attorneys) didn't provide any evidence of malice ... so the judge was going to give them one more bite of the apple (by allowing the deposition).

"If Ms. Ronson is attempting to get some sort of relief in court and to show that Mario Lavandeira had any malice, I think she's going to a hardware store for milk. It's just not going to happen."

Ashley Qualls on Oprah

click for video on youtube

Ashley Qualls - the 17 year old Millionaire !

How many 17 year old high school dropouts do you know earn $70,000 a month? Probably not any I’m guessing, so let me introduce you to one. Her name is Ashley Qualls, a teenage entrepreneur from Detroit, who has made an amazing amount of money from selling MySpace layouts on her website Whateverlife.

Fastcompany recently published an extensive article on Ashley, which talks about her recent rejection of a $1.5 million buyout offer.

According to Google Analytics, Whateverlife attracts more than 7 million individuals and 60 million page views a month. That’s a larger audience than the circulations of Seventeen, Teen Vogue, and CosmoGirl! magazines combined. Although Web-site rankings vary with the methodology, Quantcast, a popular source among advertisers, ranked Whateverlife.com a staggering No. 349 in mid-July out of more than 20 million sites.

Not bad for a girl who doesn’t even have her driver’s license yet!

Late last year, Ian Moray stumbled across a cotton-candy-pink Web site called Whateverlife.com. As manager of media development at the online marketing company ValueClick Media (NASDAQ:VCLK), he was searching for under-the-radar destinations for notoriously fickle teenagers. Beyond MySpace and Facebook, countless sites come and go in the teen universe, like soon forgotten pop songs. But Whateverlife stood out. It was more authentic somehow. It featured a steady supply of designs for MySpace pages and attracted a few hundred-thousand girls a day. "Clever design, a growing base--that's a no-brainer for us," Moray says. He approached Ashley Qualls, Whateverlife's founder, about incorporating ads from ValueClick's 450 or so clients and sharing the revenue. At first, she declined. Then a few weeks later she changed her mind. He was in Los Angeles and she was in Detroit, so they arranged everything by phone and email. They still have yet to meet in person.

When did Moray, who's 40, learn that his new business partner was 17 years old?

Pause.

"When our director of marketing told me why Fast Company was calling," says Moray, now ValueClick's director of media development. "I assumed she was a seasoned Internet professional. She knows so much about what her site does, more than people three times her age."

It's like that famous New Yorker cartoon. A dog typing away at a computer tells his canine buddy, "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog."

At 17 going on 37 (at least), Ashley is very much an Internet professional. In the less than two years since Whateverlife took off, she has dropped out of high school, bought a house, helped launch artists such as Lily Allen, and rejected offers to buy her young company. Although Ashley was flattered to be offered $1.5 million and a car of her choice--as long as the price tag wasn't more than $100,000--she responded, in effect, Whatever. :) "I don't even have my license yet," she says.

Ashley is evidence of the meritocracy on the Internet that allows even companies run by neophyte entrepreneurs to compete, regardless of funding, location, size, or experience--and she's a reminder that ingenuity is ageless. She has taken in more than $1 million, thanks to a now-familiar Web-friendly business model. Her MySpace page layouts are available for the bargain price of...nothing. They're free for the taking. Her only significant source of revenue so far is advertising.

According to Google Analytics, Whateverlife attracts more than 7 million individuals and 60 million page views a month. That's a larger audience than the circulations of Seventeen, Teen Vogue, and CosmoGirl! magazines combined. Although Web-site rankings vary with the methodology, Quantcast, a popular source among advertisers, ranked Whateverlife.com a staggering No. 349 in mid-July out of more than 20 million sites. Among the sites in its rearview mirror: Britannica.com, AmericanIdol.com, FDA .gov, and CBS.com.

And one more, which Ashley can't quite believe herself: "I'm ahead of Oprah!" (Oprah.com: No. 469.) Sure, Ashley is a long way from having Oprah's clout, but she is establishing a platform of her own. "I have this audience of so many people, I can say anything I want to," she says. "I can say, "Check out this movie or this artist.' It's, like, a rush. I never thought I'd be an influencer." (Attention pollsters: 1,500 girls have added the Join Team Hillary '08 desktop button to their MySpace pages since Ashley offered it in March.)

She has come along with the right idea at the right time. Eager to customize their MySpace profiles, girls cut and paste the HTML code for Whateverlife layouts featuring hearts, flowers, celebrities, and so on onto their personal page and--presto--a new look. Think of it as MySpace clothes; some kids change their layouts nearly as frequently. "It's all about giving girls what they want," Ashley says.

These days, she and her young company are experiencing growing pains. She's learning how to be the boss--of her mother, her friends, developers-for-hire in India. And Whateverlife, one of the first sites offering MySpace layouts specifically for girls, needs to mature as well. "MySpace layouts" was among the top 30 search terms on Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) in June. Ashley knows that she needs new content--not just more layouts, but more features, to distinguish Whateverlife from the thousands of sites in the expanding MySpace ecosystem. Earlier this year, she created an online magazine. Cell-phone wallpaper, a new source of revenue at 99 cents to $1.99 a download, is in the works.

Running a growing company without an MBA, not to mention a high-school diploma, is hard enough, but Ashley confronts another extraordinary complication. Business associates may forget that she is 17, but Detroit's Wayne County Probate Court has not. She's a minor with considerable assets--"business affairs that may be jeopardized," the law reads--that need protection in light of the rift her sudden success has caused in an already fractious family. In January, a probate judge ruled that neither Ashley nor her parents could adequately manage her finances. Until she turns 18, next June, a court-appointed conservator is controlling Whateverlife's assets; Ashley must request funds for any expense outside the agreed-upon monthly budget.

The arrangement, she says, affects her ability to react in a volatile industry. "It's not like I'm selling lemonade," she says. Besides, it's her company. If she wants to contract developers or employ her mother, Ashley says, why shouldn't she be able to do it without the conservator's approval?

So the teenager has hired a lawyer. She wants to emancipate herself and be declared an adult. Now. At 17. Why not just sit tight until June? The girl trying to grow up fast can't wait that long.

Ashley is different from the recent crop of high-profile teen entrepreneurs. True, her eighth-grade class did vote her "most likely to succeed," but it's safe to say they were predicting 20 or 30 years out, not three years removed from middle school. She created her company almost by accident and without the resources that typically give young novices a leg up. Catherine Cook, 17, started myYearbook.com by teaming up with her older brother, a Harvard grad and Internet entrepreneur. Ben Casnocha, the 19-year-old founder of software company Comcate and author of the new memoir My Start-Up Life, is the son of a San Francisco lawyer and has tapped Silicon Valley brains and bank accounts.

But Ashley had no connections. No business professionals in the family. No rich aunt or uncle. In the working-class community of downriver Detroit, south of downtown and the sprawling Ford plant in Dearborn, Michigan, she bounced back and forth between her divorced parents, neither of whom attended college. Her father is a machinist, her mother, until recently, a retail data collector for ACNielsen. "My mom still doesn't understand how I do it," Ashley says. To be fair, she did go to her mother for the initial investment: $8 to register the domain name. Ashley still hasn't spent a dime on advertising.

It all started as a hobby. She began dabbling in Web-site design eight years ago, when she was 9, hogging the family's Gateway computer in the kitchen all day. When she wasn't playing games, she was teaching herself the basics of Web design. To which her mother, Linda LaBrecque, responded, "Get off that computer. Now!" For Ashley's 12th birthday, her mother splurged on an above-ground swimming pool--"just so she'd go outside," LaBrecque says.

Whateverlife just sort of happened, another accidental Web business. Originally, Ashley created the site in late 2004 when she was 14 as a way to show off her design work. "I was the dorky girl who was into HTML," she says. It attracted zero interest beyond her circle of friends until she figured out how to customize MySpace pages. So many classmates asked her to design theirs that she began posting layouts on her site daily, several at first, then dozens.

By 2005, her traffic had exploded; she needed her own dedicated server. Ashley, who had bartered site designs for free Web hosting, couldn't afford the monthly rental, not on her babysitting income. Her Web host suggested Google AdSense, a service that supplies ads to a site and shares the revenue. The greater the traffic, the more money she'd earn.