Los Angeles Focus Blog - Zennie62

Michael Jackson Memorial: Rev Al Sharpton's Thriller Speech In 2009

2012-01-07T10:19:00.000-08:00

Kim Jong Il North Korea Leader Dies, Son Kim Jong Un New Leader

2011-12-19T09:02:00.000-08:00

Ford Fiesta - Ford Gives One To Jen Friel For the Academy Awards

2011-12-07T03:24:00.000-08:00

Miley Cyrus Defends Kelly Osbourne - Cyrus A Stoner?

2011-11-29T10:16:00.000-08:00

Billy Crystal: Superman Saves The Oscars

2011-11-11T03:19:00.001-08:00

Billy Crystal: Superman Saves The Oscars, a photo by zennie62 on Flickr.

YouTube Copyright Do's And Don't And YT Partners

2011-10-14T06:22:00.000-07:00

Osama Bin Laden Is Dead - Credit President Obama

2011-05-02T01:56:00.001-07:00

Osama Bin Laden Is Dead. President Barack Obama made the stunning announcement at 11:39 PM EDT Sunday, as this blogger sat in a position of stasis. For almost 10 years, the name Osama Bin Laden had become an indelible part of American Culture, and with an image just equal to that of Adolf Hitler.

The Mastermind of the September 11th 2001 events we call 9-11 and that led to the total destruction of the twin towers of The World Trade Center in New York City was on the run, seemingly forever.

Not any more...

And while the media points to a intelligence gathering process that started back in 2001, the truth is that America's political leaders in charge for much of that time wrongly focused American military resources on Irag, and not Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Now, almost a trillion dollars, and 4,000 lost lives by 2007, then-Senator Barack Obama, just starting what would become his successful presidential run, said that he would end the Iraq War, and go on the hunt for Osama Bin Laden right in Pakistan.

The statement led to a ton of criticism from his major presidential rivals. In a blog post dated Wednesday, November 7, 2007 at Zennie62.com, this blogger pushed-out for distribution what CNN's Ruben Navarrette Jr, wrote:

When Sen. Barack Obama suggested getting out of Iraq and moving "onto the right battlefield in Afghanistan and Pakistan," and then pledged, if elected president, to go into Pakistan if our military was in hot pursuit of "high-value terrorist targets" (read: Osama bin Laden), his opponents pounced.

Rudy Giuliani suggested that Obama should be more accommodating of Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Mitt Romney said that Obama was "confused as to who are our friends and who are our enemies." Sen. John McCain called Obama's remarks "kind of typical of his naivete." And Sen. Hillary Clinton said that Obama's foreign policy views were "irresponsible and frankly naive."

Now, fast-forward to 2011 and while Hillary Clinton is now Secretary of State, and Rudy Giuliani is semi-retired (or so it seems) Mitt Romney is talking about running for President, again. And Sen. John McCain doesn't seem to be in the mood of thanking President Obama, issuing this Twitter Tweet:

SenJohnMcCain John McCain
We finally got him, justice has been done. Read my full statement here http://tinyurl.com/3auckey...

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), made the following statement this evening regarding the announcement made by President Obama that Osama Bin Laden has been killed:

"I am overjoyed that we finally got the world's top terrorist. The world is a better and more just place now that Osama bin Laden is no longer in it. I hope the families of the victims of the September 11th attacks will sleep easier tonight and every night hence knowing that justice has been done. I commend the President and his team, as well as our men and women in uniform and our intelligence professionals, for this superb achievement.

"But while we take heart in the news that Osama bin Laden is dead, we must be mindful that al-Qaeda and its terrorist allies are still lethal and determined enemies, and we must remain vigilant to defeat them."

That's great. But never forget that it was McCain who wasted no time in saying then-Senator Obama was naive for wanting to go into Pakistan to get Bin Laden. If McCain were POTUS, and not Obama, this day arguably would never have come.

And the list of potential GOP Presidential Candidates who don't have the class to thank President Obama includes Sarah Palin and, of course, Mitt Romney, as of this writing.

What Were We Doing In Iraq?

All of this, this modern V-Jay Day, now brings back the question "What were we doing in Iraq?" It was, indeed, not just the wrong war, but a costly war. And we wasted years in Iraq while Osama Bin Laden gained enough time and money to have the giant compound in Pakistan constructed to keep him safe.

Now, a revisiting of what the USA was doing over that time is in order, especially since it's clear Osama Bin Laden was no where near Iraq.

We got him. In Pakistan.

Stay tuned.

Liam Hemsworth In The Hunger Games, American Idol Stars At Reality Rocks Expo

2011-04-04T13:07:00.001-07:00

A lot of news today. Liam Hemsworth, best known as Miley Cyrus once-former boyfriend, is starting in The Hunger Games, it was announced on Twitter by TheHungerGames (a Lions Gate Production).

And American Idol stars, along with Nick Cannon, DeAnna Pappas, Audrina Patridge, Eric Roberts, Karina Smirnoff, Jack Osbourne, and stars from Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Project Runway, Survivor, The Amazing Race, Dancing with the Stars, RuPaul's Drag Race, Food Network, Cooking Channel, and Bravo, will appear at the first Reality Rocks Expo April 9th - 10th, 2011 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, CA.

But first, the Twitter tweet about Liam Hemsworth in The Hunger Games:

TheHungerGames LionsgateMovies
We are pleased to announce that actor Josh Hutcherson has been cast as Peeta Mellark, w/ Liam Hemsworth cast in the role of Gale Hawthorne!
1 hour ago Favorite Retweet Reply

(An aside: Lions Gate almost has its' social media act together. If I click on this: http://www.facebook.com/OfficialHungerGamesMovie - it reads, as of this writing, "the page you requested was not found.")

The Hunger Games is a sci-fi novel by Susan Collins that according to Wikipedia,...

is the first book of the Hunger Games trilogy. It introduces sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in a post-apocalyptic world in the country of Panem where North America once stood. This is where a powerful government working in a central city called the Capitol holds power. In the book, the Hunger Games are an annual televised event where the Capitol chooses one boy and one girl from each district to fight to the death. The Hunger Games exist to demonstrate not even children are beyond the reach of the Capitol's power.

The Hunger Games has a budget of $80 million and is set for release March 23, 2012.

And so we go from news about a movie about a reality TV show, to news about an expo that features reality TV stars. There's so much info from the press release about Reality Rocks, this blogger's going to post parts of it below, just to make sure you get all of the relevant information about this weekend's Reality Rocks Expo:

What is it? This is what the press release explains:

Reality Rocks Expo is the first and only comprehensive, live fan-based happening that brings the invaluable world of avid and loyal viewers of Reality TV together in an up close and personal setting with their favorite reality, unscripted, factual, and lifestyle shows, celebrities, hosts and judges networks and producers. The ultimate Realty TV fan experience, Reality Rocks Expo is about the fans, for the fans and by the fans.

The inaugural edition of Reality Rocks Expo will be held April 9-10, 2011 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, CA.

Reality Rocks Expo is a production of Prometheus Global Media, a diversified company with leading assets in the media and entertainment arenas, including: Music (Billboard and its related conferences and events, including The Billboard Latin Music Awards), Entertainment (The Hollywood Reporter, Backstage, ShoWest, ShowEast, Cineasia, and CineEurope); and Advertising & Marketing (Adweek, Mediaweek, Brandweek, Adweek Conferences, and The Clio Awards).

Official media sponsor for Reality Rocks is the Los Angeles Times and additional media sponsors include Access Hollywood, GotCast.com, KIIS-FM, MySpace, On the Red Carpet, RealityWanted.com, TVLine and Zap2it.com.

The inaugural Reality Rocks Expo is bringing fans the ultimate opportunity to interact with some of their favorite stars from building with the stars of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition to pitching the stars of Shark Tank and a reunion of Rockstar Supernova, Q&As with cast members of Big Brother and performances by past contestants of American Idol, when the ultimate reality TV experience, about the fans, for the fans and by the fans, comes to the Los Angeles Convention Center on April 9-10, 2011.

These stars join what is already a star-studded cast of reality TV favorites that includes previously announced Nick Cannon, Adrianne Curry, Christopher Knight, DeAnna Pappas, Audrina Patridge, Eric Roberts, Karina Smirnoff, and previous contestants and cast members from American Idol, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Project Runway, The Real World, Survivor, The Amazing Race, So You Think You Can Dance, RuPaul’s Drag Race, and top shows from Food Network, Cooking Channel and Bravo.

The Reality Rocks Expo will feature two jam - packed days filled with previews of brand -new television shows, meet and greets with fan-favorite reality TV stars and insightful panel discussions, as well as a special VIP Awards program for the Reality Rocks Fan Awards honoring fans’ favorite talent and programs. For an updated list of scheduled events and to purchase tickets starting at $35 for a one-day pass or $65 for a two-day pass to the Reality Rocks Expo, visit www.realityrocks.net.

Really exciting stuff. So many stars, one should expect to see Liam Hemsworth there. Get down to LA this weekend, if just for one day, to the Reality Rocks Expo.

Vanity Fair Magazine Print Edition Is Real Thin (Media News)

2010-12-28T05:26:00.001-08:00

Vanity Fair is this blogger's favorite print magazine to buy at San Francisco International Airport when traveling. "VF," for all of it's faults, does a great job of presenting a certain way of the good life. While it could be more diverse in it's presentation of what that means, Vanity Fair is always an enjoyable read. The problem today is it's shrinking. Check out my video:

Yep. Vanity Fair's January 2011 print mag edition is a full 50 percent smaller in thickness than past issues. VF fans are used to seeing a thick, heavy, magazine, as was the case as recently as the December 2010 mag.

The one with Cher on the cover, wearing fishnets.

Or the April 2010 issue where Michael Douglas announced the new Wall Street movie, and the David Letterman sex scandal was detailed in all of its glory.

Those issues, two of countless many VF's I own, are all damn thick, heavy magazines.

Then, there's Johnny Depp, or the VF issue with Depp on the cover. There's only two words for it: shockingly small.

Curious, a little cyber walking revealed that Conde Nast, the company that owns Vanity Fair and other publications, embarked on an initiative to have its properties think in a more "business like" way. After losing $1 billion in ad revenue in 2009, it's no surprise to lean Conde Nast has some problems, but then, as it's CEO Chuck Townsend pointed out, so does its competition.

Its print competition.

Much was made of Chuck Townsend announcing how well Conde Nast was doing compared with Hearst Corporation and TIME media properties, but that's print. Magazine ad revenue as a whole barely recovered from the recession, and newspapers are just plain taking on water. Print's seen better days and before the Internet World.

The question is what's the future for Vanity Fair?

I can't see VF lasting as a monthly. Quarterly, yes. Monthly, no. Moreover, it's future is in television and multimedia. And it's got to up its audience grab from Oscar-related content. Why in heck it doesn't emphasize video and video-blogging is beyond me, but the old heads there better wisen up before it's too late. The VF brand can survive, but it's got to grow out of its print-oriented mentality.

NORAD Santa Tracker - Christmas Eve Santa Tracking

2010-12-24T16:51:00.001-08:00

This year, 2010, once again this blogger is following (kinda) the Santa Tracker, but while tree trimming, wine drinking, and talking, and listening to Nat and Frank (Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra).

But here's my NORAD Santa Tracker Video, because I just had to!

This business of going to the NORAD website to track Santa Claus' trip around the World is rather cool, but I'm in the middle of watching It's A Wonderful Life, so I decided to embed the tracker right here in my blog:

As of 6 PM PST / 9 PM EST, Santa Claus is , well, he's moving really fast! (If the embed doesn't work in your browser, click on the NORAD link.)

Merry Christmas!

Santa Baby 99ers Christmas Unemployment Song

2010-12-24T02:41:00.001-08:00

Presenting the Santa Baby 99ers Christmas Unemployment Song, or The Santa Baby 99ers Song, on Christmas Eve.

Donalee King (in photo from Zennie62.com), who goes by Paladinette, at Zennie62.com, created this variation of the classic Christmas Song Santa Baby.

King, a blogger who also has her own blog called Jobless Unite, is one of the so-called "99ers," those who's unemployment benefits have ran out after the 99-week limit, and seek an extension of benefits, or better yet, a job.

In seeking both, the San Diego resident has become a tireless advocate for the jobless. Her work on this song landed her notice by the LA Times.

The video is below, followed by the lyrics, which are graphic but worth reading and singing...if you dare!

(In fact, if you're in Oakland, California, print out the lyrics, take them down to The Alley at 3325 Grand Avenue, present them to Rod Dibble at the piano, and ask he would accompany you in song. Santa Baby is a song he knows how to play.)

Lyrics to video song Santa Baby - 99ers Style 2010

Congress Baby, the 99ers need a tier 5......to survive

I know you’re HEARTLESS P@#*s But....so what?

My children need some dinner tonight!

The car got repo’d and the rent is awfully late...but wait

You only care for the rich that’s a B*@#H

there’s millions of us dying out here

We can’t afford a Christmas tree

While you’re all buying Cartier at Tiffany

You bailed out banks Greece and Haiti too

I think it’s time the 99ers heard from you

Obama baby, just help the 99ers please

and... don’t tease

Been a really tough year

Out here

I Hope Your change is comin’ tonight

Obama honey, you sold 99ers flat out

no doubt

and now it’s snowing out,

My stomach’s growling

I need some food and shelter tonight

Sherrod honey, Schumer and that Stabenow too

Were through we all trusted you

but senate baby your lies have left us hurtn’ out here

We’re not rich - guess we don’t count

The dirty little secret you won’t talk about

There’ll be no jobs again next Year

It’s time you kicked your senate’s butts into high gear

Congress baby just pretend to care for us poor

once more - come on it’s just a check - so what the heck?

there’s millions of us dying out here!

That’s right I’d rather work than fight

Hurry Congress there’s 99ers dying TONIGHT

Merry Christmas!

Oscars News: 248 Films Eligible for Best Picture Oscar

2010-12-20T20:09:00.001-08:00

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS building pictured) reports that 248 feature films are eligible for the Best Picture Oscar for the 83rd Academy Awards in 2011.

While large, the list is not a record number for the category; in the past more than 300 films were eligible for the award.

Oscar Front Runners.

From the Golden Globes we have The King's Speech, and The Social Network, the movie about the founding of Facebook.com. But the sleeper candidate looks like True Grit, the Coen Brothers' remake of the classic 1969 movie with the late John Wayne. The list also includes animated films like Despicable Me and Toy Story 3. And science fiction films like Inception and Tron 3 are on the list as well.

What Films Qualify?

According to AMPAS, films that are "feature-length motion picture must have a running time of more than 40 minutes and must have been exhibited theatrically on 35mm or 70mm film, or in a qualifying digital format." And movies that, say, appear in a film festival rather than at a movie theater are not eligible for an Academy Award "in any category."

Stay tuned.

Academy News: Live Shorts, Academy on Twitter, Countdown to Oscars

2010-12-08T20:51:00.001-08:00

In this latest installment of Academy News, news from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 10 "Live Action Shorts" have advanced in the Oscar review period, AMPAS has a Twitter account, and this weeks starts the "Countdown to Oscar Night In America."

Live Action Shorts

Out of 76 pictures, 10 have moved to what could be called the semi-final round before between three and five are selected as nominees for the "Live Action Short Film" category at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards.

The next step is for The Short Films and Feature Animation Branch Reviewing Committee, which looked at all 76 movies during special screenings in New York and LA, to have their branches in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco hold their screenings. That will happen in January 2011, with the nominees to be named January 25th, with the other Academy Awards nominations at 5:30 AM. Here are the films:

Ana's Playground, Eric D. Howell, director (StoryForge, LLC)
The Confession, Tanel Toom, director (National Film and Television School)
The Crush, Michael Creagh, director (Purdy Pictures)
God of Love, Luke Matheny, director (Luke Matheny)
Na Wewe, Ivan Goldschmidt, director-producer (CUT!)
Seeds of the Fall, Patrik Eklund, director, and Mathias Fjellstrom, producer (Direktorn & Fabrikorn)
Shoe, Nick Kelly, director, and Seamus Byrne, producer (Zanita Films)
The Six Dollar Fifty Man, Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland, directors (Sticky Pictures Ltd.)
Sma Barn, Stora Ord (Little Children, Big Words), Lisa James Larsson, director and Andreas Emanuelsson, producer (Bob Film Sweden AB)
Wish 143, Ian Barnes, director, and Samantha Waite, producer (Swing and Shift Films/Union Pictures)

Academy On Twitter

After this blogger's badgering last year, AMPAS is finally on Twitter! Hooray! The Academy is at @TheAcademy and needs more followers! As of this writing it has just 2,607 Twitter followers. This is where stars like with massive Twitter followers and who should be named hosts should chip in, like Ellen DeGeneres @TheEllenShow and Lady Gaga @ladygaga, as well as the Oscar Hosts Anne Hathaway @hathaway_anne and Janes Franco, who needs a new Twitter page.

Countdown to Oscars

Finally, it's just 80 days to the 83rd Annual Academy Awards on Sunday, February 27th, and 50 cities will host special charity events. While there are a number of events held in a given area, only one will be selected as the official "Oscar Night In America" party for that metropolitan area.

Stay tuned.

Bauer's Transportation Company Bus Shuttle Service

2010-11-27T21:51:00.001-08:00

This is the San Francisco Bauer's "Wi-Drive" commuter shuttle bus service. It's the same one used by Facebook and Twitter employees to go to and from work. What this blogger likes about the shuttle bus service is the seats. Wow. They're really thick, cushy, leathery, and luxurious.

You can operate your laptop computer and work online while on your way to work. The Bauer's "Wi-Drive" bus was used by the San Francisco Giants to transport their players to and from that awesome parade after their amazing World Series win.

Need corporate transportation? Call my good friend Gary Bauer. He and Bauer's Transportation delivers for all occasions and transport needs. Bauer's Transportation is at 1-800-546-6688.

Rachel Berry: Miss Orange after The Oscars and MTV-U

2010-11-26T18:44:00.001-08:00

This is for those who wonder "what happened to.." In the case of 2009-2010 Oscars and MTV-U College Correspondent Competition finalist Rachel Berry, she went on to become Miss Orange.

That's right. Rachel Berry went from college broadcast journalist to beauty queen.

When this blogger met her at the press conference for the Oscars / MTV-U College Correspondent Competition on the Saturday before the 82nd Annual Academy Awards, it was obvious she had great legs...

Great dancer's legs.

Yep. That's Rachel Berry smoking up the floor last October for the Miss California 2010 Competition, where she placed as a finalist. As for doing another "go" at the MTV-U Oscar Competition, can one do it again if they've done it the year before?

Stay tuned.

In closing, here's a cool video featuring Rachel's Oscars Red Carpet appearance:

Academy News (AMPAS): "Contemporary Documentaries" Series

2010-11-12T15:45:00.001-08:00

In Academy news this week, the AMPAS announced that it will be hosting the final installment of their “Contemporary Documentaries” Series on November 17th at the Linwood Dunn Theatre in Hollywood. The 29th Annual “Contemporary Documentaries” series has been running influential documentaries, both full feature and short length, every Wednesday in the weeks leading up to the Academy Awards ceremony. Documentaries selected for the series were those that were nominated, or considered for the 2009 Academy Awards. The final installment is comprised of the documentaries, “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant,” and “Capitalism: A Love Story.”

“The Last Truck: The Closing of a GM Plant” follows the aftermath caused by the shutting down of a General Motors assembly plant in Moraine, Ohio, through the eyes of the former employees. The documentary follows the disenfranchised workers for 6 months as they try to cope with the difficulties created by their loss of income. This Academy Award Nominated documentary was directed and produced by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert.

“Capitalism: A Love Story” was produced by Michael and Anne Moore and presents the viewer with the scope of influence that “corporate dominance” has over, not just Americans, but people worldwide.

The final installment of the AMPAS “Contemporary Documentaries” series will begin at 7:00pm at the Linwood Dunn Theatre on 1313 Vine Street in Hollywood. Admission is free and free parking is also available one block north of Fountain Avenue at the entrance to the theatre on the Homewood Avenue side. To receive more information concerning this event you can go to www.oscars.org or call (310) 247-3600.

John Bobst

Academy News (AMPAS): "Funny Girl" Monday Nights With Oscar Returns

2010-11-12T15:44:00.000-08:00

In more Academy news, the “Monday Nights With Oscar” series returns to the Academy Theatre at Lighthouse International in New York city after being put on hold for most of the year due to renovations. The AMPAS series will resume on November 15th with a showing of “Funny Girl,” starring Barbara Streisand.

“Funny Girl,” was released in 1968 and is based on a Broadway musical that debuted earlier that decade in 1964. Along with Barbara Streisand the film also stars, Kay Brice, Walter Pidgeon, Lee Alan, and Omar Sharif. William Wyler directed the film by screenplay writer Isobel Lennart. Barbara Streisands performance as Fanny Brice in the movie earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress that year. Kay Brice’s contributing performance in the movie also earned an Academy Award nomination and the film received 8 Academy Award nominations in total.

Admission to the screening of “Funny Girl” for the “Monday Nights With Oscar” series is 5 dollars a ticket to the general public and 3 dollars with a student ID or membership to the Academy. Tickets may be purchased online, by mail, or at the box office. The Lighthouse International theatre is located at 111 East 59th Street in New York City. The show will begin at 6:30 and there is no reserved seating available. To obtain more information on the event please visit www.oscars.org and click on the events calendar, or you can call (212) 821-9251

John Bobst

Academy News: AMPAS Says Oscar Red Carpet Drawing Ends Tonight

2010-09-19T12:15:00.001-07:00

You can get a seat over The Red Carpet at The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences (AMPAS) Presentation of The 2011 83rd Annual Academy Awards by entering a randow drawing, right now at www.oscars.org/bleachers. The drawing, which has been active for the last week allows you to be one of the select 700 people to be there live at the Academy Awards' premier pre-event, event.

AMPAS reports:

To be eligible for the random drawing, an individual must complete the application form in its entirety. Applications may only be submitted online. Forms may not be returned via any other method.

Applicants may register for themselves and one guest. Duplicate registrations will not be accepted.

Those whose names are selected in the random drawing will be notified in late September. They will then be required to submit additional information for security purposes prior to final approval. Eligible attendees will receive a confirmation letter in early January with information pertinent to the event.

Only those individuals who have been pre-approved by the Academy will have access to the bleachers. Those who wait overnight to attempt admittance will not be granted entry.

The Academy will not be responsible for securing travel and/or hotel accommodations for bleacher fans.

In previous years, as many as 20,000 fans have applied online for the limited number of red carpet seats.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2010 will be presented on Sunday, February 27, 2011, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

Hurry up. It all ends at 9 PM PDT tonight.

Lady Gaga VMA 2010 - Lady Gaga Wins 8 Awards (So Far)

2010-09-12T20:41:00.000-07:00

The Amazing Lady Gaga (Stefani Germanotta), for whom it could be said dominated 2010 pop-culture including an amazing visit with KISS, dominated the Video Music Awards, with 8 VMA award wins as of this writing, including VMA Best Female Video Of The Year.

Lady Gaga came out in her signature high heels with a flowing layered dress, and did not disappoint. Here she is accepting the VMA for Bad Romance (video by willtado on YouTube):

Lady Gaga's combination of punk, soul, politic, and provocation are a winner for a cynical 21st Century. Love her or hate her - and many more love her than hate her - Lady Gaga is an American Cultural Force.

Happy Rosh Hashanah : President Obama's Wish, Stephen Hawking's Error

2010-09-08T07:17:00.001-07:00

President Obama is joined by this blogger in wishing you a Happy Rosh Hashanah. Here's Obama's video from yesterday:

Prof. Stephen Hawking

Come to think of it, since Stephen Hawking elected to introduce his book The Grand Design and declare that God did not create the Universe, it's fair to say that for him, Rosh Hashanah's not good, eh?

You'd think Hawking would show some respect for Jews by not releasing his book just a day before Rosh Hashanah, right? Talk about flunking his performance review. Geesh.

This blogger still can't understand why Stephen Hawking would write a book trying to debunk the existence of God, but not The Devil. Makes you wonder if his book itself's the Work of The Devil.

From this vantage point, Stephen Hawking looks just like the religious zealots he and his fans rightly criticize. Two sides of the same coin.

I prefer the edge. It rolls, if you know what I mean.

Happy Rosh Hashanah

UC Berkeley Letter To Students On California By Prof Michael O'Hare

2010-08-28T13:30:00.001-07:00

Berkeley Prof. Michael O'Hare

The UC Berkeley Letter To Students On California by Berkeley Professor Michael O'Hare is one that California Gubernatorial Candidates Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman should see because both are part of the generations that Michael O'Hare points to as essentially responsible for the decline of California, but for different reasons.

Jerry Brown was Governor of California when Prop 13 (also called AB 8), the legislation reducing property taxes to 1 percent, was passed in 1978. Prop 13 us widely pointed to as the legislative device that robbed California of the tax revenue is used to provide the public services it was known for.

Meg Whitman never voted or bothered to register to vote, or participated in California Government and politics, but now thinks she can run the state. The idea of running for governor somehow entered her head 26 months ago.

Who Is Michael O'Hare?

Michael O'Hare is Professor of Public Policy At The UC Berkeley Goldman School Of Public Policy, where he's chair of that schools undergraduate minor program. He also maintains a blog at Samefacts.com.

This blogger saw the "UC Berkeley Letter" in a group email from the Oakland, California-based Welstone Democratic Club's Yahoo Group, and it was taken his blog entry at Samefacts.com.

August 23rd, 2010
A letter to my students
by Michael O'Hare

Welcome to Berkeley, probably still the best public university in the world. Meet your classmates, the best group of partners you can find anywhere. The percentages for grades on exams, papers, etc. in my courses always add up to 110 percent because that's what I've learned to expect from you, over twenty years in the best job in the world.

That's the good news. The bad news is that you have been the victims of a terrible swindle, denied an inheritance you deserve by contract and by your merits. And you aren't the only ones; victims of this ripoff include the students who were on your left and on your right in high school but didn’t get into Cal, a whole generation stiffed by mine. This letter is an apology, and more usefully, perhaps a signal to start demanding what’s been taken from you so you can pass it on with interest.

Swindle - what happened? Well, before you were born, Californians now dead or in nursing homes made a remarkable deal with the future. (Not from California? Keep reading, lots of this applies to you, with variations.) They agreed to invest money they could have spent on
bigger houses, vacations, clothes, and cars into the world’s greatest educational system, and into building and operating water systems, roads, parks, and other public facilities, an infrastructure that was the envy of the world. They didn’t get everything right: too much
highway and not enough public transportation. But they did a pretty good job.

Young people who enjoyed these ‘loans’ grew up smarter, healthier, and richer than they otherwise would have, and understood that they were supposed to "pay it forward" to future generations, for example by keeping the educational system staffed with lots of dedicated, well-trained teachers, in good buildings and in small classes, with college counselors and up-to-date books. California schools had physical education, art for everyone, music and theater, buildings that looked as though people cared about them, modern languages and ancient
languages, advanced science courses with labs where the equipment worked, and more. They were the envy of the world, and they paid off better than Microsoft stock. Same with our parks, coastal zone protection, and social services.

This deal held until about thirty years ago, when for a variety of reasons, California voters realized that while they had done very well from the existing contract, they could do even better by walking away from their obligations and spending what they had inherited on
themselves. "My kids are finished with school; why should I pay taxes for someone else’s? Posterity never did anything for me!" An army of fake 'leaders; sprang up to pull the moral and fiscal wool over their eyes, and again and again, your parents and their parents lashed out
at government (as though there were something else that could replace it) with tax limits, term limits, safe districts, throw - away - the - key imprisonment no matter the cost, smoke - and - mirrors budgeting, and a rule never to use the words taxes and services in the same paragraph.

Now, your infrastructure is falling to pieces under your feet, and as citizens you are responsible for crudities like closing parks, and inhumanities like closing battered women’s shelters. It's outrageous, inexcusable, that you can't get into the courses you need, but much
worse that Oakland police have stopped taking 911 calls for burglaries and runaway children. If you read what your elected officials say about the state today, you'll see things like "California can't afford" this or that basic government function, and that "we need to make hard choices" to shut down one or another public service, or starve it even more (like your university). Can't afford? The budget deficit that's paralyzing Sacramento is about $500 per person; add another $500 to get back to a public sector we don't have to be ashamed of, and our average income is almost forty times that. Of course we can afford a government that actually works: the fact is that your parents have simply chosen not to have it.

I'm writing this to you because you are the victims of this enormous cheat (though your children will be even worse off if you don't take charge of this ship and steer it). Your education was trashed as California fell to the bottom of US states in school spending, and the
art classes, AP courses, physical education, working toilets, and teaching generally went by the board. Every year I come upon more and more of you who have obviously never had the chance to learn to write plain, clear, English. Every year, fewer and fewer of you read newspapers, speak a foreign language, understand the basics of how government and business actually work, or have the energy to push back intellectually against me or against each other. Or know enough about history, literature, and science to do it effectively! You spent your school years with teachers paid less and less, trained worse and worse, loaded up with more and more mindless administrative duties, and given less and less real support from administrators and staff.

Many of your parents took a hike as well, somehow getting the idea that the schools had taken over their duties to keep you learning, or so beat - up working two jobs each and commuting two hours a day to put food on the table that they couldn't be there for you. A quarter of
your classmates didn't finish high school, discouraged and defeated; but they didn't leave the planet, even if you don't run into them in the gated community you will be tempted to hide out in. They have to eat just like you, and they aren't equipped to do their share of the
work, so you will have to support them.

You need to have a very tough talk with your parents, who are still voting; you can't save your children by yourselves. Equally important, you need to start talking to each other. It's not fair, and you have every reason (except a good one) to keep what you can for yourselves with another couple of decades of mean - spirited tax - cutting and public sector decline. You're my heroes just for surviving what we put you through and making it into my classroom, but I’m asking for more: you can be better than my generation. Take back your state for your kids and start the contract again. There are lots of places you can start, for example, building a transportation system that won't enslave you for two decades as their chauffeur, instead of raising fares and cutting routes in a deadly helix of mediocrity. Lots. Get to work. See you in class!

Movie Trailer : Prince of Broadway, A Lee Daniels Film, September 3rd

2010-08-20T22:17:00.001-07:00

Academy Award Nominee Lee Daniels (for Best Director for Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire), is using his new fame to advance a movie that's made the way around the festival circuit since 2008: Prince of Broadway.

This movie's gritty, realistic story style focuses on what two young men do when one of them is faced with taking care of a baby boy a woman says belongs to him.

Here's the movie trailer:

Aiden Noesi and Prince Adu

Prince of Broadway, unlike Precious, which had two name actresses in Academy Award-Winner Monique (Best Supporting Actress) and Mariah Carey, as well as Oprah and Tyler Perry to help lure audiences, has a cast of unknowns, including Prince Adu and Victoria Tate making their first film debuts.

Also making his film debut is an adorable little boy named Aiden Noesi, who plays Prince.

Here's the synopsis of Prince of Broadway from the movie's website:

Prince of Broadway is the story of Lucky and Levon, two men whose lives converge in the underbelly of New York's wholesale fashion district. Lucky, an illegal immigrant from Ghana, makes ends meet by soliciting shoppers on the street with knock-off brand merchandise. Levon, an Armenian-Lebanese immigrant, operates an illegal storefront with a concealed back room where counterfeit goods are showcased to interested shoppers. Lucky's world is suddenly turned upside down when a child is thrust into his life by a woman who insists the toddler is his son. While Lucky copes with his new domestic dilemma, Levon struggles to save a marriage that is falling apart. The seedy side of the wholesale district is revealed through a journey that continually confronts the interplay between what is fake and what is real.
Set in the shadow of the Flatiron building and soaked in the colorful bustle of Broadway, the film is as much a brutal drama as it is a tender comedy. Shot in a fast-paced guerilla style that is akin to the hustler lifestyle, the film reveals the lives of immigrants in America seeking ideals of family and love, while creating their own knock-off of the American Dream.

The movie is not directed by Lee Daniels. Sean Baker is writer, producer, director, cameraperson and editor of the film. But the power of Lee Daniels name, coupled with the quick desire to get out information about it, causes some to list Daniels as its director. He's not.

Prince of Broadway opens September 3rd at the Angelika Film Center in New York City, and September 17th at the Sunset 5, Los Angeles.

Visit Prince of Broadway.com.

Tom Sherak reelected Academy President; Annette Bening gets post

2010-08-03T23:35:00.001-07:00

Tom Sherak

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) or "The Academy," announced late Tuesday evening that Tom Sherak was reelected as President of The Academy by its Board of Governors. It's his second straight one year term of office in AMPAS.

Previously, Sherak served as treasurer of the Academy, and has started his eighth year as a governor representing the Executives Branch.

Joining the wave of good Academy news, Sid Ganis, the Public Relations Branch governor and past Academy president, was elected first vice president. James L. Brooks and Phil Robinson, both of the Writers Branch, were elected to vice president posts, with Robinson being reelected. It's Brooks first election to a post.

Annette Bening gets post

Annette Bening

Actress Annette Bening, wife of Actor Warren Beatty, was elected to the post of secretary. It's her first Academy-elected position.

Perhaps Bening will be Academy President one day?

Tom Sherak paid his dues

The reelection to AMPAS as President is a complement to Tom Sherak and his long standing relationships in the Academy and in Hollywood. For 40 years Sherak has been a marketing, distribution and production executive, and currently is a consultant to Marvel Studios and Relativity Media.

Hartford Distributors Manchester, Connecticut shooting deaths at 9

2010-08-03T10:55:00.001-07:00

According to The Hartford Courant in Hartford, Connecticut, Omar Thornton, who faced disciplinary action at Hartford Distributors, Inc., opened fire and killed what is now said to be nine people in Manchester, Connecticut, then was shot by police.

Earlier reports were that Omar Thornton shot himself; he did not. It was called a "cop shooting" because Omar Thornton did not put his gun down, so police opened fire.

According to Fox CT News video on the Hartford Courant page, and via the mother of a woman, Kristi Hannah, who dated him for eight months, the shooter, 34-year old Omar Thornton, who's African American, complained of racism to his employers, but they did nothing.

John Hollis, a Teamsters Union official said that Omar Thornton, who was a driver with Hartford Distributors, was a "discipline problem" and the union was bringing Thornton in to "remedy" the problem.

Thornton shot a number of people, and as of this writing, it's not known how many because what once stood at seven killed just rose to nine killed, so we don't know how many were injured in some kind of way. Here's the exact quote from the Hartford Courant regarding Omar Thornton's possible motive for the shooting at Hartford Distributors:

Joanne Hannah, who lives in the Enfield neighborhood where Thornton lived until about a month ago, said her daughter Kristi had dated Thornton for eight years. Thornton, who is black, had complained about being racially harassed at work. Thornton brought his complaints to his superiors, who did nothing about it, she said her daughter told her.

A New Trend: blacks who kill over racism

It seems there's a new and to this blogger, disturbing "small" trend of late where black men are as likely to commit workplace shootings as any white male.

Stephen Hill

The last person that comes to mind was was porn star Stephen Hill in Van Nuys, California, who, in June, went off and killed one person and stabbed another at the Ultima DVD office. Hill was black, and like Thornton, was about to be fired from his job. In Hill's case, he was called a "wacky guy" and no one mentioned racism. But then, no one who was close to him was interviewed at the time.

This is disturbing because I and my generation (I turn 48 tomorrow) was raised to be hardened and to expect racism, to point it out, but to not react violently to it.

Because racism is a mental illness, people who are racist are to be treated with pity and avoided. That's the way I'm conditioned to think.

Frankly, you just didn't hear of someone black who would open fire and kill anyone over racism. We were instructed that it was a sickness that's "just part of the deal" and something you needed to overcome to be successful.

This small trend says nothing good about the overall mental strength of the next generation of black men. If one who's black and make expects to be successful in America, reacting violently to racism can't be considered an option.

Stay tuned.

Bohemian Grove fund-raiser to feature Grammy Award-winning acts

2010-07-12T12:36:00.001-07:00

The Bohemian Grove is hosting its 99th Annual Monte Rio Variety Show (website: http://www.monterioshow.org ) to benefit local charities on July 29th. Here's the press release:

Monte Rio, Calif. – The Bohemian Club will hold its 99th annual “Monte Rio Variety Show” on Thursday, July 29, offering an evening of music, comedy and theater to celebrate the friendship and connection with the Monte Rio and Russian River communities and to raise funds for local charities.

Last year’s show raised more than $30,000 for local charities. In recent years the event has featured Bohemians such as country music star Clint Black, rock legend Steve Miller and Grateful Dead icon Bob Weir.

This year’s Monte Rio Variety Show will begin at 7 p.m. at the Monte Rio Amphitheater. A pre-show barbeque, hosted by the Monte Rio Volunteer Firefighter’s Association, begins at 4:30 p.m.

Anyone attending the show is encouraged to bring lawn chairs, folding chairs or a blanket. These items can be placed in advance at the amphitheater after 7 a.m. on the day of the show.

The entrance to the show is behind The Pink Elephant on Main Street in Monte Rio. Admission is payable the day of the event, by reservation or by purchasing tickets at several local outlets.

As is the tradition, this year’s Variety Show will feature special guests, Grammy Award winning musicians, hot rock bands, jazz, and special acts that are guaranteed to delight spectators of all ages.

Tickets purchased in advance are $20.00 for adults and $5 for children ages 13 to 17. Adult tickets purchased the day of the event are $25.00. Children 12 and under are free with paid adult admission. There is an additional fee for the Firefighter’s pre-show barbecue.

Ticket reservations can be made by sending a check to Monte Rio Variety Show, c/o P.O. Box 218, Monte Rio, CA 95462. For any questions, call 707-865-2234.

All proceeds will benefit St. Catherine’s Church, the Monte Rio School Foundation, and the Monte Rio Volunteer Firefighter’s Association.

The Bohemian Grove, the club’s rustic retreat near Monte Rio, provides 600 jobs for adults, college and high school students each summer. The Club also participates in charitable causes that benefit local schools and athletic programs, food banks and has partnered with the Sequoia Trust, which helps fund many programs that serve the Monte Rio and Russian River communities.

Oscar Grant, Johannes Mehserle case graffiti around Oakland Lake Merritt

2010-06-28T18:16:00.001-07:00

As the Oscar Grant / Johannes Mehserle murder trial nears and end and fears that former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle increase, the fears that a riot, or series of riots, will happen in Oakland, Los Angeles, and other cities and towns in California increase, and for good reason. There are clear and visible signs that individuals and groups will take some kind of action that could include violence and property damage, and nowhere is this more apparent than around Lake Merritt in Oakland. There, property damage has already happened.

This video blogger received a tip from a YouTube viewer:

Not sure if you're aware, but there is graffiti in red spray paint throughout the running/walking path in Lake Merritt regarding Oscar Grant and Johannes Mesherle, just thought you may want to possibly cover it, and the peoples reactions while viewing it.

Take Care

On Sunday, I did just that. My vlogging (video-blogging) journey started with a message painted in red spray paint at the AC Transit bus shelter at the intersection of Perkins Avenue and Grand Avenue in Oakland's Adams Point District. The message read "Mehserle must die too!" and seemed to imply there was at least one more graffiti tag like it around somewhere. So, I went for a walk.

At first, as I arrived at Bellevue and Grand closer to Lake Merritt, there was no other graffitt tag message. So I continued along the walking and running path through Lakeside park until I arrived at what's locally called "The Columns," the structure on the northeastern shore of the Lake that serves an an informal meeting and viewing place between Grand Avenue and Lakeshore Avenue.

There, starting at the end of The Columns on the Grand Avenue side, was the first of three messages. It read "Mehserle must die." The other two are located in what I call the center court area, and at the opposite end of The Columns on the Lakeshore Avenue side.

But it graffiti tagging didn't stop there; it continued around the path next to the Lakeshore on the Lakeshore Avenue side of the water. The majority of the messages, which varied in tone from bad to awful, were next to the benches along the path.

In all I counted 11 messages, all in the video. A sure and clear sign that someone already took action to send a warning of what they either intend to do or wish someone else would do if the Oscar Grant trial ends with Mehserle going free.

The problem is Mehserle just may walk free.

The reason is the charge is murder, not manslaughter. The prosecution in the case has to prove that Johannes Mehserle intended to kill Oscar Grant last year. This is an issue I talked about with Oakland City Attorney John Russo just weeks ago. While not saying outright that Mehserle would "walk," Russo explained that it was going to be difficult to get a murder conviction.

If Johannes Mehserle is set free, Oakland's not going to be the safest place to be on the day of the verdict.

Stay tuned.

L.A. Lakers NBA Finals win causes riot: taxi cabs set on fire

2010-06-18T18:52:00.001-07:00

The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Boston Celtics 83 to 79 in perhaps the most dramatic game in NBA Finals history. But even more dramatic was the after-game-seven celebration in LA, as riots broke out and taxi cabs were set on fire.

This video below, posted at CitizenTube.com, shows the scene just a reported two blocks from Staples Center where the NBA game was played:

According to The Associated Press, 38 people were arrested for "public intoxication, vandalism or inciting a riot."

Between that and the New York City rap riot, I wonder what's going on at times.

NCAA USC punishment calls Pete Carroll move to Seahawks to question

2010-06-10T06:12:00.001-07:00

The National Collegiate Athletic Association, via a source to ESPN, is set to announce that it is going to strip the University of Southern California or "USC" of the ability to play in a bowl game for two years, a forfeiture of wins at least from the 2004 season and possibility the loss of the 2004 National Championship. All of this after an investigation of activities in football and basketball, and related to former students Reggie Bush and O.J. Mayo, was completed.

The death blow to future USC success calls former USC Coach Pete Carroll's move to the NFL to coach the Seattle Seahawks into question, and casts a giant black cloud over all that Carroll did while he was at USC. At first, this blogger believed Carroll's departure was just because a 6 and 6 season and the criticism was too much to stomach...

But in light of the NCAA investigation and its decision to essentially destroy USC Football as we've known it, now it seems that Pete Carroll knew this was coming, even as he told Dan Patrick on The Dan Patrick Show that he "would be surprised" if the NCAA took any action.

Well, Pete Carroll has to express surprise now, but really also has a lot of explaining to do. This level of punishment is too great for Pete Carroll to avoid. He should talk about it, and soon. Indeed, he will have to at some point.

Pete Carroll and Charlie Weis (ESPN)

And one has to wonder what former Notre Dame Head Coach Charlie Weis thinks of this news. Weis famously implied that Pete Carroll gets a pass from the media, and dropped an allegation about Pete Carroll that he later retracted. But it's clear Pete Carroll has not been one of Charlie Weis favorite people because he thinks Weis got special treatment from the media.

Also, how does the NCAA action impact the 2010 Pac-10 race, which was already wide open? Does Cal or Stanford have an open shot at the Pac-10 title? Will the Cal Stanford Big Game finally have real meaning for the first time in years?

Stay tuned for updates.

Social Networking is really Social Broadcasting

2010-06-06T10:45:00.001-07:00

Social Broadcasting

OK. To the view of this blogger, the term "Social Networking" is not only inappropriate, it's illogical. The correct term is really "Social Broadcasting" and if more people thought that way, they would understand how media has really changed over the last two decades and how to take advantage of the tools available to them.

Two events led to the use of the term Social Broadcasting for this blogger. First, on April 10, 2008, James Earl Buck used Twitter to get out of an Egyptian jail. What happened was that Buck, a University of California at Berkeley, or "Cal student", was in Mahalla, Egypt reportedly covering an anti-government protest when he and his colleague Mohammed Maree were arrested.

While being transported to jail, James Earl Buck used his cell phone to send a message that read "Arrested." (If it were me, I'd have sent a tweet rather than a message.) Eventually, bloggers and friends at Cal and around the World were activated. They got him a lawyer, and got him out of jail.

The second event is that a number of people, generally over 40 or 50 years of age, and for the most part in the advertising industry, ask why they should "do" social networking. They want to know why they should connect with people they do not know.

On Linkedin, the busines-oriented social broadcasting system, that question comes up so frequently it's become annoying. I give the same answer all the time: to get out a message. That's when I realized the reason many don't do social networking is because the very term itself is misleading. It's social broadcasting.

According to Wikipedia, the definition of "Broadcasting" is:

"..the distribution of audio and/or video signals which transmit programs to an audience. The audience may be the general public or a relatively large subset of the whole, such as children or young adults."

But that definition is outdated because it implies the use of electronic communications as practiced in the 20th Century with television and radio. The Internet changed all that, as websites and blogs, and mobile devices allow us to send text messages.

So, to that old definition of "broadcasting" one only has to add the word "text" to understand my point, so the definition now looks like this;

"..the distribution of text, audio and/or video signals which transmit programs to an audience. The audience may be the general public or a relatively large subset of the whole, such as children or young adults."

Think about that: "The audience may be the general public or a relatively large subset of the whole, such as children or young adults." It can also be your Facebook friends and Twitter followers or YouTube subscribers. Or all of them.

In my case, it's all of them. Zennie62 YouTube video distribution is done at times using Tubemogul, which permits me to upload one video to as many as eight different video distribution sites. Then the same video automatically goes to my Facebook, Friend Feed, and Twitter accounts. This is also true for Zennie62.com blog posts.

The distribution to my network of followers, friends, and subcribers is something I call my "horizontal broadcast network." Why? Because its "cross-platform," that is from Twitter to Friend Feed to Facebook and so on. Each one of those systems is a platform.

My "vertical broadcast network" is simply the number of people in that platform I have as friends, followers, or subscribers.

So by adding platforms you expand your network horizontally. By adding more people in each one you grow it vertically.

I use the Social Broadcasting System to get out information. My Facebook page is listed as for "networking." I'm not concerned about privacy issues on Facebook because there's nothing on it I don't want people to see. Many of my Facebook friends are people I have not met before. I'm using it for Social Broadcasting. On Twitter, I practice "retweeting" which is just a way of passing on information from one broadcast network, or set of Twitter followers, to another - in this case, your own.

This is no different than the old newspaper distribution system of subscribers. In that case, one newspaper had so many subscribers. From the newspapers perspective, some knew the writers and publishers, but most did not.

But Social Broadcasting's cross-platform reach brings in the concept of going to a Twitter stream which is a lot like tuning into a radio station while driving. You can stay there or find another station. On Twiter, you can follow and unfollow with ease. That action alters the flow of information to you, and changes your broadcast reach as well.

Note that I did not mention who you should follow or friend. That's not the point, and marks the difference in thinking. The objective is to have a wide a reach as possible. Period.

You're in the broadcast business, like it or not, and for the simple reason that you can't perfectly control what anyone consumes that you chose to put out there. If it's something that your friends, think is worth sharing with someone you don't know; you're plan of control is trashed. Once it's out, it's gone.

If you think about Social Networking as Social Broadcasting, then you see we're all really social broadcasters. And that's how media has changed and why Old Media suffers. Communications technology has caused millions of small media production efforts to spring up, if we consider cell phone and especially smart phones.

An advertiser can chose to sponsor a media effort with someone you and I never heard of just because of that person's reach. And that person may have just a computer, a blog, and a cell phone. Two decades ago, that was unheard of; ad money flowed to newspapers like The New York Times and The San Francisco Chronicle and The Chicago Tribune.

Not any more.

What, then, is the answer for The New York Times and The San Francisco Chronicle and The Chicago Tribune? To team up, or buy up, blogs and websites. That's the only way to expand the Old Media brand. Not one of the Old Media companies can make as many blogs that have the same impact as buying existing ones with set a audience Social Broadcasting base (because they're likely to have a Twitter account and YouTube accounts as well).

The other answer is to copy Associated Content, Examiner.com, and Gather.com, and add writers and pay them based on a traffic-based estimate.

Or perhaps the best approach for Old Media (The New York Times and The San Francisco Chronicle and The Chicago Tribune as examples) is some combination of both.

From the ad agency perspective, the idea that Social Networking doesn't work can be changed if the agency thinks of it as Social Broadcasting. Then the idea of "media buys" is much different and extends far beyond television and into not just blogs and websites, but someone's Twitter account too.

But even with all that, it's only a dent (but if played correctly a big one) in the total sea of media producers. Why? Because that set of people includes you and me, and the teenager with the cell phone who texts every minute about every thing, and uses Twitter to retweet any tweet on Justin Bieber.

We're all social broadcasters. We're just too busy thinking of social networking to see it.

Tila Tequila tries to commit suicide via "Jane" personality

2010-06-05T10:56:00.001-07:00

From Tila Tequila's blog and Zennie62.com

Wow. Proving once again that she's a troubled soul, Reality TV Star Tila Tequila tried to commit suicide Friday, tweeting her actions and posting a photo. It's a sad story broke by Zennie62.com's Nikky Raney who blogs:

Tila Tequila's "alter ego" or "multiple personality" Jane tried to kill her.
Seriously.
We just found out that celebrity rehab was just postponed.
I know I said I wouldn't post anymore about her, but this was just too much.
I also have a vlog that I will be posting.
She also posted a long blog entry about how Jane is trying to kill her.

Tita Tequila's reported multiple personalities first surfaced during the assault accusation controversy with San Diego Chargers Linebacker Shawne Merriman last year. Then, Tila Tequila was revealed in this space to be a person who has real mental problems, even posting a message on her website about her personalities and their behavior.

While such reports are easy to laugh at, in reality they're no laughing matter at all. Nikky Raney posted the shocking text that Tila left just below the bloody photo you see above. Here it is:

I don’t know what happened. People don’t believe I have multiple personalities but this morning the last thing I remember was falling asleep cuz I was so tired. I blacked out and now that I just woke up from excruciating pains all over my body, there was blood and dope everywhere! She is evil! She single handedly smashed and broke EVERYTHING in my bedroom! Both nightstands, the bed lights, all of the surround sound system, my tv boxes and there’s glass everywhere. There’s even chunks of meet coming out of my arm from the deep slits from her slicing up my arm from all the broken glass! My arm meet from inside is starting to bubble up and seep through the cuts. This is so fucked up. Now that I’m awake, she just left but I have no recollection of what happened to me. I’m just crying right now hiding in my toilet… my entire room is in shambles. All the new furniture is broken and glass all over the bed. I don’t know whats happening! =(

Little Tila"

Raney has the full account at Zennie62.com. Check it out.

And here's a wish that Tila gets the help she needs.

Stay tuned.

Stephen Hill: killer porn star called 'wacky guy' (like Rand Paul)

2010-06-04T14:48:00.001-07:00

Stephen Hill

Steven Hill, the porn star who killed one person and stabbed two others at the Ultima DVD office and distribution center in Van Nuys, California, outside Los Angeles, California, on Wednesday, is said to be a "wacky guy" who was involved in an inappropriate act in a night club, according to an email tip sent to this blogger.

The email, posted in such a way as to protect the identify of the source, reads as follows:

...I saw your article on porn star killer, Stephen Hill, and just wanted too add my two cents (I've seen Stephen at different porn events). If he was going to be fired for inappropriate behavior, it had to be pretty bad, because porn company employees can get away with a great deal, especially if they also double as performers for company movies. I was at a night club party where Stephen was thrown out due to having sex acts performed on him publicly by a female in attendance. He was a wacky guy...I hope Stephen is caught soon!

Stephen Hill is a wacky guy, but a killer. And Stephen Hill's still at large and considered dangerous. Ultima DVD has a $2,000 arrest award out for Hill.

As of this writing, Hill has not been seen at large.

Stay tuned.

McDonalds Shrek glass recall: thank Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA)

2010-06-04T10:27:00.001-07:00

Movie product tie-ins are common and many new products are aimed at kids. That's why the news of the McDonalds Shrek glass recall is so terrible. But first, thank the Office of Congresswoman Jackie Speier for the discovery of the problem.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle via the Associated Press, there were 12 million McDonalds Shrek glasses on the market: all of them must be recalled after a discovery by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The glasses are tainted with Cadmium, a carcinogen that can cause "long term adverse health effects." While that's in the recall notice, along with the news that the discovery came from the Office of Congresswoman Jackie Speier from California, that news is buried way down deep in in the Associated Press article.

The article also makes it seem as if the Consumer Product Safety Commission made the discovery. You have to read the entire, long work to see that it was Rep. Jackie Speier's office who made the find base on an anonymous tip. Spier issued this statement:

"Our children's health should not depend on the consciences of anonymous sources. Although McDonald's did the right thing by recalling these products, we need stronger testing standards to ensure that all children's products are proven safe before they hit the shelves," said Speier. "Cadmium is a toxic substance that is extremely dangerous to the developmental health of children."

Here's the text from the recall notice and the link to the web page containing it:

McDonald’s Recalls Movie Themed Drinking Glasses Due to Potential Cadmium Risk

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed. It is illegal to resell or attempt to resell a recalled consumer product.

Name of Product: “Shrek Forever After 3D” Collectable Drinking Glasses

Units: About 12 million

Manufacturer: ARC International, of Millville, NJ.

Distributor: McDonald’s Corp., Oakbrook, Ill.

Hazard: The designs on the glasses contain cadmium. Long term exposure to cadmium can cause adverse health effects.

Incidents/Injuries: None reported.

Description: The “Shrek Forever After 3D” collectable drinking glass are 16 ounce glasses that came in four designs, Shrek, Fiona, Puss n’ Boots, and Donkey.

Sold exclusively at: McDonald’s restaurants nationwide from May 2010 into June 2010 for about $2.

Manufactured in: United States

Remedy: McDonald’s is asking consumers to immediately stop using the glass out of an abundance of caution. Visit www.mcdonalds.com/glasses for additional instructions on how to obtain a full refund.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact McDonald’s toll-free at (800) 244-6227 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. CT Monday through Friday or visit the firm’s website at www.mcdonalds.com/glasses

Note: CPSC was made aware of issues with this product through the Office of Congresswoman Jackie Speier from California.

If you want to thank Rep. Jackie Speier's office, visit their website here: http://speier.house.gov/

Steven Hill, porn star, killed 1 and stabbed 2 in L.A with sword

2010-06-02T14:25:00.001-07:00

Also: Porn Actor Kills, Porn Actor Steven Hill, Porn Star Steven Hill, San Fernando Sword Attack, Stephen Hill, Stephen Hill Porn, Stephen Hill Porn Star, Steven Hill, Steven Hill Porn, Steven Hill Porn Actor, Steven Hill Porn Star, Sword Attack, Van Nuys Sword Attack, Los Angeles News

Van Nuys, CA- Steven Hill is an until now largely unknown 34-year-old porn star who according to ABC 7 News in Los Angeles, killed one person and stabbed two others with a "Samurai-type sword," and is on the loose.

It happened at the Havenhurst Airport Business Park, in Van Nuys, in the offices of a company called Ultima DVD, which is in the video distribution business but "there is filming going on their as well" according to ABC News in LA. Here's the video:

A Samurai Sword

Steven Hill was reportedly about to be fired for "inappropriate conduct" which is saying something considering the line of work he was in. The ABC 7 News' Carlos Granda obtained video from a surveillance camera that showed Hill getting out of a car and carrying what looked like the reported sword.

Steven Hill reportedly lived and worked in the office park, which one witness said she didn't event know was legal to do.

According to The Huffington Post, the incident started at a small "social gathering" late Tuesday at Ultima DVD; Hill had been told to leave the studio by Wednesday.

Los Angeles police Detective Joel Price said Hill just "went off and and stabbed people that probably had absolutely nothing to do with him being let go."

Steven Hill is now the focus of a manhunt around the L.A. Basin area.

Stay tuned.

Los Angeles Events: Academy (AMPAS) has Monday and Wednesday events

2010-05-22T22:13:00.001-07:00

The AMPAS Building

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) isn't known for just the Academy Awards, AMPAS has a number of events on a weekly basis and this week is no exception.

On Monday, May 24th at 7:30 PM at The Samuel Goldwyn Theater at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, AMPAS continues the series "Oscar Noir: 1940s Writing Nominees from Hollywood's Dark Side," with the 1944 feature Laura.

Laura, a film starring Gene Tierney, was about a police detective who falls in love with the woman whose murder he's investigating. It will be introduced by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Scott Frank (Out of Sight, Minority Report).

Laura earned five Academy Award nominations, including Actor in a Supporting Role (Clifton Webb), Black - and - White Art Direction (Lyle Wheeler, Leland Fuller; Interior Decoration: Thomas Little) and Directing (Otto Preminger), and took home the Oscar for Black - and - White Cinematography (Joseph LaShelle).

Here's the trailer from Laura:

Tickets for Laura are $5, $3 for Academy Members and students with an ID. The Samuel Goldwyn Theater is at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, CA.

On Wednesday, May 26, at 7 p.m, AMPAS has Oscar nominees The Conscience of Nhem En and Standard Operating Procedure showing as part of its' 28th annual "Contemporary Documentaries" series at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood.

Admission to all screenings in the series is free.

For more information, call (310) 247-3600 or visit www.oscars.org.

Pete Carroll: NCAA punishment of USC would be "surprise"

2010-05-11T10:06:00.003-07:00

Seattle Coach Pete Carroll

Seattle Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carroll was interviewed by Dan Patrick on The Dan Patrick Show today, Tuesday. Patrick, to his credit, did not duck from asking Carroll several pointed questions about the NCAA's investigation into alleged NCAA rules violations at Carroll's last employer, The University of Southern California. Carroll said he would be "surprised" if the NCAA punished USC.

The NCAA is expected to make a ruling this week on the allegations that USC violated NCAA rules in the basketball and football programs. In the case of the football program, the NCAA opened an investigation into charges of illegal benefits given to then USC Running Back Reggie Bush during his final year at USC. (Bush is now with the NFL's New Orleans Saints.)

And the NCAA announced that a Pac-10 coach violated NCAA rules when he retained a paid consultant to watch practice and attend games. While the NCAA does not name Pete Carroll, bloggers speculate that the NCAA could be referring to Carroll's hiring of Pete Rodriguez to focus on USC's kicking game.

On The Dan Patrick Show, Pete Carroll said there was much he did not know surrounding what went on at USC that led to the allegations. Carroll was head football coach at USC where he won two national championships, and several Pac-10 Championships. Carroll said "it's hard to control" every aspect of an athletic program.

On Seattle Seahawks-related issues, Pete Carroll told Dan Patrick he was pleased with the Seahawks 2010 Draft class and added that 1st round choice Russell Okung was already showing promise of being a special player, and 2nd round pick Golden Tate has already made big plays in minicamps.

What's interesting about The Dan Patrick Show interview of Pete Carroll is their promos leading up to it said nothing about asking Carroll about his possible role in the NCAA rules scandal. Yet, almost half of the interview consisted of questions and conversation about that issue. You could almost feel the energy come out of the room as the focus turned to the NCAA. Coach Carroll went from being energetic and happy to slow and somber in his speech. I wonder if he felt blindsided. It sure sounded that way.

Carroll's going to be really dogged by what happened as USC if the NCAA surprises him with some kind of punishment. He should get used to the questions. One just can't run away from a mess.

Stay tuned.

Pete Carroll: NCAA punishment of USC would be "surprise"

2010-05-11T10:06:00.001-07:00

Seattle Coach Pete Carroll

Seattle Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carroll was interviewed by Dan Patrick on The Dan Patrick Show today, Tuesday. Patrick, to his credit, did not duck from asking Carroll several pointed questions about NCAA's investigation into alleged NCAA rules violations at Carroll's last employer, The University of Southern California. Carroll said he would be "surprised" if the NCAA punished USC.

The NCAA is expected to make a ruling this week on the allegations that USC violated NCAA rules in the basketball and football programs. In the case of the football program, the NCAA opened an investigation into charges of illegal benefits given to then USC Running Back Reggie Bush during his final year at USC. (Bush is now with the NFL's New Orleans Saints.)

And the NCAA announced that a Pac-10 coach violated NCAA rules when he retained a paid consultant to watch practice and attend games. While the NCAA does not name Pete Carroll, bloggers speculate that the NCAA could be referring to Carroll's hiring of Pete Rodriguez to focus on USC's kicking game.

On The Dan Patrick Show, Pete Carroll said there was much he did not know surrounding what went on at USC that led to the allegations. Carroll was head football coach at USC where he won two national championships, and several Pac-10 Championships. Carroll said "it's hard to control" every aspect of an athletic program.

On Seattle Seahawks-related issues, Pete Carroll told Dan Patrick he was pleased with the Seahawks 2010 Draft class and added that 1st round choice Russell Okung was already showing promise of being a special player, and 2nd round pick Golden Tate has already made big plays in minicamps.

What's interesting about The Dan Patrick Show interview of Pete Carroll is their promos leading up to it said nothing about asking Carroll about his possible role in the NCAA rules scandal. Yet, almost half of the interview consisted of questions and conversation about that issue. You could almost feel the energy come out of the room as the focus turned to the NCAA. Coach Carroll went from being energetic and happy to slow and somber in his speech. I wonder if he felt blindsided. It sure sounded that way.

Carroll's going to be really dogged by what happened as USC if the NCAA surprises him with some kind of punishment. He should get used to the questions. One just can't run away from a mess.

Stay tuned.

Happy Mother's Day to everyone!

2010-05-09T08:20:00.001-07:00

Suburban Atlanta, GA - Happy Mother's Day everyone! I can't remember missing celebrating Mother's Day and it was vitally important for me to give my Mom the gift of my help here in Georgia. See, my Mom still insists on working, and I see that as a personal failure on my part because I believe if I made enough money she would not have to work. I give her money each month, as of this writing it helps but not enough to compel her to just stay at home.

Yet as I write this, i'm not sure that would keep her at home cooking and tending garden. While she does do that - tend garden and cook - I really think working around people is Mom's way of staying connected. She's a United Airline retiree but if United called, she'd answer it in a heart beat.

Mom's tried working for me but following Internet trends can be boring if you really like being out and about with folks. Not that I don't, but that's my Mom. It's good therapy for the passing of friends over time.

The one curse of old age is that your friends die. While the logical and uncaring mind would say "just make new ones" it's also a young mind that would form such a thought. Friends are supposed to be and are special people in your life. Friends know you. They're the people who have license to open your door without knocking or tell you what they think because it's for your own good.

Friends are people who borrow money from you and pay you back. They keep your secrets, well, at least the ones that are worth keeping. When you lose friends you lose a part of you. (And while I'm thinking about it, for those who are dating and hear the words "let's be friends", anyone who says "we're friends" and does not meet the criteria above isn't a friend. Don't kid yourself. In my experience, real friends come with benefits. But enough about that for now.)

I think if I were married with kids that would keep Mom at home because kids are the center of her life. It doesn't matter who you are, if you're around my age, your my Mom's kid and she talks to you that way.

I remember a neighbor of mine mistakenly and she will tell you stupidly poured gasoline on the side of the street in full view of my Mom, who was visiting. Well, she got it from my Mom. And while I didn't know her well at the time, and do didn't know what to expect as a reaction, I realized Mom has a way of putting things such that people know she cares and isn't being malicious. She has that way about her.

But fortunately, even though I'm not a father and believe I'd be an incredible one, I'm also not suffering through a divorce or discovering that my wife's cheating on me, either. So, I suppose there's a bright side too.

But I digress. I'm here for my Mom, who I love very much and always will. From the practical perspective, she's my only remaining family and I'm the only child, so I travel here each month to help her. But even if that wasn't the case, I'd be here anyway!

Happy Mother's Day! Give your Mom a kiss if she's near by and a call if she's not - even if you argue with her, at least enjoy that you're able to!

Academy (AMPAS) News: Ray Harryhausen celebrated May 14th

2010-05-04T17:29:00.001-07:00

The AMPAS Building

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science (AMPAS) is celebrating the great career of Ray Harryhausen.

Ray's a legendary special effects pioneer known for creating and advancing the technique of "stop-motion" live-action animation called "Dynamation" and used in It Came from beneath the Sea (1955), Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956), The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), Jason and the Argonauts (1963), The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960), One Million Years B.C. (1966) and the original Clash of the Titans (1981).

This tribute to the 1981 Clash of The Titans is also a good compilation of the films's special effects (watch for the annotation "I never saw Venice!"):

AMPAS summer exhibition "The Fantastical Worlds of Ray Harryhausen," is opening to the public on Friday, May 14, 10 a.m. in the Academy’s Fourth Floor Gallery at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. Admission is free.

Additionally, the Gallery will have "Chuck Jones: An Animator’s Life From A to Z-Z-Z-Z."

The exhibition will feature iconic characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Pepe Le Pew, Wile E. Coyote and many others that were created or developed by Oscar-winning animator and humorist Chuck Jones (1912 - 2002).

For more information call AMPAS at 310-247-3600 or visit http://www.oscars.org.

Jerry Brown meets Richard Aguirre for California Governor, sort of

2010-04-17T12:58:00.003-07:00

Richard Aguirre is an until now largely unknown Democratic candidate for Governor of California taking on California Attorney General Jerry Brown. In the video above, posted today April 17th, Aquirre walks in with the perfect activist-running-for-something attire of jeans, t-shirt, and pony tail, and expects to be taken seriously.

Richard v. Jerry at the convention

The result, even if that's his brand, is he's in a damaging video he posted on YouTube which shows him not being taken seriously. Richard Aguirre first challenges Jerry Brown to a debate in his speech, then allows himself to be shown yelling at Brown from the back of the ballroom at the California Democratic Convention.

After that, much of Richard Aguirre's camera time is spent on a not so merry chase of Brown around the convention, yelling for him to debate like a Chihuahua might bark at a Doberman Pincher.

Geez.

Finally Richard Aguirre gets to within reach of Brown, who keeps going without stopping, looking at him as if Brown was in a car going by roadkill. It was pathetic.

One thing. At least Jerry could have stopped and talked to the man much as San Francisco Mayor and Lieutenant Governor Candidate Gavin Newsom did. But even Gavin, in one gesture without saying it, said "Look at this guy."

If Richard wants to be taken seriously, he has to stop showing himself as a small person who's yelling from the back room at Jerry Brown and be a person who has videos at his own events and states his own platform for governor.

Stay tuned.

IRS tax day freebies 2010 at Starbucks, Cinnabon; help the homeless

2010-04-15T09:00:00.001-07:00

Today is April 15th, IRS Tax Day. That day where people get their last files together to make a list of fiscal expenditures and get their tax report in to the government before midnight.

While today may be a day of dread, fear not, for it's also a time of IRS tax day freebies 2010. Now the trouble is while this is a national trend, not enough retailers or eateries are actually sending out press releases announcing a marketing effort. If this blogger were in the restaurant business, everyone would get a free drink if they purchased a meal and could prove they just filed their taxes.

Now there is one company that seems to get "IRS tax day freebies 2010:" Starbucks. If you bring in a reusable mug on April 15th, or today, you get a free brewed coffee according to their website. Cinnabon, who makes those great, big cinnamon rolls with the thick frosting on top, is also part of IRS tax day freebies 2010.

Between 6 PM and 8 PM at Cinnabon, you can get two free cupcake bites to, as the website reports, "make it less taxing." But if you do this, I personally ask that you give your free cupcake bites to someone who needs food. It's personally sad to see people sitting or begging and know that retailers have these freebees that someone homeless generally doesn't know about.

So if you see someone near by, think about them.

Stay tuned.

2010 Camaro gets Barris makeover for Saturday event with Jay Leno

2010-04-09T10:16:00.001-07:00

The 2010 Chevrolet Camaro, the new version of the classic American muscle car from GM and Chevy, gets George Barris makeover for a Saturday event. On April 10th, Community Chevrolet, located at 200 West Olive Avenue in Burbank, California has the first, the # 1 Barris Kustom 2010 Chevrolet Camaro "Spirit" car, and it's hot.

If you're wondering who George Barris is, you haven't lived. Barris created many of the legendary television cars like the 1966 Batman TV Batmobile, The Munster Koach from The Musters, the Beverly Hillbillie truck, and Knightrider KITT car, to name some of Barris creations.

But this Barris Kustom "Sprit" Camaro is not for TV, it's for real (Barris likes to use the word "Custom" with a "K" so it's "Kustom"). Barris said:

Today so many kustom vehicles have entirely too much work done on them. I believe we have succeeded in developing a kustom vehicle with just the right amount of kustom features and keeping it affordable to the automotive enthusiast while being made in the USA.

Some of the highlighted changes in the base 2010 Camaro 2SS RS include:

Kustom painted hood with deep pearl and metallic accents emphasizing the wide, aggressive stance of the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro.
Kustom painted front fenders and doors. The aerodynamic “Spear” blurs the vision with a striking burst of speed.
Kustom foil “hand-swirled” striping and beautifully pin-stripping outline the kustom paint on the hood, front fenders and doors.
Kustom paint to accent the rear fender louvers
Kustom paint to accent the four taillight tunnels
Kustom 3 bar chrome legend grill
“Spirit” name is added to both fenders along with a Barris Kustom Crest insignia.
Barris Kustom dash plaque hand signed by George Barris.
Lexani Chrome Painted Spoked Wheels

You don't have to be in Burbank to order this car; just contact your Chevy dealer. But if you can, come to Community. There will be celebrities like John Schneider, Joe Mantegna, James Pitt (Avatar), Brenda Dickson-Young & The Restless, Claudia Wells-Back to the Future, Kat Kramer, LA Councilman Tom LaBonge, Barris pal-Jay Leno, Cindy Margolis, Tom Hallick and many others.

Stay tuned.

Star Trek's Denise Crosby at WonderCon SF

2010-04-07T01:56:00.001-07:00

Denise Crosby was at WonderCon SF 2010 last weekend, and talking with this blogger about how she lands so many of her strong, smart female roles. From Lt. Tasha Yar on Star Trek: The Next Generation, to her current role as Capt. Susan Salinger on the TV show Southland, Denise Crosby has a long string - a tradition, really - of playing such television roles. Was it by design? In other words, did she insist on that kind of role?

"I never make those kind of demands," Crosby said. "Actors are kind of subject to the work available, you know?" I think I often get cast in those roles because there's a certain kind of energy I put out there."

But Crosby, in San Francisco to sign autographs as part of WonderCon SF, said she does play the vulnerable female roles, too. She just finished Orpheus Descending on the LA Stage where she played "Lady Torrance", ever the vulnerable woman if there was one.

Denise Crosby is part of what's commonly referred to as "The Crosby Family Dynasty" as she's the granddaughter of Bing Crosby, the daughter of actor and singer Dennis Crosby, and the nice of Mary Crosby.

Even with all that Hollywood royalty, Denise is nice, centered, and approachable. A very good conversationalist, she met her fans at WonderCon SF with a sincere kindness that wasn't always the norm during the event. That speaks volumes for her as a person.

On Easter Sunday, don't forget Children's Hospital in Oakland

2010-04-04T11:49:00.001-07:00

Related searches: Easter Sunday, Children's Hospital, Oakland news, City of Oakland, easter egg archive, Bert Lupin,

Happy Easter Sunday! There will be happier blog posts to report, but the matter of the fiscal problems of Children's Hospital in Oakland (or "Children’s Hospital Oakland") are as important as an easter egg archive, how to tie a tie, Rachel Ray's Deviled Eggs Recipe, or the iPad 3g.

Children’s Hospital Oakland is Northern California’s only independent non-profit regional medical center for children, a national leader in many pediatric specialties, and an Oakland treasure. "Children's" is also a designated Level 1 pediatric trauma center with the largest pediatric critical care unit in Northern California.

Children's Hospital, suffering from California's terrible economy, a poor national economy, low government and private reimbursement rates, increasing healthcare costs and what it says is a "lack of public hospitals with pediatric inpatient beds," lost $26 million last year alone and $80 million over the last four years.

Children's reports that California’s high annual unemployment rate has increased the number of families covered by Medi-Cal and other government assisted programs from 60 percent to 71 percent in one year; an all time high for the facility. Children’s claims Medi-Cal reimbursement are "among the lowest in the nation" and does not cover the cost of service provided to patients.

According to Children’s Hospital Oakland President and CEO Bert Lupin, the fiscal loss has grown at "at an unsustainable rate." In the hopes of stopping a projected $15 million 2010 loss, Lupin and his staff have created a three-year plan that will reduce costs and increase revenues. Here are the plan's actions that are "under consideration":

Partnering with community clinics
Supporting existing and new programs that have the financial capability of
helping support the hospital
Renegotiating contracts with public and private insurers to get higher rates, comparable to what other local medical centers receive
Reducing the workforce, with as few layoffs as possible
Reducing the annual costs by streamlining some service lines
Seeking more state and federal funding

Children's Hospital Oakland currently employs 2,600 people and has an annual operating budget of $350 million.

It's not clear how the new Obama Health Care plan will impact Children's Hospital Oakland as of this writing, but if the comments of Dr. George Phillips, a pediatrics doctor at the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital in the Iowa Independent, are any indication, it can do nothing but help:

"This new law sets the benchmark for coverage for all preventive care that all children should receive. We've seen so many children in the hospital, whose medical conditions have reached an acute stage that could have either been prevented or addressed earlier in the process, had they had wellness checks."

Help Children's Hospital

Children’s Hospital Oakland is an international treasure that everyone in the California should be proud of. Oaklanders see it as children’s hospital, but equally if not more important, it is an internationally renowned research center that is creating cures for kids. We need to support this hospital for the groundbreaking work it does in discovering new treatments to prevent and to heal children here and around the World.

You can help by calling your Senator and Congressperson and asking them to help find federal funds to support Children's Hospital. You can do this regardless of where you live because of Children's Hospital Oakland's unique regional role.

Happy Easter!

Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Brett Favre, and Ray Lewis in Beverly Hills

2010-03-05T23:25:00.001-08:00

Beverly Hills, CA - The 82nd Annual Academy Awards, like the other Oscars before it, really sends this already moneyed place into a another gear. If you like people, glamour, beauty, good food, fine cars, entrepreneurs, movies, and the Oscars, Hollywood and Beverly Hills is for you. This is a place that - forgive this blogger's first time eyes - seems to not know it's an economic downturn.

Or more accurately, it doesn't want to get the bad news. It's a place where Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Minnesota Vikings QB Brett Favre, and Baltimore Ravens Linebacker Ray Lewis were spotted Thursday night (not by me but according to a source) at my new favorite place for steak: Maestro's Steakhouse. (And for anyone wondering, they don't sponsor this space, yet.)

What Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Brett Favre, and Ray Lewis were doing here in Beverly Hills during Oscar weekend was not known, but my source says that Ray Lewis has a house in the area. One guess is that celebrities get invited to the big parties that other celebs throw, so they go to them. That party was at an incredible eatery.

Wow, what an incredible rib-eye steak I had at Maestro's Steakhouse after having drinks, some with alcohol and some not, with my friend Paul Pollack and his wife. Paul was a regular at The Balboa Cafe in San Francisco where he met the woman who became his lovely wife over a decade ago. Now they have a little one and live outside California.

After they left for their next appointment, I enjoyed the best steak I've ever had in my life, and only the 22-ounce Alley Steak (off the menu at The Alley in Oakland) can match it, but not top it. That plus a bed of mashed potatoes, steamed spinach, and a great glass of merlot and that was it.

Coming here to work media for the Oscars is an experience best shared with someone. There's just too much to literally look at, from the newest Rolls Royce motorcars, to women with a lift here, a tuck there, and a tan - real and manufactured. There's a good and healthy number of people of color here and everyone mixes very well.

What's so funny is that people seem to look at each other as of they're on the constant watch for a celebrity, and the place is crawling with photogs. That's the funniest part of being here. But people do engage with each other - they talk.

Hollywood and Beverly Hills has a pulse and it's not because of the Oscars, but it gave birth to The Oscars. I'm not one to want to live here as the urban design is not something I can embrace, but this part of LA, for anyone who's a pop culture junky like this blogger, is intoxicating.

Stay tuned.

Conan O'Brien on Twitter, for real - @conanobrien

2010-02-24T16:58:00.001-08:00

After a hoax Fox Twitter account, Conan O'Brien is really on Twitter, for real. According to Mediaite, On Wednesday, the new, Twitter-verified account called @ConanOBrien was launched, and Conan issued this tweet:

Today I interviewed a squirrel in my backyard and then threw to commercial. Somebody help me.
about 2 hours ago via web

As of this writing, Conan O'Brien has 55,652 followers on Twitter, one of them this blogger. Considering Conan's last tweet was two hours ago, he's got to step up his tweet count.

Come to think of it, so do I.

The CVS Caremark / CVS Pharmacy expired products problem

2010-02-23T17:19:00.001-08:00

CVS Caremark Corp is a large national corporation which operated over 7,000 US drugstores under the name CVS Pharmacy. CVS Caremar Corp, or "CVS", or "CVS Pharmacy" for this blog post, has been the focus of lawsuits by state attorney generals in Connecticut and in New York for selling expired products, according to the Boston Globe.

In California, CVS Caremark was the focus of California Attorney General Jerry Brown, who in June of 2009, negotiated a $975,000 settlement of a civil lawsuit with CVS Pharmacy along with an agreement to give $2 coupons to anyone who found expired products on their shelves, and designates a toll-free number to call to report such items.

Now, there's a charge from a reliable source that CVS (formerly Long’s Drug stores in California) as well as Krogers, Ralphs, and other major chain stores are selling ‘diverted’ or grey market products that may counterfeited.

In some cases, the claim is the California consumer is even getting products that can be dangerous.

“Diverters” are companies are selling these stores products that have been diverted from their intended sales point or they may even be selling counterfeit products.

If this turns out to be the case, CVS will again be in violation of the same California laws under the Business and Professions Code 17200 and the Civil Code 1798.81 by misleading customers.

On August 14th of 2009, the Modesto Bee wrote wrote that a number of county district attorneys, including Stanislaus San Joaquin, Sacramento, San Bernardino and Solano counties have joined in the statewide lawsuit against several national retailers who stock beauty supplies alleged to violate California environmental law.

That lawsuit, originally brought by the District Attorney of Stanislaus County, sought penalties of at least $17 million, with amounts to be levied based on each day a prohibited hair product is offered for sale, according to court papers. The case also named Longs Drug Stores, Target, Rite Aid, Walgreens and Ralphs, among other defendants.

That lawsuit named a New Jersey company, Pro Choice Beauty Care Inc, that provides the products to the retail stores — without approval from the brand manufacturers. It is unclear how clear where Pro's Choice Beauty Care Inc. gets its products. It is believed to be a “diverter” of products.

The hair products that were being sold were found to contain elevated levels of smog-forming volatile organic compounds, state environmental authorities said, according to the Modesto Bee.
Stay tuned for more information as this story unfolds both here in the Bay Area and around California. I've made several calls to sources; I expect follow-ups soon.

YouTube video channel Zennie62 reaches 12 million video views

2010-02-21T16:18:00.001-08:00

The YouTube video channel Zennie62 has reached 12 million video views and 200,000 channel views as of Saturday, February 20th, and continuing a pattern of rapid growth that started in 2009 and has continued through 2010. Zennie62 on YouTube also has over 4,000 subscribers.

The YouTube video channel Zennie62 consists over 800 videos covering everything from politics to news, sports, tech, and entertainment and celebrity gossip. Zennie62 on YouTube is connected to the blog Zennie62.com, also at Zennie2005.blogspot.com. The Zennie62 blog is the center publication of a network of 100 blogs ran by Zennie62.com, of which this blogger, Zennie Abraham, is the executive producer.

The idea of Zennie62 is to bring "pure form video blogging" to the viewer. It's the simple practice of talking to the audience through a camcorder to tell a story or share a point of view, or as part of an interview with someone else. As video-blogging does not call for an elaborate set or expensive equipment, it can be done anywhere, at any time.

Here's one of Zennie62's most popular videos, this one on Susan Boyle:

And here's another one called "Fight in SF Fillmore":

Some of the videos are used for his national TV show The Blog Report with Zennie62 on CoLoursTV, DISH 9407.

Plans for 2010 include the upcoming NFL Draft Combine and The Academy Awards. Zennie62 has its first designated Associate Video-Blogger and seeks to form a team of video-bloggers in different cities. If you're interested, send an email to zennie@zennie62.com

Megan Fox Armani Commercial 2010 - Megan Fox gets kudos

2010-02-16T19:47:00.001-08:00

The latest 2010 Megan Fox Armani Commercial is out today, Tuesday. Megan Fox is drawing rave reviews for the Armani commercial, where the stunning actress from Jennifer's Body and The Transformers movie series puts on Emporio Armani and becomes the face and body of Armani.

Splash News observed that Megan Fox "teases", while, Mail Online UK gushes...

The Transformers star, shot in black and white, pouts seductively at the camera as it pans up and down her enviable figure that has made her an international sex symbol.

The commercial is a 30-second-long trip along the semi-nude body of Megan Fox more than an commercial for Armani. To this blogger, it's playful, sexy, seductive, and just a tad boring. Not Megan Fox, the Armani commercial. Make no mistake about it, Megan Fox is a classically beautiful woman. But there's something about the Armani commercial that's missing and it's action.

Megan Fox in stiletto heeled sexy shoes and walking near-nude in the same Emporio Armani underwear would have sent the Internet into tilt. If the Emporio Armani commercial emphasized her legs as much as it does her face and abs, and her walking motion timed with that music, it would be timeless. Here's Megan Fox's legs on display in the Rolling Stones Interview of last year:

Over at Fashionising.com, Daniel P. Dykes says that women "hate Megan Fox" but men don't. I think the idea is for men to ask women to wear the Megan Fox Emporio Armani underwear (as it will come to be called) for them.

Let's see if the strategy works.

Brooklyn Decker photos move over for Megan Avalon photos

2010-02-11T12:50:00.001-08:00

Brooklyn Decker is the 2010 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition Cover Girl, and Brooklyn Decker photos are the Internet's hot item as of this writing. It's an amazing step for someone not known to the general public as anyone but the girlfriend and now wife of Tennis Star Andy Roddick.

Now, Brooklyn Decker has come into her own. As S.I.'s cover model, Decker has been on The David Letterman show and Dan Patrick can't get enough of her.

But Brooklyn Decker represents the classic Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition look: tall, blonde, skinny, and white. (And since all of the 2010 ports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition models look like Brooklyn Decker, it's time to ask why not have black, white, Asian, and Hispanic Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition models?)

After decades of the same look, with a break to fit in the lovely Tyra Banks, in the 21st Century it's time for a change: presenting Megan Avalon and Megan Avalon photos for consideration in the 2011 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition.

Unlike the rail thin Brooklyn Decker, Megan Avalon presents a new look: fit, athletic, and buffed. In an era where the strong woman is prized and it's considered sexy for women to have toned or muscular arms, Megan Avalon has all of that in a package right for Sports Illustrated. Here's a video interview with Megan Avalon:

Sports Illustrated has to come into the 21st Century. It's a time where top modeling agencies like Wilhelmina are hiring women who look more like Megan Avalon than Brooklyn Decker. It's also time to stop sending young women the message that they have to be so thin that they take on unhealthy eating practices can be fatal. It's time for a change, and Megan Avalon represents the future.

Jessica Simpson farted is news? Simpson giving to Haiti is better

2010-01-28T15:13:00.001-08:00

The webpage does not lie, even when it's changed. US Magazine writes "EXCLUSIVE: Oops! Jessica Simpson Farts During Business Meeting". Unbelievable.

Not that Jessica Simpson farted during a business meeting, but that it wound up on the front of US Magazine. (One wonders if she gave to Haiti?) There's certainly a connection between her body concerns and what she's putting in it...

But is this going too far?

The metric test here is of interest. Will this post get click? Yes. How many? A lot. Why? Who knows. Forget the really important question, which is "what did she eat?" this news is all over the place. Still, US Magazine reports:

A source tells Us Weekly that Jessica Simpson had a, ahem, windy moment during a business meeting for her denim line in late January. "While one of the executives was speaking in a room full of five people, Jessica let out a very loud fart," says the insider.

Oh, Jess! Recap her most outrageous moments

"Her mother [Tina Simpson] was there, and it prompted her to turn around and yell, 'Jessica!' The tension was extreme. No one knew what to say."

Yes, people are voyeurs, and they will certainly be interested in a lot of what celebs do, but farting? And what about the US Magazine claim that It wasn't Simpson's first brush with public flatulence

OK. I just can't help but wonder where this is going to go. One certainty is whatever squeaky-clean image Jessica Simpson had is gone.

Jessica Simpson giving to Haiti is better news; if she did. Stay tuned.

Journey to Haiti with Doc Gurley

2010-01-28T00:21:00.001-08:00

14 days and counting. I got the message yesterday that a group would like me to go to Haiti. I'd already thrown my name in the hat in the beginning, but they all needed (appropriately) surgeons. Or nurses. But now the situation has morphed, and when the call came my insta-gut response was "yes." Afterward, a tiny flicker of stomach-butterflies set it. Maybe it was the fact that I don't (and maybe won't) have a confirmed return flight home. The estimated time for being there is a week (very do-able), but no guarantees on that estimate (um, less do-able?). Or maybe the butterflies were in part because of the way the lead doctor emphasized (three times!) the fact that we would always have Security with us (clearly said with a capital S). But I knew I wanted to go. When it comes to Haiti, so many of us want to do something. And so I thought you might like to go with me. Which is why I'm going to write about the trip, probably more openly and personally than anything I've written to you before. But first, just so we're all clear, here are the rules:

Doc Gurley's Haiti Manifesto

Rule #1: Why me? Altruism is a gift that benefits the giver. Never more so than when despair hovers. It is amazing how, when I told family, friends and co-workers that I was going to a life-threatening disaster zone, rife with disease and unspeakable deprivation, the uniform first response has been a blurted out: "You're so lucky!" followed a shocked moment of horror-filled realization as they heard their own words, then "Not lucky, I mean, it's going to be hard, really hard, it's just that I wish I could do something like that, well, you know what I mean..." Sometimes it's even difficult to verbalize exactly why we feel that spike of jealousy. I think it's because we all wish we could do something tangible. Something with our hands and our backs. Heavy lifting. Hey, we all know the checks are important (VERY important), but after a while they feel the same as handing your kid a twenty on her birthday. Like something crucial is missing in the act. Could that urge to do something, anything, be the reason I'm going? I've thought about it - am I taking the place of someone else who should go instead (keeping in mind that it can be too easy to think that maybe someone else ought to go, and, if we all do that - no one goes). But I don't think I am taking someone else's place. Here's why: a) I'm an internist, a grunt, a flea, a sickest-of-the-sick-adults'-doctor, one with extensive ER and hospitalist experience, the type of doctor (after the surgeons have left) that they need now, and b) I currently see patients in a homeless clinic with a strong culture of collaborative care so - while it's admittedly still not Haiti - I don't tend to have the typical easily-offended doctor amount of either ego or fastidiousness, and c) I speak good-enough French to have worked for three months in a monolingual medical environment, and d) I did those French-speaking healthcare months in a Third World country in Africa, a place somewhat like Haiti in that the generators turned off every night and mosquito netting and hungry bats were our major malaria interventions, and e) frankly I am lucky enough to have the job/benefits/luxury of being able to go on short notice while not paid to do so like a disaster team is, and f) while the fact is that I'm not a nurse (okay sure, I ran an IVAC once, but all I remember of the experience is a panic-filled blur of jabbing buttons while machines beeped at me in a decidedly contemptuous fashion), and would never claim to be a nurse, I can honestly say that if there's a bandaging, dosing, vital-sign-taking, bedpan-changing, spongebath giving, floor-mopping job to do, well, like most of us peri-menopausal moms, I'm your Gurley. All of which leads to Rule #1 - the better candidate goes. That means if someone more qualified or adept can take my slot, I step out. Even at the eleventh hour (that would be 4:30 am, February 15, in a United terminal at Chicago's O'Hare, in case anyone's keeping track).

Rule #2: We go there to work. There will be NO ethically weird moments when the camera swings, Gupta-like, in my direct and I orthodontially blind you while simultaneously performing surgery. I'm going there to work. As a doctor. I'll be sweaty, I won't waste suitcase space on make-up, and God knows what my hair will be doing. Sweaty doctor - that's it. There is no sub-clause, no asterisk, no employer, no other job title. There is no conflict-of-interest. The Chronicle/SFGate is not paying me anything, not transport, nada. Heck, I can't even get a satellite cell-phone out of them to make sure I can send and/or upload posts (but maybe! they're working on it!). Any sharing of the experience from me to you happens after the work is done. But as much as is humanly possible, we'll go together. Every step we can. Because whether you're frustrated, or despairing, or hungering to do something, or rage-filled about our own neglected problems at home, there are moments when it's best to share. And an epic disaster is one of them. Join me. We'll go together and do what we can to help.

Rule #3: HIPPA goes to Haiti. People the world over deserve their medical privacy. And no one - especially the very desperate - should have to wonder what their doctor's motivation really is. If I write/blog/video/audio record about a patient, or a situation, either that person will NOT be one of my patients, or their identity will be so changed that no one will ever be able to know exactly who that 12-year-old girl with a head injury really was.

Rule #4: It takes a village to help a village. It's been less than 24 hours since I found out I was going and friends have already stepped up. An Eagle Scout mom has an ultra-small sleeping bag for me (so I'll have more room for medical supplies in my luggage). Colleagues are pitching in to cover shifts they have NO obligation to work (thank you, Barry! thank you, Mary!). Churches - here and there - are helping with logistics and food. Total strangers are coming forward with airline miles for me to use, and a place for me to bunk in Chicago while I wait for my flight out. You too are welcome to go with me to Haiti in spirit. And if you would like to go with me in a more tangible way, I'll let you know of opportunities. But, when it comes to "stuff," I am limited to one 50-lb checked bag. In contrast, there is no limit on goodwill, or funds for those suffering there. I am not wasting time or energy picking apart anyone who wants to help - I don't care about your politics, religion or cash reserves. You want to roll up your sleeves too, well, you're my kind of Gurley...

So here we are, Day 14 and counting:

1) Told my kids I was going. Squeals, hand-flapping, "I'm so jealous," then silence while it sunk in. They're teens, they'll be fine. But I notice how the 15 year old wants to sit closer to me on the couch than she has in years, virtually sinking into my right side. I don't say anything about it, of course. I just let her sink into me too.

What is WRONG with these DPH Travel Clinic people? Don't they know medical visits aren't supposed to be (gasp) pleasant?

2) Shots today. I went to the phenomenal folks at the Traveler's Clinic at the Department of Public Health (conflict-of-interest disclosure: NONE. They don't pay me, I never saw them before today). Dropped in without an appointment at 12:45 pm, was asked by the receptionist in a stricken voice "Would 1:10 work?" After a stunned silence, I squeaked out a "You mean today?" and when she nodded (apologetically) "yes," I had to do a double-take to make sure I was actually standing in an American medical clinic. Who are these people? This is so NOT how medical care works. I got three shots - a hepatitis A, tetanus, and typhoid shot ("ooh, those are going to ache" the lovely NP said, as well as "too bad there's not time for the rabies series - you know it's rampant there, don't you? Just be sure and get airlifted out if anything furry breaks your skin"). The ooh-that's-going-to-hurt shots didn't seem to hurt at all. Being a macho internist, I nodded in agreement while thinking to myself good thing I'm stoic and not a big weeny like their other patients are. Three hours later, I promise you, I'm so sore I would not lift my arms up from my sides unless my hair caught fire. Even then I'd have to think about it. I'm getting a little panicky, in fact, about which side I'm going to sleep on - I'm imagining a night ahead of me composed of "ow" and then "ouch" muttered in the dark as I roll endlessly from side to side in my sleep.

3) Am now panicked about my "functional" French. I have been known on two prior occasions, when I spoke French in Paris, to provoke, from Gauloises-smoking, too-cool-to-sneer citoyens, a shocked guffaw of snorted laughter. One Parisienne laughed so hard she hiccuped. Apparently I tend to speak French with a thick West African accent. But see, French is the only foreign language it's almost impossible to use in the Bay Area (at least medically). Oh God, what if I've forgotten it all? So I ran to my town's fabulous library and checked out every single (non-beginner) French language item (yes, I am the pig who took them all, staggering out of the library under a teetering skyscraper of perilously stacked books): four textbooks - including one Haitian-Creole dictionary - and five massive boxed sets of CDs. Including one two-disc set from The Language Teacher To The Stars - Mel Gibson! Barbra Streisand! Woody Allen! Which makes me wonder what will happen if I visit Paris and speak french to sneering Gauloises-smokers in a thick Mel Gibson accent?

So, in the few moments while I'm not going ow and then ouch during the night tonight, I plan to be subliminally absorbing the nasal tones of a total 189 hours of French audio-lessons I checked out ("ne mange pas ce gateau"...).

But who am I kidding? Sleep is unlikely to occur. Because I've already started fretting over Ethical Haiti Dilemma #1. Let me lay it out for you:

Exhibit A: The supplies MOST in need in Haiti now are wound care, debridement/incision kits, rehydration and dressing supplies, as well as antibiotics and analgesics.

Exhibit B: Most of those supplies are too bulky for me to bring many of them in a suitcase. Except for pills (which are surprisingly heavy, but compact).

Exhibit C: Expiration dates on drugs are arbitrarily set by pharmaceutical companies (who have an obvious conflict of interest), and reliable sources have studied the issue and found that almost all pills and powders are still completely effective years after they "expire."

Exhibit D: I have a legion of eager-to-give-something neighbors, friends and acquaintances with bathroom medicine cabinets bulging with leftover pills.

Ergo: Should I take a half-suitcase of potentially expired, but still-effective antibiotics to Haiti? And...

Algebra Problem of the Day: If I board my connecting flight to Chicago, hurtling at 31,267 feet for 3.87 hours, while carrying a 4-liter grocery bag of donated 2 oz. pill-bottles labeled with 34 different individual names, and each bottle is 3/4 full of highly regulated narcotics, then please calculate how many DEA agents, on arrival at O'Hare, will force me to undergo how many body-cavity searches? Please express your answer in mucosal centimeters. Extra Credit: And, more importantly, given an estimated factor of X minutes per search will those body-cavity searches cause me to miss my Haiti flight? Hmm...

Should I "recycle" drugs for Haiti? Or is it ethically wrong to dump them on a people who have no choice? Share in the comments section - and tune in for the next in the series to get details about the Haiti trip - what will I panic about next? What DO they advise you to bring to a disaster? Keep up on the Haiti trip and the latest health issues in the news by signing up for a Doc Gurley RSS feed by clicking here. Look for future pics and other articles at Doc Gurley! Also check out Doc Gurley's joyhabit and iwellth twitter feeds - so you can get topic-specific fun, effective, affordable tips on how to nurture your joy and grow your wellth this coming year.

The Hurt Locker wins Producers Guild Best Picture Award - Oscar Buzz

2010-01-25T14:02:00.001-08:00

The widely celebrated movie The Hurt Locker won the Producers Guild "The Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures" Award on .

The Hurt Locker, directed by Katheryn Bigelow and about a risk-taking bomb disposal group during the Irag War , beat Avatar, District 9, An Education, Inglourious Basterds, Invictus, Precious, Star Trek, Up, and Up In The Air for the Producers Guild award. All of these movies are considered as possible Best Picture nominees for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards.

Oscar Nominations are scheduled for Tuesday, February 2, 2010, at 5:30 a.m. And this blogger will continue to mention that the Oscar Press Credential process needs a metric system to be considered fair, measuring web traffic, TV ratings (where applicable), subscription reach, and views.

As I state in my video below, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a non-profit organization. A firm that gets government help, and invites bloggers to apply for a press credential, should have a more "name blind" system of press credential submissions. The criteria should be media "reach".

Stay tuned.

Will Megan Fox wear the Zennie62.com T-shirt?

2010-01-23T19:34:00.001-08:00

After four years of blogging and video-blogging, over 6,500 blog posts, and now several bloggers, Zennie62.com has something it's needed for a long time: a t-shirt. Now, the next objective is to get celebs like Megan Fox and Denzel Washington to wear the soon-to-be-famous t-shirt.

Will Megan Fox wear the Zennie62.com t-shirt?

The t-shirt's based on the logo design for this blogger's television show "The Blog Report with Zennie62" on CoLoursTV (Saturday at 12:30 PM EST; 9:30 AM PST in January). Local Oakland t-shirt maker Cyrus Phishdad took the original logo and re-created it into a sharper, crisper result.

The black t-shirt celebrates the Zennie62 YouTube channel reaching 11 million viewers; it reads "Zennie62.com. 11 million views, including yours." That t-shirt design will remain until Zennie62 reaches over 20 million views.

The t-shirt is being given to fans who have been supporters of Zennie62, like this one in North Dakota who wrote this YouTube message:

As a means to support you I will always wear it with pride, try to keep it clean, never rob a liqueur store with it on.

I will also try to get a good photo of me wearing it so you will have proof that all the way out in North Dakota you are reaching people with your videos..

also, if I ever get well known and appear on Larry King with you, I will promise to wear it, ...as long as you wear a nice suit and not the "Im with Stupid>" T-shirt you had picked out to wear.

Now if Megan Fox wears it, that's huge. Stay tuned.

Hope for Haiti Now concert performances and update

2010-01-23T13:59:00.001-08:00

Last night's Hope for Haiti Now concert featured 19 performances from artists like Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder, Shakira, Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake, U2, Wyclef Jean, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Mary J. Blige, John Legend, Christina Aguilera, Sting, Sheryl Crow, Keith Urban, and Kid Rock Jennifer Hudson, Emeline Michel, The Edge, Dave Matthews and Neil Young.

Here's the AP's video summary:

And Hope for Haiti Now attracted stars who worked the phones like Colin Farrell, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Julia Roberts, Jack Nicholson, Charlize Theron, Steven Spielberg, Ellen DeGeneres, Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks, Robert Pattinson, Denzel Washington, Matt Damon, Clint Eastwood, Halle Berry, and Ben Stiller.

Bill Clinton, United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti, and head of the Bush / Clinton Haiti Fund, gave this speech:

The Hope for Haiti Now concert event was in Los Angeles, New York, and Haiti, where CNN's Anderson Cooper is working to report on the country's effort to recover from the 7.0 Haiti Earthquake. Hope for Haiti Now was organized by Up In The Air star George Clooney, who said to MTV, "I think it's the same message that everybody does, that churches do, that communities do — which is everybody participate, help out, whatever way you can."

Hope For Haiti Now as event planning was put together very rapidly, about the same time as the Haiti Earthquake itself ended. George Clooney explained to MTV how he came to be involved in forming Help For Haiti Now:

"I was in New York the evening it (the Haiti Earthquake) happened. It happened at four or five o'clock, and I got a message from Wyclef that he's gonna go into the Dominican Republic and that it was much worse than what's initially been reported," Clooney explained. "We knew it was bad, but who knew how bad. And he said, 'Is there anything you can do?' So the next morning, I woke up and called (MTV CEO) Judy McGrath at MTV, and Judy said, 'We were thinking about doing something too,' so I said, 'Let's do it.' And I flew back to L.A., and as soon as I landed we got the other networks involved. And now it's every major network, every single one. At some point, it got to a place [when] you couldn't be the network that didn't [join in]."

The list of participating networks was vast: CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, BET, The CW, HBO, MTV, VH1, CMT, PBS, TNT, Showtime, Comedy Central, Bravo, E! Entertainment, National Geographic Channel, Oxygen, G4, CENTRIC, Current TV, Fuse, MLB Network, EPIX, Palladia, SoapNet, Style, Discovery Health, Planet Green, CNN en Español, HBO Latino and Canadian networks, including CBC Television, CTV, Global Television and MuchMusic. As of this writing, there's no official estimate of the television viewer count; that should come next week.

Hope for Haiti Now may have been the most media-exposed event in history; it was also streamed online at MTV.com, YouTube.com, VH1, and MySpace, Fancast, AOL, MSN.com, Yahoo!, Bing.com, BET.com, CNN.com and Rhapsody, and on cell phones by way of Alltel, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and FloTV.

Hope for Haiti Now

You can still help now by going to www.HopeforHaitinow.org or calling by phone at 877-99-HAITI. You can even text "GIVE" to 50555.

Here are some of the 19 performances from Hope for Haiti Now, Friday night:

Alicia Keys (video link):

Donate Now: 1-877-99-HAITI in US/Canada, or go to www.hopeforhaitinow.org

Stevie Wonder: (video link)

Donate Now: 1-877-99-HAITI in US/Canada, or go to www.hopeforhaitinow.org

Shakira (video link):

Donate Now: 1-877-99-HAITI in US/Canada, or go to www.hopeforhaitinow.org

Coldplay (video link):

Donate Now: 1-877-99-HAITI in US/Canada, or go to www.hopeforhaitinow.org

Taylor Swift (video link)

Donate Now: 1-877-99-HAITI in US/Canada, or go to www.hopeforhaitinow.org

Stay tuned.

Star Trek is Quentin Tarantino's best film of 2009 - for now

2009-12-14T16:24:00.000-08:00

Star Trek is Quentin Tarantino's best film of 2009 - for now. The critically-acclaimed producer and director of films like 2009s Inglorious Bastards and the classic Pulp Fiction sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to list his top films of 2009.

Quentin Tarantino

Before we listen to Mr. Tarantino, here's his list, again, so far:

1. Star Trek
2. Drag Me to Hell
3. Funny People
4 Up In The Air
5. Chocolate
6. Observe and Report
7. Precious
8. An Education

Quentin Tarantino states that he's not seen "some of the films I'm expecting big things from" Avatar, Lovely Bones, and Invictus. He also stated that he's not including his own film, Inglorious Bastards, his highest grossing film to date.

Here's the Quentin Tarantino video interview:

This, coupled with the New York Film Critics Online choice of Avatar as Best Film, is starting a kind of cooling off of the rapid awards success of Up In The Air. Still, the awards season is young and it's just December 14th.

Stay tuned.

OSCAR ALERT - Screen Credits and Music Entry Form Due December 1st for Academy Awards

2009-11-27T06:17:00.001-08:00

OSCAR ALERT. You have until December 1 to get your Screen Credits and Music Entry Forms in to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) if your movie is to be considered for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards. From the press release, AMPAS explains:

For a feature film to be considered for the 2009 Awards, the film’s distributor or producer must file an OSC form with the Academy by 5 p.m. PT on December 1. If a feature film is released in 2009 and the completed OSC form is not submitted by the deadline, the film will be ineligible for Academy Awards in any year.

OSC forms may be submitted online only, at http://aiwosc.oscars.org/aiwosc/. Information about submission and feature film eligibility can be obtained by contacting Credits Coordinator Howard Loberfeld at (310) 247-3000, ext. 113, or via e-mail at hloberfeld@oscars.org.

For an achievement to be considered in the Original Score or Original Song category, the principal music writer(s) for a feature film must submit an official music submission form by 5 p.m. PT on December 1.

To request music submission materials, contact Dave Hanson at (310) 247-3000, ext. 151, or via e-mail at dhanson@oscars.org.

While the credits submission deadline is December 1, feature films have until midnight, December 31, to open in a commercial motion picture theater in Los Angeles County and begin a minimum run of seven consecutive days to be eligible for 2009 Oscar® consideration.

Entries in the foreign language, animated feature, documentary, and short film categories are subject to special rules and must meet other qualifying criteria. The entry deadlines in these categories have already passed.

The deadlines have been communicated before; it would be sad to learn that a great film missed being nominated because of paperwork issues. Hopefully those responsible will pay attention to this deadline notice.

Angels baseball beats Yankees baseball 5-4: battle of payrolls

2009-10-19T20:37:00.001-07:00

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Angels win was a Money-ball story

The old saying: the more things change the more they stay the same. The Los Angeles Angels beat the New York Yankees 5-4 today in the AL Championship Series. They're back 2 games to one and could make a real game of it with another win.

But don't make the mistake of thinking that it was David beating Goliath, where the New York Yankees monster payroll was clobbered by the miserly fiscal practices of the Angels.

Ha!

The truth is that the 2009 player expeditures for both teams are not far off. The Yankees payroll was between $192 million and $201 million this year; the Angels payroll was at $113 million.

Both teams are part of the top six highest payrolls in Major League Baseball, proving that it takes money to win, even in this post-Moneyball era. This was supposed to be the time when the Internet and sabermetrics created a baseball team that could consistently when with a low payroll.

But the reality in 2009 is the same as it was in 1993 and in 2002 when I created the Oakland Baseball Simworld in partnership with Forio Business Simulations, and 2003 when University of San Francisco Professor Dan Rascher and I founded Sports Business Simulations.

Payroll rules.

Our simulation was and is designed to reflect both the "Moneyball" approach and the more common "Pay-To-Win" strategy, but it's the latter that's hard to beat.

In fact, Smith college Sports Economist Andrew Zimbalist (who's also a member of our simulation advisory board) determined that after 1990 there was a more powerful correlation between higher payrolls and team performance.

I tried for years to make a team "work" in the context of the current Oakland Coliseum using the Oakland Baseball Simworld (which I developed from scratch for the purpose of teaching marketing, business, and sports finance in high school and college classrooms and is based on my work at the City of Oakland). It's hard to achieve the 250 and up score that indicates baseball business success.

The only answer is to build a new stadium. Location aside - Oakland's better - it's the best tonic to turn any Oakland-based baseball team into a winner, including the one currently called The Oakland Athletics.

Meanwhile, the Yankees and Angels will keep being in the hunt for the World Series. Some things never change.

CA DMV - Do you know where your registration money goes?

2009-10-19T18:56:00.001-07:00

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DMV: Where's the Money?

I just returned from another really harrowing experience with the California Department of Motor Vehicles office on Claremont Avenue in Oakland .

Between this and the taxi cab issue, and the Oakland parking problem, anti-car forces should not complain about California not charging enough to operate a car. In fact I've determined that many of them don't own cars; no bumming rides from me in the future, OK?

I think God's putting me through this just to shine a good media light on these problems. So be it. To that end, I got the email of the director George Valverde which I will not share, the DMV Twitter account, and his Twitter account, which I will share: @GVCADMV.

George Valverde

Mr. Valverde to date has been helpful in directing my emails, though we've not talked as of this writing, but it's these revelations below that really need to be looked into. It may be that he's not aware of what's happening under his nose. He should be.

What happens, and this is from the personal experience I have gone through complete with extensive notes and papers, is that the registration paid to the DMV is not immediately assigned to whatever citations a driver gets. Plus, it may take as long as three years before a ticket or toll violation is paid from DMV to FastTrak or the California municipality!

During that time you could wind up paying for a ticket twice and not be reimbursed - once to the DMV via registration or to clear a tow and once to the city or agency. How often this happens is not clear but I learned this from a very enterprising young man at the California vehicle collection division.

It was there that part of my horror started. They sent a "Demand for Payment" for an amount of money I already paid.

When I sent the cashier's check to prove it, it should have ended there, right? Nope. It got worse. Guess why?

They couldn't find it.

That's right. But the enterprising young man I'm taking about kept digging and determined that DMV never assigned my payment. Meanwhile the toll tickets I paid were gaining interest because FasTrak said they were not paid. It turned out that they never got the money from DMV. Now, that's not my fault - I gave them a cashier's check.

Turns out this happens to Californians more than a few times and especially when FasTrak's involved.

What's an outrage is that we allow this to go on without challenge or initiative. We as Californians worry more about being able to smoke weed than having correct and reasonable vehicle costs.

And the City of Oakland's not safe here either. It has parking records that are not accurately updated and suffer from the same DMV payment delay issues FasTrak has. I have seen three documents with three different amounts on them.

But what really galls me is today's discovery that DMV Sacramento can "at will" delay or adjust payments for you. It's up to how the manager looks at the situation - well, how the manager feels that day. It's discretionary, which means they can play favorites if they want to but it also means they can work to correct a mistake or at least not stick you with an obvious one.

Too much of what DMV does is so disjointed and uncoordinated that I'm really shocked the California Legislature hasn't called for an investigation. For example I got something like four different print letters from vehicle collections with different amounts. But a person in a good position at DMV told me today they should all be the same and not different.

This person also told me that the agency - like FasTrak - that requests the money from DMV sends the payment amount and DMV doens't double check it. In other words FasTrak can send one request for $50 and then up it to $100 within a month and DMV will not question it - meanwhile FasTrak's charging weekly interest to the cost. (Isn't that illegal? Don't we have usery laws here?)

It's no wonder an irate Yelp user referred to FasTrak's accounting practices in a way that points to some untoward intentions.

But. But. But. She says DMV expects the documents to have the same amount. Isn't that crazy-making? But she said in one sentence that DMV doesn't care what they're charge or how it changes - (my words now) because they're just going to stick you with it, anyway.

Someone's making some extra money here. I said this to one Oakland DMV office staffer today and she agreed. "Not me" she said. But someone is. This money trail's not adding up properly, yet everyone I talked to agrees there's a problem.

This is not a good situation for the State of California to be in as it looks like and feels like it's trying to cheat California residents to clear a massive budget deficit. I said it, and I challenge the DMV to show me that it doesn't look like that. It does.

Balancing the budget on the backs of California drivers is, to use a street term, just plain lame. Ok. It's criminal. Moreover, it's a highly regressive practice, hurting the poor more than anyone else. A sad state of affairs.

SF Chronicle talk - Phil Matier on California politics and government

2009-10-13T22:59:00.001-07:00

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San Francisco Chronicle Columnist Phil Matier is a friend and one-half of the well-known reporting team of Matier and Ross.

I've known Phil since 1993 when I started as a columnist for the Oakland-based Montclarion and he and his professional sidekick Andy Ross were working under the same "Matier and Ross" title. Over the years Phil has always lent an ear and advice.

Now, since I blog on the SF Chronicle's website SFGste.com, I figured I'd take time to do something that was always in the back of my mind: make a vlog featuring an interview with Phil. The result is this 21 minutes long video.

Frankly, it also a way of paying back those at the SF Chronicle who've given me the freedom to express myself and bring light to some issues that ordinarily would be ignored.

Phil and I met at Merritt Station. A local cafe near Lake Merritt in Oakland on Sunday, September 27th.

Me: The legendary Phil Matier. Phil, my audience is national and international. Tell people about yourself. You're probably the most well-known - in the United States - 'muckraker', I would say. Ah. I don't really like that term. How would you describe yourself?

Phil Matier: I think I'm pretty much a political columnist, and uh, zeroed in pretty much on the San Francisco Bay Area and the state of California. Which, in a lot of ways, leads the nation both in content and in controversy when it comes to politics.

So I've been doing it for quite a number of years right now and I've seen a lot of interesting changes. In both parties and in the emergence of the third party, which is the 'decline to state' - people who don't really feel aligned with either of the two.

So, California is in some ways again on the leading edge of American politics, including the growth in the sort of disillusionment about the political system.

Me: Let's go with that, but before we get to that, what was your first big scoop?

Phil Matier: You know, Zen, scoops, they come and they go whether they be on the police beat, the court beat sports and politics. Sit back sometimes and flip through your clips and take a look at things. To be quite honest, they just sort of fly by like waves on a beach.

Me: Ha. There's so many you forgot, right?

Phil Matier: Well, its not just - there are a lot of what we call scoops - is that in retrospect what we look at as scoops: somebody, a gaffe, something on the goppip front, nonprofits not being on the up and up.. We've covered them all - me and my partner Andy Ross in the Matier and Ross column.

But sometimes you wonder whether these are the waves on the beach. And while they look big at the time they crash, it's really the tide that dictates sort of what goes in and out of this harbor. So when I look back on them I go 'That's interesting but I try to look at the tied and the bigger shifts that go on.

Me: Is California ungovernable? Because we have the initiative process. We saw the circus with Prop 8 and what happened with the California Supreme Court's decision. I want to hear your view. Is California ungovernable?

Phil Matier: Well, part of your question is (really) is California governable or is it over-governable at this point. We have very active governments on a number of different fronts.

We have, of course, your standard political government, which is elected every couple of years to your state assembly, your state senate, your governorships, different elected offices, your mayors, your city councilors, your town councilors, all down the line. On top of that we have the judicial system which can turn around and say 'yes or no' to whatever laws or decisions those various entities make.

Some say, well, is California being governed by the courts. If you look at things like prisons, roads, schools, and such like that, sometimes it appears that the courts are making the primary decisions.

In California we have another layer over that which is the initiative process. Which was initially the idea that if the voters didn't like something they could put it on the ballot and they could change it. Especially if the legislature or the courts were simply inactive or chose to ignore it.

The first big - it was a dormant thing (the initiative process) for many many year, before it sprang to life a couple of decades back with Proposition 13. The passage of that: the great California tax revolt, which in turn led to the rise of (Ronald) Reagan and other things nationally. As I was saying California in some ways moves the country.

That inspired people to say we can take government into our own hands when government refuses to act. The intiative process became a gauge of the overall political tides. If a City like Oakland didn't want to do tax reform then the people would do it for them.

That morphed into a process where people and businesses were putting things on the ballot to put them on for ballot's sake. So now we have three layers of politics in California. Three layers of governance, all competing at times, but at times all working together.

As an illustration, California's many problems with its budget. The legislature didn't have the will or the votes to pass various things to they said we will put it to the voters and have them decide.

That didn't work.

Another question is, let's say Gay Marriage in California, Proposition 8. Voters said 'no' to it, City of San Francisco said 'yes' to it, triggering a court fight, that turned around and said 'no' to it and then the voters were asked again and they said 'yes' to it, (which was a 'no' to Gay Marriage), but that is a process. Like it or not. People - if it works in your favor, people like it. If you don't get the results you want it needs fixing.

California's having these discussions about having a constitutional convention and try to remake the playing field, yet again.

Me: Can we get there, though?

Phil Matier: We may get to a constitutional convention. I'm not sure we're going to get anything out of it that's going to be substantive.

At the key to all of these problems, as (former Speaker and San Francisco Mayor) Willie Brown likes to say, it's not the system, it's the players.

Speaker / Mayor Willie Brown

And if you're a football team and you've lost the Super Bowl in politics these days in California we say 'Well, we need to change the rules' - make the goal posts closer. We almost could have won if we'd gotten those last 10 yards, so let's make the field 90 yards rather than 110 yards.

We do these under the name of reform and all they do is often times all the do is change the rules. But if you don't have the talent, it's not going to work.

Me: How much of these problems are borne of the fact that we seem to have two states in one? We've talked for years about a split state need. But we've never done anything about it.

Phil Matier: People would say we have two states, Northern California and Sounthern California because they have the water. Now, California's spliting into two states, coastal and interior of California which is exurban and suburban. What the coast has to sell, the inland's going to buy. We have two Californias, now you can say we can split them but I'm not sure it's going to work. Many states have a split; it's just that ours is a little bigger than others.

Me: Let me ask you a blunt question, first, about San Francisco and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Why is he running for governor when there are those who feel he hasn't finished being Mayor of San Francisco?

Mayor Gavin Newsom

Phil Matier: Well, Zennie, let's be honest. If there was a rule in politics that if you were going to run for another office you could not do so until you were finished with your current one, we wouldn't have a President Obama.

Me: Are you comparing Gavin to Barack?

Phil Matier: Only in that we have this evolution in American politics to where you pass through rather than necessarily complete. So that's not a new phenomenon at all. History is full of governors and senators - congresspeople - who have moved on to other offices midterm and cast their eye high and kept going.

Zennie Abraham: But Phil, come on. I know Gavin. I love Gavin. I think Gavin's a great guy, but I keep wondering why he didn't do the 'Jerry Brown move'. Jerry was Mayor of Oakland; he remade himself. Concentrate on being Mayor, and then..

California Attorney General Jerry Brown

Phil Matier: Zennie you have to dust off your memory a little bit. Jerry Brown, no sooner did he get elected Governor of California with his father's help, did he too run for President.

Me: That's true. I stand corrected.

Phil Matier: Now he says the voters never forgave him for that; he didn't think it was a smart move but that didn't stop him from running for President again and again and again.

Zennie Abraham: Three times, I believe.

Phil Matier: With age comes wisdom. But in California we also have Jerry Brown who, while not declared is going to run for governor and who well could get into the Guiness Book of World Records for having been the first guy to be governor twice - non consecutively. And the first to have gone from governor to attorney general.

I think what you're saying is 'Why the leapfrogging' and you want to know about Gavin Newsom and wha the future holds for him.

He obviously sees himself as a person of destiny of which the mayorship of San Francisco was a step to that. Well, you would say the governorship would be a step to another office? Yes. He is a creature of that world. It's an interesting paradox that he is at once an agent of change and very much something out of a television politician, running from one office to another.

That is politics as well. It is a game of ambition. It is a game of high ideals. Very rarely do we have situations where people who are underestimated wind up in positions where they achieve greater than anyone expected.

Harry Truman, for example, was a pretty much a political machine product and had been parked in the vice-presidency as a caretaker know body though was going anywhere.

Zennie Abraham: Reagan?

Phil Matier: No Ronald Reagan was always a rising star - a man on the move. He was the first true multi-media president - Jack Kennedy was probably the first televised one - Ronald Reagan took it further.

On the next mayor of San Francisco and Black Politics in Oakland

Phil Matier: Gavin has not really laid down a political infrastructure in San Francisco It's going to be a bedoin regime when Newsom picks up his tent and moves on - the sands will, within a day, cover up most of what political tracks he had left.

Zennie Abraham: Any surprises in the City Attorney's Race that might lead to mayor?

Phil Matier: The City Attorney of San Francisco Dennis Herrera's obviously a top candidate for mayor. State Senator Leland Yee would like to see himself the first Chinese-American mayor of San Francisco. Bevan Dufty would like to be the first Gay mayor, We have a number of people out there.

But in politics, Zennie, as you well know, you don't know the field until the bell rings. Because things changes quickly. Here in Oakland, you had the return of Ron Dellums, then before that Jerry Brown. Who knows? In Oakland you have everyone asking 'Who's going to run?'

Zennie Abraham: Perata?

(Fmr.) State Senator Don Perata

Phil Matier: He's already running but who knows, Sean Penn may move to Oakland and run for mayor. I'm just joking on that, but the point is in politics you just don't know.

Zennie Abraham: In Oakland it seems like (Don) Perata is unbeatable. I can't see anyone that can beat him. I admire Don but I always thought his want was to ascend beyond mayor, instead of be Mayor of Oakland. Am I looking at that the wrong way?

Phil Matier: I think that for Don Perata there's always been a split path there. I think that he thought he could go high in state government and I think he ran for controller on the state level and he didn't make it in the primary. There's ambition there.

But he did go up there. He did get a look inside the governor's office. There are two types of politicians: the executive types and those that enjoy the debate. Willie Brown knew he couldn't win (for governor) state wide, but he went to the state and got as far as he could. I think Perata's more on the executive side. Senator Diane Feinstein's more on the executive side, but she's in the Senate acting as an exective.

Zennie Abraham: If Perata wins, does that mean Black politics is dead in Oakland?

Phil Matier: No. Zennie you have to understand the art of politics can be very obvious on the street or very subtle. You could make an argument that if I was talking in straight political numbers, if I ..OK. I are saying that the absence of a Black mayor would lessen the political power in Oakland?

Zennie Abraham: It's not so much black mayor as councilmembers, people who are active.

Phil Matier: Let's take a look at this.

Zennie Abraham: Sure.

Phil Matier: Two (black) members on the city council.

Me: Right.

Phil Matier: Two members on the (Alameda) county board of supervisors?

Me: Right. But Phil, we...

Phil Matier: Excuse me. Your congress. Your Congresswoman Barbara Lee.

Me: Yes.

Phil Matier: That is a pretty strong..black police chief. Black fire chief.

Me: Right.

Phil Matier: There's a pretty strong front there within the infrastructure of government and on the elected front.

Zennie Abraham: Phil, I gotta ask ya, we had more black councilmembers 15 years ago.

Phil Matier: There's also been a change in the population of Oakland.

Me: Yes. Yes. Yes. Very true.

Phil Matier: Now, is it reflective of the city? If that is the goal is it reflective of the ebb and flow as well.

Me: Yes. It is reflective of the city. We have change. We have our first Lesbian councilmember. We have a large lesbian population per capita. But even with that, my contention is that those who are African American and politically involved are not as cohesive as they used to be.

Phil Matier: What is the reason for that?

Me: I don't know.

Phil Matier: Well, part of it is, possibly, with success comes complacency.

Me: Also lack of leadership.

Phil Matier: I don't think..What leadership. I don't...you have a black congresswoman, a black..

Me: Mentors. Lack of mentors.

Phil Matier: I don't think that's for lack of leadership.

Me: Ok.

Phil Matier: Now, Ron Dellums was congressman he handed it to Barbara Lee. Right?

Me: But they're older than me.

Phil Matier: Well, OK. That is universal in politics - young versus old cuts across all political lines. Now whether the young organize around political issues that remains to be seen. Now whether a Perata ..You could make an argument that a Perata or a Jerry Brown perhaps increased African American participation because they felt like they needed to fight for something.

Me: In Oakland, I see younger talented white women in politics. Frieda Edgette who runs the East Bay Young Democrats is well-liked and moving forward, as just one example. But that's why I say: there's a strong group over there that's unmatched in any area.

Phil Matier: Well, all I can say is at the core of politics in America a person gets to decide their willingness and level of involvement It's not mandated. You don't get drafted. You decide how much you want to be involved or not be involved.

In terms of politics if we go back to the idea of courts, we have organizing tools as economics - getting the piece of the pie. If it attracts quotas or whatever you want to call them is there a need to organize?

Me: Forecast the Governor's Race.

Phil Matier: It hasn't started yet. We have people hovering around. We have Gavin Newsom. We have Jerry Brown. We, on the Republican side, we have Meg Whitman. We have Steve Poisner. Tom Campbell. A race is when the running starts. What we have are people putting on their sneakers and looking in the mirror.

Me: Senator Boxer. Vulnerable?

Phil Matier: Anybody is going to be vulnerable when we have national issues like heath care in this situation. It's no secret that when your party's president is in office and its midterm elections, you're vulnerable. Yes. She's vulnerable. I don't have to say that; every politician feels that in their bones. Even if they're uncontested they always feel vulnerable.

Me: Phil, I can sit here and talk to you all day but I know you're a busy man. We can catch you at SFGate, and Channel Five.

Phil Matier: and on KCBS (radio) in the mornings and the afternoons.

Me: Phil, thank you so much.

Rush Limbaugh in NFL = Modern Slavery

2009-10-13T19:40:00.001-07:00

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Right wing Radio talk show blowhard Rush Limbaugh wants to own at least part of the NFL's St. Louis Rams and has joined St. Louis Blues owner and former Madison Square Garden CEO Dave Checketts to do so.

But with Rush Limbaugh comes baggage and a lot of it in this case. Given his statements about African Americans, Rush Limbaugh's even partial ownership of any NFL team is akin to (deliberately capitalized) Modern Slavery.

Rush Limbaugh's record ads up to a view of blacks as alien, second class citizens that are to be feared, held in check, and watched. So imagine Rush owning a team mostly black? What would he say if the St. Louis Rams drafted a black quarterback in the 1st round of the NFL Draft? Would he complain that 'while the league's desirous to see a black quarterback do well, I'm not'?

Rush, with all due respect to his incredible business acumen in securing a $400 million radio contract, has made a ton of statements that put blacks down. For example, he twice used the term "spade" in talking about President Barack Obama in 2008, even though he thought he could get away with it because then presidential candidate and now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used the term "spadework" in a talk about Obama.

NFL and Rush? No!

Rush is quick to point to a crime where (sadly) black youth were beating up a white young man on a bus (and it wasn't even because he was white), but turns a blind eye to any news of a hate crime against blacks.

He's compared NFL players to the gang members the crips and bloods, using the time worn code words for "black gang member".

Rush has made so many anti-back statements, there's a "top 10" list complied by Casey Gane-McCalla of Newsone in 2008:

1. I mean, let’s face it, we didn’t have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: slavery built the South. I’m not saying we should bring it back; I’m just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark.

2. Zennie's note: There is some question over whether Rush actually said this comment but it's all over the Internet. This entry is mine, not that of the original blogger.

3. Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?

4. Right. So you go into Darfur and you go into South Africa, you get rid of the white government there. You put sanctions on them. You stand behind Nelson Mandela — who was bankrolled by communists for a time, had the support of certain communist leaders. You go to Ethiopia. You do the same thing.

5. Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.

6. The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies.

7. They’re 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?

8. Take that bone out of your nose and call me back(to an African American female caller).

9. I think the media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. They’re interested in black coaches and black quarterbacks doing well. I think there’s a little hope invested in McNabb and he got a lot of credit for the performance of his team that he really didn’t deserve.

10. On Obama : a ‘halfrican American’, an ‘affirmative action candidate.’ Limbaugh even has repeatedly played a song on his radio show ‘Barack the Magic Negro’ using an antiquated Jim Crow era term for black a man who many Americans are supporting for president.

It's obvious Rush Limbaugh doesn't like any African American person save for Bo Snerdley, who works for him. If working for Rush is the price blacks have to pay to gain respect from him, I say forget it. Please don't let Rush Limbaugh own any NFL organization.

Kanye West | Kanye West "I want chicken because I'm black" an insult to blacks

2009-10-07T12:18:00.001-07:00

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Kanye West has done it again. Proving that President Obama was right and he indeed is a jackass just weeks after his celebrated break in on Taylor Swift as she was accepting the award for "Best Female Video of The Year" at the MTV Video Music Awards...

Kanye West opened his mouth and told a TMZ.com reporter that he wanted chicken because "I'm black."

You know, there's an old saying that if you forget the past you're doomed to repeat it. In this case, younger African Americans like Kayne obviously weren't instructed that being black does not come with a set of instructions or limitations, as we were told in the past, as much by ourselves as by others.

This - his comment - strikes a heavy nerve with me (and I don't care if he was kidding) because when I was little, specifically between the ages of 4 and 13 while growing up on the mostly black South Side of Chicago, I was told repeatedly by others who were black like me that I wasn't black.

"You talk white", was all I was told again and again. And if it wasn't that, it was this by the African American adults: "Well, you talk 'proper'. (Thank God for my Mom and Dad, who never, ever, pushed that idea in my head.)

The point is I was bombarded with constant signals telling me how I was supposed to act and be as an African American person. And signals telling me that I should not expect to achieve because I'm black.

Those signals that I ignored at and pushed against, at times deliberately, and eventually I created something I called "My Iron Man Suit", in a Chronicle column two years ago. It wasn't until we moved to Oakland in the early 70s that I stopped hearing that because I wasn't in an entirely black environment. Sorry, but was my experience.

Yeah, I'd evolved to the point where most of my friends were not only black but white, Latino, and Asian, and not the kind of people who would tell me that, "Star Trek's for white people", for example.

Are you anti-diversity folks paying attention here?

To me freedom is the ability to be who you are, free from the chains others try to confine you with, and chains crafted from their own insecurities. Heck, I got those messages constantly when I worked at the City of Oakland between 1987 and 1989 and then again from 1995 to 2001.

When I was an intern in 1987, a person, black, who I know to this day and respect told me something that still makes my blood boil, even if I knew what he meant. He said "Man, you've got three problems: you're young, gifted, and black."

In other words, society can't stand an intelligent African American man. That's what he was saying to me.

Someone else said that my problem with trying to bring the Super Bowl to Oakland was that some thought a high-profile white person should do it (and the Oakland Chamber of Commerce certainly sent that message to me at the time).

I'm not kidding.

Another Oakland employee in economic development said "I guess you can tell we don't like smart people around here."

But those were the 80s and now in 2009 I can say the are a lot of blacks like me who've risen to public view, which makes me smile. One of those people is in the White House. I know, without knowing all of them personally, what kind of struggle they endured just to be themselves.

Kanye is channeling those messages all over again here in 2009, and there's a part of me that just wants to grab him by the collar and yell "Knock it off, will ya?!!" Thanks to Kanye West, we can see that regardless of how much one talks about progress, integration, and President Obama as the first black president, we still have people who talk as if being black is a kind of confinement of personality and extinguishing of ambition.

That's why when Barack won the Presidency last year, I cried. I just cried.

Kanye, hear me on this: try sending a signal to your followers that one can be anything they want to regardless of color, but especially young black men. I think a large part of black-on-black crime is self-hatred. We've got to stop that, and you can help, big time. Do that for me. Heck, do it for society because you have a big voice. But lately, your voice been an irresponsible one. Please step up and help advance us, not knock us back. Yes, I like Chicken, but it's not because I'm black.

Thanks!

Calvin Klein SF Union Square - Is store front racist?

2009-09-12T03:25:00.001-07:00

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On YouTube.com

I received this email below from a viewer which explains the person's shock over the Calvin Klein SF Union Square store front display. I went over to make the video above and get your view on the display.

As I've stated in the video, it was not a good idea to approve a store front that is at best questionable. Everyone who's seen the video thus far has a reaction to it, from furled brows to frowns and raised eyebrows, the video does not make for a stoic reaction.

Why someone would do this is a question I will ask Calvin Klein's staffers in the days ahead. Indeed, the worker that talked to me through the glass admitted that she did not the racial overtones in the display until they were pointed out to her.

But for now, read the email below, then take my poll on this certainly controversial Calvin Klein store display.

The email:

Hey Zennie,

I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture (I don't usually use my phone for anything other than a phone, so it escaped me in a moment of anger), but I just got back from the San Francisco Shopping Center where I happened upon an appalling window display in the Calvin Klein store next to Bloomingdale's on the 3rd floor.

Imagine a window full of frolicking monkeys, swinging from tree branches in various playful poses, but instead of monkeys, there are mannequins wearing the latest Calvin fashions. And instead of swinging from tree branches, the mannequins are swinging from ropes finished in nooses at the ends. All of the mannequins are black. It doesn't sound like much, but I'll tell you, those nooses caught my eye in the first place, and it didn't take long to piece it all together.

Why am I sending this to you? Well, you've got a voice on several forums, and could make this very public and embarrassing for Calvin Klein. That anyone could get past the basic design stages of such a display without questioning its bad taste is unbelievable. That such displays are crafted by designers with an eye on every detail makes it even less excusable. That such displays are often dictated to stores by corporate headquarters and duplicated at all locations makes it a disgusting travesty.

If you happen by that store, or know someone in SF who could take some pics for you to post, you could shine a bright light on a very ugly message going out to the thousands of people who pass by that carefully composed collection of symbols. I was deeply offended, but rather than contact Calvin Klein so they can quietly change their windows, I figured I'd contact someone who can give it a bit more exposure.

Thanks for listening and keep up the good blogs,

Name withheld by Zennie
San Francisco

Poll

More fun polls on pollsb.com

Shawne Merriman, Tila Tequila: she says she doesn't drink; what of this video?

2009-09-09T01:30:00.001-07:00

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The latest news in the unfortunate story of the accused battery and assault charge on San Diego Linebacker Shawne Merriman by Tila Tequila is that Merriman claims he was trying to get Tequila, who's real name is Tila Nguyen, to avoid driving while intoxicated. This is just what I speculated in my video commentary:

Tila's lawyer disputes Merriman's claim, saying it's "spin" but does not offer an alternative explanation regarding what happened. Morever Tila herself now says she was not drinking, and that she's allergic to alcohol.

Really interesting...

But Stingaree nightclub owner James Brennan says that Tila was drinking Saturday night. Apparently Tila made the claim to an aversion to cocktails on her Twitter page but that specific tweet is now not to be found.

Also not to be found is any reason why Tila's suddenly covering up her tweets. Between these actions and her website message claiming she has multiple personalities, it seems there's more to this story than meets the eye.

I write that with great sadness because to accuse someone of assault is a serious charge that gives everyone pause: everyone either wants to or is compelled to run to the side of the assumed victim and attack the accused.

But what happened when it appears the assumed victim may be using how society responds to his or her advantage and wasn't really harmed at all?

It makes the public more skeptical of such claims and look more at the character of the accuser. This is where we are today, with even her "friends" leaving curious comments on her MySpace page and this YouTube video from her channel MissTilaTequila, which shows Tila talking about being at a Beverly Hills Mansion (posted August 4th, which was that Tuesday, my birthday, which means it was on August 2nd) and with the camera pointing to a champagne bottle set and saying "pimpin..Rose Chrystal Bottle popin livin it up on a Sunday"..

And in another video created this year and from her channel Tila claims she gets anxiety attacks when she goes out and tries not to because of that, just before she sings a song she wrote saying how she's a "little drunk and gonna get you high."

Okay! More questions.

If she's allergic to alcohol, why make such a video featuring it as a key part of the good life and focus on the champagne bottle not once but twice (she's controlling the camcorder). Why make another video rapping about being drunk?

Hey, I agree its the fun life but only in moderation, and I'm honest about how I enjoy the good life and do it with care. This is terrible, to say the least, and calls her latest claims into question.

Governor Schwarzenegger talk to Joe Diamos about California's economy

2009-09-08T11:46:00.001-07:00

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Is California becoming a "party economy"? Governor Schwarzenegger should talk to Joe Diamos.

Diamos says we're in trouble

Since our credit crunch of 2008 and the staggering wave of not just job losses but the dramatic drop in overall job creation over the last eight years, I've always believed our American economy was in trouble.

Rather than throw out a bunch of statistics, I decided to turn to someone who's in the middle of the economic storm: Joe Diamos of Diamos Funding Group in Redwood City, Ca.

Diamos' company is a law firm that specializes in representing you before the bank you have a mortgage with to get that bank to adjust your loan - called "loan modification" - so that you're better able to afford your monthly payments.

I asked Mr. Diamos how the economy was doing; I didn't get an enthusiastic answer. "It's terrible", he said. Diamos has a specific recommendation for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California Legislature.

"Get business to stay in California. We're losing business left and right to other states, Nevada, and so on. We've got to keep businesses here."

I wondered if the Governor and other politicians really understood what was going on? "I think people in general are starting to wake up now," he responded. "People are hurting all over."

Does the Gov get it?

Will a great credit score make a difference in getting a home loan? "What's killing the economy is that they've lowered the requirements so much that anyone could get credit; now we have a wave of foreclosures because people aren't working. It's so bad now, no one can get a loan. If you had an 800 credit score, on the job for 10 years, but lost your job, now the banks will not take a risk on you."

Diamos says banks are out of trillions of dollars because of the foreclosure wave and the credit crunch and says that President Obama's program to help keep Americans in their homes does not have enough money in it. "When Obama put money aside he only put in $75 billion. That's not enough to solve the problem. Everyone's down in (housing) value. One step is to raise the amount of money in the program. The banks spend $50k to foreclose. Banks are between a rock in a hard place; they spend $50,000 to foreclose or that amount to maintain the loan."

"It's a complicated issue, he said. "I think we need to have the market take its course. California's businesses are being chased away; we've got to get them back."

Diamos does not recommend buying a home; his advise is buying real estate is not the best move. "Renting is better", he says. "Give the house back. Real estate's not coming back for 20 years. We've got trillions more foreclosures coming."

Then we have "option on loans" - payment should have been $6,000, after you hit a certain point, you have to make the payment over $7,000 - that will cause another wave of foreclosures." (Option loans are such that payments are calculated to "baloon" after five or ten years because payments are recalculated. Without them, buyers could not easily afford larger, more expensive dwellings.)

Diamos continued, "Then we have commercial real estate and that's another wave of foreclosures coming. I don't think anyone knows how bad the foreclosures are going to be," he said. "We have a big hole. Hold on to your cash; cash is king."

"We do the foreclosures, we've got a line out of the door. If you're behind on the mortgage we modify your loan. I can't get you a loan if you want one, but I can fix the one you have. It's getting worse and worse and worse. The banks don't need to issue loans to make money."

So if you want to have your loan modified, call Joe Diamos. But regarding the American and California economy, we're in trouble. There's no clear idea of what's fueling economic growth because we're losing so many jobs, especially manufacturing employment opportunities.

My personal contention is that our entire system is contracting under the growing weight of the offshoring of employment and we've got to take a measure of draconian protectionism.

Our trading partners will not like it, but on the other hand they need our active economy as a place to sell their goods and services; if our economy is weak it hurts them.

The stimulus package of $780 billion is not large enough; $2 billion would be more effective and I'm not listening to cries of socialism - that' really not the point. Governments running our economic competitor nations have no problem pumping money into their economies so we shouldn't either.

Diamos is correct in stating that the key to the recovery is small business, but we need to have programs to help our businesses grow and not tax them to death as they do it.

Shawne Merriman, Tila Tequila and, her website message

2009-09-07T01:27:00.001-07:00

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YouTube.com

ESPN reports that San Diego Chargers Linebacker Shawne Merriman was accused of suspicion "choking and restraining" his girlfriend as she tried to leave his home at 3:45 am. This is what's written on ESPN's website:

Deputies responded about 3:45 a.m. to Merriman's house in Poway, north of San Diego, after a woman called to say she was choked by the player and thrown to the ground when she tried to leave, Sheriff's Department spokesman Jan Caldwell said at a news conference.

Merriman, 25, was taken into custody and booked into the central jail at about 8:30 a.m. He was released shortly after 11 a.m. Caldwell said she didn't know if he posted bail or was released on his own recognizance.

Tequila left Pomerado Hospital at 7:36 a.m. Sunday, ESPN's Colleen Dominguez reported. She was observed and treated, but not admitted. Her stay at the hospital was approximately two hours.

Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union Tribune was interviewed by ESPN's and said "this does not fit with the Sean Merriman I know. Now, I only know Merriman's fantastic football career, and little else, but I know nothing about Tila Tequila, so I went on a little Internet searching spree.

Tequila's real name is Thien Thanh Thi Nguyen, or Tila "Tequila" Nguyen and is known as an MTV star. She had a show on that network called A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila and was on for two years before it ended July 8, 2008. Tequila has been featured in Maxim, Stuff, and Penthouse magazines.

Her MySpace page was reportedly the most popular in pageviews in 2006, which is no mean trick to achieve. So I visited her MySpace page, scrolled down to "About TILA TEQUILA IS IN SAN DIEGO", and found something really interesting...

You've got to read how Tequila describes herself in this message:

You people probably won't even be able to read this because my page is so cluttered...sooo...imma blab a little bit here...hoping you won't read it. Here we go: i like people who are really fucked up. I mean like tormented in one way or another because then i won't feel like such a freak around those that are "normal." nerds, geeks, and freaks are all my friends. Cool people are pretty damn lame. I am very high strung and suffer from multiple personalities. Jane. She's crazy and she always wants to kill me. Tila...poor girl..she works so hard and always wants to make others happy...she deserves a break. I haven't had boyfriend for so long. I always want one, but when there is one around i run. I'm too busy. I love being in love but i hate the consequences. I do a lot of things that are self destructive. I try not to. I like being at home alone...a lot! So much more fun than surrounding myself with a bunch of wacko's out there. I am also bi-polar so that should explain my irratic postings. I like to read. I love to read. I am a nerd. I've always been a nerdy geek trapped inside a umm...woman's body. Yea....that's me. People love me for some reason. I don't know why...i do but i just say i don't know why just to be modest. I want to be a multi-millionaire by the time i reach 25 years of age. And i will.

What I could not help but focus on was this:

I am very high strung and suffer from multiple personalities. Jane. She's crazy and she always wants to kill me. Tila...poor girl..she works so hard and always wants to make others happy...she deserves a break. I haven't had boyfriend for so long. I always want one, but when there is one around i run. I'm too busy.

Now, let me make this clear, I don't care what personality Tila Tequila may have been, choking and restraining any one of them is wrong. But I also know from personal experience anyone who says, let alone blogs, that they "suffer from multiple personalities" and is "bipolar" and "bisexual", is not someone to deal with as they have a tendency to completely self destruct and distort reality and as Woody Allen said in Husbands and Wives "crash their plane right into you."

Unless you crave drama, it's best to run away from such a person just to preserve your sanity.

Also interesting is her Twitter page (which has been "protected" since about four hours ago) and tweets written in French, but loosely translate to..

You did not realize that I knew that you are in love with me, but I am more intelligent than you realize 1:01 PM Sep 5th from web

And this one:

My secret lovers.......always bitter sweet. Love undying....lust then weep...there she goes again.....Where is she now? Who is she with? 12:30 PM Sep 5th from web

What really happened?

All of this makes me wonder what really happened between Merriman and Tequila. Merriman is out of jail, having been released this morning at 11 am; Tequila was at the hospital for two hours, but its reported she was there for two hours, then released, not admitted. And it was reported she was drinking. According to E! Online the pair were partying at a hotspot called Stingaree in San Diego "without incident."

Ha. Except that they were having a load of fun. TMZ.com has a set of photos of Tequila on his lap, or more accurately, his thigh, but another one where it looks as if Merriman is drinking water from a bottle - look for yourself.

By contrast, It's reported that she was drinking at Merriman's house.

This is hard one to deal with because my gut, just my base instincts, say that Tequila got too drunk and Merriman tried to stop her from doing something, perhaps driving, then all hell broke lose. Others were in his home and the San Diego County District Attorney's Office will question them.

I know Sean's an NFL veteran, but this is one of those kinds of incidents they talk about avoiding at the NFL Rookie Symposium. In my view, there's nothing wrong with being a careful snob. People like Merriman have too much to loose and too many people and kids who look up to them to allow themselves to be connected with anyone who claims to "suffer from multiple personalities".

After all this is over, Merriman should get a new set of friends.

SF Chronicle - a plan to help the newspaper

2009-08-31T23:42:00.001-07:00

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I happened to run upon an article in today's edition of "Editor and Publisher" which reported that the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper (SFGate.com is the Chronicle website) was planning more layoffs after Labor Day. It may not happen, let's pray not, but staff reductions could come as soon as next week.

Apparently, even after the last round of job cuts about two months ago or so, the newspaper is still losing $1 million a week or about $4 million a month, or a whopping $48 million-a-year loss.

That's really, really sad news as a paper is nothing without the personalities who made it, but I think there's something that can be done to at least save some jobs and stem the tide of revenue losses.

There are as of this writing 2,780,000 pages that make up SFGate.com. My idea is simple: add a donate button to each one of them.

The button would be at the top left of each page. A person could donate as little as $1 and as much as $1,000, but let's say the average donation was $2.

SFGate.com draws about 9 million monthly unique visitors according to this press release issued earlier this year. That comes down to about 290,000 unique visitors a day.

Let's say that just 30,000 people or about 10 percent of the daily visitor count posted a donation of $2 each. (in the video I mistakenly said 180,000 visitors and 10 percent. That's wrong.) Over the course of a month that could be as much as $1.86 million per month in revenue. That's almost cuts the $4 million deficit in half and helps maintain newspaper staff.

That's really it; the idea's that simple.

Donation is better than news pay

I'm not a fan of the idea of charging for news, as Hearst Corporation is considering of late. It invites a process where one website can feed its content with news from the paysite, and then offer other sites and blog with the chance to link to their site rather than the paysite. Plus, with all of the journalists losing jobs, there are more people out there who know how to get a story and compete with the paysite.

The free news sites will always outnumber and outperform the paysites, regardless of how many big brands do that strategy.

No.

Let people donate if they wish. But backing the effort with an aggressive marketing campaign and a well-designed donation button system will generate new revenue and help save the jobs of a lot of great people at the San Francisco Chronicle.

Chevron Ecuador Judge Nunez focus of bribery allegation

2009-08-31T18:51:00.001-07:00

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In a blockbuster development, Ecuador Judge Juan Nunez, the key legal figure in the Chevron Ecuador environmental damage case, is captured in a video shown here explaining that he plans to rule against the oil giant and for an award of $27 billion "more or less". The judge explains that the verdict will happen and that Chevron will be blocked from filing an appeal of his ruling. In that segment of the video, the Judge explains he's only there to talk about the verdict, not about "the other stuff" which refers to a $3 million payoff request. Later in the video its implied that Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa will benefit from the bribe amount.

On video today I talked to Chevron Media Relations representative Sean Covey about the video and Chevron's investigation.

In the video Judge Nunez, Aulo Gelio ServioTulio Avila ("Avila"), and Pablo Almeida and are talking with two gentleman, Wayne Hansen and Diego Borja who are environmental remediation contractors and in the Judge's chamber in Lago Agrio, Ecuador. Hansen and Borja have pen-installed camcorders in their shirt pockets. Diego Borja has worked for Chevron before, Hansen has not, according to Chevron.

Judge Nunez (on the left)

The idea of the meeting was for the Judge and his political associates to be paid by the environmental company for business that would come to them as a result of the Judge's planned verdict. Here's what the Judge said from the video and the Amazonpost website:

Núñez:             “Any other questions for me as a judge?”
Hansen:           “Oh no, I, I know clearly how it is, you say, Chevron is the guilty party?”
Núñez:             “Yes Sir.”
Hansen:           “And the, the, the act (decision) is October or November of this year?”
Núñez:             “Yes Sir.”
Hansen:           “And it’s….?”
Núñez:             “No later than January.”
Hansen:           “January 2010. And the money is twenty-seven (billion dollars)?”
Núñez:             “It might be less, and it might be more.”

The Judge says "I have nothing to do with that other part" which is not explained in full but Garcia below fills in "the blanks" later, explaining that the Judge will be paid part of $3 million from the consulants.

Patricio Garcia

The second part of the video has an operative Patricio Garcia (photo from the Amazonpost website) who's reportedly a member of Ecuador's ruling party talking about how the $3 million would be delivered and transfered. This is what was said by Garcia:

Borja: “OK. Of the three million … one million is for the judge?”

Garcia: “Yes.”

Borja: “One million for the presidency…?”

Garcia: “Yes.”

Borja: “And one million for the plaintiffs?”

Garcia: “Yes, that’s right.”

Borja: “But, Loco, for the plaintiffs, who gets the money? Fajardo?”

Garcia: “No. The thing is, we’re going to handle it here.”

Borja: “You mean Alianza PAIS would receive the payment here?”

Garcia: “Right.”

Here's the 30 minute version of the video (the full two hour version is here):

But there's more to this video than what's reported in the press thus far. The focus here is on President Rafael Correa, who's office is named by Patricio Garcia as a beneficiary of the planned bribe money as is "his sister" as stated in the video above. As of this writing Correa has not issued a statement, but his reputation has already come under attack.

The second part of the video was filmed at Alianza PAIS (which means "Proud and Sovereign Fatherland" according to the Wikepedia listing) Offices June 22, 2009. PAIS is a political movement led by President Correa.   Who Patricio Garcia is beyond his appearance in this video and his role in PAIS is still basically unknown as of this writing.

Garcia says that the President's sister Pierina will be helpful (presumably in making sure that the businessmen get their piece of the planned $27 billion pie) and will meet with "The Gringo" (that's Hansen). I checked and "Prierina" is indeed described here as "Pierina Correa, the president's sister and an Alianza País leader in Guayas province". That confirms my assertion that Garcia is tied to the President and his family as he states in the video.

Shocking.

Chevron wants Nunez taken off the case

The implication here is that as Chevron Media Relations representative Sean Corney said in my video above, Chevron wants Nunez taken off the environmental damage case. But given that Chevron has informed the U.S. Department of Justice, the revalation could have deeper implications.

It could cost the country its Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) status, which was just renewed in June of this year. Whatever the case, this news sends a clear message that doing business in Ecuador is not the "clean" experience it should be. Until now, blogs have reported the problems of corruption in Ecuador and with respect to President Correa's involvement in the Chevron case, but now we have visible evidence to back those claims.

The news also forever destroys the claim made by Ecuador lawsuit legal advisor Steve Donziger and others who say that the lawsuit against Chevron has nothing to do with the Ecuadorian Government and is brought by citizens of the Amazon. But Correa has appeared with Donziger in public and has been interviewed about the case.

Right.

One can see that the bribe money's not going anywhere near those groups of people Donziger claims to represent; the political party PAIS would get it and "handle it" as Garcia said in the video. The question is, did Donziger or his associates in Ecuador and America know about this bribe plan? Was he to be one of the plaitiffs that would get the bribe money? In the Amazon Defense Coalition statement today, he does not address the possibility that he may be involved, instead he said "As the facts come out it's going to backfire heavily on Chevron."

Amazon Defense Coalition defends Judge Nunez

Karen Hinton of the Amazon Defense Coalition told Reuters that the video shows Judge Nunez resisting the bribery matter. (This is Hinton's full statement.) In point of fact, the video shows the judge saying that he's speaking in the role of Judge and "does not know about that other matter" which is a way of saying he does know but does not want it to be officially said that he does know. It's called "plausible deniability ."

Stay tuned.

Notes:

Full video transcripts:

Meeting 1 Transcript (228 KB)
Meeting 2 Transcript (195 KB)
Meeting 3 Transcript (218 KB)
Meeting 4 Transcript (217 KB)

California's economy shrinks; Schwarzenegger smokes

2009-08-28T11:47:00.001-07:00

It's agreed that the planned March 2010 closure of the Fremont New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. plant is a huge economic loss, but the elimination of 4,700 jobs only scratches the surface of the problem.

That coupled with the stoppage and possible closure of the Chevron Richmond refinery, which already cost 1,100 jobs and we have a total of 5,700 direct jobs lost and over 29,000 total people thrown out of work or unable to get work in a San Francisco Bay Area that can't afford this economic hit at this time.

23,000?

Yeah. 23,000 jobs. See, there's a multiplier impact with business operation such that an office or a manufacturer contracts with other businesses for supplies and services.

The action of a small business owner walking down to the local store to buy printer paper is part of the multiplier effect because that small expenditure helps the retailer run his or her business. Or that person's employee - even if it's just the owner - eating lunch at the local cafe helps keep it a "going concern."

It's well-known amoung urban planners that manufacturing jobs have larger multipliers than service jobs. The Alliance for American Manufacturing reports that for every one manufacturing job lost, there are four more lost in other areas of the economy. The Bay Area has been losing such "basic industry" jobs - and energy counts here - at a frighteningly rapid pace.

No Sense of an Economic Emergency

What bothers me is there's no one acting like there's an economic emergency with the exception of California Senator Diane Feinstein, who called the plant's loss a "devistating blow" to California. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger seems not to care, stating:

"Today is a sad day in the history of Fremont as California joins the ranks of states adversely affected by the bankruptcy of General Motors and the worldwide collapse in demand for automobiles. ... We continue work already in progress ... to ensure appropriate employee severance, proper environmental remediation and assistance in transforming the site to alternative uses."

Alternative uses? Like what? A parking lot? The governor says nothing of retaining and establishing jobs at the wage levels the NUMMI workers have today. Awful statement to release. The word "Jobs" does not appear once in it.&

Meanwhile the Toyota jobs are to go to Canada and Texas, which means that perhaps 50 percent of the employment opportunities are leaving America at a time when we're supposed to reverse that trend. If the Chevron plant closes, the jobs move south to Southern California, but it spells curtains on the Bay Area's set of jobs for low skilled workers.

Objective: Jobs for everyone

I'm really sick of the idea that everyone has to be trained to be a brain surgeon, then sit back at home waiting for a job and hoping that more in the population have something wrong with their skull. After World War II and into the '60s America had the objective of full employment - a job for everyone, period. You don't hear that kind of idealism expressed by politicians today.

That must change.

It has to start with California rediscovering economic development and doing whatever it can to save jobs and build on them. Governor Schwarzenegger needs to show the fire in the belly necessary to do this. Right now, the only fire he give off comes from one of his expensive cigars.

Which, I might add, are not made in California.

Miley Cyrus' stripper pole dance at Teen Choice Awards

2009-08-19T16:13:00.001-07:00

When I learned that teen star and Twitter mogul Miley Cyrus had literally done a number on a stripper pole at the Teen Choice Awards Monday night, two thoughts entered my mind: first, who convinced the 16 year old to do it, second, does this mean a sex tape's in her future too. I say and write that because I learned she and her father Billy Ray Cyrus came up with the dance production idea. So if her dad's cool with his daughter dancing around that pole at her age, the sky's the limit, right? More at:
http://www.pollsb.com/polls/p2137290-think_miley_cyrus_stripper_pole_dance_teen_choice

Miley Cyrus' stripper pole dance at Teen Choice Awards

2009-08-12T11:51:00.001-07:00

TAKE THE POLL - http://www.pollsb.com/polls/p2137290-...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/a...

http://zennie2005.blogspot.com/2009/0...

When I learned that teen star and Twitter mogul Miley Cyrus had literally done a number on a stripper pole at the Teen Choice Awards Monday night, two thoughts entered my mind: first, who convinced the 16 year old to do it, second, does this mean a sex tape's in her future too. I say and write that because I learned she and her father Billy Ray Cyrus came up with the dance production idea. So if her dad's cool with his daughter dancing around that pole at her age, the sky's the limit, right?

Lou Dobbs home to "birthers" and white supremacists

2009-08-03T13:47:00.001-07:00

http://www.zennie62.com - After years of ducking complaints about his occasionally offensive coverage, Lou Dobbs, host of CNN's Lou Dobbs show, may finally see either the end of his days of pretty much getting away with whatever crap he puts out, or the end of his show altogether.

Obama "Beer Summit" , Crowley Press Conference

2009-08-03T13:44:00.001-07:00

http://zennie2005.blogspot.com/2009/0... - http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/a... - President Barack Obama held a "Beer Summit" today, as some have called it, with Harvard Professor Henry Lewis Gates, Jr., Cambridge Police Sergeant Officer James Crowley, and Vice President Joe Biden, bring an end to an unfortunate but necessary event in American Cultural history, and starting a new chapter in American race relations.

John Edwards has a sex tape?

2009-07-28T15:02:00.001-07:00

http://www.zennie62.com - http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-b...
For more perspective on this story, click on the above links.

Win $300 from TheChampReport.com and iwearyourshirt.com

2009-07-28T11:32:00.001-07:00

On Youtube from iwearyourshirt, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FXCComxqu4

The Top 10 On Twitter In Oakland, LA, and San Francisco

2009-07-16T21:08:00.001-07:00

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Who's on the "Top 10" list of Twitter users in Oakland, Los Angeles, and San Francisco? There's no question but that Twitter, the microblogging service, has become a "must be on" new media system with an engaged and loyal core group of users, all microblogging about events, activities, news and opinion. The San Francisco-based firm has grown from small beginnings just three years ago to 19 million visitors (or 17 million if one goes by the digital research service ComScore.com) in April in what was a dramatic 83 percent jump over March, and in that month alone Twitter went from 9.8 million visitors to 17 million visitors, perhaps the fastest expansion of a new media service in the short history of the industry. It's clear that Twitter, as Eric Schonfeld with the tech industry website TechCrunch.com said, is working to become "the pulse of the planet."

As Twitter has grown so have the number of ways of measuring a twitter account holders effectiveness, or "Twitterers" as I call us. Perhaps the best Twitterer evaluation system is "Twitter Grader" made by self-described "serial entrepreneur" Dharmesh Shah. I am rather addicted to his application because it not only lets one know how effective they are on Twitter, but how they rank in their city, which is the most fun part of it all. In his blog at the site, Mr. Shah or "dshah" as he goes by explains how the final Twitter Grade is calculated:

1. Number of Followers: More followers leads to a higher Twitter Grade (all other things being equal). Yes, I agree that it’s easy to game this number, but we are looking at measuring reach and I did say all other things being equal.

2. Power of Followers: If you have people with a high Twitter Grade following you, it counts more than those with a low Twitter Grade following you. It’s a bit recursive, and we don’t get carried away with it, but it helps.

2. Updates: More updates generally leads to a higher grade — within reason. This does not mean you should be tweeting like a manic squirrel cranked up on caffeine and sugar. It won’t help either your Twitter Grade or your overall happiness in life.

3. Update Recency: Users that are more current (i.e. time elapsed since last tweet is low) generally get higher grades.

4. Follower/Following Ratio: The higher the ratio, the better. However, the weight of this particular factor decreases as the user accrues points for other factors (so, once a user gets to a high level of followers or a high level of engagement, the Follower/Following ratio counts less).

5. Engagement: The more a given user’s tweets are being retweeted, the more times the user is being referenced or cited, the higher the twitter grade. Further, the value of the engagement is higher based on who is being engaged. If a user with a very high Twitter Grade retweets, it counts more than if a spammy account with a very low grade retweets.

As you can guess, one's Twitter grade can be all over the place. As of this writing, mine is 99.8, which means out of out of 2,747,790 Twitters, there are just 4,953 who are better than me at this point in time. But a month ago my grade was 99.9 and last week it was 99.7. But since I'm hyper competitive, adding followers at a regular daily clip, I want to know where I stand in Oakland, California, where I live. With that, here are the top 10 users on Twitter who live in Oakland, followed by Los Angeles, then San Francisco, and listed by name, grade, and number of followers:

Oakland

1. mistahfab - 100 - 22,270
2. acedtect - 99.99 - 16,070
3. mollywood - 99.98 - 20,394
4. mrdaveyd - 99.9 - 3,094
5. bulldogreporter - 99.8 - 1,736
6. pandora_radio - 99.9 - 26,434
7. zennie62 - 99.8 - 5,988
8. ktvu - 99.8 - 2,445
9. mc_lars - 99.8 - 3,912
10. stocktwits - 99.8 - 85,623

Los Angeles

1. christinelu - 100 - 10,760
2. ijustine - 100 - 601,005
3. wilw - 100 - 958,546
4. laist - 100 - 7,398
5. mattsingley - 100 - 18,166
6. drew - 100 6,003
7. Mayhemstudios - 100 - 30,569
8. eonline - 100 - 1,040,375
9. lotay - 100 - 56,319
10. mitchelmusso - 100 - 211,947

San Francisco

1. missrogue - 100 - 28,127
2. briansolis - 100 - 27,621
3. ev - 100 - 1,095,917
4. parislemon - 100 - 10,084
5. Techmeme - 100 - 14,604
6. wired - 100 - 71,402
7. kynamdoan - 100 - 23,681
8. loic - 100 - 28,743
9. widgetbox - 100 - 14,093
10. gigaom - 99.99 - 5,674

Oh, and just for grins, the top 10 Twitter cities are:

1 London H9 United Kingdom 63.53
2 Los Angeles CA United States 70.80
3 Chicago IL United States 67.08
4 New York NY United States 71.52
5 San Francisco CA United States 74.00
6 Toronto 08 Canada 67.12
7 Atlanta GA United States 70.60
8 Seattle WA United States 67.91
9 Boston MA United States 69.14
10 Austin TX United States 69.98

Nope, Oakland's not on the list.

Top Cities have celebrity Twitterers

You may wonder why Los Angeles and San Francisco have so many Twitterers with 100 grades. The answer's a simple one: the vast majority of them are celebrities and micro celebrities who have vastly more followers than people they follow. In San Francisco, the number-one-ranked "missrogue" is Tara Hunt's the queen of online community consultants, and just wrote a book called "The Whuffie Factor" about how to improve one's use of social networks. "EV" in San Francisco is Twitter CEO Evan Williams, who has over a million followers. In Los Angeles, "iJustine" (Justine Ezarik) has over 600,000 followers and that number's sure to grow because today she's a "trending topic" on Twitter due to her new live show on USTream.Tv and as I watch this, she's actively trying to push "Harry Potter" out of the way for the number one topic spot today.

IJustine

Twitter Influncers

What all of this says is if you want your message to get out a large audience you have to work with these Twitterers or become one of them. When one gets over 2,000 followers, and updates over 10 times a day, they can cause others to share their news and information in a process called "retweeting". Or think of how Ellen DeGeneres used her 1.9 million followers to gain signatures for an online petition to stop the proposal to reduce the time animals are held in shelters before being euthanized. Some question the value of Twitter, but those who do, universally also just aren't good at it.

Oakland needs to grow more celebrity Twitterers, and of the top 10 in Oakland only DaveyD and myself are consistent bloggers. Considering the number of bloggers in Oakland, that's a shame. Maybe I should move to San Francisco or Atlanta. And on that, one can make a strong argument that the top Twitter cities are also the best ones for the consumption of online content.

District 9 movie trailer released

2009-07-09T18:37:00.001-07:00

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YouTube, Yahoo, MySpace, Metacafe, DailyMotion, Blip.tv, StupidVideos, Sclipo and Viddler

Peter Jackson, the Academy Award-winning producer and director of the Lord of The Rings Trilogy and King Kong took on a new and exciting movie project in 2007 that's a documentary-style movie about an alien encampment in South Africa. Called "District 9" it's set for release August 14th and features perhaps the most realistic take on the age-old story of aliens visiting Earth I've ever seen thus far.

In District 9, a giant alien ship hovers over Johannesberg, South Africa. In total the ship and its crew have been there for 28 years. Over that time, a generation, they're forced into slum-like conditions in an area called "District 9". Reportedly a government agent become a friend to the aliens and becomes a human host for their biotechnology.

The Alien Encampment and the Ship in District 9

That's as much as I'll give away but what's interesting are the questions raised by the film: why do we feel the need to imprison those who are different from us? If we were visited by alien life forms in a public way, in other words, a large ship so large you can't miss it, how would we react? What does it mean to be ready for "alien visitors"? Will such a development cause those who are racist to be challenged in their thinking about other humans, or will the visit only make what some claim to be a mental illness even more of a problem?

Given improvements in our communications technology, allowing us to "hear" into space better, and current and upcoming search programs for extraterrestrial life, we may be closer to a point of actually dealing with those questions that we realize. In the interim, we have District 9 to serve as a kind of "situation simulator."

Ironlak Team USA in LA 2009

2009-07-08T10:33:00.001-07:00

On YouTube from ironlakfilms, http://bit.ly/uJFlc
Augor, Enue, Ewok, Jaes, and Pose painting live at 33third, Los Angeles, CA. Promotional Ironlak Team USA event. A film by Supervison. wearesupervision.blogspot.com www.ironlak.com

Persian Power: Iranian Election Protest Documentary in Los Angeles.

2009-07-08T10:29:00.001-07:00

On YouTube from soulstice69, http://bit.ly/olYrF
This short documentary covers how Persian-Americans in Los
Angeles feel about the recent election in Iran and what they are doing to support the opposition movement and generate awareness. Here we get a first hand taste of the energy and passion at a demonstration and march held in the heart of Los Angeles at the Federal Building near UCLA. This demonstration and march took place Junes 27 2009.

Robert Hilburn remembers Michael Jackson

2009-07-08T10:25:00.001-07:00

On YouTube from losangelestimes, http://bit.ly/10H88o
Robert Hilburn remembers Michael Jackson.

Orlando Hudson, on Manny Ramirez's return

2009-07-08T10:17:00.001-07:00

On YouTube from losangelestimes, http://bit.ly/WLSAg
Los Angeles Dodgers infielder Orlando Hudson talks about Manny Ramirez's return from a suspension. He's happy Manny is back, but admits the circus will get old.

California Colleges cut 50% course offerings; Issuance of IOUs

2009-07-07T05:34:00.001-07:00

jonpaulvd on YouTube is not an Oakander, but has this video perspective on the State's budget and how it's impacted colleges:

Michael Jackson Fans gather at Staples Center for their last goodbyes

2009-07-06T00:15:00.001-07:00

Michael Jackson passes | public opinion: "We Are The World"

2009-06-27T02:47:00.001-07:00

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Michael Jackson's passing is still a shock to me. The very idea that someone I feel like I grew up with left us at the age of 50 is just not right at all. I first saw Michael perform when I was 10 years old at the old Chicago International Amphitheatre in 1972; the Campbell family, who babysat me, took me and I remember it like it was yesterday. The Jackson Five was then the must see event and Michael was the star.

Michael was like my brother. In a way for many African Americans he was just that, a sibling. I knew him as the guy who grew up in Gary, Indiana. We knew people who knew them in Chicago, so I felt close to him long ago. I think it's for that reason so many African Americans were on Michael's side during the years when it seems he was kind of flying the coup: changing his skin color from brown to near white; narrowing his nose, and basically seeming to channel his best friend the legendary singer Diana Ross. Then, of course, there were the claims that he "liked boys" which we figured wasn't the case, and was more a byproduct of the money and attention seeking people who surrounded him. Michael was a person with an arrested development: he never had a childhood so to escape the trappings of a constant adult life, he created a childhood for himself.

I think being an adult just literally killed Michael.

For me, Michael Jackson was the person who wanted to bring us all together, as shown in his "We Are The World" effort. That amazing production and song, created with a group of the World's best known music talents, with Lionel Richie, Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder, Steve Perry, Bob Dylan, the late Ray Charles, and a host of others and to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia, was just amazing. Amazing. I loved that song then; I still do today and I cry every time I hear it. (the lyrics and video are at the end of this post).

Talking with people About Michael's passing

The death of Michael Jackson is one of those events that will cause you to remember where you were when you learned of it. In my case I'd just emerged from a private movie screening at the Saul Zaentz Film Center in West Berkeley, CA. My Mom just happened to call with the news as I was walking to my car; I was stunned. Just stunned. So I took my Flip Video Camera and set out to talk to people about what happened to Michael. I had plenty of places to do this: the BART train station, the San Francisco Magazine "Best of The Bay" party, and all points in between.

What's amazing is the sheer number of people who were immediately informed via text messages and the reactions: shock, sadness, but not joy. No. No one expressed anything close to that at all, even given the part of his life where it seemed he was overwhelmed with "kid" issues. Nothing.

Dominic Phillips, the master of event planning in San Francisco, and who produced last night's "San Francisco Magazine Best of The Bay" party said "It's horrible. First and formost, anybody dying is horrible. There are so many family members that are just gonna be torn apart. But also Michael Jackson; on the one hand he was a very maverick person. But on the other hand he was part of my generation's life. He was like part of my experience, my growing up and I feel a little robbed that he's not there anymore. Like whether you thought his experience was your experience,that doesn't really come into it for me. I just sort of bonded with him in my youth and now he's gone."

Another woman I talked to on Howard Street in San Francisco said "I was just walking and three people got text messages (that he died)...just terrible. My friend Beth Schnitzer, who's the Director of Sponsorship Marketing at Pier 39 said "I can't believe it. Every time I listen to his music, it brings back a great memory from growing up somehow, some way. You know, it really hasn't hit me. He was too young; way too young." Jerusha, "The Last Single Girl In The World" said, as only she can, "We all have to go sometime and boy did he have a fabulous life before he went. He did it up and he did it up right. You know what they say, you only live once and that's all you need if you do it right!"

I talked to a lot of people, and if you see my video there are more than what's presented here, but all just variations on what was expressed. People loved Michael, warts and all. The "Best of The Bay" event turned into a kind of tribute to Michael, with his music playing continuously through the evening, and people danced, especially to "Thriller" which is a modern classic.

Sad day it was to have this happen. Michael, the world will miss you.

We Are The World - Lyrics and video:

Written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, produced by Quincy Jones.

There comes a time
When we head a certain call
When the world must come together as one
There are people dying
And it's time to lend a hand to life
The greatest gift of all

We can't go on
Pretending day by day
That someone, somewhere will soon make a change
We are all a part of
God's great big family
And the truth, you know love is all we need

[Chorus]
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let's start giving
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
It's true we'll make a better day
Just you and me

Send them your heart
So they'll know that someone cares
And their lives will be stronger and free
As God has shown us by turning stone to bread
So we all must lend a helping hand

[Chorus]
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let's start giving
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
It's true we'll make a better day
Just you and me

When you're down and out
There seems no hope at all
But if you just believe
There's no way we can fall
Well, well, well, well, let us realize
That a change will only come
When we stand together as one

[Chorus]
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let's start giving
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
It's true we'll make a better day
Just you and me

Perez Hilton says Wil.I.Am of Black Eyed Peas beat him up; lying?

2009-06-22T03:56:00.001-07:00

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Famous blogger Perez Hilton blasted the Twitterverse just under an hour ago (in a story broke by "Tila Tequila" on Twitter) literally screaming that he was beaten up by rapper Wil.I.Am (of the red-hot group The Black Eyed Peas) and his security guards.

I was assaulted by Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas and his security guards. I am bleeding. Please, I need to file a police report. No joke.about 1 hour ago from Sidekick

This is the full series of Hilton's tweets starting from most recent first:

The Toronto police are here now. Thank you. Please stop calling them.34 minutes ago from Sidekick

I spoke to my lawyer. I really need to talk to the authorities. Please come to the SoHo Met Hotel. Have called the police. Need them here.about 1 hour ago from Sidekick

Still waiting for the police. The bleeding has stopped. I need to document this. Please, can the police come to the SoHo Met Hotel.about 1 hour ago from Sidekick

I was assaulted by Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas and his security guards. I am bleeding. Please, I need to file a police report. No joke.about 1 hour ago from Sidekick

I'm in shock. I need the police ASAP. Please come to the SoHo Metropolitan Hotel now. Please.about 1 hour ago from Sidekick

Is there a gay bar that we can go to with GaGa now that like has a balcony or some place to have fun but be safe?about 4 hours ago from Sidekick

Mission accomplished! I just got a picture with Taylor Lautner!!!! That one is for my fellow fangirls! Xoxo

But Wil.I.Am sent a text to a friend who then posted a photo of it on Twitter which read "What the hell would I be doing sockin Perez Hilton???"

So now it's a case of he-said, he-said. Hilton, whose real name is Mario Lavandeira, is known for being verbally abusive and in one case was physically assaulted but not for nothing; in that case at a party at the Playboy Mansion, Hilton never reported why he got a black-eye.

Hilton's also known for being an attention hound, so many Twitterers think this is just another ploy by Hilton to get attention that leads to traffic for his blog.

UPDATE:

Wil.I.Am just created a video where he explained what happened. The rapper said that it started at an event after the MuchMusic Awards in Canada where Fergie of "The Peas" came up to the blogger and asked why he didn't like their music. Hilton explained it was just the record, but according to Wil.I.Am was "up in her face" and rude to her.

Later, Wil.I.Am encountered Hilton at another club and requested that he not treat the group in such a rude way as he did on his website. But rather than apologize, Hilton said "I don't respect you" to Wil.I.Am, who said "OK. That's cool." But then Hilton, who's Gay, called Wil.I.Am the "F-Word" but even then the lead lyricist for the Black Eyed Peas held his cool and backed off; but an unknown fan didn't and accordind to Wil.I.Am "got all up into him". So it was the fan that assaulted Hilton, not Wil.I.Am; if Wil.I.Am's story is accurate, Hilton lied about the incident.

My read on this is Hilton may have been drunk and a bit out of control of himself, which explains his behavior and the case of mistaken identity.

Hilton didn't stop tweeting. His last posts as of this writing said..

I won't be talking about this any further. It is in the hands of the authorities.22 minutes ago from web

Thank u all from the bottom of my heart for ur concern. The police are investigating the assault now. I did the right thing by reporting it.22 minutes ago from web

For his part Wil.I.Am said "It's all cool; it just got a little crazy."

No kidding.

YouTube As-One Meetup in San Francisco

2009-06-19T22:30:00.001-07:00

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A few months ago, a few vloggers (that's video-bloggers), most located in the SF Bay Area, and a few from other parts of the country came to meet in North Beach for the San Francisco YouTube As-One Meetup.

Now you're probably thinking "What's the heck is that." Well, the idea was started in 2007 by Cory Williams, AKA "Mr. Safety" who's current claim to fame is something called "The Mean Kitty Song" and who's knack for making viral videos has earned him celebrity status in the vloggerverse, if there is such a thing.

Ok. There is. The vloggerverse.

Anyway, the idea is for YouYube vloggers, or YouTubers, to get together at one place and get to know each other in a real-time physical environment. Mr. Safety organized the first one of these at Pier 39 in San Francisco and included then then major star of YouTube, Renetto, who flew out from Ohio to be a part of the event.

That gathering, helped along by YouTube's marketing staff, attracted about 200 people, 60 of them YouTubers, and was a ton of fun. There have been "As-One" meetups in New York, London, Australia and other cities I'm not aware of (LA?). (But frankly it hasn't really caught on as I thought it would for reasons I'll get into later in this post. ) The San Francisco As-One held in March was a new stab at re-establishing the trend of events like this. The organizers even made a cool video:

Personally, I really loved meeting all the vloggers and the wanna-be vloggers, but something's missing from the concept.

I think that something is a thing to do other than just standing around. The first As-One was really cool because the YouTubers that arrived really just re-started online conversations offine before the cameras, thus putting them online again. For example, Renetto's great at talking about race without bringing his emotions into it. He's a talker and an idea exchanger; that shines through in his videos. But a lot of that conversational activity that used to gain viewers has been replaced by fake sex tape videos, music videos, the Associated Press, and Oprah.

For Renetto, YouTube adding Oprah was the last straw. He helped start a new vlogger community of which I'm a part called Vloggerheads. There, the kind of conversations Renetto enjoyed on YouTube before it got big have been replicated on Vloggerheads. So now, the kind of community energy once there has gone to a degree and that's reflected in the As-One meetups.

What's the answer?

Well, having something to do is one. That could mean having the events at restaurants or bars which helps market those places. The As-One concept's also perfect for events, too (especially street fairs). In other words, when we YouTuber's come to As-One's the producers should have a plan for us. All that camcorder firepower's a waste just pointing them at each other.

So, if you're getting the view that I have a plan of my own, I do.

Something completely different.

Stay tuned.

Paul Kilduff Talks With Sam Singer The PR Man Behind the SF Zoo

2009-06-15T21:14:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting article to read as it's a great and funny take on a famous PR person in San Francisco, Sam Singer. It's by the equally well-known Paul Kiduff as well. Singer talks about the SF Zoo Tiger mauling issue which makes it a must read.

Ellen DeGeneres starts Twitter campaign "Tell Gov. Arnold"

2009-06-12T19:18:00.001-07:00

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In just less than an hour ago, comedian Ellen DeGeneres has started a Twitter / email campaign informing her 1.9 million Twitter followers to email California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger en masse in an effort to stop him from reducing the time animals are kept in shelters from six days to three days.

Important: Tell Gov. Arnold not to limit time animals are kept in shelters from 6 days to 3. Email him: http://www.gov.ca.gov Pass it on.

In other words, what the Governor's proposing is that an animal that currently has just six days time in an animal shelter before it is sentenced to death by euthanasia would have only three days time if the Guv gets his reported wish, which, as Franny Syufy informs us on her blog is...

barely time for owners to discover their cat missing, track him down to a local shelter, then arrange for his release.

Why the Governors' people decided to pick on defenseless animals is beyond me, but they did it and it's out in the open. So much so that several Internet petitions have been established and DeGeneres has employed her vast new media reach - including her Facebook page - to spread the word in the hopes of turning around the Governor's apparent position.

So far the Guv's Twitter updates don't include any word on his personal view on the matter, but this online movement's just hit Twitter with full-force, thanks to Ellen.

Stay tuned.

Susan Boyle Released From Hospital; Will Sing For Demi Moore

2009-06-05T06:28:00.001-07:00

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Susan Boyle, who's set to perform for President Barack Obama, has been released from Priory Clinic in London, where she was treated for emotional exhaustion, and has been offered $30,000 to sing at Demi Moore's wedding anniversary event in Los Angeles (hey, I thought hubby Ashton Kutcher was supposed to plan this?).

At any rate the American offers are starting to pop up for Boyle. Meanwhile, Britain's Got Talent judge Amanda Holden said on Larry King Live on Tuesday of this week, that the show was not at fault for Boyle's problems stating that the contestants are all "extraordinarily well looked after."

Are you kidding me? Really, Amanda? So why did this happen if that's so? Moreover, I don't think Holden would have come on King's show were it not to do damage control regarding Boyle's horrible treatment. I still think she should have quit early and I said so here:

But maybe, as someone observed on Twitter, (where she's still a hot topic as of this post time) Boyle's coming in second place on BGT was the best thing to happen for her. Perhaps all of this will work out in a sideways fashion. But the big new issue is how people are treated on television. There should be a government review of what happens to new celebrities and what responsibilities TV producers should take, including explaining the risks that come with being on television to those who want to appear on a show, and protecting the persons from harm.

The California Supreme Court's Illogical Prop 8 Decision

2009-05-27T09:41:00.001-07:00

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Tuesday, May 26, 2009 will go down as an eventful San Francisco day, sunny, and yet dark, and one that saw a lot of people marginalized who didn’t want to be. But then, who does. Before I turn to who said what, and who got arrested, I stick my head right into the belly of the beast, the California Supreme Court’s decision.

Today, in first upholding Proposition 8, the voter-approved initiative to make same-sex marriage illegal that passed in November 2008, and yet protecting the 18,000 same-sex marriages that were done before the passage of the initiative, the California Supreme Court successfully stood logic on its head. I’ve just read the Court’s entire 167-page decision, and while I understand the reasons given by the majority of justices (six supporting the decision, one against it and even then the six judges that agreed were not perfect in their union) I’m concerned with the logic behind them.

To cut to the chase, the Court has placed the 18,000 same-sex marriages in a legally questionable second-class status of rights that, even though the Court claims to protect their rights under marriage, didn’t even consider if those rights would be maintained if the couples elect to divorce or remarry each other for the sake of the children they have.

First, even though I’ve read the full document, I encourage you to do so as well. Even if you think you can’t understand what’s there, challenge yourself, read it, talk about it with your friends. And most of all learn from it.

A Three-Pronged Decision

The California Supreme Court based its decision on three considerations, if the initiative was a constitutional amendment or revision, the validity of the initiative process itself, and if Proposition 8 itself is retroactive, applying to existing same-sex marriages.

In upholding Proposition 8, The California Supreme Court tried to get itself out of a legal pickle created in early 2008, when it protected same-sex marriages in a case called “The Marriages Cases”. To recap, the Court determined that marriage was not limited to a man and a woman.

But later in the same year, Californians passed Prop 8, which earned 52 percent of the vote. Then, California Attorney General Jerry Brown challenged Prop 8 in the California Supreme Court, most famously. (Brown used the observation that “natural law” was over the California Constitution, and since Prop 8 eliminated the rights of a group of Californians, it was in violation of the “unalienable rights” granted by the California Constitution and “natural law”. In today’s decision, The Court wrote that while Brown’s argument was creative, and I would add logical, it was “without merit.”)

And there we have the Court’s pickle: upholding their own decision protecting existing same sex marriages, and yet protecting the initiative process of which Proposition 8 is a part.

In the Decision the majority of judges argue that the initiative process itself is part of The California Constitution and thus can’t be considered something that alters and is outside of the California Constitution. Moreover, the Court writes that Proposition 8 itself is not a constitutional revision, but just an amendment. Why? Because the Court’s majority claims it only concerns marriage and doesn’t call for a large number of word additions or changes. The decision outlines a number of case examples where the Court’s decision backed the idea that an initiative was an amendment and not a revision to the California Constitution, as some of Prop 8’s attackers have claimed.

Finally, the Court majority asserts that even though the framers of Prop 8 may have intended otherwise, the way it was written itself prevents it from being retroactively applied. Thus, existing same sex marriages are upheld.

But here’s where the problem starts, even if one agrees with the other aspects of the majority’s decision. The Court writes “a retroactive application of the initiative would disrupt thousands of actions taken in reliance on The Marriages Cases by these same-sex couples, their employers, their creditors, and many others” (p. 134) and then goes on to mention that such would result in “undermining the ability of citizens to plan their lives according to the law as it has been determined by this state’s highest court.”

But I argue in upholding Prop 8 and existing same-sex marriages, the Court has placed the rights of the existing married couples in disarray and damaged the California Constitution in the process: it’s not for all Californians. If same-sex married couples chose to divorce, they can’t then marry someone else of the same sex, or remarry the same person even if it would be to the benefit of the family they established! There’s no evidence in the Court’s decision – and I looked for it - that this was taken into account.

The dissenting opinion by Justice Moreno focused on the stripping of rights to a minority group, but since the reality is that being gay or straight is really more fluid than fixed and the choice of the individual, the Court’s decision impacts a much broader group of the population and one that’s hard to quantify.

Peaceful Protests in San Francisco

The decision left a lot of people scratching their heads in and around San Francisco City Hall and the California Supreme Court building just next door. While a peaceful protest complete with pre-arranged arrests amassed on Van Ness Avenue between the City Hall and Davies Symphony Hall, a large press conference was held in the South Light Court in City Hall.

California Supreme Court There, many of the lawyers who worked to combat the passage of Prop 8 shared their observations with the audience. San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, who played a key role in the battle against Prop 8, said I’m disappointed... I think the Court in my view focused on procedure rather than arguments. And that fundamental rights are part of the debate.” He said it was back to the ballot box, a view shared by the Court itself in the decision issued today.

A Shameful Intellectual Display

The Court’s majority decision was shameful, to say the least. I told someone that people will develop an intellectual argument to support their raw emotions, and this California Supreme Court did just that. The Court’s emotional bent is to protect what was decided by it and by the voters in the initiative process rather than challenge it, even if such an alteration would protect the full state constitutional rights of all Californians.

Some conservatives have interpreted the California Supreme Court’s decision as the Court defining marriage as between “a man and a woman”, but that’s wrong. The Court is protecting the initiative called Proposition 8 which claims marriage is between a man and woman because it interprets the California Constitution as consisting of these constitutional amendments and the Court has stated that its job is to interpret the state constitution and that it’s not above it. That distinction is important because should voters pass a new initiative that overturns Prop 8, the Court would be legally inclined to protect it as well.

American Idol Adam Lambert, Britney Spears Attacked On Stage. Why?

2009-05-14T04:22:00.001-07:00

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Not too long ago in Western culture it seemed we had this mostly unwritten rule that when a performer was at work, we didn't rush the stage to be with them or follow them around, unless of course they asked us to. Well, in this Internet age the act of rushing the stage and stalking has become all too commonplace, with the latest victim being American Idol star Adam Lambert; pop culture icon Britney Spears faced the same incident just two weeks before.

And the act of stage rushing isn't limited to popular singers on television; a duo named Matt & Kim from Brooklyn were rushed at the annual multimedia event "South by Southwest" (or SXSW) in March.

Who's next, Susan Boyle?

In Spears' case the stage crasher, 20 year-old Kyle King, was a man who was whisked off and arrested by security after Britney let out a scream. By contrast, Lambert laughed the whole deal off - you can hear him - as authorities carried the shirtless woman (not topless as some reports have it) off and away from Lambert. Matt of Matt & Kim said "I don't know if anyone else woke up this morning feeling like they'd been in a brawl," ... "I woke up with a limp!"

I'm sure there are other examples of rushing the stage, but as it seems to be a form of stalking, I wonder if it's not a kind of new reaction by some to the new fame of others. All of the examples have people between the age of 20 and 30 who are doing the stalking, which means they're part of a generation that gets most of its media online -- they're hyper-engaged in media. Moreover, and now I'm spinning a theory as I've not found a study on this behavior in the Internet age, I wonder if those who stalk performers and media content creators in some way feel close to them because of the Internet, and want to complete the desire to "reach out and touch them."

And I'm not claiming their impulse is always harmless. Just ask American Idol host Paula Abdul, who was stalked by a contestant who eventually killed herself outside Abdul's home. Jamie Foxx fought off his stalker last month (what is it with April and March?) as he was in Philadelphia filming a movie.

Some people want to do harm to the simple video-blogger. I use as one example Melissa Compagnucci, a video-blogger who caught Internet fame after CNN discovered her for the CNN / YouTube Democratic Debate in 2007, and even flew her out to be part of the event itself with Anderson Cooper. But after the CNN spotlight, her vlogging attracted a stranger who took to taking pictures of where she lived at the time, just to let her know that he or she knew where she lived!

In Mel's case she just stopped posting vlogs for a few months, which is what I told her not to do. But now, she's back and is working for Ford Motor Company with the very cool gig of driving around the new Ford Fiesta for six months! I'm very happy she's "in the mix" as they say. But as to why people try to scare Melissa (or for that matter me) or any vlogger I don't know. I do know it's more common than it should be , and at least one vlogger was murdered , Asia McGowan last month, and by a nut case who reportedly "scorned Black women, discussed suicide, and decried atheists" and then killed himself.

And I get the same kind of messages she was complaining about; I just don't answer them.

No, I'm not comparing myself to Adam Lambert or Britney Spears, but Asia McGowan, yes. I am writing about those who feel it's necessary to "hate on" someone just because they dare have a media presence. I personally think the local police should have a protection list for entertainers, journalists, bloggers, and vloggers, so they know who we are and we have someone internally to call where we can report someone before its too late. I fear this is getting way out of hand. We've seen the loss of Chauncey Bailey who was gunned down in the line of journalist duty and Asia McGowan for sharing her view on the issues of the day. I don't want to ask who's next and I believe the same mentality that rushes someone like Adam Lambert or Britney Spears would do this to a journalist or a vlogger.

Enough's enough.

Twitter Retains Fewer Users Than Facebook and MySpace? So?

2009-05-04T20:26:00.001-07:00

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YouTube, MySpace, Metacafe, DailyMotion, Blip.tv, Stupid Videos, Sclipo and Viddler

I saw an interesting blog post today over at Webguild.org reporting that Twitter is "Doomed" (in fact the title is "Twitter Doomed") and I had to laugh. There have been any number of people explaining either why they don't use Twitter or predicting its demise. There's even a website-style blog called "Twitter Backlash". But back to the post that got my laugh banks engaged and this sentence:

Apparently more than 60 percent of Twitter users fail to return the following month and pre-Oprah more than 70 percent of Twitter users failed to return to the site according to David Martin, Vice President, Nielsen Online.

Apparently Nielsen believes it appropriate to lump in Twitter with social networks like Facebook, MySpace, and others, and that's the problem. Twitter's a micro-blogging environment much more than a social network and thus should not be compared to Facebook and MySpace. Facebook and MySpace have places for photos of whatever you're doing or a place for installing your favorite music to share with others. That's not what Twitter's designed to do. Thus comparing them is lumping Apples with Oranges.

Twitter, again, is for the act of "micro-blogging" or explaining something in less than 150 characters. That's a system that can be and has been incorporated into a social network like Facebook, but it's not a social network like MySpace and Facebook.

I think what's happening is because one can communicate with others on Twitter, or have "friends", it's viewed as a social network as opposed to something that allows social-networking.

Two different actions.

In Facebook I have various pages, I'm a "fan" of President Obama, and I can see my friends photos, attend events I'm invited to, and play games they invite me to engage in (when I have time).

I can't do any of that on Twitter.

So it should come as no surprise that Twitter has a lower retention rate than Facebook or MySpace. Hey, people like to learn about other people which is what we use Facebook and other networks for. (Personally, I swear by Linkedin which I use far far more than MySpace.)

I don't see Twitter as a competitor to Facebook, but as complementary to Facebook. My Tweets go from my Twitter page out to my followers then onto my Facebook page and for good measure migrate over to my FriendFeed page as well. And my blogs are hooked in the same way: Blog to Twitter to Facebook to FriendFeed. Hey, that horizontal subscription count can add up!

The reason Twitter has a lower retention rate is simple: there's less there. It's a great place for the rapid transfer of information but that's it and you have to use it to understand its value.

Alas, Twitter doesn't have the revealing voyeur factor, so unless someone comes up with an app to send Paris Hilton sex tape through Twitter, the retention rates always going to be less than for Facebook, and that's just fine with me. Twitter's going through a shake out period where everyone thinks they have to use it. It's not for everyone. Eventually, we'll get rid of the wanna bees and be left with a really engaged Twitterverse.

Hooray!