I am not a huge fan of the NAACP. I understand why it was created, I understand all the good it has done, but in todays world I have seen them too quick to call anything racist and not really helping to advance anything. I recently saw an interview that got me excited about the NAACP again. Their President, one Benjamin Jealous (hello, awesome name), is multi racial, grew up on two coasts, was a Rhodes Scholar, his Grandfather was born a slave and died a Senator, and he is the youngest ever President of the NAACP.

So what did I like so much about this guy? What made me feel like he truly wants to better this world? For one, his multiple uses of the words ‘for everyone”. The lack of the NAACP getting behind other minorities and even majorities has always been my main criticism of it. A group like this was founded at a time where the need to focus on equality for “blacks” was the strongest, but this group could have evolved as they won battles towards civil rights for “blacks” and taken up more causes for all the other minorities. The NAACP is the iconic civil rights organization in this country, sure they don’t need to expand and change, but I feel like so much potential is wasted focusing mainly on only one “colour” of person.

Additionally Benjamin Jealous just seems real, I know this is naive on my part, but I feel like this guy gets “it”. It may be all political positioning, but this man is not just talking about all the injustices in the world, instead speaking on what more we can do to get the world where he hoped it would be. He is looking towards the future, while understanding his organizations past, and even acknowledges that the time has come for them to shift and adapt. It’s a refreshing stance to see.

I will not go as far to say that in todays world there is no discrimination towards minorities left, but I will also point out that there are people of all colour being discriminated against in this nation. I would love to see the NAACP formally become the National Association for the Advancement of People, and finally fulfill their potential to be fighting every civil rights injustice and helping making all of us better people in the process. Perhaps Mr. Jealous may be the one to begin that evolution.

Check out the first few minutes of the interview:

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Take it all in:

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Currently the Associated Press is upset that an image that they hold the rights to was the basis for Shep’s illustration. They want license fees, and profit, and credit, and probably one of his children. The issue is actually pretty interesting in terms of copyright law. However frankly this case has no legs, and I’m surprised the AP is this hard up for cash (though no one in the newspaper world is exactly thriving).

The AP owns the image, they don’t own the moment in time the image was taken.

Fairey started with their image, and then he applied his now famous illustrative style. He didn’t simply threshold the thing in Photoshop, he didn’t auto-trace something in Illustrator. His work is no different than someone painting the image in a cubsim styling. Copyright simply doesn’t protect deviations in such things. Someone at AP has to know such things. If anyone should be able to claim rights to deviations based on photographs, it should be the person in the imagery. Kind of funny how they get no share of the AP’s licensing fees.

Anyway, that is my take on this whole thing, and I really hope Shep doesn’t back down or make a settlement. He deserves to stand alone as the source of such iconic imagery, and he is just the right person to stick it to the old media.

Also if I may rant…
I find it hilarious how the old media has talked about him as this “L.A. street artist”, like he is some ruffian who slums through streets stealing bread and spreading wheat paste wherever he goes. Do they not understand the guy went to THE premiere design school in America (RISD), do they not understand the guy owns his own clothing line, do they not understand the guy’s first studio he formed is responsible for such things as the Mt. Dew logo and the Mozilla logo, do they not understand his current studio is responsible for the “Walk The Line” poster and the cover art for The Smashing Pumpkins comeback album? This is no “street artist”, this is one of our generations most heralded graphic designers, this guy will be included along names like Bass, Lubalin, Rand, Glaser, Carson and Sagmeister.

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That there is the cover of The Guardian’s G2 section that ran earlier in the week. One of my favourite people on earth David Carson did the design, and inside is a multitude of other designers takes on POTUS Obama’s speeches. Nice little feature for the design geek and/or political dork.

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You see, in what many are claiming to be the cliffs of calamity in Detroit, their CEO’s all flew private jets over to D.C. for these meetings. I sure want my tax dollars going towards that. I know a lot of peoples jobs in Michigan, and a lot of other states that are home to suppliers, are at stake here, and I want this to turn out well for all those hard working people. However, this is not the case of this economy causing a dangerous situation for Detroit, but this economy presenting an easy escape from years of screwing up.

Gary Ackerman (D – Queens)

“Couldn’t you all have downgraded to first class? Or jet-pooled? It would have at least sent the message that you do get it.”

For years I have had issues with the U.S. auto manufacturers. They pay their CEO’s ridiculous amounts for constant failures, they took years and years to adopt green vehicles, they were blind to the fact that Toyota was doing innovative things and balancing their product offerings. These companies should all fire their entire management and hire a few Harvard Business graduates that can think in modern times. I know, I use that plan for everything, but why do people think that the leaders of companies who have come up in the old way and fail will succeed somewhere else? When will there be discrimination laws about companies having to interview 2 candidates under 40?

The current CEO’s also turned down a gesture of good will that was brought up to them. When asked if they would take a symbolic $1 salary, much like Lee Iaccoca did years ago to help revive Chrysler, Ford and GM’s CEO’s said no. GM’s Wagoner took home 14 million last year; Ford’s Mulally grabbed a cool 22 million. For the record, Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli said he would take the $1 a year salary, but it was reported in 2007 that his salary would be $1 a year and then incentive based, so he is (and kinda isn’t) doing his part. Nardelli also is probably still living nice off that 201 million severance he got from Home Depot.

The U.S. “Big Three” in the past 3 years combined for 67 billion in losses, and it’s just the economy, right? I’m gonna spell this out for any Fortune 500 board members than might accidentally happen across my blog. No one, and I mean no one, is worth 15 million dollars a year. I don’t care who they are, or what they are doing, it CAN NOT be considerably more than the level of work you would get out of a person being paid 2 million. Give your CEO’s profit sharing all you want, I have no issues with that, but no base salary deserves to be that high.

You want to save these companies? Here is how. If you are a stockholder, write in your unhappiness with the board and CEO, the two public companies ARE accountable to all you millions of shareholders who have been fleeced in your stock value and owe it to you to stop spending money they don’t have. Cerberus should be able to figure out this thing for their own and save Chrysler, or sell it off in pieces to one of the Japanese auto makers. That is the other reality, Toyota or Honda can jump in the game and purchase on of these failing companies, though we may all be better off in a world without the original “Big Three”.

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Because of such celebratory events I am bringing you free music. From two different places.

Firstly, a lot of my time has been spent working on a few projects for William Tell, and part of that pile is up on the internet today. Right here, if you sign up you get a free song, and lot’s more to come. It’s a new marketing device that we have dubbed, “bribery”. The song is called “Gone Gone Gone” and it has some great Paul Simon moments in it.

Secondly, a lot of the rest of my time is spent talking to the one and only Chad Pearson. He has a record label, and they give you free music. He is currently living in a red state, but let’s look past that for a moment. FREE MUSIC! Okay, so yeah, his label sampler is now up for free on Amazon MP3. It features some great artists whom I truly love, and is just the right kind of mood for Fall days (Not that I know what Fall is like). A little more mature sound blasting from your windows, a little more proof you are cooler than people think.

So enjoy the music, and the new President, and if I could give away this for free I would.

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That’s right, 7-11 did their own polls, and they predict a huge sweep for Obama. The greatest part of this map is how they just leave out a bunch of states no one cares about. Ha. If he actually won that large of the popular vote, he could beat out the all time record of the popular vote, held by… you guessed it… Warren G. Harding. I must add for truthiness, that there are ZERO 7-11′s to be found in Arizona, I tried one summer, drove into like 7 towns, it’s Circle K’s only.

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E.E. Cummings

“The only man, woman or child who wrote a simple declarative sentence with seven grammatical errors is dead.”

Anyway, relate Harding to whomever you feel applicable right now, but since I randomly wound up on this tangent, I wanted to tell you why Harding really sucked. The President before Harding? Woodrow Wilson. The President after Harding? Calvin Coolidge. The one after that? Herbert Hoover. Harding broke up the only chance we ever had for a four President run with double letter initials. Why couldn’t he have been named Harry Harding?

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It’s hard to really write out my formula for Obama, I don’t necessarily think it’s about his stance on this small issue or that small issue, I think it’s more powerful than that. Some people like to call basing decisions on feeling or emotion and not the issues ignorant, but I am not voting issues. I’m voting for the person that has changed this country already, just through their campaign, I’m voting for the guy whose platform is “Hope”, is “Change”.

Anyway, on the internets I found this great article explaining the Obama “effect” on another personal level. This echoes so many thoughts that I have I had to share it. It may not make sense to everyone to vote for someone “on a hunch”, but I think it’s just about as good as basing it off propaganda and lies.

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After my moment of jubilation, and my pestering Tell about his Obama 08 BlackBerry application (or lack there of), came the most perfect reply ever.

Tell

“I hear John McCain is coming out with one for a NEXTEL.”

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To wrap up my thoughts on the baseball season, I thought we would go to Ralph Nader for a comment.

Ralph Nader, after he’d been told by Washington Post editors that the lack of coverage of his presidential campaign was because he had no chance of winning:

“Then why are you covering the Nationals?”

Best thing ever, thank you Ralph, thank you Nationals for losing 3 more games than the Padres.

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Earlier today on the news I was watching a local report on WaMu and a reporter was getting the “word on the street” from the customers. Multiple customers had no idea WaMu failed yesterday, one even decided not to go in and deposit a cheque in his account. Pretty surprising how uninformed someone can be about what is happening in the country right now, and even more shocking that they don’t know their financial protections.

The greatest moment of this piece came when the reporter had talked to one customer who had gone into the branch last week and met with the Manager. He demanded to know “what was going on with all of this and what he should know”. The Manager replied with the following, “Everything is fine, don’t believe all that stuff that is out there, WaMu is as solid as a rock”.

Rocks do sink to the bottom.

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Before I start posting videos that make John McCain look silly, understand I LOVE John McCain, he has fought for some amazing things in his life (this country being one of them) and has brought about some great change. I also would have voted for this man 4 or 8 years ago, but now it is too late. I fear he has lost a lot of his edge, I fear he isn’t completely relevant anymore (for a lack of a better word). The world has changed, politics needs to change, I don’t necessarily want someone leading this country towards new relationships with the rest of the world with the experience of an old world and old politics. Sorry.

John McCain speaking on the economy.

“These are very, very difficult times.”
“The fundamentals of our economy are strong”

John, seriously? I threw that first quote in so it wouldn’t look like I was pulling out only the negative from his statement. He also acknowledges these are very difficult times, awesome, he can see the obvious. What everyone misses about this financial crisis is the fundamentals of our economic structure are what are most wrong. Whether we talk about the fundamentals that allow finance sector businesses government aid or golden umbrellas for the CEO’s of failing corporations, the fundamentals are what led us here. For years things went under regulated, Greenspan kept coming out to see his shadow every few months, CEO’s took risk after risk because they have nothing to lose (to read a great article on this topic, head over to my good friend Mark Cuban’s blog) and millions to pocket if they are fired, and our society became speculators who react more to media coverage than to actual trends. Those things combined (leadership of financial sector jobs, regulation of the businesses that drive our economy, the Government control of interest rates and funds, investor confidence and competence) are pretty much the fundamentals of our economy. Any one of those things changes and it affects the economy in huge drastic swoops, all of them change at once and we get to where we are today.

After John McCain’s campaign then put out an ad that said “The economy is in crisis”, Matt Lauer (and all of us) needed an explanation.

John McCain on The Today Show
“Well it’s obviously true that the workers of America are the fundamentals of our economy, and our strength, and our future.”

“There is nothing wrong with the workers of America, I believe they are the fundamentals”

Sure those quotes sound bad out of context, but that last one up there sounds even worse when you hear where Lauer is trying to lead him before he says that. Lauer gives McCain a complete chance to make the statement about “the fundamentals causing the nightmares we are seeing” in the economy, and McCain just clings on to the fact that the workers are the fundamentals.

A lot of people always bring up flip-flopping politicians, and I’m sure McCain is grasping to not look like he flip-flops on his statements. However it also makes him look unintelligent and stubborn, and makes him look like someone who cannot find advisors to keep him up to date on relevant topics. I hated the fact the Kerry flip-flopped so much 4 years ago, but what I hated even more about Kerry was that the person he was as a Presidential Candidate was a dumbed down, manipulated version of the man who stood proudly speaking in protest of the Vietnam War. McCain is starting to look like a shell of his former self as well, John, come out and say you see the things fundamentally wrong with our economy, come out and say you are learning to use a computer, stop being so afraid of a little change, be it of mind, opinion or technology.

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The Huffington Post

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan offered a woeful outlook of America’s economic situation on Sunday, saying the crisis with the country’s financial institutions was as dire as he had ever seen in his long career, and predicting that one or more of those institutions would likely collapse in the near future.

“Oh, by far,” Greenspan said, when asked if the situation was the worst he had seen in his career. “There’s no question that this is in the process of outstripping anything I’ve seen and it still is not resolved and still has a way to go and, indeed, it will continue to be a corrosive force until the price of homes in the United States stabilizes. That will induce a series of events around the globe which will stabilize the system.”

Alan Greenspan covered all the topics, except the fact that he is pretty much single handedly responsible for what is happening to our economy currently, but hey that isn’t really important right?

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Just head over to Joel’s blog to see the video.

I have a newsflash “peaceful protestors” of Denver, the moment you left the park (where coincidentally the law enforcement had no issue with you) and started marching down roads made, not for people to march down, but for automobiles to drive down; the moment you started moving at law enforcement; the moment you were yelling aggressively; the moment you were running to find a new street to clog; you were no longer peaceful. You assembled, it was fine, and you could have stayed their with your signs and nonsense, but you chose marching. It’s funny, in California, I’m not allowed to cross a street in a downtown city unless I use a cross walk, but these people believe they should be able to randomly march down the entire street?

I wish people in this country would realise they don’t have the right to “march down the fucking street”. I wish people would not try to spin the fact that they declined to use the approved protest areas that were set up so a city could function while people would still be able to protest. I wish people would not spin the fact that due to their selfish act of marching down a street wherever they wanted with 2000 of their closest friends they are making other peoples lives miserable and delaying them from getting to/from work and going about their lives. I wish people protesting aggressively and yelling at law enforcement would stop acting like they weren’t hoping to be maced.

Protests are so futile, it’s one of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen. Protesting is about the same to me as wearing an American flag pin on your lapel. Up front, you made this big show, and you can talk to your friends about how involved you are in changing politics, but in the end you have done nothing. Get out and do something, call people, write letters, run for office, find us a better option and help get them elected; don’t just wave a sign and act like you are making any sort of impact besides trying to get your so-called movement a little press. The press who feeds off drama and has probably pushed more people towards this sort of thing with it’s choice of what gets covered, and it will get covered for that day, yet protestors think the press will suddenly stop ignoring the issues that they help our government perpetuate in the days that follow. There are so many countless ways better to bring change to the world.

I have seen firsthand for 2 years the kind of recklessness these protests bring with them, and those were formally organised city approved protests through Downtown Los Angeles. On one of these occassions I couldn’t even go into work because the traffic re-routing simply couldn’t get me to my office.

I’m pretty sure at some point people need to use some common sense and realise there are other tax paying citizens who might have issue with their lives being disrupted by a street full of people marching.

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A large movement in support of this law came from a Harvard Center study that everyone and their brother quotes as proof that this law will save lives. I decided to steal a pull from Wired, who ran an article about this law, and feel similarly to myself.

Wired

Studies by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis (.pdf) suggest 2,600 people are killed and as many as 330,000 people are injured each year in the United States in cellphone-related driving accidents.

The part I really wish Wired would have brought up is as follows; How many of those 2600 people killed and 330,000 injured were in accidents involving bad drivers, speeding drivers, etc.? People don’t like to think about those sorts of things, they like to try to solve problems by eliminating things coincidentally involved. I’m not saying this is a horrible idea, and that it won’t help people to focus on the road, I’m just saying the real problem is the people who don’t focus on the road, not 1 of multiple things they could do that could distract them.

This is much like the logic that if you don’t allow kids to wear certain clothes, they will behave better and be more focused. People should start looking at the cause, to be able to solve the problem they have with the effect. It’s simple physics.

Things still legal to do in the car; put on makeup, shave, make out, wind your watch, read, type, write, search your iPod for “99 Problems” by Jay-Z, hit and/or yell at your kids, search through papers in the backseat, watch DVD’s, etc., etc.

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This is a very interesting map, created by Maurice Gomberg in 1941 (published 1942). Interesting the concepts written along with the map. It’s a shame a 3 branched “world police” couldn’t be established to help the betterment of mankind everywhere. Even if it could have, would it have helped?

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What happened to all the faith being in young people? What happened to giving everything to the future generations so that they could better the world far more than we imagined? What happened to teaching good decision making and ethics, as opposed to just giving up and blaming the failures on things like the clothes people wear? Why are scare tactics and propaganda existing in out educational system?

The final straw to me came when I read this. Seriously? I cannot even fathom a situation that I can somehow try to draw a parallel to for this one. It’s just unheard of, it’s just shocking that someone thought this was a good idea, it’s just utterly disrespectful.

MSNBC

On a Monday morning last month, highway patrol officers visited 20 classrooms at El Camino High School to announce some horrible news: Several students had been killed in car wrecks over the weekend.

… Many who heard the news of the 26 deaths between classes, were left in the dark until the missing students reappeared hours later.

The most tragic part about this whole story is that everyone seems to still think it was a good idea and that it will save lives. Are you kidding me? You people are a joke.

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I do think the real issue in this long withstanding debate is more etymology than anything. Any formal acknowledgement of a committed relationship by our government should be called a union. Marriage (though it should probably be matrimony) can be a term used by religious groups to show the spiritual acknowledgement of same relationship. We can take a page from Mexico and have separate civil and spiritual services. I don’t believe most people against same sex marriage truly oppose same sex couples having the same benefits and rights as marriage provides, I think they just get caught up on the word.

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I support Obama, I hope every day for him to be our next President, and when someone asks me why I do so, I reply with the following, “He is different”. Now sure this is a cop out (and to many jumping on the trend), there are much deeper reasons, but it doesn’t need to go deeper than that. Politics has always been skin deep, look at the system. Politics is inherently a system where we vote down party lines, we ignore the actual person, and we assume they will just put their parties agenda into practice entirely. It’s a pretty terrible way to do things, and assuming Obama will do the bidding of the Democratic Party once he is elected is just as naive as only supporting Obama because he will be a change of pace.

I hate giving away my money to support the “immobile lifestyles of those who choose not to contribute to society”. I hate the concept of healthcare for everyone. I think these things are not guaranteed, but privilege. As horrible as it sounds, yes, I think living a life free of dying young to pneumonia is a privilege. Until these treatments and cures don’t cost money, they should be for those who are in a position to afford to pay for them. The solution is not having me pay for other peoples standard of living to go up, the solution is having these treatments and cures affordable for everyone to pay for on their own (not subsidized either). That is where we should be trying to take society, that is how we should be trying to help all of humanity. Yet, I support Obama, a Democrat.

I wish we could be left to allowing the non-profits of the world to pick up those less fortunate, I wish it would work that way, but some of us in the world are far too selfish to extend a hand to someone. I have far greater issue with the tax dollars we spend abroad and overseas than what we spend on our own citizens, at least those in our country have the chance that they will become tax paying, productive members of society, it’s more of an investment. I am all for investing in people, all for investing in developing countries, but lets make sure we have a system where we can at least possibly gain financially from that overseas spending of my tax dollars (such an idea, here). I would realistically be more happy with this country if we were entirely practicing either Isolationism or Imperialism, anything with an “I” really.

I believe in people, I believe that our Government actually has 3 branches that all direct and lead our nation. I don’t believe the current President is to blame for all our troubles, just as I don’t believe the next one will magically right this sinking ship. So why do I think we need Obama? Simple, he is open to new ideas, he doesn’t pretend to have everything figured out, he openly states sometimes that his idea currently may not be the final solution to the issue, he is young and passionate. Sometimes experience is not what we need, sometimes we need a leader, doing things for the right reasons.

Michael Bloomberg makes a dollar a year as Mayor of NYC, he is doing it for the right reasons (I personally believe all high ranking politicians should be willing to take no salary for their “service”, but that’s a different rant). Bloomberg has been a Democrat, a Republican and an Independent, Bloomberg supports Obama’s economic plan, at least aspects of it, and I happen of trust the guys judgement on economics. There are certain people out there who are change agents, it’s a trendy term sure, but it’s the best way I can put this. Certain people simply know how to allow for positive change, not to stand in the way or be more important than the change (something I believe Hillary would do constantly), but to guide, to listen, to react and to have interests above their own personal gain. Hillary Clinton has now “invested” 11 million of her own money into her campaign, do you really think she isn’t doing this for the future “benefits”?

I was a huge proponent of John McCain, I think he is one of these people who have the better good above their own personal gain, I was fully behind him a few years ago… and then he went crazy. He started to make statements based on making his party happy, he latched on to ideas just to get their support, he lost a little of his identity. Sure it was probably necessary, but he lost a lot of respect in my book, he pulled a John Kerry. I did not vote for Kerry, so you know who I voted for, it wasn’t very easy. The real thing that killed Kerry in my eyes was seeing how passionate and ready to lead he was in old film footage from Vietnam. He was absolutely inspiring, then somewhere along the line he became a puppet.

Am I contradicting myself a lot? Probably. Didn’t I just talk about how Obama isn’t set on his decisions and is willing to listen? There is a difference between a puppet, a rational, listening leader and an egomaniac. The two extremes are what we keep having to chose between, and frankly I’m tired of it.

Where am I even going with this? Well, here is the thing. Sometimes the best judgement we can make on a person is the first judgement, it’s instincts. Sometimes I meet people for the first time and get this bad feeling about them, every time it has been accurate. Voting for someone because their movement moves us isn’t wrong. Yes we should be careful not to be misled, yes we should educate ourselves with what we are getting excited about (thankfully Obama has a handy little blueprint on the matter), yes it can be a fine line whether we are being ignorant or just believe in a person… these things have been at issue for Politics since the Roman Empire.

An amazing person said something to me about morality recently. I think it really sums up the approach we should take on politics as well…

Amazing Anonymous Person

Morality… it’s all crap because different things are good and bad to different people.

There is no defined right way, there is no solution that will please everyone. The way to lead this country is to understand that, to be able to have all these different, unique persons trust and to lead in good faith. The kind of person that can prove they can do that, shouldn’t need much more than the first impression and it shouldn’t matter what party they associate themselves with.

We are tired of the typical Democrat, we are tired of the typical Republican, we are tired of typical Politics. People don’t simply like Obama because he is different, people need Obama because he is different.

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Next up, the decision on the Democratic nomination, live from Gladiator Arena.

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1) Get out in 60 days (or as quick as humanly possible without the troops being bottlenecked like the Persians) plan. This plan has actually been discussed, and a lot of people think it’s quitting on Iraq, it is. It’s the swallow our pride plan, it’s the realise this issue goes deeper than what we can force plan, it’s the let them fight it out themselves plan. Let’s face it Iraq maybe shouldn’t be 1 country, it has 3 very diverse groups who are all at various times against us and each other. If we left, they can decide where they want to control, how they want to live with their neighbors, and what relations they want to have with them. If they have a desire for one united Iraq, then they will work towards it; If they desire for their own government that can best represent their ethnic group, then they can go that route. We should have learned by now that forcing people to live together under one rule will only lead to one group trying to have control over the others. This whole idea acknowledges that maybe it’s a terrible idea for them to try to govern together. Of course we lose a lot of money, there will certainly be fighting and dying of these different peoples and we lose our foothold in the Middle East. It’s obvious what we gain, but just in case; we stop the loss of American lives, we stop the drain this war has taken on our tax dollars.

2) The “free” gas plan. I used to always joke around and say that “the American public would be okay with this war if we at least got free gas”. It’s terrible to say, and sadly true. Wars used to be fought for resources and gain. Yes there were some fought for chivalry and freedom, but really they still had underlying motives going beyond that. I know we have motives beyond the freedom of these people, I no longer get how those motives benefit us as a country, therefore at least come up with some gains for all these losses. Gasoline and energy costs are one of the biggest issues facing the United States as a country, and individuals living here, alleviating some of that pressure would benefit our economy and growth immensely. Let’s face it, the Government is essentially the biggest corporation, so it’s time they start balancing this whole thing out. Free gas, however, would be violating the people of Iraq, but a discounted gas would be a pretty fair shake. We essentially get oil discounted to cost plus 15%, the Iraq economy still has some positive benefit from this, and isn’t completely stripped of income. We are allowed this deal only to the point that the discounts equal the amount of tax payer dollars being spent on Iraq. This oil is then sold to the US gasoline syndicate at normal rates and the income offsets the tax dollars being spent. Of course the Iraqi government would get a say on this deal after every 6 months, if they feel the cost of income they are losing outweighs the benefits we provide, they let us know and we leave. This gives the whole situation economic balance, motivation for Iraq to stand on it’s own legs, as well as a means for Iraq to say “Thanks for the help, it’s been enough”. This plan should be utilised in any situation in which we are providing extended relief (beyond 9 months) to other countries.

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A little excerpt for your enjoyment:

Daily Kos

Obama, and his campaign, are committed to bringing about change. They are doing this in both large and small steps. Refusing my money is a small step, but it spoke volumes to me. It showed me Obama means what he says and backs it up with action. It shows me that no detail is to small and that his organization is top notch. It strengthened my commitment to see him elected President.

I guess I just can’t use my money to do it:).

p.s.: As a side note, last year my spouse had set up automatic monthly payments to Hillary (nothing big $10/month) but after switching to Obama, had to battle with the Clinton campaign to cancel the automatic payment. I find it ironic that one campaign won’t take my money, the other won’t give it back!

Things like this remind me why we need someone who doesn’t have the “experience” (read: isn’t corrupt, jaded and biased; isn’t loyal to the old ways, run by big business, only worried about their legacy) to be President. Things like this make me soooo prObama.

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MSNBC

The nearly 2,000 professionals and students who voted named Apple overwhelming winner. The creator of the iPod and Mac computer triumphed in six categories including most inspiring brand and the one readers cannot live without.

Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, was also a winner, but it received the dubious honor of the brand most readers wanted to argue with, and the one they most wanted to revamp. Voted into second place in the category was brand USA.

“brand” USA? Yep, the country you live in. Maybe we can put The Steve in charge of that brand too? Did I just say Steve Jobs for President? Yes, and Apple board of director Al Gore can be his VP I suppose… though I’d rather Jonny Ive (however, he is not eligible seeing as he is a Commander of the British Empire).

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David Letterman

“What if those snakes over there in New Jersey decide to attack us?”

It’s nice to finally have New York’s Governor a bigger joke than (not) my Governor.

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You can find a full write up about Google’s move over at msnbc.com, but here is a brief pull:

MSNBC

“How do you communicate as a homeless individual? ” Newsom asked. “How do you expect your life to turn around if you can’t even get information or if someone can’t even get in touch with you?”

“It just seems exactly like any other voice mail,” said Craig Walker, senior project manager of Google. “There’s no stigma attached to it that ‘hey this is a temporary thing’ or ‘this is an 800 number.’ It’s really just a local number owned by the user.”

One man who used to be homeless said the right message can raise the spirit.

“Having your family, friends and loved ones being able to say ‘here I’m thinking about you, I love you, I want you to know you’re mine, and I miss you,’ can have a monumental change in one’s behavior.”

Well done Google, Well done Mayor Newsom.

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However, I definitely know which candidate I would support by wearing baseball inspired campaign shirts.

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Mark Cuban

I’ve looked at the websites of current and previous candidates to get an understanding of their platforms. They all have positions, some of which I agree with , some of which I don’t. But there is one thing that is missing from each and everyone of them, any manner of implementation. Health care, spending cuts, retaining or repealing tax cuts, keeping or removing troops, the soundbites with pretty numbers never end. Not a single candidate provides details on how exactly they are going to accomplish anything. Don’t they realize that economists exists to make lottery ticket buyers look smart, not presidential candidates ?

It reminds me of business plans I get from kids who tell me about their vision and project all kinds of numbers leading to grand results. They can site historical facts and figures, but when it comes time to get into details of exactly how they are going to execute on their plans, the response is basically that they will figure it out as they go. I wouldn’t invest in a business that is winging it any more than I want to vote for a presidential candidate that is winging it.

Unfortunately , they are all winging it. i have no question that they have every detail about how to spend their campaign contributions on advertising planned out. I have yet to see details on how they plan to accomplish all their great promises they are making to voters. That scares me.

(And before all the comments start, Ron Paul is the worse of all the candidates when it comes to detailing how he would execute on his promises. Just saying you are going to cut and eliminate everything doesn’t mean you know how to do it and/or could get it done.)

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President of the United States of America*:
Republican Nomination: Mitt Romney
Democratic Nomination: Barack Obama

California Propositions:
Proposition 91: Yes (For humours sake, for those not in the know: The proponents of Prop 91 urge you to vote No)
Proposition 92: Yes
Proposition 93: No
Proposition 94: Yes
Proposition 95: Yes
Proposition 96: Yes
Proposition 97: No (They have “Hot Water”, I don’t trust them… only kidding, it’s a Yes for me)

* I also like to call this country Uniteria, because we act like we are the only thing in America that matters, we aren’t, or are we. At least Canada (dot) com gives you free email, we just give people pure hits.

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George Piro, FBI

“For him, it was critical that he was seen as still the strong, defiant Saddam. He thought that [faking having the weapons] would prevent the Iranians from reinvading Iraq.”

I think we can all agree this war should end, and we should continue to work towards a lasting peace (if that is even a possibility), but maybe things like this will show us that the real truth with everything that has gotten us here is in a grey in-between, where lies and errors co-exist with truths and getting it right. Just alone, it is interesting to hear how concerned Saddam was with the possibility of Iran invading, and maybe this will reinforce the idea that they are a country worthy of caution.

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We are all familiar with the Duke Lacrosse accusations of last year. This week the NCAA granted Duke Lacrosse coach John Danowski’s request for an extra year of eligibility. The request was first reported the week before the Men’s Final Four of Lacrosse by places such as ESPN, and was quickly written off as implausible. The NCAA however found enough just cause that the players deserved their full 4 years of eligibility that was taken from them when Duke University canceled their season 8 games in.

The NCAA stepped up huge, and this almost covers up for Duke treating the accused and the entire team so ridiculously. I hope Duke has done a lot of personal apologizing (read: settlement check writing) in the past few months, because they absolutely need to. I am now anxiously looking forward to another Duke appearance in the Championship game next year, and another season of redemption.

Not all in Lacrosse are thrilled with the decision, Virginia coach Dom Starsia said:

“Everybody in the lacrosse world was embarrassed by what happened. But it almost feels now as if nobody’s really paying for this thing. I would’ve been the first to say that Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty probably deserved another year. But I’m not sure that everybody involved here should be painted with the same broad brush and it just seems that’s what the NCAA chose to do.”

It should also be noted that this is the same Virginia who won the National Championship* in 2006, the season “*Duke was a lock to win it all before the rape allegations came out”. Dom doesn’t make a whole lot of sense here, I’m not sure if he knows the entire teams season was canceled and that the entire team was innocent and that the entire team appeared on CrimeStoppers posters or what. I think Dom should stop talking and be happy with his asterisked National Championship.

Also this week one of the former accused, Reade Seligmann, announced he will attend Brown University and play Lacrosse for the Bears. Look out Reade, those girls break hearts.

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Jack Turnbull (Bio)

Jack Turnbull has been called the “Babe Ruth” of lacrosse, and few, if any, could equal his playing ability. Billy Shriver, radio commentator, said in 1947, “Jack Turnbull is what I call the complete athlete. By that I mean when he played a game, he gave it everything he had – spiritually, mentally, physically. Although he was an individual standout, he was always the team player, always playing for the best interests of the sport.”

He was admired and looked up to by his teammates, because he performed unselfishly; rarely fouled; and his leadership, skill, character and accomplishment developed an esprit de corps and respect seldom, if ever, attained by others.

Jack Turnbull enlisted in the Maryland National Guard in March, 1940, became a Second Lieutenant in June and a pilot on December 9, 1940. He was promoted to First Lieutenant, Captain, Major and on May 29, 1944, to Lieutenant Colonel. On October 18, 1944, flying from somewhere in England, he and his squadron carried bombs to drop on industrial Germany. On the return flight, German flack downed the plane in Belgium, and the Sisters of a nearby convent, with the help of older men, made caskets and temporarily buried Jack and his comrades.

The Jack Turnbull Award is an award given yearly to the United States’ top collegiate attackman in lacrosse.

and…

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (Bio)

On August 2, 1943, Kennedy’s boat, the PT-109, was taking part in a nighttime patrol near New Georgia in the Solomon Islands. It was rammed by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri. Kennedy was thrown across the deck, injuring his already-troubled back. Still, Kennedy towed a wounded man three miles (5 km) in the ocean, arriving at an island where his crew was subsequently rescued. Kennedy said that he blacked out for periods of time during the life-threatening ordeal. For these actions, Kennedy received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal.

Kennedy privately admitted to friends that he didn’t feel that he deserved the medals he had received, because the PT-109 incident had been the result of a botched military operation that had cost the lives of two members of his crew. When asked by interviewers how he became a war hero, Kennedy’s grim reply was: “It was involuntary. They sank my boat.”

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These kind of lawsuits must come from that group of archaic minded individuals that still think; it’s a gun manufacturers responsibility when someone gets shot, it’s a girls fault for dressing “provocatively” when she gets raped, it’s McDonalds fault when you spill coffee on your lap. These people should be counter-sued for wasting the systems time.

ESPN (Source)

ST. LOUIS — The father of the late St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Josh Hancock has filed a lawsuit, claiming that a popular restaurant continued to provide drinks to the reliever even though he was clearly intoxicated before the drunk-driving crash that killed him.

The lawsuit brought by Dean Hancock names Mike Shannon’s Restaurant, which is owned by the long-time Cardinals broadcaster. It also names Shannon’s daughter, who’s the restaurant manager.

Police say Hancock was drunk, speeding and using a cell phone when his SUV struck the back of a tow truck in the early hours of April 29.

Also named in the lawsuit are the tow truck company and driver and the driver of the car who was getting help from the tow truck on Interstate 64.

How dare the bar not offer to drive him home, how dare they not give breathalyzer tests, how dare they think an adult should be able to be responsible enough to know their limits and/or call a cab. Shouldn’t any bar in the potential vicinity of a baseball team be closed anytime one of the teams players could potentially walk in the door anyway? Can you believe the gall of that person whose car broke down? A baseball player needed to drive drunk, why were you breaking down in his path? The tow truck driver should have known to look out for drunk drivers, that is their job you know. Why isn’t the Highway Patrol being sued because they failed to enforce the speed limit before he crashed? Why isn’t the person whom he was on the phone with being sued for not stopping him from driving?

I’m sorry for your loss Mr. Hancock, but pretending your Son didn’t have an alcohol problem, nor a penchant for the shady locale is just plain ignorant. You know who should be sued? You, Mr. Hancock. Failing to notice the demons your Son battled when he was alive and could have been helped is tragic, denying them in his death is just shameful.

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George W. Bush

“Information is moving — you know, nightly news is one way, of course, but it’s also moving through the blogosphere and through the Internets.”

Read the rest of the transcript.

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On May 27, 2005, Arnold traveled to San Jose, California. To catch those of you up who weren’t dating a girl from San Jose at the time, San Jose has huge transportation issues, most notably traffic and potholes. Arnold arrived to a quaint neighborhood that was full of interesting people that you will soon get to hear from. So Arnold is here, he brought an entire set with him. There are Key Grips, Best Boy Grips and Personal Assistant’s Everywhere. There is lighting (yes, lighting in the middle of the day) to ensure a soft glow off our Action Hero of a Governor.

They cued up The Doobie Brothers “Taking It To The Streets”, and Arnold swaggered towards your television with 10 of San Jose’s finest road workers flanking him. 10 workers in brand new Day-Glo vests (it’s still the middle of the day, still in a small neighborhood) and work gear to back up the Governor. After some speeches people couldn’t understand (by the Governor) and some by people you could understand (San Jose City officials) a truck full of black, smoking, asphalt backed up and unloaded for the Governor to fill the 10 by 15 foot hole.

Now you might be upset that it took 10 road workers to assist in filling a pothole when there are plenty of other road work needs in the city, I might agree if I didn’t understand how important it is for the Governor to look intimidating. The residents however, aren’t as understanding.

Nick Porrovecchio

“They just dug it out,” Nick Porrovecchio, 48, said, shrugging. “There was a crack. But they dug out the whole road this morning.”
“It’s a lot of money spent on a staged event,” said Matt Vujevich, 74, a retiree whose home faced the crew-made trench that straddled nearly the whole street. “We still have the same problems. Everything’s a press conference.”

Now that seems a bit ridiculous doesn’t it? Maybe those 10 road workers were just too good at their jobs, that’s why they had nothing else to do right? They must have taken care of all the cities potholes a day too early, right? Right??

Joe Greco

Joe Greco (no relation to Richard Greco), who used his video camera to record the crews ripping up his street, said Laguna Seca Way had “a few cracks,” which he termed “unsightly,” but they weren’t as bad as the “major potholes” a few blocks away.
“The street was very drivable,” Vujevich said.

So your probably figuring what I figured when I first heard this story, Arnold just got some bad intel, no one told him there were real potholes already needing repair so close by. Surely our Governor wouldn’t waste tax payers monies on purpose when he could have so easily saved a few bucks by fixing real potholes?

Rob Stutzman

Rob Stutzman, the Governor’s communications director, told reporters that “the staging of an event like this is paid for out of the Governor’s California Recovery Team account,” which pays for many of the governor’s political activities, “so there’s no taxpayer expense.”

So what, so he staged it? It needed to be staged, those other streets have terrible afternoon sun. No taxpayer had to pay for it, it’s fine.

David Vossbrink

But David Vossbrink, director of communications for San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales, who was in Washington, D.C., Thursday lobbying for more federal funding for BART, said the city paid the road crew and the extra security costs associated with the governor’s visit — as it would for any visiting dignitary.

So there’s no taxpayer expense ASIDE from the road crew that was being paid to not fix the real potholes, dig fake potholes and be back up dancers for the Governor’s performance. Well, at the very least a pothole got filled.

David Vossbrink

Vossbrink said, the Governor’s event involved “not exactly filling a pothole, but it represented the pothole aspect”

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Edit: Kyle is a part of the campaign, and has made a lovely little poster. I hear he might even create a theme song mash-up (read: go over to his blog and demand he make a theme song mash-up).

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I love people coming to America, I love the idea of the American dream being something people want and lust over, furthermore I am blessed to be able to live the life that I do (Here is the part where I potentially offend you). However I do have a few suggestions for the cause; respect those of us fortunate enough to have been granted our pass enough to not shut down areas of business on a weekday, fight for your right to be here AND for those same rights in the country you are trying to leave behind as you wish granted here. I say this last part not because I don’t want anyone in the country I was born in but because all countries can be something great, however if all of a countries truly innovative people abandon their homeland their will never be any progress or change.

This world needs leaders, not followers.

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The really truly amazing part about this whole ordeal to me was the fact that after all the years of profiling against minorities we decided to solve the problem by inversion. It really echoes a lot of the civil rights policies of the past few decades (Yes, I am referring to Title IX and Affirmative Action). It’s really all a microcasm for what I believe this countries biggest issue is; people do not fight for the just cause, they fight for their advantage. It’s a shame people like Jesse Jackson haven’t realised that we all deserve justice and freedom. Continuing to segregate organisations for the cause of ending the damage segregation did, is such a ridiculous concept and will never truly rid this country from the issues of colour bias. Until the NAACP becomes the NAAP we have no hope at equality, though I’ve never been sure if their goal was equality or superiority.

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper dropped all charges against the three lacrosse players…

Roy Cooper

“based on the significant inconsistencies between the evidence and the various accounts given by the accusing witness, we believe these three individuals are innocent of these charges.”

…and discussed the political motivations of the case and the prosecuting DA:

Roy Cooper

“tragic rush to accuse and a failure to verify serious allegations”

“This case shows the enormous consequences of overreaching by a prosecutor”

DA Mike Nifong, who should at any time be barred from working in the law ever again had this nice statement prepared:

Mike Nifong

“To the extent that I made judgments that ultimately proved to be incorrect, I apologize to the three students that were wrongly accused.”

It’s nice he apologised for ruining these three students lives forever, they will always be known to many as rapists (even after being found innocent). I for one, really hope he is actually help accountable for the witch hunt he led.

I am glad that our justice system got this one right, profiling people based on the colour of their skin and their societal status is wrong no matter which side of those genres they fall into. Sometimes the rich, white people are actually innocent.

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With that said, I am now PrObama. PrObama is afilliating yourself with: Barack Obama, change, hope, politicians who are fresh and passionate, progressing, et al.

Usage: “Did you see that girl in the heels that I was talking to on the A, the one who was reading McSweeney’s? She was so forward thinking, so prObama.”

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