IPhone 4 and The Otter Box Defender by Suzannah B. Troy

A very tired Suzannah w/ IPhone 3 and The Otter Box Defender

I am an Apple lover.  I feel guilty being critical of Apple because Apple has radically changed my life but sometimes I just have to.  I am embarrassed to tell you how many IPhone 4s  I have had and there   have been a major problems.  I have broken the glass twice, got a mean scratch on one and most of all phone calls have been dropping at a record amount.  Am I switching to a BlackBerry? No.

I got The Otter Box defender and I feel my Iphone is better protected and I had hoped the rubber would help me with telephone calls and the rubber did with my call to Apple for technical support but dropped with others or they just could not hear me...one senior and that made me sad.  I called twice and I felt like someone making phony phone calls; the third call the phone call dropped.   The Otter Box Defender for IPhone 4 got a great review from this guy.  If you are thinking of buying The Defender watch his review!

I had called the S.E.C. on my last Iphone 4 and the same thing happened over and over.  I was calling to try and get info on when the S.E.C. is going to make a decision on the Steve Rattner case.

I love the Iphone 4 like I loved every IPhone model I have ever had.  I just wish the phone and internet worked better.

The guy I spoke to referred me to AT&T.  I try and jump start the sluggish internet response by turning the "airplane mode" on and off.

The young man on the phone for Apple referred me to Apple. I let him know I love Apple but had to remind him that Apple forced me to have a relationship with AT&T.  The 3G in NYC is less than ideal and the phone service spotty.  Still love Apple but sometimes love is trying....love is not perfect.  I can't lie, I am frustrated as hell but still love Apple.

Suzannah B. Troy

Lady Gaga As beleaguered Lady Liberty by Suzannah B. Troy

Lady Gaga's fabulous photo by Mario Testino graces the cover of V Magazine and Ms. Controversial is making waves and laughter with this photo shoot! 

For more reasons than I can begin to talk about the timing of this photo shoot is spot on and for many readers who don't know me for a very New York reason that few people are aware of.  I posted a piece earlier today about getting naked if need be to protest king Mike Bloomberg flushing democracy down the toilet 2 years in a row extending term limits without the people of New York's say so aka vote!  This time he got his hand picked Charter Commission to do his dirty work and the city council members that got a 3rd term try without our vote are not saying, "No, I refuse to accept this because this was not people did not vote on this!" 

Back to Lady Gaga because she sums up my feeling!  The only thing king Mike has not done is put advertising on the Statue of Liberty so this photo with Lady Gaga with Marc Jacobs pushing her in a shopping cart speaks volume but is also pure whimsy.

Fox News reports Lady Gaga earns spot on Vanity Fair's best dressed list and the link is fun to read check it out.  Best sentence from the article,  "Gaga channels the "Dada Catholic girl" in the spirit of Gypsy Rose Lee and Rosie, the Jetson's robot maid, the magazine says, while Bonham Carter, who says her favorite items of clothing is her "bloomers," is inspired by Vivienne Westwood and Marie Antoinette."

She delights her little monsters.   V Magazine hits news stands tomorrow.  Thank goodness for Lady Gaga; it is impossible to die of boredom with her around.

Oil Rig Explosion: Mariner Energy At Fault, No Oil Spill

According to Russia Today and The New York Times, an oil rig located in the Gulf of Mexico and just west of the British Petroleum TransOcean Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded six months ago, exploded.

The rig, owned by Mariner Energy , which says it accepts full responsibility for the accident and will work with officials, was reported not to be "actively drilling" according to The New York Times. It was not part of the deepwater drilling moratorium set by President Obama after the BP Oil explosion and spill.

Moreover, it was reported, in the same NY Times article, to have been producing 9.2 million cubic feet of natural gas a day and 1,400 barrels of oil and condensate.

But at the time the facility was being painted and sandblasted. It's not known what caused the accident.

Mariner Energy stock dropped four percent on news of the explosion.

Stay tuned.

Ti Arrested Driving Maybach In LA For Driving While Black?

Yes, Rapper and Actor, TI, the star of the movie The Takers, was arrested for felony possession of a controlled substance while driving his two-toned $400,000 Maybach automobile along Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles. While it's far from the first arrest for Ti, one with any sense and honest knowledge of American cultural history has to ask if this is a case of DWB - Driving While Black.

Think about it. Ti was driving a car worth a half-million at night, without all-around tinted windows, and in an urban area that has a history of such stops. Ti was accused of making an illegal U turn, which can be easily questioned based on how the car was actually steered. In other words, perhaps Ti pulled into a driveway, then after a beat, backed out of it. The point is, the traffic stop itself wasn't necessary at all. Ti wasn't speeding and he did not run a red light.

A police officer would see someone who looks like Ti and figure it was a perfect situation to use as a reason to stop-and-search. That's what the LAPD did. That stop is perfectly described at the website Harris - Driving While Black out of The University of Dayton. Here's what the website reports:

It has happened to actors Wesley Snipes, Will Smith, Blair Underwood, and LeVar Burton. It has also happened to football player Marcus Allen, and Olympic athletes Al Joyner and Edwin Moses. African-Americans call it "driving while black"--police officers stopping, questioning, and even searching black drivers who have committed no crime, based on the excuse of a traffic offense. And it has even happened to O.J. Simpson lawyer Johnnie Cochran.

In his pre-Simpson days, Cochran worked hand-in-hand with police officers as an Assistant District Attorney in Los Angeles, putting criminals behind bars. Cochran was driving down Sunset Boulevard one Saturday afternoon with his two youngest children in the back seat when a police car stopped him. Looking in his rearview mirror, Cochran got a frightening shock: "the police were out of their car with their guns out." The officers said that they thought Cochran was driving a stolen car, and with no legal basis they began to search it. But instead of finding evidence, they found Cochran's official badge, identifying him as an Assistant District Attorney. "When they saw my badge, they ran for cover," Cochran said.

Now given that history, it's also without question that Ti and his wife should know better than to have anything that looks like it might be a target for a police officer bust in their car.

Different From Paris Hilton Case

How is Ti's arrest different from Paris Hilton's? In that case, A Las Vegas motorcycle police officer smelled the smoke from their marijuana and stopped them. Which means they were just being stupid, driving with the windows down near the The Wynn Hotel and getting high, allegedly. That was not the case for Ti. His stop was the classic traffic stop scenario that fits the DWB profile.

Was it really necessary to stop Ti? No. At that time of night, in this lousy economy, it's a safe bet Sunset Blvd wasn't teaming with cars where an alleged illegal U turn would have been unsafe. In fact, that may have made Ti easier to spot by the LAPD.

The bottom line is if you're African American, even in 2010, and you drive an expensive car, or in this case, mega-expensive, you have to be careful. DWB is still a problem; just ask Ti and Tameka Cottle.

Is the Senate Democratic majority up for grabs?

Is the Senate Democratic majority up for grabs? A great many political pundits have been asking that question in recent weeks. As of today, polls show Republican candidates running clearly ahead in four or five Senate seats now held by Democrats, with another six Democratic seats falling into the "toss-up" category.

Control of the Senate will largely depend on the outcome of those toss-up races. The Republicans have a path to majority control, but it will require sweeping every one of the closest contests.

Although much of the discussion of the 2010 midterms have focused on vulnerable House Democrats in competitive or GOP-leaning districts, after the “do nothing” Senate of 2010, GOP winning back the Senate majority can do the most harm, following the election, via a “lame duck” session this fall and then again throughout the 2011 session.

Nevada, Washington State and California, still remain the closest Senate races in the country, with the Democrats maintaining a slim lead in the polls for each state.

Currently, the Democratic Senate Caucus has 59 members: 57 elected as Democrats plus independents Bernie Sanders (VT) and Joe Lieberman (CN). To be assured a majority, the Republicans would need to gain 10 seats, since Vice President Biden would vote with the Democrats to break a 50-to-50 tie on any legislation.

So, how many seats would the Republicans gain if the election were held today? Check the charts above to see the current trends.

Republican candidates currently hold huge leads in four states now represented by Democrats: North Dakota, Arkansas, Indiana and Delaware. In Pennsylvania, Pat Toomey leads by just slightly more than 5 percentage points (45.7% to 40.6%).

The latest polls show closer "toss-up" margins in another six states held by Democratic Senators: Colorado, Wisconsin, Washington, Illinois, California and Nevada. That said, Republicans would need to win five of those six contests and prevail in two similarly close contests in states currently represented by Republicans (Florida and Kentucky) to gain control of the Senate.

Remember, in late August 2006, it certainly looked like Democrats faced an uphill battle to win control of the Senate. At the time, Republican candidates led by low single-digit margins in most polls, yet the Democrats ultimately gained enough support to over the course of the fall campaign to win the 51 seats necessary to gain control of the Senate.

The morale of this story is not to let the polls dictate how you vote in November. Do your homework, as a voter and do not count on campaign commercials or biased media coverage to sway you in any certain direction. Decide for yourselves if you are represented best by the GOP (which only seems to care about the rich and big corporations) or if you should keep the Democrats in power to try and finish the job of fixing what it took George W. Bush 8 years to break.

Mayor Bloomberg flushes democracy away naked protest by Suzannah B. Troy

Dear Blog Readers:

King Mike Bloomberg has flushed democracy down the toilet again in 2010 and I get as close to naked to protest this violation of the  People of New York!

First let us rewind.  Mayor Mike Bloomberg with the help of his mini-me, Christine Quinn, who many believe made a back room deal with the mayor aided and abetted him in denying us the people of New York a referendum.  That means we the people get to vote on term limits as in do we want 2 terms, 3 terms, or no terms and the two times the people voted they voted for term limits.

Mike did not want to take a gamble so he flushed democracy away and pushed through a third term.

                            
This year he did it again with his hand picked Charter Commission and the vice-chair is a Con Ed executive so do the math.  Yes, the Charter Commission voted to extend term limits for city council members of NYC yet again preventing the people of New York in having a say!

Mike Bloomberg used the word "democracy" regarding the mosque by the WTC site but he was completely insincere and denying us, the people a vote on term limits two years in a row is proof.

The Charter Commission should have just restored term limits from before the shady dealings including the back room deal rumored that if Quinn helped push through this third term that Mike would back her run for mayor when he got tired of being king of New York.

Watch my two YouTubes on this subject.  My first is an interview with ex-Parks Commissioner Henry Stern who served under mayors Koch and Giuliani and the next is a short one of me getting as close to naked as possible.

I am wearing an economic depression bikini I bought for 5 dollars here in NYC and it is black to mourn our economy but the fat cat developers keep doing their dealings confident the economic crisis won't touch them but I hope they get hit hard or harder than the people although that will never happen.

Ti Arrested W/ Tameka Tiny Cottle In LA

Ti arrested, again, according to TMZ.com.

Rapper, friend of Chelsea Handler, and Actor Ti, who also goes by T.I. and Clifford Harris, and his wife Tameka "Tiny" Cottle, were arrested Wednesday night for "felony possession of a controlled substance" at 10:18 PM PDY.

Reportedly, Ti was driving his Maybach down Sunset Strip and decided to make what is reported to have been an illegal U turn. The car was spotted by the LAPD, stopped, and in the process of the routine traffic stop, police officers claimed to smell marijuana.

Then police elected to search the $400,000 car and found evidence of a controlled substance, but not cocaine. Instead, it was described as allegedly a "small amount" of ecstacy.

Ti Arrested After Marriage Just After Jail

Ti was arrested just months after his storybook wedding to Tameka Cottle, and after being released from federal prison in December and after serving 7 months for illegally possessing machine guns and silencers in 2007.

Ti currently stars in the movie The Takers.