President Obama on the Fiscal Year 2010 Budget And Openess

More at The White House - Press Office: “In keeping with my commitment to make our government more open and transparent, this budget is an honest accounting of where we are and where we intend to go.  For too long, our budget has not told the whole truth about how precious tax dollars are spent.  Large sums have been left off the books, including the true cost of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.  And that kind of dishonest accounting is not how you run your family budgets at home; it's not how your government should run its budgets, either.  We need to be honest with ourselves about what costs are being racked up -- because that's how we'll come to grips with the hard choices that lie ahead.  And there are some hard choices that lie ahead.”

-- President Obama is making good on his promise to be more open, but in the budgetary case that means more shocking news about what actually costs what. We've not -- in the Bush 2 years or Clinton -- seen a real budget that shows what the government is spending. Be ready for a shock, especially with the Iraq War. But see, that's where the savings come in because then when we see what all of this costs, the reductions will get us to a deficit drop.

Bobby Jindal Enrages Volcano Monitoring People By Mocking Volcano Monitoring People

More at Wonkette: “Bobby Jindal’s speechwriters, they are Gods. Check out this little one-two he pulled on the Democrats. See, he sets it up all good-like by saying that the stimulus package included “$140 million for something called ‘volcano monitoring,’” like wtf is that right, and then KA-CHING: “Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C.” Get this guy a Washington Post column! He’d fit right in, because everyone already despises him.”

-- That is totally funny by Wonkette!

Apple's Steve Jobs Still Plans to Return After June

More ar SFGate: “Apple Inc. co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs still expects to return from his medical leave at the end of June, according to an Apple director who responded to an investor at the company's annual shareholder meeting Wednesday.

The investor — who was the only one to press for details on Jobs' health — had asked when the board knew Jobs planned to step away from his daily duties. Apple director Arthur Levinson responded that since Jobs announced Jan. 14 that he needed to go on leave, "nothing has changed."”

-- Having just lost a relative to Pancreatic Cancer I wonder how Jobs is being treated? What is the procedure and of course, how much did it cost?

SF Chronicle's Fiscal Problems Due To Bad Management

The San Francisco Chronicle lost $50 million last year and is reportedly going to lose more this year. The reason isn't the Internet, that's a symptom. The reason is bad management and not wokring with New Media people.

For example, why didn't the SF Chron make it's own version of Craiglist? Why didb't it work with Craig Newmark, or at least try to? Why -- in the region that invented blogging -- did the SF Chronicle not work with blogger like myself so we can help extend their brand online?

It's because of a stupid SF Bay Area habit of not paying attention to someone because they're local. How else to explain why the SF Chron is losing money and having a hard time being successful online in an area that basically gave birth to the Internet?

Bad management is to blame. It's true for the Chronicle and for the Oakland Tribune and San Jose Mercury News. They can't fit a square print peg into a round New Media hole as much as they keep trying. I told a famous Chronicle columnist two years ago how to improve their online performance because our blog posts would out rank their articles in searches consistently.

His reaction? Well we know what we're doing.

Like hell you do. That's why your paper's about to go the way of the T-Rex, in fact that's a good comparison. It's not that the SF Chroncle or Tribune can't be saved, but both papers have to stop a number of practices large and small.

And before someone at the SF Chron claims they do better than the online HuffingtonPost.com -- they don't. A simple comparison using Alexa.com will show the HuffingtonPost to be well ahead of SFGate.com in page views, visitors and really all categories of web traffic analysis that are done in looking at value of a site both to advertiser and investors.

The SF Chronicle needs help but the best way to do it is to sack the current mangement and hire me. Seriously. Give me one year to turn it around and establish what should be: the tripod of print, TV, and Online content.

Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose Stupid "White House Watermelon" Email

Racism is a mental illness. How else to explain the actions of Los Alamitos mayor Dean Grose, who wrote a racist email to friends with a watermelon patch photo superimposed over one of the White House, the implication being that because the Obama's are Black, they like watermelon and there will not be an Easter Egg Hunt this year.

How stupid is that? Really. Why is it that someone White feels compelled to make racist statements, cartoons, jokes, and reference like this? Look, someone has to ask the question. What's the deal? We just came off the NY Post's racist cartoon issue, and now this?

Los Alamitos mayor Dean Grose should give a public video apology and then step down. This person can't be called a "public official" because they're not serving the public!

Text Of President Obama's Speech To Joint Session Of Congress - State Of The Nation

This is the text of the greatest speech President Barack Obama has ever given.

President Obama's Speech to Joint Session of Congress - February 24 2009 - Transcript

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President Obama's Greatest Speech - State Of The Nation

In his best speech ever President Obama sounded the call for the need to stop sending jobs overseas. It was totally missed by pundits, but Obama just sounded the call for economic nationalism when he said that he would bring jobs back to America.

It's about time.

From 1960 to 1999, the USA added 20 million new jobs each decade, but from that point to today, just under 5 million jobs were added. Where did they go? Overseas to other nations in a large process of what economists call import replacing. One example of this is the growth of Airbus Industries in aircraft manufacturing where they got the largest tanker deal in American history -- $35 billion -- and over the Boeing Company costing 25,000 jobs.