Tom Hayes: What does “The Obama Experiment” mean to you?

As an artist, Mike Cuffe has felt the high cost of health insurance premiums hit home and he's gone through many periods of not having any health insurance coverage whatsoever. He's also watched recently as more than one family member has been denied life saving treatments, "due to system that focuses on increasing shareholders revenues than on choosing wellness."

Cuffe's "TheObamaExperiment.com" site began in March 2008 to raise awareness by "creating art around then Senator Barack Obama's bid for the presidency." Then it took a turn for the strange in mid-July when the RNC launched a website using the same name evidently intended to obfuscate the debate and counter sentiment favoring President Obama's campaign for health care reform.

"Currently I find myself in a direct debate with the Republican National Committee over my website The Obama Experiment. I've created a health care piece entitled Support Wellness: Nationalize Health Care to offset their attack on Health Care Reform. You can watch me paint the image in time lapse..."

Here's the story about Cuffe's scuffle with the RNC, which is working to spin and propagandize the national debate over health care reform that a recent poll by the Wall Street Journal and NBC revealed is marred by misinformation. Any way you slice it 91% of Americans think at least some reform is necessary, yet over half have been taken in by spin-mongering about non-existent death panels and baseless rumors about a purported government take-over of health care.

In short, the GOP picked a name eerily similar to the domain Cuffe was using, TheObamaExperiment.com and inadvertently directed a lot of traffic Cuffe's way. When asked what he felt about the Republican version of The Obama Experiment, Cuffe said,

"I see it as a win, win situation. If they're going to tell people why they are against health care, I am going to tell people why I am for it. Their Obama Experiment dialogue is sending a great deal of people to my Health Care supportive website. I'm just the ying to their yang."

Burning Man Live Stream

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This is a live stream from Burning Man courtesy of USTREAM.TV.  No.  I'm not there - even though its a San Francisco Bay Area tradition to go to the playa - but someone who set this up is and a bunch of people are chatting from the media room there.

Check it out below and join in the chat:

Free live streaming by Ustream

Chat area:

First Miley Cyrus, now pole dance doll? OMG!

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On YouTube.com

Folks, I can't believe this and I'm in total agreement with Karen Hawthorne and Tolu Olorunda that we've gone too far as a culture. At a time when we should pay more attention to adult women like Candice Crawford (who's rumored to be dating Dallas Cowboys QB Tony Romo), we have this news.

Miley Cyrus' pole dance is part of a trend

First and just recently we had Miley Cyrus dancing with a stripper pole on the Teen Choice Awards. Before that we had and have poll dancing as a fitness class. We even saw airline stewardesses pole dancing in the Iron Man movie last year. But a pole dance doll? This is the end of civilization as we know it.

A pole dance doll.

Pole Dancer Doll

Yes. According to the blog Gizmodo the "Pole Dancer Doll" "rotates. It has blinking lights, a disco ball, and a pole. And it's probably one of the wrongest toys you can give to any girl." No kidding. On top of that, the doll is made to look like a girl rather than an adult woman as was the case with another pole dance doll released in 2006.

We're going backward as we move forward.

Susan Boyle is older and innocent; girls are sex symbols?

This is weird. This year 2009 we have the 48-year-old singer Susan Boyle, a middle-aged woman, as the picture of innocence and purity, and 16-year old Miley Cyrus as the poster child for sexual fantasy.

As we've "advanced" over the decades the idea of what a female sex symbol should be let alone what we allow youth to do, has been turned on its head.

When I was little and gentlemen were respected and desired, older women were the sex symbols because they were classy, beautiful, experienced, and just plain dripping with hotness. They sang to presidents, as Mariyln Monroe did, and slept with them too. (No, I'm not thinking of Monica you-know-who here!)

My favorite was Rachel Welch. Ms. Welch was sexy, curves all over the place, and a smile that could light up the world. And then there was Pam Grier, who today is still as lovely and hot as Jackie Brown as she was during the days when she was the star of Foxy Brown. Thank God for Quentin Tarentino!

What's happened to our society? Is Tolu Olorunda right when he points the finger at corporations like Disney for doing anything in the way of image-making to make a buck? (To be fair, Disney has nothing to do with this doll.) Or is it that the Internet age has broke through a moral barrier I'm used to and to expose the fact that sexuality isn't confined to those over 21?

This trend of the sexualization of youth has been long in development. I remember a party in San Francisco during the 2003 Fleet Week where my friend's dad, visting from Florida and 65 years old at the time said in response to my question of how have things changed  "In my day," he said, "the girls didn't wear these  jeans cut low around their privates; but (openly pointing to two young women walking by) now, they leave nothing to the imagination."

He's right. We've gone too far, but do you care? For all those who may comment in protest, and rightly so, this social trend seems to march on unabated. Do you really care? Take my poll.

More politics surveys on pollsb.com

Oh! Check out the Burning Man Live Stream!

Oakland parking ticket last straw for Michael Caton

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My friend, fellow Oakland blogger, and valued guest blogger at Oakland Focus Michael Caton has had it with Oakland, and to my surprise wrote a stinging blog post on my Oakland Focus Blog that detailed the reason for writing that he would never return to our city in the future: the parking problem.

 

An Oakland parking enforcement official

Michael has a blog called "An Oakland Citizen" where he opines about political and social issues in Oakland and gives a comprehensive view of how people of different stripes interact in our town. He's headed to medical school in San Diego, but it could be said the Oakland dog "bit him" on the way out of the civic door.

Since he wrote the blog post exclusively on my Oakland Focus site and part of my blog network, I cross-posted it here below:

A Fitting Send-off - Michael Caton in Oakland Focus

I have a note to add to the farewell-to-Oakland parking post I left on my own blog some time ago. To the merchants who feel like the City of Oakland is hell-bent on destroying local businesses with draconian parking policies, I can add a personal experience that has removed me from the Oakland economy permanently.

I moved to San Diego last week to start medical school. For one day, I had the U-Haul trailer I'd rented parked in front of our building - the three story one at the corner of Broadway and Oceanview. There is a stretch of red curb there that is a) out of the way of traffic and b) always, always used by everyone moving into or out of the building.

You already know where this is going. I was riding the elevator back up to my floor, and, tired and sweating from dragging furniture out to the truck, I happened to glance down to the street out through the clear wall to see the parking enforcement vehicle pull up in front of my worldly possessions. I got off and hurtled down the stairs to the street; the parking guy couldn't have been there more than 60 seconds. "I'll move the truck. I'll move it right now," I said breathlessly.

"Sorry. Ticket's already issued." He had his little parking-fascist computer and was waiting for the ticket to print out.

"Is there any way it can turn into a warning? I can really move the truck right now." I had the keys in my hand. We were 10 feet from my car and trailer.

"No," he said, and handed me an eighty dollar ticket. He stood there waiting and watching until I'd moved the trailer.

No, I don't think I'm special, and yes the law applies to me - and I was indeed in a red zone - one that, to my knowledge, had never been enforced, and that I offered to move out of immediately. I think you can understand my frustration. And God forbid Oakland devotes resources to getting criminals off the street - one dead, one paralyzed and critical, one badly beaten in this taco stand robbery a few days after I moved - but hey, at least Oakland is safe from people with U-haul trailers. Guess what I could do in my new, safe place in San Diego? Find parking easily and unload the truck with no tickets!

Although I don't like leaving anything on negative notes, the end of this anecdote will do just that to my brief participation in the Oakland blogosphere. That said, I truly wish the best for Oakland and for its committed residents who are working hard to make it a place to be proud of. Understatement of the year: you have some challenges ahead of you.

The last words between myself and this "public servant", were: "Hey, thanks for sending me off in style." And, standing there and waiting for me to move the trailer before he would leave, he grumbled, "You're sending yourself off."

Yep, I sure am. Once I'm practicing medicine, I will certainly come back to the Bay Area. I will not come back to Oakland.

This is not the first time I've learned of Oakland Parking Officials being nasty to Oaklanders. The worst case I know of other than Michael's is story told to me by a third party where one Oakland Parking Officer told a person trying to get into a wheelchair on Grand Avenue "Have your driver put a quarter in the meter or I'll give him a ticket."

Now, a decent person could have 1) let the disabled person and his driver go on with their business, or 2) put the quarter in the meter themselves! But this action? It's the talk of the Grand Lake business community.

Let's get something clear now: violence against parking enforcement officials is just plain wrong. Oakland parking officials showing disrespect to Oakland's people is equally wrong. It's hard enough to get an $80 ticket - harder still if one's out of work or on a fixed income. A public official being mean to someone in this position - heck in any walk of life - is an abuse of power the City of Oakland must stop now!

Gmail is up at least for me? You?

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After about two hours of being down, my Gmail service is restored, just when I was headed outside. Is Gmail working for you? How did the outage impact you?

Over at Twitter, it seems Gmails working for some others, too:

echoleigh GMail is working for me again.

writerbenjamin #gmail seems to be back up.

thesharath @denharsh #gmail is back

As to what happened,I do not know as of this writing, but will inform you if I get news of the problem. It's amazing to see Twitter working as "the pulse of the public" on this issue.

Gmail is down - 502 Server Error

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Say, if you're trying to access Gmail and getting a "502 Server Error" message, it's not you; Gmail is down.

I went to Twitter to learn if anyone else was experiencing this problem and for a time it was a top tag, which means people were complaining about the problem. Here are some of the Tweets:

rachelrusso What is the deal with gmail? It's been down for over an hour!!

femaleprodigy OK people, take a deep breath. The gmail problem will soon pass. Until then, turn off your computer and take in some fresh air! THAT IS ALL!

kelvinmaphoto RT: @daveweigel: Democrats to pay tribute by naming the health care reform bill after gmail.

gracemcavoy gmail u r ruining my life #epicfail

Well, you get the idea.

Over at its' Twitter page, Google reports:

google We're aware that people are having trouble accessing Gmail. We're working on fixing it. Apologies for the inconvenience http://bit.ly/31kL4B

The link goes to an "Apps Status Dashboard" which confirms that as of this writing Gmail is down. Well, that's a bunch of accounts for my baseball sim for the classroom that will be delayed. But it's a sunny day!

Confused Erin Andrews returns to ESPN College Football

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She's back!

After laying low in the wake of the Erin Andrews Peephole Video Scandal, ESPN reporter Erin Andrews is coming back to work this Thursday as part of ESPN's telecast of the rivalry battle football game between the University of South Carolina and North Carolina State. But that's not all for the 31-year-old media star.

Erin's appearing on Oprah September 11th to talk about the videotape and how it impacted her. (Though some sites report September 24th; I will get a clarification on this.) Plus, she's not shying away from the camera, having just finished this photo shoot for GQ (before the video issue but out now for some reason), where she gets "dirty" wearing football gear.

 

Erin Andrews (photo courtesy of GQ)

Meanwhile whatever happened to the person who made the video? No one knows. Some have speculated that the person who did it either knew Erin or covered athletic events. Whatever the case, the person's still out there and the video was sold for profit.

Something tells me the person who did it is going to be identified in a strange way.

Erin's back,... as "trophy girl?" 

Meanwhile, with the upcoming GQ photo spread its clear Andrews is not only back in reporting action but has no problem posing before a camera. There's something, er,telling about the photo below where she's on a pedestal while a group of college football players look up to her as if she's, well, a trophy girl.

Erin Andrews (photo courtesy of GQ)

I have to admit I've got a problem with her decision to make that photo in the wake of what happened to her and her increased visibility. As I wrote before, she should really use this moment in time to bring attention to the needs of those less fortunate, not just herself.

Plus, as I said in my video above, I'd prefer to see her in the image I used rather than the one she presents here. It's confusing. She's upset about the nude peephole video of her, goes into hiding essentially, then comes out having done a photo shoot that glorifies her sexuality and male desire for her.

What does Erin want? How does she want to be seen? Is she confused? What does she stand for? If she wants to be the 31-year-old version of Miley Cyrus, she needs to say so and do it. Period. Be authentic. But this confusing set of messages she's sending out is of concern to me.

Reportedly, Erin told Oprah the video was "a nightmare" but it's hard to take Andrews's claims against the video that seriously if, with this GQ photo, she's going to basically swim in the sex-based marketing pool she claims to hate, stating that people think she got her job because of her looks.

Maybe Christine Brennan was right and the whole video peep camera thing was just Erin working to get more publicity. Earlier this year, Brennan basically said that because Andrews was "trading off her looks" she created the problem.

Plus, the timing of the release of the photos, after this scandal, calls the whole video matter into question yet again.

I'm just going with my gut here, but something tells me this whole matter has changed her in a way she may not even see. If she's going to be Miley Cyrus she should stop being confused about it, that word again, and just do it. Personally, she could do a lot of good with her platform, but for now she's just messing around.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Here the new Erin Andrews GQ video: