Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Children's Hospital Oakland's President and CEO on the facility



In a great online video Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland's President & CEO, Bertram Lubin, MD, talked about why parents should bring their kids to Children's Hospital. He says the main reason is "You get a feeling of warmth. That you're around people who care about your children. The children are why we are here."

In all, Children's Hospital has 58 videos in its well-designed YouTube channel. What's missing is a link to a blog where the videos can be housed in an online publication. In this way the videos can have another source of viewers and not just the channel itself. The channel also needs to group the videos in playlists. I could go on, but the videos themselves are excellent.

The videos come together to show and tell a compelling story about a great environment for both parents, kids, and employees.

And as a note to Children's Hospital, my request to be a friend on YouTube is still outstanding; friend me, please.

Miss USA Rima Fakih pole dancing overshadows conservative racism

Some Conservatives think this is affirmative action!
That Miss USA Rima Fakih participated in a pole dancing contest sponsored by the "Mojo In The Morning" Detroit Radio Show has the Internet abuzz, and in the process covering up the totally psychotic level of racism exhibited by some Couch Potato Conservative bloggers.

Take Daniel Pipes, who actually believes that Rima Fakih's win is a example of Affirmative Action in beauty contests.

No kidding. Pipes actually took time to write that. Daniel Pipes even went so far as to form a list of Arab-American beauty contest winners that boils down to one Arab-American woman per year.

That rate of wins is enough to send Daniel Pipes to the moon. This is a perfect example of how some people are brainwashed to think one person who's white and female should be a beauty standard, and someone of color like Rima Fakih could only win a contest due to affirmative action. His view is so sick it makes me sick.

God forbit Pipes from learning that Rima Fakih was the winner of a stripper pole dancing contest too, and don't tell him the contest promoters were from a white radio station. He'd probably go into convulsions!

On second thought tell him! That's a good idea.

YouTubeland Gaga Greyson & dish - Suzannah B. Troy

All is not well in YouTubeland although YouTube has just celebrated it’s 5 anniversary.  
First let us go to the best and beautiful happening in YouTubeland like my own story of filming Jazz Legend Giuseppi Logan in Tompkins Square Park 2 years and posting on YouTube which radically changed his life.  I immediately found a YouTube from a British filmmaker same park almost 50 years earlier with Giuseppi and a little boy with an original GL composition playing in the background.  Since my 21 part YouTube documentary Giuseppi has cut a new CD his first since his two successful ones released in 1960’s by ESP records and I help unite Giuseppi Logan with the little boy in the YouTube, Jaee Logan, also a musical genius like his Dad!  I suggested Jaee Logan make a documentary and he is.  I also told him “Hollywood movie” and a book along the lines of The Soloist with charities as well.  That is part of my dream...
This is different than the Susan Boyle syndrome where a tv program and YouTube combined created a big income earning for Boyle and she doesn’t seem able to cope with fame.
I also bought a single of Boyle’s from ITunes and I ended up deleting it because it fell flat.
This young man is articulate and winning as highlighted in his Ellen interview.  Lady Gaga calls in and gives him advice.
This maybe the first a mega hit YouTube star born in YouTubeland with no help from American Idol, Simon Cowell....a pure YouTube hit.
There is a dark side to YouTubeland and I have more to tell you on the dark, dark side but tune in later, may be much later!
Also here is a shot from NYC, Soho.  Victoria Secret’s “Pink” hosting  and event with 1st Baseman for The New York Yankees Mark Teixeira and model Chanel as they have a Yankee Street Party in the rain.  Here is the facebook page to check in with later today.

Mark Souder: GOP Indiana Rep resigns over affair, upsets election race

Rep. Mark Souder
Rep. Mark Souder is a 14-year, eight-term House of Representatives veteran who campaigned on a "family values" ethic, campaigned against the Obama Health Care Reform Plan, and said he was interested in preserving the idea of traditional marriage, has resigned after revealing that he'd cheated on his wife with a female staff aide.

While liberal blogs like The Huffington Post point to Mark Souder's commitment to the idea of one man and one woman, technically, Mark Souder didn't say he was opposed to having a mistress in a marriage for himself, just Democrats.

Souder attacked then-President Bill Clinton and called for his resignation after the Monika Lewinsky Affair, but not Clinton's impeachment.

Mark Souder's resignation opens a once closed door of opportunity for Democrats Indiana's 3rd Congressional District. The district was considered safe under Mark Soude's watch, even though some observers had predicted a close November race.

Stay tuned.

Palin proves TIMING is EVERYTHING - again.

Sarah Palin burst into the national consciousness almost two years ago, and for a short while news services could talk of nothing else, and following the VP candidates debate pundits said she'd won because she didn't completely blow it. By November the bump Palin provided McCain's ratings faded as the country learned more about his new running-mate, and U.S. voters elected the Illinois Senator with the "funny name and big ears." It wasn't so long after Obama's night in Grant Park that Palin calculated her title as Governor of Alaska was more of a hindrance to her career than a help, remember?

Most of the pundits assure us that Tea Party activists (or at least coverage of them on TV) bolstered by Palin's photogenic smile tipped the balance against incumbent Utah Senator Robert Bennett when he failed to secure his party's nomination at a state convention.

Naturally, Palin has bestowed her Tea Party blessing on John "Complete the Danged Fence" McCain, yet by all accounts McCain is in danger of being upset in a primary. There's no question Arizona is currently the focus of the immigration storm in the U.S., but it's shaping up as the epicenter of the anti-incumbent earthquake since McCain's well-documented "toughening" of his rhetoric on that issue hasn't staved off the challenge from former congressman/talk show radio host J.D. Hayworth.

Like former President Bush, as recently as 2007 mavericky Senator McCain had championed less-extreme solutions to immigration reform before consulting the tea leaves and getting his position right. Unlike Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter, McCain's not in a primary today, but he may wish he was as Hayworth continues to make inroads in McCain's lead. By the time the late August Arizona primary happens the Palin endorsement will be ancient history, and McCain's staff will be struggling to dominate the news cycle much the way Specter's struggled to be "bigger news" than Joe Sestak.

The "re-assignment" of Campaign Manager Shiree Verdone and Aide Mike Hellon reveals just how precarious McCain's situation really is -- and that demonstrates how little impact Palin's early endorsement had. Given her own notoriety it's hard to say if Michelle Bachmann is getting any boost from her connection to Palin, but she's already worried about the Democratic front runner, State Senator Tarryl Clark, who hasn't even secured her place on the November ballot yet (MN primary: August 10th.)

Palin's endorsement may not be enough to preserve McCain's power. Specter's calculated change of parties hasn't looked very effective. Bachmann's running negative ads before her own presumed challenger has even won the primary. Meanwhile the Obama administration is moving forward fast on Wall Street reform, and the unholy trinity of BP, Haliburton, and Transocean squandered that same administration's willingness to let off-shore exploration move ahead.

Drill, baby, drill? Timing is everything.


Thomas Hayes
is an entrepreneur, journalist, political staffer, and photographer who contributes regularly to a host of web sites on topics ranging from economics and politics to culture and community.

Miss USA Rima Fakih does Miley Cyrus pole dancing



Miss USA Rima Fakih is in the middle of a sexy photo controversy (another one) that really should go away, but here it is. In 2007, Rima Fakih participated in a contest produced by the Detroit "Mojo In The Morning" Radio Show that invited women to enter a stripper pole dance contest.

This is what an email sent to this blogger from the Detroit MoJo In The Morning show representatives read:

In 2007, newly-crowned Miss USA Rima Fakih participated in our annual event titled "Stripper 101." Our nationally-syndicated morning show (based in Detroit) holds an annual class for women who wish to add spice to their relationships. Real-life strippers teach our female listeners the art of the strip tease and pole dancing at the Coliseum Gentleman's Club in Detroit. At the end of the class, a contest is held among the new students and in 2007, Rima Fakih was the grand prize winner, walking away with jewelry, gift cards, adult toys and a stripper pole for home use. The event is attended by women only and Fakih did not remove any clothing. The circulating photos have been on our website for three years.

So with that, the overall question is "what's the big deal?" Just last week we had the Miley Cyrus Lap Dance Video controversy, and if you don't know what that's about here's my video on that...



And last year we had the Carrie Prejean Miss USA issue, and the Miley Cyrus Stripper Pole Dance issue at the Teen Choice Awards, and a number of other similar scandals in between. Do we really care anymore?

To be frank, I'm not surprised that Rima took these photos and then entered a pageant. It seems to be this new standard that women who think they look good and do enter these photo contests or have racy photos of themselves created, then go into Miss USA-style beauty competitions.

It raises the issue of what a role model's supposed to be at a time when the very definition of it is being rewritten as we debate it. We talk about it as a way of working our way toward accepting it, then it goes away.

I think that's what should happen here, but for those conservatives and racists who may use this issue as a tool against her. Good luck Michelle Malkin.

I write that because I'm lovingly taking my Facebook friend Malkin to the woodshed for her attack on Rima Fakih, and really just because she's Arab-American as Barrett Brown at True/Slant points out - even though Michelle will not admit that. If Rima were white, Michelle would be defending the photos and her. Ball's in your court, Michelle.

What do you think about all this? Should Miss USA Rima Fakih be allowed to keep her crown? Take my poll > Click for poll

The San Francisco Sunshine Flower Girl at The Union Street Festival



Sunshine The Clown 
The month of June means San Francisco Festival Season and that means events like The Union Street Festival and San Francisco institutions like The San Francisco Sunshine Flower Girl.

The San Francisco Sunshine Flower Girl, is "Sunshine The Clown" and appears at San Francisco festivals from Union Street and the North Beach Festival, to The Folsom Street Fair. But one thing happened at Union Street last year which should not happen to the San Francisco Sunshine Flower Girl: harassment from so-called festival representatives.

What the San Francisco Sunshine Flower Girl is make flower balloons for money, and not a lot. But the nature of what Sunshine The Clown does such that she's mobile. Asking Sunshine The Clown to get some kind of festival booth permit, which runs into the thousands in some cases, is anti-business.

The San Francisco Sunshine Flower Girl should be hired by the festival producer to add to the ambiance of the event. Let Sunshine The Clown make some money and put smiles on the faces of the people of San Francisco in the process. There's nothing wrong with that.

And if you want to hire the San Francisco Sunshine Flower Girl, go to this website: http://www.thesunshineshow.com or just send Sunshine The Clown an email here: sunshine@thesunshineshow.com