To say that Arizona Republican Governor Janet Brewer blew it in her debate performance is an understatement. By now you know Brewer totally flubbed her opening statement in her debate against Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, but in case you don't the video is an introduction to her.
This space has been extremely critical of Governor Brewer and suspected that she was far too impatient because she was not a quick study and so-fueled by a dangerous mix of racism and power-lust that she was not executive material.
it would be easy to cause her to make a misstep in a discussion. But to this degree was unexpected.
What obviously happened is that Governor Brewer forgot her talking points, and could not come up with an original thought. Arizona has her as Governor?
Governor Brewer was, in part, the focus of my video on Arizona's Illegal Immigration Law:
Arizona can right this amazing wrong of a Governor by voting for Terry Goddard in November.
Now, you can get up to the minute videos posted by CNN News on YouTube at Zennie62.com.
In seeking a way to add a news information widget that was informative, entertaining, respected, and space saving, WidgetBox, which produces the Zennie Abraham Widget (currently at 426 installs), once again provided the basis for a novel approach. The CNN News video widget.
The CNN News video widget was created specifically for the Zennie62.com blog. It's located in the upper left area of the blog and just above the pages section. Visitors can now see three kinds of videos: Zennie62 on YouTube videos on news, videos, and pop-culture, videos installed for blog posts by Zennie Abraham or Zennie62.com bloggers, and CNN News videos.
What's great about CNN News is that it's an established brand that's well-respected and frankly without the hyper conservative-cut that's come to dominate cable news. While I have been critical of specific CNN shows and some contributors for being racist, the basic respect for the CNN brand has never wavered. I will continue to push my friends at CNN in the future.
CNN iReport Relationship
As the CNN iReport Initiative is a favorite of this space, and this blogger has been on CNN nationally several times, it was only right to include CNN in this major addition to the Zennie62.com blog.
CNN News is an established name that signals international news coverage - just what we want for the changes coming to Zennie62.com. We welcome CNN News to Zennie62.com, as our effort to expand beyond just me, Zennie Abraham, continues to move forward.
This space never has had anything negative to blog about Former Congressman Harold Ford Jr. until today. His statement about Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was so grating the television set was turned off.
Ford said that Palin was going to run for President and that she was "formidable." That was when this space wondered if Ford was being paid by a Republican operative.
Sarah Palin has so many errors and mistakes that will be tossed back at her in the middle of a presidential campaign it would be embarrassing. Ford saying she was "formidable" just gives hope to her foolish faithful. There's not much more to say there.
But there is more to say about Ford claiming he's a Democrat but, and beyond Sarah Palin, sounding like he's a Republican when on NBC's Morning Joe. Instead of talking about what's wrong with Republicans and The Tea Party, he goes all Fox News on us and talks about what's right with Republicans.
Now I know Ford's trying to get paid by someone with the GOP. The best move for Ford is to get out of the Democratic Party.
USC Football started the first lost season after its NCAA Football punishment of a season where they can't go to a bowl game (here's why) with a win: 49 to 36 over Hawaii. For USC Head Coach Lane Kiffin it could not have been fun to sit through.
Not only did Coach Kiffin's team give up 588 yards to Hawaii, but it showed how the book this space presented on beating USC works in practice. Oh, and because of that and a lot of things, including that the game was on ESPN nationally, Lane Kiffin's a Twitter Trend this morning.
USC Is In Trouble
In the past, USC would not have allowed a team like the Hawaii Warriors to run up 588 yards of total offense, because their defensive pass rush would have been enough to stuff their passing game. But the talent spread is so wide in college football today, and the Internet-fuled trading of ideas for game plans so constant, USC will suffer.
Given that USC has a new scheme under Kiffin, and Hawaii an established one, USC should have had a larger win margin. But what happened is this: the way to beat USC is to spread their defense and throw, short mostly, and often. Hawaii used an offense that had elements of the Piedmont High School A-11, and spread systems, with the Run-And-Shoot, and frustrated the USC's Defense.
Here's the bad news: that's not the only time USC will see that approach all year long. The only way the Trojans can expect to win is to outscore their opponent and have Quarterback Matt Barkley throw five touchdowns a game as he did last night; the USC Defense, unless Defensive Coordinator Monte Kiffin falls in love with Zone Blitzing, is going to be gassed at the end of every game.
Lane Kiffin Is Hated Man; Not Here
Because of his actions with the Oakland Raiders and The Tennessee Volunteers, Lane Kiffin is described on Twitter as the most hated man in college football. Not here.
I have to profess that I enjoy watching Lane Kiffin's offense at USC and how his thinking has evolved. He's demonstrated a great fluidity in his use of formations, like the outpost-and-settlement formation he used to get a sure two-point conversion last night. There will be more about his offense in this space as the season rolls on.
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.
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? 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.
