Monday, May 02, 2011

Ad Age Blogger Anti-Twitter Post On Osama Bin Laden Is Wrong



Tweets per second. by @Twitter
Tweets per second., a photo by @Twitter on Flickr.
The chart shows the number of Twitter tweets per second during the events leading up to President Barack Obama's announcement Sunday nght that Osama Bin Laden was killed by US Navy Seals. At it's highest point, the chart shows about 5,200 tweets per second. What this also shows is how many people use Twitter to share information.

An Ad Age Blogger named Simon Dumenco, writing in a way that contained a nasty tone which invites disagreement, was trying to say that the story of Bin Laden's demise was not broke by Twitter.

He gives reasons that are shaky, claiming that because Keith Urbahn, former chief of staff for ex-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, tweeted "So I'm told by a reputable person they have killed Osama bin Laden. Hot damn" and then asked for the tweet to be verified, it was not the breaking news.

Then the Ad Age Blogger insisted that because Urbann got the information from a TV News Producer, it means "mainstream media" was the source.

That's wrong.

The Ad Age Blogger confuses titles with actions. The "TV News Producer" wasn't in the act of being a TV news producer at the time, just a person spreading information. Now, if the source was on some media outlet, then we're not talking about Twitter as the source, but television - that's not the conversation here.

The bottom line is that Twitter and everyone else recognizes that Twitter was the source and that journalists played a role that Hearst Newspapers Executive Vice President of Content Development and legend Phil Bronstein said they would play in our interview last year about the changing face of media: as fact checker.

The bottom line is that media today is multi-media, and you'd fast better adjust to this new world or be harmed by it.

Stay tuned.

Osama Bin Laden Is Dead - Rush Limbaugh Thanks God For Obama



P050111PS-0210 by The White House
P050111PS-0210, a photo by The White House on Flickr.

Today, "Osama Bin Laden Is Dead" was the dominant search term, as Americans and people around the World absorbed as much online content as possible related to the news of the death of the most hated leader since Adolf Hitler. And all because of the deft decision making of President Barack Obama.

In fact, Obama's choice to send Navy Seal teams in to get Bin Laden, rather than just bomb the neighborhood he was found in, caused conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh to say "Thank God for President Obama" on his show today.



Indeed, people normally knee-jerk opposed to Obama, came out to thank the young President. Even GOP Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney, who failed to do so on Twitter, made up for it later when he did include a congratulatory remark about President Obama.

And while congrats were coming in, the White House was releasing photos from moments leading up to the demise of Bin Laden, including this one with President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden (in blue shirt), and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, as well as other members of the National Security Team.

One look at the President's face shows how determined he and they were to get this job done, and they did.

Stay tuned.

Osama Bin Laden’s Death will NOT Save Incumbents

OsamaBin Laden’s death will NOT save incumbents in Washington DC from the wrath of America’s Unemployed voting masses, at least according to a recent U-Cubed poll.

The poll conducted last month offers great insight into how poorly unemployed America views the job being done by our elected officials. To view the total results of this poll go to http://tinyurl.com/4x4232r and PLEASE TWEET this link out to all media and political contacts.

Some of the most important and revealing poll questions and responses were:

Overall, would you say things are on the right or wrong track in America today? To which 88.4% responded WRONG TRACK.

How would you rate the job being done by President Barack Obama -- excellent, good, not so good, or poor? 37.4% responded NO SO GOOD and another 31% felt Obama is doing a POOR job.

How would you rate the job being done by the United States Senate -- excellent, good, not so good, or poor? 53.3% said POOR and another 34.6% thought NOT SO GOOD.

How would you rate the job being done by the United States House of Representatives -- excellent, good, not so good, or poor? 78.5% Said POOR

How would you rate the job President Barack Obama is doing -- excellent, good, not so good or poor -- when it comes to:

Protecting American workers from the loss of jobs due to outsourcing and imports of cheap foreign goods? 67.5% said POOR

Having the kind of strong and aggressive jobs program to get people back to work? 67.0% said POOR.

Are you inclined to support your member of Congress for re-election or not? 49.7% answered No, not inclined to support.

Which of the two parties in Congress -- the Democrats or Republicans -- do you think is doing a better job in dealing with the following issues?

Standing up for the interests of working people - 53.4% said Neither!

Ending this recession by stimulating the economy - 64.4% said Neither!

Standing up forcefully to the big banks, investment firms and Insurance companies - 76.2% said Neither!

Pushing a strong jobs program to get people back to work immediately - 80% said Neither!

81.9% of those polled believe that the United States needs an industrial policy that will promote manufacturing and improve our transportation systems.

86.8% Strongly disagreed with the statement: Since Wall Street has rebounded and the gross national product has grown, the recession is all but over for most Americans.

But 68.6% strongly agreed that our country needs strong and enforceable "Buy American" legislation so more American-made products are purchased by the federal, state and local governments -- as well as U.S. government funded contractors.

79.2% feel that: The federal government should hire jobless Americans to renovate factories, install new equipment and improve global competitiveness and job opportunities for unemployed persons in depressed local economies.

Over 90% strongly agreed that US Tax policies should discourage the outsourcing of American jobs to foreign countries.

72.2% believe that Trade deals like NAFTA and CAFTA should be renegotiated and 81.6% strongly agree that America needs a strong, Roosevelt-Kennedy style jobs program to get Americans who want to work back to work immediately.

70.3% stated they agree with the statement: In recent years, neither major political party has strongly represented the interests of working people and 67.2 believe that The Democratic Party doesn't represent working people as strongly as they used to.

However, if either party came out strongly in favor of a FDR-JFK styled jobs program to get people back to work as soon as possible, that's the party 61.1% would support ... and maybe not just for the next election.

In addition, nearly 66% would be inclined to support either party if they simply stood up strongly for the interests of ordinary working people. (Heads up GOPers!)

So you see, although significant, the death of Osama Bin Laden is not likely to effect the results of the 2012 election anywhere close to soothing the anger of unemployed American voters would. (Especially since it took nearly 6,000 deaths of American service personnel to get this one man and his death DOES NOT MEAN the USA will immediately withdraw from the war in Afghanistan).

Obama may indeed get a bump in his approval rating for a brief moment in time, but unless Washington DC immediately gets going on fixing America’s REAL issues on the home front - there will be new blood on the hands of the US Government - this time due to starving, homeless and suicidal long term jobless American Citizens, and those who do survive will want BLOOD in the form an entirely new regime in DC come the next election!

Osama Bin Laden Is Dead - How It Was Done, Part One

As the enormous tide of blog posts and Twitter tweets about the end of Osama Bin Laden, and the search for content under "Osama Bin Laden Is Dead" continues at a "volcanic" level according to Google Trends, an email came in from an old friend who was a US Army Captain.

It reads that the operation to get Bin Laden was...

..carried out by combined force of Navy Seals from Seal team 7 & US Army SOC (Special Operations Command) Joint Force including Squadron from 1st Special Forces Detachment (Delta Force) US Army 160th SOAR (Special Operations Aviation Regiment- My old Unit-Lost one Aircraft and Crew...) and USAF Special Operations Wing (combat observation and Support).....

In the days ahead it will come out that the seal team were the ground observers, the Delta team was the reaction force, the SOAR moved Delta into position for the Mission and Flew Close Combat Air support, and the AF ran the Predator Drones and flew the AC-130 combat support Plane....It's a Mission operation template that has worked(with only one exception - Somalia) since 1983.....

the 4 Helos: 2 CH-47 Heavy Lifters and 2 MH-60 Blackhawks......the 47's moved the troops and the 60's provide fire support(I flew the 60's...)


My Old Unit-The 160th SOAR(SPECIAL OPERATIONS AVIATION REGIMENT)
Motto: Night Stalkers Don't Quit(NSDQ)
HQ Base Ft. Campbell Ky
Officially formed: 10/16/1981
Stay tuned.

Osama Bin Laden Is Dead: Politics In The Post-Bin Laden World



Now that Al Qaeda Head Osama Bin Laden has been laid to rest at sea after the successful excursion to Pakistan by US, Navy Seals, it's time to consider how both American and World politics will be reshaped in the wake of this event of fantastic proportions.

Yes, Osama Bin Laden is dead.

Consider that since September 11, 2001, when Al Qaeda-directed airplane hijacks resulted in four crashes and the destruction of the twin towers of The World Trade Center, America's perceived standing in the World fell both from an economic and from a militaristic perspective. President George W. Bush, who vowed to get Bin Laden "Dead or Alive" seemed more intent on using the fact that he was alive as political fuel for his two terms as President.

Now that President Barack Obama successfully went after and got Bin Laden, there's no longer that political card to play - but thankfully, Obama never did so.

By following through on a campaign promise to go to Pakistan and get Bin Laden, and get out of Iraq, President Obama has firmly cemented his place in World History. He will forever be known as the man who helped bring an end to a reign of terror exacted by Al Qaeda and operatives in the Mid East and bring in a new, more democratic and free way of life.

Obama didn't do this by force, but by pushing along Arab Cultural forces already active. And indeed, the people involved in the formation of the "New Mid East," are certainly no friends of Bin Laden. When Obama saw an opening to take out Osama Bin Laden, he gave the order to do so.

His timing, just right in the middle of the greatest upheaval of Arab regimes in Mid East History, was perfect. While there will always be terrorists and terrorism, the Arab desire for freedom is overtaking those Arabs who would want to destroy any chance for it. And this is great for America.

No, it doesn't mean an end to security lines at airports, and it should not. But it - the changing of regimes and the death of Bin Laden - does mean that we in America can all look at the Mid East with pride and not with trepidation. And hopefully it means better opportunities for American business, particularly in tech, which means more jobs here and in the Mid East, too.

This moment, really this combination of many events happening close together, may also be the catalyst for the easing of credit and the restoration of the American and the World economy. Overnight the Japanese stock index increased after the announcement that Bin Laden was dead. And U.S. Markets, from the Dow Jones Industrial Average to the S&P 500, were all up today.

The bet here is that's just the shape of more good news to come.ma Bin Laden has been laid to rest at sea after the successful excursion to Pakistan by US, Navy Seals, it's time to consider how both American and World politics will be reshaped in the wake of this event of fantastic proportions.

Consider that since September 11, 2001, when Al Qaeda-directed airplane hijacks resulted in four crashes and the destruction of the twin towers of The World Trade Center, America's perceived standing in the World fell both from an economic and from a militaristic perspective. President George W. Bush, who vowed to get Bin Laden "Dead or Alive" seemed more intent on using the fact that he was alive as political fuel for his two terms as President.

Now that President Barack Obama successfully went after and got Bin Laden, there's no longer that political card to play - but thankfully, Obama never did so.

By following through on a campaign promise to go to Pakistan and get Bin Laden, and get out of Iraq, President Obama has firmly cemented his place in World History. He will forever be known as the man who helped bring an end to a reign of terror exacted by Al Qaeda and operatives in the Mid East and bring in a new, more democratic and free way of life.

Obama didn't do this by force, but by pushing along Arab Cultural forces already active. And indeed, the people involved in the formation of the "New Mid East," are certainly no friends of Bin Laden. When Obama saw an opening to take out Osama Bin Laden, he gave the order to do so.

His timing, just right in the middle of the greatest upheaval of Arab regimes in Mid East History, was perfect. While there will always be terrorists and terrorism, the Arab desire for freedom is overtaking those Arabs who would want to destroy any chance for it. And this is great for America.

No, it doesn't mean an end to security lines at airports, and it should not. But it - the changing of regimes and the death of Bin Laden - does mean that we in America can all look at the Mid East with pride and not with trepidation. And hopefully it means better opportunities for American business, particularly in tech, which means more jobs here and in the Mid East, too.

This moment, really this combination of many events happening close together, may also be the catalyst for the easing of credit and the restoration of the American and the World economy. Overnight the Japanese stock index increased after the announcement that Bin Laden was dead. And U.S. Markets, from the Dow Jones Industrial Average to the S&P 500, were all up today.

The bet here is that's just the shape of more good news to come.

Sohaib Athar Was Twitter Witness To US Attack On Bin Ladin

The Twitterverse and now blogosphere is, well, a buzz, or a Twitter (if you like) over the discovery that Sohaib Athar, who describes himself on Twitter @ReallyVirtual as a "IT consultant taking a break from the rat-race by hiding in the mountains with his laptops," provided a tweet-by-tweet account of the US Navy Seal raid that led to the death of Osama Bin Laden.

His tweets started April 28th in Abbottabad, Pakistan, with this one:

ReallyVirtual Sohaib Athar
Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event).


Then, Mr. Athar became annoyed with the helicopter, and let his Twitter followers know it.

ReallyVirtual Sohaib Athar
Go away helicopter - before I take out my giant swatter :-/

But a bit later, it was clear to Athar something big and "nasty" was up.

ReallyVirtual Sohaib Athar
A huge window shaking bang here in Abbottabad Cantt. I hope its not the start of something nasty :-S

Then the "giant fly" was gone...

ReallyVirtual Sohaib Athar
@
@m0hcin all silent after the blast, but a friend heard it 6 km away too... the helicopter is gone too.

A Fast Action Assault

From the read of his Twitter tweets, the entire US attack lasted only a few minutes. The US Navy Seals got out as fast as they got in. But, at the time, Aohaib didn't know what was going on; he could only guess:

ReallyVirtual Sohaib Athar
Since taliban (probably) don't have helicpoters, and since they're saying it was not "ours", so must be a complicated situation #abbottabad

Mr. Athar tweets that the craft was not a spy plane, as it was "too noisy." There was also a copter crash, but from reports it wasn't American; President Obama said there were no Americans harmed in any way.

One thing's for sure about all this, "Abbottabad " certainly found a place on the map of pop culture, as has Sohaib Athar. Mr. Athar has been inundated with emails from the media, and from general people around the World.

ReallyVirtual Sohaib Athar
For the people who are trying to email me to reach me, I simply can't filter out the notifications from the emails :-(


Stay tuned.


Osama Bin Laden Is Dead - Credit President Obama




Osama Bin Laden Is Dead. President Barack Obama made the stunning announcement at 11:39 PM EDT Sunday, as this blogger sat in a position of stasis. For almost 10 years, the name Osama Bin Laden had become an indelible part of American Culture, and with an image just equal to that of Adolf Hitler.

The Mastermind of the September 11th 2001 events we call 9-11 and that led to the total destruction of the twin towers of The World Trade Center in New York City was on the run, seemingly forever.

Not any more...



And while the media points to a intelligence gathering process that started back in 2001, the truth is that America's political leaders in charge for much of that time wrongly focused American military resources on Irag, and not Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Now, almost a trillion dollars, and 4,000 lost lives by 2007, then-Senator Barack Obama, just starting what would become his successful presidential run, said that he would end the Iraq War, and go on the hunt for Osama Bin Laden right in Pakistan.

The statement led to a ton of criticism from his major presidential rivals. In a blog post dated Wednesday, November 7, 2007 at Zennie62.com, this blogger pushed-out for distribution what CNN's Ruben Navarrette Jr, wrote:

When Sen. Barack Obama suggested getting out of Iraq and moving "onto the right battlefield in Afghanistan and Pakistan," and then pledged, if elected president, to go into Pakistan if our military was in hot pursuit of "high-value terrorist targets" (read: Osama bin Laden), his opponents pounced.


Rudy Giuliani suggested that Obama should be more accommodating of Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Mitt Romney said that Obama was "confused as to who are our friends and who are our enemies." Sen. John McCain called Obama's remarks "kind of typical of his naivete." And Sen. Hillary Clinton said that Obama's foreign policy views were "irresponsible and frankly naive."

Now, fast-forward to 2011 and while Hillary Clinton is now Secretary of State, and Rudy Giuliani is semi-retired (or so it seems) Mitt Romney is talking about running for President, again. And Sen. John McCain doesn't seem to be in the mood of thanking President Obama, issuing this Twitter Tweet:

SenJohnMcCain John McCain
We finally got him, justice has been done. Read my full statement here http://tinyurl.com/3auckey...


Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), made the following statement this evening regarding the announcement made by President Obama that Osama Bin Laden has been killed:


"I am overjoyed that we finally got the world's top terrorist. The world is a better and more just place now that Osama bin Laden is no longer in it. I hope the families of the victims of the September 11th attacks will sleep easier tonight and every night hence knowing that justice has been done. I commend the President and his team, as well as our men and women in uniform and our intelligence professionals, for this superb achievement.


"But while we take heart in the news that Osama bin Laden is dead, we must be mindful that al-Qaeda and its terrorist allies are still lethal and determined enemies, and we must remain vigilant to defeat them."
That's great.  But never forget that it was McCain who wasted no time in saying then-Senator Obama was naive for wanting to go into Pakistan to get Bin Laden.  If McCain were POTUS, and not Obama, this day arguably would never have come. 

And the list of potential GOP Presidential Candidates who don't have the class to thank President Obama includes Sarah Palin and, of course, Mitt Romney, as of this writing.

What Were We Doing In Iraq?

All of this, this modern V-Jay Day, now brings back the question "What were we doing in Iraq?"   It was, indeed, not just the wrong war, but a costly war.   And we wasted years in Iraq while Osama Bin Laden gained enough time and money to have the giant compound in Pakistan constructed to keep him safe.  

Now, a revisiting of what the USA was doing over that time is in order, especially since it's clear Osama Bin Laden was no where near Iraq.

We got him.   In Pakistan.  

Stay tuned.