Berlusconi: "Obama Is..Tall Handsome and ..Tan" - First Italian Race-Bating Comment

Ok, we're about to find out which of the World's leaders are racially fucked-up and which are not. First up is Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who said this (translated): "Obama has it all - he's handsome, tall and tanand therefore has all of the characteristics necessary to have an excellent relationship with Russia." In Italian, it looks like this: "Obama ha tutto: è bello, alto e abbronzato ed ha quindi tutte le qualità per avere ottimi rapporti con la Russia".

Then he followed up by insisting that his statement was just fine: "It's absolutely a nice thing what I said, a hugecompliment," said the Prime Minister, "If all of the imbeciles get together we're screwed."

He's right about that.  But incapsulated in his statement about Russia is a warning about a future where I wonder of that country will base its American approach on whatever racism they've not overcome.   Here's the video below...

Barack Obama Press Conference And The Nancy Reagan Seance Thing

 President-Elect Barack Obama gave his first press conference today and it went extremely well.  Obama emphasized that he wasn't yet the President, but was preparing to hit the ground running, focusing on the economy.  Obama brought out his economic transition team, which consists of the following people according to Mark Ambinder:

David Bonior (Member House of Representatives 1977-2003)
·         Warren Buffett (Chairman and CEO, Berkshire Hathaway)-will participate via speakerphone
·         Roel Campos (former SEC Commissioner)
·         William Daley (Chairman of the Midwest, JP Morgan Chase; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Commerce, 1997-2000)
·         William Donaldson (Former Chairman of the SEC 2003-2005)
·         Roger Ferguson (President and CEO, TIAA-CREF and former Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve)
·         Jennifer Granholm (Governor, State of Michigan)
·         Anne Mulcahy (Chairman and CEO, Xerox)
·         Richard Parsons (Chairman of the Board, Time Warner)
·         Penny Pritzker (CEO, Classic Residence by Hyatt)
·         Robert Reich (University of California, Berkeley; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Labor, 1993-1997)
·         Robert Rubin (Chairman and Director of the Executive Committee, Citigroup; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Treasury, 1995-1999)
·         Eric Schmidt (Chairman and CEO, Google)
·         Lawrence Summers (Harvard University; Managing Director, D.E. Shaw; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Treasury, 1999-2001)
·         Laura Tyson (Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley; Former Chairman, National Economic Council, 1995-1996; Former Chairman, President's Council of Economic Advisors, 1993-1995)
·         Antonio Villaraigosa (Mayor, City of Los Angeles)
·         Paul Volcker (Former Chairman, U.S. Federal Reserve 1979-1987)

That Nancy Reagan Thing

Some are upset over the President-Elect's remark that he wasn't going to  "get into a Nancy Reagan thing about Seances" but the hard truth is that Mrs. Reagan did call on astrologers for advice in scheduling after the assasination attempt on President Reagan, but then revealed she was using them since the 60s.


So Obama got it right: Nancy Reagan did have a "thing" about seances. 







Part Two...

Barack Obama Election Night Parties in San Francisco

This is my video of election night in San Francisco and the paties I went to. I started at The Westin for the San Francisco Democratic Party event, then went to Enrico's Restaurant, then back to the Westin and then to El Rio to finish. In the flow I captured interviews with a number of people including San Francisco Supervisors Aaron Peskin and Jake McGoldrick.