AC Transit's Joel Young Issues Statement In Sex Scandal

AC Transit Board Member Joel Young, considered by some a front-runner in the 2012 race to replace California Assembly District 16 legend Sandra Swanson should Young decide to enter the race, was accused of domestic violence in a sex scandal that was first reported by Indy Bay, then in this space.

What's weird in this story where Young was rumored to have harmed his ex-girlfriend, and for which temporary restraining orders were filed each by one against the other, is that reports are that she caught him with another woman.

That's a scenario that leaves a lot of questions unanswered, and caused this blogger to write:

What's missing from this is just how did Young's reportedly ex-girlfriend find him in bed with another woman? Did she have a key to his home? How did she know to walk in? Something's missing here.

Well that "something's missing" - that giant hole of information - was filled in by Young and his lawyer today, who, as a team, have come out swinging.

Here's what Young and his attorney Enrique Pearce sent directly and exclusively (for now) to this blogger:

June 12, 2011

AC Transit Director Joel Young Physically (And Politically) Attacked

Political opponents are doing their best to smear AC Transit Director Joel Young with unfair attacks related to an incident where an intruder broke into Director Young's home and physically assaulted him in his bedroom.

Director Young is currently seeking judicial relief for this attack in Alameda Superior Court. His attacker has falsely claimed that this physical attack is related to domestic violence. With respect to this allegation, Director Young issued the following statement:

"Domestic Violence is a very real and heinous problem in our community.
It's a problem that I take very seriously, which is one of the reasons I am fighting back against these outrageous allegations. This is not just about clearing my name, this is about taking a strong stand against anyone who would mock the seriousness of this crime and cheapen the traumatic experience of victims everywhere. I want my community to know that I am 100 percent committed to pursuing justice in a court of law. I cannot support this kind of vengeful attack on my character, and we will have zero tolerance for anyone who tries to sully the very real community mission of ending domestic violence."

To be clear, this incident is being used as a blatant political attack on Director Joel Young by individuals who do not want to see him challenge incumbent Sandre Swanson for the 16th Assembly District seat.

Here are the important facts:

Key Facts About The Incident

- On March 7th, at approximately 5:30AM AC Transit Director Joel Young
was attached in his home, by a woman that he was casually dating.

- The woman had gotten into his home using a set of keys she had taken from him the previous day without his consent, and upon finding him with someone else, physically attacked him as he laid in bed.

- Mr. Young attacker hit him multiple times in the head neck and face as well as cut him in his left torso which has left him with two permanent scars.

- After going after the other woman, the attacker then went after Mr.
Young again and was physically retrained by Mr. Young until she calmed
down. Page 2

- About a week and half later, Mr. Young’s attacker then went to a Family Law Court and requested a restraining order against Mr. Young alleging to be the victim of domestic violence.

- As of today, no permanent restraining order has been issued by the
court. However, both parties have received temporary restraining
orders until the Family Law Judge makes a decision on the restraining
order requests in August.

- The Alameda County District Attorneys office has investigated this
matter and declined to press charges against either party in this matter.

Political Attack Aimed At Derailing Campaign

- While Mr. Young has not officially declared his candidacy to run for the California State Assembly to replace Sandre Swanson, political insiders
consider him to be a strong contender for the position if he decides to get in the race.
- The posting of this article on Indybay is a political attack done by the opposition to derail his campaign.
- The Article posting occurred on the same day Mr. Young was having a
kick - off reception for his exploratory committee
- Person who posted the article left no contact information on Indybay.
- The name of the article poster is "Epic Beard Man, Jr." Epic Beard Man is the old guy that beat up an African American Ac Transit Bus rider.
Clearly the person that put this up knows a lot about the local political scene in the east bay.

Can Young fight his way out of this issue?  The news that the Alameda County District Attorney declined to file charges is big news, and that, alone, should clear Young.   The new question is to what degree his ex-girlfriend will allow all of this to go away.

Only time will tell. 

And on that note, comments on this at SFGate.com will not be allowed.  There have been attempts to put the woman's true name out in public against her wishes and using the comment section.   That simply will not be allowed to happened again in this space.  

Anthony Weiner And Amy Smart Should Do Crank 3 Sex Scene

New York U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner has announced that he will seek treatment (for sex addiction, one can guess) in the wake of a story broke by Conservative Blogger Andrew Brietbart that the central figure in Weinergate has contacted and sent lewd photos to five women - Megan Broussard, Lisa Weiss, Ginger Lee, and Gennette Cordova - and initiated contact with a 17-year old woman, but claims there was no inappropriate contact.

That news tipped Democratic scales against him, and calls for his resignation increased several fold, with Democratic National Committee head Debbie Wasserman Schultz the latest to do so. "It is with great disappointment that I call on Representative Anthony Weiner to resign," DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said in a statement Saturday, according to CNN.com. "The behavior he has exhibited is indefensible and Representative Weiner's continued service in Congress is untenable."

With all of this focus on what seems to be a sex-crazed politician, and the apparent scenario emerging that Weiner may be forced out of Congress, the question is, with his wife Huma Abelin pregnant, what will he do for money?

One idea is to replace actor Jason Statham in a third installment of the Crank movie series, where Statham plays a man who's heart needs constant adrenaline stimulation, including public sex with Amy Smart. Imagine Congressman Weiner, every bit as fit as Jason Statham, in the third Crank.

It might look something like this:

And, given what's facing Congressman Weiner from his colleagues, his enemies, and his constituents, acting in a movie like that may be his next line of work.

Stay tuned.

President Obama on Death of Osama bin Laden (SPOOF)

If you've not seen this spoof of President Barack Obama's speech after Osama Bin Ladin was assassinated, stop what you're doing and pay attention. This is a video that exactly expresses what you and I both know Barack wanted to say after the Navy Seal Team 6 got to their objective.

Created by So-Cal-based actor and impressionist Iman Crosson, the video, according to CBS News, perfectly captured the national mood. But enough of that, here's Mr. Crosson as President Obama:



If you're wondering "How did he do that?" Here's a video called President Obama on Death of Osama SPOOF- BEHIND THE SCENES and contains several out-takes, as well as Crosson's explanation of how he copied the President's speech style, while in time with the rap music he used.



In short, a work of genius that's only gained 4.66 million views over the past month, when it should have gained 10 million views by now.

By comparison, the eHarmony Video Bio featuring that crazy cat lover, Debbie,  faking her crying, has reached the 4 million mark in just four days.

Google's "Google Trends" Tool At 20, Now 14, 18 Results? Glitch?

Google's Google Trends online tool that allows you to see what others are searching for, and what the overall search and content production trend is at any given time on the search engine's site, is either suffering from a weird glitch, or Google's trying to shorten its results listing, yet again.

Today, Google Trends came up with just 14 results.  I figured it was a glitch, so I refreshed the screen.  The last keyword was still marked at 14.  Then, a few minutes later, that changed to 18, and as of this writing, Google Trends still produces 18, and not 20, keyword results.  

Something is wrong. 

As noted by this blogger on April 14th 2011, Google Trends has been long downward spiral of results offerings, falling from 100 to 40 in 2009, then from 40 to 20 keyword results in 2010.

And now, this year in April, Google removed "Hot Topics" from the Google Trends keyword search results report page

While the reason given by bloggers was "spamming" of topic results, I'm starting to remain fast to the idea that Google is really trying to force the World to read traditional media sources, and not blogs.

Let's face it, Google has been under constant legal attack from media companies like The Associated Press, and Google News took off on a weird and ill-advised, and still ongoing attempt to save these organizations, even at the expense of trying to slow the spread of democratic media, push many good blogs off the system, and in the face of constantly improving communications technology that allows for the democratization of media.

The real media results on Google rest with the largely hidden from view Google Blog Search. That Google makes it hard to find Google Blog Search, where Google News is in your face with almost every search action, is no accident.

That Google has allowed Google News to be such that it's news results are in "topic clusters" rather than first, and most recent results regardless of topic, is no accident. It allows traditional media to set the news agenda, even as blogs and social networks are really telling the story of what's happening.

In short, Google's doing evil, taking advantage of its monopoly position in the search market to manipulate the news. That's a horrible outrage that should spark a Congressional Investigation - forget Weinergate; Newsgate is much more important.

We have to take action to stop this kind of online control of what news is presented to us. The question is, what search platform should we use to overcome Google?

I highly recommend Blekko. Based in San Francisco and with a 22-employee team, the new company's effective search engine technology and hash-based categorization of search is starting to catch on. Blekko is now the preferred search engine for the giant Topix network.

The nezt step for Blekko should be to restore this news chaos. Google is going way too far. The firm that once focused on doing good, seems to be far more interested in doing bad by controlling the news.