Showing posts with label 2008. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2008. Show all posts

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Bailout’s critics? Republicans from states with foreign automakers | Muckety.com - See the news

Bailout’s toughest critics were Republicans from states with foreign automakers | Muckety.com - See the news: “Richard Shelby of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, for instance, took a particularly harsh tone with auto executives, suggesting their restructuring bids “are not a serious set of plans.”

Since the 1990s, Alabama has won three assembly plants, from Honda, Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai, and an engine plant by Toyota.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who slammed the bailout plan Thursday, has a Toyota plant in Georgetown.

And Bob Corker of Tennessee, who played a starring role in efforts to broker a last-minute Senate compromise Thursday, has the American headquarters of Japan’s Nissan, several Nissan plants and a planned factory by Volkswagon in his state.

But Corker’s compromise effort collapsed after the United Auto Workers refused to accept Corker’s insistence of wage and benefit concessions in 2009 to create parity with workers at U.S. factories owned by Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai and other foreign companies.

“We offered any date in the year 2009 - any date - any date, just when will we actually get there,” Corker said on the Senate floor after his proposed deal collapsed.”

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Fake Fireworks China Olympics Ceremony: "Wag The Olympics"



http://zennie2005.blogspot.com -- Last Friday's Olympics Opening Ceremony in Beijing Olympics Stadium was without a doubt the greatest event of its kind in the history of the Olympic Games. It was China's "coming out" party, and the organizers $300 million was well-spent.

The results showed in China Olympian Li Ning's levitating speed-skater style "walk" around Olympic Stadium and his lighting of a giant torch, which in turn caused what had to be the largest fireworks display in the history of the Olympic Games, if not the World.

A spectacle that looked tremendous, and even animated, and that's because it was.

The organizers of the event admitted that computer graphics were used to "replace" the actual fireworks images because the fear was that the "haze" -- read: smog -- was so bad that a great camera shot of the pyrotechnics would have not been possible.

Still, it was controversial because it took away from the overall historic effort and also took the wind out of the sails of the China Olympics, and sadly.

I write that because regardless of that country's problems, we're all fans of the Olympics and want to see it go well. Period.

But what was done reminded me of the movie "Wag The Dog". That flick, which starred Robert De Nero and Dustin Hoffman, was about a war that was staged on a television set and never happened at all.

With China's actions, we're a massive step closer to that possible occurence. China not only faked the fireworks, but the singer employed in the Opening Ceremony.

Seven-year-old Yang Peiyi, "who was deemed not attractive enough to go on stage" according to the article, was replaced by nine-year-old Lin Miaoke. One thing's for sure, that will scar Yang Peiyi for life, the fact that her own China told her she was not attractive enough to be seen singing on the biggest stage in the World, even though they love her voice!

Toward Laws Preventing This In The Future

I think we need to craft a series of International Laws to prevent or at least discourage (which is the best we can do) the occurence of the use of digital technology in this way. It's far too dangerous a possibility to ignore, especially in the wake of the fake fireworks scandal.

Sunday, August 03, 2008

DNC Convention Invesco Tour | CNN Grill | Pepsi Media Tent City



On the morning of July 31st 2008, I boarded a United Airlines morning flight to Denver to attend the final (?) media walkthrough before the Democratic National Convention, this one at Invesco Field.

Unlike my first media walkthrough trip, I ended up renting a Saturn SUV for ground travel. The reason was simple: it was cheap. Cheaper to rent than a Prius and because they were in low demand versus the economy cars. In a way it worked out to a savings of about $25. Invesco Field was only 20 minutes away from the airport, so it was a quick trip for me.

I arrived at Invesco at 11:20 and ran into a DNCC employee (who I will not name by request) and who walked me around the stadium (we ended up on the field at one point) and eventually into the main briefing meeting.

For security reasons I did not film the main meeting discussion, but focused more on the 'broadbrush" tour and interviews of key media people there. On the way to the main press box, I met "Oreo" who's one of the main contributors at DemConWatchBlog.com and talked about how the blog came to be and who the writers were. To my surprise, one of them was a person who had his own blog called "Mr. Superdelegate" for a time, and gave all of us political junkies fits trying to figure out who he was. It's become a great resource for DNC Convention news.

After talking with Oreo, and heading to the main field, I met Sara Burrett, who's a reporter for the Rocky Mountain News. Sara -- who I talked to while tripping all over myself on the Invesco Field sidewalk -- told me that she was a court reporter until this assignment and that her current focus was on the lawsuit the protest group Recreate68 and their leader Glen Spagnuolo, who's known for protesting the Columbus Day Holiday in Denver and for whom a split was caused between his group and other protest groups.

See, even Democratic PROTESTERS can't get along.

But I digress.

Sara also pointed out where Senator Obama will stand to give his acceptance speech, which is about on the 50-yard-line of the field used by The Denver Broncos.

That about ended that part of the tour. But Oreo and I decided to take a tour of our own making. He drove us over to the Pepsi Center area to see the media tent city in the making. Two construction reps let us in and we parked and walked the grounds. The media tents must be about 25,000 square feet in size each, and there were two made already, one for NBC News, the other we didn't know who was for, perhaps CNN.

Writing of CNN, we then walked over to the Brooklyn Grill for a quick lunch. Oreo informed me that the grill was to be transformed into the "CNN Grill" and almost on que, we saw a stencil being used to paint the CNN = Politics logo on the side of the building. They had just got started with this, and we were the first to record the action.

The one problem with the CNN plan is the restaurant workers know nothing about it. They don't know if they will be paid double-time or who will get to work the shifts, or anything and they're getting a little nervous about the whole deal.

Then, on the way out, Oreo, who lives in Denver, pointed to where the DNC Media Party was to be held over at an amusement park nearby.

In all, the Democratic Party is working overtime to make the DNC Convention work. The objective is open-ness. The main issue now is still scheduling. Contrary to reports, many of the speakers and speaking days have not been fully set. Speculation that Hillary Clinton will not be the VP choice because of the Tuesday "Women's Day" event is faulty at best.

On the way back to the airport, I turned in my rental car and then forgot my iPhone in it. Alamo Rent-A-Car got it back to me very quickly and for that I give thanks.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Chinese Government Already Arresting Dissidents Before Olympics



http://zennie2005.blogspot.com - If you remember the video I made where I talked about how the Chinese Government could use IP address data from the Viacom / Google lawsuit to find dissidents and arrest or kill them --

See:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ua_XT1RJIE

Then brace yourself because the Chinese have already arrested two Internet dissidents Du Daobin and Ye Guozhu and have done so before the Bejing Olympics.

Both dissidents were arrested for "subversion" or writing against the actions of the Chinese Government. Such actions bring into focus the value of the "annoymous blogger" because the idea is that by being just that, one can explain and report in a dissident fashion without the kind of retribution these two gentleman are facing.

But the actions of some using the term annoymous have threatened the very ability to use that term. As a momentary aside, people using that term must take care not to abuse its use for mean-sprited purposes.

China is clearly concerned about its image during the Olympics and as such does not want dissidents exposed to foreign journalists, so they're locking them up. It's up to the Internet blogging and vlogging community to expose their actions and even make sure that Chinese nationals are informed of them.

Finally, President Bush should not just go to the Olympics but remind China of its human rights violations

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Leigh Steinberg's 22nd Super Bowl Party: Scottsdale, AZ - Video



This is the video account of Leigh Steinberg's 22nd Super Bowl Party. This one held at the Botanical Gardens outside Scottsdale, Arizona. The video features an interview with Leigh where he talks about the "Green Initiative" he's started, Ricky Williams, and "Athletes for Obama."

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

First Day of Legal Gay Marriage In San Francisco - Video Account



This video covers the events outside San Francisco City Hall involving the first day of legal same sex marriage in San Francisco: Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 5:38 PM. A historic news and politics event. I went with the objective of determining the opinions of people in the crowd.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Charles E. Johnson and Tano Capital Invest $7.4 Million Into Anil Printers Limited

Tano Capital Invests $7.4 Million Into Anil Printers Limited

Charles E. Johnson and Tano Capital LLC, on behalf of the Tano India Private Equity Fund I, is pleased to announce that it has made an equity investment of INR 300 million (US $7.4 million) into India based Anil Printers Limited (“APL”). APL is a printing company that manufactures prepaid scratch cards, pin mailers, airline tickets, cargo bills, and carbon-less stationery for the telecommunications, banking, courier, and logistics industries.

Tano Capital LLC, on behalf of the Tano India Private Equity Fund I, is pleased to announce that it has made an equity investment of INR 300 million (US $7.4 million) into India based Anil Printers Limited (“APL”). APL is a printing company that manufactures prepaid scratch cards, pin mailers, airline tickets, cargo bills, and carbon-less stationery for the telecommunications, banking, courier, and logistics industries.

APL was founded by Ashokka Agarwal, who has been in the printing business for the past 25 years. APL’s clients include Reliance Telecom, Reliance Infocomm, Bharti Airtel, Hutch, Idea, BSNL, MTNL, Nu Mobile (Bhutan), State Bank of India, Corporation Bank, UTI Bank, HSBC, HDFC, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Jet Airways and Indian Airlines.

With this investment, APL plans to manufacture smart cards and RFID labels in technical collaboration with Mühlbauer High Tech International of Germany. APL has identified opportunities for the application of smart cards and RFID technology in several areas, including driver’s licenses and national identification/security card systems such as the R.C. Book Multipurpose National Identification Card (MNIC) project.

Charles “Chuck” Johnson, Tano Capital’s Founder and Managing General Partner, said, “We are particularly excited about the strength and depth of Anil Printers management team. They have demonstrated their ability to continually adapt and reshape their core businesses in rapidly changing business environments in both up and down markets. Their impressive list of top notch clients is a solid testament to the quality of the products that they produce.”

Tano Capital, LLC is an alternative asset management firm founded in 2003 by Charles E. Johnson (formerly Co-President of Franklin Templeton Investments and CEO of Templeton Worldwide) to make private equity investments into rapidly growing private companies in India and China. Tano Capital currently has offices in Shanghai, Tianjin, Taipei, Mauritius, Mumbai, Viet Nam and San Mateo, California.

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Hillary Clinton's Mistake: On Martin Luther King, LBJ, and Barack Obama

UPDATE: Clinton on "Meet The Press"

See Blil Clinton sleep on MLK day!

Like many of you who follow politics, I saw the exchange between Fox reporter Major Garrett and Senator Hillary Clinton, where Senator Clinton said “Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act,” Mrs. Clinton said when asked about Mr. Obama’s rejoinder by Fox’s Major Garrett after her speech in Dover. “It took a president to get it done.”

After some reflection, I don't think Senator Clinton was being entirely racist, but she was certainly acting stupidly. As my video says, Dr. King's work came at a time when it was not "comfortable" -- to say the least -- to be a Black American citizen. Dr. King didn't win the Nobel Peace Prize for nothing.



As this is 2008 and we have a generation of Americans who never experienced, and it seems learned about, Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement, here's a good biography:

Martin Luther King, Jr., (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin. His grandfather began the family's long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from 1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor. Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had graduated. After three years of theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters were born into the family.

In 1954, Martin Luther King accepted the pastorale of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of his race, King was, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading organization of its kind in the nation. He was ready, then, early in December, 1955, to accept the leadership of the first great Negro nonviolent demonstration of contemporary times in the United States, the bus boycott described by Gunnar Jahn in his presentation speech in honor of the laureate. The boycott lasted 382 days. On December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the United States had declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, Negroes and whites rode the buses as equals. During these days of boycott, King was arrested, his home was bombed, he was subjected to personal abuse, but at the same time he emerged as a Negro leader of the first rank.

In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement. The ideals for this organization he took from Christianity; its operational techniques from Gandhi. In the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; and meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. In these years, he led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the entire world, providing what he called a coalition of conscience. and inspiring his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", a manifesto of the Negro revolution; he planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of Negroes as voters; he directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he delivered his address, "l Have a Dream", he conferred with President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson; he was arrested upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure.

At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.

On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.


In my opinion, Hillary Clinton owes the King family an appology for essentially dimishing Dr. King's contributions in her words. The Clintons are placing themselves in the position of working to divide America just as Senator Barack Obama's working to unite our country. They're doing this because they think it will work in America, but as Senator Obama and I both know, this is a different country than in was in 1992.

New News. New email asserts that the NH Primary Votes were miscounted! See below..

News Updates from Citizens for Legitimate Government
09 Jan 2008

http://www.legitgov.org/

http://www.legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news
Where Paper Prevailed, Different Results By Lori Price 09 Jan 2008

2008 New Hampshire Democratic Primary Results --Total Democratic Votes: 286,139 - Machine vs Hand (RonRox.com) 09 Jan 2008

Hillary Clinton, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 39.618%
Clinton, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 34.908%
Barack Obama, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 36.309%
Obama, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 38.617%
Machine vs Hand:
Clinton: 4.709% (13,475 votes)
Obama: -2.308% (-6,604 votes)

2008 New Hampshire Republican Primary Results --Total Republican Votes: 236,378 Machine vs Hand (RonRox.com) 09 Jan 2008

Mitt Romney, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 33.075%
Romney, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 25.483%
Ron Paul, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 7.109%
Paul, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 9.221%
Machine vs Hand :
Romney: 7.592% (17,946 votes)
Paul: -2.112% (-4,991 votes)

NH: "First in the nation" (with corporate controlled secret vote counting) By Nancy Tobi 07 Jan 2008 81% of New Hampshire ballots are counted in secret by a private corporation named Diebold Election Systems (now known as "Premier"). The elections run on these machines are programmed by one company, LHS Associates, based in Methuen, MA. We know nothing about the people programming these machines, and we know even less about LHS Associates. We know even less about the secret vote counting software used to tabulate 81% of our ballots. [ See also CLG's Coup 2004 and Yes, Gore DID win!.]

Please forward this update to anyone you think might be interested. Those who'd like to be added to the Newsletter list can sign up: http://www.legitgov.org/#subscribe_clg.

Please write to: signup@legitgov.org for inquiries.

CLG Newsletter editor: Lori Price, Manager. Copyright © 2008, Citizens For Legitimate Government ® All rights reserved. CLG Founder and Chair is Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D.

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Clinton Lies About Obama Abortion Record - Huff Post

Click to see the new video on Clinton's Martin Luther King "mistake".

Wow. This is a sure sign of desparation on the part of the Hillary Clinton campaign. To attempt to mislead voters in this way, or any way, is totally wrong and dangerous to boot. What they're thinking I don't know. She's also lied about his record on the Patriot Act. Read this below from the Huffington Post

Clinton Criticizes Obama in NH Mailer

NEDRA PICKLER | January 5, 2008 07:13 PM EST | Huffinton Post

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton criticizes rival Barack Obama's record on abortion rights in a mailing sent to New Hampshire voters _ her first direct attack on the Illinois senator since his victory in Iowa.

The mailer says that seven times during his time in the Illinois state Senate, Obama declined to take a position on abortion bills, while Clinton has been a defender of abortion rights.

During his eight years in the legislature, Obama cast a number of votes on abortion and received a 100 percent rating from the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council for his support of abortion rights, family planning services and health insurance coverage for female contraceptives. He voted against requiring medical care for aborted fetuses who survive, a vote that especially riled abortion opponents.

He also joined other state Democrats in voting present on some bills.

The mailing comes amid division within the Clinton campaign over how negative to go against Obama after his victory Thursday in the Iowa caucuses. The campaign has made a decision to hold off on any television advertising, positive or negative, until after a nationally televised debate Saturday night.

Obama also has been criticized by the political arm of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which has endorsed Clinton. Seven international vice presidents sent a letter protesting the "wholesale assault on one of the great friends of our union."

"Supposedly, we are involved in this primary because we're concerned about access to the next Democratic president," the signers argued. "So why would we want to develop a hostile relationship with the man who could be that next president?"

During the Iowa campaign, the Clinton campaign criticized Obama's position on health care in Iowa. But she is taking a different approach in New Hampshire.

"A woman's right to choose," the mailing says on the front, then flips to the back, "demands a leader who will stand up and protect it."

It says Clinton has a record of fighting "far-right Republicans" to defend abortion rights, while Obama has been "unwilling to take a stand on choice."

"Seven times he had the opportunity to stand up against Republican anti-choice legislation in the Illinois state Senate," it says. "Seven times he voted present _ not yes or no, but present. Being there is not enough to protect choice.

"On January 8 you have a choice," it closes. "Vote for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, Tuesday, Jan. 8."

The mailer says "Paid for by Hillary Clinton for President" and has a return address of her office in Manchester. Clinton spokesman Phil Singer said the campaign decided to send the piece because "as Senator Obama has said, `voting records matter.' This is a critical issue for New Hampshire voters and they deserve a straightforward presentation of the facts about both candidates."

Obama spokesman Bill Burton responded, "The Clinton campaign's false negative attacks were rejected by Iowa voters, and we expect that they'll suffer the same fate here in New Hampshire."

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Barack Obama On His Plans For 2008

This is a video from Senator Barack Obama on his plans for the 2008 Presidential campaign.