Nancy Pelosi's Annoucement Today - Video

This is a vlog I made at the Fairmount Hotel after a great luncheon hosted by DCCC.org and for Speaker Of The House Nancy Pelosi. The vlog's about The Speaker's annoucement on the War in Iraq.

USC's Pete Caroll On ND's Charlie Weis: "He's A Jerk" - Also Dishes On Norm Chow

I just returned from the local Gold's Gym in Oakland where I work out and ran into a friend who's a big USC fan, alumn, and donor, on top of being a big exec at a national retailer. Since I'm a Cal fan, we've had a few nice ribbing sessions. The point being, she's got know reason to make up what I'm about to report, asked the questions herself, and when I asked her if she would mind that I blog this, her response was "go ahead."

So that's what I'm doing.

On May 22nd, my friend attended a USC Alumni event in Southern California where USC Football Coach Pete Carroll was the featured guest. After an evening of drinks and food, there was a question and answer session with Coach Carroll. I proded her to tell me about it while we were streching, and so after some consistent coaxing, she did.



She said that she and Coach Carroll got along famously well "I think he seemed to like me," she said. "Oh, did I tell you what he said about Charlie Weis?" No, was my response, and she held back for a few seconds or so while streching and said "I thought I told you this?" I swore up and down we'd not taked about the event after her return. "What did he say about Weis?," I asked.

"Well, she said, "I asked him what he thought of Charlie Weis.

"He (Coach Carroll) said Weis was a jerk," she reported. My friend also remarked that Carroll said "people down there (in South Bend) don't really like him."

Geez.

I could not believe it. But it gets better. "He (Caroll) also said that 'That thing with his son? It was all for publicity.'" I pretty much almost fell from my stretch with that news. I could not believe what I was hearing. It's one thing for Pete to call Weis a jerk, but to introduce the matter of Coach Weis' son on the sidelines (Coach Weis also has a 12-year-old special-needs daughter, Hannah) being some kind of publicty stunt is another story.

I personally think that's off base.

But that didn't seem to matter to Pete Carroll, who also didn't have great things to say about former USC Offensive Coordinator, now Tennesee Titans Offensive Coordinator Norm Chow, and again in response to my friend's question. Caroll said "Well you know, we're not the best of friends."

Caroll told my friend that they talk maybe once a year and that Norm's not happy in Tennessee. I remarked that he's got a great job, so what's the problem? According to my friend, Carol claims that Chow's family's not happy in Tennesee, and wants to get back to the West Coast. Caroll also remarked that Chow "would never be a head coach."

Being a Chow fan myself, I asked why Caroll would say this "He (Caroll) thinks' he (Chow) doens't want to be a head coach.

I think Coach Carroll should take time to measure his words in an Internet society. I mean here I am reporting something he didn't think was going to wind up being thrown out there for the public to know about. Pete should know better.

He didn't need to make that comment about Coach Weis' daughter and publicity. It's one thing for USC to have beaten Notre Dame 44-24 last year, but that doesn't give Coach Caroll the right to say what he did regarding Coach Weis and his family. That's sacred ground in my view. And I'm 100 percent certain this is true, without a doubt. My friend has no reason to lie and was the person who asked the questions.

One thing Coach Carroll should do now, is pick up the damn phone and appologize to Coach Weis. Charlie may be less than nice in what he has to say in return, but look, talking about another parent's children being on the sidelines as being "out there for just publicity" is too much and classless to boot.

Does that mean Indy Coach Tony Dungy bringing his off spring on the sidelines is "just publicity?" Come on, now.

SBS Has New Affiliate Network - SBS Affiliate Network

After several years of discussions and flirting with applications that didn't work well, if at all, Sports Business Simulations has its own Affiliate Network, SBS Affiliate Network .

With SBS Affiliate Network, you can earn 20 percent of every new simulations account, or about 2.50 per transaction. So with just 10 students signing up for SBS sims from your link, you can make $30. If 100 come, that's $300 for you. And if you draw 1,000 people, well, that's $3,000 for you. And the best news is that this is passive income: the website works for you while you're out living life.

Check out and join the SBS Affiliate Network .

Matt Drudge Fuck's Up - Misses Story On Senator Clinton

Today's Drudge Report contains a link entitled "Obama Aloof" which leads to Bob Novak's online publication, where the lead story is not that small issue, but a BIG STORY on Hillary Clinton and her chief strategist Mark Penn.

Mark Penn is also the CEO of a PR firm that has health care clients that back policies which run counter to Senator Clinton's.

Why did Drudge miss this? My theory is that conservatives like him are trying to promote Hillary Clinton because they think she has a better chance of loosing to a Republican challenger.

Bad form, Matt. Get your act together.

Mark Penn - Hillary Clinton's Strategist Also Has Tobacco and Drug Company Clients - Bob Novak

Bob Novak reported this in his online publication on Saturday, July 7th. This is an example of how Senator Clinton has representatives of the very healh care system she claims to want to change.

Hillary's Strategist
By Robert D. Novak
Saturday, July 7, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Hillary Clinton is facing increasing Democratic criticism for using Mark Penn as her presidential campaign's chief strategist while he also serves as CEO of Burson-Marsteller, the public relations giant with corporate clients whose policies run opposite to Clinton's.

Clients include Royal Dutch Shell (attacked by Clinton for "windfall profits"), as well as tobacco and pharmaceutical firms with records she has deplored. Penn was a key operative in President Bill Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign and continued as a second-term adviser.

A footnote: Penn criticized Bloomberg News, which has reported on conflicts between Burson-Marsteller and the Clinton campaign, for obtaining "several months" of Penn's internal blogs. On June 29, a former employee who started a rival firm filed suit in New York City against Penn for monitoring his personal e-mails.

US voters are ready to elect a black or woman as president: poll

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Large majorities of US voters say they are ready to vote for an African-American or a woman for president, according to a poll published Friday by Newsweek magazine.

About 92 percent of respondents were willing to vote for a black presidential candidate, while 86 percent said they would cast a ballot for a woman, said the poll on Newsweek's website.

However, smaller majorities of voters believed the country was ready to accept a black or woman president.

When asked if the United States was ready for a black president, 59 percent said yes, while 58 percent said the country was ready for a woman in the White House.

Two-thirds of respondents, 66 percent, said that there was a some chance they would vote for Senator Barack Obama, a black lawmaker in his first term. And 62 percent said the same when asked about Senator Hillary Clinton. Both are Democrats. No Republican woman or African American has entered the campaign.

When asked about a possible Hispanic candidate, 81 percent said they were ready to vote for one, but only 39 percent said the country was ready for a Hispanic president. That represents bad news for the only Hispanic candidate so far in the race, Democrat Bill Richardson.

In a head-to-head competition, the poll showed Clinton leading Obama 56 to 33 percent.

The Newsweek magazine poll was conducted by the Princeton Institute July 2-3 among 1,002 persons at least 18 years of age. The overall margin of error for the survey is plus or minus four percentage points.

The election for US president will be held in November 2008.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair Wanted To Quit Before Iraq War - Times Of London

The Times of London's online edition reports that British Prime Minister Tony Blair wanted to quit before the Iraq War. Reportedly, he told Alistair Cambell, his communications director, that he wanted to not seek a third term and be free to act without dealing with the politics of the Labour Party.

New York Times Editorial Calls For U.S. To Get Out Of Iraq

I just read this path-breaking editorial in today's New York Times which calls for the U.S. to get out of Iraq and lays out a time table in a sub section called "The Mechanics Of Withdrawl.

President Bush should feel the walls closing in around him. Yes, he's a lame-duck president, but one would think that he'd not use this "I can do what I want" status to, well, do what he wants to do and the public be damned.

But that certainly is the way he's behaving.

Look, policy by mob rule is more often than not a good thing, but in this case, it is a good thing. People are plain tired of hearing about -- or in some cases, seeing -- Americans killed in Iraq. It's time to leave.

"SF Limo Service Tour | Bauer's Limo Video" - Too Short's Song Is Key

If there's one rap song of the modern era that has an "old school" feel to it, it's Too Short's "Blow The Whistle." Released in 2006, this make-you-get-up-and-dance tune is popular at clubs around the World. But what's not known is that it makes a great back drop for a commericial video. Take this one I made to promote Bauer's Limousines:

Too Short's "Blow The Whistle" Rages - Good For "SF Limo" Too

If there's one rap song of the modern era that has an "old school" feel to it, it's Too Short's "Blow The Whistle." Released in 2006, this make-you-get-up-and-dance tune is popular at clubs around the World. But what's not known is that it makes a great back drop for a commericial video. Take this one I made to promote Bauer's Limousines:

Antonio Villaraigosa's Affair - Horndog Mayor Has Hillary Clinton In A Bind - RadarOnline

It isn't only Antonio Villaraigosa's political rivals who are gleeful over the Los Angeles mayor's extramarital exploits. Democratic presidential hopefuls not named Hillary Clinton are snickering at how one of the party frontrunner's most coveted supporters has suddenly become a potential embarrassment.

Villaraigosa, who serves as one of four national co-chairmen of Clinton's campaign, admitted earlier this week that he's been having an affair with Telemundo news anchor Mirthala Salinas. Villaraigosa's wife Corina—the two merged their last names, Villar and Raigosa, when they married in 1987—announced their separation last month. (Salinas has been pulled off of the air while her bosses look into whether she violated the station's ethics rules.)

A rising star in the Democratic party, Villaraigosa's endorsement had been heavily courted by other candidates, especially New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, the only Hispanic in the race. "They're probably pretty relieved now that they didn't win that one," laughs an insider from another campaign.

Villaraigosa's revelation leaves Clinton in a bind, says the insider. "They want people to forget all the ethical, marital partisan wars that were being waged" during Bill Clinton's time in office, and "this is exactly the type of scandal that's going to remind people of that." On the other hand, "it would be very difficult for them to walk away from someone who's widely viewed as one of the most influential Hispanic politicians in the country."

"They're highly motivated to find a way to justify keeping him," agrees a strategist from another campaign. "Where they are going to find themselves in a tough situation is if Mrs. Villaraigosa goes to the mat the way [Rudy] Giuliani's wife did. If she gets militant about the divorce, they are going to be in an incredibly awkward situation."

For now, Clinton's best response is probably to do nothing, says a former Democratic consultant. "The Clintons don't stick with people who become liabilities, but to get rid of him would invite comparisons they don't want," he says. "Bottom line, she's a bigger punchline if she throws him off."

Dow Jones: No Murdock / WSJ Deal

The Dow Jones has just annouced that there's no deal for Rupert Murdock's News Corporation to buy Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal. Stay tuned.

Here's the details from Reuters:

By Robert MacMillan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. has not yet reached a deal to buy Dow Jones & Co. Inc. and discussions continue, representatives for Dow Jones and its controlling Bancroft family said on Friday.

Talks are continuing over such issues as price, two sources familiar with the matter also said on Friday.

Dow Jones shares gained 1.6 percent to $58.79 on the New York Stock Exchange.

The comments on Friday countered a report in London's The Business weekly magazine that said the two sides have completed talks and were expected to announce a deal next week, citing unnamed sources acting for the Dow Jones board.

The report also said Dow Jones had accepted Murdoch's original offer of $60 per share for the company. Investors and analysts have speculated Murdoch might have to raise his bid by a few dollars per share to clinch a deal.

A Dow Jones spokesman said the report was incorrect. A News Corp. spokesman was not immediately available.

Murdoch made an unsolicited $5 billion offer to buy the publisher of The Wall Street Journal newspaper. The offer valued Dow Jones at a 65 percent premium to its stock price before the bid was disclosed publicly in May.

"There is no change in the status of the discussions currently under way," a spokesman for the Bancrofts said. "News Corp. is continuing to conduct due diligence and the negotiations are not complete."

Some three dozen Bancroft family members control Dow Jones through a combined ownership of 64 percent of voting shares.

Murdoch and the Dow Jones board last week reached a tentative agreement on creating an independent board to oversee the editorial integrity of the Journal and other Dow Jones operations, an element key to securing the Bancrofts' approval.

The board's members would have the power to approve or veto editor candidates selected by News Corp., sources familiar with the matter told Reuters at the time.

It would comprise members chosen jointly by News Corp., Dow Jones and the Bancroft family.

Separately, Murdoch told Reuters in Warsaw last week that an agreement with the Bancrofts would come within two or three weeks, "or not at all," adding that he had no plans to boost his bid price.

A deal for Dow Jones and the Journal, viewed as one of the world's most reputable newspapers, would help anchor News Corp.'s soon to be launched Fox Business Channel, a cable news network rival to General Electric's CNBC.

News Corp., founded from a pair of newspapers in Australia, now owns close to 120 newspapers including the Times and The Sun in Britain, the Australian in Australia and the New York Post in the United States.

News Corp. shares fell 9 cents to $21.55.

(Additional reporting by Michele Gershberg and Kenneth Li)