U.S. Women Olympic Athletes on Olympic Torch, China and Tibet

U.S. Women Olympic Athletes representing the Synchronized Swim Team talk to me for this vlog about the China Olympic Torch Controversy. Kristina Jones, Megan Kenny and Andrea Nott issued a plea is to allow them to go to the Olympics and in a message to President Bush, Andrea says that an Olympic Boycott would not be effective I can't say I agree, but the point of this is to capture their point of view, not mine.

For more on the team see this account at About.com.

Pro-Chinese Protestor On Tibet - SF Olympic Torch Ceremony

Pro-Chinese Protestor On Tibet - SF Olympic Torch Ceremony

Chinese Protester On Tibet. I asked this man the question of his opinion on China's reported torture and killing of Tibetan protestors and he agreed to be filmed. The result is in my view a very chilling answer which seems quite normal to him. He says, on camera, that "Tibet shamed China." Watch the video. He says that the acts were just an example of "China managing the situation" and that such "social control" was normal. Then he says, "have a nice day."

A YouTube viewer left a rather terrible comment that I lied when I claimed that China killed Tibetan protesters, but I did not. According to the April 5th 2008 Times UK, the Chinese police killed eight people after opening fire on monks and protesters. The Chinese government sent in 1,000 paramilitary police to use force to end the protest.

ABC= Assault Black Candidate Obama Smeared by ABC News In Debate

Once again, ABC News showed its biased and unprofessional approach in this election year with a debate last night that seemed not to be that at all, but an attempt to assault Senator Barack Obama.

Charlie Gibson and George Stephanapolos should be fired for this. They were terrible. It's a good think Obama weathered the storm, but this was supposed to be a debate anyway.

Social Media Marketing - Zennie's Definition At Ad-Tech

What does Social Media Marketing mean to you? Well I was asked that question at the San Francisco Ad Tech conference and gave this answer, with a twist.

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.

Bruce Springsteen Backs Barack Obama

Bruce Springsteen Backs Barack Obama

Like a bolt out of the blue and frankly with more empact that Elton John's Hillary Clinton concert , "The Boss" backed Barack Obama today, effectively turning the news cycle in Obama's favor and hitting a demographic group that some said Obama could not reach: White rural dwellers. This is what he wrote.

Dear Friends and Fans:

LIke most of you, I've been following the campaign and I have now seen and heard enough to know where I stand. Senator Obama, in my view, is head and shoulders above the rest.

He has the depth, the reflectiveness, and the resilience to be our next President. He speaks to the America I've envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems, a country that's interested in its collective destiny and in the potential of its gathered spirit. A place where "...nobody crowds you, and nobody goes it alone."

At the moment, critics have tried to diminish Senator Obama through the exaggeration of certain of his comments and relationships. While these matters are worthy of some discussion, they have been ripped out of the context and fabric of the man's life and vision, so well described in his excellent book, Dreams of My Father, often in order to distract us from discussing the real issues: war and peace, the fight for economic and racial justice, reaffirming our Constitution, and the protection and enhancement of our environment.

After the terrible damage done over the past eight years, a great American reclamation project needs to be undertaken. I believe that Senator Obama is the best candidate to lead that project and to lead us into the 21st Century with a renewed sense of moral purpose and of ourselves as Americans.

Over here on E Street, we're proud to support Obama for President.

Obama Gets Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Endorsement

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette backs Senator Barack Obama for President, writing...

...Pennsylvania -- this encrusted, change-averse commonwealth where a state liquor monopoly holds on against all reason and where municipal fiefdoms shrink from sensible consolidation -- needs to take a strong look at the new face and the new hope in this race. Because political business-as-usual is more likely to bring the usual disappointment for the Democrats this fall, the Post-Gazette endorses the nomination of Barack Obama, who has brought an excitement and an electricity to American politics not seen since the days of John F. Kennedy.

The primary is this Tuesday, April 22nd.

Fox News, Brit Hume Full Of Shit In My View: Barack's Right, We're All Bitter

Geez, these Fox News guys crack me up. Excuse me, these Fox News guys who insist on telling you or reminding you that they're old and "white male" and by that I mean exhibiting a 1950s kind of social and cultural inflexibility that prevents them from seeing social change . I'm writing about Brit Hume, Mort Kondracke, and Charles Kruthheimer, conservatives all.

They're trying to spin the whole Mayhill Fowler / "Bittergate" deal as revealing that Obama's an elitist, and a "Harvard Leftist" who does not appreciate the plight of working class people. What a bunch of total bullshit. But then I've some to expect bullshit level information from Fox News.

Barack was telling it like it is. Rural cities have been hammered by the erased manufacturing economy America was once know for, and it has not recovered. What's cropped up are people who are struggling, and some are totally pissed off with your ability to "make it" over them. To point that out is "anti-politic" whereas to avoid it is old politics at its best.

That's a fact.

Fox News was more interested in spinning a negative Obama story than telling the truth. Thanks, Mayhill, and you call yourself an Obama supporter?

More like you've been trying to shooting the captain.

Doctor Faust in 2008

The issue is honesty, justice, and fairness in American politics.

Rumors abound questioning Senator Barack Obama's commitment to a free and democratic Israel. Gary Hart says, in this piece at Huffington Post, "I find it outrageous and the height of political cynicism for any other candidate or campaign, Democratic or Republican, to question Senator Obama's commitment to continuation of the U.S.-Israeli partnership and particularly to do so in a sinister, duplicitous, and scurrilous manner by spreading false rumors. When he campaigns against the politics of the past, and attracts hundreds of thousands of young people and independents as a result, that is the kind of politics he means."

Opponents are flinging everything they can at Obama, hoping to find something - anything - that will stick. Lately his wealthy opponents, both veterans of the DC scene for decades (at least if you accept Senator Clinton's math) have had the audacity to suggest he's an out-of-touch elitist. Read about "bittergate" if you've somehow missed it, but rest assured it's backfired. If you don't know the reference to "Faust" you might not get Hart's reference, but it's about hubris, and selling one's soul to the devil.

The issue is honesty, justice, and fairness in American politics. Gary Hart gets it. He knows that Obama gets the bitter voters, and the situation in the middle east.

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Obama talks about Senator "Annie Oakley" Clinton in Steelton, PA

Bittergate? Obama's lovin' it.

Do you feel bitter? Are they playing politics with bittergate? Do you think Senator Clinton would look good in hunter's orange in her duck blind? Obama responds to bittergate today in Steelton, PA. Let's be blunt: the reason we cherish his hope is that decades of self-interest by insiders in DC has disenfranchised most of us normal people. Let's talk about hope!

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AARP millionaires saying OBAMA is out of touch? Get real.

Bittergate? Is that the best they can do?

Lifting a comment out of context that provides Obama a perfect reason to talk about hope versus the same old-school say-anything to get elected politics? The faux outrage of Senators Clinton & McCain is nearly tailor made to have him repeating his message - are his opponents so desperate they've forgotten that people ARE bitter, that it's politics as usual that Obama is AGAINST, and that voters are responding with renewed hope and enthusiasm?

Colin Powell certainly sees Obama positively. Several great vids connected to this article, including the one before somebody convinced CNN to be nice to Clinton instead of calling her out on this issue, as they had earlier in the day.

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That's right, they're looking up... wondering how they'll catch him.

Bitter and Angry in Rural Pennsylvania

"Yes, people ARE angry, and bitter, but Obama never said that they aren't resilient, opitmistic or hard-working. Those are Hillary and McCain's twisted words, and for them to stand up and suggest that rural Pennsylvanians aren't fed up with the way things are, only reveals how out of touch they really are with at least this part of the country." This is a great article from a woman who lives in Rural PA. Take a moment. Bittergate, people, isn't about Obama being out of touch (how dare McCain think he could make that stick?) it's about Obama's opponents so desperate to find another smear that they played the out-of-context card again -- only this time, it's working in his favor, because he's "forced" to talk about... you guessed it... HOPE.

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