U.S. Olympic Swimmer Michael Phelps just won his record-breaking eighth Gold Medal tonight with his participation in the 4 x 100 relay. Congratulations, Michael for being a great Olympian and a "cool muthafukca."
Some of you have asked me why I used that term "cool muthafukca". I got it from the movie "Pulp Fiction" , where Samuel L. Jackson -- in a classic performance -- ask for his wallet, the one called "Bad Mother Fucker". Well, I didn't want to use that exact term so I altered it.
The point is that Phelps is a cool person in and out of the water. In the water, he cooly destroys the competition. Out of the water, he's a cool person to meet.
I've seen a lot of crappy people in this election cycle, but this video shows a lot of them. It was made just before the West Virginia Primary and has whites just saying that they will not vote for Senator Obama as president because he's Black.
It's the kind of racism Hillary Clinton played on to gain votes. Will it reveal itself during the DNC Convention?
If you want to see how sick America -- or at least West Virginia -- can be, watch this video:
West Virginians should be ashamed of themselves for being racist. For just wanting to basically hurt themselves just to avoid voting for someone because they're Black. That's the ultimate in mental illness, which is what Racism is.
Sandy Allen, the World's Tallest Woman at 7'7 inches, passed away Thursday at 53 years of age and after a decline in her health that started in January and due to kidney and blood infections. http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif I always wonder what people like Sandy go through, and also having been a bit of an outcast myself in my youth, everytime I read or hear about a story like this, I am saddened and because of the way we treat people who may not be like whatever the "norm" is.
There's really no such thing as a norm; there are only individuals.
Anyway, here's a collection of videos about Sandy that I found on YouTube. I didn't include the ones that were insulting or sensational -- sorry.
Michael Phelps, who I met earlier this year and is in this video:
..scored his seventh Gold Medal last night in the 100 M Fly to tie Mark Spitz' three-decade-old record. He can beat it with one more win in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Hillary Clinton Should Not Be In Nomination: Ignore P.U.M.A
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's name should not be put in nomination for the Democratic Presidential Nominee at the DNC Convention for several reasons. But before I state them, let me explain that I have supported the idea of an Obama / Clinton ticket for some time. But these reasons have caused me to be less enthusiastic about that, and to reject the idea of her name in the nomination process.
1) Senator Clinton lost the primary. For reasons that have been explored in depth, Senator Clinton lost the primary delegate race to Senator Barack Obama, and Senator Obama gained more popular votes than Senator Clinton.
2) I did not like the way Senator Clinton conducted herself after the end of the primary. At first, she was working for party unity, but did not rein in some of her supporters and did not have her husband former President Clinton fall in line and support Senator Obama 100 percent.
It's as if they were really cool as long as they though they had a chance for Hillary to be Vice President, but fell off the wagon when it seemed that was not going to be the case.
3) Senator Clinton did not rein in her former campaign spokesperson Howard Wolfson, who incorrectly stated that she would have won the Iowa Primary if Senator John Edwards had revealed his affair with Rielle Hunter then, instead of last week. But the fact is that after Edwards dropped about 80 percent of his delegates went to Obama and his staff was pressuring him to back Obama, which he did.
There's an idea that the number of anti-Obama Hillary people out there is equal in number to the pro-Obama Hillary people. That's really not true at all. We not only saw that was the case during the votes at the DNC Rules Committee meeting, but in a deep look at organizations like "Party Unity My Ass" or "P.U.M.A".
First, P.U.M.A's founder Darragh Murphy (pictured) has been a supporter of Senator John McCain, giving him $500. It's clear that when she has the money, she will back a Republican candidate. Her claim of posting a lawn sign for Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick aside, because it's a lawn sign and not cash, Murphy only contributed $250 more for a Democratic Candidate, Hillary Clinton, than for McCain.
The other person who's aligned with the P.U.M.A people is Will Brewer, who has a tendency of aligning himself with questionable people who are also in P.U.M.A.
For ezample there's Andy Martin and Webster Tarpley. Martin is the person who started the "Obama is Muslim" smear campaign. Tarpley is not a Democrat at all, but a Lyndon LaRouche supporter.
(A charge Martin says is false and defaming in the same blog account.)
Brewer is also aligned with Harriet Christian, who showed her racism for the World to see in the now famous video clip included in my video commentary.
P.U.M.A is painted to be larger than it is. It only has a $50,000 budget as Murphy has reported on Hardball, not several million, and there's no evidence to claim over 2 million supporters. A P.U.M.A conference held on August 8th, 9th, and 10th, showed that only about 40 people came (count the number of name tags on the table then consider the size of the table an the people standing who have name-tags), even though they planned to draw over 250 people. When they did not meet that mark, the conference was booted from the original Marriot hotel and had to be moved to the Country Inn near Dulles Airport. (P.U.M.A. conference photo below from Rumproast)
Why -- as small as they are -- do we hear from groups like P.U.M.A? Because the mainstream media: the newspapers and the big three tv news networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC), and CNN, Fox, and MSNBC, have a vested interest in making the political race look like it's not a "done deal" and thus get you to watch more often.
So, they give people from P.U.M.A a platform, but the reality is that they're a divisive group that's not even part of the Democratic Party and has no business at the DNC Convention. They are to be ignored so we can get on with the business of growing the Democratic Party to victory in November.
Starting on Sunday, August 17th, I will present the first of a daily video series I call "DNC Convention News" which will run from that point, through the DNC Convention. The videos will be posted here and at DemConWatchBlog, as well as in at playlist at the Zennie62 Youtube channel. Each video will be dated in the title.
The idea is to give a video roundup of what's being reported on the blogs and emails and listserves about the DNC Convention, and reports on the DNC Convention events and people. Each video will be not more than four or five minutes long at best.
Marina Orlova is the very popular YouTube star of HotForWords and discusses word terms in her daily channel. This one's perfect for Zennie's Zeitgeist as it talks about the term "Lame Duck."
Steve Donziger Wants Billions From Chevron Not For Ecuador
Steve Donziger, the lawyer representing Ecuador against Chevron in a $16 billion lawsuit, where Chevron is not the actual party at fault, stands to gain over $5 billion, making him one of the richest people in the World -- if he wins.
If the truth prevails, the company Donziger should be suing is Petroecuador, owned by the Country of Ecuador. That firm has been responsible for explosions and oil spills since 1990. If Donziger wins, Petroecudor litterally gets away with murder.
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.
We hear alot about Michael Phelps and Natalie Coughlin, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Natalie's a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley -- Cal!
But we don't hear alot about heroes like Emily Silver, Natalie's teammate , fellow Cal-grad, and friend. Emily planned and trained to race in the 100 free, 100 fly, 200 free, and 50 free, but because she broke two fingers, Emily qualified for the 4 by 100 relay, where she played a major role in the United States taking the silver medal in that category.
The latest twist in the Laure Manaudou v. Federica Pellegrini 2008 Olympics story is that Laure did not compete in the Wednesday finals of the 200 meter. It was kept in relative silence, but Manaudor had said she was thinking of quitting the day before.
Personally I feel sorry for Laure because she was in the perfect position to make a dramatic comeback on the World stage, and yet she gave up. Plus, in doing so, she allowed her nemesis Federica Pellegrini to win -- which she did -- and take the spotlight.
