Al Franken shuts up Joe Lieberman on Heath Care

Today's Al Franken / Joe Lieberman exchange has everyone in politics, especially liberals, buzzing. Minnesota's newly-minted Senator Al Franken, has been flexing his political muscles of late regarding the Health Care Bill.

Senator Al Franken

On Monday, he had a testy exchange with South Dakota Senator John Thune after Franken introduced a motion to change a tax in the bill from an excise tax to a surtax and such that it only applied to those who were truly wealthy, or "making millions" as he put it.

Franken said he missed Thune's discussion on the Heath Care Bill, but asked Thune if he talked about any of the benefits that would kick in immediately upon passage. Thune said that he had not. Upon hearing this, Franken chastised Thune for only presenting some facts and not the whole set of facts: "Benefits do kick in on day one," he said. "We're not entitled to our own facts."

The chart Senator Thune presented was basically a mis-truth: a presentation of part of the Health Care Bill. It did not show when tax benefits "kicked in", and that is upon the day of passage of the bill.

Here's the video:



Al Franken's a very smart man. He's growing impatient with the Republican attempts to misrepresent what the Health Care Bill is, and so Franken's exacting his own brand of justice: legal punishment of the political enemy.

Today, the ememy was Senator Joe Lieberman. It happened to be Senator Franken's turn to preside over the Senate when Lieberman was speaking. But Liberman had so upset Democrats and Liberals with his heavy-handed blocking of any version of the Health Care Bill with a "Public Option" earlier in the week, that he made himself ripe for a political smack-down.

He got one.

Lieberman had ran out of his 10 minutes of speaking time and asked Franken for an extension of time. "In my capacity as the Senator from Minnesota, I object", Franken calmly responded. Lieberman gave a small chuckle and said "Ok".

But while Lieberman was claim and almost jovial, Arizona Senator John McCain was one thing: pissed-off. He came to the podium and first asked for 10 minutes speaking time each for the "Senator from Rhode Island" and the "Senator from Michigan the distinguished chair of the Armed Services Committee", and finally himself to speak on the bill - 30 minutes total.

McCain was asking for so much time for others to make a point.

"I've been in this Senate 20-something years and it's the first time I've seen a member denied an extra minute or two to, uh, finish his remarks. I don't know what's happening here, but I think it's wrong." Michigan Senator Carl Levin then stood to explain that the same action was taken earlier in the day to move the bill process along. But McCain was so upset, he interrupted Levin and asked against for his speaking time request to be granted.

Franken did so "without objection."



According to Joel Achenbach at the Washington Post, Lieberman later said "No hard feelings" and seemed to take the whole matter in stride. But it was a tentpole moment signaling rising Democratic anger at Lieberman. Firedoglake called it "a glorious moment".  Meanwhile, Michelle Malkin proves she wasn't watching the whole exchange, applying the term "snit fit" to Franken, when it really fits John McCain.   I'm not surprised.

Senator Franken gave a great example of how to combine Senate rules and television to punish your political opponent.  Brilliant! 

T-Mobile outage in USA and Puerto Rico, but not SF Bay Area

Various online news sources report a T-Mobile service outage. According to TechFlash.com, the problem is centered in the Southeastern United States and Puerto Rico. For those of you direction-challenged, that's everywhere between Georgia and Florida in the United States.

The reason for the problem is not stated on the T-Mobile website public forum, but a corporate moderator named "Dan" wrote this:

Some T-Mobile customers in the Southeastern United States and Puerto Rico may be experiencing intermittent service degradation for voice and data services. T-Mobile engineers and rapid response teams are working urgently to restore full service in impacted areas as quickly as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience this may be causing our customers.


Dan
Moderator, T-Mobile Forums

Prior to Dan's post, one T-Mobile user reported:

So just about 20 minutes ago I was unable to send text messages or place calls so I restarted my phone. When I restarted my phone it automatically put me on the AT&T network. I called T-Mobile and it looks like we're about to go through another outage. They have informed me it's spreading and could be similar to the one we experienced just a month ago... great.
FloridaResident - phoned home

And...

A few weeks back, t-mobile lost service for "5%" of its customers. Please tell me it's not happening again. Our phones are down. I was able to get out via bb messenger via wi-fi with someone else who also can not call out. I think it's about time this calls for getting out of these LOUSY contracts!
clark799 - searching for signal

Yikes. The same thing happened a month ago. Regardless, a non-working cell phone system can catch you at a time when you need it the most. Here's one example from the T-Mobile forum:

Of all days for you to have an outage it had to be the day where my sister goes into the hospital and living a full state away, I have no way of contacting my mom to know what is going on.


TYVM T-Mobile.... you can count me as a customer for a few more hours before I head to the Verizon Wireless store next to my apartment.
Whatss - pocket dials

What does TYVM means?

Well, I'm a T-Mobile user - chased to their more sane service billing plan by AT&T's fraudulent iPhone automatic billing system. I switched to a Blackberry from an iPhone just because of AT&T and I'm happy to report I've not experienced an outage with T-Mobile in the San Francisco Bay Area as of this writing.

I just wish Apple would allow T-Mobile to feature the iPhone.

NFL Chris Henry update: NFL Commissioner Goodell's statement

Roger Goodell 

I just received an email from the NFL which contains this statement by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on the passing of Cincinnati Bengals Wide Receiver Chris Henry:

"We are greatly saddened by today's tragic news about the loss of Chris Henry. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Chris's family, including his Bengals family. We have been in contact with the Bengals to offer our support through this difficult time."

NFL Chris Henry update - Bengals talk about Henry

A Chris Henry update.

The Cincinnati Bengals just held a press conference on the death of Wide Receiver Chris Henry. According to WTLT Cincinnati, Bengals Owner Mike Brown said that the receiver was well-liked by most in the organization:

"We knew him in a different way than his public persona... We liked him, he had worked through troubles in his life and had finally, seemingly reached a point in his life where he was blossoming. And then this tragedy cut him down."

Both Brown and Head Coach Marvin Lewis said that many spent a lot of time working to help Chris Henry. "I think everybody here, a lot of people here have spent a lot of time helping Chris develop as a person," said Lewis.

Bengals Quarterback Carson Palmer said this: "It's a very sad day for our team, for our organization, for Bengals fan. Chris was a guy who I believe, and our team believes, was heavily misunderstood."

Wide Receiver Chad Ochocinco echoed the thoughts I expressed in my last post when he said "He's been doing everything right. He's been doing everything right. My grandma always says you never really question the man upstairs on decisions because he never makes mistakes. I don't see how Chris was pulled to go already, especially when you're on the right path."

Amen.

Chris Henry died this morning - a sad day

Cincinnati Bengals Wide Receiver Chris Henry died this morning at 6:36 AM EST after sustaining injuries suffered after he fell from a moving pickup truck driven by his fiancee fiancee Loleini Tonga yesterday. Before I continue, Henry's fall was reportedly not her fault even though they had been arguing; she was questioned and released by police without being taken into custody Wednesday.

Chris Henry


My sympathies are with the family of Chris Henry and of his fiancee Loleini Tonga, and the Bengals and the NFL. I am really sad about this to the point of tears because Chris Henry was really getting his life of track and off to a great future.

Much has been written about his less-than-stellar off-the-field past, much of it the product of a misguided young man. But the Bengals really hung in there as did many in the NFL including former Dallas Cowboys Wide Receiver Michael Irvin, who must be totally devastated by this development. Irvin was personally involved in helping Henry.

We love people who overcome personal demons and rise to the level of success they so richly deserve. Chris Henry was one of those people. What bothers me is that my prayer that Henry make it wasn't answered, which can only mean God has a better place for him. I'll just have to accept that.

Folks, when you've attended or have been informed of, seven funerals and memorials of friends and relatives in two years, it impacts you. That's what I've been through - four this year alone and two within one week. The latest was Jerry Foster, a friend and a long-time patron of The Alley in Oakland where I go and sing (or try to), who died in his home last week; his memorial was Sunday. I got the call about Jerry as I was boring the plane from Atlanta to Chicago.

Life is not promised to us and we meet or at least see so many people, good people, along this journey, that it's hard to see them go. I will miss Chris Henry, both for his football skill and for his promising future. I will miss Jerry Foster singing at The Alley, using his PDA to read the lyrics of a song he picked out. I'll miss kidding him about his beloved Minnesota Vikings, and talking about their quarterback, Brett Farve.

A sad day of a terrible week.

Tiger Woods divorce? Woods not divorcing before Christmas

Tiger Woods divorce? Tiger Woods partying with Tony Romo of The Dallas Cowboys? Holly Sampson talking about Tiger Woods? The idea that a Tiger Woods divorce from Elin Nordegren, or more accurately Elin Nordegren divorcing Tiger Woods, is all over the news and revealing two things: how insensitive the media is to Christmas, and how most of the blogs and articles are presenting the past as if it was the present.

 Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren still together

There's no one absolute, 100 percent certain word from either Tiger Woods or Elin Nordegren that they're getting a divorce. Nothing. There's no total proof that Elin Nordegren has moved out of the Tiger Woods home, even with reports to the contrary from US Weekly.

A little common sense can go a long way. With Christmas just over a week away, why would either Tiger or Elin just suddenly rip their kids away from a Christmas together, if only just to keep things as normal as possible for them?

Huh?

US Weekly blurts that Elin Nordegren didn't go to the "annual holiday party at the Isleworth Country Club". Uh, why would she? No one would go to any event if they were under the media spotlight that both Tiger and Elin are faced with. It's not only stressful, but risky. The moment Elin shows up and happens to give a friendly hug to some man or woman, the tabloids would go so far as to assume she was dating that person. I'm serious.

It's not too much to ask for an application of a little common sense here. Yes, Tiger Woods acted badly, and the New York Post has a breakdown of his method of operation with his mistresses, courtesy of Jaimee Grubbs:

"Meet me at the Island Hotel," he texted Grubbs, a cocktail waitress, on Oct. 15. "We're in room 905 in Newport Beach under Mr. & Mrs. Bell."

The NY Post reports that "Byron Bell is a longtime pal of Woods."

But the rest of the NY Post account is all about the past and not the present or the future. Porn star Holly Sampson's words were about actions that took place before he was married. TMZ.com has a post about Tiger Woods at Dallas Cowboys Quarterback Tony Romo's luxury box in the new Cowboys Stadium for the U2 Concert in October. But the photos of Woods and the blonde woman he's standing next to are so blurry one can't make out who she is. To TMZ's credit, that fact is noted.

But the TMZ post is about a past event.

The truth is folks, no one knows a thing except the two of them, Tiger and Elin. But a little nod to the season would give a clue that it's highly unlikely Elin Nordegren would break up the family before Christmas. And I'll bet Tiger Woods is trying to make sure he's got his family together for the holidays. He's asked for another chance so let's see how this plays out before we're ready to declare them separated.

Oh, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!

Iron Man 2 trailer has Robert Downey Jr. at his best

The Iron Man 2 trailer for the long-awaited 2010 second installment in the movie series about Marvel Comics legendary techno-hero is out today, and it's incredible.

Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark

First, it features a lot of Robert Downey, Jr. as billionaire industrialist Tony Stark out of the Iron Man suit, first in a Senate hearing forcefully telling Senator Stern (played by Garry Shandling) that he's not giving up the Iron Man suit "to America." "It's my property. You can't have it," he yells to applause. "I did you a favor. I've successfully privatized World peace" Stark bellows as he stands flashing double peace signs in a Nixonian fashion.

Second, Stark is obviously in his element. Free of the burden of keeping his Iron Man identity a secret, he has the Stark Expo, complete with the kind of hardbody blondes Tiger Woods would like, and a lot of fireworks. I'll avoid giving away the trailer in a blow-by-blow here, but the short version indicates an even more personal story than the first movie.

Have a look for yourself: Iron Man 2 trailer.

I'm not sure how well all of these actors - Downey, Mickey Rourke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johansson, and Samuel L. Jackson - fit together, but I'm convinced Director Jon Favreau can pull it off just by the way he's tirelessly worked to make this new franchise's many parts - human, special effects, production, and story fit together the first time.

It's as if Paramount said "OK. Great job. You can handle this bigger second one, go do it."

I'll bet he's succeeded.

Chris Henry dead? No. In serious condition; prayer request

UPDATE: According to TMZ.com, Henry's fincee Loleini Tonga was questioned and released. She was never taken into custody.

Chris Henry dead is a hot search that's causing a problem; people think the Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver is just that.

Chris Henry

Chris Henry's not dead, but his agent Andy Simms of PlayersRep Sports reports that he's battling for his life according to the Associated Press.

WLWT Cincinnati reports that a homicide detective is investigating the Henry accident scene which means they don't think he's going to make it.

That's certainly what Mike Florio at ProFootballtalk.com thinks; I hope he's wrong.

This has been a really hard year for the Bengals. Earlier in the season Defensive Coordinator Mike Zimmer lost his wife, now this. Terrible.

Stay tuned and I echo Mike Florio by asking that you say a prayer for Chris Henry.

Chris Henry, Roy Disney, Tiger Woods divorce; bad news

You know it's a hard day when Cincinnati Bengals Wide Receiver Chris Henry is in critical condition, Roy Disney, Walt Disney's brother, passed away, and rumors are swirling that Elin Nordegren is divorcing Tiger Woods.

Divorce?


And the day's not over.

As I blog this, Chris Henry lay in critical condition at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C after he fell out of the back of a moving pickup truck driven by his fiancee Loleini Tonga.

Loleini Tonga and Henry reportedly had what is described as a domestic dispute; more on that below.

What's so sad about this news is not just the severity of Henry's injuries - such that some reports declare him dead - but that it seems his NFL career has been marked by more bad times than good times. Henry has been arrested for DUI, assault, and marijuana possession. And when he wasn't in legal trouble he was injured: he was out for the rest of 2009 after he broke his arm in a game against the Baltimore Ravens.

But when Henry is healthy and playing, he's a pass-catching force. The West Virginia Mountaineer joined the team in 2005. But even with his long list of off-the-field problems and injuries, Henry managed to average between 16 and 20 yards per catch during his career.

This year it looked as if Henry was finally balancing out his life, and he was. Ok, he was hurt, but that's the breaks in the NFL, no pun intended. Absent that, Henry was set to get married to Loleini Tonga. But what happened that caused the argument is a story still developing. Pop Crunch has it that Tonga was driving away in the truck when Henry ran after it and her and jumped into the bed, trying to argue with her; he fell off the truck as it was moving.

I close this subject for now, presenting a very cool video created by YouTuber CincyBengals29:

Roy Disney Dies

The nephew of the brother of the man who's history and focus on the urban America of tomorrow, Roy E. Disney, passed away after a battle with stomach cancer. What I remember most about Roy was more about his father Roy O. Disney - during the 70s he was the person who really didn't see his brother Walt Disney's dream of an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT) through to reality.

For those of you who don't know, the original concept of EPCOT was a true city within Walt Disney World that would be home to just 10,000 people and always in state of flux. It would be constantly 25 years ahead of its time, and a place that was a living test-bed for all kinds of systems and technologies that were not yet available or used in the open market.

Here's the famous 24-minute film where Walt Disney talks about his vision for EPCOT. It's worth your time; stop what you're doing and watch it. It first aired September 16, 1965 on ABC Television:



The EPCOT that was Disney's vision essentially died with him in 1966. I write that because, as a person who as a kid of 10 years old wanted to work for WED, or what was then called Walter Elias Disney Enterprises, the Disney division responsible for designing EPCOT, I watched in horror as it was transformed from what Walt Disney wanted and you saw, to really a souped-up theme park.

What happened at the time was the Energy Crisis hampered tourism and thus Disney's revenue. Frightened over the prospect of a future without a new theme park to draw visitors, Roy Disney and Cardon Walker, the head of WED at the time, approved a move away from Walt's concept. With that, I lost interest in WED and much of what Disney was doing at the time.

I know some may discussion the development of Celebration, Florida as the real EPCOT, and I give a nod to that observation, but the basic idea that Walt wanted remains not implemented.

Still, Roy Disney was a proud representative of the Disney way and overall carried on his brothers overall legacy. Roy Disney will be missed.

Tiger Woods Divorce

Earlier today I expressed hope that Tiger Woods, the Athlete of The Decade, would overcome his personal issues and save his marriage; but from the reports swirling as of this writing that's not going to happen. Sadly, Wood's wife Elin Nordegren's seeking a divorce.

Stay tuned.

Tiger Woods Athlete of The Decade, girlfriends, golf, and all

Tiger Woods was named "Athlete of The Decade" by the Associated Press, beating out Lance Armstrong, Roger Federer, Michael Phelps, Tom Brady, and Usain Bolt, and withstanding Theresa Rogers, Rachel Uchitel, Jaimie Grubbs, Mindy Lawton, Holly Sampson, Jamie Jungers, Cory Rist, Kalika Moquin, and all the rest of the other five alleged cocktail waitress and model mistresses.

Here's to Woods' next victory!

That proves Tiger Woods is the chosen one.

In fact, the contest wasn't even close: Woods got 56 of the 142 votes. Even with all of his alleged mistresses and girlfriends, the car accident, and his wife Elin Nordegren reportedly clocking him with one of the golf clubs he may have used on the way to this award, Woods got it.

And get this: more than half the ballots were voted on after - yes, after - Woods' Thanksgiving night accident and the subsequent scandal that rocked his life, and ours.

The Tiger Woods sex scandal aside, for a moment, Woods' play on the golf course has been nothing short of incredible. He's won seven tournaments in 2009 alone and 64 times around the World in the decade, and 12 majors. ESPN points out that Woods has won on every continent around the World.

Woods pocketed $81,547,410 from the PGA Tour events he was in, which is an average of $482,529 per contest.

With all this, and the AP award, Woods' website still reminds us that he's taken a hiatus from Golf. Sad.

Congratulations Tiger Woods! I say, Yippee! Because the poor man has been beaten up so badly and for actions that frankly other athletes and people in the sports business - can we talk for a second? - are just as guilty of that it's ridiculous.

But Tiger's greatest win of all will be overcoming this scandal and saving his marriage.

I hope he does that.

Theresa Rogers photos? Rogers says she's not Tiger Woods mistress

People are searching for Theresa Rogers photos. But get this: a few of the online publications that use the title Theresa Rogers photos, don't have them, or even one. That's really a terrible way to treat the reader. And for someone - Theresa Rogers - who claims she's not Tiger Woods mistress in the first place.

What a relief to find at least one women who will say that, even if so-called 'friends' are outing her as being one of 'Tiger's women', if you will.

And what a relief to find one blogger that has a photo, me:

Theresa Rogers

I guess Theresa Rogers isn't playing the "story for money" game either which makes her really great in my book. I guess Rogers thinks enough of her personal image to steer clear from this stuff and being called 'Cougar' is not helping either. But think about it: how many of these allegations are true and is someone out there just trying to ruin Tiger Woods? There are so many stories flying around - many of them false - it's not funny.

And I'm really sick of the word 'Cougar'. In fact I'm starting to think of it as the N-word for adult women. Or maybe I'm just being too sensitive. Or maybe I should watch Cougartown and get it out of my system.

Whatever the case, I digress.

It looks like, if reports hold, Elin Nordegren, Tiger Woods wife, is seeking a divorce. I certainly hope this isn't the case and what happened to those marriage counseling reports? That was just two weeks ago, right?  See, this comes from  another "source" so I think it needs to be checked and double checked before it's ran with.  But it's a free for all.  And ...er...TIGER.   Dude.  Say something, will ya?  Come on, man.

Stat tuned.

The case for Zennie62 at the Academy Awards - Oscar Buzz

As my video-blog career has grown I've noticed that many don't have a complete understanding of how to evaluate a person's effectiveness in the New Media landscape.

Even with innovative movies like Avatar, Star Trek, and the upcoming Iron Man 2, and popular television shows like 24, many in the media and entertainment business lack a good set of metrics to evaluate how news and culture bloggers are performing and where to send press releases or in this case, who to have at The Oscars or The Golden Globes.

So, using the subject of the 82nd Annual Academy Awards as a backdrop, I elected to create a video and a short presentation of the message-distribution powers and abilities of the Zennie62.com brand.

The Zennie62.com New Media effort consists of my main blog, Zennie62.com (which was called Zennie's Zeitgeist), 26 main blogs, an overall inventory of 100 blogs, my popular YouTube channel Zennie62 and video channels on Blip.tv and six other systems, my San Francisco Chronicle / SFGate.com main blog, Examiner blog, my USTREAM.tv Zennie62 channel, a channel at BlogTalkRadio, and finally my television show The Blog Report with Zennie62 on CoLoursTV.

Zennie62 has grown to become a New Media force. My videos are seen an average of 25,000 times each day on YouTube alone.  And as of December 12th, my YouTube videos were seen a total of over 10 million times in just over 2.5 years.

At SFGate.com, Zennie62 generated 1.003 million visitors in November 2009 and as of this writing on December 15th 2009 has already surpassed the 1 million visitor mark for December alone. If the current rate continues Zennie62 on SFGate.com will reach over 2.5 million visitors for December 2009.

In addition to the video-blog combination the Zennie62 brand has over 7,000 Twitter followers and 3,000 Facebook friends. In total, the Zennie62 brand is represented on over 34 social networks.

Zennie62 is the New Media presence that should be at all Oscar events. It's able to communcate what's happening in a multi-media way, quickly and efficiently.