Caroline Wozniacki Muscles A Victory Over Maria Sharapova In US Open

20-year old Caroline Wozniacki beat Maria Sharapova in straight sets on Labor Day at the 2010 US Open.

 The victory wasn't even funny to watch. It was brutal. It was the skinny beauty queen in Maria Sharapova versus the female bodybuilder Caroline Wozniacki, and brawn won big time.

Caroline Wozniacki had Sharapova literally chasing the ball all over the place. Then, just when it looked like Caroline from Denmark was six points from a win, Sharapova mustered her reserve and nearly avoided the straight set win that did happen, 6-3, 6-4.

Now, Caroline Wozniacki, the number one seed who's won 19 of 20 straight sets since Wimbledon, advances in the US Open.

U.S. Open Tennis: Venus Williams French Open Outfit Shows Legs

Venus Williams (AP)

The new buzz is all about U.S. Open Tennis and Venus Williams' French Open outfit. Since it lacks a skirt, all we see are legs and bikini panties. That's it.

Venus says the outfit's designed to show fireworks.  But the only fireworks were because of what the outfit shows - almost everything below the waist.

All this space can say is "WOW." But frankly, her sister Serena has better legs: more shape and muscle. Still both are sexy.

You have to admit, Venus knows how to stir a crowd online and offline.

 Caroline Wozniacki (Extreme Sports) 

And that brings up another thought. This should confirm that guys watch women's tennis to check out the legs.

It's really that simple. Where else can guys see women showing great, sexy, muscular legs? You can't even get that in Playboy.

And on the topic of Women's Tennis Players with legs, Caroline Wozniacki has better legs than Venus Williams, at least I think so.

Caroline Wozniacki, who's legs are even more muscular than in the photo, is as of this writing six points from beating Maria Sharapova. But nerves are getting to her. She's double-faulting.

Still Sharapova's making errors to.  Wozniacki is two points away from victory.

But those legs!

Oakland Mayor's Race: Don MaCleay, Don Perata, Tax Increment Financing

Blogging random thoughts on Labor Day 2010 in Oakland.

First, say Chip Johnson, my friend, can you name all of the candidates running for Mayor of Oakland without a list to assist you? A bottle of wine says you can't do it on video. Talking to Don Perata is great, and it was a great column, but we need more coverage from you - try doing all of them! Besides, Don skipped the Forum. He had a reason, but Perata's not Mayor; acting like he is will not win the prize.

...Still, I'm starting to see Perata lawn signs...

Second, this blogger has video from the Oakland Mayor's Race Forum on Jobs from last Thursday, but thankfully so do a number of Oakland blogs. That means I can wait and take my time. Yeah!

In fact, I have a backlog of videos that are of a higher priority than the Forum, and I will explain why below. But interviews with Oakland District Two Councilmember Pat Kernighan and her challenger Jennifer Pae, and an upcoming interview with Joe Tuman have to get out there.

Third, now, about the Forum. Where were Terrance Candell and Arnie Fields? Got to attend these things.

Don McCleay 

As I stated in my Twitter tweets during the forum - and there's a good chance you didn't see them, which is cool, but it's not like I have a million followers yet - I believed the best performances were from Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, Joe Tuman, and (drum roll please) Marcy Hodge. I really didn't think Hodge would do that well, and I base much of my choice on the way she handled my tax increment financing question.

Frustrated with the dog-and-pony-show level of questions at the Oakland Mayor's Forums, I tossed in this one: What is Tax Increment Financing and how will you use it to help business and create jobs in Oakland?

Or something like that.

The question did what I engineered it to do: surprise the candidates and make them think, and scare them. In the process, we learn how they handle a real curveball. Because that's what Mayor's will have to deal with: lots of curveballs.

Beyond that, I wanted to see if the people running for Mayor knew about what tools were available to them for job creation and business assistance. TIF is one of them. (And before you tell me it can't be used for the provision of services in Oakland, I will tell you you're wrong. There's a little known part of the California Heath and Safety Code that says, essentially, that it can. So there. Go and do your homework, and when you're stuck, call me.)

At any rate...

Marcy Hodge answered the question and correctly referred to TIF for what is is, a tool. For someone who didn't spend time in redevelopment (well, OK, she is on the Peralta Board), she gave a good answer of what it could and could not do.

I can't say that for my friend Don MaCleay, who's first concern was "Who asked the question." My thought was "Who cares! Just deal with it." I was openly disappointed in Don, and I think he knew he could have handled that better.

In fairness, Don was the one who got the question first. But that deer-in-the-headlights look he had was frankly totally funny. He paused for a second, and almost had his own Jan Brewer moment, except he saved himself by 8 seconds.

Because of Don's flub, the other candidates were under pressure to try and get it right and for the most part, they did. Councilmember Jean Quan actually got it better than the other candidates, and were it not for Hodge's surprisingly poised answer, would have won the round. Jean Quan was fair, she didn't bash TIF, just gave an evaluation of its pros and cons.

Larry Lionel Young Jr, started off well if stilted, but then lost me when he went "street" in the last part of his answer, ending in a "Vote for LL."   Still, "LL" is a very polished candidate and has presented himself extremely well.   The gap between he and say, Councilmember Jean Quan isn't much, frankly.

But the "much" is critical. I think if the Forums had more policy questions like that one, Jean would do better than she has. Councilmember Quan's a really bright and well-considered person. In retrospect, I don't think the Forums have done her justice, but one thing is she's getting better at just being happy rather than having the view of "what am I doing here with these people."

I hope she keeps it up.

What Is Tax Increment Financing?

Oh, forgot to mention. Tax Increment Financing goes like this. You have an area of the City that you and I agree is blighted. So the Oakland City Council agrees and to make a long process short, we have a redevelopment area. The property tax paid by land and building owners normally goes to the city, county, BART, AC Transit, and EBMUD; now it goes to the Oakland Redevelopment Agency.

The first year of collection, we take the total assessed value of the new area and that becomes the base year of AV. (AV is assessed value.) Each year from that point we take the total assessed value for that year and subtract it from the base year, and multiply that times the tax rate. That's our money for that year, but we let it build up year after year.

If we look out over a 40 year projected period, we have enough to use to float a bond to finance a redevelopment plan.

That's the basic explanation of TIF from a guy, me, who's been a consultant to the City of Oakland, Emeryville, and Elihu Harris, when he was Mayor of Oakland.

OK. It's Labor Day. Enjoy it.

Mad Men: The Suitcase - Don Draper's Racism In Ali vs. Liston

In my previous post on Mad Men, I blogged this:

Mad Men and Ali v. Liston 2: May 25, 1965

To put things in perspective, I was born August 4, 1962. What's great about being alive now is that there are shows like Mad Men that reach back to my very early years, but I'm contemporary such that I can express what I was seeing then, now using a blog. By then I was barely three years old, but I remember the buzz about this Cassius Clay guy and how some people in Chicago said he was Muhammad Ali.

A lot of people, black and white and whatever, wanted Ali to lose that fight; not true for my parents, who never communicated a negative thought about Ali. But it was all over: neighbors talking to my dad. On radio. On television (we had one.) Ali was this bad guy who talked too much.

Ali kicked Liston's ass. I was happy then, and happy to see Don Drapers face sag as he drove his cigarette into the ash tray.

Yes. Happy. Prior to his visit to the local bar with Peggy (which was a pretty bold step to bring a woman not your wife to a bar in 1965), Don Draper commented that Cassius Clay was a big mouth who talked to much. "Why does he have to say it; just do it."

Draper spouted all of the fears that America, circa 1965 had about Muhammad Ali. If you were black, you were supposed to keep quiet. Not say anything. In those days, in some areas of the United States, it was considered not legal to even have a white girl friend. In the South, just looking at a white girl would get you lynched. That was the era Mad Men is focused on.

I mention sex because sexual advance toward a woman is the common act of male sexuality. The simple fact is, even at a time of same sex marriage, being able to overcome the fears of rejection of a woman and learn the female language is considered the ultimate act of manhood.

The other ultimate act of manhood and adulthood for women is self-expression of prowess: that is to say I'm the best. For someone black to openly say that in 1965 was considered a threat to a white World.

Thus, many Americans regardless of color did not want Ali to win, let alone "be Ali." They wanted him to be Clay. To remain in the background. To be a boxer and not a political symbol. Donald Draper embodied all of that in Mad Men: The Suitcase.

I'm glad he lost his bet.

Mad Men: The Suitcase - Internet Buzzing, And About Ali vs. Liston

Mad Men: The Suitcase is a perfect example of why Mad Men rules The Emmys. Look, I'm not a Mad Men junky, but I know great television when I see it.

For this blogger Mad Men: The Suitcase was a study in the collapse of the professional masks of two very damaged people, and Don Draper's mainstream racist view of Muhammad Ali (which I explain in this link.)

Don Draper's got nothing but his work; Peggy wants to be seen as more than just an office tart. But at the end of the day, literally, both get scrubbed up and go back at it again. With Draper finding creative inspiration from a fight he took the wrong bet on.

Mad Men and Ali v. Liston 2: May 25, 1965

To put things in perspective, I was born August 4, 1962. What's great about being alive now is that there are shows like Mad Men that reach back to my very early years, but I'm contemporary such that I can express what I was seeing then, now using a blog. By then I was barely three years old, but I remember the buzz about this Cassius Clay guy and how some people in Chicago said he was Muhammad Ali.

A lot of people, black and white and whatever, wanted Ali to lose that fight; not true for my parents, who never communicated a negative thought about Ali. But it was all over: neighbors talking to my dad. On radio. On television (we had one.) Ali was this bad guy who talked too much.

Ali kicked Liston's ass. I was happy then, and happy to see Don Drapers face sag as he drove his cigarette into the ash tray.

Buzz for Mad Men: The Suitcase

Of course, the accounts of Mad Men don't even focus on Ali v. Liston, but they're worth noting, none the less. The LA Times Meredith Blake blogged:

"Mad Men" can be a lot of things, but one thing it’s usually not is a tearjerker. The show always packs an emotional wallop — you'll laugh, you'll cringe, you'll want to throw paperweights at Don — but good, old-fashioned lumps in your throat are hard to come by. Sunday night, however, there wasn't a dry eye at my house. Granted, I watched the episode by myself, but still: If the image of Don, drunk, heartbroken and curled up in Peggy’s lap, won't get you a little misty-eyed, then your name must be Betty Draper.

Hmmm. Reading between the lines, I'd say Meredith Blake's trying to tell us she's single and ready to mingle, but I digress. Here's the Entertainment Weekly's Mad Men Central:

...And there kicked off one of the finest two-player performance pieces I can remember from TV history. (Hyperbolic? So what. I'm drunk on feelings of love and goodness. And from pressing repeat on ''Bleecker Street.'') It was like watching a play unfold, as Peggy and Don circled one another, spitting out long-held accusations — he's a drunk, she's a child — and sharing revelations from their similarly traumatic childhoods. Elisabeth Moss had so many brilliant moments.

I'm waiting for the Mad Men fan sites to kick in with their take. It's going to be interesting. But I'm still thinking about Ali vs. Liston.

Labor Day no picnic for jobless 99ers

This Labor Day is no picnic for the jobless 99er Nation. While much of the country is busy celebrating the unofficial end of summer, millions of jobless Americans can barely put food on the table because they have been without unemployment benefits since February/March this year.

One week from today, the US Senate will return from their summer break, but will only remain in session through October 8th, when they will again adjourn until long after election day. Currently there are 2 bills waiting in Congress for when they reconvene next week. Time is short. The Americans Want to Work Act (S3706) and HR6091 are both flawed, as they do not cover all UI ‘exhaustees’ in all states. For the many facing hunger and homelessness everyday, today is certainly no day of celebration.

The best Americans who have exhausted all tiers of UI benefits can hope for now, is to have the Americans Want to Work Act extended to include all states and passed immediately. No half measures will do and for those struggling desperately to stay afloat, this cannot happen soon enough. Once S3706 passes in the Senate, it should pass easily in the House, then on to Obama for his signature. Once it becomes law, it will depend on each state how fast the UI benefits will get to those who needed them months ago.

President Obama needs to get involved and in touch with the 99er community by holding town hall meetings and speaking to us directly. These meetings could be held online. The 99ers are angry and our votes will show it in November. No Democrat is safe at this point and many 99ers have already changed their affiliation to Independent, as a direct result of the lack of compassion and urgency thus far to help the 99 community, by the party in power. If Obama will not talk to the 99er Nation, we must talk to him.

To that end, we are encouraging all unemployed Americans, exhaustees or otherwise to participate in a campaign to contact the President, all your Senators (Democrat or Republican) and demand they vote for this bill immediately.

Contact information for all Senate members can be found at: http://joblessunite.yolasite.com/legislators-list.php Congressional Toll free Switchboard: 1-866-220-0044.

Every day WE NEED ALL AMERICANS concerned about this crisis to contact the White House Comments Line 202-456-1111 Comment line is only open 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM Monday thru Friday EST.

If we can get millions of Americans to call the White House Comments line, demanding this Tier 5 bill become law, we will not be ignored. So, spread the word, share this article where you know it will reach the unemployed masses. If we make this call in campaign vital to the success of their November campaigns, we cannot lose.

Machete Race War? The Expendables Has Whites Killing Latinos

Machete Race War? What about The Expendables? A small Internet brush fire, started by Alex Jones of the blog Prison Planet, has it that the movie Machete is anti-white.

The take on the movie, which this blogger hasn't seen yet, has led to protests online and offline. The San Jose Mercury News reports that a protest was held in Livermore, California over the idea that Machete is anti-white.

But a commenter here at Zennie62.com and on the previous post about Machete has a take worthy of mention:

Alex Jones is stoking the flames of white american frustration and anger. His articles of this movie have been featured on DrudgeReport.com the past few days. I've certainly have never heard or read of him before but by reading his recent articles he seems like a complete conspiratorial nutjob.

A recent movie I viewed called the "The Expendables" with Sylvester Stallone deals with him and a band of mercenaries (whites) flying into a small island banana republic controlled by a CIA rouge agent (white again) and end up totally massacring at least 250 latino soldiers. The sole latina in the film is even water boarded in full view graphically. Not one word from Univision/Telemundo etc. etc. of this. Why no outrage? It's not reality, it's fiction, it's film.

Can't we have a movie where mexicans are for once the heroes? Alex Jones says NO!

Interesting. But given my interview with Sylvester Stallone at Comic Con 2010, I'm certain he would bristle at the notion The Expendables is anti-Latino, let alone anti-Mercenary.



Still, the commenter has a good point. Even if there's no stated intent to present Latinos in a bad light, The Expendables does have to do with a fictional South American (read: Latino) country and a dictator (read: Latino), and people who defend the country who The Expendables, of which all are not white - Terry Crews is black and Jet Li is Asian - but do kill people who have a Latino reference, if you will.

Oh, boy. My guess is Lionsgate's not going to be happy about having their tentpole film tossed into this debate.

Machete Race War? Alex Jones Claims Machete Movie Is Racist

There are three problems with the claim that Alex Jones makes about Machete igniting a race war.

First, from occasionally watching as much as this blogger cares to of MSNBC's Lockup, race wars are something that only happen in prisons and not in civilization.

Second, a movie attacking Arizona's psychotic illegal immigration law, as Machete reportedly does, is bound to make someone in Arizona who's involved in the administration of the law look bad.

Allegedly Machete makes whites look like evil bad people and Mexicans look like the good great people who will overcome the white people. Or at least that's what Alex Jones of PrisonPlanet.com says here:



Welcome to stereotypes. Blacks have been dealing with that problem since film was created. Oh, come to think of it, according to CMR, there aren't any African Americans in Machete.

Oh well. Now, I'm really upset.

Oh, third, according to the search stats, only people in Arkansas, Alabama, and Texas care about this issue. They represent 20 percent of the search traffic. So, the Machete Race War is really only on the minds of those in Arkansas, Alabama, and Texas anyway.

Translation? Don't worry about it. But see the movie first. I've not seen it. Maybe I will.

UPDATE: Revis, Jets Agree To New Deal « CBS New York- News, Sports, Weather, Traffic and the Best of NY

From our friend Jeff C @cbs2ny.com

UPDATE: Revis, Jets Agree To New Deal « CBS New York- News, Sports, Weather, Traffic and the Best of NY

Google Blogger Real Time Traffic Stats Better Than Clicky.com, Worldlogger

Blogger.com, owned by Google, has added something this blogger has wanted to see for a long time: a "real time" traffic statistics system. It's a real improvement for Blogger.com, and can go a long way toward revolutionizing blogging. The question you may be asking is "what's real time traffic estimation."

Real time traffic estimation, or "real time web analytics," is where a software program updates estimates of such common web traffic measures as unique visitors and pageviews. A good system can do this within four to six minutes of the installation of a blog post.

This blogger discovered how useful real time blogging was almost by accident. Yobie Benjamin, who's a fellow CityBrights blogger at SFGate.com, turned me on to something he helped develop called in an effort to track down an Internet stalker. Yobie shut down his system, but I happened to find another one that had a license to use his software. It's called Clicky.com. But a month after installing the code, Click.com became a tool for another effort: real time blogging.

Real Time Blogging, or "Trend Blogging" is developing a blog post in response to what the top searches are on a service like Bing X-Rank or Google Trends. Using real time traffic reporting allows you to see how your blog traffic responds to your posts ability to "hit" the keywords people are using to find out about a subject in a search.

I started doing this last November of 2009 and just after the discovery that I generated 1.1 million unique visitors at SFGate.com for the month of October 2009. By November, that increased to 1.5 million, and in December, 2.2 million unique visitors.  From October to May of 2010, I've generated over 7.7 million visitors at SFGate.com.

Jesse James and Michelle "Bombshell" McGee

The use of Clicky.com continued until the day it was announced that Jesse James was cheating on Sandra Bullock and with Michelle "Bombshell" McGee. That was Wednesday, March 18th, 2010.

Sandra Bullock and Jesse James ruled Google Trends; I wanted to join them.

On that day I wrote six blog posts on the news, and amassed over 280,000 unique visitors before 4 PM EDT, according to SFGate.com staff. I blogged between 7 AM and 11 AM EDT, and by my later estimation, generated over $500 in ad revenue for SFGate.com for that one day, none of it I saw but I helped save some jobs (more about that later in this post).

But the flip side of that, is my videos, even though the latest one wasn't about Bullock at the time, realized a dramatic view increase. All of this was a fantastic development for Real Time Blogging. There was just one problem: Clicky.com.

Clicky.com MAJOR FAIL

Clicky.com stopped tracking traffic data at 4:13 PM EDT, and at 102,000 visitors. In fact, the traffic report updates were slower and slower, until by that time they were a full three hours behind real time. Without an accurate real time traffic gauge, I had stopped blogging around 11 EDT, as stated, really to let the system catch up. But the graph reporting dashboard was literally stuck in place.

This email I received from Clicky.com support explains what happened:

Your site is normally fine but the spikes that you have are HUGE. Not just today but every couple weeks you have a gigantic spike. This one does look to be your biggest yet. You currently have 4400 users on your site at once. We're just absolutely not designed for that level of traffic occurring on a single site. The server is processing the backlog but it's falling further and further behind real time because this is just too much. Your site is currently accounting for almost 50% of the total traffic being logged to your site's database server. Each server is allocated around 8000 sites.

That means your site is logging as much traffic as the other 7,999 sites on the same server put together, and your spike is affecting the other 7,999 sites on this server.

So I'm sorry to say, I don't think we'll be able to track your site anymore. I had to disable it for now so that the server can catch back up.

We can handle sites up to 500,000 daily page views, but that's assuming that traffic is spread out somewhat evenly throughout the day. Your traffic comes in huge spikes in just an hour or two, which doesn't work very well with our service.

I'd recommend checking out chartbeat.com. They don't have nearly as many features as we do but they handle higher traffic and they are real time.

For me that was a major blow. The information on my impact on Clicky.com was new and surprising. What I didn't get was why they didn't try and work with me, upgrading me to another service level?

So, Real Time Blogging hit a misstep. Fortunately, it was a temporary one.

Enter Worldlogger.com

I happened on Worldlogger.com after just searching around and evaluating different services. For all of it's poor customer service, Clicky.com's dashboard was terrific. So that became my model for the next service to use. I did investigate Chartbeat.com but I did not like their dashboard layout. I don't want dials and numbers; I want graphs and numerical charts and keyword readouts. Worldlogger.com had none of that. At first.

What Worldlogger.com did have and has is a team of people who really want to help you. They are the direct opposite of Clicky.com from a customer service perspective. But the design wasn't what I wanted; Worldlogger took my input and those of others to make a terrific interface. It was lacking in one area at the time: keyword reporting.

Which words are causing what level of traffic at what time is a critical part of Real Time Blogging. Worldlogger lacked that. Even with that, Worldlogger's people were so incredible to work with, I stuck with the service as they were constantly improving it.

Focus Turns To Zennie62.com

About two months later I refocused on what had been a year-long process: getting Zennie62.com on Google News.  The argument I made to Google execs was that aside from meeting their basic requirements, all of my blog posts on SFGate.com started at Zennie62.com.   That realization sealed the deal.

Then, Blogger announced Real Time Traffic Stats and the new course for Zennie62.com was set.

My objective with Zennie62.com and my new Georgia-based company Zennie62Media.com is to show that a worthy competitor to blog sites like The Huffington Post and PerezHilton.com can be created using the Blogspot.com platform.  There a lot of incorrect assumptions about Blogspot.com that Zennie62.com's growth can help eliminate.  Plus, I want to be able to capture that $500 per day of revenue (when it happens) for my media site.

SFGate.com and The SeattlePI.com are great websites, but the fact is what I'm doing is light years ahead of what's being done on those sites and elsewhere.

Consider entering a blog post with a photo from a cell phone at a Cal Football game, then having that blog post hit Google News, Twitter, and Facebook minutes later, all while being at the game and not in the press box.  That happened Saturday and here's the post. Real Time Blogging goes mobile.

The Future Is Not For Everyone

Real Time Blogging is not for everyone. Journalists will hate it, and some who are aware of what I do already dislike it. But the bottom line is the revenue returns are better than anything news websites are doing now.

The future of media is Real Time Blogging. It can also save investigative journalism by generating revenue and eyeballs for it.

Chilean Miners Rescue Op Called "Operation San Lorenzo"

Chilean Miners on video (CNN)

33 Chilean Miners, who have been trapped for 25 days and 2,258 feet below the ground in Copiapo, Chile, will be rescued as part of a plan called "Operation San Lorenzo."

The miners, who reportedly almost escaped being trapped in the mine itself as it collapsed, were discovered alive, and surviving via stretching a 48-hour food ration over a 20-day period.

Now, the miners are receiving food, supplies and communications equipment via three holes bored down to the area they're trapped in. Their first request? To Send toothbrushes.

The miners aren't all in one space; they sleep in various parts of the mine. A tunnel some distance away reportedly serves as their toilet.



Operation San Lorenzo Ambitious and Risky

"Operation San Lorenzo" involves using giant drills, one called The Strata 950 and the other the T-130 to bore through the rock. It's estimated that it will take four months to create a full hole. Engineers are reportedly examining how the hole can be expanded in such a way as to get the men out of there.

Stay tuned.

Beck admits he lied to the rally August 28th: it was easier than telling the truth.

As Steve Krakauer of Mediaite explains, Keith Olberman caught Glenn Beck's "white lie" told to the crowd at the August 28th rally:

...he didn’t actually hold George Washington’s first inaugural address. He just had it held in front of him.

Beck's discussion on his show, admitting the lie, seeks to make light of it because the full explanation is "clumsy" in a speech. So, he says, "They caught me."  He recounted a trip to the Archives, but...

"...you can’t touch them..."

Glenn Beck

Keith Olbermann caught him telling a lie. He wants people to laugh it off; Beck says it's no big deal in his quasi-retraction, the equivalent of artistic license.

At a certain level, Beck's doubters are unsurprised by the irony that he'd stoop to fabrication to maintain his credibility with his audience. The problem remains that Beck followers are unlikely to even hear the correction, let alone to believe it if and when they do. We'd all like to think that presented with a truth, logic will dictate what most people believe - but Beck's realized that oldest truth: that a lie can run around the world while the truth is still getting its shoes on.

"Tell the truth," Glenn Beck exhorted the crowd on the National Mall, "and then expect it from others." But not, for heaven's sake, from a Fox Network entertainer in pursuit of ratings. But he probably did at least go to see the Archives building, I suppose. He wouldn't lie about that, would he?

Thomas Hayes is a political strategist, entrepreneur, and journalist currently working for the Madore for Congress campaign in Minnesota's Second Congressional District. He contributes regularly to a host of web sites on topics ranging from economics and politics to culture and community.