Green Party candidate Don MacLeay running for Oakland Mayor

In a day filled with John Mayer, Megan Fox, snow storms in New York and DC, and new 9-11 photos, it's important to stop and take a look at local citizens who want to make Oakland better. Don MacLeay is one, and he's the Green Party candidate for Mayor of Oakland.

In the video above, created two weeks ago, Don and this blogger met at Merritt Station Cafe across from Lake Merritt and talked - really his platform - for 35 minutes, and 21 of that on the video above. What follows is a summary of a long, uncut talk.

Don MacLeay is a computer consultant who does "small office networking" and a volunteer in a number of Oakland government activism activities. It was at that point that Don MacLeay first determined something wasn't right with Oakland, "I decided I was not in tune with where the Oakland Council and Jerry Brown were going," he said.

When Ron Dellums became Mayor of Oakland in 2006, Don MacLeay became concerned again after Dellums said his job wasn't to fix potholes. "I just couldn't disagree more," Don MacLeay said. "I'd like to be a mayor who's interested in potholes. Who's interested in a lot of those details."

Military versus a Civilian

Why should we vote for Don MacLeay, the new person, for Oakland Mayor over Don Perata or Oakland Councilmember Jean Quan (District 4), the two current front runners? For Don MacLeay, it's like the choice between those in the military or a civilian to run the military. (Interesting take.) "Some people treat it sort of like that", Don says. "It's a leadership job." And Don says someone representing the community should be mayor rather than the "military generals" Oakland's had to date.

What would Don do in a situation like that after the Oscar Grant Murder? "We have accountability to the civil society that is immediate. I would start by taking personal responsibility. It doesn't matter whether or not you gave orders or made mistakes or what it is, if you have a leadership job, you've got to get out there and take responsibility."

Don MacLeay says that Oakland's crime problem is part media creation and part real. Oakland has 25,000 reported crimes a year, he says, in a city of 400,000 people. "Now that's reported crimes, he says, "Every body who lives in Oakland feels it."

At the time of the interview, MacLeay was just three weeks into being a politician and said he was learning a lot and had "fire in the belly" for the job. He's done a lot of listening to the concerns of Oaklanders.

On the matter of sports stadiums for the Oakland A's and the Oakland Raiders, Don MacLeay reminds us that we're in a recession (technically, two quarters out of one), and while opposed to using general fund money for sports stadiums, feels that redevelopment dollars are the source for such an expenditure but it must be well-considered, first.

What kind of Mayor's staff?

One aspect of being a mayor that's lost in the campaign conversation is what kind of organization the candidate is considering. With Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris, the design was to have policy advisors that were a liason between he and the City of Oakland's staff.

When Measure X was passed and Oakland's government went from council-manager to strong mayor, Jerry Brown paired down his staff to just a few people and let the City Administrator's staff serve as his own. Ron Dellums approach was more like Brown's. What will MacLeay have? "I'm very concerned with the day-to-day function of management...there's way too much micromanagement." Don MacLeay thinks the City Council is far too involved in the management decisions of City Staff.

MacLeay observes that Oakland's City Council forced City Attorney John Russo's staff cuts such that Russo had to hire outside lawyers, which are more expensive.

In short Don MacLeay's administration will pay more attention to details, but avoid micromanaging City of Oakland's staffers. The word "attention to detail" came up a lot in our talk. MacLeay is very much interested in being a mayor that makes Oakland government work at the consumer level. Don doesn't want to throw out Oakland employees and start over because he doesn't think it's necessary to do. He wants to work with the staffers to make a better government.

A time for debate

"I see the election as a time where we argue about it. Do you want to do it Jean's way or Don's way or my way?" Don MacLeay says that Quan's policies are more clearly outlined that Perata's and that Perata has not made his direction clear as of this writing.

The race for Mayor of Oakland: a note

Don's website is www.macleay4mayor.org - visit the site and watch the video for more information. And as a note, I'm not backing any candidate as of this writing. Don and I have worked together on an Oakland Parking Initiative, which is where the idea for this video came from after I learned he was running long before any other media news.

Long before I talked to Don, I emailed Councilmember Jean Quan to request an interview and I expressed my desire to interview Don Perata months ago when we talked in public. In Quan's case, she wrote that I had "negative" things to say about her, which isn't true.

The truth is I had negative takes on how Quan handled running for Mayor of Oakland at the time, and believed that if she followed my advise she would be a better candidate. But it wasn't personal. I simply reserve the right to criticize any elected official in a constructive way. If anything, Jean's the front-runner and not because she's got more money than Perata, but because she's a woman and Asian.

Women political candidates are generally more popular than their male counterparts in Oakland.  Plus, Oakland's not had an abundance of Asian female political candidates in its history; it's great to see Jean Quan run for that reason.  

In Don Perata's case, Don's my friend; I've said on video that I believed Don's next political place should be as U.S. Senator and that's not taking anything away from California's Senator Barbara Boxer. It's just a very hard, very cold look at Don's political trajectory, which points to Washington D.C. in my view.

Mayor of Oakland just seems too small for Don Perata.

In the case of Oakland's Mayor Ron Dellums, I simply don't want to see him run and lose. If there are those who believe Oakland needs a "black candidate", they should run themselves rather than waste time with any silly analysis of what are my feelings or picking "the Golden Brother". (Why not a woman?)

Moreover, if those persons are really serious about having blacks in Oakland politics, they should establish an organization that funds political campaigns for Oaklanders of color. That's an idea who's time came long ago and one I would support with all my heart.

John Mayer on Twitter apologizes for N-word use in Playboy

After being silent on Twitter for most of Wednesday, John Mayer took to his Twitter page to issue an apology for using the N-word during his now much talked about Playboy interview. Mayer wrote beyond the 140-character-per-tweet limit, so what appears is segments. Here's what it looks like put together in order and in paragraphs:

Re: using the 'N word' in an interview: I am sorry that I used the word. And it's such a shame that I did because the point I was trying to make was in the exact opposite spirit of the word itself. It was arrogant of me to think I could intellectualize using it,because I realize that there's no intellectualizing a word that is so emotionally charged.

And while I'm using today for looking at myself under harsh light, I think it's time to stop trying to be so raw in interviews...It started as an attempt to not let the waves of criticism get to me, but it's gotten out of hand and I've created somewhat of a monster.

I wanted to be a blues guitar player. And a singer. And a songwriter. Not a shock jock. I don't have the stomach for it. Again, because I don't want anyone to think I'm equivocating: I should have never said the word and I will never say it again.
about 2 hours ago from web

John Mayer just lost his short-lived Andrew Dice Clay award. Still, it's not clear everyone's fast to forget as these tweets on John Mayer's page show:

@adilla They don't make rehab centers for being an a-hole.
about 1 hour ago from web in reply to adilla
@CRHines17 True. But some mistakes are hard to pinpoint because they happen slowly and over long periods of time...

This is far from over. Stay tuned.

John Mayer drops f-bomb on Perez Hilton Kiss

John Mayer drops f-bomb on Perez Hilton Kiss? In the words of Sarah Palin, "You betcha!" More from John Mayer's Playboy Interview that's causing such a mess, with Meyer's racist comments on blacks, and a homophobic blast on blogger Perez Hilton, that goes back to an encounter that John Meyer himself explains in this video of his standup comic routine at an unreported night club:



And here's the part of the Playboy interview where Meyer gets off his f-bomb on Perez Hilton:

PLAYBOY: Among the things we’ve read about you online is this: You’re gay. Have you ever kissed a man?

MAYER: The only man I’ve kissed is Perez Hilton. It was New Year’s Eve and I decided to go out and destroy myself. I was dating Jessica at the time, and I remember seeing Perez Hilton flitting about this club and acting as though he had just invented homosexuality. All of a sudden I thought, I can outgay this guy right now. I grabbed him and gave him the dirtiest, tongue-iest kiss I have ever put on anybody—almost as if I hated fags. I don’t think my mouth was even touching when I was tongue kissing him, that’s how disgusting this kiss was. I’m a little ashamed. I think it lasted about half a minute. I really think it went on too long.

PLAYBOY: Perez describes you on his site as a womanizer, a word you don’t like. Is it fair to say you have a love-hate relationship with him?

MAYER: I used to. Now I believe we’re fully into fighting with breakaway chairs. I think he’s pretty much inert at this point. Perez is to hating as Richard Simmons is to health and well-being. [laughs] You can print that. Perez is so authentically off his rocker he will not let you finish a sentence. I think he has some dark things in his past. I think he comes from a little bit of hurt, and I say that with an understated tone. At the end of the day I go to his site, but I don’t see him as a threat. The impact of his tone is beginning to wane. I give a lot more credit to Harvey Levin at TMZ.

PLAYBOY: Would you kiss Harvey Levin?

MAYER: I would rim him, probably. I can’t just repeat the kissing trick.

I present this to build the point that John Meyer is the Andrew Dice Clay of the 21st Century. Now, if you're wondering who Andrew Dice Clay is, this video is a small, and tame clue:



Stay tuned.

New 9-11 photos by ABC News show destruction of WTC

Forgetting John Mayer's battle with racist demons for a moment, we turn to the new 9-11 photos by ABC News and which show the destruction of The World Trade Center complex on the morning of September 11 2001.

After ABC News filed a Freedom of Information act order in 2009, the New York Police Department finally released thousands of photos for public view.

The 9-11 photos shown by ABC News are overhead but there are only 13 of the many reportedly released. Here are two of them:

John Mayer's racist comments in Playboy on blacks ignite Twitter

Singer and celeb John Mayer's now branded a racist on blogosphere and on Twitter. Singer John Mayer has over 3 million followers on Twitter; few of them are amused with his partially-scotch-fueled Playboy interview. In the interview, which this blogger read before blogging, Mayer talks with Playboy contributing editor Rob Tannenbaum, who obviously got the real John Mayer because they were talking after Mayer "poured glasses of 16-year-old Lagavulin neat."

If you don't know what Lagavulin is, it's a great brand of scotch also preferred by this blogger. However, not consumed with food, Lagavulin can cause one to say things they want to take back later. It's no wonder that as of this writing, John Mayer's normally active Twitter account is silent today (February 10th, 2010)

John Mayer has set off everyone. And while it's not the first time he's got the "racist" tag applied to him (see below with Kumail Nahjiani), this time the reaction's lot more intense than the "accidental racist" label Nahjiani gave Mayer. Perez Hilton told Mayer to "go to Hell." PopEater accused Mayer of "oversharing" but also used the term racist.

But what did John Mayer say, exactly?

Here are the Playboy interview comments that ignited Twitter and the blogosphere:

PLAYBOY: If you didn’t know you, would you think you’re a douche bag?

MAYER: It depends on what I picked up. My two biggest hits are “Your Body Is a Wonderland” and “Daughters.” If you think those songs are pandering, then you’ll think I’m a douche bag. It’s like I come on very strong. I am a very…I’m just very. V-E-R-Y. And if you can’t handle very, then I’m a douche bag. But I think the world needs a little very. That’s why black people love me.

PLAYBOY: Because you’re very?

MAYER: Someone asked me the other day, “What does it feel like now to have a hood pass?” And by the way, it’s sort of a contradiction in terms, because if you really had a hood pass, you could call it a nigger pass. Why are you pulling a punch and calling it a hood pass if you really have a hood pass? But I said, “I can’t really have a hood pass. I’ve never walked into a restaurant, asked for a table and been told, ‘We’re full.’"

PLAYBOY: It is true; a lot of rappers love you. You recorded with Common and Kanye West, played live with Jay-Z.

MAYER: What is being black? It’s making the most of your life, not taking a single moment for granted. Taking something that’s seen as a struggle and making it work for you, or you’ll die inside. Not to say that my struggle is like the collective struggle of black America. But maybe my struggle is similar to one black dude’s.

PLAYBOY: Do black women throw themselves at you?

MAYER: I don’t think I open myself to it. My dick is sort of like a white supremacist. I’ve got a Benetton heart and a fuckin’ David Duke cock. I’m going to start dating separately from my dick.

My take on this is it's one thing to be "race aware" - say if Mayer had made a comment about African American's still not sharing the American dream in full. That's ok. But Mayer used the N-word, which I have never allowed, even as a small boy. Then he basically religated blacks to what he sees as a permanent second class status, and calls himself a White Supremacist, even if he was referring to a part of his body.

And Mayer thinks black folks love him.

I don't. But what I do see in the Twitter tweets is that some blacks are just a bit more forgiving of Mayer than we should be as a whole. It's like this: Mayer had scotch and said what was on his mind, which was racist.

 The fact that he did and he's a celebrity entertainer and not Rush Limbaugh makes it OK for some who are black. Moreover because Mayer was bold enough to say it, some blacks think it's OK. Thus, they give him power and maintain whatever second-class status exists for us.

If Jamie Foxx made negative comments about whites there would be a white and black and everyone in between backlash. Foxx may find his business opportunities fewer. Now I use Foxx only as an example, and not to imply anything negative about a great entertainer. But given that Foxx is as well-known as Mayer, and Foxx is black, I think you see the point. People would have said Foxx has a problem, just as they're saying John Mayer has one and Mayer's got a pattern that goes back to Kumail Nahjiani.

In New York Magazine's Vulture section of December 2009, Comedian Kumail Nanjiani was heckled by Mayer at Slipper Room in New York, calling the Pakistan-born Kumail "Kabul" and then saying "he looked like a brown guy but sounded like a white guy."

In this video below, Kumail Nanjiani and Eugene Mirman call Mayer a "racist" and an "accidental racist" at the 4:25 time mark:



To be fair, Mayer felt bad about it, and makes me wonder if he had scotch that night, too.

All of this has to be placed in the view that, in the Playboy interview, John Mayer says he wants to be liked. If that's the case, he must be reviewing what's going on in his head. My advice: watch the scotch, review what you think about people, and date black women.

Stay tuned.

Illinois 4.3 earthquake shakes up Wisconsin, Iowa, and Twitter

The Illinois 4.3 earthquake was felt not just north of Chicago and in Wisconsin and Iowa, but on Twitter. The USGS reports "a magnitude 4.0 eastern U.S. earthquake typically can be felt at many places as far as 60 miles from where it occurred, and it infrequently causes damage near its source. A magnitude 5.5 eastern U.S. earthquake usually can be felt as far as 300 miles from where it occurred, and sometimes causes damage as far away as 25 miles."

Twitter is the place to go to determine how people were impacted. Illinois is one of the top hashtags as of this writing. Here are some selected tweets:

ellenzar Snow, we can live with it..it's only a foot so no closings EARTHQUAKE!?!?!This is Illinois NOT California..woke me up..drove the cats nuts
half a minute ago from web

flubdubs DAMNIT this is the second Illinois earthquake I've slept through.
less than a minute ago from web

lisamarieyonke 4 a.m. earthquake wake anyone up? I thought it was a dream...we're not supposed to have earthquakes in Illinois!!
1 minute ago from web

geraldinecols @nbczoraida hear this... Around the same time of the Illinois earthquake, Ecuador had one of 3.9 magnitude. Crazy. Is the world ending?
2 minutes ago from TweetDeck

DainasaurRoar So it was definitely an earhquake. 4.3 at 4 am. Second one i've felt in illinois recently
2 minutes ago from web

While earthquakes do occur all the time, anecdotally there does seem to be a large number of major quakes within the past month and a half and in Haiti, Argentina, Venezuela, Eureka, CA, and Illinois.

Stay tuned.

Illinois 4.3 earthquake north of Chicago felt in Iowa, Wisconsin

The Chicago Tribune reports a medium-sized Illinois earthquake of 4.3 on the Richter Scale hit 48 miles north of Chicago near DeKalb, and was felt by residents in Southern Wisconsin and Iowa early Wednesday.

The USGS reports "a magnitude 4.0 eastern U.S. earthquake typically can be felt at many places as far as 60 miles from where it occurred, and it infrequently causes damage near its source. A magnitude 5.5 eastern U.S. earthquake usually can be felt as far as 300 miles from where it occurred, and sometimes causes damage as far away as 25 miles."

Earthquakes are rare in the midwest, but do happen. The strongest reported one was 7 on the Richter scale below St. Louis 200 years ago.

Other than shaking dishes in homes, there's no word of major damage.

Stay tuned.

Megan Fox's thumb in Motorola Super Bowl Commercial causes buzz

Megan Fox is an even bigger star after starring in her first Super Bowl commercial, this one for Motorola. If you haven't seen it, the Super Bowl commercial has Megan Fox playing herself in an outdoor tub filled with bubble water. She uses her thumb to work a Motorola phone, and wonders what would happen if she sent out a picture of herself using the phone's "Motoblur" feature. The result is funny (and you can vote on it too)



But some contend the thumb in the video does not belong to Megan Fox. This blog Pinay Chicken has the explanation:

It seems that Fox has a condition known as brachydactyly, the condition of having too short fingers and toes. Now, Megan Fox's thumb is again in the news because of the Motorola commercial she did, apparently there was a thumb switch that happened, what i mean is that someone else's hand was used in the close up shot of the Motorola phone as it is being used. Watch the video below and see the commercial, see if you notice the "thumb switch". There are also still pictures below (the video) which shows clearly a sexy thumb, which do not look like Megan Fox's thumb.

Is it her thumb? Or was it planned that way to gain more Internet buzz? After the whole Emma Watson hidden leg deal, only time and tide will tell.

American Idol has Ellen DeGeneres debut

American Idol has Ellen DeGeneres tonight and from the looks of things, she's just what the doctor ordered to replace Former Judge Paula Abdul. 66 percent of those surveyed at the blog Idol Chatter said they are excited to see Ellen DeGeneres.

How did she do?

The Chicago Tribune describes Ellen's debut as "low key":

DeGeneres did provide a little humor when she was informing one group of nervous contestants whether they had made it through to the next round. She had been telling hopefuls to "step forward" or "step back," and those who were either in the front or the back of the stage were told they'd made the cut. DeGeneres told one group to move from side to side and back and forth -- then told the entire group that they'd made it through.

Ellen's debut was not without notice on Twitter, and with Ellen herself getting the Twitterverse going with a new hashtag #EllenOnIdol and this tweet:

Tonight I start my job on Idol. Please watch! (On Fox!) #EllenOnIdol
about 6 hours ago from web

Here's a video clip of American Idol with Ellen DeGeneres:



With her eyeglasses and long-sleave blouses, Ellen will be more of a clinical judge than an emotional one because she's learning. What's changing about American Idol is looking at judges who don't sing or aren't in the music business. I don't think that's a good idea because it ruins the quality of the evaluation.

Stay tuned.

Chevron: Ecuador economist will be paid by Ecuador from judgement

The latest twist in the ongoing Chevron Ecuador case finds Chevron claiming that Ecuador's court-appointed economist Richard Cabrera will be paid by Ecuador from a judgement against Chevron, should the American oil company lose its case. According to CBS Marketwatch:

Recently uncovered records, from 2003 through 2008, show from 2003 through 2008, show Cabrera is co-founder, general manager, majority stockholder, and legal representative of an oilfield remediation company, Compania Ambiental Minera-Petrolera S.A. ("CAMPET"), which is registered to perform oilfield remediation and other services for Petroecuador.

In a press release, Chevron Vice President and General Counsel Hewitt Pate said, "For three years, Mr. Cabrera has concealed clear financial conflicts of interest that disqualify him from acting as an independent and objective evaluator of the evidence in the case. While Mr. Cabrera's financial interests alone are sufficient grounds for his report to be rejected, his intentional concealment of those interests further demonstrates that the entirety of his work lacks honesty, integrity, or credibility."

Ecuador is suing Chevron for $27 billion and for claims that between 1968 and 1992 Chevron / Texaco failed to clean up the Amazon Delta during and after its period of oil production, which stopped in 1992. Chevron asserts that it did clean up the area it was within and that since 1992, the state-run Petroecuador Company, which took over production from Chevron, has been responsible for the oil damage.

But the real, untold story is a messy and complex one, and has U.S. nonprofit organizations working as the "rabble rousers" for trail lawyers who claim to be concerned about the people of the Amazon, but have not sued the Government of Ecuador on that basis. An Ecuadorian judge, Judge Juan Nunez (who has since stepped down) and the government itself angling to make money from the Chevron lawsuit. And charges that the line of graft extends all the way to President Rafael Correa himself.

The real story is of a country that is just trying to nationalize its oil production. Ecuador has no real interest in cleaning up the Amazon, otherwise it would have changed the zoning to prohibit oil production long ago. The Ecuadorian Amazon has seen over 118 oil spills since Chevron left the region, yet Ecuador focuses on not just Chevron, but American Oil because it believes they have the resources and the cash such that they can be sued. The objective is simply to trap petrodollars for Ecuador's rich.

One of those who was allegedly working to gain a part of a $27 billion award was the man who came up with the number, Richard Cabrera. Chevron has been after Cabrera for over two years and with good reason. They simply feel he's not competent and attacked the methodology behind his initial findings of a $16 billion damage award, then went ape when he upped it to $27 billion without solid justification, accusing him of "Voodoo Economics."

The one fact that has long made Cabrera's estimates something from a cartoon is that Chevron has not operated in the region for 18 years, and the soil that Cabrera has looked at is not part of embargoed property; it's still used for oil production by Petroecuador and by Brazil, to name some of the organizations that have been active.

That economist Richard Cabrera has financial ties to Petroecuador explains how he could write an economic report that skips over almost 20 years of oil operations by Petroecuador, non-American oil firms and Brazil, and somehow point the finger at Chevron. Again, Ecuador believes America's companies are rich.

Ecuador has spent the better part of the Correa regime trying to scheme or outright take the means of oil production away from American companies. The greatest example of this being the ouster of Occidental Petroleum, and Ecuadorian workers getting into fist-fights over the left over luxury cars.

What would Richard Cabrera's ouster from the Chevron case mean? That the $27 billion damage claim was invalid. This news brought out Ecuador's lawyer Pablo Fajardo, who, according to the "It's getting hot in here" blog, said the following:

Cabrera disclosed to the court that he owned a clean-up company beforehis appointment as Special Master. This fact was properly cited by the court as one of the reasons he was qualified to do the damages assessment.

Chevron thought so highly of Cabrera’s qualifications that it accepted him as a court-appointed expert in an earlier part of the case and paid his fees as required by court rules.

The fact Cabrera’s company is qualified to bid on clean-up contracts offered by Ecuador’s state-owned oil company is irrelevant. That company, Petroecuador, is not a party to the case against Chevron and would have no role in any eventual cleanup.

Cabrera by virtue of his role in the case would be barred from having a role in a future clean-up.

Here, Pablo Fajardo is not telling the right tale and he's got paid bloggers helping him advance a mistruth. Ecuador is party to the case by its attorney general's own admission, and since Petroecuador is owned by Ecuador and is an oil company that too makes it a party to the case. That was settled long ago and by this blogger in this space. The best move for Cabrera is to step out of the matter.

If the organizations and bloggers attacking American oil companies really care about the poor of Ecuador, why don't they sue Ecuador? Hello? Answer?

Still don't have one.

Stay tuned.

Gmail buzz or Google Buzz is up, but for corporate accounts?

Gmail buzz or Google Buzz is up and active today, but the news and information put out by Google doesn't include anything regarding corporate accounts. When one such as this blogger clicks on Google Buzz to try it, he's taken to his personal Gmail account, which is seldom used.

Meanwhile, Gmail buzz or Google Buzz or GBuzz is a novell idea. Perhaps it came as a serendipity, but making email, which is already a kind of social networking device, into a real social networking system does transform Google from a potential buyer of Twitter to a competitor of Twitter and Facebook.

One can share videos and photos, and update their activity with friends. But Google Buzz isn't going to be a replacement for Twitter or Facebook, but another social network to be on,that many already are on. For internet marketers the best addition would be the ability to transfer, well, what do we call them..can't call them tweets...geets...to Twitter and then to Facebook as updates.

But the bottom line is when will corporate accounts be able to use the feature. That's the unanswered question.

For a comprehensive review of Google Buzz right from the presentation at Google Headquarters, read this TechCrunch post: Google Buzz.

Brooklyn Decker's sexy photos in S.I; Decker on David Letterman

Brooklyn Decker, who's claim to fame is being married to tennis star Andy Roddick, is coming into her own celeb space today, with sexy photos in S.I. (that's Sports Illustrated) where she's the 2010 Sports Illustrated Cover Girl. And with that, Brooklyn Decker's on David Letterman tonight.

Brooklyn (who needs a little more muscle, but that's my taste) tweeted that she's in the makeup room (as this is being written) getting ready for the 5 PM tapped show (that comes on at 11:30 PM). In fact, here's a photo from Twtpic:

Where Brooklyn tweets:With Vicki Steckle, Peter butler and chris getting ready in the letterman dressing room!"

Hey, I know Brooklyn's cool because she's hanging with my friend Darren Rovell!

NYC and DC Public Schools closed due to snow

The massive winter snow storm pummeling the Eastern Seaboard is causing NYC and DC Public School closures.

New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein said this in an e-mailed statement reported by Bloomberg: "While travel conditions to school in the morning may not be difficult, the weather is expected to worsen as the day progresses, complicating dismissal. We are making this decision today to give parents as much time as possible to make alternative plans for tomorrow."

Meanwhile, Washington DC is "snowed under" according to CNN. For the second day, businesses and schools were closed and the National Weather Service predicted another 10 to 20 inches of snow to be dumped on the Nation's Capital Wednesday.

Related searches:
nyc public schools closed, are nyc public schools closed tomorrow, nyc public schools closings, school closings nyc, public schools

Saints Parade in New Orleans starts at 5 PM Tuesday

Saints Parade in New Orleans starts at 5 PM Tuesday. The parade for the Super Bowl XLIV Champion New Orleans Saints, with general admission tickets at $25 for the viewing stands and VIP tickets at $100, promises to be "over the top" as one parade organizer said to WDSU.com in New Orleans.

Businesses will close and schools will be shut down for the giant event.

The parade was planned regardless of the Super Bowl XLIV outcome, meaning New Orleans will create any reason to party, but with the Saints victory over the Indianapolis Colts, it takes on more importance.

On CNN:



Also, CNN and the NFL Network have announced they will cover the parade live, and CBS News on USTREAM is going to have a live feed from the parade, which you can see here in this embed:

Video streaming by Ustream

Stay tuned.

Miley Cyrus charity auction for Haiti at Ebay.com/Miley

Miley Cyrus takes on a serious cause: providing relief for Haiti after the horror of the 7.0 Haiti Earthquake.

Miley Cyrus has joined with Nicole Richie, Britney Spears, Hugh Jackman, Demi Lovato, Ellen DeGeneres, Julianne Moore, and Whoopi Goldberg for the online event that runs through February 18th at www.auctioncause.com. Here's Miley Cyrus on the charity auction:



You can go to Ebay.com/Miley to bid on the Herve Leger dress Miley wore at the Grammy Awards as well as win two tickets to the premiere of her next movie, The Last Song.



Miley Cyrus has also teamed up with Leona Lewis, Mariah Carey, Susan Boyle, Alexandra Burke from The X-Factor, Rod Stewart, and Michael Buble, for a remake of REM's "Everybody Hurts" which will also benefit Haiti.

This should answer one emailers concern that I had "something against" Miley Cyrus. I don't. I'm glad to see she's out there helping.


Stay tuned.

Superbowl commercials 2010 - YouTube AdBlitz ends Valentines Day

Super Bowl XLIV is history, but the conversation about 2010 Superbowl commercials is ongoing, it seems. Especially with YouTube AdBlitz.

YouTube has ran a voting contest called YouTube AdBlitz, where you can vote for your favorite commercials from the most watched Super Bowl and most watched television program in history.

YouTube AdBlitz is still going, and runs through Valentines Day.

Check out YouTube AdBlitz here: YouTube.com/AdBlitz and cast your vote for commercials like this one for The Wolfman:



Or this one for "Stranded": a BudLight Super Bowl commercial (one of my favorites):

Craig Ferguson joins Twitter as @CraigyFerg

Late night talk show host Craig Ferguson of The Craig Ferguson Show has discovered Twitter. His name is called @CraigyFerg and his first set of tweets are a doozy. Craig Ferguson let go with a bunch of sentences that mirror his monologues in their go-for-broke style. Here's a sample:

I follow no one. Except Dave I suppose. Or the local news. Or the smell of ham
about 6 hours ago from mobile web

Twitter has better lighting than my show.
about 6 hours ago from mobile web

Oh this is too awesome. Fuckity fuckity heck. (don't want to go too far)
about 6 hours ago from mobile web

Can I say fuck on this thing?
about 6 hours ago from mobile web

Join me followers. Join my robot skeleton army hargggggharggetc.
about 6 hours ago from mobile web

I'm concerned I watch too much Mythbusters. I may need geek rehab
about 7 hours ago from mobile web

More rain comin to LA.it's starting to look like Scotland with teeth
about 7 hours ago from mobile web

The fact that i am on twitter probably means its on the way out.
about 14 hours ago from web

Watching the who @ the superbowl made me sad. Like watching my grampa play the spoons
about 15 hours ago from mobile web

I have 3 dogs. I like 2 of them The one I dont like takes a shite on the kitchen floor every morning. It's French. The dog, not the shite.
about 16 hours ago from web

Craig Ferguson says he's not going to follow a lot of people. Here's hoping he changes his tune.

Rick Perry gets Sarah Palin's help against GOPs Kay Bailey Hutchison

Sarah Palin's on the GOP campaign trail. Palin's giving Texas Governor Rick Perry help by showing up at his event held in Cypress, Texas (a Houston suburb) on Super Bowl Sunday. According to the Austin American Statesman, Palin is supporting a man - Perry - against the legendary Kay Bailey Hutchison in the March GOP Primary.

That should be a wake-up call to women in politics: Sarah Palin does not support a woman, even if she's in the GOP and unless she's a Couch Potato Conservative. But even then, there's no evidence that Sarah Palin will go the extra mile for a woman conservative candidate.

Sarah Palin's backing of Governor Rick Perry will be a sign of her pattern for the future: Republican men get her help; Republican women gain her wrath.

No word on Palin's use of her hand; she's wasn't getting paid this time:

The Bachelor Drama

The Bachelor season is coming to a close! With the swift and sudden departure of Ali (the front runner, in my opinion), We are left with Vienna, Tenley, and Gia. But given the scenes from next week and this bloggers reality TV intuition, this wasn't the last time we'll be seeing Ali... Keep your eyes and remote set to The Bachelor next Monday night.

Saints Tracy Porter pick-six has missed illegal block-in-back of Manning

Profootballtalk.com reports that missed amid the celebration after and the speed of New Orleans Saints Defensive Back Tracy Porter's interception of Indy Colts' QB Peyton Manning's pass, and the 74 yard touchdown return was an illegal block-in-the-back committed by Saints Defensive End Will Smith on Manning.

In this video below, we can see Smith (91) running toward Manning who had a chance to catch Porter. Smith clearly hit Manning in the back, but it wasn't called.



Mike David Smith is correct. Someone needs to explain this missed call. As Smith observes:

If Smith had been flagged, it would have significantly changed the game. Instead of being ahead 31-17, the Saints would have been up just 24-17, with the ball on their own 40-yard line and the Colts having all three timeouts. If the Colts had been able to stop the Saints there, they could have gotten the ball back down just seven points with more than two minutes left in the game.

Instead, Porter's touchdown stood, and the Saints won 31-17.

Wow. I can't believe Colts Nation missed this.

It's not over. Stay tuned.

Sarah Palin gives hand job to Tea Party Movement

Former Alaska Governor and Fox News Analyst Sarah Palin appeared before the National Tea Party Movement Convention in Nashville, February 6th, and gave a speech she was paid over $100,000 for. To effectively deliver the oratory, Former Governor Palin used what were once called "crib notes" scribbled in the palm of her left hand. Thus, Sarah Palin used her hand as part of the job she was hired to do for the Tea Party Movement.

The finding, noted in several blogs, took the Internet by storm on Monday. Sarah Palin wrote the words "Energy", "Tax" and "Lift American Spirits" in that order in her left hand's palm.

It was Palin's palm-up pose that allowed the photo capture of what she scribbled. All this from a person, Sarah Palin, who criticized President Obama for using a teleprompter, yet did so in the same Tea Party speech where she was using her left hand's crib notes, and also used one at the Republican National Convention.

The use of crib notes calls Palin's core beliefs into question by some. Does she really believe what she says, or is she just reading lines? While it was claimed that Palin's teleprompter broke at the RNC, some bloggers noted that it did not, meaning the lines Palin said were scripted and not off-the-cuff.

Who is Sarah Palin? Is Palin a serious 2012 GOP Presidential Candidate, or a former politician who's still so in love with the spotlight she would take six-figures to give a speech, and write notes in her hand to make sure she scored conservative points, even if she really didn't believe in them?

Sarah Palin paints the picture of the latter. In the Tea Party speech, Palin called for better understanding and care for special needs children, of which Palin's a mother to one herself. But the same Palin rejected Economic Stimulus money for Alaska that would in part help special needs kids. Fortunately, the Alaskan Legislature overruled her decision. Many observers believed Palin was posturing for national political ambitions.

Now, Here she is, taking money for giving a speech to conservatives, and using the Alaska Economic Stimulus issue as an example of her "conservative values." If Sarah Palin needs crib notes to remind her of what her conservative values are, one can assert she doesn't believe them at all, unless she's paid $100,000 to do so.

Whatever the case, the Tea Party Movement enjoyed it.

Related searches:
sarah palin hand, sarah palin crib notes, sarah palin cheat sheet, sarah palin notes, sarah palin cheat

Jack Murtha remembered as Hawk who backed Clinton, helped Obama

Congressman John P. "Jack" Murtha (D - 12th District, PA) passed away at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, VA. with his family by his bedside. Congressman Murtha was one of the first fiscally conservative, yet socially liberal Democrats with a military background to endorse then-Senator Hillary Clinton for President against then-Senator Barack Obama. But when Obama won the Democratic Presidential Primary in 2008, Murtha vigorously campaigned for him.

But Murtha was also known for sharing an idea that seemed to become a campaign theme: that Western Pennsylvanians were racist. "There is no question that western Pennsylvania is a racist area." The comment, controversial, was much needed at the time and arguably set the tone for Obama's now-famous speech on race "A More Perfect Union".

Murtha, the longest serving congressperson at 36 years, was known as a Hawk and became recognized as an expert on military affairs. He was a favorite of my late stepfather and military veteran Chester H. Yerger Jr., who would stop what he was doing just to hear Murtha's take on a political issue.

Murtha's legacy will be in the defense jobs he brought to Pennsylvania. “He helped provide the foundations — my company continues to build upon what he started,” said Ed Sheehan, president of Johnstown’s Concurrent Technologies Corp., hours after news of the congressman’s death went public. “I am certainly saddened by his death.”

Google, Rupert Murdoch, the SF Chronicle and Media: Phil Bronstein

In this ongoing look at the future of media, there are few in a better position to talk about it - and Google, Rupert Murdoch, and the SF Chronicle - than Phil Bronstein, the Executive Vice President in charge of Content Development and Editor-At-Large for the Newspaper Division of The Hearst Corporation.

Phil Bronstein

Phil's also known as a celebrity, but my feeling going in was that I want to focus on the more substantive issue of media's future with someone I work with, and that I wasn't interested in adding to someone's caricature of "Phil Bronstein."  

After gaining one tech point of view, that of Craigslist Founder Craig Newmark, we have a journalist and newspaper executive. We met at Phil's office at San Francisco Chronicle headquarters in San Francisco.

(The text picks up after the video introduction. The blog post breaks down the most interesting parts of the discussion with summaries in between. The video above is over 27 minutes long.

Zennie Abraham: You having fun?
Phil Bronstein: Yeah. Most days at least interesting if not fun. I get the opportunity to talk to people who are doing things that are outside the normal scope of journalism, but that may have an application for journalists. It's that intersection that interests me and probably interests everybody.
Zennie Abraham: That why I wanted to talk to you about the future of media, but also wanted to say something. A lot of people I talked to in preparation for this (interview) say you should have got the Pulitzer (Prize for his coverage of the Philippines) not the finalist. Wikipedia got it wrong.
Phil Bronstein: Well, (Wikipedia founder) even Jimmy Wales will tell you Wikepedia's not perfect. But that was a long time ago and I had a great time as a foreign correspondent. Almost 10 years. I was very happy with my experience there and had a great time doing it. I don't care at the moment; but thank you. (Laughs)
Zennie Abraham: What's the future of New Media? I kind of jumped the gun but I could not think of a better person to talk to from your perspective because you span journalism..
Phil Bronstein: I'm old.
Zennie Abraham: Nah.
Phil Bronstein: I've been around a long time.
Zennie Abraham: You're not much older than me Phil.
Phil Bronstein It's a much more complicated question than it seems. I think that everybody's grasping. There's a little panic going on; sometimes a lot of panic. I think as I told you before you started videoing, I've always been a student of insurgency. I like that.
Zennie Abraham I think I'm the insurgent.
Phil Bronstein: No. No. I mean, I think there are a lot of insurgents around. Some of them technically have nothing to do with journalism but what hey have is they have the ability to plug in what they're doing into journalism. Journalists don't necessarily have the time, even if they have the interest in figuring out how to make that happen. For instance the Twitter phenomenon.

Twitter has ways in which they can have a verification process for all of that giant pipe of information they have every second. And verify it in ways that cab be useful for a journalist.

So if you're a journalist, and you find out that 50 people are tweeting about an explosion in Lower Manhattan, Twitter has the ability or will have the ability to geocode those responses to see if those people are all part of the same social network or maybe not, which indicates that it may be a hoax, maybe not . There's a process that they can do (in) real time to analyze this data and then be able to say to journalists, out of the 50 words or so, here are the ones that are real.

Phil's working to determine what role the professional journalist can play in information technology. Bronstein sees the journalist as a fact checker of the future. A person or persons who ferret out the bad information from the good in a sea of it. Phil says that there's been a big change and that ultimately there's going to be a bigger one. The question is 'What's the future of journalism.' Not what's the future of newspaper.

Zennie Abraham What's the future of journalism?
Phil Bronstein The future of journalism is that there will always be value in someone filtering information professionally...Sort of a nose for things.

Phil says "Citizen Journalism" has been a disaster. "The idea that you go out and give everyone a flip camera", Phil says, "You can call that a journalist, I suppose. But the idea that there would be this seamless relationship between citizen journalists and journalists is not working."

Phil says social media gives citizens the chance to contribute, but the results must be verified. There was a push in the recent past to use what newspapers called "user-generated content", but it didn't work out because of the information accuracy problem.

The picture he gives is of the news organization as information shaper; "That's what professional journalists can do. That's what a lot of professional journalists do very well."

In a world dominated by opinion and issued by blogs and vlogs, and where some information consumers only go to "certain sources" that fit their political leanings, Phil Bronsteins asserts there's a need and a desire for information that's been "cleaned and verified" by pro journalists.

The nature of the interaction between the citizen journalist and the professional is where the person uses a camera to capture something happening and the news organization (like the SF Chronicle or CNN iReport) uses the video once its affirmed.

Revenue concerns in media

"How is all of this monetized" was the question that defined the next phase of our talk.

Phil Bronstein - Well, that is the big question that no one has answered yet, unless you're Google, Yahoo or MSM. In terms of news and information. You perform a service; people are going to be willing to pay for it in some fashion. That may not be true. I hope it's true. Ultimately I think we're relying on some truth to it. The more value we create the more we can collect on that value. The desktop screen or the laptop screen may have past us by already because we've made everything free.

Zennie Abraham - Are paysites the answer?

Phil Bronstein - Or maybe it's the handheld device. I don't know. I don't know. What the answer to that question is and I don't know that anyone have the definitive answer "(does). The Chronicle's now jumping to embargoed content - We'll see how that goes.

Zennie Abraham Can you explain to my viewers what that is?
Phil Bronstein Yeah. It's key stories in the Sunday paper. People are being encouraged to go out and buy the paper , the Sunday paper, where they would have seen it on SFGate for free - or get an e-subscription. They've seen some action. It's only embagoed for a few days then it appears on SFGate. Now I think what's going to happen is very news company is investigating some kind of paygate.

I asked Phil about the failed Newsday paygate, where it gained just 35 subscribers in three months. "Times Select is a disaster. The LA Times had a pay wall and that didn't work. There are theories that if you get enough media companies doing it at the same time people will have less opportunities."

He's not advocating for a cartel. "Rupert Murdoch has threatened to withhold or just kill Google. Not allow Google to use his stuff; the Wall Street Journal, for example. I asked a Google executive all the newspaper companies decided to kill Google, how much would that effect them; he said three percent (of total revenue). They've come up to talk to news people at the SFGate; I've went down there to talk with them. Everyone's willing to talk, but I don't think we have a lot of leverage with the Murdoch threats.

Warren Helman's Bay Area Project

Phil Bronstein and I talked about The Bay Area News Project. A new "non-profit" news organization that's financed by San Francisco investor Warren Hellman, that's upset some local traditional journalists who feel that it's taking the "news market" away from them since it relies on students in the Berkeley journalism school and partners with the New York Times (not the SF Chronicle). "It's a high end demographic. We'll see how it goes. KQED dropped out. We'll see how it goes."

The future of media

Bronstein thinks this change will, as I put it, shake out in some way in the future. "Things are happening. Momentum is there. What Murdoch's doing. They're all trial balloons he's testing Rupert just may have something we don't know about.."

On the matter of celebrity news site TMZ.com, he describes it as "a wonder" and thinks "It's great..an experiment that's worked pretty well. "We're in an interesting time" Phil says, and offers that there will be an interesting tension between the people they cover and what they do.

The future of the San Francisco Chronicle

"The Chronicle's not closing down anytime soon. I don't say that because I make the decisions, that's just my belief and my observation. I want to make that clear. And anything I tell you could be completely wrong or change tomorrow." Bronstein says that technological change may cause the Chron to "look completely different" than it does now, but it's still and institution that's been around for a long time.

The video is uncut and has more of the details behind his comments and my reaction. But it was an enjoyable experience that I'd like to create a follow-up to, especially after the iPad's been in the market for about six months.

Meanwhile, I'll talk with more interesting people about the future of media.

Stay tuned.

R.I.P. Pennsylvania Congressman John P. Murtha

Congressman John P. Murtha (PA-12) passed away peacefully this afternoon at 1:18 p.m. at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, VA. At his bedside was his family.

Murtha, 77, was Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.

First elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in February of 1974, Murtha dedicated his life to serving his country both in the military and in the halls of Congress. A former Marine, he became the first Vietnam War combat Veteran elected to the U.S. Congress.

This past Saturday, February 6, 2010, Murtha became Pennsylvania’s longest serving Member of Congress.

Super Bowl Commercials: SFAMA has Super Bowl Ad Review

The San Francisco Chapter of the American Marketing Association has it's annual Super Bowl Ad Review this Wednesday in San Francisco. It's a fun event that anyone who's at least interested in what marketers and ad execs think about the Super Bowl commercials should attend.

Here's a video series from the 2007 SFAMA Super Bowl Ad Review event I attended:

Part one:



Part two:



Part three:



The event will be held at the office of Bars + Tone at 1550 Bryant St Ste 1000, San Francisco, CA, this Wednesday, February 10th 2010 from 6 PM to 8 PM. Visit the website to register and for more information: SFAMA Super Bowl Ad Review.

Super Bowl Commercials: Doritos, Google win 2010 BrandBowl

The battle of Super Bowl commercials was played out online during Super Bowl XLIV. Doritos, Google, and Focus on the Family won the 2010 BrandBowl. But what's the 2010 BrandBowl?

The 2010 BrandBowl is an online competition between Super Bowl commercials from a Twitter perspective. Ad agency Mullen partnered with Social Media measuring company Radian 6, to produce the 2010 BrandBowl. Specifically, they describe it in this way:

BrandBowl was built to gauge public reaction to the brands advertising during the Super Bowl. By monitoring Twitter, we can measure people's opinions and rank the brands accordingly. The brand with the top "BrandBowl score" on Sunday night will be the winner of BrandBowl 2010, and can date the head cheerleader.

How BrandBowl Works

First we tally—using selected keywords—the total number of tweets about each brand.
Second, we look at the opinions stated in those tweets to calculate a "net sentiment" score. The purpose of this score is to measure whether the overall public reaction to a brand is positive or negative. The net sentiment score is derived by the formula:
(Positive tweets – Negative tweets) / Total brand tweets
Finally, to rank the brands, we calculate a BrandBowl score by evaluating the non-negative share of each brand relative to all brands:
(Positive tweets + Neutral tweets – Negative tweets) / Total tweets for all brands
Rolling over any brand will show all three of these figures—its BrandBowl score, its net sentiment score, and the total number of tweets about the brand. For the true ad nerds out there (it's okay, you're among friends) we also provide a link that will display even more in-depth details on any brand:
A spark line that shows the number of tweets over a timeline
A breakdown of the tweets about the brand, to show if the tweets were overwhelmingly positive, negative, or neutral
A word cloud of the most popular terms in tweets about the brand
It is important to note that we are measuring the response to brands. We are not measuring the response to any single ad.

Got that?

Doritoes' commercial won by simply having the most tweets about it (3042), both positive and negative. This is the most popular Doritoes' commercial of the four aired:



Which brand's commercial had the most positive tweets in the 2010 BrandBowl? That award went to McDonald's, Dr. Pepper and Universal, in that order. Here's McDonalds Super Bowl commercial featuring LeBron James and Dwight Howard:



The other Super Bowl commericial runners-up in the 2010 BrandBowl were Google and Focus on the Family. Here are those commercials:

Google (Impress a French Girl or "Parisian Love"):



Focus on The Family (Pam and Tim Tebow):



If you're wondering who lost the 2010 BrandBowl, it was Budweiser Select55 "Don't bring me down", which did so. Mullen's offering free creative services to Budweiser. Here's that Super Bowl commercial:



For the rest of the results, visit the Mullen and Radian 6 site for the 2010 BrandBowl.

Stay tuned.

Oakland News - Sweet Jimmie Ward dies - [Aimee Allison | OaklandSeen]

[Aimee Allison | OaklandSeen] For much of the time Sweet Jimmies was the heart of Oakland nightlife in the 90's, I would catch glimpses of nighttime boisterous dancing and singing at the spot through the grainy lens of Soul Beat TV. Now Soul Beat and Sweet Jimmies nightclub are a decade gone, and I find myself longing for that Oakland spirit. "Sweet Jimmie" Ward died Friday night at the age of 74 - a former longshorman who was one of hundreds of thousands who came from the South to work at the shipyards or on the Army base during World War II and stayed to raise families and start businesses and shape neighborhoods. Ward made Sweet Jimmies into the place to go - dressed to the nines - where old soul from Mississippi and Lousiana and Georgia was alive.

Those in Sweet Jimmie's generation brought small town manners and blues and political organizing and art. They created a legacy and culture in Oakland that defines us today. Now, Oakland's black population has plummeted under the weight of unemployment and police sweeps and shady mortgages. But you can still see the storefront of the old Sweet Jimmies at 577 18th Street in downtown Oakland. Many people don't know that for many years it was an important meeting place for African-American political and community organizations. It was a center of influence. And while many celebrate the remaking of culture and nightlife in the city, I am taking a moment to mourn what we lost. See, Sweet Jimmies wasn't just another nightclub, Jimmie Ward just another nightclub owner. He represented an era here in Oakland. And that era is over.

The public service for Jimmie Ward is this Thursday at Good Hope Church at 5717 Foothill Blvd. The event will begin with a quiet hour at 7 p.m. A public funeral will follow on Friday at noon in the same location.

Facebook can be used for identity theft, be careful

Facebook has become one of the largest, if not the largest, social networks in the World. It can bring people together to celebrate the Saints Super Bowl XLIV victory, or mourning the Colts loss, or to talk about Sarah Palin's awful use of hand-written notes for speeches. But with 350 million Facebook members, there's bound to be a crappy person or three hanging around. Some members are on Facebook just to steal your identity.

This video shows what happened when the people at Sophos Labs created a Facebook member who was a duck:



The Sophos Labs video makes sense but leaves out an important point: it's what you put in your Facebook profile, not so much who you friend. Using my profile "Zenophon Abraham" as an example, I have a lot of friends and many I do not know, but have shared business-related information, especially about events.

I use Facebook for networking; while I have information about me there, it's not my address or personal relationship status other than who my relative is (my half-sister Amanda). I don't have my instant message handle posted, I don't give details on where I am all the time, unlike some people.

And there's another strategy, too: saturation of self. My "self" - name with photo - is everywhere on the Internet because I am on so many blog and social media platforms; the idea is that so many people will see "me" that it's all but impossible for someone else to get away with saying they're me.

Me, Zennie Abraham , at the Leigh Steinberg Party 

I got the idea noticing how "out there" tech blogger Robert Scoble was - he's on a ton of networks and has thousands of contacts if not millions of them.

Identity theft is also successful when people don't know what you are supposed to look like. But, say, with Usher, it's harder to do.

Why do I mention Usher? Because there was a guy at the Leigh Steinberg Party who others claimed was Usher, including some friends of mine. I took one look at the guy and said "He's not Usher; Usher has a baby face. This guy looks like he's in his 40s." Moreover, he signed a napkin using the name "Usher". I didn't want to think the guy was impersonating Usher, but the the napkin autograph changed my mind.

But I digress. The point is, having a ready photo of Usher that we could call up on a Google Nexus Phone solved the problem. That guy, as I said, was not Usher.

Facebook is a great social network but you don't have to put everything about yourself there.

Peyton Manning didn't choke; Colts were outcoached

The New Orleans Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts 30 to 17 in Super Bowl XLIV, a game Colts QB Peyton Manning would like to have back. Down 24 to 17 with just under three minutes to go and driving, Manning threw a slant pass to Reggie Wayne, but Saints Defensive Back Tracy Porter stepped in front of Wayne, intercepted the pass and raced 74 yards to score the deciding touchdown.




Now, some are saying Colts OB Peyton Manning choked. Manning didn't choke so much as the Colts were outcoached.

The Saints, under Head Coach Sean Peyton, had a daring game plan that featured an onside kick to open the third quarter, a varied passing game, and three different defensive game plans. Still, with all of that, the Saints could have lost the Super Bowl. The difference was that the Colts didn't seem to be prepared for the Saints' momentum changing onside kick, and for some reason avoided blitzing even one linebacker or back and putting the pressure on its front four to do the job most of the time.

But to say Peyton Manning choked is to ask a legitimate question: why is it that Manning seems to force the ball when the Colts are behind. The answer is, in 2009 Manning didn't, except for Super Bowl XLIV. In today's game it seemed as if Manning was determined to carry the team on his shoulders to make up for the Colts' defense' difficulty in stopping the Saints offense.

Manning was making trying to make up for strategic and performance problems earlier in the game, and let the whole of the Colts problems get to him. It was obvious every time he expressed frustration coming off the field, and most of the time after a dropped pass.

Peyton Manning didn't choke. The Colts' loss was a team effort. But Peyton Manning will be tagged with the "Great, but..." label until he returns to the Super Bowl and wins. To do that he will need more seasoned receivers (which he will have) and a more varied pass offensive attack that moves Manning's launch points with rolls and sprints. Finally the Colts will have to be better prepared for whatever could be thrown at them. That's not as hard as it sounds, because there's only so much one can do on a football field.

Stay tuned.

Saints v. Colts - Saints are Super Bowl XLIV Champions

Saints v. Colts - Saints are Super Bowl XLIV Champions. The New Orleans Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts 30 to 17 in a Super Bowl game that turned on a common theme for the Saints in postseason: playing a near perfect offensive game, then holding on as the opponent made the mistakes to lose. In the NFC Championship Game, it was the Minnesota Vikings' six turnovers. In Super Bowl XLIV it was the Colts missed opportunities and errors.

Credit must be given to Saints' Head Coach Sean Payton, who once against created an offensive game plan designed to address the one strength of a defense. In this case, the Saints settled into a passing attack that had their receivers attack the hook and seam areas of the Colts defense and throw to the running backs out of the backfield to take advantage of the Colts linebackers.

Super Bowl MVP Drew Brees carried out the game plan masterfully. He was a near-perfect 32 of 39 for 288 yards, and two touchdowns.

But in most post-game evaluations it's easy to turn the analysis into what the winning team did right. In this case, the Colts did a lot correctly, but just did not take advantage of opportunities when they were given to them.

A number of normally-sure handed Colts receivers dropped passes, specifically Reggie Wayne and Pierre Garcon. And with his team behind 24 to 17 in the fourth quarter, Peyton Manning (31 of 45 for 333 yards, one touchdown and one interception) rushed his throws, and on a key 3rd and five with just under three minutes to go, and the Colts down 17 to 24, Manning threw for Reggie Wanye who was running an inside slant. But Wayne stopped and Saints defensive back Tracy Porter stepped in front of the pass and raced 74 yards to score.

That play was one observers would talk about for a long time. While Manning focused on Wayne, Colts receiver Austin Colley broke open on a seam route; he went unnoticed as he raced by the high safety on the opposite side of where the interception occurred.

Even with the interception, the Colts still had time to score another touchdown, recover an onside kick and perhaps score a miracle game tying touchdown again. But that was not to be, as the Colts' furious comeback drive stalled at the Saints' six yard line.

A team of destiny

This first Super Bowl win for New Orleans came at the right time for a city working to overcome the disaster of Hurricane Katrina and the exodus of much of its population to various places in America and around the World. Much of New Orleans was under water, and the Federal Government's efforts under George W. Bush were so terrible that "Brownie" became a poster child for government inefficiency in a crisis.

When Sean Peyon became the Saint's coach, it was the same year, 2006, that the renovated Louisiana Superdome reopened. The same stadium that served as a sanctuary for up to 30,000 people after Hurricane Katrina. Bringing home a World Championship became more of a mission than an athletic occupation.

I said to a friend that even though I'm a massive Colts fan, I would not be sorry to see New Orleans win Super Bowl XLIV. The city needed it, and really America wanted it. Now, the task of rebuilding New Orleans has new life.

Grammy Fashion! (a quick break from the SuperBowl...)

I break the Grammys fashion down a little bit. This is the start of a new segment that I am starting called Fashion Friday where I talk about the previous week in fashion, burgeoning trends, and who's been a hot mess. Pardon this Grammys Fashion post being late, I am celebrating the Superbowl right now, as I am sure all you're as well!

Here is the link that I refer to above where I conduct a VERY serious break down of the 2010 Grammys. 

Posted by Cat of SomeRedCat.tumblr.com

Live Super Bowl Preview show beginning at 3:30 Eastern time

By "Draftnik"

Live Super Bowl Preview show beginning at 3:30 Eastern time

Don’t forget about our 2 and a half hour live show today at 3:30!!! Great Football Talk for your Super Bowl and Prizes for trivia.

Listen at www.blogtalkradio.com/Football-Reporters

Saints v. Colts - Super Bowl XLIV will be won by Colts

Super Bowl XLIV pitting the NFC Champion New Orleans Saints v. The AFC Champion Indianapolis Colts will be a game filled with passes and trick plays. It will be one of the most exciting Super Bowls ever.

The Super Bow game features the NFL's 9th best offense (2nd in the NFL in passing for the season) in the Colts against the league's 25th-ranked Saints defense. That's the key matchup. Sports observers can write about imagined challenges between specific Colts receivers certain Saints defensive backs, but the reality is one-on-one pairings are rare because of the variety of coverages used; the Saints will try to keep everything in front of them with a zone coverage system and work to prevent the Colts from hitting the home run ball.

But the Colts will mix short passes and runs; the Saints will move away from the zone, crowd the line-of-scrimage, and blitz. And that's where the Colts big play will come from, absent a blown coverage, which the Saints haven't done much this year.

The Saints NFL number one-ranked offense will be a variety show featuring shifts, man-in-motion, and a lot of play action. Look for not just one, but two flea flickers; what will stop them is the Colts defensive speed (which was augmented by more blitzing in the postseason, making it better than its 18th-ranking during 2009). The Saints will call a number of "wheel route" passes trying to match the fleet Reggie Bush against the Colts' linebackers. But the Colts will blitz more often this game, and add to their already hard-charging pass-rush. That effort will be led by Dwight Freeney, who's played a week-long game of media possum, but is ready to turn his effort up to a super human level.

The other difference will be on special teams. This is where the Saints have a slight speed edge and the Colts will have to play carefully to stop the long kick return.

With all of this, the Colts offense will be too much for the Saints. The Colts win Super Bowl XLIV, 34 to 20.

Colts v. Saints on SFGate.com | Colts v. Saints on Twitter | Colts v. Saints on NFL Business Blog

Super Bowl: Colts blowout of Saints wanted by Indy Mayor Ballard

This Super Bowl update: Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard wants a blowout game for the Colts v. the Saints (video above).

Mayor Greg Ballard

At the Leigh Steinberg Super Bowl Party Saturday, Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard said "Everyone's predicting a close game; I'm not. Let's be honest. You know where I'm coming from." Ballard's appreciative of all of the enthusiasm shown for the New Orleans Saints and says they're a good story, especially around Miami's South Beach area, where one estimate has Saints fans outnumbering Colts fan "20 to 1".

Ballard, a 23-year Marine Vet, could not hide his competitive streak: "The Colts," Ballard says, "are on a team on a mission."

Another mission Ballard's a part of is readying Indianapolis to host the 2012 Super Bowl. Asked if the city had built enough hotels, Ballard assured all that the city was ready: "We've got the J.W. Marriott under construction," Ballard said, "That's a thousand rooms, and a big ballroom. Three other Marriotts going up around it", in addition to the other hotels and facilities that the city has made to meet NFL hotel room requirements of 24,500 rooms within an hour's drive of the stadium.

Super Bowl time: Warren Sapp arrested; hot high car spotted

Miami, South Beach, Florida - Super Bowl time: Warren Sapp arrested; hot high car spotted (video above).

It's Super Bowl time! This Super Bowl update is a mix of good and bad news. Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland Raiders defensive star and NFL Network Analyst Warren Sapp was arrested after allegedly committing some form of domestic violence against his girl friend Saturday morning in Miami.

 According to TMZ.com, Warren Sapp's explanation doesn't read any better than what his girlfriend told Miami Beach Police:

According to the Miami Beach Police Department, Sapp is accused of attacking his girlfriend of two years at around 5:00 AM Saturday at the Shore Club Hotel.

According to the arrest report, the alleged victim had "a swollen right knee and bruises on the back of her neck."

She claims Sapp allowed her to sleep in his hotel room -- then came into the room early in the morning and pulled her out of bed. The alleged victim says they began arguing about guys she was hanging out with earlier Friday night.

Sapp's girlfriend told cops that during the argument Sapp "grabbed her and began to choke her." He eventually threw her out of the room, she claims.

When cops spoke to Sapp, he told them he had allowed the woman to stay in his room -- but later on decided he wanted her to leave because "he was expecting company." He told police he was trying to help her and she fell.

Sapp "..decided he wanted her to leave because "he was expecting company." is a doozy. This blogger's a big fan of Warren Sapp as an NFL Legend, an NFL Network Analyst, and a TV star (he's a spokesperson for National Rent-A-Car), but Sapp should realize he's got a higher profile now and should not even be in a situation like that, regardless of the truth. Moreover, Sapp must measure his words. What Sapp said, if its true, implies that he had another woman coming over and wanted to get rid of her.

Geez.

On a much happier note, the Super Bowl in Miami draws all kinds of interesting sights and sounds, including interesting cars, like the one in the video above. It's a converted Chevy Impala with oversized wheels and a whole new drive train and suspension system. It was cruising down Collins Avenue in South Beach at about 10 PM and stopped traffic on the opposite side of the street. The driver was by himself and enjoying the Mardi Gras-like street party. When asked who he was rooting for, Saints or Colts, he said "I'll go with Who-Dat".

Stay tuned. And follow me on Twitter!

Snow totals cause State of Emergency in Pennsylvania, Delaware

High snow totals due to a bizzard-producing Noreaster caused a State of Emergency in Pennsylvania and Delaware today. The bad weather conditions from a major winter storm that came into the Mid-Atlantic region and hit Pennsylvania caused thousands to lose electricity.

A disaster emergency was declared at 6:30 am, as 60,000 people in Allegheny County are without power, and fallen trees and downed electric lines have make road travel unsafe, and in some cases impossible.

In addition to Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, and Delaware are under a disaster emergency watch. On Friday, most Federal Government offices closed.



Washington DC is described as a "paralyzed. The storm is called the biggest in the U.S. Capital's history.

Super Bowl gossip: Raiders affilate gives up on Jamarcus Russell

Miami, South Beach, FLA - The latest Super Bowl gossip has Oakland Raiders Quarterback Jamarcus Russell again painted as a person who doesn't care about being an improved player because he has his $30 million signing bonus.

This comes from a friend who's in a position to know. Late last night, I ran into him and his girlfriend at the 11th Street Diner in South Beach and we caught up. This person's a sports executive with close ties to a number of Raiders players, so he does know.

This blogger mentioned that he was excited that the Oakland Raiders brought in Hue Jackson as offensive coordinator. The response was "Let's hope he can do something with Jamarcus Russell. I doubt it." And he then went on to describe how a number of his offensive teammates like and hope the best for him, but consider Jamarcus Russell as someone who is more concerned about "his bling".

(That's earrings, and other jewelry some men like to wear.)

Frankly, what stops many young African American football skill position players from succeeding is a concern for bling and mink coats. This isn't being racist, but race conscious. It's also sending a message that black men like myself are sick and tired of such behavior and that Jamarcus Russell has to shape up, or he's going to be shipped out.

That's just a plain fact.

Jamarcus Russell is a man with a ton of talent, but he must change his look to an apparent desire to do more to improve his game. I contend, and did last night again, that a large part of Jamarcus Russell's problem is very poor coaching by the Oakland Raiders. I still make that assertion, but last night, my friend had the tone of a person who just gave up on Jamarcus Russell.

I haven't, but Jamarcus Russell has to put in the extra passing drill and film study work. Moreover, he has to do this: take off the earrings, forget the mink coat, and just go out and work. What he should do is make the calls himself to have meeting and drills with his coaches so that he can get better. Jamarcus Russell has to be proactive to counter this idea that he's got his $30 million and does not care about winning.