John Edwards and Rielle Hunter "The Alleged Mistress" Caught In LA By Enquirer

This is a new story that is based on one I covered last fall. Former U.S. Senator John Edwards, who was also being considered for the VP slot next to Senator Barack Obama, was found at an LA hotel by two National Enquirer reporters as Edwards was visting new mom Rielle Hunter.

In January, this space reported that the Enquirer wrote that Hunter was pregnant.

This is what I added in this blog:

John Edwards' Alledged Lover Rielle Hunter Pregnant By Either "Edwards Operative" Or Edwards Himself

Friday, January 04, 2008

As John Edwards prepares to go negative on Barack Obama after Obama's big Iowa win, there's a looming spectre of a story that should be of concern to him and it seems to be.

This is a story that will not go away and it comes up again, as The National Enquirer and Sam Stein over at the Huffington Post first introduced a story asserting that former U.S. Senator and Presidential Candidate John Edwards had an affair in 2006.

I wrote about it a while back , but focused on the Enquirer / Clinton angle. But I'm done with that as the story has massive legs.

Now, the Enquirer is reporting that the woman of interest as the supposed lover, Rielle Hunter is pregnant, and has a photo , shown here, to prove it. Now this is where the story gets even weirder...

Here is what I wrote in the original story:

This is one of those stories you aren't sure what to do with but figure you should cover to some extent. Apparently the National Enquirer is reporting that John Edwards had been cheating on his wife. It's all the more hurtful because his wife's battling breast cancer and doesn't need any more stress, even from the mere existence of the story itself.

Yikes.

The person who some are pointing fingers at is named Rielle Hunter. She's a video producer who was hired to cover Edwards for a period of time during the campaign and made a special set of videos. Here's one of them..



Hunter released the following statement through a spokesperson:

"The innuendoes and lies that have appeared on the internet and in the National Enquirer concerning John Edwards are not true, completely unfounded and ridiculous.
My video production company was hired by the Edwards camp on a 6 month contract, which we completed December 31, 2006.

When working for the Edwards camp, my conduct as well as the conduct of my entire team was completely professional.

This concocted story is just dirty politics and I want no part of it."

But how in hell did this get started and generate 1,363 blog posts, according to Technorati? We'll get to that, but it appears the National Enquirer is part owned by Clinton backer and former staffer Roger Altman , according to Pat Dollard.

But A spokesman for American Media, Richard Valvo, said in an email that Altman has “no involvement in editorial, ever.” He said that Evercore owns 20% of the company through an investment fund. Altman didn’t respond to an email seeking comment or to a message left with his secretary.

American Media has also published terrible and negative stories about the Clintons since its acquisition, so that may just be coincidence.

But how did this get started?

According to Sam Stein over at the Huffington Post , the two met at a New York Bar (!) and the idea for a set of videos was hatched there. What Sam doesn't report, but does come from Rielle's own website, is that in 2004 she was flat broke. In 2006, just two years later, she scored a six-figure deal with Edwards. But how?

What appears possible is that Edwards got involved with helping a woman in her early 40s remake her life. Indeed, the production company that made the film, Midline Groove Productions, was brand new in 2006, according to its website.

"Midline Groove is a full-service production company committed to projects that reveal truth -- the authentic aspects of humanity that are right here and most often overlooked. Creating short and feature length documentaries for the web, broadcast, and big screen, the company was established in 2006 by producing partners Rielle Hunter and Mimi Hockman."

So it seems that the Edward project was Midline Groove Productions' first work, period. Thus it seems as if Edwards created a job for the new production company. It came at the right time for Hunter. Hunter's other website sends the constant message that Hunter was searching for a new self at the time. Check this out..

Back in bed the thought arises: Funny, I would ask Ramana for help and not Gangaji who is here in a body. Yes, that would be too intimate. Intimate intimate intimate. And because I have learned to move towards my fear, I have learned that under the fear is where all the great juice is hidden, it naturally occurs to me to ask her: Gangaji, PLEASE help me wake up from this dream.

There's a lot of text like that.

NYMag has a great timeline which I've reproduced here:

January 2007. John Edwards's One America campaign debuts a series of Web videos about him, made by relatively unknown documentarian Rielle Hunter. The pair met at a bar, where she sold the future candidate on the idea. Hunter subsequently followed Edwards around the country, filming. Newsweek reporter Jonathan Darman, upon watching the final cuts, notes that "in the midst of a short theme sequence that begins each Webisode, the camera lingers over the former senator's behind as he tucks a starched white shirt into his pants."

August 27, 2007. The Post's "Page Six" runs the following blind item: "WHICH political candidate enjoys visiting New York because he has a girlfriend who lives downtown? The pol tells her he'll marry her when his current wife is out of the picture." This is later reprinted by commenters on the Huffington Post blog.

September 26, 2007. Young Huffington Post blogger Sam Stein writes about his efforts to track down the Web videos, which have disappeared from Edwards's Website. Stein writes an oddly detailed account of his chase of the videos and points out that both the Edwards campaign and Hunter's production company blame one another for their vanishing act. Stein even checks with the Screen Actor's Guild to get more information and tracks down production assistants on the project, none of whom will say much. Finally, Edwards's people let him see the videos while accompanied by a campaign minder and Stein sees nothing sinister in them.

September 27, 2007. Daily Kos contributor Ben Bang links to Stein's post and viciously berates the reporter. "Are we supposed to infer something from this non-ending, douchebag?" Ben Bang asks, going on to call him a him a "no-article-finishing, character-assassinating hack fuck."

October 10, 2007. The National Enquirer reports that Edwards is having an affair with a mystery woman who had traveled with the campaign and met the candidate at a bar. An Edwards rep calls the allegations "false, absolute nonsense."

October 10, 2007. That same day, Stein posts a follow-up to his original Huffington Post piece. He questions why the filmmaker, Rielle Hunter, was paid upwards of $100,000 for her work and points out that she used to be a party girl who dated writer Jay McInerney in the eighties and inspired the main character in his book Story of My Life.

October 10, 2007. Ann Coulter, late in the day, mentions the Enquirer story on Tucker Carlson's MSNBC talk show. Daily Kos once again picks up on it and lists the reasons why Stein and the Huffington Post are irresponsible journalists for digging into it.

October 11, 2007. Mickey Kaus on Slate writes a post headlined "Emerging Edwards Scandal?" in which he notes the previous coverage, mulls what would happen to Edwards's campaign if the story were true, especially since he's been "tacitly and effectively used Elizabeth and her struggle" with cancer (the struggle with cancer no doubt being a large part of why the "mainstream media seems to be strenuously trying to not report it"), and wonders who might benefit. Obama?

October 11, 2007. Jezebel.com doesn't mince words, with a headline that screams, "Is John Edwards Cheating on His Cancer-Stricken Wife?" "Who the fuck sleeps with a married man whose wife has terminal cancer and THE ENTIRE WORLD FUCKING KNOWS ABOUT IT?"

October 11, 2007. Washington, D.C., gossip blog Wonkette.com picks up on the Enquirer story, too. After Ann Coulter (who once called John Edwards a gay slur) mentions it, they query: "But, um, Ann? Why would Edwards have a lady-affair when he's a 'faggot'?"

October 11, 2007. New York Magazine's Daily Intelligencer dutifully compiles all of the coverage of the rumor, without adding any information or making conclusions of any kind.

The AP Picks Up The Story

The Associated Press just picked up the story as did the LA Times. In total, 70 news outlets are running with the yarn. Let's see where this takes us as it's not going away.

Back to The Present

John Edwards tried to elude the Enquirer reporters Monday night and according to the Enquirer he did call hotel security. But the overall damage was done.

In this video I talk about Edwards committment to the poor and how that should be allowed to remain in our thoughts about Edwards as he faces this tough issue.

What I call for is us to "circle the wagons" and wish Edwards and his wife the best as they go through what has to be a terrible period.

There are many questions.

For example, why were the videos that Hunter made taken down from the Edwards site last year? And who is behind making the YouTube channel "MissingVideos"? That channel has this wording:

Sometimes things go missing from the internet.

Usually they pop back up.

What Edwards will do now is anyone's guess. Also how will this impact his speaking at the DNC Convention? Stay tuned.

DNCC Giving Away Trip To Convention For Donation - DemConWatch

DemConWatch, which reports on DNC Convention News, has it that the DNCC is sponsoring a contest where the donor winner gets a trip to the DNC Convention. Here are the details from the blog:

Just make a contribution to the DCCC before August 11th and you'll receive an official entry to win flight, tickets and accommodation in Denver for the 2008 Democratic National Convention August 25th - 28th.


Click here to enter with a donation
or you can click here to enter without contributing

The Rules and Regulations are exactly what you'd expect from Congress...
Winner shall be randomly selected from all eligible entries before August 22, 2008.
The winners shall be notified by email on or before August 2, 2008
Your entry must be submitted electronically to: http://www.dccc.org/convcontest1, and must include your name, mailing address, phone number, and email address.
No purchase necessary. Contributing to the DCCC will not improve your chances of winning. You may enter the contest as many times as you like without a contribution by entering here.
So they say you can enter up until August 11th and the winner will be notified "before August 2nd" I'm wondering how they can notify the winner before the contest is over?

And if there's a typo and the winner will be notified on August 22nd... they won't have much time to pack. The flight leaves on August 24th.

Another rule says you have to submit your "name, mailing address, phone number, and email address" but if you go to the page where you don't have to donate, it only asks for your name, email address and zip code.

Gallup And Rasmussen Polls Both Have Obama Ahead By A Hair

I just looked at both the Gallup and the Rasmussen daily tracking polls and Senator Barack Obama's ahead of Senator John McCain by just three percent in the first, 47 to 44 percent and one percent in the last, 45 to 44 percent. But I can't figure out why other than racism. That's the element not adressed, but I also believe that the number of young people polled is not in proportion to their numbers or turnout.

Both polls survey "likely voters" which tend to be older than 45 years of age, and that's where McCain does better. So, we're going to see these numbers -- wrong though they are -- for awhile. John McCain's making a lot of mistakes and the media's not hammering him on them, like talking about a country that does not exist, or today, saying that Iraq is on the boarder of Afghanistan when it's no where near it.

Either someone's not paying attention or they're just plain, well, it's got to be racism -- that's the only mental illness that could explain this.

Barack Obama In France; Translated Interview Reveals Desire For "Less Ideological Politics"

One possible key reason why Europeans are excited about Senator Barack Obama's tour of that part of the World is that he's advocating a politics that's less "ideologically based". I discovered this from this translated interview Senator Obama gave to The Paris Match in late January of this year:

The flight of Obama

Our correspondent in the USA Regis Le Sommier tells the fervor and enthusiasm surrounding the campaign and Barack Obama, by contrast, supporters calmer and more reflective of Hillary Clinton.

Regis Le Sommier and Laurence Haim Canal + were also able to interview Barack Obama in exclusivity. Find our interview with one of the favourites of the race for the White House below.

Barack Obama: "I want to talk directly with Iran and Syria. We do not stabiliserons the region if we are not talking to our enemies "

Regis Le Sommier interview (Paris Match) and Laurence Haim (Canal +)
(published in Paris Match No. 3063 of 31 January 2008)

Paris Match. How will you take to improve the image of the USA in the World?

Barack Obama. Priority should be given, to end the war in Iraq. Occupying this country puts us in a door at odds with the world. Likewise, we must close Guantanamo prisoners and provide a legal framework which allows them to trial. I also, once elected, hold a summit in the Muslim world, with all heads of state, to discuss frankly on how to contain the gap widens each day between Muslims and the West. I want to ask them to join our fight against terrorism. We must also listen to their concerns. I also want us to be leaders in areas such as climate change, that the Bush administration has neglected so long. And this position concern worldwide. If we show that we are a leader in fields such as development, climate change and nuclear non-proliferation, then we will have in exchange for greater cooperation in issues that concern us.


Paris Match: This is a campaign very hard ...

Barack Obama. Yes.

Paris Match: The Clinton are against you. Which of the two is the most difficult to cope?

Barack Obama. No doubt, both are formidable opponents. It is a solid team. I personally have great admiration for things they have done in the past. But I think I'll be more effective as that of lead America on a new path, and especially our foreign policy.

Paris Match: Between them and you, is it a question of generation?

Barack Obama. Not only. Especially the fact that they are associated with certain practices that date back 90 years. The political maneuvers they use for a month in this campaign demonstrated. Their attacks against me are intended solely to score points. For Clinton, there is plenty of time devoted to politics and little to govern, to bring people together to advance, doing things together. I think that voters now want results. They are no longer content to permanent political confrontation.

Paris Match: The USA are mired in Iraq. How do you leave?

Barack Obama. I want to start withdrawing our troops as soon as possible, the pace of one or two brigades per month. This would allow us to leave Iraq around 2009. Thus, we send a signal to the Iraqis to tell them that we will not be forever. At the same time, we must work with them so that Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds agree on a way to govern together. To demonstrate a real change of foreign policy USA, I want to talk directly with countries like Iran and Syria. We will not succeed in stabilizing the region if we are not talking to our enemies. When you are in deep disagreement with someone, you need to talk to him directly.

Paris Match: You have a chance to become the first black president. Have you personally suffered from racism?

Barack Obama. There is no Black American who, in one way or another, has not suffered from racism. I was lucky because it did not traumatized. I grew up in Hawaii, where racial tensions were not also present in other parts of the country. I was born in 1961. If I had been campaigning here at this time, I was asked to come in a toilet for blacks and other public places reserved for people of color. This speaks volumes about the progress we have made. It is still a lot of disparities in health, wages and living conditions among black Americans and others. There is much to be done.

Paris Match: What do you think of President Nicolas Sarkozy?

Barack Obama. He came to visit me in my office in Washington. That was before his election in France. It is an energetic man with a lot of talent. I am impressed by his way of looking at problems specific to France with a fresh eye. It is not fists and feet bound by traditions burdensome or dogmas. It is an example for many leaders. In politics, today it is necessary to look at things with a new vision. I want to travel to France and meet as soon as I won the investiture. I want to see with him how we can further strengthen Franco-American relations.

Paris Match: France will Does the first country where you want to go?

Barack Obama. It is one of my priorities. After my appointment, I want to do a tour in Europe, to meet Gordon Brown, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy. For all embody, in their own way, a new approach less ideological politics.

Kabul Kabol Afghanistan Searches YouTube For Obama Videos

You read the title correctly. someone in Kabul, Kabol Afghanistan's looking for YouTube videos on Obama with President Harmid Karzai and my guess is that it may be the President of the country or someone associated with him. Why because that person's looking up the President's name and the search attempt hails from the President's city.

How do I know this? Because I was checking my traffic stats and saw the listing report you see here. Hitslink is a program I use and swear by because of this detailed information. I certainly hope President Harmid Karzai enjoys Zennie's Zeitgeist.

John McCain Commits Adultery; ABC News, CNN Don't Tell Us About It

Ok. What if I told you that the LA Times ran a story on Senator John McCain that went like this:

An examination of court documents tells a different story. McCain did not sue his wife for divorce until Feb. 19, 1980, and he wrote in his court petition that he and his wife had "cohabited" until Jan. 7 of that year -- or for the first nine months of his relationship with Hensley.

Although McCain suggested in his autobiography that months passed between his divorce and remarriage, the divorce was granted April 2, 1980, and he wed Hensley in a private ceremony five weeks later. McCain obtained an Arizona marriage license on March 6, 1980, while still legally married to his first wife.

Until McCain filed for divorce, the Reagans and their inner circle assumed he was happily married, and they were stunned to learn otherwise, according to several close aides.

"Everybody was upset with him," recalled Nancy Reynolds, a top aide to the former president who introduced him to McCain.

Well, if you clicked on the link above, you will find the LA Times did run that story. What if I told you that the mainstream media ignored it? Well, they did, according to Carpetbagger blog.

That's not fair play. If it were Obama, they would have ran the story. But the fact is that some of these reporters, I believe, are being told by higher-ups to avoid any expose on McCain. They're trying to help him against Obama. It's not right to do this and we have to make them stop.

Some how.

DNC Convention: Kanye West, Wycef To Have Parties

I understand that Kanye West, Wycef Jean, and others are planning parties around Denver for the DNC Convention. Our question is where? We're going. We'll find out. Stay tuned.

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Bob Barr Uses Twitter - Bet John McCain Never Heard Of It

Hey, do you Twitter? Twitter is the social networking system where one can send a short post of up to 150 characters on anything and post it to their Twitter profile and from a cell phone. It's a handy system and even a good Internet traffic strategy as well as a way to just call for help or send out news. You'd expect Barack Obama to Twitter, but a conservative? Enter Libertarian Presidential Candidate Bob Barr -- he does Twitter and quite frequently it seems.

I just ran accross this post on Tech President reporting that Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr uses Twitter. It reads:

I'm sitting in the Austin airport waiting to board my Southwest flight to Houston and on home to BWI after a great conference at Netroots Nation. Who sits down two rows away but Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr. I went on over to ask what anyone would ask: do you Twitter for yourself?

Indeed, Barr says that he does twitter on his own. Barr joins the growing ranks of Twittering elected officials like John Culbertson and Tim Ryan. But unlike fellow Presidential candidate Barack Obama, Barr twitters himself. No staff, no help. (And that may explain why his tweets are a bit...off, at times.

So, congratulations, Congressman Barr, on taking the dive and Twittering for yourself. Have a great flight and and keep the tweets coming.

Heck. I'll bet John McCain never heard of Twitter!

Tom Hayden Questions Obama's Afghanistan Plan As He Sees It

In The Nation, Tom Hayden questions Senator Barack Obama's strategy -- or as he understands it -- to shift troops from Iraq to Afghanistan.

Hayden's point is that the country is so unstable that we may be going from the frying pay to the fire. I agree.

But I don't think that Obama's plan is to recreate our Bush-style Iraq situation in Afghanistan.

At any rate, it's worth checking out.

John McCain "I Hate The Bloggers" - Statement Made On 12/29/07

Boy, for a guy who claims he doesn't understand or use the Internet, Senator and Presidential Candidate John McCain sure knows who bloggers are. He says he hates them. At this town hall meeting, Senator McCain goes off on bloggers. Watch this video:

Obama A Hit With U.S. Troops In Kuwait - Video

Senator Barack Obama hit basketball three-point shots as easily as he hit the mark with U.S. Troops in Kuwait, and in the process showing a different and more personable Presidential candidate than we've seen perhaps in history. The video reveals just how popular he is with the soldiers, and it's because of that I think he's going to get a lot of authentic straight talk on what's going on over there because he can relate to them.

Barack Obama With Afghan President Hamid Karzai

Barack Obama, right, the Democratic presidential candidate, walks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai outside the presidential palace Sunday in Kabul. The two met during Obama's tour of war zones and foreign capitals. Obama has criticized Karzai for not do, originally uploaded by EYASU.SOLOMON.

"Barack Obama, right, the Democratic presidential candidate, walks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai outside the presidential palace Sunday in Kabul. The two met during Obama's tour of war zones and foreign capitals."

That's what the caption read. But while it was reported that Obama has been crtical of Karsai, not today. Indeed, he was nice to him. And that was the plan.

Barack's not a cowboy like Bush, who's going to shoot his mouth off, or call Karsai a name, as Senator Clinton did to Russian President Putin when she said he was "soulless".

Barack's there to make a connection and learn from it.

Charles Krauthammer's Obama Envy

I read Charles Krauthammer's column on Senator Barack Obama visting Germany and hit the ceiling. This is what I wrote to him, or whomever answers his mail:

Charles,

I'm very disappointed in you that you would pen a column which
demonstrates an inability to think outside the mental bounds this
society has formed for you because of your skin color. It does not
take a genus to determine the significance of Obama's appearance at
the Brandenburg Gate. Do I have to spell it out for you?

Ok.

Name one -- just one -- other African American elected official who
has appeared at the the Brandenburg Gate? Then name one -- just one -
African American elected official who has come this close to being
President of the United States. Shall I go on?

You miss what leadership is about. Your column demonstrates that your
don't get it. And it shows that you don't know or intellectually
understand what kind of role the President of the United States
serves. That person is considered this: LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD.

Do you understand? Ok. I'll repeat it.

LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD.

That means to most people, the SYMBOL of freedom. That is what
Senator Obama represents to many. To ho-hum or sigh or cringe at the
presentation of this mear fact is to show a true ignorance of the
intense desire many people in the World have to rid ourselves of the
true mentail illness that is racism.

Charles. The bell's ringing. Time to get with the program.

--
Zennie Abraham, Jr.

Political Bloggers Cutting Back On Profanity?

I just read this blog post which explains that NY Times reporter Katherine Q Seelye has it that Netroots Nation bloggers are reporting an attempt to cut back of profanity. So, I went to the article itself and have to really disagree.

If you take the comments over at DailyKos as an indicator, cussing is alive and well and all over the place.

See "Abbreviated Pundit Round-Up" over at Kos:

on Afghanistan, no doubt to once again give McCain cover to steal Obama's position.

Why the fuck is no one in the media calling their colleagues out? Keith, it's your goddamn channel. Saying "Bushed" doesn't make up for your cocktail pals' complicit

See what I mean? It only took me about 45 seconds to find that little gem.

PodTech: Tech Media Company That Got $7.5 Million Sold For $500,000

In what has to mark as a disappointing end to a company with a lot of promise, I learned that PodTech, the tech media company which publishes online and downloadable videos about new technology and at one point featured video bloggers like Robert Scoble and Irina Slutsky, and raised $7.5 million in 2006, sold for just $500,000.

That's right.

The main reason was a difference between the managers in determining where the company should place it's focus. Plus, it was losing the original talent. CEO John Furrier left the company last year. Robert Scoble gave this take at Friend Feed with a chime in by Furrier and others...:

I'm cool with telling the story. I just need a couple of glasses and wine and a lot of time to tell it first. Podtech was screwed up by a number of decisions. Everyone played a part, but I sure learned a lot about how a company can screw up big time. Major learnings for me? 1. Have a story. 2. Have everyone on board with that story. 3. If anyone goes off of that story, make sure they get on board immediately or fire them. PodTech did none of the three and I'm sorry for my part in not making the three happen - Robert Scoble

That's the cool thing about you, Scoble...you're human and admit it too! - Sean McGee

Not all ventures succeed though. How many 'fail' for those that succeed? It pays to take a pragmatic view. I think it's a hot market, and the impetus to succeed is high, eventually some will break - Mo Kargas

Other things I learned: 1. Make sure people are judged by the revenues they bring in. Those that bring in revenues should get to run the place. People who don't bring in revenues should get fewer and fewer responsibilities, not more and more. 2. Work ONLY for a leader who will make the tough decisions (see above). 3. Build a place where excellence is expected, allowed, and is enabled. 4. Fire idiots quickly (didn't happen at PodTech -- even if you count me as one of the idiots). - Robert Scoble
We get so much coverage of companies when they launch, when they're growing, etc. I'm hoping that someone writes an in-depth piece on what went wrong at PodTech so that entrepreneurs can learn from this. There is so much that you can learn from failures. - Mike Doeff

Other things I learned: 1. if your engineering team can't give a media team good measurements, the entire company is in trouble. Only things that are measured ever get improved. 2. When your stars aren't listened to the company is in trouble. 3. When your stars start leaving (Gillmor and Owyang left before I did) the company is in trouble. 4. Getting rid of the CEO, even if it's all his fault, won't help unless you replace him/her with someone who is visionary and who can fix #1,2,3. - Robert Scoble

Mike: I'm not going to be the one who writes that. Much of the worst stuff is too personal. Failures of companies often happen around failures at the leadership level. Telling why things failed means telling off investors, executives, and others (and even me). Not likely to happen because that'd mean burning bridges and I'm just not willing to do that. These people have too many friends. :-) - Robert Scoble

My vote is for assimilation into something bigger. They bought it to "right the wrongs" and flip it to someone else. Heck, at 500k, it's a bargain right now...IF things are cleaned up. - Bradley McSpinn

Brad: almost all of the talent left. What's left now is not much that's worth much. The revenues came because of our social media leadership. That's what Furrier really had in his hands. Owyang. Me. Cunningham. Jones. Gillmor. The rest of the stuff was a pipe dream that didn't lead anywhere, which is really why the company burned through $7 million (plus several million in revenues). - Robert Scoble

I am going to write an in depth post on this story. It's huge. There are many lessons. Scoble's view is from his perspective but there is a big picture that goes way beyond Scoble's view and that has to do with building a company from a zero stage. I've moved on from a year ago after I was forced out by the board. We made some mistakes but directionally correct. Sure if I had a mulligan things might be different but a business strategy, financing strategy, and team strategy are part of the story.. - John Furrier

john: I am looking forward to your post. - Robert Scoble

There are many lessons to learn that I'll post about. PodTech had a great chance and pioneered some of the best practices in social media. One thing that I'll talk about is the difference between self financed growth strategies and venture backed growth strategies. - John Furrier

Looking forward to your posts John. - Thomas Hawk

I'm looking at this from way on the outside. The value of my perspective is that I know nothing about internal management, visions, discussions, factions, or what have you. All I can say is that from afar, I never got any brand coherence from PodTech. Was it news? paid corporate marketing videos? analysis? community? There were some powerful personal brands--I still follow them in the PodTech diaspora--but it felt they never cohered into a PodTech identity. (That doesn't mean losing personal identity.) - Michael Markman

Michael: exactly. We never played together as a team. It is why entrepreneurs need different skills after they start their companies. It is not enough to sell people on a dream. You must coach your way to it too. - Robert Scoble

What's interesting to me and the sign of a real problem is to have $7.5 million and burn through it, then wind up with a company worth just $500K.

With all this, there are some who think Podcasting is failing, but there are many signs this is not true, including the success of shows like "Ask A Ninja" which pulls in money from sponsorship.

But overall, my personal feeling is that people are lazy and don't want to download anything if they don't have to. That's why I focused on online browser-based sim games like the Oakland Baseball Simworld, rather than downloadable ones.

In the end, it's eyeballs and not downloads that matter and pay, too.

Iran And U.S, Europe End Nuclear Talks Without Agreement

After refusing to sit down and talk with Iran regarding nuclear weapons, then criticizing Senator Barack Obama for saying we should do so, the Bush Administration finally joined the effort to talk with Iran about it's nuclear program.

The talks just ended, but were called "constructive and progressing" leaving the door open to future meetings. What the U.S. seeks is an end to the possible development of nuclear weapons, and so calls for assurances that Iran suspend enrichment of uranium.

That did not happen at the conclusion of the talks.

Michael Phelps | Olympics' Star Michael Phelps Is A Cool Muthafucka

I had the pleasure of meeting six-time US Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps today at Stanford, California when I was there for The Bank Of The West Classic tennis event, and was impressed that he was such a nice and normal person. So this video is about that and the cool video he made for me -- with my coaching -- at the Bank Of The West Classic.

Hey, Phelps may get all the ladies, but that's cool. Michael Phelps is a cool muthafucka. If you see him in Bejing, tell him that. Make a t-shirt saying that.

More athletes could take a page from his book, and just be cool and nice people.

Bobby Jindal Recall Drive Ends - Louisiana Legislator Pay Raise Vetoed

Just a month ago, a drive to recall Republican Governor Bobby Jindal was announced because the Gov was going to approve a pay raise for legislators, and it was observed that he didn't want to upset them.

Well, Jindal's vetoed the bill that would have increased pay, so the recall effort was ended. You can read about the decision on the Recall Jindal website called "Recall Bobby".

Denver' Has Too Many Non-Union Businesses To Capture Convention Business

According to The Union News, Denver, Colorado, the host of the 2008 Democratic National Convention, has too many non-uniohttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifn businesses to take advantage of all of the available convention business.

Chris Lopez, the communications head of the Denver host committee, and in my video, says that:

union restrictions and the needs of people planning events might be limiting who gets convention work. For example, printers used by the DNCC must be union shops and there's only a handful of such businesses in Colorado.

The Rockymountainnews reports that print shops must be union, but there are scant few in Colorado, so those that aren't don't get work.

Well, time for Colorado to "union-up."

Brandon Keating Show - How Do you feel about where HipHop is going?

I keep hearing people saying "HipHop is dead" or "HipHop is dying".  With so many artists these days coming out with what is known as "ringtone" raps, a lot of people who grew up in the 80's and 90's have finally had enough and are complaining about the way HipHop is now. I must admit, for a minute, I was one of those people. But if you look at all music genres, you will begin to realize that they all change over time.  You can not have it one way for the rest of eternity. 

I have received several hundred emails asking me what my stance on HipHop is and where I think it is going.  Without typing an entire essay, I will share my video of my thoughts.

Please feel free to comment on what your stance is.

Vanity Fair's Alex Shoumatoff Mug Shot | Arrested at Bohemian Grove Hiding Behind Redwood Tree

Vanity Fair's Alex Shoumatoff Mug Shot | Arrested at Bohemian Grove Hiding Behind Redwood Tree

Exclusive Photo of Vanity Fair Editor Alex Shoumatoff arrest at Bohemian Grove

This is a major follow-up to our story on Alex Shoumatoff's arrest at Bohemian Grove yesterday.

Wearing what he believed to be appropriate attire to join the rich and famous at the Bohemian Grove, Vanity Fair writer Alex Shoumatoff is seen here in his official Sonoma County Sheriff Department mug shot. He was captured trying to hide behind a redwood tree wearing a Pebble Beach pullover and day-old stubble. This is a sure sign that Graydon Carter, Vanity Fair editor, provided Shoumatoff with what he believes is “west coast attire.” My, how out of touch they both are on the left coast: Everyone out here knows that when you’re powerful and slumming in California you put your wornout Brioni or Loro Piana jacket on and couple it with $400+ jeans or perhaps some Ralph Lauren khakis.



Then, should you really be upper class, you find that comfortable old pair of worn Bottega Veneta driving shoes, or, if you feel truly comfortable with yourself, you slip on some Pumas, Addidas or Nike’s and just fit right in. Too bad both Shoumatoff wasn’t tipped off to the attire code before he tried to sneak into the Bohemian Grove, where he must have appeared to be an oversized and slovenly Andy Dick to the CEOs and world leaders who are members of the Bohemian Club.

Shoumatoff must rue the day that his old Harvard roommate John “Jock” Hooper pressured him in to writing a hit piece against the Club for its plans to thin the trees around its 2,700 Bohemian Grove property that it has partied in every July since 1899.

Hooper has been running a media campaign, even taking up a television crew in a helicopter for a flyover of the Grove. He’s even embroiled Vanity Fair magazine in a media ethics flap by getting contributing editor Alex Shoumatoff – a roommate of Hooper’s at Harvard – to weigh in. And if you see the pictures of Shoumatoff “weigh in” is the operative word. No wonder security caught this guy—there isn’t a redwood tree big enough to hide him. He was caught after using a fake name “Roger Austin” to gain entrance. There is a member named “Austin,” but his first name isn’t Roger. Guards quickly found Shoumatoff trembling behind a Bohemian Grove redwood tree after realizing his ruse.



It’s been called the “greatest men’s party on earth,” and several thousand of the most powerful, rich and famous corporate CEOS and business leaders in the world will encamp at the Bohemian Club’s Grove in Monte Rio. Bohemian Club members include: David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, George H.W. Bush, David Gergen, Chris Matthews, Colin Powell, George P. Shultz, Donald Rumsfeld, Kenneth Starr, Clint Eastwood, Walter Chonkite, Micky Hart and Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, other major entertainers and countless CEOs and business leaders from around the world.

The club is battling with a former disgruntled member, John “Jock” Hooper, a fourth-generation member of San Francisco’s exclusive Bohemian Club until he resigned in 2004 over how to manage the Club’s heavily forested 2,700 acres at the Bohemian Grove summer retreat that lasts from July 10 to July 27 this year.

Now four years later, Hooper is back with an axe to grind, working with his lawyers to oppose the Club’s application to the state of California for a non-industrial timber management plan, which allows landowners to manage their own timber harvests.

The Bohemian Club wants to manage its timber and harvest no more than 1.5 percent of its second growth trees to manage its Sonoma County forest which its members have encamped at for more than 100 years. Their goal is to reduce the possibility of forest fires and ensure the protection of the Grove’s beloved redwood trees from a catastrophic fire like others that have stuck and devastated California in recent years. No old growth redwood trees will be cut by the Club, according to their plan.

The plan is now before the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection which oversees the regulation of timber and forest management.

Hooper struck the first blows in the battle, but now the Club is striking back, saying the ultimate irony is that Hooper himself runs an aggressive logging operation on his commercial apple farm in Mendocino County.

The farm’s has been logging there since 1997 and last year removed 5 percent of the property’s standing conifer trees.

Bohemian Club officials say that rate is much higher than anything being proposed at the Bohemian Grove, which is only up to 1.5 percent a year on average—all of which will then be replanted with redwood tree seedlings. This is “Hooper’s Hypocrisy”: it’s ok for him to harvest 5 percent of his second growth redwoods every year, but it’s not ok for his former clubmates to harvest 1.5 percent annually and then replant with redwood seedlings. Isn’t this the very definition of two-faced duplicity?

Here is exact language from Hooper’s own website: http://www.oz-farm.com/forest.htm: “In 1997, we conducted our first logging operation under the authority of a state-approved Non-Industrial Timber Management Plan (NTMP). Our NTMP as well as the constraints imposed by an easement administered by Pacific Forest Trust permit us to cut timber at about half the rate the timber stand is growing so that the size and quality of the trees improve over time. In the fall of 2007, we completed our second Timber harvest, mostly in areas not harvested in 2007. We removed approximately 5% of the standing conifer inventory.”

Furthermore, some serious tree experts including Professor Stephen Sillett – described as the world’s foremost authority on redwood trees – have written the State in support of the Bohemian Club’s plan—as well as the local Monte Rio Fire Chief Steve Baxman and other distinguished professors and tree experts.


Perhaps it would be best for Shoumatoff to talk to the real environmental and tree experts, not just his self-centered college roommate friend from Harvard, about how to protect forests from Big Sur-like fires. The Bohemian Club is just trying to protect their redwoods from disaster—and from their former member Hooper, who seems hell-bent on destroying his own trees and his own reputation as well.

Obama raises $52 million in June - average donation $68.

Talk of voters growing less confident about Obama’s campaign message seems to have been premature. To the chagrin of pundits suggesting the bloom was off the rose for the Obama campaign, donors contributed $52 million in June. The combined coffers still reflect a GOP advantage, and Obama's 50-state strategy will need more funding than McCain.

read more | digg story

Helen Mirren's Hot Body At 63 Proves Hotness Knows No Age

The great actress Dame Helen Mirren allowed herself to be see wearing a two-piece bikini and the industrialized world went nuts. Helen's body is a prime example that hotness knows no age anymore.

Helen -- if you don't know her name -- was the actress who won the Academy Award in 2006 for her role as the Queen of England in "Queen" and has played several meaty and in many cases sexy roles.

But her greatest role may be as octogenarian sex-symbol. At 63, she's got a body that rivals that of someone 30 years younger than she is. Ok. I'll go as far as 35 years younger.

Here's my video:

Props to Nas

Props to Nas for a song on his new untitled album. The song, “Black President,” is another in a line of non-campaign related pro-Obama songs created by and for the youth movement. If DefJam or Nas or iTunes, even, loved us, just a little, we could put the song or an as-yet-to-be-created video here for you. But, alas, they do not and we cannot. So run over to iTunes and check it out for yourself. We'd love to know what you think.

*Cross posted to AshPolitics.

Vote For It! '08 | www.voteforit08.org | Hip-Hop Summit Action Network

I found this great video and simply am posting it to help get out the message before the DNC Convention. It features LL Cool J -- who's made a huge comback (don't call it that) and Russell Simmons, among others. The description reads:

VFI08 is a joint initiative between the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN), and online ad network and marketing company, CPX Interactive. The overarching purpose of the joint initiative is to serve as a call-to-action to America's youth vote, emphasizing the importance of connectivity to the growing national political spirit and the necessity of empowering one's self thru the exercise of the most basic responsibility...that is the right to vote.

Here's the video:

Vanity Fair Editor Alex Shoumatoff Arrested, Embarrassed at Bohemian Grove

Vanity Fair Editor Alex Shoumatoff Arrested, Embarrassed at Bohemian Grove

He Plans Hit Piece on Bohemian Club Tree Plans

Alex Shoumatoff, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair magazine, tried to sneak into the exclusive Bohemian Grove in Monte Rio, Calif., this week. He was hoping to get an inside look at the exclusive retreat of some of the world’s most prominent CEOs, business leaders and politicians. Of course, he stuck out like a seersucker suit at a funeral and was promptly handcuffed and arrested.

Most embarrassing for him: he was arrested by a part-time security guard whose day job is a plumber. One could say he was arrested at ‘plunger-point.’

Shoumatoff was attempting to sneak in to the 2,700 acre grove. Unfortunately, it’s hard to sneak in when you weight 375+ pounds and are prone to being arrogant and dropping names like dimes. Clearly, when captured, Shoumatoff couldn’t muster the right names to drop and he was detained, handcuffed and arrested by Sonoma County Sheriff’s Dept. for trespassing.

Why break in to an exclusive retreat that many consider far more important and powerful that the annual Davos get-together?

His goal was to write a hit piece on the exclusive club’s timber management plans. Shoumatoff must not have had a program for the Grove. The lecture by tree expert Ralph Osterling on the Club’s timber plan that Shoumatoff should have attended was held Saturday morning. Instead, he showed up late at night during the highly ritualized “Cremation of Care,” an operatic production that the entire Club turns out to see.

Shoumatoff and former Bohemian Club member Jock Hooper, were Harvard roommates. Hooper convinced his journalist friend to write a negative story on the Bohemian Club on its plan to harvest up to 1.5 percent of its forest as part of its fire prevent plans. However, Hooper has failed to make publicly known the fact that he, too, has a forest (isn’t it nice to be rich?) and the fact that he harvests 5 percent a year of its trees. Yet, he is against the Bohemian Club’s harvest management plan because it is too aggressive! If Shoumatoff had any cojones hidden under his ample belly, he would be turning on his friend and writing about Hooper’s hypocrisy, not the Club’s plans to prevent forest fires from destroying their old growth redwood trees--the same way Shoumatoff turned on his other friend, Bill Weld, the Governor of Massachusetts. But that is another story.

Shoumatoff should have disqualified himself from the story because of his long friendship with Hooper. Equally damning is the fact that he attempted to pretext his way past Grove security, as reported in the San Francisco Sentinel. Bias and deception by journalists gives all reporters a bad name. Shoumatoff should apologize to all journalists and the Bohemian Club for his actions, and, he should read the Society of Professional Journalists ethics for a refresher on his professional duties. If he had read the SPJ ethics page before starting on his ill fated venture, perhaps he never would have been arrested for pretending to be something that he is not.

Here is the background on the Bohemian Club NTMP forest management story:

It’s been called the “greatest men’s party on earth,” and several thousand of the most powerful, rich and famous corporate CEOS and business leaders in the world will encamp at the Bohemian Club’s Grove in Monte Rio.

The club is battling with a former disgruntled member, John “Jock” Hooper, a fourth-generation member of San Francisco’s exclusive Bohemian Club until he resigned in 2004 over how to manage the Club’s heavily forested 2,700 acres at the Bohemian Grove summer retreat that lasts from July 10 to July 27 this year.

Now four years later, Hooper is back with an axe to grind, working with his lawyers to oppose the Club’s application to the state of California for a non-industrial timber management plan, which allows landowners to manage their own timber harvests.

The Bohemian Club wants to manage its timber and harvest no more than 1.5 percent of its second growth trees to manage its Sonoma County forest which its members have encamped at for more than 100 years. Their goal is to reduce the possibility of forest fires and ensure the protection of the Grove’s beloved redwood trees from a catastrophic fire like others that have stuck and devastated California in recent years. No old growth redwood trees will be cut by the Club, according to their plan.

The plan is now before the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection which oversees the regulation of timber and forest management.

Hooper struck the first blows in the battle, but now the Club is striking back, saying the ultimate irony is that Hooper himself runs an aggressive logging operation on his commercial apple farm in Mendocino County.

The farm’s has been logging there since 1997 and last year removed 5 percent of the property’s standing conifer trees.

Bohemian Club officials say that rate is much higher than anything being proposed at the Bohemian Grove, which is only up to 1.5 percent a year on average—all of which will then be replanted with redwood tree seedlings.

Here is exact language from Hooper’s own website: http://www.oz-farm.com/forest.htm: “In 1997, we conducted our first logging operation under the authority of a state-approved Non-Industrial Timber Management Plan (NTMP). Our NTMP as well as the constraints imposed by an easement administered by Pacific Forest Trust permit us to cut timber at about half the rate the timber stand is growing so that the size and quality of the trees improve over time. In the fall of 2007, we completed our second Timber harvest, mostly in areas not harvested in 2007. We removed approximately 5% of the standing conifer inventory.”)

Furthermore, some serious tree experts including Professor Stephen Sillett – described as the world’s foremost authority on redwood trees – have written the State in support of the Bohemian Club’s plan—as well as the local Monte Rio Fire Chief Steve Baxman and other distinguished professors and tree experts. (Sillett is a rock star in the world of redwoods).

Still, Hooper has been running a relentless media campaign, even taking up a television crew in a helicopter for a flyover of the Grove. He’s even embroiled Vanity Fair magazine in a media ethics flap by trying to get contributing editor Alex Shoumatoff – a classmate of Hooper’s at Harvard – to weigh in. And if you see the pictures of Shoumatoff “weigh in” is the operative word. No wonder security caught this guy—he couldn’t run away from a jelly fish.

John McCain Cindy McCain Satirzed In New Cartoon

John McCain Cindy McCain Satirzed In New Cartoon

In a response to the New Yorker's questionable taste of a cartoon on Senator Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama, we have this new cartoon showing Senator John McCain in a wheelchair and his wife Cindy feeding him a tidalwave of pills to calm him after the election of Senator Obama as President of The United States.

Senator Barack Obama's NAACP Speech : Video and Text

CRW_6803, originally uploaded by Joe Lamb.

This is the video and text of Senator Barack Obama's speech on Monday before the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Cincinnati.

Video:

It is always humbling to speak before the NAACP. It is a powerful reminder of the debt we all owe to those who marched for us and fought for us and stood up on our behalf; of the sacrifices that were made for us by those we never knew; and of the giants whose shoulders I stand on here today.

They are the men and women we read about in history books and hear about in church; whose lives we honor with schools, and boulevards, and federal holidays that bear their names. But what I want to remind you tonight – on Youth Night – is that these giants, these icons of America’s past, were not much older than many of you when they took up freedom’s cause and made their mark on history.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was but a 26-year -old pastor when he led a bus boycott in Montgomery that mobilized a movement. John Lewis was but a 25-year-old activist when he faced down Billyclubs on the bridge in Selma and helped arouse the conscience of our nation. Diane Nash was even younger when she helped found SNCC and led Freedom Rides down south. And your chairman Julian Bond was but a 25-year old state legislator when he put his own shoulder to the wheel of history.

It is because of them; and all those whose names never made it into the history books – those men and women, young and old, black, brown and white, clear-eyed and straight-backed, who refused to settle for the world as it is; who had the courage to remake the world as it should be – that I stand before you tonight as the Democratic nominee for President of the United States of America.

And if I have the privilege of serving as your next President, I will stand up for you the same way that earlier generations of Americans stood up for me – by fighting to ensure that every single one of us has the chance to make it if we try. That means removing the barriers of prejudice and misunderstanding that still exist in America. It means fighting to eliminate discrimination from every corner of our country. It means changing hearts, and changing minds, and making sure that every American is treated equally under the law.

But social justice is not enough. As Dr. King once said, “the inseparable twin of racial justice is economic justice.” That’s why Dr. King went to Memphis in his final days to stand with striking sanitation workers. That’s why the march that Roy Wilkins helped lead forty -five years ago this summer wasn’t just named the March on Washington, and it wasn’t just named the March on Washington for Freedom; it was named the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

What Dr. King and Roy Wilkins understood is that it matters little if you have the right to sit at the front of the bus if you can’t afford the bus fare; it matters little if you have the right to sit at the lunch counter if you can’t afford the lunch. What they understood is that so long as Americans are denied the decent wages, and good benefits, and fair treatment they deserve, the dream for which so many gave so much will remain out of reach; that to live up to our founding promise of equality for all, we have to make sure that opportunity is open to all Americans.

That is what I’ve been fighting to do throughout my over 20 years in public service. That’s why I’ve fought in the Senate to end tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas and give those tax breaks to companies that create good jobs here in America. That’s why I brought Democrats and Republicans together in Illinois to put $100 million in tax cuts into the pockets of hardworking families, to expand health care to 150,000 children and parents, and to end the outrage of black women making just 62 cents for every dollar that many of their male coworkers make.

And that’s why I moved to Chicago after college. As some of you know, I turned down more lucrative jobs because I was inspired by the Civil Rights Movement and I wanted to do my part in the ongoing battle for opportunity in this country. So I went to work for a group of churches to help turn around neighborhoods that were devastated when the local steel plants closed. And I reached out to community leaders – black, brown, and white – and together, we gave job training to the jobless, set up after-school programs to help keep kids off the streets, and block by block, we helped turn those neighborhoods around.

So I’ve been working my entire adult life to help build an America where social justice is being served and economic justice is being served; an America where we all have an equal chance to make it if we try. That’s the America I believe in. That’s the America you’ve been fighting for over the past 99 years. And that’s the America we have to keep marching towards today.

Our work is not over.

When so many of our nation’s schools are failing, especially those in our poorest rural and urban communities, denying millions of young Americans the chance to fulfill their potential and live out their dreams, we have more work to do.

When CEOs are making more in ten minutes than the average worker earns in a year, and millions of families lose their homes due to unscrupulous lending, checked neither by a sense of corporate ethics or a vigilant government; when the dream of entering the middle class and staying there is fading for young people in our community, we have more work to do.

When any human being is denied a life of dignity and respect, no matter whether they live in Anacostia or Appalachia or a village in Africa; when people are trapped in extreme poverty we know how to curb or suffering from diseases we know how to prevent; when they’re going without the medicines that they so desperately need – we have more work to do.

That’s what this election is all about. It’s about the responsibilities we all share for the future we hold in common. It’s about each and every one of us doing our part to build that more perfect union.

It’s about the responsibilities that corporate America has – responsibilities that start with ending a culture on Wall Street that says what’s good for me is good enough; that puts their bottom line ahead of what’s right for America. Because what we’ve learned in such a dramatic way in recent months is that pain in our economy trickles up; that Wall Street can’t thrive so long as Main Street is struggling; and that America is better off when the well-being of American business and the American people are aligned. Our CEOs have to recognize that they have a responsibility not just to grow their profit margins, but to be fair to their workers, and honest to their shareholders and to help strengthen our economy as a whole. That’s how we’ll ensure that economic justice is being served. And that’s what this election is about.

It’s about the responsibilities that Washington has – responsibilities that start with restoring fairness to our economy by making sure that the playing field isn’t tilted to benefit the special interests at the expense of ordinary Americans; and that we’re rewarding not just wealth, but the work and workers who create it. That’s why I’ll offer a middle class tax cut so we can lift up hardworking families, and give relief to struggling homeowners so we can end our housing crisis, and provide training to young people to work the green jobs of the future, and invest in our infrastructure so we can create millions of new jobs.

And that’s why I’ll end the outrage of one in five African Americans going without the health care they deserve. We’ll guarantee health care for anyone who needs it, make it affordable for anyone who wants it, and ensure that the quality of your health care does not depend on the color of your skin. And we’re not going to do it 20 years from now or 10 years from now, we’re going to do it by the end of my first term as President of the United States of America.

And here’s what else we’ll do – we’ll make sure that every child in this country gets a world-class education from the day they’re born until the day they graduate from college. Now, I understand that Senator McCain is going to be coming here in a couple of days and talking about education, and I’m glad to hear it. But the fact is, what he’s offering amounts to little more than the same tired rhetoric about vouchers. Well, I believe we need to move beyond the same debate we’ve been having for the past 30 years when we haven’t gotten anything done. We need to fix and improve our public schools, not throw our hands up and walk away from them. We need to uphold the ideal of public education, but we also need reform.

That’s why I’ve introduced a comprehensive strategy to recruit an army of new quality teachers to our communities – and to pay them more and give them more support. And we’ll invest in early childhood education programs so that our kids don’t begin the race of life behind the starting line and offer a $4,000 tax credit to make college affordable for anyone who wants to go. Because as the NAACP knows better than anyone, the fight for social justice and economic justice begins in the classroom.

But it doesn’t end there. We have to fight for all those young men standing on street corners with little hope for the future besides ending up in jail. We have to break the cycle of poverty and violence that’s gripping too many neighborhoods in this country.

That’s why I’ll expand the Earned Income Tax Credit – because it’s one of the most successful anti-poverty measures we have. That’s why I’ll end the Bush policy of taking cops off the streets at the moment they’re needed most – because we need to give local law enforcement the support they need. That’s why we’ll provide job training for ex-offenders – because we need to make sure they don’t return to a life of crime. And that’s why I’ll build on the success of the Harlem Children’s Zone in New York and launch an all-hands-on-deck effort to end poverty in this country – because that’s how we’ll put the dream that Dr. King and Roy Wilkins fought for within reach for the next generation of children.

And if people tell you that we cannot afford to invest in education or health care or fighting poverty, you just remind them that we are spending $10 billion a month in Iraq. And if we can spend that much money in Iraq, we can spend some of that money right here in Cincinnati, Ohio, and in big cities and small towns in every corner of this country.

So yes, we have to demand more responsibility from Washington. And yes we have to demand more responsibility from Wall Street. But we also have to demand more from ourselves. Now, I know some say I’ve been too tough on folks about this responsibility stuff. But I’m not going to stop talking about it. Because I believe that in the end, it doesn’t matter how much money we invest in our communities, or how many 10-point plans we propose, or how many government programs we launch – none of it will make any difference if we don’t seize more responsibility in our own lives.

That’s how we’ll truly honor those who came before us. Because I know that Thurgood Marshall did not argue Brown versus Board of Education so that some of us could stop doing our jobs as parents. And I know that nine little children did not walk through a schoolhouse door in Little Rock so that we could stand by and let our children drop out of school and turn to gangs for the support they are not getting elsewhere. That’s not the freedom they fought so hard to achieve. That’s not the America they gave so much to build. That’s not the dream they had for our children.

That’s why if we’re serious about reclaiming that dream, we have to do more in our own lives, our own families, and our own communities. That starts with providing the guidance our children need, turning off the TV, and putting away the video games; attending those parent-teacher conferences, helping our children with their homework, and setting a good example. It starts with teaching our daughters to never allow images on television to tell them what they are worth; and teaching our sons to treat women with respect, and to realize that responsibility does not end at conception; that what makes them men is not the ability to have a child but the courage to raise one. It starts by being good neighbors and good citizens who are willing to volunteer in our communities – and to help our synagogues and churches and community centers feed the hungry and care for the elderly. We all have to do our part to lift up this country.

That’s where change begins. And that, after all, is the true genius of America – not that America is, but that America will be; not that we are perfect, but that we can make ourselves more perfect; that brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand, people who love this country can change it. And that’s our most enduring responsibility – the responsibility to future generations. We have to change this country for them. We have to leave them a planet that’s cleaner, a nation that’s safer, and a world that’s more equal and more just.

So I’m grateful to you for all you’ve done for this campaign, but we’ve got work to do and we cannot rest. And I know that if you put your shoulders to the wheel of history and take up the cause of perfecting our union just as earlier generations of Americans did before you; if you take up the fight for opportunity and equality and prosperity for all; if you march with me and fight with me, and get your friends registered to vote, and if you stand with me this fall – then not only will we help close the responsibility deficit in this country, and not only will we help achieve social justice and economic justice for all, but I will come back here next year on the 100th anniversary of the NAACP, and I will stand before you as the President of the United States of America. And at that moment, you and I will truly know that a new day has come in this country we love. Thank you.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Would Serve Obama

In this video, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger tells ABC' "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos that he would indeed serve in an Obama Administration if he were called to do so. "I will take his call now, and I will take his call if he were President. I don't think this is one of those things where you can be partisan."

Zennienet.com - The Newest Social Tagging System

If you use Digg, or Reddit, or Mixx, then you're familar with "social tagging". Now, there's a new system right here at Zennie's Zeitgeist, and will soon be on our other blogs: Zennienet.com

Try it.

Tony Snow Remembered On "Face The Nation"

A person who passed too young, former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, was remembered on CBS' "Face The Nation":

Chicago Tribune / LA TImes Shrink - Tribune Co Fires Staffers

On the very day the New Yorker jumps the shark, the Tribune Company announces firings, including the editor of the Chicago Tribune and the publisher of the LA Times. The reason: readers flow to online sources and advertisers go with them.

New Yorker, Jesse Jackson, Ralph Nader Use Racism Against Obama

In this installment in my video series I discuss the New Yorker cartoon of Barack and Michelle Obama and how it compares to Jesse Jackson's "nuts" gaffe of last week (which I contend was not a gaffe and was a deliberate action), and Ralph Nader's most unfortunate statement that Senator Obama was "acting white."

I feature New Yorker Editor David Remick's explaination of the creation and use of the cartoon, and provide commentary.

I then explain that all three actions were examples of "jumping the shark" -- using race to get attention for their message, but doing nothing to improve the American condition in the process.

New Yorker's Cartoon Of Barack And Michelle Obama An Outrage

If you've not seen this cartoon for the New Yorker,then here it is in all of its glory. It shows Barack and Michelle Obama in all of the stereotypical garb and poses that bigots and racists -- same thing -- have complained about. It has Michelle as a terrorist doing the "fist pump" and Barack in radical muslim garb.

Why?

What's the point of this?

A number of outraged Obama supporters have flooded the listservs on this matter, and one person John Hay of TellingThoughts.com took up an email conversation with the cartoonist Barry Blitt:

t appears as though “The New Yorker” is now running for cover over their outrageous and highly defamatory Obama magazine front cover. Possibly grounds for a costly New Yorker payout after Senator Obama gets the election out of the way.

Below is the New Yorker cartoonist’s response to an emailed complaint over the cover. It was posted early today by an Obama supporter MK, on one of the Obama site threads.



***************************

New Yorker Cover Artist’s Response to My E-mail | Report to Admin

By MK Today at 2:52 am EDT

Here is Barry Blitt’s response to my e-mail expressing my hurt and distress at his New Yorker Cover…

I am distressed to receive your email. All I can tell you is it was my intention to depict the
hideous innuendo and scare tactics circulated in the media as the ridiculous lies that they are.

My drawing was intended to appear preposterous and ridiculous. That it is being taken at
face value is very upsetting, and directly opposite to its intention. I am sorry for the hurt
it has caused. I cannot actually believe this cartoon, which was meant to mock the bigots
and xenophobes who spread lies, will actually give them license.

I hoped the image would get people talking about the falsehoods being spread about the Obamas.
I still hope that will be the case.

I am sorry once again.

Barry Blitt

But this is like Jesse Jackson all over again. You do something you know is going to upset people, but then turn around and appologize for it. This is happening all too often.

What about the New Yorker's editors? They're the ones who decided to run the damn thing.

Blogger Influence Studies Miss The Point - Print Media Is Dying

I happened over to Flopping Aces, a political blog, and noticed their reference and post on a study that questioned the infuence of bloggers in politics. The study was done in the "olden" days of blogging, circa 2006, and so is already questionable because there were 2 million blogs then, versus over 100 million today.

But the main point missed by Flopping Aces is that with ad dollars moving toward the Internet, and reporters being laid off left and right, blogs remain the one place to go to get news. Yes, biased -- for example, we tend to be pro-Barack Obama -- but that is why people surf blogs. The bottom line is that the way we're getting our news is changing fast and in this sea of alteration is difficult to question the power of blogs.

We're at a point where almost every major news channel on television looks like blogs for news, then uses their content or story idea to some degree. That fact is not in the study's discussed.

"Yes We Can" - Tribute to Obama By Maria Muldaur and Bonnie Raitt

"Yes We Can" is the new musical and video tribute to Senator Barack Obama for President by Maria Muldaur and Bonnie Raitt. I was asked to co-produce and distribute the video on behalf of Maria Muldaur and Joel Jaffe of Studio D Recording in Sausalito , CA. It's not to be confused with the first great "Yes We Can" video and song by Will-I-Am, which is a terrific and pioneering work of its own. Also see www.yeswecanthevideo.com

"Yes We Can" - Tribute to Obama By Maria Muldaur and Bonnie Raitt

Press Release: Singing Legends Team Up For Obama Tribute Song and Video

Here's the video:



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"Yes We Can" by
Zennie Abraham is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at
www.yeswecanthevideo.com.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at
www.yeswecanthevideo.com.
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Sunday, Bloody Sunday

We have always known music is powerful - that it can affect people, reach them on a very visceral level. Here, then, is a reworking - a mashup, if you will - of a song that was already full of power and emotion. U2's "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" courtesy of YouTube and 1962verbodivino.

Sunday, Bloody Sunday...

I cant believe the news today
Oh, I cant close my eyes and make it go away
How long...
How long must we sing this song?
How long? how long...

'Cause tonight...
We can be as one tonight...

Broken bottles under childrens feet
Bodies strewn across the dead end street
But I wont heed the battle call
It puts my back up
Puts my back up against the wall
...
And the battle's just begun
There's many lost, but tell me: who has won?
The trench is dug within our hearts
And mothers, children, brothers, sisters torn apart

...

Wipe the tears from your eyes
Wipe your tears away
Wipe your tears away
I wipe your tears away (Sunday, bloody Sunday)
I wipe your blood shot eyes (Sunday, bloody Sunday)

Sunday, bloody sunday (Sunday, bloody Sunday)
Sunday, bloody sunday (Sunday, bloody Sunday)


And its true we are immune
When fact is fiction and tv reality
And today the millions cry
We eat and drink while tomorrow they die

The real battle yet begun (Sunday, bloody Sunday)
To claim the victory Jesus won (Sunday, bloody Sunday)

On Sunday - bloody Sunday!
Sunday, bloody Sunday...

Click for "YES WE CAN" - The new Obama Tribute Video!

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Women Can Be Sexist Too: Clinton Supporters And Sexism

This video is nothing less than a monologue on how some remaining female supporters of Senator Clinton for President are, in pointing out sexism, being sexist themselves.

I point to Salon.com's Editor-in-Chief Joan Walsh as a main example and as one who looks the other way when Michelle Obama is the target of sexism and racism, but not Senator Clinton, followed by Harriet Christian, the terrible and outwardly racist Clinton supporter who gained national attention for her racist and sexist rant against Senator Barack Obama at the DNC Rules Committee Meeting of May 31st.

In fact, I point to this blog "Too Sense" and the article "The Limited Empathy of Joan Walsh" where the blogger dNa writes:

Walsh and Ferraro, experts both on being a black man and running for president, and presumably how easy such an endeavor is, given the vast number of black presidents we have elected. It wasn't that Obama built a top-tier fundraising organization, (from scratch) studied the primary rules and how to take full advantage of them, or ran an disciplined campaign with minimal conflicts it was because it was easy, because otherwise there's no possible way this nigger could have actually pulled it off.

Here Walsh demands a full exoneration for Geraldine Ferraro, complete with deference to her knowledge of how to win "Reagan Democrats," something Ferraro doesn't have the slightest idea how to do. Her supposed rapport with "Reagan Democrats" is based exclusively on the idea that they share the same racial prejudices as she does, which strikes me unbelievably condescending.

With the exception of the use of the "N" word, I totally agree. Joan Walsh lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, not the Deep South, and so should value diversity and attack both racism and sexism, wherever both exist. Instead, she sides with Reagan Democrats, who threaten to back Senator McCain for President.

In this both Walsh, and Suzie Thompkins Buell, the founder of Esprit, have behaved terribly as San Francisco Professional Women of Power. Buell was recently quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying..

Susie Tompkins Buell, a Hillraiser from San Francisco, said, "What really hurt women the most was to look back and see all this gender bias." Ms. Buell said she hasn't decided whether to vote for Sen. Obama and plans to skip the August Democratic convention.

That's ridiculous and it means Buell's view is just like that of Joan Walsh, who one commenter at the Too Sense wrote of using less-than-kind terms...

Joan Walsh is an insult to white women. She has outright lied, presented misleading information, mischaracterized events, and overall has pushed for a vicious agenda of delegitimizing Obama. She and her coterie of "feminists" have shown themselves to be no better than neo-cons.

Salon was an interesting place for insightful articles, but especially for the past year it has been a complete fluff blog, with Joan Walsh showing such astounding immaturity, it has been a sad spectacle to watch. She has been reactionary, completely illogical, and completely emotional.

She should not be an editor of anything.

Finally, I point to efforts like those of The Denver Group to force a new election at the DNC Convention as divisive and driven by some of the worst elements in the Democratic Party -- some people who are both racist and sexist. The main persons here are Larry Johnson and the afforementioned Harriet Christien; Johnson a Clinton supporter best known for working to find a tape on Michelle Obama that does not exist.

They represent the worst elements of the Democratic Party and should be laughed at, then ignored. America made it's choice for Democratic Presidential representative. And even the Florida and Michigan voters knew their elected officials screwed up in moving their primaries forward. To change the DNC Rules would be to declare that the DNC Rules Committee has no backbone or teeth in any decision it makes, and so anyone could go on -- any state leader -- and thumb their noses at the DNC when it wished to do so.

That's not the right course for the DNC. We must end all sexism and racism in the Democratic Party. Period.

Germany Says Bush Did Not Pressure Them To Cancel Obama Speech

As we move closer to Senator Barack Obama's much anticipated speech in Germany, we have this report from Poltical Gateway that says Germany claims the Bush Administration did not pressure them to try and stop the Obama speech from happening,

Yeah. Right. Like I believe the Bush White House had nothing to do with the "outing" of CIA operative Val Plame.

Tony Snow - Former Bush Press Secretary Passes Of Colon Cancer

Tony Snow, former White House / Bush Administration Press Secretary, passed away at the young age of 53 after his battle with Colon Cancer.

He will be missed. I always enjoyed his perspective and his reasoned approach. He seemed like a very good person.