Murtha called the war in Iraq "a flawed policy wrapped in illusion."

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- One of the leading House Democrats on defense issues on Thursday called for a swift U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, drawing strong criticism from Republicans and escalating the debate over President Bush's war policies.

"U.S. and coalition troops have done all they can in Iraq," said Rep. John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat who has been in Congress for 31 years. "It's time for a change in direction."

Murtha warned that other global threats "cannot be ignored."

Murtha, a retired Marine colonel who earned a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts for his service in Vietnam, said he believes all the forces could be redeployed over six months. (Watch Murtha's take on 'flawed policy wrapped in illusion' at CNN.com)

Understanding that Murtha is considered hawkish on defense issues and is influential with both parties, administration officials said they take solace that moderate Democrats have not raced to join Murtha's call.

Rudeness and Racism At The Cal / Stanford "Big Game" Guardsman Luncheon

I struggled over writing this, and elected to do so only to effectively release the anger from my experience. So, I'm going to let the chips fall where they may.

Some people not of color (and a few of color) have this idea that society is color blind and that racism is something of the past. For them, to mention the problem is a terrible thing. Well, that's too bad. The only way to really eliminate racism is to point out every example of it, and make sure it does not happen again.

I attended my fourth, sixth, seventh --- geez, I lost count -- "Big Game" Guardsman Luncheon held at the Fairmount Hotel in San Francisco yesterday. For those of you who don't know this, the Big Game is the annual gridiron battle between the football teams of the University of California and Stanford University. The "Big Game" is known for "The Play" -- the famous 1982 kickoff return that pushed Cal over Stanford 25 - 20.

The Guardsman Luncheon is supposed to be a fun event where Cal and Stanford Alumns reconnect with each other. Excited to go, I purchased a ticket and was assigned to Table 49. Prior to that, I was greeted by a really nice woman who gleefully shared her glass of wine with me. Oh, yes, she was an Old Blue -- what Cal Alumns are called -- but she wasn't old. So, I felt like I was off to a good start.

Pay attention, cause I'm going to tell it like it was.

I introduced myself to my table-matess and at down for a bit, then upon recognizing my friend, Ad Agency Exec Marc Corsi, I went over to chat with him for a bit. Afterward, I returned to my table and there was a nice looking blond lady that was about to sit next to me. It was a circular table full of men -- all white except me. So, as I sat down, I noticed this tallish, graying man pull the lady over one chair away from me. Because it was so abrupt, I instantly looked up and thought to myself "That's weird. This isn't going to be one of those days, right..."

Just as I completed that sentence in my head, the graying white guy gets up and asks the lady to switch seats with him. I figured out as I was watching this -- and because the lady used the term "Dad" -- that he was her father. So, I figured he was being "protective" but once I figured out that she was actually sitting next to "Dad" and some other white guy she didn't know, I thought "this is going to be one of those days."

Through all this, I said nothing, but I could feel my face contort. Undoubtely it was noticeable to the "Dad," because he looked at me and stuck out his hand to introduce himself, then started peppering me the first of what would be a set of annoying questions. Remember, this is a CAL / STANFORD event and we're sitting at one of the Cal tables.

Question One: "Where did you go to school"
My Answer: "I went to Cal"

Then sports agent Steve Baker showed up, and I -- strangely enough -- was going to call him as I'd not talked to him for about a year almost. We know a lot of the same people and I hit it off with his kids when I met them at a Fleet Week Party hosted by my friend Beth last year. But Steve was in a weird mood. I wanted to -- you know -- talk and catch up. But he said "I want to hear this guy talk."

The "guy" he was referring to was Bob Sarlatte, a local media announcer and actor who's the MC at every one of these lunches. He's also the MC at the Fox Sports Luncheon. Now, I figure Steve's heard Bob tons of times, and I wanted to share with him what happened to me over the time we were out of touch -- passing of Dad and Stepdad, etc. Not a long talk -- just something that would have taken a couple of minutes and when you're talking with a friend they will take that time, regardless. Not Steve.

I started with a few sentences about my Dad passing a month ago, and Steve shut me down again. So, I told him that wasn't nice at all. But what got me was Steve had no problem talking to the graying white guy -- who he didn't know until then -- and as Sarlatte was talking. So, between the two of them, I figured I was beneath a cloud of evil. That's how it felt. Then Steve got up to talk to someone at another table, and the graying white dude asked more dumb questions of me.

Question Two: So what was your degree in?
My Answer: I got my master's degree.

Question Three: In what? MBA?
My Answer: Masters of City Planning
His response: Oh!

Question Four: So this was at Cal?
My Answer: Yes

Question Five: Is this your first lunch?
My Answer: No. I've attended several. I sat on the Cal Alumni Board for three years and the Awards Committee for three years after that. So, I'm kind of tied in.

Question Six: What do you do?
My Answer: I'm CEO of Sports Business Simulations.

If you have the view that this was in rapid fire succession, you're right. I went on to talk about SBS for a bit, and then he asked me...

Question Seven: So is he (Steve Baker) your agent? Did you play a sport?
My answer: No, he's a friend of mine, though I'm pissed with him right now...

Then Steve returned to his seat next to me. By this time, I was so livid I said nothing to either one of them. What caused my anger to simmer was that Baker kept his back toward me, and restarted his conversing with the graying white guy.

Oh, I forgot to mention that during the questioning, I tried to get the "guy's" mind off my "resume" by mentioning that I went to The Stones Concert the night before. He said "Great. My Daughter went to the U2 Concert," two which I asked how she liked it, and she gave a thumbs up. But then he immediately started on Question Five above. Geez.

At any rate, as Baker's back was in my face, I started scanning for an open table seat to relocate to. For a second, I thought "I guess I don't know anyone" and started to feel sorry for myself. But I was proven wrong in the next second, because I saw the back of the head of my long time friend Brian Fitzpatrick, so I went over to surprise him.

After returning to my seat I think Steve realized how much I was really "P.Oed" -- at least I hope so. He returned his back to a position pointed away from my face. If he didn't get that I was upset then, he will now.

Eventually, I left with B-Fitz, and his friend Gary, but not before we had a great conversation about Cal football, T.O., and other matters with my friend sports columnist Glenn Dickey.

I'd pretty much distanced myself from Table 49 by then.

A word to people: if you see somone who's black and male at a function like this, don't be rude or nervous with the person. Just relax. To do otherwise is racist. What good does anyone get from such treatment? None!

Personally, I'd like to see more African Americans at these Cal Alumni luncheons, but if my experience is any indication, I would understand if we don't come back. All it takes is one bad apple. An experience like the one with the greying white guy effectively diminishes the positive energy -- and wine -- shared by the nice lady when I walked in, and thank God Brian, Gary, and Glenn saved me.

Oh, I forgot to point out that the lady was white, too.

She was so nice to me, I didn't think about it -- see my point?

"Urbantic": A Great New Community Website To Learn About Places and People

My friend Michael Bean, who's firm Forio Business Simulations hosts the Sports Business Simulations website, has developed an exciting new website called "Urbantic." It's at http://urbantic.com

The idea behind Urbantic is very simple: to allow people to learn about places and people. It's kind of a cross between community sites like Ryze and Friendster and your common restaurant or city review website. All you do is set up a profile and type in comments about your favorite places. You wil then see a list of other favorite places posted by others than are nearby. You can also see who's going to those places. In other words, anyone who may have made a comment about that place will be added to a list associated with that venue.

"Places" can be neighborhoods, bus stops, transit statiions, bars, ...you name it. It's a pretty habit forming device. Check it out. I think it's going to become a very huge place to be online.

Apparently, Pentagon Used Chemical Weapon On Cilvilians in Fallujah, Iraq

Wow, this is from ShowBizData and the link's in the title of the post, but I'm copying it here:

"... Faced with footage from an Italian documentary showing white phosphorus shells being dropped on Fallujah during last year's offensive and interviews with two American soldiers who had witnessed the results of the chemical's use, the Defense Department on Tuesday retracted an earlier statement saying that it had only been used for illumination. "It was used as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants," spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Venable told the BBC, "though not against civilians." However, the Italian documentary, produced by the state-owned RAI, showed the burned bodies of civilians, including women and children. In the interview, Venable denied that white phosphorus missiles can be considered a chemical weapon. He called it a "conventional munition" and noted that the U.S. was not a signatory to an international treaty barring its use against civilians. He said that the Pentagon's earlier statement that it was used only for illumination was based on "poor information." The Italian documentary received little press coverage in the U.S., where no nightly network newscast even mentioned it.."

This is terrible. Is CNN covering this news?

Woodward Was Told of Plame More Than Two Years Ago - Wash Post

"..Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward testified under oath Monday in the CIA leak case that a senior administration official told him about CIA operative Valerie Plame and her position at the agency nearly a month before her identity was disclosed..."

I wonder which Bush Administration official that was....

The Rolling Stones SF Concert - Attack Of The Killer Cell Phone Cameras!

I'm groggy voiced, having danced and sang at last night's awesome Rolling Stones concert at Pac Bell, no SBC, no is it AT&T Park, now? Whaever. The place the San Francisco Giants play (though they'd better solve that weird name change problem).

Anyway, the Stones are a totally great show. And what I most enjoy is the totally interracial flavor of what they do, from the terrific sista who was singing with Mic, to the brotha jammin on the sax, and to the hot Afro-British model strutting her stuff in a video for "Brown Sugar." The Stones really seem to enjoy what they do, and don't get hung up on color. They had a musical tribute to the great Ray Charles. I told my friend that what makes the Stones so lasting is their blend of soulful music and lyrics. Many Rock bands have music that's ok to move to, but the lyrics are terrible. Many rappers have great lyrics, but the music is ok at times. The Stones are a good blend of many musical approaches. An event worth photographing. Too bad I didn't bring my camera. It was the first time I wish I had a digital cell phone camera.

Rats!

The concert tickets requested that the patrons not use or bring cameras, and my friend had to take her camera back to the car because they wouldn't let her in with it. What a joke! There must have been over 1,000 camera-equipped cell phones in the place! At one point, I counted 20 of them in use right in front of me. What was an usher going to do? Run through a crowd of people to take the phones? Right? Oh, then the people can just turn off their phones and hide them, because they're so small.

I think the entertainment and sports industry is totally out to lunch when it comes to the rise of what I call "subversive technology": the Internet, and any extremely small device capable of recording and playing back any sound and image and transfering that data via the Web at low cost-- or no cost. This is impossible to regulate.

What, then, should the Stones do? Easy. Set up deals with the makers of the camera phones, where they brand their cameras in Stones logos and have contests for the best photos taken with a "Stones" camera. They should also have sponsors develop larger logos that can be seen even on a small screen, like those on cell phone cameras. That will enhance the value of the sponsorship.

But there's nothing they can do about the way technology is taking and spreading their content. Nothing. Regulating it is ...well, stupid to try and prohibitatively expensive.

I wonder what Stanford Law Professor Lawrence Lessig thinks of all this. Lessig can be fairly called a champion of the free transfer of information on the Internet (but with systems to protect the developers of original content. I am a member of his Creative Commons Organization, and their logo is on our Sports Business Simulations site)

Oh, on that note, I was talking to a guy while in line for the men's bathroom at the concert about Metallica, the opening band for The Stones. He said he used to like Metallica before the Napster controversy. Now, he downloads their music for free "just to piss them off" he said.

I told him he should check out Lessig's Blog, to which some guy who passed by me at the urinal said "HA HA HA. Lawrence Lessig. HA. HA. HA" and then walked off.

I asked him if he lost a court case to him or something, but I never got an answer back.

Boeing's 787 Dreamliner - Great But The Windows Are Going to Be A Problem

Boeing's new 787, nicknamed "Dreamliner", looks like it will be an exciting plane to ride, if the picture here is any indication.
The windows shown in this interior mockup are to be 19 inches tall -- larger than those on any other large commericial passenger plane. They're also such that they can be darkened with the push of a button.

This I don't like. Here's another example of the unnecessary application of high technology to a problem. It almost seems like Wallace and Gromit, where they use an outrageous combination of materials to make a contraption to crush a walnut. In the case of the Dreamliner, the new window darkening technology replaces simple plastic shades. Terrible.

Why?

Because, as was the case on a flight to Chicago -- this one to go and lay my father to rest -- there was a movie on and the person in front of me was the only one in the cabin with their window shade up, letting light pour into the place, and harm viewing. The person was sleeping. To solve the problem, all I had to do was quietly reach in front of me and pull the shade down.

Now how am I suppose to reach a button? If it were there, I'd have to get up and reach over the seat in the hope of finding the button and pressing it without waking the passenger. Boeing, it's a cool idea you've got, but it's really not necessary.

I know what they'll do! Make a remote control for the flight attendants to darken the windows from a distance! Man. But what happens when the remote's batteries run out of juice! We're screwed!