Jerry Brown For California Governor Over Meg Whitman

Regardless of your view of Jerry Brown - and Oaklanders have as many views of Brown as their are City Council districts - it's hard to get passed the fact that he's more than prepared to be California's next governor. The first and most obvious reason is Brown's been there before.

"Governor Brown" is called that because Jerry was Governor of California. And while his record is both harmed and helped by the battle against, and then the support for, Proposition 13, no one can deny that Jerry has the knowledge, experience, and relationships to make a difference in Sacramento. 

But, let's face it, we all knew this was coming.

Everyone in Oakland who pays half a mind of attention to politics knew Jerry was planning for this moment - election day November 2, 2010 - when he ran for Mayor of Oakland and won in 1998. A number of people said he was working to change his image from that of "Mayor Moonbeam" to one of centrist problem solver.

His final path on the way to this moment was running for and winning the race for California Attorney General. Jerry, as much as this blogger may not have liked it at times, had a plan and stuck to it.  He continues that positive habit to today.  It's something that will be good for California.

Would I have preferred the Jerry plan include enthusiastic support for the Super Bowl I was charged with bringing to Oakland? Yes. Did it take me years to get over the political battle I waged against what seemed to be a set of Oaklanders, including Jerry, who had changing sets of agendas? Yes. Did I start Oakland's first blog (Oakland Focus) mostly out of sheer anger with Governor Brown and them. Yes. Did we talk about that later? Yes.

My message to Jerry was that I was never going to go away as a person who mattered in Oakland, and that even if he or anyone else didn't want to, they would be forced to pay attention to what I had to say. I can say Jerry gets that now. I'm done.

As I told him recently, losing the right to host the 2005 Super Bowl took me years to get over.  I may live the rest of my life never completely recovering from that episode, because it showed me why Oakland never completely gets to the point of real urban success.

So be it.  I decided to do what Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris told me to do: use my brains on myself, because few cared about Oakland as much as I did.  Elihu was right.  I can say the National Football League has been a friend through that period, and up to today.  One day, I'll write a book and make a movie about that moment of my life.  It has to be seen to be believed.

For me, the whole matter is done, and I want nothing from the Governor other than what this blog post is doing: to wish him well and ask that you vote for him.

But that aside, I really do believe Jerry Brown will make a good Governor of California.  Indeed, Jerry Brown's returning to his rightful place in this state's colorful culture.  He knows, and arguably is, California.  Thus, he's the person best able to at least take a good crack at straightening out California.

What? You'd rather have Meg Whitman?

Ha.  No.  Big HA HA.

For this blogger, the former eBay CEO's run for Governor will always be marked by the signal she sent to majority minority cities like Oakland.  A point of view encapsulated in this video I created a few months ago, where Whitman's staffers sent a message of fear of Oakland and to Oaklanders that's a punch line from a script for The Colbert Report:



You want the fearmonger for Governor of California? A person who's shown hostility to her own Latino family housekeeper, insulted Fresno, California, and dissed Oakland?

Please.

Vote for Jerry Brown.

Stewart's Rally To Restore Sanity Beats Beck's Attendance

Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity with Stephen Colbert on October 30, 2010 drew in a bigger crowd than Glenn Beck's Rally to Restore Honor.

Stewart's event drew in over 210,000 people, and Beck's rally in August had less than 100,000 people in attendance.

Entertainment Weekly reports that 250,000 attending in person and 4 million streamed the event on computers.

Dallas Cowboys Blown Out By Jacksonville Jaguars 35 to 17

The Dallas Cowboys improbable season continues. The only thing worth watching at Cowboys Stadium this season are The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and the stadium's art work. The Cowboys were blown out at home by the Jacksonville Jaguars 35 to 17, as Jaguars Quarterback David Garrard threw four touchdown passes.

In fact, David Garrard tied a club record, as he was 17 of 21 for 260 yards and four touchdowns. His quarterback rating was 157.8.

By contrast, Cowboys Quarterback Jon Kitna was just good and awful at the same time, throwing for 374 yards, 34 of 49, but committing four interceptions against just one touchdown.

The Cowboys actually outgained the Jaguars 415 yards to 387 yards, but the interceptions made the difference, as Dallas gave the ball to a red-hot David Garrard.

It was so bad that fans started cheering "Let's go Rangers," referring to tonight's World Series Game 4 pitting the Texas Rangers against the San Francisco Giants.

Dallas Cowboys' Season Is Terrible

Now, The Cowboys are 1 and 6, and there's no sign their fortunes will get any better, soon.

CNN's Dana Bash' Unexplained Lisa Murkowski Tweet Causes Internet Storm

CNN's Dana Bash has some explaining to do. Her tweet about Alaska U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski caused the Senator's name to be retweeted so much, it's now the second hottest topic on Google Trends as of this writing. Used properly, Twitter can be a force for good or bad. In this case, the bad is for Lisa Murkowski and the good may be for Joe Miller if this little firestorm grows.

On Twitter, Dana sent out this tweet 54 minutes ago as of this writing:

DanaBashCNN Dana Bash
Woah. Lisa murkowski just made really clear to our drew griffin in alaska republicans can't count on her to be w them.

Now Dana (photo at left) didn't provide a link to a video or text of an interview as part of her tweet, she just tweeted that statement.

The tweet was red meet to rabid Tea Party Movement supporters just two days before the 2010 MidTerm Elections. It was retweeted 14 times directly by followers (as of this writing), but many, many more times by follower of those followers, and so on. The result is a sea of retweets helping to create the content that meets the search demand for "Lisa Murkowski."

But just what Lisa Murkowski said was never explained by Dana Bash, and it must be. Google News has no supporting information that Senator Murkowski's going to, essentially, jump ship on the Republican Party. Was that Dana's interpretation?

If it was, Dana, as a political news reporter, should be really careful how she shares her take on politics. It could be interpreted as support for the Tea Party.   The Senator's challenger, Tea Party-backed Joe Miller, is reportedly behind in the polls.  Dana's tweet is the kind of spark that could turn it around for him, which is why it was so careless for Bash not to explain it.

Stay tuned.

Marine Corps Marathon

The 35th annual Marine Corps Marathon took place Sunday, October 31, 2010 throughout the D.C. streets.

Runners from across the world came wearing festive attire as they ran through the DC. streets. Dr. Jill Biden, Vice President Biden's wife, fired the starting gun at 8 a.m. and the runners began their 26.2 mile run.

The marathon is also known as The People's Marathon and there were over thousands in attendance.

Denise Borino Quinn: Sopranos Actress Dies Of Liver Cancer

Denise Borino Quinn, the actress who played mobster Johnny Sack's wife Ginny Sacramoni on The Sopranos has died of liver cancer. She was just 46 years old.

According to EOnline, Borino Quinn died last Wednesday at Morristown Memorial Hospital in New Jersey, and her funeral was held Saturday.

On July 23rd, 2000, Denise was selected to play the role of Ginny Sacramoni after an open casting call that drew 15,000 participants.  She had never acted before at any level.

Before her famous job with the The Sopranos, Denise Borino Quinn was a legal secretary and part-time manicurist living in New Jersey. Interestingsly Ouinn said she was really at the open casting call to support her best friend Maria Galasso; Denise didn't think she herself would be picked.

Denise is a graduate of West Essex Senior and Junior High School in North Caldwell, has a business degree from Dover Business College, and two semesters at Morris County College.

In an interview Denise explained how she wanted to be remembered:

I guess I want to be remembered for always being genuinely nice to people and being able to put a smile on their face. Just before my husband Luke’s sister Theresa passed away, Luke had brought me over to her house to meet her and Luke said he hadn’t seen his sister smile like that in months so for me knowing that I brought a little bit of happiness into his sister’s life means the world to me!

Given her role on The Sopranos, it's fair to say she did put a smile on America's face.

Time Change Fall 2010: Daylight Savings Time Change Nov 7

When does Time Change Fall 2010 take place? That seems to be the question of the day online, as this first period of heavy online use in our history is causing confusion on this day of Daylight Savings Time, called "DST," or the Time Change Fall 2010.

(UPDATE - Now it's our turn!)

But for Europe, not America or the Americas.

Today is Time Change Fall 2010 for Europe; in America and the Americas, it takes place November 7th.  That's one week from today, October 31st.  It's the first Sunday in November - the time for America to change its clocks.

Why?

First, Daylight Savings Time, or DST, itself was adopted to gain more light from a single day. It was observed more when the World's economy was largely agrarian. In today's tech culture, Daylight Savings Time isn't really needed as much. However, it does help with tourism and events.

Second, if you know that sundown is at 8 PM, because the clocks reflect that, rather than 7 PM, you will leave your event open one hour longer at least. That means more money and exposure for businesses that depend on daylight for revenue generation.

Time Change Fall and Daylight Savings Time Not Everywhere

With that, some countries don't observe the practice or the Time Change Fall 2010 or whatever and a number of countries are considering changes to DST or observe it in a different way. For example, Russia reduced their number of time zones from 11 to nine and are considering ending Daylight Savings Time in 2011.   And Egypt changed its clock four times in 2010.

Time Change Fall 2010 - Daylight Savings Time Change For Europe

Note: Time Change for USA on November 7th.

Some hold that today is Time Change Fall 2010, but the problem is that Daylight Saving Time at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March and reverts to standard time on the first Sunday in November. In America.

In November. That would be next week. Today is October 31st, Halloween.

But in Europe, because it's on that side of the Earth, it's different. Today is Time Change Fall 2010, and clocks are set back one hour.

According to the website Webexhibits.org:

In the European Union, Summer Time begins and ends at 1:00 a.m. Universal Time (Greenwich Mean Time). It begins the last Sunday in March and ends the last Sunday in October. In the EU, all time zones change at the same moment.

So for America, the time remains the same; for Europe it goes back one hour today.  On Halloween.

London NFL Game Impacted

An NFL Football game will be played today in London. Given the time change difference, you've got to wonder if the player of the San Francisco 49ers and The Denver Broncos are all aware of this.  Not only do they have to deal with the time zone date line change, but the time change itself.  Yikes.

Rally to Restore Sanity/Fear: Stewart & Colbert Rock in DC

The Rally to Restore Sanity/Fear, hosted today by comics Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert in the Washington Mall, was a star studded success. Attended by performing greats such as Tony Bennett, Kid Rock, Cat Stevens, Ozzy Osbourne, the O’Jays’ and Sheryl Crow, the hundreds of thousands of people who were there in person, surely were not disappointed.

Stewart jokingly remarked that the crowd was “over ten million people” during the 3 hour event aimed at bringing civility and tolerance back to the American dialog.

The entire rally was streamed over the internet and carried live on both CSPAN 1 and Comedy Central. Complete with an awards ceremony, Myth Busters experiments, walk ons from celebrities like wrestler Mick Foley, Sam Waterston, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, R2D2 and a benediction by Father Guido Sarducci, the rally far surpassed any I have watched in Washington in quite some time.

Among the medals bestowed by Stewart and Colbert, a few excellent ones stood out: One, a Medal of Reasonableness to Velma Hart, who respectfully disagreed with the President recently, one of Colbert’s Fear Awards (the “Feary,” he called it) to Anderson Cooper’s “tight black t-shirt,” a symbol of cable-news fear-mongering and another “Feary” that was awarded to a 7 year old girl who, according to Colbert, showed more courage for attending than those Media outlets who banned their employees from going to the event. (CBS, ABC and especially NPR)

Stewart’s closing remarks: “So. Here we are.” He said he wanted to conclude with “some sincerity” that might breach the “boundaries for a comedian/talker/pundit-guy.” His message ended with media criticism: “We live in hard times, not end-times. We can have animus and not be enemies. One of our main tools is broken.” Referring to the 24-hour news media, which in his view is the real stoker of fear. “If we amplify everything, we hear nothing,” he said. “Americans don’t live on cable tv… most Americans don’t live their lives as Democrats or Republicans or liberals or conservatives. Most live their lives as people a little bit late for something they have to do…making little, reasonable compromises we all make…we have to work together to get from the darkness to the light.”

“The press is our immune system: If it over-reacts to everything, we get sicker, and maybe eczema.”

The show concluded with Tony Bennett singing “America the Beautiful” and Mavis Staples singing “I’ll Take You There.”

Some of my favorite rally monemts (besides Ozzy) was the great poem written by Colbert and read by Sam Waterston (video was not available) and Colbert's arrival on stage via a replica of the FENIX which was used recently to rescue the miners in Chile.

Kid Rock debuted an original song “The Least That I Can Do Is Care” (from his upcoming album) in a live duet with Sheryl Crow, singing lyrics that seemed quite appropriate for the message Stewart hoped to convey. (See video below)

Rally To Restore Sanity: CNN's Anderson Cooper's T-Shirt Gets Award

The Rally To Restore Sanity And / Or Fear, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's effort to restore a sane political discourse and drawing 1 million to The National Mall in Washington DC, featured CNN's Anderson Cooper.

Well, his tight t-shirt that is.

Anderson Cooper's tight t-shirt, seen at seemingly every disaster in the World, was given an "Award of Fear" at The Rally To Restore Sanity today. And that's why the t-shirt gets an award. It's everywhere. And something CNN started with Anderson two years ago, it an effort to get both the female and gay viewing population - I guess.

While the t-shirt, or a reasonable representation of it, was brought out to loud cheers at The Rally, Anderson Cooper himself was not present.

C-SPAN Polling Viewers

C-SPAN is running a phone poll of viewers asking if The Rally To Restore Sanity was politics or entertainment? This blogger says it's right down the middle. It's both.

Stay tuned.

Seattle Rally To Restore Sanity Draws Thousands

The Rally To Restore Sanity may be in Washington DC, but it has spawned events in other parts of America, like Seattle.

According to The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Seattle version of The Rally To Restore Sanity has drawn "thousands" of people who could not make it to Washington DC today.

The Rally To Restore Sanity: Seattle is part of a larger set of rallies in Boston and Los Angeles, and other cities. Over 5,000 people registered to attend the The Rally To Restore Sanity: Seattle .

The Rally To Restore Sanity is a dramatic effort to bring America back to the center and toward the reasoned discourse of the recent past. Now, it seems extremists on both sides of the political fence, aided by a ratings and traffic hungry media, are working to dominate politics.

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's message is that this has to stop. Especially the extremism of the Tea Party movement and what this blogger calls "Couch Potato Conservatives."

Rally To Restore Sanity Draws 1 Million People; CNN Screws Up

The Rally To Restore Sanity And / Or Fear, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's answer to Glenn Beck's insulting rally on the National Mall before MLK Day, has drawn 1 million people.

(UPDATE - Seattle Rally To Restore Sanity draws 5,000.)

This count comes from this blogger's experience attending the Presidential Inauguration, January 20, 2009. On that day, there were an estimated 2 million people, extending from the Capital down past the Washington Monument.

On today's Rally To Restore Sanity, the entire part of The National Mall is covered with people as far as the eye can see, and the Comedy Central camera's aren't covering up a thing. It's huge. So large it scared off CNN.

CNN showed one clip with Ozzy Osborne while, for some stupid reason, explaining they were going to West Virginia to show Sarah Palin and an all-white group of performer at some rally you don't care about. Meanwhile, CNN rightfully shows that the Rally To Restore Sanity And / Or Fear is on Comedy Central, then turns to the West Virginia rally. This blogger turned to Comedy Central, where The Rally has a multi-racial group of performers. So much for Jon Stewart as a bigot.

Wish I Was There

Running a business means having to give up certain things, and one of them was the trip to Washington DC for The Rally To Restore Sanity. But I'm catching it on TV, as CNN's Anderson Cooper's tight black t-shirt is getting an Award Of Fear from Jon and Stewart. Too funny.

If CNN Were Ran Well

If CNN were ran well, it would have hourly coverage of The Rally To Restore Sanity from the ground level perspective. Who's there? What do they think?  If CNN were ran well, the higher-ups would have sent the iReport team would be there in full.

CNN can do so much better.