Mark Halperin Called President Obama A Dick On Morning Joe Because Obam...

On Thursday Morning's presentation of Morning Joe on MSNBC, host Joe Scarborough gave Senior Contributor and TIME Magazine Senior Editor Mark Halperin a chance to say what was on his mind using a term that Halperin himself ask for a seven-second delay for - he didn't get one. But for Halperin to think of what he said - that President Barack Obama was being "a dick" during his press conference (Presumably because Obama didn't let Mark ask a question?) was classless, and arguably racist.

It led this blogger to charge that, had President Obama been white, Halperin would have not made that statement. On my YouTube video channel page, some have agreed; others have asked why. Almost a perfect divide between people who are either just plain empathic regardless of color, or people who just don't understand, or don't want to understand, what it's like to be black in America.

I don't expect to reach a lot of people with what I'm about to write, and by that, I mean change a lot of minds. While society is making giant strides, I'm still skeptical of this culture's ability to alter its behavior when it counts. What makes me smile is that I'm proven wrong more often than not.

Blogging only for myself, being black in America (the only real experience I have) is to be handed a set of "rules as a black man." You can, as I do, try to ignore them, but the enforcers of "the rules" come in all shapes and sizes.

These enforcers tell you not to be 1) obviously intelligent, to 2) be quiet, to 3) not exhibit a "Type A" personality. The black friend you have who says "it's all good," is not a Type A personality, but Type B. Because for a Type A personality, it's not always "all good" and Type A's are constantly working to make it better.

As a black man you can't have a big ego in any place other than the sports playing field, and even then there's some commentator, generally white and male, who says you "showboat" or it's "all about you." While society may increasingly dislike anyone who's aggressive, a special place is held for someone who's white and male, and who's like that, because it's expected.

President Obama knows this, and that's why, when he was running for President, he took great steps not to be considered as that Type A black guy, even though he was and is very much like that. Obama, in order to get elected, had to follow the rules.

But social change at the younger end of the demographic spectrum, where diversity is expected more often than not, is pushing a change in society that has not touched some people like Mark Halperin.

Halperin's in my generation - one of those on the cusp of those social changes that either goes with them, or resists them, or is conflicted.

Mark Halperin is conflicted, and it took an Obama, more comfortable with the chair of the presidency, and more willing to shed the rules for American black men and be a man in full, to get under Halperin's skin, and let lose with an insult never before used toward a POTUS on national television.

My first taste of Halperin was bitter, and it came during the 2008 Presidential Campaign, when it seemed Halperin was always willing to find some little thing wrong with the "upstart" Obama, and so often that the idea Mark may be racist could not escape my mind. It was so much, that I developed the habit of changing the channel when I saw his face, and wasn't at all surprised when Halperin accused the media of a "pro-Obama" bias, implying that he had the anti-Obama bias I long suspected of him.

But, in order to keep his job, Halperin has the task of keeping his inner demons in check. A task that obviously became too great for him on Thursday, so he let lose and called Obama "a dick."

Bravo for President Obama.

America needs to shed the last remnants of slave mentality. Black men need to be able to live under the same set of rules as white men, and women as a whole must also be able to live under the same rules as white men - be aggressive and expressive. State what you want. Make demands. Live your life.

And if someone calls you a dick, don't get angry, just say "Yep and a big one, too!"

Stay tuned.

Jobless Talk to return July 8, 2011

After nearly a month hiatus, Paladinette’s Blog Talk Radio show “Jobless Talk” will resume broadcasts next friday, July 8, 2011.

It has been a tough ride for the long term unemployed Americans, called "the 99ers." Everyday in this country, another 15,000 more displaced workers lose their UI benefits. Often they have sold every thing of value just to survive. Such is the case for the long term unemployment advocate Paladinette.

Last Fall, Jobless Talk was in danger of ending broadcasts completely, when out of the blue a benefactor offered to subsidize Paladinette's advocacy efforts. This agreement was for a term of 6 months and during that time I was able to continue the fight for the millions of unemployment exhaustees and fight for more help for these citizens Washington DC has deserted.

Looking for work in this economy is NOT improving as Obama would have America believe. The additional 6 months of constant job search did not yield the desired result and like the millions of other 99ers out there today, Paladinette finds herself on the brink of homelessness once again.

"I wish I could have been more successful in inspiring the masses to get out in the streets and protest in large numbers, but alas it appears there is no fight left in the majority of those in the 99er community."

It is likely that next Friday's Jobless Talk at noon Pacific time, will be the last broadcast in the series which began in April 2010.

[If you like what I write please donate so I can keep on fighting for the 99ers! Thank You!]

Google's Blogger Was Down, Now Back

Blogger, Google's blogging platform that it purchased in 2004, was down, but now it's back. It's the second time this year Blogger users, including this blogger, experienced wide-spread outages, and while Google has not, as of this writing, issued a statement, one Google Engineer named Jeremy did point the way for Blogger users to recover account access:

We've rolled back the change that caused issues you have observed, so you should be able to clear the cookies for www.blogger.com and fix the problem. For help on clearing cookies please see:

http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?answer=32050

Thanks,
Jeremy.

Whatever the "change" was, it produced the most prolonged Blogger outage in recent memory. The night-long problem threatened to make Tumblr's recent outage problems not look so bad.

Fortunately, this blogger established a self-hosted Wordpress version of Zennie62 called Zennie62Blog.com, which allowed for the production of blogs, even as Blogger was down. Eventually, Zennie62Blog.com will become the blog of use around here.

Obama, In Press Conference, Calls On Congress To Raise Debt Ceiling

There are two President Obamas: the one before Osama Bin Ladin was assassinated, and the one after Osama Bin Ladin was assassinated. The pre- Bin Ladin Obama seemed tentative and for the most part, not combative and more conciliatory.
 The post-Bin Ladin Obama is not tentative, combative, and conciliatory only when necessary. It was that President Obama who conducted the just-completed press conference, today.

It was that President Obama who said "We've got to get this done. They need to be here. I've been here. You stay here. Let's get it done."

And Obama was rather upset that he was accused he was not presenting "leadership." It was at that point, the President called on Congress to "get it done."

Or else.

Raising the debt ceiling is a necessity. If it's not done, the ratings of all U.S bonds will be downgraded. Interest rates will go up, and the already tight money supply will tighten even more, plunging the American economy into recession.

Stay tuned.

Google Social Network Attacks Facebook And Foursquare

Google wants your attention! Google Social Network is here!

In its never-ending quest to catch up with, rather than work with, Facebook, Google is rolling out its latest effort called Google +, or the Google Social Network.

This blogger is not a beta tester for Google +, but as one who's used Google accounts almost since gmail started, and was prepared to hate the very idea of a Google Social Network, after reading through the online presentation, I have to say, Google may be on to something here.

The main question is, is Google + compelling enough to want to use, and is that enough to supplant Facebook. The answer is yes, but no. Yes, because it combines features, and in a way fuses a Foursquare-like check-in system into its social network, but no, because it totally misses the design element that makes Facebook so popular.

What's cool about Facebook is it's simplicity - everything starts from your profile page. The Facebook news feed is kind of the "town central" for what your friends are up to.

So, in a way, it's like living in a neighborhood with your house as the profile, and the downtown park and mall as the place where you go and see what everyone's up to. When they come to your house, that's when they comment or "like" on something that appears on your profile.

It's that function that makes Facebook so very, there's that word again, compelling.

What's that word again about Google Social Network is its' design, using circles and colors to designate places and actions. But, and I can see this without a beta account, it doesn't have that neighborhood feeling that makes Facebook work.

And I don't think Facebook was deliberately designed to work in the way I described above, it just turned out that way. But if you think about it, that "way" is so organic, so much the way we work as people, it explains Facebook's success.

That Google didn't copy that aspect of Facebook's design is why it will not replace, or really put a dent into, Facebook's dominance.

The problem is that Google didn't think about how the "circles, hangouts, Instant Upload, Sparks, and Huddle," all fit together, or about what really binds people to each other. Google's system connects people but it does not let me see what people - my friends - are doing.

People like to know what other people are doing. Facebook's News feed allows that, even more than the status updates. Google should find some kind of way to incorporate Facebook's user experience into the Google Social Network, or else, it's just not going to catch on with many other than early responders.

UPDATE: PC World, which was invited to try Google + reports that the "Stream" is equal to the Facebook News Feed. From PC World's account, Google does copy Facebook's "feel" but I have to try it for myself to be sure. I'm still skeptical.


Stay tuned.

Ben Parr Is Wrong About Straight Guys And Dating In SF And LA

Happened to run across an infograph posted, but not made by, by Ben Parr, the Mashable Editor-At-Large, on December 27, 2010. It shows that San Francisco and Los Angeles have the largest ratio pools of single men versus single women. But the chart compelled Parr to blog a point of view that was provocative to say the least:

Title: If You’re a Straight Guy Living in LA or SF, the Dating Scene Isn’t in Your Favor

Body: if you’re a straight guy looking to find love, I suggest moving to Chicago or New York City.

Since Ben lives in the Bay Area, or at least did when he attended the San Francisco YouTube Community Roundtable in 2009, and still seems to be a San Francisco dweller, it's not hard to think maybe Parr was having a hard time himself (let's hope not), and used a map to share his pain.

Fear not, Ben, there's another approach to dating life in San Francisco. Love women! San Francisco and Los Angeles have, perhaps, the largest best assembly of smart single women outside of New York or Chicago. Take a look at Ashley, who I met at the BrickYard Bar and Grill in San Francisco on New Year's Day:



Plus, the Gay-friendly culture translates to many available, single, straight women looking for a single, available, straight man. If there's just one draw-back, it's that the society as a whole is transient - women are always moving.

But, if you're in the Tech industry, as Ben is, you're going to have to get away from Tech events and go to fund-raisers. San Francisco is known for non-profits and for fund-raisers for worthy causes. The non-profit game is not "the thing" in LA; it's entertainment. And that means premiers, parties, and hangs.

That's based on my experience.

City Of Oakland's Brenda Franzel Comes To Council to Save Her Job

If anyone had a doubt that the City of Oakland was in financial trouble, one look at tonight's Oakland City Council meeting should change their mind.

Watching via live stream from Georgia, this blogger has never seen so many Oakland workers come before the City and beg to have their jobs maintained. And these are good, long-serving, proud Oakland workers, like Brenda Franzel.

Really sad.  

Brenda Franzel,a revenue officer with the City of Oakland, just took the unusual step of coming to the Oakland City Council tonight and having her daughter speak before the Council first, and then and asking for "justice."

This as the Oakland City Council considers various budget options placed before it.

"I refused to participate in the slurs about who brings in revenue for the City, and by that, I mean money," Franzel said. "I blame the culture in which we serve for even considering cutting people who raise revenue for the city. It creates a hostile environment that makes it difficult to get our work done."

Franzel says that the "revenue division has spent five years working as a team, not against each other." She then completed her speech by offering that the "old revenue division understand the value of work that each section provides. I ask for the staff, please reconsider laying off staff in the revenue division."

Wow.

Jeff Levine "These are difficult and painful concessions for those of us who have been dealing with 10 percent pay cuts." He says it's now time for the City Council to pass a budget that's fair for Oakland.

The Oakland City Council is in session as this is written. See it live here: Oakland City Council Live Feed.

Oakland City and Unions Agree, Oakland Greens Fume Over Budget

Just got an interesting email from Don Macleay, last year's Oakland Mayoral Candidate, who is urging Oaklanders to come to Tuesday night's Oakland City Council Meeting. But before we get to his, and the Oakland Greens, issues, a comment.

The City of Oakland must agree on a budget plan by July 1st, and that day is this Friday. There has been a lot of focus on and discussion over a process that, long ago, this blogger knew was insular, and because the public doesn't have all of the past budget information, and because the arguments about the budget are within the margins and not about how to extend the margins.

What do I mean by extend the margins?

One problem is that of each property tax dollar collected, the City of Oakland gets to keep just 26 percent of it.

The other problem is much of Oakland's revenue-producing land is controlled by the Redevelopment Agency, which is a good thing, because that's the only way Oakland itself can collect 100 percent of the taxes the city produces. The final problem is that overall, Oakland's property tax revenue, like that for the state, has dropped like a rock, and the question not answered to this point is, how much more will it fall?

Well, before I go to far there, let's look at what Don Macleay sent over. This is the email he sent, re-posted with his permission:

don@oaklandgreens.org to GreenNews

show details 1:28 AM (12 hours ago)

It is very hard to sum up how bad the proposed budget is and how limited and short term the council's counter proposals are in an email and still expect anyone to read it.
On the other hand, if ever there was a time to join the public at an Oakland City Council meeting, it would be this Tuesday evening. Please take a moment to stand up and be counted at this time.

Let council know that you do not appreciate their pressure tactics, the out of public eye debate and the budget crisis overall. It is also clear that we need to change the budget process and reform the whole account ledger. Council should use the short reprieve that their amended budgets offer us to call a budget convention and bring a new plan to the voters for approval before this becomes a crisis again.

I will try to at least sum up the last few episodes of this soap opera.
Our mayor proposed a budget two months ago that had three speeds:
A - With the money we got and without concessions from the unions
B - with concessions from the unions
C - with concessions from the unions and a parcel tax

For whatever reason, she included in this proposed budget, version A, the near total shutdown ofour library system. Some say that was to pressure the unions for concessions, other say it was to pressure the voters for a parcel tax and I say it was poor leadership if either is true. Even if neither is true it is not great leadership.

Option A will open up as a pdf file and can be accessed at this link:

http://www2.oaklandnet.com/oakca/groups/cityadministrator/documents/report/oak028937.pdf

For the same two months our City Council has not been forthcoming about their counter proposals.

The few sessions they held in public there were no amendments proposed or debated on in public by them. The public organized a save the libraries, save the film office, save whatever campaign and people spoke out against the cuts.

When asked about why they were not coming up with something else we were told that the Brown Act kept them from working in private with more than 4 of them at once. Nothing about the Brown Act keeps them from debating the budget in public in open session, but no version of that ever happened.

Now we have a 4 member, a 3 member and a 1 council member counter-proposals made public only a few days before the final deadline to vote in a new budget.

Counter proposals are:

1) Reid-Brooks-Brunner
2) Schaaf-Kaplan-Nadel-Kernighan
3) De La Fuente

All three can be accessed at this link (recommend copy - paste):

http://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=909242&GUID=8F89FA9A-0A70-4FE4-9941-6A9ECBCA5
93D&Options=&Search=>

The Council convenes in open session at 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, June 28, 2011, at City Hall Council Chambers.

The schedule details can be found here:

http://oakland.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=149612&GUID=049171A5-56F1-4EAA-ABC7-412E02B8501C&Options=info|&Search

If necessary, a second meeting will convene at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, June 30, 2011, at City Hall Council Chambers.

To sign up for a speaker's card see

http://www.oaklandnet.com/cityclerk/speakerupdate.asp
http://www.oaklandnet.com/cityclerk/speakerupdate.asp

A budget must be passed by the 30th.

Writing for myself, but with the agreement of many other Oakland Greens, I have to say that all the big issues of our local government's endless budget instability have not been fixed in any way shape or form. We need to raise more taxes and raise those taxes in a more simple and fair way.

There is nothing in this budget to look at the Port as a revenue contributor, deal with the crazy taxes and fines that are hurting local employment, counterbalance the distortions that Prop 13 give us in the real estate market and so on. In the next Council Elections we should talk more about this by putting up challengers to the incumbents willing to change the way we collect taxes.

On the spending side we are not finding a balance between real estate development, police and fire and everything else. The pension formulas do not work and council has kicked that can down the road in a way that will both cost a lot and still not offer most of our public employees a secure retirement income. (that is a lose-lose deal).

Our hands are tied every which way with gimmicks inside the different important propositions we have voted. We have Prop Y but still no commitment
to the core community policing and we have Prop Q, but the Mayor can still offer to shut it down and close 14 out of 18 libraries.

Both of those propositions have some triggers in them and obligations in them that do not make any sense, except for keeping political friends. One could go on. We Greens should make these points come next election time. A progressive agenda for Oakland is one that will give us stable reliable government with stable reliable funding.

Let's keep in mind that the Redevelopment Budget is larger than our General Fund. Some Redevelopment funds have been spent to prop up the general fund in some pretty contrived manners only a lawyer could love. The Redevelopment Funds cause the state to “backfill” the county because it does not have enough income to meet the School Board allocations.

These Redevelopment Funds are somehow so sacrosanct that one is not allowed to question funding speculative real-estate projects to local developers at a time when we cannot keep all our libraries open or our community policing staffed. Because we do nothing to advocate a plan B, we may just lose Redevelopment Funds without much ado as a dictate of the State Budget. I do not know if we have a balanced City Budget if that happens.

But remember that City Council is also the Redevelopment Committee without a mayor or any other check, balance or serious oversight. So we have a council that has this kind of power on the side and just accepts the Redevelopment Rules whether they are good for Oakland or not.

If the Redevelopment Committee still exists by next election, we should consider what we really want to do with that money and how we want it governed and monitored.

A real council seat candidate debate will have the Redevelopment Committee affairs as major issues. We also have a council that just accepts some of the bad deals that the state and county hand down to us without a squeak of protest. By this I mean the way sales taxes are collected and distributed for an income example.

For an unfunded mandate example we have the state prison and parole systems which are either the worst in the nation or second worst. That system returns
offenders into our community without any reform and little help to integrate. We could probably save money and misery by reopening our own city jail and offering to keep these offenders here.

One can go on a long time on this subject and next election we plan to bring it up in a big way. In many countries the budget is what defines the government; lose a budge vote, lose the government.

How would this budget define us? Well, we love our police, fire and land developers a lot and we put our parks, libraries and public spaces on the low priority side of things.

A budget crisis like this one would cause other governments to resign.

Ours probably should, but I don't think that they will.

So we will have to vote them out by voting something better in.

Don Macleay

Oakland Green Party

Don also included this post from Sanjiv Handa, dated June 24, 2011:

----- Original Message -----
Sent: Fri, Jun 24, 2011 10:25 pm
Subject: Budget Proposals Restore Libraries and NSCs
FYI from Sanjiv Handa, East Bay News Service

There was quite a bit of excitement Friday, when City Council members finally released three separate budget proposals. They were one day too late for the normal agenda process, forcing the City Clerk's staff to stay late on Friday to make the proposals available online.

The clerk's staff often must stay until 2 a.m. or later Thursday night into Friday morning to finish agenda preparations, and then return to work as early as 8 a.m. the next morning to complete agenda distribution by noon.

City Hall was a ghost town by 4 p.m., but the clerk's staff was not alone. Desley Brooks, Libby Schaaf, Mayor Jean Quan, and half a dozen legislative aides were still working away past 6 p.m.

Council members had already sent proposals into cyberspace before they were delivered to the city clerk at 1:17 and 1:18 p.m.

There were two "gangs of four" Council members developing budgets in private. Ultimately, Ignacio De La Fuente went out on his own. Larry Reid, Desley Brooks, and Jane Brunner issued a joint proposal. Libby Schaaf, Rebecca Kaplan, Nancy Nadel, and Pat Kernighan delivered a different plan..

In essence, all three proposals accept the bulk of Quan's $887 million plan ($387 million general fund; about $500 million in other funds, give or take a few million, depending on whom you believe).

There will be a Council meeting Tuesday, June 28, 5:30 p.m. to try and hammer out a consensus. If unsuccessful, another meeting has already been scheduled for Thursday, June 30, @ 5:30 p.m.

Labor negotiations are the biggest question mark. Closed sessions of the City Council will be held 9 a.m. to Noon on Tuesday, June 28, and again on Thursday, June 30, at Noon.

A deal has been reached with the firefighters union that has been pegged at saving the city $3.5 to $9 million a year, depending on what numbers you accept. Quan's proposal to close four fire stations has been rejected. However, the fire union has agreed to rotating closures of two fire stations each day for the next two years. Minimum staffing levels of four firefighters per fire truck and three per engine (the big hook-and-ladder) would stay in place until June 30, 2017.

All proposals call for keeping all branch libraries open. The Schaaf, et al, version even restores funding to keep the Main Library open between Christmas and New Year's.

All proposals save the jobs of nine Neighborhood Services Coordinators. However, they call for elimination of the job held by Claudia Albano, head of the division.

All proposals reject Quan's dismissal of Parking Director Noel Pinto and breaking up the division.

Council members also want to eliminate the communications director for the City Attorney's Office, held by Alex Katz.

The Film Office would be retained, along with Amy Zins' job, which would be transferred to redevelopment. But her assistant's position would be eliminated.

Recent Dove, Lotte Choco Caramel With Mango Ads, Show Racist Attacks On Black Women

For all of the claims of a more advanced, enlightened, diverse, and color-blind society, we have good-old, mainstream corporate advertising to thank for reminding us that old-fashioned racism is alive and well.

Sadly, Dove and Lotte Choco Caramel With Mango are the most recent examples, and Dove - which was the champion, I thought, of the normal woman, regardless of color - should be particularly ashamed.

What Dove did was authorize the production of an ad that reads "before" on the left, and "after" on the right, with an obviously black woman posing on the "before" side, and an obviously "white" woman on the "after" side.

Who's in the middle? A woman who's skin color is between the two extremes.

The photo and the words imply that if you use Dove in the shower, you will turn white.

There's no other way to read that ad.

To this time period, Dove is still using the ad and it appears on the website for Dove Close Up, which you can see here.

What's equally disturbing is that the mainstream media, including columnists, have ignored the Dove issue, leaving bloggers to comment, and the noise hasn't been very loud at all.

But the ad is an obvious attack on black women, and it comes on the heels of a Psychology Today article that was an obvious, and down right sick, attack on black women.

And as if that weren't enough, a brand I never heard of called Lotte Choco Caramel With Mango, out of India, ran an ad photo that look like, well, Hamilton Nolan of Gawker put it pretty well...

In this ad out of India (click to enlarge) for Lotte Choco Caramel With Mango Inside, the choco-caramel-colored pregnant maid represents the Choco Caramel With Mango Inside. The happily leering mango is pleased that his mango sperm has been "inside" the choco caramel, and will be again soon, by the looks of it. Probably via rape. This scenario makes people want to purchase the candy in question.

I don't know what's going on, but this is one issue news media editors should take up their opinion columns on, and get to work. The ultimate shame is this strategy of attention-getting by racism is allowed to go without significant attack.

Why not sue Dove and Lotte Choco Caramel With Mango for defamation, and throw in Psychology Today to make the "burn the fields" legal strategy complete?

It's clear the fields do need to be burned.

Something must be done to stop this crap.

Katy Perry Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F) Music Video - John Hughes, Yes; 80s, No

The video for Katy Perry's Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F) is reported to be an “80s” theme, but really there are several elements that were not from the 80s, but the 21st Century.

It's very much one tribute to the John Hughes movie Pretty In Pink, starring Molly Ringwald and members of The Brat Pack. All of whom are about the same age as this blogger. 

The video starts with Katy using a laptop and getting on the internet to check her profile page - that's so not 80s.  In the 80s, we didn't have laptops and the Internet.   We had big, heavy clunky personal computers, that cost thousands of dollars to buy.  My Apple Macintoch II cost over $7,000 back in 1989. 

Internet access?   That wasn't even in the conversation. 

Katy Perry also uses the “rock on” symbol. The "rock on" symbol is not at all 80s, and it's used far more in the late 90s and really started in wide use in the 2000s. 

 The high school setting is as much today as the 80s.  For it to be an 80s video, it needed scenes of boys and girls dancing together, and wearing watches.  In the video, boys and girls are largely separate and dance in space - that's not an 80s habit.  There's just one scene where a boy and girl dance together.

If the video reflected the 80s, it would have been as much in the style of Dick Clark's American Bandstand or Don Cornelius Soul Train, as anything else.  The part where the dancers hop up and down  and watch while Katy Perry is dancing and the other cast members dance in the middle should have been done in the form of a "Soul Train" line - that's very 80s. 

But with all that, one thing's for sure: Katy Perry's legs are timeless.

Stay tuned. 

The Oakland Mayor's Office Must Clear-Up Its Communications Process

This blog post comes as an advisory to the Oakland Mayor's Office, and it's done not for malicious intent, but to bring a stop to a growing problem that's reared its head twice in five days.

To cut to the chase, the Oakland Mayor's Office needs to determine what it's going to sent out in a communication to this blogger, and then make sure that message is consistently delivered, and without potential for misunderstanding, or appearance of subterfuge.

First, I must take time to thank the Oakland Mayor's Office under Jean Quan for at least trying to communicate with the public - it's a far cry from the previous administration. But, Mayor Quan's approach still appears as if it's confused and all too reactive to what's written in the press, well, OK, what's blogged by this blogger.

After trying to deal with this behind the scenes, I've just plain had it.

The first episode started when I received an email from Susan Piper, Mayor Quan's Special Assistant, who played a key role in Quan's successful candidacy. I like Susan, so this doesn't come from a point of dislike, but one of extreme disappointment, so deep that this blog post is the best, last resort.

It appears Piper, the Mayor herself, and the City of Oakland's Communications Office are on a different page at times. Take the issue of the announcement that the City was prepared to make former San Jose Deputy City Manager Deanna Santana, City Administrator.

I received two emails on this subject: one from the City of Oakland's Communications Office, the other from Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, via her newsletter.

Both emails had misinformation that P. Lamont Ewell was Oakland's City Manager, rather than Assistant City Manager, thus effectively removing former Oakland City Manager Craig Kocian from the city's history. The first email contained a press release attached and dated June 21st which called Ewell "Oakland City Manager."

Then, the second email, which contained Quan's Newsletter, had not just the same reference to Ewell as Oakland's City Manager in 1995 (when it was Kocian) but also called Deanna Santana the Deputy Mayor of San Jose.

I called out the Mayor's Office for the mistake and reminded anyone, regardless of whether they were paying attention, that Kocian was City Manager. (Momentary aside here: I blog to strategically seed the Internet for revenue gain, message control and real estate development, not to gain attention. Only a lobotomized knave would think other wise.)

Piper contacted me via email demanding to know where I got the information that the Mayor's Office said Ewell was City Manager in 1995. I sent the evidence to Piper along with a request for a bottle of wine. Piper admitted I was correct, but did not apologize for the error, just told me to have a virtual glass of wine.

That was on Thursday, and I was willing to overlook that issue. After all, I made my point and there's now a clear Internet record to counter all of the incorrect press content created because of the Mayor's Office's mistake. (Well, I hope it was a mistake. Again, to communicate to the media that one person was City Manager, when someone else really was, is a pretty big error to make.)

So, I was done with it, it was behind the scenes, and in the past. Fine.

But this week, it happened again - and it's a young week. Today's Tuesday.

On Monday, I made a blog post of two events the Mayor was set to attend this week, and did so completely based on another press release I was sent. The blog post called "Oakland Mayor Jean Quan Announces Plans For Week," came from a note called "News from: The Office of Mayor Jean Quan" and was in no way communicated to me as a non-public document with privileged information.

So, I shared it with the public. After all it was called "news," right?

Piper pipes up with an email that was just plain, down-right, ill-advised. She wrote that "Zenie- the About Oakland is not a "public" document. It is a media advisory for the press so that they know where they can catch up with the Mayor. We would appreciate it if you would not repost the content to your blog.

My email reply consisted of one word:

WHAT?!

After this, I've had enough. Alex Katz, who served as former Oakland City Attorney John Russo's press aide, has never in something like three years, made that mistake. Any press contact knows that as the representative of a high profile elected official, you don't send an email out to a blogger regarding events the official's expected to attend and think the blogger's not going to post the information or mention it.

That's...Well, a number of choice words I'm not going to print.

The Oakland Mayor's Office under Jean Quan has to stop playing games. They're bothered by the idea that, unlike the standard press, they can't control me (Which has always been Oakland's problem with me, come to think of it.)

During the election, Quan wanted to know who my boss was and who gave me assignments. She couldn't wrap it around her mind that I was self-motivated. And now, I see what the game is from them: try and say that I'm consistently making errors, by issuing denials of my reporting of what they sent out.

That's a dangerous game to play if the Mayor's Office is not even reporting the right information to start with. I hope the Mayor's Office can see now, that it won't work.

But let's say they're not doing that. Let's say that Quan doesn't want information on, as Piper put it, her "whereabouts" out there for this week?

Given that there were just two items noted, the City Team Ministries Breakfast of Champions (9-11 am Tuesday) and the Ribbon Cutting of the new East Oakland Sports Center, maybe Mayor Quan doesn't want to go to one of them for some reason?

Wow.

Well, either way it's spun, it doesn't look good at all.

Wow. It gets deeper.

Well, either way it's spun, it doesn't look good at all. After all, the Mayor has more to do than just those two events.

What To Do?

The best solution is, first, to craft a full media strategy that starts with one word: reputation. And it should consistently as the question "Is what I'm sending out something that I will not have to recall?" And care should be taken to be as open with information and its dissemination as possible.

I work with some of the most powerful communications people in Hollywood and in the Tech Industry. The people I know would never make a mistake like that; the Oakland Mayor's Office should study how they operate.

Stay tuned.

Rod Blagojevich Verdict - President Obama Must Be Smiling

In the last video on the subject of former Illinois Governor Rob Blagojevich, I said he was lucky to get away on no charge, but one charge; this time, the Government got Govt. Blagojevich on 17 counts, and he's reportedly stunned.

If Blagojevich is shocked, he has a weird sense of history. There are tapes of the Governor openly trying to sell the Senate seat that was once held by now - President Barack Obama, saying that it's "fuckin" golden. Moreover, then-Governor Blagojevich was all-but openly hostle to the former Illinois Senator, and just as that person, Mr. Obama. Barack. Was taking his place as the most powerful representative of the free World.

Blagojevich should have said "Whatever you want me to do, Mr. President, I'll do it," and left it at that.

Instead, perhaps because he didn't have respect for Obama because he was familiar with him. Or maybe that Blagojevich wasn't used to being in a position below, not at, a politician who happened to be black. Whatever the reason, Blagojevich pissed off President Obama, and set in motion the wheels of justice that find him where he's at now: starring at doing some jail time.

Blagojevich was lucky last year. Not this time.

Obama got him. And while it's not on the level of Osama Bin Laden, for Barack Obama, it constitutes the ultimate pay back.

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

Stay tuned.