To gggeeettt elected. John Kerry, yes, THAT John Kerry, grew some cajones recently and told the "president's hacks" to cut it out.
Kerry, who has been busy campaigning in several states for fellow Democrats, called troops in Iraq "stuck" because they are unable to navigate the country's educational system. The Republican radio hacks fired back by demanding that Kerry apologize for his socio-economic comments, but he responded with this: "I apologize to no one for my criticism of the president and of his broken policy."
Uh, John, the presidential election (you know, the one where you were actually running for office) was a couple of years ago. You lost, remember? That was the one where there were a few people who challenged your manhood and you really didn't respond.
In any case, it's good to see that John still cares about politics and can even get down and dirty with the best of them. What's more, this should help a few more liberals get elected next week. But as always, time will tell.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
He'll Fight, For Your Right...
Monday, October 30, 2006
BoobTubed
YouTube officially started removing television shows like "The Colbert Report," "The Daily Show," "South Park" and more. The move should have an effect on the number of videos
that are distributed throughout the web via MySpace, blogs, email and more.
This is an interesting move for Viacom, the parent company for Comedy Central, in part because many of the viewers of these video clips happen to be the exact market that they are targeting when such shows are produced. YouTube has been successful in working out advertising and revenue sharing deals with other major content distributors, such as Universal.
It should be interesting to see if, now that YouTube is part of a bigger, more financially lucrative company, content distributors are more aggressive in having their content removed from their site.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
An Open Letter to K-Fed:
Do people really take you seriously? You were recently quoted on People magazine's website as saying "If you want to hate me, cool, hate me."
Great quote, Fed, I bet you're high-fiving yourself after that one. Let's be clear on something, you now have, what, 4 or 5 kids (by two different mothers, no less), you're not wearing the pants in your current relationship (people actually refer to you as Mr. Britney Spears), you can't sing, you can't rap and you can't act. Have I missed anything? Oh, yes - you've resorted to appearing on WWE television (and getting the shit kicked out of you) all for the sake of promoting your debut album. In short, you're not exactly hovering at the top echelon of society. Hey man, I'm just telling you the facts. Don't shoot the messenger.
K-Fed, here's a hint: just stop what you're doing and lay-low. Stop making public appearances. Stop rolling with your crew to the latest LA hotspot. Stop wearing your hat backwards and for the love of God, stop making music. Just hang out. Your wife has made plenty of money to support you and 10 more kids for an entire lifetime. And once she does her cover for Playboy (you know it's coming), you nor your kids will ever have to worry about money again. You can roll out of bed at noon, say hi to the kids, check your email, and then call it a day. Hell, maybe you and the wifey can even mess around to top the night off.
Just promise the rest of the civilized world that you will stay out of the public limelight forever. And after Britney gets back into pre-baby #1 weight and does her obligatory Playboy shoot, she has to make the same promise.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Thank You, Sir - May I Have Another?
In "Hey, at least it didn't happen in Utah" news:
The principal of Park High School returned to school Tuesday after a
six-day suspension for giving a student a "wedgie." The Livingston School
District Board held a special meeting Monday and approved Superintendent
Hannibal Anderson's recommendation that Principal Eric Messerli be allowed to
return to work.
Good job, Montana. Maybe one day you'll catch up to the rest of the world and realize that this behavior is completely inappropriate and fire the next guy that does this.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Quote of the Day
Reader Lanire S. of Philadelphia wrote to ESPN's the Sports Guy with this gem:
Is it possible that George Bush is the white Art Shell? Mismanages a
defense, has no idea what the hell is going on half the time, and is in wayyy
over his head. Think about it, on 9/11, when he sat there at the school for like
5 minutes after finding out what happened, staring out into space thinking about
which Happy Meal he was going to get later, that's Art Shell every week on the
sidelines! Whether you're for or against Bush, this is funny.
Well said, Lanire. Well said.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Show Me What You Got, Little Mama
Jay-Z's new video from his new single "Show Me What You Got". Great song, better video.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Why Mark Cuban is Crazy, Part 3
Mark wrote the following in his blog today regarding the Google/YouTube deal:
Wait a minute, who is the little guy hovering in front of me ? Dang, it
looks like a Google lawyer ! Is he using a juet propulsion pack to fly ? No, its
a floating Segway. Wow ! He is saying "No problem mark. You didnt crack any DRM,
we dont use any !.
Mark, the NBA season hasn't even started yet and you're already trippin'. Either that, or he's now thinking that he sold broadcast.com wwwwaaaayyyyy to early. (Notice the URL for broadcast.com goes to wikipedia. Because the deal was done so long ago, broadcast.com nor yahoo.broadcast.com exist).
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Still a Virgin? Come to Utah
I'm going to let everyone in on a little secret: sex is alive and well in the state of Utah. In fact, if I were a betting man (which, cough, cough, I'm not), I'd be willing to bet on as many as 50% of high-school teenagers here have had intercourse and as many as 70% have had oral sex. I have no factual evidence to back this up, but call it a hunch after living here for 20+ years. Of course, there are many reasons why teenage sex is so high here, but I will save you all the psycho-babble lectures on why, if you just accept the above premise.
Recently, the federal government gave $3 Million dollars to the Weber County School District to teach an abstinance-only cirriculum in their schools. The pregnancy rate in Weber County (which is about 25 miles north of Salt Lake City) is twice the rate of the national average. According to Gary House, director of the Weber-Morgan Health Department,
"Abstinence is best for the health and the future of the adolescents. We wantGee, thanks for making that decision for me Gary. I'm so glad that I am not free-thinking person who can make my own decisions about the well-being of my children. We are so lucky to have you in such a prestigious position in our state.
adolescents to understand the negative physical and emotional consequences of
premarital sex. We want them to understand the benefits of waiting, and we look
at this from a health perspective only.''
Here's a semi-intellectual thought: instead of using that $3 Million on a program that has a probabilty of about .002% of being effective, why not use it effectively by:
-Implementing after school programs for teenagers. Yes, give them something to do other than have sex after school.
-Funding sexual educations programs at school. Let's face it, kids are going to have sex, just like their going to smoke. With that being the case, why not teach them how to do it safely, instead of irresponsibly.
-Helping single mothers and young families. People make mistakes. Instead of telling people they're SOL when they get pregnant, set up a fund for them that will assist them in their time of need.
Abstinance is not the answer. It never has been and never will be. Once you tell a teenager to not do something, they're going to go out and do the exact opposite.
Monday, October 09, 2006
North Korea, Google and other Thoughts
There was an explosion (pun intended) of news today. Google finally put YouTube out it's misery and purchased it for a cool $1.65 Billion. Lots of analysis on the deal from ValleyWag, Crazy Mark, John Battelle, and others.
Personally, I think Google is the big winner out of the deal. They only spent $1.65 Billion on the deal, which to them (and their current market valuation $130B's), is chump change. Simply put, This deal has lots of upside for Google. Google gains and loses $1 Billion each day depending on how the market fluctuates, so even if this deal doesn't work out, there not out that much money.
The other big news was that North Korea decided to test their nuclear bomb today, which was met with pleasantries from all world leaders. President Bush reacted with his same old demands of politely asking that North Korea return to 'six-party talks', while all along, this whole situation could be prevented (as even North Korea would admit to) if the United States would deal directly with North Korea.
Why can't our president get it right? The 'reason' he went into Iraq was because he thought that they had WMD. However, we have found out, that Iraq never had WMD but instead, the 'real' country we should have been a hard-ass with, developed and tested a bonafide atomic bomb.
Now, our military is caught-up in a quagmire in BFE, meaning all we can do is make empty threats to the countries who start developing real WMD. North Korea knows that we're not going to do anything (unless they do something really moronic like attack South Korea or Japan) and Iran doesn't have to worry about anybody (except Israel) taking out their nuclear facilites. (As a side note, Robin Williams - yes, that Robin Williams, made a great point about why George H.W. Bush didn't take out Saddam in 1991 on the Bill Maher Show on Friday night. Here's a link to the transcript.)
I'm really not sure how this one will turn out. Sure, we can sanction North Korea into oblivion, but I doubt even that will get through the thick head of their leader Kim Jung Il. Japan nor South Korea have enough military firepower to pose any serious threat to North Korea. China, Russia, France and Germany are all too scared to fire a shot. That leaves the US with very few options.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Colbert's Take on Foley
Here's Stephen Cobert's take on the whole Foley scandel.
Also, a transcript of Foley's chat logs. Can you say soooo fucked (figuratively)?
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Rambling Reading
It's been awhile since I've done a Rambling Reading post, so I thought that I would catch everybody up on what I've been reading on the Web - well, at least what I thought was worthwhile from today:
-No selling for you! eBay's banning users with private feedback from selling on the site.
-Starbucks only gives $0.05 to charity when you purchase Ethos water. And I thought I was cheap.
-The Dow reached a new all-time high today. Too bad my options at my company still aren't worth shit.
-EX-Congressman Foley says he was abused by a priest when he was a kid. He's not trying to excuse what he did, he's just sayin'.
-This is how we object to weddings in Utah.
Monday, October 02, 2006
Elvis Was Mormon
Well, at least according to the 'always credible' Deseret Morning News.
Of course, this is the same newspaper that is more concerned with what happens in Temple Square than sporadic acts of violence that occur in Utah.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Why Mark Cuban is Crazy, Part 2
Mark Cuban continued his rant against YouTube, yesterday. However, instead of running his mouth in his blog, this time he was running his mouth in front of a group of advertisers in New York.
"They are just breaking the law," he told the crowd. "The only reason they haven't been sued yet is because there is nobody with big money to sue."
Uhm, good point, Mark. Oh, but wait, wasn't there that little issue that YouTube had with posting Saturday Night Live clips. Surely NBC, or its parent company, GE has enough money to sue, right Mark?
Cuban went on to tell the group that advertisers were wasting there money on viral marketing campaigns, but instead, should focus on opporutunites that lie with hi-def TV like his company HDNet.
Good job, Mark, way to promote your own company. But, if I heard you correctly, you just said advertisers shouldn't worry about viral marketing- but isn't self-promotion in front of an audience kind of like viral marketing?
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Holy Screech!
Thanks to TMZ.com, I wasted an entire day at work wondering not if it was true, but how could it possibly be true. Screech Powers (aka Dustin Diamond) - yes, THE Screech Powers, has gone to new lows highs to get off the F D List and onto the A List.
By teaming up with famed porn peddeler, David Hans Schmidt (think Paris Hilton, Colin Farrell), the two distributed leaked a tape with Screech hooking up in a three-way with two co-eds (Yes, they were allegedly women, but verification of this fact should come later).
Also, according to rumors floating around the Web, Screech even pulls off a Dirty Sanchez in said tape. Wow. I'm horrified, but oddly interested. I doubt that I'll ever watch the 'whole thing', but I may take a short peak - you know, just to see what everyone is talking about.
Oh, and if you saw the above picture and discovered the correlation between a Dirty Sanchez and the above goateed Screech, you get a gold star.
Monday, September 25, 2006
Even More Trouble at eBay
As noted in this blog earlier this year, eBay has found itself in a bit of hot water because of their refusal to actively police its site to prevent the listing of counterfeit items. In the past, Tiffany has sued eBay for refusing to take satisfactory action against these miscreant sellers.
Now, LVMH is taking similar action against eBay for essentially the same reason. In an interesting quote from the article:
LVMH says in its lawsuit that of 300,000 Dior-branded items and 150,000
Vuitton bags offered on eBay during the first six months of this year, 90% were
fakes. LVMH declined to comment on the eBay suit.
Hani Durzy, a spokesman for eBay told Business Week that eBay is "disappointed that it has come to this" and that the suit is "without merit". Blah, blah, blah, blah. Basically, it was anything you'd expect to hear out of the mouth of a PR guy from a company who just got sued.
As with the Tiffany case, it should be interesting to see where this one ends up (settled or otherwise). It's worth noting that in the past, eBay got out of this sticky mess by simply agreeing to remove infringing items when they are notified of their existence on its site. However, owing to the fact that this particular brand has identified 405,000 fakes (so far) this year, I think the court system may take more drastic measures this time around.
Bill Clinton Laying the Smack Down
I know that I'm a bit behid the 8-ball on this, but it's too good not to share. In case you didn't hear about it, Bill Clinton was being interviewed by Fox News Correspondent Chris Wallace and, well, see for yourself:
Thursday, September 21, 2006
An Open Letter To the Executives at Yahoo
Dear Yahoo Executives:
Facebook is not worth $1 Billion! Sure, there are a list of reasons why you would want to purchase it. Some of the reasons include:
- Page-views on the site have grown 230% YoY (second behind MySpace, and greater than Google, Craigslist, Yahoo, eBay, et. al).
- It's one of the most highly visited sites on the Web.
- It has a demographic that advertisers would kill for, but is this really worth shelling out a cool Bill?
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is only 22 years old! Do you know all the trouble you would be contributing to if you paid a 22 year old $1 Billion?
Also, do you really think that you can seriously challenge MySpace (nevermind the fact that the site is just a advertisement piece of SPAM)? And what happens when college students (especially this generation) quickly tire of the whole social networking fad? What do you do then?
In closing, I really think you need to sleep on it, better yet, take the weekend and think about it. Take a couple days off, have a mocha, listen to some more of Lloyd Braun's brilliant ideas, and just think if this deal is really going to add value to the Yahoo customer experience.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Valleywag: Your Government is Spying on You
Great article today from ValleyWag:
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has a real porn problem. The
Washington Post reported last year that Gonzales
is fighting consensual adult porn, sometimes under the guise of fighting
child porn, sometimes not. Now the country's top cop is pushing -- hard -- for
Congress to force Internet service providers to save their users'
records.
It's a hard movement to fight -- everyone's afraid of being marked
"pro-child-porn" -- but it would give the government, fraudsters, and determined
hackers easy access to every Internet user's history. It's part of Gonzales's
effort to control what anyone can see -- whether it's library patrons using
censored Internet connections or home users unwittingly telling the government
whom they e-mailed, called, or Skyped. It's scary as hell and it's
succeeding.
Honestly, is anyone really surprised by this. Isn't this like finding out "Ice-cream is cold and tastes good in the summer." I really wouldn't be surprised if an FBI Agent sent an email around the office tomorrow with my top 10 favorite searches on the Web.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Why Mark Cuban is Crazy, Part 1
I really don't have much to say about this post, as it pretty much speaks for itself. Basically, Mark blabs about the impending doom of YouTube. For most of you who know of, or read his blog on a regular basis, this really isn't anything new. As we all know, Mark has beef with plenty of companies, including the one I work at.
As a side note, this is part 1 of what I'm sure will be a multi-part series.
