One of her other commercials is about her tenure at eBay. One of the many re-framed “achievements” was being a hero to small businesses because eBay allows small businesses to operate a “store” through eBay. Unfortunately, she fails to mention that she raised eBay’s fees on those small businesses SIX times…during a bad economy!

Meg Whitman is yet another ultra-conservative that sacrifices the middle class for her own gain. Meg Whitman is dangerous. Meg Whitman is a guaranteed failure. Meg Whitman’s own Republican party questions her viability. See this link.

Please don’t pass on your opinions, pass on FACTS to your friends, families and co-workers. Meg Whitman commercials plaster the media simply because once she was ousted from eBay she was able to walk away with $125 million dollars that she now uses to advertise her lies to the unsuspecting population of California.

Don’t take my word for it. Or hers. I ask you simply to check the facts, then pass on what you learn to everyone who needs to know.

Well, in America, these news reporting agencies (and you know which ones to which I am referring) are the most visible, reprinted and republished. The vast majority of Americans get their news from these kinds of sources, not just on TV but online as well. So the harm is rather significant since the information is misrepresented, you’ve now misinformed hundreds of thousands, if not millions of readers. When the true objective of News Media is actually to inform…not entertain.

Another example that’s made headlines lately is the Apple “Antennagate” issue with the new iPhone 4. After about 3 weeks Apple held a press conference (which you can view on Apple’s web site here) explaining to detail the cause of the signal problem with the iPhone. Then they proceeded to demonstrate the exact same issue with other popular phones from the RIM Blackberry to Samsung to an Android phone. Steve Jobs, who led the conference, after showing how common a problem this is, continued to make a strong point of how the media has blown this issue out of proportion. Now, this accusation is not flattering to the media, even though it is newsworthy, now do you think it was reported? Do you think the media would report news about themselves…no matter how newsworthy the story actually is? No. The media reported ONLY the parts of the conference that backed up their own original claims. Article after article, news organization after news organization reported about 1/10th of the conference’s information to protect its own image. Virtually nothing about the tests with the other popular phones, virtually nothing about how they themselves may have blown this issue up. The result of this hypocrisy? The news hungry public, as usual, is only partially informed. Ok, so we have SOME information…where’s the harm in that?

Having only some of the facts associated with a news making story can be dangerous. There’s a bright shining example of that making headlines in the last day or two. The African American, former USDA employee, Shirley Sherrod. She was fired from her job recently due to a ‘selectively edited’ video of a speech she gave not long ago appeared as if she was intentionally not assisting a white farmer. The Obama administration reacted to this report and fired the woman. However, after further investigation, watching the original video, uncut, they see they took these remarks out of context and now our President is begging for her to come back to her job with a huge apology.

So what can we do about this? How can we become more informed? Unfortunately, there’s no clear answer. Just try to get your news from multiple sources. Try to get your news from organizations other than the “big ones.” There are many smaller news reporting agencies all over our country that are non-profit and therefore have no monetary gain from reporting sensationalism and over-hyped headlines.

Now don’t get me wrong, the storm that’s not even in the Gulf of Mexico yet (as of the writing of this article) may hit “BP’s leaky well” dead on. But at this point, that’s uncertain. So, with all of the sensationalism, fear tactics and profit-mindedness the news media maintains the only problem I see with the media seems to be the media.

I was chatting with friends in Australia this evening (where it’s always tomorrow) and since they are in the Southern hemisphere, it’s getting warmer down there this time of year and colder up here. They asked what the temperature was, knowing they’re used to Metric down there I used the trusty calculator that comes with Mac OS X and used the “Convert” menu to convert my 45 degrees Farenheit to degrees Celsius, then proceeded to tell them “…it’s about 7 degrees here now.”

Not expecting me to have done the conversion for them, they asked “is that in degrees Celsius?”

This conversation started me thinking about how all American kids have been taught the Metric
system in public schools since sometime in the 70′s.  So most 30 and 40-something adults in America are more than familiar with it.  Let alone the generation X and Y’s that follow.

After being somewhat impressed and thanking me for doing the conversion, I proceeded to inform the Australians that all Americans have been taught Metric in school for some number of years now.  They then asked “So how come you haven’t switched yet?” Good question Ozzie friend.

With lots of obvious reasons coming to mind, for example, laziness, priorities, etc etc…I then thought about our new President. With Obama representing “change” and “the future” and all that maybe after the wars calm down and the health care debate gets somewhat resolved, could it be possible in a few years, or the beginning of a second term, he could start a push to get this great isolationist country switched to the Metric system?  After all, at this rate, it clearly won’t happen spontaneously, there will have to be Federal law to make it happen.

I’ve been living in Southern California now for almost 3 years.  I moved from Phoenix, where I lived for 19 years. If you take the I-10 freeway out to LA from Phoenix, you will see some well intentioned “Metric/English” road signs indicating in kilometers as well as miles the distance to the next town.  The first time I saw this I got excited, that someone started doing something about it.  Then realized, those signs are THE ONLY signs of their kind. Seems like California may have tried to get the ball rolling some years ago and realized there may have been better things to spend tax dollars on.  Tax dollars this great state is coming up short on these days.

Ultimately, the thing that binds societies together, brings people together, and even makes doing business more seamless is uniform communication.  Without communication what do we have?  This huge gap in standardizing units of measurement needs to be closed, once and for all.  It may cost money.  It may take time. But I believe it is worth the investment in the long term.  Let’s do it for the kids!

I have ONE thing to say about this…

Why are they still shooting with film?

Shoot digital, get prints made in minutes with a great Canon inkjet photo printer, no weirdo, freako WalMart employees eyeballing your kids in the tub.

Moral of the story…shoot digital!

We have wildfires, unemployment, healthcare, recession, earthquake in indonesia, civil wars in Africa, protesting in PA, Iran, 2 wars in the Middle East , N. Korea, China, global warming, rising violent crime rates, swine flu, military contractor corruption…shall I continue?

So, with all of this REAL news going on in the world what does CNN show last night? For hours instead? Maybe I missed a larger news issue? What is this happening that would cause replays for hours over and over? Did terrorists attack somewhere again? No, Michael Jackson died…oh wait that was almost 2 and a half months ago.

Michael Jackson’s PRIVATE funeral for family and close friends was the event that trumped all of the other news-worthy happenings in the world for hours and hours. It wasn’t on any other news channel for as long or as repetitious. Nobody else cared. But CNN seemed to think it was the most important thing going on in the world at the time.

The FAA disallowed helicopters over the cemetery where the funeral was held to keep privacy for the family so what did CNN find it prudent to do? They had a camera floating overhead so they could peer into the service. A PRIVATE CITIZEN’S FUNERAL SERVICE. The media SPECIFICALLY was not invited to this. But they all showed up. Respect is obviously not newsworthy.

This is proof CNN is an icon representing how American news media has hit bottom. This is not about reporting news. It never really was.

CNN not only has lost it’s grasp on what’s important as a news organization (if they ever had it), but they’re now violating the privacy of American Citizens. I thought I was watching E! Entertainment Television’s News report or something. Didn’t Michael Jackson’s PUBLIC funeral over a month ago get enough air time?

What else has CNN been prioritizing over real news?

1) Paris Hilton (yes even lately)

2) Larry King interviews that rapist that “pretends” to not remember his actions. This a*hole should not have gotten air time. Shame on you Larry King.

3) Even MORE of the Carrie Prejean saga, the anti-gay marriage Miss California candidate
that’s suing the Miss USA organization…WHO GIVES A SH*T!!??

CNN is sickening. I don’t even want basic cable anymore. Getting rid of it.

Join me in this protest…it won’t change unless the consumer public shows it’s not interested in this kind of “news reporting.”

And then there are the actors. I’m not sure if it’s fair to say it’s his best ability, but may I at least put forth that Mr. Tarantino has a gift when it comes to casting? From Brad to Mélanie and from Christoph to Eli, everyone was perfect.

This may have a been a semi-silly, obnoxious, Tarantino-style, WWII flick but it was also a dramatic, intense, revenge fantasy I won’t soon forget.

VERY REAL Reality TV…Joan persists in pigeon-holing Annie until the squeaky wheel, and with blind loyalty from her supporters wins out. Par for the course, politics as usual in American Corporations. Performance again loses to politics. Another reason to love working for ones self, and another reason Corporate America is a failure.

What we witnessed this 8th season on Celebrity Apprentice was very realistic. It has also been my experience watching, co-workers, like children, bicker and fight until the “more popular” of them wins out among their peers. Be consistent, break someone down over time and gain popularity through friendship and humor. Being more effective in business, more experienced at the task at hand and more productive has nothing to do with it. Which is unfortunate, because it’s a business they’re both working for.

Pocket Aces Don’t Help Promiscuous Pit Viper

Joan, being funny and clever and having been in the public eye much longer (possibly too long) has won the popularity hand. And that’s proved better than pocket Aces for Annie Duke. You see, Joan was playing with a hand Annie simply could never be dealt.

When I was new to corporate politics, in the early 90′s, I watched a newly appointed department manager be unseated within days by someone who actually cried to their manager to steal the position. Unbelievably, the “cry baby” was rewarded. The qualified candidate’s placement was second guessed and they were demoted. I then had to work with the new manager and the demoted manager as well. What fun!  This was so unbelievably destructive to the company on so many levels, and ultimately, the endeavor was a failure due to the fact that crying has never proven to be an effective business tactic long term.

We all wonder how GM, Chrysler, Ford have unbelievably unqualified people at the top…this is how. Cry babies and kiss-asses are the general breed that want to climb the ladder. People that are good at what they do, and love what they do, by nature, simply aren’t that political. Ultimately, it is very rare that someone truly earns these upper management positions. And those that do, don’t often see failure like the typical American Corporation has been experiencing lately.

Mommy Help Me!

Finally, it was never really mentioned on the show, but am I the only one that sees a HUMONGOUS character flaw in Melissa and Joan that baby Rivers called out to mommy for help, almost as if it were a reflex, whenever she was in trouble?

This is unbelievable.  1) For Melissa to be so co-dependent on her mother at her age is embarrassing for both of them and 2) What motivates a mother to raise her child to rely on her in such ways?

It’s a Stretch

It tells me enough that someone would feel so insecure about themselves and their appearance to have their face artificially stretched out to the point it becomes painful to look at.  Let alone the butt of so many jokes.

It was already a far reach for me to maintain respect for Joan after that.  Maybe she had me convinced too.  I don’t think she’s all bad.  She’s clever and witty and has been around a long time.  For her age she’s still punching along.  There’s much to be said for that.  But it’s not enough to have carte blanche.  I’ve seen enough ego from her to last 100 lifetimes.

Annie We Love You!

Annie, I just want to say that what happened to you makes you more a real person.  Anyone who doesn’t make it through the cut-throat, back-stabbing world of corporate politics is more than OK in my book.  At the tables you have to be cold and calculating.  But I’ve seen enough to know you’re definitely the Queen of Hearts to me.

American culture truly is falling apart when an emotionally unstable individual named “Perez Hilton” dressed like a character from Mary Poppins throws the most deserving Miss USA a very controversial curve ball, ultimately costing her the crown.

It’s quite apparent that Carrie Prejean would be Miss USA 2009 if she hadn’t had the misfortune of picking the ‘gay’ question card.

The Value in Question

I believe all of us should have equal rights.  No matter what you believe, in God or otherwise.  And I believe same sex couples should receive the same benefits that straight couples receive.

However, the term marriage, the institution of marriage, was conceived by religion and is clearly stated in the oldest of texts that it is, quite specifically, to be between a man and a woman.

Have domestic partnerships, recognize them, by law.  But then we must remove the religious concept of marriage from our laws as I see it.  Isn’t this a separation of church and state?  A principal this country of ours was founded on? But that’s for yet another topic of discussion.

Carrie is our Miss USA

She was truthful and honest, and I believe, represents the majority of Americans on her values, specifically the one in question.  This is the individual that should represent America in the Miss Universe pageant in August.  Not the woman that may actually have exactly the same opinion on gay marriage but happened to choose the right card and was lucky enough not to have had to air her controversial opinions on national television.

We love you Carrie, you’re our true Miss USA.

I would say it’s a blessing and a sign that we are doing the right thing that these very people are almost entirely against the new economic stimulus package!  Doesn’t that, by definition, mean it will work!?

Complaining that the new economic stimulus will do nothing and is a waste of spending, while continuing to not offer an alternative solution provides even more justification for my rejoicing over their inept and complete lack of understanding of how an economy works.  Have we not learned “trickle-down” obviously doesn’t?  Create jobs, create wealth…sounds simple enough.

Aside from the sarcastic tone of this commentary, I would like to be yet another to state that the very people that put this recession into high gear don’t have much credibility today while President Obama makes an attempt at digging us out of the mess.  And how completely irresponsible it is, as our representatives, to make every effort to undermine an attempt at recovery.  The president has been elected. The stimulus law has passed.  The people have spoken.  Now get behind it!

Things aren’t all bad during a recession and if you’re still here in 2009, you’re doing better than some!  You should use this time to prepare for a recovering economy.  And here are two reasons why there’s no better time to do it.

Less user traffic, easier to migrate

Upgrading or migrating your technology infrastructure can be tricky and costly in a live production environment.  However, with fewer customers and commercial web traffic, you’ve been handed the perfect opportunity for upgrading or migrating your technology infrastructure.  Any planned or even unplanned outages will have much less impact on already slow business.

Recession Discounts

And not only is traffic significantly lower, because of the recession, competition for your business has increased, therefore cost of IT products and services are also significantly lower.  Some of these services are even no-cost.

Free for all

Google Apps hosted services currently have a standard, no-charge edition that includes ad-based hosting of email, calendar and document services for your company.  This is a great way for small even medium businesses to lower IT overhead taking advantage of Google’s superior spam management and groupware features built-in to Google Docs and Google Calendar.

Blue-light Special

Further, many hosted services (e.g. managed and unmanaged servers) are now deeply discounted.  Upgrading your capacity and actually SAVING money over your current services is common in this market.  Do some shopping around and you may find you can have more and pay LESS than you are now.

The Advantage

With a few simple migrations and upgrades when the economy does recover you will be ready.  And maybe, even for now, save on costs with these new services.  Also, your boss will have yet another reason to keep you around, since you’ll be busy doing no-cost or low cost upgrades to the company’s IT infrastructure…which will make them look good too!

Today, November 24, 2008, a mentally disabled female’s bomb vest was triggered by remote in Iraq killing 5 people just outside the Green Zone in Baghdad.

Despite biblical notions of demons and monsters and ‘satanic combinations of numbers’…in case you’re still kept awake at night by those bedtime stories know there is a REAL EVIL out there. And it takes shape in the form of PEOPLE, humans preying on mentally disabled people to carry out their reign of terror.

I don’t believe in monsters in the biblical sense. But I do believe that monsters exist here on earth. They are people that do not value human life. This is the true evil of the world. Those that would senselessly destroy the lives of innocents. They don’t value their own lives let alone the lives of others.

And now, the pinnacle of their evil behavior…preying on mentally disturbed individuals to use as delivery drones for their mass murdering. Selecting people that are unable to defend themselves to deliver their reign of terror. Please tell me, in this day, in this age, how it gets more evil than this? They even have to trigger the explosives by remote due to the inability of the chosen ‘delivery victim’ to think for themselves.

My commentary is not intended to suggest a solution to this problem…just to focus on the REAL meaning of evil.

Again, congratulations, and God Bless America for having the courage to do the right thing…it’s about time!

More posts to follow!

Willful ignorance has lead us to times of war, economic failure, and further dissolution of the middle class.

Willful ignorance put us in Iraq.  By ignoring the facts…no real evidence of WMDs, we ended up fighting an open-ended war with a society and culture simply not ready for democracy, losing $10 Billion a month just to fight that war and most importantly now killing over 4,000 American Soldiers.

Willful ignorance destroyed the economy and greatly reduced opportunities for success and independence among the middle class.  To say that Wall Street, banks and corporate executives thought their excessive greed would last forever is simply a joke.

And, yes, I also blame the consumer, running up credit cards without saving for the future and applying for loans they knew were a stretch.  Those were all conscious decisions, and a conscious, willful choice was made to ignore the obvious ramifications of those decisions.

The ignorance continues…

Watching McCain and Palin, with their empty rhetoric and pointless, directionless, anti-Obama attacks.  I believe even the most clueless among us are feeling what’s wrong with this picture.  So, to ignore this, is again ‘willful ignorance.’

It’s also willful ignorance that we don’t acknowledge the realities of Joe The Plumber.  1) He wasn’t a licensed plumber, 2) He owes back taxes, and 3) The Plumbing business he wants to buy makes well under the $250,000 tax bracket that Obama’s tax plan affects, so ‘Joe’, in reality, will pay less in taxes under Obama.

Why are the very citizens of our nation, who are the most negatively affected by the policies McCain represents give the most support to those people and their now failed policies?  And “Joe The Plumber” being fully aware that his business actually would NOT even qualify for a tax increase under Obama, yet continues this charade (his name isn’t even Joe, by the way) simply to support the other candidate, is quite a definitive example of willful ignorance.

Why?  Obama is different, and ‘Joe’ is afraid.  Most willful ignorance is fear based, and it’s tearing us apart.  I gotta say people, with a clear head, a fearless outlook on the future, whatever that future may bring, the decision now, more than ever should be a clear one to everyone, including ‘Joe.’

I will do the right thing on November 4th…you should too.

When does this end?

People, isn’t it interesting that this mudslinging is an issue now that McCain has dropped in the polls? Another broken promise.  McCain told us before that he won’t throw character judgements in this campaign.  Today, he’s broken that promise, as every other promise he’s made to his Arizona constituents for the past 20 years, his balanced policies and positions have dissolved away into the empty, rhetorical, nothingness that is the Bush Administration.

Please bear with my harsh words in the rest of this article, but things are absolutely ridiculous, while news organizations are trying to be so “even-handed” in their reporting that they aren’t telling how uneven the behavior of these candidates actually is!  McCain’s campaign is launching massive character attacks and spewing what are now confirmed lies, while Obama’s campaign simply has not been utilizing the same degree of underhanded tactics.

Now I must say:  Anyone subscribing to these ludicrous claims that Obama associates with terrorists should be aware that this is ignorant, misleading, rhetoric and if the majority of voters are buying this load of horse sh*t then the country deserves everything foul it gets by electing this kind of leadership.

Voting out of ignorance is the most dangerous thing.  If the choice between these candidates isn’t a clear one for most people now…then what will be the fate of a democratic nation that doesn’t intelligently research and fairly judge their candidates for public office?

While I do agree there should be some built-in protection that goes beyond the content providers simply self-policing, I strongly disagree with this law as it is written and I believe it was conceived prematurely in the history of the Internet, while the technology (web browsers and such) still had a lot of maturing to do to what it is today so the authors of this law could be as informed as possible.

The Solution

I propose a combination of voluntary and legally enforcable controls from both ends.  Action on the part of the content providers as well as security controls built-in to web browsers.

I will start with the voluntary.  Currently, there actually is a content rating system on the Internet (hidden HTML tags in web pages).  However, very few web sites and content providers use it as it is purely voluntary and there are no repercussions for not rating your content.  I believe this part should remain voluntary.  As it is completely impractical to monitor millions of web pages.  Utilizing these hidden “ratings” tags, pages will be rated by their own creators.  The creators will have motivation to accurately rate their content, read on.

So how do we protect the viewer?  This is where the law steps in…  Require web browsers to provide parental controls (with REAL security) locking and unlocking certain ratings for their young web surfers.  Any UNRATED pages will simply be blocked so the unsuspecting web browser cannot stumble onto an inappropriate site simply because that site hasn’t rated their pages yet.  This mechanism is not unlike the “V-chip” law that requires televisions to acknowledge ratings of broadcasts.  This may block much of the Internet at first, but the protection is there. (Currently, child content protection software for computers actually does block most of the Internet, unfortunately, it also blocks valuable, legitimate content mistakenly as well.)

If a “clean” site wants to be sure all browsers can view it, they MUST rate their site’s pages, hence the motivation.  Requiring web browsers to recognize content ratings will encourage any legitimate organization to rate their pages.  Almost “overnight” most of the valuable web will be rated as it takes relatively minimal effort to add these tags.

A “certified” web browser would be one that meets specific requirements.  Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Mozilla’s Firefox and Apple’s Safari web browser constitute nearly 100% of all web browsers used (especially those used by children) and those organizations would find it in their best interest to get this certification.  It wouldn’t be required certification, but parents would at least have a choice in web browsers and know that, with certification, real protection is there.

What about inaccurate content ratings that can fool the browser into showing inappropriate content?

Yes, this is a risk and it is also the part of the cost of having truly Free Speech.  But there is a solution for this as well…a realistic one.

Utilizing a fraud reporting system (similar to SPAM ‘blacklist’ services) browsers can “double-check” a site’s credibility with the reporting organization (it can do this real time).  So, as soon as a viewer sees incorrectly rated material, they can report it.  With enough reports, the browsers will see that a “G” rated site, for example, isn’t really G rated and blocks it from the viewer as needed.  Further, the domain can be threatened to be locked for presenting incorrectly rated pages after a number of reported violations. (This may also be written into the new law so the new rating system requirements have “teeth” as it were).  Again, the law would not require ratings, just that the ratings, when used, are accurate.

So, it’s mostly still a voluntary system.  As it should be.  However, the law is simply providing a realistic mechanism so that we may more easily protect our children while still leaving our precious First Amendment intact.

Ok. Done with the sarcasm. Only one point here:  Where the hell does he get off saying such a thing? Doesn’t making such a prematurely certain statement of assured success guarantee us failure? Has everyone forgotten “Mission Accomplished” already?

I don’t want to do another 4 years of this.  How about you?

Recently, I saw an interview with Barack Obama on a popular Cable News Network.  The interviewer confronted the Democratic Presidential candidate with a video clip of a Republican candidate (who has since dropped out of the race).  The Republican ex-candidate reiterated a concern that Obama’s experience in foreign affairs and government is limited.  He has no proven track record.  The former candidate continued with the assertion that the office of the President of the United States is not a an “Internship” position, and that voters should not elect someone that will be gaining their only experience while in office.

Let’s get something straight…as American voters, have we been looking at the candidates’ track records before we decide to back them?  Are we really looking at their histories?  Are we truly making our decisions on past performance and experience?

If we have been, then as a Human Resources department, attempting to qualify the best candidate for a high-level position, we should be fired! Our current, sitting President actually did have one of the most disappointing resumes compared to any of the candidates (Republican or Democrat) that he was running against.  Not so much a lack of experience but what truly is a succession of failed companies and leadership endeavors.  And this information was quite apparent long before half of us elected to hire him for the job.

Why didn’t we look so closely at this candidate’s experience here?  I’m not giving credence to the commentor’s political rhetoric, but the issue behind the remark is a legitimate one.

Surely, if we had based our votes on past performance there would have been no contest in 2000.  Why are were we so bad at hiring the right person for such an important position?  I think it’s simple…

Since the birth of Democracy, most of us have primarily chosen our leaders based on ideals we share with a candidate, not based on raw experience…let alone their overall intelligence or common sense. Religious beliefs and a no-nonsense outlook on world views are all good qualities from which to choose a leader. But aren’t intelligence, common-sense and ability to manage expectations also important for the world’s most powerful leader?

Our current President, although a ‘nice guy,’ just ran our country for nearly 8 years exactly the way his resume told us he would.  There are no surprises here.  At least, you certainly had the fore-knowledge.

So, I ask one thing of you this November:  Take a Leap of Faith.  Try not to be consumed by prejudices, fears, and labels and choose your next president on based on his ideals.  The same way you elected our current President except this time you’re going to READ HIS RESUME!  He may be on the other side of ‘your fence’ this time…but you may actually like what you see.