Daily Show and the Virginia Tech Massacre

The Daily Show took the press to task for its ineffective efforts to lay blame anywhere it could point by point by point. It was very effective and very well done. Really in their short segment they covered all the problems I have been having with what has been going on since the massacre. For me, there is only one person to blame, the killer.

The video of the segment can be found here.

Keith Olbermann Special Comment on Guiliani

Rudy Giulani, the "hero" of 9/11, has decided to fall back on the tactic of voting for Democrats = helping the terrorists. Actually he took it a step further and basically said people would die if they voted democrat. Something that Keith Olbermann didn't appreciate. Something I don't like and any American shouldn't like. Even if it was coming for a democrat about republicans, it wouldn't be acceptable and it shouldn't be here. So here is the leading republican candidate for President, Rudy Giuliani, Fearmonger. Heck of a title as leader of the free world.

4/23 Daily Show

The Daily Show had a doosy of a show Tuesday night with an excellent ripping of "Now" Bush vs "Old" Bush where the words and beliefs of Bush went head to head often contradicting each other. Its shows how Bush pretty much feels the only good decisions are his.

Click here to get the video.

The other excellent segment was the interview with now official Presidential candidate John McCain. Someone that Jon Stewart use to support (like me) but now finds fightening. A little to much of a Bushie for my tastes when feel the country needs new ideas and direction, not more of the same. The interview, especially for Stewart, got quite contentious and worth a viewing.

Video here.

DOW Hits 13000

For reasons I can't fathom, the Dow Jones hit a new record based on good news from various corporations. I am no economist, but I don't really understand the reason for the high value. The real estate market is suffering a hit for the first time in decades, the dollar is losing value worldwide, rather then 1:1 or greater ratio it used to enjoy. Customers are spending but not quite as crazy as use to. I don't know, it just seems there really isn't a solid foundation for the current boom that is occurring and thinking some correction is on the horizon. Hopefully the correction will be small.

RIAA Slapped Around By Judge

The RIAA's war against the consumer of its music suffered a setback as the judge rejected the RIAA's motions, rumors and propaganda that it one a case in which it was ordered to pay the defendants legal fees. Apparently in an effort to avoid payment, they tried to fudge the truth hoping the judge wouldn't look any deeper. However he did:

The plaintiffs stress that they "they are not aware of a single reported decision where a Court has found none of the Fogerty factors but still awarded fees ... ." See Plaintiffs' Reply in Further Support of Their Motion for Reconsideration of this Court's Feb. 6,2007 Order at p. 3, (emphasis in original). The Court has made no effort to canvass all such cases. Its cursory research has, however, uncovered a number of unpublished cases where courts granted record company plaintiffs, including several of the plaintiffs herein, awards of attorneys' fees without so much as a passing mention of Fogerty or its factors. See e.g, Capitol Records, Inc. v. Lyons, 2004 WL 1732324 (N.D. Tex.); Elektra Entertainment Group. Inc. v. Bryant, 2004 WL 783 123 (C.D. Cal.); UMG Recordings, Inc. v. Davito, 2005 WL 3776349 (N.D. Ind.).

Long story short, the RIAA has to cough up some money to buy some expensive legal fees. The bonus of this story is there is no legal precedent for all future defendants from the RIAA to get back money for legal fees as a result of their war. Until the RIAA learns to embrace technology, work with instead of against consumers, I say don't buy their major studio labels stuff.

Click here for better analysis of the decision.

God of War: Chains of Olympus for PSP Announced

Its been rumored, but now official, the PSP is getting God of War. If I didn't have the PSP already, I would probably buy it for this title. If your 18+, God of War I and II is a must have game for the PS2 and I am betting the PSP game will be a nice addition. However, wait until its out before buying the PSP, its library isn't worth the purchase just yet.

Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix Trailer

The probable final trailer for the upcoming Harry Potter 5 is now online. The film looks fantastic and I am looking forward to it.

The HD version can be found here.

After 76 Years GM Falls to Toyota

For the first time in car history, Toyota sold more cars worldwide then General Motors, marking the first time a car company other then GM ruled the "world's largest automaker" title. A title that based on recent GM history is unlikely to change.

Full article here.

I can't really say I am surprised. GM reported record losses, has a history of so-so reliability, not so good quality, choosing to fire employees while protecting executive bonuses, its clear that for GM the decisions made are with one and only one concern: "How will this effect my bonus?". Toyota has made it clear with its long term planning (Hybrids, move away from SUVs etc) and by its history that the goal is truly quality and reliability. Nail those two and the rest will sort itself out. Basically Toyota has figured out that people are willing to pay and will follow a manufacture that has good cars versus a manufacturer that has cars made to break.

I am hoping that GM can turn things around. However to do that requires long term planning with a consistent goal of quality and reliability. A goal to turn the American car reputation around one customer at a time. A goal that simply will take a while to fruition. Sadly, the American CEO/Exec mindset is the opposite of that where the prize is simply to create a large yearly bonus and nothing else.

Smallville's Chloe

Last nights ep of Smallville was so-so, but the Allison Mack (Chloe Sullivan) going all Batgirl on some guards was hot as hell. She girl is one of the undiscovered knockouts on television without those lovely expressive eyes. Lynda Carter looking good to. I hope I can age that well. Little pale for most of the ep though.

Virginia Tech vs Iraq

Call it crass, call it early, but considering the overall outrage from the killing of 32 (I don't count the killer himself) at Virginia Tech, why isn't there the same outrage when the same occurs in Iraq? Today, 183 non-American citizens where killed in Baghdad via 4 bombs the equivalent of 5.5x the number at VT.

As Keith Olbermann put it "It seems fair to ask the question: If the violent deaths in Virginia send a nation into shock and expressions of concern and anxiety, why isn't a continuous flow of American blood in Iraq generating a similar reaction?"

Where is the outrage? Where is the demand for answers. 3,300+ American dead, thousands upon thousands of injured Americans, but its OK. Is the distinguishing characteristics simply American soil? Civilians vs soldiers? The distinction is lost on me.

Samus vs Master Chief

Someone has posted up a new movie over at GameTrailers.com that asks the questions of Master Chief vs Samus Aran, who would win? Like any comic books, you ask the question, have them go add it, then unify against a common enemy.

Lifting from Stars Wars and the Matrix, this is a action packed sequence that ends in a way only a geek willing to go through this much trouble is willing to end it - with lesbian overtones.

(source)

Studio 6A on the 6th Floor of Rockefeller Plaza

Virginia Tech Shootings: Blame Game Begins

A tragic day in America. An event that for reasons that I will never understands seems to only occur in America about once every five years and no where else in the world. In what should be the safest areas of American as the goal of these locations is the simply and universal desire for knowledge. Yet it keeps occuring, each times the number of dead seems to go higher. This time its 32 dead (excluding the gunman, to count him give him a level of humanity not earned), at the Virginia Tech campus by the hands of a man who should have killed himself and saved the world his issues.

The blame game will begin soon if it hasn't already. What could the school done to help this person? His friends? His professors? Why didn't the police do enough or fast enough? Or the blame will go to politicans for gun control laws not doing enough or the budget not being available, or for not providing enough training.

The counter to the above is real simple really. How do you "stop" an event that you don't know is coming. The gunman, like many from the past, was probabaly some depressed, failed and rejected person who lashed out at random people, blaming them for his own failings. He should have killed himself and been done with it but he made the decision to plan something more eleborate, more dangerous. Probably the only good of the day is the gunman is dead. His evil though will live on.

The sad reality is the gunmen was clearly determined to cause as much pain and death as possible. All the planning, preperation, money, or good intentions cannot stop such an event. You can't plan for the unplannable. He wanted to kill, he was determined to kill and all the gun control laws would have stopped, nor would have training.

Its a tragic day in America. Once again the violence our nation, unlike any other in the world, seem to breed, as risen again. Once again we will ask "why", and "what can be done to never allow to happen again!" and look to our politicans for answers. Laws will be passed, words will be said, peace and security will return, until this occurs once again as seems to be the inevitable cycle. Until we can understand why humanity, especially Americans, feel its ok to lash out in violent anger at the world around them, we will never really be able to stop these events from occuring.

Survey Says Daily Show, Colbert Report Viewers More Knowledgeable

According a new survey released by Pew Search Center, it has found that viewers of the Daily Show and Colbert Report (along with readers of newspapers) are the most knowledgeable on national affairs. To the suprise of no one, viewers of Fox News are the least knowledgable. So there you go, if you watch those two programs, you are probably pretty darn smart and if you watch Fox News, you probably are not. My informal poll had already determined this "fact".

Full story here.

Imus: What Is the Standard Now?

Jeff Jarvis has posted an excellent commentary over the problems that the handling of the Imus situation has created. He makes alot of the same concerns (much better of course) that I have. One is what is the standard now? Why can some use racist words but not others? We want people to be human, but situations such as this seem to demonstrate that that a public mistake means a public hanging. So instead of honesty, you will guarded responses lest the Al Sharpton/Jesse Jackson destruction machine for money turns to them.

Which brings up another concern, are those two really the ones we want as the "self-appointed guardians of righteousness"? I know I don't. They are loud obnoxious men. Scum really, who are not better then Imus. They use the title of "reverend" to hide their great, their hate and their inability to do anything but destroy. These are the men people follow? What does it say about the people?

Anyway, go read the entire post at buzzmachine. A lot of valid points are brought up that should be a part of the discussion over Imus and what follows.

Racism OK If Your Not White

The end of Don Imus' career is now official. For the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos" on the air last week, Don Imus has lost his decades long radio and television career. The politicians Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson led the charge to remove the man, actions that seem contrary to so-called men of the cloth. They seem to thrive on destruction and do little build bridges. Forgiveness does not seem to be part of their vocabulary. Reverends my ass.

Personally I could care less about Imus. What little I gathered about him, I probably wouldn't like him and I would disagree with his politics. Its the double-standards that annoy me. Its seems that the rules are thus: Anyone but whites can use racist remarks. If a black man had made those comments there would not have been this noise. No one would have been destroyed, no one would have even talked about it. Because a white man did it though, the shit thus hits the fans, mostly fanned by a mindless media and the hatred of Sharpton and Jackson. There is much hate in those two men, but then they are really just greedy politicians, not reverends.

Racists comments should be unacceptable. Period. No exceptions. White, black, green, or blue, doesn't matter. If the words are disliked coming from a white man, they should be disliked coming from anyone else. But that is not the case. As the blogs, comments elsewhere have shown, the fundamental truth is racism and racist comments are fine as long as its not from white people. That is the lesson for the next generation. Are you white? No, then you can be racist. Its ok then.

I am for fairness. If the above statements are not true, then Isiah Washington needs to be removed from television and movies. He too said racists comments, he too should lose his livelihood. Its only fair.

But really everyone should just admit a fundamental fact, quit dancing around it. The truth shall set you free.

Racism is fine as long as its not from a white man.

White House Deleted Five Million Emails

In a story that is currently just on the blogosphere and not in mainstream press, it appears there are reports that over a two year period, more then five million White House emails have been deleted, counter to a policy to maintain that information via the Presidential Records Act.

The policy to delete emails apparently came from Karl Rove who used his Republican National Committe blackberry and e-mail accounts to conduct White House business. The RNC usually only kept email for 30 days, fairly standard for most businesses. Considering at the time Karl Rove worked for the White House though, therefore the American public, those emails where not his to delete. It could be argued he was doing RNC business, since thats what the White House is all about. America is secondary to that, but still White House business should have been retained.

According to the Washington Post, "In an afternoon conference call with reporters, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel spread the blame all around. "White House policy did not give clear enough guidance," he said. "The oversight of that wasn't aggressive enough." And individual White House staffers "did not do a good enough job of following existing preservation policy -- or seeking guidance."

Karl Rove wasn't aware? Please. The man knew it and circumvented the policy intentionally and it sounds like he encourages his White House co-workers to follow the same policy. The supposed confusion policy is ""Federal law requires the preservation of electronic communications sent or received by White House staff". Seems pretty cut and dry to me. An additional aspect of the policy ""commercial or free e-mail sites and chat rooms are blocked from the EOP network to help staff members ensure compliance and to prevent the circumvention of the records management requirements." This would be why Rove performed his correspondence on the blackberry. He was clearly and intenitionally violating the Records Act.

While I doubt nothing will come of this, its further proof of the King Bush White House and the belief that they are above the law.

Full details are here.

The End For Imus?

MSNBC has dropped Don Imus today, just hours after several advertisers have dropped out of his show. Imus is under fire for racial slurs against the Rudgers' Women's Basketball team.

I have noticed in the "discussion" of this issue, nothing is said about the double standards of the apparent no-no words. To me, if the words are not to be said, NO ONE should be allowed to say them including African Americans. If its not allowed there should be no exceptions. So the next time I hear the N-Word in a rap song, I want to see the same media attention and Al Sharpton condemning it. Of course Al is just a politician and he is fanning the flames because it helps make that mansion payment. To bad the sheep....er mean the public keeps playing along with these tactics rather then calling for real progress.

Is Al Sharpton, so-called Reverend (in title but rarely in action), really the person to lead this so-called great injustice? Other then his political motivations, he has his own programs which this fiasco helps to promote and of course his very rich lifestyle to maintain. Then there is his apparent inability to practice the actual teachings of his religion, you know the whole "forgive" thing. I guess the opportunity of green is more important.

Ironically, when the dust settles, if Imus rides the waves correctly, he will have higher ratings then ever as the curious listen in to him to see if he makes another mistake. In the effort to condemn him, its looks like the two that should benefit the least from this media manufactured controversy (Al Sharpton and Imus) will be the ones to benefit the most. Good job to the sheep of the country.

Menu Foods CFO Sold Stock Before Recall

The AP is reporting that 3 weeks before the tainted pet food recall by Menu Foods, CFO Mark Wiens sold half of his shares of the company stock. The kicker is this, Menu Foods had already admitted they knew about the tainted food 3 weeks before the news became public. It begs the usual what did he know and when question becomes that time frame then becomes very very tight. Did he know and sell his stock, then the public announcement? Its possible that it was just bizarre timing, a possibility considering the money being talked about is relatively minor, 14000 shares for $89,900 then vs a market value of $54,000 now. Of course Martha Stewart was jailed for less. Either way, in a company whose behavior of late has stunk to high hell, you have to wonder. They already took actions and shortcuts with unknown Chinese suppliers to help defray costs (and help with the year end bonuses), what other decisions have been made lately to continue to pad the pockets of a few?

Birkhead is Anna's Baby's Dad

Its scientifically official, Larry Birkhead is the dad. The world can now move on to less important things. The gamble by Howard Stern to get rich just went boom in his face, I guess it never occurred to him that Anna Nicole Smith might cheat on him.

Of course as Birkhead's "I told you so" followed by much media hobnobbing makes me think is less celebrating fatherhood and more celebrating lottery win since he gains control of Dannielynn's inherited muli-million dollar inheritance. Personally my focus would shift to my daughter and I wouldn't let her out of my sight for a while. At least for the much video footage shown on CNN, Fox News, etc he doesn't seem to be the least bit focused on dad hood and the responsibilities that come with it. Why would he, the lottery ticket came up as a win for him.

CEO Pay Reaches Ridiculous Proportions

Want to know why the strength of American business is falling, why Detroit auto makers fail to make solid decisions, why the Enron's occur, all you have to do is look at executive pay and bonus' system that is prevalent across the American business model.

As a recent report shows, from 1995-2005, CEO pay has gone up 298% compaired to the average worker's going up only 4.3%. That is a tremendous amount of difference. Sure the CEO is technically important to a company but as the recent history has shown, they sure do seem to get replaced as easily as any line worker which makes you wonder just how important they really are. What the graph doesn't show is the impact of bonuses have on pay. Often times the bonuses an exec gets if as high if not higher then their yearly salary.

On top of that, it seems few companies tie performance into pay or bonuses like they do for the line workers. As the Detroit automakers such as Ford have shown, where they set aside around $60 million of capital for exec bonuses while laying off half their workforce, that what they get in pay and bonuses have little to do with actual performance. Fail to do your job, get a bonus. Do you job, get a bonus. Giving those choices, it seems many have chosen just not to their job, why bother since they will get paid either way. The standard seems to be that there is no standard.

On top of that, if a company does decide an exec can't do their job, they pay them millions and millions of dollars to go away. A Home Depot exec was payed $59 million in severance package for 4 months of work. How many salaried employees would that have paid for?

Then their is those companies that do tie bonuses into performance. If the exec wants his muli-million dollar reward, he is going to make choices that make the short term of the company look good at the sacrifice of the long term. An excellent example is Detroit once again. Ford (i think) was ready to enter the Hybrid market about the same time as Toyota. But they decided that profits now with SUVs where more important then profits later. The result is they abandoned an entire car market segment, conceded it to the competition by the simple act of looking at short term goals instead of long term goals. I am betting that when the exec's made that decision, it was over concern that bonus numbers would be met, not what was best for the long term future of the company.

The short of it is, CEO's should be held to the exact same standards that the average employee's are held to with the same rewards for success and the same punishments. A line worker does their job, they get a small bonus that usually represents a small % of the workers overall pay, that should be the same for CEOs. If bonuses are not allowed for workers, then no bonuses for CEOs. If no raises do to economic hardship for a company, no raises for the CEO. Line worker fails to do their job, they get fired without a net and no mulit-million dollar severance package, neither should the CEO, they should get kicked to the curb like anyone else. Its a simple reverse, "I do to myself what I am willing to do unto you" philosophy.

Update:
Here is an example of outrageous pay. Staples CEO gets $10 million bonus on top of his $1,070,192 salary. For simple act of doing his job, he got nearly 10 times his salary. Wouldn't we all like a bonus like that? Wouldn't we all make a lot of difference decisions with that kind of money on the table? If in charge and had to make a choice between a long term benefit to a company but sacrifice such a bonus, or make a short term decision that gives you such a bonus, wouldn't you make the short term decision? CEOs talk in terms of "the shareholders!!" but really its "the bonus!!"

Director of "A Christmas Story" Dead

Director Bob Clark and his 22 year old son Ariel where killed today in a collision on the Pacific Coast Highway. The cause of death was result of a drunk driving hitting them head on. Clark is probably most famous for his 1983 movie he directed "A Christmas Story," a holiday favorite that I grew up enjoying and continues to be a holiday even every year.

News story about it is here.
AICN look back is here.

Fox News Distorts April Fool's Poll

Phoenix Fox 10 News marches in the same beat as its parent channel of Fox Noise, by distorting an April Fool's Poll that asked "Who is the most foolish American?" The announced winner is Britney Spears, complete with footage and quick summary of her recent antics. As the screen grab shows though, the winner, and by alot, is President George Bush at 40%. Note how he is listed last, rather then first as the declared "winner" Britney Spears is located. One could blame that on how the list is compiled, but note the screenshot. Below is a clip, notice towards the end how it sounds like the news anchors caught their on air mistake but decided to push on through without correcting it. Of course they are just reading from a teleprompter so the mistake is less theirs (course they could have corrected it) and more the powers that be that chose to be deceptive.

Bill O'Reilly Lose to Cut Mics

Why o why does anyone bother to come on Bill O'Reilly's show? He only wants one thing from his guests - to ape his opinion. Anything else gets a mic cut, both on his tv show and radio show.

A recent example is with Colonel Ann Wright, a 29 year veteran of the US Army.

WRIGHT: "I want to make sure the United States treats people properly.."

O'REILLY: "Sure you do. Sure you do."

WRIGHT: "I surely do. That's what I spent 29 years of my life trying to do."

O'REILLY: "Sorry. No you didn't. You know what happened to you…somewhere along the line you started to dislike your own country…."

WRIGHT: "I served 29 years. How many did you serve? Where did you teach the Geneva Conventions?"

O'REILLY: "Cut her mic."

I don't know how anyone can be suprised by this. O'Reilly exists to push the Bush administration agenda, no matter what it is. Thats fine, but its the slimeyness that he goes about it. The self rightousness and the complete fabrication of "facts". When presented with an opposing viewpoint or facts that don't support his worldview, he shuts people off. Its his show, he can do that, which returns to the basic quesiton...why bother appearing on his show? Republicans are smart, they only pop up on programs friendly to them. Democrats need to learn to do the same thing, especially if it involves O'Reilly and Fox Noise.

I miss the days where programs where an exchange of opposing ideas rather then a barrage of attacks. The recent Jon Stewart interview of John Bolton is an excellent example of how it should go.

The two questions that should be asked and asked and asked of all pro-war hawks is "What does Iraq have to do with the war on terrorism?" and "How do we know when a victory has been achieved?" I have yet to see an answer to either question beyond the nonsense "to bring freedom". Really, how do you know you have won a war when you can't even define what the criteria are for victory?

EMI Goes DRM Free on iTunes

EMI and Apple announced a deal to sell its music catalog via iTunes DRM free (with higher quality) but for a 30% bump in cost. If you don't care about copy protection the price per song remains at $.99 but if you want to be able to play on other players then the price is $1.29. However, complete album purchases will be the same $10 and will be DRM free. One caveat is some players may not be able to play the ACC formated music.

To bad Apple and EMI didn't choose to also release the DRM free music in the universally excepted MP3 format. The EMI Group includes songs from the Rolling Stones, Norah Jones, Coldplay and many more. Overall, this is a set in the right direction to give consumers control over their own purchases but as Engadget discusses, isn't the begin all and end all.

One thing they have noted is its EMI, not Apple that is leading by example. After all the CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs, is the largest stockholder in Disney. He has the heft the encourage Walt Disney music labels to go DRM free, but so far they are not. Another point they had, and a valid one, is the EMI is stilling selling DRMed music. They are not out of the control business. They just are providing an alternative at a 30% increase. TV/Movies will remain DRMed for the foreseeable future and I don't see RIAA letting up on its war. As pointed out before, even though the music is DRM free, it doesn't mean that suddenly that music can be played on any player you have. Most of the iPod competitors including iRiver, Creative and SanDisk, do not support ACC. To be truly wide open and free, the music should be 256kbs and in the MP3 format.

Still despite these problems, its still a small step in the right direction that if proven to be positive in the only value that matters, money, could cause the other music companies to lessen the stranglehold just a little bit.