Newsweek Cover Story Missing Critical Poll Results

Newsweek year-end issue cover story is "The Race is On" where its asking if America ready for Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton as President. Or to put it another way, could America support a women or a black man as President.

The story offers historical perspective and previous historic groundwork for such a Presidential run but of course offers no real conclusions. Its a good question to ask but considering the focus of the article is on Obama and Clinton, isn't a poll that Newsweek conducted in regards to them asking who Americans would most like to see as President relevant to the discussion? Especially in light of the results indicating that at least 50% say yes for Hillary, 32% for Obama and 43% for McCain.

The poll in effect says yes America might be ready, yet its goes unpublished. Newsweek may view it as unrelated the cover story but how can it not be. I think some of the blogs see some bias, I think its just business. You have a cover story asking if America can handle a women or black President and then publish a poll that says "yep they can" it kind of makes the whole article and its cover (which helps sell the magazine) kind of moot point. In effect, reading the article becomes a waste of time. The Clinton camp has asked for an explanation, I doubt they will get one.

New Star Trek Animated Series?

Trek Movie is reporting that CBS may produce a new Star Trek animated series set in the year 2528. The series would mimic Star Wars: The Clone Saga cartoons that aired on Cartoon Network where each episode was about 6 minutes long. Whether the stories connect as those did into one larger story is not indicated.

The series takes place 150 years after Star Trek Nemesis, and about 60 years after a second Romulan War that has left the Federation devastated and fractured do to the conflict ripping holes in subspace preventing warp travel in large areas. In addition, Andoria is destroyed, Vulcans have left the Federation and the Klingon homeworld, Kronos, is still recovering from Romulan occupation. The protagonists of the whole will be Captain Alexander Chase and his crew of the Enterprise who hope to return the Federation to its glory days.

The full details are here.

Shriek The Third Teaser Trailer

Shriek the Third teaser trailer is now online and if the trailer is a true representative of the movie, then its going to be hilarious and compete toe to toe with Spider-Man 3.

click here to view the QuickTime trailer. Hopefully it will pop-up on youtube.com soon.

John McCain Declaring War on Blogs?

Think Progress is reporting that Senator and probably 2008 Presidential Republican Candidate John McCain is sponsoring legislation whose intent is to essential shut down blogs. The goal is supposedly the mitigate the influence of sex offenders, but the effect would be to make blogs illegal or at least untenable as a form of communication and conversation.

The highlights of the bill according to the article:

– Commercial websites and personal blogs “would be required to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000.”

– Internet service providers (ISPs) are already required to issue such reports, but under McCain’s legislation, bloggers with comment sections may face “even stiffer penalties” than ISPs.

— Social networking sites will be forced to take “effective measures” — such as deleting user profiles — to remove any website that is “associated” with a sex offender. Sites may include not only Facebook and MySpace, but also Amazon.com, which permits author profiles and personal lists, and blogs like DailyKos, which allows users to sign up for personal diaries.

I am hoping this information is exaggerated or incorrect. Considering that blogs have been credited with changing the political climate against Republicans, this could be an attempt to help smooth some of the bumps for his Presidential run. However, the odds of such a bill passing committee seems remote and he has to know this so that alone makes one wonder at its validity of the existence of this bill.

Amanda Congdon On ABCNews.com Review

Amanda Congdon, formally of RocketBoom, has most definitely landed on her feet just fine as a new face for ABCNews. The result is may be a boom for ABC but for viewers its just RocketBoom redux.

Despite the vast resources and money that ABC News offers, the first (and only show to be fair) indicates that Amanda has not grown at all as a performer (for lack of a better word) using the same tired tricks that she used on Rocketboom. The same wip pans, camera jerks, jokes and stories that where Amanda's bread and butter are being repeated for this new show. She literally has taken everything she did and developed in style over at RocketBoom and just repeated it here. Nothing new has been added except an increased budget, but that increased budget has been used poorly.

In its current form, the vblog appears to be a pass but hopefully that will change as the possibilities exist for this video blog simply because its on ABCNews.com. The real question is will Amanda learn, grow and tap the possibilities or just stay in her safe place she has grown accustomed to. Time will tell.

Some Funny Video

I re-found a two funny videos over the weekend. The first is a animated video created by Bernard Derriman for the song "Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me." Great video, wish more of them where as creative as this. A larger, better and original location of this video is here.


Another video is the cast of Scrubs, a great show on NBC, dubbing over an edited version of "A Charlie Brown Christmas." They more or less follow the story line of the story but its dubbed as the characters of Scrubs with their names and personality quirks. Its funny and well done.

James Kim of CNET, TechTV, Dead at 35

CNN.com reports that James Kim has been found dead in the Oregon wilderness, likely do to exposure to the cold. His family disappeared over the Thanksgiving weekend after a snow storm hit the area he was traveling too for a vacation. A large hunt involving the national guard, local police and even a satellite was in effect that ended at 3:03pm when his body was found. James was attempting to seek help for his trapped wife and children. He may be best known by many for his work on TechTV's The Screensavers and was a tech editor for CNET.com.

James Kim
August 9, 1971 - c. December 6, 2006

Update: An update reports that an autopsy determined Kim died due to exposure and hypothermia but exactly when was not determined. In addition, CNET has posted an "In Memoriam" video and article about Kim that might be worth reading.

I am going to be interested in how This Week in Tech handles this tragic event as Kim got his start with the gang on the Screensavers on TechTV. I remember watching many of his early on screen reports. He used to run the show's "lab". Moved to a slight on screen presence with the video comments from viewers, sometimes introducing those, and finally started doing reviews and reports for the show. It was always interesting watching him as he never seemed 100% comfortable on camera but clearly enjoyed the toys he got to play with. He basically had a dream job, knew it, and that joy came through on camera.

Olbermann Special Commentary to Gingrich

Gingrich, during an event honoring free speech in New Hampshire, declared that a "different set of rules" is needed when it comes to the first amendment in the effort to fight terrorism. Interesting though that often in the attempt to counter a threat, its freedom of speech that is first to go when someone is attempting to build power also. Gingrich is no sharing these ideas in an attempt to warn the public or even any real concern over terrorism, but as a possible 2008 bid for the Presidency, apparently one in which is playing from Karl Rove's book of fear. Hopefully Gingrich's efforts at the highest office will fail in its infancy as we do not need another president who doesn't believe in the ideals of this country.

Keith Olbermann last night did another "Special Commentary" on this entire issue, taking Gingrich to task for his words, reminding him once again, as its seems to be a constant with Republicans of late, that there is more to America then fear.

Officially the Iraq Civil War?

NBC has broke the press oath of Bush loyalty in regards to Iraq and officially announced on the Today Show yesterday that the Iraq is in a Civil War and the channels of NBC will begin to refer to it as such. Even Colin Powell, who destroyed his political career by siding with Bush, has said Iraq is in a Civil War. The White House, of course, doesn't like this term and have decided to call it secretarian violence in recent speeches. I am not sure of the definition is that no "official" definition exists. Tried google, yahoo, and Webster's, all blank on the word secretarian. I think that word means violence by different sects in Iraq all vying for control of the country. Which sounds like another way of defining a Civil War. Have to love the White House and their love for the semantics. Apparently its lawyers, not Bush, running the country.

Obviously Fox News will never under any circumstances call declare Iraq is in a Civil War until the President does, but what about the other news channels? Will CNN, ABC etc follow NBC's footsteps? If so when and what will be the reason for the change? Increased violence? Grab for ratings? In the end its really interesting how much effort is put into labeling things for Iraq while at the same time not really doing much investigation on what is occurring in Iraq up to the war and during the War by the Bush Administration and the various companies hired to rebuild such as Haliburton. How many more deaths before we leave Iraq to the Iraqi people to determine its future for ill or for not.

Nancy Grace Sued by Duckett Family

The parents of Melinda Duckett has decided to sue CNN's Nancy Grace for causing the suicide of Melinda Duckett. Nancy has previously sandbagged Melinda on her live television show, pretty much accusing her of killing her own child. An event that she was innocent of. Not that facts or even information of any kind means anything to Nancy Grace.

She is a vile human being that has no business being on television as her repugant form of punditry is based on nothing more then whatever sensationalism will get her attention. There is no low blow she isn't willing to go after. Deciding that Melinda Duckett was a murderer, based on nothing more then the police simply doing their job of investigating possible suspect is par the course for this women. She needs no evidence, no facts, nada to rant about her version of the "truth." If the police are investigating someone, that someone must be guilty. That's all the proof she needs and people find this acceptable.

Before this little stunt, she tried to draw out explicit sexual details from Elizabeth Smart on live television. Unlike most of Grace's guest, Smart has the youth to call Nancy on her behavior, reminding her she was there to support a law before Congress, this added with unfettered expressions of disgust.

In fact the vileness of Grace even goes into her own history, where she lies and exaggerates about her credentials as a victim of crime, something she hammers on a regular basis as if this makes here a sudden authority on all things. Her story is her finance Keith Griffin was the victim of a career criminal during a robbery where justice prevailed (in her mind, due to her tireless efforts) as the criminal is now serving a life sentence after days of deliberations and years of appeals.

Turns out the random criminal was 19, had no prior convictions and was a co-worker of Griffen. Also the criminal confessed that evening to the crime and the jury convicted in hours, not days. While Nancy claims she chose not to peruse the death penalty, it was the prosecutors that made that decision, as the killer was mildly retarded. Also no appeals have been filed.

Long story short, in every detail of this pivotal sob story of Nancy Grace's life, she exaggerates and outright lies about the story to gain credibility and sympathy. If she lies about something as important as this, the death of a finance, is there really nothing she is not capable of for attention. CNN should fire her and remove the stain of this women from their station.

Olbermann: To Bush, The Lessons of Vietnam

Keith Olbermann strikes again on his Countdown program with his "Special Comment" that takes Bush to task for Bush's apparently complete lack of reality and historic perspective. Bush recently traveled to Vietnam and apparently the lesson he took from the Vietnam War is "We'll succeed unless we quit." Keith, of course, feels there are many more lessons that could be learned from the war and runs through them in usual bombastic and clear headed fashion. Sadly, this simpleton view that Bush persists in taking on everything is a large part of the reason he will probably go down in history as one of the worse Presidents the United States has ever had. This is why the American public needs to learn that we don't want "everyman" as President but instead want the smartest, wisest man in the room as the President.

The video is here.

Legend of Zelda Retrospective

Game Trailers has posted a 6 part retrospective of the Legend of Zelda series that does an excellent job of covering the 20 year old series. If don't have the time, check out part 6 of the retrospective that does an excellent job of trying to figure out the time of line all the titles of the series.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

Spider-Man 3 Trailer Online

The Spider-Man 3 trailer is online and can be seen here.

Venom doesn't make an appearance but Eddie Brock, Sandman, Green Goblin II, and Gwen Stacy do. Looks like its going to be a great movie to watch.

Comedy Central Blog Scoops National Media On Rumsfeld

As a sign of the times, the growing power of the internet, and the diversity of what the news media has become, the Comedy Central blog scooped all by declaring just moments after midnight on Wednesday that later that day, the resignation of Rumsfeld would be announced. How is that for a kick in the pants? I am betting many editors out there are raging at their people over this.

Democrats Take the Senate

The Associated Press is reporting Democrats have taken over the Senate with a 51 to 49 majority with the victory of Democrat challenger Jim Webb over incumbent Republican George Allen by 7,200 votes. With such a close election and a recount highly likely, its no where official but considering that Webb has had a lead for more then 24 hours its not a reach either. Once officially confirmed, this would seal Bush's position as a lame duck President along with Cheney has his lame duck VP since his tie breaking vote is unlikely to be called upon. Also be aware though that this count include Joe Lieberman who tends to march lockstep with Republicans on issues involving Iraq, terrorism and generally trampling upon Constitutional rights.

Update: Allen concedes, Webb declared winner. Democrats have Senate by 1 (including Liebermann).

Ronald Rumsfeld Quits As Secretary of Defense

As I type this, President George Bush is in a news conference announcing the immediate resignation of Secretary of Defense Ronald Rumsfeld. The main architect of the Iraq War who way back when helped but Osama Bin Laden and Saddam in power, will very soon no longer working for the US Government. His announced replacement will be former CIA chief Robert Gates from 1991 to 1993. Robert Gates will take the position as a recess appointment until the still contested US Senate convenes to approve a replacement.

2006 Election: Democrats Returned to Power

In what must be incredibly depressing news for Republicans and Fox News, the American people have spoken and emphatically declared they are tired of the Republican leadership. The balance of power has shifted.

In an amazing night, the Dems overcame expectations, taking the House of Representatives, Governor count, and is very close to either tie in the Senate or taking over the Senate with a current count of 50 seats with 1 undecided which shows a small Democrat lead.

Of doubt by many is why this turnaround. Iraq played a large part in this but it seems that really the corruption of the Republicans seems to have been the tipping point that cost them everything. DeLay, Santorum, Foley, and several others are turned Democrat. The cost of allowing the power and money to corrupt as been and end of the Republican reign in Congress. A reign that lasted only a brief 12 years to Democrats previous 30 years.

The lesson I want to take from this is fear is no longer the effective tool that Republicans are accustomed to. Since the 50's be it McCarthyism, Korea, nuclear bombs, Vietnam, Russians, and now Terrorism, Republicans have allows used fear as a major means of control. They hammer fear over and over and finally the people said enough. Fear is not enough. A strong policy is needed. Strong leadership is needed. Actions rather then words. Democrats are now in power, Bush is a lame duck president. They have an opportunity hear, lets hope its not wasted.

The final question is the Senate, so goes Virginia, so goes control of the Senate.

Virginia
D Webb 1,169,285 50%
R Allen* 1,162,577 49%
A difference of only 6,708 botes with 995 of the precincts reporting.

Bush Admits Iraq War for Oil

President Bush admitted over the weekend that one of the reasons for the Iraqi War is to preserve the price of oil. As all his other excuses fell flat I guess he finally had to admit to some truth. After hearing the excuses of WMDs (not true), terrorist support (unsupported), involved with 9/11 (not true), to bring freedom (civil war?), its finally down to oil. To get here it cost the "just a comma" of nearly 3,000 US dead, 600000 Iraqi dead and billions of dollars. Absolutely disgusting and our Republican "leaders" allowed it. They should be held accountable by the electorate but sadly most will not be.

Keith Olbermann provided a Special Comment on this that is worth seeing. He has just as outrage a view and adds an interesting point, with all the various excuses on the war, is Bush just making it up as he goes?

Transcript and video is here.

No Paper Trails in Voting

In the a little late category, Scarborough Country discussed the overall dislike that Republicans have for paper trails in the electronic age of voting. Oddly the panel all agreed its a problem, which begs the question of why nothing is being done about it. Even my own state has no paper trail so a "recount" doesn't really exist as there is nothing to recount nor anything to verify that the machine count is accurate.

The entire voting process as it stands is own faith alone. Faith in the hardware, faith in the programming, faith in the process of handling the date, faith in the poll workers, faith in the lack of corruption of anyone involved. Thanks to the lack of oversight, lack of a trail, thanks to the electronic age, all it takes is one person to change the election and void the voice of the people.

A voting machine is really broken into two parts. Accepting and counting the vote, and security of that vote. The first is a trivial exercise that should easily use programming technology and hardware that has been around for quite awhile, up to the point that its used in Tablet PCs for the consumer to use to take notes, draw pictures and generally do very complicated functions beyond anything needed from a voting machine.

The second part, security is difficult, but not insurmountable. For security, use whets already working. Banking, credit card companies etc already use encryption with a great deal success on the internet, there is no reason why this same encryption of data can't be used for these machines to secure the data.

The machines themselves should not allow wireless access, but should allow wired access but only after certain processes and security is setup. The NIC card and access should be locked, literally under lock and key and that access should be in a very obvious place such as the back of the machine or top monitor panel so that any attempt to tamper with it obvious to all.

Anything done on that machines, no matter how small should be logged. The log file itself should be so complete that itself would be a history of what was done, when and where for the life of the machine and almost be used as a form of voting recount of its own. All changes to the machines should invoke the buddy system, where the buddies are qualified but random to reduce the changes of corruption.

A potential final version of machines used for the elections should be made to the public to test, hack and generally break to show flaws and problems so they can be corrected in time for the election. Testing should be arduous, public and go beyond the lab testing that doesn't take in account real world issues and use.

A final step is verification of the count. This should be done in several ways. One a paper trail should be available for every vote. Two, the log file would be a second source of verification. In every state, for every district, there should be random recounts of the entire vote. By random that means truly, locations in a hat, pull out the name, that place will do a manual recount. This should be done at three locations across the state. If the paper trail count doesn't match electronic count of 2 out of 3 locations, then a statewide recount should be performed. This random testing and verification forces the machine designers to build in security, to ensure the devices work properly and it discourages tampering since it would prevent anyone from knowing what location would be test and when. This last step, however implemented, would be critical to any oversight as long as a large degree of random is in the process so no one can predict what locations will perform a recount and what locations will not.

No process will be fool-proof, but any process is better then what we have now, which is to base our entire voting process on faith alone.

Robo-Calls Run Amok

The RNC continues to show there is no low blow they will not use in desperation to maintain power. Any means necessary seems to be their motto as the recent robo-calls controversy has shown. Apparently the RNC has started to call cold call potential voters via computer providing negative and not necessarily accurate information about Democratic opponents whether the person being called wants it or not. In some cases if you hang up in the middle of the call...the machine will just call you back until you listen to the entire message.

Apparently the Democrats are claiming they will act on these calls which may be violating many national and state laws (including the Do Not Call law). Considering how wimpy the Dems have been for the last few years, I will believe this when I see it.

Countdown has a good report on the controversy here, including showing how the calls are not necessarily helping the Republican candidates they are calling to support (whether that candidate wants the help or not).