Friday, October 31, 2008
Carve A Pumpkin swf
cool flash app where you can carve a pumpkin on your computer. Happy Halloween!!
Friday, October 24, 2008
Ron Howard's Call To Action from Ron Howard and Henry Winkler
Very very funny stuff. with cameos by Henry Winkler and Andy Griffith!
Opie, Andy and the Fonz stump for Obama!!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
I love Vegas, but.... I am moving back east
So here's the deal. I still love Vegas and had absolutely no intention of moving back to the east coast at this time, but I was offered a really terrific position with Gannett's Digital Division (Gannett owns USA TODAY where I work now), and it is an opportunity I just couldn't pass it up.
Hoping to be back in the DC area by the 1st of the year. Of course everyone knows selling my Vegas condo right now is not happening, and renting could take a while. Otherwise, I will be making the trek back as soon as I can.
If you planned to come to Vegas to visit, you better hurry and make your reservations.
For all my Vegas friends on here, you know I will be back, often, and now I will have plenty of friend's houses to stay at when I vacation in sin city!
That's the news... carry on!
Friday, October 17, 2008
Barack Obama for President - washingtonpost.com
Link
Washington Post (sorta) endorses Obama for President. Some interesting points made.
=================================================================
Barack Obama for President
Friday, October 17, 2008; Page A24
THE NOMINATING process this year produced two unusually talented and qualified presidential candidates. There are few public figures we have respected more over the years than Sen. John McCain. Yet it is without ambivalence that we endorse Sen. Barack Obama for president.
The choice is made easy in part by Mr. McCain's disappointing campaign, above all his irresponsible selection of a running mate who is not ready to be president. It is made easy in larger part, though, because of our admiration for Mr. Obama and the impressive qualities he has shown during this long race. Yes, we have reservations and concerns, almost inevitably, given Mr. Obama's relatively brief experience in national politics. But we also have enormous hopes.
Mr. Obama is a man of supple intelligence, with a nuanced grasp of complex issues and evident skill at conciliation and consensus-building. At home, we believe, he would respond to the economic crisis with a healthy respect for markets tempered by justified dismay over rising inequality and an understanding of the need for focused regulation. Abroad, the best evidence suggests that he would seek to maintain U.S. leadership and engagement, continue the fight against terrorists, and wage vigorous diplomacy on behalf of U.S. values and interests. Mr. Obama has the potential to become a great president. Given the enormous problems he would confront from his first day in office, and the damage wrought over the past eight years, we would settle for very good.
ad_icon
The first question, in fact, might be why either man wants the job. Start with two ongoing wars, both far from being won; an unstable, nuclear-armed Pakistan; a resurgent Russia menacing its neighbors; a terrorist-supporting Iran racing toward nuclear status; a roiling Middle East; a rising China seeking its place in the world. Stir in the threat of nuclear or biological terrorism, the burdens of global poverty and disease, and accelerating climate change. Domestically, wages have stagnated while public education is failing a generation of urban, mostly minority children. Now add the possibility of the deepest economic trough since the Great Depression.
Not even his fiercest critics would blame President Bush for all of these problems, and we are far from being his fiercest critic. But for the past eight years, his administration, while pursuing some worthy policies (accountability in education, homeland security, the promotion of freedom abroad), has also championed some stunningly wrongheaded ones (fiscal recklessness, torture, utter disregard for the planet's ecological health) and has acted too often with incompetence, arrogance or both. A McCain presidency would not equal four more years, but outside of his inner circle, Mr. McCain would draw on many of the same policymakers who have brought us to our current state. We believe they have richly earned, and might even benefit from, some years in the political wilderness.
OF COURSE, Mr. Obama offers a great deal more than being not a Republican. There are two sets of issues that matter most in judging these candidacies. The first has to do with restoring and promoting prosperity and sharing its fruits more evenly in a globalizing era that has suppressed wages and heightened inequality. Here the choice is not a close call. Mr. McCain has little interest in economics and no apparent feel for the topic. His principal proposal, doubling down on the Bush tax cuts, would exacerbate the fiscal wreckage and the inequality simultaneously. Mr. Obama's economic plan contains its share of unaffordable promises, but it pushes more in the direction of fairness and fiscal health. Both men have pledged to tackle climate change.
Mr. Obama also understands that the most important single counter to inequality, and the best way to maintain American competitiveness, is improved education, another subject of only modest interest to Mr. McCain. Mr. Obama would focus attention on early education and on helping families so that another generation of poor children doesn't lose out. His budgets would be less likely to squeeze out important programs such as Head Start and Pell grants. Though he has been less definitive than we would like, he supports accountability measures for public schools and providing parents choices by means of charter schools.
A better health-care system also is crucial to bolstering U.S. competitiveness and relieving worker insecurity. Mr. McCain is right to advocate an end to the tax favoritism showed to employer plans. This system works against lower-income people, and Mr. Obama has disparaged the McCain proposal in deceptive ways. But Mr. McCain's health plan doesn't do enough to protect those who cannot afford health insurance. Mr. Obama hopes to steer the country toward universal coverage by charting a course between government mandates and individual choice, though we question whether his plan is affordable or does enough to contain costs.
The next president is apt to have the chance to nominate one or more Supreme Court justices. Given the court's current precarious balance, we think Obama appointees could have a positive impact on issues from detention policy and executive power to privacy protections and civil rights.
Overshadowing all of these policy choices may be the financial crisis and the recession it is likely to spawn. It is almost impossible to predict what policies will be called for by January, but certainly the country will want in its president a combination of nimbleness and steadfastness -- precisely the qualities Mr. Obama has displayed during the past few weeks. When he might have been scoring political points against the incumbent, he instead responsibly urged fellow Democrats in Congress to back Mr. Bush's financial rescue plan. He has surrounded himself with top-notch, experienced, centrist economic advisers -- perhaps the best warranty that, unlike some past presidents of modest experience, Mr. Obama will not ride into town determined to reinvent every policy wheel. Some have disparaged Mr. Obama as too cool, but his unflappability over the past few weeks -- indeed, over two years of campaigning -- strikes us as exactly what Americans might want in their president at a time of great uncertainty.
ON THE SECOND set of issues, having to do with keeping America safe in a dangerous world, it is a closer call. Mr. McCain has deep knowledge and a longstanding commitment to promoting U.S. leadership and values.
But Mr. Obama, as anyone who reads his books can tell, also has a sophisticated understanding of the world and America's place in it. He, too, is committed to maintaining U.S. leadership and sticking up for democratic values, as his recent defense of tiny Georgia makes clear. We hope he would navigate between the amoral realism of some in his party and the counterproductive cocksureness of the current administration, especially in its first term. On most policies, such as the need to go after al-Qaeda, check Iran's nuclear ambitions and fight HIV/AIDS abroad, he differs little from Mr. Bush or Mr. McCain. But he promises defter diplomacy and greater commitment to allies. His team overstates the likelihood that either of those can produce dramatically better results, but both are certainly worth trying.
Mr. Obama's greatest deviation from current policy is also our biggest worry: his insistence on withdrawing U.S. combat troops from Iraq on a fixed timeline. Thanks to the surge that Mr. Obama opposed, it may be feasible to withdraw many troops during his first two years in office. But if it isn't -- and U.S. generals have warned that the hard-won gains of the past 18 months could be lost by a precipitous withdrawal -- we can only hope and assume that Mr. Obama would recognize the strategic importance of success in Iraq and adjust his plans.
We also can only hope that the alarming anti-trade rhetoric we have heard from Mr. Obama during the campaign would give way to the understanding of the benefits of trade reflected in his writings. A silver lining of the financial crisis may be the flexibility it gives Mr. Obama to override some of the interest groups and members of Congress in his own party who oppose open trade, as well as to pursue the entitlement reform that he surely understands is needed.
IT GIVES US no pleasure to oppose Mr. McCain. Over the years, he has been a force for principle and bipartisanship. He fought to recognize Vietnam, though some of his fellow ex-POWs vilified him for it. He stood up for humane immigration reform, though he knew Republican primary voters would punish him for it. He opposed torture and promoted campaign finance reform, a cause that Mr. Obama injured when he broke his promise to accept public financing in the general election campaign. Mr. McCain staked his career on finding a strategy for success in Iraq when just about everyone else in Washington was ready to give up. We think that he, too, might make a pretty good president.
But the stress of a campaign can reveal some essential truths, and the picture of Mr. McCain that emerged this year is far from reassuring. To pass his party's tax-cut litmus test, he jettisoned his commitment to balanced budgets. He hasn't come up with a coherent agenda, and at times he has seemed rash and impulsive. And we find no way to square his professed passion for America's national security with his choice of a running mate who, no matter what her other strengths, is not prepared to be commander in chief.
ANY PRESIDENTIAL vote is a gamble, and Mr. Obama's résumé is undoubtedly thin. We had hoped, throughout this long campaign, to see more evidence that Mr. Obama might stand up to Democratic orthodoxy and end, as he said in his announcement speech, "our chronic avoidance of tough decisions."
But Mr. Obama's temperament is unlike anything we've seen on the national stage in many years. He is deliberate but not indecisive; eloquent but a master of substance and detail; preternaturally confident but eager to hear opposing points of view. He has inspired millions of voters of diverse ages and races, no small thing in our often divided and cynical country. We think he is the right man for a perilous moment.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Microsoft Taps Multiply.com as New Home for MSN Groups
In a world dominated by Facebook and MySpace, one of the best kept secrets in social networking is Multiply.com. This fast growing little social network is about to make a whole lot of new friends.
Microsoft announced today that it will soon close down its 13 year old forum site MSN Groups and it's encouraging its users to export their conversations over to its new official partner, Multiply. It's a big win for one of the most solid social networks online.
Read more: Link
My American Prayer
American Prayer’ Music Video (directed by Dave Stewart and Seth Dalton) Features Powerful Line-Up of Artists Including Whoopi Goldberg, Forest Whitaker, Joss Stone, and Herbie Hancock one of the most prolific artists of the past two decades, Dave Stewart’s new music video “American Prayer” is an uplifting anthem and pays tribute to the millions of people who are supporting Barack Obama’s platform of change.
Directed by Stewart, the video brings together a diverse cast of personalities to reflect the broad reach of Obama supporters. The video features appearances by Whoopi Goldberg, Jason Alexander, Forest Whitaker, Macy Gray, Herbie Hancock, Margaret Cho, Barry Manilow, Joss Stone, Colbie Caillat, Cyndi Lauper, Joan Baez as well as Iraq veterans, nurses, teachers, mortgage lenders, and many more Americans. Fans are also encouraged to submit their own versions of the song for a chance to be put into future versions of the video.
“Senator Obama has inspired millions to raise their voices in a call for change— the likes of which have not been seen in this country in forty years,” said Stewart. “History has taught us music has the power to be the heartbeat of social change. It is in that spirit that this American Prayer is dedicated to all the current young people, who, for the first time, are standing up for what they believe in.”
For the first time, Stewart’s new version of the song “American Prayer” is available on The Dave Stewart Songbook Vol. 1 which in stores and online now and as a single through iTunes, with a portion of the proceeds from Dave Stewart benefiting MoveOn.org.
“I found it more pertinent than ever to release this song at the moment when America dares to re-imagine itself and its place in the world.” said Stewart.
Stewart co-wrote “American Prayer” with U2’s Bono in 2002. Bono has since used the song on a number of occasions as part of his advocacy work with ONE, the campaign fighting AIDS and extreme poverty. He has not been involved in this project as ONE's work is strictly nonpartisan.
Stewart’s company Weapons of Mass Entertainment, along with Surfdog Records, recently released Dave Stewart Songbook, Vol. 1, an album consisting of new versions of his most celebrated material backed by a full orchestra. The CD features 21 songs written by Stewart that were made famous by the likes of Eurythmics, Bon Jovi, Celine Dion, Tom Petty, Mick Jagger and many others.
Stewart is also set to embark on his North American Tour beginning in August 29th in Obama’s home state of Illinois. The Dave Stewart & His 30-Piece Rock Fabulous Orchestra tour will include songs from Stewart’s vast catalog of classic hits performed in one-of-a-kind arrangements.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open
http://www.jtshrinersopen.com/
wow, long enough title for this tourney? Today was the pro-am. I am going again on Saturday, but no cameras allowed after today.