Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Wayne Barrett: Suspicious Package

Wayne Barrett by David ShankboneImage via WikipediaVillage Idiot Wayne Barrett

Wayne Barrett has a track record of doing the bidding for the Maloney 2010 campaign manager dude. Barrett puts out hack articles on behalf of whoever this campaign manager dude might be working for at any particular time. It is okay to do paid blog posts, but when you do the FCC requires that you make it clear it is a paid blog post. Wayne Barrett has violated the FCC rules, and the same people who are going after Rangel, and should be but are not going after Maloney need to now go after this Wayne Barrett guy. (Rangel And Maloney Need To Vacate The Premises And For The Same Reasons) This guy is a disgrace to journalism in this city. I hereby report this asshole Wayne Barrett as a suspicious package. Like Bush said. Where is President Bush when I need him? (Bush: Genius? Visionary?)

What Maloney 2010 and its lackeys like Wayne Barrett have been saying for months since the start of this race is Reshma Saujani's weakest point is actually her strongest. This country's biggest crisis right now is its 10% unemployment rate. That kind of unemployment sustained for too long could lead to social unrest and potential domestic terrorism. A high unemployment level is a security threat. Mending the frayed relationship between Wall Street and Main Street to get the private sector to invest two trillion dollars into the creation of new jobs has got to be this country's very top priority. When she is in Congress, Reshma Saujani is going to be best positioned of all people in Congress to bring that mending about.

To say Reshma Saujani's Wall Street experience is a bad thing is to say Howard Dean's being a medical doctor is a bad thing. You can list me all the names of all the departments and Wall Street firms that Reshma worked for and that does not change a thing. It takes me one split second to decide not only does Reshma have Wall Street knowledge but that she was entrepreneurial. In tech you could go work for a big company like IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Intel or Google, or you could go work for a small startup. On Wall Street Reshma had a tendency to go work for small startup types.

Goldman Sachs paid a huge fine to the SEC. That does not make all workers of Goldman Sachs criminals. One of Reshma's former bosses was indicted for something. You can't rope in Reshma into that. That is not how justice works in real life, or in Hollywood, and it should not on the campaign trail.

Hedge funds were supposed to be these small, agile, innovative entities. Perhaps they still will be. A lot of dot coms flamed out in the late 1990s. I would know. I was part of a few of them. That does not make me a criminal.

Candidate Reshma has always been for Wall Street reform. Actually she feels like the reform did not go far enough. Candidate Reshma has not taken a dime in corporate PAC money from Wall Street or any other industry. People who think individuals working on Wall Street no longer have a right to make their individual contributions to political candidates are one step away from denying the Bill of Rights to the people working on Wall Street. That is not Wall Street reform. That is Wall Street demonization. And this country can not afford to pay the price of Wall Street demonization.

Congress made Wall Street bad behavior possible. That Congress has not been reformed. There is a direct relationship between Maloney voting for deregulation in 1999 and the Great Recession 10 years later. Maloney should be indicted. If not, she needs to be voted out.

Maloney owns BP stocks. Don't tell me that has not swayed her votes on the oil industry. She was with Bush-Cheney on the Iraq War, on the Patriot Act, and on oil industry legislation. Blaming Maloney for the Gulf Oil Spill is not political sleight of hand. It is like adding two plus two and saying the answer is four.
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Wednesday, July 28, 2010

A Clean Tech Experience

I showed up for the Clean Tech event with an open, blank mind: Reshma 2010 Clean Tech Event July 27 Tuesday. Blank because I did not know much about clean tech at all. I had a few ideas, I could say a few buzz words, I could draw a few outlines. There is a slope: tech as in internet tech, then clean tech, then bio tech, I know the least about nano tech. If the next Reshma 2010 event is going to be on bio tech, I am going to spend a good few hours doing some serious reading online. I am going to do some homework.

It was that feeling that led me to ask the question I asked.

"I showed up for this event not knowing much about clean tech at all and so this has been a wonderful experience. It is so obvious Clean Tech is going to be a major source of much needed jobs for this city, this country, this world. But those jobs will not get created if certain political decisions are not made and those decisions will not get made if the politicians don't feel the pressure and the politicians will not feel the pressure if the voters, the citizens are not actively involved in the conversation, the discussion, and debate around clean tech, and a great way to do that would be to have Reshma Saujani and Carolyn Maloney do a debate on TV exclusively about clean tech, but I don't see that happening. Why are Reshma Saujani and Carolyn Maloney not debating clean tech on TV?"

The moderator looks at me and he gives me a perplexed look for about two seconds. This guy looks Indian, but he is all hostile to Reshma. He does not seem to realize Reshma is not the reason the debate is not taking place. Someone needs to point out he is knocking on the wrong door. And so he says, "You need to take that question to Carol!"

The moderator started out saying he was Australian and that "American politics is baffling to me." If American politics is baffling to him, he should take a crack at Indian politics. JFK's ambassador to India John Kenneth Galbraith, well esteemed in the intellectual circles of this country, went on record about "the imponderables of Indian politics."

The panel was a huge one. It could barely fit. It was an impressive panel. The flyer had details on each company and participating organization. I wish I had an electronic version so I could publish it at this blog. I might still type it out and publish the introductory paragraphs on the various companies and organizations that participated.

Off the bat the company that most fascinated me was Bodega Algae. It is "a developer of scalable algae photobioreactors. The closed continuous-flow reactors produce high-energy algal biomass for use in the production of biofuel."

I briefly got to talk to the Bodega representative, a MIT PhD, after the formal program was over. I told her how her company stood out for me of all companies on the list. And she shared some more info. One thing she shared alarmed me. The thinking in the energy industry seems to be that big oil names like Exxon will do biofuel as well because they have the distribution infrastructure. That was alarming to me. That would be like saying Google should have happened under Microsoft and Facebook should have happened under Google. That would totally stifle innovation. The thing to do is to make Exxon share their distribution infrastructure by law.

The political highlight of the event for me though happened before the formal program began. A Sara (not real name) walked over to me while I was talking to another Reshma 2010 intern that I had met once before. She introduced me as a "huge fan of your blog." She said she was a Reshma 2010 intern.

Sara is going to be a senior at high school soon. She said she lived on "the north side of town." I hope that means Upper East Side and not Westchester. The way she presented herself made me think she alone could deliver 50 votes. When I am talking about Reshma Saujani as The New Woman (Reshma Saujani: Top 10 Women To Watch In America), I am thinking about women like Sara.

She asked me if I would do a blog post on her. I hereby pledge to do a blog post on every Reshma 2010 intern and staffer who might express interest. All you have to do is schedule to sit down with me for an hour long interview at the Reshma 2010 headquarters, and let me take a few pictures of you with the others in the room. I like to take a few different pictures and then put them together as collages. That's my style.

I asked her about college applications and where she might want to go. She said she had visited Stanford.

"Me too. It is such a pretty campus," I said.

Sara told me she looked at both the Maloney and the Reshma campaigns before deciding on the Reshma campaign as the one she wanted to intern for. That is a good sign.

Also if high school students are reading my blog, I think I need to be more careful in terms of what I put out. I did not realize. 

I have come to realize Sunday afternoons are perhaps not the best time to be making phone calls to voters. I asked Paul last Sunday and he suggested the best time might be weekdays from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM.

My current professional status is that I am a pro blogger. Every day is like every other day to me. I could show up on a Sunday, or a Wednesday.

I got to meet a whole bunch of people, one of them was an Ashish. He said he was a friend of Reshma. You look familiar, I said. I think I might have seen him at the last Reshma 2010 tech event. I asked about his background.

"India."

"Where in India?"

"Jamshedpur."

"They broke up Bihar against my wishes, but that makes you the sixth Bihari I have met in America."

"I am a Punjabi."

"I once got an email from a Punjabi who thought I was one. Paramendra can sound like Parmendar." (Bhangra, Cricket: Exotic To Me)

And Bhagat can sound like Bhagat Singh. 

"I came to America when I was nine months old."

That was one remarkable nine month old, I thought.

I aimlessly walked out after the event was over. After whiling away in Union Square I decided to walk over towards Times Square. Up on Ninth Avenue I decide to go over to Central Park. It is amazing to me how well lit all parts of Central Park can be at night. That is a Third World perspective for you. I decided to go in for a walk. I stayed by the big road. That is another Third World perspective for you. Deep inside I came across two Chinese looking guys who asked which way to Fifth Avenue.

"I have no idea where I am at right now, or I could tell you," I said. Then I spotted the two two dimensional buildings of Columbus Circle and told them which way.

Deep in thought, I missed the 14th Street stop for change of train two times. 

By the time I got home it was past midnight. My Harvard Law School graduate roomie had already called it a day. The dude shares a few other traits with Barack: he is black.

"See you soon" was Reshma's greeting to me towards the end of the event.

You bet. That might be as early as Wednesday evening.  


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Monday, June 21, 2010

Reshma 2010 Party Tonight

Kayak.com logoImage via Wikipedia
I am headed to a party tonight. Reshma 2010 has new offices.

Reshma 2010: New Office: Party: June 21 Monday

Food and Drinks
Monday, June 21st at 6:30 p.m.
The fifth floor of 143-145 Madison Avenue
(between 31st and 32nd Street)
Office opening party!

I am excited.

Full Timer Or Volunteer

I Want To Go Full Time With Reshma 2010

I have thought in terms of going full time with the campaign. But it is very possible the campaign would prefer to have me continue as a volunteer instead. That would be more than fine with me. One, that would mean the campaign is very confident of winning on September 14. Two, the best things I would do as a full timer would be the few things I would do as a volunteer. Meeting ordinary people is the best part of working on a political campaign. Three, going to work some kind of a tech sector job might be best for the startup I intend to work on in about 15 months: I got one very good lead as of now.

Politics is to me what sailing is to Larry Ellison. It is more than a hobby, but it is not my career. I am a Third World guy. I want to devote my work life to help bring more people online. The tech scene is where I belong.

But I must admit the campaign has me excited, and I keep having thoughts of all I would want to do as a full timer. Maybe I should talk them into letting me do the full time thing for 2-3 weeks. But, no matter what, I keep having thoughts I want to share. What if I were to go full time?

Kayak.com

Everyone at Kayak.com does customer service. They are the leading travel website. Everyone on the campaign staff needs to engage with voters on a daily basis.

I would want to work a subway stop for an hour during the evening rush hour every day at work, say 5:30-6:30 PM. Then get back to the office, and make phone calls for an hour from 7-8 PM. Those three hours have to be the core of what I would do as a full timer.

Google.com

Maybe we can not afford to offer free food like Google does, and we can not afford to offer variety like they do. But I have an idea. How about a one item $1.50 cheap lunch? You can get 50 frozen dumplings for $8. That is five lunches. The campaign pays for ketchup and hot sauce. I could get this thing going for an initial capital of $200.

Mango lassi would be free.

Revenue Neutral

I think I could raise $200 per day or more from working the subway stops every single work day.

"Hi. Reshma is running for Congress. Please visit her website and donate $20." (Hand flyer)

I could do that ad infinitum. (Freehand Exercise: 1,000 Push-Ups, 1,000 Squats, 1,000 Crunches)

I would raise the money the campaign would have to dole me out to have me as a full timer.

2 Weeks, 12 Weeks, Or 18 Weeks

It is very possible I sign up and I am sucked in for all of 18 weeks. After September 14 it is going to feel like I am working not just for Reshma but also for Obama.

40 Hours, Or 70 Hours

1 PM to 9 PM is 40 hours a week. But if I were to do a 10-12 stint in the morning from home, doing the blog daily for Reshma thing, and instead of 9 PM, I start leaving at 10, then that is another 15 hours. That is 55. Then you go to an event, and you stick around for a long, long time. Or if you decide to work an extra day closer to September 14, that is closer to 70 hours.

I think at 70 hours it is going to give you that startup feeling.
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Saturday, May 16, 2009

Sri Lanka: Is The End Game Near?

Sri Lanka: 'What's happening there is another genocide like Rwanda'

Provinces of Sri Lanka. My own creation, based...Image via Wikipedia

The government in Sri Lanka is all set to announce its total military victory over the LTTE. There are those who will marvel at the military operation. And it perhaps will be a military victory. But at what price and to what end?

There can not be a military solution to a political problem. Sri Lanka can not continue to be a unitary state. Sri Lanka can not continue to be a country that treats its Tamil minority like second class citizens. That basic political problem if anything has only worsened.





I have never approved of LTTE violence. But for me that has not been an excuse to ignore the very real political issues of Sri Lanka's Tamil minority.

There is a very real danger that the ruling class in Sri Lanka will think of themselves as victors and find the military victory to be an excuse to further mistreat the Tamils. We already have the ugly stories from the internment camps.

Sinhala chauvinism goes along these lines:
  • The Tamils are not discriminated against.
  • Sri Lanka is too small for federalism.
  • But don't you know the Tamils are terrorists?
Bloodbath In Sri Lanka: Where Is The Outrage?
Genocide/Ethnic Cleansing Of Sri Lanka Tamils

In The News

Why Google and IBM Are Ahead of the Competition Time
Why Wal-Mart's First India Store Isn't A Wal-Mart
In India, a Dynastic Heir Strategizes the Election
Spectre of Mass Suicide as Tamil Tigers Face Final Battle the embattled separatist fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are not expected to allow themselves to be taken alive...... LTTE terrorists are preparing for a mass suicide ...... Prabhakaran and other commanders may be ringed by at least 100 Black Tigers ........ Soosai revealed that her husband remained inside the combat zone along with Prabhakaran and Pottu Amman, the LTTE intelligence chief and effective second in command ....... bombers mingling with escaping civilians before detonating their explosive belts ........ the stench of death permeates the area. ...... Fierce fighting has prevented Red Cross ships from reaching the area to evacuate the wounded and ferry in food since May 9. Pro-Tiger websites are also reported that the make-shift hospital operating in the combat zone is no longer able to function. ......... the military now within hours of destroying the long running insurgency ....... Before leaving Jordan, Rajapaksa announced, "I will return to Sri Lanka as a leader of a nation that vanquished terrorism."
The Tamil Tigers
Thousands of Civilians Escape as Sri Lanka Corners the Tamil Tigers
Sri Lanka: More Civilians Caught in Crossfire in Hospital
Ready for a Fight: Russia's New Security Policy



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