Forget the State of the Union: President has Jury Duty
Politics January 26th, 2010
Image via Wikipedia
Fellow Americans, you just received the unexpected gift of a few free hours: don’t have to sit glued to your TV sets watching President Obama deliver his State of the Union address. He’s got more important things to do: Jury Duty back at home, Chicago.
Or not … the Court relieved him of duty when notified by the White House that he’d be quite busy for the next few years.
Summoning a sitting President is not that unusual: former Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton were all summoned, but relieved of duty. Which is all right. We’re electing Presidents to run the country. Everyone gets this – except one blogger at The US News and World Report, who happens to be a former White House speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush (surprise?): she thinks President Obama should serve. She speaks out of experience:
When I was a spokesman at the Department of Justice in the early 1990s, I was called for jury duty. Because I was promoting the attorney general’s pro-victim, anti-crime positions daily, I figured the judge would take one look at me and I’d be let off. No such thing. He asked if any potential jurors knew the prosecutor or the defense lawyer personally, and hearing no affirmative answers, started the trial. I couldn’t believe I was kept on the jury, but I have to say, it was an eye-opening experience. I learned a heck of a lot about our criminal justice system–good and bad–and I now think everyone should serve on a jury, whether they’re the president or not.
Sour grapes? She was not let off, so the President shouldn’t either. Gotta love her perspective thought, comparing the DOJ spokesman (shouldn’t it be spokesperson?) position to that of the President. Lady, get a life!
Tags: jury duty, obama, Politics, President Obama, State of the Union, US President, white house
The Obama Administration Badly Needs Google
Humor, Politics March 7th, 2009
The Obama administration wants to reset US relations with Russia, and in a symbolic gesture Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented her counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with a huge RESET button when the met in Geneva.
Except the button did not really say reset: it said перегрузка (peregruzka), which, as Lavrov pointed out means overload. Now, we don’t want to overload relations with Russia, do we?
Congratulations for the State Department translatorss for getting it right. Here’s my bailout proposal for State: fire the translators, just use Google Translate:
Tags: clinton, foreign policy, hillary clinton, Humor, obama, peregruzka, Politics, reset, russa
Obama Too Tall To Be President? Google Brain Damaged.
Humor, Politics February 10th, 2009
Barack Obama is apparently too tall to be President of the United Sates. He does not fit Marine One, the Presidential Helicopter:
Oops… the bump does not appear that serious, but gee …Google AdSense Nonsense recommends brain damage lawyers:
Wonder how long it will take for Google to pull those ads. in the meantime, here’s some more fun with “contextual” Google ads:
- The Irony of Google Ads
- Freezing Heat. Dumb Ads.
- The Irony of Contextual Advertising
- Contextual Advertising Blunders
- The Scary Thing about Contextual (?) Advertising
- From The Ad Targeting At Its Finest Department
Update: as we know President Obama received a new uber-super-safe-ugly limo. Is this a subtle hint that he needs a new chopper?
Update #2: I think I hurt Google’s feelings. My posts typically show up in Google search results in minutes, but this one is nowhere to be found.
Tags: adsense, contextual advertising, google ads, helicopter, marine one, obama, youtube ads
Bush Street Renamed Obama in San Francisco
Humor, Politics January 20th, 2009
Hulu Fails on Inauguration Day
Technology January 20th, 2009
O-Day was supposed to be the first US Presidential Inauguration largely available online. I thought it was a good idea to provide the embedded video here, courtesy of Hulu. It worked well for hours .. during the countdown.
Then it promptly died as soon as the actual broadcast started. It appears Hulu killed the embed feed, while the video on hulu.com itself is still working well.
Hulu = Fail on O-Day. Way to welcome the first tech-savvy US President.
Tags: fail, Hulu, inauguration, o-day, obama
A Fine Day in America
Misc, Politics December 9th, 2008
What a fine day in America:
We’re marching towards a socialist system… or at least a partially nationalized one. After the financial sector now the Government will likely take a stake in Big 3 Auto. Governments are not exactly known for running businesses well, let alone when they start with already ailing ones…
Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was taken in Federal custody this morning, straight from his home, on corruption charges. Allegedly he wanted to cash in on his right to appoint the replacement for Senator Obama, who as we know moves to the White House. A line from the FBI affidavit, based on court-approved wiretap on his phones:
(the Senate seat ) "is a fucking valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing."
There are juicier details here. My first reaction was shock … I know about arrests of former politicians but has an active sitting Governor been arrested before?
Apparently yes, and it gets better (actually worse): MSNBC keeps track:
If Blago goes to prison, and former Gov. George Ryan isn’t commuted by President Bush, you’d have two Illinois governors in prison AT THE SAME TIME. What’s more, by our count, Blagojevich would become the FOURTH Illinois governor to go to prison (following Ryan, Otto Kerner, and Dan Walker).
Hm, Jeff Nolan beats MSNBC:
Gov Len Small, also of Illinois, was arrested while in office in 1921 for corruption.
This must be a good Illinois tradition…
What a fine day in America…
On a brighter note, Costco profits are up… must be all my purchases. 
Tags: bailout, big3, chicago, chrysler, corruption, economy, fbi, ford, gm, illinois, nationalized eeconomy, obama, Politics, senate, socialism
Live Election Results Here
Politics November 4th, 2008
I realize that only about 55% of my readers come from the United States, but the outcome of today’s US Presidential Elections will have a profound impact on the entire world. I know many of you are watching the process with excitement, in fact a quick look here shows just how much people all around the world care, and that they are quite united.
Well, they don’t have voting rights, so it will be up to my fellow American citizens to do the right thing and help us, help the world leave 8 years of darkness behind. Let’s watch the live results here:
I’m afraid I don’t have a fast-forward button, so it will be just a count-down for a while…
I Could Win this Primary
Humor, Politics April 22nd, 2008
Oh, Twitter is fun:
BreakingNewsOn With less than 0% of votes returned in PA, Clinton leads with 66% (1,649 votes) in the Democratic race; Obama at 34% (838 votes). 16 minutes ago from web 
zoliblog Gotta love that less than 0%. Solid lead for Clinton 6 minutes ago from twhirl 
zoliblog Hey, I can get 66% of less than 0% 
5 minutes ago from twhirl
Tags: breakingnewson, clinton, elections, obama, Twitter
Election Humor
Humor, Politics January 9th, 2008
Techmeme’s political sister-site, Memeorandum is full of speculation on how the New Hampshire polls could be so wrong. As usual, conspiracy theories abound, amongst them speculation on the role Diebold’s voting machines played in the results. I’m not joining the speculation, nor can I completely ignore it; after all, we’re hearing about voting machine problems all the time, several states decertified them… but I simply don’t have enough facts to take sides in this debate (although I wrote about the issue in the past) That said, a little laugh does not hurt … and you have to admit these posters are just hilarious:
There’s more where they come from: Diebold Variations, (c)2004-06 Rand Careaga/salamander.eps.
Tags: clinton, diebold, elections, electronic voting, new hampshire, obama, Politics, vote count, voting, voting machines
Zoli Erdos
