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More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com I had to take a time out to send a little message to my friend Jack Cafferty at CNN. He has a blog post focusing on Van Jones and asking if the White House should have so many czars. Van Jones: Mayor of Oakland Now a bit of background, CNN's been very good to me by giving me a platform to feature my video work, particularly during the Democratic National Convention last year, and putting me on live TV more times than I can immediately recall. CNN essentially "made me" so after so many appearances and headquarters visits, like the one below, where I met the iReport staff that's become family to me, I've got a pretty good idea what they're looking for. Now, I know what CNN's doing - same thing I do - ask a question or go to a subject that I know will smack the hornets nest and get people emailing, commenting, and talking, er, like this one. It

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com Is California becoming a "party economy"? Governor Schwarzenegger should talk to Joe Diamos. Diamos says we're in trouble Since our credit crunch of 2008 and the staggering wave of not just job losses but the dramatic drop in overall job creation over the last eight years, I've always believed our American economy was in trouble. Rather than throw out a bunch of statistics, I decided to turn to someone who's in the middle of the economic storm: Joe Diamos of Diamos Funding Group in Redwood City, Ca. Diamos' company is a law firm that specializes in representing you before the bank you have a mortgage with to get that bank to adjust your loan - called "loan modification" - so that you're better able to afford your monthly payments. I asked Mr. Diamos how the economy was doing; I didn't get an enthusiastic answer. "It&

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com On YouTube.com Lady GaGa , The Jonas Brothers and Gravy Boat are all in the business of music and part of my new series called "Music Monday" where we feature blogs and videos about local and national singers and groups. Lady Gaga is the incredible pop pretty singer with infectious dance tunes like "Poker Face. The Jonas Brothers have become a World phenomenon, I present to you Gravy Boat . Gravy Boat - which features Steve Gerard, Erik Frykman, Marc Ramsey and Don Frank - is based in Marin and plays in the San Francisco Bay Area. Now, my connection to this cover band is my friendship with Erik and his brother Lars, which goes back to when we were, oh, 14 years old.   Lars and Me: 1974  Fast forward to August 2009, and I visited San Francisco's popular bar and restaurant La Barca to here Gravy Boat for the first time.  I also brought my camco

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com The lastest information on the ongoing story of the trade of New England Patriots Defensive End Richard Seymour to Oakland has Raiders Head Coach Tom Cable on the NFL Network today at 4 PM PST saying that the star lineman told him he wants to come to Oakland. According to Jerry McDonald of the Contra Costa Times , Cable said he talked to Seymour today. That counters earlier information that Seymour didn't want to come to Oakland. He was traded to Oakland for the Raiders 2011 first round draft pick, leading some to scratch their heads regarding why the Silver and Black would make such a trade for someone about to turn 30 years old. The NFL network's Alex Flanagan said it for me "It seems confusing." Mike Mayock said that the Raiders could control Seymour by slapping the much-hated "franchise" tag on him after 2010. Solomon Wilcots observed tha

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com Van Jones talks about "The Green Collar Economy" I just saw an email from The Washington Post explaining that Van Jones resigned from his post as the Green Jobs Czar in the Obama Administration. Sad news as I know Van and have known him as nothing but a good man committed to the betterment of society. One of the staples of Van's life has been the pursuit of social justice. He's always worked to better the lives of those less fortunate and the creation of the Oakland-based Ella Baker Center is a great example of what he's tried to do to improve life for Oaklanders, especially those who are poor and black. Van Jones stepped down from a post that was the logical end result of his tremendous growth as a person: a job in the White House. Moreover, those attacking his character themselves are people with questionable backgrounds or anti-social actors.

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com According to my friend Mike Florio over at ProFootballTalk.com , the Oakland Raiders trade for Richard Seymour may be scuttled by one action: Seymour's not reporting to the Raiders . According to Mike and also Peter King of SI.com , Seymour is "angry" that he was traded to the Oakland Raiders, described as "football's literal black hole" over at Profootballtalk.com. Peter King writes: Seymour, I'm told, is angry about the deal. He lives in Foxboro, has children he may have to relocate to new schools as the school year dawns and has to get acclimated to a new defense (and an awful team) a week before the opening game. "I would not be surprised if he doesn't report,'' a good friend of Seymour's told me Sunday. I would. Aside from not earning his 2009 salary of $3.7 million, Seymour wouldn't be able to be a free-agent if

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com UPDATE: Seymour may not report to the Raiders. The trade shot heard 'round the football and the Internet world is that the New England Patriots long time defensive end Richard Seymour was traded to the Oakland Raiders . While the transaction seems like a good deal for Oakland, hold on. There are two problems: the first one is that Seymour has not had an all pro season since 2006 and the Raiders defensive formation design is suspect. Since 2001 Richard Seymour has been a force on New England's defense. But starting with a knee injury in 2007 and a back injury in 2008, he hasn't been the disruptive player he was known as three years ago. While he did have a career-high eight sacks last year, giving up a first round pick was too much for Seymour. Why Oakland did that is beyond me (it would make more sense for a Seymour three years younger) but he's here so

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com It's reported today that David Chai, formerly the Chief of Staff to the Ron Dellums, the Mayor of Oakland, but demoted a few months ago, is leaving Oakland for San Francisco to become the "business czar" for Mayor Gavin Newsom. But what's sad about the article written by the Oakland Tribune's Kelly Rayburn is how many Oakland Councilmembers were openly trashing Chai on the way out. First, it was known months ago in May that Chai had been demoted from the level of Chief of Staff and I mentioned this back then as well as that Marisol Lopez would be the new head of Dellums' staff. So while Rayburn's article is out, the news is a bit off; Chai was moved long ago. But while David may have had his shortcomings, he was a talented staffer frustrated with the overall culture of Dellums' office. Still, you would think Oakland Councilmembers would be m

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com Oakland Councilmember Jean Quan has an email newsletter with some interesting information. Take this item with the headline "Community Policing and Other City News". The Councilmember reports that the Oakland Police have set up a red light camera at High and Foothill (paragraphs broken by me): Red-light Camera Now In Place at High and Foothill: In an effort to reduce red-light related accidents, OPD announced it installed a Red Light Camera Enforcement System (RLCES) at High St. and Foothill Bl. The system will capture red-light violations and warning notices will be mailed to violators for 30 days. After the 30 day warning period, starting September 29, 2009, citations will be issued for red light violations. The four intersections in the City now being monitored by the automated red-light camera system will be marked by an advisory street sign, notifying app

Yesterday I wrote that Cal has not seen tapes of Maryland's new defense as the Terps have a new defensive coordinator Don Brown. Maryland players expressed joy that Cal would be surprised by their new look system. It was also reported that Cal's looking at last year's Maryland tapes, for some reason. But as it turns out, the new look is an old look: the Buddy Ryan 46 Defense. According to this Washington Post article , Brown is bringing a version of the "46" - named for Chicago Bears Safety Doug Plank , who was a key rover in the Ryan defense - to Maryland. Don Brown's defense, called "The Bear" reminds me of the kind of system Artie Gigantino brought to Cal when he was defensive coordinator under Keith Gilbertson at Cal: the linemen positioned opposite the tight end or the side with the most receivers, and both outside linebackers on the strongside of the offense. Artie called his defense the "Split" 43. The Bear's the s

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com I just read there's going to be an Oakland DUI (driving under the influence) checkpoint tonight at "an undisclosed location in Oakland" . Great. But why? Everyone knows there are only a few areas where cool and safe (can one be cool and not safe?) bars and restaurants are in Oakland: 1) Downtown at Broadway and Grand where its "First Friday" Art Murmur night. 2) Downtown along Telegraph from 16th to 20th Street. 3) Grand Avenue and Lakeshore Avenue where Lake Park serves as the connecting street 4) North Oakland along College Avenue 5) Piedmont Avenue from Monte Vista to 51st and Pleasant Valley. First, it's not good to drink and drive, but this quasi-militaristic, secret agent style approach is really too much with this "undisclosed location" stuff. I'd prefer the Oakland Police think creatively and actually provide alternat

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com YouTube , Yahoo , MySpace , DailyMotion , Blip.tv , StupidVideos , Sclipo and Viddler College Football's back and ESPN's Lou Holtz thinks The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame will be in the BCS National Championship Game. He's wrong. But the Cal Golden Bears will beat the USC Trojans October 3rd in Berkeley, 20 to 14. Notre Dame lacks team speed At 29 wins, 21 losses this is Notre Dame Head Coach Charlie Weis ' make-or-break year. If he wins seven games or more, he's in the clear and gives Irish fans and boosters a reason to expect better years ahead. But if he losses 7 games or more, he's in trouble. My prediction is for another six win season. Why? Notre Dame's chronic lack of team speed. The Fighting Irish have a problem drawing the fastest players at all positions. The states that generally produce the fastest talent - Florida, Cal

I just got this message at my Facebook page: I'm sure you've been following the awful story about the disappearance of Hasanni Campbell. His foster mother is a very dear friend of mine, Jennifer Campbell. She is expecting a child, while desperately searching for Hasanni, and had to go back to work at "Shuz" in Rockridge today, the site of Hasanni's disappearance. She will probably only be able to work a short while but as she is paid mostly on commission, she needs to sell a lot of shoes. The media coverage of this whole tragic situation hasn't made it any easier. I am beseeching you to please visit "Shuz" on College Ave. in Rockridge. Ask for Jennifer Campbell. Buy some shoes. Please. Where's "Shuz" exactly? It's at 6012 College Avenue (map below) and has great reviews on Yelp! Jennifer's had a rough time; give her your support! Buy some shoes! Here's the map for Shuz in Oakland within the Rockridge District!

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com The blog Eater via SFGate's Scoop reports that the famous sky high restaurant The Carnelian Room at the top of the Bank of America building at 555 California Street is scheduled to close but not until Christmas. If you've never experienced the view of San Francisco and the Bay Area from that space I encourage you to do so. It's been too long for me but given how breath-taking it is, I can't understand why it's not doing well. You may respond that it's too high, but I disagree because of the terrific interior that awaits patrons. Curious, I Googled "Carnelian Room rating", clicked on " Carnelian Room User Reviews " at San Francisco Citysearch and got my answer: it's the service. This is one of many negative reviews placed there: This place is criminally bad. Lets cover the one good thing first; the view. Nothing else is goo

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com Two weeks after a string of protests, a Grand Lake Theater meeting, and much noise about the Oakland Parking fee increase and extended enforcement hours and we still have the problem of the $80 ticket. Grand Lake Theater's parking protest has zero impact But what we have in addition are reports of Oakland parking enforcement officials plainly treating Oaklanders terribly, with nasty remarks and plain abuses of power. Michael Caton has a story that is worth reposting over and over again. The owner of the blog An Oakland Citizen and guest blogger at Oakland Focus has posted a stemwinder of a story at Oakland Focus and reposted with an explanation at my blog seat at SFGate.com Read it with a click here: Michael Caton's fed up with Oakland

I have a note to add to the farewell-to-Oakland parking post I left on my own blog some time ago. To the merchants who feel like the City of Oakland is hell-bent on destroying local businesses with draconian parking policies, I can add a personal experience that has removed me from the Oakland economy permanently. I moved to San Diego last week to start medical school. For one day, I had the U-Haul trailer I'd rented parked in front of our building - the three story one at the corner of Broadway and Oceanview. There is a stretch of red curb there that is a) out of the way of traffic and b) always, always used by everyone moving into or out of the building. You already know where this is going. I was riding the elevator back up to my floor, and, tired and sweating from dragging furniture out to the truck, I happened to glance down to the street out through the clear wall to see the parking enforcement vehicle pull up in front of my worldly possessions. I got off and hurtl

Lake chalet Oakland , originally uploaded by jimmyjaymz78 . I saw this cool photo by Jimmyjaymz78 on Flickr.com and had to post it. It was taken at The Lake Chalet which opened two weeks ago.

Lake chalet Oakland , originally uploaded by jimmyjaymz78 . I saw this cool photo by Jimmyjaymz78 on Flickr.com and had to post it. It was taken at The Lake Chalet which opened two weeks ago.

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com I saw this at the blog "The Daily Clog" by The Daily Californian and it reports on a cool event held at the very comfortable Morrison Library within Doe Library at Cal in Berkeley this Thursday. It's called simply "Lunch Poems" and starts at 12 noon. According to the website for Lunch Poems , the series is hosted by Robert Hass , who served as America's Poet Laureate of The United States (POLTUS) from 1995 to 1997 and is a Pulitzer-Prize winner. Joining him Thursday will be members of the UC Berkeley English Department reading their own work. They are: Melanie Abrams, C. D. Blanton, Vikram Chandra, Eric Falci, Mark Goble, David Landreth, Namwali Serpell, and Emily Thornbury. Visit Morrison and get there early to grab a couch before they're taken. Almost like the old Parkway in Oakland!

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com I just happened upon Berkeley professor and dweller, Robert Reich's blog and a post title that caught my eye: "The Guns of August and Why The Republican Right Was So Adept at Using Them on Health Care" and a particularly true statement he wrote: "The Left had ideas; the Right has discipline" Prof. Robert Reich The former professor at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and former Secretary of Labor is right. I'm stunned over the almost "Borg-like" efficiency the right brings to the effort of getting out a message consistently, and getting its members to follow the cue cards chapter and verse, time after time. (Oh. The Borg were characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation who were part machine and part human and ran by a central computer system.) Now, if one thinks about my Borg analogy, they might say I'm