Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

  More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! YouTube , MySpace , Blip.tv , Stupid Videos , Sclipo and Viddler Supreme Court Judge David Souter plans to retire at 69 years of age, according to Nina Totenberg of National Public Radio and which she announced today. President Barack Obama has a great opportunity to begin to remake the Supreme Court by installing a real legal scholar who's work and life has impacted many people. That person is Professor Kathleen Sullivan . Professor Sullivan, like President Obama, is a constitutional law scholar which means she focuses on the interpretation and implementation of the U.S. Constitution. The importance of that can't be understated as we see a flurry of new laws to control speech and behavior (think laws curbing the use of "cuss" words for example) and their conflict with civil liberties. And as the Supreme Court is the place for the consideration fo the U.S. Constitution, it's logical to have a consti

On March 24th , I wrote a short post on Economist and NY Times Columnist Paul Krugman Paul Krugman and created this video below. Today, in the wake of Newsweeks' rather unfortunate April Fools Day article on the Princeton Professor (which presented him as a kind of edgy intellectual but lacked real substance in the discussion of why Krugman is wrong about Obama), I decided to offer this expanded blog post. The problem is that Krugman is really angry that the Obama administration is and has ignored him and this emotion has driven a sloppy intellectual approach, paced by the fact that he's not presented a plan for our troubled banks, all the while taking an aim at the President's plan that has the effectiveness of a drunken sailor at an arcade shooting gallery. Who is Paul Krugman? Professor Krugman is a decorated International Economist, who recently - in 2008 - won the Nobel Prize in Economics for his solid theory on two-country trade. Here Krugman attacked t

In his best speech ever President Obama sounded the call for the need to stop sending jobs overseas. It was totally missed by pundits, but Obama just sounded the call for economic nationalism when he said that he would bring jobs back to America.  It's about time. From 1960 to 1999, the USA added 20 million new jobs each decade, but from that point to today, just under 5 million jobs were added. Where did they go? Overseas to other nations in a large process of what economists call import replacing. One example of this is the growth of Airbus Industries in aircraft manufacturing where they got the largest tanker deal in American history -- $35 billion -- and over the Boeing Company costing 25,000 jobs.

President-Elect Barack Obama continues to introduce members of his cabinet, today officially bring in Dr. Stephen Chu, Lisa Jackson, and Carol Browner. Dr. Chu is a legend in the halls of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and known for his leadership and knoweldge. Ms. Jackson is a policy-driven public official who reportedly improved the formerly politicized New Jersey EPA Department. And Carol Browner is a well-known environmental public official having served as the head of the EPA under both Clinton Administrations, the longest serving head of the EPA in history. Nancy Sutley, Los Angeles's deputy mayor for energy and environment, will chair Obama's White House's Council on Environmental Quality. If you're keeping score, Obama has introduced three women and one man today. I also have to add that I think Obama's appointing more Asians and women to top posts that ever before, but they're also trail-blazers in their fields.

Chris Young of the Northern California staff of Obama for America gives a speech in Berkeley, Ca, September 4th 2008. Then I talk with Young about the campaign to that date, and a then-new new threat, GOP VP Candidate Governor Sarah Palin

This is listed under the file heading of "What was he thinking?"  I've learned using Huffington Post's "Fundrace" system that our own Robert Bobb, who's listed as a "consultant" with the adress P.O. Box 77556, Washington, D.C.,  gave $1,000 to Hillary Clinton's run for president, but nothing -- zip -- to Barack Obama! That's disappointing to learn for this Obama backer and volunteer. I got after Mayor Dellums for not backing now President-Elect Obama because doing so would send a message to young Black men in Oakland that he supports the future, but I would have guessed Mr. Bobb would have certainly backed Obama.   Now, that colors a lot of thoughts I had about Bobb and makes me reconsider past his actions when we were involved with The Super Bowl. I crossed-checked the Robert Bobb listed in Chicago and who did give to Barack's campaign and he's a lawyer in the windy city. But it says something not so good when older Af

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Chip Johnson has had a field day -- or year -- going after Mayor Ron Dellums and pointing to his shortcomings, and today's no exception  : As he nears the halfway point in his four-year term, Dellums must decide whether to hire former City Manager Robert Bobb to his old position or continue with Dan Lindheim, a political appointment with little experience in city government. The national search to replace former City Administrator Deborah Edgerly, fired in July amidst a corruption scandal, has fizzled, leaving Lindheim to run day-to-day operations while Bobb, hired in July as a consultant, shows up twice a month and acts as the de-facto city administrator, City Hall sources say. The arrangement leaves Lindheim feeling undermined and Bobb in limbo, the sources say, while city residents are without leadership or clear direction. It's an uncomfortable situation that must be resolved. Well, Robert Bobb's certainly in limbo but fortunatel

I finally got the chance to edit, compress, and upload this boat ride I took with my friend Phil Tagami on August 31st of this year. Phil's a real estate developer and managing partner of California Commercial Investments / California Commercial Group.  He also has his own video show here called "Tagami Vision." He successfully redeveloped the Oakland Rotunda, in downtown Oakland, CA, and is now working on the recreation of the Oakland Fox Theater. Listen to this video because Phil gives a great view of the economic state of development not just in Oakland, but in the United States. Also, keep in mind this video was before the election and just after John Edwards annouced that he had been in an affair. Tagami supported Edwards, but later and through the election threw his support to now President-Elect Barack Obama.

I visited Tony West of Obama for America and the law firm Morrison and Forrester on Monday of this week to talk about the campaign and why it worked so well and West's future. West is well known in the San Francisco Bay Area as an excellent plaintiff's lawyer.   But West is also known as a friend of President-Elect Barack Obama. West met Obama in 2004 and offered to help him should he elect to run for President. When Obama did, he called West and thus began West's role as Chair of the fundraising committee for Northern California. It also started a round of basketball between the two that's gone well enough for Obama to give West a pair of his shoes to wear for games.   Since Obama's election win, West's name has been floated for Mayor of Oakland, a position in some capacity for Obama, and Alameda County District Attorney. West himself says his future may include remaining with Morrison and Forrester as a lawyer. West's wife Mia was just recently

My endorsements are "right down to the wire" but here they are and I explain my selections in my video above and I will update the text with my reasons. Barack Obama / Joe Biden - President of the United States Barbara Lee - Congressperson District Nine Loni Hancock - California State Senator Sandre Swanson - California State Assemblyperson Dennis Hayashi - Alameda County Superior Court Judge Rebecca Kaplan - City of Oakland At-Large Council Seat Chris Peebles - AC Transit Board Greg Harper - AC Transit Board Proposition 1A - NO on High Speed Rail Proposition 2 - NO Proposition 3 - Yes Proposition 4 NO (What about homeless kids) Proposition 5 - Yes Proposition 6 - Yes Proposition 7 - NO Proposition 8 - BIG NO Proposition 9 - NO Proposition 10 - YES Proposition 11 - NO Proposition 12 - Yes Oakland Measures Measure N - Yes Measure MM - Yes Proposition OO - Yes Proposition VV - Yes Proposition WW - Yes

  Paul Cobb is a long-time Oakland, California writer, activist, community organizer and now publisher of the Oakand Post. I met Paul at his office in Downtown Oakland to talk about a wide range of subjects, but the two I was most interested in talking about were who killed Chauncey Bailey and what Paul thought about the current Mayor of Oakland, Ron Dellums.   Bailey was an Oakland journalist who was supposedly murdered by people associated with Your Black Muslim Bakery (YBMB) on August 2, 2007.  But Cobb and others believe that the chain of events that led to someone, perhaps Devaughndre Broussard of YBMB,  murdering a journalist in the line of duty is more complicated and may lead to people and institutions one would not expect. Cobb's assertions regarding the relationship between Bailey and members of the Oakland Police Department would seem to match the concerns expressed in this website article by the Chauncey Bailey Project .  The person who shot Bailey was wearing a s

This is an update of my first video on a clash between supporters of state Prop 8 and those opposing it. I went back to the same MacArthur and Lakeshore corner featured in the first video.  

The elections fast approaching and the campaign to elect Senator Barack Obama for President is heating up with a great GOTV effort.  You can early vote and find an "early voting" rally near you with a click here:  http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/caearlyvote

Who won the final Presidential Debate? I asked that question -- well more what they thought of the debate -- of Obama supporters at the Temple Lounge in San Francisco. My thanks to the staff of the Temple Lounge. Great place; great people. Here On CNN iReport

This is a political "slice of life" video I created during the evening of the March 4th "Super Tuesday" Primary. It starts with my trip to the Oakland "Obama For America" headquarters to do some phone banking work and then to two Obama parties in San Francisco, one at Tosca and the other at an art gallery. Along the way, you will meet Obama volunteers and discover their motivations and passions for being involved in this enormous grass roots movement to get Barack Obama elected President of The United States. 

This video was created at a rally for Barack Obama in Berkeley Thursday that drew 1,000 people. I asked Obama supporters why they backed Obama and what they thought about the GOP VP Candidate Sarah Palin.

Hillary Clinton Should Not Be In Nomination: Ignore P.U.M.A Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's name should not be put in nomination for the Democratic Presidential Nominee at the DNC Convention for several reasons. But before I state them, let me explain that I have supported the idea of an Obama / Clinton ticket for some time. But these reasons have caused me to be less enthusiastic about that, and to reject the idea of her name in the nomination process. 1) Senator Clinton lost the primary. For reasons that have been explored in depth, Senator Clinton lost the primary delegate race to Senator Barack Obama, and Senator Obama gained more popular votes than Senator Clinton. 2) I did not like the way Senator Clinton conducted herself after the end of the primary. At first, she was working for party unity, but did not rein in some of her supporters and did not have her husband former President Clinton fall in line and support Senator Obama 100 percent. It's as if they

Oakland fans of Senator John Edwards will not like the news they're about to get. For the full story, go over to Zennie's Zeitgeist with a click here .