Obama Visit To San Francisco: Protestors Few, But Vocal

As this blog post is written, President Barack Obama's undoubtedly holding court in San Francisco's Masonic Auditorium. And while a substantial crowd turned out to see him, well into the 2,000 range if not more by estimate, there were some protestors. Frankly, only a handful of them and far out-numbered by Obama supporters.

Including this blogger.

The San Francisco Police officers I talked to said that everything was orderly, or as one cop put it: "Well, we haven't had to arrest anyone and take them to jail." Which makes an officers job easy: all they had to do was stand around and watch, and there were a lot of them who did that.

Police and security were all around the Masonic and the Nob Hill area, from two blocks uphill to two blocks downhill, and even on the roof of the theater itself. Everywhere you looked, security was superbly visible.

I didn't stay long enough to get a glimpse of the President's vehicle, but I did have a number of on video conversations.   Most notable were with people I disagree with.  While I talked to folks who support Obama as I do, it's fun to chat with people who have different points of view.  Some understandable, others worthy of challenge, and some just plain, er, different. 

Here's one example.

My first talk with a man I see at almost every notable political event I've attended in San Francisco and Oakland over the years. He's a small Asian gentleman who carries a sign that reads "Thornburgh" and other words, and when you talked to him years ago, would say "Oja Wallah, Okgie, Gaga."

Well, that's what it sounded like to me.

Now, he's much more intelligible: "Well, I met Channel Five and some of the news people, and told em about the populations of other galaxies that - that I'm the movie star."

Well, at least that's an improvement over year's past.

More serious and far more intelligible was the group of Armenian-Americans who say President Obama has not kept his campaign pledge to recognize The Armenian Genocide on the eve of its 96th anniversary.

The woman with the Statue of Liberty crown said "I'm pretty sure he's (not recognizing The Armenian Genocide) because the American Government has very good relations with the Turkish Government."

I checked this, and according to the New York Times, President Obama did acknoweldge the terrible event, but did so without alienating Turkey. Obama said:

"On this solemn day of remembrance, we pause to recall that 95 years ago one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century began. In that dark moment of history, 1.5 million Armenians were massacred or marched to their death in the final days of the Ottoman Empire."

While that's not enough, and does fall short of his campaign statements, it went a long way beyond what other American presidential administrations have done. For example, Bill Clinton worked to block an Armenian Genocide bill from passing the house, and Obama's statement directly used the word "genocide" whereas Clinton's statement of April 24, 2000, and of years before, did not.

But that's the thing some Liberal activists don't see with President Obama: he's good at moving the needle in the direction they desire on most issues, but they want him to push the thing all the way to redline. Thus, the source of much of Liberal angst about Obama. Not in this corner, however.

Almost nothing the President has done has disappointed me, except the Economic Stimulus Package: it should have been 1.2 trillion or 1.5 trillion in size, not $800 million. The problem was former Economic Advisor Larry Summers deliberately hid the bigger package from the President, because he and other advisors didn't think Congress would go for it because of it's size.

That was dumb, played to the overall "dumbing down" of America, and got us into more trouble, because now, after the 2010 Midterm Election, it's harder to get any stimulus through because of a set of massively thick-headed Republicans who either forgot or didn't learn basic macroeconomics.  Someone needs to tell those knuckleheads the "G" in GDP = C+I+G+(E-I) stands for GOVERNMENT!!

But I digress. 

The economic conversation spilled over into my talk with a nice man by the way of Michael Lyon, who did not support Obama in 2008 (or anyone) and says today that Obama is "captive" of corporate America, and wants to reduce Social Security.

Nuts.

Mr. Lyon said on video he would be open to be proven wrong, and here it come, his reason for change of his mind.

According to The Huffington Post, Obama said he would not slash or reduce Social Security benefits. Where Mr. Lyon got the opposite idea, I do not know.

But, at least Mr. Lyon's open to listening. That's more than I can say for a lot of "birthers."

And Donald Trump.

Stay tuned.

Oakland Human Trafficking Rally Draws Mayor Quan

This, in a strange way, is a follow-up to my blog of Sunday called Oakland Rapper Alleged Sex Predator? It started with a totally unrelated phone call from a friend, who asked me to cover a rally planned for the Wednesday of this week; the rally featured in the video that was made today.

Oakland's faced with an enormous problem: human trafficking. Human trafficking is where children, girls, are literally bought and sold for sex. According to the FBI, Oakland has been a hotbed for this activity, and has maintained this distinction since 2003.

The rally, organized by Nola Brantley, the Executive Director of Missey.org, (in photo) met at 19th and International Boulevard today, and drew a crowd of about 200 people, including Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, who then marched down the street, some carrying signs of protest against the activity.

How bad is it? It's so bad that a prostitute was seen on that corner at about 10:30 AM that morning, and one onlooker said he could not talk about it on camera because his friend talked and got shot. Not kidding.

Mayor Quan and Ms. Brantley says that we all must get involved in stopping this major problem in Oakland. But even with the FBI's 2003 designation, Mayor Quan says the street part of the problem is less than it was then, but now we have The Internet. "I think there's was a lot more prostitution in Oakland, when I was first elected (as councilmember) eight years ago. Many more streets. I think now, unfortunately, much of it has gone off the streets and online. And we have a whole undercover group that just answers Internet ads, and bus people that way."

And while incidents of child prostitution are less than years ago, Mayor Quan says that Oakland Police are arresting people for online child prostitution activities much more than in the past.

Ms. Brantley says who to blame for the problem isn't one person, but all of us, society as a whole. "If we have a problem in '03 and we (still) have a problem in '11, then something ain't being done about it."

You can get involved in helping stop child prostitution by visiting Missey.org, or attending a fund-raiser Thursday, April 21, at Z Cafe, at 27th and Broadway in Oakland from 5 PM to 11 PM.

3.8 Earthquake In SF Bay Area On Day Celebrating 1906 Quake

Just about five minutes ago, the office where I work out of my home shook just enough for me to wonder if it was a bus crash into the building or an earthquake. One check of Twitter revealed it to be the latter:

CesarQuintero Cesar Quintero
RT @beckyfc: @moshbrown Well, it IS the 105th anniversary of the earthquake that destroyed SF in 1906. Perhaps it was a commemoration quake.
42 seconds ago Favorite Retweet Reply

Yep. On the day when the Bay Area remembers the giant 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, the earth shook, and it wasn't planned. It was small, some felt it, others did not:

amandamaiyang amanda mai yang
i didn't feel the earthquake, because i have been convulsing from coffee withdrawl
2 minutes ago

Here are the details right from the website of the U.S. Geological Survey:

Magnitude 3.8
Date-Time

Monday, April 18, 2011 at 21:57:19 UTC
Monday, April 18, 2011 at 02:57:19 PM at epicenter

Location 37.597°N, 122.455°W
Depth 13.6 km (8.5 miles)
Region SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CALIFORNIA
Distances

4 km (2 miles) SE (136°) from Pacifica, CA
4 km (2 miles) SW (220°) from San Bruno, CA
5 km (3 miles) W (266°) from Millbrae, CA
10 km (6 miles) S (175°) from Daly City, CA
20 km (12 miles) S (189°) from San Francisco City Hall, CA

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 0.2 km (0.1 miles); depth +/- 0.4 km (0.2 miles)
Parameters Nph= 79, Dmin=4 km, Rmss=0.1 sec, Gp= 72°,
M-type=local magnitude (ML), Version=3
Source

California Integrated Seismic Net:
USGS Caltech CGS UCB UCSD UNR

Event ID nc71560691

Stay tuned.

Oakland Rapper Alleged Sex Predator? Jesus Campos Murder A Hit?

A shocking and unfortunate story was relayed to this blogger by a source recently.

A very famous, well-known Oakland rapper is accused by two sources of being a sexual predator, who asks young women, in some cases underaged, if they need a ride in his car, then he "talks sex talk" to them, takes them to his home, where he proceeds to try and have sex with them - to allegedly rape them.

As bad as that story reads, it doesn't always go well for him.

The Oakland Rapper's last alleged victim was very talented at protecting herself, and is the daughter of the friend of my source who came forward with the story.

My source talked to the friend just two days ago. Her daughter, to protect herself from the Oakland Rapper who tried to rape her, was said to have hit him over the head with a fire hydrant, then tazed him, and finally kicked him in the private area.

The Oakland Rappers is also said to "hang out" at a media facility in downtown Oakland. It's there, that he's allegedly meets up with his young female victims. Some of them are underage, yet already involved in the sex trade. My source claims he pays them for sex; a regular routine for them.

Certain Oakland Police Officers are reportedly "already aware" of the Oakland Rapper's activities, but because none of the girls or women will come forward, no arrest can be made.  "No one snitches," said my source, "because they are afraid of him." 

Oakland Has A Problem

Oakland is reportedly one of the nations most active cities for sex trafficking, which is "thriving in plain sight," as the Youth Radio website described it. In 2003, the FBI said Oakland was a "high-intensity child-prostitution area."

Oakland Police Lieutenant Kevin Wiley told Oakland North "The marketing of sex — especially children — is basically replacing the drug market."

To this blogger, this kind of activity is just plain unbelievable.  But when a person seeks you out to help tell their story, after hearing about it, you know it's a problem.   The problem of sex trafficking is normally and sadly connected with Hip Hop culture,  so this alleged sex predator would fall in line with the overall climate of the problem in Oakland.

By this blog posts, my source wants the Oakland Rapper to know that he's being watched by the Oakland Community, and that people know about this alleged series of encounters.

Jesus Campos Murder A Hit?

Word coming to this blogger is that the murder of famed Oakland restaurant owner Jesus "Chuy" Campos was a hit, and not a murder based on a robbery attempt.

The reason for the alleged hit, my source believes, was to start a Black / Latino race war. And, sadly, some Latino gang members are reportedly looking at the murder of Mr. Campos that way.

To recap, Mr. Campos was killed while opening his popular Otaez restaurant on International Boulevard at somewhere around 5 AM. Oakland Police are looking for two African - American men between the ages of 21 and 35, last seen in a gray 2000 Buick Regal four-door sedan that has tinted windows and 20-inch rims. (No license number has been provided as of this writing.)

Personally, this blogger doesn't know what would be gained by such an action as a "hit", but the source, who's been correct in the past and is enough of an insider to be more than credible, strongly stands by his claim.

Oakland City Officials should head off this by taking the necessary steps to make sure that view is not the prevailing one. Oakland can't be allowed to degenerate into a city hosting wars between black and Latino gangs.

Shifting Gears: Oakland Lakeshore Business District

A while back, I talked to Lakeshore Business Improvement District head Pam Drake about how the area's economic performance, and the ongoing parking issue, in this video:



Overall, there are more businesses, but the fear of getting a parking ticket still keeps some patrons away. Even with that, she says Lakeshore has "really picked up."

In case you're wondering, this video was made at Cana, the new eatery on Lake Park.

Stay tuned.

Palm Sunday Calm: Arianna Huffington, Reality Rocks, AdTech - Recaping A Week

Today is undoubtedly the quietest Saturday this video-blogger has enjoyed in quite a while. And since it's the day before Palm Sunday and Holy Week, it's fitting.

The idea of a visit to church is at least in my head; let's see if I will at least translate it to action. Frankly, the feeling of not being pressured to be somewhere at a certain time - for an event or a plane flight - is a nice one. I think God will forgive me.

If memory serves (and it should serve well, even after one-too-many glasses of scotch on during a fun Thursday evening I can still remember - can't do that anymore - and courtesy of my friend Mr. Tagami), two weeks ago, Thursday, I hit the ground, running:

1) Got off a plane from Georgia, where I was visiting Mom and has become my second home, and was off to a Flip Video Camera presentation meeting that I was told was cancelled via email, and as I was in the air. And we now know what happened to Flip Camera at the hands of Cisco. (Save Flip.)

2) Went to WonderCon the next day, Friday. If you're not familiar with WonderCon, it's a 25 year old convention of comic book publishers and artists, that's morphed into a pop-culture gathering of such size, talk is that it's going to expand to take up all of the space at the two main sections of Moscone Center, north and south. The event presents me with the chance to meet and interview people I've only seen on TV and the movies, like Jim Kelly, Cindi Morgan, and Celeste Yarnell, or who's work I've read, like MAD Magazine's Sergio Aragones. Cool guy.

WonderCon was three fun days of being around people who call themselves geeks and nerds, including me, but really now aren't any different than the rest of us, and because "geeks and nerds" have become so mainstream, it's time for another term. Now, I'm not complaining, because it's cool that the rest of the World's caught the fever. It's just that it's almost, well, you know, cliche. It's become a term for a demographic marketers target to push movies. But a deeper discussion of that - let's place on the backburner. Bottom line: WonderCon was a blast, and a good warm up to ComicCon 2011.

3) The next week, I interviewed Courtney Ruby, who's Oakland's City Auditor, and at a place called Disco Violante. If you're an Oaklander and didn't see the video, it's here...



Ms. Ruby's a fun person under a lot of pressure I think she puts on herself, and to maintain an office under the threat of a huge potential budget cut. Given all she's facing, I know Palm Sunday's welcome.

4) I'll get back to more local blogging today. But frankly, there's so much to blog about, that I'm considering adding guest bloggers - so if you're up for it, and don't mind my bugging you to use the Zennie-style of blogging, send me an email.

5) The next week, I was to be interviewed for NBC's Caught On Camera, and about my video called Fight On Fillmore. That was a fun time. Plus, the NBC people made me think about what videos "go viral," and it seems like we're attracted to either kids doing something funny or cute, or adults doing something bad. I don't know why that is, but the exception was the success of Susan Boyle. Perhaps because we expected to see a train wreck, and got a woman who sang like her life depends on it, and in a way, now it does.

6) Later that week, I also had it in mind to attend something called Reality Rocks, a first-of-its-kind expo of Reality TV, and thanks to a set of out-of-the-blue press releases from the good folks at Rogers and Cowan. R and C is the largest entertainment PR firm in America, and handles a lot of Hollywood's A-list talent. So, I figured a day trip to LA would be fun and profitable on a Saturday. Heck, I'm not saddled with dad duty, because I'm not a father (but would love to be one), and I don't have any relationship obligations (yet at this point) to keep me nailed down, so off to LA I went.

What a blast.

I've discovered that I needed to meet, know, and be around entrepreneurs. What's cool about LA, even though I don't desire to live there (there's nothing better than a Georgia summer), is the number of people who are interested in doing deals and partnerships around entertainment. Plus, given the mistakes I made with Sports Business Simulations, namely learning someone's esoteric programming language and then being trapped by them - dumb, stupid, idiotic me - I needed to be energized again.

See, I love being creative, and I think what drives me to video-blog is that I'm both making something - each blog post, to me, is a program. And using it to meet and talk with people and help them get their message out there. But for the Tech side, I'm nervous about finding the right partners for my next venture - no luck yet.

But I digress.

Meeting Dallas Maverick's Owner Mark Cuban and FUBU Founder Daymond John, was part of the tonic. The energetic Guy Kawasaki and Arianna Huffington completed the process at AdTech, and that was to name just four of the many people I met who gave me new energy.

Then, I completed the week at the office of The Bay To Breakers, where another set of fun folks reside. Race Director Angela Fang was kind enough to open her working digs and let this video blogger in for a spell. Here's the video from that visit:.



Ok. That's enough recapping. Time for two more blog posts, then to pay attention to the National Football League and the NFL Draft. (Oh, and the President's coming to town.)

And unplug for a while.

Stay tuned - and happy Palm Sunday.

And for those of you who asked, my Mom's fine, thank you. I just have the duty of being the only child at 48 years of age. And while I may look 20 years younger, I'm at the point in life where spending time with her is of extreme importance, because I don't know how much time I've got with her.