todd.tokubo.com

Heard this on the radio: if you’re not honest with your criticism, the you have no credibility with your praise.

So, today the early political hubbub in California was not about the Obama healthcare speech, but rather about SoCal rep Mike Duvall.  The married Republican who consistently runs on a platform of family values got outed by a local newspaper / blog and the local TV station.

1. My problems with the congressman:
   1. Was caught on tape talking about your sexual acts with WOMEN who were not your wife
   2. Denied these in statements to the media point blank.
   3. However, you ran on a platform of family values.
   4. Won award for family values as recently as year 2000
   5. Campaigned against Prop 8 because it opposes traditional marriage
   6. Are a complete hypocrite who can’t even stand up for his own actions.  (Which is somewhat understandable because if you admits guilt, you’re in for a heap of trouble at the state and federal level)
2. My problems with the purported lobbyist. (or any lobbyist in general)
   1. Mr. Duvall was the vice chairman of the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee
   2. You are an energy lobbyist.
   3. You took a ethics test.  It’s recorded on the state’s website
   4. You have now made EVERY LOBBYIST look corrupt

While many blogs and syndicated news outlets have picked up the story, the effect is much greater as the original sources are from his electorate.   (As a side note, NYTimes and Fox News do not have the story, so they likely are holding to their philosophy that internet syndicated content should be paid content.)

As I sit here having trouble telling the difference between the Contra Costa Times, the Argus and the San Jose Mercury News, it’s refreshing to know that at least in one market, the local media has its sights on its local politicians.  I think having increased scrutiny on local government rather than the Republican vs. Obama du jour argument will continue to truly show the value of the media and rebuild a sense of community around the local media.

Please to all local media.  Please give us insight into our local government representatives.  Please cover them with the vigor that the sports guy covers “local boy made good in the pros”.  Local government is AA ball.  State government is AAA ball.  Federal government is the pros.  Stars are made at the AA and AAA level.

• Three words that do not belong together:
  1) reality
  2) television
  3) star #

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Three words that do not belong together:
1) reality
2) television
3) star

Please Roku… add NBA.com content…

You’re so close…

I was looking at a NYT article talking about the HUGE drop in CD sales along with the relatively small uptick in downloaded music.  It also has an amazing chart to go along with it.

So, I keep thinking… In the somewhat underrated movie “Demolition Man“.  The music industry was reduced to simply playing jingles over the radio.  If you take the music industry as a business to it’s logical conclusion with the trend noted above, a reasonable way to monetize music on any big scale is to have it as a marketing pitch (ie. the commerical jingle).  Somewhere along the way, the “art” was lost.

Which then lead me to: I really didn’t think “Demolition Man” was very good, until I went and read Brave New World again.  Then, I read this article titled “Forget Red vs. Blue — It’s the Educated vs. People Easily Fooled by Propaganda“.  (Criticism of this link: no references to the statistics used, so I’m not sure of their validit.  It’s slightly ironic, but the point is well taken.) Basically, I starting thinking that the movie’s dystopia might actually be the most realistic one in my lifetime.   It’s also one of the first movies I can remember with a truly overt product placement (Taco Bell) along with cross promotion commercials (you couldn’t tell if it was a Taco Bell ad or Demolition Man ad), which then goes and spoils the Transformers movie by making them all have to be GM cars.  (yes, I realize the original Transformers TV series was there just to sell more toys)

The article above points out that we’re in a culture of entertainment with politicians who only need to appear sincere.  It sounds like life imitating art, or at least what passes for art today.  We’re entertained by increasingly stupid shows on TV, and our society follows…  What ever happened to art?

Gee maybe my parents were right, Bart Simpson – underachiever, really isn’t a good message for kids.

Can it be true?  4 non-sequel / reboot sci-fi movies this summer.  And they all look worth seeing.  Will Avatar usher in the new age of movies?

Test post. I’m a total geek. I have now linked my blog with my twitter account.

traffic school done. authenticated online. completed test. case dismissed. no wasted Saturday.

This should always be our goal in terms of work.

This article is a great one on the topic of work.  I like the idea that the author start to put climbing the corporate ladder into perspective.  Here is quite possibly the best part of this article.

A good job requires a field of action where you can put your best capacities to work and see an effect in the world. Academic credentials do not guarantee this.

Nor can big business or big government — those idols of the right and the left — reliably secure such work for us. Everyone is rightly concerned about economic growth on the one hand or unemployment and wages on the other, but the character of work doesn’t figure much in political debate. Labor unions address important concerns like workplace safety and family leave, and management looks for greater efficiency, but on the nature of the job itself, the dominant political and economic paradigms are mute. Yet work forms us, and deforms us, with broad public consequences.