Saturday, July 30, 2011

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Atlanta Bloggers - Take Over This Blog!

Zennie62Media want to work with Atlanta Bloggers who can take this Atlanta Focus blog and add their unique perspective on this great metropolitan area.

If you live in the Atlanta area and have a blog already, let's communicate. There's a proposal already prepared that describes how the partnership will work, and compensation arrangements.

Send an mail with the subject heading "Atlanta Blogger" to zennie@zennie62.com

Friday, June 24, 2011

Atlanta Social Media Party Links BASHH And Digital Atlanta Meetup



This blogger went out to what was expected to be a small gathering of bloggers at 5 Seasons Westside Brewery, but was a first-time gathering of two digital and social media groups: BASHH, for "Big Ass Social Happy Hour" and the "Digital Atlanta" Meetup. In fact it was a total dive-in and swim experience, where I met a lot of great people, some who I interviewed for the video.

Some brief highlights:

The first person I met was John Peltier, one of the organizers of what he and colleague Anna Gonzalez (who I also interviewed at length) said was a continuation of the BASHH party at SXSW (That's "South-By-South-West," the giant music and tech confab held annually in Austin, Texas.) John says the idea is to have a party that presents a non-threatening place for people curious about blogs and social media to come and find out more about both by meeting people already involved in it. In other words, another excuse to have good drinks, good conversation, and good humor.

Met a lot of great bloggers, for example Cecilia Dominic runs the Atlanta wine blog Random Oenophile , where she highlights "reviews of restaurants and wineries," and from our conversation, has a lot of fun doing it, with some help from her husband Jason. A fun couple to hang with.

Victoria Ellis is a smart, sexy, man-eating riot, who's blog VISHous Life is a diary of dates past and recent, good and bad. Ms. Ellis and her friend Elwyn Lopez left me laughing up a storm, as you will see in the video. Is winding up a subject in Vish's blog's a good thing or a bad thing? Whatever the answer, she's got great material for a TV show, already.

Grace, a junior at Georgia Tech, smartly started a Twitter account that spots deals for Atlanta sports events. Want to know what specials the Atlanta Braves have? You're better off following @ATLSportsDeals than visiting the team's own website.

Nick Valencia is a CNN assignment editor, who describes himself as an "all-round jack of all trades" which is a redundancy, but whatever. Nick's project at CNN is Mexico's drug war, where his collection of blogs and podcasts really constructs and excellent and frankly, very human picture of a problem that's all too often painted in black and white. Take a search look here: LINK.

Terry Coniglio is the Social Media Coordinator at Georgia State University and handles all such activities for the college. That and I observed that she's got a good eye for decent food!

Anna's the ring-leader of the thing - darting, dashing, greeting, and making the event the fun happening it was. When I found out about the meetup, the list I saw read that "9 bloggers" were expected, but it was more like 50 people. I even met two reps of an app called FitRadio.com, that's positioned as a Pandora competitor.

As it happened there were two parties, the BASHH event, and the Digital Atlanta meetup, held next door at the correctly-named Octane Coffee cafe. I ran into someone I'd not seen since the 2008 Democratic Convention, and met two of the organizers of Digital Atlanta, set for November 7th 2011.

The idea of Digital Atlanta is to have a "week-long series of events celebrating technology and new media marketing achievements in Atlanta" according to its website. The second annual Digital Atlanta (the 2010 event drew over 3,000 people) is in the planning stages, and, as Susan Berry and Stephanie Frost explain in the video, it's seeking sponsors, so this is a great time to get on board.

In short, I happened to walk-in on a major event in the growth of Atlanta's social media community. I hope this blog and video can help spread the word about what's going on. It's quite exciting.

Stay tuned.

Social Media: (BASHH) Big Ass Social Happy Hour, Digital Atlanta Meetup

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Rob Woodall, Georgia GOP Congressman Health Care Hypocrisy



Georgia GOP Congressman Rob Woodall (GA District 7) was caught at a town hall meeting making a statement, or a series of them, that could only be borne of hypocrisy.

While lecturing a constituent about self-reliance, and saying "You want the government to take care of you, because your employer decided not to take care of you. My question is, 'When do I decide I'm going to take care of me?'"

But the woman he was trying to talk down to wasn't have any of it. She said I have a question about taking care of you. You have government subsidized health care, but you are not obligated to take that if you don't want to. Why aren't you going out on the free market in the state where you're a resident and buy your own health care? You lead by an example. Why aren't you leading by example?"

Congressman Woodall tried to dodge the question, but she's having none of it. Finally, after she pressed him regarding why he doesn't go and get health care on the open market, and takes the free, government-sponsored health care provided by the people of America, he says "Because it's free... Folks, if you give people something for free, you should expect them to take it."

Those are the words of a person who cares only about himself. The question is, does Congressman Woodall's selfishness represent the entire GOP?

Stay tuned.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Monday, May 16, 2011

Ridoune Harroufi, Bay To Breakers winner, with Josh Muxen, Angela Fang, and Katie Harrar
Ridoune Harroufi, Bay To Breakers winner, with Josh Muxen, Angela Fang, and Katie Harrar
Allison, Courtney, and Stephanie: Media PR Rock Stars
Allison, Courtney, and Stephanie: Media PR Rock Stars
IMF's Dominique Strauss-Khan proves that having a big title does not mean you have common sense.
Married dude accused of rape.
One day after The Zazzle Bay To Breakers, that he was not in but holds the record for Samuel Wanjiru dies at 24. b2b100

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Bay to Breakers winners with Angela Fang
Bay to Breakers winners with Angela Fang
More runners coming in from Bay To Breakers
More runners coming in from Bay To Breakers
Lineth Chepkurui with KRON's Vern Glenn after Bay To Breakers
Lineth Chepkurui with KRON's Vern Glenn after Bay To Breakers
Lineth Chepkurui beat Mamitu Daska in Zazzle Bay To Breakers by 1 second
Lineth Chepkurui and Ridouane Harroufi win 2011 Bay To Breakers. Harroufi first non Kenyan to win in 20 years
Bay To Breakers finish line
Bay To Breakers finish line
Bay To Breakers finish line...waiting...
Bay To Breakers finish line...waiting...
Bay To Breakers we pass Sharon Meadow in Golden Gate Park
Bay To Breakers we pass Sharon Meadow in Golden Gate Park
Bay To Breakers mile mark 5
Bay To Breakers mile mark 5
Bay to Breakers at top of Hayes Street Hill
Bay to Breakers at top of Hayes Street Hill
Bay To Breakers security
Bay To Breakers security
Bay To Breakers elite runners warming up.
Bay To Breakers elite runners warming up.
Bay to Breakers start line!
Bay to Breakers start line!
Vern Glenn and Officer Carcelen
Vern Glenn and Officer Carcelen
Waiting for porto potties at Bay To Breakers
Waiting for porto potties at Bay To Breakers

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Zennie62Media on the Red Carpet At Night Of 100 Stars Oscar Party
Zennie62Media on the Red Carpet At Night Of 100 Stars Oscar Party

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

sfnews,sanfrancisco
SF Deputy Public Defender Qiana Washington talks about SF Police brutality cases sfnews sanfrancisco
Matt Gonsalez calls for zero tolerance of SFPD police misconduct
Matt Gonsalez calls for zero tolerance of SFPD police misconduct
Jeff Adachi talks new SF Police misconduct video now
Jeff Adachi talks new SF Police misconduct video now
@YouTube must block use of the N-Word in the comments of videos. It is out of hand.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Recalling an excellent salmon salad at the Capital Grill across Broadway and 1/2 down 50th from Radio City in NYC
Recalling an excellent salmon salad at the Capital Grill across Broadway and 1/2 down 50th from Radio City in NYC
Microsoft Acquires Skype for 8 billion! I remember when Skype was a small startup with a handful of users.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Osama Bin Laden Is Dead - Credit President Obama




Osama Bin Laden Is Dead. President Barack Obama made the stunning announcement at 11:39 PM EDT Sunday, as this blogger sat in a position of stasis. For almost 10 years, the name Osama Bin Laden had become an indelible part of American Culture, and with an image just equal to that of Adolf Hitler.

The Mastermind of the September 11th 2001 events we call 9-11 and that led to the total destruction of the twin towers of The World Trade Center in New York City was on the run, seemingly forever.

Not any more...



And while the media points to a intelligence gathering process that started back in 2001, the truth is that America's political leaders in charge for much of that time wrongly focused American military resources on Irag, and not Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Now, almost a trillion dollars, and 4,000 lost lives by 2007, then-Senator Barack Obama, just starting what would become his successful presidential run, said that he would end the Iraq War, and go on the hunt for Osama Bin Laden right in Pakistan.

The statement led to a ton of criticism from his major presidential rivals. In a blog post dated Wednesday, November 7, 2007 at Zennie62.com, this blogger pushed-out for distribution what CNN's Ruben Navarrette Jr, wrote:

When Sen. Barack Obama suggested getting out of Iraq and moving "onto the right battlefield in Afghanistan and Pakistan," and then pledged, if elected president, to go into Pakistan if our military was in hot pursuit of "high-value terrorist targets" (read: Osama bin Laden), his opponents pounced.


Rudy Giuliani suggested that Obama should be more accommodating of Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Mitt Romney said that Obama was "confused as to who are our friends and who are our enemies." Sen. John McCain called Obama's remarks "kind of typical of his naivete." And Sen. Hillary Clinton said that Obama's foreign policy views were "irresponsible and frankly naive."

Now, fast-forward to 2011 and while Hillary Clinton is now Secretary of State, and Rudy Giuliani is semi-retired (or so it seems) Mitt Romney is talking about running for President, again. And Sen. John McCain doesn't seem to be in the mood of thanking President Obama, issuing this Twitter Tweet:

SenJohnMcCain John McCain
We finally got him, justice has been done. Read my full statement here http://tinyurl.com/3auckey...


Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), made the following statement this evening regarding the announcement made by President Obama that Osama Bin Laden has been killed:


"I am overjoyed that we finally got the world's top terrorist. The world is a better and more just place now that Osama bin Laden is no longer in it. I hope the families of the victims of the September 11th attacks will sleep easier tonight and every night hence knowing that justice has been done. I commend the President and his team, as well as our men and women in uniform and our intelligence professionals, for this superb achievement.


"But while we take heart in the news that Osama bin Laden is dead, we must be mindful that al-Qaeda and its terrorist allies are still lethal and determined enemies, and we must remain vigilant to defeat them."
That's great.  But never forget that it was McCain who wasted no time in saying then-Senator Obama was naive for wanting to go into Pakistan to get Bin Laden.  If McCain were POTUS, and not Obama, this day arguably would never have come. 

And the list of potential GOP Presidential Candidates who don't have the class to thank President Obama includes Sarah Palin and, of course, Mitt Romney, as of this writing.

What Were We Doing In Iraq?

All of this, this modern V-Jay Day, now brings back the question "What were we doing in Iraq?"   It was, indeed, not just the wrong war, but a costly war.   And we wasted years in Iraq while Osama Bin Laden gained enough time and money to have the giant compound in Pakistan constructed to keep him safe.  

Now, a revisiting of what the USA was doing over that time is in order, especially since it's clear Osama Bin Laden was no where near Iraq.

We got him.   In Pakistan.  

Stay tuned. 

Friday, January 28, 2011

Georgia Ban On Sunday Beer Sales May Fall Due To Economy

If you wanted to buy beer in Georgia on Sunday, known as the seat of The Bible Belt, you had to go to an Atlanta Falcons game to do it. But that may end as the Georgia Legislature considers removing the ban next week.

It's something that new Governor Nathan Deal is expected to approve into law if it passes, and it looks like it has the votes.

Why?

The economy here is at 10.3 percent and store business owners are tired of seeing Georgians hop the boarder between Georgia and Tennessee just for beer on Sunday.

The whole deal with liquor here is whacked. Some counties allow you to purchase hard liquor and others don't. If the Sunday beer ban falls, local counties and cities will have a choice regarding maintaining the law, but given the need for revenue and jobs, it's hard to see too many local municipalities doing that.

Stay tuned.