Larry Roibal

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No, It’s not Matthew Broderick…todays doodle is of David Plouffe (pronounced Pluff), the campaign manager for presidential candidate Barack Obama. Plouffe is credited with the strategy that won Iowa and prolonged the primary season past Super Tuesday. The idea was to esablish an early presence in states where their opponent (believing the race would be over) had no organization. That strategy yielded twelve consecutive wins after super Tuesday and produced the margin of victory that would never be relinquished.

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I will continue on Monday profiling the team behind Barack Obama.

Today I wanted to take a moment to remember Robert F. Kennedy. On June 5th 1968 he was shot by Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after winning California’s Primary election that day. He died the following day-forthy years ago today.

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Leading off, Political consultant, David Axelrod.

Axelrod is credited with implementing a strategy that encouraged grassroots participation, involving the people and giving them a stake in the campaign. Encouraging bloggers and using the internet to build an army of donors contributing a hundred dollars or less, Obama’s grass roots fund raising soon dwarfed the small number of deep pocketed contributors in other campaigns .

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Congratulations to Senator Obama!

Yesterday in my post regarding the passing of Bo Diddley I linked to some footage of him performing his self titled song released in 1955. That was before Martin Luther King’s I Have A Dream Speech, before the end of Jim Crow laws, before civil rights legislation, and before Barack Obama was born. The camera pans several times to the audience showing white kids bopping to Bo’s rhythm and blues, but in the last few seconds (about 5:17 in) the camera pans to a … Continue Reading

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Three beats, a pause, then two more beats. That was the trademark Bo Diddley beat that Bo used in his self titled song, and as the foundation for so many of his hits. He influenced a generation of artists including Buddy Holly, U2 and George Thorogood, who covered and introduced a new audience to his song “Who Do You Love”. Bo received a life time Grammy Award and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was 79.

WATCH BO DIDDLEY HERE

AND HERE

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This weekend at the Democratic Rules Committee, Clinton loyalist Harold Ickes said that Senator Clinton instructed him to reserve the right to appeal to the Credentials Committee at the Democratic convention in August.

la de da de de, la de da de da

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Congratulations go out to Boston’s notorious Yankee killer, Manny Ramirez, who yesterday became the 24th player in major league history to hit 500 home runs.

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Growing up, I loved the Carol Burnett show. Part of it’s charm was that they didn’t edit out the mistakes…the cast was so funny that they cracked each other up. The more they tried to control themselves and get through the dialog, the funnier it was. They were having such a good time doing the show that the laughter was contagious.

Sadly, Harvey Korman passed away yesterday at UCLA Medical Center. He was 81.

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The primary season is officially coming to an end on June 3rd with the final two states of Montana and  South Dakota (home to Mount Rushmore).

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Andrew Keen’s Book “The Cult of the Amateur, How The Internet Is Killing Our Culture” hypothesizes that Web 2.0, where content and information are increasingly being controlled by amateurs, is a very dangerous step backwards for our culture. Where in the past, information was disseminated by learned people who had to go through a screening process of acquiring degrees, convince a publisher or being hired by a publication, now anyone with a computer (yes, even I’m doing it) can start publishing their thoughts. Sites like Wikipedia, where the content is written … Continue Reading

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Filmmaker Sidney Pollack passed away yesterday at his home in Pacific Palisades California. He was 73. Nominated 11 times for Academy Awards, Pollack won 7 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for the epic film Out Of Africa starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. Pollack wore many hats in his career as a filmmaker including those of director, writer, producer and even actor in films like Tootsie and Michael Clayton.

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Steven Rubenzer Speeking at the International Society for Political Psychology found of all the presidents, Hillary has the most in common with Richard Nixon “Both introverts, combative, conscientious, not impulsive, having lapses in judgment, lack of a high sense of moral responsibility, and willingness and ability to lie.”
Joanne Miller assistant professor of political science at the University of Michigan specializing in political psychology says, To cope, one “engages in interpretative strategies to deny you’re going to lose. You make an external attribution for the failure. We’re already seeing this with Hillary-she’s … Continue Reading

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Lets Talk

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CEO of JP Morgan, Jamie Dimon expects the worst recession in the last 25 years.

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La de da de de, la de da de da

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint. (I did this drawing walking full stride between 34th Street and 16th Street)

At 76 years old Ted Kennedy has an malignant tumor in the left parietal lobe of his brain. Although it can be treated , because it is aggressivly growing within the brain tissue and not matastasized, in almost all cases it is not curable. Members of both sides of the isle have come forward to praised the Senator for his abilities as a legislator.

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint (done on the train)

Tomorrow…The Beat … Continue Reading

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As a rookie in 2006, Jon Lester won his first five major league starts pitching for the Boston Red Sox. He had a seven and two record when he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a blood cancer that might have ended his career. Lester underwent four courses of chemotherapy, was pronounced cancer free, and went back to his normal life. Well,… in Jon’s case, an exceptionally rare and gifted life. Medical breakthroughs in the treatment of cancer enabled Jon to continue pitching for the Boston Red Sox, appear in a World … Continue Reading

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This weekend Ted Kennedy was flown from the emergency room of Cape Cop Hospital to Massachusetts General with what initially was believed to be a stroke. He remains hospitalized awaiting tests.

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Robert Mondavi passed away yesterday in his home in Napa Valley. He was 94.

My Grandfather Roibal was an amateur wine maker. He immigrated from Spain in the 1930’s and settled in New Jersey. Visiting his home as a boy was what I imagined it would be like to go to Europe. Even though he lived in the city of Newark, his back yard was covered with trellises filled with ripening grapes. His cellar, where he made his wine, was a cool, damp place to escape the summer heat. The stone walls and … Continue Reading

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Speeking before the Isreali Parliment on the 60th anniversary of Isreal, President Bush takes the opportunity to swipe Obama.

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Edwards backs Obama.

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Modern Artist, Robert Rauschenberg died at his home in Florida, He was 82. He said of himself that he worked in the gap between art and life. He saw no medium - from painting and collage to photography, printmaking, stage design and performance - as beyond his artistic reach. He even was convinced by a group of Art Students turned musicians to do an album cover that won a Grammy Award for best packaging.

Album cover for Talking Heads, Speaking In Tongues

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Saturday Night Live alumni Jimmy Fallon will replace fellow SNL alumni Conan O’Brien on Late Night when Conan moves over to Tonight and Leno is forced out. I guess NBC executive Lorne Michaels thinks the formerly not ready for prime timers are ready, but I’m not sure even Fallon agrees. At the Press conference Fallon said to Michaels “You started my career, you might as well end it.”

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I don’t believe in punishing anyone for the sins of their fathers. Congrats to Jenna Bush and Henry Hager who were married this weekend in Crawford, Texas.

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We talk about elections in the US using war metaphors, battleground states, fight to the end, war room strategies, but in Lebanon they do more than talk. Hizbullah is an opposition party. It’s leader, Nasrallah claimed this week that recent crack downs by the Lebanese government were a declaration of war and Shiite gunman have taken to the streets of Beirut with automatic weapons and grenade rocket launchers. Kind of puts things in perspective.. While our election process seems to go on for ever … Continue Reading

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The grocery store’s the super mart, uh huh
Gasoline prices break your heart, uh huh
And men still keep on marching off to war
200 points down on the floor
and
The beat goes on, the beat goes on
La de da de de, la de da de da

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Yesterday Senator Clinton won a battle in Indiana but lost the war for the Democratic nomination to become President of the United States. It’s over.

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Ted Key, creator of Hazel, Mr. Peabody and Sherman cartoon characters passed away at age 95. His cartoons ran in the Saturday Evening Post and Collier’s before I was born, but I spent hours of my youth watching Hazel in syndication and Mr. Peabody and Sherman on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.

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This weekend, long maligned New Jersey had its first inductees ceremony to the New Jersey Hall of Fame. Among the inductees were Bruce Springsteen, Frank Sinatra, Yogi Berra, Buzz Aldrin, Clara Barton, Bill Bradley, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Malcolm Forbes, Robert Wood Johnson II, Vince Lombardi, Toni Morrison, Norman Schwarzkopf, Meryl Streep and Harriet Tubman….Not too shabby. Springsteen said “I always said that Sinatra owned New Jersey, but he’d rent me a little bit of down the Shore”

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Sport has often been used as a metaphor to describe battlefields, strategy and competition. It was in this light that the Clinton campaign first started to draw the parallels between the horse, Eight Belles and Senator Clinton. Leading up to the race the campaign started to talk about the only woman in the race, an underdog, a tough filly that had the stamina to go the distance. The story line was almost too perfect to ignore. If Eight Belles had won, it would have been the campaign’s battle cry going into … Continue Reading

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If you plan on traveling to China to watch an olympic event, be prepared to have your access to information censored. The Chinese government has the largest surveillance and censorship operation in the world, and have even been known to imprison bloggers.

They are placing internet filters in hotels that might even restrict this humble little blog for harmless content like this and this.

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Last night my brother Dan asked me to a Yankee game. We had great field level seats, about half way down the first base line. Andy Pettitte was on the mound, but after taking the lead in the first inning, Jeter and the boys sleep walked the rest of the way to a 6 to 2 loss against the Detroit Tigers.