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Photos of law school chum T.J. at the AIDS Ride between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

This photo was taken by Rich at the ON24 layoff party. Here, Gaelen Gates, Me and Peter Shaplen are sporting “Money down the toilet” T-shirts in honor of our former company. Gaelen and I went to law school – Peter went on to be the go-to-guy for network TV and radio news pool-coverage of major media events.

Here are a few photos I took of the hills of San Francisco in May 1997 when Brian and I came out to visit Tracey from Indiana. I moved to the South Bay four months later.

Post from Hillary Clinton’s Facebook group:

Zachary Cook (Phoenix, AZ) wrote
at 1:00am

 http://www.bilerico.com/2008/02/obama_is_on_the_down_low_with_the_lgbtq.php

Obama refused to get his picture taken with Gavin Newsom in [2004], because Newsom was a staunch supporter of GLBT marriage. Gavin talks about it:

“Four years later and a denial from the Obama campaign, Newsom told Reuters, “One of the three Democrats you mentioned as presidential candidates, as God is my witness, will not be photographed with me, will not be in the same room with me, even though I’ve done fund-raisers for that particular person — not once, but twice — because of this issue.”

With Obama conveniently leaving out “Gay and Lesbian” from his stump speech in Idaho and him having no opposition to gay cure preacher Donnie McClurkin on his campaign tour, even after him hearing about McClurkin’s comments, is there any question Obama only wants the GLBT support and voices when it’s politically convenient for him?

 This is a picture of the inside of the San Francisco City Hall rotunda – where Rich and I got Married February 15, 2004.

This is from a play, Christmas with the Crawfords, that Rich and I went to (with many friends) on New Years Day 2004 at San Francisco’s LGBT Rhino Theatre. The play was a satire take on Mommie Dearest where Joan Crawford is an unwitting victim of her horrid little girl, Christina. It was great fun.

This was my last paycheck from KRON-TV in San Francisco before I left to start work at ON24. It was mostly unused vacation hours earned.

Next week, a corporate neighbor of mine will be trekking up 45 miles to San Francisco to make some pretty big announcements. That neighbor is Apple; the announcement is Macworld 2008, which starts in a little over a week.

It is rumored that CEO Steve jobs will announcing some new laptop computers – and possibly a re-vamp and upgrade of his company’s AppleTV product line.

Apple TV Rumors:

• The product will have a built-in Blu-Ray high definition disc player. (New York Times)
• People will be able to not only purchase, but to “rent” high-def movies by download from the iTunes store directly to the AppleTV from their HDTV set. No more need to return movies to Netflix – or worry your DVD is scratched when it arrives. (BusinessWeek)

How I would change AppleTV:

• I would make AppleTV a real TV. Look, Apple already makes some nice big monitors. And Apple already is expert at making all-in-one computer-in-monitor combos. Is it really much of a stretch for Apple to produce a big screen HDTV – and pack in the components of the Apple TV into the case? Think of it: a TV that you plug into the wall and viola – instant wireless access to your iTunes videos. No plug-in box needed.
• Yes, add that Blu-Ray player. I’d also make it be a CD/DVD burner that allowed you to store those purchased downloads for later retrieval. And I would use Apple’s DRM so you would be able to take that burned DVD to a friend’s AppleTV or Internet-connected Blu-Ray player (like a Sony PS3) and play it at their house – after entering your iTunes user name and password.
• AppleTV should have a CableCARD slot to allow you to use it as your primary cable or satellite TV decoder – to allow you to eliminate one more box from your entertainment center.
• Finally, the cable/satellite-controller AppleTV should be a full-fledged DVR with a bigger hard drive. Already, there are more AppleTVs in people’s homes than TiVos. It would make sense to take this step and make the AppleTV a fully-functional part of the entertainment center.

Then again, I usually ask for way more than I’ll ever get.

Well, the day is finally here. Democrats will finally stop flushing money down the Iowa toilet - a state that will – by most people’s estimates – vote Republican in November anyway.

So, Hillary, Barak and John have spent tens of millions of dollars on a state with a population less than half that of the population of the San Francisco Bay Area – and for what?

Probably nothing.

Iowa has never picked a new Democrat president. Ever. Looking at history, it probably won’t happen this year, either.

For Iowa the caucuses are not about democracy – it’s about money for economic development in a small state with few other industries. According to the Gazette Online:

Iowa State University economics researcher David Swenson said that every $10 million spent in Iowa on advertising supports $4.8 million worth of labor income and 152 jobs, while every $10 million worth of accommodations spending supports $4.8 million in labor income and 217 jobs.

What is for sure: millions of democrat dollars have been wasted in Iowa TV and radio advertising – money that could be better spent in states that strategically matter to Democrats come November 2008: Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania - two of which need to vote for the Democratic candidate if we want to re-capture the white house from the GOP.

According to an article by Alexander Mooney on CNN.com:

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois far outpaces any other candidate when it comes to ad spending in Iowa, having spent more than $9 million on close to 11,000 spots. That’s about $2 million more than Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York has spent ($7.2 million), and about three times the amount that former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina has shelled out ($3.2 million). Clinton has aired close to 8,000 spots while Edwards has aired 3,700.

The top three Democrats spent almost $20 million in Iowa, a red state. This is about as absurd as Huckabee, Romney and Thompson spending $20 million in the San Francisco area wooing the gay and green vote.

WHAT I WROTE A MONTH AGO:

1. Iowa will vote Republican in 2008, anyway.
2. In a contested race, the Democrat Iowa caucus winner has never gone on to win the general election. Ever. (see below)

Here is a breakdown of the winners of all the Iowa caucuses since 1972, when it first moved to become first in the nation:

• 1972 – Iowa Caucus winner: Edmund Muskie. He neither became the party candidate nor the President.
• 1976 – Iowa Caucus winner: No Winner, the largest vote went to “Uncommitted” (the eventual President, Democrat Jimmy Carter, only got 28% of the vote)
• 1980 – Iowa Caucus winner: Jimmy Carter – lost in general election to Ronald Reagan
• 1984 – Iowa Caucus winner: Walter Mondale – lost in general election as Ronald Reagan re-elected.
• 1988 – Iowa Caucus winner: Richard Gephart was not the Party’s eventual nominee.
• 1992 – Iowa Caucus winner: Tom Harkin in a landslide victory (eventual party nominee and next President, Bill Clinton only got 3% of the vote)
• 1996 – Iowa Caucus winner: Since Bill Clinton ran unopposed in the caucus, Iowa caucus-goers couldn’t help but vote for the eventual winner.
• 2000 – Iowa Caucus winner: Al Gore – did not become the next President of the U.S.
• 2004 – Iowa Caucus winner: John Kerry – did not become the next President.

So there you go. In a contested Democratic caucus, Iowa has NEVER picked the next president of the U.S.

Democrats should stop funding the economy of this red state, which is hurting our chances of winning in November.

When my friend Brian came visiting from Fort Wayne – we visited the Palace of Fine Arts in SF.