Me First

Don't get me wrong, I'm horrified by the revelations of abuse at Penn State but what this sorry situation says about leadership and management in this country today is more than notable.  I like to think of what I would have done back in 2002 were I in the shoes of coach Mike McQueary.  I like to think that if in the locker room one night I happened across a grown man-- Sandusky sodomizing a 10 year old, I would have acted far different than McQueary.  First, I would have grabbed the nearest fire extinguisher and cracked Sandusky over the head with it.  Next I would have then put that poor 10 year old kid in my car and taken him to the hospital.  And while in the car I would have call the cops on Sandusky.  That's what I like to think.

As McQueary realized what he was seeing in that locker room and turned to walk away he was I'm sure, already thinking the following--

- Sandusky has coached here for 30 years.  He has lots of friends.  Will his friends hate me for outing him?
- Sandusky is a 30 year friend of Coach Paterno.  Will Paterno fire me for outing his friend?
- Will the athletic director hate me for creating a scandal if I out Sandusky?
- Nobody really likes a whistle-blower.  Will this wreck my career?  Will I ever get to be a head coach?

I think anybody with even a sliver of ambition might think similar thoughts as they exited that ugly scene.  And I'm sure Coach Paterno (who for years has been more worried about his legacy than anything else), the athletic director, and university president all asked themselves these kinds of questions.  I know there are many million$ involved in college football but university management-- any management should demand more in that situation.  

Sadly I think today most of us would start to ponder those questions when in fact no thinking at all was required to do the right thing.  Helping that kid and calling 911 was the right action but let's face it, confronting evil armed with power, reach and resources is risky.  Most of us would do what McQueary did.  Nobody really likes the person that points out the ugly truth.  Only twice in my life have I raised my hand and called "bullshit" on things far less ugly than pointing out pedophiles.  I paid dearly once.  I like to think I'd do the same thing again... but the problem is in the thinking.  Had McQueary, Paterno, the athletic director and president simply not thought-- they would have done the right thing and stopped Sandusky.  Lord only knows what Sandusky did to kids between 2002 and today?  All these people put themselves first and the needs of small kids second.

It's all very sad and it says a lot about ambition, morals, management, money and what really matters.

Big win for Cable / Telcos

After years of talk about Network Neutrality it seems the cable and telco industries are poised to win the battle.  The FCC will vote on December 21, to impose some very common sense, vanilla NN rules on cable ops and telcos.

What the cable ops and telcos got in exchange will have a far greater impact on the Internet and consumers than NN ever would have.  Cable/telcos now get to implement "usage-based billing."  UBB is a practice already in place in Canada and Comcast, at&t, TWC and others are itching to implement it here.  So wave goodbye to unlimited web-surfing as you will now pay for every minute you spend looking at Gmail, Google Maps, Amazon, eBay, Facebook and more.

This is a disaster for those that keep talking about a digital divide.  Low income consumers will now have even less incentive to get online since the more they go online-- the more it will cost them.  Not a good move for those that have the least Internet access.

Cable telcos also dodged a bullet in terms of additional regulation of information services.  There WAS considerable talk that cable / telcos provision of Internet access would be subject to the "intensive scrutiny" of Title II regulation but they dodged this as well.

So for all the talk about Google "owning" the Obama Administration-- they took quite a beating on NN.  Given the public and media screaming that accompanies every story of Comcast or at&t trying to favor or hurt anyone on the Internet, it is doubtful the marketplace would have allowed ANY cable / telco to treat ANYONE unfairly even without rules on NN.  So what did Google and low income consumers win here?  Not much.

One term President?

When the President lands tonight at Andrews AFB after his week long effort to diffuse the election, what did he accomplish?  In spite of dragging a herd of American CEOs along with him to India, there was no agreement in Mumbai.  He asked the China to stop manipulating their currency.  They didn't listen.  Both Korea and Germany said they think our economic policies are insane.  Good times.

This is getting to be an administration in free fall.  There is very little in the way of results and less in terms of even projecting bold leadership.  With the Reps set to take over the House you can forget any action on gays in the military or any other policy loved by the left.  You might think this would present an opening for a Blue Dog Democrat to take on Obama from the right (or what passes for the right in the Democratic Party), I don't think so.  The left is more pissed about the lost opportunity that is Obama than anyone else.  Some obscure member of the House with just enough funding and credibility to do damage will soon emerge.  When that happens and even more weakened President Obama will limp toward the general and be defeated by a Republican.

In the end, we will never be lucky enough to see Sarah Palin as the Republican nominee.  She is just too much of a cartoon character.  While in the Alaskan wilderness she utters one line in her new reality show that I think best sums her up:  "Why would I wanna be in some political room somewhere when I could be here?"  Some "political room?"  You mean the state capitol or a city hall or the Pentagon?  In the end, even The Tea Party will realize she has no clue.  Mitt Romney, a much more appealing candidate will likely be the nominee.  If things continue as they are (what did Jimmy Carter say?  miasma? I don't think he ever actually said it but he owns it) were looking at a one term president.

'Monsters' - Monsters Official Movie Site - Starring Whitney Able and Scoot McNairy - Now on Demand EVERYWHERE and Now In Theatres

An interesting movie made by three people, two cameras and two laptops. We saw it On-Demand a couple of weeks ago before it ever appeared in theaters-- sort of Heart of Darkness with aliens. More than 300 articles have been written about the movie according so Google News, so you know it's true.


'Monsters' - Monsters Official Movie Site - Starring Whitney Able and Scoot McNairy - Now on Demand EVERYWHERE and Now In Theatres

Luigi Macluso RIP

He was 62 when he died in his sleep on October 26.  He was an architect, a race car driver and a businessman that revitalized the watch brand Girard-Perreagaux.  He was most responsible for bring back mechanical watches when everyone thought quartz watches would render everything that came before it obsolete.

He developed watches for Ferrari and Formula 1 as well as the designers Zegna and Boucheron.  Someday, I will own a GP. 

Alex Padilla says he's weighing a run for L.A. mayor in 2013 - latimes.com

Frontrunner--

Alex Padilla says he's weighing a run for L.A. mayor in 2013 - latimes.com

A Coordinated Attack

In yesterday's edition of The Hill there were no less than seven negative stories on Google.  Everything from demands for hearings on "wi-fi" spying to a story about how The Tea Party is opposed to an issue important to Google.

Seven stories is a lot in one publication.  Harvey Rosenfeld's fingerprints are all over this.  Having spent some time this year with the Central Valley Tea Party, I know that Net Neutrality is not one of their issues.  There is some sort of coordinated effort to undermine Google politically and eventually I'm sure the goal is financial as well.

More interesting, for a company that employs 4/5s of the world's geniuses, is the fact Google does not appear to be fighting back.  Where is the response?  Even an acknoledgment of the attacks would help Google blunt them.

One of the stories was on how The Tea Party has been encouraging Republican members to oppose further rules on net neutrality.  Really?  The Tea Party is outraged over a concept as obsure as NN?  I doubt it.  Someone has put them up to the task.

The question is when and how Google will respond?  In politics there is a window and Google can not wait too long.