Merry Christmas To VidBlogger Nation From Zennie62

Jon Bon Jovi Not Dead, Posted New Photo

YouTube Copyright Do's And Don't And YT Partners

Hurricane Irene

All the people on the West Coast can judge and think that Hurricane Irene isn't a big deal and that us East Coast-ers are just being whiny, but the hurricane has killed over ten people including an 11-year-old boy in Virginia.

People have been swarming to Hannaford (and probably other stores) as if it's the apocalypse. We on the East Coast are used to blizzards and all other snow storms, but we aren't sure how to prepare for the hurricane.

I am already experiencing the rain outside my window and there will probably be more soon. So if it gets good expects a video update from me (I'm in Northern Maine).

The Boston Globe has already reported there are 3 million people without power & Planet Fitnesses in New Hampshire, Mass and other areas have offered that even non-members can come use lockers, showers, etc if there are Irene-related power outages.

This map/photo taken from the National Hurricane Center:

Gay Couple Marries In New York

Gay marriage has been legalized in New York and many gay couples are dressed up and ready to finally go down the aisle and make their love legal! This is something that is a very big deal and a great triumph for equality.

Seattle PI reports that there are of course many protestors:

"Thousands of protesters rallied in several cities around the state, a signal that the long fight for recognition may not be over just yet.
State Sen. Ruben Diaz, a minister who was the sole Democrat to vote against gay marriage when the Legislature approved it, told a crowd near the United Nations that he and other opponents would try to get Sunday's marriages annulled, saying judges broke the law by waiving the 24-hour waiting period without a good reason.
"We're going to show them next week that everything they did today was illegal," he said, speaking in Spanish. "Today we start the battle! Today we start the war!""


This is a great thing that is happening, and hopefully it doesn't get over turned. Hopefully people can just allow the couples to be happy and focus on other things instead of trying to keep their love from being legal.

New York Passes Gay Marriage; California Should Split State

Celebrating Gay Marriage with champagne, a photo by konstantin sergeyev on Flickr.

In the wake of New York State's successful and historic passage of Gay Marriage, it has to be said that California looks.. Well... Bad.

We're literally raised to think that California, the Golden State. The place of dreams. The place where you can be you. Will let you be you.

Now, in the wake of New York's action to allow something that should not even be an issue for any truly secure person (sorry), California just looks like a different place. The illusion has been shattered and the emperor has no clothes.

Or maybe the emperor's a confused split-personality: conservative one moment, liberal the next. Sorely in need of some way to split into two people.

And by that, I mean the much talked about California split-state movement.

In the past, I wasn't for a split-state movement, thinking that the state could get it's collective act together over such issues as water-rights and gay marriage. But age has a way of making a person impatient, and that's certainly the case with this blogger.

As long as California is one state, it may take another ten years to make Gay Marriage legal in it. How much harder will it be for California to maintain its entertainment industry as state after state around it expresses little care what people do in their private lives?

At some point, California's got to relax about this. I'm not convinced it's going to happen in the near term, so why not just split the state into what we know it really is: Northern California and Southern California.

That's the best remedy.

Anthony Weiner Resigns - Video Press Conference And Job Offer

New York U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner did something on Thursday this blogger honestly didn't think he would do: resign from his seat in Congress.

In a press conference that has been correctly described as a "circus, the 25-year elected official announced he was stepping down from public life, and to take time to correct his life and obviously work to repair a marriage undoubtedly damaged.

Weiner, who personally contacted and sent lewd photos of himself to five women, first said he would not resign, but apparently saw his political life fading as many Democrats ran away from him and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi reportedly threatened to strip him of committee assignments.

That move alone would make it much harder for Congressman Weiner to help his constituents.

So, at 2 PM ET, Weiner took to a podium at Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York, to first explain that the venue was where his political career started, and then said...

Unfortunately the distraction that I have created makes that [work] impossible... so today I am announcing my resignation from Congress.

And that's when all hell broke lose in the form of a man we didn't know until Thursday. That's when he yelled "Goodbye Pervert" and other choice words I really don't want to type here.

Now, we know his name is Benjy Bronk (right), and we know he represents The Howard Stern Show.

And we also know he likes to be in interesting photos of his own (see below - that's really Bronk himself).

Some people just don't think about the photos they're in, do they?  Or maybe Bronk doesn't care? 

At any rate, that planned Howard Stern injection of bombast didn't make things any better for Weiner, and added a sad note to the press conference proceedings.

Anthony Weiner's Future: Larry Flynt?

What's Anthony Weiner's future? Well, we really don't know, but it's good to know that Weiner has at least one appropriate option: working for Hustler Founder Larry Flynt.

In Thursday's Huffington Post, Mr. Flynt wrote:

I would like to make you an offer of employment at Flynt Management Group, LLC in our Internet group. As a Congressman, you are known for your intensity and perseverance...This offer is not made in jest. To show our sincerity, Flynt Management Group, LLC is willing to pay twenty percent more than your former Congressional salary ($174,000), ensuring that your medical benefits would be equal to what you were previously receiving....While you will have to relocate to our corporate offices in Beverly Hills, California, we would pay for all relocation costs.

The job offer is apparently open-ended, and it's not clear exactly what Flynt would ask Weiner to do, although the statement "While this employment opportunity is being offered in large part due to your qualifications and clear passion for making a change.." would seem to point to the same actions that caused him to step down, that's not clear.

Stay tuned.

Springfield, MA Tornado Hampers Boston Weather In Year Of Deadly Twisters

Whatever the reason, it seems America's facing a number of lethal tornados in 2011, the latest in Springfield, MA, which is hampering weather conditions in Boston.

Here are two videos which shows the tornado itself as it makes its way through Springfield.



And in this video below, the camcorder operator, recording the action from his office window on Bridge Street in downtown Springfield, says "it's frikin' tearin shit apart. Oh my God."



According to a new Wikipedia page specifically created to track tornados, there have been 1,415 such events in the United States in 2011, and 1,007 of them confirmed.

Moreover, this year was described as an "exceptionally destructive and deadly" one for tornados, as 519 fatalities have been recorded in America alone. That's the largest number of deaths since 1936.

Springfield Tornado Causes "A Lot Of Damage"

This latest tornado struck at 4:30 EST this afternoon, and has, according to WTNH News 8 of New Haven, Connecticut, caused "extensive damage," with windows blown of out of cars and buildings.

An eyewitness, Carlos Alamo, explained to News 8's Sara Welch, that "strong winds started shaking the house." So he told his wife that they should "get into the bathroom" because there was no shelter. Here's the video from WTNH's YouTube page:



Stay tuned.

Did Christopher Meloni Tip Law & Order: SVU Departure At NFL Draft?

Actor Christopher Meloni has stunned fans and observers with his decision to leave the long-running TV Show Law & Order: SVU, according to the blog TVLine, which broke the story.

And it makes this blogger wonder if Chris Meloni was giving a tip that he was leaving during this interview at the NFL Draft Red Carpet:

As you may have caught if you're able to hear the video, Mr. Meloni said, in response to my question about an Academy Award-level movie in the future "There you go. I like the way you think. We have a lot of things that, you know, we're shuffling around now, and figuring out. There's not to much time, left."

I thought the reference about "time" was related to the time I had been given to interview him, but perhaps that wasn't the case at all. We were being rushed at the time, because the NFL Draft was about to start.

The AP Needs To Credit TVLine

The Associated Press, which has accused bloggers of "taking" its stories just by linking to them, then in 2010 reported that it would "start" crediting blogs (an admission of theft, if you ask me) failed to link to, or even credit, TVLine. That's totally wrong and unethical. I've told many, especially at Google News, the AP does this on a regular basis, and here's proof.

TVLine reports that:

Chris Meloni will not be reporting back for duty when Law & Order: Special Victims Unit launches its 13th season this fall, TVLine has learned exclusively.


Protracted talks between the actor — who has played Detective Stabler since the NBC crime drama’s 1999 debut — and studio NBC Universal broke down on Tuesday, says a source. Franchise creator Dick Wolf is said to already be searching for a big name to bring in opposite the series’ female lead, Mariska Hargitay.


Hargitay’s own deal to return for Season 13 remains unaffected.

Good luck to Chris Meloni, and shame on the Associated Press.

NY Giants Expert John Fennelly On The NFL Draft 2011

John Fennelly is one of the top NY Giants bloggers, and a perennial expert on the doings of Big Blue at Giants Football Blog. In this rare video, Mr. Fennelly took time with this blogger to talk about the New York Football Giants performance in the 2011 NFL Draft. He's now joined Zennue62.com NFL Draft expert Bill Chackhes at Football Reporters Online.

John says that the Giants "did exactly the opposite of what everyone expected them to do" in the 2011 NFL Draft. He says Jerry Reese took the best players that fell to the Giants, starting with Nebraska Cornerback Prince Amukamara, and then UNC Defensive Tackle Marvin Austin in the second round, and who didn't play football in 2010 because he was suspended. "The Giants have a long memory," John says. "They don't care what you did as a senior, can't you play football."

For more of Fennelly's observations, check him out at Football Reporters Online, and at Giants Football Blog.

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.