Day: April 4, 2011

Independent Paul Chehade Joins Race for Prez

Buck Banks

PaulForPres

I received an e-mail today from Paul Chehade, who has registered his candidacy to run for president as an independent. As a registered independent myself, I have to take seriously any candidate from my party — except Ross Perot or Joe Leiberman. So I’m taking a good look at Paul Chehade to see exactly what he brings to the table.

His website is your standard red, white and blue flaggy background with a very serious and sincere — and moist — looking Paul Chehade staring very seriously and sincerely out from the page over the headline, IN GOD WE TRUST. Beneath that is a pyramid made up of words that are elements of his platform. I can almost see Paul working with a bunch of words written on little rectangles of paper, arranging and rearranging them until he got his pyramid just so. The pyramid rests on UNDERSTANDING, SPIRIT, EDUCATION, MERCY, FAIRNESS, and extends to FAITH at the pinnacle.

It’s when you get deeper than the landing page that you begin to notice Chehade’s unique communications style. Here’s how he describes himself:

Paul Chehade was born in Wilmington, Delaware on October 26, 1965. He is a political truth and righteous seeker, successful business entrepreneur, humanitarian rights activist and ideologist, polyglot, musician, writer; was and has sophisticated his character by a plan of virtues, which he believes in and continues to practice in order to develop his uprightness which it is the foundation for his solid moral.

As far as what Chehade does for a living, he’s a little cagey about it, though it sounds like he does good works, I think:

Paul Chehade is the Chairman of the Board of a diversity group of corporations since 1999, which are dedicated totally to serve the ill-timed humans, regardless of a person’s religion, race, ethnicity, or gender, as a demonstration of God’s unconditional love for all people, helping communities worldwide.

He sums up his descriptive page with this boldfaced enigmatic epigram: Ethical junction making choices easy. I actually think I understand what he means, as only an independent can truly grok another independent.

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Pawlenty Invokes Charlie Sheen to Reach College GOPs

Buck Banks

Now, we may not in this room have ‘tiger blood’ like he does. But we do have something else in common with him. There’s going to be a lot of winning on the Republican side in 2012.

— Tim Pawlenty, attempting to connect with college Republicans by using references to Charlie Sheen, according to Radio Iowa. It’s probably not a prudent comparison under any circumstances, but even less so given that the Detroit News said Sheen bombed the first stop on his 20 city tour, telling a heckler, “I already got your money, dude!”

Obama Kicks Off Re-Election Campaign

Buck Banks

Today, we are filing papers to launch our 2012 campaign. We’re doing this now because the politics we believe in does not start with expensive TV ads or extravaganzas, but with you — with people organizing block-by-block, talking to neighbors, co-workers, and friends. And that kind of campaign takes time to build. So even though I’m focused on the job you elected me to do, and the race may not reach full speed for a year or more, the work of laying the foundation for our campaign must start today …. This will be my final campaign, at least as a candidate. But the cause of making a lasting difference for our families, our communities, and our country has never been about one person. And it will succeed only if we work together.

— President Barack Obama, announcing the kick off of his re-election campaign.

Paging GoDaddy’s CEO – Elephant Down: California Republican Party Attempts Suicide

Jon Ponder

art-sad-elephant“I once shot an elephant in my pajamas,” the old Groucho Marx joke goes, “how he got in my pajamas I’ll never know.”

Speaking of shooting elephants, last week GoDaddy CEO Bob “Dumbo” Parsons posted a video from his African safari vacation showing him stalking and gunning down a perfectly healthy elephant. On the video, Parsons is heard saying, “Of everything that I do this is the most rewarding.” Unlike Groucho, he was not joking.

This caused blowback for Parsons and GoDaddy, the massive domain registrar and web services company he founded, mainly because it’s been decades since hunting animals as huge and non-threatening as elephants was considered “sport.” (You can weigh in here by signing a petition titled “Real Men Don’t Kill Elephants.”)

Instead of killing a real elephant, it’s too bad Parsons can’t act out his Great White Hunter fantasies in a virtual world by grabbing his gun and elephant pajamas and heading to Sacramento, where a figurative old bull elephant called the California GOP is on its last legs and needs to be put out of its misery.

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