Warning Sign: BarackObama.com Is Melting Down
BarackObama.com: The Dashboard Is Too Slow
I am beginning to think the engineers behind BarackObama.com and the top staffers in Chicago are not avid users of BarackObama.com, or maybe they are, but just of the front pages and not the Dashboard. Even if they do go log onto the Dashboard once in a while, perhaps they don't have that many points, few friends, few blog entries, and so the problem is not being experienced, and so is going unaddressed.
But for the top volunteers across the country, the Dashboard at MyBO is the only office you have, there is no offline office for the most part. There is your Dashboard at MyBO and there is offline action. And so the Dashboard is critical. It has to load up in two seconds. It should feel like a Google search. Google market research has shown that they are already so fast, your search results here in 0.04 seconds, but they do 20% worse, they lose 20% of their customers. We are talking milliseconds here, not minutes. Right now the MyBO Dashboard takes minutes to load up. And you lost me. I have not logged on for most of the pat week or more. This is not a good sign.
I have over 2,000 friends and over 4,000 pending friend requests all over the country. I have many blog entries. I have more than 50 unread messages and I am going to not try to read them now because a message takes forever to show when you click on it.
In Google's case they realized the 20% extra time was because they were showing 20 results per page. And so they cut down, they went to 10 results per page.
I am beginning to think my Dashboard takes minutes to load because I have over 2,000 friends at MyBO and most of their profiles come with pictures. And that is what is slowing things down. But that is no excuse. This still has to be fixed like now, definitely before January 4.
My guess is the top 1,000 volunteers at MyBO are all experiencing the same problem: a really, really slow Dashboard. Right now my ranking is 24. I am fairly dedicated. But you lost even me for more than a week. This is not a good thing.
The only way out might be to reduce the clutter on the Dashboard. How about not displaying photos of friends either on the Dashboard or on one's public profile page and instead giving a link to another page that has all that stuff. Got to turn the Dashboard into something light like the front page is. The front page is looking real good. I just noticed BarackObama.com has been redone. It has a more sophisticated look now. It is jazzy.
This is not a bandwidth issue. It is not in Obama 2oo8's control as how fast or slow someone's connection is. If my download speed were 1GB per second, I would not be complaining.
But do the Google thing, take a tip from them: Unclutter The Dashboard. Make it super light.
Facebook has the same problem. If you have too many applications on Facebook, your profile page can take longer to show up fully. Clutter is what is bogging the MyBO Dashboard.
List how many friends someone has, but get rid of that box of profile pictures of those friends. Instead provide a link to a page with that box and more. That should take care of the speed problem.
I will admit, I went on a major rampage. I was sending friend requests left and right. I sent one to everyone in the "near you" category, for example. I sent one to all who had "updated" in October, November and the first half of December. Nothing wrong with that. That is the cyber version of working the rope line, shaking hands. It is legit. I have said I am not going anywhere outside the city boundaries. But that does not apply online.
This cheetah video at the top, that is my personal theme video for Obama 2008. I want that also to become my theme video for the MyBO Dashboard. Chicago, make it happen.
Warning Sign: BarackObama.com Is Melting Down
If Hillary Has So Much Foreign Policy Experience, Why Did She So Mess Up On Iraq?
I can't believe Hillary is casting foreign policy as her strength in these final days. She just so happens to be part of the biggest foreign policy disaster in a generation.
Warning Sign: BarackObama.com Is Melting Down
Benazir: What If It Was Not The Al Qaeda
What Pakistan needs is a new constitution born out of a popularly elected constituent assembly. That is the only way to bring the army under the thumb of civilian leaders.
An independent international investigation has to be conducted. That should have been done after the first attempt on her life the day of her arrival.
She was killed a few miles from where her father was killed. Perhaps her enemies in the army and the intelligence services saw poetic justice in that statement.
The president of Pakistan has to be popularly, directly elected.
And the killers have to be taken to international court.
It all starts with an independent, international investigation.
Warning Sign: BarackObama.com Is Melting Down
Increasing Spending
It might be worth it to spend a little more the final few days. Run again that ad that starts with Barack's mother that was run months back, the one on health care. That woman was ahead of her time. She was working on microfinance for women in the Global South decades before Yunus bagged a Nobel for the same.
Looks like a lot of 527s are coming out of the woodworks. We can't afford to be outspent these final few days. The people are king of making up their minds right about now.
Warning Sign: BarackObama.com Is Melting Down
Bill Clinton's Bar Hopping
That guy has started campaigning like he were barhopping.
Warning Sign: BarackObama.com Is Melting Down
Iraq
Got to hit Hillary on Iraq. Got to hit back.
Warning Sign: BarackObama.com Is Melting Down
Jewish
Nobody is more Jewish than my Hasidic neighbors.
An Amazing White Media
For all of this year they kept saying how Hillary was invincible, inevitable, and all that. And now they are saying, if Barack wins Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, the race is going to turn competitive. Unbelievable.
In The News
Presidential Candidates Gear Up for Iowa Caucuses Voice of America the campaigning has become intense. ...... Senator Clinton downplayed the notion that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, would take a leading role in policy matters. Her comments produced laughter from John Edwards during an interview on the CBS program, Face the Nation. ...... "Well, I think it is a complete fantasy," said Edwards. ..... latest pre-caucus poll of Iowa voters. It shows Hillary Clinton with a narrow lead
Candidates Digging for a Deeper Pool of Iowa Voters
Was Obama Comparing Edwards Unfavorably to John Kerry?
Edwards Fights to the Finish
Poll: Clinton leads in Iowa; Huckabee, Romney even
Clinton: My Foreign Policy Experience More Than Just Drinking Tea
Bill Clinton Stumps for Wife NH
Making Nevada's Caucus Count the state's Young Democrats organization. ....... Clinton leads Obama by 8 points in a recent poll ...... nothing will be settled after Iowa and New Hampshire ..... 10 straight days of attention ....... One third of Nevada's 2.5 million people are Hispanics, Asian-Americans and blacks ....... Unions — particularly Culinary 226, which includes Strip hospitality workers ........ when Hillary Clinton campaigned in Pahrump, a small town outside of Vegas known for its anti-government leanings and several well-known brothels, more than 2,500 people showed up ........... the first time [in the campaign] a presidential candidate has to stand before a crowd that looks like America. ........ western, Hispanic and labor issues. ........ issues that are transcendent in the west — water, public resources, public land-83 percent of Nevada land is public ...... Steelman explains caucusing by having the group decide what their favorite movie is. ..... ("The Godfather" wins this mock caucus.)
Bhutto's Warm Smile The most striking characteristic of Benazir Bhutto, back when she was a student in the 1970s, was the contrast between the intensity of her eyes and the warmth of her very large smile. ...... She tended to wear blue jeans and baggy sweatshirts, fitting in with the dress code of the day, but she told me she dressed that way (never shorts, skirts, or t-shirts) also because it honored the Muslim custom of covering her body as a woman. Another contrast was between her nickname Pinky — she even typed some of her essays on pink paper — and her serious personality. ........ at Harvard ..... she stood out as a powerful figure in the dining hall of Elliot House, where she lived, and she displayed a passion for international politics that went beyond the antiwar rhetoric that passed for political discourse in those days ....... the Oxford Union, the venerable debating society, and she viewed it as her mission to become the first Asian woman in that post. She lost her first campaign for the post, but when her father was deposed and arrested the following year, we used that crisis as a reason to urge people to vote for her, and she won. ........ Benazir Bhutto navigated through personal as well as political turmoils that were far more intense than most of us can imagine. Over the years, on those rare occasions when we’d meet and reminisce, I’d notice how the features of her face had hardened a bit, as had the intensity of her stare when she talked to you. But she never lost the warmth in that very big smile.
Bhutto's Jihadist Enemies Benazir Bhutto had long been an outspoken critic of Pakistani militants and this made her the mortal enemy of a galaxy of extremist forces inside Pakistan. "Bhutto was the only Pakistani politician willing to stand up and say, 'I don't like violent terrorists,'" says Stephen Cohen, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Many of these groups have intertwining histories and common loyalties — as well as shadowy links with Pakistani intelligence. As the probe into her assassination begins, investigators will have to sort through a morass of violent groups that were gunning for Bhutto. And while all have some historic link to al-Qaeda, they have just as much ideological impetus to act on their own — or at the behest of rogue elements of the Pakistani government sympathetic to Islamic radicals. ...... In a briefing Friday, the Pakistani government emphasized that al-Qaeda had Bhutto in its sights. ....... "She was on the hit list of al-Qaeda." ....... the suicide bomber who killed Benazir Bhutto belonged to a domestic terrorist organization with links to al-Qaeda called Lashkar-i-Jhangvi. The group is responsible for dozens of attacks inside Pakistan over the past decade including sectarian killings of Shi'ites and Christians, a failed 1999 assassination attempt against then-Prime minister Nawaz Sharif, and involvement in the kidnapping and beheading of the Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl. .......... Lashkar-i-Jhangvi had claimed responsibility for Bhutto's assassination ........ another suspect: Baitullah Mehsud, a Taliban leader and an influential tribal chief in Waziristan ....... Pakistani intelligence services intercepted a supposed conversation in which Mehsud congratulated those who carried out the assassination. "Fantastic job," reads the transcript released by the Pakistan Ministry of Interior, "[They were] very brave boys who killed her." But a spokesman for Mehsud told the Associated Press on Saturday that the militant was not involved in the attack, calling the allegation "government propaganda." ......... Mehsud is a very convenient [person to blame]. ....... the Taliban and Lashkar-i-Jhangvi emerged from the two decades of fighting in Afghanistan, where eventually a Taliban regime would give refuge to al-Qaeda ........ Lashkar-i-Tayyba or the "Army of the Pure," which Pakistani intelligence agents, after the end of the Afghan war, would redirect toward Kashmir and the Indian troops stationed in that disputed region. ........ The group has close ties to al-Qaeda. The leadership of Lashkar-i-Jhangvi fought alongside many high-ranking al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives against the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan before Sept. 11, 2001. ......... many in its ranks trained in al-Qaeda-run camps in Afghanistan during the late 1990s. When al-Qaeda retreated from Afghanistan in 2002, many of its fighters are believed to have joined forces with Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and Lashkar-i-Tayyba ....... In March 2002, Lashkar-i-Jhangvi retaliated against the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the resulting fall of the Taliban by launching a grenade attack on the International Protestant Church in Islamabad ...... "It is probable there are links between Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and al-Qaeda," says Grare, "but it is certain they do have links to the government." He adds, "If the government itself says Lashkar-i-Jhangvi is involved, it is suicidal because it opens the door to speculation about their own role." ...... Pakistani authorities have had a hand in encouraging groups like Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and Lashkar-i-Tayyba, Islamabad has done little to systematically dismantle these jihadist "armies" now that their original purposes — fighting the Soviets and supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan or fighting the Indians in Kashmir — are over. .... "It's like a cancer you've started elsewhere that comes back to eat you up."
Was It Al Qaeda? Newsweek Mehsud is described by the officials as one of the Taliban's most senior leaders inside Pakistan. He supposedly operates from loosely governed tribal areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and is believed to be in contact with elements of the Al Qaeda central command, whose leaders, including Zawahiri and bin Laden, are believed to be hiding out in the same rugged region.
Bhutto Conspiracy Theories Fill the Air TIME On jihadi websites, al-Qaeda claimed the assassination was their work .... the sentiments provide a powerful insight into how angry Pakistanis are at their President and how mistrustful they are of the U.S.
Al-Qaeda's New Terror Tactic? one of Bhutto's assailants was a known member of the extremist organization Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a group it said was allied with al-Qaeda and the Taliban. If so, it could mean further evidence of a dramatic and disturbing diversification in Al-Qaeda's terrorism playbook. ....... Up until now, the violent methods employed by al-Qaeda and its operatives around the globe have largely eschewed single assassinations or the targeting of political leaders. .......... creating chaos and panic through large terror strikes that claim large numbers of random victims — carnage that creates pressure and fear in the societies and governments that the jihadists view as enemies ......... "There is so much scheming and double-dealing in Pakistan that the country is the analyst's worst nightmare. ...... it has helped create the uproar and turmoil al-Qaeda has always seen as its best method of destabilizing enemy regimes it wants to replace. ........ They're willing to do anything, and with anyone's help.
An Asteroid Hurtles Toward Mars
Kenya Opposition Poised to Sweep New York Times
Clinton and Obama exploit Pakistan crisis Telegraph.co.uk
Obama: US needs to come down hard on Musharraf
