Cost of Secret Service to Taxpayers.

I've often thought about this and just wanted to write it down while I was thinking about it.  

Since 1997 there has been legislation that covers ex presidents for a 10 year period after the finish serving their term.  I don't even want to imagine how much money that costs the US tax payers and I bet if I was more patient I could find out just how much it is.

It occurred to me last November as we were voting for the new President that George Bush and Dick Cheney would be receiving this 'perk' for a long time and I began to wonder... "do I want to pay for that?" The answer was, of course... "NO".

So I had an idea... why don't we vote for presidential protection of the OUT GOING president while we are voting for the new president.  It could be just one more check box we get to select. They already ask us if we want to contribute to campaign funds, why not allow us to have a say in this as well.

Also, think about what it would mean to the way a president does his job.  If they new that after their term that A. "The people were not happy with them" B. "The people voted to NOT pay for their security detail" Something tells me that our elected officials would think twice about the decisions they make while in office it meant that if they did a crap job that they would be handed a DC bus token to leave the white house if they didn't receive enough votes to pay for security.

I don't know, just a thought...

What do you think?

U2 Tribute Band "Zoo Station" - Live in Redwood City

This is why it is so much fun to go see "Zoo Station", the U2 Tribute band, when they are playing. I HIGHLY recommend you check them out if you ever have the chance... They have shows coming up in November in Redwood City and San Francisco.

Up Coming Shows

I shot this with our Canon 5D MK2, and you can see what a horrible shooter I am. I was also shooting with our broken lens that, once it starts shooting can't be refocused... we really have to fix that lens.

I hate stories like this, they make me angry.

Thankfully, Officer Schwab, 2099 (if that is real name) was given desk duty after threatening this kid that he was going to ‘snap his arm like a twig’, and then later LIE about “not threatening anyone” later in the video. 

Interesting social commentary about the how prominent small video cameras are.  Everyone should get use to pulling out their video cameras when altercations happen.  If it were up to me, I think this cop should be fired for threatening the kid… no matter what he said.

TV is glamorous...

A lot of my friends ask... "so what exactly do you do?" Not that this is a normal day but take a look at the hilarious work conditions that Jeff Regan and I found ourselves in this week... This room was PRICELESS... 

PS... this was NOT shot on AVC Intra 100, it was shot on my Flip HD.

Billy Star and his Mother... worth watching

In the spirit of "things that are worth taking the time to watch... you should watch this. It's the story of Billy Star and how he was inspired by his mother. BTW... his mother sounds very much like my mother was. I can't even tell you how many times my mom would be waiting in her Karmann Ghia outside the gate of our grade school to pick us up and drive us the 1/2 mile home from Park School in San Mateo.

You can skip past the opening sequence that is 1:00 long, but watch from about :59 on. Beautiful story.