You must start from a place of Belief. Sounds simple doesn’t it? It is the central theme of this TEDx talk.

I have watched this video several times in an attempt to absorb a new way of planning and thinking. I have tried to do what he describes often in my life. I haven’t gotten the formula correct. Perhaps my ego was in the way. You haven’t experienced having your ego get in the way of better results for yourself and others? Good for you. You lead a blessed life. If this presentation resonates with you return and watch it again. Integrate it if you can. Start planning by answering WHY? Then when you and I have a Grail Quest of our own we will be better prepared to lead ourselves and others.

Simon Sinek hosts a daily emailed inspiration thought at his fine blog.

“If you would be a poet, create works capable of answering the challenge of
apocalyptic times, even if this meaning sounds apocalyptic.

You are Whitman, you are Poe, you are Mark Twain, you are Emily Dickinson and Edna St. Vincent Millay, you are Neruda and Mayakovsky and Pasolini, you are an American or a non-American, you can conquer the conquerors with words….”

—Lawrence Ferlinghetti. From Poetry as Insurgent Art [I am signaling you through the flames].

This is his most famous work, ‘Coney Island of The Mind’. I hope he hangs on long enough for me to get an autographed copy.  It is magnificent. If you don’t have it in your library buy it now .

If you haven’t read the Beat Generation works then you haven’t set the foundation for your understanding of the Hippie Generation or the fight to end the VietNam war. You couldn’t understand the Civil Rights Movement acceleration in the 60’s or the freedoms you take for granted today with the Grunge Movement, the Foodie Revolution and more. It all started with a group of primarily men who took the American Dream and shook it like a tree with ripe fruit.

I have never posted one of those Gifts Wanted lists but a new copy of ‘Coney Island of the Mind’, purchased at City Lights and , god willing, signed by the author would top my list.

It’s just that good.

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The Judge say ‘Indict them!’. He’s talking about Bush and Cheney.

Really. A Fox News contributor said INDICT THEM! So….why not?

HuffPo reports : “Just under three weeks before it was set to begin, the Tea Party “Unity” convention was abruptly postponed until October, in order to be closer to the November elections and also to avoid the scorching Las Vegas heat.”

TPN–We were so excited about the tremendous success of the first convention, we jumped into this second convention without considering the timing. The heat in Las Vegas in July is keeping many who would like to participate from attending. We have also received numerous emails from people who were forced to decide between family vacations and attending the convention.

TPN President

I’ve put on a number of large events in Las Vegas. When you cancel a convention registration the hotel is not happy. They have reserved rooms, scheduled staff, put aside convention facilities and more. It adds up to a big cancellation fee. Having the event in July might mitigate some of that cost. There will, however, be a fee. For an organization that has said more than once it needs more fundraising I wonder who paid the cancellation fee? Was the cancellation fee paid? I’ve tweeted into HuffPo and we’ll see if they get answers.

Perhaps a signal is that they’ve already scheduled their new October convention at the Palazzo Hotel as well. It’s possible that if they guaranteed a larger turnout the hotel may have let them off the hook. I certainly would like to have a real answer.

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During the beginning of the mortgage crisis congressional committees interrogated the CEO’s of the largest banks. These men have no idea of the day to day reality of their own business practices. They may set policy but are they in the trenches making sure it is implemented? No.

So who should the Congress have been interrogating to understand the Mortgage Crisis?

As part of the answer imagine this simple visual of the reality of the CEO and the loan officer:

• The CEO cruises at 35,000 ft to get the big picture. His corporation employs thousands and he must take care of that Big Picture to ensure their employment while providing profit to his stockholders.

• The Loan officer is on the ground talking to borrowers and filling out paperwork. He is working at getting the borrower the loan he needs to refinance or purchase a home. The Loan officer has no interest in the overall corporate picture. He is interested in two things only: a maximized commission for himself and closing a loan to create that commission.

So if you want to know the culture and practices that lead to the Mortgage Crisis, for example how the subprime market became so toxic, who should you talk to first? Should you talk to, under oath, the CEO or the man that was, on a daily basis, creating the mortgages themselves?

Mortgage company CEO’s know absolutely nothing about making a loan. If they were provided the most qualified borrower and given a blank loan packet they would have no idea how to proceed. None.

Many would question that statement. He is, after all, the CEO of the corporation. There is a simple answer to that question.

Being a CEO is a different profession than being a loan officer. The two are not interchangeable. The loan officer has no idea of a CEO’s job and the CEO has no idea of the loan officers job.

While the salaried CEO and board of directors set policy, the lower levels of that corporation operated on a commission only or salary plus commission/bonus structure. The pressure to create a larger income changed everything within the corporate culture regardless of the board’s commands.

A first step for Congress to understand the pressure packed reality of the street level culture, the congressional committees must hold hearings with loan officers and their managers. Congress will then begin to peel back the multi-layered enigma that is the Mortgage Crisis and the mortgage business.

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T.E. Lawrence,

“The Seven Pillars of Wisdom”

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. ”

This was said by Joseph Goebbels but it also happens, largely, to be true. It only takes a quick historical tour of the last 30 years to know that the Republican Party, guided by behind-the-scenes hyper conservatives, have used The Big Lie technique constantly.

I don’t believe that Brown for an instant thinks Whitman is a Nazi. Of course not. Yet she has been brought up in the era of The Big Lie. She used the technique in her acceptance speech when she said Brown had a history of breaking his promises and of having no success. That’s simply not true. If you only hear the multi-millionairess, who will be flooding the airwaves with dishonesty, you will think Jerry Brown is the worst thing since the plague.

Brown has challenged her to a long series of one on one debates throughout the state. His concept is to get off the media campaign and into one on one substantive debates about the very serious troubles faced by California.

Will she do it? In my opinion, not a chance. She knows she can’t best Brown when it comes to the in-depth knowledge of California history, legislative rules and possible approaches. She’ll stick to The Big Lie technique whether she personally is aware of it or not.

Back to the opening issue: Jerry Brown never accused her of being a Nazi. He did reference a communications technique that has been very successful in many countries, including the US. He could have said it better. Being slick isn’t Brown’s forte. Being very real and honest is his forte. It could be a weakness in a campaign that will be very media driven. It will be the most expensive campaign in history. That money will be mostly Republican unfortunately.

PS: The source of the concept of The Big Lie, by the way, wasn’t Goebbels. Here’s the actual exact citation: —Adolf Hitler , Mein Kampf, vol. I, ch. X

This news story of a possible new solution for the oil spill in the Gulf. It’s off the wall and really works. Watch the video then read the newstory. http://bit.ly/cj02DL