Mullico Musings

A peaceful health care reform rally

2009-08-11T14:59:00.000-07:00

More than 100 people assembled on the front lawn of a Congress member’s district office Tuesday and petitioned for health care reform without shouts, threats or belligerence.

Of course, everyone paying a visit to the office of U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat representing San Jose, Calif., was in favor of health care reform legislation pending in Congress; rumors of counter-demonstrators showing up never materialized. But amid all the media coverage of anti-reform protesters shouting down their representatives, screaming “socialism” and spouting nonsense about government “death panels,” the hour-long event in San Jose focused on a key argument for reform: People who had health insurance but lost it and can’t afford it on their own.

The rally, one of 50 held today in 45 cities across the country, was organized by PACT, People Acting in Community Together, a multiethnic interfaith grassroots organization determined to create a more just community. So, you know where they’re coming from. But voices of the community advocates for health care reform have been drowned out by the shouting by protesters at town hall meetings various Congress members are holding in their districts during the August Congressional recess.

A protester holds a sign urging Congress to pass health care reform

The theme of the event was “No Recess for Health Reform,” as supporters used the recess to “strengthen [Lofgren] in her resolve to pass health care reform when she returns to Washington,” as one of the speakers put it.

Lofgren emerged from her office to address the rally, noting that at another event earlier in Silicon Valley, she was booed by health care reform opponents.

“We as Americans have to talk to each other,” she said, but quickly added, “We have to stand up for the truth.”

Several people followed Lofgren at the podium giving testimonials of how they have been treated by a health insurance system that charges too much, buries them in debt with uncovered expenses, denies them coverage or excludes them from coverage for pre-existing medical conditions.

U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose)

Ellen and Ray Turner told their story of the retirement insurance he had after retiring from the Silicon Valley software company Cadence that started off good. After a few years, though, their annual deductible rose to $10,000. Over a three-year period, their out-of-pocket costs for health care jumped to $71 a day, from $30. Eventually they switched to a Kaiser Permanente plan that carried only a $500 deductible and out-of-pocket averages out to $42 a day.

Sheila Dowd spoke with her two young children beside her and told the story of her and her husband trying to start their own business, likening their ambition to that of the founders of Google and HP, two legendary Silicon Valley companies.

But their plan was thwarted by the cost of ensuring their small family, Dowd said. Insurers considered to be disqualifying “pre-existing conditions” her daughter’s ear infections and her husband’s pollen allergy. The Dowds are going to have to abandon their startup dream and either she or her husband will have to go get a job that provides employer-sponsored health insurance, Mrs. Dowd said.

A minister leads the group in prayer for health care reform

The program also featured comments from Chris Wilder, CEO of the Valley Medical Center Foundation. Valley Medical Center treats a high number of patients without insurance in its emergency room, he said.

Five years ago, Valley Medical Center saw an average of 170 people per day in its emergency room. By January of this year, it had days when the number of visits reached 400 a day and in April it saw some 525 patient days, Wilder said.

Another woman told of losing her job and her employer-paid health insurance, continuing her coverage under COBRA, but when that ran out, going onto a HIPAA insurance program whose premiums were so high and coverage so limited, “my medical insurance was unusable,” she said.

“I thought of my lack of insurance as a personal failure, but I no longer see it as my fault,” the woman told the crowd. “It is the health care system that is a failure.”

What GOP Congress members should say to "birthers" at their next town hall meeting

2009-07-27T13:04:00.000-07:00

I know I posted last week that the media should stop doing stories on the "birthers," those wingnuts who insist that Pres. Obama is not an American, but they wouldn't listen to me.
Today, Politico posted a story about the dilemna the "birthers" movement (such as it is) poses for Republican Congress members who don't believe what the birthers claim but don't want to see a video of them getting heckled posted on You Tube. Here's the comment I wrote when the story was reposted on Huffington Post:

What Congressmen should say to birther hecklers at their next town hall meeting:

"While I respect your right of free speech and recognize the passion with which you hold your beliefs on this issue, there is considerable and unequivocal evidence that President Barack Obama is an American citizen."

(Boos, hisses, name calling)

"While you feel strongly to the contrary, you are, with all due respect, deluding yourself on this issue because you cling to your belief that the president is not an American citizen despite all evidence to the contrary."

(More heckling, flag-waving, "He"s a Kenyan!")

"There are many important issues we face in this country on which I as your Republican Congressman/woman disagree with President Obama -- increased federal spending, higher taxes and the dangers of government-run health care -- but our party will not have credibility to debate the president on these matters if we remain distracted by a completely discredited conspiracy theory about his citizenship."

(Tomatoes, eggs, chairs thrown)

"I will work passionately for you on these issues of the economy, jobs and lower taxes because these are the issues that are most critical to you, the people of my district. But on the issue of the president"s citizenship, please understand this: Barack Obama is the President of the United States. Deal with it."

[If none of this works, use this closer:]

"Shut the f**k up! You"re idiots!"

[Exit, rapidly, stage right]

Another Obama Victory Party

2009-02-01T13:26:00.000-08:00

Last night, a number of us who worked at the San Jose Obama office during the campaign gathered to celebrate our success. Nancy Jennings, who managed the phone bank at San Jose, was in Washington for the inaugural so invited us to her home Jan. 31 to share our stories and thoughts on the inauguration and the victory we helped make happen.
Nancy showed us the digital photographs she took while there, including one taken at the moment Obama put his hand on Lincoln's bible. Another showed the helicopter taking George and Laura Bush out of Washington...for good, we hope. Nancy said people on the ground were waving at the helicopter and singing, "Sha na na na, Sha na na na, Hey-hey, Good-bye!"
Here's a photo of Nancy (r) with another volunteer, Shalini Venkatesh
Pictured here (l-r) are Nancy, Me, Noha Ragab and Kit Reed. Noha and Kit worked the reception desk and I was a phone bank supervisor.
Galen Swain (r) was a big part of the campaign effort, making several trips to Nevada and other states. On the left is Abdel Houssni.
Another shot of Nancy, Noha and Kit, who is also Nancy's neighbor.
Nancy told us that when she and her boyfriend, Kelly, first got to Washington they were walking near 17th & Pennsylvania Ave., heard police motorcycles rev up and escort two black limousines. Seated in the back seat of the second lino was President-elect Obama. How cool is that 30 minutes after coming to Washington? He was going to the concert at the Lincoln Memorial Sunday featuring Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce and Mary J. Blige, among others.
Kelly photoshoped a picture made to look like President Obama is body-surfing in the ocean and put it on buttons given to everyone at the party. The caption: "Barack Obama. Coolest President Ever!"

CIA asked to authenticate Steve Jobs video

2008-12-17T13:35:00.000-08:00

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is working to verify the authenticity of a videotape released Wednesday purporting to show Apple CEO Steve Jobs a day after the company said he would no longer be making appearances at the annual Macworld Expo in San Francisco.
The video, released to YouTube, shows Jobs, wearing his iconic black turtleneck, visiting Apple’s retail store in Palo Alto, Calif., looking through a selection of iPod Nanos on sale.

Although the footage is grainy, owing to obviously not being shot with an iPhone, one Apple expert challenged the notion that the video was shot Wednesday. Jobs, says AppleFanatic.com Editor Josh Newman, appears to be holding a previous generation Nano, not the new line of “nano-chromatic” model media players introduced in September.

“Do they think we’re stupid?” Newman asked, incredulously.

The news that Jobs would no longer make Macworld public appearances raised speculation among a skeptical press corps about Jobs’ health, especially in the wake of his noticeably gaunt appearance at the Apple WWDC in June.

While the CIA studied the video with the same team of experts that study Osama bin Laden’s taped tirades, shareholders petitioned the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to require Apple to produce a photo of Jobs holding a copy of today’s newspaper.

A shareholder rights advocate, Ben Larsen, assured the SEC that some newspapers still print hard copies of their publications which Jobs could hold up in a photo.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, in an obscenity-laced statement, said he could confirm Jobs’s continuing good health, but demanded $350,000 and "a f***ing brand new" 3G iPhone to divulge it. "And with free service from f***ing Verizon, not AT&-f***ing-T," the governor added.

One piece of evidence indicating the video may be of recent origin is a blurry image of what appears to be a shoe flying over Jobs’s head as he leans down to inspect a new MacBook.

Story about me on CNET

2008-12-08T08:48:00.000-08:00

Last week I went to a networking event in San Francisco and was introduced to Greg Sandoval, a reporter for CNET and told him I was looking for a fulltime job. The next day Greg called and wanted to interview me for a story about the effect of the recession on people. The result is this article. Faces of the Recession , which was posted on CNET's Web site Monday.

San Francisco Auto Show

2008-11-25T17:43:00.000-08:00

As the economy struggles and Congress considers a $25 billion bailout of the Big Three, automakers put on their best face at auto shows like the San Francisco International Auto Show going on this week at the Moscone Center. A few highlights:

I don't want us to pay $25 billion to save this (Hummer H2):

Things have gotten so bad. they're selling used cars at the auto show (1940 Buick)

For those above it all (Bentley):

Escape pod for an Escalade (Smart car):

The carmakers are supposed to come back to Congress next month with a plan on how to spend the $25 billion taxpayers may pony up to save their industry. Here are five conditions I think should be placed on them getting the funds.

5. The gas filler door should go either on the left side or the right side of the car. Pick one!

4. Apologize for the Vega, the Pinto, the Gremlin and the Pacer.

3. Service departments barred from saying, “They all make that noise.”

2. An Escalade Hybrid? Are you f-ing kidding me?

And the number one condition for the $25 billion bailout:

1.Flying car: still waiting.

Might as well face it, you're addicted to phone banks

2008-11-23T16:38:00.000-08:00

Must...stop...dialing...fingers.

Volunteers at a Palo Alto phone bank, Nov. 23.

Nope, those who became addicted to working a phone bank couldn't stop after Nov. 4. Some got their dialing fix by starting phone banks to lobby for different dog breeds for the First Puppy.
But a more immediate need was to continue the Campaign for Change, so the phoning went down to Georgia where a runoff election is set for Dec. 2 in a U.S. Senate race.

Rakhi Singh (l) and Barbara Kerckhoff
manage the phone bank.

In a Palo Alto office and another location in South San Francisco, volunteers showed up Sunday to call voters in Savannah and other communities to urge them to vote for Democratic candidate Jim Martin. Martin is in a runoff with Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss, who is seeking a second term.

One of the many volunteers
at the Palo Alto phone bank

About 20 people spent part of Sunday at a Palo Alto phone bank telling voters in Georgia that a vote for Martin brings the Senate closer to a 60-seat majority for Democrats and a filibuster-proof margin. The only other Senate race undecided, which could seal the deal, is in Minnesota between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken. A recount is currently underway there.

The Palo Alto phone bank was calling Georgia to
drum up support for Democrat Jim Martin
in a runoff US Senate election.

The phone banking followed a town hall event Thursday night at First Presbyterian Church in Palo Alto, attended by more than 300 people. After a pot luck dinner, Obama campaign workers discussed how we would keep the momentum going and use the campaign infrastructure that helped get Obama elected to support his policies in office and to help other community organization efforts on the local, state and national level.
To quote Bob Dylan, "The times, they are a changing!"

Google your way through LIFE magazine

2008-11-19T15:32:00.000-08:00

Google has done something really cool…again. Tuesday it launched a searchable archive of photos owned by LIFE magazine. Even though the weekly LIFE founded by Henry Luce (who also launched Time) didn't begin publication until 1936, the archive goes as far back as 1750 and many of the photos were never published. LIFE ceased being a weekly in 1972.

Google announced the availability of the LIFE archives on its own blog, stating: “This effort to bring offline images online was inspired by our mission to organize all the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

I spent some time perusing the archives and pulled out a few I found particularly enjoyable. You can surf the archive yourself here.

My hometown Milwaukee Braves win the World Series in 1957.

Iconic Depression-era photo by Dorothea Lange, 1936.

JFK Inauguration, 1961.

Jack and Jackie arrive at Love Field, Nov. 22, 1963.

Neil Armstrong's footprint on the moon, July 20, 1969.

Somehow this got my attention, May, 1953.

Coach Vince Lombardi bought the 1962 Green Bay Packers'

wives fur coats when their husbands won the NFL Championship.

(Editor's note: PETA wasn't founded until 1980.)

Palin's Book Deal Said to Be Worth $7 Million

2008-11-18T08:06:00.000-08:00

The Times of London reports that a Sarah Palin book deal could be worth $7 million. I'd say $6.9 million of it should go to the poor sap who has to edit her writing -- if it's anything like her speaking -- to make a complete sentence.

Top Ten Symptoms of Obama Withdrawal

2008-11-09T16:37:00.000-08:00

The Onion did a hilarious take on the crushing depression of Obama supporters who have nothing to do now that the Obama campaign for president has been won.
As a public service, Mullico Musings wants to help the millions of Obama volunteers make it through this difficult transition back to their normal lives with this handy 10-point guide. Mental health professionals always say the first step on the road to recovery is realizing you have a problem. With that in mind:

Top Ten Symptoms Of Obama Withdrawal:

10. No matter where you intend to go in your car, you end up at your local Obama office.
9. You urgently warn everyone you know that the midterms are only 103 weeks away.
8. You start a phone bank to promote the Corgi as First Puppy. *
7. Someone asks, "Could you send this invoice to accounting?" and you say, "Yes We Can!"
6. You have children, not for German engineering, but to name them Barack, Michelle, Malia and Sasha.
5. Obama wins by 364-174 electoral votes and you beat yourself up: "Dammit, I could have done MORE!"
4. Someone asks, "Could you pass the salt?" and you say, "Yes We Can!"
3. You skip work to watch SNL election skits online.
2. You only now realize just how dirty your home is.
And the Number One Sign You’re Suffering Obama Withdrawal:
1. You’re wearing your Obama buttons in the shower.
(*Guilty!)
(From the Home Office in Santa Clara, Calif., By Robert Mullins)

The Night Everything Changed

2008-11-05T13:19:00.000-08:00

It was 7:00 p.m. Tuesday Nov. 4 in the San Jose office of Obama for America and positive returns for Barack Obama were already coming in. But Karen Wark did not want us to ease up. The Obama volunteer worked with campaign headquarters in Chicago to retrieve lists of all the voters to call from our phone bank operation at 43 E. Gish Road.

Even though polls were beginning to close east to west, the campaign wanted to send us phone numbers to call in one more state to maintain the get-out-the-vote pressure: Alaska.

“Lemme at ‘em!” Karen (right in photo below) responded.

The crowd of about 50 volunteers cheered at the news that they’d get a chance to call “Palin Country.” And getting to call the state whose “maverick” governor was fairly characterized as unqualified for the VP office she sought was just one incentive. “Anybody who calls Wasilla gets all the Halloween candy we have in the office,” said Nancy Jennings (left, above), the phone bank manager.

Karen and Nancy are just two of the many volunteers in San Jose who spent countless hours working to help elect Barack Obama the 44^th president of the United States. For more than a month, but most intensely since Saturday, the San Jose office was buzzing with volunteers eager to work as much as needed to ensure victory. Job One was to call voters in swing states to identify Obama supporters and, closer to Election Day, make sure they voted. Job Two was to recruit local volunteers to come into the office to make more of those swing state calls.

Sonia Sangster, an African-American woman, brought her two young sons with her so she could make calls. She wanted them to remember that they were a part of making history in helping to elect the first African-American U.S. president. It struck me that when her boys grow up, the idea of a black president will seem normal to them, expected and unremarkable. Carolyn (in photo below), a substitute teacher, told of an election held in a third grade class she taught in which all but one of the students supported Obama. I thought about how brave that one John McCain supporter must have been. Other callers told stories of voters they’d talked to who, despite being well into adulthood, had registered to vote for the first time in order to support Obama.

At times we got pushback from voters we were calling. Even those who supported Obama complained of being called multiple times, even as many as five times in one day. One voter answered with “I’m voting for Obama” and hung up. Others threatened to vote for McCain if we kept calling and one told a volunteer “I’m gonna kick your ass” if called again. Yikes! But we pressed on, not wanting to take the chance that an Obama supporter we hadn’t reached would somehow not be motivated to go to the polls. Despite Obama’s growing lead in the race, complacency was not an option.

And it paid off. Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado were the focus of most of our phone bank calling – and of personal visits by California volunteers, including myself (below). On Tuesday, each of those states, which were red in 2004, turned blue. Also turning red to blue this year were Indiana and Ohio, which we also called in recent days.

Ours was a ramshackle but nonetheless ruthlessly efficient enterprise. We occupied the third floor of a three-story walkup office building off of North First Street. I say walkup because the elevator, which had been balky for weeks, was broken altogether for the last week and a half and, unconscionably, no one who apparently owned this building sent anyone to fix it. To quiet the noise in one linoleum-tiled room used as a phone bank, someone donated sections of carpet that were laid out in a haphazard pattern on the floor. Most volunteers used their own cell phones to make calls, but the campaign had about two dozen phones to loan to those without one. They were so abused by repeated use that they seldom held much of a charge and, for a few units, Scotch tape held together the two halves of the clamshell-style phones.

But even with Scotch-taped phones, a broken elevator and offices so crowded that volunteers sat cross-legged on the floor and made calls, we achieved something amazing. From just the San Jose office, more than 38,000 calls were placed on Election Day alone. California’s 55 electoral votes were expected to go to Obama, so the candidates rarely visited here. But while California supporters didn’t need to help Californians decide, they helped in states to the East. During one week in October, 55 percent of the 1.8 million calls from Obama phone banks nationwide were placed from banks in California.

Now things are winding down at Gish Road. We third floor tenants (see above) in the Obama office will start clearing out, as will the Santa Clara County office of the Democratic Party on the second floor. Career Closet will remain on the first.

Career Closet is a charity that collects donations of women’s business attire and gives the clothes to disadvantaged women to look more professional on a job interview. Every time I passed their door on my way up or down the stairs, I’d say to whomever I was with at the moment, “This is where Sarah Palin’s clothes are going after the campaign.” It occurs to me that the clothes, and the optimism that is rising nationwide from Obama’s victory, will give those women added confidence in that job interview.

Obama’s campaign slogan has long been, “Yes We Can!” Now those who worked on the campaign can say, “Yes We Did!”

Friends don't let friends not vote!

2008-10-28T21:35:00.000-07:00

One of the most effective, and funny, viral e-mail campaigns of this election season is the "Get out the Vote" campaign of MoveOn.org. People who receive the e-mail click on a video of a fake newscast one week from today that reports John McCain beat Barack Obama by ONE VOTE, and that one vote was YOURS ! Your name is shown in the news report on the headline of a newspaper, the caption on the newscast graphics and even on graffiti identifying you as a "Loser!" It's hilarious!
Once you get the e-mail you can forward it to many more people. Enter their name and e-mail address and when they click on the video, they'll be the one blamed for losing the election for Obama!
MoveOn.org writes: "Studies show that by far the best way to get people out to vote is to convince them that (a) everyone else is voting, and (b) everyone will know if they don't vote. This video does both—with a smile (or smirk, in some cases)."
Here's where to start.

Undecided voters

2008-10-28T08:39:00.000-07:00

Polls show some 5 to 6 percent of voters are undecided in the race between John McCain and Barack Obama. My only question to them would be, "How do you get dressed in the morning?" Do you stand before your closet torn between the blue shirt and the red shirt and decide, "I can't make up my mind. I'll just stay in my bath robe all day. But should I wear the blue bath robe or the red bath robe?"

Man-on-the-Street Interviews

2008-10-22T13:13:00.000-07:00

And so you won't think of me as a self-righteous, humorless dick, I offer you this.

The lament of racism in the presidential race

2008-10-22T10:48:00.000-07:00

I’d heard for months about the venomous, racist, hateful, lying e-mails circulating about Barack Obama as the Democratic presidential candidate and had, luckily, been spared having them pollute my Inbox. Until Monday. I received, from someone whom I won’t identify, an e-mail link to a radio piece whose source appears to be “Sal,” a character on the Howard Stern Show.

A message accompanying the link from the original sender, whom I’ll identify as “Richard,” begins “I will go to my grave convinced that I am not racist or biased.”

But…

Richard believes the people interviewed in this radio piece, who are apparently African-Americans, are unqualified to be able to vote for president because of their ignorance.

The report was made to see whether black people who are supporting Obama are doing so only because of his race. To test them, Sal portrayed John McCain’s policies as Obama’s in interviewing Obama supporters. So he went to…are you ready for this?...Harlem. Just so we would be clear that he was interviewing black people, just to reinforce preconceptions people – you know, people who live in “real America” -- may have about people who live in Harlem.

After one interviewee indicated they’re voting for Obama, Sal asks, “Are you more for Obama’s policies because he’s prolife or because he thinks our troops should stay in Iraq until we finish this war?”

Voter: “Because I think our troops should stay in Iraq and finish this war. I’m really for him with that.”

To the next Obama supporter, Sal says, “Obama is anti stem cell research; would you agree with him on that?” Voter: “Yeah I wouldn’t do that either. I’m anti stem cell [research].”

Sal also gets two of the three Obama interviewees to back Obama’s choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate: Sal: “And if he wins would you have a problem with Sarah Palin being vice president?” Voter: “No, I would not.”

I am not including the link to that radio interview in my post because I don’t want to spread it further. The very premise of this report is racist. The reporter went to Harlem with the specific intent to interview blacks and mislead them in an effort to make them look foolish.

Richard, in his message accompanying the link, continues, “I will strongly prejudge their qualifications to vote for the next president. God help us if Obama is anointed by the ilk in these interviews.”

As politely as I could, I clicked “Reply All” and responded to this e-mail by arguing that if Richard is going to mock the people interviewed in that report as unqualified to vote for president because they are uninformed and unintelligent voters, “then you should mock the uninformed and unintelligent people who insist that Barack Obama is a Muslim, that he ‘pals around with terrorists’ and who yell at McCain or Palin rallies ‘treason,’ ‘terrorist’ and, most despicably, ‘kill him.’”

Some of them can be found here. In this video, McCain-Palin supporters jeer Obama-Biden supporters, with epithets such as “commie,” “fag,” “terrorist,” and, oddly, that Obama supporters should “move to Russia” (someone’s stuck in the 1950s there). Reminded that as Wasilla Mayor, Palin had rape victims pay for their own rape evidence kits, a McCain supporter shouted back that “she [the victim] should die.” A McCain supporter ran his index finger across his own neck in front of the Obama supporters, simulating a throat slitting.

Sadly, these people get to vote, too, Richard.

Bob Schieffer on presidential debates

2008-10-15T08:46:00.000-07:00

Bob Schieffer of CBS News, the moderator of tonight's final debate between John McCain and Barack Obama, has some suggestions for revising the debate format. I covered a speech he made in 2004 at a Commonwealth Club event in Palo Alto soon after he moderated one of the debates between George Bush and John Kerry. At such events, audience members write their questions on cards and the host reads them to the speaker. Schieffer was asked my question, "Should the debate rules be changed so that..." and before the host could finish the question, Schieffer said, "Yes."

Business Ethics: What would Michael Scott do?

2008-10-14T16:52:00.000-07:00

On a different subject, I wrote this item on spec for a business Web site. It didn't meet their needs but you might find it interesting. RJM

Out of the mouths of sitcom writers comes the latest lesson on how businesses should handle ethical issues in the workplace. Check out the Oct. 9 episode (perhaps on your TiVo or on NBC.com) of the TV series “The Office,” which was devoted to educating the employees of the fictional Dunder-Mifflin paper products office in Scranton, Penn., on ethics The episode proves the adage, “It’s funny because it’s true.”

The sitcom, in its fifth season, stars Steve Carell as branch manager Michael Scott, a character marked by a total lack of self-awareness of how incompetent, insensitive and clueless he is.

In this episode, the new human resources manager, Holly, puts on a business ethics seminar for employees at the insistence of corporate in New York City, which is placing renewed attention on the subject after corporate VP Ryan Howard is busted double billing sales as both offline and online. He’s been kicked back to the Scranton office where he started as an intern. Why Ryan isn’t in jail, much less still on the company payroll, even in the Scranton outpost, is never explained.

Holly invites employees, under a vague promise of immunity from Michael, to disclose unethical behavior in which they may have engaged. A few relatively minor infractions are admitted. Accountant Oscar Martinez admits sometimes taking a long lunch. Kelly Kapoor admits to downloading pirated music onto her company computer (which in the real world opens the company to significant liability). But Meredith Palmer, a customer relations rep, trumps them all by admitting that over the previous six years, she’s had sex with a manufacturer’s rep in exchange for discounts on supplies that D-M sells, plus, as she added, discount coupons to a steakhouse.

Holly, who wishes Michael had not extended the immunity offer, thinks Meredith should be fired, but Michael resists. In private discussions with Holly, Michael is reluctant to act, describing his employees as “family,” which Holly says is, legally, not the case. This illustrates a conflict that likely occurs in real workplaces where mid-level managers disagree on how to deal with an ethical situation and managers who are required to enforce a corporate ethics policy fail to do so because of their aversion to confrontation.

“It turns out being the morality police does not make you popular,” Holly observes.

And when Holly tells corporate about Meredith’s breach, the corporate HR executive, “Kendall,” completely undercuts Holly.

“I’m not sure these circumstances warrant any action,” says Kendall, in a speakerphone conference call with Holly and Michael in Michael’s office. In the scene, the door to Michael’s office is wide open, enabling everyone else in the office to hear the conversation, violating the basic rule that HR issues are to be kept private.

Sadly, ethics issues are trumped by the bottom line. “To be honest the company’s getting a discount during a tough time on our balance sheet,” says Kendall. “I don’t think the right thing for our company to do is turn our nose up at that.”

To be sure, in a sitcom as off-the-wall as “The Office,” the situations are exaggerated for comic effect, but who hasn’t encountered dilemmas that pit ethical concerns against financial ones?

The episode also highlights another issue where management wishes only to be “in compliance” and nothing more. Before hanging up, Kendall admonishes Holly: “Your task was to get signatures from employees that they had completed the training.”

Who hasn’t heard that before?

Even the madcap comedy of “The Office” contains a pearl of wisdom. Amid a discussion of copping office supplies or hanging out at the water cooler too long, Oscar argues that business ethics shouldn’t be just about enforcing “the corporate anti-shoplifting rules.”

“Ethics is a real discussion about competing conceptions of good,” he said.

Think about it

2008-10-13T21:29:00.000-07:00

Sen. John McCain said this in a speech today in Virginia:

"The hour is late; our troubles are getting worse; our enemies watch. We have to act immediately. We have to change direction now."

Is he talking about:

A: The American economy? or
B: The state of his campaign?

The downside of 24/7 cable news

2008-10-11T08:52:00.000-07:00

I've often thought that the problem with 24-hour cable news channels is that they have way too much time to fill and not enough decent content to fill it. So the networks let people go on and on about something until they eventually say something totally stupid. My thesis is confirmed by items like this. It's a Fox News segment on complaints that Newsweek's extreme closeup photo of Sarah Palin's face is sexist because it shows minor flaws on her face. Huh? Let me ask you something, Fox: Did you have another segment planned for that time slot that fell through at the last minute and you had to scramble to find something else? Then did somebody see Newsweek lying on a coffee table and say, "Hey let's make a big stink out of this!" Was that what happened?
Note the dubious use of "some say" sourcing in the anchor's introduction.
This leads to another point of concern for me as an observer of the cable news channels, and it's also a concern I have with the blogosphere. This is hardly a new phenomenon, but the fragmentation of the media into scores of TV channels and hundreds of blogs is that people gravitate to the media that reflect their own beliefs. This point was made clear to me the night of the Biden-Palin vice presidential debate. Both Fox News and MSNBC invited viewers to text their votes as to which candidate they felt won the debate. Foix News reported that 86 percent of their viewers who called in thought Rep. Gov. Sarah Palin won. MSNBC reported that 81 percent if its viewers felt Democratic Sen. Joe Biden won. Sigh,

It's funny because it's sad

2008-10-08T08:20:00.000-07:00

One of my cousins sent me this link, which I think you'll enjoy: Sarah Palin's Debate Flow Chart.

It’s Ne-VAD-ah, not Ne-VAH-da

2008-10-06T22:09:00.000-07:00

I had the privilege of making three new friends this past weekend and joining them in an effort of common purpose: helping to elect Sen. Barack Obama the 44th President of the United States.
Given that California is regarded as a state expected to go blue this Nov. 4th, Obama supporters have been encouraged to help in neighboring states that are tossups, including Nevada. I have to be careful in writing this post not to reveal any campaign trade secrets or write anything that could reflect badly on the Obama campaign, so no Sarah Palin or “McCain is so old…” jokes here.
I set out early Friday afternoon with three Obama supporters I’d never met before, but by the end of the weekend we had bonded well. Passengers in my car for our trip to Reno were Laurie Terrat, a career counselor from just outside Los Gatos, Sarita Johnson, a gynecologist from Saratoga, and Gary Tang, a Stanford student from Palo Alto going for his PhD.

(L-R, Laurie, Gary and Sarita)

On the long drive to Reno, including through a rainstorm on the dark and windy roads through the Sierra Nevada Mountains, we shared our stories of why we are Democrats, why we support Obama and our view of the campaign so far. The vice presidential debate had been broadcast the night before so we had plenty of fresh material to discuss. I also regaled the passengers who hadn’t seen “The Daily Show” or “The Colbert Report” with lines from the comedians’ sarcastic take on politics. Stephen Colbert: “We don’t cling to our guns, we shoot them. THEN we cling to them because they’re so warm!”
Early Saturday morning we gathered at a temporary Obama headquarters in Reno and as soon as I arrived I understood why the campaign rented a warehouse! A block long line of volunteers snaked around the parking lot and down the street waiting to sign up to help register voters and canvas neighborhoods looking to identify Obama supporters. Besides getting information on how to canvas neighborhoods and register new voters, we were given one important piece of advice: It’s pronounced Ne-VAD-ah, not Ne-VAH-da, so as not to alienate voters of the state we were visiting.
My friends and I were dispatched to neighborhoods in nearby Sparks, a few miles down I-80 from Reno, and started knocking on doors. Although we did find a few McCain supporters, a few undecideds and a few doors closed in our faces, we were always heartened by the smiles and enthusiasm from voters happy to tell us they were voting for Obama.
Even in casual encounters with people we heard encouragement about Obama. I had dinner in a restaurant in the casino/hotel in which we were staying and when I paid my bill, the waitress noticed my Obama buttons. I gave her one of them and a couple at one of the tables behind me in the restaurant showed their support. The man shook my hand and thanked me and the other volunteers for their efforts.

(L-R: Gary, Sarita, Laurie and Robert
at Obama HQ gathering)

We worked from 10 o’clock Saturday morning until 4 in the afternoon going from house to house and, let me tell you, there is no such thing as “comfortable shoes.” While exhausted, we were reenergized by meeting hundreds of other supporters at a pot luck supper put on by the campaign at the warehouse. Many other volunteers also traveled from California, a mix of college students, boomers and many in between, all motivated by the prospect of the change that only Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden can bring to this country.

Gov. Janet Napolitano (D-AZ) addresses
Obama volunteers at a Reno rally, Sun. Oct. 5)

Sunday, we made one more canvas before driving back to Silicon Valley. We got a sendoff at a Reno grocery store parking lot pep rally from Gov. Janet Napolitano, Democrat of Arizona, who was making campaign visits to Nevada on behalf of the Obama campaign. Gary, who was raised in Arizona, was among many getting their photos taken with the governor.

Gary Tang with Gov. Napolitano

Nevada went for George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004 but the latest polls show the state is “leaning Obama” and Laurie, Sarita, Gary and I hope we have helped turn it blue.

UPDATE: Here's an interesting take on the Obama campaign in Nevada from Salon.

It's not bailing out Wall Street; it's bailing out all of us

2008-10-01T07:55:00.001-07:00

I recommend this analysis piece in today's New York Times for anyone who thinks the bill in Congress is a bailout only for the Fat Cats on Wall Street: "When Trust Vanishes, Worry"

Also, this column by Thomas Friedman makes a lot of sense. "You can’t save Main Street and punish Wall Street anymore than you can be in a rowboat with someone you hate and think that the leak in the bottom of the boat at his end is not going to sink you, too."

Classic New Yorker cover tribute to Gov. Palin

2008-09-30T11:40:00.000-07:00

LOL!
The classic New Yorker magazine cover has been reimagined by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
I have a friend from Brazil and a niece who studied for a year in Equador. Can I be McCain's Undersecretary of State for Latin American Affairs?
Enjoy!

Ignore Ballmer. Listen to what Ballmer has to say!

2008-09-30T11:07:00.000-07:00

Seems like CEO Steve Ballmer has had some time to think about how the financial markets crisis may affect Microsoft after all.
According to a report on CNBC.com Sept. 29, Ballmer said “no company is immune to these issues.” That’s in contrast to comments he made just last Thursday in Silicon Valley that tech still enjoys some “buoyancy” despite the financial crisis. Ballmer told about 550 people at a Churchill Club dinner I attended that “people in our business are feeling better than if they watched CNBC all day.” Apparently, then, what Ballmer’s really saying is: “Tech will be okay as long as people don’t watch CNBC all day, unless they see ME on CNBC. Then they should panic.”
What’s frustrating for me in the debate about the bailout is this notion of “Wall Street versus Main Street,” that if we bail out Wall Street we’re screwing Main Street. If there is no bailout for Wall Street, then there is no money to nourish Main Street. The global economy is so intertwined that one affects the other. Look at the fact that one of the tech stocks hit hardest on Monday’s 777-point Wall Street plunge was Apple, which took an 18 percent hit. Microsoft’s shares fell by 8.7 percent, prompting Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith to urge Congress to pass the bailout as "vitally important" to the economy.
That tells you that if AIG, Lehman Bros., Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other companies in the mortgage and credit markets suffer, fewer consumers will be going into the Apple store on Main Street to buy iPods and Mac computers. That’s something to worry about and you don’t have to watch CNBC to see that.

What I learned at Camp Obama

2008-09-30T04:30:00.000-07:00

I’ve been having some really rewarding experiences this week working for the Obama campaign in Silicon Valley. I’ve had to stay out of politics throughout my career because, as a journalist, it would be a conflict of interest. But currently, I’m unemployed and any freelancing I do is on tech minutiae such as solar panel technology, network security or software development; subjects removed from public policy issues or politics.
And besides, this election is much too important for me to sit on the sidelines.
Sunday I spent the day at Camp Obama, a daylong boot camp for Obama volunteers. About 150 people gathered at the UFCW union hall in downtown San Jose. A similar sized group took the same training there the day before.
A most interesting exercise with the group was for volunteers to tell their own stories about their political awakening, their background, their life stories and why they decided to work to elect Sen. Barack Obama President of the United States. The purpose of the exercise was for us to bond together as volunteers and to inspire us to work for the campaign to elect a president who will restore the respect the United States has lost on the world stage during the last eight years.
The crowd broke up into groups of eight people, plus-or-minus, and each person told their stories, then selected one of their group to speak to the whole audience.
People, ranging in age from their teens to their 60s, told their stories. One was an Iraq vet who went over there supporting the war and came back opposing it. Another was a woman who emigrated to the U.S. from the repressive Burma in 1984 and is a practicing Muslim. A black man raised in poverty on the south side of Chicago earned two masters degrees. There were single mothers and people whose parents raised them to give back to their communities and to do what they can to make the world a better place.
My story? I was raised in an Irish-Catholic family of nine children, “Just like the Kennedys,” I told my breakout group. JFK was the first person I realized was President of the United States. My dad took us to watch a motorcade during a visit JFK made to our hometown of Milwaukee. I remember it even though my memory is just of a black limo speeding past us as we stood at the curb. I was eight when he died.
At the dinner table, my dad said, “All poor people are Democrats,” and even though we were fed, clothed, healthy and had a roof over our heads, we considered ourselves poor. But we were probably middle class. Still, I’ve always considered myself a Democrat.
California is a blue state in which it’s a pretty safe bet that Sen. Obama will win the popular vote and the state’s electoral votes, so the Obama campaign in California is focusing on nearby tossup states, particularly Nevada and New Mexico. I will be among 10,000 Californians traveling to Nevada over the next few weeks to canvas neighborhoods, register people to vote and help make sure they cast their votes on Nov. 4th. I’ll be driving to Reno this weekend with several dozen other volunteers from the Bay Area to work. I and other volunteers did phone banking Sunday afternoon to voters in New Mexico. We worked from computer-generated lists of registered voters --- Democrats, Republicans and Independents – and found encouraging support for Obama among those voters we reached.
Monday, I helped register voters at Santa Clara University. Students either hadn’t yet registered or had registered in their hometowns but wanted to register here. It was great to see their interest and excitement in the first presidential election in which they’d be able to vote.
This morning I checked the Gallup Poll and Obama has an 8-point lead over Sen. John McCain, which is encouraging. But we are taking no chances. I’d ask those of you living here in California to consider that just because Obama is leading here doesn’t mean there’s nothing for you to do for the campaign. You can travel to nearby battleground states, such as Nevada, or volunteer to call voters in other tossup states such as Indiana, New Mexico, West Virginia or Wisconsin. The Obama organization is well run and they make volunteering easy. You can run your own phone bank from your own home.
Please visit the national Obama for America campaign site for starters. You can also visit related Web sites such as the California site, Silicon Valley for Obama or the San Francisco site.
BTW, as I was leaving the lot where I parked my car to attend the event, I told the parking attendant I'd been at the Obama event. She told me, "We need something to change." When I handed back the slip I'd signed for the parking, I included a "Yes We Can" button for her.
Best wishes to you all.

China gains majority stake in US in debt-for-equity swap

2008-09-26T13:40:00.000-07:00

A headline we may see if this Wall Street bailout doesn't work!

Ballmer: Stop worrying and turn off CNBC

2008-09-26T13:25:00.000-07:00

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer agrees it’s hard to tell how the Wall Street crisis will play out, but his comments Thursday indicate he thinks tech may be insulated from it.
Ballmer was the guest speaker at a Churchill Club dinner that drew 550 people to the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara.
While members of the Congress, White House and U.S. Treasury Department were pulling their hair out trying to craft a bailout bill to prevent credit markets from collapsing, Ballmer said people he’s close to in the tech industry still see a certain “buoyancy.”
“For now, people in our business are feeling better than if they watched CNBC all day,” he told Ann Winblad, a partner in Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, who interviewed him onstage at the event.
While he admitted that the tech industry is not immune to the changes and challenges in the global economy, the latest crisis on Wall Street hasn’t impacted software companies yet. To be sure, Microsoft had a rosy June quarter, its most recent, with an 18 percent increase in revenue to $15.8 billion, versus the year ago quarter, a 42 percent increase in operating revenue to $5.7 billion and a 48 percent increase in earnings per share to $0.46. Still, that was almost three months ago, when even people like Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson were telling us everything was under control. It’s hard to believe even a company like Microsoft can be insulated from some adverse effect. If credit markets collapse because no bailout plan is produced or the one created fails, companies will have difficulty borrowing money for operating or capital budgets to be spent on new computer software.
Surprisingly, little was said at the Churchill Club forum about Microsoft’s failed bid to acquire Yahoo earlier this year. Microsoft sought the $31 a share deal to better position itself against search engine leader Google. Yahoo and Microsoft are distant second and third place finishers, respectively.
Ballmer took a few questions from the audience, including one from an obviously irate PC user: “When are you going to fix Windows Vista so it works?” the man asked from the back of the ballroom. Vista has been notoriously buggy since its debut in 2007 and many critics say Vista is proof that operating systems are getting too big and unwieldy for their own good.
“I’ll fix your PC myself so it works,” Ballmer cracked, then argued that Microsoft has 5,000 people continuing to work on improving Vista and said that while people might be having problems with Vista, overall, every new Windows operating systems is better than the preceding one.

Cadmium: The Dark Side of Thin Film

2008-09-25T11:46:00.000-07:00

While looking for fulltime employment, I'm making do writing freelance. Here's a post I wrote for the GigaOM-related blog Earth2Tech about the presence of cadmium in solar panels.

Does anybody see a troubling pattern here?

2008-09-17T14:31:00.001-07:00

Palin staff won't testify in trooper probe, AG says
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/17/palin.investigation/index.html

Rove ignores committee's subpoena, refuses to testify
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/10/rove.subpoena/index.html

More proof that McCain-Palin will be more of the same from Bush-Cheney.

Spare us the phony belated Hillary sympathy

2008-09-14T13:33:00.000-07:00

What a bunch of crap from the McCain-Palin campaign in the form of VP candidate Gov. Sarah Palin's suggestion to ABC's Charles Gibson that Sen. Barack Obama may come to regret not choosing Sen. Hillary Clinton as his running mate. No doubt other GOP surrogates will be repeating that talking point, transparently designed to sow doubt in voter's minds about the Obama-Biden ticket. If Obama had picked Clinton, the GOP would have continued to mercilessly attack her with what I like to call the Hate Hillary Inc. machine. They would be encouraging the media to do stories on supposed dissent within the Obama-Clinton ranks (and sadly, many would take the bait) and would be beating up on Hillary and Bill Clinton just as they have since 1992. Do you think we're going to buy this sympathy and respect for Hillary's "determination and grit" from the same campaign whose nominee, Sen. John McCain, laughed when a supporter asked him "How do we beat the bitch?"
Oh, and stop saying that Palin has foreign policy experience because Alaska is close to Russia (or as Tina Fey so brilliantly put it on SNL, "I can see Russia from my house!") That's like saying I'm experienced because I had a Stoly martini once.
Read this story about how vindictive Palin was as mayor of Wasilla and as Governor of Alaska, firing political adversaries and using personal e-mail for official business so it couldn't be subpoenaed in any possible investigation. I'm not opposed to Palin because I'm sexist; I voted for Hillary Clinton in the California primary. I'm opposed to Palin's candidacy because she is by every measure, unqualified for the VP or, if it comes to that, president.

Time to dust this blog off and fire it up

2008-09-14T13:21:00.000-07:00

I started this blog almost a year ago but after a few postings, its importance drifted away. I started Mullico Musings to talk about technology, my career field of journalism, and politics, with maybe a little pop culture mixed in. I think it's time for me to resume blogging here. I have another (relatively) more active blog about my extended family, McCorryFamilyUSA
I started Mullico Musings to talk about technology, my field of journalism, and politics, maybe a little pop culture. It's time for more of that, especially with what I think is at stake in the upcoming presidential election.
But first, on technology, I'm currently freelancing while looking for fulltime employment. I just had a story of mine posted on SearchFinancialSecurity.com about a security breach at Citibank's ATM network. Hope you find it interesting. It was interesting for me to report it.

Chelsea ineligible for third term as First Daughter

2008-02-06T08:39:00.000-08:00

Chelsea Clinton would be ineligible under the 25th Amendment to serve a third term as First Daughter if her mother, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), is elected president, constitutional scholars say.
Ms. Clinton served as First Daughter from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton, thus serving the maximum two terms allowed under the 25th Amendment, said William Wainwright, professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard University. Her parents would be eligible to return to the White House if Sen. Clinton is elected in November as they would be serving different roles than in the first Clinton administration, Wainwright explained. Hillary would be president instead of First Lady and Bill would be First Gentleman, "or something like that."
But as for Chelsea, "Sorry, but she's out," said Rupert Heffernan, dean of the Stanford University School of Constitutional Studies. "The 25th Amendment was designed to prevent someone from holding an office too long and amassing too much power. I hope she's not too disappointed."
Ineligibility for First Daughter would deprive Ms. Clinton of the many perks associated with the office, including free housing, use of a Secret Service driver and availability of the White House for "awesome" parties.
Reached on the campaign trail with her parents, Ms. Clinton immediately suspended licking envelopes and other campaign activities.
"This sucks," Ms. Clinton reportedly told the candidate. "Mom, how about a cabinet post?"

Why the media still cover Apple (but quietly seethe)

2007-11-18T19:02:00.001-08:00

So there I was at Apple Macworld the day after Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone, an invention so fantastic that Macolytes gathered around one of the new phones, spinning slowly inside a glass case and protected by burly guards, as awed as though they were witnessing The Oracle.
A few feet away, a young man was demonstrating the iPhone to a group of about 50-60 attendees and I snapped away, taking photos of the demo for IDG News Service.
After his presentation, I approached the man at the stage and asked what I thought would be a routine question: "What is your name?" That way, when we ran a photo of the guy demonstrating the iPhone, the caption could read something simple like, "Joe Blow, product specialist at Apple, demonstrates the new iPhone at the Macworld Conference and Expo in San Francisco."
But the guy's response was more typical Apple than typical: "You'll have to contact someone in public relations."
Again, this was not, "What will Apple's stock price be a year from now?" or "Why is the iPhone covered in Chinese lead paint?" It was "What is your name?"
I found a PR person and got the Apple corporate line: "We don't allow our employees to be identified."
I found this to be needlessly controlling and told the PR rep this, though it failed to remove the "I have no free will but to recite the Apple corporate line" smile from her face.
I thought of going back to the demo guy and saying, "I know you can't tell me your name but I missed the first part of your presentation. You know, the part where you introduced yourself to the audience. Could you go over that part again?"
Instead, I blew it off, but worried how many other journalists have inadvertently gotten themselves into trouble by identifying Steve Jobs as an employee of Apple. There must be thousands of them!

Hurd to '60 Minutes:' I'm ready!

2007-11-18T17:59:00.000-08:00

I was covering HP CEO/chairman Mark Hurd's keynote at Oracle OpenWorld Nov. 12, 2007, and looked up from my notebook when Hurd said he was going to "take a risk."
Hurd, the able and competent, yet media-averse head of Hewlett-Packard, has eschewed interaction with the media in his two-and-a-half years on the job. So this sounded encouraging.
PR thugs ran interference against this reporter trying to question Hurd after a keynote address at the HP Technology Forum in Houston in 2006.
And a few weeks later, Hurd presided at a news conference at HP's Palo Alto headquarters at which he made prepared remarks and then ducked behind a black curtain. Reporters were instructed to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
Okay, both these media interactions happened while HP was reeling from the still unfolding "Pretexting Scandal," in which HP higher-ups authorized spying to see which board members were leaking to the media. I can't tell you how many times I wrote the phrase, "used false pretenses to obtain the calling records of HP directors, employees and journalists who cover the company" during those few months.
But a year had passed, the story had faded, HP continues to chug along, passing IBM as the world's largest technology company. Maybe Hurd decided he can relax and open up.
So at Oracle OpenWorld Hurd says, "I'm taking a risk," by answering videotaped questions of convention attendees from just before his keynote. "I have not seen these questions in advance," he assured us.
Well, while he may not have seen them in advance, that doesn't mean they weren't prescreened by persons with his interests at heart, weren't scripted and weren't softball.
"What is the role of IT in business?"
"How is HP delivering on the promise of the next-generation data center?"
And, the crowd's favorite:
"Should I buy Dell or HP?"
Aside from the hilarity of Michael Dell's cameo there (just kidding), the keynote had all the spontaneity and honesty of a Bush-Cheney town hall meeting, or of a Hillary Clinton event, depending on which side you're on.
But why should I be surprised? The reason any company executive makes their convention address on a stage is so it can be stage-managed. Some of the convention keynotes I've covered over the years adopt production values like those of a Broadway show.
But some execs follow their stage performance with a real Q&A with reporters afterwards. C'mon, Mark, give it a try.

Welcome to Mullico Musings

2007-11-18T17:23:00.001-08:00

I'm unemployed for the second time in as many years in Silicon Valley. The latest because the print/online publication for which I was employed was itself a victim of arithmetic. It's print advertising revenue was declining faster than its online ad revenue was rising. "And so it goes," as Linda Ellerbee would say.
A long time friend of mine who took pity on me by picking up the dinner tab the other night said I should create a blog.
"You should create a blog," is how she put it.
So here it goes. Between sending out resumes, writing freelance articles, combing job sites and collecting cans in my shopping cart, I intend to provide all of you who care to visit my perspective on the technology industry, life in Silicon Valley, the media, a little bit of politics and all that observational humor that makes people like Jay leno and Jerry Seinfeld millionaires.
My ambitions are modest. I only want to be a thousandaire.

Throughout my journalism career, anytime an editor would cut a big chunk of copy out of one of my stories I would say, "I'm going to put that in my memoir." So I may dump some of that in here, unless upon second glance I decide, "Wow, that was stupid. No wonder he took it out."

I may also use this blog to sound off at whim on news of the day with some outrageously uniformed remark, then regret it after receiving tons of hate e-mail and threats of violence. I will then delete the posting and deny it ever existed.

A lot of the postings on this blog will be stream-of-conciousness thinking...writing whatever comes to mind and having it travel unimpeded from my brain to my fingers to the keyboard to you. Of course, stream-of-conciousness sometimes includes thoughts while sleeping so if a posting should concern my erotic adventures with (insert name of hotty-tabloid-starlet-of-the-moment-in-or-out-of-jail here), take it with a grain of salt.

So why do I call it Mullico Musings? Well, my name is Robert Mullins and I'm one of nine children. My siblings have enjoyed rewarding careers in a variety of areas: health care, technology, legal services, publishing, plumbing supplies, hospitality and, of course, journalism, and I thought our family would make a nice giant, multi-vertical conglomerate. Y'know, the kind that would get huge no-bid, maybe even no work, but certainly no-oversight contracts in Iraq. The name Mullico's stuck with me all this time. (Memo to myself: trademark the name Mullico).