I made a conscious decision when starting this site, not to turn it into a factory of regurgitating links/sites/videos found elsewhere on the Internet.  I’m a firm believer that if you don’t have anything unique/new/distinct to say then you shouldn’t say anything (in a public forum). However that being said, sharing things found elsewhere on the web is not a terrible idea, especially some of these less-obvious gems.  I have stock-piled these three videos for your enjoyment.

James Valley

James Valley is the mayor of Helena-West Helena, Arkansas.  The town is in a pretty poor state, so Mayor Valley implemented a curfew to keep the streets safer and protect the tax-paying citizens.  Sounds like a good guy just trying to do his best to clean up the town. As he states, the curfew is a ‘zero tolerance, they’re going to jail’ type of curfew. I like that, everyone knows the rules, swift justice for those who violate them.  The last seven seconds of the video though, Mayor Valley’s real sense of justice is revealed when he let’s us know that instead of putting the drug dealers and hustlers in jail, “we gonna pop them in the head.” I wonder how he became mayor?

Virtual Hooshmand

Margaret is an Executive Assistant for a Cisco Networks executive (Marthin DeBeer).  She doesn’t want to do her assisting in the office (or even the same state) as her boss so she telecommutes everyday on a plasma screen display that is located at her old desk. Her new name placard says Virtual Margaret, and her co-workers still love to gossip with her.  One even offers her some tea/coffee with 18 seconds remaining in the video.  We’ve had web cams since the Internet went public, so that’s really not a big breakthrough.  I think that Cisco may be hinting at some new technology coming down the pipe, where you’ll be able to teleport coffee/tea to your telecommuting co-workers.  Either that or Margaret works with idiots.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv0smG7ptcM[/youtube]

Dennis Kucinich

I’ll end on a positive note.  Where to start, where to start.  Clearly the best speech of the convention, and I’m sure most of you missed it the first time around. If Kucinich wasn’t so quirky, he’d actually get votes in primaries and maybe be an excellent President (how many other candidates carry a copy of the constitution in their pocket?)  From the “Are you ready for November” (“Let’s get ready to rumble”), to giving a shout-out to Stephanie, he owned this speech.  He stops using a teleprompter half-way through the speech, and begins to evoke the Hulkamania fever that swept over the nation in the 80’s. But the best part of the speech, is the woman at 4:30 who doesn’t know the color of the money in her purse.  That’s okay, she was mesmerized.  He finished strong, and it resonated with me.

Up with the rights of workers.  Up with wages. Up with fair trade. Up with creating millions of good paying jobs rebuilding our bridges, our water systems, our sewer systems, our ports. Up with creating millions of sustainable energy jobs to lower the cost of energy, lower carbon emissions, and protect the environment. Up with health care for all. Up with education for all. Up with home ownership. Up with guaranteed retirement benefits. Up with peace. Up with prosperity. Up with the Democratic Party. Up with Obama-Biden. Wake up America, wake up America, wake up America.

A man who clearly loves his country, countrymen and countrywomen. A man who clearly has his priorities in proper order.  A man after my own heart.