Valerie B. Jarrett
Jarrett (born November
14, 1956) served as senior advisor to U.S. president Barack Obama.
She was Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public
Engagement, and Chaired the White House Commission on Women and Girls. Prior to
her current position, she served as Co-Chair of the Obama-Biden Presidential
Transition Team, and Senior Advisor to Obama's presidential
campaign.[1]
She was also a Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
Family
Valerie Jarrett is the great niece of prominent
Democratic Party leftist Vernon Jordan.
Vernon Jordan, Jr.
Jordan was a founding member of the National Conference of Black Lawyers.[5]
According to the National Conference of Black Lawyers
website[6];
In 1968, young people of African descent in America were
growing impatient with the slow pace of social change. Despite modest advances
brought on by two decades of non-violent resistance, from one end of the
country to the other, the cry for Black Power was raised in the midst of a sea
of clinched fists. At the same time, this new militant spirit had moved many to
don black berets and carry rifles. On street corners in practically every Black
community, passers-by heard demands for Nation Time and Power to the People!
The National Conference of Black Lawyers
and its allied organization, the National Lawyers Guild are the U.S. affiliates
of the International Association of
Democratic Lawyers.
The IADL, was a "front" for the former Soviet
Union and is still dominated by communist and socialist lawyers and legal
organizations.
Google's Eric Schmidt talks about how to run the world
(not that he wants to)
June 9, 2008 |
3:48 pm
Despite its famous motto of "Don't be evil," there
are some in the dark corners of the Web who speculate that Google's real plan
is to take over the world. Google Watch
features headlines such as "Google Must be Stopped," and "Is
Google God?" The site Google World Domination
even has a countdown clock, which indicates that the Skynet-type moment when we
will all be slaves to the mighty Google algorithms will take place in roughly 6
years and 192 days. (Interestingly, the site, which includes a creepy video,
features ads by Google,
demonstrating how insidious that plot actually might be).
With that type of speculation out there, it's news any time
a Google executive talks about running the world.
And that's exactly what Google Chief Executive Eric
Schmidt did today, sort of.
He didn't say that Google wanted to run the world. But he
did offer an interesting suggestion to a crowd of power players in Washington
about the best way to do it: Just like Google.
"It is possible to build a culture around
innovation. It is possible to build a culture around leadership. And it is
possible to build a culture around optimism. Google is an example, but
by no means the only example, of a culture that can be built based on
relatively scalable principles. We could run our country this way. We could run
the world this way."
It was meant to be an inspiring moment...
...as Schmidt wrapped up a speech to the Economic Club of
Washington during a luncheon in a packed ballroom at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. Click here for an
audio clip of Schmidt's comments.
The appearance was a homecoming of sorts for Schmidt. Vernon E.
Jordan Jr., the club's president and a former President Clinton advisor,
noted that Schmidt was born a few blocks away from the hotel at George
Washington University Hospital, and grew up in the Northern Virginia suburbs.
His mother, Ellie Schmidt, was in the audience.
Schmidt talked about cloud computing and the promise of
mobile devices, all the while plugging some Google products. For the
journalists sitting in the back of the room (no lunch of seared beef filet with
Cabernet reduction and lemon and thyme glazed salmon filet for us), Schmidt did
commisserate about the state of the newspaper industry.
"We all care a lot about this. Newspaper demand has
never been higher. The problem is revenues have never been lower. So people are
reading the newspaper they're just not reading it in a way where the newspapers
can make money on it. This is a shared problem. We have to solve it. There's no
obviously good solution right now."
One possible solution some have have floated has been for
Google to use a sliver of its approximately $175 billion market cap to buy a
newspaper, such as the New York Times, but Schmidt recently downplayed
such an idea.
Like many Silicon Valley executives who come to
Washington, Schmidt spoke broadly about technology (his speech was titled,
"The Future of the Internet: Engine for Economic Growth") and did his
best not to make any major news. He didn't even come close to mentioning Yahoo,
let alone comment on the possibility of Google cutting a deal to place ads next
to Yahoo's search results.
Schmidt opted to talk less about the nuts-and-bolts of
one of the world's largest companies than the ways in which technology can
shape the future. Noting that the United States was founded "by people who
saw a better model," Schmidt concluded his speech with this call to arms:
"So let's be revolutionaries. Let's take this
opportunity, this huge change that is before us, with technlology, and let's
change businesses, communications and the way we interact, on some new
principles that reflect the very best of America."
Those sound like the words of someone who might be
considering a run for higher office one day, assuming Google isn't running
everything by then.
-- Jim Puzzanghera
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