The 2011 Correspondence Dinner Video

The 2011 Correspondence Dinner Video - Anthony Weiner Rep. NY

I think you'll enjoy the humor!

The Game season finale TONIGHT on BET!

The nasty e-mail habit that drives me crazy

The nasty e-mail habit that drives me crazy

Written by Scot Herrick on June 11, 2010 in Job Performance

You’ve seen e-mails all in a row with the Subject line just like this:

Joe Smith Let’s meet

Sue Jones Let’s meet

Mary Joe Let’s meet

Fred Flintstone Let’s meet

Joe Smith Let’s meet

Mary Joe Let’s meet

Joe Smith Let’s meet

What is buried inside of them? Well, most likely Joe wants to set up a meeting with people to discuss something. And then people start replying with suggested times…and do a “Reply All” to do it.

Then somewhere in those e-mails is the real meeting time and/or conference number for the meeting. And perhaps in yet a different one is the agenda for the meeting. Assuming you get an agenda, of course.

Then in some other one of the e-mails is Mary’s file to use for the meeting. Then in one of Fred’s e-mails is his file for the meeting.

And then you sit down and take five minutes to prepare for the meeting itself. You have to go through twenty e-mails to find the conference number. Five more to find the agenda. In the meantime, you cross three other e-mails with files in them that will be used in the meeting, but you really don’t know if you got all of them because there is no definitive list with them on it.

It drives me nuts. And, yes, I am guilty of doing this too. It still drives me nuts.

Here’s the deal: put meaningful Subject lines in your e-mail and when you reply, ensure that the Subject line is still meaningful.

Like this:

Joe Smith Request meeting time for Project X

Mary Joe (Reply only, not Reply All…) Cannot meet on Wednesday for Project X meeting

Fred Flintstone Enclosed file for Project X meeting

By taking ten extra seconds to make a meaningful subject line, you save immense amounts of time in the long run and feel much more in control.

After all, you wouldn’t have read this article on Cube Rules if the title of the article was “E-mail,” would you? Nope. Meaningful titles help communicate and keep you productive.

So the GOP debates will happen at The Ronald Reagan Library we paid for....

The 2010 midterm elections have just ended, and already the news organizations are gearing up for the 2012 Presidential race.

NBC News says it will be the television partner for the first 2012 Republican presidential primary debate, which will be hosted by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Spring, 2011, with a second debate on the eve of “Super Tuesday” in 2012. Politico will serve as the online partner for the debates.

“The fact that we are already talking about the 2012 presidential race only foreshadows how invested and deeply-rooted America will be in the political discussion come next spring,” said Steve Capus, the president of NBC News, in a statement. “We look forward to working with our esteemed colleagues at Politico and the Reagan Library to produce a world-class debate.”

The debates will be a repeat of the 2008 campaign, which saw the Reagan Library hosting the first debate, and MSNBC televising it.

More information after the jump.

REAGAN PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY FOUNDATION TO HOST FIRST GOP PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE OF THE 2012 CAMPAIGN

NBC NEWS AND POLITICO TO CO-HOST AND MODERATE

Simi Valley, CA – Former First Lady Nancy Reagan today announced plans to invite all of the leading contenders for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination to two debates at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. The Reagan Presidential Foundation plans to play host to both the first GOP presidential debate of the 2012 election cycle in spring 2011 and a second GOP debate on the eve of the Super Tuesday primaries.

The Reagan Foundation has confirmed NBC News as the television partner and POLITICO as the online partner of the first debate. The media partners for the second, pre-Super Tuesday debate will be announced in 2011.

“Ronnie would be thrilled that the road to the White House will begin at his Presidential Library,” Mrs. Reagan said. The Library hosted two debates in the 2008 election cycle, including the first of the election cycle. “I look forward to welcoming and watching the top candidates debate the issues next spring.”

“The fact that we are already talking about the 2012 presidential race only foreshadows how invested and deeply-rooted America will be in the political discussion come next spring,” said Steve Capus, President of NBC News. “We look forward to working with our esteemed colleagues at POLITICO and the Reagan Library to produce a world-class debate.”

“We are honored to be involved in a presidential debate with NBC News and the Reagan Foundation,” said Robert Allbritton, publisher of POLITICO. “There are so many important issues confronting this nation, and POLITICO is eager to work with NBC News to fashion a rich and spirited debate among the candidates about the major policy issues of the day.”

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Ronald Reagan’s legacy of inspired freedom and his timeless principles of individual liberty, economic opportunity, global democracy, and national pride. It sustains the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, the Reagan Center for Public Affairs, the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Presidential Learning Center and The Air Force One Pavilion. Located in Simi Valley, California the Library houses 63 million pages of Gubernatorial, Presidential and personal papers and over 60,000 gifts and artifacts chronicling the lives of Ronald and Nancy Reagan. It now also serves as the final resting place of America’s 40th President. WWW.REAGANFOUNDATION.ORG

NBC News has been a leading source of global news and information for more than 75 years, first on radio, and today via broadcast and cable television, the Internet, radio and cell phones. Operating around the clock with bureaus in key cities in the U.S. and overseas, NBC News provides immediate coverage and in-depth reporting of major events to a worldwide audience. For more than a decade, NBC News has served as the dominant force in television news, watched by more Americans than any other news organization. NBC News provides more than 25 hours of weekly programming, including the top-rated Nightly News with Brian Williams, Today and Meet the Press programs.

POLITICO is a Washington, D.C.-based political journalism organization that serves as the one-stop shop for the fastest, deepest coverage of the president, the new Congress and the 2012 presidential race. POLITICO’s journalists break news and drive conversation about the White House, Capitol Hill and Washington lobbying, plus the intersection of politics with Wall Street, media and personalities. POLITICO launched in January of 2007 with the mission of covering politics with enterprise, style and impact.

For Colored Girls

I have read so many reviews about the movie For Colored Girls, a movie from the play by Ntozake Shange entitled For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf. So many reviews are being posted about the movie and it was #3 at the box office for it's opening weekend. As a result, there are so many reviews that those who have not saw the movie will either see for them selves or live vicariously through all of us who write about the movie. As I read through some of the reviews and the reviews of the reviews (LOL), I am actually shocked at how men who have written about it seem to be very upset about the entire movie and find nothing that was remotely interesting about the movie. Women on the other hand, have been a mixed collection of reviews and most were able to find something they enjoyed about the movie. I think that one must read the play in order to get the fullness of Shange's writing being portrayed in the movie, but I found the movie For Colored Girls to be worth my time and would say go to see it, if asked.

Art comes in so many different forms and although this movie wasn't the movie that put both our men and women on a pedestal, but it was needed and the box office is proof of this. It may not be the story of those who have criticized the movie, but my experience while viewing is that it is evident that it is many viewers' story or experience. I sat at a screening at the historic Lincoln Theater in Washington, DC. During the show I heard so many people crying, sniffling and saw them holding hands to console one another. It is a part of the journey. Soon Black movie producers and writers will get to tell a different story. They will share a different tale. One that is filled with more hope and promise and will create a more forward-moving feeling at the end. There will be more men like Hill Harper in the movie that we will see soon. More sisters will unite in spite of the hate they have thrown at each other. Now is the time to get all of this other stuff out of the artistic system that lies within those who create these films. Once we get through this process then I think we will have movies where Black men are shown in a positive light on the Big Screen. I am ready. Are you?

Black Girls Rock! Sunday at 8p/7c. ONLY ON BET!

Don't miss BLACK GIRLS ROCK! hosted by Nia Long this SUNDAY at 8p/7c ONLY ON BET! Check out bet.com/blackgirlsrock for more details!

Since 2006, BLACK GIRLS ROCK! Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, has been dedicated to the healthy development of young women and girls. BLACK GIRLS ROCK! Inc. seeks to build the self-esteem and self-worth of young women of color by changing their outlook on life, broadening their horizons, and helping them to empower themselves. BLACK GIRLS ROCK! Inc. is an organization that takes an active role in being a part of the solution to the crisis facing young women of color. For the past four years, we have enjoyed the opportunity to enrich the lives of girls from 12 to 17 years old through mentorship, arts education, cultural exploration and public service. At BLACK GIRLS ROCK! Inc., young women are offered access to enrichment programs and opportunities that place special emphasis on personal development through the arts and cooperative learning. BLACK GIRLS ROCK! Inc. is now joining forces with BET Networks for an unprecedented worldwide broadcast of BLACK GIRLS ROCK! The event will be a historic and monumental show highlighting the accomplishments of exceptional women of color who have made outstanding contributions in their careers, and who stand as inspirational and positive role models in their communities. Don’t miss the televised worldwide debut of BLACK GIRLS ROCK! on Sunday at 8p/7c. For more information about Black Girls Rock, Inc.

Q&A: Wyclef Jean on Bill Clinton and Haiti's New Revolution

Q&A: Wyclef Jean on Bill Clinton and Haiti's New Revolution

A portion of this interview appears in the August 2010 cover story, "The Country That Never Was," on Bill Clinton's looking for hope in the dirt to rebuild — no, just build — Haiti as the de facto CEO of a leaderless nation. But Jean, an influential leader in his own right, struck as so smart — so honest ("It's the rising, and what I mean by the rising is destroy to rebuild") — that we'd thought we should share a bit more.

ESQUIRE: What changes have you seen in the way people are living in Port-au-Prince since the quake?

WYCLEF JEAN: Before the quake we had close to an 80 percent illiteracy rate. The population could not read and write. Before the quake you had a situation of child slavery. Before the quake you had a high prostitution rate. Before the quake, Cité du Soleil was in an inhumane situation — not even animals would walk in. Before the quake, Haiti got hit with back-to-back hurricanes, the city of Gonaïves was destroyed.

ESQ: That's a good breakdown of how it was before, but what's the change been like since?

WJ: One-point-two million homeless. There were homes then. No matter what kind of homes they were, they still were homes. Forget the fact that people live in tents these days. Now, no homes. That will catch up to them.

ESQ: Haitians talk about this being a new beginning.

WJ: Oh, yes. Haiti has an opportunity now to start from scratch, and what that means is, we can get real schools in there, there's a chance of getting real hospitals, of teaching a population how to read and write, where kids can get a degree, and actually do something with the degree right now. As far as investment and business, this is the best time to invest in business in Haiti.

ESQ: But let's say this is the moment people on the outside stop paying attention. Can that be reversed? Will Americans keep Haiti on their mind?

WJ: Definitely. I think it'll stay that way that with Bill there. An ex-president of the United States of America — I don't know too many stories like that in the case of history, where a former president goes and decides that he's going to be part of helping run another country. That's big. It don't get bigger than that. You know what I’m saying? That signal is, "Yes, the Americans are there."

ESQ: There's still a lot of energy in Port-au-Prince — you see kids in their uniforms going to school here. It feels like there's a certain reverence for school. Yet...

WJ: Let me ask you something: Is that really school? Or is that the façade of school? You and me, all of us here in the States, we know what school is. Nobody bluffs us. In Haiti, there is the façade of school. But this moment — the rebuilding — is an opportunity to actually provide real schooling for a mass population, which can turn things around in the next fifteen years.

ESQ: Should that be the focus of relief efforts?

WJ: Now the effort needs to change from relief to business, because if you don't have a country where you're bringing in business — where you're sure that if you put in a dollar, you're going to get three dollars back — no one will be interested.

ESQ: I don't know if this is a difficult question or what, but from my reading...

WJ: There's no question that's difficult for me. My daddy was a minister, my grandfather was a voodoo priest, my uncle was a mason, I was raised with a lot of studies.

ESQ: ...everyone agrees there's a small group of families that control money and commerce in Haiti. If that's so, how can you decentralize that structure in order to do things like reinvent health care?

WJ: The first question is not who they are. The first question we have to ask is, What are these families? They are capitalists. They believe in capitalism, in making money, right? We have to build an open system that doesn't stop them from making money, that will work for them, if only because what they're making could double, triple. Everything starts with policy. We just say, If you break the law, then you'll pay for it, because there's an enforceable policy in place. In America, we don't stop people from making money. If you've got a dollar, and you can make three with it, make three with it, you can make six, make ten, but — pay your taxes, dude. Don't do that and you're going to be in trouble. That's how I see it happening.

ESQ: Taxation. The Tea Party nightmare.

WJ: Yeah. Understand what I'm saying to you. I don't bite my tongue — some people may be scared to talk about families — but I grew up in the States, and the reality of it is: if they are in the mansion, and around them is nothing but huts, and a bunch of people who can't read and write, then it’s not a mansion; it's the façade of a mansion.

And I only speak firsthand, because my mama was a maid, and I'm from the hut — not a house, not an apartment, not a ghetto, a hut. After all these years, when these families have made so much money, why aren't people in schools? Why can't kids read, and why can't they write? Is this modernized slavery, in a way? Is this whole thing created to keep a certain class, with slavery? That needs to change, and it's going to change with the revolution. And the revolution this time is not going to be with arms. It has to be a revolution with policy, nonviolence, apply the Gandhi thing, and the Dr. King method. That's what I believe.

COMPLETE COVERAGE OF BILL CLINTON AND HAITI:
COVER STORY PREVIEW: Clinton on His Commitment, Health Care, and Much More
DEBATE: Is Haiti Destined to Be a Republic of NGOs?
TOM CHIARELLA: On the Ground, Haitians Ar Tired — and Angry
EARLIER: Clinton Talks to Esquire After the Quake
FLASHBACK: Clinton on Haiti in 1994

Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/wyclef-jean-haiti-earthquake-interview#ixzz0t7ov8d9r