Robert Scoble, June 2, 2006:

To me, I don’t trust someone who’s solely in it for the money. That’s the way lots of companies behave. Heck, I even behave that way sometimes. But my best work is when I’m doing something for fun, or in support of a philosophy, like ‘the world needs better software.’ Blogging lets me communicate with you about when I’m not just thinking about business. Why? Cause there isn’t a business model on my blog. It’s why I’m turning down free stuff now, why I don’t have ads here, etc. Yeah, my audience does give me career power, but that’s not why I started it and it’s not what drives me to share my life with you.

Ahhh. Good ole Robert Scoble. Always good for a nice dose of hypocrisy when the world is falling short on it.

Here’s the “above the fold” look of the new Scobleizer.com:

I guess the naked conversation is now over.

(Me on this very subject back in January)

This is the kind of “new politics” you’re in for if Saint Obama wins the presidency come November.

Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign violated New York City Education Department regulations by making a video in a Bronx classroom starring high school kids inspired by the presidential candidate’s speeches. The video was attached to a mass e-mailing Friday that included a pitch for donations.

Filming in school buildings for political or promotional purposes is “a violation of the chancellor’s regulations,” said Margie Feinberg, a department spokeswoman, after viewing the video and e-mail.

I’m willing to give Obama the doubt and say that there was no intention on his campaign’s part to willfully violate the rules of the NYC School System. I’ll assume that anything that did happen was unintentional and not designed to willfully ignore anything that they already knew. This part of the story, for me, doesn’t demonstrate any attempt to be “above the law.”

That being said, this part certainly does.

Feinberg declined to say whether the chancellor’s office also would ask the Illinois Democrat’s campaign to take the video off its Web site. For now, the campaign said it would stay up.

Jen Psaki, an Obama spokeswoman, said the campaign was unaware of the regulations.

Okay, but now that you’re aware of the regulations, defying them by saying the video would in fact stay up strikes me as grossly hypocritical.

For months and months we’ve heard about how the Obama campaign is going to do things differently. So far, to their credit, they have.

They said they wouldn’t take money from PAC’s, and they haven’t, instead choosing to take millions and millions from individuals that are in various ways connected to different PACS. In some cases, large corporate donors rally their friends to make large donations to the campaign (a practice known as “bundling”)

They said they won’t run a negative campaign and yet time and time and time again, they’ve attacked Hillary Clinton’s experience, credibility, truthfulness, and judgment both through the official campaign channels and through “rogue staffers” that were supposedly chastised later on for their actions.

Now, we see the Obama campaign violating the rules of the NYC School System (willingly or unwillingly; it’s really not the point) and then, after being informed of the fact, refusing to remedy the situation.

This is the kind of person all the liberals who think George W. Bush is a controlling psychopath who acts above the law want to vote into the office.

My question is, what’s the damn difference?

The Obama campaign should take the video down immediately now that they know it’s a violation.

End of story.

But they won’t.

And no one will call them out on it.

Barack Obama has really pounded home his message of hope and change. Oh sure it doesn’t actually mean anything, but that hasn’t stopped him from injecting those two stupid meaningless words into every sentence of every speech since he was one of 7 other candidates. One of the consistent themes is that it won’t be politics as usual if we believe in hope and change and elect Barack Obama as President. He’s going to end the politics of fear and bring this great divided country back together.

Asked about Clinton’s recent comment that she would not allow herself to be victimized by the type of Swift Boat-style attacks that were leveled against Sen. John Kerry in the 2004 race, Obama said he had been vetted by his opponent in the nominating campaign.

“I have to just respond by saying that the Clinton research operation is about as good as anybody’s out there,” he said.

“I assure you that having engaged in a contest against them for the last year that they’ve pulled out all the stops. And you know I think what is absolutely true is whoever the Democratic nominee is the Republicans will go after them. The notion that somehow Senator Clinton is going to be immune from attack or there’s not a whole dump truck they can’t back up in a match between her and John McCain is just not true.”

Translation: Vote for me or the dirt they dig up on Hillary will make her lose and we’ll have at least four more years of Republicans.

“I have no doubt that I can get the people who vote for Senator Clinton. … It’s not clear that Senator Clinton can get all the people I’m getting,” he said.

Translation: No worries, folks. No division here. It’s all in your imagination. Her people versus my people isn’t division, it’s hope. Or change. Or something.

So how exactly is this not politics as usual?

Source

Robert Scoble, June 2, 2006:

It is a nutty world we’re all connected to, isn’t it?

To me, I don’t trust someone who’s solely in it for the money. That’s the way lots of companies behave. Heck, I even behave that way sometimes. But my best work is when I’m doing something for fun, or in support of a philosophy, like ‘the world needs better software.’ Blogging lets me communicate with you about when I’m not just thinking about business. Why? Cause there isn’t a business model on my blog. It’s why I’m turning down free stuff now, why I don’t have ads here, etc. Yeah, my audience does give me career power, but that’s not why I started it and it’s not what drives me to share my life with you.

The impression that I get from that paragraph is that he doesn’t run ads on his site because he worries it would taint the communication between he and his readers.

Today, on Tech Crunch, I read that the tainting of the conversation isn’t something Robert cares about anymore…

Robert Scoble, who has long been proud of the fact that his popular blog remains free of advertisements or sponsorships, will soon put ads on his site, he told me yesterday.

The change comes as part of his move to Fast Company, who will sell the ads on his behalf and will also be redesigning the site.

Scoble and Dave Winer have been the main proponents of advertising-free blogs over the years, arguing that it creates conflicts that should be avoided.

Now, understand that I don’t fault people for making money with their blogs. I don’t even fault them completely when they turn their blogs into a link farm for payday loans and office furniture in Zimbabwe. What gets me, though, is that Mr. Naked Conversations himself used to think that the conversation and the communication between he and his readers was the most important thing. Now, it seems, that all the ethical issues he once had are gone, and his blog will now be designed by Fast Company and stocked with ads courtesy of them.

The question of course is obvious.

Did he suddenly have an epiphany about having ads on his site that was ushered in by a few dollar bills waved under his nose?

OR

Does he still think the way he used to and he just doesn’t care anymore about the naked conversation between he and his readers?

One of those questions has to have an answer of “yes” or we wouldn’t be reading about him running ads now after resisting for all this time.

Well, at least now we understand why John Kerry endorsed him. They work their campaign the same way…

By the way, this isn’t a flip flop because he changed his mind. You can obviously change your mind in this world. It’s a flip flop because he pretty much abandons his prior opinion and makes out as if he never even had it.

via Prez Vid

Whenever you hear “hip hop community,” think of these thugs:

I was shocked to learn that two of the ‘Jena 6’ boys were recently award presenters at the 2nd Annual BET Hip Hop Awards. Bryant Purvis and Carwin Jones presented the award for Hip Hop Video of the year and thanked the hip hop community for their support during the Jena 6 trials. But wait – why should these two make an appearance among the accomplished hip hop artists of today? Why are two men who were charged with attempted murder and conspiracy being propelled into celebrity status?

Because they beat up whitey. They got whitey. Whitey got what was coming to him. Whitey made a symbolic attack. Whitey is a bad guy. Whitey is the devil.

If the boys were not punished at all, they still beat someone unconscious. How is this to be praised? How is the black community supposed build itself up, decrease violence and poverty rates, eliminate violence and obscene lyrics and ideas from music when they prop up people like these two as examples?

If violence in the “hip hop community” and the “black community” (what the hell is it with minorities and communities?) were to disappear tomorrow, all the thug pieces of shit rapping and the hypocritical douchebags that praise their every word like Al “Gotta Love Parachute Pants” Sharpton and Jesse “Shakedown” Jackson would have no jobs. The black “community” has no interest in getting rid of the hate that permeates it; they just find a million different ways to excuse it and they get out of having to deal with it by crying that in the 1960’s in the South and in the 1800’s, they were slaves and abused. Apparently, you can do whatever you want as long as you had some shit in your past; whether it had any bearing on your life or not.

These thugs that beat up this kid nearly to death are no different, and the fact that the “hip hop community” is honoring them at an awards show proves, at least to me, that they’re a whole lot more interested in the “gotcha” then they are about making peace and decreasing violence.

Hat tip to Sugar Ray Dodge for the link.

Technorati Tags: hip hop, hypocrites, al sharpton, jesse jackson, jena 6

Nobel Peace Prize winner Betty Williams apologized Thursday for saying she could kill President Bush, remarks that drew scorn from Bush loyalists and shook up the International Women’s Peace Conference in Dallas.

“My feelings now and again get way ahead of me,” Ms. Williams said. “I couldn’t kill anybody, but I must confess that I’m extremely angry with the Bush administration and what they have done. To say that was wrong.”

Conference organizers immediately sought to distance themselves from her speech Wednesday night, but it brought a swift rejoinder from the White House, dominated some radio talk shows and drew a flurry of hateful e-mails to attendees.

Questioned about her speech Thursday morning, Ms. Williams initially denied making the comment but reversed course after organizers confirmed the quote.

In a speech before 1,000 people Wednesday, Ms. Williams said that violence is a choice and the push for peace takes hard work and commitment.

“Right now, I could kill George Bush,” she said. “No, I don’t mean that. How could you nonviolently kill somebody? I would love to be able to do that.” As she made her point, she chuckled and some members of the audience laughed.

Doesn’t surprise me. Yasser Arafat won the damn thing too.

It wasn’t the first time Ms. Williams has spoken critically of Mr. Bush. Last July, she made an almost identical comment about wanting to “kill George Bush” to a group of schoolchildren in Brisbane, Australia. She said her point was that it is hard to be nonviolent when there are so many atrocities in the world.

Ms. Williams said Thursday that the focus on her comments about Mr. Bush was a distraction from her more important message about peace.

“I’m just really passionate about my work. Sometimes it’s ‘open mouth, insert foot,’ ” she said. “I’ll spend the rest of the day saying I’m sorry to everybody.”

Your words are a distraction from your message? That’s a good one. I have to remember that.

Technorati Tags: nobel peace prize, hypocrite

Not that RFK Jr. has ever really accomplished anything except being nephew to a guy who drove a car into a lake, son of a guy who got shot at a speech, nephew of a guy who’s death created more conspiracy theories than you can possibly understand, and cousin to a guy who was dumb enough to fly by eye over water at night killing him and his wife, but of course he still gets press whenever he opens his trap and spews forth.

The big spectacular crapfest that was Live Earth had this gem from RFK Jr., who as I said earlier, has done nothing in his life but ride his name:

“Get rid of all these rotten politicians that we have in Washington, who are nothing more than corporate toadies,” said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the environmentalist author, president of Waterkeeper Alliance and Robert F. Kennedy’s son, who grew hoarse from shouting. “This is treason. And we need to start treating them as traitors.”

Now. Is it safe to say that calling someone a traitor is impugning their patriotism? I’d say so.

If you call our soldiers merciless baby killers and your patriotism is questioned for it, you’re called a jingo and a bigot. If, however, you call someone who dares not drink the global warming Kool Aid (I admittedly do, but we’re not talking about me here) a traitor and that’s okay?

What’s the difference and why is one acceptable and the other not?

Or is it just the subject matter? I mean after all, our soldiers are baby killers, and global warming is so above debate.

Technorati Tags: rfk, live earth, irrelevant, who cares, global warming, traitor, patriotism, hypocrite

Al Roker was proud as a member of the NBC team when Don Imus got fired:

I, for one, am really tired of the diatribes, the “humor” at others expense, the cruelty that passes for “funny”. Don imus isn’t the only one doing this, but today he’s the one in the hot seat.

What he said was vile and disgusting. It denigrated an entire team and by extension, a community and its pride in a group that had excelled.

[...]

Yet, Don Imus needs to be fired for what he said. And while we’re at it,his producer, Bernard McGurk needs to be canned as well. McGurk is just as guilty, often egging Imus on.

The “I’m a good person who said a bad thing” apology doesn’t cut it. At least he didn’t try to weasel out of this by hiding behind alcohol or drug abuse. Still, he said it and a two week suspension doesn’t cut it. It is, at best a slap on the wrist. A vacation. Nothing

Nothing, huh Al you hypocrite?

Al Roker is lucky he’s black. If he wasn’t, there would be consequences for what he said last week. Oh wait, you didn’t hear it? Of course you didn’t because the media handles black people who say horrific things a whole hell of a lot differently. No firing for Al, oh no…

Wait, you don’t know what he said… Here’s an article about it that was buried in the New York Post over the weekend.

June 9, 2007 — AL Roker apologized yesterday for joking about epileptic seizures on Thursday’s “Today” show.

“Remember that controversial Olympic logo for the 2012 Olympics in London? Some folks have complained that the campaign actually sent them into epileptic seizures,” Roker said on Thursday’s show.

“Well, we asked you to weigh in on our Web site in an informal poll; those of you who could get up off the floor after shaking around were able to actually log in . . . ”

Yesterday, Roker said he was sorry.

“I started joking about it. I want to make this clear - I was not joking about epilepsy or anyone who suffers from epilepsy,” he said at around 8:04 a.m. while he was delivering a weather report from Milwaukee.

“We understand and know that this is a serious affliction and would never joke about that.

“We were joking about the logo - not about epilepsy. If anybody was offended, I heartily and really humbly apologize.”

“Today’s” poll showed that 80 percent of viewers thought the logo was inappropriate.

So… Is Al Roker going to get fired?

Suspended?

Reprimanded?

Admonished?

ANYTHING?

Hell’s no. Just like Al Sharpton isn’t a racist. Just like liberals are never racist or bigoted. Just like gays who insult heterosexual people aren’t bigots.

The double standard is alive and well in the world, and Al Roker is quite a shining product of it.

(PS: I’m not saying Al Roker should be fired for what he said; what I’m saying is that in the interests of consistency, Al Roker should suffer the same result as Don Imus. Of course he won’t, and that’s really my point.)

I love how every time he speaks I realize how awful a President he would be. Check out this clip, natural phenomena included, of Giuliani rationalizing his repugnant position on abortion with the typical “I believe it’s wrong, but it shouldn’t be illegal” idiocy that we hear from so many on the pro abortion side.

Do I think the Catholic Chuch should be dictating policy to governments? Absolutely not. That would be silly, and some of the Church’s policies are rightfully stuck in 10 A.D., but that being said, you cannot reconcile thinking abortion is wrong and doing nothing to end it, especially when you’re in a position of power that affords you the ability to actually do something about that which you think is wrong.

Abortion is murder. Period. You either think murder is so wrong that you want it ended, or you want murder to be a choice freely available at a local butcher shop with a Planned Parenthood sign on the door.

There’s really no gray area here, and despite his best efforts to find it, Giuliani only looks like a fool every time he does.

So you would think that Google would’ve capitulated to the right-wing pressure after last year (and the year before, and the year before that) with the whole “You didn’t update your logo for Memorial Day, therefore you’re unpatriotic” bullshit. Thankfully, they didn’t, and they didn’t just update their logo to appease the right-wing patriotism police.

The funniest part, of course, is that they seem almost beside themselves about it.

Here’s a clip from Newsbusters:

Well, citizens, America’s leading search engine, and one of the most powerful forces on the Internet, has once again ignored Memorial Day.

As NewsBusters reported last year:

I’m sure most Googlers are extremely aware of how Google will dress up its logo at its web search or news pages in honor of holidays or special occasions…Yet, if you go to Google’s home page here, or its news page here, you will see nothing commemorating today’s national holiday.

One might have thought that after last year’s scrutiny, Google might have capitulated. Not so.

How dare they not take us seriously and simply give in to our bullying! HOW DARE THEY!

Do I think Google should celebrate Memorial Day? Probably. They have lots of holidays in there that mean nothing to most people. That being said, omission is not a slap of any kind. They don’t change their logo for Labor Day (ever see a union lose their shit?), Columbus Day, Father’s Day (that’s right folks, they change it for Mother’s Day, even though they haven’t changed it for Father’s day in 2 years), Washington’s Birthday, Lincoln’s Birthday, or the birthday of the Constitution.

Seriously, folks get a grip.

It hasn’t escaped me that most of the people who think Google is unpatriotic for not changing their logo have no problem with a President who’s leaving our soldiers in a shithole indefinitely to get shot at by terrorists while vetoing spending to make political statements about getting those guys out of there and lighting a fire under the asses of the Iraqis to actually start cleaning up their country.

Because, after all, supporting the troops is all about letting them rot in a desert while making political statements with their funding and having no exit strategy.

But Google’s logo? Well, that’s the real problem.

Do you think people realize how stupid they sound anymore?

Technorati Tags: google, logo, memorial day, war, iraq, hypocrites

Digg’s one of those weird things.

If they would just come out, have moderators, and admit things are controlled, things would be fine.

OR

If they would just let it be like the wild wild West, that would be fine too.

Instead, they claim to be #2 while constantly acting like #1 (although you could make a case that they’re full of #2 if you know what I mean).

Check this out. A user got this (the original site is off line, but here’s the text of the e-mail):

Your account was banned for the rate of Digging activity you’ve engaged in. We’ve determined that the time in which your Diggs happen, it isn’t possible to actually read the stories. Please read each and every story before you Digg or bury a story. Once you agree that you will Digg/bury more responsibly and read the stories, we will unban your account”.

Nothing like letting the community decide who has a quality opinion. Well done, Digg!

Technorati Tags: digg

House Democrats rejected a Republican bid Tuesday to reprimand Rep. John Murtha, a senior lawmaker accused of threatening legislative reprisals against a GOP member who had crossed him.

Before and after the largely party-line vote, which caused some Democrats discomfort, Republicans taunted Democratic leaders about their campaign promises to run a more ethical and open Congress.

The House voted 219-189 to kill the Republicans’ motion to reprimand Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, Iraq war foe and close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Two Democrats - Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and Jim Cooper of Tennessee - voted against killing the motion. One Republican - Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania - voted for the motion to table, or kill, the proposed reprimand.

Murtha, known for his bluff manner and fondness of pork barrel projects, did not dispute claims that he charged across the House floor May 17 to confront Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich. Rogers had tried unsuccessfully to strike a $23 million Murtha earmark - a targeted spending item - for a drug intelligence center in Murtha’s district.

Can you imagine the mainstream morons if this were a Republican self-protection?

Murtha violated the rules. Pelosi let it go. Apparently, no matter what, Democrats will not eat their own, and despite their claims that they were going to bring ethics and civility back, blatant rule violations are okay as long as they’re friendly with her royal highness, Speaker Pelosi.

Technorati Tags: murtha, pelosi, hypocrite

A California lawmaker, who favors a penalty for people caught driving while using their cell phone, reportedly caused a car accident this weekend – while she was on her cell phone.

State Sen. Carole Migden, 58, D-San Francisco, was driving her state-issued SUV near Vallejo on Friday morning when she rear-ended another vehicle, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Officials say the vehicle in front of Migden was slowing down for a red light, when the senator slammed into the back of the car – which then ran into another van.

One driver complained of minor injuries, and Migden has taken responsibility for the crash.

Hypocrite.

Irony has a great history of exposing hypocrisy.

Technorati Tags: carole migden, accident

What do you get when you cross a low-rated former shock jock, a right wing pundit who happens to have a common-sense approach, and a right wing sexual harasser who settled out of court to keep his dirty laundry out of the media?

This clusterfuck:

That’s the worst thing he’s ever heard on radio? Excepting his show (which can’t get a listener if it was playing over a loudspeaker in a sealed room with 100 people), and Mancow’s former tits & dunking booth stunts, he obviously doesn’t listen to much radio.

Truth is, I don’t care what people say on the radio. Short of advocating the violent overthrow of the government, nothing should be taken off the air. Kudos to Mike Gallagher who may not be the kind of fascist I thought he was.

via Orbitcast

Barely a year after their reporters won a Pulitzer prize for exposing data mining of ordinary citizens by a government spy agency, New York Times officials had some exciting news for stockholders last week: The Times company plans to do its own data mining of ordinary citizens, in the name of online profits.

The news didn’t make everyone all googly-eyed. In fact, some people at the paper’s annual stockholders meeting in the New Amsterdam Theatre exchanged confused looks when Janet Robinson, the company’s president and CEO, uttered the phrase “data mining.” Wasn’t that the nefarious, 21st-century sort of snooping that the National Security Agency was doing without warrants on American citizens? Wasn’t that the whole subject of the prizewinning work in December 2005 by Times reporters Eric Lichtblau and James Risen?

The irony of this is just palpable… The Times is against data mining except when they’re for it, and of course they’re for it when it makes them a buck…

The Village Voice via Slashdot

Technorati Tags: ny times, data mining

Chicken shit punk…

In a statement, Cam’ron tried to explain what he said, “Where I come from, once word gets out that you’ve cooperated with the police that only makes you a bigger target of criminal violence. That is a dark reality in so many neighborhoods like mine across America. I’m not saying it’s right, but it’s reality.”

Cam’ron went on — “Looking back now, I can see how those comments could be viewed as offensive, especially to those who have suffered their own personal tragedies or to those who put their lives on the line to protect our citizens from crime,” the rap star said in a statement issued today. “Please understand that I was expressing my own personal frustration at my own personal circumstances. I in no way was intending to be malicious or harmful. I apologize deeply for this error in judgment.”

So let’s get this straight. Punk-ass Cam’ron is so tough that he doesn’t need to cooperate with no pigs, but he’s such a chicken shit that he’s afraid to cooperate with the pigs.

You keeping score out there?

Technorati Tags: cam’ron, chicken shit, punk, pussy

As if you needed one…

I’ve always said that very few politicians hold any value strongly enough to allow it to stand in the face of not getting a party nomination or winning an election. Rudy Giuliani, the principled superhero of 9/11 fame is no exception. Apparently, his former socially liberal position on gay marriage wasn’t flying with the right wing of the Republican Party….

In a startling departure from his previously stated position on civil unions, Mayor Giuliani came out to The New York Sun yesterday evening in opposition to the civil union law just passed by the New Hampshire state Senate.

“Mayor Giuliani believes marriage is between one man and one woman. Domestic partnerships are the appropriate way to ensure that people are treated fairly,” the Giuliani campaign said in a written response to a question from the Sun. “In this specific case the law states same sex civil unions are the equivalent of marriage and recognizes same sex unions from outside states. This goes too far and Mayor Giuliani does not support it.”

Too far!? That certainly doesn’t fly with me, nor with Ryan Sager at the New York Sun (note to self: start buying the New York Sun):

In 1998, as mayor of New York City, Mr. Giuliani signed into law a domestic partnership bill that a gay rights group, the Empire State Pride Agenda, hailed as setting “a new national benchmark for domestic partner recognition.”

Despite Mr. Giuliani’s long history of supporting gay rights — or rather, because of it — yesterday’s statement is likely to lead many observers to question whether the former mayor is concerned that his socially liberal record and positions aren’t flying in the Republican primary. While he still holds a commanding lead in the national polls, he has taken a hit over the last month or so after reiterating his support for the public funding of abortion.

I really don’t get it. Is he that worried about his image with the right wing that he’ll go back on what was a cornerstone of his time as Mayor of New York City? And does he really think that the red-staters who didn’t support his social liberalism before will suddenly be swayed by his last-minute change of heart?

One more pull quote:

“Why would you want to take a position where you are splitting hairs, when you have been so consistently on the record as for civil unions?” a Republican pollster reached for comment yesterday evening by the Sun, Tony Fabrizio, asked. “You can’t turn around at the eleventh hour and say this comes a little too close to marriage and then not support it.”

When you combine this with his absolutely asinine comments he made last week about a Democrat President immediately putting America on the defense, you have to wonder if he really wants to be President or if his advisors have any damn clue what they’re doing.

Not that I was voting for him anyway.

NY Sun via HotAir

Technorati Tags: rudy giuliani, gay marriage, civil unions

From NY Newsday:

WASHINGTON — A flock of small jets took flight from Washington Thursday, each carrying a Democratic presidential candidate to South Carolina for the first debate of the political season.

For Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd and Joe Biden, it was wheels up shortly after they voted in favor of legislation requiring that U.S. troops begin returning home from Iraq in the fall.

No one jet pooled, no one took commercial flights to save money, fuel or emissions.

All but Biden, who flew on a private jet, chartered their flights — a campaign expense of between $7,500 and $9,000.

Nice. I’m sure they bought lots of *cough* carbon offsets beforehand, though.

Technorati Tags: election, president, 2008, democrats, hypocrites

Aside from the ridiculous speed his driver was driving at and the fact that Governor Corzine didn’t have his seat belt on, philly.com is reporting that there may have been yet another law broken in the accident that landed Corzine in the hospital in critical condition.

New Jersey State Police are investigating an allegation that the trooper who was driving Gov. Corzine’s SUV two weeks ago when it crashed going 91 m.p.h. may have been distracted by e-mails sent to his mobile phone or BlackBerry.

A Berkeley Heights police sergeant was quoted in the Star-Ledger of Newark yesterday saying he sent an e-mail shortly before the crash to Trooper Robert Rasinski, confronting him over having a two-year affair with his wife, Susan. He said he enclosed a family photo as an attachment.

Detective Sgt. Michael Mathis said he hoped the angry messages he sent to Rasinski did not cause the April 12 crash on the Garden State Parkway.

“We are confirming that there is this allegation and that it is under investigation,” State Police Lt. Gerald Lewis said yesterday. He declined to comment further.

Police are trying to determine whether Rasinski saw the messages just before the crash and whether they had an effect on his state of mind.

It’s illegal to use a handheld phone in New Jersey, and while that is only to make a phone call, it’s common sense that using it to read e-mail while violating the speed limit driving the un-seatbelted governor probably isn’t such a great idea. I don’t think I’m going too far out on a limb to say that it’s obvious the Governor and his driver are both morons considering how much they did to bring this accident on themselves.

Technorati Tags: corzine, governor, accident, hypocrites