April D. Ryan

Barack Obama presidential campaign sources say a vice presidential pick could be announced as early as this week. The Obama campaign plans to announce the choice by text message, to donors who sign up for alerts. It is a first for a vice presidential announcement.  An Obama campaign source says we want to quicken the response as it is “definitely symbolic of how the campaign is using technology to bring more people into the process.”  House Majority Whip, James Clyburn believes the running mate choice will happen within the next two weeks, before the convention. Wednesday, August 27, Obama’s pick is slated to speak in Denver.  Meanwhile, Senator John McCain continues his meetings with top running mate contenders.   His latest meeting was with former Homeland Security head Tom Ridge.   Independent, Senator Joe Lieberman is in the mix too. He was Al Gore’s Democratic presidential running mate in 2000. What do you think about the new technology being used by the Obama camp alerting donors first of his decision?    Also, is it indicative of the technology times or is it away to stay in the news?

Courtesy of NIKE Team USA Men’s Basketball Team,

The official picture of Team USA standing before a National Symbol, The Statue of Liberty, is in total contrast to the Olympic Men’s Basketball Team of Spain. The photo of the Spanish Olympic Team has come under fire for poses considered racist against their Beijing hosts. What are your thoughts about the story from the Guardian new of the United Kingdom?

Beijing, basketball

Olympics: Spain basketball team pictured in controversial pose

· Advert could lead to backlash from Chinese hosts

• Guardian staff
• guardian.co.uk,
• Sunday August 10 2008 05:54 BST

Spain’s men’s basketball team pose for the advert. Photograph: Public domain

Spain’s Basketball Federation has published a good luck advert for their men’s team, the world champions, in which they stand pulling at the sides of their eyes in a slit-eyed gesture.

There is no obvious intention to upset their Olympic hosts in Beijing, but the irresponsible picture is likely to cause controversy and could be interpreted so as to lead to accusations of racism.

Spanish sport has been mired in rows over racism in the last few years. In November 2004 black English footballers were subjected to relentless racial barracking from home supporters in a match in Spain. Before the World Cup there were calls for Luis Aragones, then Spain’s football coach, to be sacked after he called Thierry Henry a “black shit”. And last year Lewis Hamilton suffered racist abuse during testing for the Spanish grand prix near Barcelona.

Spain play their first match in the Olympic basketball competition against Greece at 7.30am BST today.