Drake Gets Twitter Spanked by Billionaire Tycoon T. Boone Pickens

In a moment of humility and hilarity, Drake gets ethered on Twitter by a Texan billionaire who has made a lot of money in his lifetime. On May 30, ‘The Motto’ rapper decided to post a reflective tweet about his life as a rich artist. “The first million is the hardest,” he wrote.
While that was nice for his followers to know, not everyone was impressed with Drake’s tweet. Oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens, who apparently follows the rap superstar on Twitter, responded with his slap-in-the-face tweet, “The first billion is a helluva lot harder.” Touché, Mr. Pickens!
An ego-bruised Drizzy took Pickens’ sagely response in stride and humbly tweeted back, “@boonepickens just stunted on me heavy.” He sure did.
Twitter chatter aside, we are still wondering why is Mr. Pickens following Drake on Twitter? Is he a die-hard rap fan? Does he listen to Lil Wayne when he’s being chauffeured around in his Rolls-Royce? Is Birdman his accountant? We are kidding, of course.
Now that Drake and Pickens are BFFs on Twitter, maybe they can share some financial tips together. Lord knows Drake could use some legal advice to avoid those costly lawsuits. HYFR!

Print Article Share Add Comment Email Article T. Boone Pickens finds flaws in US energy plans of Obama, Romney

WASHINGTON -- Energy titan T. Boone Pickens is less than impressed with the energy plans that have been floated by President Barack Obama and his likely White House challenger Mitt Romney.
Speaking to Dow Jones Tuesday, Pickens said Obama's "all of the above" energy plan needed to be "more specific" and said Romney's plan is "not total."
Pickens didn't endorse either candidate, but said "I'm going to come out for the candidate who has an energy plan."
Pickens has had his toes in political waters for several years, pressing members of Congress to pass legislation that uses tax credits to encourage the use of natural gas in trucking fleets.
That legislation hasn't yet gained the necessary traction, most recently stalling as an amendment to a transportation bill. Pickens said he thought the measure would eventually pass.
But regardless of whether it does, "I'm retiring from Washington after this," he said.
Pickens is a very vocal supporter of US natural gas and has urged lawmakers to create policies that wean the nation off foreign oil imports.
For several months now, Obama has characterized his energy plan as an "all of the above" approach that relies on oil and natural gas, as well as nuclear, wind and solar power.
Earlier this year, House Republicans attacked the president for leaving out "coal" on his campaign website, but the campaign quickly added "clean coal" under a description of the president's energy plan.
Coal is found in abundance in the US and is used to generate electricity, but it creates more air pollution than natural gas when it is burned.
Obama has increased support of US natural gas, saying it could replace oil as a transportation fuel and supplant coal as a source of electricity generation.
Speaking to Dow Jones, Pickens criticized the president for withholding approval for the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which would stretch from Canada to Texas and carry several hundred thousand barrels of oil from the Canadian tar sands.
The US should create an alliance with Canada and Mexico to strengthen ties for energy imports and exports, Pickens said. His opposition to foreign imports is focused on oil from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Romney also has been critical of the president's position on the Keystone pipeline. His energy plan calls for the pipeline to be approved, along with greater production of US energy resources through streamlined regulations.

How Drake Got Twitter Shamed by Billionaire T. Boone Pickens

No, T. Boone Pickens probably wasn't blasting "Crew Love" as he handed out bonuses last holiday season. The Daily got the story on the billionaire's hilarious Twitter dust-up with Drake from earlier this week. As it turns out, the origins of the moneyed-men collision were about as mundane and corporate as we should have guessed in the first place.
For those of you who have been sleeping under a rock all week and/or too busy to care about what two rich dudes are saying to each other via Twitter: On Wednesday morning, the YMCMB rapper-singer tweeted, "The first million is the hardest." To the delight of all, the oil magnate and wind-power advocate retweeted Drake's words, adding, "The first billion is a helluva lot harder." Drake, properly chastened, replied, "@boonepickens just stunted on me heavy." Pickens, whose father also worked in the energy business, missed out on a golden opportunity to note that he was merely stunting like his daddy.
Sadly, the 84-year-old BP Capital boss might not actually be among the 1.7 million Americans who purchased Drake's sophomore LP, 2011's Take Care. Monica Long, BP Capital's social media coordinator, told the Daily she saw Drake's tweet after someone else retweeted it with the joke, "You have to talk to @boonepickens," alluding to Pickens' book "The First Billion Is the Hardest: Reflection on a Life of Comebacks and America's Energy Future." Long says Pickens laughed when she showed him the retweet and then typed his own self-referential quip back at Drake.
Everybody wins, though naturally some people are winninger than others. Pickens has reportedly gained more than 5,000 new followers (and counting). Pickens' spokesman is quoted as saying Drake has made 30 new fans in the office. And, as the Daily quite rightly points out, Drizzy was totally due for a humbling moment. "It's really difficult for me to find something that makes me feel small," he said in April to GQ. Speaking for ourselves, remembering $1 million and $1 billion both seem like equally unfathomable amounts of money usually does the trick.

Opinion Is It Money or Message That's Hurting Prop 29?

There is an unthinking assumption in every analysis I can read about Prop 29, the cigarette-tax-for-cancer-research initiative that appears to have lost a big lead in the polls.

That assumption is that the big money spent against the measure by tobacco companies is responsible for the drop. It seems obvious, since big tobacco has spent more than $40 million to defeat it, mostly on ads that attack the initiative.

But I've yet to see data connecting the tobacco ads to the decline in Prop 29. And given recent California political history, it's not a safe assumption to say that the money is what's defeating the measure.

Consider two recent ballot initiatives that had huge financial support behind them -- and no money spent against them.

In 2008, the billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens sponsored Prop 10, an initiative that would have used billions in general obligation funds to subsidize alternative fuels and natural gas (Pickens had huge investments in natural gas).

Pickens spent millions on the campaign -- while the campaign against the initiative had virtually no money (official reports suggest Pickens outspent his foes 100-1). But Prop 10 lost -- because reporting by newspapers and other media emphasized the potential budget folly of devoting g.o. bonds in bad budget times to a particular energy policy, as well as Pickens' own financial interest in his measure.

In 2010, the utility PG&E sponsored an initiative, Prop 16, that would limit the ability of California local governments to start their own public power.

PG&E spent more than $40 million; the campaign against the measure had virtually no money.

But once again, the message about the problems of this kind governance (PG&E's measure imposed another kind of supermajority restriction on the powers of local elected officials in a supermajority-mad state) broke through via media coverage and the Internet. Message defeated money and Prop 16 lost.

There are a couple of political lessons from this that may apply to Prop 29.

First, it's relatively easy -- even with almost no money -- to raise doubts about an initiative. Second, it can be possible to defeat even a well-financed initiative if opponents can point to problems that the initiative would create for the budget process or governance -- a powerful argument when California is in the midst of a budget and governance crisis.

Prop 29's supporters may want to blame its troubles on the evil tobacco companies and their money; if the initiative were merely a choice between tobacco companies and cancer research, Prop 29 would be an easy winner.

But it may well be that the bigger problem for Prop 29 supporters has been newspapers and media folks (including this blogger) pointing out that the measure -- while making sense as tax policy and public health policy -- is bad budget policy because it locks up tax dollars that might be better applied to core, cash-starved health and education programs in the state.

That explanation would fit the polls, which show that Prop 29's support has dropped even though cigarette taxes remain popular with the public, and even though Californians don't like tobacco companies.

If Prop 29 loses, pundits should think twice about blaming tobacco companies and their money for defeat. A better reason may be the problems with Prop 29 itself -- and the larger context of a broken budget and an ungovernable state.