"It's what's in the grooves that counts" - David Ruffin - "Walk Away From Love" -only one of my favorite 10 songs ever; ABBA - "S.O.S."; Ruffin's version of "I Want You Back"

sevensman YouTube Channel: David Ruffin - "Walk Away From Love" on "Soul Train" with Don Cornelius. (1975) Uploaded July 20, 2010. http://youtu.be/APlXHfhbiVw

Truly, a perfect three-minute song.
So much immense talent, so much towering ego, so many inner demons...  and that crazy amazing emotive voice that never failed to get your attention.
That June day in 1991 that I heard on the radio that David Ruffin had died, I actually cried.

As for the video at the top of this post, I remember the Saturday morning that I first saw him performing this song on Soul Train in 1975, when I was fourteen-years old.
That was back when the show aired in South Florida on the then-independent Channel 6, WCIX-TV, down on Brickell Avenue, back when, pre-Radio Mambi, WAQI, that street also was the home of Storer Broadcasting's WGBS-AM 710, the then-number one sports radio station in South Florida, with its 50,000 Watts booming from that beautiful brick building on the corner known as the 710 Building.
  
As ridiculous as some of Soul Train's conventions could sometimes be, especially its not always so well-disguised lip-syncing, I watched that show religiously every Saturday morning.
Some posts on Miami TV and Radio of that era will be forthcoming in the new year

Below, David Ruffin as he appeared and sang the song on ABC-TV's American Bandstand with Dick Clark on the November 16, 1975 telecast:


David Ruffin - Walk Away From Love (Amer by sagelion13

Also appearing on that show - a band from Sweden that you may've heard of.
ABBA did a killer version of "S.O.S" as you can see from Shay's video.


2Shaymcn YouTube Channel: ABBA - "S.O.S." on ABC-TV's "American Bandstand " with Dick Clark, November 1975. Uploaded January 20, 2012. http://youtu.be/6OOrleE6wfc



MrManuel822 YouTube Channel video: David Ruffin - I want You Back (1971). Uploaded on February 13, 2012. http://youtu.be/WGBdb8ganDY

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ruffin

http://www.pbase.com/donboyd/memories_music_radio_new

Ready or Not South Florida, Here Comes Jana Kramer! Jana sings Saturday the 1st at the Cruzan in West Palm Beach with Alan Jackson, and appears on a GAC-TV Christmas special at 11 p.m. that night; Isn't it Time for You to Start Kickin' It With @KramerGirl? "Goodbye California" & "Whiskey"; #SimplySara

janakramermusic YouTube Channel video: Jana Kramer - Goodbye California. Uploaded November 5, 2012. http://youtu.be/CCnEX1sOE-o 

Ready or Not South Florida, Here Comes Jana Kramer! She sings Saturday the 1st at the Cruzan in Palm Beach with Alan Jackson, David Nail, The Lost Trailers, and appears on GAC-TV at 11 p.m.; Isn't it Time for You to Start Kickin' It With @KramerGirl? "Goodbye California" & "Whiskey"


janakramermusic YouTube Channel video: Jana Kramer - Whiskey. Uploaded October 29, 2012. http://youtu.be/s_rzHrrdpWI

My last post on Jana was on June 5th, titled, Prepare to meet another amazing musical talent -and Jana Kramer's talent comes with a twang! Jana Kramer's new self-titled Country album drops today; "Why Ya Wanna"; @kramergirl

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/prepare-to-meet-another-amazing-musical.html

Jana, whose birthday is Sunday the 2nd, is going to be singing Saturday as part of the Alan Jackson tour, with showtime at 4 p.m. Later that night, at 11 pm, you can catch Jana on the GAC-TV Special, "Christmas with Scotty McCreery & Friends"
More info on that show and encore airtimes at http://www.gactv.com/gac/shows_spl/episode/0,3038,GAC_26200_85599,00.html
GAC-TV is DirecTV Channel 326..

If you've never seen them before, Jana fan shell4270 uploaded a couple of her performances from September's WMZQ Festival in suburban Virginia and she was in a great position to record just a few feet away. 
See her videos of Jana at her YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/shell4270 

Jana's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/janakramermusic?ref=ts

Jana's Twitter page: https://twitter.com/#!/kramergirl

As always, there's plenty of CMT content on Jana at http://www.cmt.com/search/index.jhtml?q=jana+kramer


janakramermusic YouTube Channel video: Kickin' It With @KramerGirl riding ATV's. Uploaded November 5, 2012. http://youtu.be/_Pam_Gjx-uY

I know, I know.
Sometimes Jana seems too good to be true, and then on top of everything you're already seen and heard of her, you catch this video and hear her personality just pour out of it and you come away even MORE wowed.
Like Sara Evans-quality Wow!
#SimplySara

Miami real estate developer Jorge M. Perez's Coconut Grove house and new tastes in art get the once-over from the Wall Street Journal's Robbie Whelan

WSJDigitalNetwork video: WSJ's Lunch Break show: A Miami Condo Kingpin's Modern Turn. Uploaded November 28, 2012. http://youtu.be/y8mVZVxoCyE

Miami real estate developer Jorge M. Perez's Coconut Grove house and new tastes in art get the once-over from the Wall Street Journal's Robbie Whelan.

See also:
http://www.miamiherald.com/search_results?aff=1100&q=%22Jorge+M.+Perez%22
and http://www.forbes.com/profile/jorge-perez/

Reading post-election tea leaves - Was the Libertarian Party's successful pick-up of some dissatisfied GOP voters in non-presidential races a worrying sign for GOP, or just a reaction to some GOP candidates underperforming and voters not wanting to vote Democrat?

Among the things to me that are noteworthy in this piece from last week's Washington Post The Fix blog, about whether the Libertarian Party is cannibalizing the GOP, is that in also making the point that non-presidential Libertarian candidates did well in some places -which is news to me and other South Florida news consumers since the local media down here have yet to report this fact- is their noting that their U.S. Senate candidate in Indiana won 6% -actually 5.8% according to http://www.thepoliticalguide.com/Elections/2012/Senate/Indiana/1/

But in the Post's own story the following day, below, they NEVER mentioned this important fact, nor did they even mention the name of that Libertarian candidate, Andrew  Horning, whose numbers clearly rose as a direct result of Richard Mourdock's campaign numbers coming back to earth after his landslide upset victory of longtime incumbent Richard Lugar in the spring GOP primary, and Mourdock's self-inflicted wounds, which he never recovered from in his battle against Joe Donnelly, which Kim Gieger of the LA Times was all over: 
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-donnelly-mourdock-poll-20121102,0,7739135.story
Yes, this omission in The Post was very Miami Herald-like.

The Washington Post

The Fix blog

The GOP’s growing Libertarian problem

By Aaron Blake and Sean Sullivan

Updated: November 20, 2012

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2012/11/20/the-gops-growing-libertarian-problem/

Indiana Election Results 2012: Donnelly beats Mourdock in Senate race; Pence wins governors race
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/indiana-election-results-2012-pence-wins-race-for-governor-donnelly-beats-mourdock-in-senate-race-romney-wins-hoosier-state/2012/11/07/0a430bda-23a2-11e2-ac85-e669876c6a24_story.html 

See also:
DID LIBERTARIAN PARTY COST GOP 9 RACES?
http://www.humanevents.com/2012/11/26/did-libertarian-party-cost-gop-9-races/

Growing anger in Great Britain as foster-care scandal widens by the hour as party leaders & pols of all stripes condemn Labour-led Rotherham Council Social Services removal of three children from experienced foster-parents -with spotless record- because of their political beliefs

ITV News YouTube Channel: UKip leader Nigel Farage on Rotherham fostering case. Uploaded November 26, 2012. http://youtu.be/Gc_lw7V6iTM
This is from today and was uploaded this afternoon, U.S. Eastern time

Growing anger in Great Britain as foster-care scandal widens by the hour as party leaders & pols of all stripes condemn Labour-led Rotherham Council Social Services removal of three children from experienced foster-parents -with spotless record- because of their political beliefs. 

The three children involved are a baby girl, a boy and an older girl, and the couple who have been foster parents many times before consist of a retired Royal Navy reservist who works with disabled children and his wife who is a is a licensed nursery nurse. Political correctness run amok!

ITV News YouTube Channel: Conservative Party co-chair Michael Fabricant on possible pact with UKip that would allow a straight-up Yes or No referendum on EU membership if UKip doesn't oppose them. But today UKip has pulled their willingness to participate in such a pact because of Prime Minister David Cameron's comments. 
On Saturday, though, Channel 4 News' "Snowmail" news email, which I subscribe to had a subject header that read, "Cameron's U-turn on Ukip: they're 'not closet racists.'" But then Downing Street retracted the retraction! Uploaded November 26, 2012. http://youtu.be/6hbadVRcKdo 

BBC News, Daily Politics show: Rotherham Council faces fostering legal threat from UKip. Party leader Nigel Farage has suggested taking legal action against them after it removed foster children from a family who are members of his party. November 26, 2012. Video at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20496707



View Larger Map
Rotherham is located in South Yorkshire

Now here's more on the story in chronological order...

Saturday...

Channel 4 News video: The Rotherham Borough Council's Social Services' decision to remove three happy and well-adjusted foster children from emergency placement from their experienced foster-parents is 'indefensible' says Minister of Education Michael Gove. This report gives a timeline on the situation. Posted November 24, 2012.

http://bcove.me/7ysg4chv

Article at: http://www.channel4.com/news/ukip-couple-have-foster-children-removed-from-care

Channel 4 News video: UKip leader Nigel Farage responds to questions from Channel 4 news presenter on 'racist' tag. Posted November 24, 2012.
Video at http://bcove.me/2fjaiir8

BBC News video: Labour leader Ed Miliband: 'Urgent investigation' into fostering row. Posted November 24, 2012. 
Video at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20475812


UKIP Webmaster YouTube Channel video: Foster-parent scandal in Rotherham. Various news bites from SkyNews and BBC. A solid case of Political Correctness run amok that's taking children from parents with a spotless record? Uploaded November 24, 2012. http://youtu.be/WwpNYUvaLfk

On Sunday morning, as more and more people have learned the facts, people woke-up to this shocking news in The Daily Mail...

We were RIGHT to take foster children away from Ukip couple insists social workers as they blame party's 'extreme' views for decision
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2238155/We-RIGHT-foster-children-away-Ukip-couple-insists-social-workers.html


UKIP Webmaster YouTube Channel video: On the BBC's Sunday Politics show, host Andrew Neil spoke to Tim Loughton, a conservative Party MP and the former Labour Minister for Children and Families and Liam Byrne, a Labour MP, and current Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, on the story that has everyone up-in-arms and wondering if there's something rotten in Rotherham? Uploaded November 25, 2012. http://youtu.be/P86iRpSc9tc
The complete interview between Neil and Byrne is at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20495841

Liarspoliticians YouTube Channel is at: http://www.youtube.com/user/liarpoliticians

Updated news and videos on this story at http://www.bbc.co.uk/search/news/rotherham

More Red-Light Camera shenanigans: National Journal's Mike Magner has warning for U.S. drivers about unscrupulous cities' amber-colored money trap: Yellow means Green & $$$ - "Dreaded Yellow Light May Be Trap for Traffic Violations" -on purpose. And Rahm Emanuel's Chicago, with Redflex Traffic Systems Inc., is the most brazen of all

Red Light Ticket Capital YouTube Channel video: Confessions of a Chicago Red Light Ticketing Camera. Uploaded December 31, 2009. http://youtu.be/njbG6Yeg3s0 

And this video was made almost THREE YEARS ago!

More Red-Light Camera shenanigans: National Journal's Mike Magner has warning for U.S. drivers about unscrupulous cities' amber-colored money trap: Yellow means Green & $$$ - "Dreaded Yellow Light May Be Trap for Traffic Violations" -on purpose. And Rahm Emanuel's Chicago, with Redflex Traffic Systems Inc., is the most brazen of all  

Now here's a story that someone like me who lives in the city that's the red-light camera poster boy of South Florida can really appreciate. 
A city where the mayor, Joy Cooper, writes guest Op-Eds in a local newspaper praising red-light cameras, despite it NOT leading to a reduction in traffic accidents, and weeks later, she's receiving thousands in campaign contributions from the vendor here with the red-light camera contract. Why? 
Because she and her Rubber Stamp Crew on the City Commission like the revenue it produce$! 

The National Journal

Dreaded Yellow Light May Be Trap for Traffic Violations

By Mike Magner

November 21, 2012 | 6:00 a.m.

Updated: November 21, 2012 | 9:19 a.m.

The National Motorists Association has a warning for the millions of drivers hitting the road for the busy holiday travel season: Beware of the yellow lights.

The timing of yellow lights on traffic signals at many intersections is purposely set to a minimum so more drivers can be ticketed for running red lights, says the 30-year-old activist group based in Waunakee, Wis.

Read the rest of the post at:

http://nationaljournal.com/domesticpolicy/dreaded-yellow-light-may-be-trap-for-traffic-violations-20121121

Red-light camera sign in Hallandale Beach, FL. April 24, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

See my last blog post on red-light cameras from August 25th, 2012: 

City of Hallandale Beach prints analysis that refutes Mayor Joy Cooper's mendacious efforts on red-light cameras - "In summary, there is no safety benefit to the citizens, and there is no financial benefit to the taxpayer due to automated for-profit law"

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/city-of-hallandale-beach-prints.html

One town's experience in New Jersey:
http://brick.patch.com/articles/red-light-cams-shut-down-over-yellow-light-length-concerns

To see more on the company at the center of the storm in Chicago, Redflex Traffic Systems Inc., see what the Chicago Tribune has been reporting on them, with one scandal after another - http://www.chicagotribune.com/search_results/?q=+Redflex 

Red Light Ticket Capital YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/MrBFagel

When you live in a city run by turkeys... you recognize them on sight

Above, the candy corn-beaked turkey and Publix Ligram Pair Pilgrim salt and pepper shakers that greeted everyone this morning for breakfast at my sister's home in Pembroke Pines, Thanksgiving Day 2012. 
This candy and cookie-based turkey hybrid was her boss' wife's brilliant idea, and as we all chowed down our breakfast, it sat there quietly on the table, mocking our notions of actually eating healthy this weekend.
But on Monday... with our trip to Sweden approaching, we're going to start eating more healthy -again- in earnest, and get back into the sort of daily exercise regimen that once had been our daily routine up in the Nation's Capital.


sisko923 YouTube Channel video: Publix Thanksgiving "Salt and Pepper" Commercial. Uploaded December 26, 2008. http://youtu.be/BVLOydduvqg

Glenn Kessler of Wash. Post ponders the continual "Overselling" of the the importance of Independent Voters in Presidential politics, and Kessler's piece support's Rush Limbaugh's longtime contention re GOP consultants fixation on Independents to the exclusion of core voters and GOTV

Two weeks after the Obama-Romney presidential election we are finally starting to get a more-nuanced, fact-based picture of what actually took place that day and in the lead-up to it, and part of what we're seeing is that some long cherished myths and notions among the professional political class may now be gone with the wind, because they can not be proven with real voters anymore.

The Washington Post

Overselling the importance of independent voters

Posted by Glenn Kessler at 06:02 AM ET, 11/20/2012

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/overselling-the-importance-of-independent-voters/2012/11/19/1c04b598-3294-11e2-bfd5-e202b6d7b501_blog.html

In my opinion, this article goes a long way towards validating one of the central tenets of Rush Limbaugh's oft-repeated point that, in general, GOP political consultants worry far too much publicly about -and perhaps spend too much resources towards wooing- Independents and Undecideds.

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2012/11/19/the_gop_consultant_class_blames_me

That Mitt Romney won the support of the majority of Independent Voters in the U.S. and yet still lost the election, logically, ought to be a not-insignificant fact that should matter and be taken into account, and have a ripple effect across the political world.

Yet you can pretty well expect that by the time the new year rolls around, the very army of

consultants that Limbaugh is talking about (complaining about), will conveniently try to forget

this new fact as soon as possible because it directly challenges their personal M.O., their

business plan AND their world view.

It seems that the world does not revolve around Independent voters after all, but that news might be bad for business!

Despicable! Shocking video of unprovoked daytime attack by complete stranger on 16-year old girl in Plaistow, East London, is caught on Police CCTV and shocks Great Britain; ITV report tonight says assault shocked even veteran police detectives by its sheer brazenness

Metropolitan Police Service YouTube Channel video: Assault in Plaistow, November 13, 2012. Uploaded November 20, 2012. http://youtu.be/uMYatywmGZk
Be sure to read the description below the video on YouTube for more details.

The following ITV video about the above incident was uploaded within the past three hours.

ITV News, London Tonight: Reporter Paul Brand talks to the 16-year-old girl in Plaistow in East London who was the victim of an unprovoked attack by a complete stranger and punched to the ground and left unconscious. Police detectives who have seen the video have described themselves as shocked by its utter brazenness, taking place in broad daylight in a commercial area. http://vimeo.com/53958859

S.O.S.! Newspaper hits iceberg! What's going on at the Tribune Co.'s sinking South Florida Sun-Sentinel? Their continued poor judgment, even as the newspaper -and its shrinking base of advertisers- are becoming increasingly irrelevant to news consumers in Broward County who want their news free of bias, taint AND mustiness, not facts and context, has real consequences

S.O.S.! Newspaper hits iceberg! What's going on at the Tribune Co.'s sinking South Florida Sun-Sentinel? 

Their continued poor judgment, even as the newspaper -and its shrinking base of advertisers- are becoming increasingly irrelevant to news consumers in Broward County who want their news free of bias, taint AND mustiness, not facts and context, has real consequences.

Its pay wall is like a parasite that's killing off the host, and making its formerly-popular Broward Politics blog now nothing more than an afterthought because it counts now as an article in monthly totals, not as a blog post. A newspaper website that needs SERIOUS rethinking and redesign.

You call that news coverage? 

1.) As of today, November 19th, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's education blog, South Florida Schools, has posted exactly one item in the past 6 weeks. Way to keep your nose to the grindstone! http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/educationblog/

Yes, even while all sorts of things, good and bad, have been going on in that subject area the past six weeks, that newspaper blog has been silent.
It's one thing for a personal blog to go quiet for awhile for reasons that we can all well imagine, but really, a newspaper blog that posts one thing in six weeks, wrapped around an election?

Good luck finding that sort of situation existing at a normal, well-run newspaper unless the person/team behind it are either gravely ill, been transferred to other beats or the blog itself is being phased out.
Which is it for South Florida Schools?

I don't know the particulars of it, but I do know that it sure doesn't look good.
Especially for customers who want to read more serious and in-depth coverage of the subject, just as they would expect to find more in-depth coverage in a sports team-related blog, not just read PR releases.

Does a Broward School Board employee trying to choke an autistic child on a Broward School bus count as news these days?
Is that a subject that would greatly benefit from the infinite amount of space a blog gives a reporter to provide a lot more context than a print newspaper article affords, and even allow some degree of reader interaction?
We'd all agree that the answer to both is yes, so why is there NOTHING like that at the one place that you should be able to count on finding it on the Sun-Sentinel's website?
Now there's a question!

Not only are there no video interviews on that blog with any of the newly-elected Broward School Board members who won 13 days ago, candidates who were all elected to some degree based upon on what they said they hoped to do to change the still-extant culture of corruption there, and make the system more accountable to taxpayers, parents and students, but there's not even a single written blog post about that subject.

And since there's NOT even that, the bare minimum one should reasonably expect if it were being run professionally and with any common sense, of course there's NOT anything there about why those particular new members may or may not succeed in their desirable goal, based on their own backgrounds and professional experiences.
Nice job!

2.) On Friday Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz's resident lapdog at the newspaper, Anthony Man, posted his most recent entirely-predictable, not-really-news re DWS that he wrote in all of about five seconds at the Sun-Sentinel's Broward Politics blog.
No, actually it was just the intro to a video of her.

Yes, another in a long line of DWS-related posts by Man that the Sun-Sentinel runs that fall squarely into the dog-bites-man category.
Yet another piece on her NOT showing party independence or actually going out on a limb or even showing some perspective or original insight that you never considered before.

Hey, guess what?
DWS supports Israel -STILL.
Snooze...

And speaking of not surprising, Man doesn't even publicly mention in his intro that the video he chooses to run is actually from her office. Typical.
http://www.youtube.com/user/RepWassermanSchultz/

Wasserman Schultz condemns Hamas rocket attacks on Israel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/broward-politics-blog/sfl-wasserman-schultz-hamas-israel-20121116,0,6429879.story

Notice anything else about that blog post now?
Correct, the Broword Politics blog has recently been moved to behind the Sun-Sentinel's (unsuccessful) pay wall.

Which means that for many people throughout South Florida, including civic activists, concerned citizens and bloggers I know and trust, as well as other members of the South Florida press corps, that blog has largely become even more irrelevant than before, and is now an actual afterthought.

As if the Broward Politics blog's lack of freshness, topicality and outside-the-box thinking on any subject involving county or municipal government, or the pols who inhabit it, weren't already hindrance enough the past few years.

If the Sun-Sentinel's management were really going to make a mistake like that and move a popular feature like that blog behind a pay wall, one of the few features that people I know actually read fairly consistently, couldn't the Sun-Sentinel's management team at least have had the good sense to bring in some new people -with fresh eyes- at the beginning of this year?

In my opinion, having entirely new reporters there, people who'd actually ADD something new to the rather static and staid view of this county that that blog has promoted for so many years, where, typically, almost as soon as someone's name comes up in a piece, you already know what's going to come -and you're almost always right- would end.

How great would it be for readers to actually have the sense that the newspaper was amping-up their reporting and resources towards the election, perhaps starting this year off with some blistering expose or analysis of something that doesn't appear in the print edition?
An actual online exclusive, just like what other media companies do to drive eyeballs?

Something that showed readers some much-needed energy and freshness there, and an implicit warning that that the predictable habits that we've all observed there for far too long, will soon be disappearing -quick!

Yes, as I've watched the Sun-Sentinel increasingly become disconnected from reality and even unaware of many local news stories that they ought to be owning but aren't, it's become
increasingly apparent to me that the very people who are running that newspaper (into the ground) often appear, publicly at least, to have very little real idea of how other newspapers, even smaller ones, actually make their own blogs more interesting and compelling to readers, visually and content-wise.

I know they are aware of it, so why isn't that knowledge and understanding filtering down and actually showing up in print and online with better-written blogs and better and more original content at the Sun-Sentinel?

It's not exactly Breaking News that there are many well-written and compelling non-political blogs that I subscribe to or bookmark which are part of the New York Times and The Washingon Post, and that's largely because when I lived in the Washington area from 1988-2003, I used to religiously read both newspapers daily from cover-to-cover.

And once both newspapers had online presences, I read content there, too, so I remember the blogs they created that didn't quite work out as planned, as well as the ones that have remained steadfast and only grown in popularity over the years, like the very popular technology blog written by David Pogue, which has changed titles a few times, and now even comes with videos. http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/
I continue reading both newspapers and 5-10 of their blogs every day, and buy the Times in print about 3-4 times a week.

New York Times video: 60 Seconds With Pogue: Fitness Bands
http://www.nytimes.com/video/2012/11/14/technology/personaltech/100000001903028/60-seconds-with-pogue-fitness-bands.html
  
But in the context of my blog post today, there's one blog in particular that I'd like to mention because it's an excellent example of the sort of focus and scope that I and many of my friends would greatly prefer the Sun-Sentinel to emulate -the State of NoVA blog, written by Tom Jackman. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-state-

This recent post is exactly the sort of thing you'd never see at the Broward Politics blog
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-state-of-nova/post/manassas-news-and-messenger-and-insidenovacom-top-prince-william-news-sources-closing-down/2012/11/14/e2f8bde2-2e7b-11e2-89d4-040c9330702a_blog.html

In my opinion, a newspaper that refuses to properly maintain and improve the depth and quality of writing and frequency of its own blogs, and which has added no new original content in-print or online, is seriously mismanaged and deluded if they think that news consumers with an almost infinite amount of choices, will now suddenly pay for the same-old-thing.
That same tired old thing that they really weren't so crazy about in the first place.

That perhaps is the worst sin of all among the Tribune Company's executives who felt that they no longer had a choice about waiting to erect a paywall for the Sun-Sentinel so many months after they did that at their Los Angles Times property -it was all so damn predictable!

Why, knowing all that they did about how these paywall introductions usually go across the country -esp. in more serious newspaper towns- did they make no serious effort to improve the print version first, to endear themselves to existing readers?
Then, after existing readers could see that a serious effort was being made to improve the paper, make the online experience better by making both more compelling and original content?
The sort that would make people actually willing to pay?

To me, the only plus for the Tribune Company and the Sun-Sentinel's executives throughout this whole mess has been that the state of serious journalism in South Florida has fallen so badly that it never seems to have occurred to the news directors at Channels 4, 6, 7 & 10 to actually do a series of stories on how badly the Sun-Sentinel has bungled things, and now has a knife at its throat after going this route, and the very people holding the knife are -yes- themselves.
There's always that!

#2 Princeton Tigers storm back to defeat #1 North Carolina 3-2 in Norfolk and capture their first NCAA Field Hockey Championship

Wow! 
Just watched the #2 Princeton Tigers storm back to defeat #1 North Carolina 3-2, and capture their first NCAA Field Hockey Championship in a match that was both frenetic and an example of a beautiful game when played with so many high-caliber players who actually do all the small details consistently. (Yes, just like watching Glenelg High School!)

With a new state-of-the-art turf field, Bedford Field, a wonderful head coach in Kristen Holmes-Winn, someone who played at a very high level herself, and perfectly positioned geographically to get well-grounded and elite recruits from both the Mid-Atlantic and Tri-State area, Princeton is, literally, a dynasty in the making... just like Northwestern in Women's Lacrosse under head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller.who have won 7 of the last 8 NCAA titles.

http://www.goprincetontigers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=205749560&DB_OEM_ID=10600

Meanwhile locally, in the year 2012, the University of Miami has neither a varsity Field Hockey team or a Women's Lacrosse team, despite getting lots of students from areas of the country where those sports are very popular at both the youth and high school level -the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.
Why?

That makes as much sense as Miami NOT having a Men's Golf team.

Top-ranked North Carolina faces #2 Princeton Sunday in its quest for their 7th NCAA Field Hockey title, but you can't watch it on TV. Despite all the lip service given by U.S. cable sports channels -and advertisers- to taking Women's sports more seriously, unless you're in Norfolk, VA at 1 p.m., you'll have to watch via NCAA.com

http://www.goheels.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?id=1096205

So many cable sports channels offer third and fourth-rate programming opposite LIVE NFL telecasts, but despite it being an Olympic sport, one that the U.S. did very well at in London this summer, and defeating Argentina earlier in the year, apparently there's no time or space for the NCAA Field Hockey title match between Princeton and North Carolina on any of the following network of families that have about 15-20 channels among them on my DirecTV sports tier package: ESPN, Fox Sportsnet, CBS Sports Network and NBC Sports Network.

ESPN can show you a zillion NCAA Softball tourney games in the summer featuring a handful of teams teams you've already seen -or think you've already seen because that tourney seems to be 24/7 for 3-4 days, with each team seemingly equipped with one lanky left-handed pitcher and one very large right-handed pitcher- but they can't seem to find a space for two hours for the D1 title match of an Olympic sport, something that softball is decidedly not? Yes.
http://www.ncaa.com/sports/fieldhockey/d1

To me, it's not unlike the fact that U.S. gymnastics fans gets such crummy coverage of the NCAA Mens and Womens Gymnastics Championships, as last year Alabama won their second-straight  Women's title, and Illinois won the Men's title -ignored.
For years CBS Sports has not only shown the championships on a delayed basis, but weeks after-the-fact.

Which is why despite all the lip service given by those networks and advertisers to taking women sports more seriously, unless you're going to be in Norfolk, VA on Sunday afternoon, the only way you can see the Tigers-Tar Heels match is at:NCAA.com 

Video of semifinals, UNC over UVA and Princeton over Maryland is here:
http://www.ncaa.com/video?ncaa_mid=vod:fieldhockey#!playlists/sports/fieldhockey/d1



http://www.goprincetontigers.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?id=1096704
More highlights of Princeton over Maryland.

Watch the title match LIVE here at 1:00 p.m. Eastern: 

http://www.ncaa.com/liveschedule/2012/11/18?SPSID=667882&SPID=12961&DB_LANG=C&SITE=UNC&DB_OEM_ID=3350

New York Times 

The Quad blog

Unfamiliar Foes in the Field Hockey Final

By Clare Lochary

November 17, 2012, 10:00 PM

Princeton Coach Kristen Holmes-Winn told her field hockey players that passion, not pedigree, would be the deciding factor in the Tigers’ N.C.A.A. semifinal game against Maryland, the two-time defending national champion, on Friday, and she proved correct.

Read the rest of the post at: 

http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/17/unfamiliar-foes-in-the-field-hockey-final/

James Poulos adroitly connects-the-dots at Forbes.com re 2012 GOP's campaign's strategic/marketing mistakes, and suggests that while much of what Romney criticized (lamented) about Obama playing Identity Politics and patronizing Santa Claus to many niche voters is 100% true, GOP can't win by singing Blues re Obamanomics or chorus of "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Needy, Young & Dumb Single Women Voters?"; @jamespoulos

VOAvideo YouTube Channel: VOA's Jeffrey Young examines so-called "Identity Politics" in this segment of "How America Elects." Uploaded June 20, 2012.
http://youtu.be/a0Hui4sEBfI

James Poulos adroitly connects-the-dots at Forbes.com re 2012 GOP's campaign's strategic/marketing mistakes, and suggests that while much of what Romney criticized (lamented) about Obama playing Identity Politics and patronizing Santa Claus to many niche voters is 100% true, GOP can't win by singing Blues re Obamanomics or chorus of "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Needy, Young & Dumb Single Women Voters?"

This afternoon I read a Forbes.com column, below, that for all practical purposes is the book-end to that earlier Mark Hendrickson piece at Forbes.com that I mentioned this morning, regarding what I perceived to be the self-serving motives of Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal and many other GOP pols and consultants' jabs at Mitt Romney, and in particular, Jindal's unfortunate moth-like affinity for TV news cameras, as if lack of exposure was his real problem.

Bobby Jindal's Jab At Mitt Romney Underscores Republicans' Dilemma

http://www.forbes.com/sites/markhendrickson/2012/11/16/bobby-jindals-jab-at-mitt-romney-underscores-republicans-dilemma/

Bobby Jindal's looming Mainstream Media "Mirror Mirror" problems are closer at hand than I thought; Mark Hendrickson at Forbes.com on -what I see as Jindal's needless- "Jab At Mitt Romney Underscores Republicans' Dilemma"; Jindal is proving Rush Limbaugh's point about GOP self-regard

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/bobby-jindals-looming-mainstream-media.html

Forbes.com

Romney's 'Gifts' Gaffe Highlights GOP Confusion On Obamanomics

WASHINGTON  
11/15/2012 @ 11:43AM

By James Poulos

Having not particularly relished telling donors what they wanted to hear during the campaign, Romney has now taken his lumps in the thankless task of telling them what they want to hear afterward.

Read the rest of the column at:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamespoulos/2012/11/15/romneys-gifts-gaffe-highlights-gop-confusion-on-obamanomics/

His honesty in this think piece about the Obama campaign's use of identity politics stands in stark contrast to many reporters, columnists and pundits who are twisting themselves into uncomfortable pretzels to deny that it was used, even though it was both obvious and successful.
I encourage you to start following him because unlike many better-known pundits, like those seen on MSNBC, Poulos doesn't ask you to deny what you know about human behavior or to deny what your own eyes can see -Obama & Co. used identity politics and it worked.

But will that formula actually work for non-African-American, non-presidential Democratic candidates for office?
In my opinion, no.
I believe it was unique to Obama and has no transferability, which is why much of the crowing I've seen and heard from many national Dems I usually respect, and in some cases actually know, who are drawing all sorts of conclusions and over-reaching on some of the implications of Election Day, reminds me of young kids patiently building sand castles at the beach with their plastic buckets and shovels.

Kids, there's a wave out there in the ocean that you can't even see now, and guess what?
It's got very big plans for your castle and all your carefully-laid plans.

------

http://blogs.forbes.com/jamespoulos/

@jamespoulos  https://twitter.com/jamespoulos

https://www.rebelmouse.com/poulos/

Your city in action -make that inaction: 10 days later, still no CORRECTIONS to the City of Hallandale Beach's website re its own 2012 Election results. Yes, the same chronic lack of attention to detail at City Hall and accuracy on the city's website as we've come to expect for SO MANY YEARS; @SandersHB

Your city in action -make that inaction: 10 days later, still no CORRECTIONS to the City of Hallandale Beach's website re its own 2012 Election results

I guess city spokesmodel Peter Dobens was too busy polishing someone's car or fetching coffee and donuts to get around to changing it by Friday at 5 p.m. to accurately reflect the final recount totals of the Broward Supervisor of Elections on Tuesday -that pro-reform challenger Michele Lazarow was elected to a four-year term on the city commission and Anthony A. Sanders will serve a two-year term... 

http://www.cohb.org/DocumentCenter/View/6361

Nope, still no corrections to the news as of 10:00 p.m. Saturday night, November 17th:

http://www.cohb.org/CivicAlerts.aspx

Yes, the very same chronic lack of attention to detail by City Hall and accuracy on the city's website as we've come to expect for SO MANY YEARS.

Bobby Jindal's looming Mainstream Media "Mirror Mirror" problems are closer at hand than I thought; Mark Hendrickson at Forbes.com on -what I see as Jindal's needless- "Jab At Mitt Romney Underscores Republicans' Dilemma"; Jindal is proving Rush Limbaugh's point about GOP self-regard

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal gets played and walks into quicksand, led by CNN's Wolf Blitzer in his condemnation of Mitt Romney: 'We Don't Win Elections By Insulting Voters.' Jindal doesn't seem to fully appreciate the fact that if he were being equally critical of President Obama in his public comments as he was of Mitt Romney prior to his appearance here, he wouldn't be appearing on TV at all. Someone as experienced in dealing with the news media as Jindal should be smart enough to appreciate that he is on TV specifically because he fits the post-election Mainstream Media narrative, but he doesn't. Why? Is the lure of the red light on the camera that powerful to him? sadly, it would appear so, since it's easy to see that when he says something in the future that the same news media wants to exaggerate or misrepresent because it doesn't jibe with the narrative that they want to put forth to the country, who does Jindal think will help him when he's complaining about being left out to dry, the Republican governors? Hardly. It's so damn laughable.
And you'll notice that Jindal is so concentrated on blasting Romney and mouthing high-minded feel-good cliches that he never has the good sense to pivot and turn things around by saying, matter of factly, "On the other hand, Wolf, I sure don't envy you and CNN and the rest of the Beltway media on Inauguration Day trying to remind your viewers what the big idea or ideas proposed by President Obama during the campaign were. You know, the ideas or plans that you and CNN presumably plan on holding him to account for in the new year. No, I don't envy you because there weren't any." Nope! There's none of that sort of quick thinking on his feet. LOL! 
Uploaded November 15, 2012. http://youtu.be/IUsXAseSeXg

Bobby Jindal's looming Mainstream Media "Mirror Mirror" problems are closer at hand than I thought; Mark Hendrickson at Forbes.com on -what I see as Jindal's needless- "Jab At Mitt Romney Underscores Republicans' Dilemma"; Jindal is proving Rush Limbaugh's point about GOP self-regard

The Mark Hendrickson column at Forbes.com that I received late Friday night was clearly written before Friday morning's New Orleans Times-Picayune editorial blasting Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal for resisting creating an Obamacare health insurance exchange.

Forbes.com

Bobby Jindal's Jab At Mitt Romney Underscores Republicans' Dilemma

Mark Hendrickson, Contributor

OP/ED  |  11/16/2012 @ 6:18PM

http://www.forbes.com/sites/markhendrickson/2012/11/16/bobby-jindals-jab-at-mitt-romney-underscores-republicans-dilemma/

New Orleans Times-Picayune

Gov. Jindal is ignoring his people's needs: Editorial

http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2012/11/gov_jindal_is_ignoring_his_peo.html

In my opinion, despite all his many admirable qualities and talents, it's likely that Bobby Jindal will STILL likely be trying to reason with the national news media and East Coast elites over the next few years even as they're verbally lynching him by twisting his words and making him seem either ridiculous or dangerous (or both) in ways that he, his friends and supporters can't even imagine now.
Well after the point that it's been clear to me and many others I know that those elites are "just not that into him."

To them, Jindal's an interesting oddity, the fish-out-of-water that complicates their usual patronizing view of The South, so far from the norms of Manhattan and the Beltway.
He's the human anecdote to bring out when important guests come over and you've got the fine china out on the table and want to show you're refined.

For such a very smart guy, remarkable actually, he displays an air of unreality about him at times that's positively frightening, almost childlike, and truly disconnected from the political history of the past 25 years in this country, where people like him are left on the side of the road.

It's as if Jindal thinks -not unlike John Edwards or Bill Clinton- that he can single-handedly talk anyone and everyone he meets into agreeing that he's not only uniquer-than-unique, but also quite correct on the public policy as well.

In many uncomfortable ways, to me, after years of seeing interviews with him on every matter of policy shows and forums and reading what he's written, Jindal seems like Exhibit A from Central Casting in what radio host Rush Limbaugh regularly says about a certain sub-set of Republican pols and consultants who care, desperately, about what the Beltway news media and pundit class think about him.

Just like former GOP senator from Wyoming, Alan Simpson, who was never more popular with the Beltway and East Coast MSM than when he was publicly disparaging the House Republicans in the '90's, esp. Newt Gingrich.
As I know even better, that was especially the role carved out by the media for Indina Senator  Richard Lugar, who for so many years played the role of shadow Secretary of State, even while taking things for granted back in Indiana, where I went to school.
It's also one of the chief reasons he lost the GOP primary to Richard Mourdock in a landslide. 

Sen. Lugar had become the very picture of the media-absorbed pol, albeit a very smart and articulate one, and it was hard fro me not to notice, even before I came back to South Florida in 2003, that he was increasingly getting on TV, on the front pages of major newspapers or being cited in Thomas L. Friedman columns not because of what he had to say about foreign policy, but because he was so consistently willing to publicly criticize other Republicans' policies or ideas.
The MSM found him a 'useful idiot' for their purposes of supporting Democratic policies.

All of that is something that was discussed back on May 16th in a post titled, Richard Mourdock: Precursor or anomaly? Greg Garrison and Charlie Cook adroitly pinpoint where Sen. Richard Lugar eventually lost his way, started losing the trust of Hoosier voters, then lost in a landslide due to the dis-connect. Points largely lost on a predictably apoplectic Beltway MSM
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/richard-mourdock-precursor-or-anomaly.html

What Limbaugh says about that is 100% true, in large part because it's simple human

nature, as I witnessed for 15 years while living and working in D.C. with many Republican

friends who were staffers who worked for bosses on The Hill or the agencies who were constantly being fooled into thinking that someone in the Beltway media and Think Tank Cool Crowd really liked them.

Who doesn't want to be liked? 

That was the central conceit with many new younger male Members of Congress, many of whom were fortunate to be born with either  connections, money or good looks because they sure WEREN'T very bright.

They were so used to people deferring to them that they couldn't tell when they were being played.

Those folks didn't like them, of course, they just wanted to have them around long enough to have some fun at their expense, before eventually tiring of them and sending them packing like Mean Girls -dismissed!

Unless he wises up pretty soon and recognizes reality and stops caring so much what the national news media thinks about him, that's Bobby Jindal's future -mockery and put-downs by the very news media that he so desperately wants to persuade thru his genuine brilliance.