FOLLOW me on my popular Twitter feed. Just click this photo! @hbbtruth - David - Common sense on #Politics #PublicPolicy #Sports #PopCulture in USA, Great Britain, Sweden and France, via my life in #Texas #Memphis #Miami #IU #Chicago #DC #FL 🛫🌍📺📽️🏈. Photo is of Elvis and Joan Blackman in 'Blue Hawaii'
Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west towards Gamla Stan
Harvard Law School Prof. Charles Kingsfield (John Houseman) schools impetuous One L student James Hart (Timothy Bottoms) on the sudden bump on his career path. The Paper Chase -1973. http://youtu.be/_wOUMd3bMRI
Alexander Haislip in Tech Crunch examines Instagram's purchase by Facebook and essentially repurposes Prof. Charles Kingsfield's "here's a dime" speech to explain why many other start-ups are now officially screwed as a result of this deal.
"Here is a dime. Take it, call your mother, and tell her there is serious doubt about you ever becoming" a successful entrepreneur.
And here's why...
Tech Crunch
An Open Letter To Those Not Employed At Instagram
Alexander Haislip
Sunday, April 15th, 2012
Dear Non-Instagramers,
Sorry that you didn’t get bought out for $1 billion last week. That’s got to be a bummer. Kevin Systrom just made enough money to buy a boat big enough to make Larry Ellison jealous and you’re still living in a studio apartment.
by Lois Beckett, ProPublica,
March 13, 2012, 1:31 p.m.
Instead of picketing outside company headquarters, an advocacy group is using Facebook ads to try to influence people whose profiles identify them as employees of Freddie Mac or JPMorgan Chase.
The anti-foreclosure ad campaign, which launches today, asks Freddie and Chase employees to talk to their CEOs about a veteran -- a former Marine -- who's facing eviction in California.
"This is not any sort of attack on the employees there," said Jim Pugh of Rebuild the Dream, which is running the ad campaign. "We're trying to let them know what's happening."
The ad that targets Freddie Mac employees features a small picture of CEO Charles Haldeman's face, and the message, "Freddie Mac did what???? Freddie Mac is evicting a former Marine who's been trying to pay his mortgage. Tell CEO Haldeman to work out a fair deal with him!" according to a copy of the ad provided by Pugh.
The JPMorgan Chase ad is similar, but with a Chase logo instead of an executive's face.
We've contacted Freddie Mac and JP Morgan Chase spokespeople for comment, and also reached out to Freddie Mac and JPMorgan Chase employees on Facebook. If you've seen one of these ads, please let us know.
Targeted online advertising is nothing new. (As anyone who has changed their Facebook status to "engaged" can tell you, a simple update can bring a deluge of new ads.) But political campaigns and advocacy groups are increasingly adopting the same microtargeting tactics that companies use.
Rick Perry's campaign, for instance, targeted faith-focused ads to people in Iowa who listed themselves as Christians on Facebook, and ads featuring his wife to the state's female conservatives, Politico reported.
According to FEC data, Endorse Liberty, a super PAC that supports Ron Paul, has led the way on Facebook expenditures, spending a total of $241,508 through January 2012.
And it's not just Facebook and Google where campaigns and activists are doing microtargeting. The music site Pandora announced last year that it would be selling political ad space targeted to the zip codes of particular listeners, the Wall Street Journal reported.
There's nothing inherently problematic about targeted ads. Campaigns have been using direct mail to target particular voters for decades. Digital targeting can be a cost-effective way of spending advertising dollars, especially for smaller groups, like Rebuild the Dream, which sees the ads as a great way to get more bang for their buck in terms of reaching their intended audience. (The group also launched a special donation drive specifically for the Facebook ad buy.) ProPublica even used Facebook ads to try to find sources for our 2009 series, When Caregivers Harm.
But as the ability to use data to reach particular people grows more sophisticated, targeting risks crossing privacy lines, as demonstrated by a recent New York Times article on how Target knew a teenage customer was pregnant before her father did.
What's clear is that if all this microtargeting translates into electoral gains, the scale and sophistication of these efforts will continue to grow, and the data science that gained traction in 2008 will become a regular part of campaigning. In the meantime, the Obama campaign's already substantial data team continues to hire statistical modeling analysts and analytics engineers.
The increasing ease and flexibility of online targeting also raises new questions about how politicians are presenting themselves to different audiences, how much campaigns need to tell their supporters about the personal information they collect -- and what will happen to the massive databases of voter information collected during the 2012 presidential campaign. Will they be sold? Passed on to other politicians?
Rebuild the Dream, which focuses on economic issues, was launched by MoveOn.org in 2011, but has been independent since January, Pugh said. The group's president is former Obama green jobs adviser Van Jones.
Pugh worked on the Obama campaign's digital analytics team in 2008 while also trying to finish a Ph.D. dissertation in robotics, and later did similar work for the Democratic National Committee. He said he was not sure what kind of reaction the ads would receive.
"I would imagine that people are fairly used to targeted ads at this point," he said. But while people who work in politics and advocacy may be used to receiving Facebook ads targeting specific causes, "It's hard to know in advance how unusual it will seem to the employees of Freddie Mac and JP Morgan Chase."
----- Reader comments at:http://www.propublica.org/article/how-to-win-facebook-friends-and-influence-people/single#comments
The Washington Post By Evelio Contreras, Marc Fisher, Kat Downs and Jon Cohen January 20, 2012 ----- Below, the everyday media world of three South Carolina voters who are avid news consumers... Prepare to see this effort copied by newspapers and TV stations across the country!
The Washington Post Polarized news market has altered the political process in South Carolina primary
By Marc Fisher January 20, 2012
LAURENS, S.C. — Once upon a time — oh, about two presidential elections ago — Dianne Belsom would get up in the morning and read the paper, taking in news stories about candidates and campaigns. Some stuff she agreed with, some she didn’t.
This morning, Belsom wakes in her splendidly restored pink Victorian on Main Street in this rural South Carolina town, makes coffee and settles in at her desktop to fire up Facebook. There on her news feed are more than 100 stories that some of her 460 friends have posted since Belsom went to bed eight hours ago.
This article accompanies a quiz on the Washington Post's website to measure the reader's daily media consumption. ----- http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics
(FYI: I've deleted a few extraneous "Friends" below from this Facebook post about public policy in Hallandale Beach who didn't actually say anything about the issue so that you can better follow the back-and-forth, NOT to protect the dimwits who seem like they could care less about the actual facts.)
Following this ridiculous pronouncement above by R.J. Intiondola, later, on Wednesday at 11:15a.m. he then goes on to ramble...
Currently, Keith London is seeking through his charter review representative to alter the existing appointment structure of the City Clerk. Currently, the city clerk is appointed by and reports to the City Manager. Keith London believes the City Commission has more expertise at selection, recruitment and managing the position and therefore the elected officials should select and appoint the city clerk. The elected body would therefore supervise the position. He makes this comment without a single day of management, administrative and recruitment experience. This is not unusual for elected officiasl whose ego has blown out of control to believe they are the expert at every and any given subject. Facts are, he has no idea on how to manage an organization.
At 3:34 p.m. Wednesday, Intindola responds peevishly to my friend Michael Butler of Change Hallandale's reasonable question.
It's especially reasonable given that Intindoladoesn't live anywhere near here and hasn't attended a 2011 HB CRC meeting in person, like both Comm. London and I have.
Trust me, THAT is one very small list.
London and I were the only ones sitting in the audience at their first meeting.
This comes on top of the central fact that Intindola has no idea what he is talking about, as a simple conversation with the CRC's Chair, Anthony Musto, a former HB City Commissioner himself and current Law School professor would prove.
(Did I mention yet that Musto was Comm. London's appointment?
Meanwhile Comm. Dotty Ross, from the thousands of people in this city whom she could've selected to add their perspective to the group, chose the much-loathed former HB City Commissioner, William "Bill" Julian, to add his longstanding myopia and chronically bad judgment to the mix.
Yes, Julian, a person who along with Mayor Cooper and Comm. Ross and the current and former City Manager, is held personally responsible by a large portion of this city's well-informed populace for why this city is such a mess, and so much LESS than what it ought to be.
And yes, defying logic as he always has, Julian has filed to run for the city commission next year, much to the delight of many friends of mine who anticipate him finally getting the public grilling and buzz-sawing that his ridiculed record deserves, after making this city a perpetual media laughingstock, due in large part to his very own jaw-dropping personal actions, petty and unethical behavior, and penchant for almost always saying the wrong thing at the wrong time while voting also against the larger community's best long-term interests.)
Intindola can't logically explain why the CRC would knowingly vote in favor of an idea they didn't like and knew would make them look ridiculous, or, why, given that, the HB City Commission, who would get it after the CRC to decide whether it goes on the ballot to be voted upon, would then repeat that action and approve it even if they didn't like it.
Intindolacan'tlogically explain his own opinion about London because it completely lacks logic and common sense.
Given what the process is, how exactly does Intindola think that one person, Keith London, can change the form of city government we currently have -for the worse- by himself?
Exactly!
But why let facts get in the way, right?
Mike, he doesn't say anything specifically but all of his actions would leave anyone to that conclusion. He was the commission the higher the city clerk, was to contract out legal services and has made numerous relative other comments degrading the form of government. As part of the profession, I feel compelled to support professionalism in local government and not political hackery.
"As part of the profession, I feel compelled to support professionalism in local government and not political hackery."
SosayethR.J. Intindola, long-time Georgia resident, former Hallandale Beach City Manager, and self-appointed expert in good government, civics and public administration.
Well, at least the first two are true. Oh, those pesky facts!
R.J. Intindolais nothing but a know-it-all, long-distance serial meddler who writes about things he is neither an expert about nor even an eye witness to.
In short, an embittered and dis-connected man who was thoroughly rejected by his former city last year when he thought he heard them calling out his name.
No, they were NOT.
That sound he heard was just inHIShead.
-----
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
HALLANDALE STRIP CALLED 'DUMB' ACT
By Sallie James, Staff Writer
January 14, 1992
HALLANDALE -- The bare facts about a stripper's appearance at a bachelor party for a public works superintendent on Monday left city officials rolling their eyes. ''I don't condone it, but I am not going to do anything about it,'' City Manager R.J. Intindola said when told about the party held on city property. The stripper danced her way through the conference room of the Department of Public Works at a 4 p.m. party for general superintendent Mike Good , who is getting married, said John Depp, who supervises the department. Depp helped arrange for the stripper. The naked truth? Somebody just used bad judgment, said Mayor Arthur ''Sonny'' Rosenberg. ''I don't think whoever hired the dancer should have done it on city property,'' Rosenberg said. Intindola said it is not the first time strippers have appeared at parties for city employees. In past years, it has happened three or four times, he said. He joked Monday that the employees should have sent the stripper to City Commission chambers -- adjacent to his office.
Yes, that R.J. Intindola sure is the consumate professional!
LOL!!!
Almost everyone I know who's well-informed about what happens here in HB has whatever opinion of Intindola they have completely independent of anything I've said or written -or will say or write in the future.
Nobody is going to suddenly jump to his side of an argument based on his bitter enmity and lofty opinion of himself.
My understanding -which could be wrong, but I doubt it- is that Intindola was quite angry that nobody in town would publicly back him last year for the CM position when it was clear that Mike Good was being shown the door with a super-golden parachute, despite Good so frequently NOT showing-up for work, showing-up unprepared or dressed inappropriately for meetings with developers who'd flown into town for the meeting, or -and this is what I suspect eventually soured even loyal Good defender Mayor Cooper- Good NOT even being available on the telephone. Of nobody, including his wife, the former HB Asst. City Manager -who once worked for two cities at the same time, unbeknownst to one of the cities- actually knowing where he was or how to reach him.
If you look at Intindola'sFacebook"Friends," you'll see both Alexander Lewy and Broward School Board member Patricia Good, Mike Good's sister-in-law.
Taking a peek thru the rusty wrought-iron fence on S.W. 4th Street, you can catch a glimpse of the Old World Charm that surely must've been old Hallandale Beach City Hall. That computer monitor has been there the ground for at least four years that I know of. It's broken though, perhaps a casualty of the move to the new building over ten years ago. It's only your money! August 21, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier
I received this delicious out-of-the-blue tip on Tuesday night about a Facebook posting by former Hallandale Beach City Manager R.J. Intindola.
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, Sep 27, 2011 Subject: R.J. Intindola posted on facebook R.j. Intindola Keith London, city commissioner for Hallandale Beach, Florida is attempting to hijack the charter review committee. He is a power hungry elected official intent on dwindling down the Council-Manager form of government.
Now I don't do Facebook myself, although there is a widget at the end of each blog post that allows you to post it to your own Facebook page if you want to.
Next week it may be time for me to publicly open-up on this guy who had the gall to berate me in emails because I said publicly what anyone paying attention could see -that he was biased.
Biased, that is, in that he thought nearly everything he did was was nearly perfect when he was City Manager of Hallandale Beach.
Hardly.
And by open-up, of course, I mean revealing inconvenient facts he tries to avoid.
You mean R.J. Intindola the know-it-all expert whose brand-new HB City Hall parking lot was a veritable lagoon when it opened, so much so that even the Miami Herald actually did multiple stories about it?
Yes.
The same CM who f-'d up the sale of the old City Hall, a move the city is -typically- STILL paying for public policy-wise, as it wastes away and is a longstanding public nuisance to the neighborhood for over ten years, while generating what exactly?
The R.J. Intindola that asked to be considered for HB City Manager post-Mike Good last year, and who got very upset that nobody-but-nobody wanted him back?
Yes.
The R.J. Intindola that doesn't even live in Hallandale Beach?
Yes, that R.J. Intindola!
And then there were ALL those self-congratulatory comments of his last year in the reader comments of the The BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes website when Thomas Francis and Bob Norman wrote the truth about what was happening here, wherein HB political commisar Andrew Markoff -who believes in appeasing Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew- sucked-up to him in his comments like a hungry puppy, swallowing everything whole, while generally denouncing Michael Butler, Keith London and myself in particular -and many of you by proxy- as,
Somebody needs to hold a mirror to Intindola and shoot some holes -i.e facts- into his Bunyonesque Tall Tales, and if I have the time next week, I'm going to start that process rolling, along with some comments about the true state of the disastrous HB Charter Review Commission that is, as I stated last week, the proverbial HB dog-chasing-its-tail.
Like Mark Antonio, Intindola's great so long as you take his word for it.
Or don't know the true facts.
Just ask him -he'll tell you how wise he is.
Without you even asking...
For the record, on my blog today, I've gone ahead and expanded that email of yesterday with some photos to indicate the degree of sheer obliviousness of current HB City Manager Mark Antonio to yet another issue that has-and-is going on in the very city he's supposed to be managing.
But which he's completely in the dark about!
These weren't even the most telling photos, either, merely the ones that were easiest to find on my computer early this morning of the dozens and dozens I've recorded over the years when Antonio was Mike Good's highly-paid Asst. City Manager, prior to Comm. Bill Julian's typical ass-backwards sabotaging of the City Manager search last summer that taxpayers were already paying for -BEFORE the public could actually meet the short list of candidates- which resulted in Antonio getting the very job that even Mayor Cooper didn't originally want
Just remember, Antonio is planning on leaving in June.
But do you honestly trust Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew to choose a new City Manager that will be any different in substance or tone?
Even with a city election less than six months later that's highly-likely to sweep-out some of the current Crew of sleepwalkers out the door and bring in pro-reform candidates who believe in actually PERFORMING their duties and providing genuine financial accountability and oversight for the city's beleaguered taxpayers and business owners and making sound public policy?
South Florida blogging scene in 2011; Observations re NY Times' article on growing cleavage between using blogs and Twitter to disseminate original content: "Blogs Wane as the Young Drift to Sites Like Twitter"; On comparing the blog portals at the Miami Herald to the ones used by savvy Swedish news media that makes young women like Blondinbella, Tess Montgomery and Josefina Boston influential voices on so many issues; The whole blogging scene in Sweden is not just different from the U.S. -it's better. Meanwhile, here, MSM and "Usual Suspects' try to dominate the conversation
* Updated in January of 2016 I'm still laughing and bemused after reading this New York Times article, below, with my emphasis in red. This fascinating-yet-revealing quote is what really hit me:“It’s different from blogging because it’s easier to use,” she said.“With blogging you have to write, and this is just images. Some people write some phrases or some quotes, but that’s it.” Yes, putting those pesky words together in sentences and paragraphs sure is hard work! These kids are all thumbs. New York Times Blogs Wane as the Young Drift to Sites Like Twitter By Jim Wilson/The New York Times Published: February 20, 2011
SAN FRANCISCO — Like any aspiring filmmaker, Michael McDonald, a high school senior, used a blog to show off his videos. But discouraged by how few people bothered to visit, he instead started posting his clips on Facebook, where his friends were sure to see and comment on his editing skills. “I don’t use my blog anymore,” said Mr. McDonald, who lives in San Francisco. “All the people I’m trying to reach are on Facebook.”
Read the rest of the article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/technology/internet/21blog.html Meanwhile, in Europe, media companies that create a stable of popular and blogs stressing text and visuals, esp. those written by popular teens and twenty/thirty-somethings about fashion, design and pop culture, are making money. Why? Because they offer something that readers always want: interesting unique content.
The hugely-popular blog, The Blond Salad, http://www.theblondesalad.com/created by a very savvy and resourceful Italian twenty-something named Chiara Ferragni@ChiaraFerragni today had this exclusive: Burberry fashionshow in real time on Theblondesalad! Yes, timeliness and genuine relevancy for her readers, just two of the things that concerned residents like me perpetually complain that we have far too little of in South Florida for local politics and government, in part because in the year 2011, we also STILL lack an All-News local cable channel that can fill that gap. To match the All-News radio station that South Florida also still lacks.
Above, the colorful header used by model Tess Montgomery for her popular blog, TessM.se.
*2016 Update to below: In 2013 Tess was one of the featured bloggers on the very popular Stureplan.se platform at http://stureplan.se/bloggar/tess but in 2016 Tess is now blogging at http://tessm.metromode.se/ Spotlife.se with two London-based blogs, Josefina Boston'sAbsolute Boston, http://absolutboston.se/ and Tess Montgomery's, http://tessm.se/, both of which I have mentioned here very positively in this space previously, have multi-national advertisers, and that's even more the case at Isabella Löwengrip'sBlondinbella blog -also at Spotlife-who has become a well-known celebrity/author throughout Scandinavia and Europe. She's also not onlya frequent presence on national TV in Sweden, but is more influential than most veteran reporters and correspondents at well-known European newspapers, magazines and wire services covering fashion or pop culture. And everyone knows it, too. In Sweden, there's even a nationally-televised awards show for blogs on Channel 4, for the best blogs in about a dozen different subject and age categories, and it's promoted on both TV and in print, even to the point where they have TV ads featuring the various candidates in the weeks leading up to the telecast.I've even placed those some of promos here on the blog in the past to give you an idea of how differently blogs are viewed. Here's the video they produced for the Blog Awards2010 show in the category of Best Newcomer -Årets nykomling
http://www.tv4play.se/noje_och_humor/blog_awards?videoId=1.1773279 See some more recent clips at: https://www.tv4play.se/program/blog-awards Let me tell you something -there is no station promo for local Miami TV newscasts or Dolphinsor Hurricanes shows that isas well-produced as that one. Yes, genuine effort and vision still counts for something with readers and viewers. And the numbers show it. Here's the list and video of the 2010 winners: http://www.tv4.se/1.1831566/2010/09/27/vi_vann_blog_awards_2010 Meanwhile, the Miami Herald's blog network such as it is, is featured in the bottom-third of the website's first page, and has no identifiable icon or graphic next to it, just boring black text saying South Florida Blogs. Above, a screenshot I took Monday night of the location on the Miami Herald's website where their blogs and collection of South Flordia blogs are located, with, as you can see, no icon to attract your attention or differentiate them -just text in black. Boring! I'll leave to another time the question of why a media company like McClatchy that prints both English and Spanish language newspapers in Miami insists on placing Spanish language blogs on an English language website, and even worse, confuses people by having a Spanish language blog with an icon being the first one that people actually see on the English language website. And it's also the only one. Why are there blogs listed in the South Florida blogs section that are actually written by Herald staffers, and why aren't they listed in the Herald's own section? That's real genius! And nervy!
Lots of online Heraldreaders no doubt see that and say, "Why even bother?" And when you get there, you aren't exactly wowed visually by what you see! http://yourblogs.miamiherald.com/ Compare that frumpy-dumpy scene of the Herald blog page to not only Spotlife'scolorful blog home, http://spotlife.se/ but also the very popular Stureplan blogs, which are very much about Stockholm's exciting nightlife and entertainment scene which puts Miami/South Beach's to shame for genuine fun for non-millionaires, http://stureplan.se/ Could there be more of a contrast between the integration of color and design? And there are other differences, too. For reasons that were never explained to me, my own blog -yes, this one- was listed on the Herald's blog page when it first launched, but since I was never asked about it or received any info from the Herald about their plans prior to its launch, I only found out about it a fewweeksafter it started, thru an email from a friend who'd seen my blog on it and was puzzled why it was there without my ever having mentioned it to her. She wanted to know who I got there to put in a good word for me. Nobody -it was a complete surprise to me, too. That's NOT exactly a strategy to win well-informed hearts and minds -or readers and eyeballs.
And now that theHerald's link for their hodgepodge collection of blogs has migrated from near the top of the website to some dubious real estate with no promotion, graphics or icon, it's not at all clear that readers even realize it's STILLthere. I don't even think about it anymore, even though I'm on it.
Since this article is about a downward trend among some sub-set of bloggers, let's call them the never-reads, let me leave you with a more encouraging stone-cold fact about one who gives people facts and context they are looking for.
Isabella Löwengrip at Blondinbella has more people following her on Facebook than the Miami Heraldand South Florida Sun-Sentinel and ALL their reporters, columnists or subject blogs combined. She's... actually recognized in Stockholm at the airport when she flies home intoArlanda.
Interesting and unique content-it's why I read the blogs I've mentioned here and why so many other people do, too. Just saying...
Facebook and Twitter Are Changing the Middle East 2/18/2011 9:42:59 AM In an interview with WSJ'sAlan Murray, social media expert Clay Shirky discusses the effect of Facebook, Twitter and other social media in the recent uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, and what it could mean for the Middle East at large.
When Clay Shirky speaks, very smart people with resources and connections listen -and so should you! He believes that Libya is the next domino to fall... ker-plunk! Pull-quote from the Shirky interview: "Governments are NOT afraid of informed individuals, they're afraid of informed synchronous groups." Hmm-m... that's Joy Cooper's biggest fear at Hallandale Beach City Hall. http://www.shirky.com/
http://www.shirky.com/weblog/
New York Times video: Tunisia, After the Revolution
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeTY4zl02-4
Libya teetering on the brink of great change... I've been listening intently this morning to the 6 a.m. BBC World ServiceWorld Today broadcast and have heard a fascinating interview with a Libyan-born expert in the U.S. who actually knows Colonel Qadafi and his son, Sayf.
Following a BBC correspondent's report from Tripoli, scene of so much violence this weekend, and even now, the scene of sustained gunfire, the expert in the U.S. being interviewed was quite negative about the speech Qadhafi'sson made today on Libyan TV, and what he characterized as the very strange behavior he exhibited.
He said that Libyan people would not respond well to the behavior or words, esp, his wild gesticulations during the speech as well as the very threatening manner, which made it seem like it had not been rehearsed. Almost like the first time he saw it was when he was reading it. Hmm-m...
See it for yourself. BBC video of excerpts of Sayf al-Islam Qadafispeech: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12520550
The situation is moving very, very rapidly... How will Libya transition into next phase of development?
Another expert said that it's his sense of things that with the eastern part of the country basically opting out of central control, Qadafi will be out of Libya within the next 24-36 hours because the army and police are starting to realize that they have no futureif he is around.
He no longer is able to control things and "the genie is out and can't be put back into the lamp."
BBC's Middle east Protests web page: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12480844
BBC-TV video segments on http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12513941
Listen LIVE to BBC Radio's World Service here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/audioconsole/?stream=live Facts on Libya at the CIA Factbook: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ly.html The Channel 4 News Snowmail that I received by email on Sunday afternoon, written by Krishnan Guru-Murthy, said as follows on Libya:
LIBYA
The Libya uprising is showing its differences and difficulties. While Tunisia, Egypt and Bahrain have been playing out on television cameras, amateur video, mobile phones and Twitter the Libyan protests are much harder to follow. International journalists have not managed to get in the way they did with the others. Access to the internet is restricted, and websites such as YouTube which can upload video, and social networks seem to be disrupted. However the phones still work so we have been gathering testimony the old fashioned pre-internet way. Amid reports of hundreds of people now killed in the protests in and around Benghazi there is clearly huge determination by the demonstrators. We spoke to one man there who told us "A lot of people are dying in the streets. There are a lot of cars with troops from outside Libya, I think they are Nigerian, from African countries. They have guns and they shoot anyone they find on the streets...From the eastern part of Libya, the protesters have received some heavy artillery, they haven’t used it yet – they're telling us they are going to now. Nobody knows the number (of dead) because there are many hospitals – they go to four or five different hospitals. Most of them are being shot by snipers, from far away in the head or the chest by Africans. Most of them don’t speak good Arabic, they speak French." Obviously there is no way for us to check these claims on the snipers but they give you a good idea of what the talk is going around the protesters at least. Heavy gunfire could be heard in the background and the man had to break off to shout at friends to get inside.
And it is clear Tripoli is far from calm too. We spoke to a woman there who told us "I live in the east side of Tripoli but I cannot go out. My husband went out this morning, he said the streets were empty, people were scared. So I said, ok let my son go to the store but my son – he didn’t come back and I hear from people – I call them and they say why did you send him? People have gone to the court – I hope he didn’t go there because he’s young and very nervous. For two days I kept him in the house but I hope he didn’t go there. Oh my goodness, there’s something happening now – they are shooting I’m sorry I have to go.". So we are gathering what we can, and will have the latest. We will also be discussing what the West can and should do about Libya. The US ambassador Louis Susman was pretty unsubtle in a diplomatic way this morning with Andrew Marr - it was clear he thinks Britain has been wrong to deal with Gadaffi in a way that makes him seem like a legitimate leader.
Here are the two news segments they aired last night on Libya.
Channel4 News February 20, 2011Libya unrest http://bcove.me/4tbtcgj2
Channel4 News February 20, 2011Libya discussion http://bcove.me/idmo6ot5
New York Times DealBook's Andrew Ross Sorkin and Evelyn M. Rusli discuss Facebook's valuation after the social networking site raised $500 million from Goldman Sachs and DST Global, a Russian investor. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P3g5QDWszM The related article is at: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/01/02/goldman-invests-in-facebook-at-50-billion-valuation/
Below, some background on Section 12(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, enacted by Congress in 1964, and its application (or non-application) in thecurrentFacebook deal.
Video: Goldman-Facebook Deal Raises Debate on Investor Pool http://bcove.me/2c4j7kl9
Related article at: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/01/05/the-500-investor-threshold-debated-for-its-47-year-history/
While the Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel snooze, with their busy and unimaginative websites, the New York Times is making big investments in improving content for their readers in their business coverage and making their financial stories must-read -and watch!
Beet.TV: The New York Times is Capturing the "Character-Driven Drama" of Wall Street with Dealbook Videos
Part 1: Palin for President?Sarah Palin on future and possibly entering the 2012 race.12/17/2010 http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/part-palin-president-12428592
Part 2: Palin on MotherhoodFormer VP candidate on marriage and raising five kids.12/17/2010 http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/part-palin-motherhood-12428604
In 2006 Sarah Palin defeated an incumbent governor of her own party in order to get the Alaska GOP gubernatorial nomination. After winning that nomination battle against longtime GOP U.S. Senator and sitting governor -and pork-loving blow-hard- Frank Murkowski, father of recently-re-elected U.S. Senator -and permanent sour face- Lisa Murkowski, Palin then got to run against the Democrat, another recent former Alaska governor, Tony Knowles. And won. As of two years ago, there was not a single LIVING Democratic politician in the entire United States who had ever run that sort of gantlet to get elected governor of their respective state.Just saying...
While it's easy for people to throw stones at Palin, especially from a distance, doing what she did, as mayor of a small and otherwise obscure city in Alaska that even most well-informed people in the Lower 48 had NEVER heard of, was and is pretty amazing. That no LIVING Democrat has done anything like that is the proof. I've always liked women with moxie, and Sarah Palin has that in abundance. As far as I'm concerned, whatever else she may lack, that particular quality will always help compensate for an awful lot, and endear her with average American voters, who quickly tire of pretentious, self-promoting phonies like John Kerry or John Edwards, whose innate shallowness, self-deception and disconnectedness to most of the country's genuine concerns eventually shines thru, no matter how talented or skillful their speechwriters.
The Washington Post'sChris Cillizza chimed in on Sarah Palin's political future on Friday from his WaPo blog, The Fix, pondering aloud, "Why Sarah Palin could struggle in 2012."
Transcripts of his Friday morning "Live Fix" online and video chats are at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2009/08/19/LI2009081903062.html
Here's the interactive schedule for the Washington Post's reporters, columnists and bloggers http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/liveonline/
Yes, you're right, South Florida, in the year 2010, soon to be 2011, the Miami Herald and South Florida Sun-Sentinel have nothing even close to this in terms of breadth of quality or quantity.Why? Now, that's a good question. Why don't the publishers of these two newspapers want to address those issues with concerned readers in South Florida?
Sarah Palin's Alaska:http://tlc.discovery.com/tv/sarah-palin-alaska/
America by Heart -Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag by Sarah Palin http://www.harpercollins.com/books/America-Heart-Sarah-Palin/?isbn=9780062010964 http://files.harpercollins.com/AudioFile/9780062026910.mp3
YouTube videos mentioning Sarah Palin are added daily, almost hourly, regardless of whether they are pro or con.This chron link should provide you a way of seeing the most recent additions. http://www.youtube.com/results?search_filter=1&search_query=%22Sarah+Palin%22&search_type=videos&suggested_categories=25%2C43%2C23&uni=3&search_sort=video_date_uploaded
See also: http://abcnews.go.com/nightline http://abcnews.go.com/gma http://www.youtube.com/user/ABCNews
