How Jennifer Carroll proves the political history of Florida isn't quite what it used to be -and neither are the news media's memories, either

To the blog readers who were kind enough to email me and ask -perhaps tongue in cheek- if I noticed that "Correction" in the Miami Herald on Friday, I did.
Actually, I noticed the mistake in the original article on Thursday, below.

-----
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/02/1803901/scotts-likely-no-2-navy-vet.html

Miami Herald
Rick Scott's likely No. 2: Navy vet
A Republican victory in November in the governor's race could produce Florida's first black lieutenant governor. Jennifer Carroll is likely to be Rick Scott's running mate

By Steve Bousquet, Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau

September 2, 2010

Rick Scott's running mate on the Republican ticket for governor is expected to be state Rep. Jennifer Carroll, a U.S. Navy veteran and mother of three who, if elected, would be Florida's first black lieutenant governor.

Scott will unveil his pick Thursday in a campaign fly-around beginning in Jacksonville, a major hub of Republican voters near Carroll's home in Fleming Island.

In choosing Carroll, Scott, himself a Navy veteran, would get a woman with a distinctive personal story who could neutralize the gender appeal of his Democratic opponent, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink:

• In a state where one in every seven voters is black -- and nearly all are Democrats -- Carroll is a black Republican.

• As a native of Trinidad, Carroll is an immigrant who could help soften Scott's hard-line image on an issue that cuts both ways in a state with a large immigrant population.

• She packs a celebrity punch: Her son, Nolan II, is a rookie cornerback and kick returner for the Miami Dolphins, drafted out of the University of Maryland.

"She's an immigrant and she worked her way up and she did everything through hard work. That's very similar to Rick's background. There's a lot of similarities between the two of them,'' said Jen Baker, Scott's campaign spokesman.

Carroll, 51, made Gov. Charlie Crist's short list of possible running mates in 2006, and she was among those listed as possible successors to Mel Martinez, who resigned his U.S. Senate seat last year.

Scott's camp is aggressive in challenging what it considers off-base speculation on political blogs. When blogs named Carroll as his pick Wednesday, the campaign raised no objection.

Lieutenant governors in Florida share one common trait: obscurity. The office did not exist before 1968 and it is unique in that no job description for it exists in state law.

Strategists agree that the selection of a running mate is largely a media fixation that matters little to rank-and-file voters, unless the choice backfires.

"The first rule of a lieutenant governor candidate is to not get in trouble,'' said GOP strategist and lobbyist J.M. ``Mac'' Stipanovich. "As a candidate for governor your choice of a lieutenant governor does little for you, but this one is intriguing.''

'A GREAT MESH'

Leslie Dougher, county GOP chairwoman in Carroll's home of Clay County, praised the choice as "far-reaching.''

"It would be a great mesh,'' Dougher said. "Mr. Scott is from South Florida and Jennifer is from North Florida.''

Sink's running mate is Rod Smith, 60, a former state senator and elected state attorney from Alachua County who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2006.

"I don't have time to speculate, really,'' Sink said in Miami Wednesday. ``I'm just waiting to see what his announcement is.''

BACKGROUND

Carroll moved to Florida in 1986. She and her husband, Nolan, have three children.

She became the first black Republican woman elected to the Legislature in a special election in 2003.

She retired after 20 years in the Navy, where she rose to the rank of lieutenant commander aviation maintenance officer.

She has a bachelor's degree from the University of New Mexico and a master's degree in business administration from St. Leo University in Pasco County.

Her official legislative biography notes that she is a life member of both the NAACP and the National Rifle Association.

Her record is not free of blemishes, however.

Six years ago, after news reports that she listed a degree from an online ``diploma mill,'' Kensington University in California, she dropped the reference from her official resume.

"This causes me great concern,'' Carroll told the Florida Times-Union in 2004. ``It's a lot of time, effort and money poured into a university I thought was a viable program.''

Last spring, Carroll filed a bill regulating certain electronic sweepstakes games. The Times-Union reported that Carroll confirmed that her public relations firm, 3 N. and J.C. Corp., represented Allied Veterans of the World Inc., a veterans' group that sought to legalize the slot-like machines.

Carroll quickly withdrew the bill (HB 1185) and said a staff member filed the legislation without her approval.

Carroll does not have a distinguished record as a lawmaker, but has compiled a solidly pro-business voting record and was unchallenged in a bid for a fourth term this fall.

At a campaign stop in Jacksonville on Tuesday, Scott told WOKV radio he had ``pretty much'' made up his mind but would not stoke speculation about his choice.

"This person's going to do a wonderful job,'' Scott said. ``Whoever it's going to be, you guys will all be proud of.''

Carroll would not be the first black woman to run for the state's No. 2 post.

In 1978, Claude Kirk, a former Republican governor seeking a comeback as a Democrat, chose Mary Singleton as his running mate, but the Kirk-Singleton ticket fared poorly.

Times/Herald staff writer John Frank and Miami Herald staff writer Beth Reinhard contributed to this report.

-----

The case of the missing adjective.

excerpted from:
Miami Herald
Corrections

September 3, 2010

In a story Thursday on Page 1B about Republican Rick Scott's selection of Jennifer Carroll as his running mate, it incorrectly noted that she was the first black female elected to the state Legislature.
Gwen Sawyer Cherry, a Democrat from Miami, was the first African American woman ever to serve in the Legislature. She was elected in 1970.

-----

Carroll is the first Black female Republican elected to the State House, which is why I highlighted Republican in red in the original since it wasn't there, but added online after the edition went to print.

Hmm-m-m... Gwen Cherry was also the first Black woman to practice law in Dade County, a not insignificant fact. See: http://www.gscbwla.org/cherry.htm

Obviously, I'm long past believing that all the employee cuts at the Herald are starting to have their logical negative results for their dwindling number of readers, in that they have lost people who actually know which facts are important and which are not, and can say something
when words in an article are flat-out wrong -or missing.

It will come as no surprise to most of you readers who come here often that in my opinion, the reporters in this community who don't know anything about the political history of this area or why things are the way they are, greatly out-number the ones who do.

This Thursday article is a preview of the future of South Florida media, something I notice nearly every time Miami TV reporters show up at Hollywood City Commission meetings and seem to know nothing -or next-to-nothing- about what is on the meeting agenda and what its implications might be.
So many are strangely incurious.

I don't expect them to be experts, but... well, let's just say that the amount of time some of them need to be talked to by the city's official spokesperson Raelin Story -who is always professional and accommodating- seems to be increasing, based on what I observe.
I'm sure she notices who does their homework and is prepared, and who doesn't and isn't.
I know I do.


Jennifer Carroll's web page at the Florida House of Representatives website:
http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/SEctions/Representatives/details.aspx?MemberId=4331&SessionId=42

Campaign website: http://www.scottcarrollforflorida.com/

For more on her talented son...

Miami Herald

DOLPHINS
CB Carroll embraces discipline

By David J. Neal

May 5, 2010

Here's how you know Dolphins rookie cornerback Nolan Carroll didn't grow up acting foolish, or at least didn't do so twice: he's the son of a former Navy lieutenant commander who retired after 20 years with some medals, including an "expert pistol medal."

And that was Mom, state Rep. Jennifer Carroll, the first female black Republican state representative. Dad, Nolan Carroll Sr., was an Air Force senior master sergeant.

"Ever since I came out of my mom, it was, 'yes, sir,' 'no, sir,' 'yes, ma'am,' be on time, do this, do that when I say so," said Carroll, a fifth-round draft pick. "Up to now, and I'm 23 years old, I still say, 'yes, sir,' 'no, sir.' They expect me to say it. There was very strict discipline in my house. They were also cool. They weren't always telling me what to do. They treated me like I was a grown man, as well.'

Now, Carroll is a grown man out of the Jacksonville area with an exemplary off-the-field makeup. If not for the broken leg that aborted Carroll's senior season at Maryland after two games, NFL coaches wouldn't have been in favor of drafting him, but rather adopting him.

"When you talk with the young man, he's just an impressive guy; he really is," Dolphins coach Tony Sparano said. "The first time I ever met him, I was really impressed with the way he came off. Never mind how he presented himself from a football standpoint, but he had all the other things that are important to us, too."

Such as a willingness to do exactly what he is told.

"The coaches are like my parents," Carroll said. "Same thing. I do what they tell me to do. I don't back talk."

And if he disagrees with a coaching decree?

"I look down and think, 'They know what's best for me, so I'm just going to listen to what they tell me to do,' " he said.

That's one reason Carroll tries to avoid even minor violations such as breaking curfew -- he figures rules were made for a reason. Also, he's used to being in situations where any bad behavior can reflect on others.

"If my friends wanted to go and do something and I thought it was bad, I wouldn't do it," he said. "I'd stay in the house just to make sure. I didn't want to give [his mother] a bad name.

"Same with this," he continued, looking past reporters to the Dolphins' logo facing the Davie practice fields. "I treat this like a family. I treat the Miami Dolphins like it's my mom, it's my family. I don't ever want to give them a bad name."

Now, if he can play nickel cornerback without embarrassing them on the field, he might have a job.

The Dolphins believe they have found their future outside cornerbacks in 2009 rookies Sean Smith and Vontae Davis. Will Allen, who turns 32 in August with nine seasons of mileage, will be back in that competition for starting spots this year after recovering from a season-ending knee injury. But for how long? Also, the Dolphins released last year's nickel cornerback, Nate Jones.

With three-wide receiver sets becoming the norm, it's a position defenses want settled.

"One of the things that I think I want to try to do with Nolan right away is to just get him in a position where he's going to be able to get himself settled down and play because he has missed so much time," Sparano said. "I think that we are going to kind of let him get his feet set at corner right now and then take a look at some of the players that we have in there and then worry about whether we get him inside."

Carroll, who ran a 4.42-second 40-yard dash at Maryland's pro day, played against slot receivers during his sophomore season in 2007. That was his first at cornerback after spending his freshman year as a wide receiver.

"[The Dolphins] like that I'm tough and aggressive," Carroll said "I need to work just getting used to the position some more. I've only been playing it a year and a half if you don't count my senior year that I missed."

"Sub-sub-sub-culture" exposes Japanese men to ridicule as they take 'virtual girlfriends' on holiday - augmented reality for lovelorn otaku nerds

Russia Today is a 24/7 English-language news channel based in Moscow and other international cities that I first watched the Saturday morning in April when Polish President Lech Kaczynski's plane crashed outside the airport in Smolensk, on his way to represent Poland at a ceremony commemorating the 1940 Katyn massacre, killing all 97 people on board..
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/11/world/la-fg-polish-president-crash11-2010apr11
RT was the only TV news network reporting the story LIVE from near the scene, plus had well-informed analysts on the phone from various European capitals, including Warsaw, who could speak knowledgeably about Kaczynski's personal life and Polish political history and how these events all connected in one horrible day for modern-day Poland.

As I wrote at the time here, since I was awake when it happened, the Fox News Channel was first U.S. cablenet to report the crash, and as usual, MSNBC slept, showing one of their many old crime documentaries they lard their overnight and weekend schedule with, rather than break into it.  
That was not the first time that I saw MSNBC be the last TV cable net to air some breaking news, so now I never even bother flipping to them to see their take on anything.
Homepage: http://rt.com/

Their YouTube Channel has some interesting videos.
https://www.youtube.com/user/RussiaToday

Alyona Minkovski in particular interviews all sorts of characters on her show:
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheAlyonaShow
Here's a video from her show about the topic du jour: lovelorn otaku nerds in Japan taking their virtual girlfriends on holiday with them to a hotel in Atami on the Pacific Coast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebrvafpjIlg



Some of you longtime readers may recall me writing in the past here on the blog that my first year living in Washington, D.C., I lived next door to (in front of) the Japanese Ambassador's official residence on Nebraska Avenue, N.W., thus putting yours truly in one of the safest neighborhoods in the city, due to all the security details in the area, which I greatly appreciated. 
This was when the crime and murder rate in D.C. was out-of-control and made D.C. America's murder capital.

I was living just down the street from the campus of American University, as well as the Swedish Ambassador's home, NBC-TV's Washington news bureau and their DC affiliate, WRC-TV, as well as the real-life HQ for NCIS.  (Years later, when I was living in Arlington County, I had an NCIS agent for a neighbor.)

Wall Street Journal's Japan Real Time blog:
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2010/09/03/this-weeks-hits-virtual-girlfriends-walkman-beats-ipod-calling-the-boj-shots/

'Love Plus' resort: A solo romantic getaway
Why are men with virtual video-game girlfriends flocking to a Japanese beach resort town?
http://theweek.com/article/index/206736/love-plus-resort-a-solo-romantic-getaway

Konami Digital Entertainment http://www.konami.com/

http://news.discovery.com/tech/love-plus-dating-game.html

Where I wish I was today: relaxing inside Julie Thigpen's terrific blog, belle maison; Pixie Lott -Easy

From interior designer and the founder of Modern Chic Home Julie Thigpen's blog, belle maison, http://www.bellemaison23.com/ and specifically, the August 30th photo above: http://www.bellemaison23.com/2010/08/quote-of-week_30.html

A relaxing view, some shade, a slight breeze and cool drink, and a comfortable chaise lounge chair to read and nap in before an al fresco meal with some good friends.
That's the life for me!

Am I relaxing in Dorset or near Pixie Lott's home in Essex or somewhere in the Stockholm archipelago?
Or even south of Göteborg in our very own doppelgänger of Hallands län?
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallands_l%C3%A4n
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halland_County

Not entirely sure, but I am certain sure of some things:
No heat, no humidity, no sudden downpours, no buzzing cell phones!

http://www.modernchichome.com/
http://www.bloglovin.com/en/home/us/0/1/

Some great suggestions from Julie:
http://www.thedecorista.com/2010/05/six-to-bliss-julie-thigpen-edition.html


The latest Pixie Lott video from August 23rd performing "Easy" at the V Festival in Chelmsford, Essex.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5apIuIr8eK8



http://www.youtube.com/user/pixielott

More 2010 V Festival videos and interviews at: http://www.vfestival.com/

Addition by subtraction: Beth Reinhard leaving Miami Herald, heading to D.C. and The National Journal. Herald readers finally win one!

Per Miami Herald Losing Chief Political Reporter Beth Reinhard To National Journal
Miami NewTimes By Tim Elfrink,
Thursday, September 2 2010 @ 1:39PM
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2010/09/herald_losing_chief_political.php

It's only my opinion, but from my own perspective and experience, the Miami Herald's Beth Reinhard can't leave South Florida soon enough.

I know that makes some of you laugh because you know I thought THAT was the case years ago, too. Know that I'd have been only too happy to drive her to the train station to split town if people down here actually took trains.
You're right -it's a long time coming.

But long-frustrated Miami Herald readers finally have a reason to cheer.

Reinhard's oh-so predictable and often deadly-dull Conventional Wisdom take on the passing political scene may've been fine for the Quad Cities in 1966, but among other fatal flaws, she seem handcuffed to the "Usual Suspects," forever quoting the same handful of people with motives she never bothered to reveal.

(And yes, I've been to the Quad Cities area in Iowa, too, spending a week there in Davenport, driving over from Chicago for business in 1987. One night, when I couldn't fall asleep in my hotel room, I went for a walk around midnight, eventually crossing the Rock Island Centennial Bridge (U.S.-67) over the Mississippi River from Davenport to Rock Island.

I was NOT expecting that the bridge sidewalk would be mesh-like metal, since that meant I couldn't look down, otherwise it would have caused me to get dizzy over the water.
It was a VERY weird sensation to walk across the bridge at that hour and just stand there in the middle for 15-20 minutes and think of all the history that has gone past you and below you.

I eventually ate at an IHOP or diner in Rock Island and got back to my hotel room in Davenport around 3:30 a.m. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Island_Centennial_Bridge

I also visited the great minor league ballpark there on the River, then called John O'Donnell Stadium when Quad Cities was a Cubs affiliate. It's now called Modern Woodmen Park and home of the Cardinals' farm team, the River Bandits.
Look at the photos! The Marlins would be lucky to have a view like the one over first base.
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/team1/page.jsp?ymd=20080606&content_id=410802&vkey=team1_t565&fext=.jsp&sid=t565)

It's no wonder that seasoned political reporters and columnists from outside of Florida, including some I know, were always mystified when they came down here and got a chance to read more than one example of the Reinhard Method, or to hear her talk on TV or radio.

It's not like they expected a patrician David Broder clone or an intellectual David Frum-type would be the leading political reporter at the Herald, since this is Miami, after all, the anti-wonk capital, but they were in no way prepared to see that things were just -as bad- as I had described in phone calls or emails about how little respect or column inches Broward County rated.
They thought I'd always been exaggerating.
Nope.

Earlier this year, after one such reporter friend had visited South Florida and had absorbed some sun and digested some bon mots de Reinhard, and returned home, she emailed me that she's sure that Reinhard probably has some special talent that we're just not privy to.

I replied that could be true but that her writing speaks for itself -mediocre and uninspiring.

Try hard to think of a column or article of her's that questioned the South Florida version of CW, or tried to get to the heart of a matter thru an unconventional approach.
Or even the last time you cut one of her article/columns out of the paper?

You can't, and like 99% of all Herald readers, once you saw the headline of one of her stories, and even more so, of one of her columns, you knew exactly what to expect.

The whole thing was telegraphed because you know she has such a small bag of tricks in her arsenal.
Plus, she never ever surprises you.

Thus, Reinhard never ever veered from her connect-the-dots script, including her failed attempts to seem like a self-effacing Tina Fey at times when it wasn't called for and only served to distract.

Reinhard was too easily pacified and seduced by CW and too often seemed pleased with herself for peddling the mundane.
She was like a slightly less-mean-spirited Tracy Flick, but failed to see the truly compelling stories all around us down here because then she'd have had to leave her comfort zone.
She didn't want to.

That so many people wouldn't return her phone calls, as she recently wrote about Marco Rubio, whom I like and will vote for but who clearly is not without his flaws, may, in fact, not be a result of their not liking what she wrote and actually be something simpler: people feeling that far too often, Reinhard had burned them.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/13/1775520/reinhard-rich-political-novices.html

That she called with the article already written in her head, and wasn't open to actually listening to their side or perspective and perhaps re-questioning her original aim with a story.
Facts should matter at least once in a while, shouldn't they?

Seriously, why would you call someone back, much less a reporter, if they won't listen to what you say, and just want to steamroll you about some topic, regardless of what it is?
You doubtless do it all the time with friends and relatives -I know I do.
Why should others be any different?

Reinhard's worst sins in my book was her low-hanging fruit sense of journalism and consistent lack of curiosity, as she failed over-and-over to give readers the sort of insight into some pol or official's motives and outlook that would be helpful to readers in understanding them, and what was going on policy-wise in anti-wonk South Florida.

It was sometimes like she was the daughter of the Beacon Council, the Chamber of Commerce and the Knight Foundation, and only wanted to please already-powerful people.
She'd tut-tut them, perhaps, but always like a loving daughter reproaching her father for something he's wearing that embarrasses her.

I didn't need every article of her's to be like a fascinating Vanity Fair profile from the early-to-mid 1990's under Clinton, but one every few YEARS might've been nice!

(Or maybe I was just spoiled by 15 years of daily reading the WaPo's Style section from 1988-2003. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/print/style/)

Seriously, after all this time, do Herald readers now have any added insight from her into why Meek, Crist or Rubio are the way they are and do what they do?

No, which is why out-of-town/national reporters so consistently seem to get to the heart of a local matter, general sense of mood or pierce a local/state political personality's facade when they drop in, yet she's always... what exactly?

(Compare anything of hers to Tim Padgett's fabulous TIME article exactly one year ago on the State of Florida, Behind Florida's Exodus: Rising Taxes, Political Ineptitude

There are many things public officials probably shouldn't do during a severe recession, but no one seems to have told the leaders in Florida about them. One thing, for instance, would be giving a dozen top aides hefty raises while urging a rise in property taxes, as the mayor of Miami-Dade County recently did. Or jacking up already exorbitant hurricane-insurance premiums, as Florida's government-run property insurer just did. Or sending an army of highly paid lobbyists to push for a steep hike in electricity rates, as South Florida's public utility is doing.

And you wonder why the Sunshine State is experiencing its first net emigration of people since World War II.

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1919916,00.html Though Hoosier-born Tim lives in Miami as Bureau Chief, it's the same principle.)

Rubio and Meek are both from South Florida, but despite all this proximity, Reinhard has added zero to the mix in our understanding of them or what they might do.

As I've written numerous on my blog about the media coverage of the FL-17 congressional race,
her writing about it was perhaps the best example of her lack of curiosity and imagination: dreadful writing of the sort that you'd expect from a mediocre Junior College newspaper you pick up out of boredom while waiting around for your pick-up order at a Kinko's.

The one congressional seat in South Florida that we knew last year would result in sending a 'new face' to Washington would seem like a great opportunity to re-examine some longstanding ideas about this area, and the CD that stretches from Liberty City to Hollywood, including where I live in Hallandale Beach, not far from Gulfstream Park Race Track.

Instead, there was hardly any reasonable coverage of it to speak of until a week before the election, and by then, it was written not by Reinhard but Patricia Mazzei, who's what, five years out of college?
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/17/1778997/9-seek-rare-house-seat-replacing.html

Why is the least-experienced reporter writing about THE most important local congressional race in greater Miami?

That's why it's the Herald.

Hallandale Beach's Dotty Ross: "It's just inconceivable to me that there's one area in this city that I don't know about." Oh, really?

Above, a self-evident public testament to the continuing inadequacy, incompetency and obliviousness of Hallandale Beach City Comm. Dotty Ross while in office: the HB city water fountain off of State Road A1A/South Ocean Drive and Hallandale Beach Blvd., that has remained broken for well over a year, directly in front of the iconic HB Water Tower, and the so-called A1A/North Beach Community Center below it, that remains closed to Hallandale Beach's citizens taxpayers, today, marking exactly 37 months!
August 6, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier -looking west towards the HB water fountain and State Road A1A/South Ocean Drive. & HBB.

-------
Hallandale Beach's Dotty Ross: "It's just inconceivable to me that there's one area in this city that I don't know about."

Oh, really?
It sure doesn't seem that way to us.
In fact, it doesn't seem that way to anyone in the immediate area of this small ocean-side city who's paying close attention and who opens their eyes even occasionally.

No, Dotty Ross's large and continuing role in the reign-of-ruin all around us is quite secure and well-known to us.

As you can see for yourself, below, the Hallandale Beach Blog Time Machine comes in handy once again.

-----

Miami Herald
HALLANDALE SUED OVER AT-LARGE VOTING
January 16, 2002

By Hector Florin

A lawyer for U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings filed a class-action lawsuit accusing Hallandale Beach and its commissioners of limiting black voters' rights by holding at-large elections that reduce blacks' chances of getting a commission seat.

Mikel Jones, an attorney in Hastings' office, said single-member-district voting is the remedy. Under single-member districts, voters would elect commissioners who live in their respective districts. The County Commission, the School Board and various municipalities have recently changed to single-member districts.

The suit was filed Tuesday in Broward County Circuit Court, on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 73rd birthday.

"The city of Hallandale has used, and continues to use, voting procedures . . . to create, enhance and promote the opportunity for and existence of discrimination against minorities,'' the lawsuit reads.

Jones pointed to the city's October special election when the Rev. Josh Brown Jr., the only one of nine candidates living in the primarily black northwest section, received an overwhelming number of votes from his region but finished third overall.

More than 70 percent of Hallandale Beach voters are white. Many live in high-rise condominiums in the city's east side.

Mayor Dorothy Ross, however, feels Hallandale Beach - a rectangular city of 4.5 square miles - is too small to cut up into five districts. She scoffed at the idea that commissioners are not attune to concerns in all areas.

"Most people, when they have district voting - it's a big area that they're talking about,'' Ross said. "It's just inconceivable to me that there's one area in this city that I don't know about.''

Jones said Anthony Musto, the winner of October's election, gained much of his support from white voters.

"A good number of white folks voted for him because he's white,'' Jones said. "I'm not saying he doesn't have credentials . . . but color really does matter apparently.''

Musto said he had not read the lawsuit.

Assistant City Attorney David Jove referred all inquires to City Attorney Mark Goldstein, who did not attend Tuesday's commission meeting because of a bout with the flu.

----

Oh, really?
It doesn't seem that way to us.

In fact, it doesn't seem that way to anyone in this small ocean-side city who's paying attention.

Paying attention, something that you've NOT been doing much of for many years, as you have voted nearly 100% for whatever City Manager Mike Good or mayor Joy Cooper have proposed, by hook or by crook, no matter how petty, no matter how undemocratic, and no matter how short-sighted it was for HB's citizen taxpayers.

So tell us, Comm. Ross, why DO you vote on agenda items that are intentionally kept away from the public, and NOT printed on paper or placed on the city's third-rate website, and held up in a second-floor room at City Hall where your words, actions and votes are intentionally NOT televised or videotaped?

Why have YOU done this dozens and dozens of times for years, including voting to give yourself a huge raise?

And why have YOU shown zero remorse for anything that you have done, even when it's later proven to be thoroughly wrong for its citizens?

YOU need to be recalled from office as soon as possible, and people in this city will work hard to make that happen.
They are working on it right now.

Your time has come and gone and yet you remain on the stage as a myopic, mean-spirited hindrance to this city ever getting out of the black hole you drove us into.

In April, YOU even have the unmitigated gall to publicly chastise Hallandale Beach citizens at HB City Commission meetings, as they were walking from their seats to the microphone to speak under public comments, before they could say anything, and then YOU pathetically called my friend and community activist Csaba Kulin, one of the most honest persons in the entire city, a "shill"?
Do you have no shame, Dotty Ross?

No, Comm. Ross, Csaba Kulin is just one of the many, many HB citizens who can see exactly what's right in front of them: a poorly-run and largely unaccountable City Hall, and in you, a VERY sad and angry 80-something year old misanthrope who is completely blind to the continuing harm she does.

You were mysteriously "nominated" for Florida League of Cities elected public official of the year in 2008, just months before you stood for re-election.
Hmm-m-m...

Not because of anything positive that YOU had actually done that year for this city's citizens, residents or business owners, and YOU were NOT selected by a blue-ribbon committee that sought to reward excellence and hard work, but rather "nominated" by your Rubber Stamp cronies on the city commission, something that the Miami Herald and Sun-Sentinel articles NEVER mentioned in their puff piece.

But the honest citizens of this community who have paid attention to your behavior and votes knew the score, and knew a self-dealing con job from Joy Cooper and Mike Good when they saw it thrown in their faces.
Not that this troubled YOU at all in the least.

Many people, even people who once voted for you and once gave you the benefit of the doubt, have confided to me over the past six years how very disappointed they are in you.

In fact, they have even gone so far as to volunteer the notion that if you weren't a city commissioner, they really have no idea what you would do with your time.

As if that was a reason to keep someone in power like YOU who has clearly outworn their welcome with little tangible good to show for their time there, compared to the myriad problems you and your cronies have neglected and exacerbated thru your chronic inattention to detail and lack of support for genuine transparency and accountability.

YOU are just foolish enough to imagine that YOU are still fooling everyone, and that HB's citizens can't see that YOU are someone who has continually been making excuses for the unsatisfactory results at HB City Hall for YEARS and YEARS, long ago erasing whatever good you may've once done.

Frankly, I'm not entirely sure what you would do with all that time if you weren't a HB city commissioner, but it's not my problem.

I don't care what you do in the future, all I know is that I and many other informed and concerned citizens want to push that hypothesis forward ASAP, so we can all find out for ourselves.

I do know one thing for sure, though, and that is that you, Comm. Dotty Ross, are the case study in this small town of the principle of addition-by-subtraction.

This city's chances to improve and crawl out of its longstanding black hole, to no longer be the butt of news media jokes and a regional laughingstock, and for its citizen taxpayers to finally breathe the air of normalcy at Hallandale Beach City Hall, WILL improve dramatically if YOU no longer have a vote on the Hallandale Beach City Commission.

That's precisely our goal.

Breaking: Miami Herald & sports editor Jorge Rojas already in mid-season form as they ignore BigTenNetwork's televised ballgames

Breaking: Miami Herald & sports editor Jorge Rojas already in mid-season form as they ignore BigTenNetwork's nationally-televised football games.

"Breaking," that is, if by breaking you mean every Big Ten football and basketball game they've televised for the past three years, whose games have never been listed in the Herald's daily Sports on TV.

http://www.bigtennetwork.com/
http://www.bigtennetwork.com/subindex/programming

Right, because there's nobody in South Florida who's originally from the Midwest, or who are alums from those eleven schools in South Florida.
I mean I only know about 100-125 myself, many of them well-known names locally.
Brilliant!

That's why the folks at the Herald and likely many of you with DirecTV in South Florida also missed the phenomenal Appalachian State upset of Chad Henne's over-rated Michigan team in the very first BTN broadcast, because the Herald didn't list it.
But I saw that amazing game LIVE.

I was laughing to myself in the fourth quarter as the game went "Instant Classic," knowing that the Herald had, once again, been caught with its pants down.

Par for the course over there in the Sports Dept., as the details of the Marlins finances coming from DeadSpin and not them proves rather conclusively.
http://deadspin.com/5619235/florida-marlins-financial-documents/gallery/

How does a supposed media reporter/columnist like Barry Jackson continue to not just ignore but act seemingly oblivious of the BTN, month-after-month, year-after-year, when other college conferences desperately want to emulate the cash-cow and national coverage the Big Ten teams already provides?

Good question, why don't you ask him?
But before you do that, consider the chicken-and-the-egg of this paradox: that's why he's Barry Jackson, that's why it's the Miami Herald, and that's why he's there and not somewhere else.

Once again, if you think about it a bit, you answer your own question!

You remember the BigTenNetwork, don't you?
They're the Chicago-based TV network beloved by advertisers that is one of the main reasons that the University of Nebraska leaves the Big 12 Conference effective next Fall for the national exposure and TV money that comes from having their football and basketball games available ALL OVER THE COUNTRY.
Where each of the current eleven member school gets roughly $22 million a year?

Plus, traditional non-revenue sports, where Nebraska excels and actually make money, like Men's Baseball and Women's Volleyball, where they're multiple NCAA Women's Volleyball champs, will also get seen all over the country, even in California and Hawaii and New England.

That's the sort of thing that helps national recruiting, don't you think?
A not insignificant consideration for a small state like Nebraska, whose state population is less than Miami-Dade and Broward's combined, and who has thus always had to recruit nationally, especially in Texas, for football.

And what does the University of Miami have again in terms of a TV deal?
Is that game of theirs tonight against FAMU on TV anywhere?
No.

The Randy Shannon TV Show is on what channel on what date at what time?
Nobody even knows whether he has one!

But in the Midwest, among real sports fans, they know exactly what time and when and where the myriad coach's TV show comes on, and the BTN even repeats the shows during the week for national coverage, which is how I came to watch the Bill Lynch Show this week.

Meanwhile, the Herald has NEVER written a serious article specifically about the BTN, which I know for a fact because I've checked their archives so many times.
The answer is always the same: ZERO.
Congrats One Herald Plaza!

Another David Landberg and Jorge Rojas success story!
That's why your sports section is so decidedly third-tier.

Tonight:
Marshall at Ohio State on DirecTV Channel 610
Towson at IU on DirecTV Channel 611 at 7:30 pm.

With encore showings in the days to come for folks like me.


Chicago Tribune
Big Ten could see TV money skyrocket with expansion
As number of subscriptions rise, multiplication adds up to considerable sum
May 13, 2010
By Teddy Greenstein | Tribune staff reporter
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-05-13/sports/chi-100514-big-ten-expansion-greenstein_1_btn-big-ten-network-tv-executive

Chicago Tribune
Big Ten big winner in divisional set up
Hard to find downside in way league divided while protecting most rivalries
September 01, 2010
By Teddy Greenstein | ON COLLEGES, ON GOLF
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-09-01/sports/ct-spt-0902-greenstein-big-ten-footba20100901_1_dave-brandon-pat-fitzgerald-ryan-field

Chicago Tribune
Rosenblog by Steve Rosenbloom
Big Ten's new set-up: NU wins, Illinois loses again (and again and again)
http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/rosenblog/2010/09/big-tens-new-set-up-nu-wins-illinois-loses-again-and-again-and-again.html

The New York Times College Football homepage and blog, The Quad:
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/sports/ncaafootball/
http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/

The Dallas Morning News's influential College Sports blog and Sports Media blog:
http://collegesportsblog.dallasnews.com/
http://sportsmediablog.dallasnews.com/

Mr. College Football blog by Tony Barnhart:
http://blogs.ajc.com/barnhart-college-football/

Athlon College Football website: http://www.athlonsports.com/college-football

Lanvin to design exclusive collection for H&M this autumn

Received this bit of interesting fashion news from Stockholm this morning from our friends at Hennes & Mauritz via their press office.

H&M Designer Collaboration 2010 - The Dream

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGd4d2fCljI





LANVIN TO DESIGN EXCLUSIVE COLLECTION FOR H&M THIS AUTUMN

H&M is proud to announce that its next designer collaboration will be with Lanvin, one of the most influential brands of the 21st century. Designed by Lanvin’s artistic director Alber Elbaz, and menswear designer Lucas Ossendrijver, the collection will go on sale on November 23 in around 200 H&M stores worldwide.

The collection of both womenswear and menswear will be revealed to the world on November 2, just three weeks before the clothes hit the store, making the launch of Lanvin for H&M among the most anticipated fashion events of the year.

“H&M approached us to collaborate, and see if we could translate the dream we created at Lanvin to a wider audience, not just a dress for less. I have said in the past that I would never do a mass-market collection, but what intrigued me was the idea of H&M going luxury rather than Lanvin going public. This has been an exceptional exercise, where two companies at opposite poles can work together because we share the same philosophy of bringing joy and beauty to men and women around the world.” Alber Elbaz, artistic director of Lanvin.

“We are thrilled about Lanvin’s collection for H&M, it is such an exciting moment. Lanvin will bring to H&M a luxurious French tradition that is also modern and playful. It is very much a Lanvin collection, using their cut and tailoring, with lots of focus on form and details for both women and men. The launch in November is going to be full of wonderful surprises.” Margareta van den Bosch, creative advisor at H&M.

Since joining Lanvin as artistic director in 2001, Alber Elbaz has transformed the Paris-based label, founded in 1889 by Jeanne Lanvin, into a fashion powerhouse bursting with ideas and creativity. Alber Elbaz has pioneered there some of the biggest trends of the past decade - ribbon, bows, pearls, raw edges, sumptuous colour and metallic embellishment among many others. Alber Elbaz has a mastery of cut and an instinct for cloth which leaves a very personal signature on his work, ensuring that all Lanvin clothes are instantly recognizable. Since the introduction of a new menswear line in 2006, Alber Elbaz has also transformed the male wardrobe, bringing a relaxed elegance to men’s clothing which is as special as the womenswear.

Lanvin is the latest brand to collaborate with H&M, with previous collections designed by the likes of Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Comme des Garçons and Sonia Rykiel. In a new twist, the Lanvin for H&M collection will be revealed to the world through a special film which will be launched on November 2. The film will be available for all to see online at www.hm.com. Following the film’s debut, it will be just three weeks before customers have the chance to get their hands on a covetable piece of Lanvin for H&M.

Information about Lanvin: www.lanvin.com

H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M) was established in Sweden in 1947 and is synonymous with affordable as well as up-to-date and high quality fashion. H&M has a wide product range that is divided into a number of different concepts for women, men, teenagers and children. The company’s clothing collections are created by its own designers, pattern makers and buyers. H&M has around 76,000 employees and around 2,000 stores in 37 countries.

For further information visit www.hm.com

---------------
See also:
http://www.style.com/stylefile/2010/09/the-rumor-of-the-morning-lanvin-for-hm/

Does anyone recognize the three mugs pictured below on Hallandale Beach City Hall property under a tent on Election Day?

The question of the day is this:
Does anyone recognize the three mugs pictured below on Hallandale Beach City Hall property under a tent on Election Day?

Or, while I was exercising the Heisenberg Principle after exercising my right to vote, three members of the Hallandale Beach Rubber Stamp Crew were exercising their grandiose sense of entitlement.
And a sense of entitlement is something they have in spades.

Photo above of the Hallandale Beach City Hall monument sign from September 1, 2010 by South Beach Hoosier.

So, a little bit later than I planned, I'm finally posting those photos of three local politicos that I snapped last Tuesday on Hallandale Beach City Hall property -which is to say, public property, YOUR property, NOT THEIRS- on the east side of the access road from the Hallandale Beach Cultural Center, where voting was taking place on Primary day for local and state-wide races.

I apologize for the delay but it's in part because I needed to shoot some more establishing shots of the locale to give people not familiar with the layout of the municipal complex there a sense of perspective and context to better understand how truly over-the-top this embarrassing performance was, when looked at from the P.O.V. of city rules, common sense and decorum.

But then consider who was doing it, so the questions pretty much answers itself.

Above and below, campaign signs lining the entrance to the parking lot next to the HB Cultural Center -above, off of Old Dixie Highway, and below, S.E. 3rd Street. August 24, 2010 photos by South Beach Hoosier.


In the past week, I've seriously considered sending an email to HB City Attorney David Jove before, along with these photos, with cc's to the local news media.

In that prospective email I'd inform him that some friends and I may well be pitching a tent in the same exact spot on the real Election Day on November 2nd, strongly suggesting he not suddenly start getting overly concerned with appearances -and laws!- after he and the rest of the Hallandale Beach City Hall Crew were deaf, dumb and blind to -drum roll please- the antics of Mayor Cooper, Dotty Ross and William Julian last Tuesday.

Yes, three-fourths of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse masquerading as the Hallandale Beach Rubber Stamp Crew, missing only Comm. Anthony A. Sanders.


Above, walking west from the HB City Hall towards the HB Cultural Center. September 1, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


Getting closer to the access road that separates the two buildings. On the right side of the opposite side on the white light pole are two of the police controlled surveillance cameras, pointed in each direction. September 1, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Those cameras are STILL missing the Warning/Public Notice signs that should've been erected concurrently when the cameras were put up YEARS AGO. September 1, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

On a multi-acre complex that is approximately two city blocks by two city two blocks, there is only one state-required warning sign, and it is NOT near a public entrance to a city building nor is it at the entrance of the two public road entrances. Instead, it is near the U.S.-1 employee entrance to City Hall.

Other cities in this county and state seen to handle this sort of thing easily, without any problem at all. It's a measure of how poorly Hallandale Beach has been run for years and continues to be run, that the simple required signs are missing YEARS later.
You'd think that HB City Attorney David Jove would notice that after a couple of years, wouldn't you?
His role is strictly to be the wooden Indian in the room, or, if you prefer a different comparison, the quiet church mouse.


The view from the other side of the road from the HB Cultural Center looking towards HB City Hall. September 1, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

A better shot while standing on the sidewalk, right under the surveillance cameras, looking toward HB City Hall. September 1, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier.
So, hopefully having set the scene a bit better for you to understand what's what, let's return to the photos I shot last Tuesday on Primary day, and the scene I saw immediately after voting and leaving the building. Not even trying to hide their sense of entitlement, right on the public sidewalk.


Looking east towards the tent across the road from the HB Cultural Center, where it was erected directly over the public sidewalk.


Zooming in a little bit closer now and you can see Mayor Cooper seated to the left and Comm. Julian standing.


And now coming into view, the Lady in Red, Dotty Ross, seated to the right on the public sidewalk, a Kendrick Meek for U.S. Senate campaign sign in the giant planter.

----------------------
See also:
Slate
Egghead: Philosophical Ruminations
Uncertainty About the Uncertainty PrincipleCan't anybody get Heisenberg's big idea right?
By Jim Holt
Posted Wednesday, March 6, 2002, at 3:54 PM ET
http://www.slate.com/id/2062844/