Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard to visit White House, speak to Congress, go to U.N., and lobby to gain Australia a seat on Security Council

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard visits The White House, Capitol Hill and the U.N. this week
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrBRbXawQ8M

On Wednesday Julia Gillard is scheduled to be the fourth Australian Prime minister to address a Joint Session of Congress -replicating Menzies, Hawk and Howard- as she arrives in Washington, D.C. to meet with President Obama at The White House.

Later in the week she flies to New York for a Thursday meeting with Rupert Murdoch and other senior News Corps Ltd. executives, she'll be at the United Nations meeting the U.N. Secretary and also look to lobby member countries to gain Australia a seat on the Security Council this October.

Coincidence that three anti-Glenn Beck stories appear in one week? His show draws 300,000 more total viewers than ALL cable news competitors COMBINED

Just a coincidence that three anti-Glenn Beck news stories/columns appear in same week?

Of course, since so few American TV/print reporters, editors or producers actually read and speak passable Arabic, or are the least bit knowledgeable about the Mid-East, they can't very well write about Libya intelligently, now can they.
Which is why beyond the actual news value of what happened to and with him last week, there were so many stories and columns in the American press about Charlie Sheen, because you don't have to know anything to write or talk about him...
Everybody's an expert.

Before you read the following three stories/columns, here's something to keep in mind, since facts actually matter.

The Glenn Beck Show on Fox News Channel is drawing 300,000 more total viewers than ALL cable news competitors in the time period COMBINED.
Just saying...

If I was the news director at a local TV station in a major market in the United States and my eyeball numbers were more than the total of ALL the other local TV stations COMBINED, plus, I was also leading in the 25-54 demo to boot, and my adversaries were saying that I was in a slump, I'd take that kind of losing streak and laugh all the way to the bank.
And so would my family!

CNN would take that kind of losing streak right now at 5 p.m. Eastern in a heartbeat.
And so would MSNBC and CNBC.

But they can only dream of a such an upside-down news world now, since at 5 p.m., they're merely ants at the picnic, not the guest of honor.
They're barely noticeable unless one of them crawls on your arm or leg -and completely harmless and useless- so you just flick them away with your finger and they go buh-bye. Just saying...

Apropos of these stories, coming soon, I may soon have a blog post here on some real actor/celebrities who actually HAVE lost their hold on film audiences at the box-office, but you rarely if ever see the sort of joyful negative stories on them in the American press like the stories below on because... well, they really, really don't like Glenn Beck -or his audience.
Just ask them, they'll tell you.

Hmm-m... note to self: Their film grosses fizzling and reviews not-so-positive, have Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Anniston, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt lost their juice?

More after the links.

-------

TheWrap
Media | Books
His Ratings Fizzling, Has Glenn Beck Lost His Mojo?
March1, 2011 @ 6:59 pm
http://www.thewrap.com/media/article/behind-glenn-beck-fox-news-slumping-ratings-24967


The New Republic
Politics
The Decline of Glenn Beck What caused it?
James Downie, Reporter-Researcher
March 3, 2011, 10:59 pm
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/84662/the-decline-glenn-beck


New York Times
The Media Equation
The Fading Power of Beck’s Alarms
By David Carr
March 6, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/business/media/07carr.html

----

None of these pieces have mentioned the most obvious and most likely reason for the lower numbers.

Beck's TV show, which I watch everyday, usually, the 2 a.m. repeat, has been pre-empted more often than usual due to what was going on in Egypt, often for pointless -often nine-hour old- coverage of Tahrir Square in Cairo when NOTHING was happening.

Reminder: Just because you point a TV news camera at something doesn't mean it's news.

Because of those pre-emptions on the repeat show at 2 a.m., before RED EYE, I actually saw some Fox News weekend panel program I'd never seen before, which itself was a few days old and was clearly intended to run-out-the clock until 3 a.m. came around.

Additionally, there have been many more repeats since January than at about any time since Beck joined Fox News Channel.

Seems like I even recall him being sick and having surgery, though I can't recall the exact details.

Sometimes, there's no conspiracy, it's just that there's either no program to see, or the one that airs is one you've already seen twice before -I don't need to see it a third time.

I love pizza, but sometimes when I was out with friends in the D.C. area, after a movie or ballgame or whatever, sometimes when asked what I was in the mood for, I'd choose Vietnamese, unless I knew that we were near a great pizza place. If it isn't what you want the way you like it, TV, like pizza, isn't the same.

Similarly, with all the news about Tunesia, Egypt and Libya on Beck's show, why would loyal viewers who really don't care about foreign policy compared to domestic or economic issues watch something they really don't have any interest in, something that isn't their cup of tea?

I love well-played basketball, esp. top-tier college basketball, not surprisingly, considering I only went to college at a school like IU where basketball is much more than tradition but a culture.

Still, I haven't watched the NBA All-Star Game since about 1990, and haven't watched more than 20 minutes of the NBA this entire season.
It's not interesting to me since nothing matters until May.

Or, maybe those fans see a repeat or a pre-emption and finally get around to watching one of those prime-time shows they've been continually taping for weeks and STILL NOT started watching yet, so they think, today is the day I start watching 'em, otherwise I'm deleting them all.
Just saying... sometimes, lower ratings are not so mysterious.

And when you STILL have MANY more viewers than all your time-slot competitors combined, it's really absurd to talk about a SLUMP.

When the Yankees of the 1920's amd '30's actually lost a game or two in the World Series instead of sweeping their opponent in four games, were they in a slump, too?

Broward School Board mtg. re General Counsel semi-finalists is Tuesday at 3 p.m; their Financial Advisory Comm. mtg. is on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m.

I actually could've written the following post weeks or even months ago, but it's just as apropos here now, so here goes:

I'll give you a dollar if you can show me even one mention -before today- of who the actual candidates were for the position of Broward Schools General Counsel position -to replace Ed Marko- in the Miami Herald, South Florida Sun-Sentinel or any local Miami TV newscast.

Well, that dollar of mine isn't going anywhere, which really shows you how despite a story being right in front of them, the actual coverage of local government and agencies in South Florida has never been worse, especially given the technology that's available to them to make sense of what's going on and keep South Florida well-informed.

And have you seen anything noteworthy yet in the local news media on who was named the new CRA Executive Director for the City of Hollywood?

Yet it was newsworthy last year when the last Beach Executive Director, Gil Martinez was fired because of public perceptions -and the belief among his boss, the Hollywood City Commission- that taxpayer money was being wasted, perhaps thru fraud, and that certain other matters weren't being properly addressed, in part, due to stories in the Miami Herald. (Can you say Brazil?)

But an October 7th Herald story, Audit finds no CRA fraud, reads in part:

The audit, which cost the city $65,500, concluded that the agency failed to have proper controls and oversight of its spending, which was often unauthorized, not budgeted and not subjected to a competitive bidding process.

Oh!

Well, the City of Hollywood hired someone a few weeks ago to be the Executive Director for both the Beach and Downtown CRAs. Who are they, what are their qualifications, and what do they plan on doing to regain the Hollywood community's trust that they will be kept 'in-the-loop' and make prudent decisions?
All good questions.

The answer to the first is Jorge Camejo
The answers to the rest, though available now, have YET to appear in the local newspapers or on Miami TV newscasts.

In fact, Camejo's name has STILL never appeared in the Sun-Sentinel two months after he was hired. Not that the Herald has anything to brag about in that respect.

Just more of the same from the sleepwalking South Florida news media members that basically snooze until something awakens them or the public.

Consider the Herald's coverage the past six months on the Ed Marko replacement and retirement stories, a point I shared via an email with Rick Hirsch of the Herald many months ago.

Months before Hirsch was named the Herald's Managing Editor.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/05/2001320/rick-hirsch-named-miami-herald.html

They were completely MIA on that story for months, even while Buddy Nevins of Broward Beat, and to a much-lesser extent, yours truly, was telling people just what was being attempted by the Broward School Board and Supt. James Notter, thru the made-up Emeritus position they were considering creating, a ham-handed attempt to completely emasculate and frustrate the new hire, James D. Stokes.

You remember, that's the position that would have paid Marko a $266,000 annual salary?

Mr. Stokes, the General Counsel-to-be, had the good sense to promptly say non thanks once news about what was really in store for him down here started appearing and the public saw the attempt for what it was: appalling decision-making by people seemingly incapable of ever being right, even when they had the final say.

The ad at the top was published in the Miami Herald on March 1st, 2011

Published in Miami Herald on 2/27/2011

Miami Herald
Editorial
November 13, 2010

Bury this deal
OUR OPINION: No extra pay for School Board's attorney

What were they thinking?

The Broward County School Board was poised to approve -- by voice vote, no discussion -- a generous golden parachute for outgoing board general counsel Ed Marko as it was about to hire a new attorney, James Stokes. The board planned to create a one-year ``general counsel emeritus'' job for Mr. Marko, to the tune of more than $266,000 in salary and benefits, so he could look over the shoulder of Mr. Stokes, who was negotiating a salary of between $180,000 to $216,000.

Mr. Stokes, to his credit, pulled the plug on the deal on Monday. And Board Chair Jennifer Gottlieb, wisely, albeit a little late, pulled the item creating the emeritus position until new board members are sworn in. Truth is, this item should be given a deserving burial.

Mr. Stokes, Palm Bay city attorney, objected to having his predecessor hang around for another year. And rightly so. He has 15 years of experience as a government lawyer and, as he pointed out, there's a staff of capable lawyers already serving the board in case he needed some guidance.

Altogether, hiring Mr. Stokes and retaining Mr. Marko would have cost the school district roughly a half-million dollars. This at a time when teachers' pay is flat and the district's budget is hurting?

A 2008 contract between the board and Mr. Marko created the emeritus position for him. Luckily, the proposed $266,000 compensation wasn't part of the contract. So the board might be legally bound to create the job, but it doesn't have to pay him a whopping salary.

Mr. Marko has served as the School Board's attorney since 1968. It's time for him to retire, but the School Board doesn't owe him anything more than his pension and a nice send off.

Meantime, it will have to decide what to do about hiring a new attorney. What an unnecessary brouhaha.

------
See my previous posts on Ed Marko at:
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search?q=Ed+Marko

Buddy Nevins at http://www.browardbeat.com/

Say hello to Florrie - She's musically ship-shape in Bristol fashion, always equipped with a beat & melody -and has a voice & face you won't forget @Florrie

Channel 4's T4: Introducing Florrie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf4bu1O0HKs

Say hello to Florrie - She's musically ship-shape in Bristol fashion, always equipped with a beat & melody -and has a voice and face you won't forget. She's sort of like a fabulous Julie Christie-inspired musical Pied Piper for the 21st Century that you take an instant liking to.
And Florrie Arnold, she's a charmer, this one!

-----

Dolce & Gabana Channel: Their online magazine, SWIDE, scores an EXCLUSIVE interview with Florrie Arnold.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKN4CWr_UeA



Florrie - Give Me Your Love (Nottingham Rock City, September 2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z_lxO14xcs
I just love this song and the way they perform it!
This is what LIVE performances ought to be like!




Florrie - Sunday Girl -Recorded in Paris, 2011 (Blondie cover)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaTu3yH8wKA


Florrie's official website, where you listen to her introductory EP, with FREE Downloads: http://florrie.com/

Florrie's official YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/florriemusic
Florrie's Twitter feed,  @Florrie https://twitter.com/Florrie

ii
T4's official YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/T4

Dolce & Gabana's official YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/dolcegabbanachannel

-----



Florrie Arnold - Sunday Girl (Blondie Cover)
Musique de la publicité Nina Ricci "Nina L'Elixir"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bljxxfe8AsY




Blondie - Sunday Girl (1979)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obwanhb6kww

And 150 years ago today, Abraham Lincoln became our 16th President and changed history forever...

United States Post Office -1923 Abraham Lincoln 3-cent stamp

------

2009 Bicentennial Lincoln Penny

Lincoln educating himself while working as a rail splitter in Indiana.

------

Lincoln Addresses the Nation

By The Editors of the New York Times,

March 4, 2011

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/lincoln-addresses-the-nation/

-----

And on this 150th anniversary, here in Broward County, the people that still control power, the puppets and the strings are lobbyists and land development lawyers.
Sadly, corrupt Broward County is still NOT The Land of Lincoln.
Just like I say at the top of my blog.


excerpt from a May 25m 2008 email of mine:

What's been the central point that everyone been going on and on about over the past 18 months regarding Doris Kearns Goodwin's award-winning Lincoln biography,Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
http://www.doriskearnsgoodwin.com/team-of-rivals.php ?

That Lincoln wasn't afraid of putting very ambitious and capable people in his cabinet. People who had said terrible things about him and who'd actively sought to deny him the Republican nomination. He put the interests of the nation above his own.

-----

The Atlantic
Channeling, But Not Exactly Paralleling, Lincoln's Trip
By Marc Ambinder Posted: 17 Jan 2009 09:18 AM CST

PHILADELPHIA, PA --
The land of Lincolner embarks this morning on a 20th century version of Abraham Lincoln's dozen day trek from Springfield to Washington ahead of his inauguration.

Lincoln spoke more than 100 times during the train trips, often tailoring his remarks to his audience, and even more often, surprising his political handlers by provocatively challenging Southern secessionists.

In Steubenville, Ohio, just across the river from Virginia, he remarked that Virginians were entitled to their rights, but only the people collectively could express those rights.

Elsewhere, he spoke mainly of the country's Constitutional binds.

At Cooper Union in New York: "I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, this Constitution and the liberties of the people shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea for which that struggle was made, and I shall be most happy indeed if I shall be an humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and of this, his almost chosen people, for perpetuating the object of that great struggle."

Lincoln, visiting Philadelphia and Independence Hall: "I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence."

Ironically, the Philadelphia to Baltimore trek was canceled at the last minute because Allan Pinkerton's intelligence indicated that Lincoln would be gunned down as he entered Baltimore's Calvert station. So Lincoln improvised, leaving Harrisburg, PA in the dead of night, hopped aboard a passenger train, crammed into a back seat, slid through Baltimore at 3:30 in the morning, head down, wearing a "gentleman's shawl," and arrived in Washington, D.C. the next day at 6:00 a.m.

Lincoln's caravan was fairly short: three cards and a locomotive. Historian Harold Holzer writes that Lincoln's compartment was flecked with patriotic flourishes, "warmed by modern heaters," lit by candles, had four "cozy" reading chairs and a black walnut table. The wall paneling was "curled maple" offset by zebra wood, gilt moldings and plush furnishings. The locomotives were called "The Union" and the "Constitution."

The national railroad superintendent personally supervised the trip along the "Great Western" tracks. All other trains had to give the right of way. Security, until Philadelphia, was light.

All the big journalists of the time accompanied him; journalists had ready access to Lincoln's car.

http://www.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/01/channeling_but_not_exactly_par.php

FYI: The paternal side of my family is based out of the same Steubenville, Ohio mentioned above in Marc Ambinder's essay, and they were there before Ohio was a state, and was part of the Ohio Territory.

Paternal ancestors of mine living then -along with the rest of Steubenville- saw Lincoln when he arrived and spoke on his way to his Inauguration, and some of them were later part of the volunteer force who made the Underground Railroad a reality.
Among them were some relatives of Lincoln's, since our own family is connected to the Lincoln family thru their Holmes connection, of early 18th-Century New Jersey and earlier, 17th-Century Rhode Island.

One of those Holmes descendants and ancestor of mine was a man that I've referenced here before on the blog, who, during the Revolutionary War, served as a spy for General Washington and the Continental Army against the British.

Twenty-plus years earlier, in 1755, when he was MUCH younger, he marched with Washington and British Major-Gen. Edward Braddock, commander-in-chief of the British Army in North America, on their famous ill-fated Expedition from Alexandria (VA) to take French-controlled Fort Duquesne on the forks of the Ohio River, in what's now present day Pittsburgh.

They ultimately failed in their efforts and Gen. Braddock and many other were killed, but some, including my ancestor and Washington, survived to make their way home and, yes, live to fight another day.

For his service to the fledgling country in their war with Great Britain, he was awarded acres of land in the distant Ohio Territories, in an area that is now a few miles north of Steubenville and Jefferson County.
Three-hundred years later, many of his descendants still make that part of Ohio, near Pittsburgh and across the Ohio River from West Virginia, their home -my father's hometown.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X58RPS665V0

For more information:

http://www.in.gov/lincoln/
http://www.lincolnindc.com/
http://www.abrahamlincoln200.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braddock%27s_Expedition

No chemistry? Oh, so it wasn't just me who noticed? Academy president Tom Sherak tells TheWrap: Franco and Hathaway Had 'No Connection'

Oh, so it wasn't just me who noticed how contrived the relationship between James Franco and Anne Hathaway seemed during Sunday's 83rd Annual Academy Awards?

-----

TheWrap
Academy Chief Sherak: Franco and Hathaway Had 'No Connection'
By Daniel Frankel
Published: March 03, 2011 @ 5:22 pm

Pelted by critics of the 83rd Annual Academy Awards telecast over the last three days, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Tom Sherak quipped to TheWrap Thursday that he remains in a "bunker."

"I'll climb out as soon as I hear Winston Churchill say it's OK," he added, conceding that the host pairing of James Franco and Anne Hathaway wasn't as dynamic as hoped, but defending the overall ratings performance of the ABC telecast, which drew an average of 38 million viewers.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.thewrap.com/awards/article/sherak-his-bunker-there-was-no-connection-between-oscar-hosts-25235

*All screenshots above and below from the 83rd Annual Academy Awards of February 27, 2011 by South Beach Hoosier.


Oh, I get it.
Anne Hathaway in tails and James Franco in drag, all so he can make a Charlie Sheen joke. But really, do you think that people watching the Academy Awards show LIVE in Germany or Eastern Europe when it was 4:15 a.m. or so found it so damn hysterical?
Me, I've got to think they just groaned.
Like I did here in Anytown U.S.A., Hallandale Beach, Florida
For whom it was intended...

Well, at least someone didn't needlessly mention Sarah Palin just to make her a liberal punchline and show how "edgy" they are!

Gothamist: James Franco Says "F*** The Yale Daily News"
http://gothamist.com/2011/03/04/james_franco_says_f_the_yale_daily.php

The whole show reminded me of the very awkward relationships created when people are thrown together like a salad during long car rides from IU to Fort Lauderdale or Daytona Beach during Spring Break, tales related to me by friends once we were all back in cold Bloomington.

I once even personally experienced that clash of personalities on such a drive down here.
I was ready to jump out of the car somewhere between Chatanooga and Atlanta, probably near Franklin, home of Paramore, home of some very steep mountains on I-65, and those runaway truck pits on the side of the road are no laughing matter when it's raining hard.

And the drama didn't end once the four of us actually got here, either, when we were staying at the Sheraton Yankee Trader -and that fabulous swimming pool of theirs that was such a great people-watching magnet.

One of the girls on the trip down just "vanished" in Fort Lauderdale, so we had to call her parents up in Fort Wayne and then get the Fort Lauderdale police involved once her folks said they hadn't heard anything from her.

Shocker -she met some guy from some other school who was also visiting, and and she just decided to spend all her time with him and his friends -without telling us.

In comparison, at least nobody had to call the LAPD for either Anne and James once James seemed to check-out mentally and just sleepwalked his way thru much of the show.

So much for the great idea of having one of the hosts be someone who was nominated for an Academy Award!



Great Cate! Every inch a movie star: Cate Blanchett.
She is transcendent in every film she does.

Her dress was from Givenchy Couture, and was NOT so keenly received by the fashionistas:
http://www.vogue.fr/mode/look-du-jour/articles/cate-blanchett-en-givenchy-couture/6999


Bosom pals from Down Under with talent-to-spare: Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. Nicole is wearing Dior Couture.

Mr. Sherak, the answer to who should be hosting the Academy Awards show if they are not nominated for an award themselves is obvious.
It's right in front of you: Jackman & Kidman.

The two of them have more natural (and honed) singing and dancing talent than almost any two other actors you could've found in the Kodak Theater, and everyone knows it, too.
And everyone also knows what great friends they are, too, and that enthusiasm and synergy will surely show up in their performance as well.
Case closed.

-----
See also:

Official website of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: http://www.oscars.org/

Transcript of Live Chat: After the Oscars, with David Denby
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/ask/2011/02/david-denby-oscars.html

TheWrap online: http://www.thewrap.com/

TheWrap's YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/thewrapnews

No. 2 UVA at No. 1 Syracuse Mens Lacrosse tonight on ESPNU at 6 p.m.; plus, will Lacey Myers show-up?; UVA to retire Yeardley Love's number Sunday

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=6173759

Well, it's not like I wasn't already looking forward to this exciting match tonight between UVA and Syracuse on ESPNU, ever since I got a good look two weekends ago during their Lacrosse Preview show and saw the schedule of televised matches this Spring.
http://espn.go.com/lacrosse/

That schedule will, apparently, include two Womens matches.
Last year I saw a lot of Northwestern's matches, but when Maryland came back to beat Northwestern in the title game at Towson, that was easily one of the most exciting things I saw all year.

Frankly, to me, it was MUCH more exciting than the Auburn-Oregon BCS Title Game in Phoenix this past January.

-----
Baltimore Sun
Syracuse, UVa. gear up for 'game of the year'
By Edward Lee, The Baltimore Sun
5:44 p.m. EST, March 3, 2011

It doesn't have the levels of hysteria generated when the Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers clash or when the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees meet, but the series between Syracuse and Virginia has been gaining steam in the sport of lacrosse.

That's why Friday night's contest at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y., is already being called the game of the 2011 season, and it's only early March.

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/college/lacrosse/bs-sp-lax-feature-0304-20110303,0,4756447.story

But, the Internet being what it is, more than a few people who say they are fans of Syracuse student Lacey Myers, the subject of my July 21st, 2010 post, one of my most popular posts here ever -at one point earlier this week, 13 consecutive people from around the world came by the blog to look at that story on her and her well-publicized media forays on MTV and Channel 4 in England, which I had the links to- sent me emails
asking a question I can't possibly answer.

Say hello to Lacey Myers, one of "The World's Richest Teenagers" as seen on Channel 4 (U.K.) and MTV's Lacey Land. C'est la vie.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/say-hello-to-lacey-myers-one-of-worlds.html

I honestly have no idea one way or the other whether or not she will be at the Carrier Dome Friday night, rooting on her team.

But I will definitely know if she gets shown on TV, since even if I wasn't going to be watching the match anyway, some of you have pledged to let me know.
Again, as I've already written some of you, I appreciate it, but I'll be able to see for myself, so please save yourself an email and just watch the action on the field.

University of Virgina Mens Lacrosse homepage:
http://www.virginiasports.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=17800&SPID=10601&SPSID=88761

Syracuse Mens Lacrosse homepage:
http://suathletics.syr.edu/index.aspx?path=mlacrosse

FYI: The Maryland at Duke Mens match on Saturday at 1 pm will be streaming LIVE on ESPN3. I caught some of the Georgetown at Maryland match over the weekend.
http://espn.go.com/espn3/index/_/sport/lacrosse

Back in mid-February, on my birthday actually, I heard the news from some friends in the Mid-Atlantic that UVA was planning to retire Yeardley Love's number before their home game against Penn State.

Well, that emotional day for her family and friends is fast approaching.

Friday night, #5 UVA hosts defending NCAA champion and #1 Maryland, and Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. at Klockner Stadium, the ceremony takes place, so you can pretty well expect to see some media coverage of that event on Sunday and Monday, esp. on ESPN, which for a change, actually covered that tragedy and the weeks of following the team with a certain amount of class, instead of their usual pomposity.
Yeardley Love was #1.

As some of you may recall me having mentioned previously, I saw UVA's game in Evanston at Northwestern on The BigTenNetwork the same weekend that the Northwestern home
match against the first-year Florida Gators was also supposed to be telecast, but instead, the Gators match wound-up being an online P-P-V.

That was the very same weekend before Yeardley Love was murdered once she and the rest of her teammates got back to Charlottesville.

For whatever reason, once the news about that tragedy became public, The BigTenNetwork pulled the encore showing they has scheduled for that UVA-Northwestern match, and instead, showed some meaningless softball game.

The CBS-owned network collectively put their head in the sand rather than utilize their "experts" and resources to actually bring some perspective to fans on the tragedy.
I really expected much better from them.

------

The Baltimore Sun's Lacrosse blog:
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/lacrosse/blog/

http://www.umterps.com/sports/w-lacros/md-w-lacros-body.html

http://www.virginiasports.com/SportSelect.dbml?SPID=10605&DB_OEM_ID=17800

http://www.gatorzone.com/lacrosse/

http://nusports.cstv.com/sports/w-lacros/nw-w-lacros-body.html

In a word: Brilliant! Kimmel Kartoon - Charlie Brown and Charlie Sheen, from ABC-TV's Jimmy Kimmel Show. "Winning!"

ABC-TV's Jimmy Kimmel Show, February 28, 2011 Kimmel Kartoon - Charlie Brown and Charlie Sheen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhgWRTr3oIg

“Born ready. Winning.” -Charlie Sheen, 2011

I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw this! For a while now, I've been thinking that the producers and creative people at Jimmy Kimmel's TV show in Los Angeles were showing more outside-the-box imagination and creativity than almost anyone else on TV, right up there with the producers, writers and actors at Castle, The Mentalist, Medium, Friday Night Lights, Human Target, HOUSE, Southland, The Closer, Rizzoli & Isles, and The Good Wife, all TV shows that I never ever miss.

I especially like the segment on the show where they show interviews or clips from TV shows and censor dialogue to make it appear that the individuals are actually swearing at inappropriate times. You'd think that would get old, but it's always funny.

Later tonight, longtime South Beach Hoosier favorite Howard Stern will be the big guest. My mornings haven't been the same since he moved to satellite radio.

ABC News Good Morning America: Exclusive:
Charlie Sheen Says He's 'Not Bipolar but 'Bi-Winning' (02.28.11) video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5aSa4tmVNM







ABC-TV's Jimmy Kimmel Show, February 27, 2011 - Hottie Body Hump Club
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKekcHMiVVg




http://abc.go.com/shows/jimmy-kimmel-live
http://www.youtube.com/user/JimmyKimmelLive

Bullseye! Ruth Marcus in Washington Post: The president is often strangely absent from the most important debates:"Obama's 'Where's Waldo?' presidency

Spot-on analysis and anecdotes from the talented Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post -and Mona Charen's childhood friend- which is why she's getting so much flack from the very indignant Mainstream Media for telling the truth about 44.
Sometimes, it is what it is. Period.

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The Washington Post
Obama's 'Where's Waldo?' presidency

By Ruth Marcus
Wednesday, March 2, 2011; 12:00 AM

For a man who won office talking about change we can believe in, Barack Obama can be a strangely passive president. There are a startling number of occasions in which the president has been missing in action - unwilling, reluctant or late to weigh in on the issue of the moment. He is, too often, more reactive than inspirational, more cautious than forceful.

Each of these instances can be explained on its own terms, as matters of legislative strategy, geopolitical calculation or political prudence.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/01/AR2011030105489.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

Reader comments: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/01/AR2011030105489_Comments.html

From adversity, a desire to inform: former Labour Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's investigative report on the porn trade airs on BBC Radio 5 Live today

Former Labour Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, caught up in the MP expenses scandal as a result of a bill submission, and forced to resign from the House of Commons, examines the adult entertainment industry and the wide variety of people "who make, watch and commentate on pornography."
To wit, "What is the impact of pornography upon society?"

Her one-hour special airs today on BBC Radio 5 live at 21:30 G.M.T., which is 4:30 p.m. Eastern in the U.S. and Canada.

You can hear it hear here via the Radio 5 live website at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/5live/#two and click the "Listen live" link, or, go straight to the BBC iPlayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_radio_five_live

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YourNews24 video: Porn Again - Jacqui Smith
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WT33BJnKFw

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As most of you who come to the blog fairly often know, I'm a devoted 5 live listener, probably listening to it about 4-5 hours a day during the week.
I listen even more on weekends because of all the discussion of the Premier League, esp. the 606 Football Phone-in, the U.K.'s biggest football chat show, which is always funny, interesting and fast-paced. It's a great show.

Naturally, from listening for so long, when the traffic reports come on, I almost vicariously hate all those lorry rollovers on one Motorway or another I'm forever hearing about, as much as I hate the near-daily truck accidents on I-95 near the Hallandale Beach Blvd. exits, or the ones that were weekly taking place on the "Mixing Bowl" on I-95, south of Washington, D.C. when I lived up there.
So predictable, it almost wouldn't seem like a real traffic report if they didn't mention it!

It's always something and always right BEFORE I need to get on it!

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BBC Radio 5 live video: A day in the life of 5 live

http://www.youtube.com/user/bbcfivelive
http://www.youtube.com/user/YourNews24