House Budget Comm. Chair Paul Ryan on 'Path to Prosperity'; the drivers of debt and the overdue reforms needed in FY 2012 budget -charts aplenty!

U.S. House Budget Committee video: The Path to Prosperity: America's two futures, visualized, presented by Budget Comm. Chair Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.
http://youtu.be/Xwv5EbxXSmE

Rasmussen Reports
Paul Ryan's Growth Budget
A Commentary By Lawrence Kudlow April 7, 2011

Of all the discussion about Paul Ryan's big-bang budget plan, the element I like best was caught in this Wall Street Journal op-ed title: "The GOP Path to Prosperity." In other words, it's a growth budget. It has plenty of spending cuts, but it also has significant pro-growth tax reform.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_lawrence_kudlow/paul_ryan_s_growth_budget



U.S. House Budget Committee video: Budget Comm. Chair Paul Ryan on Fox News Channel's Mike Huckabee Show details drivers of debt; Calls for honest leadership and real reform
http://youtu.be/SiZj1Uncl9Y



U.S. House Budget Committee video: Behind the Scenes: Budget Listening Session with Budget Comm. Chair Paul Ryan.
http://youtu.be/otlOCQyE8oY
Related article at: http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/03/17/gop.budget.plan/index.html

See also:
http://budget.house.gov/
http://www.youtube.com/user/HouseBudgetCommittee
http://prosperityproject.org/

Volcanoes tonight on Nat'l Geo. Channel: thinking about Thrinukagigur before the ticking timebomb that's Mount Nyiragongo devours Goma's 1M residents

National Geographic Channel: Into Iceland's Volcano
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/expedition-week-main/

Related article at http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/expedition-week/5782/Overview#tab-Overview

Feel like probing the volatility of Iceland's Thrinukagigur volcano, located close to our quarrelsome friend from last spring, Eyjafjallajökull?
No takers?

Well, some scientists, perhaps knowing of your sheepishness towards going inside a volcano thought it'd be fun, and tonight they report on what they found.

You might be interested in knowing that according to the very friendly and accommodating folks at www.IcelandTouristBoard.com, whom I hear from once in a while,

"While the world famous Eyjafjallajokull volcano wreaked havoc for millions of travelers, it resulted in a 16 % increase in tourism from N. America to our island nation for the first 11 months of 2010, versus the same period last year."

If you have never been to Iceland -home to HBB favorite Yohanna- and for more than just a weekend, it's AWESOME!
AWESOME TIMES TEN!

National Geographic Channel's Into Iceland's Volcano airs tonight at 9 pm. and repeats at midnight and 8 and 11 p.m. Friday.

After that visit to the far north, the National Geographic Channel sets its sights farther south and goes to Africa's most active volcano, Mount Nyiragongo, which is a ticking time-bomb for Goma's one million residents under the volcano.



National Geographic Channel video: Man vs. Volcano: Descending into the Lava Lake
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baJVipcVNpg

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The Daily Mail
Deadly volcano that's one of the most dangerous on Earth... but scientists can't predict when it will erupt as it's in the middle of a war zone

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 6:38 PM on 31st March 2011

Mount Nyiragongo is one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world - and scientists say it is only a matter of time before it makes the city below a modern day Pompeii.

But they don't know when since, located as it is in the war-torn eastern edge of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the two mile high cauldron of lava is also one of the least well understood.

Read the rest of the article, along with amazing photos featured in the new April 2011 National Geographic magazine
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1371412/Central-African-volcano-threatens-turn-city-new-Pompeii.html

National Geographic Channel's Descending into the Lava Lake airs tonight at 10 pm. and repeats at 1 a.m. and Friday at 7 p.m. and 2. a.m. Saturday morning.

National Geographic Channel program schedule - DirecTV Channel 276
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/tv-schedule

National Geographic Channel YouTube page:
http://www.youtube.com/user/NationalGeographic


JAGUAR XJ IN ICELAND
http://youtu.be/WaV0i8tuUe4
So very, very far away from the daily gridlock in Hallandale Beach -LOVE IT!

Det är huset för mig!: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/16/greathomesanddestinations/20110316iceland_ss.html

Street cams in Iceland
http://www.inspiredbyiceland.com/icelandlive/#austurstraeti

http://www.inspiredbyiceland.com/icelandlive/#blaa-lonid


http://www.icelandnaturally.com/

Is Broward Schools Supt. James Notter's replacement in N.C.? Why is Broward School Board aiming to have new Supt. start AFTER new school year?

BrowardPalm Beach NewTimes video: Michael Marchetti Rips Broward County School Board, April 5, 2011
http://youtu.be/aHRq7fRHSBQ

Per the list of school systems nominated for the Broad Prize for Urban Education that were announced earlier this week, which Broward County and Miami-Dade were both on, causing Broward School Board member Jennifer Gottlieb to warble: “We deserve it,” she said. “Despite the criticism, our children are successful” in Tuesday's Miami Herald, why is Broward NOT seriously considering going after some high achievers and hire the #2 or 3 person at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina to replace outgoing Broward Supt. James Notter?

http://www.cms.k12.nc.us/Pages/Default.aspx
http://www.broadprize.org/asset/0-110405tbpfinalistrelease.pdf

That district made the Finalists short list this year and last year, and consistently ranks high among Education groups that rank these sorts of things, even if the criteria used for ranking school districts and individual schools might be considered dubious or questionable,
http://broadprize.org/about/decision_makers/review_board.html since who is more responsible for school/district improvement:

a.) savvy and resourceful school administrators,
b.) properly-motivated teachers with adequate supply of resources and support from principals and administrators, or
c.) involved parents who push their children to excel and won't accept mediocrity from their children, or
d.) the kids themselves?

Forgotten in all the hoopla -sometimes, it's the kids.

Official website for Broad Prize for Urban Education: http://www.broadprize.org/

But if we are to assume the criteria is solid, then why would that district not be the first place you'd look, the way the New England Patriots were the place where NFL teams looked first a few years ago to have some of the Patriots' great success rub off on them?

As many of you are already aware, in the NFL, it's traditional to at least strongly consider the 'hot" coordinators at successful playoff teams as your new head coach, before you re-cycle an old NFL head coach, so why is the Broward School Board so intent on reinventing the wheel?

It's a longstanding mental defect in Broward County, in all sorts of areas of public policy, that Broward officials of one sort or another insist that it's SO unique, that nobody from outside could ever possibly know how to do something right. (With predictable results I'd say.)

Additionally, why is the Broward School Board so intent on waiting until AFTER the new school year has started?

Isn't there a reason that most intelligent people make a point of moving their family BEFORE the new school year starts, esp. in places like South Florida that insist on starting their new years in sweltering August, so why should this be any different?

Isn't there a reasonable chance that the children of any prospective new Supt. would ALSO be dealing with the same issue?

Why would he or she be any different than any other parent, and not insist that the job starts before or concurrently with new school year, or no deal?

Especially for a job that many smart and qualified candidates would NOT want to touch to begin with, that now comes with increased scrutiny from Tallahassee?
(For perfectly good reason!)

Seriously, do we really need to eliminate good candidates before we even start by pretending that having your kids in a new house -and settled- before the school year starts, isn't the preferred option?

I'm confused; dumbfounded actually.
This is such common sense and conventional wisdom, is there a specific reason that these particular questions aren't being asked, raised or reported?

--
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
South Florida Schools blog
Broward School District a finalist in prestigious Broad Prize for Urban Education
By Rafael Olmeda
April 5, 2011 09:58 AM
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/educationblog/2011/04/broward_school_district_a_fina.html

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Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/05/2151328/miami-dade-broward-school-districts.html

Miami-Dade, Broward school districts vie for education prize

By Kathleen McGrory and Carli Teproff

April 5, 2011

The Miami-Dade and Broward school districts have been named finalists for the Broad Prize for Urban Education, the most prestigious award bestowed upon public school systems.

The announcement Tuesday came as welcome news to the nation’s fourth and sixth largest school districts, which have been dealing with budget cuts, Legislative issues and pressure from the unions.

Beleaguered Broward has also seen two School Board members charged with bribery, a scathing report from the state Grand Jury and a surprise resignation from the superintendent.

“It’s about what we’ve been able to do even in adversity,” Superintendent Jim Notter said Tuesday after announcing that Broward was a finalist. “That’s to keep the focus on our core business of teaching and learning.”

The Broad Prize — Broad rhymes with “road’’ — honors large school districts that have demonstrated the greatest gains in student achievement. It also seeks to recognize districts that have worked to close the achievement gap among poor and minority students.

This is the third time Broward has been a finalist for the award.

The Miami-Dade district was a finalist in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

“Southern Florida can truly be proud of the remarkable progress your students, teachers and school districts have made,” said Eli Broad, whose foundation sponsors the prize. “For most of the last decade, Broward County and Miami-Dade have consistently shown greater relative student improvement than other large urban districts across the country.”

Leaders in both school districts have high hopes for this year.

“We believe that this time, we will be the winner,” Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said, noting that students posted record high test scores last year.

Broward School Board member Jennifer Gottlieb said the nomination was a testament to the hard work Broward has done.

“We deserve it,” she said. “Despite the criticism, our children are successful.”

Broward is a long-shot candidate.

While the award has more to do with student achievement than governance, school districts in turmoil are rarely winners. When the Miami-Dade district was nominated in 2008, School Board members were feuding with former Superintendent Rudy Crew. Although Miami-Dade was considered an early favorite, it did not win.

This year, the Broad Foundation considered 75 urban districts were for the award. School systems are not allowed to apply or be nominated.

The winning district gets $550,000 in college scholarships for high school seniors.

The three finalists each receive $150,000 in scholarships.

The other finalists this year are the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina and the Ysleta Independent School District in El Paso, Texas.

The winner will be announced Sept. 20 in Washington, D.C.

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Channel 2's Issues program of 4/1/11: Jim Notter's Resignation
Host Helen Ferre, Guests: Antonio Fins, South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Page editor, Bob Norman, NewTimes, Robert W. Hill, EdD., NOVA Southeastern University
http://ka.uvuvideo.org/_Issues-Notter39s-Resignation-/video/1556116/86294.html

Disclaimer: I've known Issues 'guest' Robert Hill and his family since I was nine-years old
and in third grade. He was my best friend when we were both growing-up in North Miami Beach, at Fulford Elementary and then JFK Jr. High and then NMB Senior High.
He's literally, part of our family, at nearly every single event of importance I can think of for myself or my sisters, as well as as too many NMB Chargers, U-M Hurricanes, Baltimore Orioles spring training, Miami Toros and Fort Lauderdale Strikers games to count.
And I was always there for him.

I got the opportunity to visit him in 1984 after he'd graduated from Gainesville and gotten his first real job as a high school English teacher in Port Charlotte, where he was also the Womens Tennis coach, and he was one of the most popular teachers in no time because of his subject knowledge and enthusiasm.

In a more normal world, dedicated and enthusiastic educators with common sense (and senses of humor) like Robert -and clones of him- would be on the elected Broward County School Board.
Then, Broward parents and beleaguered taxpayers could FINALLY sigh a sigh of relief, relax and know that the 'bad days' were behind them.
FINALLY.

-----
This Bob Norman post from Wednesday contained the video at the top.

BrowardPalmBeach New Times
Daily Pulp
"Miss Gottlieb, YOU Are the Distraction"
By Bob Norman
April 6, 2011 @ 8:59AM

-- Broward County schools building inspector Michael Marchetti has long been appalled at the influence of lobbyists and contractors -- and their proxies, the School Board members themselves -- on school district staff in the building department.

Marchetti has shed more light on the rampant corruption at the district than perhaps any other employee.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2011/04/mrs_gottlieb_youre_the_distrac.php

For prior posts about the Broward County School Board, see:
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/search/index?keywords=School+Board&x=14&y=19

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South Florida Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/education/fl-broward-school-board-super-20110406,0,3972446.story
School Board tells superintendent to find solutions to problems in facilities, building departments
By Cara Fitzpatrick, Sun Sentinel
April 06, 2011

The Broward County School Board told Superintendent Jim Notter that one of his final responsibilities before retiring will be to propose solutions to long-standing problems in the district's building, facilities and construction divisions.

Board members also agreed to search nationally for Notter's replacement — and said his successor must be ready to get involved in the reform of those departments.

"I don't want you walking out the door leaving a mess to be cleaned up," board member Dave Thomas told Notter during the meeting.

Notter surprised board members with his announcement last week that he planned to retire, effective June 30, and the board is scrambling to start the process to replace him. Notter promised again Tuesday to work with them on outstanding issues until he leaves.

Board members Ann Murray and Jennifer Gottlieb have suggested in recent weeks that drastic changes are needed in the facilities ranks, in light of a highly critical Feb. 18 grand jury report.

The facilities department has been under fire for years for shoddy work, cost overruns and construction delays.

The grand jury report also said board members had micromanaged the construction department, hand-picking politically favored contractors and then awarding them inflated fees to manage projects.

Board member Ann Murray said the district must "get serious" or the pattern will repeat itself — because two previous grand jury reports had identified similar issues.

"We recognize that there are problems, but we just haven't been able to nail it down," she said.

Gottlieb told Notter to consider all scenarios, including "complete independence" from the district. But she said she wasn't suggesting privatization of the departments.

"It could be a step to help restore public trust," she said.

But at least one audience member told board members they should look at their own behavior first.

Michael Marchetti, a district building inspector, read to board members from the 2011 grand jury report, which focused more heavily on the School Board than individual departments.

"I didn't hear facilities department in there, I didn't hear building department, I heard School Board," he said. "Ms. Gottlieb, you are a distraction. Ms. Murray, you are a distraction. … You fail to hold yourselves accountable."

Marchetti has filed a whistleblower lawsuit in Tallahassee, which alleges that district officials conspired to manipulate contracts and needlessly drove up construction costs.

Gottlieb said after the meeting that she disagreed with Marchetti's assessment of the board, and said current members weren't the ones overstepping their bounds.

"Those days are behind us," she said.

Reader comment at: http://discussions.sun-sentinel.com/20/soflanews/fl-broward-school-board-super-20110406/10

"Those days are behind us," she said. I'd prefer HER days are behind us.

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I should mention here that for weeks prior to Notter's announcement last week that he was retiring effective in June, I was sending emails to local reporters asking them to look at Notter's contract and see what his golden parachute might look like.

I made my intention clear with the subject header of January 28th: Anyone know how much James Notter's retirement package is?...1/28/11 Indy Star: Wayne Twnsp. school superintendent's $1M retirement package creates storm

The reason was this late January story I came across in the Indy Star while looking for some news about the IU basketball team:

Indianapolis Star

Wayne superintendent's $1M retirement package creates storm
Wayne Township Schools Superintendent Terry Thompson received a retirement package worth more than $1 million.
By Bill McCleery

In 2007, the Wayne Township School Board and then-Superintendent Terry Thompson agreed to a renegotiated contract that provided a generous retirement package for whenever Thompson decided to step down.

But it wasn't until this month that board members realized just how lucrative that deal was, to the tune of more than $1 million.

Thompson, 64, who retired in December after 15 years with the district, already has received more than $800,000 of his retirement deal, which included a year's base pay at more than $225,000, as well as contract provisions that kicked in hundreds of thousands more.

But that's not all.

The contract also created the position of superintendent emeritus -- a position that has been paying Thompson $1,352 a day since his retirement to advise his successor, among other duties. That amount, over the 150 days laid out in the contract, would pay him more than $200,000 -- bringing the total to more than $1 million.

In addition, the contract called for one other perk -- a onetime $15,000 stipend for "retirement planning."

On Thursday, the board issued a statement asking Thompson to resign from the superintendent emeritus position, but it's unclear whether the board can force him to do so -- or reclaim any of the money in the contract.

"It's just a terribly difficult time because Terry Thompson did terrifically wonderful things for Wayne Township," said board member Shirley Deckard, who was not on the board in 2007.

Five of her colleagues, however, were on the board at the time. They either were not able to be reached for comment Thursday or deferred comment to the district spokeswoman.

Thompson did not return calls made to his home Thursday.

A call placed to Jon Bailey -- the school district's attorney at the time the contract was renegotiated -- was met with a recording that his voice mailbox was full.

Mary McDermott-Lang, the district's spokeswoman, said board members signed off on the provisions of the contract when it was reopened at Thompson's request in 2007. But she said they did so without full knowledge of the information tucked into lengthy documents that she said Thompson asked them to approve at several different meetings.

There were 223 comments to that Star article when I first saw it, which was a few days after it first appeared. 223.

Did you notice the use of the word "emeritus" in the piece?
Sound familiar?

Correct, the current Broward School Board's original exit/no exit plan for retiring Broward Schools counsel Ed Marko, until it became widely known.

Nobody responded to my email.
Well, to be precise, I should say, no South Florida print reporters or columnists or TV reporters or producers responded.

Why should they, after all, since the Conventional Wisdom was that Notter wasn't going anywhere?

Right, as if the statewide Grand Jury's report came as a complete surprise... Only the exact wording was a surprise -and the lack of indictments.

My friend Charlotte Greenbarg, president of the Broward Coalition, quickly responded to me email and said that she doubted anyone in a position to do so was or would look into it. Charlotte was right.

Nobody cared until AFTER the announcement, and then... EVERYONE got curious.

Which proves that the vast majority of South Florida reporters are NOT interested in thinking outside-the-box, so you can give up thinking that's going to happen anytime soon with the current status quo media crew we're stuck with down here.
With the exception of Bob Norman, none of them want to rock the boat any more than the Broward School Board did.

The self-evident results of that approach, entirely predictable, are all around us here in Broward County.



South Florida Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/fl-notter-quits-mayocol-b033111-20110330,0,642502.column
Will departing Broward Schools Superintendent renounce guaranteed $126,000 job?
By Michael Mayo, Sun-Sentinel columnist
6:42 p.m. EDT, March 30, 2011

When the going got tough, Jim Notter got going.

There's no other way to look at the Broward Schools superintendent's resignation, no matter what Notter says about it having "absolutely nothing" to do with a blistering statewide grand jury report.

One minute he's talking about how these are the toughest times ever faced by the school district, the next he's saying, "Sorry, gotta run," even though he still has three years left on his $299,000-a-year contract.

Watch this now: Reunited. Joyous reunion as rescued dog and her owner greet after tsunami.

How's that for leadership?

In the bizarre world of Broward Schools, leaving might be Notter's biggest display of leadership yet.

"Interesting timing," said Nora Rupert, one of four School Board members elected in November.

After so much recent tumult — arrests, budget cuts, union fights, a war on public education from Tallahassee — Notter's announced June departure might be the clean slate the district needs.

Or with so many ongoing investigations, it could signal darker times ahead, for him individually or the beleaguered School Board. Notter was criticized for weak leadership in the grand jury report and for allowing a culture of waste and mismanagement to flourish.

Whoever takes the superintendent job — calling outgoing Florida Education Commissioner Eric Smith? — will have to be part miracle worker, part CEO and part kindergarten teacher (to keep School Board members, unions, contractors and lobbyists in line). Smith met with Notter last week as a follow-up to the grand jury report.

Notter appeared to still have the backing of a majority of the nine-member board, but his resignation spares a potential prolonged battle over his future.

"It's been a tough past two years," Notter told me Wednesday. "A lot of people don't realize I'm going to be 65 this summer. The time I've got between now and that bright light is precious."

If he stayed and got fired, he could have collected another six months' salary (about $150,000) as severance.

But resigning could prove pretty lucrative, too, and a lot less stressful.

Besides cashing in unused vacation and sick days (he received 36 annually the past four years, according to his contract), he's looking at an annual state pension benefit of roughly $103,000.

And then there's the matter of a three-year administrative job, at roughly $126,000 a year, spelled out in his contract.

It's known as provision 9.9, labeled "subsequent employment," and says that even if Notter resigns as superintendent, the School Board "shall appoint Mr. Notter to an administrative position within the School District" with a minimum salary of a top-scale high school principal (now $125,946) and "shall grant him an employment contract for a period of three years."

Not might, but shall.

If Notter got fired because of a failing job evaluation, he could have lost his unused sick days (worth a hefty chunk, perhaps six figures) and the guaranteed administrative job.

When I asked Notter about the job provision, he said, "I'll have to have my lawyer look at that."

He said it is his intent to retire, not take another administrative or principal's job, like the attractive opening at McFatter Technical School in Davie.

"McFatter's a good job, but no, I don't plan on doing that," Notter said. "I've got too many things to do at home."

If Notter puts in for his state pension, he couldn't take a School Board job for six months. After 12 months, he could take a School Board job and keep drawing his $8,659 monthly pension benefit. His contract doesn't spell out a starting date for the guaranteed job.

How audacious would it be if Notter "retires" and then becomes a double-dipper?

Until I see Notter renounce any claim to the job provision in writing, I'll remain skeptical about what comes next.

After all, his word keeps getting harder to believe.

In late February, a few days after the grand jury report was released, Notter circled the wagons and said he had no intention to resign or retire "at this time."

On Tuesday, after an all-day budget workshop, Notter announced that he'd quit in June, and that he had been planning his retirement for months.

Uh, which was it?

Guess he wanted to keep his options open.

"You get to the point in life where you enjoy surprises," Notter said Tuesday.

At this point, stability and credibility — not more surprises — are what Broward's schools really need.

Reader comments at:
http://discussions.sun-sentinel.com/20/soflanews/fl-notter-quits-mayocol-b033111-20110330/10

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http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/
http://www.youtube.com/user/BrowardPalmBeach

Katie Holmes on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' on Tom Cruise, Suri and her role as Jackie K. in 'The Kennedys,' which I like

ABC-TV video: Katie Holmes on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Part I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3WBAfYKy2E

I watched this LIVE the other night/morning and thought that Katie Holmes acquitted herself quite well and came across -as usual- as very likable and thoughtful, just as she always has in the past, starting when I first came to know her character of Joey Potter on Dawson's Creek.

Watching this interview and Jimmy Kimmel's emphasis on her husband Tom Cruise and her daughter Suri, I actually thought back to the Rolling Stone interview I first read back in 1998, where in reading about her sweet, earnest Midwestern ethos, she seemed, well, almost too-bright and too-good for Hollywood.
Almost too good to be true.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/photos/more-katie-holmes-20010125

It could hardly be clearer that she has put in a tremendous amount of hard work, deep thinking and research into her acting for this mini-series as well as carefully considered the answers she'd give after playing such an iconic American for whom so many people of a certain age still have such very strong feelings about.

In the hands of someone else, this is a role that could easily have been a caricature, and simply played itself out as a fashion show with a gorgeous Katie acting as a mannequin.

But to her credit, and that of the writers and producers and other actors, having watched this program every night from the beginning on The Reelz Channel, once you get used to her in the outfits, rather than her being played cute, coy or insufferable, she comes across as someone who was neither naive or a push-over.

From my point of view, it's really been quite good, and I say that as someone who had already read all the classic JFK books by the time I was out of NMB High School, including the William Manchester and Jim Bishop books.
I've had the Seymour Hersh book, The Dark Side of Camelot, since it came out as a paperback, and re-read parts of it last week in preparing to watch the series before it started a few days ago.

As I've mentioned here previously, my parents saw President & Mrs. Kennedy the day before Dallas, when they flew into San Antonio's Kelly AFB, where my parents both worked, when my father was in the Air Force and my mother was the Base Commander's secretary.
(I was born next-door at the Lackland AFB hospital.)

Like so many others on the base, they watched them nearby on the tarmac as the two of them went thru the receiving line after getting off of Air Force One.
And that wonderful photo of them, taken by the base photographer, more than any great iconic photo that you can probably think of, is THE photo that my two sisters and I grew-up with of the Kennedy's.
It's the one that, quite literally, has been in my head since I could remember anything.

Personally, I'd love to share that 'family' photo with you all, but the moment I do that, I know that it will soon be "lifted," probably within an hour, and immediately used for some purpose for which it was NOT intended -and the photographer would never get the proper credit.

There's a LOT of that going on in the blogosphere and on the Internet, some of it much closer to home in South Florida than you may think.



ABC-TV video: Katie Holmes on Jimmy Kimmel Live, PART 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI32sZWwCSg




ABC-TV video: Katie Holmes on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI32sZWwCSg

Reelz Channel will be airing the first six episodes on both Saturday and Sunday - Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. The final two episodes airing on Sunday at 8 p.m., with an encore at 10 p.m. and 1 a.m.
http://www.reelzchannel.com/kennedys/

Memories of D.C. bureau of N.Y. Times; Cool stuff from NYT Graphics: Key states for Obama in 2012; 2010 Census interactive map

A friend in the New York Times' Washington bureau has shared these fascinating web links with me, and I've posted them here since you'll likely find 'em of use in the next few months, too. Especially if you have a blog or website, since the info provides you with lots of predicates for future posts!

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/04/05/us/politics/key-states-for-obama.html

http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/map

I later found out that it was also mentioned at their Twitter site:
http://twitter.com/nytgraphics which I'm now Bookmarking, and I suggest you do the same.

For my purposes and interests, this is actually better info than this recent Forbes graphic on internal U.S. migration, which recently got a lot of attention. To be fair, though, this one does show the dynamic of the fight vs. flight response among those of us currently living in South Florida:
Map: Where Americans Are Moving
Jon Bruner
http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/04/migration-moving-wealthy-interactive-counties-map.html

As you may recall me having mentioned on the blog a couple of times(!), while I lived up there for 15 years, I used to spend LOTS of time over at the Times' Washington bureau as well in the lobby there at the Army-Navy Building -one block from the Orioles team store, two from The White House.

(It's a beautiful building that just screams "class," but unfortunately, all my DOZENS of photos of it as well as the people I met and knew there, whom I mention below, are up in storage in the D.C. area, otherwise I'd post some photos here.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_and_Navy_Club_Building

I've referenced here before how that lobby was like Grand Central for everyone congregated before, during and after work, talking about sports, films and politics -and gossiped before there were blogs. I think that may actually have even been where someone first told me about blogs. (Michael Kinsley?)

Back then, while I had my weekly edition of Variety mailed to my home in Arlington County, I had my Daily Variety subscription delivered to the Army-Navy's concierge desk because both my home as well as my office at the time were NOT within the rather microscopic courier delivery zone in D.C. for their Gotham edition.
http://www.variety.com/Home/

Thanks to a friend who worked there in the building and did me a huge favor, I was able to get the Daily dropped-off at their concierge desk with other deliveries for the building, since it was within the zone.

That was no doubt largely due to the presence of the NYT and Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Washington bureaus upstairs, and the MPAA, the Motion Picture Ass'n. of America (and their then-president, Jack Valenti), directly across the street and down the block a few hundred feet. The MPAA was THE place where I always wanted most to work.

(Yes, sometimes you have to be smart enough to take advantage of the system at hand and the facts-on-the-ground for even minor details like getting timely daily delivery of a trade newspaper like Variety.)

I'd get off at the Farragut West Metro station every morning and stop by there on my way to work and run into such well-known Times' luminaries as Rick Berke, Tom Friedman, Neil A. Lewis, Johnny Apple, Jill Abramson, Carl Hulse, Todd Purdum, Maureen Dowd or Steven A. Holmes. Lots of very smart and talented people.

Steven and I and our great mutual friend Jim D. shared SO many Cokes and hot dogs and stories over the years across the street from the Times HQ, next to our favorite hot dog vendor, who had the best spot in downtown Washington for hearing good insider information -Eye Street & 17th, N.W.
We solved many of the country's problems -and the Redskins'- there on the sidewalk munching on hot dogs and gulping Cokes.

Steven wrote a terrific book that managed to be both fair and honest -just as he told me it would be in advance- about the late Ron Brown, the Clinton Commerce Secretary who had been such a powerful figure in Washington and beyond while over at Patton Boggs, was the Chairman of the Democratic Party, but who, tragically, perished in 1996 in that awful plane crash in Croatia with so many others, an event that shook-up Washington in general, and so many people I knew so badly, that many of them could hardly talk for days afterward.
Ron Brown: An Uncommon Life
http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/05/28/reviews/000528.28wrightt.html

Here's the video of a 2000 appearance of Steven and some other Times reporters and editors on the Charlie Rose Show talking about their amazing series, "How Race Is Lived in America," http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/3629

They all shared -and earned!- the Pulitzer Prize for that series, which is here:
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/race/

After I left Washington, I later read that Steven had become an A.M.E., Assistant Managing Editor, at the Washington Post, a very important position that has few counterparts in South Florida journalism, based on what I have seen the past seven years, sad to say. More recently, he was the Post's Deputy National Editor, where his experience and ability to see the hidden narrative in a story no doubt came in very handy, and then in 2008, he joined CNN.

Sometimes, because it was such an amazing place, I even ran into people like Ambassador Sol Linowitz, someone whom I'd only seen on TV, who by then was working upstairs at the Coudert Brothers law firm.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/19/obituaries/19linowitz.html

You never really knew when you walked thru the lobby door who would be around, talking about the latest Redskins or Orioles game, miserable hot weather, or whatever was the story du jour over at The White House or Capitol Hill, et al.

Not to sound like a a snob, but I suppose some of you here in Hallandale Beach and environs can perhaps now better appreciate why running into folks over at Panera's or Starbucks and hearing them rail about the latest common sense outrages committed by Joy Cooper or Mark Antonio, is NOT quite the same discussion hearing these folks I knew, some better than others, share what they knew, heard and saw in the corridors of power, such as it was and is, in our nation's capital. Obviously, everything else seems pretty blah after years and years of that on an almost daily basis.

By the time the Metro train in the morning had left Foggy Bottom on its way east, I began to look forward to seeing my copy of Daily Variety and imagining what sort of clever headline they'd be running.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variety_%28magazine%29

That is, unless Maureen Dowd had accidentally taken the copy with my name on it by mistake, since she and I were the only two people in the whole 12-story building who subscribed to it.
That miscue was why so often I read it at lunch and people I knew would spot the mailing label and say to me, sarcastically, "But you aren't Maureen Dowd?" She has red hair."
Rimshot!




But as I've mentioned here previously, I always defended Maureen on that minor matter as well as matters of deeper substance when people in Washington attacked her unfairly, whether on radio or social events I attended, usually based on what someone else had written about her that they were simply parroting, and hence, didn't know the true facts or context behind.

She could take her lumps just like everyone else, since that comes with the territory of being a political columnist, especially a famous one that millions of people around the world read.
I certainly didn't always agree with her, obviously, but I also knew lots of positive things about her that most people didn't or couldn't know, just from being around so often.

When a mutual friend of hers and mine lost his young son in a terrible hit-and-run incident in suburban Maryland, she was constantly reassuring and trying her best to keep his spirits up, even when he was barely keeping it together, and his presence sometimes made everyone else feel so sad because of how heavy the tragedy was clearly weighing on him.

She didn't have to, but she did.
Even when a lot of people who knew him a lot better and worked with him should've been doing so -but weren't.

So with all that in mind, at a certain period of time in Washington, when more than any other media figure in town, Maureen was finding herself the constant brunt of criticism -that was untrue and unfounded- at venues she was not even present at, I found myself in the unexpected position of publicly defending her and her record versus mean-spirited rumors and innuendo.

Some people think that because they read her column, they really knew her; they didn't, of course. It sounds like a cliche, but it's true.

There was a LOT of THAT condescending and patronizing talk around when I was up there
and I was always more than happy to acquaint those people with the true facts, since Maureen was easily the most misunderstood political columnist in D.C

Maureen in 2006 talking about her friend and colleague, R.W. "Johnny" Apple on the Charlie Rose Show: http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/173

Maureen Dowd columns at the NYT:
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/maureendowd/index.html

I participated every year in the NYT's popular NCAA Basketball pool which was a pool that was, literally, worldwide, and even pulled for Purdue a few times, if you can believe it.
(That happened circa 1994, when I was dating a Purdue grad, I hasten to add. She was smart, funny, thoughtful and beautiful. Hey, I'm loyal to IU but I'm only human, you know)

The best Washington-based performer in their pool every year -among some very smart people and devout college sports fans- was usually the-then teenage son of Warren E. Leary, the Times' terrific since-retired Science correspondent.
He covered the alphabet soup of Washington-based Science agencies and foundations from NASA to NIH to the NSF, the National Science Foundation, which was located one block from my home Metro stop in Arlington, Ballston.



A friendly and engaging Nebraska grad, Warren Leary was THE biggest Cornhusker fan I ever met in Washington, even more so than many of the folks from the Nebraka congressional delegation and their staff on Capitol Hill, which is REALLY saying something.

Well, except when Coach Tom Osborne got elected to Congress for a bit before going back to Lincoln to become Nebraska AD.

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http://www.charlierose.com/