Another weekend of 'Chicken' with the public's safety in Hallandale Beach as City Hall continues to ignore self-evident safety problems at RR crossing

Darkness on the Edge of Town, 6:20 p.m. Looking at S.E./S.W. 3rd Street FEC Railroad crossing from S.E. 1st Avenue. February 3, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


South Florida Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/hallandale/fl-hallandale-crossing-closing-20110202,0,1531328.story
Hallandale Beach Boulevard to close at FEC tracks for 3 days
Crossing will be rebuilt from Feb. 6-9
By Michael Turnbell, Sun Sentinel
6:40 PM EST, February 2, 2011

HALLANDALE BEACH
Hallandale Beach Boulevard will be closed at the Florida East Coast Railway tracks east of Dixie Highway for three days starting Sunday.

The crossing will be reconstructed.

The closure will begin at 6 a.m. Sunday. The crossing will reopen at 6 a.m. Feb. 9.

There will be separate detours for cars and trucks.

Eastbound automobile traffic will be detoured south on Dixie Highway, east on Southeast Third Street and north on Southeast First Avenue. Westbound traffic will be directed north on Northeast First Avenue, west on Northwest Third Street and south on Dixie Highway.

Eastbound truck traffic will be detoured north on Northwest Eighth Avenue, east on Pembroke Road and south on Federal Highway. Westbound truck traffic will be directed north on Federal Highway, west on Pembroke Road and south on Dixie Highway.

-------

For those of you living in the S.E. Broward County area who need the above information to be placed into its proper perspective, and for the even larger number of you readers who want some added insight into how even small things in the city I live in can reveal deep Grand Canyon-like examples of longstanding incompetency on the parts of several parties and agencies,
pay attention.

The street described above as the temporary east-bound route, S.W. 3rd Street and S. Dixie Highway, is where the city's Fire-Rescue vehicles usually come screaming eastbound across the FEC Railroad tracks a few times a day -with ZERO firetruck warning signs on any of the nearby streets, including U.S.-1 -a longstanding problem throughout the city.

Hallandale Beach Fire/Rescue truck.
February 4, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


That street is noteworthy for being near pitch-black at night, a longstanding fact well-known to not only many lower-level City of Hallandale Beach employees, for many, many months, but also to HB Fire Chief Daniel Sullivan and HB City Manager Mark Antonio.

In fact, the Fire Chief's office is less than two blocks away.
http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/index.aspx?nid=24

As it happens, City Manager Antonio was reminded of this in December at a public meeting on the myriad problems experienced by business owners along Fashion Row, held at Dekka, just five blocks north of that intersection.

Dekka, 139 N.E. 1st Avenue, Hallandale Beach, FL (954) 455-2616 ‎
February 4, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


Absolutely Fabulous 20 N.E. 1st Avenue, Hallandale Beach, FL (954) 455-5200
February 4, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

My friend Michele, who owns the popular boutique above, was given nothing but grief from HB City Hall and Code Compliance for the longest time about her desire to actually IMPROVE the appearance of her store, costing her un-necessary time and money. Why?
February 4, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


The graffiti-scarred parking lot sign for Nick's Restaurant, off Fashion Row, next to the FEC railroad tracks, the most obvious of several graffiti targets on Hallandale Beach Blvd. near the railroad tracks. In Hallandale Beach, as I've written here on the blog before -and will be doing again soon with lots and lots of photos- graffiti stays on surfaces large and small for months and years at a time, as if, somehow, customers don't notice it and it don't wonder if an area is sketchy.
Where in the world is the Hallandale Beach Chamber of Commerce and where are the HB police? Good questions!
February 4, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


I know that City Manager Antonio knows that area on 3rd Street and the FEC is pitch-black because the person who reminded him of this simple public safety fact at that meeting was me.

What's happened since?
NOTHING.
Their patented specialty.

In fact, the block east of Dixie Highway there -adjoins the former City Hall complex as it comes to the city's Fire/Rescue HQ- is as dark as a black hole, and has been an accident waiting to happen for MANY, MANY YEARS.

Considering what drives by there everyday, should a road that crosses a railroad track really continue to be one of THE unsafest streets in all of S.E. Broward instead of one the best lit?

Yes, it seems counter-intuitive to logic based on other places I've lived, but that's how HB City Hall rolls!
No detail is TOO obvious or TOO large to be... noticed.

It would be a shame if someone got injured or killed there this weekend because of the added traffic there and longstanding negligence, which would be a slam-dunk for any attorney suing the city and the county and the...

Just feet away, in fact, on south-bound Dixie Highway, there's a speed limit sign -on a pole with a street light that's been out since March- that has been completely obstructed for nearly a year.

The public safety negligence in the city and that area in particular is so well-known that it was memorialized forever a few years ago when Google's Street View came by and caught it on film, a fact I've already highlighted on my blog a few times.
See for yourself!

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=W+Dixie+Hwy,+Hallandale+Beach,+Broward,+Florida&aq=&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=34.671324,89.824219&ie=UTF8&geocode=FctVjAEdtgk5-w&split=0&hq=&hnear=W+Dixie+Hwy,+Hallandale+Beach,+Broward,+Florida&ll=25.981869,-80.148332&spn=0.009606,0.02193&z=16&layer=c&cbll=25.981839,-80.148301&panoid=mdakDjW2f1cLUn7nr-skpA&cbp=12,187.3,,0,4.65

The Broward County Transit bus stop there, hidden by a hedge, is so dark and grim at night that it might as well just be a stop on the way to the morgue in a Friday the Thirteenth film.
Just saying... be careful.


The three photos on this page were taken within ten minutes Thursday night, and you can see the complete lack of appropriate road lighting.
In fact, the only light that you see in the photos, besides that emanating from auto headlights, are from signs and reflecting material caused by my camera's flash.
If I hadn't used the flash, you wouldn't even see that.

Trust me, when you're there, it's even darker than these photos depict.
And it has been like this for a long, long time.

In the upside-down world of Joy Cooper/Mike Good/Mark Antonio, it's yet another success story!


Darkness on the Edge of Town, 6:25 p.m. Looking at S.E./S.W. 3rd Street FEC Railroad crossing from S.E. 1st Avenue. February 3, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


Darkness on the Edge of Town, 6:30 p.m. Looking at S.E./S.W. 3rd Street FEC Railroad crossing from S.E. 1st Avenue. February 3, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.




Bruce Springsteen - Darkness On The Edge Of Town (Live 1978) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqGld8_HpOQ


Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Candy's Room
Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ. 1978 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oTFJhhWW8g

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

P.T. Barnum's never-uttered maxim re Suckers is thus proven again: FNC's Rise of Freedom: Nickel and Dimed by 9/11 Coin?

Click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqRJ7T1-dD8

I'm a very empathetic person by nature -as Adrian Monk was so famous for saying, "It's a blessing, and a curse"- but generally speaking, I try to make a habit of NOT ever feeling sorry for:
a.) very religious people, b.) very selfless people, and c.) very stupid people, since more often than is safe for everyone else, they all seem overly eager at times to throw-out common sense and logic for some dubious personal reason.

You know, the sort with more money than sense and who specialize in melodrama and insinuating themselves into chaotic situations so that their problem becomes the responsibility of others -yours- to solve or resolve, esp, Uncle Sam.

And when those people also have SO MANY multiple remote controls for what they watch or listen to... run for the hills!


Jeff Beal - "Monk Theme" (Extended Version)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdampjgQ8tA

http://www.jeffbeal.com/
http://www.usanetwork.com/series/monk/

www.national911memorial.org

CSI: - The Two Mrs. Grissoms Preview of Feb. 3rd episiode with Marlee Matlin as Grissom's ex GF, with his mom in tow; Sara not so psyched!

What happens when Grissom's mom comes to visit and Sara meets one of Grissom's ex-lovers? You'll have to watch to find out! Catch an all-new CSI: Thursday February 3 on CBS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1wahl9dSsE

City of Hollywood gives you chance to socialize/hobnob/people watch and shred your inhibitions -along with your old docs on Saturday at City Hall

Above, Hollywood City Hall, looking west from the half-circle in front of the Hollywood branch of the Broward County library. June 2, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.
(When you look up Hollywood City Hall on Google Images, my photo is the first one you see. And the third!)

Finally, one of those shredding parties you've heard about and seen videos of at odd hours of the night on YouTube or one of the TV cable nets when you couldn't fall asleep, but never actually knew about beforehand, so you always missed out.
Well, today's your lucky day, because now you know!

Below, the press release just coming over the Hallandale Beach Blog transom from Hollywood City Hall about Saturday's event in their parking lot

It's been my own experience that local TV stations around the country love these events almost as much as the people with boxes and boxes of docs to shred, since it often provides a fascinating look at what people -and Americans in particular- hang on to (or hoard) until there's finally a time to cast it off.


Good Riddance Day - New York Post
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1jhSEICf-k

Of course, IF there was a night-time bonfire and a nearby barbecue, say, for some local charity, now THAT would be a great double-feature!

Maybe that's what we'll do in Hallandale Beach one day in the future between HB City Hall and the Cultural Center, when the day finally arrives that the city employees running City Hall are actually responsive to citizen taxpayers and have their best interests at heart, something that's definitely NOT the case today.

And when that happens, the first thing to be burned at the charity bonfire would have to be -to steal the thunder from my friend Rob, a local business owner on the city's beleaguered Fashion Row- the city's overly-large code compliance book, which is full of things that nobody alive in the city understands, which even the city's own professional staff was forced to admit at a public meeting recently held at Dekka.

And why does the City of Hallandale Beach continue to be one of THE biggest violators of its own code book in the city, and also NOT follow many existing common sense state laws and statutes?

The evidence for those violations are right in front of you -everywhere- if you just open your eyes, and yet it goes on day-after-day, month-after-month, year-after-year, because HB City Hall consciously chooses to ignore the laws they don't like.

So what does Red Tape sound like or smell like when it's being either shredded or burned? Probably chicken!

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City of Hollywood, Florida

Office of the City Manager

PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 2, 2011

Contact: Raelin Storey

Public Affairs and Marketing Director

Phone: 954.921.3098

Cell: 954.812.0975 Fax: 954.921.3314

E-mail: rstorey@hollywoodfl.org

Shredding Saturday: Free Shredding to Help Protect Your Identity

Saturday, February 5, 2011

HOLLYWOOD, FL - The City of Hollywood's Office of the City Clerk, Records and Archives Division in partnership with International Data Depository (IDD) is sponsoring a free opportunity for businesses and residents to shred the records and documents they no longer need. On Saturday, February 5, 2011 from 10 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., IDD will bring its commercial shredding truck to the parking lot at Hollywood City Hall, 2600 Hollywood Boulevard.

By properly disposing of your personal and business records, you can reduce your risk of becoming a victim of identity theft. Criminals often engage in "dumpster diving"-going through a person's garbage in search of copies of checks, credit card statements, bank statements or other records they can use to gain access to your accounts and in the most serious cases, assume your identity. According to a report by TIME magazine online, Florida has the nation's highest rate of identity theft (122.3 reports per 100,000 people). Identity theft is a growing crime that can affect just about anyone, regardless of how careful you think you are. "Our objective is to help prevent identity theft within the South Florida community and promote the importance of shredding," says Jorge Bohorquez of IDD.

Aside from the loss of money, identity theft costs its victims time and can damage their credit. Bring those old checks, credit card statements or other personal and business records that put you at risk to the City's Shredding Saturday event this weekend.

For event information, please contact the Records and Archives Division at 954.921. 3545.

For media inquiries, please contact Raelin Storey, Public Affairs Director, at 954.921.3098.

# # #

Raelin Storey
Public Affairs and Marketing Director
City of Hollywood
954-921-3098 (Office)
954-812-0975 (Cell)
954-921-3314 (Fax)

WMAQ-TV, Chicago: Blizzard Unleashes Winter Fury; Blizzard web cam; As usual, Hoosiers in "The Region" to get the worst of it!

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local-beat/Blizzard-Unleashes-Winter-Fury-115047384.html

And because it was something that I heard for years, I'll say it now, "As always, heavier near the Lake."

And since I actually lived two blocks from Lake Michigan when I was in Wilmette in the mid-'80's, I can tell you that it's true.


And dig the WMAQ-TV LIVE Blizzard-cam, not that they actually call it it that:
Live Video: Weather Conditions Around Chicago | NBC Chicago

If link is dead it's at: http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local-beat/live-video-chicago-blizzard-115033514.html


Channel 5 seems to have no problem getting their web camera to show the brutal weather around Chicago, with special emphasis on recognizable downtown spots.

Compare and contrast that with the crummy performance of most South Florida LIVE web cams of my acquaintance the past seven years -with nice weather- that aimed for the same general effect, yet usually failed miserably, with one of the worst being the Miami Herald's web cam on their old frumpy and morose website.

That is, the frumpy one before the current frumpy model featuring old stories in the Breaking News area for 12 hours at a time.

That web cam, which so often seemed to be hours behind -LIVE? LOL!- and pointed, rather aimlessly, towards nothing in particular, was not exactly a great calling-card for Knight-Ridder and McClatchy.
Like what was the point exactly?

I'd post the URL here but it's long been deleted.


Speaking of web cams, here's two popular web cams that I enjoy and take me far from my fay-to-day cares here in South Florida. For a little bit at least!

The first webcam overlooks a beautiful and well-known lake in downtown Reykjavik called Tjörnin at http://www.inspiredbyiceland.com/icelandlive/#austurstraeti

The second webcam is one I go to fairly frequently of a a very busy and recognizable area of Stockholm showing the Slussen in central Stockholm, which connects Gamla Stan -Old Town- to the north and Södermalm to the south:
http://www.webbkameror.se/webbkameror/gondolen/webkamera_eriks_640_4.php

Currently, Reykjavik is five hours ahead of us in Miami, and Stockholm is six.

FYI: You can click the photo to make it quite large and almost read the ads on the buses, but the motion is only in the smaller version.
Here's a 24 hour history of the view: http://www.webbkameror.se/webbkameror/gondolen/historik/historik_slussen_4/index.php

In contrast with Chicago, the weather looks quite manageable today for Swedish friends and readers of Hallandale Beach Blog
http://vader.svt.se/vaer.aspx?lat=59,33&lon=18,05&m=10&sted=Stockholm



http://svt.se/2.2173/vader
http://svt.se/2.52756/vaderkartor

As always, heavier near the Lake!

------

Also see the website for SMHI: Sveriges meteorologiska och hydrologiska institut
which is under the Minstry for Environment at: http://www.smhi.se/
Cool stuff!

http://webbkameror.se/

#FAIL #SNOWPACALYPSE: Chicago & suburbs brace for whiteout conditions - Chicagoist: You Say "Snowpacalypse," We Say "Tuesday"

Chicago's WMAQ-TV newscast with anchor Floyd Kalber,
February 23, 1967 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIFRsgvMCEY

#FAIL #SNOWPACALYPSE

Meanwhile, in Chicagoland, home of "Big Shoulders" and even longer memories, including memories of 1967 and cars with no FWD careening into one another in hilly neighborhoods, neighbors and "former" friends who horned-in one time too many on your family's parking space that you claimed with an aluminum chaise chair... Chicagoist writes:

So the snow projected for tomorrow through Thursday is expected to finally give us the whole "Thundersnow/Snowpacalypse" big dump of white powder worthy of dibs that we've really been missing so far. Already, meteorologists are comparing this to previous large blizzards.

Read the rest of the post and things-to-do-when-you're f-f-f-freezing list at
http://chicagoist.com/2011/01/31/2011_february_blizzard_chicago_frea.php


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVjse_DHRj4

Hmm-m... blizzard conditions, snow up to three-inches an hour and and 60 m.p.h. winds... watching from a safe distance away, as WGN-TV's beloved meteorologist Tom Skilling predicts a low of, yes, 0°, and wind chills 10 to 20 below Wednesday night in Chicago:

Listen live to WGN Radio:
http://player.streamtheworld.com/_players/wgn/

Weather: http://www.chicagoweathercenter.com/

And don't forget to spray PAM on your DirecTV or DISH-TV satellite dishes!

See also: http://www.richsamuels.com/nbcmm/23feb1967/index.html

Best discussion yet of upcoming NFL lockout & Albert Haynesworth fiasco: Redskins' Vonnie Holiday, Texans' Eric Winston with Orlando Alzugaray of WFTL

Above, Sebastian the Ibis.
Will new head football coach Al Golden's embrace of the U-M 'culture' put smiles on 'Cane fans faces? It can't hurt!

Today was actually a good day for sports radio in South Florida, something that can't honestly be said many times with a straight face in the course of a year.

Especially when compared to what I had gotten used to as a kid growing-up down here in the 1970's before leaving for Bloomington, and being able to listen to all the great Midwestern sports shows out of Chicago's WMAQ (Chet Coppock -"Positively C-O-S") Cincinnati's WCKY (Bob Trumpy), Cleveland's WWWE (Pete Franklin), St. Louis & KMOX, Louisville & WHAS and of course, the many clear-channel flame-throwers from the East Coast, where everything always seemed so much more exciting -or worse.
(Cleveland's 1100-AM WWWE is now Newsradio WTAM 1100.)

Yes, the radio stations and call letters with station IDs and promos I knew as a kid when winter came to South Florida, and I stood outside my apt. for hours at a time, listening to sports adventures far from the tedium all around me in North Miami Beach, once the Dolphins season was over.

Hell, my first year at IU, when I had to repaint my dorm room back to its original color before finally heading back to Miami and my three summer jobs, so the building manager could check off that I had caused no damage, I painted it while listening to a Braves-Pirates ballgame out of Pittsburgh on KDKA.
And trust me, that ballgame was booming out of my stereo speakers as I made my way around the room, with two electric fans blowing like crazy to get that fresh paint smell out of my dorm room.

And yet as I wrote quite incredulously in emails to friends the next day -but never posted here- in the first two hours after Randy Shannon was fired as head football coach at the University of Miami (U-M) after their horrifyingly-flat loss to the University of South Florida before a nearly empty Joe Robbie Stadium, not ONE of the four South Florida sports radio stations had any original local programming to gauge fan's reaction.

Not WQAM, their flagship station, WFTL, WAXY or WINZ.
Zero for four is a strikeout in any league.

Trust me, I know this not because I read this anywhere but because I was checking on two different radios at the same time, endlessly scanning, ready to tape anything of substance.

But there was nothing to tape because it was all syndicated fare.
On one of the biggest sports stories of the year in South Florida, local radio was sleeping like a baby.
Not that you would ever know that from the Herald or Sun-Sentinel's media coverage of the story.

Former Miami Dolphin and current Washington Redskin linebacker Vonnie Holiday remains a classy and articulate guy who knows his sport and what's what with the collective bargaining agreement - "If it's not broken, what are we fixing?"

Also noteworthy and worth listening to is Orlando Alzugaray's later interview with former U-M Hurricane and current Houston Texans offensive tackle Eric Winston on the changes at the U-M with new football coach Al Golden; why recruits haven't improved at U-M; the return of Art Kehoe to the program; and what it will take for the Texans to get over-the-top and make the playoffs consistently.

Winston, always a standout on the field and in the classroom, is forthright about the same things that have bothered me and many other longtime Hurricane fans for a LONG TIME even while many foolish Hurricane fans have been making excuses for consistently being flat, out-coached and out-muscled for far too long.
Eric Winston GETS it!

Hear these two excellent January 31st interviews with Orlando Alzugaray from Radio Row in Arlington, Texas at: http://www.jamescrystalradio.com/Web_Player/Sports/

http://wftlsports.com/
http://wftlsports.com/?page_id=1158

Finally something to smile about for Hoosier fans in a season of wasted opportunities

Been a little under the weather this weekend so my plan to drop a cache of posts here to get things stirring has taken a back seat to my health.
I did want to post this one, though, before IU's upcoming game in a few minutes against a reeling Michigan State team at East Lansing that I'll be watching on The BigTenNetwork, DirecTV Channel 610.


IU 52, U of I 49 - First win against ranked team while Tom Crean's been head basketball coach at IU.
Video highlights at:
http://www.bigtennetwork.com/generic/sports/video?autostart=true&bcpid=60234638001&bckey=AQ~~,AAAAAEBQhU8~,kLn_EtefUBn-jd4QuQdKKKEE0M4y3HUj&bctid=766801782001

It's not by mistake that I've chosen not to write much about this disappointing college basketball season, the third in the Tom Crean regime in Bloomington. (Or even said anything about Kevin Wilson being hired as the new football coach, a move I welcomed.)

There's a lot of misgivings and discomfort among some Hoosier fans I know and communicate with on a regular basis, not only over players that have failed to develop as expected (or in some cases, even regressed) but about wasted opportunities on nationally-televised games, cementing the idea among key high school players -and some fair-weather fans- that IU can't show more toughness and grit in close games, and emerge victorious.

While this victory over the Fighting Illini was certainly nice, especially at a packed Assembly Hall where devout fans have been eyewitness to more losing than at any time since I've been a Hoosier -and more since these students have been alive- I still find that a lot of very frustrated IU fans living far from the Midwest, are having a hard time accepting "moral victories."

You can count me among them, and you can see that in the agitated and exasperated emails from Hoosier faithful that are sent to the Hoosiers homepage of the Indy Star
http://www.indystar.com/section/SPORTS0601?odyssey=nav|s|hoosiers&nav=2

That's especially the case with knowledgeable fans whose base of understanding for Hoosier basketball, both history and personality context, extends decades, many of whom frequently respond to Indy Star reporter Terry Hutchens' Hoosiers Insider blog at
http://blogs.indystar.com/hoosiersinsider/

Hoosiers Insider remains a great resource for Hoosier fans living far from the rolling hills of Bloomington, and remains one of the few places that I can consistently go and find out something, from either Terry or a reader, that I didn't already know or had considered about the team and its history.

People with an institutional memory about the team that recall things that happened before I got to Bloomington in the fall of 1979 the way I STILL remember things about the 1972 Dolphins Perfect Season -whether scores of the games, the team roster, mini-controversies, et al- which was my first year as a Dolphins season ticket holder.

When IU plays Kentucky in mid-December, that's almost always been a nationally-televised Saturday afternoon game that got lots of eyeballs coast-to-coast. Now, it's almost forgotten and on ESPN2 or wherever it was, and not even brought up until late into ESPN's SportsCenter or into their radio programming -an after-thought.

The annual Michigan at IU ballgame which had so many memorable and clutch finishes from 1980-2000 while a CBS nationally-televised staple, has also become a victim of the recent mediocrity.

When I watched it recently on TheBigTenNetwork, it was hard not to think of all those games with Coach Knight getting the better of whomever was patrolling the sidelines for the Wolverines, and the confidence IU fans had with Damon Bailey or Steve Alford bringing the ball up-court with less than thirty seconds to play against those excellent Wolverine teams.

You knew that the fundamentals would be there and that guys would come thru in the clutch, and if they lost, it would NOT be for lack of a proper understanding of what they needed to do and where they needed to be on the court for that last shot.

Now, I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen from play to play, and whether a player will repeat the same mistake twice before getting pulled from the game.

Rebuilding is definitely a bitch.

The IU homepage at The BigTenNetwork website, full of IU-related stories & videos: http://www.bigtennetwork.com/subindex/schools/indiana

If you watch the NFL Pro Bowl on Saturday from Iowa, look for this TV ad by students imploring Hoosier governor Mitch Daniels to run for President

My Man Mitch [HD]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-TPHzH-gHA

No need to worry, Chris Good of The Atlantic Online is on the case.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/01/mitch-daniels-is-the-man-in-this-girls-life/70366/


CBS News Early Show segment on Indiana governor Mitch Daniels, April 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFlc4W1bL6Y

See this opinion piece from the FoxNews Channel's website:
Mitch Daniels for President In 2012
By Liz Peek
Published January 13, 2011
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/01/13/mitch-daniels-president/


Fox Business News - Should Capitol Hill Listen to Indiana? Jan 3, 2011 - 7:30 - Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels on his success in reviving the state's economy and abilities to curb union power.
http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/4483750/should-capitol-hill-listen-to-indiana/


C-SPAN founder and Purdue grad Brian Lamb interviews Mitch Daniels for Q&A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNy7Dz_1OzI

Draft Mitch Daniels for President 2012 YouTube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/draftdaniels

Website: Students for Daniels
http://www.studentsfordaniels.com/


http://www.in.gov/gov/


Governor Mitch Daniels YouTube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/INGovernor

-------
Later in the day... it turns out that if you can see this TV ad in Iowa on Saturday-or anywhere else for that matter- you have latent superpowers, because the Pro Bowl, whcih I haven't watched on TV since the early 1990's, is actually on SUNDAY!
Mea culpa.

SVT video of Saab's nEUROn fuselage for new UCAV; Will Brazilian President Rousseff ditch French and buy Saab's Gripen or Boeing F-18 instead for $4B?

SVT Rapport - Här är Saabs nya stridsflygplan
Here's Saab's new fighter plane.
http://svtplay.se/v/2307433/har_ar_saabs_nya_stridsflygplan

This video ran on Wednesday night's Swedish TV (SVT) thirty-minute national newscast and has some English but is mostly in Swedish.

This particular video is available on the SVT Play website until January 25, 2012, and if you are curious enough to want to watch the entire newscast, which features an interesting report on security in Moscow -at 10:56- following the Chechen suicide bombing last week at the airport, you can see it at: http://svtplay.se/v/2307476/rapport/25_1_19_30_-_textat?cb,a1366518,1,f,-1/pb,a1366516,1,f,-1/pl,v,,2308531/sb,p103263,1,f,-1

I've selected the version of the newscast that has closed-captioning so that you can see what some of the words you are hearing actually look like, as it's more logical than it sounds. You can watch the newscast vid until Tuesday February 1st, and as always, I recommend that you hit the Full screen button on the bottom right marked "Fullskärm."
The story on the fighter plane comes on at 19:39.

Saab delivers nEUROn fuselage to Dassault Aviation

http://www.shephard.co.uk/news/uvonline/saab-delivers-neuron-fuselage-to-dassault-aviation/8187/

Also read this story on the $4 billion sale of 36 fighter jets to Brazil from France that may be on the verge of collapsing under new Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and the possibility that Saab or Boeing will swoop-in and take it from Dassault, lock, stock and lavalier.

"Rousseff has indicated she wants to review the political agreement between the two heads of state and "start over" the evaluation process that pitted the Rafale against Boeing Co.'s (BA) F-18 and the Gripen made by Sweden's Saab AB (SAAB-B.SK)"

Dassault Workers' Bonuses Hinge On Rafale Export Deal
January 25, 2011, 10:29 A.M. ET
By David Pearson of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110125-710700.html


Gripen's current website -in English- at http://www.gripen.com/en/index.htm is moving to http://www.saabgroup.com/gripen

Photos of Gripen is at:
http://www.saabgroup.com/Air/Gripen-Fighter-System/gripen-downloads/Image-bank/

There's a video in Portuguese on Saab's website about their efforts and capabilities there:
http://www.saabgroup.com/gripen-for-brazil

Here's the Saab JAS 39 Gripen in Flight [HD]


Saab JAS 39 Gripen (Griffin) Fighter in Flight [HD]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSJ4i8IExjY

Now THAT'S singing! The Babys - Every Time I Think Of You [HQ]; Michael Bublé - Stardust [LIVE-HQ] -with Naturally 7

The Babys - Every Time I Think Of You (HQ)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjU50ow95aM

Simply put, a perfect song in every way: lyrics, instrumentation, singing and pacing.
Nothing wasted, it's all right there for you to hear and see.

When I think back to being at North Miami Beach High School for the second semester of my senior year, early 1979, eager to be out of the confines of the Sunshine State, and then just a few months later, suddenly being far removed from there in spirit and attitude, in Bloomington at IU, where people's musical tastes more closely mirrored my own, I think of this song.

This Babys song was one of the handful of songs that I and my guy friends most loved to sing together in cars, in our dorm rooms, at fraternity houses, at "Swimmer parties" or even walking past certain sorority houses, especially the ones on North Jordan, where we had female friends who were in the IU Music School and who possessed silly-talented voices that could more than handle the female parts of the song.

It probably sounds crazy to read this, especially to those of you who went to Southern schools or small liberal arts schools in the Northeast, but I have so many happy memories of being somewhere in Bloomington with friends on snowy winter nights -but with a window popped open to keep everyone from sweating to death in their sweaters!- and this song being played and EVERYONE in the room, a dozen strong or 200-strong, singing that ending chorus in unison like we were all up on that stage with John Waite, "Every Time I Think of You...."Wow, those were the days!

John Waite is so perfect on this song that it's hard for me to even conceive of someone else doing it justice.
Like someone else ever doing Stardust better than its creator, Hoagy Carmichael, one of IU's greatest alums ever, who wrote the song while a student, and a man whose loyalty and philanthropy to IU is incalculable on the one hand, but runs into the millions of dollars on the other.
http://hoagy.com/
http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/hoagy/

I've even been to the spot, more-or-less, where he composed the iconic song.
http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/hoagy/index.html

Well, okay, I'll grant you that Willie Nelson's is in the conversation for Stardust, because there's no arguing that album of pop standards was a classic, but he and his transcendent talent are the exception to every rule, isn't he?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stardust_%28album%29

Right now, this version by Michael Bublé with Naturally 7 is about the best I've heard since that iconic Willie Nelson American Songbook album just knocked everyone's socks off, and was bought by fans from 17 to 70.


Michael Bublé - Stardust [LIVE-HQ] -with Naturally 7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cINpA4sSzu0


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

"Come Monday, it'll be alright..." - Australia's TEN News Thursday network newscast on Jimmy Bufett's fall in Sydney and reactions of fans

Gabrielle Boyle of TEN News on Jimmy Buffett's concert accident in Sydney and interviews eyewitnesses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu5n-dMmXvM

Above, from Thursday network newscast. Below, from Wednesday's first reports of the incident.

SKY News Australia

Story at: http://video.theaustralian.com.au/1767604031/Buffett-injured-after-concert-fall



Jimmy Buffett - Come Monday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0---Q97pG4

Personally, I'm not a Jimmy Buffett fan, and I even wasn't in favor of the Margaritaville Resort being selected over Planet Hollywood for Hollywood Beach, where I was for a few hours this afternoon, but there's no denying that this song is one of the most iconic songs of the past 50 years, in part because EVERYONE thinks they can sing this song well.

And at the 2:15 mark, the combination of lyrics and instruments become genius.

See also: http://www.youtube.com/user/ten

The Great Hallandale Beach 'North Beach' Dedication Debacle of 2011 is Today

Above and below, January 21, 2011 photos by South Beach Hoosier.



With less than 22 hours to go 'till the The Great Hallandale Beach 'North Beach' Dedication Debacle of 2011...

Yes, my new name for the fiasco that's scheduled to go down at 5:30 p.m. on the beach Tuesday under the iconic HB Water Tower is The Great Hallandale Beach 'North Beach' Dedication Debacle of 2011.

January 21, 2011 photos by South Beach Hoosier.

Curious to see what the city was finally doing to promote something that should've taken place in the Fall of 2007, I drove by the North Beach facility on State Road A1A/South Ocean Drive and Hallandale Beach Blvd. on Monday evening around 8 p.m.

There, with the clock ticking, and everyone in the city perfectly aware of how badly this fiasco reflects on the people at HB City Hall, I saw for myself that the city finally decided to do what it should've done ten days ago -and often has for other MUCH LESS important reasons.


January 24, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Meanwhile, the Golden Isles Tennis Club has had their sandwich board in the highly-visible spot of the median on Hallandale Beach Blvd. and 14th Avenue, near the Publix and the Walgreens, for at least three weeks.

Whom do we all know who plays tennis over there?


January 24, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

When I got there, the first thing I noticed was how ridiculously dark it was over there, as ALL the safety lights were NOT on between the A1A sidewalk and the front of the building, and we all know that there are ZERO turtles in that city water fountain, since until last month, there was no water in it for 16 months.

So unless something changes between now and then, about 15 minutes into Tuesday's 5:30 p.m. dedication, it will be pitch black.
The perfect metaphor for this city in a black hole.


January 24, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

I caught the west-bound traffic light on A1A right away and so didn't see whether or not the city actually spelled everything correctly on the board, but I wouldn't count on it.
Could someone please check in the morning?


January 24, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

And did anyone happen to notice what day and time the city's electronic board FINALLY made it over there, since it wasn't there late Friday afternoon?
If so, please share the knowledge in the morning so we all know!


I wonder if anyone from the community will heckle the parties directly responsible for this black eye, like Mayor Joy Cooper, City Manager Mark Antonio or DPW Director John Chidsey, who was hired what seems like years ago specifically to speed-up the process and open the facility?
Didn't happen, did it?

In any case, as usual, there will no doubt be far too many HB police officers present, hanging around with nothing to do, with some no doubt parking their police cars right on the brick sidewalk that surrounds the water fountain that was empty for so very long, another Chidsey success.

They may even leave their emergency lights flashing as they do for the other events I've witnessed over there the past few years that defied description, like the Air Supply concert, where well-known cronies of the City Hall crowd and PAL used the public facility and parked in the city's public garage, while the public was forced to park many blocks away and walk.

Yes, it often seems like the elected officials and employees of this small city forget that they work for the people here, not the other way around, and that it's their thinking -not ours- that needs to Change, as my friend Michael Butler forcefully reminded City Manager Antonio on Wednesday night after city employee Antonio insulted Michael, myself and about two-dozen other HB citizens by patronizingly saying that we needed to change our behavior, not him.

No, we know EXACTLY who needs to change their myopic thinking and their way of doing things, and it's NOT us.

Steps and strategies towards "fixing" that kind of outmoded thinking at Hallandale Beach City Hall is already well under way, and one of them employs a management method that I've mentioned here on the blog before as being one of my personal favorites -addition-by-subtraction.

Change Hallandale:
http://web.me.com/mike.butler/Change_Hallandale/Updates/Updates.html