FOLLOW me on my popular Twitter feed. Just click this photo! @hbbtruth - David - Common sense on #Politics #PublicPolicy #Sports #PopCulture in USA, Great Britain, Sweden and France, via my life in #Texas #Memphis #Miami #IU #Chicago #DC #FL π«ππΊπ½️π. This photo of Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in Alfred Hitchcock's 1955 classic "To Catch a Thief" is the large Twitter photo on my @hbbtruth account
Beautiful StrandvΓ€gen, the grand boulevard in Γstermalm, in central Stockholm, Sweden, along Nybroviken. In my previous life, I was DEFINITELY born and raised there!
Sen. Marco Rubio questions William J. Burns about President's Obama's "Puzzling Inaction" over Libya at Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the dithering approach to foreign policy and confuses both our allies and our enemies. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Brn-7fOGGY
Marco Rubio:“So if Russia doesn’t care and China doesn’t care and we care but won’t do anything about it, who’s it up to, the French?” Or, "How Obama Turned France Into a Leading World Power" -and saved Nicolas Sarkozy.
Sen. Marco Rubio Questions U.S. Involvement In U.N. "Charade" at confirmation hearing of Joseph Torsella to be U.S. Representative to the United Nations for U.N. Management and Reform.March 16, 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcC0ChGuXSk Marco Rubio's performance at these Senate Foreign Relations hearings, so many of which I attended when I lived in the D.C. area for almost 15 years, with Jesse Helms or Joe Biden as Comm. Chair, are exactly why I enthusiastically voted for him last November over Charlie Crist and Kendrick Meek, neither one of which was capable of doing that in so effective a manner. So Florida would have a voice for common sense, effectively articulated. Just like I repeatedly said last year, no?
It's completely impossible for me or any of my friends to think of any time since he's been in the U.S. Senate when 'nice guy' Bill Nelson has said anything nearly as pointed or effectively as what Rubio did twice this week, even when he needed to. Just saying, compare and contrast.
Next year, my vote for Senate will be FORpeople with similar intelligent and articulate views andAGAINST someone who wants to be a U.S. Senator because they think it would be cool. That completely eliminates most of the announced candidates thus far -Connie Mack IV or the perpetually ethically-challenged Mike Haridopolos. They are OUT! And reformer Paula Dockery looks even better qualified than she did before this week.
And please don't publicly call what President Obama does in foreign policy 'dithering' or sleepwalking, call it quiet reflection or walking with his eyes closed -or something else. To do otherwise hurts his supporter's feelings. Especially his supporters in the American news media.
-----
USA Today On Libya, how have global players done? By Justin Paulette
On the eve of a possible war in Libya, the major players on the world stage have taken their turns and staked out their positions. Yet many players have postured themselves in ways that seem to be reversals of their usual roles. This shift in global strategy is largely the domino effect of a shift in American self-identity under President Obama, and an omen of the future under his new foreign policy for America.
The United Nations: Though espousing lofty principles of international peace and security, the U.N. has largely proved an ineffective millstone around the world's neck over the past half-century. As recently as January 2011, a U.N. report uncritically praised Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi's human rights record.
Read the rest of this Op-Ed at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2011-03-19-paulette18_ST_N.htm
The American Spectator How Obama Turned France Into a Leading World Power By John R. Guardiano on 3.20.11 @ 11:08AM
One of the more sadly amusing spectacles of the American-European-Arab dance over Libya is the complete and utter role-reversal that has taken place. Indeed, the Europeans are leading; the Americans are following; and the Arabs are applauding -- publicly!
Read the rest of this post at: http://spectator.org/blog/2011/03/20/how-obama-turned-france-into-a
From Krishnan Guru-Murthy writing in Channel 4'sSnow Mail this afternoon:
It is now more clear than ever that the Americans are in command of the attacks against Libya. And the coalition is already in trouble tonight with the Arab League chief condemning the airstrikes. The European-led narrative had been executed very well - the French jets got maximum worldwide publicity for leading the onslaught. But shortly afterwards it was American cruise missiles that did the bulk of the work against Libyan air defences. A British submarine and Tornado jets were involved too. This morning the American Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen declared the operation a success. Libya claimed sixty four people had been killed. Russia called for an end to what it called indiscriminate attacks by the coalition. And then a diplomatic bombshell from the Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa - saying he wanted civilians protected not bombed. It is hard to imagine what he thought he was signing up to yesterday in Paris - but by the time he got back to Cairo the tune was different. So it is now down to countries like Qatar and UAE to demonstrate that there is still Arab support for the action - that was a crucial part of the justification of military action for many. Tonight we'll have the latest from Tripoli, Benghazi and beyond.
You can watch the last seven days of Channel 4 News on their catch up player - available on iPhones and iPads too:http://www.channel4.com/news/catch-up/
Channel 4 News Foreign Affairs correspondent Jonathan Miller in Tripoli. http://bcove.me/jnx5ex02
Channel 4 News Internation editor Lindsey Hilsum in Benghazi http://bcove.me/ngr3ij6w
--
See also: Congressional Hearings Offer Opportunity for U.N. Budgetary Scrutiny http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2011/03/Congressional-Hearings-Offer-Opportunity-for-UN-Budgetary-Scrutiny
Bee Season (2005) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fG_VeR8rVQ
I connected to this film above and the news story below because I was the spelling champ atFulford Elementary in North Miami Beach in the early 1970's.This was long before spelling champions had mothers that looked like the multi-talented and adorable Juliette Binoche, above. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000300/ Mignon! She has been a longtime personal favorite of your faithful blogger since I first saw her on the big screen my first year in D.C. in 1988's The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
Then, five years later, I promptly fell head-over-heels into the deep Bleu end of the pool after seeing her in the Krzysztof KieslowskiThree Colorstrilogy of Bleu, Blanche andRouge. I even had the posters from the films -in frames from Ikea, of course!
Krzysztof Kieslowski, now there was a director who knew how to tell a tale and put it all up on the screen!
That was all facilitated by the two Cineplex Odeon theaters in Georgetown that showed first-run foreign films -and then cap the night off with some good food and drinks with friends. And then, if we still had some energy left, a stop by our beloved Au Pied De Cochon. http://www.yelp.com/biz/au-pied-de-cochon-washington
Mon dieu, I miss that! So chic, so civilized, so much fun!
I see now how much I took it for granted that I could do that with my friends (in the pre-Cell phone era) without even having to think about it, because of my proximity -to the action. The complete opposite of the situation I'm living in -maintenant. ----- http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/11/2110724/corrections-clarifications-march.html Miami Herald March 12, 2011
The name of the elementary school winner of Thursday’s Miami Herald Spelling Bee was misspelled. Reva Dixit won first place at the competition for Miami-Dade and Monroe students.
----- http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/10/2108889/palmetto-middle-students-is-county.html Miami Herald Palmetto Middle student is county spelling champ By Jaweed Kaleem
March 12, 2011
Claire Zuo, a student at Palmetto Middle School, competes in the spelling bee competition of 6th, 7th and 8th grade spellers held at the Parrot Jungle March 10, 2011. Zuo came in first place, which means that she will move on to compete in Washington, D.C.
For the winner of Thursday’s Miami Herald Spelling Bee for Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, the fourth time was the charm.
Claire Zuo, a seventh-grader at Palmetto Middle School, had competed in the Miami Herald’s spelling bee every year since fourth grade, but only this year did she become the champion.
The correctly-spelled word she has to thank for her upcoming trip to Washington, D.C., where she will vie to be the nation’s best speller at the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee?
Cerumen – commonly known as ear wax.
While most kids asked and repeated several questions about the words they were given at the Jungle Island competition – “Can you use it in a sentence?” “Can I have the origin?” “What part of speech is it?” – mild-mannered Claire didn’t need many hints secure to her title.
She just spelled it.
“It was easy,” she said afterward as her mom and dad snapped photos of her first plaque and a heavy, unabridged Merriam-Webster dictionary that was her prize.
She wasn’t being big-headed. She just knew the word from long hours of studying over the last week and from years of practice that finally paid off. Her focus this year: Latin and Greek roots to words. Cerumen comes from the former.
“And she may have had some help from her secret weapon,” quipped her mom, Sharon Mei.
Every year since her first foray into spelling competitions, Claire has kept a small, oval-shaped silver charm in her back pocket that a teacher at her then-school, Ludlam Elementary, gave to her. It says “Peace” on one side. The teacher who gifted it was the one who first encouraged Claire to start competing.
“Yeah, but it didn’t completely help the entire time,” Claire added.
Claire was the only contestant left and was moments away from winning Thursday when she flubbed the championship word the judges had given her to seal the deal: tracheotomy. That mistake meant there would be a new final round with the four students she defeated coming back up to challenge her.
“I didn’t even expect to get this far,” said Claire, who had to first be deemed her school’s best speller before competing against dozens of middle schoolers from across the county in two successive rounds of elimination: written and oral. Claire said her school didn’t host its competition until Friday, so she only had a few days to brush up.
Not a bad result for such quick prep.
At the national competition in June, she will join Glenn Medina, a 12-year-old from Ramblewood Middle in Coral Springs who won the Miami Herald Broward County Spelling Bee on Tuesday.
Thursday’s second place winner in the Miami-Dade middle school contest was Allegra Hill of Palmer Trinity School. The third place winner was Ryan Diaz of Miami Lakes K-8 Center.
The competition also included an elementary school portion, but it’s only the middle school winner who goes on to nationals. First place was Reva Dixit of Archimedean Academy. Second place was won by Ryan Tie-Shue of Alexander School. Third place winner was Amber Robinson of Air Base Elementary. All are in the fifth grade.
This is the 71st year of the Miami Herald competition, which gives a plaque, a savings bond, a dictionary and an all-expense paid trip to nationals for kids and their parents to first-place winners each year. Winners of Thursday’s competition will also get gift cards from TD Bank.
Claire, who uses mostly free online dictionaries, said she’s glad to finally have a real Merriam-Webster dictionary, which spans almost 2,000 pages.
by Lois Beckett, Special to ProPublica March 18, 2011, 1:22 p.m.
The crisis at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi has already been dubbed the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, and the situation there continues to worsen.
But along with references to the "ch-word," as one nonproliferation expert put it [1], experts have been quick to provide reasons why the Daiichi crisis will not be "the next Chernobyl."
Experts have noted several key differences in the design of the reactors in question, as well as in the government's reaction to the crisis:
1. Chernobyl's reactor had no containment structure.
The RBMK reactor at Chernobyl "was regarded as the workhorse of Soviet atomic energy, thrifty and reliable -- and safe enough to be built without an expensive containment building that would prevent the release of radiation in the event of a serious accident," The Guardian's Adam Higginbotham noted [2].
As a result, when a reactor exploded on April 26, 1986, the radioactive material inside went straight into the atmosphere [3].
Fukushima's reactors [4] are surrounded by steel-and-concrete containment structures [5]. However, as the New York Times reported Tuesday, the General Electric Mark 1 reactors at Fukushima have "a comparatively smaller and less expensive containment structure [6]" that has drawn criticism from American regulators. In a 1972 memo [7], a safety official suggested that the design presented serious risks and should be discontinued. One primary concern, the Times reported, was that in an incident of cooling failure -- the kind Fukushima's reactors are now undergoing -- the containment structures might burst, releasing the radioactive material they are supposed to keep in check.
At least one of Fukushima's reactors [4] -- No. 2 -- seems to have cracked, and has been releasing radioactive stream. The seriousness of this breach is still unclear [8], with a Japanese government official maintaining on Wednesday that the damage to the containment structure may not be severe.
2. Chernobyl's reactors had several design flaws that made the crisis harder to control. Most crucially, their cooling system had a "positive void coefficient," which means that as coolant water is lost or turns into steam, the reaction speeds up and becomes more intense [9], creating a vicious feedback loop.
Shan Nair [10], a nuclear safety expert who spent 20 years analyzing the consequences of Loss of Coolant Accidents like the one at Fukushima, discussed this factor on TIME's Econcentric blog [11]. Nair was a member of a panel that advised the European Commission on how to respond to Chernobyl. As he explained:
[Fukushima] can't be Chernobyl because the Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs) at Fukushima are designed differently than the High Power Channel-type Reactor (RBMK) reactor at Chernobyl. The RBMK was designed so that the hotter the core gets the greater the reactivity -- so you have a situation where you are in a vicious cycle and a race to an explosion. [Fukushima's] BWRs are designed in such a way that the hotter it gets the less radioactive the core gets so there is a self-shutdown type of mechanism. But the problem is that before you can get to a safe level you might have a complete meltdown. I believe that's what they are battling against now in Japan.
3. The carbon in Chernobyl's reactor fueled a fire that spewed radioactive material further into the atmosphere. Fukushima's reactors do not contain carbon, which means that the contamination from an explosion would remain more localized.
Dr. Colin Brown, director of engineering for the UK-based Institution of Mechanical Engineers [12], described another of the Chernobyl reaction's design flaws in a post on the Institution's website [13] explaining why it was "unlikely" that Fukushima "will turn into the next great Chernobyl with radiation spread over a big area." He wrote:
The reason why radiation was disseminated so widely from Chernobyl with such devastating effects was a carbon [graphite] fire. Some 1,200 tonnes of carbon were in the reactor at Chernobyl and this caused the fire which projected radioactive material up into the upper atmosphere causing it to be carried across most of Europe. There is no carbon in the reactors at Fukushima, and this means that even if a large amount of radioactive material were to leak from the plant, it would only affect the local area.
In this reasonable worst case you get an explosion. You get some radioactive material going up to about 500 metres up into the air. Now, that's really serious, but it's serious again for the local area. It's not serious for elsewhere even if you get a combination of that explosion it would only have nuclear material going in to the air up to about 500 metres...And to give you a flavour for that, when Chernobyl had a massive fire at the graphite core, material was going up not just 500 metres but to 30,000 feet [about 9144 metres]. It was lasting not for the odd hour or so but lasted months, and that was putting nuclear radioactive material up into the upper atmosphere for a very long period of time. But even in the case of Chernobyl, the exclusion zone that they had was about 30 kilometres. And in that exclusion zone, outside that, there is no evidence whatsoever to indicate people had problems from the radiation.
One of the most pressing worries about Fukushima is that radiation might be spewed into the atmosphere not from reactors themselves, but from spent fuel rods exposed to the air [16] once the pool of water protecting them boils away. According to the Los Angeles Times, U.S. officials believe one of the spent fuel pools has been breached [17], potentially exposing 130 tons of uranium.
4. Unlike Chernobyl, however, a meltdown at Daiichi could end up contaminating the water table.
One troubling possibility that has received little attention is that a reactor meltdown could send radioactive material downwards until it reaches the water table, which could contaminate both water supply and crops. Discussing Daiichi on TIME's Ecocentric blog [18], Nair, the nuclear safety expert, noted:
If the entire fuel has melted the odds are it will go straight through the pressure vessel and therefore through the ground until it gets to the water table. Then it will cool down, but the problem is that the water table will start leaching actinides and fission products from the melted glob of fuel into the environment. So you will end up with some radioactive contamination of water supplies and ultimately crops and other products. That's a major problem because radioactive particles are much more dangerous when digested -- they cause internal irradiation of organs with resulting increased cancer risks...The severity of the water table risk depends on the local topography -- it depends on the depth of the water table, which itself moves up and down. I would imagine the water table is quite close to the surface right now because of all the flooding, which is not good.
At Chernobyl, fears that the radioactive material from the exploded reactor would reach the water table prompted a massive two-part project: first, to use liquid nitrogen to freeze the ground beneath the exploded reactor, and secondly, to build a shielding structure beneath the reactor. Although the effort exposed many miners to intense radiation [2], it was ultimately unnecessary.
5. Much of the public health impact of Chernobyl was the result of the Soviet government's attempt to cover up the crisis, rather than moving quickly to inform and protect the public.
In Japan, the government evacuated the 20 kilometers, or 12 miles, surrounding the Fukushima plant fairly quickly, and have continued to upgrade the warnings to citizens in the vicinity (although, according to the United States government, not quickly enough [19]).
That didn't happen at Chernobyl. In the sunny April morning after the explosion, the residents of the nearby town of Pripyat were left to go about their business. As the Guardian has noted, children went to school [2], an outdoor wedding was celebrated, and sunbathers went out to enjoy the good weather, as the plume from the exploded reactor continued to fill the air with radioactive particles.
One of the plant's employees, who had been away on business, returned home to find his wife outside in the garden, where she was paying no attention to the small pieces of graphite that had landed "on the petals of her wild strawberry plants." Before long, the sunbathers began to experience strange cases of nausea and vomiting. The town would not be evacuated until the next day. And it was only after heightened levels of radioactivity set off alarms at a nuclear plant in Sweden [19] that the Soviet government finally admitted publicly that something had gone wrong.
The delay and denial had serious implications, including an epidemic of thyroid cancer among about 6,000 people [20] exposed to radiation as children.
As the New York Times noted, this epidemic "would probably not have happened if people had been told to stop drinking locally produced milk, which was by far the most important source of radiation [20]."
(Russia distributed iodine tablets, as has Japan. But as we reported on Monday, these offer little protection [21] against ingesting contaminating food or milk.)
6. Emergency workers at Chernobyl took few precautions, and may not have been fully informed about the risks they were taking.
The "Fukushima 50 [22]" who stayed at the plant on Tuesday and Wednesday to keep containment efforts underway have been facing serious risks. But they have been taking precautions, the Times reported [23], including breathing through respirators, wearing full-body jumpsuits, and limiting their exposure time.
[The firefighters] had had no protective clothing, or dosimetric equipment to measure radiation levels; the blazing radioactive debris fused with the molten bitumen, and when they had put the fires out with water from their hoses, they picked up chunks of it in their hands and kicked it away with their feet.... This heroic but utterly futile action took them closer to a lethal source of radiation than even the victims of Hiroshima...When they died two weeks later in Hospital No 6, Zakharov heard that the radiation had been so intense the colour of Vladimir Pravik's eyes had turned from brown to blue; Nikolai Titenok sustained such severe internal radiation burns there were blisters on his heart. Their bodies were so radioactive they were buried in coffins made of lead, the lids welded shut.
Chernobyl's final toll [25] of deaths and injuries [26] is still a subject of fierce debate [3]. A 2005 Chernobyl Forum report [27], jointly produced by eight UN agencies and the governments of the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and Berlarus, concluded that up to "4,000 people could eventually die of radiation exposure" from Chernobyl, including 50 emergency workers who died of acute radiation syndrome, 15 children (as of 2005) who had died of thyroid cancer, and a projected total of "3940 deaths from radiation-induced cancer and leukemia" among emergency workers, evacuees, and residents of the most contaminated areas around Chernobyl. (The report noted that it's impossible to tell which cancer deaths in the region were specifically caused by Chernobyl radiation, only that there is an expected 3 percent increase.)
Lois Beckett writes for the Nieman Journalism Lab, the SF Weekly, and the East Bay Express.
From our clever British cousins across the sea at Anorak: "Fukushima Is Only Another Chernobyl For Lazy Journalists"
----- Anorak Fukushima Is Only Another Chernobyl For Lazy Journalists
Two things have intervened in the media coverage of the Japanese nuclear plant crisis to make it misleading to the point of incomprehensible, writes Richard North.
The one is the frequent use of the Chernobyl disaster as a comparator, where there are absolutely no comparisons with the incident at Fukushima. The second is the childish refrain of “meltdown” by scientifically and technically illiterate journalists, who seem to be incapable of understanding what is happening, yet seem determined to spread their own incomprehension far and wide. Read the rest of the spot-on post at: http://www.anorak.co.uk/276390/media/fukushima-is-only-another-chernobyl-for-lazy-journalists.html
See also: http://richarddnorth.com/ http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/richard-d-north Nuclear Energy Institute - Information on the Japanese Earthquake: http://nei.cachefly.net/newsandevents/information-on-the-japanese-earthquake-and-reactors-in-that-region/
http://www.youtube.com/user/NEINetwork
----- In case you didn't see it the very first time I ran it on November 28th, you may find this excerpt from my post that details Maria Sharapova's relationship with the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 worth perusing: Yes, a photo withMaria is exactly what this blog needs!
Maria's website is athttp://www.mariasharapova.com/
Maria was the focus of a terrific mid-August segment on ABC News'Nightline that I've been waiting to post here on the blog when there was a good reason. Now there is. It's the second of three segments and starts at 07:34. I'd recommend going Fullscreen.
ABC NewsNightline, August 17, 2010 Out of the Ashes: Maria Sharapova Reporting: ESPN's Rachel Nichols http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/nightline-081710-11425198
Jedward - Lipstick - Ireland's entry in the 2011 Eurovision Sing Contest in May in DΓΌsseldorf, Germany http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75ux9AvDPfI
I've got some music-related posts in the blog freezer waiting to be defrosted in the next couple of weeks, but this particular video is actually one that I've been wanting to post here for a while, ever since I came up with this subject line after watching this video of Jedward for about the tenth time this year:Hallandale Beach in 2011: the Jedward of Broward County -potential, even great promise in the future, but so very strange and inexplicable right now.
You'll swear that you haven't seen anything like this since 1987... You went back to Bloomington for a weekend visit from your new home in Chicago, spoke to your sweet and oh-so gorgeous Pi Phi friend Inga on the phone -who had an extra ticket to the IU basketball game- and while you were killing time over at the Student Union, waiting to meet Inga later in front of Assembly Hall, you saw some guys with hair styles like this who who thought they were some new cool version of either: a.) A Flock of Seagulls, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUjIA3Rt7gk or, b.) The Stray Cats,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEtbfzMLVWU
or, c.) some bastardized Frankenstein's Monster hybrid of the two. And all you could do was shake your head and laugh. Or was I the only one who saw them?
New York Times video: Navigating the Bracket Which teams have the makeup to go all the way, and which teams are potential upset picks? NYT sports reporter Pete Thamel and NYT political analyst Nate Silver of Five Thirty Eight blog give their take. Produced by Justin Sablich, Tamir Elterman. http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/03/14/sports/ncaabasketball/100000000725879/navigating-the-bracket.html
See also:
Chicago Tribune Obama talks chalk with NCAA picks By Michael A. Memoli, Washington Bureau 6:34 p.m. CDT, March 16, 2011 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/obama/ct-talk-obama-ncaa-picks-0317-20110316,0,3277711.story
At IU, we had a name for someone like President Obama who picks all the top-ranked teams to make it to the Elite 8: a butt-kissing corporate shill.
Who’s No. 1? Investigating the Mathematics of Rankings By Patrick Honner amd Holly Epstein Ojalvo March 14, 2011, 3:02 pm http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/whos-no-1e-investigating-the-mathematics-of-rankings/
Five Thirty Eightblog When 15th Is Better Than 8th: The Math Shows the Bracket Is Backward By Nate Silver March 15, 2011, 11:40 pm
Suppose that, lucky you, you’re the coach of a team given a No. 8 seed in the N.C.A.A. tournament bracket.
This is a less-than-ideal position: provided that you win your first-round game, you’re due to face the No. 1 seed in the second round. Read the rest of the post at: http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/when-15th-is-better-than-8th-the-math-shows-the-bracket-is-backward/
For more info: http://ncaabracket.nytimes.com/2011/bracket/men/ http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/t/pete_thamel/index.html http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/ http://www.youtube.com/user/TheNewYorkTimes
ABC News Nightline: March 3, 2011, High-End Real Estate Action
National Correspondent Vicki Mabrey pays a visit to Miami Beach to check out the digs at 3 Indian Creek Drive, Indian Creek Island, and see what makes it worth $60 Million.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSEQM7PZ4hE
3 Indian Creek Island Drive, Indian Creek, Florida http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY3M9VQlkkc
Australian TV real estate ad for 15 Queen Anne Court, Sovereign Island, Gold Coast, Queensland (UNCENSORED & UNCUT) - Adrian Jenkins and Ian Adams http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9LBQZ3nxCU
3/14/11 Breitbart TVEditor-in-ChiefLarry O'Connor talks about last week's James O'Keefe-inspired sting of National Public Radio (NPR) with Dennis Miller on his syndicated radio show http://www.youtube.com/user/breitbart#p/a/u/1/7GTXXFCpAhg
Los Angeles Times GOP prepares new assault on NPR funding as questions over video flap remain A House committee schedules an 'emergency' session Wednesday to consider a bill that would permanently bar NPR or its affiliates from receiving federal funds. The move comes even though the video that brought down the broadcaster's chief fundraiser and CEO was apparently manipulated. By James Oliphant Washington Bureau March 15, 2011, 2:37 p.m.
Reporting from Washington -- House Republicans are preparing a new effort to strip NPR of all federal support, even as new questions have emerged from last week's scandal that forced an NPR fundraiser, as well as its chief executive, to resign.
The House Rules Committee will meet in "an emergency" session Wednesday to consider a bill that would permanently bar NPR or its affiliate stations from receiving federal funds. If it passes the committee, as expected, the bill could make it to the House floor later this week.
Read the rest of the article at: http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-npr-questions-20110315,0,4992364.story
Not that this story ever got the attention it deserved by South Florida's news media in the first place when it actually happened -despite it involving the former U.S. Ambassador to The Bahamas from 1994-'98, and his very prominent wife, Rep. Maxine Waters- but one of Congress' s most vocal liberals, Zoe Lofgren of California got a tart smack-down this month on her efforts while House Ethics Comm. chair to help fellow liberal Calif. lawmaker Waters make it thru one more election cycle, and silence Ethics Comm. staff lawyers investigating Waters' personalefforts to help her husband's business and financial interests, despite numerous examples of conflict-of-interest rules being broken -over-and-over.
Yes, it's as if Waters got a Hall Pass from the principal who was supposed to be investigating and punishing her for her egregious behavior. Conduct that led to this Washington Post headline on August 3rd: "Rep. Maxine Waters of California probably broke ethics rules, House panel finds" And the person who did it is Jo Bonner, the new Ethics chair who succeeded Lofgren in that position in January and who was among the committee members who prevented Lofgren from actually firing the attorneys for, perhaps, being so good at their job. But she did unilaterally punish them.
I definitely want to hear and see more about this story and am particularly interested in seeing how the non-Beltway media handles the story. Poorly I'm sure, despite how telling this story is about how things really work in Washington if you have power -and influential friends.
The Washington Post House ethics chair blasts predecessor on idling of lawyers in Waters probe By R. Jeffrey Smith, Monday, March 14, 7:05 PM
The Republican chairman of the House Ethics Committee has accused his Democratic predecessor of violating House rules and acting without cause in forcing two staff lawyers to take paid leave amid a contentious committee probe of alleged misconduct by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) last year.
Rep. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.), who moved into the chairmanship in January, made that claim about former chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) in a letter he sent early this month to the two lawyers, who played lead roles in the Waters probe. They were idled just as Waters was to be tried by the committee over her actions involving a bank in which her husband had a financial interest.
Read the rest of the article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-ethics-chair-blasts-predecessor-on-idling-of-lawyers-in-waters-probe/2011/03/14/ABWZVqV_story.html
Come out Tuesday night at 6 p.m. and become better informed on the day-to-day and long-term issues directly affecting Hallandale Beach and its future Quality-of-Life, and meet some of the city's most concerned citizens who keep tabs on what's happening -and what isn't. Then again, you can always continue procrastinating about attending and blaming others for why you don't know what's going on in your own city, and continue to believe that it's someone else's responsibility to make it the sort of well-managed, upbeat place it ought to be, since the evidence is clear that the current mayor, city commission and city manager aren't up to the task, despite their recitation of boilerplate catch-phrases at public meetings. It's your choice.
Commissioner Keith S. London Resident Forum City of Hallandale Beach Cultural Center – Room 107 Tuesday, March 15, 2011, 2011- 6:00– 8:00 p.m.
According to Comm. London, the following topics will be discussed:
a.) Traffic and gridlock conditions in and around Hallandale Beach.
b.) Proposal to institute two-way traffic on N.E. 8th and N.E. 10th Avenues at a cost of over$1,500,000.
c.) City of Hallandale Beach Parks & Recreation Master Plan proposals and upcoming meetings of Saturday, March 19, 2011, 10-12:00 a.m. at Ingalls Park, and 1-3:00 p.m. at O.B. Johnson Park. d.) Ben Gamla Hebrew Charter School application to be heard at HB Planning and Zoning Meeting – Wednesday, March 23, 2011 1:30 p.m.
e.) Traffic Calming Devices to be discussed at HB City Commission Workshop on Monday, March 28, 2011 6–8:00 p.m.
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7001629133953783160&postID=2946762817853573856 Australia'sTEN News'Europe correspondent Brett Mason interviews London 2012 Organising Committee chairman Lord Sebastian Coe about comparisons to Sydney 2004, and a clock at Trafalgar Square to drive home the deadline.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRTixVFPeBs The International Olympic Committee's (IOC) Executive Board meets in London on April 5 and 6 and will get updates on preparations for the upcoming Olympic Games: London 2012, Sochi 2014 and Rio de Janeiro 2016. Countdown Clock unveiled to mark 500 days to go to the London 2012 Olympic Games: http://www.london2012.com/news/2011/03/countdown-clock-unveiled-to-mark-500-days-to-go-to-the-l.php
Olympic Tickets are now on sale:http://www.tickets.london2012.com/
Channel 4 News: Olympic tickets go on sale on Tuesday but just how much will you have to pay to see the spectacle as speculation for ticket touting prices escalating into the thousands? http://bcove.me/qykioeiw
Former GB rower Sarah Winckless, Chair of the BOA Athletes Commission, blogs on seeing the Olympic venues up-close and personal since her last visit and is very impressed:
Athletes Commission Inspired by Olympic Park Visit Posted by Sarah Winckless March 15, 2011 http://www.olympics.org.uk/News/c8211e-athletes-commission-inspired-by-olympic-park-visit/
See also: Sarah Winckless disease proves that sport does matter By Matthew Syed, April 29, 2009 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/matthew_syed/article6187946.ece
----- Official London 2012 Olympicswebsite:http://www.london2012.com/ Olympic webcams in London:https://www.london2012.com/webcams/
Official blog:https://www.london2012.com/blog/ Official Mascots homepage, Wenlock and Mandeville: http://www.mylondon2012.com/mascots/
BBC's London 2012 Olympics homepage: http://www.bbc.co.uk/2012/ Team GB: http://www.olympics.org.uk/
Team GB blog: http://www.olympics.org.uk/News/category/blogs/ 26 Sports, One Team: http://www.olympics.org.uk/sports/ See also: Full sports competition schedule for the XXX Olympic Summer Games,July 27-August 12th http://www.olympic.org/london-2012-summer-olympics?articlenewsgroup=-1&articleid=115995
IF only we could get rid of corrupt South Florida pols by tossing 'em off a plane -just thinking out loud per this new season premiere trailer for 2011's KΓΆrslaget. Or, how a snippet of a Swedish TV trailer reminded me that for about two years, I have wanted to say something here on the blog about American TV music shows and why I find them so unappealing compared to other countries', so here's my chance to say a thing or two. KΓΆrslaget, the popular Swedish TV singing competition show onTV4 features choruses led by a well-known singer battling one another, and has its 2011 premiere on Saturday night the 19th. It has a great homepage on TV4'swebsite, with new videos, photos, and old trailers from past seasons. And just a reminder, it's considered a Premium to see the entire show repeated at TV4 Play. http://www.tv4.se/korslaget but you can see clips of the songs performed for free. http://www.tv4play.se/noje/korslaget?videoId=1.1621208 Here's the KΓΆrslaget trailer from two years ago:
Here's an article from two weeks about the 500 people who lined-up for hours in UmeΓ₯ to be part of one team that would be led by hometown girl and popular singerLisa Miskovsky, whom I've previously mentioned here. Of the 500 who showed-up, 20 were selected for further consideration. http://www.folkbladet.nu/242725/2011/03/01/korslaget-rena-koslaget
Lisa Miskovsky -Still Alive (Theme from Mirror's Edge) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE9gMFR1yFY I believe this sort of show would do extremely well in the U.S. if you made sure that none of the well-known singers competing were under the age of 40, so you could directly eliminate the Teen and Tween media frenzy factor that drives so many American music shows, and which cause me to ignore them, except for Glee.
The thing that's so noticeable to me as someone who watches a lot of music shows from other countries is not only the sheer talent and resolve of participants to be professional in handling the ups and downs, but the fact that the shows do NOT go out of their way to feature obviously bad singers, drama queens or oddballs to fill out the programming the way that American Idol's producers do to fill out the dozens of hours it occupies on the Fox-TV schedule. Instead, it's largely just singing. That more than anything else is why I NEVER watch amerikanska Idol -I don't want to watch someone on TV just because the show's producers think he or she is attractive, interesting or amusing. I want to hear good singing -first and foremost.
That's why I watch the Swedish version of Idol, http://www.tv4.se/idol of whom the 2009 season's Calle Kristiansson is the best example of someone whose self-evident talent is apparent to everyone who hears him, which is why I've posted his Walking in Memphis video here a few times.
That no-nonsense attitude of mine for music shows makes me a member of the minority hereabouts. Plus, I want to hear rockers, not trilling divas, and see talent rewarded, not attitude.
Calle Kristiansson - Walking in Memphis, Sweden Idol 2009, MalmΓΆ auditions. The music part starts at 01:18 of the video and the judges are so wowed by Calle that he doesn't even need to finish the song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEly4QZaf30 As to the genius idea behind KΓΆrslaget, IF you could put together a first-class competition featuring choruses fronted by some well-known power pop singers from the '80's and '90's, like Simon LeBon for instance,it would be EXCELLENT and people would tune-in! Below, the complete acoustic version of CalleKristianssonsinging Walking in Memphis
