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 🛫🌍📺📽️🏈. Photo is of Elvis and Joan Blackman in 'Blue Hawaii'

Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west towards Gamla Stan

Thursday, November 22, 2012

When you live in a city run by turkeys... you recognize them on sight

Above, the candy corn-beaked turkey and Publix Ligram Pair Pilgrim salt and pepper shakers that greeted everyone this morning for breakfast at my sister's home in Pembroke Pines, Thanksgiving Day 2012. 
This candy and cookie-based turkey hybrid was her boss' wife's brilliant idea, and as we all chowed down our breakfast, it sat there quietly on the table, mocking our notions of actually eating healthy this weekend.
But on Monday... with our trip to Sweden approaching, we're going to start eating more healthy -again- in earnest, and get back into the sort of daily exercise regimen that once had been our daily routine up in the Nation's Capital.


sisko923 YouTube Channel video: Publix Thanksgiving "Salt and Pepper" Commercial. Uploaded December 26, 2008. http://youtu.be/BVLOydduvqg

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Glenn Kessler of Wash. Post ponders the continual "Overselling" of the the importance of Independent Voters in Presidential politics, and Kessler's piece support's Rush Limbaugh's longtime contention re GOP consultants fixation on Independents to the exclusion of core voters and GOTV


Two weeks after the Obama-Romney presidential election we are finally starting to get a more-nuanced, fact-based picture of what actually took place that day and in the lead-up to it, and part of what we're seeing is that some long cherished myths and notions among the professional political class may now be gone with the wind, because they can not be proven with real voters anymore.

The Washington Post
Overselling the importance of independent voters
Posted by Glenn Kessler at 06:02 AM ET, 11/20/2012


In my opinion, this article goes a long way towards validating one of the central tenets of Rush Limbaugh's oft-repeated point that, in general, GOP political consultants worry far too much publicly about -and perhaps spend too much resources towards wooing- Independents and Undecideds.

That Mitt Romney won the support of the majority of Independent Voters in the U.S. and yet still lost the election, logically, ought to be a not-insignificant fact that should matter and be taken into account, and have a ripple effect across the political world.

Yet you can pretty well expect that by the time the new year rolls around, the very army of
consultants that Limbaugh is talking about (complaining about), will conveniently try to forget
this new fact as soon as possible because it directly challenges their personal M.O., their
business plan AND their world view.
It seems that the world does not revolve around Independent voters after all, but that news might be bad for business!

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Despicable! Shocking video of unprovoked daytime attack by complete stranger on 16-year old girl in Plaistow, East London, is caught on Police CCTV and shocks Great Britain; ITV report tonight says assault shocked even veteran police detectives by its sheer brazenness



Metropolitan Police Service YouTube Channel video: Assault in Plaistow, November 13, 2012. Uploaded November 20, 2012. http://youtu.be/uMYatywmGZk
Be sure to read the description below the video on YouTube for more details.


The following ITV video about the above incident was uploaded within the past three hours.

ITV News, London Tonight: Reporter Paul Brand talks to the 16-year-old girl in Plaistow in East London who was the victim of an unprovoked attack by a complete stranger and punched to the ground and left unconscious. Police detectives who have seen the video have described themselves as shocked by its utter brazenness, taking place in broad daylight in a commercial area. http://vimeo.com/53958859

Monday, November 19, 2012

S.O.S.! Newspaper hits iceberg! What's going on at the Tribune Co.'s sinking South Florida Sun-Sentinel? Their continued poor judgment, even as the newspaper -and its shrinking base of advertisers- are becoming increasingly irrelevant to news consumers in Broward County who want their news free of bias, taint AND mustiness, not facts and context, has real consequences



S.O.S.! Newspaper hits iceberg! What's going on at the Tribune Co.'s sinking South Florida Sun-Sentinel? 
Their continued poor judgment, even as the newspaper -and its shrinking base of advertisers- are becoming increasingly irrelevant to news consumers in Broward County who want their news free of bias, taint AND mustiness, not facts and context, has real consequences.
Its pay wall is like a parasite that's killing off the host, and making its formerly-popular Broward Politics blog now nothing more than an afterthought because it counts now as an article in monthly totals, not as a blog post. A newspaper website that needs SERIOUS rethinking and redesign.

You call that news coverage? 

1.) As of today, November 19th, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's education blog, South Florida Schools, has posted exactly one item in the past 6 weeks. Way to keep your nose to the grindstone! http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/educationblog/

Yes, even while all sorts of things, good and bad, have been going on in that subject area the past six weeks, that newspaper blog has been silent.
It's one thing for a personal blog to go quiet for awhile for reasons that we can all well imagine, but really, a newspaper blog that posts one thing in six weeks, wrapped around an election?

Good luck finding that sort of situation existing at a normal, well-run newspaper unless the person/team behind it are either gravely ill, been transferred to other beats or the blog itself is being phased out.
Which is it for South Florida Schools?

I don't know the particulars of it, but I do know that it sure doesn't look good.
Especially for customers who want to read more serious and in-depth coverage of the subject, just as they would expect to find more in-depth coverage in a sports team-related blog, not just read PR releases.

Does a Broward School Board employee trying to choke an autistic child on a Broward School bus count as news these days?
Is that a subject that would greatly benefit from the infinite amount of space a blog gives a reporter to provide a lot more context than a print newspaper article affords, and even allow some degree of reader interaction?
We'd all agree that the answer to both is yes, so why is there NOTHING like that at the one place that you should be able to count on finding it on the Sun-Sentinel's website?
Now there's a question!

Not only are there no video interviews on that blog with any of the newly-elected Broward School Board members who won 13 days ago, candidates who were all elected to some degree based upon on what they said they hoped to do to change the still-extant culture of corruption there, and make the system more accountable to taxpayers, parents and students, but there's not even a single written blog post about that subject.

And since there's NOT even that, the bare minimum one should reasonably expect if it were being run professionally and with any common sense, of course there's NOT anything there about why those particular new members may or may not succeed in their desirable goal, based on their own backgrounds and professional experiences.
Nice job!

2.) On Friday Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz's resident lapdog at the newspaper, Anthony Man, posted his most recent entirely-predictable, not-really-news re DWS that he wrote in all of about five seconds at the Sun-Sentinel's Broward Politics blog.
No, actually it was just the intro to a video of her.

Yes, another in a long line of DWS-related posts by Man that the Sun-Sentinel runs that fall squarely into the dog-bites-man category.
Yet another piece on her NOT showing party independence or actually going out on a limb or even showing some perspective or original insight that you never considered before.

Hey, guess what?
DWS supports Israel -STILL.
Snooze...

And speaking of not surprising, Man doesn't even publicly mention in his intro that the video he chooses to run is actually from her office. Typical.
http://www.youtube.com/user/RepWassermanSchultz/

Wasserman Schultz condemns Hamas rocket attacks on Israel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/broward-politics-blog/sfl-wasserman-schultz-hamas-israel-20121116,0,6429879.story

Notice anything else about that blog post now?
Correct, the Broword Politics blog has recently been moved to behind the Sun-Sentinel's (unsuccessful) pay wall.

Which means that for many people throughout South Florida, including civic activists, concerned citizens and bloggers I know and trust, as well as other members of the South Florida press corps, that blog has largely become even more irrelevant than before, and is now an actual afterthought.

As if the Broward Politics blog's lack of freshness, topicality and outside-the-box thinking on any subject involving county or municipal government, or the pols who inhabit it, weren't already hindrance enough the past few years.

If the Sun-Sentinel's management were really going to make a mistake like that and move a popular feature like that blog behind a pay wall, one of the few features that people I know actually read fairly consistently, couldn't the Sun-Sentinel's management team at least have had the good sense to bring in some new people -with fresh eyes- at the beginning of this year?

In my opinion, having entirely new reporters there, people who'd actually ADD something new to the rather static and staid view of this county that that blog has promoted for so many years, where, typically, almost as soon as someone's name comes up in a piece, you already know what's going to come -and you're almost always right- would end.

How great would it be for readers to actually have the sense that the newspaper was amping-up their reporting and resources towards the election, perhaps starting this year off with some blistering expose or analysis of something that doesn't appear in the print edition?
An actual online exclusive, just like what other media companies do to drive eyeballs?

Something that showed readers some much-needed energy and freshness there, and an implicit warning that that the predictable habits that we've all observed there for far too long, will soon be disappearing -quick!

Yes, as I've watched the Sun-Sentinel increasingly become disconnected from reality and even unaware of many local news stories that they ought to be owning but aren't, it's become
increasingly apparent to me that the very people who are running that newspaper (into the ground) often appear, publicly at least, to have very little real idea of how other newspapers, even smaller ones, actually make their own blogs more interesting and compelling to readers, visually and content-wise.

I know they are aware of it, so why isn't that knowledge and understanding filtering down and actually showing up in print and online with better-written blogs and better and more original content at the Sun-Sentinel?

It's not exactly Breaking News that there are many well-written and compelling non-political blogs that I subscribe to or bookmark which are part of the New York Times and The Washingon Post, and that's largely because when I lived in the Washington area from 1988-2003, I used to religiously read both newspapers daily from cover-to-cover.

And once both newspapers had online presences, I read content there, too, so I remember the blogs they created that didn't quite work out as planned, as well as the ones that have remained steadfast and only grown in popularity over the years, like the very popular technology blog written by David Pogue, which has changed titles a few times, and now even comes with videos. http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/
I continue reading both newspapers and 5-10 of their blogs every day, and buy the Times in print about 3-4 times a week.

New York Times video: 60 Seconds With Pogue: Fitness Bands
http://www.nytimes.com/video/2012/11/14/technology/personaltech/100000001903028/60-seconds-with-pogue-fitness-bands.html
  
But in the context of my blog post today, there's one blog in particular that I'd like to mention because it's an excellent example of the sort of focus and scope that I and many of my friends would greatly prefer the Sun-Sentinel to emulate -the State of NoVA blog, written by Tom Jackman. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-state-

This recent post is exactly the sort of thing you'd never see at the Broward Politics blog
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-state-of-nova/post/manassas-news-and-messenger-and-insidenovacom-top-prince-william-news-sources-closing-down/2012/11/14/e2f8bde2-2e7b-11e2-89d4-040c9330702a_blog.html

In my opinion, a newspaper that refuses to properly maintain and improve the depth and quality of writing and frequency of its own blogs, and which has added no new original content in-print or online, is seriously mismanaged and deluded if they think that news consumers with an almost infinite amount of choices, will now suddenly pay for the same-old-thing.
That same tired old thing that they really weren't so crazy about in the first place.

That perhaps is the worst sin of all among the Tribune Company's executives who felt that they no longer had a choice about waiting to erect a paywall for the Sun-Sentinel so many months after they did that at their Los Angles Times property -it was all so damn predictable!

Why, knowing all that they did about how these paywall introductions usually go across the country -esp. in more serious newspaper towns- did they make no serious effort to improve the print version first, to endear themselves to existing readers?
Then, after existing readers could see that a serious effort was being made to improve the paper, make the online experience better by making both more compelling and original content?
The sort that would make people actually willing to pay?

To me, the only plus for the Tribune Company and the Sun-Sentinel's executives throughout this whole mess has been that the state of serious journalism in South Florida has fallen so badly that it never seems to have occurred to the news directors at Channels 4, 6, 7 & 10 to actually do a series of stories on how badly the Sun-Sentinel has bungled things, and now has a knife at its throat after going this route, and the very people holding the knife are -yes- themselves.
There's always that!

Sunday, November 18, 2012

#2 Princeton Tigers storm back to defeat #1 North Carolina 3-2 in Norfolk and capture their first NCAA Field Hockey Championship

Wow! 
Just watched the #2 Princeton Tigers storm back to defeat #1 North Carolina 3-2, and capture their first NCAA Field Hockey Championship in a match that was both frenetic and an example of a beautiful game when played with so many high-caliber players who actually do all the small details consistently. (Yes, just like watching Glenelg High School!)

With a new state-of-the-art turf field, Bedford Field, a wonderful head coach in Kristen Holmes-Winn, someone who played at a very high level herself, and perfectly positioned geographically to get well-grounded and elite recruits from both the Mid-Atlantic and Tri-State area, Princeton is, literally, a dynasty in the making... just like Northwestern in Women's Lacrosse under head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller.who have won 7 of the last 8 NCAA titles.

http://www.goprincetontigers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=205749560&DB_OEM_ID=10600

Meanwhile locally, in the year 2012, the University of Miami has neither a varsity Field Hockey team or a Women's Lacrosse team, despite getting lots of students from areas of the country where those sports are very popular at both the youth and high school level -the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.
Why?

That makes as much sense as Miami NOT having a Men's Golf team.

Top-ranked North Carolina faces #2 Princeton Sunday in its quest for their 7th NCAA Field Hockey title, but you can't watch it on TV. Despite all the lip service given by U.S. cable sports channels -and advertisers- to taking Women's sports more seriously, unless you're in Norfolk, VA at 1 p.m., you'll have to watch via NCAA.com



So many cable sports channels offer third and fourth-rate programming opposite LIVE NFL telecasts, but despite it being an Olympic sport, one that the U.S. did very well at in London this summer, and defeating Argentina earlier in the year, apparently there's no time or space for the NCAA Field Hockey title match between Princeton and North Carolina on any of the following network of families that have about 15-20 channels among them on my DirecTV sports tier package: ESPN, Fox Sportsnet, CBS Sports Network and NBC Sports Network.

ESPN can show you a zillion NCAA Softball tourney games in the summer featuring a handful of teams teams you've already seen -or think you've already seen because that tourney seems to be 24/7 for 3-4 days, with each team seemingly equipped with one lanky left-handed pitcher and one very large right-handed pitcher- but they can't seem to find a space for two hours for the D1 title match of an Olympic sport, something that softball is decidedly not? Yes.
http://www.ncaa.com/sports/fieldhockey/d1

To me, it's not unlike the fact that U.S. gymnastics fans gets such crummy coverage of the NCAA Mens and Womens Gymnastics Championships, as last year Alabama won their second-straight  Women's title, and Illinois won the Men's title -ignored.
For years CBS Sports has not only shown the championships on a delayed basis, but weeks after-the-fact.

Which is why despite all the lip service given by those networks and advertisers to taking women sports more seriously, unless you're going to be in Norfolk, VA on Sunday afternoon, the only way you can see the Tigers-Tar Heels match is at:NCAA.com 

Video of semifinals, UNC over UVA and Princeton over Maryland is here:
http://www.ncaa.com/video?ncaa_mid=vod:fieldhockey#!playlists/sports/fieldhockey/d1



http://www.goprincetontigers.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?id=1096704
More highlights of Princeton over Maryland.

Watch the title match LIVE here at 1:00 p.m. Eastern: 


New York Times 
The Quad blog
Unfamiliar Foes in the Field Hockey Final
By Clare Lochary
November 17, 2012, 10:00 PM
Princeton Coach Kristen Holmes-Winn told her field hockey players that passion, not pedigree, would be the deciding factor in the Tigers’ N.C.A.A. semifinal game against Maryland, the two-time defending national champion, on Friday, and she proved correct.
Read the rest of the post at: 

James Poulos adroitly connects-the-dots at Forbes.com re 2012 GOP's campaign's strategic/marketing mistakes, and suggests that while much of what Romney criticized (lamented) about Obama playing Identity Politics and patronizing Santa Claus to many niche voters is 100% true, GOP can't win by singing Blues re Obamanomics or chorus of "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Needy, Young & Dumb Single Women Voters?"; @jamespoulos


VOAvideo YouTube Channel: VOA's Jeffrey Young examines so-called "Identity Politics" in this segment of "How America Elects." Uploaded June 20, 2012.
http://youtu.be/a0Hui4sEBfI

James Poulos adroitly connects-the-dots at Forbes.com re 2012 GOP's campaign's strategic/marketing mistakes, and suggests that while much of what Romney criticized (lamented) about Obama playing Identity Politics and patronizing Santa Claus to many niche voters is 100% true, GOP can't win by singing Blues re Obamanomics or chorus of "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Needy, Young & Dumb Single Women Voters?"
This afternoon I read a Forbes.com column, below, that for all practical purposes is the book-end to that earlier Mark Hendrickson piece at Forbes.com that I mentioned this morning, regarding what I perceived to be the self-serving motives of Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal and many other GOP pols and consultants' jabs at Mitt Romney, and in particular, Jindal's unfortunate moth-like affinity for TV news cameras, as if lack of exposure was his real problem.

Bobby Jindal's Jab At Mitt Romney Underscores Republicans' Dilemma


Bobby Jindal's looming Mainstream Media "Mirror Mirror" problems are closer at hand than I thought; Mark Hendrickson at Forbes.com on -what I see as Jindal's needless- "Jab At Mitt Romney Underscores Republicans' Dilemma"; Jindal is proving Rush Limbaugh's point about GOP self-regard



Forbes.com
Romney's 'Gifts' Gaffe Highlights GOP Confusion On Obamanomics
WASHINGTON  
11/15/2012 @ 11:43AM
By James Poulos
Having not particularly relished telling donors what they wanted to hear during the campaign, Romney has now taken his lumps in the thankless task of telling them what they want to hear afterward.
Read the rest of the column at:


His honesty in this think piece about the Obama campaign's use of identity politics stands in stark contrast to many reporters, columnists and pundits who are twisting themselves into uncomfortable pretzels to deny that it was used, even though it was both obvious and successful.
I encourage you to start following him because unlike many better-known pundits, like those seen on MSNBCPoulos doesn't ask you to deny what you know about human behavior or to deny what your own eyes can see -Obama & Co. used identity politics and it worked.

But will that formula actually work for non-African-American, non-presidential Democratic candidates for office?
In my opinion, no.
I believe it was unique to Obama and has no transferability, which is why much of the crowing I've seen and heard from many national Dems I usually respect, and in some cases actually know, who are drawing all sorts of conclusions and over-reaching on some of the implications of Election Day, reminds me of young kids patiently building sand castles at the beach with their plastic buckets and shovels.

Kids, there's a wave out there in the ocean that you can't even see now, and guess what?
It's got very big plans for your castle and all your carefully-laid plans.

------

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Your city in action -make that inaction: 10 days later, still no CORRECTIONS to the City of Hallandale Beach's website re its own 2012 Election results. Yes, the same chronic lack of attention to detail at City Hall and accuracy on the city's website as we've come to expect for SO MANY YEARS; @SandersHB

Your city in action -make that inaction: 10 days later, still no CORRECTIONS to the City of Hallandale Beach's website re its own 2012 Election results

I guess city spokesmodel Peter Dobens was too busy polishing someone's car or fetching coffee and donuts to get around to changing it by Friday at 5 p.m. to accurately reflect the final recount totals of the Broward Supervisor of Elections on Tuesday -that pro-reform challenger Michele Lazarow was elected to a four-year term on the city commission and Anthony A. Sanders will serve a two-year term... 

Nope, still no corrections to the news as of 10:00 p.m. Saturday night, November 17th:

Yes, the very same chronic lack of attention to detail by City Hall and accuracy on the city's website as we've come to expect for SO MANY YEARS.

Bobby Jindal's looming Mainstream Media "Mirror Mirror" problems are closer at hand than I thought; Mark Hendrickson at Forbes.com on -what I see as Jindal's needless- "Jab At Mitt Romney Underscores Republicans' Dilemma"; Jindal is proving Rush Limbaugh's point about GOP self-regard


Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal gets played and walks into quicksand, led by CNN's Wolf Blitzer in his condemnation of Mitt Romney: 'We Don't Win Elections By Insulting Voters.' Jindal doesn't seem to fully appreciate the fact that if he were being equally critical of President Obama in his public comments as he was of Mitt Romney prior to his appearance here, he wouldn't be appearing on TV at all. Someone as experienced in dealing with the news media as Jindal should be smart enough to appreciate that he is on TV specifically because he fits the post-election Mainstream Media narrative, but he doesn't. Why? Is the lure of the red light on the camera that powerful to him? sadly, it would appear so, since it's easy to see that when he says something in the future that the same news media wants to exaggerate or misrepresent because it doesn't jibe with the narrative that they want to put forth to the country, who does Jindal think will help him when he's complaining about being left out to dry, the Republican governors? Hardly. It's so damn laughable.
And you'll notice that Jindal is so concentrated on blasting Romney and mouthing high-minded feel-good cliches that he never has the good sense to pivot and turn things around by saying, matter of factly, "On the other hand, Wolf, I sure don't envy you and CNN and the rest of the Beltway media on Inauguration Day trying to remind your viewers what the big idea or ideas proposed by President Obama during the campaign were. You know, the ideas or plans that you and CNN presumably plan on holding him to account for in the new year. No, I don't envy you because there weren't any.
" Nope! There's none of that sort of quick thinking on his feet. LOL! 
Uploaded November 15, 2012. http://youtu.be/IUsXAseSeXg
Bobby Jindal's looming Mainstream Media "Mirror Mirror" problems are closer at hand than I thought; Mark Hendrickson at Forbes.com on -what I see as Jindal's needless- "Jab At Mitt Romney Underscores Republicans' Dilemma"; Jindal is proving Rush Limbaugh's point about GOP self-regard

The Mark Hendrickson column at Forbes.com that I received late Friday night was clearly written before Friday morning's New Orleans Times-Picayune editorial blasting Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal for resisting creating an Obamacare health insurance exchange.


Forbes.com
Bobby Jindal's Jab At Mitt Romney Underscores Republicans' Dilemma



New Orleans Times-Picayune
Gov. Jindal is ignoring his people's needs: Editorial

In my opinion, despite all his many admirable qualities and talents, it's likely that Bobby Jindal will STILL likely be trying to reason with the national news media and East Coast elites over the next few years even as they're verbally lynching him by twisting his words and making him seem either ridiculous or dangerous (or both) in ways that he, his friends and supporters can't even imagine now.
Well after the point that it's been clear to me and many others I know that those elites are "just not that into him."

To them, Jindal's an interesting oddity, the fish-out-of-water that complicates their usual patronizing view of The South, so far from the norms of Manhattan and the Beltway.
He's the human anecdote to bring out when important guests come over and you've got the fine china out on the table and want to show you're refined.

For such a very smart guy, remarkable actually, he displays an air of unreality about him at times that's positively frightening, almost childlike, and truly disconnected from the political history of the past 25 years in this country, where people like him are left on the side of the road.

It's as if Jindal thinks -not unlike John Edwards or Bill Clinton- that he can single-handedly talk anyone and everyone he meets into agreeing that he's not only uniquer-than-unique, but also quite correct on the public policy as well.

In many uncomfortable ways, to me, after years of seeing interviews with him on every matter of policy shows and forums and reading what he's written, Jindal seems like Exhibit A from Central Casting in what radio host Rush Limbaugh regularly says about a certain sub-set of Republican pols and consultants who care, desperately, about what the Beltway news media and pundit class think about him.

Just like former GOP senator from Wyoming, Alan Simpson, who was never more popular with the Beltway and East Coast MSM than when he was publicly disparaging the House Republicans in the '90's, esp. Newt Gingrich.
As I know even better, that was especially the role carved out by the media for Indina Senator  Richard Lugar, who for so many years played the role of shadow Secretary of State, even while taking things for granted back in Indiana, where I went to school.
It's also one of the chief reasons he lost the GOP primary to Richard Mourdock in a landslide

Sen. Lugar had become the very picture of the media-absorbed pol, albeit a very smart and articulate one, and it was hard fro me not to notice, even before I came back to South Florida in 2003, that he was increasingly getting on TV, on the front pages of major newspapers or being cited in Thomas L. Friedman columns not because of what he had to say about foreign policy, but because he was so consistently willing to publicly criticize other Republicans' policies or ideas.
The MSM found him a 'useful idiot' for their purposes of supporting Democratic policies.

All of that is something that was discussed back on May 16th in a post titled, Richard Mourdock: Precursor or anomaly? Greg Garrison and Charlie Cook adroitly pinpoint where Sen. Richard Lugar eventually lost his way, started losing the trust of Hoosier voters, then lost in a landslide due to the dis-connect. Points largely lost on a predictably apoplectic Beltway MSM
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/richard-mourdock-precursor-or-anomaly.html

What Limbaugh says about that is 100% true, in large part because it's simple human
nature, as I witnessed for 15 years while living and working in D.C. with many Republican
friends who were staffers who worked for bosses on The Hill or the agencies who were constantly being fooled into thinking that someone in the Beltway media and Think Tank Cool Crowd really liked them.

Who doesn't want to be liked? 
That was the central conceit with many new younger male Members of Congress, many of whom were fortunate to be born with either  connections, money or good looks because they sure WEREN'T very bright.
They were so used to people deferring to them that they couldn't tell when they were being played.

Those folks didn't like them, of course, they just wanted to have them around long enough to have some fun at their expense, before eventually tiring of them and sending them packing like Mean Girls -dismissed!

Unless he wises up pretty soon and recognizes reality and stops caring so much what the national news media thinks about him, that's Bobby Jindal's future -mockery and put-downs by the very news media that he so desperately wants to persuade thru his genuine brilliance.

Friday, November 16, 2012

Reaction from England and Sweden to Zlatan's 4-goal Master Class vs. England at Friends Arena. Zlatan Ibrahimovic's play and goals against England have him hailed around the world


HDPremierleague YouTube Channel video: Zlatan Ibrahimovic's Bicycle Goal in Sweden's 4-2 win over England at Friends Arena, Stockholm on November 14, 2012.
http://youtu.be/az4mFb18DUE

Reaction from England and Sweden to Zlatan's 4-goal Master Class vs. England at Friends Arena on Wednesday. Zlatan Ibrahimovic's play and goals against England have him hailed around the world 

Engelska%20Sky%20hyllar%20Zlatan:%20%22Snyggaste%20m%C3%A5let%20jag%20har%20sett%22

TV4 Sweden video: Engelska Sky hyllar Zlatan: "Snyggaste målet jag har sett"; British SkyTV celebrates Zlatan: Best-looking goal I've ever seen; highlights of England at Sweden from SkySports November 15, 2012.




                   
                   
                   
                   
                

The Guardian's sports editor Ian Prior speaks to the worldwide reaction to 35-yard overhead kick. November 15, 2012.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/video/2012/nov/15/zlatan-ibrahimovic-strike-video

The Guardian
Steven Gerrard: Zlatan Ibrahimovic goal was best I've ever seen
• England captain hails Swede's 'special' performance
• Fourth goal was 'better than Rooney's against City'
By Dominic Fifield at Friends Arena, Stockholm
Wednesday 14 November 2012
Steven Gerrard's achievement in becoming the sixth player to gain a century of England caps ended overshadowed with the midfielder conceding Zlatan Ibrahimovic's stunning fourth goal was the best he had ever seen.
Read the rest of the article at:

Experten:%20%22Inte%20ens%20ett%20Hollywoodmanus%22

TV4 football expert Olof Lundh: (Paraphrased) - It's not even a script that Hollywood would think of creating for Sweden's first game in their new national stadium.
http://www.tv4play.se/program/sporten?video_id=2240422&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=permalink&utm_campaign=tv4play.se 

Thursday, November 15, 2012

After latest Marlins' salary dump, South Florida's amateur screenwriters will be busy devising plot twists that involve a murder-suicide element or body dumps in The Everglades with Marlins' Loria and Sampson; To quote Ben Diamond: “Dictators come and go like the weather down here.”


http://www.starz.com/extras#/magic-city-new-trailer

“Dictators come and go like the weather down here.” 
-Ben Diamond

Hmm-m... how would our fictional friend and hotelier Ike Evans (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, pictured above) or for that matter, even our fictional enemy Ben Diamond (Danny Huston), over at Starz' addictive "Magic City" -about Miami Beach in 1959- have handled things after getting double-crossed but good by Marlins owner and president Jeffrey Loria and David Samson to spend real money and field a competitive team, after City of Miami and Miami-dade taxpayers were forced to pay for a new stadium that they never got the chance to vote on via a referendum. 


You know, the salary dump that everyone in South Florida is talking about but which the Marlins are refusing to even hint at on their official Twitter page? https://twitter.com/Marlins
And you saw that fact reported where in local Miami media? 

If you ever needed more proof of how completely imaginary so much of the world of Twitter is, how it's often nothing but sheer chicanery, not facts, the Marlins have answered that question adn are Exhibit One in their typical pathetic way.

Yes, definitely a body dump in the Everglades.
But body dumps in the swamp are so last year!
(The body dump in The Everglades comes at 0:55 in the trailer above.)

Tossed overboard from a prop plane on the way to The Bahamas is this year's LBD.


After this week's latest salary dump and multi-player trade with the Toronto Blue Jays, I strongly suspect that South Florida's amateur screenwriters (and creative writing classes) are going to be busy devising novel plot twists that involve a murder-suicide element or body dump in Everglades with Marlins' Loria and Sampson.


More soon on the predictable Loria move that did not surprise me a whit.

http://www.starz.com/originals/MagicCity

http://www.starz.com/originals/magiccity

http://twitter.com/magiccity_starz

Magic City: The Complete First Season (2012) is only $24.99 at Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Magic-City-Complete-First-Season/dp/B007PTCP7K/ref=tmm_dvd_title_0

Friday night in Stockholm: Head's up for friends of the Blog living in Sthlm area :) - music is on the agenda!; @jjakerman


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Friday night in Stockholm: Head's up for Friends of the Blog living in Sthlm area  :) - music is on the agenda!; @jjakerman
Friday night at 22:30 at the Scandic Grand Central, Kungsgatan 70, Jennifer Ackerman and Lorenzo Jansson Kilman will be performing an acoustic set. There's no cover charge, so please come by to listen -and be supportive!
http://www.scandichotels.com/Hotels/Countries/Sweden/Stockholm/Hotels/Grand-Central/


Here's a pic of the show poster: http://twitter.com/jjakerman/status/267688428144033792/photo/1
while here's a photo of them performing back in May, on a previous trip to Sweden by JA:  
http://werun.se/la/emiliacarpinisan/2012/05/17/lorenzo-rockin-draquila-med-jennifer-akerman/

Tack!

Yes, I know that the Scandic Grand  Central is right near where I'll be staying in a few weeks and yes, I DO wish that they were slated to be filmed as part of the Stockholm Boat Sessions
http://www.stockholmboatsessions.se/http://www.youtube.com/user/jerrygbg

Just talking out loud here, but how great would it be for there to be a video of Jennifer and Lorenzo performing like this one of Sea Lion that I posted back on March 18th, in a post titled, Take a seat aboard the ferry and listen to what real talent sounds like: Sea Lion - "America, why does the heart cry" @ Stockholm Boat Sessions
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/take-seat-aboard-ferry-and-listen-to.html

I love this concept!

Jerry Boman You Tube Channel video: Sea Lion - America why does the heart cry @ Stockholm Boat Sessions. Uploaded December 13, 2011. http://youtu.be/Ca9BXSago60

Jennifer's popular LA-based blog, LA Life - http://blogg.veckorevyn.com/lalife/
Jennifer's Twitter page - @jjakerman - http://twitter.com/jjakerman/

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

England vs. Sweden today: Steven Gerrard set to get 100th Cap today in Stockholm with 3 rookies starting for Three Lions as England meets Sweden tonight in Friends Arena's inaugural international match in Solna -home of next July's Final of UEFA's Women's Euro 2013




England FA YouTube Channel video: Twelve  years after playing in his first match as a member of the English National Team, Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard reflects on tonight's international friendly at Sweden in what will be his 100th match as part of the Three Lions and the first international match to be played at Sweden's new home for the Men and Womens National Team. Uploaded November 14, 2012. http://youtu.be/ZxXp58DlS2s

With temps in the 40's Farenheit, the stadium roof will be closed -match will be aired on TV4 in Sweden.
More match info at: http://svenskfotboll.se/ and http://friendsarena.se/Evenemang/Invigningsmatch-Sverige-England/

I found out last week that the annual national telecast of the St. Lucia concert will be there on December 15th. Sweet! 

http://www.tv4play.se/program/sporten?video_id=2240039&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=permalink&utm_campaign=tv4play.se&starttime=22
TV4Sport senaste sportnyheterna: Allbäck inför Sverige England: "Ska bli häftigt"
 Allbäck: England-Sweden will be awesome. 


SvenskFotboll YouTube Channel video: Nya Nationalarenan - Friends Arena - från första spadtag till färdig arena New National Arena - Friends Arena - from the groundbreaking ceremony to the final arena. Uploaded November 14, 2012.
http://youtu.be/C1DKagq8X60



SvenskFotboll YouTube Channel video: Marcus Allbäck reveals the starting line-up for  Sweden in their match tonight against England. Uloaded November 14, 2012. http://youtu.be/zJoPjWwjbpA




 SvenskFotboll YouTube Channel video: SvFF:s första presskonferens på Friends Arena 7/11 2012 - svenskfotboll http://youtu.be/bHE48I1hUHU


http://www.england.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=299824

http://svenskfotboll.se/arkiv/landslag/2012/11/truppen-mot-england/

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

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


http://www.uefa.com/womenseuro/index.html

http://www.uefa.com/womenseuro/news/newsid=1887601.html