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 ๐Ÿ›ซ๐ŸŒ๐Ÿ“บ๐Ÿ“ฝ️๐Ÿˆ. Photo is of Elvis and Joan Blackman in 'Blue Hawaii'

Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west towards Gamla Stan

Saturday, April 27, 2013

BUSTED! Breitbart's Matthew Boyle reports that Sen. Marco Rubio was "outed" by a constituent over Rubio's lack of personal effort to meet with LEOs BEFORE the Gang of Eight released their very-flawed immigration bill; Daily Caller's Byron York on the deluge of angry anti-immigration bill email into Sen. Rubio's office; The shiny, new toy that is Rubio is now not-so shiny; audio of Rubio's interviews with Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin


Right Scoop YouTube Channel video: FULL INTERVIEW: Nationally-syndicated radio show host Rush Limbaugh, the most-listened-to personality on American radio, discusses the Gang of Eight's immigration bill and its possible consequences with Florida Senator Marco Rubio. Uploaded April 18, 2013. http://youtu.be/dJjDbj6M16M 
BUSTED! Breitbart's Matthew Boyle reports that Sen. Marco Rubio was "outed" by a constituent over Rubio's lack of personal effort to meet with LEOs BEFORE the Gang of Eight released their very-flawed immigration bill; Daily Caller's Byron York on the deluge of angry anti-immigration bill email into Sen.  Rubio's office; The shiny, new toy that is Rubio is now not- so shiny; audio of Rubio's interviews with Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin
BUSTED! Late Friday night we learned via Breitbart's Matthew Boyle that Sen. Marco Rubio was outed by a constituent over Rubio's lack of personal effort to meet with law enforcement officers, especially ICE agents, BEFORE the Gang of Eight released their very-flawed immigration bill. 

The bill was made public the day after Sen. Rubio met with the union head of ICE agents -for ONE HOUR!- and after Rubio and the others had secretly been meeting with pro-amnesty & GOP business establishment groups in Washington and elsewhere for MANY, MANY WEEKS

Personally, as a Rubio supporter, someone who was for him in 2009 when the Florida news media had already pretty-well handed the 2010 GOP U.S. Senate nomination to Florida Governor Charlie Crist, I think this public miscue is one that WILL haunt Rubio for a long time, since it is both symbolic and TRUE.

I think it directly undercuts his claim to both "authenticity" and being an honest broker on this issue, one that many Republicans had perhaps too willingly given him lots of latitude on, assuming that he would be someone who could take a public role larger than his two years in the Senate warranted, and meet with groups that had something tangible to add to the mix on border security before the bill was finalized.

And important because it reveals Rubio's blind spot, which is that he sometimes believes what he says about himself too much -not enough hubris!

I also think that much more than any of the Florida-based reporters or columnists or "experts" know or will acknowledge, this effort of Rubio to finesse something very important, will likely prove to some within the GOP's national rank-and-file that just like other American pols, though perhaps less frequently than most, there's what Rubio says, and then there's what he actually does when nobody is looking. 

For people who want border security first, and are not willing to compromise on that, for good reason, people like me, the upshot is that this mis-step proves to some of them that he is NOT yet someone to be implicitly trusted.

Especially in light of how little he has actually accomplished in Washington his first two years, outside of drawing attention to himself and the Syria issue, where he has been miles and miles ahead of both President Obama, Hillary Clinton and the U.S. Mainstream Media, as I've noted frequently on these pages.






Rubio's inability or unwillingness to meet with people weeks ago whom he SHOULD HAVE, people with a real tangible insight into the immigration issue from a first-hand perspective, makes him appear to be what he is on this issue -NOT as tough or fair-minded as he advertises himself.

I honestly believe that because this issue is so important to many rank-and-file Republicans in parts of the country where they don't have a news media that is SO easily cowed by the professional amnesty and immigration rights groups the way they are routinely here in Florida
-esp. here in Miami and South Florida as I've documented dozens of times over the years here on the blog- where the groups practically hand reporters a script and the reporters dutifully read their lines as written.
On this issue, it's NOT journalism, it's public relations.

No place in the country is more skittish and less-honest in reporting truthfully on the negative effect of runaway illegal immigration, or unwilling to ask tough questions, than South Florida's news media, especially the Miami Herald.

(Even new young reporters to this market, like a certain new female reporter at WFOR-TV I could name, seem to absorb by osmosis the general understanding that seldom is heard a discouraging word on immigration, and thus they routinely do segments that are completely one-sided, and don't even think to ask questions that should be asked, but which here in Miami are never, ever asked for fear of what, being fired? 
Those of you who don't live here can't fully appreciate it, but reporting honestly on immigration is the Third Rail of South Florida, talked about in the abstract, perhaps, mostly here on this blog, but never ever actually seen on-the-air or in-print.)

So begins the first serious patch of political mis-steps, bad headlines and obvious displays of tone-deafness by Sen. Rubio, as his lofty abstract ideas about public policy get held up to their proper scrutiny and he is found wanting. 
It'll be interesting to see how he responds to this.
Will he adapt, evolve or double-down on what he's been doing and think he can ride it out.
While he'll probably be able to do the latter here in Florida, in the rest of the country, I wouldn't be so sanguine.

I believe that his personal reputation is about to get roughed-up but good by sincere and caring people outside of Florida who don't have to just grin-and-bear it like they do here in Florida.

I further believe that 2013 will prove to be the year where Rubio's sometimes patronizing myopia and faulty antennae will lead to him making some SERIOUS political enemies among fellow national Republicans and their supporters at the state and county levels.

And based on conversations with people and reading certain things I have, some of that antipathy and disregard he earns will last the rest of his political career, and cost him in ways that he can't even imagine now, because those people who are upset are mostly below the media's radar right now.
But by 2016, they'll be County party chairs in Iowa... and they'll be quoted in 2015 by the New York Times and by Politico and The National Journal...

People who never pass on an opportunity to make Rubio and his staffers suffer in small ways, or make him work much-harder than he needs to simply because they don't like the way that he's handled an issue that they care passionately about, and see Rubio as someone who didn't fight hard enough and long enough.

In short, someone who was too willing to work with Democrats to give them what they wanted, which is not enough attention to border security. 
Really.

You'll see.

The South Florida news media is, of course, completely under-reporting this issue, just as they do so many other issues that ought to be getting attention but don't.

They'll wait for someone else in another city to do that particular story, and then act like they were always working on it themselves, which is the usual excuse given when you talk to local reporters in-person and ask why real political news is NOT appearing in-print or on-air immediately like it would in other parts of the country, but instead, put in a freezer whjere they can report it when it's no longer relevant.

And it'll all be his own fault, too, since he's now starting to be viewed more realistically -as someone who perhaps prefers the spotlight a little TOO MUCH, prefers to go-along to actually standing strong against the GOP's Beltway/Chamber of Commerce Establishment that was, for decades, more-than-willing to take advantage of illegal immigrants, esp. in the agricultural sector.. 

Marco Rubio's charmed existence in the U.S. Senate so far is about to get some much-overdue and, it would seem to me, much-deserved turbulence.
But it will have little to do with anything any FL-based reporters or columnists say or write or uncover, but rather everything to do with his own bad choices and myopia, especially on the issue of immigration and its consequences.

The shiny, new toy is now not so shiny.
And will be less so by the end of the year.

RUBIO TOUTS TALK WITH ICE OFFICIAL WHICH SPURRED NO CHANGES TO IMMIGRATION BILL
by Matthew Boyle
27 Apr 2013, 12:58 AM PDT
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/04/26/Rubio-struggles-to-explain-to-constituents-why-ICE-agents-had-no-real-prior-input-into-immigration-bill




Right Scoop YouTube Channel video: Nationally-syndicated radio show host Mark Levine discusses the immigration bill and its possible consequences with Florida Senator Marco Rubio. Uploaded April 17, 2013. http://youtu.be/USG2SLWbKew
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http://www.therightscoop.com

WaPo's editorial is important because it matters and will be read in lots of important places: Washington Post Editorial Board mulls facts over and fillets Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for his well-known, self-destructive penchant for engaging in historical revisionism and nationalism: "Shinzo Abe’s inability to face history" -or reality; @ๅฎ‰ๅ€ ๆ™‹ไธ‰



Arirang News YouTube Channel video: Japanese Prime Minister Shenzo Abe statement inflames tensions between Korea and Japan ์•„๋ฒ ์˜ '๋ง์–ธ'...ํ•œ์ผ. Uploaded April 24, 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWRVleXJIvM


Steve Miller reports from South Korea on the latest Abe controversy that has the Koreans and Chinese so irate: 


theqirangervlog YouTube Channel video: Shinzo Abe Denies Historical Colonization of Korea. Uploaded April 23, 2013. http://youtu.be/lLMGdNGdZ1g
WaPo's editorial is important because it matters and will be read in lots of important places: Washington Post Editorial Board mulls facts over and fillets Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for his well-known, self-destructive penchant for engaging in historical revisionism and nationalism: "Shinzo Abe’s inability to face history"
Get it, the Post's intentional or unintentional double-meaning of face?

Defenders of Abe and at least some of the Japanese Establishment will no doubt see this criticism of him as a result of China and South Korea teaming-up behind the scenes to... blah blah.

No, it's that Abe, far too often for comfort's sake, seems unable to help himself and keep his mouth shut and his head focused, a habit that is NOT a positive trait for anyone, least of all, Japan, China, South Korea or the U.S. and its military forces in the area to protect our allies, capisce?

But how do you convince the Chinese people or their government of this, or that this character fault of his can be overcome, since some of them at least, officially or not, STILL believe in ๅ…ณ็ณป, guanxi and feel that in this equation, we, the U.S, are still NOT doing enough to make Abe stop indulging himself at their expense and humiliation?.

Our dilemma is that we don't seem to always act like we know when Abe is playing to small elements within Japanese society that he feels he must sate, but with his fingers crossed, or when he's actually serious about what he's saying or doing.

But there's no real confusion of what it means to Koreans and Chinese when Abe goes to the Yasukuni Shrine.

Our perceived confusion on this part, whether real or feigned for public consumption in Asia, only is making things worse, and as most of you know, I'm not a fan of John Kerry's, so I don't see him bringing anything to the equation that's going to change the dynamic.

And now the main course...

The Washington Post
Editorial Board
Shinzo Abe’s inability to face history
April 26, 2013
From the moment last fall when Shinzo Abe reclaimed the office of Japanese prime minister that he had bungled away five years earlier, one question has stood out: Would he restrain his nationalist impulses — and especially his historical revisionism — to make progress for Japan?
Until this week, the answer to that question was looking positive. Mr. Abe has taken brave steps toward reforming Japan’s moribund economy. He defied powerful interest groups within his party, such as rice farmers, to join free-trade talks with the United States and other Pacific nations that have the potential to spur growth in Japan. He spoke in measured terms of his justifiable desire to increase defense spending.
Read the rest of the WaPo's editorial at:

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For more on this topic, see this largely accurate overview:

Friday, April 26, 2013

Cuban spy story gets more and more interesting: Puerto Rican woman accused by U.S. of spying for Cuba for 17 years, a Princeton and Georgetown Law School grad, remains out of reach of U.S. justice because she lives in Stockholm; Sweden won't extradite her on espionage charges, plus, she's now married to senior Swedish Foreign Ministry official; While Aftonbladet is advancing the story, Miami Herald is still ignoring the story

Cuban spy story gets more and more interesting: Puerto Rican woman accused by U.S. of spying for Cuba for 17 years, a Princeton and Georgetown Law School grad, remains out of reach of U.S. justice because she lives in Stockholm; Sweden won't extradite her on espionage charges, plus, she's now married to senior Swedish Foreign Ministry official; While Aftonbladet is advancing the story, Miami Herald is still ignoring the story
Many, many hours after this Cuban spy story was first reported and posted on the Washington Post's website Thursday, the Miami Herald has still not picked up this story, even as of 10:30 am Friday.
Surprise!

The Washington Post
Woman indicted in Cuba spy case is in Sweden and out of U.S. reach
By Jim Popkin, Published: April 25, 2013
The Justice Department on Thursday announced the indictment of a former State Department employee for allegedly spying on behalf of Cuba, but it is unable to arrest her because she lives in Sweden, a country that does not extradite citizens accused of espionage.
Marta Rita Velazquez, 55, a graduate of Princeton University and Georgetown University Law School, was indicted nearly a decade ago on charges of conspiracy to commit espionage. Velazquez lives in Stockholm and is aware of the charges against her, the Justice Department said. But the extradition treaty between the United States and Sweden does not allow extradition for spying.
Read the rest of the article at:

While the Miami Herald continues to snooze, Jan Helin's Aftonbladet is all over the story and is constantly advancing it, telling us today, below, that the suspected spy is married to a senior Swedish Foreign Ministry official.
Uh-oh! 

USA jagar misstรคnkt svensk kvinna  ร„r gift med hรถgt uppsatt UD-tjรคnsteman

Anklagas fรถr att ha spionerat fรถr Kuba sedan bรถrjan av 80-talet

WOLFGANG HANSSON: Kuba รคr ett rรถtt skynke fรถr USA

Public meeting re beach erosion on Tuesday April 30th at 6 p.m. at The Hemispheres Condominium in Hallandale Beach; Local10 News video with Roger Lohse "Eroding beach worries Hallandale Beach residents"

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

Local10 News reporter Roger Lohse on Hallandale Beach's perpetual beach erosion problems that were made worse in late October by Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy, especially in the city's southern beachfront area, which is now only a few feet wide.  

Eroding beach worries Hallandale Beach residents
Published On: Apr 25 2013 05:57:07 PM EDT   
Updated On: Apr 26 2013 01:09:55 AM EDT
Story and video at: 

The City of Hallandale Beach is hosting a community meeting re beach nourishment featuring federal, state and county officials on Tuesday, April 30th at 6 p.m. at the Hemispheres Condominium, 985 S. Ocean Drive, Hallandale Beach..
More info at: http://hallandalebeachfl.gov/documentcenter/view/6833

Better late than never, but why didn't this meeting take place months ago?
It's been getting worse for six months...

Thursday, April 25, 2013

2013 NFL Draft: Another Draft day with Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland squandering opportunities left and right; Give me more playmakers! The best defense is a big lead!; @nfl, @SI_PeterKing, @BuckyBrooks


pmanis09 YouTube Channel: ABC's Monday Night Football, opening (1973), with Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford and Don Meredith. Uploaded on October 16, 2008. http://youtu.be/m8fkMkE2Yjg
and over at NBC, largely featuring Dolphins guard Bob Kuechenberg, and with other Dolphins appearing, including Larry Little, Vern Den Herder, Larry Csonka, Bob Griese and at 0:57, the late Jim Mandich, who sadly died almost-two years ago tomorrow...


beaverstuffers YouTube Channel: NFL on NBC, opening (1973). 
Uploaded August 20, 2009. http://youtu.be/nv-datkQYUU

Yes, 1973, the last year the Dolphins really WERE the best team.
2013 NFL Draft: Another Draft day with Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland squandering opportunities left and right; Give me more playmakers! The best defense is a big lead!; @nfl, @SI_PeterKing, @BuckyBrooks
Another Draft day that Dolphin fans hope will be decisive in changing around the fortunes of a once-proud football franchise that has been plagued for too many years with bad management, uninspiring coaching and mediocre personnel that lacks playmakers and a killer instinct. But look who's in charge?
Since we're all friends here on the blog for the most part, I'm going to fill you in on something
you won't be reading elsewhere today on one of the most-magical albeit-unofficial American holidays of the year -the first day of the NFL Draft.

Last night after the watching the Miami-area 11 O'clock news, I had to run some errands and hop into the blog's Time Machine, a.k.a. the South Beach Hoosier Time Machine, to finish something I had actually started a few weeks ago, though technically, is actually still in the future many months from now.

You know how it is with time travel, some words only cause more confusion, which is why star dates are so useful.

So anyway, one of the errands involved finally seeing the new upcoming Star Trek Into Darkness that opens in May, which I'll be seeing in-person next month when it opens, on DVD this December, when the Dolphins 2013 season has pretty much played itself out.


Star Trek Into Darkness - Official Trailer #3 (HD) Benedict Cumberbatch

I bought it to watch it again and then send it to my mother, who is a longtime Star Trek fan, but not so crazy about going to theaters anymore, unless she comes down here to see my sister and I, in which case we'll watch it at my sister's at some point on her visit.

My plan, then, is to watch it after the NBC Sunday Night Football game if that game is a good one, or, instead of the game if the game is not so interesting. 
(Like usual, I'm taping Once Upon a Time, The Good Wife and The Mentalist on the other TV's DVR.)
So, I'm watching the pre-game highlights package and listening to Dan Patrick, Tony Dungy and Bob Costas talk and talk about the various games that took place earlier in the day and sort of wondering what led the Time Machine to this scene of me watching myself lying on the couch, with some newspapers and a can of Coke on the table nearby. 
And how is this trip in any way connected to tonight's NFL Draft?

Well, the Dolphins will have the chance tonight to draft and add polish to a dynamic game-breaking player, but because Dolphins well-meaning but misfiring General Manager Jeff Ireland is who he is -there's no changing those spots- he goes the safe route yet again and the player who could be and should be one of the Dolphins biggest stars of the future, will instead drop some more and ply his trade for another team drafting after the Dolphins.

Ah, Jeff Ireland and the Safe Choice!
It almost sounds like the name of a neighborhood band from North Miami Beach circa 1974, a band where the lead singer is the older brother of one of my friends, but his last name really isn't Ireland, but he just likes the way it sounds.
Lots of class!

In the future highlight I see, Dan Patrick prefaces his pithy comment by saying, "Oh, no. Jeff Ireland may want to close his eyes again because Miami passed on this guy."

And there on the TV screen, on TVs of various sizes and shapes all across the country and all across South Florida, the video is showing someone scoring against the Dolphins late in a heretofore close ballgame, and making the big difference in another Dolphin loss.

Because, as always, there are nice dependable players and then there are difference-makers, and the Dolphins have been plagued for the past 15 years by NOT having enough of them on the field on either offense or defense.

It makes me think after watching videos on YouTube of the NFL in the 1970's, the seasons with the games and scores I still remember because I was there in-person at the Orange Bowl for almost every one, that IF Jeff Ireland had been the Steelers GM in 1974, he'd have passed on drafting John Stallworth in the fourth round because, well, after all, they already had drafted a very good one out of USC in the first round named Lynn Swann.
So let's draft another offensive lineman!

But given who's making the choice, that offensive lineman is NOT named future Hall of Famer Mike Webster.
Four of the Steeler's first five draft choices eventually are enshrined in the NFL Hall of Fame.

Such is the difference between GMs who are in-the-know and on draft day, literally, in-the-zone, seeing things that others don't see, and then there are nice guys who still have their jobs after doing a consistently mediocre job because the boss doesn't really like to fire people.

What will be written on Ireland's personnel file after his exit interview?
"Dolphins lack of playmakers!"

Here's a hint: offensive linemen aren't playmakers:

Look up the phrase "Dolphins lack of playmakers" on Google Images and tell me whose photo shows up first.
Really,.just try it.
See, it's not just my opinion, it's an algorithm's learned opinion.

I hope that I'm wrong about this prediction about the Dolphins draft today, and that Ireland, like George Costanza once did, does the exact opposite of what he usually does, but if you know anything about me from reading this blog fairly regularly over the years, and my predictions while at IU and in Chicago and in D.C., you know that I have a ridiculous degree of accuracy when I've had some time to analyze the empirical data, accent the positive, eliminate the negative and throw in some intangibles and just noodle everything through.  

Three teams on December's Dolphins schedule draft after the Dolphins: the Steelers at 17, the Patriots at 29 and the Jets immediately after the Dolphins draft at 12.
Just saying... the best defense is a big lead!


2013 NFL Draft: The perfect strategy for each team to follow
By Bucky Brooks, Analyst, NFL.com and NFL Network
 Published: April 22, 2013 at 03:57 p.m. 
Updated: April 23, 2013 at 05:38 p.m.


Wednesday, April 24, 2013

The Broward IG returns serve on Hallandale Beach's embarrassing and mis-behaving tinhorn pols & officials re HB CRA. They get a dose of cold hard reality poured on them, the first of so many to come in their well-deserved comeuppance in the court of public opinion. Their karma is going to be a bitch!; @MayorCooper, @SandersHB, @AlexLewy

This latest bit of reportage by the Broward Bulldog's Bill Gjebre regarding Hallandale Beach City Hall's unethical crew of misfits and sycophants, is particularly compelling precisely because the guilty parties are completely bereft of the slightest bit of remorse, and are having taxpayers pay their legal bills to boot.

This all causes me to wonder... If this were the American West's court of public opinion of the mid-18th century, a place that my ancestors actually lived in, in the Hill Country of Texas, there are more than a folks at Hallandale Beach City Hall who'd have good reason to be fearful of the smell of tar-and-feathers in the air.

Then as now, unethical or morally-suspect actions by those with a public trust have especially serious consequences.
Especially when they involve pols who seem to have repeatedly abused their power thru the squandering of public funds.
Just saying... 

Miami Herald
Broward IG: Hallandale leaders don’t know what they’re talking about
By William Gjebre, The Miami Herald
Posted April 23, 2013
The Broward Inspector General’s final report on the “gross mismanagement” of millions in tax dollars by Hallandale Beach is sharply critical of city leaders it says have shown a “basic misunderstanding” of what’s gone wrong. 
Hallandale Beach city managers past and present, the city attorney, the mayor and other city officials defended the handling of funds of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency in formal responses included in the 56-page report released last week. 
Read the rest of the article at: 

Monday, April 22, 2013

Tourism game-changer for South Florida travelers & Fort Lauderdale-area businesses -but only if they're smart and start planning now. Ruminations on the upcoming Norwegian.com flights b/w Ft. Lauderdale and Oslo, Stockholm & Copenhagen, and the need for Broward's hospitality industry to take full-advantage of the opportunity; @Oslo, @norway, @stockholm, @sweden, @copenhagen, @denmark



Above, the State of Florida's classic 1970's national TV tourism ad that I've posted on the blog many times before. This spot ad was hugely-popular and successful, especially in the Midwest and East Coast, and was by far THE best tourism TV ad the state has ever produced. To this day, it still makes people smile when they see it or hear that catchy jingle, "When You Need It Bad We've Got It Good."

But in a much-more competitive travel marketplace than existed over thirty years ago, with so many disparate consumer markets, and different ways of reaching out to  prospective travelers, it seems to me that we need to see the state come up with something new that's just as compelling as this was. http://www.youtube.com/embed/OxB0kjqO6SI

Today I wanted to follow-up with some specificity on my blog post of this past Saturday, April 20th, which had some great news that some of you readers of the blog might want to take full-advantage of in the near-future -just like me- regarding a game-changing marketing move 

A move that will simultaneously make travel to a dynamic part of the world more convenient and cheaper, while also offering local Broward County-area hotels, restaurants and hospitality-related businesses an entrรฉe to an affluent English-speaking tourism market -esp. families- that they have barely even begun to scratch: Scandinavia
Scandinavian Delight! Starting November 30th, fly nonstop between Ft Lauderdale and Oslo on Norwegian.com for as low as $238, or fly from FLL to Stockholm Arlanda for only $269, plus taxes and luggage charges; @Oslo, @norway, @stockholm, @sweden

A comparable round-trip flight on SAS to Oslo or Stockholm, even in Economy and made weeks in advance, is well over $1,000, as I know from experience in January.
Compare that to what Norwegian.com will offer starting in late November, with a direct flight to Oslo from FLL.

And coming back this way, with these flights, Broward is now much-cheaper airfare-wise, than flying from Stockholm or Oslo to The Maldives, a very popular vacation spot for Swedish families that's heavily-promoted, along with, of course, Thailand.
The latter is a holiday travel location that many Swedish families have been to so many times before that at least some of their kids are actually blah towards going there again. (Really.)

And since I neglected to mention it in Saturday's post, or so far today, you should know that Norwegian.com is the fastest-growing airline in Europe and has already placed orders for 200 new airplanes.

More at:
Norwegian airline prepares for global expansion
By Jorn Madslien, Business reporter, BBC News
1 April 2013 Last updated at 20:24 ET

Here are two photos from my blog of some travel-related advertising I snapped while I in Stockholm in January, and trust me, these display ads are everywhere you look. 
You literally can not escape them.
And that's in part because they work so well.
Especially when it's 17 degrees Fahrenheit and sundown is at 3:45 p.m.


"SOLREA - SVERIGES Bร„STA RESESร–K"
The colder and snowier it got in Stockholm, the more this simple ad seemed like genius. Sometimes, you don't have to reinvent the advertising wheel. When you're a travel agency and it's cold and snowing, make your target audience think of summers and traveling to an inviting warm beach. Above, one of the many Sistaminuten.se display ads I saw on the side of pay phones throughout Stockholm. This one was located on Ringvรคgen, across the street from the ร…hlรฉns Dept. store (with the Hemkรถp grocery store in the basement that I visited frequently) west of busy Gรถtgatan and the Skanstull T-bana, the southern commercial heart of trendy and fun Sรถdermalm. January 11, 2013 photo by South Beach Hoosier.© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.
*There was recently a controversy with this ad campaign that I will be blogging about quite soon.  


Pictured: A Mom and her two kids sitting on the beach staring out at the waves. Only two blocks from the B&B I stayed at in the Sรถdermalm area of Stockholm on my recent trip, the #1 B&B in the city, also located on Ringvรคgen were two other display ads promoting travel. The one in the distance is for SAS, which I flew on to Stockholm, and the one in the foreground, on a public telephone booth, is the "Holiday is where the Heart is" ad campaign for VING which started the week before Christmas. January 12, 2013 photo by South Beach Hoosier.© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved. 
Here's VING's very-popular "Holiday is where the heart is" TV spot: http://www.dagensmedia.se/webbtv/reklamfilm/article3607242.ece
Not surprisingly, this ad was in heavy rotation during morning TV news shows, so much so that I started hearing this jingle in my head by my 3rd day in Stockholm.

Here's more of VING's smart and attractive display ads: http://www.dagensmedia.se/taggar/?tag=Ving

As a friend who's a travel professional in Sweden explained to me, since I didn't know myself, flights from Oslo or Stockholm to The Maldives or to FLL are roughly the same time-wise.
But if you compare the costs of airfare using Norwegian.comNOW flying to FLL from Scandinavia is a ridiculous bargain, by hundreds and hundreds of dollars, and is a bargain that is multiplied by each person who flies here.

After being over there and getting a small sense of how things are done, my own opinion is that the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) needs to really increase their advertising and marketing dollars in Scandinavia and start working on some compelling co-op advertising with Norwegian.com that they can start running this Fall, before the twice-weekly flights start.  http://www.sunny.org/

It seems to me that we need to do this to make sure that the airline's strategy (gamble) works to everyone's satisfaction, and then at some point, they can increase the number of flights or days they fly between FLL and Oslo, whose still-new-looking airport is, in a word, sweet.

Since HB's beach is so woefully unattractive and poorly-maintained, the local postcards that I gave to some business people I met -and the new friends that I made- in Stockholm were entirely of Hollywood Beach and The Broadwalk.

Trust me, people I spoke to there in all sort sof places around Stockholm were very intrigued by what I told them about the area, esp. after hearing them relate some of the daily hassles they deal with when they go to Thailand and other tropical places.
They're looking for new places to visit, so why not our part of the world?

Savvy and enterprising individuals, companies and firms from South Florida to Sweden can now finally reach the affluent, well-informed and influential decision-makers in South Florida and beyond who regularly read Hallandale Beach Blog and its Twitter feed for the facts, nuanced insight and original analysis they can't get elsewhere, and do so via VERY REASONABLE advertising on the blog, at prices starting at just $85 a month. 
Contact me today for more details at hallandalebeachblog@gmail.com

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Multi-talented DxDutch does it all: sings "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" and plays talent scout and spots Old-style flash mob in the Old Country, complete with costumes: Flash mob in Munich shopping center startles some shoppers but amuses the hip and the cool kids who "get it"; #voXXclub, @DxDutch







Multi-talented DxDutch does it all: sings "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" and plays talent scout and spots Old-style flash mob in the Old Country, complete with costumes: Flash mob in Munich shopping center startles some shoppers but amuses the hip and the cool kids who "get it"; #voXXclub, @DxDutch
Last week I first got wind of this interesting video and insight into German pop culture, courtesy of a Tweet by super-music talent DxDutch, one of the genuine stars of the YouTube generation, and an actual YouTube Partnerjust like vlogger extraordinaire and HBB favorite Justine Ezarik, i.e. iJustinehttp://ijustine.com/category/vlogs/

(See vid of them together at http://youtu.be/LBvWk6yv5XE)

It features the music and antics of Universal Music Group (Germany) recording artist s voXXclub.  http://www.universal-music.de/voxxclub/home


voXXclub YouTube channel video: "Rock mi" flashmob in den Riem Arcaden in Mรผnchen. Uploaded March 19, 2013. http://youtu.be/0Y_VqqXphaQ

Over the weekend I was going thru my large YouTube inbox of subscribed videos I hadn't gotten around to watching yet because of the NCAA Mens Basketball tourney, the usual unethical doings in Hallandale Beach and environs, and some other matters not worth getting into now. 
There, staring back at me from my computer screen was this remake by DxDutch of a Sonny Bono tune that he wrote and which became a hit for Cher in 1966, reaching #2 on Billboard's Hot 100 list.
And who, counter to some of her fan's fears, is NOT dead -NOWTHATCHERISNOTDEAD... 



DxDutch YouTube Channel video: DxDutch sings "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" Uploaded March 30, 2013. http://youtu.be/9yP2VBT1ehs

After watching it, I went back to her Twitter feed and there it was, at the top.

See and hear more about DxDutch at:
http://www.twitter.com/dxdutch 
http://www.facebook.com/dxdutch 
https://www.youtube.com/user/DxDutch
http://instagram.com/dxdutch

Debra Heine deconstructs President Obama's fanciful, tin-eared comments after capture of 2nd Boston terrorist, and reminds us of the sad reality he ignores: "The Terrorists Didn't Fail"; David Remnick's curiously sympathetic column on Boston terrorists will likely go unmentioned by his media pals, esp. Charlie Rose; Anorak (U.K.) reports: American ignorance forces Czech ambassador to issue statement saying Czechs are not Chechens


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 Debra Heine deconstructs President Obama's fanciful, tin-eared comments after capture of 2nd Boston terrorist, and reminds us of the sad reality he ignores: "The Terrorists Didn't Fail"; David Remnick's curiously sympathetic column on Boston terrorists will likely go unmentioned by his media pals, esp. Charlie Rose; Anorak (U.K.) reports: American ignorance forces Czech ambassador to issue statement saying Czechs are not Chechens
A collection of pieces re the murderous Tsarnaev brothers and the Boston Marathon bombings that you may've missed since Friday night when President Obama pretended we hadn't seen what we all had seen for ourselves this past week. The Terrorists Didn't Fail, The American News Media Did.
Wishing doesn't make it so.

Breitbart
The Terrorists Didn't Fail
By Debra Heine
20 Apr 2013, 6:15 PM PDT 
In response to Obama's rush to judgment:
These words from Obama's weak and uninspired statement following the capture of the second terrorist rang  hollow to my ears., 
"One thing we do know is that whatever hateful agenda drove these men to such heinous acts will not — cannot — prevail. Whatever they thought they could ultimately achieve, they’ve already failed. They failed because the people of Boston refused to be intimidated. They failed because, as Americans, we refused to be terrorized.", 

While Obama struggles to figure out what "hateful agenda" might have driven these men to such heinous acts, I have a newsflash for him.
They didn't fail.
Read the rest of her insightful column here:
http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2013/04/20/The-Terrorists-Didn-t-Fail

Debra Heine's past columns are at:
http://www.breitbart.com/Columnists/Debra-Heine


Los Angeles Times
FBI: Boston suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev followed 'radical Islam'
By Andrew Tangel and Ashley Powers
April 20, 2013, 5:33 p.m.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-boston-bombing-suspect-radical-fbi-20130420,0,4341067.story

In the coming week, will Charlie Rose have his pal and New Yorker editor David Remnick on his PBS show or on the CBS Morning News so that Remnick can be asked some hard questions about his curious choice to write a sympathetic New Yorker column Saturday about the two terrorists, a column that in the end blamed both the U.S. and social media for what happened?
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2013/04/29/130429ta_talk_remnick

Yes, we all already know the answer to that question is no, and we also note for the record the absence of the word Beslan in Remnick's column.
Beslan as in murderous Beslan school hostage crisis of 2004:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beslan_school_hostage_crisis
Oh, THOSE Chechans!


Anorak (U.K.)
American ignorance forces Czech ambassador to issue statement saying Czechs are not Chechens
POSTED: 20TH, APRIL 2013
DID you hear the CNN anchorman root the Boston Marathon bombing in “the Islamic Czech Republic”?, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, and 6-year-old brother Tamerlan, 26, were born in Chechnya.
Ambassador Petr Gandaloviฤ, Czech ambassador goes on the record:
Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.anorak.co.uk/354659/news/american-ignorance-forces-czech-ambassador-to-issue-statement-saying-czechs-are-not-chechens.html/

I wonder what this presages for the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia next February?
Even Putin can't lock up everyone in the city who isn't an Olympic employee.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Scandinavian Delight! Starting November 30th, fly nonstop cheaply between Ft Lauderdale and Oslo or Copenhagen on Norwegian.com, and starting December 1st, fly from FLL to Stockholm Arlanda; @Oslo, @norway, @stockholm, @sweden, @copenhagen, @denmark

Above, in the foreground, a Norwegian.com plane alongside one from SAS and Thai Airways on the tarmac at Stockholm Arlanda Airport, around 12:39 p.m. (I told you it was overcast most of my trip!This particular plane has famed Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus a.k.a. Carl von Linnรฉ, featured on its tail. His face also appears on the 100 Swedish krona note, the smallest bill with a security foil strip. As I have blogged about before here, he's scheduled to be replaced on that bill by gorgeous Greta Garbo's face. Ah, Garbo! January 10, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. (c) 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved
Meant to post something about this valuable bit of great news a few months ago when I first got the news from someone in-the-know, but it's still worth mentioning all these weeks later now that it was officially made public on Tuesday.
And it's a real game-changer, too.

Starting November 30th, you can fly nonstop between Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood and Oslo on Norwegian twice a week starting at $238 each way, plus taxes and luggage charges.
Norwegian's departures from Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood will be on Mondays and Fridays at 9:30 p.m, arriving in Oslo at 12:35 p.m.the following day. 
Departures from Oslo are on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 3:10 p.m., arriving at Ft. Lauderdale at 7:30 p.m. Eastern the same day.

If you're like me, you'll be able to use Norwegian.com as a cost-saving head start on a flight to Sweden and Stockholm -WITHOUT having to waste your valuable time by flying to O'Hare or Newark first, and then hanging around the airport all afternoon waiting for that night flight out of Newark on SAS or United
Instead, simply go to FLL and get on your plane and you're on your way.

Introductory fares to Stockholm start at only $269 each way, plus taxes and luggage fees.
Yes, you read that right, $269!
http://www.norwegian.com/us/flight/tips/?D_City=FLL&DestinationGroup=12&SplitDatesInto=3&UseDates=True&D_Day=01&D_Month=201311&D_Day_End=31&D_Month_End=201401&CurrencyCode=USD&IncludeTransit=False

 Copenhagen and Stockholm . The firstCopenhagen flight begins Nov. 29, followed by Stockholm on Dec. 1. Both routes will run four days a week. 

Oslo Airport's press release of April 16, 2013 about the new flights:
http://www.osl.no/en/osl/aboutus/_press/_newsarchive?NOW_YOU_CAN_FLY_DIRECTLY_TO_FLORIDA&id=181-156129

Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport:
http://www.broward.org/airport/Pages/Default.aspx