MSM mess that disserves voters -Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic on "How to Fix Our Flawed Election Coverage"; Phil Bronstein muses on WH PR flacks

Obama protest at DNC fundraiser http://bcove.me/mq3c122l
Related story in San Francisco Chronicle is at bottom.

Friday afternoon, while pondering the Miami Dolphins' NFL draft strategy -is there one?- I sent the link to this prescient Conor Friedersdorf story below around to my circle of Usual Suspects, and got a pretty favorable response, though some reporter friends who work in The Beltway actually thought it was, if anything, a little "too gentle" in their criticism of the American Mainstream Media.

They are constantly dumbfounded at the sheer number of people around them who 'play' journalist, but who are actually not emotionally or ethically grounded enough, or even talented enough, to be one.

If anything, they find many of their colleagues consistently unprofessional and nothing but either Washington press secretary wannabes or political consultant in-waiting.
Yes, everyone wants to be like David Axelrod -but not actually him.
Reporter first, then campaign consultant.

And however much they may talk and vent to me from time-to-time, they genuinely believe that the American public has no earthly idea how much many more conscientious reporters and columnists with more old-fashioned ideas about the ethos and the lines you don't cross, genuinely loathe many popular media stars, esp. those with a connection to TV.


The Atlantic
How to Fix Our Flawed Election Coverage
By Conor Friedersdorf
April 29, 2011, 12:52 PM ET

In presidential contests, the press regularly elevates candidates for all the wrong reasons

My colleague James Fallows is understandably dismayed by the American media's coverage of Donald Trump, the entrepreneur, reality TV star and occasional bankrupt who may or may not run for president. "Perhaps the media types who have been paying attention to Trump and his braying will stop to think about what they've actually been doing," he writes. "Conceivably there will be a moment of recoil about the unworthy, irrational indignity of this stage of national life. But I'm not holding my breath."

It is bizarre that an opportunistic publicity hound is shaping the national discourse. But is a "moment of recoil" among journalists the needed remedy? For the most part, Trump's enablers are either utterly shameless, or else they're already disgusted by the pathologies of their profession but feel powerless to change them...

Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/04/how-to-fix-our-flawed-election-coverage/238039/

Also on Friday, I saw San Francisco Chronicle Executive Vice President Phil Bronstein's always interesting Bronstein at Large blog on the recent dust-up involving the Chronicle's Carla Marinucci and other Hearst folks running afoul of what White House preferences (ground-rules) were for reporting stories that had nothing to do with the reason President Obama was there.

Chron headline: San Francisco Chronicle: Obama Administration punishes reporter for using multimedia

Later: Update: Chronicle responds after Obama Administration punishes reporter for using multimedia, then claims they didn't

Read Bronstein's spot-on post at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/bronstein/detail?entry_id=87978

It's quite insightful, too, and shows how childish so many of the professional, taxpayer-paid PR handlers for elected officials, even The White House, can be when it comes to wanting to short-circuit enterprising reporters or putting the kibosh on alternative narratives of a story, things the American public wants but usually don't hear about until much later in a book.
Better that we know about such ham-handed efforts when they happen, then later!

I really wish we had about four dozen Phil Bronstein disciples or clones manning South Florida's myriad media machines so that citizens, readers and viewers could be MUCH better served than they are by the current crew that constantly sleeps, sleepwalks and doesn't show-up, and is risk-averse to boot.
IF only...

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Conor Friedersdorf is not just 100% correct, he is even more spot-on than he thinks, in that his sound criticism of the Mainstream Media's predictable reach for the low-hanging fruit and 'herd' mentality coverage of the presidential primaries could, in far too many instances, also be applied to local newspaper and TV station's coverage of open congressional seats.
I have a perfect example of it.


The above-the-fold headline of the Miami Herald on Wednesday the 27th was, and I quote, "GOP in search of a rock star" and the article was written by Adam Smith, a very good reporter at the St. Pete Times, someone whose articles and blog posts I've read since returning to the Sunshine State.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/26/2186913/in-florida-and-nationally-republicans.html

Still... that might well be a fine story in a newspaper's Sunday Op-Ed section in about 5-6 months, but really, in late April of 2011?
Not so much.

It actually seems to me that the news media in Florida, all-too-conscious of how important the state of Florida will be next year in the presidential campaign for both parties -especially with the Republican National Convention scheduled to be in the Tampa/St. Pete area starting August 27th, 2012- actually covet someone to play leader-of-the-pack so they can all know whom they're supposed to analyze to a fair-thee-well, killing with kindness in laudatory pieces for weeks or months before someone decides to get the knives out, rather than have to go out and do intel recon by themselves, and possibly saying something that goes against the MSM's extant CW.

Especially at a time when even in a large state like Florida -particularly for a large state like Florida, the fourth-largest state in the country- few of the potential candidates have actually visited the state for formal organized purposes.

Part of that is not just due to lack of time and money or opportunity, but also the sane realization by the candidate and his top staff that with the media in its current myopic state, any small slip-up of a completely inconsequential nature, is likely to be given extraordinary coverage for the simple fact that the media not only personally prefers to write about the horse-race, NOT the issues, but that in the absence of real tangible news, silly news will more than do.

That it becomes voter's first impression of the candidate is not the concern of the reporter, but should it?

Do you really think more than a handful of people in South Florida can really talk with any objective knowledge about what Tim Pawlenty did or did not do while governor of Minnesota?
http://www.timpawlenty.com/

Guess what, none of that handful are reporters, columnists or editors, but what they can do is re-write and finesse prior stories on Pawlenty to make it seem that they know what they're talking about; they already have
Given that dynamic and reality, why would any reasonable candidate considering the presidency subject himself to needless scrutiny when you don't have to?

Why should you change your long-term plan merely to assuage certain media markets, even in a key state like Florida, when any small slip-up will be over-played and toyed with like a cat and a ball of yarn?

As to the same bad, superficial press coverage template being used on open congressional seats. living in one, I'm more than able to describe what we dealt with and how that also highlights the Miami Herald's downward spiral in quality and sense of purpose, a much-discussed topic on this blog since it was created four years ago, in part because of that very problem.

Last year, to the surprise of nobody, FL-17's Kendrick Meek ran for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate to replace the retired Mel Martinez, whose seat was filled by George LeMieux in the interim.

Since voters and political observers knew well since the summer of 2009 that South Florida's FL-17 would have a brand new face for the first time since the current geographical configuration existed, a great opportunity presented itself to South Florida's much-maligned news media -to show local readers and viewers what's really required to win a Congressional seat in a multi-ethnic area (that stretches across two counties) with very different sort of voters, starting first with who runs for a seat for which you are NOT the candidate for whom it was carved-up for -Carrie Meek- or the heir.

To do the sort of solid fact-filled congressional election stories that CQ (Congressional Quarterly) and National Journal have been doing forever and that you sometimes see reflected in a few serious quality newspapers, where smart reporters and resourceful editors take you deep inside the campaign and give you some tangible insight into the candidates and their way of thinking things through.
In the end, of course, at least for me, the most important thing you vote about -their judgment.

But instead of seizing the opportunity, voters in FL-17 were given nothing but day-old leftovers. Not turkey leftovers the day after Thanksgiving, which can still be tasty, but more like the mashed potatoes and green peas five days later when the container they were in in the fridge has come off and everything had dried out and become less palatable.

The first "story" in the Herald on FL-17, by Beth Reinhard, circa pre-Christmas 2009, consisted of five sentences, one of which was a list of candidates names.
Talk about underwhelming, and it never got any better!

Nope, all the energy at the newspaper -never very great to begin with the past few years!- seemed to be focused almost entirely on the U.S. Senate race, not that there was much that was very original or compelling from Dec. 2009-July 2010 from the Miami side of the Times/Herald combine with the St. Pete Times.
Just lots of low-hanging fruit, much of it repeating what was first reported elsewhere.

It wasn't until mid-August, two weeks before the actual primary election between about 8-10 Democratic candidates, that what would normally be considered a genuine election campaign story on FL-17 ever actually appeared in the Miami Herald, and that one, naturally, made some obvious mistakes in describing what the exact boundaries of the CD were.
Yes, even though THAT should be the one thing the reporter -frequent HBB bête noire Patricia Mazzei- gets right. (Not that a correction was ever made!)

One legitimate news story in eight long months about an open congressional seat that nobody knew in advance who would win?
Really?
Yes!

That's the paradox of the American news media we have now.
Far too many print and TV reporters/editors/producers shrink from opportunities to do something original or bold, preferring the easy to write/produce stories about dubious polls and calling political consultants whose faces we recognize on TV before they say word one.

To me, political consultants as the go-to interview, is among the most troubling trends of the past fifteen years in journalism.
It's the lazy reporter's crutch.
They're asked what they think, instead of reporters proactively arranging to meet with large number of well-informed voters TO LISTEN.

Unfortunately, South Florida in the year 2011 is grossly over-represented by reporters, editors and producers who favor political campaign consultants as voices of reality to the very citizen voters themselves.

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http://www.nationaljournal.com/

Phil Bronstein's Bronstein at Large blog at the San Francisco Chronicle:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/bronstein/index

If the blog is rockin', don't come knockin' - Yngwie Malmsteen: Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (HQ); original version by ABBA (LIVE at Wembley Arena, 1979)

2Shaymcn video: Yngwie Malmsteen: Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (ABBA) HQ
http://youtu.be/tfmg_wV-QeU
If the blog is rockin', don't come knockin'...


Agnetha, Benny, Anni-Frid & Björn

Below, the one and only original version of Gimme!, as seen during the 1979 World & U.S. Tour promoting the Voulez-Vous album, whose first stop was Göteborg.
Thirty-two years later, I still largely recall the tour stops in chron order.
Trettiotvå år senare...



ABBA - Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (LIVE at Wembley Arena, November 1979)
http://youtu.be/RLtU7aOnp2U
Another previous post of mine on ABBA and that 1979 World Tour, that included the United States -though the best info will stay in my head- is from July 2, 2009, titled, ABBA Geniuses At It Again: Story Of A Heart, featuring Helen Sjöholm, Words & Music by Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus
If you are a new reader to this blog, I urge you to read it to get a better sense of me and my musical back-story and tastes, and why, perhaps, certain things will appeal to me and appear here on the blog that don't appear on other blogs or websites you regularly visit.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/abba-geniuses-at-it-again-story-of.html

As I note there, my music teacher in high school, at North Miami Beach Senior High, was one of the top studio musicians in the country, and regularly performed at Criteria Studios in nearby North Miami for all the top groups of the time when they came to South Florida to lay down some tracks, or, record an entire album, and that even included ABBA.

In fact, he was part of the album title song recorded at Criteria the month of my 18th birthday, for which this video was later recorded, and if I recall correctly, was to be part of the touring band as well.



ABBA - Voulez-Vous (1979)
http://youtu.be/OUx4tLPMo50

-----
http://www.yngwiemalmsteen.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/2Shaymcn
http://www.youtube.com/user/SHAYMCN1

Marco Rubio is crystal clear in Foreign Policy magazine - "How America Must Respond to the Massacre in Syria"

Foreign Policy
How America Must Respond to the Massacre in Syria
It’s time for President Obama to back up his rhetoric with firm action.
The first step: Recall the U.S. ambassador from Damascus.
By Marco Rubio
April 28, 2011

In recent days, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime has used its army to murder hundreds of innocent civilians as part of a vicious campaign of violence against unarmed Syrian demonstrators. What we are witnessing in Syria is another tragic outrage in the Middle East that requires immediate condemnation backed by specific measures from the United States and the international community. U.S. President Barack Obama needs to make clear whose side America is on, back up our rhetoric with action, and clearly articulate why Syria matters to the United States.

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/28/how_america_must_respond_to_the_massacre_in_syria

Watching and listening to the Royal Wedding of Prince William & Kate Middleton via BBC-TV and Radio's 5live

On the 5 live website yesterday, I spotted a very interesting video in which former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond "explains what life as a Princess for Kate Middleton could be like."

You can see it here, along with some other Royal Wedding related videos:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/5live/bestbits/

Above, my screen-shot of David Furnish and Elton John at Westminster Abbey around 10:05 a.m. looking around at the impressive scene all around them.

This morning, as planned, I'm listening to BBC Radio 5 live's coverage of the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton -the future Duke & Duchess of Cambridge- and watching the BBC-TV's worldwide coverage, the latter of which I'm watching on the local Miami PBS affiliate, WPBT, Channel 2.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/5live/#two

http://www.bbc.co.uk/

5 live's Victoria Derbyshire, Richard Bacon and Gabby Logan are hosting the coverage on the radio side and have already been mentioning some good factoids, anecdotes and stories of a sort that American reporters flown over to London for the occasion couldn't possibly know or tell as well, which is one of the reasons that I'm observing the wedding this way, and not watching the U.S. TV networks.

More of those factoids are here from Channel 4 News:
http://www.channel4.com/news/royal-wedding-prince-william-and-princess-catherine

http://www.guardian.co.uk/

And if you didn't already know, the nasty business with the Syrian Amb. to Great Britain and the Royal wedding invite has been resolved -he's out!

Channel 4's Snowmail of yesterday put it this way:

Syrian Ambassador's wedding invitation withdrawn
http://www.channel4.com/news/syrian-ambassador-uninvited-to-royal-wedding

SERVICE REVEALED
St James’ Palace, which is the official residence of the bridegroom's father - has issued an order of service for tomorrow’s proceedings which it boldly claims to be “the epitome of Britishness'. We will be examining whether it is, with three people who have some degree of access to the question of what ‘Britishness’ actually is.

Prince William and Kate's Royal Wedding details revealed http://www.channel4.com/news/prince-william-and-kates-royal-wedding-details-revealed

You can watch the last seven days of Channel 4 newscasts on their catch up player - available on iPhones and iPads too:
http://www.channel4.com/news/catch-up/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/royal-wedding/

And Hip Hip Hooray for Pippa!!!
http://www.celebuzz.com/2011-04-29/pippa-middleton-and-bridemaids-dresses-what-they-wore-photos/

That's not a chill, that's a Draft: With Dolphin fans at emotional nadir, will team continue frustrating at NFL Draft? Pick Mallett!

Above, Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn in New York for the 2007 NFL Draft -as seen on ESPN- reacting to the news that the Miami Dolphins had chosen Ohio State WR Ted Ginn, Jr. with their first-round selection and not him, to the vocal consternation of the Dolphin fans assembled around me at the Dolphins HQ in Davie, Florida. Screenshot by Mario J. Bermudez.

That's not a chill, that's a Draft!
Will the Miami Dolphins continue their recent feeble track record of confounding their frustrated fans by 'missing' and overestimating some player's "upside" or under-appreciating talented players who didn't play in big conferences, that other teams routinely score coups with?

(Don't forget, they didn't draft WR Devon Bess of Hawaii, though for long stretches of the past two seasons, he has been their best, most-consistent and hardest-working player. I'm glad he's on the team obviously, but what does that say about the actual draftees? Exactly.)

Well, since I was never in favor of the Stephen Ross regime as owner, or his hiring of Jeff Ireland and Tony Sparano as general manager and head coach respectively, I would guess the answer is NO.

In fact, my guess is that if the team performs as poorly as I expect this season if they don't show some imagination and make some good decisions in the draft that involve a certain amount of gambling, as well as sign solid guys during free-agency over the next four months, I expect the Dolphins to be in last place in the AFC East by the time December rolls around.

Then they will be playing the Eagles, Patriots and Jets in three of the last four regular season games, and the fourth game is at Buffalo the week before Christmas, and with the Patriots game in Foxboro on Christmas Eve.
Yes, at Buffalo and at New England in late December.
Hmm-m... what's the Dolphins record in cold weather games in December the past ten years? Exactly.

Given that, I expect that this will be Ireland and Sparano's last year with the Dolphins.

Their track record is completely unsatisfactory and the Dolphins feeble efforts at home games last year was one of THE biggest embarrassments in the recent history of the NFL.
Not just losing at home, mind you, but seeming at times to not even be trying or to even know what plays they were supposed to be doing.
It was worse than exasperating and nobody looked worse than Chad Henne, whom I was never ever sold on to begin with.

And three hours before the draft starts, the most recent video on the nfl.com site for the Dolphins is about the Brandon Marshall stabbing, not something about draft strategy.
http://www.nfl.com/videos/miami-dolphins
Pathetic!

To me, based on all the available information available and the games I've watched via the myriad regional sports packages of DirecTV, the Dolphins absolutely have to draft QB Ryan Mallett of Arkansas if he is still available and has not been selected by either the Redskins at #10 or the Vikings at #12.

While clearly not without some flaws, Mallett has the physical ability to get the ball to spots that few others can -on a dime- and the mental ability to learn from his mistakes and correct them, something that Chad Henne has repeatedly proven he can't do, no matter how obvious it is to players and fans alike.

NFL.com video: QB Quandry: Worst case scenario
http://www.nfl.com/videos/auto/09000d5d81f76d4f/QB-Quandary-Worst-case-scenario

If they draft an offensive lineman with this selection, as many of the experts on ESPN and the NFL Network have suggested, save Mike Lombardi,
http://www.nfl.com/draft/2011/mock-drafts to me, they will have officially become the woeful Lions of the early '80's or the St. Louis Cardinals before they fled west to Arizona: a couple of very talented guys in places, maybe even a pro Bowl player here and there, but by no reasonable measure a real team that can hope to win more than 8 games without their opponents collapsing.
Is that what Dolphin fans want?

I don't think so, but there is nothing on the resume of Ireland and Sparano that shows that either separately, much less when working together, they can help themselves from drafting a talented-but-safe player like Florida offensive lineman Mike Pouncey.
The past is prologue.

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/teams/page/MIA/miami-dolphins

Csaba Kulin's reasonable questions to Joy Cooper about city spending result in another Bob Norman post that highlights the anti-taxpayer culture here

The iconic Hallandale Beach Water Tower on State Road A1A/South Ocean Drive & Hallandale Beach Blvd. April 11, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Well, I can't honestly say that I'm surprised, given what I've seen here the past seven years. If seeing isn't believing in Hallandale Beach, Florida, it isn't true anywhere I've ever lived.

Wednesday's post by BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes columnist Bob Norman in his must-read The Daily Pulp blog, chronicled the to-and-fro of an email that my friend and fellow HB activist Csaba Kulin sent to the Hallandale Beach City Commission and mayor Joy Cooper recently about spending practices and patterns here, and compared them to the city that he and his wife lived in before spending most of the year here: Strongsville, Ohio.

-----
BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes
The Daily Pulp
Hallandale Beach Mayor Defends City in Sloppy, Error-Filled Email
By Bob Norman
April. 27 2011 @ 8:54AM

Ever heard of Strongsville, Ohio?

Neither had I, but it's apparently a suburb of Cleveland and a place where Hallandale condo president and activist Csaba Kulin used to live.

Kulin is amazed at the bloated cost of Hallandale Beach's budget compared to that of Strongville and recently wrote a letter about it to the City Commission.

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

Rather than re-invent the wheel here, I'll simply re-post below the (slightly-expanded) comments I added to the mix shortly after Midnight, in reference to one reader's comment that you couldn't really compare the spending levels of a city near Cleveland and one in tropical South Florida.

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For the record, since you refer to us being an ocean-side city, HB's beach is actually about the smallest beach in this county and NOT fun, attractive or even well-maintained despite being so small.

This despite the fact that in most Florida coastline communities, the beach is, to a large degree, the visible symbol of the city, and when people see things there that appear troubling, it only causes them to wonder even more about the aspects of city government that they don't or can't see.

Here in HB the problem is made worse because the city so clearly couldn't care less what the citizens or visitors think otherwise they'd... well, for one, NOT leave the maintenance equipment right in the middle of the beach -on North Beach- instead of storing it nearby where it's out of the way.

April 11, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

That equipment, by the way, consists in large part of rusty poles and large comb of steel which seems straight out of 1920's-era Soviet Russia, and doesn't clean the beach so much as level the sand, as if that were more important than actually cleaning and sifting-out debris.
But here, under the current regime, it is.

Rust never sleeps... or goes out of style in Hallandale Beach, though it should.
April 11, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

April 11, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Above, the lifeguard stand at Hallandale Beach's North Beach, the area north of the three condo towers of The Beach Club on State Road A1A/South Ocean Drive.
The simple information board on the south side of the board seems like a very simple item, and yet it took well OVER A YEAR for the city to replace the damaged ones here and at South Beach that were no longer usable. Not replace the lifeguard stand, just the board. The sort of thing that in the 21st Century, other modern cities can order and replace within days or a week. Here in Hallandale Beach, that process took over one year, so everyday for a year, visitors to the beach saw not just scratched scrawl marks and graffiti on the side of the guard stands, but a physical reminder that this city is poorly-managed and can't do something very simple. April 11, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

On Saturday at 10 a.m. in the Hallandale Beach City Commission Chambers -400 S. Federal Highway- is the city's citywide forum on the 2011-12 budget, and there is every reason to think there may well be more (and better) fireworks on display there than on the Fourth of July.

To promote the city's NE Quadrant meeting on April 11th at the North Beach building that took three years for the city to open to the public -three times longer than it took to build and given to the city for free- HB city's employees showed for the millionth time the sort of half-assed second-rate effort that passes for satisfactory and normal here which makes citizen taxpayers simmer.
April 11, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

A simple sandwich board was placed underneath the overpass above A1A/South Ocean drive. But rather than being placed where it was visible to traffic stopped at traffic lights going either north or south, or even by pedestrains walking to or from the beach, it was placed where it couldn't be read legibly by anyone.
For days, including the very day of the meeting. SNAFU! April 11, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

My friend Csaba Kulin's reasonable questions are important ones that he and I and many other concerned HB citizens have been raising and discussing in earnest since early last year, yet are routinely given the run-around, lip-service and attitude by the city's largely oblivious elected officials and staffers, save Comm. Keith London, who is, after all, just one of the five voting members. The ones who, in theory at least, set the public policies of the city, NOT the unelected City Manager, Mark Antonio.

For even deigning to ask what in almost any other city in America would be considered reasonable questions, my friend has been verbally attacked by a city commissioner -Dotty Ross- even before he got to the microphone to say anything.

Yes, the very same woman whose incompetency and helter-skelter dedication to the job she took an oath to perform, was captured perfectly last year by Thomas Francis in The Juice blog of The NewTimes, when she refused to come down to the Chambers from her office for a Special City Commission meeting on Mike Good's future as City Manager.

Meeting on Hallandale City Manager's Fate Canceled After Mayoral No-Show
By Thomas Francis, Fri., Apr. 30 2010 @ 10:50AM
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/2010/04/hallandale_special_meeting_mike_good_canceled.php

Her willful refusal to appear while she was in the building forced the meeting to be called-off for lack of a quorum. My post on that embarrassing spectacle was simply titled, Comm. Dotty Ross hiding in plain sight at Hallandale Beach's "Special Meeting" on City Manager Mike Good's employment; "Recall" is in the air!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/comm-dotty-ross-hiding-in-plain-sight.html

What you see here in print via the mayor's tone-deaf response is but the tip of the iceberg at HB City Hall.
If you doubt that, come to the public meeting on Saturday morning and see for yourself.

Coincidentally, Saturday will ALSO be the one-year anniversary of the self-disappearance of Comm. Dotty Ross.
A growing number of HB citizens think a successful recall campaign against Comm. Ross (and Comm. Anthony Sanders) in the Fall or early Spring of 2012 would be just the sort of disappearing act we'd all applaud, financially and policy-wise -addition by subtraction!

Three helpings of fascinating popstar Robyn: LIVE concert footage, behind-the-scenes and interview -some of it even in Engelska!

SVT video: Klubbland #11 Robyn.
Concert performances and behind-the-scenes with Robyn and her band at the Falconer Salen in Copenhagen, 2010.
http://svtplay.se/v/2224575/klubbland/klubbland__11_robyn

In this 22-minute program, that also has some spoken English conversations and English subtitles, Robyn sings complete versions of Fembot, Dancing On My Own, and With Every Heartbeat.
Just like it says on the Klubbland hemsida, "Gå på konsert varje vecka utan att lämna datorn" - "Go to a concert every week without leaving your computer."

Originally broadcast on SVT November 5, 2010, this video is available on SVT Play until Thursday May 5th, 2011.

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SVT video: -Robyn sings LIVE versions of With Every Heartbeat, and Be Mine at the 2008 Fredspriskonserten (Nobel Peace Prize Concert), Oslo, Norway, backed by a symphony orchestra, December 2008.
http://youtu.be/pkBwlOFM9D0

Wow! That's what crazy amounts of sheer talent performs like at a big-time event: pitch-perfect!

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http://svtplay.se/t/155215/robyn_-_live_i_stockholm
SVT video: Robyn - live i Stockholm (Live in Stockholm)

This December 15th, 2010 concert before 3000 fans at Berns Hotel in Stockholm was the climax of Robyn's 2010 U.S. and European tour, and was rebroadcast on SVT April 15th, 2011.
It's available for watching on the SVT Play website until Sunday May 15th, 2011 and is just under 57 minutes long.

Song order: Fembot, Dancing On My Own, We Dance to the Beat, and The Girl & The Robot

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http://svtplay.se/v/2391666/musik_special/robyn
SVT video: Robyn -Music Special (documentary)

Petra Markgren Wangler follows Robyn's career as teen idol until her amazing worldwide success of today and talks to her about her life as a popular artist and has lots of great behind-the-scenes footage of her tour.

Originally broadcast on SVT April 15, 2011, it's available for watching on the SVT Play website until Monday May 16th, 2011, and is just over 58 minutes long.

Featured songs include: Dancing on my own, With every heartbeat, and The girl and the robot.

-------

For more info, see Robyn's official website: http://www.robyn.com/

http://www.robynbodytalkin.com/

http://www.konichiwa.se

Her YouTube profile is at:
http://www.youtube.com/artist?a=GxdCwVVULXcVqb6b55ODLpd-r_cAtb0u&feature=artistob#

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

www.svt.se/klubbland

BrowardBeat's Buddy Nevins zeroes-in on Broward pols' hypocrisy over red-light cameras -and Angelo Castillo's name comes quickly to mind among some

Where's that red-light camera warning sign?
Looking west on W. Hallandale Beach Blvd. approaching N.W 10th Terrace, Hallandale Beach, Florida. About 6:50 p.m. on April 24, 2011.
Photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Where did you say that red-light camera warning sign was, again?
No, it's not that silver-colored one next to the curb, that the Merge/Bike lane sign. Looking west on W. Hallandale Beach Blvd. & N.W 10th Terrace, Hallandale Beach, Florida. April 24, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


Oh, there you are, red-light camera warning sign, intentionally placed right between two trees!
You only see the sign above because of the reflection of my camera flash, there are no street lights nearby. You'd almost say they were hiding it, yes?
Looking west on W. Hallandale Beach Blvd. & N.W 10th Terrace, Hallandale Beach, Florida. April 24, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


My own comments about Buddy Nevins' new post on red-light cameras at BrowardBeat, which I first read about around 10:15 p.m. Monday night, follow his own critical comments.

I read it while watching a new episode of NBC-TV's terrific and re-configured Law & Order: Los Angeles, which had a common element of the real-life murder last November of noted Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen thrown in, which I immediately caught despite not having read about the episode online or in print, but still felt uncomfortable about.
Chasen was the victim of a random shooting by a guy on a bicycle; in the episode, it was a hit.

Still, it was a hell of a compelling story well-told and is exactly why everyone I know is watching this show after the recent cast changes were made, with cast regular Alfred Molina sent from the DA's office to the detective squad, replacing the departed Skeet Ulrich, whose character was killed on the show a few weeks back after it finally returned to the air.

Dick Wolf Must Really Hate Skeet Ulrich
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/04/dick_wolf_must_really_hate_ske.html

Watching LOLA after Fox-TV's The Chicago Code is definitely a habit I could grow accustomed to. http://www.fox.com/chicagocode/

TheWrap
Ronni Chasen Laid to Rest, but Hollywood Can't Shake the Shock
By Sharon Waxman & Dominic Patten
Published: November 21, 2010 @ 10:31 am

They came by the hundreds from all across the country and within Hollywood. Every senior PR professional and most entertainment journalists but also composers, executives and movie stars -- to pay respects to Ronni Chasen, laying to rest the beloved publicist just five days after she was killed.

The primary message at the packed midday funeral service in the bright, fall air was of shock and loss. Elegant eulogies conveyed how fresh the grief was -- not yet a week removed from her senseless killing at the hands of a person or people still at large.

Read the rest of the post at: http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/indignation-hollywood-friends-set-bury-ronni-chasen-22675

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Broward Beat
TV Highlights Hypocrisy Over Red Light Cameras
By Buddy Nevins

Channel 6-NBC Miami proved tonight that elected officials who support red light cameras are hypocrites.

The report by Willard Shepard featured the red light camera Pembroke Pines has installed westbound at Pembroke Road and SW 129^th Avenue. This is at the southern entrance of Century Village.

I want to see any official claim how these particular Pembroke Pines cameras are being used as a safety measure. Their nose is growing.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.browardbeat.com/tv-highlights-hypocracy-over-red-light-cameras/

There was no video of this story on NBC-6 website as of 11:30 p.m. Monday night; I'll re-check Tuesday and post it on the blog if found so you all can see it for yourselves.

See also:
Broward Politics
Red light camera spokesman didn't like yesterday's post
By Brittany Wallman April 19, 2011 10:37 AM
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2011/04/red_light_camera_spokesman_did.html

Per the above, I should mention that every time I have posted something on my blog about the mendacious red-light camera situation in Broward County or Florida, esp. anything that is at all critical of them -which is each post on red-light cameras!- I quite suddenly get lots of hits from the home of American Traffic Solutions Inc., i.e the Phoenix area. Hmm-m...

Also, per the arrogant, condescending and patronizing tone of the note above in the Brittany Wallman post from Pembroke Pines Comm. Angelo Castillo -did I leave out an adjective?- as I stated recently to some of you via email, I'm really starting to fully grasp the full-dimension of my misplaced positive words about Castillo last year, as he has increasingly become for me the poster boy for the pro-govt., know-it-all Nanny State in Broward County that brooks no disagreement from its citizens.

Castillo's 'my way or the highway' attitude expressed in that note above is precisely the opposite of what an elected official should be saying right now in Broward, and, again, is about the last thing I'd have thought I'd be hearing out of him, based on his comments to me a year ago.
But make them he does, and with increasing frequency!

In one new story after another on Pembroke Pines -where my youngest sister lives- he somehow keeps finding himself on the side of everyone but the average taxpayer, having supported one pink elephant or govt-funded fiasco after another, and thus far, at least as the stories have been reported, there never seems to be even the slightest amount of doubt on his part about his actions, words or votes.

It must be great to be so sure of yourself, despite the observable, quantifiable facts all around you. General Custer must've had those traits in spades I think.

Frankly, I've wondered for the six months since Election Day why the Miami Herald never gave his truly disastrous County Comm. run last year the full Quincy, M.E. post-mortem it deserved, the sort that we have become accustomed to in other cities, since Castillo seems by most accounts to have run THE single-worst election campaign of any Broward candidate last year, esp. for one so well-financed and known.

The final totals for that three-way primary: Sharief 6,973 Castillo 2,415

Despite he and I having exchanged several friendly emails early last year, Castillo never once contacted me on when he was actually coming into HB to talk to the residents of the city living in that District 8, which had formerly been represented by Diana Wasserman-Rubin, until she was FINALLY arrested.

(Frankly, I don't know that he ever visited, since nobody I know ever heard about such a thing, which explains a lot in retrospect.)

I'd have been more than happy to post the meeting info here and remind people in emails, just as I would've been for (eventual winner) Barbara Sharief as well, because I wanted HB residents to take full advantage of the opportunity, however fleeting.
But despite having all my contact info, he never did anything to communicate.

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REMINDER: Don't forget that Comm. Barbara Sharief will be speaking at HB Comm. Keith London's Resident Forum at the HB Cultural Center Tuesday at 6 p.m.
http://www.co.broward.fl.us/Commission/District8/Pages/Default.aspx

Sharief has been a voice of logic, reason and sanity on the red-light camera issue, and has refused to be intimidated, or swallow whole the laughably bogus claims of local officials like Hallandale Beach and Pembroke Pines' mayors, Joy Cooper and Frank Ortis, that fall apart as soon as you examine them for facts, not spin.

It's telling that like Buddy Nevins says in his post, if there are problematic intersections that are responsible for a larger number of speeding-related accidents than seems reasonable, why aren't local city managers and mayors directing local police resources there to make their presence felt and change the dynamic?

The sort of thing that would have been common sense years ago in other cities I have lived in like Bloomington, Evanston and Wilmette, and which is still probably the first thing that happens in the cities and towns where many of you reading this now live.

That doesn't happen here in South Florida, though, for the very same reason that the HBPD doesn't care about all the speeding on U.S.-1, esp. at night, and while you are more likely to see someone pulled-over there by an Aventura policeman than you are a HB one. They don't want to do what's simple and necessary.

Instead, as I've mentioned so many times here, with photos, what happens is that rather than locate the second red-light camera in HB somewhere where it might actually do some public safety good, it's deliberately placed in a location, one block east of I-95, in order to nab drivers eager to get onto I-95 and out of the daily HB gridlock.

So tell me -since Mayor Cooper and City Manager Mark Antonio won't say publicly- why are there NEVER any HB police cars stationed near there if it really is a problem?

If Mayor Cooper were really interested in public safety, as she said she was a few weeks ago in her laughable performance with Mayor Ortis before the Broward County Commission, to cite but one example, why is it that for well over a year, despite everyone in the city seemingly knowing about it, for a few blocks on one of the three streets that directly lead to the HB Police Dept, it's pitch-black at night?

Yes, pitch-black, just like the Police Dept. and City Hall parking lots were so frequently for 6-9 months at a time, numerous times over the past few years, a subject I frequently mentioned at City Commission meetings and which the myopic and mendacious HB Police Chief at the time, Thomas Magill, completely ignored, along with the mayor and the city commission.

(The same way Magill continually ignored the broken parking lot light nearest the ONE security camera in front on the U.S.-1 side of the municipal building, having been out 99% of the time since the security camera were installed over three years ago. It's still out as of last night. And what about the city's liability in case something unfortunate happens? City Attorney David Jove takes the who-cares route, ignoring that possibility. month-after-month, year-after-year. Personally, I don't think the city's insurance company will take such a happy-go-lucky view, which is sure problematic for city taxpayers in the future in the event of a lawsuit.)

That pitch-black street would be Old Dixie Highway, the same street that's right near the city's largest park, Blusten Park, which many kids walk to and ride their bikes to and from everyday. The park's lights are usually turned off about 9:15 and then it's every man -or kid- for himself.

Safety is not what they care about in HB, revenue is.

Above, (diagonal) Old Dixie Highway looking north from S.E. 7th Street towards the Hallandale Beach Police Dept. HQ and parking lot on the right, two blocks away. The lights you see on the left are the auxilary lights at the city's municipal pool at Blusten Park. Hallandale Beach, Florida.
April 24, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

The photo above was taken WITH a flash, otherwise you'd see nothing but arc lights emanating from the pool area.

My prior posts on red-light cameras can be found at
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search?q=red-light

Because of the number of posts I've written on the subject, and the particular template and design I use on my blog, after you click the URL and go to the most recent one, continue to the end and right below the Google Ad Sense ad you will see "Older Posts."
Click that to see prior post on the subject in reverse chron order.