Monday Blog Bites

Hello readers,  I hope your Easter/Passover was a brilliant event filled with food, family and fun!

This weekend was witness to great running progress and a car break-in resulting in the loss of my Panasonic Lumix LX3. Both occurred on the same day – talk about the thrill of victory and agony of defeat mashed into one day. All is now well; driver side window replaced, Panasonic Lumix LX5 is arriving tomorrow and I still own ‘The Loop” at Kelly Drive.

A running buddy shared news of a new Nike Women’s Half Marathon scheduled for the Spring of 2013 in Washington, DC. Yes! Springtime in Washington, DC under new management with the Nike Women’s Half Marathon where finishers receive a Tiffany pendent – what could be more perfect than that? Sign up here to receive more details about the inaugural race.

It was disturbing to watch a video where a white citizen journalist was able to obtain the voting ballot of Attorney General Eric Holder during the recent primary election in Washington, DC.  It is one thing to level nebulous allegations of Diebold voter fraud and completely another when evidence is produced of actual voter fraud occurring during election day.

 Poor bunny didn’t last long at chez Tania…

How was your weekend? Hopefully your car remained undamaged 🙂

Media Malpractice 2012 Election

The comment pictured above ‘I am a journalist – I will take sides‘ was found on an ‘idea’ wall at the former site of Occupation Philly last November. As of this blog post, I’ve yet to determine which Philadelphia Inquirer employee left their note of solidarity with Occupation Philly.  Remember, these employees take pride in their fair and impartial reporting. Clearly, the charade has been uncovered and readers will need to seek out other independent news outlets **cough**MidnightBlue**cough**.

A recent Beltway Confidential report claims 19 journalists and media execs have signed on to TO 2012. Although no names are listed, I’m quite certain if names were listed they would match those uncovered in the Journolist scandal.  As a blogger, I’m legally required to add a disclosure statement to my product reviews to inform readers of any type of relationship I have regarding the product or sponsorship. I believe this is a good thing for my readers to know what influences (if any) are bearing on my reviews. In fact, I’ve been adding a disclosure to my reviews long before it became a legal necessity. I want to cultivate an environment of trust with my readers and I’m happy to make these disclosures.

What is troubling about the Beltway Confidential report is not that journalists are taking sides, they have been doing so for decades. The problem is the lack of transparency on the identity of these 19 individuals. They have essentially signed on to promote a product and should disclose any relationship they have with the DNC or TO2012 within the body of their work going forward. This is important, as every piece they produce in reference to the Presidential campaign is essentially advertising for TO2012.  The  public should be provided with disclosure statements from these individuals in order to make the informed decisions regarding the product – the presidential candidates. Without such transparency, it will be difficult for the average American to determine if the opinions expressed by these media employees  are independent thoughts or paid advertising.

Is their journalistic credibility not worth a moment of honesty in their work?

Protect Your Voice

We live in an amazing age of information pollination, where news and views can be disseminated globally literally within minutes. This technology allows for information sharing and collaboration between distant populations in ways that were practically and physically impossible a decade or two ago.

In recent months there has been an insidious threat to this wellspring of information in the form of SOPA. Bloggers and citizen journalists, better known as new media journalists, are not afforded the same protections within the legal system as print media journalists. They lack coverage under state shield laws and are not granted Freedom of the Press rights. The dissemination of information is no longer controlled by traditional media outlets, and shield laws should be updated to reflect this shift in reporting.

Protect your Voice.

Sign the Petition. 

 

Pie Man Smacked Down By Wendy Deng

The highlight of yesterday’s kangaroo court – AKA U.K. Parliament committee hearing – was the dramatic defense of Wendi Deng, wife of Rupert Murdock. When Jonathan May-Bowles slunk from behind to throw shaving cream at Rupert Murdock, Wendi sprung into action, smashing the disturbed man in the face and throwing the pie plate back at him.

Monday Blend

Nothing like a blend of news for Monday Night post #RaptureFail. So much going on in the world and so little time I have this week – full blame lies with my neglected garden.

And so it goes – David Prosser confirmed winner of the Supreme Court special election. Wisconsin special election board certified David Prosser as winner with a total of 7,004 votes ahead of Kloppenburg .

ABC News questions the reason behind Sunday’s horrific tornado storm that destroyed Joplin, Missouri. I’ll give you a hint…nature not humanity is the cause of this deadly twister.

FCC making up job numbers? Say it ain’t so Joe! Speaking of failed policy, Powerline posted a great summary of economists  Timothy Conley and Bill Dupor extensive study on the effects of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka Stimulus Bill). Bottom line – the stimulus stimulated government sector jobs and strangled job growth private sector jobs:

Our benchmark results suggest that the ARRA created/saved approximately 450 thousand state and local government jobs and destroyed/forestalled roughly one million private sector jobs. State and local government jobs were saved because ARRA funds were largely used to offset state revenue shortfalls and Medicaid increases rather than boost private sector employment. The majority of destroyed/forestalled jobs were in growth industries including health, education, professional and business services.

Peter Ferrarra at Forbes.com takes a look at Reaganomics vs Obamanomics. Wanna guess which one is an abject failure?

Convicted Ft. Dix domestic terrorists seek sentence reversal – apparently we did not show proper Umma…

So, Arnold Schwarzenegger fathered a child or two out of wedlock. What else is new under the sun?  The reigning Kings of Belgium and Monaco have also admitted to fathering children out of wedlock.  Should Arnold pay a price for his indiscretion?

Use Twitpic? A new deal inked with World Entertainment Network allows them to use your TwitPics for commercial use.  I rarely use this service and will see about removing my photos from Twitpic. I prefer Flickr where your photos are always yours.

Speaking of Flickr – I spent several hours this weekend perusing a spectacular but all to brief display at Longwood Garden called ‘Lilytopia’. Working in conjunction with fifteen Dutch breeding houses, Longwood Garden displays more than 13,000 lilies making this the largest Lily display in the nation. The lilies are flown overnight to the United States and kept in cool storage rooms till show time. It takes a year to plan the display and four days to install the display. The lilies are display grade flowers that are rarely seen outside the Netherlands. What a sensational treat for those lucky to live in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Below the cut is a slide show of the 2011 exhibit. Enjoy the pretty!

Friday Blend

Less than two weeks till I participate in the nation’s largest 10 mile race – The 2011 Broad Street Run.  If I’m not eating, sleeping or working, I’m running. The training has been great and I’m looking forward to participating in this event.

Of course, the world is not stopping in awe of my achievement and there are so many stories to touch on, so once again, I am turning to ‘The Blend’  to quickly cover stories that caught my attention the past few days:

Steven Crowder explains why liberal democrats of Wonkette and elsewhere hate disabled children – they are all cowards.

Two senseless deaths in a war Obama should not have dragged the U.S. into in the first place.

Ahh, is this the peace we want to support in Egypt? Egyptian rioters: ‘Christian governor must go!

Apple and Google collect data on smartphone users whereabouts. Honestly, I would be concerned if I had a good 3G signal with my iPhone4. For those that do, it is interesting to note that the location data collected will help you with your purchasing needs:

These databases could help them tap the $2.9 billion market for location-based services—expected to rise to $8.3 billion in 2014, according to research firm Gartner Inc.

Got your social media fix for the upcoming British royal wedding? Will and Kate and their wedding are mentioned on social media sites once every ten seconds. Wow!

Your McSandwich just got a price makeover:

McDonald’s Corp (NYSE:MCD – News) forecast higher prices for beef, dairy and other items and said it would cautiously raise prices to keep attracting diners, who are grappling with higher grocery and gas bills.

I’m trying to recall the last time I ate McDonald’s fare, hmm, perhaps years ago? News like this is a great opportunity to remind folks of the benefits of  growing their own.

Have you checked out DaTechGuy’s new blog? No? Click HERE.  Oh, now would be the best time to tell my readers and lurkers that the curtains will be changed on MidnightBlue. A redesign is in the works and details will follow.

Wednesday Blend

Shredded ballots in Wisconsin, Glenn Beck, GOP’s Path to Prosperity, Justice Prosser Fund, Atlas Shrugged movie targets Teaparty… there’s so much going on in the world, where do I start?

Well, here is good place to start – help spread the word to support the Justice Prosser Victory Fund

Steve Stromberg’s Spudnut Moment

Love her or hate her,  one has to admit that Sarah Palin schooled the Washington Post’s Steve Stromberg on Cold War history and modern day politics.

Sarah Palin - A New Face on Fox

Peter Schweizer writing for ‘Big Peace’ takes a closer look Steve Stromberg’s knee-jerk attack on Sarah Palin’s “Sputnik” criticism.

Memo to Stromberg: Read some history next time. Memo to President Obama: quit the myth-making.

Palin is right: Sputnik was the typical government solution; symbolism over substance. The Soviets did not really create the high-tech communications satellite everyone thought they did, and Washington really wasn’t threatened by it. They “welcomed it.”

Quoting from Wikipedia, Steve? Really?

File this under Sarah Palin All Month Long.

The CPAC 2011 Experience

I am happy to announce I will be attending the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington DC in February.  I’m doubly fortunate to have garnered sponsorship with the talented Bank of Kev bloggers and press credentials from Freedomworks.  Check the new badge MidnightBlue is sporting on the right side.

Boycotts, libertarian dust ups and teh Gay issue are setting the stage for high drama at CPAC or are some groups simply mistaking their importance to CPAC?  I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out during the conference.

Somethings, however, don’t change at CPAC. The following will happen at CPAC this year:

Andrew Breitbart will have a very public shouting match with (choose your favorite liberal) ; within an hour videos of the ‘debate’ will be viral.

Code Pink will try to crash the CPAC party.

Bottom dwelling journolisters* will find or fabricate evidence of mortal divisions between social conservatives and libertarians or invent curious ways to detect racism. I’m interested in observing which camp is feeding the bottom dwellers fresh meat. *Bottom Dwelling Jouno-listers include but not limited to: Tommy Christopher, Mike (Breitbart Fan Boy) Madden, and Max “Booger” Blumenthal.

Silver sequin heels will make an appearance.

Pamela Gellar and Robert Spencer will present ongoing and uncomfortable issues of Islam. This year she is presenting the movie – The Ground Zero Mosque: The Second Wave of the 9/11 Attacks.

Stay tuned for more updates as the conference approaches.

UPDATE: Sean Hackbarth writes the definitive open letter regarding the divisive tactics directed towards conservative ideals of CPAC.  The following bit of Sean’s most excellent letter, sums up my position since the November blame game started:

The fusion of economic, national security, and social conservatism has proven successful.

Who Dares To Edit The Bard?

With NewSouth Books publishers announcing their intention to scrub the ‘N’ word from Mark Twain’s classic Huckleberry Finn. I wonder what iconic literary text is next?

I had just finished re-reading Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (MND) on Kindle when I read about the scrubbing of Huckleberry Finn and wondered about this verse in MND:

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

HERMIA
Lysander, whereto tends all this?

LYSANDER
Away, you Ethiope!

Will NewSouth Books dare to edit the Bard?