No Ma'am - Boxer Violates Election Law

No Ma'am - Photo taken during the re-run of a television show depicting a gathering of men who were tired of being ordered around by women. The logo is a perfect expression to state the feelings of having a 28 year Senator be re-elected to another term. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2010)

No Ma'am - Boxer Violates Election Law

Election Watch: Barbara Boxer’s Campaign Breaks the Law, Solicits Help From Los Angeles Area Students Via Teachers

California’s Flash Report recently obtained a letter proving that Barbara Boxer’s campaign has attempted to solicit Los Angeles public school government and social studies teachers to urge students to “volunteer” for the Barbara Boxer senatorial campaign.

Here is a copy of the letter sent by the Boxer campaign to Los Angeles school teachers:

The Boxer campaign letter clearly requests “students to take part in our campaign” and “earn extra credit” doing so. “Various projects” out of the Boxer Hollywood campaign office are mentioned for would-be student volunteers along with a suggestion to view this Obama video:

The president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA) forwarded the Boxer “Dear Teachers” letter to and filed a complaint with the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Los Angeles Board of Education:

To the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Los Angeles County Board of Education: In abject ignorance of California state law, the political campaign of Senator Barbara Boxer has openly solicited teachers employed by LAUSD to urge their students to volunteer for her campaign. We trust that LAUSD will immediately inform all its personnel, credentialed or otherwise, that it would be a clear violation of law for teachers to recruit their students on school property during school hours to volunteer for a specific political campaign.

The HJTA president cites California Education Code, section 51520, which clearly states:

During school hours, and within one hour before the time of opening and within one hour after the time of closing of school, pupils of the public school shall not be solicited on school premises by teachers or others to subscribe or contribute to the funds of, to become members of, or to work for, any organization not directly under the control of the school authorities, unless the organization is a nonpartisan, charitable organization organized for charitable purposes by an act of Congress or under the laws of the state, the purpose of the solicitation is nonpartisan and charitable, and the solicitation has been approved by the county board of education or by the governing board of the school district in which the school is located.

The Boxer campaign, caught red-handed with their hands in the public school-electioneering cookie jar, admitted the authenticity of the letter but promptly issued a legalese-denial, non-apology style apology and punted responsibility to “volunteers” and a “junior staffer.”

Boxer campaign manager Rose Kapolczynski:

Because some local social studies teachers encourage students to volunteer, Boxer campaign volunteer coordinators notified a handful of schools near the campaign headquarters that the campaign was accepting volunteers. The letter did not ask teachers to solicit students to work on the campaign or to use school facilities, supplies or equipment for political purposes. The sole intent of the letter was to provide interested students with information about a volunteer opportunity. However, the letter, which was written by a volunteer and reviewed by a junior staffer, was inappropriate and we apologize. The author of the letter has been counseled and campaign coordinators will no longer conduct outreach to public schools.

The HJTA easily disproves this defense, stating in the letter sent to LAUSD and LACBE:

While claiming students will “gain an invaluable educational experience on [sic] one of the highest profile Senate races this election,” the letter candidly admits: “The Boxer campaign needs volunteers to help with various projects.”

One with perhaps even a modicum of legal knowledge, command of the English language, and common sense will gather that certain language in the “Dear Teachers” letter (eg, “The Boxer campaign (needing) volunteers to help with various projects”) is a political solicitation by the campaign.

The claim by Barbara Boxer’s campaign manager that the “Dear Teachers” letter was seemingly “inappropriate,” yet not illegal, is ludicrous. And forcing a lower level staffer to fall on the proverbial sword is beyond the pale.

We, at MAXINE, believe this question has to be asked in a society that prides itself on operating under the Rule-Of-Law - Why is the mainstream press in California ignoring this story?

(ht: excerpted and edited from Pajama's Media- Thursday, October 28th, 2010 - by Tim Daniel)

Tea Parties - When Citizen Journalism Is The Only Outlet

"Citizen Journalist Wanted" - banner ad on PJTV - Photo Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2009)

Tea Parties - When Citizen Journalism Is The Only Outlet

Today, April 15, 2009 … a day when all Americans are supposed to have their taxes filed with the Internal Revenue Service (headed by Timothy Geithner – a man who was allowed to cheat/then pay-up on his taxes), 750 gatherings of citizens are scheduled throughout the nation and not one mention on the front pages of Main Stream Media newspapers.

Examples:

New York Times Front Page

Image Credit: NYT.com

Boston Globe Front Page

Image Credit: Boston Globe, Online

The Los Angeles Times Front Page

Image Credit: LA Times online

Code Pink, Cindy Sheehan, A Day Without An Immigrant, Million Man March, and other demonstrations that will have way less people showing up to attend to show support in getting a message of displeasure out routinely get front page spreads and advance information as to the event(s) and what the issues of protest are about from the MSM jungle drumbeat.

This tea party movement has had no such 4th Estate involvement.

A brief history excerpted and edited from Michelle Malkin –

A Tax Day Tea Party cheat sheet: How it all started
By Michelle Malkin • April 15, 2009 08:14 AM

For the Johnny-Come-Latelys in the MSM who will be dispatched by their editors to file obligatory stories about the hundreds of Tax Day Tea Party protests across the country today, here is a cheat sheet to get you up to speed.

Feb. 15: Keli Carender, who blogs as “Liberty Belle” spread the word about a grass-roots protest she was organizing in Seattle to raise her voice against the passage of the trillion-dollar stimulus/porkulus/Generational Theft Act of 2009. It’s the first time she had ever jumped into political organizing of any kind. She is not affiliated with any “corporate lobbyist” or think tank or national taxpayers’ organization. She’s a young conservative mom who blogs. Amazingly, she turned around the event in a few days all on her own by reaching out on the Internet, to her local talk station, and to anyone who would listen.

Feb. 16: An energetic crowd of about 100 people came downtown to lambaste the Chicken Little process and the lard-up of the stimulus bill:

Word of the Seattle protest spread across the blogosphere. Readers suggested there should be a Denver protest on Feb. 17 to greet President Obama for the porkulus signing. Separately, the local chapter of Americans for Prosperity was already working to put something together on the fly. I met the head of the state AFP for the first time on the steps of the Capitol. No conspiracy here, tinfoil hatters. It was a union of like minds in an impromptu show of outrage against the legislation-without-deliberation process in Washington. Also there: Jon Caldara of the libertarian Independence Institute on one end of the spectrum and Tom Tancredo on the strict immigration enforcement end (hundreds of the protesters were mad about the absence of E-Verify standards for the stimulus funding):

On Feb. 18, 500 fed-up taxpayers showed up in Mesa, AZ to oppose President Obama’s campaign for massive expansions of the government mortgage entitlement and to mock what SC Gov. Mark Sanford rightly called savior-based economics. No top-down organization. Just the effort of local talk radio station KFYI. No Beltway GOP involvement. Zero national media coverage.

On Feb. 19, reader Amanda Grosserode e-mailed that she was organizing a tax revolt protest in Overland Park, KS the following weekend. More than 400 people showed up in freezing weather to protest Rep. Dennis Moore’s vote for the bill. Glenn Reynolds did the reporting the MSM didn’t do.

On Feb. 19, CNBC’s Rick Santelli issued his now-famous “Tea Party” call — prompted, many people forget, by Obama’s mortgage entitlement expansion plans (proposals I’ve protested whether from Democrats or moron Republicans):
----
On Feb. 21, the grass-roots Internet group, Top Conservatives on Twitter, founded by Michael Patrick Leahy and powered by Rob Neppell, announced “simultaneous local tea parties around the country, beginning in Chicago, and including Washington DC, Fayetteville NC, San Diego CA, Omaha Nebraska, and dozens of other locations”.
----
And along the way, detractors have fumbled and bumbled over how to discredit the Tea Party organizers — first blaming a cabal tied to CNBC, then jeering at the amateurishness of the participants before crying “astroturf,” then claiming the events were “financed by Fox News” or (fill-in-the-blank) conservative conspiracy, then smearing the protesters as crazed gun nuts (FNC’s Bob Beckel) and racists (FNC’s Geraldo Rivera).

Wouldn’t it be refreshing if MSM coverage refrained from parroting all the lazy, groundless, uninformed canards and reported the simple truth?
Reference Here>>

Again, large gatherings of Americans - NOT just Republicans, NOT just Democrats – are gathering in over 750 cities throughout the United States, and in most cases, Politicians have been dis-invited. Pretty much a definition of GRASS ROOTS, and all of this activity after the Department of Homeland Security has labeled this type of activity as part of the list of recruitment threats to Radical Right-Wing political activity and terrorism.

Don’t Tread On … Us!

Rise up and report Citizen Journalist!


UPDATE:

Tea Party Tax & Government Revolt Event - Glendale, CA, USA - Report, Photo, & Video Assets Here>>

CNN's "Reporting" of a Tea Party event - Example Here>>

Tea Party Event tally as of the beginning of day April 24, 2009 - (Pajamas Media):

Number of Events: 1,003
Overall Attendance: 847,651

For Some Obamaniacs, Chickens Are Roosting

If the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama "Twittered" - Image Credit: DC Examiner/Beeler

For Some Obamaniacs, Chickens Are Roosting

Way back in November 3, 2008, when the net worth of all people who had money in the stock market was worth about 100% more than it is today, many people voted for Barack Obama because he represented a new way. Hope and Change were the bywords of the new insider and euphoria was in the air.

Then the reality of an Obama Presidency hit them smack in the face and in six short weeks he has been in office, the “Chickens Have Come Home To Roost”.

Many good meaning liberal, independent, and moderate voices in the media are now beginning to voice their disappointment in the direction this Presidency is taking our country and they are seeing that the fantasy is a lot better feeling than the reality of this 44th Presidency.

FIASCO - The one word that will describe the 44th Presidency of the United States - Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2008)

This excerpted and edited from Pajamas Media –

‘I’m Maureen Dowd, and I’ve Been Had’
A support group for bitter pundits disappointed in Obama is quickly becoming necessary.
March 4, 2009 - by Jennifer Rubin

They may need a support group before the month is out. They could gather in New York or Washington where many victims reside. The meetings would start: “I’m Maureen [or David]. I’m a duped Barack voter. And I’m mad.”

The ranks indeed are filling with the disaffected and the disappointed — Chris Buckley, Maureen Dowd, David Brooks, David Gergen, and even that gynecological sleuth and blogger Andrew Sullivan.
----
Their complaints are varied but expressed with equal amounts of remorse and bitterness. They all have been done wrong by Barack.

Chris Buckley is in mourning over the loss of fiscal sobriety and the sense he has enabled a spend-aholic:

Mr. Obama is proposing among everything else $1 trillion in new entitlements, and entitlement programs never go away, or in the oddly poetic bureaucratic jargon, “sunset.” He is proposing $1.4 trillion in new taxes, an appetite for which was largely whetted by the shameful excesses of American CEO corporate culture. And finally, he has proposed $5 trillion in new debt, one-half the total accumulated national debt in all U.S. history. All in one fell swoop.

He tells us that all this is going to work because the economy is going to be growing by 3.2 percent a year from now. Do you believe that? Would you take out a loan based on that? And in the three years following, he predicts that our economy will grow by 4 percent a year.

Maureen Dowd has multiple complaints. She’s miffed that the post-racial president’s attorney general is playing the race card and she too has had it on the spending and business-as-usual fronts:

In one of his disturbing spells of passivity, President Obama decided not to fight Congress and live up to his own no-earmark pledge from the campaign.
He’s been lecturing us on the need to prune away frills while the economy fizzles. He was slated to make a speech on “wasteful spending” on Wednesday.

“You know, there are times where you can afford to redecorate your house and there are times where you need to focus on rebuilding its foundation,” he said recently about the “hard choices” we must make. Yet he did not ask Congress to sacrifice and make hard choices; he let it do a lot of frivolous redecorating in its budget.
----
Team Obama sounds hollow, chanting that “the status quo is not acceptable,” even while conceding that the president is accepting the status quo by signing a budget festooned with pork.

Obama spinners insist it was “a leftover budget.”
----
This is the first pork-filled budget from a new president who promised to go through the budget “line by line” and cut pork.
----
But given how angry Americans are, watching their future go up in smoke, the bloated bill counts as this year’s business.

It includes $38.4 million of earmarks sponsored or co-sponsored by President Obama’s labor secretary, Hilda Solis; $109 million Hillary Clinton signed on to; and $31.2 million in earmarks sought by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood with colleagues.

(Even Barack Obama was listed as one of the co-sponsors of a $7.7 million pet project for Tribally Controlled Postsecondary Vocational Institutions until he got his name taken off last week.)

And then there are the 16 earmarks worth $8.5 million that Emanuel put into the bill when he was a congressman, including money for streets in Chicago suburbs and a Chicago planetarium.

Then there’s David Brooks who like Michael Douglas in Fatal Attraction, sounds like he is quite remorseful to have chosen the wrong date. Looking for a moderate, he wound up with a crazed leftist:

You wouldn’t know it some days, but there are moderates in this country — moderate conservatives, moderate liberals, just plain moderates. We sympathize with a lot of the things that President Obama is trying to do. We like his investments in education and energy innovation. We support health care reform that expands coverage while reducing costs.
----
There is evidence of a party swept up in its own revolutionary fervor — caught up in the self-flattering belief that history has called upon it to solve all problems at once.

So programs are piled on top of each other and we wind up with a gargantuan $3.6 trillion budget. We end up with deficits that, when considered realistically, are $1 trillion a year and stretch as far as the eye can see.
----
Those of us who consider ourselves moderates — moderate-conservative, in my case — are forced to confront the reality that Barack Obama is not who we thought he was. His words are responsible; his character is inspiring. But his actions betray a transformational liberalism that should put every centrist on notice.

And then there’s David Gergen who frets that not enough time is being spent on the economy (oh, that) and too much on an overly ambitious agenda. So he calls for a “course correction.”

Andrew Sullivan, back from his investigative work on the Sarah Palin pregnancy, has now discovered the fiscal conservatives have been had. Alas, his hopes for fiscal sobriety are being washed away in a spending spree worthy of a drunken sailor:

We are being presented with what can only be described as a massive increase in government spending and power with the only fiscal balance being wringing much more money from the successful. The president predicted a tight budget and spending control in his non-SOTU, and he appealed to fiscal conservatives by promising a long-term attack on entitlement spending. I see nothing here yet that fulfills that promise.
----
All in all it is one dismayed and bitter group, filled with recriminations and a bit of self-flagellation.

They and the rest of the country are figuring out the bitter truth: Obama bears little resemblance to the moderate and soothing figure who tied up John McCain in knots. He bears even less resemblance to the Agent of Change. Rather he’s pretty much the Chicago pol who went to the Senate to be its most liberal member.

And for the wounded Obama supporters, we can offer just one bit of counsel: you have lots of company. There are trading floors filled with sympathetic souls and businesses filled with stunned executives. They didn’t get what they bargained for either. Just ask Jim Cramer. Oh yes, please do invite him to your sessions when he’s not busy with the “I lost my life’s savings” support group.
Reference Here>>

Even Chris Matthews of MSNBC is loosing that feeling he felt "running up and down his leg" and is taken aback at the level of spending this Presidency is putting forward and his lack of a commitment to a line by line review.

A proposed budget spending $3.6 Trillion dollars against a country that is running a total debt of between $10 and $11 Trillion dollars … a budget that is one-third of what we already owe ourselves and the world may actually begin to kill the chickens we wish to eat!

Our recovery from Obamamania is going to take way more ... than just “Twelve Steps”.

Hamas Leadership Dispenses Terror That Cuts Two Ways

In a public relations campaign launched in the Palestinian Authority, the Hamas terror organization is claiming victory over Israel's withdrawal and promises to terrorize Haifa and Tel Aviv until Israel is defeated and Palestine restored to the Arabs. They are taking credit for the Israeli withdrawal, saying that Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip defeated by the "resistance," not as the result of "useless negotiations." Caption and Image Credit: Hyscience

Hamas Leadership Dispenses Terror That Cuts Two Ways

The biggest tell on a government and its attitude toward its people in a crisis situation is how it responds to the protection and care of the citizenry.

Hamas has finally poked the beehive of Israel to where the government of Israel had to respond with a damaging force where the Hamas leadership knew that Israel would not tolerate having rocket bombs being shot into their national boundaries any longer.

After Israel dropped bombs on the launching points from where the Hamas initiated rocket bomb activity had been traced, collateral damage in sued and injuries to the citizens who lived under Hamas rule needed a response. The appropriate response would be to allow a quick first medical response in order to allow the injured but living to remain living.

This excerpted and edited from Pajamas Media –

Revealing Silence at the Gaza-Egypt Border
Why does Hamas victimize its own people? And why doesn't the media call them on it?
January 2, 2009 - by Richard Landes

At about 1:10 on Sunday, December 28, 2008, the BBC anchor Peter Dobbie found out, along with his audience, that there were 40 Egyptian ambulances ready to evacuate wounded, and lorries full of medical goods sent by Qatar to restock Gazan hospitals, waiting at the border crossing in Egypt. (According to another source there were also 50 Egyptian doctors ready to go into the Strip to help.) Since Dobbie and his audience had heard the repeated complaint from the people in Gaza that the hospitals were overwhelmed by the injured and desperately lacking in supplies, one would have expected the border to be full of purposeful activity. Instead, nothing was happening. The Gazan side lay silent.

A real journalist, someone with a smell for revealing anomalies, would have immediately recognized this as an important story to follow up on. After all, Dobbie had not hesitated to interrupt and challenge Israeli spokesmen on precisely the issues at stake: the disproportion between Israeli-caused fatalities and Israeli-suffered fatalities, the inevitable suffering of innocent civilians when such a bombing campaign takes place in so densely populated an area. “The math doesn’t work,” said Dobbie, implying what commentators emphasized elsewhere — the “disproportionate use of force” the Israelis were employing.

So here was a perfect issue with which to challenge Hamas spokesmen: If they were so distraught at the loss of life of their own people, why didn’t they take care of them? What on earth would possess Hamas not to avail themselves of what they pleadingly told the world they so desperately needed? As the honest and courageous Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey put it, “My head hurts.”

Alas, the BBC did nothing of the sort. The next six hours saw nothing but canned footage repeating Palestinian complaints, voiced not only by Hamas spokesmen and BBC reporters, but UN officials like Chris Gunning and human rights advocates, and, of course, others in the Western MSM.
----
Too bad. Had the BBC behaved like real journalists instead of parroting Palestinian narratives, they might have taken the “golden” (read excremental) thread that leads out of the labyrinth and straight to the “real story.”

That story, of course, is the dreadful Palestinian strategy, taken to new heights by Hamas in the early 21st century — play the victim card at any cost. In this case, create a genuine humanitarian crisis.
----
Hamas initially offered two reasons for not allowing the wounded out: 1) the roads were too dangerous to venture out on, and 2) they were composing a list of the wounded.
----
Then Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum, speaking to Khaled Abu Toameh, denied the Egyptian allegation that Hamas was to blame, “claiming that many of the wounded rejected an Egyptian offer to receive medical treatment in Cairo in protest against Cairo’s ‘support’ for the IDF operation.
----
On the contrary, as Ma’an News Agency reported, Hamas would allow no passage of wounded until the border was completely open.
----
And of the 600 wounded (according to Palestinian sources) all of them, suffering in a ludicrously crowded and understaffed hospital, refused to go to Egypt?

Although the reasons are hollow, they do tell us about Hamas priorities, and the overwhelming message of this refusal is that helping their own civilians survive ranks very low on their scale, well below revenge and public relations concerns. Indeed, as with Israel, so with Egypt: they hold their people hostage to maximalist demands.

Some say Hamas doesn’t care about their people. The evidence suggests far worse. They actively seek the victimization of their own people. Indeed, the enormous resources they have expended on the constant, if largely ineffective, barrage of rockets on Israeli civilians is actually quite staggering. Not only have they lavished much of their meager resources to this vicious and gratuitous activity, but, as a result of those attacks, guaranteed that their borders would be closed and their people would continue to suffer — hostages to their hatred. Thus, the phony excuses offered for the border snafu disguise something far more sinister: Hamas wants the crisis; they want civilians dying dramatically in wretched hospitals.

On the face of it, it seems absurd that a government would actively victimize its own people. What advantage in making an already miserable people suffer even more?

There are two major explanations here. First, Hamas, like many other Palestinian groups, is addicted to violence against Israel. Anything they can do, no matter how small, to make Israelis suffer, they will do, whatever the cost.
----
But the second explanation is far more disturbing, because it involves the media. Hamas only gains a real advantage to having Palestinians suffer if they, who do so much to inflict that suffering, can blame it on Israel.

It would be absurd for Hamas to stand in front of the world and say, “Look at how much we make our own people suffer; join us in hating Israel.” So the game is intensely hypocritical. It depends on getting public opinion, both in the Arab-Muslim world and in the West, to accept a scapegoating narrative — the Palestinian Guernica — that deflects responsibility.

And the pathetic thing is that it works.
Reference Here>>

The truly odd thing to all of this is that this scapegoating narrative of suffering has a parallel application.

This strategy of deflecting responsibility is also being used by our current Executive and Congressional leadership to diffuse the problems in our economy in the causes and attempts to right the wrongs caused by our leadership.

Further, they have a willing partner in the forces of the MSM to NOT report the story outside of the narrative template that Hamas is using in its campaign of terror in the Middle-East.

To reconstruct the questions asked at the beginning of this article:

Why does our Executive and Cogressional Leadership victimize its own people through social engineering agendas (using taxpayer money in programs that continue to fail)? And why doesn't the media call them on it?

Rashid Khalidi Unmasked

Rashid Khalidi sees perils for the U.S. in empire building while ignoring its own professional Middle East experts and the history of the region. Khalidi is Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies and director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University. He formerly taught at the University of Chicago. His talk [at UCLA] was in part to promote his new book, Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America's Perilous Path in the Middle East. Caption and Image Credit: UCLA

Rashid Khalidi Unmasked

For some people, the process of judging ones character and the validity of ones judgment must begin with the calculation of affiliation and association.

The Los Angeles Times finds it more important to withhold information to a consuming and curious public at a time when their receipts are way down … subscriptions dropping like a rock, because they understand how important the calculation of affiliation and association really is.

The following article might give a some insight as to why the LA Times will not release the video they have with Barack Obama sharing dinner with Rashid Khalidi. The post carries a link to a shocking video from a Rashid Khalidi lecture and may give insight as to why the Los Angeles Times is running interference for Barack Obama.

Columbia University Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies, Rashid Khalidi's keynote address at the "Palestine: 40 Years of Occupation, 60 Years of Dispossession" conference in Portland, Oregon, on June 23, 2007.

This excerpted and edited from Pajamas Media -

This Is the Khalidi, Obama Embraced
October 31, 2008 - by Jennifer Rubin

Many others have surmised that the Los Angeles Times is running interference for Barack Obama, declining not just to provide the tape of the Rashid Khalidi goodbye event which Obama attended in 2003, but a complete transcript [assumed, because that is what we are told].

It is reasonable to ask - what could have been so bad about the event ... what could possibly have been so objectionable about the speeches or proceedings that might concern voters at this late date?

Well, the original Times report gives us only the sketchiest account. But now we have a video of a complete Khalidi lecture from June 2007. It is quite an eye-opener.

Viewers curious about the views of the man whom in 2003 Obama gave a “warm embrace” (physically or verbally?) should skip to the fifty-minute mark on the video tape.

You see, Khalidi tells us, the U.S. is repeating the same error of the Cold War in pursuing its war against Islamic terrorists. According to Khalidi it is the same “blind, foolish, reductionism.” And the U.S. policy is designed according to Khalidi to “get Palestinians to destroy one another.” And on it goes.

His view of Israel?

It is worse than “apartheid.” Continue to the end of the tape when he is asked about the massive Israeli media conspiracy headed by none other than Mortimer Zuckerman.

He doesn’t quite buy into that, but his description of American Jews who control the money and votes to manipulate Congress sounds an awful lot like Mearsheimer and Walt’s “The Israeli Lobby.” Or General Tony McPeak for that matter.

So it would be very interesting to see precisely what Khalidi said in Obama’s presence four years earlier. Was the rhetoric above the sort of language which preceded the warm words of praise from Barack Obama? The specifics matter, the context is crucial.

Obama claims he was never present for the anti-American and anti-Israeli rants of Reverend Wright. But he was there for a tribute to Khalidi, and voters should have the right to know if he sat impassively when Israel was vilified or if he seemed concerned when, as the Times tells us, “a young Palestinian American recited a poem accusing the Israeli government of terrorism in its treatment of Palestinians and sharply criticizing U.S. support of Israel.” (According to the Times, “If Palestinians cannot secure their own land, she said, “then you will never see a day of peace.”).

Did he seem concerned when “One speaker likened ‘Zionist settlers on the West Bank’ to Osama bin Laden, saying both had been ‘blinded by ideology’”? We don’t know. The Times won’t tell us.

But we should know. Obama has presented a certain face to the voters and we should see if it matches up to the face he showed others before he imagined anyone outside his circle of like-minded comrades might take particular notice.
Reference Here>>

In a Carter's Second Term (if Barack Obama becomes president) ... What role will this association of President Obama's play - would this guy become our chief adviser to the Middle East ... or just the ambassador to the Palestinians?

The Last National Debate By A Clinton Ends In Whimper

Opening shot of the last democrat party presidential primary debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (MAXINE) - via photo from computerscreen of MSNBC Video

The Last National Debate By A Clinton Ends In Whimper

Whining and whimpering her way through the questions posed by NBC’s Brian Williams and Tim Russert, Hillary Clinton played the victim card throughout the the ninety minute debate held on MSNBC. This may very well be the last appearance in a national political debate for political office by any Clinton (Bill or Hillary).

“I have a great deal of respect for Senator Obama, but we have differences, and in the last several days, some of those differences in tactics and choices that Senator Obama’s campaign has made ... have been very disturbing to me,” she said at the outset of the debate.

But the real whining started at the answer on the second subject question posed in the debate and both were first directed to Hillary Clinton. She pointed out through a question … why is it, that in these debates, I always get asked the questions first? - “I seem to get the first question, all the time!” she said.

As President, Hillary, you would always get the first question!

On a question from Tim Russert about providing financial disclosure and tax return documents before this next Tuesday’s Ohio and Texas primaries, she responded (paraphrased), “I will try but Tim, I am little busy right now, I barely have time to sleep.”

You know, Tim ... Hillary Clinton at the last democrat primary debate (Ohio). Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (MAXINE) - via photo from computerscreen of MSNBC Video

About the debate, this from Vodkapundit’s Steven Green posted up at Pajamas Media –

Final Face-Off: Clinton, Obama Spar in Ohio
by Stephen Green - Vodkapundit - 2-27-2008

During the lead-up to Saturday’s debate in Texas, all the pundits agreed that Hillary Clinton needed to come out swinging. But she played nice instead. So the big question before the Ohio debate was: Which Hillary Clinton would we see? Conciliatory Clinton or Pillory Hillary? Now, as any honestly greedy person will tell you, the answer to most either/or questions is… Both!

And that’s what we got in tonight’s debate — both Hillary Clintons.

Clinton was at great pains to make sure we knew where she and Barack Obama agreed. On NAFTA, on the need to get out of Iraq, on the necessity for universal health care… Clinton always made sure we understood exactly where she was in sync with the ever-more-popular junior senator from Illinois.

Clinton was also at great pains to make sure we knew where she disagreed with Obama. More often than not, their disagreements were over the minutia of policy details. Ann Althouse called the debate “an annoying combination of wonky and angry.” She got that right.

The debate opened with 16 minutes of discussion over whose mandatory health care plan was the most mandatory, and whose was slightly less intrusive. That part of the debate went on so long, in fact, that moderator Brian Williams even joked about it near the end. And what did we learn? That Clinton cares very deeply whether or not anyone, anywhere, might somehow be able to escape the clutches of HillaryCare. We also learned that Obama cares only very slightly less.

On NAFTA the candidates are agreed: Free trade sucks. Although Obama was quick enough to provide a little shout-out to American workers’ productivity, a smart move in blue-collar Ohio. In fact, that line could be seen as poaching on yet another of Clinton’s core constituencies. It could be seen that way because that’s exactly what Obama was doing. Neither candidate would be cornered into threatening to cut off NAFTA inside of six months, but both promised to “reexamine” or “renegotiate” the treaty. The fact that the original agreement took years, not months, to negotiate was left unmentioned. That NAFTA then took a determined President Clinton and a lot of willing Republican Senators to get ratified was left unmentioned, too.

The two candidates also disagreed on… well, mostly they disagreed on who would make the best president. Tonight’s telling detail was the Man Who Wasn’t There. Both candidates agreed that George Bush was terrible, awful, etc. But the name left virtually unmentioned was John McCain. One of these two potential nominees will almost certainly be squaring off against McCain next fall. Was their failure to frame themselves against him a sign of confidence or weakness?

If I had to summarize the debate with some clever sounding phrase, I’d call it the “Chinese Food Debate.” An hour later, I remember there being a lot of stuff on the table, but all I feel is empty inside.

My favorite Clinton-leaning blog, TalkLeft, summarized the debate like so:

NBC stinks. Tim Russert stinks. Brian Williams stinks. Keith Olbermann stinks. Chris Matthews stinks. Who won the debate? No one. Who lost? Everyone. [I guess facts DO matter, when it is "your girl" getting the short end of the media glow]

So who really won? My gut tells me that nobody won — which counts as a win for Obama. If you really want to know who won, don’t look at tomorrow’s poll numbers. Instead, wait until the weekend. If by then, Clinton is still sinking in Ohio, then chalk up one very big win for Obama. If Hillary holds steady, then score it as a minor win — again, for Obama. Clinton had too much to do tonight, and too little time to do it in. And with too little sympathy, I think, in middle America for her efforts.

Clinton was at great pains to separate herself from her husband’s trade legacy. She was at great pains to separate herself from her Iraq War vote. She was at great pains to draw distinctions between herself and Obama. Mostly what came across was, Hillary Clinton was in great pain.

Twin losses in Texas and Ohio next week might just put her out of her misery — but don’t count on it. The Clinton we saw tonight might not have fought well, but she certainly showed that, at long last, she’s willing to fight.
Reference Here>>

Hillary Clinton explains universal healthcare to Barack Obama. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (MAXINE) - via photo from computerscreen of MSNBC Video

In order for the debate to be deemed a Chinese food debate … there would first have to be some food … any food.

No entitlements discussion (where was Social Security and Medi-Care?), no real immigration discussion, no discussion on the fact that there are six Supreme Court justices past the age of 68.

Did anyone notice Barack Obama’s answer on how he would handle a hypothetical, but plausible situation where Russia’s Vladimir Putin builds up his armies and decides to station them in Serbia … “As president, what would you do?”, queried Tim Russert.

“Well, first, I would contact the international community, many of whom have recognized Kosovo … “

When do the citizens of the United States get to hear a debate, and vote for the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES?!

I do not know about the rest of you, but we, at MAXINE, are tired of watching discussions between politicians & potential leaders who believe they are doing the best job they can at running for Student Body President.

On this issue alone (Russia’s build-up), the sound of “President John McCain” is beginning to have a nice ring to it!

Entire Debate Here>>

Blogworld & New Media Expo -- “Woodstock For Wordsmiths”

"Turn out the lights ... the party's over" - BlogWorld & New Media Expo 2007 show banner at night after the show. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (MAXINE)

Blogworld & New Media Expo -- “Woodstock For Wordsmiths”

Attending a tradeshow usually becomes an exercise in real work. One attends conference modules headed up by well oiled presentations that are tightly scripted and thinly veiled attempts at a one hour advertisement of the product or service the presenter is tied to. Exhibits on the showfloor, generally, are laid out with the fortune 500 companies and/or industry leaders of the exposition's primary focus at the front of the hall, followed by dozens of “me too” offerings scattered throughout the hall. One has to turn over a lot of rocks in order to find a gem to write about or to find a new, unique approach that amazes.

Blogworld & New Media Expo was a tradeshow of a surprising and different stripe. First, this debut of a conference and exposition presented strong, established, and well defined names that operate successful media and world wide web communications platforms. Blogword then included newer technology players into the mix, and attracted an audience of over 1,500 focused and information-starved (this does not mean uninformed) weblog participants looking to become better at the craft they forge. The wealth of discovery and collaboration of this unique event was impressive.

Educational and reference resources were in abundance at the BlogWorld Bookstore. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (MAXINE)

In the conferences, the offering of expert-presented topics was almost too much too absorb. Topics were broken down into focus tracks which helped but many of the topics overlapped, so it was impossible to get to all of the information available – kind of like one large supermarket of information. One small suggestion for future consideration --- have longer trade show visitation periods planned into the conference schedule and possibly offer the most heavily-attended sessions at more than one timeslot to allow access to more exhibitors and session topics.

Andy Beal presenting on "Integrating New Media into your Marketing Mix". Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (MAXINE)

Track titles included Beginners, Advanced, Podcasting & New Media, Entrepreneur, Monetization, Executive, Sports Blogging, Milblogging, Political, and Special Interest Sessions. Each track offered four sessions on different topics per day and, to be honest, this was a little overwhelming. For example, if one were a writer on politics and wanted to learn how to subsidize his effort, he would have trouble choosing between sessions held at the same time titled “Smart Ways To Monetize Your Blog” and “The Power Of The Political Blogosphere.” Needless to say, many choices and so little time. Perhaps that's what made it such a great event.

Hugh Hewitt broadcasting his radio talkshow live from the tradeshow floor. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (MAXINE)

On the exhibit floor, many new and innovative software, advertising, and web community companies populated the hall, all with a great story to tell. Due to the rapid interest and growth of the social media side of the internet (Technorati currently tracks 110 million weblogs), some company efforts were showing for the first time.

TALKSHOE tradeshow booth demonstration. Anyone can easily create, join, or listen to live interaction audioblogs, podcasts, discussions, and conversations (called Talkcasts). Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (MAXINE)

Yahoo, AOL, Pajamas Media, The Truth Laid Bear, Technorati, Microsoft, Townhall.com, Blogger & Podcaster Magazine, SharedBook, ibnma – International Blogging & New Media Association, lingospot, podango, sphere, DOC’S Sports Service, Blog Talk Radio, PRWeb, and GodBlogCon were just a few of the exhibitors with strong solutions wanting to grow with this whole communications concept that has come to be known as BLOGGING.

With all the time spent absorbing information and solutions at the show one would think there would be little time to connect and network on a more human level – WRONG! On opening night, a pajama party sponsored by several industry leaders (Pajamas Media, Zune, Technorati come to mind) billed as the “World’s Largest Pajama Party” was held at “The Joint” inside the Hard Rock Hotel. Several people took the pajama challenge seriously and the crowd attitude was running high from physical community discovery. Both DJ-performed and Live Music played throughout the evening with an interruption for the 2007 Weblog Awards. Food, Fun, and Conversation were in plentiful supply as the night wound on with few people feeling pressed to end this time spent with like-minded people too early.

Weblog 2007 Video Category winner, Mary Katharine Ham. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (MAXINE)

Yes, this first ever Blogworld & New Media Expo was a surprising success and it all goes off again next year in September 2008 right here in LA’s favorite suburb … Las Vegas.

Come one and come all to the second edition of a "Woodstock for Wordsmiths” … all the like-minded people, music, no mud!

Congratulations to all the 2007 Weblog Awardees!

















blogworld expo

VIVA, Las Vegas! – It’s A Whole New (blog) World!

Image Credit: infohostels.com

VIVA, Las Vegas! – It’s A Whole New (blog) World!

From LA, it’s just a short four hour drive across the desert with the “FM 98&99 - The Highway Stations" filling in on the background while we, at MAXINE press across the winding road to Las Vegas. Starting Wednesday, and continuing through to Friday, a “First Ever” tradeshow catering to individuals and businesses that tie at least some of their efforts to the process of communication and commerce through the computer and the internet.

Featured exhibiting enterprises include weblog advertising agencies, news source aggregators, web-metrics analysis companies, digital to analog (and back) publishers, broadcasting/podcasting audio and video enterprises, search engine and front page information tools businesses, virus security protection companies, investment opportunity enterprises, special interest blog communities, communications associations, application software developers, employment agencies, transportation companies, and website development entrepreneurs.

Beginning Wednesday, a one day conference entitled Executive & Entrepreneur Conference – followed Thursday and Friday by blogworld & New Media EXPO will highlight all that the this brave new digital communications world has to offer. The Executive & Entrepreneur Conference will host sessions that will explore subjects from “The Importance of Blogging & New Media In Your Organization/Strategic Marketing” to Search Engine Optimization: Best Practices, and includes “Going Global with New Media”.

blogworld& New Media EXPO conference continue with two more days of sessions on “Citizen Journalism & Mainstream Media” to “Smart Ways To Monetize Your Blog”, and includes “The Cult of Blogging” featuring radio talk show host, Hugh Hewitt and Blog Entrepreneur, Arianna Huffington.

On the exposition floor, recognizabe WWW. names such as YAHOO!, Microsoft, AOL, Pajamas Media, CAMPAIGNS & ELECTIONS, CLIQ, GodblogCon 2007, ibnma (International Blogging & New Media Association), Kithbridge, podango, PRWeb, SharedBook, SOUTHWEST Airlines, sphere, Technorati, and Townhall to mention a few will all be trying to capture the attention of and create a greater sense of community with - The Blogger. Surrounding activities include a private pre-release movie premiere of Grace Hill Media’s “Kite Runner” with a question and answer session with the star of the movie moderated by respected movie critic and radio talk show host, Michael Medved.

This from Grace Hill Media -

Image Credit: ecj via Grace Hill Media

And a major sponsor pajama party at “The Joint” at the Hard Rock Hotel! This from Pajamas Media -

What Happens at Blog World Stays at Blog World
Posted At Pajamas Media 11-07-2007

On Thursday and Friday, bloggers and blog readers will assemble at the Las Vegas Convention Center for the first annual Blog World Expo. In addition to the non-stop panels, a “Pajama Party” will be held Thursday night at the Hard Rock Hotel. Among the Pajamahadeen on hand: Glenn Reynolds, Roger L. Simon, Rick Moran, Stephen Green, Ed Driscoll and Aaron Hanscom. Read more about the festivities, prizes, and (yes) showgirls…

TRUEVIEW EVENTS - Murder Mystery days, Murder Mystery dinners, Murder Mystery teambuilding events. Film Making days, Advert making days, Treasure Hunts, and many more teambuilding activities. Image Credit: Trueview Events in association with Pajamas Media

It’s Vegas, after all, and when in Rome… Showgirls wearing Pajamas Media sashes. At the Pajamas Media booth, comic Evan Sayet will be holding forth as the “White House Press Secretary” twice a day. Visitors to the booth get a free Pajamas Media sleep mask. And those who are bold enough to hold their own Press Conference have a chance to win an iPod!
Reference Here>>

A new effort that helps to find relevant information, posts, and Direct Media efforts and evaluate them is Kithbridge. At the show, during lunch, Kithbridge software search and display solutions found blog posts that featured blogworld & New Media EXPO which had been published to the web Wednesday morning and placed then in letter by letter motion on screens in the hall for everyone to see. Here is a video example of this post being displayed through the Kithbridge demo over the lunch break.

The point of all of this is to allow the people who participate in this relatively new pursuit of weblog-ing and associated world wide web activity to come together as a community and share in this like minded effort to mix/mingle and communicate. It's kind'a like a "Woodstock for Wordsmiths" ...

blogworld expo

The Real Survivor Fiji – The Ying & Yang Of Economics

Malalo Island – Image Credit: Vixenbird from review Fiji Fun

The Real Survivor Fiji – The Ying & Yang Of Economics

The new military junta now ruling the island nation of Fiji loves to see the world from both sides and declare things are good because they say “It’s Good”.

But these news dispatches could not be any different as it relates to the deteriorating pillars of the Fijian economy and it can not be plastered over through righteous Coup Declaration!

Excerpts from AAP via NineMSN (National Nine News, Austrailia) –

Sanctions aren't hurting Fiji: military
Thursday Mar 15 11:51 AEDT

Fiji's military rulers say human rights abuses in the Pacific nation are relatively minor and international sanctions imposed after the recent coup have had little impact.

Speaking on the eve of a meeting of Pacific Islands Forum of foreign ministers in Vanuatu, where Fiji's return to democracy will be discussed, Major Neumi Leweni said he did not feel things in his country had changed since the December 5 coup.

"The impact on the people of Fiji (of sanctions) depends on how people see things" said Leweni, who is Fiji's military spokesman.

"As we speak, I really don't feel any different to the way things were before December the fifth."

He said his situation was typical of average Fijians.
----
"It is going smoothly. Things are going well.
----
Major Leweni also defended the military government's handling of the media, amid widespread allegations of censorship.

"We haven't really interfered with the media. All we have done with the media is getting them to report the truth," he said.

"We actually raised issues with some of them on articles they have published that were totally untrue."

He said he would check reports that websites had been censored by the media, including a popular forum at the Fiji Village website.

Communications Fiji managing director William Parkinson said his site's forum had been shut down after a meeting with the deputy commander of Fiji's military, Captain Esala Teleni, and talking to police.
Read All>>

Malolo Lei Lie – Image Credit: Erikapeto from review Malalo LeiLei Lagoon Resort Club

And this from NewsRoom.co.nz (New Zealand) –

Fiji Government Cuts Tourism Funding
1:07 pm, 15 Mar 2007

Tourism operators in Fiji say a 30 percent cut in government funding will harm their industry even more as it struggles to recover from last year's coup.

In its budget the Government has reduced tourism funding to 10 million Fiji dollars, down from 15 million last.

The chairman of the Fiji Tourism Action Group is asking for a review because the cut may mean marketing is reduced in New Zealand and Australia.

Damend Gounder says the Government does not seem to recognise that economic recovery in Fiji depends on tourism.
Reference Here>>

The Ying - "The impact on the people of Fiji (of sanctions) depends on how people see things" said Leweni, who is Fiji's military spokesman. "As we speak, I really don't feel any different to the way things were before December the fifth." He said his situation was typical of average Fijians. "It is going smoothly. Things are going well.

The Yang - In its budget the [military] Government has reduced tourism funding to 10 million Fiji dollars, down from 15 million last.

Oh boy! This coup is goin'a leave a mark.

FORE! - Playin' Through The Hard Way

The V40 grenade is spherical in shape, 6.5 cm (2.5 in) high, and 4 cm ( 1.5 in) in diameter - approximately the size of a golf-ball Caption Credit: Wikipedia - Image Credit: Pajamas Media

FORE! - Playin' Through The Hard Way

Can you imagine, taking an explosive object of destruction and trying to conceal it in a way as to pass a frisking ... even a naked frisking?

Well that is what happened in the Central American country of San Salvador the other day.

This from Reuters via Yahoo! News -

Prisoner caught with grenade where?
Reuters - Fri Mar 2, 9:25 AM ET

SAN SALVADOR - An inmate at an El Salvador jail was caught with a hand grenade stuffed up his backside -- a novel attempt to disguise his apparent escape plans.

Guards at the San Francisco Gotera prison outside the capital San Salvador found the V40 grenade, about the size of a golf ball, lodged up the man's rectum during a security clampdown, a prison spokesman said on Thursday.

They also caught another 16 inmates who each swallowed a mobile phone.

"We'll have to expel the objects and if they won't come out we'll have to perform surgery in hospital," said Alberto Uribe, a spokesman for the El Salvador prison service.

The body of the M-67 hand grenade is a 2.5-inch diameter steel sphere designed to burst into numerous fragments when detonated. It produces casualties within an effective range of 49.5 feet (15 meters) by the high velocity projection of fragments. The grenade body contains 6.5 ounces of high explosive. Each grenade is fitted with a fuse that activates the explosive charge. Image Credit: Military Analysis Network

Last year, prison guards found an M67 grenade in the vagina of a female visitor at the overcrowded La Esperanza-Mariona prison on the northern fringes of San Salvador.

Prisoners in the Central American country use weapons to try to escape or attack fellow inmates and prison guards, and use cellular phones to order free gang members to commit crimes or smuggle narcotics.
Reference Here>>

This could not get any uglier. What if Islamo-Fascists terrorists begin to view the world as do the drug dealers view their freedom from imprisonment?

A V40 grenade is quite destructive. The steel body of the grenade has 326 squares pressed into its inside face to produce separate fragments when the explosive fill is detonated.

The V40 weighed 136 gm (4.8 oz) and was issued primed from the manufacturer. Fuse delay time is set for about four seconds.

This grenade was considered lethal up to a radius of 18 meters (20 yards) and dangerous up to 300 m (325 yd) from point of impact. It was commonly referred to as the Mini-Frag.

This incident gives us a whole new interpretation to the expressions like, the "San Salvador Open"! Or, how about the "Back Nine"? ... Divot!

FORE!!!!

MAXINE Opens Up PJM Online Voting Precinct

Vote - "Online Democracy" - Image Credit: Pajamas Media

MAXINE Opens Up PJM Online Voting Precinct

Come one, come all!

Vote and vote often … well, at least once a week at the newly sanctioned online voting precinct for the Pajamas Media Weekly Presidential Straw Poll.

As it states at the PJM portal – “The more who join with us, the more statistically reliable the poll is likely to be.”

Also, the more who vote on a weekly basis, the more statistically reliable the poll is likely to be.

So VOTE and vote weekly here at the MAXINE Precinct of the Pajamas Media Presidential Straw Poll (click the widget in the sidebar and voice your opinion).


ADDITIONAL
PHOTOS & GRAPHICS @ THE
NP CROWD POWERED NEWS LINK>>