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Friday, April 30, 2010

A weak excuse by MLBPA against a law already in place

  • Banner from group protesting last week in Arizona. There is endless money to support chaos, anarchy, violent crime, and death. There is almost no money or sympathy for the other side. via Arizona Republic via Michelle Malkin.
(the Arizona state law which is the same as existing federal law that simply hasn't been enforced in violation of its duty to its residents) ed. 4/30, AP
  • Most people carry id as they can be asked for it for a variety of reasons. Should everyone object to this now? There is apparently plenty of money behind continuing chaos, anarchy, and brutal death. ed.
Update: Another misleading headline, this time from the NY Times. I check in tonight and see on their website the dramatic headline, "Ballplayers join protest of new law," by Michael S. Schmidt. They fooled me, as no ballplayers have done so per their article. The Times frames the story in its opening sentences in which they reference (a few completely uninformed straggling ed.) protesters outside Wrigley Field. So now I'm ready to hear names of elite baseball players who picketed. But no players joined in any protests anywhere, nor even made a statement, per the article. (I notice later tonight an AP story with helpful quotes from Ozzie Guillen saying he won't go to an All Star game in Arizona. Cesar Izturis is also quoted saying the law is wrong. Fine. They can avoid Arizona and the entire United States if it bothers them so much).The Times article just rehashed the Players Union statement. No protest, just a statement. The Times headline and story open created a space in readers' minds where a few straggling completely uninformed persons outside Wrigley might behave in similar fashion with elite MLB players, or even the MLBPA, but the promise was never delivered, no evidence of ballplayers or even the union picketing anywhere. The National Enquirer makes a more honest living than the NY Times in my opinion. And of course the law is not new, just a re-statement of federal law which was not being enforced. ed.
  • Update 3:02 am May 1: Latest twisted headline from the NY Times on its website, turning the story upside down, guiding readers to think it's something it's not:

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Headlines on Yahoo MLB fan the flames

Two headlines on Yahoo MLB lead readers in the wrong direction, ie frame the Arizona situation in a catastrophic way. Headlines frame how a story may be received by many people (whether true or not). Many see headlines who don't have time to get the full story behind them. The Arizona law referenced only mirrors existing federal law that was not being enforced. There should be no difference in the lives of minor league players or alarm by Bud Selig. To even get on an airplane in the United States everyone needs identification. Wasn't it unsafe for players in a state where residents' safety has long been neglected? If it bothers Bud Selig, he should close down his Arizona empire in which his son-in-law is installed.
  • Headlines:
1. " The impact of the new immigration law on Latino ballplayers could be especially troublesome for young minor leaguers. "
2. "Baseball alarmed by Arizona immigration law

(I refer here only to the headlines for reasons stated above). ed.

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Door closes for Cubs spring in Mesa, Arizona

The Arizona state legislature has adjourned without coming up with financing for the Cubs to play in Mesa during spring training.
  • Mesa, AZ: "An agreement between the team and Mesa officials allows the Cubs to negotiate with other cities if Arizona lawmakers don't pass legislation by July 12. Lawmakers ended their session Thursday, and a special session is unlikely.

The move could reopen the door for Florida to lure baseball's highest-drawing spring training team.

  • Lawmakers considered adding surcharges to car rentals and spring-training baseball tickets.
  • But the plan faltered after MLB commissioner Bud Selig came out against it."...

from Stats LLC and AP via CBSSports.com, "Cubs' Spring home in jeopardy after legislature adjourns"

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Who failed to educate this jerk as to the difference between US law and actual Nazis?

below from a Nazi death camp below nazi death camp below nazi death camp from atlas shrugs below Buchenwald on an average day below 4/29/10 ap

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Olympian Michael Phelps in Baltimore Orioles gear

at Camden Yards for game v Yankees, 4/29, getty

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Thursday, April 29, 2010

If Diamondbacks get lower attendance, they'll just get more revenue sharing from the Yankees

  • Oakland A's Brad Ziegler is the man:
"All that said, back to the boycott issue: I was just stating that I don’t think boycotting D-backs games is going to be an effective way of protesting a non-sports issue.
  • just get more $ from the big-market clubs after the season.
The owners are not going to be affected nearly as much as a casual fan thinks they would be. And I was just saying that I (as a fellow player) would never wish for (and support) smaller crowds for baseball games."...
  • From a letter Ziegler wrote to Oakland A's fans, a small part of which referenced his brief non-incendiary mention of the existence of a state law in Arizona that merely copies existing federal law which is not being enforced. (Mr. Ziegler doesn't mention the Yankees, I made that extension about revenue sharing). ed.
from SB Nation, A's Nation, "A letter to the fans from Brad Ziegler," 4/29
  • via Baseball Musings

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Sporting News Radio moves to Houston and Gow Communications

  • Publishing assets remain with American City Business Journals.
"Houston radio executive David Gow will become chairman of a new company that will operate the Sporting News Radio Network and will move the network’s operations center to Houston.
  • Gow and several investors in Gow Communications, which owns Houston sports radio station KGOW (1560 AM), will have a majority stake in
  • Mission Media Group,
a company created by Clancy Woods, president of Sporting News Radio, to produce and distribute content under the Sporting News name through an agreement
  • with American City Business Journals.
  • Gow will become chairman of Mission Media as Sporting News Radio moves its operations center from Santa Monica, Calif., to Houston,
and KGOW will become the network’s flagship station. It has been the network’s Houston affiliate since last September. ...As part of its agreement with American City Business Journals, which publishes the Sporting News
  • and retains ownership of publishing and digital assets associated with that brand,
  • Mission Media will continue to produce and distribute the Tim Brando and Troy Aikman radio shows on behalf of the magazine company.
It will own all other content on the radio network. Sporting News Radio estimates that it has three million weekly listeners via 175 terrestrial radio stations, Sirius Satellite Radio and other digital and mobile outlets. Its weekday program schedule extends from 9 a.m. to 5 a.m. CDT and includes Brando, the longtime CBS Sports anchor and play by play announcer, and overnight host Todd Wright. from Houston Chronicle, 4/29, "Sporting News Radio to move operations to Houston," via RadioDailyNews

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LA Times adds commercial links to sports stories, blogs

"The Los Angeles Times will begin selling e-commerce links in selected stories and blog posts — but not in news stories or columns — as "both a reader service and a revenue opportunity for the company," editor Russ Stanton announced to the newsroom in a memo this morning. The ads disguised as links will be marked in green, to distinguish them from editorial content links, and the articles where they appear will carry disclaimers.... Where will these links appear?

In Health, Image, Food, Travel, Books, Entertainment and

In the following blogs: 24 Frames, Culture Monster, Hero Complex, Idol Tracker, Pop & Hiss, Show Tracker, Ministry of Gossip, L.A. Unleashed, All the Rage, Brand X, Daily Dish, Jacket Copy, L.A. at Home,

  • Dodgers,

Fabulous Forum, Lakers and Outposts."...

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Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Baltimore WJZ FM sports radio seeks talk host

Dave Kohl noted the opening at press time.

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Radio ratings up for non-contending MLB teams

  • Interest remains high even if fans can't afford gas money and tickets to games.
"Radio ratings for MLB broadcasts continue on the upswing. Three more markets added to the People Meters all showed noteworthy local radio audience increases during the new season's first 2 weeks. from Dave Kohl, Radio Recordings, 4/28, via Radio Daily News
  • Another sign that it's the economy affecting attendance, not lack of interest. ed.

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No one watching the watchers

"There are fewer than a dozen full-time sports media columnists in USA"...Neil Best Sportswatch twitter, 4/28/10

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SWAT team called today against Tea Party patriots in Quincy, Illinois

Riot police in full gear in background. via Gateway Pundit

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Deutsche Bank, others raided in global warming carbon trading scandal

4/28, Bloomberg: "German prosecutors searched Deutsche Bank AG and RWE AG in a raid on 230 offices and homes nationwide to investigate 180 million euros ($238 million) of tax evasion linked to emissions trading.
  • The Frankfurt Chief Prosecutor’s Office said it targeted 150 suspects at 50 companies and has frozen assets. Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest bank, and RWE, the country’s second- biggest utility, said they are cooperating with the probe and aren’t the focus of the investigations.

The U.K., France, Netherlands are among nations that started investigations last year of “carousel fraud,” where carbon traders collect tax and disappear before turning it in to authorities. Today’s raid was the biggest related to a fraud that may have tainted an estimated 7 percent of carbon trades in last year’s $125 billion market....

  • Europe lost about 5 billion euros in revenue for the 18 months ending in 2009 because of value-added tax fraud in the CO2 market, according to Europol, the law enforcement agency.

“We’re supporting similar investigations in other EU member states,” said Soren Pedersen, spokesman for Europol in the Hague. He declined to elaborate....

  • Deutsche Bank is cooperating with investigators and isn’t the focus of the probe, spokesman Ronald Weichert said by phone.

RWE’s Supply & Trading offices were searched, spokesman Michael Rosen said today. RWE is cooperating and the company “hasn’t been charged and is not under suspicion,” he said today in an e-mailed statement. The investigation concerns one company that had business relations with RWE Supply & Trading in 2009, Rosen said.

  • About 400 million metric tons of emission trades may have been fraudulent last year, or about 7 percent of the total market, including futures transactions, according to estimates from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. BNEF is a unit of Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News.

Europol’s estimate would indicate about 27 percent of the market was fraudulent for 18 months ended in 2009, or 1.9 billion tons. The comparison of the BNEF and Europol estimates is based on a value-added tax of 17 percent, an average CO2- permit price of 15.80 euros a ton and 7 billion tons traded in the period.

  • The EU approved measures last month to fight fraud in its emissions market, the world’s largest, by shifting the levy to customers. The law eliminates the need for the supplier to submit the payment to the treasury.

German prosecutors declined to name the 50 companies involved in the raids....

The “VAT-carousel” led to the loss of 180 million euros in tax revenue and prosecutors froze money in accounts that may be linked to wrongdoings, Wittig said. He declined to name the account holders or say how much was frozen."

UN's Climate boss Pachauri and ClimateGate "independent" prosecutor Oxburgh both on Deutsche Bank Climate Advisory Board.

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Bud Selig upset about twitter usage, warns writers, scolds players

Bud Selig's idea of baseball speech, images of players, etc., is that it's best controlled by him. Free speech is inconsistent with monopolies. XM 175 used to air Baseball Beat with Charley Steiner which was a great service and brought fans closer to the game. The engaging and newsy content of the show was in fact politically correct, ie most speech would have been Selig approved.
  • On the other hand, there were interesting tid bits fans might not otherwise have known. The popular program was, coincidentally of course, canceled. XM MLB channel itself once had a bit of distinction, now is more an outlet for Selig patronage. ed.
"Major League Baseball is cracking down on Twitter usage, ordering MLB.com writers
  • to cease tweeting about all non-baseball topics and
Bud Selig is known to be quite sensitive about all baseball related speech. He wants things a certain way. On the other hand, a commenter at Sports Journalists recalls MLB.com articles usually state they're not subject to the approval of MLB.com. Apparently not the case. You can't maintain control unless you control speech. (Both sources linked here use the term "MLB" where I would use the term "Bud Selig.") ed.

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Jim Baumbach returns to Newsday-Neil Best

from Neil Best Sportswatch twitter: "Jim Baumbach had change of heart re WSJ and is back at Newsday. Welcome home!"

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Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Core Four Sports Illustrated cover, May 3

  • SI cover, May 3, 2010
  • NY Post back cover, April 27, 2010

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Yankees meet soldiers at Walter Reade

Teixeira, Arod with soldiers, photo Newsday 4/26

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Monday, April 26, 2010

The real haters-not reported by big media, not even whispered

In response to media constantly framing right of center citizens as violent haters, a member of conservative group FreedomWorks responds:
  • "In light of GeicoGate and the recent accusations from the media regarding the violent rhetoric of the conservative movement, I’ve taken the liberty of editing together the voicemails and emails we’ve received as a result of DC Douglas’ call to contact FreedomWorks. Here’s the result.

WARNING: This is intense. Violent language is an understatement. I haven’t censored - only edited to remove names and phone numbers." via RedState.com

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Yankees outside White House after World Series ceremony, April 26, 2010

Yankees outside the White House after Obama's presentation, 4/26/10, reuters 1. "Jeter has met President Obama in the past, and although the President will likely be rooting against the Yankees this weekend — ...Yankees Lohud blog, 4/26
  • 2. "President Barack Obama honored the 2009 World Series Champion New York Yankees with a White House reception today.
  • Obama praised the Bronx Bombers' talent"...NY1, Time Warner Cable channel in NY, 4/26

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Obama greets the Yankees

Seen from left, Jessica Steinbrenner, Felix Lopez, Posada, Joe Girardi, Brett Gardner, John Sterling, Obama, Brian Cashman, Randy Levine, Tony Pena. photo ny1 ny1 above from nyyfans reuters

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Reporter/columnist combo especially big in sports--Miami Herald exec

  • Miami Herald Executive Editor Anders Gyllenhaal on reporter/columnists:

``There are things you can get across in a reported column that are different from a news story, which is basically a description,'' he said. ``The difference is

  • where there is a lot to say between the lines.''...
Perhaps the drift into reporters writing opinion
  • is part of a larger trend in which technology will make the Herald's battle to remain interest-free irrelevant. By weakening the advertiser-supported business model for news, the Internet may be ushering in a return to the media being subsidized by political parties and others interested in imparting a point of view, as in the 19th century. But until that happens, the Herald and all news media need to think twice about what they are doing with your trust."
"Reporter-columnists tread fine line with readers' trust," by Edward Schumacher-Matos, 4/25/10, Miami Herald, via Poynter.org/Romenesko

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Sunday, April 25, 2010

NYC station WWRL AM in receivership

"New York State Supreme Court Judge Shirley Werner Kornreich...rules that Guggenheim Corporate Funding can proceed with its plan to name Ocean Ridge Capital...as "receiver over the FCC licenses (of Access 1 Communications) as designated in the loan agreement," for the troubled company that owns Talk WWRL-A/New York, in addition to smaller stations in other states, as well as syndicator SuperRadio Networks."

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Comedy Central provided incentive to Islamic violence

"So, in the end, Comedy Central has incentivized Islamic violence and nothing much else.
  • Nevertheless, we should be grateful to its jelly-spined executives for reminding us that the cardboard heroes of the American media are your go-to guys for standing up to
  • entirely fictitious threats.
  • But for real ones? Not so much....
If the Tea Partiers were truly the murderous goons they've been portrayed as, they would draw the obvious lesson from the kid gloves with which Comedy Central strokes Islam. They would say, "Enough with peaceful rallies where we pick up the litter afterwards.
  • Let's just threaten to decapitate someone.

Comedy Central – you know, the "hip" "edgy" network with Jon Stewart from whom "young" Americans under 53 supposedly get most of their news – just caved in to death threats. From a hateful

who put up a video on the Internet explaining why a "South Park" episode with a rather tame Mohammed joke was likely to lead to the deaths of the show's creators. Just to underline the point, he showed some pictures of Theo van Gogh, the Dutch film director brutally murdered by (oh, my, talk about unfortunate coincidences) a fellow called Mohammed. Mr. al Amrikee helpfully explained that his video incitement of the

All he was doing, he added, was "raising awareness" – ...

  • Faced with this explicit threat of violence, what did Comedy Central do?
Why, they folded like a Bedouin tent. They censored "South Park," not only cutting all the references to Mohammed but, in an exquisitely post-modern touch, Stone & Parker get what was at stake in the Danish cartoons crisis, and many other ostensibly footling concessions: Imperceptibly, incrementally, that it is happy to trade core liberties for the
  • transitory security of a quiet life.
That is a dangerous signal to give freedom's enemies. So the "South Park" episode is an
  • important cultural pushback."
The media would rather say peaceful demonstrators are threats of violence. Such as the following from Tea Parties: photo with kids from SmartGirlPolitics

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Saturday, April 24, 2010

US presidents hope baseball 'players' vigor, valiance and glamour' rubs 'off on them.' NY Times

NY Times: "But baseball, as the national pastime and one of the country’s oldest organized sports,
  • has a special place at the White House.
Many presidents played the game (or rounders, in the case of the earlier presidents) and looked for any chance to connect with voters. from NY Times article by Ken Belson, 4/24/10, "At the White House, it's often good politics to play ball"
  • (The NY Times article doesn't mention the current president pretending to be a fan when he never was). ed.

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Yankees and Angels quickly meet again

Andy Pettitte pitching in Anaheim, 4/24/10, getty Hideki Matsui greeted in Angels dugout after his 8th inning hit v NYY, 4/23/10 reuters. Cervelli and Pettitte discuss in Anaheim, 4/24/10 getty

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Desperately seeking reliable 8th inning man

"Then again, Girardi is also a manager who has been desperately seeking a reliable eighth-inning man who, regardless of matchups, is able get the ball from his starter into the incomparable right hand of Mariano Rivera, and on more than one night this season, Joba has looked like that man."...Wallace Matthews, ESPNNewYork.com, "Chamberlain suffers night's key KO"

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Friday, April 23, 2010

6 police officers murdered at US-Mexico border

BBC: "Seven people, including six police officers, have died in a shoot-out with suspected gang hitmen in Mexico, officials say.
  • The killings happened in Ciudad Juarez, just across the US border from Texas.

Police came under fire as they tried to stop vehicles carrying the suspected hitmen, a police officer told AFP news agency.

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Frat parties at National Science Foundation, 'overwhelming' porn and romantic travel, but had time to give cash to ClimateGate figures

  • National Science Foundation "employees were generally reluctant to make any official report or complaint because the misconduct involved a senior staff member" and they feared for their own jobs.
The National Science Foundation has been overwhelmed with members watching pornography and taking taxpayer funded romantic trips with subordinates, yet found time to give hard earned US taxpayer money to discredited Hockey Stick creator Mike Mann (1/20/10 report) and another ClimateGate figure Kevin Trenberth, who found that global warming is hiding and he can't find it. 4/12/10. burdens of massive employee fraud. Robbed from hard working US taxpayers, awarded by a sort of frat party group with NSF inspector general: "We anticipate a significant decline in investigative recoveries and prosecutions in coming years
  • as a direct result." (9/29/09)
The National Science Foundation itself was given $3 billion in US taxpayer dollars
  • in 2009 from the so-called economic stimulus plan. (1/15/09).
9/29/09: "Employee misconduct investigations, often involving workers accessing pornography from their government computers, grew sixfold last year inside the taxpayer-funded foundation
  • that doles out billions of dollars of scientific research grants, according to budget documents and other records obtained by The Washington Times.

The problems at the National Science Foundation (NSF) were so pervasive

  • to cut back on its primary

mission of investigating grant fraud and recovering misspent tax dollars.

  • "To manage this dramatic increase without an increase in staff required us to significantly reduce our efforts to investigate grant fraud," the inspector general recently told Congress in a budget request.

"We anticipate a significant decline in investigative recoveries and prosecutions in coming years as a direct result."

  • The budget request doesn't state the nature or number of the misconduct cases, but records obtained by The Times through the Freedom of Information Act laid bare the extent of the well-publicized porn problem inside
  • the government-backed foundation.

For instance, one senior executive spent at least 331 days looking at pornography on his government computer and chatting online with nude or partially clad women without being detected, the records show.

  • When finally caught, the NSF official retired. He even offered, among other explanations, a humanitarian defense, suggesting that he frequented the porn sites to provide a living
  • to the poor overseas women. Investigators put the cost to taxpayers of the senior official's porn surfing at between $13,800 and about $58,000.

"He explained that these young women are from poor countries and need to make money to help their parents and this site helps them do that," investigators wrote in a memo.

The independent foundation, funded by taxpayers to the tune of $6 billion in 2008,

  • is tasked with handing out scientific grants to colleges, universities and research institutions nationwide. The projects it funds ranges from mapping the genome of the potato to exploring outer space with powerful new telescopes. It has a total of 1,200 career employees.

Recent budget documents for the inspector general cite a "6-fold increase in employee misconduct cases and associated proactive management implication report activities." The document doesn't say how many cases were involved in the increase, and

  • officials could not immediately provide a figure.

Documents obtained by The Times through an open records request show the foundation's inspector general closed 10 employee misconduct investigations last year, up from just three in 2006. There were seven cases in 2007. Of the 10 cases closed last year, seven involved online pornography, records show. However, those figures don't include pending cases.

Leslie Paige, a spokeswoman for the nonpartisan watchdog Citizens Against Government Waste, called the situation "inexcusable."

  • "What kind of oversight is there when they have to shift people from looking at grant fraud to watch for people looking at pornography?" she said....

The foundation's inspector general uncovers scientific misconduct that can force the return of misused grant money to the government but told Congress

The office was unable to immediately provide an estimate of how much money the projected decline in investigative recoveries will cost taxpayers.

  • According to congressional reports, overall investigative recoveries by the watchdog agency totaled more than $2 million for the year ending March 31.

The pornography problem came to light earlier this year, when the inspector general's office published short summaries of several recent cases in a semiannual report to Congress....

  • The newly obtained documents provide fresh evidence that the problem wasn't just an embarrassment:

The names of all of the employees targeted in the pornography cases were redacted from the more than 120 pages of investigative documents released to The Times. Names were withheld because none of the employees was subject to criminal prosecution, recent civil court action or debarment.

  • The documents don't include cases that the foundation examined internally without the inspector general's involvement.

"The employees who were investigated were disciplined in one way or another," Ms. Topousis said, adding that she could not comment on individual disciplinary actions.

  • One foundation employee paid an unspecified sum last year after investigators found that during a three-week period in June 2008, the worker perused hundreds of pornographic Web sites during work hours. That employee received a 10-day suspension.

In an official notice of the decision, the foundation called the conduct "unprofessional and unacceptable," but also noted the employee's work history and lack of any previous disciplinary actions.

As for the unnamed "senior executive" who spent at least 331 days looking at pornography at work, investigators said

  • his proclivity for pornography was common knowledge among several co-workers.

"At the same time, employees were generally reluctant to make any official report or complaint

  • because the misconduct involved a senior staff member and employees feared

the investigators later wrote in a summary of the case.

Another employee in a different case was caught with hundreds of pictures, videos and even PowerPoint slide shows containing pornography. Asked by an investigator whether he had completed any government work on a day when a significant amount of pornography was downloaded, the employee responded,

Suspended for 10 days, the employee unsuccessfully appealed the decision after arguing that it was too harsh. Other employees were terminated.

  • Another employee who stored nude images of herself on her computer told investigators she mistakenly had downloaded the pictures. She received counseling and was told to adhere to the foundation's policies on computer use.

The foundation is hardly the only government agency to be embarrassed by disclosures about employees looking at pornography at work.

  • The inspector general for the Securities and Exchange Commission noted in a report last fall (2008) that it had recently conducted three investigations into employees who misused government computers to view pornography.

At the time of the report, one employee had been fired and another suspended, while disciplinary action against a third was pending."

National Science Foundation $10.5 million grant to PBS station WNET investigated for misuse by the station, 9/16/09, instances ongoing since 2000.

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Comedy Central brought down by 20 year old Islamic blogger

"The producers of "South Park" say Comedy Central removed a speech about intimidation and fear from their show after a radical Muslim group warned they could be killed.
  • The character Kyle's words toward the end of Wednesday's episode were bleeped out. Producers Trey Parker and Matt Stone say the character does not mention the Prophet Muhammad.

The group Revolution Muslim had complained that `South Park' had insulted their prophet by depicting him in a bear costume in last week's episode. The group didn't explictly threaten the producers but warned they could wind up like a Dutch filmmaker killed by a Muslim extremist.

  • The group printed Stone and Parker's work address on its website.

More than 30 seconds' worth of dialogue were covered up in the episode....

  • Muslims consider a physical representation of their prophet to be blasphemous. Last week, the character was believed to be disguised in a bear costume. When that same costume was removed this week, Santa Claus appeared....

The message included a gruesome picture of Theo Van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker murdered by a Muslim extremist in 2004 after making a movie about a woman who rejected Muhammad's teachings. The message said the

  • "South Park" producers would "probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh" for airing the show.
The posting included Comedy Central's New York address, as well as the address for Parker and Stone's California production studio."... "Last week, Chesser, 20, posted a warning on the website RevolutionMuslim.com following the 200th episode of "South Park," which included a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad disguised in a bear suit. The young man, who just two years ago was studying foreign languages at George Mason University, wrote on the site that
  • Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the cartoon's creators, "will probably end up" like Theo van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker
  • who was murdered in 2004 after making a film critical of Islamic society.
"It's not a threat, but it really is a likely outcome," Chesser told FoxNews.com from his home in Centreville, Va. "They're going to be basically on a list in the back of the minds of a large number of Muslims. It's just the reality."
  • Comedy Central declined to comment for this story."...
"Road to Radicalism: the man behind the South Park threats" Fox News, 4/23/10 ****
  • picture above of Theo Van Gogh stabbed to death in the street in 2004 by a Muslim. via keeptonyblairpm

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Red Barber used egg timer to remind listeners of score

From ESPN Ombudsman Don Ohlmeyer: "Listeners relied on that friendly voice to "see" the action. It was their sensory connection to the event....There were fairly straightforward conventions used to guide announcers.
  • that every three minutes, listeners needed to be told the score."...
"Soothing the irritation," 4/20/10, ESPN Ombudsman column, via Neil Best Watchdog
  • photo from National Event blog, neco, 4/14/10

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Mets channel debuted super slo-mo camera in Cubs series

Neil Best, 4/21: "SNY (Mets tv channel) is experimenting with a super-duper slow motion camera during the Cubs series that it is calling "Ultra-Mo."
  • It unveiled the feature Tuesday night, to pretty cool effect, even using it to capture Jose Reyes' celebratory clapping after his second-inning triple.

SNY analysts also used it to break down players' swings and pitching motions in extreme detail.

  • The camera comes from a Belgian company called i-Movix, and can show slow-motion replays
  • at eight to 10 times the frames per second of other slo-mo systems.

A key feature of the camera is that it can be used for live pictures in addition to replays.

  • Tuesday was its U.S. debut.

For now SNY only is scheduled to use it for this series, but it could be back later this season."...

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Ken Singleton call of Yankee triple play-Neil Best

Neil Best Watchdog: "Oh, my. This is unfortunate: from Neil Best Watchdog, 4/22, after Yankee-Oakland game

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Thursday, April 22, 2010

Nobel global warming guru upset about differing views, sues newspaper, wants internet scrubbed

[hillary-copenhagen.jpg] "One of the world's leading climate scientists has launched a libel lawsuit against a Canadian newspaper for publishing articles that
  • he says "poison" the debate on global warming.

In a case with potentially huge consequences for online publishers, lawyers acting for Andrew Weaver, a climate modeller at the University of Victoria, Canada, have demanded the National Post removes the articles not only from its own websites,

Weaver says the articles, published at the height of several recent controversies over the reliability of climate science in recent months, contain "grossly irresponsible falsehoods". He said he filed the suit after the newspaper refused to retract the articles.

  • Weaver said: "If I sit back and do nothing to clear my name, these libels will stay on the internet forever. They'll poison the factual record, misleading people who are looking for reliable scientific information about global warming.""...
  • (Is he concerned about the permanence of known documented errors in the UN Climate report?) ed.

(continuing, Guardian): "The four articles, published from December to February, claimed that Weaver cherrypicked data to support his climate research, and that he tried to blame the "evil fossil fuel" industry for break-ins at his office in 2008 to divert attention from reported mistakes in the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, on which he was lead author.

  • The lawsuit also highlights several claims in the articles that attempt to question or undermine the scientific consensus on climate change, including
  • that annual global mean temperatures have stopped increasing in the last decade and that
  • climate models are "falling apart"."...
(According to Der Spiegel and Phil Jones, temperatures have in fact stopped increasing. ed.)
  • (continuing, Guardian): "Such statements, the lawsuit says, would lead readers to conclude that Weaver

"is so strongly motivated by a corrupt interest in receiving government funding that he willfully conceals scientific climate data which refutes global warming in order to keep alarming the public so that it welcomes... funding for climate scientists such as himself."

  • Weaver said: "I asked the National Post to do the right thing, to retract a number of recent articles that attributed to me statements I never made, accused me of things I never did, and attacked me for views I never held. To my absolute astonishment, the newspaper refused."

A spokesman for the National Post said: "Beyond saying that we intend to defend the article, we do not comment on such suits."

  • Weaver is suing for libel three writers at the newspaper, as well as the newspaper as a whole and several, as-yet unknown, posters on the paper's online comment section. Such comments, typical on articles about global warming, included claims that

Weaver was "as big a hypocrite as he is a fraudster" and a rat leaving a sinking "ship of lies, red-herrings and hysteria". One poster suggested he should be thrown under a bus.

McConchie Law Corporation, acting for Weaver, said that the National Post articles had "gone viral on the internet"

The lawsuit says the newspaper "expressly authorised republication" of the articles by including online links that invited readers to email the story to others, and share it through tools such as Facebook.

McConchie Law said it was seeking an "unprecedented" court order that would require the newspaper to

  • help Weaver remove the articles from across the internet.

Media law experts said that such demands were becoming increasingly common in complaints to publishers, but this could be the first time they were tested in court.

Simon Lewis, an expert on tropical forests at the University of Leeds, claimed the story published in January was misleading because it gave the impression that the IPCC made a false claim in its 2007 report that reduced rainfall could wipe out up to 40% of the Amazon rainforest. He said he told the newspaper that the IPCC's statement was "poorly written and bizarrely referenced, but basically correct"."

Rampant fraud in carbon trading, alleged to cure CO2 danger which does not exist. The 'climate' and 'carbon' industries rest on the false notion that man made global warming exists and is largely the fault of evil Americans who must pay reparations. I don't suggest Mr. Weaver is involved in carbon trading-I have no idea if he is or isn't-just to note carbon trading relies on the myth of CO2 endangerment. A 'cap and trade' system actually existed before the 2007 UN Climate Report. Pioneered by Enron. ed.

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Spiritual leader of Earth Day murdered his girl friend and stuffed her in a closet

Ira Einhorn a founder of Earth Day in 1970. Above as he was taken into custody in 2001 for the 1977 murder of his girlfriend. photo from Salon.com Earth hero. The moral superiority of those who claim to care about the 'environment.'

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George Carlin on Saving the Planet

8/9/2007. via Mark Levin show on XM166

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