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Nov
28
As The Hand Spanks – Or Not
Filed Under Crime, Culture, Government, Mental health, Politics, Social Issues | 2 Comments
First California tried this, and now Massachusetts is trying this.
But California eventually did this, so will Massachusetts end up doing the same?
Sigh.
Yeah. Same thing.
Over, and over, and over.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:58 pm November 28th, 2007 in Crime, Culture, Government, Mental health, Politics, Social Issues | 2 Comments
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Nov
28
Giuliani’s security should be strong & silent, emphasis on the silent, yes?
Filed Under Campaigning, Elections, Government, Politics, Scandal, WH2008 | 2 Comments
I saw this story at Ohio Daily Blog but it originated at The Politico.
However, it’s this article by the Associated Press that has the ring of candid conversation:
Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign on Wednesday dismissed a report that New York City taxpayers footed the bill for expenses incurred in a Long Island resort as the then-mayor began an extramarital affair with current wife Judith Nathan.
“These were all legitimate expenses incurred in protecting the mayor, and his police detail covered him wherever he went, 24/7,” Tony Carbonetti, Giuliani’s chief political adviser, said in an interview. “You just do what you do and the police go with you. That’s just a fact of life when you’re the mayor of New York.”
Aides, however, offered no explanation for why the tens of thousands of dollars in costs, which they say were routine expenses for protection for the mayor, were billed to obscure city agencies.
My emphasis.
Does Carbonetti have any idea about what he said? Read more
By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:01 pm November 28th, 2007 in Campaigning, Elections, Government, Politics, Scandal, WH2008 | 2 Comments
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Nov
28
(Updated) If I laugh, just a little bit – am I being offensive?
Filed Under Blogging, Culture, Mental health, Social Issues, Writing | 10 Comments
I know I’m not the best barometer of when to laugh, but can a laugh stand alone, without commenting on substance? Or does the laugh itself have to be interpreted?
Because I know that sometimes, I do just laugh, but then, I feel like, if I say I laughed – if I tell someone that I laughed, or that something specific made me laugh, then will I be told, Oh! How insensitive! because even I know that to laugh at some things really isn’t so proper?
Some things that have made me laugh today:
The title of this post – JUST the title
This picture – JUST this picture
The very idea of the topic of this post – JUST the idea
Should I feel badly about any of them?
A star for the name of the artist who sang this post’s title line.
Update: Check out this article from CNET, “Is political correctness screwing up the workplace?” Echoes this post.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 4:45 pm November 28th, 2007 in Blogging, Culture, Mental health, Social Issues, Writing | 10 Comments
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Nov
28
Pew survey: journalists say Iraq situation worse than Americans perceive
Filed Under Foreign Affairs, Media, Politics, Writing | 6 Comments
The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism released a new report today, Journalists in Iraq: A Survey of Reporters on the Front Lines. You can read the full report here.
Quick views, all from Pew:
By Jill Miller Zimon at 4:17 pm November 28th, 2007 in Foreign Affairs, Media, Politics, Writing | 6 Comments
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Nov
28
A View Inside: CNN’s GOP debate YouTube video selection process
Filed Under Campaigning, Elections, Media, Politics | 4 Comments
The St. Petersburg Times got permission last week to follow the process. Read their take here.
Preview of preview:
CNN’s undisclosed location in St. Petersburg is easy enough to find. It’s a giant bus with the network’s distinctive red lettering printed on the side.
The bus is a roving newsroom, complete with 10 flat-panel televisions, hookups for lights and cameras, and a high-definition satellite connection.
It beats meeting in a Mahaffey ballroom, officials said, because it’s CNN’s turf.
There are only two doors on the bus — and CNN has the keys.
“We control the process,” said [CNN political director Sam] Feist. “That way, we don’t have to worry about people overhearing the question process.”
Feist, political editor Mark Preston, producer Alan Isenberg, political researcher Alan Silverleib, producer Claire Brinberg, senior producer Melissa Block, political research director Rob Yoon, producer Jack Gray and a group of others convened Monday around their Dell laptops to hammer out what immigration questions the Republicans could face.
[Anderson] Cooper, who will lead the candidates’ discussion starting at 8 tonight, was not present.
Feist said Cooper will be able to review the questions and make changes.
There will be about 70 questions prepped for the show, but only 40 may be asked.
Which 40 depends on the dynamics of the debate.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 4:02 pm November 28th, 2007 in Campaigning, Elections, Media, Politics | 4 Comments
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Nov
28
You know it’s a slow news day when: WaPo pulls out the “are bloggers journalists” story
Filed Under Blogging, Media, Politics, Wide Open, Writing | 28 Comments
There are some interesting points written in this article from yesterday’s Washington Post, “Storming the News Gatekeepers,” but nothing new.
Citizen journalism is bringing folks, young and old, into the public square, giving voice to those who, in the pre-Internet era, may have felt voiceless.
That’s news?
But some challenge the value of all this citizen involvement. Questions pop up. Is it really “journalism”? Are “they” really “journalists”? What’s the difference between citizen journalists and bloggers who write about politics?
That’s news?
Journalists, he continues, “follow a set of standards, a code of ethics. Objectivity rules. That’s not the case with citizen journalists. Anything goes in that world.”
I’m censoring myself not to say what that is.
And sometimes the facts go out the window.
Okay – now, how many times have we read that?
O.M.G. Who edited this WaPo thing? I guess someone who doesn’t read anything related to the flux in the news industry.
Now, the following isn’t news, because we out here know it, but it is worth repeating (and, apparently, even though we’ve been repeating for as long as I’ve been around these parts, I’m not expecting to have to stop saying it anytime soon):
A citizen journalist, [NYU's Mitchell] Stephens notes, is not the same as a political blogger. The former can, and sometimes does, original reporting; the latter, for the most part, is a political junkie armed with opinions and has no bones about sharing them. But these definitions don’t always fit.
“There really is no simple definition for what a citizen journalist is, just lots and lots of examples,” says Dan Gillmor, former technology columnist for the San Jose Mercury News and author of “We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People.”
“It ranges from people who do journalism all the time to people who do what you might call a random act of journalism to people who don’t consider themselves journalists but are in fact practicing journalism.
“The publishing tools — digital cameras, blogging software — are at the people’s disposal,” Gillmor continues. “And for a lot of them, the underlying motivation is frustration with the traditional media.”
Jay Rosen of PressThink is at NYU too.
And I’ll give the last word to the blogger profiled by WaPo:
“Look, everyone’s trying to analyze what citizen journalism is, what its impact will be in this election. We, the citizen journalists, are figuring it out. You mainstream media folks are figuring it out. But whatever it is, there’s no going back. We’re here. Get used to it.”
By Jill Miller Zimon at 3:44 pm November 28th, 2007 in Blogging, Media, Politics, Wide Open, Writing | 28 Comments
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Nov
28
Why didn’t ODOT task force get created in July so we’d be on the way to solutions, not shortfalls, now?
Filed Under Blogging, Economy, Government, Ohio, Politics, Statehouse | 2 Comments
I don’t know what it means, but I’ve been following it since January: what is UP with ODOT’s budgeting?
I do feel like I’m picking on ODOT, which isn’t even an area I know very well. But from the beginning, when the director was chosen from an area familiar to Governor Ted Strickland, and the guy had worked with a tiny budget and was amping up to the state level, I raised my eyebrows and wanted to learn, follow, understand (and trust, honest).
And then, I followed the doubling of the budget. And the summer’s story of a shortfall prediction. And now today’s news from WHIOTV.com:
The administration of Gov. Ted Strickland said Tuesday the state faces a $3.5 billion shortfall in funding for proposed new highway projects previously approved for construction.
In its 2008-2009 Business Plan, the Ohio Department of Transportation said the shortfall was prompting by rising construction costs.
The combined rate of construction cost increases from 2004 to 2007 was 40.7 percent.
The report stated costs went up due to “unprecedented rising costs of oil, increased demand for steel and raw materials in the global economy and the lingering effects of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.”
Ohio Department of Transportation spokesman Scott Varner said the administration is not calling for an increase in the gas tax, the main source of revenue for the department.
Varner said the governor will soon appoint members to a new state task force to evaluate the projects that have already been approved for construction.
Oh really? Read more
By Jill Miller Zimon at 2:55 pm November 28th, 2007 in Blogging, Economy, Government, Ohio, Politics, Statehouse | 2 Comments
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Nov
28
Psychopaths R Us: Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Act
Filed Under Crime, Culture, Foreign Affairs, Mental health, Parenting, Politics, Religion, Social Issues | 3 Comments
This article about the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Act from In These Times caught my eye in late October, but it kept getting relegated to open tabs that closed on me and, once the Wide Open tsunami of comments and posts hit, I never posted about it (I’ve since quadrupled my RAM and am able to retain a lot more memory – well, my computer can, I wish it was as simple as a chip replacement for me).
A little bit about the bill from the article:
[California Democratic Rep., Jane] Harman’s bill would convene a 10-member national commission to study “violent radicalization” (defined as “the process of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious, or social change”) and “homegrown terrorism” (defined as “the use, planned use, or threatened use, of force or violence by a group or individual born, raised, or based and operating primarily within the United States […] to intimidate or coerce the United States government, the civilian population of the United States, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives”).
The bill also directs the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to designate a “center of excellence,” a university-based research center where academics, policy-makers, members of the private sector and other stakeholders can collaborate to better understand and prevent radicalization and homegrown terrorism.
Now – that’s all well and good. Sort of. But just how much it’s not well and good isn’t exactly what I want to write about.
What I want to write about is – why don’t we have this kind of mobilization to identify potential sex offenders? Or potential murderers? Or potential white collar criminals?
What do all these folks have in common?
Some kind of psychopathology. That ends up hurting other people. And lands them in jail. And costs the taxpayers money. And destroys lives – of the perpetrator and the victims, who are direct and indirect.
Why don’t we have research funded to help determine which parents are going to do unspeakable things to children? Who will define “unspeakable”? Or when someone is a child? Or who is a parent? Why not all adults?
Why not a study to help understand and identify these folks, for any of these things, if we’re going to say okay to such efforts on behalf of “homegrown terrorism” and “violent radicalization”?
Because just as they know now about serial killers as well as terrorists, there are few to study and they are extremely rare in society. All we will end up doing is freaking out everyone else from questioning anything and being any different from whomever the people doing the study want to say are the “norm.” Because all a norm does is show us what is out there – not what is possible.
I want safety, security and a life free of terror and terrorism. But all a proposal like this does is foster the notion that we have many things to fear – including each other, especially if we don’t conform to the average – whatever that turns out to be.
With all the kinds of negative, harmful behavior that exists and is so much more rampant, how absolutely sad and scary that this bill is flying through the Congress.
This Huffington Post piece by Philip Geraldi does a decent job of outlining why we should be worried about the bill, H.R. 1955, which you can see here on Thomas.
Hattip to Susan at BlueOhioan.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:42 pm November 28th, 2007 in Crime, Culture, Foreign Affairs, Mental health, Parenting, Politics, Religion, Social Issues | 3 Comments
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Nov
28
Writers Guild strike continues, Carson Daly entices scabs
Filed Under Blogging, Writing | 2 Comments
Update on the Writers Guild of America strike. My favorite part:
Separately Tuesday, though the WGA didn’t put out any statement on the contract talks, the guild did address the recent news that Carson Daly plans to resume the late-night talk show duties he had suspended in support of the strike.
“We’re disappointed at Carson Daly’s decision to return to work,” the WGA West said. “Mr. Daly is not a writer and not a member of the WGA, unlike other late-night hosts Jay Leno, David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, Craig Ferguson and Jimmy Kimmel, who have all resisted network pressure and honored our writers’ picket lines.
“We’re especially appalled at Mr. Daly’s call for non-guild writers to provide him with jokes. We hope he’ll change his mind and follow the lead of the other late-night hosts.”
The latter criticism referred to a personal e-mail from Daly to friends and family that was leaked online Tuesday.
Hey, if there are folks begging to do Wide Open with the same restriction in place that caused its closure, you can bet that there are folks who’ll send Daly jokes. Of course, my hope for whomever does decide to do Wide Open is that they demand that the ethic involved with its closure be given respect through something more compatible with the independence bloggers should have on such a forum. Otherwise, the forum will be no different than anything done by newsroom staff. Unless that’s what is desired.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:06 pm November 28th, 2007 in Blogging, Writing | 2 Comments
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Nov
28
13 year old’s suicide leads MO town to make online harassment a crime
Filed Under Blogging, Civil Rights, Parenting, Social Issues, Tech | 8 Comments
From the Citizen Media Law Project:
City officials in Dardenne Prairie, Missouri unanimously passed a measure on November 21 making online harassment a crime, punishable by up to a $500 fine and 90 days in jail. The city’s six-member Board of Aldermen passed the ordinance in response to 13-year-old Megan Meier’s suicide.
Meier committed suicide after a “boy” she met on MySpace abruptly turned on her and ended their relationship. It turned out that the boy was actually Lori Drew, a neighbor who had pretended to be 16-year-old “Josh Evans” to gain the trust of Megan, who had been fighting with Drew’s daughter, according to the Los Angeles Times. (In an interesting side note, the local media refused to identify the neighbor involved, so several blogs such as RottenNeighbor.com and hitsusa.com did some investigating and identified Drew and posted the Drews’ home address, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and photographs.)
[snip]
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “the ordinance outlaws harassment using electronic communication, which includes the Internet, e-mail, paging services and mobile phone text messaging.” The Associated Press is a bit more helpful:
The four-page measure defines both harassment and cyber-harassment, essentially making it illegal to engage in a pattern of conduct that would cause a reasonable person to suffer “substantial emotional distress,” or for an adult to contact a child under 18 in a communication causing a reasonable parent to fear for the child’s well-being.
Generally speaking, the government may ban speech in this context only if it will clearly cause direct and imminent harm. Because the Dardenne Prairie ordinance appears to criminalizes otherwise protected speech (for example, pure opinion), it is likely to be unconstitutional.
Oy.
Well – too far? not far enough? Who has gone too far? Or not far enough?
By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:03 am November 28th, 2007 in Blogging, Civil Rights, Parenting, Social Issues, Tech | 8 Comments
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