:
We Dec 20 -

SoFlo: SWEPT AWAY -

Teen lover was her compliant
love slave, prosecutor contends.

A 32-year-old New Hampshire housewife is on trial, charged with entrapping and kidnapping a 16-year-old-boy she took as her lover and lured away to Florida where she held him in thrall.

The national search for them ended when a St. Petersburg bus depot worker recognized her from television news on June 26. She was then indicted in August, but was arrested again in September, when she was charged with stalking the boy.

:: HTribune ::

...

:
Tu Dec 19 -

LITERARY BREAK -

Are you a Noir Fiction fan?

Barry Hannah writes about "the
sublime pleasures of reading
and teaching crime noir,
an underdog genre."

:: DARK HARVEST ::

--via The Rap Sheet --

...

:
Tu Dec 19 -

ALL FIRED UP -

A 45-year-old Virginia Fire Marshal
allegedly used the Internet to solicit
a girl to perform lewd acts for an
audience and then used M*Space
to advertise the show. A 16-year-old
responded. And so did the FBI.

...

:
Tu Dec 19 -

BRIT SERIAL KILLER -

The CrimeRant Blog has started
following the Suffolk Strangler Case.

A second suspect has been arrested.

Caveat: the guys over there often
display a sardonic sense of humor!

...

:
Tu Dec 19 -

BAGHD POWER CUT -

The jihadis have cut outside electrical power destined for Baghdad, because they want to live in caves and eat batsh*t so they can die from malaria.

"Now Baghdad is almost isolated," Karim Wahid, the Iraqi electricity minister, said in an interview last week. "We almost don't have any power coming from outside."

That leaves Baghdad increasingly dependent on a few aging power plants within or near the city's borders.

Back to the caves!

:: By James Glanz ::
-- IHT

...

:
Tu Dec 19 -

BUZZ FROM BAGD:

~~ Off the VOI Wire ~

The U.S. Marines have
arrested Reuters reporter
Ammar al-Dulaimi early today
in a raid at his home in Ramadi.

His equipment, including his
camera, were confiscated.

:: aswataliraq ::

+ The Server is having problems.

...

:
Tu Dec 19 -

UK FLY BANS BIBLE -

A British airline has banned
its crew from carrying a
Bible into Saudi Arabia.

But then BMI added an extra directive: they told their employees that they MUST carry a Koran, according to John Kay at The Sun.

+ This last requirement looks dubious to me; I think it will probably face a legal challenge.

...

:
Tu Dec 19 -

TRENDSPOTTING -

The shape of the things to come:

What can we look forward to in 2007?

James Harkin asks three
professional trendspotters.

:: UK Guardian ::

...

:
Tu Dec 19 -

INSPIRATIONAL -

A little girl was awakened
from her coma by the sound of
James Blunt's song Your Beautiful
coming over the hospital radio.

+ A nice way to start your day.

:: DailyMail ::

...

:
Mo Dec 18 -

IRAQI DEATH TATTOOS -

Iraqis, who have become accustomed to scenes of slaughter with bodies mostly found on the roads without heads or in refuse dumps, have come to believe that they have no other way to avoid burial in strangers' cemeteries but getting tattooed so that their bodies would be easy to identify after death...

========================

From Zeyad's latest column at IraqSlogger, I am led to infer that Mashadani tribesmen are supporting the Mujahideen. Is this accurate? The entire tribe? If so, is this why the 5 Mashadani tribesmen and their muezzin were so savagely murdered?

Also, via Zeyad: Iraqi journalist Ayad Al-Aboudi, a reporter for the Saudi Al-Watan newspaper, narrowly escaped murder at a fake checkpoint in the Bayya' district, south of Baghdad.

...

:
Mo Dec 18 -

THE 6 MASHADANIS:
Burned Alive ? -

E&P claims that the phantom Iraqi police captain Jamil Hussein may have been located at the Yarmouk station. That's great news, and I hope this lead turns out fruitfully.

I really don't understand why some people seem so hostile to the idea of nailing this story down.

But simply locating the police officer still does not resolve the matter. He reported that 6 Sunnis were doused with kerosene and burned alive. This is a horrible atrocity and raises more issues.

# First, this incident is
an anecdote, not a story.

# Was there any physical evidence of charred cadavers with kerosene residue on them? Many people have asked this question.

# It was reported elsewhere that the 6 were not random victims, but all were members of the same tribe: Mashadani. Is this so?

# What kind of activities is this tribe involved in? Are they guarding an oil pipeline, for example?

# Is this tribe engaged in a conflict with another tribe? Which other tribe? And what would such a conflict be about?

This anecdote may be
the beginning of a story.

-- More of the story is
:: recounted HERE:

*one of the victims was the Mustafa mosque muezzin, or prayer caller, Ahmed al-Mashadani. He did not know the names of the five others, but said they were all members of the al-Mashadani tribe.*

What was this tribe doing that someone didn't like? And why did they kill the muezzin? Because he was issuing warnings of approaching attacks from the minneret? Another will take his place.

So, the saga continues... Maybe we'll even be able to get a Bill of Indictment at the Court of the Hague. And there is still an unresolved murder from a couple of years ago: a moderate Shiite cleric (al-Khoi) was hacked to death with big sheep-slaughtering knives, and then his lifeless body was viciously chopped up into pieces. Does anyone entertain the delusion that you get a Free Pass for committing such atrocities? If so, you'd better stop dreaming.

...

:
Mo Dec 18 -

ENGLISH SERIAL KILLER
SUSPECT ARRESTED -

Suspect in Ipswich Strangler Case
has a M*ySpace page in which
he calls himself "The Bishop."

Compilation link there, too.

Suspect: Tom Stephens is described as an ex-police officer, 37, who lives in a small nearby village within a cul-de-sac. He is divorced and lives alone. Currently in custody.

...

:
Mo Dec 18 -

FROM THE LIBRARY -

Birdie at LibraryNews points to a spoofy piece penned by James Pinkerton of a supposed next chapter in Judith Regan's ongoing personal drama these days: My Inferno, and Welcome To It. NB: this is satire; some may find it amusing, while others may not.

On the list of The 10 biggest library stories of 2006: #4 is Censorship, including the Muhammed Cartoons and the alleged immorality of penguins (again with this?).

If you surf this link, you can scroll all the way down to see a list of related stories.

I don't know if Vamos a Cuba made it; I didn't drill into the entry. But John McCain's War on Blogs??? I don't know anything about this.

...

:
Su Dec 17 -

BAGD: RED CRESCENT
MASS ABDUCTION -

If you thought this was going to be a quiet weekend, as I did...

3:00pm EST(US) ~ *Gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms kidnapped two dozen employees at Red Crescent offices in downtown Baghdad on Sunday.*

*The hostage-takers, jumping out of 10 pick-up trucks, raided the Red Crescent building in the Karrada district in broad daylight, snatching more than two dozen men but leaving women behind, witnesses and officials said.*

-- Sense of place --
Brief 1 min video clip:
:: Reuters ::

...

:
S/Su Dec 17 -

BOLO P.O. JAMIL HUSSEIN -

I see by the crawling ticker at the top of the IraqSlogger page that Jordan & Co are pulling out all the stops to find the phantom police captain Jamil Hussein. Do I think they'll have any luck?

I don't want to be a Debby Downer,
but... I'm not very optimistic.

I suspect that the phantom Iraqi police captain is actually a Syrian Ba'athist intelligence officer whose mission it was to spread disinformation and confusion. I expect that "J.H." has gone back across the mountains by now and is already in Syria. Just a guess.

The entire region is interlaced with old trading routes and backroads caravan trails which may not appear on any official map, but are known to locals who live along the way like jackal runs.

Now that his legend has been blown, why would he stick around?

But I wouldn't want to discourage those who are so determined to get to the bottom of things.

...

:
S/Su Dec 17 -

BAGHDAD update -

I have been trying to check out Zeyad's Baghdad Column at the Slogger, but I am not able to time-orient to him yet. This is one of the problems in the new 24 hour around the planet world we live in these days. I even used to get jet-lag during the Iraqi invasion from bi-location.

# Tonight, Zeyad's sources in the Iraqi Media report attacks by Shi'ite militiamen against the Jihad and Furat districts, southwest of Baghdad, Friday night. And over the last week dozens of Sunni families have been deported from the Jihad district by Shi’ite militiamen.

# In his previous column from yesterday, the Haqq Agency reported a followup to the mass abduction at the auto parts market in Sinak in central Baghdad in which 70 people were kidnapped: 25 were released in the Sha’ab district, all Shia. The fate of the rest is unknown, but Baghdadis fear the worst.

# Also from yesterday's column, a prominent (Shi'ite) Bani Tamim sheikh was assassinated in Basra by gunmen dressed in police uniforms. Sheikh Musin Al-Kan'aan was a member of the Basra Gov Council and maintained good relations with British forces there.

# And, still from yesterday, he published a facsimile of a Death Threat Letter with the particulars.

The permalink situation to these columns still seems a bit confusing, but that issue should clear up soon. I believe their official launch date is Monday.

...

:
Sa Dec 16 -

FL BLOGGER CITED: TOS -

A Florida blogger was shut down late Thursday by his Boca-based web host for TOS violation in reaction to a complaint submitted by Ahmed Bedier, head of CAIR'S chapter in Tampa and a blogger himself.

Vilmar Tavares in Spring Hill
writes the Right Wing Howler.

:: Blogger silenced ::
-- By Asjylyn Loder --
-- SPTimes --

*Current attempts to visit the articles CAIR referenced return a 404 Not Found error. The site seems to be available to visitors, in other respects.*

:: Further Discussion Here ::

...

:
Sa Dec 16 -

M HERALD'S NEW EDITOR -

Captain Ed comments:

*Anders Gyllenhaal--
Not Our Problem Anymore*

:: Capt's Qtrs Blog perma ::

...

:
Fr Dec 15 -

EXECUTIONS SUSPENDED -

Gov. Jeb Bush suspended all executions in Florida after a medical examiner said Friday that officials had botched the process when a convicted killer, Angel Nieves Diaz, was put to death earlier this week...

Florida got rid of the electric chair after two inmates' heads caught fire...

"We just think the Florida death
penalty system is broken from
start to finish," David Elliot said.

Diaz, 55, was put to death for murdering the manager of a Miami topless bar during a holdup in 1979.

:: Sentinel (+ comments) ::

...

:
Fr Dec 15 -

SoFlo NEWSPAPERS:
::::: Here and There -

The two local newspapers in South East Florida are somewhat behind many of the rest of the newspapers in the region to integrate with the internet. In some ways, Broward seems to suffer from "in-betweenism." Located between the Herald, based to the south in Miami (McClatchy), and the Palm Beach Post to the north in PB (Cox syndicate), Broward sometimes seems lost in its own Boosterism.

What's the brightest development in Florida newspapers lately?

From what I've seen this past
year, I would have to point to:
tbt* / Tampa Bay Times.

This is an offshoot of the St Petersburg Times. But don't go there for long-format coverage of serious issues explored in any great depth.

This pub is short and snappy. And there's something to be said for snappy, especially if many other neighboring newspapers are still lumbering along with much clunkier websites. It has a fresh look and a more youthful tone.

Although both the Herald and the Sentinel are hostile to local bloggers, the former is more low-keyed about it, whereas the latter is much more overtly outspoken about it. And yet, we see that there are new developments in newspapering cooking around here as in tbt, for example. So, both the Herald and the Sentinel may be swept along with the tide, even if they don't want to be. And, in the end, they may get dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 21st Century anyway.
...

:
Fr Dec 15 -

OBSTRUCTIVE EDITOR
TO RETIRE IN FEB -

Tom Fiedler, the executive editor of The Miami Herald will retire in February. He will be replaced by Anders Gyllenhaal from the Star-Tribune in Minneapolis (both McClatchy syndicate). But, wait a minute-- when the syndicate deal took place, it was my understanding that part of the deal stipulated that Fiedler will still retain a chair on the Board of Directors. So, just how "gone" he's going to be after February is not clear to me yet.

Anyway, blogger Bob Norman has lived here a lot longer than I have. And he has his own take on the announcement:

*Between the Jim DeFede and Marti sagas, it’s the close of one of the most tumultuous reigns of any editor imaginable.*

My perspective: Although Fiedler talked a good game, what was actually happening on the ground, was the opposite of what he was saying about integrating the newspaper with the internet.

A good example of this occurs when you go to their website and try to click on a story there. You may be blocked by a popup which requires you to divulge private information to the newspaper in order to read the story. Many people do not wish to do this.

One of the implications of their obstruction is that when I blog a current event, I don't link to their story, which means that I do not send traffic to their website. That's their loss. And with a growing number of bloggers in Florida, they are turning away potential traffic from that source.

That's not integration; it's obstruction. And that's their current choice. I hope the new editor changes their current approach.

:: Herald story ::

...

:
Fr Dec 15 -

SoFlo Local:
MYSTERY MEAT
COMPUTER GANG update -

The Keith Wasserstrom Defense was
denied more specifics by the judge.

It is alleged that he violated his public duty by influencing the award of a contract to the municipality he was supposed to be serving as an official.

His attorney, Larry Davis, tried to argue that Wasserstrom hadn't been paid in money, and wanted to know what specific benefits he was supposed to receive from his influence peddling.

Wasserstrom is a member of the murky cabal whose cogent computer drive records were destroyed when their computers had a mysterious cyber-circle-jerk nervous breakdown together just by coincidence.

[*Wasserstrom, Mayor Mara Giulianti's son and a business partner working with them to promote Schwing Bioset all experienced computer failure that eliminated e-mail from the months before and after the March 2004 vote awarding the contract to the firm. Giulianti also threw out a computer that she used during that period... An investigator at the U.S. Treasury Department's forensics lab in Miami concluded Wasserstrom's computer had been "wiped" and contained no data.*]

A very long trial is predicted.
Starting date: Jan. 5 to Feb. 9.

::: Sludge Scandal: Sentinel :::
:: Sludge Scandal: Herald ::

...

:
Fri Dec 15 -

MAIL IT IN
THE ICE CREAM TRUCK? -

It's already morning
Across the Pond...

# Many small town post offices
in the UK are about to be closed.

Recently, I came across a crazy rumor somewhere, that the British government is planning to install mobile postal units in ice cream trucks. Surely, I have misunderstood something about this! Must have read it too fast. Well, I suppose we'll find out further on.

=======================

And from a quick skim of Iain Dale,
some topics he's touched on lately:

# Potential NASDAQ takeover
of the British Stock Exchange???

# Mike Read, a pop media
personality, might run against
Red Ken as Conservative
candidate for Mayor of London.

# Among the Christmas books
Iain's pals recommend:
The Looming Tower:
Al Qaeda's Road to 9/11
by Lawrence Wright.

...

:
Th Dec 14 -

SUITCASES OF CASH -

Palestinian PM Haniyah was prevented from entering the Gaza Strip at the Rafah crossing Thursday while he was trying to carry millions of dollars in cash across the border.

A deal was eventually made which allowed him to enter Gaza, but without the money.

*The Egyptian intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, then arranged for Haniyeh to leave the money in the port city of El-Arish with two Hamas officials, who will escort it to the Arab League headquarters in Cairo.*

+ I'm a sucker for stories about suitcases filled with cash floating around, aren't you?

:: By Scott Wilson ::
-- WaPo RegReq'd --

...

:
Th Dec 14 -

HUMAN SANDBAGS -

# In a brief but pointed op-ed today, Matthew D'Ancona writes that even though Hezbollah used local residents in Lebanon as "human sandbags," the organization knew how to cunningly manipulate the MSM in order to depict themselves in a romantic way to gain public sympathy from much of the external international audience. And the writer cautions us about the enemy trying to "get inside our heads." A good short read.

# Also noted: a vignette of Nancy,
the fun-loving ambulence driver,
when Life happened to her.
"I can never forget their eyes."

...

:
Th Dec 14 -

BEIRUT STANDOFF update -

Amr Moussa reported Thursday some progress in his Lebanon mediation project, but no resolution yet. So far, he claims to have achieved an agreement from the Hezbollah faction not to escalate. He's projecting another couple of weeks.

Well, just checking in on the sit.

:: Naharnet: latest ::

:: Tracking Station ::

...

:
Th Dec 14 -

Baghdad:
MASS KIDNAPPING -

An armed gang attacked the Sinak area of Baghdad today, kidnapping an estimated four dozen businessmen.

*As U.S. lawmakers [John McCain and Joe Lieberman] met reporters in the fortified Green Zone, a convoy of sports utilty vehicles of the type issued to government security forces was sealing off Rashid Street near the east bank of the Tigris.

Around 100 gunmen, in police uniform and brandishing the Glock pistols issued by the US military to Iraqi security forces, went from shop to shop stealing cash and seizing between 40 and 50 hostages, witnesses said.*

:: By Dave Clark ::
-- AFP via Yahoo --

...

:
Th Dec 14 -

FBI Terror Warning:

BLIND SHEIKH'S HEALTH -

*The FBI has sent a bulletin to state and local law enforcement warning of possible terrorist reprisals as the health of the incarcerated terror mastermind [Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman] fails.*

+ Such is Life in the New Normal.

:: FoxNews ::

...

:
Th Dec 14 -

IN SEARCH OF:
The Phantom
Police Captain -

Grabbing the Headlines -

Eason Jordan's TV experience has not been lost on him. He has a splashy and almost tabloid-ish opening for his new shop:

"So the search for Jamil Hussein is on, and rightly so. IraqSlogger's team in Baghdad is working to track him down. If we find him, we'll get back to you with details. If we can't find him, we'll report that, too."

:: Jordan: Iraqslogger ::

...

:
We Dec 13 -

BLOGNETTING NODES -

Val Prieto in Miami blogs that
he's been invited to participate
as a speaker at the forthcoming
WeMedia Conference which is
scheduled for Miami on
February 7-9, 2007.

Congratulations to Val!

...

:
We Dec 13 -

SoFlo Local:
FATAL DINING DATE -

The Timpf Case still seems to be going nowhere. And I think what is bothering me the most is what the detectives are NOT saying...

*Police are calling the fatal shooting of a former University of Miami basketball player and chiropractor in the parking lot of Houston's Restaurant an attempted car jacking.*

Where's the evidence of car jacking? Any indications of car jacking are thus far invisible.

If this were a car jacking, the guy would have put a gun to Timpf's head and told him to get out of the car. And, presumedly, Timpf would have had the good sense to comply. There doesn't seem to be any evidence of this.

*His Cadillac... is now being investigated by police for any clues that could lead to Timpf's killer.*

But what about his mobile phone? I was troubled that the police did not say they were downloading the contents of Timpf's mobile phone for possible clues. Nor did they say they had taken possession of his personal day-planner organizer for a similar examination. And, of course his computer. Did he surf on the internet, and, if so, where?

Here's an alternate hypothetical scenario: what if his dining companion were just a beard, a pretext for being there, and the parking lot encounter were really a botched payoff arrangement of some kind-- blackmail, extortion or gambling debts, etc?

This is the 21st Century, for God's sake. They should, at least, examine his mobile phone contents. Don't ya think?

:: WSVN-Local ::

...

:
We Dec 13 -

IRAQ NEWS HUB -

A new website clamors for our attention. Currently named IraqSlogger in Beta, it is due to be launched next week.

Developed by Eason Jordan, formerly of CNN, Nir Rosen and Robert Young Pelton, it aims to be a Hub for Iraqi News and current information.

Greg Mitchell's article at E&P describes a very ambitious project which sounds very appealing, too. We wish them well with it.

For a peek at it so far:
(I had trouble with this link)

:: IraqSlogger ::

...

:
T/Wed Dec 13 -


INCITING GENOCIDE:

Iran's Ahmadinejad -

*The outgoing US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, is backing a call for the president of Iran to be charged with inciting genocide because of his speeches advocating the destruction of the state of Israel.
[ ... ]
A suit will be lodged with the international court of justice at The Hague, which will decide whether to hear the action. The panel said the Iranian president was guilty of inciting genocide "by making numerous threats against the United States, calling for the destruction of Israel and instigating discrimination against Christians and Jews". His words violate a 1948 UN genocide convention, to which Iran is a signatory, they said.*

-- Excerpts from: --
:: The UK Guardian ::

...

:
Tu Dec 12 -

HOLIDAY WooWoo -

Just in time for
Christmas or any other
winter holiday you prefer:


# The Chipsters:
Ready to get tagged?
Was this guy channeling
Philip K Dick or what?

==========================
# Is there a War against Christmas?
==========================

# One radio station is going to play
Hanukkah music this year instead
of Christmas music. In the comment
thread attached to this article, many
Christians are enraged at this news.

...

:
M/Tu Dec 12 -

Iran:
BUT ONLY SOME TABOOS -

The elephant in their closet -

Iran on Monday defied an international outcry by holding a conference aimed at breaking taboos on the Holocaust...

The Nazi Mufti of Jerusalem:

** Testimony presented at the Nuremberg trials, however, accused the Mufti of not only having knowledge about the holocaust but of also actively encouraging the initiation of extermination programs against European Jews. Adolf Eichmann's deputy Dieter Wisliceny testified during his war crimes trial in 1946 that ... "The Mufti was one of the initiators of the systematic extermination of European Jewry and had been a collaborator and adviser of Eichmann and Himmler in the execution of this plan... He was one of Eichmann’s best friends and had constantly incited him to accelerate the extermination measures. I heard him say, accompanied by Eichmann, he had visited incognito the gas chambers of Auschwitz." **

...

:
Mo Dec 11 -

SoFlo Local:
DRIVE-BY SHOOTING:

Murder Mystery -

A 32-year-old chiropractor was shot dead while he was seated inside his Cadillac which was parked outside a popular restaurant in North Miami Beach at about 8:15pm Sunday evening.

Was this an act of random violence, the result of a parking dispute, revenge of a jealous lover, or a targeted assassination?

I favor... ummm... jealous lover.
What about you?

An investigation is ongoing.

:: CBS4 ::

:: Local 10 ::

...

:
Mo Dec 11 -

SINBAD SELLS PORTS OP:

Stevedores Carried
Off by Large Bird -

*Dubai Ports World, the company whose planned takeover of major U.S. port operations ignited a political firestorm earlier this year, has agreed to sell those operations to AIG Global Investment Group.*

It's all but a Done Deal.
Yes, Miami and Tampa, too.

Let's drop in to Sheikh Mo'
and see his reaction. He
has no comment so far.
...

:
Mo Dec 11 -

HURRIYAH PURGED BY
SHIITE DEATH SQUADS -

Sectarian Purge:
Northwest Baghdad -

There are preliminary reports coming out of the McClatchy D.C. office from their reporters in Baghdad that a large number of Sunni residents have been purged out of this neighborhood which is now said to be under control of Muqtada al-Sadr.

Elsewhere, McClatchy reports the establishment of a hotline by the U.S. Miltary to report sectarian violence in an effort to curb the heavy mortar bombardments to which some Baghdad neighborhoods have been subjected.

...

:
Mo Dec 11 -

BRIT BLOG BUZZ -

This story is getting big buzz on
numerous blogs across the pond:

*It relates how Brussels has closed down a successful UK cheese manufacturer for no apparent reason, and has been allowed to do so by an impotent British government.* [Iain Dale]

:: By Christopher Booker ::
-- Sunday UK Telegraph --
...

:
Mo Dec 11 -

WEAPONIZED TEXTING -

The British Army is using text messaging as a weapon against the Taliban.

General Franks did this kind of thing to the Ba'athist SS before the Iraqi invasion, and we heard that it totally freaked them out.

:: SkyNews ::

...

:
Mo Dec 11 -

PARTITION IRAQ?

[For Those With
Short Attention Spans]

A brief two-column primer
in some simple bullet-pointed

:: Pros and Cons ::

+ I don't mean to be rude, but isn't this presentation, as nice as it is, somewhat moot? I believe they've already decided to use some kind of federal approach and they're in the process of working out the details.

Just how much progress they've made may be an entirely different issue...

...

:
Mo Dec 11 -

BAGHDAD BANK ROBBERY -

A gang of about 20 thieves wearing
Iraqi Army uniforms ambushed a
Brink's-type truck in Baghdad and
grabbed a million in cash today.

:: ITV ::

:: BBC ::

:: REUTERS ::

...

:
Su Dec 10 -

Baghdad:
UNIVERSITIES SHUT DOWN -

Last week, a friend of mine told me that the former chair of the English Department in my university in Baghdad fled to northern Iraq. She told me he became miserable after armed men kidnapped his son, beheaded him and sent his head in a box.

An unknown group distributed leaflets to university students in Adhamiya and Yarmouk neighborhoods banning them from going to schools.

"To protect the lives of professors and students from death squads, it is completely prohibited to attend college from now on."

ToB explains the leaflets
being distributed in Baghdad.

Translations of posters
from Ansar Al-Suna.

Fatima also documents this.

...

:
Su Dec 10 -

CRANKING JAMIL -

"Why should AP have all the fun?"
Sandmonkey asks rhetorically.

And then he suggests: Make up
your own Jamil Hussein story!

Here's an example
written by Ace.

...

:
Su Dec 10 -

WEEKEND MEDIA CLIPS -

# NPR's On the Media this weekend included a segment called "Les Misunderstood" on the new France 24 whose website I dropped into previously on a Buzzmachine link. I decided to give it a "honeymoon" and refrain from criticism for a while. The last segment down the page about spying was entertaining.

# Saturday Night Live was mostly ho-hum, but one brief piece was very funny: a satiric movie trailer, supposedly for Mel Gibson's new film. I laughed out loud. TMZ says: Hilarious! And you can watch it there.

# Martin Stabe has disclosed that the British Press Gazette did not die; it was only resting.

# The NYReview of Books
now has a blog called:
:: A Different Stripe ::

# The big question facing major newspapers is how can they compete with the free content now on the internet. But that's only half the story. The BBC's David Reid doesn't mention the proliferation of junk sections in a kind of stealth cooperative advertising. I don't think one should have to spend an entire day or even an entire afternoon just to read the day's newspaper.

...

:
Sa Dec 9 -

BAGHDAD PRIMARY SOURCES -

The website Alive in Baghdad
has won awards for
their coverage of Iraq.

Its founder is 26-year-old Brian Conley, who gave some equipment to a team of Iraqis in order to establish coverage "in the voice of locals."

:: More from the BBC ::

...

:
Sa Dec 9 -

PREPARE FOR LAUNCH -

NASA starts fueling for
tonight's Discovery launch.

:: Live from ::

Florida's Space Coast.

...

:
Fr Dec 8 -

SOME MEDIA BRIEFS -

# A longish article by Dana Hull exploring the relationship between blogging and journalism. You may want to copy-to-floppy to read offline at your leisure or convenience.

::AJR: Blogging Between the Lines

========================
# LONDON TORNADO ::PIX::
========================

# A glimpse into a local
blogging community in
the US Northwest.

...

:
Fr Dec 8 -

SoFlo:
COUGAR WRECKS
CHILD'S PARTY -

No doubt, by now, you've heard about the excesses involved in some of the contemporary bar/bat mitzvahs, sweet-sixteens, and other such parties when today's parents want to make a splash to celebrate their children. This is another story which belongs to that genre.

A father in Coral Gables SoFlo, who is a corporate executive, hired a wild animal company to bring a cougar to his 7-year-old child's birthday party on November 18th. The cougar became startled, and the party ended badly.

The cougar was put to death.

Enter the lawyers...

:: CBS 4 ::

...

:
Fr Dec 8 -

FL's MOUSEHOUSE:
Blue Worries -

Bags of toys, childrens' underwear,
and Florida theme park ticket stubs
have been found in the Troy, North
Carolina home of an alleged predator.

:: Local 6 ::

...

:
Th Dec 7 -

NEARLY MYSTERIOUS -

# MWA has announced that Mitchell Kaplan, owner of Books & Books in SoFlo and co-founder of Miami Book Fair International, is a recipient of its Raven Award for outstanding achievement in the mystery field apart from creative writing.

# Famous NYPD Art Detective
Robert Volpe died last week.

:: Obituary :: NYTimes RR'd.

...

:
We Dec 6 -

SoFlo Noir:
FLASHED AND KILLED,
Prosecutors Allege -

Prosecutors say Freire John Cartagena-Rivera showed off his rose tattoo to some people on the same November 2002 night that he is accused of fatally shooting a
Tampa man.

The tattoo, which is on his genitalia, could become a pivotal identification in a first-degree murder trial this week in Tampa.

:: TampaBay ::

...

:
We Dec 6 -

SoFlo Local:
SHAMBALIC FATHERHOOD -

"Let me ask you a question:

What should happen to a man who was ordered to pay child support for a child the DNA evidence showed he did not father, and the mother admitted he was not the father?

The judge would say
you don't have to pay, right?

Nope. The judge put him in jail.

Outrageous and silly, right?

But it's happening
in South Florida...

:: Help me, Howard ::
-- a WSVN TV Feature --

...

:
We Dec 6 -

A PAVED FLORIDA -

*Imagine a Florida with twice as many people, double the congestion and another seven million acres of farms, forests and other rural lands paved over or converted into sprawling towns and suburbs...

Existing requirements for local 10-year comprehensive plans are inadequate to deal with the long-term statewide implications of rampant growth, according to a commissioned study.*

:: By Bill Kaczor ::
-- AP via TBO --
...

:
Mo Dec 4 -

TELEMUNDO MUZZLED -

Officials identifying themselves as CONATEL ordered U.S.-based Telemundo TV to halt their transmission covering Venezuela's presidential elections Sunday. The Telemundo team was told it didn't have the proper credentials.

Was it something they said?

What's this all about???

...

:
Mo Dec 4 -

SoFlo: ART SPLASH -

# From Edward Helmore's breezy take on this week's Art Basel in Miami for First Post, an English online zine:

For Miami... the art fair has helped to raise property prices and spur the redevelopment of run-down commercial districts... some of the biggest art collectors in the city... are also among the city's richest property developers.

... the fair offers unparalleled access to super-wealthy, art-hungry collectors from South America.

... gallery owner Jeffrey Deitch notes [the fair] is "starting to feel like the Cannes Film Festival."

# Also from today's edition, Andrew Bowler reports that fans of the late graphic artist and cartoonist Will Eisner have something to look forward to:

Norton is publishing Will Eisner's New York: Life in the Big City, a compendium of four far lesser graphic works. The Big City (1981) and City People Notebook (1989) are loose collections of vignettes. Also, The Building (1987) and Invisible People (1990).

...

:
S/Sun Dec 3 -

Bookish:
ANNUAL ROUNDUPS -

Well, it's that time of year...

#Marcel Berlins gives us
a select handful of his favorite
Crime books of 2006.

#Similarly, Peter Millar
gives his picks of the
year in Thrillers.

#And Best of the Rest.

LORNE DOOM: A chap named David Selbourne has come down from the mountain to pen a piece for the British Spectator called Apocalypse on the US blogosphere. Catch it if you can.

...

:
S/Sun Dec 3 -

BAHRAIN ELECTIONS -

It appears, based on an initial dispatch from AFP, that Sunni Islamists won more seats at the expense of some "liberals."

None of the 16 women candidates won, but one woman who ran unopposed, Latifa al-Qouhoud, will have a seat.

Because of the subtle complexities of their polity, we'll have to wait for more knowledgeable monitors to analyze these results. I think I'll revisit this story tomorrow.

:: AFP via Yahoo ::

...

:
S/Sun Dec 3 -

IRAQI DISPATCHES -

Salam Adil has posted his weekly
entry, compiling some excerpts from
Iraqi Blogs. Very moving passages
describe Baghdad in a terrible
state of anomie and its residents
under violent siege.

:: Bleeding ::

...

:
S/Sun Dec 3 -

BLOGGING NOTES -

Sorry about the light blogging this past week, but the air conditioning system for our apartment complex has been down. It goes up to 87F in my place and very humid so that the air is very heavy. It's hard to get much done under the circumstances. The repairmen are supposed to be coming Monday, but I remain somewhat skeptical.

Right now at about 1:30am, it's still 84F. If I retire for the night, I'll have to close the front windows, and, because of the heat retained by the building itself during the day, it wouldn't cool off much. If I stay up later, I can leave the front windows open longer, and maybe that will help cool the place off more.
...

:
Sat Dec 2 -

SoFlo Local:
FOUND ON BICKER*SPOT -

Liz Donovan, who worked for the Miami Herald until recently, writes on her blog that the Jose Varela Case "highlights the ridiculous feuding developing among some South Florida bloggers."

Like this, for example?

Remarkably,
that comment thread
is still going today.

And Happy Trails
to you, too :-)

...

:
Sat Dec 2 -

SoFlo:
BEYOND BOUNDARIES -

For the last five years, a 56-year-old Tampa FL attorney has been stalked by a women who had once worked briefly as a temp in his law office. This week he he picked up his voice mail while he was away in D.C. and heard this:

"Your doors are open,
and I'm in your house."

When the police arrived
they found her in his bed.

:: TampaBayTimes ::
-- Colleen Jenkins --

...

:
Fr Dec 1 -

THE BAGHDAD SNIPER -

Omar at ITM reports
that the once-elusive
figure has been captured.

Ali Nazar al-Jubori
is now in custody.

...

:
Fr Dec 1 -

MEDIA SPRITZ -

# WHAT IS THE FREQUENCY?
How much Conspiracy Theory
is too much? Peter Barron ponders.

# INFORMED BY THEIR HEARTS:
"There's always someone in the
real world who knows your subject
better than you." ::Michael Miner.

# FAWLTY PAXMAN:
Apparently, Jeremy Paxman
from NewsNight tried to do
an impression of John Cleese,
but nobody got the joke. Droll.

...

:
Fr Dec 1 -

CITGO OR NO -

Florida drivers who are irate
that Hugo Chavez has a gasoline
monopoly on the Turnpike may be
given some other alternatives
to fill up with soon.

:: PBPost ::

...

:
Fr Dec 1 -

EYE ON THE NEWS -

- Iraq's Interior Ministry said Thursday it had formed a special unit to monitor news coverage and vowed to take legal action against journalists who failed to correct stories the ministry deemed to be incorrect.

- Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, spokesman for the ministry, said the purpose of the special monitoring unit was to find "fabricated and false news that hurts and gives the Iraqis a wrong picture that the security situation is very bad, when the facts are totally different."

:: AP via MyWay ::

...

:
We Nov 29 -

DRAWING SYMPATHY -

Jose Varela, the cartoonist who invaded the Spanish-language division of the Miami Herald newspaper with a toy gun has become something of a Folk Hero among his peeps.

While he may have previously felt isolated and defensive before his cri de coeur, he is now signing autographs from well-wishers at the popular Versailles restaurant.

Among his sympathizers, two disk jockies, Enrique Santos and Joe Ferrero from El Zol 95.7, raised enough money to post 10% of his bond, bailing him out of jail. And he has been interviewed on Mega TV.

In the end, no harm was
done and no one got hurt.

But what forum exists for a reporter, photog or other Herald employee to air such a grievance? And we still don't know any of the details of the alleged censorship which Editor Tom Fiedler continues to deny.

The case will be resumed
December 15th.
...

:
We Nov 29 -

FACING DOWN THE RABBLE -

In an unusual confrontation this past Sunday, Disgusted from Tunbridge Wells water-skiied (in her gardening Wellies!) all the way across the Atlantic to have a word with Earl Maucker, Editor of the local SF Sun-Sentinel newspaper in Fort Lauderdale, FL. This week, she has a bean up her nose about those vulgar comments which seem to be proliferating on newspaper websites these days...

*Q: I am appalled at the comments that have been left on the articles written about Deputy Brian Tephford's murder. Isn't there some form of regulation on the comments posted? I literally clicked the 'Flag for Review' button 50 times! If you plan on allowing comments to the articles, you should have someone who is responsible for reading the comments before they are posted. I am truly disgusted with your lack of attention and concern for individuals' online etiquette. --comment via e-mail.*

And what does
Maucker tell Disgusted?

"Your criticisms are justified."

He goes on to observe that: "Certain stories we publish seem to be lightning rods for controversy."

But, we suspect, Mr Maucker is being a touch disingenuous with Disgusted, because he mentions another company called Topix.net which he seems to have hired to handle the comments-- not that there's anything wrong with that.

Still, we can't help feeling that neither Maucker nor Tom Fiedler, editor of the Miami Herald, really give a rat's ass what we think.

More on controlling the
mouthy mob at BuzzMachine.

...

:
We Nov 29 -

SoFlo: INTO
THE TRIANGLE? -

It has long been speculated by some, that Broward County lies at the Western Point of the Devil's Triangle.

Is this story another demonstration of that theory or does it have a more banal explanation?

*A mysterious 'dead zone' near Fort Lauderdale FL has rendered dozens of remote-control car locks impotent over the past several weeks.

In a five-block area of warehouses and small businesses near Dixie Highway and Floranada Road, nobody can explain why the gadgets fail to work.*

Hmmm . . .

:: By Michael Turnbell ::
--SF SunSentinel --

...

:
We Nov 29 -

PULLING TOGETHER -

Ashville NC, bloggers learn that their local newspaper and Gannett, its parent company, are about to change:

by incorporating elements of reader-created 'citizen journalism,' mining online community discussions for stories...

:: BlogAshville ::

...

:
Mo Nov 27 -

WANT FRIES WITH THAT?

in Fake News for this evening:

The Six Sunni Crispies -

CENTCOM, in an e-mail to
the Associated Press, advises:

"Capt Jamil Hussein" is neither a legitimate Iraqi police officer nor an officially-empowered Iraqi Government spokesman.

*On Nov. 24, 2006, your organization published an article by Qais Al-Bashir about six Sunnis being burned alive...

*Unless you have a credible source to corroborate the story of the people being burned alive, we respectfully request that AP issue a retraction, or a correction at a minimum, acknowledging that the source named in the story is not who he claimed he was.*

+ "Capt Jamil Hussein" appears to be, at the very least, a very dangerous Double Agent. OK, so let the lawyers sift this out. They're trained to do that.

:: FloppingAces [on backup] ::

...

:
Mo Nov 27 -

DRAWING UMBRAGE -

Bob "The Pulp" Norman give good linkage to blogs writing about Jose Varela and his occupation of the Miami Herald newspaper office.

I think what needs to happen now is:

Varela's lawyer, Joe Garcia, should sit down and have a talk with him and try to draw out the specifics of the alleged censorship and other problems.

Then Garcia can distillate the issues and communicate with the "other" lawyer, Gary Pruitt, and/or the rest of us about what is going on.

Essentially, we have here a "visual" person who is upset and inchoate; he can't seem to connect with his verbal skills. Instead he is acting out his feelings. This is not so unusual.

...

:
Mo Nov 27 -

PIPPLE OF EARTH -

Some of what's going on
in the world around us . . .

# POLONIUM FIEND STALKING LONDON: A ruthless assassin, code-named Igor, is at large. He walks with a slight limp. The 46-year-old trained killer, is slim, muscular, and 6 ft tall. He speaks perfect English and Portugese.

He is wanted for questioning in connection with the poisoning of Mr Litvinenko. The rest of the story by Stephen Wright via London's Daily Mail reads like a casebook spy thriller-- scroll down toward the end for that:

"Little is known about...

========================

# WAL-MART MAY ENTER INDIA: After a so-so Black Friday, Wal-Mart may be venturing into a huge new potential market in partnership with Bharti.

========================
# BURMA SHUTS DOWN RED CROSS: *The Burmese government's additional demand that the ICRC close five of its field offices means the organisation's work in Burma will be limited to a few rehabilitation projects for amputees.*

# RWANDA SHUTS DOWN RFI: *Rwanda has ordered Radio France International to halt local broadcasts, in an escalating row over events leading to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.*
========================

# The BBC's Mark Mardell reports that in France, Nicholas Sarkozy is being portrayed in a new satiric comic book. And Segolene Royal's new motto is "avec vous" [with you].

...

:
Sun Nov 26 -

WHAT THE FONT -

# The London Times has apparently updated its typeface. I keep running into peripheral chatter about this, but haven't hit the motherlode yet:

A font walks into a bar.
Bartender says: "Sorry,
mate, don't serve your type."

========================

# Someone doesn't
want you to read this:

In an unexpected move, the regime allowed a visiting top UN official to meet detained Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi at a government guest house.

This is an excerpt from:
http://www.irrawaddy.org/

The site belongs to The Irrawaddy, and has been censored in Myanmar/Burma. IPG is a news site for Burmese citizens living in exile.

:: From Irrepressible ::

========================

# An Egyptian Blogger
discovers that a newspaper
has been plagerizing his work!

...

:
Sun Nov 26 -

SoFlo MYSTERY HUDDLE -

Stacy Alesi attended the

Miami Book Fair and gives us

:: her blog report ::

in a rather lengthy entry.

...

:
Sun Nov 26 -

REEL LIFE vs REAL LIFE -

Can Americans still
distinguish between them?

On Friday, lawyer Ann Althouse posted an interesting blog entry on the questions of whether the Seinfeld show is now "ruined" and "whether Michael Richards' racist rant makes his Kramer character unwatchable." Turns out, she's deep into Seinfeldmania Trivia! Who knew ;-)

The comment thread is also interesting. Commenter BJK says:

"Am I the only one who
remembers that Cosmo
Kramer hired a black lawyer?"

He's referring to:
:: Jackie Chiles ::

* * * * * * * * * *
In today's update:

*Michael Richards appeared on the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s nationally syndicated radio program, "Keep Hope Alive," as a part of a series of apologies for the incident.*

And the two hecklers are trying to extort money from Richards now, making the entire episode look more like a setup and ambush.
...

:
Fr Nov 24 -

SoFlo Local and Beyond:
CARTOONIST WITH A GUN -

It started out as an ordinary Black Friday with wall-to-wall coverage of shoppers who had arisen early and busy shopping malls with parking lot and traffic conditions. And it soon became unwatchable. But late this morning, just in time for the noon TV News broadcasts, the SoFlo Situation rapidly spiralled out of the MSM's main agenda for the day: Shopping.

* * * * * * * *
An apparently sacked editorial cartoonist armed with a grievance and a gun entered the sixth floor of the downtown Miami Herald Newspaper Building today, demanding to confront El Nuevo Herald's executive editor, Humberto Castello.

Jose M Varela, dressed in camoflage clothing, complained he had been subjected to censorship.

Varela managed to telephone his Miami lawyer, Joe Garcia, a couple of times from within the building.

*Garcia said Varela was concerned about a conflict of interest at El Nuevo Herald.*

========================
The newspaper said Varela entered the newsroom at about 10:40 Friday morning and ended shortly before 2:30, when Varela was taken into police custody. Police say no shots were fired.
========================

In conversations with a Nuevo reporter, Varela demanded the resignation of Executive Editor Castello, who, it was reported, was not in the building. While the episode unfolded, most of the employees were evacuated from the building.

*In a 1999 Nuevo column, then-exec editor Ramon Mestre mentioned that his father and Varela's father were both political prisoners in Castro's Cuba.*

========================
:: Varela's tongue-in-cheek mini
auto-biography [in translation]
from the Nuevo website.
========================
:: Samples:: of
Varela's work [in Spanish].
...

:
W/Thurs Nov 23 -

SoFlo: BLOTTINGS -

# UN-BANKING: The FBI has arrested Thomas Manuel Colon, the 19-year-old son of a Fort Lauderdale police officer, for the robbery of a bank under their surveillance in Miramar. Colon is suspected of perpetrating a spree around the state, marauding the Wachovia Banking system.

========================
# BEAUTY RAID: A wolfette pack of three (non-descript) women conducted a raid on a Beauty Supply store in Broward County just after 2pm Wednesday, grabbing numerous packages of human hair and several pairs of gold-plated earrings. When confronted during the act, they pepper-sprayed the owner. He was transported to a medical facility for treatment.
========================

# LEAF PEEPING: Wilton Manors may be headed for a culture clash. The Colhatchee Park there is allegedly being used for sexual activities which may be illegal.

As for Other Peepings: Don't send "perv" stories to Jack Shafer! He says he can't take it. "Send something civil, something with happy bunnies or frolicking puppies. Nobody beats Murdoch's paper on this sordid beat."

...

:
W/Thurs Nov 23 -

STALE EVERGREENS -

"They are telling us absolutely
nothing we don’t already know.
This is journalism?"

Jeff Jarvis laments the lame offerings the MSM is foisting on us this week: travel and shopping. I agree! If you're not doing the family thing for the holiday, it might be a good day to catch up on your reading:

# The whereabouts of the little boy named Trenton Duckett are still mysterious in Florida. Enter the bodacious TV Legal Diva, Miss Nancy Grace. And then the mother commits suicide. Now lawyers for the estate say they are filing papers for a wrongful death lawsuit against Miss Grace. Can you figure out where that little boy is?

# Or you might want to dip into the
current Carnival of the True
Crime Blogs just posted.

# "You should read Nir Rosen's Anatomy of a Civil War, recently published in the Boston Review," recommends Zeyad at his Healing Iraq Blog.

...

:
Tu Nov 21 -

MEDIA WARS -

#BAGHDAD: Al-Zawraa TV is the brainchild of Mishaan al-Jubouri, a Sunni member of the Iraqi parliament who fled to Syria recently amid allegations of corruption.

:: By Hannah Allamm ::
-- McClatchy Newspapers --

#NEW YORK: Saleh Elahwal, 53, of Matawan, N.J., is the second man charged in the Hezbollah TV case in the New York Metro area.

...

:
Tu Nov 21 -

A WALK ON THE DARK SIDE -

Pierce writes that the latest issue of Rolling Stone contains a feature about true-crime blogs. I haven't seen it yet.

Then, surfing links,
Trench writes:

The gunman from the Geschwister Scholl in Emsdetten, Germany has been identified as 18-year-old Sebastian Bosse. As it turns out the similarities to Kimveer Gill are almost uncanny…

...

:
Tu Nov 21 -

THE DAILY SNARL -

While I don't care much for "happytalk" first thing in the morning, I don't like people snarling at me either. This morning was a real doozy with not one, but two snarling stories.

The first one that hit me was about Michael Richards ("Kramer"). I don't like the N-word and have never used it; I don't think it belongs in polite society usage at all. I couldn't decipher very much of Richards' rant; what I could discern sounded distasteful. But I kept waiting for the story to resolve, and it didn't, which irked me.

It is rude to heckle a performer. If you don't like the act, you can leave and even try to ask for a refund. Not only did two guys heckle Richards, they then went on to say some very hateful things to him. These two guys ruined a hundred people's evening with their disruptive misbehavior and have never apologized. The only guy who came out of all this lookin' classy was the owner of the club: Jamie Masada, who offered a refund to anyone who wanted one.
-----------------------
"Michael Richards: Not a Jew-- not that there's anything wrong with that." Is this really necessary? {8-o

The thought also crossed my mind that perhaps Richards' act was a piece of some sort of strange performance art like Andy Kaufman used to do. Why? Because the Seinfeld show sometimes dealt with social taboos.
========================
As if that "Kramer" story weren't enough for me, lurking just around the corner on MyWay was the story that really put the start of my day this morning way outta wack: The 6 Imans on an Airplane Story. Oh, Boy!

I see the story has been somewhat updated this evening. When I first started reading it this morning, I was somewhat sympathetic about a possible unfortunate misunderstanding, but when I got to the middle of the story, some Muslim activist said he was angry!

If you want to pray on an airplane, good manners suggest you alert the stewardess first. But if they were in the airport terminal, why didn't they go to the chapel to pray? Most airports have a place which is designated for prayer. I'm still not clear about the events in question.

Be that as it may, what really ticked me off about the original story was the rant that they were behaving "normally," implying that 260 million Americans are abnormal freaks. I don't go for their imperialistic attitude. If they don't like the way most Americans do things here, I think they should leave or be deported. They seemed to think we have to conform to their requirements and exhibited a very distorted sense of entitlement. I expect people to show good manners. They seemed to think the whole world should revolve around them. Whoever brought these crackpots into the U.S. to begin with, should be fired or voted out of office.

So, how many imans does it
take to ground an airline flight?
Maybe 6 ;-)
...

:
Mo Nov 20 -

BLOGGING THE NEWS -

# WaPo's Downie Exposed: Stephen Brook with The UK Guardian's Media Desk writes about Leonard Downie Jr, the exec ed of the Washington Post. A very worthwhile article-- grab it!
* * * * * * * * * *
-- A Peek: Some Blogs by
Norfolk England residents.
========================
SoFlo Local:
# No I.D. & No Description: Over the weekend, it emerged that a woman's body was discovered in North West Ft Lauderdale near an apartment complex. The cadaver had no identification papers on it: no driver's license, library card, Medicare card, etc..

Although this was reported by at least a half-dozen news organizations, both TV station broadcasts/websites and local newspapers, none of the reporters gave a description of the female victim. How does this happen?

Monday Update: This item has now disappeared from the Media entities online, with the exception of the Sun-Sentinel, where it now appears under Broward County Newsbriefs which adds that the woman was white. But still no description!

...

:
Fr Nov 17 -

OTHER POV's -

# Siddhartha reviews the
new Al Jazeera in English.

# Tenzin Tsundue is a
Tibetan exile and writer.
:::: Ask me where I'm from...

# Amira Al Hussaini translates an excerpt from Shalash Al Iraqi. Despite his popularity with the Iraqis, I've had a tough time reading him in translation so far. But Amira seems to have rendered him more accessible. Here is a brief passage:

Forty cars stop suddenly and armed men get out of them in a sensitive area in the middle of Baghdad and kidnap 100 people and leave. Later on, the Interior Ministry personnel arrive and free most of those kidnapped. All this is happening at a time when the Prime Minister is calling for finding the culprits and the Interior Ministry is looking for them. What is this Pakistani movie? Even the plot of an Indian movie is more coherent than this!

The rest of her Nov 16th Entry
is interesting as well.
...

:
Fr Nov 17 -

READING MATTERS -

# J.Kingston Pierce has put together some mystery and crime books which have caught his eye. If you're looking for something to read, you might want to peruse his candidates. RAP

# On SMITH magazine today:
::About:: The BOBs
::About:: Iraqi stories

# Improbably, lots of Buzz around
the Net today about: gay penguins.

# Do you have a thing for
-- Miss Moneypenny?

...

:
Th Nov 16 -

SoFlo: CAPERS -

# Thieves used a brick to smash the glass door of a pet shop overnight, then dashed in to snatch two Yorkshire Terrier puppies, priced at $2,500 each. They left a register full of cash untouched.
========================

# Police are looking for a couple who have been selling vacant lots as future homesites with fraudulent deeds. Police say the couple has victimized more than 100 people, taking in more than 20 million dollars.
========================

# James Giordano, 52, was arrested early Wednesday by FBI agents who had to scale the walls of his fortess-like Florida compound as part of an illegal gambling operation bust.

In June, Giordano left his laptop in a hotel room for a few hours, during which time period, the NYPD entered and made a digital copy of his hard drive.

*The defendants laundered and stashed away "untold millions of dollars" using shell corporations and bank accounts in Central America, the Caribbean, Switzerland, Hong Kong and elsewhere, said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.*
...

:
Th Nov 16 -

LISTENING UP -

Clear Channel Communications, which owns Premiere Radio Networks, has agreed to be purchased by private equity firms Bains Capital and Thomas H Lee Partners. The company is reputed to own more than 1,500 radio stations in the U.S.
========================
"This is the day media decided to explode locally and nationally, what with Clear Channel's decision to sell off 448 radio stations, the Tampa Tribune admitting its star Al-Arian reporter has left the story after starting a romantic relationship with the one of the prosecutor..."

--Eric Deggan Blog, Tampabay.com
========================

- Motley Fool via MSNBC

- Will US radio landscape change?
--by Sue Zeidler at Reuters

- Some informal background

- A U.S. Berlusconi?

...

:
Th Nov 16 -

BLOGGING NOTES -

I don't know what's going on about switching versions, but I've tried to switch with no luck. I have a suspicion that they're going to dump or divest a lot of Blogs in the process of their "conversion," because I tried starting an experimental blog with similar template and found it very unresponsive to my wishes-- I couldn't even get the background color I wanted. The excuse, it seems, is that although the "invitation" appears on my dashboard, Blogs which have more than 2 thousand entries are taking them longer to convert. I'm not very geeky, so I'm not at all comfortable with all this. It took me quite a while before I got my Blog to a point where I've felt comfortable handling it. If the technical aspects becomes too intrusive, it becomes very distracting.
...

:
We Nov 15 -

SWITCHING -

Having received very heavy hints today that it's time to switch to the New Blogger, I am going to give it a try. The last time I tried, they told me that, despite the invitation on my dashboard, they hadn't fully prepared for me yet.

Anything could happen!

Ready?

...

:
We Nov 15 -

GRAPHIC NOVELS -

Sales of graphic novels have
more than tripled from
$75 million in 2001. But
libraries are having problems
dealing with them. AP/IHT

...

:
We Nov 15 -

UK EXTREMIST
INFILTRATION -

Abid Javaid, who is a member of Hizb-ut Tahrir, which believes in a worldwide Islamic state (Caliphate) under Shariah law, is working as a senior official in the British Home Office, it has emerged.

# The BBC investigates
Hizb ut-Tahrir by Peter Barron.

...

:
We Nov 15 -

IQ: ED MIN FALLOUT -

*Abd Dhiab al-Ujaili, Iraq's higher education minister, has said he will step down until 80 abducted workers are released.*

Mo at ITM sees the hand of Iran behind proxies carrying out the Ed Ministry kidnappings. Also today, he tells us about:

*the assassination of the colonel who's in charge of internal investigation in the department of national police, also known as the police commandos.*
...

:
Tu Nov 14 -

BAGHDAD UPDATE -

# Latest from the ::BBC::
*All of the hostages seized in a raid by gunmen on a Baghdad higher education facility have been released, Iraqi officials say.*
========================
# Discussion of the mass kidnapping at the Higher Education Ministry building is at Treasure of Baghdad: The Iraqi Killing Fields and on that comment thread.
========================
# Although it hasn't received much attention here in the U.S. yet, it was reported by Azzaman over the weekwend that armed men, in police garb, kidnapped the head of the Iraqi Red Crescent in Baghdad, Dr. Ans al-Azzawi.
========================
# Nibras Kazmi believes that much of the violence that's been going on in the Adhamiyah neighborhood is being perpetrated by Abu Dera's gang. But Kazimi says he believes that that Dera himself is currently in Iran. If that is so, then who has been directing the intense hostilities against the neighborhood while Dera's been gone?
========================
# Fatima tells a squatting story from Amiriya. The family whose home was captured by the squatters is mixed (Sunni/Shiite), which adds complexities to the story.
========================
# Shaggy is still in Baghdad.

...

:
Tu Nov 14 -

ALTERNATE HISTORIES -
From a Buzz on the Net -

Maybe they held a
Caption Contest at TIME
because this was the result.

# The Artifact: A photo which supposedly shows a burning Israeli jet plane which had been shot down by Hezbollah missiles and was published in TIME magazine.

# Brian C Ledbetter explains the real story behind the photo by Bruno Stevens of an incident at Kfar Chima, Lebanon. Ledbetter crossposts it at Newsbusters.

# The photog's story.

...

:
Tu Nov 14 -

IRANIAN GRAPHICS -

Kamangir links to images

of GRAFFITI in Tehran.

Pop-up Warning!

...

:
Mon Nov 13 -

NAKED SOLICITATION -

Shabnam Mughal, the lawyer who refused to remove her face mask when asked to do so by a British judge, has been replaced on that case by her law firm "in the best interests of the client."

Taking over representation will be Abdul Khan. Fortunately for the client, Mr Khan's religious beliefs allow him to wear at least a gourd covering his private parts.

:: BBC: Staffordshire ::

...

:
Mon Nov 13 -

SoFlo Local:
WATER STATIC -

*South Florida area residents and agricultural sector are being asked to voluntarily lower their water consumption as the region deals with rainfall shortages.

The request applies to Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe and Palm Beach counties and is a precautionary measure, the South Florida Water Management District said. If the shortage persists, mandatory restrictions could be ordered, the district said.*

Who are they kidding?

Development of high-rise multi-dwelling complexes is still going ahead full-throttle, fulfilling plans to increase population density with hundreds of thousands of new residents.

:: Local 10 News ::

...

:
Mon Nov 13 -

PAPERING IT OVER -

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past couple of months, American readers who follow the Media news know that the Tribune syndicate is up for grabs or going down the dumper. But syndicates can morph; possibly, elements will get sold off separately. Or a prospective buyer can make an offer for the entire group.

# From Romenesko: Gannett emerges as a possible bidder for Tribune papers. Gannett execs were in Chicago last week to hear presentations on Tribune's financial condition...

# Earl Maucker, Editor of the Sun-Sentinel, who never misses a chance to vent his hatred of Blogs, mounted his bully pulpit once again this past weekend to spin an idealized picture of how wonderful the current situation is and what they're doing about it.

...

:
Mon Nov 13 -

LAUNCHING -

*After long delays and a rumoured
editorial split with its Arabic parent,
English-language news channel
al-Jazeera will go on air this week.*

+ And is that a definite maybe?

:: UK Guardian ::

...

:
Sun Nov 12 -

WEEKEND MEDIA NOTES -

# Heard Marc Lynch on this weekend's edition of On the Media, which you can listen to at your convenience. Topics included a jihadi betting pool Marc got sucked into rubbernecking on some offbeat message boards... As sometimes happens, his digression was even more interesting than the main discussion, which was about the reaction of the Arabic Press to the midterm elections, I believe.

# On another topic, Donald Rumsfeld's "media presence" was being described as somehow similar to his counterpart during the Vietnam conflict. Sorry, I don't see that at all.

========================

# Unexpectedly, over the weekend, UK UFO Chief Nick Pope [see blog entry below] called in to Art Bell's radio show and sounded surprisingly credible. He agreed to come back again some time soon as a guest and even said he'd take questions from callers. Yeah, just when you thought it was safe to go out...

========================

# Saturday Night Live: The opening skit, which was a sendup of Nancy Pelosi, was extremely funny. If it's floating around, try to catch it. I give it an A+. SNL

========================

# Last, but not least, the police are asking the public for help in solving a criminal mystery: an elusive Wedding Dress Attacker. His case will be featured on the November 18, 2006, episode of AMW. Until then, you can read up on the case.

...