Haiti Election Chaos

Haiti has been through a lot within the past few months, and The Associated Press has reported that the entire Haiti election became chaotic. Sunday was election day and protestors were ripping ballot boxes into pieces; they took the streets carrying tree branches and campaign posters.

Some of the polling places were "ransacked by thugs."

The Associated Press includes:


The chaos in Sunday's voting united most of the top presidential candidates against the president's heir apparent — Jude Celestin, head of the state-run construction company and beneficiary of a well-financed campaign.


Allegations ranging from outright fraud to polling-place disorganization that disenfranchised many Haitians nearly brought the election to a halt. Polling places opened late, voters could not find their names on lists, and some polling places were ransacked by thugs.


The United Nations cited "numerous incidents that marred the elections." Observers from the Organization of American States canceled an afternoon news conference, releasing a statement hours later that they were "in the process of evaluating and analyzing the information gathered."


The Dallas News goes into further detail with all the violence and the scary chaos that arose. The preliminary results are not expected until December 7.

Google's reason for Google News changes: The Hot News Doctrine

The Google News Meta Tag program, activated 12 days ago on November 16th, has ignited a firestorm of controversy that shows no sign of abating. The intent of the online news aggregator's effort was to give proper link credit to the originator of a story. (Which, in itself, is a dicey affair, considering unnamed sources, and small blogs that are ignored by search engines.) But the real result has been the de-listing of small blogs and news websites, while large content farms like Associated Content have been retained.

Indeed, by the experience of this blogger at Zennie62.com, Google News staffers delist the blog, then claim some "violation" of their guidelines without providing evidence to back their claim while having counter evidence produced. Meanwhile, true violators of Google News guidelines, like Associated Content, are permitted to remain listed on Google News, and even today, as of this writing, produce content that is an obvious affront to those same guidelines.

Scott Rosenberg specifically pointed to Associated Content's practice in Salon in August, when he wrote...

A.C.'s appearance in the Google lead position surprised me. I'd always assumed that, inundated by content-farm-grown dross, Google would figure out how to keep the quality stuff at the top of its index. And this wasn't Google's general search index recommending A.C., but the more rarefied Google News -- which prides itself on maintaining a fairly narrow set of sources, qualified by some level of editorial scrutiny.


Gee, maybe Associated Content is getting better, I thought. Maybe it's producing some decent stuff. Then I clicked through and began reading:


The Dr. Laura n-word backlash made her quit her radio show. It seems the Dr. Laura n-word controversy has made her pay the price, as the consequences of herbrought down her long-running program. But even if it ended her show, it may not end her career. Despite being labeled as a racist, and despite allegedly being tired of radio, the embattled doctor still seems set to fight on after she leaves. In fact, the Dr. Laura n-word scandal has made her more defiant than ever, despite quitting

But fast forward to today, after the Google Meta Tag program, and the mass blog delisting for what this blogger claims is the "cover reason" of "guideline violations," and Associated Content still remains, and with a new post that features the use of "fantasy football" a whopping seven times in a paragraph-and-three-quarters.

So how can Associated Content's "crap" as Scott Rosenberg implies, remain, and better content from smaller blogs be removed?  Simple.  I assert that Google News Staff's not telling the truth and this move has everything to do with the arguments over something called The Hot News Doctrine, court cases involving websites FlyOnTheWall.com and Briefing.com, and Google's "friend of the court" role.

The Hot News Doctrine

According to a number of sources, among them a very good post at Arstechica.com , The Hot News Doctrine was originally introduced by The Associated Press in 1918 and in a case where a competitor news organization called INS was taking AP newspapers and rewriting their World War II stories if they originated from INS. At some cases, ilke California, where INS had a geographic advantage, it looked as if INS broke the story, not the AP.

The Supreme Court ruled that The Associated Press' work was being used for profit and without credit of any kind by INS. In the process of developing the argument supporting their ruling, the term "Hot News Doctrine" was created.

Fast forward to today, and since 2005, media observers have warned that news organizations, hemorrhaging ad revenue as more news went to the Internet, and blogs proliferated, would resort to the "Hot News Doctrine" to protect their revenue base and get rid of the impact of blogs and bloggers. That, under the idea that they, the legacy news organizations, were the originators of news, even when that wasn't the case.

In 2008, the AP went on a kind of rant against blogs , claiming that some were infringing on its copyright by including portions of content from its articles. But the AP has not then, nor as of this writing, ever explained what a fair use of its content was. The best option was not to even link to the AP, as TechCrunch' Michael Arrington implied when he said his blog would just pretend the AP "didn't exist."

That inflamed the claim by some legacy sites, like the AP, that bloggers were not giving "proper link credit" to their work, even if bloggers could claim that legacy news sites were not giving "proper credit" to blog sites, ether.

This year, 2010, the big media players - in this case The Associated Press, New York Times, Time,Washington Post, Agence France-Presse, and Advance Publications to name the major players - have brought up the Hot News Doctrine in friend-of-the-court briefings in the case of Barclays Capital vs. TheFlyOnTheWall.com. Basically, the legacy media players don't want what they consider to be the re-reporting of "their facts."

What FlyOneTheWall.com was doing was collecting stock recommendations from investment banking companies, including Merrill Lynch, and reposting them on its website. The Federal Court agreed with Barclays and asked FlyOneTheWall.com to delay the release of its information. The case went to the appeals court.

That directly relates to the idea in Google News guidelines that news should be original or contribute to the original news story in some way. Blogs are commentary, thus, by the nature of the definition of that term, blogs do "contribute to the original news story." But the overall assumption, based on the position of big media as the accuser, is that they produce all original content, when in point of fact, blogs like TMZ.com and PerezHilton.com create as much or more original content. (Regardless of your view of the blogs, which is irrelevant, that is the case.)

The brief written in the Barclays Capital vs. TheFlyOnTheWall.com case states that

Unless generalized free-riding on news originators’ efforts is restrained, originators will be unable to recover their costs of newsgathering and publication, the incentive to engage in the news business will be threatened, and the public will ultimately have fewer sources of original news," reads the brief.

One of those "original news" sources online has been Google News. Google, with Twitter, wrote a "friend of the court" brief attacking the position of the big media players. The online giants have claimed the Hot News Doctrine is not workable in today's Internet news world. Google claimed that enforcing The Hot News Doctrine would create a "hot mess." Their voice was joined by that of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

The EFF, in a statement to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in the Barclays's case by Staff Attorney Corynne McSherry, wrote: "We're asking the appeals court to recognize the elephant in the room and analyze the 'hot news' doctrine in light of the strong First Amendment protections developed by the Supreme Court to encourage the expression of truthful statements on matters of public concern."

While a decision is expected, perhaps before the end of the year, one has been made in another case, the Briefing.com case . There, the Hot News Doctrine was used by Dow Jones, a division of Rupert Murdock's News Corporation. But Briefing.com admitted to copying parts of more than 100 articles, which is a violation of federal copyright law.

Google News and The Hot News Doctrine

Where Google News fits in this complex issue is that as a news aggregator facing a legal vice grip being tightened by the big media players, it's role in a Hot News Doctrine world is severely curtailed. According to Sam Bayard of the Citizen Media Law Project, news aggregators like Google News are negatively impacted, because TheFlyOnTheWall itself, which lost in court and is now in appeals court, is itself a kind of news aggregator.

What I think happened is, anticipating a negative ruling in the Barclays appeal case, Google had Google News install a "meta tag program" that would get rid of blogs, push them to "Google Blog Search" status, and leave Google News for many of the same big media players that Google and Twitter attacked in court via the friend-of-the-court briefs.

Everything in the Google Meta Tag Program results point to that occurrence. It's not that your blog's content is in some violation of Google News content guidelines, just that you're a small blog that Google News wants to get out of the way to protect itself. From what? From a lawsuit it fears it may lose by The Associated Press.

The only place of relief for this is Congress and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The big media organizations have too much legal money, think their very life is on the economic line, and Google and New Media players don't seem to have the stomach to fight them. This is a battle bloggers have to fight, if they can stop attacking each other for a spell.

Stay tuned.

"The Rise Of Psychopathy"? does that explain the Internet trolls?

This blogger was just reconfiguring the Zennie62.com template (again) when Richard Lui, previously with CNN's morning program, and now with MSNBC was interviewing someone, didn't catch the name, who was talking about the alleged murderer of a young college student.

Not really paying attention at all, until the woman interviewed, some kind of criminologist, referred to the "The Rise Of Psychopathy" in America.

Stop the presses.

My first thought was "So that explains all of the Internet trolls and stalkers."

Sad. If anyone has the name of that person on MSNBC - and I'll follow-up on this too - send an email.

Taylor Momsen uses an I-Pad

Just a quick post to note that now former or "on leave" Gossip Girl actress Taylor Momsen tweets with her i-Pad. How do we at Zennie62.com know this?

Well, check out this tweet she issued:

@taylormomsen

Taylor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lYCxD4rR6A hilarious! P.s.Perfect example of tabloids skewing quotes with false headlines...still funny tho

20 Nov via Twitter for iPad Favorite Retweet Reply

The i-Pad is something this blogger still doesn't use because the MacBook Pro is just fine. Moreover, one can't make video-blogs with it and it's almost like a MacBook Air. Perhaps Apple and Steve Jobs will decide to merge the two.

But it's also good to note that Apple's moved on beyond the early "whites only" marketing style for the i-Pad:



Apple didn't like that video, but it certainly seemed to impact their ads. I see black people in them now! Hurray!  

But that woman's finger.  What's it really pointing at?

Taylor Momsen - no Twitter about Gossip Girl news

As stated at Zennie62.com by Nikky Raney, and at MTV.com, Taylor Momsen was canned from the TV cable series Gossip Girl.

There's word from a number of media outlets about this, but nothing from Taylor Momsen herself.

Momsen's Twitter account has nothing on the news (as of this writing), but does mention this hilarious YouTube.com video from the TV Show The Soup. Check this tweet and video out:

@taylormomsen
Taylor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lYCxD4rR6A hilarious! P.s.Perfect example of tabloids skewing quotes with false headlines...still funny tho
20 Nov via Twitter for iPad Favorite Retweet Reply

Too funny.

Taylor Momsen Kicked Off Gossip Girl

It was only a matter of time before Taylor Momsen's out of control antics got her canned from Gossip Girl. After reading the books religiously back in 2005 Taylor Momsen was a disappointment as a depiction of Jennifer Humphrey - she is nothing like the book said she would be.

Taylor Momsen is even more controversial than Miley Cyrus, and she's younger. (Well, Miley is legal now). Taylor Momsen talks about her vibrators and how she dislikes wearing pants. She has a beautiful singing voice, but she's just so outrageous.

According to Deadline.com the actress is no longer a regular and will be MIA for at least four episodes. It'll be interesting to see if Gossip Girl gets rid of Jenny altogether or if there is another actress that replaces her - the latter wouldn't be too bad, or maybe Momsen will clean up her act.

A "Gossip Girl insider" tells Deadline that creative reasons is why Momsen will be appearing less - yeah okay.

MTV.com also confirms that Taylor Momsen will be on an indefinite hiatus from the show.

Unstoppable is a Fox News Endorsement

The movie Unstoppable staring Denzel Washington, Chris Pine and Rosario Dawson is boring. Yes, the movie drags on too long and is too predictable. The plot is basically about a train that has no conductor and needs to be stopped.

Meanwhile the new source covering this entire story is Fox News. That's right, the entire movie is basically an ad for Fox News and how Fox News has all this breaking and live coverage and for once it isn't bias. It's like a great big advertisement for Fox News, and all the channel showed was this entire plane fiasco.

There were mini stories with the characters going on, but it was all about how to stop this train and Fox News was able to capture all of this breaking coverage. It was very accurate in depicting Fox News and its sensationalism and intensifying the situation with the lingo used in order to explain the situations.

This judgement of the movie is not based solely on the fact that it seems to be all about Fox News, but the movie in general just isn't very good.

Bauer's Transportation Company Bus Shuttle Service

This is the San Francisco Bauer's "Wi-Drive" commuter shuttle bus service. It's the same one used by Facebook and Twitter employees to go to and from work. What this blogger likes about the shuttle bus service is the seats. Wow. They're really thick, cushy, leathery, and luxurious.

You can operate your laptop computer and work online while on your way to work. The Bauer's "Wi-Drive" bus was used by the San Francisco Giants to transport their players to and from that awesome parade after their amazing World Series win.

Need corporate transportation? Call my good friend Gary Bauer. He and Bauer's Transportation delivers for all occasions and transport needs. Bauer's Transportation is at 1-800-546-6688.

Fair Game Shows What Valerie Plame Went Through

Fair Game Shows What Valerie Plame Went Through
By Nikky Raney

Walking into the theater already knowing and being educated about the Valerie Plame & Scooter Libby fiasco could not have prepared anyone for the amazing portrayal done by Naomi Watts as Ms. Plame. Everyone reads the news about what happened and thinks they know, but they had no idea what went on within her personal life or how things really truly changed for her.

The use of real news images and clips from the actual events being re-enacted is brilliant and at the end of the movie the clip plays of the real Valerie Plame giving a testimony on C-Span.

The movie really informs about what happened after 9/11 and what the CIA was doing and figuring out behind the scenes - the difficult calls that had to be made and what it was like to be living a double life and have all these plans and then for it all to fall apart. There were many others whose lives were negatively impacted due to this other than Ms. Plame. The role of her husband, played by Sean Penn, was brilliantly done. Even if the reality of their personal life isn't completely accurate - the portrayal of how he involved himself in the media and how he helped deal with this catastrophe to save his wife's life and reputation as well as his own was brilliant.

It may have been exaggerated by Hollywood, but it's safe to say that the accompanying footage from real news reports across all news platforms help remind the viewer that what they are watching is not complete fiction, but something that really happened. It helps to educate viewers more about the entire scandal besides all the news reports.

Although the accuracy may be questionable about specific details - since the CIA must keep things private to an extent- it shows a good amount of realistic scenarios that lead up to this and the facts match up with the information that was provided.

This movie is truly a must see and was done very well. The lengths the members of the White House went to discredit her husband's op-ed piece in the New York Times was unjust - the fact that he knew what President Bush was telling the American people as "fact" was in fact not true made him want to write about what he did know - because he was doing a service to the American people in educating them on what is real. And those who opposed being "outed" got revenge in a way that ruined the career and safety of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Her life will never be the same and her world was turned upside down.

It is good that Scooter Libby and the others have been put to justice, but it cannot take back all the pain and suffering that the family went through and continues to endure to this day.

This movie should be watched by anyone who followed this story or had an opinion in some way about the way it was handled or who has more questions about it.

Brilliantly done - five stars. The only thing that may be overly controversial is the way the film clearly exposes the Iraq war and the mistakes made and the way that the American people were blatantly lied to by the President, and this may make things worse for President Bush's reputation (if that's possible).

It was really great to see Scooter Libby played as a snarky con man and coming off as truly vile -  David Andrews did a great gob - as did Adam LeFerve as Karl Rove.d It was disgusting to see how some of the journalists reacted though and unimpressive, but accurate.

It'll be interesting to hear what the real people have to say about the portrayals of themselves and how accurate the depictions are. The story follows Ms. Plame's book in a way - the story line converges and includes some direct quotes from her book.


X-Posted At The Future of Journalism

Cal Washington: Huskies 16-13 Win; Cal is Holmoesque

This is the level the University of California Football Program has fallen to. Cal Alumni are starting to call the team "Holmoesque." That term first surfaced two weeks ago after the Oregon loss, as a good Cal friend of this blogger feared a return to those ugly days of yore.

Three losses later, some think we're there. Cal lost to Washington 16 to 13 and this, the third loss in as many games, has Old Blues, Young Blues, and even Middle-Aged Blues fuming.

Tom Holmoe

Cal finished not just 5 and 7, but 3 and 6 in the Pac-10. The worst record in Jeff Tedford's glorious rein as Cal's Head Coach. While not the 1 and 10 season of 2001, Cal's 2010 performance was enough for my friend to say "I hope we don't see a replay of Tom Holmoe, we're starting to look "Holmoesque."

Tom Holmoe, currently the Athletic Director at BYU, was Cal's football coach for five years, posting a 16 and 39 record, the infamous 2001 season, had an 0 and 5 record against Stanford, and caused Cal to forfeit nine scholarships over four years, be banned from postseason bowl eligibility in 2002, Coach Tedford's first year with Cal.

No, this space is not saying Tedford is like Tom Holmoe, only that the stench from that period is still with many Cal faithful, and this season reproduced some bad, sad memories.

The Problem Is The System

SF Chron scribe John Crumpacker's blog on Cal vs. Washington was far too nice and failed capture the massive level of pissed off, pissed-offness expressed by Cal Alumns. Cal's problem is not as simple as replacing one quarterback with another. That's for people who, for whatever reason, fail to pay attention to play design. But the issue is the Cal Offensive system itself.

For some reason that rests in the collective mind of Coach Tedford and Cal Offensive Coordinator Andy Ludwig, Cal does not have a passing game that contains "safe," short throws for its signal callers. Just because we're in the era of the wide receiver screen, and all of its variations, doesn't mean it has to be Cal's offense. There are, by experiential estimate, over 1,232 variations of short passes to running backs; can't we use some of them? Why is it so important to throw downfield and with just predictability all the time?

There's nothing wrong with good, old, precision short passing. It's forgotten in the wake of the advent of the spread formation option systems - and their pass plays - that have spread like a virus around the country. An approach that has infected Cal Football, save for the running quarterback.

A disciplined approach to the passing game, one that Cal actually displayed the ability to uses against Stanford last year, is sorely needed. Cal must stick to this, and stop this need to play macho-passing ball, most of the time.

Or, if the concern is to keep the pass offense simple for students who have a lot of studying to do, given the demands of Cal, why not an approach that has elements of the Run-and-Shoot? (But retains the power running game.)



The point is to have a real, true, system that can be effective with respect to the coverage, is disciplined, and doesn't get the quarterback killed.

Time For Action; Tosh Shows The Way

Some Cal Alumns want California defensive line coach Tosh Lupoi to be Cal's Head Coach, after the fake injury scandal in the Oregon game. Well, not really, but you get the idea.  It's not that cheating is prized by Cal Alumns, just the need for a coach to do something to move Cal Football forward. Remember, we have Coach Lupoi to thank for Wide Receiver Keenan Allen, so no one wants him to leave Cal for any reason.  Well, within reason.

Well, whatever the argument, we'll have an entire year to hash it out.

GO BEARS!

Congress Return Not Lame Duck - Just LAME

The “Do Nothing” Washington crowd makes Congress’ return not “Lame Duck” - just LAME. Voters clearly want lawmakers to ease the nation’s unemployment pain, but a sharply divided Congress is still balking at extending jobless benefits for those out of work a long time.

Unless Congress acts by Tuesday, an estimated 2 million people slated to receive extended benefits will not get them on time, if ever. Congress took this week off for a Thanksgiving recess and will reconvene Monday.

If lawmakers don’t extend the UI filing dates, it will be the third time this year that they will have missed a deadline to do so, even though the nation’s unemployment rate, at 9.6 percent, hasn’t budged since May. Earlier this year, after Congress failed to extend benefits before deadlines, jobless workers received retroactive benefits once legislation was passed.

Not once this entire year has Congress added weeks of benefits to those jobless Americans suffering the most, the 99ers and never have any previous extensions, delayed by Congressional gridlock (in 2008 and 2009) been retroactive for those effected. To be clear: Extending the deadlines set to expire WILL NOT HELP the millions of 99ers in America.

The average family receives about $290 a week from the benefits, which can last up to 99 weeks, depending on a state’s jobless rate. State employer taxes pay for the first 26 weeks. In weeks 27 to 99, a federal program funds most of the benefits; that’s what could be affected if Congress doesn’t act.

What happens when UI benefits are taken away from Americans in desperate need indeed effects everyone. The American economy suffers greatly when millions cannot spend for even the basic necessities. More jobs are lost and more Government spending is required for programs such as Welfare or Food Stamps.

Washington is not effected in any meaningful way, as they are all far too wealthy to understand the pain of poverty or the hopelessness and despair of being hungry or homeless.

In South Korea yesterday, hundreds of people demonstrated at Yongsan, the huge U.S. military base in Seoul, with smaller actions taking place in Kwangju and other cities on Nov 23-24. On Nov 25, student radicals threw petrol bombs at Camp Gray, a U.S. military support base in Seoul.

The demonstrators, set off fire extinguishers and waved sticks as they called on the government to take action after four people were killed as a result of North Korea shelling of Yeonpyeong island.
Just 4 people died as a result of North Korea's barbarous provocation and those in South Korea took to the streets in protest. Well done. Why is it that after countless 99er suicides as a direct result of Congress’ failure to act on any additional UI benefits for more than 1 year now, no Americans are willing to protest in mass? Have Americans really become that uncaring about the suffering of their own citizens?

Why not? Hollywood seems equally unconcerned as Washington about millions of hungry, hurting 99er families across the nation. Where are the celebrities outraged over Governmental neglect of the unemployed without jobs or UI benefits for going on 9 months now?

Celebrities like Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher who spend their time and untold dollars to draw the attention of millions on social networking sites (like twitter) to causes that help victims of human trafficking - usually overseas. Why won’t they use their celebrity to help those hurting in their own country?

Within the past year Demi Moore was credited with possibly saving the lives of 2 suicidal twitter fans when their tweets appeared to cryptically indicate hints of “self destructive” text. When just days ago - when one more 99er could not face Thanksgiving with eviction imminent and hope evaporated - made public his suicide note - was basically ignored by authorities. (Read note here)

Although dozens of concerned 99ers, leaders in the movement, traced this poster and reported it to police and FBI - NOTHING was done and the response from authorities was: ‘There is nothing we can do’ or ‘It’s not our jurisdiction” - I’ll bet Demi Moore did not get that response.

Fact is that nobody seems to care at all what happens to the millions of 99ers, from the President to the media, celebrities or even professional protestors. However the truth is the longer these and other unemployed Americans suffer without money for basic goods and services - the more every employed American should fear the loss of their own jobs, as without sufficient demand, the next pink slip resulting form this slow economy may just be yours.

A fact the very lame “Lame Duck” Congress refuses to address let alone resolve.

[The donation button below is for me, Paladinette. If you like what I write and can afford to do so - please donate to the cause. I thank you!]

Heidi Montag goes after Frank Ryan, after his death

Heidi Montag's Boob Comes Out (Pacific Coast News) 

Heidi Montag, the actress and entertainer most famous for her large boobs, is complaining about those bodatious tatas after the man who gave them to her, Dr. Frank Ryan, is dead.

Dr. Ryan passed on after a horrible car accident back in August 2010. Then, Montag said she was devastated to learn of the news.

Montag used her Twitter page to praise Ryan, saying he was "brilliant."  Now, the 24-year-old star seems to be making the whole experience and his involvement look almost sinister. Basically, Montag says Ryan didn't prep her for the pain she suffered in her "quest for perfection."

In an interview with ABC Primetime that came on Wednesday, Montag said she was in so much pain she thought she "was going to die." Here's the ABC interview:



Montag also said she had the following done: -brow lift
-nose job
-ears pinned
-chin shaved
-two breast enlargements
-back scooped out
-fat injected into her cheekbones
-lipo on her inner and outer thighs

In other words, she had her body remade on a scale that puts the Six Million Dollar Man to shame. And now that she has it, she's not happy, it seems. Perhaps Heidi should find God and a spiritual center to help her.

Stay tuned.