February 28, 2012
Bill Maher's donation to "Obama super PAC" encourages democrats to live to fight another day against Citizens United
Comedian Bill Maher donated $1 million to the super PAC Priority USA Action, which supports President Obama, last week at the end of his most recent comedy special. Super PACs have no limit on how much individuales can donate and some don't require any sort of transparency on who donates. These PACs that are legally baned from cooperating with political campaigns have come under major scrutiny from both the left and the right.
Recently President Obama started to support Priority USA Action after previously speaking against the Citizens United Supreme Court decision allowing super PACs to accept large donations from both individuals and corporations.
Maher made the donation in an attempt to encourage other wealthy liberals to put their money where their mouth is. With republican supper PACs raising astronomical amounts of money PACs will be at war with each-other throughout the General Election. Both Obama and Maher's decision to support supper PACs even if they do not support their roles in the political sphere. They do so in order to live to fight another day.
Even though Obama does may not support the Citizens United Decision it is necessary for him and other demarcates to donate to these pacs if they stand a chance against republicans in the general election. If the demarcates drooped support of supper PACs they would essentially be handing over the election to the GOP. The attack ads that the PACs run have shown to be extremely detrimental to their opponents in the primaries and continue to do so. In oder to win the election democrats will have to match the fund raising of the GOP by playing their game.
>If republicans win the Citizens United decision will most likely stand, if Obama wins he can once again drop his support of the decision and attempt to repeal it. Republicans have been giving the President flack about his flip flopping but I think it is one of the most wisest political decisions he has made on the campaign trail.
Apparently so does Maher "This is the wisest investment I think I could make." he said in a press release. While Marer's donation was a bit theatrical it has potential to open up the flood gates to both small and large democratic donations.
Political pundits and have been criticizing Maher for claiming that it hurt him to give the $1 Million dollars and that he did so to encourage wealthier liberals who it won't hurt to donate more. His over dramatized presentation of his donation is differentially over the top as is Maher and his statements after the fact are pompous at best since Maher differentially makes a pretty penny from his HBO series, books, live appearances and comedy specials. I doubt that the money really hurt him as much as he would like to claim.
Never the less his extremely public and talked about gesture has started a larger conversation about how the democratic party and their backers should spend their money No matter what is said about how he did it, what he said about it or his stance on Citizen United, he lit the green light for other liberals to throw their cash at democratic supper pacs without feeling dirty or embarrassed about it.
February 21, 2012
New faces of local news: community news and the hyper-local news business model.
Over the last few years many local newspapers have been dismantled due to lack of advertising, dwindling print subscribers and the fact that many now go to the web for news. In St. Petersburg we are lucky enough to have the rock that is The Tampa Bay Times. Many Communities are not as lucky and are finding them selves with very little local coverage.
One way the industry is trying to fight back is by adopting the hyper-local or community news model. Sites like AOLs Patch and EveryBlock Set up shop and report on what's going on in a very small area of operation.
Although there is no EveryBlock for St. petersburg there is a Patch for Old-Northeast / Downtown St. Petersburg that reports on local happenings in that area. Patch and the hyper-local model are not the only show in town though.
Community news sites like I Love the Burg and New Roots News have created an alternative to the "big box hyper-local news" with a more community driven ideals.
The New Roots News, Contribute event series has opened the door for many aspiring writers in the area, including myself. The last one held on saturday continued the tradition of embedding local news sources inside the community by becoming a major force within them.
I think community news is a fantastic idea, embracing the local community by embedded contributors within them is a exciting way to create a real connection with readers and to strengthen community relationships. These sites are popping up all over the place from small to large cities.
Still i must ask the question Is it journalism? Can community news have as much impact as the local paper?
I'm not really sure.
Although I very much support community news and am a contributor my self I feel that "big box" sites like Patch still have a place in local news. Being an outside entity from the community and even the fact that most hyper-local sites like Patch are essentially looking to make a buck, lets them step outside the community and report on the happenings of the area. This means things that are not driven by the community, like crime and cityhall reporting. It's not easy to find someone to sit in on city council meetings or read though police reports for no pay.
Since sites like patch are profit driven they are giving young journalist a way to make a few bucks and gain professional experience. Before the internet took over, journalist would get their start on the police beat, reporting on the board of education or covering cityhall. For profit hyper-local sites are once again creating these opportunities. I hope to see more of them pop up, because quite frankly the time were I am going to be attempting to make a living off my writing will be coming up sooner than I would like.
Community news is a fantastic place for feature stories, restaurant reviews, event listings and fantastic resources to figure out what to do this weekend. They don't do a very good job of reporting about the robbery in my neighborhood or about the city council meetings. Not to say that all for profit hyper-local sites are doing a good job at this either but at least they have the capital to pay people to do it.
In a world where the local newspapers are getting closer to their expiration date than many in the journalism community would like, any new form of local news, is good news. Both community news and large news organisations, profit and not-for-profit both have a place in the future of local news. Finding a balance between the two can create a rich local media market for areas that are lacking in coverage and become job creators within the profession of journalism.
One way the industry is trying to fight back is by adopting the hyper-local or community news model. Sites like AOLs Patch and EveryBlock Set up shop and report on what's going on in a very small area of operation.
Although there is no EveryBlock for St. petersburg there is a Patch for Old-Northeast / Downtown St. Petersburg that reports on local happenings in that area. Patch and the hyper-local model are not the only show in town though.
Community news sites like I Love the Burg and New Roots News have created an alternative to the "big box hyper-local news" with a more community driven ideals.
The New Roots News, Contribute event series has opened the door for many aspiring writers in the area, including myself. The last one held on saturday continued the tradition of embedding local news sources inside the community by becoming a major force within them.
I think community news is a fantastic idea, embracing the local community by embedded contributors within them is a exciting way to create a real connection with readers and to strengthen community relationships. These sites are popping up all over the place from small to large cities.
Still i must ask the question Is it journalism? Can community news have as much impact as the local paper?
I'm not really sure.
Although I very much support community news and am a contributor my self I feel that "big box" sites like Patch still have a place in local news. Being an outside entity from the community and even the fact that most hyper-local sites like Patch are essentially looking to make a buck, lets them step outside the community and report on the happenings of the area. This means things that are not driven by the community, like crime and cityhall reporting. It's not easy to find someone to sit in on city council meetings or read though police reports for no pay.
Since sites like patch are profit driven they are giving young journalist a way to make a few bucks and gain professional experience. Before the internet took over, journalist would get their start on the police beat, reporting on the board of education or covering cityhall. For profit hyper-local sites are once again creating these opportunities. I hope to see more of them pop up, because quite frankly the time were I am going to be attempting to make a living off my writing will be coming up sooner than I would like.
Community news is a fantastic place for feature stories, restaurant reviews, event listings and fantastic resources to figure out what to do this weekend. They don't do a very good job of reporting about the robbery in my neighborhood or about the city council meetings. Not to say that all for profit hyper-local sites are doing a good job at this either but at least they have the capital to pay people to do it.
In a world where the local newspapers are getting closer to their expiration date than many in the journalism community would like, any new form of local news, is good news. Both community news and large news organisations, profit and not-for-profit both have a place in the future of local news. Finding a balance between the two can create a rich local media market for areas that are lacking in coverage and become job creators within the profession of journalism.
February 14, 2012
My chicken parmesan recipe
Tonight I did something way out of the ordinary for myself. I cooked something. I am notorious for not cooking. I'm not talking about a frozen pizza. I made a meal for my self. I more often than not screw whatever I am cooking up and end up throwing it away.
I can boil stuff and poor sauce over it and I know how to make a mean frozen pizza but really that is where my skills end. Tonight I made some form of chicken parmesan that ended up being really good.
If you, like me, hate cooking you should try this recipe out.
What you need:
I can boil stuff and poor sauce over it and I know how to make a mean frozen pizza but really that is where my skills end. Tonight I made some form of chicken parmesan that ended up being really good.
If you, like me, hate cooking you should try this recipe out.
What you need:
- Some chicken breast - I just bought a bag of frozen chicken breast from Publix
- Cheese - I used a slice of provolone and grated parmesan.
- Tomato sauce
- Spagetti
- herbs and spices
Cooking this bad boy up:
Ok so first off you need to preheat your oven. This is my least favorite thing about cooking, waiting. I especially hate preheating because it takes forever and your not even cooking anything. Whoever tells you that you don't have to preheat is wrong. I have messed up so many things by not preheating the oven, it throws the timing off.
While your waiting on this preheating oven, grab your self a pan and throw it on the counter. Poor some olive oil on the pan, just enough for a thin layer. Take however many chicken breasts you are about to cook and put it on the pan and poor some olive oil over top the chicken also.
Now this is where you can be really creative. Take your favorite herbs and spices and sprinkle them on top of both sides of the chicken. You can really use whatever you want it's up to you. I used bay leaves, rosemary, "Italian seasoning" mix, black pepper and a bit of red pepper flakes.
Take your cheese and cut it into small pieces then put them on top of the chicken. Like I said I just used a piece of provolone I had in the fridge but you can use mozzarella or whatever you have laying around. I do highly recommend using some grated parmesan, however I'm sure it would taste fine with Ramano. Even a few pacs of the cheese you get from Dominos would work.
After you have your cheese on there pour a bit of tomato sauce over top of it.
When your done it should look something like this....
By the time you get done with all the prep your oven should be preheated, if it is go ahead and place the pan on the middle rack. I cooked mine for 50 mins. The package said to cook for 35 - 55 mins. if frozen so I pretty much did what that said. If you have thawed chicken you only need to cook it for about 25 - 35 minuets. I would definitely check the packaging just to be safe.
About 15 minuets before it's done make some pasta and boil some tomato sauce. You can eat the chicken by itself but I like to drop a bit of pasta over it.
When everything is cooked throw it on a plate and eat it.
February 03, 2012
Some tips on finding new music.
Many people ask me how I find out about bands or know about new albums by established bands so quickly. The short answer is that I spend a lot of time hunting around the depths of the internet for new music. I listen to four times as much garbage as I do gold, I just download the gold and leave the garbage were it lies.
There are some things you can do to make music discovery a more fluent process. Over the years I have found a bunch of plug-ins and services that make finding the diamonds in the coal mine easier.
Ex.FM
The first thing your going to want to do is install the Ex.FM plugin. Whenever there is a download link for an .MP3 (or other audio formats) it puts a small play button next to it that will allow you to listen to the song without downloading it or leaving the page. It also automatically creates a playlist of any songs on a webpage.
It does a lot of other things but this is the most useful future in my opinion. Which leads me to my next suggestions.
Read music blogs and magazines.
Seriously this is how I find out about a lot of music. I read a bunch of music blogs. I'm not talking like two or three I subscribe to well over 50+ music RSS feeds. This is were the latest music can be found and were you should look for hidden treasures.
Don't just limit yourself to Pitchforkmedia.com and rollingstone.com/ there are a lot of small blogs out there that do a excellent job.
Here is a list of a few of my favorite blogs.
http://prettymuchamazing.com/
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/
http://this.bigstereo.net/
http://www.quickbeforeitmelts.com/
These are just ones that I like, however different blogs cater to different tastes in music. Finding a few that you can rely on is a bit hard but not impossible.
Hype Machine
Hype Machine is a music blog aggregator. What it does is pulls all the music from thousands of blogs and puts them in one place. Here you can follow music blogs, friends, bands and even custom searches. It's a fantastic way to see what is trending in the bloggerspher.
Typing in bands you like and finding out what music blogs are posting them can help you find some that you might want to pay more attention too.
HypeM is also a great way to find remixes of songs that may have gone a little stale ... if your into that.
Last.FM
This is by far one of my favorite things on the internet and has been for a while now. After you install a program last.fm tracks everything you listen to and creates radio stations based on that. It's almost like pandora but way better in my opinion. It has been keeping track of what I listen to and as a result has made some pretty awesome recommendations for me.
The secret here is actually going to your recommendation page and checking out what it has waiting for you every now and again.
The thing about last.fm is that you need to let it collect data before it is really useful. So if you want to get into it download the program, set it up to launch at startup and just forget about it. If you don't want people to know what your listening to you can also make your profile private.
While you at it check mine out here
There are of course many other things I do to help me find new stuff like trading music with a group of friends that have similar tastes as I do and other secrets that I am not willing to unveil ... yet.
There are some things you can do to make music discovery a more fluent process. Over the years I have found a bunch of plug-ins and services that make finding the diamonds in the coal mine easier.
Ex.FM
The first thing your going to want to do is install the Ex.FM plugin. Whenever there is a download link for an .MP3 (or other audio formats) it puts a small play button next to it that will allow you to listen to the song without downloading it or leaving the page. It also automatically creates a playlist of any songs on a webpage.
It does a lot of other things but this is the most useful future in my opinion. Which leads me to my next suggestions.
Read music blogs and magazines.
Seriously this is how I find out about a lot of music. I read a bunch of music blogs. I'm not talking like two or three I subscribe to well over 50+ music RSS feeds. This is were the latest music can be found and were you should look for hidden treasures.
Don't just limit yourself to Pitchforkmedia.com and rollingstone.com/ there are a lot of small blogs out there that do a excellent job.
Here is a list of a few of my favorite blogs.
http://prettymuchamazing.com/
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/
http://this.bigstereo.net/
http://www.quickbeforeitmelts.com/
These are just ones that I like, however different blogs cater to different tastes in music. Finding a few that you can rely on is a bit hard but not impossible.
Hype Machine
Hype Machine is a music blog aggregator. What it does is pulls all the music from thousands of blogs and puts them in one place. Here you can follow music blogs, friends, bands and even custom searches. It's a fantastic way to see what is trending in the bloggerspher.
Typing in bands you like and finding out what music blogs are posting them can help you find some that you might want to pay more attention too.
HypeM is also a great way to find remixes of songs that may have gone a little stale ... if your into that.
Last.FM
This is by far one of my favorite things on the internet and has been for a while now. After you install a program last.fm tracks everything you listen to and creates radio stations based on that. It's almost like pandora but way better in my opinion. It has been keeping track of what I listen to and as a result has made some pretty awesome recommendations for me.
The secret here is actually going to your recommendation page and checking out what it has waiting for you every now and again.
The thing about last.fm is that you need to let it collect data before it is really useful. So if you want to get into it download the program, set it up to launch at startup and just forget about it. If you don't want people to know what your listening to you can also make your profile private.
While you at it check mine out here
There are of course many other things I do to help me find new stuff like trading music with a group of friends that have similar tastes as I do and other secrets that I am not willing to unveil ... yet.
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