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Thad McCotter on Radio Australia Shortwave

At home he's signed on to make 2010 "The Year of the Bible". In Australia he's talking down the State government here in Michigan. It was an interesting catch that most Americans would usually only have an opportunity to listen to if they listened to Shortwave radio. Luckily Radio Australia turned it into a podcast MP3 that you can download and listen to, as well as read the transcript:
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2009/05/08/2564533.htm

Free Press Express job was wired

As the print edition of the Gannett paper here in Detroit dies a slow death, they've put efforts into the next logical direction for news organizations: television. If you care, you can search around and find that they are doing the morning news block on CBS's WWJ 62 in Detroit.

Before this started, they promoted it via Twitter. Some of the staffers talked about a job posting for the anchors. So I sent back a tweet asking where this posting was. One of them messaged back on April 1. I replied to her Free Press email address:

http://twitter.com/elishaanderson/status/1435127961

> elishaanderson@worldmikel please send me your email address and I'll get you the posting.

Thanks, Mike

I never got a response. Then I saw this post that was well-hidden at the Free Press site:

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090424/FREEPRESS/90424087&template=printart

That was posted on April 24, 2009.

The guy who is the "anchor" of this broadcast, posted this on the Free Press Express page on Facebook on April 17th, a full week in advance of the job posting:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1935312&id=74756923105#/pages/Free-Press-Express/74756923105

Free Press Express Getting ready to start our newscast with WWJ-TV on May 5 at 5 a.m. Check us out!

April 17 at 7:45pm · Comment · LikeUnlike · Show Feedback (1)Hide Feedback (1)

You and Mark W. Smith like this.

Mark W. Smith likes this.

As the State of Michigan is doling out gratuities and preference to contractors that are located within the State, the Detroit Free Press not only went out of the State to find two of its anchors for this news block, it chose them before legitimately posting the job openings! Something smells funny with this one... Especially with all the talent lay-offs in Radio and TV right here in Detroit.

The paper that won a Pulitzer for exposing the shenanigans of the former mayor turned around and pulled a Kwame-style hiring on this one!

Quicken math not Rock solid?

Detroit, famous for the Purple Gang (extortion, gambling and robbery) during the last Depression, celebrates the new Depression with a new generation of characters with unsavory behavior. A couple of Detroit's mortgage titans apparently are having a falling-out:
http://www.freep.com/article/20090328/BUSINESS06/903280333/1019/BUSINESS/Gilbert++Hall+altercation+at+hotel+is+investigated

It appears to be business as usual for them, though. On the Quicken.com page, they say: "501 of 511 (98%) of our customers said they would recommend Quicken Loans to a friend or family member." Yet they show their rating as: "Average Customer Rating: 4 out of 5". That works out to them being rated at 80%. Something is strange about this math. Perhaps this is the root problem at these mortgage firms - their fuzzy math. The collapse of our Economy is due to simple math errors compounded throughout the mortgage industry? Or... maybe 98% of Quicken's customers that couldn't rate the company higher were happy to recommend them to a friend or family member?

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Detroit Telethon

I know it sounds too much like "Americathon" (and maybe just Firesign Theatre), but Detroit is royally screwed! Recently, Jay Leno set up two "free shows" to entertain people from Detroit. One huge problem, if you've ever seen Eminem's "8 Mile", there are two Detroits. There is one that lives inside the City limits and have been perennially poverty-stricken and the others that have fled the City to live, only entering the City for work and entertainment. Basically, it is white-flight that has brought Detroit down. Now, due to the Economy from the banks' and businesses' shenanigans, Detroit, the City, is in the gutter and the metropolitan area, including the suburbs is on its knees.

I won't explain more here, but you can read the articles in the papers that describe the controversy. I responded to one of the writers who resents people in Detroit (the City) standing up for themselves.

In my email responses, I've suggested what Leno and his Entertainment Industry buddies should do instead of this not-well-thought-out show at the Auburn Hills Palace:

Hey Detroit, Leno doesn't owe you a free concert

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090316/OPINION03/903160304

I'd be offended if the City offered free buses to the Palace. Of course, Leno's "charity" is not for the real Detroiters. It is a society affair like an arts group's wine & brie reception. The City, region and State can't run buses to Livonia, Lathrup Village, Novi, Ann Arbor or even to all the metropolitan Social Services offices! What a slap in the face it would be to the poor to underwrite a promotion like this.

Everybody and their brother is co-opting "Detroit's" misfortune these days. It wouldn't be so bad if there was real charity behind it all. However, this charity appears to be on the order of people rushing to donate their old crap to Sally Ann or the Library at year's end to collect a receipt good for a tax deduction.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090312/POLITICS/903120405
Isn't it bad enough that the "bailout" for Michigan will amount to less than $20 per person in the State? Save the energy that would be spent on this promotional event for Leno, Pepsi and the Palace and give us the loot instead of letting it flow to the usual not-so-needy. I bet the lighting bill alone is a good chunk of change. Edison must be thrilled. I'm sure Auburn Hills and Michigan State Police will be lapping up the overtime. That won't flow back to the unemployed.

Isn't Leno the symbol of what is at the root of America's problems? OVER CONSUMPTION? In the list of deadly sins, I think that falls under Greed. I thought that was a big part of the moral issue justifying jettisoning Kwame? I know it is what is behind the bonuses to the bankstas.

I wonder if they're giving away Palace box seats free - first come, first served?

I enjoy Leno, but really... let him stay home and phone it in. Or do a telethon out in LA for "Detroit" and just pass out the cash here or sponsor a good mass transit system that really serves the region.



Leno Thwarts Stimulus

http://www.freep.com/article/20090316/ENT03/90316105/Leno++Take+tickets+for+free+show+off+eBay

Assuming that all these tickets (including the box seats) are going to the down and out, why is Leno thwarting real aid to "Detroiters"? Whoever is selling the tickets needs the money more than they need to see Leno. Whoever buys them obviously has too much money.

Leno put an end to this charity move.

This part knocks me out:

"Talking about the Michigan show during his Monday program, Leno said, 'You don't even have to be unemployed; you just have to be having a hard time.'"

If you are unemployed or having a hard time, you probably shouldn't be enticed into spinning your wheels traveling out to Auburn Hills and caught in traffic jams, burning up fuel.

People just get fed this crap by Media about what they should do. Eating, having heat, electricity and health are the necessities. Going to the Palace is a luxury.

Media should be reminding folks about the difference between necessities and luxuries; charity and promotion. Leno's working for NBC/GE/Universal and booked in all these venues run by the entertainment cartel. He's off the air for awhile soon. I know he needs to keep his profile out there in the public so people know that he's moving to an earlier time slot. Selfless and charitable are not words that come to mind when someone is promoting something that stands to make them and their corporations a lot of money.

A telethon funneling Entertainment loot from wealthy Hollywood to depressed Detroit would be time and energy better spent. Better yet, do it from here in Michigan and employ all these people in Michigan's new HUGE (tax abated) movie industry to run it. Ovonics could power it and show off their products as future promising industries. Jeez, even GM and Chrysler could show off the cars they make and sell on other continents that are inexpensive and fuel-efficient. Even the News and Freep could get in on this and make it as prolific as SXSW has been in the last week.

Help support the idea of a "Detroit Telethon" by adding me on your Twitter:
http://twitter.com/worldmikel

Send out messages that say:

go viral with @worldmikel in asking for support for a week-long Detroit Telethon.

Help me start the tour

Not the kind of contest that I thought it was.

It appeared that they were going to leave an opening for free voting from the public-at-large. That was not the case. In addition, voting appeared to be wide open without a hitch. Now it turns out that the 50 "short listed winners" get voted on by people willing to have their email addresses harvested by the Tourism Queensland site. That was a kind of bait and switch, too.

Still, you can go vote for my video there without signing-up or turning over your email address for SPAM purposes.

Remember, you're not voting for an Oscar and on what you may really think of my video.

You're just voting to show your support for me and the webcasts!

Please go and view it.
When you vote, give me 5 stars.

http://www.islandreefjob.com/applicants/watch/cn2Q6GcL3ZA
also at:
http://www.youtube.com/worldmikel

Give this URL to others to go vote. Send friends... send friends of friends...
It will be a good way to start plans for the tour.

Thanks!