James Garfield, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, William McKinley and...

Above is a list that does not need to expand. Those are the names of American Presidents who were assassinated while in office.

A classified advertisement in the Times Observer in quaint, quiet, and lovely Warren, Pennsylvania has now been withdrawn after law enforcement officials noted that it seemed to be calling for the assassination of President Barack Obama.

The ad linked the names of the four Presidents killed in office, and seemed to suggest the wish that President Obama meet the same end. The Times Observer has now taken the classified down, apologized (http://timesobserver.com/page/content.detail/id/517161.html?nav=5006) and turned over the identity of the person placing the ad to local and federal authorities.

Hey, I'm not so keen on a lot of things Mr. Obama does. And I think that the Secret Service will have their hands full protecting this particular President because of his historic significance as the first African American President of the United States. But even running an advertisement alluding to a hope for his demise is something to take seriously.

Threatening a sitting President is against the law, under United States Code, Title 18, Part One, Chapter 41, Section 871, which states:

Whoever knowingly and willfully deposits for conveyance in the mail or for a delivery from any post office or by any letter carrier any letter, paper, writing, print, missive, or document containing any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States, the President-elect, the Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President of the United States, or the Vice President-elect, or knowingly and willfully otherwise makes any such threat against the President, President-elect, Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President, or Vice President-elect, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

I'd bet that "conveyance in the mail" includes newspapers. The classified ad in the Times Observer ran only for a short time before it was noticed. In an era when newspapers seem to be losing ground, it's repugnant that someone used one of the branches of the media to make their stand.

Is This A Reporter?

This may be a little "inside ball game" for those of you who aren't in the media. For those of us watching the demise of our once-noble profession, today offered up an example of everything that we warned and watched against. So this blog briefly examines this example of what happens now that anyone with a laptop and some brassiness in approaching a media outlet can now hang a "press" tag on the brim of a cap and head out for a news event. The results are something that was only a matter of time and actually, it could have been worse.

A "reporter" was removed from near Air Force One today in Los Angeles, after she seemed a little too forceful in her efforts to give President Barack Obama a letter she had written.

According to various reports, the woman, Brenda Lee, said she had a letter for the President and asked a Secret Service officer to give it to Mr. Obama. He refused, referring her to a White House staffer. She refused to give the letter to the staffer so apparently, after refusing to leave quietly, she was carried out by her hands and feet.

Ms. Lee claims to be a reporter for a Macon, Georgia newspaper. She claimed that she has White House Press credentials. She is a resident of Anaheim, California. Lee also says she's a "Roman Catholic Priestess."

I wonder if Ms. Lee may be a case of a "citizen journalist" thinking she has gotten into the sky-box and can now call the game to benefit the home team. She may be a little confused by the dizzying height that she perceives herself to have attained.

White House Press credentials, as those of us who have had them now and in the past can attest, are different things than just "access for an event." White House Press credentialing requires filling out forms, being photographed and fingerprinted, and then giving the Secret Service months to look into who you are and the life that you've lived. It's not granted easily to anyone who doesn't require it. Usually, such credentials aren't extended to people who live in California, based on the fact that they don't need such access because they don't frequent the White House Press Briefing Room.

Access for an event is likely what Ms. Lee was granted by the Secret Service.

Reporting for a Macon, Georgia newspaper such as the Georgia Informer is very possible. Ms. Lee is published and some of her writings appear on the monthly newspaper's website. She is probably a "stringer," who has sold some of her writings to the small media outlet which, like all media outlets, is struggling to keep itself in the game and afloat.

That's one of the ugly realities of modern journalism.

As for the letter that she had written, Brenda Lee says she wrote a letter opposing gay marriage. She says she's a Roman Catholic Priestess. She said her black dress was in fact a cassock, the garment of a Catholic priest. I am not Catholic, so I don't ever claim to be an authority on that religion. (Nor do I claim to be an authority on my own religion. I've got my learners' permit there and that's enough for me.) But since the Catholic religion doesn't ordain women as priests, I am skeptical of the idea that she represents that faith.

But let me also point out this: an actual journalist wouldn't have tried to hand something to President Obama. A professional journalist would realize that anything he or she had to say could be said where we would say everything else: in the media outlet. Anything I have to say to Barack Obama is said on the air or in writing.

We're in an era where we have to look closer than ever to see who the legitimate journalists are. Just as a polaroid digital camera and access to Adobe Photoshop doesn't make someone a photographer, picking up a notebook, taking a few notes and writing a couple hundred words doesn't make you a writer... much less a reporter.

We now have newspapers being published in places like Pasadena, but written half-way around the world by "reporters" in Jakarta. People are listening to talkers like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Bill Maher and confusing these pundits with reporters.

Sometimes this new era has produced great results. We've seen cell phone video of news events that would otherwise never have been seen. People are witnessing things and coming forward more ready to describe what they've seen than ever before.

But it also results in pictures of women being carried out of press areas by their hands and feet. And it's likely to produce more and more of these bad outcomes for awhile, until all of this shakes out. It's guaranteed to make those of us who are professional reporters cringe a bit.

I saw a quote from Morley Safer of CBS "60 Minutes" last week. He said that he "would trust citizen journalism about as much as (he) would trust citizen surgery." That's about right.

That Was Then, This Is Now

"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life," said Sonia Sotomayor, the current nominee to fill a vacancy on the United States Supreme Court.

I would have hoped for a nominee wise enough not to say such things. But let’s parse the statement just a little, shall we? What Sotomayor was saying effectively was that she, as a Latina woman, was more capable of understanding and making rulings because of her minority bloodlines and standing. Imagine a white male making the same statement and you instantly understand why this is offensive.

Sonia Sotomayor made this statement as part of the Judge Mario G. Olmos Memorial Lecture in 2001, delivered at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. It was reprinted in the Spring 2002 issue of Berkeley La Raza Law Journal, a symposium issue entitled "Raising the Bar: Latino and Latina Presence in the Judiciary and the Struggle for Representation."

Okay, those are ready recipients, glad to hear good tidings about their particular minority. But since previous white male nominees haven’t published articles suggesting their superiority in the “White Person’s Law Review,” perhaps this wasn’t the wisest of choices.

In the last election, we voted in the first minority President of the United States. And we then hotly argued that he was not elected because of his race. We were all about change, as a culture, we said.

So maybe if it isn’t about race, we should stop talking about race. I’m not suggesting this was the right statement to make. But perhaps to a group of law school students, it was a reasonable statement for the time. Perhaps it was in keeping with the culture just eight short years ago. Could we have come so far fast enough that our statements, acceptable (and even "encouraging" to a minority audience in need of encouragement during their college years) just eight years ago, are questionable now?

If it’s not about race anymore, we need to stop making it about race.

Reporting Live on... Twitter?

I have a policy. You're allowed to complain about something almost exactly once with me. You're allowed to complain a fair bit. Occasionally, you're allowed more than one gripe session, but you need to bring more material. You need to have fresh complaints.

However, if you keep going back for more of the same without working toward a solution, then you probably need to find a new crying post.

I'm not trying to be cold. I don't want to seem unsympathetic. But yeah, I think you either stop putting up with it, you get to work on fixing it, or you stop complaining to me about it.

So if a business model stops working, shouldn't you stop working with that business model? If you keep trying, are you persistent? Or are you a bit slow on the uptake? Maybe you are doing as Benjamin Franklin (or was it Albert Einstein? Perhaps a Chinese proverb?) warned against by "doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

"Who Moved My Cheese" by Dr. Spencer Johnson was published about ten years ago. It's about some mice and some cheese and basically, it lays out the need to grow and change both individually and organizationally. I read it in the subway one afternoon in Manhattan, going home from work. It wasn't exactly new information, but it was a well-done little book.

Someone moved our cheese in journalism. It's gone. We've got to figure out where to find new cheese or consider going vegan. Remembering the good old days is okay, but crying over those days doesn't work for me. By my calculations, we've been crying for over ten years now. Our business model seemed like it was evolving, but now it seems to have switched species. And no, it doesn't work.

And neither does tweeting. Ha! Well, not endlessly anyway. So...

Thank you for twittering about: news conferences, seismic measurements, correct spellings of names, stories coming up, locations of very large fires, travel plans, updates on news conferences, parade times, business hours, show times, parking arrangements, flight arrival times, road closures, and um, occasionally blog postings.

Thank you again for NOT twittering about: wearing your fanny pack on your front, traffic complaints on your vacation to Southern California, reading Larry King's wife's twitters on your trip to Southern California, ANYTHING to do with American Idol, and kids or husbands who wear contact lenses/socks/underwear more than three consecutive days.

WWEPD? (What Would Emily Post Do?)

I sat at lunch with my beloved college roommate, toying with my burrito, idly wondering whether the salsa needed more salt or if I should have it all boxed up. My friend was talking about her children. She described what is going on with her 4th grader. As she continued to talk about why her daughter needs flute and piano lessons, I heard a funny noise, reached over, and pulled out my cell phone. I tapped in one sentence to a friend three states away.

That's right. I texted during lunch.

We have so much technology now. Over half a billion texts were sent daily in 2005. Americans now do more texting than actual calling on our phones. (By mid 2008, we sent and received 357 text messages per month, compared with making and receiving 204 phone calls a month, according to a Nielsen Mobile survey.) So do we no longer need manners? Or is it just personal contact with other people that we no longer need?

Remember when cell phones first became popular and there was discussion about whether it was rude to leave them on in restaurants (Yes.), whether it was rude to accept calls during meals (Yes again.), and whether it was smart to talk three times louder than normal to get your message across the miles. (No. Definitely not.)

So am I now the epitome of rudeness? Or was I politely answering the need of one friend without interrupting the stream of sharing with another?

I texted during a conversation with a friend. I texted in a restaurant during lunch with a friend. I have to set some rules for myself.

Californians (Are) Dreamin!

California, the beautiful, lush, green state with an economy ranked fifth largest in the world. Is that what we used to say?

Now we will say, California, the desperately broke state with 11% unemployment among its citizenry and a $24 Billion (yes, with a B) deficit.

Oh, those crazy Californians! They didn't approve ballot measures that their post-partisan Republican governor tried to convince them were neccessary to cut the budget, increase revenues and decrease the shortfall. And now they're really stuck.

Former actor, now-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has always seemed to me to be an interesting choice for where to place your trust, and yet... he's their guy. He warned the Golden State's 37 million (give or take a few hundred thousand) residents that if measures on this past week's election ballot weren't approved, he would consider selling historic San Quentin prison, which sits on valuable prime ocean-front real estate; as well as the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. All to balance the budget and make up for a huge drop in revenues resulting from the real estate market bust and other recession-time uglies.

Californians said no to all but one of the ballot measures. "No" to solving budget problems through increasing taxes. To be fair, they already pay some of the highest taxes in the country. Given the fact that a large percentage of their dollars go to provide services for people who aren't always tax-paying citizens, it would seem that there is a line being drawn.

The collective Californian psyche reacted in a Howard Beale-like ballot-bellow, effectively screaming, "I'M AS MAD AS HELL AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE."

Or more properly, provide payment for it any longer. But when Governor Schwarzenegger gets done balancing the budget through real estate sales and program cuts, it may seem like Californians are learning some very painful, very expensive lessons.

I wonder how long it will take before they go public with their bailout request?

All the Large Economy Size Garbage Bags, Laundry Detergent and Chocolate Chips You Could Ever...

Costco has ruined my thriftiness. Seriously. Please check my logic on this item.

When I moved to LA, I got a membership at Costco. It's a state and a state of mind where the two go hand in hand. You drive to the DMV for a license and then over to Costco in the same trip. I lived less than a mile from the Van Nuys location and since they sold the cheapest gas in a 4 mile radius, it just made sense.

Then I started doing a little catering. I spent enough time and money at Costco to warrant getting the executive membership. The black card. $100. It gets you in the door an hour earlier than the rest of the riff-raff and... you get money back. Which, if you're doing some catering, adds up fast.

The catering ended over four years ago. But the card stayed. And I still bought large sized packages of items. I also bought a freezer to keep those items in. Sometimes I bought electronics. I had never been a big buyer of DVD's, but seeing as how they were less than $20 each, it seemed like a good deal.

In short, I think I spend more because of Costco than I might have been likely to, if I didn't have the card. I think lots of people overbuy on printers, lightbulbs, batteries and televisions. We started to think of some of those items as disposable instead of repairable. Things last just until the end of the warranty and then what do we do? We turn around and buy a new one... without ever pausing to consider repairing what we have because, of course, we want the latest updated technology. What are we... 15 years old?

Sure, I get a good price on gas. And insurance. Also asparagus. But I can't remember the last time I used all the batteries in the Costco pack before the darned things died. And I'm not sure if I really needed all those pairs of socks or flannel jammie pants. I live in Southern California, for crying out loud. I certainly couldn't sleep in them. Ugh. Like velcro in the sheets.

Yes, I mean it. Costco ruined my frugality. There you have it. I lost my soul at Costco... although I did find an employee ID name tag in the parking lot at that lovely Van Nuys location. The name on the tag? Jesus.