I have been following the debate going on within the Internet-cop set regarding “Ghost Blawging”.  Ghost Blawing is just what it sounds like.  Hiring someone to do what you are unable or unwilling to do for yourself-string together coherent sentences in written form.  Following it up by hiding from your audience the fact that the brilliant legal prose and  cutting edge opinions are not really yours.

I am frankly stunned that there are attorneys who hire people to write their blawgs, manage their Facebook pages, Tweet for them.  I am stunned and I laugh out loud. We pay tens of thousands of dollars for a higher education that is supposed to take our thought process to a higher level and teach us how to write. We then show how little we have learned, thinking we are being smart lawyers because smart lawyers know how to delegate the irrelevant things regardless of how much more relevant we want to be.

While I know I will get irate lawyers writing me about theirs busy practices and millions made in their “Rainmaker” seminars, here it is.  For the record. If  you are an attorney and are paying someone to write your blawg, manage your Twitter account or Facebook page then you know so little about social media and business in general that you could not possibly be having any current success as an attorney.  If you were killing it under the old guard of no one reviewing your bill at 350 an hour, times have changed my friend.  You actually have to put in some real effort using your real time to get clients.

People who might be willing to do business based on a social media contact are no different than the person walking through your office door. They want a personal connection. They want a personal connection and you are sending your P.R. rep to the waiting room to talk to them.  Complete idiocy.

It is a humorous, vicious cycle.  Attorneys who know zilch about social media and have lagging practices hire ghost blawggers and P.R people to do their social media dirty work. No business results and the remedy is to engage in even more social media antics that don’t work.

In the end ghost blawgging is just out and out unethical and indicative of an overall intent to deceive that carries into other areas of your practice.  It’s like taking a case that may get tried and and never telling your client you have never tried a case.

Take my advice.  Fire your ghost blawgger today.  Right now.  This minute.  Now sit down and write something, anything.  Don’t think, just write. Proof-it,  Post it.  You’re on your way…

I don’t heart Hamas but do enjoy the humor of Jennifer Jajeh in her wildly poplar one-person show “I Heart Hamas: And Other Things I am Afraid To Tell You”.

Join me February 9th at 4pm(CT) for the 1st Revolution Rant Broadcast of 2010. Simply point your web-browser to:

http://www.briancuban.com/cuban-live/

Jennifer will be talking about her show and what it really means to “Heart Hamas“.  I took a lot of heat for scheduling Jennifer, being called a “Self-Hating Jew, Hamas sympathizer and a “Bad Jew” That tells me this will be a controversial great show!  Let talk to Jennifer about her show and the line between artistic and political expression.

Here is a little bit about Jennifer and her show, I Heart Hamas”

Jennifer Jajeh is a San Francisco based artist. As an actor, she has appeared in numerous film, television, commercial and theatre productions.  She received her actor’s training at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Conservatory in NYC and the American Conservatory Theatre in SF.

In addition to her work as an actor, she has produced and directed award winning independent film and video projects. Her two short films, “In My Own Skin” and “Fruition”, have screened nationally and internationally in film festivals, museums, art galleries and universities. Jennifer is currently documenting a year in the life of an actor and all the ridiculousness involved in pursuing an acting career in her blog called thefamegame.

With the current ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, the threat of global terrorism, and the never-ending negotiations and hostilities between Israelis and Palestinians, it’s hard not to feel overwhelmed by all of the bad international news.

That’s exactly how Jennifer Jajeh feels. And to make matters worse, Jennifer is Palestinian. Well, Palestinian American. Or more precisely: a single, Christian, first generation, Palestinian American woman who chooses to return to her parents’ hometown of Ramallah at the start of the Second Intifada.

Join her on American and Palestinian soil on auditions, bad dates, and across military checkpoints as she navigates the thorny terrain around Palestinian identity. Weaving together humor, slides, pop culture references and live theater, Jajeh explores how she becomes Palestinian-ized, then politicized and eventually radicalized in a fresh, often funny, searingly honest way.

“I Heart Hamas: And Other Things I’m Afraid To Tell You”, recognized by NYTheatre.com as “a fascinating look into a world we don’t often see or hear about,” made its world premiere in 2008 as a part of New York’s International Fringe Festival. Following strong media praise and audience reception, the play made its San Francisco debut on September 17, 2009 as a co-production with Off-Market Theatres.  Jennifer has recently announced that her show will be taking on the road to Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Martin Grossman is set to be executed in Florida on February 16th.   He was convicted of murdering Pinellas County wildlife officer, Wildlife Officer Margaret “Peggy” Park, 26, in 1984.  He and a friend went to a wooded area on Dec. 13, 1984 to shoot a stolen handgun.  Park interrupted them. Grossman pleaded with her not to report him for having the gun and being outside Pasco County, both of which were violations of his probation for burglary.

During a struggle with Officer Park, Grossman got control of  her gun and shot her in the head.

A jury convicted Grossman of first-degree murder and unanimously recommended a death sentence. Taylor, who was 17 at the time, was convicted of third-degree murder and was released in community supervision after serving two years and 10 months of a seven-year prison term.

There is now an outpouring of support in the Jewish community asking the Governor of Florida to commute his sentence to life in prison.  In reviewing the “fact sheet of Amnesty International who opposes the death penatly in general, the main points seem to be as follows:

1.   Ineffective Assistance Of Counsel at Sentencing-The Appeals Court rejected this claim.

2.   A forensic psychologist hired years after conviction called Grossman’s mental state into question as to whether he could act in a pre-mediated fashion or whether his conduct should be mitigated.   Grossman had a “a high level of fear and depression, and parental neglect, abandonment and mistreatment.”

3.   The jury was not presented with evidence that Grossman was high on mind-altering drugs that negated the state of mind needed for a 1st degree murder conviction.

4.   The length of time Grossman has been on death row-24 years.

5.    He has become a devoutly religious Jew and has been a model prisoner.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal in 2007. The Florida Supreme Court rejected has latest one 11 months ago.

There is no reason for the governor to spare this guy’s life.

His ineffective assistance  of counsel claim has been considered on appeal and rejected.  It is not a proper purview of a Governor for commutation.

A judge has rejected a motion to consider the fact that the jury never heard about  Grossman being on mind-altering drugs at the time of the crime. This decision was proper.  Voluntary ingestion of illegal drugs generally does not negate the element of intent.

If there was evidence that despite the appeals court ruling, the 1st degree conviction was so out-of-whack with the facts I might be on board with looking at that.  That however is not the case here  Mr. Grossman killed a law enforcement officer in the course of her duties.  He knew she was an officer when he killed her.  In my mind, that is 1st degree murder.

His claim of “finding religion” fails as well. He has become a devout Jew gaining the support of Rabbis and Jewish organizations claiming he is a “changed person”.   I am Jewish.  I am glad Mr. Grossman has found his god in our religion.  That does not get him off the needle.  Theological considerations are not a proper criteria is making a commutation decision.  Are we going to commute the sentence of  every prisoner who claims he/she has “found god”?  I hope Mr. Grossman’s god absolves and blesses him in the after-life.  He however has been judged by his peers with due process on earth.

The fact that he has been a model prisoner carries no weight.  That gets him extra commissary and television privileges, not a  pass on the judgment of a jury.

Matthew Grossman, absent new evidence relating to his innocence or guilt or that the sentence is completely out of whack with the facts(which they do not appear to be) should be denied commutation and  executed as scheduled on February 16th.