2010

      It seems like just yesterday that I used to host huge New Year's parties in Birmingham, with a Champaign fountain. At one party I had a very early Compuserve hookup on display on a Radio Shack TRS-80 for guests to play with...that might have been 1984 or so.
     These days, especially with my work schedule, it's all I'll be able to do to stay awake past 11pm!

     Across the country new laws will take effect ---lots of them in California---with the new Year of 2010, including a ban on tobacco products at Alabama Mental Health facilities. Is that a good idea? Sure, health and all that, but do those patients need the extra stress of quitting? I wonder what would happen if we made all jails and prisons non-smoking too?

     New Years is always the time we look back, and forward. Frankly, I can't imagine there are too many people who will miss the upheaval of the last decade. We started with the disputed 2000 election, moved on the the 9/11 attacks and the aftermath, and ended with the almost financial destruction of the country, What's not to bid good riddance to?

      Where will all us be a year from now, as 2010 ends and 2011 starts? Will the next 365 days be as full of drama as the past year? Sincere best wishes for all of you who come by this blog. May 2010 be filled with good for you and your family.

Tim

Movies I've NOT seen

     I watch a lot of movies...most via Netflux Capacitor these days, but now and then at the actual theater. Avatar is on my list to go see over the holiday weekend. But 3-D, or not all.
     But there are a select number of movies of great critical or cult status that I have managed to avoid. Sometimes it's because they have come to be standard-bearers for politics---like Forrest Gump. Lennox! You haven't seen Forrest Gump????
     I have no good excuse for some others, like The Big Labowski, which I read in an article today has become a giant cult movie. I also discovered in the article that there is a Birmingham-Southern Associate Professor of English, Fred Ashe,  who contributed an essay to the book "“The Year’s Work in Lebowski Studies,” (Indiana University Press, $24.95). Honest. Go professor!
     I haven't seen Band of Brothers, The Pianist, Up, or City of God, the last three of which are listed on the best movies of the past decade.

     Regarding Up, I have a bias against animation. Lennox! Animation??? I grew up watching and enjoying cartoons like most kids...read lots of comics...but somehow I avoid them now. I did see Wall-e, and kinda liked it.

     I googled the phrase "Best Movies You Haven't Seen" and there was a Slate article about ten flicks from this past year..only TWO of which I actually did see...World's Greatest Dad and that mess with the guy who has his heart stolen by terrorists. Really.
     What's the big-name flick you've never seen...and why?

Etc,

Sorry Artur.
Ron's still in the race.
But it was a nice thought!

So who will the Dems put up against new GOPer Griffith?

And read about the Davis camp reaction to the "announcement" here at the Alabama blog The World Around You.

Brett Tannehill interviewed Sparks:
"just interviewed Ron Sparks, says he never considered leaving the Gov race but can't control if people ask him about it."
Huh? So why didn't you say that immediately when there were like a gazillion stories about it online and off?

On Ron

     Democratic candidate for Governor Ron Sparks has scheduled news conferences in three cities tomorrow to announce his decision about the proposal that he abandon his quest for the Governor's mansion, and instead run against new Republican Parker Griffith for Congress in North Alabama.

     I'm just glad the statement about him deciding "in a couple of days" didn't last the full news cycle. I mean, can you say indecisive?

     What will he do? Given that he's holding news conferences across much of  the state (Huntsville Birmingham and Montgomery), I'd say he'll remain a contender for Governor (I would be more certain if he also scheduled on in Mobile, but...)

     If he had decided to run for Congress, why sell your story to audiences outside the district? Unless of course you are also planning on a stirring endorsement of Democratic Primary opponent Artur Davis...but if you were doing that, would you include an appearance in Mobile? And if...

     Whatever.

     We'll know tomorrow how the race toward the June Primaries looks.

MMMM #76 - Killing the Golden Goose?

     The Washington Times, owned by Rev Sun Young Moon and his church, are taking a step that as far as I know is a first, even in this era of newspaper meltdowns. They are eliminating their Sunday edition.
     Is it just me, or isn't the Sunday edition of most-read edition of most papers?
     Prior to that they eliminated the sports department. Again, isn't that eating the seed corn?
     Of course crazy stuff at the WT isn't new. Rev. Moon has predicted the wholesale elimination of classes of people:

"There will be a purge on God’s orders, and evil will be eliminated like shadows," said Moon. (The comments were posted online by Rev. Moon’s webmaster and picked up by blogger John Gorenfeld.)

"Gays will be eliminated, the 3 Israels will unite. If not then they will be burned. We do not know what kind of world God will bring but this is what happens. It will be greater than the communist purge but at God’s orders."*

     I hate to see newspapers go under, but when you eliminate your sports department and your Sunday edition, can pulling the plug be far behind?
     And where will people get their news if the Times goes under????
     Ironically, perhaps, The Washington Times was one of the papers to report the recent demise of another newspaper in the U.S. Capitol...a gay paper called The Washington Blade. And since there's going to be a purge, who needs it?

[*from http://www.nypress.com/article-8710-rapture-genocide-and-the-washington-times.html]

[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature on this blog.]

Gutter History

     Let me recommend another Birmingham News story today, the one about a new Birmingham-Jefferson History Museum downtown.
     I know about the project because, as a favor, I had been trying, without success, to locate an old Hollywood film related to the city/county that would have been used in a display.
     The real reason to read the story is to see how quickly the "reader comments" following the story get into the gutter. Amazing.
     The newly hired Executive Director may learn all he needs to know about his new city by reading them. And I thought the Birmingham News was going to control that crap!
     I might suggest the new facility forgo any guest comment book.

12, uh 10..uh...EIGHT things vanished in the past decade?

The Huffington Post has a list of a dozen things they say have gone away in the past decade. I beg to differ.

• They say sales catalogues are gone. Sorry, but I received more catalogues this year than ever! Tons of them every day starting before Thanksgiving and finally ending about a week before Christmas. This photo shows just one day's haul in November. Poor mail deliverer!

• HufPo says the yellow pages are gone. Not so! There are way too many programs lurking on the net to grab you when you look for almost anything, especially a business name or address or phone number. Give me the trusty old phone book anyday.
• And they say handwritten letters are gone too. That's largly true...and between them and the catalogues, the U.S. Post Office may be on the list of obsolete things for the next decade. But there is a great opportunity here. Want your job application to stand out? Include a handwritten note...presuming your handwriting is legible!  I remember interviewing the Birmingham Postmaster General on radio in the 80's and he expressed confidence that the new "electronic mail" would have no serious impact on regular mail operations. Right. 

     Even more interesting might be a prediction of things that may be gone when 2020 rolls around. A few guesses:

1. Evening Network TV Newscasts, maybe local too.                               

2. Most printed daily newspapers. 
3. AM radio.
4. Taxpayer funding for party primary elections.
5. North Korea.
6. Six or even five-day-a-week mail delivery.
7. Social Security.
8. Blogs. 
9. Yearly physical meetings of the Alabama Legislature.
10. $3.50 cups of coffee. They'll be replaced by $9.50 cups. 

Taking Credit

     A story in this morning's Birmingham News has Governor Riley taking credit for a drop in highway fatalities. But you don't have to go far to call that into question.

     Are Alabama's fatalities down? No question. But look at the statistics in this National Highway Transportation Safety Administration page for the past five years and click on other states...Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Florida, South Carolina..highway fatalities are down in every one of those states too. 

     I'll leave it to someone else to check every state and do a chart, but I'm willing to bet that highway fatalities nationwide have been on a downward trend, and unless driver's across the country have simply been inspired from afar by The Riley Administration's efforts, there's something else going on.

     Elected officials generally love to take credit for success that is really out of their hands, and yet blame outside forces for failures. It's a national economic downturn, but a local success in lowering unemployment.

     With crime down across the country, watch for states and agencies grabbing the credit for that too.
     There's no doubt that some state agency programs in Alabama are helping keep the state's roadways safer. But let's not grab credit for the big picture reduction in fatalities when virtually all states are experiencing the same drop.

[UPDATE: I'm finally reading the morning Montgomery Advertiser, and there's a story there too about a reuction in fatalities, with the head of the State Department of Public Safety warning about an increase if the agency funding continues to be cut. Col. Chris Murphy says the reduction in trooper-worked fatalities is twice the national average.]

Complaints from the takers AND the givers...

     There is no shortage of Alabamians who dislike either or both of the health care reform bills approved by Congress. Governor Riley's unhappy, and Attorney General King is meeting with other Republican AG's to see if the special benefits awarded Nebraska to win Senator Ben Nelson's vote are a violation of the U.S. Constitution.
     Now The NY Times reports, the states that have already expanded their Medicaid programs to cover a larger portion of their poor are complaining that they'll have to come up with the money to fund expansion in states like Alabama, which cover only a small portion of their poor with Medicaid.
     It seems nobody is happy with it....the receivers like Alabama...or the givers like New York, The Times story quotes NY Governor David Patterson: “We are, in a sense, being punished for our own charity."
     The Senate and House version of health care reform must be reconciled before a measure is sent to President Obama for his signature.

Privacy

     If strangers got your cell phone and were able to look at all of the information it contains, would you be concerned? A state (Ohio) Supreme Court has ruled that police cannot riffle through your phone without a warrant any more than they can go thorough your purse or briefcase without one.
     That's especially important with the "smart phones" that allow internet access and the storage of huge amounts of data.
     The NY Times editorializes in favor of that ruling today.
     How would your state Supreme Court rule?
     Alabama's court is almost 100% Republican, which should mean...what? The GOP is the party of small government, we're told. They want the government out of our lives, no? Would that philosophy carry over to this issue? Or would the traditional GOP demand for public order trump the privacy concerns?

GOP Ad against Griffith comes back to haunt?.

He may be a Republican now, but Parker Griffith was the enemy when he ran as a Democrat, as this ad shows.

Is Birmingham's Domed Stadium Doomed?

     The NY Times reports on municipal-funded stadiums that have failed because of rosy projections. Can the Birmingham Dome project escape the same fate? The man who spearheaded the project is headed to jail, but construction is due to begin in just months. Will the dome project end up another "Visionland"...bankrupt and leaving the participating public entities the poorer?
     The city has already committed $20-Million for the initial planning, The recession won't last forever, but where in the world will the city find $500-Million to pay for the project itself?

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Look what Santa brought me this morning during the CBS-8 This Morning show!

Sparks for Congress?

     Could Democrat Ron Sparks abandon his race for the Democratic nomination for Governor and run instead for the U.S. House Seat held by newly minted Republican Parker Griffith?

     According to a Huntsville Times story, he's not ruling it out.

     You can just hear the Artur Davis team going "Yes! YES!"

     It would certainly save the Davis campaign millions in campaign costs between now and the primary, allowing them to save their resources for the General Election while the 500 Repubs battle it out till the June primary and maybe a runoff.

     Meanwhile, the Alabama Democratic Party is demanding Griffith return a mass of party voter data that he downloaded the night before he switched parties. Sneaky, of course. But would it have been OK if he had done it a week earlier? A month? Allowing all candidates access to that data includes certain risks, including last minute decisions that they aren't members of the party after all.

[UPDATE: The camapaign consultant who did the downloading also worked for the Artur Davis campaign. Note the past tense. The Davis Camp has canned him and his firm.]

A Visit from Santa

Yes, the Jolly Old Guy himself will visit with us on CBS 8 This Morning tomorrow between 6 and 7am, and he'll stay around long enough to take calls from kids who wanna ask about a toy list or Rudolph or, well about Santa himself.
There are a lot of these Santas, you know, helpers, of course, of the real one. And there a story about another one in New York City. They say he is...

...a dean of New York City’s Santas. He is one of the city’s longest-running Santas at any one location 21 years at the Seaport. Only one other Santa — at Macy’s, naturally — has done it longer, with roughly 25 years on the job

     I'm not sure if ours is a "Dean" or not, but it should be fun and we'd love to have your child call in as he makes his stop by in the morning.
    Can you tell it is a slow news day? I'm actually blogging about....oh well.
    And I suppose this is as good a time as any to thank all of you who come by for doing so, and to wish you the happiest holiday ever, no matter whether you celebrate Christmas of The Winter Solstice or none at all.

Happy Holidays & The Best in 2010!!

Tim

Rep. Griffith

     Now it's officially 7- 2 in the Alabama Congressional delegation, with Parker Griffith's decision to join the Republican Party. As usual it's the party that left the politician...."The Democratic Party no longer represents my values," he says, citing the health care legislation and the growing national debt.

     That leave Rep. Bobby Bright (IBD*,AL) and Rep. Artur Davis, (RFG**, AL) as the only non-GOP members.
     I have to wonder where Rep. Griffith's indignation over the accumulating debt was during the eight years of the Bush Administration. And that leaves health care. His side lost, so he's quitting?

     As indicated in the linked story above, The Alabama Democratic Party wants it's money back. Same thing happened when Sen. Richard Shelby switched parties to the GOP...though Shelby did it just days after being re-elected as a Democrat. Shelby offered to refund contributions, though I couldn't find out how much was returned, if any. I suspect most voters just treated it for what it was...a bad gambling debt.

     They would have been better off loosing the money at the table in Vegas. At least that bad debt they could deduct from their winnings on their taxes.

[* independent Blue Dog. ** Running For Governor]

[UPDATE: The Huntsville Times has reaction from Rep. Davis...much quicker and stronger reaction than I would have anticipated. Guess as the last man standing with a big "D" after his name...despite my RFG satire above...he has to defend the party he's running under.]

[UPDATE: December 23: Huntsville Times story this morning wonders about the power to protect area agencies like NASA that Griffith gave away.]

Thou Shalt Take What You Need

     A Church of England priest seems to be saying "shoplift if you need to" in these hard times. WWJD?
     Thanks to reader Jay for the heads up!
     Food is one thing, but how about a mp3 player from Wal-Mart or a DVD from Best Buy. After all, they're just the big chains he's talking about...and if you get caught...do you plead your case to a higher court?

One Year Later...

Today is the 1st anniversary of the environmental disaster at the TVA Kingston coal-fired power plant in Tennessee. Since December 22, 2008, a procession of daily Norfolk Southern rail cars has been carrying the millions of tons of coal ash that spilled from a retaining pond and delivering it to a commercial landfill in Perry County Alabama.

This photo shows the coal as being loaded onto the rail cars in Tennessee. Once they arrive in Alabama, the coal ash is removed from the trains and carried by truck to the interior of the landfill where heavy equipment spreads it out.

     Security at the landfill is very tight. Uniontown police guard the main road leading inside, although the landfill is outside the city limits.
     As far as I know, nobody representing the landfill has given an on-the-record interview.
     Also in the last year, the EPA is preparing to formulate regulations on coal ash, and is investigating charges that dumping like that in Perry County is environmental racism because it happens mostly in poor, black communities. A lawsuit has also been filed to stop the coal ash dumping.

[ADDENDUM: Washington Post/AP story about the 1 year anniversary.]

MMMM #75 - Eye in the Court

     There may finally be a chink the wall of separation that has long kept TV and  still cameras out of Federal Courtrooms. Frankly, it is about time. The arrogance of the Federal Court system in banning cameras, while allowing print journalists to carry the tools of their trade, pens and paper, has been stunning.
     Now the 9th Circuit out West is going to "experiment" with allowing cameras in.
     Welcome to the 18th Century, Mr. and Ms. Justices.
     The Times article linked above quotes U.S. Supreme Court Justice Scalia as describing video cameras in the courtroom as "entertainment". I think he's been watching too much Judge Judy and Company.  And where, pray tell, are all of the "open and transparent government" conservatives on the issue? What could be a better way to make government more transparent than showing it at work?
     It would have meant people could have watched the Bush vs Gore case live in 2000, to see for themselves if justice was served when the Florida recount was halted.
     High Def video cameras are now pocket-sized...any argument about "disruption of court proceedings" no longer applies. No argument against the presence of video cameras in ALL court cases makes sense. The courts, including those without cameras, have upheld all kinds of intrusive "security" measures that Americans put up with. Now its their turn. Let the cameras in!

Citadel's Sunday bankruptcy filing

The company that owns eleven Alabama radio stations in Birmingham and Tuscaloosa---including the oldest radio station in Alabama, and which is home to Rush Limbaugh, Don Imus and other talk-radio hosts, has filed for bankruptcy.

Citadel Broadcasting filed today...the Sunday before Christmas! The company says it owes $2.4-Billion and has assetts of $1.4-Billion.

In Birmingham, the company owns WAPI, WJOX, WSPZ,WUHT,WMM and WZRR.
In Tuscaloosa: WBEI,WDGM,WFFN,WTSK,WTUG.

WAPI-AM (1070AM) in Birmingham was the first station in the state. The call-sign stood for Alabama Polytechnical Institute, Auburn University's original name. It started broadcasting in September of 1922.

Many of the stations owned by Citadel are, like WAPI, News-Talk and Sports-Talk formated.

NewSverse
by Tim Lennox

Early Spring it seems,
shoots pushing their way up
through the rotten MSM husks.
But the decay provides
nourishment, tools and energy
for the startups,
the webzines (old school!)
the aggregators (newer a bit)
and the________? The what?
What new things will we see
in those fertile fields?
Could Ben Franklin have seen 60 Minutes?
Could Moses have seen The Times.
What then? Mystery.
Unknowablethings.

[NewSverse is poetry for the media meltdown. It is an occasional feature of this blog.]

The Price of Healthcare Reform

Democratic U.S. Senator Nelson of Nebraska broke the logjam this morning when he told his fellow Senators he had decided to support the healthcare reform bill that needed just one more vote to assure passage. What convinced him? Some discussion about the needs of America's uninsured? Statistics about the cost of Medicaid? No. Nelson traded his vote for the good of his his own people. According to The Washington Post story:

Nelson secured full federal funding for his state to expand Medicaid coverage to all individuals below 133 percent of the federal poverty level. Other states must pay a small portion of the additional cost. He won concessions for qualifying nonprofit insurers and for Medigap providers from a new insurance tax, and was able to roll back cuts to health savings accounts

.      Alabama's two U.S. Senators stood their ground with their thirty-eight Republican peers and voted against the bill. (Richard Shelby had said President Obama was taking the first step in "destroying the best healthcare syatem in the world!")
      Since Medicaid is one of the factors pushing Alabama's state budgets into the red, forcing program cuts, should either Senator Shelby or Senator Jeff Sessions have agreed to change their vote in return for protecting Alabama's poor?

[UPDATE: Monay, Dec. 21, other States which benefited from the bill's language.]

Recommended Reading

It's not difficult to find newspaper stories about families falling apart. Here's one in The Press Register about an Alabama family falling together. A nice Christmastime read, especially in these tough times.

Oh, THAT bible.....

     One of the frustrations of being a journalist happens when you originate what you are sure is an interesting and maybe even important story, only to have it completely ignored by the rest of the media. One of those incidents in my own life happened around 2000 when I was with APT.

     The whole Judge Roy Moore/10 Commandments controversy was brewing. I noticed in a little pocket park at the foot of Dexter Avenue in Montgomery a glass display case holding an open bible. Huh? Here we were fighting over public displays of the 10C and right down the street was a bible on public land.

    We did the story, discovering what information we could about the man who originated the display and why, and I waited for another outlet to pick it up. Nada. Not a word. I even sent a copy of our story to an editor and pitched it. Nothing.

    Today, in The Montgomery Advertiser, the headline is "Bible Mystery Solved"" in a prominent story in the paper. Yet there's not a word about the display on public land violating the separation of church and state, or a word about the Roy Moore controversy down the block a decade ago.

Alabama Bank Failure

     A bank located in Irondale has become the latest to fail and be taken over by the FDIC.

     New South Federal Savings had been on any number of unofficial "endangered banks" lists this year. It is the first Alabama bank to be taken over since the much larger Colonial bank in Montgomery was taken over on August 14.
     The FDIC also closed down six other banks today...none of them in Alabama.

1st Day of Winter 2009-2010

The forecast for Montgomery, Alabama, on Monday, the 1st Day of Winter: Sunny with a high of 55.

About this time of year, no matter how cold it gets, I figure "what the heck...ten more weeks and Spring will be here. In New England they've been in a deep freeze for weeks and Spring seems a lifetime away!"

Threats

     A lawyer for a 22 year old who posted a treatening message about Faulkner University in Montgomery  on Facebook is seeking a lower bond. Right now it's $500,000.

     As far as has been reported, there is zero evidence the kid had the ability or materials to carry through any threat. It's not as if he had obtainted, or tried to obtain, a weapon...or had stockpiled explosives, or even stolen secret detailed campus maps.

    We live in such scary times that almost any comment can be taken seriously.

    Sure it was a stupid thing to do, but unless there's something else going on here, save the terrorism prosecutions for the truly dangerous people out there who do have guns and do have bombs and do have even more dangeous weapons. There is unfortunately no shortage of them. 

Follow that feather!

     Those of you who know me well know I have a soft spot for wild birds...so I found this story in today's N.Y. Times interesting. But even if you have no interest in the birds themselves, the technology is interesting and has broad applications for all of the biological sciences.
     Retail is already using tiny devices for tracking and security.
     People caring for elderly relatives can use tracking devices to make sure they don't wander off.
     And pet tracking as old hat by now.
     How long before the tracking bugs are so small that parents can hide one in their daughter's purse or son's wallet? And should they? There are already somewhat larger devices that can easily be attached to the kids cars. Are their persons next?

The Food Stamp Economy

Let me point you to a Reuters story headlined

Midnight In The Food Stamp Economy

Ouch.

Picture Perfect!

Isn't it amazing how even the parking lot of a shopping center can be beautiful with the right lighting? (-:

Is Birmingham BAD for MEN???

     No, it is the WORST city for men...in America! So says an article in Men's Health Magzine. The Birmingham News points out that Men's Health has something of a history of dissing the state's largest city, so maybe the poor ranking should be expected.
     Anyway, magazines love these "ranking the cities, states, etc etc" stories because newspapers like The Birmingham News, and bloggers, like me, tend to write about them.

     I can't imagine what would make Birmingham any worse a city than any other for men. It's got football, beer...uh, more football. What else could a man want?

Many Layered Cakes

Those Yankees at The New York Times have a go at SouthEast Alabama women and their multi-layered holiday cakes, y'all. Give it a read.

Budget Days

     The annual exercise in the Alabama State House is underway...the heads of dozens of state agencies will come, hat in hand, asking the legislative budget committee for more money. I ran into a college president walking in this afternoon and reminded him to keep his hand opened wide. "Both hands!" he exclaimed.

     That is truly wishful thinking on his part. There will be no two-hand disbursements for fiscal 2011, which starts next Fall. Gone is the majority of the $527-Million in stimulus money. The bottom line is there is a hole about $600-Million deep in the budgets, and there doesn't seem to be any source for that money.

     The New York Times Regional Nerwspapers reports the General Fund may face a 30% cut. That's the budget that pays for most non-education state services.

     Alabama may have the lowest taxes in America, but there doesn't seem to be any will in the State House to raise any new revenue. I don't know of a single politician who ever got elected promising tax increases. But that formula...reduced tax collections with no new money...must equal cuts in state services.

     The Corrections Department went so far yesterday as to mention closing prisons and releasing prisoners, though the Commissioner was quick to say Governor Riley has pledged not to let that happen. Where he'll find that money remains to be seen.

     Medicaid Commissioner Steckel suggested recipients may be limited to five prescriptions a month, only two of them brand name. Can you say "rationing of health care" anyone?

[UPDATE: Dave White, The Birmingham news, reports 3,500+ teachers could be laid off because of budget cuts.]

This New Generation is REALLY new...

Pew research about the Millenials...those born between 1981 and 2000:

■They are the most ethnically and racially diverse cohort of youth in the nation's history. Among those ages 13 to 29: 18.5% are Hispanic; 14.2% are black; 4.3% are Asian; 3.2% are mixed race or other; and 59.8%, a record low, are white.


■They are starting out as the most politically progressive age group in modern history. In the 2008 election, Millennials voted for Barack Obama over John McCain by 66%-32%, while adults ages 30 and over split their votes 50%-49%. In the four decades since the development of Election Day exit polling, this is the largest gap ever seen in a presidential election between the votes of those under and over age 30.

■They are the first generation in human history who regard behaviors like tweeting and texting, along with websites like Facebook, YouTube, Google and Wikipedia, not as astonishing innovations of the digital era, but as everyday parts of their social lives and their search for understanding.

■They are the least religiously observant youths since survey research began charting religious behavior.

■They are more inclined toward trust in institutions than were either of their two predecessor generations -- Gen Xers (who are now ages 30 to 45) and Baby Boomers (now ages 46 to 64) when they were coming of age.

 
[Source: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1437/millennials-profile?src=prc-latest&proj=peoplepress]

[Picture from: http://www.cpcc.edu/]

The People's Street

     That's what Dexter Avenue is sometimes called...home to the State Capitol Building and the Dexter-King Memorial Church, site of hundreds of protests and celebrations.
     Two years ago a controversy was brewing over the plan by RSA's David Bronner to "save" the building that was home to the State Supreme Court for a half-century. The building had been vacant for years, and Bronner proposed encapsulating the existing building with a larger, much taller office building.
     Preservationists complained that the view down the "people's street" to the Capitol would be ruined by the boxy shape and the 12 story height of the new structure.
     Two years later, the construction is still underway, and so far, so far, the view doesn't seem to have been harmed. You can see the site

   

 But the front of the $200-Million new building is to be comprised of massive glass walls surrounding the old court building. And it's that part of the structure that may or may not ruin the view. In the coming weeks, as more of that front part is assembled, and the huge glass walls that will allow passersby to see the old building are finished, we'll know for sure.
     Meanwhile, just down the street, the "new" Alabama Supreme Court building is surrounded by construction crews and vehicles. They're trying to fix the persistant leaks than have cause the lower level garage to become a lake when it rains. And all that water is also damaging other parts of the building too. The building was designed  by Barganier, Davis, Sims Architects Associated of Montgomery and Gresham, Smith, and Partners of Birmingham. It cost of almost $35-Million and opened less than 20 years ago.

MMMM # 74 - Advertising Interest

I'm always a touch cautious when I venture into high finance, considering my miserable grades in all-things-math over the years, but this ad in a newpaper last week caught my attention. I've cropped it to eliminate the name of the financial institution that ran it in an Alabama newspaper:

     I obviously have completely lost track of interest rates. Perhaps I should be actually opening those 401K statements now?

      Is this ad suggesting, as I suspect, that I should be happy to let this institution have my money for a "Great Rate"...a return of less than TWO PERCENT???? And the institution involved is so proud of it they paid to advertise the rate?

    And am I correct in thinking that the rates banks are charging for their credit cards are still in the DOUBLE DIGITS?

     [MSNBC reports "Americans are currently paying an average interest rate of 13.71 percent on credit card debt, up from 11.88 percent in May 2008, according to the Federal Reserve.]

     The only good news here is the fact that there is somebody advertising in a newspaper.
    We now return you to your regularly scheduled program, in which the financial world somehow makes sense.

[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]

[UPDATE: a Christmas column in The New York Times with the same these...you can actually lose money tryign to save it!]

Phone freedom?

     Google is reportedly going to sell its own phone...maybe as early as January. And unlike other phones, with which you are required to use a certain server, you'll be free to choose whichever company offeres the best deal. That will likley make the phone itself more expensive, but still.....

Sunday Columns

In her column this morning, Maureen Dowd uses the phrase "the Flintstones nature of the country" to refer to Afghanistan. Ouch!

To be fair and balanced, Good old warrior Oliver North uses his Washington Times column to criticize President Obama for not being warlike enough: "Would a war president devote 92 percent of his public commentary, speeches, lectures and media appearances over the past 10 months to everything but the war?" 

Meanwhile, Frank Rich offers this: "The geniuses in Washington and on Wall Street who invented junk mortgages and then bundled and sold them as securities didn’t live in the same neighborhoods as the mortgagees, small investors and retirees left holding the bag once the housing bubble burst." And his column is a movie review. Really.  

Good reading for a rainy Sunday morning in Alabama, though one way or the other, they may cause a spike in your blood pressure.

160 Years Ago tomorrow - The Capitol Burns!

From the Alabama State Archives site: On December 14, 1849, near the beginning of the General Assembly's second session in Montgomery, the Capitol was destroyed by fire. Moving to temporary quarters to continue deliberations., the legislature in February of 1850 appropriated $60,000 with which the central section of the present building was erected upon the foundations of the burned original. A new architect, Barachias Holt, designed the new structure. ]

AND IT WASN'T THE LAST TIME AN ALABAMA CAPITOL BUILDING WOULD BURN....

From a waymarking.com page:

     DURING THE afternoon of August 22, 1923, fire completely destroyed the old Alabama capitol in Tuscaloosa, a building that had long been used as the Alabama Central Female College. Smoke rising from the building could be seen as far away as Greensboro.

     Painters, who had been at work renovating the interior of the building at the time of the blaze, blamed the fire on faulty electrical wiring. Within a matter of hours all that was left of this historic structure were sections of tottering, smoke-blackened walls, broken columns, and mountains of ash and debris.

     In the following months, townspeople salvaged material from the ruins. Will Murphy, Tuscaloosa's first black undertaker, used some of the bricks to build his home, which is now a museum. Other citizens hauled away truckloads of carved ashlar and flagstones to build garden walls and terraces. Carl Carmer, author of Stars Fell on Alabama, ornamented his backyard with several large architectural fragments, including a handsome Ionic capital from the building's façade. Even after the site was scavenged by locals, tons of debris and some sections of the lower-story sandstone walls remained above ground.

     During the 1930s, however, a Works Progress Administration project provided funds to clean up the site and landscape it. At that time most of the remaining ruins were leveled and the debris was pushed down the ravine to the west of the site. Only a section of the walls of the north wing, rising three or four feet from the ground, remained. They were infilled with rubble and sodded to create a low rectangular mound. Thousands of bits of broken sandstone ashlar and architectural fragments were used to create a low perimeter wall that surrounded what had become known as Capitol Park.

Push Polling by ALFA

     I got a polling call on my cell phone this afternoon, a robo call from a Washington D.C. number and a voice that self-identified the poll as coming from The Alabama Farmer's Federation.
     It was a "push-poll", at least parts of it were. That's when the purpose of a poll isn't to sample public opinion, but to sway public opinion by planting negative thoughts about issues the sponsor opposes, and positives about issues they support.
     The very first question: would I vote to re-elect Barack Obama---an election that's three years away, but mentioning his name could serve to set the tone for the questions that follow.* Would I support re-electing Troy King as Attorney General? Jim Folsom as Lt. Gov.?

    








I have to presume ALFA opposes Republican King, since although they didn't use party identifications, they decided to plant his name squarely between Democrats Obama and Folsom. I'm surprised they didn't throw in Nancy Pelosi for good measure!
     Then came the issue questions, which were subtly slanted to elicit a certain response.
     For example, one had an anti-Constitutional-reform slant, asking if I would favor rewriting the entire Alabama Constitution by people who happened to have the free time to go to Montogmery.
     Another question asked about the "Family Farm Protection Act" to block people from moving next to a farm and then filing suit against the farm because of smells. (I'm  not positive about the use of the word "smells"...I'm going by memory only here, but that's the main issue in property-rights suits against so-called factory farms.)
    And of course there were more direct insurance-related questions...would I be willing to pay a one-time $100 assessment to pay to repair damage from a Katrina like storm...and would I be willing to pay higher insurance rates to make insurance more affordable for people who own homes on the coast.
     As I mentioned, this call came on my cell phone. And that was surprising.
     Actual (non-push) pollsters have been trying to deal with the growth of cell-phones in recent years because so many people are eliminating landlines. Since the phone owner pays for the minutes, they can have trouble getting cooperative people to poll. As for me, I'm almost always up for a poll, since it provides information about what people are researching. ALFA, for example, opposes Constitutional reform because it would almost surely result in higher property taxes. We have the lowest in America right now, and they want to keep it that way.

* The most recent poll I've seen shows about the same majority of Alabamians opposed to the President as voted for John McCain...59%. His favorable rating here hasn't changed at all, but neither has his unfavorable rating.

The Future of The GOP...

...is in the Republican Governors and former Governors. So says an article this hour on The Washington Post website.

     As I started reading, my first thought was will they identify Alabama's Bob Riley as a rising star?

     No.

     He's not mentioned, although there was talk of him as a Vice Presidential Candiate last year, and certainly McCain/Riley might have done better than McCain/Palin.
     Since he can't run for reelection as Governor, he's kinda at loose ends right now. Will he just retire? Or is he one of the (unnamed) soon-to-be-former GOP Governors who are the future of his party?

[UPDATE: I just remembered that The Washington Times wrote an editorial promoting Mr. Riley as a Presidential candidate...an editorial written by a graduate of Vestavia High School.]

Huh?

Birmingham News quotes the Guv's Press office as saying his sending that $13-Million un-bid contract for Paragon Source, LLC (the computer firm famous for operating without a published business phone, without a business address, and without a website) through Auburn University Montgomery instead of through the Contract Review Committee.

Just one question: if you weren't trying to hide the contract, why did it go through AUM? What ever happened to transparency in government?

[UPDATE: we were in a hurry...that's the gist of a further explanation from the Riley Administration as to why they went through AUM with the no-bid contract for Paragon Source, LLC.]

The Party Religion

A new Gallup Poll shows the GOP is still the party of the pious. The more religious someone claims to be, the more likely they are to identify themselves as Republican.

Meanwhile, just what being "religious" means has taken on a distinctly American character. Like our population, our beliefs (or lack thereof) are a hybrid of conventional organized religion with a dash of this superstition and that ancient deity practice, claims a Washington Post article.

One of Arthur C. Clark's sci-fi books---I can't recall which---made that point, saying it is clear almost all religions are wrong in what they believe. Either one is right, or all are wrong, but their conflicting faiths can't all be correct. It had something to do with the first arrival on earth of an alien species, as I recall.

Alabama remains one of the more churched states, earning its place in the Bible Belt. But it's sometimes alien to outsiders. A northerner who just had wached a tape of a local TV news broadcast commented  how surprised she was to see local commericals for churches...and to see the commercials of for-profit companies wearing their religion on their sleeves. There's a lawyer TV spot in Montogmery, for example, in which there's as much talk about the religious faith of the barrister as there is about the services he offers.

Those of the Hindu faith believe cows are sacred. And at least one Christian American farmer recently saw Jesus in one of his flock because the animal was born with a slightly crooked cross on it's forehead. And let's not forget the Mary in the Toast or Joseph in the water stain. We find the religion we need, and then swear by it (unless swearing is forbidden...).

[UPDATE: read about the state with a constitution that disqualifies officeholders "who shall deny the being of Almighty God".]

Last Store Standing

     Put a fork in the Montgomery Mall. According to a story in this morning's Montgomery Advertiser, the last entity operating in the mall---Trentholm Tech's Culinary College---is moving out. The school will go to The Regions Bank downtown. They say they couldn't get the Montgomery Mall owner to make repairs, and conditons were getting worse and worse, including ceiling leaks.

     Seems to me, when you have only one tenant and a 98% vacancy rate, y'oughta keep that one tenant happy, no?

For The Love of Cable

No matter how good your cable company may be, I can't imagine there is a customer alive who has not once or twice cursed their name. Sometimes loudly.

If you have some tech savy, read this NY Times story. I claims it will set you free.

I'll reserve judgement.

And what was your morning at work like?

Thanks to the folks at The Montgomery Zoo for bringing their friends by this morning on CBS-8! The Zoo's annual Light Festival is now open:

Event: The 18th Annual Christmas Light Festival 2009

Date: Opening night Dec 3, Event: Dec 3-6, 10-13 and 17-31
Time: 5:30pm - 9:30pm
Location: The City of Montgomery Zoo
Sponsors: The City of Montgomery, Montgomery Zoo Friends & Sponsors
Phone: (334) 240-4900
Description: Thousands of Holiday Lights illuminate The Montgomery Zoo in shapes of animals and Christmas themes. See the beautiful displays by train or by foot. Enjoy live entertainment, food, gifts and pictures with Santa.
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