1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9...and so on.

Have your returned you census form? If not, is it out of fear or distrust of the Federal Govenment? The Houston Chronicle reports low census return rates for GOP zip codes. Hmmm

How is Alabama doing? Well, you can check a neat new interactive map from the Census folks...and it shows Alabama with a statewide 27% return rate, the same as Texas. The northern Alabama tier counties seem to have a bigger return rate than the southern and, especially, the Western Counties, And nationally, while the average is 34%, the Northern States near the Canadian border seem to have a hgiher rate than anywhere else.
In the 2000 census, Alabama had a 66% return rate.

Passover

     Great story in the N.Y, Times---in case you missed it---about the Obama Administration and Passover, which begins tonight at sundown.
     I couldn't help but remember Governor Fob James having a Rabbi at his seond (1995) Innaugeration to blow the ram's horn, a much different mixing of politics and religion than the one described in the Times article.
     May your Passover be gentle.

[NOTE: Houston Chronicle this morning has a story about Christians celebrating Passover...to the chagrin of some Jews.]

Banking

Paul Krugman calls out Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala) in his column this morning on the topic of banking regulation.

MMMM #91: Evolving NewsPAPERS

     Come next Sunday, The Montgomery Advertiser will introduce another series of changes designed to make the Sunday paper a product even more people will want to read. Like most papers, the Sunday edition is the  most popular, and the Advertiser has apparently decided to build on that strength.
     All of the media firms, of course, are trying to figure out the new route to profitability, and attracting readers is job #1
     Advertiser Executive Editor Wanda Lloyd writes about it in today's paper. Most of the changes will be in apperance...the Opinion pages become a section cover; the second page of the first ("A") section becomes a guide to online content etc etc.

    But Lloyd is pledging even more "watchdog" type stories too, and is sending a three person crew to attend a mini-school on that subject in Tennessee. She wrote a similar column in late 2008, about jobs being shed and the trecherous waters ahead. I wanted to read that old column, but there's a single-article $3.95 charge for archives, which I fully understand. I just didn't want to pay it.
    I hope the changes help the paper not only survive, but thrive. I certainly don't want to live in the first large Alabama city to be without even one newspaper.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CBS 8 ON THE RECORD

     The Premier of the new program is this Sunday, April 4th at 5:30, just before 60 Minutes. The Sundays between now and June are booked with candidates for Governor. Ron Sparks is up first, followed on April 18th (we'll be prempted on 4/11 by The Masters) by Artur Davis.

     After that, each of the major GOP candidates will be on, leading up to the Sunday before the June  Primary The programs are not live...we will generally tape on Friday mornings.

     Each interview is a one-on-one conversation, with opportunities for follow up questions, something that's not always possible in the shorter daily news interviews on the station.

     It has been just over a year since I hosted the final "For The Record" on APT, a special on the economy with David Bronner, Securities Commission head Joe Borg, State Banking Commissioner John Harrison and economist Keivan Deravi. I look forward to getting back into the long-form interview venue with the new show on WAKA. I hope you'll be able to watch!

A pat on the back...

...to M.J. Ellington of The Times-Daily for his her interesting story asking if Alabama finances would be better if Amendment One---the radical tax-restructuring proposed by Governor Bob Riley after his first election---had passed. There's no cut and dried answer in the piece, but lots of interesting opinions. Wish I had thought of it!

The WHY of TWD

     You may know I have a thing about people talking on the phone while they are driving...the potential for an accident is bad enough, but the lesser impact is their incredibly s-l-oooooow pace. Move on folks!
     Anyway, the folks at the National Safety Council are out with a report explaining why people yabbing away on a cell phone are dangerous to themselves and others.Too much multitasking, they say. Why the same isn't true of a driver just talking with a passenger, I have no idea.
     Meanwhile, in this session of the Alabama Legislature, Rep. Jim  McClendon (R-Springville) introduced a bill ban texting while driving...not the bill he's introduced for years that would ban cell phone use by drivers all together. That bill has died every year, but the no-texting bill has a possibility of passing! Of course there are only eight meeting days left, so...

Tower anyone?

     The Ares 1 NASA rocket project was going to be a Big Deal for Huntsville...now elected officials with constituents in that part of the state are scrambling to revive it.
     This morning's Washington Post points out there is a Half-Billion Dollar launch tower for the non-rocket sitting in Florida without a rocket to attach. I imagine it would cost more than it is worth to dissasemble and move it somewhere, so...anyone want a very cheap rocket launching tower?
    

An Unhinged Minority

     Has America gone off the deep end? It's a good thing the new health care bill includes mental health and addiction treatment, because we may need to send a segment of society to the couch for a few sessions.
     When did it become acceptable in the United States to threaten violence against duly elected representatives because they voted for legislation you don't like? (Forgetting for the moment Alabama's State Senator Charles Bishop and his punch on the Senate Floor) Cut gas lines? Spitting on Congressmen? Bricks through windows (an irony that Frank Rich points out in his latest column: the teabagger protestors paint President Obama as Hitler, but it was the Nazis who perpetrated Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass, on the Jews. So who's Hitler here?)
     And then there's Sarah Palin's rifle cross hairs on Members of Congress, paired with her exultation to "Don't Retreat, Instead - RELOAD!" Is this supposed to be "cute"? How can any elected official look the other way?

     And to think that critics during the election campaign were complaining about the animals being hunted down from helicopters in Alaska! 
     Can you honestly say that this is truly acceptable to American society today? If there is an assassination of an elected official, will there be blood on the hands of those who urged the mob on? And will they protest that "we never suggested any actual violence"?
      Anyway, both Rich and Maureen Dowd point out that the "take back our country" screed is doomed by demographics. The country they want back is gone. America has changed, as it always does. The President is a black man, the Speaker is a woman, and one of the chief proponents of the health care bill is gay.
     Not that any of that will exactly sate a mob calling for blood.

The lengthening umbilical cord

     Washington Post story about 20-somethings who can't quite cut the cord, and who will now have one more way to remain dependent on Mom and Dad. The new health insurance law.
     The parents were sometimes called "helicopter parents" who hoovered over their kids through all of those numerous activities.
     Are these kids really different from previous generations?

Alabama Tells 'EM!

A Blogger <blush> from near Birmingham...the one of throw-bricks-through-their-windows... fame says he has  no reason to apologize for his activism against President Obama's healthcare legislation. Not even the disability checks her receives from the Federal Government. Here's the Washington Post article.

Benedict

Germany is not only a secular country, but a sexually liberated one as well. Many Germans find the Vatican’s demand of priestly celibacy completely alien, and we recognize it as a historical, rather than holy, tradition, going back to a decree by Pope Benedict VIII in 1022. Indeed, in a poll conducted last week, 87 percent of Germans said that celibacy is no longer appropriate.

                                                      
 Peter Schnieder in an OpEd in the N.Y. Times

     The crisis of the Roman Catholic Church moves closer and closer to its head. Now documents show Benedict was up to his robes in it.
     If he were the head of a multi-billion dollar corporation instead of a multi-billion dollar church, the Board of Directors would have gotten rid of him long ago. Is it time for him to resign?

[UPDATE: The bookies are taking bets on the resignation now.]
[UPDATE: The complaints started in the mid 1950's!]
[UPDATE: The founder of an order of priests and brothers was an abuser.]

DO try this at home.

Pretty amazing photography from a Brit guy who strapped a digital camera to a helium balloon and sent it aloft....total cost for the project $750 or so. Space is so close!

Brazin' and Amazin' Slave escape story

New to me, and perhaps to you, the story of slave who escaped by mailing himself to the North. Really.

A Consumer Czar?

     In case you've never heard her speak and don't know the name Elizabeth Warren...try to find her scheduled on TV somewhere. It will be worth your time!

On The Roadz

     I can only barely stand heavy traffic. I have no patience for drivers in the left lane who are casually chatting with friends on their cell phones or applying makeup. "Move on!", I frequently shout, sometimes even using just those words.
     Part of that is from so many years of driving to work without having to get near an Interstate, and these days, even when I'm driving on those roads, everyone else is sleeping! In addition to all that, I grew up in the city, where traffic is always a hazzard. And when I moved to Birmingham, I spent many mornings and afternoons watching the traffic from the WERC helicopter.

     If you've ever lived in New York City, the city of my birth, you know what real traffic is like. Now officials in The big Apple have used taxi GPS informaition to calculate the best and worst time to drive in Manhattan. The story is in this morning's NY Times, and includes the top speed: 11.7 mph. The slowest average was 7.5 mph, though plowing through Midtown Manhattan it may feel like you are traveling much slower, say .5 mph. Or not at all. Drivers in Manhattan spend a lot of time just sitting there.
     In Alabama, Birmingham has about the worst traffic conditions...they're debating the relative merits and demerits of double decking Highway 280, which was named for the number of minutes out of every four hours that you will spend cursing other drivers if you are forced to drive on it.
     In Montgomery, I-65 along the city's Western edge is also to be avoided. My dear parents spent a lot of their working years commuting to and from Manhattan. 1:40 each way five days a week. Now that's learning about traffic.
    I've met people who work for the State Government, but live in Birmingham. They make that 88 mile journey twice a day. I am SO glad it was a requirement that I move here when I started working in Montgomery. I never would have lasted, driving 176 miles a day just getting to and from work!

NOTE: The airing of the two-part report about General Hal Moore has been delayed on CBS-8 till Tuesday March 30th. See the  update on the Monday posting below.

King v Riley

     Now that the Attorney General has announced he's taking over the Task Force on Illegal Gambling and firing John Tyson, how long before the Governor's lawyers are in court to overturn it? Or have they already filed at 3:30pm?
     In Montgomery you might have watched the live coverage on CBS-8...full details and reactions tonight at 5:00, 6:00 and 10:00...
    Wow, what a story.

Keeping an eye on tweets

If you are on Twitter, you already know that you assemble a list of "followers", people who you say it is OK for them see your messages. Some people sign themselves up to be a follower. I reject some because they are clearly just out to sell me something. Others....
Here's a new "follower" I was notified about this afternoon:
============================================
A little information about ByrneTruthTeam:

0 followers

0 tweets

following 46 people
===========================================

Is it just me, or does have a "truth team" announce itself to you kinda imply you might lie about the candidate? Welcome aboard ByrneTruthTeam! You'll feel at home here because this is the Home of The Truth!
(OK, a little overstated there, but we try.)

Shelby = Conservative

     No, not Richard Shelby (though he certainly is!)...it's Shelby County that an article in the Shelby County Reporter is talking about.

     It says Shelby County is the fourth most conservative-friendly county in America. And the source is none other than Tucker Carlson. But read the criteria used and you'll have to wonder how narrow his definition of conservative is.

MMMM # 90 -- A Civilian Journalist who won a military honor in Vietnam

STORY DELAYED: The CBS-8 Extra, More than a Hero
has been delayed by one week. It will air NEXT Tuesday, March 30,
in the 6:00PM and 10:00PM newscasts. Sorry for the inconvenience!
 
  Tuesday night MARCH 30th in the 6:00pm and 10:00pm newscasts on CBS-8 in Montgomery, I'll have a two-part report about retired-in-Auburn U.S. Army Lieutenant-General Hal Moore, who commanded a battalion during the first major battle of the Vietnam War. The story of that 1965 battle in the Ia Drang Valley was told in the Mel Gibson movie We Were Soldiers, based on the book written by Moore and UPI journalist Joe Galloway. Galloway was the only civilian awarded a Bronze Star during the Vietnam War, for his bravery at Ia Drang. Moore is a recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross. 

     General Moore is a Kentucky native, but is retired in Auburn now. After his retirement from the Army, Moore became a much sought-after speaker on the subject of leadership, and many of the books on his shelves are studies of leaders who were victorious (and those who failed. The 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry  that Moore commanded in Vietnam was the same unit that General Custer "led" in his infamous "last stand"!)

      Moore has a Master's Degree in International Relations, and you may be surprised to hear his comments about war in general and about post-war Vietnam. Join us Tuesday night on CBS 8 in Montgomery.

Another Bank Failure in Alabama

The Alabama Banking Department has taken over the First Lowndes Bank. It will be taken over by First Citizen's Bank in Luverne. It's the first bank takeover in Alabama since the much larger Colonial last August. FDIC phone number to call for more information is 1-800-450-5417 till 6:00pm today and tomorrow, Sunday, Noon till 6:00pm.

China: 1/3 Sand

From a Washington Post story this morning about a sandstorm in China:

China's expanding deserts now cover one-third of the country because of overgrazing, deforestation, urban sprawl and drought.

That's a LOT of sand.

Priorities

"There are things more important than me being re-elected."

                                                                                     Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nevada


     No matter what you think of the health care bill to be voted on tomorrow, you gotta applaud this Nevada representative, no?  She's voting for the bill. If more elected officials said and meant that, we would have a better Congress and a better country.
   

Oops

     I just wanted to point out for the record, that being the snake respecting guy that I am, I declined the opportunity to have my picture taken with a rattlesnake next to my face.
     A lot of other employees at CBS 8 felt otherwise when the Opp Rattlesnake Rodeo people came calling this past week, including meteorologist Kait Parker, though from her expression it seems she may have had some second thoughts.

Uh, let's face it. From my previous posts worrying about the pythons that are hundreds of miles away in Florida, I've made my position clear. Every snake is deadly and anxious to kill me, until proven otherwise. The best snake is a dead snake. Or one enclosed in a rocket about to be sent to deep outer space. I don't pose with 'em, dance with 'em, or play with  'em. But good for Kait! Something to show the grandkids!
[For those of you interested in hanging with the vipers, the Rodeo is next weekend.]

Fact or Fiction???

Shades of the TV show Flash Forward!!!!!! Crows are dying in North Alabama!!!!

RIP - Fess Parker

Just last weekend I saw a young man wearing a coonskin cap and I was quickly reminded of the one I (and a billion other little boys) had as a child. And now, the death of the actor who prompted me to want one. Fess Parker has died, according to a story in The NY Times and CNN.

TEN MEETING DAYS LEFT IN THE SESSION

     Governor Riley and Rep. Mac Gipson (R, Prattivlle), the House Minority Leader, press for passage of ethics reform legislation in the last ten days of the regular 2010 Legislative Session. Legislators go back into session next Tuesday, and still have to deal with both budgets.

     A ban on PAC to PAC transfers has been approved by the House and defeated in the Senate almost evey year for the past seven sessions. Which Senators are responsible? The Governor wouldn't name names, saying 'you know who they are". My error, He actually said ask the Senate leadership.

     Gipson is sponsoring a bill requiring full disclosure of all money spent by lobbyists on lawmakers and their families. Chances of passage? Not much.

Special Crime = Special Time?

     When people take advatage of our Senior Seniors...in this case a 94 year old woman...shouldn't there be a special penalty? Read the Press-Register story and ask yourself:  if these two are convicted, don't they deserve something special?
     I think so, but if you agree, then I presume you are also in favor of the state hate crime laws? The argument against them has always been there shouldn't be any special crimes...that assault is assault, and fraud is fraud, and murder is murder. Or does this story show how all crimes are not equal?

CW II

     Just in time for the 150th anniversary othe Civil War, states are in rebellion---sort of---over the Federal Government. Ironically, it started with a liberal movement...legalizing marijuana for medial purposes. Now it has progressed to States telling the Feds where to go on gun rights and health care and other issues.
     The N.Y. Times story linked above even quotes an Auburn University Professor at the Von Mises Institute (a king of Libertarian think-tank at the University).
     Isn't Alabama a kind of Ground Zero for the "State's Rights" movement, both in the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement?
     Just in case it is necessary, we'll dust off the old telegraph office on Dexter Avenue.

A NOT so Happy Saint Patricks Day!

     With the economic misery being visited up Ireland, the second country in my dual-citizenship, I can't imagine there will be many joyful glasses raised in the Irish pubs (though a few to drown the misery over the new troubles is another story!)
     There's even a reported shamrock shortage to add to the misery!
     And unlike the great migrations of the 1800's, this time there's no streets-of-gold United States for the masses to flock to.* We've our own problems mates! But the two countries still share a somewhat symbiotic relationship.
     One way or the other, Happy Saint Pat's Day to those who can find it in themselves to celebrate something!
(THANKS TO J.C. for this update! Check this video clip for some Irish Spirit!)

(UPDATE: According to a story in Bostom.com, there is now a net emmigration out of Ireland...but not to the U.S.)

The Bashinsky story

    
     The discoverey of the body of  the missing  Mountain Brook businessman Major Bashinsky in the lake at the Highland Golf Course in Birmingham got me thinking about Virginia Simpson, a Mountain Brook matron found dead in her bed in her mansion on August 30th 1977.
     She had been shot to death. Her body lay in a pool of blood and was found by a maid. Eventually her son James was charged with the crime. He was described as having a drug problem, and it was reported that his Father had a restraining order against him to keep him away from the home (his Mother was reportedly letting him sneak in through a secret tunnel!) A few days after he was arrested,  the charges were dropped when a judge ruled there was insufficient evidence.
     Whoa! Hold on there, Tim! The Bashinsky case hasn't been declared a murder yet, and actually, the body hasn't formally been identified* as that of the 63 year old missing Mountain Brook man.
     Nonetheless, I couldn't help but think of the Simpson case, and wonder what ever happened to the son. By the way, the prosecutor in the 1977 case was none other than David Barber, now the former Bob Riley Gambling Task Force commander. The son, James,  also went by one of those odd society first names (like "Major" or "Daddy" or "French"), though I can't remember what it was. Boots? I wonder, where is Boots these days?

(UPDATE: The body was that of the missing man.)

It's about time!

New York restaurants are about to be required to post a notice of their health department rating at the front door.

Welcome to the real word, New Yawkers!

Here in the South we've bee informing patrons about mouse droppings and dead or alive roaches and various hairs found in various places for decades. I remember a BBQ place in Birmingham that got a rating of something like 63... no, it is not still open.

It's hard enough to keep up with a restaurants here, just imagine the unimaginable critters and dirty things they'll find contaminating eating establishments in the Big Apple!

Terminal Terminals

    Lots of Birmingham folks mourned the demolition of the old Terminal Station in 1969, especially since the land it was on sat vacant for so many years afterwards.

     Check out this slide show of a much larger station rotting away in Detroit, a city with a lot of buildings falling down.
     It is hard to imagine, in this Great Recession, where the money might come from to save it, but it sure is a magnificent ruin.

The Price of New$

     ....remains free...at least according to that PEW study I mentioned in today's MMMM. I'm still absorbing the information, but one thing seems clear: Online news sites have a real battle on their hands convincing users to pay for their content.
     Look at this graph from the report, displaying how many people would continue to visit their favorite news site if they had to pay for it:

     Ouch! You would think The New York Times, which I believe has the best site in the cyber-universe, is having second thoughts about their announced intention to charge for content, starting in 2011. But their online story about the Pew report claims news companies would be happy with getting 5 - 10% of their online audience to agree to pay...so 15% is great news.
     The Christian Science Monitor suggests the Pew study means the cuts that have more than decimated newsrooms across the country will continue.
     Way back in the 90's, there was concern by journalism purists that news...especially TV News...was being controlled by consultants who almost conducted daily polling to find the stories people wanted. If newspaper sites go with a "pay-per-click" option of payment, reporters will find themselves fighting to get readers to click their stories or else...

MMMM # 89 - A Failing Headline

     The headline on a front page Montgomery Advertiser story this morning was so bland that I almost skipped it. I'm glad I didn't.

     There is a shortened version online, but thankfully I still subscribe to the Sunday edition, so I was able to read it all.

     Those who made it past the headline would learn that GOP Candidate for Governor Bradley Bryne had accepted money from PACS that had received...or soon thereafter received... money from gambling interests.

     Yes, Mr. Byrne does say there is a need for a ban on PAC to PAC transfers. Every candidate that I know of, and every legislator I have heard asked about it takes the same position, yet session after session bills to ban PAC to PAC transfers die.

     But back to the headline. Perhaps it should have read something like

Byrne took PAC money that appeared tied to gambling"

or, maybe better:  

Byrne says PAC money not from gambling"

     My newspaper headline writing experience is truly minimal (though not nonexistent), and I am aware that there are only so many words you can use in so much space, dependant on the typeface and font size.   

     Advertiser Reporter Sebastian Kitchen does a thorough job of reporting a complex story. He'll be the first to tell you that reporters don't write the headlines, but whoever wrote this one did a disservice to the story and, frankly, a favor to Mr. Byrne.

And perhaps part two of today's MMMM helps explain the headline?

     A couple of weeks ago ABC News announced massive cuts..something like 20% of their newsgathering staff. A year ago it was CBS and some of their affiliate stations laying off staff. Newspapers, of course, have led the way for this lemming-like charge off the cliff. The Advertiser and other Alabama newspapers have faced significant layoffs.

     Can you see the impact on-air? NBC's Brian Williams during the Olympics...the wrong story graphic is behind him to his left. A moment later, he says The U.S. had won a certain number of medals...but the graphic giving the count offers another total.
     On other programs, wrong tapes run. "Live shots" fail. Network broadcasts start to look like something you might see produced by a skeleton weekend staff in market #200.
     But the most significant result won't be as easy to see as an incorrect graphic or a wrong video. It will be the slow reduction in the news being generated through the vetting process editors provide, especially in newspapers, since they originate much of the news. More stories will be "breaking" on Twitter and Facebook and places like this blog, and I don't say that as a positive.
     What sources will be left for news consumers to trust?

(UPDATE:The 2010 Pew Report on the State of The Media is out this morning.]

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

The Grope Stops Here

     Lots of reports in the media this weekend about the Roman Catholic Church trying to protect Pope Benedict XVI from being linked to the seemingly endless reports of abuse of children by priests. The latest is a directive written by then Cardinal Benedict that was interpreted as telling church officials not to call the police about abuse complaints.
     That's been a longstanding complaint against that church...that secrets were kept, that priests and brothers were shuffled from one location to another to keep anyone from learning what was going on.
     The Vatican is, of course, decrying the attempt in Germany to link the Pope to the scandal. After all, what is he except the guy at the top, right? And not to pick on the Cathollics...no shortage of Baptists and people of other faiths who are accused of sexual abuse.

[UPDATE: Priest close to to the Pope is suspended in abuse scandal.]

A True Tea Party Issue

  

    Lisa Osburn of The Birmingham News reports on an issue that should be getting more attention than it is. The key issue as written in the story:

The Warrior City Council passed an ordinance in December to collect a 1.5 percent sales tax in the city's police jurisdiction, which extends 1.5 miles outside the city limits and into western Blount County. The practice is common in Alabama and has been upheld in several court cases.

     So a municipality can impose a tax outside it's boundaries? How can that possibly be legal? If there is a poorly maintained road just outside Warrior that causes me to have an accident, can I sue Warrior? Do people in the "police jurisdiction" have the right to vote in city elections? Heck, under this doctrine, Warrior should be allowed to go put parking meters in front of the stores in that "police jurisdiction" and charge for parking! Isn't this a violation of "taxation without representation"? Where are the Tea Party demonstrations?

Higher Education's Prime Rule

"Coach Lebo has worked hard and has always represented Auburn with character, class and integrity."

                                                                       Auburn Athletic Director
                                                                       Jay Jacobs


      .....but we all know that winning trumps integrity any day. Ask yourself: if he had taken Auburn to to very top, but had little class or character or integrity, would they be firing him? Not a chance.

Injustice, The Musical?

     I haven't seen the show---it just opened in New York--- but can you imagine approaching investors and proposing the infamous Scotsboro Boys case as a musical? That's what they've done, and the review in at least one big New York newspaper is quite positive.
     I suppose it makes sence, The Color Purple musical is about incest and racial mistreatment (and, of course, redemption and victory over adversity). Perhaps anything can be a Broadway musical if you can make it rhyme and give it a catchy beat.

Harry's Exam

     "Coming up on The CBS Early Show, Harry Smith has the first ever colonoscopy on a TV News anchor on live TV." Yes, that's what I heard myself saying this morning during CBS 8 This Morning...
     And sure enough, during the next hour, there were Katie and Harry making lots of  bathroom jokes, Katie dressed in white coat complete with stethoscope around her neck....and America getting  live view of Harry's insides.
     It is important for people over 40 to be tested for colo-rectal cancer, and certainly the broadcast raised awareness, but isn't it possible to have a conversation about this without resorting to High School locker room humor? (Yea, I hear you calling me an old fart, but are we all so immature that we can't discuss body parts without braking out into crude jokes?)
     Anyway, it was a good reminder...get tested, starting at age 50. Here are the facts.
    

BLUE  = Avatar

A friend told me there is a movement to replace the word blue with the word Avatar as a tribute to the creatures in James Cameron's movie.

     My first reaction was to laugh, but on second thought, why not? Langauge, especially perhaps English, is a fluid living means of communications. It is democracy at its best! If enough people decide a certain word has a certain meaning, then it does.

     Sure, there's  a learning curve and a pushback against a new meaning, but eventually the change takes place because the majority demand it. When was the last time you heard someone say "I'm gay" and they weren't talking about their sexual orientation.

    
     So blue is out, Avatar is in. Anyone buying it?

Uh, about that Wednesday meeting...

     After reading Kim Chandler's story this afternoon in The Birmingham News, what can the purpose be of Riley and King meeting on Wednesday? They supposedly want to discuss the electronic BINGO situation, but what's to discuss?
    And isn't Judge Vances decision either legal or not, regardless of how much of a "disaster" it may be.

Choo Choo Phooey

     I like the idea of rail Mass Transit, and generally understand the people who watch trains to the point of keeping detailed logbook records of the ones they've seen (though there is zero chance of me going that far!).
     I also remember visiting my Grandmother in the Bronx and counting the freght trains moving on tracks across Tremont Avenue from her high-rise apartment. I once got to a hundred!
     But I also understand that railroads are a business, so a new effort grandly called "The Future Needs Us" by the Norfolk Southern folks to get the masses to endorse their mode of carrying stuff vs trucks (Trains are good for you! Good for your State! Good for America!)...well let's just say it's a well designed effort to increase their own business at the expense of other methods of transportation. I look for the Trucking Association to come out with their own site to counter the pro-train lobby any day now.

MMMM #88 - bill-BOARDs

     I'll confess I have a bias against billboards. They are sometimes called "litter on a stick", and I have to agree. Take a photograph anywhere in which billboards are visible, digitally remove the billboards, and I guarentee you'll have a prettier and less distracting view. The same is true of utility polls, but that's a subject for another posting.
    Here's...an example (admittedly a rather cheesy Photoshop job, but you get the idea. Besides, I like doing The Governor a favor by eliminating one of those Stan Pate billboards now and then.) (-:

 The billboard companies used to say billboards perform a valuable service by telling people where "services" (read that, the clients who can afford to buy a billboard) are. But frankly, GPS units do a better, less obtrusive job of helping people find stuff.

This comes to mind, as many things, do, because of an article I read about the new "electronic" billboards that change every few seconds. Seems they are a distraction to drivers. Ya think???? I'm reminded of the world Harrison Ford inhabited in bladerunner. Ads cover every available surface. Not bad in a limited space like Times Square that has made neon a part of the attraction and most people are walking, but alongside major raodways they becomes just plain distracting glare.

Another "media" that helps trash neighborhoods are the "palm reader" and "Work at Home" signs that seem to get nailed to every other pole, but that's a posting for another time.

MMMM - (Part Two) Why is there a problem with all of the Bingo Hall raids? It's the media, says Governor Riley. Did he really expect reporters to ignore the drawn guns and massed troopers?)

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

PCS Candidate Rails Against Obama

GOP Public Service Candidate Terry Dunn posted this on his facebook page this (Sunday) Morning:
=======================
The hidden Obama Agenda

Today at 10:34am
Both Roosevelt's Science and Marx's Manifesto agree on the prerequisites for the implementation of the new communist society:

1. Abolition of private property
2. Heavy progressive income tax
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance
4. Confiscation of property of all emigrants and rebels
5. Creation of a Central Bank
6. Government control of Communications & Transportation
7. Government ownership of factories and agriculture
8. Government control of labor
9. Corporate farms, regional planning
10. Government control of education
11. Abolition of religion
12. Abolition of the family as basic social unit
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     I sent Mr. Dunn a message, asking if he truly believes President Obama wants to see the things on the list happen. I'll post his response when and if I receive one.

[UPDATE: Mr. Dunn has replied...see comments below.]
[UPDATE: I never heard back from Mr. Dunn, but the rant he posted has been removed.]

The Image of a State

     A double wammy for Alabama this week, though I suppose it depends on your view of what makes a state attractive.
     The whole BINGO "controversy" has been all over the media this week, including a big negative story in USA Today this morning.
    Now the Alabama Supreme Court has upheld their own ruling that sex toys are against the law here.
    Instead of being mad at the courts, be angry at the Legislature for failing to pass legislation correcting these boneheaded laws. It was elected officials who decided to ban gaming in the state in the first place, and it was legislators who have refused to clear the way for a lottery or BINGO or anything else. It was the legislature that first decided sex toys should be banned in the state...and since then no other representatives have had the guts to say that crosses the line into people's private personal decisions.
     We are our own worst enemy.

Dealerships reopening

     Hmm...just where did I put that list of closed GM dealerships in Alabama?
Anyway, it appears GM will now allow about half of them to reopen. Huh? Like almost a year later? Other than whatever value there is to the GM brand name, have the owners been sitting around just wondering what to do with whatever money they have left from the disaster of 2009? At least they shouldn't have any trouble finding workers...new ones, for sure, since their former employees may be working at Bingo Centers available.
     Speaking of cars, have you been following the great lack of follow-up news about the plant being built in Alabama by the Chinese businessman? HK motors does have a website, and apparently a plan. They'll get investment from Chinese residents who want to emigrate to the U.S. They put up cash, and the U.S. government gives them a green card. A "Visa factory" is what one auto columnist called it.

BINGO

     Victoryland in Shorter, Alabama, is expected to reopen this afternoon at 1:00 pm, settling up another confrontation between the BINGO halls and the Governor.
Here's a quote from a USA Today story about Alabama's ongoing BINGO saga:

In Alabama, slot machines are illegal — but thousands of people for years have played machines that seem identical to slots. The state long ignored it. "That's one of the things that's puzzling to a lot of people," says Bradley Moody, associate professor of political science at Auburn University-Montgomery. "If this is a moral issue for Gov. Riley, why wasn't it morally unacceptable in, say, February 2003?" Riley was elected in 2002

And that does seem to be a question I've heard everywhere. Why now?
.

Race To The Bottom?

     Alabama did not make the cut in the competition to win so-called "Race To The Top" Federal education funds. The states that did all allow, or are in the process of allowing, charter schools, except Kentucky, which managed to become a finalist without them.
     Allowing Charter Schools was just one of the criteria used to award the funds, and I haven't seen any evidence that the only thing left for Alabama to do to qualify was pass Governor Riley's legislation.

The Borrowing Culture

     I've written before about the mashup/mix culture that makes it OK to take the creative work of others, change it somehow, and then claim it as your own.
     Here's a great take on that entire phenomenon (much more permissive than my own thoughts)...targeted toward video, but applicable for many shared stuff.

Coal Ash

     The Montgomery-based law firm of Beasley Allen has an article on coal ash that folks following that controversy may find of interest.
     Jere Beasley is a trial lawyer who used to be Alabama Lieutenant Governor.
     Meanwhile, two "Green" investment groups are pressuring The Southern Company (Parent Company of Alabama Power) to get their act together as far as coal ash goes. Here's a link to the news release from Green Centruy Funds and As You Sow.

[UPDATE: bill introduced in legislature allowing Perry County to charge a $5 a ton fee on coal ash.]

NO bingo, NO furloughs, NO charter schools, NO...

     This seems to be the Alabama Legislature that can't say yes. Unless it's to override one of Governor Bob Riley's vetos. The Senate voted against the electronic bingo bill today, leaving thousands of employees out of work and some pretty major entertainment centers gathering dust in Dothan and Shorter, and smaller ones elsewhere.
     But the tribes are smiling.
     It appears legislators will overturn the Governor's veto of a bill that prevented state agencies from sending workers home without pay for as long as 28 days a year.
     The Governor's charter school initiative died earlier. He expects to hear any day now whether or not the state is still in the running for some of that "Race To The Top" money. (By the way, read the story in today's N.Y. Times about the high-powered educator who has made a U-turn away from charter schools, No Child Left Behind and other education "reform" measures. From the story:

Charter schools, she concluded, were proving to be no better on average than regular schools, but in many cities were bleeding resources from the public system.

)

     Still to come for legislators, a little matter of budgets. The only duty they legally have to perform is writing the budgets. Yet with the session half-over, they've yet to begin. But they should be warmed up to the task...they'll find plenty of reason to say "no" in both the Education and the General Fund budgets.

The BBC

     When I worked for APT, I used to envy the British system of funding their public broadcasting system, the BBC. Every British home was assessed a fee for every radio and TV they owned, and the fees went to pay for the huge BBC system.
     The U.S. system depends on a combination of begging for donations ("Pledge") and government funding, which creates an inevitable potential for conflict of interest.
     But the Great Recession spares no one. Not even the mighty BBC. They're making big cuts, especially on the web side....which, after all, apparently didn't produce any of those same fees.

MMMM #87 - sNOwicanes and such

     I am not a meteorologist (though I did "play one on TV" in Birmingham*), but there's a longstanding complaint that the TV weather folks hype potential snowfall...selling out all the bread and milk in the process.
     Now some national weather organizations---including the National Weather Service-- are getting into the act, a "smackdown" of sorts over the use of entertaining but scienticially non-existant words like "snowicain".
     Sorry, but news and all of its parts is part entertainment, part show business. That doesn't make the information any less important, or critical in the event of severe weather. Let the TV folks use their own language...as long as they are as accurate as possible in predicting what's going to happen!

[*Folks like Kait Parker and Matt Tanner at CBS-8 are in fact certified meteorologists, got their degrees in weather science. At 42 in Birmingham, I was just telling folks what the National Weather Service forecast indicated, though we did have an expert on standby during severe weather.]
[PLUS: NY Times story asking which of the "Big Three" TV Nets will be the first to abandon a nightly newscast.]
[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]