1940's America

     The Denver Post has published a wonderful series of somewhat rare color photographs taken by the U.S. Government between 1940 and 1950 in a dozen states.
     Alabama is not one of them, but there are shots from all around us that will look for all the world like Alabama...Alabama today! I'm not sure I would give this roadside store much of a second look if I drove past it this weekend!

     (A crossroads store, bar, "juke joint," and gas station in the cotton plantation area. Melrose, Louisiana, June 1940. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.)

Here's a shot I took about two years ago on the road between Montgomery and Tuscaloosa that has the same flavor.
  

PhotoShop it a bit and...all you need to do is add an old man, a dog and a whiskey sign!

      Here's a link to the collection...enjoy! J.C. sent that link from the blog of a friend of his that you can see here! It's worth a visit unto itself. And yes, the blog title is Dating Jesus.
      Tell blogger Susan Campbell I sent you.

Vacation!

     My own vacation this year was the week before last, and though I made only one short trip out of town, it was enjoyable.
     But Senior timlennox.com Editor-in-Chief J.C. has located a Newsweek story that says I should have just stayed at work. Seriously. He is a killjoy.
     The article compares a variety of studies into levels of happiness before, during, and after vacations of various lengths.
     The findings? Read the story. But probably not if you are just about to head to your vacation spot.

Arlington

     If you can't motivate civil servants to do a good job in record keeping at Arlington National Cemetery, where can you?
    There's word now that some 6,600 graves were improperly marked.
    This isn't like mistakes in keeping track of the location of thousands of cars at a big auto dealership. The cars move around. The graves, not so much.
     Did the managers get bored and become cynical, despite being surrounded by such hallowed ground?
     The top two were forced to retire, and they're pointing fingers at their staff and poor technology.
      It was those little guys and those old computers.
     Let's see. I'm in charge of the most important cemetery for veterans in the nation, and I discover there is a mis-marked or lost grave. Then another. Do I raise the alarm? Do I write Congress warning that that new software mapping program is really needed because we don't know where a certain hero's body is?
     Or do we wait till there are thousands of them, and then only after the media (Salon and The Washington Post) discover it and blow the whistle.
     Reports The Washington Post:

With minimal oversight, cemetery officials awarded as much as $8 million in contracts to digitize burial records, according to the subcommittee report. The cemetery has little to show for the investment today, with most burial records still catalogued on notecards.

     May I make a suggestion? There's a certain company known for mapping our lives down to the grill in your backyard, a firm that has got pretty deep pockets and a sense of public service.

     Can Google not offer to straighten out the project and write a map program as a Public Service to the nation's war dead? Later, they can sell the program for a profit to other cemetaries.

     Suggestion , Part 2: when they die, bury the retired Arlington managers in unmarked graves somewhere in a VA cemetery somewhere in the world. Some world.

Coal Ash Push Back

     Now that the EPA is proposing regulation of coal ash, the byproduct of coal-fired power plants, the industries that use the ash are lobbying against it. The concrete firm lobbyists, for example, are predicting increased costs for companies and increased utility rates!
     The regulations might also make it more difficult for the TVA to dump all of that coal ash from their huge spill in Tennessee (see photo above) in the landfill in Perry County Alabama.

Good Customer Service, From Across The Big Pond.

     While I do have an early commute, it's not terribly long...15 minutes or so (longer than I've ever lived from work before, but still, short by most standards).
     And every morning I get to listen to a bit of the BBC World Service on Alabama Public Radio.
     This past Tuesday morning about 3:10am, I heard a great interview about the American South. But try as I might, I couldn't find it on the vast online resources of the BBC.
     I emailed the network, asking for help...and within 48 hours I received a very detailed, personalized reply, including the information that made it simple for even Tim to find the exact story I was asking about. It's here...the "Americana" segment they broadcast on Tuesday Mornings. Great radio feature. And great customer service...long distance too.

Something in our water, maybe?

At least three of The Hill's designated "50 Most Beautiful People in Washington D.C". are Alabamians....including Nichelle Williams from Mobile and Ben Dunham from Huntsville.

Maybe they should start collecting memebership fees...

     A Rasmussen poll find a a lot expected things about Alabama: Richard Shelby is going to be reelected, most Alabamians want the Health Insurance Reform bill repealed, and there's not a lot of love for the President--58% think he's doing a poor job.
     But here is also this:

Thirty-one percent (31%) of Alabama voters consider themselves a part of the Tea Party movement, nearly twice the level found nationwide. Fifty-five percent (55%) think the movement is good for the country versus 23% who say it's bad.

     So how come the tea party candidate in the GOP 2nd District Congressional Primary got trounced? Are Teabaggers less likely to vote?

MMMM #104 - The New Media: Nothing to Fear

     Used to be, executives and politicians, especially politicians, would be sent off to Iowa or Colorado or somewhere for "media training".
     A few days and thousands of dollars later, they would, in theory, be better prepared to do battle with those nasty reporters and talk-hosts back home who wanted to destroy corporations and political campaigns and the American Way of Life.
     It taught them to speak in bumperstickereze, allowing their comments to fit within the seven-second limit on soundbites on TV.
     It showed them how to answer the question they wished had been asked, knowing the reporters were mostly thinking about lunch or their kids or the cost of goat cheese at The Publix.
     It armed them to do battle against The Mighty Media.
     I suspect those interviewee bootcamps are touch less popular these days.
    Whom do they have to fear?
    The New York Times reports a big personnel turnovers in the world of new media (like Politico) because of the new pressure to break news 24/7, any kind of news, as long as it is posted before the competition.
    Some of the media factories now have big (digital, or course) scoreboards with the popularity of stories ranked by number of clicks.
    The more clicks, the more the reporter is paid. If your click count places you on the bottom of the heap, better be looking for work somewhere else. Who's gonna get more clicks...Paris Hilton or Paris corruption? Mel Gibson, or the reasons for and against a new State Constitution? Lady Gaga, or Lady Bird (who?).


     There was immediate pushback during the week, with the web bosses doing their usual bashing of  MSM. The CEO of  "The Business Insider" via The Huffington Post was leading the pack with a whining report so over-the-top and defensive that, at first, I thought it was satire.

It's true that this the information often appears in a rough, unedited, or incorrect form. But within seconds, millions of online fact-checkers descend upon it and hammer it into shape.

     Is he serious? Are we supposed to get our "news" from sources that will get it right, maybe, later, after milliions of people with special interest agendas have their way with it?
    Should journalists not be held to some work standard? Of course. But some stories take time. And sometimes, a lot of effort is expended looking into a story that ends up going nowhere. Those facts of journalism life should be respected. Reporting is not factory assembly work, or at least it shouldn't be. And as anti-capitalistic as it is to say, the number of readers a story attracts should not be the determining factor in whether it is a quality, well-written piece or not. But who's counting?
     And maybe I should go back to the "Business Insider" column later, after it's been worked on by those millions of "fact checkers".
     Meanwhile, both the MSM and the new media were sullied this past week during "coverage" of the firing of a low level Department of Agriculture black employee, when  one of those new media types selectively "hammered together" video of a speech she made 20 years ago, making it sound like she was advocating racism against whites.
      If you somehow missed it all, let me suggest Frank Rich's take on it in Sunday's Times. As I semi-watched the events transpire (I've been on vacation and cut back a bit on newsing), I was surprised to see nobody really holding the blogger who started it all accountable. Everyone was so busy beating up on the Obama Administration (much of which was deserved) that the main bad-guy seemed to have gotten away without a scratch!. The Rich column helps balance it a bit.
     I wonder what the Business Insider CEO would say to Shirley Sherrod about her experience with stories being "hammered together"?

[ALSO: check out this column in The Washington Post about another skill left in the dust of the old media: headline writing.]

[AND: I missed it first time around, but an excellent article at the Poynter journalism site about the U.S. states that now make it against the law for citizens to tape police in action. Really. No, not here in Alabama.]


[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog, usually on Mondays.]

Cereously......

....one of my favorite, if  most elusive, plants is the night blooming cereus..a desert plant---a member of the cactus family actually--- that blooms just one a year...at Midnight...and then the bloom dies at sunrise.
   This photo is from last year when I had a half dozen blooms...

This year the heat has taken its toll....as has the wind that  knocked one of the plants over last week, smashing the first tubular developing bloom of the year.

Sounds of The Wild, Backyard Edition

     The video below is 109 seconds of the hundreds of thousands (millions?) of cicades that have made the trees in the yard their home this Summer.
     The other evening, the wall of sound was so loud I grabbed my cell to record it. Unfortuately I couldn't get that audio file to convert to this site, so this morning, when they started up again, I grabbed the Cannon.
     Are they the every-seventeen year variety? Or the dog-day cicades that come out annually? I don't know, but they are much louder than I remember in Summers past. 
 I hope those of you would live in large cities, away from the large populations of these loud insects, may enjoy hearing it! Turn up your volume!

Audio Assault!

Close $have

     Forgive a quick rant. The Washington Post has a feature story about the growth in the number of blades on men's (and women's) razors.
     Their take: the number of blades is out of control.
     My take: The manufacturers have grown greedy in today's subscription economy. Anybody who can get you to pay as much as $4 for a single razor blade, and convince you to use one a week (they claim they last longer, but trust me..) has hit the jackpot. $16 a month x even 10-Million men is....too much.
     I am quitting as much of the monthly fee economy as I can.
     My blades cost a little more than $1 and do fine.
     I am refusing to buy any product that ties me to their exclusive and expensive replacement parts...call it the "Swiffer Mentality". Printer manufacturers are among the worst offenders. The printer is cheap, but the replacements cost a fortune!!!! How in the world can they justify the cost of printer ink cartridges?
    OK, off the soapbox. Tim's headed back into the cave to carve out Mondays MMMM on a boulder.
   

Refund!

     The $25k in taxpayer funds The City of Birmingham gave to a motorcycle event...an event that promptly moved 50 miles out of Birmingham...is being returned to the city. So reports The Birmingham News this morning.
     Now the finger pointing has begun in earnest...the Mayor says the Council is trying to make him the fall-guy, while the Council....whatever. What elected officials need to do is treat ever dime they spend as if it was coming out of their own wallet.

Sunday on OTR

  

  If you like politics, make sure you catch OTR this Sunday at 5:30, just before 60-Minutes on CBS-8 in Montgomery.
     Political analyst Steve Flowers and I do a post-op on the Primary and Primary Runoff that I'm sure you'll enjoy, even if you disagree with some of the conclusions! On The Record, Sundays at 5:30.

Space Education

     Let me introduce you to my cousin, the Space Education expert. Really!
     Joe and I had not seen each other in some years, till January of 2009, when we were both in New Jersey at the funeral of my last living Aunt-- Eileen.
     I learned then that during all these years that I've been playing in radio and TV, Joe has been doing the important work of educating people---kids especially---about space.
      Here's a bio about his work, but one fact alone will give you an idea of how deep he is into this space stuff. He's on the selection committee for the Astronaut Hall of Fame. You GO Cuz!
     He's also a published author...Vision for Space and The ABC's of Space Exploration...and he has what is said to be the best space memorabilia collection in the country!
     Like everyone on the planet, Joe has a website... an education website... that I would encourage you to visit, and to point out to your kids as well.
     These days the entire U.S. space program is in flux, with the shuttle program quickly winding down and nothing but plans for a replacement. We'll be dependent on the Soviets for transport to the ISS till we actually build a vehicle of our own. There's some irony for you!
     NASA just recently slashed the price for the two shuttles that will be without a home when the program ends. You can have either Atlantis (in the picture above) or Endeavour for $28-Million. A deal!
     Seriously: Joe is doing important work, because if the kids don't learn about space from something other than Hollywood, we may never get back into the game.

The End is coming HERE!

      I've been thinking about Armageddon recently, mostly because in recent weeks I've watched The Road, The Book of Eli, I am Legend, and, most recently, 2012, and I am currently reading The Passage by Justin Cronin. All pretty bleak stuff, but maybe appropriate for the Great Recession.

     I've joked for years that I have no skills that would be of any value were I to survive Armageddon.
     I could stand around and ask irritating questions and make annoying observations, a sure way to get evicted from the survivors colony.
     Instead of studying video editing, maybe I should take up plumbing? Or farming? Or just shutting up?

Tropical Depression may become Storm. Headed for BP Well site

     More from the National Weather Service page here. (I wish they had located the BP spot on that map, but it's generally in the Eastern path of the possible storm).

     But the real storm here in the Deep South is the HEAT! 100 Degree highs through Sunday.

Ghost Buildings....

     There's a story in The Birmingham Business Journal that surveys that city's long empty "ghost" buildings....kinda like the ongoing story of the Montgomery Mall.

     Lots of empty buildings around, in Birmingham and elsewhere, some of them with mortgages that can't be paid because there's no rental income.
     The City of Montgomery is buying 1 Court Square, an ugly 1970's structure that blocks just about any improvement on that end of Dexter Avenue.

     The building is owned by the FDIC, taken over after Colonial Bank went under. I didn't live in Montgomery at the time of that urban renewal project, but was it considered a success at the time?

     Will Montgomery bite the bullet and just tear it down? Tough decision when you've just spent $3-Million buying it.

     That's 1 Court Square on the right of the fountain in this photo. There was a lot of talk a year ago about locating a new State House building on the site, though where that money would come from is a mystery.
     The three story tan building, center left, was home to a telegraph office from which the telegram autorizing the start of the Civil War was sent.

Hoarders

     I had kinda hoped the rash of hoarders would slow down with the economy...that people buying and discarding less might translate into fewer people filling their homes with the leftovers of our consumer-driven society. Apparently not.
   Now comes the story from Illinois about another hoarder dead in her own trash filled home. If you look at the picture of the home, it's hard to imagine that nobody knew there was a problem. But Skokie officials say they were unaware...even though there had been numerous complaints and subsequent visits to the home.

"We did not have any indication as to what was going on within the home," said Dr. Catherine Counard, director of Skokie's Health Department. "Without any evidence we couldn't enter the home."

     Yea, I mean what could those doors and windows filled with junk mean after all?
      It was so bad rescuers had to cut a hole in the roof to retrieve the woman's body.
     CNN's report is here.

Huntsville Engineer Guilty Plea

     The U.S. Justice Department says a North Alabama man has pleded guilty to bribery charges in relation to his work at the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command.
     39 year old Steven Bryant admitted he accepted some $200,000 in bribes from contrctors while he worked as an engineer.

Easier sharing of these posts...

     If you see a post you want to share, it is easier now. At the bottom of each posting on this blog---including this one---, you'll find a block of buttons that allow you to email, tweet, or share the post on your own blog or Facebook etc.

     Please do make use of those buttons! I would love to increase the reach of the blog and you, as regular readers, can help!

    Wait till there's a post you really like, then share it with others in your online life!

     And remember, if you don't already "follow" this blog, you can add your name and email for notification of posts below and to the left.

Thanks!!!!

"I love Alabama and Mississippi, but....."

....so says Florida Governor Charlie Crist in an AP story about the resentment in that State over the BP oil landing on Flordia coasts because other states allowed oil drilling while The Sunshine State just said no.
     The oil may have stopped, for the moment, but now Alabama must revaluate the potential cost of all of those rigs out on the far horizon....and of the rigs not being there too.

CNN on "Anonymous Comments"

     CNN has picked up on the story about newspapers cracking down on the TalkRadioesque comments following stories...mentioning the Upstate New York paper that has banned them (requiring registration).
     Everyone is free to comment, but you have to identify yourselves. It's so simple, I can't understand why some people think they have a right to say anything they want while expecting the company distributing their vile trash to protect their identity!

[NOTE: Thanks to reader LN for the heads up on this one!]

Senator, is that a pistol...

   Texas is allowing people with concealed weapon permits unfettered access to the State Capitol Building..without having to go through metal detectors.
     Yes, you read that correctly.The very kind of people you might want to at least question, if not outright keep out of a public building...men and women with deadly weapons...are instead so welcomed... that according to this story...people in Texas are getting the permits just to avoid lines at the security checkpoints.

     Now, hold on, before you start commenting by saying the people with permits are good law abiding citizens who went thorough screening to get a permit...uh, are we going to put the safety of the entire Texas State Government in the hands of a clerk in a Wal-Mart somewhere in Pampa or Zapalac, TX?
     How long before legislation allowing the same policy here in Alabama gets the OK???

[NOTE: Senior Chief Managing Editor guy J.C. points out: have they forgotten? What if those old guys had been packing?]
 

    MMMM# 103:  Fresh Air in Mississippi

      Mississippi Public Radio has reportedly cancelled the NPR interview program Fresh Air because of an interview with comedian Louis C.K. (confession: I'm not much of a  stand up comedy fan, so I had never heard of him till I read this story online Sunday Morning. Had you?)
     This decision, of course, hurts only those listeners in Mississippi who like Terry Gross and her somewhat left-leaning interviews.
     Terry herself will wear it as a badge of honor, and as for Louis C.K., my neighbors to the Left (er, West) have just provided him with lots of free publicity and material for his act.
     Banning something usually has the effect of bringing more attention to it that it would otherwise have garnered. And besides, in an era of Internet Radio, just what is the point? Any day now, car radios will be able to pick up any of the zillion stations available online, so banning a program will truly only serve to chase away the audience.
     The decision comes just days after a Federal Appeals Court threw out the FCC's ill-conceived and unconstitutional policy on broadcast "indecency".


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

(SN*) MM: Combat Artist

     The title always seemed to be a contradition to me (though no more than "Military Journalist", my own title back then), but I worked alongside a combat artist during my tour in Vietnam, and Sgt. Bill Dolan's work now hangs proudly on a wall in my home, though I have no idea if he is living or if not, and if he is, what happened to him after 'Nam.

     I mention  him because of a NY Times story about combat artists. There is only one in the entire Marine Corps now!
     The story says there were 70 or so working during Vietnam, though Bill was the only one I met.   
     He was a cartoonist mostly, but produced the more serious work pictured here too.

If anyone happens to know what happened to Bill after the war, I would like very much to know.

[Update: Here's a U.S. Army page about the artist program.]

[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog, though sometimes they run in other times, like Sunday Night.]

Program notes...

    
     On The Record comes up in just under an hour (5:30pm) on CBS-8 in Montgomery, with guest Rep. Bobby Bright.
     On Sunday, July 25th, CBS-8 Political Analyst Steve Flowers is the guest, an especially lively discussion political junkies will enjoy.
     CBS-8's Jamie Langley will fill in for me (and I deeply appreciate it!) this coming week on CBS-8 This Morning as I take some time off.

The forecast for Thursday - Sunday in Montgomery

 

HOT with a high of 100

Building Names

     What I love about this only-in-Texas story is the fact that there apparently was some kind of opposition to changing the name of the dorm from that of a KKK organizer, and not just from his ancestors.

"The name change came after weeks of deliberations by an advisory panel and two public hearings..."

    The KKK was, and is, on the wrong side of America. Their activities are correctly recorded in history, but their leaders need not be honored on the facades of government funded buildings. Amazing how simple decisions are made difficult in a place of learning.

[Thanks for Executive Editor in charge of finding stuff, J.C., for pointing this one out to me!]

And if if had been two months ago?

     The Senate has approved the financial markets overhaul legislation, with both of Alabama's U.S. Senators on the losing side of the 60-39 vote.
     Sen. Scott Brown (T-Mass), darling of the Tea Party movement, voted for the bill, further complicating any direct connection between the GOP and the TP. Is the U.S. Senate becoming a three-party Chamber?
      The House had approved the bill late in June with the only Alabama yes vote coming from...Rep. Artur Davis. I wonder if he would have voted against the bill if it had come up in late May, before the Primary?

#####

    

CBS 8 political analyst and widely read columnist Steve Flowers will be with me for NEXT weekend's On The Record on CBS-8. We'll do a post op on the runoff and a look ahead to November. And Rep. Bobby Bright will be featured on the program this Sunday...an interview conducted just before the runoff because that was the time he had while home in the District.

[The Washington Post paints Scott Brown as they new go-to guy in the U.S. Senate.]

America's Latest "Forgotten" Wars

From the Anzalone-Liszt Polling folks....what are Americans concerned about now? Certainly not Iraq or Afghanistan!

Polling Firm Date Group


(Via The Economist/YouGov Poll on 7/6/10)

The economy 37%
Health care 13%
Social security 10%
Immigration 8%
The budget deficit 8%
The environment 6%
Education 6%
Taxes 5%
Gay rights 3%
The war in Afghanistan 2%
Terrorism 2%
The war in Iraq 1%

Any wonder why Robert Bentley's message of thrift  ("I won't take a salary...")  resonated with voters?
Back to the (Clinton) future: It's the ECONOMY, Stupid, NOT A-E-A.

Tea Party Racism?

     Does the absence of virtually any African-Americans at tea party events mean the organization is racist? The NAACP has approved a resolution condemning the Tea Party movement as racist. The only active Tea Party Candidate in the runoffs that I could tell was Rick Barber, who was defeated by Martha Roby...although she too spoke fondly of the Tea Party Movement in her "On The Record" interview. She'll face Democratic incumbent Bobby Bright in November.

Another reason to fear S. Florida...

     First it was the spreading mass of pythons slithering this way from South Florida...now it's reported Dengue Feaver is on the way too!
     Is it too late to take back statehood? Nah, then they'd ask us for foreign aid.

Road To The Governor's Office

     CBS-8 Coverage of the election results begins at 7:00pm...please do join us!
     I'll interview Democratic Gubernatorial nominee Ron Sparks in the 9:00 hour, then I'll be back in the morning for CBS-8 This Morning with all of the run off results starting at 5:30am.

Alabama's Bobby Bright likes Federal Spending.

The Washington Post on BLUE-DOG  Democrat Bobby Bright.
Read it here.
We interviewed Bright for "On The Record" on Friday during his time in the District, and will air it on one of the next two OTR's...schedule TBD. We also talked with him about Federal spending, the debt and a lot more. Watch this space.

Young Engineers from Norway

America's Vicious War Machine

      Read the story of the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan and their rescue mission for some abandoned kittens.  

     Then read the other story, the one in the Washington Post about the stray pups killed by the government in Afghanistan.

M(S)MMM - The best blogging has to offer?

     If the New York Times represents this "debate" about the "intelligence" of CNN (BlogginHeads: News for Dummies) as an example of what blogging has to offer America, we may as well all go back to chisels and stone. Give me a break!  This is Blogging for Dummies!       

    The blogger "defending" CNN says in the first 30 seconds that she "hardly ever watches CNN, except at the gym, and not really there either...", while The New Republic's blogger is all over the place, complaining about CNN being all over the place.
     I'd say both of the bloggers-Michelle need to take another Xanax and zzzz g zzzzzzzzzz o  zzzzz baaaaaaaaack toooooo sleeeeeeeeep.
    This a prime example of old media trying to incorporate new media and missing the target. Just like those awful "reader comments" (a' la' Talk radio) after just about every newspaper story in the world.

[The Monday (and sometimes other days, like today, Saturday) Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]

Oil Pain, Exhibit A

     An excellent example of what people not going to the Gulf this season are doing instead. Alabama's loss is, in this case, Georgia's gain.

  
      I really believe the millions in BP money spent trying to convince people to go to the beach isn't working. Perhaps the money would be better spent preparing an after spill campaign (presuming there is an after!)

Just Wonderin'

     When people complain that it is dead wrong to raise taxes during a recession, do they also agree that it is dead wrong for companies to raise prices during a recession?

     Most of them are slick enough to not actually raise the price we pay for items, so they simply reduce the amount of product being offered instead...though sometimes it is both. Bought any tuna recently? Can size? Not what you used to get.

Uh, why is there even a question?

     A motorcycle group accepts 25k from the City of Birmingham for an event they're putting on. Then they move the event to Steele?

      Last time I checked, that's about 50 miles outside of Birmingham. Yet this morning there seems to be a question about demanding the money back? Pleeeze. How many lawyers work for the city?
     Get their butts in gear and file suit if the bikers still refuse to refund the money. Maybe the Steele City Council wants to provide some cash!

[UPDATE: Mayoral aide says they'll seek the money.]

OTR This Sunday

     We spend a little more time with the two runoff candidates for the GOP gubernatorial nomination on the next two OTR programs, in advance of the July 13th runoff when voters will determine who should be the GOP nominee to go against Democrat Ron Sparks in November.

     This Sunday it's Robert Bentley, the State Senator/Retired Dermatologist. A  Vietnam Vet, I asked Bentley why he didn't use a simple three-letter word in the controversial ads that critics say make him seem to be claiming he served in Vietnam, when he served Stateside in the Air Force.

     On  Sunday 7/11, Bradley Byrne, the former 2-year College Chancellor will be the guest.

     Both programs are scheduled for 5:30pm, just before 60-Minutes on CBS-8 in Montgomery.

M(F)MMM - The Pentagon screws tighten

     As I predicted, the Secretary of Defense has tightened the regulation regarding interaction between the military and the media. Call it the 2010 McChrystal Doctrine.

     Though I was only a 20 year old Sp4 at the time, I worked in an Army Public Information office for half of my tour in Vietnam and helped "escort" civilian media around. Actually an AP reporter quoted my reaction to a speech by President Nixon...a critical quote...but somehow it didn't get me in trouble.
     I think the Army needs to think more about whether the General meant what he said, instead of trying to gag the people who reported it.

[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog, usually on Mondays, sometimes, like today, on Friday too.]

MLB's Tony LaRussa

     Senior Executive blog editor J.C. points to the story of Cardinals Manager Tony LaRusssa expressing support for Arizona's new immigration law.
     Hmmm.
     Hope the Cardinals stay in the bus and hotel when they play there. Seems to me there are enough "suspicious looking" players on the entire MLB roster to cause a serious police crackdown if they head out to the streets...come to think of it, the Diamondbacks roster has a Lopez and a Para and an Ojeda on it...

The Montgomery Mall

If you missed it, a CBS-8 Extra report I produced is online here.
It's the story of the old Montgomery Mall, which was a thriving entity when I moved to Montgomery in 1998 and now sits empty.

     Though there is some evidence of deterioration inside, the mall is mostly just empty, as if the people had suddenly left en' mass...which in a way they did, right after the stores.

Baseball's MIA

     The Times has a story this morning about a small effort to locate the unmarked or undermarked graves of Negro League players.
     From the story it would appear all of them are north of the Mason-Dixon line, but what do you want to bet there are unmarked or unmaintained graves of Negro League players here in Alabama?