PRESS PASS features everything from movie and song reviews to comments about major, and minor, news events. I'm a reporter at the El Dorado News-Times in El Dorado, Ark., and will re-publish some of my stories here. E-mail me at newspaperboy@alltel.net.
Instead of devouring a 15 pound bird to get your holiday meal fix this Thanksgiving Day, why not down a bottle of turkey and gravy flavored soda? Or how about a nice pea-flavored soda, followed by one that tastes like sweet potatoes?
That’s right, thanks to the Jones Soda Company in Seattle, you can now drink your Thanksgiving dinner — well, that is, if you can stomach it.
Peter van Stolk, chief executive of Jones Soda, admits that not even he can stand the taste of his company’s unique holiday beverages; still, the mishmash drinks have become a cult phenomenon since their introduction in 2002, even without the approval of the CEO’s taste buds.
This years offerings include green pea, along with other unusual sodas such as turkey and gravy, dinner roll, sweet potato and antacid flavor. The gift sets will be part of the company’s $10 to $15 “holiday pack” of bottled drinks available nationwide.
I’ve always wanted to try one of these sodas, but I never felt right about shelling out $15 for something I’m pretty sure would make me want to throw up. I saw several of the gift packs recently at Target in Little Rock and came close to snatching one up, if for no other reason than to say I tried it.
The sodas come in all different types of flavors and are packaged in nice glass bottles with unique labels. In past years, the sodas have caused bidding wars on online auction sites like Ebay, as holiday shoppers scrambled to try the hip new drinks.
This year, though, they seem to be selling a little less briskly.
Other holiday oddities include the Turducken. If you don’t know exactly what a Turducken is, you’ve probably at least heard the name. It’s a de-boned turkey stuffed with a de-boned duck, which itself is stuffed with a small de-boned chicken. The cavity of the chicken and the rest of the gaps are filled with highly seasoned bread crumbs or sausage meat.
The Turducken is a uniquely American dish and is believed to be Cajun in origin, although it may have originated in eastern Texas or northern Louisiana. Lake Charles, La., claims that Turduckens were invented there.
Like the famous Jones sodas, the Turducken is also something foreign to my palate, but I’d be more than willing to try it. If you ask me, all you need to have yourself a great Thanksgiving feast this holiday season is a bottle of green pea soda and a Turducken. Just don’t forget the antacid...soda. Enjoy.
John Strother, manager of the El Dorado Wal-Mart Supercenter, is thankful. Unlike dozens of other stores across the country, which were mobbed early Friday morning by people seeking the scarce Playstation 3 game console, his store was relatively quiet.
The El Dorado Supercenter had just 10 units available for purchase, and people began camping outside the store as early as Wednesday evening hoping for a chance to buy one of the much-coveted gaming machines, which promise “cutting edge graphics.”
Just before midnight, Wal-Mart handed out vouchers to the first 10 people in line, all but ensuring an orderly crowd, Strother said.
“We had seats numbered, and they had to stay in those seats,” he said. “We then gave the first 10 a coupon, which they had to present in order to purchase (the Playstation 3). We didn’t have a single problem here.”
Strother said that the Playstation 3, priced at more than $500, definitely ranks at the top of ultra-hot “must have” items this holiday season.
With Sony promising only 400,000 systems for the nationwide launch, the chance of disappointment was high. While retailers tried to keep expectations low, lines snaked around the block at many stores — even those that didn’t begin sales until later Friday.
“It’s what everyone wants,” Strother said of the game system. “People want it not so much for themselves, they want to sell it on eBay it seems.”
A check of the online auction site Friday afternoon showed at least two Playstation 3 units in Smackover. The price? A cool $4,000 for one unit if you use the site’s “Buy It Now” feature. One of the highest “Buy It Now” Playstation 3 prices Friday was a whopping $25,000.
Dr. Marshall Horton, associate professor of economics and finance at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, said the phenomenon surrounding the Playstation 3 launch is known to economists as a “speculative bubble.”
Every year, almost without fail, such bubbles occur when items like the Playstation 3, Tickle Me Elmo or Cabbage Patch Doll became the “it” item for Christmas.
Many who stand in line for days at a time never plan to actually use these items — they only hope to resell them for as much as 100 times the purchase price.
But before you rush out and buy a Playstation 3 with hopes of making three times what you paid for it, Horton said you might want to make other plans.
“Like all of the others, this bubble will surely burst,” he said. “People just better hope they can sell their items at a higher price before it does.”
The Playstation 3 madness came to a head Friday morning in Putnam, Conn., where two armed thugs tried to rob a line of people waiting to buy the game system, according to the Associated Press. At least one man was shot when he refused to give up his money, authorities said.
Another shooting occurred in Lexington, Ky., where police were investigating a drive-by involving BB pellets that peppered four people outside a Best Buy store. Only minor injuries were reported, the AP said.
In Palmdale, Calif., authorities shut down a Wal-Mart Supercenter after several shoppers got rowdy late Wednesday. And in West Bend, Wis., a 19-year-old man was injured when he ran into a pole racing with 50 others for one of 10 spots outside a Wal-Mart.
Hearing reports like this, Strother is happy that things were calm at his El Dorado store Friday morning, but he’s sure this won’t be the last hot item that sends shoppers into a frenzy.
“We had to do this before with things like the new Gameboy or Playstation 2,” said Strother. “And we will be ready again.” Strother refused to speculate on when the El Dorado Supercenter would receive another shipment of Playstation 3 units. Just don’t expect them anytime before Christmas.
PHOTO CREDIT: Moses, above, looks menacing with his jagged teeth jutting out. But he's really a sweetheart in disguise. I wrote this story for the El Dorado News-Times. Enjoy.
SMACKOVER — Moses really isn’t all that ugly. He has a cute face, a shiny black coat and a happy, jagged-tooth smile. But according to the “National Inquirer,” this mutt’s mug is the worst in America.
Dubbed the “Ugliest Dog in America” on Nov. 6, Suzanne Burson’s 3-year-old Chihuahua/pug mix has garnered a lot of attention ever since — everyone from NBC’s “Today Show” to the “Arkansas Democrat-Gazette” has featured Moses’ prize-winning photo — and the two are definitely enjoying the limelight.
“I love it,” Burson, 18, proclaimed last week as she sat in her living room in Smackover. “I’m hoping maybe we can get on a national show, but I don’t think he would like the plane ride. It would be really cool, though.”
The photo appearing in the tabloid depicts Moses in a somewhat menacing pose, with his mouth opened slightly as if he’s about to growl. In this position, he looks more like a bat than a dog, which is most likely why he won the contest. Burson said Moses often looks that way when he’s relaxing.
So one day when Moses was kicking back after a hard day, Burson’s boyfriend snapped a picture of the pooch for the contest; as a result, she won $200 and the right to call her dog the ugliest in America.
On a recent afternoon, Moses, his bright orange sweater clinging to his pudgy body, trotted around Burson’s home looking for attention from his master. Moses always has liked the spotlight, and he gets really jealous if he isn’t the center of attention.
“The cats don’t like to be around him, and if they are getting the attention, he really doesn’t like that,” Burson said. “He doesn’t like to be on a leash, so he’s always running around wherever he wants.”
Moses also gets cranky if he doesn’t have his favorite snack — a McDonald’s cheeseburger with ketchup. But hold the pickles, please. Moses hates pickles, Burson said.
Spoiled? Yes. But that’s OK with Burson.
“He is part of my family,” she said, smiling. “He’s my kid, and he’s beautiful.”
My column, which won't appear until tomorrow's edition of the El Dorado News-Times:
It’s Nov. 16 — one week before Thanksgiving. But if you look around, you’d think it was one week ’til Christmas. The stores have long been chock full of Christmas items, and just about every aisle seems packed with shoppers who’ve put on their “Merry Christmas” faces.
It’s a scene straight out of a holiday movie, complete with gingerbread men, egg nog and those hideous tins full of multi-colored popcorn. You know the ones I mean: They have little puppies, kittens and festive holiday decorations on them. Aren’t those tacky?
I say enough already. It’s not even Thanksgiving yet; you still have plenty of time to find that special Christmas cheer.
It severely cheapens the holiday when stores rush out Christmas items more than a month before Dec. 25., and what’s worse, millions of people actually fall for it.
I preach this every year, but it seems like everyone is in need of another good sermon on when and when not to begin thinking about Christmas. The rule, as I have always understood it, has been the day AFTER Thanksgiving. That’s fair game. You can deck your halls, put lights in your trees, and shop ‘til you drop on Nov. 24.
But not before then — not one day, not one hour, not one minute.
What pushed me over the edge this year was a healthy dose of “It’s a Holly Jolly Christmas” as I shopped for new pants inside an area clothing store. I cringed, wishing that the speakers would explode so I wouldn’t have to be part of their little plot to get me into the Christmas spirit before I’m ready.
And even our own county is taking part in the much-too-early Christmas celebrations by lighting the Union County Courthouse tonight. Come on local officials, wait until our Thanksgiving turkey has digested before you throw the switch next year, please.
Someone has to take a stand and put Christmas back where it belongs — in December.
No other holiday is celebrated two months in advance, although this year I did see Halloween decorations out by mid-September. The only reason is so that stores can capitalize on even more sales, thus proving my point that the commercialization of holidays is sucking the fun right out of them.
In the words of Charlie Brown, who, in his Christmas special lamented about the commercialization of the holidays, “good grief!”
Photo caption: George W. Bush sits on his father's shoulders. Photo courtesy of the George Bush Presidential Library.
I've been finding many good commentaries on the Web today. Here is one from Newsweek that illustrates the brassiness that George W. Bush often portrays. I don't think he can help it, none-the-less, it most often is not welcomed.
Patti Davis: Bush’s Father Issues Father issues still haunt George W. Bush. WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY By Patti Davis Special to Newsweek Updated: 6:00 p.m. MT Nov 9, 2006
Nov. 9, 2006 — A few years ago, during my father’s memorial service at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., I saw a telling moment between the two George Bushes. Bush 41, the former president, had just finished his eulogy, a poignant, touching tribute that hit all the right notes—soft humor, sadness and a clear affection for the man he was there to remember. The current President Bush followed him, and though father and son passed each other so close their shoulders almost brushed, George W. Bush passed his father as if he were invisible, keeping his eyes straight ahead and walking briskly to his destination. To me, it looked like there was some trepidation in the eyes of Bush the Elder, as if he knew his son would slight him.
I thought about that scene as the midterm election results came in Tuesday night. In the wake of a stinging defeat for his party that has clearly put the president in a terrible mood, it seems a good time to ruminate on the story of Oedipus. In the Greek tale, Laius, believing a prediction that his son would one day kill him, had his infant boy hobbled with nails driven into his ankles and then taken to the mountains and left there. Laius believed he had successfully killed his son long before Oedipus could grow up and murder him. Of course, he was wrong, and years later a roadside altercation between the two men resulted in the prophecy coming true.
After getting into more trouble by unwittingly marrying his mother and after she hanged herself upon discovering the truth, Oedipus was so overcome with remorse he blinded himself with the pin of her brooch. Granted, it was a dramatic way to show humility and shame, but at least he did come around.
Which is more than we can say for the president. I’m not suggesting George W. Bush reach for a brooch and blind himself, but I am saying that life is always inviting us to be more humble. Whether we accept the invitation is a matter of choice. What we saw in Bush’s post-election statement Wednesday was an angry man reading from a prepared speech that was supposed to sound conciliatory but didn’t at all because his voice bristled with resentment. No humility there, no reflection or introspection on the dissatisfaction of a majority of Americans. And, the irony of ironies, with the firing of Donald Rumsfeld, W. finds himself working closely with many of his father’s old advisors.
The term "oedipal" has fluttered around the younger Bush’s presidency from the beginning. Much has been made of the psychology behind the scene of the competitive son marching onto the battlefield his father had vacated, determined to win a war Dad walked away from. When the son raised his fist (symbolically) and cried out, “Mission accomplished!” it wasn’t just about the statue of Saddam being dismantled, ripped to ruins in the center of Baghdad. It was about (again symbolically) conquering his father.
If the purpose of life is that we grow wiser, more open and receptive, more willing to step back and learn from mistakes, more willing to change, then there are three words that should come to mind for this president today: Mission not accomplished.
This column speaks volumes about what our country has experienced over the past decade. And it's 100 percent true.
November 10, 2006 Op-Ed Columnist for The New York Times
The Great Revulsion
By PAUL KRUGMAN I’m not feeling giddy as much as greatly relieved. O.K., maybe a little giddy. Give ’em hell, Harry and Nancy!
Here’s what I wrote more than three years ago, in the introduction to my column collection “The Great Unraveling”: “I have a vision — maybe just a hope — of a great revulsion: a moment in which the American people look at what is happening, realize how their good will and patriotism have been abused, and put a stop to this drive to destroy much of what is best in our country.”
At the time, the right was still celebrating the illusion of victory in Iraq, and the bizarre Bush personality cult was still in full flower. But now the great revulsion has arrived.
Tuesday’s election was a truly stunning victory for the Democrats. Candidates planning to caucus with the Democrats took 24 of the 33 Senate seats at stake this year, winning seven million more votes than Republicans. In House races, Democrats received about 53 percent of the two-party vote, giving them a margin more than twice as large as the 2.5-percentage-point lead that Mr. Bush claimed as a “mandate” two years ago — and the margin would have been even bigger if many Democrats hadn’t been running unopposed.
The election wasn’t just the end of the road for Mr. Bush’s reign of error. It was also the end of the 12-year Republican dominance of Congress. The Democrats will now hold a majority in the House that is about as big as the Republicans ever achieved during that era of dominance.
Moreover, the new Democratic majority may well be much more effective than the majority the party lost in 1994. Thanks to a great regional realignment, in which a solid Northeast has replaced the solid South, Democratic control no longer depends on a bloc of Dixiecrats whose ideological sympathies were often with the other side of the aisle.
Now, I don’t expect or want a permanent Democratic lock on power. But I do hope and believe that this election marks the beginning of the end for the conservative movement that has taken over the Republican Party.
In saying that, I’m not calling for or predicting the end of conservatism. There always have been and always will be conservatives on the American political scene. And that’s as it should be: a diversity of views is part of what makes democracy vital.
But we may be seeing the downfall of movement conservatism — the potent alliance of wealthy individuals, corporate interests and the religious right that took shape in the 1960s and 1970s. This alliance may once have had something to do with ideas, but it has become mainly a corrupt political machine, and America will be a better place if that machine breaks down.
Why do I want to see movement conservatism crushed? Partly because the movement is fundamentally undemocratic; its leaders don’t accept the legitimacy of opposition. Democrats will only become acceptable, declared Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, once they “are comfortable in their minority status.” He added, “Any farmer will tell you that certain animals run around and are unpleasant, but when they’ve been fixed, then they are happy and sedate.”
And the determination of the movement to hold on to power at any cost has poisoned our political culture. Just think about the campaign that just ended, with its coded racism, deceptive robo-calls, personal smears, homeless men bused in to hand out deceptive fliers, and more. Not to mention the constant implication that anyone who questions the Bush administration or its policies is very nearly a traitor.
When movement conservatism took it over, the Republican Party ceased to be the party of Dwight Eisenhower and became the party of Karl Rove. The good news is that Karl Rove and the political tendency he represents may both have just self-destructed.
Two years ago, people were talking about permanent right-wing dominance of American politics. But since then the American people have gotten a clearer sense of what rule by movement conservatives means. They’ve seen the movement take us into an unnecessary war, and botch every aspect of that war. They’ve seen a great American city left to drown; they’ve seen corruption reach deep into our political process; they’ve seen the hypocrisy of those who lecture us on morality.
Whew! The elections are officially over. No more nasty campaign ads promising this or that, no more yard signs beside the highway, and no more automated phone calls asking for your vote.
Isn’t it great?
I won’t go into too many specific races or outcomes in this column — I know you’re all pretty tired of hearing about these things right now, sort of like the day-after-Thanksgiving warmed over turkey.
But I will say that even though I’m a Democrat, and the Democrats won control of the House and Senate, I hope that all parties — Democrats, Republicans and Independents — can work together for the common good of our nation.
The problems we are facing today go far beyond the partisan issues that crop up each election cycle: Our nation’s military is hunkered down in Iraq, fighting tooth and nail with extremists who want nothing more than to kill every U.S. soldier and hang them from the highest tree; our nation’s healthcare system is laughable, with millions choosing between medicine and food; and our morale seems to be dwindling.
I think everyone involved in politics can see these symptoms, even the president, who said Wednesday that he pledges to work with the Democrats on issues that are important to America. Of course, he has no choice now that the Democrats are in power, but one hopes that he is sincere in his statement.
Our nation can’t take two more years of partisan squabbles. We must come to terms with the situation in Iraq, and the president and his new Secretary of Defense must be straight with the American people about the war.
Let’s face it, it isn’t going well, otherwise Rumsfeld wouldn’t have stepped down Wednesday. It’s now up to Rumsfeld’s replacement, former CIA chief Robert Gates, to form a plan for Iraq that will see the United States winning the war and restoring some semblance of peace to that region.
I’m trying to be optimistic with the outcome of the 2006 elections, and I truly hope that President Bush can step forward and work alongside the Democrats. I also have hope that the new Congress will propose solid ideas and work with the president.
It’s time for everyone to realize that our government should no longer focuson which party holds the most power because, in the end, we’re all going to have to work together if we ever want things to change.
I stood on the steps of the Arkansas State Capitol waiting for him, the man many call “the new hope for America.” There were 3,000 others just like me; we didn’t know what to expect, but we hoped that all the hype about this man was true.
Barack Obama introduced himself to Arkansas last Saturday with the same charm and brilliance that has made him famous throughout the United States. For a junior senator from Illinois, Obama is making huge splashes everywhere he goes.
He spoke at the capitol on behalf of Arkansas gubernatorial candidate Mike Beebe, the Democrat many predict will be the next governor of the Natural State.
Obama clearly stole the crowd’s enthusiasm from the very beginning, as hundreds of people chanted “Obama! Obama! Obama!” and waved his latest book “The Audacity of Hope” in the air.
Wilma Donley, 52, of Little Rock, was one of the thousands who voiced support Saturday for the Democratic party’s shining star. She said that she’s been following Obama since his famous speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, an event that put him on the political radar across the nation.
“That was a wonderful, beautiful, revealing speech, and he is on tap with what we need for our nation, and not only for our nation, but around the world,” Donley said. “His time is coming, and when it happens, it will be just right.”
Like so many others around the country, Donley can see that the United States is facing a broad internal crisis that begins with partisan bickering and ends with Americans being caught in the middle.
She said that Americans are under an “umbrella of frustration,” and most everyone is fed up. “A lot of things are happening that are dividing this country,” she said. “I have been following politics for a long time...I never thought I would live to see the day when we would be facing so much illness in our nation.”
Donley believes that Obama could be the cure for that illness, and she pledged to support him in whatever office he decides to seek; there are countless more who feel exactly like her.
I haven’t seen this much excitement surrounding a political candidate since Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992. Then, Clinton was the new kid in town — he brought a new face and fresh ideas to stodgy Washington D.C., and people ate it up.
So, too, are people feeding from the hand of Obama.
What’s impressive about this man is that he’s truly knowledgeable about issues that matter to America — ending the war, bringing more dollars to those who actually need them, healthcare and education for all.
He spoke about the divide in America today, and how everyone needs a voice in this great political experiment called democracy.
It was refreshing to hear someone sharing ideas about how to make our nation better rather than attacking the other party with aimless lines about how “they” can’t get the job done.
Everyone in Washington today is bickering back and forth, and that’s precisely why nothing ever gets done. It’s time for a change.
I think more and more people are beginning to realize that Obama could be one of the most viable presidential candidates in 2008, at least on the Democratic ticket. Some say he’s too green, that two years in the U.S. Senate isn’t enough time to run for president.
I say why not? Obama can’t do any worse than what other administrations have done over the years, and he’s already gaining plenty of political capital that can be spent in 2008.
But like any candidate whose eye is on the White House, Obama has at least one major obstacle that stands between him and the presidency: He’s half-African-American. Obama’s father was Kenyan and his mother was a white woman from Kansas. I think this could be an issue for many unprogressive voters, and that’s sad.
It’s sad that this country may ignore a brilliant political mind simply because he appears different than most of the stiff suits that line the beltway.
But maybe, just maybe, America can look past someone’s skin color for once and realize that it’s what’s inside that makes the person. I sincerely hope that Obama will be just as warmly received as the man from Hope was, and surely America will realize that he’s just what this country needs.
Being on television isn’t easy. The lights are bright, the pressure is tremendous, and the makeup often makes you look fake, almost funeral home-esque.
But overall it’s lots of fun.
I had my 15 minutes of fame Tuesday when I made an appearance on the 4th Congressional District debates on AETN. It was everything I expected it to be, and I must admit it was exciting to be in the middle of the stage with at least a half-dozen cameras in my face.
We were primped and preened beforehand, my fellow panelists and I, having our makeup done, hair positioned just right, and suits brushed before they pushed us on stage.
I’ve often thought it would be fun to have a television show, something like “Hardball” with Chris Matthews or "Live" with Larry King. I wouldn’t dare cross over to the dark side of "Oprah" and "Maurey," although those shows are fine and have their own place — they’re just not for me.
I’m more of a serious news and creative type, and being on television is the perfect outlet for that. It seems blasphemous for a newspaper person to say anything good about television, but I truly believe that it can be a strong medium if done professionally.
The debates that AETN televises each year are one example of good television. They are a class act, with national network caliber staff members who know how to treat guests.
Sadly, though, the quality educational programs that AETN airs are all-too-often cast aside for sporting events and other entertainment.
I have to wonder how many people actually saw me last night as incumbent Rep. Mike Ross took on his Republican challenger and El Dorado native Joe Ross. Afterall, the third game of the World Series was going on in St. Louis.
But those who did see the show have been very complimentary, telling me that I did a good job, and that I “looked very professional.”
Being on television made me realize that what we do in the news business is important, whether it’s broadcast or print media. We all try to spread the facts as best we can, and we always hope that everyone who receives the news understands the issues that affect their daily lives.
The debates are important because they bring the candidates’ issues to light, allowing voters to watch and decide for themselves. If you missed out on seeing AETN’s debate series, you can log on to www.AETN.org to watch them.
I doubt I’ll be making the move to television anytime soon, but maybe one day you’ll see me on MSNBC taking over for Chris Matthews. How cool would that be?
I felt so bad for laughing at this clip, but it is rather funny. Kenyan Robert Cheruiyot suffered a head injury after losing his footing as he crossed the finish line to win the Chicago Marathon on Sunday. He's just fine, but probably has a bruised ego.
Above: A horrible scene in Baghdad, Iraq, as a massive explosion has just gone off.
I keep hearing cute statements by conservative Republicans like Sen. John McCain, who said recently, “I would commit suicide if the Democrats were elected to Congress.”
Well, Mr. McCain, in my opinion you and your party have already committed political suicide with the current state of our government. McCain should be pledging to work toward an end in Iraq, not spouting off comments he sees as funny.
McCain and his cohorts should realize that our nation MUST decide what our plans for Iraq are. Are we ever going to win this war? Let’s face it, if we were, it would already be over. The other day on the Mark Davis Show, I heard the conservative talk host Davis say that he too is wondering why the war is not yet over. Even Republicans are beginning to come to terms with this, and anyone with an ounce of realism knows this, too.
President Bush’s tired rhetoric of “stay the course, we must keep fighting,” is becoming rather pathetic.
Our nation is supposed to be the most powerful in the world, yet we are stuck in a quagmire that continues to boil over day by day. Meanwhile, Republicans like John McCain make jokes.
It’s time that inept Republicans like McCain were deposed from their seats in Congress — they obviously cannot get the job done, and they certainly aren’t looking out for what’s best for the citizens of the United States.
We are facing the most perilous times our nation has ever seen, yet we are truly divided by party, and by this unjust war in Iraq. Did you know that more than 600,000 Iraqi’s have died since the war began? That’s more than would have died in Saddam Hussein’s lifetime, had he remained as the leader of that country.
A new study published in "The Lancet," a respected British Medical Journal, first reported these astonishing findings earlier this month.
But, of course, the Bush camp is denying the report's validity. President Bush slammed it last week during a news conference in the White House Rose Garden. "I don't consider it a credible report. Neither does Gen. (George) Casey," he said, referring to the top ranking U.S. military official in Iraq, "and neither do Iraqi officials."
Last December, Bush said that he estimated about 30,000 people had died since the war began.
Meanwhile, the Republicans continue to defend the war as "just and needed."
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The Republican reich would have you believe that this war is helping prevent terrorism in the United States.
Again, nothing could be further from the truth.
Our nation, and the world, faces far greater threats from the likes of Kim Jong Ill in North Korea, and from Iran.
It isn’t OK that the war we caused in Iraq has killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. And their deaths are not worth the price of a Republican lie. (See Bush’s State of the Union Address in 2003 stating that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons).
I’m not saying this as a Democrat, an Independent or anything else. I’m saying this as a concerned, informed American.
Everyone who reads this should be just as concerned about what’s going on in Iraq right now.
Six-hundred-thousand lives.
Gone.
For a false war that never should have been fought in the first place.
And now that we are in the war, we can’t even seem to muster enough might to finish it. Why is that?
Has anyone ever stopped to think about why the most powerful nation in the world can’t stop a bunch of Arab thugs in the desert?
Imagine if we had to jump to the defense of South Korea when, God forbid, North Korea decides to bring war to that peninsula once again.
We couldn’t do it, all thanks to the inept planning of our great regime.
When are supporters of this war going to wake up and realize that it was a huge mistake. And there may be no way out now.
'Beginning of the end of America' Olbermann addresses the Military Commissions Act in a special comment SPECIAL COMMENT By Keith Olbermann Anchor, 'Countdown' MSNBC
Updated: 10:39 p.m. CT Oct 18, 2006
We have lived as if in a trance.
We have lived as people in fear.
And now—our rights and our freedoms in peril—we slowly awake to learn that we have been afraid of the wrong thing. Therefore, tonight have we truly become the inheritors of our American legacy.
For, on this first full day that the Military Commissions Act is in force, we now face what our ancestors faced, at other times of exaggerated crisis and melodramatic fear-mongering:
A government more dangerous to our liberty, than is the enemy it claims to protect us from.
We have been here before—and we have been here before led here—by men better and wiser and nobler than George W. Bush.
We have been here when President John Adams insisted that the Alien and Sedition Acts were necessary to save American lives, only to watch him use those acts to jail newspaper editors. American newspaper editors, in American jails, for things they wrote about America.
We have been here when President Woodrow Wilson insisted that the Espionage Act was necessary to save American lives, only to watch him use that Act to prosecute 2,000 Americans, especially those he disparaged as “Hyphenated Americans,” most of whom were guilty only of advocating peace in a time of war.
American public speakers, in American jails, for things they said about America.
And we have been here when President Franklin D. Roosevelt insisted that Executive Order 9066 was necessary to save
American lives, only to watch him use that order to imprison and pauperize 110,000 Americans while his man in charge, General DeWitt, told Congress: “It makes no difference whether he is an American citizen—he is still a Japanese.”
American citizens, in American camps, for something they neither wrote nor said nor did, but for the choices they or their ancestors had made about coming to America.
Each of these actions was undertaken for the most vital, the most urgent, the most inescapable of reasons.
And each was a betrayal of that for which the president who advocated them claimed to be fighting.
Adams and his party were swept from office, and the Alien and Sedition Acts erased.
Many of the very people Wilson silenced survived him, and one of them even ran to succeed him, and got 900,000 votes, though his presidential campaign was conducted entirely from his jail cell.
And Roosevelt’s internment of the Japanese was not merely the worst blight on his record, but it would necessitate a formal apology from the government of the United States to the citizens of the United States whose lives it ruined.
The most vital, the most urgent, the most inescapable of reasons.
In times of fright, we have been only human.
We have let Roosevelt’s “fear of fear itself” overtake us.
We have listened to the little voice inside that has said, “the wolf is at the door; this will be temporary; this will be precise; this too shall pass.”
We have accepted that the only way to stop the terrorists is to let the government become just a little bit like the terrorists.
Just the way we once accepted that the only way to stop the Soviets was to let the government become just a little bit like the Soviets.
Or substitute the Japanese.
Or the Germans.
Or the Socialists.
Or the Anarchists.
Or the Immigrants.
Or the British.
Or the Aliens.
The most vital, the most urgent, the most inescapable of reasons.
And, always, always wrong.
“With the distance of history, the questions will be narrowed and few: Did this generation of Americans take the threat seriously, and did we do what it takes to defeat that threat?”
Wise words.
And ironic ones, Mr. Bush.
Your own, of course, yesterday, in signing the Military Commissions Act.
You spoke so much more than you know, Sir.
Sadly—of course—the distance of history will recognize that the threat this generation of Americans needed to take seriously was you.
We have a long and painful history of ignoring the prophecy attributed to Benjamin Franklin that “those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
But even within this history we have not before codified the poisoning of habeas corpus, that wellspring of protection from which all essential liberties flow.
You, sir, have now befouled that spring.
You, sir, have now given us chaos and called it order.
You, sir, have now imposed subjugation and called it freedom.
For the most vital, the most urgent, the most inescapable of reasons.
And — again, Mr. Bush — all of them, wrong.
We have handed a blank check drawn against our freedom to a man who has said it is unacceptable to compare anything this country has ever done to anything the terrorists have ever done.
We have handed a blank check drawn against our freedom to a man who has insisted again that “the United States does not torture. It’s against our laws and it’s against our values” and who has said it with a straight face while the pictures from Abu Ghraib Prison and the stories of Waterboarding figuratively fade in and out, around him.
We have handed a blank check drawn against our freedom to a man who may now, if he so decides, declare not merely any non-American citizens “unlawful enemy combatants” and ship them somewhere—anywhere -- but may now, if he so decides, declare you an “unlawful enemy combatant” and ship you somewhere - anywhere.
And if you think this hyperbole or hysteria, ask the newspaper editors when John Adams was president or the pacifists when Woodrow Wilson was president or the Japanese at Manzanar when Franklin Roosevelt was president.
And if you somehow think habeas corpus has not been suspended for American citizens but only for everybody else, ask yourself this: If you are pulled off the street tomorrow, and they call you an alien or an undocumented immigrant or an “unlawful enemy combatant”—exactly how are you going to convince them to give you a court hearing to prove you are not?
Do you think this attorney general is going to help you?
This President now has his blank check.
He lied to get it.
He lied as he received it.
Is there any reason to even hope he has not lied about how he intends to use it nor who he intends to use it against?
“These military commissions will provide a fair trial,” you told us yesterday, Mr. Bush, “in which the accused are presumed innocent, have access to an attorney and can hear all the evidence against them.”
"Presumed innocent," Mr. Bush?
The very piece of paper you signed as you said that, allows for the detainees to be abused up to the point just before they sustain “serious mental and physical trauma” in the hope of getting them to incriminate themselves, and may no longer even invoke The Geneva Conventions in their own defense.
"Access to an attorney," Mr. Bush?
Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift said on this program, Sir, and to the Supreme Court, that he was only granted access to his detainee defendant on the promise that the detainee would plead guilty.
"Hearing all the evidence," Mr. Bush?
The Military Commissions Act specifically permits the introduction of classified evidence not made available to the defense.
Your words are lies, Sir.
They are lies that imperil us all.
“One of the terrorists believed to have planned the 9/11 attacks,” you told us yesterday, “said he hoped the attacks would be the beginning of the end of America.”
That terrorist, sir, could only hope.
Not his actions, nor the actions of a ceaseless line of terrorists (real or imagined), could measure up to what you have wrought.
Habeas corpus? Gone.
The Geneva Conventions? Optional.
The moral force we shined outwards to the world as an eternal beacon, and inwards at ourselves as an eternal protection?
Snuffed out.
These things you have done, Mr. Bush, they would be “the beginning of the end of America.”
And did it even occur to you once, sir — somewhere in amidst those eight separate, gruesome, intentional, terroristic invocations of the horrors of 9/11 — that with only a little further shift in this world we now know — just a touch more repudiation of all of that for which our patriots died — did it ever occur to you once that in just 27 months and two days from now when you leave office, some irresponsible future president and a “competent tribunal” of lackeys would be entitled, by the actions of your own hand, to declare the status of “unlawful enemy combatant” for — and convene a Military
Commission to try -- not John Walker Lindh, but George Walker Bush?
For the most vital, the most urgent, the most inescapable of reasons.
I thought it would be fun to share some interesting news stories from around the nation. Enjoy.
*** Alan Gagne, 54, was a diligent public worker. Everyday for 20 years, he delivered mail in a picturesque Boston neighborhood, often mumbling to himself about this or that, but never missing a chance to prove that he was one of the best postmen that city had ever seen.
Imagine the surprise of people along his route, and the City of Boston, when, after Gagne’s death recently, officials found thousands of pieces of mail neatly tucked away in a closet inside his cramped apartment.
Some of the mail dates from the 1980’s, according to a "New York Times" article yesterday, which quotes Robert Cannon, a spokesman for the postal service. Cannon said that 90 percent of the stolen mail was circulars flagged as undeliverable because of an address change.
But there were also dozens of unopened letters that the postal service is trying hard to get back to their rightful recipients. Cannon told the Times that he couldn’t understand why Gagne kept the mail, and probably never would.
“There appeared to be no rhyme or reason as to how, when, or where he took the mail or why he was holding onto it,” Cannon told the Times. It’s tragic, unfortunate and bizarre.”
Bizarre indeed.
What would drive Gagne, a single man with no family to speak of, to keep unopened letters and circulars in his home for decades? What purpose could they have served for him? Had he opened the letters and read their private contents, one might say that Gagne’s loneliness drove him to read someone else’s mail.
Perhaps he was an undiagnosed kleptomaniac, or maybe he just felt so attached to some pieces of mail that he couldn’t bear to part with them. No one will ever know.
*** If there is a special place in heaven for those who do good on Earth, then Eugenia Dodson of Coral Gables, Fla., is surely there right now. The 100-year-old amassed a multi-million dollar fortune during her lifetime, but she lived the lifestyle of a regular, average citizen.
After her death, it was discovered that she wished to donate her entire fortune — $35.6 million — to both the University of Miami’s Diabetes Research Institute and the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, also at Miami University.
It turns out that Dodson had cancer, and her brother died from complications with diabetes. Both issues were near to her heart, and with the money, she hoped that the diseases could be brought to an end.
Dodson proved that being rich doesn’t mean one has to flaunt it, buying thousands of dollars in jewelry and unnecessary automobiles and fur coats. The world definitely needs more people like her.
*** The stupid moment of the year definitely belongs to Las Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn, who literally rubbed elbows with Pablo Picasso recently.
After deciding to sell his original of Picasso’s Le Reve (The Dream) painting at an ultra-exclusive art auction, Wynn accidentally destroyed part of it as he was showing the work off one last time before it sold.
Wynn said that he backed his elbow into the painting in front of a group of friends, forging a finger-sized hole in the priceless art piece. It was a disaster indeed.
But luckily for Wynn, who has decided to keep the painting, a New York art restoration group has confirmed that they can restore the painting to it’s original luster.
Maybe Wynn needs to invest in a set of elbow pads.
PYONGYANG — North Korea shocked the world today with the announcement that it has more than 25 intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching any point on the globe.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il made the announcement to quash rumors that the country’s recent nuclear test was a failure, and to tell the world that it has armed its missiles and they are ready to fire.
“We have the right to ensure our safety and protection of our people,” Jong Il said Thursday. “We have been developing these weapons over the past five years, and we are proud to say that they are fully functional and ready to go.”
Word of a nuclear-armed North Korea spread through the global community like wildfire Thursday, prompting U.S. President George W. Bush to call an emergency meeting with world leaders to “try and cool off the situation.”
In a news conference at the White House, Bush said that the U.S. has no intentions of entering a military conflict with North Korea.
*** TEHRAN — Following North Korea’s lead, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced today that his country also has nuclear capabilities. Ahmadinejad made the stunning announcement outside his Tehran office early Thursday afternoon, although he declined to say how many nuclear warheads his country might have.
“We are armed to the teeth, and the world should watch out, because we are ready for anyone,” he said. “We will not back down any longer.”
In response to the news, U.S. President George W. Bush has placed the U.S. military on high alert and is calling for Americans to remain calm.
“We understand that this situation is serious, but everyone must realize that we are staying the course on terrorism. We aren’t going to bow down to terrorists,” Bush said. “The United States will not negotiate with North Korea or Iran. They understand our policy.”
The United States is holding emergency talks with NATO countries at the U.N. this afternoon in New York. Bush, who appeared flustered and shaky, said that “it will take everyone acting together to diffuse this situation.”
*** WASHINGTON D.C. — White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan announced Thursday afternoon that U.S. President George W. Bush dashed under the bed in Lincoln’s Bedroom and will not be coming out until rising global tensions ease.
McClellan said that Vice President Dick Cheney will be taking over duties for the U.S. amid rising tensions with North Korea and Iran.
Cheney is expected to hold a news conference at 7 p.m. this evening with further details on Bush’s condition. As of 5 p.m., White House staff members were trying to coax Bush from under the bed with a plate of chocolate chip cookies.
There is no word on whether Bush is experiencing a nervous breakdown, although unnamed sources inside the White House have said that it is a “strong possibility.” One staff member, who asked not to be named because of the sensitive nature of the situation, said that Bush was chanting, “Stay the course, stay the course, we can win this war in Iraq,” from under Lincoln’s bed.
Cheney will be sworn in as President of the United States at 6 p.m. E.S.T.
By JOHN WORTHEN News-Times Staff Johnette Wilson has spent a lifetime collecting books. For most of her 75 years, the El Dorado native has poured over thousands of nouns, verbs and adjectives, relishing each one as her mind veered off to far away places.
She’s been on several African safaris, dealt with brazen mafia bosses and has even spent time with former presidents, all through the pages of her much-cherished books.
But when Wilson decided to move out of her El Dorado home and into the Sweet Home retirement community in July, she wasn’t sure what to do with her collection of approximately 1,700 books. Selling the books was out of the question, and donating them to a place where she’d never see them again just didn’t seem right.
There was only one decision left: Bring them with her to Sweet Home.
When Wilson told Sweet Home officials about the collection and her plans to share it with other residents, they immediately began construction on floor-to-ceiling shelves that fill one side of a spacious room there. Everyone who lives at the facility has access to the room day and night, allowing them to “check out” books anytime.
But at least one book is tucked safely away in Wilson’s neat-as-a-pin room on the second floor: “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Harper Lee’s masterpiece about the resilient southern lawyer Atticus Finch. She’s not stingy with it, mind you, and would probably let someone borrow it if they asked, but a quick and assured return may be the only way to secure her favorite book of all time.
She has other favorites, too, like Mario Puzo’s “The Godfather” and biographies of presidents like Harry S. Truman and John Adams. She also loves the travel stories by James A. Michener, who “has taken me across the world.”
On a recent afternoon, Wilson, her white oversized glasses framing her soft eyes, sat in the library and organized a new stack of books that will soon be added to the shelves. She smiled gracefully as she spoke of her love of books and the places she’s seen and experienced because of them.
“I discovered books when I was very young, and at 8 I read ‘Gone With the Wind,’” said Wilson, her hand on a large stack that included the popular book “Marley and Me” by John Grogan. “I had a wonderful mother who allowed me to read anything I wanted, much to the dismay of the librarian. She was upset that my mother would allow me to read books like that.”
An adopted child raised during the depression, Wilson often used books as an escape from reality, where fiction, nonfiction, science and adventure books took hold of her young imagination; she realized at an early age that reading was the key to being educated.
“My husband, who died last April, went to Harvard and Princeton and was in the Navy; he was very well educated,” Wilson said. “But my education came from reading books. And he always supported me with that. There are many great opportunities that come from reading.”
Several years ago, when Wilson volunteered at the Literacy Council, she saw first-hand how missing out on those opportunities can be devastating. She recalls one instance in particular when a grandmother was heartbroken because she wasn’t able to read to her grandchildren when they asked for a story.
Remembering the woman almost brought tears to Wilson’s eyes.
“This woman held a responsible job, she drove a car, but she just couldn’t read. That baffled me,” said Wilson, who tutored the woman until she was able to read on a basic level.
“When she came to me and said she wasn’t able to read to her grandchildren, that really hit home. I have 15 grandchildren, and I know that feeling when you read to them. I would be heartbroken if I couldn’t read to them.”
After the weeks-long tutoring session ended, Wilson gave the woman stacks and stacks of children’s books to share with her grandchildren. It was a gratifying moment for Wilson, who has continued her giving spirit with the donation to Sweet Home.
The donation isn’t something Wilson brags about, but she said it was a good feeling to be able to share the books with fellow residents, just as she shared her love of reading with others while working at the Literacy Council.
Tooling around in the new library, filing and organized the books alphabetically, Wilson feels at home. It will never be the same as the old white farm house she and her husband shared for so many decades, but as long as she has her books and can share them with others, it will be enough to bring a smile to her face each day.
Laura Mallory is on a mission to ban all Harry Potter books at her children’s school library in Gwinnett County Georgia. Mallory claims that the books are an attempt to lure children into the Wicca religion, and that when her children are at school, she doesn’t “want them indoctrinated into a religion whose practices are evil.”
Indoctrinating into a religion at school? Harry Potter? I hardly think that’s the case. It’s not as if there’s a page in the books where children are asked to pledge their allegiance to Potter, nor do they come with magic potion recipes or flying brooms.
Who is Mallory to decide what other children can and cannot read? Just because she doesn’t agree with the material presented doesn’t mean that others can’t enjoy it. If she doesn’t want her children reading Harry Potter, then she should tell them not to and leave it at that.
Maybe Mallory should build a little room onto her house where she can keep her kids sheltered from everything that doesn’t fit into her idea of a perfect life.
Banning books. Can you imagine?
I can’t, and it’s appalling to think there are people walking the streets who would actually consider making one single book taboo. While you may not agree with the wizardry and mysticism that the Potter books herald, no one is forcing children to read them.
People like Mallory should be feared in any free-thinking, progressive society. If you’ve read Ray Bradbury’s masterpiece — Fahrenheit 451 — then you know what I’m talking about.
In his book, Bradbury profiles a society where almost every single book is burned. And anyone caught with books not approved by the government are arrested or executed on the spot, all while their homes are burned to the ground.
It’s a serious matter when people start throwing words like “ban” around when talking about books and other forms of art and expression. I guess I take particular offense to this since my chosen profession is writing. But everyone should be upset by this.
When we live in a society that even considers banning one single book, then more bans are sure to come. Where will it end? Hopefully those in charge of this proposed ban will make the right choice and dismiss Mallory as an overprotective parent. It’s the only decision to make.
How daft can a rich and famous person actually be? If the new season of the “Oprah” show is any indication, the well-to-do celebs are pretty darn dumb. Oprah and her best friend Gayle embarked on a road trip earlier this year to find America, or their version of it, and the results can be found during her show and in a series of articles in “O” Magazine.
One of the highlights came when Oprah tried to fill up the rented Chevrolet Impala at a gas station but couldn’t figure out exactly how to go about it. Poor Oprah, who declared she hadn’t pumped gas since 1983, stumbled with the nozzle as if it were a python ready to slither around her neck and choke her.
Reality check.
Oprah really isn’t the down to earth, common gal she claims to be when “relating” to the regular people who attend her show. For example, one recent audience of the “Oprah” show received Burberry sweaters, which can ring in anywhere from $150 to $500 or more.
As her “helpers” were handing out the sweaters, Oprah proclaimed that she “has one in ever color!”
Do you know anyone who can afford to buy a $500 sweater in 12 different colors? Yet Oprah still “remembers where she came from, and that God blessed her with wealth and success.”
Oprah, spreading wealth is one thing, but flaunting it is quite another.
When people like Oprah flash their riches by saying “I have one in every color,” they are slapping the faces of everyone who could never afford one ultra-luxury item, much less 12.
Now Oprah may not even realize what she’s doing, and I doubt she even knows that she’s flaunting her wealth, but it just looks tacky.
I would like to think that if I were rich, I’d stay grounded and avoid becoming one of these people who thinks they have to buy 12 of this and 15 of that, in addition to a new Mercedes every year.
And I hope I’d never forget how to pump my own gas.
Why do rich people need all of these material things? Driving home each day, I pass a palatial mansion that’s just been built, and I can see through the windows as decorators are busily hanging pricey art and other objects that cost more than most people make in a lifetime.
I can’t help but think about why someone needs such a home. I suppose they consider it a status symbol of their wealth, or something.
Why can’t the super rich be satisfied with regular homes and with sweaters from J.C. Penny or the Gap?
It’s sad that our society places such a high value on pricey things, including fancy brand names and labels. And people like Oprah, who champion rich brands like Burberry and Saks Fifth Avenue, only make it worse.
I’ll admit that at one time in my life I too was smitten with brand names and the “value” I thought they held. But they mean nothing. I buy a set of clothes maybe once every year, picking up a few bargain shirts now and then when I need one.
Why does it matter if I spent $14 or $400 on a shirt? Who will know the difference unless I tell them? And unlike Oprah, I’m not gonna say one word about it.
There are many adjectives used to describe Ann Richards: tough, brassy, sassy, silver-tongued.
But I think one word pretty much sums her up: classy.
It's hard for me to express my feelings about Ann Richards because I considered her a part of my family. No, I never really knew her, nor did I ever meet her. But I did grow up in Texas, where she served as governor for four years during my youth.
I always thought of Ann as a grandmother figure. Having lost both of my own grandmothers at a young age, I remember watching Ann on television and thinking what a great grandma she must be.
She was full of fire and spirit, unafraid of what people thought. I'll never forget her famous line at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, where she stuck it to George Bush Sr. with the comment: "Poor George. He can't help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth."
So true.
Although that statement thrust Ann into the national spotlight, it was her wit, charm and caring nature that made her famous to Texans during the mid-1990s. She championed women's rights and appointed more women to state offices in Texas than any previous governor.
She also had fun doing it.
There's a famous photograph, shown above, of Ann on a Harley Davidson with a look of unabashed, unapologetic glee on her face. That's someone who knows how to have fun, which is rare in politics these days — it's what made her so great, though.
I'll bet late at night, in the capitol corridors in Austin, you can hear those Harley pipes revving and tires screeching. In my mind, she's somewhere in Austin tonight, cruising the streets on her shiny chrome Hog.
I was so excited when I got my new MacBook in August. I felt like a new father, caring for my new bundle of plastic as if it were human. But then I noticed that my child's skin was starting to get dirty, and it wouldn't clean. The wrist rests just below the keyboard and on either side of the track pad were turning a sickening light brown and dull grey.
I was horrified. At first, I thought it was the result of dirty hands, but then I researched the issue and found that Apple had sent out a batch of MacBooks with tainted plastics. So I called Apple in hopes of resolving the issue.
After spending three hours of my time Sunday, I finally got to talk to someone who knew something. He told me I was eligible for a new MacBook. At first I was a little shocked, thinking instead that I would have to send it off and wait for Apple to repair it.
I thought for a minute, then agreed. Luckily I don't have that much stuff on the hard drive yet, so it won't be a huge chore to copy the files to CD.
I know many other MacBook users out there are experiencing this same problem. I urge you to call Mac tech support right away to resolve the issue. After three hours of my time Sunday, I'm getting a brand new machine that hopefully won't discolor.
I turned on my television and learned the news from Dan Rather. As he reported live with the backdrop of the smoking Twin Towers, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It had to be a dream.
Rather said that two planes had hit the towers, the Pentagon, and that more could be on the way. “America is Under Attack,” according to a dark blue bar on the bottom of my tv screen.
I dropped to my knees and yelled: “Oh my God!”
Just months before, I had been at the base of the Twin Towers on a college trip to New York. A horrible feeling rushed through me, and I felt an uncontrolable urge to be with someone. Only I was home alone.
I was a sophomore at Henderson State University at the time and assistant editor at my college newspaper, so my first thought was to rush to the office and find out any information I could.
When I arrived, I saw dozens of students gathered around the televisions sets in our student center.
“What’s the latest?” I asked the crowd, not caring that I didn’t know any one of them.
I finally saw someone I knew, a girl named Ashley who sold ads for the paper, and we immediately hugged.
“I can’t believe what’s happened,” she gasped through tears.
“I know.”
That’s all I could say.
My eyes were glued to the television as the first tower fell. No one could believe the horror. Not only had the towers been struck by large airliners, now one of them had collapsed. It seemed to get worse and worse.
Later that day, our university president announced that school would close. Students scrambled around trying to find rides home because everyone thought we were at war.
This was our Pearl Harbor — our day of reckoning. And we were scared to death that something more was about to happen.
I’ve never felt such a sense of helplessness, and I can only imagine what those at ground zero went through — seeing the destruction first-hand, smelling the charred remains of xerox paper, fax machines, cars, office supplies. And people.
There is a look that everyone who was there that day has when they talk about the aftermath. They are dazed, as if in a comatose state that’s too difficult to shake. God only knows what’s going through their minds as they relive the horrors.
I know that in my own mind, just watching the events unfold on tv and the Internet, it was too much to bear.
As the fifth anniversary of the most horrific terrorist attack in world history came and went, we can only pray that nothing like this will ever happen again. God bless those who lost their lives, their families and everyone who is dealing with the aftermath of Sept. 11.
Last week I blogged about Katie Couric and how I didn't like CBS' decision to try her out as the host of its Evening News program.
Now I find myself eating my own words. I have watched the program via Internet clips and find the new format to be most pleasing. They even have clips of the news casts on the site so you can view them at your leisure.
No, CBS News did not pay me to retract my statement. I just jumped the gun a little bit, as we all do from time to time. I will admit that I think Couric is doing an admirable job in her new post. I never thought I would say that, but she is.
I also mentioned in my previous blog post that CBS should step it up a bit and go with more advanced methods of news broadcasting, e.g. blogs and online information.
And they have done that, too. So, CBS News, I say kudos to you. I think you have done a great job revamping the Evening News broadcast. And maybe you have a new fan.
I can still smell the football field. It was hot and sticky-sweet, parched from months of brutal summer sunshine but holding on to a respectable shade of green. On an early August evening, we marched and played our notes with pride — heads up, shoulders back.
We, the Rivercrest High School Rebels, were the best marching band in East Texas Class AA, and without any intentional conceit, we knew it.
Our school wasn’t very large, no more than 250 students in high school and less than 50 in our high school band, but everyone took pride in our sweet sounds.
Leading up to the first football game of the year, the band practiced everyday after school, most of the time in brutal August heat.
It’s hard to describe what being in a marching band is like for those who’ve never done it. For one thing, it’s very difficult. You not only have to memorize music, but steps that fit into the counts of the music as well. Left, right, left. A flat, B, A, C, C. It requires perfect coordination, otherwise disaster strikes — wrong notes, uncoordinated steps and crooked lines.
In the summer heat, it’s especially hard to concentrate on complicated routines, but somehow you do it. It’s like any touring entertainment show: You learn your routine, perform it at home, then take it on the road and hope for the best.
I picked up my first trumpet in sixth grade, and my father, who has been a band director for more than 40 years, taught me everything I know. I was never forced into band, I wanted to do it because it looked fun. And it is fun.
I wish more people would realize how hard band students work to entertain the half-time crowds. Sadly, though, most people are visiting the concession stand or talking on their phones when the band takes the field.
I can say from experience that there’s nothing more heartbreaking to a band student than an unresponsive crowd. The band is just as much a part of a school’s pride and heart as the football, basketball, baseball and other teams. They work just as hard and learn just as many things, yet they get little recognition.
Whether you have a student in band or not, you should take time to listen to your school’s band this football season. You might be surprised at what can be heard and seen.
There’s nothing more visceral than a really good marching band, as every sense is tickled by notes and visuals. There are bright colored flags that swirl and weave their way across the field, glitzy uniforms with plumed hats and button-down coats, and music — sweet music — that fills the thick night air, hanging over the bleachers before resting at the far corners of the stadium.
And when band students finish a show, there’s no better feeling than seeing the crowd erupt into applause. It’s at that very moment when, standing there, bright lights in your face, lips numb and exhausted, you know all of those hot summer afternoons paid off.
I'm a reporter, but I have the misfortune of being the poor sap who types in the engagement and wedding announcements for my newspaper. It's a job no one wants to do, sort of like scraping the wads of gum out of urinals or from underneath restaurant tables.
It's dirty.
Today I hit the end of my rope with these buttery, syrupy, sickening tales of high-and-low-end weddings. It never fails — some debutant feels the need to describe every last detail of her wedding dress, even how her panties look as they are draped daintily over her butt cheeks, although no one can see. And they were her grandmother's panties — you know, the ones she wore at her wedding, and the same ones grandpa nearly ripped apart trying to get at grandma's goods.
And, of course, good ol' grandma had to sew a dozen pretty pink pearls right on the bottom so they'd stand out for her granddaugther's soon-to-be husband. Yes siree.
Then there are the announcements from people who could care less about how or when they got married; they just want their name in the paper.
One announcement today proclaimed that the couple is "Searching for a 2-to-3-bedroom home in town." No shame there. That same announcement gave way to at least three phone calls to the family to confirm the spelling of names like LaKenthia and Ka'Quishia. And at one point, the lady said, "It don't mattah, they married now anyways, so it don't mattah at-tall."
"OK," I said. "I'll do my best."
And that's what I always try to do.
Days like today make it hard to muddle through, knowing that I could be writing an important article for Vanity Fair or Rolling Stone, or going back to school to get my masters degree. Ahhh, it's good life experience, though. Right?
I also got a call today from a very cute sounding girl who wanted to know if our paper publishes gay and lesbian wedding announcements.
"I would if it were up to me," I told her. "But our paper's policy is that you have to have a marriage license."
Can you imagine if we printed a gay or lesbian wedding announcement in small-town South Arkansas? I'm sure someone would firebomb the office, or at least find me and hang me up by my toes on the courthouse lawn right by General Robert E. Lee's statue.
I'll bet Lee's wife never wore pearl-covered panties, though.
NASA announced this week that it has misplaced one of its most cherished possessions: The first transmission tapes from the Apollo 11 moon landing mission.
The tapes include Neil Armstrong’s famous words, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” While there are many thousands of copies of the famous words and scenes from the moon, there’s something extra special about the originals.
And my question is, why were these priceless treasures not housed in a museum or at the national archive center?
I called NASA headquarters in Washington D.C. to try and find out more about this still developing story. A spokesman told me that to the best of his knowledge, NASA archivists are busily searching for the tapes at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, just outside of Washington D.C.
The spokesman said that a routine cleaning and inventory check showed the tapes were in fact missing from the collection — they weren’t where they were supposed to be, but they are “probably there somewhere,” he said.
That’s not very reassuring.
I’m big on history, and while old tapes filed away in a dusty room may not seem like much, everyone should realize that these tapes recorded the first-ever live transmission of a man on the moon.
These were the tapes that whirled around on massive recording machines throughout the world to catch the signal as the Earth rotated.
After the tapes were made, they were then immediately transferred to the proper format so millions of Americans could tune in to watch the broadcast.
I’m a little troubled at how dismissive NASA is being about the importance of these tapes. The spokesman told me, “It’s in the eye of the beholder. If the Smithsonian would want to display the reel behind glass, I don’t know.”
I stepped up my questioning a bit and asked the spokesman about the historic significance of the tapes. He replied, “I don’t know. It’s like a first edition book, of course it’s important. The importance of having an original, and it’s impact. But there is no impact on the space program as it stands today, it’s just part of history.”
Indeed it is.
These tapes may not have any real scientific value, and most Americans may wonder why there’s such a fuss over their exact whereabouts, but to these people I say this:
Think of it as a home movie of your deceased loved ones, people you love and admire, but who are no longer here to share that love and affection with you.
While you have photos and other images of them, it would be nice to have an original piece of their historic lives. The tapes are as important as Lincoln’s stove-top hat or the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia.
They’re a part of who we are, and I hope that NASA can find them before they’re sold on eBAY.
I've never written about food before, but after the tacos I made tonight, I just had to share the recipe. I read an article once in the New York Times about "Traditional tacos." The kind you can't find at any restaurant unless you're on the West Coast — and they're most definitely not available at Taco Bell. Here's what you do:
•Cut three full-sized tomatoes into small pieces, just like you'd do for fresh salsa.
•Mince three large cloves of garlic.
•Finely chop one jalapeno pepper, sans seeds.
•Chop one large purple onion (purple tastes better).
•Finely chop several bunches of cilantro (use to taste).
•Cut one lime in half, squeeze one of the halves into a container for later use.
•Combine everything together in a bowl, then pour the lime juice over it, mix with salt and let stand for 30 minutes.
•Sautee chicken or beef in an electric skilled (you can also grill the meat). I use Cavenders seasoning, along with garlic and the juice from the other half of the lime for seasoning. I also add a little cilantro in while I'm cooking the chicken.
•After the meat is ready, combine with pico de gayo in a regular taco shell and enjoy with shredded lettuce and cheese.
For those of you on my list who don't know Paul Eells, he was the voice of the Arkansas Razorbacks, and I admired him greatly, as did thousands, if not millions, of others. I wrote my column this week about him, and thought I would share it.
I looked at my radio yesterday and thought that maybe, just maybe, if I closed my eyes and turned the knob, I could hear Paul Eells calling a Razorback football game. But I knew it wasn’t true.
The silence was almost too much to bear.
For me, and likely thousands of others across this state, Razorback football will never be the same again. Not without those trademark “Touchdown Arkansas! Oh my!” exclamations, and the traditional, easygoing play-by-play calls that Eells made famous.
It’s hard to even look at a radio right now, knowing that Eells’ voice will never again be there, live and in person, as he was every Saturday in the fall.
The loss of Eells has deeply saddened the state this week. He died Monday evening in a head-on collision with Dover resident Billie Jo Burton on Interstate 40 near Russellville. He was 70. Burton, 40, also died in the accident.
There was just something special about hearing Eells on the radio. Whenever the Hogs played on television, I always muted the volume and cranked up the ARSN radio broadcast so I could hear Eells’ comments and perspective.
No matter how bad the Hogs were doing that day, Eells’ voice always soothed the wounds. The man with a gentle, endearing smile was Arkansas’ prime minister of sports, as some news reports are saying, and I couldn’t agree more.
He was as kind in person as he was on the radio — always respectful and taking time to greet his fans. But he never had an ego; instead, he carried his popularity deep inside his pocket, far away from the shoulder that most celebrities prop theirs on.
I never had a chance to meet Eells, but I always saw him in downtown Little Rock going to and from the KATV building that sits just across from the Democrat-Gazette, where I worked for three years.
Meeting him one day was always a goal, and unfortunately it’s one I put off for too long. I had plenty of chances, as several of my friends worked at KATV at one time or another. They all told me how endearing he was and how welcome he made them feel. That was classic Paul Eells, thinking of others before himself.
When asked about his life spent in broadcasting, Eells would most always say that he was “at the tail-end of a mediocre career.” Mr. Eells, that couldn’t be further from the truth. You were truly a legend in this state, and everyone considered you to be at the top of your game.
You will be missed by everyone, including this reporter who knew you always gave it your best. And you did. You truly did.
At left: Takera Kobayashi competes at the annual Independence Day hot dog eating contest at Nathan's on Coney Island.
Nothing says summer like a nice juicy hot dog slathered in mustard and relish. Throw on a few onions and you’ve got yourself a great meal. But what about eating 53 hot dogs in 12 minutes? As crazy as it sounds, a Japanese man downed more than five dozen hot dogs — without condiments — to take home home first prize at the annual Independence Day hot dog eating competition on Coney Island.
His bright yellow hair dominating the eating table, Takera Kobayashi, 27, earned his sixth straight title at the the original Nathan’s Famous hot dog stand in Brooklyn, where the contest is held each year.
After his victory, a very full Kobayashi lifted up his shirt to reveal a bloated belly, which featured defined abdominal muscles that are a sign of his physical fitness. Even though he’s a competitive eater, Kobayashi has little body fat and appears to be in top physical condition.
Maybe Kobayashi’s secret to keeping the weight off has something to do with his unique diet. Take his dinner a few years ago for example. Kobayashi downed 17.7 pounds of fried cow brains in several minutes to win $25,000. Crazy? Yes. But it’s all part of the strange world of competitive eating.
People will eat just about anything at a competition. There are jalapeno eating contests, hard boiled egg eating contests, matzo ball eating contests and, of course, the original watermelon and pie eating contests. Heck, there would be rock eating contests if our teeth and digestive systems could handle all those hard minerals.
What’s more surprising is that competitive eating is governed by a federation, which is dedicated to preserving the integrity of this activity — it’s known as the International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE).
According to IFOCE’s Web site, there are members and affiliates of that organization throughout the world, including the United States, Japan, England, Germany, Canada, Ireland, Thailand and the Ukraine.
Apparently competitive eating is indeed a sport, at least in the IFOCE’s eyes. But I just can’t see competitive eating making its way into the Olympics anytime soon. If you’re interested in seeing one of these competitions in person, the next one will be held at Lincoln City, Ore., as eaters vie for the top spot at the Chinook Winds World Rib Eating Championship.
A rib eating contest in Oregon? Something doesn’t sound right about that to me. Memphis, Kansas City or Austin, now that’s where you have rib eating competitions.
But I digress.
Visiting the IFOCE Web site is fascinating. There are records, rankings and even eater “bib sheets” that show pictures and brief biographies of those brave enough to eat five dozen of this or six dozen of that.
Cookie Johnson, 39, of Nesconsett, N.Y., weighs in at 419 pounds and can eat 21 cannoli — a favorite Italian dessert — in six minutes, according to his bib sheet. What about chicken wings? No problem. He can down more than two pounds of them in five minutes. And that chicken fried steak never had a chance, as Johnson devoured six 11-ounce steaks in 12 minutes. These amazing culinary feats were accomplished on different occasions, of course, but they are still very impressive.
Then there’s Sonya Thomas, a thin-as-a-rail 37-year-old woman from Alexandria, Va., who many consider the messiah of competitive eating. Her records include: 8.31 pounds of Vienna sausages in 10 minutes, 11 pounds of cheesecake in nine minutes, 80 chicken nuggets in five minutes, 167 chicken wings in 32 minutes and 65 — yes, 65 — hard boiled eggs in just under six minutes.
While most of us would have grabbed the barf bags after eating a fraction of the items listed above, eaters like Thomas and Johnson wear these statistics as badges of honor. Afterall, as they say, they’re “in it to win it.”
A quote from Thomas’ bib sheet offers the perfect summation: “There is an century-old prophesy within the competitive eating community, dismissed by most, that foretells the rise of the One Eater, a woman who will electrify America's gurgitators and lead them to international victory once again.
“Like Joan of Arc before her, this eater will be slender of stature, but mighty in strength. In recent months, the prophesy has been mentioned more and more frequently as the eaters have watched Sonya Thomas excel in nearly every contest she enters.”
Some satire for a Friday. LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who has championed weight loss over the past two years after losing more than 100 pounds, confused and angered many patrons at a Little Rock McDonald's Friday morning as he "snatched and grabbed Big Mac after Big Mac from customers' hands," according to store manager Jim Latrell.
Latrell said Arkansas State Troopers quickly whisked Huckabee out of the store, located on Broadway in downtown Little Rock, and into a limousine after the incident. Calls to the governor's office were unreturned Friday.
"I've never seen anything like it," said Latrell, who has been manager at the Broadway McDonald's since January. "He had this wild look in his eyes, and he just kept saying, 'I want meat, I want meat.'"
According to witnesses, Huckabee had been jogging down Broadway when he was spotted running toward the McDonald's restaurant, which he entered with the state trooper and his wife, Janet Huckabee.
Harold Watkins was one of the governor's victims and said Huckabee ran toward him, reaching for his recently purchased Big Mac. "He said to me, 'It's mine now bitch, I'm the governor of this state!'" Watkins said. "Of course I let him have it. He is the governor, and he looked mighty hungry."
Before Huckabee departed the scene, his wife wrapped him up in some type of "space blanket," according to witnesses, and consoled him.
Picture it: The U.S. government gives you a debit card worth $1,000 or, in some cases, much more. You smile, nod and jump up and down as soon as Uncle Sam turns his back. Then you head to your neighborhood porn store or travel agent to blow the entire mini-fortune on debauchery and a couple cheap thrills.
That’s exactly what happened with billions of dollars in FEMA aid after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. Our hard earned tax dollars went for everything from “Girls Gone Wild” videos to booze and even a sex change operation, all right under the nose of the Fed.
Other items purchased include: • An all-inclusive, one-week Caribbean vacation in the Punta Cana resort in the Dominican Republic. • Five season tickets to New Orleans Saints professional football games. • Dom Perignon champagne and other alcoholic beverages in San Antonio. • A $1,000 payment to a Houston divorce lawyer.
Reports surfaced Wednesday that as much as $1.4 billion, or 16 percent of the billions of dollars that were supposed to be spent for legitimate purposes by hurricane victims, was instead squandered by dishonest people.
The fraud stems from a debit card program designed to make it easy for hurricane victims to spend government relief dollars. Problem is, it made it way too easy for crooks to step in and claim funds for themselves.
The government issued the little blue debit cards, which are identical to any debit or credit card, save the word “E-funds” that’s stamped in bold, white letters across the front, after the hurricane struck last September.
And the fraud began almost immediately after the first set of cards were issued.
The problem could have been avoided had FEMA been responsible (insert hearty laugh here) and actually followed some sort of procedure. They didn’t validate the identities of registrants, nor did they verify physical locations of reported damaged addresses. Big brother fell asleep on the job.
They just handed out money hand over fist, and the greedy, grubbing thieves got more than their fair share while the innocent victims suffered.
A Wednesday Associated Press report says, “A supposed victim who used a New Orleans cemetery for a home address and a person who spent 70 days at a Hawaiian hotel all were able to get taxpayer help, according to evidence that gives a new black eye to the nation’s disaster relief agency.”
Much more than a black eye, I’d say. And these are just the preliminary reports. Imagine what could surface a month from now when more tales of fraud surface. I’m not as upset about the misuse of funds — although it is horrible — as I am about taking money from those who really need it.
Call me naive, but it’s hard to imagine that people would willingly and knowingly take funds away from children, families and elderly people who so desperately need it.
And the government let it happen — it was easy. You could have done it. I could have done it. Currently, FEMA has reportedly identified more than 1,500 cases of potential fraud after Katrina and Rita and has referred those cases to the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general, according to the AP.
So far, the agency has only identified $16.8 million in improperly awarded disaster relief money and has started efforts to collect the money. But it’s highly unlikely that any funds can be regained. It’s already spent, afterall.
What a shame.
Thursday, June 08, 2006
SPECIAL REPORT
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has an eye opening article in this week's Rolling Stone magazine. Click here to read it.
This is something I feel very strongly about, and I truly believe everything that Kennedy outlines in the article. The Republicans threw the election, just as they did in the 2000 bloodbath with the mysterious "chads" on the Floridian ballots.
This runs far deeper than political propaganda; it's something that everyone should be outraged about, and we should demand satisfaction. Our country was founded on the basic right that we, as Americans, would be able to vote and have those votes accurately counted. If our country cannot guarantee that each vote will be counted legally, then why are we even here? The RS article is very long, but I urge everyone to read it.
Thought I would post some photos from the 2006 Bearden Gazebo Festival Car Show, of which I was co-chair, along with my dad. We had a Ferrari enter from Little Rock, and it won the best in show award. Enjoy the pics.
This is a 2000 Ferarri 355, with a V10 that has nearly 500 horses.
I'm a writer. I procrastinate, I love, I breathe, I bleed, I think, I overanalyze things. I love documentary films, and I want to make them one day. I also want to write a book, probably non-fiction. I love to write, but I definitely have to be in the right mood, like all writers. If you ever want your car washed, house cleaned and dinner cooked, just find a writer who has a big assignment ahead of him. He will be glad to do anything for a distraction. Trust me.
Instead of devouring a 15 pound bird to get your holiday meal fix this Thanksgiving Day, why not down a bottle of turkey and gravy flavored soda? Or how about a nice pea-flavored soda, followed by one that tastes like sweet potatoes?
