Tuesday, October 23, 2007

This is the compromise proposal


When indiscriminate sex becomes an entitlement program and a children's-rights issue, it's not long at all before we start treating our children like animals, and parents start acting like pet owners -- only without the doting -- and health-care professionals become veterinarians for bipeds.

Then again, that would be an insult to the compassionate and professional veterinarians I have known.

Here's a story from the Portland (Maine) Press Herald
about a school board member's proposal that is all the more ridiculous for being a compromise measure, as opposed to the undiluted evil of last week's original decision:

A Portland School Committee member wants to give parents the power to keep their children from participating in a controversial new plan to make prescription birth control available to students at King Middle School.

Benjamin Meiklejohn submitted a resolution Monday, to be considered by the committee on Nov. 7. The proposal would give parents the option to block access to prescription contraception if they enroll their children in the King Student Health Center.

Meiklejohn's proposal also would limit access to prescription contraception such as "the pill" and "the patch" to students who are at least 14 years old.

The committee's 7-2 vote last week would make King the first middle school in Maine to offer a full range of contraception in grades 6 to 8, when students are 11 to 15 years old, school officials said.

Meiklejohn said some committee members urged him to delay submitting his resolution, fearing it would fan the flames of a national media frenzy over the committee's decision. But Meiklejohn said it would be a mistake to put off action on an issue that has divided the community.

"We should bring some resolution to this issue as soon as possible," said Meiklejohn, who voted against providing prescription birth control at King.

Although students need written parental permission to be treated at King's health center, state law allows them to receive confidential care for reproductive health, mental health and substance abuse issues. So parents who allow their children to be treated there may never know whether their children receive the pill or the patch or any other reproductive health care.

King's health center, which is operated by the city's Public Health Division, has provided condoms as part of comprehensive reproductive health care since it opened in 2000.

John Coyne, School Committee chairman, said he supports the general ideas behind Meiklejohn's proposal, but he wants to make sure it wouldn't break state laws that ensure access to health care and privacy of minors. Coyne also voted against offering prescription contraception at King.

"I would never want to put out something for the board to vote on that is illegal," Coyne said. "If we can figure out the legal issues around this decision, maybe we can come up with something a little more palatable to me and others."

Committee members Rebecca Minnick and Susan Hopkins said they probably wouldn't vote to reduce the scope of reproductive health services provided at King. Other committee members couldn't be reached for comment Monday.

"If it saves one girl from getting pregnant too soon, it's worth it," Minnick said.

OR, AS DOSTOEVSKY once wrote:

Now assume there is no God or immortality of the soul. Now tell me, why should I live righteously and do good deeds if I am to die entirely on earth?. . . And if that is so, why shouldn't I (as long as I can rely on my cleverness and agility to avoid being caught by the law) cut another man's throat , rob, and steal.

Or, for that matter, give birth-control pills and patches to 11-year-old girls. After all, in Portland, they're already giving rubbers to 11-year-old boys.

It's been my experience that people generally act like animals only when those in power assume that they are, then treat them accordingly. And that includes the realm of lowered, or nonexistent, expectations.

Our dignity lies in He who created us. Otherwise, we're somewhat smarter than Fido, but about half as pleasant to be around.

It takes a voter to put a crook into office

Or, in this case, alleged crook.

Anyway, in today's latest lesson on "Crooked politicians don't just grow on trees on the capitol grounds," we have the latest Louisiana politician in the feds' crosshairs: state Sen. Derrick Shepherd.

I COULD GO ON AND ON, but The Times-Picayune in New Orleans tells the story so well:
An FBI agent testified in open court Monday that state Sen. Derrick Shepherd helped a twice-convicted felon launder nearly $141,000 in fraudulently generated bond fees last year, keeping close to half the money as part of the arrangement.

Shepherd was easily re-elected to the state Senate on Saturday, winning 61 percent of the vote. Last year, he finished a strong third in a 2006 run for Congress and then endorsed the embattled incumbent, U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, helping him secure a ninth term.

Special Agent Peter Smith testified that Shepherd, a lawyer who often handles personal-injury cases, attempted to make his dealings with bond broker Gwendolyn Joseph Moyo appear legitimate by writing the words "settlement proceeds" on the memo lines of the checks.

However, investigators have found no evidence that Shepherd did any legal work for Moyo, Smith said, although he said that Shepherd had delivered a "vague invoice" to a federal grand jury to explain the payments. The document was basically illegible, Smith said.

"To me, it looks like he was trying to disguise it, to make it look like this was for a personal-injury case," Smith said of the notations in the checks' memo lines.

"I suppose the government takes the position that it's money laundering?" Moyo's attorney, Pat Fanning, asked Smith.

"Yes," Smith testified.

In a telephone interview, Shepherd strongly denied committing a crime.

"At no time have I ever testified before a grand jury, nor at any time have I ever committed any crime whatsoever -- state, local or federal -- in my life," Shepherd said.

"To all of the rest of your questions, no comment," he said.

The allegations involving Shepherd burst into public view during what would normally be a low-key proceeding: a detention hearing for Moyo, who investigators say sold a series of bogus construction bonds.

Moyo, 52, who owns a home in the Eastover subdivision of eastern New Orleans, was arrested at the federal courthouse Thursday after she arrived at the grand jury room without any of the documents she was ordered to bring.

While Moyo is at the center of the government's case, it was clear at Monday's hearing that the government is investigating Shepherd's involvement. Smith said Shepherd has already been interviewed by FBI agents in connection with the inquiry.

They still have questions for him, Smith indicated at another point, saying with a grin that Shepherd has "been invited to the grand jury."

Fanning suggested that prosecutors' desire to jail Moyo was partially borne of a desire to pressure her to "flip" on Shepherd. He noted pointedly that Moyo would not agree to "wear a wire" when the FBI first interviewed her in July.

"Do you remember my client being asked to cooperate against Derrick Shepherd?" Fanning asked Smith.

"I don't remember specifically saying that, but I probably did," the agent said.

Moyo has yet to be charged with a crime, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike Magner told U.S. Magistrate Judge Alma Chasez that he expects a grand jury will indict her this week. Moyo was arrested based on a complaint filed by Smith last week.

Moyo's first conviction, for issuing false contractor bonds, came in Arizona in 1989.

She won some notoriety in the Washington, D.C., area when she offered the following year to testify against Mayor Marion Barry, a friend of hers, regarding what the Washington Post described as "alleged drug use and contracting irregularities."

But her attorney said that prosecutors couldn't meet her terms, and she never turned state's evidence. The following year, Moyo was convicted of using a fake Social Security number.

After her first conviction, she was banned by law from the insurance business. But she didn't stay away from it for good.

YOU KNOW, politicians in my home state may have the equivalent of a Ph.D in crooked, but Louisiana voters are definitely riding the short bus. Which goes a long way in explaining a lot.


It’s just brazen down here. In Louisiana,
they skim the cream, steal the milk,

hijack the bottle and look for the cow.

-- James Bernazzani, the FBI's guy in New Orleans


Monday, October 22, 2007

Because, no doubt, it's in Hell


Louisiana Hearts Kids . . . the story continues

From the New Orleans Times-Picayune:
Alice Harte to close Tuesday

Posted by West Bank bureau October 22, 2007 5:15PM

Alice Harte Charter School in Algiers will be closed Tuesday, due to roof leaks and flooding caused by today's severe rainstorms.

Officials regret the inconvenience and are doing everything they can to get students back into the facility as soon as possible, said Brian Riedlinger, chief executive officer of the Algiers Charter School Association.

"Unfortunately, this building has a lot of problems, and weather like this really illustrates the need to upgrade our school facilities," he said.

Parents should monitor the news for information on the possibility of resuming classes Wednesday.

Earlier this year, officials condemned two classrooms at Harte, due to severe mold infestations. They relocated some students to a church across the street to await remediation and repairs.

Harte currently serves students in kindergarten through eighth grade.


For more information, parents can call the ACSA's Central Office at (504) 393-0926. Teachers and staff are expected to report to school Tuesday.

The answer is 'No!'

Some people got a lot of nerve. Here's a good one from The Associated Press:

President Bush asked Congress on Monday for another $46 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and finance other national security needs. "We must provide our troops with the help and support they need to get the job done," Bush said.

The figure brings to $196.4 billion the total requested by the administration for operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere for the budget year that started Oct. 1. It includes $189.3 billion for the Defense Department, $6.9 billion for the State Department and $200 million for other agencies.

To date, Congress has already provided more than $455 billion for the Iraq war, with stepped-up military operations running about $10 billion a month. The war has claimed the lives of more than 3,830 members of the U.S. military and more than 73,000 Iraqi civilians.

Bush made his request in the Roosevelt Room after meeting in the Oval Office with leaders of veterans service organizations, a fallen Marine's family and military personnel who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The White House originally asked for $141.7 billion for the Pentagon to prosecute the Iraq and Afghanistan missions and asked for $5.3 billion more in July. The latest request includes $42.3 billion more for the Pentagon - already revealed in summary last month - and is accompanied by a modified State Department request bringing that agency's total for the 2008 budget year to almost $7 billion.

Bush said any member of Congress who wants to see success in Iraq, and see U.S. troops return home, should strongly support the request.

"I know some in Congress are against the war and are seeking ways to demonstrate that opposition," Bush said. "I recognize their position and they should make their views heard. But they ought to make sure our troops have what it takes to succeed. Our men and women on the front lines should not be caught the middle of partisan disagreements in Washington, D.C."

Democrats were not swayed.

"We've been fighting for America's priorities while the president continues investing only in his failed war strategy - and wants us to come up with another $200 billion and just sign off on it?" said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "President Bush should not expect Congress to rubber stamp his latest supplemental request. We're not going to do that."

So far, President Bush has spent the better part of a trillion dollars just to dig a deeper and deeper hole. And we all know what they say about the definition of insanity. . . .

No.

No, Mr. President, no more money for your stupid little war. Bring the troops home before they get in the way of the Turks taking care of their own War Against Terror against our terrorist friends, the Kurds.
Bring the troops home before you and your crazy-ass vice president get any more bright ideas. No more money. No, no and hell no.

The proper congressional response to Bush's latest mau-mauing, ideally, would lie in drawing up articles of impeachment.

Not likely, but we can dream.

Dear Auburn: Sucks to be you


By the way, the ESPN announcers were being melodramatic. Look at the clock: Barring an interception, the worst-case scenario would be the receiver bobbling the ball for a second or two, and Louisiana State having to kick a field goal with a second left.

That's because the refs WOULD have had to put time back on the clock after an incompletion. Again, look at the video. Demetrius Byrd catches that ball with four seconds left, maybe three and a half.

There would have been time for a field goal.

But the Tigers didn't need it, now,
did they?

Carl Dubois of The Advocate in Baton Rouge has much, much more.

What the hell . . . ?


What IS it with Matt Drudge and his "hell" fixation?

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Louisiana elects a Band-Aid, buys a little time

A New Orleans blogger apologizes for saying Louisiana governor-elect Bobby Jindal was "a right-wing nut job." He, apparently, should have said Jindal "seems like a right-wing nut job."

Well, we all have our opinions. And calling somebody a nut job, in the realm of politics, is definitely a venial sin.

Me, I think -- looking south from up here in Omaha, Neb. -- that Jindal might be a lot of things, but "nut job" isn't one of them.

I am not a right-winger, and I'm not even a Republican.
The last New Deal Democrat standing . . . maybe.

BUT IF YOU ASK ME -- which you haven't -- Louisiana is in such bad shape that I don't think standard politics, or standard political thinking, cuts it anymore. I mean, I pretty much deplore how Jindal toes the Bush party line in Congress on many things. And I say this as someone who's the oddest of political birds, the Socially Conservative Political Progressive.

Jindal, however, passed the Who'll Run Louisiana Test on three counts:

1) He has a brain . . . and something of a plan,

2) He has a strong reputation of not being "ethically challenged," and ran on an ethics-reform platform,

3) He's not your typical Louisiana knuckle-dragging, good-ole-boy incompetent.

IN THE SHAPE LOUISIANA'S IN, that's all that matters.

The Crescent City blogger (Editor B, whose site I greatly enjoy, by the way) is disturbed by Jindal's seeming support for the "intelligent design" approach to "origin studies"-- which, by the way, is distinct from "creationism" ("science" slathered over a literalistic approach to the Genesis account of creation).

I can appreciate how that might be of interest. On the other hand . . . so what? As a Catholic, I (with my Church) am agnostic on how God created the universe and life on earth. If scientific evidence points toward evolution over billions of years, fine.

(My problem with "intelligent design" isn't that I think it ultimately is untrue, it's that I think it's philosophy, not hard science.)

BUT I DIGRESS. "Intelligent design" isn't an issue, because it's not gonna be taught (the courts will see to that), and Jindal has bigger fish to fry than trying to make it so.

The bottom line is whether Jindal can make any difference in bringing effective governance to what pretty clearly is a failed state. The problem with Louisiana is the same as it was 140 years ago (and more) -- a deeply deviant civic culture.

Simply, Louisianians have had serious, serious problems figuring out this self-governance thing ever since Thomas Jefferson bought the place and imposed democratic rule. Louisianians, I am ashamed and sad to say, have had serious, serious problems in crafting government capable of fostering an overall standard of living on a par with the rest of the First World.

FOR A WHILE NOW, I have referred to my home state as high-functioning Third World.
And New Orleans might not even be that.

In a situation as desperate as that, all the fine points of political haggling go out the window.

There is no such thing as a messiah in politics, but Louisiana simply has no chance whatsoever (and it is down to its last chance before descending to some sort of permanent American Chechnya) without a critical mass of competent, visionary and honest leaders.

I think Jindal came closest to that standard, and I'm glad that Mitch Landrieu will keep his job as lieutenant governor. Frankly, faded country-music star Sammy Kershaw would have been an embarrassment the state hardly could have afforded.

BUT EVEN WITH SOMEONE like Jindal as governor, I think the state still faces extremely long odds. And I think I've found the near-perfect "little story" that illustrates the "big story."
(You've heard this before, but it's worth repeating over . . . and over . . . and over again.)

Go to these links:

* Home is where the heartbreak is

* More scenes from 'America's next great city'


THESE POSTS contain pictures of my alma mater, Baton Rouge Magnet High, that I took last month when I was back home on vacation. I suspect there are schools all over Baton Rouge -- all over Louisiana -- that don't look much different.

This doesn't look like the United States. This looks like a rural school in a poor Chinese province -- I know; I just saw one last week on the NBC Nightly News. That poor Chinese school looked like a tiny version of Baton Rouge High.

What does it say about Baton Rouge, or Louisiana, when conditions most American communities would deem unfit for stray animals are thought to be perfectly OK for children? And when such has been deemed OK for children for a very long time?

After all, it takes a couple of decades of complete neglect for a school to turn into the kind of dump BRMHS is now.

Trust me. When I graduated from Baton Rouge High in 1979, it was the nicest public school I'd ever attended. (My entire school career was spent in Baton Rouge.) Back then, BRMHS was nice. All the other public schools I'd gone to were varying degrees of dumps.

Now, this is what the city's "flagship" public school looks like.

And this is exactly what a failed state looks like.

If the electorate doesn't care any more than that for public-school children -- for their own children, and for the children of every family that can't afford private school -- all is lost.

BOBBY JINDAL CAN'T FIX THAT. He can't make Louisianians give a damn or even pretend like they belong to a functioning civilization. Only Louisianians themselves can do that.

But until they do, Jindal is the only slim hope of even postponing the day when the rest of the country gives up on Louisiana for good.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Download the Big Show now and get a free. . . .

Sometimes, you just don't know what to write about your own aural extravaganza. That's "podcast" to you and me.

I get sick and tired of saying "It's hip! It's hep! It's eclectic! It rocks!" every week. It is all those things every week, but you just get damned tired of saying that over and over and over again.

But you have to write something for these stupid program descriptions and blog posts, you know?

So maybe I'll just say, "Listen and you'll get rich beyond your wildest dreams! You'll achieve enlightenment! Your relationships will be so much richer! Your maleness will be enhanced! Your man's maleness will be enhanced! Your woman will be enhanced!!! Your woman will be hottt!!! Download the Revolution 21 podcast and receive a free iPhone!"

And, unlike the spam in your inbox, this won't cost you a dime.

C'mon, cut a Favog a break and listen, huh?

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Make time to watch this


Sometimes, it's all about the head fake.

You think you're watching a brilliant, funny and poignant "last lecture" by Carnegie Mellon computer-science professor Randy Pausch -- one that really was his last lecture. He's dying of pancreatic cancer, and only has months to live.

That's what you think. Because it's all about the head fake.

Here's part of a
Wall Street Journal Online column by Jeff Zaslow:

The 46-year-old father of three has pancreatic cancer and expects to live for just a few months. His lecture, using images on a giant screen, turned out to be a rollicking and riveting journey through the lessons of his life.

He began by showing his CT scans, revealing 10 tumors on his liver. But after that, he talked about living. If anyone expected him to be morose, he said, "I'm sorry to disappoint you." He then dropped to the floor and did one-handed push ups.

Clicking through photos of himself as a boy, he talked about his childhood dreams: to win giant stuffed animals at carnivals, to walk in zero gravity, to design Disney rides, to write a World Book entry. By adulthood, he had achieved each goal. As proof, he had students carry out all the huge stuffed animals he'd won in his life, which he gave to audience members. After all, he doesn't need them anymore.

He paid tribute to his techie background. "I've experienced a deathbed conversion," he said, smiling. "I just bought a Macintosh." Flashing his rejection letters on the screen, he talked about setbacks in his career, repeating: "Brick walls are there for a reason. They let us prove how badly we want things." He encouraged us to be patient with others. "Wait long enough, and people will surprise and impress you." After showing photos of his childhood bedroom, decorated with mathematical notations he'd drawn on the walls, he said: "If your kids want to paint their bedrooms, as a favor to me, let 'em do it."

While displaying photos of his bosses and students over the years, he said that helping others fulfill their dreams is even more fun than achieving your own. He talked of requiring his students to create video games without sex and violence. "You'd be surprised how many 19-year-old boys run out of ideas when you take those possibilities away," he said, but they all rose to the challenge.

He also saluted his parents, who let him make his childhood bedroom his domain, even if his wall etchings hurt the home's resale value. He knew his mom was proud of him when he got his Ph.D, he said, despite how she'd introduce him: "This is my son. He's a doctor, but not the kind who helps people."

He then spoke about his legacy. Considered one of the nation's foremost teachers of video game and virtual-reality technology, he helped develop "Alice," a Carnegie Mellon software project that allows people to easily create 3-D animations. It had one million downloads in the past year, and usage is expected to soar.

"Like Moses, I get to see the Promised Land, but I don't get to step foot in it," Dr. Pausch said. "That's OK. I will live on in Alice."

SEE, PAUSCH'S LECTURE was far more than just a dying professor's parting words of wisdom to his students and colleagues. That, he said at the end, was the head fake. This was a dying father giving life lessons to his three small children, lessons they will see someday on an old DVD, delivered by a long-dead father they barely remember.

And they will be enveloped by his love. Death can separate a man's body and soul, but it holds no sway over love. Love defeats death every time.

There's a final head fake, though.

You get to the end of the hour-plus lecture, and something else hits you. And you are shattered by the realization.

Pausch's final lecture -- this tender message from father to children -- was a tender mesage from a Father to His children. He just needed to apply a little head fake to get us to listen to what He had to say.

The trouble with cause célèbres

KALB television in Alexandria, La., asks viewers what they think of two Jena Six defendants going to the BET Hip Hop Awards:

Should the “Jena Six” be celebrated?

Two members of the “Jena Six” spent the weekend basking in the glow of being celebrities.

Bryant Purvis and Carwin Jones are two of the teens with court action pending in the beating of fellow student Justin Barker in Jena High School last year. The case has become a lightning rod for discussion on race relations around the nation ever since a rally attended by thousands was held last month.

I'LL BET you can guess what folks thought.

The trouble with cause célèbres is that sometimes those who have been wronged aren't exactly sympathetic characters . . . or just aren't very bright. And then people lose sight of the fundamental issue because, well, who wants to back a jackass?

Which is why whoever told these two Jena Sixers it was acceptable to go to the BET gala and preen for the paparazzi and press ought to have his head examined. Assuming there's anything in there to examine.

If I were their lawyer -- already looking at the prospect of another trial by all-white jury in the home of the "white tree" -- I would be needing a fresh pair of BVDs right now.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Before you succumb to fashion . . . .

Before you follow the crowd and surrender your aesthetic sense to the latest ridiculous fashion in clothing, body piercing, tattoos, home decor, music or . . . eye wear, look upon this 1977 advertisement for Texas State Optical.

OY VEH. These Diane Von Furstenberg glasses were fashionable. They were popular. Lots of women in 1977 wore eyeglasses that looked a lot like this.

Is it a hottie, or is it a guppy? I can't exactly tell. Let me get my glasses.

Or, as the Spanish poet, novelist and philosopher George Santayana famously advised us, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

So, before you abandon all common sense and follow the crowd, remember those hideous, hideous eyeglasses.

And don't get me started on some of the awful clothes we wore back then.

What hath Bubba wrought?!?

More and more, it looks like when three little redneck bigots in Jena, La., hung nooses from their high school's "white tree," what they really did was light a long fuse.

That fuse, thus far, has led to and set off various small racial bombs. And the fuse yet burns. We know not where the last bomb lay, nor do we know its size.

YESTERDAY'S U.S. House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Jena Six, however, gives us some clues.
The Politico reports:

The House Judiciary Committee hearing would have drawn a packed audience regardless — a crowd that is, by Capitol Hill standards, remarkably diverse — because the topic involves the Jena Six, a half-dozen African-American kids whose moniker has become the rallying cry of a resurgent civil rights movement.

(snip)

The room has a tense and excited feel to it. Two representatives of the Justice Department, Donald Washington, a U.S. attorney from the Western District of Louisiana, and Lisa Krigsten, representing the civil rights division, must defend the department for its decision not to press hate crime charges against teenage noose hangers in Jena, La., and for not doing enough to intervene in a racially disparate prosecution. Washington, an African-American, will draw the most heat from the committee.

“I’m sure we’re all familiar with the alleged facts,” says Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), though he and several Democrats enumerate them anyway:

On Aug. 31, 2006, “all Hades broke loose,” as Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) puts it. Three nooses were hung from what was known as the “white tree” at Jena High School after a black student requested the principal’s permission to sit under it. No charges were filed, and the culpable students, initially expelled, had their punishment reduced to a suspension and family counseling.

Tensions rose, and white District Attorney Reed Walters — who doubled as the school’s attorney — reportedly told students to cool it or he would “erase their lives with the stroke of a pen.”

Later that fall, one of the Jena Six, Robert Bailey Jr., had a gun pulled on him by a white student. Bailey wrestled the gun from him and was charged with stealing it; the white student was charged with nothing. Tensions rose further and white students were “calling folks niggers out in the school yard,” says Johnson.

Then in December, six black students beat up a white kid, Justin Barker. “There was a small degree of physical injury to the white student who attended a party,” says Johnson. The six were charged with attempted murder, and the story went national 10 months later when Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson Jr. got involved.

(snip)

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) also stands up for Barker and says that the beating is more significant than the hanging of the noose. Although, he concedes, “I know I come from a part of the country where there’s less sensitivity to that.”

“We see things different,” agrees Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.). She goes on to point out that while Democrats are talking about racial injustice, GOP members are “talking about single-parent families.”

By 11 a.m., the man most likely to do some disagreeing still isn’t here, and that’s just fine with Rep. Howard Coble (R-N.C.). “If I were compiling a group of witnesses” with the goal of racial harmony, he says, “I don’t know if Mr. Sharpton would make the cut.”

“He may be here shortly,” warns Conyers.

“He may be looking for me,” worries Coble. Indeed, a few moments later, chatter fills the courtroom as Sharpton makes his way to his center chair and cameras flash.

Conyers recognizes Sharpton, who apologizes, claiming his flight from New York was delayed two hours. Sharpton draws press attention, but he also draws scrutiny: During recess, a Washington Post reporter goes online to fact-check flight departure and arrival times.

Sharpton, though, for all his star power, ends up a minor player in the hearing, overshadowed by the emotion filling the room. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) betrays some of the sensitivity King referred to as she questions the Justice Department witnesses.

“I am almost in tears. Mychal Bell is now in jail. ... The tragedy of this case is that it called out for federal intervention for the protection of children,” she says. “Shame on you.”

Krigsten struggles to maintain a half-smile as Jackson Lee grows louder, directing her anger now at Washington, who she pointedly notes is the first black western district attorney. “I’m asking you to find a way to release Mychal Bell and the Jena Six,” Jackson Lee cries. “What are you doing now?!”

The room erupts in applause and shouts. At Washington’s answer — that he did what he could — the crowd hisses as Conyers tries to regain control.

The next to pile onto Washington is Waters, who adds that she is disappointed that the district attorney, who was invited to the hearing, chose not to show. The crowd breaks out in repeated shouts of “Subpoena!”

“You do have the power of the subpoena,” Waters reminds Conyers, reigniting the crowd: “Use it! Use it! Subpoena!” Conyers sits through the outburst but makes no indication of whether he will subpoena Walters.

THE CONGRESSMAN FROM IOWA, Steve King, is from just across the river from here. He is somewhere to the right of . . . well, probably everybody not already in some Idaho enclave. And, like many Midwesterners, he is clueless about race in America.

Where and when I grew up -- in the Deep South, in the '60s and '70s -- white people often were malicious about race. Here of most white Midwesterners like King just don't get it and, in the absence of a tradition of de jure segregation, are nevertheless still happy with de facto segregation.

And unless they are hit in the face -- over and over again -- with the rank inequity of how white malefactors in Jena got a wink and a wrist slap while black ones are looking at hard time in the state pen, they probably aren't going to get it.

The passions unleashed by the sins of Jena, however, make "not getting it" an exceedingly perilous proposition across a nation not nearly so well-off, tolerant, fair-minded and progressive as it thinks.


UPDATE: And there's this, in New York.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

When we (thought we) was fab


I was a teen-ager in the 1960s, having come into this world in the Year of Our Lord, 1961.

Those of you who are not now or never have been journalism majors are thinking, "That does not compute."

I'm from Baton Rouge.

"Ohhhhhhhhhhh . . . OK. Yeah, that makes sense."

I knew you would understand. Time moves at a leisurely pace in my hometown, and if I'm remembering correctly, 1967 hit Baton Rouge about 1974. Roughly.

Before the '60s hit Baton Rouge, I had heard of its appearance elsewhere on TV. One time, a long-haired Canadian nephew of my British aunt rode his motorcycle to Baton Rouge for a visit, and I recall that we treated him politely enough.

But there was just the one of him, he didn't seem to be plotting the violent overthrow of Separate but Equal and, besides, he'd already gotten hauled in for being foreign (and a "beatnik") somewhere in Tennessee.

Overall, though, it seemed that rednecks and old money held sway over my hometown, and "the revolution" would have to wait for another day. And the closest we came to the counterculture were star-spangled bell bottoms and the end of legally segregated schools . . . in 1970.

But the '60s did arrive by the mid-'70s, and to a teen-ager, Baton Rouge was starting to look like a happening place. Kind of.

BY THE TIME I was in high school, all that was symbolized by the existence of the city's only "alternative" newsweekly, Gris Gris. Gris Gris was what you read from cover to cover if you wanted to be hip and in the know.

Gris Gris opened young minds to a strange and enticing world -- side by side with yet light years removed from petrochemical row, hard hats, pick-up trucks and work shirts with your name embroidered above the pocket. It was a world of progressive rock, civil rights, head shops and laughing at The Man.

It was where you learned what a head shop was, along with some of the best (and snarkiest) political coverage in the state.

At my high school, there was a group of us journalism types who wanted to BE Gris Gris. Looking back at a bunch of old issues I've saved over the decades, I've come to the conclusion that Gris Gris was good, but not that good.

It was a little pretentious, in that way that young people in a redneck burg are when they realize what they are and are horrified by the revelation. It wasn't as slick as what you would have found in the Big City, but it also was a hell of a lot more down home.

In that way young people are when they realize they're somewhat embarrassed at living in a redneck burg but like it too much to just up and haul ass. And realized they weren't so cool that they stopped saying "Hey, how ya doin' today?" to folks at the grocery store.

Kind of the Baton Rouge version of New Orleans' "Hey, cap! Where y'at?" Which, of course, is never said to yo' mama an dem, because you respect your elders.

ANYWAY, we thought we were hip when the '60s hit Baton Rouge -- as I said -- sometime around 1974. We thought that everything we were just "discovering" was hip, happenin' and now.

We had no idea that, yes, our discoveries were all that. On the coasts. In 1967 -- if not earlier.

Here's a small example, some of a Gris Gris item from the issue of Aug. 31-Sept. 5, 1977:


Making Waves at WAIL

Growing pains are far from over and personality composition definitely a variable factor at BR's "AM alternative," WAIL. As we were going to press with our back-to-school issue last week, researchers were already compiling material for this Gris Gris. One of the lead stories in "After Dark" was to be the apparent success of sound in the "alternative" format at WAIL, and in particular the avid following of one Becky [Y]ates, who had developed the "Mother Nature" air character into one of the more positive forces that station has seen in some time. She was also Music Director, with responsibilities for the station's playlist.

You recall the "was" tense in that sentence. [Y]ates and Program Director/Station Manager Bonnie Hagstrom were in the process of resigning as we called to confirm photo dates. They are no longer with the station.

(snip)

WAIL, on the bottom of the Baton Rouge ARB ratings the last year, had shown some gains under the FM-style programming combination of Hagstrom and [Y]ates. They had developed five personalities, or named characters, rotating through the day's shifts as DJ, and in that way assuring continuity of the character, if not the person behind the character.

[Y]ates "Mother Earth" [sic] was the longest-lived of the experiment. She had originally been assigned duties as a weatherperson and part-time news announcer, but the character developed such an audience that she finally became the mainstay of the prime drive-time slots. The only other jock to maintain his position for any length of time is ex-English major Darrell Ardison, known on the air as "Scratch."

Hagstrom is now Media Director for the Rub Group, an advertising agency. [Y]ates was unavailable for comment last week.

At WAIL life goes on. Both sides go to lengths to make the break an easy one, at least for the public. The actual dispute that caused the eruption is rapidly becoming only a faint murmur in the reverb coil of time . . . time . . . "Time? 4:57, here in Boss Rouge on Boss Radio."

Those changes.
BOSS ROUGE? BOSS RADIO? Just think, it only took 12 years for the Big BR to become "boss" -- with its own "Boss Radio" -- after KHJ created a nationwide splash by becoming "Boss Radio in Boss Angeles" . . . one fine spring day in 1965.

Those changes, indeed.

We wish you a Merry Christmas . . .

And a Happy Red Year!

From the Omaha World-Herald:

LINCOLN — Tom Osborne returned to the NU athletic department Tuesday, charged with uplifting a Husker sports nation down and divided over firings and dismal results on the football field.

A day after axing controversial athletic director Steve Pederson, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor Harvey Perlman turned to one of the state's most respected and beloved figures to run the department on an interim basis.

"I am very pleased that Tom Osborne has agreed to help bring some leadership and direction to our athletic program," Perlman said in a written statement.

"Tom is committed to making the entire program successful. He brings the right experience, an understanding of Nebraska and our aspirations. I look forward to working with him."

The statement said Osborne, the coach who won three national championships before retiring in 1997, agreed to take the position on an "open-ended arrangement" until Perlman names a full-time successor.

Perlman gave no timetable for his search.

The chancellor also gave no indication of whether Osborne's appointment would affect the status of current Husker coach Bill Callahan or his staff. Perlman was to say more in a press conference Tuesday afternoon.

Osborne, 70, who met with Perlman earlier in the day, said he looks forward to the challenge.

"I've spent the majority of my life working with the athletic department at the university and I want to do what I can at this point to continue in the pursuit of excellence that has been previously established," Osborne said.

The Osborne appointment would seem to have been a natural for Perlman.

Osborne, who spent three decades as a coach in Lincoln, obviously is familiar with the department and its functions. His integrity is unquestioned. And he likely would have success raising money for the athletic program, particularly for the $40 million new football complex that now bears his name.

But more than anything that he brings to the table administratively, the former coach gives all Husker fans someone to rally around.

He may be the only figure who can unite a state divided over Pederson's firing of Osborne's coaching successor, the transition to a new regime, on-field disappointments, Pederson's own firing, and questions over what should happen with the current coaching staff.

Osborne has been a fan favorite for the job — many even wanting him to take it on a permanent basis.

Since Osborne's retirement in 1997 at the end of a remarkable 60-3 run that produced three national titles in four years, both Osborne and the football program have had their share of ups and downs.

Osborne, who had retired for health reasons and to spend more time with his family, initially missed the game sorely and on more than one occasion was nearly lured out of retirement by other schools.

He found a new life in politics, elected three times as a Republican congressman from western Nebraska's 3rd District.

But in 2006, he sought to finish off his public career with a run for Nebraska governor. Challenging incumbent Gov. Dave Heineman, he lost in the GOP primary, effectively ending his political career.

He has been a senior lecturer in the UNL College of Business Administration, teaching leadership and business ethics, and worked as a consultant for local college athletic departments.

Over time, Osborne had also become somewhat estranged from the N.U. athletic department. He was particularly embittered with Pederson's November 2003 decision to fire Frank Solich, who in 1997 Osborne had picked as his successor.
YOU KNOW, Tom Osborne may be Bill Callahan's last chance as Husker coach. T.O. is nothing if not fair-minded, few (if any) people know more about football, and if the new boss thinks this coach can be saved . . . are you gonna argue with him? I'm not.

If Callahan is willing to become the student -- and become an attentive student, at that -- work hard at impressing the boss and at turning over a new leaf with his players, maybe he has a shot now that Typhoid Stevie is just a bad memory.

But if this coach can yet be saved, Callahan's going to have to do it the way Osborne's 1994, 1995 and 1997 football squads won national championships. He's going to have to earn it.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Brother, can you spare 22 million dimes?


When the guano hits the fan, I don't know whether an academic is the guy you want emerging from an ivy-walled administration building to do crisis management.

Particularly when it involves something people actually care about. Like Nebraska football.

The Omaha World-Herald
has another account from A Day in the Life of an Absent-Minded Ex-Law Professor:

This time Steve Pederson's trademark smile was missing.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln athletic director walked briskly out of Chancellor Harvey Perlman's office at 1:35 p.m. Monday after a five-minute meeting.

Asked to stop for an interview, Pederson declined.

"I've got to get to another meeting," he said.

His days of meetings at Nebraska are over.

Pederson was fired Monday following a disastrous start to the Husker football season. Perlman said Pederson's leadership, not back-to-back 30-point losses, prompted his decision.

"I have become aware since July or August of a number of concerns from people in the athletic department about Steve's management style, about his connection with the staff, with donors, with fans, with former athletes," Perlman said.

Pederson no longer had the credibility to lead his staff, Perlman said.

In July, Perlman extended Pederson's contract five years through 2013, a move that will now cost the university more than $2.2 million in compensation.

Dissent inside the athletic department has been no secret. Several key employees have resigned or been fired in the past year, including chief fundraiser Paul Meyers two weeks ago.

Perlman said he wasn't aware of serious issues within the athletic department when he conducted a review of Pederson's leadership this summer.

"You know, it's really interesting that a person in my position ends up learning everything last," Perlman said.

Perlman said he decided to fire Pederson on Thursday, two days before Nebraska lost 45-14 on homecoming to Oklahoma State. He talked to President J.B. Milliken on Saturday morning but did not alert the Board of Regents until Monday morning.

IF YOU'RE THE MAN running the state university that's home to a big-time athletic program, it's a good idea to read the sports section. And watch the TV news.

And, for Pete's sake, have someone tape the Sunday-night TV sports call-in show 50 miles up the road in the state's biggest city.

If you're the absent-minded ex-law professor who's running the state university that's home to a big-time athletic program, and if you do that bare minimum, chances are good that you'll know enough about your wildly unpopular athletic director not to grant him a contract extension. One that's going to cost your school an extra $2.2 million after reality manages to worm its way behind those ivy-covered walls and make the obvious, well . . . obvious.

Even to an absent-minded ex-law professor.

The absent-minded ex-law professor

University of Nebraska Chancellor Harvey Perlman, when asked who's running the athletic department, now that he's canned Steve Pederson:

"I don't know. I hope someone is."

An endearing -- and funny -- response, but not exactly one that inspires confidence. You know?

Perlman said he has, in the past, conferred with former Husker coach Tom Osborne, but denied having offered him the interim-AD job. Nor did he betray any intention to offer T.O. the job.

Well, he ought to. Quick. The ship is sinking, and somebody has to start bailing, like, yesterday.

And if KPTM is wrong on their big "scoop," which made it to Drudge -- "NEBRASKA LASHES OUT AT HELL A.D.!" -- that'll be the last time I put any credence in anything coming from the Island of Misfit News People.

Words we ought to hear


"I intend to let the program gravitate
back toward mediocrity. We want
to get back to surrendering the
Big 12 only to Oklahoma and Texas."

-- NU Chancellor Harvey Perlman

He's go-on-on-on-one . . . oh, I . . . oh I'd . . .

THROW A PARTY!

Nebraska Athletic Director Steve Pederson isn't anymore. He's gone, fired, whacked, rubbed out by NU Chancellor Harvey Perlman, because you don't treat Da Family like that.

The Huskers don't get wiped out game after game after game -- the "fruits" of destroying one of the classiest and most successful football programs ever by firing and alienating those what built it -- without the guy who ordered the "hit" getting hit. And that mealy-mouthed, cynical incompetent got whacked but good.

He's gone! And NU "Coach" Bill Callahan is staying the hell away from neighborhood diners with his fambly.

BUT IT GETS BETTER, if
this report from Omaha's KPTM television proves correct in 45 minutes or so:

A source close to the program tells KPTM FOX 42 News that Tom Osborne will be named interim Athletic Director.

In a release sent out this afternoon, Perlman says, "We are of course disappointed about the progress in our football program. Steve has done many positive things for Husker athletics during his tenure, but I think only new leadership can objectively assess the state of our program and make the decisions necessary to move us forward."

Pederson was hired as athletic director in December of 2002. He came under heavy fire from Husker fans for hiring Bill Callahan, who did away with the Huskers' traditional running attack and replaced it with the west coast offense.

Perlman says his decision was not made lightly. "I know Steve made the decisions he thought best for the interests of the program and University. I am disappointed that I had to come to this decision," he says.
PEDERSON GONE! T.O. BACK! Could Christmas have come early this year?!?

Sunday, October 14, 2007

@#$!*% football game. . . .

Two things about college football:

* If the LSU defense that showed up in Lexington, Ky., yesterday afternoon were a condom, the whole world would be HIV-positive. I'm just sayin'.

* Fire Nebraska Coach Bill Callahan and Athletic Director Steve Pederson. Now. They've killed the last of the football tradition Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne spent 35 years building.

Who, after all, would have thought they'd ever see Nebraska fans with paper bags over their heads in Memorial Stadium?

And, frankly, the only way to even start rebuilding what's been trashed is to draft Osborne (PBUH) as Nebraska athletic director.

As an LSU alumnus, I'm comforted that there's plenty of hope for my Tigers. They still have a great coach in Les Miles, and they still have a shot at the national championship if they win out.

Poor Nebraska fans (in whose ranks I also reside) have no such hope. None.

Here in the Cornhusker State, the only faint, flickering, tenuous glimmer of hope left depends wholly upon firing Callahan and Pederson. Now. And then finding someone you'd trust to find -- and hire -- a good head football coach.

Like T.O.