Another "not-so-green" house for Al Gore

Now that Al and Tipper are breaking up (and I do feel badly about that) you'd think he'd use that as an opportunity to green up his living quarters. According to USA Today, not so much. Those profits from "Inconvenient Truth" are helping finance a pretty "Convenient Lifestyle."

Some 'new' media ideas

My friend and former colleague Mary Ann, who knows as much about online news stuff as anyone I know, is participating in a weekend conference in Detroit called "Journalism That Matters." Not my cup of tea, but at least some folks are trying to figure out a new journalism model, which puts them far, far ahead of the 'old' thinkers in the business. Mary Ann has posted her thoughts and a link to pictures of the event at her blog, Inside Out.

A word about comments

OK, time to revisit the comment rules. After bragging a couple days ago that I had not rejected a comment for over a year I was forced to do just that today. Feel free to call me an "idiot" or any name you like, but I will not post any comment that refers to a third party in a derogatory way.

So to the anonymous poster who called a former colleague an "idiot," look in a mirror, I think you'll find an idiot there. So my unbroken string of no rejections is now over, but I'll take a good debate here anytime, but keep it civil.

FDR's prayer on the invasion of D-Day

President Franklin D. Roosevelt's prayer on the night of the D-Day Invasion. (Guess FDR didn't get the memo on separation of church and state - thank goodness).

“My Fellow Americans:

“Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our Allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.

“And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:

“Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

“Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

“They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.
“They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest -- until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war.

“For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.&

“Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

“And for us at home -- fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them -- help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.

“Many people have urged that I call the nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.

“Give us strength, too -- strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.

“And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.

“And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment -- let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.

“With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace -- a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.

“Thy will be done, Almighty God.

“Amen.”

A small man, but a big life

This made me think about all the ridiculous complaining I do. It also reminded me of a story I once found at a school board meeting in North Branch about Jessica Parks, a young woman born with no arms who did more with her life than 90 percent of the people I knew. The night I was there she was honored for her school spirit. Because I was swamped with work I handed off her story to a feature writer - Carol - who did a magnificent piece on the girl after spending many hours with her and her mother. Eventually it ended up as a segment on ABC's 20/20 as a result of Carol's initial story. I could not find the video, but there is plenty of video of Jessica on YouTube.com. Because of the ridiculous MLive.com archiving system I couldn't find the 2002 feature, but this link will take you to some video.

A reporter and a goat, another great Saturday story

Sometime back I wrote about former reporter Ken Palmer (I don't think he'll mind me mentioning his full name here) and his famous Saturday shift with assignments to a goat milking exhibition, followed closely by a clogging exhibition.

Today, I found this goat story that some reporter had to file, Ken would be happy to know that others have not been spared.

Some thoughts for Memorial Day

It is the
VETERAN,
not the preacher,
who has given us freedom of religion.

It is
the VETERAN,
not the reporter,
who has given us freedom of the press.

It is
the VETERAN,
not the poet,
who has given us freedom of speech.

It is
the VETERAN,
not the campus organizer,
who has given us freedom to assemble.

It is
the VETERAN,
not the lawyer,
who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is
the VETERAN,
not the politician,
Who has given us the right to vote.

It is the
VETERAN who
salutes the Flag,

It is
the
VETERAN
who serves
under the Flag,

ETERNAL REST GRANT THEM O LORD,
AND LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON THEM.

Please fly your flag today in honor of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

I'm living in the Land of Tomorrow

When I was about 9 years old my parents took me to Disneyland in Anaheim on the second or third weekend that it was open. It was a drive of a little more than an hour from my home and my head nearly exploded when we arrived in the expansive parking lot and I could see the beautiful park approaching. (Photo is a view of Disneyland from the air on opening day)

Everything about the park seem unreal, but very exciting. At the time I thought I was the luckiest kid in the world to actually be at this magical place.

One of the things I remember was the "Land of Tomorrow" exhibit, which I believe was sponsored by General Electric. Moving displays showed the dreams and future inventions that GE believed were on the near and far horizon.

The one I was especially intrigued with was the display that showed two people talking on the phone and yet being able to see each other on television screens at the same time. That seemed so fanciful as to be impossible at the time.

At that time a long distance phone call was a big deal. They cost a lot and we had an egg timer by the phone so that no one would talk too long and run up a big bill. We planned and anticipated making a long distance phone call to the point that everyone would gather near the phone so we could pass the phone quickly from person to person to save time. It rarely happened more than a couple times a month. Handwritten letters were the communications staple of that day.

Last night, I downloaded Skype (I've had the computer for two years and didn't realize I could do this) and within minutes was talking to our daughter in Boston looking at her wonderful face on my computer screen as she watched me pick my nose on her end. I even got to meet her new cat, although I mostly saw its butt.

My son Tim apparently has the same connection and I tried to reach him unsuccessfully.

It's kind of cool to have lived long enough to be in "The Land of Tomorrow."

"To all who come to this happy place: -Welcome- Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past ... and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America ... with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world."
—Walter E. Disney, July 17, 1955 4:43pm

A James Carville rant on the oil spill

There is nothing funnier, well maybe a few things, than a James Carville rant.

Some good newspaper news

The editor of the Buffalo News has some good news for newspaper fans in her column.

A song I like: Freeborn America

This is a pretty good song by Jimmy Joe Lee, a friend of a friend in California.



Just something I liked.

Reporter's license: A Michigan State Senator's idea

I'm sure it's frustrating to deal with the new media. So many new faces, so much on-the-job training, but one Republican state senator has taken it one step too far. The proposal by State Sen. Bruce Patterson (R-Canton) is the latest in a long line of politicians who wanted to harness the media.

The idea of a media license sounds like something out of a Soviet Union playbook, but here it is. This probably won't go far, or at least I hope not, but government should stay out of regulating the media. Period.

It makes me nervous that elected officials even feel comfortable talking about it.

Newspaper reporter fired for co-authoring magazine story

The Inside Out blog has a story on a newspaper reporter for the Oregonian being fired for writing a magazine piece without permission from the newspaper.

Most newspaper reporters know they need to clear any outside journalism efforts with their editors before working for another publication.

In the days after Jack Kevorkian assisted with his first suicide, I was contacted by the editor of Newsday and with permission from my editor submitted three or four stories, including one that ran on the front page of Newsday, about my interviews with Jack Kevorkian.

All the stories were merely rewrites of what I had already done for the Journal. It was pretty easy money. About three days in Newsday sent their own reporter to the area and my little gig was up.

I ended up making about $3,500 from the work, which helped by my first real home computer - an Acer, I believe, which in those days had about 1 gig of memory and cost more than $3,000.

How about this beauty of a 'misstatement'

I love it when politicians take a bald faced lie and turn it into a "misstatement." That in itself is a misstatement. When you deliberately tell something over and over that is not true, that is a 'lie.' Just because you surround yourself with combat veterans and call it a misstatement, doesn't change it from the lie that it was.


Watch CBS News Videos Online

Time to shuffle the deck in Washington, D.C.

If we can't have a viable third party, I'll certainly settle for voter anger that takes it out on all incumbents. Watching Arlen Specter concede last night was very gratifying. Good riddance to politicians who have as their overriding principle getting re-elected.

Hopefully the anger, fueled by unbridled spending and mounting deficits in the middle of a continuing economic distress will continue into the fall and voters will take a blanket "throw the bums out" attitude at the polls. Washington is completely broken. The President doesn't get it, the leadership of both parties doesn't get it, but hopefully they'll all get it in November.

In four major races, Mass., N.J. Virginia and now Pennsylvania the President has backed the loser. That's a message whether he wants to hear it, or not.

Time to take our government back. Time for both sides to drop the gloves and pick up the shovels. Time for the President to head back to his office and get to work and stop being in a total campaign mode. People want jobs, not speeches. As he himself said in the last election. "Words, just words..." As an aside remember this little bit of plagarism during the last campaign.

Those of us on the sunset side of our lives are concerned about the country we are leaving our children and grandchildren. We do not want them saddled with a huge debt to pay when we're gone. Time to rein in the spending and time to listen to the voters.

Getting rid of all the incumbents, shuffling the deck and starting over would not be a bad start.

A little non-partisan soothing music for Saturday

Since I scheduled this for posting on Friday, learned that Tammy Reaves, a former Flint Journal colleague, died after a long battle with cancer. Tammy was one of the truly nice and classy people at the newspaper and her loss, along with other former employees who have died too young, have me thinking about how precious life and friends really are.



Posting will end for the weekend.

Mayor Daley: Be careful what you wish for

Although Chicago's Mayor Daley is denying the revengeful reasons for it, his decision to post all investigative reporter requests online could seriously backfire on him.

While he believes he is messing over reporters who have been dogging his every move, he may find out that he will just be opening Pandora's Box by tipping off more reporters to the tips.

Chances are this will result in more scrutiny and not less, which would be a good thing in the political cesspool that is Chicago.

I'm just happy there are still investigative reporters.

Arizona law, misguided, but completely understandable

I have stayed out of the Arizona immigration law argument so far because while I understand the frustration of Arizonans to the lack of federal enforcement, I think the law they enacted is actually unnecessary.

Many of you know that I spent 7 years in the 1970s working for two California police agencies. What the Arizona law proposes is already done every day by officers in California. The only thing California law lacks that the Arizona law has is that Arizona has taken the federal law (almost word for word) and said the state can enforce violations of immigration law.

During my time in law enforcement in California I, and all of my fellow officers, routinely questioned people, mostly non-English speaking Hispanics without proper identification, about their legal status. In most cases they were illegal aliens.

When we called federal immigration officials to report the violations and have them take action we would be told: "Get a good address and we'll follow up." Yeah, right. Never happened and immigration enforcement by the federal government has beeen, and still is even in the wake of 9/11, a serious joke. Some times we were called to 'arrest' illegals because their employers wanted an easy way to get rid of them. We sympathized with the illegals to an extent and despised the employers, but still there was no enforcement either on the illegal or the company that hired them.

Last Monday, my USS Cogswell Association voted to hold our next reunion in Tucson, Arizona. The idea of boycotting a State because of a law someone doesn't agree with is perfectly legal, but then people should be free to start boycotts for other issues in other States. Gay Marriage comes to mind, legalized marijuana would be another, name your poison and groups everywhere could find reasons to boycott just about anywhere. We all make decisions to boycott or not to boycott businesses or events (I boycott Barry Manilow every chance I get), but when making a decision to lead a more public boycott people should at least be informed.

Below is a copy of current California law as it affects police officers and illegal immigrants, please note that it includes the same, or nearly the same "profiling" language that the Arizona law does and no one has yet suggested boycotting California:

California Penal Code Section 834b

(a) Every law enforcement agency in California shall fully
cooperate with the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service regarding any person who is arrested if he or she is suspected of being present in the United States in violation of federal immigration laws.
(b) With respect to any such person who is arrested, and suspected of being present in the United States in violation of federal immigration laws, every law enforcement agency shall do the following:
(1) Attempt to verify the legal status of such person as a citizen of the United States, an alien lawfully admitted as a permanent resident, an alien lawfully admitted for a temporary period of time or as an alien who is present in the United States in violation of immigration laws. The verification process may include, but shall not be limited to, questioning the person regarding his or her date and
place of birth, and entry into the United States, and demanding documentation to indicate his or her legal status.
(2) Notify the person of his or her apparent status as an alien who is present in the United States in violation of federal immigration laws and inform him or her that, apart from any criminal justice proceedings, he or she must either obtain legal status or leave the United States.
(3) Notify the Attorney General of California and the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service of the apparent illegal status and provide any additional information that may be requested by any other public entity.
(c) Any legislative, administrative, or other action by a city, county, or other legally authorized local governmental entity with jurisdictional boundaries, or by a law enforcement agency, to prevent or limit the cooperation required by subdivision (a) is expressly
prohibited.

The L.A. County Council, which voted to boycott Arizona, might want to note that they are in violation of the last section of that law.

And here is a dated legal argument on the California law. Here is a pertinent excerpt from that discussion:

"4. California AG Opinion 01-213 (11/16/2001): While California’s Penal Code Section 843b’s mandate that local officers inquire into immigration status has been enjoined, officers can still voluntarily make the inquiry. A local law enforcement officer during detention of Spanish speaking person for otherwise valid purposes may question the person as to immigration status, but may not question status solely because the individual speaks a non-English language. Local officers may continue investigation into a person’s immigration status prior to arraignment on state charges. In footnote 4, the Opinion indicates “Civil violations of immigration law are not cognizable” under a formula in Pen. Code s. 836, sub. (a), (a)(1), which allows California peace officers to arrest either in obedience to a warrant or without a warrant where the officer has probable cause to believe that a public offense has been committed in the officer’s presence."

Destroyer reunion over, back home

No time to outline all the fun and good times at my USS Cogswell reunion tonight, but I'm home and basking in the glow and fun of reconnecting with friends and shipmates I haven't seen for 43 years.

Some of those guys have really gotten old. Glad that didn't happen to me. I'll have some photos to put up as well.

Like cars? Check out Fast Eddie's Cruisin' blog

A long time friend, and one of the best newspaper photographers I ever worked with, has extended his car review reach to a new blog. Ed is a devoted and accomplished gear head and knows more about cars than any person I know. Fast Eddie's Cruisin blog should be a fun read.

I've put a permanent link over to the right and I'm sure Ed would love so readers and commenters.

Ed doesn't just write about cars, he has built a couple of the nicest rods I've ever seen.