Rough PR Move, Guys

As I was creeping by on I-430, making my hasty yet sluggish trek to the office yesterday, I noticed this sign staring me in the face.

I drove through hell and back on the way from my home in Saline County to my high school in Little Rock during the I-30 construction that changed it from two lanes to three. I've seen people flung off interstates because of congestion and traffic due to construction. Needless to say, my usual jolly temperament (sure, I'm jolly) is slammed to the curb as my road rage increases tenfold.

I'm sure that goes for a lot of people. Traffic jams no es bueno. So you can imagine why it might be a bit of a PR snafu for the construction going on to advertise it as such a wonderful, brilliant, beautiful thing as people pass by, white-knuckled and weaving endless tapestries of profanities.

After the construction is done, and the roads are safer and perhaps more pleasant, then you could do it. I don't know, I'm not a big PR guy. We could probably bug Blake Rutherford or Emily Reeves, but I'm sure they're busy publicly relating to someone much more important than I.

Hankins v. Rutherford: Too Civil/Lacking of Bloodshed To Be Entertaining

The minor tremors about the Arkansas blogotwitterspheres today were regarding a column published by Arkansas Business publisher Jeff Hankins on the omnipresence of new media and the subsequent rebuttal by blogger Blake Rutherford of Blake's Sentient Bull Dozer.

Hankins says that media is now everywhere thanks to these meddling kids and their blogs and their twitters and their pop music. Rutherford retorts, "Yeah, so?"

In short, they seem to agree with one another about the viability and actuality of new media being on the prowl, but disagree on whether or not this is necessarily a causal "pitfall." Rutherchevy says that people have been spreading rumors and traditional news outlets have been getting it wrong for quite sometime, and to blame new media for those conventions is downright erroneous.

He also points out that it's a vast generalization to say that bloggers wouldn't correct themselves if they admittedly got a scoop wrong, which is true. But come to think of it, I don't see a lot of corrections made, unless it's regarding a source, quoted statement, or something else supplementary, rarely affecting the entire body of the post. But maybe the blogs I frequent are rarely wrong (ARKANSAS BLOGOSPHERE ELITISM! FIST PUMP!).

There's more agreeing going on here than not to really say this is a debate. As I say this, I'm hoping that a shirtless Hankins is storming down to the Bowen Law School, kicking open the door to Rutherford's law class to open a can in front of his students, ya know, to spice this narrative up a bit, but in case that doesn't pan out, it seems that both made good points about the whole state of affairs, without stomping each others' toes. Cue to the cheesy Full House electric guitar, denoting a valuable lesson to be learned.

Hankins is right: The media in its new form is now everywhere, unfettered by the old media's rules and governance. Rutherford is right: That doesn't mean that old media is infallible, not that Hankins was claiming it to be.

I actually spoke on an SPJ panel about the rift or symbiosis of old and new media. I really believe that the cream will rise to the top, meaning credible bloggers are more likely to be carried on and be successful than those that are known to spew bias and misinformation to prove its own point or attain a cheap, non-informative goal.

I think that credible blogs do indeed hold themselves to standards. We all know the credible blogs around town. While I certainly see bias in the analysis, very rarely are they flat out wrong about the events. In fact, I don't recall any. In double fact, I recall one such blog — Max Brantley's not-very-originally titled "Arkansas Blog" — getting information regarding the no-smiling law on our driver's licenses that turned out to be bogus and through investigation — huh? fact checking? on a blog?! — and then corrected it, shedding light on the subject through good ole fashioned journalistic checking of sources.

But "citizen journalism" is here to stay, anyway. It ought to. At it's very core, all journalism, conventional and otherwise, ought to at the very least be geared toward the citizenry.

You Can't Talk to Me Like That! This is a Members Only Jacket!

When isolated in relative obscurity, one does crazy things. The same is true for the Republican Party currently.

Due to a woeful dearth of qualified and exciting candidates, the GOP is taking the same old faces on a listening tour, aimed at revamping the Right, making it more attractive, all while simultaneously stimulating and staying loyal to the base.

'Listening Tour' has all of the appeal of a trip to the save-a-lot proctologist. Ugh.

One of those old faces, trying to stay even more relevant, is saying that these guys are silly, but then says the almost exact thing that they're saying.

This infighting will continue, I predict, until there's one person in the middle of these sentiments who appeals to not only both sides, but to those who aren't completely sold on the Democratic ticket, and of course, after the Obama dust has settled.

This 'principle' jargon has got to go. No undecided voter cares about them, much less can define them as ardently as those on the Right are doing. "We've got to get back to our principles!" they all clamor to themselves.

What they need is some people who can speak with authority, with credibility, something the party (state and national, for those local people tuning in) lacks.

My quaffed friend David J. Sanders tweeted today (and I reviewed and edited) his column for tomorrow. In it, he claims that the GOP ought to be a little more Clintonian in its dealings, who in his own dealings, was more like Reagan. In Reagan Sanders does trust, and he notices the proven success rate of those who mirror his candor, believability and credibility, including that of our current President, who ran as someone who was remarkably underqualified but mounted a strong campaign of hope.

Sanders puts a lot on that word 'Hope' and 'unbridled optimism.' Regan, Clinton, Bush (at first) and Obama had it and won. I think Hope is a little soft. How about not just 'hope,' but how about something people can repeat on something other than a comedy night show.' Or something with a little bit of confidence. I see none right now that isn't immediately shut down. You see sparks here from the Huckabees, the Jindals, the roster of no-names in Congress. But you don't see the same steady stream of gems like you got with Obama, Bush, Clinton and Reagan.

If it's really rock bottom for the GOP, it's because those people don't exist. I think they do. They just don't know it yet.

American Epidemic: PIRATES

Forget the economy. Health care reform is negligible. We've got bigger fish to fry.

Who in the Wide World of Sports would have thought Pirates would be a problem for the Obama administration to face?

Handling a kajillion dollar deficit, facing the worst economic climate since the Depression, and overcoming partisan polarity that is simply unprecedented isn't enough for Obama to inherit, sayeth the Gods. Let's throw pirates in there too.

(Slaps forehead.)

Overlord Give Newsing Media Make Glorious America? Hail the Overlord!

As reported by several in the field, I spoke on a panel at the Society of Professional Journalists this weekend to discuss new-fangled media and what to do about it with old-fangless media strategies.

It went well. There were was an encouraging amount of interaction between the panel, admittedly old-school journalists, Journalism Professors, and students.

I say it went well, although the question persists, but no one walking into that room thought anything would be resolved. One question, from our moderator, the Demozette's John "Supa" Krupa, unnerved me a little bit. I hadn't thought about it until I saw the question in writing before the gig was set to launch.

"Do you think the government should subsidize or 'bail out' newspapers?"

I think I wrapped up that question quickly and then yielded my time to Conan "Cannon Galaxy" Gallaty and this other guy. But I began to wonder later that day if people had actually been mulling this idea around.

The answer to this has to be no. The answer to this has to be H-E-double hockey sticks no.

I spoke briefly and most boringly about taking steps backward philosophically to figure out what it truly means to be a distributor of information and what it means to be a journalist.

I have always thought, even before landing bass-aackward into this job, that one of the most important roles a newspaper (and even the news without the paper-attachment) could play was that of the foil to government. It is, in my humble opinion, a necessary check and balance.

This is an often quoted, and probably ill-referenced example, but Watergate worked through a newspaper. Woodward and Bernstein brought down a now obviously corrupt executive branch. That's a clear example. But delivering information does more than just topple the oppressive. It serves as a political conduit. Politicians and constituents alike gauge on another, often, by what they read about one another in the paper.

And a paper will never write anything that impugns its owner. Ever.

Whether or not the news comes on gray paper with smudgy ink isn't the issue for me. Like Michael Kinsley said in the Washington Post, it's all going to be alright. People will figure out how to monetize the news.

That being said, the news businesses, including our own, will need to innovate these ways to monetize quickly, or be lost along the wayside. But government ownership — and that's what it would be, ownership; not Stephens Media or Gannett, but United States Media or Government — would pose such a tremendous conflict of interest that it would border on making this blessed service news provides and turning into propaganda.

Anyway, I read the press releases from government officials. They're lousily written.

Senate Aide on AIG: "Out of Control"

I wrote about some of the claws that Blanche Lincoln and others clearly had for Public Enemy No. 1, AIG. Those guys and their bonuses were and are an affront to decency, says many or most or all.

Our very own Mike Ross led legislation to put these morons in their place, taxing them to the tune of 90 percent of their income through these bonuses, and many still think it's not enough.

Luckily, I've got a man on the scene.

My agent in Washington, who as I've explained, works for a high-ranking Senator and fills me in on the dirt, had this to say, which I found interesting:

This AIG thing has gotten way out of control here.

We are getting swarmed with people who despite hating AIG, don't want to the bill because they think it is ridiculous, because they are taxing them at a 90% clip. and only targeting specific companies and people.

It is to the point that it is endangering Dodd, and Republicans are loving it. He threw Obama under the bus by saying he put in the amendment that changed the rules of TARP at the behest of the White House.

Interesting point, no? People are worried about the specificity of the tax targeting specific people? It's completely backward, ridiculous, and wrong, but interesting nonetheless.

I think these people are a little crazy, but not nearly as crazy as the lack of oversight that went into the bailout and stimulus that got us here. How quickly could one physically read the 1,073 pages that "accidentally" included an specific exemption from such activities.

I don't know. There's a word that describes the mass hysteria that is going on. It rhymes with a vulgar conjugation of General Custer's last name and a duck. That's the most apt word I can think of, anyway.

Tumbleweeds Infest Legislative Halls

LITTLE ROCK — Tumbleweeds have swarmed into the capitol in what most call "The most exciting event to happen in the legislature in weeks."

The collection of rounded grassy refuse rolled all the way from the Senate chambers to the main atrium where a swift wind from an open door blew it right to the steps leading up to the Governor's office.

It remained there for twenty minutes before the custodian was allowed to remove it from the premises.

In the House, Rep. Ann Clemer, R-Benton, took an eight-hour nap as yet another Dan Greenberg bill was violently powerbombed, and Speaker Robbie Wills completed nearly half of the numbers in his daily Sudoku on the House floor.

In the Senate, Pro Tem Bob Johnson allowed AG Dustin McDaniel to showcase his Egyptian slideshow, full of museums, random people from Egypt, and another museum. A rush of excitement as Sen. Jimmy "JayJay" Jeffress, D-Crossett, dozed off and Sen. Tracy Steele, D-North Little Rock, put Jeffress' hand in warm water.

More as that story develops.

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

No. Seriously. Is there anything else of value going on? No controversy? Harrelson's Human Cock Fighting bill might turn some heads, and Jon Woods has apparently been blessed with enough teen angst to maybe bring up another tax-cutting bill, that Beebe will assuredly say is a no-go, but really? Nothing else? I suppose that the whole "No New is Good News" Rule might apply, but please. This is just painful.

Thank God that end is in sight. But wait, how many more bills were filed before the deadline?...

Shoot me. Just shoot me.

Obama and Geithner Get Low Grades from Wall Street Economists

The Wall Street Hoover-Blanket says that economists aren't too keen on this Barack guy or his boy Timmy Geithner.

I don't know how quickly or how emphatically I can say the following: Duh?

Of course, these businesses are not going to look favorably on the administration who is taking the reigns for their businesses for the foreseeable future.

The Obama administration certainly hasn't been too friendly with them, as well.

In fact, I read that some, e.g. Wells Fargo, have had it with all of these rules and are giving their government bailouts back and try to wing it on their own.

It's clear that something's amiss on Wall Street. I'm not entirely convinced that regulation is the answer, although it's only through regulation that we can straighten out the incompetents who have apparently run their businesses into the ground, tethered, of course, to the livelihoods of millions of American people.

The fact that Wall Street doesn't grade Obama and Timmy well doesn't surprise me. The fact that some people are willing to give up their automatic budgets in exchange for autonomy surprises me a little.

Frankly, I'm tired of surprises. I'd rather just know if I can rely on either the government or on a business to which my retirement may be linked.

My pessimistic tendencies make me lean toward neither. But then again, I'm not going to hand out grades on it, either.

The Son of Stimulus

I've already written about this, but now Democratic leaders are starting to act on what they've already hinted: A second stimulus.

A special meeting of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee (Good!) this morning yielded the same story from the same economists: More money.

The outlook for the rest of Aught-Nine: Grim.

Pelosi says the Word of the Day is Confidence: The confidence that is apparently lacking in the American markets but is vital to the success of this much-ballyhooed stimulus.

The Proposed Solution: More of the Same. A second stimulus, of equal or more value than the $787 billion that is just now hitting the streets.

My first, knee-jerk thought: D'oh!

My second, more reasoned thought: If the confidence necessary to drive the mechanism the government has constructed to hoist us out of this recession isn't being garnered by the stimulus, how much sense does it make to do it all over again?

Maybe it makes a lot of sense to someone other than me. God, I hope so.

LaborLady Strikes Washington!

Just a quick note that we here in Arkansas aren't the only ones getting fired up over this whole Card Check business.

As you can clearly see, this woman (Yes, this is a woman) has been driven quite mad by the entire thing.

In all actuality, Arkansas is being shoved into the national spotlight for reasons more interesting than former state representatives procreating at questionably and forehead-slappingly high levels.

The Wall Street Cardboard Scrawl is reporting that Lincoln and Pryor, a cajun, and a man with an unfortunately difficult name may be the fab four that bring this EFCA bill down.

The only reason I find this mildly entertaining is that it takes my mind off of the harrowing economy, and there's nothing better than watching a politician dangle in the wake of re-election, a la Lincoln. We'll see how it all pans out.

Whatever, I'm over it.

Blake Rutherford Consumed By Rabid Jealousy Over AETN Gig

Local blogger and hackysack enthusiast Blake Rutherford, from the website Blake's Artificially Intelligent Panzer, reports the abduction of another blogger, Lance Turner, by the "Conservative Media Mafia," consisting of David "Bugsy" Sanders, David "Baby Face" Kinkade, and Zack "Not David" Stovall.

That last person is me. While I'm fairly certain that I am pragmatically objective with regard to my writing, maybe I've just been bashing the Left more than the Right. I'll try to even that out; Being an equal-opportunity butthole, as I've heard is my moniker a la Sanders, that is my mandate.

In the spirit of Shameless Self-Promotion, yes, I will be on Sanders' Unconventional Wisdom where we discussed the major players in Arkansas politics, their actions, and how they interact with the Information Super-Highway.

We also giggled like schoolgirls at the expense of John Brummett, Jason Tolbert, Billy Mays, Timmy Geithner, Rush Limbaugh's jowels, a person who has bananas for hands, Shaquille O'Neal and Lance Turner, who was indeed locked in Sanders' trunk.

Anyway, when the video's available, we'll post it. But until then, enjoy this bit of political history.

Blago Strikes Again in the Form of Burris!

"Seat this man from Illinois!" they clamored.

"It's in the Constitution!" they roared.

"Illinois is being denied its proper representation in the United States Senate!" they bemoaned, slightly out of breath, because that's a mouthful to bemoan.

...a little premature now perhaps?

U.S. Senator Roland Burris was appointed to the Senate by ex-Gov. Rod "Cabbage Patch Genius" Blagojevich in the absence of some other guy whose name escapes me at the moment. Oh yeah. Barack Obama? Yeah, I think he got appointed to do something else.

Anywho, were Blago anybody but Blago — a name which has become synonymous with "liar," "cheat," "fink," "sleaze," "carnival worker," "pedophile," and "hack" —this appointment would have gone on with out suspicion or reservation. But under the remarkable circumstances surrounding our favorite Illinoisan, some people rightly balked at the idea.

Understand this wasn't at all because of Burris himself, but because of the man to whom he would owe his appointment. After saying the Senate would initially bar him from entry, after sitting down with the guy, they thought he'd be alright and backed off, allowing him in as one of their own.

But apparently, a little more digging needed to be done.

Burris is now under investigation by the ethics committee under suspicion of perjury. He remarked under oath that he had never campaigned or raised money for Blago in the past and had some questionable dealings with Rod's brother, Rob (real original names by the way, Mom and Pop Blagojevich), a rather high bar when determining whether or not this appointee has a history of any affections toward the then-soon-to-be-now-ex-governor.

This just bugs me, because the entire time the Burris deal was in the news, the pace felt a little too fast for me. I mean, governors have been ousted before (Jim Guy Tucker ring any bells for you native Arkansans?), but this was a pretty serious offense on the part of Blagojevich. One that likely dealt with other people, mind you; this couldn't have been a one man show.

There had to be people on the other end. And if the Chicago Sun-Times' Mark Brown is at least partly right, and Burris was literally begging anyone who had ears for an appointment, doesn't it rub someone the wrong way that maybe —and this is pure speculation— Burris could be one of those purchasers?

That's the whole point. But expedience took precedent over thoroughness, even if Burris is acquitted of all suspicions or charges. If they had done their jobs in the first place, perhaps this mess could've been sorted out earlier.

'Innocent until proven guilty' never applied to public appeal, and suspicion is wholly independent from guilt or innocence, merely a means to one of those ends. And suspicion carries its own weight.

I said in an earlier piece regarding the economic stimulus that I look forward to seeing if it will be labeled as noble expedience or stubborn hastiness on the part of Obama and Congress to get that bill passed. I think the latter, now using our premiere-view 20/20 hindsighting lenses, now applies .

Not Joe the Plumber again...

Just when I get to hoist the GOP getting a much-needed face lift by getting an African-American chairman and appealing to this fresh new attitude of a bipartisan love-fest on Capitol Hill, I get this little nugget of information that sends all positive feelings of affirmation crashing down.

Joe the Plumber — the only thing more gimmicky than Sarah Palin in the 2008 election — will be the featured guest of honor at the Conservative Working Group in Washington, a collection of congressional aides and players who regularly meet to "strategize" for the Republican party.

I put "strategize" in quotes because I'm not sure if this qualifies; Strategy is usually reserved for progressive planning for a certain organization, and if this is their best shot, it's not strategy; It's folly.

The headline reads that he's fresh from his stint as a war correspondent in Gaza, which means someone else had the bright idea to cling to this guy's new found celebrity. The CWG is calling this man forward to discuss different ways to revamp the party, and forecast and plan for the future ahead.

This is worse than the stuff Joe regularly sifts through during his more-ballyhooed nine-to-five job.

The GOP is using and admittedly taking the advice of a man who may be a popular voice among the Republican faithful, but came under fire in his own right for not paying his taxes, and we all know how faux pas that is these days with the falling out of Daschle and Killefer.

This man has no credentials, no promise, and little to show other than a brief flash-in-the-pan, 15 minutes of fame, coat-tail riding, made-for-cable-or-straight-to-video-movie style that seems to have got some people in Congress to say, "Hey! I'm void of any workable ideas! Let's see what this guy who fixes toilets has to say! He's been on television!"

If the Grand Old Party thinks clinging to a recently failed gimmick is the answer to some of their fundamental strategic problems, they've got more problems than I thought.

Plaxico is All About Guns in Church

Here's some of the wackier news floating around the country, and true to form, Arkansas is behind the wheel, dipping and diving through a stretch of redneckery that had previously been uncharted, even by the most slack-jawed of affiliates.

A bill was filed last Tuesday to repeal the stifling and antiquated and remarkably sane ban on guns in church. House Bill 1237 would remove the "church or any place of worship" bit out of the lists of places that one cannot carry concealed heat; long-winded priests and pastors everywhere will now have added motivation to wrapping up an homily or sermon on a big-game Sunday.

With churches out of the way, now legislature can finally make some progress and get this pesky ban lifted in nursing homes, day cares, maximum-security prisons and nuclear submarines. That way we can get down to the bidness of protecting that most hallowed of amendments: lucky number two.

Sarcasm aside, the cognitive faculties of those in the Arkansas Legislature seem to be lacking, or at least in one instance.

The bill calls to lift a ban, as advocates say it is an infringement on liberties. That may be fine. Bring the guns into church. Lord knows we need protection from those who might mean to do religious people harm. I don't know of any chemically-balanced persons who struggle with leaving their gun at home when they go to worship, but maybe I'm not broadening my narrow-minded horizons enough.

My problem with the entirety of the bill is this: Law or no, people are still (apparently) going to do it. It's that whole "concealed" part that helps people get away with it. I guarantee you — in fact, I know from personal experiences — that people do bring guns into church anyway.

It's these Plaxico types you really have to worry about. Because whether or not there is a law prohibiting the carrying of guns or not, or even whether the person in question has a permit to make such a weapon clandestine, it's going to happen.

All this law does is give these genuinely sick people a little more credibility. Hey, they'll say, this is a new law. You can't prosecute me, just because a misfire happened within the pews of a sanctuary, God forbid.

I'll hear the argument that this may better protect someone in case of some kind of jihadist who may burst into a church and open fire, but if you're going to a church where you can envision this in the foreseeable future, I suggest you find a new congregation.

So maybe I don't have a problem with the legislation so much as the thoughts that are immediately associated with it. They say guns don't kill people, people kill people, or something like that.

Sure; but let's not give those people any impetus to maybe start adding heat to that brimstone and hellfire.

BlagOusted: To Pick Up Office Belongings Later, Has No Friends

"So yeah, I'm just going to go ahead and get out of here, there is a back door, right?...Yeah, Terry, just put all that stuff in one of those paper crates and ship 'em to the Misses." - Rod the Retahd Blagojevich

Impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich was removed from office forcibly and violently today in a spectacle that many called "The Most Terrific and Vicious Physical Beating of All-Mankind."

Blagojevich rambled incoherently for an hour and a half prior to the beating. He then was informed that he had absolutely no friends whatsoever, being ousted 59 - 0, with constituents' taunting emails and text messages being scrolled across a projected screen.

Blagojevich was left to get the remaining Far Side desk calenders and paperweights from his office at a later date, and then was pumbled by Chicago gangsters "Moose" and "Rocco."