Saddam is feeding worms!

One less dictator to worry about!

He enjoyed watching videos of others getting killed.

Perhaps some of his victims would like the same type of picture show:

Click here to see Saddam "swinger" video from camera phone

Fox News played a video from THIS LINK, but the server seems to be overloaded most of the time.

Al Jazeera has its spin on his death, saying Iraqis are angry about the hanging (SEE VIDEO HERE), but what do you expect from Al Jazeera?

Perhpas some folks need to go down the Saddam memory lane before they shed tears over his death.

This poor child is one of his Saddam's Halabja poison gas attack victims ... who knows how many there are.

This kid will never know what it's like to have a wife... to have kids... to worship his God... all the things that...even though the region is poor, this child could have enjoyed.

Gee, thanks Saddam.

Everyone knows by now there are two Muslim factions in Iraq, one is celebrating, the other is not.

Hey, there were some who were not celebrating after our own civil war because they lost their slaves!

Whenever there are oppressors overturned, the ones who benefited from the oppression never celebrate.

Behold the face of the oppressed!

I don't think this woman will stay up all night crying over dear ole Saddam!

Random Thoughts on 2006

End of the year news is so predictable.

You could almost find last year's scripts and change the dates and there you go.

What were the biggest stories...how did the cops do this year..blah blah blah.

Personally, I find end-of-the-year stories so lame, I sent Darry, our morning photog, out on two house fires Wednesday just to get some spot news.

I hate covering house fires because there is no real community benefit to the story, but we got some good visuals.

If someone is seriously hurt or killed it is news, but I don't see an abandoned house fire as interesting news.

I know some media folk brag about covering fires and being "first on the scene" and all that other sensational stuff, but I'd rather ignore the house fires and give the audience something that they can use in their daily life.

That's not to diminish Darry's work... he got us some impressive video, flames shooting through the roof, etc.

I guess if fire stories are used as the gage, we ruled the morning.

We did a story two weeks ago about how the Red Cross is straining to keep going because of all the house fires. It is really putting a burden on their budget.

I was kind of flattered to see the same story in The Enterprise this week.

This is the type of story that actually benefits the community.

I noticed the peanut gallery at the Underground is silent when KBMT is the lead, but let us miss a kicker story and they're all over it.

Never the less, I'm flattered when other media folk follow us or look to KBMT for news leads.

At least one station goes as far as to eves drop on our dispatch radio hoping to get some crumbs of info.

One of the highlights of the year happened when our chief photog told me they were doing this.

I didn't believe him, but to find out I started talking some smack on the air to see if anyone responded.

They did, and even had the nerve to call and complain that they got their feelings hurt about the things I was saying.

One of our competitor's photogs even had the nerve to threaten me in the channel 12 parking lot over the issue.

Oh well, that's the media for you.

Looking forward to 2007...

• What is Judge Walker's Jefferson County going to be like?
• Are we going to see the predicted economic growth?
• Is Port Arthur going to make progress in squashing crime?
• How is our area going to make the transition to digital TV?
• Will Direct TV follow Dish Net and give its subscribers local stations?
• Who are going to be the big name deaths in 2007?
• Is Mr. BASF going to run for office?
• Will Gary Sinegal go to trial this year?
• Will Jeff Co and Orange Co get the Finley case to trial?

Oh, wait...that sounds like next December's look-back stories.

Pay Them to Fail

Some congressional leaders say they will likely raise the minimum wage in 2007.

I just read a wire story that opens with:

“Imagine what it would be like to work without a pay raise for nearly 10 years. That’s been the plight of some workers who for almost the past decade have
been earning the federal minimum wage.”

What rhetoric!

If you are working a minimum wage job…and have not received a raise in the last 10 years… what’s your problem?

I have worked many minimum wage jobs.

I have always received a raise because of hard work.

Sure it was a small raise, but a raise never the less.

If I were working for an employer and made minimum wage for a year or more, I would move on.

How stupid does one have to be to stay at a company that is only paying minimum wage after a year?

Do I sound cold-hearted?

I am responding to what I have seen with my own eyes.

I have never seen a person who is actually trying to work stay at minimum wage.

I’m sure there are very few exceptions.

If someone has a mental or physical problem and cannot handle the minimum wage job requirements, then the government needs to subsidize their pay to make them appealing to employers. This would help the people in need and not give raises to those who simply want more cash without giving any effort to their employer.

Why should an employer be forced to give a raise to a lazy loser just because the government says the loser needs it?

Sure, the lazy loser needs to live.

Help them change, don’t facilitate their loser ways.

If you are worried about the mega-giants taking advantage of people, then make an exception.

Why not make the higher minimum wage apply to companies who employee more than 100 people.

I guarantee the owner of a small café, small corner book store, and other’s like them, are not getting filthy rich on the backs of the poor.

In my opinion, the congressional supporters of a minimum wage hike would not consider these other options because the government would not take in as much in taxes if the did it that way.

Raise the minimum wage for everyone the feds take in more taxes, hide inflation, look good to
lower income voters who haven‘t thought things out, remove some from government assistance and pass the cost to employers, etc.

I made minimum wage when I worked full-time at KDLF in Port Neches.

It was my first full-time job in radio.

I lived in a one-bedroom efficiency apartment.

The kitchen was so small I could stretch out my arms and touch both walls at the same time.

It was more like a closet-kitchen.

I remember how angry I was when I found out how one of my neighbors was living.

While I was walking to work to save money… eating noodles and rice… my neighbor was living much better on government assistance.

He had full meals, and even had cash to buy beer to drink with those meals.

I did not qualify for food stamps because I worked 40 hours a week at minimum wage and had a part time job working 6 hours a week at minimum wage.

My neighbor only worked a 30 hour a week job at the same rate, so he got food stamps.
Since my neighbor was “disabled on the job” he was getting other assistance as well.

I put “disabled on the job” in quotes because I lived next to the guy.

I’ve seen him do all sorts of things that he supposedly could not do.

He use to tell me I was crazy for busting my ass because I could live better and do less work by quitting my part time job.

He had no desire to improve himself or to find a way to get a good paying job; he wanted to do a minimal effort and nothing more.

He actually thought the government and his employer owed him something.

He was not alone in his assessment.
Others in the same apartment building sided with him.

While I was working at KDLF I worked for improvement.
I did earn a small raise before I left.

The skills I learned on the job allowed me to move on to bigger stations and even to other industries.

This doesn’t make me special.

This means I didn’t sit back and take a “what are you going to give me” attitude.

There are a lot of employers in this area who are hiring.

There are a lot of government-sponsored apartments full of people working part time minimum wage jobs or not employed at all.

A lot of these folks are not interested in changing their situation by working.

I am not saying that everyone who lives in the projects is a loser.

There is a reason why the employers are not rushing to the projects to announce the job openings.

It’s the same reason the majority of folks who live in the projects are not rushing to the employers to fill those jobs.

Everyone knows there are people who simply do not want to work.

I do not believe that the majority of people who have been paid minimum wage for an extended period of time are those who want to improve themselves.

Experience has led me to this believe.

Everyone knows our politicians are scared to admit that there are people who do not want to work.

If you raise the minimum wage, you push some employees over the government assistance cut-off line and force employers to pick up the tab.

You also increase the dollar amount you collect in taxes.

You will help some who are struggling to make it, but will waste ten times that amount on the lazy losers.

In my opinion, too many supporters of an increased minimum wage are sticking their head in the sand, refusing to see the real problem.

In my opinion, they do this because they want to appear to be helping the single moms and disabled people, when in reality; they are buying off votes with a hidden tax increase.

It’s everything a politician could want.

When is Washington going to come up with a real response to the poverty problem?

Lets help those who want to be helped... help those who need to be helped... and let let the school of hard knocks teach those who refuse to even try.

Can't See the Forest... Too Many Trees

The problem is gangs…. No, the problem is race relations… No, really I mean the problem is (fill in the blank)

Everyone seems to be pointing to symptoms rather than the root of our area’s biggest problem.

Why do you think the crime rate is so high?

The cancer attacking our area is … in my opinion… none of the above.

Judge-elect walker says we do not have enough qualified workers to fill the expected employment boom.

I think he chose his words very carefully.

I have talked with so many people in the know who tell me we have enough qualified people here, as long as the “qualified” part does not include a pee test.

There are plenty welders and ship fitters that could have met the needs of Signal International in Orange, but too many of them are on the dope… so the dopes lost their jobs to a bunch of folks from India.

Most of the time when I do a beat call and the dispatcher says 2am shooting on such and such street, I feel like I already know the story.

The guy didn’t agree on the buying price, or simply didn’t pay for his drugs.

Judge-elect Walker is correct, we need more qualified workers, but looking to expanded technical education is not the entire answer.

We need a REAL answer to the drug problem in Southeast Texas.

We are facing a labor crisis…. A high crime crisis…. And both are related to chemical recreation.

Unfortunately, every effort I’ve seen to combat drugs and drug use centers on old, proven-wrong premises.

I wouldn’t even begin to pretend I know what to suggest to tackle the problem, but I can say what we are doing now sucks, and we need to try something else.

Don’t Go Away, We’ll Be Right Back

Christmas time means Christmas advertising.

Hundreds of Southeast Texas small businesses that usually do not use electronic ads (Radio and Television) are buying commercials.

Unfortunately, the mom-and-pop businesses that usually hit the air for the first time this time of year, are falling prey to unscrupulous salesmen that grab for the little cash these stores have, then give the owner doo-doo for ad copy.

Every year you hear them.

The ads usually go something like this:

“Come to Bobs Hardware Store and you’ll find screwdrivers, hammers and nails. We have brand names you know and love. Our number is 888-5555.”

I cringe every time I hear these ads because I know some corporate-giant owned radio advertising salesman...one who needs to make a quota...just conned a small locally-owned business into coughing up five hundred to two thousand dollars to run an ad that does absolutely nothing. ( I haven't sold advertising in a long time, so I'm not sure what the ads are going for these days. I guessed at the dollar amount.)

Everyone knows you can get hammers and nails at a hardware store… this line tells the listener absolutely nothing.

Everyone knows you can get brand names at a hardware store, this line tells the listener nothing. at all.

Nobody writes a phone number down when they hear it on a radio ad.

All this ad does is irritate listeners who want to get back to the music.

But hey, the salesman has his cash, the corporate giant has scalped another small business and after all, they care about the bottom line.

I have met a few… very few… corporate ad salesmen who actually care about the small business owner who is standing like David against a Goliath from Bentonville Arkansas.

I've worked among the vipers; you cannot convince me they are not there.

The Gangs of Beaumont

Earlier this week there was a huge fight… shots were fired… at least one person hit by a bullet… and another hit by a vehicle.

How did the media react?

Well, since it was a large group of teens fighting… and probably because the group is mostly Latino ( yes, there is prejudice among the media club )….. we ended up with reports of “Gang Violence” erupting in Beaumont.

I talked with an officer about this… an officer I trust… and what appears to have happened was a group of kids, some of whose dads were gang members, got into a huge fight and decided to handle it "just like pop would have done it."

There is no official statement by police saying this is a gang fight, but hey, call it a gang fight and you got a headline.

Our young sensationalizing “Journalism Majors” need to learn that every fight between two groups of teens is not a gang fight.

A gang is an organization or group who band together to do illegal activity, not a bunch of young punks who got into a big fight.

If this were a group of white middle class teens who got into a fight and one pulled a gun, would we be hearing the same gang rhetoric?

Something our media types need to think about is how their words affect our kids.

If you tell a non-gang-member kid he is a gang banger, guess what.

You are planting an idea into his head.

You just might make him start to think he’s Mr. Los Angeles in Southeast Texas when in reality he a punk kid who needs a wakeup call.

If memory serves me correctly, and I might be wrong, but I believe Beaumont had two murders this year.

I guess our gang members, you know, the ones causing all the fuss… they must have been napping most of the year.

Sloppy Copy

It never ceases to amaze me how the "journalism majors" in this market continue to use certain words that grind on my nerves every time I hear them in a script.

It also amazes me how some "journalism majors" let their ego get in the way of constructive criticism and seemingly close their ears when I bring up these mistakes... almost to say... "who are you to tell me how to write copy, I have a college degree."

So, risking stepping on some toes, and inflated egos, here are a few oldies but goodies.

DEAD BODY as in "Police found a dead body behind the house"

The way I see it, you should say "Police found a body behind the house".... the word 'dead' is understood ...redundant ..... amateurish in this sentence.

It would be silly to say "police found a live body behind the house" ... if the guy is alive, it is not a story.

ELECTROCUTED as in "The man was electrocute."

I have heard this used by young reporters as a word meaning shocked.

It does not mean shocked, it means killed by electricity.

I actually heard a report in which the reporter said "..the young boy was electrocuted .... He is recovering at Christus Hospital St. Elizabeth."

Now, unless he came back from the dead, that sentence makes no sense.


SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT

O.K, this is a pet peeve of mine.

The Sheriff in most counties around here is an ELECTED OFFICIAL.

It says "SHERIFF'S OFFICE" in the phone book.. It says "SHERIFF'S OFFICE" on the side of the cars and building.

A police DEPARTMENT has an appointed head, and is called a POLICE DEPARTMENT.

A Sheriff's Office has an elected chief officer.

This is a minor point, but tell that to Sheriff White in Orange County. It's definitely a Sheriff's Office.

By the way, when was the last time you heard the Sheriff's office called the SD on the scanner, it's always the "SO" because it's the SHERIFF'S OFFICE.

RESIDENTS

Now this one is just a matter of laziness. If you say "Residents are upset about the higher taxes put on cars" ... the sentence is accurate, but rather lame.

It would be better to say "Car owners are upset about the higher taxes put on automobiles."

The word residents is really a useless word, it doesn't tell me why you are talking about a specific group of folks. Call them HOMEOWNERS, TAXPAYERS, PARENTS, DOG OWNERS, ETC.

Both methods are accurate, but you are wasting my time saying residents because it really doesn't tell me anything except they live in our area.

I could put dozens of these on this blog entry, but really, the point I'm making is ego.

So many of the people saying and writing these "pet peeves"of mine have too big an ego to take my advice and change their ways.

I guess that's the nature of broadcast media.