The Southerner Journal

By Paul Rockne

The most interesting game on this weekend’s SEC college football schedule has probably already been played – Thursday night when Auburn escaped the trap set by Steve Spurrier in Columbia, S.C.

No. 2-ranked Auburn managed to eek out a 24-17 lead over Spurrier’s Gamecocks, but needed some luck to do it. The luck came in the form of an onsides kick that the Tigers used to regain possession of the ball after scoring a field goal on a nine-minute drive to open the third quarter.

Auburn had held a slim 14-10 lead at the halftime intermission, with South Carolina claiming the momentum by scoring at the end of the half. After the opening drive in the second half produced just 3 points, AU’s Coach Tommy Tuberville must have figured his defense would have a hard time stopping the Gamecocks and felt a 17-10 lead was not sufficient.

The gamble was a big one and paid off big, with the War Eagles holding the ball for the rest of the third quarter and scoring their third TD on the first play of the fourth period.

South Carolina proved Tuberville’s fears correct by mounting two drives in the fourth period, the first one ending in a touchdown that moved the score to 24-17 and the second one ending with an Auburn interception in the end zone with seconds to play in the game.

South Carolina may have lost the game, but the Gamecocks served notice to the rest of their opponents. Spurrier’s magic is working and South Carolina showed that it will be able to move the ball against any opponent. And its defense held the Auburn offense in check most of the time. Carolina ended up with more yards, more plays and more first downs than the Tigers.

The next biggest game of the weekend has to be today’s CBS matchup between Alabama and Florida (2:30 p.m.)

Still smarting from last year’s 31-3 rout in Tuscaloosa, the Gators are fired up and foaming at the mouth as they await Bama and sweet revenge.

The trouble is that last year’s home win by the Tide was an anomaly. The Bama-Gators series is one of the upside down affairs in which the visiting team wins more often than the home team. Florida is just 1-8 in the last nine Bama trips to The Swamp.

Look for Alabama to go to the pass more this week if Ken Darby and the Bama running attack continues to falter. Sophomore quarterback John Parker Wilson has looked good throwing the ball so far this season and he also does not hesitate scramble for running yardage when he spots a seam in the defense.

Junior Keith Brown, who has been Wilson’s favorite receiver so far this season, said just that – while also throwing in a little criticism of the Bama coaching philosophy on offense – this week. “We can throw it on anybody if we want to – and as long as we make the play call,” said Brown.

Bama’s Coach Mike Shula has come under fire from fans and critics for what he termed “playing the percentages” in the late going against Arkansas. After carving up the Hogs through the air, Shula called runs on its finial seven plays of the fourth-quarter drive and on all three of its plays in the first overtime. Freshman kicker Leigh Tiffin missed field goals at the end of both possessions.

Florida will be a tough test for the Crimson Tide defense. The unbeaten Gators (4-0) are led by Heisman Trophy hopeful Chris Leak and sport some of the best overall offensive stats in the nation.

The Gators have the best passing offense (289.8 yards per game) and total offense (465.5 yards per game) in the SEC. They rank No. 9 nationally in both departments. Florida is scoring at a 30.9-per-game pace, second in the league behind LSU (35.5).

In addition to the tremendous personnel on the Gator squad, Florida runs a wide variety of sets, making it difficult to study and defend.

Saturday’s weekend TV lineup, other than pay-for-view is as follows:
• Tennessee at Memphis, 11 a.m., ESPN
• Wisconsin at Indiana, 11 a.m., ESPN2.
• Toledo at Pittsburgh, 11 a.m., ESPNU
• Colorado at Missouri, 11:30 a.m., FOXSS
• Mississippi State at LSU, 11:30 p.m., UPN
• Boise State at Utah, 2 p.m., VERSUS
• Tennessee State at Florida A&M, 2 p.m., TURNER SOUTH
• Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech, 2:30 p.m. ABC
• Alabama at Florida, 2:30 p.m., CBS
• Purdue at Notre Dame, 2:30 p.m., NBC
• Rice at Army, 2:30 p.m., ESPNU
• Houston at Miami, 5 p.m., ESPN2
• Kansas at Nebraska, 6 p.m., FOXSS
• Louisiana Tech at Clemson, 6 p.m., ESPNU
• Michigan at Minnesota., 6:45 p.m., ESPN
• Ohio State at Iowa, 7 p.m., ABC
• Georgia at Ole Miss, 8 p.m., ESPN2

Posted by Ron Sitton at 11:01 AM | Permalink

By Ronald Sitton

Two Can Play that Game - Arkansas Times Blog, Sept. 29, 2006

NORTH LITTLE ROCK (Sept. 29) - Apparently, I'm a "rabble rouser" for advising the Journalism Club on campus, which plans to bring Independent candidate Rod Bryan and Green party candidate Jim Lendall to the University of Arkansas at Monticello for a gubernatorial debate.

The press release that appears on The Times blog was not released to the general public. This version only appears in The Voice, the Journalism Club's online newspaper. The official release, as sent to media outlets via UAM's Media Services, appears here.

There's not much difference between the two besides AP style, passive voice and a change to the lead that emphasizes all candidates have been invited. But since the insinuation that I'm raising hell exists, let me note a few things:

1) Again, the journalism club invited every candidate; I wish they would all come. UCA also features Bryan and Lendall in the AETN debate. At this time, I don't believe Beebe or Hutchinson have decided to attend that one, either.

2) It would be best for the state if they all got together and let us hear exactly where they stand on the issues. The citizens of South Arkansas deserve an opportunity to hear their future leaders discuss issues important to the region. I don't even live in Monticello (notice the dateline), but I believe the region deserves attention now. It may be a ways away, but change comes with I-69. If we don't prepare the infrastructure now, we risk a LOT later.

3) I started contacting the traditional candidates via e-mail in August in hopes of getting them to come. Since I know Zac Wright through the University of Tennessee and he works for the Beebe campaign, I thought it might be possible to persuade them to attend. Zac let me know this event did not make the debate calendar, but I figured the journalism club could try again once a date was finalized. Once Bryan and Lendall committed, I called Hutchinson's campaign again and was told they would get back with me. Instead of going through Zac, I also called Thomas Jones, the south Arkansas rep of the Beebe campaign, and he said he'd see what they can do.

When it comes to politics, I vote for the candidate who looks at issues like I do. Just give me all the facts and let me make my own decisions. I'm a firm believer in liberties guaranteed through the Constitution, especially ALL of the Bill of Rights and subsequent Constitutional amendments.

I believe everyone needs ALL of the relevant information to make an informed decision come November. As an Arkansas citizen, I'll abide by the decisions of whoever becomes governor. As an educator, I believe its important to educate a populace about its choices. A South Arkansas debate puts facts on the table, facts that might otherwise not be available since the majority of the media provides a lot of information on the traditional candidates and very little information on the nontraditional candidates.

And if that makes me a rabble rouser, I guess I'm a rabble rouser. :)

Posted by Ron Sitton at 05:05 PM | Permalink

By Ronald Sitton

MONTICELLO (Sept. 28) - The Wandering Weevil Wheels continue to gain momentum.

Of the 10 bicycles donated to the University of Arkansas at Monticello, six came from the city of Monticello and four were provided by UAM faculty and staff. Student Activities provided a room (Jeter 104) to house and work on the bicycles, and the Student Activities Board approved a $250 purchase of tools.

Gary Marshall, Buck DeFee, Shannon Stivison and I keep pushing the project forward on campus. Mars sent out a call for campus organizations and individuals to adopt a bike, which means volunteering to help fix-up and paint the bike in distinctive Weevil colors. If you or your organization wants to volunteer to help fix-up tune-up or LEARN to fix and tune bikes, e-mail Buck at DeFee@uamont.edu.

Lt. Eddy Deaton of the Monticello Police Department and Michael Ford, editor-in-chief of The Voice, helped unload the bicycles into our new digs while Orkhan Rzayev took the pictures below. I sent a picture from the unloading and the previous blog item to Beverly at the Advance-Monticellonian. I think she will have an article in next week's issue.

Janelle Martin sent in a link to edocuments.com, which notes bicycle riding can turn the lemons of high gas prices into lemonade. When Campus Police officer Mike May spoke to my journalism class, he mentioned the Wandering Weevil Wheels as an example of something good happening on campus.

Photo by Orkhan Rzayev

Unloading - Monticello Police Lt. Eddy Deaton (right) helps Ronald Sitton, UAM assistant professor of journalism, unload bicycles to be used for the Wandering Weevil Wheels program. The Monticello Police Department donated six of the 15 bicycles, with other donations from faculty and staff.

Photo by Orkhan Rzayev

Home - The Wandering Weevil Wheels now reside in Jeter 104, where students and organizations will fix up and paint the bicycles before they're released to the campus.

Posted by Ron Sitton at 11:11 AM | Permalink

By Ronald Sitton

NORTH LITTLE ROCK (Sept. 24) -- After Arkansas escaped its second-consecutive hair-graying game, I’m sure Houston Nutt just wanted to bask in the diminished heat on his backside following the win over Alabama. Not many people expected the Hogs to be in a tie atop the SEC West after getting to 2-0 in conference play for only the second time in Nutt’s nine-year tenure as Head Hog.

How could he expect such good fortune on a night when his freshman quarterback tossed three interceptions? At least Mitch Mustain provided a touchdown pass that allowed sophomore kicker Jeremy Davis to atone for a missed PAT. Last year, the Razorback nation sat in stunned silence as ‘Bama scored without anybody covering their receiver. I empathize with the ‘Bama faithful - I can only imagine their collective jaw dropped further than mine watching wide right, wide right … wide right.

The game makes the West standings look odd when examining more than the won-lost column. Auburn sits in the catbird seat with a perfect slate, having scored 95 points more than its opponents, including a 38-point advantage against SEC teams. ‘Bama and Arkansas sit tied at 3-1 overall, with the Hogs now holding the tie-breaker. Yet while the Tide has scored 44 more points than its opponents, the Hogs have scored 13 fewer points thanks to a five-turnover performance against Southern California. That’s why they play the games.

While some point to Alabama as Arkansas’ bell-weather game, the records reveal otherwise. According to the Arkansas media guide, that distinction would belong to the Tigers of both Auburn and Louisiana State.

Arkansas improved to 8-9 against the Crimson Tide with Saturday’s win, including an 8-7 record since the Hogs joined the SEC. Arkansas’ record against the SEC West since joining the conference also comprises a 5-8-1 record against Auburn, a 8-6 record against Ole Miss, a 10-3-1 record against Mississippi State and a 5-9 record against LSU. Yet something must be said about the Alabama Gateway as far as the Razorbacks’ fortunes.

Joe Kines led the Razorbacks to a 3-7-1 mark in his only year as head coach of the Razorbacks, following the Citadel debacle in Jack Crowe's last game. All the wins came in Southeastern Conference play after he brought in Danny Ford to help. Kines lost the job to Ford the following year, then moved on to defensive coordinator positions at Georgia and now Alabama.

In Danny Ford's five seasons, his 26-30-1 record included a 1-4 record against Auburn and a 3-2 record against Alabama, his alma mater, aided by a win accrued via NCAA sanctions. In two of the three years he beat Alabama, Arkansas posted a winning record. The only year he beat both teams, Arkansas won its first SEC Western Division title. After losing Madre Hill in the team's first SEC championship game appearance in 1995, Ford watched the Hogs lose their only bowl game in his tenure. Consecutive 4-7 seasons and some untimely comments pushed him out the door.

Houston Nutt's 60-41 record at Arkansas includes a 5-4 record against Alabama, a 4-4 record against Auburn, a 5-3 record against Ole Miss, a 7-1 record against Mississippi State and a 3-4 record against LSU. The only year Nutt beat both Alabama teams, Arkansas won its first SEC-West co-championship in Nutt's first year. Nutt added a second co-championship in his fifth year despite losing to Alabama early in the season. Last year marked the first time Nutt lost to both Alabama and Auburn in the same year.

If Arkansas plays a bell-weather game, the records show it’s against Auburn. Kines lost to Alabama in Arkansas’ first year in the conference, but the tie with Auburn gave the program a hint that it might compete in the SEC. Ford’s only win against the Tigers helped him lead the Razorbacks to its only outright SEC West championship.

Auburn enjoyed a 4-1-1 advantage over Arkansas prior to Nutt’s tenure, but split since then. The Razorbacks beat the Tigers in four of the six years Nutt led the Hogs to a bowl game. While Nutt’s 3-1 against Mike Shula, he’s 4-4 against Arkansas native Tommy Tuberville, the coach he beat out for the job in 1998. One of Nutt’s wins came while Tuberville coached at Ole Miss.

Tuberville turned the Auburn program around, leading the university to an SEC Championship, five Western Division titles and a 13-0 season since arriving seven years ago. His Auburn record stands at 60-27 and his overall record is 85-47 (.644) in 11 years, compared to Nutt’s 93-62 (.600) overall record in 13 years.

Though Auburn has a winning record against its three biggest rivals - LSU (5-3), Georgia (5-2) and Alabama (5-2) – during Tuberville’s reign, the Tigers are only 4-3 against Arkansas during the same period. The Tigers won the last three years, which helped achieve consecutive season-ending Top 10 BCS rankings the last two.

Truly, the toll road runs through Auburn if Arkansas plans to take the Alabama Gateway to the SEC West Championship. If Nutt boosts his record to 5-4 against Auburn and Tuberville when the Hogs travel to the Plains in two weeks to take on the nation’s No. 2-ranked Tigers, the Hogs will return to the Top 25 and the fickle faithful wanting Nutt’s job will likely cease their moaning for a little while.

Posted by Ron Sitton at 05:24 PM | Permalink

Editor's Note: Due to the dwindling quality of online news coverage that makes it easy for readers to scan and find out about upcoming events, we are launching this new feature for football season 2006. Each Friday, we will carry a column from a legendary Southern sports writer who wishes to write under a pen name here to prevent career problems at the corporate news organization he is affiliated with. Do you ever find yourself just trying to find an easy place online to find out what games are coming up, what time the games start, and what television network will be carrying them? Then check back in here every Friday afternoon or Saturday morning and we'll have it for you. It's easy to print out. Just hit the print button in your Web browser.

It's Not A Big Game Weekend, Unless You Are A Tide Or Hog Fan

by Paul Rockne

After a big week of big games in college football last weekend, this week’s schedule is a letdown. Not that there aren’t a few interesting matchups … especially if you are an Alabama or Arkansas fan, for instance, but the meaningful meetings on the college gridiron are few and far between.

On the Southern scene, the Crimson Tide will travel to Arkansas for what is always an important meeting of these two similarly-clad teams (often, it is hard for viewers on TV to tell which team is which because their colors match up so well).

“This game usually always decides a lot about your year,” said the Hogs’ head coach, Houston Nutt, last week. And he’s right. Historically, the winner of the early-season meeting between the Tide and Hogs will battle for the SEC West title, while the loser is relegated to the second rung of the standings.

And while the Alabama-Arkansas game doesn’t have the glamour of last week’s West matchup between Auburn and LSU, it could produce the same type of glued-to-the-screen drama. The cumulative score while these two division rivals have been splitting their last eight games at 4-4 has been just as even … Alabama 191, Arkansas 191.

And with both teams having trouble scoring points while playing solid, for the most part, defense in their first three games, it looks to be another defensive slugfest like last week’s AU-LSU headliner.

The similarities between the two teams this season are uncanny. Both sport close conference opening wins over Vanderbilt and a win over an early-season creampuff. The main difference is that while Bama was opening its season with a close win over Hawaii, the Hogs were being beaten badly by Southern Cal.

Part of both teams’ offensive problems stem from the fact they each have new starters at quarterback - Bama going with sophomore John Parker Wilson and Arkansas with true freshman Mitch Mustain.

Arkansas (2-1 overall, 1-0 SEC) has been named the pre-game favorite, by a narrow 2-and-a-half-point margin over the still unbeaten (3-0, 1-0) Crimson Tide.

The Bama-Arkansas game is the main CBS game for the weekend - highlighting the weak week’s schedule - with game time set for 2:30 p.m. After an absence from the TV lineup in two of the first three weeks of the season, Bama will be on national TV for two weeks in a row. CBS has announced it will broadcast the Alabama at Florida game from Gainesville next Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

No. 2 ranked Auburn (3-0) will not be on the tube anywhere - not even pay for view - as they host the University of Buffalo Saturday.

Speaking of the War Eagles, Auburn fans have been saying “all the way to Glendale (site of this year’s BCS national championship game)” since last week’s win over LSU. The thinking is that now all Auburn has to do is to win out to make it to the title contest.

But Auburn, as well as anyone, knows that winning out is not enough - not if more than two teams make it through the year unbeaten. And this could be one of those years.

After three weeks of the 2006 college season, 29 teams are still on the unbeaten list. The include, by conference: SEC - Alabama, Auburn, Georgia and Florida; ACC – Boston College, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest; Big East - Louisville, Rutgers, West Virginia and South Florida; Big Ten – Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Purdue and Wisconsin; Big 12 - Kansas State, Missouri, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M; Conference USA - Houston; Mountain West – TCU; Pac-10 – Arizona State, Oregon, Southern Cal and UCLA; Western Athletic - Boise State; Independent - Navy.

This week’s college football TV schedule kicks off tonight, Friday, with Northwestern at Nevada at 7 p.m. on ESPN2). Saturday’s weekend TV lineup, other than pay-for-view is as follows:

Wisconsin at Michigan, 11 a.m., ESPN
Minnesota at Purdue, 11 a.m., ESPN2
Cincinnati at Virginia Tech, 11 a.m.
North Carolina at Clemson, 11 a.m., ESPNU
Iowa at Illinois, 11 a.m., CSS
Louisville at Kansas State, 11 a.m., FOXSS
Colorado at Georgia, 11:30 p.m., WJCT
Alabama at Arkansas, 2:20 p.m., CBS
Penn State at Ohio State, 2:30 p.m., ABC
Arizona State at California, 2:30 p.m. FOXSS
Connecticut at Indiana, 2:30 p.m., CSS
Rice at FSU, 2w:30 p.m., ESPNU
West Virginia at East Carolina, 3:30 p.m., ESPN2
Western Carolina at Furman, 6 p.m., CSS
South Florida at Kansazs, 6 p.m., FOXSS
Miami (Ohio) at Syracuse, 6 p.m., WAPNU
UCLA at Washington, 6 p.m., TBS
Kentucky at Florida, 6:45 p.m., ESPN
Boston College at North Carolina State, 7 p.m., ESPN2
Notre Dame at Michigan, 7 p.m., ABC

The biggest game on the grid schedule this week will not be played on Saturday and it will not be a college game either. This week’s big game will the first game played in New Orleans’ Super Dome since Hurricane Katrina. After playing a whole season on the road, the Saints return to the Dome in triumphant fashion for what is actually an important division win. Coming to town is arch-rival Atlanta and the game Monday (7:30 p.m. on ESPN) will be for first place with both teams sitting at 2-0.

The Sunday NFL television schedule has Carolina vs. Tampa Bay at noon (FOX), Jacksonville at Indianapolis at noon (CBS), New York Giants at Seattle (3:15 p.m. FOX) and Denver at New England (7 p.m. NBC).

Posted by Glynn Wilson at 01:01 PM | Permalink

Maybe Condi Can Explain It To Him

by Glynn Wilson

Do you ever wake up in the morning with a start from a dream and find yourself calling the president a dumbass?

Oh, I suppose not. That's my curse.

I only wish I could get into the press room with George W. Bush and try to question some sense into him. I wish his handlers would get him to read this column, because it contains a lesson in the difference between myth and reality and how Americans should treat the people of other countries.

As I wound down Sunday night, flipping around the cable TV channels to find something worth stopping on as I often do, I ran across a movie loosely based on a true story called "Hidalgo."

It is a 2004 film based on the life and tales of the famous American horseman Frank Hopkins and his amazing Spanish-American mustang Hidalgo.

While working for Wild Bill Cody's traveling show in 1890 in the last days of American cowboys and Indians, a wealthy Arab sheikh invites Hopkins and his horse to enter the "Ocean of Fire" horse race, a 3,000 mile survival ordeal across the Arabian desert.

Up until that year, the race was restricted to the finest Arabian horses ever bred, the purest and noblest lines owned by the greatest royal families. But the sheikh was a fan of tales from the American West, and Hopkins was billed as the greatest rider the West had ever known and his horse the greatest horse that ever lived to run.

So the Sheikh wants to puts his claim to the test, pitting the American cowboy and his mustang against the world's greatest Arabian horses and Bedouin riders, some of whom are determined to prevent a foreigner - and especially an "impure" horse and rider - from finishing the race. Hopkins is presented as half Caucasian and half Native American, born of a marriage between a European father and a Native American mother. His Indian name is "Blue Child" or "Far Rider."

In spite of the seemingly overwhelming obstacles, Hollywood predictably has Hopkins win the race by a nose in the end. But the sheikh's nephew the prince, who Hopkins saves from quicksand during the race, lives to come in second on the top Arabian horse. The horse of a British woman, who the Arabs in the film call "the Christian woman," comes in third, in spite of all her plots to have Hidalgo killed. Some Christian.

I would like to imagine George W. Bush watching this movie in the White House screening room along with Secretary of State Condi Rice, who explains its meaning to him.

"Don't you see, Mr. President, how this cowboy showed class and humility after he won the race?"

Hopkins befriends the sheikh and his daughter throughout the race and makes a gift of his Colt pistol after it's over. A hundred years of peace ensues between the two countries as a result, even though the myth of the pure bred horse and rider are blown.

The victory by Hopkins and Hidalgo shows that free will matters more than breeding.

To show he's truly a class act, the directors have Hopkins travel home to America after the race and use the $100,000 in prize money to buy hundreds of mustangs the U.S. Government planned to shoot. He releases them into the wild and sets Hidalgo free along with them.

Now isn't there a lesson in this movie about how America should deal with the rest of the world and nature? Isn't that why they used to love us?

For more information about the film, consult the Wikipedia online encyclopedia. And watch for it on a cable channel near you.

Posted by Glynn Wilson at 10:29 AM | Permalink

by Ronald Sitton

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Life got me thinking today, reassessing if you will. I’m finding I’ve shifted over time. For one thing, I find I love reading banned books. Click on the button and find out more if you wish.

Another example - I grew up in a strict Missionary Baptist background. We didn’t take communion with outsiders and we didn’t dance. As I grew older, I didn’t understand why that mattered if the object is getting to heaven and believing in Jesus Christ. For a while, I considered myself to be a Baptist, but now I prefer to be known as a Christian. I try to do unto others as I would have done to me. I’m not perfect, so I try not to judge because I hope I can be forgiven for my imperfections.

In politics, I’ve traveled the gamut. In second grade, I helped elect Jimmy Carter behind the slogan “Ford is a bucket of bolts” in our mock election. After my mom remarried, I believed in the Great Communicator who helped bring back the hostages, the man who made it OK to believe in America again. It wasn’t until later that I found out about America’s true terror policy, i.e. people Reagan called “Freedom Fighters” were called terrorists by the inhabitants suffering under their reign. Even so, I voted for George H.W. Bush in my first presidential election because I believed he was the best man for the job.

I also grew up under Bill Clinton, who served as state attorney general, governor and president during my formative years understanding government. In Arkansas, Clinton put more money into education than into law enforcement. I appreciate the benefits more in hindsight than at the time. I voted for Clinton in both presidential elections, but maybe more because he came from Arkansas than because he was a Democrat. If the residents of Tennessee had voted for their home-grown candidate, the nation would never have witnessed Indecision 2000.

So be it. I planned to stand behind “W” after he was elected, until he started attacking values I hold dear. I’m of an independent mind. I vote for the individual based on the issues. It’s not easy finding information on the issues due to media insistence on primarily covering those with money. But if you look hard enough, there’s information out there.

I try to look for a golden mean in most areas, though I do hold absolutes, e.g. I believe in the First Amendment absolutely. Yet while I strongly support the Second Amendment, I don’t believe the Founding Fathers could envision automatic weapons that require no skill, just a spraying of an area. If you can drop a deer with a muzzle-loader, you’ve got my respect.

I believe in conservation in a true sense, i.e. conserving energy resources and the pristine beauty of our national lands. I want my descendents, directly and indirectly, to witness an America I’ve seen from coast to coast. I want them to meet the varied individuals residing in both accessible and nearly un-accessible areas, to understand that some people suck, but most people have a good heart.

Yet sometimes I wonder what future generations will think of the 20th century “Make Money at All Costs” mentality that’s turning America into one big strip mall, complete with Wal-Mart and corporate hamburger row lining the entrances. In the name of progress, humanity defecates on the planet that sustains it. I find that regressive.

The Internet revolutionized the way I think about politics.

Through the Internet I found a majority of Arkansas hunters and anglers say they are witnessing signs of global warming and want immediate action from their elected leaders to halt the trend. A majority of hunters and anglers polled say they have witnessed changes in climate, including hotter summers, unusual drought, and warmer and shorter winters. Most agree global warming is a threat to the state economy because it depends upon income from natural resources, such as the timber industry and hunting and fishing.

I found I can make a difference in fighting global warming even if some knuckleheads in Washington refuse to do so. Rather than be struck with a feeling of helplessness, the Web provides power to those wanting to make a difference, e.g. bloggers unhappy with the president affected Google’s search list for the phrases “failure” and “miserable failure.” Google explained the results as google-bombing, in essence telling the world if you’re unhappy enough, you can make people aware of your pain.

I can feed the hungry, fight illiteracy, breast-cancer and the deforestation of rain forest, all at the click of a link. I get e-mail alerts from groups interested in preserving rivers, national parks, wildlife, wilderness and the environment, fighting global warming and politicians bent on destroying the land I love so dear, stopping corporate control of media, protecting voter registration and stopping other threats to democracy. I can sign petitions to my heart’s desire, and Congress even gets my vote on the issues of the day.

My political representatives can attest to hearing from me more because of the Internet. I don’t believe they actually read all of the responses, because I often receive form letters in the mail. That’s OK. I’m sending them tons of form-letters in e-mail letting them know what I think about issues of the day. At least Vic Snyder figured out it’s easier to reply with an e-mail instead of dropping another tree for paper. As far as the rest (including letters from the White House), I recycle their letters for grocery lists, scrap paper and printing things off the Web. Occasionally my students receive papers with a letter from one of my representatives on the back. They tend to like the paper with old recipes on the back better.

I guess I just wanted you to know that you can be as active as you want to be. Doing something, anything is better than waiting for the sky to fall.

Posted by Ron Sitton at 10:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

by Glynn Wilson

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Sept. 10 - On the eve of the five-year anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on America, you have to read between the headlines in the Washington Post to get the point.

Osama bin Laden's Trail Is 'Stone Cold,' according to a detailed analysis by the new national newspaper of record online.

Osama Bin Laden's Trail Is 'Stone Cold'

The clandestine U.S. commandos whose job is to capture or kill Osama bin Laden have not received a credible lead in more than two years. Nothing from the vast U.S. intelligence world - no tips from informants, no snippets from electronic intercepts, no points on any satellite image - has led them anywhere near the al-Qaeda leader, according to U.S. and Pakistani officials.

… and President George W. Bush should be held accountable for that.

Intelligence officials think that bin Laden is hiding in the northern reaches of the autonomous tribal region along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. This calculation is based largely on a lack of activity elsewhere and on other intelligence, including a videotape, obtained exclusively by the CIA and not previously reported, that shows bin Laden walking on a trail toward Pakistan at the end of the battle of Tora Bora in December 2001, when U.S. forces came close but failed to capture him.

Many factors have combined in the five years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to make the pursuit more difficult. They include the lack of CIA access to people close to al-Qaeda's inner circle; Pakistan's unwillingness to pursue him; the reemergence of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan; the strength of the Iraqi insurgency, which has depleted U.S. military and intelligence resources; and the U.S. government's own disorganization.

But the underlying reality is that finding one person in hiding is difficult under any circumstances. Eric Rudolph, the confessed Olympics and abortion clinic bomber, evaded authorities for five years, only to be captured miles from where he was last seen in North Carolina.

It has been so long since there has been anything like a real close call that some operatives have given bin Laden a nickname: "Elvis," for all the wishful-thinking sightings that have substituted for anything real.

After playing down bin Laden's importance and barely mentioning him for several years, Bush last week repeatedly invoked his name and quoted from his writings and speeches to underscore what Bush said is the continuing threat of terrorism. . . .

On (a) videotape (of al Qaida right after 9/11) obtained by the CIA, bin Laden is seen confidently instructing his party how to dig holes in the ground to lie in undetected at night. A bomb dropped by a U.S. aircraft can be seen exploding in the distance. "We were there last night," bin Laden says without much concern in his voice. He was in or headed toward Pakistan, counterterrorism officials think.

That was December 2001. Only two months later, Bush decided to pull out most of the special operations troops and their CIA counterparts in the paramilitary division that were leading the hunt for bin Laden in Afghanistan to prepare for war in Iraq, said Flynt L. Leverett, then an expert on the Middle East at the National Security Council.

"I was appalled when I learned about it," said Leverett, who has become an outspoken critic of the administration's counterterrorism policy. "I don't know of anyone who thought it was a good idea. It's very likely that bin Laden would be dead or in American custody if we hadn't done that."

If you believe the word of politicians who believe spinning press releases and making speeches makes you safer, vote for more Republicans in the November elections.

If you believe those running the government should show up and do their jobs in a credible fashion, vote for Democrats and help change the power structure in Congress.

Bush will never stand for election ever again. So how do we hold him accountable for his incompetent high-crimes and misdemeanors - including not finding Osama bin Laden "dead or alive?"

The only way that will happen is for the majority to change in the U.S. House of Representatives, where according to the Constitution, impeachment proceedings must be initiated. A Democratic Party majority in the U.S. Senate is also important. That's where Bush's war crimes trial should be held.

Posted by Glynn Wilson at 01:15 PM | Permalink

By Ronald Sitton

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - No matter where you reside in the South, you follow Southeastern Conference football. You can't help it; if you cannot talk about it, sometimes you'll have nothing to say while everyone around you throws in their two cents on the current crisis facing their favorite team.

You may have noted I didn't write last week following the USC collapse. For an entire week, I seriously questioned my allegiance to the team I've followed for 37 years. I had no choice but to be a Hog fan ... my dad left the delivery room to check the Arkansas score in November 1968. I've seen the ups - 1978 Orange Bowl, etc. - and the downs. I even sat in the student section of my alma mater - the University of Tennessee - decked out in Hog paraphenalia to see The Fumble and The Thrashing two years later.

Still, I've never seriously reconsidered my allegiance until last week. My good friend Poguey noted his dad once gave him sound advice, i.e. "Never bet on the Razorbacks or the (Dallas) Cowboys." And I don't bet on the Hogs, but I've lived and died with them many a year.

I listened to the Razorbacks play Utah State on the radio yesterday since the game was not televised. It's a hard thing to do without Paul Eels' signature "Oh MY!" following an Arkansas touchdown. When I lived in Tennessee, I'd listen to Paul over the Internet just to get a taste of home. The seven-overtime win at Ole Miss wouldn't have been as special without Eels vividly describing Matt Jones executing the impossible. It's fitting Arkansas opens Southeastern Conference play against Vanderbilt next week. I'm sure we'll see another special since Eels came to Arkansas from Vanderbilt in the '70s.

The Razorbacks beat Utah State 20-0, the team's first shutout since 2002, with Darren McFadden scoring twice while gaining 184 yards on 20 carries and Mitch Mustain throwing a touchdown to Marcus Monk. You would think that would make people happy. Instead, the critics are already calling for Houston Nutt's job because he wants a smash-mouth running game. The critics want Guz Malzahn to turn the team on the hill into Pass-Happy U.

I remember those same fair-weather fans clamoring that Ken Hatfield's flexbone wasn't good enough or fancy enough, though it won back-to-back SWC championships. So we got rid of the winningest coach in Arkansas history for an offensive wizard in Jack Crowe, who lasted until the Citadel debacle.

I've already detailed Frank's itchy finger, and even thought it may have cost the job of our only basketball coach with a national championship. That last piece noted Frank canned anyone who couldn't keep his mouth shut.

OK, Nutt ain't Butch Davis, but Nutt can keep his mouth shut.

Nutt's already broken a cardinal rule this fall by starting a freshman quarterback in Mustain. ESPN and everybody else commented on the situation. He moved the former starting quarterback and the backup defensive end to wide receiver. He told the media last night that he loves ugly wins because they're wins.

Sound like a coach on the hot seat?

Oh yeah, HDN knows the fickle tastes of the Razorback Nation. He's two years away from taking the team to six consecutive bowls, a feat only accomplished by Lou Holtz, who also got canned after a down year. Nutt came in on the tails of Danny Ford, who got canned two years after winning the SEC West. Nutt wanted the Arkansas job when few did.

Of course, some will point out the coach Broyles passed over, Tommy Tuberville, consistently challenges on the national level. Perhaps Arkansas would also challenge had it not gone through NCAA sanctions Nutt endured though they happened in Ford's tenure. But perhaps not.

Arkansas will never have a budget to keep up with the likes of USC, Texas, etc. We as fans have to get used to that, and the fact that those budgets bring in players who we'll only see lining up against us. The main way Arkansas will recruit top-notch talent will be to keep it's home crop intact, something that only Nutt has been able to do since Frank Broyles retired.

Occasionally, Arkansas will make a national run as a darkhorse contender, but it will never dominate the Southeastern Conference. Maybe instead of changing coaches, we should change conferences. We'd at least have a shot winning the Big 12 more often than we can win in the SEC.

Ya know, it would have been really easy for me to become a Volunteer fan while attending UT. While in graduate school, I watched Peyton Manning as well as the Tee Martin-led National Championship team of 1998. Last weekend, I watched UT dismantle Cal just prior to USC roughing up Arkansas. I thought about switching allegiance and I don't think anyone could blame me if I did, especially considering UT is my alma mater.

Maybe then, I wouldn't have to take so much crap from my friends at Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. But I love the Razorbacks, and while you can occasionally flirt with others, you never walk away from your true love.

While my personal crisis seems to have subsided, Houston Nutt's facing his. I know Nutt loves the Razorbacks, but he'll be dumped if he doesn't win seven this year. If he doesn't, we won't see Malzahn anymore either. We'll get Butch Davis most likely, and he won't care what the boo-birds think.

If Nutt wants to keep his job, he cannot think about the boo-birds either. People who boo at college games suck. They need to take their Eeyore mentalities and follow the pro game. But don't think Broyles isn't listening. Nutt dodged his Citadel last night with the win over Utah State. The only way he can keep dodging bullets is to continue winning. It doesn't matter if we're running the Power I or the Spread, just win and everything else will take care of itself.

Posted by Ron Sitton at 11:10 AM | Permalink

MONTICELLO, Ark. - Here's an update on those "Wandering Weevil Wheels," with pictures of the inaugural fleet.

Mars, Buck and I drove down to the old Post Office Friday afternoon to decide which bikes we would use for the 3-W program. Upon arriving, Mars and I noticed some of the bikes we'd seen previously were now gone. I queried Chief Tommy Free about it, and he said a few were being used to prepare a four-man bicycle patrol in Monticello. Wow ... it seems we may have started a trend.

Mars and Alice tried starting a bicycle program previously, but the administration at that time was not interested in bringing the bikes on the campus of the University of Arkansas at Monticello. We talked about the idea at their Prom Party, then followed up on the return to campus this fall. Tom Richard, an associate professor of art, said he could provide the paint.

The current administration, led by Chancellor Jack Lassiter, seems excited about the idea. Vice Chancellor Clay Brown is currently looking for a place that we can work on the bicycles. Members of the campus community are pitching in to help. OfficerJeff Peebles has already worked up possible rules and regulations for biking on campus.

"Buck" DeFee, an assistant professor of spatial information systems in the School of Forest Resources, regularly rides his bicycle to work. He contacted me immediately following the article publishing in the Voice, and offered to help get the donated bikes into working order. During Friday's pick-up, he inventoried the bicycles and determined which ones could be fixed and which ones would be cost-prohibitive.

Mars talked with students in the Creative Society and in some of his speech classes about the idea. They've been brainstorming about possibilities, including coming up with a idea to also paint the bike racks around campus to make them more noticeable. Lori Andrews recently scoured the campus to locate the current racks and will publish their locations in next week's Voice. Another student journalist, Marcus Roberts, offered to help tear down and reassemble the bikes since he previously assembled some for his job.

As you can see, it's truly turning into a campus-wide effort. :) Now for a little background on the name "Wandering Weevil Wheels."

The Boll Weevil terrorized Southern farmers for a long time, even prompting songs from artists like Leadbelly. According to the Drew County Historical Journal, former UAM president Frank Horsfall gave the name to the school's athletic teams during a pep rally before a homecoming game against Magnolia A&M, now Southern Arkansas University. "The only gosh-darned thing that ever really licked the South was the boll weevil. Boll weevils! That's what you are - Boll Weevils!"

To be honest, the historical journal helped supply the name for the bicycle program. Donald Holley's article on "Stewart Ferguson, the Wandering Weevils and Why They Played Football for Fun" details one of the more colorful episodes in the history of UAM football. During his short tenure at UAM in the Depression, Coach Ferguson took the Weevils from coast-to-coast just prior to World War II. Though they only won three games in three years, the Wandering Weevils gained national notoriety by trading laughs for touchdowns. The cartoon feature "Strange as It Seems" depicted "Football for Fun at Arkansas A&M," which noted the players made their own training rules and originated many of their own plays and formations. The most widely traveled team in the United States during its three-year reign, Ferguson wanted the players to have fun but also get an education by visiting historical sites and sitting in on classes at universities they visited to play football. The team earned a profit for it travels, making A&M an exception among small colleges that usually lost money.

So to recap, a little intiative seems to be working with the "Wandering Weevil Wheels" program. Though we'd originally saw approximately 30 bikes, we whittled down the number of serviceable bikes to six for our inaugural program. It remains to be seen how the campus community will react once the bikes are ready to roll. We still need to strip them down, prime them and paint them. Alice is putting together a palette for students to paint the bikes in Weevil colors. With any luck, we may have them ready in time for this year's homecoming. Stay tuned.

Posted by Ron Sitton at 11:21 AM | Permalink

by Glynn Wilson

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Sept. 4, 2006 - Waking up early to a cooler morning on Labor Day 2006, and with some important labor tasks out of the way that have kept me busy and distracted from the journal in recent days, I decided to entertain you, dear intelligent readers, by finding some idiocy in some anti-labor Southern newspapers to make fun of this morning.

It didn't take long.

Turning to the Montgomery Advertiser editorial page from the Alabama news links page, in a matter of seconds I was laughing at the ignorance that passes for understanding. Is it any wonder newspapers are having such a hard time keeping enough readers interested in their clap trap these days?

Get this for a lede.

Reflecting on the ancient words of Sophocles may not be the way you'd planned to spend your Labor Day holiday, but the old fellow did have a way with words and some serious insights to offer. As the nation celebrates Labor Day, it's worth noting a pithy observation of his:

"Without labor nothing prospers."

A quick search online for quotations from Sophocles turned up that misused jewel, but also this one:

"Ignorant men don't know what good they hold in their hands until they've flung it away."

For a history on this famous Greek philosopher who knew absolutely nothing about modern labor, you could turn to the online encyclopedia the business editor of the New York Times has declared off limits for that newspaper's reporters to quote, Wikipedia.Org.

For a better search to understand the U.S. Labor Day holiday, try this in Google: "History of Labor Day."

Right away you can read a page that somehow survives on the Bush Labor Department's Web site: The History of Labor Day.

Skipping down to one important part on the first Labor Day, you learn that it was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, planned by the Central Labor Union. In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, first named "workingmen's holiday."

"Labor Day differs in every essential way from the other holidays of the year in any country," said Samuel Gompers, founder and longtime president of the American Federation of Labor. "All other holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflicts and battles of man's prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and power, of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Day is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race, or nation."

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers, according to the site. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity and well-being of our country.

As it was first proposed, Labor Day involved a street parade to exhibit "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations" of the community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families.

Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civic significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.

The character of the Labor Day celebration has undergone a change in recent years, especially in large industrial centers where mass displays and huge parades are not as common as the labor movement has shrunk significantly and lost much of its political clout. Newspapers, radio and television news stations inevitably cover the speeches and the barbecues, although quite obviously, the anti-union newspapers of the American South only misguide their readers on what the holiday is supposed to be all about.

"The vital force of labor added materially to the highest standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known and has brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy," the labor site claims. "It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation's strength, freedom, and leadership - the American worker."

So the holiday is not a celebration of work. Nothing much is made in the U.S. today anyway, since most of the jobs have been "outsourced" oversees to places such as China and Central America.

But the holiday is a tribute to the workers themselves, who in 1882 did not have the benefit of a Fair Labor Standards Act which said they only had to work 40 hours a week. There was nothing to prevent factory owners from working women and children six days a week, 12 hours a day, and paying them a nickel a day.

That changed in the late 1930s, when Sen. Hugo Black of Alabama, a Democrat, teamed up with President Franklin Roosevelt, also a Democrat, to try and save America from the Great Depression by forcing business owners to pay a living wage to American workers. They passed the first minimum wage law, which of course hasn't been raised in a decade.

Since at least one politician in Alabama seems to have a sense of what this holiday is about, I will show up at Birmingham's Sloss Furnace today to see what Lucy Baxley has to say about raising the minimum wage in Alabama, a plan to go around the do-nothing Republican Congress and do the right thing at the state and local level.

We may not make much of anything in America, although we do make a few cars in Alabama and we raise chickens and grow pine trees. Most people here work to keep those cars running, maintain the roads they run on, and count the money of those who control all the capital. Many work in the hospitals to keep those workers alive, if not healthy.

One of the quotes used in the Advertiser editorial did make some sense and it is worth remembering.

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital," Abraham Lincoln said in his first message to Congress in 1861. "Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."

Of course that rarely happens in Bush's America. So let's pay tribute to that - at least for this one day of the year.

And while we think about it, we could quote another philosopher who knew far more about capitalism and the industrial worker. Remember what Karl Marx said? "Workers of the world unite."

Unfortunately, the undereducated American worker has been brain-washed into thinking that Marx was a bad old Socialist-Communist. So his dream of seeing an egalitarian world rise from the ashes of run amok corporate capitalism has yet to be achieved.

If Bush and company continue to have their way, all aspects of government will be privatized and handed over to the Haliburton's of the world. And we may yet see wages go back to the inflationary equivalent of a nickle a day.

Originally published in The Locust Fork Journal.

Posted by Glynn Wilson at 10:19 AM | Permalink

N. LITTLE ROCK - I'm back at the house after a crazy week. Trevor, my stepson, celebrated his 14th birthday Thursday night, so I drove from Monticello to Little Rock to be there. We met John & Norma for dinner at China King and gained back those pounds I'd lost riding the bicycle since the beginning of the semester.

I had to drive back to Monticello Friday morning to help get out the first issue of The Voice this semester. The students finally control the majority of the publishing process. Although I'm glad they're operating it, I found it a little hard to stand on the sidelines since I've been publishing it for the last two years. However, I trust this staff more than in recent years as they know what I'm looking for and are showing the dedication to work hard on a good product. :)

One of the stories in the Voice talked about the new Wandering Weevil Wheels program. I got the idea from living in the mountains outside Telluride, Colo., back in the summer of 1995. Telluride would paint the bikes yellow and allow anyone to ride anywhere in town since they worked to keep automobiles out of town. At UAM, the chancellor's behind the idea. I've already received help from Gary Marshall and Tom Richard, while Buck DeFee promises to help fix the bikes.

I'm trying to figure out a way to get the American Democracy Project to bring the independent candidates to campus, but I'm really concerned about time constraints. We'll see.

I'm noticing some interesting efforts to get people civically engaged. The Union of Concerned Scientists wants you to send your gas receipts to your Congressmen with a note asking them to do something about the cost of . gas. The Sierra Club asks people to finish the summer on a good note with Smart Energy choices. I found it interesting that switching to a vehicle getting 40 mpg or better will save money and emissions. Check out the MPG Calculator.

I've got to stop now as the house needs cleaning prior to everyone stopping by for the second part of Trevor's birthday party and the Arkansas-USC game. I'm sure something will make me want to blog after watching Tennessee and Arkansas back-to-back on ESPN. Catch ya l8r.

Posted by Ron Sitton at 11:24 AM | Permalink