Wednesday, June 23, 2010

New site favors the right

One of the first things I was taught in journalism class was the media should be fair and balanced.

Yes, I know, that doesn’t happen in real life. See Fox News, for instance. But a news organization should strive to present both sides of the story in a fair and balanced way.

Yesterday, a friend asked if I had seen The LeFlore County Guardian. No, I had not. So I decided to check it out.

The Guardian is a new web site which proclaims: in the defense of constitutional liberty, common sense and civic virtue.

That sounded great. I explored the site for a few minutes. First off, anything that promotes LeFlore County and its citizens, or helps make the county better is welcome.

As I checked out the site, there were a few things that troubled me. It looked like the site was more to promote Republicans than a true news site.

In one of the articles, it implies that the Poteau Daily News & Sun leans way to the left in support of Democrats. I am not affiliated with or a supporter of the PDN&S. I also do not agree with that statement. I have never seen the paper criticize one political party or openly support one over the other.

The Guardian does have the usual blame Obama and his cronies for all the bad stuff. The Guardian can state that all it wants. Free Speech still exists. But if the Guardian wants to be a true news organization, the stories should be balanced. If they want to state their opinions, it should be under commentary.

I hope the Guardian does well. Like I mentioned earlier, anything that is good for the county is great. Hopefully you will check out the site and share it.

And no, I am not trying to criticize the Guardian. My political views do not lean to the left or the right although I tend to vote with the Republicans more than Democrats.

In the end, I support the person who I believe can do the job the best, it does not matter which political party the person represents. If I had my way, there would not be political parties. A person would run for office and not have to do what his party told him to do. He (or she) could do what is best for everybody, not a select group.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

A visit to Craig's mailbox!

We haven’t done it in a while, so let’s visit Craig’s mailbox!

Yeah! First on the list this morning is Remove mold from my home! Just what I want to think about at 6:30 this fine morning.

Coming in a distant second: Asian singles! I must admit that I did not read the contents of this fine email to find out just why I would want Asian singles. A few thoughts did come to mind, but…no.

A few Facebook notifications! Uh, great. If I get another message about how somebody has made my crops on Farmville look pretty, I am dropping the game. No, I don’t have the time and motivation to worry about my fake craps, er, crops on Farmville.

Hey, here’s one I really need! Bare lifts bras! Wow! Sorry, no moobs for the Craigman and if I did, I would go for the natural look, not the uplifting turn a B into a D look.

Great Massage schools! Uh, great! I got a massage message. Say that one fast a time or two. Or don’t.

A one-day discount on Viagra! As if!

Breast implants! I don’t know many dudes are interested in having this done for themselves, but…

How to put Dr. in front of my name! I don’t need training for that. Dr. Craigman! See? Easy enough, not necessarily true though.

Check out hot pics of local singles! All I have to do is look outside and see plenty of hot people. Jeez, it has been well over 100 degrees. Not sure about the marital status and being this hot, don’t really care.

Get rid of those zits! No thanks, Proactiv! Hey, Ania has sent multiple requests for me to see hot singles! Sorry, not gonna happen. See response above!

Geez, yet another: Do I need larger breasts? Let me check, no.

Enough! I say! If somebody wanted to actually get me to open one of these junkzoids, tell me how to make millions of dollars every year from the comfort of my home working on a computer. Hmm, maybe I could figure out a program that would ban stupid email messages. That should be worth some serious G.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Good things happening around county

The economy is still not all that great in the good old USA and here in LeFlore County, but there are positive things happening.

In Heavener, a new Subway has opened on Hwy. 59 north, just next to Mazzio’s. Also, a new car wash is open next to KP’s. Poteau’s new Holiday Inn-Express has also opened just next to the byway and across from the Choctaw Travel Plaza and EOMC has a new childbirth center which opened last week.

The new Almost Italy restaurant next to the courthouse is Poteau is also close to opening.

Dirt work is also underway at Poteau’s new civic center. The old track at Poteau’s football field is also being replaced. Currently most of the business buildings are full, at least in Poteau, nothing like the endless supply of empty buildings in other locations.

There are also new houses being built around the county, another sign that people are feeling better about the economy.

You also see a lot of new small businesses in the area. This is good, of course, for job growth, but also to increase the tax base and anything that keeps the money spent in county instead of Fort Smith or other locations helps all of us.

All the communities and schools have had to tighten their belts because of the lost revenue. That means lost jobs and programs, but we are still much better off than other parts of the country.

Is this the end of the recession? Probably not, but it is a good movement. People always say LeFlore County is a little behind the rest of the country. The recession hit here a little later than in other parts of the county and the recovery is hopefully here.

It has been tough the last couple of years and we are not out of the bad times, yet, but it is good to see good things happening and hopefully that will continue.

If you know of other good things happening in your community, please pass the information along.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Local publisher survives attack by golf ball

First off, I am sorry that the blog of Craig has been vacant recently. As many of you might know and a few might care, your Journal publisher is currently publishing the Journal along with the new e-zine, along with working a full time job at a local business.

So time has been a little tight and my blog has suffered. But with a little extra time on this SWELTERING Sunday morning (that was a little inside joke, but not funny enough to share), the blog returns, brought on in part by a frightening moment at the Fort Smith Classic on Saturday.

Edgar “Andy” (aka Coach Perdue) Perdue, Lyle Whitworth and I went to watch the action Saturday at Hardscrabble Country Club in Fort Smith.

Before getting into the frightening incident, I would like to point out again it was hot. Fortunately, there were refreshments available at several locations on the course, at least until the funds ran dry because the above-mentioned refreshments were a little on the pricey side.

Like many of our fellow spectators, we wanted to watch John Daly play a little golf. He made his appearance shortly before his tee time wearing a red shirt, multi-colored pants that if I was buried in would force me to come back and haunt my relatives over, and puffing on a cig.

We watched him play the first couple of holes and eventually made our way to a shaded area beside the sixth-hole.

Lyle was bravely walking the course (he is much younger, of course), while Andy and I sat and watched a few groups play through the par-5 hole. We noticed that most of the golfers went to the right side, which was smart since if you missed the green where we were sitting, the ball would roll down a slight incline and wind up in some dangerous territory.

Finally, Daly’s group made it to our hole. He hit a monster drive and his second shot came to our side of the green, missed the green, hit a mound just a few yards away, bounced a couple of times and came rolling toward me.

Argh, I thought, I am going to get hit by Daly’s ball (golf ball, actually)! Not really, but it sounded good. I was frozen as I wondered what to do! I slid my leg over just a bit and his golf ball hit me on the shin and landed under my chair.

Hmm, what shall I do, I actually thought. I had seen pro golfers reward fans with moolah before after their golf ball hit them. That would help pay for some of the overpriced refreshments! I stood up and limped around for a second to the amusement of the crowd surrounding me, not that it actually hit.

I am sure they were worried about my condition as the golf ball was traveling at turtle-speed when it ran into my shin. Actually, I think they were hoping Daly would reward me for getting hit by the ball and I would share my new riches by buying them overpriced refreshments. As if.

Andy moved his chair away and I looked to make sure the golf ball was not touching my chair and would move. It was clear so I moved my chair back as Daly and his caddy approached.

I looked forward to Daly asking if anybody had gotten hit while pulling out his wallet. But no! He pulled out a club as his caddy asked everybody to scoot back (including me!) Wait, I wanted to say, I got hit by his ball!

Instead, Daly chipped on to the green and ran the sucker clear to the other side. I looked for any kind of bruise or indention on my leg, but only saw sweaty leg hairs.

They walked away! I looked around to see if there was a television camera which might have recorded the scary event and would broadcast it on the news. But again, no. My noble act of bravery went unrecorded. I didn’t get cruddola. We moved on, only with my memory, and sweat accruing in places which are not comfortable. I was glad to repeat the story to whoever was willing to listen, however.

We watched for a couple of hours more, mainly in the shade and finally called it a day.