Ga. Assembly to Put Fourth Bill on GA. Dome.

Georgia Legislators are getting set to extend the tax collections that pay for the Georgia Dome. (GA Dome is owned and operated by the state). The bill, however is contingent upon keeping the Falcons in house. And that is not a guarantee. Built over 18 years ago (1992) the venue is fast becoming one of the oldest stadiums in the NFL.

A few opponents of the bill point out that a new stadium could bring future sites of the Superbowl back to Atlanta ( haven't hosted a SB since 99') and many other events that could generate tremendous revenue for the city.

The current contract with the Georgia Dome expires in 2020 and while that is still a good 10 years away it can take several years to build a stadium (and that's after you can agree on who's paying for it). Its often a long negotiation.(the Dome has yet to pay off $214 million dollars used to pay for it; And is not expected to till 2017.)


The Georgia assembly expects to have a desision by late this week

Late Night Wars

Jack Paar, Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien,. . . .Jay Leno (again)




As has become a well documented incident, The NBC has quiet the conundrum on its hands. After replacing Jay Leno with Conan O'Brien as the host of The Tonight Show, NBC is once again replacing it's host, (not even a year in) with the guy whom they had already replaced. That's right, Jay Leno.

It all began back in the Fall when Jay Leno and NBC decided that while Leno would retire as host of the tonight show (already promised to O'Brien) he would stay on at NBC and be given his own show at 10:00, never before heard of in Prime time television.

Many people thought this was a terrible idea. The show would have to compete with 10:00 local news and pimetime dramas of other networks. I was with NBC on this one. I thought the idea of dropping a variety show one hour earlier would be gold for Leno and NBC. My thought was that not everybody would want to stay up past midnight to watch a late talk show and that this show could potentially tap into a brand new audience. What else were people watching at 10 anyway? There was a reason that the drama's that came on and 10, well, came on at 10 and not 8 or 9 (a much better primetime viewing slot)

Well they (that is the critics) were right and I was wrong. While neither the Jay Leno Show or O'Brien's Tonight Show flopped in the ratings category they did not get the expected ratings boost and Local NBC affiliates began to complain that Leno's show was a poor lead-in to their local news programmes. And since the local NBC's were a prime source of income for the Network, what the affiliates wanted they got.

NBC immediately announced that they would move both comedians back to their old slots and O'Brien immediately announced that NBC could go to hell. Well not in those words. But in a matter of days Conan made it clear he would rather quit than have such a humiliation forced upon him.

It seems kind of childish on the surface but you have to remember that the Tonight Show meant alot to O'Brien. He grew up a big fan of Johnny Carson and after writing for both the Simpsons and SNL O'brien was also a writer for the early years of Leno's Tonight Show. The Tonight Show itself is more than half a century old, had already gone through several hosts, but none were forced to to give it up after only 6 months to the guy whom had already retired. It was a public humiliation.

But don't feel too bad for Conan he and his writers ended up with a pretty nice 45 million dollar seottlement with NBC and thats a pretty nice parting basket. And NBC made a nice bundle as well. The last Month also saw some of both show's highest ratings, as auidences just couldn't get enough of the two commedians taking both jab's at each other and NBC.

But the questions still remain. What will happen to the Tonight Show once Leno returns? Where will Conan go?

Social Networking.

I've always had mixed feeling about social networking (meaning I'm gonna ride the fence on this one).


Facebook (and before it Myspace) is great way to keep in touch with old highschool classmates (sparing us the akward phone calls of trying to look them up), metting your freind's freinds, and coamparing vaction photos with an old sweetheart. Sites like Twitter give us an insight into the daily lives of our favorite athletes and celebrities, often getting the news before even the major 24 hour news networks can get it.

But these tools do raise an intresting question of where socalilizing is going in society. Now I'm not saying that the Internet is going to completly terminate human contact as we know it, but in these days of Online gaming, shopping, dating even colleges it does seem like we are just one step closer to having our lives dominated as much by online obligations as we do in the matieral ones. (The idea of how popular 2ndLife and World of War Craft have gotten almost makes me want to cringe)

Proper ways to use a Semicolon

(Connect independent clauses)
- I wanted to go to the movies; we could not agree on what movie to see.
- Dr. Hernandez gave me the news; it was cancer.
- It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.
(As an extra comma)
- We stopped in Boston, Massachusetts; Albany, New York; Philadelphia Pennsylvania ; and Hartford Connecticut.
- The event days are as follows December 27, 2010; January 5, 2011; and February 17, 2011.
(Between independent clauses linked by a conjunction)
- When I go outside, I usually wear my read sneakers; but I could not find them.

Obama's first year in office (A term of public perception)

As someone who voted for Obama, I was really rooting for him to succeed in his first year in office. The verdict. . . . disappointed, but when you really think about it not really surprising. Caught up in the "hype" that was Obama's sweeping election, I think many people we're expecting a swift end to the recession, where almost every American would have a job and the United States would once again be the the grail that other free republic's could aspire to.

We know now that those expectations we're unrealistic. Fixing an economy takes times and it could very well get worse before it gets better. I think the Obama Campaign is partly to blame in this. They were all too willing to stoke the fire's of change, promising and end to pandering to lobbyists and the same old politics. A brilliant campaign ideal (The McCain camp liked it so much that they threw in thier own conservative "Rouge" in Palin) , but one that has backfired as things today don't feel much different than they did a year ago.

In addition to people whos expectations might've been to high, they're are also the people who are genuinly scared (perhaps irrationally)of the effects the Obama administration could have on thier lives. Today its whether or not he tough enough on Islamic extremists. If you recall six months ago it was "Death Panels" and a "Socialist Democracy".

A big part of this can be attributed to GOP slanted press (Particularly a certain News Network that rhymes with Fox News). But the white House has done a poor job of dismissing these fears (We never received straight answers regarding the Public Health Option). During his election Campaign there was a slew of "fear stories" regarding topics such as Obama's Birth certificate, his Religion, his middle name. Obama and his supporters made quick work, striking down these subjects, which never gained footing. This time around many of these new allegations have stuck and the less educated are scared

Its too early give Obama a grade. It takes more than just a few hours, but possibly the passing of several years to accurately (and fairly) grade an administration's effectiveness. Both Ronald Regan and Bill Clinton (generally considered successful administrations by their respective parties) had mediorce showing in their first years in office.

But its undeniable that the public at large is starting to have reservations. This month alone the democrats have already lost a special election in Massachusetts (a historically democratic state) in the process losing the majority they needed to pass a Goverment Health Option bill. At the same time many media polls show his aprovall ratings (Personally I don't always trust these) have dropped to nearly 50%.

To me Obama's first year is a bit of an enigma. I would have liked to see more, but I understand that an economy can't be saved in a day and the current state of things can't be attributed to him alone. Another year or so might give us a better idea of where his 4 years are heading.

New Blog

This is the first entry in my newest blog. As a tool for my new journalism class I will post 2 to 4 posts a week dealing with a variety of topics from politics and philosophy to peer review of other blogs. This will be a new adventure for me in the bloggsphere. I've kept blogs before but ususally involving topics like sports, game reviews and local events. But this is a bit more serious (see academic) than my ususal posts.

Not to skate around it, if given the choice between writing a review on the House's new proposal for water conservation or the Falcons newest assistant coach, well I'd probally go with the latter (I'm a sports journalist dammit). But I'm sure any good writer or college professor would tell me it would be wise not limit yourself to one exprtise but to become well rounded in as many subjects as possible so this could be helpful from more than just an class requirement stand point but from a personal one as well. Expect many editoral peices (and way too many parentheses)