09.14.09

A&E

SPORTS

Symphony prepares for fall concert

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Monday, September 14, 2009

Soccer team drops heartbreaker to Memphis

Serving the University of Alabama since 1894

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Vol. 116, Issue 25

‘Sky is the limit’ for Tide offense

By Spencer White Assistant Sports Editor The Alabama offense that entered the 2009 season as the biggest question mark for a team with a stacked defensive unit has emerged as a nearly unstoppable group when motivated.

With 516 yards in the 40-14 victory over Florida International, the Tide offense surpassed the 450 mark for the second consecutive game, while the 12-2 2008 squad only reached that output once in the entire season, the 41-7 triumph over Western Kentucky.

“The sky is the limit with this offense,” said junior wide receiver Earl Alexander. “We believe in us.”

With a squad seemingly bursting to the seams with young and experienced talent at every skill position, the group that appears to stand alone is the Tide running back corps, who ran all over the Panthers for 275 yards, including a breakout game from freshman Trent Richardson, who surpassed the 100-yard mark in only his second career game, and Terry Grant, whose 45-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter put away the Panthers for good.

The remarkable aspect of the output is that the two players who made up the bulk of the Tide’s rushing output against Virginia Tech, Mark Ingram and Roy Upchurch, were limited with the flu (Ingram) and an early ankle sprain (Upchurch).

What that potentially could mean for Alabama is a four-headed monster, composed of Ingram, Upchurch, Richardson, and Grant, that

rivals any unit in the nation in terms of production and talent.

Through the air, the Tide appears to have found a quarterback that is a more than adequate replacement for John Parker Wilson in junior Greg McElroy, who set an Alabama record for consecutive completions against FIU, connecting on 14 straight strikes after an early Julio Jones drop.

However, the true mark of McElroy’s ability was seen after Jones left the game with a bruised knee. The Dallas native spread the ball to nine different targets in an impressive 18-for-24 home opener, including senior Mike McCoy, an often under-looked veteran for the Tide, who compiled his first 100-yard receiving game in an Alabama uniform.

In doing so, McElroy asserted an ability to look past his first read and dish the ball off to outlets that Wilson struggled with throughout his Tide career.

“Greg did a very good job of taking what [FIU] gave him,” head coach Nick Saban said.

“He was accurate and made good decisions.”

And how’s this for eyepopping: Through two games, Alabama has out-gained its opponents 333 yards to 125 in the fourth quarter, and outscored them 32-7.

“We strive to be the bestconditioned team in the fourth quarter,” Alexander said. “We want to be the best-conditioned team no matter who we play.”

With offensive production like the Tide has put up in CW | Bethany Martin the opening two salvos of the 2009 season, it’s hard to argue Terry Grant bursts through the line during Saturdayʼs game against FIU. With Mark Ingram limited due to the flu and Roy Upchurch spraining an ankle in the first quarter, Grant received more opportunities including a 45-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.

Alexander’s point.

UAPD advice Few problems at student gate to help keep students safe

By Lindsey Shelton Student Life Editor

Programs, safer living guide offer tips and ideas

By Kellie Munts Senior Staff Reporter

• Don’t leave items of value visible in your car • Contact UAPD at the first sign of a problem.

Source: UAPD even review the Safer Living Guide at the beginning of the season, because it’s got everything you need to try and enhance your safety,” Fowler said. “Everything they have to institute to be able to improve their environment should be covered in that publication.”

UA Officer Andy Liles, crime prevention specialist, said it is especially important for students living away from home for the first time to develop the safety habits that they may

See SAFETY, page 2

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CW | Bethany Martin Many students said they were happy with the process of getting into Saturdays game against FIU.

It has kinks, but I think they’ll prised by how rapidly the line get them worked out.”

Some students were sur- See GATE, page 2

UA professors research fuel sources

By Victor Luckerson Staff Reporter A group of UA researchers are working to make hydrogen-powered cars a practical, affordable reality.

David Dixon and Anthony Arduengo, professors in the University’s chemistry department, are leading on-campus research to find practical ways to store and transport hydro-

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• Park in designated parking areas

gen-based fuels for automobiles. They are working in conjunction with the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a New Mexico-based research institution engaged in developing alternative fuels and energies.

Arduengo said that one of the biggest challenges facing the development of hydrogenfueled cars is the difficulty in safely transporting pure hydrogen.

“You’re not going to be able to burn the hydrogen if you can’t carry it,” Arduengo said.

“Our goal is to make a liquid fuel that could be readily transported like we do today,” Dixon said. “We won’t be moving hydrogen around. We’ll be moving a chemical.”

UA researchers and Los Alamos think the key may be something called ammonia borane. When the fuel under-

INSIDE today’s paper

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As students settle into the routine of the fall semester, the UAPD continues to emphasize the importance of staying safe both on and off campus.

During this season especially, thousands of guests flood Tuscaloosa on a regular basis and with that influx of people comes potential risk for crime.

UAPD Capt. Aaron Fowler said any problem can easily be avoided by following the suggestions outlined in the Safer Living Guide.

The Guide is an all-inclusive booklet that details many different ways to stay safe on campus and can be found on campus as well as online. Fowler said students should take a few minutes out of their busy days to visit the UAPD Web site and read through the suggestions listed.

“It wouldn’t hurt to view or

SAFETY TIPS

Although students were limited to one main entrance gate into last Saturday’s game, many said the new ticket line process was relatively trouble-free.

“I thought it was pretty easy to get in the stadium,” said Rachel Davis, a junior majoring in public relations. “I got there about 30 minutes before they opened the gate, but the line was really long behind me by the time the gates opened.

With the exception of waiting in line, most of my friends got in without a problem, so it seems like it went as smoothly as it could have.”

SGA president Steven Oliver said, while he had not talked to officials with ACTion Card Services, he had not

heard of any problems with the ticket line.

“I’m very pleased with the way it went [on Saturday],” Oliver said. “Everyone I talked to before and after the game indicated that it was a very smooth process.”

Oliver said he commended students for getting in line early and making the ticketing process easier.

Although most students quickly got through the line, some students had problems with their ACTion cards at the gate.

“I got there around 4 and I got through pretty quickly,” said Patrick Blevins, a junior majoring in biology. “But the other two guys I was with [ACTion] cards didn’t work and had to wait for about 30 minutes to get it straightened out. I think it worked all right.

P.O. Box 870170 Tuscaloosa, AL 35487 Newsroom: 348-6144 | Fax: 348-4116 | Advertising: 348-7845 | Classifieds: 348-7355 Letters, op-eds: letters@cw.ua.edu Press releases, announcements: news@cw.ua.edu

Briefs ........................2

Puzzles.................... 11

Opinions ...................4

Classifieds ............... 11

Sports .......................7

Arts & Entertainment 12

goes reaction, it produces hydrogen — usable in a fuel cell to power a car — and a waste substance which will have to be stored and disposed of. Much of Dixon’s research concerns finding methods to convert this waste back into a usable fuel. A paper published last week by Los Alamos shows a breakthrough in this

See RESEARCH, page 2

WEATHER today Thunderstorms Tuesday

81º/70º

81º/68º

Chance of thunderstorms

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2 Monday, September 14, 2009

NEWS

NEWS in brief

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Correction

twitter.com/cwnewsline

In Friday’s issue of The Crimson White, an article titled “Students remember and celebrate� misspelled the name of a speaker at the Sept. 11 memorial event. The first name of UA Vice President for Facilities and Grounds Ret. Col. Duane Lamb (Air Force) was spelled Dewayne instead of its correct spelling.

CAMPUS | Black Student Union holds first meeting The Black Student Union will hold its first meeting of the year in Room 302 of the Ferguson Center at 7 p.m. Interested students are invited to attend, and free food and drinks will be provided.

CAMPUS | Center holds interest meeting for Alternative Spring Break trips The Community Service Center is holding an interest meeting for Alternative Spring and Winter Break service trips abroad on Wednesday at 6:15 p.m. in Room 309 at the Ferguson Center. Interested students can learn more about the spring break trip to Peru and the winter break trip to either Costa Rica or Calgary, Canada. For more information contact Josh Burford at burfo003@crimson.ua.edu or visit the Community Service Center office in Room 346 of the Ferg.

STATE | Student injured in on-campus shooting at Alabama A&M HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — Police say a 20-year-old Alabama A&M University engineering student is in good condition after being shot on campus Sunday morning following an argument at a club.

AAMU Interim Police Chief Charlie Porter says Marion Orr was a passenger in a Nissan that was driving near a residence hall when the vehicle was fired upon by riders in a white Chevrolet Tahoe.

A bullet came through a window and grazed Orr. It happened around 3 a.m. after Porter says witnesses tell him the men were involved in a heated argument at a local club.

Orr was treated and released from Huntsville Hospital.

Law enforcement from A&M and the City of Huntsville continue to investigate.

NATIONAL | ʝBillboardʟ bank robbery suspect nabbed in Mo. KINGDOM CITY, Mo. (AP) — A man suspected of robbing 14 banks in six states has been captured in Missouri after a former state trooper recognized him from media reports, authorities said.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol said in a news release Sunday that Chad E. Schaffner was arrested Saturday at a motel in the small town of Kingdom City, about 25 miles east of Columbia.

Send announcements and campus news to cwnews@sa.ua.edu

CAMPUS

The Crimson White

By John Justice Staff Writer Deak Nabers, of Brown University, will be speaking today at noon in the UA School of Law’s moot courtroom as part of the Hugo Black Lecture Series.

The title of Nabers’ lecture will be “Ordered Liberty: World War II and the Concept of Law in the United States.� Nabers is the author of “Victory of Law: The Fourteenth Amendment, The Civil War, and American Literature, 1852-1867,� as well as several articles published in “Representations,’ ‘American Literature,’ and ‘The Yale Journal of Criticism.’ The Hugo Black Lecture honors former U.S. Supreme Court

• SUPe Store Fall Sidewalk Sale: 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Ferguson Center

For more events, see calendars on Arts & Entertainment and Sports.

Continued from page 1

Thursday, September 17th RHETT AKINS!

DOORS OPEN AT 9 $15 advance $18 day of show with special guest: Walker Hayes

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moved once the gates were open. “I was worried that it was going to take forever,� said Melinda Williams, a senior public relations major. “But I got through [the gate] and into the stadium really fast.

It worked well for me, but it may not have for people that got there later. I think it will probably work well the rest of the season. I think the biggest problem will be for bigger games like Tennessee and LSU when everyone wants to get in earlier.�

Oliver said he wanted to remind students to continue to get in line early. He added that although the line went smoothly this week, there could still be delays at future games.

by the Department of Energy’s Chemical Hydrogen Storage Center of Excellence. In addition to Dixon and Arduengo, several UA undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students have been involved in the project. In total, 30 to 50 people from schools around the nation are involved in ongoing research on the project with Los Alamos.

Dixon said the technology to make a car powered by ammonia borane could be fully realized in the next five years. However, it could be 10 to 15 years before such a vehicle would become available at a mass-market price. “The biggest challenge is going to be making this as cheap as possible,� Dixon said. “People don’t want to spend more than $2 to $4 on gas or its equivalent.�

Moving away from petroleumbased fuels will be important going forward, Dixon said. “There’s a huge impact on national security,� he said. “We can become energy independent. The Middle East becomes less important in powering our economy.�

to keep up with the most recent scams and issues that students Continued from page 1 need to be aware of, Liles said.

Standard issues are outlined have previously relied on their in the booklet. When there are parents for. The Safer Living football games going on, Fowler Guide is updated yearly in order said students need to park in designated parking areas in order to ensure the safety of their vehicles. Additionally, all items of value should be removed from sight in order to minimize theft.

While some of those items should not be left in the cars, they also should not be taken into the stadium. Liles said students should become very aware of what items are permitted inside of Bryant-Denny Stadium.

That information can be found throughout campus as well as on the UAPD Web site.

When tailgating or celebrating a Crimson Tide victory, the UAPD encourages students to be very aware of their surrounding and whom they are partying with. If there is a problem on gamedays or at any other time, the best choice is to contact the UAPD. “One of the biggest things that people fail to do is call us at the first indication of trouble,� Liles said. “They let it reach levels that get way out of hand and by the time we get there enforcement action must be taken.�

Fowler said the UAPD is taking every step in order to secure the safety of students. The Community Oriented Policing program is intended to create

a familiarity between students and the officers that serve on a regular basis near them.

Additionally, the Safe@UA program targets first-year students and aims to instill safety skills that will continue to be applicable in the future. “We key in on the first 42 days of each semester to keep students safe and make sure that they’re picking up on tips that will follow them in all stages of life,� Liles said. “That’s our focus, and that’s what we want to accomplish.�

Fowler said the basic safety skills emphasized when students are young are still important in college lifestyles. Basic ideas, like traveling in pairs and walking in lit areas are key components of living safety as students at the University. “If they use some of these fairly simple tactics and activities, I think it will reduce the likelihood of them becoming victims,�

Fowler said. “Their safety is, of course, our goal and our priority.�

Students can visit police. ua.edu to access safety tips and other safety information.

• Amanda Peterson, editor-in-chief • Will Nevin, managing editor • Avery Dame, metro/state editor • Drew Taylor, admin affairs editor • Lindsey Shelton, student life editor • Alan Blinder, opinions editor • Steven Nalley, arts & entertainment editor • Tyler Deierhoi, assistant arts & entertainment editor • Jason Galloway, sports editor • Spencer White, assistant sports editor • Brandee Easter, design editor • Emily Johnson, assistant design editor • Jerrod Seaton, photo editor • Katie Bennett, assistant photo editor• Sharon Nichols, chief copy editor • Aaron Gertler, graphics editor • Andrew Richardson, web editor

• Drew Gunn, advertising manager, 348-8995, cwbiz manager@sa.ua.edu • Jake Knott, account executive, (McFarland and Skyland boulevards), 348-8735 • Dana Andrezejewski, account executive, (Northport & downtown Tuscaloosa), 3486153 • Andrew Pair, account executive, (UA Campus), 3482670 • Rebecca Tiarsmith, account executive, (The Strip and Downtown), 348-6875 • John Bouchard & Ross Lowe, account executives, (Non-traditional advertising), 348-4381 • Emily Frost, classifieds coordinator, 348-7355 • Emily Ross & John Mathieu, creative services, 348-8042

recycling process. “It’s the first good example of how to regenerate spent fuel,�

Dixon said.

According to Dixon, people may be able to pump ammonia borane, referred to as “AB,� in the future from stations in the same way they get gasoline today. The waste product would not be recyclable within the car but would have to be shipped to a refinery in some way. However, a single tank of hydrogen fuel would last 300 to 500 miles.

Research into alternative fuel sources has been going on for decades. Dixon said that ammonia borane was both a practical and efficient solution. “Everything we’re looking at is powering with electricity,�

Dixon said. “Can I store electrons better in a battery or in chemical bonds? We think chemical bonds are really an important way to go.�

The project is being funded

SAFETY

EDITORIAL

ADVERTISING

Justice Hugo L. Black, one of the law school’s distinguished alumni. Black, who graduated from the University of Alabama in 1906, was nominated to the court by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and served as an associate justice from 1937 to 1971.

Nabers is the son of former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Drayton Nabers, Jr., who now practices law at the Birmingham firm of Maynard, Cooper & Gale, PC. Following his graduation from the University’s law school in 1965, Nabers served as a law clerk to Justice Black on the Supreme Court.

The lecture is co-sponsored by UA’s School of Law and College of Arts & Sciences and is open to the general public.

RESEARCH

TUESDAY

• Hugo Black Lecture: Deak Naber, noon, UA law school’s moot courtroom

Continued from page 1

Law school hosts lecture today

this week

TODAY

GATE

NEWS in brief

The Crimson White

NEWS

Monday, September 14, 2009

3

Risk-taking is back for banks 1 year after crisis

By Stevenson Jacobs The Associated Press NEW YORK — A year after the financial system nearly collapsed, the nation’s biggest banks are bigger and regaining their appetite for risk.

Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and others — which have received tens of billions of dollars in federal aid — are once more betting big on bonds, commodities and exotic financial products, trading that nearly stopped during the financial crisis.

That Wall Street is making money again in essentially the same ways that thrust the banking system into chaos last fall is reason for concern on several levels, financial ana-

lysts and government officials say. • There have been no significant changes to the federal rules governing their behavior. Proposals that have been made to better monitor the financial system and to police the products banks sell to consumers have been held up by lobbyists, lawmakers and turf-protecting regulators. • Through mergers and the failure of Lehman Brothers, the mammoth banks whose nearcollapse prompted government rescues have gotten even bigger, increasing the risk they pose to the financial system.

And they still make bets that, in the aggregate, are worth far more than the capital they have on hand to cover against potential losses.

• The government’s response to last year’s meltdown was to spend whatever it takes to protect the financial system from collapse — a precedent that could encourage even greater risk-taking from the private sector.

Lawrence Summers, director of the White House National Economic Council, says an overhaul of financial regulations is needed as soon as possible to keep the financial system safe over the long haul. “You cannot rely on the scars of past crises to ensure against practices that will lead to future crises,� Summers says.

No one is predicting another meltdown from risky trading in the near term. Rather, the concern is what happens over time

as banks’ confidence grows and the memory of the financial crisis of 2008 fades.

Will they pile on bets to the point that a new asset bubble forms and — as happened with mortgage-backed securities — its undoing endangers banks and the broader economy? “We’re seeing the same kind of behavior from the banks, and that could lead to some huge and scary parallels,� says Simon Johnson, former chief economist with the International Monetary Fund.

Some risk-taking is good.

When banks are willing to invest in companies or lend to home-buyers, that nurtures economic growth by generating employment and consumer spending, feeding a cycle of

In this Oct. 2, 2008 ďŹ le photo, Jonathan Corpina, senior managing partner at Meridian Equity Partners Inc., center, works in a crowd of traders on the New York Stock Exchange oor.

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expansion.

The problem is when banks’ quest for profits leads them to take on too much risk. In the case of the housing bubble, which burst last year, banks lent too freely to consumers with weak credit and wagered too much on complex financial instruments tied to mortgages.

As real-estate prices turned south, so did the financial industry’s health.

Because the largest banks’ trading divisions make their bets with each other, their fortunes are intertwined. The collapse of one can threaten another — and another — if it is unable to pay off its debts.

This so-called counterparty risk is a major reason the Obama administration’s regulatory overhaul plan calls for the creation of a “systemic risk regulator.�

The administration is also seeking tougher capital requirements for banks, arguing that banks’ buying of exotic financial products without keeping enough cash on reserve was a key cause of the crisis. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has urged the Group of 20 nations — which meets this month in Pittsburgh — to agree on new capital levels by the end of 2010 and put them in place two years later.

Geithner hasn’t said how much extra capital banks should be required to keep on hand.

Data from the April-June quarter show that the banks are leaning heavily again on their trading desks for revenue. • During the fourth quarter of 2008, when the financial crisis made even the shrewdest bankers risk-averse, Goldman’s trading of risky assets nearly stopped. But in the second quarter of 2009, trading revenue had climbed to nearly 50 percent of total revenue, closer to where it was two years ago before the recession began. JP Morgan’s reliance on trading revenue has exhibited a similar pattern. • Also in the second quarter, the five biggest banks’ average potential losses from a single day of trading topped $1 billion,

up 76 percent from two years ago, according to regulatory filings.

The government hasn’t just watched banks resume their freewheeling ways and prosper.

It has been an enabler in the process. The Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. — during both the Bush and Obama administrations — have made trillions of dollars available to the biggest banks through bailouts, lowcost loans and loss guarantees designed to stabilize the financial system.

The failure of Lehman Brothers — the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history — and the panicky sales of Bear Stearns to JPMorgan and Merrill Lynch to Bank of America, also have transformed Wall Street. The surviving investment banks have fewer competitors and more market share.

Five of the biggest banks — Goldman, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Bank of America — posted secondquarter profits totaling $13 billion. That’s more than double what they made in the second quarter of 2008 and nearly twothirds as much as the $20.7 billion they earned in the second quarter of 2007 — when the economy was strong.

Meanwhile, Bank of America and Wells Fargo today originate 41 percent of all home loans that are backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. The banks made $284 billion in such loans in the first half of this year, up from $124 billion during the same period last year. “The big banks now are more powerful than before,� said Johnson, now a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management. “Their market share has grown and they have a lot of clout in Washington.�

Wall Street’s recovery is also being aided by a stock-market rally that has driven the S&P 500 index up nearly 54 percent since March 9, when it hit a 12-year low.

Ala. budget cuts expected

continued impact on the state education budget will force spending to be cut between 4.5 expected in the new state bud- percent and 10 percent.

By Phillip Rawls gets that take effect Oct. 1.

The Associated Press In the General Fund budget, The question is: How much? the acting state finance direcMONTGOMERY — Cuts are Officials say the recession’s tor has told state agencies to expect 3 percent less money than they were appropriated for the first nine months of the new fiscal year. “It’s going to be a very tough budget year and difficult choices are going to have to be made in the budget unless the economy turns around,� said Sen. Roger Bedford of Russellville, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance and TaxationGeneral Fund Committee.

The recession has caused state tax collections to plunge.

Through the first 11 months of the fiscal year, the state’s tax collections were down 5.3 percent from the same time a year ago.

Taxes set aside for education were down far more than the (205)342-4868 On Hill Behind Wal-Mart on Skyland www.woods-n-water.com overall decline in tax revenues.

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OPINIONS

OUR VIEW

Monday, September 14, 2009 Editor • Alan Blinder letters@cw.ua.edu

{ YOUR VIEW } HOW DID THE CRIMSON TIDE PERFORM SATURDAY? “The defense couldʼve done a little better” — Danny Jackson, freshman, civil engineering

“Even though we won 40-14, a lot of people were still disappointed.”

— Devon Marsett, sophomore, New College

“I think we underestimated them a little bit.”

— Tyler Fahey, sophomore, health studies

“The first half was a little closer than I hear it shouldʼve been.”

— Douglas Weathers, freshman

EDITORIAL BOARD Amanda Peterson Editor Will Nevin Managing Editor Alan Blinder Opinions Editor

WE WELCOME YOUR OPINIONS Letters to the editor must be less than 300 words and guest columns less than 800.

Send submissions to letters@ cw.ua.edu. Submissions must include the author’s name, year, major and daytime phone number. Phone numbers are for verification and will not be published.

Students should also include their year in school and major. For more information, call 348-6144. The CW reserves the right to edit all submissions.

Stadium ops could be better

The home openIn short: Only er has come and having one gone, and so has student gate our primary fear went smoother about the gameday experience than expected, this fall at Bryantbut some sound Denny Stadium needs improvein the midst of ment. the construction in the south end zone.

When the University announced the student entrance would be reduced to a single gate, we thought the plan was destined for failure. We were wrong. When we entered the stadium on Saturday with thousands of other Crimson Tide fans, we were surprised by the efficiency and speed of the student entrance. In fact, the student entrance seemed to run better than it had in years past.

The University has finally eliminated pat downs of entering students, a time-consuming process of questionable value. In getting rid of this former part of the gameday experience, the University has made entering the stadium more efficient while not detracting from student safety.

Our complaints about our experiences on Saturday are few, but significant.

First, with the absence of the south scoreboard, sound quality in the student section has been greatly reduced. Students could not hear much of the audio from pregame and in-game videos, lessening their effects, and the referees’ explanations were unintelligible.

Second, the University’s decision to run a game highlights video in place of Green Day’s “Basketcase,” the beloved fourth quarter song, detracted from the tradition of a Saturday at Bryant-Denny. Only after student complaints — and five minutes of play in the fourth quarter — did the Million Dollar Band offer up the crowd favorite. We don’t fault the band, but rather stadium officials for choosing to run a video of highlights of the game that the crowd had been present for in person.

Third, on numerous occasions, the scoreboards were not up to date. On multiple plays, the down, yards-to-go, and ball-on indicators failed to be in sync with the game. If an attendee is actively watching the game and the ball is not directly in front of them, they want such information and the scoreboard is a key source.

There is no excuse for significant delay.

We are supportive of the renovation of the south end zone, as it will help to improve the appearance of Bryant-Denny. We were impressed by the University’s systematic management of stadium operations on Saturday despite the predictions of chaos. With some improvements, the Alabama game day experience will continue to be one of the finest in the nation, much like the team that runs the field for 60 minutes.

{

MCT Campus

Too late for leadership

By Alan Blinder If there is an essential truth in American politics, it is that health care debates are perennially mismanaged.

They are not mismanaged for short periods, though. For one reason or another — incompetence, arrogance, or something else — presidents and their aides don’t like to modify their strategy on health care debates, even when it is apparent to any and all that the tactics are failing. Campaigns to reform health care usually have a false start, and the debate only deteriorates from there.

When it comes to health care, the type of health care or the size of the proposal is irrelevant to the conduct of the debate. Congress could be debating health coverage for children — something most people, even ardent conservatives, support – and end up trading shots about minutiae that has little to do with helping kids.

For an example, look no further than the debate in 2007 to renew funding for State Children’s Health Insurance Programs. The dialogue became a touchstone for debate about immigration reform, a particularly hot topic at the time, and the bill got lost in the shuffle.

For a while, kids stood to lose big. Eventually, both sides realized that failing to insure kids was a recipe for disaster, and they cobbled together a temporary solution.

A temporary solution. We seem to get a lot of those in politics these days. That is why Barack Obama, if he were to change the way we deliver health care, had to change how he sold the idea to the American people. He did not necessarily have to change his proposal, but a tacti-

cal shift in the salesmanship was necessary. He did not realize that or he didn’t execute it.

For a president who promoted a playbook of change, Obama’s strategy to win reform has been eerily reminiscent of his predecessors.

In turn, he won’t get what he initially wanted. He will not get a public option. Instead of health care becoming the highlight of his presidency, it might become the blemish. Surprisingly, Obama’s positive legacy might well be in the form of his foreign policy.

Last fall, Obama dazzled us. He could talk (and he could say more than “my friends.”) He had a nice family. He ran a campaign that was cool and hip. If anyone could change the world — especially that black hole called Washington — he could.

And then we elected him, and we realized that he was, like every other inhabitant of the White House, a politician.

And, within that reality, we find Obama s fatal flaw. As I ve written before, an electorate bursting at the seams with naïve, first-time voters elected Obama last fall on the basis that he could change Washington. He was not elected on the basis of policy, but voters, in the end, do expect a cohesive policy that brings change (there is that pesky word again.)

Obama finally tried to present a cohesive policy in his address to Congress last Wednesday. But it was too late. Presidential addresses to Congress should take place at the beginning of a new policy push.

They should not be — and, historically, they have not been — used for a closing argument, or, in the case of Obama, an attempt at policy resuscitation.

Prior to his trek to Capitol Hill,

Obama had been trying to wait for the factions of a divided Congress to present ideas. That is not leadership. That is marking time, and it has been a profound disappointment to those voters who were newcomers to the political process.

The president’s failure to deliver as promised on health care — indeed, his failure to lead — will cost him and Democrats when Americans cast ballots. Obama’s approval rating is in a free fall, hovering in the low 50s and surveys asking about a generic congressional race have shown Republicans with significant improvement from prior polls.

Republicans are in an unusually strong position considering their decimation last year. They haven’t shown leadership, but no one is expecting them to. Their sole purpose these days is to land punches against Democrats. They are succeeding, and if they continue, they can expect gains this fall in gubernatorial elections and next autumn in the mid-terms.

The president needs to regain his momentum for the sake of his broader agenda. To do so, and, in turn, to better ensure his political survival, he needs to end the health care debate sooner rather than later, no matter the cost. It is likely he will fail to deliver on his promises for reform, so it is best for the administration to cut its losses.

He needs to stop the bleeding.

Right now, it’s not about saving his vision for health care reform.

It is about saving a presidency, because it’s too late for leadership on health care.

Alan Blinder is the opinions editor of the Crimson White. His column runs every Monday.

Our View is the consensus of the Crimson White’s editorial board.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR Stay out of my car, government

By Mark Hale

Football trumps health care

By Wesley Vaughan The health care debate has been raging for what seems like an eternity, but now America can stop caring. Why? Football season has started.

The only public option that interests everyone now is the ability to choose not to acknowledge any of the countless mind-numbing arguments on the tired subject.

President Obama had the entire summer to push legislation through Congress while Americans only had baseball, a sport of excitement equal to that of health care, to keep them busy. Now with football beginning, we can all focus on events that are truly important.

Saturdays and Sundays in the fall provide great entertainment and competition. Congressional committee meetings revolving around health care, on the other hand, do not really excite any of the 10 people who watch C-SPAN. Reports said 32.1 million tuned in to Obama’s prime-time health care speech. He only attracted that large of a number by scheduling it on a Wednesday at a time when ABC, CBS and NBC had nothing else to show.

Even the president knew not to try and compete with the SteelersTitans and Georgia Tech-Clemson games on Thursday. Both easily out-thrilled a speech that simply combined a lot of the same rhetoric Obama has been using throughout this year.

The situation really just plays out like constant reruns of a bad soap

opera. (Is that redundant?)

The most rousing episode in the health care world lately involved Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina yelling “You lie!” during Obama’s Wednesday night speech, seven years after supporting the all-so truthful Iraq War. I can tell you right now more colorful screams flow from the mouths of football fans during games, especially when critiquing a call made by the referees.

Americans reflect the higher importance of football with their knowledge. Ask almost anyone who won the Super Bowl or BCS National Championship, and they can probably name one or both teams. Asking the same people about the status of health care in Congress will not yield the same fruitful results. Clearly by remembering football facts, not health care, it suggests football matters more to most Americans.

This revelation really should not come as a shock, since there are so many reasons why football should be deemed more important than healthcare. For one, true experts, the athletes and coaches, determine what team reigns supreme in the NFL and, maybe in the BCS, soon.

With the way democracy works, the best legislation does not get enacted. Most of the time it is just the most agreed upon measure among non-experts chosen by non-experts.

In football, teams that are losing do not complain, but instead, try to find a way to win. If they end up coming short, they look to the next week to redeem their loss.

The politics of health care does not work that way. If a party is los-

ing, they try to find a way to reframe the debate in their favor without ever changing any substance. If the other side finishes with the upper hand, the loser just complains until a new and favorable party majority kicks in so that they can change the law.

Parity highlights the NFL, and college football at least has a smidge of equality among teams. Politics in general does not even come close.

Two parties have dominated since George Washington left office, changing their names here and there only to hide this fact.

In football terms, it is like having the San Francisco 49ers and Pittsburgh Steelers win every Super Bowl with only one or two other teams raising the Lombardi Trophy over a span of 200 plus years. How fun is that to non-49ers and Steelers fans?

The fact that football is overtaking health care in importance is not a problem. Now those who may not have been too knowledgeable on the complex subject, but just tuned in during the excruciatingly long baseball season, are zeroed in on an issue that actually warrants attention.

With fewer citizens chiming in and a new source to channel our anger towards, the process of health care reform will just fly by all thanks to football.

Or it might not.

Wesley Vaughn is a sophomore majoring in Public Relations and Political Science. His column runs weekly on Monday.

In this era of rampant government spending and unparalleled government micromanagement, I cannot comprehend the reasoning for the populace to willingly give away their freedom.

A recent example lies in the heart of Congress.

They are toying with the idea of passing a federal law that would restrict text messaging while driving everywhere in the United States.

“It will happen all in the name of our youth and ensuring the protection of their precious hearing that we destroy daily with our devil music. Thank you, government, yet again, for protecting me from myself. “

{

}

I have to agree that texting is a dangerous practice to partake in while driving. However, what gives the government the right to encroach into my personal space and private property and tell me what I am allowed to do? If we let the government start monitoring our text messaging during car rides, the government will just take the next step and monitor our music levels. It will happen all in the name of our youth and ensuring the protection of their precious hearing that we destroy daily with our devil music. Thank you, government, yet again, for protecting me from myself.

If government does succeed in banning and regulating texting, the government better go after the hundreds of women driving while putting on makeup. Police should arrest the people fiddling with their GPS at a stop sign or a red light, detain those driving with dogs in the front seat and, lastly, get those evil commuters who eat and drive on the way to work. All those activities are just as distracting as texting — if not more. At least a text message doesn’t get cold if you wait too long, unlike those pesky fries.

In the wise words of Benjamin Franklin, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Mark Hale is a sophomore majoring in computer science.

The Crimson White

NEWS

Monday, September 14, 2009

5

Texas city marks anniversary of Ike

By Juan A. Lozano The Associated Press GALVESTON, Texas — Mymi Freedman’s memories of Hurricane Ike’s immediate aftermath still linger, especially in one sense.

“The smell — everything was rotten,” she said Sunday, sitting in her garage with her husband Sergio and reflecting on the year that has passed since Ike damaged thousands of homes, including her own, on the Texas island city of Galveston.

Residents like Mymi Freedman, 58, remembered Ike’s destruction but also celebrated rebuilding efforts, saying the storm has brought

people closer since it made landfall just outside Galveston in the early morning hours of Sept. 13, 2008.

Sergio Freedman, 62, said he is amazed at Galveston’s progress, describing the city as a “war zone” right after the hurricane.

A year ago, entry into the city was hazardous; the only road onto the island was littered with boats tossed onto the pavement like toys by Ike’s powerful storm surge.

Many neighborhoods were inundated with murky, muddy water sometimes contaminated by sewage and chemicals.

Galveston’s Seawall Boulevard was covered in rocks, splintered wood and other debris.

The hurricane damaged 75 percent of the working-class city’s houses. Galveston suffered more than $3.2 billion in damage. The city’s largest employer, the University of Texas Medical Branch, temporarily shut down and had to lay off about 3,000 employees.

Ike also destroyed or damaged thousands of other homes from the southeast Texas Gulf Coast into Houston, 50 miles inland. It also submerged farmland and ranches in saltwater, scoured away beaches and ruined thousands of acres of vegetation.

It was the costliest natural disaster in Texas history.

Its powerful surge reached as high as 20 feet and its 110

mph winds caused more than $29 billion in damage. Ike was blamed for at least 72 deaths in the U.S., including 37 in Texas.

But on Sunday in Galveston, the scene was vastly different.

The streets were filled with traffic, replenished beaches played host to tourists and residents, and many flooded homes — including the Freedmans’ — had been repaired.

“You can see behind me ... a new day has dawned on our community,” the Rev. David Green of First Presbyterian Church said in a sun-filled ballroom at the Hotel Galvez during a sunrise service. About 100 people gathered for the service near the beach.

The service was part of near-

ly a week of events highlighting rebuilding and recovery efforts.

Galveston officials say 75 percent of businesses are open and tourists have returned.

But residents say the city still has a long way to go.

About 3,000 of the city’s 58,000 residents have not returned.

Mobile homes from the Federal Emergency Management Agency still dot driveways and front lawns.

Along the Freedmans’ street, sheetrock and other debris are piled in front of homes still under repair.

“The community is still hurting,” said Elizabeth Godbehere, 59, who was born on the island.

Galveston is not alone as other

southeast Texas communities also recover from Ike. In tiny Oak Island to the northeast in Chambers County, Trang Minh Ngo, 43, says it took him more than a decade to build up a life with a threebedroom home and two fishing boats. Ike destroyed his home and one of his boats.

“The most difficult part is accepting everything I created is now gone and having to rebuild everything,” he said in Vietnamese through a translator.

Community and religious organizations have helped Ngo and others who have limited resources, paying for utilities, home repairs, food and job training.

AP Left: With the Flagship Hotel standing on the Gulf in the distance, what was left of Murdochʼs Pier and Hooters restaurant was thrown on to Seawall Boulevard. and 23rd Street. in Galveston after Hurricane Ike demolished the buildings that were once on stilts in the water Sept. 13, 2008.

Right: With the Flagship Hotel standing in the distance, the rubble of Murdochʼs Pier and Hooters restaurant has been cleaned up on the corner of Seawall Boulevard. and 23rd Street. in Galveston after Hurricane Ike demolished the buildings that were once on stilts in the water Thursday, Aug 28. Murdochʼs Pier is currently being rebuilt.

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Only 23 and four years removed from his departure from college, Clayton was named the Entrepreneur of the Year at the 24th Small Business Awards, the Huntsville/ Madison County Chamber of Commerce’s annual tribute to the area’s small businesses.

“This is an amazing and unexpected honor,” he told the crowd. “It’s been an incredible journey.”

It was the latest indication that Clayton made the right move in 2005, his second year at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

In less than five years, Clayton had started a tutorial business out of his dorm room at UAH, dropped out of school at the recommendation of his adviser and built the largest educational provider in North Alabama.

Today, the business is known as Appleton Learning. The company styles itself as the “eHar-

mony” of tutoring centers, a reference to Appleton’s attempts to personalize learning.

“We’re not a traditional tutoring center,” Clayton said. “We match students with tutors and tutors with students.”

In Clayton’s words, Appleton is so unique that he “doesn’t know of anyone else who does this nationally.”

The results have been almost overwhelming to Clayton. The company is one of 10 national finalists for the Dell Small Business Excellence award.

A recent parent and teacher survey ranked Appleton Learning the top tutorial service in Alabama. Last year, Appleton was ranked among the top two in the state.

In addition to Clayton being named Entrepreneur of the Year, his company was one of three local finalists in the Personal Services category, won by Eagle Collision Center.

$7.95 Call (205) 750-0005 0F)DUODQG %OYG ( AP Appleton Learning President, Glenn Clayton in his office, Tuesday. Clayton recently received the Entrepreneur of the Year Award from The Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce.

6 Monday, September 14, 2009

NEWS

Obama calls killing ‘deplorable’

By Tim Martin The Associated Press

OWOSSO, Mich. — President Barack Obama on Sunday condemned the killing of an antiabortion activist in Michigan as activists and others gathered for vigil near the site where he was fatally shot.

Obama called last week’s shooting of James Pouillon “deplorable” in a two-sentence statement.

“Whichever side of a public debate you’re on, violence is never the right answer,” Obama said in the statement.

Police say Pouillon, 63, was killed Friday morning while protesting across the street from a high school in Owosso, about 70 miles northwest of Detroit.

Pouillon was in his usual spot holding a sign that pictured a chubby-cheeked baby with the word “LIFE” on one side and an image of an aborted fetus with the word “ABORTION” on the other.

Authorities allege Harlan Drake, 33, of Owosso pulled up to Pouillon in a truck and opened fire. Prosecutors say

An Owosso police officer stretches a police line across Whitehaven Drive in Owosso, as first responders work on shooting victim Jim Pouillon Friday morning.

Pouillon’s methods irritated Drake, particularly when used near the high school. Drake is also accused of killing a local business owner earlier that day.

Multicolored flowers, balloons and candles during Sunday’s vigil marked the spot where Pouillon was shot. More than 200 people attended the vigil, standing in a circle as many carried the same sort of

AP

graphic signs he used.

The retired autoworker was a well-known and polarizing personality in Owosso, a town of about 15,000 residents. His protests — often staged outside the school, library, at car dealerships and even football games for several years — rubbed some residents the wrong way and led to frequent court battles.

The Crimson White

Police say syringes will help stop drunk driving

By Rebecca Boone The Associated Press BOISE, Idaho — When police officer Darryll Dowell is on patrol in the southwestern Idaho city of Nampa, he’ll pull up at a stoplight and usually start casing the vehicle.

Nowadays, his eyes will also focus on the driver’s arms, as he tries to search for a plump, bouncy vein.

“I was looking at people’s arms and hands, thinking, ‘I could draw from that,’” Dowell said.

It’s all part of training he and a select cadre of officers in Idaho and Texas have received in recent months to draw blood from those suspected of drunken or drugged driving.

The federal program’s aim is to determine if blood draws by cops can be an effective tool against drunk drivers and aid in their prosecution.

If the results seem promising after a year or two, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will encourage police nationwide to undergo similar training.

For years, defense attorneys in Idaho advised clients to always refuse breath

tests, Ada County Deputy Prosecutor Christine Starr said. When the state toughened the penalties for refusing the tests a few years ago, the problem lessened, but it’s still the main reason that drunk driving cases go to trial in the Boise region, Starr said.

Idaho had a 20 percent breath test refusal rate in 2005, compared with 22 percent nationally, according to an NHTSA study.

Starr hopes the new system will cut down on the number of drunken driving trials.

Officers can’t hold down a suspect and force them to breath into a tube, she noted, but they

can forcefully take blood — a practice that’s been upheld by Idaho’s Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.

The nation’s highest court ruled in 1966 that police could have blood tests forcibly done on a drunk driving suspect without a warrant, as long as the draw was based on a reasonable suspicion that a suspect was intoxicated, that it was done after an arrest and carried out in a medically approved manner.

The practice of cops drawing blood, implemented first in 1995 in Arizona, has also raised concerns about safety and the credibility of the evidence.

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SPORTS Page 7 • Monday, September 14, 2009 Editor • Jason Galloway crimsonwhitesports@ gmail.com

SOCCER

Soccer drops close match to Memphis

By Cyrus Ntakirutinka Senior Sports Reporter The University of Alabama women’s soccer team dropped to a 2-3 record after a heartbreaking 2-1 loss at the hands of the Memphis Tigers on Sunday in Tuscaloosa. Lizzy Hildebrandt scored the gamewinning goal for Memphis at the 85th minute with a shot off a loose ball from two yards out to seal the Tigers’ win.

“Memphis is a good team,” head coach Todd Bramble said.

“I’m proud of the way we performed in a lot of areas. This game will make us better as we continue to move forward. The result is disappointing, it comes

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to tighten the race. Despite the close loss, Bramble had a strong message for the players going forward.

“To let it break your heart tonight and let it bother you,” Bramble said. “We get a day off, the players need to get regenerated and Tuesday morning when we come out we got to have a good attitude, not pouting about this loss, we’ve got work to do. This game makes us better and we have to approach it that way when we start training again Tuesday morning.”

The loss doesn’t hurt the Tide too much since Southeastern conference play has not begun. Bramble does

see positive things that can be taken from the game as SEC competition nears.

“Defensively this game makes you work against a team that has a really high speed of play,” Bramble said.

“Those are the types of teams we’re going to see through SEC play. So that game makes us better defensively and it gives us a little bit of confidence and belief. It’s the type of game we’re going to see for the rest of the season and we were right there and there’s a small margin that decides it.”

Alabama turns its sights next on the road against Texas Tech on Friday and then Texas Christian University on Sunday.

2009 filled with hope, potential pitfalls

By Spencer White Assistant Sports Editor Let me start off by saying this: the Crimson Tide is good.

Really good.

But for Tide fans across the nation, what should be more exciting is that they could be great.

I mean really great. I mean pack-your-bags-we’re-goingt o - Pa s a d e n a - fo r - t h e - R o s e Bowl great.

The opening two acts of the Capstone’s football club has shown a group of athletes with the dual talent of dazzling and disappointing their followers: a dynamic offense and stifling defense alternate with boneheaded miscues and epic special teams gaffes.

The Tide’s outstanding backto-back offensive performances, in which it put up 498 yards against Virginia Tech and 516 against Florida International, has already doubled the number of 450-yard games from last year’s 12-2 squad. More impressive is the fact that these numbers came in quarterback Greg McElroy’s first two starts,

and the two running backs who racked up the majority of the rushing yards against the Hokies, Mark Ingram and Roy Upchurch, were replaced by two others, Trent Richardson and Terry Grant, with almost no drop in production against FIU. A punishing defensive unit that leads the nation in sacks (10) has presented not only a spectacular group of starters, but depth in players such as Marcell Dareus, the shortnotice replacement for wounded starter Brandon Deaderick, who has bulldozed through opposing lines for more than a third of the Tide’s sacks.

But Dareus is just one example of a new plateau of talent at the Capstone. After nearly 10 years of depletion due to probation and sub-standard recruiting by former coaches, Tide football talent has ascended to an elite level under head coach Nick Saban. With back-to-back No. 1-recruiting classes in 2008 and 2009, the days of baseball quarterbacks and walk-on running backs have ended, and the era of the blue chip at

Alabama has returned.

But for all the good that the fans in crimson can take from the Tide’s 2-0 opening, there remain several nagging issues that simply must be resolved for the Tide to seriously challenge the juggernaut in Gainesville for the SEC championship, and along with it, a shot to hoist the crystal ball in the air in January.

The special teams’ performances have been less than stellar, with the Tide allowing two costly touchdowns on kickoff returns, each allowing an offensively dominated team to get back in the game. Against the Hokies, a promising 6-0 start built on the complete domination of the Virginia Tech offense by Rolando McClain and company was instantly erased with one sprint by return man Dyrell Roberts.

Against Tech, the return would cost momentum and the lead. Against a team with a more potent offense (No. 5 Ole Miss and No. 1 Florida come to mind), a returned kick could easily cost the game.

The Tide still can’t resist finding another place to shoot themselves in the foot. One of the trademarks of Saban’s past teams, and especially his first two teams at Alabama, was disciplined play with few penalties and mental errors.

Some, if not most, of this mental fortitude was built on the foundation of exceptional leadership provided by the senior captains of the 2008 squad, NFL players Rashad Johnson, Antione Caldwell and John Parker Wilson. The Tide’s 17 penalties in the first two games of the 2009 season equal the mark from the Georgia game of 2008, Alabama’s fifth

game. But more disturbing than the number of penalties is the costliness of the infractions — McClain’s two 15-yarders against the Hokies and Kareem Jackson’s pass interference against Florida International on a second-and-forever immediately spring to mind.

This Tide team could accomplish incredible things. As talented as the 1999 bunch that won the SEC, and as wellcoached on the defensive side as the 1992 squad that won Alabama’s 12th national title, it appears that the sky really is the limit for this 2009 group.

As long as they don’t clip their own wings.

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said. “You chalk that up to the quality of their side and not so much something we were doing wrong. They’re really good in possession coming forward, their play is very technical, and they’re composed under pressure. And they were able to string passes together and play through us a little bit and get some shots off in the second half.”

Memphis was first to get on the board at the 48th minute as Averi Hallman chipped the goalkeeper from 15 yards out thanks to a through ball by teammate Ashley Berra.

Alabama quickly answered in the 55th minute with a goal from junior Brooke Rogers

FOOTBALL

SPORTS this week

down to the wire, they go ahead with five minutes to go and we go to our ‘goal-down’ offense and we get a great chance to break away off of it. It was a battle to the end and I can’t fault the effort from the players.”

Both teams were neck-andneck in the first half as both sides had a total of 4 shots on goal and blanks on the scoreboard. Things changed in the second half as Memphis outshot Alabama 12 to four on its way to victory. Bramble was not surprised by the talent on Memphis’ squad, who enter the 2009 season as the reigning Conference USA champions.

“They pulled away a little bit in the second half,” Bramble

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8 Monday, September 14, 2009

SPORTS

The Crimson White

Alabama vs FIU — 40-14 QUOTE of the game

Tide pulls away in second half

By Jason Galloway Sports Editor Quarterback Greg McElroy and the Alabama offense didn’t waste any time piling on the yardage Saturday, as the Crimson Tide exceeded its offensive output from last week with 516 total yards in its 40-14 victory over Florida International in front of 92,012 fans at Bryant-Denny Stadium. “I think we did a good job the entire game offensively,� head coach Nick Saban said. “Greg did a very good job of taking what [FIU] gave him. He made good decisions.�

McElroy began the game 16-for-17, with the only incompletion coming via a first-quarter Julio Jones drop in the end zone, a performance of complete reversal from McElroy’s 2-for-12 start against Virginia Tech last week. “We came out and started faster [offensively], which is something we didn’t do last week,� McElroy said. “The sky is the limit with this offense. I think we’re still just scratching the surface.�

McElroy set a new Alabama record by completing 14 straight passes, and finished the game 18-for-24 with 241 yards and a touchdown.

After a 24-yard touchdown pass from McElroy to senior wide receiver Mike McCoy gave the Tide a 10-0 lead with 3:25 left in the first quarter, FIU’s T.Y. Hilton showed why Saban said early in the week that Hilton was a better offensive player than anybody on Virginia Tech’s squad.

Hilton took the ensuing kickoff untouched 96 yards for a touchdown to cut the lead to 10-7. It was the Tide’s second kickoff return touchdown given up in as many games, and Alabama kicked higher, shorter kickoffs the remainder of the game. “We need to continue to work on [kickoff coverage] and get that fixed,� Saban said. “Two weeks in a row where you give up a kickoff return for a touchdown, and then we do the alternative kicks and give up field position.�

After Leigh Tiffin’s second field goal of less than 30 yards, FIU drove 60 yards in eight plays, taking the lead with 10:29 left until halftime when quar-

terback Paul McCall hit Greg Ellingson with a 9-yard touchdown pass.

Just more than two minutes later, Alabama took the lead back as Mark Ingram’s 2-yard touchdown run capped off a 5-play, 69-yard drive to send the Tide into the locker room with just a 20-14 lead over the Panthers. “I really wasn’t happy with the energy and enthusiasm that our team came out and played with in the first half,� Saban said. “We allowed them to stay in the game with some mistakes that we made and some things that we didn’t do correctly.�

But the second half would belong to Alabama, as the Tide outscored FIU 20-0 and outgained the Panthers by nearly 150 yards to pull away to the 40-14 final score.

For the second consecutive week, the Tide’s defensive front line dominated the opposition, as Alabama held FIU to just one rushing yard and recorded five sacks on Saturday.

Running back Mark Ingram’s playing time was limited against FIU, as he had been recovering from the flu all week, but finished the game with a solid 57 yards on 10 carries.

Saturday’s starting running back, Roy Upchurch, sprained an ankle in the first half, opening up an opportunity for true freshman Trent Richardson, who finished the game as the Tide’s leading rusher with 118 yards on 15 carries for a 7.9 average. Richardson also scored two second-half touchdowns that pulled Alabama away from the Panthers. “[Richardson’s] been doing that all fall camp,� Ingram said. “I’m not surprised. I already knew he was a great talent. I was proud of him.�

Julio Jones bruised his right knee early in the first quarter of Saturday’s game and sat out for the remainder of the game.

Saban said his status for next week’s game against North Texas is unknown. McCoy stepped up in Jones’ absence and finished the game with a career-high 100 receiving yards and a touchdown.

Alabama defensive lineman Damion Square was carted to the locker room in the fourth quarter. Saban said Square suffered a knee injury that will probably require surgery.

{ } “I don’t think it’s about who you play, I think it’s about who you are. It’s what I said to them in the locker room after the game. I said, ‘If you’re a true competitor, and you want to be a great player, and you’re a true champion, you’ve got to play to your best level all the time.� — Head coach Nick Saban on his team’s slow start against FIU

Mark Ingram ďŹ nds his way to the endzone for a 2-yard touchdown run in the second quarter of SaturdayĘźs game. Although Ingram only had 10 carries, he still ran for a solid 56 yards.

CW | Bethany Martin

THE CRIMSON TIDE by the numbers

14

208

2

645

Greg McElroy set a new Alabama The difference in yardage between record Saturday by completing 14 the Tide and their opponents in the straight passes. If it were not for a fourth quarter. The Tide has also first-quarter drop by Julio Jones in the endzone, outscored the opposition 32-7 in the McElroy would have started the game 17-for-17 final period through two weeks. with 227 yards and two touchdowns.

Alabama has outgained its first In the Crimson Tide’s first two games, two opponents of the season by a it has allowed two kickoff returns for combined 645 yards. The Tide had touchdowns. FIU’s T.Y. Hilton took a 343 more than Virginia Tech, and first-quarter kickoff 96 yards to cut Alabama’s lead outgained FIU 516-214 Saturday. to 10-7 on Saturday.

1

The Alabama defense stuffed the Panthers running attack all night, holding them to just one rushing yard over the course of the game.

12

59

Leigh Tiffin’s two field goals Saturday gives the senior kicker 59 throughout his Alabama career. His 29-yarder in the second quarter of Saturday’s game tied Tiffin for third place in Alabama history with his father, Van.

Saturday was Javier Arenas’ 12th career game with more than 100 return yards. Arenas racked up 101 punt return yards to go along with a 25-yard kickoff return against the Panthers.

33

The Tide has converted just 33 percent of its third downs through the first two games of the season. Alabama was 6-for-17 on third down against Virginia Tech and just 3-for-10 against FIU Saturday.

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SPORTS

Monday, September 14, 2009

POSITION grades Quarterbacks – 4.0 Cumulative: 3.65 Greg McElroy followed up an inconsistent debut with a magnificent game against Florida International, completing a UA-record 14 straight passes en route to a 18-for-24, 241-yard performance.

His streak took place after Julio Jones’s exit from the game, displaying a poise and improvisational ability that belies his lack of starting experience at the college level.

Running backs – 4.0 Cumulative: 3.9

Wide Receivers/Tight Ends – 3.8 Cumulative: 3.6

Starter Roy Upchurch out with an ankle injury? No problem. Season opening star Mark Ingram hampered by the flu? No big deal.

With Julio Jones exiting the game on a bruised knee after only one catch for nine yards in the first quarter, senior Mike McCoy stepped up for his first 100-yard game, finding open spots all over the BryantDenny field in the first half. Tight ends Colin Peek and Preston Dial also found some room to work on the soft FIU pass defense, combining for two catches for 32 yards.

True freshman Trent Richardson let the few fans ignorant of his name find out who he was Saturday with a 119-yard, two-touchdown performance. Junior Terry Grant looked downright blazing on a 45-yard run to the end zone to put Alabama’s last points on the board, as the Tide rolled up 275 yards on the ground.

Special teams – 2.7 Cumulative: 2.75

Offensive line – 3.5 Cumulative: 3.25

Linebackers – 4.0 Cumulative: 3.9

The offensive line had a magnificent day, opening up huge holes for the running game, and save for one bad sack that pushed the Tide inside their own 10-yard line, was very solid in pass protection. Two consecutive games with over 450 yards of total offense is a very good reflection on the ability of the rebuilt Alabama offensive front five. Too many penalties still plague this unit.

The Tide linebackers continued to make a case for being one of the strongest units in the country, as Rolando McClain and Dont’a Hightower combined for 16 tackles, 4 for loss and 3 vicious hits on McCall. In avoiding the penalties that lowered their grade against Virginia Tech, McClain leads his unit to their first perfect ranking of the semester.

Defensive backs – 3.0 Cumulative: 3.25

Defensive line – 4.0 Cumulative: 4.0 Another game, another perfect score for the Tide defensive front. There was simply no room for any of FIU’s backs to squeeze through, and the Panthers only managed one yard of rushing offense against ‘Mount’ Cody and company.

Marcell Dareus continued outstanding play in relief duty of Brandon Deaderick, tallying four tackles and two sacks on Panther quarterback Paul McCall.

The second consecutive poor week for the Tide special teams. Alabama surrendered another touchdown on a kickoff, and Leigh Tiffin missed a very makeable 39-yard field goal attempt in the third quarter with the Tide leading 20-14 and FIU still one score from the lead. The saving grace this week was Javier Arenas, who tallied 101 yards on punt returns.

The Tide defensive backs appeared to lack some intensity in the game, surrendering 214 yards to FIU through the air.

It was troublesome that McCall was able to connect with Panther receivers on the same under route nearly at will against the Tide’s coverage. Also irksome to Tide fans were Kareem Jackson’s pass interference on second-and-long to give FIU a first down, and Robby Green’s surrendering of a big 46-yard reception to Greg Ellingson on a Panther thirdand-21 from deep in FIU territory.

Coaching – 3.8

Cumulative: 3.85

The offensive gameplan for the Tide was magnificent, as Alabama was pretty much able to move the ball at will across the field. Whether through the air or on the ground, offensive coordinator Jim McElwain devised a great balanced attack that the Panthers had almost no chance of stopping, especially late in the game. The defense, after a somewhat slow start, completely shut down the FIU offense in the second half, thanks to some adjustments by head coach Nick Saban and staff. Of course, the adjustments were necessary because of a lack of intensity to start the game, which Saban preached all week to the media.

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9

10 Monday, September 14, 2009

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

The Crimson White

Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra draws talent The Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra practices at Moody Music Concert Hall on Sunday.

Monday’s performance one of Hahm’s last with TSO

By Steven Nalley Arts and Entertainment Editor UA students will only get two more chances to see internationally renowned conductor Shinik Hahm in action right here in Tuscaloosa.

He’ll be conducting the Tu s c a l o o s a Sy mp h o ny Orchestra Monday for their “Con Brio� concert at Moody Music Hall at 7:30 p.m.

Then the conductor, who has performed in Geneva, Los Angeles and St. Petersburg, Russia, will lead TSO once more in April before leaving TSO. According to an entry at conductingmasterclass.wordpress.com, TSO began looking for a new music director onWednesday.

Elizabeth McGuire, executive director of TSO, said the selection process for a new director would take about two years.

However, she said in the meantime, she would have no trouble finding “cover conductors.� “There are many, many qualified people in this region and in the country in general,�

McGuire said. “The economy is affecting music of course, so people are going to be happy to get that call.�

McGuire said one of the reasons she has many connections with conductors in the area is because the UA’s School of Music produces many musical professionals. “Our local community has a lot of advantages over a lot of local communities because of the school of music,� McGuire said. “Some of our folks have soloed all over the world. “Tuscaloosa’s very lucky to have a symphony of this caliber,� McGuire said. “The quality is higher than a lot of professional orchestras in some cities.�

McGuire said many great performers in TSO were also University faculty, but she also said some of the performers were UA students.

One of those students is Johanna Yarbrough, a junior majoring in French horn performance. Yarbrough won the International Horn Competition of America at Columbus State University in Columbus, Ga. in last month.

She said finding time to rehearse for the competition for two to three hours daily with nine hours of summer courses was a challenge. However, Yarbrough also said the com-

CW | Tori Gordon

petition itself tested her endurance. “The first day was just some rehearsing, and then the next three days, we played for each day,� Yarbrough said. “It was quite intense for four days straight.�

As part of TSO, Yarbrough said different pressures existed. She said where University performances allowed her a month of preparation, she only

had three rehearsals over the course of a week to get ready for Monday’s TSO performance. “The biggest difference is to get a paycheck,� Yarbrough said. “Because of this paycheck there’s some added pressure on our performance, and it’s much faster-paced practice.�

Yarbrough and the rest of TSO will begin the evening with “Serenade for Strings�

by Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, fol-

lowed by “Serenade for Winds�

by Johanh Strauss. McGuire said the first would feature only wind instrument players and the second would only feature strings; only at the end will the full orchestra play. “After intermission, everyone comes together to perform Mendelssohn’s Italian symphony, which is a really beautiful symphony,� McGuire said. “It appears in a lot of advertise-

ments, so I think people will find it quite familiar.�

Yarbrough said she relished the experience of playing with TSO. “It’s refreshing to play with great musicians and also to play with faculty,� Yarbrough said. “They’re all very talented musicians, and it’s great to learn from them by playing with them as opposed to listening to them play.�

MOVIE REVIEW | 9

Acker’s new ‘9’ disappoints with plot, action

By Peterson Hill Staff Writer

When the fate of the world comes down to a battle between a small band of potato sack life forms and a medium-sized hulking machine, how much are we really supposed to think the battle means? I was continuously asking myself this question as I watched Shane Acker’s film “9.�

Should a post-apocalyptic tale be small in scope? No, probably not.

Maybe it is just my bias, but I can’t devote that much of myself to a story this small in scope, yet wanting to be something so much more. There seems to be something lacking in all the beauty of the visuals.

It is such a hollow, action filled story that the heart gets lost somewhere.

The film opens with some stark and gorgeous images of a rag doll coming to life to discover the world is a barren wasteland of half-standing buildings and rubble upon rubble. 9 (Elijah Wood) is the

9 Runtime: 79 minutes

name of the creature, spirit, honestly I don’t really know what to call them.

They are alive and they have personalities, but they don’t have hearts, I guess they have brains, but we never learn much of why they are the way they are. When the time comes that we do, it is odd and doesn’t particularly work.

After 9 gets his bearings, he meets various other rag-dolls that are named from 1 through 8. 9 is the last in the line of the dolls that were made by the scientist who created the means by which the world has descended into its present state. We learn how the world was overtaken by machines when a Hitler-esque dictator programmed them a certain way.

Now, it is up to the precocious and, I suppose, messianic 9 to rally the rest of the surviving dolls to attack the machine that has been left over from the world-destroying battle between the humans and the machines.

There is a wide array of dolls that each have a distinct

pattern to their make-up. The voice talents of John C. Reilly, Christopher Plummer and Jennifer Connelly lead the small band of voices in the film. They are adequate voice talents but nothing spectacular.

The real highlight of the film is the visual scheme. It is the only truly interesting part of the entire mix. Acker chooses to shoot his film in a very subdued wasteland feel. There is something cold and taciturn about what he chooses to do ,and in a better film the scheme would be wonderful.

Acker’s film never ventures far from standard action sequences. The story, though it is sort of interesting, isn’t propelled by any real dialogue. It is mainly the same conversations over and over about how they can’t do this or they shouldn’t do that. Pamela Pettler’s screenplay is a wooden and unoriginal take on what happens after the world ends.

Perhaps what makes the film so frustrating is that it is so heavy-handed. It consis-

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tently tells how the human’s obsession with technology leads to the eventual demise of our species.

As well, the film is a story of redemption and salvation.

9 is the definitive Christ-like character. He was created by a maker and given a piece of that maker’s soul. With that soul, he needs to convince the others the only way to restore life is to attack the machine

and retrieve a small device.

9 has his flaws, but he has no fear, speaks against following authority and in the end is rebuilding a new society. The final shot is an irritating allusion to the Garden of Eden.

There is even a woman, a man and two twins.

Shane Acker has talent, and there isn’t a doubt in my mind that he has a visionary take of what he can do with film, but

this was a disappointment. I have faith that he will one day make something that doesn’t hold back.

There are moments that you can sense how Acker could have taken complete control and perhaps salvaged the film.

So, I look forward to his next effort, because now that he has made “9,� it is time for him to make something better.

Do this Sunday through Thursday - Tickets for Home Games - Part 1 (Look for Part 2 in tomorrow’s paper) If you already have a ticket to this week’s home game and plan to attend: 1. Check to make sure that access to the game has been placed on your Action Card no later than 5 p.m. on Thursday by going to actcard.ua.edu and using the same login as your MyBama account to access the My Football Ticket tab.

2. You should see a balance of “one� on your account.

3. If you don’t see a balance of one, call 205-348-2288 immediately.

Remember: Use your ticket! Students who do not use tickets assigned to them three or more times during the season will forfeit the ability to buy postseason tickets this year and will not be able to purchase regular or postseason tickets for fall 2010.

If you already have a ticket to this week’s home game and want to transfer your ticket to the ticket bank or to another UA student: 1. Check to make sure that access to the game has been placed on your Action Card no later than 5 p.m. on Thursday by going to actcard.ua.edu and using the same login as your MyBama account to access the My Football Ticket tab. Call 205-348-2288 if you do not show a balance of one.

2. While you are on actcard.ua.edu, click on MyFootballTickets and follow the instructions to transfer a ticket to a speciďŹ c student or donate it to the ticket bank.

3. If you transfer your ticket to another UA student, both you and the student you are transferring the ticket to will receive an email that the balance has been transferred.

4. The student who receives the ticket – from you or the ticket bank – must go to actcard.ua.edu to conďŹ rm that his/her account has a balance of “one.â€?

Remember: s 9OU ARE THE ONLY PERSON WHO CAN TRANSFER OR DONATE A TICKET THAT IS LISTED IN YOUR NAME s 9OU WILL NEED THE NAME AND CRIMSON EMAIL ACCOUNT OF THE STUDENT YOU ARE TRANSFERRING THE TICKET to. Both name and email are case-sensitive, so make sure you use the name as it appears on the Action Card. s 9OU CAN TRANSFER A TICKET TO ANOTHER STUDENT UNTIL THE END OF THE THIRD QUARTER OF THE GAME )F YOU HAVE NOT USED DONATED OR TRANSFERRED YOUR TICKET BY THE END OF THE THIRD QUARTER YOU WILL RECEIVE a penalty. s -AKE SURE YOUR TICKET IS USED 3TUDENTS WHO DO NOT USE DONATE OR TRANSFER TICKETS ASSIGNED TO them three or more times during the season will forfeit the right to purchase postseason tickets for this year and will not be able to purchase regular season or postseason tickets for fall 2010.

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Aries (March 21-April 19) -- Today is a 7 -- Listen carefully to a loved one’s story, even if you’ve heard it before. The gift is in the attention you’re giving.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) -- Today is an 8 -- Coached by a loved one, you’re moving along quickly on a household project. Once it’s done you’ll be able to relax.

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Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) -- Today is a 6 -- You’re tempted to spend down your savings. That’s not a good idea. Don’t stretch yourself to the limits.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) -- Today is an 8 -- Postpone business decisions until later today and/or tomorrow. By then you’ll know what to do.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) -- Today is a 5 -- There’s a way to be more efficient, and you can find it. Keep thinking about it while you’re doing your work.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) -- Today is an 8 -- You don’t have to explain your actions to anyone. Hide out and rest; you’ll need the energy.

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MOVIE REVIEW | SORORITY ROW

A&E

‘Sorority Row’ scary, but unrealistic

By Bryan Bofill Staff Writer

Oh, Hollywood. Is there a horror movie that you won’t remake? Indeed, that is the case with Summit Entertainment’s new release “Sorority Row.” Named after the 1983 horror movie, “The House on Sorority Row,” it is almost nothing like

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Page 12 • Monday, September 14, 2009 Editor • Steven Nalley smnalley@crimson.ua.edu

A&E

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rottentomatoes.com In the film, sorority members are stalked and murdered by a mysterious killer.

the original. The plot centers around the six senior sisters of Theta Pi (not a real sorority) who decide to pull a prank on Garrett, Megan’s boyfriend who has been cheating on her.

Tricked into believing that Megan is dead from an overdose by the sisters of Theta Pi, Garrett takes a tire iron and goes Jack the Ripper on Megan. After this point it becomes a matter of survival — they throw Megan’s body down a mineshaft and pretend that nothing has happened.

Eight months later, heads begin to roll as each sorority sister involved with Megan’s death becomes a target for a mysterious killer.

The entire movie is set in a hyper-reality world created by writers Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger, with sorority parties having nothing to offer but large semi-nude pillow fights, all-night make-out sessions, and endless amounts of drugs and alcohol.

Even with its insanely comi-

cal plot, “Sorority Row” keeps you in your seat long enough to watch the house of Theta Pi turn into “House of 1000 Corpses.”

The six senior sisters of Theta Pi are extremely one-dimensional. You get the annoying control freak (Pipes), the nice and caring one (Evigan) and the drunk of the group dubbed “Chugs” (Harshman). But having a bunch of exaggerated characters really adds to the amount of conflict that these sisters encounter.

Just hearing the sisters of Theta Pi will make you laugh, mainly because their characters are in a sorority. Going on a scavenger hunt for rocks to dismember one of your deceased sisters doesn’t exactly sound like the kind of group bonding activity sororities usually engage in.

While “Sorority Row” does have a plot, the real goal is to try to scare the living crap out of you. Regardless of all its crazy, quirky and impractical scenarios, “Sorority Row” is actually a pretty

scary movie. The tension builds up in a similar manner to classical horror, and the impalement and death that follow fill up your scream tank to the maximum.

“Sorority Row” doesn’t bring anything original or imaginative to the teen-slasher genre. But movie-goers will love the funny and over the top hilarity of the moment, usually by poking fun at the greek system or just how much gore and violence sorority girls can witness and still act like they are at a party. And it seems that no matter how much blood or killing each sorority sister goes through, they still look like supermodels after doing it.

“Sorority Row” is, however, a breath of fresh air. For moviegoers who are tired of watching the same horror sequels again and again “Sorority Row” is definitely the movie for you. Compared to other movies currently out now, “Sorority Row” seems to be the only good slasher film aside from “Halloween II.”

SORORITY ROW Runtime: 100 minutes MPAA rating: R Release date: Sept. 11 CW critic’s rating:

Bottom line: The scenarios in “Sorority Row” may be impractical, but when it isn’t making you laugh, it does succeed at tense, classical horror.

We didn’t expect much out of “Sorority Row” but then again who does? “Sorority Row” lives up to the name and has some fun stops along the way, but I wouldn’t count on actually “rushing” to see it.

A lament on lack of modern culture

By Trey Irby Arts & Entertainment Columnist I like the Beatles. This isn’t a new, obscure sentiment. I also really like the movie “Pulp Fiction.” Also not a new sentiment. However, in the words of some wise guy I can’t identify at the moment, what’s old is new again.

I bring this up because the biggest current development in nearly all of entertainment involves the reissues of 13 records by a band that broke up 40 years ago. The Beatles are in the news, even if two of them are dead and one of them is probably more interested in talking about his work on “Shining Time Station.”

Similar to the summer death of Michael Jackson, it’s the last sort of major artist touchstone that culture celebrates.

Everyone knows who the Beatles are, or at least have heard the name. They know

why Paul McCartney’s appearances on television are sold like big deals or even why Paul still has relevance in our culture.

We still have prominent names from bygone eras who are still famous, namely Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan.

Our culture is so saturated that such fame is impossible now. For a major artist to survive now, they have to be more interesting than Kim Kardashian all while keeping their integrity — if they even want to have it in the first place — and surviving in a culture more obsessed with trainwrecks and soundalikes than ever before.

But that’s also the nature of the beast. When increasingly more names compete every week for public attention, it’s hard to keep a memory of who is “great” and “legendary.” Not to mention, the reason rock bands in the 1960s were considered so great revolved around the fact

that the limitations of the craft were seen as small. While a lot of people knew how to play a guitar, no one could play it like a George Harrison could. And while many acts made music, they didn’t make something that its audience could construe as a masterpiece.

In this generation, does the masterpiece still exist? The question is purposefully redundant, because if art is still creative, it obviously has the potential to be a masterpiece. But art is also subjective, and in a modern mindset where only a million people will even buy an extremely well-known record, it’s getting even harder to note contribution with praise.

Although websites like Pitchfork, The Onion’s AV Club and Metacritic attempt to laud critical praise for masterpieces, this is readily ignored by the masses. That perfect swirl of hype and legitimate quality isn’t

in the mainstream anymore. I guess it is in the “underground,” but the Internet makes that term sort of obsolete.

With independence comes the basic lament: it just isn’t the same anymore. Do I like walking down the road with my white headphones on while I blare songs that I’ve chosen? Well, of course.

But the innocence that we once had in viewing music is virtually gone. The radio has gone from a cultural landmark in which we all consumed into an artifact that mostly plays a lot of music we don’t want to hear.

Cultural amazement and cultural growth leads to a saturation point — it’s a natural occurrence. You get too much of something, you get sick of it. We all know this to be true, and yet, we’re always stunned when we hate something we’ve heard a thousand times.

There have even been situ-

ations like this in debating the Beatles’ actual output. While “Hey Jude” would have been considered the most beloved song of the band, the song’s own hype has almost faced a backlash of its own, and big fans of the band would rather address songs like “Eleanor Rigby,” “For No One,” and “A Day in the Life” as more iconic works from the band.

Meanwhile, although most will never point to modern overexposure as a potential cause, the pure desensitization of modern culture might be why nothing can be completely agreed to be “great” anymore. As time’s gone on, we’ve all lost favor with lack of choice or the idea of continual agreement that it’s just hard to truly define greatness because the consensus will never truly agree. Modern culture revolves around contrarian opinion.

Then again, I could be wrong.

We might have to just agree to disagree.

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Tuesday September 15th

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