26 NOV 07: SOUNDS OF THE STREETS

The Columbus summer crime wave seems to be long gone, but "Operation Safe Streets" goes on. The latest police statistics counted more than 900 arrests since late July. And then SOA Watch makes a big deal about 11 in one weekend....

Have you wanted to check on what Columbus police are doing - without arousing suspicion in the process? Someone on my job has shown me a web site which broadcasts local police and fire calls. Why, it's probably already bookmarked at law offices across the city.

The "ScanMuscogee" web site repeats the discussions on Columbus police and fire scanners, on your choice of five different players. It apparently is NOT live, but on a delay of about ten seconds. I would hope public safety employees don't need that delay to bleep out dirty words....

(The "Web Player" option worked best for me when I gave this web site a try. Windows Media Player 10 refused to play the police calls. Once again, those folks at Microsoft must be up to kind of conspiracy.)

ScanMuscogee is part of a network of police scanner web sites. There are more than 30 across Georgia, including one for Troup County. But there are none listed for Alabama - so which part of the area do you think has the most speed traps?

The ScanMuscogee web site even includes a page with police codes, so you can follow along with what's happening on the radio. These days, the most suspicious call might be a 9150 - for a car wash. [True!]

I tuned in ScanMuscogee for about 30 minutes Sunday night - but from what I could tell, the police action on the radios was NOT that thrilling and dramatic:

+ A driver was out of gas in front of a credit union. Looking for low prices on the north side of town is simply too risky....

+ An alarm went off at "La Nacional Two" on Veterans Parkway. The dispatchers still are not trained well enough in Spanish, to call this store "dos."

+ A license tag was checked at Cusseta Road and Old Cusseta Road. Please, Georgia Tech fans - you don't have to deface your vanity tags, in the wake of Saturday's football game.

+ Officers were asked to check "four black males hanging around a dumpster." I suppose they could be criminals, involved in some kind of identity theft. But if the dumpster was outside a restaurant, it could simply have been a search for a cheap dinner.

+ Women named Chante and Cheyenne wanted someone to call Texas, to report their "Dad was treating them badly." These women apparently have no access to their MySpace pages.

If that's not enough, ScanMuscogee even offers a "Feed Archive" for listening to recorded police audio. I suppose it's the closest we'll get in Columbus to watching high-speed car chases on live television....

Some people are real "scanner-heads," and will get a kick out of listening to this police radio web site on a regular basis. But I'm not really one of those people. I don't really need to know where squad cars and fire trucks are going around the clock - unless my home caught fire, and then I'd be too busy unplugging my computer to tune in anyway.

BLOG SPECIAL EVENT: In our one-month collection of credit card offers, a third mailing has reached our old-fashioned mailbox. This one came from Bank of America to the business which failed almost 15 months ago. Maybe next time, we should e-mail our news releases to the Wall Street Journal.

To make things even stranger, my last name was spelled correctly on the credit card offer - but the first name was not. It was sent to "Chard," without the first two letters. C'mon now - do I look like I live near Malibu?

The experiment ends Friday, so we'll give you a final score after that. Now let's wrap up scattered news from the holiday weekend:

+ Columbus Airport had its last flight of the day canceled, because of a backup in Atlanta. A 25-percent cut in air service sounds bad, even if you only have four trips a day.

+ The Bayonet reported the Chattahoochee River at Fort Benning is so low that pontoon boats can't be rented from Uchee Creek Marina. At least we know where the water is -- deep in the lawns of Benning residents.

+ The new Bowl Championship Series rankings put Georgia at #4. If the top two teams lose next weekend, the Bulldogs might wind up in the B.C.S. title game without even playing in the Southeastern Conference title game. So all Georgia fans hereby have my permission to root for Oklahoma, against Missouri.

+ Instant Message to Eco Latino: Well, that's a bit better. I mean, you actually had an article this year on the SOA Watch protest of alleged abuses in Latin America. Maybe next year you'll actually have a reporter there, instead of relying on the Associated Press.

THE BLOG OF AMERICA: Bono of "U-2" made a surprise appearance over the weekend in London, as a warm-up act at a concert. He was probably practicing doing the same thing in a couple of weeks -- as a surprise performer before Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize speech.

+ This could be a very interesting day for President Bush. He's welcoming this year's Nobel prize recipients to the White House - including Peace Prize honoree Al Gore. It makes you wonder if the fireplaces will have extra logs burning.

+ Bush administration officials also begin talks in Annapolis, Maryland today, on bringing peace to the Middle East. Syria even agreed to send a delegation - perhaps only to spy on what the Israeli delegation is talking about.

+ Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf still has yet to resign as head of the army. Maybe he's somehow hoping the Bush administration will offer him a reenlistment bonus.

+ Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney claimed opponent Rudolph Giuliani left office as New York Mayor with a three-billion dollar city deficit. Imagine if Romney wins the election next November. The outgoing President will want to cover his ears on inauguration day.

+ Online reports indicated the wife of pro wrestling legend Hulk Hogan has filed for divorce. It couldn't have been easy, being Hogan's "main squeeze" - especially since he was used to squeezing opponents hard enough to crack their ribs.

+ The Sunday night N.F.L. game was surprisingly close, with New England edging Philadelphia 31-28. NBC Sports claimed so many times that this game would be a blowout, I actually turned off the TV set and wrote today's entry a lot faster.

(Philadelphia's Donovan McNabb was injured, so the Eagles' quarterback was A.J. Feeley. His only real claim to fame is being the boyfriend of U.S. women's soccer star/hottie Heather Mitts - who could make any man a little, uh, feel-ey.)

+ Hawaii (boo-hoo) is now the only undefeated team in major college football. It's easy to understand why. Athletes from Hawaii are known for playing with poi's.

(Some would argue the Hawaii football team has an unfair advantage - with the marching band members distracting opponents with their loud flowered shirts.)

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BURKARD BULK MAIL INDEX: 1676 (- 79, 4.5%)

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