Hello friends and neighbors. Now it’s time for me to Rant AGAIN….I wasn’t involved last year but I can honestly say it was the most STUPID thing I have ever seen happen in a community. Take a lifelong county basketball tournament to not only another county……to another F’n State….. Somebody has their head up their butt and is listening to their severe case of gas…. C’mon people let’s lay it on the table and fix it don’t do this crap one more year. I understand the issue of NOT ENOUGH SPACE. I personally have seen so much bs government waste in this county that it would be easy to pool resources to have a UAFS / Greenwood type Basketball Arena here in Poteau. Quit worrying about your own little budget and let’s look at the income for the entire community and county from this Tournament staying here in Poteau and/or other town in the county and what it brings financially to us and even more the pride of the teams.  Here’s a fact:

Every time money changes hands within a community, it boosts the community’s overall income and level of economic activity, and fuels the creation of jobs. The more times money changes hands within the community before heading elsewhere, the better off the community is. And spending money at a locally-owned business has a greater multiplier effect because they are more likely to re-spend their dollars locally. In most cases money turns over in a community 5 to 7 times.  That’s good business people….

So to get the Ball rolling I’ll post my Rant on my blog and on the forums and the rest of you jump in and help me out with support or completely disagree. Step up and let your voices be heard. DON’T BE SCARED!!!!!

Facebook? What the heck is Facebook? Why would I need or want it? Well!!!!! Facebook is a social networking website. The website’s name stems from the colloquial name of books given at the start of the academic year by university administrations with the intention of helping students to get to know each other better.

Why? Because everybody needs to be on Facebook! It allows users to add friends, send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves.

For example: I graduated in 1981 and haven’t seen many of my classmates since the graduation party (that had way too much everade) at the end of the year….. Facebook has allowed many of us to at least connect again after all these years, share pictures of our families and even organize a multi-class renunion (I didn’t attend but the pictures shared from it were really nice to see). It also allows people to find old college friends, neighborhood friends that might have moved way in the 5th grade and even family members that you may not have seen in years. Once the connection is made you can stay in touch, share pictures, videos and chat in real time or leave post on other friends and members walls (page). Additionally, users can join networks organized by city, workplace, and school or college.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that if you don’t have a Facebook page go sign up. It’s quick, simple and may help you connect with people you have completely forgotten about. http://www.facebook.com

I have to say that over the past 35 or so years I have always made some type of New Year Resolution. It may have been to become a Rock Star (lol), Quit Smoking, Get Rich, Lose Weight, Get Healthy or All of the above. I can honestly say that I never kept one single resolution completely. Sure I quit smoking 5 or 6 years ago but it wasn’t because of a resolution and I’m very proud of that fact. But, if it wouldn’t kill me I really enjoyed that nasty habit! As for a Resolution this year!? NO WAY! I’m gonna let life come at me one day at a time and do what’s necessary to live that day to the best of my ability. I still see the economy as bad and not getting better anytime soon. Health care will still be CRAP even if we have a brand new reformed system. Jobs will still be lost and people will still struggle.
MY HOPE ,however, is for the economy to rebound, get a new healthcare system, for medical cost to go down, have more money left in our pockets at the end of the month so we can REALLY start saving for retirement and more jobs to be created and companies to stay or come back to America.
I have to say that I am really thankful this year for my family, friends and great people that keep me employed. I look forward to the New Year and all the challenges and blessings it may bring. To all of you:

HAPPY NEW YEAR

We need a couple of really good restaurants to setup shop in Poteau. Chili’s, Applebee’s, Bennigan’s, Wendy’s etc…. Come on “Powers-That-Be” let’s get it done. I like a few of our food places now but want a little more choice of quality food. Maybe even a glass of wine with a steak. (I don’t drink wine but would just because). So let’s get out there and SHOP our city for the potential it has. Poteau has the potential to be a great community and our Current City Government and Some County Officials have gone a long way to get us headed in the right direction. NOW IT’S TIME TO FOLLOW THROUGH!!
On another note I want to be able to pay my Poteau water bill online. I can pay every bill I have, whether through choice pay or their own online payment system on a web page. Gas, Electric, Internet, Cell Phone but not Water.  Com’on Mr. Mayor we talked about this so get it done. You have made a lot of great things happen here (thats why I haven’t ran for Mayor you’re doing a great job) so just make the online bill pay happen and get on the ball for some good restaurants. I will buy your first dinner at our new Chilis if you’ll make it happen

Yeah, Bah Friggin’ Humbug. Not because it’s almost Christmas but because of the crazy people this time of the year creates. You try to make one of those short grocery runs to Wal-Mart late in the evening and it seems that every Christmas nutted lunatic decides to show up at the same time. They all think your there to buy the thing they want and are willing to fight to get it. I wish I could get shopping cart insurance for the damage to the cart as these rude people decide to slam into you while you’re just trying to make it to the bread isle. Don’t get me wrong here I really love Christmas and enjoy this time of the year in general. What I don’t like is the complete idiots it brings out. I’m sure some will agree and some will disagree. Feel free to leave your comments below. Merry Christmas!

I think it’s really sad when a newspaper that has the choice chooses to publish things such as foreclosures, civil suits etc…. I know its public information but why the hell do they have to publish it. These people are going through enough already and really don’t deserve to have their names printed in the paper just to add more hurt to their already bad situation.….I know there are those nosy bodies that just gotta know but let them go to the courthouse and look it up. If that’s what it takes to sell a paper maybe I’ll just cancel my subscription. Does anybody else see it this way…..

What would you do if the dream came true and you won the Lottery? Here’s how I think I would handle it.
So my numbers matched and I’ve found myself millions of dollars richer in a matter of minutes. The first thing I would do is KEEP IT QUIET! I think if you immediately announce it to the world you’ll end up with relatives and friends you never knew you had. I would then immediately contact a Lawyer and Accountant. I have a few friends that are Attorneys and Accountants that I think I could trust to them to help me through the next few months or year of the life changing event. Now it’s off to contact the lottery commission to let them know I’ve won and eventually pay the taxes and take possession of a large sum of money. Before I help a single person I would get a chunk of the money setup in some type of long term annuity or investment for my family’s future. Now it’s time to take care of business. I would quietly gather my families (mine and my wife’s) together and let them know what’s happened. I would also let them know that they will all receive a nice bit of the winnings and what they get is what they get…..in other words don’t just take it and blow it. It could change their lives. I think I would give each of them equal amounts so that nobody can complain that someone got more. I’ve thought about this a bit and think that I would just pay off everyone’s bills but that wouldn’t be fair if one family member didn’t have any debt they wouldn’t get anything. Then I thought, “pay off the family member’s debt then give them a gift of x amount of thousands of dollars”. Yes, someone is going to get more but they should all just be happy and use it to prepare for their future and retirement (and maybe spend just a little). I would make sure all kids and grand kids in the family had an opportunity to get a college education. They don’t get the cash they just get their education paid for as long as they are going to school and making the grade. Yes they would have to make the grades! After all of our families are taken care of I would want my wife to choose what charity organizations (if any) or other people she wants to help. I wouldn’t want any attention for helping but would just want to help. I would probably live similar to how I live now but would work for myself doing something I really enjoyed as would Stacy (actually it would be nice for her to not work : ) ). Most likely we’d build a new house and replace a few old cars. I wouldn’t blow it on big boats or expensive cars just to have the toys I’d just get what I need. The main thing is to prepare for the future because we never know what tomorrow might bring.

I just had to get this off my chest. Why can’t AT&T get 3G Cell Phone service to Poteau? We’re not that far from Ft. Smith and you can actually get it in Pocola……They could put it on one tower here and it would cover all of Poteau….How about we all complain since they are doing like a Billion dollar upgrade because of the class action suit filed for the misleading 3G speed advertising and non-availability. Any one that uses AT&T/Cingular needs to complain by letter and phone (dial 611 on your cell phone) and COMPLAIN. If you’ve ever used 3G you know why we need it and if not just do it for me please

There was a time when I was young and stupid. Not much has changed except I’m not young anymore. I grew up in Poteau and me and my friendly neighborhood buddies terrorized the whole Hospital Hill area on our bicycles, walking etc…. We were never in the house before dark and normally just when home long enough to eat and off we went again. I think it’s sad that our kids can no longer do that without the fear of being kidnapped. Well I’m glad both of my kids are almost grown and I have none of those issues to worry about….BUT both kids are driving (my baby boy just got his license last week)  ….on the city streets….OMG….. Hopefully they were taught well. I think they both drive good.
As I grew up on the hill I taught myself to play guitar and decided at a young age to become a rock star.  Most music around the house was country which I liked but Rock was my thing. Kiss, Aerosmith, Stones, Beatles and many other bands from way back. Thanks to Diamond Don Barnes for keeping it Rockin at KLCO back in the day.
Anyway music has taken me many places in my life over all these years. I met my Beautiful Wife Stacy with music. Both Kids can sing Blake plays a mean guitar already and he just started a year ago. Thank God he also has an ear for the classics as well as his modern day music. Ashton just loves to sing and is dang good at it. Stacy is a musicholic. She has numerous playlist on Playlist.com and MySpace and she loves to just sit with headphones and rock out. She too loves all types of music and was also a Diamond Don fan growing up. It does tend to get noisy around the house sometimes and I enjoy all the music styles everybody is jamming to. I’m no longer into the bars and clubs like we played in my younger rockstar days .
During that time though hundreds of songs were written by myself and sometimes with many friends. I have created a site of many of those old songs for you guys to check out. The site is free and you don’t even have to register if you don’t want. You must remember that most of these recordings are OLD and were recently digitized from old cassettes, 8Track Tapes and Reel to Reel tapes. Tons of them were recorded on crude equipment and quality is poor. Most haven’t been heard in 15 years or more. For all the ups and downs in life you can hear some  in song. You can also hear Love on the First Strike band songs that I wrote 8 of the songs about my then Girlfriend Stacy who is now my married-for-23-years love of my life wife Anyway here is the site and you are welcome to register and comment as you like. Songs can’t be downloaded but there is no limit to listening. http://www.tonymorganmusic.com I hope you enjoy this and it spreads a little bit cheer and maybe even laughter (I’m sure about the laughter).

When I was a kid in elementary school I had a facination with astronomy. I still like sci-fi moves about space. However, the question always exist especially when I see something like this video. This is actually what we can see and know actually exist in our universe. It shows me that something truly had to create it and there must be more than our small short lives.

RANT TIME: WE ARE POTEAU! We are the county seat for LeFlore county. We have the largest population in the county. WHY then? Do we have a crappy gymnasium. Why do we not have a great facility for concerts and productions that is city owned? We should have one at least as nice as the CASC auditorium! Why do we not have artificial turf on our football field? Why do we have almost half as many kids going out for band, football and other extracurricular activities as other schools in our area (Greenwood for example)!? Why is it that our school looks like a piece of tinker toy crap that’s been pieced together over the last 80 years instead of buying more property in another location and building a nice high tech facility for education! We have had the money in the past and it’s been squandered. I am extremely disappointed in our school board over the last 30 years for allowing things to move in a downward spiral instead of moving up (I miss Ted being in there, he spoke his mind). The thing about change is that change is supposed to be good and cause growth. This place has either become stagnant or gone down! It’s time for the people of this community to STAND UP and say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Get involved in meetings…..Create community groups…..heck just comment on discussions like this….believe me people read it…you would be surprised……Start with with your local school board and work your way up to the mayor…..they all have phone numbers and they all live here in town…..if you ruin their dinner when you see them out just to let them know how you feel, so be it…….that’s part of being in public office (that’s why I don’t run)!