Freedonian

We're Moving To WordPress

2007-07-20T01:53:00.001-05:00

After careful consideration, Pam and I have set up camp at http://thefreedonian.wordpress.com/ . It gives us the best platform possible for presenting information to you and gives you a much better platform for interacting with us.

This site will still be here--- A lot of good people have linked to us over the last fourteen months, and I won't have those links lead to a blank page. But our complete archives, including comments, have been copied onto the WordPress server. And the WordPress site is where you'll find all of our new content.

We hope that you'll join us over there, and if you subscribe to us in a reader, please update your bookmarks.

Thank you,
Rick and Pam

http://thefreedonian.wordpress.com

Satanic Panic and the West Memphis 3

2007-07-19T12:00:00.000-05:00

For the first time in the fourteen year history of the West Memphis Child Murders, there is actual physical evidence conclusively pointing to a suspect--- And as most people with functioning brain stems expected, it does not point to the West Memphis 3.

The DNA of Terry Hobbs, stepfather of murder victim Steven Branch, was found in the rope used to tie up one of the murder victims. You can read the forensic report here.

There was a time when I thought the West Memphis 3 did it. One of the suspects had allegedly made a full confession, and West Memphis Police Chief Gary Gitchell (Think Inspector Clouseau with a southern accent) never tired of regaling reporters with information that appeared to be the result of a small town rumor mill on crack than any true investigative work.

During the first trial, we found out just how questionable the confession was. Wannabe professional wrestler Jessie Misskelley, whose IQ tested at the lower end of comfortable room temperature, was questioned by police for three hours, only 46 minutes of which was recorded. In this “confession”, he told police that the murders took place in the afternoon before the three young victims were even missing (Something the police can be heard coaching him on even on the recording). He said that one of the boys was raped, which turned out not to be true. He insisted that the boys were all tied up with rope, when in fact, two were tied up with their own shoelaces.

If such a “confession” had been made in New York or Massachusetts, it would have been tossed immediately as having been worthless. But he confessed to something that piqued small town hysteria.

When asked why he, Damien Echols, and Jason Baldwin killed the three boys, he claimed to have been a member of a satanic cult for three months, and that the boys were killed as part of a ritual.

A quick Google search on churches in West Memphis showed 66 distinct results--- That’s quite a bit for a town of only 28,000 people. Church is part of the daily life in the town. When you cry “Satanism!” you get a response.

The defense team for the three defendants asked for a change in venue--- Certainly not an unreasonable request considering that Chief Gary Gitchell and his Mini-Me, Detective Bryn Ridge seemed to be in front of the cameras more often than Britney Spears’ hoo-ha.

But it ended up playing into the hands of the prosecution--- The trials were moved to perhaps one of the few places more heavily churched than West Memphis. Jonesboro, Arkansas has 206 churches and is so bound by biblical doctrine that alcohol cannot be legally sold in Craighead County.

The jurors spent months listening to stories about Satanism, including unintentionally comical testimony from occult killings “expert” Dale Griffis (Revealed under cross examination to be the customer of a mail order diploma mill) who, with a straight face, said that the defendants’ taste in music (Pink Floyd and Metallica) and their taste in literature (Stephen King and Anne Rice) was proof of their Satanism.

And the jury returned with the shocking, yet at the same time predictable verdict--- Guilty as charged.

The news broke two months ago that the case was being reexamined by, among others, noted forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, perhaps best known as the focus of HBO’s “Autopsy” documentary series.

Did Terry Hobbs do it? Perhaps. I do not know. I know that when John Mark Byers, the stepfather of another of the victims, heard erroneously that bite marks had been found, he had his teeth removed. I’m not aware of a strong connection between Byers and Hobbs, so I have no idea if they would have worked in concert or why they would have done it.

But at the very least, this is evidence that should be heard in court, and it’s high time that this case got a second look. The three fendants have lost fourteen years of their lives already. Damien Echols is known to have been raped and severely beaten in prison. Jason Baldwin was just moved from one facility to another as part of an investigation into abuse at the hands of prison staff. The case against them was so weak that my suspicion is that there were only 24 people on earth who couldn't find reasonable doubt--- Unfortunately, they were the jurors at the two trials. They deserve to have evidence that might exonerate them be heard. And all of us deserve the truth--- For if three men wrongfully convicted of this murder sit in jail, then the person or persons who did it walk freely among us.

Gee-Dubya and the Small Businessman

2007-07-19T11:56:00.000-05:00

President Bush is revisiting NashVegas today, the scene of one of the all time legendary Bushisms--- The infamous “Fool Me Once” speech--- to focus on how he helps small businesses.

You know--- Like that tiny Mom and Pop operation Halliburton.

But he claims to do a lot for small businesses, so I decided to make a list of small businesses that do benefit from his policies.

See? We've gotta give credit where it's due.

Worst. Band. Ever. (WAY Off Topic)

2007-07-19T11:51:00.000-05:00

Listen at your own risk. (Hat tip to Ubermilf)

Hey Fatass!

2007-07-17T18:43:00.000-05:00

I know this sounds like a strange question, but it's certainly one that should come up the next time President Bush does one of his rare Q&A sessions in the Rose Garden.

"Mr. President, would you describe yourself as 'fat'?"

See, according to governmental standards, he is. Standing 5'11" and weighing in at 191 pounds, his BMI is 26, a full point above what the government deems "normal".

Now, I've certainly levelled many criticisms against him over the years, and I'm certain that many more are lurking around the corner. But fat? Not one of them.

He's in good company. Using the same scale, George Clooney is overweight. So are Michael Jordan, Johnny Depp, David Duchovny, Bruce Willis, Will Smith, Harrison Ford, Yao Ming, Brad Pitt, Vin Diesel... Need I go on?

And beyond overweight, we have the "obese" category. I don't smell what The Rock is cooking, but the government says it made him obese. So are Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Scwarzenegger and Mike Tyson.

I played around with my own height and weight to see what category I was in. I'm the same height and weight as Nicholas Cage--- Overweight. I could stand to lose a few more pounds, so I'm not arguing with my own classification too much. I decided to see what kind of weight I would have to get down to before the government deemed me "normal".

At 6'1", I would have to get down to 180 pounds. Sorry--- I've weighed 180 before. My ribs were sticking out. I had people asking if I was terminally ill.

It was not my first encounter with the BMI. Several years back, I was working for a national gym chain. As you might expect, during off-peak hours, we'd change clothes and catch a workout. As a result, I was in a shape that I haven't been able to dream about for years now. At the time of my insurance physical when I switched plans, I was 240 and had a bodyfat level that consistently tested in the ten percent range.

Sorry. Obese.

And that's when you cut through the bullshit and get to the real reason for such absurd standards--- Medical insurance companies get to charge more for coverage if they assess you as a risk.

You know, for being overweight.

The government sticks to this standard for one reason and one reason alone--- The insurance industry loves it. It allows them to charge a premium by assessing "extra risk" to the very least likely people to need their services.

We could make a list of the things about the health care industry that need to be reformed, and the list would be so expansive that we could bring the internet to a screeching halt. Most of those reforms would take a lot of time and a radical restructuring of the existing system.

Fixing this is easy. It's low hanging fruit. This is something we could fix next month if the political will can be mustered. And it's not terribly expensive, either.

I did about thirty seconds' worth of Googling. You know, painstaking research and all. You can get an AccuMeasure Fat Track Pro for about $75, about the same amount most hospitals charge for an aspirin. We kept three of them at the gym. While there's no way to certify 100% accuracy, it's certainly a more reliable indicator of fitness than an arbitrary set of numbers that doesn't take into account bone density or lean mass.

And just for fun, until the change is made... If you find yourself in the company of the president, as Nashvillians will this week, don't hesitate to point out the lunacy of this standard by shouting "Hey Fatass!"

One for the road--- Just showing you the government's idea of obesity.

*** Hat tip to Kat Coble at Music City Bloggers for this post, which led me to this page tracking which celebrities are fat.

Have You Seen This Man?

2007-07-17T16:44:00.000-05:00

He was last seen wandering around the Hart Senate Building in Washington DC saying:

“Marriage is a core institution of societies throughout the world and throughout history. It's something that has provided permanence and stability for our very social structure.”

***Update***

We still don't know where he's hiding, but at least we know why. He better be wearing one seriously heavy duty cup under that diaper.

“I’m a lot more like Lorena Bobbitt than Hillary . . . If he does something like that, I’m walking away with one thing, and it’s not alimony, trust me.”

Wendy Vitter during the Monica Lewinsky scandal

Na Na Na Na, Na Na Na Na, Hey Hey Hey...

2007-07-17T15:28:00.000-05:00

It was early May two years ago. I was getting ready to walk out the door to visit my sick father when my friend Brad Watkins called me on my cell phone.

"Have you been hearing something about a corruption scandal involving local Democrats?" he asked. "I'm hearing they got "John Ford for taking a bribe."

I pulled up the News Channel 3 website and said "Aw shit. They got Kathryn Bowers too."

Bowers, of course, was Chairwoman of the Shelby County Democratic Party at the time, so there was a special sting to her getting busted for corruption that we wouldn't have felt had it been a lesser known player.

She was the tiny firebrand of a woman I'd met over the course of the 2004 campaign season, the chain smoking, hard drinking woman with a kind word and an amusing story for everyone.

Over the next few weeks, Tennessee Waltz dominated the local media, and even gave the city more than a few kicks in the dangly bits by broadcasting our scandal, our shame on a national scale. Fox News, in particular, loved the story of corrupt Democrats gone out of control.

I missed much of that media coverage. Right after the scandal broke, my father took a turn for the worse and passed away on May 31, 2005. I remember June 2, 2005 well--- I wanted to get back in the swing of things immediately, so I drove straight from my father's funeral to the SCDP Executive Committee meeting during which Bowers tendered her resignation.

What does my father have to do with Tennessee Waltz, or Kathryn Bowers, or anything else? Absolutely nothing, directly. And everything all at the same time.

My father was still alive when this scandal broke. And I've had twenty-five months to get used to living without him.

The last two Waltz holdouts finally pled out over the last few days, with Bowers bringing up the rear. She said the other day that her conscience led her to change her plea.

Where was that conscience twenty-six months ago? It's not like the evidence against her was any weaker then than it is today.

My friend Chris wrote an extraordinary piece waxing sentimental about her. I can understand that. I disagree, but I can understand it.

I'm one of the people that was in the trenches in 2004. I spent much of that year swinging by SCDP Headquarters at 2100 Poplar first thing in the morning, working a full day, then going back for more on the way home.

She didn't sell herself out on the cheap. She sold ME out on the cheap. She sold out Vicki Lyons, David Upton, John Freeman, Meg Siegenthaler, Pam Saavedra, Joe Weinberg, John Marek, Jim Vandiveer, and dozens upon dozens of others on the cheap. She sold out, on the cheap, everyone who turned out to help her out when she decided to shift from the House to the Senate despite their campaign fatigue. She sold out Mike Kernell, Beverly Marrero, and every other honorable lawmaker whose office space she stunk up with her corruption.

John Ford, Roscoe Dixon, Ward Crutchfield, Chris Newton, both Michael Hookses, Calvin Williams, Charles Love, William Cotton, and yes, Kathryn Bowers. You all deserve a Political Darwin Award. Your departure from the Tennesseee political genepool has made it stronger.

The Road To One America...

2007-07-17T14:03:00.000-05:00

...stopped in Memphis last night. Kibitzer, Autoegocrat, David Holt, Vibinc, Blogfather Cracker, Jon Carroll, and of course, the lovely Pam and I were all on hand.

In a departure from his usual stump speech, Edwards addressed the crowded house at the MIFA Thrift Store on Vance about the need to eliminate poverty once and for all.

Here, we walk in the steps of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, and his work is not finished," he said, invoking the famous "Poor People's Campaign" in the poorest ZIP code in the city, an area with a median income of about $10,000 per year.

"We are still confronted with a huge moral issue in this country," he told the 500 on hand. "It is not okay in the richest nation on the planet to have 37 million people who work every single day that have to worry about feeding and clothing their children. We're better than that. America is better than that."

You can view photos from the event by clicking here.

***Special Mega-hat tip to Jackson Baker, who came to the rescue with his audio of the speech when my voice recorder failed on me last night.

***UPDATE***

Vibinc, who recorded last night's event on a high definition camcorder, has posted the YouTube video.

Draft This.

2007-07-11T15:12:00.000-05:00

Notice I said “actually in the race” in that last post. That kind of brings me to another thing I absolutely loathe in American politics. It’s the “draft me” syndrome.

Several years ago, I was involved in a race in another state that went pretty well. A friend of mine was eager to set up a lunch between me and someone else who was considering a run for office.

I sat across from him and discussed message and strategy should he decide to get in the race. He interrupted me as I was getting wound up, and I’ll never forget what he said.

“What you say sounds all well and good, but you haven’t given me a reason to run yet.”

I stood up, tossed my cloth napkin onto the table, and walked out. And the reason for that is very simple. I can’t remember precisely what I said to him (And I won’t pretend that there was no profanity involved), but I’ll give it to you today as I would say it today, and I’ll tell this to LaSimba Gray and anyone else that wants to “draft” Mayor Wharton or any of the Astroturf guys masquerading as grass roots on the other side of the fence pretending that the “draft Fred” effort is genuine.

You simply do not have to draft a leader. You do not have to poke and prod them into action. A real leader has the testicular fortitude to stand up and tell you he wants to lead you. When he loses the race, you have to tell him to sit down and shut up.

I don’t say this to insult Mayor Wharton--- On the contrary, I have nothing but the utmost respect for the man, and I genuinely like him.

But just as I believe it’s wrong to come up with answers and try to come up with a question that fits them, it’s wrong to ask the voters to support a candidate that will not actually say he’s in the race.

Just level with the people, AC and Fred. If you want to run, say so. But please, in the name of God’s ass, give us a break from the Astroturf.

All Herenton, All the Time

2007-07-11T15:02:00.000-05:00

A very good friend of mine just sent me the new Gadfly piece from The Memphis Flyer. As much as I like Gadfly and respect much of what he has written in the past, I read “Why the Mayor Will Lose” and had to scratch my head, wondering if Gadfly is new to the city.

First, there’s the obvious. He seems to read the public’s disenfranchisement with Mayor Herenton as some kind of sign that they’ll actually do something crazy like, you know, vote against him.

First, of all, it’s flawed logic that public displeasure with a candidate automatically translates to votes against him. We’ve made that assumption before. Remember November 2, 2004? People of my political persuasion call that “Dark Tuesday”, as it guaranteed us four more years of the leadership of a guy that couldn’t find nipples in a titty bar.

Memphians are always “tired of Mayor Willie Herenton, including his shenanigans and histrionics”. Yes, they’re tired of them now. They were also tired of them in 2003. And 1999. Oh, and don’t forget 1995.

He also refers to the recent “thumping” of Robert Spence in the Senate District 30 primary as evidence that the people want the mayor cut loose. Nice theory, but another false association.

First, Spence was walking into the lion’s den by even running in District 30. District 30 and white liberals were made for one another. I think that I and the rest of the liberal bloggers were perhaps giving Spence credit for having game that he didn’t actually have when we thought he would be a real contender in that race.

But perhaps more importantly--- This was not Spence’s first attempt at running for office. When the Herenton machine was still riding high, he ran against Wanda Halbert and spent well over $100,000--- Most of the candidates for US Congress last year would love to have had that kind of money to play with--- Yet he still only managed to eke out a third place finish, winding up Election Night with numbers only Lyndon LaRouche could love.

By the way--- You mention Herenton discounting the polls as if there’s something outrageous about that. The mayor discounted the polls for the same reason I discount those very polls. Partially because we’ve seen more than our fair share of unreliable polling (Just ask President John Kerry).

One of those polls was taken out by a Cordova firm that has polled for Ed Bryant in the past (They had him up, by the way--- How did that one turn out?), and at 500 likely voters, is far too small a field to get what I would consider reliable data. And the other was taken out by… The very guy that now stands accused of attempting to blackmail the mayor by paying a topless bar waitress to videotape herself having sex with him (As if that would even work--- Herenton would likely sell copies of it at fundraisers. We know Herenton likes to have sex with women. That is how babies are made, right?)

If I was him, I wouldn’t sweat those polls either.

Make no mistake. I have come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. I’m not particularly fond of Herenton. Unlike some of his critics, I can separate personal foibles from abilities as an executive, and I tend to overlook a lot of the personal garbage. I care about politics, not the “Melrose Place” that politics is often reduced to by people that don’t care enough to learn real issues.

He’s certainly not a political ideal either. For every brilliant thing he’s done, my friends have no trouble bringing up at least one thing that makes me say “Yeah, that was pretty bonehead of him.”

But at this point, no one that is actually in the race has given me or anyone but their own diehards a solid reason to vote for them other than “I’m not Willie”.

Yes, voters are fatigued with Herenton. They always have been. As much as I have read and enjoyed Gadfly in the past, this seems pretty off the mark.

Go Liz!!

2007-06-29T10:48:00.001-05:00

That's my girl!

The Lady and the GOP Tramp

2007-06-27T13:41:00.000-05:00

I think Ms. Edwards could have been more assertive, but she did well overall. Coulter's face towards the end: priceless.

Presidential Pop-litics

2007-06-15T19:50:00.000-05:00

Think Gwendolyn Smith will put out one for Willie?

For You, Genital!

2007-06-15T07:16:00.000-05:00

There’s a blogger out there I won’t name. For the sake of this post, I’ll call him “Jesuit Genital”.

Jesuit Genital is a funny guy. Not quite as funny as he thinks, but hey, what good liberal can’t hear about trying to recruit College Republicans to fight in a war they think is so glamorous and not chuckle a little bit?

But Genital proved recently that he should perhaps leave the intellectual heavy lifting to others.

It seems that last week, as he perused the web looking for something to whine about, he stumbled onto Nashville Is Talking.

For those not familiar with it, Nashville Is Talking is an aggregator/ blog hybrid. The sidebar represents feeds from most of the blogs in the state, and the body of the site is (Or was) the lovely Brittney Gilbert calling our attentions to articles she believed we should read for one reason or another.

And there was a post there that was offensive. It was not Brittney’s original content. It was vomited onto the internet by a tool calling himself Smantix. Brittney reposted it without a comment which, to morons unfamiliar with sites that try to represent both sides of the issue, might have looked something like an endorsement. It wouldn’t have been terribly difficult to actually look at the rest of the articles on the page and see what was actually going on.

Still, Genital felt no need to do such a thing. His stock in trade is whining. Nothing to complain about = Nothing to write about.

So he fired up his loyal gang of sycophants, and they rushed over to verbally harass Brittney.

Here’s a small taste of what she had to endure at their hands:

• “You are a liar.”
• “…you are so f*cking retarded…”
• “Just wanted to let you know. I’ve copied this post and forwarded it to your advertisers with a few comments. Perhaps you will receive a lesson of your own.”
• “I’m writing to the station director and every advertiser can find - mocking the tragic death of a young man is inexcusable. And in this particular case, viciously racist as well…Brittney should be fired.”
• “If Brittney truly aspires to be a “journalist”, she should consider employment at FOX or possibly try to get a job interning with Coulter, Limbaugh or O’Reilly. There she will learn how to get away with saying hateful things all by herself (instead of recycling someone else’s screed) and then deny their meaning and intent.”

Um… Assholes? Allow me to explain something to you.

I am a liberal blogger in Tennessee. For every one of us, there are three guys on the other side of the fence talking about how the war in Iraq was a swell idea, how liberals should be rounded up into camps, and how everyone should have a tripod-mounted .50 caliber machine gun in the yard to protect their garden flamingos with. Our governor is a Democrat, but he only wins because he’s more conservative than Schwarzenegger and Giuliani and the Republicans have, in the last two cycles, managed to run Republicans so bugshit crazy that even Republicans can’t get behind them.

But there was one place where we could go and be represented on a level playing field, and that was Nashville Is Talking. She made sure that liberal AND conservative ideologies were well represented. She promoted US.

Furthermore, had just one of you mouthbreathers actually bothered to read so much as a single piece she commented on, you would have learned something.

You attacked another liberal, you jackasses. Conservatives whined about her constantly. They, much like you lot of whining pusbags, managed to get the vapors just by looking at her words on the screen.

Congratulations. You have followed in the liberal tradition of eating your own.

Oh, by the way, assclowns--- Although she’s certainly nice, and I have nothing bad to say about her--- Brittney’s replacement doesn’t exactly hail from our side of the fence. And the site reflects that now.

In the future, before you start whining, I would recommend you crack open a twelve ounce can of STFU, drink it down, and actually have a look at what’s going on on the site before humiliating yourselves again.

Guinness-tastically yours,
The Freedonian

Thanks. Really. I Mean It.

2007-06-15T07:15:00.000-05:00

It’s been a while since the last update here at Casa de Freedonian. I’ve had a few other writing projects going on. And as much as I love blogging, the time involved in reading the blogs of my brilliant friends, researching, and writing something of my own takes substantial time.

When I’m blogging at my peak, my other writing projects get a page written on them if I’m having a good day. When I’m not blogging, I turn in, on average, 6-8 pages per day. One day last week, I set a new personal best by writing a whopping thirteen pages in one day, a feat I’ll not likely be able to repeat soon.

For all those who have missed my daily musings, all who have waited patiently, and all who have come back to read again, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I won’t promise that there will be no further interruptions. But I do promise that they will not be as long.

Thank you,
Rick

Kevin Gallagher Fundraiser

2007-05-23T07:51:00.001-05:00

Tennessee House District 89 candidate Kevin Gallagher held a fundraiser yesterday at Fresh Slice on Overton Park.

“It vastly exceeded expectations,” Gallagher said.

The event drew over 100 people. Shelby County Commissioner James Harvey was in attendance, as was former Shelby County Commissioner Linda Rendtorff. Former Shelby County Democratic Party Chairman Matt Kuhn attended, as did current Vice Chair Desi Franklin.

Much of the team that aided Gallagher in sending Steve Cohen to the US House of Representatives was in attendance as well, including Cohen Field Director/ impending Hillary Clinton Iowa team staffer Liz Rincon, former University of Memphis College Democrats President John Marek, several representatives of the current U of M College Democrats, and blogger Steve Steffens.

“I am heartened not only by the quantity but the quality of people that turned out,” Gallagher said.

Criminal Justice Part I: Don't Let the Truth Get In the Way.

2007-05-23T06:16:00.000-05:00

This is the first article in a five part series examining justice as it is applied in the most serious cases our criminal court system is designed to handle--- Murder. Future articles will examine other convictions and look at improvements that can be made to improve the justice system.

Every time an innocent man is convicted, a guilty man goes free.

Twenty-one-year-old Debra Carter had been found beaten, raped, and suffocated in her garage apartment in Ada, Oklahoma on December 8, 1982.

After five years of police work that can only charitably be called slipshod, detectives caught a break in the case: A career criminal named Glen Gore told detectives that he had seen Ada resident Ron Williamson with Debra Carter at the night club she worked at on the night of the murder.

Williamson would never be mistaken for a choirboy. He had been arrested and acquitted twice on rape charges. He also had a long history of mental illness that dated back to his playing days for one of the New York Yankees’ farm teams.

Dennis Fritz was implicated simply because he was Williamson’s only friend. No witness put him anywhere near Carter on the night of the murder. Ironically, Fritz was a single parent because of the murder of his own wife several years earlier, a murder for which he was never a suspect.

Six years later, the two men had a difficult time establishing alibis. When the case was tried in 1988, DNA testing was rare and in its infancy. The police had blood and hair on the scene that they thought could theoretically have come from the two men, but nothing conclusive.

During interrogation, Ron Williamson mentioned having had a nightmare about spirits attacking him. Police insisted that this dream was a thinly veiled confession.

District Attorney William Peterson handled the case. Three jailhouse informants testified against Dennis Fritz in his April 1988 trial. Coupled with the hair and blood evidence and his friendship with Williamson sealed his fate. One juror held out during the sentencing phase to make it a life sentence instead of a death sentence.

Attorney General William Peterson presented as evidence Glen Gore's statement (Perhaps tellingly, he refused to testify at trial) that the victim had told him on the night of the murder that Ron Williamson had been bothering her. A jailhouse informant named Terri Holland told the jury that she had overheard Ron Williamson confessing to the murder in jail. She joined yet another jailhouse informant who miraculously heard Williamson confess to the crime less than 24 hours before police were going to have to release Williamson for lack of evidence. The jury returned a guilty verdict and sentenced Williamson to death.

In 1994, Williamson was five days away from his date with the needle when he was granted a stay of execution. The Innocent Man.

A year and a half after the murder of Debra Carter, there was yet another murder in Ada Oklahoma. If it sounds like I’m telling you the same story twice, I assure you, I’m not.

Twenty-four-year-old newlywed Denise Haraway had been abducted from the Ada convenience store where she was employed. The cash register had been emptied, and the victim’s car and purse were still on the scene.

Several months later, twenty-year-old Tommy Ward was questioned, as he resembled a man seen walking out of the store with Haraway. A jailhouse informant (Starting to see a pattern already? Just wait.) told police that he had overheard who had killed Haraway.

Ward initially denied any involvement in the murder. He was released and took a polygraph at the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. When he was told he had failed, he explained that he thought the results might have been off because of a dream he had.

After eight hours of unrecorded interrogation, Ward confessed to the murder, implicating two others in the death. He told investigators that he had participated in the abduction, rape, and murder of Haraway with his best friend Karl Fontenot and another Ada resident, Odell Titsworth. He told them that Titsworth was the ringleader, and that the thre of them gang-raped her, murdered her with Titsworth’s knife, and dumped her body near Sandy Creek. He apparently didn’t know Titsworth very well, as he kept referring to him as “Titsdale” throughout the recorded part of the interrogation.

Karl Fontenot was arrested, and confessed after two hours of interrogation. His confession clashed with Ward’s on the order in which the three men raped her, as well as the number of stab wounds. In his confession, after murdering her with Titsworth’s knife, they took her to an abandoned house where Titsworth poured gasoline over her and burned the body.

Police picked up Titsworth for questioning, but decided that it was unlikely that he could have carried out the attack. He had broken his arm in a scuffle with police only days before the murder, a fact that neither Ward nor Fontenot apparently knew. He was never charged.

Police sifted the remains of the burned out house where Fontenot claimed the body of Denise Haraway had been destroyed. As they were examining the “crime scene”, the owner came out and told them that it was impossible for the suspects to have destroyed the body in that house--- He had burned down the house himself ten months before the murder.

But none of that really mattered to District Attorney William Peterson (See the pattern forming again?). He had another jailhouse informant whose testimony would cement the case---

Terri Holland. Look a little further back up the page, and you’ll see that this is not the first time she’s provided testimony in a murder case. She claimed to have overheard Karl Fontenot confessing, just as she had claimed to have overheard Ron Williamson. I’m not sure there’s a priest in America that has heard as many confessions as Ms. Holland has claimed to have heard.

Besides her testimony, District Attorney Peterson had to ask a jury to believe two confessions that contradicted one another in almost every way, and both indicated the involvement of a third man that the police department never saw fit to file charges against.

And believe it they did. For Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot received death sentences.

Four months after the sentences were handed down, a trapper found the skeletal remains of Denise Haraway in a field. Forensic examinations have revealed no signs of stabbing, but a bullet hole in her skull. No soft tissue remained, so no DNA has been harvested. Her body was found 30 miles away from any place mentioned in either “confession”.

Ward and Fontenot were retried. And on the basis of “confessions” which not only didn’t match each other terribly well, but bore no resemblance to the physical evidence in the case, they both received life sentences.

Mark Barrett, the defense attorney that helped clear Williamson and Fritz in 1999, has taken over the case and feels confident that he can not only clear his clients, but he feels confident that he can prove who actually committed the murder.

William Peterson still serves as District Attorney for the City of Ada.

Men of Virtue

2007-05-22T14:01:00.000-05:00

It’s heartening to see NFL players turn out for a good cause--- You know, like defending Michael Vick for animal cruelty.

In a backpedal worthy of John McCain, Washington Redskins player Clinton Portis called dog fighting a “prevalent” part of life (In the words of Inigo Montoya, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. ”) before issuing another statement stating “I do not participate in dog fighting or condone dog fighting in any manner”.

His moronic teammate Chris Samuels added “Have you ever seen ‘Animal Planet’?” with a giggle.

The facts of the case are very simple. Michael Vick has a home in Virginia, one of the many states where dog fighting is illegal (If it’s legal in any state at all, I’m not aware of it). Over the course of raiding this home as part of a drug investigation (You know, because Vick is such a virtuous soul), police found dozens of dogs and equipment associated with dog fighting.

It’s animal cruelty, plain and simple. It does not matter, as Portis says, that the dogs are Vick’s property. The fact is that you are not allowed to do this to living creatures.

I’ve seen dog fighting video before. A company I used to work for had a sideline business copying uncopyrighted videos for people, and some assclown brought in a video a few minutes before we closed for the weekend.

I got back in on Monday, and we put the tape in to copy--- And we saw several men gathered around, placing bets as two pitbulls fought to the death.

We called the police. My coworker at the time raised and bred Akitas, and I love dogs enough that animal cruelty is something we take pretty severe offense at.

And even the dog fight itself is only the tip of the problem. A big dog on fight day has, as a general rule, been beaten mercilessly and fed countless smaller animals to try and stoke the bloodlust that would make domesticated animals act like vicious wild predators.

You train a dog for the fighting circuit by beating and starving it. Then you put smaller animals in the pen with it. A kitten. A smaller dog. The dog learns to associate killing another animal with survival. Then and only then do you have a fighting dog.

Michael Vick is a part of this.

So I think it’s only fair, if it’s proven that he takes part in this, that he be thrown in a pen with a bunch of larger predators. As an athlete, he may be able to take a few of them out--- But not all of them. And famous inmates always have a bullseye on their heads. If he was still alive, you could ask Ol’ Dirty Bastard, who routinely got his ass kicked behind bars.

I cannot advocate strongly enough the idea of Michael Vick learning a lesson about cruelty by being fed up to some larger predators.

Idol Chatter

2007-05-22T13:56:00.000-05:00

We’re down to the finals on “American Idol” this week.

The big winner? Everyone who quit watching already.

It’s now down to a “human beat box” (And the judges have been proving all season just how desperately out of touch they are when they call this white kid “unique” for doing something the black kids in my junior high P.E. class circa 1984 used to do in the locker room) vs. a seventeen-year-old that sings with slightly less soul than C3-PO.

This show is based on a British show with a British formula for finding the next pop star, all while overlooking one crucial element:

British pop sucks.

I was watching a show on BBC America a couple of weeks ago that was going for a “hip” feel by using a British pop song. When I heard it, I reflexively reached for my cell phone--- The intro to the song sounded that much like a bad ring tone.

The show was supposed to be improved by the addition of a real house band--- Yet with few notable exceptions (Those being when they played the songs wrong, such as Haley Scarnato’s rendition of “Brass In Pocket” and Jordin Sparks’ version of “Living On A Prayer”, a song so simple that a guitar, if thrown off a cliff, can play it by itself as it bangs against the jagged rocks on the way down), it still sounds like a bad karaoke CD.

Call me a pop culture curmudgeon if you must. But one thing you notice as you grow older is that increasingly, “pop culture” is an oxymoron, and the real purpose of “American Idol” is to give us something to chatter about between football season and baseball season.

"Living With MS" Blog Relaunched

2007-05-19T10:13:00.001-05:00

Sometimes, good things happen and I don't notice them immediately.

Several months back, all of us on the Memphis scene were sad to note that a lady who had been great to all of us had quit blogging when Blinders Off felt that she was unable to continue her "Living With MS" blog. Those of us that have had to see Multiple Sclerosis in action certainly understood, though.

Well I'm glad to point out to anyone that has had their head up their own arse similarly to mine that she has indeed now relaunched as of two weeks ago today.

We're glad to have your voice back on the scene, Blinders!

The Gallagher Crime Plan

2007-05-18T17:15:00.000-05:00

I didn't realize it, but Kevin Gallagher demonstrated yesterday why I love it when candidates blog, particularly local candidates. He unveiled the Gallagher Crime Plan, and I think it's a particularly interesting one.

I would recommend everyone go check it out.

UPDATE: My friend and brother Vibinc pointed out to me that the Gallagher Crime Plan is also available on Gallagher's official campaign site:

PDF
http://www.votekevingallagher.com/5pointplan.pdf
Page
http://www.votekevingallagher.com/crime.html

$21 per Week

2007-05-18T16:53:00.000-05:00

I’ve been fortunate in my life. I’ve never had to go on food stamps. So I had no idea just how low the average weekly allowance in food stamps actually is until I saw this Liberadio piece via Volunteer Voters (This piece actually began its life as a comment at VV, but I got frustrated and put it here when the VV page refreshed, wiping out everything I'd written)

$21 per week. That shakes out to $3 per day, averaging a dollar per meal.

Now, I can already hear the voices from the right chiming in to tell me how wrong I am to want an increase. Read the rest of this before you do, though.

Keeping the limit at $21 forces the poor into miserable nutritional choices. I’m not saying that the poor will necessarily make better nutritional choices if they’re given more to work with--- But as it stands now, they are forced into the very worst of everything. Fat is cheap because it has very little nutritional value. I’m sure I could save at the grocery store if I quit buying the 90% lean ground beef at $2.99 per pound and went with the ridiculously fatty ground beef at $1.79 per pound. But buying the $1.79 per pound ground beef has side effects that I don’t want, the least of which is an expanding waistline. Limiting your weekly grocery shopping to $21 per week forces you into the fattier foods. It guarantees that your diet will consist almost entirely of fats and starchy foods such as potatoes.

We face an obesity epidemic in this nation. From 1976-80, our nation stood at 15% obesity. A similar survey taken in 2003-04 put the obesity rate at 32.9%, according to the CDC.

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you the health risks associated with obesity. Type II diabetes, heart disease, hypertension leading to increased strokes, gallbladder disease, sleep apnea, respiratory problems--- The list goes on.

The $21.7 billion in the year 2000 alone. That factors in health care, work absence, and school absence.

Simply put, keeping the allowance at $21 per week virtually guarantees that people are forced into the kind of nutritional choices that will make them more likely to drain our resources in the future.

Keith Olbermann Accepts the First Annual Ivins Award

2007-05-17T23:23:00.001-05:00

And although he is sadly not on the video, the Memphis Flyer's publisher Ken Neill presented it to him.

Enjoy.

UPDATE: Pesky Fly has Ken Neill's speech transcribed here.

Straight Outta Fordville.

2007-05-17T15:16:00.000-05:00

So it's come to my attention that there are some upset voters in District 89.

Jeanne Richardson signs are popping up all over the district. The problem is that not everyone who now has a Richardson sign in the front yard is someone that actually requested one.

For anyone that's familiar with Memphis politics at all, you'll recognize the tactic. People involved with the Ford campaigns (And as I've pointed out before, there is definitely some overlap) have a tendency to do that. I've seen it firsthand myself--- I went to a Ford event, came out, and found his bumper sticker stuck to my car.

Congressman Steve Cohen, whose successful congressional campaign was managed by Richardson's opponent Kevin Gallagher, has made it clear that he supports Gallagher and will intervene in this race directly if there were any more shenanigans in this race.

Will this be what it takes? Are the unnamed people running the Richardson campaign reckless enough to want to trigger that?

And I Didn't Even Know She Was Running For a Federal Office!

2007-05-16T15:46:00.000-05:00

This is a mailer that was just sent out by the Jeanne Richardson campaign. If you're looking at the headline and having one of those Jon Stewart "Whuuuuuuuuu?" moments, I assure you--- You're not the only one.

For while I don't think you could find many Democrats that would disagree with the notion that Bush's War is Horrible (Perhaps Harold Ford Jr, but it depends what day of the week you ask him), you're left with one problem at the end of the day---

Tennessee's House of Representatives has about as much pull regarding Iraq as Paris Hilton would in a school for the gifted.

The second part of the mailer makes a decent, if somewhat convoluted case for using the state's budget surplus to help pick up the shortfall created by funding cuts Bush made to federal (Note that word) programs such as Head Start. And I certainly don't think that is an unreasonable thing to want.

But this mailer is insulting to the intelligence of District 89's voters. Jeanne Richardson is not running against George W. Bush, nor is she running for any office that has any influence on whether or not the war is funded. If she's elected, she'll wield just as much influence over the course of the war as she has today.

She's not running against George W. Bush. She's running against Kevin Gallagher, who opposes the war just as much as she does.

Of course, he's not trying to run a campaign against George W. Bush.

But... But... Who Will Protect Our Children From Gay Teletubbies Now???

2007-05-16T07:55:00.000-05:00

As you no doubt have heard, Jerry Falwell died yesterday.

I come to bury the idiot, not to praise him.

Throughout his life, he had an unblemished record for being on the absolute wrong side of any given issue. Any time he was given half a chance, he would preach that Jesus wants you to "love they neighbor"--- At least as long as it was the neighbor in the next pew.

“If Chief Justice Warren and his associates had known God's word and had desired to do the Lord's will, I am quite confident that the 1954 decision [Brown v. Board of Education] would never have been made…. The facilities should be separate. When God has drawn a line of distinction, we should not attempt to cross that line.”

That stance should hardly have been a surprise. We're still talking about the man who regularly featured Lester Maddox and George Wallace on his "Old-Time Gospel Hour" to spread their "Christian message. He's the same guy that constantly referred to the Civil Rights Movement as the "Civil Wrongs Movement" (Clever one he was, eh?).

In his 1965 sermon called "Ministers and Marches", he admonished Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and James Farmer for supporting communism (Which, in that day as now, was fatass white guy-speak for equal rights) before adding "Preachers are not called to be politicians, but to be soul winners."

Of course, that was a few years before he said "In recent months, God has been calling me to do more than just preach--He has called me to take action. I have a divine mandate to go right into the halls of Congress and fight for laws that will save America."

In other words--- Ministers getting involved in the fight against subjugation of black people = BAD. Ministers helping rightwing politicians get elected = GOOD. Got it.

Lest anyone think he left racism behind once the Civil Rights Act became law, he travelled to South Africa to support the Botha (Apartheid) regime, and came back encouraging white Christians to purchase Krugerrands to bolster South Africa's failing government, called Nelson Mandela "pro-terrorist", and decided that he, a white American, knew what was in the interest of black South Africans better than the black South Africans did by declaring Archbishop Desmond Tutu a "phony" who "misrepresented the black people of South Africa".

Because, you know, a supporter of Lester Maddox and George Wallace has the best interests of black people at heart.

After his contributions dropped off by $500,000 in the two weeks following the South Africa debacle, he decided to steer clear of race politics for a new obsession---

Butt sex.

"The sexual preference of Tinky Winky..." Oh hell, I can't even type with a straight face any diatribe that starts with "The sexual preference of Tinky Winky". And certainly, everyone remembers Falwell and the Beavis to his Butthead, Pat Robertson, lamenting that 9/11 was the fault of pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays and lesbians, the ACLU, People For the American Way, and secularists.

One thing that he said in the middle of that diatribe was quite accurate, but not for the reason he thought it was.

"God will not be mocked".

So, who was it that really mocked God? The black Americans that demanded equal rights under law and the right to vote? Black South Africans that asked for the right to not be colonized into minority rule? The gays who walk among us every day of their lives as God made them?

Or some buffoon that never found a brand of bigotry he couldn't get behind?

Rest in peace, Falwell. I hope when you reach your final destination (I wouldn't lay odds on you going to heaven), that you're treated just as you demanded the powerless here on Earth be treated.

Also see:
Jerry Falwell's Greatest Zits
On the Passing of Jerry Falwell
Falwelling Down

The DLC's "Conversation With America"

2007-05-14T15:05:00.000-05:00

The Democratic Leadership Council, the group just barely keeping the "blue" in "blue dog", has announced that it will hold their "National Conversation" in Nashville this July.

DLC founder Al From, Governor Phil Bredesen, and current DLC Chairman Harold Ford Jr. announced today that the event will be held July 28-30 at Nashville's Gaylord Opryland Hotel. Announcing the event at the Gaylord marks the first time Harold Ford Jr. has used the word "gay" without spewing out a right wing talking point or issuing a denial of some sort.

Among the seminars we can expect at the DLC conference are "Getting Our Asses Kicked In 2002 Wasn't So Bad", "Fox News Still Loves Us", "Exxon's Money Spends Too", "How To Spin Your Continued Support of the War In Iraq", "Learning To Love Alito", and last but not least, the longtime DLC favorite "I'm Not a Republican, But I Play One on TV".

Now, I don't mean to go off on a rant here--- Wait--- Yes I do.

The DLC and its new chairman serve quite effectively as the poster children for everything that's wrong with the Democratic Party today. Their consistent triangulation on the issues has served as a proven momentum-killer for any kind of progressive movement in America. And no one has personified that better than their current chairman.

The most dangerous patch of real estate in America today is not some dangerous ghetto, or some highly polluted spot--- It's the real estate between Harold Ford Jr. and a Fox News camera. It would be one thing if he went out there and stated a case for Democratic ideals--- But he does not. He goes out there and disavows progressive ideals every chance he gets.

And that, in a nutshell, is the purpose of the DLC. It's no coincidence that the very people that fund the Republican party also fund the DLC. The goal of the Bradley Foundation, the oil companies, and the military contractors is not a system of bipartisan compromise. Their goal is the eradication of progressive ideals.

They can't do that without our help. This is a castle that they cannot storm without someone lowering the drawbridge from the inside, and that's where the DLC comes into play. They do from within what conservatives cannot do from the outside.

When it looked like an anti-war candidate might win the 2004 Democratic nomination for president, what happened? The DLC attacked him for it. The DLC didn't just support going to Iraq--- It was so passionate about it that they felt comfortable questioning the patriotism of Michael Moore for disagreeing with them (That sounds kind of Republican, doesn't it?).

The DLC's constant capitulation to the right has been an assault not only on our ideals, but has created much of the apathy that Democratic activists face today.

The sooner this cabal of right wing interests is discredited, the stronger the Democratic Party will be.

Mythbusting II

2007-05-14T14:37:00.000-05:00

A while back, I ran a piece clearing up some of the myths that are being spread around in the District 89 Tennessee House race, and who Congressman Steve Cohen is supporting in it. One of the most pervasive myths at that time was that Congressman Cohen, for some reason, didn't feel that his former campaign manager Kevin Gallagher deserved the seat.

The sign that he requested be put in the front yard of his house tells a different story.

Jackson Baker of The Memphis Flyer spoke to Cohen over the weekend, and has
written about it here. A few choice cuts:

Steve Cohen is no half-hearted booster of Kevin Gallagher for the open District 89 state House seat. That was the word this weekend from the congressman himself — disappointing though it may be to some of the boosters of Jeannie Richardson’s rival Democratic candidacy for the seat...

...if things got “nasty” in the race between the two Democrats, he would feel compelled to intervene on Gallagher’s behalf more directly than he has to date...

The congressman also confirmed that he had made a substantial contribution to Gallagher’s campaign coffers and had encouraged others to do so.

It's not quite the same as cutting a campaign commercial endorsing him, but the Congressman has clearly made his choice.

Click here to read Jackson Baker's Flyer article.

District 89 Early Voting Problems

2007-05-11T12:25:00.000-05:00

The Democratic candidates in the District 89 primary went down to the Shelby County Election Commission this morning to vote for themselves first thing this morning, and by all accounts… Both walked away quite disappointed.

These kinds of mistakes would be understandable, though still bad, if they were made by the poll workers drafted into action every Election Day.

But they weren’t. These were full time Shelby County Election Commission Employees.

The first candidate to show up was Kevin Gallagher. He filled in his form and requested the Democratic Primary ballot. And when he got into the booth, he was given… The Republican choices.

He got out to try to sort out the mistake, and Jeannie Richardson had arrived. I personally know that Jeannie Richardson is a registered voter in District 89. She registered there two months ago. The full time Election Commission employees (Again, not election workers but full time Election Commission personnel) did not show her as a registered voter.

Kevin was eventually able to get the mess straightened out and to cast a vote for himself. But apparently, the Republican Primary is programmed in as a default, which can change the numbers drastically if it goes unrepaired. This is a relatively small special election--- What happens to someone that isn't a diehard follower of politics that goes in to vote based on name recognition and doesn't recognize the names?

And, as of 11:30 this morning, one candidate, Jeannie Richardson, had been unable to exercise her right to vote at all.

If these problems are not addressed, both candidates have legal grounds to throw this eleciton out.

As I was seconds away from publishing this story, I found out that Kevin Gallagher's wife Terry had the same problem her husband had. So as of five minutes ago, this problem is not fixed.

That's Why They Call It "The Fighting Ninth"

2007-05-11T02:40:00.000-05:00

Okay, I'm not really sure who calls it, that, but really, it's beside the point.

For all those who are unfortunate enough to be represented by "The 59", I wanted to take this opportunity to show you what a real congressman, a real Democrat, looks like.

See, he could have taken the easy road like The 59 did. His predecessor carved out a comfortable niche for himself voting like The 59. Had he remained in office, I would surely be here talking about "The 60". That's just who he was.

He sat in one of the greatest Democratic strongholds in this nation, and instead of building a stronger Democratic base by showing actual spine, he caved time after time. He became the favorite Democrat of Ann Coulter, Don Imus, and Chris Matthews--- Which you cannot achieve if you actually remain faithful to any of the ideals of the party.

Steve Cohen went about it a different way. When the two paths diverged in the snowy wood, he took the one less travelled. He's actually exhibiting something we see rarely in the hallowed halls of Washington--- It's called courage.

For rather than becoming a Bush flunkie as The 59 did, he's reducing Bush flunkies to stammering, flop-sweating nervous wrecks.

This is how you build a movement. You do not build it by choosing your fights carefully and retreating for cover when the petulant man-child occupying the Oval Office threatens to hold his breath until he gets his way. You build it by fighting for what's right, regardless of whether it's politically expedient or not.

Steve Cohen could easily have made it "The 60" just as his predecessor would have done. He would have enjoyed a brief "attaboy" from the people that think sticking a yellow ribbon magnet on their Hummers amounts to "supporting the troops". And just as The 59 have done, he would experience a brief surge in popularity among the people that don't plan to vote for him next time around.

Or he can vote to quit sending American soldiers to die in a war with no true objective and grow the progressive movement by grilling the Right one sacred cow at a time.

For those of you that are still hanging in there, I would recommend popping some popcorn right now. Gather the family around your computer screen. True, it's just six minutes and change, but you'll want to watch it again and again.

And enjoy as Congressman Steve Cohen makes Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the most powerful lawyer in the land, as nervous as a pimple-faced fifteen-year-old asking his prom date "May I see your boobies?"

God, this footage would make a great campaign commercial.

Thank you, Congressman Cohen.

59 People Who Deserve To Be Primaried.

2007-05-10T18:49:00.000-05:00

Thanks, as always, to Blogfather Cracker.

Thankfully, I look down this list and do not see Congressman Steve Cohen on here. I do see a few of Tennessee's own. John Tanner, Jim Cooper, and Lincoln Davis--- You deserve to be primaried.

If you lack the political courage to bring an end to a war with a 60% disapproval rating, then you do not deserve your job.

Altmire
Barrow
Bean
Berkley
Berman
Bishop (GA)
Boren
Boswell
Boucher
Boyd (FL)
Boyda (KS)
Cardoza
Carney
Chandler
Cooper
Costa
Cramer
Cuellar
Davis, Lincoln
Donnelly
Edwards
Ellsworth
Etheridge
Giffords
Gordon
Green, Gene
Herseth Sandlin
Hill
Holden
Hoyer
Kind
Lampson
Lipinski
Mahoney (FL)
Marshall
Matheson
McIntyre
McNerney
Melancon
Mitchell
Moore (KS)
Ortiz
Peterson (MN)
Pomeroy
Rodriguez
Ross
Ruppersberger
Salazar
Schwartz
Scott (GA)
Shuler
Skelton
Snyder
Space
Spratt
Tanner
Taylor
Udall (CO)
Wilson (OH)

Oh Mickey you are so fine!

2007-05-10T13:12:00.000-05:00

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry about this story.

The short of it: Hamas tried to use a Mickey Mouse identical looking cartoon to promote anti-Israel and anti-American propaganda to their children…

All judgment aside, I just wonder one thing: Where is the logic in promoting Anti-American message by plagiarizing an American Icon (Mickey freaking Mouse no less)?

I mean, isn’t that somewhat inherently self-defeating and oxymoronic?

Surely they must have someone semi-creative enough to do a more, uh, let’s say “culturally appropriate” cartoon to fit the message, wouldn’t ya think?

Hamas's got some firings to do in their marketing department…seriously!

The Importance of Being a Concern Troll

2007-05-10T12:12:00.000-05:00

If you’re a liberal who has ever disagreed with a Democrat on Daily Kos, you’ve been called a name. I know I personally had this one slung at me many times for daring to disagree with our nominally “blue” former Congressman Harold Ford Jr., who since 2002 has voted with the Democrats about as often as Bea Arthur gets offered nude modeling opportunities.

The phrase is “concern troll”. My good friend Autoegocrat based an article on it after tirelessly using his trusted user status at Kos to take the branding off of myself and others who dared ask then-Congressman Ford to practice what he preached and support Democratic nominees for office.

It’s an easy thing for the mindless to say. It sure beats having to come up with a response if your mental faculties are so dull that you’ve reduced American politics to the level of a game of “Halo 2” where red is red, blue is blue, and you take great care not to frag your own.

But American politics are just not that simple.

Thanks to an email sent to me last night by Blogfather Cracker, I saw this piece on Americablog: BREAKING: Conservative Dems expected to vote with GOP to give Bush unfettered blank check on Iraq tomorrow.

If there has ever been a time to extol the virtues of fragging those wearing the same color as you, this is it.

Being a Democrat isn’t about how snazzy you look in a blue shirt. It’s supposed to be something ideological. People should be able to expect a core set of values when they see the (D) next to your name. And since the (R), with very few exceptions, has come to symbolize irresponsibility and irrationality when faced with the most grave decisions a lawmaker can face, it’s handy to know that the (D) stands for something else. Think of it as branding for Election Day--- Considering that two thirds of the American public wants the war to end, like, two years ago, it’s helpful for them to know that there’s a party that doesn’t think “Stay the course” actually qualifies as a plan.

The Republicans on Capitol Hill are busy bloviating on how they’re laying down the law” with President Bush, whose sole Iraq strategy seems to be “How can I keep this thing going on long enough for the next guy to get blamed?” In the meantime, they’re devoting their time on the floor to… Helping him keep this thing rolling right along long enough for the next guy to get blamed (One of the few areas where they are realistic is that they know the next occupant of the White House will not come from their side of the fence).

And now, word is breaking from Washington DC that conservative Democrats, the spineless, panty-waisted, indecisive nattering twits that lack the testicular fortitude to step away from Mr. 38% Approval have decided to help them.

Wait until the vote comes down. Look at the names of those who vote with the Republicans on this. If your congressman is among them, start looking for someone else to back in the next congressional primary. Because anyone who votes with the president’s refusal to bring this thing to the merciful end that it needs deserves to have the blue shirts ripped from their backs. I do not care if that primary opponent is a mangy, three-legged Dachsund named Mr. Sphincter--- Dogs are more loyal than conservative Democrats anyway.

I’m looking at you, Blue Dogs.

Workman Dead

2007-05-09T11:26:00.000-05:00

"I have prayed to the Lord Jesus Christ not to lay charge of my death to any man. I commend my spirit into your hands, Lord Jesus Christ."

Shortly after speaking those words, Philip Workman's head drifted to the left, and he breathed his last visible breaths.

For a moment, we'll pretend that two of the most prominent ballistics experts in this nation didn't reach the conclusion that the fatal shot didn't come from Workman's gun. We'll pretend that the eyewitness they built their original case around was a reliable, upstanding witness rather than a convicted perjuror. We'll pretend that it was entirely fair that the judge who heard the original case was the one to preside over the appeal. We'll pretend there was nothing fishy about interring a murder victim without so much as an x-ray of the body and the state's inability to remain consistent on whether or not an x-ray existed at all.

In other words, we're casting aside the mountain of reasonable doubt in this case. We'll pretend, only for a moment, that he did it, and the state did a bang-up job of proving it. I'll even go a step further and pretend that no one in Lt. Oliver's family joined in the requests for clemency.

What did we accomplish with that needle?

Yes, the State of Tennessee sent a clear, unambiguous statement. And that statement is "Killing is wrong. And to prove that, we're going to kill you."

For even if we pretend that there was no reasonable doubt in the case, we cannot pretend that killing Philip Workman acheived any aim that imprisoning him for life did not. Is society any safer now that he no longer breathes than it was yesterday when he did? Is there someone out there contemplating murder that is going to be stopped by thinking "Workman got the needle--- Better not chance it"?

Criminologists are nearly unanimous in agreeing that the death penalty is absolutely worthless as a deterrent for crime. In this world where 50.1% is considered a "mandate", only 12% of criminologists think the death penalty has any deterrent value whatsoever.

Killing Philip Workman, even if we defy common sense by pretending there was no reasonable doubt, acheived absolutely nothing that keeping him in jail did not.

Last Chance

2007-05-08T09:47:00.000-05:00

Tonight, the Philip Workman execution is to be carried out. The stay of execution was lifted yesterday.

Any other time, I would come here to discuss the justness of the death penalty. I've made no secret of my stance on it, nor will I now.

But that's a fight for another day altogether. For this is one of those rare cases where there is entirely too much reasonable doubt to ignore.

The eyewitness that the state built its case around has recanted his testimony. That's perhaps not unusual in capital cases, but what makes this one unusual is that not even the police could put Harold Davis at the scene of the crime. On the witness stand, he told us where his car was parked, and crime scene photos did not show his car there. Other witnesses on the scene never managed to see Davis. And if you watched Sharon Cobb's short film, you know that even the witness's own sister says he was with her that night.

Another witness on the scene, Steve Craig, has said that he saw policemen firing at Workman, despite their own testimony that they never fired their weapons. He was told "there was no need to talk about this ... unless it was with someone from the department." No one ever checked the service revolvers of Stoddard and Parker to see if they had been fired.

No less than Dr. Cyril Wecht, former lead consultant on the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Assassins and former president of the American Board of Legal Medicine has testified that the wounds on Lt. Loiver's body are not consistent with the .45 hollowpoint ammunition Workman used. Medical Examiner James Bell testified that the wound was not only inconsistent with the .45 hollowpoint, but was entirely consistent with the .38 ammunition used by the police.

Five jurors have signed affidavits asking that either the verdict or sentence be overturned based on the evidence that has come out since the original trial. And Lt. Oliver's own daughter and the original prosecutor have lent their voices to the call for clemency.

The time to do the right thing is running out. For even if you disagree with me on the justness of the death penalty you have to want to make sure that everyone receiving the death penalty deserves it.

Call Governor Bredesen at 615-741-2001 or email him at phil.bredesen@state.tn.us to ask him to put a stop to this.

Clemency is not absolution. There is reasonable doubt in this case, and the sentence becomes irreversible at 1 AM Wednesday.

Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote about the procedures involved in a lethal injection execution. It's worth bringing up again here so we can have a look at what a Tennessee judge said yesterday is NOT cruel and unusual punishment:

The goal of lethal injection is not to be easier on the person being killed. The goal of lethal injection is to be easier on the person doing the killing.

First, you’re strapped to the gurney. Then the executioner inserts a catheter into each arm and flushes them with a solution to keep them from getting clogged.

If you’ve ever been in the hospital and had a clumsy nurse try to start an IV for you, think about that and then imagine what care she might have shown if you’d been convicted of murder and would soon be too dead to sue her.

In one arm, they give you 5000 milligrams of sodium thiopental, which puts you to sleep for about thirty seconds. In the other arm, they give you 100 milligrams of pancuronium bromide, which paralyzes your respiratory system.

Finally, they give you a dose of sodium chloride, which induces cardiac arrest. Within two minutes, the state is declaring you dead.

The British medical journal The Lancet reported on the results of forty-nine autopsies from Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Medical examiners found that in 43 of those executions, the condemned had lower levels of thiopental in their bloodstream than what is required for surgery--- Low enough that they were awake and aware as they slowly suffocated. Without enough thiopental, you remain awake and alert. The pancuronium stops you from moving, but leaves all of your higher brain functions intact.

So in fact, they went through excruciating pain, but since their bodies were crippled, they gave no outward indication.Let’s put this in perspective. Our standards for euthanizing animals are actually higher than our standards for executing the condemned.

Perhaps it’s simply the origin of the procedure shining through. It was created by Dr. Karl Brandt, personal physician to Adolf Hitler. How concerned with humanitarianism do you think he was?

So no--- I’m afraid that the question over whether or not lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment is far from a silly one.

We remedy inhumane acts by committing them ourselves. We avenge suffering and death by making others suffer as they die.

**UPDATE**
I believe in providing accurate information, and I found something that contradicts my writings from last year. While Dr. Karl Brandt was indeed a pioneer in lethal injections (He hanged for it at Nuremburg), the formula in use in America today was developed by Dr. Jay Chapman, who recently gave an interview to CNN verifying everything I wrote last year, and calls for a new formula to be established. Click here to read it.

A Temporary Stay For Workman

2007-05-04T18:00:00.000-05:00

It's not the best news we could have hoped for, but I'll take it.

A judge has issued a restraining order against Governor Bredesen, forbidding the execution of Philip Workman until after a hearing on May 14.

WPTY has the restraining order here.

Stranger Than Fiction: The People vs. Philip Workman

2007-05-04T16:41:00.000-05:00

All right, let’s say you’re writing one of those TV shows about forensic investigations. For the sake of conversation, we’ll call it “CSI: Memphis”.

The draft that you hand in has a shooting victim’s entrance wound larger than his exit wound. The producer is going to hand it back to you and say “That’s not very realistic.” If you insist that it is, he’ll then hand the script off to the technical consultants on the show, who will hand it back to you and say “It doesn’t work that way. Please learn something about gunshot wounds before attempting to write again.”

But here in Tennessee, where the stakes are far greater than poorly written TV, we’re expected to believe that.

Okay, now you’re writing a police procedural drama. We’ll call it “Law & Order: Stupid Drug Addicts”.

Over the course of investigating a policeman’s killing, an eyewitness comes forward, stating that he saw the defendant shoot the victim. The “witness” didn’t turn up in the original canvass of the scene, nor did any vehicle he could have been in show up on crime scene photos. His sister says that not only was he not there, but he routinely made up false information and fed it to police so he could use reward money to feed his drug habit. Yet your script portrays him as a reliable witness.

Again, the script will be shoved back into your face and criticized as having little resemblance to reality.

You’re writing an episode of “Boston Legal”. The firm is defending a murder suspect. The policemen insist that the murder of another policeman couldn’t have been a friendly fire shooting because they never fired their guns. A witness on the scene says that he saw a policeman firing at the suspect with a shotgun. And the defendant’s medical records indicate that he had shotgun pellets removed from his backside.

But the policemen that insisted they never fired their guns are considered unimpeachable witnesses, and the jury returns a guilty verdict based on their testimony.

Airing such a story would induce a collective groan as every viewer in America vows at once never to watch the show again.

But these are the things we’re expected to believe in the Philip Workman case.

The closest thing to a form of entertainment that would try to push a story as absurd as this one would be if Rowan Atkinson filmed “Mr. Bean Goes to Trial”. Even that would be more likely to have a happy ending than the Workman case.

He has four more days unless the governor can muster the political will to prevent his senseless death. This is not the state administering a reasonable punishment--- It is a state-sanctioned hit on someone who, though he is far from a model citizen, did nothing to deserve to be killed.

And it’s happening in your name, Tennessee.

He Wants You To Unbuckle His Bible Belt...

2007-05-04T13:08:00.000-05:00

I guess Ted Haggard was busy. That's why the International Bible Reading Association chose the White House's favorite male prostitute, Jeff Gannon, as their spokesman.

The true "money shot", as Gannon might have said while practicing his previous less-than-evangelical profession, comes from the Washington Post's Dana Milbank when he asked Gannon why only 37 of the 600 chairs on the Capitol lawn had been filled for the "Bible Reading Marathon":

"This isn't that kind of event," explained Jeff Gannon, spokesman for the host, the International Bible Reading Association. Gannon, actually a pseudonym for James Guckert, had earned fame in 2005 representing a conservative Web site at White House briefings until it was revealed that he posted nude pictures of himself on the Web to offer his services as a $200-an-hour gay escort.
Let us pray for the power to understand how Gannon made his way from HotMilitaryStud.com to the International Bible Reading Association.

As someone who reads his Bible, all I can say is "Amen".

Mythbusting

2007-05-04T11:08:00.000-05:00

A certain person who shall remain nameless has been trying to drum up support for Jeannie Richardson in the District 89 Democratic Primary by telling anyone who sits still for too long that Congressman Steve Cohen didn't even want Kevin Gallagher running for office.

A stroll down Cohen's street shows you just how much the word of this individual can be trusted. These are pictures of Congressman Cohen's house.

The people of District 89 deserve better than this. The choice of who represents them in the House of Representatives should be based on facts and issues--- Not on the false word of a bullshit artist.

This particular person has motives that have absolutely nothing to do with getting the best representation for District 89. He's simply trying to remain relevant within the Democratic Party--- He decided decades ago that the best thing he could do is hitch up to the Ford Family train, and I suppose it never occurred to him that it might derail at some point. Now, he's like a shipwreck survivor--- Just looking for something to hang onto so he can keep his head above water.

The President's Chaos Theory

2007-05-02T12:38:00.000-05:00

Every once in a while, you read one of those quotes that makes you wonder “Does he have any earthly idea what he just said?” If you listen very closely, you can hear Jon Stewart saying “Whuuuuuu?” already.

"It didn't make any sense to impose the will of politicians over the recommendations of our military commanders in the field." says President George W. Bush, the guy who has never found a commander in the field that he was willing to listen to. The guy who fired General Jay Garner. The guy who forced Anthony Zinni and Eric Shinseki into retirement. The president who keeps going through generals until he finds one who agrees with him (A difficult thing, since George W. Bush knows as much about reality on the ground in wartime as I know about supercolliding superconductors) listens to no one unless he finds someone delusional enough to say “Things are going great”, “We’re going to win”, and “I believe it’s perfectly ethical for your friends to profiteer off of the war effort. Do any of your donors make coffins and body bags?”.

Last night, he vetoed legislating an end to the fiasco he started. A fiasco that, according to him, was a “Mission Accomplished” four years ago. He announced it with a very flashy costume party aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln (It’s long been a theory of mine that rightwing pundits compare him to Abraham Lincoln only so a Google search on “Bush + Abraham Lincoln” didn’t turn up a picture of him under the “Mission Accomplished” banner).

He keeps telling us there will be “chaos” if we set a timetable for withdrawal. As opposed to the orderly state of affairs in Iraq today, one would assume. Last month was the sixth deadliest month for American soldiers since the war began 50 months ago. 104 American soldiers lost their lives, as did twelve British soldiers, one other Coalition soldier, and a bare minimum of 1700 Iraqi civilians. So yes, we must PREVENT “chaos”.

Setting timelines is the only way to end this. The Iraqi government and their nascent military will never step up to the plate unless we put them in the batting order. And that simply does not happen as long as we’re willing to fight their civil war for them.

So this is not about producing a healthy Iraq--- That ship sailed. We can build a strong nation out of this rubble about as easily as we can bring back the people that have been killed there. It’s not about destroying al Qaeda--- Our involvement in Iraq has had much the same effect on al Qaeda throughout the Middle East that Alan Pinkerton’s efforts to kill Jesse James had--- Turned an organization of murdering terrorists into folk heroes. This war could not have helped al Qaeda more if the White House Communications Department was designing their recruiting campaigns (Which, judging by their bottomless well of recruits, seems to be more effective than our own recruiting campaigns).

We can have an unstable Iraq where Sunni and Shia kill one another with our soldiers in the middle, bogged down so heavily that we can’t respond to another crisis, or we can have Sunni and Shia kill one another without us in the middle, freeing up manpower and resources to deal with the next crisis.

This choice is a difficult one only if you’re a president that is trying to make sure that the stench of failure lands on the next guy instead of yourself.

Mud Bugs

2007-04-30T17:59:00.000-05:00

Mmmm... Seldom is political news quite so tasty.

Regina Morrison Newman held the 3rd *not quite* Annual Memphisiana Crawfish Boil at her house Saturday.

Mayoral candidate Herman Morris and his lovely wife were both in attendance, as were District 89 Tennessee House candidate Kevin Gallagher and Memphis City Council candidate Ian Randolph.

Former Shelby County Democratic Party Chairman Jim Strickland and "Save Libertyland" activist Denise Parkinson, both of whom have pulled petitions to run for the city council in District 5 were in attendance as well.

And of course, any time you offer free food, the bloggers turn up--- David Holt, his lovely wife Margo, , Steve "The Blogfather" Steffens, and I held down that end of the fort.

For more photos, click here.

*Thanks to Paula Casey for clearing up my confusion about Regina's name.

Just the Facts: The Philip Workman Case

2007-04-30T15:50:00.000-05:00

Fact: Exit wounds, without fail, are larger than entry wounds.

Fact: Lt. Ronald Oliver has an exit wound on his chest almost twice the size of the entry wound on his back.

Fact: Lt. Ronald Oliver was facing Philip Workman at the time that a bullet passed through his body.

Fact: Ballistics experts have said that Philip Workman’s Colt .45 was not the weapon that killed Lt. Oliver.

Fact: The other two policemen on the scene, Aubrey Stoddard and Steven Parker, claim that they never fired their guns at all.

Fact: Witness Steve Craig claims he saw Officer Parker fire a shotgun at Philip Workman.

Fact: Philip Workman had shotgun pellets removed from his buttocks.

Fact: If such a story is to be taken at face value, then Lee Harvey Oswald’s “magic bullet” has been surpassed in sheer absurdity. Perhaps there was a second gunman on the grassy knoll across from Wendy’s on that fateful day? Because it is a fact that a bullet fired from a .45 caliber gun does not abruptly turn 180 degrees in midair.

Fact: Prosecutors have tried to explain the discrepancy in bullet wound sizes by claiming that the bullet fragmented inside Lt. Oliver, and that only a small chunk exited through his back.

Fact: Prosecutors have never been able to provide a single X-ray establishing that the bullet fragmented inside Lt. Oliver at all.

Fact: Prosecutors are also inconsistent on whether or not an X-ray of Lt. Oliver exists at all. It would be highly unusual not to have one, as X-rays had been in use for almost a century by the time the crime was committed.

Fact: The state’s case falls apart if the magic bullet theory is disproved by X-rays. For even the felony murder statute to apply, the fatal bullet would have to have come from the gun of Workman or a Workman accomplice.

Fact: Only one witness ever claimed to have seen Philip Workman fire the fatal bullet.

Fact: There’s no indication he was ever at the crime scene.

Fact: His sister refutes the idea that he could have been there and seen it, as she was with him at the time of the murder.

Fact: He had a habit of making up information to feed to police--- Claiming rewards was how he supported his drug habit.

Fact: He now claims to have been coerced into testifying.

Fact: With no forensic evidence to back up the state’s case and no eyewitness, the remaining facts of this case do not add up to first degree murder. At best, a case could be made for criminally negligent homicide, arguing that Workman’s reckless crime set into motion a chain of events at the end of which a law enforcement officer tragically lost his life.

Fact: To my knowledge, Tennessee has neither sought nor obtained an execution in a criminally negligent homicide case in its entire history.

Fact: Philip Workman has not disputed that he robbed the Wendy’s restaurant on the night of August 5, 1981.

Fact: Philip Workman has not disputed that he shot Officer Aubrey Stoddard in the arm.

Fact: There are too many things that remain unknown about this case for an execution to be anything short of a travesty of justice.

Fact: You should watch this Sharon Cobb joint and see what Lt. Oliver’s daughter has to say about the impending execution of Philip Workman.

Condolences

2007-04-30T15:40:00.000-05:00

But the just man, though he die early, shall be at rest. For the age that is honorable comes
not with the passing of time, nor can it be measured in terms of years.
The Book of Wisdom, Chapter 4.

Little Angel

2007-04-27T14:31:00.000-05:00

DANIEL SILVA

2003-2007

On behalf of me and my family, I would like to thank all of you for your kindness, your thoughtfulness and the extraordinary support we have received throughout this difficult time in our lives.

"Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning" (Psalm 30:5).

Daniel was a happy, bright and adventurous little boy who was fascinated by trains and knew no fear. He truly enjoyed living life to its fullest. Like the little engine in the story, “The Little Engine that Could,” he never backed down in the face of challenge, no matter how big or how small. To continue life without him will certainly be a big challenge for us all. However, we gather strength from Daniel’s own joyous life and take on this challenge as he would have done.

We will remember Daniel’s life as a beautiful but brief spark of light that touched each of us with his warmth and blessed each one of us with his love. From knowing him and sharing with him our love and joy, our lives will be forever blessed and his memory will never be forgotten. By having had Daniel in our lives, joy came in the morning, and his joy will always be with us.

We have set a tribute fund at St. Jude's Childrens Reserch Hospital to honor Daniel's life and memory. You can make gift to St. Jude by calling 1-800-873-6983 or visiting www.stjude.org.

Thank you.

Briefs

2007-04-27T13:40:00.000-05:00

Just a few things I've thought were worth commenting on, but perhaps not a full post's worth:

Mass-Debaters (Say it out loud)
I follow elections very closely. Election Day is my Super Bowl Sunday. Yet even I cannot bring myself to give a damn about a debate that takes place almost a year before the first voters get to chime in on the presidential race. If I had stayed home to watch TV, I would have watched "Smallville" instead.

George Tenet has said that he has been set up as the scapegoat for the Iraq invasion. Duh. It didn't really help matters when you fell on your sword, effectively giving the president carte blanche to pin it all on you. If you didn't see this coming, then I understand the current sorry state of our intelligence agencies. Prediction for those who were not clever enough to see this coming: The sun will come out tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there'll be sun. You heard it here first.

Yes, McCain was a dick.

Thank you, WKNO-HD, for managing to play the wrong broadcast Wednesday night. As I sat down to watch the Bill Moyers show from the other night, I selected it on my DVR playlist only to find out that I had indeed recorded two different showings of "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room"--- Which is a good show, don't get me wrong. but I hardly needed two recordings of it! Thank you for being so on the ball that you've apparently made "put in the right tape" fall under the heading of skilled labor.

The Memphis Police have found most of the weapons stolen from the SWAT team van. Congratulations! Much of the last two weeks has been spent discussing guns and responsibility, particularly as it relates to the illegal weapons that make their way into dangerous hands when people irresponsibly leave them in their vehicles while they eat dinner. Say--- How were those assault weapons stolen again?

And while I'm thinking about weapons--- Fuck you too. Conservatives always find an excuse not to talk about the things they don't want to talk about. Statistically speaking, more people are murdered every day with guns than were killed in the Virginia Tech rampage. So please let me know when the bodies start hitting the deck infrequently enough for you to have the balls to have this conversation.

Getting the Band Back Together...

2007-04-26T15:26:00.000-05:00

In the days leading up to the 2006 primaries, many of us in the progressive blogosphere had a great home away from home called The Cue. It was nice while it lasted, but as often happens when coalitions are formed around one objective, the Cue became less of a priority once those objectives had been met.

Now, we're doing the same thing again--- But rather than just having one objective, we're going to try and establish a more permanent partnership.

Each of us will still retain our own sites and our own aims. but the "Four Families" of the Memphis Liberal Blogosphere are going to once again have a mutual home away from home.

At least some, if not all members of The Flypaper Theory, West Tennessee Liberal, Leftwing Cracker, and yes, the Freedonian family will be pooling our efforts at Memphis Liberal Blogosphere. We will be joined by Bob at 55-40, Jon Carroll (Formerly Memphis Blue) and hopefully, Vibinc, with more to come later.

I hope this will be a great experience for all of us.

District 89 Updated

2007-04-26T11:12:00.000-05:00

I think my friend and brother Cracker said it well; No matter who wins this primary, District 89 will be well represented in Nashville. I would be quite pleased if either of them moved into my district and took on G.A. Hardaway.

There's a little news to report out of both camps:

Kevin Gallagher has launched a new blog called TennIssues. I always like it when a local politician blogs. They don't have paid staff, so you know you're hearing their words and their ideas. It's not quite the same as a US Senator's blog, where the real writing is likely taken care of by a professional writer on staff.

Even Stacey Campfield, the subject of many broadsides on this site, deserves some respect by virtue of having his views out there to be seen by all.

I was quite surprised to receive a phone call from Jeannie Richardson yesterday. It's hard to be certain, as I've met a good many people on one campaign or another, but I believe this is the first time we've ever spoken.

She is a genuinely good person; I'm more than a little jealous of the abundance of riches District 89 seems to have in the candidate department. Spread the wealth, people!

She issued me a standing invitation to her house in District 89, and I'll be sure to take her up on it soon. She also gave me a reason for the lack of public records tying her to the house in the district that certainly sounds legitimate. I don't have the means to check on it further, so I'm taking her at her word.

Both candidates have expressed their wishes to me that this campaign remain clean; I can only hope that those who wish to supplant at least one candidate as the public faces of this race will abide by those wishes.

May the best candidate win.

Jack Black

2007-04-26T11:09:00.000-05:00

There are certain phrases in life you never expect to say.

"No more beer, thank you."

"I wish the Pussycat Dolls would wear more modest clothing."

And this one for me:

"I really wish I would have watched American Idol last night."

But at least I got to see this clip via YouTube.

The New Old Media

2007-04-26T01:08:00.000-05:00

Jackson Baker (Psst! Kibitzer) wrote an excellent piece for the edition of the Memphis Flyer that came out yesterday about the growing influence of bloggers on American politics today, and the few politicians that seem savvy enough to have noticed it. He was quite generous in not pointing out those politicians not quite tuned in enough to the age of the "New Media".

Perhaps not to be outdone, WMC ran a story about blogs on their 5 PM broadcast. They've apparently been liveblogging the John Ford trial (Couldn't tell you-- I've got more interesting things to read, like fortune cookies), and were so unprepared for the fact that (Gasp!) people read blogs that their servers were unable to deal with all the John Ford-related traffic and they had to shut down their servers.

They've missed out on one important thing, though--- Having your news reporters write an online article and slapping the name "blog" onto it doesn't really make it one. It's the same old story we've seen play out a million times before--- It's what happens when something relevant in pop culture is appropriated by corporate America and the corporate-controlled media. It happens when a manufacturer says it wants an edgy rock and roll song for a commercial and ends up with something that sounds like a lounge singer's rendition of "We Built This City" by Starship. It happens when a fast food joint has commercials featuring "Rap Cat".

And it happens when the mainstream press tries to appropriate blogging. For the one thing they cannot do is replicate the tone of a blog.

It's like trying to teach someone to sing with soul--- You either feel the music, or you do not. The informal voice of a blog has the same effect on a corporate media outlet that garlic has on a vampire, or any Timberlake song besides "Dick In a Box" has on me--- It sends them screaming from the room.

There are great blogs driven by media outlets--- Most notably Volunteer Voters and Nashville Is Talking. It's also important to note that rather than tell Ted Baxter "Write something for the web before you go to makeup", they hired experienced, established bloggers such as Adam Kleinheider and Brittney Gilbert and asked them to head up that part of the operation.

And two of my favorite bloggers write for the Memphis Flyer. The Flyer, of course, is anything but a corporate monolith (Indeed, to me, it seems the Flyer is the antidote to all that ails the corporate media), and Jackson Baker and Chris Davis know how to actually blog.

At the Commercial Appeal, Blake Fontenay certainly seems to have the hang of it-- But Wendi Thomas's articles are just as bad whether any trees are sacrificed to make them or not. Frankly, their efforts in the 2006 congressional race demonstrate that political coverage requires more heavy lifting than they're capable of.

The corporate media demonstrates to us daily why the "new media" exists. Their attempts at relevance to anyone under 40 come off about as "hip" as... Well, the word "hip".

I would like to praise WMC-TV, though. Their discovery that this blogging thing is "hip" is such a bold discovery that I can only compare it to Christopher Columbus--- Someone else that became quite famous by discovering something that millions of people already knew about.

I can hardly wait for tomorrow's bold story of the day--- We've been promised a story about how this porcelain thing makes all the doody whoosh away if you press the handle down. ***UPDATE: Jon Carroll, aka Memphis Blue, via email: "I vote for "cars, have they truly replaced horses?".

I for one cannot wait.

But It Was SUCH A Well-Kept Secret!

2007-04-26T00:04:00.000-05:00

The 'Mute strikes again.

I am all for it if someone wishes to remain anonymous in blogging. Everyone's got a theory who Bob at 55-40 is, but no one knows if they're right (Except, presumably, Bob). Being "Dooced" is a very real threat in today's world.

But Wintermute's identity was well known by all. He used to have a picture of himself that popped up as an icon every time he posted (Granted, it looked like it was from the Seventies, but he's still got almost the same mullet). He was anything but camera shy when the bloggers of The 'Cue did a podcast last year. If you click here, you'll see pictures of him, among many others.

And more importantly, he rushes forward to have his moment in the spotlight any time a candidate he backs actually wins something. Whether it's claiming credit for Steve Cohen's victory or Beverly Marrero's victory, he will tell you in a heartbeat just how much he kicks ass. At some point in the conversation, an image of a wolf gnawing off its own leg to get out of a trap may enter your head--- Trust me. It's perfectly normal.

Now, this guy who has never been shy at all about taking credit for someone else's work (If the blogosphere contributed to the Cohen victory, let's put that Stanley Cup in the living room of the guy that we really all coalesced around--- The Blogfather, Steve Steffens) took great umbrage at having been identified in Jackson Baker's article on the District 89 primary between Kevin Gallagher and Jeannie Richardson. I, who have taken no measures at all to be anonymous (One needs only to click on the name I gave myself to see the one my parents gave me), was also identified and quoted in the same article. Jackson is to be commended not only for writing a terrific article, but for pulling some quotable material out of my hazy, "just been woken up after three and a half hours of sleep" brain. It's not an easy thing to do.

Stephen Tapp took such umbrage at having been outed that he took it upon himself to expose the second worst kept secret in the Memphis blogosphere--- That Kibitzer on my favorite blog, The Flypaper Theory, is Jackson Baker. Jackson's friends know it. His adversaries know it (One even named his site "Half-Bakered" as a backhanded compliment).

Now, something that apparently never occurred to 'Mute was to actually click on the name "Kibitzer". It did occur to Sean Braisted. He told us what he found. I went a step further and screencaptured it.

Very clever, Steve.

In fact--- Considering that you've made beating one of the candidates in the District 89 primary your goal in life, and you're angling to position yourself next to the opposition--- How smart is it to try and hurt the best political reporter in the area?

Just asking.

Also see "Sir, You Suck".

PS: The Kibster, he has responded.

Thank God for Bill Moyers

2007-04-24T10:16:00.000-05:00

Be sure to watch this on PBS tomorrow night. He expands on many of the themes he discussed during his speech at the Media Reform Conference several months ago and how the mainstream media helped sell the American public on the war in Iraq.

This is a preview of his new show. Its regular timeslot will be Friday nights.

Kevin Gallagher Event at Fresh Slices, 5PM

2007-04-24T09:04:00.000-05:00

Kevin Gallagher will be holding a kickoff reception for his District 89 Campaign this evening at Fresh Slices, 1585 Overton Park (Click here if you need a map).

I will be there to wish my friend well as he embarks on his campaign to represent District 89 in the Tennessee House of Representatives.

The small Gallaghers you see in the picture to the left will be the fourth generation of the Gallagher family to grow up in the Evergreen area. It is absolutely vital that a representative be as intimately familiar with the district as Kevin is. You cannot represent the people if you don't know the people. It is their agenda that you should carry to Nashville and not your own.

His opponent in the Democratic primary is someone that I cannot honestly find a bad thing to say about, other than telling her that some of the company she keeps is absolutely loathesome. I'll leave the angry, irrational invective to another blogger (And believe me, he's got plenty of it).

But I can honestly say that if I was presented with this choice (Sadly, I do not live in District 89), I would look at it this way: We've got two honorable candidates. I don't think there would be a radical difference in their political ideologies. I suspect that much of the legislation they would sponsor would be similar. One has roots in the community that go back for generations. One changed the address on her voter registration the week she pulled the petition. Which one do I trust more to accurately represent the wishes and goals of my community?

Ths choice is clear.

Mainstreaming Ourselves To Death -- by Pam

2007-04-23T23:25:00.000-05:00

Pam was having trouble getting logged in, so she asked me to post this on her behalf. - Rick

I will be the first one to shamefully admit that I gave into the mainstream about a year or so ago by creating my own myspace page. Even worst, I got addicted to it and I praised its ability to allow neglectful people like me to stay in touch with long lost friends. G-U-I-L-T-Y.

But, come on now!!! Am I the only one that is disturbed by the thought of having the next POTUS being introduced to the American electorate by being spotlighted on myspace's “cool new people” of the day banner?

Seriously. Give me a f*ing break!! How low can we go?

It was not so long ago when running for the Presidency of the United States required some degree of dignity. Well, until W came in, that is. But, really, did Shrub lower the standards that much? Could you imagine a Truman, or a Lincoln, or a Roosevelt ever getting on myspace? Kennedy... well, maybe, but even that's a stretch...

This is certainly something worth debating in an historical context, apparently. My dear blog partner compared today’s myspace campaign phenomenon to Roosevelt’s fireside chats. A way to reach mainstream America, he reasoned… Well, yeah, but not so much Freed. I don’t think that the fireside chats ever involved belly-bearing pre-adolescents shaking their bon-bons to JT’s sexy comeback, now did them?

Hillary is on the “cool new people” of the day already… What's next? McCain listing “Bomb Iran” as his hobby? Do you really really want to know how Brownback spent his spring-break? Weird Al Yankowitz surely beats Rudy Giuliani’s last campaign ad, now does it?! I can visualize the 2008 dilemma: Geez, I don’t know who to vote for… both Edwards and Obama are on my top 10!! Is so tough!! And... Kucinich so really wants to be my friend!!!

If that is the way is gonna be, then fine, let’s have at it!! But let’s do it right. Screw myspace, I want America to vote on this. The "Survivor" way. All the presidential hopefuls should be dropped on a deserted island, with only whatever it is that they are wearing at the time, and whoever makes it out of there alive gets it: He/she can be the next leader of the free world!! Will the Mormon guy make it out of the island?

No matter who wins --Youtube, congrats: You get the STU 2009 exclusive. Beat that, Gettysburg's address!!!

Furthermore, the next SCOTUS appointment should go down American Idol way. Let America’s mainstream wisdom vote out the best and the brightest legal minds as they see fit. If Sanjaya could not make it, is there any hope for all the Scalias or Thomases out there in the world? Come to think of it, this may be a blessing in disguise…

Finally, I want everybody to be able to vote via text message? Sounds crazy? Well, when was the last time American Idol had a recount? Think about that...

Ok, sarcasm aside, I take the future of this country seriously. We are in deep shit, and the next guy or gal in line has the duty to make this better for all of us. And it is going to be hard and unpleasant because W and his entourage have managed to turn the American dream into an Orwellian nightmare. Given that lovely scenario, I want POTUS candidates to tell me how they are going to fix Social Security, keep the homeland safe, and provide healthcare and education for all the millions of uninsured uneducated children who have been left behind by this Administration... and that's to begin with. I want answers, and I want a plan, and I want accountability. I want him/her to get us out of Iraq. And no, I don’t want to read it about how you are going to do all this on their myspace blog. I want you to make it happen, whether you make it to my top 10, or not.

-Pam

Congratulations...

2007-04-20T12:26:00.000-05:00

... to the young lady that I happen to think is the most Beautiful woman in the world for taking her final final today.

You're a brilliant lady, and I know you kicked ass.

Please enjoy your well-deserved celebration tonight.

Reflections on Two Massacres

2007-04-20T09:34:00.000-05:00

Eight years ago today, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold looked at Rachel Scott and said "Do you believe in God?" She answered "You know I do". Upon hearing this, they opened fire on her.

Or at least that's the common myth that persists to this day. Eyewitnesses say that there was no actual interaction between the late Miss Scott and the monsters that ripped her, eleven other children, and a teacher from this world, and that if such a conversation happened at all, it was the killers asking that of another girl that survived the slaughter.

As this sad day is upon us, we are a nation mourning another recent massacre. Cho Seung-Hui walked into a dormitory and killed two, then walked into classrooms and killed thiry more, piling up a body count well over twice the Columbine massacre without so much as an accomplice.

In this massacre, just as in Columbine, the human mind reaches out, sometimes in irrational ways, to try and make sense of the insane maelstrom around us. A well-known rightwing blogger tried to make the case that Cho was some kind of Islamic terrorist. A person I was speaking to over on the Nashville Is Talking site, upon finding out the killer was of Asian descent, pointed to an arrest of an Asian man a year before for possession of explosives and tried to insinuate that there might be some kind of link.

In the days to come, the blame will be spread in many directions, almost as scattershot and random as the phalanx of bullets that spawned them. Video games, movies, TV shows--- Any piece of popular entertainment where a gun is featured somewhere.

Of course, that misses the point. The popular gun-driven entertainment is typically either a tale of ill-defined justice, or a tale of retribution. Even Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs was a tale of vengeance carried too far, and that's arguably one of the most disturbing films of all time. There is no popular fiction where someone that randomly murders innocents is seen as a heroic figure. When author Anne Rice felt the need to turn her own work on its head and make Lestat a heroic figure, she "retconned" him into a killer of killers.

Marilyn Manson lacks the popularity he once held, so it's unlikely that he'll be blamed for the Virginia Tech massacre.

That leaves us with video games. Certainly, the violence in the Grand Theft Auto series is over the top, particularly the scene where the game's protagonist fights his way out of a police station. But ultimately, there is nothing in those games that would truly prepare you for actually picking up a gun and commiting acts of murder.

Sometimes, there are no answers. Sometimes, there is nothing and no one to blame. While Virginia Tech was the worst mass shooting of all time, the worst school massacre was actually a 1927 bombing where a man that didn't want to pay taxes bombed the school that he held responsible for his economic problems.

There were no violent movies then. There were no video games. Marilyn Manson's parents weren't even an idea yet.

But you know what the biggest difference after the fact between that massacre and our more modern ones? Responsibility. The bombing was carried out with dynamite and an explosive called pyrotol, and having seen what their product was capable of in the wrong hands, the manufacturers took pyrotol off of the market.

You won't see that this time. After Columbine, the gun show loophole was closed by a citizen ballot initiative--- Not because of any legislative leadership shown by the state government. It was closed because Harris and Klebold bought their TEK-9, one of four guns used in the massacre, from a private seller they met at a gun show. Had they bought rifles only from that dealer, they wouldn't have even been breaking the law as it exists today, as there is no restriction on selling a rifle to anyone of any age in Colorado.

Likewise, Cho took advantage of some of the most lax gun laws in the country to buy his weapons. No permit. No waiting period. The gun show loophole still stands wide open, meaning that you can buy a handgun from a show or from a private dealer without going through a background check.

And I expect to see as much leadership from Viriginia's government as we saw out of Colorado's. It's not as though they're not aware of their weak gun laws--- In two rounds of lawsuits, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has filed suit against twenty-seven gun dealers, seven of them in Virginia, in an attempt to stop the flow of weapons used in crimes committed in New York, where gun legislation is much more strict.

The lawsuit and the need for it address one key concern--- The standard for firearms legislation should be a federal one, and not left to state law. A gun sold in Virginia does not have to stay in Virginia; The very impetus for the lawsuits is that people circumvent New York Law to bring weapons in from out of state where they're much easier to obtain. If gun rights advocates think their right to carry a weapon is federal in its origin, then the rest of the laws governing their sale and use should be federalized as well.

It's also important to note that I write this from a state with one of the weaker sets of gun laws in the nation. We're only slightly better off than Colorado and Virginia in that it's illegal to sell any firearm to a minor. We don't require background checks at gun shows or from private sellers. No license or training required, and no waiting period.

One of these days, we're going to see a disaster like Virginia Tech and Columbine unfold before our eyes, and we're going to say "Never again" and actually mean it.

Unfortunately for the victims of the next massacre, it's probably not today.

The Gun Genie

2007-04-17T11:13:00.000-05:00

This morning, the smoke has settled. The bodies of thirty-two innocent victims have been hauled out of the classrooms and dormitories of Virginia Tech University. Twenty-six more populate the hospital wards around Blacksburg. It was the handiwork of one man, Cho Seung-Hei, his two handguns, and at least five dozen rounds of ammunition.

Gallons and gallons of dried, sticky blood still cover the floors, a grisly reminder of the single most violent shooting in American history. It beat stiff competition to take that dubious honor--- It outpaced the Luby’s shooting in Kileen, Texas which sent twenty-three people to their graves. It outpaced Charles Whitman, whose shooting rampage on the campus of the University of Texas in Austin killed fifteen. Colin Ferguson’s rampage that killed six on the New York City subway looks downright amateur in comparison.

And one thing I kept seeing on every non-media/ “new media” outlet I turned to yesterday, including the comments section on this very site, was “people will still find a way to kill one another”.

No kidding.

Let’s assume for the moment that I can create the perfect world. I’ve come up with a means of identifying and tracking down every gun that is illegally held by an outlaw, and I can be certain that Americans are perfectly safe from firearm violence. We get rid of every gun in this country that is held in private hands.

I’m certain that there will be a rise in murders committed with knives. I’ll grant you that. In 2005, the last year that statistics were available, there were 1,914 murders committed with knives. Of course, there were 10,100 committed with guns, so we could double the murders committed with knives and come out way ahead. And there’s the added bonus of eliminating “bystander deaths”, for while it would be wonderful if bullets that miss their targets magically fell out of the sky afterward, the world simply does not work that way.

Another thing that’s unrealistic is the idea of stuffing the Gun Genie back into the bottle. I would love for it to be possible, but it’s not.

This tragedy unfolded, perhaps not coincidentally, in a state that rivals Texas in the weak gun laws department. To purchase a handgun in Virginia, you need to survive to age eighteen (Not even that if it’s a rifle or shotgun, which you can purchase at age 12). If you purchase the handgun from a licensed dealer, you have to pass a background check, although secondary market purchases (Gun show, private seller) do not require even that. There is no waiting period. There is no ballistic fingerprinting. Police are allowed to keep a record of the serial number for only one year after the purchase. There are no laws regarding Saturday Night Specials, junk handguns that are responsible for many accidental deaths. And the state government has passed a law barring municipal governments from banning handguns inside city government buildings. The state requires no handgun training, and state law dictates that the municipal governments may pass handgun laws of their own.

Ultimately, could any of those things have prevented yesterday’s tragedy? Probably not. No information on the shooter has come out indicating that he would have failed a background check. He was dead by the time a forensic investigator could have checked ballistics on any of the victims. MSNBC is reporting that one of the guns was purchased last Friday, so a waiting period might have helped some--- Apparently, he held onto the weapon just long enough to file the serial number off of it.

But it’s a brilliant time to talk about ways to bring an end to the sickness that grips America today.

If the news out of Iraq today was that thirty-two American soldiers had been killed in the relative safety of the Green Zone in the span of two hours, everyone in this nation would be talking about ways to end it, whether it’s the left saying “It’s not working. Time to end it” or the right saying “We need to stay in Iraq until the Islamofascists are dead”. Regardless of what they may feel is the right course to take, everyone would be shouting “Do something!”

Instead, it was thirty-two American kids murdered in the relative safety of an American university. And those who care more about their right to guns than they care about an American kid’s right to breathe want to continue on with business as usual--- Only with flags at half mast so they can assuage their guilt.

To hell with that. The question is not “Should this lead to a discussion about gun laws?”. The question is “Why did it take this to get us talking about common sense gun legislation?”

What I want is not a ban on all weapons. That whole “can’t stuff Gun Genie back into the bottle” thing. But the following things are really not too much to ask:

• Ballistic fingerprinting. Don’t want your gun matched up to a shooting? Don’t shoot anyone. It’s certainly true that a knowledgeable gunsmith can beat ballistics tests by changing out the barrel, but really, how many people know how to do that?
• Registration. If I cannot buy a car without a VIN number, and I cannot drive it without a license tag that identifies me on the back of it, there is no reason that the serial number of a gun cannot be recorded.
• Waiting period. A cooling down period is really not too much to ask. If you want a gun today for some reason other than immediately killing someone, you’ll still want it next Tuesday.
• Firearm training. If you’re going to shoot, please do so safely. Again, it’s not much to ask. If you need to kill a guy in the front yard, all I ask is that you don’t blow the face off of a three-year-old in the house across the street.
• 50 caliber. There is absolutely no reason this weapon should be in private hands.
• Safety standards. “Saturday Night Specials” and the body count associated with their misfiring could be done away with if even the most basic of safety standards are met.
• End gun manufacturer immunity. If my car blows up because of a known manufacturing defect, Ford owes me damages. If a faulty firing pin leads to a tragic accident in any of the states that have given gun makers immunity, nothing happens.
• Force weapons manufacturers to improve the firing pin design on semiautomatic weapons so that they cannot be modified to fully automatic weapons.

I’m sure I’ll think of more as the days go by.

None of these things infringe on your misreading of the Second Amendment. None of them restrict your access to firearms, other than insisting you know what you’re doing with them to have access.

Preliminary reports are that the Virginia Tech shooter purchased his handguns completely legally, taking advantage of the lax gun laws of Virginia. He broke no laws before walking onto campus and starting a bloodbath.

Virginia Tech Rampage

2007-04-16T13:11:00.000-05:00

A lone gunman has gone on a rampage on campus at Virginia Tech. He managed to kill 31 people (Unfortunately, the death toll rose by ten while I was writing this--- Let's pray it goes no higher) and injure many more. It's not known at this point whether he was killed by police or killed himself.

To all the ridiculous gun apologists out there--- Try and tell me how he could have done this much damage with a knife. Hell, I'll be generous--- Give him a machete. Tell me what his body count realistically could have been before someone knocked him on his ass.

One shooter. At least fifty rounds fired. But hey, let's make sure everyone has access to guns, right?

It's now time for us to do what we do after every one of these tragedies; Stand around and say "Never again", while continuing to treat the gun lobby like they're the retarded cousins at the family reunion.

John Edwards In Nashville Monday

2007-04-13T16:12:00.000-05:00

Dropped into the Freedonian Mailbag by DK.

I've Found the Missing White House Emails

2007-04-13T13:53:00.000-05:00

Exclusive! This is HUGE!!! (Snicker)

Okay, I did some digging around, and have unearthed the 5,000 missing emails. Really. Yes. Me. Uh huh.

And what I've discovered is that the missing emails have nothing to do with the prosecutor firings. They might have been mentioned a time or two in passing, but they weren't the subject.

It all started when George W. Bush opened the following email from Mr. Idris Musa, who claimed to work for the Bank of Africa:

I am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance department of BANK OF AFRICA. I am writting to seek your coperation over this business deal.

In my department, I discovered an abandoned sum of$15million USD(Fifteen million US dollars)only , in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers who died along with his entire family in a plane crash that took place in Kenya,East Africa,the Late DR. GEORGE BRUMLEY,a citizen of Atlanta,United States of America but naturalised in Burkinafaso,WestAfrica and contractor with ECOWAS,(ECONOMIC COMMUNITY OF WEST AFRICAN STATES) .

Needless to say, it was too good a deal for George W. Bush to pass up. Before you knew it, significant amounts of the Social Security fund (Remember his drive to privatize? This is what he meant), the National Treasury, and yes, the missing $9 billion from the Coalition Provisional Authority were tied up in what he called "investments".

The following is an instant message exchange between Edward Lazear, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove:

EL6969: What the hell does POTUS think he's doing?
GWBRULES!: What do u mean?
EL6969: This foreign investment thing... It's the Nigerian bank scam!
GWBRULES!: Nuh uh. Can't u read? The email says "Burkina Faso".
EL6969: Yes, yes... They quit saying "Nigeria" because they were having trouble finding people stupid enough to buy into it.
GWBRULES!: It can't be the Nigerian bank scam if it's not in Nigeria. :P
EL6969: Please, just tell him to quit giving them money!
GWBRULES!: But this is how he plans 2 save Social Security!

It's unclear at this point just how much money George W. Bush has lost on this scam. I'm still about 4700 emails from getting to the bottom of it.

Developing...

"The Culture Of Life"

2007-04-13T11:55:00.000-05:00

"We must continue to work for a culture of life where the strong protect the weak and where we recognize in every human life the image of our creator." - George W. Bush, April 13, 2007, National Catholic Prayer Breakfast

Go ahead, Mister President. Ask Sister Assumpta (Pictured with him) what the Catholic Church thinks about your "culture of life".

Ask her if Iraq lives up the Church's "Just War Doctrine".

Remind her of your old nickname... "Texecutioner"... And ask her what she thinks of the death penalty. And while you're at it, ask her what she thought of the joke you made when Karla Faye Tucker asked you to commute her death sentence to life imprisonment on the grounds that she had become a Christian. You know... Tucker Carlson asked you what she would say if she could speak to you, and you mocked her with the "Please... Don't kill me" bit. You're a laugh riot.

Ask her what she thought of your joke at the 2004 Corresponents Dinner... Where you mocked looking for the Weapons of Mass Destruction all over the White House while American soldiers and Iraqi civilians died over your failed gambit. "Nope. Not over here." Real knee-slapper.

Ask her what she thought of your devotion to having the strong "protect the weak" in Louisiana.

In fact, here's a better idea: Tell the truth about stem cell research. Life is not being created just for th purpose of extracting stem cells, and no abortions are taking place to provide us with material. Strip all the BS away, and you've got modern medicine trying to do the same thing Jesus did--- Healing the sick.

Then ask her what she thinks of your veto threat.

Who Would Jesus Hate?

2007-04-13T11:44:00.000-05:00

So I was playing around on the CNN website earlier today and saw a question that should be posed ot everyone that claims to be a Christian: "If Jesus lived today, what do you think would be his top priority?"

I was stunned, but not at the fact that the overwhelmingly most popular answer was the right one, "poverty", but at the fact that nearly 2,000 of the 12,683 responses were homosexuality and abortion.

Have these people even read the Bible??? Surely, they can point to a place where Jesus even mentioned those things, can they not?

The Thinking Blogger Award

2007-04-13T09:20:00.000-05:00

I was quite honored to go to Newscoma's site the other day and see that I'd been nominated for a "Thinking Blogger Award". Now, this is an honor coming from Newscoma, who writes so well that she makes even "Lost" sound interesting.

Yes, I'm aware that this is a meme, but it's a good one--- It allows me to promote blogs that I like, and that's always a good thing.

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,

3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote

Okay, I'm modifying the rules slightly (This way I don't have to pare down my choices as much as everyone else--- It's good to be King of Freedonia!). I will refrain from nominating the blogger who nominated me, though she is easily one of my favorites and a phenomenal regular read for anyone. Tracy's work, no matter whether she's writing about politics or her current bout of bronchitis, is always interesting to read. I love it, and if I go a day without reading it, you know I've been busy as hell.

I'll also refrain from re-nominating her nominees, even though Cup of Joe Powell is another of my favorites.

(Ha! I now cleverly have to dwindle down to seven favorites instead of five!)

Okay... My five in no particular order are:

1. The Flypaper Theory

What can you say about these guys? Pesky Fly is easily one of the best bloggers out there, with a fresh, inventive take on anything. I don't care if you have read a thousand stories on a given issue--- Your reading is not yet done unless you've read his.

Kibitzer is simply brilliant. He not only writes superbly, but has a masterful talent for getting information out of anyone. I've got to tag along and watch him work sometime--- His ability for getting information has me wondering if he has a waterboard set up in the basement.

Autoegocrat is not only a good friend, but the man writes so well that his grocery list would be an interesting read. There have been issues I've had a tough time giving a damn about until I've read his take on it.

Jeff is a published sci-fi writer with a talent for spotting a way to make anything funny.

Christian Progressive Liberal doesn't post as often as I'd like, but damnit, when she does, it's an event. I love reading her take on anything, and I'm jealous of those who got to meet her at the Media Reform Conference.

2. 55-40 Memphis

No one knows exactly who Bob is. I've got a theory, but so does everyone else. But you know what? It doesn't matter. Just enjoy his site and digest the wisdom contained therein. Bob is easily the most quotable of the Tennessee bloggers. I dropped a "Bob-ism" at lunch with friends recently, and no one had to ask where I came up with the phrase.

3. Leftwing Cracker

What can you say about him? First of all, he's the dean of the Memphis liberal blogosphere. He's a walking fountain of information who has easily forgotten more than most of us will ever have the good fortune to know about American politics. And he's an incredibly nice guy and a good friend.

4. Theology and Geometry

Lindsey has been, according to her site, "picking and flicking emotional scabs since 2003". When she writes about a serious issue, no one does it better. And when she's writing about the odd little snippets of life that we all face every day, she does so with a cleverness that could bring a smile to even the stoniest of faces. As if to prove that God does unfairly heap too many talents upon one person, thereby telling the rest of us to fuck ourselves, she's also a brilliant graphic designer (But does she do windows?).

5. David Holt & Crew at Confessions of a West Tennessee Liberal

In the interest of full disclosure, David is one of my best friends in the world. He's the reason I'm a blogger. And he's agreed to be my best man. With all that out of the way, he's a brilliant guy that everyone should read, if for no other reason than picking the mind of a brilliant guy. He added some talent at his site late last year, most of which are not active--- But Desi Franklin is over there writing brilliantly these days, and everyone should take the time to read what she's saying.

Honorable mention goes to Polar Donkey
Frank posts sporadically at best (Almost a month since his last one), but he has such a talent for information that it makes every word on his blog a must-read. Seriously, the rest of us can rail about social inequality for days as it relates to banks vs. check cashing places in poor neighborhoods, the unequal distribution of wealth, or any other of a myriad of social ills. But he goes a step better than that--- He'll show you where he's charted it on maps.

Bull-Kirk.

2007-04-12T11:08:00.000-05:00

A couple of months back, I read with great interest Kat Coble's account of her and her husband's dealings with JL Kirk, an alleged "Executive Placement firm".

There are reputable "headhunter" firms out there. They are generally paid by the company doing the hiring. They do not, however, ask that the person seeking a job put $4420 on a credit card, a non-refundable fee that allegedly puts all the efforts of the firm at the applicant's disposal.

JL Kirk does that.

Legitimate headhunter firms don't charge a fee that sounds remarkably like what you just got on your tax return especially since, under the name Bernard Haldane, they built a reputation doing just that.

JL Kirk does that.

Legitimate headhunter firms don't insist that the spouse be brought along for the consultation in the hopes that one will be more scared than the other and they can play them against one another.

JL Kirk does that.

And a legitimate headhunter firm is familiar enough with the internet to know that threatening a blogger gets it 100 times the bad publicity that it would otherwise have had.

JL Kirk apparently does not know that--- For they've sent a "cease and desist" order to Katherine Coble.

Katherine did what all of us as bloggers do--- She published a firsthand account of what she observed when she and her husband visited JL Kirk.

Here's the sick part--- Check out the bottom of page 1 of the cease and desist order:

Moreover, even if statements are literally true, the publisher of those statements is subject to monetary damages where “the meaning reasonably conveyed by the published words is defamatory.” Memphis Publishing Comany v. Nichols, 569 S.W. 2d 412 (Tenn. 1978)

This is a misapplication of the legal standard set out by Memphis Publishing Company v. Nichols, for that case was about a misleading newspaper article regarding a murder. Note the word "misleading". The truth has always been a perfect legal defense in this nation, and always will be, despite the hackery of the attorneys for JL Kirk.

The good thing about this case--- It places the burden of proof not on Katherine Coble, but on JL Kirk to prove that their business practices are honest and above board. And somehow, I doubt they really want their business practices going on record in court.

I'm no attorney, but I can sure think of a few questions I would ask.

For instance, I would ask why they didn't file a similar suit against CBS news for filing this report when they were operating under their previous name, Bernard Haldane.

I would ask on what grounds Haldane was investigated by the Illinois Attorney General.

I might even ask why the State of Kansas ordered them to issue $300,000 in refunds after investigating their business practices.

I might ask why, if the statement that Kirk Leipzig purchased the Bernard Haldane franchises is so untrue, then why is the story so persistent? I've found his name listed not only as owner of their offices in Brentwood, but Bellevue, Tacoma (Now Federal Way), Iowa, and Arkansas as well. If this is a deception, then surely he would love the opportunity to set the record straight, right?

My message to JL Kirk Associates: You fuck with one of us, you fuck with all of us. The truth, in this nation, has been and will always be its own best defense. So it's your challenge to prove that she misled anyone in any way. Then, she gets to prove that you mislead people. Think she'll have any trouble finding witnesses?

UPDATE***

Sean Braisted checked into JL Kirk's Better Business Bureau Record:
This company has a pattern (more than 2 complaints involving the same allegations usually within 12 months that are significant in relation to the company's size and volume of business) of complaint. Complaints allege the company offers career advancement services including marketing/resume writing, training for improved interview & negotiation skills, job leads/interviews and on-going support once a career has been obtained. Consumers state once they complete the marketing/resume writing and training for improved interview and negotiation skills, the company fails to follow up and provide assistance with job leads, interviews are not scheduled and careers are not obtained. All complainants request a refund to resolve the issues.

In fact, I was planning to do a roundup of all the articles on this, but my friend Newscoma did such a stellar job that all I can do is applaud her and give you a link.

Update 2***
Special thanks to Brother Cracker for writing faster than I did.

"So it goes." Rest in Peace, Kurt Vonnegut

2007-04-12T01:15:00.000-05:00

I'm very sad to see the passing of one of America's greatest literary geniuses. Kurt Vonnegut.

He served as a military scout in World War II, and was imprisoned in Dresden. He was one of only seven American prisoners of war to survive the three day bombing raid that flattened much of the city. His experiences from seeing that firsthand served as the basis for his masterpiece, Slaughterhouse Five.

Almost four decades after its release, Slaughterhouse Five is still one of the most frequently banned books in America. Some may think it's because his portrayal of soldiers in a war zone using profanity. Some may think it's because of the sexual content.

But personally, I have a different theory. The reason it raised hackles at the time was that we were involved in a war only slightly less popular than syphillis, and he showed us, for the first time in American pop culture, how horrifying our own means of waging war can be.

The Bombing of Dresden was not particularly well known in America before Vonnegut wrote his masterpiece. But once he did, he etched it into the collective consciousness of the American people.

His Nazi captors had him trying to herd the bodies into mass graves. But there were too many, so they instead handed him a blowtorch to cremate them on the spot.

America was just not prepared to hear that at the time. They're not really any better at hearing it now, as those who support the invasion of Iraq cling to a sanitized vision of war in which bombs only hit military targets and bullets fall harmlessly to the ground if they miss their intended victim.

One of his recurring characters, Kilgore Trout, was based on himself. He wrote in Timequake that Trout dies at the age of 84.

Kurt Vonnegut... Dead at 84.

So it goes.

Loving. Google. Earth.

2007-04-11T11:17:00.000-05:00

Sure, it was kind of neat being able to see a 3-D view of my house. I used it once to look at an apartment building I lived in at the time, and actually saw an overhead view of my car in the parking garage.

But the cool just got cooler. I just read on CNN that you can now use Google Earth to track the atrocities in Darfur.

I checked it out--- It works very well. This is a screen capture. It allows you to see the latest satellite imagery of the burned out villages.

Technology is making it harder and harder to ignore this region. Sooner or later, the president might even take notice.

Google is doing this in conjunction with the United States Holocaust Museum, and you can also now use Google Earth to check out the sites of the old concentration camps.

Google. It's not just for boobies anymore.

The War Czar

2007-04-11T10:27:00.000-05:00

Any time a White House has a problem that it knows cannot be solved, they appoint a "czar". We've got a drug czar, an intelligence czar, and now, according to today's Washington Post, the Bush White House wants to appoint a "War Czar".

Problem is, they can't find anyone to take the gig.

I love my country, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to heal all that ails it... So I'll take the job.

The first thing we need to do is reassert control over our own wars. I'll shift 5,000 personnel from Iraq to Afghanistan to bolster the NATO forces there. Canada is bringing more bodies home from Afghanistan than we are these days--- They and the British are actually dealing with a resurgent Taliban in Southern Afghanistan.

The second thing I'll do is lobby Congress to pass a War Profiteering Act, much like we had in WWII. If Dubya wants to be remembered as a great president, he would do well to remember that Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the president that got us through our most difficult war, managed to do so while speaking out against the "war millionaires" rather than simply handing them blank checks. A statute against war profiteering might actually help prevent our next needless war.

The third thing I'll do is set out definite timelines with the new Iraqi government based on the September 2008 timetable set out by Congress. That's sixteen months. The new goal of the Iraqi government is to take over another 10% of our work every six weeks, reducing our involvement to a supporting role. Just because this war was started aimlessly doesn't mean it has to end that way. As long as we keep doing the Iraqi military's work, they'll never feel the need to step up. We have to make it clear that we are patient, but not infinitely so.

Fourth--- This is something Dubya claims to do already, but clearly does not--- I'll actually listen to the generals. You know, those guys with all the medals and stripes all over their uniforms that have actually spent decades studying war strategy? I'm thinking they might be more useful in a time of war than the suits at the Pentagon that were telling us we would be greeted by flowers. This would be a significant policy change for the White House, which tends to ignore generals in lieu of advice from someone that a general called the "stupidest fucking guy on the planet".

Fifth--- Let's run our wars like we don't have ADD for a change. Remember that Osama bin Laden guy? I want his head on a pike in front of the White House. We can mummify it, and have Pentagon employees pass it around and take it home every night like it's the Stanley Cup. Okay, maybe those last two ideas were kind of gross--- Just throwing out some ideas. But we're suffering from "mission creep", and it's time to focus. This is a war against al Qaeda--- And even the most novice of war strategists would tell you that creating new al Qaeda factions, giving them a new breeding ground, and giving them a place to practice killing Americans is a pretty bad idea. We couldn't be helping them more right now if we started tasking the White House Communications Department with making al Qaeda recruiting videos. Focus. Ignore the shiny thing on the ground over there.

So whaddya think? Do I have the job?

Restoring the Constitution??? What a Freaky Concept!

2007-04-10T13:43:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to thank my hometown Congressman Steve Cohen.

One of the many blights on the congressional voting record of your festering turd of a predecessor was the Military Commissions Act, aka "The Torture Bill". With that vote, Harold Ford, the Republican Party, and a handful of other Blue Dogs" sent a message to the president. And that message, uncategorically clear, was "Torture is the American way. May I help you waterboard this suspect, Mr. President?"

So it is with great pride that I mention Congressman Cohen's cosponsorship of HR. 1415, also known as the Restoring the Constitution Act, which will again illegalize the unconstitutional behavior allowed under the Military Commissions Act.

If this nation is ever to regain moral high ground, we must reclaim our character as a nation. If we're the good guys in white cowboy hats, and those that oppose us are the villains, then our behavior should be a little less like theirs than it is today.

Most freshman congressman personify the definition of "back bencher". They keep their heads down, learn the ropes, and try to avoid pissing people off, improving their odds of a second term.

Thank you, Congressman Cohen, for being aggressive enough to help the party stare down the president.

Make him blink first, Steve.

Via V-Squared

Let's Hope He Doesn't Shop While He's Here!

2007-04-10T13:29:00.000-05:00

Bad things happen when Senator John McCain goes shopping.

So naturally, I felt a little queasy when I found out he's coming to Memphis on April 16th. If he does shop while he's here, there's no word yet on whether he'll be wearing a flack jacket and carrying a military and Blackwater entourage with him.

Battle Cry

2007-04-10T13:22:00.000-05:00

“How are you doing, Scott?” I said. We knew each other a little--- He was just a couple of degrees of separation from my circle of closest friends. But he was a good guy, and we always got along when our paths crossed.

“Excellent, praise Jesus,” he answered. “Has our Lord been good to you?”

I grew up in the South, so I’m certainly accustomed to talking to Christians. But you can talk to a Baptist minister for at least ten minutes without hearing the overwhelming displays of religiosity that I’d heard out of him in ten seconds.

“Um… I can’t complain too much,” I said, wondering what was going on. “How have you been?”

“Let me tell you, buddy,” he said. “I became an alcoholic. I drank so much that I was even going to work drunk. Finally, I got a DWI and got fired. Thankfully, Jesus entered my life.”

“Uh huh,” I nodded, resisting my overwhelming urge to tell him that was way more information than I needed.

“You should come to my church some time,” he said, fishing a tract out of his pocket.

I wanted to say something witty, like “Thanks, but I’m a Jesus-holic, and my life was empty until Jack Daniels entered my life”. Instead, I politely took the tract and deposited it safely in File Thirteen once I got home. I shudder to think of how many trees are killed every year so that people of religion can shove tracts that they know will go unread into your hands.

“Thanks. Well, I’ve got to go,” I told him, politely lying so as to neatly avoid saying “I don’t care to continue this conversation”.

“It was good seeing you, praise Jesus,” he said, shaking my hand. “May the Lord be with you.”

“May the Force be with you, Scott,” I said before I walked away.

That encounter puzzled me a little bit. Some days later, I mentioned it to another friend.

“He’s replaced one addiction with another,” she told me. “This one’s healthier—It won’t get him fired or arrested unless he chains himself to the door of an abortion clinic. But it’s all surface. He’s done nothing to address why he has an addictive personality in the first place.”

“First real temptation he encounters,” she continued, “and he’ll be back on the sauce. Until he addresses his real issues, his life will consist of bouncing back and forth between the bottom of a bottle and church to confess and pray for strength.”

She was right. The very next time I saw Scott, he was so drunk he could hardly stand. And he was crying, bemoaning the fact that his faith wasn’t powerful enough to overcome his love of alcohol.

I thought of Scott and his struggles today as I read an article from the upcoming issue of Rolling Stone about the “Battle Cry” movement. I thought of him as an eighteen-year-old girl talked about how her faith has lifted her out of a life of drug use and premarital sex.

On the surface, it sounds healthy enough. You’ll never find me anywhere saying that keeping teenagers off of alcohol and drugs, and encouraging sexual abstinence (Okay, at least now that I’m not a teenager anymore) is somehow a bad thing.

But Battle Cry founder Ron Luce has taken it far beyond any healthy level. If this is such a healthy thing… Then why does he feel the need to scare teenagers into buying into it?

He tells them allegedly true stories; The girl who left Christianity and wound up being date raped; The girl who dated a non-Christian and is now a bisexual working in the porn industry, supposedly due to his corrosive influence.

He tells them that life on the streets of America has become so decadent that a woman can be raped on the streets, and that Americans will walk blithely past.

Now, I don’t know much about where Luce lives--- But if a woman was being raped on the streets of Memphis (It does not, as some might incorrectly believe, matter which neighborhood), she would be in as much danger of being trampled by the people turning out to help her as she would be of the rape continuing. I’ve lived in many cities; None are any different.
Luce doesn’t simply tell impressionable children about the word of God. In fact, he spends so much time railing against secular targets that God and his Son almost become a corollary to his sermon.

He encourages children to confront the managers of lingerie stores (Apparently, in his mind, God insists on women covering their womanly parts with garments from Wal-Mart). He works hard to instill the children at his events with a “warrior mentality”, telling them that not only secularists are out to kill them, but that nonfundamentalist Christians are their enemies too.

"The devil hates us, and we gotta be ready to fight and not be these passive little lukewarm, namby-pamby, kum-ba-yah, thumb-sucking babies that call themselves Christians. Jesus? He got mad!"

"I want an attacking church!" he admonishes the crowd.

Jesus did get angry. But not at those who hadn’t accepted the word of God, as Luce seems to believe. It was at those who claimed to believe, yet did not live up to Christian ideals.

He was angry at the Pharisees for neglecting “the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith”. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which do indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanliness,” He told them.

“Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.’”

In his fervor to work up an anti-secularism jihad, Ron Luce has preached of love of God without actually managing to love what God stands for.

To date, he has sent 53,000 “teen missionaries” to foreign countries, so that they may preach about the things he believes God loves--- Teen abstinence, sobriety, and laissez faire capitalism.

And despite his complaints that the secular world has “branded” teenagers by having them wear clothing from name brand designers, he has sent them forth with “Battle Cry” themed t-shirts, purchased from any of the dozens of vendors dotting the landscape at every corner at a Battle Cry event.

Have we not already seen how this movie ends? Have we not seen the product of youth stirred into a fundamentalist fury?

I am a Christian. And I am proud to be one of the people that Ron Luce hates. If the rock band POD believes appearing at Battle Cry events is a good thing, then give me my U2 any day of the week.

No More Deals? How About No Empty Catchphrases?

2007-04-09T10:05:00.000-05:00

The grieving family of slain Code Enforcement Officer Mickey Wright lashed out angrily when the man that killed their loved one, Dale Mardis, received a twelve year prison sentence as part of a plea bargain. Wright’s widow had to be restrained to keep from attacking the defendant as he entered his plea, and another relative kicked the interior walls of the courthouse so hard that the drop ceiling tiles above him fell out.

Their grief, their anger is certainly understandable. Part of the problem, though, is that they believed a jingoistic public relations slogan that was conjured out of thin air simply to make Bill Gibbons’ District Attorney’s office sound “tough on crime”.

“No deals. Hard crime gets all the time.” There were few radio or television outlets Memphians could turn to without hearing it during every commercial break. It was more ubiquitous than a Corey B. Trotz commercial or news coverage of Anna Nicole Smith’s death.

Of course, as with most catchphrases, this one had little to do with reality, and was directed at people that know precious little about the inner workings of the justice system.

No one likes to hear the term “reduced time” in reference to violent offenders. But there can be little doubt that the criminal justice system would grind to an abrupt halt without plea bargains. The wheels of justice turn slowly enough without every defendant deciding they have nothing to lose by pleading their cases in front of a jury.

It would also be next to impossible to shut down any form of organized crime, be it La Cosa Nostra or the Gangster Disciples. The only way to get information on anyone in a leadership position is to bust someone lower on the food chain and entice them to roll over on their leaders.

But the most dangerous side effect of such a policy is this one--- Some defendants will be acquitted.

And that’s the reason for the plea bargain that caused the current controversy. The charge against Dale Mardis was first degree murder. Proving a motive for a murder is not a required element of a trial--- But if a jury doesn’t hear a plausible one, it starts questioning the rest of the case.

The motive that the district attorney’s office built the Mardis case around was extreme racism--- That Mardis was so overcome by his hatred of black people that he felt compelled to murder Mickey Wright.

Witnesses had some forward recently that called that motive into question, insisting that Dale Mardis was no racist at all.

The slam dunk of a case against Mardis turned into a shaky one. Rather than take a chance on him going free altogether, they struck a bargain--- Twelve years in exchange for a guilty plea.

As much as the Wright family must hate that Mardis will be a free man in twelve years--- Who wouldn’t?--- There was a very realistic possibility that if the district attorney’s office was forced to go to trial with a weak case, there might well have been an acquittal and no prison time at all.

This case provides an object lesson neither in the inherent flaws of the justice system, nor in the evils of plea bargaining. The greatest lesson that can be taken away from this is to recognize that criminal justice should never be reduced to slogans that could fit on a bumper sticker.

Bill Gibbons made an irresponsible promise and based an irresponsible ideology upon it. It was nothing short of an appeal to voters to see his office as one that criminals look upon and quiver with fear. There were barbarians at the gate, and he was all that stood between the peaceful people of the city of Memphis and an angry, raging, criminal horde that salivated at the thought of running roughshod over their lives.

No precise numbers are available, but one of the worst kept secrets of our system of criminal justice is that the vast majority of criminal offenses end not in the defendant being found guilty by a jury, but the defendant agreeing to slightly less time in exchange for a guilty plea.

That District Attorney Gibbons doesn’t seem to grasp this concept makes one wonder just how fit he is to hold office. At the very least, the voters deserve an explanation.

Perfectly Safe. Uh huh.

2007-04-05T12:59:00.000-05:00

I know, I've already talked about McCain's insane comments that Iraq is a perfectly safe place for Americans to walk around...

But here's a photo demonstrating just how safe he felt.

Oh, and just in case that isn't enough--- It seems that the Iraqi insurgents want to send a message about how safe it is too. 21 Iraqis died to bring you John McCain's photo op.

The latest massacre of Iraqi children came as 21 Shia market workers were ambushed, bound and shot dead north of the capital.
The victims came from the Baghdad market visited the previous day by John McCain, the US presidential candidate, who said that an American security plan in the capital was starting to show signs of progress.

Idiots.

2007-04-05T09:19:00.000-05:00

So I've been checking out some of the right wing blogs whining about the Pelosi talks with Syria... They're running pictures of Nancy Pelosi, who wore the head scarf when visiting Syria, complaining that she was willing to dress in Syria as women are expected to dress in Syria.

From Little Green Footballs:

The modern Democratic leadership.

Yes, I guess it's quite horrible for someone on a diplomatic mission to observe the traditions of the land she's visiting, huh?

So... Were you as harsh on Laura Bush?

When Reality and Right Wing Rhetoric Collide

2007-04-05T08:48:00.000-05:00

How horrible it is that Nancy Pelosi would dare talk to Syria!!! You know, the nation that helped secure the release of the fifteen British soldiers held in Iran for several days.

It is time for conservatives to wake up and smell the new paradigm. Our military is overstretched. I know it. You know it. We all know it. Iran knows it. Syria knows it. Britain knows it.

So the days when George W. Bush could do some braindead saber-rattling to try to create the world in his vision are gone. He has nothing to threaten anyone with. What does he possibly have to hold over anyone's head to bend them to his iron will? Shall he threaten to hold his breath until he turns blue in the face?

He can't send American troops to another nation without pulling them out of Iraq at this point--- Something he has demonstrated over and over that he's not even willing to discuss.

If America is to exert any influence on the world at large, that influence must bypass the Oval Office. Through bad foreign policy that has led to him not being taken seriously throughout the rest of the world and bad domestic policy that got the rubber stamp Republicans thrown out of Congress, George W. Bush has been neutered.

Thank goodness the Democratic congressional delegation is willing to take up the slack. Despite the last six years and three months of deplorable leadership, America still has much positive to offer the world through the proper use of soft power. Be grateful that someone out there is willing to spread that influence.

39 Years

2007-04-04T16:11:00.000-05:00

Early morning, April fourth
A shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last---
They took your life
They could not take your pride

-"Pride (In the Name of Love) by U2

Thirty-nine years ago today, a sad chapter in history was written with an assassin’s bullet. It didn’t happen in early morning, as Bono sings, but at 6 PM as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his entourage prepared for dinner.

As the life’s blood ebbed from his veins and onto the cold, unforgiving concrete of the Lorraine Motel’s balcony, he departed a world forever changed from the world of Jim Crow that he was born into.

When he was born, black children were forced to attend inferior schools, guaranteeing that they could never gain a solid foothold in American society. A black passenger on any form of public transportation was forced to sit in the back, leaving a shorter walk for whiter passengers. A black man could work in the same fields as a white man, labor just as hard, and walk away at the end of the day without the money to feed his children. Or the white man could simply refuse to hire him.

By the time he died, he departed a changed America. Schools had been integrated, and the seeds of equality had been sown, if not yet in full bloom.

So very few people leave the world around them changed, save for their nearest and dearest friends and family. Their lives begin and end in obscurity. Dr. King was not one of them. When one looks at all the changes that took place directly because of him, it becomes difficult to believe that he achieved all of this in thirteen short years.

He told us of his dreams, where the sons of slaves and the sons of former slave owners would sit together at the table of brotherhood. He told us he might not get there with us.

And true enough, he didn’t. Whether one believes it was James Earl Ray or not, someone that feared nothing more than equality for all mankind saw fit to rip him from our world.

Dr. King’s message was a radical one, not unlike that of Jesus Christ almost two millennia before. And just like Jesus Christ, he was cut down for that message by someone that had much to lose if Dr. King’s vision became a reality.

As much as Dr. King accomplished, if he was still with us today, he would look at the world around him and take note not only of what we have accomplished, but where we have failed.

His hard work, his sacrifice, did not spell the end of the American ghetto. The backlash of those who would not live in a racially mixed society has spawned white flight, creating and perpetuating new American ghettos in its wake. Subconscious racism is still racism; Most sociologists studying white flight place the “magic number” at 6%--- Once 6% of the homes in a neighborhood are owned by blacks, the white residents start to feel “outnumbered”. Their fear of lowered property values becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as they unload their homes at fire sale prices and move further out into the suburbs. And sadly, as with many other aspects of American life, the most egregious are rewarded--- The earliest to move and spawn the white flight are the only ones that get fair market value from their homes.

There is a zip code in the city where Dr. King breathed his last that has an infant mortality rate higher than most Third World nations. A lethal combination of poverty, pollution, crime, and reduced access to healthcare robbed 202 babies of their lives before they saw their first birthday in 2002. Many of their bodies are buried in Shelby County’s Potters Field, which stands almost directly in the shadow of Wolfchase Galleria, our greatest monument to the gods of commerce.

Poverty grips many of the streets in the city where he was killed. And just like animals in the wild, hungry predators single out the weak and the wounded, preying upon them with tax preparation scams, furniture rental ripoffs, exorbitant check cashing prices, home improvement scams, and a million other con games designed to separate the poor and the uneducated from their hard earned money.

Thank you, Dr. King, for your hard work, and your sacrifice. It is now up to the rest of us to see to it that this sacrifice was not made in vain.

Straight Talk, My Arse.

2007-04-03T09:59:00.000-05:00

There is pandering. There is Koolaid drinking. And then there is complete, blithering idiocy on a scale that would make even George W. Bush shudder.

John McCain has been displaying that just recently.

To quote Dennis Miller back from the time years ago that he was actually funny, I don't mean to go off on a rant here... Wait. Yeah. Yeah I do.

John McCain made a mockery of the threats that our soldiers, our contractors, and even our journalists face today. CNN's Michael Ware was not only right to call him out on it--- But that's what needs to happen more often.

All too often, out of fear of being called "liberal", the mainstream media is far too slow to play the "bullshit" card. Any preposterous claim made by this administration or any of its apologists goes completely unchallenged, so complete absurdity is accepted as fact.

I would like to thank the man that's been reporting in Iraq for four years for debunking the myths spread by a man that spent a few minutes on a Baghdad street surrounded by Blackwater operatives.

Give it up, Senator McCain. Not only is it not time for you to be president, but your senate career seems to be well past its expiration date.

For as much as I know it may look like it sometimes, Capitol Hill is no place for fools.

Homecoming

2007-04-03T09:50:00.000-05:00

We need to make this happen more often. About 150,000 times more often, by my estimates.

Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan

Turfing Out the War

2007-04-02T12:10:00.000-05:00

Another one of those Orwellian-sounding project names has popped up recently. We've seen many of them from this White House; "No Child Left Behind" has amounted to a sustained assault on the educational system; The "Clear Skies Act", if passed, would have created such a thick layer of muck in the air that even an industrial chainsaw couldn't cut through it; And perhaps most obscene of all, the USA PATRIOT Act has recreated the Soviet Union's most egregious civil liberty abuses on American soil.

But perhaps none of them are as ironic as this one... "Afghanistan First". For there is no way that we have ever made Afghanistan our first priority at any point since this war began.

See the soldiers in this picture? Sure, they may, at first blush, look like any other soldiers carrying out combat operations in a war zone. Know what's different about these?

They're Canadians.

Now don't get me wrong--- I'm quite happy that our neighbors to the north felt so strongly about an attack on our soil that they wanted to help out.

But this is our job, and our fight.

There has never been a time since the attacks on September 11, 2001 that Afghanistan has been the first priority of this government. Our entire battle plan was based on the idea of the use of proxies to fight the war. It kept the body count low so that the American public wasn't weary of war before the White House got the fight it actually wanted in Iraq.

Where did it leave us?

The men responsible for making sure that al Qaeda didn't escape through the Tora Bora mountain range into Pakistan didn't care in the least whether or not we met any of our objectives; They wanted their country back from the Taliban, and they didn't really care whether or not we arrested the few people that put any money into the Afghan economy or not. With as little as people earned in Afghanistan (At the time of the war, the average annual income was around $80), it would have been cheaper for al Qaeda members to buy safe passage than bullets.

And as soon as we spent the perfunctory sixty days playing "Osama Whack-a-Mole", we started focusing our attention on a nation that had nothing to do with the attacks on us in any way, had no weapons of mass destruction, and had about as cozy a relationship with al Qaeda as we had.

Now, that war of choice is a drain on our resources. We've got so many boots on the ground in Iraq that we can't devote adequate resources to the ongoing turmoil in Afghanistan. The lead in Afghanistan is increasingly being taken by Canadian and British troops so that we can continue to pump over half of our active duty military and our waning reserves into the Mess-O-Potamia we made.

It's time to put an end to the war in Iraq, if for no other reason than there are possible future crises on the horizon, and it might be nice if we're in a position to deal with them. And while we're at it, we'd be able to actually quit turfing out our war efforts to our allies, some of whom have problems of their own.

The Butcher's Bill

2007-03-30T13:13:00.000-05:00

In 2005, the last year for which a complete FBI Uniform Crime Report is available, there were 14,860 homicides committed in the United States.

10,100 were committed with firearms.

If you isolate the 7,543 handgun murders from the 2,557 murdered with a different kind of gun, you still are left with one weapon of choice that outpaced knives, blunt objects, personal weapons (Using the body to hit, push, etc), poison, explosives, fire, narcotics, explosives, asphyxiation, strangle, or "other", which encompasses, automobiles, etc.

Spin that to make it sound like more guns on the streets are a good idea.

Go Wish David Holt a Happy Birthday!!!

2007-03-30T13:06:00.000-05:00

You heard me! Wish this good friend of mine, this future good friend to all the voters of District 89, a happy 24th (Damn, I feel old) birthday.

Georgia's "Bring Your Gun To Work" Bill

2007-03-30T12:31:00.000-05:00

The Georgia legislature is currently considering a bill that would keep companies from banning guns in their parking lots. It's an absurd piece of legislation pushed by--- No surprise here--- The NRA, who seems content with nothing short of creating a "wild west" world where everyone that walks the street does so with a pistol strapped to his leg.

But this bill goes so far that they've overplayed their hands.

The following is an email exchange from a voter who, among other things, seems incapable of discerning just what senate district he lives in, and a veteran legislator that has been a good friend to the NRA through the years, published by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

From: Keith L.
Sent: Sat 3/24/2007 10:38 PM
To: Douglas, John
Subject: SB 43
I’m counting on you to stand up for me & get SB 43 to the floor & support it . It’s time to put a stop of having our Second Amendment rights played with.
Keith L.
Lyons, Ga.

From: Douglas, John John.Douglas@senate.ga.gov
To: Keith L.
Sent: Saturday, March 24, 2007 8:53 PM
Subject: RE: SB 43
Don’t count on me, I dont represent Lyons and am voting NO.
John Douglas

From: Keith L.
Sent: Sat 3/24/2007 11:21 PM
To: Douglas, John
Subject: Re: SB 43
Sorry to hear that. I’ll let others know how you feel. Thanks anyway.

From: Douglas, John [mailto:John.Douglas@senate.ga.gov]
Sent: Sat 3/24/2007 11:28 PM
To: Keith L.
Subject: RE: SB 43
While you are contacting others, contact the NRA and tell them their bullying, threatening tactics are backfiring. I have for the past two years earned an A+ and A rating from them and supported their efforts all the way. They are accusing every major company in Georgia of being anti gun, sending out their alerts every few hours naming more companies as anti gun and acting like a hysterical teenaged girl.
They are falling on their swords over this bill and so am I. There is no way I would vote yes with the way they are conducting themselves.
I am sorry we have come to this point and I look forward to supporting logical, rational gun legislation in the future, but not SB 43. I appreciate your efforts, but the NRA is making their supporters look foolish on this one.
By the way, Sen Tommie Williams is your Senator. He is an excellent, articulate spokesman for southeast Georgia. Feel free to call on him at tommie@tommiewilliams.com
John Douglas

Congratulations, Pesky Fly!

2007-03-30T11:05:00.000-05:00

I was quite pleased when I went to the Memphis Flyer website and saw that Chris Davis won Green Eyeshade (Who came up with that name?* See update below) award from the Society of Professional Journalists for his two excellent pieces on the Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast found here and here.
It's well deserved, my friend.

Another local winner was Memphis Magazine editor Marilyn Saler for a magnificent article about life in the 38126 ZIP code, one of the poorest in the country.

UPDATE: Trent, a previous Green Eyeshade winner, was kind enough to fill me in on the derivation of the award's name.

The "Green Eyeshade" term comes from the headgear that editors used to wear in the early part of the century during the glory "Front Page" days of the newspaper. Worn like a baseball cap, with the visor a sort of see-through opaque green, it made harsh light easy on the eyes for editors poring through reams of news copy.

I'm not sure when the Society for Professional Journalists started giving out the awards, but it stems from that.Hunter Thompson was known to wear one during his early adventures in journalism, for what it's worth.

-- Trent, a previous Green Eyeshade winner.

Rove Double Feature - Wanksta, The Prequel

2007-03-29T14:05:00.000-05:00

Pay attention to the Young Republican interviewed about four minutes into this clip. (Hat tip to Crooks and Liars)

W's Favorite Historian

2007-03-29T13:34:00.000-05:00

It seems that Clueless Leader's favorite historian is about as well-informed as his science advisors. From Slate:

Roberts is as sloppy as he is snobbish. I am seldom bothered by minor errors from a good writer, but Roberts' mistakes are so extensive, foolish, and revealing of his basic ignorance about the United States in particular, that it may be worth noting a few of those I caught in a fast read. The San Francisco earthquake did considerably more than $400,000 in damage. Virginia Woolf, who drowned herself in 1941, did not write for Encounter, which began publication in 1953. The Proposition 13 Tax Revolt took place in the 1970s, not the 1980s—an important distinction because it presaged Ronald Reagan's election in 1980. Michael Milken was not a "takeover arbitrageur," whatever that is. Roberts cannot know that there were 500 registered lobbyists in Washington during World War II because lobbyists weren't forced to register until 1946. Gregg Easterbrook is not the editor of the New Republic. "No man gets left behind" is a line from the film Black Hawk Down, not the motto of the U.S. Army Rangers; their actual motto is "Rangers Lead the Way." In a breathtaking peroration, Roberts point out that "as a proportion of the total number of Americans, only 0.008 percent died bringing democracy to important parts of the Middle East in 2003-5." Leaving aside the question of whether those deaths have brought anything like democracy to Iraq, 0.008 percent of 300 million people is 24,000—off by a factor of 10, which is typical of his arithmetic. If you looked closely enough, I expect you could find an error of one kind or another on every page of the book.

Every day, in every way, this White House is led around by ideology rather than truth.

Wanksta Rap

2007-03-29T13:27:00.000-05:00

All you playa haters, all you sucker MCs, you better step off and not be fronting or MC Rove will have to pop a collar and get Jam Master Cheney to bust a cap in your ass.

The Other Cheap Labor

2007-03-28T11:46:00.000-05:00

Stacey Campfield must have friends in the Texas State Legislature.

They are now considering the Rent-a-Womb Act, a piece of legislation designed to discourage abortion by giving money to women that put their children up for adoption.

And just what is the princely sum that is offered up to these women in exchange for four months of morning sickness, nine months of constipation, chronic back pain during the third trimester, an alarming need to urinate every five minutes (Brought on by an eight pound person doing a headstand on her bladder), nine months of unbearable hormonal mood swings, hemorrhoids, and high blood pressure which is then capped off by several hours of pain more excruciating than listening to the entire Britney Spears catalog as they attempt to push something the size of a watermelon out of their genitalia?

$500.

This isn't discouraging abortion. This is an episode of "Jackass" waiting to happen.

Strangely enough, it's being sponsored by the a senator from the same party that has built a culture of talking points around the idea that any form of public assistance de-incentivizes work ('Cause, you know, those welfare recipients are such high rollers). They're apparently not too worried that this massive payout will encourage women to supplement their incomes by squeezing out a pup every nine months.

Perhaps it's because they know the payout is too little to incentivize anything. It allows them to trun back to the anti-abortion zealots and pretend that they've accomplished something.

Now THAT'S What I Call A Testimonial.

2007-03-27T15:42:00.000-05:00

Longtime Democratic Activist and Shelby County Democratic Party Executive Committee member Joe Young wanted to make sure I brought this here for you to read:

I rarely post comments on blogs. In fact, I've posted only one blog previously on my friend Steve's Leftwingcracker. There's always an exception and I recognize this as an exceptual exception. I can't and shouldn't be mute on this matter. I've known David for a few short years but recognized his value as a human being when I first met him. Through him a optimistic preview of what hopefully lies ahead for political leadership and community activism is possible. There are honest, dedicated, servant-leadership oriented, and hard-working young people out there. Such a person is found in my friend, comrade, and ally, David Holt. I went to work immediately when I heard the rumor that David was considering this step. When I called him and confirmed what I heard was true, I went to work in support of him that same hour. All readers of this blog should do the same. Find out what you can do to help David and Just Do It! No hesitation, no games,procrastination.

David Holt has a great mind and moral compass. He's reliable and sees a thing through to completion. He is well-respected and has a quiet and unassuming dignity that I respect and admire greatly. He is a man of courage and honor. We have a blessing, gift, and advocate in David Holt!

Yours in service,

Joe Wm. Young, II

Vade in pace, Rome.

2007-03-27T15:17:00.000-05:00

I know, I know. It's a couple of days late. But there are members of my family that I will miss less than I'll miss Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus, so I was in no hurry to say goodbye.

There will be no more "Rome". Anything that is as expensive to film as that was is doomed. HBO, in conjunction with the BBC, literally rebuilt ancient Rome on a vast sound stage and used it as a platform for some of the most compelling TV to ever grace the tube. I've not read a budget estimate on the second season, but the first cost over $200 million.

In terms of historical accuracy, it was a hit and miss. Pullo and Vorenus were actually based on two soldiers mentioned in Caesar's account of the Gallic Wars, yet the writers never referred to the future Augustus by his proper name (Octavianus, not Octavian). And the timeline was anything but consistent. The entire war between Augustus and Mark Antony (Played masterfully by James Purefoy) spanned roughly nine years, yet the Vorenus children didn't age a day.

But at the end of the day, HBO set out to make an interesting TV show--- Not a historical reenactment. And this is where the show excelled.

It certainly suffered in its second season. You knew as you sat down to watch the first episode of the first season that it would culminate in the assassination of Julius Caesar. You knew that the most logical story for the second season would be the war between Octavian and Antony, but it took forever to get there. The stories seemed without focus. I can honestly say I would have written it quite differently.

But the end was satisfactory, and I'm certain I'm far from the only person mourning the fact that there will be no third season that involves Octavian building up the Roman Empire.

Farewell, Pullo. Farewll, Vorenus.

"I believe they want to kill the death penalty."

2007-03-27T13:41:00.000-05:00

The quote above comes from Shelby County Commissioner Wyatt Bunker.

I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I certainly do.

The Shelby County Commission spent two hours last night debating a resolution urging the state legislature to continue the moratorium on Tennessee's use of the death penalty, set to expire in May. The resolution died, as those that opposed the resolution are just as firmly entrenched in their beliefs as those who support it. Two commissioners were absent, and two more abstained from the vote.

Allow me state this in the clearest terms possible--- I do support the resolution.

I don't support it because the unequal application of the death penalty implies that the life of a white victim is worth more than that of a black victim, although it certainly does. A multiple murderer is, statistically speaking, less likely to be executed than a black man that kills a white man.

I don't support the resolution or the moratorium simply because we have yet to find a way to carry out the punishments humanely--- Although that too is true.

I don't support the resolution and the moratorium because criminologists are near unanimous in proclaiming it absolutely useless in the deterrence of crime. Although they are.

I don't support the resolution and the moratorium because trying a capital case and carrying out an execution costs much more than keeping someone in prison for forty years, although that is true.

I don't support it because of some underlying belief that the person on death row is an innocent that has been railroaded by an out of control justice system. I find that to be the weak point of most anti-death penalty arguments. Worst of all, it shortchanges us out of the debate that really matters, sidestepping all questions of morality and guaranteeing that the fight must take place all over again every time a jury hands down a death penalty verdict.

I support the resolution and the moratorium simply because it's wrong on every level to say "Killing someone is bad. And to prove it, we're going to kill you."

Either premeditated murder is bad, or it is not. You have to choose. If you or I capture someone, strap them down, and inject a lethal dose of chemicals into their veins, we go to jail. If we killed a white person, we might even go to death row over it.

If the state does exactly the same thing, it's called "justice".

The people in favor of the death penalty are fond of using a religious argument. "If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

Of course, it's worthwhile to note that the argument comes from the book of Exodus--- Well before God's own Son became the victim of the death penalty, the very son that refuted "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" during the Sermon on the Mount.

I urge everyone to support the moratorium--- Simply because it's the right thing to do.

Do I want to kill the death penalty, Commissioner Bunker? You bet I do.

Holt for 89

2007-03-27T11:48:00.000-05:00

Get over here and see why you should support this young man. I've had the good fortune of knowing him for about three years, but not everyone is as lucky.

When he's ready to run for a full-time seat, I've got his back. If everyone gets to know him like I do, he'll win his race unanimously when that time comes.

Bush and his Scenery

2007-03-26T10:19:00.000-05:00

During the presiden't nationally televised hissy fit in response to the House vote to set a deadline for withdrawal from Iraq, I remarked to a friend that there was a very attractive woman in uniform standing behind Bush. For perhaps the first time ever, I understood what women see in "men in uniform". If this woman was used on the poster, we might be able to enlist enough recruits to form a second combat ready brigade.

Of course, that's not why she was there. She and the other military personnel in attendance served as props so the president could try and send the message "the military stands behind me" instead of "the military stands where I tell it to".

The president, to his credit, has a long history of standing behind the military. In fact, he typically stands about three thousand or so miles behind them any time there's a foreign deployment. As the best and brightest of his generation fought in Vietnam, he stayed home and formed a policy that would one day be known as "No Keg Left Behind" before deciding that Guard service in Alabama was far too close to the front lines for his taste. Thankfully, more diligent Guardsmen remained on duty to make sure that Charlie didn't invade Mobile.

But I digress. Was his use of the military as a prop entirely in accordance with DOD regulations?

It is DoD policy that:

3.1. The wearing of the uniform by members of the Armed Forces (including retired members and members of Reserve components) is prohibited under any of the following circumstances:

...3.1.2. During or in connection with furthering political activities, private employment or
commercial interests, when an inference of official sponsorship for the activity or interest may be drawn.

(Hat tip to AmericaBlog)

The Weekend In Brief

2007-03-26T09:24:00.000-05:00

I took the weekend off and came back to find all this on the Freedonian Newsdesk:

Anna Nicole Smith died of an accidental drug overdose
And I still care just as little as when I speculated seven weeks ago that it was likely an accidental drug overdose.

It is now suspected that the failed hit on the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister was an inside job abetter by a bodyguard that allowed himself to be paid off.
This is some of the progress George W. Bush talks about. Back in the old days, the bodyguard would have been killed too.

A ten year Memphis Police Department veteran was just arrested on corruption charges.
Considering that a man with a job that pays $48,000 per year managed to deposit $43,000 in cash (With a strange odor) into the bank per month, built a large house on the golf course, drives a Hummer, a Mercedes, and a Corvette, owns two fast food restaurants and had been suspended for stealing drugs from a suspect, and bullied a desk sergeant into changing a story during an investigation, and no one suspected anything, the Memphis PD proves once again that its biggest problems run from the top down.

***UPDATE***
An anonymous commenter wished to point out that Director Godwin referred the crooked policeman in question to the FBI's "Tarnished Blue" investigation, and that Godwin has been more diligent than directors past. Fair enough. But considering that he really couldn't be bothered to cover up very well, I still have to wonder why this was not an IAD investigation.

The number of contractors killed in Iraq now stands at 770.
Which gives me a great idea. The only thing the Bush White House seems to like better than Operation Infinite Occupation is giving money to its friends. So let's bring the troops home and let Halliburton pay Blackwater to "Stay the course".

The Army's internal investigation found no "orchestrated" coverup in the death of former NFL star Pat Tillman.
First of all, it's hardly a surprise. Does the military in its present state seem capable of orchestrating anything? If a general even has the capability to organize cleaning up a barrack, George W. Bush tends to run them out.

The secret to the bond between George W. Bush and Rudy Giuliani has now been discovered.
If you look at the drag pictures of him, he looks like Barbara Bush. And Dennis Hastert, really.

How many times were you married, Mrs. Giuliani?
I guess once you reach a certain number, they all tend to run together, much like Jake Ford's arrest record.

Where Are the REAL Libertarians?

2007-03-23T17:21:00.000-05:00

Abraham Lincoln was fond of asking people "How many legs does a dog have if you call its tail a leg?". Whoever he was talking to would usually say "Five". Lincoln would then say "No. Because calling its tail a leg doesn't make it one."

Reading up on conservative principles on the internet, one would be led to believe that there are only a dozen actual Republicans in this country. The people who back this administration up on its every abuse of power pretend to be Libertarians, in some misguided notion that feigning third party allegiance gives them a credibility that they simply do not deserve.

Do you support the president's warrantless wiretapping? Sorry. You're not a Libertarian. If the government was shrunk to the levels that you claim to support, it wouldn't have the manpower required to listen in.

Do you support gross abuses of power such as the National Security Letter? So much for that "no government intrusion" thing, huh?

Before I started this blog, I ran a political debate forum for about three years. I noticed a pattern there that I notice here--- Every time the Libertarian Party and the Bush White House are at odds with one another, the faux Libertarians side with the White House.

To real Libertarians--- Please quit letting these counterfeits stink up your party. They're giving you a horrible name. Their presence undermines the principles that you've spent thirty-six years building.

To the Faux Libertarians --- Believe me, I understand your shame at having to admit to being Republican. I would be embarrassed too. I would hate to have to admit that "The Decider" was the apex of my political ideology.

But calling yourselves Libertarians when you disagree with the principles? Do you actually need to read the platform sometime? Freedom of communication? Freedom of religion (Which, in turn, means freedom FROM religion and freedom for ALL religions)? How about the right to privacy? How about keeping the government out of the abortion fight?

Frankly, I'm more Libertarian than most of the people claiming to be Libertarian. Unlike them, I make no pretense.

Number 47 Said to Number 3...

2007-03-23T15:34:00.000-05:00

Another day, another jailbound Bush administration official.

J. Steven Griles pled guilty to obstruction of justice today in the Abramoff matter. It was part of a plea bargain from the more serious charges levelled against him when he gave false testimony to the Bureau of Indian Affairs twice on Abramoff's behalf.

As I read CNN's coverage of it, I couldn't help wondering what has become of this nation. Once upon a time, high-ranking government officials had enough of a sense of shame to their misdeeds that they actually bothered to cover up their corruption.

For example: Griles co-owns a vacation house with Sue Ellen Wooldridge who, until January, served as Assistant Attorney General in charge of environment and natural resources. The third partner in the vacation home is Donald R. Duncan, a lobbyist for ConocoPhillips. Nine months after they went in on this $980,000 house, Wooldridge signed an agreement giving ConocoPhillips more time to clean up air pollution surrounding their refineries.

Whatever happened to the good old days? Politicians used to at least hide their corruption.

Draft David Holt!

2007-03-23T14:20:00.000-05:00

So I was talking to a few friends last night, and we were discussing good people to get the interim appointment to fill the District 89 seat recently vacated by Beverly Marrero now that she's a state senator.

The Shelby County Commission chose wisely to pick someone that wasn't going to be running for the office when they had to appoint someone to fill Steve Cohen's seat until a special election could be held. Shea Flinn represented District 30 so well that it was really a shame to see him go.

They should do it again. Kevin Gallagher and John Farmer will be running for the seat in the special election. So who can best serve District 89 in the interim?

It's my honor to recommend not only who I consider to be the best man for the job--- But THE man for the job. My good friend David Holt.

He's a fellow blogger, so it's not difficult to find out what this man is about. You can read his words. He's the sitting Vice Chairman of the Shelby County Democratic Party and sits on enough committees that I could probably do two posts naming them.

Furthermore, whether you agree with him or disagree with him, you can count on his unerring honesty and his strong sense of ethics.

If this man announced his presidential candidacy tomorrow, I would be out pushing for a change in the law allowing a guy his age to serve. And when he graduates law school in two years, there will be no stopping him.

District 89 will be incredibly well served by my friend, my brother, David Holt.

UPDATE: A photo has been added at the request of Tom Guleff. It's a little out of date, and perhaps the first campaign promise for him to deliver on is getting me an updated photo like he said he would this weekend.

I think we'll all agree that he would do better if we just used a photo of his lovely wife.

Never Too Early to Start the 2008 Race Baiting, Huh?

2007-03-23T12:28:00.000-05:00

The Memphis Flyer brought us this article from Roll Call yesterday about opposition to Steve Cohen forming up for 2008. The most striking thing about it--- Most of the old familiar faces are back, and they're still not any more creative than they were during last year's primary.

Ron Redwing claims that that several black community, business and religious leaders had reached out to him about the 2008 race and that he is "keeping his options open." Why they would do this--- No one has any idea. His 2006 campaign consisted of telling voters "Pick me or the white guy gets the seat".

Ed Stanton is back in. No word yet on whether or not's "Throw the Jew Down the Well" will be his campaign theme again.

Julian Bolton, who insisted that Steve Cohen was trying to join the Congressional Black Caucus not because he represents a majority black district, but so he can "send money to Israel", plans on taking the lackluster leadership he brought to the county commission to the House of Representatives.

Nikki Tinker's old traditions die hard. The woman who ran for over a year but thought "I'm not prepared to talk about the issues at this time" was an acceptable answer for most of the campaign has no official comment for The Hill. However, LaSimba Gray says she's running, and Ramona Oliver from Emily's List (Who sent out a slanderous piece of campaign literature on Tinker's behalf last year) has said that Tinker told them she's running again. All bloggers should brace themselves for yet another round of semiliterate rants from the Tinker Trolls.

***UPDATE*** 2006 Republican congressional candidate Tom Guleff has a great take on Tinker that should be seen by all. Click here to read it.

And dear god, Jake Ford has said he's running again. No word yet on whether or not he has the guts to run a primary this time. Word through the grapevine is that Harold Ford Sr. considers Nikki Tinker to be the official "Ford Party" candidate, so it's unclear who will tie Jake's shoes next year.

Ironically, the only people that aren't talking about running again are the candidates that behaved honorably last year. Joe Ford Jr., who endorsed the Democratic nominee after the primary, will not be running again. Tyson Pratcher announced that he will be endorsing Cohen. Lee Harris, who ran one of the most honorable campaigns I've ever seen, isn't even mentioned in the article.

Oh Happy Day!

2007-03-23T11:46:00.000-05:00

The House just approved a bill tying withdrawal from Iraq (Provided that the Iraqi government doesn't meet benchmarks) by September 2008 to a bill funding the war.

216 Democrats and 2 Republicans voted for it. 198 Republicans and 14 Democrats voted against it. Two Democrats and one Republican abstained.

This bill is about something the White House hates--- Accountability. It tells the Iraqi government that we will not coddle them forever. In fact, it won't even meet the goal of this White House, which is coddling them just long enough to make it the next president's problem.

The bill has an uphill battle. It will most likely be revised in the Senate, and the president is threatening a veto. However, he can't veto this one without vetoing war funding.

Even a Cat In Heat Hits the Right Note Once In a While

2007-03-22T16:22:00.000-05:00

One of my exes used to live in the Dakota. She used to tell tales about what an unbearable neighbor this woman was.

And if you've not heard her singing voice--- How can it be described? Think of Geddy Lee from Rush. Now imagine the sound he might make as he gets his testicles waxed. You're just about there.

But in at least one aspect of her life, Yoko Ono deserves praise.

She has waived all royalties for an album of cover songs of her late husband's music called Instant Karma: The Campaign to Save Darfur. (Hat tip to Sharon Cobb)

The basic $19.98 CD has 20 John Lennon covers, including the title track by U2, Working Class Hero by Green Day (a video is also expected), Mother by Christina Aguilera, Power to the People by the Black Eyed Peas, Love by The Cure, Jealous Guy by Yousou N'Dour, Imagine by Willie Nelson and Real Love by Regina Spektor. Tunes by Big & Rich and Jack Johnson also are due.
Half the 40 tracks will be available overseas or as bonuses on CD tailored for online and big-box retailers. Give Peace a Chance is interpreted by Aerosmith with Sierra Leone's Refugee All-Stars and by a Japanese ensemble in the vein of We Are the World. All will be sold as individual downloads. Artists donated recordings and Ono waived publishing rights to Lennon's catalog. - USA TODAY

Sounds like a great lineup, but they should definitely include Keb Mo's version of "Imagine". I realize he's not the big name that some of the others are, but come on, there's got to be something to say for musical merit.

Campfield = Plagiarizing Hack

2007-03-22T12:07:00.000-05:00

WHEREAS, Stacy Campfield passed this drivel off as his own work,

WHEREAS, Roger Abramson's sharp eye points us to the original source of Campfield's "creativity",

WHEREAS, the brilliant and lovely Brittney Gilbert brought it to our attention,

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE that Representative Stacey Campfield is recognized as the blight on the 18th district that he is.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the State of Tennessee strongly condemns plagiarizing hacks.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the State of Tennessee recognizes the word "Campfield" to be used as a verb, meaning "to screw up incessantly due to sheer nuttery and/or a lack of intelligence", with alternate definition "to pass someone else's work off as your own".

Edwards Is Still In.

2007-03-22T11:49:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth Edwards has been diagnosed with Stage IV cancer. I looked up the survival rates, and they're not incredibly good. There's roughly a 20% chance she'll still be with us in five years.

But John is still in the race. You've got to know that's her doing-- She wouldn't want to be the reason a president that can serve the public good is derailed.

It's hard not to salute these two. The ultimate troopers.

Lady O - Political Heavyweight

2007-03-21T15:09:00.000-05:00

After having missed much of the last three weeks due to illness, State Senator Ophelia Ford has come roaring back with a piece of legislation that will enrich the lives of all of her fortunate constituents---

A resolution honoring Justin Timberlake.

Sad to note that on the list of his accomplishments, she left off "Dick In a Box".

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING, that we hereby honor and commend Mr. Justin Timberlake on his highly successful music career and for his meritorious service to the State of Tennessee and extend to him our best wishes for every future success.

Read the full resolution here.

Hat tip to Kleinheider

The Timberlake Resolution, sponsored by District 29's Lady O, was on the consent calendar--- Meaning it would be automatically approved unless someone objected to it.

Well, someone has, so it comes up for a roll call vote tomorrow.

Personally, I've had a change of heart. I can support this bill---Just as soon as they add the "Dick In a Box" amendment.

Again, hat tip to Kleinheider

UPDATE- The "This is Huge!!!" Edition

Vibinc has done us the honor of writing the "Dick In a Box" Amendment.

It is resolved by the Members of the House, Senate and recognized by the citizens of the great state of Tennessee, that the following steps outline a path to greatness.

Step 1. Cut a hole in the box
Step 2. Put your junk in that box
Step 3. Make her open the Box.
That's the way ya do it
It's my dick in a box!

These steps are a testimony to the ingenuity, creativity, and can do attitude of our citizens, and truly captures the spirit of Christmas.