Chumney Redux

I didn't know how to wedge this bit into the Carol Chumney post below, so you get it here.

In all the fuffle about the day-care situation in Memphis the past few weeks, Chumney put forward her solution to the problem: another government agency! Yep, just what we need. She argued that State oversight and State and local Departments of Children's Services weren't enough. We needed a Memphis-only agency, independent of the others but working together, to watch our own backyard.

Shyeah! Part of the problem was failed communications between at least three government agencies. She wants to add another to the mix? Provide yet more opportunity for responsibility-ducking and buck-passing? Another great Chumney idea.

And now the City Council has obligated the City to a program to train and help certify day-care workers, at City cost. No one has any idea what this program will look like, its scope, how it will work, nor even the faintest idea of cost. But we will have something, and you and I will pay for it.

Every year, more children are killed, injured or maimed in automobile accidents in this city than have died in child-care in the past few years. Do we have a driver education program? Does the City actively work to make Memphis drivers safer? We do not. But it would have more and wider impact than some nebulous effort at improving the quality of day-care workers.

Ask youself this: would you turn over your kids to a stranger who only made $7 or $8 an hour, expecting them to care about your kids as much as you do? How many service-oriented places do you go into (restaurants, shops, etc.) where the staff makes that level of income and get crappy service from people who don't care about you or your problems? It's just that simple. One of the best ways to improve child day-care (though not the only, by any means) would be to increase pay, to attract not the bottom of the worker pool, but interest those with somewhat more skills.

Of course, that means that a whole lot of folks suddenly can't afford day-care any more.

Just a thought.

New Year, Same Old Story

Every Spring, the media starts to fill up with horror stories about the rising price of gas. Dark hints and accusations of oil company profiteering soon follow. "It's price gouging," someone will always accuse.

Pooh.

There are perfectly normal explanations that are rooted in government interference in the marketplace. It really is your government's fault! But that doesn't make for good news stories, as the "greedy oil companies" template has been well-established by now.

From the Knowledge Problem website comes this perfectly rational explanation:

The existing EPA fuel oxygenate requirements that arise from the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 require that all refiners deplete their inventories of winter fuel before restocking the tanks with the summer fuel (something to do with reducing the probabiilty of mixing). This requirement exacerbates the seasonality that is inherent in gasoline prices because of (1) changes in the demand for gasoline and (2) the price inelastic nature of the demand for gasoline. So now in addition to inelastic seasonal demand for gasoline, we have inelastic seasonal supply of gasoline. And politicians and "uninformed newscasters" wonder why we have seasonal price spikes ...

In theory these price spikes should provide an arbitrage opportunity for some clever entrepreneurs. But the opportunity cost of inventory storage is very large; petroleum refining is a very aggressive oligopoly, so the profit margins are just not there to support carrying such a capital cost. Furthermore, constructing more tank farms is almost as much of a no-no from the aesthetic/NIMBY perspective as building more refineries (the last refinery built in the US was constructed in 1976, in Louisiana). So expanding storage is expensive and difficult to achieve.

Make sure to read the comments as well.

Do I think people will pay attention to such simple market economics? Of course not. The conspiracy theory is so much sexier. Ah well....

A Tale From Another City

A Half-Bakered reader sent me a link to a story about Commercial Appeal Editor in Chief Chris Peck, his former newspaper the Spokane, Washington, Spokesman-Review, and conflicts of interest. It was published in the Spokane alt-weekly, the Local Planet back in March 2001.

The story is a two-parter, but it's best for reasons of comprehension to start with part two and then go back to read part one. It's a very complex tale with a lot of players and difficult to summarise.

A very wealthy Spokane family, developers, also own the main daily paper. (In local terms, think if Jack Belz owned the Commercial Appeal.) That family was pushing hard for a redevelopment project that involved public funds. Where the previous generation of family had kept the walls between the newspaper and the property development pretty firm, the current young generation was less strict. That led to a blurring of lines and roles that led to a lot of questions, upset feelings and appearances of bias at the paper.

That's just the slimmest possible outline. As you'd expect, this story encompasses government officials, City Councillors, PR firms, developers, lawyers, editors, reporters and many more.

Peck is only one player in this sprawling story, but an important one. As I said, this is a long and hard-to-read article, but well worth the time for what it illuminates in Peck's behavior and thinking. I sincerely hope that whatever lessons that mess taught, they were learned. Similar public-private partnerships happen all the time in downtown Memphis and the potential for similar meltdowns exists.

Let me also be very clear here. Someone sent this to me and I'm passing it on to you. There's no "gotcha" going on. It's an absorbing story you won't hear anywhere else in Memphis.

Really and truly: Read The Whole Thing.

You Want It? You Pay For It

The Cooper-Young neighborhood is a great place. Fun shops, tons of great restaurants and aura to spare. The annual C-Y Festival is an all-day outdoor party -- a must for all Memphians. One of the neighborhood's landmarks is a "recovered and repurposed" railroad trestle bridge at the south edge of the hub of C-Y.

The Commercial Appeal ran a story in one of its neighborhood sections about Cooper-Young that featured the trestle art and its costs to maintain. The article seemed awfully boosterish even for the paper and, sure enough, turns out it was written by the Executive Director of the Cooper-Young Community Association! Hmmm.... A search turned up no other CA stories about the art installation.

The Memphis Flyer, it turns out, has the real skinny.

Marc Long, president of the Cooper-Young Community Association (CYCA), went before the City Council's Personnel, Intergovernmental, and Annexation committee last week, proposing that the city take over ownership of the art trestle and all the costs associated with it. Meanwhile, the group would retain ownership of the art.

"For the initial project," Long said later, "we had money from grants from the city and the Community Foundation [of Greater Memphis] along with matching funds from private donors and corporate donors. At that point, we took full responsibility [for the trestle] because we had the money in the grants to do it. After 9/11, the insurance went up and we started choking a little bit."

In fact, after 9/11, the insurance skyrocketed from under $1,000 to about $4,000 a year. Last year, the CYCA held its first annual Art for Art's Sake auction to cover the maintenance costs of the trestle and came close to raising the necessary amount. This year's costs will be offset by the CYCA's second annual art auction, scheduled for April 3rd.

Ahhh.... They can no longer afford it, but still want to keep it. So they'll get the rest of the City to pay for it!

The Cooper-Young area isn't rich, by any means, but certainly doesn't lack for funds. The C-Y Festival is an annual smash that could be harnessed to their needs. As the author of the CA story points out, 45,000 attend the Cooper-Young Festival. If only 10% of those folks could spare a dollar, you'd have nearly all the costs taken care of!

I oppose on principle the City being given funding responsibility for these kinds of loss-leaders. Yes, it's really neat (I do like it.) but if you want to have it, you should make arrangements to pay for it. Don't look at me, unless you'll also accept my opinions on what to do with it.

Oh? That's a different matter, you say?

This will eventually turn into a tug of war between the City Council, needing to make some kind of decision on development or something, and the "arts community," which will argue it should be left alone and that the City has no "right" to mess with it. Sorry, but who pays the piper calls the tune.

If you like the trestle art so much, prove it.

Memphis Anti-War Protest

I forgot to post this over the weekend, but Memphis also had an anti-war protest on the anniversary of the start of the Iraqi War. As reported by the Commercial Appeal, about one hundred people showed up. Take a look at the accompanying photo. Sheesh...talk about pampered and well-fed.

The protest was sponsored by the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, the usual gang of idiots and whiners. MSP&J (sounds like a sandwich) are also the local force behind the "living wage" movement. They have "offices" at First Congo Church in Cooper-Young. First Congo has an umbrella cooperative community of activist organisations, so a turnout of one hundred protesters isn't particularly impressive..

Lesson For Today

Hat tip to Possumblog for Fun Facts About Classic Architecture, a quick, picture-filled look at Greek and Roman columns, capitals, bases and balustrades. It's a fun, quick read. (Note: Adobe Acrobat required.)

He Starts Here And Ends Up...Over There Somewhere

John Branston had the Memphis Flyer cover story last week, with "Policy & PR: How taxpayer-funded public relations are shaping the news." It purports to be a look at the use of PR firms by government, but mid-way through the article it veers in a whole different direction. Neither one nor the other, it ends up leaving me dissatisfied.

Branston starts with an overview of the use of PR firms across the spectrum of local government and quasi-governmental bodies. Not bad, but he neglects details like how much all these bodies are spending. He then lurches into a look at the Madison Avenue "light rail" boondoggle that dovetails with what I have to say further below.

Then, almost half-way through, things get weird. He starts talking about Federal District Attorneys and some cases that might shed light into their offices. He's talked about them before, hinting darkly of shadowy things, and does so again. I guess it's a hobby horse of his, one that he doesn't have enough evidence on yet to speak out about. But you get the sense he really wants to. Really wants to, if you get my drift and I'm sure you do.

Next comes a long passage on the arrival of the Grizzlies, with the attendant controversial media/government hustle. This part is worth quoting:

The big announcement and press conference was three years ago at the Plaza Club with the mayors, NBA Now leaders, and officials of FedEx and AutoZone. Several downtown PR firms and the Center City Commission made sure the room was packed with a friendly audience.

Anyone who remembered the controversy over building The Pyramid knew that a new publicly funded arena would face a tough fight. The true cost would be every bit of $250 million plus the debt on The Pyramid. The well-orchestrated show of solidarity represented only a slice of the business community, much less the taxpayers. The challenge was getting someone influential to say so. PR firms for the Grizzlies and the Public Building Authority tried to keep the focus off of politics and cost concerns by taking reporters to see a new arena in Indianapolis. But sizzle wasn't the issue.

Mike Rose was an obvious call -- a big UM booster, basketball fan, longtime Memphian, and a former Promus and Holiday Inns CEO familiar with nine-digit numbers. But there were complications. Rose was long gone from Promus and Holiday Inns. He lived in Nashville, and his ex-wife, Gail Rose, was a leader of NBA Now. That left the hard questions to a few "naysayer" reporters and "mavericks" like Shelby County commissioner Walter Bailey, lawyer Duncan Ragsdale, and housewife Heidi Shafer.

I'll admit to density here and say I'm not quite sure what he's trying to get at. Rose was "an obvious call" to whom? The "nay-sayers?" The NBA Now tiger team? Branston goes on to relate and praise a Rose guest editorial in the CA that criticises the FedEx deal, showing how reporters dropped the ball, but do we know that Rose would have done as John suggests? Why couldn't the Flyer have done it? Why didn't they? Hmmm....

He's right, though, about the critics being pushed out on the fringe. The local media completely walked away from their duty, in favor of self-interest. Newpapers and television had a financial stake in getting the team here, as well as the prestige and freebies and access. That was an abandonment of duty and the clearest indictment of the local media you could ask for. But I wish that Branston had gone deeper and explained, for example, who hired which PR firms. Were they hired with City money? That would seem to be a conflict of interest -- using PR firms to influence public opinion about a matter of City spending? I'd love to see Branston fill in the story; I really would. Name names, John.

But then comes the strangest part of the article. Branston wanders into a vague, skimmy look at the Commercial Appeal (which serves to stand in for all local print and television media, I guess) and how it approaches PR before just generally criticizing the Commercial Appeal. He spends some time talking about the paper's "new direction" and its new choices in terms of coverage. Things end with a vague glare at the paper's new direction and a seeming paean to days gone by. Odd.

I agree with his points, for the most part, and he asks some good questions about how newspapers can survive and stay relevant in the media-rich age.

This passage sticks in my craw:

Peck is correct that nobody cuts out a story about the inside stuff over at the finance committee and puts it up on their refrigerator door.

Is that the purpose of a newspaper? To end up on the refrigerator? Fish, cats and birds everywhere would be saddened to know that.

Seriously, the duty of a newspaper is to get into places most citizens can't. Especially in government, where a few people in a finance committee room can make decisions that will affect hundreds of thousands of people. I couldn't care less about some arts social, but I care deeply about the agency that takes my tax money to fund that arts social. I want to know! Recipes, wine tastings, movie reviews, humor, comics, cute pictures, agony aunt columns, and a million other things like that I can get anywhere. But if the Commercial Appeal and the Memphis Flyer don't report the doings of boards, committees, commisions, Councils, etc., who will? How will I know? Yes, television will give me video, but they are time-limited and unable to do in-depth reporting. Newspapers alone can give me the whole story, in a format I can save and study whenever I want. (Though the Internet is fast catching up there. Imagine if someone had put the City Council's bashing of Carol Chumney, full and unedited, on line? No mediation, no massaging for structure, no missed context, no editing.)

Branston even manages to elide an important point about the mix of government, PR and the press. He says, near the end of the article:

In some cases, CA political reporters have gotten out of their ruts by getting out of the business. In less than two years, the paper has lost three state capitol reporters and a local political columnist. Peck said he has fired only one reporter, whom he did not name.

Tie this in with something from the beginning:

Tom Jones, who started as the spokesman and wordsmith of Shelby County government, vastly expanded the role under mayors Bill Morris and Jim Rout. Jones helped make county policies as well as sell them and served on the board of several agencies. His successor, Susan Adler Thorp, has a more traditional role under Mayor A C Wharton.

You have to tie that together because Branston doesn't bother to point out that Thorp was the former CA chief political columnist! Doesn't anyone find it interesting that she would jump ship right after the election to take this job?

I've written before about her behavior in the four week period just before and right after the County Mayoral elections. She wrote ten columns in that time -- five of which were directly critical, to the point of viscious attack, of losing candidate George Flinn. She even wrote an "exit interview" with him after his defeat! She wrote two columns about obscure, hopeless candidates -- the kind she had dismissively blasted in the past -- facing strong certain-win Republicans. Not once did she write a column discussing or praising AC Wharton! Her only mentions of him were in conjunction with Flinn. Thorp was unquestionably partisan, which wouldn't be so bad if she was honest about it. But being followed by her stepping into the Communications Director role for AC Wharton, it fairly screams of ethical breach and misuse of her position.

And yet...not a word. Same for Paula Wade, whom Branston doesn't mention. She was a vociferous supporter of TennCare during her CA tenure. Where is she now? With the State of Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, which has oversight on guess which program? Yup, TennCare.

Anyway, Branston gave us a good start before he wandered into something he seems to want to say real bad, but won't quite get out. I suspect, with nothing but my own reading of his work to suggest it, that Branston's journalistic training and sense of ethics is what's holding him back from a real paint-blistering screed against government and the local press. You can see him nudging the edges of it here. I wish he'd let go. He's been around Memphis long enough, and seems more than smart and informed enough, to "connect the dots" as he calls it, in the incestuous greed-party that is Memphis government in a way I'd dearly love to read. Real "flip the rock and watch the creepy crawlies run away" stuff, I'm sure.

Remember, John, it's an opinion column. You can say what you think.

By the way, come back to this topic again, but focus on the firms, the government agencies, the money and the relationships. Most definitely the money. There's gold yet to be mined there, too.

What He Said: Gay Marriage Department

I've considered wading into the gay marriage debate, but have hesitated because I really don't have anything to add that's unique. Ultimately, my position comes from my libertarian philosophy: "Why is government even in the business of licensing marriage?" It should be a private, religious or civil matter. Questions of paternity are no longer a problem with modern medicine. Questions of inheritance can be handled in courts. Records can be kept and documents filed. The government shouldn't be in the business of promoting married life. Government is for individuals, not social units.

Personally, I find gay sex revolting. Sorry, but I do. Ick. Doesn't mean I find gay people revolting. I have many gay friends and acquaintances. Can't help it, living in Midtown; wouldn't want to. They are regular folks just like anyone else. They want homes, jobs, security, love and happiness, too. Homosexuality is a difference with only minimal distinctions, if you look at it.

Pretty much everything I'd want to add to the debate has been better said by Rev. Donald Sensing, a Nashville Methodist minister who has a blog titled One Hand Clapping. Except, of course, that I'm an atheist. But his comments about the changes our science has wrought and society has undergone in the last forty years, bringing us to where we are today inexorably, are what I'd say. Except better.

Today's History Lesson

Following on from the post further below about the election of 1884 (dirty!), we step back a couple of decades to the election of 1864 -- right in the middle of the Civil War.

A Republican President is in the middle of prosecuting an unpopular war, one with a large number of Americans calling for appeasement and bringing the boys home. His opposition is a former military man, seeing "death, debt, and destruction with no end in sight." There was an important social/moral issue creating controversy.

Strange parallels to today, yes? History is like that. Go and read it.

Today's Quiz

From the Microsoft Network's Encarta site, comes this test, taken from the Illinois State Board of Education. It's the math test required for eighth-graders in their public school system. Go ahead and see how well you do. I only had difficulty with one question!

Not A Law Blog, I Promise

That Rocky Top Brigade roll at the left is mighty long and sometimes it's easy to lose folks, or overlook them, in there. I've meant to highlight one blog, Southern Reporter, for a while now.

Mason lives here in Mempho and is a law student. But his blog is about all sorts of things, especially Memphis Tigers basketball and sports in general. Give him a gander and say hey.

Whining Child Alert

So, over the weekend I made a couple of Kerry campaign posters. You can see them here. I think they turned out pretty well. Feel free to post word on your own blog! Spread 'em around. Tell your friends and enemies. I don't care. Just make sure I get credit. And page hits.

Good Morning, Memphis

Well, busy weekend here at Half-Bakered. Managed to knock out a few things and tweak a few noses. Good. It's about time.

I have to admit to becoming reticent in being the media watchdog I set out to be. As I've gone along, I've heard from, met and had email discussions with members of the local media establishment. With only one exception (Hi Jackson!), they've proven to be nice and thoughtful people. I hate that. It made me less likely to hold feet to the fire.

Well, no more. I need to do my job, self-appointed though it may be. We've been discovering new Memphis blogs at a rapid rate lately, but none take the local media to task on a regular basis. Someone needs to and I say it's me.

So, I'm back on the job.

If you find yourself on the pointed end of the stick, don't take it personally. I don't. With very, very few exceptions, I go after words and actions, not the person. I try not to make it personal, but I also try not to spare the rod either. Take your licks, shake hands, get back to work. OK?

The usual caveats apply. Right now, I'm between jobs and have some spare time to expend. Early in Half-Bakered's history I took my job way too seriously and blogged about every single mistake I could find in the Commercial Appeal and the Memphis Flyer. That would sometimes mean five hours a day of work. Not surprisingly, I burned out. Hiatus. I watch myself more nowadays so that doesn't happen. Unless someone wants to pay me to do this full time! Believe me, I work cheap. I have the W-2s to prove that.

Stopping blogging is also a mistake. It's very hard for me to restart when I do. It's like pulling loose from quicksand or flypaper. I'll have to be careful not to let that happen again.

And, of course, there's the depression. I have no control over this. I went for almost a decade with few problems, until about five years ago when the bottom fell out. I've been waiting and hoping to come back up, but it hasn't happened. It's like quicksand and flypaper, as I just said. Just keeping moving requires a lot of energy. Any time I stop, I return to inertia. I can't guarantee I won't do that again.

But.

Right now I'm feeling better. Maybe it's the arrival of Spring. Who knows?

Enjoy the ride.

Oh, So Now They See The Light

Commercial Appeal editorials are almost always fertile territory for amazement and humor. Since Dave Kushma went back home, they've turned into missives from a territory so mild and seemingly afraid of stating things plainly you have to wonder.

There was the editorial from January (if I recall it correctly) about the free-for-all amongst firefighters to determine who would next lead them. I read it several times to be sure, but I haven't a clue what the point was. I think it might have been "Fighting amongst yourselves is bad." Ooooooh. Cutting edge stuff. Damning indictment. Jolting call to the task.

Today's was no different. "New ammunition for political cynics" is a howler from start to finish. I don't have time for every point, but let's hit the high spots:

What happened to trust in those who hold the public trust? What is it that has given politics such a bad connotation in many quarters?

I think it's fair to say that in Memphis we should hold politicians in distrust until they prove their integrity. It might save a lot of time and trouble for the taxpayers.

As to the second question, it's obvious to all that our government has become a feeding trough for anyone who can afford the entrance fee. Grease the right palms and you get to slurp from the gravy train. Government has entered so many spheres that it is ripe for abuse in many ways. It's so large that finding accountability is difficult to do; so well-entrenched that enforcing accountability is impossible.

It's elementary. Let the City and County create a task force, empowered to go anywhere and investigate whatever they need to. Think of them as uber-auditors. Make them independent of anything. Set 'em loose. See what they find. Turn those findings over to the DA and then watch 'em disappear!

Alternatively, the Commercial Appeal could do its job and investigate them. I thought that's what newspapers did -- root out bad-doings and expose them to the light of day. Don't wait for the news conference, press release, or police report. Dig it out yourselves!

It's elementary. Either through ethical blind spots or a perverted sense of entitlement, public officials too often in Shelby County have failed to provide the proper separation between personal finances and public duties.

And yet, time and time again, the Commercial Appeal backs these same lunkheads for re-election or lauds those long in government service. Call a pig trough a pig trough and call a pig a pig! Instead of lauding them as statesmen, prick them with the needle of conscience once in a while.

Rout's case is problematic on its face. As reported by The Commercial Appeal's Michael Erskine last week, most of the investors in a fledgling medical group, one of the startup companies in Delta's portfolio, lost their money when the company filed for bankruptcy in December 2000.

Rout, the chairman of the county retirement board, which controls pension fund investments, got his $25,000 personal investment back.

Rout describes the transaction as a buyout that in no way affected his 2002 vote to invest $12 million in county pension funds in Delta Capital Management, a venture capital firm co-founded by former city councilman John Bobango.

OK, guys? This is the editorial page. You can express incredulity here and it's alright. You can scoff and even ridicule if you think it's needed.

You might also mention that Rout sits on the Board of SBC, the County's contractor for information service technology, a sweet deal for both parties, I'm sure.

Government officials simply should not be making multimillion-dollar commitments of public funds under circumstances with even an undercurrent of personal benefit.

These are the kinds of deals that produce an odor in local government that takes years to eradicate.

Oops, sorry. I fell out of my chair there. Isn't this the same paper that went out of its way to make sure that the FedEx Forum became a done deal? Who went after critics without mercy? There was never a whiff of concern about "personal benefit" on that deal, no sir. Still no odor today, in fact.

I'm still astonished they would actually print that paragraph. Really. Without the least hint of shame or abashment.

The situation reinforces an impression of the Rout administration already colored by the indictment and sentencing of former Rout aide Tom Jones on charges of misappropriating funds through county credit cards.

Jones used two county-issued credit cards for personal use to the tune of $76,000, and in a parting shot at his former boss after his sentencing told The Commercial Appeal that he believes about $10,000 of the charges he still has to pay back actually benefited Rout and others in the administration.

He described the administration as a "dysfunctional family" with numerous members who took advantage of their access to public funds to enhance the personal lifestyles of themselves and their family members.

You would think that stink would have wafted into the nostrils of the Commercial Appeal's watchdogs and set them to baying for blood. Red meat! But no, they were content to let the DA do the work. There's some evidence, I suspect, that they were well aware of the problem long before it came to light. The State Comptroller's report on Jones and other problems was circulating for months before the County elections that year, but we never heard of it until after. You would think with one of the top administrators being tainted that they might suspect some of the underlings followed his example. But no, they didn't follow that up.

The depth of the problem is a matter of dispute, and the comments of a public official who has been caught with his hand in the public cookie jar have to be considered in context.

Oh well. That explains that!

There was no quid pro quo involving Rout, insists Donald Mundie, Delta's managing partner of Delta.

Still, Shelby County taxpayers can't be blamed if they think the deal really stinks.

Or that maybe its public watchdog newspaper stinks. That would be my take.

But mind you that's only my opinion, which is based solely on the evidence presented to me. If I knew more, I might think differently.

Oh...wait....

This Army Is AWOL

Last year Memphis was wracked by the aftermath of a series of day care tragedies. A lot of kids died needlessly and folks searched for solutions. The Commercial Appeal stepped into unprecedented territory by injecting itself into the day-care situation in Memphis with the formation of Amber's Army.

With the CA leading the way, Amber's Army was going to sweep across the Memphis day-care scene and make a difference! Things would change and little children wouldn't die any more. It was a brave new world for this newspaper, full of optimistic assurances and earnest promises. They weren't going to just report the news, they were going to make it as well!

Naturally, the hoopla died down and things went along as they do. The biggest result of the day-care scandals was a lot of new legislation in Nashville. New, more expensive vans would be mandated; more employees would be required. A new, ten-page procedure for counting children getting in and out of the transport vans was concocted. They were, largely, onerous regulations that were later watered down. That was about it.

Come March, 2004, and another child is found unattended in another day-care van. In this case, she did not die. But the investigation turned up a heinous criminal history on one of the day-care's employees, and unveiled an astonishing lapse in communications between local and State government agencies, one that allowed this rapist to work near children. Procedures meant as guarantees proved flimsy as tissue because people simply faked the paperwork. All that sound and fury, so many high-flying speeches and solemn pronouncements, and we're still where we were.

Memphis again went into an orgy of "what to do." We were back to square one. Once more the Commercial Appeal editorialised about it. They pointed a lot of fingers. But there is one question they haven't asked. One finger still unpointed. I wonder if they have the courage at the paper to ask:

Where was Amber's Army?

Having injected itself into the story last year, they must now accept a part of the responsibility. What has Amber's Army done lately?

Go to the site and you'll see that it hasn't been updated since August of 2003. Last year. Eight months ago. Why did they stop? Why did they abandon the children? Did they think their job done? Why? Did they lose interest? I'm sure Karlissia probably would wish they hadn't. Will the paper investigate itself? Will they ask the tough questions of themselves? Will they even renew themselves to their own cause?

Amber's Army was AWOL. Now, who will bring the charge? Who will watch the watchmen?

Count On Carol, My Ass

I warned you Midtowners about electing Carol Chumney to the City Council, and now we're seeing the fruits of your votes. Sour fruits likely to yield little of value.

It reportedly started with her attitude on taking her seat. She isn't shy about reminding folks about her thirteen years in State government to the point her Council-mates felt she wasn't acting with proper "freshman humility." She breezed in with an attitude that caused friction.

Carol Chumney tried to suck up to Mayor Herenton. No surprise there, as she's made her mayoral aspirations known for years now. It's why she's on the City Council, to improve her media and governing profile. I warned you about that.

The real trouble began with her "open letter", printed in the Memphis Flyer. It reads like the sniffy, apple-polishing teacher's pet telling off the unruly students, blindly believing that being the best student makes her unassailable and right. She seems to be oblivious to the nest of relationships she entered in City politics and seems intent on remaining that way. Anyone can see that is a recipe for a whupping after class.

It happened in full view of the media. Chumney was publicly dressed down, in front of cameras by her fellow Councillors. Not once, but twice; once in a committee meeting and then again in the full Council. Her Council-mates excoriated her in no uncertain terms. Chumney, of course, missed the point and defended herself lamely.

One note on reporting here. The Commercial Appeal story is the usual newspaper style, taking words and phrases out of whole sentences, couching them in the reporter's words, ripping up the flow. The WMC story does a better job of giving the reader whole-sentence quotes. But both fail in providing a larger context. No television station, to my knowledge, ran the exchange unedited. We have no idea even of what started the fireworks off! What was said that triggered the exchange? I believe that reporters are so focused on micro-managing the story for us that they lose sight of the fact that modern technology gives *us* the opportunity to view the situation without their mediation. Oh, wait...my bad. We wouldn't need them if they just put this stuff up and let us make up our own minds now, would we. Sorry, I forgot.

Anyway. The upshot is that she's now in the shithouse. She tried to hold herself up as the model of a legislator, hoping to show by example how the others should behave. But she's done it in the most insulting and inelegant way. She's been shown for the prissy stuck-up she is, right there before God and Memphis. Her value to her constituents is now deeply discounted. She's going to have a hard time pushing through her projects, in the face of hostility and maybe a desire to punish her and remind her of her place. John Vergos knew how to navigate the shoals of the Council while still pushing for his projects and watching out for his constituents. Carol doesn't, amazingly enough, and will have a hard time getting anything for some time to come.

We in District Five will pay for her mistakes, for her ego and ambition. Thanks Carol. Knew we could count on you.

Public Service Message

Lots of folks use peer-to-peer programs to share music files. The most popular one today is Kazaa. But are you aware what Kazaa sneaks onto your computer when you download and install it? You should be. It's scary. If you use Kazaa, you should read this right away.

Reflective, Not Predictive

Some months ago, a great new website opened called Election Projection. It collected polling information from all across the nation down to the state and local level even, tracking the changes in voter preference in the upcoming Presidential election. They then created a "red/blue" map of the country, showing the current status. As the operators of the site said then, it was a reflection of the current status, and not a prediction of the election to come.

That didn't stop some Republicans from willfully not paying attention and start crowing about the huge landslide Bush was sure to have.

Here we are in mid-March, and things are different now! Kerry leads Bush by five percent and 34 electoral votes. The map is much more complex.

I think this is the point where I say things about chickens and eggs.

Water, Water Everywhere

Remember last year's terrible wildfires and drought out West? Remember all the usual reminders about global warming, etc., etc.? Well, times change:

The water content of California's mountain snowpack was measured at 123 percent of normal for March, 150 percent of normal north of Redding in the Shasta-Siskiyous and Trinity Alps ranges. Even with this month's unusually high temperatures, the year is shaping up as mind-blowing for farmers, cities, hydroelectric power generation and those who camp, fish and boat at the state's lakes and streams....

Even then, the water content in some areas is far enough above average that an extended drought would not be a concern. The water bank's high point in California was measured in the Trinity Alps northwest of Redding, with 163 percent of average water content for March 1. If it does not rain or snow one drop or flake for all of March, the snowpack in the Trinities would still contain 146 percent of average water content for April 1, according to the Division of Flood Management.

Lake Oroville is often a testimonial to water conditions in Northern California. In May 2001, Oroville was only 60 percent full, the highest level it reached that year. This year, it is already 84 percent full, with two months of inflows still ahead....

In the Sacramento Valley, the flood-relief bypasses, such as the Yolo Bypass, Butte Sink and others, filled during the storms fed by tropical moisture in February. From the air, it looks like an inland sea....

Water managers have been dumping water ever since, creating cheap hydroelectric power from Shasta Dam, raising water levels on the Sacramento River as much as 10 times higher than normal, and lowering the lake down to 78 percent full on Tuesday. For early March, that's still 104 percent of normal.

Remember this when you see "global warming" attached to annual weather stories again.

Supreme Court Cases You Should Know

I meant to link to this a while ago, so better late than never. Signifying Nothing had a great post on the ten Supreme Court decisions everyone should know. These are the fundamental and important cases; ones that shaped our nation's destiny. I knew only six of the ten, unfortunately. Chris lists a lot of supplemental cases that I had better luck with. Check it out and then get started on the ones you miss.