Another Space Milestone

Burt Rutan's Space Ship One was the first privately launched rocket to carry a human to the edge of space. They won the Ansari X-Prize for it. The achievement is comparable to Alan Shephard's famous first flight to the edge of space and then back down. No earth orbit, just getting up there.

Now comes word that another rocket, the Falcon-1 from Space Exploration Technologies, had a successful engine test firing today.

There are several more groups around the world that are nearing readiness for launch. It means an era of commercial space flight, cheaper access to space, and maybe space tourism. Not too much futher down the road, we can hope, will be space stations.

Magical

POV-Ray is a rendering program for CGI images. You can see a gallery of images created with this program here. Some are very mundane, where it's hard to tell it's not a photograph; some are beyond description. This page has a lot of graphics, so it will take a while to download at dial-up speeds. But trust me, it's worth it.

Hat-tip to Zgeek.

The Kathryn Bowers Silence

One thing I have noticed in the Tennessee Waltz scandal reporting is the apparent unwillingness of the media to mention that State Senator Kathryn Bowers, indicted with six counts of extortion, is also the head of the Shelby County Democratic Party. Most reporting emphasises her being a Senator. Heck, the Commercial Appeal didn't even mention it in their front page Bowers resume; you had to follow the jump to page six to read it buried in another article.

Think about it: the head of the Democratic Party in the state's largest Democratic stronghold, the largest Democratic delegation in the state, and the engine driving nearly all Democratic success in Tennessee has been indicted for accepting bribes! She's already made clear she's not stepping down, and no one within the party has publicly called for her to do so. It's a curious silence.

If it was Bill Giannini, the Shelby County Republican Party Chairman, would there be any reticence? Wouldn't every Republican in the county be buttonholed by media and reporters, asked to defend their Chairman or their support of him?

So why the apparent hesitation? I can see the quiet all across Democratic Tennessee. Despite the occasional show of bravado, there's a collective holding of breath it seems, a waiting for something or someone to do something. Nobody wants to step up and defend these folks because of the likelihood that they're all guilty, and it seems no one wants to start the process of change because of two things.

Number one, a lot of very powerful people will have to be moved. Bowers is, despite her appearance, one nuclear-powered battle-axe. She's going to fight, so anyone who suggests she step aside has to face her fury and intransigence. Shelby County Democratic politics (Republican, too) is an incestuous group. Allegiances and debts bind this group closer than any hillbilly family you can imagine. Whatever force for change that steps up will not be removing individuals, but whole branches.

Number two, admitting wrong is to open the door to Republican advantage. Of course, black Memphis isn't going to suddenly vote Republican, but many will be disillusioned and might reconsider their own allegiance. Remember, the gay marriage amendment is coming up in 2006, and that will do odd things to the black Democratic base. Most blacks are social conservatives, deeply so. Give them a reason to be repelled by Democratic options in other races and they might just stay home. In Tennessee, that translates to big losses for the Democrats, especially Harold Ford, Jr., if he's still in the Senate race at that time. (I think there's reason he may still drop out.)

Think too about Harold Ford's US House seat. The conventional wisdom says he was going to have a placeholder run for the seat while he runs for Senate. If he loses, then the placeholder steps down to let Harold reclaim it. But with the Ford mess, who can they safely run that doesn't have the Tennessee Waltz taint? If the local Democratic Party implodes, who would voters trust?

There's a lot at stake here, which is why I think there's such silence. Internecine warfare will have untold and devastating consequences. Even small conflicts could escalate. What if the Herenton faction decides to make a move? Gale Jones Carson and Kathryn Bowers have jostled for control of ShelbyCo Democrats for years.

But for now, it seems everyone is being supercareful not to toss the spark that ignites the conflagration. That may become moot if the rumored further indictments are handed down later this week. We'll see.

The Final Shove

WMC/5's George Brown reports that State Senator John Ford had made the decision to resign his Senate seat weeks before he actually resigned on Saturday.

Ford said Tuesday that his Senate resignation on the last day of the session had nothing to do with the corruption charges. He said he began planning his resignation after the Legislature passed measures making it illegal for lawmakers to work as paid consultants. "I made up my mind then it was time to go," Ford said. "I didn't need to resign from the Senate because of these charges."

In other words, Ford had learned what Senator Ron Ramsey, Chairman of the Ethics Committee, flat out stated on Friday: that there were more than enough votes in the Senate to force him to resign, if not expel him. The indictments were just the final shove to a man headed out the door.

Ford's bond appeal hearing, where prosecutors wanted to increase the restrictions on him if they couldn't get him back in jail, left Ford's status largely unchanged. He gets an extra hour in the evening time (6PM instead of 5PM), but he's still confined to West Tennessee and cannot meet with any of the other indicted or potential witnesses.

If Ford and Bower are both convicted, can Shelby County sue them for the cost of the special elections their actions cause? After all, they would both be expected to know that conviction for illegal acts would remove them from office and trigger replacement elections, yes?

Just a thought.

More Waltzing?

Darrell Phillips is reporting that more arrests may be coming from the Tennessee Waltz investigation:

But today, I learned a great deal more that may, in fact, yield more federal action. And my sources are now saying to expect more indictments - of LOCAL officials - before the end of the week.

Specifically, one County Commissioner is said to be expecting trouble. And on the school board there are jitters too. Some school board members apparently took an e-cycle-funded trip last year to Miami where they met company "representatives" aboard a yacht.

Explosive, if it pans out.

This is also the second mention of Miami in connection with the Tennessee Waltz scandal. People paying close attention to the John Ford indictment will recall he also met with some E-Cycle officials in Miami. Initial speculation centered on whether Harold Ford, Sr., was involved, as he now lives in the Miami area.

I can't wait to see if this is all true.

INSTANT UPDATE Thaddeus Matthews says his sources are saying the same thing:

...there are more indictments coming, that may include members of the County Commission, City Council, and City of Memphis School Board.

Matthews also has a post and interview with indictee Barry Myers that is sympathetic to him.

The McCain Option

Micky Kaus floats the idea of a McCain third-party run in 2008. I don't think that's likely to happen. McCain likes the spotlight he gets as the "maverick" Republican. As a candidate, that spotlight changes and suddenly he's not the spoiler or the dealmaker or the maverick, but a party leader who bears a lot of weight on his shoulders for positive action.

Still, it's fun to imagine. I'm sure the MoveOn, anti-Bush/War, Kennedy/Kerry/Dean part of the Democrats would love to push the "centrists" like Harold Ford Jr. -- the DLC / blue-dog Demcrats -- and the born-again moderates like Hillary Clinton over the side to purify their party's vision and message. That lops a good 10 to 15% of the electorate off their vote margin, but it makes them more able to push whatever message it is they want.

The danger is for the Republicans. Who goes with McCain? There's a broad swath of the party that is dissatisfied with Bush's performance as President as a conservative, and with Republicans in Congress who seem to be the Gang of Pigs Who Can't Shoot Straight. I doubt the libertarian wing goes with McCain; he seems to welcome government interference. Witness the horror that is McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform. The leaderships stays put, as that's where the pork and the money are. Do social conservatives go, hoping to bribe or bully McCain with promises of electoral support? I can't see that either.

Or do a lot of folks publicly support the Republicans, then quietly vote McCain on Election Day to punish the Republicans for forgetting who brought them to the dance?

Caught on Tape!

It seems Roscoe Dixon has also been caught on film! Prepare yourself....

That Was Fast

Thaddeus Matthews is reporting that indicted former State Senator (My how good that sounds.) John Ford already has a new job. Seriously!

In his next post, he notes some suspiciously fast results for a local pastor who went to indicted former State Senator (Yup, still sounds good.) Roscoe Dixon for help. Matthews wonders if money was involved here, too.

You'll be seeing alot of this over the coming weeks and months, people taking a second look at suspiciously handled or concluded deals involving Ford, Dixon, Bowers, Newton, Crutchfield, et al. You have to ask: If they were willing to take bribes for an unknown company with unknown people for a minor, rinky-dink business deal involving nothing more than proferring legislation, then why wouldn't they be willing to take bribes for important local people, folks they depend on to get their jobs done, or enterprises involving large sums of money and influence? I've always said, folks who are willing to fudge the inconsequential, meaningless stuff will more than likely be willing to do terrible stuff when it matters.

Let's hope the local media do their job in following all these threads to their conclusions.

A Tale of Two Cities

Jamey is travelling in Birmingham, Alabama -- my old city -- and writes of the marked differences between their paper and ours.

He asks after circulation figures, so here you go. Memphis' Sunday paper rates #55 and Birmingham's combined Sunday edition is #70. The Commercial Appeal claims 229,000 Sunday readers (which is down a bit from the 240,000 - 250,000 of a few years ago), while the combined Birmingham News / Post-Herald reports 185,000. You can also read more detailed circulation reports, though they aren't very current, on Memphis and Birmingham.

I lived in Birmingham in the early '80s and I remember the Post-Herald of that time as being a real third-rate paper. Then I moved to Memphis and saw how much worse it could get!

It's tough to tell, but I don't think the Commercial Appeal's efforts to re-invent itself are paying off. Like I said, circulation on Sundays used to be much higher than it is now. It's hard to get firm numbers, as papers use all kinds of fudge factors like "occupied household readers" and "pass-along readers" and bulk subscriptions to hotels, etc., to pad their numbers. I think that paid circulation is probably a good baseline, as it indicates the folks willing to pay money to get it, a sure marker of value, yes? Editor-in-Chief Chris Peck walks you through some of it. You can see he's employing some of this mind-fu and doing a little pep-talking and whistling past the graveyard as well.

I don't have the links in my bookmarks folder any more, but the Scripps annual corporate reports seem to back up the decline since the late 90s.

It's All Connected

As more reports look at who is involved in the Tennessee Waltz scandal, what strikes me is just how interconnected all these folks are. Roscoe Dixon, Kathryn Bowers and Barry Myers all have ties and mutual deals stretching back years. In a city as large as Memphis (including Shelby County) and a state as broad as Tennessee, the same names keep coming up over and over. It just reinforces the perception that a small group of people actually run the state.

Try these two stories from the Commercial Appeal, one looking at former State Senator Roscoe Dixon and the other at now-identified FBI informant and front man Tim Willis. See how many names all these folks have in common. Notice that there is a connection between Willis and the Shelby County Juvenile Court Clerk scandal of several years ago, involving Shep Wilbun, Darrell Catron (whose father is involved with Beale Street's management whose cousin Randle Catron is the President of Beale Street Development. Corrected at 9:45PM; thanks Thaddeus.) and Calvin Williams. (Williams has written a tell-all book he's been peddling around the local media for a few weeks. Will that book see the light of day now, after the indictments, or will it quietly disappear? A lot of reporters got a look at it and it was relentlessly hyped by television media for its explosive charges, but somehow those charges were never identified nor the alleged people involved named. Hmmmm....)

There's also the story on the Memphis Flyer website from the weekend about Tim Willis. Jackson Baker places Willis in context and inadvertantly shows how his past conviction may have been used by the FBI to pressure him to go along. They also print a long, unedited transcription of one talk between State Senator John Ford and Willis.

What caught my attention in the transcript was that Ford was clearly tipped off that something involving the FBI and E-Cycle was afoot. He suspected several months in advance. He says three different people warned him and that one was Roscoe Dixon himself. Given that East Tennessee Representative Chris Newton had, on Wednesday, quietly withdrawn the bill in question, Newton also knew. I had a report on a blog (I'm sorry I've since lost the link.) where someone described being in a grocery store line earlier this year and having a total stranger mention that John Ford was about to go down. The stranger said the FBI was about to move on him. This widening puddle of leakage may be why the indictments were unsealed when they were, on the last day of the legislative session.

Ford also talks about a mysterious "L.C." who was apparently involved, if I read this correctly, as someone with E-Cycle Management.

Ford also alludes to his Senate ethics investigation in a couple of ways. He states rather clearly that he's not at all worried about that investigation. (Remember, this was in February.) He seems to say that he's been told it will be quietly concluded.

Then Ford speaks about the difference between doing business in government and in the private sector. He flat says that he can make any agreement he wants and it's all above board. One is reminded of his contracts with OmniCare and Doral Dental, with their highly lucrative "consulting" work. Then he notes that with government, he has to be more circumspect and more quid pro quo. It's a fascinating view of how government works for some people.

I can see why the Feds released these tapes and transcripts. It completely pre-empts any efforts by Ford to spin or bluster his way out. Ford obviously sees himself so trapped that he's been forced to resign his Senate seat.

Strange days indeed.

Blogging the Waltz

Roger Abramson of the Nashville Scene has some good aftermath observations about the blogging of the Tennessee Waltz scandal. He notes the speed and availability of blogs versus the television news. Several bloggers, including Half-Bakered, went to live-blogging mode to cover events as they broke. He also praises the synergy of the ad hoc network that sprang up in the blogosphere to cover the story.

His criticisms are also good, but point the way to better blogging. Roger points out that reporters for Old Media often had the detail and "on the spot" news that bloggers didn't, and even began to feed from as the day progressed and reporting caught up with blogging.

There's an important point lost in this: Reporters are paid to go to the scene to interview people. It's their job. They have the ability and the resources to do that. They have the cachet of their employer's name and reputation to open doors for them. They have months and years of carefully cultivated relationships to draw from.

Most bloggers are amateurs. For example, Bill Hobbs couldn't just leave his day job to go to Legislative Plaza. I couldn't just head downtown to start tracking people down. Blogging isn't a paid gig for us, but an avocation. Most folks still don't know about blogging, so if Hobbs were to go to the Plaza, most legislators and staff wouldn't have the faintest clue who he is and would respond accordingly. We don't have relationships and reputations. Yet.

That day is slowly coming, but it's not yet here.

Roger also stresses how the MSM was able to filter the data they received to winnow the rumor from the fact, where bloggers tend to report everything they learn (as I did that day) and let their readers do the sorting. Roger sees that as a problem, but I see it as a paradigm shift, or maybe we're talking to slightly different audiences. Newspapers and television have to be accessible to anyone who might tune in; bloggers tend to assume a high level of informedness, and the ability to find another website if you don't like theirs.

Newspapers and telelvision news tend to report based on narratives. That is, to speed the process of reporting and getting on air, they tend to re-use the same story templates over and over. (Heroic person triumphs over adversity. Citizens struggle against government bureaucracy. Old codger is actually interesting and commendable.) As facts are gathered, the template is applied. Facts that don't fit the template tend to get lost. It's why so many stories have oddities from the first minutes or hours of an important event that tend to disappear as time goes on. The story's throughline gets streamlined and polished.

Take Barry Myers in the Tennessee Waltz scandal. Before Thursday, he was a long-time protege of former State Senator Roscoe Dixon. He has long been in training to follow in Dixon's wake. He was, in fact, being groomed to run for and win Dixon's old seat! He's been described as an activist in local Democratic politics and as Dixon's right hand. A promising, rising star. He was a young man with a long and lucrative future ahead of him in Democratic circles.

Until Thursday evening and then in Friday's papers. Suddenly, he was repeatedly identified as a "bagman." His whole, well known past was reduced to the FBI's description in the indictment. Bagman. And you watch, that's where he'll be from now on. There may be a profile or two to flesh him out, but in the more numerous regular news stories he's just a footnote, a bagman.

That kind of reductionism and streamlining is a hallmark of print and television news journalism. Bloggers are also prone to that, but you'll also see a lot more bloggers will to take one facet and dig deep. To notice one odd detail and follow it down. The MSM can't really do that -- deadlines, pressure, the need to catch the "juicy" news.

Most of Abramson's criticisms spring from the disparity of resources and schedule. Television and newspapers have deep resources to draw from. Bloggers don't. If sued or threatened, the MSM have lawyers on the payroll to run defense. Bloggers don't. The MSM has the communications network and resources to go places and transfer (or research) information. Bloggers don't.

As a commenter there noted, when wi-fi is common and more people have portable laptops and cam-phones with built-in wi-fi, then the landscape will flatten some more. When more bloggers develop a higher profile and develop reputations of their own, it will flatten further. Those days are coming, but aren't here yet.

But as the Tennessee Waltz demonstrated, they are coming.

Red & Blue Deja Vu

France held a vote yesterday on whether or not to approve and accept the new, 450 page Eurpean Constitution. The main architects of the European Union were French, so there was a certain necessity to approval. The vote failed decisively: 55% non to 45% oui. The whole Euro-project is now in disarray, with the possibility that Britain will also reject it later this year.

What's fascinating is to look at the "county by county" vote. Does this remind anyone of another map?

Why I Don't Play Video Games

Via Slashdot comes A Gamers' Manifesto by David Wong and Haimoimoi. It's a long list of what's wrong with game design and marketing. Most of it is easily fixable, but not profitable for one reason or another, or it's some tradition carried forward mindlessly.

I've rarely played any video games. Just don't care. Learning which finger-twitch combo I need to use and then repeating it thirty or forty times to open a door doesn't appeal to me. What few games I play tend to be PC strategy games like Civilization, Alpha Centauri, Sim City and Age of Empires. But even there the PC's AI (artificial intelligence) is so dumb it gets boring quickly.

The article is interesting, too, for what it doesn't mention. Deep immersion games like The Sims. The many small-company games designed for young girls that stress information, talk and social relationships. (I can't recall the names as I type this, but they are out there.) The review is just as male-centric and myopic as the companies and games they decry.

WARNING! The article isn't work safe. Much bad language and a couple of questionable graphics.

Come Out, Come Out Mr. Mike

Where was I? I've tended of late not to blog too personally as some of my family read this blog and like to use the personal stuff against me. Family....

But yesterday, I took a road trip with Mark to Nashville for Nashcon 2005. That was a historical figures and wargaming convention. I participated in an Epic: Armageddon tournament. Epic is a tabletop wargame with 6mm figures simulating small-army combat. My army is the Space Marines, the Emperor of Mankind's finest and most elite fighting force. I call my force The Black Sun Legion.

Unfortunately, I still have much to learn. (I've only been playing since January.) I went 0 for 3 in my tournament games. I fought the Eldar (ancient dying race armed with fast skimmers that are hard to catch), another Space Marine force (It was almost identical to mine. He had a pair of Warhound Titans I covet for my own force. Think of a cross between the ED droid from Robocop and the AT-AT walkers from Star Wars.) and Chaos Space Marines (Marines gone over to the Dark Side). The Eldar completely wiped me from the field; the other Marines pounded me flat. It was only in my fight with the Chaos SMs that I acquited myself moderately well. I still lost, but went down swinging.

I was completely holding my own for a while, even breaking some of my opponent's forces, until late in the game when he got reinforcements. I handled that poorly and he chewed me up for a final win. It was the only game where I felt like I was fighting a battle as opposed to watching the carnage.

You can read Mark's most excellent recap for a better idea of what the game's like. Unlike yours truly, he did significantly better, coming in third in the tournament! He also fights Space Marines, losing his first game (also against the Eldar), then winning his next two. Way to go, Mark!

It wasn't pleasant to lose every time, but the whole experience was tremendous fun. I love playing Epic, win or lose. It was fun to meet more enthusiasts. All three opponents were great people, friendly and helpful to a newbie player, much more interested in having fun than in kicking my ass. No attitudes or "play to the death" grimness at all. A couple of times they even offered me strategy tips to help me out.

I also got to watch a lot of other wargames of various kinds: paper and carboard counter battles, card games and painted figurines on tabletops. Some of those figurine games were elaborate in the extreme, with detailed landscapes and buildings to add to the atmosphere, and exquisitely painted miniatures. A couple of games intrigued me, but I'll have to wait before I try them. I went into the dealer's room, but didn't have any money to spend. No fun, I must say.

We left Memphis for Nashville at 4AM, to arrive in time for setup. We left the convention around 9PM, getting back in town before 1AM. Bennie, the cat, seemed glad to have me back; she even slept most of the night in the bed with me! But I was completely exhausted -- I had to ask Mark to stop once so I could get out and walk around to get revived. I fell asleep immediately after getting home and finally woke up to get out of bed around lunch time. Yow!

I spent the day reading around and catching up on news and email. I was so out of the loop I didn't even know that John Ford had resigned! I did make one necessary post here and several at Say Uncle, where I'm guest blogging for the next few days. It's late now, and I'm back off to bed.

More tomorrow.

As Promised, a Re-examination

I was chastised both publicly and privately for this post where I took a moment late on Thursday to scan a few Memphis and Tennessee blogs for reaction to the unfolding events of the Tennessee Waltz scandal. (It's good to see that label is taking hold. The only holdouts have been a couple of television news programs.)

At the time I looked, Dark Bilious Vapors, LeanLeft and South Knox Bubba had no comment on the Tennessee Waltz. All three are blogs that post multiple times each day, often all day; two have multiple authors. I noted it was odd.

Since that post, I've both read and been told more. LeanLeft did post that evening, to link to the Commercial Appeal's take and note the political fallout for several Democrats. Nothing condemning the allegations or the legislators.

Over the weekend, LeanLeft has posted two more times on the TW. One wonders if more arrests are to come (but doesn't seem aware of the connections between the arrested legislators) and seems to partly blame the alleged low pay of Tennessee legislators. The other seeks to divert attention by pointing up an Ohio Republican scandal. It's the old "Look! Over there!" and "Well they do it too." dodges conflated.

South Knox Bubba has a perfectly good explanation: he's been out of town, travelling in the Southwest. He was able to post, but it's all travelogue, except for this brief note. I await his return and his response. As Tennessee's highest traffic Democratic liberal progressive blog, his take carries some weight. I'll report his response when it comes.

Dark Bilious Vapors' response seems largely to be pique at Half-Bakered! (More here.) I'll plead guilty to jabbing them for their initial silence, but will accept their various explanations for that silence without further comment. Real life is always the best defense.

One of the three Vaporians (Darkies? Bilii?) has curtailed all his blogging of late and the second lives in Illinois, where Tennessee politics obviously don't mean much. Len points out quite clearly his less-than-disinterested feelings for Tennessee politics over national concerns. OK, then. Fair cop.

I should point out that I like all three of the bloggers at DBV. Len and I went to a Redbirds game last year and passed an enjoyable evening. We regularly post and comment on each others' blogs. I've talked with Brock at a couple of bashes and he's cool too. Karen I only know from DBV, her comments on my blog and some email conversations. She's a sweety! I'm sorry not to have met her when she came to Memphis last week.

I didn't expect to read anything at The Flypaper Theory. He's the kind of Democrat who views Representative Harold Ford Jr. with suspicion for his centrist moves, but he's also a corporate media whore (I kid! I kid!) who was nostril-deep-and-rising in work that day. Still, he managed to find the time to track down and examine the "website" for E-cycle Management, then report it on his blog. I'm sure we'll be seeing his TW posts after the holidays.

For contrast, here's a Democratic activist's initial response and his later emotional response. No dodges, sidesteps or awkward silences, just anger focused at the transgressors. There's also autoegocrat's blast. Both are something like what I had expected to find elsewhere.

So I make this offer: Give me names of and/or links to Tennessee bloggers of the Leftish persuasion who did blog on the Tennessee Waltz, or posted their reactions that day. I'd like to read them.

Save the Next Waltz For Me

I'm not going to blog anymore tonight. I have to be up early. Tomorrow, I'll be away from the keyboard all day. I'll be back to blogging on Sunday.

I still have a lot of fallout to wrap up on the Tennessee Waltz story, and some other items piling up in the Daily Blog bookmark folder. Hopefully, Sunday will be catch-up day.

But I have to warn readers that getting into these kinds of "pile up" situations is what leads to blog hiatus for me. Pressure to perform and all. I'll do my best, but no expectations, OK?

To the reader to whom I promised a follow-up to the "cheap shot" post, I haven't forgotten. It will be taken care of Sunday.

Since when do bond hearings take four hours? That's how long State Senator John Ford's was. Seems really unusual.

I finally got a chance to read today's Commercial Appeal. Very nice and concise round-up, though it suffers from the "day late, dollar short" syndrome. They devoted four pages to the story and covered a lot of ground. They even addressed the "Was Herenton Arrested?" rumor. The day's editorial was about the scandal, which impressed me. Normally editorials run a day or two behind events. Even the Letters column was about Thursday's events, though it obviously came from their email pile.

Only quibbles? The front page had one of those old-style huge banner headlines that yelled "STUNG." Another quarter of the page was a picture of John Ford in his car, driving into the Federal building. Chris Peck, if you're going to re-invent your newspaper perhaps you should examine old traditions like this one. I'd've preferred a normal headline, smaller picture and a quick point-by-point breakdown, to know what's in the paper. But that's just me, Mr. Former Regular Reader.

NOT ONE WORD ABOUT THE BLOGOSPHERE ANYWHERE! It was a State legislator, Representative Stacey Campfield who broke the story on his blog, at 7AM. Once the story surfaced around 9AM, blogs were boiling with reports. Television led the way from 10AM until just past lunch, but from then until newstime and for the rest of the day, the blogosphere was your best, most comprehensive and most up-to-date source. There were several folks live-blogging and doing updates all day. And that includes this blog, dammit. The Commercial Appeal's oversight was either a snub of the blogosphere, mighty damned arrogant, or just plain dumb. The CA had nothing on their website until past lunchtime. Nothing. (Although, to be fair, by evening time, they had a good basic story up, with charts and links to related stories. They also had a forum up and running. Modest but not bad.)

My other quibble? On the front page, in their list of the indictees and their positions, they did not identify Senator Kathryn Bowers as the Chairwoman of the Shelby County Democratic Party. There's no way I'll believe that omission was accidental. It's too important. You don't learn about her chairing until the jump to page six, and even then of the two mentions one is rather coy although the other is clear.

Jeez. Sorry. I got carried away, didn't I? Time to go.

One last note: I'm proud to announce that I will be guest-blogging next week over at Knoxville's Say Uncle blog! I'm deeply flattered by the invite, let me tell you. I'll be posting some goodies from the HB archives, cross-posting some current HB posts and tossing in a few Say Uncle exclusives for the East Tennessee and gun enthusiast audience over there. My co-guest-bloggers are Andrew from Pathetic Earthlings and Gunner from No Quarters. Fine company!

Wish me luck and maybe come on over to give me encouragement.

If you've enjoyed what you're reading please consider hitting the PayPal tipjar up on the left top of the blog. I would sure appreciate it.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend. Thank a veteran. Drive safely. Drink responsibly. Legislate legally. See ya Sunday.

Nashville, We Have a Problem

Part of John Ford's bond restrictions requires him to stay in West Tennessee and only go to Nashville for his Ethics Committee appearances. He's also not allowed to be around his fellow indictees. That includes newly elected State Senator Kathryn Bowers.

Ford cannot appear in any special or regular sessions of the Tennessee State Senate! Unless, of course, the judge decides to modify the conditions of his release, which Federal investigators are quite likely to fight. Or Ford resigns, which is unlikely as it would cut off his cash supply. Or the Senate votes to expel him and a new election is called.

That means that Tennessee State Senate District 29 is effectively without representation in the Tennessee General Assembly. Who does that affect?

Take a look. (Big map that requires Adobe Acrobat Reader to view.) That's a whole lot of Shelby County. Can't wait to see this play out.

He's Not Kidding Is He?

From Blogging for Bryant. Marshalls reportedly only collected two guns from Ford, both from his office. That's it? They didn't check his houses? Somehow, I had Ford figured for more guns than two. They always seem so at-hand when he decides to wave them around.

$20,000

That's State Senator John Ford's bail, according to the radio. Just $20,000; a token. The judge cited his extensive family ties and no previous history of violence. That should be no recorded legal history, as the media is filled with stories of his exploits. He has threatened State Troopers and has pulled guns. Ask MLG&W. The fact that the local police constantly give him the "wink and a nod" when people try to report his hijinks helped him, too.

He has other conditions, like wearing an ankle bracelet. He can only go to work, home and church [cough, cough]. The judge required that Ford pick one house as his main residence. An enterprising citizen-lawyer should see which one he picks and whether or not it is in his district!

He can no longer associate with the people indicted with him. He can't even leave West Tennessee. He can only go to Nashville for his ethics hearings. That means one less Democratic vote now in the Senate.

More later when the news hits the web, or the television. Cause the paper won't have it until Saturday.

Missed it by That Much

Sorry for the light blogging today, but real life needs some work after yesterday's marathon.

Jamey makes an ironic point about the timing of the Tennessee Waltz scandal. You just know a lot of television news directors and general managers are angry.