Quote of the Day

Via Hugh of Midtown / Downtown Books comes this American Creed:

I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be uncommon ... if I can. I seek opportunity, not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia. I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid; to think and act for myself; enjoy the benefits of my creations and to face the world boldly and say, "This, I have done."

All this is what it means to be an American.

You'll be surprised who wrote it. And how Hugh found it.

Open Comment Post: Movie Quotes!

Since we sort-of started it just below, let's have some fun this Friday afternoon. Post in comments one or two of your most favorite movie quotes. Any movie, any genre, any country, any year. Funny is better, but pointed or prescient is cool too.

Don't name the movie, though! Let us see if we can guess them.

Here are mine:

"I've been ionised, but I'm better now."

and

Bad Guy: "If I were you, I'd get outta here."
Hero: "If you were me, you'd be good looking."

That last one is admittedly obscure, but I've blogged about it here before.

The Attorney Roscoe Dixon Wishes He'd Had

Coleman Garrett tried the race card in the Dixon trial and failed miserably. By all accounts, he was just not up to the job of distracting the jurors from the overwhelming evidence against his client.

Dixon should have gotten Fred Gray:

Gray's rousing closing argument opened with a Psalm, then segued into a recitation of some of Gray's best known civil rights cases, including his representation of King in the 1960s and, later, the case against the federal government on behalf of black victims of the Tuskegee syphilis study.

As Gray spoke, another member of the Scrushy legal team quietly put up a poster-board of King's, "I have a dream," speech.

With his voice rising to a crescendo, Gray gave the final words from the defendants in this now seven-weeks-long public corruption trial. He implored federal jurors to "fulfill Dr. King's dream and fulfill that old song!"

"Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty we're Free at last!" Gray sang out.

She Has Teh Funney

I was commenting on another blog about the dearth of really funny movies in recent years. The last bust-a-gut film I saw was The Incredibles. (A libertarian propaganda movie! Yeah!) The 40 Year Old Virgin had its moments. But I've seen a lot more (Anchorman, Waiting) that just plain weren't funny. American comedy films are probably at the lowest point they've ever been. The funniest movie I've seen recently was Korean! Save the Green Planet which, frankly, defies summarising. Absurdist horror-comedy mixed with paranoid drama and action.

So I rented Sarah Silverman's Jesus is Magic with some trepidation. Mostly I rented it because she's smokin' hot and I've seen some of her stand-up, which was OK. Generally I'm leery of this kind of "I am so smart" comedy. It usually isn't. "Edgy" doesn't mean all that much anymore. If someone isn't willing to make fun of Allah and Mohammed, but does tired old comedy about Christians and whites, then you really can't call them edgy any more.

But this concert movie wrapped in filmed bits got me laughing. The analytical part of me could see the schtick, the planning of the set-ups (that's the part I used to turn off with drugs and alcohol) but she's funny enough, and smart and, mostly, pretty fearless within the confines of her topics. AIDS, the Holocaust, stereotypes, sex, etc.

Best bit, oddly enough, was on the DVD extras. It was the video for her Jewish Christmas lament, "Give the Jew Girl Toys." (Think Adam Sandler's Hannukah song.) Some choice lyrical bits:

I hate to say it Santa,
But you're acting like a dick.
You should give presents to everyone who's good
And not just to your personal clique....

Though I don't think he's the Son of God,
I think he was still a nice boy.
If you ask yourself, "What Would Jesus Do?"
He'd say "Give the Jew girl toys."
Give the Jew girl toys....

You made a list
And I checked it twice.
And there is no one named Silverman
Or Moscowitz or Weiss.

You have a list.
Well, Schindler did too.
Liam Neeson played him;
Tim Allen played you!
Oh yeah.

Be careful if you go to download this, as the lyrics I didn't use may be blasphemous to some. Me, I thought it terriby sweet in a twisted way, hilarious and pointed.

While watching the song for the umpteenth time, it finally hit me what part of her charm is. She's got echoes of Gilda Radner! Gilda was a member of the original cast of Saturday Night Live. She had an innocence and sweetness that never seemed artificial, even though she could be just as filthy and biting as any of the others. Silverman has that same quality of unforced sweetness that pops up in unexpected moments. It's part of what makes the outrageousness of the rest of her act palatable. She seems guileless, painfully honest in a painless way.

And holey-moley is she smokin' hot! If any Jewish women who look like her are looking for a goi-boi, give me a call.

And I'm still stuck looking for great American comedy! The most reliable thing I've found in the past decade have been the Christopher Guest films like Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show and A Mighty Wind, especially that last. It's still self-consciously "smart" but they are all good enough improv actors to really pull it out. (Guest mentioned in the commentary to one film that they recorded 80 hours to get 2 hours of movie!) On the other hand, the lyrics to "A Mighty Wind" crack me up, and the "Children of the Sun" video is an amazing Sixties psychedelic recreation.

Kevin Smith is pretty close, though his capper to the Jersey trio, Jersey Girl, I refuse to see. Still, Clerks is genius and there are guaranteed hilarious moments all the way through Dogma. If you haven't seen it, but count yourself a Smith fan, then absolutely see An Evening With Kevin Smith, which is two hours of him speaking at various college campuses about films, his life, Jay and making movies. He's spell-binding in the way that Spalding Gray (Anyone remember him?) could be, utterly making you forget you're watchng a guy on stage as he paints pictures in your mind.

Speaking of Smith, allow me a digression. Chasing Amy is on my personal top ten list of favorite movies. It's not so much that it's funny, although it is in the usual Smith way. (ie. dick and fart jokes; raunchy sexual humor, juvenilia, etc.) But it's starkly honest and unflinching in its portrayal of how regular people screw up their love lives. The speech his "Silent Bob" character gives late in the movie, explaining the title's meaning to Ben Affleck, just nailed me to my chair the first time, and still haunts me every time I see it. And the movie dares to be faithful to its characters and the trajectory they put themselves on, no matter the outcome or cost. Everyone ends up sadder but wiser, and even though it hurts it's the perfect ending.

I rather liked Hugh Grant's About A Boy, oddly enough, but not John Cusack's High Fidelity, which came from the same novelist. American romantic comedy is so predictable and charmless. You know the guy/girl always will get the girl/guy. And everything in between is contrived, hysterical (in the worst way) and crude.

What else? Ah, Swingers! Not so much a comedy as a funny movie. Guy doesn't get girl but in not doing so he finds true love just the same. Heather Graham's big debut, as the blonde in the poodle skirt, and I just keep being both happy for and jealous of Jon Favreau's character for finding her. The movie's more of a string of adventures than fully plotted, but Vince Vaughn's repeated cries of "Money, baby! You are so money!" and the film's neo-Rat Pack atmosphere just work for me.

I saw The Royal Tenebaums and kept thinking how I should be finding it funny and how I ought to be laughing. But it never fully clicked until the play at the end.

I'm trying to think of funny movies as I'm writing and I'm drawing a blank. I really love fast, zippy dialogue. (Remember Aaron Sorkin's Sports Night television series?) That's why I love British humor so much. (Blackadder, or movies like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, The Snapper or Janice Beard 45 WPM) Or sharp satire or wacky absurdity. (Monty Python!)

And I haven't even gotten to Japanese or Korean horror films, or Hong Kong action pictures. Or Takeshi Miike! Ooooh, don't get me started about his films. The guy can crank out four movies a year sometimes. If the first ten minutes of Dead or Alive don't completely fry your mind with its dazzling pyrotechnics, I don't want to know you.

I used to do reviews of the movies I watched. Heaven knows there's been a bunch I've seen I'd love to tell y'all about: Marebito (Japanese vampire / horror / psycho-existential film), Primer (reality time travel!), Killing Words (Spanish "marriage as torture" film), Premonition (Japanese version of Groundhog Day played as horror), Songs From the Second Floor (Swedish absurdist, end of the world, Kafka-esque movie), They Came Back (French intellectual zombie movie), Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (Korean, about the lengths men will go to for vengeance, and its consequences; nerve-breaking and haunting) and Oldboy (its sort-of followup; same theme but much flashier and the consequences are much more sickening), Ong Bak (astonishing Thai martial arts movie; no wires!), Fallen Angels (sad view of the underside of life in Hong Kong; visually beautiful), Whispering Corridors (Japanese haunted girl's school), A Tale of Two Sisters (Korean horror again; the movie plays completely straight with you but it's not until very late that you realise what's been going on and what the title means!), and a hundred more!

But they're a lot of work. For instance, I wanted to do a review of Shaolin Soccer (Chinese film by Stephen Chow) but I watched the movie three times and I took something like five pages of notes! After that, writing the review wasn't fun any more but just work. Still, it's a hilarious, heart-warming, jaw-dropping movie that mixes Chinese martial arts and great comedy very deftly. You should rent it now! The final soccer match will leave you howling and rolling on the floor. Then rent its follow-up, Kung Fu Hustle, which is even sillier.

Hey, I once wrote a 4000 word review of Japanese obscurity Battle Royale that still gets hits every day! I'm proud of that one. But that's just me. (More here. Great movie, BTW.)

Anyway, this has rambled enough. Summary: Sarah Silverman -- smokin' hot; American comedy -- not so much; foreign films -- lots of treasure awaiting discovery.

Tough Talk

They talk the talk but when it comes down to it they don't walk the walk. 93-6 was the vote in the US Senate today on a resolution calling for substantive US withdrawl from Iraq by the end of the year. This is, what, the third time Congressional Democrats have backed away from taking a stand?

Oh, yeah, they'll whine about it being a Republican measure and a stunt and this and that. But I recall homosexuals taking the word "queer" and African Americans taking the word "nigger" back from their tormentors, taking ownership and then throwing back in the face of those who oppress them. Do Congressional Democrats, truly far more safe from persecution than gays or blacks, not have the courage of their convictions?

Or is this just tacit admission that while some of their constituents may agree with the "Out Now" crowd, there are enough who don't to make it electorally dangerous?

93-6. Third strike.

You're out.

Look Both Ways

Some very cool pictures from the High-Altitude Balloon Project They attached a pair of cameras (one pointing horizontally, the other straight down) to the titular high-altitude balloon and set it free. During the two hour flight from North Dakota to Minnesota it continually snapped photos.

See America in whole new ways!

Tim Willis is Everywhere

A commenter over at Thad's blog points to a Commercial Appeal that links Tim "Kashflow" Willis, Mr. Tennessee Waltz, to the FedEx Forum mess via the PBA. Money quote:

In time, Willis headed a civic push to bring a pro basketball franchise to Memphis and was hired by the New Memphis Public Building Authority to handle public relations for construction of FedEx Forum.

That carefully elided "civic push" was the well-heeled and well-funded NBA Now.

It makes you hope the FBI will ask him questions about his time there and maybe, just maybe, expand their investigation into the Forum's finances and connections.

BTW, the very cool LeftWing Cracker forwarded a copy of the TDOT report on the FedUp Forum parking garage investigation. More on that later, after I can read it.

Public Corruption? Eh.

Go read this editorial from today's Commercial Appeal about the TDOT report detailing "misrepresentation" (their word) about building the FedEx Forum. Am I alone is sensing a massive "So what?" attitude from them?

It starts with the headline, Garage gaffe. Oh, a gaffe, like missing your cue onstage or picking up the wrong fork at the dinner table? $20 million dollars rates a gaffe? Already they're telling us it's no big deal. Just a gaffe, worth a titter or a sharp look. Nothing more.

To opponents of the financing plan for FedExForum -- trying to make their case for a public referendum in the summer of 2001 -- it was easy to imagine bigwigs plotting behind closed doors to keep them off the ballot.

Notice the careful parsing here. It's not opponents of the Forum, nor the rush to build it, but "opponents of the financing plan." Redefining opposition to a smaller group so as to minimise their apparent breadth.

And the biggest wig of them all -- Mayor Willie Herenton -- was very vocal that we needed to move with all possible speed to make things happen. What was opposed was the speed with which things were moving. Lots of folks were concerned that Memphis was giving too much away in the contract that few read, even some of the City Councillors and County Commissioners who voted on it! We wanted to slow down and take a closer look at things.

Do you not agree, oh wise ones of the CA, that if things had been slowed down a bit and looked over a bit more closely, that we might have avoided this mess?

Carrying signs that said "No Taxes NBA," "Major league rip-off in progress" and the like, they voiced a consistent theme: Powerful forces were at work in the community and would stop at nothing to bring big-time professional basketball to the city.

Oh, sign-wavers. Horn honkers. You know, those people. "Powerful forces were at work in the community and would stop at nothing to bring big-time professional basketball to the city." Well, DUH! Both mayors, some Councillors and Commissioners, Fred "FedEx" Smith, the NBA Now group and the CA itself. Sounds pretty "big" to me.

But no, the CA wants to paint a dark picture of conspiracy-minded kooks and their dyspeptic mutterings. All the better to marginalise you with, my dear!

Then, the context was the decision to float revenue bonds for the arena rather than dip into the city and county general funds to come up with a $24 million contribution.

Today, the switch is necessary because federal highway transportation dollars were used inappropriately to help pay for the 1,500-space garage.

First of all, notice how the editors very neatly slide right past the problem of the parking garage's size. It was supposed to have at least 1800 parking spaces, until that level of the design was changed to make the spaces into Grizzlies offices. No one knows who authorised that, either.

Fifteen hundred parking spaces for an 18,000 seat arena? What were they smoking? If you generously assume that only 75% of attendees will come packed four-to-a-car that's still ... um, waitaminute ... over 3200 spaces needed. And that doesn't even cover the "park'n'ride" users of the "intermodal transfer facility."

How did this ever get past anyone?

The city's leaders were pretty much forced to go with a bond issue as, even then, we were struggling with other debt, property tax increases and tight budgets. It was seen as a way to have our cake while letting others pay for it.

What the CA's editors are trying to do here is set up a false equivalence. Sort of, "Well, we were going to use mix'n'match Federal funds then anyway but went another way, and all we're doing now is the same thing, so it's all the same." NOT TRUE.

One of the constant themes of the building of the Forum was that it was going to cost exactly $250 million dollars and not a penny more. "On time and on budget" was all you heard, until now when we learn we must cough up $26 million more to pay for it. And that doesn't include the tens of millions spent by the City on "improvements" to the general area (new streets, sidewalks, park refurbishing, etc.) nor the many streams of revenue (including money charged for parking in a free facility!) that should have gone to debt repayment but were, instead, diverted into the pockets of Heisley, Hoops and the Grizzlies.

The Forum is costing us $26 million more than expected or was announced, since the money has nothing to do with the $250 million bond issue that is always touted as the "real" cost of the Forum. We're just lucky that the City, County, State and Federal governments are all willing to play a complex shell game to cover it all.

And that should worry people a lot. Since when do we believe that a "misreprentation" of this kind and size is easily cleared up by having other levels of government pick up the tab, or shift the bills around to different tables? I was immediately struck by how quickly and quietly everything was "made right." With all these many, competing turfs being involved no one is playing a power game or trying to shift (heck, or even assign!) blame? Smells like bullshit to me.

And the Commercial Appeal is perfectly willing to play along, to sweep it all under the rug, to divert our attention and -- Hey! Pretty shiny! Look over here!

Where was I? Oh yeah, diversion.

In the context of the financing plan for the $250 million FedExForum, it should be pointed out, this right pocket, left pocket switch won't have a major economic impact.

Isn't that good to know? It's like discovering your car was stolen only to have the police tell you, "Well, you have another car, so it won't have a major economic impact on you."

Something went very, very wrong. We need to know what, who and how. We need answers and, if there was criminal wrongdoing, prosecutions.

No one has been accused of pocketing any cash, and it's not even clear who's responsible. Those are issues that are worth exploring in greater depth.

Yeah, you do that. Will Hell be arctic by then?

Arena opponents maintained all along that there are powerful people in the community who don't care what the average taxpayer thinks, and it's too bad those kinds of suspicions are still being fueled.

And rather than confront and put to rest our suspicions the CA wants to put them aside and murmur in our ears until we go back to sleep. Good going, "watchdog." Voice of the people, defenders against tyranny. Lackeys. Milquetoasts.

The Commerical Appeal ends this horrifying example of toadying with this:

FedExForum is a fait accompli, but public confidence in the decisions of public officials is and will always be a work in progress.

Ah yes. The last refuge of the guilty. "Well, it's too late now anyway. It's already done." Yes, the Forum is already built, but many of the players involved in getting it finanaced and built are also still in office. If any of them are guilty of malfeasance or fraud or personal enrichment, then I wnat them found, prosecuted and, if guilty, imprisoned.

Is that really so much to ask?

The Commercial Appeal's answer is, "Hmm? What?"

This Is MATA

I went to the MATA site to download some bus schedules. Except trying to save them to my computer I discovered that the links I wanted (Routes 62 and 69) were broken! Others were OK, but these weren't working for some reason.

OK, it can happen. So, I navigate to the "Contact" page and click the email link. I tell them about the problem I just had. And the email is sent back to me with an unspecified mailbox error!

I'd try calling, but I've been stuck in that particular Hell before. No thanks.

While I'm ranting on MATA here, I should point out the problems with the FedUp Forum's misuse of Federal funds over a never-built "intermodal transfer facility." What I haven't seen the news reports doing is tying that in with the use of MATA funds in the construction of the Forum. They contributed something like one or two million dollars toward construction.

The MATA "office" or whatever it is that was built in the southeast corner of the Forum has never opened! Not one day. It just sits there gathering dust. I'd wager if you look at the bus schedules in the racks you'd see they are a few updates old. Was this facility supposed to the the "intermodal transfer facility?"

I'm glad to see City Councillors Myron Lowery, EC Jones and Bruce Thompson calling for an State or Federal inquiry. The whole thing is one massive boondoggle wrapped around a swindle hiding corruption. What was built is not what was sold to us. (WPTY/24 has been covering that for two years now, bless 'em.) All sorts of design changes and compromises were made after approval, to keep the thing below it's advertised $250 million cost. That was to minimise citizen fuss, to keep folks from sniffing around, I'd wager.

Which County Commissioner was it who admitted he'd never even read the contract before he approved it? How many other Commissioners and Councillors didn't read the damn thing?

And what's up with the NMAPBA President, Charles Carpenter, claiming it was the State's duty to make sure they were following the rules? Talk about a crook blaming the authorities! Dont' forget that the PBA refused to release, to anyone, their internal audits for almost three years. Then it was discovered that the person formerly in charge hadn't been doing them, and so we don't know what's been going on. They were quietly replaced. And we still haven't had a proper internal audit released.

Oh, where does this mess end? The Forum was advertised to cost only $250 million. Heaven knows the Commercial Appeal trumpets that every chance it gets; most localnews, too. So why did they need and get the $20 million or so from the Federal government? Where did that money go? What did it buy?

City attorney Sara Hall claims that the money we'll have to pay back isn't a big deal. She says it will be taken from Congestion Management / Air Quality funds that won't affect us. Except it will! The City and County have been cited repeatedly for poor air quality in recent years. We've been on the verge of Federal penalties (fines or harsher regulations to meet) during that time. The County touts CMAQ and its projects (only last month!) but Hall says the money will come from:

The city is losing out on $6.3 million in federal Congestion Mitigation/Air Quality (CMAQ) funds, although city officials say residents won't feel the impact.

Hall said $3.6 million of those funds were to be used by the city for improvements to the east I-40/240 interchange, but the state already has plans to make those improvements. "That's what's getting done, and it's not even our money," she said.

The rest of the projects will simply be delayed until money is allocated later, Hall said.

Notice that the CMAQ literature promotes all kinds of "feel good" "alternative" clean air projects, but the bulk of the $6.3 million is for road work. And she claims the money isn't needed as the funding is coming from elsewhere.

In that case, what was the "extra" money going to really do? Where was it really going to be spent?

I also love this Hall quote:

"I think this is the best possible result for the citizens of Memphis," Hall said.

"It's a result that doesn't require any taxpayer dollars to be spent. It has very little, if any, impact in a meaningful way on any of the citizens."

A city that can't afford to give police and firemen any raise at all and this shell game with $26 million doesn't "impact" in a "meaningful way?"

Unbelievable.

And we are somehow expected to believe that handing the State of Tennessee a bill for $20 million isn't going to cause problems? I can just see city leaders across the state saying, "You mean Federal funds mismanagement by cities can be covered by the State? Where do I sign up for this new revenue stream?" You think State legislators who already turn a jaundiced eye on this city won't be even more likely to give us the cold shoulder in the future? Make it harder for us to get a hearing, much less more money?

This whole thing stinks something fierce and needs a good airing out. The State and local officials involved all seem to be pretty quick to want this settled down and out of sight, from TDOT down to the PBA. That tells me something really ugly is lurking below their assurances.

I smell a rancid rat. Herenton and the NBA "tiger team" were in a rush to get this project completed. Questions at the time were brushed aside brusquely. This time folks, starting with His Imperial Mayorness, need to answer those questions to our satisfaction.

Now.

Like the saying goes, "Good, fast and cheap: Pick any two." We were promised all three, which is impossible. Now we are learning what we already knew wasn't possible. If this isn't the lever that finally pries the lid off Herenton's secretive administration, you'll know this City and County are hopeless corrupted.

Memphis-Class Brazenness

I'm surprised no one here in Memphis has tried this yet:

Ronald Wayne Blankenship, a candidate in the runoff for the Democratic nomination for Jefferson County sheriff, says it's coincidence that a man with a criminal past shares his name and birthdate.

It's strange but true, he says, that both he and a man who faked his own death in 1990 are married to women named Judy Ruth Green Stonecipher Blankenship....

Vestavia Hills police Lt. Rick Miller said he's surprised Blankenship is running for public office because he knows Blankenship is the man he arrested in 1990.

"I will be happy to meet him at the county jail and take his fingerprints and compare them," Miller said. "I want to get to the bottom of it, too. If Mr. Blankenship says that's not him, that way we'll know once and for all." ...

In an interview last week, Blankenship was shown the news clippings, one of which bore his picture. He said it was the first he'd heard of the story. "It looks like me in a way, but all Blankenships get to looking alike," he said. He also gave his birthdate, then said it was a different date. He had earlier given a third birthdate.

His wife, Judy Ruth Green Stonecipher Blankenship, was in the shoe shop during the interview. Blankenship said she's disabled because of a brain stem injury.

According to Jefferson County jail records, Ronald Blankenship, who listed his occupation as shoe repair, was booked into the jail on June 2, 1987, on a bad check charge, and released that day. On Feb. 8, 1989, he was jailed on a second-degree assault charge and bonded out the same day.

Oh and that's not even the half of it. There's lots more.

I've met people who will stand there and lie to your face with complete sincerity even when the evidence is also right there. It's almost like a form of psychopathy. But this guy really takes the cake.

A lot of Memphis politicians could certainly take a lesson or two from this guy.

Hat tip to the always-entertaining, if overworked right now, Possumblog for linking the story.

Would You Like to Meet a Blogger?

Interesting observation from a political candidate-blogger about the bloggers bash:

Political ideology aside, it sounds like a wonderful opportunity to meet some of the people behind the blogs. Only catch is, you have to be a blogger to attend.

That raises an obvious question. Is there any interest in having some kind of "Meet the Memphis blogosphere" kind of event?

There have been blog panels at various events around town. I know Rachel's done them, as has Jon. I've even done one, about a year ago.

But I'm thinking maybe some kind of social/media event with an eye to getting us on the news or in the paper. Something to raise our profiles. And maybe something to let a curious public who read blogs and comment on them but don't blog themselves get to hang out with us. I know some of my commenters have wanted to attend a bash.

Yeah, that's a fairly formless idea, I know. But is there any interest?

Punitive Voters Might Want to Reconsider

Those of us who welcomed the '94 Republican revolution and the Contract With America as a turning point in "business as usual" Washington politics have only been saddened and enraged by the actions of the Republican majority in Washington ever since 2002. They are proving the lyrics "Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss."

Those of us who have also argued that there's just one party -- the Republicrat -- that is out only for itself and its own enrichment have had nothing but confirmation, especially in the last two years.

There's been talk of doing something to get the attention of Washington Republicans, either actively reducing their majority or just passively staying home this November. Very few Republicans will cross the aisle to vote for any Democrat; don't believe the hopeful hype of Democrats. Most are likely to stay home and the Republican leadership is going to find teh base very hard to energise come this Fall.

There's hope that this step will somehow wake up the leadership. Or, maybe, the newly back-from-the-dead Democrats will behave as they did in the fading Clinton years of Washington "frugality."

Don't count on it.

The Club For Growth is reporting the comments of Democratic Congressman Jim Moran. He can't wait to be restored to the leadership of the House Appropriations Committee:

At a recent gathering for Democrats, Congressman Jim Moran ... promised to bring home more bacon if the Democrats re-capture the House and he gets re-elected. And he isn’t shy about admitting it. Here’s what Moran said according to a report in the Arlington Sun-Gazette:

“When I become chairman [of a House appropriations subcommittee], I’m going to earmark the s—t out of it,” Moran buoyantly told a crowd of 450 attending the event.”

Meet the newest boss / Same as the oldest boss.

Sigh. It seems that nothing short of a Jeffersonian revolution, filled with the blood of patriots and tyrants, will break up this this protection/extortion racket. You get some pitchforks. I'll get the torches. We'll meet at the castle.

Downtown Crime and Its Ignored Midtown Cousin

Paul Ryburn has gotten fired up about crime in downtown Memphis. Actually, you should start with this post before you read the first link.

He details a lot of first-person and eyewitness accounts of the ongoing crime problem there in Manhattan on the Mississippi. It's not all booze and blues down there!

Put as I read further on into the posts, two things struck me. First, the increasing level of (forgive the word) panic. It's like a feedback loop spiralling into that ear-aching squeal. At least part of what's happening is people becoming aware of something in their midst they'd never noticed before and now, having noticed it, they see more and more suddenly. And they also look at the innocent with preconceived fear and see the worst.

Deep breaths, everyone.

The second thing is a bit of jealousy on my part. Look at how quickly his complaints have generated action at the top levels of Memphis. Neighborhood associations are getting involved. One of his readers will help set up a meeting with Memphis Police Chief Godwin. People are angry and ready to do something. Now.

I've been posting about crime on my street in Midtown for nearly two years now. The usual reaction is, "Why haven't you gotten the hell out of there?" Open drug dealing, open prostitution, gunfire in the middle of the street. Not across dozens of blocks of downtown but one block of Monroe! Does anyone email to say they'll hook me up with Godwin?

Nope, it's just a different perception. Midtown is crime-ridden. That's how it's supposed to be. Nothing unexpected there. But Downtown? Hey, that's a lot of money and a lot of the right people down there. Stopping crime is important to the community. It'll reflect badly on us!

The apartment behind me has had squatters in it, stealing electricity from MLGW, for three months. I just found out last week that the building in the middle of the block, where you see more than a dozen people around there every day and all night, lots of drugs and dealing, has only one legal tenant. Everyone else is squatting.

A woman across the street from me stopped paying rent three months ago but she's still there. The drug dealers from the middle of the block have shifted down to her apartment to congregate and deal now. At one point, her one-bedroom apartment (about the size of mine) had three adults, a baby and two full-sized dogs living in it full time! Right now, there's the woman, a friend of hers downstairs who was evicted last month, a prostitute from around the block and a couple of guys living there, and a parade of nearly a dozen guys in and out of the place all day.

I can't walk in or out of the block, especially late at night, without getting scowled at. I've been told over and over that I'm "the snitch," the guy who calls the cops all the time, the guy who's messing up a good thing for the rest. "White motherfucker," I've been called. Supposedly, most of these people think I'm some kind of cop. (HA! Right. Look at my pictures.) It's because I won't speak to them, acknowledge them, let them use my phone, hassle them when they try to hang out on the property.

MLGW knows, but nothing's done. The property managers know; they said something was going to be done on June 1 but nothing's happened other than some apartments being boarded up. But no one's being evicted. The cops drive down the street all the time, and sometimes will stop to make arrests or raids. It just goes on day after day.

The former property managers, Micro Management, let this problem fester without doing anything. Despite repeated requests and calls, they let things slide along. Why? We think money was being passed along, under the table. Why else own rental properties that you don't rent out?

The current managers (I can't name them as I still live under them. But their dark blue signs have been sprouting up all over Midtown in the past month or two.) are even worse. They control six of the seven apartment buildings on the block and the cop house. They refused to renew all monthly leases suddenly last month and have let the remaining folks know that their one-year leases will expire as well. But they've made at least two mistakes, trying to evict people they shouldn't, and they've allowed all kinds of squatters -- drug dealers and their hangers-on -- to stay unmolested. We're being strangled.

I've talked with them many times. It's all smiles and concern but no action. One morning I was talking to one of them as we watched several squatters go in and out of the apartment in back. Nothing.

So, yeah, I do get a bit pissed off that Downtown's week-old "problem" is getting concerted action while our two year-old problem is ignored. It is, to me, emblematic of all that is wrong with Memphis under the Herenton administration. Downtown thrives while Hickory Hood and Killchester die on the vine under a storm of crime.

On the way to the bloggers bash last night I passed a sign on Monroe from a few years back. "Memphis Police Operation Saturation." Remember that, the big anti-crime intiative? Kinda like last month's Operation Safer Communities. Or Operation Blue Crush. I don't fault the police, who are fighting a losing war. They are doing what they can on Monroe within the restrictions of the law.

But it sure would be nice if we had access to our Police Chief and Mayor, to some powerful, connected developers with monied interests to protect, to media attention, and to community concern as well. Who speaks for us? Who cares about us?

Quote of the Day

From a report on the YearlyKos Konvention in Las Vegas, in the "Pundit in Training" workshop:

We were discussing the general pitfalls of shows like Hannity and Colmes, and one trainee pundit spoke up to volunteer that leftist guests “need to have more humor on these shows.” Hmm, I thought. They are learning. There were some murmurs of assent. And then she added, “We need to look at these people who are asking these questions and just ask them, ‘ARE YOU A NAZI?’”

Because, you know, that'll play well.

More hilarity here:

Not everyone in the group found that terribly convincing. “I was just wondering what world you were living in,” said one man who raised his hand, “if you said the America people are smart…”

That'll win votes, too.

Summer Bloggers Bash

Alright, here we go. How about having a blogger bash on Friday, June 9th, at the P&H Cafe on Madison, starting at 7PM?

UPDATED SUNDAY 5/28: There is now a graphic for folks to use, if you want. You should be able to do a direct link on your blogs, but if you can store it on your own server, I'd appreciate it.




How do the date and location work for everyone? If there's no strong opposition or preference, then that's what we'll shoot for.

Put out the word please on your own blogs and websites, and please get folks who don't read here to also help spread the word. Let's go for record attendance!

Quote for the Day

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.

From Thomas Paine.

Holyoffice Explains Christianity For You

It's one of the funniest things I've read in a while: The Interpretative Dance Theocrats. Holyoffice, a Livejournalist, breaks down and explains a lot of terms for you. Why?

This underscores that while many people in America are scared silly of Christianity, many of the most frightened know very little about it. Terms like "fundamentalist" and "evangelical" are thrown around with very little concern about their actual meaning, and this is before entering the dark thicket of Preterists, Amillenialists, Prelapsarian Arminian Claims Adjusters, etc.

To be fair to these perplexed and terrified people, Christians are not easy to understand. To begin with, there are roughly 2,000 years of history to grasp, and certainly more denominations and subdivisions than that to take on board. For people who were raised secular, I imagine it's like trying to understand an opera after coming in halfway before the end: the stage is crowded with people, two of them seem to be dead, a woman is wearing a hat with horns, and everyone is making a terrible racket.

And as an example to get you over there to read the rest:

Catholics
Catholics are the New York Yankees of Christianity. They are the biggest and wealthiest team, and their owner is intensely controversial (this makes St. Francis of Assisi the Derek Jeter of Catholicism: discuss). Catholics all wear matching uniforms, and are divided into "parishes," or "squadrons," to make choosing softball teams easier. Catholics are rigidly controlled by a hidebound hierarchy that starts with priests and ends with priests' housekeepers. Catholics are not allowed to read the Bible, eat meat, or refrain from worshipping statues.

And that's not even the funniest bit!

Embarrassing Crush

Every so often, I develop embarrassing crushes on various television personalities, like FOX13's Holly Hancock or Star Trek: Voyager's Jeri Ryan. It's happened again, and this time it actually is kind of embarrassing. It's the wife in those Sonic Drive-in commercials.

I had no idea who she was until I lucked into finding this page where I learned her name is Molly Erdman! It turns out she's a hard-working Chicago improv actor and part of the legends of comedy, The Second City.

She also has a revue act with her husband (Drat! The good ones always have a husband.) and takes part in a live improv version of Seventies tease-and-sleaze game show The Match Game. Wow.

You can read a bit about the development of the new Sonic Drive-in ad campaign (with the two goofy guys) here.

I always fall for cuties. Women who are unquestionably good looking but never get the label "beauty." Who still have something fresh-faced and wholesome, but frequently have a twisted side. (Not Holly Hancock, I know. Nothing twisted there.)

It's that slightly strange spin that Molly brings to the commercials that's attractive. In one, she hints at a wild weekend in New Orleans her husband doesn't know about. In another, when asked what some Sonic sandwich has that he doesn't, she replies rather blankly, "Bacon." It's the quick pause and the odd intonation that hints at something weird inside her.

And, of course, she's good looking. Definitely.

So there you go. You may commence with the laughter and the mockery now.

Spring Early Summer Bloggers Bash

Let's start with some things preliminarily locked down and see what we can come up with for the next bloggers bash.

How about the first weekend in June? Either Friday the 2nd or Saturday the 3rd, at night. Does that work for most folks?

And where? I like the bashes where we aren't in the main room wherever we are, which tend to be very noisy and busy, so that we can all hear each other clearly enough. Also, large tables for large discussions are nice. Small tables lead to lots of small groups, in my opinion.

Alcohol service is a necessity, and so is nearby smoking area. Though, to be honest and only speaking for myself, I don't mind anywhere that you can smoke. But some folks really don't like it, so there's that to consider.

Any suggestions? Any favorite places? Any restauranteurs or publicans want to tout their place?

Dr. Pepper Berries'N'Cream

The grocery store had sample-sized bottles of the new Dr. Pepper flavor for only fifty cents. (Excuse me, "fitty" cents.) I bought one out of curiousity.

It tastes almost exactly like regular Dr. Pepper. The key is "almost." It's like they were trying to find a cheaper chemical to make the drink with and stumbled on this concoction. "Hmmm. It's sorta like Dr. Pepper but with a berry-ish taste, with a hint of cream soda."

Unfortunately, it still has that "chemical" taste so many new drink flavors have. It's the cheap artificial esters they use in place of real flavoring, which is expensive. I'm old enough to remember real fountain Coke with real cherry syrup mixed in. That was Cherry Coke! Truly delicious. The modern stuff called "cherry coke" is like particle board shelving to the real mahogany of Cherry Coke.

You youngsters have no idea. So many foods these days are so far removed from the original it's just sad. Most "cheeses" these days are extruded milk proteins enhanced with fats, coloring and "flavor enhancers." Look at Velveeta or other "cheeses; they're actually called "cheese food product."

You're stuck with liquid swill like "diet vanilla cherry Coke" or "berries'n'cream Dr. Pepper" nowadays. Heck, even "Coca-Cola" isn't the original stuff any more. Folks old enough to remember the "New Coke" debacle usually don't know that when the Coke company brought back the "original" it was as "Classic Coca-Cola." The reason? They stopped using expensive cane sugars from Africa in favor of cheaper fructose corn sugars! The slight, but telling, change in formula meant they couldn't call it "Coca-Cola" any more. It was a different product!

And now you know.