That Other Superman Movie

In honor of the Superman Returns movie opening this week, I remind viewers of that other Superman film: The Indian Superman. Sometimes, the fast rip-off version is just so much better.

Besides, how can you not love a movie where evil dancing girls (there's always dancing in Bollywood pictures) sing:

We haven't lost and we never will
Today you came into our grasp
We are going to kill you
We are going to kill you
By giving you lots of water to drink

Now I just need to figure out which Indian market in town carries this ....

The Armageddon Flow Chart

When the End Times come, it may go something likethis. Or maybe not. [WARNING: Bad language alert.]

Some of my favorites:

Call Bruce Campbell

Unwary righteous crushed against ceilings

Four Horsemen firmly advised to stop dicking about

Yeah, whenever the end of the world threatens, you always gotta call Bruce.

Memphis Bioworks and Governor Bredesen

Bill Hobbs excerpts an interesting report from the Tennessee Center for Policy Research that documents some interesting election campaign donation connections between the Memphis Bioworks Board of Directors and Governor Phil Bredesen!

Here are the interesting facts:

1. Memphis Bioworks has 18 board members, two of whom are university presidents (UT and U of Memphis). As TCPR notes, university presidents rarely donate to political campaigns. Of the remaining 16 board members, 12 of them have made campaign contributions to Bredesen. Contributions to Bredesen's campaign fund by those 12 board members and their spouses total $36,500 over the past three years. A 13th board member didn't donate directly to Bredesen but did give $1,750 to a PAC that contributed $5,000 to Bredesen in 2005. Also, Memphis Bioworks President and Executive Director Steven Bares contributed $500 to Bredesen in December of 2003.

2. Six of the Memphis Bioworks board members contributed a total of $10,500 to Bredesen in a twelve-day span in December of 2005, only days before the beginning of the Special Session on Ethics and as the administration was finalizing its preliminary budget recommendations for Fiscal Year 2006-07.

Betty Anderson (That's Mrs. Jimmy "Speaker of the House" Naifeh to politicians.) was hired as a lobbyist!

It should also be noted that Rep. Harold Ford Jr used tens of millions in budget "earmarks" to get the Federal funding for this project. Is it Federal "pork" or savvy quid pro quo politics?

You See? I Told You: Joyce Peterson Department

Remember back in November of last year when I wondered what happened to WMC's Joyce Peterson? I pointed out that WPTY needed to snap her up and make her the weekend morning news anchor ASAP. (More here.)

Well, the wheels of Clear Channel grind slowly, but Cameron announces that she will be joining WPTY as the weekend evening news anchor! Bonnie Kinney and Terrance Bates will anchor the weekend morning show.

Took 'em long enough! I'm just glad to see Ms Peterson back on the air.

It Was Four Years Ago Today

It wasn't an auspicious start, but I began blogging four years ago today. The first "real" post came three days later, and it had all the ingredients Half-Bakered became known for: a slam at namesake Jackson Baker and the Memphis Flyer, swipes at the press and politcians (Tennessee House Speaker Jimmy "Thug" Naifeh) and an income tax rant.

It was the income tax effort that got this blog rolling. Every single paper in the state supported the income tax, nearly without exception. Such lockstep uniformity by what should, by natural expectations, be a wildly diverse lot, was stunning. Someone had to speak up in opposition as a few talk radio hosts across the state were. I decided to become one of those "someones."

I'm glad I did.

On the other hand, as I've said before I have written well in excess of half-a-million words. That's about six novels worth of stuff or who knows how many non-fiction books. I'd be a mid-list author well into a career by now.

In just four years.

And I haven't been paid for it, except for some donations via PayPal.

I have been rewarded in other ways. I've met a lot of folks I'd never have met otherwise; I've had some movers and shakers of Memphis call wanting to meet me! I've been presented with a lot of opportunities, many of which I've not taken and some I have.

All because I got fed up with the state's newspapers and television stations. Thanks y'all! Keep underwheming me, please.

Yes, blogging has been erratic in the last year. I hope I'll get back on track soon; we'll see. But I encourage you to just go back to the first year of blogging and read at random. I have a lot of passionate essays back there; entertaining and informative reading, believe you me.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for coming back. Thanks for commenting or emailing. Thanks for the support. Yes, I do this for me but if I didn't have y'all I'd have given up a long time ago.

Where Are Your Papers?

Wow, I had no idea Jackson, Mississippi, was in such dire straits that a State of Emergency declaration and curfew were necessary.

After a week of warnings, Jackson Mayor Frank Melton on Thursday declared a state of emergency in the capital....

Melton would not comment on his earlier plans to use the Mississippi National Guard, Hinds County Sheriff's Department or the Mississippi Highway Patrol. Last week, Melton spoke of using National Guard helicopters and military intelligence units to fight crime.

What prompted it?

The mayor cited two incidents of violent crime - a shooting Wednesday afternoon of a man who was driving in west Jackson and a police chase during which a man rammed two city police cars and allegedly shot at an officer - as reasons for signing the emergency order. However, police do not believe either incident involved minors.

Not quite clear why he's cracking down on kids when adults seem to be the problem, but there you are.

Didn't Jackson get a big influx of Katrina refugees from New Orleans? How is that playing into this? I've heard that some, or maybe most, of the surge in crime is related to gang and turf wars being played out.

I can't recall seeing a story anywhere -- print or television -- about New Orleans gang members moving to Memphis after Katrina and setting up shop. I'm sure some must have come here. Is our recent crime uptick related to that? It seems worth looking into.

But, again, think about it. Mississippi's largest city is under a state of emergency with a curfew for minors, due to crime. The curfew may be extended to all day. The mayor has wanted, as was done in New Orleans -- still Louisiana's largest city -- to bring in the National Guard for crime control. Memphis, another big destination for Katrina evacuees, has a rising crime problem. What about Houston? Baton Rouge?

Meanwhile, the frogs sit in the pan as the temperature rises.

Today's Whimsy

Shamelessly stolen from Brittney:

The Other Me

I'm pretty sure most everyone has googled their own name. I first started many years ago and was very surprised to learn there's another me out there! We don't look much alike but he seems happy enough.

I've been tempted many an afternoon to email him and ask about history, to see how we might be related. On the other hand, I'd imagine he's googled himself a time or two. When you enter our name, I show up all over the place first. Since he's never contacted me either, maybe that's my answer?

It's kind of spooky in that doppelganger kind of way. Like someone is using your name and likeness to live a better, more rewarding life than yours.

A Memphis Joke

Jamey, a one-time Memphian and now a resident of Nashvegas, shares a Memphis joke. I actually kinda like it.

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?