Friday, September 26, 2008
Presidential Politics Word to the Wise: Never Blow Off a Talkshow Host
Posted by Pete Kotz on Fri, Sep 26, 2008 at 1:10 PM
In case you missed it, David Letterman's rant on McCain after the senator blew off his show. (It's actually much kinder than the spin it's getting.)
Barry / Presidential Politics Shark Jumping: Even Conservatives are Now Turning on Palin
Posted by Bruce Barry on Fri, Sep 26, 2008 at 12:58 PM
"She’s out of her league" reads the headline over a piece by conservative columnist Kathleen Parker over at that leftist rag National Review. Parker pulls few punches:
My cringe reflex is exhausted. Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there’s not much content there....If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.Parker advises Her Alaskaness to run for the tundra: "She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first." So it's begun. Who knew that Katie Couric could actually do influential journalism? See an excerpt from Couric's interview with Palin after the jump:
HUD to Make Cash Drop on Tennessee
Posted by PJ Tobia on Fri, Sep 26, 2008 at 12:55 PM
Looks like banks aren’t the only ones receiving a bailout from Uncle Sam this week.
While not nearly the tax dollar-o-rama that Wall Street might be getting, the federal department of Housing and Urban Development has launched what it’s calling a Neighborhood Stabilization Program, which essentially dumps a ton of cash on municipalities so that they can “acquire and redevelop foreclosed properties that might otherwise become sources of abandonment and blight within their communities.”
According to HUD, the Nashville-Davidson County area currently has a low “local abandonment risk,” with a 3.1 percent foreclosure rate. The department is still going to drop a cool $4,051,397 on the city, almost double what Chattanooga and Knoxville will get.
Then there’s Memphis, with its staggering—by Tennessee standards—6.7 percent foreclosure rate. It will receive $11,506,414 in HUD money. Someone should be sure to tell the feds that Memphian politicians would like their “neighborhood stabilization” dollars in non-sequential, unmarked bills.
Hannan Is a Rare Flower Worth Stopping a Government Project in Lebanon?
Posted by Caleb Hannan on Fri, Sep 26, 2008 at 12:40 PM
If the words "Spring Creek bladderpod" were alien to you prior to this week, you're in good company. The rare flower is only found in certain spots around Lebanon in Wilson County. One of those locales happens to be on property owned by Jim and Sandy Donnell.
The Donnells made news yesterday with an objection to a city sewer line set to run through their back yard. They say the project will cause undue disturbance to the bladderpod's habitat. The city says it won't. In the midst of the stalemate looms the specter of eminent domain.
The thought of the government bullying its way through our vegetable garden is enough to send us running for our muskets. This visceral reaction is understandable: eminent domain is a holdover from English rule. And if it weren't for the 5th amendment, which limited intrusion for public use only and required just compensation, families like the Donnells would be doubly screwed.
It is for this reason that we're apt to side with the Donnells. But that'd be ignoring the larger issue.
Although claiming private land remains a sin in our book, it is the option of last resort for the city. What hasn't been reported is that the Donnells are not alone in being inconvenienced: the proposed sewer line passes through 30 properties. They're the only family not to sign.
While the funny-sounding plant is getting most of the press, the problem, says Lebanon city engineer Chuck Boyett, can be boiled down to something much simpler.
"The bladderpod is not the issue here," he says. "The bottom line is the Donnells don't want (the sewer line) on their property. And I can't blame them for that."
Kotz / Legislature / Politics The Tennessee Democratic Party Needs to Work on its Corruption
Posted by Pete Kotz on Fri, Sep 26, 2008 at 5:49 AM
Dan Rostenkowski: This guy understood how to strong-arm people
State Senator Rosalind Kurita (D-Clarksville) has a legitimate beef. A few weeks ago, the Tennessee Democratic Party threw out her 19-vote primary win over Tim Barnes. Though they won’t offer this as an official reason, party bigs are pissed at Kurita for selling out to Republicans to better her personal Senate status.
Call it old school enforcement: The Dems feel they must show the rank-and-file that there will be blood for treachery.
Kurita has naturally chosen to sue pretty much everyone involved, leading to a protracted battle involving mean little lawyers hurling large amounts of paperwork and billable hours at each other. Though such methods of dispute resolution are surely a sign of civilization decline, we’ll save that for another day.
The bigger issue is this: Democrats really suck at corruption these days.
Simply overthrowing a vote – not even in secret, mind you – is so Brezhnev. Where’s the originality? Where’s the cleverly brutal smiting of one’s enemies through vicious yet impenetrable means? Couldn’t Democrats have found a way to simply dump a few key ballot boxes in the river? Perhaps offered Kurita a no-show job in Gov. Bredesen’s administration, only to renege after she resigned her Senate seat?
That’s what Dan Rostenkowski would have done. He surely wouldn’t have left it all to dueling lawyers, which is like settling a vendetta with a winner-takes-all tennis match.
I don’t know about you, but if I’m going to vote for a low-life, I expect him to be a respectable low-life, the kind who can take out treachery with no visible sign of blood on his hands. Doesn’t the Tennessee Democratic Party respect craftsmanship anymore?
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Sports Where They Keep the Boxing At? A Recurring Series in Which We Ask Some Obvious Questions about Nashville
Posted by PJ Tobia on Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 3:15 PM
Why is there no boxing in this town?
Every U.S. city, town or village I’ve lived in has some kind of professional boxing venue or is near a pro boxing venue. Sure there’s Memphis, but that’s kinda far to drive for a fight. And no, Mixed Martial Arts does not count. That’s like comparing rugby and the NFL. They both have big guys and oblong balls in common, but that’s about it.
While I respect the hell out of that sport and Nashville has a small, increasingly vocal MMA community, it ain’t boxing. I want ropes, left hooks and card girls.
There are some boxing gyms here being run by some really knowledgeable folks, but for some reason they don’t produce many—any?—professional fighters. My biggest hope for Nashville is in the Mexican community, where boxing is still a popular sport. Over at the San Juan Fiesta restaurant off I-24 they sometimes have fights on the TV and the place’s owner, Jose Arelleno, owns a small gym on Nolensville Road.
There’s also this rumor that a real stinker of a fight might be held here. Who knows? Better than nothing I guess.
Crazy Crap / Daily Diversion Hitler: 'I miss Ainge'
Posted by Jeff Woods on Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 1:39 PM
Before the Nashville gas crisis, Hitler was astounded by Tennessee's loss to UCLA. "I MISS AINGE!"
Media NewsChannel 5 Fooled by Fake Fight Video
Posted by Jack Silverman on Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 12:50 PM
Reported by Scene's Brantley Hargrove:
On Monday, NewsChannel 5 aired a searing exposé (video above) on the pugilistic tendencies of McGavock High School students, featuring a video mined from the ever-reputable YouTube titled, “McGavock Fight.” Well, like anything you find on the internet, journalists—yes, even television journalists—would do well to consider the source suspect at the very least.
In fact, the video looked fake enough that several YouTube posters commented emphatically, “Fake Fake Fake...” and “fake as hell…”
For McGavock teacher Adrian Bahan, therein lies the rub—he knows both of the students shown in NewsChannel 5’s “shocking” video and can say with certainty that those flying fists are just phantom flailings thrown for shits and giggles (original video below). Perhaps the audible voice of a kid behind the camera saying, “Action,” should have been one clue for our well-groomed, suited counterparts, but, alas: At 2:45 into the report, as the staged video airs for the second time, investigative reporter Ben Hall says, “[Metro Schools Security Director] Rob Thompson believes gangs are responsible for this attack.”
“I’m frustrated by shoddy, lazy journalism,” Bahan fumed. “When stories like this come out, everyone pulls their kids out of McGavock and puts them in Goodpasture. If you watch that video, as a reporter, how can you not know that was staged?”
The gasp-inducing number of arrests Hall cites at Nashville’s largest high school when compared to other schools similarly chafes Bahan, who’d like to give him a lesson in arithmetic.
“We're the largest school in the state, so if you go by percentages instead of numbers, it's no story,” Bahan said. “You have to look at the number of fights relative to school population.”
But like any teacher worth his salt, Bahan turned a ridiculous journalistic blunder into a lesson.
“My students learned how the media can use bias to sensationalize a story.”
Politics / Woods Rosalind Kurita: A Woman Scorned
Posted by Jeff Woods on Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 12:49 PM
Rosalind Kurita, Tennessee’s Lieberwoman, has only just filed her federal lawsuit naming as defendants just about everybody and their brother connected in any way to the state Democratic Party. But already, the party is denying one of her main allegations: that she was in the dark about the rules the executive committee followed in deciding to toss out her 19-vote primary victory over Tim Barnes. According to the lawsuit (specifically counts 31-33):
31. Plaintiff did not agree or to submit herself to the Rules of Procedure adopted the morning of the hearing. 32. The Rules of Procedure did not exist at the time Barnes filed his election contest, and were only created after Barnes filed his election contest. 33. Because she was not given the finalized Rules of Procedure until the morning of the hearing on the contested election, Senator Kurita did not have a chance to properly prepare for the election contest or to properly defend the results of the August 2008 election in the September 13th hearing.Obviously, if Kurita never agreed to the rules and didn’t even find out about them until the morning of the hearing, then that's a pretty strong case for due process violations. But party spokesman Wade Munday tells Pith that's not the way it went down. “There were all the rules that she agreed to through counsel prior to the meeting that Saturday. The terms were agreed upon prior to the meeting.” Munday adds:
“The executive committee acted in its rightful capacity as the state primary board. All the actions taken were conducted in the open and in accordance with state law established in 1972.”
Politics The Nashville Session Players Ask: Who Would Jesus Bomb?
Posted by Pete Kotz on Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 5:46 AM
Conservatives may have John Rich, but the left has Richard Aberdeen and the Nashville Session Players. Their new CD Who Would Jesus Bomb? was released this month and is available for free download here. Click on the above video for the title track, and a bio for the band is below:
Tired of being told by various and sundry music industry insiders that many of his songs are good in quality but will never be recorded in Nashville due to political and social content, songwriter Richard Aberdeen rounded up some of Nashville’s top musicians and session vocalists and began to record material content that many here in Nashville (and elsewhere) believe should be heard on 21st Century American radio, given the dire straits that members of both major political parties have managed to drag our nation into. So far, four CDs have been released under the generic band title "Nashville Session Players".
