Tennessee's Next Senator

Tonight the GOP candidates for the state's Senate race are supposed to gather for a debate on WBIR. Part of my brain gets scrambled wondering why Robin Wilhoit will question the hopefuls - maybe they asked for her or that was part of the WBIR deal. She's a fine person, but just not who I think of first in the world of political reporting in Tennessee.

I'll watch it - for as long as I can though - despite the fact that I am voting for someone else.

I seldom if ever come right out and suggest anyone follow my lead on who to vote for, but this year is different. This year, I'm voting for the one candidate who won't make some crazy stand on nonsense or even on sensical issues.

He promises not to be there. But he does promise tourists from TN to act as a personal guide to some of the sights in D.C.

In 2006, we have a man who's the right man for his time and his place, and that man ... well, sometimes there's a man ...sometimes there's a man ... ah hell, what's the rest of that speech from "The Big Lebowski?"

Well, anyway, I'm making a write-in vote for Rex.

The Mule Day Terror Target

A small ripple made by the report on the national database of potential terror targets has folks understandably puzzled. Petting zoos and Mule Day and the fleamarket in Sweetwater somehow don't make the cut for some tactical observers.

Then again, do we expect any benefit from an actual list of critical centers of commerce and government and energy facilities? Judging from the constant computer thefts, why provide would-be evildoers with a actual list of places that could hurt the nation as a whole? Better to make a database of places and events where it would be more likely that local residents would approach Islamofascist-types with a baseball bat as soon as they are seen in public.

In terms of keeping the public panic-filled attention, the list can provide tax dollars for security programs and encourage voters who feel their local needs are a priority.

In some ways, it explains the enormous security presence in Morristown last month at an immigration reform rally -- it justifies dollars being spent and it connects voter anxiety to immigration issues which have been front and center in the campaign for Tennessee's Senate race.

The labyrinth design of diverting dollars has many dead-ends.

But mostly it seems that keeping the folks at Mule Day and in the Mideast terror camps convinced they are Vital is the also the key to keeping funding and panic at the highest levels.

Quick, We Need 9 Odd Web Sites!!

If you find it too darn difficult to surf, Yahoo! has done it for you.

Their site collects funny, weird, "hot" topics, and assorted video clips and web sites for a collection they call "The 9."

I suppose we're all so fast and busy, we don't even have time to review a Top 10 list.

No - wait -- it says here on the page that the goal is to "quickly bundle it all together into a neat, fast-paced, and work-friendly package and try to get it up by about 9 a.m." --- appears they even make the jokes for you too.

Today's list includes one or two entries I enjoyed, such as the video of people imitating the notorious World Soccer Head-Butting of Zidane (shouldn't he be called ZeeFrench?), plus a video of those wacky Japanese TV programmers who've made a story about a massive "domino demonstration" in a house using only household objects, and a web site of enormously fluffy bunnies.

Your host for this perky morning web blast is Maria Sansone, who hosted her own TV sports show at age 11 and actually was there to see Tonya Harding smack up Nancy Kerrigan. She also hosts a preview show for Comcast. As one MetaFilter commenter said "Think Rocketboom with a tan."

Bush Sr, Officials Praise The Late Great Ken Lay

Perhaps the elected officials and business tycoons who praised the late and the convicted criminal Ken Lay have the courage, at least, to admit they admire Lay's level of fraud.

Not only did the Enron chief build a company that led him into the consulting rooms of policymakers at the local, state and national levels, not only did he goad employees and friends into buying a plummeting stock, not only did he erase the retirement and investments of thousands of people -- ultimately he escaped jail and his ill-gotten fortune will elude the grasp of law enforcement, and he is now the Victim of an American Tragedy.

"Ken Lay was neither black nor poor, but he was a victim of a lynching,'' Rev. William Lawson, a Houston civil rights leader, said today at the service in Houston."

Yes, it's true - he was white and rich and pampered for all but a few months of trial and media scrutiny, and for a rich white guy, that must be the equal of being lynched.

Others in attendance included Guests among the several hundred mourners included former President George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara, former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III, ex-Secretary of Commerce Robert Mosbacher Sr., former Enron President John M. Seidl, heart surgeon Denton Cooley, Lay's defense lawyer Mike Ramsey and Drayton McLane Jr., owner of the Houston Astros baseball team.

A woman who conducts tours based on the collapse and fraud of Enron says she considers this more of a Greek Tragedy.

Update on Bush Monarchy

More proof of the major conflict in Constitutional authority was presented yesterday by Justice Dept. attorney Steve Bradbury who informed a congressional committee " the President is always right."

Video here via Think Progress.

The events of the last few weeks reminds me of the 2004 reports that the President truly believes he is on a 'misson from God'.and that people in the 'reality-based' community cannot and should not be trusted. Article is here.

Is it simply wacky wingnut worries that a Monarchy has been made?

The "New Paradigm" Creates Monarchy

A series of judicial defeats is highlighting the constitutional conflict that President's Bush's commander-in-chief claims have created. Much of the president's position was laid out by legal aides from Vice-President Cheney's staff, namely David Addington, the Chief-of-Staff.

A comprehensive look at the problems with the president's stand were laid out in a July 3rd article in the New Yorker, which details the "new paradigm" plan - a plan that has the president essentially avoiding any and all oversight or check and balances to the Executive Branch as mandated by the Constitution.

From the article:

"Bruce Fein, a Republican legal activist, who voted for Bush in both Presidential elections, and who served as associate deputy attorney general in the Reagan Justice Department, said that Addington and other Presidential legal advisers had '“staked out powers that are a universe beyond any other Administration. This President has made claims that are really quite alarming. He'’s said that there are no restraints on his ability, as he sees it, to collect intelligence, to open mail, to commit torture, and to use electronic surveillance. If you used the President'’s reasoning, you could shut down Congress for leaking too much. His war powers allow him to declare anyone an illegal combatant. All the world'’s a battlefield—. According to this view, he could kill someone in Lafayette Park if he wants! It'’s got the sense of Louis XIV: '‘I am the State.'"

The President certainly has rights to interpret the Constitutional authority of his office. Guided by his vice-president, however, he has steered into dangerous waters.

Read the entire article - it's worth the time and explains what is about to shape much debate for a massive political battle as the fall elections get closer.

The Worst Writing Winners

When does bad writing become good writing? It happens every year at the Bulwer-Lytton Contest as writers earnestly strive to create the worst opening sentence for a novel. In addition to an overall winner, there are also various category winners and "dishonorable mentions".

Overall winning worst sentence:

"Detective Bart Lasiter was in his office studying the light from his one small window falling on his super burrito when the door swung open to reveal a woman whose body said you've had your last burrito for a while, whose face said angels did exist, and whose eyes said she could make you dig your own grave and lick the shovel clean."

Oh yeah, that's fine, especially that last part about the shovel. It's creator is Jim Guigli, who sent in 60 entries for this year's contest.

This entry is from a writer in Atlanta, GA:

"Todd languished there, neck deep in the pumpkin-hued Amargosa Desert sand like a long forgotten cupcake in an Easy Bake Oven gone hellishly amok, and it finally made sense . . . "ooohhhh, DEATH Valley."

An entry from Quebec:

"Her angry accusations burned Clyde like that first bite of a double cheese pizza, when the toppings slide off and sear that small elevation of the oral mucosa, just behind the front teeth, known as the incisive papilla, which is linked to the discriminatory function of the taste buds except, where Clyde was concerned, when it came to women."

The winner in the Romance Category hails from Alabama and writes:

"Despite the vast differences it their ages, ethnicity, and religious upbringing, the sexual chemistry between Roberto and Heather was the most amazing he had ever experienced; and for the entirety of the Labor Day weekend they had sex like monkeys on espresso, not those monkeys in the zoo that fling their feces at you, but more like the monkeys in the wild that have those giant red butts, and access to an espresso machine."

All the winners and dishonorable mentions are here.

Bulwer-Lytton was a very popular novelist, and created the phrase "the pen is mightier than the sword." No definitive word on any reaction to a legacy as the titular head of a bad writing contest.

Has This Country Gone Completely Insane?

I knew I wasn't the only person who noticed some horrible changes.

Read why the answer to this question might just be YES.

Blogging Capital of Tennessee

Mr. Silence has issued a proclamation that bears repeating:

"Is it just me? Or isn't it clear that East Tennessee is the capital of blogging in the state?
Not that I'm trying to start anything ...."

The always perceptive Brittney replies:

"Not Going to Let Any Mountain Dwellers Take Our Title" and adds: "Trying or not, it's on."

Woo hoo!

Personally, I depend on the RTB, No Silence Here and Nashville Is Talking like an addict hits the meth. I get tons of news and information and I also get readers here from all three sites, which makes this blogging all the better - I don't want to be completely like Steve Martin said - "I don't need YOU! I can do this act ALONE! I often DO!"

One of the best things about Tennessee is we loves to talk about everything, and our state is a crucible for all the hottest topics in politics and lifestyles and much more. We're at the very center of the national debate on any topic you can name. And from the Civil Rights Museum in the west, to the legislative heart in Nashville, to the start of all American music in Bristol - we provide presidents and vice presidents and you can't get much of anywhere at all without going thru here.

I live just off the one highway named for the one and only person to have ever served in every non-judicial elected position in American politics, even defeating impeachment and then returning to the Senate. The state has as many conflicting opinions as people and we do talk a heap about it.
I know the Insty-Boy gets loads of press, and I confess his is the one blog I never read. I did a few times and just found it not to my tastes.

And Brittney and the staff at WKRN have opened up their news coverage to video bloggers and I hope more TV and radio stations do likewise. As I've told Brittney, being a guest blogger there just rocks.

One major complaint in the blog world of TN I do have is that damn few residents and non-bloggers from Hamblen and points east seldom if ever bother to comment on local events and topics. I know they lurk and read, but even then their numbers seem small. I often think the surrounding counties do not have enough easily accessible internet connections, but that is changing -- I hope, anyway.

And when I do read through other writers pages in other states, Tennessee has the most easily readable and aggregated collections. Other states don't come close -- yet. But that is changing too as the other states model themselves on us. And again personally, I receive about equal amounts of readers from Europe and Asia as I do from the U.S.

As odd as it sounds, I find much unity in the state through all the wide range of opinions and also just the relation of day to day events that so many people share. We are home to some fantastic writers and without the South, and Tennessee, the American Voice would just be bi-coastal extremes.

Having been a resident of both middle and east (and I depend on Newscoma and some others to keep me up to speed on the west as well as her posts on events and topics nationally) I can testify there are major differences and similarities. There's only two things I've never seen in Tennessee - the ocean or an iceberg, though geology suggests we've had those too.

And just for the record, most of us in the east are in the Valley, not the Mountains - and trust me, no one really wants to get them folk riled up.

Where is the Blogging Capital in Tennessee? You tell me.

UPDATE: KnoxViews weighs in with some numbers on the blog question. And Les Jones remarks on the Time Zone quotient - er, Les was that a pic of The Hoff in a Hoff Speedo??

The state's Democrat Party has taken notice of both the RTB and KnoxViews in their latest emailing - though let's be honest, the GOP is a major force in state politics. Again that underscores what I said above - we are in the forefront of national debates on politics.

Truth be told, after some months reading blogs, it was South Knox Bubba who first prompted me to actually leave a comment, and the bug bit deep enough to create this constantly brewing Cup of Joe.

And while I may not read the InstyBoy, I utterly appreciate that he helped arrange for a sneak preview screening to Joss Whedon's "Serenity" which was worth gold to me.

Other bloggers chime in - C.E. here and High Country here.

Stephen King Takes Over Summer TV

The summer TV season, once the empty space populated by the repeats of shows already seen now offers a new segment for original programming. On Wednesday a collection of short stories by master storyteller Stephen King, bows with two episodes in "Nightmares and Dreamscapes." The first episode, "Battleground" airs commercial free and will be followed by "Crouch End". 8 episodes over 4 weeks brings out top talent for TNT's mini-series.

"Battleground" stars William Hurt as a cold-blooded killer, a professional hitman who takes out the CEO for a toy company and steals a favorite toy from the desk of the CEO as a souvenir. Supernatural Karma brings a toy army to provide justice. This episode is scripted by Richard Christian Matheson and is directed by Brian Henson.

The "Crouch End" episode is a tale of an American couple visiting a friend in England and find out their old friend may be far Older and Not From Here at all. It's a near Lovecraft story.

King's power as prolific writer and, more than that, constant moneymaker, has finally over the last few years provided far more control over projects that wind up on television. The recent ABC "Desperation" was a first-rate adaptation. Also, given the success of Showtime's Masters of Horror, fans of King and of the uncanny have much to celebrate.

A Twilight Zone style anthology of King's stories is long overdue and this first effort has more than a small chance of success, and will add some fine storytelling to the summer season.

The official web-site is here, and a breakdown of all the actors and directors (including the "X-Files" Rob Bowman) are all here. And via Stephen's own website is a link-filled listing of all episodes and when they air.

The Failure Campaign

Listening to the propaganda that passes for information supplied by candidates and/or commentators is always instructive - at least in learning what is being promoted or demoted.

For a few weeks the only GOP ad for US Senate available in East Tennessee was Bob Corker's mom saying he was a good boy. I'm glad he at least got that endorsement as the primary voting approaches. Now they have added two more spots, one where he says he went with a church group to help build houses and another where a group of unidentified Chattanooga residents express their belief that he was the best mayor they ever had.

Oddly absent from TV despite a decent campaign chest is Van Hilleary -- odd because back when the districts were reorganized in the 90s, Hamblen somehow became part of the 4th District and helped get Van into congress. (Now we're back in the 1st District again.) Yet, apart from a few signs on the roadways, there's not much Van Visibility here.
(NOTE: He just started an ad this afternoon - and like the rest of this post shows, he too joins the battle cry against the current GOP's failure to "secure borders", adds that he will stop their deficit spending, and most strangely adds he will "battle Hillary Clinton every step of the way." How lame to continue to try and trade on the Clinton name, which he does twice in this ad. Though I know there are some Conservatives in this town who place her on the Axis of Evil.)

Ed Bryant has started his TV ads recently, and he echoes the comments he made several years back when he appeared on my radio show - chiefly, that his proudest moment as a congressman was presenting the Clinton impeachment papers to the Senate from the House.

There's been so much more presence on the internet, via all their respective campaign blogs. You can read large amounts of nitpicking and name-calling and you can watch their game of King of the Conservative Hill as it happens. I wonder how many average votes bother with any of that? Seems more the playing field for the Already Committed or the Commentators.

I do find it most amusing they all three proclaim they'll secure our borders from terrorists. Doesn't that mean their fellow Conservative GOP office holders have failed at that job?

It isn't a surprise to hear the Democrat challenger for the Senate, Harold Ford Jr, claim that the current officeholders have failed - that's what I expect from the Other Side.

Borders and immigration are definitely The Issue in this county, judging by the late-June rally that brought out a massive armed law enforcement brigade. (Pics and posts here) And all the attention and actions reinforce this belief that the current officeholders are letting bajillions of anti-American immigrants take over from Texas to Canada.

I often read the Volunteer Voters site or Knox Views to keep up with an ever-growing list of who's endorsing who for what, and again, it looks like right now the battlefield is a binary one.

There are so many GOP and Democrat choices in the upcoming primary for the 1st Congressional District, that it is pretty much a county by county kind of race. One Democrat hopeful is current Morristown City Councilman Rick Trent. Since no Dems have held the 1st District since the 1800s, I doubt there will be anything other than a token opposition to whoever wins the GOP race. It's getting name recognition outside of one county that will determine the winner.

Rick writes on his promo flier: "It's not hard to see that our country is going in the wrong direction. Escalating national debt, the Iraq War, high energy costs and the loss of American jobs are just a few of the issues I would like to tackle as your representative in Washington. If you feel like I do, then together we can get America back on track."

On the GOP side, as I said, the most prominent issue in campaign statements is Broken Borders, Broken Borders, and Broken Borders.

So what I'm hearing loud and clear from both parties is it's time to end the Failure of Current Policies. That claim can be a campaign constant no matter the year, or the race, or the location. But admitting Failure within the GOP seems a tactic that the Democrats should be using to their advantage in 2006.

But since polls rate approval of Congress lower than a bug's belly, then that must mean all parties are running on a Anyone Would Be Better Than What We Got bandwagon.

From The Internet Tubes

Since the last post was a peek into the oddities stashed and stored in huge-antical Web Tubes (1), I happened to have the time to collect some more news and videos which tend to create a unique mixture of surprise and dread.

First, GoldenAppleCorp (of AT) wagged a finger at me warning me away for dissing David Hasselhoff, and today I just happened to find the newest video from The Hoff, a remake of a 1975 tune called "Jump In My Car." Is it just me, or does the international fame and resilience of this guy portend a future political career? The video features him wearing a T-Shirt declaring Don't Hassel the Hoff, but it was the dancing that gave me the heebie-jeebies. View the Hoff's latest here.

In other music news, this comment about a new album from Justin Timberlake indicates, as a friend told me, a train wreck is ahead:

"The first single from the upcoming Justin Timberlake album, "SexyBack," features a pounding bass beat and electronic sounds, and does not include the falsetto singing that has become Timberlake's trademark. He said, however, that "The best way I can describe that song is say David Bowie and David Byrne decided to do a cover of James Brown's Sex Machine," Timberlake told reporters."

To which I say - Ewwwww! Clean-up on Aisle 12!!!!

To mark the 60th b-day for Our President, the Nintendo company gave him an early gift - a new Nintendo DS Lite, including a copy of the game Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day. The letter from Nintendo accompanying the gift emphasizes the Decider need not be an expert gamer to give it a go.

The advertising giant that is NASCAR found a new client. True, the sponsorship is only on the local track circuit, but who would have ever have foreseen a combo between Scientology and NASCAR? Yes, the Dianetics Racing Team has arrived.

Never, ever, EVER underestimate what is possible in the Web. I said NEVER. One intrepid seeker has successfully traded One Red Paper Clip for a house.


Footnotes
1. I feel like David Foster Wallace making a footnote, but this is for those who missed Alaska Senator Ted Stevens explanation of the internet, here 'tis -- "I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 oÂ’clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially. They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It'’s not a truck. It'’s a series of tubes."

Visual representations are here. See also, "The Coot-Off".

Is That A Hattori Hanzo Sword?

So what would happen when a 9 mm bullet meets a samurai sword?

This happens.

That Darn Coulter!

A post today at KnoxViews from R. Neal about Ann Coulter makes some of the same points to ponder which I too think most people just don't quite get.

Yes, I'm sticking to my guns about what I said here and here.

The comments on Neal's post mention, as most debates about Coulter do, that Michael Moore is the Left version of Coulter's Right field rants. (Some other Lefties get mentioned too)

But I have yet to hear or read where Moore makes death threats. Coulter does.

Her dangerous fringe followers seem to shovel cash at her like addicts hit meth - both are dead ends.

SayUncle and Les Jones are weighing in with their views too in the comments, and what pops out most quickly is that the range of opinions are expressed without any of the insanely pointless and hate-filled threats of Coulter.

That's all - a good read I just wanted to point out.

Oh, and maybe enough rational humans on the Right or Left or Center or Anywhere Else will express a desire to remove even the tiniest molecule of credibiltiy within a thousand miles of Coulter. Sure she has a right to her opinion, but to provide it more weight than a fart is a critical error.

Camera Obscura - Pirates, Hills Have Eyes, UltraViolet, A Scanner Darkly

I know it seems like an incredible, star-filled lifestyle to write and report on the movies and the often-unseen traps that surround celebrity. And it is. But there is also the seamy, dank underbelly of cinema, the hours and months spent in dark rooms watching movies that no one liked and no one should have made. Someone eventually has to come into the emptied-out palaces to clean up the leavings from "champagne wishes and caviar dreams". Makes for some nasty, crusty cleanup.

Reality shifts are commonplace, most critics or writers get lost in the media mazes and never find their way out. A good example is The Pickle at the Knox News Sentinel - she drools so much over Johnny Depp she taints any objective review of the sequel to "Pirates of the Caribbean" and simply drowns. The paper is soggy.

Will the average moviegoer swim alongside the continuing piratey adventures? Yeah, likely. But whether or not you'll like the movie depends on the skills of the swimmer to keep up with the roiling seas of plots and romance.

Here in this weekly roundup. I track the castaways, the shipwrecks, and attempt to chart the murky movie waters for fellow travelers who seek forgotten treasures or ghost ships and sail outside the shipping lanes. Some movies survive with spectacular skill, some smash against the waves and founder with spectacular doom.

Enough introductions - we're already underway.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well the remake of Wes Craven's 1977 horror classic "The Hills Have Eyes" sailed into an alternate reality of the mutated nuclear family which takes revenge on the "normals" by feasting on flesh. The original ultra low-budget thriller almost seems like a seedy newsreel, with some tedious time ticking past until the mutant family forces brutal retaliation for a lost tourist family. The remake gets you there quicker, and also ramps up the blood and violence with terrific style. As in the original, Pacificism is manipulated by horror and fear and turns to primal rage.

Unlike most remakes, filmmaker Alexander Aja, born the year after the original came out, actually gets it right. He transfers intact all the ideas of the original and adds new details and has stunning make-up and effects work so the mutant cannibal family looks as real as the rocky barren landscape. DVD extras show the brilliant and somewhat hi-tech work the KNB EFX group did and will likely help inspire the next generation of movie magicians.

And a big hint here - note the movie is about the attack by mutant cannibals - that sound like a kid's movie to you? It isn't.

Some other news Horror fans will like - Eli Roth is at work on a sequel to "Hostel" and has been signed to direct Stephen King's recent zombie thriller "Cell".

Given the opening sea-going metaphors, the easiest and most cynical review I could provide for the DVD release of the science-fiction thriller "UltraViolet" starring model/actress Milla Jovovich is -- wait for it -- "Thar she blows!!!"

Writer/director Kurt Wimmer showed great technical skill in the highly derivative sci-fi "Equilibrium", and he really pushes the tech edge in "UltraViolet". Shot with high-def Sony cameras, coating the existing backgrounds of modern-day Shanghai with green screens, the movie is jaw-dropping eye candy.

The plot is inconsequential as the opening nearly 10 minute exposition by Jovovich tries to explain that somehow in the future a disease makes people into semi-vampires and she's a widow and the future is weird. Yeah, that takes about ten minutes for her to say. For true gut-crunching surreal nonsense, try watching the movie with her full-length commentary.

The violent killer that is usually referred to simply as "V" by her pals, poses with swords and guns which she has nanotechnologically loaded into infinity on her clothes. All kinds of throwaway tech is here, and the movie grabs bits of anime and goth and comics and blurs it all together in a day-glo Uber-Revlon Para Para commercial for .... I don't know what.

Wimmer has tech skill, no doubt. Now all he needs is a writer. And some actors.

Lost at sea now, mired in a strange silent fogbank we see on the horizon that the adaptation of Phillip K. Dick's "A Scanner Darkly" opens this weekend in limited release and should be in a theater near you in coming weeks.

The movie is fully faithful to the drug-zapped madness of Dick's book. Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves) is an undercover narcotics agent on the trail of a new drug, Substance D, and wears a constantly shifting visual exterior body mask while on the job. Off the job, he's a fellow drug addict with his friends (superb casting of Robert Downey Jr and Woody Harrelson). Then he gets assigned to track a new suspect - himself. He lives his undercover life and then goes to work and watches himself.

Director Richard Linklater has made the movie in a new rotoscoping animation, which adds to the cognitive dissonance of the story and the addictions and a world hidden within a world. There is no romantic vision of the addict onboard this ghost ship. There is despair and deep black comedy as all slowly sink into the abyss.

As critic J. Hoberman noted in his review, fellow sci-fi writer Stanislaw Lem said of Dick - he was a writer who "does not so much play the part of a guide through his phantasmagoric worlds as he gives the impression of one lost in their labyrinth."

Fractured time and space and reality are hallmarks of his work. In the novel "Time Out of Joint," the lead character literally sees through the fake world he is in when the Ice Cream Stand at a local park dwindles to a piece of paper with the words "Ice Cream Stand" written on it.

Our voyage is not over, but we've reached a windless beach. The Cap'n says we'll sail again soon.

Dollywood Diplomacy

The media mania that followed the diplomatic visit to Graceland from bona fide Elvis fan, Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, accompanied by President Bush and even Priscilla herself is both a little surreal and also a possible new approach to exporting/exploiting American ideals.

I'm sure Prime Minister Koizumi, who released his own CD of Elvis hits, has also seen "Mystery Train," where the lives of foreign tourists intersect in a Memphis hotel on their various pilgrimages to Graceland.

Lloyd Garver provides a rock-solid idea on a new kind of diplomacy in his most recent editorial:

"Maybe this kind of diplomacy should be used more often. Let world leaders see both the silly and the awe-inspiring that make up America. There's bound to be some head of state who is just dying to see Dollywood.

"Take the leaders of Iran and North Korea. Maybe they're too embarrassed to admit it, but isn't it possible that they've always wanted to go to Disneyland or Disney World. What would it hurt to invite them for a tour? I'm sure they'll feel very indebted to us if we unilaterally say they don't have to wait in the long lines. And, cynically speaking, if they remain belligerent after several hours at the park, just make them go through that "Small World" ride a few dozen times. After hearing "It's A Small World After All" sung over and over, their minds will be so fried they'll agree to anything we ask of them."

Despite the fame of President Reagan's ballyhooed "tear down this wall", I think the real factors that brought down the Berlin Wall and dissolved the Soviet Union had far more to do with blue jeans and rock and roll -- it was the desire for American goods and style, a yearning for good times and not rations of toilet paper.

It's far more effective when troops arrive to distribute chocolate bars and toys and food and water, and when terrorists blow up families lined up to get those kinds of tangible goodies, then the message is clear and plain as to who the Good Guys are and who the Bad Guys are.

So maybe we should follow up the Graceland Summit (even coming so late in Koizumi's tenure) with a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Summit, a Dollywood Summit, a Bonnaroo Summit, a Universal Studios Tour Summit, and yes, why not a Stuckey's Summit?

The Mississippi Delta was shining
Like a national guitar
I am following the river
Down the highway
Through the cradle of the civil war
I'm going to graceland
Graceland
In memphis tennessee
I'm going to graceland
Poorboys and pilgrims with families
And we are going to graceland

(NOTE: the picture above originated here.)

Ways the News Fails Us

Several comments on yesterday's post raise important questions, but answers are truly elusive. (And thanks to KnoxViews and Say Uncle for linking to the story.)

I too have heard much about large membership in the area for Klan and "other" extremist groups, but why are they tolerated here??

What type of brutish behavior could a disabled vet have presented to force police to taser him?? Was he threatening anyone? Will the same officials who called for this large deployment be the ones to investigate what occurred?

Other questions remain large - how much will all this deployment cost??

Is this town a smoldering fire awaiting violent eruption over racial issues?

If so, why is there little media attention paid to the issue?

As usual, the Knox media took no interest in the story, other than to report the official line, and no serious investigation or any followup has occurred. There was a brief mention on the FOX News program Hannity & Colmes, but they too simply smirked their way through this event in their "fair and balanced" format.

There are about 17 or 18 different nations which own and operate large companies in this county - Japan, Italy, Germany, and many more. Perhaps local officials wanted to present a fierce and hard opposition to the group who was protesting illegal immigration in order to assure all those investors that local government supports them and not the "others".

We certainly appear to be a community of conflicting viewpoints, and I am not endorsing conflict. But so much remains unspoken, and dissent seems to be forcibly repressed in an instant.

How ironic that a multi-county, state-supplied armed response is present but the most prominent comment is "Nothing to see here! Move along!"

Morristown Rally Was Surrounded, Voices Silenced

A staggering amount of armed law enforcement, including the city of Morristown's use of an armored half-track, some high-tech Homeland Security equipment, a Knox County EMA Mobile Command vehicle, a THP Mobile Command Unit, a THP helicopter and more all focused their attentions on a very small rally held in Morristown on June 24th to protest illegal immigration.

County Commissioner Tom Lowe had received permission for this rally, and local news and area bloggers all reported on the event noting the tasering of a disabled vet charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

Lowe and others have a website to document what actually happened that day citing the immense amount of intimidation they felt aimed in their direction. And despite fears of the local MPD that dangerous protestors would attend - it seems "they" did not attend, though some folks with actual tattoos were there.

Below are some pictures taken by event organizers, which show a huge armed law enforcement presence completely surrounding a cordoned off section of the county courthouse lawn -- and I can only imagine how large the cost of this deployment may actually be. Will the city charge the county for the cost? Will the state charge city or county?

Commissioner Lowe writes on the website there was a:

" ... a massive planned '“Over-Kill and overwhelming mass of “Homeland Security Toys'…..including an $ 800,000 Homeland Security Mobile Command Center with Satellite Communications & Digital Imaging, Critical Response Half-Track Tank, S.W.A.T. Teams in full body armor with loaded M-16 Rifles, Fire Trucks with unrolled hoses, K-9 Dog, Tenn. Highway Patrol (THP) Riot Squads ..."

The website has far more information to review. While you or I may disagree or agree with the viewpoints the participants attending this event wanted to express, it certainly appears their voices were silenced before they could even speak. Perhaps I am simply unaware of how dangerous this community has become, since we now need an armored urban police vehicle to maintain order.

Above pic shows the new armored vehicle


More pics here.

Consuming Mass Quantities

As Beldar Conehead used to say, "time to consume mass quantities".

And in the somewhat narrow (yet large) world of Competitive Eating, li'l Takeru Kobayashi has just claimed his sixth consecutive win at the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, gobbling down a new record of 53.75 hot dogs in 12 minutes. Takeru, from Japan, has owned this 4th of July contest easily for the last six years - in his first win, they actually had to start making up new placards on the spot as they had never had anyone eat more than 40 of the wieners. And he only weighs 160 pounds.

The event began in 1916 when Jim Mullen won the contest by eating 13 hot dogs.

The event has been aired live on ESPN for the last few years and many were expecting an California dude named Joey Chestnut who set a new record for an American, devouring 52 of Nathan's Famous dogs. But it wasn't enough to best Takeru.

Takeru also has a record of eating 17.7 pounds of pan-seared cow brains to win $25,000.

There are records aplenty among the Eaters - take Sonya "Black Widow" Thomas, who hold the female record for Nathan's at 37 dogs, the previous overall record for an American.

The International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE) has a large menu of events and records to peruse, should you hunger for more information on this .... uh ... sport.

I was somewhat impressed as well with the achievement of Kate Stelnick, a 115-pound sophomore in college who, in 2005 devoured what's known as Ye Olde 96er at Denny's Beer Barrel Pub in 2 hours and 54 minutes - making her the first person to ever down the burger in less than the 3-hour time limit set by Denny's Pub.

That's 8 pounds of burger, 12 slices of cheese, an onion, half a head of lettuce, copious condiments, and a special bun which brings the total weight of this puppy to 11 pounds.

So remember, you'd have a heck of a long long way to go to match these Mass Quantity Consumers no matter how much you overeat on this particular holiday.

The Revolution of Independence

The concept of Independence from Tyranny remains as revolutionary an idea today as when the founders of this nation declared their independence in 1776.

So much history and so many events are murky or forgotten, but a rather comprehensive account can be found at the American Revolution Home Page.

Some facts from that site include:

The Americans of 1776 had the highest standard of living and lowest taxes in the Western World. Farmers, lawyers and business owners in the Colonies were thriving, with some plantation owners and merchants making the equivalent of $500,000 a year. Times were good for many others too. (The vast majority of business owners and professionals were white males.) The British wanted a slice of the cash flow and tried to tax the Colonists. They resisted violently, convinced that their prosperity and their liberty were at stake.
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There were two Boston tea parties. Everyone knows how 50 or 60 "Sons of Liberty," disguised as Mohawks, protested the 3 cents per pound British tax on tea by dumping chests of the popular drink into Boston Harbor on Dec. 16, 1773. Fewer know that the improper Bostonians repeated the performance on March 7, 1774. The two tea parties cost the British around $3 million in modern money.
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By 1779, as many as one in seven Americans in Washington's army was black. At first, Washington was hesitant about enlisting blacks. But when he heard they had fought well at Bunker Hill, he changed his mind. The all-black First Rhode Island Regiment - composed of 33 freedmen and 92 slaves who were promised freedom if they served until the end of the war - distinguished itself in the Battle of Newport. Later, they were all but wiped out in a British attack.
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There were women in the Continental Army, even a few who saw combat. Probably the best known is Mary Ludwig Hays, nicknamed "Molly Pitcher." She replaced her wounded husband at his cannon during the Battle of Monmouth in 1778. Another wife of an artillery man, Margaret Corbin, was badly wounded serving in her husband's gun crew at the Battle of Harlem heights in 1776. Thousands of other woman served in Washington's army as cooks or nurses.
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By 1779, there were more Americans fighting with the British than with Washington. There were no less than 21 regiments (estimated to total 6500 to 8000 men) of loyalists in the British army. Washington reported a field army of 3468. About a third of Americans opposed the Revolution.
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At Yorktown, the victory that won the war, Frenchmen outnumbered Americans almost three to one. Washington had 11,000 men engaged in the battle, while the French had at least 29,000 soldiers and sailors. the 37 French ships-of-the-line played a crucial role in trapping the 8700-strong British army and winning the engagement.
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In one key respect Jefferson used Natural Law instead of natural-rights theory, substituting "the pursuit of happiness" for "property" in the trinity of inalienable rights. In this change, derived from the Swiss legal philosopher Emerich de Vattel, he emphasized public duty rather than (as the language seems to indicate) personal choice, for natural law theory is that happiness is attainable only by diligent cultivation of civic virtue. Two passages in Jefferson's draft were rejected by the Congress -- an intemperate reference to the English people and a scathing denunciation of the slave trade. The document was otherwise adopted without significant change, and formal signing by 56 members of Congress began on Aug. 2, 1776.
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And if you wish to celebrate by blasting away with fireworks, you can simply click on this link, then crank up the volume and click away with your mouse for endless and non-flammable explosive fun.

As for me, Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!

(NOTE: Apparently I should add Give Me A Spellcheck)

Bloggers Under Military Watch

I received an email this weekend which detailed a relatively new program as part of the apparently endless War on Terror, which says that the U.S. Dept. of Defense has decided that blogs and bloggers are now under watch.

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research has received funding to begin a study of blogs in order to:

"Dr. Brian E. Ulicny, senior scientist, and Dr. Mieczyslaw M. Kokar, president, Versatile Information Systems Inc., Framingham, Mass. said ... 'It can be challenging for information analysts to tell what'’s important in blogs unless you analyze patterns.'

"Patterns include the content of the blogs as well as what hyperlinks are contained within the blog."

This new program is part of an overall program created since 9-11 which has been dubbed "Transformation".

Of course, there is much understandable wisdom in a philosophy of action aimed at modernizing military operations, and in the last year or so, a serious effort has been made to target blogs and bloggers to provide information which may be incomplete or, in their minds, incorrect.

The concept is large in scope and is steadily working to provide levels of modernization involving everything from MREs to nanotechnologies.

"Drawing quite a bit of attention from onlookers, Staff Sgt. Robert Atkinson, of Natick's Future Warrior Concepts Lab, represented what soldiers may look like several decades from now.

Wearing a black padded suit and black helmet, he said, "I've been called everything from Darth Vader to RoboCop and the character from the Halo video games."

The prototype suit, though generations away in development, is a visionary project of the Future Force Warrior project and the Future Combat System program.

The helmet system for the suit will have a tiny computer system and monitor that will keep soldiers in contact with commanders; it also will have thermal night vision goggles.

But most amazing, Atkinson said, researchers are looking to use "nanotechnology" on the uniform to give soldiers superhuman strength. Electrical impulses sent to the human muscles will provide soldiers with extra strength, he said."

I'm all for a prepared military so we don't have to hear about celebrities like Cher raising money for armor for personnel or reports of equipment lacking in proper defenses.

What I am less sure about is the trolling of blogs for data collection.

Reality Me has a post about this topic today as well and comes to the same question I had - couldn't they just use Technorati for such informational opportunities? At least the information about the program is easily available to those who bother to seek it out. (hat tip to CSW for the info)

The Most Popular Blog Post In The World

Of all the blogs and blog topics in the world, I have inadvertently stumbled upon the most sought after information in all the internets. My initial discovery I simply dismissed as one of those momentary oddities, like the brief popularity of that web site that featured semi-clothed Barbie dolls engaged in lascivious activities, or like the video of that nerdy guy providing a history of white people dancing, or the omnipresent pleas from some Nigerian businessman e-spamming every inbox in the world.

It isn't some petition demanding Congress promote or prevent some heinous legislation. It isn't a picture of some celebrity giving birth in a Third World nation under the watchful protection of an army of Scientologists under orders to create a three-acre Zone of Silence during said childbirth.

It isn't the surreptitious download from a cell phone camera of a nameless student/employee/elected official caught in the act of a private and/or personal nature. It isn't even the latest conspiratorial scoop from pundits of the Instant variety. Or even just plain porn.

The evidence supplied by the statistics provided by the Site Meter application here reveals that nearly all of eastern and southern Australia, much of the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany, Spain, Uzbekistan, India, Madagascar, Japan, Canada and all 50 states and additional territories of our great nation all point to a ravenous hunger for one thing and one thing only - pictures of Cats That Look Like Hitler.

(I was even compelled to followup with a second post.)

Certainly I was befuddled (but in a nice way) to realize that millions of people made time to view or link to Cats In Sinks, or The Daily Kitten, or just submitted pictures of Stuff on Cats.

But, dear reader, I am at an utter and complete loss to understand A.) why anyone would want to put tiny nazi clothes on a cat, B.) take pictures of it and C.) find that the majority of the civilized world which does not adorn their cats thusly STILL want to see images of cats thus adorned.

Since my first link to said page in mid-June, traffic here has been beyond the ken of mortal man. Naturally, I am most grateful for each and every visit. But no Technorati tag nor diatribe of the evils of Ann Coulter or the NYTimes or even detailed accounts of Brittney Spears baby-dropping can touch the importance, the insatiable desire, the relentless onslaught of web seekers for felines in the clothes of a brutal military regime.

So if you are a blogger who wonders if or when or how readers will seek your posts with rabid determination, then your choice is obvious:

The Holy Grail is made of Cats.

Camera Obscura - Superdickery, Asian Conflicts and The Silver Surfer

With all the attention being paid to a new "Superman" movie, there are certain notions which most reviewers have abandoned regarding the Caped One which I am happy to provide even if it tarnishes the shine on this American Icon.

It seems most reviews and media praise want to forget how overdone this storyline has become. First, I keep noticing comments that there seems to be overtones of a religious nature - um, folks, isn't that really, really obvious?? - a being with unheard of abilities arrives on Earth; his true nature is withheld during his childhood years until he realizes He Was Sent Here For a Purpose; his real Father urges him to Help Those In Need on Earth; His earthly Mom gives him constant encouragement and his friends don't seem to comprehend his Real Identity; He feels somewhat isolated from the mass populace even though His help is needed; many folks feel compelled to attack and hurt Him, etc etc.

Add to this that the story of this Hero has been on radio, television and in movies for about 60 years or more. Finding new tales to tell is a tall order. Early reviews indicate this newest version is quite entertaining - is this a sign viewers have a need for a Hero who is actually Heroic? Probably.

There has always been a certain cheesy quality to the Man of Steel comics - and one web site (provided to me some time ago by the legendary Cinema Monkey) which is absolutely hilarious - Superman is a Dick defines the aforementioned "cheese". Using only the actual comic book covers from decades past, yeah, ol' Supes has had kind of a mean and tricky side. You'll find much to entertain you at Superdickery.com.


There are pages and pages of examples on the website, plus a host of many other wildly hilarious comic book covers that leave you wondering just what the heck the publishers and writers were actually trying to say. (click on the image for a larger view)

Some other comic books news for you this Friday -- one that has me hopeful is that one of my favorite characters might finally get his moment in the spotlight. Rumors are flying the next "Fantastic Four" movie will focus on the Intergalactic Surfer Dude - yes, FF 2 will feature none other than the Silver Surfer.

Cinema Monkey was also kind enough to point me to the vast world of comic book blogging via the offerings at Marvel Comics Blogs. Tons of nerd-filled pleasure/debates/news. And I did note with some satisfaction that Marvel's Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada has one titled "Cup Of Blog." I guess he knew "Cup of Joe" was taken, heh heh.

Some sad news to report today too - despite our mutual admiration for Asian Cinema, GoldenAppleCorp at Atomic Tumor took my advice and watched the horror movie "Pulse" (the American remake is out this summer) and GAC says - it was boring and made no sense. Aww, hate to hear that, but in all honesty, about half the people I encouraged to see it said the same, though the other half agreed with me that it was a well-made, disturbing example of the horrors of existential loneliness. (yeah, I know, soooooo many people like stuff like that in a movie).

Maybe my preference simply reveals I live a tenuous existence at the edge of the abyss of Complete Existential Dread with the ghost of Samuel Beckett whispering in my ear.

Using mostly shadows or the offscreen implication of weirdness, I think the movie scored a bullseye on the freaky/disturbing scale. Others say - made no sense, never was scary. I think it's one of those cases where the movie fired up my imagination via minimalistic methods and left others wondering what was the point of all that??

GAC recommended I watch "Volcano High" which I did this week. I liked it okay, especially the way it was filmed and the way images and characters collided in a story (one also kind of hard to decipher) about a new kid at school with amazing powers and the struggle for Power between students and teachers. Now, since this was a movie made in Korea, the plot twist of New Teachers with Super Fighting Abilities arriving to challenge and chastise both students and teachers made me consider the film as a bit of a metaphor for the current political climate in North and South Korea.

But, ya' know GAC, I liked "Pulse" better, as well as "Battle Royale", but still, I did like "Volcano High" - it sort of reminded me of the anime series "Cromartie High School" - a surreal and nearly slapstick action story.

Atomic T. himself expressed much excitement for the 2nd season debut of "The Venture Brothers" on Adult Swim - man was it good. I'll never miss an episode. Newbies can catch-up by getting Season One which is out on DVD. It's just so funny and very imaginative in the ways it plays with the conventions of television cartoons. It's like Jonny Quest meets Mad Magazine. Catch it on Sunday nights on Cartoon Network.

For horror movie news - would ya believe it - more and more horror remakes are ahead, including Rob Zombie's new version of "Halloween," and another take at "Aliens vs Predator," Brad Pitt's planned Zombie movie, plus more Romero zombies on the way and in general a heaping abundance of all things horror movie at ESplatter.com.

Next week, an exclusive peek at the DVD "The Garden" starring Lance Henricksen from Anchor Bay, AND a book review of "Comfort and Joi, by author Joseph Dougherty, which chronicles the career of the mostly unknown actress Joi Lansing, who was featured in "Singing In The Rain," Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil" and grade-Z 1960s horror schlock like "Hillbillys In A Haunted House."

Being Polite

I listened to a professor of language and media this afternoon on Fresh Air on the public radio station attempting to explain the differences and difficulties in today's political discourse. So, to say that sentence again in the way some of you might read it - I was listening to a liberal talking about useless liberal college agendas on a liberal radio network.

He made a fine point that after all these years since American encountered the Bunker family on "All In The Family", our political debate today most often is characterized and shaped by media as an easy-to-follow, endless Archie vs Meathead argument, where the point seems to be focused on outrage at the Left or Right and that most of us hearing or seeing the argument have really already got solid views on whatever topic is being "discussed". Most of us know it's enterainment-based and simplistic. To constantly narrow the views one has thru a limited prism of Left and Right is a ever-limiting and distorting of Reality.

Talk show stars, like Rush or Coulter or Hannity or Boortz or Franken or Carville, are just members of our extended family whose eccentricities are indulged out of politeness on our part; rodeo clowns of distraction who served a limited and defined function.

Here's a fine post today from Huck in Nashville that pretty much explains as well why people who believe in the Church of Rush Limbaugh aren't in the mainstream - or even a sidestream - well, really they are kinda just extreme. Nice one, Huck.

Poor Frist

Poor Senator Frist.

Asked why the public has a low approval rating for the GOP and Congress in general, the Senator blamed CNN. (via TGW and Enclave)

The dang ol' commie media doesn't focus on the Great Works accomplished under his gentle, guiding hand. They don't report the legislation that really matters.

I wonder if he means the Senate resolution he sponsored last week - a daring statement of congratulations for the cities of Bristol, TN and Bristol, VA for existing for 150 years.

It Must Be An Election Year

Score and goal to Volunteer Voters for pointing to a fine quote in reference to the failed attempt to change the Constitution and add flag burning as a Constitutional Crime.

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative."
John Stuart Mill

Kleinheider knows what he's talking about:

"This is, quite frankly, a stupid debate."

Not to mention the preferred method for disposing of a flag that has become worn out or damage is burning it. Yeesh.

Inside a Maze of Secrets

Attempting to understand the shuck and jive political game of blaming the media for all ills in America, as well as the dizzying maze of innuendo and accusation flowing from the President and Vice President and their supporters who cry "treason!!" at the drop of a hat is like looking at one of M.C. Escher's surreal staircases.

God only knows why I bother to puzzle the maze out - it seems that Facts are merely blank ciphers formatted to fit the needs of the moment. The hysteria regarding the NYTimes report about U.S. efforts to trace terrorists via banking activity has been prodigious, Facts less so.

Glenn Greenwald points out what many others have as well - there is no clear sign the NYTimes report could be seen as aiding terrorists. Should such proof be presented, I will happily retract any criticisms - in other words, "treason" needs some evidence beyond the reporting of a commonly discussed policy.

"... all anyone has to do to realize the sheer falsity of those claims is to compare the "treasonous" articles in question to prior public statements and documents from the Bush administration. Terrorists already knew that we were attempting to eavesdrop on their telephone calls because the Bush administration repeatedly talked about our surveillance programs. And, for the same reason, terrorists already knew that we were monitoring banking transactions -- including specifically those effectuated through SWIFT. And yet we are subjected to an increasingly frenzied lynch mob insisting that reporters have committed treason without their ever really being challenged by the media itself over these factually false claims.

None of this has to do with anger over "helping the terrorists." The articles in question so plainly do nothing of the sort. The anger that is unleashed by the media doing its job is the by-product of a belief that the Bush administration should be able to act in complete secrecy, with no checks or oversight of any kind. "

Others in the press and on TV have likewise wondered just what specifics did the NYTimes story provide that were secret? And the Talking Point Repeaters seldom curse The Wall Street Journal for their coverage - so one wonders if its just anger from the White House aimed at the NYTimes.

Vice President Cheney's comments addressing surveillance programs contained a very revealing comment:

"What is doubly disturbing for me is, not only have they gone forward with these stories but they've been rewarded for it, for example in the case of the terrorists surveillance program by being awarded the Pulitzer Prize for outstanding journalism. i think that is a disgrace."

Wait a minute. Is this the NSA program that was at first denied to exist, then denied by phone companies and then argued by Administration officials before courts that lawsuits seeking information about it should be dropped due to the need for secrecy?

Too often in the news business, government officials at every level will respond to certain questions that dig deep with this kind of "trust us" or "without secrecy others can harm us" defense.

Given the emormous and historic level of power now gathered in the office of the president, an outspoken and assertive press is the public's last line of authority which can question and examine the policies and programs and what they mean.

That is not treason - it is a function of a free press.

Al Gore A Streetwise Pimp??

Would anyone have expected Al Gore to present himself as a comedy foil to the robot Bender from "Futurama"? He does just that in this ad to promote his movie "An Inconvenient Truth."

Had Me Laughing All Day

What had me laughing all day?

Was it Rush Limbaugh having to explain to Customs Agents why he had a bottle of Viagra with someone else's name on it as he returned from the Dominican Republic? Was it that the DR is known as a "sex tourism" favorite?

Was it the fact that Tom Cruise couldn't sell his photos of his wee new child for the price he wanted?

Maybe the kinky mix of lingerie and gun holsters? (via Boing Boing)

No, it was this picture, which Brittney posted at NiT. Just what the hell is that logo supposed to represent? Take your time and look, I'll wait.

Now also funny was the ad copy to go with the logo --

"First a massive invasion, not at ground level but at pole level, wall level, everywhere: a curious, subtle but definitely amorous message.

Oh, yeah,that had me laughing all day.

Immigration Challenges

Once again a comment left on the previous post has stirred a few thoughts which I think are very pertinent to the concerns about legal and illegal immigration. The comment simply put was "do local bosses profit from illegal immigration?"

I'd say yes, definitely. For example. there are many locations thru Hamblen County, and around the country, where landlords charge the highest amounts possible to legal and illegal immigrants - $100 or $200 per person, and anywhere from 6 to 10 people in a two-bedroom apartment.

For years, many East Tennessee farming operations used what was called "migrant/seasonal" work. But I've not heard that term used much anymore.

Some years back, when the current Koch Foods was Burnett Produce, the facility was raided several times and illegals rounded-up, and perhaps one or two Supervisors were arrested on charges related to providing fake documents to the workers. More recently, Koch employees successfully created their own union at the plant. That has prompted some to predict the company will close it's operations there in the near future.

Under President Bush, the only label that applies to efforts at finding and punishing those who profit from illegal immigration is the label of Failure.

"Over the course of five-and-a-half years, the administration has quietly (and, I believe, intentionally) failed to enforce our existing immigration laws. An employer who willfully hired illegals was 19 times more likely to be sanctioned under Bill Clinton than George Bush. Illegal border crossings have increased under Bush, and the value of illegal drug trade across our southern border has risen to a whopping $65 billion dollars in 2005, dwarfing that of oil, Mexico’s largest legitimate industry of $28 billion, and more than tripling the $20 billion Mexicans working in the U.S. sent to their families in Mexico last year."

Read more of this assessment at the National Review Online.

The political profits are being sought as well by candidates for the open Tennessee Senate seat. Former congressman Ed Bryant is front and center on this topic, stating that illegal immigration is the Number One issue on voter's minds.

"On illegal immigration, Bryant said he worries that President George W. Bush's plan to put National Guard troops at the Mexico border will not be sufficient. Bryant pledged to try to amend a law that prevents the use of active military people to enforce civilian law."

via Blogging for Bryant.

Since we are hardly a border state, wouldn't local resources be best used to discover and hold accountable those employers and agencies that hire illegals?

Protest Draws Law Enforcement to Hamblen Co.

After checking with a few sources about a local protest against illegal immigrants in Hamblen County, a few details are quite disturbing -

- Armed officers on the Courthouse Roof (reported in the local newspaper print editions)

- Nearly 100 law enforcement officers on site (who pays for that?)

- Videotaping all those in attendance

- Tasering a disabled vet who wanted to bring a flagpole with the American flag onto the site

- A helicopter buzzing the crowd

Like others, I don't think much of the anti-immigration stand, but they did have a permit and this IS still a free nation (isn't it?).

Video footage here and R. Neal has more details here (via KnoxViews)

UPDATE: To clarify the point about armed officers on the roof of the courthouse, it was reported in the Sunday, June 25th edition of the Citizen Tribune, in an article titled "Opponents of Illegal Immigration Rally in Hamblen":

"Everyone was searched, and a THP videographer and still photographer documented the event. Two men equipped with high-powered binoculars - and presumably, hihg-powered rifles - were stationed on top of the courthouse annex."

I don't think the word "sniper" quite fits the armed officers on the roof, and after re-reading the article, I cannot verify they were even there.

Fear Of Fat In Formative Years

I'm so old I can tell you that as an elementary and high school student, we used to walk across the street from school to a soft drink machine daily. It helped remove that nasty slick taste of weird milk from little plastic boxes. Oh and we had phys-ed class at least 3 times a week right thru our senior year. And even then there were kids who were overweight.

By the late 1980s, most schools had soft drinks for sale in the schools and some even had a little McDonald's franchise in the cafeteria. I guess phys-ed died out around the time Big Hair Rock Music came to prominence.

And every boy (and some girls) always had pocketknives but this was all pre-Columbine. Schools are now known as "gun free zones" - which doesn't stop a kid from bringing a gun to school - and police patrol the corridors. I guess I got out just in time.

Now in addition to gun fears we have Fat Fears.

So schools, like the ones in Greene County, are ditching soft drinks and will sell juice and water. I wonder if the "free" water fountains in schools of my youth are also a fading memory?

But along with the Fat Fear there are the Funding Fears:

"When the proposed wellness policy came up for discussion, Armstrong said he had been receiving calls about how adoption of the new wellness policy might affect the income the four high schools receive from contracts with soft-drink manufacturers that have been granted exclusive rights to sell their products in the high schools.

He noted that during the school year that just ended, Chuckey-Doak High School alone received $30,068 as its share of proceeds from the sale of Coca-Cola products at C-DHS.

He also noted that C-DHS had received four athletic scoreboards paid for by Coca-Cola. The soft-drink maker, he said, also pays for maintenance of the scoreboards.

Armstrong said school principals were concerned that they might not derive as much income from the sale of juices, flavored-water beverages, and healthful snacks as they had from sales of soft-drinks, candy and other less-healthful snacks from machines.

More can be read in the article here.

And apparently the No Child Left Behind laws require eliminating soft drinks and snack machines. Maybe the kids will have to go back to running to nearby stores and back to get their exercise.

I'm just glad I left the school years behind and I have no kids who have so many fears and fat to contend with. And I don't have to attend Special Committees who meet and empower each other and get to use fantastical words like "wellness." I still have no idea what the heck a "wellness" is, unless it means to have the qualities of a well.

I wonder if the kids in the next generation will have to meet a Fat Quotient to go along with their Grade Points.

The picture below arrives via a web page dedicated to Tales Of Obese Kids Around the World.

Ann Coulter Republicans Part 2

UPDATE: Big thanks to juliepatchouli for providing an eye-opening link to what the legendary internets leader, Betty Bowers, has to say about Coulter's ruthless hatred for the families of the murdered Americans. See Julie's post.
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Thanks to an anonymous commenter yesterday I have found a nifty little spot on the internets where neo-cons and Coulter fans gather and talk about how she makes them hot and drooly -- yes, drooly.

"Ann Coulter is smart and good looking, I don't know if she can cook or not, but if she can, as Homer Simpson says, uuhhuuhuuhuuhuuhuuhhh, (droll drool drool)"

I love that one - she is a woman, so her best attributes are being smart, good looking and making food for the Man in her life. Haw! I'm sure she dreams of such a paradise. Maybe her fans desire a posable Action Figure. The li'l oasis for the Coulter fans and neo-cons is here - and by the way, I am glad you found my humble but loveable blog - all readers all welcome as are your comments, though you may be held responsible for what you say.

The ire raised at yesterday's little experiment revealed some of these neo-cons have no grasp of irony or humor, though they have learned to insult like a pro (like Coulter, who is professional insulter) And one of the folks at Tounge Tied made a hilarious observation based on ... well, I have no idea what they based their viewpoint on.

"Oh, that's just Joe Powell and his rantings. He's in a petulant and perpetual snit 'cause the Dems have been on the outside for so long...they're gonna show the evil reactionaries, come this November, damnit!"

I often encounter this perspective from hard core Party Faithful. The truth is I have never been and never will be a member of a political party. It is far more sensible to examine politicos and candidates on their own merits, as both Parties, in my opinion, suffer from too much self-annointed power madness.

And a more-than-casual-reader will find praise given to politicians on both sides of the current system, and more than that, the reader will find a fierce support for independent appraisal and thinking and the rock-solid Truth that government and parties will never solve problems but the individual always will.

What you will not find on this blog is support for the Bush administration and its policies. Prior to 9-11 and after, the administration has charted a course challenging the Constitution at nearly every level, a large amount of cronyism and a willingness to permanently damage anyone who might offer dissent.

And there is the reality that the press and the public have bought into the Big Lie about war in the Mideast.

The reality is - for 16 years, by air or by ground the U.S. and the U.K. military have been engaged in combat in Iraq. We tend to view it as three wars - the first in 1990 to "defend" Kuwait, the No-Fly Zone patrols which lasted from 1991 til 2003, and the current warfare which began in March of 2003.

The key players have remained the same - Rumsfeld and Cheney and their loyal staff, and of course the Bush family.

Last week PBS aired an episode of "Frontline" which pointed to this tremendous shift in presidential and vice presidential powers.

I know most people already are aware of the shift and change in national policy and they don't like it. Not only are polls revealing that disapproval, the public has an even lower opinion of Congress since they have failed in their jobs of checking and balancing the powers of government.

Also hilarously wrong were the Tounge Tied crew claiming my post yesterday was "vulgar". That's just a lie, but you will find plenty of swearing in the "anonymous" comments. The proposal is that she is a Bad Person, but her views are Gospel Truth. (Does that mean she has Truthiness?) This seems to be a popular mode of thought among neo-cons and the Bush Administration - the ends always justify the means.

Lies and distortion have served the neo-cons well. And truly, I'm happy they have found a common set of talking points and values - big government knows best and all who disagree are, as Coulter has claimed, the creators of "Slander" and "Treason" and are all "Godless". It is mindlessly simplistic to blame every Evil since Eden on the Democrat Party. Read enough Coulter and you'll discover Eve was a Democrat Party Chair and Satan was a Vietnam War Protestor.

Painting every Fear with one Face, Coulter and her supporters have followed in the footsteps of the "Two-Minute Hate" from Orwell's "1984" as she appears on TV wailing against the Evil of Them, the Others, who, though powerless, are constantly creating new Evils to Hate:

"Before the Hate had proceeded for thirty seconds, uncontrollable exclamations of rage were breaking out from half the people in the room. The self-satisfied sheep-like face on the screen, and the terrifying power of the Eurasian army behind it, were too much to be borne: besides the sight or even the thought of Goldstein produced fear and anger automatically. He was an object of hatred more constant than either Eurasia or Eastasia, since when Oceania was at war with one of these Powers it was generally at peace with the other. But what was strange was that although Goldstein was hated and despised by everybody, although every day and a thousand times a day, on platforms, on the telescreen, in newspapers, in books, his theories were refuted, smashed, ridiculed, held up to the general gaze for the pitiful rubbish that they were - in spite of all this, his influence never seemed to grow less. Always there were fresh dupes waiting to be seduced by him. A day never passed when spies and saboteurs acting under his directions were not unmasked by the Thought Police."

Are You An Ann Coulter Republican?

It's time.

You are either for her or against her. Since Ann Coulter has found much money for painting the political world in her two-tone dialectics, then it's time to paint her and her supporters with the same brush.

"The question, "Are you an Ann Coulter Republican?" should confront every Republican running for every office in the land, from President to dog catcher. Every Democratic candidate should accuse his or her opponent of being in favor of poisoning Supreme Court Justices and killing Congressmen. At every opportunity, every Republican should be made to answer: "Do you agree with Ann Coulter that the 9/11 widows are witches and harpies?" And George W. Bush, Tony Snow, Dick Cheney, Laura Bush and Barney (the only lapdog with a good excuse) should be confronted with these questions as well."

More of the article here.

No middle ground for those of you who devour her bile as Truth - either you are with her hateful, mindless group or you're opposed to her.

Period.

The End.

Monkey Gangs Grab Own Flags

Who knew a monkey could contract patriotic fever? Well, it's really World Soccer Cup fever.

The report also mentions that the Monkey Gangs number 120. And whenever I have the chance to use words like Monkey Gangs, I will.