Update on "Secret Ethics Meeting"

Other media - print and television and bloggers - have also begun raising questions about an "investigation" led by state Senators Southerland and Haynes. Learn more here.

And here is my previous post about the issue.

Who Watches the Watchmen?

As Don Rumsfeld once put it about The New Iraq, there are "known unknowns". That's a pretty good picture of the confusion and corruption about just how much oil is being made and sold in The New Iraq. From this link via MetaFilter, the unknown continues to expand:

"Iraq’s oil exports hit another post-invasion low in December and January, according to the Oil & Gas Journal. How do they know? Good question: according to Reuters, production and exports have gone unmetered since the Coalition Provisional Authority took over the country following the 2003 invasion; until new meters are installed, everybody’s just guessing.

Among the best chronicles of the haziness surrounding Iraq’s oil production and exports — and the general pall of corruption that hangs over the country — comes from journalist Ed Harriman, writing in the July, 2005 issue of the London Review of Books. Harriman wrote that in addition to the roughly $9 billion in Iraqi oil funds that vanished without a trace during CPA head Paul Bremer’s reign, the International Advisory and Monitoring Board established to oversee and audit CPA expenditures of Iraqi cash “discovered that Iraqi oil exports were unmetered.”

How long until someone actually starts an accurate accounting, or "metering"? Maybe two years. That's what Rumsefeld would call an "unknown unknown". For now, The New Iraq is paying about $6 billion a year to import oil.

Remember when the war began and we got these details:

Once U.S. troops entered Iraq, special combat teams spread out into the oil fields and occupied key installations. In fact, the very first operation of the war was a commando raid on an offshore loading platform in the Persian Gulf. "Swooping silently out of the Persian Gulf night," an over-stimulated reporter for the New York Times wrote on March 23, "Navy Seals seized two Iraqi oil terminals in bold raids that ended early this morning, overwhelming lightly armed Iraqi guards and claiming a bloodless victory in the battle for Iraq's vast oil empire."

Quote of the Day

From Tennessee Senator Bill Frist, leader of the Senate, on pushing thru immigration reform, made during a recent "phone call conference" with reporters:

"Frist said most of the Senate's discussion and differences are focused on the temporary worker program.

"There are two aspects," he explained. "One is the true temporary worker program whereby people could come here with the intent of working for a period of time and then going back home. That would apply to agricultural workers, construction workers or hospitality workers - the sort of workers we know are coming and going.

"The other temporary worker component is the 12 million people who are here. That's where the debate really is ... it's not realistic today to send that whole 12 million people back where they came from."

Frist said he doesn't know how many illegal immigrants are in Tennessee.

I bet he DOES know how many votes he needs to win the first presidential primary battle in 2008.

Sen. Southerland's Secret Ethics Meeting

Some elected officials in state government still just don't get it. Critical issues of credibility and accountability are left by the wayside, and instead we get legislative passage of a bill demanding public school students say a Tennessee Flag pledge. Minor reforms to influence peddling get lip service and then it's back to business as usual.

Secret meetings and bypassing laws of openness are still in operation in the legislature. The state senator here in the First District - covering Hamblen, Greene, Cocke and part of Unicoi counties - Republican Steve Southerland, was named on a special panel investigating Sen Jerry Cooper, and as noted in today's Tennessean editorial, the action was an insult to meaningful reforms. Also, as Chaplain of the Senate's Republican Caucus, his actions are even more troublesome.

"After Operation Tennessee Waltz rocked the state last year, Tennesseans were promised a serious, transparent process for investigating ethical lapses in government.

Despite months of debate and a special legislative session, there is no evidence that the legislature intends to keep that promise.

Consider the case involving Sen. Jerry Cooper, D-Smartt. The 1999 sale of Cooper's sawmill was the focus of charges lodged in July against an Alabama couple who bought the mill and a real estate appraiser involved in the transaction. They were charged with fraud and money laundering, accused of inflating the property's value at the time of the bank loan. The couple pleaded guilty yesterday.

The indictment also says that an unindicted co-conspirator, widely known to be Cooper, "used his political contacts, connections and influence" to help obtain the bank loan.

Last August, the Senate Ethics Committee met privately to consider whether Cooper's involvement in the deal amounted to an ethics violation. Specifically, the committee was looking at whether Cooper unduly used his influence to get a state grant and a federal loan for the property. The panel surfaced and declared it wouldn't pursue an ethics case against Cooper.

Two weeks later, Senate Majority Leader Ron Ramsey, who chairs the Ethics Committee, said the initial probe didn't go deep enough and that an investigation would soon be launched. On Oct. 12, the ethics committee asked two members — Sens. Joe Haynes and Steve Southerland — to interview Bill Baxter, former Economic and Community Development director, about the grant.

In mid-November Baxter told a reporter for this newspaper that he hadn't been contacted by the senators. He also said that when Cooper sought support for the grant, the senator didn't mention his personal involvement, couching the request as being beneficial to the community.

Last week, Southerland and Haynes— who deliberated behind closed doors delivered a letter to Ramsey saying they had found no "probable cause" that Cooper violated ethics rules. Haynes told a reporter that the subcommittee didn't have to meet publicly because it was dealing with an investigation.

The state's public meetings law has exceptions for security and for the proposed impeachment of a public official. There is no exception for investigations. Moreover, the investigation into a possible ethical breach by a lawmaker should top the list of meetings that demand to be open to the public.

Cooper's conduct may or may not constitute a breach of ethics conduct. There is far less doubt, however, about the Senate Ethics Committee's handling of the matter. Its foot-dragging and secret meetings are proof that it has no intention of giving ethics probes involving its own members the serious treatment they deserve."

I agree. And if you are a resident here in the First District, you should contact the Senator and tell him this relentless secrecy is wrong and unethical. You can contact him by email, phone or regular mail via this link.

If we don't demand accountability, it will never occur.

Prison Inmate Also EMA Employee

Here's a story that grabbed my attention today. Seems a TN prison inmate was hired last March as a purchasing agent for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, and got higher-than-normal pay, a free cell phone and even a state vehicle.

Seems an anonymous tip to the state's Correction Department opened a few eyes to the case and the inmate's state job "abruptly ended". The Tennessean paper has the full story - which raises far more questions than answers about some of the policies of the state's work-release program.

While I certainly applaud programs to help former inmates find employment, the key word is "former". I had no idea an inmate still serving time could be hired by any agency, much less the TEMA, which coordinates statewide responses to natural disasters and Homeland Security issues.

Some info in the news report revealed:

"TEMA is part of the state Military Department, headed by state National Guard chief Maj. Gen. Gus Hargett Jr. His son, Tre' Hargett, is a state representative from Bartlett, the Memphis suburb where Erickson had a law practice at the time he hatched the murder plot.

Tre' Hargett said he knew Erickson's name but was not familiar with him. "I don't think he was real active in the community," he said Friday.

Gus Hargett declined through a spokesman to be interviewed for this story.

However, the general did write a letter on Feb. 23, 2005, to Personnel Commissioner Randy Camp arguing for a special exemption to compensation guidelines so that Erickson could be paid more than his job classification, administrative services assistant 2, would normally warrant.

Hargett praised Erickson's previous work for TEMA, initially doing maintenance on its radiological detection devices and later working in its logistics unit.

"Mr. Erickson has a Bachelor's Degree in Social Justice with an emphasis on English," Hargett wrote. "He also acquired his Juris Doctorate and previously owned his own business named The Erickson Law firm, where he practiced Real Estate Law.

Prior to owning his own business, he worked for The Law Firm of W. Terry Edwards, where he assisted with real estate closings and other related paperwork.

"Due to the amount of responsibility placed upon this position, coupled with Mr. Erickson's education, this department feels justified in requesting the aforementioned salary range," the general wrote.

Camp approved the extra pay, according to a document in Erickson's personnel file.

Nowhere in the letter did the general mention that Erickson was a prison inmate, had a felony conviction, had tried to kill his wife to get insurance money or had surrendered his law license when he pleaded guilty."

One Soldier Leaves Iraq - Welcome Home!!

I received some excellent news Friday about the mess in Iraq - one of the many friends I have serving there is coming home. Travis' experiences were shared with the world of readers via his blog Travis In Iraq (see the link over on the right). Like many soldiers, some days were very dangerous and some were spent safely. His unfailing humor and wit, his friendships, and the often surreal nature of military service are evident in his blog. The picture above has Travis in the center surrounded by some kids - many of his posts are about the good the soldiers provide and some are about the constant danger all our troops endure.

Here are a few excerpts from his posts of March 30th and 31st:

"Oh how the anticipation builds.... This is to be my last night in the great city of Mosul. Tomorrow I fly out for the final time, hopefully to never return, but I am wise enough in my years to never say never!"

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"I am going to miss a lot of the guys I have had the pleasure of working with, some more than others, and some not at all, haha, that's just the truth of things. I will really miss my interpreter Bob, he was the coolest and I owe him a lot. He just got married, so I want to wish him the best, hopefully he'll get out of the Interpreter business and do something a little less dangerous so he can spend more time with his new wife and get a family started.

I have had a tremendous experience in Iraq, some you have read about on this blog, some only a select few have heard from me in person, and some I'll probably never speak of again, but that is how things go in this business. I feel I have grown a lot as a person and have a better perspective on life, especially on just how precious it is. I have learned we have it made in America. Our only problem is we like to bitch and moan and cry a lot!!! Myself included, but after seeing what I have seen, I think I will cut down on most of that. I have realized when our biggest dissappointment of the day is when the drive thru at McDonalds screws up our order or the waitress doesn't fill up our drink exactly when we would have liked for her too, then things really aren't that bad."

-----
"Quite a few of you have asked me what I am going to do with my blog once this is over. Will I keep it going with the regular day to day happenings of my life or will I shut it down? I have decided that after the coming home party my Mom throws me that I am going to discontinue updating "Travis in Iraq", cause that book will be complete. I am not going to delete it, I will leave it up for anyone who wants to go back and read or re-read my tales or look at the various pics I have posted over the last ten months. Don't worry though, I plan on starting a new blog chronicling the next adventure of my life and you will all be invited to visit there as well.

Well I have to get going and pack up some boxes I want to mail home so I don't have to drag them around with me. Take care and keep reading, the next few weeks should be quite interesting.

Peace to All,

Travis C. Stuart

I imagine his mom and the rest of his family and close friends must feel enormous relief. And since he plans on leaving his blog in place, I urge you to read through it - there are some amazing tales there and some of his unique humor too. It may take you some time to read through it all, but you can learn much about him and his brothers-in-arms.

Welcome home, Soldier. And as you said, Peace to All

NASCAR Meat, NASCAR Love, and NASCAR Saws

There is no point in attempting to make an April Fool's Day joke on a blog, not when the real world offers such voluminous amounts of goofy truths. Take the newly emerging and growing line of NSACAR-themed items headed your way.

Hungry? Get ready to race to the store and get ya some NASCAR meat. (Which reminds me, once, many years ago, an Improv Comedy group I worked with tried in vain for months to complete a skit about French speed-eating contest called Nascargot. Just never worked, even with names of the potential hosts like Guy Wallace and Yves Harvick.)

Feeling romantic? Get ya some NASCAR romance novels.

And maybe the next horror movie to hit the big time will be called "The NASCAR Chainsaw Massacre."

Read all about these items here. (via Boing Boing)

And if you still prefer some fine April Fool's Day fun, my fave arrives with the headline "Breaking News: President Bush Resigns" and details how VP Cheney is sworn in at the Fox News studio.

Camera Obscura - Tarantino to Cronenberg

Today's topic tackles two of my favorite filmmakers - both accused of visceral excesses and both capable of crafting stories that will not leave your thoughts, long after the movie is over. And not the way, say the Larry the Cable Guy movie might haunt you - trailing you like an oafish, unwashed, relative who won't leave and forever turns your couch into an anti-life Aroma Zone. No, this post is about filmmakers with Talent.

Unless I missed some small mention, the Knoxville community seemed to ignore the birthday this week of one of their native sons - one who has been a prolific writer, director and likely one of the most notable and some might say controversial filmmakers of the last decade. While living only a short time in East TN, he captures much of the voices of other ET writers, like Agee or Cormac McCarthy. The dialog is raw, plain and realistic and crimes and passions are often motivated by quests, however illusory, for a better life. Good and Bad are relative terms.

On Monday, Quentin Tranantino turned 43, and the only mention I caught was on the "Writer's Almanac." I'd heard various biographical details before about him - his work as a videostore clerk, his manic personality - but some items I had not heard before, as the Almanac noted:

" ... he hated school so much that he dropped out after ninth grade. He got a job as an usher at a pornographic movie theater and started taking acting classes. He taught himself screenwriting by writing from memory screenplays of movies he'd already seen. Whatever he couldn't remember he just made up. These screenplays eventually turned into his own original work, and he realized that he'd rather be a filmmaker than an actor."
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"Tarantino said, "I steal from every movie ever made."


After much-too-long a wait, I finally got to see a movie this week by another prolific and challenging filmmaker, David Cronenberg, the Academy Award nominated "History of Violence." This Canadian writer and director earned his chops with a host of horror movies that remain as chilling and disturbing as they day they were released. From "Shivers" to "Rabid", "Scanners," "The Brood," "Videodrome," "The Fly, "The Dead Zone," and others, he consistently followed themes of nightmarish quality about intimacy, relationships, celebrity, and technology.

However, more of his recent efforts have been focused on characters and not nasty nightmares. In "Crash" and "Spider" his stories were made for maximum effect by exploring humanity or the lack of it, of the Outsiders who search for some kind of tentative cooperation with normalcy.


"A History of Violence" may be his masterwork. And as a true bonus, the commentary and behind-the-scene features on the DVD are worthy of great educational value to would-be filmmakers and those just curious as to how a movie is made and how artistic vision is brought to life. It's by far the most intelligent director commentary I've ever experienced via DVDs.

The story comes straight from the old John Wayne/Glenn Ford school of Heroics - the right to defend the Home and the Family. Expertly cast with Viggo Mortensen as a small-town owner of a diner and Maria Bello as his loving wife, their world is shattered when brutal criminals attempt to rob his diner and endanger his customers. In pure street brawl fashion, Viggo, as Tom Stall, kills the criminals. The town and the media hail him as a hero. Even his somewhat bullied son, Jack, gains admiration and inspiration from Tom's defense. And then a trio of ugly thugs arrive at Stall's Diner led by actor Ed Harris and casually accuse him of being just another mobster on the lam, that "Tom" is an impostor.

Cronenberg deftly restrains his style to create characters that seem both believable and doubtful at once. The violence escalates, and it always seems to be justified ... unless, perhaps, Tom isn't really Tom at all. And that doubt begins to rattle the All-American home of Tom and his wife to their foundations.

I won't reveal more, but in addition to the Academy Award nomination for supporting actor William Hurt, Viggo should have gotten a nomination as well. It also earned a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay and many critics place the movie as one of the best of the 2005.

Worth mentioning too is the utterly wordless finale as Tom and his family sit down to dinner. It's one of the most powerful and emotional scenes I've seen in years.

Cronenberg's comments from the movie's web site (as well as the many unspoken themes in the movie itself) offer some insight into how carefully he crafted this work, how deeply involved the actors and tech crews were in collaborating to make this unique and impressive work. You'll want to watch it twice, perhaps more, especially after you hear Cronenberg's comments.

Violence can be justified - but can it be endured?

Oh and one more quickie here before I end - along with the fine folks at Atomic Tumor, the movie I most want to see in coming months is what appears to be a brilliant adaption of Phillip Dick's classic "A Scanner Darkly," filmed with a new style of real film and animation - check out the latest preview here.

Guns and Peanut Butter

The Tennessee Dept of Corrections issued a press release this week to announce they will ban jars of peanut butter for jail inmates. The story got some minor press coverage, though not one single reporter thought to ask to most important questions about this case.

The trouble, according to TDOC, is that inmates were using the 18 ounce containers to hide guns, drugs, cell phones, clothes, etc. In fact, last year's bloody jail escape and murderous shoot out enacted by George Hyatte in August occured after he used one-such smuggled cell phone to coordinate his deadly escape on his way to court in Knoxville with the aid of his girlfriend.

All press reports note that inmates purchased these large jars of peanut butter through a jail commissary. So, then, since inmates don't usually store guns, cell phones and drugs in their cells, SOMEONE had to put those items in the jars before they were purchased by inmates. SOMEONE in, say, a jail commissary -- but no word on corrective actions taken against the operations of a commissary. Just no more giant jars for the inmates. Currently TDOC says some 4,600 jars are in stock, but will be replaced .... soon.

"Most Idiotic Song Ever" - NOT

Not to knock down a fellow-blogger, but Glen Dean's rant about a song he calls the most idiotic ever, the John Lennon tune, "Imagine", has me puzzled. Even in his comments section, which is properly filled with debate, Dean admits his fave band is the Grateful Dead, and as far as goofy lyrics go ... well, let's just call some of them goofy and leave it at that.

But I can of think of many other tunes to qualify as idiotic - "Sugar, Sugar" by the Archies or that "Mmm-bop" song by them little Hanson boys. And I personally find great irony that Dolly Parton's song about breaking off her ties with Porter Waggoner, "I WIll Always Love You", is now most often heard during a wedding.

But I digress.

Here's what Glen says:

"There has never been, nor will there ever be a song this idiotic. Every verse is stupid, but the final verse takes the cake.

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

Sounds like a typical fantasy for an egalitarian commie like Lennon, nothing to work for, nothing to stand up and fight for, nobody having any more than anybody else. After all, nobody deserves more. No wonder they played this song at the UN.

I don't understand why society made Lennon out to be some kind of peace activist. Peace has never been achieved by sitting around and imagining that there is no religion, no heaven or hell, and no bad people in the world. We are free today because of soldiers, sailors, and marines, men and women who sacrificed their lives so that we could live in peace. Freedom was fought for, not dreamed about."

Society did not make Lennon a peace activist - he did it himself, along with help from Yoko Ono - by expressing to the press in multiple interviews that he thought the Vietnam War was wrong and should end. He called in the international press on his honeymoon so they would report that he and his new bride were holding a "bed-in" to protest the war. The event was worldwide news. And then there was the song, "Give Peace A Chance" which he wrote intentionally as an anti-war anthem.

The US at the time labled him an "activist" and tried for years to keep him out of the country, especially since many millions of people were joining him in protesting the war. It was a case which the US goverment ultimately lost.

Sounds kinda like an "activist" to me.

And then there is that artistic metaphor of the tune itself - first, you have to be able to conceive, to imagine a world which you then work to make a reality through your actions. And history shows that from the sit-down strikes of Ghandi to the non-violent resistance of Martin Luther King Jr. that "sitting" and "stopping" can in fact cause revolutionary change.

And again, speaking personally, the song never expressed a rejection of religion or money, but rather an endorsement in the power of the individual to create a better world - a brotherhood created out of a realization that we can all change our lives for the better if we wish it and act to be inclusive and not divisive. It expresses to me that each person can do much to determine the reality of the world around us - but that action is preceded by vision, imagination, and viewing the world outside of the status quo.

Freedoms often must be fought for, sung about, talked about and I dare say the writers of the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution began by "imagining" a world where religion and government were not the authority of humans - that instead we are all Free to be self-determining.

As for "imagining" there were "no heaven or no hell" - to me that meant that we are accountable in this world first for the way we live. So perhaps the here and now is the place to begin making a better world, not out of fear of some future Judgement, but from a desire to make the world we live in more humane and compassionate.

And this post isn't meant to defame Dean - thank God he is Free to write as he wishes. And so am I.

The Missing Android and The Cellborg

Somewhere out in the world today is the head of a robot and no one is quite sure where it might be, and even stranger, the robot itself was based on the likeness of a man who often feared that he might one day be replaced by a robot which would be convinced that it was real and that the real man was a fake. In fact, much of the writings of the late Phillip K. Dick focused on the nature of reality and the rise of technology. The android created was "touring" the country and the head ... just ... went missing.

This tale was odd enough to begin with - the android's memory was loaded with the writings of PKD himself, so you could ask "it" questions and "it" would respond with PKD's own words. Biometric ID software allowed the fake PKD to recognize faces, interpret body language and expression which then led to the responses it gave to those who spoke to "it."

And now it's just ... out there, somewhere. Was it a planned escape? Is It pondering what to do next? It It writing It's first novel or short story? Is It plotting an organized android revolution? Makes me feel trapped in one of the original PKD's books.

Biological humans seem, as PKD predicted, to be searching for more and more ways to computerize their bodies. A new trend among 20-somethings is to buy a home kit and do self-implants so they can use their hands to interact with the world without touching anything. They call themselves "taggers" and use the implants to gain access to VIP clubs, use it open locked doors, as password protection for computer systems or add it to clothing so it emits light and link with GPS systems to keep them from getting lost, I suppose. Too bad no one put one such tracker in the missing robot head. And what happens if your implant also has your debit/credit card info - could you walk through a store, leave, and later find yourself charged for thousands of dollars in purchases simply by walking down an aisle filled with chip-filled goods??

At a recent conference on the ever-growing use of nanotechnology - structures made on the scale of atoms and molecules, for example a human hair is 100,000 nanometers wide - the Future looks paved with tiny nano-bots. These micro-machines are already at use in cosmetics, paint, fabrics, building materials, medicine and more. The U.S. government is expected to spend $6 billion on such research this year and the private sector likewise will spend about $6 billion on these products this year as well.

This week, researchers have announced success in fusing brain cells with computer chips that are about 1 millimeter square. Applications for medicine and business are immense - creating chips that utilize proteins and neurons to achieve their tiny nano-programs.

Also, it was announced this week that researchers have created what they call a "cellborg." It is the first success in blending micro-organisms with electronics. The new "cellborg" is acting a sensor to detect changes in humidity, but the applications include being able to detect gases or chemicals, which promises usage within medicine and security technology.

And earlier this month, the first ever NanoTech Consumer Products Inventory was made available to the public. Some 212 products are currently listed, and more are being added on a nearly daily basis, though not all items currently being used are offered to the public - yet. One nano researcher says:

"We are at the vanguard of discovering the endless benefits of nanotechnology for applications like targeted cancer treatments and more efficient solar cells. With this inventory, we also are learning that this technology is already being incorporated into our daily lives. It's on store shelves and being sold in every part of the world," said David Rejeski, director of the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, which is supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts."

I used to make a joke that I was waiting for what I called "The Media Patch" - a device I imagined would be about the size of a postage stamp, and would connect my brain to telephone service, computer and online access, television and radio. Guess I need to revise that to a simple tiny implant, which also includes all my financial and medical information -- though right now that would be "broke" and "feeling pretty good, but with a little paranoia about computer chips."

All Workers To Need Federal OK

Fundamental to all the debate about immigration reforms is one underlying theme - which political party can collect the most votes during the 2006 election. A candidate wants to appeal to those opposed to making illegal immigrants felons, unless they want to appeal to voters who want more criminalization for illegals. And new immigrants and first and second generation immigrants are eyeing which party supports them and which does not. To paraphrase, it's about the voters, stupid. Not about reform.

And for all the hoopla around loving or hating the proposed bill from last year in the House, I see little discussion about a fundamental change affecting every worker and would-be worker in the nation. The bill would demand a federal database of all potential workers and demand employers use that database or risk federal anger. Everyone would have to obtain, in essence, a federal "permission slip" to obtain a job, immigrant or not.

Or to put it another way:

"The legislation would create a sea-change in federal employment rules by requiring all workers in the country to obtain a federal agencyÂ’s permission to work. All employers would be required to participate in a national employment eligibility verification program in an expansion of the faulty but voluntary "Basic Pilot" program in current law. Like Basic Pilot, the new program would use an Internet-based system to check the names and social security numbers of all employees -- citizens and non-citizen alike -- against a Department of Homeland Security database.

The ACLU said that such a move would place a huge burden on both employers and workers. The non-partisan Government Accountability Office reported that conservative estimates of implementing such a system would cost at least $11.7 billion annually, a large share of which would be shouldered by businesses. Also, even assuming a near-perfect accuracy rate in the program, millions of legal, eligible American workers could still have their right to work seriously delayed or denied --fighting bureaucratic red tape to keep a job and pay bills. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business organizations have expressed strong reservations with the employment verification provisions."

Read the bill here. And remember, it's addressing Border Protection, Anti-Terrorism and Illegal Immigration. ( and the unspoken federal approval to be a worker in the U.S.)

Another Manufacturing Job Loss In Morristown

The much-troubled furniture manufacturing industry in Morristown continues to decline as the former Shelby Williams Industries, now called Commercial Furniture Inc., has dropped another 100 jobs. This follows the loss of 200 jobs announced last fall, according to an article today in the Knoxville News Sentinel.

Some 30 or more years ago, furniture makers were an anchor industry here, but in the last decade or more, the jobs have left for overseas operations and falling production.

Will Your Job Last?

Economic concerns are driving the debate behind immigration reform on most serious levels, with the notion arising, finally, that illegals lower overall wages - which benefit employers. And it isn't just the arrival of immigrants that threaten American workers, but the exodous of jobs.

How many millions of US jobs will fly overseas in the next five to ten years? 56 million?

From What I've Read

I've realized that in addition to the links I offer on this page, I should also from time to time provide some links to other blogs and posts which I read. I enjoy roaming the blog world and reading all types of opinions and info and news, and hope you enjoy this Sunday roundup. Click away!

- On all the anger from the Right.

- Does Barbara Bush profit from donations to Katrina Aid?

- Some local views on the Immigration debate.

- Do not change eminent domain laws. Or maybe we should.

- Some cool gadgets. And the Cool Hunters home.

- Goodbye and RIP to the creator of the Bakersfield Sound, Buck Owens.

- The Big Cheese.

Is God Angry With Britain?

It was inevitable I suppose, with battles and bombs raging in the Middle East, that God Himself would seek out the international press to sound off on His views. And He did just that recently in this article:

"The archangel reported that the Almighty has become increasingly irritated with the vogue for politicians to claim that He is behind their policies - especially if these involve killing large numbers of humans"

Even here in the U.S., the President had to deal with questions and or fears concerning the Apocalypse.

Subscriber Service Back In Action - Get Yours!!

For subscribers to this blog, you'll get better service now that I've dropped Bloglet and am using FEEDblitz instead. Bloglet just up and quit working, emails to them came back as undeliverable, so I punted them. A search revealed more bloggers were happy with FEEDblitz, so I'm trying them out. Please let me know if you have any problems with this new service and I thank you for signing up - if you haven't it's easy!!! Just sign up on the form in the links section here!

Camera Obscura - Weapon of Choice

Every now and then a performer in today's nano-fast, modern now-a-go-go world makes hits decade after decade in almost every realm of entertainment - movies, TV, stage, music and books. You know today's subject and I bet you'll even know some lines he's made or that certain movies which were made better just because he was there. That's called Star Power. And his Legend says he's a performer who never turns down a part. Any part.

He'll turn 63 next week, on March 31st, but I don't expect him to stop anytime soon.

I remember some other actor once referred to him as a "reed thin, hyper-intensive guy" and that sort of sums him up pretty well. He can make a villian be funny in the creepiest ways. Sometimes, his haircut is frightening.

He earned an Oscar for "The Deer Hunter" in 1978 and his lanky funky dancing got him an MTV music award in 2001 and "Saturday Night Live" has an open invite for him to host whenever he wishes. One of my personal favorite moments is the "watch speech" he gives in "Pulp Fiction" where he mentions the watch was bought in Knoxville - without a doubt, Christopher Walken can do it all.



I guess it was it his dancing though, that made him stand out to me. I was one of the few hundred in 1981 who bothered to watch, much less enjoy the Steve Martin-starring movie "Pennies From Heaven." His tap-dancing scene in the pool hall was inspired madness.

Also in '81, he starred in the underrated "Dogs of War", where he and three other guys take over an entire country. Reading his movie credits and his bio, you'll find about 90 movies under his belt, comedies, animation, horror and mystery and action and drama. He started at 10 in a skit with Jerry Lewis and was in last year's huge hit "The Wedding Crashers." His career just keeps growing.

Worth mentioning here is the Web hoax that has Walken as a presidential candidate for 2008, and his growing fame as a music producer in a "Saturday Night Live" skit where he keeps yelling "More cowbell!!!" as the band Blue Oyster Cult records the song "Don't Fear The Reaper."

But for sheer joy and wild fun, it's hard to beat his dancing in the Spike Jonze directed video for Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice," which he choreographed and nabbed that MTV award. I'm including the video today via YouTube for you to watch, but you'll get a crisper and cleaner copy of the video by going here.

Fred Astaire may have danced on the walls, but Chris flies.

How Much for Gas? or The Summer Blend Mystery

Back in the end of February I was paying $1.99 a gallon for gas and yesterday the price was $2.45. And of course, the price hike arrives as the "Spring Break" season begins, and this morning I see a report from AAA talking about the oil company's mandated changeover to "summer blend" gas.

Yes, the headlines and AAA say it - Summer Blend drives Price Hike.

What the heck is a summer blend and a winter blend?

Being an internet fiend, I Google the phrase. And the "summer blend" was mandated by the EPA back in 2001 by the President's Energy Policy, even found this nifty press release from the EPA which says this new "boutique" of clean fuel programs will "benefit consumers." Then head of the agency, Christie Whitman said:

"I am concerned that when supplies fall short, due to increased demand or pipeline disruptions, the gasoline prices increase dramatically, as we saw this past summer. EPA requires the use of summer blend fuels to minimize air pollution during the hot summer months. While many factors contributed to the gasoline price spikes this year, we want to ensure that using summer blend fuel is not a contributor to price hikes.

Hmmm. Turns out each state has their own laws and requirements about what fuel should be used in different times of the year - the aforementioned "boutique" - means about 100 different types of summer blends are made. And much of the info is several years old, back when a barrel of crude was less than $30.

So the more I find out, the more confused the information becomes. It all seems to contradict, which also seems to be a trend regarding information and bureaucracy. Gas station owners hate the price hike they say, drivers hate it more, and as Yoda might say "Helpless we all are."

Last week while driving, I decided to tune in to the mindless ravings of Rush Limbaugh. It's good to know what the crazies are thinking. And he's complaining about people who complain about the record multi-billion dollar profits that all the oil companies have been reporting. The fat idiot says if people really want to find something to complain about, it's the rise of property taxes over the last 10 or 15 years, and that if the "average American" understood how that problem has grown then they would take to the streets in masses.

What?

Then I recall how R.L. is a master of the ol' bait-and-switch. Never answer the issue at hand, bring up another one and claim the Evil is there.

The bottom line is oil companies always have an excuse - seasonal changes, clean air laws, Venezuela, Iraq, OPEC, hurricanes, China, natural gas, state gas taxes, yadda yadda yadda. You darned Americans just want everything - adequate supplies, reinvestment of profits, efficient combustion, war, peace, cable TV and better grades fer the kids in school. The reply to your endless need is: Someone has to pay for it. And for the attorneys.

TN Hospitals Join 'Typo' Lawsuit

I mentioned last week that people were beginning to question whether or not a law signed by President Bush was actually a law or a collection of Constitutional violations. As of last Friday, 15 Tennessee hospitals joined with those who want the $39 billion deficit-reduction Act reviewed or repealed, calling it "unconstitutional", according to this report in The Hill.

The hospitals, which have been battling with the Health and Human Services agency for 10 years over billing issues, won $100 million lawsuit against HHS in September of last year - but the day after the President signed this "new law", HHS filed a motion to alter the court's judgement against them.

The confusion is growing faster than kudzu in summertime - and the HHS motion made Sen. Frist angry, according to the story:

"In addition to prompting a legal response that could obliterate a $39 billion spending-reduction bill, the HHS motion to overturn that decision attracted the ire of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and the entire Tennessee delegation.

Frist and his colleagues wrote to HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on March 10 to complain about the government’s motion.

“We request further explanation of what we believe to be a serious miscommunication by [Medicare representatives],” the lawmakers wrote."