Gov. Sanford's Very Bad Day

Does having an affair mean a politician is therefore a bad policy maker and political leader?

Since South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford has made worldwide headlines for scooting out of town and state on a Father's Day weekend to meet up with his lover in Argentina, the public response to the question above seems to be a very loud YES!!

The story of Gov. Sanford merged quite easily yesterday with the news of an impending divorce of the reality show Jon and Kate Plus 8. But one question I have is -- who got the story to the press that Gov. Sanford was missing in action? Because I'm betting that person knew exactly where he was and what he was doing. And since I am just guessing, I am guessing his wife, a savvy campaigner for her husband in years past, is the one who got the story rolling.

But the question remains - does a politician's romantic life erase all his or her abilities as a political leader?

Some say he should be removed from office precisely because of his record while in office:

"I don’t want him to resign because of the affair. I think he should get kicked out of office because he’s been a terrible governor for the state. Their unemployment rate is at its highest rate ever. He’s bankrupted the state. He’s been fighting the Obama administration over unemployment money that his constituents desperately need. So I think on the merits, he’s been a horrible governor."

What's Next For Rep. John Litz?

Last week State Representative John Litz (D) of Morristown announced he would not seek re-election to the legislature in 2010 after serving out his fourth term. Rep. Litz has been making some headlines during the current legislative session and is credited with being an integral part of the surprise move to put Rep. Kent Williams in the Speaker's position over Rep. Mumpower.

Here in Morristown, one way Rep. Litz maintained his popularity and served the local community was by holding regular Town Hall meetings to gather input on a wide range of issues facing the legislature. Tom Humphrey has more info on Rep. Litz's legislative career.

And Democrat Caucus Chair Mike Turner says he's known of the change for some time and is already working to find a new candidate for the seat.

So what's next for Rep. Litz? Will Republicans field a candidate who can win the seat?

Here's what I've been hearing at various local rumor mills: Rep. Litz is considering a run for the County Mayor position in Hamblen County government. The current Mayor, David Purkey (R), is not seeking re-election but sources tell me he's considering a run for the State Representative seat instead.

There are certainly numerous changes taking place on the local scene as Democrats and Republicans work to re-organize at every level.

President Obama - Is He The Kwisatz Haderach?

I'm positive that this weekend marked the first time ever a U.S. President was grilled with tough questions about the plot points of "Dune". After all, is President Obama really a nerdy guy? Only one man dared in Washington ask him about the Culture War of Our Time - Nerds vs. Jocks - and that man was John Hodgman.

Camera Obscura: New Twin Peaks; Zombieland; Augmented Reality

I do watch more than just horror movies. Really, I do.

But that is the genre I like best - I like getting frightened and equally like to create some scares for audiences too, yes. I do watch other things -- I've been noodling over all the brilliant work in "Wall-E" the last few weeks, for example. Science-fiction sort of folds into the horror movie mix, especially this summer and fall and there's some info on those movies below.

So, today's post is a brief look at some new scary stuff and some old scary stuff too.

Big news this week for fans of the long-gone TV series "Twin Peaks", thanks to a push from the former Special Agent Dale Cooper (actor Kyle MacLachlan) who wants to start up the strange world of the Great Northwest and backwards-talking-midget via a series of 5-minute webisodes. Could it work? And MacLachlan says it would not include the work of the series creator, David Lynch. All the current details are here.



And don't try and tell me that Twin Peaks isn't a creepy, scary show. Because it is.

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In October of '09, a blend of laughs and chills arrives with the movie "Zombieland", which was shot in Georgia, in places like Atlanta, Buckhead, Valdosta and more. Bill Murray has a role as one of the zombies and Woody Harrelson plays a zombie hunter named Tallahassee. A brand spanking new trailer for the movie was released this week:



Almost looks like a Southern-fried "Shaun of the Dead", which is not a bad thing.

And speaking of Georgia and zombies, students at the Savannah College of Art and Design and the Georgia Tech Augmented Environment Labs are working on an amazing interactive game using mobile phones which looks like it is as much fun to create as to play. I see many more of this type of game ahead:



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The Not Horror News -- in fact, it's "Good News, Everyone!!"


A new focus in sci-fi films on the way to a theater near you: scares and loneliness in outer space. Such as "Pandorum," which is from the producers of the "Resident Evil" movies. It stars the always scary Ben Foster ("30 Days of Night") and more info is here.

And then there is this one, which I am really looking forward to - a movie written and directed by David Bowie's son, Duncan Jones, titled "Moon" and starring Sam Rockwell, who plays the lone occupant of a fuel and mining outpost on Earth's moon. It's been getting rave reviews at film festivals across the country and is currently in limited release. Take a peek:

Those Kids and Their Madhouse Circus of Socialism

A graduating high school student in Maine bowed and blew a kiss during his walk across stage and then found himself in trouble with school officials. Maybe it was because the ceremony had already been witness to an inflatable rubber duck and a beach ball, but the principal would not hand over the diploma to that crazy kiss blowing anarchist. Two students were escorted out by sheriff's deputies.

So now, of course, a mass public meeting is scheduled, and likely an investigative Task Force with perhaps the mission of creating an in-depth report on kiss blowing and rubber ducks and beach balls. The district's school board chair proclaims parents and community must decide if they want a 'refined event' or 'a circus'.

Cool! A circus at graduation next year!!

And of course, this kind of chaos is just more proof, say some, that President Obama and Democrats want Big Government Socialism (that link includes a local Maine TV news report on this ... um ... 'event'.) Rumor says another student started signing the yearbook with the phrase "Best Friends Forever - Love, Stalin". Other rumors claim UFOs and crop circles were seen briefly over the football field.

In related news, a young man who made some sculpture on the fly with roadside construction barrels in Raleigh, North Carolina is also endangering humanity, rules and the laws of science ... or something. (Although the company whose barrels were used say no charges or criminal prosecutions need to be attached to the artist in question.)

So Which State Workers Are Not Sending Out Tasteless Emails?

Stung hard and reeling from news about a racist email from a 20-year Republican staffer in the Tennessee Legislature, a Nashville conservative blogger, Blue Collar Muse, shot back today that he had evidence of a cruel email sent out by a Democrat staffer in the legislature and that no outcry would follow from those who blasted the GOP staffer. I tried to find enough details about this email to respond, though it seemed more to me a "so and so did a bad thing too!!" kind of game that BCM wants to play.

Christian at Nashville Is Talking has some info on the email and a link to some of the images allegedly sent out, plus responses by other bloggers across the state.

I rather like what Sean Braisted wrote of today's back-and-forth at Nashville for the 21st Century:

"The "democrat" in question appears to be an intern, Blake Graves, who was recently honored by a house resolution citing him as being the "best dressed intern" and recognizing his numerous accomplishments, including "dedicat[ing] his singular skills to several student and civic organizations, including the Student Activities Council, the College Republicans, and volunteering for Hands on Memphis and Volunteer Memphis".

Yes, as an intern he was assigned to a Democrat, but it appears that his allegiances lie elsewhere. Regardless, this whole thing is rather silly. Neither should be fired, as for Goforth, the GOP staffer, the woman has been publicly humiliated on an international stage...a pretty brutal public shaming is punishment enough for what was never intended to be a malicious act, but an act of poor taste"

In the meantime, a very grim picture emerges via OpenPen, and a post there about the number of active white supremacy groups in Tennessee:

"In April 2009, a new intelligence assessment by the Department of Homeland Security warns of an increase of extremist recruitment which was fueled by the the election of Barack Obama, fears about immigration and the failing economy. The assessment warns of growth of hate groups and extremist activity across the nation. The report also warned of recruitment of military veterans by these extremist groups. There are approximately 926 of these groups – a 54% increase since 2000 in the United States, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). In Tennessee, there are thirty-eight of these identified hate groups. In Northeast TN, the SPLC has identified twelve hate groups."

As I said previously:

"It is wrong for elected officials and their staff to sling this racist swill disguised as 'humor' -- I've seen and heard what such nasty racial hatred can do to people, how it nurtures this madness and helps it grow. Well, I won't stand for it. I'll do all I can do to stop the growth and nurture a better world and I trust you won't support their racism either."

Republican Staffer In Tennessee Emails Racist Image of President Obama

NOTE and UPDATE: The worst part of the story detailed below regarding the state's Republican party is captured quite well by OpenPen:

"This is an obvious racist’s email, sent out by a state employee, on state time, on a state owned computer. She will keep her job.

Her response when asked about whether she knew the controversial nature of the picture, she would only say she felt very bad about accidently sending it to the wrong list. Exactly what was the right list?"

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2nd UPDATE: Tuesday afternoon:

GOP State Senate staffer Sherri Goforth offers an apology for her actions:

"I want to offer my deepest apology regarding the offensive nature of the email forwarded to several of my colleagues.

I also want to make it clear that it was forwarded to me from an acquaintance with absolutely no political party ties and who is outside the Tennessee Capitol Hill arena. I should have deleted it upon receipt.

Again, I am deeply sorry and offer a sincere apology to anyone offended."

Also, her boss, Senator Diane Black made these comments via CNN.

And Nashville political blogger Kleinheider at Post Politics writes about why he was slow to cover the story.

It is worth noting in his post how he recalls the recent and current climate in the state's GOP when it comes to racial issue. Sure seems to me to be a climate that embraces dubious tactics - "Sherri Goforth is not Chip Saltsman. She is not Bill Hobbs. She is not Robin Smith. She ain’t even Scott Gilmer. She’s not a player in game."

Read on to the bottom of this post to see what I think of this event ....

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A racist email was sent out by a staffer for Tennessee Republican State Senator Diane Black of Gallatin, which my friend Newscoma shared with her readers and with me today. Thanks to what 'Coma did, others in the state blogosphere followed up on the nasty email and Christian at Nashville is Talking spoke to the staffer and got the lamest response - "Oopsie, I am sorry I sent that out to the wrong people." The email arrived with the title: "Historical Keepsake Photo".

See Newscoma's original post here. She writes:

"Dammit, Tennessee, haven’t we moved past this kind of crap."

At NIT, we get this response from the staffer Sherri Goforth, who sent out this "Keepsake Photo", plus NIT has a round-up of other responses in the state:

"When I asked her if she understood the controversial nature of the photo, Goforth would only say she felt very bad about accidentally sending it to the wrong list. When I gave her a second chance to address the controversial nature of the email, she again repeated that she only felt bad about sending it to the wrong list of people.

“I went on the wrong email and I inadvertently hit the wrong button,” Goforth told NIT. “I’m very sick about it, and it’s one of those things I can’t change or take back.”

It is wrong for elected officials and their staff to sling this racist swill disguised as 'humor' -- so why am I also sharing this with you? To shame the senator and Goforth, and because I've seen and heard what such nasty racial hatred can do to people, how it nurtures this madness and helps it grow. Well, I won't stand for it. I'll do all I can do to stop the growth and nurture a better world than the one the senator and her aide want to nurture. I trust you won't support their racism either.

UPDATE: The racist email was sent out to the following recipients:

From: Sherri Goforth
Sent: Thursday, May 28, 2009 8:33 AM
To: Alice Bigham; Anna Richardson; Beth Chiles; Carolyn Newman; Catherine Haire; Christina Barber; Chuck Grimes; Darlene Schlicher; Deana Guenther; Debbie Martin; Debbie Rankin; Glenda Mayes; Jeremy Davis; John Michael Burch; Lance Frizzell; Lee Harrell; Linda Klingmann; Liz Alvey; Logan Grant; Loudene Gee; Matt King; Micki Coode; Pam George; Pat Farmer; Patti Saliba; Rick Nicholson; Sandra Smith; Sherri Goforth; Tina Still; Tonya Morelock; Valerie Yancey; Will Canterbury; Wilma Carney; Zach Bates

I Begin To Make A Giant Peach (And A Giant Octopus)

Good morning, afternoon or evening.

I have been somewhat busy the last few days and weeks working in the actual world rather than here in the virtual one.

Summer always brings many new jobs my way -- For instance ..

Starting Monday, I'll be teaching a week of acting classes for kids at Walter's State Community College and also this week I start rehearsals directing a children's production of "James and the Giant Peach", based on Roald Dahl's book, for the local community arts organization, Rose Center, here in Morristown. I love working for them, and I will also be teaching acting classes as part of their summer arts camp as well. You can learn more about Rose Center here at their website. (And their building is a beautiful place and the scene of literally hundreds of cultural events every year)

The show will be performed July 31, Aug 1 and Aug 2 and I am really looking forward again to working on this Summer Players program and I'll post some pics next week of the cast and give some updates about future rehearsals as some very talented young performers and I work to create not only a Giant Peach, but a Giant Flying Peach, which will endure such hardships as attacks by sharks and an appropriately Giant Octopus as well.

The show marks my very first opportunity to create a Giant Octopus and a Giant Peach for a theatrical performance, and I'm rather excited to get such a chance.

NOTE: Both the peach and octopus images shown are not images of the ones I am actually making because, duh!! They have not been made yet and are meant only to stoke your imagination and provide me with reasons to write about both peaches and octopi of the Giant variety. Thank you.

AT&T Want The Internet Their Way

The future of broadband and internet development is dangerously close to becoming much less than it is now, less a public commodity and more of a cash machine for a very few. Sadly, some state governments (like Tennessee) are already handing over immense contracts for services to AT&T in critical fields such as medicine and education. They just spent over $500,000 successfully lobbying the state's GOP-led legislature to deregulate phone service.

But they want it all, baby.

Art Brodsky writes about the "new ideas" coming from AT&T - which is scrambling to make a place for itself after offering little for decades - ideas for national policy and warns:

"Now, for the first time, having a neutral, non-discriminatory Internet will hamper public safety. Funny, for all those years that the network was neutral and non-discriminatory under the Communications Act, no one found a public-safety issue. Only in the last couple of years, it seems, has this become an issue.

Not only is a non-discriminatory Internet potentially harmful to public safety, it will also make service less affordable, AT&T argues: “Concerns about affordability also underscore the importance of rejecting calls for regulatory obligations—such as extreme versions of net neutrality—that will not address any real-world problem, yet will increase the costs of deploying and operating broadband platforms and prevent providers from offering services on their platforms to all entities that may wish to purchase them, including providers of content, applications, and services. These proposals, however well-intended, will only increase the cost to consumers and reduce the availability of broadband Internet access and thus are antithetical to the goal of broadband affordability.”

Just think this is a company intent on putting bandwidth caps on its customers, and yet finds the time to worry about affordability, even as it cuts down on deployment and forces public-access channels into the channel 99 oubliette. The message is simple, and constant: do it our way or we won’t invest.

Verizon, too, takes the hard edge off of the Whitacre logic, through such terms as “consumer empowerment,” and “consumer choice framework.” Verizon is all for those concepts, when it provides the empowerment and the choices. Heaven forbid that the FCC requires wholesale or line-sharing access to Verizon’s services. Those might be the regulatory burdens that would inhibit innovation or investment. Instead, one must give network operators the “flexibility” to offer “managed” services. Verizon Executive Vice President Tom Tauke trotted this horse out of the barn a couple of weeks ago, when he said, “Our view is, in the future, consumers ought to have the ability to choose between the wild, wild West of the Internet or to choose a different experience.”

In its filing, Verizon made that argument: “Some customers may prefer more highly managed Internet access services that provide additional layers of security to shield themselves or their children from certain sites or from online security threats, while some tech-savvy users may prefer a less-managed service without those protections.” That’s a fine idea – for 1998. If Verizon wants to get into the walled-garden business, I’m sure it could buy AOL, or purchase the rights to Prodigy’s name. One of those companies is hanging by a thread; the other no longer exists, because access to the Internet at large killed them both. Consumers preferred the Wild, Wild West and the broad array of features and services."

The FCC just closed the first round of public comments regarding a national broadband plan and will open a second round in July, with a report expected in February of next year.

Meanwhile, AT&T is angering iPhone buyers. Apple upgraded their devices to include multimedia messaging and "tethering" - which allow for users to connect computers to the internet via the device - but AT&T has blocked customers from using them.

"Multimedia messaging has taken off among users in Europe and Asia, who can send pictures and videos using a variety of smart phones available on the market. The new European iPhone, which will be made available via overseas carriers, will have the new features built in.

But in America, the iPhone is offered exclusively by AT&T, and for many that’s the real problem.

An AT&T spokesperson told the New York Times that "the delay has nothing to do with network issues," but declined to say why AT&T is slow to embrace cell phone innovation in the United States.

Some clues might come from the company’s long and turbulent relationship with any new technology that threatens its control. For decades, the old AT&T telephone monopoly controlled every phone on its grid and banned other companies from connecting innovative devices -- including answering machines, fax machines, cordless phones and early computer modems.

A groundbreaking 1968 policy change, known among tech wonks as “Carterfone,” pried open the device marketplace so that numerous new phone products could be introduced. This in turn spawned a flood of innovation in services that greatly benefited customers.

That old monopoly was broken up. But the new AT&T seems nostalgic, unilaterally deciding which applications make it onto the iPhone and which don’t. Both Skype and SlingPlayer won’t work over AT&T’s 3G network, not because the technology doesn’t function, but because the AT&T media empire is threatened by services that may strain its already shaky networks and compete with its other products. AT&T's lead lobbyist, Jim Cicconi, told USA Today, "We absolutely expect our vendors not to facilitate the services of our competitors."

Much more on the rocky relationship is here.

Have Terrorists Defeated Congress?

It's a tragedy seeing how utterly defeated and demoralized GOP leaders continue to writhe in fear of terrorists. Congressman John Boehner wails in near-trembling fear that closing the Gitmo prison is really a plan to "import terrorists" to the U.S.

The fact is hundreds of terrorists have been dealt with by the U.S. Justice system and have been in U.S. prisons for years. "According to data provided by Traci L. Billingsley, spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, federal facilities on American soil currently house 216 international terrorists and 139 domestic terrorists. Some of these miscreants have been locked up here since the early 1990s. None of them has escaped." (via Slate)

Another historical reality is that Tennessee kept thousands of Nazi POWs during World War 2 - and kept those prisoners according to Geneva Convention standards. The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture says:

"During the Second World War, Tennessee was home to eleven prisoner-of-war camps. Four were large installations. Camp Crossville was built on the site of an abandoned 1930s Civilian Conservation Corps work camp. Camp Forrest and Camp Campbell were existing army installations with extra space wherein prisoners were quartered. The Memphis Armed Service Forces Depot also housed prisoners, initially serving as a branch of a camp in Como, Mississippi.

Though nicknamed the "Jap Camp" by local residents, the Crossville camp actually contained only Italian and German prisoners. The first prisoners sent there included roughly 1,500 Germans, most of whom were veterans of General Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps."

Nationwide, hundreds of thousands of POWs were kept on U.S. soil during that war.

For leaders in our time to quake before terrorist groups shows a shocking lack of belief in our own strengths, our abilities to be problem-solvers. Recent polls have indicated about half of those surveyed likewise feel fear more than strength thanks to these self-defeating "leaders" - both Republicans and Democrats have failed to back the president's plan.

The goal of a terror organization is to create fear within an enemy the terrorists could never actually defeat. Too many in Washington have become defeated and that damages every citizen.

The Tweets and Twerps of Cable Newscasts

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
"i" on News
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Newt Gingrich Unedited Interview

Sharing That Cup of Joe With OpenPen

I added my first post today to the East TN group blog OpenPen and I hope you'll go there and read it and explore some of the other writings there as well. I wrote a short bit about the East TN Republican Who Gets No Respect.

Of course, I noticed after I had posted it that another writer, Solon, had written already about the East TN Republican Who Gets No Respect and the comments he made about the new law allowing for guns in more places.

Folks who can legally tote their guns with them are in sizeable numbers in Tennessee anyway. Though I wonder - we will soon see signs at businesses which read No Shirt, No Shoes, No Gun, No Service?

R. Neal at KnoxViews has some thoughts on the new law today as well.

Camera Obscura: True Blood Meets Bob Dylan;The Banal Vampire Diaries; New Sherlock Holmes Trailer; Goodbye David Carradine

Time again to delve into the strange world of movies and stories which fascinate me and many other movie fans. The weak-hearted might want to skip past this one.

It bugs me when I see news and magazine reports making the statement that "zombies are the new vampires". The two monsters are forever separate creatures, and while the popularity of one may rise (from the dead) and the other may fall, they remain two iconic forms of cinematic (and often literary) fear which have been invited into the homes and theaters of America and the world.

The share one similarity - humans are here only as a form of sustenance. That perhaps is why they endure as those truly nasty fears we seldom can shake away. And in my opinion, vampires are on the upside of fame these days - though zombies are close behind, always drawing near to haunt and chew on our thoughts.

On June 14th, the excellent HBO series "True Blood" returns for another season and I say hooray for that. The show is an eclectic mix of horror and satire, the acting is top-notch, and the twists and turns of the story always surprise (and get pretty steamy too). In a nutshell, the heroine of the tale, one Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), is a small town Louisiana gal who has the relentless burden of being able to read the thoughts of others. And she sort of has a boyfriend, known as Vampire Bill, who turned vamp during the Civil War and has a rather charming Southern politeness to his ravenous nature. Also, America and the world, have been given notice that vampires are real and are here to stay - demanding equal rights, since they have this nifty new chemical-based beverage called TruBlood which slakes their thirst for human blood. Of course, some vamps, known as Mainstreamers, are trying to blend into the normal world while other vamps denounce such efforts as cowardly. (Is a vamp war ahead? Or is this whole mainstream deal a massive hoax?)

As I suspected while watching the first season, there are far more supernatural oddities afoot in the Louisiana town of Bon Temps. Every character has secrets - some sad and some far more sinister. More of that will be revealed in the upcoming season. Nothing is what it seems - even drug dealers in the town sell vials of vamp blood to get high on and of course a newly created religious group has formed to battle the notion of equal rights for vamps and they are likewise dangerous creatures.

Catch up on the first season, now on DVD and get ready for a compelling and most unusual series. How many other vampire tales can promo their show with a tune by Bob Dylan?



On the more banal side of vampire tales is a new series being pushed on the CW Network (itself a hellish hybrid of the WB and UPN). Based on a series of books by LJ Smith, the series is called "Vampire Diaries" and is set in a high school -- this ain't Buffy, folks. Think Dawson's Creek meets Twilight. Or think The Mediocre Meets Hormonal Hijinks. Here's the web site, which says a popular high school gal falls for a new-kid-in-town vampire who happens to have an evil brother and they fight over the girl and the town in a ..... yawn. Sorry, I just lost all desire to even care to watch this. Hey, maybe they could have called it "Dawson's Hellmouth".

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OTHER MOVIE NEWS:

Thank goodness director Brett Ratner got the boot as director of a new live-action Conan The Barbarian movie. The new director (rumor) is one James McTeigue, who directed "V For Vendetta" and this fall's "Ninja Assassin" (scripted by J. Michael Stracynski). Of course, this is about the tenth attempt at a new Conan adventure in the last 4 years, so it's all guesswork at this point. Previously, Robert Rodriguez was slated to take the project, but he decided to produce a new movie based on another character created by the mighty Robert E. Howard, "Red Sonja", starring his girlfriend Rose McGowan -- whoops, make that his ex-girlfriend and place that movie in Limbo.

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A new trailer has arrived for the new Sherlock Holmes movie and -- well, just take a peek:


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Finally, a farewell to the late David Carradine.

I grew up watching his original "Kung Fu" series, which was the ultimate revision of those seemingly endless years of bad TV Westerns. He had no gun, no ranch to protect, no outlaws to hunt down, no card games to scam. The show made him more than famous and he re-invented the series a few times in later years, but was never near as good as the original.

His movies earned him the chance to work with Martin Scorsese ("Boxcar Bertha", "Mean Streets"), Robert Altman ("The Long Goodbye"), Hal Ashby ("Bound For Glory"), Walter Hill ("The Long Riders") and he made tons of cult films like "Death Race 2000", "Cannonball", "Circle of Iron", and countless others, including the upcoming summer horror film "Autumn" (and about 6 others still in production).

And of course, no one other than Carradine could have made the kind of Bill he made in "Kill Bill Volumes One and Two." His speech near the end of Vol. 2 about Superman is simply brilliant.

He could be a very difficult and obtuse performer. Back in March of this year, he attended a screening of "Bound For Glory", a film wherein he played the iconic Woody Guthrie. The evening was turned upside down, to say the least, by his odd behavior. Writer Chris Williams said of that night:

"Not since I saw Bill Irwin and Kathleen Turner go at each other in an excellent production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? a couple of years ago have I experienced a night of live theater quite as riveting as the three-way cage match between David Carradine, Haskell Wexler, and the audience the other night following an American Cinematheque screening. I keep alluding to what a nerve-wracking, weird and wonderful night this was, and I've gotten asked to go into detail about how the proceedings unfolded, or unraveled."


The full account of that evening is here.

Here is an interview with him from 2007 on the John Kerwin show, which includes a short clip which had been cut from "Kill Bill". And as always, David always knew how to surprise an audience.

TN Tops In Depression, But There's Free Donuts On Friday

A new federal report cites Tennessee as having the highest rate of people who have had depression episodes in the past year:

"The report, released Thursday, listed 9.8 percent of Tennesseans age 18 and older had such an occurrence. Hawaii had the lowest, 5.0 percent.

The report was developed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration based on 2006 and 2007 surveys on drug use and health. The agency is within the Department of Health and Human Services.

Tennessee also ranked high in some other categories, including tobacco use and use of illicit drugs other than marijuana."

But, there is some good news today too (not to dismiss the debilitating effects of the previously mentioned conditions).

Friday is Free Donut Day at Krispy Kreme and Dunkin Donuts.

These are indeed tough days we live in. Perhaps if we can just learn to manage to good days and the bad days with a bit more perspective .... maybe things could improve. I for one think we should have a monthly free donut day.

Grim Realities: The Murder of Dr.George Tiller

Most American see much more to the tragic murder of Dr. Tiller, and how he and his staff had to endure some coordinated attacks for so very long as attacks which certainly appear to be very organized.

Hilzoy's post on Washington Monthly outlines the constant effort to create fear and intimidation:

"Here's an article on the kinds of things other than assassination attempts, vandalism, and break-ins that Dr. Tiller and his staff have had to endure for years. It's about Troy Newman, the head of Operation Rescue (once Operation Rescue West; the group split), who moved to Wichita in order to shut George Tiller's clinic down:

"There's only one problem: Tiller is a hard man to find, let alone intimidate. After more than a decade as one of the anti-abortion movement's favorite targets, he keeps a low profile, drives an armored car and lives in a gated community in a house with a state-of-the-art security system. More pointedly, he has made it clear that he's not susceptible to scare tactics. In 1993, Tiller was shot in both arms by an anti-abortion protester. He returned to work the next day.

Newman is well aware of Tiller's resilience. That's why Operation Rescue is going after clinic workers like Sara Phares. The employees have no guards posted at their homes, no cameras monitoring their yards. If Newman can provoke enough of them to quit, his job will be done. He'll effectively shut Tiller down."

Here's how he tries to get them to quit. Sarah Phares is an administrative assistant at the clinic:

"A week later, hundreds of Phares' neighbors received an anonymous postcard of a mangled fetus. This is abortion! read the big block letters. "Your neighbor Sara Phares participates in killing babies like these." The postcard implored them to call Phares, whose phone number and address were provided, and voice their opposition to her work at the clinic. Another card soon followed. It referred to Phares as "Miss I Help to Kill Little Babies" and suggested, in an erratic typeface that recalled a kidnapper's ransom note, that neighbors "beg her to quit, pretty please." The third postcard dispensed entirely with pleasantries: "Sara Phares is not to be trusted! Tell her to get a life!" (...)

Before long, protesters from Operation Rescue showed up at her house. They parked a tractor-trailer across the street, plastered with twenty-foot-long images of dismembered fetuses. From its speakers came the kind of sweet, tinkling music that lures children from their back yards in pursuit of Dreamsicles. One protester, a somber man in a tan windbreaker with a three-foot crucifix thrust before him, performed an exorcism on Phares' front lawn, sprinkling holy water on the grass to cast demons from the property. Phares, a small-boned woman with an irreverent sense of humor, joked about the exorcism. "Wish he'd held off on that holy water till after we'd put the fertilizer down," she said. But her husband wasn't amused. Since 1994, there have been five assassination attempts on abortion providers at their homes. A few days after the protest, Phares' husband got out his revolver, loaded it and taught Sara how to use it. (...)

After a brief prayer asking that Phares hear their message of "gentle rebuke," everyone caravans over to her neighborhood, five cars plastered with bumper stickers condemning abortion and extolling the Ten Commandments. Bringing up the rear is the Truth Truck. For maximum exposure, they stop on a busy street that funnels traffic toward the cul-de-sac where Phares lives. It's a treeless neighborhood, its fresh brick apartment complexes christened with optimistic names such as Cedar Lakes. The protesters display their signs for passing cars. "Phares' Choice," one proclaims, over a picture of tiny, bloody body parts. Another reads, "Sarah Phares, Abortion Profiteer," misspelling her name and giving her address. The image on Jeff Herzog's sign is particularly disturbing: a fetus being grabbed by forceps, its mouth open in a Munchian scream."

And:

"Newman and his small staff of zealous pro-lifers are buzzing with the news that the clinic's office manager has quit -- a result, they believe, of their name-and-shame campaign. The manager had been accosted by a neighbor in a grocery store who recognized her from an Operation Rescue flier that featured her photo. "You're that baby killer!" the neighbor screamed at her. Then Newman, through investigative methods he'd rather not reveal, discovered where the woman's husband works. "We think that's what clinched it," he says. "He probably realized we were going to picket his workplace. I imagine he's the major breadwinner in the family, and he didn't want to risk his job.""

If you read the whole story, you can find out how Newman threatened the Tillers' dry cleaner and a cab company that sometimes took patients to and from the clinic:

"Newman then tells him, in the most courteous tone imaginable, that he might see a few people outside the company holding signs. Just to let everybody know what he's participating in. "It's not personal," Newman says gently."

They also go through employees' trash, and offer rewards for incriminating information. They stop children on sidewalks and tell them their neighbors kill little babies.

Scott Roeder, who seems to be the suspect in Tiller's murder, posted on Operation Rescue's website. Operation Rescue has denounced the murder. They write:

"We are shocked at this morning's disturbing news that Mr. Tiller was gunned down. Operation Rescue has worked for years through peaceful, legal means, and through the proper channels to see him brought to justice. We denounce vigilantism and the cowardly act that took place this morning. We pray for Mr. Tiller's family that they will find comfort and healing that can only be found in Jesus Christ."

I just thought it would be useful to clarify exactly which "peaceful, legal means" they had used, and what Dr. Tiller and his staff had had to live with.

I am strongly pro-choice, but I think it is perfectly possible to be opposed to abortion on principled grounds, and I think that it would be an enormous mistake to conflate all people who are opposed to abortions with either Dr. Tiller's killer or the likes of Operation Rescue. That said, large elements of the anti-abortion movement have never done nearly enough to distance themselves from the violent and/or crazy parts of their movement. I hope they start to now.

Since Tiller himself was shot in 1994 and his clinic bombed in the 1980s, the hatred and anger they endured was quite constant.

Following the murder, co-founder of the so-called Operation Rescue, Randall Terry offered the following editorial, in which he wrote:

"If abortionists were gunned down every week, it would gather no more attention than crack dealers who are gunned down every week."

What is a 'Pringle'? A Chip or Not A Chip?

The Supreme Court of Judicature in Britain has ruled on the legal question of "Is a Pringle a potato chip?

"With citations ranging from Baroness Hale of Richmond to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Lord Justice Robin Jacob concluded that, legally, it is a potato chip.

The decision is bad news for Procter & Gamble U.K., which now owes $160 million in taxes. It is good news for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs — and for fans of no-nonsense legal opinions. It is also a reminder, as conservatives begin attacking Judge Sonia Sotomayor for not being a “strict constructionist,” of the pointlessness of labels like that.

In Britain, most foods are exempt from the value-added tax, but potato chips — known as crisps — and “similar products made from the potato, or from potato flour,” are taxable. Procter & Gamble, in what could be considered a plea for strict construction, argued that Pringles — which are about 40 percent potato flour, but also contain corn, rice and wheat — should not be considered potato chips or “similar products.” Rather, they are “savory snacks.”

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"The Supreme Court of Judicature had little patience with Procter & Gamble’s lawyerly attempts to break out of the potato chip category. The company argued that to be “made of potato” Pringles would have to be all potato, or nearly so. If so, Lord Justice Jacob noted, “a marmalade made using both oranges and grapefruit would be made of neither — a nonsense conclusion.” He was even more dismissive of Procter & Gamble’s argument that to be taxable a product must contain enough potato to have the quality of “potatoness.” This “Aristotelian question” of whether a product has the “essence of potato,” he insisted, simply cannot be answered."

This is what courts are for, I suppose.

But no Pringle I have ever munched upon ever reached the level of potato chip, according to my taste buds.

SEE ALSO: The patent on Pringles.

The 9/11 Trauma Defense

In recent weeks, former Bush administration officials have trotted out a feeble defense of the actions they took and supported to create national policy -- policy which has brought much failure -- which Richard Clarke calls the 9-11 Trauma defense and he knocks it all down in today's op-ed piece in The Washington Post.

"I have little sympathy for this argument. Yes, we went for days with little sleep, and we all assumed that more attacks were coming. But the decisions that Bush officials made in the following months and years -- on Iraq, on detentions, on interrogations, on wiretapping -- were not appropriate. Careful analysis could have replaced the impulse to break all the rules, even more so because the Sept. 11 attacks, though horrifying, should not have surprised senior officials. Cheney's admission that 9/11 caused him to reassess the threats to the nation only underscores how, for months, top officials had ignored warnings from the CIA and the NSC staff that urgent action was needed to preempt a major al-Qaeda attack.

Thus, when Bush's inner circle first really came to grips with the threat of terrorism, they did so in a state of shock -- a bad state in which to develop a coherent response. Fearful of new attacks, they authorized the most extreme measures available, without assessing whether they were really a good idea."

Read the whole thing here.

Chasing The Cheese - A Legislative Alternative

The decision-making process in Tennessee government is riddled with partisan bickering and it has always been so. Perhaps we can devise a more competitive method, free from political party labels, to decide the outcome of proposed legislation. A cheese race, for instance.

Taking a cue from the annual Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling competition in Gloucestershire, U.K., we poise legislators at the top of an incredibly steep hill, roll off an 8-pound wheel of cheese (Volunteer Jack, maybe?) and whoever gets down the hill first to the cheese will get their legislative bill passed. Such competition would surely decrease the number of bills submitted (usually more than 2,500 bills get filed), rely more on the physical prowess and desire of legislators, and be much more entertaining to watch.

The 2009 Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling event, held this past Monday, offers a preview of what might happen should we adopt this legislative method in Tennessee:

Shooting Blanks at Obama's Court Nominee

So far, the GOP and their cheerleaders have come up with lame arguments opposing Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court (such as "her name sounds funny"). Court watchers have a more tempered look at her qualifications:

"Objectively, her qualifications are overwhelming from the perspective of ordinary Americans. She has been a prosecutor, private litigator, trial judge, and appellate judge. No one currently on the Court has that complete package of experience."

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"The objective evidence is that Sotomayor is in fact extremely intelligent. Graduating at the top of the class at Princeton is a signal accomplishment. Her opinions are thorough, well-reasoned, and clearly written. Nothing suggests she isn’t the match of the other Justices."


More here at the SCOTUS blog.

Turning Interrogation Into Revenge

Despite the cranky defensive opinions of a neutered Vice President, the fact remains crystal clear - waterboarding is torture. One person who scoffed at calling it torture no longer scoffs:

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And it is far different to undergo this torture while safe in a radio studio surrounded by people who are taking orders from you. To be forced to endure this torture hundreds of times -- such intensive effort can only be called "revenge".