School Board Association Backs Greed, Corruption

If the Tennessee State School Board Association is teaching by example, then the lessons for our children and our 100-plus state education boards to learn are that Greed is Good, that taxpayers are endless supplies of money and personal benefits.

I've posted here before about Dan Tollett, the former head of the TSBA, whose actions led to an investigative state audit in which nearly 2 dozen findings detail hundreds of thousands of dollars he received which may violate the law and the TSBA's own policies. More on that here.

But as noted this week by blogger Bob Krumm in several posts, the problem continues to simply expand and grow and feed the good ol' boy corruption like hogs feeding at the trough. Krumm notes:

"For example, the leaders of the Tennessee School Board Association would have seen that, in the midst of statewide political scandals, and right after an audit found that a million dollars in public money had allegedly been used for personal purposes, it wasn't a smart time to just do more of the same.

But no, they couldn't help themselves. In an apparent mix of arrogance and political tone-deafness, the TSBA's Board of Directors appointed as replacement for the man who allegedly stole a half million dollars, that same man's personal lawyer: former Senator Bob Rochelle.

We've covered all this before. But there's more to the story of arrogance and tone-deafness at the TSBA.

There's the issue of TSBA (read that to mean "taxpayer") funds being used to pay for former Executive Director Dan Tollett's personal attorneys. One of those attorneys is no less than John Lyell, who in 1998 was named by the Tennessean as "the number one lobbyist in Tennessee."

Then there's the conflicts of interest. Simultaneously Dan Tollett was receiving a pension from TSBA, even while he was employed full time by the newly created, and wholly-TSBA-owned subsidiary "Center for Educational Leadership." Tollett was also the administrator of two of TSBA's divisions, the Risk Management Trust, and the Unemployment Compensation Trust at the same time. Quadruple-dipping. Because of his interconnected and overlapping (not to mention, probably illegal) areas of responsibility, "he was in a unique position to oversee, initiate, and control transactions between all the entities."

All of this was brought out in the State Comptroller's audit released in January. That report precipitated Monday's hearing before both the House and Senate Education Committees. And that's when stupid got even stupider. "
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"Which brings me back to my original point about self-awareness. Tennessee's ruling political class is afflicted with a severe self-awareness problem. They hire connected cronies perilously close to the corruption they're supposed to fix. They keep corrupted officials on to manage their affairs. They hire the most insider of political insiders to fix a problem created by political insiders. And then they're dumbfounded when people question those actions. Heck, they should have at least had sense enough to know that you don't hire a crony legislator, in the midst of a state-wide legislative scandal that's all about corruption, connections, and cronyism."

Well said and Krumm's posts are well worth reading.

The same TSBA board recently praised Hamblen County's Board of Education as the best in the state. I suppose birds of a feather flock together. Let the taxpayer beware.

Camera Obscura - Loch Ness Meets Herzog

Do people have a true physical or psychological need to invent, to create realities that might or even might never exist? And if so, why? Now let's add some more to that mysterious question - what if the act of faking realities were to become a multi-national business? These are just some of the questions raised in a very odd and very, very funny Mock-umentary from the enigmatic filmmaker Werner Herzog called "Incident at Loch Ness."

Herzog has been working in the fields of deciphering realities through his long film career as writer, director and producer. He almost always presents stunning images and compelling stories and also has become something of a myth himself for all his mythmaking. "Fitzcarraldo", based on a true story, is an astounding study of the urge to create Art at any cost, and likewise "Aguirre: The Wrath of God" details the madness of exploration.

But the topic here today is the utterly hilarious fake documentary of his quest to make a film about the fabled Nessie. If you liked "This Is Spinal Tap" or were intrigued by "The Blair Witch Project", you'll truly enjoy Herzog's wild and mad quest. I'd bet cash money that the makers of "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou" took much inspiration from Herzog's crazy adventure.

Herzog plays the role of himself with such sincere and earnest character, it's almost easy to be fooled by what you see. Make no mistake, he loves playing his part and playing the joke on you. He and writer Zak Penn (whose screenwriting credits include "S.W.A.T." and "X-Men 2" and "Elektra") co-wrote this comedy and Penn nearly steals the movie as the bizarre producer of the Nessie movie who dares to hold a gun to Herzog's head to get the movie he wants (which is from Herzog's myth, that he allegedly pointed a gun at actor Klaus Kinski's head during a movie shoot). But in what could be a scary moment, Herzog just laughs at Penn: "It's not even a real gun, it's a flare gun and it's not loaded."

Penn and Herzog are supposed to make a movie about the myths and fantasies about the Loch Ness Monster, and fortunately, as this begins, another film crew is at Herzog's home to film a documentary about Herzog. The two fake projects eventually overlap into a maze of madness, a madness called Hollywood.

Penn gets the crew to Scotland, and wants everyone to wear special "expedition outfits" to give legitimacy to the Nessie project - though the word "expedition" is misspelled on the outfits. He also recruits a cryptozoologist to explain the Loch Ness mythos - a fake scientist, in other words. He also brings aboard the boat a drop-dead gorgeous former Playboy model as the Sonar Expert, but he is constantly trying to get shots of her in a g-string bikini, and we find out eventually he is dating her.

On the second day aboard the boat searching for Nessie, Penn hauls up a badly made paper mache Nessie floating head and throws it overboard demanding the crew film it. Herzog storms away and by day three, the cinematographer and the sound man go back to America. So that leaves Penn, Herzog, the fake scientist and the fake sonar expert to forge ahead with their movie.

And that's when something happens.

Somehow, their sonar equipment picks up a massive unknown object. Their boat is "attacked" and one by one, those on board the boat fall off into the icy waters of Loch Ness. Will anyone survive?

Herzog's fame for being eccentric and demanding become the joke here, and the madness of a Hollywood producer who constantly lies all add layers of fake realities and the movie is a marvel of comedy and oddity. It's not to be missed.

Whittington, Funeralgate and FEMA

I'm sure by later today some bloggers and some in the national press might bother to actually gather more background on super-rich attorney Harry Whittington who was shot by Vice President Cheney the other day. Whittington's history with Bush coincides with a grisly graveyard discovery which the Texas press dubbed "Funeralgate" and led to hundreds of millions in fines. Former FEMA director Joe Allbaugh was also a player in this scandal from Bush's days as governor.

"Funeralgate" was the name given the case involving the nation's largest funeral service company, SCI, and then Gov Bush was subpoenaed to testify in the case but refused, as was his then chief of staff Allbaugh. Luckily then governor Rick Perry called a halt to the case just in time for W. to begin his campaign for the White House. One story on this part of the case is here.

SCI was caught by then Texas funeral service regulator Eliza May after numerous complaints were made against SCI for all kinds of "grave" errors. The company paid $100 million in a class action lawsuit by families for moving bodies into the wrong locations and other "errors". However, the claims were so disturbing and May's actions so bothersome, she was fired from her job, which prompted her to file a suit which was eventually settled out of court.. More details about the cases here.

It was in May's case that she alleged Allbaugh and Bush hassled her to drop her claims, but she didn't. And it wasn't long before questions about lying began to emerge.

And it was about this time Whittington was appointed the take over SCI and help smother the complaints. SCI had been one of the biggest contributors to the Bush campaign for governor.

But, thanks to the help from Allbaugh and Perry, the case was quietly silenced.

However, just a few weeks after Whittington took over, it was found that another SCI operation in Florida (the irony is so thick here you can't cut it with a titanium chainsaw) had been playing hide-the-cadaver in Menorah Gardens and dumping the bodies into the woods.

"... the plaintiff's attorney said that SCI secretly broke into and opened burial vaults and dumped remains in a wooded area where the remains may have been consumed by wild animals.

Additionally, SCI buried "remains in locations other than those purchased by plaintiffs; crushing burial vaults in order to make room for other vaults; burying remains on top of the other rather than side-by-side; secretly digging up and removing remains; secretly burying remains head-to-foot rather than side-by-side; secretly mixing body parts and remains from different individuals; secretly allowing plots owned by one part to be occupied by a different person; secretly selling plots in rows where there were more graves assigned than the rows could accommodate; secretly allowed graves to encroach on other plots; secretly sold plots so narrow that the plots could not accommodate standard burial vaults; secretly participated in the desecration of gravesites and markers and failed to exercise reasonable care in handling the plaintiff's loved ones remains."

But the story isn't over yet.

A subsidiary of SCI , Kenyon International, got handed a no-bid contract to operate a "mobile mortuary" to deal with the bodies left in the destructive wake of Hurricane Katrina. Yep. It pays and pays to be a friend of Bush.

Charged with desecrating corpses? Get a FEMA contract.

In addition (this story seems to have no end!) the same SCI was also the same owner of the crematory in Georgia a few years ago where bodies were never cremated but stacked up like cordwood and stuffed into sheds.

The company's web site proclaims they are dedicated to "compassionately supporting families at difficult times, celebrating the significance of lives that have been lived, and preserving memories that transcend generations, with dignity and honor."

(big thanks to Dr. R. Fleenor for bringing all this to my attention)

Your Implant Is Ready

Read this today about an Ohio surveillance company that is "testing" some RFID implants on a couple of employees (thanks Newscoma).

The most chilling part of the news story is how the FDA has already approved a single company to make and sell trackable implants which can be inserted into humans.

Fear Grows Like Kudzu

Some Americans got all twisted over the recent Cartoon Or Not To Cartoon madness of the last week or so, but the raging paranoia here at home is gaining strength with equal madness. In one case at a public Missouri High School, three e-mails from some church members successfully terrorized a high school drama class production of the musical "Grease" - even though those who complained never actually saw the production. Oh, the vile wickedness of a musical about the 1950s.

The drama teacher will likely lose her job and the school is so terrified now of offending anyone they have also decided not to attempt the planned production of the classic play "The Crucible" - even though the play itself is still required reading in the school. The school's superintendent Mark Enderle admits he was acting in a "McCarthy" fashion and the decision to cancel it was to prevent the school from being "mired in controversy" all through the Spring.

It appears that Miller's play - which shows how rampant and mindless fear makes a small community turn to murder in the name of "self-protection" - might give students and other audience members the thought that hysteria is a destructive force. Some fear the mindless murders of the Salem witch trials shows Christians in "a bad light." I suppose hysteria should never be questioned.

The new law of the land is - if it scares you, destroy it and destroy it quickly.

Another recent case (hat tip to Julie and Cherokee Sage Woman), cited in Editor and Publsiher, reports that a nurse at a VA hospital got investigated after she wrote a letter to the editor in Albuquerque expressing her unhappiness with the current Bush administration. Her office computer was confiscated, began investigating accusations she was causing "sedition" and she too fears her 15-year job status to be in jeopardy. Her congressman is looking into the case, but once letter writers are accused of a potential crime, how long before the Fear of expressing an opinion outweighs any other concerns?

Right here in good ol' Tennessee one mother in Williamson County has been waging a war to stop children in school from reading "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee (HEY WILLIAMSON COUNTY KIDS - order your own copy at this link for only seventy-five cents!!)

The mother claimed she did not like "the profanity in the book, of how people talked in that time and in that society." Read more about this poor deluded case here.

All this reminds me of the old Robert Heinlein story called "If This Goes On" where in some future America, led by a theocracy, free thought is forbidden and fear is the key to controlling the population. Maybe it isn't science-fiction after all.

Little Profits In Shredding Mountains For Coal

Writer Bobbie Ann Mason has some eye-opening info on the poverty that remains after shredding our mountains in search of coal in this article:

"Appalachians love the mountains fiercely, yet mining is a way of life. Many don't want to protest the destruction of their mountains for fear the region will lose jobs. But nearly two-thirds of the mining jobs in Kentucky have been lost in the past 25 years because mountaintop mining is more efficient than deep mining.

The United States gets half its electricity from coal, and about a seventh of that comes from Kentucky. But coal money has not lifted eastern Kentucky out of poverty. In fact, the strip-mined counties have the highest poverty rates in the state, not much improved from when President Johnson visited about 40 years ago and declared war on poverty. Eighty percent of the coal, more than $2 billion worth, leaves the state, much of the profit going to distant corporations."

Here in Tennessee, grassroots actions have made coal mining operations take notice and seriously rethink their plans. Who says individuals have no voice or rights in our system? It took much time and consistent effort, but changes have been made:

"1. Tennessee will no longer issue ARAP (Aquatic Resource Alteration Permit) permits for the alteration of undisturbed perennial and intermittent streams

2. Tennessee will enforce a 100 foot buffer zone around these streams

3. Tennessee will no longer issue permits for mines where the coal seams are highly acidic (Ph 5 or lower)

4. Tennessee will tighten permitting restrictions on haul roads."

The Birth of the Cool

Allow me the opportunity to bypass the normal movie post for a Friday and share this clip of a legendary musical performance recorded live in 1958 of Miles Davis and the band he gathered for his album "Kind of Blue". The tune here is "So What".

This album, along with the one preceeding it, "The Birth of the Cool", are classics in jazz and rock, and "Kind of Blue" still sellls thousands of copies each month, more than 50 years after it's release. This video shows why - it is Cool incarnate.

Miles brought John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderly, Paul Chambers and Bill Cobb together for sessions that still impress the most casual listener. They all stand and wait for each moment to step into the tune with their talents. No color picture could capture the Cool here. It needs black and white photography. And I love the way Miles hangs back smoking when he isn't wailing on that trumpet, stabbing notes into the song, and that shot at the end, when he finishes his last notes and then casually walks off smoking again.

No wonder that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will be inducting Miles this March - Cool starts with Miles and spreads across the rest of the music industry throughout the 20th century.

If you've never dipped into the music before, you're in for an amazing journey. If you have, you'll enjoy the video above.

Feingold's Blunt Speech - Laws Broken

Senator Russ Feingold delivered a speech before the Senate that gets to the heart of the problem of the violations of the 4th Ammendment committed by the Bush Administration. Tough words, plain-spoken and easy to understand - the law is the law and no one is above it.

Some excerpts:

"The President issued a call to spread freedom throughout the world, and then he admitted that he has deprived Americans of one of their most basic freedoms under the Fourth Amendment -- to be free from unjustified government intrusion.

The President was blunt. He said that he had authorized the NSA’s domestic spying program, and he made a number of misleading arguments to defend himself. His words got rousing applause from Republicans, and even some Democrats.

The President was blunt, so I will be blunt: This program is breaking the law, and this President is breaking the law. Not only that, he is misleading the American people in his efforts to justify this program."
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"At the hearing yesterday, I reminded the Attorney General about his testimony during his confirmation hearings in January 2005, when I asked him whether the President had the power to authorize warrantless wiretaps in violation of the criminal law. We didn’t know it then, but the President had authorized the NSA program three years before, when the Attorney General was White House Counsel. At his confirmation hearing, the Attorney General first tried to dismiss my question as “hypothetical.” He then testified that “it’s not the policy or the agenda of this President to authorize actions that would be in contravention of our criminal statutes.”

Well, Mr. President, wiretapping American citizens on American soil without the required warrant is in direct contravention of our criminal statutes. The Attorney General knew that, and he knew about the NSA program when he sought the Senate’s approval for his nomination to be Attorney General. He wanted the Senate and the American people to think that the President had not acted on the extreme legal theory that the President has the power as Commander in Chief to disobey the criminal laws of this country. But he had. The Attorney General had some explaining to do, and he didn’t do it yesterday. Instead he parsed words, arguing that what he said was truthful because he didn’t believe that the President’s actions violated the law."
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" ... this administration reacts to anyone who questions this illegal program by saying that those of us who demand the truth and stand up for our rights and freedoms have a pre-9/11 view of the world.

In fact, the President has a pre-1776 view of the world.

Our Founders lived in dangerous times, and they risked everything for freedom. Patrick Henry said, "Give me liberty or give me death." The President's pre-1776 mentality is hurting America. It is fracturing the foundation on which our country has stood for 230 years. The President can't just bypass two branches of government, and obey only those laws he wants to obey. Deciding unilaterally which of our freedoms still apply in the fight against terrorism is unacceptable and needs to be stopped immediately."
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There is much much more to his comments. Read the entire speech here.

Bunny

It started yesterday when I saw the picture of an enormous rabbit featured in a BBC story. That is one huge dang bunny. (Check out the link to the story and see for yourself how dang HUGE this critter is.)

That reminded me of the 20-year art installation project in the mountains of Italy project of a huge pink bunny, which people could allegedly hike and climb across and "relax on his belly." It kind of looks like it was flattened when it hit the ground, though.

When I was about ten years old, I raised and sold rabbits at flea markets and stuff, and used to sit by the For Sale sign and read Pogo comics. Those were good days. Started with four rabbits and had a gajillion more in no time. They sure like making more of themselves.

And since I thought of posting about these bunny oddities, I was reminded of the Angry Alien Productions web site, where you can view 30-second re-enactments of famous movies as interpreted and acted by bunnies. They are working on a new one, a version of "Casablanca".

And that's today's Bunny News.

The Great Cartoon Controversy of '06

Perhaps you'll get a better handle on the issue of the Great Cartoon Controversy of '06 if you consider that even a one panel drawing is still a work of art, made by an artist. And Art has been at the center of the blasphemous firestorm of Free Speech since it began and historically, religious and secular leaders have sought to contain Art and the artist somehow.

Hard to relate to the wild, murderous rioters? Then imagine the most sacred thing you can and then imagine someone taking that sacred image and making an artwork of it in the most vile and despicable of conditions. Righteous Indignation has been as common as grains of sand on the beach throughout human history.

Recently, hordes of angry emailers attacked NBC for a TV show called "The Book of Daniel" and many stations had to consider whether or not to show it. A sculpture of the works of the Ten Commandments in an Alabama courthouse brought fierce battles to the courtrooms. The scope and severity of a battle may change from one culture to another, but it is certainly a battle of great intensity. And it is about control, it is about containing the human imagination.

That pesky Freedom of Expression is still a revolutionary idea. Mix Free Will with Fundamentalism and you have an explosion waiting to occur.

Some in the American press and media are wrestling with the ideas of censorship and law and how can America maintain its leadership in the push for Freedom in these times.

Here's a few thoughts from cartoonist/writer Ted Rall:

"Being provoked, as I tell myself when I'm sitting next to Sean Hannity, doesn't justify reacting with violence. And as Kuwaiti oil executive Samia al-Duaij pointed out to Time, there are better reasons to torch embassies than over cartoons: "America kills thousands of Muslims, and you lose your head and withdraw ambassadors over a bunch of cartoons printed in a second-rate paper in a Nordic country with a population of five million? That's the true outrage.

As the only syndicated political cartoonist who also writes a syndicated column, my living depends on freedom of the press. I can't decide who's a bigger threat: the deluded Islamists who hope to impose Sharia law on Western democracies, or the right-wing clash-of-civilization crusaders waving the banner of "free speech"--the same folks who call for the censorship and even murder of anti-Bush cartoonists here--as an excuse to join the post-9/11 Muslims-suck media pile-on. Most reasonable people reject both--but neither is as dangerous to liberty as America's self-censoring newspaper editors and broadcast producers."

Read the whole column here.

And more from editorial writer John Leo considers whether or not all this is a matter of "being civil" and admits his argument fails as:

" ... pressure to avoid publishing things that offend Muslims has been rising, particularly when death threats are made or expected. [Journalist Oriana] Fallaci, the target of many such threats, is said to be in hiding in New York. Nobody knows how many death threats have arisen from the cartoon dispute. Under the circumstances, civility might emerge as less important than standing up now to the danger of censorship through fear."

Chewbacca's Blog Is The Best

Sure, you've wondered and so have I. But now we have the answer. Which character from the endless "Star Wars" franchise would make the best blogger? The hands-down, no-contest winner is Chewbacca. Check out his blog here. More than ever before, his insights and pithy commentary are exactly what we need.

Camera Obscura - Cormac McCarthy Meets Coens

One of the finest writers who ever called Knoxville and Rockford home is Cormac McCarthy and his most recent novel, "No Country For Old Men" has been brought into film production by the Coen brothers, and so far actor Tommy Lee Jones is set to star in the film. The modern day crime story is set to begin production in May.

McCarthy has written a broad spectrum of stories, starting with his days publishing tales in the UT literary magazine The Phoenix, and even had a stint as a radio show host in his army days. Some of his stories are set in Appalachia, some are westerns, set in both the Wild West past and in the present. My personal favorites include the Knoxville-based novel "Suttree" and another book based on real events in Sevier County called "Child of God", a novel of a homeless middle-aged man living in a cave and collecting human bodies.

Some other movie news:

I remain impressed with the vast collection of movie trailers you can find at The MovieBox.net, which has both new and upcoming films by the ton, and new trailers are added daily.

One recent find there was a sci-fi film by director Kurt Wimmer, who made a little gem in 2002 called "Equilibrium." His newest brings actress Milla Jovovich into the sci-fi world in a role that has elements of "Resident Evil," (based on the videogame) "Aeon Flux", "The Matrix" and "Kill Bill." The movie is called "Ultraviolet" and she plays a geneticall-altered and trained government soldier who takes on the world to protect a small boy. Check out the trailer here. Don't be surprised if it becomes a videogame

A big-budget historic movie based on the life Marie Antoinette lushly filmed by filmmaker Sofia Coppola and starring Kirsten Dunst in the title role looks promising - the trailer is here - and co-stars include Jason Schwartzman, Asia Argento, Judy Davis and Marianne Faithfull.



The acclaimed Wener Herzog film of the true story of a man who thought he could live with grizzlies hits the Discovery Channel tonite in a three-hour version which includes a behind-the-scenes documentary of this offbeat story of a man whose illusions brought about his own "grisly" death.

KY News Details Tax Deal for Move to ET

A reader here found the information about the tax breaks and free land for the Colgate plant relocating to Morristown in a Kentucky newspaper article. After 80 years in Indiana, they're sending 60% of their manufacturing to Mexico and 40% to Morristown. Here's the entire article from the Louisville Courier-Journal:

Tennessee town lands Colgate factory
Incentives play role; Clarksville the loser

By Alex Davis
alexdavis@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

The Colgate-Palmolive Co. announced yesterday that it will build a toothpaste factory in Morristown, Tenn., as part of a cost-cutting strategy that includes closing a similar plant in Clarksville, Ind.

The 475 employees at the Clark County facility learned in October the plant would stop production by Jan. 1, 2008, ending more than 80 years of Colgate manufacturing in Southern Indiana.

Yesterday's announcement provided new details about Colgate's plans for toothpaste production. Officials in Morristown, for example, said the new plant there would employ 220 people — less than half the number in Clarksville.


They also said they have agreed to give Colgate 40 acres for the factory at no cost, along with money for infrastructure, a seven-year property-tax abatement and other incentives.

Tennessee also is a right-to-work state, which means employees there aren't required to join a union or pay dues. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said last month that Colgate decided to leave Indiana because company officials "want to be in a right-to-work state."

Daniels stopped short of endorsing right-to-work legislation in Indiana, but his remarks about Colgate were later cited by Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher as an example of what can happen to a state that requires union membership at unionized facilities. Fletcher is pushing for a right-to-work law, which drew a rotunda-packing union rally at the state Capitol Tuesday night.

Brett Hall, a spokesman for Fletcher's office, said Colgate's decision to move to a right-to-work state reaffirms the governor's reasoning for a similar law in Kentucky.

Rick Davis of New Albany, Ind., a 30-year veteran of the Clarksville plant, called the decision to move to Tennessee "sickening." Davis said he earns about $22 an hour, the average wage for a union employee. He said the move to Morristown was based on "corporate greed" and the company's desire to "get rid of unions."

In a statement yesterday, Colgate said the move was based on the cost of land, the cost of preparing a site and unspecified operating costs.

Allison Klimerman, a spokeswoman in the company's New York City headquarters, did not respond to a question about whether union laws played a role in the process.

The first layoffs at the Clarksville plant are scheduled for April. Larry Edwards, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 15, said about 20 people will be let go then.

Workers who lose their jobs will be offered a range of benefits based on age and years of service. The longest serving will be eligible for full retirement, Edwards said. Others will receive partial retirement or a cash buyout option worth $10,000 for each year of service. Edwards said the youngest workers will get two weeks of severance pay for every year worked. Edwards said an aggressive effort will be made to unionize the Morristown plant.

He also repeated challenges to the accuracy of Daniels' claims about right-to-work legislation.

Edwards said the company told him the union had met all the requirements for a new factory. He said the real reason Indiana was not chosen for the facility was because its package of tax incentives and land fell about $5 million short compared to locations in other states.

Most industrial sites in eastern Tennessee are not unionized. Thom Robinson, president of the Morristown Area Chamber of Commerce, said he didn't have details about wages at the new facility. He said Colgate agreed to meet and surpass a local request that workers earn at least $9.50 an hour.

Morristown Mayor Gary Johnson said he also didn't talk about right-to-work issues with Colgate. He said the city's location, its incentive package and its track record of luring industrial jobs played a role in the company's decision.

Edwards also said about 60 percent of Colgate's toothpaste production in Clarksville is moving to Mexico, and he said some shaving-cream production is also being outsourced. He said the remaining 40 percent of toothpaste production is being shifted to Morristown.

Litttle Value For Workers in Tennessee?

"Something is setting Tennessee apart from the rest of the nation, and that something is state-level policies that fail to value the hard work of average Tennesseans..."

The comment above comes in response to a new study that shows the state's income gap between income growth for the poorest and wealthiest is among the largest in the nation. Analysis indicates a few key reasons:

"Trudi Renwick, an economist with the union-backed Fiscal Policy Institute in New York, said wages at the bottom and middle of the scale had grown only minimally over the past two decades while wages of the best-compensated employees had grown significantly. She said globalization, the decline of manufacturing jobs, the expansion of low-wage service jobs, immigration and the weakening of unions had hurt those on the lower end of the economic scale."

This week's State of the Union address provided the president a platform to call for a bigger push in tech-related jobs and improving efforts to change the nation to alternate forms of energy. Both tech and energy fields should be priority one in state economic development. Blogger Atomic Tumor has some thoughts on what has been and could be done to boost development in both tech and energy research.

The challenge is here - how will the state respond?

The Other T-Shirt Banned At State Address

Some will debate whether or not Cindy Sheehan's t-shirt worn at the State of the Union address was an act worthy of expulsion.

But Florida congressman Bill Young's wife was also ejected for wearing a shirt with these words:

"Support The Troops Defending Our Freedom".

UPDATE 1/02/06 : Charges dropped for wearing a T-Shirt and apologies issued, Though my thoughts regarding the issue which I made distinct in the comments below remain the same.

Election Votes Traded for Bags of Pork Rinds

How cheap can you get? Some have given lives to preserve the voting rights of Americans, some give out packs of cigarettes and bags of pork rinds to get those votes. The report is here, about a special prosecutor's raid and search of the homes of a mayor, a councilman and his family and the acting police chief in the town of Appalachia. Allegations of fraud in the 2004 election include "buying" votes for beer, smokes, bags of pork rinds, as well as tampering with absentee ballots.

Nationally, it takes cash to get the political muscled needed to win in something like, say a presidential primary. Sen. Bill Frist has been expending the $3.5 million he raised in a single year to gather support in Iowa, where the first of the nation's presidential caucus race begins. $2000 went to the grandson of Sen, Charles Grassley, Pat who is running for state office, more to others seeking office in Iowa, as well as some to the Iowa GOP. $3.5 million will buy a buttload of pork rinds.

You Pay The Taxes They Don't

After too many years of zero local and state taxation for multi-million and billion dollar corporations, mislabled as "development and recruitment incentives", many in the public and judicial sector are beginning to see the light. The myth that "incentives" add to economic development don't hold up.

This doubt of course has put fear in the heart of lobbying groups like the Chamber of Commerce, who help to both craft the free ride on taxation and define their usefulness as "recruiters." A story in Sunday's Kingsport Times-News notes that Tennessee business groups and Chambers of Commerce are providing financing and legal briefs for a case in Ohio regarding Daimler-Chrysler against these tax freebies that's headed to the Supreme Court, and Tennessee state officials are consulting as well.

Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts were established some 50 years ago to bring economic development to "blighted" areas. Today, it's a tool to seize private property and freeze tax payments for decades for enormous corporations. But more study has shown that the real costs created for communities - expanding roads, building schools, creating utilities like sewer, water and electric needs - are shifted from business to the private sector.

Reason magazine, in a recent report (which deserves your full reading) notes:

"At a time when local governmentsÂ’ efforts to foster development, from direct subsidies to the use of eminent domain to seize property for private development, are already out of control, TIFs only add to the problem: Although politicians portray TIFs as a great way to boost the local economy, there are hidden costs they donÂ’t want taxpayers to know about. Cities generally assume they are not really giving anything up because the forgone tax revenue would not have been available in the absence of the development generated by the TIF. That assumption is often wrong.

"There is always this expectation with TIFs that the economic growth is a way to create jobs and grow the economy, but then push the costs across the public spectrum,"” says Greg LeRoy, author of The Great American Jobs Scam: Corporate Tax Dodging and the Myth of Job Creation. "“But what is missing here is that the cost of developing private business has some public costs. Road and sewers and schools are public costs that come from growth.” Unless spending is cut —and if a TIF really does generate economic growth, spending is likely to rise, as the local population grows —the burden of paying for these services will be shifted to other taxpayers. Adding insult to injury, those taxpayers may include small businesses facing competition from well-connected chains that enjoy TIF-related tax breaks. In effect, a TIF subsidizes big businesses at the expense of less politically influential competitors and ordinary citizens."

At a recent meeting of the Hamblen County Commission, one wise citizen asked commissioners and Property Tax Assessor Keith Ely just what tax breaks and incentives were being given a new projected development by the Colgate Company in Morristown. No one had any information. While it is a city industrial project, led by the state and the local chamber of commerce offices, that information is yet to be revealed. Typically, TIFs could range from seven to 30 years. All infrastructure needs created for schools for example, will be funded by the county, or in other words, the rest of the taxpaying public.

Update to You Are The Movie

This is an update to yesterday's post.

I noticed this story today, about a contest open to young people who make the best 30-second film using only their cell phones. You can view the ten finalists here.

Camera Obscura - You Are The Movie

Today, no one needs to wait to be "discovered" by a movie company in order to become a worldwide movie star. All you need is a digital camera capable of taking 30 seconds of video, or even just a cell phone that can capture a few seconds of action. Forget about getting a movie into a festival somewhere in hopes of finding a distributor too - you can have worldwide distribution in seconds flat.

Digital tech and web cams and free video-sharing web sites make it easy. One of many such sites, which I have linked to and used myself, YouTube.com, has the stats to show how the world has come to them. According to a recent report:

"YouTube.com, a leading site, had more than three million visitors in December, nearly tripling its visitation in November, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. YouTube says its users have been sharing 20,000 new videos a day and watching some 10 million daily.

One clip on YouTube is of a 12-year-old scoring a touchdown, another is of a woman burping in front of a mirror. One young man captured himself skateboarding on a treadmill.

Others are more carefully produced and edited, even set to music"
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"And then there's Revver, which relies on ads but shares revenues with users who submit video.

''It is a new frontier,'' said Steven Starr, Revver's chief executive. ``The migration of video onto the network is upon us, and the rules of that migration are being worked out as we speak.''

Many sites have for years offered a place for short films, animated or live-action, and around the world fans are re-creating new episodes of favorite shows one chapter at a time. Some people take anime shows and edit them to fit with pop music hits, some just lip sync "My Humps," some people confess to any type of weirdness or crime, and some "movies" just stink.

One witty wanna-be filmmaker crafted a "feel-good romantic comedy" trailer for "The Shining" which led to a three picture deal for the maker.

The world is ready for it's close-up.

The Drama of A Fearful Life

Complaining about the various and most dubious acts of the current White House and Congressional leadership seem to be as useful and effective as standing at the beach and screaming STOP!!! at the ocean's waves. The allegations of corruption in Congress, in this state and in many others, in cities and counties all across our nation are rolling out in news reports with the same continual flow of oceanic ebb and flow.

In Blog-land, many writers dutifully note these issues, and often frame their diatribes in lines conforming to one political party view or another (or should I say "deforming facts according to one party or the other"?) As Thomas Pynchon wrote: "If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers."

I did note with some interest a post Wednesday on No Silence Here about a former NSA boss speaking before the National Press Club, who was twisting the language of the 4th Amendment in order to fit with the current use of national surveillance. The full story Silence referenced is here at Editor and Publisher, which also printed the 4th Amendment. Here it is:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

And here's my big problem with the so-called Patriot Act - it by-passes the requirements of the 4th Amendment of judicial oversight, and if you are one of those who feel so scared and terrified in America that you want to change the Amendment, then please realize that can only be accomplished by Constitutional Amendment and not by a Congressional vote.

If you fear some horrible act may occur without using existing laws governing warrants, the would you please take the time to review the 1978 FISA act, which allows for issuing warrants without a court's oversight as long as BOTH the reasons and probable cause are presented to the FISA judicial authority within 72 hours. And I suppose you could interpret the amendment to the view "hey, since we can't provide 'probable cause' then we CAN issue a warrant with no judicial oversight!"

Oh, I know - these bothersome Bill of Rights and Constitutional Law require thought and reflection and (dear God!) even study. I suppose it's more dramatic and intense to feel caught in an endless war with a lurking enemy.