Outsourcing the War in Iraq

Listening to the demands from the White House regarding the funding of the war in Iraq, the drumbeat message appears to be "must have money for the troops." Shouldn't citizens and representatives be asking how much money is given to private contractors versus how much actually goes into the US military?

Between 100 and 200,000 private contracts provide the military with laundry services, meals, latrine operations, transportation of materials, and an unknown number of private and heavily armed security forces. Without these contracts, could the military today conduct any operation? And does that mean that the White House is now lobbying for businesses to receive tax dollars?

On May 10th Jeremy Scahill testified before a Congressional Committee about what has become the "outsourcing" of the war in Iraq and the questions such operations bring --

"Many Americans are under the impression that the US currently has about 145,000 active duty troops on the ground in Iraq. What is seldom mentioned is the fact that there are at least 126,000 private personnel deployed alongside the official armed forces. These private forces effectively double the size of the occupation force, largely without the knowledge of the US taxpayers that foot the bill.

"These forces work for US companies like Blackwater, Triple Canopy and DynCorp as well as companies from across the globe. Some contractors make in a month what many active-duty soldiers make in a year. Indeed, there are private contractors in Iraq making more money than the Secretary of Defense and more than the commanding generals. The testimony about private contractors that I hear most often from active duty soldiers falls into two categories: resentment and envy.

"They ask what message their country is sending them. While many soldiers lack basic protective equipment--facts well-known to this committee--they are in a war zone where they see the private soldiers whiz by in better vehicles, with better armor, better weapons, wearing the corporate logo instead of the American flag and pulling in much more money. They ask: Are our lives worth less?"

Scahill notes that 40 cents of every dollar for the war goes into private contracts, and asks about the wisdom of relying on the profit motive for private firms working in Iraq. Does it simply create a shadow army?

Also testifying was Robert Greenwald, who's film "Iraq For Sale" (previously mentioned) reports on the war profiteering taking place in Iraq. Congressman Jack Kensington (R-GA) does not seem much interested in investigating the use of tax dollars, but quizzes Greenwald on the money made by those who report on the war profiteers. It's an amazing video.

The recently vetoed legislation on funding, however, would have had minimal effect on private contractors:

"The legislation vetoed by the president last week would not have reduced the use of private military operators in Iraq. As originally passed in the House, the Democrats' plan would have cut only about 15 percent, or $815 million, of the supplemental spending earmarked for day-to-day military operations "to reflect savings attributable to efficiencies and management improvements in the funding of contracts in the military departments." But even that mild provision was dropped in late April by the Democrats, who said they needed to hold more hearings on the contractor issue. Instead, they moved to withhold - not cut - 15 percent of total day-to-day operational funding, but only until Defense Secretary Robert Gates submits a report on the use of contractors and the scope of their deployment. Once the report is submitted, the 15 percent would be released.

While the discussions have centered on accountability, fiscal responsibility, and oversight, the big question that Congress has not confronted is: Should the U.S. government even be allowed to use mercenary forces, whose livelihoods depend on war and conflict, to help fight its battles in Iraq?"

And the Free CDs Go To ......

Thanks for reading and playing along for this simple contest. And thanks to Universal Music and Buzztone for providing the CDs to give away.

Here are the winners of the Number Ones collections:

George W. - Marvin Gaye
Snikta - James Brown
DSwann - Diana Ross and The Supremes

I'll be contacting each of you via your emails to get your land addresses and will then ship them to you ASAP. I also have one more CD with Number One hits by The Temptations, and will select a winner among all the other entries.

And thanks for having that cup of Joe!

Brain Drained

Delicious blue skies and abundant sunshine the last few days here in East TN, which means the hot and humid days of summer are near and that's my favorite time of year. But there has been a drawback - I haven't been able to enjoy it.

I've been weighed down this week with a nasty chest cold. The result is I feel lousy and most medications to ease such woes make me as loopy as someone huffing airplane glue from a sock. You know it's bad when you wake up at 3 am and the TV has some infomercial about the miracle of a new hunk of rubberized exercise equipment and I sit and stare at if for forty minutes with slack jawed attention. The thought of changing the channel befuddles me for so long, I start wondering if I am holding a jillion channel remote control or maybe an abacus from the 13th century.

All that to say this - I have been a poor blogger this week. The news or views which might have been here have oozed past me in the haze of over the counter dope. So I am posting now, writing via a window of brief consciousness, aware that I am headed back to my previously puddled state of sub-aware stupidity. (the occasional detractors of this humble yet lovable blog all say "AHA!")

I will provide some further details in coming days about all the fun of my trip to Washington (and isn't it time they installed Google maps on the windows of airplanes so you know just exactly what you are flying over?) Until things get back to normal, you still have time to win some free CDs.

Since I can't even taste my coffee anymore, I think I'll mix generous amounts of cough syrup into my cup and stare out the window at the beautiful day, ignore the news on TV and follow the ebb and flow of the vile stuff invading my precious bodily fluids.

Foo on being sick.

Last Day to Win Free CDs

You have just until tonite at midnight to win some free CDs which collect the number one hits of some of the best performers of the 60s and 70s. All the details are here - just leave a comment in that post and you could win.

All winners will be announced tomorrow and will get their free CDs next week!

Paradise "Lost"

Puzzling out the actual number of hours spent watching the show "Lost" along with the time spent searching online sites to determine just what the heck is going on in any episode may lead you to decide to find a better way to spend your time.

Fortunately, once you've seen a few basic episodes, you can leave the actual viewing of most any show to folks who do have time, and they can recap it all for you to read in less than one-fourth the time of an hour-long episode. And they even write up the recaps complete with the snarky comments one might make about any odd episodic elements.

Here's a wee bit of the recap from last week's "Lost" which sort of captures how much fun the writers at Television Without Pity can have:

"Sawyer has his brow furrowed in confusion and consternation. He asks, "Locke is dead because you threw him out a window?" Bad Dad says that he didn't die from being thrown out a window; he died when his plane crashed in the middle of the Pacific. Sawyer looks relieved. He says he was on that plane too, and he's not dead. Bad Dad fills him in on the fact that they found the plane's wreckage and all the bodies. Sawyer refuses to believe that he's dead, because he's standing on an Island. Bad Dad asks again if Sawyer is sure it's an Island. Sawyer punts by asking, if it's not an Island, what is it? Bad Dad laughs that it's a little hot for heaven. Sawyer rolls his eyes, but Bad Dad says, "One minute I'm in a car wreck, the next I'm in a pirate ship in the middle of the jungle. If it's not hell, friend, where are we?" I think that was supposed to mirror Charlie's line from the first episode ever, but I don't really have the energy to parse it out, because during the last five minutes of the show, I have wandered over to my bedroom and slammed the closet door on my head about twelve times."

The full recap is here. And if you are a devoted follower of most any show, they've got dozens of forums for you to debate "what it all means."

Free Number Ones CDs for You!

A pause here today in the retelling of my great good fortunes of the last week to share some freebies with you. I've got some CDs to give away, part of a massive collection of music from Universal Music.

I've been listening to the Jazz Number Ones collection myself and it's fine stuff. Quincy Jones' "Killer Joe," Etta James' "At Last," Nina Simone's "I Put A Spell On You" are just some of the 17 tracks of jazz hits.

Here's what I have for you readers -- The Marvin Gaye Number Ones, The Temptations Number Ones, James Brown Number Ones and Diana Ross and the Supremes Number Ones. How can you get one of these must-have collections?

Just leave a comment on this post telling me which of the four you want and why you want it -- maybe it brings back great memories or maybe the music is something you are still discovering. Leave your entry before midnight on Thursday, May 10.

One entry per person and you must be at least 18 to enter. Be sure and include your email address in your comment, and I'll pick four lucky winners by this Friday, May 11 and post their names and then I'll send you the CD. Free.

One thing I like about this collection is that the CD package is made from recycled materials, and isn't a maze of plastic and stickers to untangle. Easy to open and earth-friendly!

The complete list of CDs in this collection can be explored here at Number Ones. Sample tracks and complete CD tracks are also listed. You can also choose ringtones and wallpaper from the collection too.

The collection includes number one hits from Country, Soul, Dance, Jazz, Motown, Soundtracks, hits from the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s and even more individual artists and groups, from Hank Williams Sr. to Lionel Ritcie and Elton John and many more.

This is simply a way to say thanks to all the readers here as Cup of Joe Powell closes in on 100,000 hits -- some free hits for you too!

Da Vinci Goes to the Air and Space Museum

The blend of work and pleasure has happened to me more than once, but the past week was one of the most memorable such blends. I hope it is also a sign that the future holds even more opportunities where work and pleasure co-exist for your humble narrator.

I'll explain some of the details of the how and the why in a later post. For now, let me just offer some tantalizing examples of why I had a fine week.

Imagine getting an offer to fly to Washington DC and stay at the ritzy Washington Court Hotel, all expenses paid, and to spend my working hours entertaining folks as a historical character -- in my case I performed as a Russian Cosmonaut and as Leonardo da Vinci. Added bonus - I was told I would be performing the da Vinci role at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum, which would be closed for the evening for a private catered party.

I had to pinch myself more than once at Air and Space. It's a place which I had visited before, spending hours wandering thru the exhibits and gawking at the displays of planes and rockets which made history. To be strolling casually through it, sipping wine and acting as da Vinci ("I invented everything here, you know. I never finish, I just make a sketch.") while a jazz combo played just under the heat shield of the Apollo 11 Command Module ... and to be paid while doing all that ... it makes you say Life is Good.

It also made me think if I ever do go to space, I want a jazz combo on board playing the whole time. Jazz and Space. Each compliments the other.

As I mentioned in my previous post , my camera wasn't working, but fellow performer MountainGirlXD was kind enough to share the photos she took. So here you are -- first, me as daVinci. The costume wasn't too uncomfortable, but man that hair and beard took some work so it did not look like Santa. A little bit of make-up was needed too, so that the wig did not look Mamie Van Doren's hair and too much would have made me look like Bob in Twin Peaks. One thing I learned was that about half of those I talked with thought that da Vinci painted the Sistine Chapel. And just for the record, I doubt there would much difference between da Vinci's astonishment inside that museum and mine.

Sadly, as exciting as the exhibits were, I hate to think we now see space exploration as merely an exhibit in a museum, part of our past. It must remain part of our future, too.

Here's a shot of the X-1, which broke air speed records when piloted by Chuck Yeager.

I admit to being stunned when thinking that a company could rent out the museum for the evening and have dinner catered. I'm sure I could live quite well for years on what that must have cost.

In the next post, I'll have more on how I landed the job last week and other tales from Washington, so stay tuned.

Oh, and why not take a peek at MountainGirlXD as she played the role of Amelia Earhart?

Return of the Blogger

I have returned from Washington, DC and have many stories to share with you.

It was a truly busy week, and the networking and meetings were endless. So many of us were in DC this week - all the big dogs in Hollywood were there for the Jack Valenti funeral, also the Queen of England and her massive entourage arrived to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, the folks with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and of course, me, your humble narrator.

I noticed that as the President used his mighty veto pen this week on ending the war in Iraq, the entire GOP-For-President Gang all fled to the other coast, gathering at the President Reagan library for a debate. It was kind of sad to see them reaching deep into the past to find some relevance to 2007. Does not bode well.

I noticed numerous Obama For President bumper stickers and only one other name was visible on any bumper -- someone was driving about with a Fred Thompson for President sticker.

And someone in DC needs to be fired for putting this motto on DC license plates: Taxation Without Representation. Leaving out the word "No" before "Taxation" is just anti-American. Or is the word's absence just an indication of the times we live in?

My digital camera crapped out the first day, so all pictures presented over the next few days as I recount my adventures will be verbally created. For instance, I was really hoping I could show you what I found when I went to the Jefferson Memorial one day around sunset. The site was utterly empty and there were tears streaming down the cheeks of the bronze face of Jefferson.

"Why are you crying, Tom?" I asked, standing on a floor made of Tennessee pink marble.

His bronze arm slowly rose and he pointed to words on the frieze circling the dome of the memorial, which read "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every tyranny over the mind of man."

Then a low voice from the frozen form of our third president said "I fear the tyrants have defeated my country."

"No," said I. "Not all minds have been overtaken by the tyrants. I will tell others what you have said so well in defense of our Freedom and our nation."

"You? Your camera doesn't even work, you chucklehead, no one will believe a word you say."

"Wellllllllll, yeah there is that. But I can Google a picture for my blog. And if America can just recall some of your words, that is the place to start."

"Google a picture? Great, another witless entry on the internet. Thanks for nothing. Just go, please. I want to sleep before they convert this space to another Starbucks."

I suppose Tom has seen too much of his efforts falling by the wayside of late.

And I did Google him, anyway --

"All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.

Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions. During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world, during the agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking through blood and slaughter his long-lost liberty, it was not wonderful that the agitation of the billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore; that this should be more felt and feared by some and less by others, and should divide opinions as to measures of safety. But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.

Mr Powell Goes to Washington

I'm headed to Washington, DC for the week. Posting will be limited to whatever time and access allow. I don't think I can advise anyone in DC on forward movement in policies, but who knows?

Still, I've been invited to attend a business convention and talk about this man.

Don't ask. I'll do my best to provide pictures and an explanation as the week progresses.

Rubber Duck, Come Back

A top-notch movie debate about the best movie car chases is running full tilt at No Silence Here courtesy of Les Jones and MetaFilter. Clips of nominees are featured, along with a great History of Chases website at filmsite.org, which starts in the silent era and continues up through "The Matrix" movies.

I've left my views already in the comments and won't repeat them here, other than to underscore one of the best ever car chase scenes ever which you can still see in theatres - Zoe Bell riding the hood of a car in the Tarantino portion of "Grindhouse", which is absent special effects and is a sweat-inducing thrill ride that ranks as one of the best in decades. (And of course, Kurt Russell, as Stuntman Mike, drives a car with the legendary Rubber Duck Hood Ornament.)

So head on over to the KNS site and cast your vote. For my two cents, I can hardly decide between Bullitt, Ronin and Road Warrior, so I went with Road Warrior 'cause it last for 12 minutes of metal-bashing carnage.

The one time I participated in a road race with friends, we took insanely unprepared drivers and vehicles (a Gremlin, a Pinto and a Rabbit) out at night on a dangerous mountain road and I (or perhaps I should say We) were a.) young and stupid and lucky; b.) no one was hurt, hence the lucky part; and c.) about 180 seconds of adrenaline madness embedded in my memory with more fondness than I should admit.

Camera Obscura - The CIA and Jack Kirby; Hot Fuzz and More Movie News

There's a connection between the CIA, Spock's ears, comic book legend Jack Kirby and the Iranian Hostage Crisis from the Carter era. The story could and likely will be made into a movie soon, especially since Wired magazine this month has a story on how the CIA used all those elements in a daring rescue of hostages.

On Turner Classic Movies from time to time, they've shown a little behind-the-scenes movie about makeup master John Chambers, who did design and make Spock's ears, as well as creating the unique (at the time) latex mask method for the "Planet of the Apes" movies.

As the Wired article reports, agent Tony Mendez put together a fake movie production company they called Studio Six Productions with Chamber's help and made a plan to use latex masks to disguise a handful of the hostages and help them escape:

"All they needed now was a film — and Chambers had the perfect script. Months before, he had received a call from a would-be producer named Barry Geller. Geller had purchased the rights to Roger Zelazny's science fiction novel, Lord of Light, written his own treatment, raised a few million dollars in starting capital from wealthy investors, and hired Jack Kirby, the famous comic book artist who cocreated X-Men, to do concept drawings. Along the way, Geller imagined a Colorado theme park based on Kirby's set designs that would be called Science Fiction Land; it would include a 300-foot-tall Ferris wheel, voice-operated mag-lev cars, a "planetary control room" staffed by robots, and a heated dome almost twice as tall as the Empire State Building. Geller had announced his grand plan in November at a press conference attended by Jack Kirby, former football star and prospective cast member Rosey Grier, and several people dressed like visitors from the future."

Few thought the idea would work, and the story of how it all came together is fantastic. The magazine even includes some of the storyboard drawings used to fake the Iranians - and many in Hollywood.

Another behind-the-scenes movie master is the center of a new documentary, film and sound editor Walter Murch. Cinematical's James Rocchi got a viewing of the film and reports on it here. Murch is probably more responsible for the look and sound of movies today than any other person. He went from editing movies by hand on the Movieola system to computers, then on to Avid and the non-linear Mac based Final Cut Pro. His sound designs and creations also led to the 5.1 sound systems used today.

Still, his interests and intelligence go far beyond film. He was recently interviewed for the architectural blog, BLDBLOG, where he discusses cosmology and architecture and offers a theory that the Heliocentric Pantheon in Rome was a key used by Copernicus to create an accurate description of our solar system.

" ... I then superimposed Copernicus’s drawing over an image of the Pantheon’s dome – and found that the ratios of the circles in his drawing and the ratios of the circles of the Pantheon line up almost exactly. Seeing that alignment was one of those wonderful moments where you suddenly feel a strong current of connection with the past.."

Walter Murch just rocks, people.

---- In some other notable news this week, a scene was shot for the production of the Will Smith version of the "I Am Legend" movie which is being touted as the most expensive single scene yet made. The cost is a minimum of $5 million, but may in fact be much higher. It's no simple task to take over the Brooklyn Bridge for a few hours.

---- One of the funniest movies in recent years was the British zombie-comedy "Shaun of the Dead." And I admit it, they had me as soon as the Goblins' music from Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" started playing. And the movie just got better and better. This weekend, the same crew of filmmakers and actors turn to another genre to have fun with - the buddy-cop movie. Some behind the scenes talk for this weekend's new movie, "Hot Fuzz", with Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg can be heard here, at DVD Talk Radio. Other interviews on the site include Oliver Stone, Stan Lee, Kevin Smith and Eli Roth.

---- Rasslin fans get to see their faves blow up real good in a movie opening this weekend called "Condemned". I doubt if the script here will be any better than the scripts rasslers use on any given title match. However, the idea for this movie was much better when it was called "Battle Royale." Take my advice and seek that one out, unless yer rasslin love has you pinned.

---- Thank the good Freedonian for pointing out the very best ever moment in the history of the show "American Idol." Jack Black takes the show to it's peak.

Cities of Lonesome Fear

Ignoring reality at your own peril - an old story, I know. I grew up in the world of Baptist churches, and that was a constant theme. Religion was a kind of salve, an elixir to soothe the troubled brows furrowed in fear and angst about the evils of this old world. More and more, I sense that fervent bloggers/pundits/politicians opine that the "right kind of government" can stave off all ills, chills, fevers, and maladies of the world itself, offering up an old time religion spirit -- yet another advertisement for snake oil.

The belief that a political system can chart a course of Moral Value is negated by the obvious reports of Time and History itself. For most all of my life, I've known the folks who founded this country knew full well that neither the political nor the religious systems could provide what a person needed most. They knew two things were more important - Freedom from oppression and reliance on self-determination.

But somehow the concepts of Morality and Politics have become married, as if some 1950s sitcom Mom and Dad Know Best has staggered out of the corrupt cultural mists to lead us all to glory. Mom and Dad would always make sure the kids were alright.

What's been the effect of this union? It's a kind of lunacy, not only in this country but in other emerging world powers and wannabe powers: "If you are not part of our politics or morality, you are an immoral animal."

The current trend of bloggers/pundits/politicians have been playing a deceptive game of We'll Make A New Law and All Will Be Well. The Mom and Dad answer to all problems begins with "From now on ....." and all is well by the end of the 30-minute episode. Until next week's episode, when Mom and Dad must straighten it all out again.

A result of such a capitulation to the Mom and Dad political worldview has now provided us with a myriad of problems which the founders of this country knew too well and had experienced for generations within Europe: corruption and incompetence can thrive in that kind of environment. The Moral/Political blend has but one purpose - to continue it's own existence at all costs, despite the peril to the populace.

I'm not witty nor wise enough to craft the words needed to explain all this. Some of you know it already, and some so embrace the Moral/Political Mom and Dad that words or wisdom may never re-engage their minds. Some are incredibly bored by the requirements of maintaining Freedom and Self-Reliance, much less reducing incompetence and corruption, so again no words or wisdom contain enough Spectacle to capture their attention.

I did read something today by the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, Rahm Emanuel of Illinois which does lay out a well-written assessment of how incompetence and corruption have done damage which will take years to correct. Most recently, Rep. Emanuel was "in the news" for advising colleagues not to appear on "The Colbert Report," so it's not that I have lofty opinions of the man. I am not one to elevate a politician to a pedestal anyway. But I do think his article is worth reading. Some excerpts:

"As Jim Hightower has noted, [the Bush] Administration eliminated the middleman. The corporations don't have to lobby the government, because they are the government. This cronyism transcends the regulatory agencies.

There were early signs, not heeded, that this Administration would be driven by partisan politics, not public policy. In Ron Suskind's book The Price of Loyalty , former-Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill complained that he couldn't interest anyone in policy discussions at the White House, because it was populated with political operatives rather than policy experts.

Even the President's highly touted faith-based initiative turned out to be a purely political play. The top two leaders of that new office both quit in frustration. John J. DiIulio Jr. left after being forced to work in a White House that he likened to “the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis.” Former Deputy Director David Kuo later alleged that then-White House political affairs director Ken Mehlman knowingly participated in a scheme to use that government office to mobilize religious voters in 20, targeted congressional races—of which the Republicans won 19.

The Bush Administration has redefined the famous challenge of President Kennedy's inaugural address. Instead of “Ask not what your country can do for you,” it has become “Ask what your government can do for our party.”

That's one of the most obvious scenes being played out on blogs and campaigns and talk radio and television and on and on - that one party not only has the all the right answers, but to even consider other views is the same as being a Godless, treasonous, anti-American and anti-Mom and Dad monster.

I know it's embarrassing to admit you've been duped by your political party or poorly chosen heroes. (See yesterday's post for more on that.) However the continued adoration of the incompetent and corrupt is the most 'defeatist' move we could make.

Like it or not, it's like that old songwriter sings - we live in a political world. And to politicize all things will only serve politicians best, first and last.

We live in a political world
In the cities of lonesome fear
Little by little
You turn in the middle
But you're never sure why you're here.
We live in a political world
Under the microscope
You can travel anywhere
And hang yourself there
You always got more than enough rope.

Thought For The Day

As a confrontation over government authority and warfare is gearing up, a Thought for All Those In Washington --

"Self-deception proves itself to be more powerful than deception.

We all make similarly irrational arguments about decisions in our lives: we hang on to losing stocks, unprofitable investments, failing businesses and unsuccessful relationships. If we were rational, we would just compute the odds of succeeding from this point forward and then decide if the investment warrants the potential payoff. But we are not rational--not in love or war or business--and this particular irrationality is what economists call the "sunk-cost fallacy."

via

The Good, The Bad and The Internet

There are too many topics rattling around in my own head today, some are fine and good things, some are ugly and idiotic. What follows is, obviously, the result of what I just said.

1. Big ole' Happy Happy Birthday wishes to one of my favorite places to read and discuss just about everything. Brittney runs the Nashville is Talking blog and it's her consistent effort to provide a wide range of topics to discover, pictures to marvel at, people and things to laugh at, provide a forum for all kinds of viewpoints and she's mighty expert at calling BS when something is just that - BS. Happy B-Day!

2. I've recently found another fascinating place to read about all things Appalachian. Hillbilly Savants has a staggering amount of information, links to bajillions of newspaper, television and radio sites, bloggers from across the South, colleges, research and policy groups, a hefty list of contributors and much, much more. Exhaustive work is evident here. The topics cover culture and politics and tall tales of the region, history, science - you name it. I was more than honored to find they linked to this humble but lovable blog, too. How they describe themselves: "This blog is about our Appalachia - the real one, not the Hollywood-stereotype nor the third-world nation-esque stereotype being sold by do-gooders, or even the neo-Romantic sylvan stereotype that Rousseau would probably buy into. It should be interesting."

3. I noticed too at Hillbilly Savants they have an image made by Tennessee Jed:



In explaining a little bit about himself in the above-linked post, Jed offers the following:

"I don't like being over charged, over taxed, tricked with schemes and lawyers, underpaid, under served, under appreciated, neglected, ignored, belittled, deceived or anything that takes from me without asking in a very real and obvious manner. If a subject takes too much haggle after the fact then it most likely is purely designed to fool the lesser gifted sorts like Jed. I will call them out in my normal "whiney-assed-wish-things-were different" way that is my own. I think that capitalism has reached a plateau in America where some aspects need to be changed to protect workers/consumers from legalistic loophole side stepping. If this sort of thinking makes me a socialist-pinko-commie, then so be it. It doesn't need be another law or ethics committee (we got too many that ain't workin'), it needs to be a matter of known fact, obvious really: take no more than you need from your dealings, examine your needs daily. Do it because you care and want to make a fair place for your babies (or any beloved ones) to live and grow. Turn the soil fine for your land, don't show up for the harvest and leave. Make someplace your real home and it will pay off. It appears to this observer that past superpowers have fallen due to the same mistakes we are seeing/making now. Misplaced goals, it is as simple as that. Invest in people, invest in people because without them there is no market at all. Invest in exploration, because there are things to be found. Our table of elements has some open spaces, one of them might be the solution to unlock the Utopia we all seek.

OK - That's the Good that's been in my head of late. Now for The Bad,

1. Bone-dumb ignorance and intentional hatred are promoted by the King of The Daily Hate, aka R. Limbaugh regarding the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech. He and his chorus of doom crusaders naturally know exactly the cause of Cho's insane rampage -- Liberal college professors, and specifically the school's English Dept. (You know, the one that had been persistently warning administrators about Cho, the one encouraging him to seek counseling.)

Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings has the details in his post "Lower Than Dirt" --

"For some reason -- don't ask -- I was looking at Rush Limbaugh's web site, and I saw this headline: "Can Any Good Come from V Tech Horror?" followed by this blurb: "Maybe, just maybe, we'll face the hatred for American traditions and capitalism infesting our campuses." No, I thought. No, no, no. So I clicked the link. The transcript I found quoted at length from an article called "Was Cho Taught To Hate", by one James Lewis ....

"Lewis' article would be beyond despicable even if it accurately represented the Virginia Tech English department. That it's just another hit piece against an academic department that makes precisely no attempt to characterize that department accurately, that Lewis chooses instead to treat the members of that department as mere instantiations of some "trend" that exists only in his head, and that he does this at a time when the people he uses as political props must be suffering enormously, makes it lower than dirt."

Sadly, others too have jumped on the Blamewagon, like the American Family Association, who says the killings were all the fault of "lack of school prayer and video games" - they even have a video to explain it to you. Warning - watching this will induce adverse reactions.

I think you'd have to be deeply and truly uneducated to blame the violence in the world today on something that happened since 1950, like comic books, television, video games, or not voting Republican. It's been pretty damn constant in human history that a handful of reasons are at the heart of brutal violence - tribal/ethnic warfare, religion and religious intolerance, treating other humans as possessions, and there are some folk who, as Kurt Vonnegut once said, have some bad wiring in their heads.

OK, Now on the topic of the Internet.

Yes, yes, I know this post is kind of all over the place. But my brain takes the oddest paths at times.

For example. just this morning I woke up from a dream where (no lie) I was making a crowd of French people angry at me because they did not like the way I was imitating the way Maurice Chevalier sang a song called "Louise." In my dream, heck, I sounded pretty good, in my opinion.

I have no idea what that was all about. It's not like I spend much time pondering the French. Much less songs by Maurice Chevalier. And how the heck did the lyrics to that song get lodged in my memory? I will admit I watched an old French film by Jean Luc Godard, "Alphaville" the other night, but that had no reference to Maurice Chevalier.

Anyway, after I had some time to ponder that dream, I wondered if Maurice or that song had their own piece of the internet to call their own. Naturally, of course they do. Here's a video someone made in appreciation of an actress named Louise Brooks, a silent film star, set to Chevalier's singing. Funny thing too, this video was uploaded just within the last week.



PS - I cannot think of Chevalier without thinking of this scene by the Marx Brothers, where they steal Chevalier's passport and all try to pretend to be him.

SMARTech, Gonzales, and the 2004 Election

The media offers a collective yawn to the reports that the White House has been by-passing laws regarding email communications related to government operations. It's as if they can't wrap their brains around a possiible effort to act outside the law. And a Chattanooga company may soon find itself on center stage in a bizarre maze of manipulating information.

This story isn't going away, and it is also related to the rampant oddities in the Ohio election results in 2004. Just what role has the Chattanooga-based company, SMARTech been playing in elections and secret emails?


"Did the most powerful Republicans in America have the computer capacity, software skills and electronic infrastructure in place on Election Night 2004 to tamper with the Ohio results to ensure George W. Bush's re-election?

The answer appears to be yes. There is more than ample documentation to show that on Election Night 2004, Ohio's "official" Secretary of State website -- which gave the world the presidential election results -- was redirected from an Ohio government server to a group of servers that contain scores of Republican web sites, including the secret White House e-mail accounts that have emerged in the scandal surrounding Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's firing of eight federal prosecutors.

Recent revelations have documented that the Republican National Committee (RNC) ran a secret White House e-mail system for Karl Rove and dozens of White House staffers. This high-tech system used to count and report the 2004 presidential vote- from server-hosting contracts, to software-writing services, to remote-access capability, to the actual server usage logs themselves -- must be added to the growing congressional investigations."

Full story here, and it will take some time to read. it's time well spent.

"These strange election results were routed by county election officials through Ohio's Secretary of State's office, through partisan IT providers and software, and the final results were hosted out of a computer based in Tennessee announcing the winner."

Corporate Freebies - A Southern Folly

"In 2006 the Korean car maker Kia decided to build a $1.2 billion plant in West Point, Georgia. To land the project, the state offered a $420 million incentive package that included free land (bought from the previous owners at about 2.5 times the market value), tax-funded employee training, and a new $30 million Interstate interchange. Altogether, the subsidies amounted to roughly $168,000 for each of the 2,500 jobs at the plant.

Gov. Sonny Perdue, a Republican, says it was the incentives that brought those Kia jobs to town. Harvey Newman, an economist at Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Public Policy, isn’t convinced. “It was clear they would pick a Southern state because of labor costs,” he notes. “Alabama had a trained force of autoworkers, so Kia located on the Georgia-Alabama border.” In other words, Georgia taxpayers are paying Kia hundreds of millions of dollars to hire Alabama workers."

That's just one comment from an eye-opening assessment in Reason Magazine that tax breaks and other types of corporate welfare seldom provide many promised results.

While it may make some sense to offer assistance to use tax money to accelerate development of roads, water or energy lines, and other similar projects, the unspoken freebies to woo wealthy companies usually include free land and years of no taxation. That's usually called "abatement", which is easier on the ears of taxpayers than the word's real meaning - free ride on taxes.

As the story notes, the real decisive factor for the majority of businesses has little to do with these massive payouts - they are concerned with other issues, like work force training, access to suppliers, and prevailing wages.

The South is leading the way for tax-funded subsidies, and companies are paying attention to the trend. It allows them to go to other states (perhaps the ones they prefer from the beginning) and see what kind of bidding war can ensue.

Newman has more on the topic, too -

"There’s almost never any evidence that [taxpayer-funded incentives] work” at producing benefits for the general public, says Newman, the Georgia State economist. “We know that incentives aren’t usually the deciding factor. So the jobs would be created in any event. And incentives are basically unfair, favoring some companies over others."

I've mentioned this topic before, Tax Increment Financing (TIF), noting the true cost to communities which tend to offer any and every tax deal imaginable. The real costs are soon dropped on residents in the form of higher taxation:

"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."

What are the real costs of Southern 'hospitality'?

Legislative Debate on Mooning

I thought this was a joke at first. I thought maybe some legislators decided to put on a skit or something. They can barely stop laughing to talk about it, until Rep. Mumpower details the serious and system-wide problem.

So, no, this isn't a scene from a comedy show (cough-cough). Indeed, the Tennessee Legislature has indeed a bill filed now which makes it a misdemeanor for prison inmates to ... uhm ... Well, whatever jokes or comments I might make here will never be as good as the actual debate on this bill as captured and posted on YouTube. I love the question "Did someone bring you this bill???"



The complete bill as filed is HB1753/SB1324.

UPDATE -- I see now that ACK had this video up yesterday, but (snicker) i found it today while wading through the digital waters of YouTube. And a video this funny can stand to be posted more than once.

Only Alec Baldwin Talks Bad to Kids

Somewhere in a giant underground bajillion-dollar complex, agents and officers of the Federal Department of Secret Taping of All Phone Calls and Emails in America there is an entire division of recordings labeled Bad Parents.

A casual perusal of said recordings shows that every day in every location imaginable a parent says hateful, mean and nasty things to their kids. An Operative in the FDSTAPCEA, who was hired - I mean appointed - by the Office of Proving Actors Are Evil Liberals (OPAAEL) sent one of those highly classified Blue Letters (which denote Emergency News Releases) out this week because they had a tape with Alec Baldwin being mean to his daughter.

Quicker than lightning, the network and cable news broke the story played copies of the tape every fifteen minutes as mandated by the OPAAED Guidelines. A congressional hearing is planned to create a new law that all celebrity children and parents be forced to wear microphones and cameras, part of the No Celebrity Is A Patriot Act. Additional congressional conference reports will recommend that every parent in the country have implants which can supply remote-controlled taser blasts if they don't check a child's homework.

Yeah, that all sounds pretty stupid and paranoid, doesn't it?

Of equal stupidity is the story about Alec Baldwin berating his own child. Of equal stupidity is the unholy mess it has made for Baldwin and his child. Far less reported was the fact that a judge in the custody case between Baldwin and (Oscar winner) Kim Basinger had heard the tape days before and barred Baldwin from having contact with his daughter. If anything, the non-news story here was that Baldwin got slapped with a judicial order based on Baldwin's behavior.

Here's another fact -- parents from every level of society will say something mean and hateful to their children on a regular basis. I hear it in grocery stores and malls and restaurants constantly.

Every flippin' day, people.

Such parental exclamations are usually followed by the parent jerking the child's arm up to the level of the adult's chin and, usually, swinging the child back and forth like a sack of diseased potatoes. Comments like:

"I told you not to touch that! Are you stupid or deaf?"

"As soon as we get back in the car, I'm going to beat you within an inch of your life!"

"I told you to be quiet but you wouldn't listen. Now I'm going to leave you in the street so anyone who wants you can have you!"

"Once we get home, I'm going to see how hard I can really make you cry, you stupid baby!"

"I don't care what you want -- I want a lot of things and never get them because of you, you spoiled monster!"

"I hate you! You're so stupid! I wish you had never been born."

And remember, only Baldwin and Britney Spears are bad parents.

Camera Obscura - My Brother Plays A Zombie

Making a movie about zombies, being in a movie about zombies -- all these things are hard, hard work.

Down in Rome GA (which was featured as a "checkpoint" in the new TV show "Drive", though it looked like it was shot somewhere near Mulholland Drive) filmmakers are working furiously to create a movie slated for release next year called "Dance of the Dead," as I have mentioned previously here on these pages. The story follows your typical high-school prom which gets overrun by hordes of zombies ... the movie web site is being constructed.

Weather and production problems did delay a planned April 13th shoot, but the movie is getting made and that means my brother David did indeed get a moment (and perhaps even more) of cinematic fame as a zombie in the movie.

Like I said, it's not easy making such a movie, nor is being an extra an easy task either.

David sent along an email containing a sort of diary of the day's events and a picture of how he actually got made up to appear in the film. The diary of the day is first and the pic he sent follows:

"I finally got in on the shoot last night--placed right behind the stunt zombies in the prom attack scene. Please, Mr. Editor, add another second or two to my fifteen minutes.

8-10 pm -- Lots of wondering if anything was going to happen & listening to the war stories of experienced extras straight out of Waiting for Guffman. One guy, though, had been an extra in Day of the Dead & had a couple of good ones.

10-12 -- 1st AD announces that they don't have enough kids. Could we call someone? I call [my son] Daniel, promising [my wife] CB he will be home by midnight.

He comes & we watch a couple of scenes being shot, then get in the
"clean prom" shoots, dancing wildly & bopping balloons in the air.

12:30 -- CB calls. I say, "Let's finish the take & then call her back."
Once the take is over he goes home (reluctantly).

12:30-2 am -- A couple more takes as a normal guy in the crowd.

2-3 am -- They start zombie-fying us. I'm really tired & pissed that
other guys get cool head appliances while I'm relegated to the "third
tier," with just dark pancake. But I'm there, so I hang out & wait.
Chris the makeup guy comes out with a little sprayer, exactly the same kind I use to spray Roundup, full of blood. Asks for volunteers. I eagerly respond & he lines us up in the parking lot.
I tell him, "Dude, you have to take advantage of my white hair--red on silver, right?" He totally douses me. They hurry us into the gym--I don't have a clue what I look like.
When the set guy is placing us--masks in front, third tier
way in back--he points to me and says "You, mask stand over--Jesus! That's not a mask! Ok, bloody guy! Come with me."

He sticks me right behind the stunt zombies who attack & get nailed in the scene where the prom zombies converge on the two heroes. I'm right behind the bride zombie who makes the first dash at them.

4-6 am -- Long story short, I'm right in the front line of action, &
when the fight turns bad & we all close in on the heroes, I'm the first one to lay a hand on them--in all of the numerous takes! The production photographer snaps my picture.

At last I understand the emotional life of an extra--the unending quest to aggrandize the trivial. This is a movie about a zombie smart enough to hang back until the heroes are too tired & crowded to fight back!
All those Discovery Channel sequences about hyenas pack hunting finally pay off.

More shooting days to come over the next three weeks. Start the
internet buzz!

I like the glasses -- adds that "Hey, I'm just an everyday kinda zombie" look.

The director, Gregg Bishop, has begun taking his first feature to a multitude of festivals and it's getting some rave reviews. It's called "The Other Side," but I gather they are still looking for a distributor.

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OTHER MOVIE NEWS

A longtime favorite and semi-cult classic movie about a computer which threatens the world, "Colossus: The Forbin Project" (1970) based on a trilogy of books by D.F. Jones is getting a major Hollywood remake under the team of Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. The reports say the new movie will draw on all three books of Jones' trilogy.

"The Forbin Project" is a minor masterpiece and holds up very well. Trivia buffs note the computer seen at the beginning of the movie was actually the payroll computer in use by the studio at the time (!!!). It starred Eric Braeden, who is best known today for a long running stint on "The Young and The Restless."

And do any of you ever recall seeing a sequel to "Forbin Project"? I know, and I mean I think I know I saw one, but have found zero info about it. Anyone got some info on that? Could be I'm wrong, but the memory I have is rather persistent that I saw one.

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Oddest news of the week -- Bono and The Edge of U2 are currently negotiating to write the music for a Broadway musical version of Marvel Comics' Spiderman. Sources say that director Julie Taymor is already signed up to direct.

Speaking of Taymor, she is fighting to have her name taken off the movie she just completed "Across The Universe," which is set in the 1960s and is loaded with Beatles music, and at the same time fighting to regain final cut of the movie. Studio chiefs say her version was just awful so they recut it and added a totally different soundtrack, all without telling Taymor.

Hamblen County OKs Ethics Policy, Committee

Deciding to formally adopt an Ethics Policy for Hamblen County is a major step into the 21st century, especially since state law mandated that all county commissions draft and adopt such a policy. As noted on the noe4accountability blog, the commission, on a motion from Commissioner Nancy Phillips, also took action on a recommended, thought not mandatory additional step - to create a committee to address issues which would fall under that committee's jurisdiction.

The committee would include 2 citizens not in elected office, as approved. In Knox County, for instance, only two of their 9-member ethics committee are county commissioners.

Sadly, 4 commissioners voted against the creation of the policy committee -- Commissioners Doyle Fullington, Scott Lebel, Frank Parker, and Joe Swann.

As Noe notes, " ... Joe Swann jumped in and proposed that the county adopt an Ethics policy in which there be no Ethics Committee to which complaints could be made. Swann's proposal had the county attorney serving alone as the county's "ethics officer." This proposal failed."

The remaining commissioners are to be saluted for their wise decision.