McClatchy: Bush's Homeowner Aid Plan is Warmed-Over and Narrow

Not only does the Bush Administration's plan for dealing with the foreclosure crisis fail to deal with areas of inflated real estate prices, but it duplicates what is already proposed in Congress and it would help only a small fraction of homeowners who face foreclosure. Same old flawed song and dance from the worst President ever.

Further Evidence that There is Very Little Free in Free Markets

Chemical fertilizer giant Scotts intends to squash a small upstart worm-dirt producer who sells their organic product in pre-used, recycled garbage, which also generates money for elementary schools and charitable organziations, according to the company's website.

It appears that a small company cannot even exercise freedom of speech and argue that their product is better than a corporate competitor without being forced by frivilous litigation to pay "scientific" researchers to rubber stamp their product with so-called "objective" studies.

Fred Thompson Had an Internet Loophole Big Enough to Drive a Truck Through

Columbia U.'s Project for Excellence in Journalism reports that the Fred Thompson Un-campaign pushed campaign law limits by campaigning online instead of in the other media. Thompson's website organizes people and money without the former Tennessee Senator ever having to announce a presidential run.

Blogging CM Writes Helpful Primer for Neighborhoods on Zoning Appeals

If you want greater understanding about the Board of Zoning Appeals and its relationship to developers who apply for "Special Exception Permits" to build churches, cultural centers or day care centers in neighborhoods, check out Council Member Emily Evans's latest blog entry on the subject. Neighborhood leaders often have to work hard to get access to Metro's institutional knowledge that could directly affect their quality of life. Ms. Evans has done the community a service by explaining the process plainly and lucidly and making it readily available on her blog. You may need that information some day.

The New Blue Collar is White Collar

Kiss more white-collar jobs good-bye. Fewer and fewer jobs are safe globalization.

Labor Day Prospect Article on Celebrating Teachers' Unions and Public Education

While granting the "downside" of the formation of teachers' unions--that some union contracts make firing incompetent teachers impossible--Richard Kahlenberg extols the virtues of those unions and their important role in fighting for democracy and against privatization.

The situation of teachers before the modern teachers union movement looked pretty bleak: they earned incomes less than car washers, they were forced to eat lunch while supervising students, and they had to bring a doctor's note if they called in sick. It sounds like they were treated like children themselves.

Kahlenberg warns that abolishing unions would not put the interests of the students at the top. Instead, it would increase the power of "other adults in the system": superintendents, principals, and parents (who predictably put the interests of their own children above all children). To that group I would add School Board Members and private special interest groups and individuals in the corporate world who fund their campaigns.

And conservative privatizers (supporting school vouchers) would like nothing more than to see the destruction of teachers unions, because those unions are the only ones with the political muscle and strategic capacity to fight privatization of public education. Quoting the founder of teacher unions, Kahlenberg warns:

conservatives want to kill [unions] because essentially we form the strongest liberal base in the country ... But the liberals don't realize who their friends are.

At least on Labor Day, let us liberals remember what friends we have in the teachers unions, even though they are not perfect and do have some weaknesses to work on.

The Only Holiday Commissioned to Appease Striking Workers and to Avert a National Commercial Shut-Down

Labor Day is the only federally observed holiday that emerged out of a crucible of union strikes and a government bent on squelching the political organizing of workers at the end of the 19th Century. With Labor Day now mainly celebrated as an "official end of summer" and with department store sales, it looks like the government and the department stores won.

Nonetheless, Happy Labor Day! And some thoughts on work and dislocation from Stanley Aronowitz (steel worker, union organizer, and sociology professor, writing in 1992's The Politics of Identity):

The disjunction of work and living space obliges many to travel for as much as two hours to the job, leaving little time or energy for ordinary social intercourse in bars, bowling allies, or union halls. The classic model of contemporary mass society is provided by the suburban or exurban location of industrial and commercial working spaces. The horizontal patterns of home construction produce low density living arrangements. Hence, the nuclear family, the shopping center, the mass media constitute the nexus of social relationships that often effectively countervail the collective tasks formed in the workplace.

Critics impugn the internet used as a social medium and as a surrogate of face-to-face interaction.

But the precursor and all-time-champion of dislocation is the mass exercise of holing up in a car each morning and each evening to make the long trips to and from the suburbs with no political interaction beyond the muck and the silt of talk radio. That effectively undermined face-to-face political organizing outside of distant and dispersed communities, and it dulled the teeth of social change from the otherwise turbulent grassroots.

Davidson Co. "Election Guide" Posted in the Williamson Co. Seat

"Friends of Charlie Tygard" sent out an "Election Guide," which looks like a neutral voter resource above the fold on the front page, but it quickly becomes a Tygard Campaign promotion piece the farther you read in. We received ours yesterday. The postage mark indicates that the guide was posted in Franklin, rather than in any town in Davidson County.

Notable on the front page is a "story" on the Mayor's race, which quickly segues into the Vice Mayor's race, which quickly segues into the election of the Vice Mayor and one at-Large member based on experience, which quickly segues into Charlie Tygard and his "proven track record," which should have segued into the warts on that track record if there were some intellectual honesty in this campaign material. The Mayor's race story ends with a comment by prominent Republican-funder Lee Beaman about Mr. Tygard's ethic.

Also mentionable on the front page is an attempt to tie into the illegal immigration issue, pairing Mr. Tygard with Sheriff Daron Hall, who has received a lot of positive mainstream press for his illegal immigrant background check program. Not mentioned is Mr. Tygard's vote for "English Only/First," which was a not-so-veiled attempt for Metro Council to scare legal and illegal immigrants into assimilating faster than they are already trying to. Given the connections between anti-immigration and "English Only/First," I can understand why the Tygard Campaign would not want to mention his entire voting record, but again, let's be intellectually honest.

Also, this connection between Daron Hall and Mr. Tygard has got me wondering about a curious sequence of events where the Sheriff's Office received money from Metro Council with a lot of help from Charlie Tygard. Then, the Friends of Tygard received a campaign contribution from Mr. Hall a few months later. Now we come to find out from Tygard's mailer that "The Sheriff's Community Service Group" helped build an inline hockey rink for Youth, Inc., a non-profit to which Mr. Tygard has been personally connected. Do these guys seem a little too tight on the contributions/funding front for two Metro officials?

Finally, the "Election Guide" has the garden-variety menu of endorsements on the last page that mentions the general group of "Nashville Neighborhoods" in the same list with the Greater Nashville Hotel/Motel Association and the Metro Police Teamsters Union. There may be some neighborhoods that endorse Charlie Tygard, but there are other neighborhoods whom he alienated with his sponsorship of the Car Wash Exemption Bill. He needs to take responsibility for that fool's errand, too. However, he should not have insinuated generally that neighborhoods in Nashville support him.

Back to Kerouac

On the weekends I like to get up early, get some coffee, and take a leisurely morning AC-free drive before the heat of the day kicks in. After getting my coffee yesterday, I drove over to the East Bank and sat and listened to NPR for a while.

The station ran another story on the 50th Anniversary of Jack Karouac's On the Road, which I featured a couple of weeks ago on the day the new edition was out. The reporter took an angle on the book (or the "scroll") that I had not yet heard: its religious thrust.

He pointed out that Kerouac was a Catholic and that his book is more about a spiritual pilgrimage than it is about some guys going on a road trip to party. Accordingly, Kerouac coined the term "Beats" to describe his literary cohort with subtle connections to the religious "beatific vision," and with little reference to the generation of "Beatnics," whom Kerouac looked at with some distain.

Fred Thompson Places Second in Texas Republican Straw Poll, with Texas Republicans Coming in Last

The Texas Observer reports on the results of one of the most dismal turnouts of all of the "sparse" Republican state conventions. Winner Duncan Hunter doubled Thompson's votes. So, we now know that Fred Thompson looks competitive in 2008 to a few Texas Republicans. Otherwise, the poll says bupkis about his chances. But the limp and watery delegate count of voting delegates in one of the largest red states does not look good for the GOP.

Morgan Park Greenway Spur Construction Underway

This spur between Salemtown and Germantown takes an east-to-west path through Morgan Park. It will eventually connect to the Riverfront and MetroCenter Greenways.

This One's for Roger Abramson

Aside from the outtakes, this video should convey Roger's analogies of Juvenile Court Judge Betty Adams Green to Mr. Tudball and of recently arrested Juvenile Court Clerk Vic Lineweaver to Mrs. Wiggins:

CM Evans Shows Mayoral Hopefuls the Way on "No Tax Pledges"

Emily Evans holds no punches on newly launched MCD23. School is in session:

So, what is going on here [in a mass e-mail from the Bob Clement Campaign pledging no property tax raises]? Are we going to see a careful parsing of words in a couple years? "I said that I would not raise property taxes but I didn't say I would not ask the Council to raise them." Or, are we going to see major cuts? There is no question that if you wrestle some of the more difficult budget problems to the ground like the $50 million dollar subsidy for the Hospital Authority you can avoid asking for additional revenue....for a while. There is also no question that you can avoid asking for additional revenue by cutting all non-essential government services: Parks, Arts Commission, Human Relations Commission, Library, subsidies to the Mary Parrish Center, Adventure Science Center and the Symphony and fund only police, fire, health and schools.

But, if Clement thinks people leave Davidson County because of higher taxes, (They don't. They move to Williamson County for the (perceived) better schools and the wall to wall soccer fields) wait til he starts cutting the middle class perks like Parks and Library.

Perhaps these two gentlemen are the first in years who just want to be mayor for 4 years.

Thus, endeth the lesson.

Metro Council Member Launches Blog for 23

Metro Council District 23 Member Emily Evans has started her own blog for the benefit of her constituents. 23 includes the neighborhoods of Hillwood, West Meade, West Meade Park, Warner Parks Community, Belle Meade Links, Courts of Belle Meade and the satellite City of Belle Meade. The blog also contains a bulletin board of upcoming events.

Kudos to Ms. Evans for not resting on the laurels of her recent win in 23. Blogs are an important medium for communicating and for generating feedback from constituents. I have added MCD23 to my news feed.

I would like to see our new representative, Erica Gilmore, start the same sort of project for District 19. She blogged as a candidate early in the campaign.

Leisure Suits Both

Based on a study in the Quarterly Journal of Economics via NPR, we may conclude that greater equality between the sexes in the last 40 years has translated to more leisure time for all Americans, male and female. Working women are less bound to "home production" than they once were and men work less in paid employment now than previously. Sounds like a "win-win" to me.

"No Tax Pledges" Amount to Nothing Beyond Fear Mongering

I wish I could say that Mayoral Candidate Bob Clement's bold pose of taking a "No Tax Pledge" impressed me to any degree. But such pledges are full of sound and fury, signifying nothing but the message, "I will pander to voters' deepest fears about their pocketbooks in order to stampede their votes." And when a reporter conveys that no at-Large Metro Council candidate has committed to a No Tax Pledge, I am not phased in the least.

It wasn't too long ago that the Tennessee Tax Revolt secured a commitment from a single Metro Council Member to sign their No Tax Pledge. Afterwards, TTR turned a one-eighty to let the guy off the hook when he chose to support a budget option that raised taxes less than the Mayor proposed to raise taxes. It is hard to take the no-tax side seriously beyond the knee-jerk emotions they try to evoke.

But how can a No Tax Pledge fly in a town where the Community Centers shut down now on Saturdays for lack of funds, where crumbling roads are forever in need of repair, where aging sewer systems are attracting federal attention for the environmental hazards posed, and where crime has to be fought with more than just good intentions?


UPDATE: Via VV, Karl Dean pledges in his own way:

12South Neighborhood Receives Donations for Landscaping

The 12South Neighborhood Association reports receiving $2,100 in private donations for landscaping of a median at Ashwood Av. and 12th Av. S.

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Donors included: 1221 Partners, LLC; The Village Fund; Alliance Construction, Inc.; Virginia Degerberg; and Alessandro Rustioni.

At-Large Candidates Should Have to Live Down Their Rash Words of the Past

I ain’t voting for nothing that’s going to keep me from eating .... That’s crazy, see, rich people can do that kind of stuff, see. They get to eat when they want to, go buy food and things. You know, they can, two, three of them, get together, spend money to buy food for 40 people. I can’t afford to do that. … That [patron-provided] meal is a thank-you from a grateful community for your service.

- - Former Council Member Ronnie Greer in 2005 on the occasion of the Metro Council's ethics initiative to end Meals for Deals

New Anti-Tygard Website Intends to "Take Out the Cat"

Unnamed "Residents of District 35" brought their "Retire Tygard" website online today as a medium for motivating people to vote against Charlie Tygard in the September 11 at-Large run-off by voting for the "4 [other at-Large] candidates who are most likely to bump Tygard out of the top 4 remaining slots." The residents call the 4 remaining candidates that the Tennessean endorsed (Megan Barry, Saletta Holloway, Jerry Maynard, and Ronnie Steine) "an excellent (progressive) group of candidates."

The website authors see Mr. Tygard's connections to wealthy land owners, developers, and builders as their motivation and they seem really peeved about his last-minute reintroduction of a long-deferred and controversial zoning bill at the final Metro Council meeting.

They also have a blog that they encourage their readers to use to share their thoughts and their "anger."

New Boating Opportunities Make Earmarks Okay, But Children's Healthcare Coverage Does Not?

U.S. Representative Jim Cooper joined U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander and Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell today on the Shelby Street Bridge to promote The Water Resources Development Act of 2007, which would pump $10 million into a study on Cumberland Riverfront Development. But the bill is going to cost a lot more than the $10 million allocated to Nashville (it still has to be approved by the Senate and signed by the President). The Congressional Budget Office's May 2007 estimate is that the entire bill--which includes earmarks for water, recreation, and transportation-related projects around the country--will cost "$8.1 billion over the 2008-2012 period and an additional $6.8 billion over the 10 years after 2012."

I do not have a problem with supporting this bill as it stands, because I think that developing the various water resources in these United States are a proper role for the federal government to play. But I think that Jim Cooper has a problem with inconsistency between his reasons for voting for this bill and those he used for voting against the State Children's Health Insurance Program bill. On the one hand, he voted against the SCHIP bill on the basis of his argument that a good project was "drowned" in unnecessary spending.

On the other hand, he voted for a water bill which itself could be and has been accused of frivolous earmarks, largely focused on studies rather than the delivery of actual services. One of the water bill earmarks is a project that Mr. Cooper himself has criticized: Alaska's "bridges to nowhere." Mr. Cooper could have easily made the case that some water bill money had more to do with beach resort development and less to do with community water projects per se. But he did not criticize and vote against the water bill's earmarks in the same way he did the SCHIP earmarks. Instead, he called the water bill "fiscally responsible."

While some boaters might appreciate Mr. Cooper's comments about "new recreational opportunities" for Middle Tennesseans, I wonder whether recreation should merit greater gravitas and support than the initiative to provide health insurance for the children of working families in spite of earmarks designated for areas outside of Middle Tennessee?