Gun-Toting Algiers Point Vigilantes Play the Race Card after Katrina

Remember in September 2005 when bloggers (locally, like Bill Hobbs, Nathan Moore, and Steve Gill) were calling upon New Orleaneans to haul out guns, shoot people indiscriminately, and let God sort the dead for the innocent and the guilty? Time to reap the whirlwind:

Deep Thought

Will Rick Warren (SBC) be to Barack Obama (UCC) what Billy Graham (SBC) was to Richard Nixon (Society of Friends/Quaker): a symbolic and policy-irrelevant "spiritual" advisor?

Pacific Northwest Wants Some Appointment Love for Its Support of Obama

Seattlepi.com columnist feels that his region has been locked out of the Obama transition:

What's with Obama? The harvest this week has been an environmental "team" drawn from New Jersey, Florida (by way of Washington, D.C., consulting) and the mayor's office in Los Angeles.

A year ago in Iowa, ex-Gov. Tom Vilsack was Bill Clinton's warm-up act on the Hillary campaign trail. A local activist in Carlisle bent my ear about how Vilsack had vetoed local counties' bids to control the size and smell of giant feedlots for hogs that have proliferated across Iowa.

Vilsack is the new secretary of agriculture. Does he represent "change we can believe in"?

There do seem to be contradictions and short-shrift to change in the transition so far. We shall see how things shake out after inauguration (which is much more important than today's controversy about who performs at inauguration; performative prayer is empty and moot).

Graffiti Artists Packing Heat

Before you even think about approaching taggers yourself, read this article.

The $100,000 Toolbag Orbiting to Nowhere

Where does NASA get off charging that much money for a canvas bag, a couple of grease guns, and a trash bag? If they're going to throw away large sums of our money at least do it with a little style: have Astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper stuff a scraper in a crocodile tote from one of Italy's leading luxury leather houses before fumbling it away.

Any Criticism that Ignores the Financial Drag of Ownership on American Companies is a Crock

I just rediscovered a blast from the past regarding the inefficiencies of American executives who make 3 times the salaries of the European counterparts, but who generate $19 billion less in sales than CEOs across the pond.  It is particularly relevant now that the auto unions are being singled out and dumped on by Republicans and their "right-to-work" loyalists (I credit Gail Kerr for the label "loyalists"), because it pretty much debunks the myth that American industry can cut costs without cutting into positions of the suits and their white-collar salaries that make their corporations so top heavy.

Jim Hightower made the find and writes: 

[Faireconomy.org’s] latest survey finds that the chieftains of Fortune 500 corporations averaged $10.8 million in pay in 2006—more than 364 times the annual pay of the average U.S. worker. On top of that, CEOs salted away an average $1.3 million in pension gains in 2006 and averaged another $438,000 in freebies like personal travel on corporate jets, country club fees, and even corporate payments of their taxes.

Well, the CEO clique asserts, we run huge corporations and get paid accordingly. But when faireconomy.org compared the 20 highest-paid U.S. chief executives with the 20 highest-paid in Europe, they found the European chiefs took only a third as much pay—though they ran companies generating $19 billion more in sales than their U.S. counterparts. The ever-spreading pay gap has become a sundering chasm in our society.

So, again, why scapegoat the unions for the inefficiencies and outright fiscal failures of incompetent managers (who have not been asked those leaders who oppose auto bailouts to make sacrifices)?

Cavalcade of Capitalists: Brentwood Investor Charged with Embezzling $9 Million from Clients

Under the pretense of investing client money in high yield securities, Brentwood entrepreneur, Michael Park allegedly "misappropriated the funds to subsidize his lifestyle and to finance a mortgage business that he owned and controlled" while lying to them that their investments were growing as much as 25%.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had filed complaints against Park based on New Deal Securities Acts that were passed in response to the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression.

I'm sure the free market could have just ironed all of this out for the victimized Brentwood investors, about like I believe that a Brentwood businessman is at high risk of actually getting 20 years for white-collar crimes: not so much.

State Department May Kick Blackwater out of Iraq, but Could Hillary Still Use Them?

A sign we're entering a post-private-contractor age in the military?

An omen that Blackwater still has a place with the State Department as pay back from the Clintons?

Silent Nissan, Holy Not

An Enclave reader observes:

Has anyone noticed that Nissan is being very quiet? They release small tidbits every now and then that amount to nothing. They are also making their workers take an extra week off at Christmas, but unlike GM workers they are not getting ANY pay unless they take their own personal paid-time-off or vacation time, if they have any left because they've been having to use it for the 4 day weeks they have been working and will continue to work after Christmas break. It is affecting all automobile plants and if the big 3 fall the others may not be too far behind. The suppliers that supply parts for the big 3 also supply the others in the U.S., but their biggest percentage is from the big 3. If they go under so will suppliers, which will trickle down to the others and so on and so forth...Get the picture Mr Corker?

It bothers me also that the GOP's poster boy is ignoring the deteriorating conditions of non-union foreign auto makers. Recognizing that it's bad all over would take away the Republicans' favorite scapegoat, union workers.

Recent GOP Trash Talk about Unions Seems to Give Chrysler the Opportunity to Stop Paying Blue Collar Workers, But Not the Suits

Think Progress observes that Chrysler is shutting down all of its plants for 30 days beginning tomorrow and sending 46,000 union workers home for Christmas without paychecks during that time. Instead, they are relying on state unemployment subsidies to pay them while they are laid off (sounds like getting state-funded bailout capital by other means). Clearly, Chrysler could save money by laying off big salaried white collar workers and cutting down to a skeleton crew. But they are going to keep their expensive suits on salary during that 30-day break, and what red state politician (especially Santa Corker) is going to blame them for embracing luxury? Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Just Another Red Southern State Inhospitable to Its Elders

But at least Tennessee finished above Louisiana and Georgia. Next year we'll catch Alabama and Mississippi.

Wreck of the Tennessee Gravy Train Began with Collapse of a Nashville Firm

I've been delving into the history of the bank panics of the late 1920s/early 1930s  that kicked off the Great Depression of last century. I was not aware that a Nashvillian, Rogers Caldwell, played such a pivotal role in the collapse of banks and insurance companies across Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, and North Carolina in November-December 1930. The collapse of the Caldwell and Company financial empire also contributed to bank suspensions across the southeast region in January 1931.

The ruin of Caldwell and Co. started with the closure of the Bank of Tennessee in Nashville in November 1930. Time Magazine reported on the 24th that the bank's liabilities were more than its assets, and that its total cash on hand was $32.55. (Elmus Wicker describes the Bank of Tennessee as "strange," because it did not have any individual depositors.  Instead, its clients were municipalities and corporations that did business with Rogers Caldwell). Nashvillians stampeded local banks, and panic spread to Tennessee's other urban centers. By the end of December 1930, 19 Tennessee banks had failed since the demise of the Bank of Tennessee.

Rogers Caldwell sounds like he would have been right at home among the precipitating factors of the 2008 financial crisis:

During the 1920s Caldwell expanded into other areas, buying insurance companies, banks, textile mills, oil companies, department stores, and assorted other businesses. He also expanded his bond operations into the private real estate market, underwriting the construction costs of hotels and office buildings. As Caldwell's financial empire and fortune grew, he developed a lifestyle that included racehorses, lavish entertainment, membership in exclusive private clubs, and Brentwood Hall, a magnificent Davidson County estate patterned after the Hermitage.

By 1921 Caldwell's financial empire was experiencing serious difficulties. Unknown to the public, Caldwell had never followed standard business practices, and his company was overextended, with no realistic cash reserves. His personal expenses far exceeded his annual salary, with the difference charged to the company.

One writer says comments that Caldwell spent the better part of 1930 "scrambling for cash and transferring assets" among his various holdings without telling those companies what he was doing. Insurance companies held by Caldwell charged that he cheated them by buying stock in other Caldwell holdings in Missouri for almost three times the latter's market price. The State of Tennessee lost $5 million it had in Caldwell affiliated banks.

Of course, this story wouldn't be complete without a corrupt newspaper publisher and dubious ties to state government. Caldwell's partner was the Nashville Tennessean's owner, Luke Lea. Together they had scooped up various banks and two newspapers: the Memphis Commercial Appeal and the Knoxville Journal, no doubt with the intention of guaranteeing that the Caldwell empire received positive press for their misguided endeavors. Lea used his influence with Tennessee Governor Henry Horton to leverage a state highway contract for a Caldwell-owned asphalt subsidiary without a competitive bid process. For his actions, Horton was impeached, but then acquitted by a majority in the Tennessee House.

In response to the bank panic, Uncle Dave Macon wrote the "The Wreck of the Tennessee Gravy Train," a depression-era classic that at least one person has recorded on YouTube:

Would 4% Matter to Tennessee Republicans?

That would be the loss to the Tennessee labor force if the U.S. auto industry went under. Not exactly something to be cavalier about.

HT: locomotion

Be the Boss, But Not So Bossy

This morning's Tennessean has what looks like a balanced treatment (rare in the local media) of Mayor Karl Dean, including some not-so-endearing information about his leadership style. Reportedly, the Mayor's lack of communication and coordination have alienated some board members and commission volunteer leaders.

I tend to believe that Metro's strong-executive charter relieves the Mayor from having to be a hard-charger. Mayoral privilege is already written into the government, so why not bring people on board and give them investments in your decision-making rather than act like you have to prove something to someone? Michael Cass underscores the contrast of Dean to what leaders beyond the Metro Council cat herd say about Bill Purcell's ability to bring various constituencies on board in his initiatives rather than dictating what was next. The Dean Administration does seem insular and inscrutable when it does not need to be.

And of the Mayor's claim to innovation? Necessity seems to have dogged the Mayor's Office more so than innovation arose from it. The Election Commission break-in. Recessionary budget constraints. A Justice Department lawsuit over zoning. Status quo and silence on development and growth in planning. The virtual evaporation of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhoods. I do not see a lot of innovation (and in some cases, like the recession, innovation is a luxury we cannot afford anyway). I believe that Karl Dean has been challenged just to keep his campaign promises, like that concerning youth crime.

The Mayor's Office may be ending its first year with no less of a thud than it began it with the occasion of his "Connecting Communities" neighborhoods meeting, during which the Mayor simply warmed over his campaign promises about youth crime and education rather than "innovating" ideas for dealing with other neighborhood concerns. In fact, his response to questions about infrastructure vs. development was practically tried and miserably conventional: keep judging planning requests on a case-by-case basis.

The impression now that he has not generally tried to bring Nashvillians into his policy initiatives as early adopters comes as no surprise to me. I sensed that in December 2007. It also confirms things I was hearing during the Mayoral campaign about their being an insider mentality to Dean's circle bordering on mafia-esque. I do not know what it will take to crack open the shell, but until the Mayor does it alienation will only grow.

American Primitive Protest

The lyrics from Americana singer/songwriter Steve James' 1994 tune, Banker's Blues, are a protest against the double standards and the favors embedded in the American system for those with power and wealth. The stanza about poor people losing their homes and jobs and the callous disregard of a bank president to loss are even more relevant today than they were 14 years ago:

I saw your face on the news today; I've seen it there before
And if I'm a judge of character, I'll see it there some more
You got rich off-a worthless real estate and a-shut down oil wells
But you got friends in the government and the tax man pays your bills

You and some other criminal who stood before the bar
Your fraud it was for millions. He'd stolen a VCR
You pulled a probated sentence and a hundred thousand fine
They sent him back to Huntsville where he's serving five to nine

And while he's doin' that five-to-nine, you be headed back for more
Surrounded by tax lawyers, their greed surpasses yours
Their greed surpasses yours, I say, and a-likewise do their lies
And the victims are the old and poor whose misery you despise

You say you brook no countenance from folks like them and me
Because you have this standing in your community
You own political influence, and you're the president of a bank
And the people that lost their homes and jobs have just themselves to thank

They say it's true for people like you there's a place in hell prepared
Well, it's not for me to know these things and I shouldn't even care
Instead, I pray we meet some day in a home in heaven above
So I can see your face when you enter that place of hope and trust and love.

Vanderbilt Gets Fitch's Low-Risk Rating on Short-Term Security & Metro-Issued Bonds

I guess Vandy does not need bailout capital.

Tennessean Columnist Joins the Class War against Unions Regardless of Management

According to Gail Kerr, if you dare even criticize Bob Corker's one-sided targeting of unions as the cause of the demise of the auto industry (let's not forget Honda is contracting and Toyota is putting its Tupelo plant plans on hold, even as they enjoy state and local tax breaks and other bailout-type subsidies), then you are a "union loyalist." You might even be making a reasonable argument, but you are still a friggin' "loyalist," which in the Bush era carries connotations of blind and unquestioning obedience (as if Gannett journalists are not loyal to the corporation that pays them and lately makes them thankful to still have jobs at Christmas).

Kerr all but calls Senator Corker a savior. But what does she see him saving the industry from? From workers trying to protect their health care benefits. She is attacking people for trying to provide basic health care for themselves and their families. She is blaming people for quite naturally trying to stay healthy. But she, like many corporate journalists in these Nissan/Volkswagen states are loath to raise the issue of CEOs who spend whatever amount they can get on the best health care for themselves and their own (let alone raise the issue of fleets of company cars and planes, expensive retreats, and golden parachutes). Would Bob Corker ever demand that CEOs be willing to give up half of their benefits as a concession? Would Gail Kerr ever call him a savior for doing so?

But those of us who would not blame another working sap for doing whatever it takes to make the best of a bad health care situation in this country are tabbed as union loyalists by Gail Kerr. I am not in a union, don't come from a union family, and have criticized union corruption on this blog in the past. But if I dare criticize Tennessee's new media darling and his storied advent to the national stage, then according to Kerr I am a loyalist. So be it.

This loyalist awaits Gail Kerr's call for management to make their own proportional sacrifices. Unions are not the only ones who should be held accountable for not bending. And I also await Kerr's explanation of the method by which the U.S. will absorb the rising health care costs of the increasing number of uninsured retirees who cannot afford preventative care once the unions bend to give up half their health care benefits. Heaven forbid that she, like Dickens' Scrooge, believes they should just die off and "decrease the surplus population."

Riddle Rex This: What Does Bill Purcell Have to Do with Caroline Kennedy's Bid for Hillary Clinton's Old Seat?

Kennedy's choice of the former Nashville Mayor for a Harvard post seems to be one of the more savvy engineering projects of her career. Another stick for the craws of the small-time Purcell-haters and current Mayor's Office brown-nosers.

HT: PiTW

Is Metro tap not good enough for Metro Government?

Jameson, Evans, and Holleman to bring a memorializing resolution tonight requesting that Metro department heads and boards directors end the practice of paying for and serving bottled water shipped in from other places when Metro already pays for drinkable tap water (unless there is an emergency or some Metro employee has a contract stipulating bottled water usage).

Because how can we have faith in our water supply if Metro itself does not? If this request is accepted (a big "if") will it lead to the revision of many Metro employee contracts to include bottled water?

Tonight's Not Just Any Other Tuesday Night Metro Council Night. It's We're-Bailed-Out-and-Safe-to-Pass-the-Mayor's-Budget Night

After some Dec. 2 deferrals, it's "do-over" night:

The "Cat Herd" meets tonight: head 'em up and move 'em out.

Lots of revenue resolutions on tonight's agenda regarding infrastructure and Metro services. Apparently, Congress's bailout of the financial industry is now trickling down enough to local governments to make the Mayor's Office feel safe in moving forward with spending plans.