Why does HFJr always fail us?

Autoegocrat-Ford speaks out about the white sheep of us Fords, HFJr. You should read it!

UPDATE: Wintermute has linked to the above at The 'Cue with another fascinating link to a Tri-State Defender story on Steve Cohen!

MC 100-Foot Lady Liberty of Jesus?

Click the title as our fellow 'Cue-master Jim Maynard cracks hard on World Overcomers Church for installing this desecration of our American symbol, Lady Liberty.

Let us remember that Lady Liberty represented the idea that ANYONE, regardless of RACE, CREED, COLOR or RELIGION was welcome on these shores to pursue happiness and freedom, which is the OPPOSITE of what this statue represents:

If you're not Christian (particularly OUR KIND), you're not really an American.

I suspect most Christians I know are offended, much less any one of another faith.

Pratcher out, what effect does it have?

WTL has broken the story of Tyson Pratcher's withdrawal from the 9th district race, and cross-posted at The 'Cue.

I really am not sure what, if any effect it will have. I like him, he was my second choice because he had progressive leanings (his work for HRC not withstanding) but the moment Cohen got in the race, he lost most of his potential support.

Will they be scattered, will they go to Cohen, or will they go to another African-American candidate who is as close to progressive as Pratcher was (and who would that be?)

Tinker is campaigning as a progressive female, but her money sources belie that, Stanton is campaigning as a progressive, while bashing Cohen because he's not a homophobe, Harris is honest and out-front about his leanings, but he is not as progressive as the others, Whitman is an anti-choice progressive (yes, it's possible, I guess), Redwing and the others are just out campaigning hard, period.

Your guess is as good as mine. go read the comments at both posts, and then say what you think!

I'm down until Thursday, aloha!~

I will be very spotty for the next few days...

As I prepare to move to an undisclosed location in the heart of the mad jungle known as County Commission, District 5, let it be known that you will see little of the Cracker-Ford in the days to come.

This will just have to do until I get back. My brothers Ford will hold down the fort in my absence.

Man, I need to shave my head....

We have been assimilated.

As Autoegocrat put it tonight, we are all part of the Ford Voter Company now. The chip implantation didn't hurt a bit.

Must..not...resist........

Other than that, a great time was had by all, which included MemphisBlue-Ford, Autoegocrat-Ford, the West Tennessee Liberal-Ford, Wintermute-Ford, Freedonian-Ford, Brassmask-Ford, and two fellow travelers, albeit non-bloggers.

UPDATE: Pesky was there before I got there, my apologies.

Further Update: Brother Autoegocrat-Ford shows the new logo!

White Sox Report

Before tonight's debauchery (only liberals need apply) and before I spend the next 4 days preparing to move and then moving next Wednesday, I needed to give you an update on the DEFENDING WORLD SERIES CHAMPION CHICAGO WHITE SOX.

Fresh off a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals (sorry, Len) and fresh off Manager Ozzie Guillen being A) fined for calling Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti a "fag" (pussy would have been more appropriate) and then B) suspended for ordering a rookie pitcher to drill a Cardinals hitter the other night, the Sox find themselves only a half-game out of first place.

They also have the second-best record in MLB and they welcome the Houston Astros tonight for a rematch from the 2005 World Series, and we all remember how THAT turned out!

All in all, the Sox are on track for another potential Series appearance, if I can take another one!

I just can't leave this EC stuff alone...

Lest you think John Harvey is just only to take minorities off the voter rolls, I want to point out, again, that he has found LOTS of instances where people have left Shelby County for DeSoto, Tipton, Fayette and the other collar counties, but maintained their Big Shelby voter registration.

Jeff posted this on the post below:

Well, I know for a fact that my parents, who moved to Desoto County many years ago, are still registered to vote in Shelby County, because we live in the same precinct where they used to live, and every time I go to vote, I see their names right above mine.

I pointed it out to poll workers in 2000 and 2002. In 2004, I wrote to the election commission and was told that they CAN'T remove someone from the roll. The voter has to write to the EC and tell them that they are no longer eligible to vote in Shelby County. As if!

How many middle class Shelby County Republicans have moved to Desoto and Fayette counties in the last ten years, and how many of them are still regisitered to vote here? Enough to swing elections, I'm sure.

No kidding.

MPBU becomes The 'Cue

And looks great in the process, as Pesky and Wintermute have been busy fixing the place up.

What? Am I giving up the ghost on the Cracker? Are you nuts? Let me ask you this:

Would Dwyane Wade give up on the NBA Finals after being down 0-2? NO!

Would Ann Coulter miss a chance to be batshit insane as long as a camera was pointed in her direction? NO?

Would Connie Chung end her career with a horrible torch song on her canceled MSNBC show? No, er, well, never mind....

The point is, the Cracker will be here as long as everyone wants.

AND BEYOND!

More on the election commission..

Everyone knows by now that several election workers were indicted today on charges of voter fraud. It's a horrible situation; hell, the election commission even CLOSED the precinct and disbanded it into other precincts earlier this year!

Remember that this occurred in a low-turnout special election in an area that only really turns out to vote in the quadrennial Presidential elections. Remember also that it's damned hard to find people to work a 14 to 15 hour day for what winds up being minimum wage, if that much.

I remember my days on the ExecCom when we had a board that spent the majority of their time looking for people to run the machines and work the registration check at each poll, and they could NEVER find enough people to do it.

I understand it's a civic duty and all that; my grandfather was an election judge at my elementary school in Dixon, Illinois when I was very young. Let's face it, though: especially in poorer neighborhoods where people simply CANNOT afford to take the day off to work for less-than-minimum wage, it's damn near impossible to find people to work on Election Day. What results is that in wealthier neighborhoods, you find retired people who have nothing else to do, and in poorer neighborhoods, you have to rely on people like Verline Mayo. Which, of course, leads to problems.

I agree to a certain extent with John Harvey that there is a LOT of work to do to get the numbers correct and get the deceased and the ex-Shelby Countians off the rolls. A bill has even been passed in the General Assembly this year to assist in that effort.

However, let's also remember something here, even with all that is right with the efforts for change. Frankly, the problems are occurring in poorer neighborhoods, where people are more likely to move more often than in more affluent sections. Often, these people are more likely to forget to change their registration and thus have troubles trying to vote. Of course, these are also people who are FAR more likely to vote Democratic.

Most Republicans, unfortunately, are not as conscientious as John Harvey, who has worked tirelessly to provide examples of problems that need to be addressed by the election commission. Most of them could give a rat's ass how they get poor voters off the ballot as long as they keep them from voting, as every poor and/or minority voter that the GOP can remove from the ballot helps them retain power here. This, of course, is easily seen by the House Goopers holding up the re-enactment of the Voting Rights Act.

To be fair, John also has research indicating that there are people who have moved to Tipton, Fayette and DeSoto Counties but their registrations were never canceled here, thus allowing them to come back and vote. You can bet THEY'RE not voting for Democrats!

I have to believe that budget cuts at the EC have hurt their ability to respond. However, that does not mean that actions cannot be taken to solve the problem and give a true read on how many actual registered voters are in Shelby County. Our electoral integrity depends upon it.

MPBU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Fly has created for our enjoyment and abuse, Memphis Progressive Bloggers Unite!

We are hoping, of course, to have dialogues, arguments, fistfights, lovefests and maybe even podcasts there.

That is NOT, however, a reason to stop reading any of our fine individual blogs over on the blogroll, as we will cross-post...

Oh Oh, Michael Hooks Jr, indicted in Tennessee Waltz

Click on the title for the CA story, WMC-TV reports that they have a PDF of the indictment . (UPDATED 1405 CDT)

The CA story notes that this whole thing started in the Juvenile Court Clerk's office; please let it be after Steve Stamson took over..........

LEON GRAY IS OUT AT 680!

According to a post at the RadioInsight.com bulletin board from someone known to be an Entercom employee, Leon Gray is no longer at WWTQ AM 680.

While the homepage of WWTQ still indicates Leon is there, if you click on the two links shown, you get PAGE NOT FOUND.

We do not know at this time why this has occurred......

UPDATE: a call to WWTQ has confirmed that Leon is no longer there, they are going to revert back to Randi Rhodes for that timeslot. The receptionist indicated that there were no plans at this time for another local show, which is NOT good news.

Here we go again...and now I want to know who you're for..

I am putting below the 9th District websites, and you know who I'm supporting, but what about YOU? Come on, don't be shy, speak up!

Here you go:

Steve Cohen, Ron Redwing, Ralph White , Lee Harris, Ed Stanton, Nikki Tinker, Bill Whitman, Marvell Mitchell, Tyson Pratcher, Jesse Blumenfeld and (Ta-da! thanks to Don Sandberg and Formerly Considered Moderate) Julian Bolton.

This is terrific

A maginficent piece of writing by Brassmask, who wrote in response to the question, Who Loves America?

Obviously, he does, if this piece is any measure. Here's the opener, but you should read it all:

America and I are estranged. Our relationship has always been strained. You know, she would flirt with me and I would be all moony over her when she was Clinton's girl but then I would see something in her diaries that made me think she was a whore. You know, she was with a bunch of older, white guys in the her youth and everyone thinks those guys hung the moon but I've read about them online and they were dogs just like most of the guys she's been with.

I guess in my heart, I'll always love her from afar and hope that she will get off the junk and straighten up and fly right and think about someone besides herself.

I know that everyone is on the Election Commission's back right now

And I hate to join them. However, is there not room in the budget for them to hire a full-time webmaster?

Here we are, seven weeks out from the largest ballot in the history of the county, and with new voting machines to boot, and when you go to their site, NOTHING is up about the August 3 election.

Folks, if you want your voters to be knowledgeable, this needs to happen. Period.

I know, John Harvey is on their collective asses night and day; however, it's not all unjustified. Look, I like the Election Commission, I've known all 3 of the Democrats for years, and I hate to bitch about this (when I could be bitching about something else!).

If we're going to begin to fix this broken system, we have to A) make sure they have the resources and people to do their jobs, B) make sure that their people are trained to do these jobs and C) make sure that, if they have all that, that the jobs get done.

I suspect A) is more the culprit than anything else, but they still need help.

THIS is disgusting...

I apologize to Wintermute for not linking to this sooner, but you need to see this. He has found out about a "Christian" video game where the purpose is hunt down non-believers and either convert them, or KILL them.

That's real Christian, eh? Here's a snipped, but you really need to read the whole thing:

As described on Talk To Action in two parts:

Imagine: you are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City. You are on a mission - both a religious mission and a military mission -- to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state - especially moderate, mainstream Christians. Your mission is "to conduct physical and spiritual warfare"; all who resist must be taken out with extreme prejudice.

Blogger's Bash was a HIT!

UPDATE: Thanks to Brock of Battlepanda, we have pictures!

It was a night in which I finally met the magnificent Autoegocrat and the Freedonian. In addtion to Mr. Mike, our master of ceremonies, among those in attendance were the Pesky Fly (twice!), MemphisBlue, Wintermute (The Daily Docket), the West Tennessee Liberal his own self, Kibitzer, Mark from The Conservative Zone, Mike Cromer, Brock, formerly of the late lamented Dark Bilious Vapors (Len, you still could have come, where were you?), blogger and Sheriff's candidate John Harvey, and the 70s Kid.

Sorry for anyone I may have missed, Mike will let me know.

OK, Thaddeus, where were YOU? All in all, a fun night that may lead to technological advancements in blogging around here, more about that later. As soon as I see wher Brock put the pictures, I will link there!

Brassmask keeps it going!

B has a pretty good rant of his own going about the cranky bloggers week and why it needs to be ENCOURAGED.

Here's a taste:

This blogger's opinion is that we should embrace the angry liberal label. We have every right in the world to be angry. The city we live in and love IS dilapidated and run in an oligarchical fashion. Criminals and corruption DO abound in our local government and not enough of them are being pointed out and removed mostly, from what I can tell, due to out and out ignorance and/or complicity. Our country HAS been hijacked by a cult of neo-conservative wackjobs who think the US can do no wrong and we can kill or capture anyone they deem our enemies.

And in light of all that crap, why shouldn't we let our anger burn white hot? Let's not "beat them at their own game". Let's not even acknowledge they have a game or a even a field to play it on. Let's not just accept the status quo. Let's not now say again, "Well, that's just the way things are" and let the anger cool and get back in line.

Let's use it. Let's put that white hot anger to use. Let it keep us warm on snow-covered battlefields. Let's use it. Let it be an internal power source. Let's focus it like a laser on the problems at hand.

Let's start with the Shelby County Democratic Party.

Bravo.

Roscoe goes down.....

To the surprise of probably no one, Roscoe Dixon was found guilty on all counts in his bribery and corruption trial today, and faces possibly up to 90 years in prison.

And yes, the West Tennessee Liberal is absolutely correct to heap scorn and derision at Dixon and his other fellow defendants for any part they may have had in the sordid Tennessee Waltz scandal. As a good friend of mine who had read the article noted to me today, "We can’t assume attitudes of righteousness if we are not righteous ourselves." Another said that he was angered and hurt by these scandals, saying that they discredited the 30 years of work that he had put into the local party and its candidates.

You know, there will be (and already are) people claiming that this was racially motivated and it was entrapment, yada yada yada. BULLSHIT. You know, just because money was offered DIDN'T MEAN YOU HAD TO GO FOR IT!

Corruption is a problem at EVERY level of government, and no less so in memphis, Shelby County, and the state of Tennessee. The future of self-government in this country depends on each of us working to clean out corruption, whether in the nation's capital, the legislative plaza, or city hall.

The time is now.

That SOB Schumer has done it again!

Chuck Schumer, who as DSCC chairman sabotaged the Senate campaigns of Paul Hackett in Ohio and Rosalind Kurita in Tennessee, now has gone over the top and ENDORSED former Navy Secretary James Webb over Democratic activist Harris Miller in Virginia in the race to face George Allen, Jr. in the fall.

This is insane for two reasons. ONE - they are NOT supposed to make primary endorsements; hell why not just go back to slating candidates like they did in Cook County. TWO - well, just read this tidbit from the WaPo article:

At the last reporting period, Miller had about twice as much money on hand as Webb, who has not been able to afford television or radio spots.

West said that with a recent contribution, Miller has now put about $725,000 of his money into the campaign, more than the total the Webb campaign has raised.

And Webb is the guy he supports? WTF????? Schumer is up again in 2010, and we need to find someone to TAKE HIM OUT in the primary.

PD isn't the ONLY pissed-off blogger today, I see..

Click the title as Mr. Holt tears the Tennessee Waltz defendents new sphincters all around....

Here's a taste:

A lot of Democrats get mad and repeat innocent until proven guilty over and over. They also try to make it out that the whole exercise was just a witch-hunt targeting black Democrats. As far as innocent-until-proven guilty, that is true in the courts, but these assholes are on tape taking effing bribes! In the court of public opinion they've been guilty from the start.

Feeling chipper and upbeat about the future of Memphis?

Don't worry, the Polar Donkey has a cure for that in his latest post. I'm not going to attempt to summarize it, but it makes for interesting reading. Just go there...

What the hell, did everybody else take the weekend off, too?

OK, I'm back from celebrating in Illinois, and other than the Republicans being obsessed with gay marriage (you know, maybe if the Republicans got some sex once in a while, they wouldn't care so much about people who DO), nothing seems to be happening.

Other than Roscoe's trial, of course.

No pictures of Illinois, this was a family event and the names have been changed to protect the allegedly innocent!

Give me a day or so to recover and I'll have more up about other judicial races and a treatise about the county elections.

Three Judicial Endorsements

As your humble Cracker prepares to return for a family gathering to my ancestral home on the banks of the polluted Rock River in beautiful Northwestern Illinois, I want to leave you with three CRITICAL judicial endorsements. Undoubtedly, Judges must have been on my mind, as that's the Lee County Courts Building in the background behind the Dixon Arch.

First, in Criminal Court, Division 1, it is imperative that JUDGE PAULA SKAHAN be retained as our judge. Prior to her appointment to the bench by Governor Bredesen (at last, something I can applaud him for doing!), Judge Skahan spent time as a prosecutor and then established an exemplary criminal defense practice that spent a great deal of time on Capital cases. She has years of experience, and she is admired by those who appear before her, and I believe the local bar has judged her to be WELL QUALIFIED for this office.

Her opponent, Tonya Saafir, has nowhere near the wide range of experience as Judge Skahan, and simply could not at this time provide the depth of ability.

My other Criminal Court choice is LEE COFFEE for Division 7. Coffee, currently a prosecutor in the Attorney General's office, has spent years in criminal procedure in the local courts, and is clearly the best option to replace retiring Judge Arthur Bennett. Coffee is opposed by Janet Shipman, Larry Nance, and Doris Holt.

My lone civil endorsement at this time goes to REGINA MORRISON NEWMAN, who is running to succeed retiring Judge Russell Sugarmon in General Sessions, Division 4, has been endorsed by half the attorneys in town, it seems. She has had a thriving civil practice in this area for many years, and will do an exemplary job. There are 8 people in the race, I believe, so I am not going to name them all. I do believe Regina is the most qualified candidate, not to mention that I have known her for, well, OK, a LOT of years!

Please vote for these fine candidates!