What the hell, no seriously, what the hell is wrong with Ulysses Jones

Got an email from the cracker yesterday that was a forward of a commercial appeal article about one of our own local state reps wanting to gut the Sunshine Law. The first thing to go through my mine was that Ulysses had gotten too close to a fire and the chemicals had rotted his brain. Second, how much he had gotten paid, easily dismissed as these are the days of upstanding long term Memphis politicians who learned the lessons of Main Street Sweeper, and Tennessee Waltz. Finally, I just came to the conclusion that Ulysses needs to go, he has overstayed his time in office and should to retire. This bill just proves it.

Seriously, you cite as a reason to gut the rule the idea that you think that having lunch or appearing together at a community group could cause people to sue you. Another reason is that if you or a couple of members get together to share information, you could be sued. As Richard Hollow points out, you can do this in private as long as you simply pass information and don't deliberate towards a decision. This is known among my friends as getting together to shoot the s$%^, get together and just talk.

You can do this, just don't do like Knox County did, and get together with like four other legislators and decide who you guys are going to name to the TVA board or the Department of Corrections. This is the point, if you are going to do official business, the greatest cleanser of the public must be present, sunlight. It should not matter if a quorum is present, if my tax rate, my son's school, or anything else that can affect the people who voted for you, it must be always held in public with rare exceptions. Be happy with what you have Ulysses, a legislative job you don't have to try very hard at to keep. Be someone who wants the public to know more, not less about what you do, or are you afraid they would not like what they see?