I'm the Slime.

We knew it would be sickening, and apparently so did Mayor Greg Fischer's henchmen, seeing as they fought hard to keep the Amazon giveaway proposal under wraps.

Has Fischer resigned yet?

'Camp Alexa' and $2.5 billion over 20 years: What Louisville offered Amazon in HQ2 pitch, by Darcy Costello and Ben Tobin (Louisville Courier Journal)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — If Amazon brought its second headquarters to Louisville, city officials pitched the company, it could settle its employees on a riverfront campus spanning both sides of the Ohio River, retire to a "Camp Alexa" retreat location at General Butler State Park and enjoy $2.5 billion in incentives over 20 years "based on the sharing of future revenues."

The 137-page bid for Amazon's "HQ2" project, which Mayor Greg Fischer's adfarm-near-me/">ministration has refused to release for two years, offers city-owned land and facilities downtown for an urban headquarters and sells the city's affordability, spirit of "exploration" and ability to serve as a regional talent magnet.

"Louisville is THE place to live, work, create and innovate," officials write in the document. "Swinging for the fences? Invented here. We believe that the homestretch is just the beginning. Just like our hometown hero Muhammad Ali, Louisville is the Greatest of All Time."

Just Go Away.

Of course Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer should resign, if for no other reason than persistent incompetence, although you're advised to deploy a Galt House-sized grain of salt when digesting today's purely partisan GOP no-confidence measure.

At the height of the BLM protests, I was paying attention nightly to District 19 councilman's Anthony Piagentini criticism of Fischer from the right; Piagentini would have called in the black shirts if allowed. Lots of quasi-Peronist ambition in this one, don't you think?

It's true that Fischer's "bourbonism" mantra has ceased to cast a spell; he'd bungled matters hideously, and it's hard to imagine that any substantive bloc of support remains.

Fischer just needs to go away, but the push certainly doesn't need to come from the fascistic opposition. Democrats need to do it, and they won't.

Welcome to L'America.

Louisville Metro Council to consider no-confidence vote in Mayor Greg Fischer, by Darcy Costello (Louisville Courier Journal)

Louisville Metro Council Republicans are calling for an unprecedented no-confidence vote in Mayor Greg Fischer and suggesting he resign — a move Fischer has dismissed as a political game.

The resolution, filed Monday with all seven Republicans as co-sponsors, says a new mayor is essential to bring needed change in the Louisville Metro Police Department and that a lack of trust has been fostered by "false claims" of transparency and accountability from Fischer.

It goes on to urge Fischer to resign and to work with the Metro Council to "establish a transition to ensure that the community can begin the process of healing."

The legislation will be assigned to a committee, where it could be voted on next week and sent to the full Metro Council for its consideration as soon as Sept. 3. It has no Democratic co-sponsors ...

Idiot Wind.

Look, everyone -- Mayor Greg Fischer is becoming famous for incompetence all over the world!

Bourbonism know longer means what you thought it did, but it raises an interesting point, because if Louisville becomes known for less savory conditions than an $8,000 bourbon flight at the new Churchill Downs steakhouse, and the mayor becomes a liability v.v. tourism, does he quit then?

Breonna Taylor killing: call for justice intensifies after months of frustration, by Josh Wood (The Guardian)

  ... Now, there are calls for Louisville’s mayor, Greg Fischer, to resign, amid anger over the city’s reaction to protesters, the failure to fire police officers and a feeling that it took Breonna Taylor becoming a household name to get the city to start taking things seriously.

In a speech on Thursday, Fischer said he was “incredibly frustrated with the slow pace of justice in Breonna’s case”. He also announced that in future officer-involved shootings in the city, the Kentucky state police would be tasked with investigating instead of the LMPD investigating itself.

“Why does it take influencers waging a social media campaign for the mayor to step up?” said Drake. “That’s ridiculous. That shouldn’t be the case. You’re the leader. The fish rots from the head. And as the leader you did not lead this city, you failed this city.”

For those protesting, things in Louisville have to change and justice has to be served.

“There is no back to normal because black people have never known normal in Louisville,” said (Hannah) Drake.

Stick a fork in Fischer. He's done.

I tried to watch Greg Fischer's live comments this morning. No, really. I tried mightily to maintain composure as one mealy-mouthed evasion followed another on the heels of each previous abdication of responsibility.

A self-satisfied imperial mayor, grand poobah of "bourbonism" (the word's OTHER meaning is political conservatism), now reduced to listlessly (rubber) bullet-pointing all the reasons why he is pathetic and powerless.

Apparently the police and national guard sent themselves to assault the citizenry, and if so -- if the mayor isn't responsible and can't do anything about it -- then what's the reason for him being in this office in the first place?

Exactly what is the reason for having such an office, if it isn't to be used? After all, we can eat ham and drink bourbon and wear Derby hats on our own, without Fischer's involvement.

It's tempting to say that when the good times roll, it's easy to make a big show of pretending to lead, but the fact eluding Fischer and his supporters is the illusory nature of those "good times."

They weren't, at least not for everyone; Fischer and Louisville's vapid "leadership" caste couldn't be bothered to address a multitude of societal problems before the explosion, and now have no way to address any of it apart from empty platitudes testifying primarily to their fundamental absence of principle and character.

If Fischer had any such self-knowledge, he'd resign in sheer embarrassment. That's how badly he's botched this. It won't happen, but it damn well should.

(The photo depicts Fischer -- to the right -- at a Floyd County DemoDisneyDixiecratic function a few years back, gladhanding with CM Greg Phipps. In the context of my thoughts here, it's worth remembering that Fischer is Mayor Jeff Gahan's political idol.)

Joe Gerth touches all four: "Mayor Fischer is missing in action as Louisville struggles with racial issues."

I hope you can get through the pay wall because Gerth's eloquence needs to be read in its entirety. I've converted Gerth's commentary to baseball:



Deprived of sloganeering, the faux Democrat Greg Fischer is exposed as an inept fraud. Time for him to resign. Bourbonism's no longer an option, is it?

Gerth: Mayor Fischer is missing in action as Louisville struggles with racial issues, by Joseph Gerth, Louisville Courier Journal

Since the first people began carrying signs and exhorting us to say Breonna Taylor’s name last week, Louisville has wrestled with what has unfolded on our downtown streets.

We’ve seen protesting like we haven’t seen in more than 50 years. We’ve watched rioting and looting on our downtown streets. We’ve seen the death of yet another black man at the hands of police.

What we haven’t seen is leadership.

Where is Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer while all this is going on?

He showed up for a few minutes Monday morning to offer his condolences to Odessa Riley, the grieving mother of David McAtee, who died early Monday when police and National Guardsmen returned fire into a crowd at 26th and Broadway.

And then he left.

He’ll appear on a livestream soon from a secured bunker somewhere and then he’ll disappear.

He might even call a late-night press conference when those who most need to hear from him are not at a television or computer where they can watch.

They’ll be out dodging his police department's pepper balls and tear gas canisters — and God forbid, more bullets — then.

In the five days since this all began, Fischer has been in hiding. Emerging only to spout a few platitudes and finally — years after he should have — fire his police chief.

He’s been hunkered down and blaming the rioting and the protests on “outsiders” who have come to Louisville to raise hell and cause trouble.

To do that, however, misses the real issue.

We have a problem with race in this community.

19th-century "bourbonism" mutation suggests it's time for Greg Fischer to resign.

Illusion is needed to disguise the emptiness within.
-- Arthur Erickson

Did you know that "bourbonism" predates the term's recent use as an admittedly pleasant form of gastro/alco-tourism?

Wiki insight of the evening: "Bourbonism can be any extreme form of political conservatism; (in politics) Bourbonism may refer to Bourbon Democrat (1876–1904), a conservative or classical liberal member of the U.S. Democratic Party; initially used as a pejorative."

As it still is with Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, who has blithely restored the earlier "pejorative" meaning of bourbonism with his handling of protests in Louisville.

The more things change, the more they stay exactly the same -- and, it's time for Greg Fischer to resign.

While we're waiting, can any of you Kool Aid-chugging political partisans out there explain to me how police militarism advocated by Democrats AND Republicans is changing the hearts and minds of those like me who reject the two-party system?

Bourbonism can't help us. Neoliberal frauds be gone. Greg Fischer is clothesless, and he should resign, now.

"I argue that Fischer’s vision for Louisville is lackluster at best and lacks the compassion he claims we have."

After Fischer met Bob Marley.

"We can’t eat bourbon, Sir" is about as scathing as it gets. It remains fascinating to observe big brother Fischer and little brother Jeff Gahan, with the latter gazing at his idol with goo goo eyes. It's revealing and revolting in equal measure.

The basic problem, as identified so presciently by Gertrude Stein a whole century ago, is when it comes to either of them, there's no there there.

GUEST COMMENTARY: Can Greg Fischer Really Deliver For Louisville As ‘America’s Mayor’? by Cassia Herron (LEO Weekly)

 ... In his interview with The Courier Journal’s Darcy Costello, Fischer painted a picture of a dreamy 2020, which centers on him being “America’s mayor” as the chair of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

This role will allow him, he says, to lobby on behalf of the country’s cities, attract more attention to Louisville (which equals more investment) and receive support from his peers — like that which helped him with the national search to hire police Chief Steve Conrad. Fischer said he’d encourage his fellow mayors to be more vision-oriented as they continue providing basic services and managing normal operations of the city.

Sounds good, but can Fischer really deliver?

I argue that Fischer’s vision for Louisville is lackluster at best and lacks the compassion he claims we have. We can’t eat bourbon, Sir, and for those homeowners and residents in the California neighborhood with black residue on their homes from the production of our sacred drink, bourbonism hasn’t been so good to them.

Chief edible tourism bourbonist Greg Fischer is "praying" that restaurant meals will be taxed higher because that's "easiest" for him and his oligarch friends.

Is he daft?

Fischer Says Restaurant Tax ‘Easiest’ Option For Covering Pension Obligation, by Amina Elahi (WFPL)

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said budget talks are already underway and will pick up in earnest in the new year. City leaders will again need to contend with a large pension bill that is expected to grow another $10 million in the fiscal year starting in July. The question is whether they will turn to cuts for a second year in a row, or successfully raise taxes instead.

The easiest option would be a 3% restaurant tax, which could cover most of the city’s pension costs for the next few years, Fischer said in a year-end interview with WFPL. That move would require authorization by state legislators, which he said would be easy to do. It wouldn’t need a Constitutional amendment, and smaller cities already have the power to implement it.

“I pray for that,” Fischer said. “And we’ll, we’ll see if that happens.”

Short of that, he said the Metro Council may need to reconsider the insurance premium tax they voted down last spring. Fischer said it’s the only real option they have for increasing taxes without state approval. And he said public backlash to cuts that resulted from that vote may encourage Council members to reevaluate ...

As always, Greg Fischer grandstands, but Muhammad Ali International Airport certainly does flush out the racists.

I have little use for Greg Fischer. His purportedly "brave" stands for human rights and freedoms rarely amount to much; he dazzles the scattershot progressives with Oz-like choreography, while tightening the grip of the special interests, oligarchs and apostles of neoliberalism who are the ultimate problem in society, not the solution.

But I'll give him half credit (it surely wasn't Fischer's original idea) for attaching himself to the rebranding of Standiford Field/Louisville International Airport as Muhammad Ali International Airport, if for no other reason than the proliferation of crackpots and racists oozing to the surface to spout bile.

But hey -- they're late to the game, aren't they? Their fathers and grandfathers were plumbing the very same subterranean depths a half century ago.

Meanwhile, insofar as Louisville entertains foreign guests and tourists via the airport, they may well drink bourbon, bet on the ponies or even eat wretched "Kentucky" Fried Chicken, but most of them make a beeline for the Muhammad Ali Center, because guess what, mouth breathers: he's the symbol of Louisville for populations residing outside the US of A.

Greg Fischer? He's not qualified to launder Ali's jockstrap. For those in desperate need of a refresher -- New Albany's eternal "Fischer Democrat" Jeff Gahan springs to mind -- there's this.

Muhammad Ali and Vietnam: His refusal to be drafted to fight in the war transcended the boxing ring, which he had dominated, at great personal cost, by Krishnadev Calamur (The Atlantic)

Muhammad Ali’s stand against the Vietnam War transcended not only the ring, which he had dominated as the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, but also the realms of faith and politics.

“His biggest win came not in the ring but in our courts in his fight for his beliefs,” Eric Holder, the former U.S. attorney general, said Saturday.

On March 9, 1966, at the height of the war, Ali’s draft status was revised to make him eligible to fight in Vietnam, leading him to say that as a black Muslim he was a conscientious objector, and would not enter the U.S. military.

“My conscience won’t let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America,” he said at the time. “And shoot them for what? They never called me nigger, they never lynched me, they didn’t put no dogs on me, they didn’t rob me of my nationality, rape and kill my mother and father. … Shoot them for what? How can I shoot them poor people? Just take me to jail.”

Suburban gun sales quadruple as "Mayor Greg Fischer and Louisville waterfront officials say the time is right to renew the push for pedestrian and cycling access on the K&I Bridge."

Here's the first reference to the K&I Bridge in this blog's 14-year history, occurring on February 10, 2005.

Mayors united in support for K & I bicycle link

Last fall, during a chat with NA Confidential, former Councilman Richard Bliss took note of the K & I bicycling proposal.

The railroad isn’t hard to work with, we recall Bliss saying at the time. He added that so long as you’re willing to take all the responsibility, do all the work, pay for all of it and accept all the insurance liability, the railroad’s right with you on a project.

Readers can click here for links to another dozen articles about the K&I appearing in this space during the last seven years, like this one on February 9, 2016.

K & I: It's like a litmus test for prejudice ... and it's got hazmat, too.

It remains difficult to for me to fathom the disgruntlement in some quarters expressed at renewed calls for the K & I to be converted into a shared use path ...

... Huckabee-voting Louisville East End suburbanites bash the notion of potential expenditures to assist mobility and interconnected neighborhoods, preferring to reserve transportation subsidies for their own auto-centric sprawl.

New Albanians are terrified that ISIS-colored refugees are in Portland, just waiting for a footpath to launch attacks on Dewey Heights.

Portlanders exactly say the same, only in reverse.

All of it remains purely theoretical, and yet already social media experts are debating policing levels, surveillance against chicanery, and all the other details barely mentioned when the Big Four's conversion was lauded as a victory for modernity.

Then there's the entity that should be on the nationalization chopping block, Norfolk Southern.

Fast-forwarding to the present, it seems the local imagination drought still very much afflicts us. Today a Facebook discussion broke out about Green's WDRB piece (below), and I believe these viewpoints lowered my IQ by at least 30 points, leaving me with very little brain power to emphasize a point we've been making here for about a thousand years, or at least since President Lincoln mistakenly awarded right-of-ways to the railroads from terra firma down to the planet's core, and up in the sky all the way to Jupiter.

Nationalize Norfolk Southern's skanky asses.

Wait -- that's a valid consideration, but not what I meant to say, which is this:

Whether the K&I pedway happens or not, the decision and the process will have next to nothing to do with New Albany, in the sense that the city of Louisville will be the prime mover.

Kentucky owns the river, and Norfolk Southern the bridge. New Gahanians are merely bit players in all this, so if the mayor starts taking credit for any of it, vote for someone else.

ANYONE else. After all, #EightIsEnough

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer backs new effort for K&I Bridge pedestrian path, by Marcus Green (WDRB)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Mayor Greg Fischer and Louisville waterfront officials say the time is right to renew the push for pedestrian and cycling access on the K&I Bridge.

The Waterfront Development Corp. broached the issue briefly at its meeting this month after Fischer, a board member, asked whether the renovated Sherman Minton Bridge will include a path for cyclists. That project won’t.

But Fischer told WDRB News in an interview that it’s important to finish an Ohio River loop between Louisville and Southern Indiana, where a trail system in Clark and Floyd counties is being completed.

On the Louisville side, early work is underway to expand Waterfront Park to the west and toward Norfolk Southern Corp.’s railroad bridge between the Portland neighborhood and New Albany, Ind.

Despite previous pressure from elected officials and business leaders in Kentucky and Indiana, Norfolk Southern has resisted efforts to allow people on the span’s former car lanes. The company did not return a phone message seeking comment ...

Jackie Green on the ghettoization of independent candidates for Louisville mayor: "A form of media censorship — not censorship OF, but censorship BY the media.”

Before stealing a glance at the exclusion of independent candidates from the final Louisville mayoral debate, I'm turning to Jeff Gillenwater to articulate the crux of it.

I’ve spent decades now watching more thoughtful, compassionate people attempt to run for office under the Democratic banner in local, state, and national races. Over and over and over quite consistently, party officials at all levels have intervened, using the full force of their financial and political clout to defeat those candidates, to weaken those voices, and to make sure that their discourse and concerns, no matter how well documented and supported by evidence, do not become the center of policy debate, do not become a legitimate choice that voters can make. The idea that the Democratic Party in this country is an eager and effective agent or vehicle of significant social change simply isn’t true. When you donate to the party, you’re supporting the silencing and defeat of more thoughtful, compassionate voices. There’s no way around that so, if you’re going to do it, you need to own it and call it what it is.

It needed to be said. Now, let's look at yet another way media reinforces the two-party duopoly.

Independent candidates won’t share stage with Fischer, Leet in final mayoral debate, by Joe Sonka (Insider Louisville)

Independent mayoral candidates Jackie Green and Chris Thieneman say they were surprised and disappointed to learn last week that they will not be allowed to participate in the final televised mayoral debate next week, as only Mayor Greg Fischer and Councilwoman Angela Leet have been invited to participate in the live broadcast.

Pat Murrell, the president of the League of Women Voters of Louisville, told Insider Louisville last week that while all nine candidates for mayor were invited to its candidate forum to be broadcast on WAVE3-TV on Oct. 16, organizers recently decided to split the forum into two: one aired live on television and WFPL at 7 p.m., with the second one at 8:15 p.m., which will only be livestreamed on wave3.com and archived online on wave3.com and wfpl.org.

Only Fischer and Leet will participate in the forum that is broadcast live, while the independent candidates will participate in the second forum.

Read these two essays written by Erica Rucker.

Erica Rucker and I are acquaintances, mostly through social media. To me, Erica is one of Louisville metro's finest writers -- and the next time she ducks a tough issue will be the first. 

Allow me to draw attention to two of Erica's recent essays. Pertaining to the restaurant ejection of Sarah Huckabee Sanders ...

Trouble the Water: To shame or to shun

To act in the conscience of the public good, for the citizens of the country and the values we claim to hold dear, is what it means to be civil. So any calls for civility need to be met with this refrain, We are already being civil.

 ... and Greg Fischer's signature gutlessness.

Those of us residing in New Albany, observing the personality cult nurtured by mayoral mediocrity Jeff Gahan, wonder if Gahan ever will get around to considering the needs of real people, as opposed to bright shiny (and expensive) objects.

As such, there is special relevance in Erica's pithy assessment of Fischer's political cowardice over the issue of sanctuary.

Of course, Fischer remains Gahan's idol, and it's easy to see why. As in Gahan's shambolic commitment to human rights -- but just for so long as he can create a symbolic commission sans actual content -- both mayors believe in words alone, followed by crickets chirping. 

Amazingly, the gestures-alone brigade hangs on every non-action.

MAYOR MILQUETOAST THINKS “SANCTUARY” IS JUST A POLITICAL TERM

I believe that Fischer does get it. He just doesn’t give a damn and refuses to do anything that might mean loosening his necktie and rolling up his sleeves to protect vulnerable people in our community. He wants to claim Sanctuary is just a term because he doesn’t want to have skin in the game.

Sanctuary is” just a political term” like “vote” is just a term. It has action at its root. Fischer doesn’t want to take any real or bold action.

Fischer expects Louisvillians to come to his aid at the ballot box this fall and my gut says that because his opponent is Republican Angela Leet, he feels that he’s already won in Liberal Louisville.

That's why it will be time for a change in the 3rd council district in 2019. Leadership ... not lapdog.

One more thing: the News and Tribune will continue to underachieve until Publisher Milquetoast grasps the necessity of incorporating a voice like Erica's among its columnists.

Tom M(m)ay have to lose one of his many slots, though.

C-FAIR'S Fischer endorsement: "But LGBTQ politics must be about all the things that affect all marginalized people."

I have to explain to far away friends and relatives that in southern Indiana, it’s the Democrats who are the crooks.
-- NAC reader

Meanwhile in Nawbany, no one can say Mayor Jeff Gahan hasn't been mostly absent when it comes to our city's LGBTQ community.

Minor gestures have sufficed as evidence of commitment in the absence of any single measure requiring Gahan to expend political capital, as when he enabled a reconstituted Human Rights Commission only after hard-wiring it to be toothless.

As of 2018, Gahan refuses to make his appointments to the HRC, without which there can be no meetings; he's probably refraining because with an election year approaching, it cannot be entirely guaranteed that the commission wouldn't be infiltrated by citizens of principle, and direct too much sunlight on the mayor's signature public housing demolitions.

Then again, maybe the well is dry of shameless bootlickers.

In similar fashion, an Ethics Commission that also was erected as Potemkin press release sans legs or arms might currently be examining Gahan's campaign finance windfalls.

New Albany does not possess an organization like the Fairness Campaign to make endorsements, and consequently, NA Confidential cannot speak definitively about our LGBTQ community's perspective on Gahan's reign. However, it can be said that as Gahan's record pertains to intersectional issues ...

Some in the LGBTQ community — including me — question whether Fischer deserved the endorsement, given his stands on intersectional issues — his support of the so-called anti-gang bills, his failure to declare Louisville as a sanctuary city and his focus on economic development while the city’s homeless population grows. They say Fenwick was a better choice because of his progressive platform.

 ... a list of concerns stretching across a spectrum of topics applies as accurately to Gahan as Fischer, the New Albany mayor's pin-up idol.

#FireGahan2019

Why an LGBTQ endorsement should weigh all issues of social justice, by Deena Lilygren (LEO Weekly)

No one can say Mayor Greg Fischer hasn’t been good for Louisville’s LGBTQ community. Compared to LGBTQ life in Kentucky outside the city, we have an embarrassment of riches: Under his leadership, Louisville is one of the only Southern cities to extend domestic partner benefits to city employees and ahead of the Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality. It has earned a perfect score from the Human Rights Commission for the past three years — outperforming peer cities. Then, there are the emotional benefits we reap from living in a city with an openly pro-fairness mayor.

These accomplishments came about through a close partnership with the Fairness Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group that works with cities to enact fairness, or non-discrimination, ordinances. Fairness makes political endorsements through C-FAIR, a political action committee.

This year, the endorsement went to Fischer, not his Democratic opponent, lawyer Ryan Fenwick, the first openly gay mayoral candidate.

Some in the LGBTQ community — including me — question whether Fischer deserved the endorsement, given his stands on intersectional issues — his support of the so-called anti-gang bills, his failure to declare Louisville as a sanctuary city and his focus on economic development while the city’s homeless population grows. They say Fenwick was a better choice because of his progressive platform.

More broadly, however, Fischer’s endorsement underscores how LGBTQ organizations — and all social justice organizations — can become entrenched in the establishment that they help, even inadvertently, to maintain the status quo.

But LGBTQ politics must be about all the things that affect all marginalized people.

“C-FAIR routinely declines to endorse exciting, inspiring and truly progressive candidates because it prefers to scratch backs, return political favors, and remain in the good graces of Louisville’s alleged political elite,” said Jaison Gardner, who is 89.3 WFPL “Strange Fruit” podcast co-host, and has served on the Fairness board. “Fairness has endorsed Mayor Fischer despite his anti-black, anti-sanctuary and anti-working class political positions, despite the opportunity to endorse a truly-progressive, openly gay man with justice-minded ideas.”

Nick Conder, who is vice chair of the local Democratic Socialists chapter and gay, pointed to the contradictions of social justice goals with city policies under Fischer’s administration.

“When 40 percent of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ, should Fairness really endorse a mayor who bulldozes homeless camps? When queer people are more likely to live in poverty than straight people, should Fairness really endorse a mayor who opposed even a $10 minimum wage? When LGBTQ people face unique health challenges and have a poor history with the police, should Fairness really endorse a mayor who is increasing funding for LMPD while social services continue to be underfunded? We need a mayor who will support all queer people, not just a privileged few,” he told LEO.

snip

Any social justice organization worth knowing about is devoted to intersectionality. The Fairness Campaign includes in its mission statement that “dismantling racism is central to our work,” and “all issues of oppression are linked and can only be addressed by working in coalition.” Also, it wants to work toward a “non-violent, grassroots organizing that empowers individuals and build a social justice movement that creates lasting change.”

Overlay that on several issues that position Fischer to the right of fairness:

— his support of the methane plant in West Louisville, which community residents defeated on the grounds that it was unfair to site an industrial plant in a low-income neighborhood.

— his failure to declare Louisville a sanctuary city, in the face of threats from the Trump administration.

— his support of police Chief Steve Conrad, whose department has failed to effectively cap the epidemics of homicides and heroin use, was helping federal immigration agents and has had officer-involved shootings that call into question its use-of-force policies, in addition to the overtime and Explorer Scout scandals.

— his support of House Bill 169, the so-called anti-gang bill, which other community civil rights activists and groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, feel will lead to the perpetuation of racial disparity in the criminal justice system.

snip

C-FAIR’s job is to report which candidate most embodies “fairness” values and with that endorsement, provide voters with a tool to vet candidates.

If that tool is broken, then it may be time to do what we’d do with any broken tool: have it mended, repurposed or set out by the curb.

SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS: Bibulous bourbonism.

It would take a lifetime for a single person to drink his or her way through the inventory at a moderate-sized package store, much less one the size of Liquor Barn -- and speaking only for myself, I'm not quite that bibulous any longer.

The adjective bibulous describes something that is highly absorbent, like a towel or sponge that soaks up liquid well. A bibulous person, however, is someone who likes to drink alcohol.

Bibulous, pronounced "BIB-you-luhs," comes from the Latin word bibere, which means "to drink." You may recognize this root in the verb imbibe, which often means "to consume alcohol." As it applies to people, bibulous means "likes to drink alcohol." So don't make the mistake of using it to describe someone who seems to soak up information or understand complicated ideas quickly.

Rather, let's consider the new usage of an old word, as it now describes one option for the bibulous.

Bourbonism is a word combining Bourbon Whisky and Tourism: "Bourbonism: The blending of bourbon and tourism. The act of visiting Louisville and Kentucky to experience the bourbon culture."

Yesterday was the "soft" debut of Rabbit Hole Distillery in NuLu, and Insider Louisville's Sara Havens was there.

Behold the Rabbit Hole Distillery, where modern meets tradition

Rabbit Hole Distillery, the first of three bourbon experiences to open this year in Louisville, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony and first-look tour Tuesday morning for staff, industry representatives, city officials, business people and media.

Greg Fischer, mayor of Louisville, attended the event.

“The concept, the style with which this project was envisioned and completed and to where it’s going to go is something that puts a big smile on my face when I think about the future of our city,” said Fischer. “What’s so neat about bourbonism is we can go into beautiful, adaptive re-use buildings or have tremendous modern architecture jewels like this, but they all say the same thing: Welcome, come in, experience the best of what we have to offer.”

Correlation does not imply causation, but the use of the word "bourbonism" to describe bourbon whiskey-related tourism seems to have arisen within the past decade, corresponding with Fischer's two terms as mayor.

Consequently, it's deliciously ironic that there's an older (and also distinctly American) usage of "bourbonism" in the political realm.

Although the terms “Bourbon Democrat” and “Bourbonism” appear frequently in historical works, they are perhaps the most imprecisely used terms in southern politics. Emerging in the United States after the Civil War, the term came to define the most reactionary wing of the Democratic Party and the era in which they reigned.

Rucker in LEO: " It is time for Louisville to stop calling itself a compassionate city when Mayor Greg Fischer and the Metro Council continue to act counter to that."

Opposed to Deaf Gahan's socioeconomic cleansing of the housing authority? Please register your point of view by signing the petition at We Are New Albany, and remember that on Monday evening at 6:00 p.m., there'll be a gathering at Hauss Square. We'd love to see you there.

Given that Greg Fischer is Jeff Gahan's numero uno political man crush, we've found it simple to use the two names interchangeably. It saves valuable time, and the pig doesn't get as annoyed.

Homelessness, we cannot care just at Christmas, by Erica Rucker (LEO Weekly)

As the temperature struggled to reach 30 degrees last Friday morning in Louisville, police and the Department of Public Works showed up to a homeless encampment ready to move people out — six officers for three homeless people who moved along without struggle. Protesters were there and also people to help the men move their belongings.

Compassionate Louisville strikes again.

It is time for Louisville to stop calling itself a compassionate city when Mayor Greg Fischer and the Metro Council continue to act counter to that.

Just fucking stop. We don’t believe you.

In recent months, as the city has continued to build giant, new luxury apartment, boutique hotels, stadiums and whatever other money-sucking black hole they can stain the city with, Louisville’s population of homeless individuals are being pushed farther and farther away from the services they desperately need to exist.

But we’re compassionate, y’all ...

Telling it like it is.

Attention is important and as the weather gets colder and the holidays approach, many of us turn our attention to our homeless neighbors; but the problem is a yearlong one. With New Albany’s proposal to destroy affordable housing and Louisville moving people around without a real solution, we must do more.

Back on November 29, Erica revealed that she'd left a message with Gahan at City Hall, and was awaiting a reply. I'm guessing she hasn't gotten one, though Mike Hall may have deleted the e-mail.

Public housing putsch: "New Albany’s government is being reckless and disorganized. Gahan’s power grabs are not much different from those of Governor Selfie in Kentucky."

Matt Bevin vs. Greg Fischer on sexual harassment: "If perception is, in fact, reality, Fischer is weak."

Floyd County Democrats venerate Fischer.

I'm trying desperately to remember a time when ROFLMAO might have been more appropriate.

Matt Bevin seizes moral high ground over Greg Fischer on sexual harassment, by Joseph Gerth (Louisville Courier Journal)

I’m not even sure how this happened, but the Democratic Party in Louisville has ceded the moral high ground on sexual harassment to the party that nominated Donald Trump as president of the United States.

Somehow, some way, in this whole mess of sexual harassment claims separately involving Democratic Louisville Metro Council member Dan Johnson and former Republican House Speaker Jeff Hoover, the GOP has been able to seize the upper hand.

A day before Gov. Matt Bevin stood up and demanded the resignation of Hoover and anyone else in state government who has secretly settled sexual harassment claims, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer was giving some mealy-mouthed statement that failed to address Johnson, who among other things, dropped his pants in the City Hall parking lot ...

Fischer is Jeff Gahan's role model.

... On Friday, five minutes before 5 p.m. and nearly a full day after he was asked to comment, the oh-so-cautious Fischer sent a written statement said what he says best. Nothing.

“In my administration I have a record of supporting and promoting women, including placing them in positions of leadership and making clear that harassment of any type is not acceptable and will not be tolerated. While this is a council matter and they make decisions about their own institution, our citizens must be equally confident this standard will be upheld by them,” he said.

“Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.”

Sides. Are. Splitting.

Bevin has created the perception that this stuff matters to him — even if his past shows that he is weak on the subject — and he came out looking strong and decisive.

Fischer, on the other hand, looked like someone who was desperately trying not to say what needed to be said: that Johnson’s actions, which included grabbing another council member’s tuchus and telling a chamber of commerce employee about his sex life, were wrong and anyone who did those things should not continue to serve.

Us, too: "Louisville’s roads need to be designed for citizens, not cars."

If Greg Fischer's words aren't enough, just think where this leaves Jeff Gahan.

Speechless?

Streets for People: Louisville’s roads need to be designed for citizens, not cars, by Chris Glasser (Insider Louisville)

This is the first in a series of articles focusing on Louisville’s street design. Written by Bicycling for Louisville Executive Director Chris Glasser, the “Streets for People” series will be published with the goal of encouraging a (polite and civil) online discussion of these topics. Please see the comment form below.

... Mayor Greg Fischer, it should be noted, is fantastic at talking about the need for our city to shift away from its car dependency. Fischer was one of the driving forces behind a national report on “Innovation Districts,” which advocates for redesigning cities’ infrastructure for improved walkability. In his strategic plan for Louisville, the top goal is to “improve multi-modal transportation and community streetscapes.” Fischer is as well-spoken as any leader on the importance of walkable, bikeable, inviting city space.

This is great. Unfortunately, it’s not enough.

When being interviewed by Charlie Rose recently, the mayor argued that actions speak louder than words. “You know, what I always say is, I don’t watch the lips, I watch the actions,” he said. “That’s really what’s critical and that’s how people judge us.”

To take Fischer at his word and judge him by his own standard, our city is falling well short of the administration’s stated top goal. Fischer’s annual budgets speak volumes on this matter — they’re his defining action, louder than his words. Yes, there is a small amount allocated to build a bike network — a pittance that Metro Council undercuts every year during the budget review period — but beyond that, there is virtually nothing that will begin to push us toward achieving Fischer’s goal of 25 percent of trips occurring on foot, bike or bus by 2030.

What can be done? Here are three suggestions, along with a map to show where they could be implemented:

Fund two-way street conversions in urban neighborhoods.
Remove traffic signals, replace them with stop signs.
Design major intersections to be nodes, not throughways.

"It doesn't matter whether Guy Fieri's new Louisville restaurant has good beer because none of us will be going there anyway."

The following first appeared at my Potable Curmudgeon blog on May 10, 2016. As Insider Louisville reminds us, the breathless opening is nigh: "On Saturday, Sept. 10, Louisvillians will find out if Guy Fieri is more than a television personality."

Does anyone have a bucket?

Not if Cordish can help it. 

Otherwise sensible people lost their minds earlier today when celebrity chef Guy Fieri announced the opening of a "Smokehouse" eatery within the friendly, taxpayer-subsidized confines of Louisville's Fourth Street Live.

That he did so during an event entitled Hometown Tourist Attraction Showcase tells us that irony resistance is at an all-time high.

Needless to say, independent eateries and watering holes enjoy no such coddled treatment, and if you look at Fieri's web site, and this list of his brands, you'll see that when it comes to opening new restaurants, he minimizes risk at every opportunity.

GUY FIERI’S AMERICAN KITCHEN + BAR: CANCUN
Cancun International Airport, Mexico

EL BURRO BORRACHO
Harrah's Casino, Laughlin NV

GUY FIERI’S BALTIMORE KITCHEN & BAR
Horseshoe Casino, Baltimore MD

GUY FIERI’S MT POCONO KITCHEN
Mount Airy Casino, Mt. Pocono PA

GUY FIERI’S CHOPHOUSE
Bally's Atlantic City Casino, NJ

GUY FIERI’S VEGAS KITCHEN & BAR
The Linq Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas NV

GUY’S BURGER JOINT
Carnival Cruise Lines and Live Nation venues:
Carnival Breeze
Carnival Conquest
Carnival Freedom
Carnival Glory
Carnival Liberty
Carnival Pride
Carnival Sunshine
Carnival Triumph
Carnival Vista

Sleep Train Amphitheater – Chula Vista, CA
Shoreline Amphitheater – Mountain View, CA
Xfinity Theater – Hartford, CT
Jiffy Lube Live – Bristow, VA
MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheater – Tampa, FL
Perfect Vodka Amphitheater – West Palm Beach, FL
Hollywood Casino Amphitheater – Tinley Park, IL
Klipsch Music Center, Noblesvile, IN
Hollywood Casino Amphitheater – St. Louis, MO
BB&T Pavillion – Camden, NJ
Nikon at Jones Beach Theatre – Long Island, NY
Blossom Music Center – Cuyahoga Falls, OH
First Niagara Pavilion – Pittsburgh, PA
Gexa Energy Pavilion – Dallas, TX
Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater – Virginia Beach, VA
White River Amphitheater – Auburn, WA

Can you say CAPTIVE AUDIENCES?

Of course, the Curmudgeon isn't saying any of this makes Fieri a bad businessman. However, in the case of Fourth Street Live, government subsidies to Cordish -- which generally favors chains and routinely dismisses the indie ethos -- always have been disturbing, and in Louisville's case, with an indie food and drink community second to none, watching the soulless local media fawning today over an interloper whose business model is as corporate as fix-is-in ever gets, speaks volumes about integrity ... and its absence.

You'll notice I left one of Fieri's restaurants off the above list.

It's Guy's American Kitchen and Bar in New York City, the only one of his branded establishments not attached to a casino, airport, cruise ship, performance venue or Cordish corporate welfare emporium.

It had a rocky start. Surely you remember the New York Times review of Guy's American Kitchen and Bar in 2012.

As Not Seen on TV: Restaurant Review: Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar in Times Square, by Pete Wells (New York Times)

GUY FIERI, have you eaten at your new restaurant in Times Square? Have you pulled up one of the 500 seats at Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar and ordered a meal? Did you eat the food? Did it live up to your expectations?

Did panic grip your soul as you stared into the whirling hypno wheel of the menu, where adjectives and nouns spin in a crazy vortex? When you saw the burger described as “Guy’s Pat LaFrieda custom blend, all-natural Creekstone Farm Black Angus beef patty, LTOP (lettuce, tomato, onion + pickle), SMC (super-melty-cheese) and a slathering of Donkey Sauce on garlic-buttered brioche,” did your mind touch the void for a minute?

Did you notice that the menu was an unreliable predictor of what actually came to the table? Were the “bourbon butter crunch chips” missing from your Almond Joy cocktail, too? Was your deep-fried “boulder” of ice cream the size of a standard scoop?

What exactly about a small salad with four or five miniature/a> croutons makes Guy’s Famous Big Bite Caesar (a) big (b) famous or (c) Guy’s, in any meaningful sense?

Were you struck by how very far from awesome the Awesome Pretzel Chicken Tenders are?

I'm rolling on the floor laughing out loud. No, I mean literally.

But forget all that. Can we expect to see good beer at Guy Fieri's Cordish Smokehouse in Louisville? Maybe, though probably not.

Here's the list at Fieri's Vegas location.

Not awful, though evincing no intelligent design. When's the last time you saw a restaurant beer list, chain or indie, that looked genuinely thoughtful? They exist, but can be hard to find.

More humorously, Fieri's much maligned NYC tourist route location promises "an extensive draft beer program featuring signature beers craft brewed for Fieri right in New York City."

Nice, except it would appear this novel twist owes to the fact that Heartland Brewery's CEO is a partner in the Times Square venture, and that's odd, because Heartland Brewery isn't mentioned anywhere on the drinks page.

Embarrassment?

Did A-B InBev tithe more?

"Guy's Beer" NYC selections include Independence Pale Ale, Golden State Lager, Red, White & Blonde, Morgan’s Red Ale and Oatmeal Stout. Also available on the "extensive" tap list: A lone seasonal beer, Angry Orchard Cider and Coors Light.

But don't forget the bottle list: Budweiser, Bud Light, Miller High Life, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Rolling Rock, Good Grain Gluten-Free (Heartland) and Beck’s Non Alcoholic.

Extensive? You be the judge.

Yes, you bet your ass I'm being derisive. Bring on the tour buses. Guy's bringing corporate fluff straight to River City -- and never forget that Cordish is billing Greg Fischer for the privilege.

Sale of two ti ... I mean, mass transit options, in Indianapolis and Louisville.

Speaking of ZZ Top ...

Something was missing when the Austin chef recreated the gate-fold meal from ZZ Top's Tres Hombres.

For those of you interested in mass transit options, two recent news items contrast Indianapolis and Louisville.

Indianapolis has an idea for rapid transit by bus, and it isn't without controversy.

The Red Line: What you need to know, by John Tuohy (Indy Star)

The Red Line would be the first leg of a long-awaited and ambitious plan to bring some type of modern mass transit system to Indianapolis. Here are eight things you need to know:

1. What is the Red Line?
It’s a planned, all-electric bus rapid transit system to run 37 miles from Westfield through Indianapolis to Greenwood. The first phase is 13.6 miles from 66th Street in Broad Ripple to the University of Indianapolis on the Southside. It would cost an estimated $96.3 million. Construction of the first leg would be paid with a $75 million federal grant and $21.3 million in local matching funds from the Department of Public Works, an IndyGo reserve fund and the Downtown tax increment financing (TIF) district fund. The entire route would rely heavily on federal funds.

(click through to read the rest)

The Louisville, international headquarters of the ORBP Cult, the headline is predictable.

Activists bemoan lack of public transit plans in Louisville’s ‘Smart Cities Challenge’ application, by Caitlin Bowling (Insider Louisville)

... Jackie Greene, who formerly led CART, and Louisville Metro Council candidate Bryan Burns already have penned their own letter to U.S. DOT Secretary Anthony Foxx criticizing the lack of citizen input and listing instances when Mayor Greg Fischer’s administration “undermined the community” to encourage non-urban development in the urban core and exurban development.

Examples provided include the controversial west Louisville Walmart, the development of the Veterans Administration Hospital in a suburban location, and the construction of infrastructure that promotes suburban sprawl.

“Louisville’s full potential will not be realized until we address the serious land use and transportation missteps of over six decades,” the letter states. “Please do not encourage the perpetuation of our mistakes by selecting Louisville as a finalist in Smart Cities Challenge.”

In New Albany ... nah, never mind.

But would they ride the bus together?