Nasty Dogs and Funky Kings.

Exactly.

Matt Stoller today at Twitter: "The core theme in the #bigtechhearings today was the contrast between democracy and monopoly power."

Why the Super-Rich Keep Getting Richer, by Grace Blakeley

Billionaires like Jeff Bezos aren't obscenely wealthy because they work harder but because their corporate empires drain society's resources – and we'd all be better off without them.

... In an interview the other day, I was asked why we should care about Jeff Bezos’ wealth if it makes everyone else better off. But the extreme inequalities generated by modern capitalism are making obvious something that Marxists have known for decades: the super-rich generate their wealth at the expense of workers, the planet and society as a whole.

In a rational and fair society, the vast resources of a tiny elite would be put to use solving our social problems.

A reader writes, we answer: "Roger, when you ran for mayor, didn't Extol Magazine have a profile about you?"

Frequent reader R writes: "Roger, when you ran for mayor, didn't Extol Magazine have a profile about you?"

R, you have a long memory, indeed. I'd completely forgotten about it. The story was in one of the 2015 editions, early in the magazine's existence,, and I believe Angie Fenton wrote it.

Fortunately the page in question can still be viewed on-line: Roger Baylor

Love him or loathe him, there’s no denying Roger Baylor is passionate about New Albany ...

 ... While he’ll always be revered as a veteran zythologist (the man knows beer), he’s now known for speaking up about what’s occurring in the New Albany – often and loudly – and unapologetically sharing his perspective, even if that means taking to his blog to skewer those involved.

Baylor also has taken plenty of heat himself. “I have people who call me all kinds of non-flattering names, but I would hope that right or wrong, I throw punches, I get knocked down, I get back up and I keep throwing punches. … I hope that somebody would say, ‘He does a good job of standing up for what he believes,’ even if they didn’t agree.”

Days after heroically defending press freedom, our local chain newspaper returns to swimming in fluff.

Last week our own (or more accurately, the city of Jeffersonville's) News and Tribune hopped on the Boston Globe "free press" bandwagon with all available leaden feet, then returned to rescued kitten stories, (short)cut 'n' pastes from local restaurant social media feeds, and a third -- fifth, 32nd, 315th -- weekly Tom May column.

Ironically, "dereliction of duty" is the Trump-obsessed News and Tribune's default as it pertains to the excesses of Team Gahan.

 ... We can be sure that somewhere this morning deep within the labyrinthine bowels of the down-low bunker, over decaf coffee and Eggo waffles, Team Gahan is laughing aloud at the News and Tribune's editorial.

Not because the editorial isn't correct. It is. But Jeffrey and the gang know it has nothing to do with them, because the newspaper will not practice locally what it preaches nationally.

Just imagine if the local chain newspaper's management team actually applied these bold sentiments not only in denunciation of the faraway president, but as a daily mission statement to monitor the persistent chicanery of local officials.

To repeat, Bill "Make Advertising Great Again" Hanson and the editorial team are perfectly correct to defend a free press from attacks by the moron-in-chief, although when it comes to deploying this situation for the community's benefit, they all should stand to be reminded of Abraham Lincoln's vexed comment about his primary general's unwillingness to fight the enemy:

"If General McClellan does not want to use the army, I would like to borrow it for a time."

It's interesting to note that not every newspaper in America joined the parade. In this op-ed piece, John Diaz of the San Francisco Chronicle explains why his editorial board did not, and perhaps the conclusion states it best:

Our editorial page will continue to speak out against this president’s war on the free press. Our silence on Thursday is testament to our commitment to do it in our own way, on our own timetable.

Wait ... this feels almost like a pulse, from a newspaper accustomed to walking the walk and not merely talking the talk. It must be nice to have a newspaper like that, but in New Albany, we don't know the feeling. For the likes of Jeff Gahan, the News and Tribune isn't the free press.

It's more like a free pass.

Why the San Francisco Chronicle isn’t joining the editorial crowd on Trump, by John Diaz (San Francisco Chronicle)

When the Boston Globe called on the nation’s newspaper editorial boards to come together against President Trump’s “dirty war on the free press,” regular readers of The San Francisco Chronicle no doubt assumed we would be among the first in line.

After all, in our unsigned editorials and in my Sunday column, this newspaper’s criticism of Trump’s efforts to delegitimize, threaten and neuter independent journalism has been clear, emphatic and repeated since the early days of his presidential campaign.

But our editorial board will not be joining the estimated 300 newspapers which have signed on to the Globe’s pitch for a coordinated editorial campaign in Thursday’s editions.

Ironically, "dereliction of duty" is the Trump-obsessed News and Tribune's default as it pertains to the excesses of Team Gahan.

Can someone fetch the irony sickness bag?

We can be sure that somewhere this morning deep within the labyrinthine bowels of the down-low bunker, over decaf coffee and Eggo waffles, Team Gahan is laughing aloud at the News and Tribune's editorial.

Not because the editorial isn't correct. It is. But Jeffrey and the gang know it has nothing to do with them, because the newspaper will not practice locally what it preaches nationally.

Just imagine if the local chain newspaper's management team actually applied these bold sentiments not only in denunciation of the faraway president, but as a daily mission statement to monitor the persistent chicanery of local officials.

As I've noted time and time again, this same chain newspaper accepts all sorts of advertising dollars from City Hall. Then, when the proper questions of officials aren't asked, and the propaganda they ooze is yet again accepted at face value, the newspaper's leaders bristle at the obvious conclusion.

These are flowery words, guys, and to be sure, they're both merited and appreciated overall, but it's time for Bill and Susan to discard their delusional tendencies, adjust the newspaper's vision locally, and grasp that it's not only the president of the city council who needs to be examined more closely.

It's also the chief consolidator of shadowy local power, Mayor Jeff Gahan, serial dispenser of advertising largesse. To him, these taxpayer dollars constitute protection money to keep journalists at bay, nothing more. Begin demanding the truth from Gahan, and watch as he stammers.

That's because he cannot tell the truth.

Until the newspaper finally BEGINS scrutinizing Nawbany's Dear Leader -- not serving as fawning stenographers, but actually digging -- then these noble words simply are not being backed by real-life deeds. When it comes to Gahan's machinations, "dereliction of duty" is the newspaper's default setting. Scratching one another's backs cannot be characterized as "scrutiny" or "accountability," can it?

When will this deferential neglectfulness change?

OUR OPINION: We are defined by purpose, not the president 

 ... The fallout from Trump’s media blitzkrieg is being felt in newsrooms across America — including this one. The negative comments have reached our ears. Some dismiss us out of hand, as if we were more annoyance than a partner in the community.

We remain committed, though, to delivering the news of the day — without sanitation — and information that but for our efforts would elude public scrutiny.

Our leaders — be they presidents of the nation or of the city council — do not get to choose to whom they are accountable. They are accountable to the citizenry.

We intend to hold them to it. To do anything less is dereliction of our duty.

Dear local Democrats: It's been almost four years since you censored me on social media. Can I donate my way back to good graces?

Although on second thought, if I were to pursue elected office in 2019 as a (Social) Democrat, as opposed to a DemoDisneyDixiecrat, it's hard to imagine a better sales pitch than "Vote for the Man Adam Banned."

Still, if the central committee's apparatchiks are reading today, not to mention the imaginary "committee that manages the site," shouldn't there at least be an appeals process, or a sentence reduction procedure -- maybe a cash-stuffed envelope of an appeal for clemency to Big Daddy G?

I'd love to clear my name and get this dialogue back on track. Meanwhile, following is the fourth annual reprint of one of the most-read ON THE AVENUES columns in blog history from December 4, 2014.

---

ON THE AVENUES: The Adamite Chronicles: Have muzzle, will drivel.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

Clichés, stock phrases, adherence to conventional, standardized codes of expression and conduct have the socially recognized function of protecting us against reality.
― Hannah Arendt

One month ago, the Floyd County Democratic Party suffered an epochal beating in county (midterm) elections. In the aftermath of the electoral carnage, the party’s relatively youthful and web-savvy "reformist" core paused to take stock of future options. Surveying the rapidly shifting political terrain with a collective eye trained on the future, these characteristically near-sighted operatives took a bold and innovative step to reboot the tottering, leaky and spluttering local party machine.

They gazed into the mirror, and blocked me on the Democratic Party’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.

On that very day, as the untrammeled heavy truck traffic thundered past my Spring Street residence on a one-way arterial street the very existence of which contradicts the party’s incessant claims to care about topics like revitalization, quality of life, public safety and other nagging reminders of its perennial impotence, I conducted my own survey of the political landscape … threw back my head … and laughed, loud and long.

Surely this bit of childishness represents the acme, the pinnacle -- the very highlight -- of my career as a pestiferous gadfly.

I haven’t stopped laughing since then. At precisely this pivotal moment of inexorably changing mathematics, when the Floyd County Democratic Party might have initiated an honest dialogue with its long-neglected left wing – as inhabited by genuine non-Dixiecratic Democrats and a formerly reliable but rapidly disillusioned cohort of left-leaning fellow travelers – for succor, it has chosen instead to espouse censorship and express its abiding hostility to ideas.

We hardly need Adam Dickey as chairman for that, do we? After all, while Ted Heavrin may be out of office, it isn’t like he’s dead or anything.

---

Granted, social media is only one aspect of the local political scene, but censoring Facebook and Twitter suggests delicious irony given the party’s recent giddiness over its generational shift. Instead, it’s “meet the new boss, same as the old boss,” though arguably worse. The upper echelons of the party, as seamlessly interwoven with its last, fading bastions of strength in City Hall, now openly offers themselves to the world as New Albany’s native version of The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.

In the movie, (Robert) De Niro plays Mario Trantino, an Italian bicycle racer that gets involved in a Brooklyn gang war. Kid Sally Palumbo (Jerry Orbach) operates his gang under the auspices of mob boss Baccala (Lionel Stander). Trying to get out from under the boss' thumb means killing Baccala, but Kid Sally's gang proves unequal to the task and backfiring schemes make funerals an everyday occurrence. When Kid Sally's sister (Leigh Taylor-Young) starts dating Mario, who is then in the middle of pulling a scam on Baccala, Kid Sally sees his chance at last.

However, even an inept, cartoonish mafia is by no means the best comparison. Rather, what we have here is a willful failure to communicate, as embraced by functionaries who see their bland bureaucratic banality as a symbol of new age organizational prowess.

Here, reprinted in its excruciatingly mundane entirety, is my correspondence with Adam.

Roger
I'm going to ask you a direct question: Is the Floyd County Democratic Party acting to censor me on social media, and if so, what is the reason for it? I will publish the answer or non-answer at the blog no one reads. Thanks.

Adam
Roger, thank you for your inquiry. FCDP encourages public activism as part of the Democratic process and strongly supports an individual's first amendment rights to express their political viewpoint.

In regard to the administration of our social media sites, we invite thoughtful, respectful and constructive dialogue on those sites. We strive to manage a positive online space where individuals can feel free to express themselves. Accordingly, when we created the social media sites, we also established a social media policy. For reference, that policy is posted on our Facebook site under "Notes."

FCDP Social Media Policy

Floyd County Democratic Party – Indiana invites thoughtful, respectful and constructive dialogue on our Facebook page. We strive to manage a positive online space where our constituents can feel free to express themselves. We understand that some conversations around articles, blog posts, events, videos, organizational initiatives and other content on this page or linked to this page can create strong opinions which can lead to debates and passionate responses.

For that reason, when comments or posts descend into derogatory remarks, personal attacks, inappropriate content or confusing streams of irrelevant content, we reserve the right to remove comments on our pages and potentially move the conversations offline (either onto e-mail or discussions via phone). We want to see your comments and posts that:

• Are "on topic" and that respond to the content in our posts
• Are responses to comments left by other readers
• Are reasonably brief and to the point
• Have a positive/constructive tone
• Are open to being contradicted by other readers
• Might disagree with the content in the article or post, but never insult the writer of the article or blog post, or other commenters

We will immediately delete, without notice, comments and posts, that:

• Are unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, hateful, or contain racially, ethnically or similarly objectionable content
• Are personal attacks, including name-calling or celebrations of another person's misfortune
• Are injurious to the reputations or privacy of the Floyd County Democratic Party’s officers, volunteers, candidates and elected officials
• Are false statements or unrelated to the Floyd County Democratic Party’s programs and mission
• Contain advertising or spam
• Are incomprehensible or do not contribute to reasonable dialogue
• Are disruptive, including personal conversations better suited for private messaging
• Violate any of Facebook's Terms of Use and Code of Conduct

Violations of Floyd County Democratic Party – Indiana’s Facebook community rules will cause a commenter to be blocked from making future posts or comments on the Facebook page.

I hope this addresses your concern. Thank you again for your inquiry. Please let me know if you have trouble accessing the social media policy.

Roger
Impressive. Can you clarify the human element of the policy, i.e., has it been applied by committee, or is there a sole social media arbiter?

Adam
There is a committee that manages the site.

Roger
Final question: Can you specify my offense? Thanks.

Adam
The decision was reflective on a pattern of violations that covered most of the examples listed under the second set of bullets.

---

It matters little whether the terms of use comprise cribbed boilerplate, or were written by the “committee” itself, although when I inquired of another party insider, the reply I received speaks volumes:

There isn't a social media committee.

Damn. Mr. Disney really has it in for me, eh?

---

Following the midterm election, William Greider appraised the Democratic Party as a whole, nationwide.

How the Democratic Party Lost Its Soul, by William Greider (The Nation)

... The tattered authenticity of the party matters more now because both the country and the world face dangers and disorders that demand a fundamental reordering of the global economic system. This requires bold action, at a time when neither party is confronting the threatening situation. The Republicans are a wholly owned subsidiary of the business-finance machine; the Democrats are rented.

What we need is a rump formation of dissenters who will break free of the Democratic Party’s confines and set a new agenda that will build the good society rather than feed bloated wealth, disloyal corporations and absurd foreign wars. This is the politics the country needs: purposeful insurrection inside and outside party bounds, and a willingness to disrupt the regular order. And we need it now, to inject reality into the postelection spin war within the party.

I’ve been a fellow traveler for a very long time, always examining the bill of ballot fare as presented by both local political parties. With a recurring feeling of nausea, I’ve held my nose and voted mostly Democratic. Occasionally I’ve expressed active support for a Democratic aspirant, and almost without exception, the outcome has been disgust, disappointment, self-flagellation and yet another evening of commode hugging.

No more.

I cannot and will not support censors, and you should not, either.

Censorship as practiced by the likes of Chairman Adam plainly reveals a fundamental intolerance, and it intolerance is the local goal, I might as well follow the sage advice of Abraham Lincoln and opt for the unalloyed variety as practiced by the Republicans.

Or, conversely, we all might choose to approach politics in New Albany as principled, progressive independents, because in the end, it isn’t the word “progressive” that sets us apart from this planet’s petty Chairman Adams -- although our local Dixiecratic backsliders most assuredly are not progressive in any remotely coherent sense.

Rather, it’s the word “principled.”

Censors aren’t.

Fetch your HAZMAT suits and listen to this propaganda podcast with Mayor Jeff Milhous Gahan -- or not.

My friend M sent this link to me ten days ago, introducing the topic with just one word: "Gag."

Gag (verb)

choke or retch: "he gagged on the sourness of the wine"
synonyms: retch, heave, dry-heave ... "the stench made her gag"

I'm sad (and a tad alarmed) to announce that although I've spent the past ten days trying mightily, no longer is it possible for me to get drunk enough to venture a listen. Either we turn for courage to harder drugs, or someone with banal poseur immunity must sacrifice his or her sanity to have a listen, and report back.

Aim Hometown Innovations Podcast: Episode 9

On this episode of Hometown Innovations podcast, New Albany Mayor Jeff Gahan discusses modernization efforts, along with steps taken to preserve the river city’s unique heritage. Those projects include revamping the parks system and renovating Main Street to enhance the road that’s home to the Culbertson Mansion. The city also has boosted its quality-of-life with drone technology, including hosting a popular drone racing event along the river!

Well, truck me: Padgett and friends' Main Street lawsuit finds its way to history's dust bin.

Irony alert: Many of us feel that the city of New Albany definitely is at fault concerning the beautification-oriented redesign of East Main Street ... just not in the exact way alleged by the plaintiffs in a plainly frivolous lawsuit.

First, some background from the fall of 2015.

Conservatives to Padgett: "The heaviest road users are the ones who get the biggest subsidies."

Zurschmiede swings and misses as Padgett and pals sue the city of New Albany.

New Albany's new slogan: "Truck Through City" ... Part 86: Bored of Works to approve Arch de Capitulation on 5th St., facing Padgett.

Tort claim notice offers preview of Padgett's lawsuit against modernity.

Next, the most recent update.

Judge rules in New Albany's favor, by Chris Morris (Gahan Gets a Free Pass Digest)

NEW ALBANY — It took more than two years, but a judge ruled the city of New Albany was not at fault concerning the redesign of East Main Street.

On Nov. 6, Judge Daniel Donahue ruled in the city’s favor and against the plaintiffs which included Padgett, Inc., Tiger Truck Lines, J&J Pallet Corporation, Kaiser Wholesale, Inc., E.M. Cummings Veneers, Inc., Maximum Fleet Service, LLC, Mr. “P” Express, Inc. and W-M Lumber & Wood Products, Inc.

The eight local manufacturers, service and trucking companies filed suit in 2015 alleging that the redesign of East Main Street negatively affected their right to safely access the “Heavy Haul” route. James Gray, the attorney who represented the business owners, said when the lawsuit was filed the companies were not consulted prior to the redesign, which included building a decorative median down Main Street from Vincennes Street to East Fifth Street. Gray said there were safety concerns as well following the redesign.

City attorney Shane Gibson called the lawsuit at the time “absolutely ridiculous” and feels the same two years later after the judge ruled in New Albany’s favor.

“The timing of when this was filed was totally politically motivated,” Gibson said.

He said there were public meetings to discuss the plans and there were no safety concerns. In fact, he said last week the redesign made Main Street safer because it slowed traffic ...

Yes, the lawsuit was absolutely ridiculous. No doubt about it.

Yes, city attorney and current interim redevelopment commission slush fund maintainer Gibson is perfectly correct in saying so.

Pot/kettle alert: Of course, Gibson remains the best remunerated and most prominent cog in an administration that digests matters of "politically motivated" timing along with its Lucky Charms.

However, the plaintiffs’ point about an unfavorably altered roadway base might well be a potentially interesting topic, given the frequency of repairs during the past three years.

It's a question for redevelopment, isn't it?

UPDATE: Chronicling the Adamite barnacles, Democratic muzzling and the terrifying shame of rejection ... three years later.

Clichés, stock phrases, adherence to conventional, standardized codes of expression and conduct have the socially recognized function of protecting us against reality.
-- Hannah Arendt

We're approaching the third anniversary of my ceremonial blacklisting on social media by the Floyd County Democratic Party, which is to say, by the social committee -- which is to say, by the party's chairman "Oily" Adam Dickey.

ON THE AVENUES: In 2014 as in 2015, then 2016, now 2017 ... yes, it's the "Adamite Chronicles: Have muzzle, will drivel."

It matters little whether the "terms of use" comprise cribbed boilerplate, or were written by the “social media committee” itself, although when I inquired of another party insider, the reply I received speaks volumes:

There isn't a social media committee.

We already know that Dickey's Democrats will go to almost any length to insulate (inDisneylate?) themselves from dialectics, dialogue and dissonance, a safety mechanism presumably borne of herculean daily efforts to synchronize lower-case "democracy" with even lower-base Gahan Cult of Personality.

Bromides are spouted and mind-numbing catechisms nurtured, even as Gahan channels his inner Trump and bulldozes public housing units, burying with them any remaining "democratic" principles. How Dickey keeps a straight face amid the bonfire is anyone's guess, though another thought of Arendt's might explain it.

What makes it so plausible to assume that hypocrisy is the vice of vices is that integrity can indeed exist under the cover of all other vices except this one. Only crime and the criminal, it is true, confront us with the perplexity of radical evil; but only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core.

Perhaps the effort required to sustain hypocrisy of this magnitude is so exhausting that conversation genuinely is impossible, although they never seem to tire of talking about themselves. Maybe I shouldn't complain. In the absence of interaction, I'm being allowed to write their history for them -- and I'm delighted to undertake this task. Censorship may be vile, but it can be liberating, too. 

Cue the saintly LBJ ...

It’s probably better to have him (J. Edgar Hoover) inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.

ON THE AVENUES: In 2014 as in 2015, then 2016, now 2017 ... yes, it's the "Adamite Chronicles: Have muzzle, will drivel."

ON THE AVENUES: In 2014 as in 2015, then 2016, now 2017 ... yes, it's the "Adamite Chronicles: Have muzzle, will drivel."

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

Column reruns are inevitable, although I try to keep them to a minimum. It comes down to time – time enough to write, and writing well enough to be coherent. If I can’t clear the bar, there’s always next time. 

So it must be this week, and now here's the prelude to this week’s encore, because until something changes, it’s a point worth repeating yearly if necessary.

With considerable trepidation last Saturday morning, I went over to the 40/8 Voiture off State Street to observe a Floyd County Democratic Party “chat” with John Zody, Indiana’s state party chairman. The topic was the state party’s future prospects at a time when unmitigated catastrophe has created fresh new opportunities. Given that our local party has absorbed three consecutive catastrophes without changing a thing, I’m skeptical overall, and yet eternally curious, so I went.

Roughly 40 other persons attended the chat, perhaps half of them residents of Floyd County, with the remainder hailing from nearby counties in Southern Indiana. Ballparking it, there probably were more women than men, and perhaps a dozen attendees were younger than 45. All were white save one – maybe two. I was impressed with their sincerity, and Zody seems like a pleasant enough chap, if consumed with the usual anodyne managerial boilerplate.

Surprisingly, a few intrepid souls even dared to speak aloud Bernie Sanders’ name, albeit with eyes nervously darting around the room lest their non-centrist wayward skulls be thwacked with fireplace pokers handed down from Clinton Corporate HQ.

My favorite comment during the meeting came when a sharply dressed gentleman blithely asserted that these many worries and fears are misplaced. After all, hadn’t the Democratic Party just won the popular vote (albeit marginally) in a presidential election the party concurrently lost (in fact, rather convincingly) in the Electoral College?

Talk about delusional whistling past the graveyard. Never mind literally hundreds of Democratic losses downballot, or the inconvenient fact that even had Hillary Clinton somehow “won,” Republicans still would hold almost every other significant elected office outside California and Massachusetts.

Local party chairman Adam Dickey was praised for his efforts. “Adam’s done all he can do,” said one admirer, and of course I agree for entirely different reasons. Dickey also was praised for his communication skills … hence today’s reminder that wishing won’t necessarily make it so.

The column originally was written in December, 2014, and was repeated in 2015. The party’s local losses mount as its voting bloc dwindles; what’s left of the former Democratic machine grows more undemocratic by the minute; and naturally I’m still prohibited from “communicating” with the party on social media.

It’s never too late to start all over again, but I’m not sure what passes for local Democratic Party “leadership” could punch its way through a wet beer label. Let's take a look back at December, 2014.

It feels a lot like right now.

---

ON THE AVENUES: The Adamite Chronicles: Have muzzle, will drivel.

Clichés, stock phrases, adherence to conventional, standardized codes of expression and conduct have the socially recognized function of protecting us against reality.
― Hannah Arendt

One month ago, the Floyd County Democratic Party suffered an epochal beating in county (midterm) elections. In the aftermath of the electoral carnage, the party’s relatively youthful and web-savvy "reformist" core paused to take stock of future options.

Surveying the rapidly shifting political terrain with a collective eye trained on the future, these characteristically near-sighted operatives took a bold and innovative step to reboot the tottering, leaky and spluttering local party machine.

They gazed into the mirror, and blocked me on the Democratic Party’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.

On that very day, as the untrammeled heavy truck traffic thundered past my Spring Street residence on a one-way arterial street, the very existence of which contradicts the party’s incessant claims to care about topics like revitalization, quality of life, public safety and other nagging reminders of its perennial impotence, I conducted my own survey of the political landscape … threw back my head … and laughed, loud and long.

Surely this bit of childishness represents the acme, the pinnacle -- the very highlight -- of my career as a pestiferous gadfly.

I haven’t stopped laughing since then. At precisely this pivotal moment of inexorably changing mathematics, when the Floyd County Democratic Party might have initiated an honest dialogue with its long-neglected left wing – as inhabited by genuine non-Dixiecratic Democrats and a formerly reliable but rapidly disillusioned cohort of left-leaning fellow travelers – for succor, it has chosen instead to espouse censorship and express its abiding hostility to ideas.

We hardly need Adam Dickey as chairman for that, do we? After all, while Ted Heavrin may be out of office, it isn’t like he’s dead or anything.

---

Granted, social media is only one aspect of the local political scene, but censoring Facebook and Twitter suggests delicious irony given the party’s recent giddiness over its generational shift. Instead, it’s “meet the new boss, same as the old boss,” though arguably worse. The upper echelons of the party, as seamlessly interwoven with its last, fading bastions of strength in City Hall, now openly offers themselves to the world as New Albany’s native version of The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.

In the movie, (Robert) De Niro plays Mario Trantino, an Italian bicycle racer that gets involved in a Brooklyn gang war. Kid Sally Palumbo (Jerry Orbach) operates his gang under the auspices of mob boss Baccala (Lionel Stander). Trying to get out from under the boss' thumb means killing Baccala, but Kid Sally's gang proves unequal to the task and backfiring schemes make funerals an everyday occurrence. When Kid Sally's sister (Leigh Taylor-Young) starts dating Mario, who is then in the middle of pulling a scam on Baccala, Kid Sally sees his chance at last.

However, even an inept, cartoonish mafia is by no means the best comparison. Rather, what we have here is a willful failure to communicate, as embraced by functionaries who see their bland bureaucratic banality as a symbol of new age organizational prowess.

Here, reprinted in its excruciatingly mundane entirety, is my correspondence with Adam.

Roger
I'm going to ask you a direct question: Is the Floyd County Democratic Party acting to censor me on social media, and if so, what is the reason for it? I will publish the answer or non-answer at the blog no one reads. Thanks.

Adam
Roger, thank you for your inquiry. FCDP encourages public activism as part of the Democratic process and strongly supports an individual's first amendment rights to express their political viewpoint. In regard to the administration of our social media sites, we invite thoughtful, respectful and constructive dialogue on those sites. We strive to manage a positive online space where individuals can feel free to express themselves. Accordingly, when we created the social media sites, we also established a social media policy. For reference, that policy is posted on our Facebook site under "Notes."

FCDP Social Media Policy

Floyd County Democratic Party – Indiana invites thoughtful, respectful and constructive dialogue on our Facebook page. We strive to manage a positive online space where our constituents can feel free to express themselves. We understand that some conversations around articles, blog posts, events, videos, organizational initiatives and other content on this page or linked to this page can create strong opinions which can lead to debates and passionate responses.

For that reason, when comments or posts descend into derogatory remarks, personal attacks, inappropriate content or confusing streams of irrelevant content, we reserve the right to remove comments on our pages and potentially move the conversations offline (either onto e-mail or discussions via phone). We want to see your comments and posts that:

• Are "on topic" and that respond to the content in our posts
• Are responses to comments left by other readers
• Are reasonably brief and to the point
• Have a positive/constructive tone
• Are open to being contradicted by other readers
• Might disagree with the content in the article or post, but never insult the writer of the article or blog post, or other commenters

We will immediately delete, without notice, comments and posts, that:

• Are unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, hateful, or contain racially, ethnically or similarly objectionable content
• Are personal attacks, including name-calling or celebrations of another person's misfortune
• Are injurious to the reputations or privacy of the Floyd County Democratic Party’s officers, volunteers, candidates and elected officials
• Are false statements or unrelated to the Floyd County Democratic Party’s programs and mission
• Contain advertising or spam
• Are incomprehensible or do not contribute to reasonable dialogue
• Are disruptive, including personal conversations better suited for private messaging
• Violate any of Facebook's Terms of Use and Code of Conduct

Violations of Floyd County Democratic Party – Indiana’s Facebook community rules will cause a commenter to be blocked from making future posts or comments on the Facebook page.

I hope this addresses your concern. Thank you again for your inquiry. Please let me know if you have trouble accessing the social media policy.

Roger
Impressive. Can you clarify the human element of the policy, i.e., has it been applied by committee, or is there a sole social media arbiter?

Adam
There is a committee that manages the site.

Roger
Final question: Can you specify my offense? Thanks.

Adam
The decision was reflective on a pattern of violations that covered most of the examples listed under the second set of bullets.

---

It matters little whether the terms of use comprise cribbed boilerplate, or were written by the “committee” itself, although when I inquired of another party insider, the reply I received speaks volumes:

There isn't a social media committee.

Damn. Mr. Disney really has it in for me, eh?

---

Following the midterm election, William Greider appraised the Democratic Party as a whole, nationwide.

How the Democratic Party Lost Its Soul, by William Greider (The Nation)

... The tattered authenticity of the party matters more now because both the country and the world face dangers and disorders that demand a fundamental reordering of the global economic system. This requires bold action, at a time when neither party is confronting the threatening situation. The Republicans are a wholly owned subsidiary of the business-finance machine; the Democrats are rented.

What we need is a rump formation of dissenters who will break free of the Democratic Party’s confines and set a new agenda that will build the good society rather than feed bloated wealth, disloyal corporations and absurd foreign wars. This is the politics the country needs: purposeful insurrection inside and outside party bounds, and a willingness to disrupt the regular order. And we need it now, to inject reality into the postelection spin war within the party.

I’ve been a fellow traveler for a very long time, always examining the bill of ballot fare as presented by both local political parties. With a recurring feeling of nausea, I’ve held my nose and voted mostly Democratic. Occasionally I’ve expressed active support for a Democratic aspirant, and almost without exception, the outcome has been disgust, disappointment, self-flagellation and yet another evening of commode hugging.

No more.

I cannot and will not support censors, and you should not, either.

Censorship as practiced by the likes of Chairman Adam plainly reveals a fundamental intolerance, and it intolerance is the local goal, I might as well follow the sage advice of Abraham Lincoln and opt for the unalloyed variety as practiced by the Republicans.

Or, conversely, we all might choose to approach politics in New Albany as principled, progressive independents, because in the end, it isn’t the word “progressive” that sets us apart from this planet’s petty Chairman Adams -- although our local Dixiecratic backsliders most assuredly are not progressive in any remotely coherent sense.

Rather, it’s the word “principled.”

Censors aren’t.

---

Recent columns:

February 9: ON THE AVENUES: I'd stop drinking, but I'm no quitter.

February 2: ON THE AVENUES: A luxury-obsessed Jeff Gahan has packed a board and now seeks to break the New Albany Housing Authority. Can we impeach him yet?

January 26: ON THE AVENUES: Jeff Gahan and Adam Dickey are Trumping the Donald when it comes to breathtaking moral turpitude. Have they no shame?

January 19: ON THE AVENUES: Mezcal for what ails you.

ON THE AVENUES ENCORE: The Adamite Chronicles: Have muzzle, will drivel.

ON THE AVENUES: The Adamite Chronicles: Have muzzle, will drivel.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

This column was published on December 4, 2014, and in recent days, it has once again become topical, so let's have a second look. 

Our local Democrats are having a free speech problem, aren't they? And yet it doesn't prevent their pompous piety as it pertains to "human rights," requiring frequent recourse to the irony sickness bag.   

---

Clichés, stock phrases, adherence to conventional, standardized codes of expression and conduct have the socially recognized function of protecting us against reality.
― Hannah Arendt

One month ago, the Floyd County Democratic Party suffered an epochal beating in county (midterm) elections. In the aftermath of the electoral carnage, the party’s relatively youthful and web-savvy "reformist" core paused to take stock of future options. Surveying the rapidly shifting political terrain with a collective eye trained on the future, these characteristically near-sighted operatives took a bold and innovative step to reboot the tottering, leaky and spluttering local party machine.

They gazed into the mirror, and blocked me on the Democratic Party’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.

On that very day, as the untrammeled heavy truck traffic thundered past my Spring Street residence on a one-way arterial street the very existence of which contradicts the party’s incessant claims to care about topics like revitalization, quality of life, public safety and other nagging reminders of its perennial impotence, I conducted my own survey of the political landscape … threw back my head … and laughed, loud and long.

Surely this bit of childishness represents the acme, the pinnacle -- the very highlight -- of my career as a pestiferous gadfly.

I haven’t stopped laughing since then. At precisely this pivotal moment of inexorably changing mathematics, when the Floyd County Democratic Party might have initiated an honest dialogue with its long-neglected left wing – as inhabited by genuine non-Dixiecratic Democrats and a formerly reliable but rapidly disillusioned cohort of left-leaning fellow travelers – for succor, it has chosen instead to espouse censorship and express its abiding hostility to ideas.

We hardly need Adam Dickey as chairman for that, do we? After all, while Ted Heavrin may be out of office, it isn’t like he’s dead or anything.

---

Granted, social media is only one aspect of the local political scene, but censoring Facebook and Twitter suggests delicious irony given the party’s recent giddiness over its generational shift. Instead, it’s “meet the new boss, same as the old boss,” though arguably worse. The upper echelons of the party, as seamlessly interwoven with its last, fading bastions of strength in City Hall, now openly offers themselves to the world as New Albany’s native version of The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.

In the movie, (Robert) De Niro plays Mario Trantino, an Italian bicycle racer that gets involved in a Brooklyn gang war. Kid Sally Palumbo (Jerry Orbach) operates his gang under the auspices of mob boss Baccala (Lionel Stander). Trying to get out from under the boss' thumb means killing Baccala, but Kid Sally's gang proves unequal to the task and backfiring schemes make funerals an everyday occurrence. When Kid Sally's sister (Leigh Taylor-Young) starts dating Mario, who is then in the middle of pulling a scam on Baccala, Kid Sally sees his chance at last.

However, even an inept, cartoonish mafia is by no means the best comparison. Rather, what we have here is a willful failure to communicate, as embraced by functionaries who see their bland bureaucratic banality as a symbol of new age organizational prowess.

Here, reprinted in its excruciatingly mundane entirety, is my correspondence with Adam.

Roger
I'm going to ask you a direct question: Is the Floyd County Democratic Party acting to censor me on social media, and if so, what is the reason for it? I will publish the answer or non-answer at the blog no one reads. Thanks.

Adam
Roger, thank you for your inquiry. FCDP encourages public activism as part of the Democratic process and strongly supports an individual's first amendment rights to express their political viewpoint.

In regard to the administration of our social media sites, we invite thoughtful, respectful and constructive dialogue on those sites. We strive to manage a positive online space where individuals can feel free to express themselves. Accordingly, when we created the social media sites, we also established a social media policy. For reference, that policy is posted on our Facebook site under "Notes."

FCDP Social Media Policy

Floyd County Democratic Party – Indiana invites thoughtful, respectful and constructive dialogue on our Facebook page. We strive to manage a positive online space where our constituents can feel free to express themselves. We understand that some conversations around articles, blog posts, events, videos, organizational initiatives and other content on this page or linked to this page can create strong opinions which can lead to debates and passionate responses.

For that reason, when comments or posts descend into derogatory remarks, personal attacks, inappropriate content or confusing streams of irrelevant content, we reserve the right to remove comments on our pages and potentially move the conversations offline (either onto e-mail or discussions via phone). We want to see your comments and posts that:

• Are "on topic" and that respond to the content in our posts
• Are responses to comments left by other readers
• Are reasonably brief and to the point
• Have a positive/constructive tone
• Are open to being contradicted by other readers
• Might disagree with the content in the article or post, but never insult the writer of the article or blog post, or other commenters

We will immediately delete, without notice, comments and posts, that:

• Are unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, hateful, or contain racially, ethnically or similarly objectionable content
• Are personal attacks, including name-calling or celebrations of another person's misfortune
• Are injurious to the reputations or privacy of the Floyd County Democratic Party’s officers, volunteers, candidates and elected officials
• Are false statements or unrelated to the Floyd County Democratic Party’s programs and mission
• Contain advertising or spam
• Are incomprehensible or do not contribute to reasonable dialogue
• Are disruptive, including personal conversations better suited for private messaging
• Violate any of Facebook's Terms of Use and Code of Conduct

Violations of Floyd County Democratic Party – Indiana’s Facebook community rules will cause a commenter to be blocked from making future posts or comments on the Facebook page.

I hope this addresses your concern. Thank you again for your inquiry. Please let me know if you have trouble accessing the social media policy.

Roger
Impressive. Can you clarify the human element of the policy, i.e., has it been applied by committee, or is there a sole social media arbiter?

Adam
There is a committee that manages the site.

Roger
Final question: Can you specify my offense? Thanks.

Adam
The decision was reflective on a pattern of violations that covered most of the examples listed under the second set of bullets.

---

It matters little whether the terms of use comprise cribbed boilerplate, or were written by the “committee” itself, although when I inquired of another party insider, the reply I received speaks volumes:

There isn't a social media committee.

Damn. Mr. Disney really has it in for me, eh?

---

Following the midterm election, William Greider appraised the Democratic Party as a whole, nationwide.

How the Democratic Party Lost Its Soul, by William Greider (The Nation)

... The tattered authenticity of the party matters more now because both the country and the world face dangers and disorders that demand a fundamental reordering of the global economic system. This requires bold action, at a time when neither party is confronting the threatening situation. The Republicans are a wholly owned subsidiary of the business-finance machine; the Democrats are rented.

What we need is a rump formation of dissenters who will break free of the Democratic Party’s confines and set a new agenda that will build the good society rather than feed bloated wealth, disloyal corporations and absurd foreign wars. This is the politics the country needs: purposeful insurrection inside and outside party bounds, and a willingness to disrupt the regular order. And we need it now, to inject reality into the postelection spin war within the party.

I’ve been a fellow traveler for a very long time, always examining the bill of ballot fare as presented by both local political parties. With a recurring feeling of nausea, I’ve held my nose and voted mostly Democratic. Occasionally I’ve expressed active support for a Democratic aspirant, and almost without exception, the outcome has been disgust, disappointment, self-flagellation and yet another evening of commode hugging.

No more.

I cannot and will not support censors, and you should not, either.

Censorship as practiced by the likes of Chairman Adam plainly reveals a fundamental intolerance, and it intolerance is the local goal, I might as well follow the sage advice of Abraham Lincoln and opt for the unalloyed variety as practiced by the Republicans.

Or, conversely, we all might choose to approach politics in New Albany as principled, progressive independents, because in the end, it isn’t the word “progressive” that sets us apart from this planet’s petty Chairman Adams -- although our local Dixiecratic backsliders most assuredly are not progressive in any remotely coherent sense.

Rather, it’s the word “principled.”

Censors aren’t.

City Hall, Jeff Speck and "The Death of Expertise."

On Wednesday, March 18 at 6:00 p.m., there will be a third "public information session" on Jeff Speck's downtown street network proposal, to be held at the Pepin Mansion at 1003 E. Main Street.

With the dysfunctional grandiosity of John "Pinocchio" Rosenbarger's pet Main Street project boondoggle festering just yards away, the Bored of Works will eschew the irony.

Not only that, it will boil, skewer, braise, sear, poach, roast, fry and stew the irony.

That's because the survival rate of irony in New Albany is even worse than the odds of Kevin Zurschmiede ever grasping the dimensions of human trafficking.

Once again, the public will be invited to air its views on a study few have read. As I noted recently, the meeting will accomplish almost nothing, because no effort will be made to answer questions or educate the public.

ON THE AVENUES: As Admiral Gahan steers his Speck study into the Bermuda Triangle, crewmen Padgett, Stumler and Caesar grimly toss all the rum overboard.

Gahan and his merry minions continue to hint privately that they're altogether for Speck's proposals, while doing everything possible to publicly distances themselves from them. With every passing day, the mayor works to sabotage what he insists he supports.

If that's not bipolarity, I await a better definition of the phenomenon

Meanwhile, at The Federalist, Tom Nichols describes "The Death of Expertise." I link to the essay with no small trepidation, given that it may be viewed as an endorsement of the current regime's operational philosophy.

... The death of expertise is a rejection not only of knowledge, but of the ways in which we gain knowledge and learn about things. Fundamentally, it’s a rejection of science and rationality, which are the foundations of Western civilization itself. Yes, I said “Western civilization”: that paternalistic, racist, ethnocentric approach to knowledge that created the nuclear bomb, the Edsel, and New Coke, but which also keeps diabetics alive, lands mammoth airliners in the dark, and writes documents like the Charter of the United Nations.

This isn’t just about politics, which would be bad enough. No, it’s worse than that: the perverse effect of the death of expertise is that without real experts, everyone is an expert on everything. To take but one horrifying example, we live today in an advanced post-industrial country that is now fighting a resurgence of whooping cough — a scourge nearly eliminated a century ago — merely because otherwise intelligent people have been second-guessing their doctors and refusing to vaccinate their kids after reading stuff written by people who know exactly zip about medicine. (Yes, I mean people like Jenny McCarthy.

Maybe they share an office in irony-free New Alban-ee.

Why even bother writing fiction amid Nawbony's rich pageant?

ON THE AVENUES: The Adamite Chronicles: Have muzzle, will drivel.

ON THE AVENUES: The Adamite Chronicles: Have muzzle, will drivel.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

Clichés, stock phrases, adherence to conventional, standardized codes of expression and conduct have the socially recognized function of protecting us against reality.
― Hannah Arendt

One month ago, the Floyd County Democratic Party suffered an epochal beating in county (midterm) elections. In the aftermath of the electoral carnage, the party’s relatively youthful and web-savvy "reformist" core paused to take stock of future options. Surveying the rapidly shifting political terrain with a collective eye trained on the future, these characteristically near-sighted operatives took a bold and innovative step to reboot the tottering, leaky and spluttering local party machine.

They gazed into the mirror, and blocked me on the Democratic Party’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.

On that very day, as the untrammeled heavy truck traffic thundered past my Spring Street residence on a one-way arterial street the very existence of which contradicts the party’s incessant claims to care about topics like revitalization, quality of life, public safety and other nagging reminders of its perennial impotence, I conducted my own survey of the political landscape … threw back my head … and laughed, loud and long.

Surely this bit of childishness represents the acme, the pinnacle -- the very highlight -- of my career as a pestiferous gadfly.

I haven’t stopped laughing since then. At precisely this pivotal moment of inexorably changing mathematics, when the Floyd County Democratic Party might have initiated an honest dialogue with its long-neglected left wing – as inhabited by genuine non-Dixiecratic Democrats and a formerly reliable but rapidly disillusioned cohort of left-leaning fellow travelers – for succor, it has chosen instead to espouse censorship and express its abiding hostility to ideas.

We hardly need Adam Dickey as chairman for that, do we? After all, while Ted Heavrin may be out of office, it isn’t like he’s dead or anything.

---

Granted, social media is only one aspect of the local political scene, but censoring Facebook and Twitter suggests delicious irony given the party’s recent giddiness over its generational shift. Instead, it’s “meet the new boss, same as the old boss,” though arguably worse. The upper echelons of the party, as seamlessly interwoven with its last, fading bastions of strength in City Hall, now openly offers themselves to the world as New Albany’s native version of The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.

In the movie, (Robert) De Niro plays Mario Trantino, an Italian bicycle racer that gets involved in a Brooklyn gang war. Kid Sally Palumbo (Jerry Orbach) operates his gang under the auspices of mob boss Baccala (Lionel Stander). Trying to get out from under the boss' thumb means killing Baccala, but Kid Sally's gang proves unequal to the task and backfiring schemes make funerals an everyday occurrence. When Kid Sally's sister (Leigh Taylor-Young) starts dating Mario, who is then in the middle of pulling a scam on Baccala, Kid Sally sees his chance at last.

However, even an inept, cartoonish mafia is by no means the best comparison. Rather, what we have here is a willful failure to communicate, as embraced by functionaries who see their bland bureaucratic banality as a symbol of new age organizational prowess.

Here, reprinted in its excruciatingly mundane entirety, is my correspondence with Adam.

Roger
I'm going to ask you a direct question: Is the Floyd County Democratic Party acting to censor me on social media, and if so, what is the reason for it? I will publish the answer or non-answer at the blog no one reads. Thanks.

Adam
Roger, thank you for your inquiry. FCDP encourages public activism as part of the Democratic process and strongly supports an individual's first amendment rights to express their political viewpoint.

In regard to the administration of our social media sites, we invite thoughtful, respectful and constructive dialogue on those sites. We strive to manage a positive online space where individuals can feel free to express themselves. Accordingly, when we created the social media sites, we also established a social media policy. For reference, that policy is posted on our Facebook site under "Notes."

FCDP Social Media Policy

Floyd County Democratic Party – Indiana invites thoughtful, respectful and constructive dialogue on our Facebook page. We strive to manage a positive online space where our constituents can feel free to express themselves. We understand that some conversations around articles, blog posts, events, videos, organizational initiatives and other content on this page or linked to this page can create strong opinions which can lead to debates and passionate responses.

For that reason, when comments or posts descend into derogatory remarks, personal attacks, inappropriate content or confusing streams of irrelevant content, we reserve the right to remove comments on our pages and potentially move the conversations offline (either onto e-mail or discussions via phone). We want to see your comments and posts that:

• Are "on topic" and that respond to the content in our posts
• Are responses to comments left by other readers
• Are reasonably brief and to the point
• Have a positive/constructive tone
• Are open to being contradicted by other readers
• Might disagree with the content in the article or post, but never insult the writer of the article or blog post, or other commenters

We will immediately delete, without notice, comments and posts, that:

• Are unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, hateful, or contain racially, ethnically or similarly objectionable content
• Are personal attacks, including name-calling or celebrations of another person's misfortune
• Are injurious to the reputations or privacy of the Floyd County Democratic Party’s officers, volunteers, candidates and elected officials
• Are false statements or unrelated to the Floyd County Democratic Party’s programs and mission
• Contain advertising or spam
• Are incomprehensible or do not contribute to reasonable dialogue
• Are disruptive, including personal conversations better suited for private messaging
• Violate any of Facebook's Terms of Use and Code of Conduct

Violations of Floyd County Democratic Party – Indiana’s Facebook community rules will cause a commenter to be blocked from making future posts or comments on the Facebook page.

I hope this addresses your concern. Thank you again for your inquiry. Please let me know if you have trouble accessing the social media policy.

Roger
Impressive. Can you clarify the human element of the policy, i.e., has it been applied by committee, or is there a sole social media arbiter?

Adam
There is a committee that manages the site.

Roger
Final question: Can you specify my offense? Thanks.

Adam
The decision was reflective on a pattern of violations that covered most of the examples listed under the second set of bullets.

---

It matters little whether the terms of use comprise cribbed boilerplate, or were written by the “committee” itself, although when I inquired of another party insider, the reply I received speaks volumes:

There isn't a social media committee.

Damn. Mr. Disney really has it in for me, eh?

---

Following the midterm election, William Greider appraised the Democratic Party as a whole, nationwide.

How the Democratic Party Lost Its Soul, by William Greider (The Nation)

... The tattered authenticity of the party matters more now because both the country and the world face dangers and disorders that demand a fundamental reordering of the global economic system. This requires bold action, at a time when neither party is confronting the threatening situation. The Republicans are a wholly owned subsidiary of the business-finance machine; the Democrats are rented.

What we need is a rump formation of dissenters who will break free of the Democratic Party’s confines and set a new agenda that will build the good society rather than feed bloated wealth, disloyal corporations and absurd foreign wars. This is the politics the country needs: purposeful insurrection inside and outside party bounds, and a willingness to disrupt the regular order. And we need it now, to inject reality into the postelection spin war within the party.

I’ve been a fellow traveler for a very long time, always examining the bill of ballot fare as presented by both local political parties. With a recurring feeling of nausea, I’ve held my nose and voted mostly Democratic. Occasionally I’ve expressed active support for a Democratic aspirant, and almost without exception, the outcome has been disgust, disappointment, self-flagellation and yet another evening of commode hugging.

No more.

I cannot and will not support censors, and you should not, either.

Censorship as practiced by the likes of Chairman Adam plainly reveals a fundamental intolerance, and it intolerance is the local goal, I might as well follow the sage advice of Abraham Lincoln and opt for the unalloyed variety as practiced by the Republicans.

Or, conversely, we all might choose to approach politics in New Albany as principled, progressive independents, because in the end, it isn’t the word “progressive” that sets us apart from this planet’s petty Chairman Adams -- although our local Dixiecratic backsliders most assuredly are not progressive in any remotely coherent sense.

Rather, it’s the word “principled.”

Censors aren’t.

Inspired by FDR, the Floyd County Democratic Party squelches free expression on social media.

Local Democrats courageously prepare for 2015 by censoring Roger on social media.

Local Democrats courageously prepare for 2015 by censoring Roger on social media.

In the aftermath of the Floyd County Democratic Party's historic and epochal beat down in county elections ten days ago, its hip, web-savvy "reformist" central committee has taken a bold and innovative step to rebuild the tottering local party machine.

It has blocked me on social media.

I kid you not.

Surely this bit of childishness represents the acme, the pinnacle -- the very highlight -- of my career as a pestiferous gadfly,

That's right. The very same entity that jumped up and down, sweaty and red-faced with delight just like a little kid on Christmas morning, when the newspaper handed it the pre-election gift of Fakebook -- and then somehow actually lost ground in the voting after outside money slimed the incumbent Ed Clere -- now dons the ear plugs and blinders by quashing the free exchange of information.

I can only surmise that Adam and the gang feel threatened by ideas ... not that they've ever participated in any genuine social media exchange involving them.

Did you know that the lexicon of American slang includes the phrase "mickey mouse bullshit"? It seems applicable, as I may have prompted the current round of MMB with this post-election comment:

Then again, it might have been this:

New Albany's new slogan: "Truck Through City" ... Part 54: Jeff Gahan averts his gaze as dump trucks keep dumping all over us.

Ironically, I learned of my muzzling when I was trying to decide where to post this:

How the Democratic Party Lost Its Soul, by William Greider (The Nation)

 ... The tattered authenticity of the party matters more now because both the country and the world face dangers and disorders that demand a fundamental reordering of the global economic system. This requires bold action, at a time when neither party is confronting the threatening situation. The Republicans are a wholly owned subsidiary of the business-finance machine; the Democrats are rented.

What we need is a rump formation of dissenters who will break free of the Democratic Party’s confines and set a new agenda that will build the good society rather than feed bloated wealth, disloyal corporations and absurd foreign wars. This is the politics the country needs: purposeful insurrection inside and outside party bounds, and a willingness to disrupt the regular order. And we need it now, to inject reality into the postelection spin war within the party. On one side, the right-wingers will blame the loss on Obama’s unpopularity, claiming his economic policy is too liberal; progressives must counter that the Democrats lost because they had no economic message aside from Obama’s replay of tired Wall Street bromides that misfired so spectacularly.

I'm just the beer guy, but it seems to me that with the local voting math changing fast, it may not be the best idea for the Democratic Party to kiss its left wing goodbye. But if that's the way it has to be ...

Gene Simmons "points the finger at who he suspects is guilty for killing rock."

Irony is the gift that never stops giving. Rolling Stone now bills itself as a source for country music, wherein Gene Simmons can speak about the death of rock. Actually, as often is this case, Simmons has a point. Too bad it's on Paul Stanley's head.

Gene Simmons: 'Rock Is Finally Dead. It Was Murdered', by Daniel Kreps (Rolling Stone)

 ... "The craft is gone, and that is what technology, in part, has brought us," Simmons said. "What is the next Dark Side of the Moon? Now that the record industry barely exists, they wouldn't have a chance to make something like that. There is a reason that, along with the usual top-40 juggernauts, some of the biggest touring bands are half old people, like me."

Simmons then points the finger at who he suspects is guilty for killing rock: "My sense is that file sharing started in predominantly white, middle- and upper-middle-class young people who were native-born, who felt they were entitled to have something for free, because that's what they were used to.

C'mon, people: Kerry Stemler needs to have a bridge named after him.

LEO Weekly wrote: "If the Kentucky General Assembly really names the new downtown bridge after Ronald Reagan, the Fake Issue is going to write itself.

I replied:

I'm for naming it the Kerry Stemler Toll Bridge ... so we never, ever forget who's responsible.

WHAS-11 both reports the story, and detects the irony.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) – Two Kentucky senators have introduced a bill to find a name for the new downtown Ohio River Bridge that is expected to open in 2016.

Republicans Dan Seum and Jimmy Higdon are attempting to get the bridge named ‘The Ronald W. Reagan Memorial Bridge.’

Ronald Reagan was the 40th President of the United States. He died in 2004.

Reagan was a proponent for slashing taxes may have had mixed feeling about having his name on a bridge that is set to be tolled for decades.

'Bune savages Floyd County non-government: "You’ve used that line before."

Dear newspaper folks,

I didn't steal it. It wasn't me. And anyway, the Democrats stole it first. I just borrowed the text from them. That's not stealing. I'd append the damned link to the full site like I used to do, when I was steering traffic your way, but now I can't get through the door ... just like the last time I tried to crash a Bicentennial function. Jesus, folks around here just don't have a sense of humor. 

But you already knew that.

Yours in relative localitivity,

Roger

PS -- Pretty good editorial. Chris Morris couldn't have written it; he's far too deferential toward his elders, although now that Ted Heavrin's gone, there's one less bell to answer. Must have been Shea Van Hoy. Thumbs up. Just think if questions pertaining to these issues had been asked by reporters all along ... but hey, that's just stenography under the bridge. 

Cheers.

---

OUR OPINION: You’ve used that line before

The reasons many Floyd County elected officials used to explain how a $3.6 million shortfall came about are all too familiar.

It was the former auditor’s fault. Murder trials are expensive. It hit us out of the blue.

Yes, we’ve heard all of that before.

In fact, aside from the auditor scapegoat, those were some of the same reasons given by the county for short-changing the former New Albany-Floyd County Parks Department to the tune of about $4 million.
Maybe these situations really are unique. Perhaps the county has had to fund more than its fair share of murder trials. Maybe there was no proverbial “writing on the wall” for the county to see it was stacking up bills that it couldn’t pay. Maybe the auditor — who resigned earlier this year — was lousy at the job Floyd County residents elected him to do.

But maybe Floyd County has been failed again by its leadership.

Elected positions aren’t forced on people. But serving the public isn’t just about garnering the most ballots, it’s about making tough and informed, common sense decisions.

When the news came that the county had failed to live up to its funding obligations for the joint parks system, many officials said they were unaware the situation had gotten so out of hand.

Similar comments were made by multiple Floyd County Council members Thursday as they tried to explain to a roomful of angry employees why they were discussing county layoffs to bridge the funding gap.

Officials can only play the dumb card so long before people will assume that they’re just not qualified to lead.

With seven council members, three commissioners and several administrative workers in high-ranking positions, there’s no way this shortfall should have been kicked down the road to the point where the county’s back is to the wall.

One solution that has been proposed is raising taxes to generate about $2 million in additional revenue annually. That’s about $500,000 more than the county paid to purchase its Pineview Government Center from the New Albany-Floyd County School Corp.

To add fuel to the fire, it’s not really a center, as many county offices are still located in the City-County Building in downtown New Albany.

So basically the ideas that our elected leaders have proposed to rid the county of its ugly mess are employee layoffs, increasing taxes or asking the Horseshoe Foundation of Floyd County for a loan.
Two of those options are essentially bailouts for the council, as they would either be placing the burden of crawling out of the county’s fiscal hole on taxpayers or employees.

The third option — borrowing from the Horseshoe Foundation — seems highly unlikely, as it doesn’t appear the organization has interest in loaning money to an entity that over the past five years has failed to meet its obligation on joint parks and animal shelter agreements, and has a $3.6 million budget shortfall on its résumé.

If the typical $12.3 million budget for the county isn’t enough, during an average year, to foot services then yes, a tax hike might be a worthy discussion to have.

But a tax hike hard to justify when money has already spent on the Pine View center and land for a proposed Little League Park. The money spent there would have made a big dent in the deficit.
Taxes are for services for the people foremost. If there’s money left over and everything is in good standing, sure, upgrading a facility might be a feasible venture.

But to spend money on property and buildings while you have murder trials staring you in the face and you haven’t given most county employees a raise in eight years is bad fiscal management.

Maybe a fair offer would be for the county to figure out a way to address the current deficit without layoffs and then revisit a tax increase in 2015 when hopefully the holes inside the sinking ship have been patched.

Let this serve as another example to the public as well. Choose your leaders wisely. Just because someone is a nice person doesn’t mean he or she is qualified to oversee millions of dollars.

We hope the county has a better plan in place than trotting out the same tired excuses when the council meets Thursday night. We’ve elected them to lead and be responsible stewards of the public’s money.
Is that too much to ask?

— The News and Tribune editorial board is comprised of Publisher Bill Hanson, Editor Shea Van Hoy, Assistant Editor Chris Morris and Assistant Editor Jason Thomas. Responses can be sent to shea.vanhoy@newsandtribune.com