See: Black Friday, Part Two: “Literally millions of native peoples were slaughtered.”
Readers with long memories and commendable patience will recall that the senior editor's annoyance with the Christmas shopping season is a constant condition high atop his overworked soapbox.
I'd managed to avoid a relapse until yesterday, when the New Albany Tribune’s Thursday columnist shimmied with the zeitgeist by referring to the mother of all post-Thanksgiving shopping days as Black Friday. Not wanting to be left out, I'll follow suit in this and a folowing article. Here is the newspaper's contribution.
Thank goodness, tomorrow's Black Friday; When the day comes, you’re gonna stake your claim.
Fair enough. It's another buzz word, and some sweet day it will go away and revert to its proper "crashing market" connotation, but not yet.
I noticed something else, and it took a minute or two for the answer to pop up. Read all the way to the end of Fagen’s and Becker’s savvy thoughts from Steely Dan's album “Katy Lied” to learn where one of the Tribune's anonymous conjurers of headlines cleverly lyric-dropped:
When Black Friday comes
I'll stand down by the door
And catch the gray men
When they dive from the fourteenth floor
When Black Friday comes
I'll collect everything I'm owed
And before my friends find out
I'll be on the road
When Black Friday falls you know it's got to be
Don't let it fall on me
When Black Friday comes
I'll fly down to Muswellbrook
Gonna strike all the big red words
From my little black book
Gonna do just what I please
Gonna wear no socks and shoes
With nothing to do
But feed all the Kangaroos
When Black Friday comes I'll be on that hill
You know I will
When Black Friday comes
I'm gonna dig myself a hole
Gonna lay down in it
'Til I satisfy my soul
Gonna let the world pass by me
The Archbishop gonna sanctify me
And if he don't come across
I'm gonna let it roll
When Black Friday comes I'm gonna stake my claim
I guess I'll change my name.
I had to pour a beer and listen to the whole work of mid-seventies pop art: "Daddy Don't Live in That New York City," "Dr. Wu," "Bad Sneakers," and all the rest of the timeless gems.
Meanwhile, this year's looking like every other. The nation’s fevered economic analysis infrastructure is keeping one eye fixed on the fiscal condition of Chinese trinket manufacturers and another on the tea leaves in an effort to determine if holiday retail sales will be sufficient to float the materialism boat for another year.
Meanwhile, the dollar continues its long slide into irrelevance, the Iraqi money pit continues to suck increasingly devalued greenbacks into a black hole filled with crude, and our patriotically rabid shoppers pile merrily into their Hummers to drive 25 feet to the foot of the driveway and collect their amok credit card bills.
Change the dates, change the names -- but Pavlov's dog salivates just as predictably.
At least we have alcohol.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
What I'm thankful for this week
(We'll be back on Friday, November 23. Have a good Turkey Day ... RAB)
Regardless of who you thank and why you thank them, it remains that sharing homegrown pleasures with friends is a good thing.
Freakwater
When Dylan sings "she knows there's no success like failure, and that failure's no success at all", he may as well be singing about Freakwater. Fiercely independent and totally disregarding of musical trends, Janet Bean and Catherine Irwin have made some of the finest country records ever put down, yet they're virtually invisible to the country music audience. They've cultivated a passionate fan base, but it's so diffused that making any real money touring seems impossible.
Perhaps their fortunes will improve upon the release their new record, Thinking of You. . ., but perhaps not. Problem is, Freakwater's music is faithful to the spirit, but not the letter, of country music's laws. As a result, they live a bastardly life, always on the outside of any side there is. "People with a punk background may think we're purists, but country fans think we're freaks," Irwin said in 1995. And that perception hasn't really changed.
People like this in school
The studio will focus on linking the pedestrian realm of downtown Louisville, especially Main Street, to the waterfront and even across the river to Indiana. Students will research the existing conditions as a basis for understanding the tissue that ties the city to the river, and how it can be enhanced. The problem is daunting, which precludes normal urban interventions. Instead, students will be asked to make a guerrilla attack on the Louisville waterfront, to imagine the improbable as a means of enlarging what is possible, and to restore the civic splendor of this timeless natural resource.
The peculiar magnetic field created by living in downtown New Albany nearly equidistant from Ken Pyle in one direction and Roger Baylor in the other
This Will Oldham / Bonnie Prince Billy show on WFPK's Live Lunch archive
Going to the country to see friends
That people all over town are talking about transportation
Our region deserves transportation solutions that:
- Address the financial, energy and environmental realities of the 21st Century
- Meet the needs of all people, regardless of socioeconomic status
- Are developed through an open, understandable public process
Feel free to pile on.
Regardless of who you thank and why you thank them, it remains that sharing homegrown pleasures with friends is a good thing.
Freakwater
When Dylan sings "she knows there's no success like failure, and that failure's no success at all", he may as well be singing about Freakwater. Fiercely independent and totally disregarding of musical trends, Janet Bean and Catherine Irwin have made some of the finest country records ever put down, yet they're virtually invisible to the country music audience. They've cultivated a passionate fan base, but it's so diffused that making any real money touring seems impossible.
Perhaps their fortunes will improve upon the release their new record, Thinking of You. . ., but perhaps not. Problem is, Freakwater's music is faithful to the spirit, but not the letter, of country music's laws. As a result, they live a bastardly life, always on the outside of any side there is. "People with a punk background may think we're purists, but country fans think we're freaks," Irwin said in 1995. And that perception hasn't really changed.
People like this in school
The studio will focus on linking the pedestrian realm of downtown Louisville, especially Main Street, to the waterfront and even across the river to Indiana. Students will research the existing conditions as a basis for understanding the tissue that ties the city to the river, and how it can be enhanced. The problem is daunting, which precludes normal urban interventions. Instead, students will be asked to make a guerrilla attack on the Louisville waterfront, to imagine the improbable as a means of enlarging what is possible, and to restore the civic splendor of this timeless natural resource.
The peculiar magnetic field created by living in downtown New Albany nearly equidistant from Ken Pyle in one direction and Roger Baylor in the other
This Will Oldham / Bonnie Prince Billy show on WFPK's Live Lunch archive
Going to the country to see friends
That people all over town are talking about transportation
Our region deserves transportation solutions that:
- Address the financial, energy and environmental realities of the 21st Century
- Meet the needs of all people, regardless of socioeconomic status
- Are developed through an open, understandable public process
Feel free to pile on.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Do-gooders can become the worst cheats?
From the MSNBC web site … thanks R.
Do-gooders can become the worst cheats; Study: Sense of moral superiority might lead to rationalizing bad behavior, by Jeanna Bryner.
Morally upstanding people are the do-gooders of society, right? Actually, a new study finds that a sense of moral superiority can lead to unethical acts, such as cheating. In fact, some of the best do-gooders can become the worst cheats.
Do-gooders can become the worst cheats; Study: Sense of moral superiority might lead to rationalizing bad behavior, by Jeanna Bryner.
Morally upstanding people are the do-gooders of society, right? Actually, a new study finds that a sense of moral superiority can lead to unethical acts, such as cheating. In fact, some of the best do-gooders can become the worst cheats.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Nobody listened to Eisenhower, either
One Southern Indiana already has two public school systems, two colleges, four local governments, six banks, and the phone and electric companies represented on their board.
Rather than fostering inclusive, informed debate about the future of regional development from the grassroots up, however, they've fabricated a top down model, insinuating that their suggested course(s) of action are inevitable while providing little public explanation as to why their particular ideological choices are more (or less) beneficial to the region than any possible alternatives. They've yet to openly admit that plausible alternatives even exist.
If they're allowed to continue unchallenged, amassing consequential levels of financial and political support from a roster of executives with an inherent self-interest in protecting their own respective positions, 1SI could easily develop the power to dominate individual local governments, thereby lessening the degree to which public input matters and creating a situation in which our region's future would be decided by the appointed members of a private organization rather than elected public representatives.
Regardless of their intentions, that's dangerous.
Rather than fostering inclusive, informed debate about the future of regional development from the grassroots up, however, they've fabricated a top down model, insinuating that their suggested course(s) of action are inevitable while providing little public explanation as to why their particular ideological choices are more (or less) beneficial to the region than any possible alternatives. They've yet to openly admit that plausible alternatives even exist.
If they're allowed to continue unchallenged, amassing consequential levels of financial and political support from a roster of executives with an inherent self-interest in protecting their own respective positions, 1SI could easily develop the power to dominate individual local governments, thereby lessening the degree to which public input matters and creating a situation in which our region's future would be decided by the appointed members of a private organization rather than elected public representatives.
Regardless of their intentions, that's dangerous.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Sunday morning breakfast conversation.
Roger: Did you see the letter by Dan Coffey in the Tribune?
Diana: No. What is it about?
R: Something about a new parking garage being the work of Al Qaeda … or maybe the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association.
D. They’re the pointy-headed progressives, right?
R: ESNA, or Al Qaeda?
D: Yes.
R: Absolutely. I wonder if Coffey actually wrote the letter.
D: Was it coherent?
R: For the most part. It had a narrative, and came to a point.
D: Then it couldn’t have been him.
R: Do you think Steve Price's wife does contract work?
Diana: No. What is it about?
R: Something about a new parking garage being the work of Al Qaeda … or maybe the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association.
D. They’re the pointy-headed progressives, right?
R: ESNA, or Al Qaeda?
D: Yes.
R: Absolutely. I wonder if Coffey actually wrote the letter.
D: Was it coherent?
R: For the most part. It had a narrative, and came to a point.
D: Then it couldn’t have been him.
R: Do you think Steve Price's wife does contract work?
Sunday morning hoot.
The author of Erika’s “nary a lump” Thanksgiving poem today is unknown, but even so, an “author unknown” attribution should be provided by bloggers who respect such values.
At the bottom is a mistyped URL for Butterball turkeys. The academic apparently hasn’t yet learned to insert a link. Here it is, for your convenience:
Butterball
Even more amusing is that the first section of the faux professor’s holiday greeting is cribbed from a message written by Gary Graham, mayor of O’Fallon, Illinois. Erika changes the order of a couple of words, probably by accident, and of course, no attribution is supplied. Pathetic, yet in this instance ironic, because the original message, dated November 15, 2006, bears the heading, “Traditional Values, Progressive Thinking.”
Our Erika. What a side splitter. I'll be back later this afternoon.
At the bottom is a mistyped URL for Butterball turkeys. The academic apparently hasn’t yet learned to insert a link. Here it is, for your convenience:
Butterball
Even more amusing is that the first section of the faux professor’s holiday greeting is cribbed from a message written by Gary Graham, mayor of O’Fallon, Illinois. Erika changes the order of a couple of words, probably by accident, and of course, no attribution is supplied. Pathetic, yet in this instance ironic, because the original message, dated November 15, 2006, bears the heading, “Traditional Values, Progressive Thinking.”
Our Erika. What a side splitter. I'll be back later this afternoon.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Why is One Southern Indiana publicly endorsing a fundamentalist right wing agenda?
I'm taking the day off on Saturday, but you have homework.
Compare and contrast these two mission statements.
From the One Southern Indiana web site:
One Southern Indiana is the combined Economic Development Council and Chamber of Commerce for Floyd and Clark counties on the Indiana side of the Louisville, Kentucky metropolitan area. One Southern Indiana proactively works to grow our regional economy through business attraction, retention and expansion; through encouraging and supporting entrepreneurs; and through providing government and workforce advocacy, business education, networking opportunities and other business services to our investors. We are one vision, one voice for business.
From the web site of ROCK, i.e., Reclaim Our Culture Kentuckiana:
Are you concerned about ...
The moral decline in our culture
Growth of sexually oriented businesses
Pornography and obscenity
Efforts to push expressions of faith out of the public arena
Attacks on marriage
Culture of death (abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, etc.)
Humanism and relativism
Go to ROCK's web site and watch the video, where you'll hear numerous phrases like, "The mission of ROCK is consistent with the mission of Christ.”
Now, recalling that 1SI chairman Kerry Stemler has indicated that his group is "on board" with ROCK, although not in the "front lines," answer these questions:
What does ROCK's theocratic advocacy have to do with economic development, and why is Stemler giving 1SI's imprimatur to a very specific and exclusionary Christian advocacy group?
---
See also:
R.O.C.K. on, One Southern Indiana ... but first, please answer these inconvenient questions.
One Southern Indiana: Much to answer for, and most (perhaps all) of it at taxpayer expense.
Photos: No torture for a downtown bridge.
Compare and contrast these two mission statements.
From the One Southern Indiana web site:
One Southern Indiana is the combined Economic Development Council and Chamber of Commerce for Floyd and Clark counties on the Indiana side of the Louisville, Kentucky metropolitan area. One Southern Indiana proactively works to grow our regional economy through business attraction, retention and expansion; through encouraging and supporting entrepreneurs; and through providing government and workforce advocacy, business education, networking opportunities and other business services to our investors. We are one vision, one voice for business.
From the web site of ROCK, i.e., Reclaim Our Culture Kentuckiana:
Are you concerned about ...
The moral decline in our culture
Growth of sexually oriented businesses
Pornography and obscenity
Efforts to push expressions of faith out of the public arena
Attacks on marriage
Culture of death (abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, etc.)
Humanism and relativism
Go to ROCK's web site and watch the video, where you'll hear numerous phrases like, "The mission of ROCK is consistent with the mission of Christ.”
Now, recalling that 1SI chairman Kerry Stemler has indicated that his group is "on board" with ROCK, although not in the "front lines," answer these questions:
What does ROCK's theocratic advocacy have to do with economic development, and why is Stemler giving 1SI's imprimatur to a very specific and exclusionary Christian advocacy group?
---
See also:
R.O.C.K. on, One Southern Indiana ... but first, please answer these inconvenient questions.
One Southern Indiana: Much to answer for, and most (perhaps all) of it at taxpayer expense.
Photos: No torture for a downtown bridge.
Friday, November 16, 2007
R.O.C.K. on, One Southern Indiana ... but first, please answer these inconvenient questions.
Jim Morrison’s stone dead, but he still gets it right:
Strange days have found us
Strange days have tracked us down
They’re going to destroy
Our casual joys
We shall go on playing
Or find a new town
Having concluded a revealing week during which One Southern Indiana unabashedly promoted a partisan Republican campaign stop conducted by sitting and failed president, the combined “economic development” agency has inched further down a very slippery slope by aligning itself publicly with an anti-pornography lobby group.
As you read these extended excerpts from the Tribune’s coverage, understand that I’m making no attempt to blithely dismiss the hidden costs to human dignity that are inherent in the substantial business of adult entertainment, but know that if I’m asked to select which of two videos is “pornographic” – the first depicting sex between adults and the second surveying the carnage on any battlefield – my choice falls squarely on the latter.
And, when religious groups take the field over matters like this, check the locks on the public library. Literature and other manifestations of free thought are sure to be next, and accordingly, what part of economic development does censorship enhance ... unless, of course, one lives in China or Zimbabwe.
Group fighting adult businesses with ‘someone’s daughter’ campaign, by David Mann (News and Tribune).
A Louisville-based group is continuing its campaign against adult businesses with a new billboard along Interstate 65.
The group — Reclaim Our Culture Kentuckiana, or ROCK as they’re commonly known — held a press conference and unveiled the new sign Wednesday morning …
… Kerry Stemler, board chairman of economic development agency One Southern Indiana, was at Wednesday’s event. He commented that his organization is on board with ROCK because what it is working for effects economic development and the group is doing it in a very appropriate way.
“We do see the value of good, quality communities,” he said. “(ROCK) really works towards the end goal that we are trying to achieve.”
However, he added that because of the religious implications that ROCK carries with it, One Southern Indiana will not be “on the front lines” with them.
Adult businesses can be barred from joining the chamber of commerce, Stemler said. If such a business wanted to join, it would be a board decision and he would recommend that they not be allowed.
Stemler believes that adult businesses do hinder economic development because “not everybody wants to be right next to that.”
“I think it’s had a negative impact on that Veterans Parkway corridor” where adult video store Theatair X is located. He said few businesses have located near the theater and that most of the development has been the other side of the parkway.
Stated simply, chairman Stemler’s responses raise far more questions than they answer.
---
What are the components of “good, quality” communities?
Are these components dependent on a specific religious or cultural perspective, or is there room for other perspectives?
If the chairman is able to perceive “religious implications” to the group’s activities, why does this suggest that 1SI should refrain from the “front lines” and not suggest that it should refrain from participating, period?
If 1SI is to introduce a moral perspective to economic development issues, couldn’t it be that there a moral perspective to exurban development issues, whether from a Christian or any other religion’s point of view?
For adult businesses to “hinder” economic development, shouldn’t we as residents of Southern Indiana possess a shared view of what economic development means?
If we must discuss what economic development means, is there a chance that this discussion might proceed at odds with 1SI’s primarily exurban definition?
Might is not be possible that for an adult business, a strip mall, an greenfield development and a downtown bridge alike, that “not everybody wants to be right next to that?”
---
Kerry Stemler and 1SI apparently have little sense that they’ve embarked on a messy pratfall down these slippery slopes, and that absence of awareness is what I've found appalling throughout the current week.
Perhaps absolute power does corrupt absolutely, but be that as it may, wouldn’t you think that someone else or some other organization (hint, hint … I belong to such a group) purporting to support economic development might subject 1SI to just a bit of the same public scrutiny that we’re pursuing here at this otherwise lowly blog?
Strange days have found us
Strange days have tracked us down
They’re going to destroy
Our casual joys
We shall go on playing
Or find a new town
Having concluded a revealing week during which One Southern Indiana unabashedly promoted a partisan Republican campaign stop conducted by sitting and failed president, the combined “economic development” agency has inched further down a very slippery slope by aligning itself publicly with an anti-pornography lobby group.
As you read these extended excerpts from the Tribune’s coverage, understand that I’m making no attempt to blithely dismiss the hidden costs to human dignity that are inherent in the substantial business of adult entertainment, but know that if I’m asked to select which of two videos is “pornographic” – the first depicting sex between adults and the second surveying the carnage on any battlefield – my choice falls squarely on the latter.
And, when religious groups take the field over matters like this, check the locks on the public library. Literature and other manifestations of free thought are sure to be next, and accordingly, what part of economic development does censorship enhance ... unless, of course, one lives in China or Zimbabwe.
Group fighting adult businesses with ‘someone’s daughter’ campaign, by David Mann (News and Tribune).
A Louisville-based group is continuing its campaign against adult businesses with a new billboard along Interstate 65.
The group — Reclaim Our Culture Kentuckiana, or ROCK as they’re commonly known — held a press conference and unveiled the new sign Wednesday morning …
… Kerry Stemler, board chairman of economic development agency One Southern Indiana, was at Wednesday’s event. He commented that his organization is on board with ROCK because what it is working for effects economic development and the group is doing it in a very appropriate way.
“We do see the value of good, quality communities,” he said. “(ROCK) really works towards the end goal that we are trying to achieve.”
However, he added that because of the religious implications that ROCK carries with it, One Southern Indiana will not be “on the front lines” with them.
Adult businesses can be barred from joining the chamber of commerce, Stemler said. If such a business wanted to join, it would be a board decision and he would recommend that they not be allowed.
Stemler believes that adult businesses do hinder economic development because “not everybody wants to be right next to that.”
“I think it’s had a negative impact on that Veterans Parkway corridor” where adult video store Theatair X is located. He said few businesses have located near the theater and that most of the development has been the other side of the parkway.
Stated simply, chairman Stemler’s responses raise far more questions than they answer.
---
What are the components of “good, quality” communities?
Are these components dependent on a specific religious or cultural perspective, or is there room for other perspectives?
If the chairman is able to perceive “religious implications” to the group’s activities, why does this suggest that 1SI should refrain from the “front lines” and not suggest that it should refrain from participating, period?
If 1SI is to introduce a moral perspective to economic development issues, couldn’t it be that there a moral perspective to exurban development issues, whether from a Christian or any other religion’s point of view?
For adult businesses to “hinder” economic development, shouldn’t we as residents of Southern Indiana possess a shared view of what economic development means?
If we must discuss what economic development means, is there a chance that this discussion might proceed at odds with 1SI’s primarily exurban definition?
Might is not be possible that for an adult business, a strip mall, an greenfield development and a downtown bridge alike, that “not everybody wants to be right next to that?”
---
Kerry Stemler and 1SI apparently have little sense that they’ve embarked on a messy pratfall down these slippery slopes, and that absence of awareness is what I've found appalling throughout the current week.
Perhaps absolute power does corrupt absolutely, but be that as it may, wouldn’t you think that someone else or some other organization (hint, hint … I belong to such a group) purporting to support economic development might subject 1SI to just a bit of the same public scrutiny that we’re pursuing here at this otherwise lowly blog?
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Play it again, Steve: Price and redevelopment is like AC-DC and chamber music.
I just rolled back into town following a rewarding afternoon at Cincinnati’s National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, which helpfully reminds those among us so inclined to regard history as it really was and not as we now wish it to be that all depictions of the halcyon antebellum Southern “way of life” lacking reference to the sheer brutality of slave labor are, shall we vastly understate, idiotically disingenuous.
Look for photographs this weekend. Until then, and with tonight’s city council meeting probably concluded at this hour (or close to it), here’s an item from today’s Tribune:
Messer wants to be president of New Albany City Council, by Eric Scott Campbell.
New Albany City Councilman-at-large Jack Messer believes he has majority support to make him president of the nine-member legislative panel in 2008, he told The Tribune.
CM Messer certainly has my vote as the best available antidote to sitting president Kochert’s incessant conniving and transparent chicanery, but what really makes the article funny is another in a seemingly endless series of conceptual malapropisms on the part of the 3rd district’s clueless councilman.
District 3 Councilman Steve Price serves on the Redevelopment Commission with Messer. He didn’t know whether he’d vote for Messer, calling (Jeff) Gahan “my first choice,” but Price drew attention to another duty of the president: appointing council members to other city panels.
“I think they want to take me off Redevelopment and I don’t have a problem with that, but I think it should be me or [District 1 Councilman] Dan Coffey. Our districts are directly related” to redevelopment funding, Price said.
That's a hoot. Not that Price comprehends redevelopment in any meaningful way great or small, and yet he hastens to stress the importance of having himself or his conjoined 1st district counterpart in a position to readily obstruct the tenets of redevelopment. As Bluegill presciently noted in a comment a few days ago:
Price's suggestion that he doesn't have time to deal with the redevelopment issues his district supports because he's too busy serving as council liaison to the Redevelopment Commission was a classic.
Alas, when hoary oldies are all you know how to play, you just keep strumming the same tune over, and over, and over.
Look for photographs this weekend. Until then, and with tonight’s city council meeting probably concluded at this hour (or close to it), here’s an item from today’s Tribune:
Messer wants to be president of New Albany City Council, by Eric Scott Campbell.
New Albany City Councilman-at-large Jack Messer believes he has majority support to make him president of the nine-member legislative panel in 2008, he told The Tribune.
CM Messer certainly has my vote as the best available antidote to sitting president Kochert’s incessant conniving and transparent chicanery, but what really makes the article funny is another in a seemingly endless series of conceptual malapropisms on the part of the 3rd district’s clueless councilman.
District 3 Councilman Steve Price serves on the Redevelopment Commission with Messer. He didn’t know whether he’d vote for Messer, calling (Jeff) Gahan “my first choice,” but Price drew attention to another duty of the president: appointing council members to other city panels.
“I think they want to take me off Redevelopment and I don’t have a problem with that, but I think it should be me or [District 1 Councilman] Dan Coffey. Our districts are directly related” to redevelopment funding, Price said.
That's a hoot. Not that Price comprehends redevelopment in any meaningful way great or small, and yet he hastens to stress the importance of having himself or his conjoined 1st district counterpart in a position to readily obstruct the tenets of redevelopment. As Bluegill presciently noted in a comment a few days ago:
Price's suggestion that he doesn't have time to deal with the redevelopment issues his district supports because he's too busy serving as council liaison to the Redevelopment Commission was a classic.
Alas, when hoary oldies are all you know how to play, you just keep strumming the same tune over, and over, and over.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
"Great American God-Out" is tomorrow.
Here's the explanation from the Atheist Revolution blog. It's hard to imagine this one becoming a widely observed holiday, isn't it?
One suggestion stands out:
Learn how to identify and correct at least one logical fallacy for the day.
Hmm, looks like we'll be shadowing 3rd district councilman Steve Price ... but at least the job will be done by just after breakfast. The many ones coming after that are someone else's responsibility.
Happy Hour, here we come.
One suggestion stands out:
Learn how to identify and correct at least one logical fallacy for the day.
Hmm, looks like we'll be shadowing 3rd district councilman Steve Price ... but at least the job will be done by just after breakfast. The many ones coming after that are someone else's responsibility.
Happy Hour, here we come.
One Southern Indiana: Much to answer for, and most (perhaps all) of it at taxpayer expense.
At NAC on Tuesday: Photos: No torture for a downtown bridge.----
Readers know where to go for coverage of yesterday’s visit by George W. Bush to New Albany, so those in need of the recap, consult the usual Courier and Tribune sources.
Meanwhile, the presidential visit was a surreal exercise in boarded tight window art at taxpayer expense, a massive logistics boondoggle at taxpayer expense, a transparent campaign rally for Mike Sodrel at taxpayer expense, a celebration of petro-imperialism overseas at taxpayer expense, and worst of all, a striking example of One Southern Indiana’s fawning and obsequious approval of outrages ranging from Constitutional erosion to institutionalized torture … and, yes, also at taxpayer expense.
With all these examples of tax revenue gone horribly awry, you’d have thought that the slumlord lobby would have been out in full force to protest. How incredibly strange that they weren’t.
How do you account for that? Truly, irony must be dead hereabouts.
Here are two of yesterday’s comments, lifted here to the marquee.
----
Mr. G wrote:
Add the link to Bob Hill's column in (Tuesday’s) Courier-Journal. It pretty accurately represents all the questions attendees were asking about this "event".
(Here is Hill's column)
Where is ISI's head in conceiving of this as useful or representative of our region's aspirations or needs?
It's entertaining to look at the enlarged photo of the Secret Service guys and imagine some captions: "Where will he have us going next?" "Is this what we have to do to find a 'friendly' audience?" "Small enough town equals dignitaries willing to appear enthusiastic." "Do these people know he's just vetoed spending for human services, education and job retraining?"
None of, not one, of the SS agents looks like he's having a good time and it's not because they think a sniper is going to jump up on the roof of The Fair Store building.
Also puzzling was ISI's press release claiming sponsors for today's visit was ISI, the chamber of commerce and local economic development groups--as if they were separate entities and not those who merged to create ISI.
Who's drunk the Kool Aid and who’s zooming who?
----
NAC’s Bluegill agreed:
Exactly, mr g.
I'm very sorry I couldn't make it today. Thank you for your sign, Roger.
Hopefully, Develop New Albany, who recently signed on as a 1SI member, and Mayor-elect England, who mentioned them repeatedly while campaigning, will have the wherewithal to speak out against such an egregious abuse of development dollars and the public trust.
The entire event amounted to nothing but partisan politics on behalf of a man and his minions who've consistently implemented policies of and advocated for (usually in that order since they had to be caught first) Constitutional destruction and the torture, maiming, and killing of hundreds of thousands.
1SI should be ashamed. It will be interesting to see what the heavy hitters on their board have to say about today's embarrassment.
1SI Chair Kerry Stemler even announced "They love you" from the stage during the introduction.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
A milestone.
Roughly at 9:56 p.m., we went over the 200,000 visitor mark since October, 2004.
Wow. I'm humbled. While it pales numerically in comparison to Erika's many pre-election letters, thanks very much for reading. The fact that I just returned from a killer beer dinner is not contributing to the euphoria.
Really.
Wow. I'm humbled. While it pales numerically in comparison to Erika's many pre-election letters, thanks very much for reading. The fact that I just returned from a killer beer dinner is not contributing to the euphoria.
Really.
Spitballs at Shrub: See you downtown today.
According to the Louisville Peace Action Community (LPAC), there'll be a formal protest today as President George W. Bush speaks about the economy at the Grand, circa 1:15 p.m.
"Join the protest against Bush, 12:15 - 2:00 p.m. on the north side of Market St., as close to the Grand as possible."
Speaking of the economy, it currently costs a buck forty five to buy a Euro. There's a waiting list to buy stainless steel kegs and hops (for use in beer) -- if you can get 'em at all. Has it occurred to you that with ten minutes worth of expenditure in Iraq, we could revitalize the whole of downtown New Albany?
Do you think this has occurred to the sycophants at 1SI? As Bluegill presciently noted a couple days ago, "Maybe we could open a high tech torture center to kick off the new industrial park and promote the bridges project."
Dave Clancy's former digs at the late, lamented Bistro New Albany have been transformed into Secret Service Central for Dubya's latest propagandistic incursion, and although Mike Sodrel is beaming, the reality of black clad snipers occupying space near to where I once dined on marvelous beef and satisfying progressive pints is damned near sickening.
I feel violated -- much like the Constitution during Bush's disastrous tenure in office.
Protesting? See you down there, and remember: Connor's Place for post-protest ales.
See: Not big enough, Mr. Dalby: If only it were Bono, and not merely a spectacularly failed president.
"Join the protest against Bush, 12:15 - 2:00 p.m. on the north side of Market St., as close to the Grand as possible."
Speaking of the economy, it currently costs a buck forty five to buy a Euro. There's a waiting list to buy stainless steel kegs and hops (for use in beer) -- if you can get 'em at all. Has it occurred to you that with ten minutes worth of expenditure in Iraq, we could revitalize the whole of downtown New Albany?
Do you think this has occurred to the sycophants at 1SI? As Bluegill presciently noted a couple days ago, "Maybe we could open a high tech torture center to kick off the new industrial park and promote the bridges project."
Dave Clancy's former digs at the late, lamented Bistro New Albany have been transformed into Secret Service Central for Dubya's latest propagandistic incursion, and although Mike Sodrel is beaming, the reality of black clad snipers occupying space near to where I once dined on marvelous beef and satisfying progressive pints is damned near sickening.
I feel violated -- much like the Constitution during Bush's disastrous tenure in office.
Protesting? See you down there, and remember: Connor's Place for post-protest ales.
See: Not big enough, Mr. Dalby: If only it were Bono, and not merely a spectacularly failed president.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Imagine that: Charlie Brown & the C-J drop Cappuccino's name in attacking 8664, an idea none of them understand.
While their action was overshadowed by last week’s elections, it remains noteworthy that two members of Louisville’s Metro Council have done something almost revolutionary by Louisville area standards.They’ve taken positive steps to promote public discussion of an innovative, futuristic perspective.
Hearings to be held on '8664' proposal; Metro Council to examine idea, by Marcus Green (The Courier-Journal)
A Louisville Metro Council committee will hold public hearings on a proposal to raze Interstate 64 along the waterfront as an alternative to building two new Ohio River bridges and redesign the Spaghetti Junction interchange.
With admirable diligence, the C-J’s reporter Green donned his brightly colored haz-mat suit and trekked into West Endia, soon locating New Albany’s resident village idiot seated atop an empty crate of barbecued bologna, and gleaning a quick and typically uninformed quote:
Dan Coffey, a New Albany City Council member, called the 8664 proposal "one of the most ludicrous things I've ever heard in my entire life" and said he believes Southern Indiana governments would consider taking a formal position on 8664 if it gains momentum.
"New Albany would definitely get involved in that," he said. "It would absolutely choke Floyd County."
Of course, virtually every aspect of Coffey’s malevolent political career chokes New Albany … but I digress.
Meanwhile, LEO’s Stephen George, whose yeoman service in explicating the 8664 campaign deserves some form of community recognition (I’ll buy him a progressive pint some day soon) noted that Coffey’s reaction isn’t entirely atypical of the Louisville area’s windbag guardians.
Representin': 8664 will have its day
Perhaps this is an opportunity for our city’s business and political leaders — who have rarely appeared so close-minded, brutish and reactionary as they do when confronted on this issue — to step back and reassess the political climate around the bridges. The Metro Council, on the initiative of (Tina) Ward-Pugh (who will chair the committee), is actually responding to broad constituent concern that someone, somewhere, pull a head out of an ass and listen. (Rick) Blackwell and Ward-Pugh should be celebrated for that.
It gets even funnier. In the Sunday, November 11 issue of the C-J, there was a letter from a man who obviously hasn’t met the Wizard of Westside.
'Trick or treat scenario'
The Halloween announcement that the Louisville Metro Council will hold public hearings regarding the 8664 proposal is a monumental waste of time, energy and the taxpayers' money. Local political grinches such as Tina Ward-Pugh and Rick Blackwell should be hooted out of office for supporting "one of the most ludicrous things I've ever heard in my entire life," according to Dan Coffey, a New Albany councilman who obviously is most upset over these shenanigans.
I was very pleased that the Courier-Journal editorial staff immediately and emphatically weighed in on this trick or treat scenario. This is an unwise and unsupported attempt at "mudding the waters," our mayor has said in both Frankfort and Washington. Indeed, the time has well passed for more posturing and discussion. It is time for action.
The letter, which freely mimics the comic strip “Peanuts,” is signed by a real life Charlie Brown. Accordingly, I’ve composed this response and mailed it to the newspaper:
Good ol’ Charlie Brown’s November 11 letter to the editor was far off the plate.
That's because quoting New Albany’s councilman Dan Coffey as an authority on 8664 is like citing Charlie’s good friend Lucy Van Pelt as an expert on psychotherapy.
Not that Councilman Coffey isn’t above claiming to be an expert, since he regularly flashes a Bazooka Joe Tech diploma as evidence of unparalleled skills on civic matters ranging from storm water drainage to garbage collection, but the problem remains that little of it is real. Coffey is an undereducated, ward-heeling embarrassment to the entire city of New Albany, and can be counted upon to know nothing about the notion of 8664 save that people he dislikes are in favor of it.
Much like the Courier-Journal itself, for that matter.
Be careful, Charlie. Like Lucy, our councilman will pull the football away at the last minute, and you’ll be on your back in the mud – just like his district.
Read more about 8664 here.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
We Americans should be ashamed, but apparently that gene has gone missing.
Veterans Day falls on November 11th because that's when the Armistice took effect in 1918, ending World War I. A previous generation knew about the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, but numerous other mass bloodlettings have occurred since the war to end all wars, and there can't be more than a handful of living Great War veterans worldwide, so we forget the source ... as always, to our peril.
To my mind, it is unfortunate that memories of the First World War's suicidal tragedy are almost entirely extinguished, and yet far more jolting is the recognition that the same can now almost be said of World War II's legacy. It has been 62 years since VJ Day, and one needn't be a calculus major to do the Grim Reaper's math of inexorable attrition.
In terms of documentary filmmaking, Ken Burns's latest epic about the Second World War and the generation of Americans that fought it was imperfect in execution and too long by half. However, it succeeded in putting a significant truth across to those caring to listen: The majority of ordinary Americans sacrificed in some way, large or small, during the war years. There were inevitable exceptions, but sacrifice was demanded, and it was accepted.
Such a time when conspicuous consumption actually was frowned upon now seems more remote to us than the Pleistocene.
It's hardly a novel thought to remind readers that during the present period of our purportedly critical struggle against so-called "Islamofascism," not the slightest inconvenience has been asked of the American populace, leaving the brunt of the fight to be borne by servicemen and their immediate families.
Surely that's just another reason why posterity will rank the current occupant of the Oval Office far below Millard Fillmore, but as the United States settles into what almost surely is to become a long, steady decline into well-armed Third World status -- if you don't believe it, then watch your neighbors in their garish Hummer queuing to pay increasingly worthless dollars for petroleum so that they can travel to Wally World for another basket filled with Chinese-made plastic -- it's a depressing way to contemplate the Veterans Day observance.
Depressing ... and unavoidable. I'd dearly love to be more upbeat, but there are times when it makes more sense to be realistic. U2's Bono, who by all rights should have been the choice for 1SI's "economic policy" address Tuesday at the Grand and not our miserably failed president -- if for no other reason than guitarist The Edge serving as a more musical and trustworthy right-hand man than Dick Cheney -- once wrote a song about the unification of Germany entitled, "Daddy's Going to Pay for Your Crashed Car."
Who'll be America's Daddy?
To my mind, it is unfortunate that memories of the First World War's suicidal tragedy are almost entirely extinguished, and yet far more jolting is the recognition that the same can now almost be said of World War II's legacy. It has been 62 years since VJ Day, and one needn't be a calculus major to do the Grim Reaper's math of inexorable attrition.
In terms of documentary filmmaking, Ken Burns's latest epic about the Second World War and the generation of Americans that fought it was imperfect in execution and too long by half. However, it succeeded in putting a significant truth across to those caring to listen: The majority of ordinary Americans sacrificed in some way, large or small, during the war years. There were inevitable exceptions, but sacrifice was demanded, and it was accepted.
Such a time when conspicuous consumption actually was frowned upon now seems more remote to us than the Pleistocene.
It's hardly a novel thought to remind readers that during the present period of our purportedly critical struggle against so-called "Islamofascism," not the slightest inconvenience has been asked of the American populace, leaving the brunt of the fight to be borne by servicemen and their immediate families.
Surely that's just another reason why posterity will rank the current occupant of the Oval Office far below Millard Fillmore, but as the United States settles into what almost surely is to become a long, steady decline into well-armed Third World status -- if you don't believe it, then watch your neighbors in their garish Hummer queuing to pay increasingly worthless dollars for petroleum so that they can travel to Wally World for another basket filled with Chinese-made plastic -- it's a depressing way to contemplate the Veterans Day observance.
Depressing ... and unavoidable. I'd dearly love to be more upbeat, but there are times when it makes more sense to be realistic. U2's Bono, who by all rights should have been the choice for 1SI's "economic policy" address Tuesday at the Grand and not our miserably failed president -- if for no other reason than guitarist The Edge serving as a more musical and trustworthy right-hand man than Dick Cheney -- once wrote a song about the unification of Germany entitled, "Daddy's Going to Pay for Your Crashed Car."
Who'll be America's Daddy?
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Not big enough, Mr. Dalby: If only it were Bono, and not merely a spectacularly failed president.
U2's singer could provide an international perspective ... and he can even play an instrument, too.
Someone tell Dubya’s stonefaced advance men that I’ll consider listening to the lame duck’s ungrammatical blather -- consider, mind you -- only so long as he promises to bring, say, 50 kilos of Cascades hops with him as a love offering.
I’ll even wear my 8664 t-shirt to the party to annoy 1SI’s enduringly exurban brain trust, but only if hops are part of the deal.
Best throw in a few kilos of Centennial, too. Those are my favorite.
Tell you what: Shriveled shrub brings the hop bribe, and I'll bring a few gallons of Elector ale to lubricate the proceedings. After all, Elector's motto is "It Makes Democracy Pointless," which naturally refers to the original stolen election of 2000.
Yes, President Bush to visit New Albany Tuesday (News-Tribune).
The visit was the idea of One Southern Indiana Chief Executive Officer Michael Dalby. The organization wanted to bring in a speaker and decided to think big, (1SI chairman of the board Kerry) Stemler said.
One Southern Indiana asked the president to visit in order to give members a national perspective on economic matters. Stemler said the agency was quite fortunate to have him agree to do so.
Truly, it gets more and more difficult these days to suppress a yawn.
Does anyone really think this lastest drain on the local law enforcement budget would be happening if not for Mike “Hot Wheels” Sodrel’s wacko decision to spend another couple million dollars of Republican slush money from Mississippi, Idaho, and Riyadh to assist in avenging his providential 2006 loss to Baron Hill?
Looks like the "Sodrel 2008" campaign ads start on Tuesday. It’s going to be a long, long year, and there aren't enough Shop-Vacs in all of the former Northwest Territory to clean up the mud soon to be generated.
On the bright side, earlier today I escorted my wife’s British cousin to the Muhammad Ali Center, where she was delighted to learn more about a true American hero.
Oddly, we did not see Diane McCartin Benedetti there.
Maybe next time, eh?
Someone tell Dubya’s stonefaced advance men that I’ll consider listening to the lame duck’s ungrammatical blather -- consider, mind you -- only so long as he promises to bring, say, 50 kilos of Cascades hops with him as a love offering.
I’ll even wear my 8664 t-shirt to the party to annoy 1SI’s enduringly exurban brain trust, but only if hops are part of the deal.
Best throw in a few kilos of Centennial, too. Those are my favorite.
Tell you what: Shriveled shrub brings the hop bribe, and I'll bring a few gallons of Elector ale to lubricate the proceedings. After all, Elector's motto is "It Makes Democracy Pointless," which naturally refers to the original stolen election of 2000.
Yes, President Bush to visit New Albany Tuesday (News-Tribune).
The visit was the idea of One Southern Indiana Chief Executive Officer Michael Dalby. The organization wanted to bring in a speaker and decided to think big, (1SI chairman of the board Kerry) Stemler said.
One Southern Indiana asked the president to visit in order to give members a national perspective on economic matters. Stemler said the agency was quite fortunate to have him agree to do so.
Truly, it gets more and more difficult these days to suppress a yawn.
Does anyone really think this lastest drain on the local law enforcement budget would be happening if not for Mike “Hot Wheels” Sodrel’s wacko decision to spend another couple million dollars of Republican slush money from Mississippi, Idaho, and Riyadh to assist in avenging his providential 2006 loss to Baron Hill?
Looks like the "Sodrel 2008" campaign ads start on Tuesday. It’s going to be a long, long year, and there aren't enough Shop-Vacs in all of the former Northwest Territory to clean up the mud soon to be generated.
On the bright side, earlier today I escorted my wife’s British cousin to the Muhammad Ali Center, where she was delighted to learn more about a true American hero.
Oddly, we did not see Diane McCartin Benedetti there.
Maybe next time, eh?
Friday, November 09, 2007
Restoration work underway at 117 E. Oak.
Recently we reported that in spite of savage neglect inflicted on the 1840’s era railroad building at 117 E. Oak by its previous owner, Jim Stewart of Daisy Medical Supply, there was hope for its future.
The Daisy Medical Supply building may survive.
While it continues to strike NA Confidential as odd that people like this Stewart fellow should be rewarded with cash for what amounts to serial anti-social behavior against the city at large – the lash, public stocks or stringent financial penalties all seem more appropriate – it remains that an agreement to sell has been struck, an agreement in principle has been inked by both parties, and work apparently will soon begin on stabilization.
Indeed, the deal was completed soon thereafter, and Tom Johnson, masonry restoration contractor and owner of Keystone Restorations, took control of the building.
Last weekend, Tom, wife Lisa, and several masked helpers (mold spores are in abundance) were spotted loading two dumpsters with accumulated detritus from the ravaged structure. They were the 8th and 9th dumpsters filled since work began, and more have come and gone in the days since.
Tom notes that while the collapsed section of wall that appears so dangerous from the street actually shouldn’t be that hard of a fix, the wretched condition of the interior, i.e., a disintegrating roof and many years of water damage, is worse than he expected. Nevertheless, he’s exuding quiet optimism in the early stages of the project.
Interestingly, the decades-old stucco on the south facing wall actually hides large windows and upper floor doors that once opened to lower and lift items. Work is underway on drawings that will give the public an idea of what the front of the building used to look like.
And, the bricked-in windows on the west wall likely will be restored, which will give the top floor an abundance of natural lighting.
It’s a big job, but it appears as if the right people are undertaking it. Stay tuned for further details as work progresses this winter.
The Daisy Medical Supply building may survive.
While it continues to strike NA Confidential as odd that people like this Stewart fellow should be rewarded with cash for what amounts to serial anti-social behavior against the city at large – the lash, public stocks or stringent financial penalties all seem more appropriate – it remains that an agreement to sell has been struck, an agreement in principle has been inked by both parties, and work apparently will soon begin on stabilization.
Indeed, the deal was completed soon thereafter, and Tom Johnson, masonry restoration contractor and owner of Keystone Restorations, took control of the building.
Last weekend, Tom, wife Lisa, and several masked helpers (mold spores are in abundance) were spotted loading two dumpsters with accumulated detritus from the ravaged structure. They were the 8th and 9th dumpsters filled since work began, and more have come and gone in the days since.
Tom notes that while the collapsed section of wall that appears so dangerous from the street actually shouldn’t be that hard of a fix, the wretched condition of the interior, i.e., a disintegrating roof and many years of water damage, is worse than he expected. Nevertheless, he’s exuding quiet optimism in the early stages of the project.
Interestingly, the decades-old stucco on the south facing wall actually hides large windows and upper floor doors that once opened to lower and lift items. Work is underway on drawings that will give the public an idea of what the front of the building used to look like.
And, the bricked-in windows on the west wall likely will be restored, which will give the top floor an abundance of natural lighting.
It’s a big job, but it appears as if the right people are undertaking it. Stay tuned for further details as work progresses this winter.
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Interlude.
Before I forget, hearty thanks to NAC's readers. In the run-up to the election, visits and page views were well above average.
Actually, it isn't even necessary to look at the statistics. Whenever the volume of troglodyte-inspired vitriol being hurled against you doubles in mere days, it's a sure sign that what you're doing is working.
And that what you're doing is correct. Your patronage is sincerely appreciated.
Next up: Step inside the Daisy Medical Building to see the cleaning and restoration work now underway.
Actually, it isn't even necessary to look at the statistics. Whenever the volume of troglodyte-inspired vitriol being hurled against you doubles in mere days, it's a sure sign that what you're doing is working.
And that what you're doing is correct. Your patronage is sincerely appreciated.
Next up: Step inside the Daisy Medical Building to see the cleaning and restoration work now underway.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Hmm … not bad. Now for a few questions.
The general idea was to reconfigure New Albany's city council, and so it has been done. Where the reconfiguration goes from here is anyone’s guess, although at this moment I’m optimistic.
Moreover, the relatively simple notion here at NAC was that it might be helpful for there to be a bloc of five, six or maybe even seven council persons capable of rational deliberation and critical thought, and while there isn’t any such thing as perfection in any aspect of life on Earth, the goal of civic progress just might be better served overall by eliminating the insanely dysfunctional paradigm whereby “4 + 4 + poor unfortunate Donnie Blevins = irrational gridlock.”
Could be; we’ll see. I haven't been this encouraged in a while, but as Groucho Marx once observed, “it’s early yet.”
My morning’s (thankfully, not “mourning’s”) post-election scorecard shows Caesar, McLaughlin, Gahan, Messer, Gonder, Zurschmiede at least capable of supporting progress at any given time, while the shrunken heads over at the cinder block and tar paper headquarters of the Coffey/Price duodumbvirate remains consistently in favor of anti-intellectual societal regress. This countdown leaves one council person as an unknown quantity: Newcomer Diane McCartin-Benedetti, who defeated Dick Bliss in the 5th.
Among the questions to be asked:
Is the walking, breathing political contagion known as Dan Coffey now sufficiently quarantined?
Where will the incoming 5th district representative come down on the persistent issue of progress vs. regress?
How much damage can the bile-infused current council do in its remaining 2007 meetings?
Meanwhile, two alleged political swan songs turned out to be horribly discordant, though perfectly in keeping with the ineffectual careers that preceded them. Lame duck councilman Bill Schmidt (D, bizarrely) actively campaigned for eventual election winner Bob Caesar’s Republican opponent. Outgoing council president Larry Kochert (D, seldom) played precisely the same disloyal hand on behalf of the Republican challenger in his own 4th district, and for good measure, the 6th district’s Republican candidate, too. Tellingly, both of the GOP candidates were handily defeated (by Democrats Pat McLaughlin and Jeff Gahan, respectively).
That’s a sad preponderance of chicanery on the part of two Gang of Four stalwarts, both mercifully departing the council, but given that their tactics were entirely unsuccessful, it’s also an obvious and massive repudiation. The question being asked today is:
Was it enough of a repudiation to drive the political equivalent of a wooden stake through their reactionary hearts?
While we’re on the topic of pre-election chicanery, there was plenty more of it surging through the veins of the Main Street corridor’s forever Machiavellian opinion shifters, who navigate ever-shifting labyrinths murky enough to make Afghanistan’s feuding warlords appear as cribbage-playing tea sippers by comparison.
We’ll probably never understand the weekend’s fervent behind-the-scenes activities, with newspaper and blog attacks being launched, rebutted, refashioned and hurled again; with strange meetings between even stranger bedfellows; and amid a generally incomprehensible series of couplings, decouplings and recouplings. Given the dimensions of the scrum, the question that comes to my mind is this:
How is it possible that a 3rd district business owner -- mind you, not just one, but any business owner – support an incumbent (Steve Price) who has voted again and again against the sort of progress that enhances the value of one’s business investment?
Furthermore, as an observer whose Main Street lineup card currently carries enough white-out to coat the exterior of the City-County Building, another question to be asked is this:
Will there ever come a time when these people can row in the same direction for the good of the entire city?
And, while we’re at it …
How exactly can mayor-elect Doug England please the senior editor and Price at the same time?
My conclusion: New Albany’s political landscape has indeed shifted, but it’s too early to predict the extent.
Join us next time for another episode of “Connor’s Place Putsch.”
Moreover, the relatively simple notion here at NAC was that it might be helpful for there to be a bloc of five, six or maybe even seven council persons capable of rational deliberation and critical thought, and while there isn’t any such thing as perfection in any aspect of life on Earth, the goal of civic progress just might be better served overall by eliminating the insanely dysfunctional paradigm whereby “4 + 4 + poor unfortunate Donnie Blevins = irrational gridlock.”
Could be; we’ll see. I haven't been this encouraged in a while, but as Groucho Marx once observed, “it’s early yet.”
My morning’s (thankfully, not “mourning’s”) post-election scorecard shows Caesar, McLaughlin, Gahan, Messer, Gonder, Zurschmiede at least capable of supporting progress at any given time, while the shrunken heads over at the cinder block and tar paper headquarters of the Coffey/Price duodumbvirate remains consistently in favor of anti-intellectual societal regress. This countdown leaves one council person as an unknown quantity: Newcomer Diane McCartin-Benedetti, who defeated Dick Bliss in the 5th.
Among the questions to be asked:
Is the walking, breathing political contagion known as Dan Coffey now sufficiently quarantined?
Where will the incoming 5th district representative come down on the persistent issue of progress vs. regress?
How much damage can the bile-infused current council do in its remaining 2007 meetings?
Meanwhile, two alleged political swan songs turned out to be horribly discordant, though perfectly in keeping with the ineffectual careers that preceded them. Lame duck councilman Bill Schmidt (D, bizarrely) actively campaigned for eventual election winner Bob Caesar’s Republican opponent. Outgoing council president Larry Kochert (D, seldom) played precisely the same disloyal hand on behalf of the Republican challenger in his own 4th district, and for good measure, the 6th district’s Republican candidate, too. Tellingly, both of the GOP candidates were handily defeated (by Democrats Pat McLaughlin and Jeff Gahan, respectively).
That’s a sad preponderance of chicanery on the part of two Gang of Four stalwarts, both mercifully departing the council, but given that their tactics were entirely unsuccessful, it’s also an obvious and massive repudiation. The question being asked today is:
Was it enough of a repudiation to drive the political equivalent of a wooden stake through their reactionary hearts?
While we’re on the topic of pre-election chicanery, there was plenty more of it surging through the veins of the Main Street corridor’s forever Machiavellian opinion shifters, who navigate ever-shifting labyrinths murky enough to make Afghanistan’s feuding warlords appear as cribbage-playing tea sippers by comparison.
We’ll probably never understand the weekend’s fervent behind-the-scenes activities, with newspaper and blog attacks being launched, rebutted, refashioned and hurled again; with strange meetings between even stranger bedfellows; and amid a generally incomprehensible series of couplings, decouplings and recouplings. Given the dimensions of the scrum, the question that comes to my mind is this:
How is it possible that a 3rd district business owner -- mind you, not just one, but any business owner – support an incumbent (Steve Price) who has voted again and again against the sort of progress that enhances the value of one’s business investment?
Furthermore, as an observer whose Main Street lineup card currently carries enough white-out to coat the exterior of the City-County Building, another question to be asked is this:
Will there ever come a time when these people can row in the same direction for the good of the entire city?
And, while we’re at it …
How exactly can mayor-elect Doug England please the senior editor and Price at the same time?
My conclusion: New Albany’s political landscape has indeed shifted, but it’s too early to predict the extent.
Join us next time for another episode of “Connor’s Place Putsch.”
Yep.
The Courier Journal's take: Democrat overcomes ex-sheriff's criticisms, by Dick Kaukas.
For further commentary: NA Shadow Council's Democrats Earn First At-Bat.
Preliminary doodlings indicate that the Coffey contagion may finally have been isolated. Of course, that's after a bunch o'Electors.
Overall ... a good outcome.
More later.
Consider this an open thread to discuss election results.
For further commentary: NA Shadow Council's Democrats Earn First At-Bat.
Preliminary doodlings indicate that the Coffey contagion may finally have been isolated. Of course, that's after a bunch o'Electors.
Overall ... a good outcome.
More later.
Consider this an open thread to discuss election results.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Election Day reporting at NA Shadow Council.
(These updates are well under way; go to NA Shadow Council to read them)
From Randy Smith:
I'll be hooking up with shadow5 for through-the-day reporting on election irregularities, anecdotes, and vote totals by precinct. We'll be feeding data newest to oldest. If you'd like to link to NA Shadow Council, people can e-mail me or shadow5 or call the store (number below) with reports today.
Randy Smith
Flood Crest Press/Destinations Booksellers
604 E. Spring St.
New Albany, IN 47150
812.944.5116
From Randy Smith:
I'll be hooking up with shadow5 for through-the-day reporting on election irregularities, anecdotes, and vote totals by precinct. We'll be feeding data newest to oldest. If you'd like to link to NA Shadow Council, people can e-mail me or shadow5 or call the store (number below) with reports today.
Randy Smith
Flood Crest Press/Destinations Booksellers
604 E. Spring St.
New Albany, IN 47150
812.944.5116
Another NA (non-alcoholic) election day.
Don’t forget:You must have an ID to vote – and to get served after you vote.
Don't forget:
If you're looking for a polling place, call the Floyd County Democratic Party at 812-207-7941.
Don't forget:
To quote Groucho Marx, when the taps finally open at 6:00 p.m., there'll be "dancing in the streets, drinking in the saloons, and necking in the parlor," at least until the sad reality of Dan Coffey's inevitable victory over write-in candidate Skittles the Cat begins to sink in. I'll likely be at Connor's Place for celebration and commiseration.
You've forgotten: The following first ran on May 2, 2006.
----
Another election day is here, and with it eleven hours of state-mandated prohibition against the sale of demon rum.
Presumably, this unwelcome vestige of an otherwise discredited social policy serves as a bulwark against the horrific possibility that unscrupulous politicos or their conniving agents might swap half-pints of Kessler (or a similarly valued slopping spree at a downtown tavern) in exchange for a poor wretch’s vote.
As there exists no commensurate prohibition against the sale of strong black coffee, chocolate-covered Krispy Kremes and hickory-smoked bacon, apparently the veiled but very real threat of breakfast-induced bribery is not worthy of the same scrutiny as that posed by the insidious grape and the grain.
If you’re hopelessly intoxicated after ingesting that half-pint of Kessler, are you really any more destructive to democracy than the perfectly sober voter who is following instructions provided by a fundamentalist preacher who has promised not temporal inebriation, but a favorable reference when the time comes to take up residence in heaven?
Nope, me thinks you're not. We hope you thought ahead and visited your favorite package store on Monday night. Cheers ...
It’s one year ago today ...
... 
since “unrestricted” went away.
First U of L’s Cardinals lost the big game to Rutgers, then Mike Sodrel gracelessly bowed to Baron Hill … the morass in Iraq escalated, and Bobby Petrino decamped to Atlanta … suddenly, Blogspastic was gone -- motorcycle and all.
To the unknown blogger at NA Unrestricted … we hardly knew ye, but the link still works, so readers can still travel back to those halcyon days of summer and fall, 2006, and relive all the magical moments.
Will NAU be back for Sodrel’s next race?
How many local blogs have come and gone since October, 2004?
since “unrestricted” went away.First U of L’s Cardinals lost the big game to Rutgers, then Mike Sodrel gracelessly bowed to Baron Hill … the morass in Iraq escalated, and Bobby Petrino decamped to Atlanta … suddenly, Blogspastic was gone -- motorcycle and all.
To the unknown blogger at NA Unrestricted … we hardly knew ye, but the link still works, so readers can still travel back to those halcyon days of summer and fall, 2006, and relive all the magical moments.
Will NAU be back for Sodrel’s next race?
How many local blogs have come and gone since October, 2004?
Monday, November 05, 2007
NAC Exclusive: Brenda Scharlow’s rebuttal to “FOS Blogger's Tall Tales.”
(For the senior editor's endorsements, go here: Cat's in the cradle, and more endorsements preceding Tuesday's election.)
In the interest of fairness, and because certain trognonymous outposts of local blogging continue to operate outside the boundaries of taste and decency, NAC today gives 3rd district city council candidate Brenda Scharlow (R) equal time to respond to charges made in a blog where comments are not allowed.
After all, doesn't such an opportunity lie at the very heart of "freedom of speech"?
On Sunday the senior editor learned that last week, a letter was sent to the Tribune attacking Scharlow. The newspaper contacted Brenda to provide an opportunity for rebuttal, but the letter apparently was withdrawn, only to magically reappear almost verbatim mere days later in a posting at Vicki Denhart’s Freedom of Speech trog/blog.
Read the attack here: WHY SCHARLOW FOR CITY COUNCIL?
Ironically, prior to learning about the back story of the anti-Scharlow attack, and personally annoyed at yet another cowardly sliming, I already had responded to it in an NA Confidential posting on Saturday.
Come out of your cave, Ms. Bolovschak, and disavow the treacherous troglodyte.
Indeed, it’s the sort of farce that small towns like ours seem to specialize in staging. I’m left to guess that the anti-Scharlow attack on FOS emanated in some fashion from her opponent in Tuesday’s election, incumbent Steve Price, but to be sure, there is no proof that Price was involved. Perhaps it came from a little bird. At any rate, the corrosive vitriol that routinely spews from various corners of New Albany’s Main Street corridor remains a phenomenon to behold (and to abhor), but one thing that I believe without any doubt is that Scharlow’s side of the story deserves to be heard before voters head to the polls.
And so it will be heard now. Take it away, Brenda.
---
"We listed the property 601 W. Main St. and sold it. We were told by the buyers that they were going to sell granite, ceramic, and slate. We were even shown samples. Prior to this, a "lingerie' " shop had opened on Main St., and Mayor Regina Overton called the shop and asked the businessmen to quietly close the shop to avoid unfavorable publicity, and they did.
"With the real threat of unsavory businesses springing up, did the people in office take proper steps with zoning laws to stop this? No, they did nothing. Thus, when we sold the property, 601 W. Main St., we had no protection. We trust the people in office to protect us by establishing proper zoning, codes, and laws. It is from this experience, one of the many reasons, I am running for 3rd district council to establish and enforce laws to protect our people.
"We bought 324 E. Main St. to establish our TUMBLEBUS headquarters. The property was in very bad shape. We invested $25,000 in renovation with every intention of paving the lot. It did take about 6 months to come up with the additional $10,000 to pave the area. The condition of the sidewalks was beyond. The little children do not trip in front of TUMBLEBUS anymore. But what do they do between 5th and 6th St. on Main where the condition of the sidewalk is dangerous? It is also for this reason, to create a city plan to repair our sidewalks and streets that I am running for city council.
"My husband and I bought the Sloan, Bicknell, Paris home, 600 E. Main St., renovated it, and lived there for eight years. It is located on Mansion Row at the corner of East 6th St. and Main St. Due to the flood wall, there was no "river view" except in the cupola or widow's walk. Located behind us was a concrete factory. Neighbors will agree that daily the noise, dirt and dust from the factory was irritating. We bought that blighted site, zoned light industrial/row housing. The city had no plan to bring this industrial site into the National Register of Historic Places. We have contended with the railroad tracks, floodwall, and an electrical substation, but successfully we are building a high end development. All of the homes in the development complement the historic mansion row and will only raise everyone's property value. Have you seen Shiloh Place? Come see for yourself.
"Would you rather have a concrete factory?
"By the way, we have spent over $10,000 in sewer hookups. And we have never filed bankruptcy, personally or with any business or corporation with which we have been associated.
"I believe in the freedom of speech, but outright lying is not acceptable. When you make statements without the facts you are lying. We have seen too much of this in this city.
"In conclusion, it is this very spirit of hatred, contention, envy, and jealousy that is trying to permeate our city and every city council meeting. This is one of the main reasons I am running for city council: To fight this attitude.
"If you are in agreement, please vote Brenda Scharlow, 3rd district city council. Thanks."
In the interest of fairness, and because certain trognonymous outposts of local blogging continue to operate outside the boundaries of taste and decency, NAC today gives 3rd district city council candidate Brenda Scharlow (R) equal time to respond to charges made in a blog where comments are not allowed.
After all, doesn't such an opportunity lie at the very heart of "freedom of speech"?
On Sunday the senior editor learned that last week, a letter was sent to the Tribune attacking Scharlow. The newspaper contacted Brenda to provide an opportunity for rebuttal, but the letter apparently was withdrawn, only to magically reappear almost verbatim mere days later in a posting at Vicki Denhart’s Freedom of Speech trog/blog.
Read the attack here: WHY SCHARLOW FOR CITY COUNCIL?
Ironically, prior to learning about the back story of the anti-Scharlow attack, and personally annoyed at yet another cowardly sliming, I already had responded to it in an NA Confidential posting on Saturday.
Come out of your cave, Ms. Bolovschak, and disavow the treacherous troglodyte.
Indeed, it’s the sort of farce that small towns like ours seem to specialize in staging. I’m left to guess that the anti-Scharlow attack on FOS emanated in some fashion from her opponent in Tuesday’s election, incumbent Steve Price, but to be sure, there is no proof that Price was involved. Perhaps it came from a little bird. At any rate, the corrosive vitriol that routinely spews from various corners of New Albany’s Main Street corridor remains a phenomenon to behold (and to abhor), but one thing that I believe without any doubt is that Scharlow’s side of the story deserves to be heard before voters head to the polls.
And so it will be heard now. Take it away, Brenda.
---
"We listed the property 601 W. Main St. and sold it. We were told by the buyers that they were going to sell granite, ceramic, and slate. We were even shown samples. Prior to this, a "lingerie' " shop had opened on Main St., and Mayor Regina Overton called the shop and asked the businessmen to quietly close the shop to avoid unfavorable publicity, and they did.
"With the real threat of unsavory businesses springing up, did the people in office take proper steps with zoning laws to stop this? No, they did nothing. Thus, when we sold the property, 601 W. Main St., we had no protection. We trust the people in office to protect us by establishing proper zoning, codes, and laws. It is from this experience, one of the many reasons, I am running for 3rd district council to establish and enforce laws to protect our people.
"We bought 324 E. Main St. to establish our TUMBLEBUS headquarters. The property was in very bad shape. We invested $25,000 in renovation with every intention of paving the lot. It did take about 6 months to come up with the additional $10,000 to pave the area. The condition of the sidewalks was beyond. The little children do not trip in front of TUMBLEBUS anymore. But what do they do between 5th and 6th St. on Main where the condition of the sidewalk is dangerous? It is also for this reason, to create a city plan to repair our sidewalks and streets that I am running for city council.
"My husband and I bought the Sloan, Bicknell, Paris home, 600 E. Main St., renovated it, and lived there for eight years. It is located on Mansion Row at the corner of East 6th St. and Main St. Due to the flood wall, there was no "river view" except in the cupola or widow's walk. Located behind us was a concrete factory. Neighbors will agree that daily the noise, dirt and dust from the factory was irritating. We bought that blighted site, zoned light industrial/row housing. The city had no plan to bring this industrial site into the National Register of Historic Places. We have contended with the railroad tracks, floodwall, and an electrical substation, but successfully we are building a high end development. All of the homes in the development complement the historic mansion row and will only raise everyone's property value. Have you seen Shiloh Place? Come see for yourself.
"Would you rather have a concrete factory?
"By the way, we have spent over $10,000 in sewer hookups. And we have never filed bankruptcy, personally or with any business or corporation with which we have been associated.
"I believe in the freedom of speech, but outright lying is not acceptable. When you make statements without the facts you are lying. We have seen too much of this in this city.
"In conclusion, it is this very spirit of hatred, contention, envy, and jealousy that is trying to permeate our city and every city council meeting. This is one of the main reasons I am running for city council: To fight this attitude.
"If you are in agreement, please vote Brenda Scharlow, 3rd district city council. Thanks."
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Cat's in the cradle, and more endorsements preceding Tuesday's election.
At the very last moment, a write-in candidate has been certified by the state of Indiana’s election board, and he will oppose the incumbent 1st district councilman Dan Coffey in Tuesday’s race.
His name is Skittles, a feral cat found living beneath an illegally installed water heater in a West Endian rental property around the corner from Coffey’s house, and shown here enjoying a long overdue hot bath following his recruitment by desperate constituents.
According to Skittles, “I’ve seen first-hand what Coffey can do with plumbing, and let me tell you, even a wild animal knows better.”
He added, “Unlike Steve Price, I’m no lap cat.”
In response, the Wizard of Westside has angrily vowed to again tamper with as many ballots as it takes to turn back the unexpected feline challenge and retain iron control of the city’s poorest district, which Coffey has earnestly guided to ever greater depths of impoverishment since his election eight years ago.
Intriguingly, Tribune publisher John Tucker has reached a similar conclusion:
Unfortunately, because Coffey is unopposed (he won by literally a few votes during the primary) he’ll probably be back for four more years. But even so, if I were in his district I’d leave the ballot blank or write in my crazy Uncle Fred’s name rather than surrender to four more years of his type of leadership.
District 1: Vote Skittles as a write-in, and help clean the Wizard’s litter box.
While we’re at it, here are the senior editor’s remaining endorsements.
District 2: Bob Caesar (D)
Long-term, downtown businessman knows the score, will not require prompting from hidden radio wave electro-shock impulses to know which way to vote.
District 3: Brenda Scharlow (R)
Meaningful entrepreneurial experience easily trumps a lowest common denominator opponent. For more, go here, and note publisher Tucker's words:
Price and Coffey are of like mind and vote. They have made it their job to stop progress in New Albany, and in that respect, they do a very good job. Unlike Coffey, there is someone running against Price. Brenda Scharlow is running on the Republican ticket. I’ve never met Brenda Scharlow. I have read her platform and watched her talk at a debate. She seems a capable person. However, make no mistake, I would vote for her mostly because the incumbent has proven himself to be incapable of the job.
District 4: Pat McLaughlin (D)
Quietly does his homework and refuses to pander to blogs like mine.
District 5: Dick Bliss (R)
Absence of family ties to “The Gary” a massive plus.
District 6: Jeff Gahan (D)
I’m simply unwilling to hold one admittedly colossal misstep against him.
At-Large: John Gonder (D), Jack Messer (D), Kevin Zurschmeide (R)
If Skittles fails in his bid to unseat Coffey, he promises to run against superannuated Democratic at-large candidate Jim Hollis on a personal hygiene platform.
Mayor: Doug England (D)
Perpetually encumbered by baggage, but what England is best at doing is what New Albany needs right now. Fortunately, we’re not being called upon to elect a saint, but to choose a mayor. Opponent Randy Hubbard has failed to offer compelling evidence that he possesses the energy or vision to succeed as mayor. For more, go here.
Clerk: Marcey Wisman (D)
Modernizing the office would be an easier job if so many of the purse string holders weren’t clueless Luddites busking for nickels and dimes on street corners.
See also:
Tasty fried fish since 1985 ... and by the way, vote for me.
Not an endorsement, but rather an embarrassment.
His name is Skittles, a feral cat found living beneath an illegally installed water heater in a West Endian rental property around the corner from Coffey’s house, and shown here enjoying a long overdue hot bath following his recruitment by desperate constituents.According to Skittles, “I’ve seen first-hand what Coffey can do with plumbing, and let me tell you, even a wild animal knows better.”
He added, “Unlike Steve Price, I’m no lap cat.”
In response, the Wizard of Westside has angrily vowed to again tamper with as many ballots as it takes to turn back the unexpected feline challenge and retain iron control of the city’s poorest district, which Coffey has earnestly guided to ever greater depths of impoverishment since his election eight years ago.
Intriguingly, Tribune publisher John Tucker has reached a similar conclusion:
Unfortunately, because Coffey is unopposed (he won by literally a few votes during the primary) he’ll probably be back for four more years. But even so, if I were in his district I’d leave the ballot blank or write in my crazy Uncle Fred’s name rather than surrender to four more years of his type of leadership.
District 1: Vote Skittles as a write-in, and help clean the Wizard’s litter box.
While we’re at it, here are the senior editor’s remaining endorsements.
District 2: Bob Caesar (D)
Long-term, downtown businessman knows the score, will not require prompting from hidden radio wave electro-shock impulses to know which way to vote.
District 3: Brenda Scharlow (R)
Meaningful entrepreneurial experience easily trumps a lowest common denominator opponent. For more, go here, and note publisher Tucker's words:
Price and Coffey are of like mind and vote. They have made it their job to stop progress in New Albany, and in that respect, they do a very good job. Unlike Coffey, there is someone running against Price. Brenda Scharlow is running on the Republican ticket. I’ve never met Brenda Scharlow. I have read her platform and watched her talk at a debate. She seems a capable person. However, make no mistake, I would vote for her mostly because the incumbent has proven himself to be incapable of the job.
District 4: Pat McLaughlin (D)
Quietly does his homework and refuses to pander to blogs like mine.
District 5: Dick Bliss (R)
Absence of family ties to “The Gary” a massive plus.
District 6: Jeff Gahan (D)
I’m simply unwilling to hold one admittedly colossal misstep against him.
At-Large: John Gonder (D), Jack Messer (D), Kevin Zurschmeide (R)
If Skittles fails in his bid to unseat Coffey, he promises to run against superannuated Democratic at-large candidate Jim Hollis on a personal hygiene platform.
Mayor: Doug England (D)
Perpetually encumbered by baggage, but what England is best at doing is what New Albany needs right now. Fortunately, we’re not being called upon to elect a saint, but to choose a mayor. Opponent Randy Hubbard has failed to offer compelling evidence that he possesses the energy or vision to succeed as mayor. For more, go here.
Clerk: Marcey Wisman (D)
Modernizing the office would be an easier job if so many of the purse string holders weren’t clueless Luddites busking for nickels and dimes on street corners.
See also:
Tasty fried fish since 1985 ... and by the way, vote for me.
Not an endorsement, but rather an embarrassment.
Tasty fried fish since 1985 ... and by the way, vote for me.
If Sam Anderson can co-opt his familiar business logo for political gain ...
... then why can't I?
Well, it's sloppy, but you get the idea.
Yeah, I know -- no disclaimer ... but it's hardly an official campaign, is it?
... then why can't I?
Well, it's sloppy, but you get the idea.
Yeah, I know -- no disclaimer ... but it's hardly an official campaign, is it?
Not an endorsement, but rather an embarrassment.
Elections come and go, and still some candidates find it expedient to ignore Indiana Election Commission guidelines.
Just out of curiosity, NAC visited the Indiana Secretary of State’s website last spring prior to the primary, and found this illuminating information for candidates.
Political Signs and Disclaimer Requirements for Political Literature and Advertisements
WHAT is a “disclaimer”?
A disclaimer identifies who paid for certain political material and whether any candidate approves of the material if the material is paid for by someone other than the candidate.
What are some examples of political materials and literature requiring disclaimers?
Newspaper advertisements, billboards, signs, posters, yard signs, (whether homemade or commercially printed), portable billboards, brochures, leaflets, circulars, letterheads and direct mail pieces sent to more than 100 persons.
Is there a penalty for circulating or publishing literature or other material concerning a candidate without the required disclaimer?
Yes. The penalty is a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to a $5,000 fine, not more than one (1) year imprisonment, or both. (IC 3-14-1-3)
In a Tribune ad on Sunday, November 4, Hollis -- a former councilman during the Taft administration -- claimed to be "experience" and "knowledgable," though as should be obvious by now, not so much so that he would be aware of spelling, grammar and campaign guidelines.
Not unexpectedly, the faux professor Erika (herself perpetually challenged when confronted with rules of syntax) endorses Hollis for city council, presumably under the wisdom that such a superannuated relic could do no worse at expressing himself than she would have if not for a decisive primary refutation.
Whatever you do, please don't vote for this guy. He's looking for oil lamps to light and cranks to start his engine.
Don't we have enough Luddites in positions of authority already?
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Come out of your cave, Ms. Bolovschak, and disavow the treacherous troglodyte.
Warning: If you’re no fan of the so-called “blog wars,” then please consider clicking through to the Hundred Acre Wood.
---
Hmm, wonder which of the masked character assassins at Freedom to Screech (Yellow) wrote this one?
WHY SCHARLOW FOR CITY COUNCIL?
For the past four to five years, the Scharlows have been working on a 16 unit condominium project. Located right behind Mansion Row and blocking the views of historic homes.
Historic homes like the Admiral Bicknell Inn?
More cowardly unsigned claptrap, to be sure, and so resolving to operate under the assumption that it’s always better to take one’s complaints straight to the top rather than waste time with the disposable hired help, today provides the perfect opportunity to reprint this NAC posting from December, 2006. While a few of the specifics are dated, the gist remains as valid now as then.
Periodically there are hints of a thaw, although little ever comes from it. When last I spoke with Auntie V, she seemed to imply that she’d be abandoning her trash talking blog alliance with the trognonymous Denhart and finally – finally -- openly supporting the sort of ideas, projects and civic advancement that Erika routinely slimes for reasons that make no sense to anyone.
Unfortunately, there’s been no evidence of such a conversion; perhaps we must wait until after the election, or gasoline falls back to a dollar a gallon, to see the umbilical cord mercifully severed. Perhaps it will never happen and not only is that a very sad state of affairs. It's also injurious to the prospects for a civil society here in New Albany.
I renew the appeal: Come out of your cave, Ms. Bolovschak, and disavow the treacherous troglodyte.
Here's the reprint.
---
The same ambition can destroy or save,
And makes a patriot as it makes a knave.
--Alexander Pope
Imagine you’re Auntie V.
Imagine also that you’re an inveterate behind-the-scenes schemer who, among other bizarre double-naught spying activities, regularly abets an anonymous Internet flame queen while denying even the slightest interest in the existence of the information superhighway.
Ah, but like Mark Twain ... I repeat myself.
Instead, imagine that you’re an aspiring GOP politico who campaigns for a providentially vacant position on the city council by enabling your guileless, tail-wagging flunky to stump on your behalf by means of artlessly lampooning the very party stalwarts who’ll vote to determine who occupies the seat.
Of course, you don’t spread the insults yourself, as even the most sophisticated of dry cleaning techniques won’t take the smell of manure out of a pair of white silk gloves, but you farm it out to your eager Sancho Panza of an incessantly enraged minion, Prof. Erika, who provides useful cover and lacks the insight to object to being used in such a humiliating fashion for so long as someone – anyone – continues to pay attention to her antics.
Especially her patrician idol.
Not unexpectedly, you lose the race to fill the seat, and you emerge from the predictable defeat -- the most recent public relations debacle -- looking exactly like Wile E. Coyote after the stick of dynamite inserted in his ear by the speedily departing Roadrunner ignites, and an earsplitting boom fills the air with confetti, soot and the laughter of both children and adults, all of whom are saying to themselves, boy, that coyote just doesn’t seem to get it … ever … just keeps on repeating the same mistakes, again and again, thinking it’ll turn out differently next time.
So clinical … and with another Putsch attempt derailed, what can you possibly do to regain some measure of equilibrium – to restore the proper balance of nature between yourself and the slider-slurping "noodleheads" and unresponsive sow’s ears who can’t seem to understand the majesty of what you're proposing to do for them?
Why, start by attacking the New Albany city clerk, of course, and follow by offering two flagrantly willful misinterpretations of recent council activity, and maybe, just as a change of pace, blame it all on the building commissioner, or the Mayor, or anyone else who wanders into the line of fire.
That’s it. Stress relief for the social saboteur.
Do we feel better, yet?
Auntie V’s latest salvos in the ongoing political flame war-by-proxy were launched with clocklike regularity in a Freedom of Speech blog posting Saturday, with another following on Sunday, and yet another some time after that (among other things, Erika can’t fathom the workings of the time/date stamp at her blog), and as always, onlookers lucky enough to emerge from the sliming session without collateral spitwads lodged in their own eyeballs are left to lament the recurring disingenuousness – the sheer volume of disinformation disguised as “outraged taxpayer” verbiage – that hangs thick like a pea soup fog within the confines of the Admiral Bicknell war room.
Consider Auntie V’s sentiments, as translated by the ever willing psychophant Erika, here: HERE WE GO AGAIN!...IS THIS ANOTHER POLITICAL FAVOR FOR JIMMY'S RE-ELECTION?
Be aware that at the Dec. 4 council meeting, the ordinance in question, which in essence is a routine bonding mechanism to allow the use of money already collected for tourism-related projects, passed its first reading by a 6-2 vote, with 1st district ward heeler Dan Coffey stridently objecting before meekly abstaining, and 3rd and 4th district councilmen Steve Price and Larry Kochert, respectively, voting against.
Go here to examine the state law referenced therein: Floyd/Clark County Innkeeper's Tax. Know that nothing in this ordinance merits the attention being given it at Freedom to Screech, beyond the need of the chronically dysfunctional to maintain disaffection amongst imagined future cadres of mad-as-hell squirrel brain eaters.
And know that the ongoing personal attacks against city clerk Marcey Wisman are both unwarranted and tactless, not unlike the majority of the vitriolic drivel oozing from Ms. Denhart’s (a.k.a. Erika’s) poison crayon – but never without the approval of the aspiring Ms. Bolovschak.
It’s sad that we must continue refuting churlish childishness rather than devoting column inches to the many examples of positive news in New Albany, but when the shameless slander vandals push, even feebly, genuinely decent people must push back, and that’s what I’m doing, because make no mistake: When it comes to the venom of FOS, there is an ultimate source, and it isn’t the masquerading collegiate site manager.
It isn’t Erika, it’s Ms. Bolovschak, and as the months slip past, it becomes so insanely surreal that one is forgiven for believing that it’s Groundhog Day all over again, and again, and again.
I’m no longer concerned with the possibility of rifts, feuds and other manifestations of the New Albany Syndrome, so let’s say it publicly.
Ms. Bolovschak, you’ve got much -- perhaps even all -- of what it takes to succeed. You possess a work ethic, abundant smarts, good looks, sufficient money, proven business acumen. These combine to create an enviable potential foundation from which to seek any political office you so desire.
Then why?
Why must you stoop in this continually abhorrent manner to conquer?
Why the ceaseless games, the empowerment of anonymity, the cloak-and-dagger nastiness?
With so much to offer, why hurt so many undeserving people by enabling Erika’s malevolence, and by using people for whom you feel nothing as a Auntiebellum corduroy road to drive atop in pursuit of your own ends?
Do you feel that you’re forced to do it? As a woman, as someone who “isn’t from here”? That unless you do the funky Machiavelli, they’ll not take you seriously?
Is there a conscience in there somewhere?
What happens to these pillars of support once you’ve achieved your goals, and they're no longer needed?
It isn’t as if you don’t know this already, but the buffoonish mock Professor Erika, the knee-jerk flatlining 3rd district uncouncilman, the clamorously vacant denizens of the Luddite Bar & Grill – all come to us largely unable to comprehend diversity, generally absent any unified vision for the future, and sadly unable to see a place for themselves and their own milieu in a world that must, by necessity, change and renew. That’s life, and if we’re to accept a planet teeming with human diversity, a certain percentage of the unreconstructed throwing themselves in the path of progress certainly constitute standard equipment during the course of any substantive journey.
You know as well as I do that often these folks often become frightened, panic, and seek reassurance and succor from others whom they perceive as better situated to “lead” them, but here’s the important difference between those duly chosen to "lead."
Some are born to transcend the limited options afforded them, and do so by their own talents and on their own merits without taking advantage of others, and seek to educate, empower and improve the options of the less fortunate.
But others choose to pursue power more cynically, by riding on the backs of those less able to discern reality while they’re perpetually face down in the mud … and populism of this calculating variety always brutally mocks the very people it purports to rescue.
Every time a FOS posting goes merrily into orbit, those among us capable of a fundamental clarity as to which leader is which have an obligation to expose the transparency of the fawning charade – of the sheer, hide-in-plain-sight chutzpah emanating from whichever of Sybil’s personalities awoke this morning and ventured into the cold light of day in pursuit of whatever it is, and is so important to obtain, right now, that it has been deemed necessary to publicly disassemble, to enable semi-literate Internet attack dogs, to construct one after another elaborately staged theatrical presentations, and to earnestly promise the “little people” – these same sincere citizens oblivious to the otherwise palpable “noodlehead” contempt showered on them behind closed doors -- that there’s someone who’ll look after them and be their savior.
But this town doesn't need a savior, at least not under such unfavorable terms. It needs multiple saviors, preferably one on each city block, and a few in city hall, and a few more business owners, all of whom willing to work together as equals to improve the quality of life and the prospects for all people choosing to live here.
You’ve undoubtedly done good things toward this end, and you are to be commended for the persistence and hard work.
Seemingly, you have it all.
Why isn’t all enough?
---
Hmm, wonder which of the masked character assassins at Freedom to Screech (Yellow) wrote this one?
WHY SCHARLOW FOR CITY COUNCIL?
For the past four to five years, the Scharlows have been working on a 16 unit condominium project. Located right behind Mansion Row and blocking the views of historic homes.
Historic homes like the Admiral Bicknell Inn?
More cowardly unsigned claptrap, to be sure, and so resolving to operate under the assumption that it’s always better to take one’s complaints straight to the top rather than waste time with the disposable hired help, today provides the perfect opportunity to reprint this NAC posting from December, 2006. While a few of the specifics are dated, the gist remains as valid now as then.
Periodically there are hints of a thaw, although little ever comes from it. When last I spoke with Auntie V, she seemed to imply that she’d be abandoning her trash talking blog alliance with the trognonymous Denhart and finally – finally -- openly supporting the sort of ideas, projects and civic advancement that Erika routinely slimes for reasons that make no sense to anyone.
Unfortunately, there’s been no evidence of such a conversion; perhaps we must wait until after the election, or gasoline falls back to a dollar a gallon, to see the umbilical cord mercifully severed. Perhaps it will never happen and not only is that a very sad state of affairs. It's also injurious to the prospects for a civil society here in New Albany.
I renew the appeal: Come out of your cave, Ms. Bolovschak, and disavow the treacherous troglodyte.
Here's the reprint.
---
The same ambition can destroy or save,
And makes a patriot as it makes a knave.
--Alexander Pope
Imagine you’re Auntie V.
Imagine also that you’re an inveterate behind-the-scenes schemer who, among other bizarre double-naught spying activities, regularly abets an anonymous Internet flame queen while denying even the slightest interest in the existence of the information superhighway.
Ah, but like Mark Twain ... I repeat myself.
Instead, imagine that you’re an aspiring GOP politico who campaigns for a providentially vacant position on the city council by enabling your guileless, tail-wagging flunky to stump on your behalf by means of artlessly lampooning the very party stalwarts who’ll vote to determine who occupies the seat.
Of course, you don’t spread the insults yourself, as even the most sophisticated of dry cleaning techniques won’t take the smell of manure out of a pair of white silk gloves, but you farm it out to your eager Sancho Panza of an incessantly enraged minion, Prof. Erika, who provides useful cover and lacks the insight to object to being used in such a humiliating fashion for so long as someone – anyone – continues to pay attention to her antics.
Especially her patrician idol.
Not unexpectedly, you lose the race to fill the seat, and you emerge from the predictable defeat -- the most recent public relations debacle -- looking exactly like Wile E. Coyote after the stick of dynamite inserted in his ear by the speedily departing Roadrunner ignites, and an earsplitting boom fills the air with confetti, soot and the laughter of both children and adults, all of whom are saying to themselves, boy, that coyote just doesn’t seem to get it … ever … just keeps on repeating the same mistakes, again and again, thinking it’ll turn out differently next time.
So clinical … and with another Putsch attempt derailed, what can you possibly do to regain some measure of equilibrium – to restore the proper balance of nature between yourself and the slider-slurping "noodleheads" and unresponsive sow’s ears who can’t seem to understand the majesty of what you're proposing to do for them?
Why, start by attacking the New Albany city clerk, of course, and follow by offering two flagrantly willful misinterpretations of recent council activity, and maybe, just as a change of pace, blame it all on the building commissioner, or the Mayor, or anyone else who wanders into the line of fire.
That’s it. Stress relief for the social saboteur.
Do we feel better, yet?
Auntie V’s latest salvos in the ongoing political flame war-by-proxy were launched with clocklike regularity in a Freedom of Speech blog posting Saturday, with another following on Sunday, and yet another some time after that (among other things, Erika can’t fathom the workings of the time/date stamp at her blog), and as always, onlookers lucky enough to emerge from the sliming session without collateral spitwads lodged in their own eyeballs are left to lament the recurring disingenuousness – the sheer volume of disinformation disguised as “outraged taxpayer” verbiage – that hangs thick like a pea soup fog within the confines of the Admiral Bicknell war room.
Consider Auntie V’s sentiments, as translated by the ever willing psychophant Erika, here: HERE WE GO AGAIN!...IS THIS ANOTHER POLITICAL FAVOR FOR JIMMY'S RE-ELECTION?
Be aware that at the Dec. 4 council meeting, the ordinance in question, which in essence is a routine bonding mechanism to allow the use of money already collected for tourism-related projects, passed its first reading by a 6-2 vote, with 1st district ward heeler Dan Coffey stridently objecting before meekly abstaining, and 3rd and 4th district councilmen Steve Price and Larry Kochert, respectively, voting against.
Go here to examine the state law referenced therein: Floyd/Clark County Innkeeper's Tax. Know that nothing in this ordinance merits the attention being given it at Freedom to Screech, beyond the need of the chronically dysfunctional to maintain disaffection amongst imagined future cadres of mad-as-hell squirrel brain eaters.
And know that the ongoing personal attacks against city clerk Marcey Wisman are both unwarranted and tactless, not unlike the majority of the vitriolic drivel oozing from Ms. Denhart’s (a.k.a. Erika’s) poison crayon – but never without the approval of the aspiring Ms. Bolovschak.
It’s sad that we must continue refuting churlish childishness rather than devoting column inches to the many examples of positive news in New Albany, but when the shameless slander vandals push, even feebly, genuinely decent people must push back, and that’s what I’m doing, because make no mistake: When it comes to the venom of FOS, there is an ultimate source, and it isn’t the masquerading collegiate site manager.
It isn’t Erika, it’s Ms. Bolovschak, and as the months slip past, it becomes so insanely surreal that one is forgiven for believing that it’s Groundhog Day all over again, and again, and again.
I’m no longer concerned with the possibility of rifts, feuds and other manifestations of the New Albany Syndrome, so let’s say it publicly.
Ms. Bolovschak, you’ve got much -- perhaps even all -- of what it takes to succeed. You possess a work ethic, abundant smarts, good looks, sufficient money, proven business acumen. These combine to create an enviable potential foundation from which to seek any political office you so desire.
Then why?
Why must you stoop in this continually abhorrent manner to conquer?
Why the ceaseless games, the empowerment of anonymity, the cloak-and-dagger nastiness?
With so much to offer, why hurt so many undeserving people by enabling Erika’s malevolence, and by using people for whom you feel nothing as a Auntiebellum corduroy road to drive atop in pursuit of your own ends?
Do you feel that you’re forced to do it? As a woman, as someone who “isn’t from here”? That unless you do the funky Machiavelli, they’ll not take you seriously?
Is there a conscience in there somewhere?
What happens to these pillars of support once you’ve achieved your goals, and they're no longer needed?
It isn’t as if you don’t know this already, but the buffoonish mock Professor Erika, the knee-jerk flatlining 3rd district uncouncilman, the clamorously vacant denizens of the Luddite Bar & Grill – all come to us largely unable to comprehend diversity, generally absent any unified vision for the future, and sadly unable to see a place for themselves and their own milieu in a world that must, by necessity, change and renew. That’s life, and if we’re to accept a planet teeming with human diversity, a certain percentage of the unreconstructed throwing themselves in the path of progress certainly constitute standard equipment during the course of any substantive journey.
You know as well as I do that often these folks often become frightened, panic, and seek reassurance and succor from others whom they perceive as better situated to “lead” them, but here’s the important difference between those duly chosen to "lead."
Some are born to transcend the limited options afforded them, and do so by their own talents and on their own merits without taking advantage of others, and seek to educate, empower and improve the options of the less fortunate.
But others choose to pursue power more cynically, by riding on the backs of those less able to discern reality while they’re perpetually face down in the mud … and populism of this calculating variety always brutally mocks the very people it purports to rescue.
Every time a FOS posting goes merrily into orbit, those among us capable of a fundamental clarity as to which leader is which have an obligation to expose the transparency of the fawning charade – of the sheer, hide-in-plain-sight chutzpah emanating from whichever of Sybil’s personalities awoke this morning and ventured into the cold light of day in pursuit of whatever it is, and is so important to obtain, right now, that it has been deemed necessary to publicly disassemble, to enable semi-literate Internet attack dogs, to construct one after another elaborately staged theatrical presentations, and to earnestly promise the “little people” – these same sincere citizens oblivious to the otherwise palpable “noodlehead” contempt showered on them behind closed doors -- that there’s someone who’ll look after them and be their savior.
But this town doesn't need a savior, at least not under such unfavorable terms. It needs multiple saviors, preferably one on each city block, and a few in city hall, and a few more business owners, all of whom willing to work together as equals to improve the quality of life and the prospects for all people choosing to live here.
You’ve undoubtedly done good things toward this end, and you are to be commended for the persistence and hard work.
Seemingly, you have it all.
Why isn’t all enough?
I've been wondering, too.
Torture ... from John Manzo's blog.
So, our current President ran on values. They certainly aren't the values of Christianity, they certainly aren't the values of mainstream ethical philosophy, so it makes me wonder just whose values he ran on and by whose values he governs.
So, our current President ran on values. They certainly aren't the values of Christianity, they certainly aren't the values of mainstream ethical philosophy, so it makes me wonder just whose values he ran on and by whose values he governs.
Friday, November 02, 2007
A new Rorschach inkblot for dollars and sense?
First, the good news. My wife’s English cousin is safely here, and she may be making the rounds of pubs by Friday afternoon.
Meanwhile, and not unexpectedly, the city council voted last night to endorse the Anna Plan for redistricting a mere five days prior to the November 6 election.
My powder blue zoot suit’s being tailored as you read.
As we await further developments, here is an example of how far apart perceptions can be. The generally reliable originator of NA Shadow Council bats leadoff, and says:
Break Me Off a Piece of That. bup,bup,bup
Please remember the names of Coffey, Price, Schmidt, Crump, Gahan, Blevins, and Kochert when the city has to come up with as much as $200,000 to take care of the mess they created. Only Coffey will be an elected official for sure, and only Price and Gahan might be in office, but all 7 are responsible for this irresponsible act and breach of their fiduciary duty.
The transgendered academic pretender at Freedom of Speech sees it differently (duh):
THANK YOU COUNCIL MEMBERS
R-07-39, proposed by Councilman Jack Messer was defeated by a 6-3 vote. This resolution for the pending lawsuit would have cost the taxpayers $5,000.00 plus court cost.Thank you to the following six council members who voted against this and saved the taxpayers money.
What was that I heard Steve Price saying … something about penny wise and pound foolish …
Meanwhile, and not unexpectedly, the city council voted last night to endorse the Anna Plan for redistricting a mere five days prior to the November 6 election.
My powder blue zoot suit’s being tailored as you read.
As we await further developments, here is an example of how far apart perceptions can be. The generally reliable originator of NA Shadow Council bats leadoff, and says:
Break Me Off a Piece of That. bup,bup,bup
Please remember the names of Coffey, Price, Schmidt, Crump, Gahan, Blevins, and Kochert when the city has to come up with as much as $200,000 to take care of the mess they created. Only Coffey will be an elected official for sure, and only Price and Gahan might be in office, but all 7 are responsible for this irresponsible act and breach of their fiduciary duty.
The transgendered academic pretender at Freedom of Speech sees it differently (duh):
THANK YOU COUNCIL MEMBERS
R-07-39, proposed by Councilman Jack Messer was defeated by a 6-3 vote. This resolution for the pending lawsuit would have cost the taxpayers $5,000.00 plus court cost.Thank you to the following six council members who voted against this and saved the taxpayers money.
What was that I heard Steve Price saying … something about penny wise and pound foolish …
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Hallowannabeens prepare to fend off new redistricting plan as council convenes tonight.
We're told that on Wednesday night, Larry Kochert came to a Hallowannabeen party masterfully disguised as a Democrat, then stormed out when nary a soul present recognized him beneath the makeup.
True or not, with the inaugural city council meeting of November moved forward to tonight so as not to interfere with Scary Larry’s anticipated last-minute November 5 "trick or treating" – er, make that “electioneering” -- for the Republican opponent of the 4th district's Democratic nominee, both the Tribune and the C-J breathlessly report that this evening's sagacious (nah) gathering will feature a fresh round of redistricting discussion.
The New Albany City Council will be asked tonight to set aside a redistricting ordinance that already has won preliminary approval and support a plan to delay the issue until next year, when a new council will take office.
The Tribune’s Eric Scott Campbell identifies this startling new twist in the tale of the council’s laggardly response time to the legal imperative of redistricting:
(Councilman Bill Schmidt’s plan) is not equal enough for the taste of a group of residents that sued the council for unequal representation in May 2006, largely because the council did not realign district boundaries in 2002 as the state had charged it to do. The matter will proceed to trial Dec. 3 unless, plaintiffs say, the council agrees to drop any redistricting effort and instead appoints a panel of council members and plaintiffs to redistrict in 2008.
To that end, another bill on the council’s Thursday agenda, sponsored by Councilman Jack Messer, would have members join the plaintiffs in putting that agreement in writing.
Full disclosure: NAC’s plaintiff editors are among the signatories to Messer’s document, which stands as a perfectly reasonable compromise to the impasse.
Speaking for myself, I’d dearly love to be there tonight to watch as the Gang of Four collectively foams at the mouth and once again misrepresents the magistrate’s instructions to the council’s bumbling chief executive, and also to observe unfortunate council swingman Donnie Blevins agonizingly flail as he re-enacts Hamlet’s soliloquy for the 205th consecutive council meeting without managing to find his footing on touchstone principle, but my wife’s cousin from England is coming to town for a visit and her plane will be landing in Louisville about the same time that Steve Price dramatically wields grandma’s cookie jar as a shield against progress and human rationality. So, I’ll just have to miss it.
Ironically, Price happens to be the same 3rd district councilman who recently conceded to me that the Gang of Four’s redistricting stance is “all Larry’s thing,” meaning that the ever deferential and customarily unthinking Price will be voting yet again tonight in favor of an ordinance that will result in a costly trial and precisely the sort of cookie jar depletion that he insists is his worst nightmare. As in most other matters, Price is about to count incorrectly, and that’s why readers residing in the 3rd council district are reminded to vote against him, and for Brenda Scharlow, next Tuesday.
Meanwhile, intently reading his or her tea leaves, NA Shadow Council’s shadowy uber-analyst nonetheless sees enlightenment in the evening’s legislative festivities:
And Peter Vogt and his pals ought to be pleased at how their case is strengthened this evening.
Noting that Vogt’s name is first on the list of plaintiffs in the redistricting lawsuit, I can say with all honesty that it doesn’t matter to me at this point.
Any excuse to buy a new suit will do just fine, thank you.
True or not, with the inaugural city council meeting of November moved forward to tonight so as not to interfere with Scary Larry’s anticipated last-minute November 5 "trick or treating" – er, make that “electioneering” -- for the Republican opponent of the 4th district's Democratic nominee, both the Tribune and the C-J breathlessly report that this evening's sagacious (nah) gathering will feature a fresh round of redistricting discussion.
The New Albany City Council will be asked tonight to set aside a redistricting ordinance that already has won preliminary approval and support a plan to delay the issue until next year, when a new council will take office.
The Tribune’s Eric Scott Campbell identifies this startling new twist in the tale of the council’s laggardly response time to the legal imperative of redistricting:
(Councilman Bill Schmidt’s plan) is not equal enough for the taste of a group of residents that sued the council for unequal representation in May 2006, largely because the council did not realign district boundaries in 2002 as the state had charged it to do. The matter will proceed to trial Dec. 3 unless, plaintiffs say, the council agrees to drop any redistricting effort and instead appoints a panel of council members and plaintiffs to redistrict in 2008.
To that end, another bill on the council’s Thursday agenda, sponsored by Councilman Jack Messer, would have members join the plaintiffs in putting that agreement in writing.
Full disclosure: NAC’s plaintiff editors are among the signatories to Messer’s document, which stands as a perfectly reasonable compromise to the impasse.
Speaking for myself, I’d dearly love to be there tonight to watch as the Gang of Four collectively foams at the mouth and once again misrepresents the magistrate’s instructions to the council’s bumbling chief executive, and also to observe unfortunate council swingman Donnie Blevins agonizingly flail as he re-enacts Hamlet’s soliloquy for the 205th consecutive council meeting without managing to find his footing on touchstone principle, but my wife’s cousin from England is coming to town for a visit and her plane will be landing in Louisville about the same time that Steve Price dramatically wields grandma’s cookie jar as a shield against progress and human rationality. So, I’ll just have to miss it.
Ironically, Price happens to be the same 3rd district councilman who recently conceded to me that the Gang of Four’s redistricting stance is “all Larry’s thing,” meaning that the ever deferential and customarily unthinking Price will be voting yet again tonight in favor of an ordinance that will result in a costly trial and precisely the sort of cookie jar depletion that he insists is his worst nightmare. As in most other matters, Price is about to count incorrectly, and that’s why readers residing in the 3rd council district are reminded to vote against him, and for Brenda Scharlow, next Tuesday.
Meanwhile, intently reading his or her tea leaves, NA Shadow Council’s shadowy uber-analyst nonetheless sees enlightenment in the evening’s legislative festivities:
And Peter Vogt and his pals ought to be pleased at how their case is strengthened this evening.
Noting that Vogt’s name is first on the list of plaintiffs in the redistricting lawsuit, I can say with all honesty that it doesn’t matter to me at this point.
Any excuse to buy a new suit will do just fine, thank you.
On November 6, vote for Scharlow for 3rd district council.
During his recent forum appearance before the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association, incumbent 3rd district councilman Steve Price was visibly disoriented when I pointed out to him that in 2007, he had voted lock-step with the 1st district’s Dan Coffey almost 98% of the time.
After a mercifully brief and laughably ineffectual denial, Price bristled and responded that his near perfect confluence with the malicious Wizard of Westside could be explained by the 1st and 3rd districts being alike.
Like many of the urban legends that pass as gospel within non-critical minds, this assertion simply isn’t true, and in refuting it, the reasons for change in the 3rd district become abundantly clear.
The bulk of New Albany’s historic business district lies in the territory of the 3rd district. The tourist draw of Mansion Row on Main Street is located in the 3rd. The once vibrant Vincennes Street commercial corridor originates in the 3rd, as does the most significant portion of the Ohio River Greenway project. A big chunk of the city’s historic housing stock lines the streets in the 3rd.
During his first term in office, the accidental councilman Price – twice rejected by overwhelming primary votes, only to scrape through owing to splits in three-way races – has been consistently unable to fathom the potential inherent in his own district. Bizarrely possessed with the notion that ignorance is somehow a virtue, he has proceeded to vote against the interests of his own district again, and again, and again.
The contrast between Price’s dully repetitious underachievement and the life experience of Republican challenger Brenda Scharlow could not be more instructive to prospective voters.
As a young adult, married, harried and faced with the demands of a large family, Scharlow swiftly rejected Price’s “circle the wagons” approach to budgetary matters by seeking an entrepreneurial solution. She founded a business and made the pie larger. Then, applying the same wisdom to their community, Scharlow and husband Larry embraced the potential of New Albany’s core by investing in it not once, but thrice: First with Tumblebus, then in the conversion of the Grand theater into a convention and banquet facility, and now with the building of condominiums by the riverfront.
Price can do no more than spout homilies, and he slouches behind them.
Scharlow designs her own ball, and she runs with it.
Price warns against a litany of forthcoming catastrophe, and he proposes regress as the only course.
Scharlow grasps what might be, and she counsels progress as a remedy.
Price’s worldview is an embarrassment to Democrats, and the Democratic Party knows it, even if it says nothing publicly.
Scharlow’s platform is a credit to Republicans, and they certainly need it.
No candidate is perfect, but the majority of Brenda Scharlow's positions are calibrated to suit the needs of the 3rd district. Conversely, after four years in office, Steve Price all but concedes that he still cannot fathom those needs.
On November 6, vote for Scharlow for 3rd district council.
See also: Five takes a look at Three, at NA Shadow Council.
After a mercifully brief and laughably ineffectual denial, Price bristled and responded that his near perfect confluence with the malicious Wizard of Westside could be explained by the 1st and 3rd districts being alike.
Like many of the urban legends that pass as gospel within non-critical minds, this assertion simply isn’t true, and in refuting it, the reasons for change in the 3rd district become abundantly clear.
The bulk of New Albany’s historic business district lies in the territory of the 3rd district. The tourist draw of Mansion Row on Main Street is located in the 3rd. The once vibrant Vincennes Street commercial corridor originates in the 3rd, as does the most significant portion of the Ohio River Greenway project. A big chunk of the city’s historic housing stock lines the streets in the 3rd.
During his first term in office, the accidental councilman Price – twice rejected by overwhelming primary votes, only to scrape through owing to splits in three-way races – has been consistently unable to fathom the potential inherent in his own district. Bizarrely possessed with the notion that ignorance is somehow a virtue, he has proceeded to vote against the interests of his own district again, and again, and again.
The contrast between Price’s dully repetitious underachievement and the life experience of Republican challenger Brenda Scharlow could not be more instructive to prospective voters.
As a young adult, married, harried and faced with the demands of a large family, Scharlow swiftly rejected Price’s “circle the wagons” approach to budgetary matters by seeking an entrepreneurial solution. She founded a business and made the pie larger. Then, applying the same wisdom to their community, Scharlow and husband Larry embraced the potential of New Albany’s core by investing in it not once, but thrice: First with Tumblebus, then in the conversion of the Grand theater into a convention and banquet facility, and now with the building of condominiums by the riverfront.
Price can do no more than spout homilies, and he slouches behind them.
Scharlow designs her own ball, and she runs with it.
Price warns against a litany of forthcoming catastrophe, and he proposes regress as the only course.
Scharlow grasps what might be, and she counsels progress as a remedy.
Price’s worldview is an embarrassment to Democrats, and the Democratic Party knows it, even if it says nothing publicly.
Scharlow’s platform is a credit to Republicans, and they certainly need it.
No candidate is perfect, but the majority of Brenda Scharlow's positions are calibrated to suit the needs of the 3rd district. Conversely, after four years in office, Steve Price all but concedes that he still cannot fathom those needs.
On November 6, vote for Scharlow for 3rd district council.
See also: Five takes a look at Three, at NA Shadow Council.
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