Scribner Place: "A catalyst for future development," says Business First.

The official groundbreaking ceremony for New Albany's Scribner Place redevelopment project is Monday, November 6 (see article to follow).

Here is the full text of a recent article by Business First that recaps the project.

----

New Albany's Scribner Place redevelopment under way, by Sarah Jeffords (Business First of Louisville - October 27, 2006):

Scribner Place, a redevelopment project that will bring a YMCA facility and city-owned natatorium to downtown New Albany, long has been the topic of conversation in Southern Indiana circles.

Plans for the 2.2-acre project were proposed, then altered. There was ongoing debate about how to pay for the environmental cleanup of the former industrial site and the multimillion-dollar facility. And in the midst of it all, a new city administration came on board and inherited the task of making the redevelopment project a reality.

But after at least four years of discussion, preparation and some progress -- such as the environmental cleanup that was completed last year -- the long-awaited Scribner Place soon will start to take shape.

Work to get under way in November

Louisville-based Stevens Contractors Inc. is scheduled to begin construction of the 80,000-square-foot facility early next month, said John Rosenbarger, director of the New Albany Redevelopment Commission and the New Albany Plan Commission.

The city will own a 60 percent stake in the building, and the Floyd County YMCA will own the remaining 40 percent.

The three-story facility, designed by Jeffersonville-based The Estopinal Group, will be unlike the structures currently found in historic downtown New Albany. The new building has an eye-catching, 2,500-square-foot glass atrium that marks the main entrance on State Street.

The natatorium, named the Caesars Foundation of Floyd County Aquatic Center in honor of the private foundation's financial contribution to the facility, will occupy the south wing of the building. It will have a family pool with multiple fountains and a two-story slide, a six-lane lap pool, and a warm-water therapy pool.

City officials are negotiating an agreement under which the Floyd County YMCA would manage the aquatic center, but that has not been finalized, Rosenbarger said.

New YMCA could have 9,000 members

The north wing, stretching toward Main Street, will be the home of the Floyd County YMCA. It will offer a climbing wall, fitness facilities, child care and other programs.

Joe LaRocca, executive director of the YMCA of Southern Indiana in Jeffersonville, will oversee the new branch.

He said the new facility provides "an opportunity to better serve all of Southern Indiana and Floyd County in particular."

About 22 percent of the existing YMCA's members live in Floyd County. LaRocca estimates that the majority of them live within a 15-minute drive of the Clark County branch, and they most likely will continue to use the current facility.

So the goal of Scribner Place is to provide a convenient location that would serve members in the business district as well as those who live near downtown and in Floyds Knobs.

LaRocca projected that the Floyd County YMCA will have about 9,000 members. In comparison, the Clark County YMCA has more than 11,000.

LifeSpan Resources Inc., a nonprofit organization that helps elderly and disabled people remain independent, will lease about 8,000 square feet on the third floor from the Floyd County YMCA.
Adjoining lot also to be developed

Also as part of the project, a city-owned site adjacent to the eastern side of Scribner Place will be converted into a surface parking lot that will provide 115 spaces for patrons of the facility.

Long-term plans call for further development of that lot, Rosenbarger said, adding that city officials plan to work with private developers who would build a hotel, retail space, offices, apartments or condominiums in a multi-level structure over the parking lot.

He added that New Albany has been working with Indianapolis-based consulting firm Brown Investments to identify appropriate uses for the site, but that portion of the project has been on hold until Scribner Place materializes.

In the past, private developers have been hesitant to make a commitment to the site because of the uncertainty of Scribner Place, said Paul Wheatley, New Albany's economic development director.

But with those plans moving forward, he added, interest has begun to increase.

Scribner is just one piece of the puzzle

City officials expect the excitement surrounding Scribner Place to continue to build momentum in the downtown sector and serve as a catalyst for future development.

Rosenbarger said he sees Scribner Place as a destination site that will draw additional traffic downtown. Some estimates project as many as 500 additional cars will pass through the State and Main intersection per day.

Scribner Place is a "major-league, highly visible construction project," Rosenbarger said. "It's not an end-all type of endeavor, but it's a very important new anchor in the downtown."

Path to the present

2002: New Albany officials began to develop the Scribner Place concept, assessed the current use of the site, and designated it a blighted area.

2003: The city made offers to various landowners in an effort to assemble the 2.2 acres.

2004: Land purchases were completed.

2005: The city conducted nearly $800,000 of site assessment, remediation planning and environmental cleanup of the site. (The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to feature Scribner Place at the Brownfields 2006 conference in Boston next month.)

2006: The city and the Floyd County YMCA sold bonds to complete the financing package.

Construction is set to begin Nov. 6.

The Financials

Project: Scribner Place
Total project cost: About $23 million
How that breaks down:
The Caesars Foundation of Floyd County gave New Albany a $20 million grant -- $1 million per year for 20 years -- and the city already is in its fourth year of that grant.

The city had an initial $2.4 million bond issue that gave New Albany funds for land acquisition and environmental cleanup. Those dollars will be paid back with Caesars funds. Plus, the city received some grant money from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, $292,000 of which has gone toward site remediation.

The city sold $12.75 million in bonds to finance construction costs. That amount will be repaid during the next 16 years using the Caesars funds and an additional contribution from the city and county funds. The city will pay up to $137,500 per year, and the county will pay up to $137,000 per year.

The Floyd County YMCA also sold $4.1 million in municipal bonds to finance its portion of the construction costs. The YMCA, in conjunction with tenant LifeSpan Resources, also is in the midst of an $8 million capital campaign. It has raised $5.5 million so far.

Candidate Hill & Drinking Liberally at the Public House last night.

For the record, Baron Hill graciously kept his appointment with the pub's weekly Drinking Liberally discussion group.

Although visibly tired, Hill shook hands, briefly discussed alternative fuels with an interested attendee, and gave the group a truncated version of his stump speech. It may not have been a huge crowd, but it's a close election, and given the extreme demands of the campaign trail during the closing days, I regard his visit as a classy gesture, indeed.

For more, see: Baron Hill to visit this Thursday’s meeting of Drinking Liberally at the Public House.

From our readers: Four views of the Mike Sodrel profile in yesterday's C-J.

Yesterday's posting (Rep. Mike Sodrel profiled in today's Courier-Journal) brought forth four comments that fully deserve your attention. Accordingly, I've elevated them to the marquee, and you can read them below.

Thanks for your input, readers.

Today's C-J profile of Baron Hill can be found here, and don't forget that Hill is scheduled to visit tonight's Drinking Liberally gathering at the Public House.

----

At 6:37 PM, edward parish said...
Not real sure where the CJ reporter got all of the info on Sodrel, but some of it was way misleading. His family had that business and US Mail contract that MS just happened to expand. To say he is a self made man would be like saying that Candice Bergman made it in Hollywood all by herslf with out the help of her father and Charlie McCarthy.

Misinformation ...

At 8:05 PM, bluegill said...
At least 50,000 are dead due to U.S. intervention.

The right to a fair trial in this country is now based on the decision making of a small group government employees rather than the Constitution.

The number of people on the federal government's payroll has increased by over 2 million since 2002.

The federal deficit is setting records.

The federal government now has more control over our local schools than ever before in the history of the country.

I'm supposed to believe that Sodrel supports all the above because he learned that "big government" is bad for us? My picture is on the wall of the gymnasium where the rally was held but, luckily, most of my time was spent in the classroom where I learned to question nonsense when I read it.

At 8:16 PM, The Indiana Democrat..in my opinion said...
I happened to catch MS spreading the BS on WHAS-TV's noon news yesterday boasting how he grew up in the projects in New Albany, and the different areas of the inner city, and that he wasn't always "this way" (rich). Then MS says he stands up for Indiana values, and understands what the people want.

Well, he doesn't understand MY values. He doesn't understand the many low, or no income people who seem to be forgotten from President Bush down. I'd like to see how many people who live in the projects and the inner city areas, that MS was speaking of, actually got any benefit from Bush's "tax cut". I would venture to say..none of them. I would also bet that if MS still was still living in the projects or other areas, if he would be so willing to support a "tax relief" plan that only benefits those that are already wealthy. I'd venture to say...NO!

MS also boasts that Baron Hill voted 6 times against the tax cuts. I say good for him if he did! Why should the wealthy get the tax cuts? MS recites how he voted on different issues. I would challenge anyone to look at his voting record and find ANY vote that was not along Republican party lines. If he did go against Bush, he'd not be getting free visits at Sellersburg, and $500 a plate fundraising dinners. He hadn't been in office 3 months and he already had one of these at Kye's in Jeffersonville.

Every day in the mail I receive anywhere from 1 to 3 MS ads. I considered cutting them up in little pieces, putting some limburger cheese in the envelope, and mailing it back to the Indiana Republican State Committee.

(Sorry for rambling Roger)

At 10:17 PM, Feel the Paine said...
Sociologists and psychologists should study the phenomenon involving wealthy Republicans who attribute their riches solely to the sweat of their brows, superior intellect and entreprenurial courage. A certain amnesia or protective delusion prevents them from acknowledging that but for an accident of birth, familial connections and associated advantages or, in many cases, mere luck, they would be scratching and clawing out a middle-class existence as their wages failed to keep pace with inflation. Sodrel has the syndrome in spades.

But to me, the most telling and asinine Sodrel quote in the Courier article was this:

"What I want to do in Congress is make sure my kids and everybody else's kids have the same opportunities that I've had."

First, I will wildly speculate that Sodrel's kids spend little time worrying about whether they will have any opportunities for financial success. Second, Edward Parish has correctly exposed Sodrel's "rags-to-riches" success story as a fraud. Third, the only opportunity Sodrel has provided for future generations is to pay off trillions in debt resulting from uprecedented deficit spending, including the Iraq debacle. At bottom, Sodrel's record of supporting the fiscally irresponsible Bush adminstration unmasks his manufactured persona as a conservative.

Finally, lets not forget that Sodrel reneged his oath of office to uphold the Constitution thru his outright contempt for the Separation of Powers and attempts to usurp the rulings of the Judiciary in the Terry Schiavo matter and others. His record is one of total fealty to his fundamentalist taskmasters.

Rep. Mike Sodrel profiled in today's Courier-Journal.

Representative and candidate Mike Sodrel is profiled in today's Courier-Journal:

Time as working stiff shaped political views, by Lesley Stedman Weidenbener (short shelf life for Courier-Journal links).

U.S. Rep. Mike Sodrel was smiling when he said it, but it was clear he felt frustrated.

Speaking to the Rotary Club last month in Clarksville, the first-term 9th District congressman said that people cheer when someone becomes a millionaire by winning the lottery.

But when you work 60 to 80 hours a week for 30 years, he said shaking his head, wealth suddenly is viewed as a negative.

Not in these quarters. You’ve not read the words “Millionaire Mike” at NAC, although on occasion I’ve referred to Sodrel as “Hot Wheels.” Personal wealth need not be a hindrance for a politician, and I’ll not say that it should disqualify a person from serving.

Rather, my objection to Sodrel’s continued presence in the U.S. House of Representatives stems from his positions and how these pertain to the state of the nation, not the state of his personal checking account.

Although Sodrel's campaigns initially focused on his business experience, he has emerged as much a social conservative as a fiscal one.

He opposes abortion in all circumstances except when the mother's life is at risk. He backs constitutional amendments to ban flag burning and gay marriage. And he has used those issues to political advantage, saying that he best represents the views of the fairly conservative 9th District.

In the House, Sodrel serves on the transportation, agriculture, science and small business committees. He won support for federal funds for the planned Ohio River bridges at Louisville. He introduced legislation that would have banned federal courts from interfering in the speech rights of state legislators, a reaction to a judicial order forbidding prayers in the Indiana House of Representatives that referred to Jesus or Christ.

And Sodrel has been a major supporter of President Bush, voting with him more than any other member of the Indiana delegation. Democrats call him a rubber stamp for a president whose policies have fallen out of favor.

In a nutshell, Sodrel platform personifies the distaste of so many Americans with the damning limitations of the two-party system.

It’s a simple question any child might ask: Can’t there be a political party that espouses fiscal conservatism, i.e., the Republican ethos of old, while maintaining a more libertarian stance on social issues?

It remains fascinating that Lee Hamilton managed to represent a conservative district for decades without curtsying to the siren’s call of extremism, as Sodrel does on a daily basis when the evangelical wing of the GOP comes calling. It remains ironic that an avowed free marketer touts one version of market freedom when it comes to earning income, and another one entirely different when the topic turns to matters of social conscience and civil rights, and yet could the theocratic state preferred by Sodrel’s clamorous faith-based supporters be further from the intent of the founders to separate church and state, and to keep them separated?

The bulk of Sodrel’s campaign talking points to date have constituted a repetitive über-pander to the religious right, embracing such mindless inanities as accusing his opponent of favoring violent video games, torching flags, preferring the Sodom & Gomorrah of the City by the Bay for the simpler pleasures of prom queens, Miller Lite and beef jerky, and being improperly disposed to benign tolerance and cultural diversity when a homespun Sodrelesque version of Torquemada is far more in keeping with the exurban fundamentalist prejudice that must be assuaged.

As New Republic senior editor Jonathan Chait puts it in an op-ed piece (also in today’s C-J), it’s all about the mid-term Republican strategy of “Running against the bogeyman” – and Chait is demanding substance. Where does he find it? In a Democratic congressional platform that few imagine exists:

… Because the Democrats running for the House of Representatives actually have an agenda. Republicans aren't saying why the Democratic agenda is wrong, or why their own is better. They're just ignoring it.

If you're like most people, you probably have no idea what that agenda is. Let me list it:

• Put new rules in place to break the link between lobbyists and legislation.
• Enact all the recommendations made by the 9/11 commission.
• Raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour.
• Cut the interest rate on federally supported student loans in half.
• Allow the government to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices for Medicare patients.
• Broaden the types of stem-cell research supported with federal funds.
• Impose pay-as-you-go budget rules, requiring that new entitlement spending or tax cuts be offset with entitlement spending cuts or tax hikes.

Chait concludes:

But nearly all of those campaigns are trying to run against a boogeyman. They raise the specter of a radical Democratic agenda, but they refuse to say what they don't like about that agenda. There's a reason for that: It's popular.

I always knew my vote against Sodrel was fitting and proper, and although it may have taken some time, now I’m feeling good about my vote for Baron Hill.

And, as Basil Fawlty once said, "don't mention the war."

Baron Hill to visit this Thursday’s meeting of Drinking Liberally at the Public House.

I have learned that Democratic congressional hopeful Baron Hill will make an appearance during the weekly meeting of Drinking Liberally (New Albany & Southern Indiana) this Thursday evening at 7:00 p.m. at Rich O’s Public House.




Hill’s bid to recapture his seat in a third epic electoral slugging match with Mike Sodrel is being watched throughout the country as a key indicator in the mid-term election.

In expectation of a larger than usual turnout for Drinking Liberally, we’ll be moving the meeting to the Prost special events room. DL organizer Lacy Davis has given me the okay to spread the word, and all readers are cordially invited.

As a counterweight, albeit small, to the prevailing crackpot sentiments of theocratic fascism washing over Indiana's (and the nation’s shores), I’m delighted to host the group and the candidate, and to serve Progressive Pints to those in attendance.

As a reminder, Drinking Liberally is:

An informal, inclusive Democratic drinking club. Raise your spirits while you raise your glass, and share ideas while you share a pitcher. Drinking Liberally gives like-minded, left-leaning individuals a place to talk politics. You don't need to be a policy expert and this isn't a book club - just come and learn from peers, trade jokes, vent frustration and hang out in an environment where it's not taboo to talk politics.

Bars are democratic spaces - you talk to strangers, you share booths, you feel the bond of common ground. Bring democratic discourse to your local democratic space - build Democracy one drink at a time.

(Crossposted at The Potable Curmudgeon)

The NBA is back tonight!

With only four days elapsed since the end of baseball season, tonight is the tip-off for the 2006-07 NBA season.

That’s a relief.

My preferences run to professional sports, as these are absent the hypocrisy of “amateur” games that pretend not to be about money when they obviously are about money, but hey -- to each his or her own. I fully realize that most readers will be living and dying with local university basketball teams, and that’s fine.

The NBA’s just better for me. Basketball may have started in the sticks, but now it is thoroughly cosmopolitan – the urban game, fast moving, athletic but strategic. For my money, NBA players are the finest athletes in the world in terms of the strength, speed, stamina and finesse required at such a high level of performance.

I’ll be watching to see how Ben Wallace does with the Bulls, whether the Big Aristotle has another championship run in him, and if Dirk Nowitzki can bounce back from Dallas’s finals collapse against the Heat.

Along those lines, America’s recent run of disappointment in international basketball competition encourages me, because it means that the cultural diversification of the NBA will proceed apace. As one unaffected by the inanity of thoughtless patriotism (nor, for that matter, by the thoughtful variety), there can be nothing but good to come from the ever escalating global popularity of basketball.

But the NBA isn’t just about individuals, contrary to the prejudices of those who never watch the league and the tendency of network television to focus on individual match ups.

Balance, teamwork and coaching systems are necessary to build the winning squads, just as in other levels of play. San Antonio perhaps has been the best example of this for a decade or more. More recently, Phoenix has emphasized a team concept of speed and versatility, handed the ball to Steve Nash (a Canadian), and gone to the races.

It helps to have a plan, but even when the plan breaks down, the entertainment possibilities afforded by the NBA are endless.

Ray Allen’s purity of shot.
The wingspan of Tayshaun Prince.
The way that Steve Nash runs the floor.
Elton Brand and a relentless work ethic.
Clutch as redefined by Dwyane Wade.

LeBron James? If you haven’t watched the man play, you’re simply missing it. He does it all, and for once, you can believe the hype. Barring injury or misfortune, King James might prove to be the best ever. Will the Cavs put together a complementary roster to make his reign a reality?
I’ll be watching, and report back next year when the playoffs start. After all, no sense in waiting for March for madness to begin.

(Photo credit: Net cribbed)

Say it ain't so, John.

With all due respect to the victorious St. Louis Cardinals, there are two things I’ll always remember about the 2006 World Series, and neither has to do with the Redbirds.

First are the numerous and comical errors by the losing Detroit Tiger pitchers, and second is “Our Country,” the new John Mellencamp song that was used to tout Chevrolet during each and every break in the action.

The memory of the jarring Tiger meltdown is far less galling than the tune still jangling in my head, and the part that’s really grinding my teeth is that it’s precisely because Mellencamp and Chevrolet wanted it that way.

Grrrrrrrr.

During the period of time that passed between the conclusion of the NBA Finals in June and the commencement of the baseball playoffs in October, my eyes rested upon no more than eight hours of domestic television, and I continued to hold the view that if given the choice of voting for a Seymour native to serve in Congress, I would opt for Mellencamp over Baron Hill.

Now that Hill has shown healthy signs of an overdue pulse and Mellencamp has broken with his longstanding custom by licensing a song to an advertiser, I’ve changed my mind. Hill’s my man. Mellencamp? He’ll be judged by his forthcoming album.

Verily, there has ceased to be resistance to the notion of using popular music to promote products. Attitudes surely have changed since the 1980s, when baby boomers were quick to condemn the use of the Beatles’ “Revolution” to sell sneakers. Most of my favorite performers have done it (see: U2 and “Vertigo”), and there aren’t two-dozen people under the age of 40 in the entire country who care either way. Neil Young might be the last holdout, and maybe Pearl Jam.

(Speaking of the liberal icon Young, is there anything in the partnership of pop music and advertising quite as weird as KFC’s use of a loop snipped from Lynyrd Skynyrd's “Sweet Home Alabama” to sell fried chicken? Are those distorted sounds that accompany the music really whole fryers merrily clucking along the assembly line? Did anyone tell Yum!’s resident Wonder CEO Novak that Tyson is from Arkansas, not Alabama?)

But I digress.

It is true that Mellencamp has a reasonable excuse for accepting a check from Chevrolet. According to a United Press International report:

BLOOMINGTON, Ind., Oct. 20 (UPI) -- After years of saying no, Indiana rocker John Mellencamp is allowing his new single to be used in a television commercial for trucks.
Mellencamp licensed "Our Country," a song celebrating the durability of the American dream, to Chevrolet for a spot advertising its trucks. Mellencamp referred to the ad, which features images of disgraced U.S. President Richard Nixon and Hurricane Katrina, as "my new video" and says it's an effective way to promote the song.

"I want my records to be heard; that's why I write 'em," said Mellencamp, who has rebuffed numerous ad requests for other songs. "Radio's not gonna play 'em now. MTV doesn't even play videos anymore. How do you get it out there and ... stay relevant?

"This is what (artists) are going to have to do if they're not 21 years old and they want people to hear their music."

The fact that “Our Country” remains on inadvertent heavy rotation in my cranial jukebox might be said to grudgingly prove Mellencamp’s point, and furthermore, it’s worth noting that he has conceded (to Billboard) that the Chevy song’s conscious “Pink Houses” vibe isn’t at all representative of his forthcoming album:

John Mellencamp's new single, "Our Country," will be on his next album, but he tells Billboard.com it's hardly indicative of what the rest of the album will sound like. "It's pretty interesting," Mellencamp says of "Freedom Road," due in January via UME/Universal Republic. "It sounds very 1966, but it sounds now. 'Our Country' is the most John Mellencamp-sounding record on it.

And so, it all becomes clear: Mellencamp provides Chevrolet with a ready-made advertising anthem. He gets paid. People hear the song and are tricked into buying the album, exposing them to the artist’s new music. Case closed?

Well, not exactly.

For what seemed like a millennium, although it was probably far less than a decade, Chevrolet used Bob Seger’s “Like a Rock” as the musical tag for its television ads, transforming a pedestrian number by a respected rock ‘n’ roll veteran into perhaps the single most overplayed song of the current generation. As much as I like “Vertigo,” it’s probably a distant second.

If the use of pop music in Chevrolet’s advertising is about defining the company’s potential customer base, the car-maker’s mishandling of Seger's tune suggests a maddening tendency to simply murder an otherwise average song through serial overuse, which in turn implies that its target buyers are either undiscerning or tone deaf … or maybe both.

At least the news that “Our Country’s” licensing agreement runs only through 2007 is a source of hope and optimism.

Of course, it could be worse – and in fact it is, so don’t touch that dial, pop open an ice-cold longneck and stay tuned as “Toby Keith Plays With His Guitar And Spews Forth An Amerigasm Of Song About Ford Trucks.”*

----

* You think I’d make that one up? As Grandpa Jones always said, truth is stranger than fact, so visit the singer’s web site to see why he’s “built Ford tough.”

Another incremental gain for local anti-smoking advocates.

A Tribune front-page story from last Tuesday described stricter smoking rules for school grounds, which were approved on Monday evening by the New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corporation Board of School Trustees.

The article has not been archived at the newspaper’s web site.

In essence, the school board voted to prohibit smoking at all times on school grounds, but with an exemption granted to faculty and staff, who may continue to enjoy the privilege of shielding their nicotine habits from view in “designated areas” during the school day.

At Floyd Central, this used to be called the “smokers’ lounge,” or sometimes the “faculty toilet.”

Tribune writer Nicholas Wiselogel attributes the following words to MeriBeth Adams-Wolf, executive director of Our Place Drug & Alcohol Services, Inc., who attended the school board meeting as a representative of the Floyd County Tobacco Prevention and Cessation:

As a learning institution, the benefits of setting a good example for our children speaks for itself.

Sounds like a dangerous precedent, but I mention Ms. Adams-Wolfe and the FCTPC here not to belabor the nuances of the school corporation’s newly altered smoking policy, but to call the attention of readers to the impending influence of the local anti-smoking coalition, and the likely outcome of this blossoming.

Consider this plank from the FCTPC mission statement:

Issuable objectives include: Increase proportion of Hoosiers not exposed to secondhand smoke by increasing number of smoke free policies for employers, schools, restaurants and bars.

Also recall this excerpt from a November, 2005, Courier-Journal article by Alex Davis on the topic of smoking bans, in which New Albany city council member Larry Kochert features prominently:

Larry Kochert, a member of the New Albany City Council, said he is encouraged by Jeffersonville's move to limit smoking.

He said he considered a similar ban for New Albany about five years ago but dropped it after realizing that support wasn't there.

Kochert said public opinion about smoking has changed, though, and he predicts that the momentum from bans in Louisville and possibly Jeffersonville might be enough to turn the tide in New Albany.

Since this article was published, the Jeffersonville ordinance has come into effect, and a similar loophole-ridden metro Louisville ordinance has been considerably tightened.

Although I’m unable to attribute it, it seems that Ms. Adams-Wolfe has since commented in one or the other local newspaper that the groundwork for a smoking ban push awaits the resolution of next year’s city council elections, presumably so as to provide a different council temperament.

If I’m misrepresenting her strategic aims, I apologize, although the point remains the same: We’re probably next in line, and sooner than we may think, for the divisive conflict that has characterized just about all community debates on the topic of smoking in public places.

Given the steady progress of such campaigns, it does not require a fully charged crystal ball to predict that Ms. Adams-Wolfe and her anti-drug coalition partners will be in the vanguard of the local anti-smoking movement, and that in the end, it is likely that they will carry the day and succeed in persuading a future council into implementing some variety of a smoking ban in New Albany.

It’s just my opinion, but smoking ban opponents might want to consider a tactical move now to propose a compromise position to the city council before the sides harden into the familiar all-or-nothing dichotomy that generally has proven to be the prelude to certain defeat for the anti-ban side.

As frequent readers already know, it’s a very tough call for me. I’m inclined neither to support nor to fight any proposal for a smoking ban, because I regard it as inevitable in the current climate.

As an occasional cigar smoker, I’m accustomed to being chased from rooms that are blue with cigarette smoke, and in spite of the obvious hypocrisy, it’s not a problem for me to wait for another time or to smoke on the porch.

At the same time, I strongly believe that the prohibitionist instinct lies at the heart of the anti-smoking movement, and unsurprisingly, there can be no good to come from it for a person who sells beer for a living. Smokers first, drinkers next. Ireland may have banned smoking in pubs, but the countries that comprise the EU are far too civilized to touch the beer flowing from the taps inside.

America? Hard to tell. Any country voting for the likes of George W. Bush -- twice -- is suspect, especially since Prohibition's already been tried once.

(And you were wondering how I'd squeeze a dig at the regime into an article about smoking? Where there's a will, there's a way.)

Either way, it would be instructive and highly entertaining to view the city council’s Gang of Four as currently numbered grappling with a smoking ban. We know that CM Kochert's for it. Is CM Coffey? Coffey's Conjoined councilman Price? If Ms. Adams-Wolfe and associates are intent on waiting for a better moment for action, then perhaps seizing the initiative with a watered-down proposal is the best idea.

Give a little, and get a little. Have we forgotten how to do that here?

Conversely, smokers might consider hitting the patches now to avoid the 2008 rush.

Not too loudly -- the Republican National Committee might use one of them.

This reader comment is so good that it deserves a marquee slot.

It was posted in response to yesterday's "C-J endorses Baron Hill; condemns Mike Sodrel's "meek fealty to the Bush administration," and is from our friend Feel the Paine:

At 11:12 PM, Feel the Paine said ...

I anticipate that this week we will see Sodrel and his proxies unleash the final blitzkrieg, which will doubtless include: a photoshopped Hill presiding over a gay marriage ceremony; disclosure of a grainy video in which Hill dons turban and prostrates himself for Muslim prayers; erection of billboards on I-64 displaying a black latex-clad Nancy Pelosi in stilletos leading a dog-collared and leashed Hill in a San Francisco transgendered parade;and an affidavit from a Hill Seymour High School classmate alleging that Hill's basketball records were the result of performance enhancing drugs.

Hilarious to be sure, but sadly, not outside the realm of RNC possibility.

C-J endorses Baron Hill; condemns Mike Sodrel's "meek fealty to the Bush administration."

Editorial endorsements may or may not carry weight in today’s world, and yet today’s Louisville Courier-Journal provides a succinct summary of the case for former 9th District congressman Baron Hill and against incumbent Mike Sodrel in this year’s hotly contested rematch.

Hill for Congress in Indiana's 9th District.

The C-J distills the argument here:

But the key issue in this race is a number: 97. According to CQ.com, Rep. Sodrel voted to support the President's positions 97 percent of the time in 2006 -- the highest figure for any member of the Indiana or Kentucky delegations.

The troubled state of the nation demands far more than meek fealty to the Bush administration.

The CJ’s endorsement also cites an important position of Hill’s that we’ve quite frankly missed here at NAC:

(Hill) favors federal funding of stem-cell research with embryos that are going to be discarded anyway and says he would have voted against federal intervention in the Terri Schiavo case.

In an on-line reader comment that follows the C-J’s endorsement, Hill predictably is savaged for supporting gay marriage, abortion and (gasp) Planned Parenthood. The reader curiously omits Hill’s presumed flag burning fetish. As time runs out, expect Sodrel’s operatives to accuse Hill of preferring NBA basketball to the purer collegiate variety, of eschewing Coor ight for Heineken, and of laughing out loud at those clever Monty Python skits that always eluded the sitting congressman's grasp.

And so it goes, because the Sodrel congressional campaign, and by extension the Republican establishment nationwide, is bereft of sensible policy content, but refreshingly beset with inconvenient scandals and a purely sordid record of incompetence so damning that even Louisville’s Representative Ann Northup now finds it useful to throw Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld under the rapidly disintegrating bus.

Of course, Northup’s carefully calculated call for Rumsfeld’s resignation comes at least two years too late, and owes to nothing deeper than her commitment to say whatever must be said in order to be re-elected, but of course our own Mike Sodrel is capable of nothing remotely similar in majestically limited scope, trusting instead that the residents of the 9th District are sufficiently parochial and bedazzled with patriotic imagery and religious extremism that they’ll fail to comprehend the magnitude of a number like 97% and what it devastatingly portends in matters like the economy, foreign policy and civil liberties:

See “Cultural despair, the "poisoning" of Habeas Corpus -- and why Mike Sodrel should be sent home.”


The C-J closes:

Rep. Sodrel is a likable fellow, but Indiana and the United States need change and independent minds in Washington. Baron Hill can help get the nation back on track. We enthusiastically endorse him.

“Independent minds”? Now that’s a truly revolutionary call -- and something we can be for.

See yesterday's NAC postings:

Scenes from the Thursday rally ... from the cheap seats.

Local Democrats rally today as extreme radical wing meets in yonder bread box. 

Scenes from the Thursday rally ... from the cheap seats.

 

Local Democrats rally today as extreme radical wing meets in yonder bread box.

As noted two days ago, in lieu of a last-minute invitation to attend the Saturday GOP redshirt rally in Sellersburg, NA Confidential opts instead to see blue this afternoon as Evan Bayh and Baron Hill come to town.

Here's the official press release from the Floyd County Democratic Party:

(New Albany) - U.S. Senator and potential Presidential nominee Evan Bayh will join Democratic Congressional Candidate Baron Hill in Floyd County today for a rally at Democratic Headquarters and the White House Center at 221 Pearl Street in New Albany.

The rally, which will be held at 4:00 p.m., is an effort to help motivate the Democratic base prior to election day.

"This is a great opportunity for citizens to meet two energetic political figures - Bayh and Hill - that are working to make our nation and our local communities a better place," stated party chairman Randy Stumler.

He added, "With the popularity of Evan Bayh and his potential run for the White House, there may be no better time for Hoosiers to show their support and meet these individuals."

In connection with the event, the local Democratic Party will have refreshments. Pearl Street will be closed during the event due to security considerations.

Anyone with questions on the event should contact Democratic Headquarters at 812.207.7941.

Speaking of the party chairman and candidate Stumler, how's this for an endorsement in his race for County Commissioner?

County Commissioner, District #1– Randy Stumler (D)

Randy has demonstrated leadership skills, especially in the area of financial controls, in addition to a track record of independent thinking. This coupled with his stand on proper development in rural Floyd County, and the rebirth of New Albany itself, sets him well above the competition. Only one note of caution. As Chairman of the Floyd county Democrat Party, should Randy fall in with the extreme radical wing of his party, all bets for future support are off. I find this prospect, however, highly unlikely.

It's from the NA Unrestricted blog, which is sporadically published by the pseudonymous blogger known as Blogspastic.

Readers, is there really such a thing as an "extreme radical wing" of the local Democratic party?

If anyone finds it, please let us know. We'd like to join.

Looking for the back story in the Smith's auction "bust."

Scuttlebutt has long held that the building(s) is in poor condition, and those responsible decades ago for painting the exterior walls black have yet to be captured and brought to justice, but it’s still a surprise to learn …

Smith’s auction a bust in New Albany; Former furniture store still on the market, by Eric Scott Campbell (News and Tribune).

When auctioneer Lincoln Crum opened bidding at $300,000, no one bit. He gradually dropped the amount by $25,000 at a time, but no one flinched, and it quickly became apparent that the auction might be in vain.

“Maybe everybody’s here just to watch,” Crum wondered aloud when he dropped the opening bid to $125,000.

Once no one showed interest in $75,000 as an opening bid, that was that.

What’s the untold story?

A source suggests that the seller in this instance may have intended the auction as a sort of helpful calibration device to winnow the field of potential purchasers and to help establish the building’s true worth. Barring the unexpected arrival of an extremely wealthy rube with a check for $400,000 in his pocket, the result of the non-auction would be the identification of serious investors, a collective gathering of information, and many further negotiations to follow.

Emphatically, this is not to insinuate that the auction was somehow staged or rigged. However, it is to concede that since most readers have never gone about selling a building appraised at half a million dollars, certain aspects of the process are sure to remain elusive. Readers, any helpful thoughts on the matter are appreciated, either posted below or privately mailed.

It remains that another furniture and appliance store is not needed at the Smith’s location*, but the expense of rehabbing the buildings into street level retail with apartments and offices upstairs stands to be considerable. We believe that the “busted” auction is a mere prelude to the building’s eventual purchase for a price below the Louisville metro norm. The question is, what will be done with it, and when?

---

* The needs of business centers - smaller blocks, more through street connections, ancillary facilities such as restaurants, easier connections to transit, sidewalks and bikeways, and higher landscape standards - are much different from those of warehousing and industrial areas.

Taking the low road? It's a Republican family tradition.

It’s understandable that fundamentally decent people treat election season with a revulsion normally reserved for war criminals, plague bacilli and Adam Sandler movies.

Much of the disgust owes to the prevalence of television and radio attack ads, generally financed by money coming from well outside the election arenas. Most people grasp that these noxious defecations atop the carpet of our body politic are a symptom of a much larger malady, namely the vast sums of cash that are required of any person seeking to participate in the allegedly level playing field of American-style democracy-for-hire.

Apart from the merrily ringing cash drawers of the media outlets airing them, no one benefits from the process as currently constituted, and yet the fact that it continues unabated must indicate that for a certain segment of the voting public, attack ads remain viable. This probably serves as sufficient proof that the attitude of Americans toward education remains the greatest impediment to social progress and economic self-sufficiency in this nation.

That’s a debate for another day. Let’s glance to the political battlefield of southwestern Indiana for a particularly repugnant example of the attack ad, one certifiably in the arsenal of every threatened extremist Republican, though perhaps not voiced as openly … yet.

After all, it’s probably only a matter of days for us. Consider the subtext of our 9th District congressman Mike Sodrel’s comments, as quoted here by USA Today:

Sodrel, a wealthy trucking company owner, manages to be folksy even while wearing tasseled loafers, aiming barbs at (Baron) Hill and quoting Johann Goethe (the 19th-century German writer). He reminds his listeners that Hill's first vote, should he win, would be to make ‘the lady from San Francisco, Nancy Pelosi,’ the new House speaker. ‘God help us,’ a volunteer calls out.”

If the 9th District race remains in a dead heat, look for "Baron (Hill) of Castro Street" attack ads on behalf of Sodrel, with candidate Hill's face on one side of a split screen, and the bath houses circa 1978 on the other.

But we digress. Back to Indiana's 8th District:

'Dirty Harry' warns voters of gay agenda; Hostettler ad targets Democrats, by Ryan Lenz (Associated Press).

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — An embattled Indiana congressman is invoking Dirty Harry and the Old West in a new campaign warning that a vote for his Democratic opponent could trigger a shift in House leadership and advance a "homosexual agenda."

In the one-minute radio ad, paid for by Friends of Rep. John Hostettler, an announcer impersonating Clint Eastwood says a vote for challenger Brad Ellsworth would be a vote for California Democrat Nancy Pelosi as House speaker.

"Pelosi will then put in motion her radical plan to advance the homosexual agenda, led by Barney Frank, reprimanded by the House after paying for sex with a man who ran a gay brothel out of Congressman Frank's home," the narrator says.

Recall that the well documented incident involving Frank, a self-described “left-handed gay Jew” who has served his Massachusetts congressional district since 1981, actually occurred in 1990. Remember that in another time, the “homosexual agenda” might have been subordinated to “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” or a similar Jewish conspiracy theory. The intent is the same, and it is inexcusable.

Just as rain periodically falls in Death Valley, political campaign ads occasionally transcend the peddling of hate and prejudice that passes for a platform in the tortured minds of people like Rep. Hostettler.

We turn again to the Associated Press:

Actor Michael J. Fox Ad Touts McCaskill.

His body visibly wracked by tremors, actor Michael J. Fox speaks out for Missouri Democratic Senate candidate Claire McCaskill in a television ad that promotes her support for embryonic stem cell research.

"As you might know I care deeply about stem cell research," says 45-year-old actor, who has struggled with Parkinson's disease for more than a decade. "In Missouri you can elect Claire McCaskill, who shares my hope for cures."

McCaskill has made support for the research a key part of her campaign to unseat Sen. Jim Talent. The Republican incumbent opposes the research as unethical, saying it destroys human embryos.

Alas, and predictably, even the diseased are now to be excluded from the GOP’s intellectual flea circus, presumably because they offended the God of the evangelicals and brought the wrath of Parkinson's upon themselves. The story continues:

… The spot was the subject of widespread discussion on Monday after conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh claimed Fox was "either off his medication or acting" during the ad.

"I think this is exploitative in a way that's unbecoming either Claire McCaskill or Michael J. Fox," Limbaugh said on his syndicated show.

Al Franken is left. And he was right.

One and out for Hot Wheels: Vote for Baron Hill for Congress.

Remember last January, when we briefly were teased with the thought of President George W. Bush coming to New Albany?

Even if the President did still drink, I wouldn't serve him, but I'd consider a cream pie in Dick Cheney's face (January 6, 2006).

Now, many months later, with our current 9th District GOP representative having exhausted his seemingly endless and purely banal supply of “my Democratic opponent is a gay lovin’, flag burnin’, terrorist coddlin’, tax ‘n’ spend, John Kerry look alike, liberal wussy,” the ever creative Mike Sodrel finally brings to us the commander-in-chief in the war against civil liberties, albeit to the high school gym in Sellersburg, and not to the far friendlier confines of the Grand.

The proximity of the Grand to bNA’s Progressive Pints undoubtedly is to blame for losing the presidential contract.

President to hold Saturday rally for Sodrel, by Lesley Stedman Weidenbener (Courier-Journal breaking news).

It will be the first presidential visit to the district since Lyndon Johnson visited Clark County in 1964, said (campaign manager Cam) Savage.

“It’s a great opportunity right before the election to energize the base,” Savage said. “People are going to hear directly from the president about how important this election is, how important keeping control of Congress is to win the war on terror, keep taxes low, and keep the economy moving in the right direction.”

I suppose this is as good a time as any to announce that on November 7, I’ll be voting for Sodrel’s challenger, former congressman Baron Hill.

It may come as a surprise to those readers who think they know me, and who’ve consequently made the mistake of confusing stylistic brassiness for dissipated insolence, but my political musings to date have not been posted for the purpose of grandstanding, and have not been intended solely as rhetorical pot stirrers. These issues are ones that I take seriously, and the publicly voiced conflict of conscience within me is – and continues to be – genuine.

My left leanings are obvious and sincere. At the same time, I've grown weary of the absence of a true, ideological alternative to the radical right, and demanded that the Democratic Party toss me some semblance of a bone to earn my allegiance, rather than continue to function only as the sole tenable alternative to the GOP. The absence of this bone might yet embitter me, but first, there's work to do.

During our discussion at NAC yesterday, Randy “All4Word” Smith wrote:

Hill. If only on the assumption that when in the majority, Baron Hill will be free to vote his conscience without regard to election year shadings. If only to guarantee Democratic control of the House. If only to prevent a Bush rubber-stamp.

Hill MAY not be as "blue dog" as he makes himself out to be, but Mr. Sodrel is an automatic Bush vote. Anything is preferable, and a vote for Schansberg IS a vote for Sodrel.

Pastor John Manzo added:

We can debate the system and our options until we turn purple. Sometimes we have to live with what we have and work for change. But this election is too critical to worry about the system and more about who is in office.

Of course, Randy and John are right ... and I'm with them on this one.

At the same time, I’ve no intention of letting the Democratic Party off the hook. It’s too bad that Floyd County’s Democrats have done precious little to earn my support, a development all the more galling considering the party’s “dream team” leadership slate, which has tolerated the continuing existence of political charlatans like the conjoined councilmen, Dan Coffey and Steve Price, and other obstructionist Democrats who’ve been permitted to run rampant in opposition to progress and revitalization.

Meanwhile, state and national Democratic establishments likewise have missed ample opportunities to articulate progressive alternatives to the right-wing extremism espoused by the neo-con and evangelical elements in America. The intrinsic feebleness of the two-party monopoly is yet again offered as triumphant proof of the superiority of our democracy, and I’m not buying into it.

But … there’ll be time for that debate later, and until then, the dictates of a reality-based world strongly suggest the viability and utility of pragmatism as a permissable salve for the tortured conscience. Let’s worry about the common foe now, and return to our other issues later.

To each his, or her, own. Vote “for” Hill, or vote “against” Sodrel by supporting the candidate (Hill) most likely to defeat the incumbent. To join in deposing Sodrel is to vigorously repudiate the failed policies of the worst President in American history, and perhaps to begin a process of restoring balance and sanity to the nation.

As a card-carrying, anti-Republican operative, I’ve absolutely no chance of being invited to accompany Auntie V. to the Bush league pageantry in Sellersburg on Saturday. It looks like the best option for me is to wander down to Pearl Street on Thursday (October 26) at 4:00 p.m. and have a look at Baron Hill.

Make no mistake: It is something that I intend to enjoy for its own merits.

Photo credit: Internet crib.

How best to cast our votes against Mike Sodrel?

First, a tip of NAC's hat to David Mann (News-Tribune), whose piece covering this same ground appeared in the Saturday, October 21 edition of the Tribune:

Professor X: Libertarian is the ‘x’ factor in a 9th District race; Every vote counts in this neck-and-neck congressional battle.

In a campaign in which U.S. Rep. Mike Sodrel, R-Ind., has spent more than $1.1 million fending off threats from the political left, a previously unforeseen hazard has been growing on the political right.

Mann beat us to it, and more thoroughly, but since the article already had been written ...

----

It is obvious that the 9th District Congressional race is going to be a tight one. Only 1,500 votes separated loser Baron Hill (D) from winner Mike Sodrel (R) in 2004, and recent polls show the rematch too close to call.

Money is pouring into the district from afar, negative television ads make the daily case for moving to a civilized nation where such electoral shilling is banned, and the overall prognosis for coherent democracy is gloomy.

NAC previously has expressed its dismay with Hill’s centrist tendencies, our concurrent disgust with Sodrel’s Republican “values,” and our deep, dark depression and excessive misery over the complete lack of genuine choice inherent to the two-party system. There is no need to revisit these themes. They make us quite disillusioned already.

However, with the election only two weeks away, there is an urgent need to examine the election prospectus from a tactical standpoint. In short, it’s time for the unaffiliated to decide for whom to vote so as to induce the least guilt and self-loathing.

Bear in mind, the author has yet to formulate an answer to these questions. Readers, please assist by contributing your comments.

Is it possible for Libertarian challenger Eric Schansberg to muster enough support to influence the outcome?

If so, which major party candidate stands to be hurt the most by votes cast for Schansberg?

Will these votes be coming from likely Hill voters, or likely Sodrel voters?

Speaking personally, it’s the logic of the Great Emancipator, paraphrased and updated for modern times, during which the Republicans have come to embrace the “logic” of the Old South and a Seymour-based Democrat seems determined to offend us as deeply as his Republican opponent by means of a headlong rush to the right side of the divide:

"If I could vote for Hill to beat Sodrel I would do it and if I could vote for Schansberg to beat Sodrel I would do it and if I could leave all of them alone and skip the election to beat Sodrel I would do that. The thing is to beat Sodrel.”

Can a vote for Schansberg help beat Sodrel?

Or, are we best to grit our teeth, swig vigorously from the bottle of bonded previously secreted to circumvent the election-day ban on alcohol, and scratch the oval for Hill?

---

From the Sunday edition of the Courier-Journal (apparently not archived on line) comes this closing citation, courtesy of James R. Carroll’s “Notes from Washington” column. It is taken from Esquire magazine's current list of political endorsements:

Indiana District 9

Mike Sodrel (R)
Baron Hill (D)

Mike Sodrel is spending more time talking about his problems with the Democrats than about his own achievements. That's an argument for his opponent in itself, but suggesting that a vote for Hill—a conservative Democrat and former congressman—is a vote for "San Francisco" betrays his (Sodrel's) stupidity and utter lack of distinction.

Esquire endorses: Hill.

In fact, the assocation of "San Francisco" with "Baron Hill" is the best reason yet to vote for Hill, isn't it?

Scribner Place groundbreaking scheduled, opponents vow to "boo."

Scribner Place clears last hurdle; Groundbreaking is set for Nov. 6, by Matt Batcheldor (Courier-Journal).

After four years of political wrangling, a groundbreaking date was set yesterday for New Albany's downtown Scribner Place project.

It will be held from 11 to 11:30 a.m. Nov. 6 at the southwest corner of State and Main streets.

That’s a Monday, futurists. Lunch and a Progressive Pint at the Bistro afterwards?

----

In related news, New Albany’s congenital obstructionists have announced that they will gather at the Scribner Place job site for a mass self-immolation in protest of the project, the administration, and an uncooperative 21st century – and NA Confidential will be there, distributing a case of souvenir matchbooks.

Cultural despair, the "poisoning" of Habeas Corpus -- and why Mike Sodrel should be sent home.

Recently perusing the New York Times Sunday Book Review, I came across Can It Happen Here?, by Tom Reiss (October 8, 2006).

It is a review of “Five Germanys I Have Known,” a memoir by historian Fritz Stern, and while they’re no substitute for the original piece, here are brief excerpts:

In November 2005, Fritz Stern received an award for his life’s work on Germans, Jews and the roots of National Socialism, presented to him by Joschka Fischer, then the German foreign minister. With a frankness that startled some in the audience, Stern, an emeritus professor of European history at Columbia University, peppered his acceptance speech with the similarities he saw between the path taken by Germany in the years leading up to Hitler and the path being taken by the United States today …

… Stern was of course not suggesting an equivalence between President Bush and Hitler but rather making a more subtle critique, extending his idea that contemporary American politics exhibited “something like the strident militancy and political ineptitude of the Kaiser’s pre-1914 imperial Germany.”

… the value of Stern’s work is precisely that it has refused to keep Nazism safely on the other side of a historical and geographic chasm. His first book, “The Politics of Cultural Despair” (1961), is one of the durable masterpieces of 20th-century history because it seems to locate the roots of a peculiarly modern malaise. As he explained in a later edition of the work, “I attempted to show the importance of this new type of cultural malcontent, and to show how he facilitated the intrusion into politics of essentially unpolitical grievances.”

Rather than looking for obvious parallels among contemporary dictators who ape the style of the Nazis, Stern looks for the nihilistic undercurrents in our own educated, commercial societies. Hunger and poverty have little to do with the politics of cultural despair. It thrives especially well at moments of plenty and prosperity, when people have enough social advantages to dwell on their inner alienations and resentments.

I confess to not having read Stern’s original work on cultural despair, but I hope to do so soon. It meshes with something that has nagged me for years, namely, why is it that the well-heeled denizens of the exurb seem increasingly to turn toward right-wing political radicalism and the strident advocacy of an American evangelical theocracy that mirrors that of the Muslim variety they claim to abhor?

A point worth pondering, at least.

Here is a link and another excerpt, this time to an article written by Stern (October 10, 2005):

A Fundamental History Lesson: The rise of National Socialism proved politics and religion don’t mix.

My hope is for a renewal on still firmer grounds of a trans-Atlantic community of liberal democracies. Every democracy needs a liberal fundament, a Bill of Rights enshrined in law and spirit, for this alone gives democracy the chance for self-correction and reform. Without it, the survival of democracy is at risk. Every genuine conservative knows this.

In turn, this brings me to Keith Olbermann’s recent chilling but masterful commentary, Beginning of the end of America:

For, on this first full day that the Military Commissions Act is in force, we now face what our ancestors faced, at other times of exaggerated crisis and melodramatic fear-mongering: A government more dangerous to our liberty, than is the enemy it claims to protect us from.

My congressman, Mike Sodrel, a rubber stamp for the regime, voted for this legislation.

That’s merely the most persuasive reason (of many) to vote against him on November 7.

What remains unclear is who to vote for. We’ll discuss that question on Monday.

Duh: NLCS Game Seven, or Gang of Four?

It was an obvious choice in the limited pantheon of “no-brainers,” so I spent last evening on the couch munching peanuts and watching a taut, exciting pitching duel from which the St. Louis Cardinals eventually emerged victorious on an unexpected 9th inning homer by the team's light-hitting catcher.

From the Courier-Journal’s perspective, last evening’s city council meeting appears to have been the type of gathering that only the Potty Police could love.

When today’s Tribune appears on line, the newspaper’s city council coverage will be linked here.

----

And now, a musical interlude.

With apologies to the Gershwins and Fred Astaire, here’s a lyric for fellow blogger Blogspastic:

Things have come to a pretty pass
Our romance is growing flat
For you like this and the other
While I go for this and that

Goodness knows what the end will be
Oh I don't know where I'm at
It looks as if we two will never be one
Something must be done:

You say epithet and I say compliment
You say socialist and I say fascist
Epithet, compliment … socialist, fascist
Let's call the whole thing off.

----

Back to baseball. The World Series begins Saturday evening, with the Cardinals traveling to Detroit to face the Tigers, who are the game’s top story this year. Losers of 300 games the past three years, Detroit now will play for the championship with well-rested players and the home field advantage.

The last time the two teams met in the Series was 1968, and Detroit’s victory in seven games that year stands as my first Series memory, primarily because my father was a Tigers fan. Then as now, Louisville was a fervent National League town, and American League followers were regarded as curiosities at best. Dad’s contrarian loyalties in the realm of baseball certainly played a part in my becoming a supporter of the Oakland Athletics, who in suitably ironic fashion lost to the Tigers in this year’s ALCS.

He died five years ago, but I’ll be cheering for his team on Saturday night. Nothing against the Cards ... but I just can't go along with the stadium name.

No free riders: Why responsibility and accountability matter when it comes to freedom of speech.

Why am I doing this?

It's a fair question, and I’ll try my best to answer it.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, NAC published two strong opposing viewpoints pertaining to the Freedom of Speech blog, to its pseudonymous creator, and to her disingenuous patron.

Just leave the bag where it is, prof ... and no one gets hurt.

Another cowardly FOS posting ... but who's counting, Auntie?

It may seem to some that by doing so, I am somehow “stooping” to the same level as those who are being subjected to scrutiny, or at the very least, making a mountain out of a dunghill.

I disagree with this assessment. Those who consistently have chosen the low road are demeaning the very nature of responsible free speech, and consequently it is they who are in need of the cleansing light of transparence. If for no other reason than an interest in simple fairness, NAC aims to provide the sunlight, because if we don’t, who will?

As for the argument that the scale of the offense does not merit the tone of the response, such a rejoinder ignores the most famous expression of preemptive rhetoric, Deputy Fife’s advice: "Nip it. Nip it in the bud.”

It is pure hypocrisy of the basest order when one waving the banner of free speech insists on doing so pseudonymously. In spite of the best recurring efforts of agenda-laden apologists to defend this reprehensible practice of anonymous sliming, it remains disreputable, cowardly and inappropriate in a genuinely civil society.

For those among us who comprehend and believe in concepts like free speech, accountability and justice, there is every bit as much of an obligation to expose the less principled vendors of spiteful enmity as there is to locate the bacteria that cause disease. Legitimate discourse is one thing, and a persistent pattern of politically motivated character assassination quite another. To expose the disseminators of anonymous propaganda is to subject them to scrutiny by those of us hereabouts who have retained a basic sense of human decency.

And, accordingly, I remain confident that most people in this city possess such an ethical sensibility. Most people still understand the difference between a whistle-blower and a disgruntled failure, between free speech and unchecked malevolence, and between rosy cheeks and a devil’s horns.

It is not my intent to deny or suppress freedom of speech. Rather, it is to elucidate the principles of responsibility and accountability without which free speech is degraded into nonsense. I call upon the originator of the blog to dispense with her “professor of political science” disguise, and to stand openly alongside her words. And, I call for her patron to dispense with the rampant disingenuousness that has characterized her periodic denials of involvement in the blogosphere.

Barring these unlikely events, perhaps all of those participating in the Freedom of Speech charade would like to explain to us the exact dimension of the practical lessons offered to future generations in New Albany by anonymity, viciousness and deception, and how these practical lessons can be viewed as healthy ... without the use of hallucinogenic substances.

Go on. We’re waiting.

But not holding our collective breaths, and speaking personally, I'm finished with the topic, at least for now.