Offered Without Comment.

h/t racymind.
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Local Political Interactions, Tea Party Edition

Subj: Please expand on property tax increase, if you would

I have received two of your postcards in the last five days, asking me to contact my city council member, etc. regarding a proposed property tax increase.

As an independent, I prefer not to dive into knee-jerk reactions on any particular side of an issue, including tax increases. I prefer to hear the arguments, compare them all to verifiable facts (such as the actual text of the proposed tax ordinance that would be going into effect as of this date, as proposed), and see who's coming closest to objective reality.

If you have the proposed language, today's tax rate & the proposed tax rate, I would like that information (a link to something @ nashville.gov would be fine), if you can provide it. Also, if you know the ostensible reason(s) that're being given for the need for the tax increase, and how you believe the truth or non-truth of said reason(s), that would also be helpful to me in deciding who to call, or if to call.

Also, if you are comfortable sharing the source(s) of the funding for this direct mail campaign, that would also be a factor for me. 

Thank you much, and look forward to your timely response.
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Civil, But Disobedient

So if you get a text message from me about this sometime tonight or the wee hours, you'll know I was arrested. I am the 99%.

Kittehs have extra food and water, just in case.

UPDATE: Will leave for downtown to arrive around 9 p.m. CDT. Will park scooter at Schermerhorn Symphony Center, and walk to Legislative Plaza. If you follow me on Google+, check my feed for photos, videos.
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Says It All, Really

And later, another cat!
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The Thing Is...

Look, if we're going to re-make John Carpenter sci-fi flix, here's one that needs re-made. This explains the 1%, does it not?

Imagine what they could do with this now with CGI, a good script and better, non-wrestling actors. Toss in a major plot device with Occupy Wall Street, and the goddamned thang re-writes itself.

UPDATE: Edited for clarity. Also, see here for a nice critique of the film, and here for the thoughts of Carpenter about the documentary-ness of it in context to our world, today.
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Seven Arrests In Nashville

Gee, I hope I don't ever get a union job.
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Breathe A Little Easier

Sleep a little sounder. 

Chill the fuck out. He's got this.

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It Won't Be The Last

"Judicially speaking, the United States has a clear obligation" to bring proceedings against Bush and Rumsfeld, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak said, in remarks to be broadcast on Germany's ZDF television Tuesday evening.

He noted Washington had ratified the UN convention on torture which required "all means, particularly penal law" to be used to bring proceedings against those violating it.

"We have all these documents that are now publicly available that prove that these methods of interrogation were intentionally ordered by Rumsfeld," against detainees at the US prison facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Nowak said.

"But obviously the highest authorities in the United States were aware of this," added Nowak, who authored a UN investigation report on the Guantanamo prison.

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For George W. Bush and Mr. Potter... erm, Dick Cheney. Don't let the door hit ya, and please -- leave a forwarding address for the U.S. Marshals.
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BEST. EVAR.

God Bless America.

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Zeledyne Glass Plant

... formerly Ford Motor Company Glass, taken from my balcony, this afternoon.

They apparently still make glass for Ford vehicles, and the workers there are unsurprisingly unhappy with Bob Corker.

My neighborhood was built in the 1950s and 1960s as a suburb of Nashville; a neighborhood of modest brick ranch houses where middle-class union workers could make a life and a home for themselves and their families.  The streets are named after Ford vehicles of the era: Starliner, Thunderbird, Edsel, Galaxie, Capri. Marauder, Continental, Ranchero, Cougar.

Now, I know these guys making as much as $14/hour + benefits don't work nearly as hard as CEOs who make twice that per second. Making things with your hands, and being exposed to chemicals slightly more toxic then Liquid Paper is just not hard work, right?

It truly galls me to hear idiot wingers preach about how everyone not in the top 1% of income distribution is making too much money. Do you idiots not understand the concept of eating your seed corn?

UPDATE: Go look at CNN's graphic regarding the auto industry employment numbers. Greedy auto workers, indeed.

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Yes, We DID.

PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA.

Thank you to all of you who gave of your time and money. You fuckin' rewl.

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Hoist A Pint, My Friends

Heh... I said "my friends." Drink!

I went to FlySauce, and all I got was this lousy IOU!

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Voter Fraud!

Letting children vote, and documenting it with photographs?

Oh, my.

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Swing Voter

Let me make it clear: I'm pretty conservative. I grew up in the suburbs. I voted for George H.W. Bush twice, and his son once. I was disappointed when Bill Clinton won, and disappointed he couldn't run again.

I encouraged my son to join the military. I was proud of him in Afghanistan, and happy when he came home, and angry when he was recalled because of the invasion of Iraq. I'm white, 55, I live in the South and I'm definitely going to get a bigger tax bill if Obama wins.

I am the dreaded swing voter.

Go read the whole thang.

h/t the blogless HoneyBearKelly.
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Yesss!

Thank you MSNBC, and congratulations, Rachel!
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You Know, I AM Insane

... but I think Karl Rove's exit of the country supposedly on the date of his Subpoena to Appear before the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee is telling.

So hot is the speculation that war-crimes trials will eventually follow in foreign or international courts that Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s former chief of staff, has publicly advised Mr. Feith, Mr. Addington and Alberto Gonzales, among others, to “never travel outside the U.S., except perhaps to Saudi Arabia and Israel.” But while we wait for the wheels of justice to grind slowly, there are immediate fears to tend. Ms. Mayer’s book helps cement the case that America’s use of torture has betrayed not just American values but our national security, right to the present day.

I suspect we'll see a lot of reports of deaths, both here and overseas, of key Bush administration officials. Mostly overseas, and mostly in 4Q, 2008/January, 2009.

Why do you doubt this?
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The Police State

This photo almost got me arrested.

Yes, apparently, taking a photo of a sign inside a place of business, even though the photo was taken from outside the business, and the sign is clearly visible to passersby, is grounds for suspicion. Fortunately, the cop decided I was cooperating, and instead of charging me with the blanket charge of "disorderly conduct," allowed me to go.

Hard to believe, innit?

UPDATE: The Story, for y'all:

I was having dinner at one of my favorite places. I went out to eat in part to test out my spiffy new $40 GPS anti-theft solution for the scooters. So, I get there, order a drink, order my dinner and go outside to smoke (yes, it's one of THOSE places). In a neighboring business's window, I see the sign, depicted in the photo, at the top of this post.

I have my camera with me, so I take it out, take a couple of quick, non-flash snaps of the sign, as I stood on the sidewalk several feet outside this business. I turn to re-enter the restaurant next door, and am accosted by a woman -- "Who are you?! Why you take picture!?" I told her I was about to have dinner, and went inside.

She followed me inside the restaurant, repeating herself. I told her that I saw something on the wall of the business I wanted to photograph, and that there was nothing wrong with what I had done. She demanded that I erase the photo(s). I told her I would not, and that if she felt wronged, she should call the police -- "862-8600, my dear. They are just over the hill from where we are, now."

Well, apparently, she did. 30 minutes or so later (interrupting my dinner and conversation), two Metro Police officers walk in, and ask me to step outside, please.

The large officer says that the business has called in a complaint of someone entering their business and taking a photograph without permission. I explain that I have never set foot on the premises, and that I took a photo of something in plain view from a public space. The worker who accosted me corroborates, "No, he was outside, but he pointed the camera inside." The large officer says, "Well, you can't do that. You can't take a picture of their place without their permission."

"Really? Hey, I figure if I can see something through a business's window in public, like, say... a sign, a business license, or a health department score. Does the business owner have an expectation of privacy regarding these things?"

"Well, depends. Some people counterfeit business licenses. That could land ya in trouble."

"Okay. That's not what I was doing"

"What were you doing?"

"Taking a photo of something that amused me."

"'Taking a photo of something amusing.' Okay. Why?"

"It was funny."

"'It was funny.' What do you do? What do you do, for a living?"

"I build web sites."

"You 'build web sites.'"

"Yes."

"I see."

"So, have I broken a law? Are you charging me with a violation?"

"You wanna be charged with somethin'? I'll charge you with disorderly conduct, if you wanna be charged with somethin'."

"No, sir -- I'm fully cooperating. I intend to fully cooperate with you. I'm just asking a question: 'Am I being charged?'"

"Right -- and I told you, 'I'll charge you with disorderly conduct.' Is that what you want to happen, here?"

"Of course not. How else can I help you?"

At this point, he asks the lady who accosted me what would she like to do, and she says she wants me to destroy the photos. Large officer says, "I can't do that. You'll have to take him to civil court if you think you have cause for damages."

I say, "Am I free to go?"

"Yes sir, have a good evening."
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Mark Fiore Has Something For Glen Dean

After applying, sitting may become uncomfortable.
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The Doddmeister

Fucking A.

Go send him some turkee, even if you don't support him as the Democratic candidate. 'Cause the simple truth is this: The man showed TRUE AMERICAN LEADERSHIP today, and he vows to keep doing it, until Congress decides that letting telecom companies off the hook for criminal activity at the behest of the most corrupt administration ever is a complete non-starter.

Fuck that shit! Pabst! Blue! Ribbon!
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