Month: April 2004

Rose-Colored

Post author By Jackson Baker
Post date April 8, 2004

Fear not: That’s the word on Iraq from 7th District U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn, who has been there. Yes, there would seem to be a great deal of difficulty going on right now, in the eruption of violence from Shiite Islamic mobs that — added to violence from Sunni Islamic mobs — has generated death and disruption over there and no small anxiety over here.

But those disturbances, which over the weekend saw four American security contractors massacred in Sunni-controlled Fallujah and a mounting number of combat troops killed in Shiite-dominated areas of Iraq, are essentially indications that “time is running out” for terrorists and loyalists of former dictator Saddam Hussein, said Blackburn, who visited Iraq late last year and reported then that things were on schedule for the development of “freedom” in the beleaguered Middle Eastern country.

Blackburn updated her report Monday night at the newly refurbished Hilton East (formerly the Adams Mark hotel) to an audience of the “Frontline Politics” series, sponsored last year by the Memphis Regional Chamber of Commerce and co-sponsored this year by the chamber and the Memphis Women’s Foundation.

As the first-term conservative Republican — unopposed this year and a likely candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2006 — sees it, things are still on schedule. She foresees no impediment to the transfer of power on June 30th from the occupying coalition led by America to an Iraqi interim government. The current turmoil is merely a sign of “desperation” on the part of those opposed to the transfer, Blackburn said.

As for another point of contention — the question of prewar Iraq’s so-far-undiscovered WMDs — Blackburn is equally untroubled. “As far as I’m concerned,” she said, “the biggest weapon of mass destruction of them all” has been accounted for. That would be the aforesaid Saddam Hussein, captured last December.

Blackburn was equally optimistic about the economy. “Listening to the major media, you may not realize that. More Americans than ever have a job — a job they want,” she said. “We think there is a very simple reason underlying this, and it is called tax cuts.”

Contending that productivity and manufacturing jobs were at “their best level in 20 years,” the Nashville-area native cited both supportive statistics and her own private research. “What I do is go to the mall, and I sit down and I count bags, shopping bags. Down South, we’ve got a theory: If Mama ain’t happy, nobody’s happy. And when Mama is happy, Mama goes shopping.”

On other issues, Blackburn said that President Bush’s suggested five-year timetable for halving the current $512 billion deficit is “too slow.” Curtailment of spending, coupled with attention to “waste, fraud, and abuse,” could get the job done in four years, “or even three years,” she said.

The congressman (that’s the title she prefers) said she opposed taxing Internet sales: “That would just set up another federal agency.” A better boost to sales figures and tax revenues would come from congressional action to restore the deductibility of state sales taxes, she contended.

Subsequent speakers in the “Frontline Politics” series will be U.S. Representative Blanche Lambert Lincoln (D-Ark.) on May 27th and Tennessee state Representative Lois DeBerry on June 8th.

* Last Thursday was the deadline for filing for statewide races. Although there is at least nominal competition in several state House and Senate districts, the most notable races should be the following:

House District 83: Contests for the southeast Memphis seat being vacated by longtime Republican incumbent Joe Kent include Republicans Chuck Bates, Pat Collins, Brian Kelsey, Charles McDonald, Stan Peppenhorst, and Mark White and Democrat Julian Prewitt. Bates, a conservative who gave moderate Kent a tough race two years ago in the GOP primary, seems to have more name recognition, momentum, and available financial resources than his rivals.

House District 87: Democratic incumbent Kathryn Bowers, who doubles as Shelby County Democratic chairman, faces a rematch with Greg Grant, her primary foe of two years ago.

House District 89: Republican Jim Jamieson will be making another try for the seat vacated last year by current City Council member Carol Chumney; his Democratic foe is incumbent Beverly Marrero, who won a special election for the seat last year.

House District 93: A tight race is expected in a fall rematch between longtime Democratic incumbent Mike Kernell and Republican challenger John Pellicciotti, who ran Kernell close in 2002 and will undoubtedly campaign this year against Kernell’s current bill seeking a pay raise for state legislators.

Senate District 30: Longtime Democratic incumbent Steve Cohen has three challengers: Republicans Bill Wood and Johnny Hatcher Jr. and independent Mary Taylor Shelby.

In nearby Tipton County, House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, a Democrat who has had a close call or two in recent elections, is being challenged this year for his District 80 seat by Dr. Jesse Cannon, an African-American Republican.

Music Music Features

Sound Advice

Post author By Flyer Staff
Post date April 8, 2004

By and large, Memphis hip-hop is divided into two camps: There’s the identifiable post-gangsta, Dirty South stylings of artists such as Three 6 Mafia, Yo Gotti, and Gangsta Blac and an emerging underground scene of more Native Tongues/backpacker-style hip-hop from artists such as Tunnel Clones, Fathom 9, and Kontrast. On his album The Southern Slur, rapper M-19 doesn’t quite fit in either camp. He’s recognizably Memphis but seems to owe almost exactly as much to more “conscious” Southern rappers such as Goodie Mob. The result is a hip-hop depiction of “life in the South” that pulls no punches and offers plenty of insight. M-19 will be joined by Pahco and Iron Mic Coalition members MOS Friday, April 9th, at Precious Cargo.

And for something completely different, head to the P&H CafÇ Saturday, April 10th, for a reunion show from Crawpatch. Crawpatch formed in the early ’70s from the merger of two existing bands, Crawdad and Briarpatch, and released one album, Trailer Park Weekend, in the late ’70s on Sid Selvidge’s Peabody label. The band was a fixture on the Midtown scene at the time and has gotten back together in anticipation of a CD release of their album later this year. Catch original members Don McGregor, Dane Layton, Jimmy Newman, Brandy Parks, Andy Morton, and David Luttrell for this Midtown homecoming show at 8 p.m. — Chris Herrington

I’ve occasionally compared Memphis’ quirky, often silly pop band Vending Machine to the extremely silly raunch-rockers Ween. And, to some degree, it’s a fair comparison. Now, Vending Machine’s Robby Grant, who cut his teeth playing with Big Ass Truck, hasn’t really sounded like Ween since he released his first solo record, Unleavened Bread. With subsequent Vending Machine discs such as The Chamber from Here to There and 5-Piece Kit, Grant’s sound has changed quite a bit, though it remains as quirky and lo-fi as ever. Like Ween, Vending Machine recordings rely heavily on studio tricks, but, as is the case with Ween, the live shows are straight-ahead rock-and-roll. Performances capture the spirit of the recordings without ever replicating them. It’s like getting two great songs for the price of one (plus a cover charge). Borrowing sounds and ideas from such disparate influences as Led Zeppelin and Jonathan Richman, Grant really has learned how to make guitars sound like they were made of chocolate. If you don’t know what that means, you’ll just have to catch Vending Machine when they play Young Avenue Deli on Saturday, April 10th.

If you’re looking for a rootsier sound, Amy & The Tramps will be at Young Ave. Deli on Friday, April 9th. If you liked the Gabe & Amy Show, the unofficial house band at Murphy’s during the first few years of the new millennium, then you’ll love Amy & the Tramps. Playing a blend of classic country, rockabilly, and rock-and-roll, Amy & the Tramps keep your lips grinning and your feet stomping till the last chord fades away. Andy Grooms and Phosphorescent share the bill. Grooms borrows a little bit from Tom Waits and a little bit from Bach and mixes it all down with lyrics that are folksy and sophisticated. If Carroll Cloar had painted Nighthawks instead of Edward Hopper, Grooms would have already used it for an album cover. Phosphorescent is a one-man band with a Neutral Milk Hotel fetish, and that’s about all I know about that. —Chris Davis

Film Features Film/TV

Back to Class

Post author By Andria Lisle
Post date April 8, 2004

Memphians in search of intellectual stimulation should head over to the University of Memphis campus next week, where professors of the African and African American Studies Program are hosting an African American Arts Festival.

“The event is actually part of our ongoing lecture series,” explains Beverly Bond, who, as director of the program, put together the festival. “We’re trying to bring in some major speakers to motivate our students — and draw in people from the community.”

Few Memphians, it seems, are aware of the African American Studies Program. “You can’t blame people for that,” says Earnestine Jenkins, an assistant professor of art history at the U of M. “There just haven’t been scholars here trained in this field. It’s not fair to say that [Memphians] don’t appreciate African and African-American culture, when — other than music — they haven’t been exposed to it.”

“I use films, pop culture, and images in class to generate interest in my students,” Jenkins says. “It’s a building process. I think the interest is there. It just hasn’t been cultivated.”

Jenkins, a native Memphian, returned south in 1998 after getting her doctorate at Michigan State University and completing fieldwork in Ethiopia. “The culture itself is one of the main reasons why I wanted to come back,” she says. “Memphis is changing. There’s a lot of growth, particularly in the sizable African and Caribbean populations. But there’s a lack of global knowledge here. People still tend to look at race in terms of black and white. We could use more exposure to diverse cultures and peoples.”

While the majority of Jenkins’ classes examine the African diaspora, Verner D. Mitchell, an assistant professor of English at the U of M, encourages his students to focus on their own surroundings for inspiration.

“Artists who grew up in this area draw on their personal experiences,” he says, citing William Faulkner, Ernest Gaines, and Randall Keenan as examples. “Environment, community, and history provide vital details, but they’re all things that Memphians might take for granted. Those Southern writers tap into something we’re familiar with and make it seem special and unique. My students enjoy reading regional writers.”

The African American Arts Festival kicks off Tuesday, April 13th, at 4 p.m. in Mitchell Auditorium with a lecture from Portia K. Maultsby on “The Commodification of Gospel Music and Its Transformation Into Popular Song.” Maultsby is a professor of ethnomusicology at Indiana University. She’s also director of the Archives of African American Music and Culture at the university. PBS watchers might recognize her name from documentaries such as Eyes on the Prize II and That Rhythm Those Blues. Then, at 7:30 p.m., the University of Memphis Gospel Choir will give a concert in Rose Theatre.

On Wednesday, April 14th, Mitchell will moderate “Memphis on the Mississippi: Artists and Writers Interpret the African American Experience in the Mississippi Delta.” Memphis author Arthur R. Flowers, LeMoyne-Owen College professor/artist Philip Dotson, and Arkansas-based illustrator Higgins Bond are scheduled to participate in the panel discussion, which will take place in Mitchell Auditorium at 4 p.m.

At 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Babatunde Lawal, professor of African, African American, and Diaspora Art at Virginia Commonwealth University will speak on “African Carryovers, Biblical Reinterpretation and Double Meaning in African American Self-Taught Art.” Lawal’s address is the inaugural lecture for “Coming Home! Self-Taught Artists, the Bible, and the American South,” an exhibition at the Art Museum of the University of Memphis, which will open in June.

On Thursday, April 15th, at 7 p.m. in the Rose Theatre, Jessie Rhines, an African-American/African Studies professor at Rutgers University, will discuss his book, Black Film, White Money. In it, Rhines traces the roles African Americans have played in the film industry, from 1915’s The Birth of a Nation to 1991’s Boyz N the Hood. Rhine’s lecture will conclude the festival’s “24 Hour African and African American Film Marathon,” which will begin at 1 p.m. on Friday, April 16th, in the University Center Ballroom.

Jenkins will introduce the films, which include such local favorites as Wattstax and Shaft; music documentaries like Standing in the Shadows of Motown and Say Amen, Somebody; overlooked dramas such as Nothing but a Man and Bright Road; classics Imitation of Life (the 1934 version with Louise Beavers and Fredi Washington) and Gordon Parks’ The Learning Tree; comedies Claudine and Richard Pryor Here and Now; cult faves Ganja and Hess and Black Orpheus; and Sankofa, a 1993 effort from Ethiopian filmmaker Haile Gerima.

Jenkins has also included George Romero’s 1968 drive-in flick Night of the Living Dead in the lineup. “This film originated the theme of a heroic black male figure in horror and science-fiction genres,” Jenkins says, pointing out that Duane Jones’ portrayal of Ben provided African-American audiences with a relatable character. “Night of the Living Dead was made in the era of the civil rights movement,” she says. “[Romero] was influenced by photographs and TV images of blacks confronting police in the South. And, of course, it’s a pop horror classic.”

All events are free and open to the public. For more information on the African American Arts Festival, go to http://cas.memphis.edu/isc/aaas/ or call 678-3550.

Sports Sports Feature

Cardinal Questions

Post author By Frank Murtaugh
Post date April 8, 2004

Not since March 2000 have the St. Louis Cardinals seen a roster with as many new faces as their 2004 edition. Four years ago, Darryl Kile, Fernando Vina, Mike Matheny, and Jim Edmonds donned Cardinal gear and transformed a team that had been Mark McGwire’s traveling sideshow into a club that would make the playoffs three straight seasons and twice reach the National League Championship Series. Alas, that amalgam of high-priced talent wasn’t enough to get the Cards to the World Series. And despite all the changes for the upcoming campaign — manager Tony LaRussa’s ninth in St. Louis — the consensus seems to be that the Cardinals are playing for third place.

The Houston Astros’ off-season acquisition of Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens has given the National League’s Central Division arguably six of the 10 best pitchers in baseball. The Astros will follow the former Yankee tandem with Roy Oswalt and Wade Miller, while Mark Prior and Kerry Wood will contend for the Cy Young in Chicago Cub uniforms. All of which means a Cardinal rotation of Matt Morris, Woody Williams, Jeff Suppan, Chris Carpenter, and Jason Marquis will hardly have teeth chattering among pennant aspirants.

As you follow the Cardinals into a new season, here are a few storylines to watch:

LaRussa’s last? The Cardinal skipper enters his ninth season in St. Louis with a contract that expires with the campaign’s final pitch. The vibe in and around Busch Stadium is that LaRussa — forever unable to live up to Whitey Herzog’s standard in the eyes of many — is prepared for a career shift. Having taken the Cards to the postseason in four of his eight years in St. Louis, LaRussa’s recent track record pales only when compared with those of Joe Torre and Bobby Cox. He won a division title in 1996 with a team inferior in talent to his 2004 model. The challenges mounted by Houston and Chicago should further energize the manager with the third-most wins in franchise history.

Leading off? As much as Cardinal Nation wanted Vina to be that prototypical leadoff man, he really never was. Over his three full seasons in St. Louis, his walk totals were 36, 32, and 44. (You’d like to see close to 100 from your table-setter.) His on-base percentage over those years was .380, .357, .333 (the standard being .400). With Vina now a Detroit Tiger, LaRussa’s first lineup question is the leadoff position. Newly acquired second baseman Marlon Anderson appeared to be the leading candidate at the opening of spring training, and 2003 standout Bo Hart was in the mix before being optioned to Memphis last weekend. But Tony Womack — acquired in a deal with Boston March 21st — appears ready to seize the slot. Considering the lumber lower in the batting order, the leadoff man will be critical for this club.

Who ya gonna call? Here are two words that should summarize the condition of last year’s Cardinal bullpen: Jeff Fassero. With the lobbin’ lefty comfortably out of town, late-inning St. Louis leads are already safer. The addition of Ray King (who came from Atlanta in the J.D. Drew trade) and Julian Tavarez will mean a pair of inning-eating middle-relief options LaRussa didn’t have a year ago. A healthy Jason Isringhausen as closer is a dramatic upgrade from opening day last season.

Budgeting a contender? In February, St. Louis ownership made Albert Pujols the first $100 million player in 112 years of Cardinal baseball, a development that would send shockwaves, considering Pujols has merely three years under his belt, were it not for the fact those three years were arguably the best start of any career in the game’s history. With Pujols locked up for the next seven years, focus will shift toward keeping some of the high-priced talent around him. Shortstop Edgar Renteria (.330 and a second straight Gold Glove in 2003) is at the top of the priority list. Considering Scott Rolen is in the second year of a long-term deal, the likelihood of centerfielder Jim Edmonds reaching the final year of his contract (2007) with St. Louis appears less and less likely. The reality of economics — at least outside the walls of Yankee Stadium — tends to rear its ugly head as stars reach their market potential. If Renteria can be added to a Pujols/Rolen nucleus, the Cardinal lineup should be among the league’s best well beyond 2006 and the New Stadium era in St. Louis.

Frank Murtaugh’s sports column, “From My Seat,” appears regularly on the Flyer Web site, MemphisFlyer.com.

Opinion Viewpoint

Frist’s Folly

Post author By Richard Cohen
Post date April 8, 2004

When Richard Clarke left the government, he had an idea: He would write a book. He turned to the subject that had most recently preoccupied him in government, cybersecurity. Had he done a book on that — whatever that is — the world would have yawned. So much for the man’s lust for big bucks.

To Clarke’s good fortune, his agent, Len Sherman, had a better idea: terrorism, especially how the Bush administration (mis)handled it and went to war in Iraq to rid that country of weapons of mass destruction it did not have in the first place. This, the perspicacious Sherman argued, would make a better book. With a little sales help from the White House, it turned out Sherman was right.

I offer you this account of how Against All Enemies happened to be written — proffered by the still-dazed Sherman (“It never occurred to me that the Republicans would make it into an event”) — because it has been charged that Clarke set out to make a bundle on the bodies of the victims of September 11th. So said Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader, over and over again.

Maybe not since Joe McCarthy sneered insinuations about communism has any senator waxed so ugly and, in the process, made such a fool of himself. Someone should check: Frist, a physician, may be self-medicating.

Frist started by saying that Clarke wrote his book “in order to profit from the suffering that this nation endured on September 11, 2001.” Having said that, he then fakes fairness by admitting that he doesn’t know why Clarke wrote the book: “I do not know if Mr. Clarke’s motive … is partisan gain or personal profit.” But then, having somehow instantly gotten the answer, he pronounces the book “an appalling act of profiteering” and demands, as only a multimillionaire could, that Clarke “renounce any plan to personally profit from this book.”

Apparently, it has not occurred to Frist that writers write for money. This is why a broke Ulysses S. Grant took the advice of his friend Mark Twain and wrote his memoirs.

When it comes to September 11th, the list of authors who have made money from this tragedy is extensive. One could even argue, as I’m sure Frist has in private, that Rudy Giuliani should return the royalties from his book Leadership, since until September 11th, his leadership was not all that evident.

In a partisan psychosis, perhaps induced by a call from the White House, the good senator has become addled. He confuses perpetrators with victims and bystanders. For First Amendment reasons, I happen not to like “Son of Sam laws,” which deny criminals the fruits of their labors if they should write a book about what they’ve done or sell their sordid tale to the movies. Still, I understand the reasoning. It’s bad enough to be a victim once, but over and over through book or movie sales is truly adding insult to injury. A criminal should not make money off his crime.

But Clarke did not perpetrate September 11th. He wrote a book about it — and what led to it and how the Bush administration used it as a pretext for war in Iraq. Because of the amateurish and distasteful way the White House has gone about rebutting the book, Clarke will, as Frist has rued, “make quite a bit of money for his efforts” — and so what? Ain’t this America?

Sherman says that Clarke’s next project may be a novel. If so, Clarke ought to consider one about a once well-regarded senator who became a White House attack dog and in the process made himself look both unprincipled and foolish. He could call it Frist.

Richard Cohen is a columnist for The Washington Post.

News

O. C. Smith Update

Post author By Chris Davis
Post date April 8, 2004

Attorneys for former Shelby County Medical Examiner Dr. O. C. Smith filed a motion in federal court this week asking the government to identify anyone it believes helped Smith stage his attack.

A separate motion indicates that Smith became a target of the government’s investigation last September when prosecutors urged him to plead guilty and “just cut your losses and move on.”

The motions were filed Wednesday by attorneys Gerald Easter and Jim Garts.

The defense request for a “bill of particulars” of allegedly false statements made by Smith about the incident includes a demand that the government document the “existence and identity of any persons” who helped stage what defense attorneys call the “attempted murder” of Smith by wrapping him in barbed wire and placing a bomb on his chest.

Smith was indicted in February and has pleaded not guilty. He was released on his recognizance and has resigned. The indictment does not say how the incident might have been staged or whether anyone other than Smith took part in it. Smith told investigators he was attacked on June 1, 2002.

The government says 17 law enforcement agencies took part in the investigation, which originally sought a religiously-motivated bomber who also wrote threatening letters about Smith and placed Molotov cocktails in the building that houses Smith’s office.

The latest court filings fill in a small piece of the puzzle by making it clear that by late last summer the investigation was focused on Smith to the extent that federal prosecutors were offering him a deal to plead guilty. The meeting took place September 11, 2003, and was videotaped by the government. Prosecutors said Smith could avoid a “media circus and a public trial” by pleading guilty.

The indictment says Smith made false statements during that meeting. The motion for a bill of particulars asks the government to spell out exactly what statements Smith made that were false. Since Smith was indicted, prosecutors have said little about the case. U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins told the Flyer in February, “We only have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it couldn’t have happened the way Dr. Smith said it happened. We may not answer some of those questions at the end of the day.”

Politics Politics Beat Blog

MORRIS FAIR DIES

Post author By Jackson Baker
Post date April 8, 2004

Morris Fair, a well-respected longtime member of the Shelby County Commission and a financial expert known for his private-sector innovations in the securities field, died Thursday at Baptist East Hospital of complications resulting from cancer.

Fair, who had served for the last year as a member of the state Lottery Board, had remained active despite a lengthy illness and had made an appearance before the Commission only last month to deliver a lengthy and typically detailed critique of a pending settlement with Clark Construction Co over issues relating to the new Convention Center.

Commissioner John Willingham, who was FairÕs victorious opponent in the 2002 election, had become a close friend of FairÕs and said, ÒIf I had known Morris as well then as I do now, I would never have run against him. He will be sorely missed. He was a good friend and a good soldier.Ó

Commissioner Marilyn Loeffel, chairman of the commission, said, “Former Commissioner Morris Fair was highly valued during his service on the Commission for his financial expertise and advice on these matters when they came before the Commission. However, for me personally, I will always remember him as a consummate gentleman in all dealings and for his deep unbounded love of his wife and family.”

Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton said, “Morris Fair was one of the kindest and most courteous elected officials I’ve known. He always put me at ease. Most of all he was an outstanding leader, whose thoughtful approach to government helped to advance our community and he never let politics stop him from doing what was right. We all will miss his warmth and his wisdom.”

A veteran of the Memphis business community since 1962, Fair was founder and CEO of UMIC Securities Corporation and served as community and government relations coortdinator for Union Planters Bank. Besides the state Lottery Board, he was a member of the Memphis and Shelby County Convention Center Board, a body which he had served as chairman from 1997 to last year.

Fair was a well-known rooter for the University of Arkansas Razorback athletic teams. He served as president of the universityÕs National Alumni Association in 1997-98

A native of Marion, Arkansas, Fair is survived by his wife Diane, four sons, and seven grandchildren.

Memorial Park Funeral Home at 5668 Poplar Avenue is handling arrangements. Visitation will be there from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday, April 9th. Funeral will be at St. MaryÕs Episcopal Cathedral on Saturday at 1 p.m., and burial will be at Crittenden Memorial Park of Marion.

News The Fly-By

REMEMBERING DR. KING OR…

Post author By Chris Davis
Post date April 7, 2004

…JESUS CHRIST TROUBLEMAKER

The Flyer recently received a fax from a spiritually minded fellow named Rico. Rico was, like so many good people of faith and conscience, a bit put out by Mel Gibson’s sacred snuff flick The Passion of the Christ. But, unlike most, Rico’s problem didn’t stem from the violence, or the blood, or even the anti-Semitism. Rico was most alarmed by the unbearable whiteness of it all. Gibson had the audacity to do what countless millions have done before: to portray Jesus as a Caucasian!

“Well, that image did not fly with me,” he writes. “My intelligence would not allow me to believe it Therefore I created two huge poster boards and placed one of them on the back and the other one on the right window of my [vehicle]. The poster board on the back of my [vehicle] reads, “The Passion Movie told a big lie! Jesus was not white. He looked just like me. Hair included! However, Jews really did kill him!” The poster taped on the right side of my [vehicle] reads, `How can my savior look like my oppressor? Does the Savior of Jewish people look like Hitler? The Passion: My Ass!'”

“I just wanted to get this out there,” Rico told Fly on the Wall, “I wanted to see how people would react because people in this town are living in a fantasy.”

And just how did people react? The morning after Rico mounted his terse posters, he discovered that someone had scrawled a message on one calling him a racist. Over the next few days the signs attracted quite a bit of attention. He received even more unflattering messages, and eventually he even got a brick thrown through his window. Rico describes the only caucasians who approved of his sign as being “hippies.”

“Hmmm,” Rico wonders in his fax. “I wonder whatever happened to a person’s Constitutional right to free speech and artistic expression?”

What happened to free speech and the right of artistic expression? Why quite obviously, nothing at all. It would appear that within the confines of Rico’s bold experiment many opinions were expressed and in various mediums. After all, provocative art by its very nature creates provocative response: The system works! And better still, all that stuff Dr. King said about judging the messiah by the color of his skin, not the content of his character, has finally come to pass! Or something like that. Happy friggin’ Easter.

Plante: How It Looks

Politics Politics Beat Blog

POLITICS: Rose Colored

Post author By Jackson Baker
Post date April 7, 2004

ROSE-COLORED

Fear not: That’s the word on Iraq from 7th District U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, who has been there. Yes, there would seem to be a great deal of difficulty going on right now, in the eruption of violence from Shiite Islamic mobs that, added on to violence from Sunni Islamic mobs, has generated death and disruption over there, and no small anxiety over here.

But those disturbances, which over the weekend saw four American “security contractors” massacred in Sunni-controlled Fallujah and a mounting number of combat troops killed in Shiite-dominated areas of Iraq, are essentially indications that “time is running out” for terrorists and loyalists of former dictator Saddam Hussein, says Blackburn, who visited Iraq late last year and reported then that things were on schedule for the development of “freedom” in the beleagured Middle Eastern country.

Blackburn updated her report Monday night at the newly refurbished Hilton East (formerly the Adams Mark Hotel) to an audience of the “Frontline Politics” series, sponsored last year by the Memphis Regional Chamber of Commerce and co-sponsored this year by the Chamber and the Memphis Women’s Foundation.

As the first-term conservative Republican — unopposed this year and aa likely candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2006 — sees it, things are still on schedule. She foresees no impediment to the transfer of power on June 30th from the occupying coalition led by America to an Iraqi interim government. The current turmoil is merely a sign of “desperation” on the part of those opposed to the transfer, Blackburn said..

As for another point of contention — the question of pre-war Iraq’s so-far-undiscovered WMDs — Blackburn is equally untroubled. “As far as I’m concerned,” she said, “the biggest weapon of mass destruction of them all” has been accounted for. That would be the aforesaid Saddam Hussein, captured last December.

Contending that productivity and manufacturing jobs were at “their best level in 20 years,” the Nashville-area native cited both supportive statistics and her own private research. “What I do is go to the mall, and I sit down and I count bags, shopping bags. Down South, we’ve got a theory: If Mama ain’t happy, nobody’s happy. And when Mama is happy, Mama goes shopping.”

On other issues, Blackburn said that President Bush’s suggested five-year timetable for halving the current $512 billion deficit is “too slow.” Curtailment of spending, coupled with attention to “waste, fraud, and abuse,” could get the job down in four years, “or even three years,” she said.

The congressman (that’s the version of the title she prefers) said she opposed taxing Internet sales. “That would just set up another federal agency.” A better boost to sales figures and tax revenues would come from congressional action to restore the deducitibility of state sales taxes, she contended.

Subsequent speakers in the “Frontline Politics” series will be U.S. Rep. Blanche Lambert Lincoln (D-AR) on may 27th and Tennessee state Rep. Lois DeBerry on June 8th.

Last Thursday was the deadline for filing for statewide races. Although there is at least nominal competition in several state House and Senate districts, the most notable races should be the following:

House District 83: Contests for the Southeast Memphis seat being vacated by longtime Republican incumbent Joe Kent include Republicans Chuck Bates, Pat Collins, Brian Kelsey, Charles McDonald, Stan Peppenhorst, and Mark White; and Democrat Julian Prewitt. Bates, a conservative who gave moderate Kent a tough race two years ago in the GOP primary, seems to have more name recognition, momentum, and available financial resources than his rivals.

House District 87: Democratic incumbent Kathryn Bowers, who doubles as Shelby County Democratic chairman, faces a rematch with Greg Grant, her primary foe of two years ago.

House District 89: Republican Jim Jamieson will be making another try for the seat vacated last year by current city council member Carol Chumney; his Democratic foe is incumbent Beverly Marrero, who won a special eledction for the seat last year.

House District 93: A tight race is expected in a fall rematch between longtime Democratic incumbent Mike Kernell and Republican challenger John Pellicciotti, who ran Kernell close in 2002 and will undoubtedly campaign this year against Kernell’s current bill seeking a pay raise for state legislators.

Senate District 30: Longtime Democratic incumbent Steve Cohen has three challengers: Republicans Bill Woods and Johnny Hatcher, Jr.; and independent Mary Taylor Shelby.

In nearby Tipton County, House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, a Democrat who has had a close call or two in recent elections, is being challenged this year for his District 80 seat by Dr. Jesse Cannon, a Republican and an African American.