Bubbas named Mark

So now we've GOT to push through the Music City Center so that the new Nashville Medical Trade Center can be built. Still, we don't have solid numbers and contract for either AND MDHA is failing to do a good job of overseeing what little of this big project they've been in charge of so far.

I feel like I'm standing on a sidewalk in front of a card table while a fellow of obviously questionable character quickly shuffles three cups over and over while telling me it's an easy bet. I'd be a fool not to play. Look, Shill next to me just guessed correctly. Just find the pea and I'll double my bet. All the while the pickpocket already has his hand on my wallet.

These folks apparently believe we're the tourists that have never seen this shell game and are stupid enough to fall for it. They consider us all bubbas named Mark.

Once more, with feeling: If it's such a great deal...use YOUR own money. And to quote from the old joke---'Get your own dirt'. Don't ask Nashville to take it for you.

Missed the boat vote

The Davidson County Election Commission unanimously voted to certify the [District 5] election at a meeting this afternoon. [Former Councilwoman Pam] Murray came late to the meeting and missed the vote.

She was given an opportunity to speak later on in the meeting, at which time she said certifying the election results was an “act of injustice.” Tennessean

Give it a break Ms. Murray. One of the most important appointments of your life and you were, again, AWOL when your constituents needed you most. Despite that, the Commission still allowed you to speak and your very last act as a Councilwoman was to whine and throw this accusation at them:

“In closing, to agree with this act of injustice is like sending an innocent person to the death chamber; and (it is with) this reason I cannot consent to this election,” Murray said in a letter to the commission.

Like we need your consent. In your newly provided free time you might want to check on the phrase 'consent of the governed'.

And seriously? The Commission's bureaucratic act of affirming that the numbers were right and you lost by 2 votes was akin to killing an innocent man? Do you know the definition of hyperbole? Would you have been late to the execution also?

Time to move on, Ms. Murray. Like it or not, the voters have chosen. It's now your turn to choose. Choose to be a statesman who is still committed to improving her neighborhood--even if she's merely a private citizen.

Two a day is OK with Murray

CM Pam Murray (District 5-East Nashville) filed her election financial reports late according to a blog opposing her effort to stay in office. I'm not surprised.

Thankfully, the blogger thought to cross check the donors with the police reports. This is the kind of reporting that our regular media outlets should have done. Wonder why subscriptions are down?

Further into the blog post is more evidence that Murray is happy to take money from landowners that are a detriment to the health and safety of the people she's supposed to represent. Her three biggest donors had over 4,000 calls for police service since 2003 when Murray became a councilman. That's about 2 a day from just three businesses on desperate Dickerson Road alone. That's a huge drain on police and city resources. She's not cleaning up and improving the neighborhood she's ignoring obvious safety issues.

How does she justify not initiating an effort to shut those businesses down completely as nuisances for the good of the neighborhood and taxpayers generally? How does she justify taking campaign contributions from them?

Tomorrow is election day in District 5. Nashville needs a better quality of representation for that district. District 5 needs a better quality of representation. Hopefully, they'll get it very soon.

UPDATE: Here's the link to Murray's Financial Disclosure Statement just filed.

Garcia needs to testify

MNPS BOE Chairman David Fox (District 8-Hillsboro-West End) is exactly correct. The memos of former MNPS Superintendent Pedro Garcia are not the inviolate word of God. And considering how much weight appears to be given them I'm convinced that Garcia, himself, needs to be subpoenaed and state under oath what he alleges in the memos and be subject to cross examination.

He could have left quietly but no, he had to leave this little present. I say let's get him on the first plane back to Nashville. We're footing the bill and having to live with the consequences. I don't care of it's inconvenient for Garcia. Maybe he should have more thoroughly considered the consequences of his memos. Shades of junior high note passing! He should be man enough to come and stand by and defend his words.

The Nashville Scene seems very correct with their cover article in 2007: Best Foes Forever.

Who is William Rock?

For a man who has spent a life time, we're told, in education and is being called as an expert witness in the MNPS rezoning trial he's got a remarkably light public presence. Good thing he was friends with the plaintiff's attorney...we might never have heard of him otherwise.

William Rock is a distinguished service professor emeritus of the Department of Educational Administration at SUNY Brockport and served on the faculty here from 1968 through 1995. In 2001, he established the Annette Lamphier Rock Nursing Scholarship in honor of his wife, Annette, a lifelong nurse. This award will help support and nurture the education of nursing students at the College for years to come. He and Annette reside in Brockport. (SUNY-Brockport)

Give it a try...Google, Google Scholar, Bing, Ask, Yahoo, Cuil, Dogpile, LinkedIn--they would have nearly nothing at all on this guy if it weren't for current news coverage. How do you get to be a "nationally recognized school rezoning expert" and not have a paper trail that's on-line somewhere?

Kudos to HCA

From the folks at Post Business comes word that an employee union, Service Employees International Union, wants to set medical protocols that WE might have to suffer the consequences of.

Union officials say the policy [employees not inoculated against the flu must wear masks] should have been subject to negations (sic-I assume negotiations) since it affects employment terms, but HCA has declined to bargain. HCA officials said the policy is part of their comprehensive infection-control program to protect workers and patients, and they plan to continue moving forward with it.

The medical experts thinks protecting their patients from possible infection is a good idea. Who on Earth is the SEIU to make medical decisions that could endanger the rest of us? What's next? No more Hep B shots? TB test? Hair nets or rubber gloves? Just wait until the SEIU starts throwing their weight around via Obamacare. Lord have mercy on us all.

Is this the change voted for?

Tweets all over the courtroom

The Tennessean's education reporter Jaime Sarrio is also tweeting the rezoning hearings. For those of you who tweet (or set up an RSS feed from these tweets) you can follow the rezoning hearing at both

http://twitter.com/tncourtroom
and
http://twitter.com/NashvilleJeff

Should be very interesting to compare these two streams.

Any others?

Tweeting rezoning hearing

The Metro Nashville Public Schools rezoning hearing this morning is being tweeted by Nashville Jefferson.

Check his twitter page: http://twitter.com/NashvilleJeff

1. Plaintiff witness Mrs. Spurlock testifying about allegedly falsified school choice form choosing John Early for her daughter
2. Defense: No discriminatory intent; choice abrogates any discriminatory impact.
3. Plaintiffs: Rezoning goals stated by the Board are "subterfuge, pretext, a facade"
4. Filling up now -- and it looks like Mark North will be repping the School Board today

Wishful thinking?

What does CNN know that we mere mortals don't? Or is it just wishful thinking on their part?

CNN has already scrubbed the mistake but Google has it cached.

Some heritage more valuable than others

Spot on editorial about the fairgrounds in the City Paper this morning. Larry Woody nailed it.

'There is a theory we have no trouble embracing that some of Nashville’s “progressive” movers and shakers are eager to shed the city’s perceived Hee-Haw image — namely, country music, stock car racing and country-bumpkin fairs and flea markets.

“First they moved the Grand Ole Opry out of town, and now they’re running stock car racing out,” Denson said. “They’re doing away with the history and tradition that made our city so unique and special. It’s sad to see.”'

Again, Nashville focuses on proving to the world we're not hicks. It's a serious mistake to turn our back on our heritage. And whatever happened to "dance with the one that brung ya?" The fact is ordinary people live here, pay taxes, attend humble events at the fairgrounds and yet get the back of the hand from their own government--well it's palm side up come tax time though.

'Dean said he realized the decision to close shop was difficult, but “given the inability of either [track or fair] to support itself financially, it is simply time for us, as a city, to move on.”'

So is this the bar for deciding what comes and goes in this city? Or does that bar get raised and lowered depending upon how favored by our betters the project is?

“I once heard somebody say that the city doesn’t need a ‘playground for race drivers.’ Well, the city sure has a lot of ‘playgrounds for golfers.’ What the difference?”

Or tourists at a convention center.

Do they think that forcing the closing of the fairgrounds will feed the Nashville and Music Center Convention Centers business? I doubt it. The fact is those venues are too expensive, too inconvenient and not suitable for many of the events now held at the fairgrounds. I can think of one annual convention that will probably move out of the city if this happens. I don't think it'll be the only one.

"Metro officials seem anxious to close the fairgrounds, yet what they intend to do with the property remains unclear. Proposals have ranged from building low-income housing to creating another business park."

Because that whole Metro Center project worked out so well? I believe someone already has big plans for the fairgrounds and Mayor Dean knows exactly who it is. We the people just aren't privy to it yet.