It looks like the “Memphis and Shelby County Democratic Club” is using a photograph I took of Jake Ford to promote the Obama/Ford ticket. Don’t they know Obama is running with Steve Cohen this year?

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Early Voting: Oct 15-30
10am-7pm Weekdays (6pm on Thursday, 10/30)
10am-4pm Saturdays
See shelbyvote.org for official info.

The CNN video embedded below sounds awfully familiar: (more…)

Responding to federal smog guidelines, the Shelby County Health Department is preparing suburban mayors for a coming expansion of the “time-consuming vehicle-emissions inspections” already required in the city of Memphis.

Technical Manager for Pollution Control Bob Rodgers said the department feels “very strongly that we’re going to have to expand the I & M program,” despite the fact that it won’t reduce pollution by a “significant percentage.”

The CA reports that regulators have “acknowledged the limited usefulness of testing cars in the suburbs,” since “fuels required today” are “cleaner-burning” and newer cars come equipped with computerized diagnostics.

Bartlett Mayor Keith McDonald says, “We’ll do it because we’re supposed to do it — not because we think it’s the smartest idea.” Let’s all hope the EPA never tells us to jump off a bridge, although by just going ahead and offing ourselves right now we could probably reduce our carbon footprint… by a “significant percentage.”

The expanded testing is a consequence of the Memphis area’s new status as a “moderate” violator of Clean Air Act standards for ozone pollution, stepping up from the “marginal” violator classification. But the EPA has yet to explain how it’s even possible that smog in Memphis has increased, since the city’s vehicle inspection program has been working so very well.

I love the exasperation in the comment by Midtowner: “Great — that’s all I need, more cars to get behind in the inspection line. I wonder how much pollution is being put into the air by all the cars in line? Testing is such an enormous waste of time.”

At least the EPA is justifying its existence, and that’s something we can all be proud of.

UPDATE: A follow-up story reveals a more heroic Mayor McDonald:

“This is something I’ve been fighting for six years,” Bartlett Mayor Keith McDonald said. “If the EPA forces us to do it, I just can’t beat them, even though I’ve shown them over and over again that a (reduction from testing the suburbs) will not produce the scientific results that other things do.”

The requirement wouldn’t force outlying residents to drive to one of three Memphis testing stations. A vendor might be hired to operate locations countywide. McDonald would like other services available, such as tag renewals, making a trip to the testing site more efficient for citizens. He’s heard the position that Memphians suffer through testing, so everyone should.

“Nobody should have to suffer,” McDonald said. “We need to find a way to make this work more conveniently.”

UPDATE II: The CA’s reliably-liberal editorial page calls the expanded testing requirement a “fair clean-air option,” while again noting that “the inspections won’t make a significant percentage cut in ozone-causing pollutants.” I think it would be fair to require the Commercial Appeal to stop killing trees; I suggest we implement a regular inspection process to make sure they’re printing on a more environmentally-friendly resource.

Cordova resident Alison Reed received a traffic citation by mail and decided to e-mail Germantown city officials over the weekend:

“If you ever give another citizen of MY country a ticket through your detestable and illegal traffic cameras, I will destroy your entire city and devastate your people with such wrath as has never been seen before.”

On Monday, she was arrested for harassment.

I think that puts my “critical and offensive” e-mail in perspective, don’t you?

I mentioned Tom Leatherwood’s campaign earlier, so I thought I would note that his under construction website is now live. The Leatherwood campaign is also distributing this letter, and recently drafted this press release.

Meanwhile, the content on Marsha Blackburn’s website has finally been updated, and her site was also treated to a nice redesign.

Jeff Moder and Jeff Ward have launched a new Saturday morning talk radio show on AM 990, KWAM. They also have a new blog to support The Point Radio Show.

Moder ran a grassroots, internet-friendly campaign for U.S. Senate in the 2006 Republican primary; he is an internal communications executive for a hospital in Memphis.

Ward is an attorney who made a big splash in Tennessee as a founder of, and blogger for, TeamGOP.

Congratulations, guys! And welcome back to the blogosphere.

Shelby County Register Tom Leatherwood is on WREC with Ben Ferguson to announce his bid for U.S. Congress, running against Rep. Marsha Blackburn in the 7th District. Leatherwood has been Register since 2000, and may be term-limited* in the near future if the County Commission gets its way.

Leatherwood doesn’t have a campaign website up yet, but VoteTomLeatherwood.com was registered on March 13th.

UPDATE: *Make that “will be term-limited immediately if…”

King Willie is about to resign; perhaps he’s launching his Presidential campaign.

The haughty, unrelenting gasbaggery at Smart City Memphis needs to be checked every so often; now is one of those times, as they take aim at John Lunt’s grassroots group and two Shelby County communities.

In the first case, Smart City Memphis takes up the issue of the Shelby County charter and a proposed amendment meant to keep five endangered offices elected and independent. But instead of discussing the issue or playing devil’s advocate, as Commissioner Steve Mulroy has ably done in a series of public hearings, SCM launches a personal attack on the community activists involved:

The double standard of Concerned Citizens of Shelby County is mind-boggling.

Really? Double standard? Mind-boggling?

The organization founded by Germantown resident John Lunt in 2004 to demand a charter commission to review the Memphis city charter and correct a set of grievances that often seem more personality-driven than philosophically grounded.

Their explanations were often peppered with words like “abuse,” “arrogance” and “unchecked power.” They called for city government to be more efficient and they advocated provisions that purportedly would save city tax dollars.

What’s mind-boggling is the double standard at work in Smart City’s own post, with its ironic, ad hominem attack on John Lunt and his organization.

By the way, you can view those “provisions that purportedly would save city tax dollars” here; they include budget reforms, pension reforms and open records proposals, while subscribing to the “philosophy” that activity in conflict with the city charter and state law should be “render[ed] illegal.”

The item on pension reform stands out here, but we’ll come back to that. The reality is that all of these “grievances” are “philosophically grounded,” despite how it might “seem” to Smart City Memphis. (more…)