Motley Blog

Two coincident experiences with the TNT newspaper and their business practices, both unfortunately not positive. Whether or not there is anything to be read between the two of them, I leave up to you.

First on the business news wire is the departure of long time business columnist and booster Dan Voelpel - off to the Pierce County suburb of Puyallup as director of Economic Development - an interesting switch. His should be a career worth continuing to watch. Hopefully McClatchy can find someone to fill his shoes, but that will likely take time. Hopefully Voelpel can bring some of the can-do spirit of Puyallup to the rest of the county as well.

The second is more subtle - I recently restarted my Sunday only subscription after a vacation hold, a rather typical transaction. Yet somehow my contract was changed to the full week delivery. FWIW, I don't mind being told the news, I do mind being told how to do my business.

Hopefully this second item was an inadvertant mistake and not an indicator in the management environment at this paper, tough as it must be at the moment.

By now the whole case of the arrest of Harvard African Studies Professor Henry Lois Gates should have blown over - if it even had ever risen at all to the level of national attention. But it has not, and this is telling. Most revealing was Harvard grad President Barack Obama initially calling arresting officer James Crowley "stupid".

As comedian and commentator Jon Stewart noted, perhaps it was Obama who was stupid - not to mention Prof. Gates himself.

If this were simply a matter of reverse racism without effect it would be easy to let this pass - that would be as appropriate as the dropping of charges against Mr. Gates by the Cambridge officials.

This case is not about race, but about class in America, it is about the elites of America calling anyone who dares to hold them to account "stupid" racists.

The sad fact is that the people who run this Country are smiley faced abusive alcoholics, the only difference between themselves and the stereotypical abusive trailer trash is the price of their booze, and the rest of their lifestyles - to you, me, and every honest, accountable American, born and unborn.

One thing for darn sure, the Cambridge PD understands this problem - and hopefully are setting an example for **every** officer in every department in this Country.

Don't Follow Me I'm Lost

by Richard Rushfield

2009

At the height of the Reagan revolution author Richard Rushfield chose to attend the most prestigious radical institution of higher learning, Hampshire College. This book is his story, and the story of the allied group of artists, producers and marketers that was the Supreme Dicks. It was a coming of age in a moment of political and artistic zen, the time between punk and grunge in the musical world.

The Supreme Dicks were the sperm that fertilized the egg that would become the Universe of Nirvana, Sonic Youth, and Dinosaur Jr, and, as a side project, create the first X fueled raves.

In this book RR skewers the pinnacles of the corrupt and hypocritical NE establishment with humor blending Sean Penn in 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High' and Hunter S. Thompson. His words are filled with the freshness and perspective of a west coaster wandering free in the strict class society of the east coast.

Rushfield leaves the titans that used Hampshire College, and the Dicks, to forge the abusive corporate and political tool of Nifong political correctness sleeping under the bridge with recently released Priest pedophiles.

You however, will walk away laughing, with a buddha smile of enlightenment and individual empowerment that will carry you through whatever the bastards may throw your way.

Available at Amazon and other booksellers.

(A mea culpa: I was a friend of the group in its early days - I believe I was the one who started calling the civilian security force as a prank, a 'theme' that apparently persisted after my departure from the campus.)

George Will made an interesting observation on the ABC news program 'This Week' claiming "1/5th of Tea Party folks voted for Obama and 1/3 express support". I quoted this on Facebook and was promptly informed that Will is known to pull statistics out of his ass. As such, I decided to research further. That Facebook friend may well be right, and an analysis of the motivation for the apparent fiction is disturbing.

Here's the clip:

(commenters on the video repeat that question about Will's numbers, but Wikipedia does not.)

Even if this 'analysis' is completely false I do think it is safe to say that Independent Voters, who tilted strongly for Obama in the election, have largely lost favor with Obama. This would include myself, and I am certainly NOT a Palin/Tancredo tea bagger.

The Tea Party, still not a fully formed effort, has become the focus of much mainstream media attention regarding the potential for violence. What this still forming group will become is not yet known, and I would certainly give little credence to any corporate coverage of this group - and not too much more for their coverage of the Democrats or Republicans.

As to the threats of violence, there are certainly those in both mainstream parties who put their often hypocritical group think ideologies above the foundation of American Law, the United States Constitution. We do have the legal right to overthrow our government, should it lose sight of its protections of individual social and economic liberties. But recall too, that the right to bear arms is the 2nd right, and speech is first.

I've been considering the Rachel Maddow interview of Rand Paul over the last week considerably perhaps THE issue of the moment in these changing times. Here's the interview, what looks like a 'racist' ambush to me, if you missed it.

Maddow and Paul

Much of the media picked up on this particular meme very quickly, including the New York Times who quite deliberately misled readers about specifically what was said.

Most of what I've read has been very polarized, and I think missed the crucial issues. On my Facebook page I'm fortunate enough to have some great folks who come to those issues from each direction, but with an open mind. If you have the time to read this through I think you'll get a better sense of this particular zeitgeist issue than you'll get from anywhere else.

Tooley's Facebook Discussion about racism and Rand Paul

(Click through for my personal conclusions.)

I have thought long and deep on the question of whether to support Dino Rossi in his 2010 challenge to Washington State Senator Patty Murray - and the answer that emerged is quite clear - NOPE.

The recent statewide election contests of Mr. Rossi are an interesting story. In 2004 he ran for the open governor's seat as an outsider against the heavily favored Attorney General, Christine Gregoire. His campaign was personally directed and he crafted it with a 'real', sincere outreach to independents and the nicely phrased crossover 'dino-crats'. Surprising all he won that race, unfortunately it was a victory **exactly** like Al Gore's in 2000.

Since that time I've realized (and been reminded!) that his centrist political positions were not at all consistent with his role as a 'neighbor' in the Issaquah/Sammamish area - marked by hyper-partisanship and extreme divisiveness - though likely also not without blame from the opposing camp. That history likely shows the true character of the man behind the facade.

This 2008 rematch against the now incumbent, Gregoire, curiously, foreshadowed the emergence of the Tea Party.