Yeah, when very partisan Dem Hob Bryan agrees with a Republican (I once heard him blame every economic problem in this country on Ronald Reagan and tax cuts. Seriously) you know the issue is pretty simple. Agree with his politics or not, Hob Bryan knows tax code. And when he and the governor agree on something, it's news worthy (even if that newsworthy item is buried halfway down the page on the Daily Journal's website).
The reality is this: Hob Bryan is not stupid. He knows that a cigarette tax is a self-defeating one, and while it's an early short-term fix, sin taxes wear themselves out by financially discouraging the continuation of the habit. Meanwhile, there are still people on Medicaid who won't be going anywhere, cigarettes or not. While taxing hospitals isn't my favorite thing-I'm generally opposed to taxation at all-it is a stable source of funding. Senator Bryan surely knows this.
And let me interject this idea-since when did Democrats think taxes on a large business were a bad thing? Is this the first tax increase on a business that any Democrat in the state House has ever opposed?
The fact of the matter is that we have enough tax revenue in this state to cover $90 million in a given year. The problem is we've blown so much of that on $17,000 worth of mileage and sidewalks for Bogue Chitto (that the town never asked for!). It's easier for a legislator to ask for more money than it is to spend the money that is already there. Were that my employer would simply hand me more money at the end of the month if I didn't have enough.
Showing posts with label TAX SWAP SCHEME. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TAX SWAP SCHEME. Show all posts
Monday, June 30, 2008
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Oh, What a Difference Five Months Makes
In June, right around the time this site was launched, media figures around the state-such as Sid Salter, Charlie Mitchell, David Hampton, Bobby Harrison, and Lloyd Gray-insisted that a certain 'populist firebrand' with 'a grasp of the issues' and who was an 'effective campaigner who stays on message' would be a tough candidate in the general election of 2007. All he needed was to get his name and message out there.
But here's the thing they didn't get: A bunch of that stuff was either fluff they were hoping was true, or it was passed along to them by Franks allies and admirers (who, admittedly, are few, though well-placed). The more Mr. Franks talks, the less attractive a candidate he becomes. The first five minutes of a hellfire and brimstone speech from the pulpit can be entertaining. The next twenty minutes gets boring and repetitive. And once you get into his arrogant, smug, holier than thou personality, with crassness thrown in for good measure, you know what you get? 41 percent and running behind a gubernatorial candidate that was largely derided as an empty suit with a deep pocket and 2 percent more than a perennial candidate who at best is a little off and at worst a whack job.
Let's not forget that the 'effective campaigner who stays on message' of Mr. Salter's column in June (forgive me if I get the exact quote wrong, Sid, but it was the central point of the article) made a huge mistake by letting Mr. Bryant have the offensive in September and October, having only the grocery tax issue and some vague insurance proposals at his disposal, and made horrendous mistakes on the crime issue, which anyone who lives in the Jackson media market sees nightly and was highlighted by the looting seen during Katrina. He wasn't focused when he actually had to answer questions that were tough (which he'd never been asked by the Daily Journal in his brief election interviews with a fawning journalist). Mississippi is not District 19, home of the last die-hard white Democrats in the state who believe hurricanes are God's punishment for Mississippi voting for George Bush (an actual statement from the Ryan's Well community). There's only so much Bush hatred can get you, especially when the man is 15 months from giving up his office.
Heck, Mr. Franks was so bad a candidate that Mr. Bryant, per the grapevine, had a commercial highlighting some of Mr. Franks' former opponents woes following the 2003 elections, but declined to air it, knowing as he did a week beforehand that Mr. Franks was behind and about to go on a statewide tour-the best possible combination for the Bryant campaign. The combination of Jamie Franks talking and being behind in a race (remember, both of his regular elections to the state house were pretty close, even with a huge money advantage) and having to actually speak to people was worth more than any law-enforcement group's commercials.
Thankfully, this rube is going to run for something again. Whoever his opponent is in 2011, we'd wish you luck-but with Mr. Franks running, you probably won't need it. He's the best thing an opponent outside of District 19 could ask for.
One last thing-this'll be our last Franks post until he sticks his head up again. Then we'll go back to playing whack-a-mole. We here at the Tank are contemplating our reformatting options, and frankly, piling on is just plain mean-just ask Hilary Clinton.
But here's the thing they didn't get: A bunch of that stuff was either fluff they were hoping was true, or it was passed along to them by Franks allies and admirers (who, admittedly, are few, though well-placed). The more Mr. Franks talks, the less attractive a candidate he becomes. The first five minutes of a hellfire and brimstone speech from the pulpit can be entertaining. The next twenty minutes gets boring and repetitive. And once you get into his arrogant, smug, holier than thou personality, with crassness thrown in for good measure, you know what you get? 41 percent and running behind a gubernatorial candidate that was largely derided as an empty suit with a deep pocket and 2 percent more than a perennial candidate who at best is a little off and at worst a whack job.
Let's not forget that the 'effective campaigner who stays on message' of Mr. Salter's column in June (forgive me if I get the exact quote wrong, Sid, but it was the central point of the article) made a huge mistake by letting Mr. Bryant have the offensive in September and October, having only the grocery tax issue and some vague insurance proposals at his disposal, and made horrendous mistakes on the crime issue, which anyone who lives in the Jackson media market sees nightly and was highlighted by the looting seen during Katrina. He wasn't focused when he actually had to answer questions that were tough (which he'd never been asked by the Daily Journal in his brief election interviews with a fawning journalist). Mississippi is not District 19, home of the last die-hard white Democrats in the state who believe hurricanes are God's punishment for Mississippi voting for George Bush (an actual statement from the Ryan's Well community). There's only so much Bush hatred can get you, especially when the man is 15 months from giving up his office.
Heck, Mr. Franks was so bad a candidate that Mr. Bryant, per the grapevine, had a commercial highlighting some of Mr. Franks' former opponents woes following the 2003 elections, but declined to air it, knowing as he did a week beforehand that Mr. Franks was behind and about to go on a statewide tour-the best possible combination for the Bryant campaign. The combination of Jamie Franks talking and being behind in a race (remember, both of his regular elections to the state house were pretty close, even with a huge money advantage) and having to actually speak to people was worth more than any law-enforcement group's commercials.
Thankfully, this rube is going to run for something again. Whoever his opponent is in 2011, we'd wish you luck-but with Mr. Franks running, you probably won't need it. He's the best thing an opponent outside of District 19 could ask for.
One last thing-this'll be our last Franks post until he sticks his head up again. Then we'll go back to playing whack-a-mole. We here at the Tank are contemplating our reformatting options, and frankly, piling on is just plain mean-just ask Hilary Clinton.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
On The Media Front
Last week Charlie Mitchell of the Vicksburg Post wrote that three candidates had 'indefensible acts' on their records. Two regarded charges of personal corruption or incompetence-which are surely indefensible. The third was vetoing a financially risky bill.
Sorry, Charlie, but one of those isn't a great moral crisis. When your ad valorem bill comes in, you won't think it so indefensible.
Of course, Charlie doesn't mention another morally indefensible act, one that we've talked about a lot over here. Oh, well. I guess it'll be talked about Tuesday.
Sorry, Charlie, but one of those isn't a great moral crisis. When your ad valorem bill comes in, you won't think it so indefensible.
Of course, Charlie doesn't mention another morally indefensible act, one that we've talked about a lot over here. Oh, well. I guess it'll be talked about Tuesday.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
What Does Bobby Jindal's Win Tell Us?
Bobby Jindal, to the surprise of very few, was elected governor of Louisiana yesterday with 53% of the vote in an 11-way race. He carried all but 3 or 4 parishes; his win was sealed by his strong showing in the rural northern protestant part of the state.
Jindal ran as the good government candidate, the jobs and fiscal responsibility candidate, and his main opposition ended up being a pair of self-financed candidates. When this starts to sound familiar, let me know.
The election in Louisiana should be a wake-up call to the Mississippi Dems; running on four more years of beef plants, teddy bears, lawsuits, graft, and bad populist-socialist public policies will get you the same thing that it got the D's in Louisiana: Thrown out on your butts, slowly but surely. (Also, it's not that Louisiana politicians are more corrupt than Mississippi politicians; it's just that Mississippi politicians are better at not getting caught-or at least indicted).
With Espy and Bishop endorsing the governor, it appears that they understand that the D party is sinking this year. Of course, it won't be really understood until some folks are shown the door in November. It won't be understood in the offices of the Daily Journal and the Clarion Ledger at all, even then-of course, that's only because the rest of us were too stupid to listen to them.
Jindal ran as the good government candidate, the jobs and fiscal responsibility candidate, and his main opposition ended up being a pair of self-financed candidates. When this starts to sound familiar, let me know.
The election in Louisiana should be a wake-up call to the Mississippi Dems; running on four more years of beef plants, teddy bears, lawsuits, graft, and bad populist-socialist public policies will get you the same thing that it got the D's in Louisiana: Thrown out on your butts, slowly but surely. (Also, it's not that Louisiana politicians are more corrupt than Mississippi politicians; it's just that Mississippi politicians are better at not getting caught-or at least indicted).
With Espy and Bishop endorsing the governor, it appears that they understand that the D party is sinking this year. Of course, it won't be really understood until some folks are shown the door in November. It won't be understood in the offices of the Daily Journal and the Clarion Ledger at all, even then-of course, that's only because the rest of us were too stupid to listen to them.
Monday, October 1, 2007
So Let's Define Liberal
I read on Magnolia Report this morning in a micro-story that Mr. Franks doesn't view himself as liberal. Maybe the reason people think he's liberal is...well...the things he's done.
He's given money to Al Gore and John Kerry. He's put coin in the purse of our most liberal representative, Bennie Thompson. He's tried everything to kill tort reform. He's sued pretty much every business he could find grounds to sport paperwork on. He's never found a pork project he could stomach not voting for. He's set Ike Brown and Ellis Turnage on the elections system (remember, he's a member of the state Democratic committee). He's set his sights in the past on one of the state's largest hospitals. His latest scheme is set on breaking the state's budget.
Oh, he's covered himself up pretty well. He's sat in the back and been pretty anonymous for most of his career. He's taken no real stands that would hurt him politically, but nothing outstanding, either, despite all his claims.
He's voted for an expensive special election for the state flag (he claimed to be a 'defender of our heritage' on that one in 2003-wonder what the Free Press thinks of that). But seriously, how hard is it to find someone in the Mississippi legislature that's pro-abortion? Pro-gun control?
Mr. Franks is on record as in favor of expanding the bureaucracy to include a department of labor. There's another liberal point. It's not a stretch to say that the right to work law will go out the window soon after that.
Then again, he's also claimed to be a faithful member of the Church of God. But, the CoG doesn't like gambling or drinking. Still, he's taken thousands from both casinos and the Anhauser-Busch company. How exactly can we determine what he'll do when in office when he's telling us one thing yet doing another?
Come to think of it, that's pretty well liberalism in a nutshell isn't it?
He's given money to Al Gore and John Kerry. He's put coin in the purse of our most liberal representative, Bennie Thompson. He's tried everything to kill tort reform. He's sued pretty much every business he could find grounds to sport paperwork on. He's never found a pork project he could stomach not voting for. He's set Ike Brown and Ellis Turnage on the elections system (remember, he's a member of the state Democratic committee). He's set his sights in the past on one of the state's largest hospitals. His latest scheme is set on breaking the state's budget.
Oh, he's covered himself up pretty well. He's sat in the back and been pretty anonymous for most of his career. He's taken no real stands that would hurt him politically, but nothing outstanding, either, despite all his claims.
He's voted for an expensive special election for the state flag (he claimed to be a 'defender of our heritage' on that one in 2003-wonder what the Free Press thinks of that). But seriously, how hard is it to find someone in the Mississippi legislature that's pro-abortion? Pro-gun control?
Mr. Franks is on record as in favor of expanding the bureaucracy to include a department of labor. There's another liberal point. It's not a stretch to say that the right to work law will go out the window soon after that.
Then again, he's also claimed to be a faithful member of the Church of God. But, the CoG doesn't like gambling or drinking. Still, he's taken thousands from both casinos and the Anhauser-Busch company. How exactly can we determine what he'll do when in office when he's telling us one thing yet doing another?
Come to think of it, that's pretty well liberalism in a nutshell isn't it?
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Not Good Enough
I missed Sid Salter's blog entry for a while (outside issues). Sid made some good points (even tying in Ike Brown). But I'm going to say its not enough. If this was a more technologically savvy state it might be enough to inform people of the Jeremy Martin fiasco, in which a good man's name was dragged through the mud in order to 'send a message'-and that message was for the Republicans to not mess with the Golden Boy.
I want Sunday edition. I want front page. Because if Phil Bryant had done something so hideous to another human being, it would have already been splashed across the front pages of every major newspaper in the state. It wouldn't leave, either. There'd be interviews. There'd be news pieces on TV stations. Heck, Bill O'Reilly might put it on his show.
If there ever was a case of 'people vs. the powerful,' this is it. John Edwards might even show us his special Ken Doll feature-crying. If nothing else shows you that the Golden Boy and Samson are unfit to continue to serve the people of Mississippi, this is it.
But hey, let's enjoy another Tax Swap piece while we wait.
I want Sunday edition. I want front page. Because if Phil Bryant had done something so hideous to another human being, it would have already been splashed across the front pages of every major newspaper in the state. It wouldn't leave, either. There'd be interviews. There'd be news pieces on TV stations. Heck, Bill O'Reilly might put it on his show.
If there ever was a case of 'people vs. the powerful,' this is it. John Edwards might even show us his special Ken Doll feature-crying. If nothing else shows you that the Golden Boy and Samson are unfit to continue to serve the people of Mississippi, this is it.
But hey, let's enjoy another Tax Swap piece while we wait.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Claim of the Day, August 27, 2007
"I'm the biggest expert on the grocery business in this campaign. In fact, I've been involved in free trade all my life. I opened the Silk Road to China."
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Appalling?
Here are some things I find appalling.
A beef plant disaster that no one in the state legislature, apparently, saw coming.
Teachers Unions placing their interests over those of children.
The sad good old boy administration of Lee County Schools.
School work trucks with candidate stickers on them.
Illegal immigration.
Teddy Bear legislation.
The crime problem in Jackson.
The Jeremy Martin fiasco (thought I'd forgotten, huh, Samson?)
Suing small businesses in election years.
Suing small businesses located within a quarter mile of your home.
Suing Fair View Junior High.
Suing AmVets.
Suing Ole Miss and the ATO fraternity three years after a tragic fire.
Ike Brown's continued presence in the political process of this state.
Complacent media types.
Hothead state legislature candidates.
Katrina fraud arrests in an election year.
Starting fistfights at your party's national convention.
$14 million sweetheart deals for your campaign supporters.
VPAC stealth candidates.
Requesting three times as much travel funds as other representatives from your county.
All of this rankles me WAAAAAY more than three and a half pennies being saved on the dollar next time I buy milk or bread. By the way: The TAX SWAP SCHEME WILL NEVER WORK! Not even if you put on a display at the Big Star for the Clarion Ledger folks. It's still diminishing returns (that means you get less as time goes on, Yaw Yaw), meaning that the state will lose whatever surplus we have today since if you're elected we'll go about spending like a drunken sailor on shore leave in Thailand after six months at sea.
There's the one issue Jamie Franks Jr is counting on in November. Never have the press questioned the fact that some working families (whom he's the CHAMPION of, remember) might see an increase in prices when you SUE THEIR LOCAL GROCERY STORE!
If a sales tax is what you find appalling, you haven't been paying attention here lately.
A beef plant disaster that no one in the state legislature, apparently, saw coming.
Teachers Unions placing their interests over those of children.
The sad good old boy administration of Lee County Schools.
School work trucks with candidate stickers on them.
Illegal immigration.
Teddy Bear legislation.
The crime problem in Jackson.
The Jeremy Martin fiasco (thought I'd forgotten, huh, Samson?)
Suing small businesses in election years.
Suing small businesses located within a quarter mile of your home.
Suing Fair View Junior High.
Suing AmVets.
Suing Ole Miss and the ATO fraternity three years after a tragic fire.
Ike Brown's continued presence in the political process of this state.
Complacent media types.
Hothead state legislature candidates.
Katrina fraud arrests in an election year.
Starting fistfights at your party's national convention.
$14 million sweetheart deals for your campaign supporters.
VPAC stealth candidates.
Requesting three times as much travel funds as other representatives from your county.
All of this rankles me WAAAAAY more than three and a half pennies being saved on the dollar next time I buy milk or bread. By the way: The TAX SWAP SCHEME WILL NEVER WORK! Not even if you put on a display at the Big Star for the Clarion Ledger folks. It's still diminishing returns (that means you get less as time goes on, Yaw Yaw), meaning that the state will lose whatever surplus we have today since if you're elected we'll go about spending like a drunken sailor on shore leave in Thailand after six months at sea.
There's the one issue Jamie Franks Jr is counting on in November. Never have the press questioned the fact that some working families (whom he's the CHAMPION of, remember) might see an increase in prices when you SUE THEIR LOCAL GROCERY STORE!
If a sales tax is what you find appalling, you haven't been paying attention here lately.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Oh my Good Lloyd...
Well, just when you think the Daily Journal's Jamie Franks Jr Cheerleaders are about to go on hiatus they prove you wrong. This morning's paper advises our intrepid representative to not align himself so closely with John Arthur Eaves, he of the trial lawyer, Jehovah-obsessed, trophy wife-taking gubernatorial school of thought as it might hurt him in the election.
Please. Stop. The. Inanity.
This farce that's going on in the Franks Cheerleading Section-sorry, the offices of the Daily Journal-has got to end. Let's not pretend that the man is some kind of consensus builder, Lloyd. If you'd ever talk to people who don't fund him-like certain representatives from the Meridian and Picayune areas that I've met, for example-you'd find out that the man is despised by lots and lots of people he's worked with. He's vile and coarse and rude when a camera's not on him.
And this whole thing about Haley Barbour having a pet for LG...did we forget there's a whole nother chamber to the state legislature? Every article bashes Amy Tuck for being "too close to Barbour," but I've yet to see one that says that Tim Ford was too close to Musgrove, or that maybe Billy McCoy and Jamie Franks-once described as 'McCoy's protege' in print-running both houses of the legislative branch would be a bad idea.
Third, they don't have a problem with the governor being too powerful. They have a problem with a governor they don't control being too powerful. Four years ago they could tell Musgrove when to sit, speak and fetch. They don't have that anymore and it's grating at them. I guess they long for the days of wasting $14 million on a special election over what flag we'll be flying. Should Franks win, I guess we'll have a referendum on what uniforms Ole Miss and State will be wearing for home games.
Lastly, stop throwing 'populist' around. They're not populists. Populists are summed up best by the quote from William Jennings Bryan: "The people of Nebraska are for a silver standard, so I am for a silver standard. I will look up the arguments later." The bunch that Lloyd and his office mates love to slap that label on aren't populists, because they're more inclined to tell people what to do than take orders from them. Seriously, can you imagine Bryan, after reading that quote, telling people what lifestyle decisions to make? Suing private businesses because people made the mistake of buying their product when they've been told their entire lives its bad for them? Eliminating the choice of what section to sit in the restaurants? Is there a constituency for the tax swap scheme other than the offices that you guys sit in every day? Is there one for never purging the voter rolls?
Good Lord, help me make it through ten more weeks of this. It's going to be hard.
Oh, yeah, Lloyd, you might also want to take a drive to Mooreville sometime to see what his neighbors think of him. I promise, you'll come away with a revelation. Eaves cost himself the Mooreville box when he appeared there with Franks.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
It's the Truest Things that Make the Funny (Claim of the Day, Aug 15, '07)
Today's Daily Journal features an article by Bobby Harrison on Jamie Franks Jr. It's glowing, let me assure you. Apparently Bobby failed to ask a question that Mr. Franks didn't see coming from the Mansion on the Hill. Hey Bobby, two words: Jeremy Martin. Look 'em up.
But tucked away at the bottom of the article is another one of the whoppers he's known to tell about his accomplishments. Apparently, North Mississippi Medical Center (a recipient of an award earlier this year as a top hospital in the country-that's the US, not Lee County-from the Vice President) is only a good hospital today because he and Steve Holland made them get better. Apparently their improvements were meteoric, going from a hospital in need of competition-nay, even closure-to a top-tier one. Thanks Franks!
The care at NMMC has always been good. It's their customer service that's been lacking. As sociologist Dr. Vaughn Grisham at Ole Miss says, Tupelo has a good hospital because Tupelo wants a good hospital. There's your claim of the day, right there-and I didn't even make this one up.
Also, the Senate is going to look like Mississippi-which will probably strangely become Democratic when all is said and done. I imagine Alan Nunnellee isn't relishing his role in a Franks-run Senate.
The best line is the one about 'being his own man.' Yeah, I bet he and his sponsors are laughing all the way to the bank on that one. Electing Franks means that both houses in the legislature are controlled by people who are in the business of beef plants. I think we all remember how that one turned out, don't we?
*Edited for a misquote-though Mr. Franks did vote to table the Tort package when it came up for a vote in the House. That makes his claims of not wanting it rolled back dubious at best. I hope all the previously-listed trial lawyers aren't disappointed that their trophy boy is selling them out-if he's to be believed. Or Bobby Harrison, who's notoriously bad at quotes.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Well, You Want Differences?
If you want to know what separates Jamie Franks Jr from Phil Bryant, Sid Salter, you don't have to ask Phil. I've got your one-stop shop of differences.
Jamie Franks Jr is a plaintiff's attorney, one who's made a fortune off of lawsuits, including suing people who operate businesses within sight of his home. I can name off a few, in case you don't know them (I guess you've been a little to busy to call F. G. Wiygul, the superintendent of Itawamba County Schools). I may be wrong but Phil Bryant, who is not a self-styled champion of education, has never sued Fair View Junior High.
You could of course also call the owners of Mooreville One Stop, another lawsuit victim of Mr. Franks. The store operates within sight of his quite-large front yard. There's a friend of the little man if ever there was one.
He can claim to be for tort reform and to have put his name on it; but at the end of the day, he still made the motion to kill the bill before it could come up to a vote. I'm sure one day we'll look back and see it as an inspiration to John Forbes Kerry in 2004.
Nothing says "I support seniors" like suing the Amvets. This is, of course, not an organization made up of Gulf War and Grenada veterans.
I see that with the end of Primary Season, the CL has made the decision to label Mr. Franks a 'small businessman.' I'd sure love to know when he mowed his last lawn-or his own, in fact. He wasn't very good at being a 'small businessman' since he routinely didn't do work he'd contracted. Heck, Mr. Franks can't even pay people for work they did on his house. I know life must be tough for him and his $2,000,000 home.
There are others; the suit that made him his fortune, of course, was the Fen-Phen suit. I suppose there are other ways to make drugs cheaper, but I'm sure suing companies never causes an increase in price. The price tag of that one was $14 billion to Wyeth; that is approximately four times what the company's four best-selling products take in annually. I'm sure that didn't raise drug prices at all, though.
I find it hard to believe that a man who counts cigar manufacturer Swisher International as a contributor is truly interested in people's health and grocery taxes. Nor do I find it believable that a man who claims to be more pious than the Pope continually takes funds from the casino industry, or from beer manufacturers. If he was paying attention in Sunday school, he'd remember the Church of God of Prophecy frowns on both.
Jeremy Martin. Where's that name in your column, Sid? The people of Mississippi deserve for you to put in print what was done to that man, by any and all accounts a smear and a railroading. And I'm not just talking about the arrest and trial; I'm talking about the campaign button ban at Lee County Schools, directed at Mr. Martin's supporters (most of whom can't vote! That's the worst part of it!). I'm talking about Johnny Green going around the Hebron community in Lee County telling the residents that Mr. Martin wasn't a 'real teacher' (I wonder if Mr. Green has ever checked the resume's and licenses of some of his 'real teachers' in Lee County). I'm talking about the strategically placed rumors that Mr. Martin engaged in the love that dare not speak its name.
I'm talking about the inane criticisms from Mr. Franks throughout that campaign: That kid's too young (Mr. Martin was 24 when he ran for office; Mr. Franks, as he'll tell anyone who will listen, was 22 when he was elected). That kid lives with his parents (uh, so did you when you were basically handed the seat by Bill Wheeler-and Mr. Martin had been at college and teaching for the previous four years). That kid's never had a real job (didja ever think that at 22 you'd had one? And I thought you liked teachers?)
Of course, when Mr. Martin's supporters poked back-going to Mr. Franks' first election statement that 'the last thing we need in Jackson is another lawyer'-he cried foul like a little kid who got his binky taken away, and ran to his good buddy Attorney General Samson to protect him from Mean Old Jeremy. So much for that cultivated cultured image (the expensive car, suits, cufflinks, shoes, home)-or was it the brawlin' tough guy (I'll whip your ass)? I forget.
Jamie Franks Jr is a hypocrite. He's the worst kind of politician. I don't know anything personal about Phil Bryant, but he can't be any worse than this. Jamie Franks Jr makes me want to puke every time I think about him. Unfortunately, the masses aren't being informed about this. All they get are the generic statements of 'staying on message,' 'effective campaigner,' 'blue collar working man,' and the other schtick that the media gets from their Jamie Franks handouts. If they were interested, they'd've followed up on some of the things we've discussed here at the Tank. Unfortunately, either they're too lazy to do some investigating outside of their offices (I guess it's too hot) or too busy setting the type for November's endorsement.
Jamie Franks Jr is a plaintiff's attorney, one who's made a fortune off of lawsuits, including suing people who operate businesses within sight of his home. I can name off a few, in case you don't know them (I guess you've been a little to busy to call F. G. Wiygul, the superintendent of Itawamba County Schools). I may be wrong but Phil Bryant, who is not a self-styled champion of education, has never sued Fair View Junior High.
You could of course also call the owners of Mooreville One Stop, another lawsuit victim of Mr. Franks. The store operates within sight of his quite-large front yard. There's a friend of the little man if ever there was one.
He can claim to be for tort reform and to have put his name on it; but at the end of the day, he still made the motion to kill the bill before it could come up to a vote. I'm sure one day we'll look back and see it as an inspiration to John Forbes Kerry in 2004.
Nothing says "I support seniors" like suing the Amvets. This is, of course, not an organization made up of Gulf War and Grenada veterans.
I see that with the end of Primary Season, the CL has made the decision to label Mr. Franks a 'small businessman.' I'd sure love to know when he mowed his last lawn-or his own, in fact. He wasn't very good at being a 'small businessman' since he routinely didn't do work he'd contracted. Heck, Mr. Franks can't even pay people for work they did on his house. I know life must be tough for him and his $2,000,000 home.
There are others; the suit that made him his fortune, of course, was the Fen-Phen suit. I suppose there are other ways to make drugs cheaper, but I'm sure suing companies never causes an increase in price. The price tag of that one was $14 billion to Wyeth; that is approximately four times what the company's four best-selling products take in annually. I'm sure that didn't raise drug prices at all, though.
I find it hard to believe that a man who counts cigar manufacturer Swisher International as a contributor is truly interested in people's health and grocery taxes. Nor do I find it believable that a man who claims to be more pious than the Pope continually takes funds from the casino industry, or from beer manufacturers. If he was paying attention in Sunday school, he'd remember the Church of God of Prophecy frowns on both.
Jeremy Martin. Where's that name in your column, Sid? The people of Mississippi deserve for you to put in print what was done to that man, by any and all accounts a smear and a railroading. And I'm not just talking about the arrest and trial; I'm talking about the campaign button ban at Lee County Schools, directed at Mr. Martin's supporters (most of whom can't vote! That's the worst part of it!). I'm talking about Johnny Green going around the Hebron community in Lee County telling the residents that Mr. Martin wasn't a 'real teacher' (I wonder if Mr. Green has ever checked the resume's and licenses of some of his 'real teachers' in Lee County). I'm talking about the strategically placed rumors that Mr. Martin engaged in the love that dare not speak its name.
I'm talking about the inane criticisms from Mr. Franks throughout that campaign: That kid's too young (Mr. Martin was 24 when he ran for office; Mr. Franks, as he'll tell anyone who will listen, was 22 when he was elected). That kid lives with his parents (uh, so did you when you were basically handed the seat by Bill Wheeler-and Mr. Martin had been at college and teaching for the previous four years). That kid's never had a real job (didja ever think that at 22 you'd had one? And I thought you liked teachers?)
Of course, when Mr. Martin's supporters poked back-going to Mr. Franks' first election statement that 'the last thing we need in Jackson is another lawyer'-he cried foul like a little kid who got his binky taken away, and ran to his good buddy Attorney General Samson to protect him from Mean Old Jeremy. So much for that cultivated cultured image (the expensive car, suits, cufflinks, shoes, home)-or was it the brawlin' tough guy (I'll whip your ass)? I forget.
Jamie Franks Jr is a hypocrite. He's the worst kind of politician. I don't know anything personal about Phil Bryant, but he can't be any worse than this. Jamie Franks Jr makes me want to puke every time I think about him. Unfortunately, the masses aren't being informed about this. All they get are the generic statements of 'staying on message,' 'effective campaigner,' 'blue collar working man,' and the other schtick that the media gets from their Jamie Franks handouts. If they were interested, they'd've followed up on some of the things we've discussed here at the Tank. Unfortunately, either they're too lazy to do some investigating outside of their offices (I guess it's too hot) or too busy setting the type for November's endorsement.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Unintentional Comedy
We all know there are things in this world that are unintentionally funny.
There's the Chicago Cubs, who, for most of their history have been the loveable losers, getting jinxed by black cats in the on-deck circle or a fan dropping a foul ball that should have put the Cubs in the Series.
There's the decision by ABC to make a sitcom based on the Geico cavemen.
There's David Gergen and Dick Morris. Nothing's more unintentionally funny than their analysis.
The entire network of ESPN has become unintentionally funny. I mean, Rascal Flatts playing during Sportscenter? Spare me. My wish is that you shut those fat Yankees up. Give me the score and some stats.
Of course, most Democrats running for President are unintentionally funny (though they stay busy, inventing this here interweb, talking with a comatose Christopher Reeve, demonstrating their ability to speak different dialects of the English language, having "the audacity to hope"-whatever that means-or studying poverty for fun and profit).
So when I read this morning about the plans of the three Lt. Governor candidates in their choosing of Senate leadership, I got a good little chuckle. The story was in the Picayune Item, a small newspaper to be sure, but thanks to the Magnolia Report (an invaluable aid to this site) I got my morning laugh right after my bowl of Cheerios.
Anyway, back to the story. The humor is in the quotes of Mr. Franks himself. In another story, published in the far more widely-read Clarion Ledger, Mr. Franks promised a set of Senate Committee chairmanships that would "look like Mississippi," meaning black and white, Republican and Democrat. Now, anyone who's ever met Jamie Franks Jr. knows he's the most partisan Democrat this side of the Clintons and Kennedys. We are talking about a man who once remarked to me and several other students, "Republicans only care about people before they're born." I suppose the Democrats only care about you once you see one of their commercials promising big bucks in a lawsuit.
The likelihood of his appointing someone who's a Republican to a chairmanship is slim, but I guess it could be like the Clinton promise of a "cabinet that looks like America." That America, of course, didn't have a single Republican in it, apparently.
Of course, the CL left out one of the more "Huh?" moments of Mr. Franks standard stump. In the Picayune Item, he called out Tommy Robertson of Moss Point for his 'failure' to hike cigarette taxes while decreasing grocery taxes. Now, here's the thing about cigarettes: most of the people who smoke them aren't well-off. Most aren't well-educated. Mr. Franks needs to look no further than one of his own constituencies, Mantachie, where the opposition to a smoking ban led to comments from smokers that "Cigarettes ain't never killed nobody."
Now, here's the second part. The sales tax is the most fair tax in the world. Everyone pays it, nobody gets around it. You can get out of paying income tax (like, for instance, a certain Ketchup heiress). You can't get out of the sales tax unless you're in-between countries, and how many poor folks get a chance to do that? A person on public assistance is more likely to be a smoker. I can't tell you how often I saw, when I was a grocery clerk, a person get angry when they found out beer and cigarettes weren't covered on food stamps. Most people on public assistance don't pay income taxes. The sales tax is fair. This doesn't come from Haley Barbour; this comes from my father, whose politics are a lot closer to Mr. Franks than they are mine.
Of course, there are more people eating than smoking. So what does that mean, dear reader? That's right, decreased revenue! That means we're back in the situation we were in back in 1999, when we went from having a surplus in the last quarter of Fordice to being $29 in debt the next quarter under Musgrove.
I'm glad the Item gave us a chance to discuss the illogic of the 'tax swap,' but let's get back to Tommy Robertson for a minute. Was it Tommy Robertson who gave us a state sales tax? No, it was Gov. Mike Conner, a populist Democrat and one-time ally of Theodore Bilbo, whose populist Democrat credentials need not be listed. That's right, readers: What was good for everyone in 1932 according to the populist Democrats is bad for them now. Bill Minor won't tell you that in his history lesson columns for people he considers peons, but he's too busy with his crusade against those evil conservatives to bother with Democratic follies.
Who's the constituency for the tax swap? I don't know, but I'm pretty sure it's not located in Mississippi, unless you count the do-gooders in the ivory towers of the editorial offices of the Clarion-Ledger, the Daily Journal and the Attorney General's office. These are the same do-gooders who fell for the DDT scare in the '70s, and believed that banning DDT would improve life "for the children." Of course, thirty years later, there are millions of children dying of malaria in tropical countries without DDT.
But they had the best of intentions. And that's unintentionally funny. Unless, of course, your child dies of malaria.
There's the Chicago Cubs, who, for most of their history have been the loveable losers, getting jinxed by black cats in the on-deck circle or a fan dropping a foul ball that should have put the Cubs in the Series.
There's the decision by ABC to make a sitcom based on the Geico cavemen.
There's David Gergen and Dick Morris. Nothing's more unintentionally funny than their analysis.
The entire network of ESPN has become unintentionally funny. I mean, Rascal Flatts playing during Sportscenter? Spare me. My wish is that you shut those fat Yankees up. Give me the score and some stats.
Of course, most Democrats running for President are unintentionally funny (though they stay busy, inventing this here interweb, talking with a comatose Christopher Reeve, demonstrating their ability to speak different dialects of the English language, having "the audacity to hope"-whatever that means-or studying poverty for fun and profit).
So when I read this morning about the plans of the three Lt. Governor candidates in their choosing of Senate leadership, I got a good little chuckle. The story was in the Picayune Item, a small newspaper to be sure, but thanks to the Magnolia Report (an invaluable aid to this site) I got my morning laugh right after my bowl of Cheerios.
Anyway, back to the story. The humor is in the quotes of Mr. Franks himself. In another story, published in the far more widely-read Clarion Ledger, Mr. Franks promised a set of Senate Committee chairmanships that would "look like Mississippi," meaning black and white, Republican and Democrat. Now, anyone who's ever met Jamie Franks Jr. knows he's the most partisan Democrat this side of the Clintons and Kennedys. We are talking about a man who once remarked to me and several other students, "Republicans only care about people before they're born." I suppose the Democrats only care about you once you see one of their commercials promising big bucks in a lawsuit.
The likelihood of his appointing someone who's a Republican to a chairmanship is slim, but I guess it could be like the Clinton promise of a "cabinet that looks like America." That America, of course, didn't have a single Republican in it, apparently.
Of course, the CL left out one of the more "Huh?" moments of Mr. Franks standard stump. In the Picayune Item, he called out Tommy Robertson of Moss Point for his 'failure' to hike cigarette taxes while decreasing grocery taxes. Now, here's the thing about cigarettes: most of the people who smoke them aren't well-off. Most aren't well-educated. Mr. Franks needs to look no further than one of his own constituencies, Mantachie, where the opposition to a smoking ban led to comments from smokers that "Cigarettes ain't never killed nobody."
Now, here's the second part. The sales tax is the most fair tax in the world. Everyone pays it, nobody gets around it. You can get out of paying income tax (like, for instance, a certain Ketchup heiress). You can't get out of the sales tax unless you're in-between countries, and how many poor folks get a chance to do that? A person on public assistance is more likely to be a smoker. I can't tell you how often I saw, when I was a grocery clerk, a person get angry when they found out beer and cigarettes weren't covered on food stamps. Most people on public assistance don't pay income taxes. The sales tax is fair. This doesn't come from Haley Barbour; this comes from my father, whose politics are a lot closer to Mr. Franks than they are mine.
Of course, there are more people eating than smoking. So what does that mean, dear reader? That's right, decreased revenue! That means we're back in the situation we were in back in 1999, when we went from having a surplus in the last quarter of Fordice to being $29 in debt the next quarter under Musgrove.
I'm glad the Item gave us a chance to discuss the illogic of the 'tax swap,' but let's get back to Tommy Robertson for a minute. Was it Tommy Robertson who gave us a state sales tax? No, it was Gov. Mike Conner, a populist Democrat and one-time ally of Theodore Bilbo, whose populist Democrat credentials need not be listed. That's right, readers: What was good for everyone in 1932 according to the populist Democrats is bad for them now. Bill Minor won't tell you that in his history lesson columns for people he considers peons, but he's too busy with his crusade against those evil conservatives to bother with Democratic follies.
Who's the constituency for the tax swap? I don't know, but I'm pretty sure it's not located in Mississippi, unless you count the do-gooders in the ivory towers of the editorial offices of the Clarion-Ledger, the Daily Journal and the Attorney General's office. These are the same do-gooders who fell for the DDT scare in the '70s, and believed that banning DDT would improve life "for the children." Of course, thirty years later, there are millions of children dying of malaria in tropical countries without DDT.
But they had the best of intentions. And that's unintentionally funny. Unless, of course, your child dies of malaria.
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