Mike Moore Won't Run

The Godfather Mike Moore has decided not to run for the US Senate in the next election. Count me as one who's not surprised.

Moore could have easily had the nomination for governor in 2007, but chose to allow John Eaves-or John Arthur Eaves, or JA Eaves, or John Arthur Eaves Jr or John Eaves Jr or John Arthur or Skippy the Wonder Dog whatever he decided to call himself during the campaign-to self-fund a campaign that managed to garner 41% of the vote. He could have run in 2008 to replace the retiring Senator Lott, but he's chosen not to.

Now, some could interpret this as a sign he's waiting out the Scruggs fiasco (after all, having your buddies and major source of campaign funds potentially staying in the county jail while you're running can't be good), but here's something that people might miss.

Mike Moore would have to run against an incumbent-though not Senator Lott-in a Senate race in 2008. And he's not going to chance that perfect Mike Moore record against an incumbent. That makes him next years candidate-and it always will. It keeps Mike Moore in the public eye, and lets him continue to be a power broker, even though he's not running. He gets to continue to have lucrative work thrown his way-thanks, MCI-and all the right people flatter him.

That's not to say he won't run again. The governor's mansion will be open in 2011, and Thad Cochran can't stay in Washington forever. But why hurry and jump into a race where he has a greater chance at losing? After all, there's no money in that.

Arts and Crafts Time!

In the spirit of times past, here's a montage of images dedicated to our heroes, Dickie, Mikey, and Jimmy.



Confidence-when you've got it (and $40,000 for a circuit judge) it shows.



It's Haley's fault, it's Haley's fault, honest to gosh it's Haley's fault!



The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come?



What, Me Worry? Not on the Day of My Daughter's Wedding...

These Boots are Made for Quaking

So, does anyone out there believe that Attorney General and State Rube Samson is sweating bullets from underneath the Conway Twitty special he's got going on?

No wonder the FBI keeps him out of the loop on investigations, as Sid Salter intimated on his blog during the campaign (Sorry Sid-I can't find your blog on that Labyrinth you guys call a website)-his buddies were all about to get popped by the Feds. In all honesty, this has got to torpedo so many of Samson and the Godfather Mike Moore's plans in the coming years. Heck, it cuts into their campaign finances significantly. It's gonna make those Friday night poker games a lot lonelier, and the pot's gonna get a whole lot smaller.

Somewhere, all those people who've been squashed by Dickie and Joey and their buddies, who've lost a job because of their orgy of lawsuits, who've had their names drug through the mud in the press, who've been pushed and intimidated, are sitting back, cracking open a cold beer, and enjoying life just a little bit more.

Into Davy Hampton's Locker

So today, after reading David Hampton's blog, I have learned something.

Hampton expressed disbelief that Dickie Scruggs, Democratic financier extraordinaire, would attempt to bribe a judge simply to make a little more money. I guess Dave's not a Simpsons fan. As Monty Burns once said, summing up greed in a nutshell: "I'd trade it all for just a little bit more."

But on to the lesson. When a Republican makes money, he is doing it out of sheer greed. The motive, as Gordon Gecko would say, is greed, because greed is good. If a Republican or Republican donor makes money, he makes it simply because he has an insatiable lust for gold-no matter how many people get stepped on in the process.

But if a Democrat or their donor makes money, they're only doing it to help the poor and downtrodden, a la Dickie Scruggs. Making half a billion dollars and putting who knows how many people out of work? All for the greater good. Maybe we should all try to save the world for fun and proft.

Paging Matthew McConaughey

Does anyone remember the scene in A Time to Kill where the state psychiatrist is on the stand and testifying that Carl Lee did not have a break from reality and is criminally liable for killing the two guys who raped his daughter? And the paralegal comes in with information about the psychiatrist testifying in cases, and how he's holding a man in Whitfield who has been judged criminally insane despite his own diagnosis that the man is perfectly sane?

That's kind of the situation Mr. Franks finds himself in today. First, his clients didn't possess or use drugs. Then it turns out they pled guilty to the charges!

Much like Jake Brigance, I begin to wonder: Were they guilty, or did they just have a bad lawyer?

The Unintentional Comedy of Jim Hood's Ads

The latest Jim Hood ad is really funny to me. I mean, how funny is it that a guy responsible for throwing a school teacher in jail is talking about how safe he's made schools? Seems to me that a safe school has all its teachers, not just the ones that happen to have not run against your buddies.

That's a load of hooey, by the way-school safety is an administrative issue, not an AG issue. You can pass all the laws and do all the training you want, but if a kid gets caught with a marijuana seed and the school district only gives a kid 9 days out to set a precedent, and then catches a kid with a dime bag and has to give him the same (mostly due to the first kids' last name, naturally) it doesn't matter how trained you are.

It doesn't matter how much training you do-if the administration lacks the guts to kick a kid out or send them to the alternative school, discipline will be an issue. And yes, that includes "automatic" punishments-that can be put to the side if an administrator wants to. Naturally, this goes back to lawsuits, and the fear schools have of them. But hey, trial lawyers are just out there to help us all. They risk so much for the good of all of us.

Hampton, On the AG

David Hampton in his blog today basically tipped the hand of the CL editorial board on the AG's race. If he cheered any harder for Samson, we'd have to UPS him a megaphone. Of course he asked Samson about his pay for play, I mean, fee arrangements with outside counsel, and bit on the 'oh, it's so hard out there for a lawsuit pimp' line that Samson has been feeding editorial boards and opinion writers for weeks now. Yeah, those huge houses and nice cars and trophy wives don't come cheap. I guess working for the state is the new sugar daddy now that tort reform has been passed.

I wonder, though, did he ask him about why he never looked into Ike Brown's shenanigans? About why the killers/kidnappers of two young women in the Tupelo area have never been found or prosecuted, despite 15 and 10 years passing (I can answer that question, and it has a lot to do with Hood's future ambitions to move from one executive branch office to another as to why certain old murders are prosecuted, and others are not)? Was there a question in there regarding the statement that he didn't know if a federal judges' ruling applies in Mississippi? About the Ethics breach earlier in the year? About why he was so out of the loop with the Feds in the Beef Plant investigation, and about why he admitted knowing wrongdoing was going on in Benton County's elections while District Attorney yet doing nothing? About why Shannon Police Chief Bobby Spencer's murder remains unsolved a decade after the fact (I've got a theory or two on that one, as well)? How about the rumors of upcoming indictments of candidates unfriendly to his agenda?

Do I even need to mention the fact that he prosecuted a schoolteacher for campaign finance fraud, yet gave 91 members of the state legislature passes for what amounts to a paperwork mistake? About the state resources that were spent to recoup a $300 civil fine and an amended 24 hour finance report?

Tell me you asked those questions, Dave. Tell me you did. 'Cause otherwise you weren't doing your job.

Who's Paying (October 10 Edition)

Some contributions of interest to the Franks campaign, courtesy of the Secretary of State's office...

Percy Watson 1000
IBEW Washington DC 10,000
Steve Holland 200
Ray Mabus 300
Jackson Chemical Supplies Laplace, LA 1000
MS UAW PAC Baltimore MD 500
IBEW Local 903 10000
MAE 10000
Ike Spears Atty 5000
OPEIU 3000
Ironworkers PAC Washington DC 5000
UA PAF Washington DC 5000
South Carpenters Regional Council Irondale, AL 5000
Coalition for the Preservation of Rural Lifestyles (?) 1000
Wyeth Good Government Fund Madison NJ 500
IBEW Education Cmte Washington DC 5000
Douglas Horne Knoxville, TN 2000
Rudy Warnock, Attorney (wait, I thought this guy was an engineer?) 1000
CWA District 3 PAC Decatur, GA 1000
Plum Creek Columbia Falls, MT 1000
Harrah's Operating Company Memphis, TN 1000 (Amazing-he gets his values from his little church in Tupelo, yet he takes money from groups they oppose-like gaming!)
Lee Memorial Funeral Home (if you don't know, that's Steve Holland's business) 500
MMHA PAC 1000
MMHA VPAC 1000
Steve Patterson 6000
Mississippi Health Care PAC 5000
Ronnie Shows 500

Total Cash on Hand 595,941
Contributions this cycle 536, 296
Disbursements " " 543,010

Once again, so many House Dems on the list, so few Senate Dems. Also, looking through Phil Bryant's donors, one thing keeps jumping out at me: How many contributions he got from Mantachie, Fulton, Iuka, Tupelo...you know, the part of the world that Mr. Franks represented for the last twelve years, and several prominent Senators. They're voting with their pocketbooks, obviously.

http://www.sos.state.ms.us/PDF-Out/000000052389.pdf

451 LFU Where Are You?

Update: Tupelo, MS

It seems that at least one video has surfaced of a campaign sign theft in Tupelo. The video shows a man in a black car, plate #451 LFU (how apropos!) stealing a Haley Barbour sign at a stop sign and knocking over an Everett Dustchke (the opponent of Steve Holland of the Holland Dynasty) sign. He then drives to the Shelton Law Firm offices in downtown Tupelo and puts the sign in his trunk.

The video is available on YouTube, under the heading "Do You Know This Sign Thief," and the Daily Journal has video on its 'Behind the News' section online. We here at the Tank have heard rumblings that there may be more than one video and that there are other prominent folks depicted therein.

Excellent job Leesha Faulkner of uncovering this and putting it out there for all to see.

My take: I've said on here for a long time there are numerous sign-burning parties in Lee County. Someone just finally provided video evidence of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8c8l-dsKoM

Spiking the Case Files? Brilliant.

So what is it with the righteous indignation and 1890s populist rhetoric and the hellfire and brimstone amongst the Democratically inclined?

http://www.legalnewsline.com/blogs/942-things-never-boring-with-jim-hood-around

I Weep for the Trial Lawyers

Seriously. After reading Bobby Harrison's Daily Journal article, I am crying over the plight of the civil litigant. How dare those evil Republicans stop these hard-working men from doing their jobs? Don't they know how hard it is to make house payments in Oxford, with the real estate market like it is? Don't they know that Buffy is struggling getting the kids to soccer practice in her Escalade while making her rounds to the gym and the spa? Isn't it hard enough to pay for a private jet while also making payments on the former coaches' buyout? And don't get me started on the cost of advertising-those ads on the back of phone books and on the TV don't come cheap.

A Lesson in Government

It seems that our esteemed Attorney General and State Rube Samson doesn't understand the system of checks and balances set up in both the US Constitution and the Mississippi Constitution. So, free of charge, I'm providing this lesson for him. I promise, nobody's going to pay me $14 million for helping, fellow travellers. See, we have three branches of government, Samson. The Executive Branch (that's you, oh folicled one) is charged with enforcing the law. In Mississippi, we have an attorney general that's elected to enforce the law. The second is the legislative branch, which is supposed to write the law that the executive branch enforces. The executive branch's head in Mississippi is weak on purpose; his proclamation power is necessarily weak. The legislative branch holds the power of the purse strings, allocating money as it sees fit (and, admittedly, sometimes it's discretion is a little...um...off-kilter). The last branch is the judicial branch. Their job is to interpret the law and determine punishment when its broken. In a vestige of Jacksonian democracy (that's the guy the city is named for, not the city itself) here in Mississippi almost all of our judges are elected. But here's Samson's problem: He wants to be in all three branches at once. See, he's already charged with enforcing the law. But that's not enough for the State Rube (who doesn't know if federal law or rulings of a federal judges applies in our fair state. Um, check the US Constitution's Supremacy Clause for that one). But, Samson wants to be in the Judicial branch too, as you can tell by his constant issuing of "Attorney General's Opinions," in which he and his predecessor sought to interpret the law in the stead of a judge. Admittedly, this is within his job as the state's lawyer-though neither he nor his predecessor sought so much responsibility in this function of the office when it didn't suit them. Lastly, he's taken upon himself to award monies that are rightfully the state's to third parties, such as The Partnership for a Healthy Mike Moore. That, as we've already seen, is the purview of the Legislative branch. You know, for someone who supposedly knows the law, Samson sure doesn't seem to understand how our system works. Especially the parts about checks and balances and separation of powers. But hey-he does have lots of hair, and the Daily Journal sure likes him a lot. I guess that makes up for messing up cliches. But remember, Jimmy, if you didn't have a D by your name, Marty Russell would make fun of your intelligence.

Claim of the Day, September 29-30, 2007

"I don't care if my name is on the paperwork, I don't know anything about suing Itawamba County schools."

Just saw Samson's new commercial

And, speaking as someone who wasn't very good in shop class, I can safely say that it's not a good idea to try to weld without your mask on. But you're an experienced craftsman, not me-I'm sure you know better.

I noticed a couple of claims missing, though: "I hand out money to campaign contributors. I work to keep my supporters out of jail. I don't know if federal judges can rule on Mississippi law. I do most of my work in election years. I prosecute schoolteachers."

I Guess He Got Someone Smarter to Do It This Time

I disagree with your assessment, REDACTED. “The first refuge of the truly scared” is to bury your head in the sand and hope no one recognizes your ass. But I’m not scared, and I hate to bust your bubble of fun, but I am not trying to scare you either. I just want openness and fairness.

Sure, that's why phone numbers were posted in the reply. I suppose posting someones personal line and work phone and asking people to call it isn't harassment. I've never asked anyone to harass anyone else. I've just asked that a closer look be taken at a man's record. I've also never taken a shot at him he didn't deserve, or was blatantly false-like calling someone a homosexual, for instance, oh, master of logic.

This site has never, and will never, be about me. It is about Jamie Franks, though.

You know, REDACTED, there is an old saying where I come from: “if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.”

Seems like I've struck a nerve.

We say some things where I'm from, too. You can't always get what you want. America, love it or leave it. He's dead, Jim. Take a picture, it'll last longer. Stop and smell the roses. Help is on the way. All that, and a bag of chips. Hold your horses.

You are a walking contradiction, REDACTED. You cower behind a blog and use it as vehicle to—most often baselessly—attack folks and call them out because of some obvious personal vendetta, yet your immediate reaction to any attempt to hold you to even the most basic level of accountability is to hide the facts.

Once again, when it becomes about me, I'll give you a call. Oh, wait, you didn't post your phone number, tax returns, blood type, stool sample, and hair color! Hypocrisy! Hypocrisy!

Why the double standard, REDACTED? You are upset that Mr. Franks is not subjected to enough scrutiny; yet merely subjecting you to having your own name called is suddenly an “attack” worthy of denouncement!

Because I'm not, and ain't never gonna be, runnin' for office. By the way, the whole 'you're so flamingly gay and obsessed' thing? That's an attack.

You claim to be providing a public service, enlightening your readers to the alleged flaws and debasements of a political figure, yet the hypocrisy inherent in your utter cowardice when asked to account for your own identity, let alone whatever might be wrong with it, robs your argument and position of even a modicum of speciousness, given your refusal to stand behind the claims you make.

If there's something I've said that's not true, let me know. I'll be waiting, just like Osama is on that court summons. Once more, Socrates, If I've said something untrue, feel free to point it out.

You know, REDACTED, if you cannot find within yourself the intestinal fortitude to lend your name to what you say, then why should anyone attribute any credibility to your words? If you’re so ashamed of the man you’ve become that you can’t even handle signing your work, a skill that even most kindergarteners seem to have mastered, then clearly your problems extend far beyond any threat I could make.

Ashamed? Wow. Most people who've known me most of my life are proud of me. Heck, most people who know me actually like me without having the motive of sucking at the power teet. I can't say that about everyone. Another strategy of the desperate: Attacking the messenger.

To the fine readers of this blog: all I am asking is for REDACTED to face the music, as he so often calls on Mr. Franks to do. Please do me a favor and call him up on his cell phone (REDACTED) or at REDACTED (REDACTED), call up REDACTED and ask him, for the sake of openness and fairness, to not delete my post this time.

So typical. Pressure someone who won't give you what you want into doing it with threats and intimidation. I'm sure everyone who will call that number will be so nice and civil that it'll make your stomach churn. You can dress it up in as many big words as you want, but it's still the same thing.

Just Missed Him

Too bad-I hear Sheriff Franks was close to finally serving those papers on Osama bin Laden when he was making his latest tape.

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.

Hiding Behind VPAC

I knew I smelled a rat last week when Jamie Franks Jr claimed that he wouldn't seek to roll back Tort Reform. He won't have to, of course. It'll be taken care of for him by VPAC candidates. All he'll have to do is swing the gavel and shrug his shoulders. VPAC is the organization formed by Speaker Billy McCoy to ensure Democrat majorities in both houses. And not just any Democrat, mind you; the real loyal kind that will make sure the interests of the party and its backers are supported in the legislature (remember, one James R. Franks is a member of the state Dem Executive Committee, the group that authorized a lawsuit to close primaries). The kind that just might, say...try to overturn Tort Reform, since many of their candidates are going to want to return to the good old days when a small business could be shut down thanks to the hard-working heroic Champions of the Little Man who advertise on billboards and the backs of phone books. It's a great cover for Mr. Franks. Just remember, folks, when he says that he won't seek to roll back Tort Reform, he's still a lawyer mincing words and trying to define what 'is' is. And he won't lift a finger. All those 'talented' people that he's going to find in the Senate (who'll probably all manage to have a JD behind their names) will make sure he comes off smelling like a rose...just in time to ride into the Governor's mansion in 2012. (Hey, there's another good thing about John Arthur Eaves, isn't it, Mr. Franks? He's a weak enough candidate that the governor's mansion will be unoccupied in the 2011 race in case you win this time around. Mighty convienient-just like the story of Ronnie Musgrove's toe sucking fetish hitting the papers right before the filing deadline).

Champions of the Little Man

There's nothing like being the Champion of the Little Man. When you declare yourself that, you're fighting the uphill climb against the big businessman, the fat cat, the corporation, the Man, who's (probably) Republican. The media will love you, you'll be cheered by the masses.

That is, until you start suing the little man. Then, he's probably not real glad you're 'championing' him anymore. Just ask small businessman Jerry Wilburn, who is being sued by the state right now over price gouging at his gas stations throughout Itawamba and Lee counties. Yes, that's right: It's not Chevron or Citgo or BP or ExxonMobil that's being sued by our state; it's a small time operation. No bad press to be gotten out of this one, because the press filed it and forgot about it.

I guess he got the idea from our representative, Jamie Franks Jr, who has in the past sued the Mooreville One Stop, a small convienience store located a stone's throw from his house. Yes, that's right: The Champion of the Little Man hit up his own neighbor in a lawsuit. I guess they're equal opportunity ambulance chasers, our rep and our AG: Wilburn owns a store that operates within a mile and a half of the Mooreville One Stop. It's amazing that you can go to Mooreville, home of one James R. Franks Jr, and one of the more prominent businesses has signs for dang near every candidate running in its lawn, both locally and statewide, except for Mr. Franks.

Seven miles, Daily Journal Staff. Seven miles to Mooreville from your office. You can go and be back before the lunch hour is over. Me, Jerry and Imarie are waiting on you. But, we won't hold our breath.

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.