Bums in Downtown Memphis

The Memphis Daily News just ran a fine piece on Memphis' panhandler problem.

Eyewitness News is getting in on the public disgust building up against so many panhandlers downtown.

The Memphis Commercial Appeal is on the case too now.

OK, let's do all we can about this problem.

First, we don't need downtown churches making it their mission to feed bums. Feeding bums is legally distinguishable from preaching anybody's gospel. There are health, zoning, and other regulations that could and should be enforced equally on church kitchens.

I bet the fire that destroyed most of that church that burned down recently downtown was caused by some alcoholic and/or psychiatric bum building a fire to keep warm next to the building.

That church should not even be rebuilt. It's a golden opportunity for that church to cash in the value of its real estate, move elsewhere, and let us build more needed space for the criminal justice center and related parking.

Oh my gosh, that church has a female pastor. So what? It's been there for so long. So what?

Now would be a great time for the state to institute eminent domain proceedings to take that property at its current value for truly public use.

Why has our current Sheriff been making noises about building privatized jail space way out east, where Assistant DA's, Assistant Public Defenders, police, and the private bar would have to waste untold amounts of time and gasoline going out to interview clients, when additional space could be built on that burned-out site, and prisoners transported via tunnels or overheads to the courts, instead of running expensive bus service? Mark, Shular, don't try this or I'm gonna raise holy hell with every public official who owes me a favor and/or respects my opinion.

Even now, it's a total pain in the ass to drive all the way to Mason, Tennessee, to see federal arrestees. Why are they being kept so far from the federal district courts in Memphis? I remember hearing some rumor about that arrangement being worked out by our previous alleged congressman, something or other Junior, decade-long beneficiary of a greedy, nepotistic family, and the Corrections Corporation of America, who built the prison in Mason.

Let's pass an amendment to the zoning code to exile bum feeding stations to outskirt locations with no bus service to downtown, the malls, or anywhere. Why should even the venerable Memphis Union Mission be allowed to attract vagrants to downtown? If our governments can use zoning to keep titty bars out of "inappropriate" locations, why not bum feeding and sleeping stations too?

Let's amend the state code to make panhandling a must-arrest misdemeanor and a state offense, so the city doesn't have to pay for panhandlers' incarceration.

Let's put undercover officers on Beale who, once they get hit on, walk away radioing an ID to the squad, who go pick the bum up and put him in nearby holding under a cash bond a bum can't make.

UPDATE: Memphis residents join online forum to fight panhandling.

UPDATE: St. Mary's goes budget-lean to keep doors open in changing times.

Down In Mississippi

Coupla ole budz a mine done this here video a them playin' a J.B. Lenoir song. That'll be Mr. Jim Dickinson playin' a geetar, and Mr. Jimmy Crosthwait tappin' on his anteek washboard and lookin' like one a them slave patrollers (Jimmy likes rifles, don't you there, Jimbo? <wink>).

TennCare Doctor Shoppers Risk Class E Felony

Via the Memphis Daily News:

Legislation punishing people who commit TennCare fraud by "doctor shopping," defined as visiting multiple doctors to obtain several prescriptions for the same or similar medications, often narcotics, has been signed into law.

The state Office of Inspector General (OIG) is mailing about 30,000 letters to doctors, pharmacists and nurses in Tennessee informing them it is now a Class E felony for a person to "willingly go to different providers, with the intent to deceive, in search of a controlled substance prescription without disclosing to the provider they have already received one from another provider within a 30-day period."

The law only applies to patients for whom either the clinic visit or the prescription was paid for by TennCare.

Congress' Inherent Power of Contempt

Via the New York Times:

Congress has another route to enforce its will, an inherent power of contempt. But that has not been used since early in the 20th century. It has long been deemed unwieldy in the modern era as it entails Congress stopping all work to hold its own trial and imprisoning any offenders in the basement of the Capitol.

I really like the sound of this.

Alexander & Corker Vote Again to Stay in Iraq

Go look it up.

The cocksuckers....

Our Cowardly Democratic Leadership

UPDATE: I am updating just one post rather than War Criminal Nancy Pelosi or Use the Power of the Purse, although if you have read those, please do:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved enough new money to wage wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for another year, while abandoning attempts to set deadlines opposed by President George W. Bush for withdrawing American combat troops.

By a vote of 268-155, the House approved the funding for the two wars. Most of the $161.8 billion the Pentagon will get, which is slightly less than Bush requested, will be used to fight in Iraq.

As I've written here before, the Democratic leadership in the Congress is hiding its head in the sand of Iraq, afraid to use the majority party's power to defund the war as the American people told them to in November 2006.

The latest proof is in an article appearing today in the New York Times about the hapless Harry Reid. Here's some of the latest BS about this sad situation:

Mr. Reid has also been hobbled by his fragile majority, reduced to 50-to-49 because of the extended absence of Senator Tim Johnson, the South Dakota Democrat who has been recovering from a brain hemorrhage since December. With most Senate action requiring 60 votes — the tally needed to cut off debate — much of the legislation that House Democrats rushed through in their 100-hour sprint has bogged down across the Rotunda, mired in seemingly endless procedural votes and Republican objections.

On Iraq, Mr. Reid has led a 49-to-50 minority as Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, the Connecticut independent who caucuses with Democrats, has sided with Republicans on that issue.

As a result, when Mr. Bush refused to sign an Iraq war spending bill that included a timetable for withdrawal, Mr. Reid, with his counterpart in the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saw no alternative in May but to back down rather than open Democrats to charges of cutting off money to troops in the field. The outcome left many Democrats disenchanted.

Well, shucks, is it possible the Senate Majority Leader and the Speaker of the House are actually beginning to acknowledge they already have the votes to defund the war? They don't want to admit they have the power already because they're afraid to use it. They care more about re-election fears than implementing the just-expressed will of the American people. That's sick and shameful.

To Hell with both of you! And Steny Hoyer too! That's y'all's picture up there! Pock pock pock pock!

Ophelia

I recently recorded Martin Scorsese's The Last Waltz on my DVR, because I hadn't seen it in so long and my SO had never seen it. The movie features The Band's farewell concert, with several guest artists, and interviews with Band members. After a Garth Hudson interview, the camera goes back to the concert stage and Levon Helm launches into a song, "Ophelia", that now seems especially meaningful to Memphians.



C
Boards on the window
E7
Mail by the door
A7 D7
Why would anybody leave so quickly for?
F
Ophelia
G7 C A7 D7 G7
Where have you gone?
C
The old neighborhood
E7
Just ain't the same
A7 D7
Nobody knows just what became of
F
Ophelia
G7 C
Where have you gone?
F C
Was it somethin' that somebody said?
G7 C
Mama, you know we broke the rules
F C
Was somebody up against the law?
G7
Honey, you know that I'd die for you
C
Ain't got your number
E7
They're scared and runnin'
A7 D7
But I'm just waitin' for the second comin'
F
Of Ophelia
G7 C
Please darken my door
G7 C A7 D7 G7
F C
Was it something that somebody said?
G7 C
Mama, you know we broke the rules
F C
Was somebody up against the law?
G7
Honey, you know that I'd die for you
C
Ashes of laughter
E7
The coast is clear
A7 D7
Why do the best things always disappear?
F
Like Ophelia
G7 C
Please come back home

UPDATE: Ophelia Ford Faces TennCare Investigation

Tri-State Defender's New Executive Editor

Memphis' Tri-State Defender has a new Executive Editor, Dr. Karanja Ajanaku.

“Dr. Ajanaku is familiar with the Greater Metro Memphis news arena. After receiving a bachelor’s of journalism degree from the University of Missouri, he worked twenty-six and one-half years for The Commercial Appeal newspaper. During his tenure there, he held a variety of reporting assignments, including city, county, suburban, state and federal government beats; “minority” affairs; neighbors; and education. In 1991, Dr. Ajanaku began the management phase of his career as the night metro desk editor. He transitioned through a series of deputy metro desk editor assignments with supervision over the reporting beats he once covered, in addition to health and medicine, environment and religion. On Christmas night 2003, he concluded his association with the newspaper as the night news editor, with direct supervision over the copy desk and the authority to sign off on the product that showed up at homes and businesses each morning.

Many first became familiar with Dr. Ajanaku as Leroy Williams Jr. He changed his name in 1986 as part of a journey of self-discovery. Karanja means guide; Aidoo is one who puts things in order, sets things in place; and Ajanaku means free and wealthy people.

Click here for the rest of the paper's introduction and here for Dr. Ajanaku's "Why am I here?"