Jackblog

Subscribe

clear your halls

The election is over. After weeks and months of partisan politics, it seems like a good time for a fresh start. And what better way to clear the decks than to wage a full-on purge war in your attic, garage, dresser drawers and kitchen cabinets?

Barbour Last-Minute Robocall for Votes

Regardless of the outcome today, it looks like Haley Barbour is worried. Just got this e-mail from a source:

Wake Up Jackson's Latest Endeavor: Public Comments at City Council Meetings

(Also posted here.)

Clarion-Ledger Endorses Front-Page Advertiser

On Sunday, The Clarion-Ledger endorsed Gov. Haley Barbour for governor (and his sure-to-be lapdog Phil Bryant, thus ensuring Barbour control of the Senate)—in the same issue that had one of those sticky ad stuck on top of the newspaper's flag on page 1. This violates years of accepted journalistic ethics that you don't put advertising on page 1 of a newspaper (sliding profits have a way of affecting ethical standards, however)—and especially not of a candidate that you then endorse inside! Then, inside, Perspective Editor Sid Salter tells us who's going to win Tuesday—Barbour and Bryant, of course—in an odd column that doesn't frame his column as guesses; nor does he say who he wants to win and why. Is he privy to polls he's not telling us about? Does he know something we don't? Why is he so confident? Salter:

JSU 2007 Homecoming Parade In Pictures

I meant to share these the day of the parade, which was October 27, but due to procrastination, I'm just now finishing up the online photo album. Here are some of the pictures I took:

GOP Rhetoric About Hood ‘Corruption' Reprehensible

Todd and I made the mistake of watching the evening news last night. The attack ads were just plain horrifying. The one that disgusted me the most was Al and Haley's ad about Hood being "corrupt." This is such a twisting of the truth, as we've reported repeatedly, that those two men ought to be run out of this state for telling such vicious lies and slandering another human being. Haley and the GOP machine will. stop. at. nothing. The Clarion-Ledger, amazingly, is seeing through the ruse (although they did everything they could to help this machine get its power in the past). In their endorsement of Hood today, they write:

How ‘Bout This Bizarro Framing by Sid Salter?

In an extremely odd column this week, Sid Salter sets up a false strawman (broom?) and then knocks it down himself, kind of. He starts by asking: "The broom: Can state GOP sweep election?" He then tells us that the GOP isn't saying they are going to, but they must be hoping to. Then he tells us why/how it's not going to happen. Then he ends with:

The (Il)logic of ‘Illegal'

After reading my column this week, "La Nueva Estrategia del Sur," check out Lawrence Downes' hilarious and poignant column in The New York Times: "What Part of 'Illegal' Don't You Understand?"

won't you be my neighbor?

Here are some DIY ideas for improving Jackson one person, one neighborhood at a time.

As we are thinking about the upcoming elections and the changes we want to see in our city, state and world, I think that we should follow Gandhi's famous advice (and my favorite quote): "You must be the change you want to see in the world." This may not be a tangible DIY project, but it is both fun and important.

Eaves Launches Anti-Barbour Web site

The John Arthur Eaves campaign just e-mailed a link to a new Web site devoted to giving what they call the real story on Haley Barbour's record. The site opens with the following:

Meet ‘Culture,' Clarion-Ledger Style

Just clicked into The Clarion-Ledger's new "culture" blog. This is what I found as the top post, I sh!t you not:

Johnny Cash Flower-Pickin Festival Nov. 2-4

I'm a big fan of the Man In Black, and so I am happy to report that something cool is happening in Starkville this weekend. The Johnny Cash Flower-Pickin Festival is put on by the Pardon Johnny Cash Project and celebrates his life and the music he made and inspired. "Pardon Johnny Cash" refers to a night Cash spent in the Starkville jail for public drunkenness in 1965. The group wishes to have a posthumous pardon given by the city of Starkville. According to the group's website, "The pardon doesn't suggest anyone condoned Cash's behavior. It symbolically recognizes Cash an imperfect human who made mistakes but gained insight and wisdom by learning from his indiscretions."

John Lawrence on Radio JFP at Noon Friday

better than lincoln logs

Welcome to FlyBlog, home of the hip and handy, the fun and funky.

My interest in carpentry and building probably began in the womb, since my father is the ultimate handyman. When I was growing up, he helped me design, construct and build beds for my American Girl Dolls. But it wasn't until my senior year of high school, when I won my own toolkit in a raffle, that I was ready to try constructing things on my own. Most of what I do these days is probably what most of us do: nailing picture hangers into the wall, drilling holes, screwing towel rods onto the bathroom door. But small home maintenance projects do not fulfill my secret desire to build my own house. I wasn't sure that my skills would ever be up to such an ambitious project, especially since there are some basic tools that I am afraid to use. That was before I heard about cob. The basic concept of building with cob is molding a mixture of dirt, water and straw into a house or other building. This is a gross oversimplification, I'm sure, but it still doesn't sound too hard. One of the coolest things about cob buildings, besides their environmental friendliness, is that they do not have to have right angles. Check out the ultimate hobbit-style

U.S. House Probing Diaz, Minor Prosecutions

The idea that the prosecutions of Justice Oliver Diaz and attorney Paul Minor may have been politically motivated by a George Bush administration is gathering steam in the nation's capitol, in the aftermath of other similar allegations about Bush's Justice Department. The Clarion-Ledger's Washington Bureau is reporting:

Blogs