I'm headed out the door, but wanted to bring to attention that The New York Times is reporting that in light of the sermons that have been preached there, Barak Obama has resigned his membership in Trinity United Church of Christ.

More to come, I'm sure.

Editor Update, NYT Link

UPDATE: Roundup of Tennessee blogger reaction at TennViews.

The DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee has heard arguments all day re. Florida and Michigan. They have just reconvened, and are ready to consider the motions.

Developing...

UPDATE: RBC votes to seat all Florida delegates, but give them one half vote. Now hearing motions on Michigan.

UPDATE: Getting ready to vote on the Michigan motion that would take delegates away from Clinton and give them to Obama, and assign the "uncommitted" delegates to Obama. Ickes is furious, says they are "hijacking" the process. I don't blame him, and I'd say the same thing if the candidates were reversed. Ickes just said they will take it to the credentials committee. Guess they learned their lesson from Bush v. Gore in 2000.

UPDATE: Michigan motion passes. Pledged delegates will be seated with 1/2 vote, but delegates are apportioned, 34.5 Clinton, 29.5 Obama. Pandemonium ensues.

So there you go. FL and MI are settled, almost as we predicted earlier in the week. On to Puerto Rico, South Dakota, and Montana.

COMMENT: What I watched of the process was open and fair to both sides in terms of hearing arguments. The Michigan decision, though, was bullshit. I don't see how this committee can take delegates away from Clinton and give them to Obama with a straight face. And I'd say that if the candidate's positions were reversed. Regardless, it doesn't matter as the delegate math stands today. Obama is the nominee. The superdelegates will decide it next Wednesday. But you haven't heard the last of the Michigan Motion.

UPDATE:

TIME

The committee also voted to seat Michigan's full 157-member delegation, each with half-a-vote. But because Obama had (along with John Edwards) taken himself off the ballot, figuring out how to apportion the delegates was much trickier. Following a plan endorsed by the Michigan Democratic Party, the committee voted to allot Clinton, who won 55% of the vote, 69 delegates, and Obama, who most believed was the overwhelming choice of the 40% of Michigan primary voters who chose "uncommitted", 59. If the delegates had been meted out based strictly on the actual vote Clinton should've gotten 73 delegates, and her supporters claimed, Obama should have gotten no delegates, at least until the convention when the uncommitted could state their preference.

Boston Globe

Mark Brewer, chairman of Michigan's Democratic Party, told the panel the best solution was a compromise, based on an assessment of exit polling and other data. Brewer said Obama was entitled to 59 pledged delegates to Clinton's 69, "a far fairer reflection of the Democratic preferences in Michigan."

Philadelphia Inquirer

"I am stunned that we have the gall and chutzpah to substitute our judgment for 600,000 voters," Ickes said of the decision on Michigan, which grants four fewer delegates than the Clinton campaign would have received under her proposal. "I submit to you that hijacking four delegates... notwithstanding the flawed election, is not a good way to start down the path to party unity."

This butterfly appears to have a clipped wing. The break at the base of the left hindwing looks too straight to have happened naturally. It cuts at least four veins cleanly, right in a line.

Literally. Today's KNS has the sad tale of a local investment manger who was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to repay $8 million after being convicted of investor fraud.

His first mistake: shorting Google. His worse mistake: trying to cover it up.

I never understood the point of shorting a stock. The downside is virtually unlimited and the upside is limited to essentially the value of the shares you sell, which is exactly the opposite of a long position and a lot more dangerous.

I'm sure somebody understands it and can make money on it. Not me. Which is why I no longer dabble much in the stock market.

And not just any market. This could kill downtown Knoxville.

• With the changes in the news business, will succeeding generations experience what H.L. Mencken did as a newspaper reporter at the turn of the previous century?

In all of the events of H.L. Mencken's eventful life, nothing matched his days as a young newspaper reporter (circa 1899):

Across the Universe (****): Rent, download (legally, of course), or go see this romantic musical right away. Especially if you like the Beatles, and especially if you are old enough to remember listening to them on the radio. (Note, it's not about the Beatles, but there are amazing covers by some amazing talent and interesting interpretations of their songs to tell the story, which is thin but the music more than makes up for it.) Watch for some cool cameos, too.

Walk Hard (1/2*): Possibly one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Memo to screenwriters: if you have to explain every joke they probably aren't funny. I guess youngsters who like the "new" SNL comedy will get this. I didn't. One-half star for some pretty good musical performances.

Now it's getting serious.

Space Shuttle Discovery STS-124 is scheduled to launch today at 5:02 PM EDT. They are on loading fuel as I type. Here's the latest update from NASA:

The loading of space shuttle Discovery's external tank with 500,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen began at 7:38 a.m. EDT, and the "topping off" of the tank's propellants will continue until launch time. All systems onboard Discovery are functioning normally.

The weather is looking promising for launch day, according to Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters. Isolated coastal showers may be in the area during the morning hours, but a sea breeze will develop in the afternoon, clearing the coast and causing any showers to move inland. There is an 80 percent chance of favorable weather at launch time.

This mission will carry the largest payload so far to the station and includes three spacewalks. It is the second of three missions that will launch components to complete the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo ["Hope"] laboratory. The crew will install Kibo's large Japanese Pressurized Module and Kibo's robotic arm system. Discovery also will deliver new station crew member Greg Chamitoff and bring back Flight Engineer Garrett Reisman, who will end a three-month stay aboard the outpost.

Perhaps the most important task, however, is a plumbing job to fix the toilet on the International Space Station. (Someone will presumably check their union cards before boarding.)

In other space related news, the Phoenix Mars Lander made a successful and spectacular landing Sunday and is sending back some amazing images of the Arctic Plain of Mars.

Blog coverage from earlier in the week:

Steve at WhitesCreek: Way to go, Scientists and Engineers, and their teachers back in 5th grade who showed them how to make a battery out of a potato...

Russ McBee: I'm frankly astounded at the technical skill necessary to make a landing mission like this work at all, but I'm left speechless and awestruck by the fact that NASA's engineers could direct a satellite, orbiting a planet millions of miles away, to capture a fleeting image of a second craft traveling thousands of miles an hour through its field of vision.

(All photos courtesy of NASA)

UPDATE: Mission underway after a perfect launch at 5:02, right on time. Nine minutes later Shuttle Discovery is in orbit, chasing down the International Space Station for rendezvous on Monday.

The Knoxville Museum of Art new photography exhibition, Women of a New Tribe features 14 local women photographed by artist Jerry Taliaferro in the Community Gallery now through July 6. Visit the KMA page on Art Museum Touring.com (Link...).

Jerry Taliaferro
Two Links of a Long Chain, 2004,
photo of Juanita and Kimberly Cannon

Women of a New Tribe is a striking photography exhibition honoring African-American women, their strength, beauty, and their role in American culture. In 2004, sixteen women from Knoxville and the surrounding area were selected from community nominations and photographed by artist Jerry Taliaferro to join the Women of a New Tribe. This exhibition organized by the Literacy Imperative features fourteen of these portraits. The Literacy Imperative is not just a place for books, but also includes visual literacy. In addition to promoting literacy for underserved communities, they also promote seeing the world from different perspectives so that all may appreciate it in a new way.

Check out the Events page (Link...) to see the dates and times for KMA's upcoming "Paint Out".

Support your local galleries and museums! They are economic engines for your community.

Sherrie

Wow. I can't believe that WNOX and Hallerin Hill would allow unsubstantiated crap like that on the air. Google it up for yourself. I'm sure it will be all over the wingnut websites by tomorrow morning. Anything for a buck, I guess.

Not sure it makes a compelling case, but it's worth a try. (By way of the Blab.)

Personally, I was able to tolerate Sex and the City on HBO. OK, sometimes I actually looked forward to it. OK, I actually liked it, OK? I mean, it wasn't The Sopranos, but sometimes you need to cleanse your pallet of the brains splattered all over the inside of luxury SUVs.

And the cast, well, they're all pretty hot.

Anyway, my "out" is that I have watched enough Law and Order and Trading Spaces reruns to last a lifetime, or at least enough to get me out of this one movie. Or failing that, I should at least get to rent the new Rambo movie as reasonable compensation.

(And who's this "Big" fellow? He certainly has the women all atwitter. I realize I should know, having been forced to watch watched nearly every episode. I presume his nickname has to do with the size of his bank account?)

Spotted this suburban predator on the roof of the house across the street yesterday evening. There was a mockingbird on our roof raising hell at him/her, and sparrows were dive bombing him/her. (S)he seemed mostly unconcerned, preening and ruffling his/her feathers and looking around. (S)he finally got bored or annoyed or both and flew away.

Our best guess is an immature Sharp-shinned Hawk. Larger version and some more photos that might help with the ID after the jump.

Katie at Knoxville Talks has news about a federal judge's ruling that bans promoting religious activities at school, and wonders if this will affect Knox County Schools policy regarding similar activities such as the recent Franklin Graham Crusade promotion.

Gideon Barnett
From his Pile series

The ETSU Slocumb Galleries is pleased to present Thinking Big, two solo photography shows by Gideon Barnett and Erik Schubert from June 2 to June 27, 2008, reception on Monday, June 23. (Link...) The galleries are located in Ball Hall on East Tennessee State University's main campus. Visit the Slocumb page on Art Museum Touring.com (Link...).

Gideon Barnett, a Tennessee native currently pursuing his MFA at University of California at Riverside, is displaying work from his Pile series. Erik Schubert, currently living in Boston Massachusetts, is interested in how our business-centered society shapes our visual world. His body of work, How to Win Friends and Influence People, takes its title from the classic book by Dale Carnegie, which was a resource in his childhood home's reading collection.

Support your local galleries and museums! They are economic engines for your community.

Sherrie

There is a bill in the US Senate right now that deserves our support. Senate Bill 594, the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act, currently has twenty-one sponsors in the Senate. This bill would ban the use of cluster bombs, which injure thousands of innocent people each year. Unfortunately the Pentagon and Department of Defense officials have fought the effort to outlaw these weapons. Their reasoning is difficult to understand given the sobering reality that almost thirty percent of the bomblets released in each bomb fail to explode initially, leaving a deadly legacy for future generations of children to discover. The Middle East is filled with children who have lost arms and legs to unexploded cluster bombs. This is not the legacy of freedom and democracy we wish to leave the people of Iraq.

Maybe it's just me, but if you've got video of a "living, breathing space alien," wouldn't it better to turn it over to the Pentagon or at least NASA instead of your local city council?

UPDATE: The much anticipated video has been released, and NewsComa has it.

Have any of you noticed that the minutes for several government bodies are not posted on their websites for weeks (sometimes months) after the meetings occured.

Do you think that the minutes should be posted as soon as the are written and marked DRAFT until they are officially approved?

What are the downsides and upsides of doing this?

It is not always easy to watch the meetings on TV, especially when they last past my bedtime!!

If you agree, please help me encourage the county commission, school board, TOF (if you live there) and other boards that post minutes.

Thanks.

Pamela Treacy

This first appeared on my blog at Link...

On Wednesday, June 11, at 8:30 a.m. Commission will interview all the applicants who applied for grant monies for 10 minutes. They will then decide who will get funded and what amounts they will receive. Panel members cannot be a part of the interview process, but they will be given time at the end if they want to speak. Thus the citizen's review panels work seems to have been done in vain. Though I saw some problems with the citizen's review process, I'm a little confused about how the commissioners will be able to achieve a better conclusion if they use the same system the panels used. If the grants are given to people they know personally or to organizations with the most political clout, this may not be much of an improvement over the original way funding was decided.

Mike Hammond is standing behind the panel decisions. He said," I will ask that when hearings are held June 11th that the committee chairs be allowed to present their recommendations and the reasoning behind those recommendations."

It should be interesting.

Rikki Hall angles for a spot in Governor Bill Haslam's administration. Commissioner of Environment and Conservation perhaps?

• We have seen an erosion of freedom of speech and the press in the last few years, so it might be good to remind ourselves of what one of the Founding Fathers had to say about it.

James Madison:

From the Huntsville Alabama Times, former U.T. star quarterback and now U.T. Assistant Athletic Director for Player Relations Condredge Holloway Jr. will be inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame this weekend.

He was a star baseball, basketball, and football player at Lee High in Huntsville, AL. As the U.T. Volunteer star quarterback under Bill Battle in 1972, Holloway was the first black SEC starting quarterback.

Previous News Sentinel coverage of the announcement with interview.

RCP:

Puerto Rico (55 delegates): Clinton 50%, Obama 37%
Montana (16 delegates): Obama 52%, Clinton 35%
South Dakota (15 delegates): Obama 46%, Clinton 34%

Raw projection:
Clinton: +38 delegates
Obama: +35 delegates
Net: Clinton +3

Final result after Tuesday:
Obama: 2,014 (52.5%)
Clinton: 1,819 (47.5%, -195)

Needed to win (today): 2026

Obama can't win it, Hillary won't end it.

Remaining undeclared superdelegates: 198

The DNC Rules Committee will meet re. FL & MI on Saturday. The goalpost will likely move, to either 2118 or 2210, depending on the decision.

Assuming the most likely outcome (DNC seats half the delegates or gives each 1/2 vote):

Clinton: +56.5 (FL), +40 (MI)
Obama: +37 (FL), possibly +16.5 (MI "uncommitted")

Then the post-Tuesday projection would be:

Obama: 2,067.5
Clinton: 1,915.5 (-152)

Needed (2118):

Obama: 50.5
Clinton: 202.5

Conclusion: 51 superdelegates declaring for Obama can end it today. All of the remaining superdelegates cannot put Clinton over the top.

Hillary's last gasp comes down to 4.5 delegates.

Ramsey House Plantation

East Tennessee’s most important cultural heritage sites are partnering to provide the Statehood Day Heritage Festival on Saturday May 31 and Sunday June 1 (Ramsey House Saturday only! (Link...)). The sites include places of historical significance in the exciting journey of Tennessee becoming the 16th state in 1796. They include Ft.Loudoun, the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum, James White Fort, Marble Springs, Ramsey House, Mabry-Hazen House and the BlountMansion. (Link...).

Blount Mansion

Visit the Events (Link...) pages on Art Museum Touring.com or the museums' pages for details.

Support your local galleries and museums. They are economic engines for your community.

Sherrie

Of course, NY doesn't have gay marriage...

Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Wednesday, May 28, 2008 -- 9:14 PM ET
-----

New York Begins to Alter Policy on Gay Marriage

Gov. David A. Paterson has directed all state agencies to
begin to revise their policies and regulations to recognize
same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions, like
Massachusetts, California and Canada. In a directive the
governor's legal counsel, David Nocenti, instructed the
agencies that gay couples married elsewhere "should be
afforded the same recognition as any other legally performed
union."

Read More:
Link...

WATE: Knoxville job fair attracts hundreds of seniors

At the job fair, local employers were looking for everything from grocery store cashiers to home health care companions.

More than 200 seniors turned out to comb the local market. Most of them say it's because their dollars just don't stretch as far as they used to.

Vera Morgan, 77, retired from the U.S. Air force. She's worked at least three part time jobs since retiring.

This ain't right. People who worked years for pensions that have been pissed away on stupid investments by pension fund managers, voter approved entitlements that don't keep up with inflation, youngsters who aren't willing to pull their weight on Social Security, etc. etc.

These aren't "American values."

Mayor Ragsdale's office has released a statement saying that the Knox County Commission’s Internal Auditor "accepted supporting documentation provided by the Mayor’s Office regarding the procurement card audit."

According to the statement, "Mayor Ragsdale and staff submitted documentation in support of their transactions, all of which was accepted by the Auditor, except for gas purchases for the Mayor’s county vehicle." There was also one undocumented purchase of office supplies. The Mayor's office says some of these transactions are four or five years old so no receipts are available.

The Mayor will reimburse the county $1,217.59 by the close of business today to reconcile these transactions.

The City of Knoxville is preparing for repair and reconstruction work on the underground structures supporting the 100 block of Gay St. which was raised about 90 years ago. The project is expected to begin in the fall and will involve "extensive construction work and street closure on the 100 block."

There's a public meeting at 5:30 PM today at the Emporium Building meeting room (Level B2), 100 S. Gay Street. City officials and engineering consultants will be on hand to discuss the project with property and business owners, employees, and residents in the 100 block.

UPDATE: The KNS files this report on the meeting. It sounds like an extensive undertaking, and the finished product should be pretty nice. The City has a web page for the project:

City of Knoxville - Gay Street 100 Block Project

The upcoming construction project will rebuild the support structures, relocate and realign all utilities and replace surface-level streetscape features. While the primary purpose of the construction is to fix old and compromised infrastructure, the project's surface-level design includes cosmetic enhancements like wider sidewalks, street trees, and a sidewalk furnishing zone for features like benches, bike racks, etc. that will significantly improve the aesthetic condition of the block.

Numerous project plans and documents are available at the above link.

The big news from yesterday's County Commission meeting was a citizen's petition signed by 100 people asking commissioners to remove Mayor Ragsdale from office.

When advised by the County Law Director that commission doesn't have that power and that citizens would have to file an ouster lawsuit, petitioner Charles Bowers said he may do just that. Victoria DeFreese apparently approves.

Katie at KT has an interview with Dwight Van de Vate following the meeting. (Listen near the end when a clueless reporter asks if Ragsdale would run again. Sheesh.)

UPDATE: Nichols recuses his office, Finch investigation moved to Shelby County DA's office. (By way of KT)