Protesters at the ready to stand up against tax (Tennessee income tax)

Yes, all the pictures I've posted since last night are from yesterday afternoon.

I would hope Rochelle's partners are sufficiently ashamed of him that they would consider an ouster. Their firm has to be suffering loss of business.

They are ashamed...believe me and yes I think they have lost some business. I almost stood them up but I've got too many family members counting on me to represent their interests....I really had no choice. The attorney I'm working with there is a lifelong serious conservative and the best around at what he does. He is the juice in the firm. I think he simply hopes Rochelle will become inactive...(he already has sort of) and the old guys in the firm think it would be ungentlemanly to boot him for his politics. Some of their junior partners did quit actually last year. One point about Rochelle is that anyone wishing to do serious business in Wilson county has to go thru him. He is the most powerful influence broker in Lebanon/Mt Juliet which as you know are booming areas. Sad. I hate having to be pragmatic over this.

I am becoming increasingly cynical about the effectiveness of sign-waving. That only works so long as those in power fear ink on paper; there comes a point when your legislators will realize - as 45 of them obviously have - that sign-wavers are mostly harmless and may be ignored just as easily as the words in the state constitution. Those who don't get this point, well, just don't...but those who do get it, get it all too well - and history does not reflect favorably what happens next.

Don't bet too hard on it. You might find the following analysis from the Memphis Commercial-Appeal following our May 9th primary election for a number of local races to be of some interest:

A very large rock is beginning to roll, picking up speed, and quite capable of crushing the future of any politician, Democrat OR Republican, who gets in its way....

Editorial 5/09:
GOP insurgents rule in county primary May 9, 2002

THIS WEEK'S primary election in Shelby County did what it was designed to do: give voters clear choices for major offices in the Aug. 1 general election. Other outcomes of the vote were somewhat less promising.

The major force that propelled Tuesday's primary was an insurgency among Republican voters that, among other things, denied renomination to two veteran county commissioners - the first time that has happened in 20 years. GOP voters' expressions of anger over such issues as county tax increases, arena subsidies and pay raises for elected officials led to the defeat of, or at least threw a scare into, other candidates whom voters perceived to be part of the Republican establishment.

One of the major beneficiaries of this insurgency was Republican county mayoral candidate George Flinn, a radiologist and broadcast executive making his first bid for elective office. Flinn attributed his victory to what he called his "message": He says he wants lower taxes, less crime, more jobs and better schools.

Well, who doesn't? During his general election campaign, Flinn might tell voters specifically what he would do as mayor to achieve these goals. It also would help if he showed more of an understanding of the basic workings of county government than he displayed during the primary campaign.

A better explanation for Flinn's victory, along with his support among disaffected Republican voters, would seem to be the $418,000 of his own money he spent on his primary campaign - roughly $15 for every vote he won. Such spending is likely to be less of an advantage in Flinn's general election campaign against Democratic mayoral nominee A C Wharton, who also is well funded.

Despite the ease of his primary victory, Wharton, too, will need to go beyond platitudes and get more specific in stating his issue positions during the general campaign, both to differentiate himself from Flinn and to persuade voters of his ability to represent all areas of the county.

Wharton will face a special challenge in heading the Democratic ticket in the county general election, which will coincide with the Tennessee primary election. The Republican primaries for governor, U.S. senator and the Seventh Congressional District are likely to be far more competitive than the corresponding Democratic contests, and thus more likely to motivate local Republicans to vote. Wharton's ability to turn out Democratic voters will affect the ability of candidates nominated this week for county row offices - register, clerk, Probate Court clerk - to give entrenched Republican incumbents serious challenges.

The party primaries for county sheriff left voters with a substantive choice between a Sheriff's Department outsider - Republican Mark Luttrell, the county's correction director, and an insider - Democrat Randy Wade, a sheriff's administrator. They will compete to succeed Republican incumbent A. C. Gilless, who is performing a public service by retiring.

The election for sheriff will be largely a referendum on whether voters are satisfied with the way the current administration has run the downtown jail and otherwise conducted itself. There is no reason they should be.

In several commission races, Republican voters seemed to punish moderate incumbents for their willingness to take part in bipartisan compromises on such hot-button issues as the arena and property taxes. Such an apparent disdain for consensus suggests the new County Commission that takes office in September will be far more polarized, and potentially less productive, than the current board.

Six of the winners of this week's commission primaries face no further opposition and are guaranteed election. Another six will be heavily favored in August. Only in single-member District 5, where Republican Bruce Thompson and Democrat Joe Cooper will square off, is there a hint of two-party competition.

Cooper's primary victory, by a single vote, refutes the prevalent notion that any one vote doesn't count. Whatever the result of the expected recount in that race, it's to be hoped the District 5 outcome will give the 82 percent of Shelby County's registered voters who skipped Tuesday's primary something to think about before the general election.

Wages are not the same as income. The so-called income tax has been expanded to cover wages when it was originally aimed at income (i.e., profit from rents, dividends, etc.). The federal consititution specifically forbits capitation which is a tax per person. Even the 19th amendment doesn't specifically allow the feds to tax private wages. But that's another war.