Take a dime, leave a penny

Bill Hobbs takes issue with current campaign finance rules, arguing that they provide insufficient deterrence to law-breakers. At issue is Senator Jerry Cooper’s alleged personal use of $95,004 in campaign funds, punishable by a maximum fine of $10,000.

But of course any fine lower than $95,004 will mean Cooper makes a net profit for his crime - and would set a terrible precedent that would only encourage other unscrupulous and corrupt legislators to transfer campaign funds to personal use.

While this case is still being investigated, a more general question remains. Does the Registry of Election Finance (TREF) intend to hold unethical lawmakers to account? Unfortunately, past experiences with Mary Pruitt’s suspect finances do not offer an encouraging answer.

Bill Hobbs does not place blame with TREF, but instead is in search of state “legislators who care about ethics” to strengthen the laws. If such a search leaves out legislators who consider their per diem travel allowance a personal slush fund, not too many are left.

The dogs want you to drink

Can’t fit excessive wine consumption, helping local people in need, and saving puppies into your weekend plans? Now you can.

The Brown Dog Foundation, a nascent local charity that helps families pay for veterinary bills, is hosting a We Salute the Animals Wine Weekend.

It is too late for tickets to the gala dinner, but a wine tasting on Saturday matches a good cause with the good people of Dunham Cellars, whose Three Legged Red is named after Port, the winemaker’s mutt.

Twenty five dollars gets you a taste of four wines, and helps a family avoid a too-difficult decision between their finances and their pet.

A fleeting chance at immortality

Paige Clancy gets official word from Google about the search giant adding Nashville to its StreetView maps:

[Google Spokeperson] Malinowska declined to confirm the specifics of Google’s Street View vehicles, but said, “We’re focused on making this service available in as many cities as possible.” … Malinowska said Google cannot confirm or provide driving details, except to say the company is “collecting imagery on an ongoing basis.”

The absence of an express denial confirms it! We already have pictorial evidence from The Intown Report, Anthony Trumbo, and The Charlotte Parker. Patrick and Lydia tell us at least one gas-guzzling Chevy is involved.

How many Nashville images do you think will look like this?

Keely, Du, and the Freshmen

This weekend, I attended a performance of Keely and Du, the controversial play by the pseudonymous Jane Martin, at the Vanderbilt University Theater. While the script, a polemic about the abortion debate, often replaces needed nuance with shock, the cast does a heroic job. Angie Fontaine’s (Keely) performance is especially remarkable. The script permits her little physical movement (she is handcuffed for most of the show) yet her emotion, intonation, and range of expression make for a captivating performance.

Equally captivating as the events on stage were the happenings in the audience. This show was required viewing for every incoming Vanderbilt freshman. Most universities assign a common book for new students—a Siddharta or Don Quixote—whose themes of self-discovery and cultural integration are apt metaphors for college life. Some take a more controversial approach, such as Princeton’s production of “Sex on a Saturday Night,” to warn students abouts rampant sexual abuse. According to Vanderbilt Visions, the program that orients incoming students by discussing the “challenges all first year students encounter,”

Unlike many American colleges and universities, where a common reading brings together the first-year class, Vanderbilt first-year students together go to the theater.

Community is apparently built through a communal exploration of spousal abuse, rape, religious zealotry, and abortion. Three lessons from watching the audience during the show:

1. Someone who was worried about what to wear to the prom just a few short months ago is not sufficently mature to handle material of this nature, as indicated by nervous laughter in all the wrong places.


2. I feel for Vanderbilt’s professors of these undegraduates. Someone who sends text messages, makes phone calls, and holds up the lit screen of a cell phone during fade outs in some modern version of the lighter-during-Freebird in the midst of a stage performance is unlikely to show etiquette, restraint, or decorum in a classroom setting.


3. Making this play a required freshman communal experience was a very, very bad idea.

Contrasts in Musical Education

Kay Brooks is delighted by this morning’s news that the Country Music Association is donating instruments to local schools.

This gift will fund 100 percent of the school district’s top music priorities for 2007-08, said Pam Garrett, executive director of the Nashville Alliance for Public Education and a former school board member.

Not to be outdone, the RIAA is doing what it can to impact America’s schools. Jan Fox, Chief Information Officer at Marshall University, has received over two dozen letters from the RIAA this year.

We receive between four and five different types of notices, all of which have the RIAA’s name on them. I would much rather my time and my staff’s time be spent bettering the school.

First rule of loopholes: stop digging

Much has been written about legislative efforts to change the current tax code by which hedge fund and private equity managers classify part of their income as capital gains, taxable at 15%. Now, Belmont professor Mark Schenkel proposes expanding the loophole:

We could ‘level the playing field’ by allowing entrepreneur’s to label their compensation from new venture creation activity as capital gains too! Under the standard logic that lower taxes encourages economic development, shouldn’t this lead to the generation of more economic value?

Effectively, this advocates two sets of tax rates, the higher ones reserved for those who, by Schenkel’s implication, generate no value through their labors.

No economist would disagree with the premise that lower taxes stimulate higher investment, and lower taxes on entrepreneurial activities create greater incentives for entrepreneurs. The problem, of course, is that tax policy is not solely about maximizing incentives (this would be achieved by having no tax at all), but also about raising funds for the operation of the federal government. The real question is how to distribute this burden among the population.

I see no reason why Professor Schenkel’s salary from teaching future business leaders is currently taxed at twice the rate as hedge fund managers, since the Professor’s activities are much more likely to generate real economic value.

Efficiency over government

Earlier today, I expressed concern that Diane Neighbors may be more concerned with legislative efficiency than with fostering public discourse. Reporting on tonight’s Council meeting, S-townMike writes:

Diane Neighbors really faced no challenges compared to some of these hell-holes that the Council dug for Howard Gentry. She deftly deflected Vivian Wilhoite’s question about why some school grants were given to urban rather than suburban schools by ruling that Ms. Wilhoite should have asked it in the Budget and Finance Committee Meeting.

One man’s deftness is another’s stifling of debate. If the Vice Mayor can make up procedural rules as she goes along, I’d prefer those rules favor debate and insightful questions. The Council meets not only to satisfy its members’ curiosities, but also ours, and every question ruled “out of order” is a question to which I will never have the answer.

But hey, the meeting was over quickly. Yay, progress.