334. Miscellany

Barret Avenue is being repaved from Broadway, US 150, to Eastern Parkway, US 60A. Barret itself does not carry any numerical designation. That part of Barret north
of Broadway, in the area where the Louisville-Jefferson County Democratic Headquarters, Barret was once known as Underhill Street. The part of Barret which leads south from Broadway to Castlewood, and then up Castlewood to Baxter, was the original Newburg Road, or the road to Newburg, which historically was a white farming community between Buechel and Okolona. The original Newburg community was centered at what is now Poplar Level Road and Old Shepherdsville (or, as the Metro calls it, Shepherdsville Road, as there is no "New" Shepherdsville Road). Of course, today, the word Newburg still refers to a neighborhood between Newburg Road and almost to Preston Highway, south of Buechel and north of Okolona, but no longer white at all. Much of what is today known as Newburg was built in the 1960s as housing for the nearby General Electric Appliance Park, shown below in 1997, which itself has been in the news this week.

This week's announcement that Appliance Park was for sale obviously caught His Honor the mayor of Louisville-Jefferson County Metro by surprise. It reminded me of the time about twenty years ago when the mayor made the Airport Expansion/UPS announcement, catching elected officials such as Fourth Ward Alderman Cyril Allgeier and "B" District Commissioner Irv Maze completely off-guard. The mayor's sometimes misdirected responses this week with two of Louisville's biggest employers, GE and Ford, made clear that some of the glitter is gone from the golden days or ore when a cheer here and a begonia there was all that was needed to keep the City on track.

Tracks brings us to another event held yesterday in Maryland. Big Brown, shown above, the horse which won the Kentucky Derby three weeks ago yesterday won the Preakness Stakes in a commanding performance and 5 1/4 length victory. On to New York and a possible, and apparently probable, Triple Crown win at the Belmont Stakes in Elmont, New York. The last horse to win the Triple Crown did so the weekend I graduated from Durrett High School, thirty years ago next month. Steve Cauthen was aboard Affirmed for all three of the Triple Crown races, winning the final leg in 2:26.8 over Alydar, the first, last, and only horse to run second in all three races. The rivalry between Affirmed and Alydar is unmatched.

Finally, speaking of rivalries, we are having an election this week. My church's school, Holy Family School, held its School Board elections today, with four people seeking two seats on the school board. I only knew one of the candidates, a former student whose father is a friend of mine. I voted for her. My other vote went to a school mother who has a child in the 1st grade. All the other candidates' children were in higher grades. I figured with her's only in the 1st, she has seven more years of dedication and she may as well get started early.

There is of course that other election, the one that started so so many moons ago. It will come to an end Tuesday night in Louisville. Although the polls will close five hours later in Oregon, between the votes Senator Barack Obama will get in Oregon and the ones he is expected to get here along the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606, he should have the 2026 delegates needed to claim the Democratic nomination for president. Expect to see one, if not both, of the candidates, along with their spouses, here in Louisville Tuesday night. Who could have ever dreamt we'd play such a role?

Finally, some birthdays. Yesterday was my middle niece's 12th birthday. Her name is Kavesha. Today is my friend Eleanor Jordan's birthday. I know how old she is but just in case she reads the blog, I'll omit it here.

That's all for today. Off to do a Herndon lit-drop in the 6th Council District, where based on the opponent's last minute barrage of negative ads, the race must be closer than people thought it would be.

333. In the Mailbox

I really want to write something about the Triple-3 entry number, but nothing comes to mind, other than there should be something significant about the entry which is numbered 3-3-3.

*****

From the mailbox today, I retrieved a bill from my dentist (who wants some money), a bill from LG&E (which also wants money), and from my State Senator, who included a donor envelope with his letter (so he wants money to).

My State Senator sent a letter today which in the first line tells me that representing me is a privilege that he "does not take lightly." He tells me he has been "dedicated, focussed, and effective" in his representation of me. And, he tells me that the district has approximately 105,000 and "it takes a great effort to communicate in a short period of time and it is costly." Hence, the donor envelope.

During the past three years while I have been represented by my State Senator, this is the first and only letter he has ever sent me telling me anything about his "dedidation, focus, and effectiveness." This is the first time I knew he "didn't take representing me lightly." In short this is the first time he has communicated with me while he has been on my and your payroll.

Conversely, I have communicated with him, at least twice during the recent General Assembly. I sent him an email on 01/24/2008 expressing my support for Senate Bill 3. I sent him another email on February 1, 2008 expressing my thanks for his support of Senate Bill 112. Neither email was responded to. I sent the same email to my other representative, Tom Riner, who serves me as the 41st District State Representative, who managed to respond back. I sent the SB3 email to a number of friends in the legislature and a few of them responded, but not my State Senator.

Now the truth is my State Senator pretty much votes the way I would want him to vote, whether he communicates with me or not. I have no qualm with his voting record. My State Representative, who does communicate regularly, with emails, phone calls, and personal conversations when we see each other in public, does not always vote the way I would want him to, but he bothers to tell me. And he bothers to just say hello. A lot. He sends Christmas cards, puts little American flags in yards on the Fourth of July, and helps out politically in the Fall, as he did in 2006 when we used his truck to transport tables for a John Yarmuth event in Fairdale, well removed from his district.

Another truth is that my State Senator will very likely very easily win his Primary a week from today, which is no doubt the reason he decided to finally send a letter telling me all the good things there are to know about him. His opponent hasn't raised much money and probably wouldn't vote nearly as well as my current State Senator. But, his opponent has asked me, in person and more than once, if I would vote for him. I know him through his former wife and their children. He has been asking me for that support since he filed for office back at the beginning of the year. He has used every opportunity he had, whether at the Kroger or the corner coffeeshop, to communicate in the same short period of time during which the incumbent has sent exactly one letter. As the incumbent said, it is difficult to communicate with so many people in such a short period of time. I mean he has only had three years.

332. Obama does Louisville

Tonight's Obama event in Louisville can be summed up in one or two or three sentences, although I've never been real successful at summing anything up in one or two or three sentences.

It is the largest indoor political event I've ever been to in forty years. It may have been the largest political event I've ever been to period. And most of the people there didn't have titles like State Representative, State Senator, State Central Committee Member, or Precinct Captain - most of them were simply the one majic commodity everyone is seeking - Voters. All types, all colors, all ages, and more than a few Republicans - all told between Eight and Ten Thousand. And that's the ones that got in before people were turned away.

Election Day is May 20th.

331. Pentecost and how it relates to today

Be forewarned, this is a religiously entrenched entry, but it is about living together mutually respecting each others differences and similarities.

Today in the calendar of the Church, the Feast of Pentecost is celebrated, marking the 50th day past Easter, and according to Scripture and tradition, the date of the founding of the Church as it was on this day that the Holy Spirit, the third entity in the Holy Trinity was sent down by Jesus upon his disciples. Pentecost, like many other Christian celebrations, finds its roots in other older tradition, that of the Jews, marking the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai on the 50th day after their departure from Egypt. There is something called shavout, which I will admit I do not understand which is analogous to Pentecost. And, it is likely the Jewish feast is itself based on some older tradition. There really is nothing new under the sun.

But I like Pentecost for other reasons. I am a fan of the Arthurian Romances, the stories handed down over the years pertaining to a semi-mythical leader from 5th century Britain - King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, and especially Prince Merlin, who was said to have been born upon the Autumnal Equinox, as was I. King Arthur's annual big backyard party, complete with fatted calves, lots of wine, jousting tournaments, and the eventual search for the Questing Beast and the Holy Grail, was held each Pentecost. It was on the Feast of Pentecost, or Whitsunday as it is called in old Britain, that Arthur held a Plenary Court inviting all the knights and ladies, kings and princes, and other petty officers from throughout the land to his court. There they could visit, catch up on old news, find out who is a new father or mother, and learn any other news from both the neighboring kingdoms as well as the foreigners across the Channel or the Irish Sea.

But there is another even more important reason I like Pentecost, and one which is important in today's multicultural, multiracial world - the readings assigned to it in the Lectionary, the Church's three year cycle of Bible readings.

This morning I attended the 8:30 AM mass at Holy Family. Arriving about 8:00, there were great clouds and strong winds, appropriate weather for today's first reading taken from the Book of Acts.

Acts 2: 1-11
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. And they were amazed and wondered, saying, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God."

My point here is this. Even 2000 years ago, men (and women, even though they aren't mentioned) of different cultures, races, and ethnicities found themselves living, working, playing, and probably procreating with each other on a regular basis. They spoke different languages, they lived by different codes and mores, they followed different leaders, and they ate different foods. But, on this occasion at Jerusalem as the Holy Spirit descended upon this motley crew of seemingly different people, the Spirit didn't divide them into groups of white or black or brown or yellow, or of rich or poor, or of gay or straight, or of men or women, or of Obama-followers and Hillary-followers, or Democrats or Republican or Libertarians, or even of blog-readers and blog non-readers. The God of Abraham and Isaac and David and Isaiah and of Jesus and Matthew and Mark and Luke and John, and even of Paul (about whom I have reservations) - this God draws no lines in the sand. We are all one people, the people of God. Paul himself makes this argument to the people of Christ about 20 years after Jesus' death writing in the Book of Galatians, at Chapter 3, Verses 28 and 29:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendant, heirs according to the promise.

I don't really like quoting Paul a lot. I complain often that the Christianity preached by some modern-day right-wing Christian people is too based in some of the prejudices of Paul and not based enough in the simple words of Jesus Christ, who reduced all of the law (which is to say all of the Old and New Testaments) into Two Great Commandments, first to love God, and then to love each other.

It is this very simple theology, whether one wants to call it Christianity or any other name, that assures me that my very liberal beliefs about people, my acceptance of others from different races, cultures, socio-economic backgrounds, religions, and even political philosophies, puts me clearly on the right side of God. I believe that.

And in these closing days of this year's presidential Primary season, when I hear code words on talk radio here and there, when I see cartoons depicting one or the other candidate with exaggerated features, or when I get emails questioning someone about their ties to Muslims while simultaneously attacking the same person over the views of their very Protestant (former) pastor who served in both the United States Marines and the U. S. Navy, it is in these times I am thankful that the words from the Book of Acts tells us the Holy Spirit doesn't discriminate. Perhaps, to be good Christians, or more broadly, to be good people, we shouldn't either.

330. Briefly, KDP event last night.

Everyone else was live blogging, so this is admittedly not the freshest news. But, I did have fun.

Arrived early to crowds of volunteers and staffers being kept from the room until way too late.

There was a large anteroom for candidates to greet the guests. I was there to work John Yarmuth's table. As it turned out, the anteroom activity was mostly the candidates and their supporters greeting each other. We were placed about 150 feet out of the general route of the arriving guests and very few made the journey over to the sidelines.

Worked the John Yarmuth table with Lisa Tanner, Shannon White, Jessie Phelps, and Brandon Jewell. Lisa came over early and worked setting the table up which was really nice, so she left early. Orange balloons. The John Yarmuth campaign owns the color orange. I think that was Dan Borsch's idea in 2006. John eventually visited our table and we had a nice chat.

Met and spoke with Heather Ryan, Democratic candidate for Congress in the 1st. Her table was to John's right. At the Democratic Women's Club table to our left were Joyce, Mary Allgeier, and Dottie Winfield. I've known Mary and Dottie since high school having gone to school with their sons. KDW President Diane Wood was there briefly and I took all their pictures.

Harry Johnson was working the Fischer table. Harry and I go back to the 1979 Lieutenant Governor's primary.

I spoke brielfy with Mrs. Press of Lexington about the evening. She is always interesting and delightful.

Several of the several candidates for Jefferson District Judge were there although Shellie Santry easily made the best impression with her large lavender sign in the corner. Met her husband, who is from Philadelphia, then Boston. Says he loves living in Louisville.

Chatted with Cathy Yarmuth who is the best candidate spouse ever.

Then we went into the big hall. I did not buy my way into the expensive seats, although I did try to sneak in, but to no avail. Had a good time meeting and greeting out front. Eventually my friend Keith Dickerson arrived - for the record he is not the Keith Dickerson who made the papers yesterday. That one was white and 35 - this one is African-American and 24.

Saw all the media, most of whom were blogging. Listened to Wanda Mitchell-Smith's long prayer about union. She mentioned union seven times. She is a Union leader. She did not invoke the Son's name at the end of her prayer but rather made it all-inclusive. I don't think God really cares how we end our prayers as long as we pray, but a lot of progressives make a big deal about it, as I have here.

DuPont Manual High School sent a chorale group which sung the National Anthem and My Old Kentucky Home. That was good.

Chatted a little with Jon Hurst. We'll get together after the Primary, the end of which is finally coming into sight. Chatted a little with Aniello Alioto, who is working for Obama and Lunsford. I saw Lunsford briefly. And Lynn Fischer, sister of Greg. I did not see Cassaro or anyone from his campaign. I met a tall woman named Stephanie who works for Congressman Chandler and so I made a joke about Chandler's Chief of Staff Denis Fleming, for whom I was a paralegal in the 1990s. God only knows what else I said. She was with Aaron Horner and a few others on a smoke break. But, I digress.

Jennifer Moore, Dan Borsch's girlfriend and simultaneously Chair of the Kentucky Democratic Party began the night. No wait, David Tandy was up there for a while but I have no idea what he said. Then my congressman spoke but he was interrupted by some very rude Clinton supporters, which was uncalled for.

Then maybe Jennifer spoke again. I had a two beers and part of a Bloody Mary. What was I thinking? Keith had red wine. I even bought Harry Johnson a Bloody Mary. Again, what was I thinking? While I was at the bar, they read out the names of the State Central Committee. Jimmy Morphew (of Paducah) and I were standing out front chatting about the 1st CD at the time. When our names were called, we clapped for each other.

I did not see many other State Committee members there, although they may have been in the more expensive seats. I saw Jeremy Horton, who was very busy with headphones and a walkie talkie, and Millie Diehl, and Jimmy Morhpew. That was it. I know Tim Longmeyer was in there but he is still upset with me that I found fault in the way he has ran the Jefferson County part of the KDP reorg, so we didn't chat.

Eventually, we left. I was tired and I still had work to do in the Ken Herndon campaign before getting to sleep.

One final thought - strictly my opinion with no basis in actual knowledge. I didn't get a chance to see my friend Jerry Lundergan who in all likelihood arranged this whole thing. He saw a chance to help the Party raise money and agreed to bring in his good friend Hillary Clinton to help do so. She had been here before at his behest and for the same reason, as had the former President, her husband Bill Clinton. For all the Lundergan haters out there, and there are several, Jerry is a good guy. He may have a rough personality and you may not like him. But for four years, while there was a Republican in the Governor's Mansion, through whatever means, he personally kept the Kentucky Democratic Party open and alive and viable enough to help elect Steve Beshear in 2007. Lundergan's very good friend Greg Stumbo helped in that effort as well. So, if, as I believe, that Jerry had a large part in last night's affair - here is my thanks to him.

One final thought - His Honor the Mayor of Louisville-Jefferson County Metro was there for about 15 minutes. (Did you get that Paul? - fifteen minutes. No doubt he was off to a soccer game or something more important).

329. Playing Hookie, An Impromptu Family Reunion, and other comments

Today was a beautiful, if somewhat breezy, day - a good day to play hookie (hooky?) from the office, and that is what I did. I had already planned to attend to some family business in Frankfort, so off I went to Kentucky's capital along I-64, where the widening project is coming along between the Weigh Stations and Waddy (or Waddy-Peytona for those of you who aren't aware these are two different places, the former an actual village a little south of I-64, the latter an intersection where the Elmburg Pike crosses the Old Louisville Road near Shelby County's recently built Heritage Elementary School. Eventually the interstate is to be widened all the way from Louisville to Frankfort. Eventually, given the state of affairs of the affairs of the state, may be a long wait, but the first steps have been taken.

After disposing of the family business, I made my way over to the Kentucky Democratic Headquarters, to see someone I had previously emailed about viewing some paperwork therein. Due to some scheduling conflicts, that paperwork-viewing didn't happen. There is some grand planning taking place at Headquarters as Friday, May 9th (pointed out to me in a phone call as being a mere 48 hours away) is the date scheduled for a big Kentucky Democratic Party fundraiser in Louisville, to be held downtown at the Convention Center. As an aside, I am old enough to remember when saying the words "the Convention Center" referred to a building on Muhammad Ali Boulevard between Armory Place and Sixth Street, back when Muhammad Ali Boulevard was still called Walnut Street. But, I am not of an age to remember the building alongside Armory Place actually being called The Armory, which for years it was. That building is now called The Gardens. The fundraiser is being held a few blocks to the northeast at 4th and Market streets. But, I digress.

While at HQ for my non-paper reviewing meeting, I struck up a conversation with the two women volunteering at the front desk, Hazel and another one whose name I have since forgotten. I didn't mention to them the aforementioned paper-viewing plans, but rather paid for two tickets to the aforementioned fundraiser scheduled this Friday in the aforementioned Convention Center. As I understand it, there are levels of financial participation, from the $10,000.00 level on down to the $50.00 level, the level upon which I will be participating. The higher the ticket value you purchase, the closer you will be to two bottles of wine, some dessert, Jerry Lundergan, Jon Hurst, and the Guest of Honor, New York Senator Hillary Clinton. At the $50.00 level, my seats may well be out in the middle of the Clark Memorial Bridge a few blocks away, but, as is sometimes lamented in these situations, it is for a good cause.

Before I left HQ, I also filled out one of those "I wanna be a delegate to Denver" forms, telling the two volunteer ladies I didn't really want to go, I just wanted to say I wanted to go. One of them, the one whose name escapes me, asked about the weather on my drive up which led to a conversation about how it is always windy at Democratic Headquarters, something I know to be true based on 35 years of visits. I remarked to her that across the street the Sunset Memorial Cemetery was also similarly typically windy. I mentioned my grandmother being buried there, and she assented in my suggestion that the cemetery was indeed a blustery place.

Upon leaving Headquarters, without viewing any papers or speaking to anyone in charge other than the two ladies, I made my way over to the cemetery. Buried therein are my grandparents, their parents, several of their brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, cousins, and in-laws, all generally in the same area. While I was visiting the graves, first one car, then another pulled up behind mine and I noticed they were noticing me, and noticing in particular that I was standing generally in the same area they would be standing if they had beaten me to the area. Eventually emerging from the first car were my grandmother's first cousin, Mary Margaret Collins Jackson, her daughter Nancy who lives in Lexington, her granddaughter-in-law who is another woman whose name I didn't catch, and that young woman's child, Dominic Filipini, a resident with his parents and grandparents of Florida. Emerging from the second car was Mary Margaret's husband Jim, residents of Versailles.

Mary Margaret's father, Earl Louis Collins, and my great grandmother, Rachel Scott Brawner, were half-brother and sister, although we generally disregard that half business in our family. In common lingo then, me and Dominic Filipini, the young boy from Florida, are sixth cousins. A true genealogist would correct me on this pointing out that he is my third cousin thrice removed and I am his fourth cousin twice removed. In any event, including the deceased upon whose graves we were standing, there were five generations of us there, all descendants of Annie Choate Brawner Collins, who is herself buried downtown in the Frankfort Cemetery.

Eventually we all hugged and departed the confines of the decedents of our family. From there I made my way downtown, passing the Obama for President Frankfort HQ recently opened on Main Street, opening in the building next door to where my great-great grandmother Annie Choate Brawner Collins raised all those children. I met with my friend Aaron Horner for a cup of coffee at the Kentucky Coffeetree Coffeehouse, having of cup of the Peru blend brewed by Erec the barista. We chatted on the sidewalk about horseracing, roadtrips, Pat Riley (yes, THE Pat Riley), schedules, and a little politics. Former State Senator Lindy Casebier stopped by for moment and chatted as well, telling us of his connection with THE Pat Riley. One of Frankfort's street characters, a man named Tom, stopped to tell us he had enjoyed three coney-island dogs from the vendor on Saint Clair Street and was on his fifth cup of coffee from the coffeeshop, although his cup is one which, given the generosity of the coffeeshop, never runs dry. A Nicholasville-based R J Corman train came through from the west (which would mean it had probably passed through Waddy) to the east (toward Lexington) down the center of Broadway, headed for the pre-Civil War tunnel which Aaron suggested he might want to explore sometime. It was dug through in 1849 and is seen in the image below. I remember going through it several times as a teenager, which was a long time ago.

Finally, I departed my favorite capital city and made my way back home along the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606, where the beautiful but breezy day, has given way to some slight rain showers and an overcast sky.

Happy Trails.

328. Not much longer.

Edward G. Robinson was always one of my favorite actors. In Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 classic The Ten Commandments, he portrayed Dathan, a role expanded from just a few biblical mentions in the Book of Exodus into one whose raison d' etre was to be a thorn in the side of Moses. Dathan repeatedly asks Moses "How long?" "How long must we wait?" He would have felt right at home asking those questions during the current Democratic Presidential Primary, which seems to have been going on a long time, perhaps starting shortly after the Parting of the Red Sea.

"How long?" you ask. Today's primaries in Indiana and North Carolina may bring some resolution. No, I'm not predicting an upset by either United States Senator against the other. Obama will win North Carolina; Clinton will win Indiana. After today, six primaries remain, and they will likely split as predicted, three for the Senator from New York; three for the Senator from Illinois. How then will today's very predictable outcome bring some resolution?

The Obama camp has been making the argument that Clinton can't win given the delegate count. They do not bother to say they can't either. But, the truth is, they can't either, barring some dramatic downfall of the former First Lady. As always, there are powers-that-be lurking in some erstwhile smoke-filled backrooms worrying about how to resolve the apparent deadlock as they approach the end of the line. And, there isn't any divine power lifting up a staff parting the waters of the Red Sea, drowning the non-believers anywhere on the horizon. Or is there?

Two superdelegates, one from Tennessee, the other from California, may hold the key, or Moses' proverbial staff. One is an environmentalist Nobel Prize winning nerd, the other an outspoken grandmother who wields more power in her gavel than any other woman in the history of the Republic. And after tonight's no-surprises of an election in North Carolina and Indiana, those two may just become the talk of the town.

Maybe. Maybe not.

327. A Brief Derby Entry

Suffice it to say, my horses lost. I sent bets out on Derby Day with my friend Jessie Phelps who was there with her beau, Brandon, in the infield. None of my three finished in the money. Here is the chart for the race:

Pgm Horse Win Place Show
20 Big Brown 6.80 5.00 4.80
5 Eight Belles 10.60 6.40
16 Denis of Cork 11.60

$2 Exacta (20-5) $141.60
$2 Trifecta (20-5-16) $3,445.60
$2 Superfecta (20-5-16-2) $58,737.80

My horses ran 6th, 16th, and 17th. There is always next year. A horse named Big Brown won the race by nearly five lengths. The filly Eight Belles placed second 3 1/2 lengths ahead of Denis of Cork, spelled Catholic-style with one "n", which ran third. Big Brown's win was tragically overshadowed by Eight Belles, which immediately after the race broke both her front ankles and was then euthanized on the track. It was a very sad ending to what had been a picture perfect day and a very strong performance by both Eight Belles and the winner Big Brown.

The 135th Running of the Kentucky Derby is set for May 2, 2009.



Just before the finish, that's Eight Belles on the left and Big Brown on the right.

326. My Derby Bets

Exacta Box with Gayego, Colonel John, and Bob Black Jack.

Across the Board bets on all three horses.

Happy Derby.

Happy Derby

See you Sunday or Monday.

*****

Born in the valley and raised in the trees
Of western Kentucky on wobbly knees
With mamma beside you to help you along
You'll soon be a-growin' up strong.

All the long, lazy mornings in pastures of
Green, the sun on your withers, the wind in
Your mane, could never prepare you for what
Lies ahead. The run for the roses so red.

And it's run for the roses as fast as you can.
Your fate is delivered. Your moment's at hand.
It's the chance of a lifetime in a lifetime of
Chance. And it's high time you joined in the dance.
It's high time you joined in the dance.

From sire to sire, it's born in the blood. The
Fire of a mare and the strength of a stud. It's
Breeding and it's training and it's something un-
Known that drives you and carries you home.

And it's run for the roses as fast as you can.
Your fate is delivered. Your moment's at hand.
It's the chance of a lifetime in a lifetime of
Chance. And it's high time you joined in the dance.
It's high time you joined in the dance.

Written, sung, and recorded by Dan Fogelberg in 1980, and released on The Innocent Age album in 1981.

324. Walking Precincts

It's that time of year - time to walk precincts - a semi-annual event in Kentucky, where save every fourth year we have an election every six months, not including the occasional Special Election for a local office here or there. Here along the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606 we are having Primaries at all levels of government, and in all three branches of government, and for the first time in a number of years, many of the races are challenged in both Parties, both the Democratic and the Dark Side.

In the federal race for Chief Magistrate of the United States the Louisville area is expected to split or lean slightly toward Senator Barack Obama in his race against Senator Hillary Clinton. Other areas in Kentucky which are expected to support Senator Obama to some degree, although none in the majority, are parts of Lexington and Frankfort, Hardin County, Christian County, and perhaps Oldham County.

Other federal races here in Jefferson County include a Primary on the Republican side for both the United State Senate and the United States Congress, where the recently defeated Congresswoman wants her job back, even though a majority of the voters in her district rejected her in the 2006 cycle. She should have no problem winning her Primary as she is campaigning against two lesser-known and one unknown opponents. The Senior Senator from Kentucky also faces an opponent whose campaign address is a post office box in Jellico, Tennessee. The Senior Senator should easily be renominated.

Our democratically elected Democratic Congressman John Yarmuth is unopposed for his renomination.

At the state level, while there are no partisan races, there are judicial races, which in Kentucky are technically state officials and not county officials. We have races in Jefferson County to fill vacancies at the District, Circuit, and Appellate Judge level. At the District level, there are more than a dozen candidates running, four of whom work together in the Jefferson County Attorney's Office as Assistant Prosecutors.

Local Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Democratic Primary elections are being held four districts - maybe more, but I only know of four. Out in southwestern Jefferson County in the 14th District, the Democratic incumbent Bob Henderson is facing three opponents. There are also three or four Republicans wanting Henderson's job. With his three opponents splitting up the anti-Henderson crowd, he should have no problem winning both renomination and reelection. In the 18th, an open seat in eastern Jefferson County, Assistant County Attorney Kungu Njuguna, who is 29, is seeking office for the first time and has a Primary against an opponent who seems to be doing nothing. Kungu should win his Primary and will need a strong result this Fall in order to win. In the 26th, another open seat in the Breckenridge Lane corridor, two Democrats have filed although, again, only one seems to be running. Brent Ackerson, who is from a well-known Republican family in town, is the one Democrat who is mounting a campaign. He should win his nomination. This fall will be a challenging race as this district also leans Republican in most instances. Finally, in the 6th, challenger Ken Herndon is seeking office against the ten-year incumbent George Unseld. I am managing Herndon's race. We've been out knocking on doors since last July. We did so again tonight walking with one of the area's neighborhood association presidents in a precinct off W. Kentucky Street just southwest of downtown Louisville. We were in a precinct I've walked before for the same candidate, but in a different race. He lost that one; I am confident he will win this one.

Walking precincts was something I learned to do at a very young age. As a little kid, we lived in what was then called Precinct C-84, now a part of which is a part of B-148. The precinct boundary back then consisted of two streets, South Park Road and Blue Lick Road, and the Bullitt County line, a generally rectangularly shaped area that at the time was largely rural, with the few exceptions of some subdivisions off Blue Lick Road. Most of the voters lived on one of the two boundary roads. My grandmother would take me and some of the other kids in the neighborhood and start over on the Coral Ridge side of South Park Road, work our way up to the South Park side of South Park Road, and proceed east to the Okolona side of South Park Road, then turning south along Blue Lick to the newer areas with the subdivisions. We usually worked it twice, on consecutive weekends. This was in addition to my grandmother working the precinct throughout the year, noting when a "For Sale" or "For Rent" sign went up, and waiting for the "Sold" sign to appear or the "For Rent" sign to disappear, so she could go attempt to add another name or two to the Democratic rolls. If the new people wanted to be Republicans, as a courtesy, she referred them to the Republican captain of the area, Mrs. Bosse, who lived down the street and around the corner from my grandmother. I've been walking precincts every six months since then.

We'll walk again tomorrow, then take a day or two break for the Derby. No one really wants to talk politics when instead they could tell you they have an inside lead that the Grey Filly running in the 6th race is a shoe-in if the weather is right and she has an outside gate to break from. Put $2 to Show on #3. Make it a $4 Exacta Box, 2 and 3. See you in the Winner's Circle.




Happy Derby.

Lightly populated precincts and light posting ahead

I've been posting on fewer and fewer successive days lately - this attributable to two things. Either I do not have the extra money to go travelling or I have nothing new to add. Had I been babbling on and on as I am known to do now and then, this upcoming week would have been one of those that I would have given you the warning that there is light posting ahead. It is Derby Week which tends to fill up one's calendar.

The Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606 is celebrating Derby Week, culminating in the 134th Run for the Roses, America's premier horse race, The Kentucky Derby, this Saturday at Churchill Downs in Precinct I-127 in South Louisville. I doubt anyone has ever identified the track by its precinct number. The land the track is located on is actually divided between two precincts, I-103 and I-127. The track and most of the buildings are in I-127, which according to Secretary of State Trey Grayson's website has no voters living therein. I-103's territory includes the handful of buildings on the backside where a handful of horse-types are registered to vote. I-103 also includes the land north of the track known in the old days as the Heywood neighborhood.

You may wonder why there is a precinct with no voters in it. That's a fair subject. Jefferson County has six such precincts. They are B-167, H-130, H-140, the aforementioned I-127, M150, and N-135. The easy answer for most of these is simple geography. B-167 is found along the south side of Thixton Lane from Risen Lane east to Zoneton Road. A strip of land across the front of the lots along Thixton Lane, about 8/1000's of a mile wide (according to the State Highway Department, which maintains both Thixton Lane (KY2053) and Zoneton Road (KY1116), is the reason. That strip of land is physically in Jefferson County, in the 3rd Congressional District. But, the homes facing Thixton in that stretch are in Bullitt County in the 2nd Congressional District and they vote in a Bullitt County precinct. Nonetheless, every square inch of land has to be in some precinct, and the handful of square inches along Thixton Lane in Jefferson County are in Jefferson County precinct B-167.

We'll skip H-130 for a moment and move to H-140. H-140 is a rectangular piece of property accidentally created due to two things. The realignment of Minor's Lane (or Minor Lane as Louisville-Jefferson County Metro officially calls it) west of I-65 along with the southern boundary of a Senate District line drawn in the 1996 Redistricting caused the creation of H-140. Minor's Lane was realigned to the west but the precinct line follows the old right-of-way. The 1996 boundary had formerly followed the line of Southern Ditch but a part of it was redrawn to follow the right-of-way line of the Outer Loop. This created an area with no voters and about six acres of land, almost all of which is a part of the I-65/Outer Loop interchange in southern Jefferson County.

Skipping over I-127 takes us to M-150. M-150 is some luscious greenspace running along both sides of I-64 in the Irish Hill area near Lexington Road. It was cut-off from M-142 with the drawing of a Senate district in the 2002 Redistricting, and thus had to be assigned a new number. Much of is in the Lady Bird Johnson Greenspace which includes Beargrass Creek and a bikepath on the north side of Cave Hill Cemetery. M-150 could possibly acquire voters at some point since there are a few developable parcels on Lexington Road in this precinct. On the other hand, neither B-167 nor H-140 could ever have any voters, although someone registered at 2800 Outer Loop (which is a McDonald's) was once inadvertently placed in H-140 as opposed to H-134 where the McDonald's is actually located).

N-135 came about in the 2002 Redistriciting in an effort to extend the 43rd House district upriver toward Harrod's Creek, a plan which I would have opposed if anyone had asked me, but State Representative Larry Clark, who had a hand in that redrawing, didn't specifically ask me, although we did discuss it at a luncheon-date in the Fountain Room of the Galt House. It is a strip of land on the northwest side of the old River Road right-of-way, taking in riverfront property, much of which is industrial. At one time prior to the 1937 flood, this area was populated with two communities, one white, one black, separated by Beargrass Creek, which at that time was referred to as the Beargrass Creek Cut-Off, although no one calls it that anymore. Generally known as The Point, this area was inundated in the flood and never recovered. River Road has been widened just southeast of the precinct line to a boulevard, a widening which is scheduled to continue to the northeast eventually to Zorn Avenue. There is a development planned for this area, at the northwest corner of Beargrass Creek and the new River Road, which if ever built, would populate this precinct as well as a part of L117, the precinct of which those people living south of the old River Road right-of-way would be a part.

That leaves I-127 and H-130, neither of which have any voters nor can they. One is for Churchill Downs; the other for the Airport. I can tell you why I believe they are there, but I wont. I'll leave that to your imagination. They were drawn purposefully and for a reason. I'll add that the Fairgrounds, which the State no longer calls the Fairgrounds, but rather calls it the Kentucky Exposition Center, is in H-114, a precinct with 31 voters, 21 of whom are Democrats, 7 are from the Dark Side, 3 are independents, and all of whom are split among the sexes by a 17 to 14 margin in favor of the males. H-114 is a remnant of the old H-119, the old H-114, the old H-130, and part of the old I-104 when Highland Park was still a place and not just a memory. Eventually, with the buyout by the Airport of most of the land that is left H-114 will be voter-less. Until that time, the ability to sell alcoholic beverages on Fairgrounds property is technically in the hands of those 31 voters, if and when they might want to join the temperance movement and make a name for themselves.

Happy Derby Week.

322 - Friday Update

Early in the life in the blog, I would occasionally comment on the variety of locations from which people visited. The last time I made such a report appears to have been about a year ago. Since that time, I have documented visits from all 50 states and about 40 foreign nations. I know that some of the locations aren’t accurate. For instance, the town of Columbus, Indiana has recently begun appearing in the list, and I know exactly who it is when that city appears, but I also know they are reading on a computer here in Jefferson County. I do not know why they show up from Columbus, a cool little city about an hour due north of Louisville known for its architecture among other things. On one of my visits there, I attended a concert at the Saint Christopher Catholic Church where a Jewish festival of some sort was held, which included reading Hebrew from a rolled-up scroll. I have to admit I did not fully understand what was going on, but I did enjoy it.

Looking over the last one hundred visits to the blog, which only takes us back to the middle of the day on the 23rd, there are some interesting places. The most recent visit is listed as coming from 6,794 miles away in Seoul, Korea, followed immediately by visits from Poland and Germany, specifically Gotha Thuringen Germany.

Most of the visits are honestly from the allegedly 16th largest really big town in America, a place called Louisville, Kentucky, that 16th largest line coming from the Mayor of Louisville – Jefferson County Metro, who governs the 386 or so square miles along the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606. Another Kentucky city is my second most listed, Lexington. Some cities appearing on a regular basis are Cox’s Creek and Frankfort in Kentucky, constituting a few of my five faithful readers; as well Washington, DC, where a few more people are specifically monitoring words I write about a particular congressman. A few visits from the Nation’s Capital may be people monitoring what I say about the Senior Senator from our Commonwealth, as they have come from the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee. Another city recently making the list more than a few times is Mountain View, California, where the link has on each occasion has been to www.google.com. I suppose that means someone at Google is looking in on the Left Bank here in Louisville, but I really don’t know that. Nearly all of the pictures that I have posted thus far have been taken from the Google Images site.

.I get lots and lots of visits from addresses ending in .edu, indicating a reader from an institution of higher learning is indeed involved in some higher learning reading the blog - maybe, maybe not. Among the last 100 visits are hits from the University of Louisville (which is a regular), the University of Kentucky, Georgetown in DC, Rutgers, Rensselaer in Indiana, Ohio Northern, and my alma mater, Spalding University. When I see an address I don’t recognize, I will more often than not go visit their webpage, which was the case with Ohio Northern. I’ve visited lots of college campuses (campi?) in this manner. Ohio Northern University is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and located in Ada, Ohio.

Locales from the last 100 visits have included, in addition to those already mentioned, the states of California, Oklahoma, New York, Virginia, Michigan, Alabama, Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Kansas, and Illinois. The foreign countries include single visits from the UK, Canada, Tongji Chongqing China – the most distant at 7,598 miles, and finally someone in Vedelago Veneto Italy, who has visited on more than one occasion.

I know that some governments have famously blocked access to blogs, for whatever reason. The Louisville Metro Government address appears now and then although I know that certain readers are blocked from viewing the blog while others are not – something called either selective access or conversely selective enforcement.

So this entry can be marked as a report and thank you for your selective habit of reading the blog.

321. Earth Day, Equal Pay Day, Election Day, and a few other thoughts

Today is Earth Day, something we learned about in elementary school, back in the days when elementary school included doing Nuclear Warning Drills which meant leaving the classroom with their humongous windows, and coursing into the safety on the interior hallways, where we were asked to do some contortions with our bodies so that our heads were between our knees and protected by our folded arms. This was before any of us knew what yoga was, which is exactly what we were doing, and it is also something none of us could probably do today, given that our weight and height ratios (or probably ratii) are much changed from those days gone by. Now that I really know what yoga is, I have no great desire to repeat the Nuclear Warning Drills I learned at Blue Lick Elementary School back when LBJ was deciding whether or not to seek reelection, a decision he did not announce until March 31 of that presidential election year.


. . . . .With America’s sons in the fields far away, with America’s future under challenge right here at home, with our hopes and the world’s hopes for peace in the balance every day, I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office–the Presidency of your country.

Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.” The last two paragraphs of President Johnson's speech on March 31, 1968.



Today is also something called Equal Pay Day, which I learned only yesterday while listening to a speech by former State Representative and Louisville-area Congressional Candidate Eleanor Jordan, at a meeting of the Jefferson County Democratic Women’s Club held at the All Wool and A Yard Wide Democratic Club in Germantown. [For the sake of full disclosure, I was a consultant in the Jordan for Congress campaign in 2000 and I am an officer of the All Wool and A Yard Wide Democratic Club]. She was there to speak on behalf of the Barack Obama campaign, but being the director of the Kentucky Commission on Women, could not help but do her duty and, after extolling the merits of the Senator from Illinois, went on to announce the merits of Equal Pay Day for women, whether they are from Illinois or not. The bottom line here is that on average women make 77% of the pay of men in the same work-roles, something which should change, but thus far hasn’t. There was also something about wearing red today to bring notice to the event. For the record, after Eleanor’s speech, my good friend and very able volunteer coordinator from the Yarmuth campaign Ben Basil, made a presentation in that same meeting for Senator Hillary Clinton. Ben talked about recent polls showing Senator Clinton’s wide lead in Kentucky and offered to supply to anyone a Clinton sign for their yard. [Again, for full disclosure, Ben and I worked very closely together in the Yarmuth for Congress campaign in 2006, and I consider him a very capable campaign strategist. He has also recently loaned me his copy of Hemingway’s For Whom The Bell Tolls, a book which is honestly an unexpectedly difficult read for me. Like me, he too is an officer of the All Wool Club]. But, I digress.

Today is also Primary Day in Pennsylvania, Thanks Be To God. This Primary season, which started on the day after the last Presidential Election Day in 2004, should be evidence enough that our system of selecting a Presidential Nominee is, to be frank, royally fucked. Having a Super Tuesday serves little purposes for the states involved, other than a select few – namely those with this biggest hauls of delegates. Smaller states (like Kentucky and Indiana) are left out. Because our Primary, as well as Indiana’s, is presently later in the season, though not nearly late enough, attention will be paid by both presidential camps to the voters here along the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606. It is my opinion the Primaries of the states and territories should be spread out over a much longer period of time, perhaps well into June or July. Kentucky’s Secretary of State Trey Grayson has sponsored a plan which is one of several I think would make much better the way we get to a nominee.

Evidence of smaller states’ roles after Super Tuesday arrives tonight with the closing of the polls in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania coincidental with the arrival of Senator Obama in Indiana, which holds its Primary on the Tuesday after Derby Day. He will be speaking in Evansville, which is downriver from here on the Right Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 791. Evansville, by the way, is just below one of those places in the river where the state line follows the older course of water which is no longer the main course of the river, and hasn’t been since the series of earthquakes collectively known as the New Madrid Earthquake in late 1811 and early 1812. Quite a few acres of land lay north of the Ohio while still in Kentucky, including the Ellis Park Race Track, which is along US 41 between Evansville and Henderson. But, I digress yet again.

I was writing of the date of Kentucky’s Primary, an issue I wrote about not too long ago praising a bill (SB3) introduced in the recent General Assembly, where very little was accomplished and very little will be anytime soon unless the governor and others involved in the governance of the Commonwealth commit to a general tax increase to fund the basic operations of those governed, which is to say you and me, assuming you, like me, are a resident of the Commonwealth. This year’s Session of the General Assembly was the worst in recent history. Of course, the last one before this one was the worst upon its completion, as was the one before it. Jill Johnson Keeney, in Sunday’s Courier-Journal, spoke of the way the General Assembly ended in general chaos in both the Republican-held Senate and the Democratic-held House. To know how the laws which passed were forced through would make sausage-making a great and pleasant spectator sport by comparison. Leaders at both ends of the Capital should be hauled out to the woodshed for a respectable lashing from their overseers. But, who are their overseers?

That’s an easy question to answer. You and me – the voters of Kentucky. Many people are often critical of the overall legislature but praise their individual legislator. I like my legislator, Tom Riner, although there are issues on which we disagree. I often send emails to Tom telling him of legislation I either support or oppose and I regularly get a response, which I appreciate. Tom and his wife Claudia were early supporters of candidate John Yarmuth and remain supportive of Congressman John Yarmuth, for which I am grateful. But I will tell Tom the next time I see him how disappointed I am in the accomplishments of the General Assembly, as well as the process by which the General Assembly does what little it does do. I suggest you do the same.

On a side note, only tangentially related, my dear friend Jon Hurst has been named the Kentucky Director for the Hillary Clinton campaign. Jon is one of the smartest people I know and he will do a great job for Senator Clinton, and the truth is I absolutely adore him at times. I do not personally know anyone who knows the political intricacies of this state, from Pikeville to Paducah and Alexandria to Albany, as is sometimes said, anymore than does Jon, although there are a number of us wannabes.

Congratulations, Jon.

Two more thoughts. I mentioned above the 1968 Presidential Primary did not start until LBJ announced he wasn’t running on March 31, Can you imagine if today were only the 22nd day of this season’s Primary?

Finally, today is the 72nd birthday of former Alderman and Councilman Cyril Allgeier, who is frankly is very bad health, celebrating his birthday from a hospital bed in the Norton Audubon Hospital. Cyril, along with my Uncle Don Noble and Jim “Pop” Reddington, both of whom are deceased, introduced me to the rough and tumble, as well as the fun and joy, of old fashioned Ward-healer politics in the old City of Louisville, back in 1975 before people like the Senior Senator from Kentucky and the Mayor of Louisville – Jefferson County Metro forced change (and Republican office holders) on us on November 7, 2000. I would ask you keep Cyril and his wife Mary in your prayers.

$3.59 a gallon

One of the things I most like to do is drive the backroads of Kentucky and southern Indiana and to an extent northern Tennessee. I've been doing it since I got my driver's license back when gas was 63 cents a gallon and milk was $1.68 a gallon. I still like to go camping, sometimes alone, sometimes with friends, but I haven't done much of that either. Last year on this weekend I was down in eastern Kentucky for the Hillbilly Days Festival in Pikeville.

Yesterday, I was at a picnic much closer to home, a political cookout for Ken Herndon in South Central Park, at Colorado and Weller avenues. It is in the neighborhood where my father was raised (on Homeview) when his parents' bakery was at Central and Colorado. After the picnic, we took the leftover burgers and franks down to B-J's Bar which is in the space where my grandparents bakery was fifty years ago. I played a few video games, drank a beer - my third this weekend, which is three more than usual - and left.

With gas at $3.59 a gallon, travelling even to South Central Park is getting expensive. Later today I get to go all the way out to my mother's house to do yard work. That's nearly 24 miles round trip. But, there is usually food, so I guess it is ok.

For me, the price of gas is beginning to take its toll. In the past I've not given it a second thought to venture out into the county and state highways with no agenda or map, ending up in places like Rugby, Tennessee; Belfry or Russellville, Kentucky; or Vincennes, Indiana. Now I know how much it costs to run up to Kroger for a gallon of milk, which is another subject all its own.

So, for the handful of you who visit for the occasional stories of here and there, I apologise for the lack of posting. Those stories will return, I promise. For the moment, you will just have to rely on my memory, which given they took a part of it out with the brain surgery in 2005, may not be what it once was. Maybe. Maybe not.