The Econ Posse
So, in Tennessee we get national news for the asshattery of Arlington mayor Russell Wiseman, which really still amazes me. Grasping at straws is a bit crazy and the whole thing just reeks of stupid. I love this state. I sometimes wish the Economic Development guys would get a posse out when a Tennessee politician does something that makes potential investors in industry interested in this state look at, I don’t know, Arkansas instead.
It would be cool to have Sergio Leone Clint Eastwood type of econ development superheros here in the state that went and had “meetings” with politicians that don’t get it. These politicians, of course, comprise more than just Wiseman.
It would go like this:
Econ Posse: Senor, we have heard that you put Tennessee in a bad light in the international world of business. We just showed three empty plants that used to have thriving businesses that now set abandoned. We were told that they would not come to us because they heard what you said. What do you say for yourself?
Dumb Politician: I didn’t mean it. I was caught up in the thrill of my 1,000 friends on Facebook. Oh for the love of all that’s good, I DIDN’T MEAN IT. (In my mind, there is a lot of crying at this point.)
Econ Posse: We must punish you.
Dumb Politician: (In the spirit of fairness, there are more than one.) What can I do, oh scary Econ Posse?
Econ Posse: You can make it right or we will be back. There are people hungry and tired. Good people that want to work. You will make this right.
Dumb Politician: (on his/her knees) Yes, Econ Posse, yes. Don’t hurt me. I will make it right.
Econ Posse: Yes you will.
Cue the Ennio Morricone music where the Econ Posse rides away into the sunset while a quivering man stands behind them, knowing what he must do to bring more industry to the state of Tennessee, where here in the west we still have double digit numbers in unemployment, instead of talking of wedge issues.
My fantasies have Ennio Morricone scores behind them.
Sue me.
P.S. Mayor Wiseman, I’m thinking of those troops that left last week from this state, all of them might have been interested in what the president was saying.
He is their commander-in-chief you know.
So, if it had taken, say, the place of the Grinch, would it have meant he was NOT eco-friendly because, you know, he cancelled the green guy?
Russell Wiseman has one of those faces that you just want to beat until his lips fall off. I don’t know what it is about some of these Republican politicians in this state. They have weird shaped heads and some of them remind me of vegetables.
Wiseman reminds me of a rutabaga with ears.
Maybe it’s me….I dunno. But he still needs a lipectomy.
I was doing some Christmas phone calls to friends on the west coast and every single one had heard about the Tennessee religious idiot person. There IS something a little strange here. In the City of Arlington website there is a page for each council person and the mayor, and each person’s brief biography is described. Almost every person has a section “Religion”. That would be considered personal or irrelevant in many places, or it would be thought wrong to parade ones religion in a political/civic City web page. (Weren’t the Pharisees scolded for publicly praying and making a show of their supposed faith?)
Anyhow, the big surprise for me is that First Capital Bank in Germantown hasn’t realized the peril that Russ Wiseman, a Commercial Loan Officer there, put the bank. Banks aren’t supposed to discriminate on the basis of religion, but their own loan officer belittled a fellow Christian because any “real” Christian could describe his religion in one word, Wiseman said. So he accused Obama and his supporters of being Muslim (which Wiseman didn’t capitalize). Using the Muslim religion as an epithet is probably a bad idea if you are a loan officer for a TARP receiving bank since somewhere in the operation of a bank someone must have told the bank president that discriminating against Muslims is a bad idea, especially if you have put your disgust for them in writing. Certainly they must have an employee or two who would prefer more than one word to describe his or her religion.
Bottom line: maybe Tennessee is a heaven on earth where there are no disgruntled employees feeling themselves to be in a hostile work environment and a place where all borrowers are having an easy time repaying and are having no problem refinancing. Well then, First Capital is okay. But in the real world, Wiseman confirmed the country’s view that Tennessee is for bigoted hicks and he put his employer into peril.
stoptennesseebigot.blogspot.com The best way for Tennessee to redeem itself is for there to be a couple of nice news stories about how local citizens sued First Capital Bank of Germantown Tennessee into bankruptcy. Then people know that Tennessee has hicks, but it has finally entered the 20th Century and may enter the 21st sometime in the next 20 years.
Jim Bailey
Investor, Former Bank employee