Jackson Free Press

Happy birthday, Todd! Thanks to you and Donna for getting this paper running. You have affected the culture of Jackson in more ways than anyone can know, I think.

So to celebrate Todd's birthday and the paper's three-year anniversary, and because I'm on deadline finishing up a book for Facts on File and too overworked to do anything really original, let's look back on the ten most commented-upon JFP articles in its history. Starting with number ten:

10. It's Mourning in America. 194 posts, from 11/3/04 to 11/15/04.

A quote from the Village Voice summed up the way many Jacksonians felt about the 2004 presidential election, and particularly the "moral values" foolishness--the theory, propagated by media darlings but not really borne out by the polls, that the gay marriage issue won Bush the election. Truth is that the 17.4 percent who voted for Bush on "moral values" did not represent a huge increase over the roughly 16 percent who generally vote Republican on abortion alone, but that mattered not to Fox News, or most other networks, for that matter (though if memory serves right, MSNBC's Olbermann caught the error). Looming fears about the future of the U.S. Supreme Court, in particular, dominated here.

9. [Editorial] On Civil Elections and Civic Journalism. 196 posts, from 11/16/03 to 12/30/03.

This op-ed from Donna, on the race card and the role of progressivism in national politics, generated some fierce debate from the right and led to a thread that is informative on several levels. But progressivism obviously did not cost Ronnie Musgrove, who (inter alia) offered to host Roy Moore's Ten Commandments monument in the state capitol building, the election. Was it a mix of Musgrove's lukewarmness, the poor economy, Bush's popularity in the state, and Barbour's considerable talents as a political operative? And what role did race play in the campaign? (Remember that both high-profile African-American candidates, Barbara Blackmon and Ken Anderson, lost because of the same voters who put Barbour in office.)

8. Frank Melton vs. King Edward. 206 posts, from 7/23/05 to 9/7/05.

Anyone who watched The Bottom Line in its heyday knows that Melton was ready to take it to "that eyesore" some 15 years ago; now that he's mayor, he's rolling up his sleeves and seems ready to reduce it to rubble. Will a last-minute plan to transform the hotel into a profitable landmark be enough to save it? Will the citizens of Jackson have any say in the decision?

7. David Bowen Admonishes Black Mississippians. 209 posts, from 2/17/05 to 5/11/05.

Don't you just love it when a white op-ed columnist gets a righteous sense of authority and entitlement and proceeds to tell African Americans as a whole what they ought to do to make interracial dialogue possible? Does it seem odd to you that he's setting preconditions on a process that has taken place quite well on a small scale, among people who are sincerely interested in progress, for the past, oh, 170 years? Had David Bowen ever heard of Sojourner Truth? But never mind. It's not like we don't whale into him enough in the above thread. And it's not like he doesn't have it coming, too. But the real question is: Why did the Clarion-Ledger print this crap to begin with?

6. Northside Sun: Liberals and Alts LOVE Crime!. 213 posts, from 5/27/05 to 7/1/05.

Yeah. Nothing like a good mugging to get the blood flowing in the morning. Builds character. No comment here, really; how do you respond to a statement like that? Well, I suppose we did, and at great length, for that matter.

5. It's Melton Time: What's Next for Jackson?. 233 posts, from 6/29/05 to 7/25/09.

It's Melton time, indeed. Whether Frank Melton's election as mayor of Jackson will help or hurt the city in the long run is a debatable question, but one fact is clear: It has sure helped the Jackson Free Press. Nothing galvanizes an alternative paper like the opportunity to provide an alternative to something. At this point I was pretty supportive of Melton, and I still am to a certain extent--I think he might do great things for this city if he learns to treat its citizens with a little more respect. Nobody can deny that the man's got skills, and anyone who can get endorsements from the AFL-CIO and Jackson Advocate, and still get more Republican donations than the Republican candidate himself, has the potential to do great things.

4. [Editorial] Oops, They Did It Again. 252 posts, from 11/24/03 to 12/13/03.

They're not that innocent. In this case, "they" are Clarion-Ledger columnists--Orley Hood, in particular--who made more of Chief Moore's "perception" quote than the circumstances really warranted. This thread kind of foreshadows the "perception-gate" problem that would later arguably cost Johnson reelection.

3. Chasing Amy. 260 posts, from 10/16/03 to 10/31/03.

This discussion of the lieutenant governor's race, between incumbent Amy Tuck and Barbara Blackmon, might be worth revisiting in advance of the 2007 lieutenant governor's race--where we are guaranteed a new lieutenant governor due to Tuck's term limit. Was Blackmon's loss in 2003 due to circumstances specific to the campaigns, or does it say something deeper--and much more troubling--about where Mississippi is right now?

2. "Fahrenheit 601": JFP Readers Want Film in Jackson. 264 posts, from 7/5/04 to 10/6/04.

A thread originally about bringing the controversial Fahrenheit 9/11 to Jackson during the 2004 presidential election cycle became a more general discussion about the state of independent film in the capital city. You know, this is really a thread worth revisiting--and two more posts would make it the most active thread in JFP history. But at the moment, that distinction goes to...

1. PROFILE: Frank Melton—Democratic Primary Winner. 265 posts, from 4/27/05 to 5/18/05.

No thread has gotten more attention than JFP's extremely detailed and somewhat controversial biography of then-candidate, now-mayor Frank Melton. In an age where both Harvey Johnson and Frank Melton were reduced to cereal box biographies in other local media, this article took a hard-hitting, critical look at the man who would ultimately coast to victory in the municipal elections without really giving us any idea what he would do once elected. "You know me," his campaign commercial said. But did we really? Ask us again in four years; it seems safe to say that, one way or another, Jackson voters will have a definitive answer to that question.

Previous Comments

ID

103079

Comment

Tom, I'll speak for Todd in saying that I think this is a wonderul birthday present. Thanks! Your commentary is priceless; I'm not sure which is my favoriate, although your summary of No. 7 probably takes the prize. Of course, No. 6 is priceless, too. I always get tickled at the radical-right wingnuts who think that anyone who would, uh, deny a repeal of the 14th Amendment is somehow their ideological opposite on the left. (I'm an extremist, so everyone else is, too, man. Really.) Such goobs tickle me, ultimately, but it was catharctic to take them on one-on-one in that thread when one of them made (and another published) such absurd statements directly about the people on this blog. "Mugging" is simply priceless and oh-so-apropos. Also, I will say that that thread has probably brought us the most support public comments from across the political spectrum than any we have had to date (although the Dr. Johnson one is gaining on it.) I had people last night at ArtMix bring both of those up, and let's just say these people weren't some commies. (As if the winghuts have ever bothed to LOOK UP that word.) It must be awful to try to function in a world where people who don't hide over in utmost right corner of the padded cell with you are loony commies. Talk about out-of-touch, antiquated, downright stupid, fear-based, ulgy, nauseating crap. It's embarrassing how many years people thought such idiots were all we have here in Mississippi. Ha! Welcome to a brave new world. Glad to see that, all around the hold-outs for 19th-century values, our city is moving straight into the 21st century and leaving those guys to blather mindlessly to each other: "liberals love crime, liberals love crimes, liberals love crime, can i have a drink of water, liberals love crime, down with the welfare state, liberals love crime, i want some chicken, too, liberals love crime, liberals love crime" Cheers, brother.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2005-10-07T13:47:20-06:00

ID

103080

Comment

*smile* Glad you liked it! And it always amuses me when people accuse us of communism and class warfare, because you know who would have been condemned for that, if the terms existed at the time? Maybe the guy who said that it's as hard for a rich man to make it into Heaven as it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle... Seriously, are these folks even pretending to read the Bible anymore? Or have they thumped all the pages out of it? Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2005-10-07T21:21:48-06:00

ID

103081

Comment

Tom, you'll get a kick out of this. I was just Googling to find one of my old pieces about children's rights, and I find this post, still sitting on one of Alan Lange's old Web sites. Seems apropos to post it under the discussion of the "liberals love crime!" attack: Funny comment about the ladd/gore invention club. Another thing that annoys me about ladd's so-called "editorials", is the condescending tone towards ayone who doesn't agree with her 100%. Recently and often while giving these lectures to us she uses the term "Our children...." It's always "Our children this...and Our children that...." Just how many children does donna ladd have? Must be alot..Right? Nope..Z-E-R-O. Which makes her all the more silly in her use of the "It's for the children..." rhetoric. Remember Billy Clinton? Change a few years worth of diapers before you shovel anymore crap our way donna. Posted by: Charles at March 30, 2005 06:34 AM Be on the lookout for a muscled up dirty blonde walking around this afternoon over in Fondren. Donna Ladd is doing some mighty heavy lifting for Harvey Johnson this afternoon. Without a doubt she's gone way past pretense. Maybe one of the plumbers dropped off the latest bad poll news. Or she may be setting the stage for an early endorsement since you don't wait until the ship actually sinks to start bailing. Posted by: FUJ at March 31, 2005 04:53 PM ______ If there is anything we have accomplished in three years, it is making about six guys in North Jackson make a$$es of themselves in public on a regular basis. And there is something to say for that, I guess. ;-D

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2005-10-08T11:13:20-06:00

ID

103082

Comment

OK, here's another one, Tom, in the spirit of No. 6 above. I figured out that they were discussing the Ricky Johnston e-mail over on the Free Republic forums and, naturally, it devolved into bashing of the PC liberals -- in this case, the JFP. I have to say that I LOVE it when Freepers go after us; when frothing wingnuts hate you, you know you're on the right track. Anyway, here's a comment about us "Fondren" "liberals": Yes. The Fondren crowd is suicidally Left-leaning and proud of it. They seem to believe that living near the ghetto is evidence of intelligence, open-mindedness and (of course) moral superiority. But in reality, it's just an exciting flirtation with danger. None of them have the cojones to go full-bore and actually live IN the ghetto. On a visceral level, they must know moral superiority isn't worth much six feet under. OK, they may have mischaracterized us (wingnuts always characterize anyone who don't agree with them as the opposite extreme of them), but I am tickled at the "and proud of it." Why the hell wouldn't we be proud of who we are, our compassion, our willingness to think and question the status quo? Seems to me we're kind of an all-American-type crowd. It's also precious that they do the same thing as Mr. Sanders (who incidentally doesn't seem to write a column these days without categorically stereotyping an entire group of people) in trying to turn their bias against the "ghettos" into those of us who not share their prejudice into, somehow, "loving crime." What complete and utter dumba$$es. And cheers to all of us for getting them to display their own idiocy in the most extreme ways on a regular basis. I like to think of this as "bringing the crap to the surface." ;-D

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2005-10-09T10:58:29-06:00

ID

103083

Comment

Whoops! Am I liberal because I post here? I haven't even lived in Fondren. Maybe I just like debates. :)

Author

Ironghost

Date

2005-10-09T23:47:45-06:00

ID

103084

Comment

Yes, Iron, by a wingnut's narrow definition, such as in the column we responded to in No. 6 above, you would certainly be "sicidally Left-leaning." Why? Because you're an independent thinker who dares to question them. For the record, I don't think you are a wingnut at all -- although you don't agree with me all the time. I think you're an independent thinker, and I like you. See the difference?

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2005-10-10T08:59:47-06:00

ID

103085

Comment

BTW, as for living in Fondren -- it would seem that the wingnuts have decided to dump on a neighborhood that has done incredible things, econonomic development-wise, and contains all sorts of people with different backgrounds and views because (a) the JFP promotes the 'hood and (b) the JFP's offices are there. There's a wingnut for you. Split the baby in half if everybody doesn't agree with you. It's shameful the way people like that operate. Fortunately, they're a shrinking minority and their extremism unites other people of different ideas against their extremism. So, they're a necessary evil. If annoying.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2005-10-10T09:02:15-06:00

ID

103086

Comment

I've always been an intellectual rebel since junior high. Sure, it got me odd looks in Physics, but I had fun. :) The problem with a lot of conservatives, I'd hazard a guess, is that they're comfortable in their place, and can't understand why other people don't agree. If they get out, then they've doubled their problems. One is that if they do change ("Woah, this isn't what I was taught. Better drop back and punt.") both sides mock them, causing them to run back to their camp. ("I tried to see it their way, but they made fun of me!") Two, is the other problem. ("SEE!" cries some snotty wingnut "You were Wrong, unbeliever! REPENT!"). Which no one likes. And like you say, anyone looking for a middle ground is run over as quickly as if they were standing on I-55 North at Rush Hour. No one likes a moderate, it seems.

Author

Ironghost

Date

2005-10-10T11:45:34-06:00

ID

103087

Comment

# 8 is top ten. Glad I could be a part of a blog as popular and the King Eddie. It's obviously a very important issue with people in Jackson (including us exiles). If that building is torn down it will make the entire Capital Street west end irrelevant. A building of that size is not replaceable with todays new building construction costs. A hotel/condo/retail/F&B combo would install alot of people on that end of Capital. People that would populate the mill street area. It makes no sense to knock it down.

Author

ATLExile

Date

2005-10-10T12:23:52-06:00