Council's 2008 Report Card

Eric Patrick Marr is a native Lexingtonian, an Ace contributor, community engager, and organizational architect. Last night, during Council's final full meeting of the year, Eric presented the council's horseshoe with his evaluation and their 2008 Report Card, for their organizational effectiveness and profitability, after attending and observing a great deal of their meetings throughout the year.

You can read it, in full, at TransformLexington.blogspot.com. Comments are welcome.

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Marriott Update

Marriott Update
- from David Schankula

Just in case you missed this news which came out after yesterday's letter to Mayor Newberry (see below)...

portfolio.com/news-markets/national-news/reuters/2008/12/09/marriott-cfo-warns-of-tough-2009

Marriott CFO warns of "tough 2009"

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hotel operator Marriott International Inc expects "to have to navigate through a tough 2009," the company's chief financial officer said on Tuesday. Arne Sorenson said in a blog posting on the company's website that Marriott's debt levels and timeshare investment spending were expected to decline next year. The company said in October that it expected revenue per available room, or Revpar, one of the industry's key performance measures, to be down at least 3 percent in North America next year, and Chief Executive Bill Marriott said last month that Marriott's business outlook had deteriorated further.

*Consulting firm PKF Hospitality Research said earlier on Tuesday that it expects U.S. Revpar to drop 7.9 percent next year, citing "the initial stages of one of the deepest and longest recessions in the history of the domestic lodging industry."* Sorenson said Marriott's debt levels would decline next year through a combination of solid cash flow and more modest investment spending. He said Marriott was calibrating its timeshare investments to match weaker customer demand, with a goal of timeshare generating cash in 2009.

"We continue to offer financing for qualified purchasers and expect to be able to securitize these loans in 2009," Sorenson said. He added that Marriott's pipeline of new managed and franchised hotels stood at 130,000 rooms at the end of the third quarter. "One half of these are already under construction and another 10 percent, or so, are financed," he said. Shares of Marriott closed down 52 cents at $16.86 on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Deena Beasley)

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The $200,000,000 Question:

Is CentrePointe really coming to Lexwebbington?

from David Schankula & Willie Davis

NUTSHELL: With hotel developments across the country struggling, Lexington's CentrePointe hotel would be a pro-immigration, pro-gay marriage, pro-porn paradise... but who's going to pay for it?

Dear Mayor Newebberry,

It's been a while. How've you been?

The city council voted in favor of CentrePointe's TIF last week, so we figured it was time to read your 90 page plan for downtown Lexington.

We'd like to start by thanking you for the $3,000,000 proposal for "Enhancing Pedestrian Access" -- filed under "Section E." Sure, it's a fancy name for a pedway but at $3 million that pedway is gonna be pretty fancy. And now, due to your foresight and Lexington's deep pockets, we will be spared the indignity of walking on the sidewalk.

But it gets better! J.W. Marriott, the hotel you want installed in CentrePointe supports nearly everything we believe in. They're to the left of Barry Obama, Kathy Stein, and virtually every other liberal bogeyman you could use to scare up votes.

Marriott is pro-amnesty!
J.W. Marriott dropped some serious coin($240,000) lobbying Congress, the Department of Homeland Security and the Secretary of State to loosen immigration laws.

Bill Marriott, Chairman and CEO of Marriott, says:
"Our company supports changes in the U.S. laws that not only create a path to legal status for immigrants, but also protect the integrity of our U.S. borders."

Amnesty for all. That's our kind of corporation.

Marriott is pro-gay marriage!
A devoutly religious man, Bill Marriott believes in Christianity's message of brotherly love. That's why The J.W. Marriott Company not only provides its employees with a formal diversity program, but was one of the first in its industry to offer domestic partner benefits. And Marriott opposed California's Proposition 8, the ban on gay marriages! While even Democratic politicians pussyfoot around this issue, Marriott took solid action. Given that Lexington has a very sizable gay population, we think you not only made the ethical choice by bringing them here, but a shrewd business move as well.

Marriott loves porn!
The American Family Council, the Family Research Council and James Dobson's Focus on the Family have all targeted Marriott in their campaign against smut, demanding J.W. Marriott remove pay-per-view porn from their in-room entertainment. Despite some good advice from a trusted source, they decided to cast the first stone. But Marriott cast that mother right back! Using the unassailable logic that there's nothing wrong with videotaped sex, provided the participants are consenting, well-compensated, and reasonably attractive, the hotel chain rejected the calls from the moral police.

Not only is porn still available, now it's coming to Lexington!

Most of us liberal Lexingtonians still think that Centrepointe was a scam invented by the Webb Brothers and that your administration has been a series of gruesome train wrecks, but for your choice of the Marriott, we salute you.

We welcome this major corporate voice for Immigrant Rights, Gay Rights, and not just porn but the kind of porn the porn industry is begging for -- the kind you still have to pay money for and can't just get for free over the internet (contrary to what you might have heard, we support free-market capitalism, provided it involves naked people).

Marriott Going Broke?
There is a downside, however, and it leads to an inevitable question we have to lob your way. Where is the $200,000,000 for the CentrePointe Marriott coming from? Turns out, like most liberals (us included), The Marriott is going broke. Just yesterday, a major corporate stock ratings firm lowered itsoutlook on Marriott to "negative." The company's third quarter profits plummeted 28%.

In early October, Bill Marriott told his stockholders, "we reported our third quarter earnings results and also provided observations about business for the rest of 2008 and into 2009. At that time, we expected business in late 2008 and 2009 to decline, but in just the last few weeks our business outlook has further weakened."

Last month in Syracuse, a $31 million, 175-room Marriott Hotel was put on holduntil, at earliest, Spring 2009. The developer blamed problems in the nation's credit market. In Fort Wayne, Indiana a 250-room Marriott -- cornerstone of a controversial $125 million development -- is missing deadlines.

"Because taxes generated by the hotel have already been included in plans to repay some of the city's Harrison Square expenses," the Fort Wayne's News-Sentinel reported, "any significant construction delay could force the city to seek the needed cash elsewhere - further complicating an already tight budget." That hotel's developer blamed the delay on "unparalleled market
conditions."

In Hawaii, Marriott has halted constructionon a $1.4 billion resort project. Marriott's vice president of corporate affairs blamed "uncertain economic conditions." It's unclear when they
might start again. And in Austin, TX, a $275 million, 26-story, 1,000-room Marriott is going nowhere fast. They were supposed to start this year -- now it's sometime in 2009. The Marriott is the biggest of 7 delayed hotel projects in the city.

"The national economic crisis has brought the financing of future hotel projects to a screeching halt," the vice president of PKF Consulting -- a leading hotel-market firm -- told the Austin American-Statesman. That city's paper went on to explain: "The postponement has special irony because of the fierce controversy surrounding the Marriott, which displaced the popular Las Manitas Cafe, a day care center and a folk art store. That set off a citywide debate over preserving local businesses downtown versus the jobs and taxes that development creates." Hmmmm.

The $200,000,000 Question

But you don't need the Marriott hotel chain to teach you about economic priorities, do you Mayor Newebberry? After all, the economic crisis that's crippling identical projects in Syracuse, Fort Wayne, Hawaii, and Austin isn't going to touch Lexington, right?

But wait... your finance minister is telling the Herald Leader, "There's just no way to think that Lexington, Kentucky can escape the financial conditions that are being experienced in the rest of the country."

So what's one option for making up the city's revenue deficit? Layoffs!

And you, Jim Newebberry, are prepared for it. You've already threatened to close five fire stations and layoff 100 cops.

No wonder you're afraid to tell Lexingtonians you're planning to spend $3 million building "pedways" to an empty hotel. Or is it an empty lot? Are you still pretending the hotel will be ready for the Equestrian Games? Progress on this project is moving slower than people caught in the great "pedway" jams of downtown Lexington's thriving Christmas shopping season.

Seriously, Jim: Where is the $200,000,000 for CentrePointe coming from?

Because reckless spending in a lousy economy has so far created massive debt, potential layoffs, and a gigantic crater in the ground where downtown Lexington used to be. So maybe you'll forgive us for not assuming you have a meticulous, well-thought out plan. You might as well tell us now. You'll have to tell the Kentucky state government next month anyway. Unless Marriott backs out before you get to Frankfort.

How is your Marriott the only Marriott in the country immune from the bad economy?

Inquisitively, your loyal Lexingtonians,
David M. F. Schankula and Willie Davis

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15 x 15 x 15

by Eric Patrick Marr

-

At today's UK Athletics Department board meeting, Dr. Lee Todd opened the floor for Mitch Barnhart to unveil his 7-year vision for UK Athletics. Barnhart's plan, as the name "15 x 15 x 15" illustrates, is threefold:

1. Win 15 Conference or National Championships by 2015
2. Be ranked in the Top 15 in the Directors' Cup standings by 2015
3. Serve as a stronger and brighter beacon of light for the state of Kentucky, with possible emphasis on stimulating eastern Kentucky's economy and people

Barnhart also wants the 500 Wildcat student-athletes to have a cumulative/average GPA of 3.0. For comparison's sake, UK finished last year ranked #36 in the Director's Cup race, up from around #49 when Barnhart took office as A.D.; UK has won 15 championships in the last 15 years, making 15 more - in the next 7 years - a bold and aggressive proposition; and UK's athletic body averages around a 2.92-2.95 GPA, currently.

Barnhart also shared some of the latest information on UKAD's relationships with Nike, IMG College (formerly Host Communications), Gatorade and ESPN, showcasing that even during these challenging financial times, their long-term contracts provide much needed stability. UKAD's current budget of $67M puts them in the middle of the SEC pack. Barnhart also repeated some of the previously discussed information on the new downtown basketball arena, coupled with Commonwealth Stadium's renovations, a new baseball complex, and some updated configurations for the softball and soccer facilities.

Read EPM's full blogs at TransformLexington.

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Rock You Like a Hurricane

posted by Kevin Faris

If I am going to quote The Scorpions I would have preferred "Winds of Change," not the least of which because it features a whistle solo. Why don't more groups feature the whistle solo? Off the top of my head "Patience" by Guns and F'n Roses is the only one I can think of. However, because the Cats lost to a quality team in the Miami Hurricanes, again, and the coach continued to play less talented players, again, there is no change.

Let me start by saying I feel the anger put forth by Eric Patrick Marr. As a fellow Kyle Macy basketball camp alum I can feel the frustration. However, I think the reason for the loss can be narrowed down to two reasons. One of which Billy G. has control over and one of which he does not.
Reason 1: Starting Michael Porter over DeAndre Liggins.
In the post game presser, Billy G. stated what most of us know. The team has a bad habit of getting off to bad starts against good teams. Unlike the rest of us, he stated that he does not know why that is. Whether it is getting the ball to Patterson, not allowing your man to drive by you, or being a legit scoring threat, there is not one thing on the basketball court that Porter does better than Liggins.

I don't like to say a player sucks. Rather, I think it is better to point out what he can or cannot do. Porter is a tough, gritty kid. If I had my head busted open like he did I doubt I would be back out there a few days later. However, when it comes to basketball talent, he is completely outclassed by Liggins, who had some Rondo-esque drives to the basket last night.

Liggins is not perfect and will make mistakes, however most of these appear to be of the mental variety, taking a bad shot, throwing a pass to hard, or trying to force a pass when it is not there. This is something that can be fixed with experience. Porter does not make the same mental mistakes, but his physical ability is far behind Liggins. Porter's defenders will point out he only had one turnover. That does not prove he had a good game, it simply proves he did not have a horrible game. When Porter is booed at Rupp or ripped on message boards and radio shows, I don't completely blame the fans. Billy G. deserves some of the blame for repeatedly putting Porter in a position where he cannot succeed. UK has a lot of problems that can be connected to coaching, but not playing your most talented players is the most glaring and the most easily remedied.

Reason 2: No Ramon Harris.
I am surprised more people have not mentioned this. UK, despite having 20 players on the bench, is not a deep. The loss of Harris hurts. While Darius Miller is a talented freshman, at this point in their respective careers Harris is WAY better at defense and also better at offense. Miller passed up a lot of open shots last night and is only 1-9 from 3 point range on the season. When Miami has a full complement of players, including their star guard who only played 5 minutes in their loss to Ohio State and another key sub who was suspended, they are better than a less than 100% UK.

What was lost last night was not simply a game, but a chance to chalk up a key non-conference win for the post season resume and a chance to rally the fans and help them forget the early season setbacks against VMI and UNC. UK should be 10-3 heading into their game against UL, which, while a better record than last year, falls short of UK fans expectations.

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You Can't Be Serious

You can't be serious. The University of Kentucky did not just lose to the Miami Hurricanes. Is this football? No. This is basketball.

You can't be serious. Patrick Patterson, one of the nation's top 5 scorers, percentage-wise, again does not get enough touches? Only 13? While brick-laying Liggins (6 for 15) and Meeks (4 for 17) both shoot more than a potential NBA lottery pick? And this isn't the first time this has happenend, it's about the 30th time. In 40 games.

You can't be serious. Michael Porter starts? Again? After getting his left eye knocked in, last game? After sucking all season long, at point guard? After sucking last year? Well, that paid off well. He had 5 fouls in just 17 minutes. Porter couldn't guard ME, and I'm slower than molasses.

You can't be serious. Perry Stevenson plays over Josh Harrellson? What about Stevenson's sorry self deserves playing time over Josh's big body? Perry was 3-10, by the way, from the floor, while Josh was 3-5 in just 8 minutes.

You can't be serious. Darious Miller is 0-6 from the field? DeAndre, as well as he played, is 0-8 from threeland? As a team, we are 2-23 from behind the arc? Meanwhile we allow them to go 8 for 19 behind said arc?

We let yet another no-name program come into hallowed Rupp Arena and show us up? Like they're our daddy? On national TV? AGAIN?

YOU. CANNOT. BE. SERIOUS.

After the game, Gillispie blamed the loss on:

• Not carrying out assignments
• Not pushing the pace
• Not moving the ball, swinging it fast enough, against their zone
• Not doing what we're supposed to do
• Not playing inside-out
• Not moving, just standing around
• Not enough passion

I blame it on coaching, plain and simple.

These are basic, fundamental basketball principles we all learned at Kyle Macy's basketball camp, back as kids. This isn't rocket science, and there's no legitimate reason why our Kentucky Wildcats should even come CLOSE to playing so pathetically. One of the first things low post players are taught is "hold the ball high, where the birds fly. Don't go low, where the guards go." Yet what does UK do, when the game is on the line? Patterson, at 6'9", tries to dribble from the top of the key like he's Dwayne Wade... he gets picked... they run out and shoot an open 3 to take a 9 point lead, with just 2 minutes to go. GAME. OVER.

SOMETHING. IS. WRONG. Something is dead, dead wrong. With our coaching, with communication, with our leadership. With a lot of things. It. Is. OBVIOUS.

It pisses me off. Some of these dudes don't deserve to wear Kentucky on their chest. My Tates Creek's squad of 1991, who finished 2nd in the State, could beat this team. Darrin Horn (now the coach at South Carolina), Keith Willard and John-Mark Stuart played REALLY smart. These Wildcats often look like they've never seen a 2-3 zone before.

-- Eric Patrick Marr writes at WhiskyTown and Transform Lexington (when he's not irate beyond comprehension.)

(photo from Alex Orlov)

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College Kids are... Kids

-- Kevin Faris

Update: Ramon Harris was released from UK's Chandler hospital today, in good condition. He's listed as day-to-day, as far as basketball goes. Michael Porter received 10 stitches last night and is also day-to-day.

After UK’s 103-61 victory over Lamar last night, former UK great Kenny Walker was probably correct in calling it the kind of game everyone can feel good about. The starters played great, the subs played great, the offense was great, the defense was great, and seriously, what about Darius Miller’s slam in the 2nd half!?!…..well, you get the idea.

However, for anyone who watched the game at home, or sat in the crowd at Rupp Arena, it is clear that game was not great for everyone. The Wildcats’ most complete performance of the year was marred by a violent head on collision between starters Michael Porter and Ramon Harris about half way through the first half, during a loose ball situation. Although the viewers at home may have seen the replay, the crowd at Rupp did not. During the 10-20 minutes that both players lay on the floor a silence fell over Rupp that, for me at least, drove home a point I often forget. These guys aren’t guys. They’re kids.

Let me be the first to admit that over the course of my life I have cussed, cursed, stomped, yelled, and flat out refused to believe that certain players were on the court or the field. Whether it was Saul Smith, Sheray Thomas, or Michael Hartline, their mere presence ticked me off. Although I never booed a college player, there were plenty times I wanted to. This year, for a lot of UK fans, Porter and Harris are those players. Two highly ranked freshmen, DeAndre Liggins and Darius Miller, are sitting on the bench ready to sub in for these guys, and despite the fact that Porter and Harris have given 100% effort to the team, a lot of fans are ready to kick them to the curb and play the kids. In our desire to win we sometimes forget the people we boo and curse are 18-22 year old kids. They are college students who put in ungodly hours of physical and mental work on the court and in the classroom. They are college students with parents who still worry about them, and in Porter’s case a wife. Do you remember when you were in college? Do you remember all the time you wasted doing nothing, times that are probably some of your best memories? These kids don’t have that luxury. And when they do, the constant threat of one stupid action that leads to an arrest, one stupid picture that ends up on a website, or one stupid decision that lands them on the front page of the LHL hangs over their head. If these kids did what I did during the Winter semester of my junior year at Centre, they would have not only been kicked off the team, but they could face possible deportation (don’t ask).

Anyway, hopefully, as Porter and Harris received medical attention, we all were reminded that the kids who wear the blue and white for the University of Kentucky are not highly paid professionals, but in fact college students and people. The good news is that Porter returned to the bench with 10 stitches over his eye and reports from UK are that Harris is doing fine but is being kept for observation and testing.

So, the next time a kid screws up, and trust me it is going to happen a lot, remember we root for the University of Kentucky. A college full of college students.

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The Mustache Audit

We suggested in last night's LFUCG work session post that it might be wrong to audit someone because of their mustache (understandable, but wrong).

Ace's Alert Reader, Joan, sent us this post from HuffPo... Upon reflection, perhaps we spoke too soon. Perhaps audits WOULD be a deterrent.

huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/03/the-year-of-the-mustache_n_147968.html

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The Power of Local

Lexington City elders took a big, pricey trip to Austin earlier this year for "inspiration" and no doubt picked up a big, beautiful Austin Chronicle while they were there. The Chronicle is a longtime role model for Ace (along with the Nashville Scene) -- Austin would not be the same city without it.

Just as one example, there would be no "South by Southwest" - and who wants to live in a world where there's no SXSW?

The power of buying locally is something that alt-newsweeklies have been hammering since they first took off about 40 years ago. (Ace, founded in 1989, is a relative youngster as we prepare to turn 20 in '09.) This is a gospel Ace has been preaching for two decades — we still have the tote bags!

It's one of the principles Ace was founded on; and we're delighted to see a Buy Local/Locavore movement gathering increasing steam. (When we first added "Best restaurant for locavores" as a category in the Best of Lex Readers' Poll, not everybody knew what it was. Then the word went straight from trendy to passe when Brooke Shields cooked "a locavore Thanksgiving" on a "very special episode of Lipstick Jungle." Who cares? Even latecomers are welcome to this bandwagon, and it's no surprise to us that our smart friends over at the Austin Chronicle have done a little of the math on the subject.

Ace intern Michael Porter came across this on their website: "'if every Chronicle reader this month shifts $100 in holiday spending to a local, independently-owned store, it will equal more than $40 million to help the Austin economy."

I wonder what that statistic would look like for Lexington.

Their website is austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/AdIndex/GiftPages.

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LFUCG Work Session Highlight

Ya' gotta wonder why a councilmember would object to an airport audit because the impetus was theoretically "based on a newspaper article."

Based on...? Inspired by.... Who cares? Anybody heard of WATERGATE?

Now, an audit based on a 70's era mustache... Well sure. That'd be... Uh... Wrong. (Understandable maybe, but still wrong.)

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Work Hard for the Money?

If you're a small biz, hand a little more over to LFUCG.
-- Guest Opinion, by Andrew Wyllie

[Work Hard for the Money? will appear on Page 5 of this week's Ace, on stands Thursday, Dec 4.]

If you ask anyone who has started their own business, they will tell you that it is a lot of work. You have to deal with three levels of government, make sure you have all the required licenses, set up business bank accounts, get insurance, and maybe even hire a lawyer and or accountant for accounting and tax advice. This is true even if you don't plan on having a lot of business activity.

For example, someone with a full time job a may want to set up a small side business to sell their photography or art work in hopes that it may some day turn into a full fledged business. A student may need to set up a small business to help pay for school. Many people have hobbies that are considered businesses because they generate some revenue. In our current financial climate, many people may be cutting back on their business income to try to get stable employment, like construction contractors taking full time work at the local big box hardware store but keeping their business open just in case some work comes along.

Well now in Lexington, you can add another $100 of prepaid tax onto your businesses'expenses if you don't plan on making more than a few thousand dollars.

The new annual minimum license fee "bill" from the LFUCG arrived in most small-business mailboxes just in time for Thanksgiving.

No one likes paying taxes, but most people can understand why we need them.

Currently if you own a business in Lexington, you are required to pay an Occupational License Fee. It's not a huge amount compared to state and federal taxes, just 2.25% of your net earnings. So, if you made a net profit of $2000 selling photographs, you would have to pay the city $44.50 in business tax. That's not a big deal although it is a bit of a pain to fill out all the paper work (which is actually pretty complicated) just to send a check in for forty or fifty dollars a year. With the new plan, you are now required to prepay $100 in tax, so if you wind up only owing $44.50, you lose the other $65.50. Or to put it another way, your tax rate goes UP if you make less money.

Here's the reasoning for the new tax (from Mayor Newberry's budget address on April 8th, 2008): "... there are hundreds of businesses filing for licenses, yet they generate no revenue for the community. In those instances, the fee [the $100] will serve to pay for the cost of administering the program or will serve to discourage businesses which are not active from filing for a license. In FY09, this fee will generate approximately $2.7 million, and in subsequent years, we anticipate that it will add approximately $1.4 million each year."

Basically, what he is saying is that there are business in Lexington (actually about 12,000 of them) that are filing for licenses but then don't have much if any net income. Well, like I described above, there are lots of small business out there that are just small side interests or hobbies which maybe just generate a small amount of money. To suggest that these businesses should pay the city so that the city can in turn afford to processes the returns of these small businesses is a bit ludicrous —it's a 'make work' project funded by people who can't really afford to pay for it.

So now, it gets even worse for these very small business in Lexington. If you are running a small side business (you or your spouse work full time), you may not be able to write off many expenses, and even though the business does not generate much revenue, you will be taxed at a higher rate as the profits are added to your regular income. So, going back to the $2000 in net profits selling photographs: You're looking at 25% in federal income tax ($500), 15% federal self employment tax ($300), 6% state tax ($120), state business taxes (flat $165, for a LLC) and Lexington's $100 = $1185 in taxes or a marginal rate of roughly 60%. Surely anyone in this position is doing it as a labor of love. If you just wanted to make money, you would be better off with a part time job at Target.

Other cities that we are trying to emulate, that are vibrant and foster the creative class tend not to place any taxes on these types of small businesses. In Austin Texas, they have no business license requirements. Same for Boulder Colorado although they do have a city sales tax. In Bellevue Washington, you need to pay a one time registration fee of $29.00, but then only pay taxes if your gross income is over $135,000.

It seems to me that the city could save a lot of time and money by using rules similar to those of Bellevue WA. Have a registry of businesses set up for a nominal fee, but only tax businesses that are making above a set gross income limit. This would reduce the amount of labor required to process the 12,000 tax forms with zeros all over them and remove the need to generate another $1.4 million in revenue to pay for this processing. The key though is to encourage people who want to run a small business in Lexington, not make yet another hurdle for them to jump over.

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Ace on Facebook: LFUCG's new Annual Minimum License Fee. Discuss.

Lexington's small business owners got a surprise Thanksgiving gift from LFUCG earlier this week: a new annual minimum license fee.

The notice-slash-invoice reads: "Chapter 13 of the Code of Ordinance has been revised to provide for an occupational license and an annual minimum license fee." The explanation of the fee reads, in part: "Every business entity must pay $100, even if there is no physical location in the urban county."

This is what Ace's Facebook Page is chatting about today.

Andrew writes: "It just seems unnecessary. I'm a software engineer who does consulting work. I'm going back to school to hopefully get a Masters or PhD. I don't really want to shut my business down, just in case someone (read: old clients/friends) need a bit of work done — simple stuff that is worth a bit more than a couple of beers, but not much more than that. So now, I get to shell out another hundred dollars — due at Christmas time no less — for basically just existing. It's not like I'm using any city services or anything like that. Then, on the other hand, the city gives large companies tax breaks so that they will move in. I guess it's just the cost of not doing business..."

If you'd like to share your perspective on the Annual Minimum License Fee, for Page 5 of next week's Ace, please email us more about what you do and how the fee will impact your business at editor@aceweekly.com.

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Sports: Beat Like a Rented Donkey

Cats more lame than wild as they throw away season opener
Eric Patrick Marr
Photo by Alex Orlov

** Addendum (Wed. Nov. 19). We just got embarrassed, humiliated and disgraced on national TV last night. Again. This time against Carolina. This is absolutely ridiculous. Ace's Top Dog can dribble and pass better than some of our players, it seems. ESPN's Gameday panel was ripping on us and laughing at us. Something is j-a-c-k-e-d...

#$%!#$%^&*!#$

I'm sorry for cussing. Yet... I'm so not. I HATE losing. I HATE IT, I HATE IT, I HATE IT. I cannot stand it.

We lost to !#$#$%^& Virginia Military Institute?! Isn't that a nursing home? Are you kidding me? After all of this, after enduring last year's horrific losses to Gardner Webb, San Diego State, UAB and Houston, we OPEN UP this season with a big thud?

What the ....?

It was 19-5 before we even got the fireworks smoke cleared out from the player introductions. They made something like 8 of their first 9 three-point shots, all wiiiiiiiide open. We looked completely lost out there, like a bunch of 2nd graders who'd never seen a basketball before.

We committed 25 turnovers that VMI turned into 38 points or something. Michael Porter, son, if you're gonna keep coming out and wearing our state's name on your jersey, then quit coming out afraid. Quit being nervous, for Christ's sake. Pete Carroll at USC wouldn't accept you being nervous and timid. You'd get your clock cleaned playing Wide Receiver in that fashion. Play your game, dude, take it to 'em. You gotta quit playing on your heels, you're getting keep getting killed and it sets the tone for the whole entire team getting killed.

All Wildcats, WTF is up with all these crazy passes and dribbling skills that rival a 3-year old girl's? Damn, my friends and I, we aren't overly athletic, but we aren't THAT STUPID. You guys played like you were up against the USA Dream Team that just captured Beijing gold. You let them dominate you with their defense, especially in the first half, and when they had the ball, you left them wide open, repeatedly, time after time.

Now granted, Jodie Meeks, you played your ass off. My god, I'm glad to have you back on our team. Holy crap we missed you like crazy, last year. Now you just gotta whip your teammates into (mental) shape. You and Patterson gotta take charge, bro.

By far our best five-man set is Patterson, Meeks, Darius Miller, DeAndre Liggins and Perry Stevenson. Their athleticism and playmaking ability is something we've been lacking in Rupp for too many years now. It's good to have some real Kentucky Wildcats back in uniform. DeAndre made one VERY critical mistake, late in the 2nd half, when every possession counted more than ever. On a fast break attempt, he came down and got called for charging, yielding one of his 7 turnovers. Once he learns to control the game (I liken him to Troy Smith, the Heisman Trophy winner from Ohio State a couple of years ago), and not make the costly mistake, he'll be really good for us.

I love what Darius Miller brings to our Kentucky Wildcats. His athleticsm, his length, his passion to play Kentucky Basketball is sweeet. (And since when is slapping the backboard after a highlight dunk a technical foul?)

Perry Stevenson alternates between playing like Arnold Schwarzenegger and playing like he couldn't care less that Dr. Naismith even invented the game of basketball. That frustrates me, and I think most fans.

After the game, during the press conferences, Coach Gillispie said, "they listened to their scouting report better than we did." Fellas, you play for KENTUCKY. You don't play for yourselves. If you don't like that fact, then go play somewhere else. Go play for Virginia Military Institute where no one cares about you, or basketball.

You better bring your A Game from now on, every time you suit up, because you have 4 million people who care about every step you take, every pass you make, and every shot you attempt. You better not EVER not listen to your coaches' scouting report. EVER AGAIN.

You got beat by a bunch of dudes who hadn't beaten a Div-I school in years. For some of them, their coach said, it was their first college game EVER.

And YOU were at home, on opening night, in front of 23,000+/- fans who'd been waiting all summer and fall for this night.

And you lost it for us.

#$%^&*!^?$

You owe us for this one. You owe us, big time. Bigtime.

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What's the Matter with Kentucky?

Guest Essay by David Schankula

Electoral map from fivethirtyeight.com

Election over! Let’s recap.... Barack Obama is our new President. According to Bill Cosby and Karl Rove, Obama’s historic win is due in part to Cliff and Claire Huxtable, the First Family of 1980s television. According to most everyone else, it’s due to the yawning gap between the Republican party and the reality that is most Americans’ lives. Obama’s victory is part of a larger political picture.

In the midterm elections two years ago, Democrats picked up 30 seats in the House and six in the Senate. This year, that national swing continued. Democrats wrenched at least another six Senate seats and 20 more in the House from Republican control. And they’re not even done counting the votes.

Three incumbent Republican Senators are still hanging on for dear life—in Minnesota, Georgia, and Alaska; and four races remain undecided in the House—in California, Ohio, Virginia, and Alaska. The Democrat appears to be an all-but-declared winner in that Virginia race. If so it continues a remarkable flip-flop for our neighboring commonwealth, a historically Republican state, where the Governor’s mansion and both US Senate seats have switched from Red to Blue in recent years.

The GOP’s problem in Alaska is even clearer. Even if both Republicans—Senator Ted Stevens and Representative Don Young—ultimately win, their protracted battles clearly define the party’s great weakness: Republicans are not who they claim to be. Stevens is a convicted felon and, after years of palling around with criminals, Young is under federal investigation for corruption. Both men are hanging on for dear life in a state swooning with love for Republican governor Sarah Palin. With her at the top of the ticket they should have cruised to victory, but when Alaska finally counts all its votes (and up to 100,000 votes might still be missing), these guys may just end up being two more Republican losers. This is the 21st Century Republican Party.

The original Republican Party was born in 1854, under a banner of abolitionism and small-government. Its ideology flourished in New England but over the past 150 years, the Party’s platform has changed, and now America’s north-eastern states are solidly Democratic. Over the past several elections those few Republicans who remain have steadily lost their seats. Lawrence Cafero Jr., the Republican leader of Connecticut’s House of Representatives, told the Associated Press that the party’s national image has damaged his state GOP. He knows when the problem started, too: with Newt Gingrich’s 1994 “Republican Revolution,” when a group of 50 firebrand ideologues took Washington by storm and wasted half a decade alternately shutting down government and investigating Cuban cigars. “They lost their way,” Cafero said, “and I think
more and more New England people, especially those who were Republicans basically because of smaller government and less government intrusion into our lives, started to see their party led by people whose foremost issues were social issues, religious and values and morals, etc.”

So, New England went Blue. In Levittown, Pennsylvania a different sort of change has taken place. A postwar suburban blueprint of a town where 17,000 houses were built and no blacks were allowed, the biggest obstacle facing Democrats this year was race. As the New York Times reported this past Sunday: “A lot of people in Levittown needed the five months between the primary election and Tuesday to get used to a new idea. After Mrs. Clinton’s defeat, followed by a financial crisis that shook Americans to the core, they came to terms. If Mr. Obama’s race had been a factor, they eventually had to weigh it against other concerns. “For a long time, I couldn’t ignore the fact that he was black, if you know what I mean,” Mr. Sinitski, the heating and air-conditioning technician, told me. “I’m not proud of that, but I was raised to think that there aren’t good black people out there. I could see that he was highly intelligent, and that matters to me, but my instinct was still to go with the white guy.”

But the change was simple. Ultimately, in the face of a never-ending war in Iraq and a cataclysmic economic collapse, race didn’t matter much to the voters of Levittown. In 2004 they’d given their votes to George W. Bush. Four years later, they voted for Barack H. Obama.

And so did Pennsylvania. By 11 percent.

If comparing Obama’s win to Bush’s previous ones is instructive, setting it against Bill Clinton’s 1992 triumph is positively enlightening. Political math whiz Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com crunched those numbers and found that while Democrats had yielded a handful of states including Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia—the DNC had offset those losses with big wins, from a clean sweep of the Northeast to big gains across the West. “Essentially,” they wrote, “by sacrificing 50 or so Electoral Votes from the inland South, the Democrats have taken about 60 votes from former swing states and turned them into Lean Democratic states, and another 44 or so from former lean Republican states and turned them into swing states. This is a good trade-off.” And sure, maybe it’s a good trade-off for the nation—hell, Barack Obama’s the President!

But what does it mean about Kentucky? Why are we bucking a national trend? With the election now over, it is time to take stock and set a course for the future.

So here’s a simple question: What’s the matter with Kentucky?

■ David Schankula is a founder of The Lexicon Project, a member of ACE Weekly’s Community Advisory Board, and a child of Lexington’s 3rd District. He can be reached at david@lexiconproject.com.

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