When Cheaters Prosper

SouthComm CEO Chris Ferrell has sent a boot-in-your-ass letter to Alexia Poe, the Governor’s Director of Communications:

I expect the Governor to publicly apologize to him for this violation of his rights and to assure the people of Tennessee that this administration will not interfere with the right to a free press that has been a fundamental right in this country since our founding.

Somehow, I doubt that apology is forthcoming, since the Governor plans on arresting people again tonight.

We feel that we have grounds to enforce the policy.

I just wanted to link to Matt Taibbi’s piece on why this is not just “losers” who are jealous of the success of “winners,” because I think he gets right to the heart of what a ludicrous belief that is.

And we hate the rich? Come on. Success is the national religion, and almost everyone is a believer. Americans love winners.  But that’s just the problem. These guys on Wall Street are not winning – they’re cheating. And as much as we love the self-made success story, we hate the cheater that much more.

In this country, we cheer for people who hit their own home runs – not shortcut-chasing juicers like Bonds and McGwire, Blankfein and Dimon.

That’s why it’s so obnoxious when people say the protesters are just sore losers who are jealous of these smart guys in suits who beat them at the game of life. This isn’t disappointment at having lost. It’s anger because those other guys didn’t really win. And people now want the score overturned.

All weekend I was thinking about this “jealousy” question, and I just kept coming back to all the different ways the game is rigged. People aren’t jealous and they don’t want privileges. They just want a level playing field, and they want Wall Street to give up its cheat codes

I would add that, specifically in Tennessee’s case, we would like the Governor to give up the “I made up a rule and called it a law” and “I’m using the THP to enforce a ‘law’ that’s not really a law” and “I arrest journalists who try to cover me violating Tennesseans’ first amendment rights” cheat codes.

Edited to add: The Boston Globe has a great story on the protestors.

And holy shit, the THP arrested Jonathan Meador for smelling like alcohol and appearing “to be intoxicated and unable to care for himself.” This says to me that they know the arrests won’t stand (otherwise, why didn’t they subject him to a breathalizer?) and are just making up bullshit reasons.

That’s really, really not good.