What a chaotic few days we’ve had in West Tennessee. First we heard about the preacher who was gunned down in Selmer. There was the defeat of the Memphis Tigers, while the Memphis Grizzlies were burning down the house (almost literally). One hundred of our brightest young professionals auditioned for the Apprentice, hoping to join the weeks-long televised interview with that guy with the funny hair (what’s his name again?). Then, of course, there was the politics.

Fresh off his time campaigning with anti-Bush protestors at the SRLC, the always-entertaining Tom Guleff (U.S. House District 9 candidate) sent out a press release this weekend to announce his upcoming gig on the Memphis Real Talk radio program. That same day, news came out that the show’s host, Jennings Bernard, was to be the center of a criminal investigation related to last year’s special election in TN Senate Dist. 29 between Terry Roland and Ophelia Ford. Bernard is one of 44 suspect voters who were to receive residence-verification letters from the State.

Speaking of Terry Roland, he was one of several local candidates who held campaign rallies over the weekend. Another was used car salesman and former Political Cesspool co-host Austin Farley (TN House Dist 97 candidate), who won novelty points for his “Pop-a-Cap” fundraiser just as he lost decency points for his ode to hatred. Also making news at the Farley fundraiser was local activist and frequent MSJ commenter Mickey White (no relation), who plans to run for U.S. House District 7 as an Independent.

Meanwhile, the Tennessee GOP voted to disavow U.S. House District 8 primary candidate James Hart, whose platform is racism disguised as science. Unsurprisingly, Hart was a featured guest on Friday of a local radio program recently added to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “hate watch” list. In related news, a post of ours was recently picked up (and picked apart) by the Memphis Flyer’s Chris Davis.

For those interested, LeftWingCracker has tracked down a list of websites for several District 9 Democratic candidates. In the land of sparse political web presence, the ugly blog is king.