The Tennessee Liberal

Shameless Poker Promotion!

2008-12-15T14:28:00.001-05:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

The WBCOOP is an online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers.

Registration code: 582229

Carnage in Tennessee

2008-12-05T14:22:00.000-05:00

So, I'm over my post-election revelry and the sobering reality of what my statesmen have done has set in. For the first time since Reconstruction, Tennessee is now completely red.

Some of you know I worked pretty hard on a local State House race in 2006, and in the process I learned a ton about what it means to elect Democrats at the state level. It's a hard battle, but one that has kept our state from being as bad as our famously-awful neighbors to the South.

Worst of all: it will never be blue in Tennessee again. Republicans will have the power to redistrict in 2010. We have a LOT of work to do in Tennessee in the weeks, months and years ahead.

Happy Days Are Here Again!

2008-11-05T09:00:00.000-05:00

I have had this song on my iTunes for eight long years. I so badly have wanted to "sing the song of cheer again," and now I get to. There was an unbelievably great party last night for the local Obama vols in the Sunsphere, and the win in North Carolina, where we pretty much have exclusively focused our efforts was SWEET.

It looks like things didn't go so well here in Tennessee, but the details will be sorted out in the days ahead. In the meantime, I'm planning to celebrate for a good week or two... and start trying to find me some tickets to DC on Jan. 20!

Cough Landslide Cough

2008-10-15T19:45:00.000-04:00

Well, this is possibly going to get really ugly. Obama is building insane momentum, and I'm not sure anything can stop him. I think what is most amazing is that there's clearly no one waiting in the wings with an October surprise. Maybe some kind of October plea for mercy?

I'm a bit of a poker player in my spare time these days, and it feel like Obama is the massive chip leader heads-up against McCain. For McCain to pull it off, he'll have to go all-in not once or twice, but many times, just to get the point where he could even put Obama on the defensive. To stretch this further, the blinds are going up, antes are higher, and this thing is just about done.

(Wow, I hope I don't read this later and wince.)

Diverting from politics a moment...

2008-09-22T10:30:00.000-04:00

Wow, does UT ever suck at football this year. The loss to a not-really-very-good-at-all UCLA squad was one thing, but I do not like being taken to the woodshed by our rivals at the same time. I know that Clawson's vaunted offense may take a while to get going, but this is rather pathetic. And Crompton... wow. I think the B.J. Coleman era may come around sooner than expected.

Oh, and on politics... I really like the way this is looking. Not to jinx, just throwing it out there.

KnoxViews is heading for Denver!

2008-08-22T16:55:00.000-04:00

Once again, I'm slow to post about this, but it's mind-blowingly cool that local favorite R. Neal of KnoxViews was picked by the DNCC to join the state blogging corps for the convention. I've got a personal stake in that I'm old friends with the online organizer for the DNCC, but I think a lot of the controversy about how the bloggers were picked is trumped-up junk.

In the end, campaigns are about organization, and we need to have as many local bloggers represented as possible. It's just that simple.

Anyway, enjoy what will surely be good news and good blogging from R. Neal as the convention gets underway.

It Is Finished

2008-06-20T09:36:00.000-04:00

So it seems that, finally, the Clinton juggernaut is breaking out of the death spiral long enough to actually concede. I'm somewhere in the middle of the debate on whether this has actually been good for the party or not. Until Clinton began playing the race card, the gender card and every other card, I would have said yes.

But there's a line between toughening up your opponent as you head toward the general election and just softening up his gut for an easy knockout. I felt the Clinton campaign got unnecessarily dirty and cheap and, frankly, evil toward the end. It's the burned bridges with her supporters I most fear.

In the end, we'll need Democratic votes to take the states we need to take. I hope that Clinton hasn't been so dirty as to muck up her supporters' party allegiance.

April Showers...

2008-05-01T14:00:00.000-04:00

...bring epic May primary battles? Yeah, that is pretty strained. But by all accounts, it looks like we're headed to the wire with this primary contest. I get that the math is pointing towards Obama, but after 2000, I quit paying attention to the math.

I also neglected to make an Earth Day post, but let this be your friendly reminder: enough with the carbon, people. That's something that gives me great optimism in watching the inevitable self-destruction of the Republicans, by the way -- we have a chance to actually make a dent in the warming problem.

Word of the Day: Quixotic

2008-03-20T15:45:00.000-04:00

I guess this is becoming a monthly pithy update, which is not really what you were looking for from the blog's rebirth, I feel sure. But then, it's what you're going to get.

So, to be clear, I like Bob Tuke. He's a fighter and seems to relish getting in the trenches. And having Ben Chao managing his campaign can't hurt him. That said, I'd love to get in the mind of the man who runs against one of the most re-electable Senators in the country. I mean, I'll vote for him, but I would be shocked if he won anywhere outside of Nashville.

I hope I'm wrong, obviously, because I really don't like Sen. Alexander (R-Cape Cod Estate). But this just isn't going to happen.

Expected, but...

2008-02-07T08:53:00.000-05:00

I get that our dear home state was unlikely to support Barack Obama in the primary. There's an old base of Clinton supporters here, and also a good number of people who wouldn't vote for Obama for obvious, yet sad, reasons.

That said, tell me about the 27,000 morons who voted for Edwards -- the guy dropped out! I should probably put away the sour grapes now, and get to work helping Obama win in other, larger states than this one. Because I have hope.

Slinking back

2008-01-20T13:39:00.000-05:00

I'm not likely to update too regularly, but I'm reactivating the blog and putting the band back together. There's a big year ahead and I'm thinking I may have a thing or two to say about it.

Guess Who's Back? Al Gore - With A Vengeance

2006-01-16T21:28:00.000-05:00

Al dadgum Gore, that's who.

If you have not watched his speech today (it's available on C-SPAN's Web site) or read a transcript, go read it now.

Al Gore, a son of Tennessee, made America proud today. How showed insight, intelligence and and a cutting understanding of how government can best serve the people. To wit:

At present, we still have much to learn about the NSA's domestic surveillance. What we do know about this pervasive wiretapping virtually compels the conclusion that the president of the United States has been breaking the law, repeatedly and insistently.

(APPLAUSE)

A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government.

(APPLAUSE)

Applause, indeed. He points to the change in government since the time of his father's service and his service in the Congress:

The Congress we have today is structurally unrecognizable compared to the one in which my father served.

GORE: There are many distinguished and outstanding senators and congressmen serving today. I am honored to know them and to have worked with them.

But the legislative branch of government as a whole, under its current leadership, now operates as if it were entirely subservient to the executive branch.

(APPLAUSE)

I am heartened to see that he still has the ability to capture a news cycle and to capture the nation's attention. Republicans predictably responded with personal attacks instead of substance. Try as they might, though, there is just no escaping the fact that the current administration has overstepped the boundaries of the rule of law repeatedly and egregiously.

I'll say this: If Al Gore runs for president in 2008, I'll work day and night for him, non-stop. He was elected once, and will be again, if he chooses to run.

Interesting Comments Re: School Shooting

2005-11-13T16:56:00.000-05:00

I direct your attention to the comments on the below post about the Campbell County school shooting.

I was actually really skeezed out when the first comment was posted by someone who accused the school's principal of being at fault, so I was glad to see someone add their own opinion to the mix. I know little nothing about the situation there other than what I have seen reported, so I'm in no place to judge the veracity of the comments.

In the days and weeks to come, as CCHS recovers from the tragedy, I think all of us want to gain a richer understanding of how and why this happened. One can only hope, however, that we won't see this devolve into petty politics or an attempt to excuse the situations that made the events possible.

"We Do Not Torture"

2005-11-11T12:33:00.000-05:00

In a classic post for Bob Harris, he notes that Bush's "We do not torture" comment is reminiscent of surrealist art, or at least of Nixon's "I am not a crook" line.

Go read it, and be simultaneously educated and amused. He is a very funny man.

I'm traveling this weekend, so blogging will be light to non-existent.

Campbell County Mourning

2005-11-10T11:34:00.000-05:00

Putting aside the rather disturbing comment someone left below, I'd imagine that these are tough times in Campbell County. Scott Barker has a good overview of the reaction in today's paper.

Thinking back not too terribly long ago to when I was in high school, I don't think I could imagine three of the school's leadership being shot, and one dying. In some ways, administrators take on an almost immortal feel in a lot of high schools. Students sometimes love them and sometimes hate them, but they have an air of immovable objects. They were there when you got there, and they'll be there when you go.

I'd be interested to see how the students' reaction differs in the death and injury of administrators in this fashion versus the same thing happening to other students. Regardless, this is a harsh mark to leave on the lives of people who are in a stage that means so much.

I'm So Glad I Got My Religion In Time...

2005-11-09T11:46:00.000-05:00

Last night, Democrat Tim Kaine was elected Governor of Virginia in a win over Jerry Kilgore.

While Kaine spent a lot of time smartly riding the coattails of the uber-popular current Governor, Mark Warner, he also took a tack that more progressives and liberals should take: he didn't lay down when challenged on moral issues. The Washington Post today highlights Kaine's use of faith as his shield against an amazingly underhanded GOP attack on the death penalty:

Kaine defended himself against Kilgore's attack on the subject by saying that it is his beliefs as a deeply religious Catholic that lead him to oppose the death penalty and abortion. But he also said he would follow the law on capital punishment and advocate laws that protect the right to abortion.

"The elite never really got that argument," said David Eichenbaum, one of Kaine's media advisers, referring to columnists and others who wondered how Kaine could be, in his words, "morally" opposed and yet pledge not to try to change the law. "But people who heard him got it."

What "the elites" didn't get is that it is, in fact, possible to separate your faith from your duty to serve the people. Liberals have been so soured on the prospect of faith by years of harassment at the hands of fundamentalists that they have lost sight of this most progressive of tenets.

A George Mason professor is also quoted in the story:

"I think this is an interesting test case for Democrats to see if you can run a faith-based campaign focused on values and do so as a progressive candidate in a Southern state," Rozell said.

It worked, Rozell said, because of Kaine's frequent reference to his service as a missionary in Honduras while in law school and his familiarity with the language of religion. "It did not come off as calculated," he said.

And there's the point. It works if it is real. As liberals, we accept people of all faiths and lack thereof. You don't have to be religious - Christian or otherwise - to be a good candidate. But if you are a religious progressive, then don't be afraid to say so, especially in the South.

Assistant Principal Dies In School Shooting

2005-11-08T16:42:00.000-05:00

Ken Bruce, Assistant Principal at Campbell County high school has died from wounds inflicted in today's school shooting - it's being reported on WATE.

Another assistant principal is in ciritcal condition and the principal is in serious condition at UT Hospital.

This is not what anyone would expect to happen in Jacksboro or Campbell County.

Frist: Open Mouth, Insert Foot

2005-11-08T16:24:00.000-05:00

Watching CNN this afternoon has been an exercise in the political incompetence of Bill Frist. First, CNN reported that he and Dennis Hastert had called for a new leak investigation, this time into who gave the Washington Post information on our country's secret European torture facilities.

Clearly, they made a stink about this in the hopes that some Democratic official might be outed for a national security leak. Putting aside the relative merits of exposing illegal prisons and torture as opposed to outing an undercover spy for political retribution against her husband, this was pretty silly from people whose argument against the Rove/Libby investigation was that "leaks happen all the time". The strategy to nail a Democrat for something is interesting though.

Woops! Turns out it was probably a Republican who leaked it! Sen. Trent Lott, no friend to his successor as majority leader after he endorsed a return to racism, announced that the information in the Post story came almost word-for-word from a Republican Senatorial policy briefing.

I'm sure that First and Hastert will continue to press just as hard now that we know it was probably a Republican leak...

Comfort Food

2005-11-07T16:57:00.000-05:00

It shouldn't have surprised me, seeing all that orange.

Yet, as my friend and I walked into the Cracker Barrel in Kokomo, Ind. this weekend, we were a bit taken aback to see an entire restaurant filled with people like us - wearing orange, looking downtrodden and seeking comfort in some biscuits and sawmill gravy.

I was once again in beautiful Indiana over the weekend, this time for the Tennessee-Notre Dame game. The game itself aside, It was a tremendous college football experience.

The welcoming spirit of the folks at Notre Dame is just as advertised. From the parking lot attendants and bus drivers to fans we met along the way, I don't think we met once person who didn't welcome us to the University and ask if we needed anything. I had always heard about how nice Notre Dame people were, but it was truly a unique experience.

Of course, the campus was gorgeous, and I was struck by the beauty of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. All the traditions were everything you'd expect. Once you've been, you can see why such a small stadium can still be so intimidating. If you haven't been, go.

But back to that comfort food. As my friend and I drove back from South Bend to Indy, it was late and we were hungry and bummed about the game. Each of us remembered the Cracker Barrel we had passed in scenic Kokomo on the way up Highway 31, and decided it'd be worth a stop. Seeing all of the Tennessee fans inside gave us a chuckle. Our waiter said he had never seen so many people wearing orange all at once.

It seemed appropriate, though, that Tennesseans would seek a little food from home that far away. I wonder if we all instinctively knew that the best place we could be after a day like ours was our hometown restaurant away from home. Regardless, the comfort food did its job, and we headed back to Indy high on pancakes and country ham.

South Knox TL...

2005-11-07T16:50:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm back and writing to you from my new home of Knoxville! I'm a bit unsure how this will change the nature of my blog, as I still want to keep a close finger on the pulse of Chattanooga, even from a few miles up the road. I'm sure it'll be a while before I am totally steeped in Knoxville knowledge as well.

I do see why Bubba and others love South Knox so much, and I already get why they don't entirely love the idea of the Chattanooga illuminati building things on their waterfront. But, there's time to learn more about those issues and others.

While I've been gone, the Bush ship has pretty well begun sinking, which makes me happy, though I do think that in the case of Alito v. Myers, the devil we didn't know may have been way preferable in spite of her total lack of qualifications. Libby should definitely spend some time in the pokey, and I can only hope that Rove will head that way soon too.

But, I am back, in Knoxville, and ready to get back to blogging regularly now that I am settled in.

Knoxvillians, what do I need to know now that I am here?

On the Move...

2005-10-31T08:59:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posting, but I am in the midst of moving to a new city, though remaining here in the greenest state in the land of the free.

I'll post more info in the next day or so once I get settled. Stay tuned...

Live From Indianapolis...

2005-10-24T01:08:00.000-04:00

Greetings from Indianapolis, home of David Letterman and a lot of race cars.

No real politics to weigh in on, so I'll blog on the main reason for my trip up, the Nickel Creek show here in Indy. I have a friend who lives up this way, so it made a great reason to plan a visit to this very flat city.

The show, held at the really cool Murat Center Egyptian Room was opened by an insufferable novelty group called the Ditty Bops. Suffice it to say, there is a reason why you don't see many groups doing a '20s throwback act including a magician/juggler.

Nickel Creek certainly held up their end of the bargain, though. The show was a solid mix of music from the first two albums, including the standards This Side and A Lighthouse's Tale. The new songs certainly sounded better live than they do on the album, but I just don't like a lot of it. I listen to acoustic music to escape a lot of the put-on pretension of indie rock that the new album seems to embrace.

However, pretentiousness left the building as soon as the Ditty Bops left the stage tonight. No one plays a mandolin like Chris Thile, and his skill shone brightly as he blew threw Smoothie Song and Stumptown. The night's highlights, though, came in the form of covers. To the frankly mindblowing delight of the crowd, the gang did a cover of Britney Spears' Toxic. I would have been speechless if I wasn't laughing my ass off at how they are able to make that song sound good.

The encore was an almost Phish-esque transition between the Band classic "Up on Cripple Creek" and crowd favorite "The Fox." The moves were almost seamless, and the only downside was a crowd that looked like they hand never heard of the song before. Their loss, but they still clapped away.

So, that's it from Indy. Good Nickel Creek show, but they were better at Memorial Auditorium in downtown Chattaboogie.

Have I missed any indictments while I've been gone?

So Much For A Balanced Commission

2005-10-19T19:04:00.000-04:00

In a tremendously cheap political ploy, the Hamilton County Commission named a local barber as the new General Sessions Court Judge.

I was buoyed when the commission showed some moderation in a vote to support of school system, but this act blows that optimism clear out of the water.

There is just no reason to appoint a guy who is running for the seat to the open position. In this case, there was a candidate who had volunteered for the job and promised not to run. Instead, Republicans give a massive leg up to the now-presumptive Republican candidate.

It's not surprising to see Republicans use their power to appoint unqualified people to judgeships (and other jobs, for that matter). It is, however, disappointing to see it done in our own backyard.

I'd love to hear what Warren Mackey and John Bailes have to say about this.

UPDATE: John Brooks, Democratic candidate for the 6th District against non-Democrat Lou Miller, sent out a letter to supporters on this matter as well. Quotes when I can get them.

Tennessee Waltz: It's Abuse of Power, Stupid

2005-10-18T09:53:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the delay in posting this, but this story in yesterday's Times Free Press has to be a joke.

Surely the leaders of the black community in this state cannot be saying that the Tennessee Waltz operation was racist. And yet:

Sherman Matthews, with the Unity Group in Chattanooga, said that on the surface the investigation appears "one-sided." He said even one of the white legislators charged, state Sen. Ward Crutchfield, D-Chattanooga, has a strong connection to the black community.

Mr. Matthews, a longtime friend of Hamilton County Commissioner William Cotton, the latest to be charged, said he worries that any black officials forced out of office will be replaced by less effective leaders.

"I’m concerned there’s a movement across the state, not to get rid of black leadership, but to get rid of outspoken black leaders and replace them with people who aren’t as outspoken," Mr. Matthews said.

How utterly ridiculous this guy sounds. How utterly blinded he is to how much people like William Cotton and Charles Love were stabbing him in the back.

It is sad to be forced to point out that someone who is accepting bribes from white people to pass bills that only affect white people is probably not spending their time standing up for the black community or being "effective leaders" - Crutchfield included.

Ron Walters, director of the University of Maryland’s African American Leadership Institute, opposes the use of sting operations in general. He said they can be used for political purposes.

"This is one way to keep black political power off balance," Mr. Walters said.

The time seems appropriate to look at the acts that were committed here. This was not a case of subtle misuse of influence or political patronage. The accused were not enticed into giving away jobs or throwing out parking tickets. They were offered cold, hard cash to pass laws that would be to the detriment of the community. And they took the money. These people, Democrats and Republicans, black and white, abdicated all responsibility to their constituents in exchange for cash.

I can't speak for the black community, but I don't see a defensible position here. This isn't about race, it is about an abuse of power. It's the same as Dick Cheney leaking the name of a spy just because he could, and it is the same as Tom DeLay launderign money because he wanted to. In every case, the people need to take out the trash.

Like Christmas in October

2005-10-13T09:03:00.000-04:00

I would imagine that anyone reading this knows that I think very little of Bill Frist. Whether he is diagnosed patients based on 5 minutes of edited video or being beholden to creepy religious interests - oh, wait. Same thing.

Anyway, now, Bill Frist adds to his shame and pretty much shoots his presidential ambitions in the foot with an illegal stock trade. The SEC issued a subpoena today for his financial records.

With Tom DeLay under indictment, Bill Frist under investigation and just about the entire White House staff on the verge of indictment for leaking the name of an undercover CIA agent for political retribution, it really is like Christmas in October.

And on top of that, it looks like Congressional Dems are about to roll out a new Contract with America.

Life is good.

Oh, and to those who think that Gore's statement yesterday means he is not running, look again. He said he has no intention now to run. Doesn't mean he can't be convinced.

Gore Buzz!

2005-10-12T15:39:00.000-04:00

From today's Washington Post, a rundown of some recent buzz about a possible run for Al Gore in 2008. First, reference to a U.S. News piece that highlights some unattributed rumor:

It's Gore Time," says a political strategist and fundraiser who is opening a bid to get Gore into the race. Gore friends see his recent political and business moves as proof he's preparing to run. Allies say that in speeches, Gore has found his voice to address domestic and world issues ... Our source--a top aide in the previous Bush administration--is planning meetings with Gore's team to push an early entry while Clinton runs for re-election in New York. It doesn't end there: The Gorebots want him to pick Sen. Barack Obama, the youthful Illinois African-American, as his No. 2.

So, that is appealing, even if it is sourced to someone who has a bit of a vested interest in the run.

The Post also links to this "seminal" profile on Gore.

As I've said before, Gore is the best candidate to lead the country. He's smart, he knows policy and he is an effective leader.

Pulse: Clever, Yet Incorrect. What's New?

2005-10-06T15:43:00.000-04:00

So, the Pulse is out with a piece called the Annual Manual. It's certainly a clever thing, and the addendum to the Confederate general's letter at the start made me laugh so much I nearly feel out of my chair. That said, the Pulse dropped the ball twice in the politics round-up:

Exhibit A:

City and county offices are putitively non-partisan, but nearly every local candidate declares a party affiliation anyway, just for the hell of it.

Actually, gang, county elections are partisan. And you'll also find that city officials, while they may vote in a party primary, rarely make any kind of public declaration of their party.

Exhibit B:

The Democrats have an equally disconcerting tendency to be wildly corrupt. The FBI’s Tennessee Waltz sting has left three local officials – Cotton, Charles Love and longtime Democratic heavyweight Ward Crutchfield – facing court dates for bribery charges.

This is not to say there aren't a ton of corrupt Democrats around here, but let's not forget Chris Newton is a Republican.

Anyway, it's clever, so good for them. But you know, the facts can also be a boon to the news business on occasion.

This Just In: Dem Announces Run Against Wamp

2005-10-03T10:59:00.000-04:00

I just got a press release from a new Democratic candidate running against Zach Wamp. His name is Terry Stulce. I know not very much at all about the guy, other than that he is an Ooltewah native and currently lives in Cleveland. The release says he's a Vietnam Vet with a master's degree, which is a combination I like.

No breathless endorsement just yet, but this seems promising. The full release follows:

October 3, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

From: The People's Voice: Of the People, By the People, and For the People

My name is Terry Stulce and I am announcing my candidacy today to seek the Democratic nomination to represent the people of the 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. Congress. I am no politician, nor have I ever had political ambitions, but I will not sit silently as our country is being destroyed by the arrogant incompetence of Bush and his congressional cronies like Zach Wamp.

I have never held office, but I know how to represent the people because I am "of the people". I know what it is like to work at a minimum wage job in a factory. I know what it is like to attend public school, graduating from Snow Hill Elementary, Ooltewah High and the University of Tennessee (1967). The day I graduated from U.T. I was commissioned as a 2nd Lt. in the U.S. Army, having attended U.T. on an R.O.T.C. Scholarship and the $20.00 a week my mother sent me from her earnings as a seamstress in a chair manufacturing company.

I know what it's like to be in the thick of battle, as David Hackworth says, to "dance the dance of death" for your country. Only those who wear the Combat Infantryman's Badge know the steps.

I understand every day people because I am one. I am not a career politician like Zach Wamp. I was not born into a rich family nor did I depend on my father to pay my way out of trouble. I attended public school and managed to graduate from the University of Tennessee and eventually earned a Masters degree with the assistance of the G.I. Bill.

Wamp has forgotten that he was elected to represent the people, not special interests and the super rich. He has voted every time he has had the opportunity to give tax breaks to the rich, as 6 million more Americans have slipped into poverty, and the national debt has reached $7.9 trillion. He has voted for hand outs for "Big Oil" companies, "Big Drug" companies, and Halliburton as he has voted against a drug benefit for seniors and supported Bush's attempts to dismantle Social Security. He has supported the disastrous and incompetent foreign policy of George Bush and was a prime mover in initiating the Iraq debacle. He has voted with Tom DeLay to stop an investigation of Halliburton for fraud and war profiteering. In short, Wamp has abandoned the people of the 3rd District and has thrown his lot in with the rich and powerful.

__
Terry Stulce is a life-long resident of Ooltewah and can trace his ancestry back 5 generations in Hamilton County. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude from U.T.K. in 1967 and earned a Master of Science in Social Work in 1974. He served two tours of combat duty in Vietnam, one as a Combat Platoon Leader in the 101st Airborne Division (December, 1967 to September, 1968) and one as a Senior Advisor to the 69th and 79th Border Ranger Battalions (November, 1970 to November 1971). In addition to the Combat Infantryman's Badge, he earned the Bronze Star with "V" device for Valor and the Bronze star for Meritorious Services in Ground Combat.

He and his wife Kate attend Pilgrim Congregational Church where she is in lay ministry training.

They have two children, Dr. Camille Broadway of Arlington, Texas and Jenna Spain of Baltimore, Maryland. Kate and he are Licensed Clinical Social Workers and own Cleveland Family Counseling.

Like I say, good initial impression, and he seems like he is probably not a lunatic, which is something we've been sorely missing the last few times around! Plus, he may make a dent in the more Republican areas of the District as a Bradley County resident.

The Liberals Are Coming! The Liberals Are Coming!

2005-10-02T17:59:00.000-04:00

Air America comes to Chattanooga tomorrow, with a hint of local flavor, as WDOD-AM shifts format to progressive talk. It won't be the full Air America lineup, but it will feature Al Franken, Randi Rhodes and the Majority Report.

I'm happy there will be a local aspect to the station, including local news and commentary. One of the highlights will be a weekly appearance by Hamilton County Democratic Party chair Stuart James.

Not surprisingly, the Chattanoogan's opinion section is awash with old people and Republicans. There are a few gems of Chattanooga opinion there, but let me reprint my favorite part below:

To the owners of Air America and WDOD, I say this:

Chattanooga is representative of the people who voted against your agenda last fall, and have been doing so for a generation. Look at the Chattanoogan website and see all the advertisements and announcements for churches and Christian-related events. What is your vision for Chattanooga and all those red state places you so heartily deride? Is it gay pride parades up and down the riverwalk, same-sex marriages in Baptist churches, and Federal troops rushing southward to forcibly reopen abortion clinics in the Scenic City? Do you honestly think that ridiculing our faith and our values will win us over to your side? Do you come to our city, just to torture us? We have endured your values on our TV sets for two generations. It hasn't turned us into what you want, and neither will Air America. We will get our WDOD back, someday.

Pete Thurston
East Ridge
petethurston@softhome.net

Wow. Now, I am an affirmed XM Satellite Radio fanatic. But thanks to Pete Thurston of East Ridge, who could really use a new county commissioner, I will listen to WDOD every day. Why? Just so this jerk and others like him will have to live with the fact that liberals live in his fair city.

Cotton: "You don't want what I have."

2005-09-30T08:37:00.000-04:00

Well, no kidding.

The TFP begins to fill in some blanks in yesterday's arrest of William Cotton. They also provide a totally silly disservice to their readers with a redacted version of the FBI affidavit. If altering the content of publicly available documents and preventing the unfettered flow of information is part of "Times Free Press" style, then maybe it's time for Tom Griscom to change the stylebook.

I digress.

As I said yesterday, it's pretty clear that he knew this was coming, and his abrupt exit from the County Commission meeting yesterday would seem to cement that:

Shortly after casting his vote for Jeffrey Wilson, who won the temporary appointment, Mr. Cotton asked his colleagues if he could be excused.

"I don't feel well," he said.

After leaving through a door behind the dais, Mr. Cotton stepped onto an elevator and quietly said, "I have the flu. You donÂt want what I have."

At that point, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Lee had not signed the arrest warrant for the commissioner. Mr. Cotton walked past a few uniformed sheriff Âs deputies and undercover agents, stopping briefly as a court security officer whispered in his ear.

After leaving the Hamilton County Courthouse, Mr. Cotton drove toward St. Elmo and his Alton Park home. Several unmarked patrol cars followed him.

Mr. Cotton drove around for about 15 minutes, with no apparent destination, police officials said. Meanwhile, pursuing officers learned that Judge Lee had signed the arrest warrant shortly before 11 a.m. A few minutes later, Mr. Cotton pulled in front of his home at 4213 Ohls Ave.

Authorities called Mr. Cotton on the telephone and asked him to come outside. The commissioner stepped onto his porch, walked down several stairs and was met by a half dozen officers. They handcuffed Mr. Cotton, frisked him and placed him in the back seat of an unmarked patrol car.

This could not happen to a nicer guy. Anyone who has been around politics in this county has known that William Cotton was a crook for a long time. I feel safe in saying that there are a lot of local Democrats who are breathing a sigh of relief that Cotton has been neutralized, at least for now. Some of those same Democrats, though, are desperately and eagerly hoping that Warren Mackey can first win, and then work to clean up the system that William Cotton built around him.

Also, Hamilton County Democratic Party Chairman Stuart James posted an update at HamDems. Usual stuff, but interesting nonetheless.

William Cotton Arrested in Tennessee Waltz

2005-09-29T12:23:00.000-04:00

This just in. Totally amazing, but on some level, I always knew that if there was rank political corruption going on, William Cotton had to be involved.

Updates to come, surely.

UPDATE: Brittney at Nashville is Talking has the first story to move on the AP wire.

UPDATE 2: Slay the fatted calf, the TFP has updated their Web site. Interesting color with the unmarked cars following him home. I think it's pretty clear the arrest was negotiated, since he just all of a sudden changed his vote on the 5th District school board member and then went home and got arrested. More to come, I'm sure...

UPDATE 3: Cotton is such a pompous ass. Go to the Chattanoogan site and read some of the transcripts they have posted at the link above. What a jackass.

Let's Dance (With running Grammar Commentary!)

2005-09-27T23:12:00.000-04:00

Since "Evil Conservative" didn't leave me an e-mail address when he posted his ever-so-trolly comment below, I guess that means he wants to be taken to the woodshed right up here.

(And look, I'll give you your very own running grammar, spelling and punctuation lesson, no charge!)

May I be so bold as to posit that Al Gore might not be the most important thing you should be focusing on? Do the math, man. More people want cleaner air than dirtier air. More people want troops ready to protect us than off getting killed in a silly quagmire with no end in sight. More people want a balanced budget than a lifetime of insurmountable debt. More people want their Social Security protected instead of privatized.

(That's regardless of, not "regardless to" or "regardless if" if you're keeping score at home.)

You know what, let's talk about gas prices. Let's talk about what Republicans have done to control gas prices. Oh, wait, not a thing. It took a massive hurricane horning in on oil company profits before Republicans even bothered to pay attention. Understandable, since the profits they take from insider trading off the family business makes it easy to ignore those numbers at the pump.

(You might be surprised to learn that the words how and truly don't include the letter e. But I digress...)

And speaking of things that are easy to ignore, how do you think it will look to have the pictures of Republicans laughing about reclining on the veranda sipping mint juleps while Al Gore saw there was a problem with the hurricane response and just rented his own damn plane to rescue people?

(When you connect two independent clauses with a comma, you must include a word to link them, or you will write run-on sentences. And, but, nor, for, yet and so would also be acceptable.)

But here's the part I love: a Republican talking about the integrity of the vote, This from a party that removed thousands and thousands of eligible voters from the rolls in Florida (you are from Florida, right?) and Ohio because they shared the same name as a felon. This from a party that only removed black felons from the voter rolls, but certainly no Hispanics. And yes, this from a party that is willing to insist that homeless people carry an ID to the polls, but that refuses to hold the company making the voting machine accountable that every vote will get counted. Yeah, Republicans are just models of electoral fairness.

(The apostrophe does not make words plural, whether acronyms like IDs or simple words like babies.)

So, talk about Al Gore all you like, Evil Conservative. Talk about Hillary Clinton, too. Talk all you want about Jesse Jackson and Howard Dean and Harold Ford and Nancy Pelosi, too. Because while you are busy with your personal attacks, we'll be busy asking the question the Republican party fears more than any in the world:

Are you better off now than you were six years ago?

Yes, I shudder to think how little cover Republicans will have in 2006 when faced with a stagnant economy, a failed war, more poor people, an unprecedented national debt, party leaders in the House, Senate and White House all under criminal investigation and a nation fed up with platitudes and lies.

(Oh, and for goodness' sake, would you learn to spell? That's cemetery and hypocrites.)

You'll have plenty of time to worry about Al Gore, Evil, but if I were you, I'd be focused on not getting completely dominated in the midterms next year.

How 'Bout Them Vols??

2005-09-26T23:52:00.000-04:00

I won't lie. I gave up hope at halftime.

And I won't say that this team is out of the woods yet.

But I love them. I love that they went into LSU, forced into playing a game that should have been put off for weeks. Forced to fly in the day of the game, and forced to play on no rest. Forced to play in a stadium filled with students who had their classes called off so they could get loud. Forced to play in the face of everyone in the nation rooting against them.'

And they won. It was ugly, it was dirty, it showed a lot of nasty underbelly, but they won. And I love them. I love Gerald Riggs because as lightfooted as he is, he got the last yard. I love Rick Clausen because even though he kept getting sent back to the bench, he never lost heart.

So, how 'bout them Vols? I sure don't want to be Ole Miss.

30-27.

Run, Al, Run!

2005-09-26T08:43:00.000-04:00

I hope to God it is not all hot air, but Tennessee Guerilla Women links to a few places that seem to think my boy - my one and only favorite politician of all time, Al Gore - might be running for President again.

Follow all of the links in her piece. I am especially intrigued that he is giving speeches to the freakin' Sierra Club. That's not something a newly-minted media mogul would do.

And in case you thought that he had lost cred with the faithful, check out this poll from the Daily Kos:

Poll
Given these 2008 choices, I would vote for:
Edwards 8%
Clark 24%
Gore 48%
Clinton 4%
Feingold 8%
Other 2%
No Freakin' Clue 2%

Votes: 7567

Speaking just for myself, I'd do whatever it took to get that man elected.

Thanks, Bill!

2005-09-25T16:42:00.000-04:00

Wow, could Bill Frist make the job of a liberal Tennessee blogger any easier?

I go away for a week for a couple of job interviews and such, and this buffoon commits securities fraud and is under a federal investigation!

Folks have blogged the heck out of this, but here are my thoughts, in the unlikely event you care:

1) It is pretty amazing to me that The Republican House leader, the Republican Senate leader and the Republican president;s closest adviser are all under federal investigation. This makes something like Tennessee Waltz look like child's play, huh?

2) I have to laugh at the people who say the Republicans are out to help the common man pull himself up with tax breaks for the rich and big business. Hey guys, guess what? If this doesn't show you that Bill Frist and the other Republicans have a singular interest in fattening their own wallets, I don't know what does.

3) If this does turn out to be true, will Bill Frist go to jail? They sent Martha up the river for a much smaller infraction, by comparison. Remember, Frist's money is supposed to be in a blind trust because he works for you and me, not for his own finances.

So, I'm back. Thanks for making the transition back easy, Bill!

Oh, and by the way: there's talk of "big announcements" coming tomorrow from here in Hamilton County. More when I know it...

It's My Birthday... Arrrrrr

2005-09-19T16:30:00.000-04:00

So, I am blessed to share my birthday with International Talk Like A Pirate Day. In this way, I could ask for no better birthday present. But here are, in no particular order, my birthday wishes:

1) To have New Orleans back.

2) To have the Market Street Bridge back.

3) To be rid of the ugly specters of William Cotton, Curtis Adams and Lou Miller.

4) To be rid of the ugly specter of Zach Wamp.

5) To have greater Chattanooga get made fun of on the Daily Show every night.

6) To play the mandolin like Sam Bush.

7) To be as carefree about my fellow Americans as George Bush.

8) To go back in time to save the future, like the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past From the Future, but I would get Al Gore elected.

9) To somehow live the rest of my life in Athens, Ga. without the Georgia fans.

10) To see the Smokies smog-free in my lifetime.

11) To see UT beat LSU in Death Valley and make up for last weekend.

12) To talk to my grandfather one last time.

13) To get NCAA College Football '06, which apparently didn't account for the fact that Erik Ainge and Rick Clausen both suck.

14) To see the day where Martin Luther King's legacy is honored by those who claim it.

15) To finally get a hole-in-one at The Sinks.

16) To look back when I'm older and think, "Damn, I had a good time when I was 26."

New Ford Blogger

2005-09-17T12:32:00.000-04:00

You probably already knew this, because I am on the road and slow to blog at the moment, but there's a new Ford blog on the scene: Forward with Ford. David has a good blog coming together, so go check it out!

Also, in an unrelated note, the sideline reporter for Jefferson-Pilot's coverage of the Vandy-Ole Miss game today made a beautiful Warren Zevon reference when he was talking to Ole Miss' coach and, referring to one of his players, he said: "Well, he's just an excitable boy" - that made my day.

Oh, and Go Big Orange!

W Needs to Potty, And Cheney Forgot The Pull-Ups

2005-09-15T17:44:00.000-04:00

I'm sure there is some significance or insightful point to this photo, but I am too damn busy laughing at it to think of one.

Oh, maybe that the leader of the free world is asking if he can go to the bathroom. I wonder if he still makes Condi wait for him outside the stall?

Okay, I'm done now. Really.

PS: Here's a brief interview with the photographer.

'It's great that we can... actually help Americans'

2005-09-14T09:43:00.000-04:00

Buck at smijer & Buck linked to a Democracy Now transcript that involved an interview with some soldiers patrolling the streets of New Orleans.

There was an incredibly telling exchange buried deep in the breathless questions about a dead body on the street. (I'll say up front that I'm typically skeezed by some of the "indy media" efforts. Advocacy, good; documenting reality, good; passing advocacy off as objective journalism, bad.) Amy Goodman was asking soldiers where they were stationed and about their service, and this exchange occurred:

AMY GOODMAN: What's your name?

MATTHEW COHEN: Matthew Cohen, Captain, U.S. Army.

AMY GOODMAN:Wyoming also.

MATTHEW COHEN: No, I'm from California.

AMY GOODMAN: Where?

MATTHEW COHEN: San Francisco.

AMY GOODMAN: Where were you in Iraq?

MATTHEW COHEN: We were in southern Baghdad.

AMY GOODMAN: When did you come out?

MATTHEW COHEN: We got back last March as a unit. basically the whole company came back in late March.

AMY GOODMAN: How does this compare?

MATTHEW COHEN: I'll tell you, Ma'am, this is great to be down here. It's great that we can kind of come out and actually help Americans.

I don't know if he meant that the way it sounded to me, but man, does that ever sum it up well. This whole tragedy makes it more plain that we are not doing all we can to "actually help" Americans.

Dayton and June Griffin on the Daily Show

2005-09-12T23:50:00.000-04:00

Tonight's Daily Show had a distinctly Southeast Tennessee flair, as reporter Ed Helms traveled to Dayton as part of the "Evolution, Schmevolution" series on the show this week.

Of course, he talked to June Griffin who was as entertaining as always, especially the part where he baited her into saying she wanted to whip "the Sodomites". But then, would you expect any less of our local hate-mongering lunatic?

His whole theme was most enjoyable, comparing Dayton to Colonial Williamsburg. I especially liked the part where he made fun for Bryan University by saying that Dayton went so far as to hire actors to play students. Anyway - catch it in a rerun if you can. The "moment of Zen" for the episode is J.C. Fugate's calling for a resolution to ban gay people from Rhea County.

As he put it, "Thank goodness this is all just a an act. Because if it was real, that would be fucking insane."

Curtis Adams: Chattanooga's Ron Burgundy?

2005-09-12T10:16:00.000-04:00

In the midst of a TFP story recapping the County Commission's interviews of potential school board members to replace Charles Love, there is a quote so deeply disturbing to me, I have trouble putting it in words.

Longtime Republican Commissioner Curtis Adams, who is a damnable buffoon, had this to say about the candidate who expressed her opposition to the recent property tax increase:

"She's a classy looking lady, and she talks good," Mr. Adams said. "I think with her management experience at Erlanger, she would rule out the other (candidates)."

Yes you read that right. But here it is again, in case you missed it:

"She's a classy looking lady, and she talks good," Mr. Adams said.

I don't know what on Earth Curtis was thinking when he said that, but he found a way not just to say something patently offensive but also to sound like an uneducated fool in the process.

If this whole thing doesn't come out looking like an ad for John Bailes, then I don't know what will.

At least we know Curtis' new campaign slogan: "Stay classy, East Ridge!"

Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself...

2005-09-08T15:40:00.000-04:00

(via kos.)

More Reasons To Love Al Gore

2005-09-08T11:47:00.000-04:00

What's my latest reason to love Al Gore? When Katrina struck, he saw there were people who needed help, figured out a way to help them, and acted on it.

In stories from Chattanooga as well as Knoxville, we see that Al Gore chartered a jet to fly to New Orleans and pick up evacuees. Not only did he just pay to charter the jet, but he flew along and helped with the effort. Better yet, despite the fact that he spearheaded this effort, he wouldn't take credit for it. From the Knoxville News-Sentinel:

Former Vice President Al Gore arranged the flight and was on board, but he declined to take credit for the airlift, fearing it would be "politicized."

And from the Chattanooga Times Free Press:

Sunday’s flight was the second Mr. Gore chartered. The first landed Saturday in Knoxville with "a lot of wheelchair-bound patients," Dr. LaFon said. Darkness delayed the flight to Chattanooga until Sunday, he said.

The first passengers to disembark from the plane in Chattanooga had chronic medical needs — asthma, seizures and heart conditions — that needed immediate attention, and they were taken by ambulance to area hospitals.

Al Gore is a true statesman, and a Tennessee Volunteer in every fine sense of the word. He knew that the people of his home state would be there for the people who needed help, and he made it happen. Instead of giving speeches or issuing platitudes, he got the job done.

Kinda makes you wish he was President, doesn't it?

UPDATE: Here's a blow-by-blow of how it came about.

Firefighters As Props - So It's Come To This

2005-09-07T10:07:00.000-04:00

This article from the Salt Lake Tribune shows the utter lunacy of the Bush response to Katrina. We have more than 1,000 firefighters whose skills are being completely squandered:

Many of the firefighters, assembled from Utah and throughout the United States by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, thought they were going to be deployed as emergency workers.
Instead, they have learned they are going to be community-relations officers for FEMA, shuffled throughout the Gulf Coast region to disseminate fliers and a phone number: 1-800-621-FEMA.
On Monday, some firefighters stuck in the staging area at the Sheraton peeled off their FEMA-issued shirts and stuffed them in backpacks, saying they refuse to represent the federal agency.

Now, before you go off half-cocked about how we need to communicate with the victims, wait. As someone who communicates for a living, I couldn't agree more. But look at the last grafs of this story:

Firefighters say they want to brave the heat, the debris-littered roads, the poisonous cottonmouth snakes and fire ants and travel into pockets of Louisiana where many people have yet to receive emergency aid.

But as specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew's first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas.

It's a two-pronged travesty: First, these brave people volunteered to be in harm's way and use their skills to help the victims of Katrina. Now they are being used as a human backdrop for a President who just doesn't get it. Second, not only are their skills being wasted for FEMA, they are not in their hometowns where their vital training can be put to use.

When will George Bush and his horse magnate-cum-disaster chief Michael Brown get it? This is not just another stage-managed event. People's lives continue to hang in the balance.

(Hat tip to kos.)

Rhenquist Dead

2005-09-03T23:30:00.000-04:00

Chief Justice William Rehnquist died tonight, according to CNN and NBC. He was 80.

This is going to be a long, long few months.

AP: "Rhetoric Doesn't Match Reality"

2005-09-02T23:10:00.000-04:00

Can it get more damning than this?

WASHINGTON, (AP) --

The Iraqi insurgency is in its last throes. The economy is booming. Anybody who leaks a CIA agent's identity will be fired. Add another piece of White House rhetoric that doesn't match the public's view of reality: Help is on the way, Gulf Coast.

As New Orleans descended into anarchy, President Bush and his emergency-response team congratulated each other for jobs well done and spoke of water, food and troops pouring into the ravaged city. Television pictures told a different story.

But Ron Fournier is far from done with this Herculean effort of calling a spade a spade.

It was worse when he was wrong. In one interview, Bush said, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." In fact, many experts predicted a major storm would bust New Orleans' flood-control barriers.

One reason the public relations effort backfired on Bush is that Americans have seen it before.

On Iraq alone, the rhetoric has repeatedly fallen far short of reality. Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction. The mission wasn't accomplished in May 2003. Most allies avoided the hard work of his "coalition of the willing." And dozens of U.S. soldiers have died since Vice President Dick Cheney declared that insurgents were in their "last throes."

Read the whole thing. It's a master stroke of explaining why Bush's response to Katrina has been so frustrating.

Why Rebuild?

2005-09-02T12:28:00.000-04:00

Via Brittney at Nashville is Talking, this post from S-townMike points out the ridiculous joke that is Dennis Hastert's suggestion that New Orleans not be rebuilt. He asks what would have happened if Nashville had not been rebuilt after its great flood:

What if after the '37 flood the majority of people simply said, "Let's just give the river sections of Nashville. We just shouldn't try to build in these areas. Let's just move everything to higher ground." Here's a list of what we would not have it that kind of thinking prevailed:

* Bicentennial Mall
* A greenway where an historic old ballpark used to sit
* Farmer's Market
* The Coming Museum of African-American Music and Culture
* Major residential developments like Harrison Lofts

His list goes on. The same could be said about Chattanooga. In fact, Chattanooga is the main flood point on the Tennessee River, according to TVA.

For better or worse, a vast number of American sities are built in places they probably shouldn't be. But we work around nature, and hopefully prepare well for the disasters that come. In this case, we clearly didn't.

Katrina Is Not A Photo-Op!

2005-09-02T12:19:00.000-04:00

Think Progress has this picture from CNN. I'll quote them:

Why are these helicopters being used as a backdrop for President Bush, instead of assisting the victims of Hurricane Katrina?

Why are members of the Coast Guard being used as a backdrop for Bush’s press conference? Don’t they have more important things to do?

While Bush is posing for the cameras with rescue workers and helicopters sitting as an idle backdrop, you can help.

There is plenty of room for stage management when you are announcing your latest tax cut for the obsecenely rich or your new plan to cut Social Security, but perhaps this is something different.

"Failure of Leadership" -Chattanooga Times; "Weak and Uncertain" -Rep. Ford

2005-09-02T09:51:00.000-04:00

Two angles on the response from the Times Free Press today. First, an article from the AP about Harold Ford's excoriation of Bush for his "weak and uncertain" response to Katrina:

"There are all these poor people with no place to go, and the president's answer is 'hang in there?'" Ford said.

Then, a scathing editorial by the Chattanooga Times, that encapsulates much of the distress over the slow response by the federal government to Katrina.

The paucity of leadership is apparent...

...The failure of leadership extends to deeds as well as words. Though President Bush certainly was aware - or should have been aware - of Katrina's approach on Aug. 24, it appears he did little to prepare the nation for the storm's landfall. There's no indication that he ordered government planners to speed up the development of meaningful contingency plans to cope with impending disaster. Instead, he dawdled in Texas, even after the storm struck. The president did finally react Tuesday - once, he said, the magnitude of the storm became apparent to him.

He must not have been paying attention earlier. Anyone who heard or read news reports or watched CNN or the Weather Channel had a clear picture of what was about to happen. The only uncertainty was exactly where the point of impact would be...

Apparently, though, prompt action in the face of difficulty is not the way this president operates. He's energetic and decisive, flawed as his vision might be, in promoting the war in Iraq, tax cuts and changes to Social Security, but that excitement and urgency are sadly missing when it comes to the times when the nation faces its greatest perils.

Both pieces make the case that this is a clear instance of failure of leadership.

Have you helped yet? Go do it now.

More Compassion

2005-09-01T15:39:00.000-04:00

This guy seems to think that the people of New Orleans should just pull themselves up by their bootstraps and fix their own damn city.

As I've watched this all unfold... I've found myself totally without sympathy for the people down there. They're acting like animals. They're acting like its our job to save them. They are resentful, disrespectful, and down right pissed off that we aren't saving them fast enough. I've seen not one single moment of gratitude.

Piss on New Orleans.

No wait... looks like New Orleans already pissed on itself.

I will miss Preservation Hall though...

Wow. You know what, it is our job to save them. It's our job as a country, it's our job as a region, it's our job as damned human beings. We are not animals. We are concerned for those who need help. I could give a good gosh darn about the idiots shooting off guns. Let them stay behind and die. But the problem here is the mothers and their babies. The problem here is the grandmothers who are dying on the side of the road in wheelchairs, and their bodies are left out to rot.

This is our job, to make this better. Go do it.

Bush's Compassion Shows

2005-08-31T08:15:00.000-04:00

So this what Bush means when he says compassionate conservatism. He has spent the last 48 hours playing politics, and apparently playing guitar, instead of coming home from his vacation to figure out how to help the millions of people who are now displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Hell, I just got an e-mail from Howard Dean telling me to give to the Red Cross. At least that shows some concern.

I know there is only so much George can do, but this is practically a Nero-esque moment. Here he is playing the presidential guitar while one of the nation's largest and most recognized cities continues to sink deeper and deeper under flood waters. People continue to die horrific deaths by the hour, and he gives speeches about Social Security and how Iraq is similar to World War II.

As people in Mississippi have put it, this is our tsunami. And where was George?

On vacation. Like he always is.

I'm struck that Bush's message to those in the Gulf Coast can be summed up well in the chord he was playing:

The Man Comes Around (Or, Bubba Is Risen)

2005-08-30T10:35:00.000-04:00

At least briefly. He's back doing a guest-blogging gig at Facing South.

Good for him, and good for Facing South.

Out Of Control

2005-08-30T09:26:00.000-04:00

I had planned a post today about Chris Newton's resignation (and now guilty plea) and how upsetting it was to see Republicans try to make such hay out of this, given their own issues with Tre Hargett's trip through the revolving door.

But I had a good talk last night with a buddy about how disillusioning all of the mess in our state has become. And then I looked at the Tennessean and saw their story about Kathryn Bowers travelling on a taxpayer-funded trip after her indictment. One of the guys quoted in the article put it well:

"This woman has no scruples," said Jim Kyle ... "All this shows me is that Ms. Bowers has not learned anything at all. Any legislator who is being watched so closely and still behaves so badly must need medication."

No, the problem is that she and every other state legislator, Democratic and Republican, is used to operating with total inpugnity.

To watch, day after day, as legislators commit ethical breaches big and small is frustrating enough. It is a further frustration that neither party has seen this as a chance for anything other than political opportunism. Now, if you get hit, you have to hit back - that is politics. But Republicans need to accept the fact that anyone with two eyes in their head can see that Tre Hargett was utterly co-opted by the pharmaceutical industry. He shamelessly maneuvered and pushed through their bills at the same time he was interviewing for high-paying jobs with them! In the same way, Democrats need to acknowledge that while members of both parties were involved in Tennessee Waltz, the party had become far too complacent about the games being played by the party's leaders in the House and Senate.

The Democratic party is the party of the people. It is the party of the working man, and the party of those who pay their dues. Our party should fight harder than anyone against corruption, whether it is Chris Newton and Tre Hargett or Kathryn Bowers and John Ford. We believe in a government that should work hard for the people and serve the interests of everyone. Being tolerant of government corruption is simply unacceptable. We should demand more of our elected officials, whether they are Democrats or Republicans.

The last few months have exposed a problem in our state. While both sides have tried to make their share of political hay out of the mess, state GOP Chair Bob Davis seems obsessed with dragging Gov. Bredesen into the mud. Unfortunately for Republicans, Phil Bredesen has been about the only person not setting out to partisanize the issue. Instead of making accusations and calling for resignations, he's empaneled an ethics group that is making a real examination of the issues across the state and challenging the lobbyist-driven status quo.

The question now is, will Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate set down their partisan guns and figure out a way to fix the problems? Will they agree to find a legitimate solution to people like Tre Hargett and Kathryn Bowers? Or will they choose to score petty partisan points at the expense of the people of Tennessee? I can only hope they'll straighten up and fly right.

More Dental Work Means Less Blogging

2005-08-29T15:05:00.000-04:00

And that sucks. Sorry for light posting today, but getting the tail end of that dental work done has kept me out of commission. But fear not, I'll have plenty to say about Chris Newton and why Bob Davis must have his head where the sun don't shine either later tonight or tomorrow.

Till then, go do something productive.

Jon Stewart Sums It Up

2005-08-26T14:11:00.000-04:00

Jon Stewart spent a good deal of time last night talking about one of the strategies employed by right these days: Instead of responding to people's actual criticisms, respond to an extreme version of them, in order to cast your opponent in an extreme light.

He first brought it up during his opening segment on President Bush's reliance on talking points, noting that people are looking for a timetable for withdrawal. He then showed a clip about Bush's argument against people who want to "cut and run" from Iraq - which is not what most people are calling for.

My favorite moment though, came in his discussion with Christopher Hitchens, who has voiced support for the war. Here is a video from Crooks and Liars (the best part starts at 6:30 in), and below is a transcript from Wonkette:

Stewart: The people who say we shouldn't fight in Iraq aren't saying it's our fault. . . That is the conflation that is the most disturbing. . .
Hitch: Don't you hear people saying. . .
Stewart: You hear people saying a lot of stupid [bleep]. . . But there are reasonable disagreements in this country about the way this war has been conducted, that has nothing to do with people believing we should cut and run from the terrorists, or we should show weakness in the face of terrorism, or that we believe that we have in some way brought this upon ourselves. . .
Hitch: [Sputter]
Stewart: They believe that this war is being conducted without transparency, without credibility, and without competence...
Hitch: I'm sorry, sunshine... I just watched you ridicule the president for saying he wouldn't give. . .
Stewart: No, you misunderstood why. . . . That's not why I ridiculed the president. He refuses to answer questions from adults as though we were adults and falls back upon platitudes and phrases and talking points that does a disservice to the goals that he himself shares with the very people needs to convince.

[Audience erupts in applause]

Hitch: You want me to believe you're really secretly on the side of the Bush administration. . .
Stewart: I secretly need to believe he's on my side. He's too important and powerful a man not to be.

Hitch: [Sputter, return to talking about his latest book.]

Watch it and learn.

A Move Toward County Commission Moderation?

2005-08-25T22:34:00.000-04:00

The Chattanoogan has the scoop that the County Commission's moderate, pro-education funding wing will stay together to elect Larry Henry as the next Commission chairman.

Just a couple of weeks ago, current Chairman Fred Skillern had been counting on the support of Commissioners Beck and Richard Casavant for another term.

But the team that voted in a 26-cent property tax increase is set to also name the commission leadership.

Commissioner Henry, who will be the next chairman, was the swing vote. He voted against a tax increase last year, but for one this time.

He is set to get the votes of himself and Commissioners Henry, Beck, Casavant, Charlotte Vandergriff and William Cotton.

This bodes well for people in Hamilton County if this block can hold together. This is a unique study in the partisan politics of Hamilton County, with a block of moderate Republicans lined up with the Commission's Democratic minority against their conservative party mates and one faux Democrat in Lou Miller.

Is this the beginning of a new long-term alliance, or is this merely leftover bitterness from the contentious tax vote? One can only hope that we can now move on from the days of making the Superintendent Public Enemy Number One.

Why Is William Cotton Scared?

2005-08-24T18:21:00.000-04:00

Check out the current top post on the TFP MetroChatt blog by reporter Kathleen Baydala. Why the hell is William Cotton so scared of talking to the newspaper?

"I have told you many times, I will not work with you until I see some changes," Mr. Cotton said to me. He abruptly ended the phone call before explaining to me what those changes are.

I suspect his resistance stems from an article I wrote back in April about city council members, school board members and county commissioners - including Mr. Cotton - who had not paid their property taxes on time. (A note: The other public officials named in the article do talk to me.)

Cotton needs to get over it, and fast. He has an obligation to respond and interact with his constituents and the public. And in the end, if the jerk would have paid his taxes on time, his name never would have been in the story.

Grow up, William Cotton. Grow the hell up.

An Evening With Harold Ford, Jr.

2005-08-23T22:15:00.000-04:00

I just got back in from an evening listening and talking with Harold Ford, Jr. at his reception in Chattanooga. I left impressed as I always am when I see him speak.

There was a packed house at the Silver Ballroom at the Read House to hear him speak, and he gave an interesting address that was fairly policy-centric, though he certainly talked politics with the friendly Democratic crowd. His main theme was that Democrats in Tennessee needs to take advantage of the vacuum of positive feeling among the electorate. As Bush's numbers have utterly tanked in recent months, Democratic numbers have not increased in kind, and he honed in on the opening this creates.

Now, I pretty heartily disagree with Harold when he says that he thinks Bush's basic instinct to go into Iraq was right, but that his execution was wrong, and on some level it worries me that he feels that way. But as he expanded his thoughts, it is clear that he favors a withdrawal as soon as possible pegged to well-defined events. And I think, most importantly, he is a strong advocate for making a real and concerted effort to involve the UN and the international community in training the Iraqi police forces and army. He also underscored the need to reduce dependence on foreign oil, and tied it into the issue of producing good jobs, rather masterfully, I might add.

On the whole, he gave a good speech and was well-received. I was struck by his willingness to disagree with questioners in a very respectful way. He did a good job (with an admittedly partisan crowd) of handling the issues with his uncle a couple of times. In one-on-one conversation, he is a totally engaging guy. He is sharp as a tack, and it shows.

Do I love all of his politics? No. Do I think, on the whole, that he is the best candidate for the U.S. Senate? Hell yes.

Oh, and the highlight of the speech, by far , was his odd mannerism of acknowledging people in the audience spontaneously in his speech - In a five minute period, he recognized John Franklin, Chris Anderson, Adam Green and one other person whose name was not familiar, just throwing their names in a sentence. But the best was his unfortunately-timed recognition of Former Rep. Marilyn Lloyd - paraphrasing everything but the reference itself:

"I think when George Bush saw Iraq, it was wise for him to she worried about the potential for Saddam Hussein - Congresswoman Lloyd - and Osama bin Laden to work together for terror."

It really sounded like he was putting her in the list. It was quite hilarious.

The "Christian" Agenda

2005-08-23T16:35:00.000-04:00

This makes me sick to my stomach:

[Venezuelan President] Chavez has emerged as one of the most outspoken critics of President Bush, accusing the United States of conspiring to topple his government and possibly backing plots to assassinate him. U.S. officials have called the accusations ridiculous.

"You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it," Robertson said. "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war ... and I don't think any oil shipments will stop."

This guy is a class-A lunatic. It is incredibly troubling to me that he purports to speak for Christians or Christianity in anyway. And the scary part is that there are so many people who believe what he says. Remember, this is the same guy who tried to blame 9/11 on liberals and gay people.

I have enough issue with those, even here in Chattanooga, who use their pulpits as places for political speeches. But this is simply heretical.

Political Science

2005-08-22T14:36:00.000-04:00

While I recover from some painful dental work today, I'll leave you with this to ponder. It kept coming to mind all weekend as right-wing folks left nasty comments on my blog.

Randy Newman - Political Science

No one likes us-I don't know why
We may not be perfect, but heaven knows we try
But all around, even our old friends put us down
Let's drop the big one and see what happens

We give them money-but are they grateful?
No, they're spiteful and they're hateful
They don't respect us-so let's surprise them
We'll drop the big one and pulverize them

Asia's crowded and Europe's too old
Africa is far too hot
And Canada's too cold
And South America stole our name
Let's drop the big one
There'll be no one left to blame us

We'll save Australia
Don't wanna hurt no kangaroo
We'll build an All American amusement park there
They got surfin', too

Boom goes London and boom Paree
More room for you and more room for me
And every city the whole world round
Will just be another American town
Oh, how peaceful it will be
We'll set everybody free
You'll wear a Japanese kimono
And there'll be Italian shoes for me

They all hate us anyhow
So let's drop the big one now
Let's drop the big one now

That's All I Can Stands, And I Can't Stands No More

2005-08-20T00:31:00.000-04:00

DADvocate, whose Web address I can at least agree with, made a comment on a post below that was just too much for me to take. First, take a sec to read his comment - I'm not reposting it to save space. Here's my response:

Al Soreloser"? That's all I can stands, and I can't stands no more.

Let me explain it in as clear terms as I can: Al Gore got more votes. He got more votes nationwide, and he got more votes in Florida. Every independent evaluation of the ballots after that election showed that he won, and was robbed of the Presidency. Period. When we look back in 100 years, it will be one of country's great shames.

You shouldn't be worried about the desecration of the Koran because it's the Koran. You should be worried about it because that is the kind of crap that makes these young Arab men go off to madrassas in the first place.

I don't want to make God illegal in school. Far from it. But I want to be damn sure that when I have a kid he/she doesn't get taught the right-wing conservative version of my religion, Christianity, which seems to be the only kind of religion in schools that conservatives find valid.

Democrats don't want Catholics on the court? I'm sure that comes as a pretty damn enormous surprise to say, Ted Kennedy. Or John Kerry. Or any number of Catholic Democrats across the country. To say Democrats are committing religious bigotry is perhaps the silliest meme one could regurgitate. You know what we are trying to avoid? People whose narrow view of Christianity and religion will lead them view a literalist reading of the Old Testament as the filter for judging laws and not the Constitution.

But what troubles me the most about the type of religiously-based politics that today's Republican party seems to back is its basic ignorance of Christ's teachings on poverty, social justice, and love for one another. There is always room for disagreement and interpretation in matters of faith, but I just don't see where opposing a minmum wage increase is doing unto the least of these our brothers what we would do unto Christ.

I don't mind honest disagreement, but when you trot out lines about "banning God" and "not giving a damn about the troops," you fall victim to soundbite politics, practice deception, and cheapen the debate. I won't accept it.

Ok, then.

In Other News... Bruuuuce

2005-08-19T09:58:00.000-04:00

I went to see the Bruce Hornsby show last night at the Tivoli, and it was stellar. You'd be hard pressed to find a more talented musician (or really, group of musicians, if you include his band The Noisemakers) out there.

Song selection was fantastic, though I could have used Every Little Kiss. In spite of that, though, there were some outstanding songs played. Perhaps most intriguing was his opening number, a jazz look at a bluegrass song he recorded for an upcoming album with Ricky Skaggs.

There was also a near miss on a Franklin's Tower cover, but it turned into a brief journey through "Walk on the Wild Side" that was good, too.

If you weren't there you missed a hell of a show.

Thoughts On The "Big Tent"

2005-08-18T15:35:00.000-04:00

UPDATE: The comments on Scott's post are trememdously disappointing to me to read. The best that the Republicans can come up with is to just call people who disagree with them moonbats, refer them to partisan Web sites and move on. Therein lies the problem - there's just no room for debate.

Scott Randolph has a post up today about deciding to become a Republican after watching Cindy Sheehan on CNN this morning. An excerpt:

Then it happend. The good little democrat in me tied the little noose around his neck and jumped off the stool. He just couldn’t take it anymore.

Take what? The whining. The constant whining by the extreme left about the reasons for war, the incompetence of this administration, and how we’ve all been lied to, and how we should pull out of Iraq immediately, because, *gulp* our soldiers were in danger.

Scott goes on to talk about the good we did for the people of Iraq, which is a point I'll mightily debate with him. But what troubles me is that he sees all Democrats as being blindly anti-war based on Cindy Sheehan and those who have latched on to her cause.

I decided to post a comment to him, and thought I'd post it here:

Scott, I’m sure you know this, but the vast majority of Democrats don’t believe soldiers are naive. Most of us think of them as people who are making a huge sacrifice for the counrty in volunteering to serve, and honor them for being willing to make a much larger sacrifice if need be.

I also completely agree that now that we are in Iraq, there’s no getting out till the country can stand on it’s own. People who are calling for immediate withdrawal miss the reality of the situation, and I think they do not represent the majority of Democrats by even a long shot.

I do think that many Democrats wonder if Pres. Bush misused our troops by sending them into Iraq, and I feel the same. In my mind, before we entered Iraq, it was run by a dictator, but a dictator who opposed radical Islam and did not have any relationship with international terror networks. Now we have a new terrorist hotbed that we cannot control, while the leaders of Al-Qaeda roam free. It was a massive mistake.

So, anyway - if you feel you’re done with the Democratic party, that’s up to you. But the Democratic “big tent” always has and always will have room for people from across the spectrum - be they moderate conservatives or out-and-out liberals like myself.

Not A Car Plant, But...

2005-08-17T08:42:00.000-04:00

The new T-Mobile facility in Chattanooga is a very good thing. 800 new jobs is no small number, and while they may not be the type of high-paying manufacturing jobs that the elusive "Project Pinetree" might bring us, these are good positions:

The company plans to start with about 120 to 150 workers, and it will be about a year before T-Mobile hires the 800 anticipated employees, Mr. Birrer said. Most jobs, with a starting base of $9 an hour, will be full time and come with a benefits package, he said.

They don't quite qualify as "high-tech" jobs in the most intellectually honest sense of the word, but if you don't know your way around a computer, you won't get these jobs. That underscores the need for strong retraining programs as part of an larger economic development strategy. Plus, this means tech support people who are not being outsourced... that's a good thing for any T-Mobile customer, to be sure.

School Board Replacement Questions

2005-08-17T08:22:00.000-04:00

It's time to clean out the dirty laundry. It's good to see that Charles Love did the right thing for once and resigned from the school board. What concerns me, though is that our anti-education County Commission will appoint his successor:

Hamilton County Commission Chairman Fred Skillern said commissioners will set a format for how to choose Mr. Love's replacement at today's meeting. He said he expects the earliest possible vote on a replacement would be during the commission's Sept. 1 meeting.

Commissioner Greg Beck, who represents the 5th District where Mr. Love served, said he will assemble a group of constituents to sort through resumes and make a recommendation for Mr. Love's successor.

"We just want to make sure we have a cross section of interested people," Mr. Beck said. "I'm certainly looking for somebody who can hold the board accountable."

What does it mean to hold the school board accountable? Will the County Commission hire someone whose approaches to funding and school leadership mirror Love's? Or will Skillern take advantage of an opportunity to install another anti-Register parrot?

There are lots of questions to be answered in the coming months in Hamilton County and across the state.

Pentagon Politics Losing Media Sponsorship

2005-08-16T10:15:00.000-04:00

There's been a lot of attention paid to the Pentagon's 9/11 commemoration that is, in fact a pro-war rally that has nothing to do with 9/11 at all. The event is ostensibly held to "support our troops," though there is really no cogent explanation what that has to do with remembering the 9/11 attacks.

Today, The Washington Post backed out of it's sponsorship of the event, coming too late to the conclusion that this is not a 9/11 memorial, or even something designed to neutrally support our troops, but is instead a full-on political event in face the of declining poll numbers. The Post's union makes the best point:

"The Guild supports The Post's stated intention of honoring the nation's veterans, including those who have served in Iraq. But the Post undermines this goal by lending its support to a political event that links the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to the war in Iraq -- a link that The Post, in its reporting, has shown to be false."

Good point. And if you needed any evidence that this is not an event where those who support our troops but oppose this war will be welcome, check out the latest lyrics from the event's big star, Clint Black:

YOU CAN WAVE YOUR SIGNS IN PROTEST
AGAINST AMERICA TAKING STANDS
THE STANDS AMERICA'S TAKEN
ARE THE REASON THAT YOU CAN

What a damned twit.

So, anyway - good for the Post for backing down from this ridiculous endeavor, and maybe the Pentagon will wise up to the fact that come this 9/11 when we look back on the last four years since the attacks, we aren't going to be looking for rah-rah politics. We'll have a chance to evaluate whether we have done right by those who lost their lives, and whether our country is safer now that it was then. I'd imagine the Pentagon probably wants us to think about that as little as possible.

"Justice" Sunday Gets It Dead Wrong

2005-08-15T08:45:00.000-04:00

This gets me mad as hell. I fail to compute how anything about this event comports with Christ's teachings. There are so many issues to address that it is overwhelming. Here is what made me the most enraged, though:

The last speaker - her pastor, the Rev. Jerry Sutton - challenged church pastors nationwide to recognize that they have a place in this effort.

"You are the leaders," Sutton said. "You speak for God. We care about our country."

Sutton, first vice president of the Nashville-based Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant body, closed with five sentences: "It's a new day. Liberalism is dead. The majority of Americans are conservative. You can count on us for showing up and speaking out. And ... let the church rise."

Where in the hell does this guy get off? This is lunacy, utter lunacy. As a Biblbelievingng Baptist, I can say not only does this man not speak for me, but these people do not speak for God. In fact, that is conceivably the least Baptist ideology this guy could espouse. Baptists believe that the Bible is the Word of God, plain and simple. Where there are conflicts in the Bible, wbelieveve that Jesus' teaching is preeminent. No Earthly voice can speak for God.

A press release from the completely-excellent Baptist Joint Committee hit the nail on the head:

"Christians have the right, and in fact the responsibility, to weigh in on important policy issues," said K. Hollyn Hollman, general counsel for the Baptist Joint Committee. "But the exploitation of religion for partisan ends damages both religion and politics."

In the midst of participating in this event, the SBC representative made a statement that throws out hundreds of years of Baptist tradition. As a Baptist and a Christian, my faith drives me to find ways to better educate our children, to feed the hungry and to be a good steward of God's creation. Events like this distract from our charge to make the world a better place for people.

Bye Bye, Love

2005-08-11T08:37:00.000-04:00

Okay, that was an excessively bad title. But it fits an excessively bad school board member.

Maybe I'm off base here, but has anyone asked Charles Love whether he's planning to resign from the school board now that he admits to having taken part in bribing elected officials? He needs to get out, and get out now. This quote is the last act of a truly desperate man:

"A guilty plea is not a sentence," he said Wednesday. "A guilty plea is a legal opinion, but I really still prefer not to comment."

What the hell is that supposed to mean? A guilty plea means you are saying you did it. You aren't pleading no contest here, buddy.

Charles Love should resign from the school board, immediately.

Jeff Miller Does Not Give You Credit

2005-08-10T10:58:00.000-04:00

In fact, it would seem he gives no one in Tennessee credit for being able to notice what an unbelievable hypocrite he is.

He has been spouting off about Lois DeBerry and trying to make political hay of her accepting money from an E-Cycle rep, and yet, well, I'll let Will Pinkston handle it:

"They want to try to make an issue of Lois DeBerry? Jeff Miller took five times that amount of cash from E-Cycle to date," Tennessee Democratic Party spokesman Will Pinkston said. "We have not seen one shred of documentation that it went into his campaign account."

And of course Jeff just assures us we should trust him and take him at his word.

"I put the money in the bank," Miller said. "No, I'm not going to be made out to be untruthful when all I have been is truthful. I did it (deposited the money). My word is good. So my word stands."

Wow. Given Sen. Miller's issues regarding faithfulness and trust, you'd think he'd know better than to ask us to take his word.

Let's make it simple here. Do I think Jeff Miller took $1,000 from E-Cycle as a bribe and spent it on a vacation for he and his mistress? No. He's a jerk, but not stupid. But here's the thing - the people of Tennessee deserve to know what did happen to the $1,000 that he did receive from them. If he put it in the bank, this can all get cleared up incredibly fast. If he didn't, then he needs to explain what he did with the campaign contribution, so other contributors can know what their money is being spent on.

And really, he should probably just shut his mouth for a while. It seems that every time he opens it he just looks worse.

Who Would Be Better?

2005-08-09T09:18:00.000-04:00

Who on Earth do the TennCare protestors want to be the Governor? Yesterday's ridiculous outbursts in Nashville call to mind the question I have asked before: If you want Governor Bredesen to have a "pink slip" SO bad, who do you have in mind to take his place?

Do you really think that Beth Harwell, Van Hilleary or Ed Bryant would have not done the same thing as Bredesen did? Do you think they would have let you sit in the office for a few weeks? Do you think they would have met with you? Do you think they would have tried to negotiate a settlement for months on end? Do you think they would call on you in the middle of a press conference?

Not only would the TennCare cuts have happened under a Republican, but more cuts would have happened across the government. This thinking is from the same mindset that caused otherwise smart people to vote for Ralph Nader in 2000. Look where that got us.

So, before you decide to give the Governor a "pink slip," why don't you consider the alternatives? I think it will be clear that Phil Bredesen is the best option you will have, like it or not.

Reagan: Enough Already

2005-08-05T16:19:00.000-04:00

I'm coming to you live today from our nation's capital thanks to the good people of US Airways and someone in Dupont Circle who has an open wireless network!

And what should I find when I return to the land where I roamed for a few years, but yet another moronic attempt to rename something for Ronald Reagan. In this case, a Texas Congressman wants to rename 16th Street to Ronald Reagan Boulevard.

What dumb, dumb idea. They already renamed Washington National Airport after him, and the huge federal building in downtown Washington, clearly with no sense of irony for naming a big government building after someone who hated the government.

In an amazing fit of sanity, Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia has said he will block the effort, and wins the day with this comment:

Davis noted that Congress has renamed Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and dedicated the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center on Pennsylvania Avenue NW. "If Congressman Bonilla wants to name anything else, he has to look at his own district in San Antonio," Davis said.

It would shame the memory of Pierre L'Enfant, who designed the city, but more importantly, it is just a silly thumbed nose at the people of Washington D.C. who rejected Reagan wholeheartedly.

More from D.C. through the weekend...

Excellance

2005-08-04T11:06:00.000-04:00

Now, let me say clearly I am pro-education funding and I think Hamilton County needs better Commissioners who will stand up for our students, our economy and our future instead of acting like over posessive children because they don't get to run the schools. That said, this picture from today's story on education and taxes pretty much takes the cake.

Let's all just hope that this was an intentional and clever object lesson in why we need to improve the Hamilton County education system. I'm not counting on it, though.

New York Times On Operation Meth Merchant; Scoops TFP

2005-08-04T00:01:00.000-04:00

Today's New York Times features an article on the issues with Georgia "Operation Meth Merchant" sting - specifically the cultural and racial barriers that have developed from an sting that arrested Indians almost exclusively.

The piece provides a great rundown of the fact that many of the people arrested are highly insulated from the world around them - by language, culture and socioeconomic status.

But the case here is also complicated by culture. Prosecutors have had to drop charges against one defendant they misidentified, presuming that the Indian woman inside the store must be the same Indian woman whose name appeared on the registration for a van parked outside, and lawyers have gathered evidence arguing that another defendant is the wrong Patel.

Another key passage:

In some cases, the language barriers seem obvious - one videotape shows cold medicine stacked next to a sign saying, "Cheek your change befor you leave a counter." Investigators footnoted court papers to explain that the clue the informants dropped most often - that they were doing "a cook" - is a "common term" meth makers use. Lawyers argue that if the courts could not be expected to understand what this meant, neither could immigrants with a limited grasp of English.

"This is not even slang language like 'gonna,' 'wanna,' " said Malvika Patel, who spent three days in jail before being cleared this month. " 'Cook' is very clear; it means food." And in this context, she said, some of the items the government wants stores to monitor would not set off any alarms. "When I do barbecue, I have four families. I never have enough aluminum foil."

While the story does a fairly good job of hitting the key issues involved with this very embarrassing situation, it does get one huge fact wrong:

This corner of the state is still largely white; Indians began moving here about 10 years ago, buying hotels and then convenience stores, and some whites still say, mistakenly, that "Patel" means "hotel" in Hindi.

Indians have been in our area in large numbers for a LONG time. Many of my good friends are first generation citizens, born to parents who immigrated in the 60s and 70s. The wave of immigrants now running the mom-and-pop stores did come into the country more recently, but it's totally off-base to portray it as a new phenomenon.

The article asks good questions, though, and takes a strong, broad approach to the story. I have to ask the question: Where was the Times Free Press while this was being written? They have done stories on Operation Meth Merchant and one-day hard news about accusations of misidentification, but they have taken no time to examine the issue at all. It opens the door to an exploration of Chattanooga's Indian community, its different factions, and how they view what is happening. I'd imagine you'd get some different reactions from those who immigrated long ago than you might expect. Either way, the TFP dropped the ball here and got scooped by its erstwhile cousin on a story that they should have had, and the world got an interesting picture of Chattanooga and Northwest Georgia.

Democrats Like Voting. Republicans, Not So Much

2005-08-02T08:32:00.000-04:00

Yesterday's Times Free Press covered the progress of a bill to make it easier for felons to regain their voting rights in Tennessee. Sen. Steve Cohen take one important track on the issue:

State Sen. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, sponsored a bill that sailed through the Senate with bipartisan support that would simplify what is now a cumbersome process.

"If people have paid their debt to society, they should be reintegrated back into society and have their voting rights restored," he said. "It's the right thing, the Judeo-Christian thing, to do to forgive people and not convict them to eternal damnation."

Rep. JoAnne Favors makes a surprisingly salient point as well:

Rep. Favors said once convicted felons complete their sentences, as well as any parole or probationary periods, they begin paying taxes and should be allowed to vote.

"That's taxation without representation," she said.

This strikes me as a common-sense issue. The right to vote is perhaps our most important, and certainly should not be subject to lifetime revocation just for committing a felony. But don't let that stop the otherwise sane Rep. Gerald McCormick (R, Natch.):

Rep. Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, said he voted against the bill and is contemplating proposing legislation that would prevent convicted felons from ever getting their voting rights restored.

"In my opinion, if someone commits a felony they should not have the right to vote," he said. "I don't want thousands of people who are angry with district attorneys and sheriffs to go out and vote."

Let's look at the real issue here. Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics reports show that black people make up far and away the highest percentage of those held in state and federal prisons. This is a group of people that, when they vote, tend to vote Democratic. One need look no further than the efforts to remove felons (and those whose names were similar to felons) from the voter rolls in Florida in 2000 and 2004 to see that Republicans work actively to use the disenfranchisement of felons to their political advantage. Tennessee can and should so better on something like this.

Marsha Blackburn is #37

2005-07-27T21:45:00.000-04:00

Well, it's great to see Marsha Blackburn is making a positive impact for Tennessee. So positive, in fact, she was just named the 37th most beautiful person on Captiol Hill by The Hill newspaper.

I think it is thoroughly upsetting that the eminently-cool Stephanie Herseth was left out. Shameful, really.

(And is that her certificate that she's holding?)

Leamon Pierce To Beat Up Jon Kinsey??

2005-07-27T19:35:00.000-04:00

I've avoided blogging about this whole issue till now, but this seemed worth spreading the word about, and I'm certainly interested to find out what's happening. As a highly disgruntled Cameron Hill resident who thinks we got completely screwed by Jon Kinsey and his passionate love for the almighty doller, I'm at least planning to stop by. No clue who's organizing it, though.

CAMERON HILL TENANT MEETING
Thursday, July 28. 2005
5:30 p.m.
Cameron Hill Club House

Special Guest: Councilman Leamon Pierce

At our last meeting, the tenants suggested that we write a letter to BlueCross BlueShield stating our concerns regarding broken promises and inadequatefinancial assistance being offered for relocation.

BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee responded with a letter that demonstrated little to no regard for the tenants or the displacement of Chattanooga's first large residential downtown residential community.
No response relative to the broken promise of replacement housing.

We have invited an attorney to be present at this meeting

Please attend this very important meeting...

United we stand...divided we fall

the new "tfp" site

2005-07-26T15:12:00.000-04:00

Since I'm one who has commented in the past about the Times Free Press and it's utter lack of functionality on the web, I should probably make my two cents known about their new design under the weird moniker of "tfp Online".

On the plus side: There's news on the front page! Yes, in a shocking upset, a visitor to the Times Free Press Web site will find news.

On the minus side: It's not, um, actually news. Only blurbs. With no links to stories. It's actually the "3-Minute Read" just posted on a Web site with a picture or two. And it doesn't get updated during the day.

On the plus side: The navigation bar on the left side is finally one consistent width.

On the minus side: It's still useless. They have somehow found a way to bury the link to the blogs page even more than they did on the advertising-driven front page of yore. Oh, and feel free to click on that blogs link to find that the blog page still uses the old template, ugly flashing ads and uneven width still in their shining glory.

On the plus side: It isn't called "ChattanoogaNow" anymore.

On the minus side: It is called "tfp Online.com" now. And apparently the lower case is important, as you read in Tom Griscom's breakdown on Sunday. tfp(space)Online. How very not forced.

On the plus side: There aren't any more of those little square ads that flash and have scrolling text while you try to read other text.

On the minus side: There are now HUGE banner ads on three sides of the content that don't have any kind of border. And they are all in fonts that are heavier than any font used on the rest of the page, so everything else just fades out.

Okay, I could go on, but in summary: Good for rethinking the design, but wow - what a missed opportunity. The page gets me to ostensible news-esque content faster, sort of. But it continues to be ugly and hard to use. And thus, most people who want to read Chattanooga news online will go to the Chattanoogan and read crappy news releases. People in our area deserve better than a choice between an nearly-unusable Web site for a good and well-written newspaper and a usable Web site for a horrid news outlet.

Godspeed, Discovery.

2005-07-26T11:02:00.000-04:00

If watching the Space Shuttle launch does not get you excited, you do not have a pulse, nor do you deserve to. Watching this launch brought tears to my eyes, thinking about the excitement of this launch and the sacrifices of the astronauts of Columbia, Challenger, and Apollo 1.

The views from the camera on the External Tank were simply amazing, and you can't help but wonder why no one thought to put a camera there before. Seeing the ET separate and watching Discovery smooth its way upward was a sight to behold. My dad called me immediately afterward and said "Was that the greatest thing you've ever seen?" I couldn't disagree.

Lots of people question the wisdom of the manned space program. People I agree with on most everything tend to see it as a waste of money. Scientists (of the purest varieties) see manned flight as a distraction from the "real" science that can be done with things like the Deep Impact comet probe and the Mars Rovers.

It's true that there's less pure science done on manned space flight, though certainly it has brought us a great deal of new information about how humans exist in space, as well as performing chemical and physical experiments that need a human touch to conduct. But it is also important to note that there are questions we don't yet know to ask. As humans, we are driven to learn, evolve and explore. When we go to a space station, to the moon or to Mars, we expand our field of understanding and learn how to ask the question we don't yet know.

So, Godspeed, Discovery.

Here's NASA's coverage.

Damning, Much?

2005-07-25T18:49:00.000-04:00

This rundown by Dan Froomkin from washingtonpost.com is really qute a good breakdown of the Rove-gate issues. Check it out, and ask yourself how this compares to Watergate.

Daddy Was A Union Man...

2005-07-25T08:14:00.000-04:00

Well, not really. But I'm of two minds about the impending schism in the American labor movement.

The Teamsters and SEIU have some very good points about the decline of membership in unions, and the seeming indifference to this 300-pound gorilla shown by the leadership of the AFL-CIO. However, I think that abandoning the political aims of the group in favor of organization as the only goal shows a great myopia about the current political attitude towards labor.

Living in Tennessee and working in Georgia have pretty much shown me the face of Union-hostile America. There are active unions in the area, to be sure, but new employees and young employees have grown up hearing about how corrupt unions are, and have been fed that line by politician after politician who is in bed with corporate interests.

In the end, a schism seems unnecessary, but hotheaded union people, especially Teamsters and SEIU folks, have a way of going off the deep end. My own views on the SEIU are skewed from when I was spammed (and really, phished, wince they used the college logo) by them over and over and over when they stole the alumni e-mail list of my college. They were trying to organize the part time grad students and shame the college for using non-union steelworkers on some sub-sub contract. When I sent an e-mail to SEIU asking them to take me off of their list, I got an angry e-mail back from someone accusing me of "abandoning my school loyalty for corporate greed" and other choice words.

So, anyway: The issues need to be addressed, but a schism won't help the situation at all.

John Roberts as Christ, Schumer the Pharisee?

2005-07-22T09:20:00.000-04:00

From Kos, it looks like Orrin Hatch wants to call certain Democrats on the Judiciary Committee "Pharisees" - here's his quote from Fox News (natch):

"I think senators can ask any questions they want. I've said, no matter how dumb the question may be. But the, the nominee doesn't have to answer them and he should not, under the canons of judicial ethics, he should not answer questions on any issue that possibly would come before the Supreme Court. Otherwise, he would be foretelling how he would vote on those issues and then they would hold that against him. So it's a little bit like Biblical Pharisees, you know, who basically are always trying to undermine Jesus Christ, you know, it goes on the same way. If they can catch him in something, they can then criticize -- and the outside groups will go berserk. And that's that what drives the People for the American Way, the Alliance for Justice, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. They're against any Republican. We knew that just no matter who it was -- it could be the greatest person in the world, and Roberts is, is that -- they would come out against him."

Other than the hyperbole of calling Roberts "the greatest person in the world," let's make a quck journey between the lines here. Orrin Hatch compares a Supremem Court nominee to Christ, and then compares Democrats on the Judiciary Committee to the Pharisees. Peruse some of the Judiciary Democrats, if you will: Herb Kohl, Dianne Feinstein, Charles Schumer, Russ Feingold. Um, all Jewish. It seems like his message is "we know what they did with Jesus... now they want to do it to our Court nominees!"

Does this strike anyone else as at best offensive and at worst downright malicious? Or am I just a whack-job?

Heath Shuler for Congress

2005-07-20T20:11:00.000-04:00

I'm sure this won't be his first endorsement, nor will it be his last, but I love that Heath Shuler is running for Congress. The AP reported this week that Heath has filed papers to run for the NC-11 seat against Rep. Charles Taylor.

A follow-up analysis comes courtesy of Michael Davis in today's Chattanooga Times Free Press. The early analysis he picks up is mixed at best, with the traditional emphasis on the uphill battle of facing an incumbent.

I think that Heath Shuler brings a lot of things to the table that can counter that, however:

1) Wealth. He made a lot of money in the NFL and has made more money in real estate in Knoxville. He can seed his campaign with a lot of money, and like it or not, independent weath is a factor.

2) Name Recognition. Clearly his is a household name in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina. I'm excited to see numbers start to leak out, but I'd imagine he is at least even with Rep. Taylor on name recognition. This takes a away a big chunk of the battle against an incumbent.

3) Moderate Politics. While Charles Taylor may have backed off of renaming French Fries into Freedom Fires, he still veers pretty far from the moderate end of the Republican party. Shuler has already talked about some of his policy aims, and they are right in line with what Southern Democrats are all about:

"Far too many families in western North Carolina are struggling to earn a decent living, educate their children, and pay for health care," Shuler said. "Congress is spending too much time playing partisan politics, instead of working to find solutions to the real problems facing our families."

One thing I don't love is how much he flirted with Republican politics while here in Tennessee:

In 2001, Shuler, then living in Tennessee, declined efforts by that state's Republican Party to recruit him for the 4th Congressional District seat vacated when incumbent Republican Van Hilleary entered the gubernatorial race. Shuler was to hold a fund-raiser for Hilleary that year, but it was canceled because of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Flack said Shuler supported Democrats and Republicans while living in Tennessee but is now registered as a Democrat and has never been a registered Republican.

"He grew up a Democrat; his family is lifelong Democrats," Flack said.

But, in the end, he's with the good guys now. I'd like to think that life after 9/11 showed him that the Democratic party is the party of hope and security for America's future, but that could be a pipe dream.

So, everyone who was a Tennessee fan in the early 90s will join me as I say: Shuuuuuuuuler, Shuuuuuuler, Shuuuuuuler. (Poor Andy Kelly.)

PS: Aptonym of the the Century -

Shuler was traveling on business Monday and was unavailable for comment, campaign spokesman Randy Flack said.

Hehe.

Where the hell is SKB??

2005-07-19T14:40:00.000-04:00

Does anyone have any ideas about this?

UPDATE: Well, it looks like SKB has bowed out. I hate this. I mean, I really hate this. SKB was the blogger who inspred me to blog, and his departure leaves a big ole gaping hole in the Tennessee blogging scene. But first and foremost, he was a good guy. The Rocky Top Brigade got most of us our first few links and got us up and running. I'll join SayUncle and Silence in hoping he changes his mind, but if not, well, Ok, then.

Back

2005-07-19T11:19:00.000-04:00

Hey all, posting gap was due to being away for the weekend, and unable to post when I thought I would be able to. Damn hotels and their $10/day Internet charges.

I'll get back on the horse this evening with a post about the one and only Heath Shuler's impending run for the House, among other things I am sure.

Stay tuned.

TennCare Traction Hurting Bredesen's Approval?

2005-07-14T00:45:00.000-04:00

In a Survey USA poll released this week, Gov. Bredesen's approval/disapproval numbers take a big dip from an earlier poll:

Tennesee Gov. Phil Bredesen (D)
May 2005: Approve 52% Disapprove 40%
June 2005: Approve 53% Disapprove 40%
July 2005: Approve 48% Disapprove 44%

That represents a loss of five percent on approval and an increase of four percent on disapproval over the last month alone.

To me, the only issue that has had enough real statewide impact on Bredesen is TennCare. The challenge before him is to find a way to get his own message out on why he feels the TennCare cuts are necessary, or asw is also a possibility, sieze the manetle of ethics and drive it forward into 2006.

It's early, of course, but incumbent approvals below 50% are not ideal for reelection.

PS: Check out Mark Warner's numbers in Republican Virginia and tell me he doesn;t have the momentum to run for the Whit e House.

Shuttle Launch Scrubbed

2005-07-13T13:36:00.000-04:00

If you're a space geek like me, you'll be sad to know that today's launch was just scrubbed. A low-level fuel sensor isn't working properly.

More to come.

UPDATE, 1:40 p.m.: The sensor detects the level of hydrogen remaining in the shuttle main engine tank. It's one of four redundant sensors that shuts down the main engine when the level of hydrogen fuel dips to exteremely low levels. If the engine runs empty, it explodes. It's an incredibly rare thing to have that little fuel, but it's safety first at NASA, for obvious reasons.

UPDATE 2, 1:45 p.m.: Apparently the sensor showed a low level of fuel when there was clearly fuel in the tank. The crew is disembarking now. NASA TV is saying that a launch could be rescheduled for as early as tomorrow, but the mission managers are saying the fuel tanks will need to be emptied, and the refueling process is involved.

UPDATE 3, 1:55 p.m.: Here's a link to the updating AP story out of Kenndy Space Center. There will be a briefing within an hour or two to update the situation.

UPDATE 4, 4:36 p.m.: According to NASA's Orbiter Program Manager at a press briefing now, the earliest conceivable launch is Saturday, but it's clear they still haven't nailed down where the sensor problem is happening, so that may be optimistic. It looks like the earliest we'll know more about the issue is tomorrow evening, due to the draining and inerting of the External Tank. They'll be rotating the Service Unit back out to mate with the orbiter as well. Plainly put, this is a lot of steps back in the launch sequence.

World Cafe on NPR? Gimme Gimme!

2005-07-12T16:16:00.000-04:00

I am a big fan of public radio. Big fan. So, it was with much joy that I discovered that World Cafe is now available on NPR.

I, of course, have no clue how much NPR is charging member stations in fees to pick it up, but goodness - this show fits perfectly with WUTC's format. Cool music, some you've heard, much you haven't, from a lot of different styles.

So, if you're out there, WUTC folks, get the World Cafe and make Chattanooga that much cooler.

(PS: Look at these playlists and tell me we don't need this.)

No. Hell No. Forget It.

2005-07-12T11:35:00.000-04:00

While I had vaguely heard about the plan by Rep. Charlie Norwood (R, Natch-Ga.) to build a big-ass interstate through the middle of the Smokies, I didn't think it would go anywhere.

So, when I read this article (as well as this one) from a Western North Carolina paper, linked from No Direction Home, I was surprised to see it moving closer to fruition. It looks like this has the rankle of SKB built up, too.

Clearly, this is a project that need to be nipped in the bud. Perhaps the most compelling fact about this total boondoggle is that:

This highway is unnecessary. The proposed route is only 15 miles shorter than that of existing super highways that link Savannah, GA and Knoxville, TN.

Call your Representatives, Senators, and Governor ASAP if you live in one of the three state s affected by this (Tenn., Ga., or N.C.). Let them know you are opposed to gutting the Smokies, increasing pollution and hurting tourism all for the sake of making it easier for people in Atlanta to get to work in the morning.

Flip-Flop Bush... Fire Karl.

2005-07-12T09:01:00.000-04:00

George Bush loves to talk about being straightforward and honest. A man of his word. Well, if he wants to keep the promises his administration made, then he needs to fire Karl Rove and prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law.

The promise made by young Scotty McLellan from the White House podium and even by Bush himself couldn't be more clear:

In 2003, McClellan said it was "a ridiculous suggestion" that Rove was involved. "I've made it very clear, he was not involved, that there's no truth to the suggestion that he was," he said. He also said that any culprit in the White House should be fired "at a minimum."

At one point, McClellan vowed: "The president has set high standards, the highest of standards, for people in his administration. He's made it very clear to people in his administration that he expects them to adhere to the highest standards of conduct. If anyone in this administration was involved in it, they would no longer be in this administration."

Bush replied "yes" when asked in June 2004 if he would fire anyone who leaked the agent's name.

Karl Rove leaked that Joe Wilson's wife was a CIA agent. The end. Joe Wilson has exactly one wife. It's not like it's some kind of mystery. So, will Bush keep his word and fire Rove, or his he just another political opportunist who goes back on his word... flip-flops, even?

Just to Clarify...

2005-07-11T20:15:00.000-04:00

I noticed that Joe thought I might be conflicted about Harold Ford Jr.

Definitely not the case.

I am not fond of Ford's political decisions, and his way with words leaves something to be desired, as his love letter to George Bush showed. That said, he is by far the best candidate in the race for U.S. Senate, either Democratic or Republican. Why is he better than Kurita?

1) His national experience. As a member of the House, Ford understands Washington, and he has made his way onto the House Budget and Financial Services Committees (Note: Edited thanks to info from an anonymous commenter.). He can do more for Tennessee.

2) He is more liberal/progressive than Kurita. I'm not saying he's the next Dennis Kucinich, but Kurita worries me about being the kind of Democrat who will leave the farm and go totally right-wing a la Joe Lieberman if she got to Washington.

There are other reasons, but those are enough. As for why he's better than any Republican:

1) He is a vote for Harry Reid. End of discussion. The Democratic agenda is best for America.

So, much as Harold may bug me, there is no conflict on who I'll be voting for, and who I'll be supporting.

Read This. NOW.

2005-07-08T10:57:00.000-04:00

I am sad that it took me this long to have the opportunity to read this Outlook piece by Chattanooga's own Jon Meacham in Sunday's Washington Post.

Read it now. Go. Read it.

This is, without question, one of the best arguments I have seen for balance between the religious and the secular in modern America. Clearly, Saint Nicholas and McCallie graduates are geniuses, but none can top Jon Meacham. Don't believe me? Haven't gone to read it yet? Then here's a snippet or two:

Perhaps on this anniversary of our independence, then, we can rediscover that America is at its best when religion is one, but only one, thread in the tapestry of public discourse and life...Yet the power of our civic religion lies not in any sanctions it imposes but in the moral sensibility it nurtures. The opening line of Thomas Jefferson's Act for Establishing Religious Freedom in Virginia in 1786 -- "Whereas, Almighty God hath created the mind free . . . . " -- is at once rational and theological, and is quintessentially democratic.

He highlights a quote from Sandra Day O'Connor that I had not seen to this point:

"Those who would renegotiate the boundaries between church and state," wrote Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in her concurring opinion in one case, "must . . . answer a difficult question: why would we trade a system that has served us so well for one that has served others so poorly?"

But my favorite part comes in his final paragraphs:

If we want to be true to the American gospel, though, we should acknowledge that both sides have a legitimate point of view, and that our course should be democratically determined by the free exchange of ideas, not by turning cultural disagreements into total war.

In fact, neither side has as much to fear from the other as they think. For the religious, the acts of reading, of contemplation and discovery, of writing poems and finding cures, are acts of piety and thanksgiving, for all things are God's. For the secular, such inquiries may turn on the wonders of nature, or rationality, or logic. So be it. The point is that we are all on the same journey, if for different reasons.

Go, read it now, please. There's also a discussion with Jon Meacham here.

Harold (Hearts) George

2005-07-07T21:22:00.000-04:00

I understand that Harold Ford, Jr. needs to play to the middle ground in Tennessee. I know that Tennessee is and has been defined by its middle ground for some time. I know this. And yet, the totally wishwashy ramble of this letter to his close personal friend George still drives me nuts.

It's just a badly written letter. I mean, it really is. It's a giant string of non sequiturs. The Africa thing has NOTHING to do with the Supreme Court nomination. But that's not my biggest gripe.

At one point in this letter, Rep. Ford encourages Bush not to "cave in to either extreme in choosing a Justice for the Court." I think we get what one extreme might look like, a la Scalia. But does Harold, Jr. actually expect that Bush is considering that long-awaited appointment of Ralph Nader to the Supreme Court? I'm not saying I don't think we need a moderate nominee, in fact I'd love one. There are just better ways to say that. Plus, you don't refer to the Attorney General as General Gonzales. He is the Attorney for the United States, in general.

But what I really don't get is why Ford spends a few sentences trying to tie Iraq to the nomination. Here's the offending section:

Remember, the Iraqis are to have a Constitution written by August 15 and then hold a referendum on accepting the Constitution by October 15 to be followed by a new round of elections in December. I cannot imagine a wiser expenditure of your time right now than ensuring that the constitution is written, the military and police are trained and elections are held in Iraq. These milestones are critical to helping the "Iraqis stand up," as you say Mr. President, so that American troops can begin "standing down." The selection of a mainstream person to the Court will help you, the nation and Congress maintain our focus on these and other critical issues dominating the day-to-day lives of Americans.

What? I am totally lost here. Of all the reasons to nominate a moderate to the Supreme Court, aiding the war in Iraq is just not one of them. Does anyone have an idea about why he tried to make this point? Is it to set up the ability to hold Bush accountable later if the deadlines are missed? I'm lost.

This worries me, because Harold Ford, Jr. should have his message nailed down by now. Surely he can sort it out...

TFP Takes The Hatchet To Harold

2005-07-06T09:30:00.000-04:00

This article [sorry, having link trouble. It's on the front page.] from today’s Times Free Press about campaign spending is a complete hatchet job. It breathlessly points out that Harold Ford has (GASP!) spent a lot of money that he has raised on travel.

This just in, TFP: Serious candidates spend their early money to raise money for the campaign itself. In a race that will be as hotly contested as the 2006 race her in Tennessee, the fact that the presumptive Democratic nominee has been flying places and hosting fundraisers is just not news.

Perhaps most unnerving about this silly exercise is that Andy Sher felt the need to use a quote calling Rep. Ford’s spending a “shame” at the top of the story, but burying a quote explaining why the expenditures are justified at the very end of the piece.

Of the entire hatchet job – and rest assured, this is a royal hatchet job – the part that irked me most was this pot shot:

He spent nearly $7,000 on ground transportation, some of the money going toward companies such as Smith Limousine Co. of New York. Other expenditures were listed for Washington and Jacksonville, Fla.

This is tremendously disappointing. It's pretty common knowledge that every car service is called a limousine company. This is just a cheap way of trying to paint Harold Ford with the brush of extravagance.

I hope that this is just a glitch in the TFP’s otherwise good reporting on local politics. But if this is a foreshadowing of more journalistic broadsides on Harold Ford, Jr., then it’s going to a be a long campaign.

Times Free Press "MetroChatt" Blog

2005-07-05T08:43:00.000-04:00

Well, hot damn. Did anyone else notice this today?

It would seem that after a few weeks of exclusively music-related blogging, the Times Free Press is starting a real, live news blog. It looks as though the blogging will be done by the TFP's young guns, Michael Davis and Herman Wang.

I'm of the mindset that blogging by more mainstream media outlets is a good thing - it opens a new outlet for communication, especially to younger folks who may not take a newspaper subscription. Hopefully the MetroChatt blog will evolve into something like No Silence Here, a reporter's blog at the Knoxville News-Sentinel, whose Web site the TFP would do well to emulate, as an aside.

So, anyway, welcome the Times Free Press fully into the world of the blog. Here's hoping it becomes a lively and functional outlet for news.

Stuart James Rules

2005-07-05T00:40:00.000-04:00

Wow, does Stuart James ever hit the nail on the head with this piece in the Chattanoogan. Here's a quick sample:

In response to the indictments, Republicans demanded the resignation of one of their own. The Republicans have not, however, taken affirmative action to draft comprehensive ethics reform. Instead of proposing legislation leading to strict ethics rules, these leaders drafted a resolution asking for the expulsion of a state representative. These Republicans claim they are cleaning house.

The clean house approach is a political diversion from the real issue of ethics reform. Republicans are hiding their heads in the sand on drafting ethics legislation. The "clean house" approach to ethics will not result in new ethics rules.

This is what we have needed for a while in our county party leaders - people willing to stand up and call a spade a spade. It also helps that he can actually write well. To wit:

The Republicans need to follow the lead of this governor, and Democrats across this state, by demanding affirmative action on ethics reform. Any other action is just "political talk."

However, as usual, these Tennessee Republicans are long on politics and short on solutions.

His point is right, and one I've been trying to make - just not as well! Republicans seem to want to score points more than they want to fix the problems.

Welcome, TFP Readers, and Happy Independence Day

2005-07-04T12:09:00.000-04:00

First off, just wanted to say hi to any of you who found your way here through the blogging storites - both of them! - in today's Times Free Press.

Both articles are nice rundowns, though I don't know what in the hell a "blogging coach" is and how Bill Hobbs ostensibly does it. I was thrown by the quote from the marginally-infamous Carol Darr, who has come out (and testified) in favor of blogs like this one and others being regulated by the FCC under campaign finance laws as campaign activities. As it stands, blogs are considered to have a "press" exemption - the same exemption given to TV and newspapers. While what I do certianly is not the same as what the reporters at the TFP or even the Pulse do, it's a pretty batty argument to say that if I mention a candidate by name, I become subject to restriction on my speech.

But now on to the topic at hand - Independence Day. I hate calling it the 4th of July. It sort of neuters the day of its meaning. For all the troubles and drama facing our country right now, it's a proud thing to be an American. I won't bloviate, but we really did hit the jackpot in a lot of ways to live in a country like ours. Our prosperity and our drive have changed the world many times over. As China and continental Europe emerge as the new superpowers in the game of capitalism we created, we'll be facing many changes over the next 50 years. But in the end, our best hope to stay at head of the pack is our spirit of innovation and our spirit of sacrifice. From Saturday's Live 8 concerts, you can see the kind of effort it will take on our behalf to improve the world for others and stay in the position of being the nation that others look to for guidance. You know, maybe less going off half-cocked bombing nations back to the Stone Age, and more debt relief.

Ok, then. Rant over. Enjoy some fireworks, I know I will.

Game On

2005-07-01T12:18:00.000-04:00

Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement this morning.

This is bad news in a number of ways: First and foremost, she was a good jurist who did not stick inflexibly to party and ideological standards. If someone has a lifetime appointment I want them to be smart and free thinking.

The troubling part to me politically is that we stand to lose a swing vote on the Court and pick up an ultra-conservative to take her place. When you look at just the Washington Post's list of potential successors, you see that they are not onlu ultra-right wing, but also young. They could easily sit on the Supreme Court for 30 years in some cases.

So, the battle is engaged. People for the American Way's Save the Court initiative seems to be a good place to start getting involved.

This is big.

Republicans as Pontius Pilate

2005-07-01T08:38:00.000-04:00

The moves in the last two days by Republicans to get rid of their least favorite state Representative, Chris Newton, provide a picture of desperation on the part of the GOP. They are so desperate to be rid of the one thing holding them back from making Tennessee Waltz a partisan issue, they are willing to go after their own before asking important questions about ethics statewide.

First, state GOP Chair Bob Davis called on Newton to resign. The only redeeming part of this article was that the Times Free Press put a picture of the wrong Bob Davis in. As you can see from the quotes near the bottom of the story from people like Bobby Wood, this move had nothing to do with a fear that a "cloud was over" Newton's position. Like Pontius Pilate, the GOP is trying to clean their hands of Newton's sins to free themselves to fire partisan broadsides against Democrats. Observe:

Bobby Wood, Hamilton County GOP chairman, said he agrees with Davis' request. Newton was once an intern for Wood.

"I think that Republicans have always been held to a higher standard in the public eye," Wood said. "I think that he is bringing a cloud over the system and his colleagues."

Wood said he couldn't say whether the state Democratic party should ask for resignations from Bowers and Crutchfield.

"But this shows how seriously the Republicans do take ethics and the things we really stand for," he said. "The Democrats, it doesn't seem to bother them as much."

Unfortunately, Bobby, this just shows how hard Republicans will try to make a partisan issue out of a statewide ethics crisis. Instead of talking about ways we can clean up the ridiculous lobbying system in our state, Republicans are looking for an electoral in. Why? So they can gain the majority, the power and the perks that come along with the system. Why fix it when you are about to take advantage of it, right?

As an aside, here's one more reason to dislike GOP Chair Bob Davis:

"If in fact you are found innocent of all charges against you, as you have pled, then I am sure your exoneration will allow you the opportunity to run again and regain the trust of your constituents," Davis wrote.

The past tense of plead is pleaded, not pled!

The fun doesn't end there, though, as Lookout Mountain's own Chris Clem finds an avenue to exercise his personal vendettaagainst Rep. Newton by filing a resolution to eject him from the House.

By filing this resolution, Chris Clem is once again playing the politics of personal destruction instead of focusing on making the state less of an ethical nightmare. It's good to see, however, that even local Republicans are saying that removing Newton based on an indictment is premature.

Other Republicans said it would be premature to act solely on the indictments accusing Rep. Newton of accepting money in exchange for supporting certain legislation.

"It would set a bad precedent if we started to expel people based on indictments," Rep. Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, said Thursday. "If there is considerable more evidence, I'll vote to expel, but we can't overreact."

Rep. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, said he would like to see Rep. Newton resign on his own without being forced out.

"But as far as legislative action goes, I would not vote to have him removed for something he has not been convicted for yet," Rep. Watson said Thursday.

To get the real gist of why Chris Clem hates Chris Newton so much, it helps to read his press release, lovingly reproduced with no rebuttal by the Chattanoogan. I think this paragraph sums it up well:

Rep. Clem said, "It certainly carries a lot more weight when the leadership of your own party calls for your resignation. Unfortunately, in the instant case the party affiliation
is a bit complicated. Chris Newton has been rumored for years to be
threatening to switch parties. He is a close confidant of Jimmy Naifeh. He
is one of Naifeh's chairmen. Newton has also opposed and thwarted Republican initiatives while at the same time attended Democrat leadership meetings.

So, it seems that Clem's biggest gripe against Newton is not the ethics questions, but is instead his failure to march in lockstep with the Republican party.

In the end, Republicans want Chris Newton as far out of the picture as possible, because he represents the fact that the Tennessee Waltz and ethics issues in general in Nashville cross party lines. This is a bipartisan problem that needs a bipartisan solution. Instead, Republicans want to try and make political hay out of a state crisis. While Chris Clem certainly left the farm with his resolution, the larger issue stands: While Democrats like Phil Bredesen want to make sure something like the Tennessee Waltz never happens again, Republicans can't see past their own ambitions for power.

The New Vietnam

2005-06-30T09:01:00.000-04:00

This column from Richard Cohen in the Washington Post is a pretty telling comparison between the Iraq war and the Vietnam War.

I had these same thoughts myself listening to the President in his speech to the nation. It all starts to sound the same after a while, and it becomes clear that naipulation of facts is the name of the game for the administration in a dying effort to prove its relevance.

Dick Cheney is fond of talking about the "last throes" of the insurgency in Iraq. I am sturck with the idea that Bush's speech may be the last throes of his administration. You can hardly go a couple of days without hearing a reference to Bush as a lame duck. He is so bogged down in this quixotic war that it really leaves no room for him to pursue his domestic agenda.

Parallels to Vietnam seem to be cropping up everywhere. It is, as Cohen puts it, "depressing".

Let's Talk About Balance

2005-06-28T21:50:00.000-04:00

While a number of my readers are located in Chattanooga, there are a few of you are from such far-flung destinations as Nashville, White House, and perhaps Bell Buckle. So, let me share with you what I and other Chattanoogans have to put up with each Sunday. Allow me to introduce Chattanooga Times Free Press columnist Steve Barrett.

While the whole thing is really pretty bad, let us focus on his most egregious offenses of the week. First, here's his take on the greatest evil ever to face the Earth in its 20,000 years of existence, Hillary Clinton:

THE AMBITIOUS SENATOR I can think of plenty of reasons to avoid voting for Hillary Clinton for president in 2008. But there is one that has nothing directly to do with whatever policies she might promote: She just wants it too much.

I don't pretend to know George W. Bush's mind or heart. (Do we ever fully know anybody's mind or heart this side of eternity?) But one thing for which I credit him is that he doesn't - to all appearances - take great pleasure in being president. Whether you like his policies or not, he seems to be a refreshingly reluctant commander in chief, putting up with the headaches of the job when he'd far rather be doing other things.

He does not apparently covet all the pomp and fancy digs and limousines and personal chefs that go with the office. To the contrary, he seems to tolerate rather than savor all that rigmarole. The time he spends clearing brush and otherwise tending to normal duties with his family at his home in Texas appears to give him immeasurably greater pleasure than the trappings of political power.

I get no similar feeling from Sen. Clinton. She seems to have a voracious desire for - and sense of entitlement to - the Oval Office. She drips with ravenous ambition, even as she brushes off "premature" speculation about whether she will run in 2008.

Consider the breathtakingly condescending beginning to a piece she wrote in 2004 for The New York Times Magazine: "Now can we talk about health care?"

You may recall her failed effort during her husband's first term to have the federal government take over health care. Nor did the years that followed produce a health care program she deemed adequately socialistic. So in the former first lady's arrogant view, the failure to "talk about health care" in precisely the terms she dictated was a failure to talk about it at all during the intervening decade.

That's a 32-slice value pack of baloney. Hers are the words of a politician who sees vested in herself the lone hope for our nation. That is not an admirable quality.

I'd be a lot less nervous about Hillary Clinton if I thought that somewhere, somebody actually were having to coax her to run. But I don't think that's happening.

This guy is a total asshat. He seems to think that a desire to serve in elected office makes one a bad politician. This just in, Barrett: From Washington to Lincoln to FDR and even W's own daddy, our politicians have sought elected office because they enjoy it and it is what they are good at. While there is no value to be had in someone who pursues office for illicit motives and self-benefit, people without a desire to serve and to lead don't make good leaders. Frankly, I want a president who gives a damn - Bush, who admits he doesn't even read the newspaper, is not my picture of someone who gives a damn. I'll not belabor the part where he says it is impossible to know someone's mind and heart, and then proceed to diagnose Sen. Clinton's evil "ambitions". Oh, and by the way, that hokey "32-slice value pack of baloney" line is among the more contrived and hackneyed things I've ever read.

But here's the real gem from this week:

NOT MUCH TO SHOW FOR IT Today is the 60th anniversary of the signing of the founding charter of the United Nations.

Let us pause for a moment of solemn regret.

Did I mention he's an asshat? I feel sure that Afghani refugee children, Indonesian tsunami victims and children with malaria would probably disagree.

But here is the great question: Why is there no voice to conuter Steve Barrett's? Each and every week there are neoconservative diatribes about the evils of liberals or Hillary Clinton. Why is there no opposing voice? His is a partisan political column. It is every week. The Times Free Press owes it to readers to have a balanced voice in its columns to match it's editorial pages.

Perhaps you'd like to call and tell them so: 423-756-6900. Ask for Tom Griscom. Be nice, but point out that it's ridiculous that Barrett's voice (and bad writing) go unbalanced. If you feel moved to call, leave a comment.