BillHobbs.com is a frequently updated blog of original reporting and commentary by Bill Hobbs, a longtime Nashville journalist and media relations adviser. I am currently serving as communications director for the Tennessee Republican Party, a job I began on Oct. 29, 2007.
My favorite Christmas carol is "Hark, The Herald Angels Sing." Tod Bolsinger blogs today about the Christian belief that God became human. It's a belief that gets a lot of airplay in the last days before Christmas each year, Bolsinger notes:
If you listen closely to many a Christmas carol playing everywhere from your car radio to the local Starbucks you’d think everyone believes it too. We sing with gusto and without thought, the words of "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing": Veiled in flesh, the Godhead See, Hail the Incarnate Deity. Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Immanuel.
Related: Donald Sensing has posted the text of his sermon from last Sunday regarding the coming of God into the world in the form of Jesus Christ, and its implications for His followers.
Patterico shreds a New York Times editorial on judicial nominations and filibusters. Shows you what can happen when an amateur goes up against a pro. The professional in this case being the blogger and the amateur being the NYT editorial writer who knows how to turn a phrase, but neither understands law now knows how to tell the truth.
One of these days, the bigshots of Big Media are going to really grasp the concept that they can't get away with their old tricks of spin and misinformation anymore, that there's this thing called "Google" and this thing called "the blogosphere" that does a much better job fact-checking Big Journalism than Big Journalism ever did on its own.
Winter has arrived in East Tennessee - at least judging from a very nice panorama shot posted today at South Knox Bubba's blog. I'd give you the link, but he's still redirecting any traffic from HobbsOnline to the FreeRepublic site. So you'll just have to trust me - it's a nice picture of some snow on the tops of those tall hills east of Knoxville that they called "mountains." Those aren't mountains. These are mountains. But it's still a nice photo of the first snow of the season. No snow , yet, by the way. Yesterday, I cut the grass for the final time this year.
Thanks to all of you in the past several days who have bought something via the Amazon shopping links, clicked on one of the text ads served up by Google, or dropped a little something in the Amazon or PayPal tip jars. Blogging has been extra-light the last several days due to the holidays and family matters, and your continued support of this blog is much appreciated. HobbsOnline has been read by 35,000 different people this month, the third-best month ever for this blog. (September and October, leading up to the election, were the top two.)
Just a reminder: In the expectation that traffic to this blog and others would fall off a bit now after the election, I cut the price to advertise here on HobbsOnline. You can now advertise here for $50 for one month (and $40 in the lower left adstrip), making this a very good time to grab a slot and inexpensively reach about 2,000 readers per day.
For short-term ads focused on the Christmas shopping season, I have just reduced the price for a two-week ad to $25 - and if you purchase a 2-week run before the end of November, I'll extend the ad's run through December 20th for free.
I scream, you scream, we all scream for Howard Dean to be the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Seriously - can you think of a better choice? Of course not. If you're a blogger, join the campaign to get Dean elected chairman of the DNC here.
The Tennessean comes out against the proposed Tennessee Taxpayers Bill of Rights amendment to the state constitution, with an editorial that only exposes how little the paper has researched the issue. I'll have a complete line-by-line shredding of the editorial a little later today...
UPDATE: Haven't got to this yet. Sorry. Very busy.
Surprising absolutely nobody, the Tennessee Tax Structure Study Commission - all of the members of which were appointed by elected officials who favor a state income tax, and none of the members of which is on record opposing an income tax - is going going to recommend a state income tax.
The commission is a shining example of political malpractice. Even though a state income tax is plainly not permitted by the state constitution, and the state Supreme Court has affirmed that to be true in three different unanimous rulings, the state's previous governor, Don Sundquist, and Democratic legislative leaders including House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh and then-state Sen. Robert Rochelle tried to pass one a few years ago. Having failed, they then cooked up this commission to "study" the state's tax structure and make a recommendation.
The commission was then stacked with income tax supporters and its chairman, Nelson Andrews, is a vocal advocate of the income tax.
It's forthcoming recommendation was pre-ordained.
But the commission has only looked at half of the state's budgetary picture. Taxes are only half of the equation that determines fiscal health. Spending is the other, and there is not nor has there ever been a Tennessee Spending Structure Study Commission.
But there are facts about spending that can not be denied. In 12 of the last 20 years, the legislature and a series of governors have conspired to break the state constitution's cap on annual government spending growth. That cap is designed to limit the growth of spending to the growth rate of the state's economy, so as to keep government affordable to the people of Tennessee. Under governors Lamar Alexander, Ned McWherter, Don Sundquist and Phil Bredesen the spending limit has been exceeded a dozen times by a total of $3.2 billion in first-year excess.
That has cost Tennessee taxpayers far more than $3.2 billion over the years as each year's budget becomes the baseline for the successive years' growth. Thus, exceeding the cap by $100 million last year, as Gov. Bredesen and the legislature conspired to do, will cost Tennessee taxpayers ten times that amount - $1 billion - over the next decade.
During his administration, Sundquist exceeded the spending cap by a total of $1.096 billion, the sole reason the legislature by the end of his second term was forced to pass a $1 billion tax tax increase.
There is a proposal pending in the legislature that would fix the loophole that allows the legislature and governor to easily break the constitutional spending cap. It is called the Taxpayers Bill of Rights. It's chief sponsor is state Sen. Jim Bryson. The measure, if passed, would allow voters to vote on whether to amend the state constitution by adding the Taxpayers Bill of Rights. If they approved the amendment, it would not only limit the growth of state spending, it would force the legislature to build a healthy "rainy day" reserve fund, and then require future excess tax revenue to be returned to voters. It would also require the legislature to allow voters to vote on future tax increases. It is a reform that would force the legislature to address the state's out-of-control spending structure and restore fiscal sanity to the halls of Legislative Plaza and the governor's office, where it is sorely lacking and has been for the last 20 years.
[Note: I have been writing about the Taxpayers Bill of Rights and Tennessee's tax and budget numbers and politics for several years now, here at HobbsOnline and, before that, for the Nashville City Paper and the now-defunct weekly In Review. You can find a wealth of information in my Tennessee Budget & Tax Policy archive, my Taxpayers Bill of Rights archive, and a fairly brief summary in this 17-page white paper. My City Paper columns are all online and listed here. My InReview columns are not available online.]
Stephen Bainbridge comments on a column by Australian newspaper columnist Frank Devine exploring whether military toppling Saddam was less about Saddam than about containing the Saudis. That's a central them of a very good book, America's Secret War: Inside the Hidden Worldwide Struggle Between the United States and Its Enemies, by George Friedman, president of Stratfor, a private-sector intelligence firm.
I'm currently reading Friedman's book. It's excellent. Makes a great Christmas gift, too.
Today is the busiest shopping day of the year, the news always tells us, as crowds of Turkey-stuffed shoppers head to the malls to start their Christmas shopping. But if going to the crowded malls makes you wanna cry like a baby, you have an alternative. Shop online instead! You'll not only avoided crowded parking lots, jammed malls, surly clerks and pushing/shoving customers, you'll also be supporting this blog.
By the way, the photo is of my son, taken right around Christmas 2002, when he was just 3 months old. He's now 2.
A federal judge yesterday opened the door for a noted Nashville civil rights attorney to join the legal fray over TennCare, the state's public insurance program for the poor and uninsured.
In court last week, attorney George Barrett argued that he ought to be allowed to intervene on behalf of 430,000 TennCare users who would lose all benefits if the program is dismantled.
Those uninsured and uninsurable TennCare participants need a legal advocate of their own because they have different interests from 900,000 other enrollees who would qualify for health insurance if the state returns to a more limited Medicaid program, Barrett argued.
U.S. District Judge John Nixon agreed, saying that those who stand to lose benefits entirely are ''deserving of a voice solely committed to protecting their interests."
This will lead to Gov. Phil Bredesen pulling the plug on TennCare. Here's why: Nixon has just guaranteed that the near-future of TennCare will be filled with more litigation and more uncertainty, not less, further stalling Gov. Bredesen's reform plans. Bredesen's only choice now will be to pull the plug.
Incidentally, Judge Nixon's addition of Barrett to protect the interests of those who stand to lose their TennCare benefits is not matched by any concern for making sure that there is a legal advocate for the one party in the TennCare battle who has never been adequately represented: the taxpayers who have funded the program since it was foisted upon them without a single vote by Gov. Ned McWherter's executive order.
Back, but not much blogging 'til tomorrow. My wife had surgery this morning and is now home resting not-so-comfortably 'cept for the miracle of painkillers. I spent part of my day with taking care of the kids, and occupied the time while she was in surgery and post-op recovery reading the first four chapters of Tod Bolsinger's new book, Show Time: Living Down Hypocrisy By Living Out The Faith. It's a very very very fine book - if you're a Christian and have ever wanted a book that explains the nuts-and-bolts of how the seed of faith grows into an authentic and effective expression of the Christian life, this book is it. From Chapter 2:
The first step for living an effective Christian life is to begin being transformed because we have been saved, not in order to be saved. ...
A word of caution is in order: When we talk about being good, we are not encouraging either perfectionism or legalism. Both are distortions of biblical virtue When the Bible speaks of being virtuous, it is not exhorting people to live without flaw or to strictly adhere to a list of rules. But too often in the church today, those are the messages being taught.
The result is that far too many of us have struggled far too much with trying to be perfect; and far too many of us have expressed self-righteousness, not virtue. But neither the word nor the implication in the passage [2 Peter 1] is about achieving perfection or keeping rules. ... Christian virtue is about being declared good and then consequently growing in goodness each day.
As the Apostle Paul explains in Philippians 2: 12-13, God is the one who provides the faith that leads to salvation by God's grace, and the role of we believers is to put it on display. "Work out your own salvation" does not mean work for your salvation. Instead, the implication is that good works grow from the faith-seed God has planted within you.
Bolsinger's book is especially welcome to someone like me, who grew up in a tradition that reduced salvation to a formula of human actions: faith in God plus human works earns salvation. The only problem with that formula is that it is wrong. Salvation was accomplished by Jesus on the cross and is the free and undeserved gift (i.e. grace) from God to the believer. To say that salvation is the result of faith plus works or faith plus anything is to say that what Jesus did by dying on the cross and, two mornings later, emerging alive from the tomb, was insufficient, that only human works can complete what Jesus left incomplete. But Jesus left nothing incomplete. His work was sufficient. His work was perfect. Bolsinger, again:
It may sound simplistic but effective faith must be genuine trust, and genuine trust is living in complete and utter dependence on the grace and mercy of God every day. Effective faith is not about depending on God's grace for salvation and then doing the best we can on our own steam; it is faith that displays the trust we have in God's grace for our salvation by living it out. Effective faith demonstrates that we know that we have been "saved by grace through faith" [Eph. 2:8] and then in awe-filled gratitude to God seeks to demonstrate the difference that that knowledge makes.
Bolsinger's book - with its plain language, clear illustrations and end-of-chapter discussion questions - would make a very good basis for a small-group study or class at your church. Tonight before I drift off to sleep, I'll thank God for the blogosphere, and most especially Hugh Hewitt's blog. I wouldn't have found Bolsinger's books nor his blog without it.
There will likely no more blogging here at all today - at least not until late this afternoon or evening if it all. Just a head's up. Feel free to hang out and look around. There's a lot of good stuff here you haven't read yet!
I'm looking for weblogs debunking or rebutting an anti-Bush, anti-Iraq War documentary titled Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War, by Robert Greenwald. Any ideas? The gist of the film is that Bush and his team willfully misled about WMD and the Saddam ties to al Qaeda, combined with the assumption that these WERE the justifications for the war. A reader says he has been unable to find a good source of information rebutting the film. If you know if such a source, please email me or leave it in the comments below.
Mucking around on Netflix, looking for old movies to add to my rental queue. Breakheart Pass, a 1975 Charles Bronson western based on an Alistair MacLean novel, isn't available. It should be - it's a fine film.
Hey, NetFlix... you have an unhappy customer here... Ah well, Amazon has it.
MacLean, a Scottish novelist who died in 1987, wrote some 27 adventure/thriller novels. I read many of them as a kid, including Ice Station Zebra, Night Without End, When Eight Bells Toll, Where Eagles Dare, Breakheart Pass, The Golden Gate, Goodbye California, Seawitch, and Athabasca. Eventually, I graduated to Tom Clancy's novels. But I'd still enjoy seeing Breakheart Pass again.
The Spirit of America Blogger Challenge is under way, an effort to raise donations to support the organization's efforts to help the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. Being a southern-based blogger, I up and joined the united efforts of the Northern Alliance, which is a group of Minnesota-based blogs. I didn't see any rules to prevent it. You can donate here.
I don't check Hugh Hewitt's blog three times a day like I did before Nov. 2, but I still check him almost daily and find lots of good post-election commentary. From him today:
As for politics, Ronald Brownstein and Richard Rainey continue to provide the sort of excellent post-election coverage in the Los Angeles Times that readers would have enjoyed - and the paper might have profited from - pre-election. Bush-Cheney '04 won 97 of the fastest growing 100 counties in America, a domination of the exurbs that should chill every Democrat for whom the MoveOn.org KoolAid has worn off. Dems can barely imagine operating in these areas much less winning them because they are defined by church-goers and married parents with children, two demographic groups that view the Democratic Party as not just different but as an enemy of much of what they value.
Yesterday, before returning home from Kentucky, I worshipped at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, a congregation of tens of thousands, which celebrated its 40th anniversary two years ago by providing 3000 suitcases of assistance for the homeless. There wasn't a hint of politics in the service, at which Kyle Idleman, who can barely be 30, preached with tremendous effectiveness. About two dozen infants were dedicated at the beginning of the service, with more scheduled for dedication late in the day. The music was the product of rock-and-roll mixed with classic hymns, and the congregation of all colors and economic backgrounds. Reading Brownstein this morning I thought of yesterday's service and concluded all the ACTs and Media Funds in the country are no match for the new communities represented by Southeast because they are in fact communities, not collections of index cards. There was a long piece on the Dems' get out the vote effort in Ohio in yesterday's New York Times Magazine, and some memorable space is devoted to the activists' disbelief at what appeared to them to be GOP inactivity on election day.
But the Republican and independent voters of Ohio had been organized "virtually," and reminded continually, by their friends, neighbors and relatives in their communities - communities of shared values, not simply agreed upon candidates. This is a powerful political evolution, the modern equivalent of the old Democratic machine that operated in immigrant neighborhoods among those communities. And it is only going to grow stronger and larger in the years ahead.
Several weeks before election day, my wife and I visited a new church. It was similar to the church Hewitt mentions - contemporary, conservative and a real community of faith - though smaller - only about 3,000 people. The crowd was filled with families with young children.
Outside the worship hall, a table had been set up for voter registration. There was no partisan pitch from the stage. (I've listened to more than 30 recorded sermons preached at this church and have heard not one political reference - so much for the stereotype that evangelical churches are hotbeds for "Religious Right" activism.)
The only election-related talk from the stage during the closing announcements was some brief non-partisan, non-ideological and issues-devoid remarks that, as a group of people desiring to be "a worshipping community of influence," the members of that church should take seriously their right and responsibility to vote.
After the service, the table was jammed with people registering to vote.
I'd hazard a guess, given the prominence of Bush-Cheney bumper stickers and the paucity of Kerry-Edwards stickers in the parking lot, that they voted overwhelmingly for President Bush.
Tennessee was never in doubt in the presidential race - Bush was always going to win this state handily. But I recall thinking as I walked past the voter registration table that I was glad the church was registering voters, thankful that it hadn't cheapened the effort by making a partisan pitch - and convinced that if such registration efforts were happening nationally, they were going to have far more impact on the presidential race nationally than the Left's army of paid voter-registration workers and its campaign heavy on marketing a message heavy on hating Bush and disparaging the values that many in flyover country - even conservative Democrats - hold dear.
The Tennessean is trying to patch up the reputation of the Tennessee Justice Center, the "public interest law firm" that has sued TennCare to the brink of oblivion, against the best interests of about 400,000 members of the Tennessee public that depend on it. If and when they lose their healthcare coverage, they should remember who to blame.
I'd like to welcome my newest advertiser, MetroSpy, to BillHobbs.com. Check out their politically conservative merchandise here. Also new: The Common Virtue, a good blog by a military guy, and Professional Parks Inc., developer of state-of-the-art water slides, saunas, etc.
With more than 31,000 unique visitors already this month, and 1.1 million pages viewed, November is already the third-best month ever for BillHobbs.com, trailing only the pre-election months of September and October, when traffic surged on general interest in political news and specific interest in both the CBS Rathergate scandal and my round-up of voter fraud news items. I cut ad rates this month in anticipation of a post-election drop in traffic, but the data is suggesting I may have reduced rates too much.
Zephyr Teachout, who was director of Internet organizing for Howard Dean's campaign - and that turned out so well, didn't it? - says the recently concluded campaign season barely scratched the surface of how the Internet can be used as a political organizing tool. It's an interesting read.
The Tennessean weighs in on the Taxpayers Bill of Rights concept with a page-one story saying it would do little to slow the growth of government. I'll be writing a longer analysis of the article later, but on a first quick read-thru, one thing jumped out at me:
State Comptroller John Morgan, who works for a Democrat-controlled General Assembly, said he still has reservations. Tennessee is a low-tax state that does not need to restrict the growth of government in the state constitution, Morgan said.
Morgan doesn't know what he's talking about. The state constitutional already restricts the growth of government spending to the rate of economic growth. Unfortunately, the cap has a loophole that the legislature has used 12 times in the last 20 years, including last year. The Tennessean mentions that the legislature has busted the cap 12 times in 20 years, but fails to inform readers just how much the legislature's actions have cost them. The truth is, the legislature has voted repeatedly, at the request of governors McWherter, Alexander, Sundquist and even the supposedly fiscally conservative Phil Bredesen to exceed the spending cap, by more than $1 billion. If the legislature had lived within the constitutional limit, the $1 billion tax increase two years ago would have been unnecessary.
A couple other thoughts: First, the story is based on numbers and analysis from the University of Tennessee Center for Business and Research, an organzation that is pro-income tax, pro-bigger government budgets, and whose head economist, Dr. Bill Fox, has been caught skewing the data to support that political agenda. (Specifically, I exposed him a few years ago for selectively using or ignoring sales tax data for specific categories of merchandise in order to prop up the pro-income tax argument.)
Second: It is very interesting that The Tennessean - after virtually ignoring the Taxpayers Bill of Rights concept for two years - decided to write such a big story about it. It is even more interesting that the paper decided to attack the proposal as being unlikely to slow the growth of government, rather than presenting it as a draconian threat that would starve old people and kick sick kids off of TennCare and gut the education budget. If the paper believes the policy would do little to slow the growth of government, surely it won't bother to editorialize against it in the future.
Third: That the paper even did the story, and put it on the front page of the Sunday paper, tells you that the Taxpayers Bill of Rights has arrived as a potent political idea.
You can read all my past writings about the Taxpayers Bill of Rights by clicking here for my Taxpayers Bill of Rights archive, and also by clicking here to read a white paper I wrote on the topic two years ago.
Nashville's downtown convention center is too small, but a consultant's suggested options for expanding it are laughable.
Expanding to the north involves the site owned by developer Tony Giarratana, who has proposed a 55-story skyscraper there. Giarratana made his first public presentation of the projected $200 million tower Thursday and didn't learn of the convention-center study's result until yesterday morning. "If modified, the plan could allow both projects to work," the developer said.
There's also cost.
The consultants estimated the cost for expanding north under Commerce Street at $181 million. That would affect McKendree United Methodist Church's Christian Life Center as well as Central Church of Christ on Fifth Avenue North. The Christian Life Center includes child-care and athletic facilities and a rooftop garden.
A southern expansion under Broadway would require First Baptist Church to sell and move. That expansion cost would be $202 million.
The cost to build new would be $299 million, according to HOK.
Why not expand the convention center to the east? That way you only have to destroy one old church that is not even used as a church anymore.
Just kidding. But on a more serious note, the notion that it would cost "less" to expand the existing center than to build new is ridiculous as it looks only at the bottom-line cost. But what would be the "cost" to downtown if we destroy one or two old churches, and perhaps prevent construction of a $200 million office/hotel/condo skyscraper in order to make the convention center larger - especially as there is ample vacant land in the downtown area where a new convention center could be built.
What is the "cost" to the people of Nashville if you destroy the child-care and athletic facilities, the Christian Life Center and the rooftop garden at McKendree United Methodist and replace it with a large underground box? What is the cost to the fabric of downtown Nashville if you tear down First Baptist Church - which has anchored that part of downtown for years - and replace it with a place for sales conventions?
If Nashville needs a new convention center - and I think it probably does - build an entirely new one. Then sell the old one for redevelopment. It might make a nice mall or something.
While pastors may or may not be the "experts" in Christian faith, the people in the pews are indeed experts in the challenge of living the Christian life. This book is my attempt as a pastor and theologian to communicate with real-life experts (like many of you) about living a positively contagious vision of the Christian faith. This book is a critique of Christianity that doesn’t "walk the talk," a buoyant celebration of some rare but magnificent Christians who do, and biblical instruction in taking steps toward a faith that shows the good news of Christ. It is from start to finish a book for "everyday believers."
People in the Nashville rap community rallied around Young Buck yesterday, while Santa Monica, Calif., detectives seeking him in connection with a stabbing were negotiating with an attorney for his surrender. Young Buck, 23, whose real name is David Darnell Brown, is accused of stabbing a man at Monday night's Vibe Awards in California; the incident apparently was sparked when the Nashville rapper's musical mentor, Dr. Dre, was punched just before being handed a lifetime achievement award.
As I said yesterday, for a rap artist, just living longer than a few years is itself a lifetime achievement award.
A surrender agreement was in the works with an unidentified attorney last night, Santa Monica police said. , people continued to talk about one of their own, who is a member of superstar 50 Cent's G Unit rap group and whose debut solo album, Straight Outta Ca$hville, made its debut in August at No. 3 on the Billboard charts.
The reaction of Earl Jordan, founder of Partners in the Struggle, an anti-violence community group, was to organize a rally tomorrow in support of the local rapper.
An anti-violence group plans to rally in support of a rap artist who has a violent past and is accused of stabbing someone. Um... okay.
Today's Nashville City Paper reports that most of the so-called "provisional ballots" cast in on Nashville voting district were cast illegally.
Zeal to have every vote count and bring in new voters to the 2004 presidential election may have contributed to a high number of provisional ballots that shouldn’t have been cast.
Provisional voting in District 21, which includes Tennessee State University, was particularly high, but only 18 of 171 special ballots cast were certified. In all, 1,402 provisional ballots were cast in Davidson County.
"The reason we have so many of these ballots is groups out there that were saying 'under no circumstances will anybody be turned away' when, in fact, the important step is that proof of residence in the jurisdiction has to be met and that wasn’t being followed," said Patricia Heim, who was hired by the Election Commission to oversee the counting of provisional ballots. "That law was not being followed at the precincts or we would have had far fewer than these 1,400 ballots."
The law wasn't being followed in one of the most heavily Democratic-leaning districts ? I'm shocked. Shocked.
A true provisional voter is a person whose name was erroneously left off the voter list because, for example, it was incorrectly purged or was registered at a state agency and hadn’t reached the county database by Election Day.
Friendship Missionary Baptist Church near TSU had 165 provisional ballots cast, far more than any other Metro precinct and 12 percent of the county’s total for 172 precincts, according to post-election information provided by the Davidson County Election Commission.
Heim estimates that 462 of the 1,402 provisional ballots will actually count, half of which were address changes that should have been fail-safe ballots rather than provisional.
District 21 had an exceptionally low percentage of provisionals that counted when compared with other areas including District 2, where 53 were cast and 28 counted; District 18 in the Vanderbilt University area, where 65 were cast and 14 counted; and District 25, where 41 were cast and 20 counted.
The voting process takes longer when catering to provisional voters because they fill out a substitute voter registration form, sign a Voter Affidavit and then fill out their paper ballot.
"The word we were getting was that students were just being rounded up by groups and brought in," Heim said. "I guess the disappointing thing that was mentioned at Monday's Election Commission meeting is that when groups do that they slow down the line and that potentially disenfranchises folks who actually did what they were supposed to do."
Now that the election is over, it's time for Congress to do something effective to cut down on voter fraud.
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen has gone a bit wobbly, George, on TennCare, the state's fiscally unsustainable money-sucking healthcare welfare program. He's giving the left-wing legal "advocates" more time to make promises not to keep suing the program into the ground, so the governer can reform it.
A few points:
1. The Tennessee Justice Center is nothing more than a left-wing law firm with a two-fold agenda: rake in millions of dollars of taxpayer's money by suing the state and then demanding the state pay the legal bills, and, by constantly suing the state force Tennessee in the direction of taxpayer-funded universal healthcare.
2. Tennessee desperately needs a "public interest law firm" of conservative bent to counter-sue the TJC and also sue the state over TennCare on behalf of taxpayers.
3. I still think Bredesen's game plan is to either force the TJC to back down, and let him reform TennCare, or to make the TJC take the blame when he pulls the plug on TennCare, and then look like a hero when he replaces TennCare with a "new" program that is really just his reformed TennCare under a new name.
4. But he's showing weakness at the wrong time. As the City Paper puts it, he "backed down."
UPDATE: This week's Nashville Scene has a fairly balanced and very good story about TennCare.
They're doing blasting outside the windows of where I work, digging a big hole in which will go the underground parking for a new building to be built above the hole. Here's an animated .gif file showing this morning's explosion. To get a sense of what it felt like, run in place hard and fast while watching it...
Photos and animation by Michael Krouskop
The pile on the left was created by an earlier blast - which measured, very locally, at 1.7 on the Richter scale. We don't get much work done when they're blasting. Hard to work when you're staring out the window waiting for the horn blast and the guy to yell "Fire in the hole!"
Nashville, the home of country music, has long had dreams of becoming more than that in the music business, but never has had much luck launching a non-country music artist or band to national stardom. Until this year when a rapper named Young Buck released Straight Outta Ca$hville, and saw it debut at No. 3 on the Billboard chart.
being sought in connection with a stabbing at Monday night's Vibe Awards, an assault apparently sparked when Buck's musical mentor, Dr. Dre, was punched just before being handed a lifetime achievement award.
In the rap music business, just living for very long is itself an achievement.
Young Buck's real name is David Brown. He has an arrest record with seven charges including domestic assault, reckless driving, possession of controlled substance and driver's license violations.
''He brought national attention to Nashville, you can't deny that. What he did was amazing for hip-hop and Nashville,'' says Stacy Jones, better known as Coffee, half of Nashville Christian rap duo Grits. ''I never met him officially, but from what I've seen he seems like a positive cat. He's been all about the (Nashville) community. That causes me to think that despite everything on the news, you know, the story's always deeper. It's sad and it's tragic - my prayers go out to his family and everyone he loves. But, if you perpetuate that lifestyle, it always catches up with you."
Violent criminal rap artists. I don't think that's the kind of national attention the Nashville chamber of commerce is hoping to see generated by the local music industry. The Nashville Scene published a lengthy story about Young Buck a few months ago. But their website is so poorly designed that I can't locate it.
UPDATE: Thanks to Chris Wage, here's the link to the Scene's story on Young Buck, published in the September 2 edition.
"I come from a city that's not known at all for hip-hop," Buck says, talking by phone from Manhattan's Meridien Hotel the day after making his first appearance on MTV's Total Request Live. "To be able to bring the whole world of hip-hop to my city, that's a major deal, man. You know what I'm saying? It's not just me I'm bringing. It's the biggest, largest hip-hop artists of the world that I'm involved with, and the whole industry that's behind that. It's on, now, man. I'm going to make Nashville known for something it ain't never been known for. It's going to shock the world."
Man, ya gotta love the image-boost Buck's album gives to Nashville.
Straight Outta Ca$hville opens with the sound of Buck taking a deep hit on a joint or a pipe, then coughing. Gunfire follows, and then a threat: "It's about to go down - welcome to Cashville, mothaf---as!" Set to a spare, slowly bouncing rhythm, the first track, performed in unison with 50 Cent, begins, "I'm a soldier / I done told ya / Don't make me f--k you up."
Lovely. Though it's not quite Will the Circle Be Unbroken, now, is it?
Thanks, Young Buck, for bringing the whole violent world of rap to Nashville. It's on now, man. We're going to be known for something we ain't never been known for: violent rap artists. Oh. Joy.
You wanna shock the world, Young Buck? Turn yourself in.
The Indianapolis Star recently had a pretty good story about blogs and the impact they're having on journalism. Here's the link.
James W. Brown, executive associate dean of the School of Journalism at IUPUI, is a recent convert to the medium. "There are bloggers who are physicians, lawyers, economists, who put a lot of effort into analyzing whatever is in the news," said Brown. "(Blogging) is another source of information for people."
The main criticism of blogging, however, is that there's no editing function in this medium. Blogs can easily degenerate into little more than rumor mills, or sites where one vents, but does not inform.
Not so fast, say blogging advocates. Bloggers now watch other bloggers and can correct factual errors instantly, either by posting better information on their own sites or simply by posting a comment at the offender's site. Conscientious bloggers can also make additions to an ongoing story as fresh information becomes available. The most scrupulous bloggers dutifully post links to their source data in an effort to back up whatever claims they're making.
Behold the power of cheese. Limited blogging tonight as I plan on baking making mounds and mounds of muffins in hopes of finding one that looks like a woman's face, so I can auction it on eBay to people who think God has nothing better to do that make His Son's mother's face appear on a grilled cheese sandwich.
Blackhawk Down author Mark Bowden, whose new book, Road Work: Among Tyrants, Beasts, Heroes, and Rogues is a collection of articles previously published by The Atlantic, has a must-read piece in the December issue of The Atlantic in which he interviews several of the Iranians who, 25 years ago, stormed the American embassy in Tehran and triggered the 15-month hostage crisis.
Twenty-five years ago in Tehran a group of Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy and took hostage the entire American diplomatic mission - igniting a fifteen-month international crisis whose impact is reverberating still. Now, for the first time, many of the leading hostage-takers speak candidly about their actions - which a surprising number deeply regret
The full story is available online here only to magazine subscribers. His description of a trip to the old embassy site in Tehran with documentary filmmaker David Keane in hopes of taking video inside the former embassy, only to be rejected, is ... amazing.
We had gone about ten steps when Blue Shurt came running back out. "No," he cried. "It has been decided that you can only take still pictures - no moving pictures."
That was when we gave up. We had already taken still pictures, on our earlier visit. As we made our way of of the compound, crossing the sidewalk onto Taleghani Avenue to hail a cab, the three young Revolutionary Guards came running after us. We wondere for a minute if the procedures wer going to change yet again.
The guards all spoke to Ramin in Farsi, smiling and gesturing toward us, and then he relayed their comments: "They want me to tell you that they are embarrassed, that they think this is silly. They want to apologize on behalf of their country."
Ramin grinned as the soldiers huddled around him, grabbing at him in a friendly way. "They want me to tell you that they love America."
The soldiers flashed big smiles at us and nodded approvingly. And right there in front of the DEATH TO THE USA sign, in front of the faded banners denouncing "The Great Satan," one of the Revolutionary Guards raised his thumb high into the air and said in halting English, "Okay, George W. Bush!"
The same issue of the magazine also has a piece by James Fallows examining the tough choices ahead regarding the nuclear weapons ambitions of the government of Iran.
A few days ago I ran across this post from The Speculist, which suggested that individual infantrymen should have artillery targeting capability built into their rifles, rather than carrying ammo, and thought it sounded kind of interesting. So I forwarded the link to Donald Sensing who, besides being a very thoughtful Christian church pastor is also a former military man with experience with artillery. Sure enough, he thought it was silly, and patiently explains why. Yesterday, Sensing explained why we can't just use tear gas against the terrorists holed up in Fallujah. Sensing's recent return after a blogging hiatus is a good, good thing for the blogosphere.
TennCare, Tennessee's money-devouring healthcare welfare program, lives on now that Gov. Phil Bredesen has successfully forced the lawyer whose many legal actions are most responsible for almost killing it to back down a bit.
The Tennessean reports:
The life of the state's ailing TennCare program was extended a few days yesterday as advocates for 1.3 million enrollees made some legal concessions in response to Gov. Phil Bredesen's brinkmanship. To evaluate the concessions, Bredesen extended today's deadline for pulling the plug on TennCare until Friday.
At a news conference at the end of a dramatic day in court and in front of TV cameras, Bredesen said the concessions "at a minimum need clarification and at worst undermine what we need to have a chance to succeed." Bredesen is trying to control costs in the $7.8 billion program that provides health care for the state's poor and uninsurable. He has blamed court orders won on behalf of enrollees by the Tennessee Justice Center for blocking his changes.
If those court orders are not put aside, Bredesen says, he will be forced to reduce the expanded TennCare program to the minimum Medicaid coverage required by the federal government. That would mean 430,000 Tennesseans covered would be left without health-care coverage.
The advocacy group filed motions yesterday in federal court to suspend for two years the court agreements the governor has blamed for undermining his efforts to manage TennCare. A federal judge has asked the state to be prepared to discuss the motions Friday.
After Bredesen's evening news conference, attorney Gordon Bonnyman with the advocacy group said he isn't sure what else the governor wants. "We believe we've given the governor what we've been asked to give him," Bonnyman said. "We've got nothing left to give."
Bredesen expressed concern with conditions placed on the Justice Center's concessions, including language in the legal filings that say the state would "be required, of course, to comply with the United States Constitution" as well as a provision that says that the state has to comply with Medicaid laws that the Department of Health and Human Services has "lawful authority" to regulate.
That legal language, the governor said, might leave open the door to legal action against the reforms that Bredesen hopes will save the costly health-care program. "What our state cannot afford is a cease-fire on paper but continuing guerrilla warfare on every issue," Bredesen said.
The Tennessee Justice Center is the high-sounding name of a simple law firm created by Bonnyman in 1996 for the express purpose of suing the state over TennCare. It has raked in $3.56 million in legal fees paid to it by the state since that time by filing a blizzard of lawsuits and forcing the state into settlements that include paying the TJC's bills.
What Tennessee desperately needs is a taxpayer's-advocacy law firm to counter the Tennessee Justice Center.
Patrick Ruffini, back to blogging from a 17-month vacation (hah!), notes that President Bush is the first presidential candidate ever to get more than 60 million votes. Oh, and the "high turnout favors Democrats" meme is now officially dead.
Ryan Chapman, a 22-year-old Marine, was hit above the left eye by a sniper's bullet, but escaped with a fractured skull. "People keep on telling me that I'm lucky," he said. "I don't mind being lucky." Despite his brush with death, Chapman was keen to return to fight in Iraq. "I want to go back. It kills me when I see the news, when I think of all my buddies back there."
Just a head's up - the ad slot on the top of the left sidebar is now open. You can fill it for $50 per month. BillHobbs.com is read by more than 2,500 people every weekday. Already this month, more than 26,000 different people have read something on this site. Blogs aren't just for political advertising. Buy two months, get a third month free. Contact me at bill-at-billhobbs.com for details.
How much money Gordon Bonnyman's lawfirm has made by suing the state of Tennessee over its TennCare healthcare program? Today's City Paper has the answer: $3.2 million over the last five years. Roll that around for a bit. Bonnyman and his staff have raked in $3.2 million in tax money by suing TennCare until TennCare has been wrapped in a net of court orders that make it impossible to reform without Bonnyman's assent.
UPDATE: In response to my email query last week, Marilyn Elam, communications manager, TennCare Bureau, emailed the following information: "TennCare has paid approximately $3.56 million to TJC in attorney fees."
The difference in the figures may be that the City Paper's Skip Cauthorn looked only at fees paid to the TJC back through 2001. The Tennessee Justice Center was created in 1996 for the express purpose of suing TennCare. Clearly, it has been enjoying nice revenue growth in the more recent years.
Robert Cox reports from Dave Winer's BloggerCon III, which in just a few short years has rapidly turned in to a partisan whine-fest for lefty bloggers. Call it WinerCon.
Here's a crazy idea: Have the next BloggerCon . Only don't call it BloggerCon. And invite bloggers from all over the political spectrum, not just from the Howard Dean wing of the liberal party. Why Nashville? Why not? It's centrally located, easy to get to and served by Southwest Airlines so it's cheap to get to.
More importantly, it's a blue blue county in a red red state, a state that is home to The World's Most Popular Blogger, and also home to quite a number of successful blogs from all over the political spectrum, including this one, Donald Sensing's blog, and South Knox Bubba's. Nashville also has a university with a journalism program and a public relations office that is actively fostering faculty blogging - in fact that university is the first university anywhere to purchase a universal site license from MovableType to facilitate both internal and externally-aimed blogging. Er, and I work for that university, and have no doubt I could get space and support.
I think it's time to move the discussion of blogging past the coastal/elite snobbery and into the heartland of America. Whaddayou think?
One of the hottest books on Amazon this week is Scott Ott's Axis of Weasels, a collection of posts from his brilliant ScrappleFace blog. ScrappleFace is on-target satire enfused with the bite of truth. Buy Axis of Weasels today - at just $12.95 it makes a great Christmas gift. Buy two copies from Amazon and shipping is free. And if enough blog-readers buy it, the New York Times will have to put a book by a blogger on their best-seller list.
The secretary general of NATO said Thursday that there was a critical "perception gap" between Europe and the United States on the subject of global terror and that Europeans must move closer to the American view of the seriousness of the threat.
The United States "focused very much on the fight against terror while in Europe we focused to a lesser extent on the consequences for the world," the secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said in an interview. "We looked at it from different angles, and that for me is one of the reasons you saw such frictions in the trans-Atlantic relationship."
As a result, he said, Europe was lagging behind the United States in merging external and internal security to combat terrorism and Europe had to catch up. "If the gap is to be bridged, it has to be done from the European side and not from the United States," he said, adding that the war in Iraq, the issue that divided the alliance, now offered an opportunity for uniting it.
That's the good news. The bad news is, French President Jacques Chirac still loves to kiss up to anti-Semitic/anti-American thugs, terrorists and tyrants - first, Saddam, and now the dead Yasser Arafat.
If you've made a donation recently via the Amazon or PayPal tipjars or purchased something via the Amazon shopping links, I want to say thank you and let you know how much I appreciate your continued support of this weblog as it approaches its third anniversary.
In a better world, the PLO chief would have met his end on a gallows, hanged for mass murder much as the Nazi chiefs were hanged at Nuremberg. In a better world, the French president would not have paid a visit to the bedside of such a monster. In a better world, George Bush would not have said, on hearing the first reports that Arafat had died, "God bless his soul."
God bless his soul? What a grotesque idea! Bless the soul of the man who brought modern terrorism to the world? Who sent his agents to slaughter athletes at the Olympics, blow airliners out of the sky, bomb schools and pizzerias, machine-gun passengers in airline terminals? Who lied, cheated, and stole without compunction? Who inculcated the vilest culture of Jew-hatred since the Third Reich? Human beings might stoop to bless a creature so evil - as indeed Arafat was blessed, with money, deference, even a Nobel Prize - but God, I am quite sure, will damn him for eternity.
Jacoby notes that "Arafat always inspired flights of nonsense from Western journalists, and his last two weeks were no exception." Western journalists increasingly these days seem to have trouble distinguishing between good and evil.
The Tennessean comes out against the proposed Tennessee Taxpayers Bill of Rights amendment to the state constitution, with an 
