July 31, 2006

Beach Bummer

I'm going on vacation next week to Santa Rosa Island on the Florida Gulf Coast and I just learned that Route 399, which runs through the Gulf Islands National Seashore, was destroyed by last year's hurricanes. That's too bad because it was a great place to ride a bike.

Update: Turns out, the road isn't completely closed. I contacted the park management via the park website and got this: "399 is open to bikes and pedestrians during daylight hours, but watch out for the birds. Terns are nesting near the road, and actually on it in a fewplaces."

Update: No! This must go away!

When Life Gives You Lemonade...

Jeff Cornwall highlights an Inc.com contest seeking the "Best Lemonade Stand in America.", to highlight the passion and creativity of budding sidewalk entrepreneurs.

Target.com sells lemonade stands - for a whopping $119.99.

When I was a kid, if we sold lemonade we did it from a cardboard table, a couple of metal folding chairs, one of Mom's pitchers and some lemonade mix and sugar pilfered from her pantry. I don't know about you but if I have to invest $119.99 in a prefab lemonade stand to get my child started in a beverage-provider business, I'm considering it venture capital and demanding a decent ROI.

Put A Little Fidel In Your Tank

Cuba might become an oil exporter. I've been in favor of dropping the economic embargo on Cuba for a long time and this is just one more reason to do it. Before Cuba joins OPEC.

Whose House Is It, Really?

The inept Nashville Metro Hysterical Historical Commission continues to make life tough for an old lady who put siding on her house so she wouldn't have to continually repaint it, even after a locally headquarted building products corporation - Lousiana-Pacific Corp. - offers to re-side the house for free. LP is the company with its name on the Tennessee Titans' stadium, LP Field. It also is donating its products for the construction of 500 homes by Habitat for Humanity for Gulf Coast residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina. The Metro Historical Commission, meanwhile, has been inept at saving "historical" buildings that are actually worth saving for quite some time. But bullying one old lady for 10 years? They're good at that. Boo Metro Historical Commission. Hooray LP.

The Checks Are In The Mail

Nashville City Paper smacks former congressman Bob Clement for his Nashville mayoral campaign's attempt to evade campaign donation limits by using a series of nine bogus PACs to collect bigger checks from individual donors.

July 29, 2006

Splash!

A day at the pool. Click to enlarge. See more of my photos at Flickr.

Floyd Landis Update

CNN.com has a good update on the Floyd Landis story, including remarks and a video clip from his appearance Friday night on Larry King Live. And, um, Mark Rogers has some thoughts about the Europeans' reaction to Landis having lots of testosterone.

July 28, 2006

Postscript

This is the best story I've read explaining the "doping" controversy involving Tour de France champion Floyd Landis. I'm reserving comment for now. Meanwhile, here's a blog post about Landis from a year ago.

I just checked Landis' website, FloydLandis.com, and it had this message:

The site is currently offline as a result of technical difficulties. On July 27, after news broke that Floyd's A sample test from stage 17 at the Tour de France was positive for abnormal testosterone:epitestosterone levels, the site experienced an increase in traffic it could not handle. The site went down. The site has been moved to a more powerful server and we are working migrating the content.

UPDATE: Landis' website, a blog, is back up as a blog and the current top entry on the home page says Landis "will appear on Larry King Live tonight to speak out against recent drug allegations. Please tune in. Floyd appreciates your support."

Here's the Larry King Show's (website.

Update: This report from Bloomberg.com says Landis and his teammates drank a lot of beer and whiskey after Landis' disastrous performance in the 16th stage, when he seemed to fall out of contention in the Tour. Could that have increased his testosterone level? Bloomberg:

According to a 2001 report by Simon Davis of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, the ethanol content of alcohol can increase the ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone.

Second Update: This story from The Australian newspaper adds more interesting details.

Tour de France champion Floyd Landis's positive drug test "doesn't add up", according to a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency. Gary Walder, a spokesman for the American College of Sports Medicine, said testosterone creams, pills and injections were used to build muscle and strength and improve recovery time after exertion but took several weeks to work. If Landis was a user of testosterone, earlier urine tests during the Tour would have also been affected, Walder said.

Landis's positive test came after his extraordinary come-from-behind performance in stage 17 of the race, which included five major climbs, the last of which was the gut-busting climb up the Col de Joux Plane to more than 1800 metres. Walder said one-time use of steroids could result in an abnormal test, but it would have no effect on performance and could not account for Landis's astounding feat on that particular stage, "so something's missing here". "It just doesn't add up," he said.

The test for which Landis returned a positive result detected both testosterone and epitestosterone, which is not performance-enhancing. Both are produced by the body naturally and are also made in synthetic form.

The ratio for testosterone to epitestosterone is usually 1:1 or 2:1, Walder said. Suspicions for improper steroid use arise when the ratio climbs above four parts testosterone to one part epitestosterone, Walder said. Officials have yet to reveal what ratio Landis's test showed.

Some men have naturally occurring high levels of testosterone and or epitestosterone, but there is a sophisticated test called a carbon isotope ratio test that can be used to detect synthetic forms.

Meanwhile, Lance Armstrong - repeatedly falsely accused of doping by the French, who hated him and hated having an American win "their" bicycle race seven times in a row - has some good advice for Landis that boils down to this: Fight back.

July 27, 2006

Stir Fry

Click to enlarge. See more of my photos at my Flickr page.

Bought and Paid For

Two Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers promoted by the Bredesen administration after they donated large sums to Gov. Phil Bredesen's 2002 and 2006 campaigns are asking for their money back now that they've been demoted.

Which, if you think about it, just confirms that the Bredesen administration was actively rewarding troopers who contributed to its campaign with job promotions

Bredesen campaign spinner Will Pinkston tries to make put lipstick on the pig with his quote in the story in the Thursday Tennessean:

"It's fairly common in politics for people to get mad when they don't get what they want," Pinkston said. "That may be the case here; it may not be."

They only want their money back now because the promotion they thought they had bought it turns out was only rented.

The Tennessean reported in November that two-thirds of troopers promoted under Bredesen gave money to his campaign or had family or patrons who did - part of a much broader pattern of politics and corruption in the THP which the Bredesen administration later admitted it allowed to exist, but which in fact it participated in, until the paper made it public.

Most of the politically-promoted troopers still have their promotions and higher salaries - and the Bredesen campaign hasn't returned the ethically tainted donations.

UPDATE: The Tennessee Republican Party has issued a press release challening the governor to do the right thing and return all of the money it recieved from troopers associated with the donations-for-promotions scandal. Here is the text of the release:

BREDESEN, RETURN THE MONEY
Governor Has Been Unresponsive Long Enough

(Nashville) - In the wake of Governor Phil Bredesen's trooper "campaign cash" scandal, two troopers have asked the governor to return the money.

"Phil Bredesen has yet to step up to the plate and return the money. Maybe he is stubborn, maybe it's arrogance, whatever the case, he needs to bear the responsibility and return all of the THP campaign contributions," said Bob Davis, chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party.

According to news reports, the Bredesen Administration has allegedly been involved in a 'promotions for cash' scheme and has been politicizing the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

Two troopers and their families contributed to Bredesen's campaign to the amount of $15,600. The two officers were promoted after their donations and campaign work for Bredesen but were recently demoted after a recent shakedown at the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

Bredesen has said that he would return campaign donations if asked to do so; however, he has yet to return thousands of dollars in contributions from troopers and their families associated with promotions within the THP.

"Sooner or later, Bredesen will realize he needs to take this issue seriously. Tennesseans are paying attention to see how he handles this and it's about time that he do what's right and give back the money," said Davis.

It has been 252 days since Republicans around the state have asked Governor Bredesen to return campaign donations connected to this scandal.

July 26, 2006

Pig Out

The Club for Growth has compiled a record of how each member of the U.S. House of Representatives voted on the 19 anti-pork amendments presented by Rep. Jeff Flake. So, how did your Tennessee Congressmen do?

Well, two of them - Republican Zach Wamp and Democrat Bart Gordon - refused to vote for a single one of the 19 anti-pork amendment. They were 0-for-19 in voting against pork, a perfectly lousy record of not opposing the wasting of your tax dollars.

But two others - Republican Marsha Blackburn and Democrat Jim Cooper - both were perfect against pork, voting for every single one of the anti-pork amendments.

Here's how other members of the Tennessee delegation voted:

Democrat Lincoln Davis claims to be a fiscal conservative but he voted for just one of the 19 anti-pork amendments.

Republican Bill Jenkins and Democratic John Tanner each voted for just four of the 19 anti-pork amendments.

Democratic Harold Ford Jr., - running for the Senate in a right-leaning state - voted for 13 of the 19 anti-pork amendments.

Check out how your congresscritter voted here.

Hilleary to Withdraw From Race Soon, I Predict

Last week there were rumors flying that Van Hilleary was going to drop out of the U.S. Senate Republican primary race in Tennessee. They apparently were just rumors, as Hilleary soldiers on. I predict that he will drop out, and soon. Like, shortly after the polls close on August 3.

Irony in Black and White

As seen today on the table formerly occupied by the Junk Store Angel...

More photos at my Flickr page.

Media Content Provider Opportunity

The Tennessean is chumming for new freelancers for its All the Rage entertainment publication.

All the Rage, Nashville's go-to weekly entertainment and lifestyle guide, has several openings for talented, creative freelancers based in our city. We're looking for independent writers who can pitch thoughtful, well-crafted stories on nightlife, music, art, dining and everything that goes on in Music City USA, and we want people who write with confidence and color. Send four clips and resume to copy editor Will Ayers, All the Rage, 1100 Broadway, Nashville, TN, 37203 or e-mail materials to wayers@nashvillerage.com.

Foundational Wisdom

The Tennessean has an editorial today criticizing our nation's tax laws - not for being too complex and not for taking such a greedy chunk of a family's wealth upon the death of the family member who earned it, but for not forcing a wealthy family to give more of its assets to charity.

July 25, 2006

Doing The Wright Thing

TravelWeekly.com has an update on the proposal to gradually repeal the Wright Amendment, which will lead to lower fares between Nashville and Dallas. The story requires a free registration, so here's the gist of it: The mayors of Dallas and Fort Worth, and executives of rivals Southwest and American airlines, are lobbying Congress to approve the deal without tinkering with it.

All my previous posts regarding the Wright Amendment are here, including this one featuring a letter from U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn regarding the Wright Amendment. A separate email from a Blackburn staffer indicates that, while she is supportive of the compromise, Blackburn believes the eight-year phase-out of the Wright Amendment is too long, and she is continuing to push to have Tennessee exempted from the strictures of Wright. Eight years is too long, and if Congress tinkers with the legislation is should reduce that to about 8 months - or, better yet, just scrap the Wright Amendment entirely. It's anti-competitive, anti-consumer, and costs the flying public some $4 billion annually in higher airfares.

Blackburn's right on the isssue. It's just one more reason to vote for Blackburn in the upcoming election.

Marketing the Ivory Tower Via Blogs

Blogging economics professor Brad DeLong says universities ought to encourage professors to blog as a way of "turbocharging the public sphere of information and debate that is a principal reason that governments finance and donors give to universities" - and also as a marketing tool. Hmmm. Where have I heard that last part before?

Update: DeLong's piece is one of several from bloggers on the topic of whether blogging helps or hurts a professor's career, in a series published online by the Chronicle of Higher Education. You can read them all here.

Bad Move

Nashville Business Journal (and, I'm assuming, all of the other 41weekly city business journals owned by the American City Business Journals unit of Advance Publications Inc.) has started putting all of its news and feature from its print-edition online - but will make the online content accessible only to readers who are subscribers to the print edition. Details here.

Previously, NBJ and its sister papers made the top eight stories from their print edition, published Fridays, available online for free the following Mondays.

A one-year subscription to the NBJ costs $85.

My prediction: NBJ stories will now be read by fewer people.

The good news: it appears that access to the archives is still free.

Full disclosure: I worked for NBJ from 1990-1993, when it had no Internet presence, and again for about eight months in late 1997 and early 1998 when it was beginning to put content online.

The paper - like most print-media properties - faces a tough challenge created by the Internet. It needs to be online, yet the vast majority of its revenue comes from selling ads in the print edition. And, like many print publications, it fears that putting its content online will undermine its cash cow, especially if it gives the content away for free. That's why NBJ and other ACBJ papers have for a long time put only the first eight print-edition stories online, and not until three days after the print edition was delivered to subscribers.

Yet as more and more readers get their news and information online, that kind of approach looks increasingly untenable - but putting all the print stories and features online for free the same day as the print edition is delivered doesn't seem to be an attractive option either given the paper's need for ad revenue.

The natural solution seems to be putting all the print content online in a timely fashion, but making it available only to paid subscribers. But I'm not so sure that's the right approach, either. It doesn't add much value for subscribers - It merely provides them a second way to read the same stories.

I'd have counseled the paper to take a more value-added approach. The paper is published weekly, in an era when people are accustomed to much more rapid information flow. Instead of using its website as a perk for print-edition subscribers, NBJ could give business-news consumers in the Nashville region good reason to pay for a second subscription in addition to the $85 annual fee for the print product.

How? By refashioning the print edition as a more analytical, predictive, long-range publication, while turning the website into a daily publication that carries that hard news and breaking stories formerly carried in the print edition. By adding reporter-written, beat-specific blogs to the website. By training reporters in how to do interactive reader-involved journalism. And by training reporters in how to shoot and edit video.

The goal: Create a daily, multimedia business publication that would compete daily with NashvillePost.com, which currently dominates the breaking business news niche in Nashville.

Remember: in this new-media world of cheap digital technologies, it will be easier for print publications to get into the TV media's business than the other way around.

July 24, 2006

18 Minutes

The Saturday Chattanooga Times-Free Press had a bombshell: Corker e-mails missing

Former Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker’s official e-mails are missing from the city of Chattanooga and may have been stolen, according to city officials and a police report. The e-mails, contained on a compact disc, were discovered missing after the campaign of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ed Bryant sought to obtain them last month through an Open Records Act request, officials said.

Mr. Bryant, Mr. Corker and Van Hilleary are seeking the Republican Senate nomination in the Aug. 3 primary election. The request for the e-mail was made as researchers from the Bryant campaign comb through Corker-era city documents, including audits.

Blogging the Israel-Hezbollah War

Blogs of Web-savvy youths record suffering on both sides in Middle East - International Herald Tribune

Public Relations Reaches the Blogosphere

The New York Sun takes a look at the work that Edelman Public Relations is doing in the blogosphere.

Known as "emerging media," blogs began as diary entries by individuals to be read, and replied to, solely by friends. Because they are posted on the Web, though, they have the potential to reach anyone with a computer around the world if the ideas, photographs, or artwork are considered captivating, controversial, or somehow of value. Some now have enormous audiences, in the hundreds of thousands.

"Companies must learn how to manage this," Mr. Edelman said. "The reality is that companies face the problem of having employees with blogs who are griping about internal matters concerning their employer. Companies now have consumers with blogs who are annoyed and complaining about products or corporate behavior on the Web to hundreds or thousands of other consumers. Still others have blogs by NGOs that are complaining about offshore labor practices or environmental problems caused by a company's operations or products," he said.

Blog management has become a logical extension of public relations and advertising strategizing, he said.

July 23, 2006

An American in Paris

Floyd Landis has won the Tour de France, the eighth year in a row that an American has brought home the famed and fabled yellow jersey. A few headlines:

Hail King Floyd
Landis Tour victory a drama in five acts
Landis roars back with epic win
Landis worthy of place in lore
American cycling didn't die when Lance pedaled into retirement
Landis is a big wheel everywhere but home
With yellow on his back, Landis has struck gold
There simply was no stopping Landis
Lance impressed with Landis' effort
Armstrong lauds successor Landis
A Fighting Landis Wins Tour de France
U.S. Tour dominance must really bug France
Landis' Mennonite Parents Can Cheer Now
Human After All
Landis is Tour big wheel

Alexander Fights Permanent Extension of Internet Tax Freedom Act

I voted for him and would vote for him again, so I regret to have to report that U.S. Sen. Lamar! Alexander is once again on the wrong side of the Internet access taxation issue. Sen. Alexander is opposing legislation to make the Internet Tax Freedom Act, which bans taxation of Internet access, permanent. A month ago, in the Senate Commerce Committee, Sen. George Allen, R-Virginia, proposed an amendment to the federal telcom reform bill pending in Congress that would extend the federal Internet access tax moratorium permanently. Sen. Alexander has signed a letter to Commerce Committee Chairman Sen. Stevens objecting to the amendment and threatening to hold up the telecom reform bill if the Internet tax moratorium was included. The IFTA is scheduled to expire on Nov 1 2007.

Bredesen Continues to Play Catch-Up on Illegal Immigration

Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen is continuing to play catch-up to likely Republican gubernatorial nominee Jim Bryson on the issue of illegal immigration, an issue Bredesen cared nothing about until it became a hot topic in an election year.

Note that Tennessee Associated Press reporter Beth Rucker's article is completely one-sided and portrays Bredesen as a man of action on the issue, leaving out his past history of obstructing legislative efforts to address illegal immigration and allowing Bredesen to slam unnamed Republicans for allegedly making illegal immigration a "wedge issue," but not giving Republicans a chance to respond.

Memo to Rucker: You're a journalist, so you're supposed to give both sides of the story, not write copy for a Bredesen campaign brochure.

Memo to Bredesen: Republicans aren't trying to make illegal immigration a "wedge" issue for the purposes of a campaign. They aren't sending a few Tennessee National Guard troops to the Arizona border as a way to look "tough" on illegal immigration and prepare a future campaign commercial backdrop. They're discussing an issue of great importance to the future of the state and, during the recent legislative session they were trying to do something to address a problem that you merely wished to ignore by passing the buck to the feds.

Memo to voters: As recently as a month ago - June 27th to be exact - Gov. Bredesen cared nothing about the issue of illegal immigration. His standard response was, "that's a federal problem" - even after an illegal immigrant whom state and local law enforcement repeatedly set free after various DUI and other criminal arrests wound up murdering two innocent (and legal) Tennesseans - and his administration's policies have consistently favored rewarding illegals (with driver's licenses "certificates," for example) rather than changing state laws to make Tennessee less attractive to illegals. Can you really trust that his change of heart is real and permanent and not poll-driven election-year flip-floppery?

July 22, 2006

Mideast Update

While the "world community" and much of the world media blather on about how Israel needs to stop attacking Hezbollah, and how the U.N. needs to step in and solve this latest crisis, David Kopel remembers a not-too-distant time when the U.N. was Hezbollah accomplice in the kidnapping and murder of some Israeli soldiers.

Lance, Landis, Legends

I've been following the Tour de France this year as much as I could, though with seven-time champion and cycling legend Lance Armstrong retired, the race hasn't been all that inspiring. Until yesterday when American Floyd Landis, a member of Armstrong' team for years, rode the race of a lifetime and legend, a stage win that may be the single most incredible day any rider has ever had in the famed bicycle race. I'll let you read all about it:

Landis Rides Into Legend

Pedal to the mettle: Stunning win gets Landis in position

The foolish, but inspiring, risk of Floyd Landis

And it happened on a day that some headlines said this: Landis abandons all hope.

Update, The July 23 New York Times explains the how Landis achieved such an amazing one-day turnaround.

July 21, 2006

Whaddya Think?

Not much to blog about today, so I thought I'd fiddle with the look of BillHobbs.com. Like it? Hate it? Other choices for the flag across the top are option 0, option 5, option 7, or option 8. Let me know what you think...

Update. I took down option 6, which is the "blue" flag some commenters mentioned, and installed the new flag at the top. Or option 12. Keep those comments coming...

Padding the Photo Op

Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen has upped the size of the backdrop for his inevitable "I really am tough on illegal immigration" campaign ad. Never mind that he has consistently opposed any efforts to actually make Tennessee less of a magnet for illegal immigrants.

July 20, 2006

The Big Momentum Shift

Van Hilleary supporters woke up today to learn that their candidate in the U.S. Senate race, GOP primary, is now in third place in the three-way race, behind Ed Bryant, Hilleary's ideological twin on virtually all of the issues, and also behind poll leader Bob Corker, a moderate Republican seeking to pass himself off as a conservative.

Click the thumbnail graphic and you'll see that the polls have been turning decidedly negative for Hilleary ever since Corker began his multi-million-dollar ad blitz. But, then, Corker's poll numbers have started going south too, while Bryant's are rising. Now, with Corker dumping $1.7 million of his own money into the race to try to buy the nomination that appears to be in danger of slipping through his fingers, Hilleary supporters have a stark choice to make:

Vote for a guy who will finish third, or vote for Bryant, someone with whom Hilleary agrees on virtually all of the issues - Ed Bryant - in order to prevent Corker from winning the nomination.

Corker is spending $1.7 million of his own money on a campaign in which he has already raised and spent far more than the other two candidates combined and is at only 37 percent in the polls. Far from dominating the race, he's doing dismally given how much cash he's raised and spent, and how long he's been running.

Hilleary could seal Corker's fate - and engrave his own plaque in the Conservative Hall of Fame - by announcing, immediately, that he is pulling out of the race, and using whatever money he has left to cut and broadcast a simple ad endorsing Bryant in order to make sure the GOP nominates a truly pro-life truly fiscal conservative candidate.

The vast majority of Hilleary supporters would switch to Bryant - provided they haven't already cast their votes for Hilleary in the early voting period. By dropping out now, Hilleary could ensure that Tennessee conservatives who back either him or Bryant won't have to go to the polls in November holding their noses to vote for Corker in order to prevent the election of "Sen. Harold Ford Jr."

I echo Jay Bush, who writes:

Van Hilleary has been a good soldier for the conservative cause, but it's time for him to acknowledge that there's no way he can win the Republican primary. I want to encourage every Tennessee conservative to contact the Hilleary campaign and respectfully ask Van to withdraw, for the good of the Tennessee Republican party's future. The Hilleary campaign can be reached at 615-867-1900 or by e-mail at HQ@vanhilleary.com.

Update: There's a rumor floating around that Hilleary will drop out Friday. But there have been similar rumors before. And Hilleary was still running ads on the evening news Thursday night - make of that what you will.

New On the Blogroll

Poking around on Technorati today I ran across From On High, a blog from the Blue Ridge mountains by Jerry Fuhrman that is an instant new favorite. You'll see why when you visit.

"Your Classroom is Anywhere You Blog

An ad seen today on Technorati:

It links to this.

Study Finds the Obvious Is True

A new study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project finds that bloggers tend to read online news accounts, join listservs, and scour other blogs at rates that far surpass their non-blogging counterparts, reports Online Media Daily.

"Bloggers are avid consumers of online media," said Amanda Lenhart, senior research specialist at Pew and one of the report's authors. "They are consuming online media in a way that even other online users do not," she added. For instance, almost all bloggers - 95 percent - reported reading news online, compared to 73 percent of Internet users at large. The majority of bloggers - 55 percent - said they read e-mail newsletters or listservs, compared to 29 percent of all Web users; and 47 percent of bloggers reported reading other blogs for news, compared to 9 percent of all online users.

More interesting to me today is the study from Jupiter Research that finds that 35 percent of large companies plan to institute corporate weblogs this year.

Combined with the existing deployed base of 34 percent, nearly 70 percent of all site operators will have implemented corporate blogs by the end of 2006. According to a new report, "Corporate Weblogs: Deployment, Promotion, and Measurement," currently 64 percent of executives spend less than $500,000 to deploy and manage corporate weblogs.

"Site operators should leverage existing Web content management best practices and functionality to decrease total cost of ownership, promote unified branding and increase site security," said Greg Dowling, Analyst at JupiterResearch and author of the report. "They can also realize considerable cost savings while mitigating deployment, management and maintenance concerns inherent in implementing additional stand-alone weblog authoring systems."

The new research finds that weblogs are underused for generating word-of-mouth (WoM) marketing opportunities. Only 32 percent of marketing executives said they use corporate weblogs to generate WoM around their company's products or services.

"By engaging prospective customers in active dialogue, companies can showcase their expertise and domain knowledge, creating a forum for communication of their strategies and visions," said David Schatsky, President of JupiterKagan. "In doing so, companies can generate buzz around their products or services, while eliciting feedback and collaboration from product evangelists."

Update: Now that I've read the Pew study itself - and not just the Online Media Daily story about the Pew study - I find it much more interesting. From the summary:

A national phone survey of bloggers finds that most are focused on describing their personal experiences to a relatively small audience of readers and that only a small proportion focus their coverage on politics, media, government, or technology. Blogs, the survey finds, are as individual as the people who keep them. However, most bloggers are primarily interested in creative, personal expression - documenting individual experiences, sharing practical knowledge, or just keeping in touch with friends and family.

Most bloggers do not think of what they do as journalism.

Most bloggers say they cover a lot of different topics, but when asked to choose one main topic, 37% of bloggers cite “my life and experiences” as a primary topic of their blog. Politics and government ran a very distant second with 11% of bloggers citing those issues of public life as the main subject of their blog.That's still a lot of political blogs. Pew estimates that eight percent of American Internet users, or about 12 million American adults, keep a blog. Eleven percent of 12 million bloggers is still 1.32 million people writing blogs whose main focus is politics.

Pew also reports that 39 percent of American Internet users, or about 57 million American adults, read blogs - and that figure is a significant increase since the fall of 2005.

MORE on the Pew blogger survey:
Mystery Pollster
Extreme Mortman
RexBlog

Real Journalist-Blogger Michael Silence jokes, "I'm sorry, but most bloggers I know just aren't morally superior enough or arrogant enough or liberal enough to be journalists. So, bloggers, go play with your little pixels while we big boys continue to run out of ink!"

Mike, we bloggers will never run out of pixels.

Credit Where Credit is Due

A Nashville blogger nailed the campaign manager for the Bob Clement for Mayor campaign for setting up several political action committees to allow individual donors to give more to the Clement campaign than allowed to individually by law. The Nashville City Paper is doing a good job following up on the blogger's scoop, with stories Wednesday and Thursday - but a terrible job crediting the blog with the original scoop.

July 19, 2006

Towering Over His Critics

The builder of the world's current tallest skyscraper is also going to build Nashville's new tallest skyscraper, Signature Tower, which will also be the tallest in the southeastern U.S. Details here. Fifteen years ago, when I was covering the real estate and development beat for the Nashville Business Journal, I heard many an off-the-record comment from members of Nashville's then quite insular real estate development good ol' boys club slamming a young developer by the name of Tony Giarratana and telling me he'd never get any of his proposed buildings built. Today, Giarratana is setting the pace in downtown development, and is the prime reason downtown Nashville is such developing such a hot residential scene. It's his Signature Tower that Turner Construction will be building. Not bad for the nicest person I met on the real estate beat.

Cobblogging

This is one of the best pieces of news to hit the Nashville and Tennessee blogosphere in quite some time: Sharon Cobb is blogging again. Her latest lengthy post looking at the history of the modern state of Israel is an enlightened response (via the invaluable CAMERA) to WaPo syndicated columnist Richard Cohen's unfortunate and inaccurate description of Israel as a "mistake" of history.

Are Tennessee's Corporate Giveaways Constitutional?

Are recent taxpayer-funded gifts to major corporations by the Tennessee legislature, with the full backing of Gov. Phil Bredesen, actually legal under the state's constitution? That's what one reader of mine wants to know after reading this post of mine from Monday. I've posted the reader's email with only one minor edit (to embed a link). The reader writes...

The subject piece illustrates a phenomenon which has interested me for a decade now--Interest Group Liberalism or Neocorporatism in America. Roughly defined, the phenomenon of Interest Group Liberalism or Neocorporatism in America comprises special privileges or immunities created for or granted to selected groups or classes of people by government. Neocorporatism seems to stand in direct opposition to the notion of isonomy or equality under the law, to the proposition that our laws should protect each citizen equally, that our laws should be general laws which apply to everyone without discrimination against anyone. An earmarked $64 million dollar gift from the taxpayers of Tennessee to the corporate stockholders of Nissan hardly appears isonomic.

Do you have any idea, or do you know anyone who has any idea, of the original intent of the following two provisions of the Tennessee Constitution? Has the original intent been circumvented somehow by the Governor or the General Assembly or the Courts?

Article XI, Section 8. The Legislature shall have no power to suspend any general law for the benefit of any particular individual, nor to pass any law for the benefit of individuals inconsistent with the general laws of the land; nor to pass any law granting to any individual or individuals, rights, privileges, immunitie, [immunities] or exemptions other than such as may be, by the same law ex-tended to any member of the community, who may be able to bring himself within the provisions of such law. No corporation shall be created or its powers increased or diminished by special laws but the General Assembly shall pro-vide by general laws for the organization of all corporations, hereafter created, which laws may, at any time, be altered or repealed, and no such alteration or repeal shall interfere with or divest rights which have become vested.

Article II, Section 29. The General Assembly shall have power to authorize the several counties and incorporated towns in this state, to impose taxes for county and corporation purposes respectively, in such manner as shall be prescribed by law; and all property shall be taxed according to its value, upon the principles established in regard to state taxation.

Wouldn't the stockholders of most corporations in Tennessee just love to bring their corporations within the provisions of the law which makes this gift to Nissan?

Incidentally, it is interesting to see how constitutional original intent is circumvented in other states as well, sometimes by merely resorting facilely to a different word. For instance, in this example from Virginia, the appropriators used "cultural" to supercede "charitable." :-)

Is neocorporatism a synonym, at least partially, for a "living constitution"?

Wikipedia has more on the suject of isonomy.

Rockets and Reality

I've been sitting here in a hospital waiting room since early this morning, and CNN is on, and the big story is, naturally, Israel's ongoing military attacks on the Hezbollah terrorist organization. I find myself feeling sorry for the vast majority of the people of Lebanon who aren't Hezbollah supporters and whose land they thought was their country has been appropriated by Syria and Iran as a battleground from which to wage war against Israel.

I also find myself saddened by the constant drumbeat of the Western media's questions being posed to various public officials and their spokespeople, both American and Israeli. The subtext of every question is, "What will make Israel stop attacking Hezbollah?" rather than, "What will make Hezbollah stop attacking Israel."

It's disgusting. Hezbollah is a Syrian- and Iranian-backed Islamist terror organization dedicated to the goal of eradicating Israel and killing Jews. Period. It has no other raison d'etre. That's it. And recently it began raining rockets down on Israel from bases in southern Lebanon.

Yet all the Western media can do is plead for someone to make Israel stop attacking poor old Hezbollah.

Newsflash: We don't need yet another negotiated ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. All that will do is allow Hezbollah to regroup from the beating it is currently taking, and to recruit more terrorists and smuggle more arms into southern Lebanon from Iran and Syria.

War is bad. But stopping a war before the bad guys are completely and utterly defeated is worse as it merely delays the conflict until another time. If Hezbollah is not crushed now, it will have to be crushed later - at a time when it may be better armed and more difficult and costly in civilian lives and property damage to defeat. A weed is easier to kill and remove by the roots when it is small than when it has been given more time to grow larger.

Too many future negotiated ceasefires and the world may wake up to find Hezbollah armed with a nuke provided to it by its patrons in Tehran.

Then what?

Then the world will be regretting that time back in 2006 that it pressured Israel to negotiate another useless and ultimately utterly pointless ceasefire with Hezbollah.

July 18, 2006

Blogs and the Kelo Decision

National Journal takes a look at the role of blogs in the ongoing debate over eminent domain and the Kelo decision nationally and from state to state. Here in Tennessee, blogs played a role in exposing U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr.'s duplicity on the issue. For details on that click here.

Tennessee Marriage Definition Amendment Update

The Tuesday Nashville City Paper has a good report on the start of the campaign battle over the proposed constitutional amendment that would define marriage in the Tennessee state constitution. I'll reiterate what I said here a few days ago - the proposed amendment simply does not discriminate against anyone. If it passes, gays and lesbians in Tennessee will continue to have the exact same marriage right that all adult Tennesseans' already have: the right to marry one person of the opposite gender. That's the current state law, and putting in the constitution merely makes it impossible for a few unelected judges to change it over the objections of the people. And in a democracy, it is the people, not judges, who are the boss.

Support Campfield.

After you read this, please help me do something about it. State Rep. Stacey Campfield is the Tennessee legislature's only regularly-blogging legislator, a window into what's really happening in the General Assembly, and he doesn't deserve to be targeted for defeat by the Knoxville Republican party's self-serving elite. To support Campfield, visit his blog and click the PayPal button. Whatever dollar amount you chose to give, add 76 cents to it so Campfield will know it came from a BillHobbs.com reader. (I selected 76 because my birthplace of Philadelphia is where the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776.) By the way, Campfield has been endorsed by state Rep. Bill Dunn, Dick Armey, Tennessee Right to Life, and the National Rifle Association.

Where Is the Class Action Lawsuit?

NewsChannel5 has exposed a local car dealership for its bait-and-switch tactics. The Better Business Bureau has a huge stack of similar complaints about Bill Heard Chevrolet in Nashville. Bill Heard Chevrolet is part of a large group of dealerships, a deep pocket that I'm left wondering why no enterprising lawyer has yet collected all those complaints from the BBB and initiated a class-action lawsuit. In the meantime, if you're shopping for a car, I'd recommend steering clear of Bill Heard Chevrolet.

Update: Apparently, the Bill Heard chain of dealerships is beset with such problems.

A commenter posted: There's been a class action lawsuit in the process against Bill Heard Chevrolet in Florida. Bill Heard Chevrolet has also been subject to action by state officials in Georgia and in Tennessee due to deceptive business practices. Google yields a lot of background info about the conduct of Bill Heard dealerships in the past and recently.

I wouldn't buy a car from Bill Heard under any circumstances.

Update: This story is too valuable to let die. Here are some more comments from people who read the original post. See the extended portion of this entry, or click the comments link...

Smantix writes:

Bill Heard is so disreputable that they've turned me against ever buying another Chevrolet again. That a manufacturer would allow a nationwide dealership like this to besmirch their brand is either complicity or complacency and unacceptable either way.

I mistakenly took a car there for repairs two or three years ago. They charged $85 for a tow from across the street on Bell Road. Turns out, I had a faulty fuel pump so I knew I was going to get roughed up on the hood.

My mouth hit the floor when I received a phone call saying it was going to cost more than the Bluebook value of the car to fix it. I told them I didn't have the cash to cover it because, by this point, I had heard horror stories of them throwing people's car keys away. After about twenty minutes of me telling them that I didn't have the cash, they asked if I knew people I could borrow money from and then started coming off of the quote. Within that 20 minutes, they dropped the price of the repair by 60%.

I called another wrecker to pick my car up and took it to a different repair shop. Plus the additional tow, I saved hundreds compared to what Bill Heard tried to gank me over.

I cussed out two of their salespeople who were harassing patrons of the Cracker Barrel next door to them while they were trying to eat. They left and when the waitress came back over she said that they'd been high pressuring her to buy a car from them every day. Digusting business.

I did a story on Bill Heard Chevrolet for WSMV several years ago. Same stuff. Different year.

And that's the worst part of this. The Bill Heard company has been called on the carpet for these kind of shenanigans before, and it doesn't seem to stop them.

Perhaps this fish rots from the head down?

More Candidates Posting Questionnaire Data Online

Yesterday I praised state Senate candidate Bob Krumm for posting all of his candidate questionnaires from various special interest groups online. Turns out he's not the only one doing so. Jim Boyd, Republican candidate for the 58th District state House seat, representing downtown Nashville and surrounding communities, posted a comment to that post noting that he is doing so as well.

Boyd is running for the GOP nomination to challenge incumbent state Rep. Mary Pruitt, recently caught by NewsChannel5 investigative reporter Phil Williams in a couple of instances of possibly illegal campaign spending. You can read all about that here. And watch the video version. It's rather hilarious, though if I lived in the 58th district I'd be embarrassed for Pruitt to be my state rep.

Boyd wrote:

I know this sounds like a petulant 'me too! me too!' but there are other Tennessee candidates posting their candidate questionnaires. (And by and large, they are NOT long-time incumbents!) I posted both the AFL-CIO candidate questionnaire and my experiences at their meet and greet back in early June, and I'm posting the new ones as soon as I fill them out. I also have a 'Head to Head' page pitting my views against my opponent, Representative Mary Pruitt.

Speaking of the AFL-CIO soiree, That is where I first met Bob Krumm and realized he would serve as a Tennessee as a State Senator as well as he served our nation as a Commissioned Army Officer... with duty, honor and dignity.

July 17, 2006

The Red Paper Clip Story

I saw this story on 20/20 the other night: Trading up: Blogger turns red paper clip into free house. Fascinating. Here's the blog.

A Vote That Truly Is For the Children

Regular readers know I don't write too much about local elections, especially judicial elections. But in the race for a Circuit Court judgeship in Williamson County, I will be voting against the incumbent, Robbie Beal, a Republican who won the primary by fewer than 300 votes. I'll let Barbara Grinder explain why. The Tennessean had more information in this story published in late June.

If you live in Williamson County, please vote for Beal's opponent in the August 3 election, independent candidate and retired lawyer Don Caulkins Sr.

Krumm Bares All

Bob Krumm, Republican candidate for the Tennessee state Senate in District 2, is running a style of campaign that, in the history of campaigns for election to the Tennessee legislature, may very well be unprecedented in its level of openness and interactive discourse with the electorate. Today, Krumm posted on his weblog copies of all of the "candidate questionaires" from various special interest groups, including his answers. Krumm:

Candidates owe it to their voters to tell them how they stand on the issues. One way to do this is through candidate questionnaires. I've already received many of these from various special interest groups around Tennessee. I will try to answer each one - even those from groups I usually disagree with - so that the voters can go to the polls knowing exactly what I believe.

Target Syria

The New Republic carries a persuasive article by Michael B. Oren urging Israel to go to war against Syria, in order to prevent a wider Middle East war, and says the Six hDay War of 1966 is the paradigm.

Back in 1966, Israel recoiled from attacking Syria and instead raided Jordan, inadvertently setting off a concatenation of events culminating in war. Israel is once again refraining from an entanglement with Hezbollah's Syrian sponsors, perhaps because it fears a clash with Iran. And just as Israel's failure to punish the patron of terror in 1967 ultimately triggered a far greater crisis, so too today, by hesitating to retaliate against Syria, Israel risks turning what began as a border skirmish into a potentially more devastating confrontation. Israel may hammer Lebanon into submission and it may deal Hezbollah a crushing blow, but as long as Syria remains hors de combat there is no way that Israel can effect a permanent change in Lebanon's political labyrinth and ensure an enduring ceasefire in the north. On the contrary, convinced that Israel is unwilling to confront them, the Syrians may continue to escalate tensions, pressing them toward the crisis point. The result could be an all-out war with Syria as well as Iran and severe political upheaval in Jordan, Egypt, and the Gulf.

The answer lies in delivering an unequivocal blow to Syrian ground forces deployed near the Lebanese border. By eliminating 500 Syrian tanks--tanks that Syrian President Bashar Al Assad needs to preserve his regime--Israel could signal its refusal to return to the status quo in Lebanon. Supporting Hezbollah carries a prohibitive price, the action would say. Of course, Syria could respond with missile attacks against Israeli cities, but given the dilapidated state of Syria's army, the chances are greater that Assad will simply internalize the message. Presented with a choice between saving Hezbollah and staying alive, Syria's dictator will probably choose the latter. And the message of Israel's determination will also be received in Tehran.

I have long thought that maybe the U.S. should have gone after Syria's Baathist regime before Iraq's. Maybe history is giving us a second chance to do the right thing. No, we don' t need to invade and occupy Syria. Just help Israel destroy Assad's military with massive air power, and let his regime fall.

Tennessean: Sales Tax Too High

For the second time in the same day I find myself agreeing with The Tennessean on something they said in an editorial:

As Tennesseans delay their back-to-school purchases to take advantage of the sales tax holiday, they should at least consider that the tax break is so appealing simply because the tax rate is too darn high.

Gov. Phil Bredesen and state Sen. Doug Henry are among the key elected officials who think the sales tax on groceries is just fine as it is - as they proved by their actions during the last legislative session when they successfully opposed a proposal pushed by Bredesen's likely opponent in the gubernatorial race this fall, state Sen. Jim Bryson, to reduce the sales tax on groceries with an eye toward eliminating it.

Your Tax Dollars At Work

A state legislative oversight committee has launched an inquiry to see if Metro government improperly spent $2.5 million in state funds for a corrections "master plan" that, after more than five years, has never materialized. Read the whole story in the Monday Nashville City Paper. That $2.5 million isn't really state funds, of course. It's your money being wasted.

State Shouldn't Appeal Ruling on Drug Tax

It's rare that I agree with a Tennessean editorial, but today is one of those days. In this editorial in its Monday edition, The Tennessean urges the state to fore go appealing a judge's ruling that the state's tax on illegal drugs is unconstitutional.

When a judge says that a state law in unconstitutional, the most common reaction by state attorneys is to appeal. But Tennessee officials need to think twice about appealing a ruling by Chancellor Richard Dinkins, in which the judge said that a Tennessee tax on illegal drugs was unconstitutional. The state must question the wisdom of waging a potentially expensive court fight over a law that brought in $2.7 million over 18 months.

Legislature Again Passes Corporate Subsidy Legislation Without Public Debate

Last year, the Bredesen administration managed to ram a $64 million gift to Nissan into a piece of late tax legislation passed by the legislature on the final day of the session while intentionally preventing legislators from having the truth about the purpose and cost of the legislation. This year, it appears the legislature has again passed a rather large and sure-to-be costly change in the state's economic development "tax incentives" policy, and they did so with no public debate. From the story in the Monday Tennessean:

Tennessee is trying to improve its recruiting efforts for industrial jobs, offering an extra level of job tax credits to companies that create well-paying jobs and spend at least $100 million in the process. The changes are part of a sweeping tax measure the state legislature approved as the legislative session wrapped up in May.

Transit Planners Eye Gas Tax Increase

A few days ago, the Chattanooga paper reported that Gov. Phil Bredesen won't rule out increasing the gas tax if he's re-elected this fall. Today, The Tennessean reports that commuter-rail planners in the Nashville area are looking at a gas tax increase to help subsidize their guaranteed-to-be-a-money-loser project. If you think these two are coincidental and unrelated, you haven't been paying attention.

July 15, 2006

Trust Is the Issue As Pro-Income Tax Rochelle Seeks Return to State Senate

The Sunday Tennessean has a long look at the race for the state Senate District 17 seat, which features the state's leading advocate for a state income tax trying to regain his Senate seat from one of the state's leading opponents of a state income tax. Yes, that's right, it's Bob "I knew I was going to lose so I turned tail and ran" Rochelle" against state Sen. Mae Beavers - if Rochelle can win his primary by snowing enough voters in the district into believing he really is against the income tax now.

But should voters trust him? To answer that, you have to consider Rochelle's history. He's lied to voters about this issue before.

As Roger Abramson reminds us, "Rochelle also said he opposed an income tax during his 1998 campaign too, right before he went and pushed for the income tax."

But you don't have to wonder if you can trust Sen. Beavers, especially on the tax issue. Reporter Trent Seibert's description of Sen. Beavers' anti-tax views is perfect:

If she discovered a tax increase in human form walking on the street, she'd club it to death with a 2-by-4.

"We had enough surplus this year, we could have given everyone a permanent tax break," said Beavers, who fought to reduce the sales tax on food.

Challenger Democrat Bob Rochelle, 60, a lawyer, was a 20-year veteran of the state Senate. He led the charge for a very unpopular state income tax - so unpopular that thousands traveled to the state Capitol to protest it - before he dropped out of the race that Beavers won in 2002.

About Rochelle, Seibert says, "He is revered at the legislature as a renowned dealmaker and debater."

But voters in the 17th district ought to read what Abramson had to say recently about Rochelle:

That Savvy Bob
When he was in the legislature, and especially during the income tax debate, all we ever heard about was what a master of the legislative process he was, like he was the second coming of Robert himself. Give a bill to Bob Rochelle, went the refrain, and he'll get it through.

Whatever. He wasn't a legislative mastermind. Basically, he was just a bully. He had a talent for pushing people around and he was a member of the majority party. Those two things together can make you pretty successful in the legislative context. That's all well and good and fair, but it doesn't make you some sort of Machiavellian genius.

In fact, I would argue that having him behind the Senate push for the income tax actually hurt that cause, because the pushiness that served him so well within the walls of the Senate backfired on him when the issue came under the public microscope. He came across to regular voters like a petulant jackass, and, believe it or not, people aren't usually enthusiastic about giving petulant jackasses tax money to play with.

By the way, the Saturday Tennessean had a much briefer look at the state House District 59 race. Well, it's about the two Democrats in the race. The Republican candidate is mentioned, but readers are given no information about him, not even campaign contact information.

My Real Age

The calendar says I'm 42.1 years old. RealAge.com says that, biologically - based on diet, medical conditions and other factors, I'm really 43.9 years old. One of the factors described as contributing to my higher "real age" is said to be my sometime use of a cellphone while driving.

DO NOT TALK ON THE PHONE WHILE DRIVING.
Your RealAge is older because you occasionally talk on the phone while driving. Talking while driving increases your chance of having potentially severe or even fatal automobile accidents. Although use of a voice-activated speakerphone would free both of your hands for driving, it would not lower your risk.

ACTION PLAN:

Make your important calls before you leave home or the office. You need to concentrate while driving.

If you need to make a call while driving, first pull to the side of the road.

Subscribe to voice mail. If someone calls while you are driving, your voice mail can take the message until you can talk safely.

Only in extreme emergencies should you talk on the phone while driving.

Marriage Definition Amendment Goes To Voters

The Saturday Tennessean reports on the failure of the Tennessee ACLU to prevent you from voting on a proposed constitutional amendment to define marriage in the state constitution.

Tennessee residents will be allowed to decide whether to amend the state constitution to include a ban on gay marriage, according to a state Supreme Court decision filed Friday that rejected an appeal to keep it off the ballot.

Israel War News Sources

Sharon Cobb emailed some links to the best online sources for news about the situation in Israel. She recommends www.jta.org Also, for live English-language radio reports from Israel, go to www.kolisrael.com. And, says Cobb, the best site for accuracy in Middle East reporting is CAMERA.

Bredesen Open To Raising Gas Tax In Second Term

Tired of $3-a-gallon gasoline? Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen is open to making it more expensive, by increasing the gas tax, in his second term, reports Andy Sher of the Chattanooga Times Free Press. That's good news for the Bryson campaign, which correctly notes that Bredesen raided the gas tax, which is supposed to fund road construction and maintenance, for millions of dollars for the state's general fund. The bad news: The Bryson campaign wasn't quite ready for the question, "Will you raise the gas tax?"

July 14, 2006

Endorsements

TeamGOP has endorsed Jack Johnson in the Tennessee state senate 23rd district race, and Bob Krumm in the 21st.

Regarding Johnson, who I also have endorsed, TeamGOP said this:

Jack’s experience as a senior vice president for Pinnacle Financial Partners gives him the necessary experience to understand complex financial issues that are surely to face our next legislative session. Jack is committed as a strong proponent of no state income tax and cutting state spending to rid the state government of bloated and unnecessary waste. Jack and his family are staunchly conservative in their beliefs of pro-life and traditional marriage. The fact that he received the endorsement of Tennessee Right to Life stands as a testament to his family values and the role a state senator should take in leading these principles when governing. Jack understands the necessity of state leaders to advocate on the state’s behalf in illegal immigration policies and the impact these have in our daily lives.

Bob Krumm's simple statement of "A leader will not lie, cheat, or steal, nor tolerate those who do" is sometimes repeated, but in recent times has been ignored by many in the Tennessee General Assembly. Tennessee needs new leaders like Bob Krumm and not the same politicians with the same old rhetoric who helped bring shame to Tennessee state government. Bob, a fiscal conservative, will well represent taxpayers and small business owners in his district and across Tennessee. Bob believes that government should only do what the private sector cannot do and everything that government does, it should do well.

Better Late Than Never

With early voting starting today (Friday, July 14), The Tennessean is continuing to publish a series of brief articles introducing the candidates for various seats in the state legislature and Congress, like this one on the state House district 58 Democratic primary , and this one on the Fifth District congressional Democratic primary. Early voting starts today, and the primary is on August 3. These are the kind of introductory articles that the newspaper should have published a few days after the April filing deadline, not now, as the polls open. Ah, but providing in-depth political issues coverage doesn't sell papers like milking a sex scandal does...

July 13, 2006

Gill Joins WKRN

Proving once again it is the Nashville news operation that is "thinking outside the box" the most, Nashville's WKRN News 2 today announced that Nashville attorney and radio talk host Steve Gill has signed with the station to serve as WKRN's chief Political Analyst. Gill will provide commentary and reports for the station's newscasts.

"I am very excited about becoming a part of the WKRN team," Gill said. "With the station's video journalists expanding the boundaries of local news, their emphasis on the emerging blogosphere and the aggressive approach to telling the important stories that affect our communities, WKRN is poised to dramatically shake up the local news business."

Gill was host of the highly rated and influential Steve Gill Show on local radio station WWTN until his contract ended June 30. He indicated that he expects to make an announcement concerning his radio future soon.

In the past few years Gill has broadcast his radio show from the Pentagon and the White House, from the New Hampshire presidential primary election, from the Democrat and Republican Conventions, while on patrol with U.S. military forces in Baghdad and Fallujah, and while standing on the Golan Heights in Israel. Gill noted that he plans to take WKRN viewers on similar excursions. "Technology increasingly gives us the opportunity to not only let viewers hear from the newsmakers as they are making news, but to actually take them to where the newsmakers are making that news."

It's worth noting that technology increasingly also is enabling news consumers to be news producers as well.

Update: Nashville City Paper regurgitates the press release later than I did. The spelling-challenged first commenter is unimpressed.

Working for Wal-Mart

A pro-Wal-Mart organization named Working Families for Wal-Mart has unveiled a new blog designed to expose the paid critics who are attacking the company. The site's URL is PaidCritics.com. It is described as a sight designed to turn the spotlight back on the attack machine created by labor union leaders to tear down Wal-Mart. The blog will expose the paid critics’ hypocrisy, set the record straight when necessary, and point out other tidbits that you won’t read in their press releases. As a fan of Wal-Mart and the money it saves me, I look forward to reading the new blog.

Stay Tuned...

Major Nashville media announcement coming at 6 p.m. Stay tuned...

Bredesen Flip-Flops on Illegal Immigration, Promises State Role Under Pressure from Bryson Campaign

First he said he was against it, now he's for it - Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, clearly feeling the heat on the illegal immigration issue, now says he is in favor of having state and local law enforcement play a bigger role in combating illegal immigration. Nashville City Paper has the story. Bredesen is only responding to reality - and to the pressure put on him by Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Bryson, who as a state senator last year pushed legislation to that end, only to have it killed in committee after Bredesen publicly opposed it.

From the City Paper:

Bredesen said Wednesday in a conference call with reporters that he is "paying attention" to immigration now and that he has been "for some time."

"It's a problem whose time has come for us all to step up and figure out how to solve it," Bredesen said.

A real change of heart, or election-year flp-floppery? You make the call.

Hilleary Explains Why He Lost

Nashville City Paper: Hilleary says lack of cash would be cause of defeat. Yeah, that and a lack of voters. Oh, and that TV ad titled "Remember" in which Hilleary asks voters, "Remember me?" and then try to pass himself off as a tough fighter, but instead comes off as a kid who is regularly rolled for his lunch money isn't going to help.

Update: In the comments, Smantix agrees the ad is bad, calling it "the biggest waste of money since that local TV ad where the transvestite is trying to sell discount furniture."

Bryson: Time to Lower Sales Tax On Food

The Thursday Tennessean carries an AP report on Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Bryson's official campaign kick-off flight around the state from his stop in Chattanooga. The AP headline:Bryson launches gubernatorial bid: GOP state senator wants to reduce sales tax on food

Incumbent Gov. Phil Bredesen doesn't want to reduce the sales tax on food - he made that clear during the most recent session of the legislature when the state's revenue surplus provided the state almost enough money to completely eliminate the sales tax on food. Instead, Bredesen lead the legislature to spend most of it.

Bryson also made campaign appearances in Knoxville, Kingsport, Jackson, Memphis and Nashville. The AP story doesn't quite tell the whole story of what Bryson spoke about on the campaign trail, of course.

Bryson, a state senator from Franklin, spoke about his big vision for education, healthcare, illegal immigration and restoring integrity in state government on the statewide fly-around.

"I'm running for governor because Tennessee needs better leadership and I can provide it," said Sen. Bryson. "As Governor, I will work to graduate every Tennessee teenager from high school. This is a big idea. But if we can put a man on the moon in the 20th century, surely we can graduate our kids from high school in the 21st century."

"We need a governor who thinks big."

Bryson also discussed the state's ailing TennCare program, a program Bredesen promised four years ago that he would reform but instead wound up just cutting 193,000 old, sick, disabled and poor people from the rolls, leaving them with no healthcare coverage. Some former TennCare enrollees have died since Bredesen cut off their healthcare coverage.

"Tennesseans deserve a governor with a big heart. I will work to make sure no life is lost due to a lack of access to health care," Bryson said. "I will implement cost-savings measures and make structural changes to reduce TennCare costs rather than eliminating the safety net for the terminally ill."

On the issue of the state sales tax, Bryson promised that a "major initiative" of his administration would be "to reduce the sales tax on food with an eye toward permanent elimination." Said Bryson, "I'll be a Governor with his eye on the family budget as well as the state budget."

Bryson also addressed the series of ethical scandals emanating from the Bredesen administration during the governor's first four years in office, ranging from the document-shredding cover-up of sexual harassment allegations against a member of the Bredesen administration to the campaign donations-for promotions scandal in the Tennessee Highway Patrol. Bredesen's chief political operative, Deputy Gov. David Cooley, played the starring role in that scandal - and also in an embarrasing ticket-fixing scandal - but retains his job.

Bryson: "As governor, I will carry a big stick when it comes to cleaning up government corruption. I will hold every member of my administration in every department accountable for their actions. I will hire people based on their qualifications, not their political associations or their campaign contr