September 29, 2006

VeggieNailed

Michelle Malkin nails NBC for its hypocrisy, cowardice and disrespect for Christianity in her latest vent at HotAir.com.

Bryson Calls on Bredesen To Investigate Questionable Kisber/Lobbyist Loan

The Chattanooa Times-Free Press follows up on WKRN reporter Trent Seibert's recent revelation of questionable loans involving Gov. Phil Bredesen's Commissioner of Economic Development, Matt Kisber.

Kisber, former chairman of the House Finance Committee, arranged for a $1.2 million loan for a company on whose board Kisber sat, and the loan was profided by a lobbyist who had business in front of Kisber's committee. Kisber originally claimed he made no money from the company, but amended his story after it was revealed that his official state financial disclosure says he in fact did make more than $1,000 from the company. So we're left to take Kisber's word for it as to how much he made.

Now, reports the Chattanooga paper, Republican gubernatorial nominee Jim Bryson is challenging Gov. Bredesen to launch an independent probe of the loan.

"Commissioners should not use their office for personal gain and should certainly not be hired if they have used a previous office for personal gain," state Sen. Bryson said in a statement.

The governor may have full confidence in Kisber, but, then, the governor has retained Deputy Gov. Dave Cooley, despite his role in the Bredesen administration's promotions-for-donations scheme that rewarded Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers with promotions after they or their family members donated to Bredesen's campaign - and the Bredesen campaign has kept the troopers' tainted contributions.

The governor may have full confidence in Kisber, but, then, the governor has retained Deputy Gov. Dave Cooley even after Cooley abused his power and position to get a speeding ticket "fixed."

The governor may have full confidence in Kisber, but, then, the Bredesen administration shredded key documents in a sexual harrassment investigation involving one of the administration's staffers.

Contrast the governor's "full confidence" in Kisber with Bryson's promise "to clean up corruption in the governor’s office" and hire based on experience and ability, not politics and campaign contributions" Bryson further promises that "every department will be led by a commissioner who has not used public office for personal gain. No one will even be considered who has used a previous office for personal gain.

They Can't Get No Satisfaction

If you love the Rolling Stones and want to see them in concert for discount prices, and can get to Missoula, Montana, by Wednesday, there are deals to be had.

The Stones performance set for Wednesday in Missoula was a sellout right after tickets went on sale in August. Less than a week before the show, though, the ticket tale is a sad one. People looking to resell theirs, even at less than face value, are struggling for buyers.

Longtime fan Sharon Hawke of Polson, about 70 miles from Missoula, has attended Stones concerts in Seattle, Phoenix and elsewhere, and plans to be in a party of four at the show. Hawke has advertised one unneeded ticket, bought for $353, and had no takers Thursday morning. "Most people, because it's during a work week, can't go," said Hawke. "Other people have no interest in seeing them. They said if it was Toby Keith, they'd do it."

The Future of News

Michael S. Malone, who writes the "Silicon Insider" column for ABCNews.com, explores the future of news in his newest online column. My favorite part:

A couple years ago I got into a lot of trouble when I used this column to announce the death of newspapers. At the time I said that even as a veteran newspaper reporter I had realized that I didn't really read printed news anymore, that it was so much quicker, more efficient, and ultimately more balanced for me to gather my news by hopscotching around trusted news sources on the Web. My analysis was anecdotal, I admitted, but if a guy who made his living from newspapers didn't read them anymore, why would anybody else?

Well, the reaction was pretty intense. I was accused in trade publications, columns and across the blogosphere of being biased, ignorant and a lousy business reporter - after all, didn't I know that the newspaper business was still highly profitable? Newspapers, I was told, usually in a pedantic tone, would be around for generations to come because they were institutions, because they'd already been around for centuries. Besides, what would mornings be like without a cup of coffee and the paper?

My answer to that: "I dunno, ask anybody under 25."

September 28, 2006

GOP Calls on Tennessee Democratic Party to Return Tainted Contributions

The Tennessee Republican Party is calling on the Tennessee Democrat Party and Gov Phil Bredesen to return tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations it received from the CEO of a company who now is accused of running a suspected financial scheme that allegedly bilked investors and retirement accounts. In a press release, the Tennessee GOP said,

"Tennessee Democrats who are direct beneficiaries of this tainted money, should be ashamed of themselves. Today we call on the Tennessee Democrat Party to return the life savings of hardworking Tennesseans and quit playing politics with people's lives. If history is any example, though, Governor Phil Bredesen and his fellow Democrats will keep the money - just ask our members of the state's highway patrol," said Bob Davis, chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party.

Yesterday, The Tennessean reported that the administration is refusing to release a file related to Cooley's improper use of his political power and position to get the THP to "fix" a speeding ticket he had received, a file sought by the lawyer representing an ex-trooper who claims his career was victimized by the Bredesen administration's donations-for-promotions scheme. From The Tennessean:

Farmer's attorney, Arthur F. Knight III, in a letter dated Monday, said TBI files of closed investigations have been provided in the past. Thus, he said, he was surprised by the state's refusal to provide the file documenting the investigation into Gov. Phil Bredesen's right-hand man. Farmer is suing Cooley and several former top leaders in the patrol, which was shaken up in December after The Tennessean documented politics in promotions practices at the THP.

Farmer's attorney wants to review the Cooley file to search for evidence to bolster his case. Farmer is claiming in his federal lawsuit filed in Knoxville that he was retaliated against and his career wrecked by the Democratic administration because of his political ties to the Republican Party. "The investigation may contain information that we can use to support our allegation that he, the deputy governor, was exercising a great deal of influence on the Highway Patrol and who got certain jobs and didn't," Knight said by telephone Tuesday.

As reported yesterday by blogger Terry Frank, and here, Bredesen's 2002 campaign chairman and 2006 campaign treasurer Stuart Brunson formerly lobbied the administration on behalf of 1Point Solutions. Brunson, interestingly, was also director of business development for Qualifacts, a Bredesen-owned healthcare software company in the news recently for its hiring in July of Bredesen's hand-picked TennCare director to be its new CEO.

While questions remain unanswered about the extent of Bredesen's role in Qualifacts' hiring of TennCare director J.D. Hickey, it is quite clear that 1Point Solutions, an allegedly corrupt company that may have stolen millions from investors and from future retirees of its clients, had forged deep ties to the Bredesen administration, the Bredesen campaign and the Tennessee Democratic Party.

Were the campaign contributions an attempt to buy political favors or protection? Whatever the reason, the contributions are tainted and should be returned. The Tennessee Republican Party is suggesting the Democrats set up an escrow account for the tainted funds, and return the money when those affected are identified.

My guess is the Bredesen camp will do so right after they return the cash they hauled in via that Tennessee Highway Patrol donations-for-promotions scheme. Which is to say, never.

Which means some of those Bredesen ads you're seeing on TV promoting the re-election of a governor whose personal net worth is estimated at somewhere around $200 million are financed by funds possibly stolen from the retirement funds of people who live paycheck to paycheck.

Speaking of TV ads, Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Bryson got the tense wrong when he charged in his first TV ad that Bredesen has "led a corrupt and scandalous administration."

"Led" is past tense. Keeping the troopers' money, and now the 1Point scandal, show that the Bredesen administration's corruption is both past and present tense. The good news: Voters in November have the chance to make sure it doesn't continue into the future.

September 27, 2006

Bryson Camp Provides Documentation of Bredesen's Failures

The Bryson for Governor campaign has released source documentation for every claim made in its first campaign ad. Read it all here in a 5-page PDF file. It's good stuff and backs up the Bryson camp's portrayal of Bredesen as soft on illegal immigration, weak on graduation rates, having kicked terminally ill people off TennCare, and having led a corrupt and scandal-riddled administration.

Oops

The National Intelligence Estimate that the Left was all a'twitter about in recent days, thinking it supports their view that the U.S. ought to pull out of Iraq , has been declassified - and it says the opposite.

They'll Read This, Too

A tasty nugget from Nathan Moore's blog:

Thanks to some recently acquired emails from the governor's office, we learn that officials in state government do read at least one blog - Bill Hobbs.

Perhaps the Bredesen administration doesn't keep much of boundary between the taxpayer-funded administration and the campaign.

Update: I'm betting the administration tracks more than one blog. I'm betting they track a lot of them, and probably are pulling strings behind the scenes on one or two. I'm betting the results would be interesting if someone filed an open-records request with the administration requesting copies of all communications involving anyone in the administration, including the governor, his staff, his cabinet and their staff, in which a blog, blogger or administration-backed blog effort was mentioned. It might just be fascinating to see how much of an impact blogs really are having on the administration...

I'm not going to file such an open-records request. But the great thing about Tennessee's open-records laws is they are available to all, not just to the media or to independent journalists. You could file such a request. It's easy. Just write it up and email it to Lydia Lenker at lydia.lenker@state.tn.us.

By the way, your open-records request doesn't have to be about the topic I've just discussed. You could request copies of all communications regarding just about any issue of state government. For example, you could request all internal and external communications in which the governor or a member of his administration uses the word "income tax." Or you could request copies of all communications between the administration and the governor's campaign staff. You don't even have to know if the communications you are requesting actually exist. You can go fishing!

And they have to comply. They work for you. And it's the law.

Cool, huh?

Bredesen Campaign Official Tied To Company Accused of Stealing Millions

Stuart Brunson, the treasurer for Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen's re-election campaign and the manager of Bredesen's 2002 campaign, has been linked to a Dickson-based retirement and benefits management company accused of stealing millions of dollars from unsuspecting investors and employees. Brunson formerly was director of business development for Qualifacts, a healthcare software company Bredesen owns and which has been in the news lately for its hiring of former TennCare director J.D. Hickey, and for the growing evidence that Bredesen was involved with the company even after becoming governor.

From today's Tennessean:

Stokes and his company [1Point Solutions] are at the center of a series of lawsuits that claim they bilked unsuspecting investors and employees of millions of dollars in retirement accounts and other funds.

Stokes linked himself with the party faithful the way many do: He gave campaign money to their candidates. Records show that Stokes contributed at least $50,000 to Democratic candidates and party organizations since 2001.

One beneficiary of Stokes' political giving has been Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen. Stokes contributed $5,000 to Bredesen's 2002 campaign, records show. And since then, he has had access to some of Bredesen's inner circle.

When Stokes' company wanted to pitch its services to the state last year, it enlisted Bredesen's 2002 campaign manager and current campaign treasurer, Stuart Brunson.

September 26, 2006

Hit Head On

Donna Locke emailed the following in response to a Tennessean story about Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Bryson's new campaign ad, in which a Bredesen staffer tries to portray Bredesen (falsely) as taking tough action on illegal immigration: Locke writes:

Gov. Phil Bredesen's re-election campaign says Bredesen has "hit" the illegal immigration issue "head-on," but Tennessee victims of illegal aliens are the ones being hit head-on. Our Democratic-controlled legislature, led by Bredesen, has torpedoed every bill but one, sponsored by both Republicans and Democrats, to gain some control over illegal immigration at the state level. Maybe that is what the Bredesen campaign means by "head-on."

The Democrats, led by Bredesen, have stalled and outright killed Republican-initiated bills to eliminate illegal-alien magnets in Tennessee driver's licensing, taxpayer-funded state services, and employment. Republicans sponsored the bill to require that our highway patrol cooperate with federal authorities in enforcing immigration laws (lack of cooperation between law enforcement agencies was cited in the 9/11 Commission's final report as a tragic flaw). That bill went nowhere, because of Democratic opposition.

Tennessee doesn't have a chance of getting a handle on the illegal immigration problem unless Republicans gain control of our legislature and governor's office.

As to the illegal immigration issue, McDowell said, Bredesen was one of the first governors in the country to "hit the issue head-on" in June after it became apparent that Congress was not going to pass meaningful reform.

Given the recent deaths of a Mt. Juliet couple in a head-on collision with a drunk illegal immigrant who was left on the streets by a failure of government at all levels - including Gov. Bredesen's failure to address illegal immigration over the past four years - the campaign's decision to describe Bredesen as having "hit" the issue "head on" shows an appalling lack of sensitivity and judgment.

Facts are facts, and the fact is the Bredesen administration's official policy on illegal immigration is to pass the buck, blame the feds, and avoid meaningful debate on the issue. Sending a few hundred Tennessee National Guard troops to the Arizona border was nothing but a way for Bredesen to cover his sorry record and prepare a possible campaign photo-op or ad backdrop.

Every time - every single time - legislation has been proposed that would make Tennessee less of a magnet for illegals, and protect the public by strengthening law enforcement actions to rid the state of criminal illegals, Gov. Bredesen has actively opposed it.

Only after the deaths of that Mt. Juliet couple and an elderly Bellevue woman at the hands of criminal illegals has Pass-the-Buck Bredesen scurried to fix his image on this issue, though he has done nothing substantive - not one single thing - to actually address the problem itself.

Sen. Henry Snubs Pro-Life Endorsement

I noticed something odd on state Sen. Doug Henry's campaign website: Sen. Henry apparently isn't proud that he has been endorsed by Tennessee Right to Life, the controversial pro-life group.

Sen. Henry has been quick to highlight other endorsements. His campaign recently issued a press release touting his website's "full list of endorsements," yet his "full list" doesn't include the endorsement of the state's largest and most influentical pro-life organization. Sen. Henry immediately posted on his website that he garnered the NRA's endorsement as soon as his Republican rival, Bob Krumm, touted his own "A" Rating from the same organization. Yet Sen. Henry hasn't seen fit to proudly announce his endorsement by Tennessee Right to Life.

Examine his endorsements page and you'll see that it is filled with endorsements from a host of Democrat-leaning groups, especially organized labor, public employees, and environmentalists. But no mention of the endorsement by Tennessee Right to Life.

By contrast, Krumm's website includes not just his endorsements, but copies of all of the questionnaires he has filed out for various conservative, moderate and liberal interest groups. You can read them for yourself here, including his answers to Tennessee Right to Life, which show that Krumm is strongly pro-life.

Why has Sen. Henry snubbed Tennessee Right to Life's endorsement?

Is Sen. Henry afraid that beging too public about his endorsement by a pro-life group would anger the pro-abortion voters amongst the left-leaning groups that have endorsed him? Has Sen. Henry decided to focus on turning out the Democratic base for him in the November election? Is he abandoning Republicans and conservative Democrats who have kept him in office in the many long years since his district's political demographics shifted decidedly Republican?

Whatever the reason, it is clear that Sen. Henry isn't proud to have been endorsed by the state's leading pro-life organization - and it is equally clear that pro-life moderates and conservatives in the 21st Senate District have good reason to wonder if Sen. Henry is abandoning their cause in his hunt for more votes from liberal special interests in a district that is increasingly conservative.

UPDATE: In the first comment below, Brian Harris, president of Tennessee Right to Life, says the organization hasn't yet announced its endorsements and hasn't yet endorsed Sen. Henry. But a quick check of the organization's website turns up a list of the organization's endorsements in races across Tennessee (click image, then scroll down and click "Browse all races in Tennessee"). Sen. Henry is listed as the "endorsed candidate" in the race between Henry and Krumm for the 21st district state Senate seat.

September 25, 2006

Travel Blogs Enter the Mainstream

TravelWeekly.com reports that, "Travel suppliers, destinations and their marketing and public relations professionals are realizing that they have to deal with bloggers, those edgy, irreverent, sometimes dazzling, sometimes off-base voices on the Web."

Marriott International already has experimented with the blogs and found that they can play a role when it's hard to grab the attention of the trade or consumer press. Commenting from the audience and addressing a panel of bloggers at a recent event in New York, communications official John Wolf of Marriott said, "I can say from experience that we once tried to break news using you guys because we didn't think it was newsworthy enough to get into a newspaper. It was just a fantastic bang. We learned a lot from it. What it did was show the influence that you guys have with mainstream media."

...One audience member said, "I work in PR in the international tourism area, and quite often we have to discuss with our clients the value of a lot of these different outlets. Particularly in the last year, we have to say, 'Look, it is really time to look at these blogs, these online journalists, and to bring them overseas, give them advice and work with them."

Yet Another Bredesen Administration Official Caught In Ethics Mess

Yet another member of the Bredesen administration has been caugh in an ethical mess. WKRN's Trent Seibert reports that former state Rep. Matt Kisber, now Bredesen's Commissioner of Economic Development, helped arrange for more than $1 million loans for a company on which Kisber sat on the board of directors - and did so while Kisber was a lawmaker and chairman of the powerful state House Ways and Means Committee - and the loan was from Brenda McKenzie, a lobbyist with business in front of Kisber's committee. Siebert's blog has the documents here.

Seibert reports:

Not long before the time of the loan, Brenda McKenzie was lobbying Kisber's Ways and Means Committee on behalf of several healthcare companies trying to get favorable legislation passed through the Tennessee General Assembly.

Kisber never revealed the loans or the conflict-of-interest.

Add Kisber to the long list of Bredesen administration officials caught in ethically suspect situations.

Update: Terry Frank notes that Bredesen is defending Kisber, and tags Bredesen "Governor Whitewash." It's appropriate, especially when you recall the Bredesen administration shredded documents to protect an administration official accused of sexual harassment and didn't fire Deputy Gov. Dave Cooley, the guy at the epicenter of the campaign-donations-for-promotions scandal that rocked the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

City Paper Probes Sen. Henry's Use of Tax Dollars for Campaign Mailings, Er, "Newsletters."

The Monday Nashville City Paper reports on state Sen. Doug Henry's ethically questionable use of tax dollars to send out "newsletters" that could be construed as campaign literature. This is a story BillHobbs.com has been investigating for the past week. I have left two messages with Sen. Henry's legislative office, but have not received a response.

September 24, 2006

Rinks Update

Ted Cook has sifted through the 2005 campaign finance disclosures filed by each of the members of the Tennessee state House of Representatives and found that Democrats reported far more in expenditures to pay "undefined" credit card expenses than did Republicans. Cook says state Rep. Randy Rinks "still leads the pack, by a bunch, at not disclosing credit card purposes."

UPDATE: Cook also has been sifting through Rep. Rinks' campaign funding sources, and finds that very little of his contributions come from people residing in his district, state House District 71. Cook has two posts on that topic, for 2005 and 2006.

A week ago I emailed and faxed Rep. Rinks seeking his version of the facts. He has so far not responded.

The newspaper in Rink's home county, Hardin County, is the Savannah Courier, a weekly published Thursdays. It does not appear to have a website, so I have no way of knowing if the paper has yet reported on Rinks' questionable and possibly illegal campaign expenditures, his use of campaign funds to pay his dues at the swank Nashville City Club, or the fact that very little of his campaign contributions come from residents of the 71st District - but far more of his money comes from contributors in the Nashville area, where Rinks used campaign funds to pay $439 in dues at the Nashville City Club (photo shows meal at the NCC). To encourage the Savannah Courier to include these facts in their pre-election coverage, please contact the Courier at 731.925.6397 or by mail at The Courier, 801 Main Street, Savannah, TN, 38372. The editor is Jim Thompson, or at least he was when the 2005 Tennessee Newspaper Directory was published by the Tennessee Press Association.

If the paper won't cover it, perhaps they might run a letter to the editor summarizing the facts surfaced by Ted Cook and also published here at BillHobbs.com, if a reader living in the 71st district were to write such a letter...

September 23, 2006

Reading List

I just ordered the book The Blog of War: Front-Line Dispatches from Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with the revised edition of Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, scheduled for release Oct. 1. I'm not sure which I'll read first...

Lee of Conshohocken

I spotted this old item at a local junqtique store recently. Now, I grew up about 20 miles from Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, so I was intrigued and wondered who or what "Lee of Conshohocken" was. Googled it. Found that Lee of Conshohocken was a tire manufacturer and a homegrown major employer in Conshohocken in the first half of the 1900s. More here:

J. Ellwood Lee, who formed his own surgical supply company, built a three-story factory at Eighth Ave. and Harry Street in 1887. In 1910, Lee built his own automobile tire factory. With a work force of 850, his company was known around the world as "Lee of Conshohocken." In 1966, Lee Tires became a subsidiary of Goodyear Tire and Rubber company and closed in 1978. The building still stands today on Hector Street and is used as offices for various businesses.

VeggieTales on NBC

NBC is airing edited versions of the VeggieTales cartoons - with most references to God edited out - on Saturday mornings. VeggieTales co-creator Phil Vischer is blogging about it...

"So, Phil, will they actually let you talk about God on NBC?" Oh, good question. I figured you'd get to that at some point. The answer is... yes and no. At first we were told everything was 'okay' except the Bible verse at the end. Frankly, that news really surprised me, because, heck, we're talking about NBC here. God on Saturday morning? It didn't seem likely. Since we've started actually producing the episodes, though, NBC has gotten a little more restrictive. (I think they actually sat down and started watching a few VeggieTales videos. "Hey wait - these are religious.") So it's gotten trickier, and we're having to do a little more editing. More than I'm comfortable with? Frankly, yes. But I had already committed to helping Big Idea with this, and I really didn't want to leave them in a tight spot. Plus, the new stuff we're coming up with is really fun, and at least some new kids will meet Bob and Larry on NBC, and maybe wander into Wal-Mart and buy a video with all the God still in. So it could be better, but overall it's not a total loss.

September 22, 2006

Policy Man

As photographed at my favorite junktique store on Lewisburg Pike near downtown Franklin, Tennessee. I'm not sure what "Policy Man" was advertising - i'm guessing an insurance company. The wardrobe seems a bit too modern for it to have been an ad for the 1938 movie Policy Man.

Your Tax Dollars at Work - But You Can't See the Results!

Did you know that the Congressional Research Service spends more than $100 million of your tax dollars annually producing policy research reports for Congress, but that you aren't automatically entitled to see their work? OpenCRS.com, a project of the Center for Democracy and Technology, aims to change that:

American taxpayers spend nearly $100 million a year to fund the Congressional Research Service, a "think tank" that provides reports to members of Congress on a variety of topics relevant to current political events. Yet, these reports are not made available to the public in a way that they can be easily obtained. A project of the Center for Democracy & Technology, Open CRS provides citizens access to CRS Reports that are already in the public domain and encourages Congress to provide public access to all CRS Reports.

CRS Reports do not become public until a member of Congress releases the report.

Congressional Research Service reports ought to automatically be made available to the public which, after all, paid for them. The blogosphere was successful in pressuring Congress to pass legislation creating an open database of federal spending. As a follow-up, I suggest the blogosphere push for legislation mandating the timely public online release of all CRS reports.

Fact Checker Finds Bryson's Ad Truthful

WSMV reporter Jeremy Finley examined the allegations against Gov. Phil Bredesen in Republican gubernatorial challenger Jim Bryson's new campaign ad, and found nothing in it that is not true. Finley does quibble with Bryson's charge that Bredesen has "made Tennessee a mecca for illegal aliens," saying, "no one knows how many illegal aliens move to Tennessee." But that actually helps prove Bryson's point - the Bredesen administration simply doesn't have a handle on the problem. By the way, if Finley had dug a little deeper, he would have learned that, among all 50 states, Tennessee had the tenth-highest influx of legal and illegal immigrants from 2000-2005, according to a Center for Immigration Studies analysis of new Census Bureau data - and almost half of new immigrants to the U.S. during that period are estimated to be illegals.

Rinks Update

Savannah, Tennessee's own Ted G. Cook is continuing to dog the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance over its failure to investigate the many unexplained and questionable campaign expenditures by state Rep. Randy Rinks, and he's posting it all on a blog - Ted's Tablet. In this post, Cook finds more odd expenditures that Rinks really ought to explain, including what appears to be Rinks paying his Nashville City Club dues, which is prohibitedby state law (T.C.A. 2-10-114(b)(2). In Rink's 2006 campaign disclosure he reports the following expenditure:

NASHVILLE CITY CLUB - $439.87 - FOR DUES / SUBSCRIPTIONS."

Membership at NCC certainly has its privileges, including delicious meals (photo). Do the voters of Rink's mostly rural district know he's spending campaign funds to pay his dues at a swank and exclusive club for Nashville's business elites?

I have both emailed and faxed Rep. Rinks seeking his side of the story involving all of his questionable campaign expenditures in recent years - including tens of thousands of dollars charged to his American Express card. He has not responded.

Not One Of My Regular Readers

This was in my Friday morning email:

September 21, 2006

Sen. Henry: Using Tax $$$ To Mail Campaign Literature is "Proper Use of Taxpayer Money"

State Sen. Doug Henry, the only Senate incumbent in a contested election this year, is one of a handful of legislators caught using taxpayer-funded postage and printing to send out what looks like campaign literature, according to this story in the Nashville City Paper. Sen. Henry's opponent, Bob Krumm, who has made restoring ethical behavior to the legislature the centerpiece issue of his campaign for the 21st District senate seat, hit Henry gently his first post, titled We Should Expect Better, but after reading the City Paper's story he hits harder on his blog today in a post titled Going Postal.

City Paper reporter John Rodgers notes that Henry spent $7,000 of your tax dollars to send out his June "newsletter," which reads a lot like a campaign mailer.

Krumm, in an email to me, notes that the June newsletter isn't the only time Sen. Henry has used tax dollars to send out the campaign literature - as Sen. Henry also did it again just this week. Krumm explains on his blog:

On September 15, Senator Douglas Henry mailed a letter printed on official Tennessee Senate stationery, with postage apparently paid for by Tennessee taxpayers, to government employees. The purpose of the letter is to "update" recipients on several measures [benefitting state employees] that he "strongly supported" through the General Assembly session completed four months ago. ... Clearly the timing, the subject matter, and the audience (he's been endorsed by every government union), show this taxpayer-funded letter for what it is: a campaign mailing.

While Sen. Henry in today's City Paper story calls the use of taxpayers' dollars to fund incumbent's mailing of campaign literature disguised as newsletters "a proper use of taxpayer money," Krumm is making a proposal to reform the system:

Free printing and postage for legislators has always been an incumbent privilege that is ripe for abuse. Yet, it is important that Legislators stay in contact with their constituents. That, after all, is their job. So let me offer a compromise: Except for individual letters to constituents, legislators should not be allowed free government printing and postage from the election filing deadline through election day. I'll be happy to advance legislation to that effect.

Not surprisingly, all of the lenders listed are free from the burden of having to run a contested campaign this election season. Those include Senators Randy McNally, Joe Haynes, and Jerry Cooper. Clearly what we have here is an abuse of the privileges of elected office

Krumm also notes that Sen. Henry's use of tax dollars to mail his newsletter to voters in his district this close to an election is illegal for members of Congress. Says Krumm, "When the Members of Congress hold themselves to a higher standard than the Tennessee Legislature, you know you have an ethics problem in the Volunteer State."

I would look for Sen. Henry's response on his blog, but he doesn't have a blog. So I'll email his campaign for a response. Given that the Henry campaign dodged all questions regarding the questionable ethics of a suspiciously timed pro-Henry press release issued by Nashville State Community College on the eve of the August primary lauding Henry for something he did months earlier, I don't expect the senator or his campaign to respond, but fairness requires I give Sen. Henry a chance to explain to the people of Tennessee why he used tax dollars for a targeted campaign mailout.

Hard-Hitting Humor

The first ad from Tennessee Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Bryson manages to be humorous and hard-hitting at the same time, wryly nailing incumbent Gov. Phil Bredesen's myriad failures over the last four years, including kicking terminally ill people off TennCare, making Tennessee a magnet for illegal immigrants, letting high school graduation rates plummet and presiding over an administration plagued by a series of ethics scandals. Enjoy...

For more videos from the Bryson campaign, click here. Individual video links:

Jim Bryson discusses ethics reform

Jim Bryson discusses the Bredesen administration's trading of promotions for campaign contributions from Tennessee Highway Patrol members - and how he'll reform the THP.

Jim Bryson discusses Bredesen's failures on illegal immigration, and his proposals to combat the flood of illegals, including dangerous criminal illegals - proposals that Bredesen opposed.

September 20, 2006

Quoted

Michael Silence has an interesting story in the Wednesday Knoxville News Sentinel regarding Mayfield Dairy's new Dairy Blog. I'm quoted, along with bloggers Glenn Reynolds and Bob Cox of the Media Bloggers Association. Readers of the paper's story should know that in addition to being a "longtime Middle Tennessee blogger," as I'm described, I also now consult with companies re blogs and public/media relations.

Report from a Town Hall Meeting on Illegal Immigration

Donna Locke attended a forum on illegal immigration Tuesday night in Columbia and files this report...

I returned a little while ago from the Columbia town hall meeting to address illegal immigration. It was like many town hall meetings I have attended in several cities in two states. It was just that: a town hall meeting for the constituents of elected officials. Not a rally and not a campaign event as some are making it out to be. We need more of these town hall meetings.

The turnout was good, and the audience loudly applauded all comments about the gravity of the illegal-alien problem and comments calling for or describing state and federal legislation and action in the enforcement vein. In other words, the crowd was overwhelmingly on the immigration-control/enforcement side.

A number of people in the audience went to the microphone to speak. They had questions and comments for their state senator and state rep. The speakers were passionate and obviously frustrated. Some described how they had moved to Lewisburg and Columbia to get away neighborhoods and schools elsewhere that had become unsafe and deteriorated because of a massive influx of likely illegal aliens, including criminal gangs. The speakers demanded action.

On the panel were state Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, (photo: right); state Rep. Tom DuBois, R-Columbia, (photo:left); three current or retired law enforcement officers, including Maury County Sheriff Enoch George; and a former educator.

David Mitchell, director of the Tennessee Department of Homeland Security, was scheduled to appear. He did not show up. Sen. Ketron announced that phone calls had been made, and Gov. Bredesen told/ordered Mitchell not to attend. Apparently, we must infer, the governor felt this town hall meeting would make him and his administration look bad. I'd say it did.

The Democrats, with a few exceptions, have done nothing for the past six years but make and keep Tennessee a magnet for illegal aliens. The Republicans are the ones who have initiated the tough legislation to get a handle on this problem, and that legislation has been shot down by the Democrats. Ketron, DuBois, and a few other Republicans have led the way in sponsoring gutsy demagnetization legislation, legislation that parallels laws on the federal level that are not enforced and that have been revised to try to emasculate the states on this issue. We had better challenge those federal attempts to disempower us.

Tennessee doesn't have a chance of getting a handle on this problem unless the Republicans gain control of our legislature. You had better think about that when you vote in the upcoming election. We don't have any more time for Bredesen's and Naifeh's and Wilder's games and cosmic musings. We've run out of time. Vote these people out!!

However, the department's website does have a webpage for reporting "unusual, suspicious and/or criminal activities." Illegal immigrants are commiting criminal activity 24/7/365 just by being in the country. Maybe if enough reports were filed with the Tennessee Department of Homeland Security, Gov. Bredesen might be moved to address the problem...

UPDATE: Here is Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Bryson's position on the issue of illegal immigration:

Tennessee has become a magnet for illegal immigration. One of Jim Bryson's top priorities as our governor will be to stop illegal immigration in Tennessee. He will work to require proof of citizenship before an individual can receive public benefits. He will support English only driver's license testing and permanently abolish the Driver's Certificate program. He will require law enforcement to work with the federal government to deport illegal aliens.

September 19, 2006

The G Stands for Gullible

ABC's Good Morning America carried a story Friday morning featuring three Tennessee women who claimed to be ex-Republicans who became Democrats, with one claiming she switched parties because of the war in Iraq. Either GMA's producers are gullible - or GMA thinks its viewers are.

Turns out the woman who claimed the Iraq war as the reason for her switch to the Democratic Party is a former press secretary for the Tennessee House Democrat caucus. She also worked for awhile as press secretary for Tennessee Gov. Don Sundquist, who claimed to be a "Republican" but whose chief legacy is a failed push for the state income tax long sought by the Tennessee Democratic Party.

Meanwhile, the woman's husband worked for Tennessee's Democrat Secretary of State for ten years. Yet GMA tries to pass her off as emblematic of a formerly stalwart Republican. Details at the Media Research Center.

UPDATE: Janna Herbison emailed me an explanation of her appearance on GMA, and it makes GMA look bad for describing Herbison, who has worked for Democrats as well as Republicans, as a Republican switching to the Democrats this election cycle. Here is what Herbison wrote:

I'll tell you EXACTLY – and honestly – what I told GMA. One of the heads of the Nashville Women's Political Caucus sent me an e-mail a few days before the interview asking if I knew of any current or former Republicans in Memphis that now lean Democrat (for the GMA story). I told her that I actually qualified for that, but that I had mostly leaned Democrat in the past few years (although I HAVE voted for some Republicans since I was a Democratic press secretary). These days, I pretty much vote for the candidate in some - or more cases. I told them my exact background, but Ms. Roberts accidentally misspoke, and they repeatedly apologized to me after the fact and made a correction about it the following day. I never intentionally misled them. If they stretched it - - which I hope and do not think was the case – that was all up to them. I commend them for the correction, which I have never seen happen before, but the original framing was unfortunate. Ironically, I am a fan of Senator Frist’s and I wasn’t completely sure yet which way I would go in the upcoming presidential election. However, the unfortunate reaction I've recently received from state Republicans over this interview may now have determined my vote.

"The Best Test of Truth"

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has published an Op-Ed by Robert Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association, titled "The best test of truth," as part of a series in honor of Constitution Day. The opinion editor at the paper asked a dozen Americans from different walks of life to pick an American document or piece of literature that they would like to see translated and distributed in countries that have a "skewed" vision of America so they can better understand American values.

Bob, a blogger, chose a document in support of freedom of speech: Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes' eloquent "marketplace of ideas" dissent in Abrams vs. United States.

Cox's piece is excellent. You can - and should - read it here (free registration may be required). The Media Bloggers Assocation blog has links to it on other news websites.

September 18, 2006

Definitively Uncertain

A headline on today's Tennessean front page about the proposed new convention center for Nashville reads:

20% of cost is the most public will pay for hall.

Well, that would be great news, if it was true. But it isn't. There is no such deal - just a misleading headline that makes you think the hook taxpayers are about to be hanged on isn't that big. Read the story:

"The funding plan should generate sufficient revenue to fund the annual (Music City Center) debt service, but only when the MCC attains the expected level of activity," the report by University of Tennessee researchers said. This means Nashville taxpayers could be left on the hook. Overall, however, those taxpayers' burden should be less than 20 percent of the total, said LeAnn Luna, an assistant professor of accounting at UT who worked on the

Before the Music City Center project proceeds, there should be a guarantee capping taxpayers' share. And, given that nobody really knows yet how much the MCC will cost - and given that both the stadium and arena cost more than anticipated - that guarantee shouldn't just cap taxpayers' share at a percentage of the overall cost, but should cap it at a fixed dollar amount.

Update: Ben Cunningham notes that the un-promise of taxpayers bearing no more than 20 percent of the cost is about as reliable as the rosy scenario on which it is based:

Like most large (in this case, humongous) taxpayer funded projects where there is a large industry (tourist and hotel) trying to get funds from taxpayers to subsidize them, the "studies" performed to justify the project are always "best case scenario, all other things remaining the same." And, of course, the scenario is never "best" and all "other things" never remain the same.

If everything is so rosy then surely the hotel and tourism industry would be HAPPY to assume all the financial risks just like any other private business making an investment. But that is the basic fallacy for all taxpayer subsidies of private business. If it can only be "profitable" by taking money out of the taxpayer's pockets to pay for it then its not really profitable.

The downtown arena has never turned a profit, but no one seriously argues that it hasn't been good for the city overall. And I'm not talking about "good for the city's image" or "good for the public's morale" or nebulous things like that. I'm talking about the city's fiscal health. The arena's historical bottom line may be in the red, but the investment in the arena has generated a huge return for the city in terms of increased economic activity and vitality downtown, increased downtown property values, increased downtown construction, and increased tax revenue from property taxes on downtown real estate.

I recall but haven't yet located an economic analysis of the arena a few years after it opened showing that the city had more than recouped taxpayers' investment in the arena through increased revenue from related economic activity, development and rising property values downtown.

Properly done, a project like the Music City Center, while itself isn't profitable from a strict analysis of its own bottom line, can be an economic engine for the city, boosting tourism and, therefore, tourism-related tax revenue from sales taxes, hotel-motel taxes, etc; boosting employment not just at the convention center itself but at area hotels and restaurants, and boosting the growth of related, privately-funded and taxpaying development downtown.

I would say this, though. While I believe Nashville would benefit from a new convention center, taxpayers' share of the Music City Center ought to be capped at a specific dollar amount that may not be increased without a referendum.

Right now, there is no such protection. And the un-promise falsely implied by today's Tennessean headline is worth less than the paper it is written on.

USAToday.com overhauls travel section with "greater emphasis on consumer input"

USAToday.com has relaunched its travel section today. Online Media Daily reports the redesigned site "will place greater emphasis on consumer input, travel tools, and blogs."

Touted under the tagline "Explore. Go. Share.," the refurbished travel site also encompasses a batch of new blogs. They include The Golfer's World; Just Back From, which will include memorable stories and tips from USAToday travel writers recently back from trips; Amazing Race, which will provide travel tips and information based on the far-flung journeys of contestants in the CBS reality show; and a cruise-related blog to be introduced by month's end.

Embracing the user-created content trend, blogs and other sections on the site will more prominently feature comments and feedback from readers. "We're taking the inclusion of consumer comments and really bringing that to the fore so there's a lot more user interaction," said Jeff Webber, publisher of USAToday.com. The goal is to provide a more balanced mix of expert advice from its staff writers with the opinions and insights of travel consumers, he said.

Associated (With The Terrorists) Press

After months of silence regarding one of its Iraq' photographers who was arrested by the U.S. military along with a couple of terrorists and some materials for bombs, the Associated Press today published a story defending the jailed photographer. Before you accept the AP story as the truth, remember this: It is their photographer accused of working with the terrorists in Iraq so, naturally, the AP story drips with bias in favor of the AP photographer. You can read the story here. You should also read the response from blogger Michelle Malkin, a journalist who first reported the arrest of the jihadists' favorite AP photographer, and also this background info from Bill Roggio.

September 17, 2006

The Whole Story

Once upon a time there was a newspaper that decided to throw non-partisanship to the wind and publish glowing feature profiles of the incumbent governor in the latter stages of his re-election campaign. But they don't tell the whole story, which is that the program featured in the profile takes tax money mostly from Tennessee's less-well-to-do and uses it to buy books for the children of people who are of sufficient means to buy books themselves.

September 16, 2006

Ahead of the Curve

Why, yes, that's right, I was way ahead. [Me, July 23, 2003: "So perhaps it is Corn who outed Plame?"]

Rinky Dink

Ted Cook, the Hardin County resident whose sworn complaint to the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance questioning a series of odd and unexplained large campaign expenditures by state Rep. Randy Rinks, D-Savannah - some of which appear to be for the purpose of paying off Rinks' American Express bill - explains what happened last week when the Registry summarily dismissed his complaint rather than do their duty and investigate the questionable expenditures.

You can read the background here, then come back for Cook's follow-up.

Cook writes:

As I understood the why the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance dismissed my 'complaint' was basically three fold.

One could accused the Registry of being not only complacent, but "in denial", about the failings of their system.

For the record, the Tennessee Attorney General said in an office AG's opinion dated Dec. 7, 2005, that the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance has a duty to review all filed campaign finance disclosure statements to insure compliance. They failed to do so in Rinks' case - and, even when shown specific campaign expenditures by Rinks that appear to violate state law, simply refused to investigate.

I have emailed Rep. Rinks seeking explanation and documentation of some of the questionable campaign expenditures outlined in Cook's sworn statement. I don't expect him to respond, but I'll bring it to you if he does.

Meanwhile, here are some links to articles about Rinks that I found by Googling him...

University of Tennessee Alumnus magazine
Randy Rinks (Martin '74) had grown weary with life as an elected official. He was ready to retire from public office in 1990 and return to his family's building supply business after serving a term as mayor of Savannah, Tennessee. Then along came WestStar, a leadership training program for West Tennessee offered through the University of Tennessee at Martin. Rinks was nominated for WestStar's first class in 1990, and the experience changed his outlook.

But this one from the Center for Public Integrity is more interesting for what it indicates about Rep. Rinks' ethics:

Legislators With Timber Ties Happy to Help the Industry
While some state governments increased access to wooded lands for Big Timber, other states where large logging companies reside have cut state taxes for the industry. For instance, in Tennessee, Rep. Randy Rinks of Savannah and Sen. Jerry Cooper of McMinnville, both Democrats, co-sponsored a bill that would exempt tree-harvesting equipment from sales taxes. Both have businesses that deal in forestry products, and both have received contributions from Champion Paper Co. in past elections.

The bill pushed by Rinks, who works for a building supply dealer, B&R Lumber, and Cooper, founder of Cooper Manufacturing Co., a furniture and hardwood products company, became law in July 1998.

But some local environmentalists said the bill was self-serving and might give thousands of dollars in tax breaks to timber organizations. "I think it's disgusting," said Erin Kelley, executive director of Tennessee Conservation Voters, of the legislators' advocacy of the bill. "I think there is clearly a conflict of interest. These two are clearly in bed with the forest industry."

In interviews with the Center, both Cooper and Rinks seemed hazy as to why they pushed the bill. But the two acknowledged that the Tennessee Forestry Association sought the tax breaks two years ago, as reported in the Chattanooga Times. In 1992, the lobbying organization gave Cooper an award of "Outstanding Senator of the Year, 97th General Assembly."

Oh. That's right. Now I remember.

As for Rinks, c'mon. The guy's a member of the House Ethics Committee yet he pays his AmEx bill with campaign funds and backs legislation designed to benefit himself financially? Is that what he learned in that "leadership training" program?

The people of Tennessee House District 71 deserve better.

UPDATE: The Rep says: "Word on the street is the IRS may have some big questions for Rep. Randy Rinks and his campaign paying for his American Express bill. Uh oh..."

I have faxed and emailed Rep. Rinks requesting documentation regarding the tens of thousands of dollars of unspecified American Express bill charges he paid with campaign funds. I can't compel Rinks to comply with my request. But the IRS can...

September 15, 2006

Bredesen's Refusal to Get Tough on Child Molesters Makes National News

Jay Bush wants to know why Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen consistently fights efforts to toughen Tennessee's laws punishing child molesters, even as many other states are doing so - an embarrassing fact that has garnered national media attention. The good news: Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Bryson would be tougher on child molesters than Bredesen if Bryson is elected in November.

"One of the reasons I am running for Governor is that I support laws that are tougher than Jessica's Law and Phil Bredesen has refused to fund them," said Sen. Bryson. "We have a multi-million dollar surplus yet we are a national joke because our Governor won't fund prison time for child molesters. When I am Governor, Tennessee will be a model for how to punish those who violate the innocence of our most vulnerable citizens."

Earlier this year, state Senators, including Senator Bryson, tried to make a capital offense of killing a child during an attempted rape or rape. In budget talks, Governor Bredesen refused to fund it.

Out on the campaign trail, you can bet Gov. Bredesen will be touting his Cover Tennessee and Pre-K programs as good for the children of Tennessee. If you happen to be at one of his campaign stops, do something for the children of Tennessee: Ask Gov. Bredesen why he fought efforts to strengthen Tennessee's laws protecting children against child molesters.

September 14, 2006

The Red Zone

A week ago tonight my wife and I enjoyed dinner out at the opening night of the new Red Pony Restaurant in downtown Franklin, TN. If you live in the Franklin/Brentwood area or are visiting, you should too. It was quite good - great food and great atmosphere.

Good Advice

John Kroll, deputy business editor for the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, has some good advice for newspaper business editors considering adding blogs to their online business section. Basically it boils down to: Have a purpose and a plan, but not grandiose expectations. Writes Kroll:

There are too many blogs. Not that the one you've thought up and are about to launch isn't a valuable addition to the several trillion that already exist. But someday the boss will stumble across the business page of your paper's Web site and have an epiphany: Our reporters collect information that we don't print. The Web has a virtually limitless newshole. Problem, solution!

Using the Web to expand the information available is a good thing. But so is chocolate. To avoid death by fudge, here are four reasons not to start another business blog.

The truth is, most people don't read the business section. Or the sports section. Or the lifestyles section. Or the front page. Or the editorial page. Newspapers are like info salad bars, and people pick and chose where to start filling their plate, and which ingredients to avoid. Newspapers are not like the buffet line at a cafeteria, where you start at the beginning and slide your tray past every available item.

You know why a lot of people buy the newspaper on Wednesday? Industry research says they buy it for the grocery coupons. That's it. They don't buy it to read what the local political columnist says about the latest doings in the legislature, nor do they buy it to read about the local sports teams. Coupons. Newspapers have lots of reporters and editors writing and editing lots of copy that serves merely as to-be-ignored wrapping around grocery coupons.

Kroll's advice for editors starting business blogs is simple and right for newspapers - and for anyone starting a news-oriented blog:

"Blogs are for niches. Use one to establish your credibility, to serve a hard core of news junkies. Gauge its success by how well it meets those goals, not by sheer numbers alone."

I would add one thing to Kroll's advice - a reason newspapers (and broadcast news media) should blog:

Blogs are a great way for newspapers and broadcast media to tap into the power of interactive journalism - to tap into the collective intelligence, knowledge and passion of their readers and viewers who, after all, collectively know more about almost any topic or story than the reporters and editors do. Blogs done right can only improve the newsgathering process.

Cross posted at the Mesh Media Strategies blog.

September 13, 2006

Info Dump

Want to see the future of professional journalism? Check out this post from WKRN's former newspaper reporter turned broadcasting-and-blogging investigative TV reporter Trent Seibert...

Writes Seibert:

Because I am so new to the world of television reporting, I am still trying to coordinate my reporting so that as soon as one of my pieces is on the air, then a written version of the story, as well as supporting documents such as these, are on this blog simultaneously.

I particularly like making the building blocks for my reports available to everyone so that they can see what I'm basing my story on. In addition, viewers may look at these documents and see something I don't. I'd like to hear from folks who do.

Election Finance Registry Fails to Investigate Rep. Rinks' Questionable Campaign Spending

Vance Dennis, who is running against incumbent state Rep. Randy Rinks, D-Savannah, in the 71st state House district, which encompasses McNairy, Hardin, and the southern half of Decatur counties, wonders why the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance isn't investigating a series of high-questionable expenditures of campaign funds by Rinks. Dennis forwarded me the text of a detail-filled sworn complaint that the Registry summarily dismissed during its meeting today without fulfilling its obligation to investigate. Here is the text of the sworn complaint against Rinks...

From the desk of Ted G. Cook
Hard Rock Road Savannah, TN 38372

August 11, 2006
Tennessee Registry of Election Finance
404 James Robertson Parkway, Suite 1614
Nashville, Tennessee 37243

Dear Mr. Chairman,

What follows is another fine example of the fact that there is abuse of the Financial Disclosure and Campaign Financing laws in Hardin County and if history repeats itself, no one will wants to do their job, including your fine offices.

Our State Attorney General has opined, in Ag-Op 05-172, December 7, 2005, that the Registry of Election Finance has a duty to review all filed statements to insure compliance. The following sworn complaint will show that your fine offices may have neglected that duty, in that the allegations are obviously from the face of the filings.

Your attention to this matter would be greatly appreciated.

SWORN COMPLAINT

Pursuant to Section 2-10-108 of the Tennessee Code, I hereby file this sworn complaint against Representative Randy Rinks, State Representative for the 71st District, for violation of the requirements of Section 2-10-107 of the Tennessee Code and Chapter 0530-1-1 of the Rules of the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance. In support of this complaint, I would allege as follows:

1. In his 2005 campaign financial disclosure statement, Representative Rinks reported a $15,039.92 expense payable to American Express for his monthly bill, without any further documentation or itemization of the expense. This expense report is in violation of Chapter 0530-1-1.04 of the Rules of the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance and Section 2-10-107 of the Tennessee Code due to insufficient description of the disbursement.

2. In his 2005 campaign financial disclosure statement, Representative Rinks reported telephone expenses of $1,167.34 to Access Int. Networks, $551.55 to Bellsouth, $2,507.67 to Cingular Wireless, $965.16 to Nextel, and $482.81 to Sprint, for total telephone expenditures of $5,674.53 for the 2005 calendar year. These expenses appear to be in violation of Chapter 0530-1-1.04 of the Rules of the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance and Section 2-10-107 of the Tennessee Code because the expenses appear to be far in excess of what should be reasonably necessary for and incidental to the candidate's holding public office and/or campaigning for said office.

3. In his 2005 campaign financial disclosure statement, Representative Rinks reported a $2,994.23 expense payable to Nashville City Club for his "monthly bill," without any further documentation or itemization of the expense. This expense report is in violation of Chapter 0530-1-1.04 of the Rules of the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance and Section 2-10-107 of the Tennessee Code due to insufficient description of the disbursement.

4. In his 2004 campaign financial disclosure statements, Representative Rinks reported expenses of $16,901.72 payable to American Express for his monthly bill and utilities, without any further documentation or itemization of the expense. These expense reports are in violation of Chapter 0530-1-1.04 of the Rules of the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance and Section 2-10-107 of the Tennessee Code due to insufficient description of the disbursement.

5. In his 2004 campaign financial disclosure statement, Representative Rinks reported telephone expenses of $1,712.81 to Access Int. Networks, $166.26 to AT&T, $150.34 to Bellsouth, $1,371.65 to Cingular Wireless, and $1,622.49 to Nextel, for total telephone expenditures of $5,023.55 for the 2004 calendar year. These expenses appear to be in violation of Chapter 0530-1-1.04 of the Rules of the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance and Section 2-10-107 of the Tennessee Code because the expenses appear to be far in excess of what should be reasonably necessary for and incidental to the candidate's holding public office and/or campaigning for said office.

6. In his 2003 campaign financial disclosure statement, Representative Rinks reported a $7,594.44 expense payable to American Express for utilities, without any further documentation or itemization of the expense. This expense report is in violation of Chapter 0530-1-1.04 of the Rules of the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance and Section 2-10-107 of the Tennessee Code due to insufficient description of the disbursement.

7. In his 2003 campaign financial disclosure statement, Representative Rinks reported telephone expenses of $985.51 to Access Int. Networks, $166.26 to AT&T, $895.29 to Cingular Wireless, and $901.32 to Nextel, for total telephone expenditures of $2,948.38 for the 2003 calendar year. These expenses appear to be in violation of Chapter 0530-1-1.04 of the Rules of the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance and Section 2-10-107 of the Tennessee Code because the expenses appear to be far in excess of what should be reasonably necessary for and incidental to the candidate's holding public office and/or campaigning for said office.

WHEREFORE, Complainant respectfully requests that the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance investigate the above-referenced reporting deficiencies and expenses, and, upon a finding of violation of the above-referenced statutes and rules, assess appropriate civil penalties.

Respectfully submitted,

/S/ Ted G. Cook
Ted G. Cook
Hard Rock Road
Savannah, TN 38372

Dennis emails that Cook's complaint was heard today, and dismissed by the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance. Says Dennis, "Mr. Cook advised me that the board said they couldn't do anything unless he could show some sort of fraud to them, despite the obvious deficiency in the filings and their duty to investigate. I was relatively sure this would happen, but it still irritates me to no end."

Me too, Mr. Dennis.

I'll forward this blog article to Rep. Rinks and gladly bring to you his response, if any.

I'll also be forwarding it to Trent Seibert.

UPDATE: You can read Rinks' campaign donations and expenditure reports here - just enter his last name, the year and the type of report you wish to view. You can't download the report as a PDF file directly, but if you Adobe's PDF distiller program, you can create a PDF file by "printing" the web page to your distiller program instead of your printer. Here are his 2003 campaign expenditures, his 2004 campaign expenditures and his 2005 campaign expenditures, all referenced in the sworn complaint, and his campaign expenditures so far in 2006.

I didn't spot anything highly odd in his 2006 campaign expenditures, though I do wonder why he returned $500 in contributions from Wright Bros. Construction, a Charleston, TN-based road-builder.

UPDATE: State Rep. Stacey Campfield blogs about Rinks' questionable expenditures:

One of the Nashville TV stations did a story about it back when the ethics wars were going on .When asked to disclose what he was paying for on the card he refused to tell. I know the with the City Club you pay for the food you eat at the club (No, I am not a member). If the food was eaten while in session or when the legislator collected per diem that should not be double billed.

Rochelle Fogger

Try as he might, former state Sen. Bob Rochelle can't shake his past record as he runs to try to regain the state Senate seat he abandoned four years rather than face certain defeat by voters angry at his near-successful attempt to ram an unconstitutional income tax into law. Via Mark Rose, here's some choice stuff from the campaign of incumbent state Sen. Mae Beavers...

Here's a couple of tidbits (three, actually) on Bob Rochelle I have learned via some digging done by Senator Mae Beavers and her people.

1. Bob Rochelle is trying to get some traction on the price of gas and using alternative fuels, yet Senator Rochelle voted twice in one year to raise the gasoline tax here in Tennessee.

2. Senator Rochelle helped passed a bill that created the delinquent tax attorney position so he could receive a percentage of taxes collected. He is also the attorney for the special school district and the wastewater authority. His firm represents all the water utility districts in the county. He has many more government jobs besides these. He is the attorney for the Joint Economic Development Board and the Four Lakes Authority that he helped create by legislation. How would you like a job where you could simply pass a bill to put money in your pocket?

3. On his disclosure in this election you will find people like Senator Ward Crutchfield, who has been indicted for bribery and extortion. In a newspaper article published in the Lebanon Democrat on June 22, 1990, "Cash Flowed at Hill: Lobbyist," a lobbyist testified that "he followed 'standard procedure' on Capitol Hill by giving cash to legislators." Named in the article were several legislators he had given cash to in order to pass his bills, two of whom were Bob Rochelle and Senator Crutchfield.

And taking money now from a senator indicted for taking bribes from a lobbyist is just unseemly.

A vote for Rochelle is a vote to return to the legislature's less-ethical past.

Not-So-Blind Trust: The Qualifacts Mystery Deepens

Mass layoffs and management changes at Qualifacts, a healthcare software company founded by Phil Bredesen before he became governor of Tennessee, are raising new questions about the governor's ongoing relationship with the company even though his holdings in the Qualifacts are supposed to be in a blind trust.

And, so far, the governor's office isn't talking.

A few months ago, when Gov. Bredesen's hand-picked TennCare director abruptly resigned to become the CEO of a healthcare software company owned by Bredesen (photo: left), questions were raised - but not answered - about the level of involvement the governor may have had in the hiring of TennCare director J.D. Hickey (photo: right) to run Qualifacts, Bredesen's software company.

The announcement of Hickey's move from the state's healthcare program to Bredesen's healthcare software company left a swirl of questions about Bredesen's involvement in the job switch, and about Qualifacts' connections to TennCare.

I speculated in one blog post that Bredesen orchestrated the sudden move of Hickey from TennCare to Qualifacts, and imagined Bredesen telling Hickey, "Get over there and run it the way I told you to, J.D."

That's looking more and more likely given the news reported yesterday by NashvillePost.com:

Major shakeup in Bredesen company
Company co-founded by Governor lays off 23, names new management team; Bredesen's son retains his job

[Three months ago, the blogger at GeoTennCare speculated that becoming CEO of Qualifacts was the plum promised to Hickey to get him to leave the McKinsey & Co., consulting company and come to run TennCare for a couple of years, to gut it as per Bredesen's policy prescriptions for the program.]

As the governor's office has said nothing beyond its original press release regarding Hickey's move to Qualifacts, there remain unanswered questions about the job switch and about Bredesen's involvement with the company since he became governor. Original reports of Hickey's move to Qualifacts, all based on a press release issued from Bredesen's office late on a Friday afternoon, said Bredesen is the majority owner of the company. But how does Bredesen know he's still the majority owner of Qualifacts when his holdings are asserted to have been in a blind trust?

Now, in light of the latest news - wholesale layoffs and management changes - it appears that Qualifacts was in deep trouble when Hickey left TennCare to go run Bredesen's company. That raises a new question: Did Bredesen send Hickey to save Qualifacts? If so, how did Bredesen know Qualifacts was in trouble?

The news releases posted on the Qualifacts website - none since May - gave no indication that the company was in trouble. Has Gov. Bredesen been kept in the loop behind the scenes? Has Gov. Bredesen been spending some of his time overseeing the management of Qualifacts while he's supposed to be running the government of the state of Tennessee?

Update: I have confirmed that an open records request was submitted to the Bredesen administration on July 10 for all documents and records related to the move of J.D. Hickey from TennCare to Qualifacts, including internal emails, memos and even Blackberry emails between Hickey and Bredesen - but that Bredesen's office, although it acknowledged receipt of the open-records request, has not provided the requested information. Strange.

Tidbit: Nashville City Paper, July 18, 2006, reported that Qualifacts is moving its offices into a renovated building in downtown Nashville.

Exposing Keith Olbermann

Bob Cox, editor of the Olbermann Watch blog, emails:

Keith Olbermann's 9/11 Screed from Ground Zero has generated tremendous support among the blue blogs which are besides themselves in praising Keith's "courageous" "Murrow moment". Too bad Keith's "hole in the ground" meme falls apart on even a cursory glance. As usual, Keith does not let the facts get in the way of an opportunity to pander to his nutroot base in the vain hope of garnering a TV audience or selling his new book.

In the past, some folks have dismissed the need for a site like Olbermann Watch. I trust the traction Keith has been getting from the far-left blogs for his attacks against the administration are waking a few people up to what MSNBC is really up to with Countdown. The best remedy to KO's lies are the truth. Some of that follows in a post I put up late last night. I hope you will take a moment to consider it.

September 12, 2006

The Big House

My wife and I went house-hunting this weekend in the mountains of western North Carolina, around Asheville, but this one house we stumbled across seemed a bit too large.

Actually, we had a relaxing weekend at the Biltmore Estate, touring the mammoth mansion and the expansive grounds of the estate including the winery built into the Biltmore's original dairy, and also slipping into nearby Asheville for lunch one day at a little sidewalk cafe. If you are looking for some place close to Nashville for a weekend getaway, I recommend the Inn at the Biltmore Estate. But give yourself at least two full days on the estate - there is that much to see and do.

We look forward to going back.

Biltmore House, Asheville, N.C.

September 7, 2006

Pleasantly Surprised

A few days ago while hiking at Fall Creek Falls State Park, I slipped and my camera took a brief dip in the water. I was pretty sure the camera, a Canon Digital Rebel with this Canon 28-135mm zoom lens was toast. Small electronics usually don't do well upon being submerged in dirty river water. But I have been pleasantly surprised. The camera body has shown no ill effects. The lens did get water inside it, but removing the rubberized grip allowed air to get in and quick