October 31, 2006

If A Tree Falls In A Forest...

The Tennessean has a political blog. It's a week before election day, and I didn't know that until today, which tells you The Tennessean needs to learn a lot more about how to market a blog.

Reprehensible

U.S. Sen. John Kerry is proof positive that marrying into money doesn't make you classy. Donald Sensing has the best response I've seen so far.

Update: This is the video of Kerry's remarks:

More reaction here. And don't miss William M. Arkin's commentary in today's Washington Post.

Here's a response from some troops in Iraq:

October 30, 2006

Rhymes With Yugo

The guy standing in the green shirt is Chris Lugo. Well, it's the wild, ponytailed-yet-unkempt hair on the back of Chris Lugo's head as he approached the microphone at the blogs-and-journalism panel discussion at BlogNashville in May 2005, where he asked some question I recall as being kind of stupid. I was on the panel. That's a blurry me, third from the left behind the left table. My wife took the picture. Lugo is running for the Senate. Not the state Senate. The U.S. Senate. Really.

His politics are waaaay Left. How Left? Well, he wants to create a "Department of Peace," but get rid of the Department of Homeland Security. America's nuclear arsenal, he says, is "the greatest threat to international stability." Not Islamofacists who are busy blowing things up and beheading people. America's nukes. Which haven't been used in anger more than half a century.

He wants publicly funded campaigns - you can't blame him given his campaign has raised very little compared to the mainstream candidates Bob Corker and Harold Ford. He also wants "federal funding of programs which employ artists and put them to work in our communities." But of course he wants to end U.S. aid to Israel, and he's a big fan of the Palestinians who want to drive the Jews into the sea. He says he's for "self-determination" for both Israel and Palestine, but of course the Palestinians are self-determined to destroy Israel, and Israel is self-determined to survive. Something's gotta give, but Lugo won't make a choice - except to strip Israel of the U.S. aid that sustains its military defenses.

He wants a more steeply progressive tax code, free universal healthcare and, get this, "free, universal access to education at all levels from pre-K through PhD."

Anyway, I'm not going to vote for him. I just figured this was the only chance I'd ever have to use the photo.

Fall Colors

Click to enlarge. More fall colors at Flickr.

Lies

The Democrat running against state Rep. Stacey Campfield is running an automate phone-call campaign telling lies about Campfield, as he reports on his blog. The automated call says Campfield favors a state income tax - he doesn't, of course, but the Democratic candidate, Shree Schree Pettigrew, was handpicked by the Tennessee Democratic Party, which does favor a state income tax, and House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, who favors an income tax and worked very hard to pass one a few years ago, has raised funds for Pettigrew's campaign. Perhaps Shree's projecting...

October 29, 2006

Roofers

More than six months after the April 7 storms that dropped a deadly tornado on Sumner County and pummeled parts of Maury and Williamson counties with damaging hail, we're having our roof replaced (because of hail damage), just like almost everyone else in our subdivision. Ironically, the color of our new shingles is "thunderstorm grey." By the way, if you need a new roof, I recommend Brad Brooks's company, Brooks Roofing & Siding of Spring Hill, TN. I also recommend that you do what we did yesterday while the roofers are working on your roof: leave home and stay gone all day, unless you don't mind the constant thumping, scraping and pounding sounds.

The 24-Minute News Cycle

The Sunday Tennessean has a good story on how cheap digital communications tools are changing the rules of the campaign game...

Video guerrillas feed on candidates' gaffes The proliferation of Internet video-sharing sites such as YouTube and the use of staffers armed with relatively cheap video technology has changed the face of political communication this year. In the hotly contested race for Senate, the technology has broadcast candidates' potential flaws and miscues far and wide, from Bob Corker's statements on the Iraq war to Harold Ford Jr.'s confrontation with Corker on a Memphis airstrip. Politicians' controversial comments or gaffes can be blown up and spread like wildfire across the Internet and the world of blogs, echoing into the cable television universe and back in a local campaign within the matter of hours, said Bruce Oppenheimer, a Vanderbilt University political science professor.

"Candidates have no privacy anymore," Oppenheimer said. "If you do anything controversial it ends up on YouTube within 12 hours."

Tennessee Republican Party Executive Director Chris Devaney comments that, previously, "you'd have people going to certain events, listening to the speeches and taking notes. This is a new medium. It really is the 24-hour news cycle."

More like the 24-minute news cycle.

And it isn't just video. Plain old text blogs have changed the rules for campaigns to because they can spread candidates' gaffes globally and fast, as Glenn Reynolds notes in a very perceptive post at the Knoxville News Sentinel's No Silence Here blog.

Fighting Media Misinformation

The U.S. Department of Defense is using the Internet to make public its requested media corrections and any refusals to correct, reports StrategyPage.com. The goal: pressure the news media to make corrections when it gets things wrong.

Of course, it isn't just in coverage of the war on terror where the media gets things wrong. The media - national and local - gets things wrong unceasingly, and you don't have to be the Department of Defense to use the Internet to push back against media error and media bias. Anyone or any business or organization can wage an effective campaign to expose media error and media bias by using the Internet to get the facts out. I help companies learn how to more effectively do that. Contact me via the email address on this website, or here.

Here's more on the Defense Department's efforts to counteract media misinformation...

The DoD has set up a website, For the Record, where it publicly calls for corrections from major media outlets when warranted, and even notes when the media outlets refuse to make corrections or publish letters to the editor. Earlier this week the DoD published a letter to the editor that the New York Times refused to run, a letter from five top generals leading the war on terror. The letter, which rebutted an NYT editorial, has been picked up by a number of bloggers across the country, effectively evading the NYT's roadblock on the information.

StrategyPage.com continues:

The Defense Department has been dealing with a number of misleading stories. From Newsweek's misreporting of a Koran-flushing incident (caused by a detainee, not guards as reported by Newsweek), to claims of prisoner mistreatment (often without context, including one instance where a detainee spat on an interrogator), to a massive rewriting of an embedded reporter's report on the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment's efforts in Tal Afar, by editors of Time magazine, to the revelations about NSA efforts, the DOD has been barraged by numerous stories, many of which were followed by angry editorials.

The DOD is pushing back, not only putting out requests to correct the record (with the refusals published as well), but also citing stories of heroes that the media has failed to cover - usually two or three a week. Among these are accounts of those who have been awarded medals for battlefield bravery, like Navy Cross recipients Robert J. Mitchell Jr. and Bradley A. Kasal, as well as Silver Star recipients Juan M. Rubio, Sarun Sar, Jeremy Church, and Leigh Ann Hester. The DOD has also followed CENTCOM's lead in running pieces on what terrorists actually say – another item largely ignored by the mainstream media.

Says StrategyPage.com:

Such a scenario is less likely now, largely due to the presence of the Internet (including blogs), talk radio, and other news networks - and the Department of Defense is taking advantage of alternative ways to get around the mainstream media.

October 28, 2006

Questioning The Commander in Chief

My old college roommate interviewed President Bush Friday. The 8-minute video is on the Chicago Tribune's blog, The Swamp. Scroll down, the video link is on the right. Both guys do a pretty good job.

October 27, 2006

Thbbbt!

WKRN political blogger A.C. Kleinheider, whom I usually refer to as ACK, relates a heart-to-heart conversation involving a couple of journalists. Read the whole thing. Excerpt:

I explained to The Journalist that the call letters I stated at the beginning of our conversation were not for radio but television -- WKRN in Nashville. I told The Journalist that I wrote the political blog for the station.

Well, The Journalist was a bit upset. The Journalist stated that he/she would have never given me the contact information had he/she known I was a blogger and not a fellow journalist. I explained that although I do write in a blog format that I am, in fact, paid cash money by a mainstream media organization.

Again, The Journalist went on to explain the collegial relationship that journalists have with each other to which, apparently, I, as a "blogger", was not entitled.

I apologized to The Journalist for his/her misunderstanding and again pointed out that I was sitting in the newsroom of a television station. She remained unconvinced but we said our polite farethewells and I assumed that to be the end of it.

And, ACK, you really ought to "out" The Journalist who laid the great big hair ball of snobbery on you.

No Negativity, No News Coverage?

Friday's Tennessean has an interview with Vanderbilt University political science professor John Geer about negative campaign ads. This segment...

What portion of campaign ads in presidential campaigns did you find were negative?
Over the last 44 years there has been an increase in negativity. But it's basically a 50-50 divide. But if you were to listen to coverage of campaigns you'd think you only get negative ads.

There's the Corker-Ford race for the U.S. Senate, of course. Also, the media has covered the 17th District state Senate race, where the attack ads are flying between incumbent Sen. Mae Beavers and former Sen. Bob Rochelle. The media also has covered the 23rd district state Senate race, where well-funded Democratic nominee Mary Parker has launched a vicious and false attack ad against Republican nominee Jack Johnson.

But the media ignores the 21st district state Senate race between 36-year-incumbent state Sen. Doug Henry, the Democrat, and Republican challenger Bob Krumm, in which there have been no attack ads and nothing but civility between the two sides.

Why? Is it because the media believes Henry unlikely to lose? Then why do they care about the 23rd district race between Johnson and Parker? The 23rd district, after all, is heavily Republican and Johnson, the GOP nominee, is the heavy favorite. The 21st district, where political newcomer Krumm, 40, is taking on 80-year-old Sen. Henry, who was elected in 1970 before thousands of district's residents were even born, is much more evenly split between Democrats and Republicans.

And it's not as if The Tennessean can't find fault with Sen. Henry. Four years ago, The Tennessean even endorsed Henry's opponent in the Democratic primary.

Krumm is waging an energetic campaign, both door-to-door and appearing at numerous community events and candidate forums, and staying around to talk issues with voters. He even took three months of unpaid leave from a well-paying job in order to campaign, and he's raised enough money to produce and air TV ads. Surely that marks the Krumm campaign as a serious campaign worthy of coverage by the newspapers and broadcast media that purport to cover the important news in the community - worthy equally if not moreso than having lots of money in the campaign bank account.

Sen. Henry, meanwhile, has all but disappeared from the campaign trail, skipping some big events, putting in only brief appearances at others, and refusing to debate Krumm.

In fact, Sen. Henry has not debated a general-election challenger since 1994. Since then, according to Krumm, some 66,128 voters have either newly registered in the 21st district or have been drawn into the district's new boundaries. That's about 65 percent of the district's currently registered voters. And just since 2002, the last time Sen. Henry was up for re-election, 24,416 voters - nearly a quarter of the 21st district's voters - are brand new to the area.

As far as I can tell, the only reason the media isn't covering the race is that neither Krumm nor Henry has gone negative.

That's a shame, because they're missing a great story with several great angles.

Krumm started his road into politics unconventionally - with a blog, which he launched soon after the Operation Tennessee Waltz arrests of four incumbent lawmakers on federal bribery charges. On his blog, Krumm wrote about ethics issues and branched out into other political issues, earning respect from bloggers on both sides of the political aisle. When Sen. Henry refused to call for the resignation or ouster of the three Democratic senators arrested on bribery charges, Krumm tossed his hat into the ring, citing the ethics code he learned as a West Point cadet: "A cadet will not lie, cheat, or steal, nor tolerate those who do."

Krumm's weblog represents a new way to stay in touch with and interact with constituents, and Krumm has used it as well to showcase his commitment to full disclosure and complete openness by posting all of the "candidate surveys" that he has received from various special interest groups, even groups that weren't likely to support him. He also has posted all of his his campaign finance disclosures online.

Sen. Henry, elected 23 years before the Internet was opened to public use, makes no such similarly interactive effort to communicate with constituents and voters via his campaign website, doesn't make his campaign finance disclosures easily available on his website, and doesn't let the public see how he has answered those surveys from the various interest groups.

The two candidates' campaign disclosures are another good angle: Henry's money mostly comes in big-dollar gifts from special interests, while Krumm's mostly comes in smaller amounts from individuals.

A story about the 21st district race would be a story about a clash between old and new, and between the entrenched elites and the next generation - a youthful challenger taking on 36-year-incumbent; a challenger using the Internet to discuss issues, raise money and find supporters while the incumbent hides from voters, avoids public debate and gets his money from special interests.

So, then, why isn't the Nashville news media covering the 21st district race between Bob Krumm and Sen. Henry?

The only answer seems to be the lack of negative attack ads.

That doesn't reflect positively on the news media.

Update: If after reading this you are motivated to donate to Bob Krumm's campaign, please click here.

October 26, 2006

Elect a Blogger to the Tennessee State Senate

If you can spare $20, $40, or more, please go help my friend Bob Krumm win a seat in the Tennessee state Senate. The 21st district and the state of Tennessee need the kind of forward-thinking, issue-oriented, interactive approach to legislating that Krumm, a builder, blogger, family man and conservative, will bring to the state Senate. Krumm is up against a 36-year incumbent who refuses to debate, hasn't debated a general-election opponent in 12 years, and won't take questions about issues from any of the few audiences he appears in front of. If Krumm wins, you'll see a lot more legislators and candidates blogging - and that can only be healthy for our democracy.

Sen. Henry's Dismal Record on Keeping Taxes Low

State Sen. Douglas Henry's campaign has released a new television ad and, true to form for his Weekend at Bernies campaign, the senator doesn't speak in the ad. The ad, with production values and a voice-over befitting a movie trailer for a big-budget Hollywood drama, features various pictures of Sen. Henry as the voice says "you can count on" Sen. Henry to "hold the line against higher taxes."

One thing the ad confirms, however, is that after 36 years in the state Senate, you can no longer count on Sen. Henry to talk directly to the people he's supposed to serve. Sen. Henry doesn't appear or speak in the ad, just has he has made few campaign appearances, refuses to debate his opponent , and when he does make an appearance it is usually brief and doesn't involve answering questions from the audience. (He did have time earlier this year to do a video greeting to the people of China celebrating the Chinese New Year.)

Sen. Henry's new ad is rather disengenous regarding Sen. Henry's 36-year-record on taxes.

Twice in the past year, Sen. Henry has supported stripping Tennesseans of their right to use referendums to defeat tax increases - both the wheel tax (car tag fee) and the local-option sales tax. More on that in a bit. On the all-important issue of the state sales tax, the senior senator from wealthy Belle Meade has a 36-year track record of voting for tax hikes that have increased the sales tax burden on the average Tennessean by 55 percent.

The state sales tax rate was 2 percent when Henry was first elected to the state House in 1955. He served a single term in the House. In 1971, when Henry was first elected to the state Senate, the Vietnam War was winding down and the disco era was dawning - and the state's sales tax rate had just been increased to 3.5 percent.

In 1976, under Gov. Ray Blanton, the legislature raised the sales tax rate to 4.5 percent.

In 1977, Sen. Henry became chairman of the Senate Finance, Ways & Means Committee, the committee through which all tax legislation, including tax increases, must pass.

In 1984, Sen. Henry and the Senate Finance Committee helped Gov. Lamar Alexander raise the sales tax rate another penny to 5.5 percent.

In 1992, Sen. Henry and the Senate Finance Committee helped Gov. Ned McWherter raise the sales tax rate half a cent to 6 percent

In 2002, Sen. Henry proposed creating a statewide property tax to raise an additional $1 billion in revenue.

Also in 2002 Sen. Henry and the Senate Finance Committee helped Gov. Don Sundquist raise the sales tax rate another penny, to 7 percent, raising taxes on Tennesseans by approximately $1 billion per year.

In all, under Sen. Henry's leadership of the Senate Finance Committee, Tennessee's sales tax rate has gone up more than 55 percent.

And that's just the state sales tax. Sen. Henry has also played a role in increases in the state's business taxes, gasoline tax and other taxes and fees.

Even after helping pass a billion-dollar sales tax increase in 2002, Sen. Henry wasn't done with trying to raising taxes during his ninth four-year term in the state Senate.

Sen. Henry Supports Higher Wheel Taxes
In February 2005, Sen. Henry sponsored and pushed legislation designed to make it easier for county commissions to increase wheel taxes (car tag fees), and to strip from state law the current right that Tennessee residents have of using a petition drive and referendum to overturn wheel-tax increases. And in December 2005 Sen. Henry backed a recommendation by the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations that would put an end to the requirement that increases in the local-option sales tax be approved by voters in a referendum. The respected Tennessee Journal reported in its Dec. 19, 2005, edition that Henry made a motion and the commission then voted to recommend that the legislature remove the referendum requirement.

In short, twice in less than a year Sen. Henry actively supported proposal to take away your existing right under Tennessee law to vote on increases in your taxes. If Sen. Henry had his way, it would be easier now than ever for your local or county government to raise your wheel tax and your local sales tax.

Excess Spending Requires Higher Taxes
Far from "holding the line against higher taxes," Sen. Henry has actively helped raise them at the state level. Perhaps he felt he had to because spending was rising fast too - but, then, Sen. Henry bears a lot of the blame for that, too.

The growth of the state budget accelerated starting in 1985, when the legislature began to exploit a loophole in the state constitution's spending-growth limit.

As detailed in the research paper Spending Spree: The Bipartisan Assault That is Killing The Constitutional Cap on the Growth of Tennessee's State Budget, published in August 2005, Tennessee's last four governors, two Democrats and two Republicans, have routinely exceeded the state constitution's cap on the annual growth of state spending, a limit designed to prevent tax increases by limiting the growth of the state budget to the growth of the average Tennessean's income.

But because of a loophole, every governor since 1985 has exceeded the spending limit - aided and abetted by Sen. Henry and his Senate Finance Committee, which has rubber-stamped the excess spending and the higher tax rates needed to pay for it.

Gov. Lamar Alexander, a Republican who was governor from 1979-1987, exceeded the spending cap twice in eight years by a total of $740.6 million, including $582.6 million in fiscal year 1985, $58 million in fiscal year 1986, and
$100 million in fiscal year 1987.

All of Alexander's excessive spending came after Sen. Henry and the Senate Finance Committee helped Alexander raise the sales tax rate another penny to 5.5 percent in 1984.

Following Alexander's lead Gov. Ned Ray McWherter, a Democrat who was governor from 1987-1995, exceeded the spending cap four times in eight years by a total of $1.328 billion. His budgets over-spent the constitutional limit by $101 million in fiscal year 1989, $74 million in fiscal year 1990, $703 million in fiscal year 1992, and $450 million in fiscal year 1993.

In 1992, Sen. Henry and the Senate Finance Committee helped Gov. Ned McWherter pass a "temporary" half-cent increase in the sales tax rate to 6 percent. The tax increase was needed to keep up with McWherter's overspending in fiscal years 1989 and 1990 and to fund his overspending in 1992 and 1993. The "temporay" tax hike was made permanent, helped by Sen. Henry and his Senate Finance Committee..

Nearly matching the pace of Gov. McWherter's overspending, Gov Don Sundquist, a Republican who was governor from 1995-2003, exceeded the spending cap three times in eight years by a total of $1.096 billion, including $55 million in fiscal year 1997 and - incredibly, given his claim of a revenue shortfall - by $270 million in fiscal year 2000.

In 2002, after first proposing to create a statewide property tax to raise an additional $1 billion in revenue, Sen. Henry and his Senate Finance Committee instead helped Sundquist raise the sales tax rate another penny, to 7 percent, raising taxes on Tennesseans by approximately $1 billion per year.

The additional revenue from the tax increase was needed to sustain Sundquist's over-the-limit spending in fiscal years 1997 and 2000, and to fund the $771 million in excess spending over the constitutional growth limit in fiscal year 2003.

Gov. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat who took office in 2003, has exceeded the spending cap once in his first four years, by $275 million, in fiscal year 2004.

While a surging economy has, so far, provided large revenue surpluses to sustain the latest spending in excess of the constitutional growth limit, it will take merely a slowing of the economy to once again pitch Tennessee state government into a fiscal crises, as revenue growth falls short of spending growth.

When it does, you can be sure, based on his history, that Sen. Henry will be there to help raise taxes again.

The history of Tennessee's state budget and tax rates over the last 21 years shows a direct correlation - when the legislature repeatedly grows the state budget faster than the average personal income of the people of Tennessee, tax-rate increases always follow - and when taxes are raised, over-spending also follows.

Growing the budget faster than average personal income statewide makes tax hikes inevitable - and Sen.Henry has been serially complicit in the state routinely exceeding the constitutional spending growth limit.

Henry's fiscal leadership was so bad that, in 2002, The Tennessean endorsed Henry's opponent in the Democratic primary in 2002, in a stinging endorsement criticizing Sen. Henry's "lack of leadership" during the 1999-2002 state budget crisis that said Henry's lack of leadership "has contributed to the stalemate Tennessee has suffered," and called for "a fresh approach to government" for a Tennessee legislature that "desperately needs new ideas."

Instead, Sen. Henry offers old, discarded and discredited ideas:

"Henry is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which has become increasingly irrelevant in the ongoing tax debate. He has championed a state property tax, a bad idea state government abandoned in 1947." - Tennessean columnist Larry Daughtrey, April 14, 2002.

Henry's arrogant refusal to debate his Republican challenger regarding his own record on taxes and other issues, or to take questions from audiences is troubling.

Or maybe such a debate is no longer possible. Maybe after 36 years in the state Senate, Sen. Henry has simply forgotten that he has a record on the issues, and a record on taxes - a record of providing every major tax increase requested by every governor since 1977 - that belies his slick campaign ad. Perhaps he has forgotten all those votes he's cast in favor of higher taxes.

Perhaps Sen Henry simply has forgotten that his actions speak louder than his campaign ads.

Maybe 36 years in the state senate is enough.

Update: A reader pointed me to this radio ad on Henry's campaign site. Well, at least the site calls it a radio ad. I haven't actually heard it on the radio. It sounds like Sen. Henry recorded it without leaving his house by calling his answering machine. It even starts with a hearty "Hello!" as if you have just answered his call. Odd.

The ad continues Sen. Henry's disingenuousness on taxes by claiming "we have balanced the budget without a tax increase." That's not actually true. First, the $1 billion sales tax increase just three years ago costs taxpayers $1 billion or more every year. And, second, Henry and the Senate Finance Committee helped the Bredesen administration pass a $75 million tax increase on the business community just two years ago. Details here and here.

Update: Sen. Henry's election challenger, Bob Krumm, is up on TV with a new ad that you can view here.

In Touch With Real People

When Bob Krumm, the Republican nominee for the Tennessee state Senate from the 21st District, says he'll be a state senator who stays "in touch with real people," the existence of his blog proves he means it. If you live in the 21st District and you want a state senator who isn't afraid to talk with voters or debate his rival, there's only one choice on the Nov. 7 ballot: Bob Krumm.

Ford-Corker in the WSJ

Kimberly Strassel, a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board, summarizes the Ford-Corker race in a piece posted online at OpinionJournal.com. Ms. Strassel interviewed me at length by phone last week for background for the column - another example of the national media reaching out to local bloggers as part of their election coverage. I am not quoted in the piece, but my contribution is easy to spot: I filled Ms. Strassel in on Harold Ford Jr.'s flip-flop on the much-despised Kelo ruling last year from the U.S. Supreme Court.

You hear "closet liberal" intimations that his votes in recent years were planned with an eye for a Senate run, as well as examples of flip-floppery on issues like partial birth abortion (he voted against a ban in 1997) and the Kelo property rights decision. Tennesseans have seen this before, and are wary: They elected Jim Sasser as a conservative Democrat and watched him vote liberal. Ditto Al Gore.

Sharp Pencils 2

Twelve years ago, The Tennessean accused future U.S. Sen. Bill Frist of racism because he asked his staffers to obtain imprinted pencils for him to distribute at a Memphis campaign stop, and requested unsharpened pencils, telling the aide, "I don't want to get stuck."

The Tennessean and the Memphis Commercial Appeal quickly alleged that Frist had made a racist remark, suggesting that Frist was implying that black Memphians would use the pencils to stab him. The accusation of racism was, of course, utterly silly, a fabrication by a news media looking to derail Frist in the final two weeks of the campaign. The charge of "racism!" because of concern over sharp pencils was an absurd story propagated by two newspapers that had already endorsed Frist's opponent, the incumbent Sen. Jim Sasser - and most everyone in the newsroom at The Tennessean, where I worked at the time, knew it and was embarrassed by the story.

Today, the same paper accuses the Republican National Committee and the Bob Corker campaign of racism because of a campaign ad featuring a white actress playing a Playboy bunny asking U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. to "call me," a reference to Ford having attended a party with a bevy of Playboy bunnies during a recent Superbowl.

Oh, brother.

Ford has gone out of his way during this campaign to play down his race. Had the Republican National Committee used a black actress for the role, the same newspaper and the same Vanderbilt University political science professor would be crying "Racism!" and saying the choice of a black actress was designed to remind some voter group that the light-skinned Ford is black.

Here's is the simple fact: The Ford campaign and its willing allies in the liberal media and liberal academia were always going to cry racism over something in this campaign, however silly, just as the media and the Jim Sasser campaign were always going to charge the Frist campaign with racism over something 12 years ago. Accusing Republicans of racism is standard operating procedure in the Democratic Party/liberal media election campaign playbook.

Incidentally, today's story charging the Corker campaign with racism was written by Tennessean reporter Bonna de la Cruz. The story from 12 years ago isn't online, but if my memory is correct, she also wrote the sharp pencils story. If I'm wrong, I'll note that here.

October 25, 2006

Tree

Hill

The Real War

Don't miss Michael Fumento's excellent National Review article on media coverage of the Iraq war, and how it is being skewed by a brigade of "reporters" trying to do the impossible: accurately report a war in a country the size of California from their hotels in the center of Baghdad. Should you trust a CNN reporter who won't leave the green zone and go see the actual war to give accurate, truthful reports on what is happening in far-flung cities and towns like Fallujah and Ramadi ? Fumento says no - independent journalists and bloggers embedded with troops in such places are doing a much better job, while the Baghdad Brigade reports on imaginary dangers and complains about bad hotel bed linens.

October 24, 2006

The Rise of the Blogs

Rob Huddleston:

"The national media's inadequacy has been magnified by the rise of the blogs, for sure. That's why they interview bloggers, as a way of catching up on what has been going on in each race.

Bryson Promises to Get Tough on Illegal Immigration; Bredesen Still Tinkers Around the Edges

Tennessee Republican gubernatorial nominee Jim Bryson is out with a new campaign ad on illegal immigration. Also, watch this clip from a debate between Gov. Phil Bredesen and Bryson each responding to a question about illegal immigration.

Bredesen's response is a mix of passing the buck to the feds and trying to make it sound as if the minor tinkering-around-the-edges measures he's taken to address illegal immigration are major steps. Bryson, meanwhile, lays out a 10-point plan that would give Tennessee the toughest laws to combat illegal immigration in the nation, and rely very little on Bredesen's preferred approach of waiting for the federal government to handle the problem.

Scary But True...

October 23, 2006

Bredesen Failures Play Role As TennCare Goes After Dead Folks' Estates

The Tennessean wants you to get all upset by this story that TennCare, the state's expanded version of the federal Medicaid program, is demanding that the heirs of people for whom TennCare paid for nursing home care sell their dead parents' home to pay back some of the costs.

But the truth is, Medicaid requires it. Medicaid is for poor elderly people, not middle class elderly people who don't want to use some of their assets to pay for their own healthcare. Federal law requires recipients of Medicaid to spend their own money before they get taxpayers' money for their Medicaid. And it also requires that TennCare go after assets of the person's estate after they die, to repay taxpayers.

That's a fair and proper law.

I'm sorry, but taxpayers simply should not have to pay the cost of healthcare for someone living in a house, probably long paid-for, that's worth a quarter of a million dollars and then watch the house be transferred to the person's heirs upon the owner's death. It would be unfair to ask taxpayers to pay for healthcare for that person if they lived in rental housing and had $250,000 in the bank - having their $250,000 tied up in real estate is really no different.

Of course, there are perfectly legal and proper ways to prevent TennCare from taking your house after you die. The first way to avoid Medicaid "estate recovery" is simple: don't ever go on TennCare.

But if you are aging and think you might need TennCare (or Medicaid in other states) some day to pay for your nursing home care, but you don't want your house to be sold to repay TennCare or Medicaid, you can transfer the house to your heirs before you go on TennCare or Medicaid. I believe you need to do it at least five years before you accept TennCare or Medicaid funding of your nursing home care. (I'm not an expert, but there are good financial planners and consultants who can help you learn legal financial planning strategies to avoid Medicaid spend-down when nursing home care becomes necessary, and such consultants are providing a good, legal and ethical service.)

Just because estate recovery is the law doesn't absolve TennCare from some fault in the situation The Tennessean describes. There are at least three areas where TennCare's failures have contributed to the current mess - and at least four negative impacts - and all of them are, ultimately, examples of the leadership failure of Gov. Phil Bredesen.

First, under the failed leadership of Gov. Bredesen, TennCare apparently doesn't do enough to inform beneficiaries of the "spend down" requirement and how it includes the beneficiaries' home.

The TennCare Medicaid web page doesn't specifically mention homes as one of the assets that a recipient must use to pay for their own healthcare before being eligible for TennCare Medicaid. It says:

Children and adults can apply anytime for TennCare Medicaid. TennCare Medicaid has two (2) main groups: Categorically Needy and Medically Needy. You must meet all of the rules of one of these groups to qualify. Your income and resources will count, too. Resources are things like bank accounts, cars and land.

Even TennCare's downloadable "estate recovery" brochure, "Frequently Asked Questions about Estate Recovery," which explains that TennCare "is required by federal and state law to recover for any funds expended by TennCare (Medicaid), up to the total amount paid by TennCare (Medicaid), on behalf of individuals age 55 and older," doesn't specifically explain that homes are part of the estates that TennCare is entitled to. It simply uses the word "estate."

If the Bredesen administration was doing its job effectively, not one single heir of someone whose nursing home care is paid for by TennCare would lack sufficient awareness of the spend-down law and how it affects their desire to inherit their dead parents' home.

Second, state law says all creditors have up to 12 months to file a claim on an estate, but TennCare is trying to file claims against estates beyond that cut-off period. That's just plain wrong and the Bredesen administration ought to fix it. TennCare must live within the law.

Third, TennCare is trying to get around the 12-month time limit because the agency reportedly does a lousy job recovering assets within the time limit. That means additional heartache - and costly legal battles - for heirs more than year after burying their parents.

TennCare's failure to initiate recovery of all assets within the 12-month limit is a clear example of the poor job Bredesen's TennCare program is doing of protecting taxpayers' dollars. Estate recovery is one way TennCare/Medicaid holds down the cost to taxpayers, and both state and federal law require it. But, as the story reports, many other states are much more aggressive and successful at recovering assets from the estates of former Medicaid recipients - saving taxpayers millions of dollars.

After four years in office, it's a mark of failure that Bredesen's TennCare lags in estate recovery (thereby spending too much money) and does a poor job in fully informing beneficiaries of estate recovery, and is now seeking to make up for it by evading the law's clear 12-month time limit.

Four years ago Bredesen narrowly won the governor's mansion largely on his promise that he would use his healthcare business management experience to "fix TennCare."

He hasn't kept that promise.

Update: According to the federal goverment, Tennessee in fiscal year 2004 recovered less than $9 million of the more than $1 billion the state spent on nursing home care - less than 1 percent. (Actual figures: $8,895,934 recovered of the $1,006,485,725 spent; 0.9 percent.) For comparison, 20 other states and even the woefully and perpetually mismanaged District of Columbia did better, including Arizona, which recovered more than ten times percentage - 10.4 percent - and Oregon, which recovered 5.8 percent. Other states also do asset recovery better than Tennessee - Wyoming recovered 2.7 percent, Minnesota 2.8 percent, Iowa 2.9 percent. Massachusetts 2 percent, California 1.5 percent, Kansas and Montana 1.4 percent, South Carolina 1.3 percent, and Idaho 4.5.

The National Race

As a service to my out-of-state readers, and in an effort to be bipartisan in my political coverage, the extended portion of this post has a list of links to articles about the Democrat running in some 45 different key House and Senate races around the nation that may determine which party controls the House and the Senate.

Senate

Connecticut: Ned Lamont
Maryland: Ben Cardin
Michigan: Debbie Stanbenow
Missouri: Claire McCaskill
Montana: Jon Tester
New Jersey: Bob Menendez
Tennessee: Harold Ford
Virginia: James Webb

Democrat Held Seats

(CO-03): John Salazar
(GA-03): Jim Marshall
(GA-12): John Barrow
(IA-03): Leonard Boswell
(IL-08): Melissa Bean
(IL-17): Phil Hare
(IN-07): Julia Carson
(NC-13): Brad Miller
(PA-12): John Murtha
(WV-01): Alan Mollohan

Republican Held Seats

(AZ-08): Gabrielle Giffords
(CT-04): Diane Farrell
(CT-05): Chris Murphy
(CO-07): Ed Perlmutter
(IA-01): Bruce Braley
(IL-06): Tammy Duckworth
(IN-02): Joe Donnelly
(IN-08): Brad Ellsworth
(IN-09): Baron Hill
(FL-13): Christine Jennings
(FL-16): Tim Mahoney
(FL-22): Ron Klein
(KY-03): John Yarmuth
(NC-01): Heath Shuler
(MN-06): Patty Wetterling
(NM-01): Patricia Madrid
(NY-20): Kirsten Gillibrand
(NY-24): Michael Arcuri
(NY-26): Jack Davis
(OH-15): Mary Jo Kilroy
(OH-18): Zack Space
(PA-06): Lois Murphy
(PA-08): Patrick Murphy
(PA-07): Joe Sestak
(PA-10): Chris Carney
(VA-02): Phil Kellam
(WI-08): Steve Kagen

A Second Bredesen Term May Be Costly

Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen's budgets transfer some $60 million in gas tax revenue each year out of the Tennessee Department of Transportation's road-building budget to pay for a variety of non-transportation-related budget items. Now Bredesen wants to raise the gas tax to pay for roads - and rejects reducing the sales tax on food. Oh, and Bredesen is campaigning to bring former state Sen. Bob Rochelle, the architect of the state income tax, back to the state Senate. As Nashvillians know all too well, it's Bredesen's second term in office where his taxing and spending gets out of control.

October 22, 2006

Killing the Milblogs

Boston Herald City Editor Jules Crittenden says the military's new regulations on soldiers' blogging may kill off milblogs. I fear he's right.

October 21, 2006

Follow the Money

Here is a list of political contributions from 1Point Solutions CEO Barry Ray Stokes, currently facing a federal embezzlement indictment, and also political contributions from Stokes' 1Point PAC, and also from his wife Pamela Stokes, in recent years.

Among the many recipients - virtually all of them Democrats - are the following federal-level recipients: U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr., U.S. Rep. John Tanner, the Senate Democratic Caucus, the House Democratic Caucus, and Victory 2002. Stokes money also found its way to the losing 2002 Senate campaign of former U.S. Rep. Bob Clement, who is currently running for mayor of Nashville. Also, Stokes money went to the 2002 presidential campaigns of John Kerry, John Edwards and Wesley Clark.

At the state level, contributions from Stokes and the 1Point Pac went to: the 2002 Phil Bredesen gubernatorial election campaign, Gov. Phil Bredesen's 2002 Inaugural Committee, former state Sen. Bob Rochelle, state Sen. Roy Herron, state Sen. Tommy Kilby, the House Democratic Caucus, the Senate Democratic Caucus, House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh's Speakers Fund PAC, Lt. Gov. John Wilder, Music Row Democrats, Davidson County Young Democrats, the Davidson County Democratic Executive Committee, state Rep. Gary Moore, Democratic House nominee Danny R. Waynick (who lost in the District 73 race in 2002), former state Sen. JoAnn Graves, State Sen. Doug Henry, the Montgomery County Democratic Executive Committee, and the Tennessee Black Caucus of State Legislators (which was illegally receiving such donations at the time).

Stokes also donated to the U.S. Senate campaign of Democratic state Sen. Rosalind Kurita, giving her two checks for $2,000. The report below shows one of those checks - the $2,000 check intended for Kurita to use during the general election if she won the nomination,

Stokes even donated to the campaigns of four people running for Nashville's Metro Council in 2003, including Greg Adkins, Luvenia Butler, Mike Jameson, Erik Cole and David Briley.

The Tennessee Republican Caucus got a token $1,000 donation.

According to 1Point PAC financial reports filed by Stokes with the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance, Stokes closed the PAC on March 15, 2006, and pocketed the $5,897.50 that was remaining in the PAC's account at the time.

The data on the list is combined from information collected from the Federal Election Commission, the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance, and FollowTheMoney.org.

Krumm Favors More Open Government; Henry Clams Up

Bob Krumm, the Republican nominee for the 21st District seat in the state Senate, has answered the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government's candidate survey, and posted his answers online along with all of his other questionnaires from various organizations here. Krumm's opponent, the entrenched incumbent state Sen. Doug Henry, hasn't answered the TCOG's simple five question survey. You'd think Sen. Henry, after serving in the state Senate since 1972, would have some thoughts about how to make government more open and accessible to the people.

Ford Backfires

This is the best ad yet from the Corker campaign.

Meanwhile, if you haven't seen Harold Ford Jr.'s little stunt yesterday where he crashed a Corker press conference, you can view it here. Ford miscalculated huge, and put the spotlight directly on the infamous Ford family - full of indicted, convicted and corrupt politicians for whom politics is the family business. Ford inherited his Congressional seat from his dad, but it came loaded with Ford family baggage that seems to get more junk crammed into it all the time.

"I know you're here to talk about my family," Ford said to Corker.

"No, no. I'm here to talk about you," Corker replied.

Ford initiated the mugging but Corker won the confrontation, hands down, showing a quiet toughness and a level of maturity far above Ford's.

The truth is, Harold Ford Jr. and his family are inextricably linked. He's not Harold Smith Jr. from Chattanooga, after all. He's the scion of the famous and infamous Ford political machine of Memphis. And by his rude actions yesterday, confronting Corker like a petulant teenager, Ford Jr. may well have managed to make the rest of the campaign about three things Ford Jr. never wanted this campaign to be about: Ford Jr., his family, and how he just might not be mature enough yet to sit in the U.S. Senate.

Memo to Harold: If you don't want people linking you with your family, stop acting like a punk.

Amendment One

FishKite has a good analysis of the debate over Amendment One, the proposed amendment to the Tennessee constitution that would preserve the state's existing marriage rights for all Tennesseans - the right for a single adult to marry one single adult of the opposite gender. I'm going to vote yes on Amendment One, primarily as a way to ensure that judicial activism in other states and even here in Tennessee doesn't overturn the existing marriage laws in the state, laws which represent the expressed will of the people of Tennessee. The libertarian in me sometimes thinks maybe the state ought to get entirely out of the marriage business, but I'm not convinced.

Meanwhile, regular readers of this blog know that I occasionally turn the keys over to Donna Locke, who writes passionately and with the authority of knowledge about illegal immigration. Donna and I agree on much, politically, but not everything.

Amendment One is one of those things we disagree about. Out of respect for her and her many contributions to this blog and to the public policy debate, I have agreed to publish a piece she wrote urging voters to reject Amendment One. Click "...read more" to read it.

Donna Locke writes:

I am convinced that homosexuality is biological, natural, and nonpathological; and like some people, I believe we have to think, will eventually think, in terms of more than two genders. I sense that sexuality/gender-identity is a continuum, and we are all on there somewhere, but all of us are not clustered at the poles as some would try to assign us.

My sister has passed away, so there are things I can say here that I would not if she were still alive. She was gay - all her life she was gay. I'm not gay. My sister was different from me when we were both preschoolers in female bodies, and we were always aware of that difference.

In addition, and this was confirmed by doctors later on, she was born with some male secondary sex characteristics. That is, her female body had some characteristics that shaded into the male, showing influence of male hormones more so than what most females show. We are all a mix of male and female. Check it out. Logic would tell you preponderance is a thing of shadings. Delicate shadings, which may not be overt but are in the brain.

Vote no on the marriage amendment and the marginalization of good, law-abiding people who are minding their own business, not yours. Mind your own business and let others mind theirs.

On my wedding day, according to our pastor, we were legally "married" the moment both of us inked the marriage license. In the eyes of the state I and my beautiful bride were married an hour before we said "I do."

The religious ceremony that followed was just that - a religious ceremony celebrating the public formalization of a holy covenant between myself, my wife and God.

The state doesn't care about that.

October 20, 2006

Rochelle Knows He's Losing. Again.

Former state Sen. Bob Rochelle, the architect of the proposed and much-hated state income tax four years go who quit his reelection campaign four years ago after polling showed he was about to get his political tail kicked by a Beavers, is trying desperately to convince the voters of the 17th District that he really is really, really against the income tax now - but his latest TV ad shows he knows it isn't working.

Click here to see Rochelle's new ad, in which the ex-senator shows his purported a no-income-tax "pledge," and then calls the income tax a dead issue. But of course the income tax isn't a dead issue - and Rochelle's ad, coming just days after Tennesseans for Fair Taxation, the coalition of liberal special interest groups that has long pushed for a state income tax, called for a $3.4 billion tax increase, proves it.

In his "pledge," Rochelle promises to fight any income tax that isn't approved by a vote of the people. It sounds like a pretty good pledge, until you remember the history of Rochelle's income tax proposal.

Four years ago Rochelle pushed hard for a state income tax. When it became clear the proposal lacked public support and he simply didn't have the votes, Rochelle offered a "compromise" plan in which the income tax would be imposed for two years, and then there would be a referendum on it - unless, of course, the legislature later repealed the referendum provision..

When you know that history, you know that what Rochelle is saying SOUNDS like a pledge to not push for an income tax, but in reality it is a pledge that when he inevitably does push for creation of income tax it will be structured the same as that "compromise" plan he pushed four years ago: Tax first, referendum later maybe.

The truth is, Bob Rochelle is no more "against" the income tax now than he was four years ago when he quit his re-election campaign after polling showed him losing badly to then-state Rep. Mae Beavers, who had been one of the leaders of the fight against Rochelle's income tax.

The truth is, Bob Rochelle endorsed a state income tax as recently as two years ago as a member of the Tennessee Tax Structure Study Commission, and he has never rescinded that endorsement or repudiated the Commission's report.

By running this ad now, this late in the game, the Rochelle campaign tacitly admits that their own internal polling shows he's once again trailing Beavers and that, once again, the issue that is sinking Rochelle is the income tax.

TFT Calls for $3.4 Billion Tax Increase on Tennesseans

Tennesseans for Fair Taxation, the liberal group last seen advocating legislators pass a state income tax, has issued a new report advocating a tax increase that, at $3.4 billion annually, would be about three and a half times larger than the 1-cent sales tax increase in 2002 that was the largest tax increase in state history.

That sales tax increase generates about $1 billion annually in extra revenue for state government.

TFT claims that Tennessee state government is spending $3.4 billion less than it should spend - when compared to neighboring states - on everything from education to the environment, agriculture, healthcare and other social services, public safety, and transportation - a figure the organization misleadingly labels "the real budget deficit."

Tennessee's state budget, which has nearly doubled in the past 12 years, is balanced and the state enjoyed a revenue surplus last year of close to $400 million. TFT calls the surplus the result of "very low expectations set by our policy makers in the budgeting process." Translation: The surplus is because legislators set "low expectations" for revenue. But of course the only way to have "expect" $3.4 billion more revenue is to impose a $3.4 billion tax increase - a tax increase that would cost every single person in Tennessee nearly $600 per year. An average family of would see their tax burden climb $2,400, all so TFT could lobby lawmakers to spend more on TFT's priorities, while the average Tennessee family has $2,400 less to spend on their own needs, their own children and their own priorities.

For a family of four, that kind of tax increase is equivalent to taking 2-3 months worth of groceries off the table in order to fund TFT's wish list of higher government spending.

The TFT report calls for increased state government spending for a set of priorities that - not coincidentally - closely match the interests of the amalgamation of liberal special-interest groups that comprise the organization.

Education is the biggie, of course. TFT wants the state to increase spending on public education by $3.1 billion. TFT coalition members include the Tennessee Education Association (the statewide public school teachers union that would benefit from pay raises funded by that money).

The TFT report says it "makes no specific recommendation on how to close the investment gap that separates us from our neighbors," but of course there really is only one way to do it: Raise taxes by $3.4 billion per year.

The TFT report doesn't call for a state income tax, but the truth is the state's existing sales tax rate would have to be raised by 3.5 cents - from 7 cents now to 10.5 cents - to generate that much additional revenue. Such a tax increase is not politically possible, nor would it be good economically for the people of Tennessee. TFT knows this - they often argue that the current sales tax rate is unfair.

Bottom line: TFT is calling, euphemistically, for a $3.4 billion tax increase via a new state income tax.

The Stakes

The war to protect America against Islamofacist terror is too important to be left to those who don't understand the stakes.

Bill Moyers Threatens to Sue a Blogger

Left-wing PBS journalist Bill Moyers is threatening to sue a blogger, claiming defamation because the blogger reprinted a statement first published by one of Moyers' interview subjects, who claims Moyers said something that Moyers says he never said.

The Moyers interview subject claimed the following:

"When Moyers interviewed me for the documentary last spring, he very candidly told me that he is a liberal Democrat and intended for the documentary to influence the November elections to bring control of Congress back to the Democrats."

cough

So they're threatening the blogger, Jimmy Akin, for republishing the statement. Because Moyers is an objective, unbiased journalist, not a left-wing propagandist.

Er, except Moyers is already perceived broadly as a left-winger, so even if Moyers really never said what he is accused of saying, it's not like the claim some how damages his image. I think it Rather enhances it, especially for those on the Left who like Moyers' left-wing journalism.

Of course, almost nobody had read the alleged Moyers statement before he had his lawyers sent a threatening letter to the blogger ... and then the blogger posted the letter ... and then Instapundit linked to it, and now other bloggers also have started linking to it, spreading it far and wide to lots and lots of people, who - even if it isn't true - will weigh it against Moyers' decades of work on behalf of liberal causes and liberal politicians and figure that it probably is true.

And, before you know it, whether you said it or not, Bill Moyers, it will become part of that great steaming mass of stuff that everyone "knows" is true about you even if it isn't.

Dumb move, Bill Moyers, dumb move.

(Memo to Moyers' lawyers: Don't bother sending me a threatening letter for republishing the contested quote. I'm commenting on a news story here and the quote containing the alleged statement is central to that story. See also: The First Amendment).

Update: In a related development, Bill Moyers today said that if it can be proven that he's a left-wing hack rather than a fair and objective journalist, he'd go on PBS, or maybe NPR, or possibly DailyKos.com or even Air America if it's still around, and tell everyone - left, right and moderate - the news. Said Moyers: "If my objectivity is not what you were led to believe, I'd like to break that story."

/snark

October 19, 2006

Kerry To Sail Again?

Friends of John Kerry looks to be staffing up, judging from some new job postings. Could he really be running again?

The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all.
- Ecclesiastes 9:11

Krumm Kommercials

Here are a couple of commercials for Bob Krumm, Republican nominee for the Tennessee state Senate 21st District seat currently held by Sen. Doug Henry, who is refusing to debate and making only brief and perfunctory campaign appearances.

Registry Lets Rep. Rinks Slide on Apparent Rules Violation

The Tennessee Registry of Election Finance met Wednesday and considered the matter of state Rep. Randy Rinks and his campaign finance disclosures which show Rinks spending tens of thousands of dollars to pay his American Express bill for unspecified charges, even though the Registry's own rules for reporting expenditures from campaign contributions specifically and explicity say that "credit card payments shall not be deemed sufficient."

So, what did the Registry of Election Finance do?

Did they investigate?

No. They voted unanimously to dismiss the complaint against Rinks and take no action.

For more on Rinks and how he appears to be using campaign contributions for non-allowable expenses, including membership at the elite Nashville City Club - and how you can help inform the voters of his House district - click here.

In the News

Ken Whitehouse at NashvillePost.com has a story today about the new Corker campaign ad featuring Ed Bryant. I'm quoted. If you aren't a NashvillePost.com subscriber - and if you want the city's best business coverage you should be - well, they want money for you to read what I said.

Terry Frank doesn't like the new ad, saying if Corker wanted Bryant to reach out to social conservatives, well, perhaps Bryant should have mentioned social conservative themes rather than touting Corker's success at revitalizing the Chattanooga waterfront. I didn't mind the content of the ad because the content is beside the point. You don't even need the sound up to get the point: Ed Bryant, the state's leading conservative Republican and a class act, is actively campaigning for Corker, so it's okey for social conservatives to vote for Corker in a few weeks.

Federal Court Ruling Called "Victory for Bloggers"

Michael Silence calls it "a victory for bloggers," and I have to agree:

Judge: Libel limit applies to Web
DALLAS - A one-year statute of limitations for bringing libel lawsuits in Texas also applies to articles posted on the Internet, a federal judge has ruled. The ruling by U.S. District Judge David Godbey is being hailed as an important decision that gives online media the same protections as traditional print and broadcast organizations. Godbey ruled Monday that the one-year clock begins ticking when an article first appears on the Internet and ends a year later, even if the article in question remains available for reading on the Internet.

It's the second time a federal judge recently determined that the Texas libel limits also apply to Internet-based media.

A lawyer for Belo Corp., a defendant in the case, praised the decision as a critical step for online media. "The ruling is important because it allows Internet publishers - not limited to newspapers - to engage in the free exchange of ideas without being exposed to defamation claims based on articles viewable in the present but first posted to the Internet years earlier," said Russell Coleman, a Belo lawyer.

More from Jurist, and also from the Dallas Morning News, the defendant in the case, which reports that the ruling "echoes a recent ruling by U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks of Austin. Citing court rulings from other states, Judge Sparks dismissed a case earlier this year in which an Austin man said an online publication defamed him in 2003."

While the latest case involved an online column published by a newspaper and didn't specifically involve a personal or independent blog, the ruling seems sweeping enough to include blogs and the bloggers who publish them. Judge Godbey wrote, "The court sees no rational reason for distinguishing between the Internet and other forms of traditional mass media."

The court sees no rational reason because there is no rational reason to distinguish between online publications and other forms of traditional mass media.

In Tennessee, the statute of limitations for libel is 1 year. For slander it is six months. Find information for your state here.

Democrats Still Keeping 1Point CEO's Tainted Money

Bob Tuke and the Tennessee Democratic Party have come up with a clever excuse for why they are keeping the tens of thousands of dollars given them by Bary Stokes, CEO of 1Point Solutions, the company caught up in a criminal investigation into missing retirement funds.

Mark Brown, a party spokesman, said the Democratic Party has to be "careful" because it has three current and one former employee who had their retirement benefits within the control of Stokes and 1Point. Brown said if the party returned the money now, a court of law could say that the Democratic Party was "trying to influence the case."

But of course if he only mismanaged the company but not criminally, the party will keep the money and the people who lost their retirement funds because they trusted Barry Stokes and 1Point Solutions won't get it back.

Memo to Tuke: It doesn't matter to the little people if Stokes is criminally liable or not. They lost their retirement funds either way. And you're holding on to some of it. The right thing to do is to return it and let the bankruptcy court trustee sort things out.

The notion that a judge would view returning the money as trying to influence the case is laughable - and wouldn't preclude the Tennessee Democratic Party from putting the money in an escrow account.

No word yet from the Bredesen campaign as to whether or not it will return donations it received from Stokes and the 1Point PAC. The campaign still lists Stokes as one of Tennessee's "top business leaders" endorsing Bredesen's re-election. The Bredesen campaign's treasurer, Stuart Brunson, once acted as 1Point's lobbyist. He, more than anyone, ought to speak publicly about the Stokes/1Point donations and whether or not the campaign intends to return them.

C'mon, Brunson. Your candidate is a multi-millionaire and way ahead in the polls. Surely the campaign can part with Stokes' donations.

October 18, 2006

Election? What Election?

Has a major daily newspaper in a state capital city ever done less to cover a state legislative election than The Tennessean has this year? With the Republican Party edging close to taking over the state House for the first time in decades, and the Democratic Party fighting hard to recapture the state Senate that it lost a few years ago, you'd think the paper would be serving up volumes of coverage of the key races, and of the underlying issues driving the campaign. Instead, the paper's coverage has been scant, surface and pathetic.

But consider today's offerings...

In the 17th state Senate district, incumbent state Sen. Mae Beavers was swept into office four years ago on the anti-income tax tide after serving in the House and helping defeat the income tax there. Her opponent this year is former state Sen. Bob Rochelle, the architect of the proposed state income tax. He's been endorsed by Gov. Phil Bredesen, though anti-income tax sentiment remains high. The Tennessean's coverage today: thumbnail profiles of Beavers and Rochelle - and the paper even lets Rochelle get away with his rather artful but deceptive spin regarding the income tax, in which Rochelle "promised he would not support an income tax that is not approved by a vote of the people." Er, except that's pretty much the outline of the income tax legislation Rochelle was pushing four years ago - it would have created an income tax and then let the people vote it up or down two years later.

In the Senate District 23 race, The Tennessean has endorsed the Democrat nominee, attorney Mary Parker, but it hasn't told readers anything about her or the Republican nominee, financial advisor Jack Johnson. Today's coverage: thumbnail profiles

The Senate District 21 race pits longtime state Sen. Doug Henry, the 80-year-old Democratic incumbent, against Republican nominee Bob Krumm, a commercial builder who has used his weblog as a way to discuss issues in-depth. Henry, meanwhile, has been running a campaign with an almost Weekend at Bernies' quality, making brief appearances at public events but not staying long enough to discuss issues.

The Tennessean's coverage? A glowing profile of Sen. Henry during the primary. And today, thumbnail candidate profiles.

Three weeks ago, Tennessean Reader Editor, John Gibson promised the paper "has plans to cover the races, candidates and issues thoroughly as we count down to Nov. 7."

Wrote Gibson:

We want to be the place, both in print and online, where readers get the latest news and information so they can be better informed before voting.

If Gibson is not embarrassed at the thumbnail candidate profiles, he should be. The Tennessean simply isn't the best place for readers to get "better informed" before voting. Maybe the paper's new editor will fix it for next time.

Tennesseans For Higher Taxation Resumes Drumbeat for Income Tax

With election day just a few weeks away and Gov. Phil Bredesen leading in the polls and stressing that education will be his big agenda item for a second term, the same pro-income tax group that pushed hard for a state income tax four years ago is back with a new report claiming that, because it doesn't have a state income tax, Tennessee lags $3.4 billion behind the average of its eight neighboring states in public investment, with the bulk of the shortfall in education. The Knoxville News Sentinel covers the story:

According to the report, Tennessee invests $3.4 billion less than the average of its eight neighboring states in education, the environment, agriculture, social services, public safety, transportation and other programs.

The biggest gap, according to the report, is in education, which accounts for nearly $2 of every $3 of the shortfall. The report suggests the funding disparity is responsible at least in part for lagging graduation rates, lower college enrollment levels and inferior standardized test scores.

Mac Simpson, a retired University of Tennessee political science professor and Tennesseans for Fair Taxation board member, said an income tax would spread the tax burden more fairly. Under the state's tax structure, which relies heavily on sales taxes, Simpson said "the heaviest burden is on the lowest-income people."

Unlike Bredesen, Republican gubernatorial nominee Jim Bryson favors reducing taxes.

October 17, 2006

Help Me Help Them

I am being interviewed tomorrow for a political magazine doing a story on bloggers covering their state legislatures. The central theme of the story is an exploration of whether bloggers should be given official legislative press credentials. I have my thoughts, opinions and advice on that topic but would like to hear your input as well, especially if you're a blogger or journalist (or hybrid blogging journalist) involved in covering state-level politics. Some of the arguments against credentialing bloggers that I've heard in the past range from the philosophical to the practical. Some argue that bloggers aren't "real" journalists and only "real" journalists that work for the "real" media should get press credentials. Others point to the more practical problem of limited space in the press room and on the floors of the legislative chambers.

Whaddya you think?

1Pointers

You can add former state Sen. Bob Rochelle, currently seeking to regain his old seat, to the list of Tennessee Democrats who are holding donations connected to 1Point, even though the money appears to have been stolen from retirement funds managed by the company. For more on the 1Point scandal, click here.

Tennessee's Election Coordinator Says Check of Voter Rolls For Fake SSI Numbers May Not Happen Before Election Day

Tennessee's statewide election coordinator, Brook Thompson, needs to be fired. Read this story in the Nashville City Paper and you'll understand why. Thompson refused for two months to run a check of the state's voter registration database to see if there were any voters who registered with an evidently fake Social Security number. And now that he's finally agreed to run the search, he says the review probably can't be done before election day, November 7.

"Part of the problem is we are conducting a statewide election right now," Thompson said Monday. "We've got a thousand things going on. Early voting starts in two days. I don't think I can give you a timetable."

Social security numbers don't start with nine, eight, 666 and 000. In addition, all zeroes aren't used in the second or third series of digits, according to the Social Security Administration.

"We were not aware of that," Thompson said.

Pre-Election Coverage

The Tennessean is running more of its profiles of various state legislative races, including this profile of the race between incumbent state Rep. Mary Pruitt and Republican challenger Jim Boyd, and this profile of the race between state Rep. Ben West and Republican challenger Juan Borges. In

the Pruitt-Boyd story, make sure to read Boyd's comment below the story. In the West-Borges race, you won't find a more conservative Democrat than West, but with the GOP within striking distance of taking control of the state House and removing Jimmy Naifeh from the Speaker's office, I'd certainly be voting for Borges if I lived in the 60th District.

The Tennessean also looks at the House District 40 race involving incumbent state Rep. Frank Buck, the most ethical Democrat in the state legislature and the legislator whom Gov. Phil Bredesen refused to listen to. I'm glad I don't live in House District 40. As much as I want a Republican majority in the House, I couldn't bring myself to vote against Frank Buck.

October 16, 2006

NCSL Posts Audio of Nashville Sessions

The National Conference of State Legislature is posting written session summaries, audio of entire sessions, photos, presentations, and video of selected speakers from the NCSL's 2006 Annual Meeting in Nashville this past August. Here is the web page. The session on blogging which I covered is not on the list. All the rest of my posts mentioning the NCSL can be found here, including several related to the Nashville conference and some that pre-date and have nothing to do with the Nashville conference.

Fletcher & Foley

One of Tennessee's best-known brass-knuckles political campaign advertising consultants on the Democratic side has threatened a Republican blogger with legal action after she wrote this blog entry questioning whether the consultant or his firm might have had any role in the release of the now-infamous emails between ex-Congressman Mark Foley and some congressional pages. Bill Fletcher, the most high-profile partner in Fletcher Rowley Chao Riddle Inc., also admitted in his threatening email to blogger Terry Frank that if he had had copies of those emails from Rep. Foley to various congressional pages, his next move would have been to use them in a campaign ad against Foley.

Fletcher sent the email to Frank, a Knoxville-based conservative columnist, radio host and blogger after she published this post