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March 30, 2007Along the Road
I Could Do ThatApparently, Nashville's WTN radio has sacked talk host Kevin Miller, who replaced Steve Gill when Gill went (back) to WLAC. I've never done radio, but I'm informed, opinionated, connected, and love to talk, so if WTN calls, I'd be happy to talk to them. I've always thought a radio talk show host with a blog would be a great combination...
March 27, 2007Sweet! Energy Techno Breakthroughs
In another post at Ecotality I look at one of the lies in Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, a lie often repeated by the environmental Left, and by respected "rock star" economists of the global warming community. Find out what the lie is - and what the truth is - here. Speaking Ecotality's hydrogen-on-demand technology, there is also "wind energy on demand" technology that's moving from concept to reality. This post looks at two companies with plans to store wind-generated energy either as compressed air, or in high-tech batteries. (Plus, a second post on wind-energy technology.) Additional posts include a discussion of Fred Thompson's environmental record, a look at the real cause of global warming, and a battery technology that would have Napoleon Dynamite saying, "Sweet!" [Full disclosure: Ecotality, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, pays me a not-small but not-huge sum to blog about environmental issues, technology and such at the Ecotality blog, where I spotlight technology breakthroughs, laud the private sector as the most likely source of the solutions to global warming, and mock carbon offsets and occasionally Al Gore, much to the dismay of my co-bloggers there.] Jackpot Justice
The authors of Jackpot Justice: The True Cost of America's Tort System calculated that the nation's tort system imposes a yearly "tort tax" of $9,827 for a family of four - and raises health care spending in the U.S. by $124 billion. The video at right features Dr. Lawrence J. McQuillan of Pacific Research Institute discussing the findings in Jackpot Justice. The American Justice Partnership has set up a web page of materials related to Jackpot Justice, here, which includes a link to download the study, video and audio of an interview with the study's lead author, bios of the study's authors, and more. I've also uploaded to video to YouTube (above) and MotionBox.
March 26, 2007Trunk Show
Also today: technology is rendering McCain-Feingold moot, even as it damages McCain's campaign. Plus, two posts assessing Mitt Romney's strengths and weaknesses, and Fred Thompson's chances. Plus: Today's edition of The Daily Fred.
March 24, 2007The Low Cost of Doing Nothing
Spotted: Al Gore's New BlogAl Gore is blogging. His first post was on Feb. 27, right as the controversy over his hypocritcally energy-hogging lifestyle was breaking. But no mention of it on his blog, which is jammed with YouTube vids featuring Gore and is all about promoting Gore's various appearances and, of course, encouraging people to push Congress to address global warming. Unfortunately, the Gore blog doesn't allow for readers to post comments. Al does invite readers to "Please join the conversation" - by submitting their email address. That's not a "conversation," Al, that's an email mailing list. Email newsletters are for one-way communication. Blogs are for conversations. A well-done Gore blog would be a great addition to the discussion and debate over global warming and its causes and related policy issues. Here's hoping Al's new blog evolves that way. One of The Good GuysABC News' 20/20 program had a very nice report Friday night on Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn's anti-pork efforts. You can read it here. If the Senate had at least 50 more just like him, America would be much the better for it. Doing My Part to Save the PlanetI read somewhere recently that recycling a 3-foot-high stack of newspapers can save one whole tree. So although I long ago started reading "newspapers" primarily online I'm going to subscribe to some printed newspapers again, so I can recycle them and save trees!
March 23, 2007A Brief Environmental Progress Report
For the Birds
Above: Australian lorikeets at the Nashville Zoo. For a dollar you can get a little cup of nectar to feed them and, often, they'll land on your hand to feed.
March 22, 2007At the Nashville Zoo
I took my children to the Nashville Zoo today and spotted the three Republican presidential frontrunners. That's McCain on the right. The Wheels On the Bus Go 'Round and 'Round
Trunk Show
Changing Their Tune
For years, Tennessee Democrats have been accusing their Republican colleagues of demagoguery and dirty tricks when it comes to sounding the alarm bell on a state income tax. This week, State Senate Democrats changed their tune and took their own turn using the state income tax as an arbitrary instrument of political intimidation.Read the whole thing here.
March 21, 2007Positive ROIA few days ago I mentioned Belmont Center for Entrepreneurship director Jeff Cornwall's new gig writing a regular column for The Tennessean on the subject of entrepreneurship, an outgrowth of Cornwall's blog The Entrepreneurial Mind. Well, that's just one of the recent impacts of his blog - Monday, the Belmont program was included in a Wall Street Journal story about the growth of entrepreneurship programs in academia. Belmont is even featured in the video accompanying the story on the paper's website. I emailed Dr. Cornwall and asked how the WSJ heard about the program. His response: "How else? The blog!" Do you have something to promote? Blog! Trunk Show
March 20, 2007Ranchers, Diplomats and Hippies
Sleepwalking Past the NewsMy regular readers know that from time to time I write about Sao Tome & Principe, a tiny island country off the coast of Africa that is pro-American, largely Christian, and sits atop potentially vast oil resources. It's an interesting story - and a good example of how the Bush administration, behind the scenes and without much press coverage, is making smart moves in the great geopolitical game. Now, Time magazine has a "Postcard from Sao Tome" titled "Sleepwalking in Sao Tome." It's a look at the laid-back lifestyle there, though Time really ought to do a better job telling its readers of the growing strategic importance of the little country. Until they do, you can learn more about it by reading my previous Sao Tome posts. Moving DayTennessee Republican Party chairman Bob Davis, a former Fred Thompson staffer, says that moving Tennessee's presidential primary to Feb. 5, a week earlier that normal, to join the large number of states that are voting that day, might boost Thompson's presidential prospects. Thought I don't think that's why Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Gray Sasser signed on to the proposal... Colleges Try Cell Phones, YouTube To Get Word OutBut are the students paying attention? At Belmont University a few years ago, many students rarely checked their campus email account. Now, it appears they don't want university text messages on their cell phones. We never really solved the problem back then. How would you solve it? Kurdistan RisingMichael Totten reports from the part of Iraq where the war is over and the future is developing at full speed. With amazing photos of a rising American ally in the Middle East. I wonder - could continued American military efforts in Iraq's war-torn Sunni and Shia provinces just be a holding action to allow Iraqi Kurdistan to continue to develop peacefully until it is strong enough to defend itself against future attacks from Sunni Iraq?
March 19, 2007Did Corker Vote to Defund the Troops?
A "No" vote in this case meant siding with 15 of the most liberal Democrat Senators who make up most of the Senate surrender caucus - Akaka, Biden, Bingaman, Byrd, Dodd, Feingold, Kennedy, Leahy, Menendez, Murray, Reed, Reid, Rockefeller, Whitehouse - and one socialist independent (Sanders) who want to defund the Iraq war. Although I voted for him, I'm no big fan of Sen. Corker. But I don't believe for a second he meant to vote in favor of cutting off funding for our troops currently serving in harm's way in a war zone. I suspect what happened here is Sen. Corker mistakenly thought voting "No" meant voting against cutting off funding for the troops. Another possibility - look closely at the description of the resolution: It says no funds shall be cut off "which would result in undermining their safety or their ability to complete their assigned mission." That would leave the door open to the defeatist Democrats now running the Congress to come back and try to cut off funds that they deem would NOT result in undermining the safety of the troops or their ability to complete their assigned mission. That's a mighty big loophole to leave in the hands of the Congressional Democrats who desperately want to defund the war in order to ensure American defeat in Iraq. Update: Well, I needn't have speculated. Corker's website has an explanation: He has vowed to vote against all nonbinding resolutions dealing with Iraq, no matter what they say, calling them "political posturing" and a waste of time. U.S. Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) today voted against all Iraq resolutions in keeping with the statement he made Wednesday that he would "vote against all resolutions - Democrat and Republican - that deal with Iraq."I'm not happy with Corker's "mid-summer" clause - frankly, no American elected official ought to put any timetable on any war other than "we fight until we win" - but I get why he is voting against all of the nonbinding resolutions. They are a waste of time. Fred's 300Here's more evidence that Fred Thompson is running for president - and running as the straight-shooter who will tell it like it is. Romney Seeks Reagan Magic
Questioning Inconvenient Truths
March 18, 2007Thompson Eyes Internet For Big Campaign Role
In John Fund's thought-provoking interview with Fred Thompson at OpinionJournal.com regarding a possible presidential run by former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, this section jumped out at me: So how would a possible Thompson campaign be distinctive? "Politics is now one big 24-hour news cycle, but we seem to spend less time than ever on real substance," he muses. "What if someone harnessed the Internet and other technologies and insisted in talking about real issues in more depth than consultants would advise? What if they took risks with their race in hopes that the risks to our children could be reduced through building a mandate for good policy?"Blog, Fred, blog! Thompson also addressed conservative dislike of his past support for the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law, which is an afront to freedom of speech: "There are problems with people giving politicians large sums of money and then asking them to pass legislation," Mr. Thompson says. Still, he notes he proposed the amendment to raise the $1,000 per person "hard money" federal contribution limit.I have proposed the exact same thing - no limits, full and immediate disclosure online. With today's data search technologies, it should be fairly easy to create a system that automatically cross-references campaign donations with legislation that affects business or other interests of the donors. In Fund's article, Thompson also discusses tort reform, taxes, terrorism, the Iranian nuclear threat and a variety of other issues. Read the whole thing. Meanwhile, Thompson is kicking butt in the online poll at GOPNation.com. It Worked Just As I Said It WouldMore than three years ago I introduced myself to Dr. Jeff Cornwall, the new director of the Belmont University Center for Entrepreneurship and a professor of management, and suggested he start a blog as a way to raise to public profile of the new program. The blog, I said, would result in increased media mentions of the Belmont program by establishing Dr. Cornwall as the leading academic authority on entrepreneurship in Nashville, and, thanks to the global reach of the Internet, also raise its profile around the world. He took my advice and launched a blog, The Entrepreneurial Mind, that has gone on to receive accolades from Forbes.com and other publications, and leading to a number of blog items being recycled as guest op-eds in The Tennessean and the Nashville Business Journal. And now, Dr. Cornwall is writing a new regular column for the business section of The Tennessean, something I am certain would not have happened if he hadn't taken my advice in the summer of '03 to start a blog. His first regular column for The Tennessean appears today. Congratulations, Dr. Cornwall. The Red TruckTennessean columnist Gail Kerr tracks down the red truck that Fred Thompson drove to victory in the 1994 U.S. Senate race. "With a package of Red Man chewing tobacco on the seat and country music blaring, Thompson drove from Mountain City to Memphis and back again." Anybody think Thompson can't win the Iowa caucus? The Gore MineHere's the story on that zinc mine underneat Al Gore's Carthage, Tennessee, farm, that The Tennessean teased yesterday. The paper recounts the Gore family's relationship with Occidental Petroleum, and the mine's environmental history. The story is fairly Gore-friendly, but Glenn Reynolds is right when he says, " will add to the perception that Gore's green talk is hypocritical." In a related post, Reynolds notes charges of "green hypocrisy" in the investment community. "No More Noble Missions""Puppies for Peace" was my favorite hand-scrawled sign among those held by the 100-150 antiwar protesters who marched through downtown Nashville Saturday. It was carried by a man with a dog on a leash. The dog's true feelings about the Iraq war are unknown - the dog wasn't carrying a sign. I stumbled across the protest I was headed downtown and stopped for a minute to snap a few pictures and record 45 seconds of video as they passed by.
Folks, John Lennon was a songwriter and singer, not an expert in international relations. "All You Need is Love" was a pop song, not a dissertation on the most effective ways a nation can respond to attacks by hostile foreign forces. I don't doubt the sincerity of the Nashville anti-war protesters, but I do lament the naivete of someone thinking that "All You Need is Love" to stop Islamist jihadists bent on killing us. Let's be rational. I'm pretty sure there were at least a few pacifist John Lennon fans in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. That didn't stop the killers from flying the jets into the towers.
Nobility is why America spent hundreds of millions of dollars using its Navy to deliver emergency food and medical assistance to the people of Indonesia after the tsunami even though that part of Indonesia is rife with Islamist radicalism. Nobility is why the first nation on the scene after most any natural disaster anywhere in the world is America. Without America's noble missions, the rest of the world would sink into a new Dark Ages.
Michael Fumento took better pictures at the D.C. protest, and files this report. "Thousands march to Pentagon to protest Iraq war" was the typical headline about the rally in Washington on St. Patrick's day. Well, I got there just after the march ended and I'd put it at hardly more than a thousand. Indeed, I was able to photograph the whole crowd - without benefit of a wide angle lens. There were even numerous buses indicating they had imported New Yorkers for the celebration. ... As to the participants, they were exactly what you'd expect: aging hippies, representatives of all sorts of Communist organizations, 9/11 conspiracy theorists, illegal immigration supporters, Islamist extremists, and sufferers of Bush Derangement Syndrome. Boy, were they suffering! But don't take my word for it. Check out my photoset and see for yourself that four years into the war there's still no such thing as a true Iraq protest movement.  The Tennessean, past whose building the Nashville protestors marched banging pots and pans, estimated the number of Nashville antiwar protesters at about 75 people, though it looked more like 150 to me.
Click photos for larger versions. Video shot with 1.3-megapixel LG CU500 cellphone camera.
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March 17, 2007Wreck on the Highway
Gore Set To Make More Money From Toxins-Emitting Zinc MineThe Saturday Tennessean teases a big story coming Sunday about the polluting zinc mine on Al Gore's Carthage, Tennessee, property... Gore Jr. received more than $500,000 in royalties from the owners of zinc mines who held mineral leases on his farm near Carthage, Tenn. Now the mines have a new owner and are scheduled to reopen later this year. Before the mines closed in 2003, they emitted thousands of pounds of toxic substances and several times, the water discharged from the mines into nearby rivers had levels of toxins above what was legal.That's okay, though. I'm sure Gore will purchase "toxins offsets." Or maybe he'll ask the mining company to buy "pollution credits" through an investment company Gore just happens to be connected with. Because paying others to be "green" so you can continue trashing the environment is how today's celebrity environmentalists help save the planet. You Don't Forget What You Believe InMcCain: "I Have to Find Out What My Position Was" Let's reprise: McCain has been in public office for almost a quarter of a century. And he has to ask his aide to research what his position is on an issue of great interest to the conservative wing of his party. He couldn't just reach inside himself, search his principles, think fast on his feet and make the tough call. He has to ask an aide to tell him what he believes.Read the whole thing at 
March 16, 2007Trunk Show: Killing the K Street Project
Rainy Day in Nashville 2
March 15 was a rainy day in Nashville. That's the Woodmont Christian Church spire, with Woodmont Baptist in the foreground. Woodmont Christian Church's architecture is a beautiful thing. But on a rainy day like yesterday I think it's spire looks like a giant closed umbrella. Here's another shot of the same two churches from a different angle. Sales Job
This year the state is projecting a budget surplus of $318 million. The Funding Board will meet in May, and there is a possibility that the surplus could be even larger. A portion of the surplus comes from over collection of taxes. In other words, the state has actually been collecting more money than it budgeted.She's right, of course. The legislature need trim the governor's proposed budget by just 0.14 percent to allow for reducing the six-cent sales tax on food to 5.5 cents. As A.C. Kleinheider notes, the legislature could do away with the entire sales tax on food merely by spending no more than the state spent last year. All we would have to do to rip out the food tax root and branch would be for our government to spend the same thing last year as it did this year. Would that be horrible?The sales tax on food represents less than seven percent of overall sales tax revenue - and less than five percent of total state tax revenues. It is projected to bring in about $465 million in the coming fiscal year. Reducing the tax by half a penny would cut revenues by only $39 million, while total sales tax revenues for the coming fiscal year are projected at $6.797 billion and total state tax revenues are projected at $10.656 billion. Can the state live without that $39 million? Consider some facts and historical perspective. First, the state's revenue surplus in February was $30 million. Second: Just seven years ago, the state legislature passed a budget totaling $18.4 billion, including federal dollars. Seven years later, Gov. Bredesen is proposing a $27.5 billion budget, including federal dollars. Given that state spending has been growing by about $1 billion a year for almost a decade now, it's not unreasonable to think the state could tap the breaks a bit on the spending surge, just to slow it down a bit - like slowing your car from 100 miles per hour down to just 99.986 miles per hour. Nobody would notice the difference. Well, nobody except the people of Tennessee who would have a little more money left in their pockets after they buy their groceries. Bredesen Pushing for Gas Tax Increase
March 15, 2007Rainy Day in Nashville
Al Gore, Meet Mike Strizki
The Daily Fred
The first edition of The Daily Fred will publish later this morning. ElephantBiz.com offers an RSS feed for blog readers interested in receiving the latest Daily Fred and other updates from the site. Bloggers and Libel
March 14, 2007Trunk Show: Channeling Cheap Trick
Give Bredesen His Ombudsman
Right now, despite the state's open records laws, bureaucratic functionaries like former Revenue Department communications director Emily Richard can, on her own, refused to respond to a request for public information made through proper channels by a member of the Tennessee general public, and even counseled her co-workers to also refuse to provide the public records being sought - and then was rewarded with a promotion from the administration rather than a deserved firing. So, if the Bredesen administration wants to create an open-records/open-meetings ombudsman, Republicans in the legislature should by all means make sure it happens. Then, the next time one of the administration's functionaries decides to ignore a request for information to which the public is entitled, at least there will be a point person on which to focus the protest and pressure. Thompson Renders AP Poll Obsolete
Forget that poll, it is no longer relevant as Thompson's announcement will transform the race. I fully expect you'll see Thompson in the top three in the next AP/Ipsos poll, perhaps even in second ahead of McCain.
March 13, 2007Trunk Show: Door Opens Wide For Big Elephant
A Surplus Grows in Tennessee
Despite the surging surplus, Gov. Phil Bredesen remains adamantly opposed to reducing the state's sales tax on food even by half a cent, which would cost the state just $39 million, an amount not much larger than the surplus revenue the state collected just in February. NRO Considers CorkerNational Review's Jennifer Rubin takes a look at how Bob Corker won his Senate race in a bad year for Republican Senate candidates - and how he's translating his business approach to working in the U.S. Senate. An interesting read. Fun Fred FactsFrank J. offers up some fun "facts" about Fred Thompson. Fred Fallout
The Nashville City Paper interviews a couple of national political pundits who don't think Fred Thompson has the drive to become president - and notes that some Tennessee Republicans, such as U.S. Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-Brentwood) and John J. Duncan Jr. (R-Knoxville), have endorsed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for president. Matt Lambert, a Blackburn spokesman, told the City Paper that Blackburn "remains committed to the Romney campaign as the Tennessee co-chair for Romney for President as well as the national committee co-chair for Women for Romney." As for Duncan, he's open to switching horses... From the Knoxville News-Sentinel: U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr., R-Knoxville, endorsed Mitt Romney for president less than two weeks ago, but he says he instead will back Tennessee's Fred Thompson if he joins the fray. "If (former Sen.) Fred Thompson gets in there, then I definitely would support him," Duncan, a Republican, said in an interview. "He's been a long-time friend. I know him a whole lot better than I know (former Massachusetts) Gov. Romney."That cracking sound you heard is the beginning of the crumbling of Romney's conservative support based on just the possibility of Fred Thompson running for president. Imagine how fast it will disappear if/when Thompson actually jumps into the race... William Rusher at TownHall.com thinks Thompson's announcement represents a "major transformation" of the battle for the Republican presidential nomination. (Me: Yes it does.) Thompson's announcement "is no minor development," Rusher says, noting that, Bob Beckel, Clinton's longtime press secretary and now a Democratic commentator for Fox, "promptly asserted that Thompson is the only possible Republican contender 'who scares me,' and he is right to worry. It is a major development because Thompson has so many undeniable qualifications for the nomination. First and foremost, he is a true-blue conservative, comfortable with all the positions on social issues (abortion, gay rights, gun control, etc.) that give Rudy Giuliani so much difficulty and that have inspired John McCain and Mitt Romney to "flip-flop" in recent years to curry favor with social conservatives. In the second place, he is (as his television career demonstrates) an immensely attractive personality at 64, with a rumpled and thoughtful charm. Thirdly, his service for eight years in the U.S. Senate (four times Barack Obama's current tenure) attests to his success as a political leader. And finally, he hails from a border state -- Tennessee -- with all that implies for electability in the South and elsewhere.Blake Dvorak at Real Clear Politics thinks Sen. Thompson "hit all the right notes" during his Sunday television appearance. My sense is that if you are conservative and were watching Fox News Sunday yesterday, you liked what you saw in former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson. My sense is also that if you are a Republican presidential candidate, you didn't.But, says Dvorak, there are some issues - Thompson's support for the free speech-stifling McCain-Feingfold campaign finance reform law and his stance on immigration reform - that may cause problems for his presidential bid. Columnist Doug Patton calls Thompson "arguably the most viable potential Republican candidate for President of the United States since Ronald Reagan. And for many of the same reasons." Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne thinks Thompson, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich or Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel are three "dark horse" candidates who could win the nomination: The Hagel Hint and the Thompson Tease are disturbing news for former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, the front-runner in the polls. Giuliani's strength is as the remainder candidate. He is drawing support from Republicans who can't bring themselves to back the previous front-runner, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, or former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who has a lot of party establishment support but hasn't made the sale because of too much obvious flip-flopping.Dionne's a liberal, so you can understand why he wants to boost Hagel, who is anti-war and therefore the kind of Republican liberals love. But Hagel has zero chance of winning the nomination - he is out of step with most Republicans on the most important issue of our day. New York Post writer John Podhoretz says "it would be foolish for anyone to dismiss the Thompson candidacy because of his career as a performer. He was and is one of the most intelligent and interesting people in American politics." Podhoretz continues: Two unconventional Republicans, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain, are far ahead of the pack, and there's a sense abroad in the land that there's no authentic conservative in the race who has a chance of winning. In his appearance on Sunday, Thompson specifically declared himself pro-life and an opponent of gun control - two areas in which Rudy Giuliani takes an apostate's view, as far as the Republican base is concerned. ... It would be a terrific thing if Fred Thompson entered the race, because he's a big personality with a remarkable command of the issues and the kind of eloquence that we're only seeing right now from Barack Obama. A Republican primary with Giuliani, McCain and Thompson duking it out would be a battle of titans...Who did Podhoretz omit from the battle if Thompson gets in? Romney.
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March 12, 2007Fredapalooza
Non-Fred Posts: Fred Thompson, China and Ted Turner
The "China Commission" - which actually is called the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission - is one way that Sen. Thompson has remained active in important policy issues since leaving the Senate four years ago. The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission is, essentially, a think tank created by Congress to advise Congress in policy issues related to China. It is described as "a small, fast-paced, nonpartisan, legislative branch Commission responsible for monitoring, investigating and submitting an annual report to the Congress on the national security implications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship between the United States and the People's Republic of China." The commission is specifically to focus on China's military buildup, proliferation practices, regional economic and security impacts, U.S.-China bilateral programs, economic transfers, energy, U.S. capital markets, WTO compliance, and the implication of restrictions on speech and access to information in China. Thompson was a member of the commission for two years, ending at the end of 2006. Today's front-page article on Thompson's possible presidential candidacy in the Nashville Tennessean, where Thompson lives when he's not in Washington or off filming his latest appearance as District Attorney Arthur Branch on Law & Order, says Thompson "has mostly stayed out of the political realm" since he left the Senate four years ago. But Thompson has often campaigned for other Republicans during that time, and has cut campaign ads for Republicans. And - reflective of the China commission's focus on weapons proliferation issues - in 2005 Thompson starred in a short film designed to highlight the threat of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of rogue regimes and terrorist organizations. The 45-minute film, Last Best Chance, was produced with support from the Nuclear Threat Initiative, with additional funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The Nuclear Threat Initiative was founded by those rightwing neocons Ted Turner and Sam Nunn. The film's epilogue was voiced by that other noted rightwing neocon Tom Brokaw. Now that Fred Thompson running for president is a real possibility, I have seen a few not-so-informed Lefty blogs dismiss Thompson as a lightweight, thinking he is, in the main, an actor. They could not be more wrong. But don't tell them. Fred Buzz
Fred Makes Folks Sit Up and Take NoticeAfter nearly a week of ignoring it, The Tennessean is all over the Fred Thompson story, following on the heels of Thompson's confirmation on Fox News that he's considering running for president. The paper reports on how Tennessee Republicans are reacting to the news that Thompson is considering running for president: Short version: They love it. Although the paper didn't talk to any of the big-name Tennessee Republicans who have (too soon, in my opinion) publicly backed another horse with money and endorsements. Watch the video of Thompson on Fox News below and part two here, or read the transcript.) Now that Thompson has said he's considering running, the next interesting development will be to see how much of the conservative and Republican support for John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney crumbles. I believe Thompson will be a field-clearer, too, causing some lesser-known Republicans in the field to exit the race. The paper also has two sidebars, including a bio that incorrectly says Thompson, the former U.S. senator from Tennessee and TV and film actor, made his big-screen movie debut in the 1987 thriller No Way Out with Kevin Costner. Actually, his first movie was two years earlier, Marie, starring Sissy Spacek, in which Thompson played himself the 1985 based-on-a-true-story film about political corruption in Tennessee. There's a much more complete and accurate bio here. The second sidebar is a brief AP item on Thompson's views on a very small number of issues. The blogosphere has already produced much-better coverage of Thompson's political views and voting record - here's one example - and you can also always look such things up at OnTheIssues.org. So, now that a Fred Thompson candidacy is a very really possibility, what does this mean for the rest of the GOP field. Short version: Fred just froze the field. Here's what I mean: If you're a conservative who isn't enthralled with Romney, McCain or Giuliani - and most aren't - and you aren't sure yet which of the lesser-knowns in the race you are going to give money to, the possibility of Fred getting into the race means you aren't going to write checks or sign on for Mike Huckabee or Sam Brownback or Jim Gilmore or Tommy Thompson or Duncan Hunter or Ron Paul or Tom Tancredo. Their fundraising will be dismal until Fred makes a final announcement - one reason I would predict Thompson won't make an announcement any time soon. Update: Blogger Dan Riehl heard Fred Thompson on a call-in to a radio program this morning and describes his message as a "pure dose of basic Reagan conservatism." P.S.: I saw this coming a mile away.
March 11, 2007Gatekeepers Without a Fence
March 9, 2007Conservatives Love FredFree Republic polled its very conservative readers and found that Fred Thompson would easily defeat Rudy Giuliani in a primary involving only those two candidates. Of course, that's not the actual GOP field. Still, Giuliani's current high poll numbers are brittle if the right conservative candidate comes along. Huck FunFormer Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was in Nashville a couple weeks ago as part of his presidential campaign. In my blog report on the Feb. 24 reception I attended for Gov. Huckabee I mentioned I had some cellphone video. Finally, here it is. In this clip - it's low quality because it was shot with a cell phone - Huckabee discusses what he was able to accomplish as the Republican governor of a heavily Democratic state. Scintillating stuff. I think I'll stick to text-and-photo blogging until I have a better video cam. Breaking News
Trunk Show: Swoon
And what's up with Fred?. Update: Really, what's up with Fred??
March 8, 2007Fly the Carbon Neutral Skies
Also at Ecotality today, I explain why global warming doesn't matter to me, and point readers to veritable rivers of renewable energy.
March 7, 2007Environmental Facism?
There have been attempts to suppress this film and prevent it being shown. The filmmakers have even received death threats because of it. Documentary TV channels and film festivals won't screen it, although will happily carry works which try to paint the opposite picture.Low-key and not preachy, Mine Your Own Business is an excellent and well-made documentary of an inconvenient truth for many people around the world - that environmentalists are working hard to stop the kinds of economic development that would help them achieve the significant economic progress they both want and need. Reviewer Marty Dodge at Blogcritics recently called MYOB "an excellent piece of documentary filmmaking" and describes it as "a fascinating examination of the motivation and end result of extreme environmentalist paranoia about the mining industry." In it we see how caring and sharing environmentalists feel the need to tell people in the poorest parts of the world that they do not deserve good modern jobs and should go back to subsistence farming whether or not it was ever possible to do this in the area in which they live.The evident hypocrisy of the environmentalists interviewed in the documentary will be familiar to anyone who followed the Al Gore's an Energy Hog news last week - especially the scenes of environmentalist Mark Fenn of World Wildlife Fund/Madagascar asserting that the poor folks of the coastal village of Fort Dauphin, Madagascar, are "rich" because they have less stress and smile more than Westerners, and therefore don't need the jobs that would come with the new mining project and the new port that would be built - but in other scenes Fenn shows off his new $30,000 catamaran and the beautiful spot on the beach where he'll soon build his dream home. Now if we could just get a copy of MYOB into the hands of every child whose schoolteacher forced them to watch An Inconvenient Truth. Past posts here. Update: Aussie blogger Jack Lacton likes MYOB too - but he doesn't much like environmentalists. Update: I wondered if Al Gore and Mark Fenn have ever crossed paths, so I Googled it and didn't find anything that suggested they had. But I did come across a Mark Steyn column from the Feb. 4 Chicago Sun-Times in which Steyn tackles the "solid science" of global warming. The question is whether what's happening now is just the natural give and take of the planet, as Erik the Red and my town's early settlers understood it. Or whether it's something so unprecedented that we need to divert vast resources to a transnational elite bureaucracy so that they can do their best to cripple the global economy and deny much of the developing world access to the healthier and longer lives that capitalism brings. To the eco-chondriacs that's a no-brainer. As Mark Fenn of the Worldwide Fund for Nature says in the new documentary ''Mine Your Own Business'':That North Korean boom economy resulted in a million dead of starvation a few years ago because of a shortage of moss to be scraped off of rocks and eaten. It will be a cold day in hell before NoKo passes the U.S. economically. All this talk of global warming science makes me wonder, though, why Fenn is building his dream home on the coast. He's an environmentalist. He works for World Wildlife Fund, which calls climate change "among the most pervasive threats" to the environment. I'd bet money Fenn's seen An Inconvenient Truth, or at least got the memo about global warming and how it is going to raise sea levels and swamp the coasts - and yet he's building his dream home on the coast of Madagascar. Doesn't he believe it? Spiked
Just because a newspaper has blogs doesn't mean it "gets" the new media world it now lives in. Like many newspapers, The Tennessean thinks of itself as still the gatekeeper of news and information in its community. But like every other newspaper it no longer is, and, in a world of the Internet, email, millions of bloggers and the new mass-collaborative journalism, it never will be again. Some interesting comparative data: According to a Google blogs search, 92 different blogs linked to my main post on the Gore story here at BillHobbs.com while another 83 linked to a similar version of the same post which I published at the Ecotality.com blog, where I write about things environmental for Ecotality, a hydrogen fuel cell technology company. But only eight blogs linked directly to the Tennessean's story. Most of the major traffic-driver blogs that linked to one of my stories linked to the version at Ecotality. It's not surprising, then, that The Tennessean didn't grab the web traffic with the Gore story the way I and a number of other bloggers did (Dan Riehl's posts, in particular, which built on my work in impressive ways, drew huge attention in the blogosphere.) Run Over
Meanwhile, the Bredesen administration says the state can't afford to give up the $39 million it would cost to cut the food tax half a penny. Gov. Bredesen seems mighty able to find nearly half a billion dollars to dangle before foreign automakers, but not even a half a penny to help the people of Tennessee. Trunk Show: Changing the Game
Oops, They Did It Again
March 6, 2007Trunk Show: It's All About the Blogs
Talking Points MemoSoon after the news broke last week about Al Gore's energy-hog mansion, the leftwing HuffingtonPost.com began attacking the story and trying to build a defense for Gore, ultimately publishing seven "Talking Points" for Gore defenders to use. I've seen some of those talking points be recycled in letters-to-the-editor defending Gore in newspapers across the country. I previously addressed - and destroyed - three of the seven talking points, by using something called "facts," in a post you can read at the Ecotality blog here. Now, Bob Krumm has done some actual journalism and destroyed two more of the seven, talking myths, leaving HuffPo and its readers with only two factual "talking points" which boil down to nothing more than spin. Good job, Bob.
March 5, 2007"Blogger Day" at Legislative Plaza
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Update: On the same day as the release of Jackpot Justice, a compromise is reached in the Tennessee legislature on medical malpractice tort reform, 
According to a Senate roll call 
Former Tennessee Sen. Al Gore may have invented the Internet, but it is the Republican who took his place in the United States Senate who apparently is considering harnessing the 'Net to run a very different kind of presidential campaign.
