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October 31, 2007Puff for the KidsWhen you stop and think about it, the way Congress funds the S-CHIP program is borderline insane. But it's not just Congress. Here in Tennessee the Bredesen administration needs you to smoke so it can fund education. In fact, with cigarette tax revenues coming in way below projections, the Bredesen administration needs you smokers to smoke more, and they really need tens of thousands more Tennesseans to start smoking. So start smoking today. It's for the children.
October 30, 2007Read the RICO Lawsuit Against Bredesen
Old Testament RepublicansJane Whitson, a/k/a the Webutante, has a thoroughly enjoyable and informative report on the Pajamas Media site about former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer's visit with the new Republican Jewish Coalition of Nashville last week. Memphis vs. Nashville
Bigger Government = Less FreedomWhile Nashville's liberal government continues to limit the number of taxicabs on the streets of Nashville - resulting in less service for customers, less price competition, and fewer job and entrepreneurial opportunities for people who might want to go into the taxicab business, in Minneapolis a federal magistrate has recommended that a lawsuit brought by members of that city's taxi cartel to overturn the city's free-market taxicab reforms be dismissed. The Institute for Justice reports: "This is a victory for both aspiring taxi entrepreneurs and for Minneapolis consumers," said Scott Bullock, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice who argued the case. "Established businesses should not be able to use the law to quash competition and close the marketplace. Today's ruling ensures that does not happen."More freedom in the taxi entrepreneurial space will lead to more service options for customers and perhaps even some price competition - and more jobs for cabbies and cab entrepreneurs. But that's in Minneapolis, not in Nashville, where the taxicab cartel remains protected by Metro Nashville Government's Transportation Licensing Committee. To be clear: Nashvillians and Nashville's visitors would have better, cheaper, more abundant taxi service if we had less government in this part of our lives. Update: For more background and links to research into pocketbook and economic impacts of government-protected taxicab cartels, see this post of mine from two years ago. Get the FeedYou may have noticed the new headline ticker over in the right sidebar featuring news from the Tennessee Republican Party. We're encouraging Tennessee conservative bloggers who don't already have an RSS feed aggregator on their blogs to add the Tennessee GOP News ticker to their website. It is very easy to do - just click the grey "get widget" link at the bottom of the ticker box and follow directions.. Bloggers who already have an RSS aggregator should instead just add the RSS feed address of the TNGOP.org website to their aggregator.
October 29, 2007The Latest in Eco-TechBe sure to check out my latest posts on environmental tech and trends over at the Ecotality Life blog. You can find all my posts there at this link, including this post looking at some fascinating research that may create new computer memory technology that uses bits of copper the size of a virus - and uses far less power than current flash-memory devices. Will Others Follow?
Let's Hear It For Open Government
This week state Democrats have voted to make meetings conducting the people's business less open to the public. A legislative study committee addressed the issue of the Sunshine Law and voted to weaken the current law and allow more members of state and local boards to meet in private to discuss the business of the public.Here's what the Tennessee Democrat Party had to say about it: Today's the Day.I'm sure you heard this career advice at one time or another: "Do what you love and the money will come." Well, today, I'm living proof of that. I love writing and media, and I love politics, and today I start a paying job as communications director for the Tennessee Republican Party. You ever see a big-money lottery winner say they won't be quitting their job despite their new millions? I feel like I just started that kind of a job. Update: Welcome Instapundit readers. You can support the Tennessee GOP - and thus, help keep me employed and help expand the impact of blogs in politics - here. Bredesen, Admininstration Hit with RICO Lawsuit
You can watch 323,000 on YouTube. And, yes, I do find it amusing that well-known Nashville lawyer John Herbison apparently reads my blog. Update: This is the blog post that Herbison references on page 22 of the lawsuit.
October 28, 2007There Goes the Sun
That fact is, the members of the Tennessee Municipal League and the County Services Association do understand the purpose of the sunshine law. They just don't like it. They want to be able to operate in back rooms so they can wield their power untroubled by public scrutiny. Maybe that was OK with the taxpayers once upon a time. But, in this Internet age, with citizens empowered by vast information and instant ability to communicate and interact, I don't think that's the way the public wants its business conducted.No, we don't.
October 27, 2007Wild Fires Fan Citizen Journalism FlamesThe Baltimore Sun reports on the big role that citizen journalists played in the MSM's coverage of the Southern California wildfires. From dramatic cell phone camera images of flames as they choked off neighborhood escape routes to chilling online narratives of evacuation, citizen journalists covering the wildfires in California this week gave new meaning to the concept of reporting a natural disaster from the ground up.It's the future of journalism, in which the first news reports from breaking stories will come from people in the middle of the story, and the mainstream news media will provide follow-up reports. Be sure to watch the accompanying video. "If It Was Not For Us..."A liberal congressman tells the the truth and Don Surber adds some on-target commentary about Euro-queasiness in the war on terror. MSM Blogs Alter Campaign CoverageWashington Post media writer Howard Kurtz says the mushrooming number of political blogs on newspaper and magazine web sites "has altered the terrain of the 2008 election." Campaign officials have learned to feed the bottomless pit of these constantly updated compilations, leaking favorable tidbits -- a new poll result or television ad -- and quickly disputing negative items.In short, journalists and political strategists find themselves sparring more and more over smaller and smaller items on shorter and shorter deadlines. Among the MSM outlets with politics blogs: The Washington Post has "The Trail," the New York Times has "The Caucus," the Chicago Tribune has "The Swamp," the Los Angeles Times has "Top of the Ticket," the Boston Globe has "The Primary Source" and Time magazine has "Swampland." And of course the cable networks have blogs too. The high-velocity approach is not without pitfalls for journalists who now must divide their time between print work and blogging. The constant pressure to update blogs, thereby drawing more Web traffic, leaves less time for reporting and reflection. Churning out items throughout the day increases the chances of errors and puts a premium on bite-size chunks fed by a single source. On the plus side, reporters writing online can file updates with comments from rival campaigns and correct any mistakes in real time.It's only a matter of time before the same scenario is in full swing at the state level, too. Adapting Copyright Laws to the Dynamic Digital AgeVanderbilt University has published video podcasts from a conference two weeks ago at Vanderbilt Law School on the topic Adapting copyright laws to today's dynamic digital age; How file sharing, podcasting, internet video and other high tech trends are impacting and changing laws. Hundreds of experts from around the world and from Nashville's famed Music Row spent three days at Vanderbilt Law discussing and debating issues such as how artists, songwriters and authors are paid for use of their work and how to legally distribute music, videos and other works protected by intellectual property. The conference was sponsored by Vanderbilt, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers. You can download the video podcasts from the Vanderbilt Law School section at iTunes U. Click here to get started... Wired FiresWired looks at the role that info-tech played during the Southern California wildfires.
October 25, 2007Lamar Leads Not-Ned-Ray, BigtimeThe City Paper's "Political Animals" blog reports on some interesting new polling numbers that suggest 2008 could be a very good year for Tennessee Republicans. Specifically, incumbent U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander has a commanding lead in his re-elect race over likely Democratic challenger Mike McWherter, a West Tennessee beer distributor and son of former Gov. Ned Ray McWherter. In the poll by Ayres, McHenry Associates, Alexander leads Mike McWherter by a whopping 60-29 margin, with 11 percent undecided. McWherter suffers from poor name recognition of 26 percent with Tennessee voters. Geographically, McWherter is known to 32 percent of West Tennessee voters, 30 percent of Middle Tennesseans, and just 19 percent name recognition in East Tennessee.Clearly, Mike is not Ned Ray - even his famous last name isn't helping him much as most Tennesseans hearing his name aren't confusing him with his famous father. Alexander leads Not-Ned-Ray in all three of the state's grand divisions, 45 to 41 in the West - where a Democrat must win big to have a chance statewide, 60 to 27 in Middle, and 70 to 22 in the East. Even if all of the independent votes in the East went to McWherter, the pollsters conclude that at this stage in the race, "that lead in the East would translate into an advantage of more than 300,000 votes."One more obstacle facing Not Ned: Alexander has a 68 percent approval rating for his time in the Senate, with Democrats approving 46 percent to 35 percent. Now, let's turn to the poll's presidential numbers. If the presidential race is between Republican Fred Thompson and Democrat Hillary Clinton, Fred would easily take Tennessee, leading right now in that hypothetical match-up by 13 points, 53 to 40 percent. However, national front-runner Rudy Giuliani only leads Clinton in Tennessee 46 percent to 44 percent - suggesting strongly that if Giuliani is the GOP's nominee, Tennessee is in play. Ask Al Gore what winning Tennessee in 2000 rather than losing it would have done to his career path. Meanwhile, Tennesseans still view President Bush more favorably than they do Hillary Clinton. Bush has a 48 to 47 percent favorable to unfavorable while Clinton has a 44 to 48 percent favorable to unfavorable rating. Tennessee is still a red state. Briley Q&A
Despite all that - and the recent revelation that the married Briley was having an affair with the chief lobbyist for the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association at the same time he was serving as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which was handling legislation of great interest to the Trial Lawyers - Briley says he intends to remain in the legislature. Rodgers' Q&A with Briley delves into Briley's alcoholism and Briley's assertions as to its root cause, but Rodgers barely touches the issue of Briley's reported affair with TTLA lobbyist Mary Littleton. Rodgers' one question regarding the affair only asks about the alleged marital infidelity, and doesn't raise the conflict-of-interest and ethics issues involved in having a committee chairman having an affair with a lobbyist with major legislative interests before his committee. There were a lot of necessary follow-up questions that Rodgers should have asked, but didn't. A missed opportunity. In the interview, Briley claims, "I care about the General Assembly a lot as an institution." If that's true, than Briley should resign from the General Assembly. Not because of his alcoholism, but because of his appalling lack of ethics and the appalling disregard he showed for the basic safety of countless Tennesseans during his high-speed attempt to evade arrest.
October 24, 2007Leadership NashvilleI'm scheduled to speak to the 2007-2008 Leadership Nashville glass on its "Nashville Government and Media Day" panel a week from tomorrow titled "Sorting Out the Voices." The panel discussion will be moderated by WKRN's Bob Mueller, Nashville Scene editor Liz Garrigan, radio talker Phil Valentine, and somebody (I'm not sure who) from The Tennessean. One of these days I hope to be in the Leadership Nashville class rather than on a panel... Info GapPatrick Ruffini explains the difference between upstream and downstream media - and what the conservative blogosphere lacks in the media war with the Left. Silver SurberIf you haven't been reading Don Surber's excellent blog, you're missing a treat. Surber has spent the last 20 years as an editorial writer and columnist for the Charleston Daily Mail in West Virginia, but while he's a journalism lifer, he writes with the soul of a blogger. And the cool thing is the Daily Mail lets him do it on the newspaper's website. Media Myths and the Jena 6Craig Franklin, assistant editor of The Jena Times, says the national media got the Jena 6 story horribly wrong, and he exposes the media myths one by one in a powerful indictment of bad journalism run amok... By now, almost everyone in America has heard of Jena, La., because they've all heard the story of the "Jena 6." White students hanging nooses barely punished, a schoolyard fight, excessive punishment for the six black attackers, racist local officials, public outrage and protests - the outside media made sure everyone knew the basics.And the writer does just that, exposing 12 media myths about the case with those pesky things known as facts. Franklin predicts that, "as with the Duke Lacrosse case, the truth about Jena will eventually be known." But the town of Jena "isn't expecting any apologies from the media," he says. "They will probably never admit their error and have already moved on to the next 'big' story. Meanwhile in Jena, residents are getting back to their regular routines, where friends are friends regardless of race. Just as it has been all along." Tennessee Democrats Push For Less-Open Government
The Tennessean's Jessica Fender reports that Jones not only voted to make government less open, he also made the motion to adjourn the study committee before it could consider other open-government measures. Fender has more here
October 23, 2007It Matters Who Governs
Here's the TN GOP's press release: Time To Track Sexual PredatorsWatch the video and see the Democrats kill good legislation designed to protect children because the Tennessee Education Association, one of their key sources of money and votes, wanted the legislation killed. It matters who governs. Cell Journalist Announces Ohio DealNashville based Cell Journalist announced today that it has a multi-year agreement with The Dispatch Printing Company of Columbus, Ohio, which owns several broadcast and print media properties including WBNS-TV and the Columbus Dispatch newspaper in Columbus, and WTHR-TV in Indianapolis, will use the company's interactive community media platform. Cell Journalist offers a hosted media platform provider that gives a media outlet's audience the ability to send in video, and provides features like rate, tag, comment, and share that enable a community to form around viewer-submitted content. It is the technology behind NashFlix.com, which is used by Nashville's WKRN Channel 2. Liberal Government = Less FreedomWant to know what you get when you put nanny-state liberals in charge? You get less freedom. Today's example comes from Los Angeles, where some nanny-state libs on the city council want to put a "moratorium" - a ban - on the opening of new fast-food restaurants in a poor area of town where the poor people are getting too fat.
The plan is to hold off on any new ones while city planners try to find ways to attract restaurants with a wider variety of food offerings to neighborhoods with some of the city's largest concentrations of minority and low-income residents.There's no proposal to limit the restaurant choices of the well-to-do in Los Angeles, mind you, this proposal would only limit choice - freedom - for the city's largest concentrations of minority and low-income residents. In the name of protecting them, of course. That's what nanny-state liberalism does - it limits your freedom under the guise of helping you. Critics say the efforts are misguided, particularly in inner-city neighborhoods where affordable food may be the biggest concern of some families, and where a safe place to play and exercise is more important than new restaurants."Dictating to other groups of people what they should eat or want to eat is about the most patronizing kind of activity I can imagine," says Barry Glassner, professor of sociology at the University of Southern California, whose campus is located in South L.A.Instead of patronizing the poor and trying to dictate what they eat, the nanny-state liberals ought to reflect on why they are poor. Most of the root causes of their poverty - from lousy public schools to limited employment opportunities thanks to Big Government's confiscatory tax rates and heavy-handed regulatory structure - trace back to liberal government. But rather than address those issues in order to revive the economic prospects of the poor in Los Angeles, so that they can earn more money and their neighborhoods can attract more-upscale restaurants serving healthier fare, the liberals of Los Angeles propose to saddle the community with more regulation and less freedom - choices that will also mean fewer jobs in the community. Freedom in America used to mean the freedom to make your own choices, good or bad, and reap the rewards or pay the consequences. But these days nanny-state liberals define freedom a little differently: it's the right of nanny-state libs to take your money through high taxes, and spend it on regulating your choices so that you don't make what they think are the wrong choices, for your own good as liberals define it. But it is nanny-state liberalism itself that is the wrong choice. Bigger government = smaller freedom.
October 22, 2007Tennessee Trial Lawyers Dump Lobbyist at Center of Briley Scandal
Update: The Oct. 23 edition of the City Paper covers the story. Tennessee Bets $70 Million of Taxpayers' Money on Risky Switchgrass Gas Scheme
"It" is switchgrass, and this past year Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen convinced the state legislature to bet $70 million of taxpayers' money on a plan to make Tennessee a leader in the production of ethanol fuel from switchgrass. A $40.7-million research-scale biorefinery is being constructed in an industrial park in the town of Vonore by the University of Tennessee, funded by $70 million in state tax dollars. UT has partnered with Mascoma Corporation of Cambridge, Mass., a pioneer in cellulosic biofuel production, to build and operate the plant. Once it starts operating the East Tennessee biorefinery will produce cellulosic ethanol from switchgrass, a hardy, perennial, warm-season forage crop that grows in large volume, requires few inputs, and has a high cellulosic content. One acre of switchgrass can produce 500 gallons of ethanol. Corn? Not so much - the heavily hyped and federally subsidized production of ethanol from corn nets far less ethanol per acre. The Tennessee Cooperator, magazine of the Tennessee Farmers Cooperator reports on the project: Because it does not compete with food or feed uses, using dedicated energy crops like switchgrass to produce cellulosic biofuels may be the answer to producing affordable, domestic, renewable fuel without raising food or feed costs, said Kelly Tiller, director of operations for UT's bio-energy programs, speaking to some 150 farmers and community members who turned out for a public forum on biofuels in late August at Walters State Community College in Morristown.But - aside from the taxpayer funding to build the plant - can switchgrass really be competitive with gasoline? According to Wikipedia's entry on switchgrass, the grass "has the potential to produce the biomass required for production of up to 100 gallons (380 liters) of ethanol per metric ton [which] gives switchgrass the potential to produce 1000 gallons of ethanol per acre, compared to 665 gallons for sugarcane and 400 gallons for corn."Sounds good so far, right? However, there is debate on the viability of switchgrass, and all other biofuels, as an efficient energy source. University of California, Berkeley professor Tad Patzek argues that switchgrass has a negative ethanol fuel energy balance, requiring 45 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced. On the other side, David Bransby, professor of energy crops at Auburn University, has found that for every unit of energy input, switchgrass yields four units out. In a 2007 lecture Professor Richard Muller, also of the University of California, Berkeley, noted that it is the conversion of switchgrass biomass into ethanol which introduces significant inefficiencies.Tennessee has just bet $70 million of its taxpayers' money on finding out who is right. As for this Tennessee taxpayer, I'm still thinking algae seems a better alternative biofuel feedstock than switchgrass. Cross-posted from Ecotality Life. (Pictured: University of Tennessee Extension agent Ken Goddard in a field of switchgrass. Photo from the Tennessee Cooperator.) Update: In the comments, Martin Kennedy mentions a recent National Geographic story on the fuel potential of algae. Here's a link to an info-graphic on that magazine's website comparing various biofuels. And here's a link to the story. Local-Government Officials Seek To Gut Tennessee's Open Meetings Law
Pardon the ConstructionRegular readers will notice a few changes here at BillHobbs.com, starting with the new image across the top, and also including changes to the left and right sidebars, including a slimmed-down blogroll.
The banner image across the top is a night shot of the Shelby Street Bridge that spans the Cumberland River in downtown Nashville. It's a pedestrian-only bridge now. The picture was taken in December 2005. I've slimmed down the site's list of recommended blogs, and moved some things around on the side bars. If you ever used the Nashville Weather link, you can still find it, sans graphic, over on the right sidebar. Cool Hand PhilOn Newsbusters: Why Gov. Phil Bredesen's use of a racist slur to describe Chinese workers who built the railroads across the American West in the 1800s hasn't - and likely won't - spur a media firestorm. Venture Capital BloggingThe Boston Globe had a very interesting story in late September about venture capital firms and blogs, which I didn't see until yesterday. Scott Kirsner, who writes the paper's weekly "Innovation Economy" column focusing on entrepreneurship, technology, and venture capital in New England, reports: There's a bifurcation happening in the Boston venture capital world: Some firms blog, and some don't. And the divide isn't just about being hip to the latest trend. It signifies an important shift in the way VC firms interact with entrepreneurs.And some VC firms are finding potential companies to invest in via that conversation.
October 21, 2007Live-Blogging the GOP Presidential DebateFred08.com live-blogged the Florida Republican Presidential Debate Sunday night - in english y en espanol. Jon Henke with New Media Strategies and the Fred Thompson campaign is pretty sure it's the first time a presidential campaign ever live-blogged a debate in two languages. Lots more links to debate live-bloggage and post-debate commentary here. Net Impact 2007There's an interesting conference coming up Nov. 1-3 at Vanderbilt University's Owen School of Management at which some 1,500 MBA students and professionals will discuss how to use business to create a more "sustainable" - that is, environmentally friendly - world. It's called the Net Impact conference. Introducing... PolicyMedia.comCheck out PolicyMedia.com, a new blog from Allen Fuller at the consulting firm Flat Creek Your 2016 GOP Presidential Nominee?After running Louisiana competently for the next eight years - something Democrats have never actually managed to do in recent memory - Bobby Jindal will make a great Republican presidential nominee in 2016.
October 20, 2007Old Blog, New AddressJane Whitson's wonderfully eclectic and always entertaining blog, Webutante, has a new URL. It's webutante07.blogspot.com. Actually, Webutante moved a few months ago and I should have noted the change then.
October 19, 2007Help HopeNed Williams emailed the following message, which I wholeheartedly endorse: As you probably know, I volunteer time at Hope Clinic for Women, a ministry that began 25 years ago as a crisis pregnancy center and has expanded over the years to include not only counseling and education for women facing unplanned pregnancies but also a range of medical services--even ultrasounds. The most recent expansion of the ministry is a maternity home scheduled to open in the spring.I recognized the church Williams attends by the name of one of its pastors. It's a great church, especially if you're looking for something non-denominational and a place where God is absolutely moving to impact the world. As for Hope Clinic, I urge you to give something - we're going to - because it is a much-needed and very effective ministry. In a state where the state government, at the governor's behest, is spending $1.1 million dollars this year to subsidize the state's largest abortion mill, a place like Hope Clinic, which exists to help women avoid the tragedy of abortion, needs all the private-sector help it can get. The Scene Saves the Spelling BeeLooks like the Nashville Scene may soon be picking up the ball that The Tennessean purposely dropped as Scene editor Liz Garrigan tells WKRN's Bob Mueller the paper has applied to be the new media sponsor of the Middle Tennessee Regional Spelling Bee. Good for them. And it appears the schoolchildren of Middle Tennessee won't have to wait a year for it to happen. WKRN blogger A.C. Kleinheider has more details. WKRN will have a story tonight on the near-demise of the Middle Tennessee Regional Spelling Bee and, presumably, the Scene rescue of it. I'm told it will air during the 5 p.m. news. Kudos to WKRN for running with the story this morning after they spotted it on the blogs. Also, a big part of the credit for the saving of the Bee must go to Kay Brooks for publishing last night an email she received from the Tennessean announcing they were ending their support for the regional Spelling Bee. If Brooks hadn't shared the email on her blog, the regional Spelling Bee might have disappeared quietly this year. Instead, her post generated rapid blog and media coverage that lead quickly to a new newspaper sponsor stepping forward. In its email announcing it was dropping sponsorship of the regional Spelling Bee, the Tennessean indicated that Belmont University was interested in sponsoring it next year. But National Spelling Bee rules require the sponsor be a newspaper, so it is unclear that Belmont (or any university) could have saved the Bee. The good news is, we don't have wait a year to find out. I'm sure the Scene wouldn't mind if Belmont offered free use of the Curb Center to host it, though. Congratulations to the Scene for understanding that sometimes the cost of not spending $5,000 is higher than the cost of spending it - and for recognizing that "word nerds" and good spelling are an integral part of the core mission of a journalistic enterprise. Update: Welcome Instapunditeers! The background to this post is in the previous post this link. Becawz Thay Dont Caar if There Fyucher Reeders (an Riters) Kin Spel?Some sad news from Kay Brooks' corner of the Interweb: There won't be a Middle Tennessee Regional Spelling Bee this year, unless somebody steps up - fast - and makes it happen. Update: I didn't explain the story because I thought Kay Brooks linked to a news story about it, but turns out there hasn't been a news story about it yet - just an email announcement. The story is this: The Tennessean, which has sponsored the Middle Tennessee Regional Spelling Bee for more than a decade, is dropping its sponsorship this year because, the paper says, a competition designed to encourage kids to be better spellers doesn't fit with the paper's core mission. Which means that, as of now, there's not going to be a Middle Tennessee Regional Spelling Bee this year. Which means no kids from Middle Tennessee will have a chance to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in May 2008. I don't have any more details. I don't know when the Middle Tennessee Regional Spelling Bee was to be held. I don't know what it costs to sponsor it. I don't even know who are the organizers of the regional bee are, to ask those questions. But as I see it, though, two things need to happen: First, the Nashville media need to report on the demise of the Middle Tennessee Regional Spelling Bee. Second, some organization or group of organizations should step up and pony up the money to have the Spelling Bee this year - and be the heroes that saved the Bee. Update #2: The Scripps National Spelling Bee website, SpellingBee.com, says: Sponsorship is available on a limited basis to daily and weekly newspapers serving English-speaking populations around the world. Each sponsor organizes a spelling bee program in its community with the cooperation of area school officials: public, private, parochial, charter, virtual, and home schools.I'm not sure how that fits with the mention in the Tennessean email, which Brooks reprints, that Belmont University is interested in sponsoring the Bee next year. What about The City Paper or the Nashville Scene? According to a USA Today story published several months ago, it doesn't cost all that much to sponsor the regional bee: Newspapers have slashed costs as they have lost advertisers and readers to new media, including the Internet. Money from newspapers, which once covered almost all of the national bee's $2 million annual cost, now covers only 35%, says Paige Kimble, director of the national organization.The ProJo's decision to stop sponsoring the regional bee angered many in its newsroom. The Boston alt-weekly The Phoenix reported on the story back in January, noting drily that the ProJo's decision to drop the sponsorship "has gone unreported in Rhode Island's newspaper of record." ABC televised last year's National Spelling Bee - and drew 14 million viewers. Thanks in part to the excellent movie Akeelah and the Bee (starring Lawrence Fishburne, Angela Bassett and newcomer Keke Palmer - rent it today!), the Spelling Bee is pop culture now. And it costs only $900 to be sponsor of the regional bee, the rest of that $5,000 that the Rhode Island paper spent obviously was for organizational and promotional costs, which I'd think a savvy media sponsor could recoup through creative programming and smart marketing tie-ins. Maybe even stage the event at the Sommet Center or the new symphony hall, toss in some entertainment around the edges, and charge a small admission fee. Update: At least one local non-blog media outlet is covering the story for the evening news. If I ran a local daily that wanted to score some easy PR points, I'd announce - tomorrow - that my paper was going to save the Bee. Late Friday Update: The Bee is being saved Bredesen Uses Offensive Ethnic SlurGov. Phil Bredesen used an offensive ethnic slur to describe Chinese workers who built the railroads across the American West in the 1800s, in a dispatch sent from Beijing and published in two Tennessee newspapers. Don't his PR folks or someone in his staff review the stuff he writes before it goes out? Watch It While You CanSee the video that Dallas television station KDFW is trying to suppress. Breitbart.tv has a good discussion of the ethics of KDFW reporter Rebecca Aquilar's story and her behavior toward her subject. Monetizing MemphisThe Memphis Flyer explores the flap over "monetizing content" at the Memphis Commercial Appeal.
October 18, 2007On the Verge of Victory?Rich Galen says, "We may be sneaking up on victory in Iraq." Compassionate Conservatism IndeedJeff Cornwall comments on some research into the relationship between entrepreneurship and charitable giving, and exposes some myths, in the wake of an appearance on campus by Dr. Arthur Brooks of Syracuse University, author of the new book Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism. One interesting but not-very-surprising conclusion: "Conservative Americans give much more than liberal Americans." I can immediately think of two reasons why it isn't much of a surprise that politically conservative Americans tend to be more charitable than politically liberal Americans. (I'm speaking of each as a group, not saying there aren't stingy conservatives or generous liberals.) Reason number one is, politically liberal Americans tend to believe charity to be a primary role of government, to be supported by high tax rates. Reason number two is the prominence of the Religious Right in conservative politics - politically conservative Christians attend church more regularly than liberals, and often attend conservative Christian churches that stress the Biblical concept of tithing - giving 10 percent of your income. As Brooks' book description puts it, "Arthur Brooks, a top scholar of economics and public policy, has spent years researching this trend, and even he was surprised by what he found. In Who Really Cares, he demonstrates conclusively that conservatives really are compassionate-far more compassionate than their liberal foes. Strong families, church attendance, earned income (as opposed to state-subsidized income), and the belief that individuals, not government, offer the best solution to social ills-all of these factors determine how likely one is to give." Cha...Cha...Cha...ChangesEleven days from now I start my new full-time job as communications director for the Tennessee Republican Party, and some folks have asked if I'm going to continue blogging here after I do. The answer is yes, with some changes. The nature of what I write about here will be changing (and in the near term I likely won't be blogging much at all given that I'll be rather busy getting a new media-and-blog relations effort up and rolling at the TN GOP). Also, once I join the staff of the state GOP, I will of course need to be publicly neutral in primary races, which means the Fred Thompson fund-raiser box you've seen over there at the top of the left sidebar will be coming down in the next few days. I do plan on continuing to blog occasionally at the non-political Ecotality Life blog, where I write about developments in "green" technology. I also remain on the roster of contributers to NewsBusters.org, though I suspect I won't be overly active there due to time constraints. I've been writing this blog since November 30, 2001, with only one hiatus of any appreciable length, more than five and half years of writing totaling more than 7,800 posts (a few dozen of which were written by guest-bloggers). While I don't see myself writing this blog forever, I also don't see myself hanging it up any time soon. How this blog evolves, though, remains to be seen. See No Evil
Perhaps Rinks was too busy paying his personal bills with campaign funds (including, illegally, his Nashville City Club dues) and passing laws to benefit his own pockets to notice.
October 17, 2007Denying RealityThe Holocaust happened, yet even today there are Holocaust Deniers. The Soviet Union stood for decades implacably committed to the defeat of the West and the conquest of the world to Soviet-style communism, and for decades it made military advances. Some denied the threat existed. Others were useful idiots whose naivete or complicity helped the enemy. Islamofascism, likewise, exists, and has declared its intent - and begun making moves - to establish a global 13th-Century-style Islamic caliphate based on sharia law. It is absolutely bent on destroying the state of Israel. And yet there are those who deny that there is any such thing as an Islamofascist threat. The writer of the piece at Lean Left makes a huge mistake, though, in generalizing that "Islamofascism" is really just "hatred of brown-skinned non-Christians" by politically right-wing Christians. On the contrary. Those of us who believe Islamofascism exists and is a real threat supported the liberation of some 25 million Afghanis from its grip - the Taliban were manifestly both radically Islamic and fascist - and also supported the liberation of some 50 million Iraqis and the continued military efforts to keep them free of domination by al Qaeda in Iraq, which also is manifestly both radically Islamic and fascist. While the writer at Lean Left portrays "Islamofascism" as a "meme cooked up by right-wingers" - and primarily right-wing Christians who hate Muslims - you will find significant support in the Christian Right in America for U.S. efforts over the years to protect the Iraqi Kurds - who are Muslims. 9/11 makes it obvious there is an Islamofascist threat. It is silly to argue otherwise. It is also silly to play math games, as Lean Left does, and claim that even with the 9/11 attack factored in that Islamic-based terrorism doesn't kill many Americans. Does the writer at Lean Left really think that, had we not responded to the 9/11 attack, it would have been a one-off deal? That al Qaeda would not have launched a next attack, and a next attack, and a next? Lean Left says, "The likelihood of any given American being harmed by a terrorist attack, in terms of historical trends, is vastly smaller than the risk of many perfectly ordinary harmful events that we take for granted. Even taking 9/11 into account, terrorism is at the bottom of any list of significant harms to US citizens." Let's consider that logic for a moment and apply it to another historical event, 60 years earlier, about which the Lean Left blogger might have written: "The likelihood of any given American being harmed by a Japanese attack, in terms of historical trends, is vastly smaller than the risk of many perfectly ordinary harmful events that we take for granted. Even taking Dec. 7, 1941, into account, the Japanese military is at the bottom of any list of significant harms to US citizens."Absurd, of course, that attack on Pearl Harbor represented a new threat, not merely an abberration in a decades long data trend. Likewise, the September 11 attack was not an outlier - rather, it was a sudden increase in the pace of killing of we "infidels" by the Islamofacists. That it has not continued is because we chose to fight back, militarily and with enhanced intel and law enforcement efforts. To be sure, we can debate the exact extent of the threat from radical Islam and the proper response to it. We can even debate whether the threat is truly "fascist" or merely some other form of oppressive tyranny. Does it really matter if the enemy are "Islamofacists" or "Islamonazies" or "Islamocommies" if the end result of them winning is we're dead or forced to live under sharia law? No. But we have to call the threat something - if only to make clear that the threat isn't from all followers of Islam, merely from a radical, tyrannical subset group within the Islamic world. Lean Left would prefer to portray right-wingers who talk about Islamofascism as just bigoted against brown-skinned non-Christians because it makes it easier to attack right-wingers and Christians rather than talk about the true nature, goals and capabilities of our enemy. But the charge is both absurd and, to tell the truth, offensive in the extreme. P.S. Oct. 22-26 is Islamofascism Awareness Week on college campuses across America. Enviroblogging
Four news dispatches from the intersection of environmental issues and the market-economy that will solve them.
October 16, 2007GreenovationAmong my recent posts at Ecotality Life: Why the corporate "green" push may survive an economic slowdown, and why Europe lags the U.S. in green-tech venture capital investing. Plus these headlines: Sprint Runs Toward Alt-Energy for Cell Network Click here. Protectionism At Its Worst
FlickrifficIf you're a photographer - even an amateur photographer with decent skills - you should have a Flickr page. Why? Well, today I got an email from someone with the publisher of the Lonely Planet travel guides asking for a high-res version of a photo that I put on my Flickr page nearly two years ago, for possible inclusion in the next edition of their USA guidebook. I've often wished I'd gone into photojournalism instead of reporting, plus there's (a little) money involved if they use it, so I'm quite pleased with the opportunity - an opportunity that couldn't have happened without a social-media platform like Flickr allowing an amateur photographer like myself to share my photos globally.
October 15, 2007Healthy CompetitionA Tennessee judge has issued a ruling limiting the supply of health care for the people of Spring Hill, Tennessee, and the surrounding communities. Frankly, I fail to see how limiting the supply of health care is likely to either help improve quality or lower costs.
October 14, 2007Not the First Time
October 13, 2007Red Truck
At the Biltmore
October 12, 2007Google Rejects Anti-MoveOn.org AdsGoogle is refusing to run ads critical of MoveOn.org from the re-election campaign of U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. Lance Dutson has the details.
October 11, 2007Briley/Naifeh Update
The $95,000 Question
If the TREF treats the multiple transfers as a single reporting violation and fines Cooper just $10,000, it will mean that Cooper comes out ahead by $85,004. If they were to fine him $10,000 for each of eight quarterly campaign finance filings that doesn't properly report the transfers, he would still come out about $15,000 ahead. The TREF should fine Sen. Cooper at least $95,004 - and, preferably, the maximum of $10,000 per transfer - $240,000 - and should, if possible, prohibit Cooper from paying the fine with yet more money out of his campaign account. And in the next General Assembly, legislators who care about ethics need to pass legislation to raise the maximum fine to at least the amount of money improperly transferred. For, under current law, if Cooper had transferred all of the $95,000 via a single check, there's no way the TREF could fine him more than $10,000. Meanwhile, the questions I raised a few weeks ago still need answers: Isn't skimming money from one's campaign fund and putting it in your personal account a crime? Doesn't it amount to embezzlement? Didn't Cooper, essentially, defraud his campaign donors? In short, did Cooper's 24 transfers of campaign funds to his personal account violate criminal statutes?
October 10, 2007Tennessee GOP Slams Naifeh's "Culture of Corruption"
Briley's relationship with Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association, which the Scene said was "common knowledge" at the Capitol, only came to the public's attention after Briley's arrest on charges including drunk driving and leaving the scene of an accident after Briley led police on a long, drunken, high-speed chase through Wilson County. The Tennessee GOP press release follows... NAIFEH CONTINUES CULTURE OF CORRUPTION IN STATE CAPITOLFull disclosure: I am scheduled to become the Tennessee Republican Party's full-time communications director on Oct. 29. And, yes, I'm looking forward to it. No RegretsDelivered by UPS today: Regret the Error: How Media Mistakes Pollute the Press and Imperil Free Speech, by Montreal newspaper columnist Craig Silverman, with a forward by Jeff Jarvis. I look forward to reading it. I've mentioned Silverman and his book and fantastic blog, RegretTheError.com, before: Regret the Error, August 9, 2007 Nailing Briley ... and Naifeh
Beyond Briley's personal ethical/moral failing exposed by his cheating on his wife, the relationship with Littleton is itself a ethical black hole given that Briley chaired a legislative committee that had the power of life or death over legislation affecting the organization Littleton lobbies for. And now Jeff Woods of the Scene pinpoints specific legislation that the trial lawyers wanted killed, and Briley killed, while he was involved with Littleton. Until now, it has gone unreported in the media that, as his personal life disintegrated, Briley was having an affair with a lobbyist named Mary Littleton. Their relationship was common knowledge at the Capitol and eyebrow-raising even among its jaded denizens - not because of personal impropriety but because Littleton lobbies for the state trial lawyers association and Briley, as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, controlled legislation important to her employer. Notably, Briley tacked on amendments that effectively killed a Senate-passed medical malpractice reform bill, a primary target of the trial lawyers during this year's legislative session.Here's a question: if it was "common knowledge" at Legislative Plaza that the head of the House Judiciary Committee was killing bills that his lobbyist-lover's employer wanted killed, why didn't the media inform the people? And why didn't House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, or Littleton's employer, the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association, step in? They, too, acted grossly unethically in this matter. Woods writes: These friends, who ask not to be named, blame the Capitol's well-publicized culture of sleaze for contributing to Briley's troubles. They question why House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh never intervened to stop Briley's affair with Littleton - a volatile, on-again, off-again relationship they say destabilized the tormented young politician. But it's hard to imagine Naifeh objecting, given that the speaker himself romanced his now-wife Betty Anderson, a lobbyist, in the 1990s....The Scene story makes clear that not all trial lawyers approve of how their association handled the Briley-Littleton affair. And, it's worth noting, even if the Briley-Littleton affair was common knowledge at Legislative Plaza, that doesn't mean everybody who works there thought it was a-ok. I recently received an email from a legislative staffer, whose name I won't reveal, commenting on the Briley-Littleton affair. The email starts with some very good questions. How is it ethical for the married chairman of the Judiciary Committee to have an affair with the top lobbyist for the Trial Lawyers while they are trying to pass and kill bills he controls?It is crystal clear that, for ethical reasons, Briley should have stepped down from the Judiciary committee if he was intent on having an affair with Littleton. What is is equally clear is that House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh cares far more about power than ethics. There's no other explanation for why he would install as chairman of the Judiciary committee an ethically-compromised legislator involved with the lobbyist of a key special interest group most interested in what that committee does. For his own health, Briley ought to resign from the legislature. For the health of politics, government and public ethics in Tennessee, Naifeh ought to resign as well. But that unlikely. And the Scene story ends with an indictment of the culture of sleaze and corruption that characterizes Jimmy Naifeh's House of Representatives. It's doubtful that Briley's crack-up will curb bad behavior at the legislature. The House leadership isn't showing any inclination to act in any way against the troubled lawmaker. He resigned as Judiciary Committee chairman only after Gov. Phil Bredesen said he should. House Republican leaders have demanded Briley's resignation, but Naifeh hasn't said much, except to call the GOP comments "pretty low-life." Still, some of Briley's friends are holding out hope that his travails might at least do some good by leading to reform. As one asks, "Have they all become so pathetic that they think this kind of stuff is OK?"Sadly, under the leadership of Jimmy Naifeh, the answer is yes. The irony in all this is, the biggest low-life in the story sits in the highest seat of power in the House. Debating FredI didn't watch yesterday's Republican presidential debate, but VolunteerVoters.com has a good list of links to various media and blog commentary on it, especially focused on the performance of Fred Thompson. 20 Years Ago Versus Now
Brock does not have a DUI conviction on his record. Here are the facts: Brock, who is now 44, was arrested in 1987 at age 20 and charged with under-age drinking and drunk driving.He was convicted in Chattanooga City Court, but appealed the case to the Hamilton County Criminal Court, where the conviction - and the charge - were dismissed. The most important fact: It all happened 20 years ago, And, besides, it's not like he was driving drunk, fleeing the scene of an accident and leading police on a high-speed chase - putting the lives of countless Tennesseans at risk - while serving as the Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Commission, overseeing a pending overhaul of the state's drunk-driving laws, while having an affair with the chief lobbyist for the state's trial lawyers or anything like that... To recap: Republican state Senate candidate Oscar Brock, 2007: Democratic state Rep. Rob Briley, 2007: Democratic state Rep. Rob Briley, 2007, on video:
October 9, 2007A Vote for Berke is a Vote for Higher Health Care Costs
Four years after Texas voters approved a constitutional amendment limiting awards in medical malpractice lawsuits, doctors are responding as supporters predicted, arriving from all parts of the country to swell the ranks of specialists at Texas hospitals and bring professional health care to some long-underserved rural areas.Medical malpractice reform by capping non-economic damages makes health care more available and less costly. Yet last spring medical malpractice reform died in the Tennessee legislature thanks to Democrats doing the bidding of the liability lawyers' lobby - even though Democrats claim to want to make health care more accessible and less costly. Why? Because capping non-economic damages in medical malpractice suits means reducing the future incomes of trial lawyers - and trial lawyers are a huge source of campaign contributions for Democrats. Now the Democrats have nominated a trial lawyer to fill the open state Senate seat of ex-Sen. Ward Crutchfield, another Democrat lawyer who resigned August 6 after pleading guilty to taking a bribe. The special election to fill the 10th district seat in the state Senate is Nov. 15. Medical malpractice reform is vitally important in Tennessee in order to make health care more accessible and less costly. Will a Democratic trial lawyer vote for medical malpractice reform? Not likely. A vote for Andy Berke is in all likelihood a vote for higher health care costs. It's also a vote for higher taxes or less health care coverage for people on Tennessee's TennCare rolls because, as health care costs rise, either taxes will have to be increased or TennCare's benefits package will have to be cut in order to keep the TennCare budget balanced.
Posted by Bill in Tennessee Government News. Permalink
ConvergeSouth, and BlogWorld ExpoThis year's ConvergeSouth is once again drawing close. It's Oct. 19-20 in Greensboro, N.C. Sadly, this will be the third year in a row that I've missed it, although this year's conference agenda seems less applicable to my new job than previous editions of the popular social-media conference. I am still trying to find a way (i.e. find a financial donor) to get to BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas in early November. 10th District Senate Race: Berke Is Part of the Problems He Says He Wants to Help Solve
Berke, who faces Chattanooga businessman Oscar Brock in the Nov. 15 special election, lists jobs and health care as being "important issues," but recent research into the impact of trial lawyers like Berke on the American economy suggests that Berke comes from the wrong profession to adequately address those issues. Berke currently serves as president of the Chattanooga Trial Lawyers Association and previously served as a member of the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association Board of Governors, as well as a member of the American Trial Lawyers Association. Trial lawyer money is fueling his campaign - even as both the state and national trial lawyers associations lately have become so embarrassed by their bad reputations that they've quietly changed their names. The truth is, when it comes to jobs and health care, trial lawyers are part of the problems that Berke claims to want to address if elected to the state Senate. Trial lawyers and the out-of-control legal system have greatly escalated health care costs, contributed to the number of uninsured Americans, destroyed jobs and even cost lives. As Kevin Hassett, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute wrote in July 2005, in a commentary about John Roberts' nomination to be Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court: Our legal system has turned into a monstrosity that makes the U.S. the laughingstock of the world legal community. | ||||||||||
News media looking for a copy of the lawsuit filed Oct. 12 in Davidson County Chancery Court against Gov. Phil Bredesen and certain current or former members of his administration alleging federal racketeering and civil rights violations can download a copy of the lawsuit by clicking 
Perhaps the TREF isn't looking to let Cooper off with a slap on the wrist - it could be that the AP story simply leaves out some important details. The AP story doesn't mention it, but the records show that Sen. Cooper took the money via 24 separate checks, over a two year period. The AP story also doesn't mention that under state law Cooper could be fined a maximum of $10,000 for each improperly reported transfer. 
