Ty Cobb Isn't Enough of a Dick

That appears to be the message coming from GOP Chair Chris Devaney who is pissed off that Rep. Ty Cobb prefers to call "illegal aliens" by a less dickish term like "undocumented citizens":

“The people of District 64 aren’t looking for a representative whose focus on illegal immigration remains on the most politically correct way to talk about the issue,” continued Devaney. “They want a representative who will enforce illegal immigration laws and protect jobs in Maury County – a county plagued by an unemployment rate of nearly 15 percent. The candidate who will work toward those goals is Republican Sheila Butt who believes we have to fight back against illegal immigration in Tennessee.”

Really? Was it Sheila Butt who has been working for the past two years to get GM jobs back to Spring Hill? No, I do believe she was too busy writing books that try to get her and your kids to hate gay people.

Regardless, while "undocumented citizens" may not be the most correct term ("undocumented aliens," "undocumented residents," or "unauthorized aliens" might be slightly more correct), trying to take the pejoratives out of the debate and focus on the issues at hand rather than trying to demonize a group of people just trying to feed their families is always a better approach to governing than the alternative hate-mongering tact taken by the GOP.

Defending The Stimulus, What a Novel Concept...

Chairman Chip goes to bat for the bill that has saved and created jobs in this state, while updating our deteriorating schools and roads:

Forrester pointed out that the entire Republican congressional delegation from Tennessee voted against the Recovery Act last year, a package that has committed $6 billion in federal funding to help the state create or retain more than 10,000 jobs and provide much-needed infrastructure improvements. Included in that funding package is $500 million in Race to the Top funds helping Tennessee complete a comprehensive reform of its schools.

“It is shameful that each of them has the audacity to come back home and take credit for the very projects they voted against,” Forrester said of the state’s Republican congressional delegation.

“Whether it’s a new $11 million school construction project over in Hamblen County or a $483 million investment at the Spring Hill General Motors plant to create 500 jobs, Republicans want to take credit for it. If that isn’t the ultimate example of hypocrisy, I don’t know what is.”

Haslam Collecting Bredesenites Like They Were Baseball Cards

Well, Mike McWherter got former Ag Commissioner Ken Givens, and it looks like Bill Haslam gets everyone else. A slew of former Bredesen Administration officials have come out of the wood-work to back the Mayor of Knoxville including:

Two former Revenue Commissioners, Reagan Farr and Loren Chumley.

Four former policy advisers, Drew Kim, Robert Gowan, Patrick Smith and Will Pinkston.

One former Education Commissioner, Lana Seivers.

One former Deputy of Commerce and Insurance Commissioner Scott White.

One Former Department of Childrens' Services Legislative Liason, Emily Ogden

Somewhat puzzling on the list is Democratic contributor and Restaurateur Randy Rayburn, who backed Haslam despite his support for Guns in Bars legislation, which Rayburn has been the most vocal opponent of.

Six Degrees of Mahmoud Ahmadenijad

"Our next Governor" Mike McWherter's campaign had a bombshell of an announcement today in their effort to shine a little light on Bill Haslam. It appears that in addition to single-handedly leading the effort to price-gouge defenseless old women who needed gas to go see their grand-children, Mr. Haslam also has deep ties to Mad Mahmoud Ahmadenijad. Here is a disturbing graphic to illustrate this connection:



You see, its all rather simple. Bill Haslam, along with the rest of his family, own stock in Pilot Corporation, the company Papa Haslam set up a few decades ago to sell cigarettes, booze and porn to little kids all across America. A few years back, Pilot sold some shares of the company to CVC Capital Partners, a global private equity firm. CVC also holds shares in a chemical company called Evonik, a global company which specializes in chemicals and energy. Evonik openly admits that they have done business in Iran, even boasting about it:

Evonik is a global market and technology leader in DL-methionine, an essential amino acid for healthy and environment-friendly nutrition of livestock, especially poultry. Growth drivers of this attractive market are the rapidly growing young middle-class and industrialization of local meat production. The main markets are Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Morocco.

What they don't say is that DL-methionine is a key component in creating nuclear bombs!*

So, clearly, as the evidence shows Bill Haslam would be a threat to both Tennessee and the United States if he were to become our next Governor. Don't make that mistake Tennessee. Don't let Ahmadenijad win.

*claim not necessarily true...

Trickle Down Economics and the Dems Who Love It

Trickle-down economics, or supply side economics, apparently has a cult following among certain members of the Democratic caucus, including our own Jim Cooper.

In a letter to San Fran Nan, the blue dog Democrats urge their Speaker to consider legislation to extend all of the 2001 Bush tax cuts, including those going to the wealthiest Americans. They further request that the tax cuts for the wealthiest few not violate PAYGO rules by using remaining stimulus funds to make up the added cost to the deficit that giving someone who makes $250K or more a year would entail.

Quite frankly, I agree. They should be allowed to vote on a tax cut package for their best contributors, but it shouldn't be attached to the Middle Class tax cuts, it should be a separate bill. After all, tax cuts for the middle class could be justified by elevating the downward pressure on wages that many of us have felt during the course of this recession...while those making a taxable income of $250K or $300K a year can most likely get by unscathed unless they made some piss poor financial planning decisions over the years.

Now, I'll be honest, eventually I'd like to see all but the tax cuts on those making $25K or less to be eliminated. Eventually we're gonna have to increase revenues and decrease spending to tackle the debt, and I don't imagine that we can put all that burden on the wealthiest few. But for temporary relief, it makes sense to focus on those who actually need to be relieved of a burden, not needlessly adding to the deficit, or taking away funds that could be used to actually create jobs, so that Mr. Von Hammerschmidt can buy a 75' yacht instead of a 70' one.

One other thing, we are talking TAXABLE INCOME here people. That someone "makes $250K" is irrelevant if they then deduct from that their little ankle-biters and the mortgage on that McMansion. So, when a NY Congressman complains of people living paycheck to paycheck on $300K a year, my question would be A) is that taxable income or is that gross pay; and B) if its the former then I seriously suggest a financial management course would be a better solution than using stimulus funds to pay for their tax cuts.

No Dirty Hippy Love For Sen. Henry

The Tennessee Conservation Voters have released their 2010 rankings for state legislators. Half of the Democratic caucus got a score of four or better, with Beverly Marrero and Andy Berke leading the pack. Sen. Henry, who heavily touted his endorsement by the TCV Political Action Committee, got a score of one, which is tied for the lowest of any Democrat.

On the House side, Mike Stewart leads the pack with a score of seven, or three and a half trees, and the lowest score went to soon-to-be-former Representative Susan Lynn.

You're The One Who Is Gonna Be Governor

Jeff Woods baits the hook, Bill Haslam bites...

Clinton Lies About Haslam

Bill Clinton spoke to a rain soaked crowd last night outside the Downtown Hilton about the man, the myth, the legend, "our next Governor" Mike McWherter. In speaking of Governor-to-be McWherter, he said is the only candidate with a plan to create jobs was the man standing near him.

This is not true. Bill Haslam has a plan to create jobs, we talked about it on the blog back in April when it was announced. His super-duper-magnificent plan involves hiring a couple of people to create a website that already exists.

Yes, Haslam went to the trouble of calling for his administration to create "Statewide Jobs Clearinghouse" website that was long ago created by the Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

Update:

Also, in his "Jobs 4 TN" plan, Haslam thinks its important to remind you that he will "Steadfastly support the rights of the unborn," "work to preserve traditional marriage," and "stand strong for the Second Amendment." Because, clearly, Tennessee's unemployment problem stems from our lack of newborn babies and the possibility that when they grow up they might be able to marry the person they love.

There Is No Maybe About It

The Federal Government absolutely killed innocent Americans at Ruby Ridge.

Phil Williams takes Robocall David Hall to task for working at his father's television station in Oklahoma, a station that produced low-grade "documentaries" about events such as Ruby Ridge and Waco. About the former, Williams says:

It paints a sympathetic portrait of Weaver's family, while casting the federal agents as the villains. A website for the video calls the standoff a "Gestapo-type siege."

NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked David Hall, "Do you believe that the U.S. government committed murder at Ruby Ridge?"

"I do not know," the candidate answered. "I have never watched that video.

Its pretty simple here. The Federal Government essentially entrapped Weaver into making and selling them a couple of sawed off shotguns, they then used those pending gun charges to try and flip him into becoming a snitch on his friends in the Aryan movement...when that didn't work, they harassed him and treated him like a terrorist, spending tens of thousands of dollars on surveillance. This ultimately ended up in a situation where the Government killed the man's dog, his son, his unarmed wife, and shot him and his friend. All on his own property, all without simply trying to knock on the freaking door to serve a warrant.

Eventually a jury agreed that the Federal Government's case was piss-poor, which resulted in an acquittal on all but two relatively minor gun charges and a multi-million dollar settlement in Weaver's favor. They even had to reach a settlement with a guy who shot and killed a Federal agent because they screwed the pooch so royally.

On the other topic of Waco, Hall's answer is pretty sound:

NC5: "Do you believe the U.S. government killed the Branch Davidians?"
Hall: "There, again, I don't have enough information to gauge on that. I really don't know."
NC5: "You're a politically aware man."
Hall: "Sure."
NC5: "Do you believe the U.S. government intentionally killed the Branch Davidians?"
Hall: "I don't think the U.S. government intentionally killed the Branch Davidians, nor do I think George Bush was responsible for 9/11. I think that those are extreme statements by extreme people. I do not fall in line with those people."

Did the Federal government intentionally kill the Branch Davidians? No, but they sure as hell caused many of their deaths. And you don't have to go to some grainy half-assed documentary to find this out, HBO had an award winning documentary which came to pretty much the same conclusion.

Is David Hall on the fringe of American politics? Almost definitely...and I'm not really buying his claims that he knew pretty much nothing of his father and sister's documentaries; but Waco and Ruby Ridge, even though they might have involved some unsavory people, are perfectly good examples of law enforcement run amok and the dangers of unlimited federal police power.

No Income Tax = More Jobs

Bill Haslam has a new ad out in which he extols the virtues of not having an income tax by explaining how, as a business man, he knows the value that being in a state without an income tax has. Of course, I'm inclined to take Mr. Haslam's vast business experience at face value, but those damned pesky numbers keep getting in the way. Here are a list of the states that have no income tax on labor, followed by their unemployment rate:

Alaska - 7.7%
Florida - 11.5%
Nevada - 14.3%
New Hampshire - 5.8%
South Dakota - 4.4%
Tennessee - 9.8%
Texas - 8.2%
Washington - 8.9%
Wyoming - 6.7%

The national unemployment rate is at 9.6%, meaning that Tennessee, Florida, and Nevada are all above the national average; while the other states are below. But is that a function of the income tax? Well, North Dakota has a 3.6% unemployment rate and an income tax, whereas South Dakota has a 4.4% UI rate and no income tax. If Haslam's logic were to follow, shouldn't those jobs be flowing south?

There is no doubt that tax rates can have an effect on a state's economy. Oppressively high tax rates can cause labor and business to flow out...but whether that tax rate is in the form of an income tax or a sales tax doesn't always seem to matter. Both Rhode Island and Massachusetts have income taxes, but Rhode Island's is demonstrably higher, which may have an effect on their higher unemployment rate. States like Vermont and New Hampshire employ different forms of taxation, but both have relatively low tax burdens and as such their unemployment ratings are nearly the same.

Tennessee has had one of the lowest tax burdens, some rankings put us in the bottom five, for many years...but we also lag in certain areas such as education, which results in a job picture that at best closely follows the national average, but by no means shows up the rest of the country.

If we were to restructure our tax code in a manner that allowed for a slightly higher tax burden but a measurably better educational system we could perhaps see more job dividends paid out than to simply keep trying to lower our tax burden with no realized gains.

Fred Phelps Finds Competition

It appears that the controversy over the 1400 year old religion of Islam has created a competitor to the "God Hates Fags" preacher Fred Phelps in the form of Rev. Terry Jones who is proclaiming September 11th, "International Burn a Koran Day". Unlike Phelps though, whose protests are annoying, offensive and repulsive, though ultimately rather harmless...Rev. Jones could in fact put Americans abroad in harms way:

General Petraeus spoke out against plans by a Florida church to burn copies of the Koran to mark the anniversary of the September 11 attacks. "It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort," said Petraeus. "It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems. Not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community."

On the ironically named Dove World Outreach Center's website they list ten reasons to burn a Koran. Here they are (my summary).

1) It teaches that Jesus is not the Son of God, rather just a measly Messiah and a Prophet. Which is funny because Jews believe something similar (perhaps not even going as far as Muslims) and yet the Church seems to wrap their arms around Israel.

2) "It is not holy. It's writings are human in origin, a concoction of old and new teachings." True, very true...but then again, the New Testament is a collection of letters and books written decades and perhaps over a century after Jesus died. Hence there are four accounts of Jesus from four different points of view, one of which (John) is markedly different from the others.

3) "The Koran's teaching includes Arabian idolatry, paganism, rites and rituals." Perhaps true, but many Christian traditions have origins in Roman paganism...including Christmas which just happens to fall on the Winter Solstice (though, Christmas isn't really biblical).

4) "The earliest writings that are known to exist about the Prophet Mohammad were recorded 120 years after his death." Well, except of course for the Koran, which was (supposedly) written by Muhammad. As for the dearth of writings on Muhammad, that could also be in part because he forbade his followers from worshiping him...in essence, he was supposed to be a vessel for God, not someone to be venerated as a demi-god.

5) Muhammad can't be respected because he did some bad shit along the way. Unlike God who throughout the Bible doesn't reign down sulfur and brimstone on those that defy him...

6) Islamic law, when followed out from a conservative orthodox perspective, is repressive and irrational. Unlike Christianity whose periods of theocracies such as the Middle Ages were bastions of reason and logic such as the Spanish Inquisition or Witch burnings.

7) "Islam is not compatible with democracy and human rights." See #6. All religions (especially the Abrahamic ones), when taken to their literal extremes, are incompatible with secular human rights as we've come to know them in the West, Islam is no different.

8) "A Muslim does not have the right to change his religion." And yet, plenty do.

9) "Deep in the Islamic teaching and culture is the irrational fear and loathing of the West." Funny, there seems to be a deep and irrational fear of secular liberalism by many of the Conservative Christians like Rev. Terry.

10) "Islam is a weapon of Arab imperialism and Islamic colonialism. Wherever Islam has or gains political power, Christians, Jews and all non-Moslems receive persecution, discrimination, are forced to convert." Negative good sir. In fact, if you go to Iran, which is a Muslim Theocracy, they have Christian churches and Jewish Synagogues throughout the country, many of which are in the capitol of Tehran. Granted, if you belong to a religion "not of the book" such as Zoroastrianism or something like that, you are more likely to get persecuted, but Islam (perhaps not the Wahhabi variety) does teach respect for anyone who purports to follow the God of Abraham.

Now, having said all this, it bares pointing out that Rev. Terry and his followers are well within their rights to burn the Qu'ran, so long as they are properly following local fire codes. While this could hurt our image in the areas our image matters most, we can't stop them any more than they can stop a group of Muslims from building a community center in Manhattan. If people overseas don't understand our concepts of Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion, then we should perhaps try and do a better job of explaining that.

Operation GOP Shakedown

The Republican effort to scare companies and lobbyists into eliminating support for Democrats continues in a two front campaign. On the one hand, the GOP has an anonymously posted blog in which they attack lobbyists who are also Democrats. One shining example is Randy Button, the former TNDP Chairman, who is shockingly a Democrat who shockingly gives money to other Democrats.

In order to overcome his Democratic ways, he brought on a Republican to join his firm. Back in January of 2009 Randy made some news when Ron Ramsey had claimed that Button had given his caucus $10k, which wasn't accurate as his clients were the ones to donate, but I find it interesting that the Republicans back in '09 were so eager to get in good with the Democratic lobbyists, but now they have a full fledged effort to blacklist them from politics in Tennessee.

While this blog is the more public front of their campaign, it appears the GOP is pushing the message in private too. According to Tom Humphrey the Republicans are holding meetings with lobbyists to inform them of rosy polls assuring GOP victory in the House and telling them that "[t]he train is leaving the station and you'd better get aboard or be left behind."

Haley Barbour Thinks You Are Retarded

That is the only thing I can take away from defense of the GOP entrenchment in the South as having nothing to do with segregation and his claim that "[m]y generation who went to integrated schools — I went to integrated college, um, never thought twice about it."

Right...so, let me get this straight. Haley Barbour, who was born in 1947, "never thought twice" about segregation?

Despite the fact that he grew up in Yazoo City which didn't integrate until 1970 after over a decade of saying "go fuck yourself" to the Supreme Court and black Mississippians. The same Yazoo city whose newspapers posted the names of black petitioners who in 1955 requested their kids be allowed to go to the better white schools, and who were subsequently terrorized into submission.

Despite the fact that Barbour went to the University of Mississippi whose first black student in 1962, James Meredith, had to be followed around by armed national guards for the two semesters he could stomach the harassment and intimidation by his fellow white students.

I'm supposed to believe that just two years after the first black person was allowed grudgingly and with the accompaniment of riots onto the Ole Miss' campus, that somehow a sense of racial harmony took over the campus to the extent that Haley Barbour, a politically active student, didn't even think about it? Come...the...fuck...on.

I mean, I'll grant that it wasn't an entirely racist march to the GOP...people of Barbour's generation had a good 100 years to get over The War of Northern Aggression and saw a national Democratic party who embraced dirty hippies, peaceniks, labor unions, blacks and women and didn't see their Southern Conservative ideology meshing. But to pretend as if it wasn't even an issue for him and his generation is patently absurd. Mississippi is still racist as hell in 2010. Better? Sure, but its not the kumbaya bastion of equality and integration that would tend to create a racially blind politician like Barbour would seem to imply he is.

Don't Cry For Lowe Just Yet

The Jackson Sun delves into the race for the Senate District 27 seat currently held by Lowe Finney and being challenged by former Senator and back-stabber Don McLeary.

Evans said there is no evidence, so far, that the state Republican Party has come forward to back McLeary financially, leaving the former UT-Martin football coach with a campaign coffer of $23,352 as of July's end.

Finney, who is a distant cousin to former Gov. Ned Ray McWherter, has $157,357.

But Evans said Finney also lacks the financial and political clout of his state's Democratic Party. He said state Democrats have abandoned the idea of putting a Democrat in the governor's office or keeping majority control of the state Senate. Their focus now, Evans said, is to maintain a majority in the state House, which, if lost, would give control of redrawing election districts to Republicans. Political districts are redrawn after each census report, Evans said, that means the state's next General Assembly will redraw district lines.

While its certainly true that the state party is going to focus more heavily on the State House, that doesn't mean the Senate candidates will be at a detriment because of it.

Between Lowe Finney's campaign coffers which held about $157K at the end of last month, and the Senate Democratic Caucus' bankroll of about $137K, there's almost $300K that could be spent all or in part on Lowe's campaign. Granted, it won't be, as there are 2 or 3 other contested and open senate seats that are as much a priority as Lowe Finney's....but being the chair of the Senate Caucus does have its perks.

In contrast the TNDP had about $156K in their state account and around $100K in their Federal account at the end of the month, meaning Lowe is in a pretty good position financially speaking compared to the TNDP and the House Caucus which blew quite a large chunk of change on the Ty Cobb #2 race down in Shelbyville last year...something we still haven't fully recovered from.