edited by: Kate,
Tennessee Editor
No court in the land could convict me of being a theologian. I was an abject failure in Sword Drill in the Juniors Class at McCalla Avenue Baptist Church. And to this day, I need index tabs to navigate my way around The Bible. I know the neighborhood, but have [...]
Rep. Susan Lynn shares a letter she received from a legislative aide recently in the news:
Skip called me on Sunday to apologize that the card was made possible because of the photo taken of him. I told him that I was concerned that perhaps he didn’t realize [...]
Rates Decrease in 50 Counties, Increase in 36, Remain the Same in Nine
NASHVILLE – Tennessee’s unemployment rate for November was 10.3 percent, down 0.2 percentage point from the October rate of 10.5 percent. The United States’ unemployment rate for the month of November was 10.0 percent.
County non-seasonally adjusted unemployment [...]
Tennessee may submit Race to the Top application for $500 million: My BIG concern is how much more what should be our local schools will be controlled by Washington DC, Arne Duncan and his 'safe schools czar' as a part of this payoff. He who [...] The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development released November unemployment figures for the state of Tennessee and Hamilton County on Wednesday.
In Hamilton County, unemployment dropped 0.2 percentage points between October and November to 8.5 percent, the report shows. 13,900 workers filed for unemployment in November, down from 14,450 [...]
CNN:
It’s after dinner. You’re tired. You ease yourself into a comfortable place to watch your favorite TV show. Suddenly you’re jolted from your couch potato demeanor by a commercial break.
It’s an ad for insurance or rum or a credit card - and it’s blaring, invading your calm and [...]
So, if there’s a vulnerable Democrat in a Republican district, do you spend cash to save him if your the DSCC when he could turn around and declare himself a Republican?
So how much cash do you spend to save either of the perpetually-endangered Democrats from Georgia, John Barrow (lifetime [...]
David Oatney with a bit of news:
Since the special session at hand concerns education, word has reached The Examiner that proposals may not stop with how to dispense incoming federal funds (which some members are said to oppose taking because of the strings attached. Rep. Frank Niceley (R-Strawberry Plains) [...]
“There is no question that the unfunded mandates in this bill violate current law,” Corker said. “As commissioner of finance for the state of Tennessee and mayor of Chattanooga, there was nothing more offensive to me than for the federal government to send down a mandate [...]
One quick-and-dirty way to identify whether someone is pro-control or pro-freedom:
To a pro-control individual, the Bill of Rights grants rights to citizens, allowing them certain abilities within reason.
To a pro-freedom individual, the Bill of Rights sets boundaries on the government, limiting how far it can infringe on citizens'' [...]
It’s legal for permit-holders to carry pistols openly in state parks under one of several new laws adopted by the legislature this year to loosen restrictions on guns. More than 250,000 people have permits to carry handguns in Tennessee.
Embody, who declined to talk with The City Paper, [...]
He’s gotten fatter. I think I’ll just have to hunt down a bigger size. No, he was not happy at all. Well, are you happy when YOUR Santa suit is too tight? Didn’t think so!
From John McArdle:
Tennessee Rep. Lincoln Davis , a Democrat with a center-right image, has won his three House re-election contests by comfortable margins despite his 4th District’s overall conservative leanings. But 2010 is looming as a tougher year for Democrats than 2006 or 2008 both nationally and in Tennessee, [...]
Nate Silver makes the determination — and explains how he got there:
This is pretty simple, really. Note that the method does not account directly for a congressman’s party. This is deliberate. It’s not proper, for instance, to compare Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin, the moderate congresswoman from South Dakota, to a typical [...]
A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Wednesday indicates that a bare majority of Americans, 51 percent, believe that the Democrats’ policies are good for the country, with 46 percent saying that those policies would take the country in the wrong direction.
[...]Think it’s impossible to find a child a hot, new gift for a modest price? If you’re hunting for one of those trendy electronic hamsters, you might be out of luck. But take heart: $10 or $15 can still go a long way — and even save a [...]
CA pastor accused of student visa conspiracy
Immigration officials have accused a Southern California pastor of helping foreigners fraudulently obtain student visas and handing out phony diplomas at a fake graduation ceremony on a campus where they never attended class.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Wednesday that 65-year-old pastor Samuel Chai [...]
Well, THIS kind! The kind that would decorate a CHRISTmas tree with images that have NOTHING to do with REASON for the SEASON!
Obama’s Christmas tree graced by Chairman Mao, transvestite
The face of China’s Mao Zedong, blamed for [...]
A few highlights:
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 26% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-four percent (44%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of [...]
That’s what Kyle Swenson says:
“In a solidly Democratic Congress, why hasn’t it even had committee mark up?” Cooper asks.
When the bill was reintroduced earlier in 2009, for the first time the DREAM Act did attract a considerable bipartisan showing, with 105 representatives and 32 senators signing on. But after [...]
Gov. Phil Bredesen’s timetable for what he has billed as a “major” commercial investment related to Tennessee’s biofuels program is about to run out.
[...]My top 10 posts for the year:
1. No Silence Here -- 35,829 - 5.2%
2. The 10 most interesting college football teams this season -- 19,852 - 2.9%
3. The blog buzz on the NCAA's probe of UT -- 17,172 - 2.5%
[...]
This is hot, and a must view: The Grammy Award-winning, Mexican-American band Los Lobos recently stopped by the Germany Pavilion in Epcot to jam with Dopey, Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy and Bashful. The band played one of their favorite tunes, "Heigh-Ho." Check it out: (Via [...]
Tennessee Watchdog unveils a lengthy report on its investigation of the Court of the Judiciary:
Due to a combination of state law and the COJs own rules, most of its meetings and the decisions the court and its staff make as the gatekeeper of complaints against Tennessee’s judges largely take [...]
A retired Florida couple would appear an unlikely source to have given $83,000 in campaign donations over a five-year period to members of Congress from all over the country.
Both in their 80s, they lived in a $118,000 Daytona Beach house [...]
Remember: if you are silencing dissenters by force or by exploiting a position of power/authority, what you are preaching is not "science".
[...]Obamacare’s Constitutional Problems Proliferating
After the Democrats cleared the second of three 60 vote hurdles last night, Republicans ceded enough debate time back to the majority so that passage of Obamacare through the Senate will take place n Christmas Eve at 8 AM. Conservatives have every right to be [...]
From Steve Rhodes (via Silence)
I never set out to be a media critic. All I’ve ever wanted - well, after it became clear I would never play centerfield for the Twins, shortstop for the Cubs, or lead a rock and roll band - was to be a journalist. [...]
Because, when he was six, he was cute and loved Santy Claus.
A picture of the gubernatorial candidate as a boy included in his obligatory holiday email blast:
[...]COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- An Ohio woman who asked that police be called after she caught her 6-year-old daughter shoplifting a package of stickers said Wednesday that she was just trying to teach the girl a lesson early in life.
Diane Lyons said she doesn't believe she overreacted' [...]
Clint Eastwood observes modern society:
Everybody’s calling everybody morons and nuts. We’re becoming more juvenile as a nation. The guys who won World War II and that whole generation have disappeared, and now we have a bunch of teenage twits. People 50 years old acting like that.
[...]Some conservatives think it is the only way to check federal power:
The idea is simple, and is already being mooted in conservative legal circles. Today, only Congress can propose constitutional amendments—and Congress of course has little interest in proposing limits on its own power. Since the mid-19th century, no [...]
The congressman on recent healthcare reform votes:
What they don’t tell you is where they are going to get the doctors and nurses and hospitals, and all the other support staff needed to treat 30 million more people. What they don’t tell you is that their idea of rich Americans [...]
"I was told that 'someone from the Tribune sent an e-mail to New York' and 'somebody in New York was contacted by somebody' -- you can read between the lines.'" -- More.
….Hal Cato and Rodger Dinwiddie. Tracy Moore explains why.
[...]Rep. Bart Gordon does an exit interview with his hometown paper.
[...]From an email blast:
My e-mail in the early hours of December 2nd said I’d explain more later about my decision to run for Congress. Since then, it’s been a whirlwind, though a fun and exciting one!
When my good friend Congressman John Tanner announced he will retire, I immediately talked with [...]
Katie Allison Granju, social media director at Ackermann Public Relations, has a piece entitled Stop Mom-Bashing.
[...]The Senator from Minnesota breaks bad with Corker and crew:
Franken invited Corker to his office to discuss an op-ed that Corker penned in a Tennessee newspaper opposing an amendment Franken offered to a defense bill. The measure gave the employees of defense contractors who suffer rape or sexual assault [...]
Mike Byrd continues to have problems with a councilman equating convention center opposition with supporters of segregation and those who were reticent about intervening in WWII:
It’s not that I don’t see Mr. Cole’s warnings about referendums. It’s that I don’t buy his linkage of popular concerns about the budgetary [...]
So it was a bad hike, then?
He was wearing military boots and a black skull cap,” she said. “He didn’t look like the friendliest of guys. It was scary.”
Park rangers said they made a felony arrest in the parking lot after closely following him. He was later released.
The man [...]
With traditional holiday bonuses reappearing at some workplaces and going the way of the Grinch at others, it’s like the economy can’t decide if workers have been naughty or nice this year.
Vanderbilt University, for instance, gave an end-of-year bonus to nearly all staffers campus-wide for the first time. [...]
A bill to name a post office after former Lt. Gov. John Wilder clears the Senate:
The bill is sponsored by U.S. Reps. Marsha Blackburn and Steve Cohen. Blackburn and Cohen both served with Wilder, D-Somerville, in the Tennessee Senate. Blackburn, R-Brentwood, currently represents Wilder in Congress.
“I am so pleased [...]
Bredesen wants all the education dollars they’ll give him:
The Bredesen administration is talking about submitting an application for as much as $500 million in federal Race to the Top funding grants — twice the dollar limit initially set by U.S. Department of Education officials.
But that doesn’t appear to be [...]
Nearly 160 wineries, including a handful in Tennessee, have signed up to take part in the state’s 6-month-old direct shipment program. But with more than 5,000 winemakers nationwide, some connoisseurs say finding a grower that will ship has been difficult.
“I’ve contacted probably about a dozen wineries, and [...]
Rutherford County will scrap primaries to save money.
[...]Aunt B. is afraid her father may be nuttier than your average gun nut.
[...]
from November 19, 2009. Just jump in anywhere and you will find funny gems.Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
I'm back in the saddle after several days of playing Mr. Nurse. The wee one did great and is on the road to recovery. Thanks for the positive vibes!
Good grief: Wordr is a new micro-blogging service similar to Twitter, except that you can only post one word at a time.
While the Senate Democrats are bound and determined to pass the Senate version of a healthcare "reform" bill by Christmas, there are still many Americans who are concerned that this bill isn't at all what we need.
Seriously; was there ever really a snowball's chance that CM Erik Cole was going to vote against the Mayor's convention center plan? [...] ...is detained for two and a half hours by NINE law enforcement officers.
To be honest, I don't know what he was thinking, because according to the news story, he had an AK pistol slung over his back, walking through the park wearing BDU's and a watch cap.
Actually, that's [...]
Bradley County Sheriff Tim Gobble, a Republican candidate in the 3rd Congressional District election, was a "celebrity chef" on WDEF's local morning show on Tuesday.
On his Facebook page, Sheriff Gobble called the appearance "kind of funny, especially if you know I can't really cook much." "We had fun though," he [...]
here's Robert Earl Keen!
[...]
