R. Neal again asking a question that should have an answer.
Yesterday, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius called for Anthem Blue Cross to publicly justify raising premiums for its California customers by as much as 39 percent. She also wants the company to disclose how much [...]
Marc Ambinder on the team she is putting together:
[S]he is not worried about fundraising right now. Pam Pryor, a former RNC senior adviser, leads Palin’s political action committee and is orchestrating her outreach to social conservatives. Randy Scheunenmann remains her policy maestro, with informal assistance from his Orion Strategies [...]
Snow Slows Obama’s Second Stimulus
The Foundry
The snowstorms that have already dumped over two feet of snow on the nation’s Capitol and that are threatening to dump another 12 to 16 inches, have grounded the legislative process to a halt. But that might not be such a [...]
The Commercial Appeal’s reporter Tom Charlier and photographer Alan Spearman are in Haiti are traveling with Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center’s team that has been sent there to help with medical assistance after last month’s devastating earthquake left tens of thousands dead and a country in ruins.
It’s taken more [...]
The Tennessee Hospital Association voted to recommend a bed tax to help fund TennCare.
The tax, which the association is calling a “coverage fee,” could range from 1 percent to 2 percent of a hospital’s annual gross receipts. The idea is that the state would use the revenue from the [...]
Is it because he is still campaigning?
Pundits, Democratic lawmakers and opinion pollsters offer a smorgasbord of reasons - from Mr Obama’s decision to devote his first year in office to healthcare reform, to the president’s inability to convince voters he can “feel their [economic] pain”, to the apparent ungovernability [...]
The Last Days Of The Republic?
by J. D. Longstreet
Call it a “Constitutional Republic,” or a “Representative Republic,” the fact is – America, as a “republic,” is done for.
How did it happen? Well, those who would turn America into a Socialist Utopia used the very democratic process, in which [...]
Trace Sharp: My fascination with television from the 60s bring us this morning to Snopes, which focuses on the names of the castaways at Gilligan's Island. I knew the Skipper's name was Jonas Grumby, but I didn't know about Gilligan.
Yes, I do these things to occupy my very' [...]
From Glenn Thrush:
COHEN: He was my friend… He died because when he went in for gall bladder surgery his intestine was perforated and that should not have happened… It was, from my understanding, malpractice.
And somebody who loses their life because of medical fault should have a court [...]
Harold Ford Jr. on the passing of Rep. John Murtha:
“I was deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Rep. John Murtha. He was one of the greatest patriots ever to serve in Congress and a man of deep compassion, commitment and courage. Rep. Murtha’s powerful advocacy on behalf [...]
Jackson Barker reports on the fate of one of Memphis’ landmarks.
…the famous roller-coaster ride that tested the mettle of innumerable Memphians since 1923, when it first showed up at the Fairgrounds, won’t be preserved on its home grounds. Rather, in Green Bay, Wisconsin, a town heretofore more famous for [...]
The airlines are just nickel and diming themselves to death. What's next? Twenty-five bucks for a safe landing?
[...]THA president Craig Becker said the fee would begin on July 1 [...]
I’m wondering when the lame stream media will snap out their collective stupor, and realize they are appearing as hypocritical jackasses to the thinking world? I had hopes there for a while, but when they start making an issue about a few words written on the palm of the [...]
Nate Silver tracks 25 issues, polls to see who more Americans agree with, the GOP or the Democrats? The answers may surprise you:
One of the more commonplace assertions among pundits on the center-right — made rather carelessly by Victor Davis Hanson and more thoughtfully by Jay Cost, is that agenda [...]
For my niece and GlenR although it will make Dabney crazy.
[...]Sen Bill Ketron is on it:
State Senator Bill Ketron (R-Murfreesboro) has introduced legislation in the Tennessee General Assembly to make it easier for troops deployed overseas to vote in the next election. The bill, Senate bill 2681, comes as Tennessee’s largest National Guard unit is scheduled to deploy this [...]
My fascination with television from the 60s bring us this morning to Snopes, which focuses on the names of the castaways at Gilligan’s Island. I knew the Skipper’s name was Jonas Grumby, but I didn’t know about Gilligan.
Yes, I do these things to occupy my very crowded mind.
My childhood [...]
Mary Perren on economic past and future:
Not so very long ago southerners in search of jobs could count on employment in any number of garment factories and hosiery mills, sewing everything from blue jeans to sheets.
Those jobs were easy to come by, especially in rural areas. They required a [...]
The Commercial Appeal reports on the growing need for the services of food pantries in the Mid-South.
A recent study by the Mid-South Food Bank and hunger-relief charity Feeding America found there has been a 26 percent increase in clients served by food bank agencies, such as St. Patrick, since [...]
A former Vandy chancellor shares some thoughts:
An Associated Press article published on the Web site Cleveland.com states that “Mr. Gee says the traditional formula that rewards publishing in scholarly journals over excellence in teaching and other contributions is outdated and too often favors the quantity of a professor’s output [...]
The Rev. James Lawson, an internationally acclaimed civil rights leader and religious scholar, will join a panel of civil rights pioneers to discuss local media coverage of the early civil rights movement in Nashville.
NAACP Nashville and the First Amendment Center are co-sponsoring the event to celebrate the [...]
Jack Lail talks about NiT going dark.
One of the sure bets of the digital age is nothing stays the same so, like Gilbert, I don’t mourn the change. The efforts that were ignited by broadcasting consultant Terry Heaton and Mike Sechrist, then general manager of the Nashville station, [...]
Jack Lail talks about NiT going dark.
One of the sure bets of the digital age is nothing stays the same so, like Gilbert, I don’t mourn the change. The efforts that were ignited by broadcasting consultant Terry Heaton and Mike Sechrist, then general manager of the Nashville station, [...]
Barack Obama in 2006: The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can't pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance' [...]
From Volkswagen Group:
Volkswagen Group of America, Chattanooga Operations has hired the first group of production workers for its new manufacturing plant this week. Delivering on the promise of job growth for Chattanooga and Hamilton County, 100 percent of these employees are residents of Hamilton County, Tennessee.
The group, consisting of 22 [...]
Come Friday, it'll be Nashville Isn't Talking, part III.
Knoxnews' online guru Jack Lail pens a long post on the demise: I hope that spirit of innovation is not what is "going dark" at WKRN. It's quite a legacy, quaint as it may seem to some.
NiT hasn't [...]
Photo from the National Archives Of Newsies In Nashville
Well, at least he was honest saying it was an election year. It’s always surprising to see how politicians are afraid of the grape. Quote of the morning from TheoGeo on our recent snow dump across the [...]Steve Steffens on the only way Willie Herenton can beat Rep. Steve Cohen:
A heavy Democratic turnout would certainly be welcome, but pardon me if I remain skeptical. Dr. Herenton apparently plans to run a campaign from the streets that says “we have no African-American Congressman from Tennessee, therefore vote [...]
Mike Morrow on one of the many dreams of tea party convention organizer Judson Phillips:
Phillips said convention organizers wanted to attract Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele and Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine to address the people at the event at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center.
Phillips [...]
R. Neal compares headlines from the local deadwood.
[...]50 out of 60 U.S. House seats that are up for grabs are currently held by Republicans.
[...]A Massachusetts columnist just doesn’t get how Sarah Palin is still allowed to be a serious politician:
Look, I speak in public all the time. I have stood on stage in front of hundreds of thousands of people in my decades as a public figure. I have never, ever, written [...]
In the state’s 5th District, former Navy aviator Les Phillip is challenging Rep. Parker Griffith, whose switch from Democrat to Republican made headlines last month.
A native of Trinidad who came to the United States with his parents when he was 8, Phillip could become the first black [...]
Economic development policy that focuses on recruiting existing businesses to Memphis is good for PR, but ignores the bigger opportunity: entrepreneurs. We should all want to see more startups and young companies thriving in Memphis, because it is great economic policy and utilizes the human capital that is already present [...]
Meghan McCain doesn’t want any part of it:
“People were saying that this is the new movement in the Republican Party,” McCain said during an appearance on ‘The View.’ “I did not want to go [to last week's convention]. I have (a) very much different, ideological differences with them.”
And she [...]
From Jennifer Brooks:
About 30 guests came out to meet Palin and her 8-year-old daughter Piper on Saturday afternoon. The group ranged from gubernatorial candidate Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey to country singer John Rich, who toured with the McCain/Palin campaign in 2008. Lee Beaman, president of Lee Beaman Automotive Group [...]
The House joined the Senate Monday night in overriding Gov. Phil Bredesen’s veto of a bill that prohibits some local government bodies from requiring restaurants to list calorie counts on their menus.
The House vote was 65-31 to override the veto of SB1092. The Senate had earlier voted [...]
From Huffington Post:
“Wealth” is different from “income.” Wealth is value, which endures at least for some time. Income is simply compensation for work. If you wash my car for $10 and I mow your lawn for $10, we have a GDP of $20 and it looks like we both [...]
Judson Phillips, the founder of Tea Party Nation (and Ms. Palin’s questioner on Saturday night) said he thought the April 15 rallies were a waste of time, because politicians had only ignored all the sign-waving of the protests last year, which began in opposition to the $787 billion stimulus [...]
Wow! Memphis needs something like this.
Master’s degree students at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development can receive free tuition in exchange for teaching at some of Metro’s lowest-performing middle schools, under a new partnership announced Monday.
Not to disparage Memphis City School teachers, but removing [...]
The National Republican Congressional Committee bestows “On the Radar” status to 4th District congressional candidate Jack Bailey.
[...]
I could not love this story more and I feel cheated CHEATED that I have not gotten to meet a football rootworker.
(I hope you all remember the awesome story of the hoodoo woman who got me a raise?) [...] 
An excellent interview this afternoon with Brittney Gilbert at Pith in the Wind by Betsy Phillips on the demise of Nashville is Talking.
I’m just going to say it. I miss those first giddy days of blogging and what Betsy said rings true to me as well.
From my perspective, when [...]
From a presser:
Senator Jim Tracy today announced that fellow local small businessman and community leader, Shane Reeves, will serve as Treasurer for his Congressional Campaign.
“Shane Reeves is one of the most respected businessmen in our community, and it is an honor to have him stand by me throughout this campaign [...]
Steve Ross, T. Sharp, Steve Steffens
