Rep. Campfield is criticizing Gov. Bredesen's decision to withdraw support for a bill that requires automatic license revocation for DUI. Campfield employs some interesting math to make his argument, and apparently doesn't read the bills he sponsors.

It's finally going to be online.

(See also Tennessee This Week at the WATE website, which has also undergone a recent facelift.)

WBIR.com:

The Federal Highway Administration has now passed on questions about Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale's purchase of IdleAire stock to [the Office of the Inspector General].

Ragsdale purchased the stock during the same month he signed a contract to pass federal funds on to the company.

Is losing your ass on an investment a mitigating circumstance?

Present, But Not Voting

In essence, the poll tax ensured that the folks exercising the franchise had a vested interest in good governance, and the low salaries ensured that the men running for office were capble individuals in their fields.

[..]

Maybe it's time we recognize that the franchise is too important to be taken for granted. Maybe it shouldn't be tossed out as freely as beads at Mardi Gras. Maybe, just maybe, voting should be something we earn through demonstrated competence, or by having a net positive effect on America, rather than being a drain.

This long, overwrought piece pines for the good old days of poll taxes, when men were men, black men were three-fifths of a man, and women couldn't vote.

Many share the frustration of ill-informed, apathetic voters voting against their self interest if they vote at all. But guess what? They're citizens, too. And they have to live with the same policies as everyone else. And we all have to live with the apathetic products of our ill-informed policies. In other words, we get the government we deserve.

Instead of restricting the right to vote, maybe we should teach civics. And serve up something besides Fox News to inform the electorate.

OK, then.

RCP North Carolina average: Obama +8. No recent poll has shown an advantage for Clinton. Obama has overcome a Clinton lead of 24 points in November.

RCP Indiana average: Clinton +5. Only one recent poll shows an advantage for Obama. Obama crept up to a slight 3 point advantage in late April, but Clinton has since erased it.

There are 72 delegates at stake in Indiana, and 115 in North Carolina. Obama currently has 1737 delegates, and Clinton has 1607 (Green Papers estimate). Neither candidate can get to the 2025 needed to nominate today, even if one were to win 100% of the vote in both primaries.

And so it continues.

(The encouraging news is that nearly 32 million people have voted for a Democratic nominee so far, v. 18.5 million for a Republican.)

I was watching Tennessee This Week and almost hit the floor with Gene Patterson and Frank Cagle commented that "you have a lot of people running in the August election, and you haven't heard a peep out of them [about the charter petition amendments]."

Cough, cough...Yeah, right....(more after the break... link)

An investigative report by Channel 5 in Nashville has revealed that the 74,000 acre Sundquist state wildlife area, which cost Tennessee taxpayers $40 million dollars to purchase, is now being mined by Knoxville-based National Coal.

All Tennessee taxpayers should watch this 5 minute investigative report (15 second commercial first) and then take action below to put an end to the destruction.

NC5 Investigates Strip Mining In Tennessee

According to the report, mountaintop removal is just now really getting cranked up in Tennessee. Now that 2,000 acres of Zeb Mountain have been pretty much reduced to just a big pile of rubble, the coal companies are moving on to assault other mountaintops in Tennessee. There are several pending mining permits just north of Knoxville, especially in Grainger County.

We can still stop it - if you will take just 5 minutes to contact the representatives below to keep the Tennessee Scenic Vistas Act alive!

Commissioner Scoobie Moore wants County Commission to intervene in a dispute over a friend's $730 county tax bill.

So, my brother emails me cra..er, stuff from his favorite conservative blogs every other day, and I spend about 5 minutes doing the quick research necessary to humiliate him (and then my other brother 'piles on' for the fun of it). Today's email cited an American Enterprise (ahem Oil) Institute study showing that non-Kyoto countries had smaller increases in greenhouse gases (GHGs) than Kyoto signatories (21% to 18% for 1997-2004), with the U.S. alone only having increases of 6.6% over that period.

First, I called out the unusual choice of years, since Kyoto always refers to 1990 baselines. If you start with 1990, the U.S. had a 16% overall increase in GHGs, compared to the European Union's 2% ddecrease.

So what about this AEI report? You see, China and India are technically signatories to Kyoto, but without obligation other than monitoring and reporting emisions (no reductions). oth have increases of about 50% over the 1990-2004 period, hence the huge disparity.

The decision was made to allow them growth based on their lower per-capita emissions (e.g., giving them a chance to 'catch up' economically). If you want to look at it as a per capita increase over the time period 1990-2004:

United States: +2600 lbs/person (up to about 40 lbs/person)
China: + 2500 lbs/person (up to about 7.7 lbs/person)
India: + 800 lbs/person (up to only 2.4 lbs/person)
EU: - 300 lbs/person (12.5 lbs/person)

So, China's on a growth curve- so is India (who seems to be managing the growth better), but how do we explain such a huge footprint increase in the United States, especially with the offshoring of manufacturing in the US? It's not like we all started driving cars or just got refrigerators.

What happened? It has to be more vehicle driver miles and/or less efficient cars. Adding 20% vehicle miles on a passenger car alone would net you a 4,000 lb increase. Combining trips and alternate transportation seems like a very effective efficient way to reduce GHG's.

Cutting 250 miles/month off your car trips would bring you on an individual basis back to the 1990 Kyoto baseline!

So, a relative of mine messed up her knee a few weeks ago, possibly a ligament tear. She goes to see one of the "feed lot" orthopedists here in town. I think she's in the office for 2 minutes before he starts handing her brochures about recovering from her surgery. She of course, rebels and demands to discuss other options (physical therapy, cortisone, etc) because the injury doesn't appear to be that bad.

Knee improvement has been slow, and now her shoulder has been acting up, so she decides she'll go ahead and have a follow-up appointment to discuss the knee and the shoulder together, and maybe even have the MRI for both.

"Oh no," the doctor says. "We only see one joint at a time. You have to make two appointments." HUH?

After all, why give up all that additional insurance money?

I used to think that a 'hybrid' government-private approach would be a good solution. Now I think that single payer is the only way to eliminate this kind of greedy double-dipping.

Scenic Knoxville is a citizen action group whose mission is to help preserve and protect the scenic beauty surrounding our city. More information about our mission and other goals can be found on our website, www.scenicknoxville.org.

Currently, we are focused on City Council’s consideration of digital billboards. City Council is having a workshop tonight, May 1st, at 5:00 pm, and the issue may be up for vote as soon as Tuesday, May 6.

In 2001, Knoxville enacted a ban on billboard construction at new locations within the City. In 2006, one of the billboard companies attempted to convert two traditional billboards to digital. This action was halted in court with an injunction filed by the City, and the City decided to revisit the billboard ordinance and decide whether or not digital billboards should be allowed. Scenic Knoxville believes that a decision to allow digital billboards in the City will have a far-reaching negative impact on the visual quality of our city and, to our knowledge, offers no benefit to the community.

CITY COUNCIL WANTS TO KNOW IF CITIZENS WANT DIGITAL BILLBOARDS IN KNOXVILLE

Please act today. Citizen input is the key element to influence our Council members. Thank you for your help.

In the grand tradition of Saint Jude Thaddeus, patron saint of lost causes (or perhaps Gen. George Armstrong Custer, stupid white man), I'm going to attempt to demonstrate that Rev. Wright - and more importantly the religious tradition from which he springs - has been grievously wronged.

Rather than wishing this would all go away we should be righteously angry at the system - The Man - that generated this fiasco. Or at least understand it. Because it's probably going to happen again and again in the age of character assassination via YouTube, regardless of whether Wright is put "behind us."

And I promise - this won't be a political brief for Barack Obama.

Hard to say which would be more entertaining: Senator Lumpy or Senator Stacey X.

As you are probably aware, the Knox Charter Petition group will now take it to the streets. The group is launching an effort to get the 40,000 signatures needed (times two) after County Commission this week voted against sending the proposed amendments directly to the voters.

UPDATE: I asked Knox County Elections Administrator Greg Mackay "who pays the $80,000 cost of verifying the petitions, taxpayers or the petition organizers?" He said "taxpayers." So the County Commission just voted to charge taxpayers $80,000 to have their voice heard. That's a lot of lobster!

If you agree with this line of thinking and would like to see more of it on the Supreme Court for another generation, vote for McCain in 2008.

Rob Huddleston: Why is the previous Knox County GOP Chairman openly supporting Democrats?

Maybe it has something to do with this? (Scroll down to the bottom...)

No, seriously. I'm not making that up:

To pay for the tax credit, McCain would eliminate the tax exemption for people whose employers pay a portion of their coverage, raising an estimated $3.6 trillion in revenues, Holtz-Eakin said. Companies that provide coverage to workers still would get tax breaks. McCain would also cut costs by limiting health care lawsuits.

Clinton responds:

"The McCain plan eliminates the policies that hold the employer-based health insurance system together, so while people might have a 'choice' of getting such coverage, employers would have no incentive to provide it. This means 158 million Americans with job-based coverage today could be at risk of losing the insurance they have come to depend upon."

Uh, Hillary, divorcing health insurance from employment is the only sane part of McCain's plan.

Obama says:

McCain is "recycling the same failed policies that didn't work when George Bush first proposed them and won't work now. Instead of taking on the big health insurance companies and requiring them to cover Americans with preexisting conditions, Senator McCain wants to make it easier for them to reject your coverage, drop it, or jack up the price you pay."

I didn't get that part, but maybe it's in the details McCain hasn't provided. And Obama is standing up to the insurance companies how? By not making you buy their product?

According to this report, McCain said that he would "encourage state governments to create guaranteed-access plans" as a safety net for high-risk workers. Sounds like another unfunded mandate. And state Medicaid and SCHIP programs are already stretched to the breaking point.

At any rate, one thing all the candidates agree on is that insurance policies should be portable and available across state lines. We will have to wait for more details of McCain's plan, but it doesn't sound like there's a dimes worth of difference between any of the three proposals. OK, maybe fifteen cents. And the bottom line is that the President can't unilaterally enact any of this anyway.

Chris Kromm is tracking reports of robo-calls in NC that may be attempts at identity theft but more likely aimed at voter suppression (see here).

Also, the latest foreclosure reports are out, and the U.S. housing market continues its downward spiral.

Worst Campaign Idea Ever?

(By way of ACK.)

The Daily Telegraph today unveils its list of the 50 most influential political pundits to help readers sort through whose opinions matter. These are the people who make voters sit up and take notice. They are the ones who political candidates and campaigns are constantly seeking to woo and influence. They include television presenters, newspaper columnists, bloggers and talking heads.
...
Many important journalists have been left out because they portray themselves as objective and seek to inform rather than persuade.

Actually, today they list numbers 31-50. They will publish the remaining as the week progresses.

Rachel Maddow makes number 50. She has skyrocketed to fame in the past year on Air America and now MSNBC. Rachel's great. She's able to take what the boys dish out.

Mary Matalin at 49 probably was a bigger force in previous elections.

Dee Dee Myers at number 39? I like her a lot but haven't seen a lot of her this election cycle.

Fox News contributors, Juan Williams (31), William Kristol (32), Newt Gingrich (36), Michael Barone (38), Tony Snow (40), and Fred Barnes (45).

New Clinton supporter is a potent symbol:

"It's an incredibly strong endorsement because Easley is popular among the blue collar 'Bubba' voters who are Democrats," said David "Mudcat" Saunders, a Democratic consultant who advised former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner on winning rural voters.

OK, then.

The meeting is stumbling along at the moment setting up the order of the agenda. First will be resolutions honoring various groups. The future of South Knox High also will be early in the agenda. There always can be a surprise flare up on any number of concerns: honoring Charlton Heston, paying the superintendent (automatic by court decree), progress on old News Sentinel Building, unfunded mandates resolution (I think there's a question of federalism here, and I'll explain in the meeting).

Just as I started typing Commissioner Pinkston went into the item of superintendent. He seems to be suggesting the Supreme Court cannot rule on the interpretation of the state constitution, but perhaps I am misunderstanding the claim.

--Mark Harmon

As you've probably heard, Barack Obama went on Fox News for an in-depth interview. He finally distanced himself from the left-wing barking moonbats and started talking some sense:

WALLACE: Over the years, John McCain has broken with his party and risked his career on a number of issues — campaign finance, immigration reform, banning torture.

As a president, can you name a hot-button issue where you would be willing to buck the Democratic Party line and say, "You know what? Republicans have a better idea here?"

OBAMA: Well, I think there are a whole host of areas where Republicans in some cases may have a better idea.

WALLACE: Such as?

OBAMA: Well, on issues of regulation. I think that back in the '60s and '70s a lot of the way we regulated industry was top-down command and control, we're going to tell businesses exactly how to do things.

And you know, I think that the Republican Party and people who thought about the markets came up with the notion that, "You know what? If you simply set some guidelines, some rules and incentives, for businesses — let them figure out how they're going to, for example, reduce pollution," and a cap and trade system, for example is a smarter way of doing it, controlling pollution, than dictating every single rule that a company has to abide by, which creates a lot of bureaucracy and red tape and oftentimes is less efficient.

Outstanding. Free markets work, and are more efficient. It's about time serious Democrats acknowledged this and started bringing the conversation back from the far-left fringe into the mainstream center with the DLC and the Blue Dogs where the business of America is business.

</snark>

This from Bob Grimac:

Knoxville Police today effectively shut down our peaceful, anti-war protest today by forcing us to take down all signs except the ones we were holding, at about 11:30 AM. They threatened to have my car towed, saying it was parked in a dangerous place, which was not true at all. The three of us protesting (myself, Rich Henigen, and a woman named Vivian), complied with the two officers, packed up our signs, and stayed for only another 30 minutes, completely soaked at that point anyway.

A fanatic preacher...who had been taught to read and write, and permitted to go about preaching in the country, was at the bottom of this infernal brigandage. He was artful, impudent and vindicative, without any cause or provocation that could be assigned.

Check local listings.

Fortunately, the reverend will likely not meet the same fate as Nat X when the NCGOP attempts to divine his motives. We've come a long way, baby.

.. I'm a Democrat.

(Link....)

Notice anything missing?

Jimmy Duncan shows why he is a Repugnicant representing East Tennessee. Via Crooks and Liars:

...the evidence is overwhelming — abstinence-only doesn’t reduce teen pregnancies, doesn’t reduce sexually transmitted diseases, and doesn’t even lead minors to abstain from sex.

Rep. John Duncan, a Tennessee Republican, said that it seems “rather elitist” that people with academic degrees in health think they know better than parents what type of sex education is appropriate. “I don’t think it’s something we should abandon,” he said of abstinence-only funding.

More on this boondoggle from the "borrow and spend" GOP.

From a ridiculous GOP fundraiser email:

It doesn't matter who Democrats choose as their presidential nominee. Obama and Hillary are both out of touch with middle-class families in America.

There is too much at stake in this campaign to fall behind now. The future of our economy, our quality of life and our national security all depend on the outcome of the 2008 elections.

Unless we defeat them, the radical liberal Democrats will continue to raise your taxes, give amnesty to illegal immigrants, initiate a government takeover of health care, roll-back welfare reform, and push for passage of their entire special interest dictated laundry list of left-wing programs.

Wow. How many lies can they pack in one sentence? It would be funny if it weren't for the fact that this, turned up to 11 then squared, is what we're in for come October.

Infomaniac looks back 40 years at April 1968.