Calls Blount Democrats "far-left loons" and refers to three county commissioners as "monkeys." Sen. Lamar Alexander was in attendance and apparently concurs because there is no report that he objected. Read all about it at BlountViews.

After anointing Obama as the nominee on Tuesday, the media narrative has shifted to the West Virginia and Kentucky "Appalachian" contests. They are reduced to quaint curiosities in which poor, white, uneducated mountain people from a "bygone era" have been trained to make their way to a school gym and push a button just like real people for the delight and amusement of the media elite.

RoaneViews notes some changes in their website advertising, and wonders if they are rethinking their business plan.

If it doesn't work out for them over there in Roane County, maybe they should take a look at Rhea County.

UPDATE: KAG has more.

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.

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.

"Janice Velva"

This is one of the better spam e-mail names I've seen lately. "Janice" is selling fake diplomas.

I have a homegrown spam filter for our business account and the top four hits are "viagra" (yes, they still use the correct spelling), "save" + ".com", "penis", and "rolex" + "watches" in that order.

They all had hits as recently as today, and combined they have filtered approx. 80,000 emails since I wrote the program and added the terms to the filter list a while back.

Nashville is Talking:

One of the backers of the proposed Bible Theme Park USA in Murfreesboro is a very successful businessman but was once more known for his photographs of cover girls and "Pets of the Month" for Penthouse Magazine.

You can't make this stuff up.

or a kinder, gentler vandalism.

The internet has been broken all day, I could not get anything done!

That is one of over six thousand comments from Clientcopia, a storehouse of tales about clueless clients. Some will cause mental images of customers you have known.

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

Stunning proof.

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...)

As we all know the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA has been shocked, shocked I tell you with the racy Miley Cryus (AKA Hannah Montana) photo shoot!

Well check this out. What are decent people to do? I ask you, what is to be done?!

Link...

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.

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.

Knox Co. Mayor Mike Ragsdale's office has submitted their formal response to the p-card audit.

Too funny - a new Roy Edroso feature in the Village Voice profiles various right-wing blowhards, just in time for the 2008 election season.

Glenn Reynolds profile here.

Heh. Indeed.

(VRWC = vast right wing conspiracy)

I'm glad Edroso reads this stuff... so I don't have to.

Brian's Blog: Tonight the West Knox Republican Club

Republicans believe in our right to keep and bear and you never know who may have a hand carry permit. But, then again we are meeting at a school and I believe they are illegal at schools. So, maybe they will be checked at the door.

Sounds like Brian is expecting trouble.

UPDATE: Brian's Blog says in comments: "The joke of us believing in the right to keep and bear was to keep Democrats from crashing our meeting." So which part is the joke? Republicans "believing in the right to keep and bear" or that Democrats are supposed to cower in fear of the Big Bad Gun Toting Knox County Republicans? I don't get it. And why does Brian's Blog assume that only Republicans support the 2nd Amendment or own guns?

The Knox Co. School Board has narrowly approved the contract for new superintendent Dr. Jim McIntyre, who will start in July.

First, welcome to East Tennessee Dr. McIntyre. Now, for some free friendly advice...

It was inevitable, wasn't it?
Someone would code a tall tale generator for Hillary.
Hit refresh for a new one.
And remember, this is all in fun, no need to get too stirred up, just laugh and relax.

I suppose it's not too early to start figuring how we want to commemorate our president.

Job Market 2009 - video powered by Metacafe

(Click for bigger)

A reader sends this page from the latest Tennessee Blue Book, noting that it's a "slice of East Tennessee people, and elected officials." Note the political party affiliation: "Independent NASCAR Fan". (Here's a better photo of Sen. Williams' NASCAR getup.) Coincidentally, there's some news from the TN 4th Senate District today.

I managed to snatch these from the KNS front page while they were still hot.

They're gone now.

I couldn't find credit for the photographer. David Keim wrote the story and hopefully got to sample the 'evidence'.

I had to send a link to my cousin in Corpus Christi. He is a retired KCSD officer and gets a bit irritated about donut jokes.

This morning at 8:00 AM the Flying Spaghetti Monster was put up on the Cumberland County Courthouse Lawn.

It came to me in a sign....build a statue of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and put it on the courthouse lawn in Crossville Tennessee so that others can share in its beautiful image and learn about Its story.
Link...

Despite being born over 450 years after the signing of the treaty between King John II of Portugal and Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, Clinton cited her vast experience in land deals and bloodline connections to a here-to-fore unknown Spanish explorer, Manuel De La Salchicha, who discovered Coney Island. She cited her key role in brokering the Treaty of Tordesillas as an example of this experience.

The Treaty of Tordesillas fixed problems between the Spanish and Portuguese over how the New World would be divided between them. In the Western Hemisphere, a line of demarcation was drawn that gave a majority of holdings in to the Spanish, who ceded claims to India. The Portuguese gained the easternmost part of South America, which later was expanded as the colony of Brazil. The disputes arose from unclear demarcations in a papal bull handed down by Alexander VI. The treaty was amended several times in to the 16th Century.

A press release from the Clinton camp offered this connection to the Treaty of Tordesillas as further proof of Hillary Clinton's foreign policy experience. "Hillary has consistently shown that despite all logic, she is the better foreign policy expert in this campaign. Tied to her pivotal role in brokering the Northern Irish peace, she thinks that the American people will see her claims of experience as unassailable."

An advisor to Barack Obama was quick to respond. "To claim an intellectual heritage bound to the horror of colonialism is monstrous," said Gomi Slabha, professor of gender and post-colonial discourses at Middlebury College. Professor Slabha was immediately sacked. Obama released a statement distancing himself from Slabha. "I find that we do not need to tell the truth at this point of the campaign and I repudiate such behavior."

Investigative reporter Scott McNutt has an explosive report in this week's Knoxville Voice exposing Knox County Government as an elaborate hoax -- "the longest-running piece of unannounced performance art ever executed."

"So that's why Paul Pinkston wasn't at the South Knox waterfront meetings -- it wasn't in the script," said Knoxvillian Rachel Craig, a veteran observer of local politics. "And they said you couldn't make up stuff like this!"

It's not online yet, but you can pick up this week's edition at any of several convenient locations around town.

For our quote of the day on yesterday's primary we go to Bill Young. Bill notes in yesterday's prediction thread that if the primary goes forward to PA, Clinton and Obama will be out at baseball games and says "These folks have been throwing brush back pitches. Come PA they'll be throwin' chin music."