A coalition of Tennessee organizations calls on David Fowler to stop misleading the public on the SJR127 anti-abortion bill, and tells the Tennessee House to just say NO. Details at TennViews.

The Tennessee Senate Environment and Conservation Committee had a somewhat confrontational hearing Wednesday on the bill to ban mountaintop removal. Chair Tommy Kilby blocked a vote on the measure.

There was some good news, though. See the LEAF update after the jump. Also see this report at Facing South.

In case you missed it, here's the 60 Minutes report on Knoxville based Remote Area Medical and the recent free clinic they conducted in Knoxville.

See also this column in yesterday's Knoxville News Sentinel by Dr. Tom Kim who operates the Free Medical Clinic in Knoxville. And this article from last week that reports there are up to 80,000 uninsured in Knox County alone.

This is a national disgrace. Dr. Kim describes the scene at the RAM event as a "Third World emergency room." In Knoxville, Tennessee. In the United States of America.

Watch the 60 Minutes report. Read the articles. If you have an ounce of human compassion it will break your heart. If you care at all about social justice you will be outraged that we are allowing this to happen in America.

In the 60 Minutes report, Joanne Ford was hoping to get in to the clinic. When asked what she would do if she couldn't, she said "I don't know. I have a lot of friends and I have a lot of church support. I was very active in my church and I have a lot of friends in church. I just hate to ask. I've worked all my life. I hate to ask."

I hate to ask.

Well, I hate to ask, but if you think this is a disgrace please do a couple of things.

First, go over to Remote Area Medical's website and make a donation. Then write a check to Dr. Kim's Free Medical Clinic or the Interfaith Clinic or one of the other local organizations helping the needy and the working poor who are uninsured and can't afford basic health care.

Second, when politicians ask for your vote, ask if they are committed to fixing America's broken health care system so that every man, woman, and child in America has health insurance they can afford or that is provided for them if they can't.

Read up on HR676 and ask your Senators and Representative why this hasn't been brought up for a vote or at least debated. Ask them if they think it's a good idea, and if not why not. Ask them what their better idea is, and don't accept more empty rhetoric about "market based" solutions and tax credits for employer-provided insurance as the answer. Tell them to watch the 60 Minutes report and get back to you on how that's working out for the poor and the working class people of America.

There will be no Constitutional amendment on abortion in 2010:

A House subcommittee voted along party lines on Tuesday to kill a contentious constitutional abortion amendment amid open partisan sniping over the legislation.

“The resolution fails,” Rep. Mary Pruitt, the Democratic chairwoman of the House Public Health and Family Assistance Subcommittee, declared after the subcommittee voted, 6-3, to defeat the measure.

The measure proposed to amend the Tennessee constitution to specify that nothing in state law explicitly protects abortion. The Senate approved the proposal earlier this year, but it was widely expected to die in the House committee, as in previous years.

Proponents said the amendment was needed for future abortion regulation; opponents have decried it as an election-year gambit and an attempt to eventually ban abortion outright.

Knox County Democrat Joe Armstrong, who sits on this committee, heaped scorn on the Republicans:

Democrats have criticized Republican sponsors of the resolution, saying it's a partisan issue that comes up almost every election year.

"Democrats and Republicans have worked together to create quality legislation," said Rep. Joe Armstrong, who voted against the resolution on Tuesday. "But it's funny this comes up ... when there's an election on the line and yet on an off year this is never mentioned."

The Knoxville Democrat emphasized the partisanship of the resolution by referencing a fellow Democrat who said he wasn't allowed to sign onto the legislation because of his party affiliation.

"By telling a pro-life Democrat he can't sign on, that proves it's not about saving life, it's about politics," Armstrong said.

The Knoxville News Sentinel had a bold headline on the front page of today's local section proclaiming "Electronic exchange of patient info close" with the sub heading "AT&T and Tenn. create system for accessing, sharing medical records." The opening paragraphs state:

AT&T Inc. is partnering with Tennessee to provide the country's first statewide system to electronically exchange patient medical information, the telecommunications company will announce today.

The system is designed to securely transmit detailed patient information between medical professionals.

It will allow doctors to access medical histories, prescribe medicines over the Internet and transfer images like X-rays, MRIs and CT scans.

The problem is that the system is not a medical records system and it does not manage patient histories or medical imaging as one might conclude from reading the article.

Instead, if you read closely it says that the system allows "exchange" and "access" and is designed to "securely transmit" information. That's all it does, as far as I can tell. But what do you expect from a cut and paste wire report rewrite of an AT&T press release?

It's like the cable guy coming in to your home or office and setting up a broadband modem and a VPN ("virtual private network") for you and then giving you an 800 number to call if you have a problem. That's what they're selling.

From the Knoxville News Sentinel:

Worker issue fails on first try

Commissioner Paul Pinkston, however, said, "You're taking rights away, Commissioner Hammond. We're discriminating against these people. You're wanting to push things back to the dark ages when women and blacks could not vote."

Lumpy says it's unconstitutional. Apparently Lumpy and Grumpy are unfamiliar with the Hatch Act.

Anyway, what's the big deal about letting voters decide whether county employees should be allowed to hold elected office?

State Rep. Jason Mumpower (R-Bristol) seeks to weaken the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation's enforcement capability.